Fly, My Falcons, Fly!

 Even though Schlock Mercenary rightfully said that an armoured infantry trooper om flight is nothing more than skeet...

Slow Progress Is Still Progress

Well I may not have finished anything today, but I did get 50 Elementals to the same stage as the first 25 of Echo Trinary; meaning that - if all goes well - tomorrow I will finish them. I just need to paint their guns and visors black and then base them, after all. I also basecoated both Vultures and the Warhawk:

 

Elementals! Caliban Green, drybrushed Waaagh Flesh, with Averland Sunset on their SRM tubes ready for some tiny little hazard stripes...

In other news my friend C sent me a bottle of resin with which to print a bunch of 'mechs for him. So that'll be a fun little weekend project!

The Best Laid Plans O' Meece An' (Wo)men

 Gang aft aglae, and all that. I had intended to paint up a load of Jade Falcons tonight, but instead I undercoated a bunch of Elementals and 'mechs in black, and then spent a long time looking at stls of High Elves, Dark Elves, and Wood Elves to mull over some ideas for 500 point The Old World armies. A wargamer's projects are never finished... anyway, here's what I was up to today:

 

Unfinished Jade Falcons and a lot of undercoated Jade Falcons... argh!

Who knows. Maybe I'll get them sorted tomorrow. Maybe not. Perhaps by the weekend? We'll see!

Accursed Men-Things!

Tonight I had a demo game of Mordheim at the LUNAR club with D, who is a very nice chap and a decent opponent. Order was restored to the universe following my previous victory over N by me promptly losing at the first opportunity with a failed Rout check! Scenery was provided by the de-facto Club Warboss, M, and very nice it was too. I provided the warbands - Skaven and Marienburgers - and a jolly time was had by all. Except the Skaven, who discovered that those flashy clothes don't mean the men-things are bad at fighting, not at all...

Deployment from the Skaven side. We rolled up Skirmish, which is a straightforward fight. The mat is a 3'x3' one, which is a bit smaller than it should be, and there is definitely not enough terrain, but as this was very much a learning game for both of us it wasn't a problem

Deployment from the Marienburger side. I deployed first and then promptly lost the roll to go first, too!

End Marienburger Turn 1: A slow and careful advance in the centre and left, while the handgunners fired ineffectually at the slingers - the penalty for long range was just enough to make the shot a bit too hard for the BS3 Marksmen...

End Skaven Turn 1: in contrast almost everything ran, and I used the fighting claws on one of the Black Skaven to scurry up the wall of the ruined house and down the stairs - more to show off than for any practical purpose. The Sorceror didn't run because I thought that he couldn't run and cast spells... but they can! Live and learn, eh?

End Marienburg Turn 2: A speedier advance up the board, with the Marksmen reloading on the move. The Warriors on the left got some charges off against the Giant Rats, while the Captain carefully shot a rat with a sling and took it Out Of Action. Moments later one of the Warriors followed suit and skewered a Giant Rat, taking it Out Of Action too!

End Skaven Turn 2: The Black Skaven with spear on the left, and the Black Skaven with fighting claws in the centre, got charges off against a Warrior and a Youngblood respectively. The Giant Rats charged the Warrior that hadn't got into combat last turn and the Champion with two pistols. The Night Runners and Assassin Adept lined up for a series of charges next turn while the surviving Skaven with slings and the Sorceror made a firing line to challenge the Marksmen and the Champion with halberd. Shooting was ineffectual, with the six (!) slingshots only resulting in a light concussion and a Stunned Champion - but the Sorceror's Gnawdoom resulted in 10 S1 hits against the Youngblood with basket and, shortly afterwards, an Out Of Action Youngblood. On the other hand the Black Skaven both whiffed, and the Champion with pistols made short work of the Giant Rat that had charged him

End Marienburger Turn 3: The Captain and Champion both charged into ongoing combats, and the Marksmen fired (again ineffectually) at the Skaven in front of them. The Captain promptly shot the Black Skaven, Stunning it... and then the Youngblood stabbed it, taking it Out Of Action. Over on the left, the combats all resulted in no injuries or even hits in most cases. But it was enough! The Skaven had to take a Rout Check on a Ld of 7, and I rolled an 8. Back-flee to the safety-warmth of the burrow-nest!

