The Tale of 4th Gamers Painting Challenge III - The Citadel of Bloody Hell

Over on the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Facebook Group I've begun a new "Tale of 4th Gamers" Painting Challenge.

As you may assume the format steals heavily from the "Tale of Four Gamers" series that was so popular in White Dwarf and has been replicated a lot in various ways by many bloggers and Facebook groups (and many other platforms I'm not on no doubt). My version is based on 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle and is what the 4th in name refers to.

The premise is to spend an imaginary budget of gold pieces (gp) each month on your army from a costings file (housed in the files section of the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Facebook Group) which is based upon the GW prices of the time (early to mid 90s) with a little weighting and logical changes to avoid discouraging horde armies. Models can be of any manufacturer or vintage but special smug/cool points can be felt for using miniatures available at the time. The only rules are 1) that you do not exceed your budget and 2) that you have a "legal" army at the close of each month (i.e. the usual rules, you have a General, no more than 50% spent on Characters, at least 25% spent on Rank & File etc....).

The first month you have a budget of 50gp from which you must buy your General (representing you) and your first batch of followers. Then, for the following four months you have a budget of 25gp to spend. You can roll left over budget from one month to the next and you don't even have to spend your whole budget, and this last point was important. In previous Painting Challenges I've had complaints that points requirements mean they can't keep up with the painting schedule. The structure I have put in place here means you can go at your own pace. So, if you want to paint a lot go for cheaper models and max your budget out. If you want a slower pace don't spend all of your budget or go for costly models.

So what new army am I working on? The dastardly Dark Elves! Fellow purveyors of Assassins as my beloved Skaven.

I've wanted to paint a Dark Elf army since I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battle that time in the early 90's where 3rd Edition was ending and 4th Edition swaggered in. It was Kent Martin's 1000 point Dark Elf Army from White Dwarf 144 that planted a seed that took root in some dark corner of my mind and kept nagging at me.

Subsequent Dark Elf ranges came and went, the 4th Edition Dark Elves never gripped me, they were OK, although I really don't like the Witch Elves with their huge weapons, and then the Dark Riders that were added to that range in 5th that rode those god awful Elven Steeds (sorry Trish) added to the "don't like pile meant they were a no no. Then came 6th and those bloody Cold Ones that looked like muppets, I didn't mind the rest of the range, some of them were really nice but the general feel of the whole range was different, somehow Manga like and that meant they were out too as they didn't "feel" right.

I wanted the old Citadel and Marauder Dark Elves that were available in 3rd Ed and most of 4th Ed and now, at last, after years of stock piling a bunch of those models I'm ready to build my Dark Elf raiding party. In keeping with my love of the late 3rd and early 4th stance I'm using the Warhammer Armies White List from the 4th Ed Warhammer Fantasy Battle Starter Box to build my Army, not Warhammer Armies Dark Elves which I feel experienced too much power creep. The White List is more the feel I want.

For my first month I've managed to paint a Lord riding a Cold One and 20 Warriors armed with Crossbows. In terms of Challenge Costings this means of my 50.00 gp budget I've spent:

• 1 Cold One Mounted Hero = 4.00 gp
• 20 Crossbowmen (5x4) = 22.50 gp
• Total spent = 26.50 gp
• Total unspent = 23.50 gp

This means I can roll 23.50 gp over into next month's budget. I didn't get as much painted as I'd hoped but I'll finish off what I began in a later month.

The narrative I'm building for this army is as follows:

Galeron Daas is the recent "inheritant" of the Lordship of House Daas of the Citadel of Bloody Hell after seizing power from his Brother who was recently found dead in his bed chambers, his sheets slick with blood spilled from his slit throat.

Along with his followers, the guards of House Daas, crossbow armed Dark Elf warriors, he plans to build his forces before sailing to the Old World to raid the coasts of the uncivilised realms of Men for wealth and slaves.

I'll continue this narrative with each successive month, the story of his army building and culminating in a battle I have planned against a Bretonnian army. 

Imperial Dwarf Throng of Karak Barak

It was Dwarf Month over on the 4th Edition Warhammer Facebook Group up until a couple of days ago so I did some up to date photographs of my Imperial Dwarf Throng of Karak Barak led by King Gilli Ironarm.

The Army is mostly a mix of Citadel Perry Imperial Dwarfs and Bood War Mini and the two sit side by side brilliantly. I've got a few more models to get painted up and I'll be doing that in the next few months for the second Tale of 4th Gamers Painting Challenge.

