The Battle of Dünstenstadt

A little self played game - The Battle of Dünstenstadt.

A game using the 5th Ed Campaign system but using 4th Ed.

The Forces of Count Frederiks of Frederiksburg (Empire) Vs The Horde of Gargrim Grimskull, Da Gitsmasha! (Orcs & Goblins).

Approx 2000 points a side.

The Orcs advance untroubled by Animosity, nor are the Troll's affected by stupidity. Grumblebert Rumpystink stomps into the Village Square, with the Shamen Lord Snotnoze Spiderlicker skulking behind.

The Warta Boyz advance ahead of Da Shroom Eads to screen for party poopers.

The Orcs and Goblins cause no casualties with their warmachines but there are no misfires.The only effective magic comes from the Bright Wizard Bernhardt Hitzemann. From up on his hilltop vantage point he sends firey projectiles from his Staff of Flaming Death to score a burning wound on one of Da Warta Boyz, the Trolls pass the resultant panic test but Grohl the Troll has had his regeneration mucked up by the fire!

The Empire battle line shuffles forward to allow the Kislev Horse Archers to redeploy and the Nordland Knights to give the Trolls something to think about.

Ghrol the Troll falls to Kislev Horse Archer, Crossbow and Hand Gunner shooting, unable to regenerate his wounds after being burnt. Drohl the Troll, having not been burnt, recovers two wounds and gets back up to stand alongside Flohl...............

.............only to turn tail and flee in panic!

A second unit of Handgunners takes aim at Da Ead Takaz

Killing 4! (They pass their panic test)

Da Shroom Eads, Da Ead Takaz and Da Stupendus Stunntie Stabaz all fail their animosity tests. Whilst the latter two squable, Da Shroom Eads surge forward, past the rallying River Trolls, they may just deliver their Fanatics towards the heart of the Empire Army at this rate!

Grumblebert Rumpystink charges towards the Archers who flee.

The Orc Artillery manages to kill one Hand Gunner. One Doom Diver disables the device taking all of this and next turn to fix and the small Rock Lobba falls apart and kills it's crew in a mishap with the firing mechanism!

Bernhardt uses his Staff of Flaming Death on Da Shroom Eads but Popit the Night Goblin Shamen plays "Rebound" at the Bright Wizard who "Escapes" to the Realm if Chaos which could well be a fate worse than death!

Heinrich Tierschützer, an Amber Master Wizard, is panicked by the fleeing Archers and heads towards the rear of the army.

The Pistoliers take up a point blank firing position outside Grumblebert Rumpystink's charge arc.

Old Boris misfires and will take a while to fix.

The Kislev Horse Archers, Crossbowmen and Hand Gunners fail to kill enough Night Goblins to panic them, only felling 5.

The Pistoliers take a wound off of Grumblebert.

A bad round of shooting for the Empire - the Cannon malfunction could be very painful indeed......................

Bernhardt the Bright Wizard returns from the Realm of Chaos

Popit releases the "Waaaaaargh!" across the battlefield. All of the Orcs and Gobbos beat their chests and scream at their enemy. Amazingly both Wizards manage to survive. Bernhardt has survived both rebounded fiery death and an angry green energy attack - he rolled a 1 in 6 chance and survived!

If he lasts the battle he'll be deserving of a medal.

Bernhardt then burns another Night Gobbo with the Staff of Flaming Death and they start to panic!

This Bright Wizard and his rather grim Magical Staff are the Empire's man of the match - he's stopped the whirling balls of death............

.....................or has he................

The Power of the Waaaaaargh! makes the Night Goblins think twice, the reroll keeps them in the game.
Bernhardt gnashes his teeth in frustration and Count Frederiks is heard to utter many expletives. They've thrown the kitchen sink at that unit of Night Goblins and failed to halt them!

The Halberdiers also flee Grumblebert's charge.

This may hurt!

And it did, all 5 Knights died along with 5 Spearmen of the Fredericksburg Militia!

The Count emerged unscathed................ for now.

The start of the Magic Phase saw Popit fail his Waaaargh! Test and forget his only spell.

Snotnose summons the Hand of Gork to chuck Da Shroom Eads into combat with the Kislev Horse Archers.

Bernhardt burns up a Fanatic before Snotnose drives Fireball from his brain in a Mental Duel.