I may have lost, but it was a very fun game and a really nice introduction to the LUNAR club. They all seem like a great bunch and I got to meet others, like E and B and a person whose name I didn't catch, who have a roleplaying/boardgame club on Thursdays which P and I are going to start going to from next week. And, of course, although I have a bunch of Jade Falcons to paint I now have the Mordheim bug itching at me...

And speaking of Jade Falcons, the Omnissiah has blessed me and the printer works once more (I levelled the build plate again and that seems to have cured the problem)! So I managed to crank out a bunch of bases for the Elementals, as well as that Warhawk, another Vulture, and more Elementals to finish Trinary Echo:

Two Stars of Elementals accompanied by a Warhawk Prime and a Vulture Prime

 Tomorrow, I think, I will knuckle down and see how far I can get with some serious painting after work. I really want to get these prints and the various Clan light 'mechs sorted by the end of the week.

The Machine Spirit Is Angry

Alas, my plans for Elementals (and some more 'mechs) have been foiled by repeated print errors. I thought I'd solved it by changing the FEP sheet that sits at the bottom of the resin tank, and by doing some other basic things, but alas - the error persists, and I am forced to consider that the Machine Spirit has been offended. I will make the relevant offerings and sacrifices to the Omnissiah and see what advice other lay tech-priests can offer. 

The wrath of the machine!

In the meantime, I based what few Elementals I had successfully managed to print bases for, and put a little paint on them and on the light 'mechs I've been working on slowly for the last few days:

The 'mech at the front is a Vulture Prime, the sole survivor of the print that was supposed to also contain a Warhawk and another 25 Elementals...

With the little 'mechs at a point where they can be quickly finished, and the first Star of Echo Trinary Elementals also nearly done (I just need to do the black details and then base them) I should be able to have them all completed tomorrow evening after work, which will be a nice start to the week. Then on Tuesday I will be playing some Mordheim with a chap from the LUNAR club, after N regretfully had to pull out due to transport issues. So I'll have to sort out some Mordheim roster sheets and get them ready which will be a fun exercise in nostalgia! 

Here Come The Big Guns

Well, less the big guns and more the big 'mechs. I had my first print failure today when a print of some Clan light 'mechs went sideways, leaving me with an entirely unprinted Cougar Prime and two damaged Kit Foxes. The two Kit Foxes were sufficiently intact that some surgery meant I could turn them into one functioning Kit Fox, a J variant, but the missing Cougar - a puzzle, there. I think I just messed up the slicer file, but it's not a problem. I still have enough 'mechs left to create two Stars: each comprised of a medium and four lights, giving me enough to make both Delta and Echo Trinaries of my Falcon Guards once I get the next 75 Elementals sorted.

Not to be too put out by the print error, I slapped some basecoats onto the surviving lights and then got sidetracked by the MacLeod's Light Horse assaults (and heavy) that I churned out recently:

L-R: Cyclops (with big "eye" paint scheme around the cockpit glass), Highlander with monster mouth, King Crab with monster mouth and skull and crossed bones on the top; Catapult with angry eyes

The MLLH machines are mostly in this flat green, an attempt at "British Racing Green", with white highlights. The 'mechs of the Heavy Company and the Rgt'l HQ Lance are more... personally decorated

Unlike the Clan 'mechs where I've specified a variant, I haven't bothered here, just naming the base type

I like the side view of the eyes on the Highlander's head armour, and the monster mouths on the Catapult's PPCs

The HQ lance of the Mech Battalion, including - on the far left - the CO of the whole outfit, in her Stalker -3H variant with its 50 LRM tubes and additional laser AMS. On her right is the XO, Major Aisa "Falcon" Thastus, an ex-Jade Falcon. The whole lance has a total of 95 LRM tubes! Woe betide anything that tries to stay out of range...

1st Lance, 1st (Heavy) Company, Mech Battalion, MLLH. The Captain, "Goat", has an austere Black Knight that just has a simple white stripe across its head for personal identification purposes

 I'm quite miffed that the skull and crossbones on the King Crab didn't photograph very well, but such is life. One of these days I'll take a good photo of one of my miniatures, but that day is very much not today. Anyway, enough of dezgra spheroid mercenaries, let us return to the glories of Clan Jade Falcon!

