Warhammer Quest Savage Orcs

I finished up another group of level 1 monsters for Warhammer Quest. Or mostly finished. I will eventually need 12 savage orcs with bows, but the plastic Savage Orcs box only comes with 10. I painted up the 10 I have, but I will eventually need to find a way to get 2 more of them from somewhere.

The box set of plastic savage orcs has the option of arming them with bows, sort of. It comes with 10 hands holding bows, and some hands holding arrows and some quivers, but this seems like an afterthought. They clearly aren't intended to be made into bowmen. Due to the poses of the models, they don't look like they intend to do anything with their bows other than hit someone over the head with them. And they look like they'd much rather stab someone with their arrows than actually fire them. In addition, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to attach the included quivers that looks like it makes any sense.

However, the savage orcs you encounter in Warhammer Quest have bows, so I gave these guys bows. It took some work just to get a couple of them to look like they might be considering actually firing their bows, and to attach the quivers where they hopefully don't look too out of place or tacked on.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report: Blow the Bridge

A Union infantry division under Major General Winfield Scott Hancock has been sent to secure a strategically important bridge. The Confederate army on the other side of the river is not ready for an engagement, and needs time to either redeploy and dig in or evacuate. They have sent Major General James Longstreet with two brigades of infantry to delay the Federal advance and blow the bridge. The Union division arrives before the explosives are ready, and now the Confederates must scramble to delay the Union advance long enough to blow the vital river crossing.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 1

Once upon a time, there was a place of carved stone faces. A man with a lantern lay sleeping a dreamless sleep. The man knew nothing.

One day, the man woke up. He rubbed the dried ink caked over his eyes and opened them. Around him, he saw other people stirring, and beyond, a horizon of unbroken darkness.

A woman approached the man with the lantern. Her soft hand reached out to him. They had no words. They were a mystery to each other.

Suddenly, a monster emerged from the darkness, its eyes wild with hunger. It attacked.

The people were no match for the monster. It tore their flesh and crushed their bones between its teeth. Some, it devoured whole.

Overcome with terror and grief, the man with the lantern collapsed to the ground. Cold stone noses pushed into his side. There was no escape.

But the man did not want to die. Desperately grasping at the cold stone faces, he felt a crack, and tore at it with all his might. A piece of stone came free. It was sharp and deadly.

The man with the lantern scrambled to his feet, his weapon clenched in his fist. He took a deep breath and roared into the darkness.

Somewhere in the place of stone faces, nameless men stand together. They have nothing but a need to survive and a lantern to light their struggle.

Warhammer Quest: Identify

The Warriors have been employed to carry out an apparently simple task, for which they will be well paid. All they have to do is solve an inheritance dispute between two Imperial Lords, by correctly identifying a body buried in a far away tomb in the Worlds Edge Mountains.

Painted Kingdom Death: Monster starting survivors and white lion

I finished assembling and painting the four starting survivors and the first monster (the white lion) for Kingdom Death: Monster. The survivors were an interesting challenge. They are mostly bare skin skin, with just a white cloth draped over them. The miniatures are very true scale, and lack the exaggerated features and recesses that would allow for a base color and wash to get good results. I also gave each of the four survivors a different skin tone, so I had to find different combinations of paints that worked well for each of them, and the results varied. I also always have trouble with painting white cloth, though I think it turned out pretty well this time. Many of my pictures of the survivors turned out blurry, but have a look below to see how they turned out, and further down for some pictures of the white lion.

Frostgrave first game battle report

I recently played a game of Frostgrave at my local gaming store. I don't own and haven't read the rules, so I was mostly relying on explanations from the people who had played before, along with looking things up in a copy of the book when needed. The game is simple enough to play with minimal explanation, though I'm sure we must have gotten some things wrong along the way, which may or may not have impacted my impression of the game. See below for a battle report and my thoughts on Frostgrave based on my introductory game.

Warhammer Quest: Stop the WAAAGH! - Part 2

Our intrepid adventurers have already made one attempt to locate a rumored orc warboss operating near Mount Gunbad (which you can read about here). They intended to kill the orc leader and take his head back to a seer in Kislev. The seer has foretold of a new orc warboss who will, if left unchecked, rampage through Kislev with his growing band of followers. As a result, bounties are being paid for the heads of impressive-looking orcs and, undeterred by their prior lack of success, the warriors are hoping to cash in on the demand. Realizing they may have been closer than they had initially thought to discovering the local orc leader, the adventurers have returned to the dungeon they had started to explore near Mount Gunbad.

