Sigmar's Blood (3)

As the painting progresses we were itching to get some gaming in. So my chum adapted the opening scenario a bit and we played that through to give us a bit of a taste for the forces.
I set up in the graveyard with my Necromancer on Corpse Cart and Wight together and two units of skellies and a unit of Zombies just outside. As long as I was in the graveyard any successful Vanhels spell would gain me an additional D6 dead things to add to my forces. In the far corner of the board some knights, swordsmen, flagellants and handgunners hove into view. Thier mission being to cut down the Necromancer before turn six was up. Any other result would see me triumphant.

 Lord of all the deadmen

There was little incentive for me to move, at least at first, so as the followers of Sigmar advanced I stood stock still in the graveyard and tried to cast Vanhels to bolster my meagre forces. Sadly the winds of magic largely deserted me and no more cold dead bodies rose to my aid.
 

 Sigmars knights

 Crazy madmen. And some flagellants

Meanwhile the knights were bearing down on me and the human infantry drew ever closer.

Stumble forward you maggot ridden menaces!

Eventually, despite failing to raise any additional followers I urged the zombies and skeletons to fall upon the knights, rather than be fallen on. The zombies made it, but the skellies tripped over their spears and failed to push home.

 Squelch!

Deprived of their charge the knights could only draw the initial combat, meanwhile the dead failed again to rise from their (obviously far too cosy) graves. The knights were spooked by the graveyard stink of the zombies and failed their fear test so rather more zombies hung around than expected. However the handgunners forswore to shoot and charged the Zombies in the flank. 

With rabid cries to Sigmar for protection the Flagellants fell upon the hated skeletons and began smashing skulls.

 Thwack!

As the Empire net began to close around me I maneuvered to try and buy the Necromancer more time. The Skeletons angled themselves to ensure that any overrun from the knights went off the board. Meanwhile the Wight sacrificed himself in front of the swordsmen to ensure they couldn’t get to the undead wizard. I also backed up the corpse cart to lengthen any future charges. Finally managing to get some spells off I boosted the Skeletons facing the knights with Hellish Vigour but still managed no raising.

 So that's three ranks a standard and....pop!

The flagellants duly battered their way through the remaining skeletons and lined themselves up to charge the corpse cart.

The Hellishly vigorous Skeletons did well against the knights, thinning them out a bit.

 Over the wall and SMASH HIM UP!!!

In the final empire turn the swordsmen failed to charge home but the flagellants crashed into the corpse cart and despite failing to wound the cart caused the Necromancer and his foul conveyance to crumble to dust, winning the game for the forces of Sigmar.

Game over in just over an hour meant we could swap sides, reset and go again.

 Trot, trot, trot.

In stark contrast to the first game the necromancer repeatedly cast Vanhels before I was able to close, making for a sizeable bunch of dead things to chew through.

 So the flagellants are going the long way are they sir...?

 Try getting through that little lot

The knights suffered at the hands, or at least the finger bones, of the skeletons and were seen off. My chances of getting to the Necromancer were looking vanishingly small.

However at this point fate intervened. The necromancer had been throwing caution to the winds and hurling six dice at his Vanhels attempts. Wth big units in place he chose only to use three dice, two of which duly came up as sixes. Inevitably he rolled low, and then was sucked off into the warp for his sins. Meaning I got a (undeserved) win.

However with not much fighting done we decided to just play on (though the moral high ground was all mine).

Despite some clever positioning of the handgunners preventing a second unit catching the swordsmen in the flank the Wight hurled himself into the fray and skilfully beheaded the Warrior Priest.

My flagellants eventually managed to charge the zombies and aquitted themselves well, thouh the handgunners were cut down by the skeleton warriors.

 Ah, a glorious end.

And with that te game ended with the Necromancer still very much alive and continue his reign of terror.

Two good fun games, and it was nice playing some smaller WFB using small units and lesser characters.

I learned a bit about the units and armies we’ll be using in the campaign and even manged to win a game (albeit as a result of a miscast)

Looking forward to the campaign proper even more now.

Sigmar's Blood (2)

Some progress on the Dire Wolves.
Truth to tell they're not the nicest kits to paint - it being tricky to tell where flesh ends and bone, sinew or fur begins.
The fur's been drybrushed and the flesh is Pallid Flesh with various washes over the top then the flesh re-highlighted. The bones are Bleached Bone (well durrr) with a very old GW Flesh Wash (ironic, huh?) before re-highlighting with Bone.
They'll do.

