Painting Step-By-Step: WHFB Nurgle Champion

So, in an effort to stave off building a new Ogre Kingdoms army (good lord their new monsters look cool!), I've been trying to knock out some older WHFB projects- namely my Chaos army. I originally built the force when I worked at GW, quite literally because I was left alone in the store too long. When you get that good of a discount, it becomes remarkably easy to talk yourself into things, and the next thing I knew, I was playing a 2000 point game the next night. Flash forward a couple of years, and I have a strangely configured force that's only half painted. I've been playing some games, and getting some painting done of late, and along comes the new plastic Nurgle hero. I've been a huge fan of the new single-sprue plastic figs that GW has been putting out of late, they use the material very nicely, and are really nicely thought out- if this is what is eventually going to replace Finecast as the replacement for metal figs, sign me up. It also just so happens that our local GW shop is starting up a cyclical paint competition- everyone paints the same model, winner is decided by votes by store visitors, and the winner chooses the next figure. A paint competition? With a figure I wanted anyway? Sounds good to me. I haven't really done this kind of step-by-step since I was logging my painting on Warseer, so I figured it'd be fun to do again.

STEP 1: Basecoats - 90 min.

On a figure like this, I find it helps to get solid colors in first- while it's not anywhere near as absurd as some of the Privateer figs where you really can't tell what some of the greeblies are, there's a couple of things that are easy to miss, like the strap on the back of his helmet. If I'd started working the flesh without noticing it, I'm not sure I would have even bothered fixing it. This part is easy- Tallarn Flesh for skin, Gretchin Green for cloth, Boltgun Metal for all the armor and the axe blade, Khemri Brown for the horns and the axe haft, Calthan Brown for the straps, and a little bit of Tin Bitz for the three little circles on his chainmail tabard. Neatness is key here, as anything that needs to be corrected after the next step will be kind of a pain.

STEP 2: The Easy Bit (Allegedly) - 35 min.

My Chaos army is unified more in technique than actual color. All of the Warriors start out with silver armor, which then gets sprayed with a wash of their god's chosen color, along with matching capes. The nice part about spraying the washes is that if everything goes according to plan, it behaves more like a glaze than a proper wash- you get a nice smooth coat over the metallic paint beneath. This time, it was slightly less according to plan. Turns out I forgot to clean out my spraygun from the last regiment (Baal Red wash for Khorne warriors). (PROTIP: Don't do that.) Once I got it cleaned up, I got to rejigger my jerry-rigged hose connector, as the GW spraygun hose doesn't seem to match anything else I have, and then get the thing spraying properly. After a half hour of cleaning and fiddling, this step took about a minute and a half, plus a couple of minutes later wicking away some excess wash with a brush to help ensure a smooth finish. The all-over coat also serves the same role as a blackline, helping define transitions between materials without being too stark, and also tones the figure into the green spectrum a bit on all the colors.

STEP 3: Axe I, Horns I, Flesh I - 30 min.

The axe is corroded, but unlike the armor, I want it to be mostly silver, so I re-coated it in Boltgun Metal, leaving the green wash in the pitting. The horns get a coat of Khemri Brown, leaving a bit of the washed brown visible at the base, and between the ridges on the shoulder spikes. The haft of his axe also got some Khemri Brown, mostly a very light edge highlight, as I want to keep that a bit darker. His chainmail also got a quick overbrush of Boltgun, to make it contrast with his green platemail. The flesh gets a coat of Tallarn Flesh, leaving the greenish color visible at the edges and in the rolls of fat. Looking at him again, I actually kind of wish that I'd used Dwarf Flesh here- it's a little ruddier and more translucent, but Tallarn covers ever so much better that Dwarf Flesh has largely fallen out of my arsenal.

Step 4: Gore I, Flesh II - 40 min.

Green wash looks pretty excellent as a shading tone for red- color theory wins again. With that in mind, I want to keep the highlights on the exposed gore crisp and smooth, so that the green shade shows through, and so that they will look good covered in gloss at the end of the process. They got a second coat of Mechrite Red, making sure to look carefully at the holes in the skin to see the texture beneath- not all of them are flat, a couple have secondary indentations, which were left the darker tone. The skin got a layer of Elf Flesh. OMFG do I hate Elf Flesh. It's lightly pigmented, but for some reason seems to be prone to thickening weirdly- if you're getting Cakey-Face when you're painting skin, you're probably using this color. Unfortunately, it's one of the better light skintones out there, even with the weird 90's GW orangey tone. (I will admit here that I forgot about the P3 skintones- I don't think I've used their lighter one. Rackham's old elf skintone is almost white, much too light for this step.) This step covered even less than the second coat of Tallarn Flesh, for a basic layering technique. I attempted to make the transparency of the color work for me, but it's not very consistent. Here I blame one of my many bad painting habits- do as I say, not as I do, and use a palette. Getting used to pot-painting just screws you up later.

STEP 5: Horns III, Flesh touch-up - 30 min.

