A Very Small Update

I have had a remarkably busy evening today, or so it seemed, so my hobbying today consisted of writing names on the bases of my Cult of the Possessed and making sure I had the commission painting stuff lined up to start tomorrow. I have a day off work so hopefully I can actually make some progress on that and can get it posted off to the commissioner as soon as possible.

L-R: Mutant with extra arm-tentacle, axe and sword; Possessed with tentacle; Magestrix with double-handed weapon; Possessed with great claw; Mutant with great claw and axe - together they are the Ninefold Path of Eight Ways

It's funny how doing social things with one's time reduces the amount of time one has to paint... very odd!

LUNAR Landing

Tonight I ran the first ever meeting of the Llangefni United Nerds And Roleplayers Club. It went really well! We had games of Mordheim, Warcry, Combat Patrol, the boardgame Jaws, and discussions about future games of Dungeons and Dragons, Inquisitor 28, Sunrot, and other systems. For my part, I played a game of Mordheim against A's Undead with my Cult of the Possessed, and despite only having five models on the board, not only won the game but made out like an absolute bandit. Photos follow!

 

A game of Mordheim between Undead and Orcs - scenery is the old cardboard Games Workshop terrain that I built a couple of years ago and still haven't quite finished off - I'll need to do the bases and touch up the white lines!

A learning game of Combat Patrol, between Imperial Guard (l) and Space Marines (r)

A game of Jaws in full swing - this is the start of Act 2, where the shark tries to sink the boat!

A game of Warcry - needs more terrain if you ask me, but they were having fun!

And, of course, there was the game of Mordheim that A and I played between A's Undead and my Cult of the Possessed, as part of the campaign I'm running. The scenario we rolled was Wyrdstone Hunt, and a series of disjointed photographs mostly tell the story of the game. I forgot to take them consistently, so you'll have to put up with the slightly strange sequence of events!

Deployment - there are four pieces of Wyrdstone on the board, marked by green and yellow dice (I need to make Wyrdstone counters!): one is in the ruined tower, one is in the ground floor of the top-most building connected by a bridge, and the other two are visible. My cultists are in cover in case of shenanigans; A's Undead (and Imperial Assassin!) are spread out to try to pincer me

 

This is the end of my Turn 2 - I'd won the roll off to go first - and my Possessed had split off from the Magestrix and her Mutants to go wyrdstone hunting. One, known as The Blessed, had climbed up the tower and then had some minor problems with falling off things and failing to climb things for a bit. The other, The Lover, had easily grabbed the closest bit of Wyrdstone then (because I'd misunderstood the scenario) moved the wrong way for a bit... meanwhile A's Undead were moving up towards their own Wyrdstone targets

 

End of the Undead's Turn 2. Here, the Vampire is positioned to grab the closest Wyrdstone while being supported by Dregs and the Assassin, and the various zombies, the dire wolf, the necromancer, and one of the two ghouls are lurking under the bridge with the wolf having grabbed a piece of Wyrdstone

End of the Cult's Turn 3 - the Magestrix and her Mutants have (wisely) cleared off at top speed from the threatening Vampire, while The Lover has realised its/hers/their mistake and turned round, running to join up with the rest. The Blessed on the other hand has managed to grab the Wyrdstone in the tower and then immediately fell off the top floor onto the middle floor, although luckily not taking any damage

End of the Undead's Turn 3. The Dire Wolf, with Wyrdstone in its stomach, has moved behind a screen of zombies accompanied by the Necromancer and a Ghoul. Meanwhile the Vampire, second Ghoul, Dregs, and the Assassin have joined up with their own piece of Wyrdstone in the possession of the Vampire. The Necromancer attempts to cast Lifestealer on the closest Mutant, but fails

End of my Turn 4 - the Magestrix moves up while the Mutants have charged a variety of things - one Mutant, Johannes, charges the Necromancer, while the other, Elizabet, attacks a Zombie. The Blessed continues to fail to work out how to use a ladder, while The Lover continues moving away from the Vampire, trying to link up with The Blessed. Felicitas the Magestrix moves round the melee to try to get a bead on the Dire Wolf. Her attempt to cast Visions of Torment fails miserably (the total inability of either of us to cast a spell all game was quite amusing). In the combats, neither side manages to land a hit at all!

At this point I basically forgot to take photos until the end, but I do have a couple of good photos of some specific moments. 

