Ironguts WiP (1)

I started work on a trio of Ironguts to add to the Bloody Paw Tribe.
Of course my Ogres date from the "Grey Skin" period of the first book, so this won't be of much use to anyone painting them in the all new flesh coloured flesh.

Over a black undercoat I've so far painted (all GW paints, as per usual)
Metal: Drybrush Boltgun Metal
Skin: Charadon Granite
Leather: Snakebite Leather
Shoes, Skulls and Teeth: Scorched Brown
Stones: Adeptus Battlegrey

Here's four more shots from all sides of one of the big fellas.

Ogremungous

New book=me all excited.
Campaign day with some chums coming up in November, so time to get the Big Fellas whipped into shape.
Here's what forms the Blood Paw Tribe ("Are those Ogres any good? No they're Bloody Paw") so far:

 

 

 

Lots of assembled and undercoated stuff to be getting on with, too.

So long as I don't get distracted by the new shiny big things....

More Daemons

Got some unit shots done:

Daemonettes of Slaanesh.

I have another unit the same size but with pink hair. Unfortunately the champion's arm has gone missing, so they were unavailable for the photoshoot.

Screamers

 

These were a bugger to get pictures of.

Seekers of Slaanesh.

 Irritatingly fragile in the game and in the army case (had to glue two arms and a tail on to get the picture). Looking forward to replacing them with nice new plastic ones which will solve the latter problem if not the former.

More Romans

Some more Musketeer Miniatures Late Romans.
I've actually painted more than this, but the other ones are "rear rankers" (stop sniggering) for multi-bases, so won't be photographed until they slip in behind their compatriots, so to speak.
I had a varnish nightmare with these when the GW Matt Varnish brush on stuff started to form milky white pools on the models. I rectified it by scrubbing hard with an old toothbrush then using the Army Painter spray (which I'd previously abandoned after a slight "misting" incident). I'm begining to think varnishing at all is more trouble than it's worth.
Shields, as always, by LBMS, low quality brushwork all my own work.

Daemons of Slaanesh

The Daemons are off to war again tonight. A Storm of Magic game, 2k points with 500 extra points of Monsters and Magic.
So I thought I'd take some pictures. Unfortunately some of the units didn't come out too well, so they'll have to wait for another time.
Keeper of Secrets

He's been dropped to the bench for this evening and will have his place taken by a Tzeentch Daemon prince.

The Masque.

Another non-player this evening as she makes little baby Jesus (and my opponent) cry.

Herald of Slaanesh

 He's the old metal command model

Herald BSB

Fiends

Nasty pieces of work, but really I need more of them to pack a proper punch.

Pink Horrors.

The old metal models. A royal pain to put together but I wish I had some more to make a larger unit with. I've got some of the nice new plastics, but they don't really mix.

The Wand of To-Me-Ku-Pa

My chum and I have been playing a Warhammer campaign of my own devising called The Lost Treasures of To-Me-Ku-Pa.
After the inevitable summer hiatus it was on to game three. I'm using my Daemons against his Vampires. We both have limited access to magic items. This was a 2K points game and we used the Dark Monoliths scenario from p391 of the big book.
Here's the explanation:

The Struggle for To-Me-Ku-Pa's Column
Before his death the mighty Necromancer To-Me-Ku-Pa had an enormous erection thrust skywards on the plains of Miiinj.
Control over this imposing column will give access to mighty magical emissions!

The winner would uncover the following magic item:
The Wand of To-Me-Ku-Pa
Bound Item 6+ to cast
Grants the Flickering Fire of Tzeentch spell, however if the number and strength rolls are both 6 then it Miscasts
 
My list was as follows
Keeper of Secrets, Lvl2. In his pants
2 Slaanesh Heralds, both level one. One an ASB
Herald of Tzeench in his pants
40 Daemonettes with Banner of Ecstacy
6 Seekers
3 Fiends
10 Horrors
3 Flamers

The Vampires were (roughly)
2 Vampires (one an ASB, one a general)
50 (!) Ghouls
30 Grave Guard
25 Zombies
25 Skellies with a Necromancer
Corpse Cart
Vargulf

What follows is a brief description of the battle.No pics of soldiers but I did manage to use Battle Chronicler to make some cool maps to explain things.It's a free download and really rather clever.