Most of this step was fixing my lousy painting in the last step. Working slower, with thinner paint, I went over most of the Elf Flesh again, trying to even out the tone. Painting at 12:30PM instead of 2AM helps with this. The horns got a coat of Dheneb Stone, again leaving the darker tones between the ribbing at the base.

STEP 6: Armor I, Gore II- 20 min.

The armor gets a very soft drybrush of Chainmail, to bring out the edges. This is actually my one complaint about the figure- the edges on the leg armor, particularly the knees, is a little soft, with the delineation almost completely disappearing on the outside of the knees. The exposed guts got a highlight of Red Gore, again trying to increase the dimensional effect of the holes.

STEP 7: Armor II, Flesh decomposition, Cloth- 30 min.

The armor gets another soft drybrush of Mithril Silver, concentrated on the hard edges and places that are visually important- the fly on his bracer, and the "face" of the helm. The wounds are outlined with Rotting Flesh, increasing the contrast between the skin and the wounds, and also making the flesh look unhealthy. All of the various sores and pustules are also dotted with Rotting Flesh. Another highlight on the wounds and intestines, mostly focused on the intestines, with Blood Red. The cloth on the tabard is highlighted with Gretchin Green, using the darker green-washed portions as a nice sharp shadow between the folds.

STEP 8: Axe II -5 min.

To further sharpen the contrast with the corroded portions, the blade gets a coating of Chainmail, and then a sponging of Mithril Silver along the sharp edge to make it look sharp, but not perfectly maintained.

STEP 9: Axe III, Armor III -5 min.

On the back half of the blade, it gets a sponging of Tin Bitz, followed by another of Blazing Orange, to get some more traditional weathering. This also gives a second bright point at waist height- the hands on the figure aren't really the visual focus like they'd normally be, in this case, the eye is drawn more to the bright red of the exposed gut, with the bright orange rust drawing the eye across the figure. This is probably also why the Studio version of the fig has a silver helm instead of a green one- it provides another point to draw the eye, since the figure has no face or real eyes for the viewer to be drawn to, and the head is so tiny compared to the rest of him.

With the drybrushing on the armor, it has depth, but it is not green enough anymore. A light glaze of Thraka Green tones it back to green without taking away that highlight. I specifically went light over the eyeholes on the helm, in an attempt to brighten the "face" of the figure to help keep it visually interesting. The skulls also got a quick coat of Bleached Bone to brighten them back up.

STEP 10: Details

Frankly, if this fig was just going into my army, I would probably have stopped after the last step. The painting is solid, the colors look good, and it fits the aesthetic of the rest of the force. For a competition, however, especially one judged by passersby, there needs to be a little more flash in the scheme. I picked out the fly on the bracer in a corroded brass, and stippled some Tin Bitz and Chainmail onto the axe blade to tone down the orange a little bit. I also added some bright green glow in the helmet with Scorpion Green, while re-highlighting around the holes with Mithril Silver. A little bit of paint on the base and gloss on the goopy bits, and I'm done.

So, including meals, writing the blogpost, and a few periods of doing more TV watching than painting, I figure I spent about 8-10 hours staring at this little fat dude. Frankly, I'm still not sure I'm happy with it, but I've pretty clearly moved into the stage where additional tinkering might do more harm than good, so I'm going to wrap it up, and look at it again in a day or so- I have until Saturday before it has to be done for sure. If I were going to do another one of these, I might rethink the skintone- while the ruddier healthy skin tone is easier to paint, and provides a nice contrast, it might be more fun to play around with a more necrotic tone, or a bruised, purplish tone like the studio model. It's been a while since I did a marathon session like this, much less for a single model, it's a nice change of pace from painting full units.

The Loathsome Ratmen

So, anyone that knows me reasonably well knows that I have Somewhat Peculiar taste in animals. I've got zero interest in owning a dog, and the bird in the house doesn't like me. What I do like, however, is rats:

(This is Marcy, my rat. She is, alas, no more.)

Given that preference, it's really a wonder that Skaven were my 4th WHFB army (not counting a few smaller projects). I find it really interesting that they're in the current starter set- I would not call them a beginner's army in any sense. With huge numbers of models, highly unpredictable (if high-powered) units, and wildly unstable leadership, they have incredible potential for both victory and frustration. But hey, if it means I can get models cheaply from players buying Island of Blood for the High Elves (Thanks Emily!), it works for me.

I built and painted my Skaven force in the waning days of 7th edition, with the last edition of the Skaven army book. The Skryre Army of Doom was the strongest build, but I couldn't resist a horde of Clanrats and Slaves, marching along with the Screaming Bell. With the old Mainstay rule, my force was built in chunks based on the Clanrat units- 25 Clanrats, 20 Slaves, 20 Plague Monks, wash and repeat.