Neither the Halberdiers nor the Amber Wizard pass their Rally tests, the Halberdiers flee the field, Heinrich stops mere strides from the edge of the battle.

Count Frederiks moved away from the Fanatics.

Bernhardt joined the Crossbowmen.

The Pistoliers fail to hurt Grumblebert Rumpystink but the Archers manage to wound him twice.

The Handgunners fail to bring down a Fanatic but the Crossbowmen succeed, leaving just the one alive.

The Night Goblins and Horse Archers kill an enemy a piece but the ranks and Standard beat the Horse Archers.

The Horse Archers flee and the Night Goblins pursue into the crossbows.

No animosity struck and the Trolls kept moving too.

The last Fanatic strangled himself with his own chain.

Grumblebert Rumpystink charges the Archers who flee but not far enough to out pace the raging Giant. Heinrich is in a lot of trouble here.

The Doomdivers have mixed results, killing 5 of the Fredericksburg Militia but also 2 Big''uns - Grimskull is not going to be impressed...............

Bernhardt confidently challenges the Night Goblin Shamen Popit, but sadly his over confidence is his undoing as Popit slides a dagger into his heart before he can bring his sword to bear.

Da Shroomheads fail to kill any of the Crossbowmen who slay a Night Goblin in return. Despite higher ground the Crossbows are beaten and they flee with the Night Goblins hot on their heels.

Snotnoze's brain felt funny but he kept his head. With him unable to cast, Popit not having any spells left and the Empire Wizards dead or fleeing, the magic phase was a washout.

Heinrich rallied and turned to face Grumblebert Rumpystink.

The Crossbows also rallied with the Night Goblins right up in their faces. The Horse Archers fled the field.

Dork's Tummy Rumblers and The Fredericksburg Militia charged forward, the Orcs, eager for combat, took the charge.

The cannon tried to snipe Rumpystink but whilst the cannonball flew straight and true, it failed to bounce.

The Pistoliers failed to wound Rumpystink also, and one Handgunner unit wounded one of Da Warta Boyz.

Dork's Tummy Rumblers only scored two wounds (despite 5 attacks hitting and only needing 2+ to wound) and the Fredericksburg Militia fluffed their attacks. In response Ugluk Da Choppa, Champion of Da Ed Takaz scored two wounds on the Ogres and Gitsmasha made a pulpy mess of the Fredericksburg Militia's Champion in single combat. Gorks Stompaz, powered by the Battle Stone of Le Marquis, slaughtered the front rank of Spearmen.

The Ogres held their ground but the Militia broke and fled, out pacing the Gitsmasha and his Big'uns but the Orcs momentum crashed them into Count Fredericks.

With that the game was effectively over but I thought I'd see if Count Frederiks could survive.
He challenged Gitsmasha in a desperate gamble to survive.

Gitsmasha was armed with a double-handed weapon so Count Frederiks struck first, he hit with two attacks and then wounded with both attacks meaning that, as he was armed with a Rending Blade, Gitsmasha fell!

The Big'uns lost the combat by 1 but didn't waiver, rolling 3 for their break test.
As night fell Count Frederiks set about fighting the odds to try to survive against the unimpressed bully boys.

The Odds & Sods Painting Challenge - Month 4 - Instruments/Machinieries of Destruction

Nogchuck snorted until a snot glob hit the back of his throat. He was sure his calculations were correct, "dat way for a long way"as usual. He attached his lever to the release mechanism and pulled down with all his pitiful might. With an almighty "THWANG" the great arm of his beloved rock lobber sent a deadly projectile over the battlefield towards the Dwarf lines off in the distance. His cruel heart sank as he saw the stone land just in front of the naked crazed mob of orange haired gits who swore at their hated foe, quite rightly calling their lineage into question.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" laughed Nogfling, his brother who bossed the second Goblin Rock Lobber "Gotta do better Bruv" he said through giggling fits.

"Go on den, show 'im if ya can" bellowed Grotslug, Boss of the Skull Chucka.

As if to underline the point he and his team sent a rock flying into the Slayers, crushing three of them.

"Easy" replied Nogfling unconvincingly.

He cranked his firing lever, but instead of a "THWANG" all present heard a "SNAP" as the tension on the rope was too great and it snapped and the load was sent way off target.