The combat in Turn 5 under the bridge - the Magestrix has despatched the Dire Wolf, while The Blessed has knocked down a Ghoul. Meanwhile the Mutants are surrounded by Zombies and the Necromancer, with both sides continuing to be unable to hit each other, never mind cause wounds. Again, both Necromancer and Magestrix prove unable to cast their spells

The Imperial Assassin managed to knock a wound off The Lover with a poisoned throwing knife! This is one of the best photos of a model I've ever taken. A's painting is exquisite, honestly

End of my Turn 7 - while Johannes the Mutant has been dragged down by Zombies, the Possessed and Magestrix between them have taken a Ghoul, the Dire Wolf, and three Zombies out of action. The rout test made by A at the start of his turn 6 was passed, handily, but after considering the position of things at the start of turn 7, he decided to voluntarily rout and see what the exploration phase brought him...

 

The final board end state at the beginning of A's Turn 7. Time to see what the grim streets of Mordheim brought us!

After the game, we first checked to see what had happened to our various Out of Action models. Johannes, my Mutant, died. I rolled snake eyes! Alas and woe; his elephantine tentacles did not save him from the gnashing teeth of zombies. However all of A's Zombies and his Dire Wolf also died! Only the Ghoul survived the bloodbath under the bridge, it turned out.

I encountered a corpse with a free sword in it (honestly it was probably Johannes's corpse - he had a sword) and an overturned cart with a purse full of 11 gold crowns, which was pretty handy. My Wyrdstone haul was 3 from the game, plus an extra one thanks to this rounds' special rule (+1d3 Wyrdstone shards for all warbands in the Exploration Phase), and another 4 from the Exploration roll, for a total of 8! Very shiny. I elected to sell all of them in order to raise the funds to recruit another Mutant, Karina. Karina has an extra arm that is a tentacle, which is an expensive mutation but it does mean she can make two attacks with her sword and axe, as well as reducing the number of attacks an opponent can make by one. 

Additionally, thanks to hacking apart a bunch of zombies, most of the cult got to level up. Felicitas increased her Initiative to 4, The Blessed got +1 Strength (making him really quite nasty, with two S5 and one S6 attacks!), and Elizabet increased her Weapon Skill to 4.

The warband's treasury now consists of 11 gold crowns (still, I suspect, in the purse), and the Rating increased from 61 to 74. I'm going to play a game against B's Orcs next, I think, which will be the second and last game I'm allowed to play in this round.

Moving The Maidens

After finishing a bunch of Maiden Guard yesterday, I needed to make new movement trays for the Heart of Isha and the Tears of Isha regiments. The existing ones work fine for 5x2 25mm bases, but now with an extra rank I need to, well, add an extra rank. So I broke out the thick cardboard, pencil, ruler, knife, and glue:

When measuring the footprint, it's not just the footprint of the bases - 12.5cm by 7.5cm - but you need to make sure there's space for the rim, to hold the figures on the tray. I use 5mm rims here, so the base section is 13.5cm by 8cm. The upper lip is 5mm wide all the way around

Then I painted the edges in Rhinox Hide, and the surface in Castellan Green to match the colours I used on the bases of the Maiden Guard

THEN once the paint was dry I used a glue stick to rub glue over the lip, and dunked it in my Woodland Scenics Blended Turf (T50 Earth Scene) scatter

And the end result! Some card, glue, and a bit of time (as well as the pencil and ruler and knife) and I have some handy-dandy movement trays for the next game!

Tomorrow it's off to the spaceship yards to get cracking on that commission. But for now, I'm going to bask in this finished 750 point Maiden Guard force.

250 Points Of Elves

I spent much of today painting, and at the end of it all I had 250 points of High Elves done for my Maiden Guard! Of course, this means I need new movement trays for the Heart of Isha and Tears of Isha regiments, but that's a tomorrow problem. It'll be something I can do while playing Dungeons and Dragons (with my Tabaxi cleric of the Cat Lord, as opposed to my Goliath barbarian who is the Friday D&D character). Looking at them all arrayed in their finery, it seems quite a formidable 750 point force, what with the Battle Standard, the Noble, and lots of spears and bows and shields. 

Then there's the other players in the league, bringing things like cannons and Kroxigor at 500 points, so I have no doubt fairly soon my poor Elves will be quite significantly outclassed in the combat power department. However, until then, I can enjoy the fruits of my 3D printing and painting labour:

The banner is slightly different to the one in the Uniforms and Heraldry of the High Elves book, not just because Isha here is dark-skinned and black haired, but she's a little smaller and there's an extra rune - not just quyl-isha (left) but also daroir (right). Roughly this means the sorrow of memory, or remembrance of mourning, or similar, in Eltharin

Lots of gems, because these are High Elves, and a nice shot of the cloth hanging down with gravity

You get a good idea of the parts that went into the banner in this photo - the lance tip from the High Elf Noble kit, the crossbar and flag from the High Elf Spear kit, the wire pole

Lots of gold, too, on Finelle herself, as well as on the banner pole - the golden crescent moons on her leather gloves, the gold on her shoulder armour

Of course it's not all about the character - although she does, by herself, represent 103 of the 250 points in this stage of the army's growth!