Warhammer Quest: Stop the WAAAGH!

In Kislev, a seer has foretold the coming of another great Orc horde, one to rival that of Azhag the Slaughterer. The prophecy states that in an Orc lair near Mount Gunbad an Orc Warboss has come to power. Unless he is stopped soon, he may gather the tribes and strike at Kislev, eventually laying waste to all the lands east of the Great Ocean. Although there is some doubt about the accuracy of the prophecy a reward is being paid for every Orc Warboss head taken to Kislev, and great treasures are promised to those who bring the head the seer saw in her dreams.

The Warriors have heard rumours of a fight between two Orc factions that has brought about a new Warboss called Gorgut. They have become convinced that he is the one in the prophecy and they immediately set out to find Gorgut and bring back his head!

As a result of their last adventure, the party discovered that orcs and goblins were massing for an invasion of the Old World. In reality, the Chaos Warrior may have lied about what he saw in the magical waters of the fountain of fate in order to conceal a potential invasion from the chaos wastes. In any case, the rumor of an orc invasion has spread throughout the Empire and Kislev, and suddenly many seers are having visions of the imminent orc threat. The adventurers, determined to do their part to protect the Old World from the imagined invasion, head out in search of some orc heads they can bring Kislev for the promised reward money.

Mantic Ghouls for Warhammer Quest

I finished painting 12 of the Mantic ghouls for use in Warhammer Quest. There isn't a ton of variety with the Mantic ghouls, with only two different upper bodies, two different lower bodies, and three different heads, plus a few weapon options (knife, cleaver, and some weird claw glove). I tried to get as much variety as I could with what options there were so they didn't look like a bunch of identically posed clones. See below for the results.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar solo play test Empire vs Vampire Counts continued

I ended up going back to finish up the test game write-up I began in this post. See below for the thrilling conclusion!

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar solo play test Empire vs Vampire Counts

I decided to try out the rules for Age of Sigmar with a quick solo play test using my Empire and Vampire Counts miniatures. The Empire force had one unit of 10 Free Company Militia, one unit of 10 Handgunners, one unit of five Knights with lances, and one Luthor Huss (mounted warrior priest). The Vampire Counts had two units of 10 Skeletons with hand weapons and shields, one unit of 10 Grave Guard with hand weapons and shields, and a Necromancer.

First, some caveats. Obviously playing both sides is not really the same experience as playing against an opponent. Also, I decided not to use any of the "special" terrain rules, and since everything is based consistently I just measured from the bases instead of the models for everything. For simplicity, I didn't use any standards or musicians in my units, and I didn't use any of the Formations. I also needed to decide what to do about the raise spells. I was considering the idea that in order to raise a type of undead, you have to already be using that warscroll in your army, to prevent summoning for example a Zombie Dragon, which would be overpowering in such a small game. In the end, I decided that only models that were part of the army list to begin with, but had been either kept in reserve or removed as casualties, could be summoned.

Warhammer Quest Dark Elf Black Guard

I am still slowly making progress on painting all the miniatures for the level 1 monster table in Warhammer Quest. It has taken me a long time to get these 12 Dark Elf Black Guard finished, but they are finally done. The paint job is very similar to my Dark Elves with crossbows, just with black cloth instead of purple. You can see the results in the pictures below.

Warhanmer Quest: More Waters of Fate - Part 3

Our noble adventurers are still searching for another Fountain of Fate in the hopes that its magical waters will reveal to them the source of another imminent invasion of the Empire. They have already started exploring the sizeable dungeon that is believed to contain the fountain, but were unable to locate it on two previous attempts. See more about those attempts here and here. Again they have returned to the dungeon to continue their search for the fountain.

Warhammer Fantasy Banshee

I have had this Warhammer banshee model sitting on my painting table for a long time, and I just finally got around to finishing it. I was trying for a ghostly, ethereal look to it, which was hard to achieve. I'm not completely happy with how it turned out, but I'm not sure how to accomplish what I was going for, so it will have to do. Have a look at the pictures below and let me know what you think. If you have any tips on how to paint something to look like a ghost, feel free to share them.

