STRENGTH 10

'cause that's what these bad boys have going for them.

Painting crewmen is not particularly interesting/rewarding, since the only time those lads are being used, so to speak, are when they are removed from the table after a mishap involving explosions, fleeing and/or gory rending of human flesh. Despite this, I managed to get my cannons re-painted to match the color scheme of the army. Next, greatswords.

Machine of Destruction

My apologies to all readers too as I recently been pretty lazy with painting and updating this blog. Some may call it real life, but I say it's hell. How some people manage to work, study, eat, sleep, play with their kids, watch tv and do all other activities at the same time? And top of that, have their minimum spare time put into wargaming ? Those people are real heroes.

But back to business. Actually I have already painted the Steam Tank shown above, but as everyone might guess, I had to give the camera away again. It was relly nice painting it, and quick too. The W.I.P picture doesn't show the base yet, but the old Tank looks really silly when put on 120 x 80 base. Next week, and I promise, next week, there will be pictures of finished metal monstrosity.

Here in Finland there's coming a major Warhammer Tournament Fanatic 4 in Helsinki in few weeks. We had a few test games with Anssi, and I have to say that Steam Tank might suck a lot. Recently it was pitted for almost whole game against a unit of Skaven Clannrats, who beated it with their static resolution even the thing had 4 Sp-powered charge hitting home, and finally blown into bits by Warp-Lightning Cannon. Let's see how does it fare agains a Dragon-pumped Chaos army I'm facing today, and later next week, how does those Praagengaardian scumbags stand against might of Virostania!

- Jami

heavy duty

Bigger guns and heavier armor, ready for war.

Ok. Let's get this clear: The_blog_is_*not*_dead. It might appear to be in a state close to comatose to a watchful - and yet hasty - eye, but to claim anything of that sort is a nothing less than unfounded speculation, based on a mere week (or two); A measure of time way too short to base observations on. The blog is alive, as I got my shit together after moving to a new apartment.

There's some greatswords and two cannons to bolster my ranks (and to over-fill by special slots) and here's two characters to lead the mighty horde:

-a

Teppo Tulipallo's smaller brother, Teuvo, and Brunhilde, the scary priestess of Sigmar.

More Adventures On The Road of Blood

"Reiksguard, you have failed me one last time!"

"The Praagengaardian troops have secured the only road leading to Virostania and left a small garrison to keep any intruders away. Unfortunately for Baron Maxim, the road was closed just before his beloved wife, Lady Svetlana, had returned from her trip to Middenheim. Escorted only by small band of troops, a small skirmish occured and she was captured by no other than the notorious bandit and grand nuisance of Virostania, Captain Grigorus. Now, the Pragengaard demands ransoms from Baron Maxim, and he has a tought choise to make: save her wife or give up the family Runefang?"

Today we played with Anssi a scenario from 5 th. edition Siege supplement, the Starve Out, with armies of 650 p. (Anssi) and 500 p. (me). The compulsory supply wagon represented Lady Svetlana's royal cart which was promptly smashed into tiny bits by Leadbelchers and Captain. The game was fun to play, and we also saw Anssi's new and cool-looking (how can a man without pants be cool?!) Flagellants cruising their way through Halberdier detachment, Reiksguard Infantry and my Captain finally stopping into three Handgunners. The Reiksguard once again let me down, and I'm NOT including them in next scenario.

Tomorrow I'll have the camera back and take some pictures of the old War Wagon and W.I.P Mechanical Steed. Watch this space..

- Jami

god; it is done

Sometimes a man is called by a greater force - Destiny, perhaps - to overcome his limits to archieve something greater. Indeed, my hour has come. For today's job, I should be taken to Valhalla, sitting behind a busty valkyrie riding a fucking pegasus.

.. by which I mean to say, I finished project flagellant. I do have to base them still, though.
I have to say I'm fairly satisfied with their quality, especially considering the frame I was working in. They've got that sort of apocalyptic feel I wanted.

Now some rest, I've got 15 greatswords to paint.

-a

Banners W.I.P

Recently I have been painting some banners as my inspiration for the White Wolves got lost. I wasn't too happy about the colours I chose, and left them alone for a time being.

