Beastie Boys

One of the few things (about WFB 4th Ed) that bugged was that the Chaos book didn't allow you to (officially) take a Beastlord as your General. Obviously we can all ignore the restriction and do it anyway but still, it bugged me.

Whilst having a very private natter with my good buddy Mattias I stumbled upon the fact that you can take a Beastlord General using the White Armies book that came in the starter set for 4th Ed. These lists are great and are, by design, a bridge between 3rd and 4th and I love them.

So, here's a little Beastman force lead by a Beastlord as per the 4th starter army lists.

Now, for some rubbish rushed blurb - I promise to do better next time....................

Khardor slammed his mighty axe into the earth and brayed at the top of his lungs.

"What's going on?" He bellowed.

"Wha-aat do you mean great one?" bleated the old shamen Cracktooth.

"Wh-hy am I no-ot allowed to comma-hand the herds of the Cha-hayos Go-hods?" the massive Beastman demanded. "A-am I not strooooooong enou-huff?"

"Yeeeeeessssss yo-ho are my l-hord" Cracktooth replied.

"I haaaaave beeeen reeeeading the oldest of scrooooolls and I ha-ave found thaaaaat it is allooooowed"

Khardoor Bloodhorn turned to his second in command, the brutal Bestigor Gorehoof.

"Su-ummon the herrrrrd, we march to wa-ar to slay humans a-and feast on man-flesh".

Summut a Wee Bit Different

These boys were painted for a Birthday Bash (not mine). Not my usual sort of things but I used them to try to get to grips with Speed Paints (with mixed success) but lessons learnt here helped me with my High Elves.

The remote kingdom of Arsenduvnaewar is unfortunately also a troubled one. The passing of King Skagi the Grimacer has left no clear heir to the throne amongst his various bickering descendants, legitimate and illegitimate both.

I am Davald Oathsworn, my late father Adrik was promised the throne of Arsenduvnaewar when Skagi went to Vallhalla. Now the foolish Jarls of Arsenduvnaewar deny me my rightful throne, stating the promise was made to my father and not to me.

We will take the throne by blood if need be, we are coming, we will be honoured as we should be.

Rang-dang, diggity, dang-de-dang

I've painted up the mightiest of Elf troops - White Lions of Chrace. These models are my favourite incarnation of these Elves, they look like Elf “jocks”, strong and brutal, planting their feet in a wide stance and hefting their axes. Later versions of them missed the mark, looking more like some sort War Dancer variant.

I've gone with experimenting with Speed Paints to get a cleaner look to the High Elf Army I painted about 10 years ago and I plan on adding more units of other High Elves to these to create a cleaner looking "4th Ed Red" High Elf army.

Since these photos were taken I've repainted the red gems to green to fit with my Archers and Spearmen, these White Lions were actually painted before the other two units and my brain hadn't clicked that the green gems looked better as a spot colour at the time. As they looked so good on the Archers and Spearmen I went back and updated the Lions.

And yes, as ever, I still need to do the banner.

Now the blurb:

Moonlight illuminated the White Lions as they burst out of the trees, each warrior hefting a massive two-handed axe, bejewelled with gems that shimmered like captured starlight.

Their surprised prey, sleek figures in lacquered armour, turned to face them, their eyes full of malice. They shouted curses as they raised hooked blades to defend themselves.

“For the honour of the Chrace” cried the High Elf captain, Korhalen, pointing his axe at their dark kin.
The warriors surged as one. Their footfalls were quiet, but the moment they struck the Dark Elf line, the earth seemed to split with the force of the impact. Axes came down like falling comets - tearing through curved blades, biting deep into dark armour, sending enemies crashing into the dirt.

A Dark Elf assassin leapt for Korhalen, twin daggers glinting. With a twist of his shoulders, the elf captain let the strike slide past, then brought his axe around in a brutal sideways arc. The assassin’s blades clattered to the ground as he fell in two clean halves.

The battle became a storm of steel. The White Lions swung their mighty axes in sweeping, precise arcs, each strike shattering through armour and battering aside shields. The Dark Elves fought with poisonous grace, but they could not stand against the might of their elite kin.

Moments later, silence settled over the glade. The last of the Dark Elves collapsed, their dark armour staining the frost-bitten grass.

 

The carnage of the after battle was brutal, mutilated fell Elven bodies littered the floor of the forest clearing.

Korhalen planted his axe in the earth and surveyed the aftermath. “The night was theirs,” he murmured, “but the dawn is ours, our fallen kin, murdered by these deviants, have been avenged.”
Around him, his warriors raised their axes in silent salute, the first rays of morning glinting along their blades.

Fancy Elves

My quest to paint a cleaner, more 4th Ed High Elf army continues, most recent previous one was painted over 10 years ago, very quickly, before my Son was born and used Quick Shade Soft Tone, the result was quite a dirty looking army. It's time to put that right.

Over the course of painting these chaps up I have found that it's not just red, white and silver that's important to get that 4th Ed feel but green gems are what really does it!

Blurb time:

Goblin Warlord Grotfink Yellatoof looked down from the crags at the Elves making their way through his territory. Behind him Bungo Snortwort, his right hand Gobbo, was bouncing up and down with anxious excitement.

"Is we gonna krump 'em boss?" he asked his abusive master.

Grotfink cuffed his underling.

"Only when I sez so!" exclaimed the old Warlord.

"Looks at dem Bungo, dey so fancy wiv all der fancy gold an der fancy shiny coats an der fancy pointy sticks an der fancy gleamin gems an der fancy bows"

 Something whistled past Grotfink's ear

"An der fancy shootin.......... urghhhhhhh"

As Grotfink turned to look at Bungo, slumped on the floor, an arrow protruding from his chest, Grotfink felt a thud into his back, searing pain and then fell forward onto Bungo, his reign at an end.

The Tale of 4th Gamers Painting Challenge III Month 2

For my second month's offerings for the Tale of 4th Gamers Painting Challenge III I've added 5 Cold One Knights, 15 Witch Elves and a Sorcerer.

In terms of costings for the challenge this little lot cost me:

• 3 Cold One Knights = 10.00 gps
• 1 Cold One Standard Bearer = 4.00 gps
• 4 Witch Elves = 4.50 gps
• 4 Witch Elves = 4.50 gps
• 4 Witch Elves = 4.50 gps
• 1 Witch Elf Command Group = 4.50 gps
• 1 Sorcerer = 2.50 gps

Total Spent = 38.50 gps

I had 23.50 gps left over from last month giving me a budget this month of 48.50 gps. This gives me 10.00 gps to add to next month's budget.

The Cold One Knights and Witch Elves are both iconic Dark Elf units and I'm stoked at adding them to my army. I know "competitive" players say they're rubbish and not worth the points but I only care about the fact that they're awesome looking. They're the coolest Dark Elf units and the "Rule of Cool" is all that matters.

Both units are 3rd Ed Marauder sculpts and happen to be my favourite incarnations of both. What's cooler than lizard riders and chainmail bikini-clad death witches??????

The Sorcerer is a Citadel mini and was one of several candidates I could of added. The others may make an appearance later in the challenge. I wanted him to be a lower level Sorcerer so I felt this chap fit the bill model wise.

Narrative to follow at some point.........................

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.