Another Bloodbowl Dwarf Team Post

Trying not to succumb but I may have to purchase the Deathroller in this campaign. My other dwarf team is still awaiting paint love but as anyone who knows me and my model addiction, Lemmy's word ring true ; the chase is better than the catch. In othe news, I deleted my Google + account as it seemed one social media outlet too far. I have also undercoated some of my Sci Fi civilians to wander aimlessly around my as yet unbuilt Spaceport. As any Rogue Trader fan knows, most nefarious acts of sabotage, rebellion, investigation and retribution occur there!

Until next time, adieu.

Bloodbowl post.

Had a game of Bloodbowl a fortnight ago (which was nice) and I've decided to repaint my Undead team. This post isn't about that, it's about this rather cool thing I found on Twitter. It's a dwarf fantasy football (Bloodbowl ffs) player using some sort of dozer blade in front. Now anyone who knows me (in the real world) will know Dwarfs are anathema to me, but by crikey would I love to have one of these for my Bloodbowl team! Anyway, if my current bloodbowl fad lasts any length of time I could see me purchasing one of the below items.......

Today we show the poll winning model,the amazing Slayerdozer! Sculpted masterfully by Pedro Ramos! #fantasyfootball pic.twitter.com/ZKjdMFUKak

— Iron Golems (@Iron_Golems) September 14, 2015

I daresay I could paint it up as a fantasy football generic undead dwarf beserker holding a snowplow and no copyrights or intellectual property would be infringed.

The Battle for Elfburger Hill

I had the pleasure of playing a visitor to our fair shores recently in preparation for a couple of WFB tournaments I will be attempting to attend this year Spring Showdown and Vaticon. A new opponent, a friend of Stuart, also called Stuart. To avoid confusion I will just call him Stuart 2.0.

My Glorious Elven Host

 Lords 

Aradel Moonbeam - Spellweaver  Staff of Sorcery,  Talisman of Preservation,  Tormentor Sword, Asrai Longbow, Level 4, Lore of Heavens, Unicorn

The Elf with No Name - Glade Lord  Daith's Reaper,  Dragonhelm,  Potion of Foolhardiness, (BRB) Talisman of Endurance, Asrai Longbow, Great Eagle, Hand Weapon, Light Armor, Swiftshiver Shards]

 Heroes 

Grimmerdill The Vain - Glade Captain [(AB) The Helm of the Hunt, Asrai Longbow, Asrai Spear, Battle Standard, Elven Steed, Light Armor, Shield]

Mizzard Woddle - Spellsinger  Dispel Scroll, Obsidian Trinket, Elven Steed, Level 2, Lore of Beasts

 Core

16x Glade Guard, Trueflight Arrows, Standard Bearer.
8x Glade Riders ,Glade Knight, Hagbane Tips
8x Glade Riders, Starfire Shafts, Standard Bearer

Special

6x Sisters of the Thorn ,Champion, Sisters of the Thorn, Standard Bearer.
3x Warhawk Riders, Wind Rider.
6x Wild Riders,Shields,Standard Bearer , Banner of Eternal Flame.
5x Wild Riders ,Champion,Shields

 Rare
5x Waywatchers

Filthy Dwarf's I Hates 'Em

Stuart 2.0 had three units of Clansmen (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) a unit of Hammerers, 2 Gyrocopters, 2 Organ guns, 2 cannons, a Grudgethrower and a couple of heroes, lots of runes scattered throughout as well. Sorry for the vagueness of the list but I'm sure I will add any pertinent stuff as I go along.

Set up and other things

Stuart 2.0 had brought a Games Workshop battleboard over and with some nicely painted scenery and it really made a pleasant change from the flat green table that I'm used to. Stuart 2.0 won the roll to pick sides and castled in the corner (bottom left of picture below). He also won the roll for the first turn. I either failed to wound or completely forgot my Arrow of Kurnous. My vanguards moves were pretty much non existant (probably my first mistake). My general plan was to shoot up the dwarfs then hopefully sweep round using the buildings as cover, hopefully breaking a unit to get through to the artillery. 

Set up after vanguard

Turn One

The Gyrocopters moved like big flying clanking metal sharks belching smoke and other greenhouse gasses (so in actual fact nothing at all like sharks), ready to inflict steamy wet death on the elves. Squirted all over the waywatchers killing 3. The organ guns opened up killing the remains of the Waywatchers (that'll teach me not put them in the building). The Grudgethrower misses the spellweaver and the cannon hits her! Luckily her ward saves her! End of Dwarf turn one.

