Warhammer Quest Snotlings and Giant Spiders

I am continuing to paint the miniatures from the Warhammer Quest boxed game. I've just recently finished painting the 12 Snotlings and 12 Giant Spiders from the boxed game. Below are some pictures of the results. As always, you can click on a picture for a larger version.

Warhammer Quest Skaven

I am continuing to paint the miniatures from the Warhammer Quest boxed game. Hopefully that is a project I can actually finish, and get some use out of the finished miniatures by playing some solo games of Warhammer Quest. I've just recently finished painting the 12 Skaven, which are pictured below.

Warhammer Quest Giant Rats and Giant Bats

Many, many years after the release of Warhammer Quest, I am finally making some progress painting the miniatures. Here are some pictures of the first groups of monsters I have finished, the Giant Rats and the Giant Bats. I figured I would start with something easy to get things rolling. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Warhammer Quest: Kill the Shaman

A powerful Goblin Shaman is foretelling of a great Waaagh to come soon, when the Goblins and Orcs will sweep out of the Dark Lands and overthrow the Empire. Although not very powerful at the moment, his cult is growing stronger and unrest is beginning to stir.

So as not to raise suspicions and warn him of his intentions, the Emperor has decreed that the best way to solve the crisis is to assassinate the Shaman. The Warriors have been chosen to venture into the Shaman’s lair below Mount Gunbad, on the far side of the Worlds Edge Mountains, and kill him.

Warhammer Quest: Desecration

Deep in the ruined cities of the Dwarfs, now occupied by Orcs, Goblins and even worse creatures, many of the once noble temples and shrines have been defiled. In their place are crude altars set up by these evil creatures, dedicated to all manner of foul Gods. Apart from the obvious pleasure of killing the invaders of their ancestral homes, and hopefully recovering some of the long-lost treasures, the Dwarf Kings also pay a rich reward for every evil temple destroyed.

The Warriors have been charged with the task of locating one of these temples that is reputed to lie deep below the ground in the ruins of Karak Azgal. Kargun Skalfson, deposed Lord of Karak Azgal, has allowed the Warriors into the ruins to search for the temple, and has waived his right to a share of any treasure they discover on the way - as long as they bring back evidence of the destruction of the temple.

Secretly, Skalfson does not believe there is a temple, and therefore hopes to persuade the Warriors to venture into the most dangerous regions of Karak Azgal in search of it. If they survive these hazardous, long-unexplored regions, they will surely find a great deal of treasure - and as there is no temple, he will gain his share of the treasure as usual.

Warhammer Quest: Exorcism

Deep below Middenheim there is a maze of tunnels inhabited by all manner of evil creatures. No-one ventures into this dark realm, and the entrances in the city have been sealed for centuries. Now, however, an evil presence has been detected by the priests of Ulric, the holy leaders of the city.

The source of this malign power is growing, and resides somewhere in the ancient catacombs below the city. The priests suspect it may be the spirit of a long dead Necromancer, returned to wreak havoc once again on the inhabitants of Middenheim. Like moths to a candle, other malign and twisted creatures are being drawn to the tunnels below Middenheim by this evil presence.

Carrying holy artifacts from the temples of the city, the Warriors must descend into the catacombs to exorcise the evil before its power grows too strong to contain.

Painted GHQ 10mm Civil War Confederate Stonewall Brigade Regiments

I recently finished the last two regiments I needed to complete my 10mm Confederate Stonewall Brigade. These will represent the 5th Virginia and 27th Virginia Infantry Regiments. Those designations are basically arbitrary, though. I haven't labelled the units in any way, so they could really be any Confederate regiments, except that one of them has a Virginia state flag. The pictures are below. As always, click the pictures for larger versions.

Painted Mantic Games Skeleton Warriors

I have finished painting another unit of Mantic Games Skeleton Warriors. I actually bought three boxes of 20 skeletons each, and used them to make two units of 30 each for Warhammer Fantasy. Having just recently played my first game with the new Vampire Counts army book, I'm now thinking that 30 skeletons is not going to be a very effective unit. I was losing 10 to 20 skeletons each combat phase, so a unit of 30 isn't going to last a single turn. I guess I'll have to get more to add to each of my units and try to paint them to match. In any case, below are some pictures of the finished (for now) unit. Click on them to see larger versions.

