Lady Winterthorn's Retinue

First thing's first, I am now a proud Union man - specifically, the Brush Wielder's Union, a collection of likeminded wargamers and miniature painters dedicated to getting their stuff painted and on the table and encouraging others in the hobby. 

One of my local wargaming friends expressed an interest in his Age of Sigmar goblins pulling double-duty as a Dragon Rampant warband.  All he needs is someone to play against.  This got me digging my Liche and Skeleton Legions army out of storage, and finding it sorely lacking for what I wanted.  It was too inflexible, had too many easily exploitable weaknesses.  The answer? Build a fresh army. 

After some brainstorming, and going through my project pile of shame, I settled on a warband led by a vampire, and composed of deluded and fanatical mortals who'd been duped by the vampire's promise of eternal life.  I put together a list with a little speed, some shooting, some melee capacity and a solid spellcaster at its heart, which I felt was pretty well-balanced. 

The army core is Countess Adrasteia Winterthorn (Reaper #07010) and her Sanguine Guard (six copies of Reaper's #77408, "Athak, Undead Knight" in Bones), comprising a Reduced Model Unit of Heavy Foot with the Spellcaster fantastical rule applied.  The robes are basecoated in Reaper's "Deep Red" and highlighted with "Fresh Blood," while the armor is done in "Gunmetal Blue" with some accent work in "Ancient Bronze" highlighted with "Antique Gold." Countess Winterthorn's cloak was basecoated in "Midnight Blue" and highlighted with "Twilight Blue."

Last night I assembled the next unit in the army - a band of fanatical cultists that will be rated as Bellicose Foot.  These vicious maniacs compete among themselves for Countess Winterthorn's attention, hoping to spill enough blood to win her favor.  They're a dozen figures assembled straight off the sprues from Northstar's "Frostgrave Cultists" plastic boxed set. 

From here on out, everything else is going to be a conversion or kitbash.  I've got a box of Gripping Beast Arab Light Cavalry that are going to be converted into mounted cultists through the addition of heads and missile-weapon arms from the Frostgrave Cultists, and some Fireforge Medieval Russians are going to get turned into formal soldiery employed by the Countess. 

Good Mail Weekend

Gina and I celebrated seven years together back in November, and as an anniversary present she pre-ordered North Star's new Oathmark Goblins for me, along with a box of Fireforge Medieval Russians.  These are going to form the core of my Mordor-knockoff "Coalition of Evil" Dragon Rampant list, with the Russians standing in for Tolkien's Easterlings. 

The Painting Bench, an Update

Well, with the announcement having been made for the 8th annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (in which I will be participating), I thought I should show off some of what's been coming off my project list lately:

First up, "Edgwick and his Hounds," a unit of Lesser Warbeasts for my "Men of the West" army for Dragon Rampant.  These guys still need a dusting of meadow flock added to their bases, and I'm not super in love with how the dogs themselves came out, but they'll do for now.  Edgwick himself is a Crusader Warlord from Gripping Beast, which they threw in as a bonus figure with my last order, while the dogs are Reaper Bones.

Next, "The Howling Hordes of Bakarath," A Reduced Model Unit of Bellicose Foot which may or may not end up with the "Cause Fear" rule applied to them, for a "Dark Lord's Evil Coalition" army for Dragon Rampant.  The idea for this army being it's humans, goblinoids and demons, held together by the power and charisma of a villainous warlord; these Reaper "Bakarathi" demons certainly look Bellicose! These are older metal figures from Reaper, from the 02100s and 02200s line, and now I think they're in the 03600s.  A "98" was scratched onto the bottom of a couple of them, telling me they were sculpted 19 years ago.  I've glued a few Wargames Foundry shields and a cut-down Reaper Bones skeleton warrior to a couple of the bases. 

Next, another unit for my "Men of the West" army, a Reduced Model Unit of Heavy Foot with an attached Wizardling.  The spearmen are Conquest Games' plastic Norman warriors, of which I'd ordered a couple sprues.  These went together nicely enough, though I had some problems with their two-handed axes, as you'll see in a minute.  These are still a work in progress; the red needs some touching up on their tunics and shields, and of course the bases remain to be finished.  Accompanying them is "Diva, the Blessed," one of the limited-edition figures Reaper has put out this year to commemorate their 25th year in business.  Like Edgwick and his Hounds, her base just needs a dusting of meadow flock to complete it. 