L-R: Adder A, Kit Fox J, Fire Moth D, Fire Moth Prime, Fire Falcon Prime

 The Kit Fox J was intended, I think, to be a H, but the left arm didn't print and it ended up with the twin medium lasers from an I (?) - putting them together made something that looks enough like a J for me to be happy with it. The J mounts a UAC/5 above a Streak SRM-2 on the right, and twin ER Medium Lasers on the left, as well as having jump jets for added mobility. This weekend coming I'm aiming to get these five 'mechs done, as well as the rest of the Elementals for Echo Trinary. Then I guess I'll need to get printing a bunch of other Clan stuff to build out Trinaries Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 17
2025: 521 

Come On You Apes! Do You Want To Live Forever?!

As it turns out, once you get the first couple of colours onto a 7 or 8mm tall powered armour wearing supersoldier, they're pretty easy to finish off:

The Falcon Guards Cluster has two Trinaries (company equivalents) comprised primarily of Elementals - this is the Elemental part of Delta Trinary. Delta One (at rear) is a "Nova", which means it also includes five OmniMechs. Deltas Two and Three are made up of Elementals only

Can you tell which ones are the official CGL sculpts? You might be able to spot the misprints...

The Elementals are 8 foot tall genetically engineered power armour wearing super soldiers who are the basic infantry of the Clan Toumans: they wear suits of armour with a huge claw on one arm and a weapon such as a small laser, machine gun, or flame-thrower on the other - and two one-shot short-range missiles on their backs. Oh yeah and they also have jump jets, too. Their role is primarily to swarm over enemy 'mechs and cut their way into the cockpits to kill the pilots. 

I also put the base colours on the MacLeod's Light Horse machines I printed off the other day:

L-R: Cyclops, Highlander -732B, King Crab; Catapult -K2

I should be able to get those finished tomorrow, but I am also going to a boardgames night with P in Menai Bridge, so it depends when I get home I think. 

Painting Points:
Today: 13
This Week: 13
2025: 517 

Problems of Scale

I've been putting some more paint on my Elementals and the two light clan 'mechs I printed to go with them, and I found myself musing about the size of the Fire Moth D. The Catalyst Games Lab Fire Moth is 29mm tall - but that doesn't include the arms; it's measured to the top of the main chassis. When I scaled mine inside Chitubox the other day, I didn't do that - I just adjusted the Z axis to 29mm and left it at that. That means it isn't quite the right size. It doesn't actually matter; it's obviously a Fire Moth, but it is bothering me now. So even though it's got paint on it, I may well scrap it and reprint one the right size. After all, that would stop it bothering me every time I think about it!

Elementals, painted green and washed with Biel-Tan Shade, accompanied by the too-small Fire Moth on the right and the Fire Falcon on the left. Both 'mechs have been given their base coat of camouflage and a Nuln Oil wash. The three movement trays for N's Chaos Warriors are now complete

In other news, I did correctly scale and successfully print the 'mechs needed to complete the Command Lance and 1st Lance of the 1st Company for my MacLeod's Light Horse mercenaries:

 

L-R: King Crab, Highlander -732B, Cyclops, Catapult -K2

Now if only I could remember where I'd put those spare hex bases...

Every Little Helps

I had intended to do a bit more painting than I ended up doing tonight, but I accidentally got stuck in a loop of looking at STL files on MyMiniFactory, Cults3D and Thingiverse for two and a half hours, so instead I undercoated the Elementals, Fire Falcon and Fire Moth in black and used some of my stock of cardboard sheet to make some movement trays for N's Chaos Warriors. After all, not having to move each mini by hand speeds games up, and a good opponent deserves a gift! 

Elemental points from Delta Trinary, Falcon Guards, a Fire Falcon Prime (left) and a Fire Moth D (right)

A bit of cardboard, a metal ruler, a pencil, a scalpel, and some glue (plus a few minutes' work) resulted in this - next step is to slap some brown paint on as a base for N to replace with whatever fits their eventual basing scheme

Tomorrow I will try and get more done on the Elementals. I may need to do a bit of fiddling to their bases to make them a bit less uneven, and when I do Echo Trinary's Elementals I'll be taking on board the lessons learned in printing and basing these ones. Oh, and I've also got some more Battlemechs printing overnight!

 

The Forge Fires Burn

I may not have done any painting today, but I definitely did hobby stuff. This whole 3D printing business is addictive, I think - I'm going to try to limit my printing for a bit! At least until I paint the stuff I've printed... or most of it... or maybe just the 'mechs... 

Ahem.