The update to the Skaven book changed that quite a bit. For one, the Screaming Bell changed size dramatically, making my Stormvermin unit suddenly rather the wrong size, and the power level of the weapon teams swung drastically away from the Ratling Gun (the obvious choice previously). Clearly something had to be done, but I let the army sit for a bit, as I was working hard on getting my Dwarfs to a relatively finished state.

Enter 8th Edition. With so many advantages to large units of infantry, the Clanrats started to look better and better, and my old list with it's 25-rat blocks started looking just a little bit inadequate. After getting my hands on the Skaven from the Island of Blood, I finally had the motivation to look through my collection and figure out how the force would work.

First to go was the relatively tiny Clanrat units. With plenty of spare models in the bitz box, it was a simple matter to combine them into a 50-strong unit with spears. Running in 10-wide Horde formation, the first four ranks get to fight, and dropping a Warlord in the unit gets them to Leadership 10 with room to take a few casualties without losing effectiveness. The two smaller units of Clanrats get a role protecting the flanks of the big monster unit.

The Plague Monks didn't have a whole lot to change- the new army book gives them two hand weapons by default, which is what I had built mine with, it was just a matter of adding more models to the unit. 25 should be enough, at least until I build a Plague Furnace.

The Skavenslaves get no help. Nay, they DESERVE no help! Intended as a discount speedbump, I don't know how to improve on 20 models for 40 points, except by churning out a couple more units of the poor guys. Nothing like getting them into combat in order to hold a target in place for shooting. Life is cheap, especially at 2 points per model.

The Stormvermin are a bit of a conundrum. I need to get my hands on some more of the old models- 19 just isn't enough to hack it, and the new figures, while beautiful, don't match up well visually. I have re-based my Screaming Bell, but without the Stormvermin to push it, I think I'm going to stick with a Warlord as my general for a little while.

Ah, the Weird Stuff, the reason to play the Skaven in the first place. Island of Blood comes with some killer Rat Ogres, not to mention the only available model for the Plague Mortar. I also have a stack of Poison Wind Globardiers and Plague Censer Bearers from the Warhammer 25th Anniversary box. The right mix of weird stuff, of course, can define the character of the army. At the moment, I'm leaning towards a Warpfire Thrower with the big unit, though I am seriously considering picking up a Doom Flayer for maximum smashiness. The other units are currently getting Ratling Guns still, since I have them around, but I will likely be switching them out for Warpfire Throwers. The Warp Lightning Cannon is less overtly bizarre than it used to be, but it still certainly merits a spot in the list.

A horde gets nowhere without someone to lead it, even someone as conniving and cowardly as a Skaven general. The Skaven line was hurting for cool looking characters when I got started, but the Island of Blood solved that problem rather nicely with a fantastic looking warlord. My old Warlord model will now be doing BSB duty, and with Ikit Klaw back in the army list, I'll be using a regular Engineer for my pistol-shootin', lightning zappin' duties.

Overall, I think the new army book is a vast improvement, and with a couple of players spinning up WHFB armies right now, it's a good time for me to stop resting on my Dwarfy laurels and get to painting again. The original Clanrats and slaves are some of the most effective and easiest models I've painted- once I fire up the spraygun, I'll take some step-by-step shots.

Army Update: Dwarfs

So, one of the first posts I made here, about a year and a half ago, was about getting my Dwarfs ready for a small tournament. Since then, I've done a lot of terrain posts, a few battle reports, had about three posts with no content at all, and used Valten in more photos than he's really worth. So I figured I'd revisit the Dwarfs, since the launch of 8th edition spurred on quite a bit of painting.

The first time the Dwarfs appeared on the site, they looked like this:

Now, that was hardly all I owned at the time (I had a couple thousand points back then, too!), but that was about all that I had done, apart from a Grudge Thrower and a couple of heroes. Here's what the force looks like now:

It's a little harder to get the whole thing in a decent picture now... Time to pull out a few highlights, I think.

The core of any Dwarf army build of mine is the war machines. Depending on the role they're called upon to perform, there's nearly always a combination of weapons and runes to get the job done in an impressively explosive manner.

The Grudge Thrower dates back to the Hobbytown days, before I even had a Dwarf army, and the Cannon from my first post on the Dwarfs is joined by another. Relatively new to the party are the Organ Gun, and the Bolt Thrower. There's some interesting stuff going on with the paint schemes, since there's about a five year window between when the Grudge Thrower was painted, and finishing the Bolt Thrower. The Grudge Thrower is very bright and shiny, going way back to my older painting, though the crew has some detail from my first flirtations with strong use of inks. The Cannons and Bolt Thrower are much more modern in terms of my paint style, with heavy use of washes and a more utilitarian look. The Organ Gun occupies a funny middle ground- while it's painted using the same techniques as the other newer guns, it's painted with the bright, bluish silver tones that I used on my Ironbreakers. More on them later.


With the change in the army construction rules in 8th Edition, there is more of a focus on Core units than ever. (Gee, maybe that's why they call them that? I should ask about that...) Points-based requirements mean that a lot of my army lists are fielding more Core than I'm used to, and that means that I had to expand my basic unit selection. Not a lot, mind you, as Dwarfs are still pretty pricey models. The half-finished Warriors from the first post are still the first choice, though now they look a bit better.