Following them we have the Black Prince himself, leader of the Evil Coalition army, accompanied by his beloved pet scorpion.  For Dragon Rampant purposes, he is a Single Model Unit of Elite Foot.  I think he's pretty much done except for his base and the leather bits on his armor.  I like how his cloak came out.  Both figures are Reaper metals. 

Finally, we've got the King's Guard, a Reduced Model Unit of Offensive Heavy Foot who will be replacing a set of Bones figures that I was never super happy with.  These will be paired with King Denethall, leader of my "Men of the West" army, and are again Conquest Games' Normans - made using the more heavily armored bodies on the warriors sprue, as well as the two bodies on the command sprue to create a sergeant and standard bearer.  I ended up with some significant gaps where the right arm meets the torso on two of the axe-men (I suspect that some weapons fit some torsos better than others) that I'm going to need to putty up before I can get painting. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with everything, caveats as noted above.  I'm liking the Conquest figures enough that I'm considering getting a couple archer sprues to replace my Reaper Bones bowmen in this army, and adding another box of Normans when I get around to building a second 24 points of "reinforcements" for this army. 

Next up, however, is going to be the first 24 points of the Black Prince's army; I've pre-ordered a box of "Oathmark" Goblins from North Star, which will produce two units of Light Foot and a unit of Scouts, as well as a box of Fireforge Games' Medieval Russian Infantry, which will serve as humans marching beneath the Black Prince's banner a la Tolkien's Easterlings serving in the armies of Mordor.  Fireforge provides enough spear-arms for the box to produce two units of spearmen, but not enough swords, axes, maces or bows to produce any units with them.  I've got a ton of Fireforge crossbow arms in my bits box from last year's Ordenstaadt project, I may convert a dozen of these soldiers into crossbowmen.  I am going to have to find some replacement shields for the ones I do arm with spears though...

For those interested, the Black Prince's list as I'm currently building it:

• The Black Prince (Elite Foot, Single Model Unit) - 6 pts.
• Sorceress and Spearmen (Heavy Foot, Reduced Model Unit, Wizardling) - 6 pts
• Crossbowmen (Heavy Missiles) - 4 pts
• The Howling Horde of Bakarath (Bellicose Foot) - 4 pts
• Goblins (Light Foot, Cowardly) - 2 pts
• Goblins (Light Foot, Cowardly) - 2 pts

The Goblin Scouts are being saved for inclusion in the second 24 points "reinforcements" list for bigger games.  Overall, however, I think the contents of those two boxes - a total of 55 figures - will form the core of my Painting Challenge entry this year. 

Livonian Foot Knights

I'm so very proud of this regiment.  This is the first finished unit for my Warhammer Ancients army, a block of 24 Livonian Swordbrethren that I'll be fielding as Allied Crusaders in my Ordenstaat force.

The Livonian Order began life as a separate militant order, before being absorbed into the Teutonic Order as an autonomous sub-order following a disastrous defeat in 1232.

I'm especially proud of these as this is the first block of rank and file troops I've painted since I was back in high school, at least 13, maybe 14 years ago now.  Back then I was fascinated by Warhammer Fantasy, but could never afford to build an army, so I bought units here and there, managing to paint a unit of Skeletons, two units of Chaos Warriors, two units of Orcs and a unit of Night Goblins at one point or another.  At the time, a 20-man regiment of Skeletons was the biggest I ever did, and now I've surpassed that, with 24 Livonians standing proudly now as my personal best in terms of unit size and a return to rank and file I've been craving.  Plus, back in high school I never would have had the nerve to attempt to hand-paint heraldry like this.

Progress on my WAB Teutons

I've been puttering away at my army for Warhammer Ancient Battles; I'm going very cavalry-heavy at first, which will put me at a disadvantage against anyone fielding a Phalanx-y army, but it's a good starting place.  I've got everything I need for my first 2800 points, I just need to assemble the last regiment of mounted Brother Knights and then get everything painted.

Yesterday was a real good mail day today, and I was able to finish assembling my last unit of infantry - a regiment of Brother Knights on foot with hand weapons and shields.  In a 2800 point game it will be a 13-man unit, in a 3000 point game it'll be 15.