Here's how it looked at the start:

The object of the exercise is to control the tower on the hill.
Being close to it gives you more magic boosts.
My plan (such as it was) was to tie up the big block of Ghoulies with the Daemonettes and then slam Fiends and the Kipper into it, kill his Vampire general and take them to Crumble City. What could possibly go wrong?

Turn One:

I advanced.
The Flamers got in position to burninate the Vargulf and the Seekers (with added Vanguard help) sped into back field.
All of my spellcasters got close to the objective meaning I maxed out at twelve power dice!
Despite having All The Magic Dice in the World (tm) the sum total of my spell casting was a single dead Ghoul.
The flamers singed the Vargulf but didn't take him down.

On the Vampire left the skellies found themselves far from their general so shuffled forward slowly. The Ghouls got close to the tower and the zombies lined up to charge the flamers whilst the Vargulf, not having enjoyed being sprayed with burning ichor hid behind them.
Magic saw the Grave Guard whizz into the tower and a Curse of Years cast on the Daemons killing just one. Must remember to dispel that in my turn, I thought.

Turn Two

Still intent on the Vargulf the Flamers moved to get in another shot. The keeper moved round the back of the tower and the Fiends advanced looking for a flank whilst the seekers continued to work around the back way (it's a Slaanesh thing). The Horrors wheeled a little so they could magicate the tower.
Once again I had a full twelve power dice and I duly manged to burn about three grave guard in total. I also forgot to dispel the Curse of Years, so I lost another 12 or so Daemonettes. Bugger.

Charge city from the Deadies with the Ghouls and Vargulf going in on the Daemonettes and the Zombies catching the flamers(stand and shoot killed a few). The Grave Guard clambered out of the tower waiting for the magic phase when inevitably they were piled onto the Daemonettes too.
The magic phase also saw CoY kill some more of the ladies, before fighting wiped them all out and all their opponents reformed. Things looked bad at this stage with the only bright spot (arf!) being the Flamers not being killed..

Turn Three

 In a final desperate attempt to salvage something from the game (a shred of dignity perhaps?) the Seekers charged the Corpse Cart and the Keeper looked menacing. The Horrors prepared to meet their doom...
Magic saw the Horrors wipe out a row of Grave Guard but it was likely to be too little too late.
Hand to hand, and the Seekers failed to hurt the Corpse Cart and lost four in return but miraculously didn't pop. A Flamer bit the dust and a couple of zombies burned but the ruck ground on

The Grave Guard duly charged the Horrors, the Vargulf lent his weight to the Zombies and the Ghouls slammed the flank of the remaining Seekers.
Vampiric magical dominance saw the Grave Guard get models back and the Vargulf recover a wound whilst the Ghouls got to be ASF and re-roll misses, just to be on the safe side.
Fighting went as expected with the Ghouls chewing up the Seekers and the Vargulf making short work of the Flamers.Miraculously not all the Horrors were killed, however a minus 13 or so combat resolution ensured they popped in short order.

The Vampires re-formed and with that we called a halt

Well, that didn't end too well did it?
So what did we learn?
1 I'm not very good at Warhammer. Actually this is more a sort of universal truth than a learning.
2 Slaanesh magic is hard to use - especially against Vampires. The leadership element requires all sorts of forward planning and synergies and other clever thinking ahead type stuff that I'm not very good at. I had 4 levels tied up in these spells and I'm not a good enough player to make use of them. Fewer Slaanesh levels, more models in future.
3 I don't know how to get the most out of the Keeper. I'm so afraid of getting his 500 point ass killed I mess around with him and anyway he requires more skill and planning than I'm capable of. If I had more models I'd drop him, but he's painted and he's cool, so I think I need to make a plan for him and then stick to it.
4 REMEMBER TO DISPEL CURSE OF YEARS!!! This is the second time I've left it on an important unit and it's really hurt me. I'm going to make some sort of marker to remind me

I am also, I realised, intimidated by my opponents huge Ghoulies.
2 poisoned attacks each in horde formation is a tough nut to crack. I think the answer is in the Daemonette horde with banner of Ecstacy, followed by slamming in the rear/side with other stuff, but that's a lot of points to kill that unit. I may also experiment with more Tzentch magic to try and thin it all out a bit beforehand.

Anyway, next week it's a Storm of Magic game, maybe I'll try and paint up my Changer of the Ways...