Well, these banners are actually just printed Empire banners and given the colours of Virostania. I call this technique "Lazy-Man's Freehand", but to be honest, I doubt that I had such a skill drawing a good-looking Griffon on a paper not to mention paint it!

Other paintings look good too. Now I have painted enough troops to wield an army around 1250 points. I wish I could include some Ogres or Dwarves (The Imperial ones!) in my army as it expands. I have to wait my next salary and see where I put my money..

- Jami

a blue man! with no arse!

I don't know how that color happened. Nor do I know how he shits.

Two flagellants painted and ready to go! The desperation I have been rolling in since last weekend when I failed to paint many miniatures has gone, partly because we decided with Jami to skip next week's campaign game and try out our tournament lists for practice - and to get some real man-on-man 2000-point -action going on.


And as to what happened last game; I won! It was an exciting, though small, game, won by my pistoliers, who obliterated Jami's counterparts in one turn. (I had to shoot the last man on second turn, but practically in one turn.) I was a bit scared when Jami's knights refused to die to a withering hail of S4 ap fire, but in the end they were crushed by my leadbelchers in cc. While this was taking place, Virostanian foot kinghts proved their worth by fleeing after their first loss, allowing me a flank charge which practically decided the game.

Now I'm entitled to a bonus of either 75 points or an extra character slot. Lucky boy.

-a

Scenario Three: The Road of Blood

Meanwhile the Runefang was captured by Virostanian troops and is on its way to hands of Baron Maxim, lots happens in woods nearby.

Unknown of each others precence, two small patrolling forces of Pragengaard and Tallinburg meet in thickness of forest and battle ensues...

Overall: This scenario takes place in wilderness, where two small patrol confort.

Forces: 750 p., one Hero-level character, no war machines.

Set-Up: Place road from table's one end to another, and arrange troops there in column written before battle. Also place some random terrain on both sides of the road.

Lenght: Six turns, normal VP chart.

The winning side succeeds bringing information about active enemy troops in territory to his Lord. This threat must be dealt with severe punishment! A winner of this scenario can bring ONCE extra 75 p. of troops OR have one additional Hero-level character-slott in any following scenario except the last one.

baby steps

Allrighty. Three more swordmen painted, so I've now reached thirty, which is the critical number required to wield a full unit with detachment, which - they say - is the shit. I think I'll be missing five to ten more in future, but I'm going to postpone such realities as long as possible. It's about that thing I mentioned earlier, responsibility dodging.


There's also some new flagellants coming. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this, though my bits box is not nearly as large as I would've wanted. I shall triumph, though. A few more, and some serious bad-ass painting and there we go, a unit of ten ready to go. Though I really should get those outriders ready as well. It's a world of decisions.

About tactics; I own more guns than needed to wield an offensive army of the like I would want, so perhaps I should focus on making a defensive one. Some points that support this:

- I have 20 painted handgunners with marksmen and 2 cannons
- I'm building a small-ish unit of flagellants and I just bought 15 greatswords; both tarpit units with some hitting potential but not enough numbers to survive crossing the table against enemy shooting
- My 30 swordmen are not enough for attacking, unless I ditch the detachment
- A warmachine (hellblaster or -storm) is quick to build, thus making the army truly capable for proper long distance damage -type of defense.

I do need a unit of crossbowmen for that extra 6", and I even have an ambitious idea for modelling them. I am excited about this idea. Inspired, if you will, but I do need more parts for it. And more time, for that matter.

Story goes on, and so does the paintings.

In above picture you see the hero of last match, Father Boris Smirnov and some Arhcers too. I tried to paint Father in more lighter colours (using white undercoat instead of black) to stand out from normal rank-and-file soldiers. I'm guite impressed with this one's painting, actually. Maybe my skillz are improving. :)

Unfortunately I had too little time due school and work to finish my White Wolves. They also are fun to paint, but last night I started to thinki that they may not fit well into my army's overall theme. Fortunately, in the end I came along with the idea that if I could paint an add-on force of fierce-looking warriors of the forest! Yeah! As I already have some Archers painted, I could paint a Beast Wizard and some Kossars if Anssi let's me use 'em without taking allied contignent.