Anyway, before I went to bed last night I put a print on for a bunch of bases for the Elementals I printed off yesterday, and this morning I washed and cured them and then spent spare moments at work gluing Elementals to them. After work I printed off a few more Elementals (because either I can't count or the printer didn't quite manage to print 65 Elementals all at once - I was 8 short in the end) as well as some 'mechs, which I scaled to match their Catalyst Games Lab counterparts using this handy sheet some wondrous person knocked up. 

 

65 Clan Elementals to complete Delta Trinary, along with a Fire Moth D (front right) and a Fire Falcon Prime (front left). Behind the Clan 'mechs are a Wasp -1A (rear left) and an Archer -2R, although I think that the mini is actually a -2K (rear right)

The mechs I've printed will let me finish the Battlemech portion of my Canopian Cuirassiers as well as the OmniMech portion of Delta Trinary's Alpha Nova: that's five light 'mechs and five points of Elementals. The light 'mechs transport the Elementals around the battlefield at speed, allowing the Elementals to fire their weapons from the moving 'mechs and - unfortunately for the Elementals - act as ablative armour for the 'mechs...

Tomorrow I'm going to slap a bunch of paint on all these things and see if I can take them from printed to painted in two days or so. Wish me luck, etc! 

Blessed Is The Holy Machine, Sing Praises Unto The Divine Will Of The Omnissiah!

Or in other words, after years of waiting, my Mars 2 Pro resin 3D printer is up, running, and printing stuff. This is slightly wild; I have never before experienced the mind-bending glee of taking a file, fiddling about a bit in Chitubox, sticking the USB stick into the printer, pressing "print" and a while later having... miniatures? Absurd. I will have to be disciplined (she says, with 65 Battletech 1:285 scale Clan Elementals currently printing) otherwise I can see myself becoming entirely overrun with things to paint, and I have something of a backlog already. 

Speaking of things to paint, I can tick something else off the Pile of Opportunity - spurred on by my game yesterday against N, I painted my Casket of Souls to completion and named the Tomb Priest using it: Ankhefendjaf, or He Who Lives For Djaf. Djaf is the Nehekharan god of death and war, so it amuses me that Ankhefendjaf's name is what it is. 

Experimenting with backdrops in my lightbox. Black seems to work better than white, I think. From this angle you can see the eerie glow from Ankhefendjaf's eyes and mouth

Can you spot the spider on the steps of the Casket?

I'm not totally satisfied with the way the leg wraps look in this image, so I might go back in and tidy them up. Or maybe not - it's a very minor thing, and this isn't really a display piece

The deep black of the casket itself is a mix of blacks, purples, and blues - the top is much more marbled, while the sides are wet blended for a strange, unearthly feel

Now all I have left for my Tomb Kings at the moment is the consort of Hapshetsida, on his bone dragon. I do need a massive base for that, and slightly better weather so I can prime them both, but I'm looking forwards to sorting him and the dragon out. Probably in the New Year.

Anyway, back to the Blessed Machine:

Trench Crusade miniatures from the Kickstarter. I backed for a warband, and chose the Iron Sultanate, because I loved the design of the Jabirean Alchemist. This was my first foray into using Chitubox and I think I may have done something wrong - there is an odd misprint on the Captain's strange harpy-bird, who is missing the top half of her head. Oops!

The problem is - having started printing things, I'm not sure I will know when to stop printing things!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 6
2025: 504

 

Eternal Rule In Glory For Queen Hapshetsida!

Today I took my Tomb Kings army, the War Host of the Red City, over to the Pontio Centre in Bangor. There, in a room filled with young nerds (and one much older nerd), the ancient warriors of the Red City obeyed the will of their Queen and Priests, and defeated a Chaos force of Tzeentch and Undivided warriors and daemons in honourable battle...