These may look like original 5th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Maiden Guard, but they are - in fact - 3D printed versions! The shields are also 3D prints

The dark skin goes really nicely with the white and green and gold, I think

White is a pain to paint, often because it can be hard to find good quality white. I miss the old GW Skull White, which (I seem to remember) was pretty good

I love the ridiculously huge heart-shaped rubies on the shields

 And then, because I spent the money on the STLs, I also have a differently attired Maiden Guard unit:

These ones are much more heavily armoured than the originals, but in their own unit they look great

The high ponytails give them the appearance of wearing plumed helmets

The quivers are a lot less decorated than the official versions, but are still Elven in nature

This lot are the second rank of the Heart of Isha, so have their spears braced to receive a charge, rather than their bows out to shoot (like the third and, eventually, fourth ranks do)

But all these Maiden Guard lack magic bows, so it's time for some skirmishing scouts:

In comparison to the official Games Workshop plastics, these 3D printed Sisters of Avelorn stand-ins are positively restrained in terms of detail

That said, I do love the ithilmar corselets and the ruby brooches that fasten their green cloaks 

One day I will take a good photo with the correct lighting; today is not that day

Those swords are not just for decoration! They can use them reasonably well... but the bows are the main damage dealer, with their 30" range and reducing armour saves by 1 on a 6 to wound

 All together then the 13 "Maiden Guard" that I've finished today look like this:

I'm really pleased with how they've turned out - they're not the most carefully detailed models I've ever painted, but I am enjoying painting them (in batches smaller than 27) and I'm very much looking forwards to the next round of the Escalation League and seeing what nonsense other people bring in 750 points

With these done, tomorrow's job is making movement trays, and then from Monday on I'll be painting those commissioned board game pieces from last year. Oops. Luckily the commissioner is both understanding and not bothered by the delay; but I do feel very guilty about it all!

Painting Points:
Today: 13
This Week: 13
2026: 40

Gold And Gems

I did a chunk of work while playing Dungeons and Dragons tonight, and managed to get the Maiden Guard to a point where they're almost done. I need to highlight the skin, do the details on the rubies, touch them up, and base them. The Battle Standard Bearer needs a bit more doing - mostly the actual design on the banner needs to be freehanded on, but I also want to do a bit more highlighting on the gold on her as well.

They're rapidly approaching the "finished" point, but I will need to fill those holes in the bases...

 Once I get this lot done, it's off to the spaceship commission, and then possibly time to go back to some more, uh, Maiden Guard for the next 250 points, which is made up of, um, 10 more Maiden Guard. I have a feeling I'll be painting these figures for a good chunk of this year!

 

A Standard Fit For A Queen

No post yesterday, but I did do a little bit of hobbying - I constructed the standard for my Maiden Guard Battle Standard Bearer! Initially I was planning on getting P to sculpt me a standard top in Blender that I could 3D print and put on top of the 1mm thick bit of wire that I was going to use for the standard pole, but then I thought I'd probably have something suitable in the ol' bits box(es). After a good ten or fifteen minutes' of rummaging, I actually found a bunch of High Elf plastic sprues with banner parts on! After chucking those together with some judicious cutting, drilling, and gluing, I ended up with...

The crossbar and flag is from the High Elf Spearmen set (I think); the speartip is from the High Elf Noble and Battle Standard Bearer kit's lance, the heart with fancy rays coming off it is from the Silver Helms kit 

You can see the pieces a little (emphasis on little, this is a terrible photo) more clearly here

Today I spent some time bringing her up to the same standard as the rest of the Maiden Guard on the painting table, and blocked out the base colours for the design of the flag, as well:

The standard is going to be an interesting bit of freehand

The actual design is taken straight from the section on Avelorn in the old Games Workshop publication Heraldry of the High Elves, as seen here:

Obviously in my version the image of Isha will have brown skin and sleek black hair, which may prove a minor issue in contrasting colours, but in for a penny in for a pound and all that

 In addition, I did some more work on the Maiden Guard in general, blocking out their skin and highlight all the leather, as well as undercoating all the red areas on them too.

After I finish these, the next 250 points for this army will be made up of... 10 more Maiden Guard!