Backing them up are two units of Thunderers. Shooting unit choice in the Dwarf book is interesting- everything is Move or Fire, and the Quarrelers trade off a +1 to hit for 6" of extra range. I have never managed to get them to work for me, but they may get a second look now that the rules allow for shooters to fire in two ranks. In the meantime, the Thunderers have quite a few kills to their tally.

The final Core unit is the Longbeards. Modelled with Great Weapons and shields slung over their backs, they are one of the most expensive units in the army, but they repay it in versatility, striking power, and support for nearby units through the Old Grumblers rule. Built before the lovely metal Longbeards were rereleased, they're built from the Warrior kit, with metal facemasks and quite a bit more gold detailing to differentiate them (not to mention their much paler beards).


The Special units are really where the Dwarf army book comes into its own. Containing most of the war machines (with the exception of the Gyrocopter, Organ Gun, and Flame Cannon), it also has several of the most deadly (and coolest looking) Dwarf infantry units. In Ye Olde Days of 7th Edition, it was a careful balancing act to get all the different army roles filled, as there are several very different units in the Special section. Now that army construction is percentage based, with up to half of the total army points spent on Special units, there is much more room to expand and use a variety of different units in concert.

The Ironbreakers are probably my favorite Dwarf unit. While not always the highest performing on the table, the concept of Gromril-armored dwarfs that specialize in clearing infested tunnels is a pretty cool one. Here's hoping that in the next army book, the Dwarfs get something similar to the Vault Wardens from Lord of the Rings. The Ironbreakers were originally going to be painted in P3 Platinum in order to get a very different finish to their Gromril armor. After painting my Grey Knights, however, I ended up changing my mind, and going for the blued, polished steel look. It sets them apart from the rest of the force, without going too far off the mark.

Hammerers just might be the best unit in the Dwarf book. Damn near uncrackable when a Lord is joined to the unit, and brutally powerful in close combat, they know how to get the job done. Funnily enough, though, they're the most recent addition to my army. As older metal models, a full unit is damned expensive. Big ups to the Joes for a superlative birthday gift. They're painted in the same way as the Longbeards- similar colors to the Warriors, with extra gold trim, and a unique beard color for the Champion. I would like to go back and dress up the standard at some point, though- compared to the newer ancestor pole bitz in the plastic kits, it just looks a little dull.

You've already seen these guys, there's not a lot to say other than that no matter how many times they get shot full of arrows crossing the battlefield, they keep finding their way into my army lists. It's hard to say no to that kind of daft enthusiasm.

And finally, the leaders, the shouting gits that get the Dwarfs to run willy-nilly at much taller and angrier opponents (Except the Slayers, there's nobody as angry as they are). The bloke with the white beard and the grouchy look on his face is actually the model that made me want to start the army- released at the same time as the army book in the waning days of 6th Edition, I was unpacking an order at Hobbytown, pulled him out, and thought "Well @*&#, now I'm going to have to start a Dwarf army." There are very, very few models I've ever seen that get across the character of a race as effectively as he does. Joining him are the Lord on Oathstone, a model which I like quite a bit, but haven't been able to quite talk myself into using as my general, the Battle Standard Bearer, the Runesmith, the Skull Pass Dragon Slayer (who also occasionally does time as a Giant Slayer in the Slayer Regiment), and an Engineer. Previously, the Master Engineer was a foolish waste of a character slot, so he was just occasionally a regular Engineer serving with the Bolt Thrower crew. With the low cost of Dwarf Lords and the new rules, I've been tinkering more and more with running my Runesmith as a Runelord instead, and using the freed up points in the Heroes allotment for the Master Engineer. Now that heroes cannot join war machine units, his rules have changed, allowing him to hover in a cluster of war machines, choosing from turn to turn which of the machines he's going to aid. It's always fun to see a model get new use like that.

I really need to spend an afternoon getting static grass on all the new units, I keep putting that off. Next up in the queue is the Anvil of Doom, and I'd like to add another rank or two to the Ironbreakers. A Gyrocopter might be a good idea too, the flying machine and the Flame Cannon are the only Dwarf units I've never actually tried out. With the way the Dwarfs have been doing in 8th Edition so far, I'm seriously considering a unit or two of Warriors with Great Weapons, or using the special rules from the Lord to allow for a second unit of Longbeards. Somehow, no matter how many points get finished up, there always seems to be just a little more to add...

Army Building and 8th Edition WHFB

I have held the book in my hands. It is very big, and full color, and overall, pretty nifty.

With that out of the way, a look at the new (Old?) army composition in WHFB8. It's been a source of a lot of rumors, a lot of "OMG the sky is falling", and rather a bit of wringing of hands. I didn't get a long look at the book today, but I wanted to at least see precisely what the rules are on composition, so I can start to prepare my army for the new book.