Start of Wood elf turn 1 (not sure why the Waywatchers are still there).

In my turn my Unicorn rider charged the Gyrocopter as Stuart 2.0 had slyly placed it so that he was out of the charge arcs of all my combat troops. Magic was, ruined by the uncooperative short ones. The only spell I did get through was Irristable Curse of Anhrair on the Gyrocopter which also fried 2 Sisters as well.During the shooting phase I found out I hadn't moved my Glade Guard close enough to shoot the artillery so I couldn't get at the WMD's that Stuart 2.0 had! Shooting was very ineffectual! No dwarfs were harmed in the making of this shooting phase. On the plus side mt Spellweaver routed the Gyrocopter but due to a severe bout of Artilleriphobia didn't pursue and it got away. A mistake, I think.

The brave little gyrocopter

Turn Two

The fleeing Gyrocopter fails to rally and keeps on chugging away from me. The other Gyro moves in such a way as to line up some Glade Guard for murderous death. Some dwarfs shuffle forward, pretending that they will move out of their little corner of the battlefield. Typical dwarf magic phase. Dwarf shooting phase more unpleasantness! The brave Gyrocopter kills 5 Glade Guard but they don't care. The organ gun kills another 2 I think - after devious dwarven rune shenanigans stops it misfiring and blowing up like any decent  piece of artillery does! The Grudgethrower causes 2 wounds on my brave little warhawks. 

Wood Elf ambushers & Dwarf Dead Pile

Elf turn 2 wasn't very chargie. My ambushers came on the table. I got a good roll on the magic phase 6-5.  Wind Blasted the nearest Clansmen into the hill causing minor inconvenience (ha ha, take that you fiends!). Iceshard Blizzard took a wound off the cowardly Gyrocopter. Wyssan's was cast on the Warhawks giving them a decent toughness of 5 hopefully to weather an organ guns wrath. Uranons Thunderbolt was cast irresistibly but failed to do any damage - the mage detonated but luckily no one was close enough to notice. My shooting phase was pretty crap, a wound taken off a Gyrocopter and a couple of dead Clansmen. We were getting to the charge of the light brigade part of the game - if I can weather the filthy dwarf guns for the next shooting phase - shit will get real!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww poop

Turn Three

First annoying thing first - the Gyrocopter rallied. In his movement he does a flyby over the Glade Riders malevolently dropping a bomb as he goes - only to drop it as his feet (tee hee). I'd like to point out that this was the most exciting and enjoyable dwarf magic phase I have ever witnessed, but it wasn't so I'll just skip to the shooting side of things. 4 Glade Riders were steamed to death. My warhawks were set upon by both organ guns and the cannon valiantly soaking up all the shooting and dying equally valiantly! The Grudgethrower dropped a grudge right on the head of the elf mage, but luckily it was a polystyrene grudge that failed to wound.

Dwarfs can only do one impression, but its a good one

Now I am generally not one to whine about the vagaries of dice, especially in a game using them but sometimes, when you want a big turn after some horrible arse kicking from artillery it just sometimes makes me think my opponent is in league with the forces of darkness and his pug is just a demonic familiar trying to hex my dice with his fake affection. Anyway, I had my general and 3 Wild Riders within easy charge range of the far right Clansmen in the photo above. My general charges in, all guns blazing so to speak - only to find that the Wild Riders who were supposed to have his back didn't as they couldn't roll over 6 on three fucking dice! Perhaps then, magic might save me 2 - 1 magic phase and Stuart 2.0 channels. Wyssans didn't get cast and my general was in against a ranked up dwarf unit. Crap. Another Clansman died to elven archery and the annoying little Gyrocopter was shot down too. My general was armed with Daith's Reaper which I think is an awesome weapon (rerolls  misses, wounds and enemy's sucessful saves) unfortunately for me he fight a Thane with a 1+ save so very little was acheived. Upshot was he lost combat by 2, but luckily no fucks were given!

Wood elves do not appreciate the dwarfs impression of a brick wall

Turn Four

The dwarfs to the left of the fascist Clansmen fail their charge (thankfully). The Gyrocopter kills 5 more Glade Guard. The organ gun kills off all but one in the Wild Rider unit accompanying the BSB and Beastsinger. The other organ gun kills 3 wild riders in the other unit (leaving 3). The Grudgethrower kills 5 Glade Riders and finally fucks are given and they run. The cannon shoots and hits the Unicorn riding bint but her ward saves her (charmed life so far).