Or in other words I met up with N, a student at Bangor and member of LUNAR (I told you I'd keep calling it that) and had my first ever game of The Old World. We agreed on 2,000 points, and I brought the following:

CHARACTERS:
Tomb Queen (The Conqueror's Blade, Death Mask of Kharnutt, Relic of the Desert Sun)
Herald (Standard of the Cursing Word)
Lvl 4 High Priest (Staff of Awakening - rolled Deathly Cabal, Curse of Years, Spirit Leech, picked Incantation of Dessication)
Lvl 2 Priest (Hieratic Jar, Earthing Rod - rolled Spiritual Vortex, picked Incantation of Cursed Blades)
CORE UNITS:
18 Tomb Guards with full command, light armour, shields, halberds
20 Skeleton Warriors with full command, light armour, shields, spears
20 Skeleton Warriors with full command, light armour, shields, spears
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Archers with champion, warbows 
10 Skeleton Horse with full command, light armour, shields, cavalry spears
5 Skeleton Horse Archers with champion, musician, warbows
3 Light Chariots with full command, warbows, cavalry spears
3 Tomb Swarms
SPECIAL UNITS:
3 Carrion 

Exactly 2,000 points, over half of which was in the Core Units section (1,159 points)!

N brought:

CHARACTERS:
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Chariot, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lvl 4 magic (Fireball, Pillar of Fire, Oaken Shield... possibly something else?)
Daemon Prince, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Lvl 1 magic (Daemonsword, Extra Arm - rolled Daemonic Familiars)
CORE UNITS:
16 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Chaos Undivided
16 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Chaos Undivided
5 Chaos Knights, Mark of Chaos Undivided (I think?)
SPECIAL UNITS:
16 Chosen Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (the champion had the Filth Mace)

There were I think other magic items, but I never encountered them.

We rolled for a scenario using the rulebook's list and got Meeting Engagement. This meant some of our armies were in reserve from the start, rolled for unit by unit (including characters, war machines etc). I ended up with my Tomb Guard (which contained my Queen and Herald!) in reserve along with the cavalry, horse archers, and the carrion. I immediately realised that while the army had camped out, the Queen had taken her bodyguard and cavalry to go hunting... Meanwhile, N's Sorceror Lord in chariot and a unit of Warriors ended up in reserve. 

The hunting party in reserve. Presumably the Queen wanted a new rug, or something, because none of these people eat any more...

Deployment was diagonal, and I picked a table half that had a small hill on so I could put most of my archers on it, along with my High Priest. His junior, the Priest, stood at the foot of the hill. The two regiments of Skeleton Warriors flanked the archers, while the Tomb Swarm was pushed out on the flank to act as a speedbump. The Chariots were held back a little to, hopefully, charge whatever got stuck on the Swarm or defeated it and ended up in charge range of them. Meanwhile N finished deploying a lot faster than me - he positioned in a line, with his Spawn pushed a little further forwards. His Knights were out on his extreme right flank, able to use their speed to swing round and - potentially - trap my Chariots and push into the flank of my position.

Overall deployment. Behind the tower in the middle of the field can just be seen the Chaos Knights

Red City War Host deployment - the big gap between the Skeleton Warrior units should have a Tomb Guard unit in it; it did at least allow the archers to shoot things despite not being on the hill

Chaos deployment - the Knights on the left, Daemon Prince and Warriors in the centre, Spawn and Chosen Warriors on the right. Those hedges around the statue definitely got a beating later on

With deployment complete, we diced for first turn. As is typical, we drew on the first roll and then N won the re-roll. So the Chaos army advanced on the waiting skeletons, still and silent in the morning air...

End of Chaos Turn 1 - a general advance on all fronts, and a bit of jockeying for position by the Chosen as the Spawn meandered towards the War Host's lines. The Knights marched forwards at speed, looking to swing around and threaten my flank

End of Tomb Kings Turn 1 - the Tomb Swarm moved forwards, aiming to block the Warriors and possibly the Daemon Prince. My hope was to slow them long enough to get a charge off with the Chariots before the Knights arrived. Ideally my reinforcements would turn up to deal with the Knights before they could make a mess of my bone boys. The Priest, Weret-Hekau, cast Incantation of Cursed Blades on one of the archer units on the hill, allowing them to re-roll 1s to hit. The combination of Arrows of Asaph and the re-roll lead to absolutely nothing because they were out of range! On the bright side, the archers at the foot of the hill wounded the Spawn

 

End Chaos Turn 2 - the obvious happened, and the Daemon Prince and Warriors charged the Tomb Swarm. One base was killed by Daemonic Familiars, which put out 12 S2 hits (!) and the Warriors put some more wounds on the remainder. The poison attacks of the Swarm killed one (1) whole Warrior. Meanwhile - (to my surprise) it turned out that units in Reserve can arrive in any turn chosen by the player, so (of course) the Sorceror Lord and another regiment of Warriors arrived. There was a bit of a traffic jam as they marched on behind the Chosen, but the appearance of another block of Warriors was a bit unsettling I must admit