Speaking about last battle, that was a little short one and unbalanced for Anssi. In small battles like this it may be too advantageous to have as much as 100 p. more than your opponent. Plus, the Warrior Priest and his prayers were too good compared to Anssi's level 1 Wizard, trying to cast a spell with only one die. Add bad dice rolls (like his nine Swordmen charging my eight Halberdiers, he kills none and my troops overdo themselves and kill three) and there we had it. But no need to panic! When we at the first hand started this Campaing, we both knew that unbalanced games will commence.

For next scenario I have a few thought that I should discuss with Anssi. Battle for the lost Runefang rages on!

- Jami

it ain't easy

Look what I have to work with. I mean, really.

My disastrously low budget was not at all improved when I bought a group of greatswords from a fellow forum member. Now I'm at a crossroads: I have flagellants to make and greatswords to paint. I decided on continuing on my chosen path, and basecoated my first flaggies, as well as outriders and a few characters black. I'll try to keep cutting up more religious lunatics tomorrow, from stuff such as seen in that picture above. Below is a picture of a terrain-piece-diorama I created for my swordmen. It was a nice idea. I remember it was.


Anyways. We played our second game yesterday, not much to say about it, except DAMNATION. Those bloody Virostanians just marched over my troops. Nothing terribly exciting about it, I'm afraid. Next, I think we're about to have a 750 -point game with proper (small) regiments.

-a

i have come prepared

A 400-point force ready to.. umh, you know. The picture shows 5 men too many, by the way.

Why oh why did I promise to Jami to field a lvl 1 wizard in the next game, and promise him to have a warrior priest? And why on earth have I not painted any repeater handguns, more swordmen or any other useful stuff?

The answer lies in this picture:

Yes, I have been making flagellants. That's right. Besides, I spent some quality time with good ol' reality last weekend, and was unable to get anything done with miniatures.

But on to my list:

Battle Wizard Bobrikov
2 x 9 swordmen
3 x 5 handgunners (2 long rifles)
1 ogre leadbelcher

Here's the thing: My skilled fire wizard won't get any flaming balls off, as long as that pesky warrior priest is on the table. I will have to lead the attack with the ogre and swordmen, and get a situation where I can potentially kill the warrior priest (if he appears, that is). Then I am free to start throwing that 5+ casting throw with one die - I suppose we'll have to agree on having only the dice our characters provide.

Oh my.
-a

scenario 2

The Runefang has been found, but the treasure hunters are not allowed to retreat in peace. Virostanian troops have laid ambush on their way back, and now they must fight their way out of the trap.

Overall: The Runefang has been found, but the treasure hunters are not allowed to reatreat in peace! Forces of Virostania ambush the Praagengrad force, who must penetrate their line to escape. A breaktrough scenario, in other words.

Forces: As in last scenario, except for size: The unit trying to break trough has 400 points, the defender 500.

Set-Up: Place ruins, rubble, broken furniture, etc. all around the battlefield in mutual agreement. The Praagengrad force starts in a temple or some other larger building, where they have discovered the Runefang. Each Praagengrad unit gets a counter with different color - one of them is secretly the Runefang, which must reach the opposing table edge to be carried to safety!

Objective: For the Praagengrad force to break trough on the Virostania side, carrying the Runefang to safety. Virostania must capture the Runefang, and carry it off the table.
Counters: When a unit carrying a counter is killed or driven away, any Virostanian unit in b-t-b-contact with it may inspect it - if it is the Runefang, the counter is given to the inspectors and all other counters are removed from game.
Turns: The game lasts until all of enemy warriors are slain, or the Runefang has been carried of the table.

It's a chaos out there!

I've been frantically painting miniatures. I'm not exactly in hurry, at least for the next game - I'm positive that I can summon 400 pts worth of painted miniatures by next week. It's the future I'm worried about, no matter what proverbs say. I'm afraid that when I'm supposed to ready a 2000-point force in one week I will be in deep manure, unless I start preparations now.