The regiment is a mixture of Gripping Beast metal figures and Crusader miniatures - it would have been all Crusader figures, but they didn't offer a foot command blister, hence the mix, which resulted in two visibly different groups of knights in regards height and bulk.  The Gripping Beast figures are much bigger, closer to 32mm I suspect; I packed the front rank with them to disguise the disparity on the table. The standard held up by the standard bearer is a 6cm lance from Fireforge and a banner off the Fireforge Teutonic Knights sprue.

I've also gotten some good progress done on a regiment of allied Livonian Swordbrothers; historically, the Livonian Order was subsumed into and became an independent order within the Teutonic Order.  Since I can't have more than half my list as Brother Knights, I had to fill out the list with Allied Crusaders, and I've opted to paint my Allied Crusaders as Livonians.  These were assembled from the Fireforge Teutonic Infantry box, with a few weapons taken from the Teutonic Knights sprues.

All that's left are the bases, belts, and hafts of various axes and maces; the shields have all been painted and are just waiting to be glued into place.

While these are being painted with Warhammer Ancient Battles in mind, I'm expected them to also see use in Lion and Dragon Rampant at some point.

AHPC Catch-Up

I suppose I should share what I've painted thus far for the painting challenge here as well, hmm?

I will link you to the posts on the AHPC blog:

Opening Moves.

The Cult of Set.

I sent in my entry for the first of the bonus rounds, "Armour," today, so that'll go up tomorrow.

Here's a sneak peek at what I'll be working on for the remainder of the Challenge, I think.

Ending 2016 on a High Note

I haven't gotten much done on the painting front lately - I'm waiting on a set of magnetic bases to attach my Teutonic Knights to before I go whole hog painting them up.  I did get two more figures assembled since last post - my general and Army Standard Bearer.  I've got some paint on them now too, but I'm holding off on showing them until they're complete and I can post them to the Painting Challenge.

general on the viewer's left, Standard Bearer on the right.

All I'll show you is the freehand I've done on the general's shield, as well as my reference image:

While I haven't been doing much painting, I did, however, fulfill a long-time dream of mine this week, and I'm going to count that as ending 2016 on a high note.

I played a full, army-level wargame for the first time ever this past Wednesday - something I've wanted to do since, oh, I started high school, back in the Olden Days of Yore.  At the time we had a Games Workshop store and Warhammer 6th Edition was rolling out - I had no idea there were other games besides Warhammer and 40K, but it didn't matter because back then I had so little income that I couldn't afford to build an army.  

Wednesday I got to play Warhammer Ancient Battles (second edition) at one of the local game stores - not my primary locale of Just Games, but Boldo's Armory, a smaller store catering more to wargamers.  They have a Warhammer night every other week and I was invited to come experience a demo game.  

I borrowed a medieval Polish army and sat down across the table from Daniel, who had brought a Holy Roman Empire force.  Boldo watched over us, pointing out useful tactics to me or explaining points of the rules.  I didn't think to take any pictures so this won't be a full AAR, but let me just say that my dice were hot that night - and Daniel's were decidedly not, especially when it came to Panic Tests.  Enough of his army routed off the table to give me the victory.  All in all, the game - with 2800 points and around 100 miniatures on each side - took about two hours to play through to its conclusion.  

Unsurprisingly, I'm eager to play again, and my big project for January and February is going to be finishing my Teutonic Knights army so I can play with my own figures instead of borrowing off someone else longer than I need to.  Currently my plan is to end 2016 with the assembly of my second unit of mounted knights and maybe ring in 2017 with a unit of dismounted knights.  For anything less than a 3000 point game I just have two more units left to purchase, so I'm feeling pretty good.  

And with that, I'm going offline until 2017.  Hope everyone has an enjoyable New Year's Eve and see you next year.

Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to all, and strongest possible wishes for your continued health and good cheer in the new year ahead.  I hope everyone was able to spend time with loved ones, eat well, and received every bit of gaming loot their hearts desired.  I made out like a bandit this year:

Three boxes of Fireforge plastics and one of Perry Brothers - apparently my mother picked up some in London and then bought more on Amazon when she got home.  The box of Teutonic Infantry and one of the boxes of Knights (damn army list composition restrictions!) will form the basis of a Teutonic Order army for Warhammer Ancient Battles, while the Perry Wars of the Roses infantry will likely become the basis for a retinue for Lion/Dragon Rampant.  The second box of Teutonic Knights I'll hold on to in case of very large games of Warhammer Ancient Battles.