Three down seven to go.

Dinosaurs (1)

I saw these for 99p each in the Works.

Ideal for my Darkest African tribesmen to hunt (or be hunted by) in the jungles of Tombogo.
I've given them a good wash in soapy water then hot glued them to some spare Warbases MDF bases I had lying around and added some sand and rocks.
I'm intrigued to see what I end up with!

Sherman Tank for Bolt Action

Over Christmas I finally got around to assembling and painting the Hobby Boss Sherman tank I picked up way back at Salute. Despite my fears about the number of parts and complexity it actually went together pretty easily once I'd got over my fear of doing it "wrong" and spent a little time translating the "Chinglish" the instructions are written in.

Once put together I sprayed it with some Airfix green that I had lying around, then gave it a wash of Thrakka Green before drybrushing with Catachan Green. Job done. It's probably not the most authentic green colour and there are some criticisms that the kit itself isn't all that accurate, but it looks like a Sherman to me, is about the right size for my figures and is painted a green enough colour for me, so I'm pleased with the end result. And all for only eight quid.

Best try and actually get another game of Bolt Action in some time

Sigmar's Blood (1)

My regular Warhammer opponent and I have both recently bought Sigmar's Blood, a new supplement for WFB.

The supplement is a 64 page hardback book with the slightly eyebrow raising price tag of £20.

For Warhammer players of a certain vintage the book is probably closest in spirit to the old 5th edition campaign packs like Grudge of Drong or Idol of Gork or, if you're really long in the tooth, Terror of the Lichemaster or McDeath, albeit without the rather charming cardboard scenery that the earlier packs contained. The book consists of lots of background relating to a campaign undertaken by the Empire Arch Lector Volkmar the Grim against a resurgent Manfred con Carstein who has returned to undeath in Sylvania. This background forms the basis of a campaign of four linked scenarios that refight Volkmar's invasion. The battles start small and build as the campaign processes with each battle after the first including the forces from the preceding games. There's no attrition of the units, casualties are replaced (or bought back from the dead) for each game, but there are some rules for advancing characters and gaining benefits as games are won (or lost). There are also some brief rules for playing games as the darkness (magically summoned by Manfred) gradually covers Sylvania. As you'd expect from a GW book, its a lovely looking thing with plenty of glorious colour photography and artwork. 

Now I've always been a sucker for this type of thing (in fact I pitched unsuccessfully for  something like this during my time in the Studio) having played Orcs Drift as one of my formative Warhammer experiences and played most of the 5th edition scenario packs at one time or another. Games driven by narrative, with limited, sub-optimal, choices in forces and magic and with battles having an impact on subsequent games appeal to my gaming sensibilities, especially (as in this case) when coupled with minimal book keeping.

And so, gentle reader, my chum and I have decided we will play through the campaign using the forces exactly as proscribed in the book. Fortunately between us we have almost everything we need already painted and ready to go. I say "between us" when what that actually mean is he has fully painted Empire and Vampire armies. Me, I ain't got nothing. Despite the extensive collection already available there are a few gaps that need filling as some of the selections in the historical forces are a little esoteric as you'd expect from such a publication.

We have vowed not to start the campaign until we have everything ready to go as otherwise I fear we'll come to a sudden crashing halt from which we'll never recover.

So first up for me are a unit of ten Dire Wolves soon to be followed by 20 Empire militia. In think my chum has chosen the nice models to paint, leaving me some of the, ahem, more challenging sculpts to get on with.

I've made a start on the wolves, essentially following the GW painted examples. This one us nearly finished and I'm reasonably happy though the flesh is perhaps little pink I think.

Hoping to finish a few more of these tonight and complete the unit by the weekend. I've assembled most of the Militia and will be taking them down to Swindon with me next week to help the long, damp evenings fly by.

Making Warhammer Roads

For the recent Warhammer Wagon Train scenario I needed some roads.
So a quick trip to Wilkos secured me a set of stone effect tiles for under a fiver.
I simply cut them into strips 60mm wide and, hey presto - instant roads.
Obviously they could be used for quite a few other periods, from medieval up to the 19th century. Eventually I'll create some corners and the like and may even apply some flock and static grass to the edges to help them blend onto the table a little better - but for now, they're just fine.

 Some Late Romans gaze in wonder on the works of their ancestors

Boggins da Troll gazes in puzzlement on the works of da stunties.