King Gilli Ironarm, flanked by two Runesmiths

The Trollsmashers - King Gilli's Hammerer Bodyguard.

Tale of 4th Gamers Month 3

Month 3 wasn't as hectic a painting schedule as Month 2 but I've still crowbarred in a significant amount of models and expanded the two armies fairly significantly.

Let's look at the Middenland Army first.

This month my Gold Piece spend was as follows:

	Month 3
	4	Knights	10.00			Budget	25.00
	1	Knight Standard Bearer	3.00			Carry Over	26.50
	1	Knight Champion	3.00			Actual Budget	51.50
	5	Pistoliers	15.00			Actual Spend	51.50
	12	Crossbowmen	13.50			Remaining	0.00
	1	Halberdier Command Group	4.50
	1	Hero	2.50
		Total Spend	51.50

I've made extensive use of Battle Masters figures again for speed/ease of painting reasons. I've stuck to the GP cost of what I'm planning on stuff being rather than real cost (Lord knows it wouldn't equate to 90's prices these days anyway).

This is my current Empire list:

	Characters
	Baron Ludolf Scholz of Wolfenstadt - Empire General	112	pts
	Double-handed weapon, hand weapon, heavy armour, barded warhorse.
	Captain Riek Blitzherz - Empire Hero	70	pts
	Double-handed weapon, hand weapon, heavy armour.
	Pawel Geiger - Champion of the Baron's Knights	43	pts
	Lance, hand weapon, heavy armour, shield, barded warhorse.
	Ostwald Stoisch - Champion of the Wolfenstadt Halbediers	34	pts
	Halberd, hand weapon, light armour.
	Characters Total =	259	pts
	Rank & File
	Knights of the Baron's Household - 5 Reiksguard Knights with Standard Bearer	234	pts
	Lances, hand weapons, heavy armour, shields, barded warhorses.
	The Baron's Cavaliers - 5 Pistoliers	110	pts
	Two pistols, hand weapons, light armour, horses.
	The Wolfenstadt Halberdiers - 22 Halberdiers with Standard Bearer & Musician	216	pts
	Halberds, hand weapons, light armour.
	The Wolfenstadt Bowmen - 12 Archers	96	pts
	Longbows, hand weapons.
	The Wolfenstadt Auxiliary - 12 Crossbowmen	96	pts
	Crossbows, hand weapons.
	Rank & File Total =	752	pts
	Army Total =	1011	pts

The first addition was a command group for the Wolfenstadt Halberdiers. I've used a metal Halberdier to represent Ostwald Stoich, a Champion who has a very similar breast plate and halberd as the plastics so I think I've matched them up well. The Standard Bearer is, if I'm honest, my least favourite of the two models available from the Perry range but as I had him and wasn't using him, in he went. The Musician is a Marauder sculpt that was released a little before the Perry Empire rebooted line, he's a little shorter but I see him as a veteran that doesn't want to give up the soldiering life. Maybe I'll call him Old Hanz.

The last addition to this unit, and mainly added to complete the ranks, is Captain Riek Blitzhertz, a Hero of the Empire, wielding great sword wearing heavy armour, very dashing indeed. He adds some much needed fighting capability should he survive long enough to use his always striking last +2 strength bonus sword. I may have to give him some low cost magic armour to try and keep him alive.

My next addition was the Wolfenstadt Auxiliary, cheap Battle Masters plastics that do well to fill out any Empire Army, especially from the time of 4th Ed. Twelve of them should be able to keep up a decent barrage of Strength 4 shot to keep the Orcs heads down. I may reinforce them with another eight later in the project giving the flexibility of a mega twenty man crossbow unit or two ten man units.

When it Knights of the Baron's Household I was really was in two minds about whether or not to add these chaps. I needed a unit to guard the Baron and I wasn't confident in Pistoliers doing the job. The whole point of doing Empire in this Challenge for me really was to get my units of Heavy Cavalry painted but I'm not ready to add my White Wolves, Panthers or Blazing Suns yet so I took the plunge and added more Battle Masters Knights to be "counts as Reiksguard" which I've already done for my Nordland army that this is Middenland Army will likely end up being a contingent in, representing troops sent by Boris Todbringer to aid the Army of Nordland.

Lead by a Champion and only being a small unit they serve a purpose as opposed to actually being something I was keen to add. A standard will follow, along with Wolf decals for the shields.

The final unit added to my Middenland army this month are some Pistoliers. They'll be mainly used for drawing out Fanatics in the campaign I'm planning - sorry chaps! I've already painted 10 Kislev Horse Archers and don't have a a vast cash reserve to use to buy more so Pistoliers get the nod in the suicide squad role.