It's pretty simple. >25% for Core, <25% each for Lords, Heroes, and Rares, <50% for Specials, and no more than 2 duplicate Rare units and 3 duplicate Special units.

For someone who cut their square-base teeth on WHFB5, this isn't terribly strange, but if you've only played 6th Edition and later, it's going to take a little bit of getting used to. So what's it mean for the game?

-Points are important, not unit counts. I think this may be one of the biggest (and best) changes for high-cost, elite Core units. No more cheapo filler units to take up the third core slot, if you have a couple of big smashy ranked units that add up to 500pts (in a 2k game), you're all set.

-The sky is not falling for heroes. This is important to note, especially as compared to many of the rumors. Lords get their own points allotment, with plenty of room to stretch their legs. Monstrous mounts are going to get relegated to the larger games, but it also means that Lords are available in ALL GAMES. Now stop, read that again, and make sure that you're not drinking anything while you do it. 1000 point game? You can have a 250 point Lord running your army. Granted, 250 points isn't going to get you a Chaos Lord with all the trimmings, but it does mean that in smaller games, armies with less smashy Lord choices will have a good shot at going toe to toe with some of the more punishing Hero choices, like in the Warriors of Chaos book.

-Unit spam is not completely gone. There was a lot of scuttlebutt going around about stiff penalties for running multiples of the same unit. It's just not true. The book clearly specifies that "2 for 1" choices still count as a single pick, and 3 of the same Special is still going to be quite a few of the same models. That said, the limit does reward running two larger units of a Rare slot, rather than running seven or eight tiny ones, so it does nip a few of the more ridiculous hypothetical builds from the rumor phase in the bud.

I sat down and wrote out a new Dwarf list over my lunch today, and it's actually legal in both editions of the rules. I suspect most people that were running relatively even-handed armies are going to be in a similar position. More Lord or Rare focused forces might be in for a little reorganization, but from what I've looked at for the rules for close combat, I suspect that most of those armies are going to be wanting to take a few more skeletons/warriors/spearmen anyway. I don't envy the guys that have to rewrite the validation rules for Army Builder, but on the whole, I think it's a strong step towards rebalancing things for the better.

Game vs. Tomb Kings, 6-27-09

Ah, the delay when one has Flickr sets to sort... Or, y'know, is lazy.
Anyway, I played a number of games in preparation for a tourney at the Chicago Battle Bunker this past Monday. This particular one was against John (not of Plastic Legions, though he's a good guy too!) and his Tomb Kings. Those that play against me in WHFB on a regular basis know a basic truism- I *%#$ing HATE the Undead. So any chance to give them a kicking is a good time, though given my record against them, maybe not...



Here's my standard "castle" deployment. Warmachines on the hill, Thunderers on the flank with a Dragon Slayer to discourage people from just rolling up the thin line of shooters, Slayers on the other flank, and my three major combat blocks filling up the center (Left to right, Warriors, Longbeards, and Ironbreakers). The best laid plans, of course...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/conspyre/3676978951/sizes/m/in/set-72157619335123663/

And the view across the table. Chariots on my left (led by his bitchin' flaming Tomb King chariot), more Chariots, a thin line of Skeleton Archers, two Screaming Skull Catapults, some Tomb Guard, and Yet More Chariots. That many S7-vulnerable units should be a Good Thing for my Bolt Thrower and Cannon, but that remains to be seen.



Turn one was a bit more eventful than usual. The Tomb Kings advanced, with a little magical assistance speeding up a couple of Chariot units, and the Screaming Skull Catapults dropping a couple of Slayers, while the Tomb King's unit reminded me that yes, TK Chariots have bows by killing two Thunderers. The Dwarfs retaliated, powdering a Catapult crewman with a cannonball, and destroying a Chariot between the Thunderers and the Organ Gun.


Turn 2: The Slayers square off against the fast-moving Undead

Turn 2 was a quiet Magic phase for the Tomb Kings, as between a Rune of Spellbreaking and some solid Dispel dice, they didn't see a single spell go off. The shooting phase was a bit nastier for them, with a (obviously huge!) shot from the Screaming Skull Catapult demolishing the Organ Gun, leaving the crew a bit puzzled as to what to do with themselves. Like all good Dwarf gun crews, they ended up parking themselves behind the hill to have a quick pint or five until they were needed. The Dwarf shooting wasn't quite so stellar, with the Cannon failing to hit, though the Thunderers and Bolt Thrower each destroyed a Chariot.


Turn 3: It Came From Below!