The Elf with no name expresses his displeasure

My movement phase was getting shorter and shorter. The Wild Rider unit finally charged to the aid of their general. The BSB and Beastsinger charge into the unit to their left and a unit of Glade riders leave the table to go and get reinforcements. I moved my Glade Riders into a (hopefully) annoying position to stop the big hammerer unit raping my Beastsinger. The Unicorn rider moved into a position to hopefully get at the artillery. A 5 - 4 magic phase had 3 spells dispelled and Harmonic Convergance destroyed. The depleted remains of my Glade guard take a wound off the Gyrocopter. In close combat the wild Riders cause 6 wounds getting destroyed in the attempt, The dwarfs lose combat but don't run due to being annoying. The BSB combat is a loss to the elves but proximity to the general means they stick around for at least one more turn.

GROWN MEN OF WARGAMES - INDICATING AND MEASURING THINGS!

What's left of the wood elves get stuck in

Turn Five

Due to a horrific combination of geometry and pacts with the Devil, Stuart 2.0 charged both the Beastsinger and conga lining Glade Riders. The only other movement was the Gyrocopter but to be honest I'm sure it should have run out of diesel by now. The organ gun unleashed 16 shots on my Unicorn rider finally killing her. 2 Glade Guard are killed by steam routing them (amusingly they start running towards the dwarf hill). The vengeance bolt on the Grudgethrower shears off,  rendering it useless for the remainder of the game. The other organ gun and cannon removes the sister unit rather effectively. Mr Oathstone himself kills the Beastsinger, the Glade Riders flee! Hammerers reform. The BSB vs the shield dwarfs (dwarfs with shields as opposed to something else) duke it out causing a wound each. No one runs. My general is still having an awful time getting through the runesmith's armour. Loses combat but remains where he is.

Wood elves get bored of the dwarf wall impression and decide to leave.

In my turn the fleeing Glade Guard continued fleeing towards the enemy, the Glade Riders rallied. BSB combat - 2 dead dwarfs but plenty more where they came from. My general finally kills the runesmith, Nearly falls off his eagle in surprise but stays where he is.

Turn Six

The cowardly dwarfs charge my BSB in the flank. The Organ guns destroy both the fleeing Glade Guard and not so fleeing Glade Riders. BSB dies to underhand tactics. The General takes another wound and due to his exhausting battle with the runesmith breaks. Unfortunately a dwarf must've grabbed his eagles foot and he only goes 6", the dwarfs catch him and so the last elf on the battlefield is slain!

Conclusion

Well that was a lesson in how to play as dwarfs! I think I made a few mistakes, turn 1 not pursuing the Gyrocopter was one. Bringing on glade riders within ranger of a perfect shot from a steam gun. I should've charged the Unicorn in to the aid of the general in turn 3 or 4 which might've actually helped break the dwarf facists. At the same time my plan was ok, sweep round the buildings hopefully break a unit of dwarfs to get to that lovely artillery! I honestly think if the Wild riders had cooperated with me on turn 3 and charged the Clansmen, my wild rider champion would've accepted the challenge (possibly killing the runesmith due yo his ST5 armour piercingness) leaving the general to slay with abandon!

So to wrap up all I can say is thanks Stuart 2.0 for a really fun game, also being a pleasure to get hammered by and I'll get my revenge next time (hopefully). Also, keep the demonspawn away from my dice!

The demonic familiar that I beleive is the cause of my defeat!

Wardancers, more rats and a comatose Dwarf.

Progress!

So I've finally gotten some figures finished this year so I'll show them off. Firstly here is my Black Tree Design shadow elf. He's an elf in plate armour with an awful fringe. Just another of my started-fifteen-years-or-more-ago. I suppose he might make some sort of elf paladin in WHQ.

Black Tree Shadow Elf

More Rats!

Here are three more conscripts for the 50+ strong unit of Giant Rats for my skaven army. The one on the right is my all time favourite ratty model. I mean, you just can't beat a tiny little rat-centaur! Or is that rattaur? Centat?

Three mutated rats, see how they run!

Wardancers

These are some Gary Morley wood elves, that again have been on the painting table for nigh on 15 years. Not bad sculpts, but some incredibly fiddly detail on the belts and legs. Not to mention the figure on the right is definitely winner of Ludicrous Hairdo Award 2014, I mean, it only stays off the ground by his constant head twirling! I'm sure this particular elf spends an inordinate amount of time picking twigs, leaves & birdshit out of his tousled mane. 