My vision - I do have one - includes a band of flagellants. These, however, are not something I actually own. Or have enough money to buy, for that matter. The solution lies in my uncanny crafting skills! I dug out my spare parts box, some mishapen (and mispainted) militia I had floating around, and began the Project Flagellant. Here are some early pictures - I'm not entirely sure whether I've embarked on a collision course with Reality, but I replace my lack of optimism with blind faith.

Thoughts about last battle..

Rats! So I lost the first one. But no matter, we still had a blast as the game was more than enternainig for such a small skirmish. And a close one too. Like Anssi said, he only had two Foundry Guards standin after the battle.

Anyway, painting plans for the next scenario. We agreed last time, that Anssi would include in his army a Wizard and I a Warrior Priest. Maybe it's time for Father Boris Smirnov to be painted. And as I only collect old mini's, a suitable miniature for a Hero like Father Boris is Warhammer Quests' old Warrior Priest. I have to say that I really like the model and I'm over-anxious to get it painted. I'll also try to paint some more Halberdiers, a few Archers and if time is by my side, some old metal White Wolves as I have access to mounted troops in next scenario.

Plus, a good friend of mine has agreed to loan her digital camera to me. So more pictures from my project too follows sooner or later! :)

- Jami

Hurrah Praagengrad!

As the last Virostanian halberdiers fell with their bodies punctuated by handgun fire,
the victory belonged to the Praagengrad gunners.

Sweet scent of victory! It was a bloody battle with only two handgunners left alive to drag the beaten body of captain Grigorus back home, and to tell the important message: The Runefang has been found! Now starts the preparation of the second scenario, but here's a brief synopsis of the battle that took place in Helsinki Fantasiapelit today:

Here's the starting situation. My troops in the bottom left corner, the forces of Virostania up right. Six counters were distributed around the center, with about 10-12" between each. We decided to alter the rules, and to battle about the possession of all six counters to find the location of the hidden Runefang.

The main battle took place on the right side of the table. My foundry guard and hired cut-throats managed to capture three counters before Jami had a chance to react, but then I took a risk, and charged Grigorus alone against a group of halberdiers.


As both he and two groups of swordmen were driven away - Grigorus even managed to get overrun by the lowly Virostanian state troops! - I began to worry, but after few well-placed volleys of handgun fire, I had turned Jami's troops to flight.




The last acts were the battle between both side's handgunners, with only few fighters still limping around. Turned out that my gunners were better. (Or more numerous, perhaps. With only two gunners standing in the end, only I knew the location of the lost Runefang! Mwahhahha!


My handgunners deserve a rise, but those lowly criminal swordmen! A buch of good-for-nothings, I tell you.

-a

first scenario

It does what?

Jami wrote the first scenario. Tomorrow's the big day.

Scenario One

”Adventure Begins”

Early morning mist engulfed ruins of once mighty Fort Gradenhof. Sun was just rising, casting harmless but terrifying shadows over Grigorus´s camp. The only sound in the air was a lone wolf´s last sad call for company and rustling of leaves in soft morning breeze.

One of Captain´s men had found a breach in the wall and stairs further down into the halls of the fortress. Stretching his arms and giving a relaxed yawn he nodded to his men to ready themselves for oncoming adventure. Who knows which evil spawn of Chaos sleeps in those ruins or what foul magicks lure them into madness?


Captain Stojkovich had a bad morning. Last night he was waken by fool servant of that fool and selfish Baron to do some ridiculous task, but as a man of duty, he had obeyed. After short brief given by his liege, he had gathered a handful of his most trusted men and ventured into the wilderness following the ancestral map left to Baron Maxim by unknown stranger. Just before sunrise his Hunters had found what they were looking for, the ruins of Fort Gradenhof. Leading his men into the ruins and further down into the dark halls, they saw a dim lantern light shining nearby. “Ready yourself, men. We are not alone, and they know it too.”


Overall: First scenario of Epic saga takes place in ruin of Fort Gradenhof, a fortress run over by Archaon’s minions but later abandoned for unknown cause.

Forces: Two small warbands, around 300 p., only one Hero, no magic items. All models operate in skirmish formation, but shooting don´t suffer -1 to his against these. All units can be 5+ strong and rally even if under 25 % of original size.