Gale Force Nine Extra Large Rocky Hill

A while ago I picked up the Extra Large Rocky Hill, from the Gale Force Nine "Battlefield in a Box" range. It is large enough to be useful for 28mm games, but could also be used for 10mm, and it is likely intended for 15mm gaming. It came pre-painted and with some static grass and flock to decorate it with. To get it ready for the table, I just glued on the flock and static grass where it seemed to look good, and did a quick black wash over some of the areas of small rocks. I thought this helped add a little depth to those areas that otherwise looked to monotone. I then did a quick spray varnish, and it was ready for gaming. It's a nice, quick piece of terrain. The only problem I have with it, which would prevent me from getting any of the other Battlefield in a Box pieces, is that it doesn't sit quite level on the table. The edges come up off the table in many places, which I don't really like, since it ruins the illusion that the hill is part of the surrounding terrain, rather than plopped on top of it. See below for some pictures, including one with my Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guard Lieutenant for a size comparison.

Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Conversion

I had an old Space Marine Apothecary model that I've converted for use in my Chaos Space Marine army. My Chaos Marines have gone renegade relatively recently, so would probably still have things like apothecaries and techmarines. For the same reason, I didn't do much to make the model look very Chaos influenced, but I do like the sinister implication of the giant meat cleaver, and painting some blood stains on his loin cloth should add to the butcher-like appearance.

Beyond the Gates of Antares Outline Rules Solo Playtest

I played through a quick solo playtest game of Beyond the Gates of Antares, using the outline rules that have been provided to backers of their Kickstarter project. I decided to take some pictures and write up a battle report of the game, along with my observations on how this early draft of the core rules plays.

The Story
There are no official scenario rules, so I went for a pretty straightforward and typical gaming scenario. Basically, both sides are trying to either rescue or capture a wounded downed pilot. The pilot's aircraft has crashed in the wilderness, and both sides are trying to get to him and carry him off first.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report

The Confederate Division under Major General James Longstreet has successfully held their position on the battlefield, while unfortunately the rest of the Confederate army has fallen back. The swift but somewhat disorganized Union pursuit of the fleeing Confederates has put Longstreet's division in danger of being cut off from the rest of the army. They currently find themselves surrounded by Union forces, and must attempt to break out and re-join their retreating army. The game was played using the Breakout Scenario I have previously posted on this blog.

Black Powder Scenario - Breakout

This scenario for Black Powder was designed for my American Civil War armies, but I'm sure it could be generalized to other periods easily. We play using all distances in centimeters instead of inches, so playing this scenario in the normal scale of Black Powder would require a larger table. I've played it once and it worked out pretty well, though it might work out better to give the Union player the first turn. In our game, I think if the Confederate player had rolled better command rolls on his first turn, the game might have been over very quickly. I will write up and post a battle report of the game in the near future, but for now have a look at the scenario rules.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report

The Story
This was a pretty simple concept. Forward elements of the Union and Confederate armies have encountered each other, and both are now rushing to claim the best ground before the enemy can take it. There is a large hill between the two forces that is the obvious choice, so both sides are attempting to control the hill and drive off the enemy. It turned out to be a very dramatic and fast-paced game that came right down to the wire.

Beyond the Gates of Antares fan fiction

I've been following along with the ideas going around on the Dark Space Corp website and forums for the development of a new Science Fiction gaming universe for their upcoming game, Beyond the Gates of Antares. Their Forums are currently very active, and there are a lot of interesting ideas being discussed there. I was inspired by the background information on The Gates of Antares Universe to write up a couple of short fan fiction stories that take place in my imagined version of that universe, based on the little information so far available. Let me know what you think of them. In the second one, Hansa Nairoba is a special character they are creating for the game to promote their Kickstarter Campaign, and some people on the forums have suggested the model should bear a resemblance to Rick Priestley, the creator of the game.

X-Wing Miniatures Game First Battle

I got to play my first game of the Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Miniatures game. I played the rebels, and had two X-wings with red squadron pilots (pilot skill 5). One had proton torpedoes. The Empire side had two regular TIE fighters with pretty standard pilots (pilot skill of 4) and one TIE Advanced (pilot skill 5) with cluster missiles.