Small-handed Wardancers

These four desperadoes are classic Wardancers from the 80's (I think so anyway). Lovely sculpts. They have all picked up extra weapons at the expense of defeated foes. I like to think of it as typical wood elf recycling. The elf on the left has stolen a sword from a chaos centaur, the elf second from the right has a Witch Elf blade and the tough guy on the far right has managed to defeat a halfling to 'borrow' his sword. looks like there is a minimum toll of at least one sword for any visitor to the forest.

Classic Wardancers

Below are two really, really nice models. Glam the laughing elf from the original Wood Elf Regiment  of Renown, and the Warhammer Quest Wardancer. Both bear blue warpaint (or talismanic tattoos, you pick) and lots of swords. Glam can either be my Wardancer hero or an Alter Noble, but I'm not sure if they will be available in the upcoming army book.

Glam the Laughing Elf & Warhammer Quest Wardancer

Glokni Worseforwear

I finished this dwarf casualty/drunk last night and I found it rather enjoyable. I originally thought he could only be used as a Warhammer Quest encounter, but since I've been perusing many battle reports, blogs and forums, it seems to me that he can just be plonked in a dwarf unit to make the numbers up, as well a provide some comic relief. He is also, to my knowledge the only dwarf in my collection with Pixie boots. It makes me want to pick up a few more inebriated fantasy models, but I'm trying very hard to not buy any more toy soldiers until I at least have another 100 painted. Lead addiction is a terrible affliction, and one that needs to be recognized, alongside flat feet and new romanticism.   

Drunk and/or dead Dwarf

Nice pixie boots

So there you have it, 14 models have turned from the dark side (black undercoat) to the rainbow side. Much to the anger of Sodje politicians I bet.

Some more painted figures

So apart from making Battle reports as a non paying career I've gotten a few more figures painted. As with most of my stuff they were started probably 3+ years ago (more like 5-11 to be honest). The reason being I only paint when I'm playing and the last 10 years has been pretty lean in the gaming front, but as I've played at least 11 games or Warhammer this year, I have really gotten the painting lurgy once more. So here are the currently varnished flavours of the month.

Gripping Beast Monk

Firstly I finished a medieval monk from Gripping Beast. I bought it at SELWIG probably between 1996-1998. It was in a packet of four, one I painted up as a ghost for Warhammer Quest. This one is another WHQ npc, this time he can be a monk, an assasin, thief or any one of a dozen other shady characters.

A Gripping Beast Monk

Dwarf Cannon Crew

If only I could paint all my figures up as ghosts! Then I'd have all four thousand finished by Easter! This was another idea for Warhammer Quest, basically a dwarf pc will discover an ancient dwarf bound to an axe, he can be called forth to aid the bearer but he must return him to his kin - which will involve several dangerous dungeons gone through of course. He's on a greenstuff flagstone type base but he can always double up as crazy Grimlukk Halfaxe dwarf cannon crew member and mime.

Dwarf cannon Crew (deceased).

Necromancer

Now I don't have or intend to ever have a Vampire Counts army but back in the 90's I had a hankering for all lead figures, one of the ones I purchased was this cheery little fellow, an old marauder Necromancer. As I've got a good collection of human models he may as well be used as an Empire Battle Wizard with a pallid complexion and a big staff.

Old Mage Withers

Marauder Musician

I bought this in a blister of villagers and used to have a light blue tunic with green leggings. He was only basecoated as I just could never get any enthusiasm up to paint any more. Then as I heard the song 'the Devil Went Down To Georgia' I thought a human with a golden fiddle would make a brilliant dungeon encounter!

Fancy-pants musician

Skaven Jezzails

Here's one of the slightly newer 1994ish Skaven Jezzails. The got promoted to the top of my to be painted pile after their sterling work in the The Battle of the Biscuits . The one below is from Marauder as opposed to Citadel. 

Steroided up Jezzail Team

Fear Us!

Rear view of them

Perculiar Iron Mammoth Gnome Orc Rider

This is an impulse buy. At the time I was playing quite a lot of WHQ and I saw this on a website, I thought to myself 'I'll show Games Workshop a thing or two!' and promptly bought it. I also got half a dozen Shaolin monks and did my bit for independent figure manufacturers. Unfortunately not enough as Iron Mamouth is no more. The model itself is rather an oddity as there is a semi barbaric gnome sitting on the shoulders of a rather depressed looking orc. Can't really see me using it much but at least it's off my to-do list. 

The Gnome/Orc combo

Profile

More Jezzails

Here are some pictures of some more Jezzails (I finished eight in total) that I hope will soon be putting 28mm fist sized holes in the enemies of Skavendom.

Old school goodness

Warpstone pommelled swords for the win!