As is traditional, turn 3 was Interesting. All of John's reserves showed up, namely two Tomb Scorpions and a swarm of three bases. The last chariot in his second unit attempted to charge the Thunderers, only to be gunned down by their Stand and Shoot reaction. Using my last two Runes of Spellbreaking effectively shut down his Magic phase again, leading neatly into one of the Screaming Skull catapults misfiring. His Tomb King's chariot regiment easily cut down the Thunderers, despite their earlier triumph, and overran into the Dragon Slayer. Despite it landing practically on top of them, the Warrors easily defeated the first Tomb Scorpion in combat resolution, and the Bolt Thrower crew bravely defended their machine against the other one. The Slayers, alone on the right flank, managed to hold up against the Swarms and his right-flank Chariot unit. On the Dwarf side of the round, the Cannon managed to do two wounds to one of the Screaming Skull Catapults. The Tomb Scorpion fighting the Bolt Thrower crew cut them down, demolishing the machine, while the Dragon Slayer found his glorious end against the Tomb King. The Slayers were whittled down by the Chariots and Swarms, the Chariots claiming their banner for the trophy halls of Khemri.


Turn 4: Surrounded, the Dwarfs try to regroup.

After the frenzy of combat in Turn 3, Turn 4 was relatively sedate. The Magic phase was again quiet, while the Skeleton Archers dropped a cannon crewman. The Cannon responded by destroying one of the Swarms with Grapeshot, but otherwise it was mostly preparation for Turn 5, which would inevitably be the decisive turn.


Turn 5: I somehow don't have a good picture. Please enjoy this kitten.

The Ironbreakers got charged by both the Chariot and the two remaining swarms. Again the Magic phase was silent, though I can't say the same for shooting, with four Longbeards killed by airborne craniums. One Tomb Scorpion killed off the Cannon crew, overrunning into the Organ Gun crewmen, while the Ironbreakers fled and were cut down.


Turn 6: The Tomb King and his retinue fight the Warriors.

Without the Runesmith to help with magic (he was killed with the Bolt Thrower crew), the Tomb King was able to advance his unit into the Warriors, while the Tomb Guard got the rear of the Longbeards. The Warriors broke and fled, cut down by the chariots, and the Longbeards fled, running into the Skeleton Archers, leaving the table clear of Dwarfs.


This was a tricky game for me. I'm used to the Vampire Counts, where if you can stymie their magic, they're in a great deal of pain. In this game, John didn't get very many spells off, but his Chariots were still more than enough to crush my infantry blocks.

Arcane Ruins painting

If you've spent any amount of time painting in hot, humid weather without air conditioning, you may have noticed an interesting phenomenon- the paint starts acting a lot less like paint, and a lot more like glue until you thin the heck out of it, and then it dries super quickly on the palette. Frustrating, no? I was in the mood to paint yesterday, but rather than ruining a perfectly good model, I took the opportunity to work on a piece of terrain that had been kicking around in the bins for a bit.
The Citadel Arcane Ruins are a great utility piece. Super simple to build and paint, and they stack so well, you don't really have to glue anything unless you have something very specific in mind. My set is currently all loose pillars, as I like the flexibility of just setting them up to suit the game, especially with the True Line of Sight rules in 40K.
The first step was a quick blast with the spraygun, coating them with Charadon Granite. I really, really, really like this color for terrain. It's got a ton of subtle tones in it that you can bring out with different color highlights, and it warms things up nicely from black primer so a drybrush doesn't look too stark.

After the spray coat dried, they got a heavy overbrush of Adeptus Battlegrey. Another good utility color, it does suffer from a similar problem to Codex Grey- if you give a model a solid coat of it, it looks kinda like you didn't paint it at all. Problematic.

The solution to the grey problem also helps tie the piece into my desert themed board a little bit. Bleached Bone, while almost completely replaced in my painting by Dheneb Stone, is really good for a toning drybrush, as it's very translucent. Just a light drybrush, occasionally running a thumb or my palm over flat surfaces to wipe up any excess to avoid brushstrokes, and it's all done.

And the whole thing, with Valten for scale:

Also, be careful about the seams on the sides of the pillars, or you'll be like me, and notice just how bad they show up under bright light just as you post pictures on the Internet for everyone to mock you for...

WHFB Battle Report, 6/22/09

I played a game on Monday against Anthony to test out a list for a staff tourney I was invited to, as while I'm not really staff anymore, they needed someone else to beat on (I kid, I kid!). The tournament is 2250 points, which is just a touch larger than I like playing in WHFB (I'm a firm believer that the game is balanced for 2000 points on the nose), but it's not so big as to make it impossible to get at least a good chunk of my Dwarfs sorted before then.

My list was an expansion of my 1000 point list from the store tourney, adding a BSB, an Organ Gun, a Bolt Thrower, a unit of Longbeards, and a unit of Ironbreakers. Dwarf Battle Standards are absolutely fantastic. The runic item system makes it so that if you want to spend the points, you can make a truly insane swiss-army knife banner that does damn near everything. In this case, the main use for the BSB is to carry the Master Rune of Valaya, which adds +2 to every dispel roll, and also automatically dispels any Remains in Play spell within 12" at the start of each player's Magic phase. The Longbeards are a second line unit, intended to help the Warriors stick in with the Old Grumblers special rule, and do a bit more smashing with their Great Weapons. The Ironbreakers are a bit of a comprimise. I think Hammerers are probably the better unit, but I don't own any, and I don't have the $100 for a unit of 20, so currently I'm using the Ironbreakers as a hard flank to my force. The war machines are also kind of a mixed bag. The Bolt Thrower is arguably my favorite war machine in the army, kitted out with a Rune of Seeking and two Runes of Penetrating, making for a pretty unholy one shot killer for any chariots running around (Black Coaches, I'm looking at you!), and a very reliable shish kabob maker for light to medium infantry. The Organ Gun is a new one for me. I like the idea of being able to shoot the bejesus out of anything that gets close, on the other hand, I'm not sure I like that they have to get close first.

