Saturday, 10 July 2021

Battle for the Lonesome Graveyard

 Undead vs Goblins

Goal - The undead army, raised and controlled by the Necromancers Circle of Eebil attmpt to gain control of the lonesome graveyard to raise the spirits within.

Special rules: Any one of the three Necromancers needs to reach base contact with the graveyard tile and spend the magic round summoning the spirits. If successful, 2d6 wraiths are raised and on the roll of a 12 the Screaming Banshee will be also be released.

The Undead Lineup:


Skeleton Cavalry with lances and shields, Apprentice Necromancer, Skeleton Warriors with sword and shield, standard, musician and captain, the Plague Cart, Skeleton Warriors with Spears and shield, captain, musician and standard, zombies, Notsonorm the Necromancer (general), Vampire Bats, Skeleton Archers, Apprentice Necromancer and more Skeleton Cavalry.


The Goblin Lineup:


Goblin Worf Riders, Night Goblin Spears with shields and standard, Night Goblin Archers with Fanantics, musician and Shaman, Goblin Spears and light armour with Shaman and standard, Stone Troll with orc handler, Squig Hopper, Spear Chucker with 2 crew, Goblin Spears with light armour and standard, Night goblin swrod and shield with banner and Shaman (general), Goblin spears with light armour and standard, Night Goblin archers with musician.


Undead begin the Turn by advancing at a march with the Vampire bats carefully landing behind the cavalry on the flank.


The Goblins mostly argue amongst themselves and a snot throwing session breaks out between the archers and the spear units on both flanks. The Squig Hopper bounces over the line toward the skeleton cavalry and the Spear Chucker lands a direct hit into one of the riders, destroying the skeleton. The shot carries on into one of the Bats, who yanks out the bolt and tosses it away unharmed with a snarl.



The Skeleton Cavalry advance and the Bats fly to the centre of the battle line.




 

The Goblin Shamans yell at the troops who finally notice the undead advancing and cease their snot throwing activities and advance. Chibbygribby the general sneakily casts Hand of Gork and thrusts the archer line forward, triggering the release of the fanatics. The orc relentlesly whips the troll attempting to move him forward, but the brute simply picks his nose and flicks it aimlessly away into the Spear chucker crew, causing them to miss their target.

  

One of the fanatics whirls through the zombie pack, smashing two of their rotting corpses through the air and then connecting with Notsonorm, smashing his ribs and causing internal bleeding, but he carries on, badly wounded. Through bloodied lips he casts Danse Macabre and the Skeleton archers move with unholy speed toward their enemy.


  

Finally the troll begins to lumber forward toward the graves while the wolf riders overcome their fear of the cavalry and charge, destroying two of their number. The fight turns savage and even though one of the wolf riders is slain, the undead cavalry could not hold out and the remaining bones fall to the ground, their magic failing to keep them together. Two of the fanatics wrap their ball and chain around their bodies ending with iron to the face.





The plague cart advances and shakes the morale of the archers, who fail to muster up the courage to shoot it, as the skeleton infantry advance. The zombies pick up new vigour and engage the stone troll, as Notsonorm successfully casts Danse Macarbe once again even though this triggers the other night goblins to push more 'shroom fueled fanatics out of their ranks.




The fanatics tear through the cavalry on the other flank, with bone and lance shattering through the air, threatening the skeleton infantry back line. The Squig Hopper rider desperately tries to control the squig, but the jumping fungus is too powerful and  jumps far behind the enemy line. 
The Spear Chucker crew free themselves from troll snot and manage to launch a bolt through three of the zombies who lumber around briefly all pinned together before falling to the ground.





The remaining cavalry on the left flank charge the night goblin archers, sending them into a panic. They flee directly into the infantry behind them, causing the spears and sword units to break into a screaming mess, ignoring the threats and howls of Chibbygribby to get back into the fight.


The zombies desperately claw at the troll to no avail as the stoney hide is far too thick for them to penetrate. The troll smashes the zombies into the ground left and right with his pet rock.
Gribbleguts the shaman casts Hand of Mork and the apprenice necromancer on the right flank is squished like a bug under Mork's thumb.



The Vampire Bats launch a devastating charge on the wolf riders, tearing one of the riders limb from limb. The wolves respond in turn, savagely ripping into the bats with their jaws, rending flesh and snapping bone. The riders stab the bats with their spears over and over till they cease moving.


Meanwhile, the skeleton spear infantry advance alongside the plague cart, it's ombinous bell signalling the impending doom as the Necromancer arrives at the grave site and prepares to cast the spell that will raise the unholy spirits.