Nogchuck looked at Grotslug and they both fell about the place laughing their heads off whilst Nogflung ranted and raved at his crew.

Odds & Sods Painting Challenge Month 3 - "Grandeur"

To my mind there are two models that stand out as being the finest ever sculpted and cast by Games Workshop. A lot of people will disagree with my conclusion but I think most will at least be able to see why I believe it (even if one friend of mine will say they're a bit 2D as sculpts go).

Tyrion and Teclis are as Grand as it gets in my book and here are my humble attempts to paint the duo in an interpretation of Mike McVey's outstanding paint scheme. I'm certainly not the painter he is, nor do I have the skill of Joshua Van Z who also recently painted up this pair and produced sublime results. I really struggled with them. My skills are mass producing table top standard armies, not in fine painting individual models but I've done my best and am happy and proud of the results, however, even the most unobservant of you can not help to notice the lack of freehand work on Tyrion. On this I must admit to my failings and shortcomings. It is not through lack of trying that the Dragon and Hearts are missing, I tried many times but my childish scrawl detracted from this magnificent model so I abandoned my attempts. Who knows maybe in years to come I'll go back and right the wrong. (For the record, Mike only painted the Dragon on one side, see below).

So to the background:

Malhandir whined and shook his head.

"Stay old friend, we've faced far worse" reassured Tyrion, Chosen of the Everqueen.

"Indeed we have Brother" came a reply unlooked for.

Tyrion knew the voice well, he turned to see the High Loremaster emerging from the forest.

"Teclis, it is good to see you, do I guess correctly the reason for your summons?".

"Yes dear Brother, Horath, the Revanant King, has returned to the Shifting Isles" replied Teclis.

"So be it" answered Tyrion "After some 30 years the hunt for the accursed Undead must continue in the Elven lands".

Snorta & Grunta

Here are my recently finished Boar Boyz, my offering for Orctober along with Faegit, my Orc Shamen, on his new Boar.

In 3rd Ed one unit will be Snortaz and the other will be Gruntaz, in 4th and 6th they'll both be Boar Boyz.

A Gathering of Mighty Painters - Month 7 - The Final Month

Running-Nose looked at Squatting-Troll the Shamen.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yes Boss" replied Squatting-Troll, "Outside Big Boss come, he lead us to big battle, we kill many Gobbos".

Running-Nose smiled, the Blue Man Goop Tribe had been itching for a good scrap for ages. He watched as the large Orc army shambled into their Village.

The large Orc at it's head stoped and bellowed.

"I iz Gorfang Rotgut, Chieftan of da Redfang Orcs an I iz lukin fer Boyz wot iz up fer a scrap"

"Me iz Running-Nose, Chief of da Blue Man Goop, meez Boyz iz gud fytaz, mee seez da lotta Boyz yu av, meez boyz joinz youz so youz don't krump uz."

"Gud!" exclaimed Gorfang.

"Meez got Petz too" said Running-Nose, pointing towards the river beyond the village.

Gorfang was intrigued and walked with Running-Nose (and a large number of Orc Bodyguards) to the banks of the river.

Running-Nose stopped and, beating his chest" let out a loud call:

"Waaaaaa-aaaaaarrrrr-ggghhhhhhh"

Gorfang watched as bubbles appeared on the surface of the river, three large heads broke the surface and gurgled at Running-Nose.

"Weez go huntin' now" said Running-Nose.

Three monsterous River Trolls emerged from the water, drippng with putrid slime.

"Oh yez" gleamed Gorfang, "dese will do nicely" rubbing his hand together.

Oh heck, I never did finish this post, I found it unposted on my blog admin page - D'oh!

Well here it is.

I should really have my thoughts about the challenge,

But it's so far past the end of the challenge now,

That it seems a bit pointless,

Or rather,

I can't be arsed, so,

I'll let you look at the "pretty" pictures instead,

and if you don't think they're pretty,

the you're probably right.

And here's the final army:

At some point I need to play out the final outcome of this - Gorfang Vs Skarsnick and when I do report back on the battle.

So this was heaps of fun to do and I will do another, but maybe not a full army painting challenge for a yea as I'm pretty burned out painting two such armies in a year.

The Odds & Sods Oldhammer Painting Challenge Month 2 - Heroes.