Set-Up: Place ruins, rubble, broken furniture, etc. all around the battlefield in mutual agreement. Then put six counters (stones, marbles, etc.) into these ruins.

Objective: To discover hidden treasure, which is nothing else than the 13th Runefang!
Counters: When warrior enters in base-to-base contact with counter, roll a Dice. If roll is 6, he has found the fabled Runefang and can field it straight away! Ad +1 to the die roll after each revealed counter (ie. +1 if the counter is second to be “captured”, +2 if third, etc..). A warrior can give the Runefang to Warbands Hero if he is in b-t-b contact with him. Should the Warrior be slain, leave the Runefang in place to be further captured by another warrior.
Turns: The game lasts until all of enemy warriors are slain, or retreated of the table.

Winner of this scenario will capture the Runefang to be delivered to his Master and can equip his Lord Character with it with no additional points cost or reductions in their magic item allowance. Truly amazing prize and worthy objective for whole campaign!

-Jami

a job of epic proportions

A great thing about campaigns and blogs is that they encourage you to do some serious bad-ass painting on your miniatures, which normally tend avoid the soft touch of brush like it was coated with battery acid. Actually it's just in my head, but I have a strict dogma for dealing with troubling situations in my life, and it includes a lot of responsibility dodging.

I've been painting in short seasons, but now's the time to get serious. I can do a footman in an hour, which is a fairly good pace. Having nearly 1000p at the ready, only a couple of painted figures I had quickly assembled a ready 300-point skirmish force for Jami to deal with:

Captain Grigorus (50) 60
- Full plate (8)
- Shield (2)

Cuthroats 90
5 Swordmen (30)
5 Swordmen (30)
5 Swordmen (30)

Foundry guard 145
5 Handgunners (40)
5 Handgunners (40)
5 Handgunners (40)
- Marksman (5)
- Hochland long rifle (20)

295

No specific tactics, really. I'm a bit worried that he might swamp me with more infantry than I can shoot, but I'm hoping scare his hero away with the long rifle to buy me time.

More pics of my ready army can be found here.

-a

jami's fluff

Despite the lack of decent camera, the forces of Virostania are ready fow war!

”The fine land of Virostania lies between the cities of Erengrad and Middenheim, to north of the Middle Mountains at shore of Sea of Claws. This small providence is ruled by none other than infamous Baron Maxim von Tshanov, or “The Blood Count” as he prefers to be called. This is supposed to terrify his (many) enemies, but the townsfolk see the irony in name; Baron Maxim is always making general nuisance of himself in provinces nearby and picking blood of one’s nose. Still, skilled in arts of intrigue, warfare, politics and rare wines, Baron Maxim is a versatile opponent both in social happenings and in the battlefield.

After the Warlord Archaon’s dreadful incursion to the Old World the Empire was left burned and scarred and its people starving to death with no shelter whatsoever. Luckily, the Province of Virostania didn’t feel the impact of the invasion almost at all, if not counting occasional Beastman rides on swede fields and messengers from other Counts begging help against foul forces of Chaos. Unfortunately, most of the messengers got “lost” or are ambushed or eaten by the Beastmen, which live in the surrounding forests of Virostania´s capital village Tallinburg.

Not too many nights ago, an unexpected visitor arrived at doorsteps of Baron Maxim. The sinister black-hooded man didn’t introduce himself, but was wearing sigils and wards of Sigmar and carrying Imperial Messengers heraldry. Not saying a word, he left a scroll and galloped into the night with haste.

It was sure that this scroll was not ordinary Imperial letter, but a map, written in runes of ancient powers. And as astonishing as it seemed to Baron Maxim, one of the runes resembled a lot of old Virostanian herald and his family´s insignia.

“Darling, it may be a good idea to go to a bed now, it seems that you have important day tomorrow.”, said her wife, Svetlana, who had entered the room suddenly. “It may be so, my love, it may be so.”, answered the Baron thoughtfully. “Servant! Contact Captain Stojkovich, I have a dangerous job of most sinister nature for him.”