Gribbleguts the shaman, realising the gravity of the moment screams at the archers to fire at the Necromancer, which half of them do, with one arrow fatally wounding him, sending him face down into the dirt. "Ha! Dig 'im 'is own grave, deaduns!" With that, he casts Hand of Mork and and a great green hand reaches down and squishes the cart driver, sending the undead ox back into the aether.


Things don't go so well on the other fronts, as one of the fanatics, dizzy with spinning, smashes through the Spear Chucker and crew sending splinters of wood and goblin in every direction. Likewise, another fanatic blasts through the spear unit, narrowly missing Gribbleguts who hits the ground, hands over his head, spitting out grass, dirt and curses.




The only spear unit not to run gains even more spirit by yelling loudly and charges the skeleton spear unit. The battle rages on fiercely with many casualties on each side. The troll wipes out the remaing zombies, his pet rock now massively stained with zombie guts and coagulated blood.



The Skleton archers take advantage of the wolves being distracted by their kills and shoots one of the riders through the eye. The others hide behind their shields and urge their wolves to attack.




Realising that he was the only hope left, the apprectice necromancer moves in toward the graveyard, and seizing his opportunity, casts Gaze of Nagash on the troll, melting his flesh in waxy streams. However, much to the necromancer's shock, the troll regenerated almost instantly.
 


The goblins retreat from the battlefield, taking Chibbygribby with them and the general is lost. The goblin spears become overwhelmed by the skeleton infantry and break, causing the archers to break as well, leaving the entire flank running for the hills. The squig hopper reigns in the squig but misses the target by a few feet. The orc handler whips the troll into action towards the apprentice necromancer.


The necromancer sees an opportunity to cast Gaze of Nagash on Gribbleguts and melts the flesh off his bones, leaving him a steaming pile of stinking robes and bones. The troll charges the necromancer and pounds him into the ground, causing the skeletons to crumble apart.
  

The troll forgets that the rock was his pet and leaves it on the ground on top of the crushed necromancer, farts loudly and wanders off with the orc handler looking around in wonder.



















Monday, 10 May 2021

The Dead Rise

 The Dead Rise

Ahhh, painting up an entirely new army.... why not?

Sooooo..... my wife and I got a little tipsy and I talked her into a game of Warhammer after she enjoyed Heroquest with a couple of friends.

She decided that undead would be fun to play, and I have painted a good amount of undead before, but sadly only had one box of unassembled zombies ofter my sale of everything else (even the Heroquest undead) including the garden of Morr. Can't take everything with me when moving.... ah well. Let's see what I do have.

1 Box of 20 Zombies unassembled- check

3 badly painted Skeleton Cavalry - check

8 badly painted skeletons with a mix of weapons - check

1 box of birthday present skeletons unassembled - check

2 well painted Necromancers and one poorly painted - check 

1 Bones Ghoul Queen unpainted - check

1 metal unpainted Bones Ghoul Queen look-alike - check

1 and 1 incomplete Chaos Furies that could be used as Fell Bats - need a wing

1 mostly painted old plague cart - check

Lots of plastic Battlequest wolves and the ones left over from Grom's chariot - check

Not a bad start. I got stuck into painting and then was lucky enough to aquire a unit of spear skellies and some more cavalry from a local seller. I liked the look of the new Chainrasps which are going to be used as wraiths and spirit hosts.

Here we go!

Zombies


     I started with the zombie box which I have had for years, just waiting for me to put them all together. I started on a few for Heroquest and the Legacy 2021 challnge, and then finished off the rest, adding the 20th zombie coming out of the ground.

 These were actually a little bit of  a challenge to get together so they didn't all push into eachother, especially as I decided not to give them any weapons. It simply felt right. The painting of dead flesh was a choice to not go so green as a lot of people paint them, put more of a fresher, leathery tone with hints of light bone, green and purple.






The Necromancers


The selection of the first Necromancer was in part to our cat, Mr Bitey, who chose my old
Bright Wizard conversion. Back to the playing table with you!

 



The second Necromancer was one I had painted up years before and with a few touch ups and a rejuvinating flesh wash he was ready to join in.




The third Necromancer I had was Gunther Laranscheld from Warhammer Quest, with a simple and awful paint, so he was redone in the style of the others, a result which gave them all a Death Cult consistency.  


 




The Vampires


Settling for Lamian Vampires I decided I finally had a place to use the old Morathi modified miniature and time to paint up one of the Bones Ghoul Queens and the metal sculpt as well.





The Ghoul Queen




This was a model from Bones and is silicone, highly detailed and an excellent sculpt. I removed the large ribs sword from her back as it looked way over-the-top but otherwise left the model as is.
The detail proved quite challenging, but the end result makes for a good Lamian Vampire.


Vampire Queen



A fantastic sculpt, I had totally forgotten I bought this model and can't even remember where.
As highly detailed as the Bones Queen, this model was a challenge and a joy to paint, with no modifications necessary.


