Snickit's Road to BOYL 2019 - A Tale Of Four Gamers

Work commitments have been heavy of late so painting and posting time has been at an absolute premium. I did manage to finish my next 500 points of Undead before the end of October and I made quick posting to Facebook in time. I wanted to do a full posting of the 1000 points so far, so here it is.

Lothar The Blackhearted - Necrosus - Level 15 Necromancer	165	pts
Sword, Protective Runes.
18 Skeleton Warriors with Standard Bearer	209	pts
Hand weapons, shields.
Klein Sniveltongue - Morbidus - Level 10 Necromancer	85	pts
Sword.
1 Charnel Warrior - Level 5 Hero	34	pts
Scythe (double-handed weapon), light armour.
18 Grim Reapers with Standard Bearer	228	pts
Scythes (double-handed weapons).
1 Charnel Warrior - Level 5 Hero	43	pts
Hand weapon, light armour, shield, undead horse
5 Death Riders with Standard Bearer	150	pts
Lances, hand weapons, light armour, shields, undead horses.
1 Screaming Skull Catapult with 3 Crew	85	pts
Hand weapons, Screaming Skull Ammunition
Total =	999	pts

Lothar threw the scroll to one side, this wasn't the incantation he was after either. The pile of redundant vellum was growing as fast as Lothar's patience was dwindling. His task to build an army worthy of the Master was weighing heavily on his shoulders. He knew that if he didn't deliver he would join the rotting ranks himself.

The door to his chamber creaked open and a wizened old man shuffled in.

"I have completed the summoning for the horsemen my Lord" rasped Klein.

Lothar turned and looked at the shriveled old man with disdain. He despised the sniveling wretch more than he did anyone else, partially for being in image of the fate that may await himself with the passing of time with exposure to the magic of the dead and partially because hated his toadying. Klein had been shunned for most of his life and had turned to necromancy out of desperation. Now he had found service under Lothar in the Master's vanguard but his need to rise in power and stature in the Master's eyes saw him sycophantically creep up the ladder. Lothar perceived that as weakness and it heightened his hatred all the more.

"Lead on old man, I'd best inspect our latest additions" commanded Lothar.

Klein nodded and limped out the door. Lothar followed him down the dimly lit corridor and out into the courtyard. Morrslieb shone bright in the night sky, casting an eerie green light over the abandoned keep. The Skeletons of Lothar's Fallen stood motionless and silent, statues waiting for their call to take up arms.

The mighty iron gates were guarded by Varga's Reapers. Varga stood sentinel like directly behind the portcullis, scythe in hand. Lothar knew anyone attempting to enter the gateway would be challenged by Varga and his "men".

Lothar saw movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned slightly to see the catapult crew staking skulls. He made a mental note to order Klein to enact the ritual of remembrance on the pile of heads, he wanted them to remember the horrific way they were harvested so that their death screams would sound as they flew through the air towards the enemy.

Klein stopped in front of a line of skeletal horses. Lothar looked along the line at the riders, his eyes fixing upon their leader. The purple light burning in his eye sockets flared as he looked back at Lother, who heard the Skeleton Captain's words in his mind.

"I, Krom, lead the Doomriders in the name of the Master, under your leadership" 

"Your servitude is accepted" Lothar replied.

Now thought Lothar, where was that scroll.........................................


As I set this all up my Son's curiosity was peaked and so I let him have a go first, so, if you will allow it I will digress a little into the indulgence of photo's of "Dadhammer". This is what all parents want to see, their offspring taking an interest in their own hobby.

Freddie's set up, a blurry picture but still, I thought I'd show it

A terribly cheesy smile on my face but words can't describe how happy and proud this made me.

Snickit's Road to BOYL 2019 - A Tale of Four Gamers Part 1 - September

So, my first 500pts of Undead was finished with about 30 minutes to spare on the deadline of midnight on the 30th of September. I posted images up to Facebook but didn't post to my blog as it was late. the next couple of days I had work commitments to attend to so this is the first chance I've had to post about my efforts.

My Army list for this little lot is as follows

Lothar The Blackhearted - Morbidus - Level 10 Necromancer	95	pts
Sword, Protective Runes.
14 Skeleton Warriors with Standard Bearer	165	pts
Hand weapons, shields.
1 Charnel Warrior - Level 5 Hero	34	pts
Scythe (double-handed weapon), light armour.
11 Grim Reapers with Standard Bearer	144	pts
Scythes (double-handed weapons).
1 Stone Thrower with 3 Crew	60	pts
Hand weapons
Total =	498	pts

As you'll see from the photo's, I've actually painted up a few more skellies than I've paid the points for, this is the beginning of my summoning bank (i.e. Skeletons I can summon up during the battle in various editions) and I've also added a Champion to my hand weapon armed Warriors that isn't in the list. My plan is to summon up their Champion at the beginning of the game and by taking a level 10 Necromancer I know I'll get correct spell as there are only 5 Necromantic spells for level 1 and Lothar gets 6 1st level spells, bingo, I defo get the right spell.