So, quite a productive couple of days, really. And, on top of all that work, I spent some time after work tonight creating the Mordheim Gazetteer, which I will use to chronicle the Llangefni United Nerds And Roleplayers Club's Mordheim campaign. It's starting in earnest next week, and it'd be fun to get some more eyes on it other than just the club. Check it out!

The Elves March To War

Tonight I popped along to the Llangefni Wargamers for the first of the Escalation League games. I ended up playing M's Dwarfs, who had brought a cannon! I needn't have worried, though...

We played the Battle March scenario Close Encounters, with our deployment zones being opposite quarters of the board with a 15" diameter no man's land in the middle. The mission was simple - Kill! We didn't bother with objectives because we both forgot that they existed, but given the Dawi and the Asur don't get on it makes sense that they were foregoing anything useful in preference to getting vengeance for ancient grudges / teaching those smelly Dwarfs how to fight.

M brought:

Dwarf Thane with Gromril armour, shield, hand weapon, and two rune stones
10 Warriors with heavy armour, shields, hand weapons, and full command
10 Warriors with heavy armour, shields, hand weapons, and full command
5 Thunderers with heavy armour and full command
5 Thunderers with heavy armour
1 Cannon (!)

I had:

Commander Aeilliniarie, with shield, hand weapon, Bow of Avelorn, Armour of Caledor, and the Sea Guard honour
9 Lothern Sea Guard, the Tears of Isha, with light armour, shields, hand weapons, spears, warbows, and full command
10 Lothern Sea Guard, the Heart of Isha, with light armour, shields, hand weapons, spears, warbows, and full command
7 Sisters of Avelorn, the Eyes of Isha, with light armour, hand weapons, Bows of Avelorn, and a High Sister

Deployment. I won the roll-off to pick deployment quarter, and I picked the one with the usable hill that would also deny M's cannon a hill too. The Tears of Isha deployed in a single line in front of the hill, while the Heart of Isha set up on the hill to fire in two ranks. The Eyes of Isha deployed ready to move into the woods nearby

Elf deployment from the Dwarf point of view - the Elves are set up defensively, baiting the slower Dwarfs forwards

Dwarf deployment from the Elf point of view - the Dwarfs are set up to swing a unit of Warriors through the village to flank the Maiden Guard, while the Thane and the rest of the Warriors, supported by the Thunderers and fire from the cannon, advance into the teeth of the Elf bowfire

Turn 1, Elves: I won the roll-off and elected to go first. The Tears of Isha moved up to close the range, while the Eyes of Isha marched into the woods, ready to threaten the Dwarf flank. Only the Tears of Isha and the Commander could get any shooting off as the Heart and Eyes had either marched or were out of range. One Thunderer fell, pierced by a red-fletched arrow - first blood to the Maiden Guard!

Turn 1, Dwarfs: The Thunderers on the right of the Thane moved to threaten the Eyes of Isha, while everyone else moved up. The Eyes were, by happy accident, now within 8" of the Dawi, so M's Thane and Warriors could only move, not march. The cannon fired at the Tears of Isha but Misfired and damaged itself, killing one of the crew and preventing it shooting next turn. The Thunderers were entirely ineffective as, having moved (-2 to hit), and firing at skirmishers (-1 to hit) in cover (-1 to hit), they had gone from hitting on 4s to 8s, while the unit by the watchtower managed to land a hit on one of the Heart of Isha... which promptly failed to wound

Turn 2, Elves: The whole force stood still and fired their bows; the Eyes of Isha killed two more Thunderers while the Tears picked off another from M's unit on the left by the watchtower. The Heart missed due to the range

Turn 2, Dwarfs: The Thane's Warriors moved up again, while the other Warrior unit marched through the village street. The Thunderers facing off against the Eyes of Isha fired another volley, but - although they had less of a penalty to hit - continued to be ineffective. The other Thunderer unit also had a go, but the range and cover prevented them from hitting or wounding

Turn 3, Elves: The Eyes of Isha moved out of the woods to try to eliminate the Thunderers, and then hopefully to loop round to deal with the cannon or perhaps get some rear charges in. Their shooting, however, only resulted in one dead Dwarf, leaving a very angry unit champion! Meanwhile between the Tears of Isha, the Commander, and the Heart of Isha, a Dwarf Warrior was killed, and the Thane promptly took their place

Turn 3, Dwarfs: The angry Thunderer champion charged the Eyes of Isha, while the Thane's Warriors, no longer concerned about the Sisters of Avelorn on their flank, marched towards the Tears of Isha. The Warriors in the village, however, within 8" of the Tears, could only move more slowly, working their way around the flank. The cannon got off a shot, but the ball bounced over the Tearsand impacted harmlessly at the foot of the hill, below the Heart of Isha. Again, the Thunderers by the watchtower let off a volley at the Heart of Isha, but either failed to hit, or to cause any wounds. In combat, the Dwarf champion withstood the Elves' flashing Ithilmar blades and in return killed a Sister of Avelorn, pushing the unit backwards