End of Tomb Kings Turn 2 - I brought my "shock" cavalry on behind the Knights, and the Carrion in front, and swung them around ready to charge or be charged. The Chariots however were not in a good place - in my turn the Tomb Swarm was destroyed, and the Warriors overran by 11"! The Daemon Prince was much slower, going a paltry 9"... so much for my plan to slam the Chariots into something at speed. My Horse Archers came on and moved to try to support the centre, while the Queen, Herald, and the Tomb Guard came on to act as a fire brigade against anything that - I assumed inevitably - broke through my Skeleton Warriors, who I had repositioned to protect my archers and Priests... speaking of the archers, they killed the Spawn. Arrows of Asaph, although they're only hitting on 5s, will always hit on 5s. Very reliable, strangely enough, especially in quantity

End of Chaos Turn 3 - fear came out to bite N's troops this turn. Both the Warriors in the centre and the Knights on the flank failed their fear tests and couldn't charge their targets. The Daemon Prince, who is of course Immune to Psychology, was not perturbed by the skeletal horses and ancient finery of the Chariots, and made a charge into their flank. Oh dear. The Chosen (whose Champion achieved Apotheosis! on the Gaze of the Gods table) continued stamping all over the hedges, and the second Warrior regiment wheeled to begin the march around the wooded hill. The Sorcerer Lord failed to get a Fireball off but did manage to put a Pillar of Flame in front of my Skeletons (see the yellow die in the image), which was quite worrying. In combat the Daemon Prince only managed to inflict a couple of wounds, but I did an oopsie-woopsie and erroneously gave the Chariots a rank bonus (??) and didn't take wounds from Unstable - sorry N! - when I lost the combat

End of Tomb Kings Turn 3 - the Knights didn't survive the combat, losing mainly to combat resolution, breaking, and being crushed between the two units that had trapped them. They did manage to put a couple of wounds on one of the Carrion, though. This was a big relief, as it meant the very scary Knights had been removed with comparative ease and the bulk of N's army was now slow and unlikely to pose a significant threat. The archers killed a couple of Chosen thanks to the auto-wounding on 6s rule, and the spear regiment on the right flank moved forwards a bit to block the Warriors that had arrived this turn from getting into the archers. The Pillar of Fire moved backwards, towards the Sorceror Lord, and was then dispelled. Meanwhile, the Chariots came off much the worst against the Daemon Prince (who had a base of 5 attacks, plus 1 from the Extra Arm, plus another d3 from the Daemonsword) who made a nice big overrun move towards my open left flank. My Horse Archers, who I had not yet realised are actually Skirmishers, moved into the wood to try to shoot at something. Then I forgot to shoot with them. Oops!

  

End of Chaos Turn 4 - the Warriors who had fought the Tomb Swarm wheeled to line up against the Horse Archers, the Chosen continued their war against the local hedgerows (for, presumably, some esoteric vision quest required by the Changer of the Ways) while the other Warriors moved forwards a little to threaten the spear regiment on my right flank. The Daemon Prince, now powered up with an extra attack (thanks to the Gaze of the Gods) charged my Tomb Guard right in the flank, piling into Itetaten, the Royal Herald, and a Tomb Guard stood behind him. The Prince issued a challenge to the Queen, and with a languid and regal wave, the Captain of the Scarab Guard, Edifis, marched forth to do battle against the terrible thing. Predictably, the Prince turned Edifis into a pile of disjointed bones and armour. The resulting combat resolution was a narrow win for the Tomb Guard (5 wounds vs 3 ranks, a standard, outnumbering... and a musician). Here we made a mistake - even though the Daemon Prince is Unbreakable, it should have Given Ground 2", enabling me to Restrain and Reform, or Follow Up - either way, instead of continuing the fight in the flank, the regiment should have been fighting the Daemon Prince properly, with the front rank. Ah well. Live and learn! Meanwhile, the Sorceror Lord, also granted an extra attack by his fickle patrons, failed to get off a Fireball (again) but did put up another Pillar of Fire which was much better placed to do nasty things to my skeletal soldiery