The only two regrets I have here are as follows:

1. My Standards are, whilst being unquestionably Oldhammer minis, just not quite Oldhammer in that they don't have big unruly banners. I plan to replace these guys in the future when I'm painted up some decent banners. Incidentally, the two Standards i have painted up look a little plain, that's intentional, I wanted them to look like flayed skin, not sure if it comes across.
2. No points for Screaming Skull Ammunition for the Catapult. Definitely a situation to be corrected in my next 500pts.

Righteo, am off to plan my next month's batch.

 

Snickit's Road to BOYL 2019 - A Tale of Four Gamers

I'm sure we all know what the phrase "Tale of Four Gamers" means. Some of you will of read the original series back in May 1997. It remains a favourite of mine and of many others to this day. There have been many incarnations of of this army building process since, both in White Dwarf and in Blogs. This is my, 3rd Edition, version..............................

Including myself our Four Protagonists are:

• Richard Legg - my BOYL army building competitor of the last two years. Richard built up his Orcs and Goblins to a grand horde of Greenskins.
• Geoff Solomon-Simms - Master sculptor extraordinaire, gaming wise I mostly know Geoff for his Fimir but he regularly turns his hand to many a project.
• Erny - My Brother and proprietor of Erny's Place who should be dusting off the cobwebs and inviting us all in again soon.

So, starting in September we plan to build up armies by adding 500pts a month for four months and by the end  of the year we'll have shiny new 2000pt 3rd Edition armies. Come BOYL2019 we'll have a big battle between us all.

You'll notice I have not yet stated which armies we have each picked, this is intentional, partially because I haven't double checked with each which army they have finally settled upon but also because I don't want to steal their thunder of their own big reveals. I can of course let in on my own choice.

I'm going Undead.

My reasons for picking Undead are two fold. Firstly Undead are one of top three favourite armies in Warhammer. My first flick through Warhammer Armies 3rd Ed had me interested in Skaven, Dwarves and Undead and whilst I never collected my own 3rd Ed army back in the day as I used Erny's as I was more into spending my pocket money on Transformers back then. I started thinking of buying my first army at what turned out to be the very end of 3rd Ed and then 4th Ed came along and I plumped for High Elves with their revamp. I did however retain my inkling towards the Undead Army and bought and gamed with Undead in 4th and they actually became my usual army of choice back then, mostly because they were cheap as chips plastics.

I never really painted them though back then. I did paint a Vampire Count army a while back for 6th but if I'm honest the Gothic feel of a Vampire Counts army never really had the same feel for me as a High Fantasy Undead Army and that is what I want to recreate.

My second reason for choosing Undead is my desire to run the 4th Edition scenario "Revenge of the Doomlord" scenario at BOYL2019. I keep promising to run this scenario at BOYL and this year I plan to deliver. My sneaky plan is to use the scenario troop roster as the basis of my 2000 point 3rd Ed Army. The point differences between 3rd and 4th are minimal and the army is the scenario is 2500 points with 750 points of that being Dieter Helsnicht astride his Manticore. There is also an army standard bearer on skeleton steed that can be a Death Rider standard bearer as neither of the units of cavalry in the scenario have a standard bearer..

So, what do I have to work with?

2 units of 5 Skeleton Horsemen, 1 Army Standard Bearer/11 Death Riders with Standard Bearer, 1 Wight Lord/Undead Champion.

25 Skeleton Warriors, 1 Wight Lord/Undead Champion.

24 Zombies, 1 Wight Lord/Undead Champion

12 Skeletons Crossbows

20 Ghouls

2 Carrion

2 Chariots

2 Screaming Skull Catapults.

I'll also need to paint up a unit of Grim Reapers to comply with 3rd Ed minimum troop requirements and some Necromancers (Dieter will be for the Scenario, I don't intend him to appear in my 3rd Ed army (rules wouldn't allow it anyhow)).

So, that's my plan, time to break out the brushes for my first 500pts for September............................

Three is the Magic Number

3

That's the Magic Number

Yes it is

It's the Magic Number


Oh and also this

OK, so BOYL was the next day and I needed to get some artillery painted fast so I cheated.

I'd had an idea a few weeks before to spray it all in the same Army Painter  Desert Yellow colour I'd been using for the wood of my weapons up until now but shirked away from that idea as a short cut that I didn't want to take as it would be cheating and wouldn't look right, it would obscure the detail (etc......) I sprayed them black and put them to one side, and the weeks ticked on and I just hadn't gotten around to painting them. Now time was almost up and I was going to have to head to BOYL with no artillery for my Dwarves..........................................

Like BUGGERY was I going to let that happen so I picked up the Desert Yellow Spray and hoped for the best.

And boy am I glad I did!

Spraying them and then just painting the detail was a master stroke. I think my gamble paid off and I'm really happy with the outcome.

Yes it's simple but it works and they drew lots of compliments at BOYL with people amazed at how easy the method was.

Time for me to toddle now but I hope to bring you a big run down of the whole army soon.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment if you'd be so kind.

