Empire update and a Black Templar

The battles in the Badlands campaign have been ramping up. I really need to post some battle reports of them, which I shall do shortly.

 

In the meantime, I have been plugging away at some small hobby.

 

A friend printed some pavises which I really wanted to use for my crossbowmen. I thought they would be very cool. I did some research of some medieval ones and picked a design I liked. I wasn't too confident with the freehand, but I did source some Holy Roman Empire transfer that looked like they fit the job. Finally finished them today!

 

 

Very pleased with how they turned out.

 I also finished the Empire special character on foot, von Lowenhacke. An absolute beast of  model. 

 

Great model, though I did lose a part of the helmet, but I don't feel it is too obvious. 

Lastly, I completed another Templar, just for a bit of fun. 

I think my next updates will be posting the battles from the Badlands campaign we are in the midst of.

Thanks for looking. 
 

Emperor Karl Franz

Finished another model for my Empire, the old (but not old old) Karl Franz on Deathclaw, circa Storm of Chaos 6th Edition days.

I've had this model since then. I remember I was playing High Elves with the Sea Guard list and also Empire. I received this model as birthday present from two very good friends at the time, so I am very glad to finally get it done after all this time!

 

I am very happy with how it turned out. The banner that he originally had in 4th Edition, I could not find anywhere, same with the 6th edition banner. In the end I went with a very old 3rd edition banner from a white dwarf that first published the Empire army, just before 4th edition came out. I quite like it!

I am also happy to say that in the latest Badlands Campaign game, he made his debut, and not only didn't perish straight away, but took out a stegadon and a bastilodon. So he was definitely man of the match (and mainly griffon too).

I am thinking next I might work on some Empire ogres, but we shall see.

Thanks for looking!

More Empire reinforcements

The energy remains high for the Empire.

 After a great first game with them on the weekend in the Badlands campaign, I painted this unit up.

 A unit of Demi gryph knights of the white wolf.

 I used some old metal models I had, though the standard bearer was a conversion, as his original hammer was long gone. So I drilled it carefully and put an old lead Empire banner in there, which seems to work well with the pose.

 Anyways, thanks for looking.

 

 

Badlands Ogres

I decided to paint something very different, and perhaps make use of some very old ogres I have had in the lead pile for a long time. Plus it would be handy to have some tougher units and make use of the mercenaries rule in TOW.

Great models, and I was happy with how the banner came out. Though I do need some darker reds to give it some depth.

I did play another game of TOW for our Badlands campaign a few nights ago. Great fun and pleased with how the dragon went. I think I may need to paint that next.

Thanks for looking!

Swordmasters

After my recent game of TOW, I decided to paint up some very old Swordmasters. Just because really.

Very characterful scuplts. I decided to go for the classic scheme for these. I do want my High Elf army to be from all the kingdoms.

10 all done. Not sure what to work on next. Tempted to do some old school ogres as allies for my beleaguered High Elf forces in the badlands. Not sure.

Anyways, thanks for looking. 

Prince Iltharis of Lothern

I still have been plugging away at my High Elves for the Badlands campaign. We have done two turns so far, and I have not done so well with the Elves. Hoping that my luck might be better in the next turn.

That said, I did finish another general for one of my three armies with a bit of background.

Prince Iltharis of Lothern

An experienced seafarer, he is more at home on the deck of a ship than with the fops at court. A master swordsmen who with his ships company, The Storm Riders, have a reputation for ruthless boarding actions against their dark kin. One such foray rendered Iltharis blind at the hands of the Druchii, however his loss of sight has not dulled his expert navigation skills, or his skills with his blade, 'Blood Prow', which cuts through his foes like the bow of a ship, and leaves behind a wake of death.

I also remembered to take some photos of the game against the Beastmen, so will write something up soonish.

Thanks for looking, Cheers!

Tiranoc chariot

Got super productive and assembled, primed and painted an old 5th edition era High Elf Chariot, very rare to have such a quick turnaround!

I was really dreading painting this one, as I remember painting High Elf chariots in my old army, and I remember them being quite a pain and labour intensive.That said, this one was a breeze to paint, and it was nice to focus on another elven kingdom while painting on it. As it was Tiranoc, I went with the yellow as the Kingdom colour, and painting it reminds me of summer and the beach. Great vibes!

Anyways, here is the journey.

Great model.

Next up is more High Elves. Unsure what though, though I am tempted to paint either more Sisters of Avelorn, Silver Helms or another chariot.

Thanks for looking!

Sisters of Avelorn - High Elf update for The Old World

Finished this unit! Very pleased with how they turned out. They along with the Handmaiden, some Silverhelms and a chariot make my initial 500 pts for the Badlands campaign.

I do have two more boxes to assemble of these sisters, though unsure if I will be working on them until after my initial 1000 points is done. We shall see. 

I am working on some army markers for the campaign, and having the fellas around on Friday for our first game turns. I am very excited, though I am unsure if i will get my final model done before then.

Anyways, thanks for looking!

Alithair - Handmaiden of the Everqueen

 Total War Warhammer 2 really sucked me back into collecting and painting High Elves. Great campaign, amazing music score and seeing all those blue bolts from the sisters of Avelorn hit into enemy ranks and delete them was a thing of beauty.

So with the start of this new Blood in the Badlands Campaign, I decided to go for the Asur, and naturally had to start with a Handmaiden of the Everqueen.