End of Tomb Kings Turn 4 - the open rear of the Warriors was too inviting, and the Carrion flew towards them, ready to charge them in the rear next turn (or at least pin them in place for a potential flank charge by the cavalry). The bulk of the army stood still, and although a few skeletons were burned to ash by the Pillar of Fire they were immediately commanded to Arise! by Weret-Hekau (sadly, Weret-Hekau did not command them to move out of the column of magical fire), while Ptah-Um-Setek reassembled Edifis' bones. The Pillar of Fire was not dispelled. This would become a reoccurring problem. The archers volleyed more Arrows of Asaph at the Chosen, killing two more. The Horse Archers, foolishly but heroically, made use of their Skirmishing ability to charge the Daemon Prince. We then had a bit of a digression where we tried to work out if a lone character has a flank to be charged, and after a roll to see which interpretation would be used, the Prince was indeed charged in the flank. It then proceeded to do six wounds to the five Horse Archers, and only some lucky Regeneration rolls allowed the champion, Sethisbakup, to continue fighting. This combat was vicious, and the Daemon Prince was dropped to just one wound. Again, this should have resulted in a Give Ground followed by either Restrain and Reform or a Follow Up, and again, the Tomb Guard should have been fighting at full effect. As it was, the combat would continue...

 

End of Chaos Turn 5 - powered up with two extra attacks, the Sorceror Lord decided to give up on trying to cast Fireball and instead slammed his chariot into the skeletons in the centre. This was devastating, smashing apart a bunch with impact hits, disordering the unit so they wouldn't get a rank bonus, and then chopping up a few more in the actual combat. To add insult to injury, the Pillar of Fire that had killed some skeletons from this unit in the turn before did the same again! Honestly. Don't they know that the Tomb Priests have to spend effort raising them from piles of ash? The Warriors that were threatened by the Carrion turned in place and advanced a couple of inches, while the Chosen, whose Champion, apotheosis acheived, was further blessed with an extra attack. The Warriors on N's left flank just made the charge against my right flank blocking unit of Skeleton Warriors (as an aside, a short discussion about charging led to us learning that a charging unit has a free wheel to bring the most figures to bear as possible, then measures from the shortest distance to the target unit). That combat ended in a draw, with casualties, ranks, standards and musicians cancelling each other out. The Daemon Prince, ignoring Sethisbakup, inflicted six wounds (out of 10!! attacks) on the Tomb Guard. The resulting lost combat saw Sethisbackup crumbling and the Tomb Guard using Phalanx to hold their ground rather than Give Ground in the face of the daemon's fury

End of Tomb Kings Turn 5 - I gambled, and charged the Warriors with the "shock" cavalry and Carrion, while the Priests commanded as many skeletons as they could to Arise! although Weret-Hekau, even using the Hieratic Jar, failed to command any to stand back up... the Pillar of Fire, still not dispelled, at least had the good grace to move into a position where it wasn't doing me any immediate damage. With the enemy spellcasters all engaged in combat, the Priests rattled (ha) off a bunch of spells. Weret-Hekau put a Spiritual Vortex down, reducing the leadership of the Chosen, Sorceror Lord, and Warriors engaged on my right by 1. Various Hexes and Boons were chanted, and the Warriors fighting on my right, Daemon Prince, and Sorcerer Lord all suffered various ill effects while the skeletons fighting the Warriors got to re-roll any 1s to hit. In the end it mattered little, and the Tomb Guard lost again, as did both skeleton units. The Tomb Guard held fast, but both regiments of Skeleton Warriors Gave Ground. The gambled charge against the Warriors on my left didn't pay off - it was a draw, and that meant that the Warriors were going to smash my units to bits pretty quickly. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say

End of Chaos Turn 6 - unfortunately for N, it all started to come off the rails at this point. His Chosen moved up, assuming they may as well even though they were now almost certain never to get into combat, while everything else fought endlessly regenerating skeletons and Tomb Guard. The Pillar of Fire moved a bit and immolated some archers, but the real shock was the Sorceror Lord losing combat to the Warriors, just failing his Break Test (unable to Retire In Good Order as he was beaten by a fear causing enemy that outnumbered him), fleeing 5", and then being caught by the Skeleton Warriors who, not content with running the chariot down, pursued directly into the Chosen. The Demon Prince continued to kill a bunch of Tomb Guard, who continued to resolutely stay exactly where they were, not giving an inch in the face of this flurry of attacks. The Warriors fighting on my right flank continued slowly pushing the Skeleton Warriors back, but they couldn't quite do enough to destroy them. The Carrion and Skeleton Horse lost combat and Gave Ground, and the Warriors followed hot on their heels, happy to be fighting in praise of the Dark Gods