Anthony played a very tough, compact Lizardmen list. One block of Temple Guard with the Slaan Mage Priest, two units of Skinks with a pair of Kroxigors each, a small unit of Skink Skirmishers, and a pair of Ancient Stegadons with Skink Priests riding them.

Initial Deployment:

I ran a pretty classic Dwarf castle formation- pop the war machines up on the hill, park the big infantry blocks in front, and let them come to me. On my flanks were the Slayers, hopefully to stop his Skink Skirmishers off on that flank, and the Thunderers on the other to provide a cross fire, and maybe tempt him to present the flank of a unit. Anthony set up dead hard, with his Slaan hiding off in the woods, and the Stegadons set up inside the Skink units. His Skirmishers are out of the picture to the left, hiding behind the watchtower and waiting to sprint across the board.

Turns one and two were fairly uneventful, the only major casualty being my Organ Gun- to itself. Hard to see what a new unit will do when it blows itself up the first time it's in range of the enemy. Oh well.

Turn three started to see the first few casualties. After pretty much locking down the Lizardmen magic phase, a Skink priest managed to get a bound Thunderbolt off to kill my Dragon Slayer. I didn't have much luck returning fire, most of my shooting bouncing off the Stegadon approaching on my right flank.

Turn four was not good for our vertically-challenged heroes. The Slaan got Spirit of the Forge off, killing 8 of my seemingly invulnerable Ironbreakers, while the Stegadon that the Thunderers failed to dispatch easily killed them off.


Turn 5 saw the other Stegadon finally hitting my lines, running down the unit of Warrors with the Runesmith and running into my Longbeards, which was part of the plan, with my Dwarf Lord set up to smash the hell out of the big lizard. In the bottom of the turn, my Cannon finally saw off the Stegadon on the right, greatly lessening the effectiveness of that group of Skinks, and giving my Ironbreakers a fighting chance to hold the right side. The Lord did a fantastic job, easily wounding the Stegadon 4 times, allowing the Longbeards to hold their position.

Through all of the carnage in the center of the table, Anthony's skinks on my left flank were doing a little dance, trying to bait the Slayers into a fight. Turn 5 was finally their undoing, with the Slayers easily breaking the Skinks, and running them off the table.

Turn Six was mostly mop-up. The Dwarf Lord and his Longbeards finally broke, fleeing off-table, and my two remaining war machines both misfired, bringing the match to a close.

The final score left little question, with the Lizardmen scoring 1602VP to my 678VP, for a solid victory to the Lizardmen.

(How much detail do you guys want to see in batreps? Turn by turn pictures and movement, or just general impressions? Let me know!)

WHFB Tourney Report, 6/7/09

So I'm a little late with the tourney report, but that's still more updates in a week than Tabletop Madness has had, y'know, ever... (nothing like a public nudge to get someone to post, right?) Snarkiness and my horrid showing aside, this was a fun tournament, I've been really enjoying the Sunday games at the Oak Park GW shop. The games are small (750 pts for 40K and WotR, 1000 for WHFB), and the people are mostly pretty dedicated hobbyists, or at least players (We'll get into issues with the hobby side in a minute).
My army:

I ran a very basic "core dwarf concepts" list- 20 Warriors with axes and shields, with full command; 10 Thunderers; a Cannon; 12 Slayers with banner and musician; led by a Thane with runes of Snorri Spanglehelm, Swiftness, and Fury; a Dragon Slayer with three runes of Fury; and a Runesmith with three runes of Spellbreaking. The plan was to use the Slayers as a rock solid flank, anchoring the other end of my line on a board edge with the Cannon, and trying to shoot the bejeezus out of anyone trying to cross the table to come to grips with my forces.

Round 1:
My first game was against Kevin. He's a young kid, but he's a remarkably skilled general in WHFB and WotR/LotR (don't think I've played him in 40K, but I've heard good things about his Templars). He was running a fairly brutal Warriors of Chaos list, pictured below:

With a Khorne-marked Hero, 8 Khornate Knights, 15 Warriors of Khorne, and 28 Marauders, Kevin's army is all about two things: Blood for the Blood God, and Skulls for the Throne of Khorne, and it delivers in spades.