I have to be honest, Richard threw a curve ball in here by choosing Heroes. I was expecting another unit to paint AND I was planning to do something for Orctober. As a point of note, I'm not complaining at Richard's choice, it was a perfectly good one, but my painting doesn't really focus on individuals, I'm a believer in "everything counts in large amounts" so paint for mass impact through knocking out table top standard armies at an alarming rate.

My initial plan was to paint up Morglum Necksnapper on a Wyvern. I've wanted to "convert" this model up for years and had mixed emotions when Harry Howells beat me to it. I'd love him to show off his conversion at some point. It's an awesome sight but I was disappointed he beat me to it.

I have a spare Wyvern but got lazy and decided against it for now.

When I first envisaged this challenge it was about finishing off abandoned projects (which ironically Morglum on a Wyvern now is for me) so I decided to finish off an older project I'd already started a couple of years ago.

So here they are - Gotrek & Felix (and Gotrek & Felix).

I can't think of a more Heroic pair in GW history. These two don't lead a massive army and they aren't from epic origins. There's a disgraced Dwarf who happened upon a mighty runic axe and a merchant's son. They're outlaws who fight to defend the world that rejects them. Thanks to Bill King for creating favourite characters in GW History.

Now, the elephant in the room - why are there two sets?

I have two Dwarf Armies painted up, one is an Imperial Dwarf Army made up of Perry Imperial Dwarfs and Bood War Mini models that is my "main" Dwarf Army. I also have a second one, that's more 4th Ed made up of late 3rd Ed Marauder sculpts that were the models used for 4th Ed and Black Tree Design Dwarfs that...... ahem "more than typed a nod of the hat" to the Marauder Dwarf Range. These Dwarfs have more of a "Clan" feel to them. I decided to distinguish them by painting the Marauder/Black Tree army with Goblin Green base rims in the 4th Ed style. The Imperial Dwarfs had brown base rims in honour of Wayne England's Longbeards. Obviously this meant I HAD to paint up a pair for both armies to complement the base rims.

This also means I'm trying to get get consistency across both pairs (apart from the base rims) and that's how I circle back to being an "Army Painter" rather than an individual figure painter. I may not have painted up fantastic individual models but this pair of pairs should be, on the whole, consistent between both pairs.

Now a bit of fluff that I hope Mr. King will not be offended by, as he's the only author I accept penning tales of these two:

“Keep up Manling” the Slayer boomed, “We have to get to Karak Eight Peaks before that cursed Snotling fondler does”.

Felix breathed deeply, he really struggled with the mountain terrain but he knew the Slayer was right. It had been two days since they’d come across the Goblin Wolf Riders. Gotrek had fallen upon them and torn them apart. During the melee one of the Goblins had let slip that the local Night Goblin Warlord was amassing Greenskin mercenaries to bolster his following with a view to make an attack on Belegar and his defenders.

Knowing King Belegar’s numbers were low the Slayer and his human ally were rushing to their aid, praying they weren’t too late to bolster the defence and inform the King that he needed to be ready for the green tide to descend.

Having been to Eight Peaks before they knew the defenders had occupied one of the many outlying keeps to the main city and they raced against time to arrive before the siege began.

“If there’s one thing I hate more than Night Goblins it’s Night Goblin Warlords who shave off Dwarf beards to humiliate them” bellowed Gotrek, “and I will not let that damned spawn of the thrice accursed Green Gods wipe out my Kin”.

The Odds & Sods Oldhammer Painting Challenge Month 1 - The Humble Infantry.

Presenting the Fredericksburg Militia - the Seahawks. Erzatsolder in 3rd Ed, Spearmen in later editions.



This particular Fredericksburg (a popular settlement name in the Empire) is situated a short distance inland from the Nordland coast. The local Count, Albrecht Von Frederick is an aged man who, whilst he maintains a Knightly Bodyguard, uses a Militia to guard the town to save his coin. The town is a typical Empire frontier town, protected by a wooden stockade rather than a proper stone wall.

The Seahawks guard the town, and the coast, from invaders from the North and the dark woods to the south. Whilst not exceptionally skilled fighting men the Old Count does insist on the Sergeant, Heinze Nuln, ensuring there are plenty of bodies within Nuln's spearmen's ranks.