End of Tomb Kings Turn 6, END OF GAME - with the Pillar of Fire still setting archers ablaze and still refusing to be dispelled, the Priests set about raising Tomb Guards and Skeleton Warriors with abandon, before firing off their various Hexes and Boons. The combat between the Skeleton Horse, Carrion, and Warriors, went about as well as could be expected: the Warriors absolutely battered the Carrion and the Horse, reducing them to just two cavalry. The overconfident Skeletons in the centre, who had charged the Chosen, did not do well. The Champion, souped up and wielding the Filth Mace, killed three or four, and the rest of the Chosen reduced the unit to just four skeletons! Over on the right, the relentless advance of the Warriors pushed the Skeleton Warriors right back into contact with Weret-Hekau, who, if his mummified body could still do it, would by now be sweating. A lot. However, over in the grinding slog against the Daemon Prince, a moment of heroism and glorious martial prowess was about to occur. Itetaten, armed only with a kopesh, swung at the gloating warp-fiend, and slew it! With that, the game ended, and it was time to count the cost...

Once all the Victory Points had been tallied, it turned out that N had gained 510 VP from destroyed units (the Chariots, the Tomb Swarms, Horse Archers, and the Carrion) and units under 25% strength (the Cavalry and one of the Skeleton Warrior units). I, on the other hand, had gained 1,103 from a mix of totally destroyed units (the Sorceror Lord, Daemon Prince, and Chaos Knights) as well as bonuses from the seized banner from the Knights and, of course, the killing of the Chaos General when his chariot was caught and overrun by skeletons. A difference of 593VPs in my favour and a very solid win. But it really came down to the wire - if I hadn't killed the Daemon Prince, or the Sorceror Lord had run away a bit further, it would have been a draw. I think although the loss of the Knights, who strayed a bit too close to the board edge when I had reinforcements to come on, was a blow to N's force and plans, the real moment of victory was right at the very last, when the Sorceror Lord was killed. A mark of a good game, that, when it comes down to the wire. We are already planning our next game, too, which is a mark of a good opponent and an enjoyable time.

Now, I'm off to try and make my 3D printer print things...

Call Forth The Honoured Dead!

After a couple of days of light painting (blog updates scuppered by technical issues), I have completed the Ork Lobba and started the process of changing the red on the chaos cultists' clothes to yellow. I also did some of the other bits on the cultists. That was Wednesday's work, anyway, and Thursday saw P and I go to the little Empire Cinema in Caergybi to watch Wicked For Good which was a decent film, but didn't quite stick the landing.
 

A very unassuming little artillery piece, but it was fun to do and nice and simple as well

 

Not the best of photos, but you can see the yellow on the cultists at the back, and if you look at the wrists on some of them you can see the cloth wraps have been blocked out

 

Tomorrow I have my first game of Warhammer Fantasy: The Old World arranged, with a chap called N at the university of Bangor's wargames club. Some of you may remember my Tomb Kings army which, it turns out, is pretty much spot on 2,000 points even without magic items. I'm going to take it over to Bangor tomorrow morning and watch it get stamped into bone dust by Chaos Warriors, but I'll have fun and maybe even remember some of the rules (I won't)!

On the Tomb King front, I also still have the bone dragon from the starter set that I picked up when The Old World was released, and although I can't find the base for it at the moment (no idea where it's gone) I did put it together and kitbash a Tomb King to sit on top of it from parts of the Tomb King, High Priest, and a piece off a random Vampire Counts sprue I had floating around in my bits box:

Not the best photo, but you can see the Tomb King sitting on his saddle and the sheer size of the dragon's skeletal form

I envisage this particular mummified corpse-regent to be the consort of the Queen of the Red City, who goes off and performs various heroic acts to gain her favour while she stands with her Scarab Guard in the centre of the army. He needs a sensible name, but the dragon will probably end up called something like "Biscuit" but in ancient Egyptian. That's "𓇋𓀁𓅡𓏤𓈙𓏏𓅱𓈀" ("jbšt") or "𓊪𓅮𓄿𓈎𓆁𓈀" ("p3q")if you're interested. Anyway, once I find (or get) a base for Biscuit and his rider, I'll get them and the Casket of Souls painted up.

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