This is just after Kevin's charge moves in Turn 2. Turn 1 was largely ineffective, my Cannon stuck a shell in the mud right in front of his Knights, and while my Thunderers dropped a couple of Warriors, it was mostly a setup turn, getting ready for the logical matchups. Warriors vs. Warriors, Knights vs. Slayers, and the Dragon Slayer squaring off (well, kinda, he's turned sideways so he doesn't fall down the hill) against the Marauders. This is where I really, really, really underestimated the shock power of the Khornate Knights. I'm used to being able to hold a charge from damn near anything with the Slayers, and the Knights tore through them like they weren't even there. They ripped through the Slayers in a round, overran into the flank of my Warriors, demolished them, overran into the Thunderers the next turn, and finally into the Cannon, while the Chaos Warriors calmly wheeled around and killed the Dragon Slayer (though not before he killed no small number of Marauders!) An easy win for Kevin, he tabled me in 4 turns.

Round 2:
The second game was against Paul, the manager of the shop, and his (absolutely lovely!) Chaos army. A little bit tricky as he had to bounce in and out to help customers in the (woefully understaffed) shop, but Paul is a really pleasant guy to play against. Have to put up a couple of shots of models that he didn't run in the game, just because they're fantastic! Here's his Warshrines:

He's also got a very, very impressive conversion of Vilelitch the Curseling:

(not sure my photo does it justice, but it's definitely worth going to Flickr for the full size shot)
Here's the army he ran, along with a dashing grin:

His army was 2 Tzeentch wizards, a unit of 10 (unmarked) Knights, 2 units of 5 Marauder Horsemen, and 2 units of 5 Warhounds. I was a lot happier to see his heroes than Kevin, as his army was a lot more magic reliant, which I was pretty well equipped to handle. Turn 1 was much the same as against Kevin- my cannon stuck a shell right in front of his Knights, and the Thunderers picked off a few Marauders. I shut down his Magic phase, but used two of my Spellbreaker Runes in the process.
Turn 2:

Once again, by turn 2, the battle was properly joined. One unit of Warhounds charged my Cannon after losing one of their number to a (much better aimed) cannonball, the Knights charged the Warriors, and the Slayers were double-charged by Warhounds and Marauder Horsemen. The Cannon crew saw the Warhounds off handily, an extra round of stout for them! The champion of the Knights challenged my Thane, no doubt seeking the favor of his heathen gods, but the finely-crafted armor of the dwarf deflected his blows. The combat was nearly a draw, but outnumbered by the frightful Knights, the Warriors fled, getting cut down easily by the faster Knights. The Slayers easily held against the lighter Chaos units, breaking them in combat during turn 3, while the Knights rode over and slaughtered the Cannon crew. Turn 4 saw the Warhounds and Maruaders rally and start making their way back to the Slayers. In turn 5, the Thunderers fled off-table from the mighty Knights, and finally in turn 6, the sinister magic of Tzeentch killed off the last of the slayers.

Round 3:
Round 3 was against Leo, a High Elf general I'm always happy to play against. He started the hobby about the same time I started my High Elf army, and he's been doing a good job of building up quite a sizeable contingent of the pointy-helmeted blokes. His army for the tourney was built around one of the more interesting High Elven Hero choices, the Dragon Mage:

In addition to the Dragon Mage, he used the modified High Elf organization chart to the fullest, running one unit of Lothern Sea Guard, one of the Phoenix Guard, and a Repeater Bolt Thrower. In turn 1, in a (now-familiar) bit of frustration, the cannonball overshot the Dragon by quite a bit, the dragon cooking all but 2 of my Thunderers in return. Turn 2 was mostly maneuver, apart from the Dragon finishing off my Thunderers, and the Cannon misfiring, leaving it silent until Turn 4. Turn 3, the Warriors and Slayers charged the Sea Guard and Phoenix Guard respectively, locking them solidly in combat. The Sea Guard broke during turn 4, netting me some of the only victory points I scored during the game, as the Dragon Slayer made a mad dash at the Dragon Mage. He found his glorious death, killing the Mage but not the Dragon, while the Cannon managed to miss again, overshooting the Bolt Thrower by mere inches. The game ended early in Turn 5, as Leo had to duck out. The first game where we actually had to count VP, but overall a win for the High Elves.

Despite my horrid showing, the tournament was pretty enjoyable. My one quibble is that in the last couple of weeks, the scoring scheme has changed, and in the process paint has not been being judged (despite being supposedly part of the overall score) because "there aren't enough painted armies". I strongly object to the idea of advertising a tourney where painting is supposedly being scored, yet players that have unfinished armies aren't losing anything for showing up with bare plastic. In the size of games that are being played, there's really no excuse for not being able to get things at least as block-painted as my Warriors and Thunderers, and honestly I think the Slayers took less time than the block painting did. I try very hard to promote the mindset that whatever the size of the tourney, one should treat it like a GT (painted army, printed army rosters for each opponent, proper gaming supplies, etc), and I feel like if everyone in the shop showed up with that level of preparation, then the Sunday tournaments could really build some strong feeling and high-level play in the shop.