Turn 4, Elves: With the Eyes of Isha locked in combat, there was nothing for it but to loose more arrows. Both the Tears of Isha and the Commander fired into the Thane's Warrior unit, killing... one Warrior. T4 is not to be sniffed at! On the other hand, the Heart of Isha, firing into the Warriors in the village, felled two doughty Dawi. Both Warrior units were now down to just 8 Dwarfs each. The combat between the Eyes of Isha and the Thunderer champion ground on, neither side able to land a telling blow

Turn 4, Dwarfs: The Thane and his warriors charged the Tears of Isha, who stood and shot before reforming into a fighting unit. The Warriors in the village wheeled around the corner, continuing their slow advance. The cannon finally landed a hit, the round ball smashing into one of the Heart of Isha, who fell in a tangle of broken limbs. Inspired by this effort, the Thunderers fired again, and again missed or failed to wound any of the Maiden Guard on the hill. Combat saw the brave Thunderer cut down and the Eyes of Isha making an overrun move that brought them nicely close to the cannon, and the challenge that rang out from Commander Aeilliniarie to her short and bearded opposite number was answered in kind. Ithilmar blade rang against Gromril steel and the Dwarf was bloodied but unbowed - and while the Thane was busy, his Warriors hacked down a Maiden Guard. However the Elves were unmoved, and the combat was drawn...

Turn 5, Elves: Again there was little movement initially. The Eyes of Isha fired their magical bows into the cannon, killing the remaining crew. The Heart of Isha fired again into the Warriors that threatened their flank, killing another. And then, in combat, Aeilliniarie slew her counterpart (M rolled a 1 to save the single wound, which could be re-rolled thanks to the Gromril armour. He promptly rolled a... 1. Of course.) and the rest of the Tears of Isha killed two more Warriors. Beaten, the Dwarfs Fell Back In Good Order 8", and the Maiden Guard pursued... 7". Curses!

Turn 5, Dwarfs: The Warriors charged back into the Tears of Isha, who were too close to Stand and Shoot, while the Thunderers by the watchtower moved to bring the Eyes of Isha into their sights. Over by the village, the second Warrior unit marched forwards towards the Heart of Isha. The Thunderers' shooting was again ineffective - the -3 to hit meant they needed 7s, which they just couldn't achieve. The Warriors tried their best against the Maiden Guard and the Commander, but neither side could land a wounding blow, and the combat continued 

Turn 6, Elves: The Eyes of Isha moved to flank the Thunderers, while the Heart of Isha swung round on the hill to face the looming Dwarf Warriors and their axes. The Sisters of Avelorn fired on the Thunderers and slew one, while the Heart of Isha's bowfire was ineffective - either the arrows failed to wound, or the Warriors' thick armour and shields stopped the deadly rain

Turn 6, Dwarfs, END GAME: The Warriors charged up the hill into the Heart of Isha, whose bowfire as they came felled two more, leaving just five Dwarfs to slam their bodies and axes into the Elves as they reached them. The Thunderers, too, charged the Eyes of Isha, who killed one as they came. In combat, the Thunderers and Eyes of Isha hacked and slashed at each other, with the Dwarfs slaying one more Elf but being unable to break or even drive back the Sisters. The Warriors fighting the Tears of Isha, on the other hand, were soundly defeated and the unit rushed forwards, filled with victory, straining to reach their fellows and trap the Thunderers between them. On the hill, both sides slew one apiece, a bloody draw ending the fighting. The Dwarf survivors broke off and withdrew to lick their wounds...

After six turns of hard-fought combat, the result was as follows:

High Elves: 415VP for units destroyed or brought below 25% strength, 50VP for killing the Dwarf Thane, and another 25VP for capturing the banner of the Warriors in combat, for a total of 490 VP.

Dwarfs: 0VP (sorry M! You didn't deserve that - you fought well and had a good plan; the dice were not in your favour!)

A Crushing Victory to the Maiden Guard on their first outing, which is auspicious. We're using the Path to Glory rules from the Razing of Westerland Arcane Journal, and my various units all racked up enough XP to roll on the Veteran Abilities and Seasoned Commander tables. They all got +1LD, which is fine I guess but I did really want something else. I guess I'll have to save up for that.

No painting today, but that game was really enjoyable. M is a fine opponent and I look forwards to playing him again in future.