Now, what about the Orcs?

	Month 3
	1	Orc Command Group	4.50			Budget	25.00
	1	Orc Standard Bearer	1.50			Carry Over	18.00
	6	Black Orcs	12.00			Actual Budget	43.00
	1	Black Orc Command Group	6.00			Actual Spend	43.00
	20	Night Goblins	10.00			Remaining	0.00
	1	Night Goblin Command Group	4.00
	1	Night Goblin Shamen	2.00
	3	Night Goblin Fanatics	3.00
		Total Spend	43.00

and their Army List:

	Characters
	Gordreg Deffmaka - Black Orc Warboss	144	pts
	Two hand weapons, light armour.
	Choppa Zawbutz - Orc Battle Standard Bearer	85	pts
	Hand weapon, light armour.
	Korg - Orc Boss of Da Bonekrakaz	36	pts
	Hand weapon, light armour, shield.
	Zobad - Black Orc Boss of Da Skull Smashaz	46	pts
	Two hand weapons, light armour.
	Boggin Stinkbreff - Night Goblin Big Boss	37	pts
	Halberd, hand weapon, light armour.
	Zoik Bong - Night Goblin Shamen Champion	83	pts
	Hand weapon.
	Characters Total =	431	pts
	Rank & File
	Da Bonekrakaz - 22 Orc Boyz with Standard Bearer & Musician	204	pts
	Hand weapons, light armour, shields.
	Da Shaftaz - 10 Orc Arrer Boyz	95	pts
	Bows, hand weapons, light armour.
	Da Blak Rodz - 10 Orc Arrer Boyz	95	pts
	Bows, hand weapons, light armour.
	Da Skull Smashaz - 14 Black Orcs with Standard Bearer & Musician	160	pts
	Two hand weapons, light armour.
	Da Shroom Untaz - 23 Night Goblins with Standard Bearer & Musician	75	pts
	Hand weapons, shields.
	Da Loonies - 3 Fanatics	90	pts
	Ball & chains.
	Rank & File Total =	719	pts
	Army Total =	1150	pts

My unit of Boyz, much like the Halberdiers, needed a command group. I've used a metal orc and tried to match up as best I can to the Boyz to represent Korg. It's a simple name as I don't expect him to last very long, he'll likely die early doors taking a challenge for his Warboss. The Musician is just the Musician available at the time but the Standard Bearer is one I'm rather chuffed with. It's a simple conversion but works rather well. The standard top is nabbed from a Goblin Standard Bearer that I had a spare of.

I've also added Choppa Zawbut to this unit, an Orc Battle Standard Bearer. he's the Orc Standard Bearer released in during 4th with an extended banner pole and a crossbar added which was stuck on with glue and then I added cotton which added strength and it's and attempt to to try and make it look like it's tied on with rope. I've always felt this model was rather well armoured for an Orc Rank and File model and wanted to elevate hm to Army Standard for many a year. Yes he needs the banner added but overall another simple but effective conversion.

My Black Orc unit went from 6 to 15 and added in a command group too. The Standard Bearer was a kind of rescue purchase off the Bay of E as he had no top/crossbar for his standard (not a complaint, I bought him like that) which helps to distinguish him from the Standard Bearer in my other unit of Black Orcs (that one has double-handed weapons). I'm still not convinced the unit is big enough to survive missiles and make a dent but I'm currently sourcing more models so hopefully I'll be able to add even more bodies soon.

Ere we go! Every 4th Ed army needs 'em - Night Goblins. Trippy little b*st*rds that deliver Fanatics, (no not in my Brother's case, except the time I expect them not to). I've already got loads of these guys painted up with either shortbows or spears (Battle of the East Gate anyone?) so really this is just a unit of left overs and double-handed wielding ones I was trying to build a unit of. They're lovely sculpts and iconically 4th Ed so I had to include some and the ability to take Fanatics is a good way of getting bang for your buck points wise. Sadly in real terms the cost a fortune so I'm unlikely to increase the size of this unit which is a pity but I'm happy to have been able to add this many and as I don't expect them to do much fighting I don't think it's a majorly big deal. Lurking in this unit is a Night Goblin Big Boss called Boggin Stinkbreff and the Night Goblin Shamen Champion Zoik Bong who I envisage will be tripping his way through the game......................................

Less hectic than last month but still quite busy.

Now to start my Narrative Campaign with these two armies and plan for the additions in November from my 25 Gold Pieces.....................................................................