Wight Cavalry


Starting out with only three cavalry - and with an average paint, I looked for more and found them online from a local seller, as well as a unit of skeleton spears. I decided to use my old skeleton shields from way back when I assembled the first skeleton units in the past.


I enjoyed puting these together and rusting up the metal. Skeletons can be quite easy and fast to paint and the cavalry was no exception.


Skeleton Archers


A mix of old and new, these models were fast and easy to assemble and give the army a small amount of ranged fire to deploy.


Skeleton Swords


Relatively easy to assemble, I only swapped out a few skulls and added the standard bearer for a good hand to hand unit with full command. Fast to paint and rusted metal.

Skeleton Spears


A little more challenging to assmble than the rest, as some had to have the legs separately attached, but on the whole another quick and easy unit to paint. The screaming banner was chosen for this unit, so I used a bit of green stuff to model the face onto the banner.




The Plague Cart


Given to me as a gift, this model was mostly painted already, but that didn't stop me taking a fair while on touch ups and repainting the rider three times. The ox was missing his skull, so I made one out of a plastic horse skull and horns, but it just didn't look right. I then found what I thought was the original skull, but in hindsight I think it is the skull trophy from Gorthor's chariot.


The rider presented some challenges as well, as I had already begun painting the wraiths, and wanted to tie in a bit of the same colour whtout unbalancing the models' own colour scheme. Being only semi-real, I decided to sheer a metal skull and glue it into the hood of the rider, giving him more depth and a way to get that ghostly blue onto the face and hands.


Although I love this old school model, there was something just a little underwhelming when all mounted up, so I decided to take a risk and mount a bell on a pole. This gave the model some height and fitted the spookiness of the cart. Bring out your dead.


Wraiths and Spirit Hosts


The army still needed a bit of spice and I was well back into model painting and searching during lockdown, and spied the new chainrasps. I very much liked the new ethereals, which I can't say for many of the new Warhammer models and decided to pick up  box.

  

These wraiths were a lot of fun to paint and not too difficult. I loved doing the gradients on their gostly forms and rusting the metal on the weapons and the chains.


     

Overall these give the army a dash of colour and separate them as ethereals, either to be used as Spirit Hosts in groups of three or as Wraiths as a hero choice.
  





Vampire Bat



I scavanged two old Chaos Furies to repurpose as Vampire Bats, but one was missing a wing, so at present only one made it into the army. I'll be on the lookout for more. I never liked the propotions of these models and kinda wrote them off as bad sculpts, but as I painted him up, he took on a bizzare grotesqueness that really suited the state of being a Vampiric denizen of the night. My mind is changed.


Dire Wolves


A little bit last minute, I put together the wolves from Groms Chariot MK I with some Battlemaseters goblin wolves for a Dire Wolf unit. I may add one of the Fenris Wolves back in as a Doom Wolf.



To finish, let's include a few army shots. It only took me 5 weeks to put it together and is certainly the fastest that has ever taken me to complete such a project.






More join the Legion!

A few months down the track and the opportunity came up to add another load to the army. Six more skeletal knights, another few ranks to the spears and the swords and a unit of great weapon scythes.


More Vampire Bats

Well, I had a lot of trouble finding the wings, but after a while I managed to get a set that fit and a third fury, so the trio of Vampire Bats is now complete.




Banshee



 I couldn't resist adding a banshee to top off the ethereals, and purchased the new Tomb Banshee from a split. The undercoat on this one was a bit textured, but I still enjoyed the sculpt and opted for a lighter colour scheme that sets her apart from the wraiths. I then got tired of it and repainted her with red hair and a dark corset.

The Screaming Skull Catapult


This one deserves a blog of it's own. :)


I completed the army in October 2022.



Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Felix and Gotrek

 Felix and Gotrek


Had these guys way too long before painting them.
Felix had a busted sword when I got him, but I fixed it up and repainted him with a bit more care than the person who tried before me. The runes on the sword were delicate but fun.

Not my favourite Gotrek model, but Gotrek none-the-less. I really didn't like the severed troll head he was carrying, so I took it off and used it as the banner trophy for the Pirate Slayers.
This made him fit on the base a lot better.




Chaos Champion of Nurgle - Fly Mutation Jeff

Chaos Champion of Nurgle
Jeff


Picked up this fantastic model in a trade and wow, was it fun to paint.
At first, I did the eyes too dark and ended up peeling them back to metal and starting again, but the choice to keep his original skin colour and mess him up a bit certainly worked as a colour scheme, harking back to Jeff Goldblum in The Fly remake.
This was the final decision to name him Jeff rather than Louie or Marty McFly.