Warhammer Quest: More Waters of Fate - Part 2

Our noble adventurers are searching for another Fountain of Fate in the hopes that its magical waters will reveal to them the source of another imminent invasion of the Empire. They have already started exploring the dungeon that is believed to contain the fountain, but were unable to locate it on their first attempt. See more about that attempt here. Now they have returned to the dungeon to continue their search for the fountain.

Warhammer Quest: More Waters of Fate - Part 1

The Emperor’s Wizards tell him that the mystical signs warn of an imminent invasion, but they can see no further than this, as dark powers cloud their vision. They have no idea if the assault will come from the Chaos Wastes of the far North, from the Orcs of the Dark Lands to the East, or from some other unsuspected quarter.

The most aged Wizard Lord of the Celestial college suggests that the answer lies in a magical pool - the Fountain of Fate which holds the secrets of all things. While the Empire prepares all its borders for war, a party of four brave Warriors is gathered to search for the fountain, reputed to be found somewhere below the Middle Mountains.

4Ground pre-painted MDF Russian Rural Cottage

I saw this pre-painted MDF building kit from 4Ground on sale, and decided to take the opportunity to give MDF terrain a try. This was my first MDF terrain kit, and I was interested to see how easy it would be to assemble, and what level of detail was possible. Read on for more pictures, assembly tips, and my review of the kit.

Warhammer Quest: Banish the Daemon - Part 2

You can see part 1 of this adventure here.

Our snobby adventurers have been searching an ancient temple for a dragon statue that is said to contain a bound daemon of chaos. After searching part of the temple, they decided to leave and make camp. After resting and recovering, they have returned to search the rest of the temple for the possessed statue. They each carry a magical sword, which will hopefully be able to destroy the daemon once they have found it. Once again, they enter the temple through the sewers.

Warhammer Quest: Banish the Daemon - Part 1

The great Wizards of the Empire have scried out a powerful, brooding power that is growing below the ancient Dwarf hold of Karak Azgal. As yet, they believe the presence to be relatively weak, and therefore probably bound to some material artefact such as a statue while it gathers strength.

Although they do not know its purpose, they suspect that it may be a lesser daemon of the Chaos Powers, trapped in the rocks below the earth in ages past, and freed by the incessant digging of the Goblins and Orcs as they search for the lost treasure of the Dwarfs who once inhabited the city. The truth is that the daemon has escaped the prison of rock that held it for so long, and is now resident in a statue of a great fire dragon in an ancient temple (the firechasm). Soon it will fully awaken, and walk the world once more. The Wizards have employed the Warriors to destroy the daemon and ensure that this never happens.

Each Warrior has been given a magic sword, which can only be used once. These blades are the only weapons that can damage the daemon. Against other Monsters, the magic swords will hit automatically, and kill whatever wielder attacks.

Warhammer Quest: The Waters of Fate - Part 3

If you missed it, see the first part of this adventure here, and the second part here.

In their previous attempt to find the Fountain of Fate, the band of noble adventurers explored a dungeon for a while without locating the fountain, before heading back to rest and buy supplies. Before leaving the dungeon, they had encountered a wandering warrior who informed them of the location of the fountain room, though they did not verify his claims. Now the party has returned to the dungeon, hoping that the warrior was correct about the location of the mystical fountain. If so, they should be able to reach it quickly and use its magical waters to discover the source of the looming threat to the Empire.

Warhammer Quest: The Waters of Fate - Part 2

If you missed it, see the first part of this adventure here.

After failing to reach the Fountain of Fate on their previous attempt due to a cave in, our brave adventurers re-enter the dungeon complex through a different entrance. They are hoping to make their way to the legendary fountain by an alternate path, and thereby complete their quest to use the magical waters of the fountain to uncover the details of a foretold invasion of the Empire.

Warhammer Quest: The Waters of Fate - Part 1

The Emperor’s Wizards tell him that the mystical signs warn of an imminent invasion, but they can see no further than this, as dark powers cloud their vision. They have no idea if the assault will come from the Chaos Wastes of the far North, from the Orcs of the Dark Lands to the East, or from some other unsuspected quarter.

The most aged Wizard Lord of the Celestial college suggests that the answer lies in a magical pool - the Fountain of Fate which holds the secrets of all things. While the Empire prepares all its borders for war, a party of four brave Warriors is gathered to search for the fountain, reputed to be found somewhere below the Middle Mountains.