An X-Rated Boody Call

The latest recruits for my Imperial Dwarf Throng are two units of the excellent Bood Wargames (http://bood-wargames.blogspot.com/) Crossbowmen.

X-bows are the primary missile weapon of the Dwarves  in 3rd edition and when your little legs only carry you 3 inches a turn having a weapon that can fire 30 inches is a massive plus.

As usual with Edouard's Dwarves these guys fit in perfectly with GW's Imperial Dwarf line. 

There are three variant models with three different helmet types, a basic round helmet, a kettle helm and a more morion type of kettle helm.

 
The crossbow is separate and needs gluing into the mini's open hands. There are three variants of crossbow too, one basic, another cocked unloaded and the third one is cocked and loaded.

I've started to run out of the obvious colors for halving the different unit's surcoats so these two units got Swooping Hawk Turquoise and Warlock Purple (well, they may be the Coates D'Arms versions).

These guys were really easy to paint and I think that happens with lovely sculpts which these definitely are. I've gone for a mixture of blonde, ginger, light brown, dark brown, black and grey beards to add a little individuality. I've painted the weapons a light colour because I read somewhere in an old white dwarf (possibly a McVey tip) that good races look right and proper with light coloured weapons and evil races work best with dark coloured weapons. Not sure if this works but I've always stuck to it.

My bases are Army Painter Leather Brown (this is mainly because they produce a 100% colour match spray paint for quick and easy painting of movement trays). I always stick sand/grit onto my bases after I've stuck my minis onto their bases. I stick the Mini's on with Loctite Gel and use PVA for the sand/grit. I then spray the mini and base (usually black but I use white for some cases such as my High Elves). I tend to use a mixture of Citadel, Foundry, Army Painter and Coat D'Arms paints although I do have a small number of Vallejo paints also. I also really love Army Painter Soft/Strong/Dark Tone Quickshade Ink Washes (not the dips, tried them, not for me) and even the Leather Brown base gets a go over with the Quickshade Inks. Once this is dry I dry brush AP Desert Yellow followed by AP Bone. Once dried I repaint the edges of my base AP Leather Brown. To finish off I stick on AP Mountain Tuft with Loctite Gel and PVA glue on some static grass in patches.

I haven't finished these units off yet as I want both units to end up being 20 strong with Champion, Standard Bearer and Musicians. I'm going to experiment with wedges for larger units once I've expanded the unit sizes.

 

I've almost completed my challenge (3000pts of Imperial Dwarfs with Baggage Train) and next up is my civi's for the aforementioned baggage train.

All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome 

Painting Block Break Through

With BOYL2018 fast approaching the painting progress on my 3rd ed Imperial Dwarves was about as rapid as a Longbeard dawdling through custard!

But at last a break through has occurred - and not a minute too soon either. I have a mountain to climb in painting terms and the Hold's name was rapidly becoming Karaz-a-Flattyre but no more, I present to you my latest batch of troops.

The first unit is a second unit of Bood Wargames excellent warriors with spears with a Citadel Hero, Standard Bearer and Musician. I still have the standard itself and their shields to finish off but as this unit has been a real blocker for the last few months I'm happy to call it done for now with finishing touches to be applied.

I love these guys as minis (I'm a big advocate of Bood Wargames' Dwarves) and it certainly wasn't the sculpts that put me off painting them. I don't know what it is but I have issues painting yellow and when I tried to break tradition and give Prince Ulther and his Imperial Dwarves a fresh yellow look I hit a brick wall too. Eventually I gave up on those and went back to the traditional red (albeit with a white halved surcoat). This time I vowed not to be beaten and they've been a clogging up my painting table ever since. I got myself a hole Saturday to paint the other day and finally got on with it. Sometimes I need that, a clear day and no more excuses!

|They still need a name and an "origins" story though.

My next unit has name and function already. Meet "Borri's Beaters". This unit are my skirmishers (yes Dwarves can have skirmishers also, either armed with crossbows or hand guns). I imagine these guys are the King's gamekeepers. They're lead by Chief Gamekeeper Borri, a wily old Dwarf who takes great  pride in his position.



I like these guys because with their over coats they look completely different to any other unit in my army. Initially I wasn't a fan of these minis but as I developed the idea of a unit of Dwarf skirmishers in my head and why they would be such an odd formation for Dwarves the minis and the concept seemed to fit together so snuggly that I could see them in my head. I'm pleased to say they turned out better than I expected.

I'm very proud of them.

Lastly here's a second Dwarf Wizard. Same model as my first but painted differently. My first represented a Gold Wizard but this chap is a Celestial (yes I know none of that matters in 3rd but you can't stop my mind working that way!).

I imagine this fella is an eccentric but likable chap that lives in the top of peaks of the King's mountains with a big observatory with a huge brass telescope and glass ceiling. More giggly than grumbly. Not a typical Dwarf at all.

That's it for now.

Plenty more to get done, a whole heap of crossbowmen (both Citadel and Bood) and lots of Artillery.

Here's to what I hope will be a productive few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment if you would be so kind.