Warmaster Night Goblins

 Another 30 whole points!

Close up photos show up the issues with Contrast Paints where you miss a bit.

Despite deployingthe Contrast it's far too time consuming painting these ATM so I'm going to try and "slapchop" the next ones (all da Kool Kids are doing it Daddio)

Warmaster Revolution - Daemons v. Empire 1500 points

I started getting a few units of Daemons when they were released which must be at least fifteen years ago. I painted a few up and used them as alternate models in my Chaos Warriors force. But that was long, long ago. Over recent years I've slowly painted up a few more units until I now have at least 1500 points. So I asked Matt if he fancied a game, and he did! I gave him the choice of forces (I have Dark Elves, Chaos Warriors and Empire at 1500 points) and he picked the men.

I set up a basic table and we went for a stand up fight.

I only had two characters a sorcerer and I'd upgraded the general to be a sorcerer too.

My regular sorcerer commanded the cavalry and the Greater daemon on the flank

The general was ready to command the two brigades of Daemon Hordes in the centre, flanked by the Monstrous Cavalry

The Empire pushed up into the hay field

Big block of cavalry in reserve.

 

Still more state troops

The cavalry also pushed forward

Chaos pushed up on both flanks

While the hordes held the centre

Gerhard Rattenner the Gold Wizard lined up for a fireball, but his wand turned out to be one of those comedy ones that droop.

The Khorne hounds and the greater Daemon caught the pistoliers napping.

White Wolves launched themselves at the monstrous Chaos beasts

Only to discover they were quite tough.

 

The hounds and Greater Daemon fell back, one unit of pistoliers destroyed.

It all kicked off in the centre as the Beasts were joined by the Tzeentch and Slaanesh hordes

The hot headed White Wolves were wiped out.

Shooting and spells kept the Daemonic left flank in a state of disarray.

Much to the annoyance of the sorcerer

Still. the harvest was in good hands.

The Knights took on the Chaos centre once again.

The Daemonic cavalry kept losing a stand only for the sorcerer to bring it back.

Tired of watching the other powers fail to spill mortal blood Khorne's horde made their presence felt (with a little help from the flyers).

The Daemonettes sneaked toward the field.

And finally launched an attack

Determined to win out the Chaos general hurled himself (rather rashly) into the fight.

But it was enough, the knights were destroyed and the field belonged to the four powers!

That was very jolly. Matt discovered that the Empire army is quite tricky to use - it's a bit of a "jack of all trades, master of none".The Daemons felt like a slightly more brittle and hard to control Chaos force - it's nice when you can bring a stand back, flipping irritating when instability makes you confused just as you were about to charge.

Lovely to finally get them on the table though.

Warmaster Khorne Bloodletters

 More from the depths of the leadpile

These are IMO the worst of the original GW metal Daemons (though I don't actually have any of the Nurgle ones). They're a bit rough I reckon - both the Slaanesh and Tzeentch versions are nicer models.

But they're done now.

However I was one strip short. Fortunately I had some spare Khorne hounds that I used to bulk out one of the stands. Ideally I'd have used these on the command stand to keep things symmetrical but the sculpting meant that didn't work. Ho hum.

Think that takes me over 1500 points now for this army.

Never Mind the Billhooks Arrow Markers

Martin and i were planning to play a first game of Never Mind the Billhooks however the fates conspired against us...maybe next week?
However as preparation I made these simple arrow counters.

In the game you can only shoot six times with your bow units, so you need a visually appealing way of tracking that as well as a way of making sure you don't just pick up the dice.

These are simple dice frames and micro dice from Pendraken, glued to a 1p along with some of the spare arrows from the Perry WotR sets.

Not an original idea of mine - in fact the rather lovely Billhooks Deluxe rulebooks show Captain Bloods altogether better painted examples.

War of the Roses Welsh Spearmen

Some of the contemporary Wars of the Roses sources speak of Welsh 'spears' fighting (usually) for the Lancastrians. Now the chances are that spears was just another way of saying bills and that these troops were pretty much identical to their "English" counterparts. However it does give an opportunity for a bit of converting to get a unit that looks a little different on the table and so I thought I'd make one.

Mostly a case of using the spear arms from the Perry set along with a few more from the Agincourt set and then some more still from some of the Gripping Beast and Fireforge sets. I kept armour to a minimum as well, figuring that being from Wales maybe they were generally more poorly equipped and used one or two of the Agincourt heads too - to imply using older equipment. I was intending to mix in some of the GB or Warlord heads, but they're massively oversized and looked quite silly on the Perry torsos. I also tried to use a bare head from the Perry NWF British who had a suitable "Welsh" looking moustache, but it was too small and wee. I did manage to use a Perry Napoleonic bare head.

So there we are a unit of spears. I think in most games they'll just count as billmen, but their slightly more rustic appearance means I could use them as levy.

Lord of the Rings Campaign: Osgiliath

General B. and I continue with the Lord of the Rings campaign. This time big old battle in Osgiliath!

Neither of us has (or wanted to build) any of the Osgiliath terrain, so I raided my Frostgrave box for some suitable ruins - I guess Frodo arrived on a bit of a snowy day.

The hobbits venture forth into Felstadt Osgiliath.

General B. had been painting veterans.

To add to his regular Gondorians.

My Orcs made an appearance.

I was quite worried by the amount of shooting.

But plenty of warm bodies were available.

Pretty soon the Orcs were up and at 'em.

And a massive fight broke out.

Gondorian armour was a pain as always, but weight of numbers, and the relative weakness of the rangers meant I was putting men down faster than General Ballroom could bring them back.

Mine were also coming back in numbers.

Soon the forces of darkness were closing in.

And as if things weren't bad enough...

GeneralB. used Faramir and the veterans to try and screen the escaping hobbits.

After a bit I read the rules for banners and shoved it into the fights.

Orc numbers were counting in the third building.

The Nazgul dealt with Faramir.

As the huge scrum continued at the far end of the board

Rangers were going down in numbers.

As the Nazgul blocked the short route for the hobbits.

The Gondorians started to throw men at the Fell Beast.

But then we remembered the terror rules and General B. started failing tests.

The Ringwraith compelled Frodo to stand in the open. And then charged him!

Elsewhere the fight ground on.

Though the Orcs had the upper hand.

Despite Gondorians rushing in the Fell Beast won the combat and (inevitably) directed attacks on to the downed hobbit.

Even Mithril could not save the Ringbearer and the Nazgul shreiked his victory!

What a tense game. The Ringwraith was down to his last two Will when he finally managed to put the pain on Frodo. General B. misjudged things by not using enough Will to resist the Compel that exposed Frodo to attack, but other than that it was a real grind for the bad guys.

Big battles of MESBG can feel a bit like a dice rolling exercise (and there was a bit of that in this game) but the plot to try and halt the hobbits made up for it.

Our next game however may be delayed. Games Workshop seemingly has no stock of Shelob and General B. will truck no alternative to the official model! If anyone knows where we can get one, let me know.