I have has this model for a long time, so it was good to put some paint on it. It did require some fixing and bending as it is a finecast model, but I think it turned out alright.

She led a contingent of Sisters in their first 500 point game on Monday. I was mightily impressed by the sisters, whereas the 19 Swordmasters charged, hit like a wet fish, broke on a double 6 and got ran down. The sisters though, got charged, killed more than the Swordmasters and ran them off. So needless to say, they are on the painting table. 

To be a bit cheeky and build the narrative, I sent this poem to the Skaven player that destroyed my High Elves.

Beneath the silvered moon I tread,
A vengeance burning deep, unsaid.
My bow is taut, my arrow sharp,
I seek the mark where shadows harp.

Long years have passed, yet still I feel
The wound that time cannot conceal.
The trees have whispered of your sin,
And now the hunt begins again.

You, who mocked my sacred grace,
You, who left me in disgrace,
With every breath, I track your lies,
And in the end, your soul shall die.

The forest trembles with my rage,
Its whispers turning to a cage.
For vengeance calls, as swift as light,
And all shall burn beneath its bite.

The stars above shall witness this,
The moment when your heart does miss.
For I, the last of ancient kin,
Shall take the blood that’s mine to win.

No mercy shall my hand bestow,
As shadows fall, and winds do blow.
The years may pass, but fate shall find,
That vengeance is a mark, well-kind.

And when your ashes kiss the earth,
I’ll stand, at last, in solemn mirth—
For in this world, so torn and vast,
It is revenge that holds me fast.

- Alithair, Handmaiden of the Everqueen

Thanks for looking!

Siege!

Last weekend my friends and I got round to playing the end of season game for our Blood in the Badlands Campaign. The game originally had a few boards being played on at the same time, however due to on player not being able to make it, we only played on one board. So it was a siege game of 2400pts. My Dwarfs were up against 1200pts of Night Goblins and 1200pts of Lizardmen. What follows are some pics and comments from the game. I do hope I remembered it right!

 The siege is set. The objectives are all at this end of the castle, so I put all my Dwarfs and siege engines there. My artillery claimed the hill to fire on the castle. I made sure they were out of bow range as well.

 The amount of magic I was going up against. I'm sure there were some kniving plans being made.

 The Dwarf army arrayed for battle. I took a siege tower to bypass the fortifications and a siege ram to have a go at the gate section. Then there is 30 Warriors with Great Weapons on the far left, 32 Iron Breakers with Grimwald and bsb in the middle, and finally 30 Lond beards with Great Weapons in the siege tower.

 The Dwarf artillery consisted of 2 cannons, 2 grudge throwers and 2 bolt throwers. Their objective was to get more dice for the pre game artillery turns and then attack the enemy warmachines.

 Lizardmen Temple Guard at the gate surrounded by warmachines and saurus warriors to the left. At this stage I didn't know how tough saurus would be in a siege. A little spoiler, they are tough.

 Dwarf 1st turn sees two charges get off, my warriors rolled very low, and just sauntered a few inches.

 Combat saw my Iron Breakers bounce off the temple guard and the long beards bounce off the tower due to a lucky steadfast roll.

 Enemy turn sees them move a few units around the battlements, and the others at the other end of the caste, suffle along.

 Dwarf turn 2 sees more assaults going against the walls. All my units bounce off, though the far left tower is ready to fall to my 30 Warriors next turn. The Iron Breakers just do poorly against the Temple Guard again. Not enough strength to get the wounds through.

 Artillery on the other hand do very well. The cannons got removed in the pre battle phase, but since I didn't rune up any war machines, I just went for quantity. The grudge throwers by turn 2 have effectively wiped out the enemy war machines.

 Enemy turn 2 sees more shuffling along.

 At this stage it looks quite good for the Dwarfs, still lots of models. I'm sure nothing could ruin this...

 Here you see my forces at the end of the turn 2 magic phasse. They got 1 spell off, a Curse of the Badmoon with Irresistable force. I effectively lost 1/3 of my army. The warriors took the brunt of it losing 23 models.

 My turn 3 I try and see if there is any point in continuing. Close combat sees the remains of the warriors claim the tower (at last). Whereas everything else fails to do anything significant.

And that is where I called it, 3 turns in. Undone by 1 spell in a magic phase! Ah well, it was great to see the castle in action and have a siege game. It has been a very long time since we have had any games like this so I'm sure I've done things wrong. In the game I thought that those in the castle have stubborn or steadfast, which made shifting them very hard. I also think in hindsight that the Iron Breakers just were not strong enough to do any damage, perhaps Hammerers would have been better? Still, some things worked really well, such as the vast artillery which does a lot of damage on those walls. The siege tower as well proved a worthy investment, though perhaps next time I'll put another unit in there.

Still that wraps up the Spring campaign for now. We might get another campaign turn in before the ned of the year, but we shall see. Still it was a very cool and characterful game. One of these campaign games has to be a win for the forces of order? Surely!

Well better get cracking on painting.

Cheers.

Blood in the Badlands Campaign map painted!

Just like the title says, my friend Cail was very productive and managed to finish off the campaign map. Not only that he has also painted up some flags, so no more jellybeans for map counters (just eating!). I think you will agree he has done an amazing job. I especially like the river effects he used for the rivers. This map follows closely with the battlebaords I have been painting up as well. Guess I better get cracking!

Enjoy!