Finally, the board game "Elder Sign" was a gift from my sister, knowing my interest in Lovecraftian gaming.  Gina and I may give that a go later tonight.

We're in for a small bit of unseasonably warm weather, so I've begun assembly in hopes of getting some priming in tomorrow while I'm off work for the holiday. As of right now I've got a unit of 10 knights with command assembled and ready to go:

What's Ahead in 2017?

So I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to see happen in the next year of miniature painting.  In the last year, I didn't really have any sort of solid plan to my purchasing and painting; for 2017 I'd like to have dedicated projects I'm working towards.  I want to focus on just a couple things and try to really accomplish something with them.  My list, in order of importance, is as follows:

Frostgrave

My game tonight didn't end up taking place, as Tom was feeling under the weather, but this is the big one.  I have three finished warbands (Summoner, Necromancer and Elementalist), two that are assembled and primed, but unpainted (Witch and Sigilist), and have purchased a couple figures towards two more (Illusionist and Thaumaturge).  I'm thinking about trying to encourage some sort of league-play at Just Games; we've got a number of people who've bought the book and shown interest and I'd like to see more of those people at the table, pushing figures around.

I may eventually finish building warbands for every school of magic in Frostgrave, but seven might be enough for now.  I want to finish assembling and painting the four warbands that I have that are unfinished and build more terrain for the tabletop.

I'm also looking towards building up a bestiary of monsters for Frostgrave's wandering monster rules, for which I think Reaper Bones are probably the best suited.

Lion/Dragon Rampant

I've had the rulebook for this game for almost a year.  I've thought about building generic medieval forces out of 1/72 scale plastics, but I'm starting to reconsider; 28mm seems to be the scale gamers locally go for, and I think my chances of getting someone to play against will go up in 28mm.  I'm still probably going to end up building two armies for this.  I think it's probably worthwhile to pick a conflict to model on a small scale with Lion Rampant and do just the belligerents of that conflict.

I've always liked the look of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, so maybe the Baltic Crusades are in order.  Fireforge has some really beautiful Teutonic Order plastic sets, and they recently released a line of Medieval Russians, who would provide a nice splash of color against the monochrome of the Germans.

EDIT: Adam reminded me that a fantasy version, Dragon Rampant, exists, which might be an easier sell at the local gaming store than a strictly historical game.  For fantasy races, I think I'd look first to Mantic Games' Kings of War line, especially their Orcs and "Abyssal Dwarves."

Rogue Stars

This is kind of the lowest priority for the moment, especially as the book isn't actually out yet, but I like what I'm reading about this sci-fi skirmish game from Osprey.  I have a couple alien figures from Reaper's Chronoscope line to use as the beginning of a sci-fi gang; I may pick up some packs from Copplestone's "Future Wars" line for use with this at some point.

Terrain will also be something to look at with Rogue Stars, and for that I'm looking at Pegasus Hobbies' "Hexagon" snap-together terrain pieces.

So this is where I think my wish-list stands:

• Reaper 02459 "Ava, Female Templar"
• Reaper 02390 "Templar Standard"
• Reaper 02330 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02513 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02339 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02433 "Omar Al-Kafour"
• Reaper 02497 "Jasmine Silverveil"
• Reaper 02447 "Sallah, Arabian Hero"
• Reaper 02749 "Jade, Dancing Girl"
• Reaper 02501 "Mirari the Seductress"
• Reaper Bones monsters
• Pegasus Hobbies' Gothic Scenery
• Pegasus Hobbies' "Hexagon" scenery
• Fireforge Teutonic Knights
• Fireforge Teutonic Infantry
• Mantic Games' Orcs or Abyssal Dwarves

I should note that I am taking part in Ian's annual "Secret Santa" exchange this year, and so this list isn't *strictly* for my own use.  I have a pretty good idea what I'm getting for my target wargamer, and I'm pretty excited to be a part of this.