The Jezzail team below is pure ebay as I bought them both in a job lot of Skaven and the clanrat in front didn't even have an end on his weapon! So I sculpted (badly) a staff of wood into a shield and attached another below in, and hey presto! Another weapons team.

Long range death.

'Yes Marvin, I'm going to shoot the dwarf over there'.

A shield's eye view

Chorus Line

Back To Warhammer Quest

What? Who? For those who clicked on the blog title thinking it was about Warhammer Fantasy Battle, well, no, not really. Possibly a little bit anyway. If you're still in the dark, then Warhammer Quest was a rather excellent game that Games Workshop produced around 1993 I think. You take the role of a brave adventurer entering the depths of the Warhammer world is search of riches and fame, where many find a quick and painful death. The game came with five playable characters Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard and Trollslayer, and Games Workshop released many more.

So, in case you haven't guessed I have managed to gather up some disaffected youth to play Warhammer Quest with, started last weekend we managed 2.9 quests. The first one was a straight forward dungeon crawl to allow the players to get a feel for the rules, while at the same time refresh my memory. The first quest from the rulebook had the Barbarian single handedly defeat a Minotaur that had slain his father and stolen his enchanted sword (Inigo Montoya style). The second foray was where the party had to stop a Skaven attempt to flood a dwarven underground fortress. Unfortunately due to a cave in and the fact that the Dwarf character had lost his pick meant that the quest came to a short, and ultimately fatal end for Karak Azgal. The third and 90% finished quest was to rescue a wealthy merchants daughter from Skaven, by this time the party was up to 6 (the games monster matrix is designed for 4), so I had to ramp up the lethality of the dungeon, (tee hee). The party reached the objective room which contained gutter runners, giant rats and Throat-Rip-Death-Hell my favourite painted Rat Ogre model. Throat-Rip-Death-Hell was at the end of the room guarding the maiden, so the party eventually slew the gutter runners and rats without too much trouble. Then instead of going for the kill, they faffed around with the intention of shooting poor ole Throat-Rip-Death-Hell instead of duking it out with him. Then the dice gods decided that discretion is not the better part of valour and dumped 9 Chaos Warriors on their asses! After two party members have come to within a whisker of death, three Chaos Warriors are slain and Throat-Rip-Death-Hell is raring to go! That is where Sunday nights session ended and the weekend is where we finish it!

Chaos Warriors ruining the adventurers day.

Birds Eye view

One of the more enduring features of the game was that you could take your character from the dungeon and into a warhammer game. This was all very well if you had an Elf, Dwarf or Human but not much cop if you play with one of the evil armies. Luckily there appears to be plenty of people on the web prepared to create rules for them. Now then, as I've stated before one of my favourite things to do with wargaming is making new rules, so with any more preamble here is my first addition to the bestiary of the WHQ world.

Stonelings

Deep in the cavern systems and dungeons of the warhammer world live snotlings, a kind of simple semi humanoid green skinned thug that is a nuisance if not a menace to the intrepid explorers. Despite their small size snotlings are quite resilient to the dangers below, one such example is stoneling. A stoneling is an immature snotling pup that has unfortunately come into contact with the dung of a Cockatrice, Gorgon or Basilisk. Now normally this is a death sentence but something in the snotlings metabolism allows it to frolick with childish glee in the essentially magical feces, but not without a cost. The creature formally known as a snotling is transformed into a stoneling. Stonelings look for all intents and purposes like grey snotlings but are far more dangerous. The stonelings are much tougher than before and also have strong anti magical powers caused by the metamorphosis. Despite (or perhaps even because) of these changes stonelings are very difficult to hit.

Dung frollicking Stonelings

Wounds: 2 
Attacks: 1
Move: 4 
Gold(each): 50
Weapon Skill: 1 
Armour: 2
Ballistic Skill: - 
Damage: 1D6
Strength: 2
Toughness: 2(4)
Initiative: 1

Enemies Weapon Skill	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
To Hit Foe	4	4	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Special Rules: Ambush, Magic A, Gang Up, Magic Drain 5+, Magic Resistance, Small Target.


Small Target: Because Stonelings are extremely small there is a -2 modifier to hit them with a ballistic weapon and a -1 to hit in hand to hand.

It is a fairly safe assumption that once Stonelings are encountered a creature with the ability to petrify won't be far away. On the other hand the Stonelings may have moved on to dungeons new. It all depends on how sadistic a Gamesmaster you are!

So as with all my other fads, all previous painting schedules are being put on the back burner while I prep lots of unrelated roleplayingy figures to add to my ever growing started-but-not-finished heap.
*sighs*