And so begins the story of Baron Maxim, the General of my new Empire army. As Anssi had written above, we decided to have a narrative campaign in this Spring and bring our Empire forces to around 2000 points, painted. As the new Empire armybook was released today (13.1.2007) here in Finland, it is perfect opportunity to playtest all the new stuff during the campaign, although I doubt I newer see the lightning bolt horse on battlefield, not to mention my painting desk.

Little about my painting schedule and army composition then, shall we? I have always adored the older metal Empire minis from 5th. edition, and now finally I have acquired enough of them to build a proper army. As the idea of this campaign is to paint as the battles go by, we have agreed to play next week a small 300 p. game, representing two small warbands searching some fallen ruins for powerful artefact. I have already finished one old Greatsword model to be Captain Adrej Stojkovich and few old metal Halberdiers and looking forward to paint some more.

This campaign along with the new Empire book have certainly given me inspiration to do the painting required, and all has gone well until yesterday as I had a tooth extraction. Three different painkillers and eating only cold food was enough to drive me into bed around 19.30, but luckily the pills do their job and I’m back to my feet and finish the painting of my small warband.

- Jami

my part of the fluff

From chasms between the snowy mountains, dark pillars of smoke rise. Sentries are posted in positions; word has been sent to local bandit leaders to bring their men in service for gold. The furnaces of Praagengrad war factory have been lit.

About two years ago, when I was young and optimistic, I decided to make an empire engineer army. Starting with swordmen and handgunners I begun to paint an army to replace my belowed, but much (physically) suffered Skaven, of whom’s paint job I am not excatly proud. A more fitting term might be ashamed; ashamed like a father of his hideously mutated penguin-like child.

The project stayed frozen for some time, while I was doing some other stuff, but last fall, I decided to grap the bull by it’s balls and start painting again. And hey: There was a new Empire book coming! Surely it would be viable to wield an engineer army! Perhaps even engineers!

Well, the new book came and brought it’s friends, disappointment and bitterness, but finally my sense of optimism has begun to return. Maybe I can’t wield an engineer that does something useful, but I can have an army with lots of guns. A sort of cult-like army with guns. Enter the background:

In World’s Edge Mountains, there’s a weapons factory with a small casttle called ”Praagengrad”, named after the closest big city, Praag. It used to produce guns for the Empire’s army, but after Archaon’s onslaught near and around it, it’s production stopped due to shortage in men and supplies.

During the months following Archaon’s defeat, the castle was besieged by local bandits and stray monsters, time during which the master of the guard, captain Grigorus kept his men in order with fist and sword. Only with the help of a small coterie of Gold wizards who occupied a part of the workshops the soldiers were able to push the attackers back time after time.

After some time, a salvation did arrive in the form of a remnant of a huge band of flagellants and priests, scattered after the final battle against Archaon; traveling around to find servants of chaos to fight against. They were led by a charismatic priest, who quickly turned the guard on his side. Grigorus had little choice but to offer his sword to the cause of Sigmar himself.

Now the priests have decided to hire local bandits and robbers, stubborn in their belief that these criminals would sooner or later see the light, so to speak. Led by their infamous leader, Pegasus Bill, these cut-throats are ranked under Grigorus' command.

The work has begun, and soon the war will be brought to the enemies of Empire and Sigmar!


Resolute in my aim not to make the post too long, I’ll deal with the painting & modeling part of the army later.

-a

Captain Grigorus is ready, and as you can see, a cool dude by anyone's standards.

Ok, the blog starts.

The thing is that me (Anssi) and Jami got to talking about campaigns in Warhammer, how they're all fine and interesting and how they actually never get done, and how we could just as well make one while we're at it. We decided to skip the whole "You can draw exciting maps and feel like a king!"-part, and focus on

A) having a cool narrative and creating background to our armies
B) painting our Empire forces during the spring.

The goal is to end the campaign in a 2000-point game, but let's not get hasty. So what you'll be first seeing is beginning thoughts by both of us; introduction of armies and finally, a 300-point game of Warhammer, with some sort of skirmishing alteration to rules. Oh, and a cool - and by cool I mean totally sweet - scenario to kick off the plot. And after that.. yes, more posts of nature not yet defined.

-a