Empire vs Vampire, no Umpire

Battle Report - Empire vs Vampire Counts, 3000pts

Fresh from my humiliating massacre at the hands of the Orge Kingdoms, I immediately put the same 3,000pt force against a Vampire Count force.

Empire

The invincible Enterprise of Campogrotta!
(your experience of invincibility may vary,
actual invincibility may differ from invincibility experienced)

General
Full Plate Armour. Crown of Command. Talisman of Endurance. Sword of Might. Enchanted Shield.
Wizard Lord (Lore of Light)
White Cloak of Ulric. Dispel Scroll.
Captain (Battle Standard)
Full Plate Armour. Sword of Swift Slaying.
Captain
Full Plate Armour. Shield. Barded Warhorse. Gold Sigil Sword. Potion of Strength.
Warrior Priest
Two hand weapons. Heavy Armour. Shield. Van Horstmann's Speculum. Seed of Rebirth.
Master Engineer
Light Armour. Barded Warhorse. Hochland Long Rifle
Wizard (Lore of Shadows)
Barded Warhorse. Potion of Toughness.
Wizard (Lore of Fire)
Feedback Scroll.

10 Knights of the Inner Circle
Command Group. (led by Captain)
50 Halberdiers
Command Group. (led by General, Wizard Lord, Warrior Priest)
- 10 Free Company (detachment)
20 Crossbowmen
Musician. Standard.
10 Crossbowmen
Musician.
10 Handgunners
Musician. Champion with Hochland Long Rifle. (Led by Fire Wizard)
15 Greatswords
Command Group. War Banner. (Led by Battle Standard)
5 Pistoliers
Musician.
1 Cannon
1 Cannon
1 Volley Gun

Vampire Counts

Vampire Lord
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Magic Level 4, HA, Enchanted Shield, Fear Incarnate, Dance Book, Fly
Vampire
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Magic Level 2, Staff of Damnation, Summon Creatures, Tormentor Blade
Vampire
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Magic Level 1, BSB, Obsidian Lodestone, Ironcurse Icon
Vampire
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Magic Level 2, HA/Shield, Barded Nightmare, Obsidian Lodestone, Sword of Battle, Quickblood
Banshee
Ethereal, Ghostly Howl, Terror, Undead,
Wraith
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead,
Wraith
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead,
Wraith
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead,
Wraith
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead.

19 Skeletons
Undead,
24 Zombies
Always Strikes Last, The Newly Dead, Undead,
25 Zombies
Always Strikes Last, The Newly Dead, Undead,
30 Skeletons
Undead, Musician, Standard, Screaming Banner
24 Ghouls
Poisoned Attacks, Undead,
5 Dire Wolves
Slavering Charge, Undead, Vanguard,
5 Dire Wolves
Slavering Charge, Undead, Vanguard,
10 Hexwraiths
Ethereal, Fast Cavalry, Soul Reapers, Soulstriders, Spectral Hunters, Terror, Undead,
1 Spirit Hosts
Ethereal, Undead
1 Spirit Hosts
Ethereal, Undead
1 Black Coach
Evocation of Death, Terror, Undead, Vampiric, Ward Save (4+),
4 Blood Knights
Frenzy, Martial Honour, Undead, Vampiric Champion, Musician, Standard, Blood Keep Banner

Battle of the Unexpected Gun Lines

EMPIRE (Stylus) vs OGRE KINGDOMS  (Kasfunatu)
3000pts
27/01/13

Ogres at the top, Empire at the bottom. That blue biro on the right is not to scale.

The armies lined up in two huge flat lines almost filling the width of the canyon. Watchtowers guarded either end of the ravine, and the remains of gated paths could still be seen; in the centre a small oasis and a few trees had blossomed.

Despite the empire being more prepared and the ogres still yelling and bawling and hitting each other into position, they very quickly turned to action and started to charge across the battle field catching the empire by surprise.

Let There Be Light

I had officially closed the book on my Empire army, but rather inept way I handled the Lore of Death in my last two battles made me want to explore a few other Colleges of Magic in their final battle. And clearly I couldn't use my existing wizards - Fire, Death and Shadow, fine. But suitable for Hysh, the Lore of Light? Never!

I picked Light because I was interested to try out the mix of augments, hexes and missiles (this is without the benefit of hindsight - I'm sure in the upcoming battle, he misfired and blew up in the very first turn). I also had this plastic model kicking around, all ready to be painted.

Flying carpet, magic lamp and hissing pantomime crowd not included. 

From the North

On request  - a full army shot!

Everything I've painted and based in the last four months, ready for battle!

For future plans, I'm going to base a few more of my spawn models and increase the size of the Khornate marauders by at least another ten.

In terms of a wish list, I'd still like to get a small unit of Marauder Horsemen as an option, maybe a chariot and then the warshrine. In fact, the new giant spawn creature (coming next month, I hear) plus a warshrine plus a chariot set would give me some excellent modelling options. If I become remarkably rich somehow, that's what I'd buy.

I leave you for now (the nappies are calling) with this dreadful piece of photoshopping: -

GW Box Art it ain't. But look!
My bases aren't a terrible match for real life tundra!

Ready To March

With Woofboot VII just around the corner, this weekend's battles are likely to be the last outing for my Empire army.

So for their swan-song, I'm fielding everything I have. And since everything I have is posted on this blog, that should make my army list easy to anticipate.

(although I have just painted one additional model, not featured here, just for the occasion)

That £80 Figures In Comfort case was money well spent.

The army is now all boxed up and ready to go. The best medium of transporting them in my rucksack appears to be the kitchen tupperware. Most of the foot regiments are going to smell like leftover bolognese (but after all, they are Tilean).

Gentlemen, I shall see you at the tables.

Make Mine A Large

After painting Brob for the Woffboot last year, I rather fell for the giant model. It's a cracker to make as well as paint, with an immense amount of colourful options on the sprue (he says, clearly just having read a press release from somewhere).

This head goes best with the whole Viking theme, I felt.
Although they were famous for their bone combs, less for the combed-in bones.

Ebay was my supplier of choice - I bid for and got a complete set of giant sprues, minus a few arrows, for a 'mere' £20. I opted for a dragon's skull on a stick, which I believe giants can buy at the fair from an appropriate stand.

Rank and Vile

I got the last four warriors from my box set done: -

They're pretty much straight from the box, although I've done some small conversion detail on the head of this guy.

Rumbles in the Dark

So! Time to play the new Hobbit game. This is my first outing with Battle Chronicler, so excuse some of the slight idiosyncracies of these shots. 

Generalling tonight will be Kraken and Krakeness, playing as the dwarves, against the goblin overseer Anders Wängdahl (official Woffboot name tbc).

Setup and Background

This is our first match, so I've picked out an introductory scenario in which four of the Dwarves (Oin, Gloin, Fili and Kili) must make their way across a narrow walkway through a throng of blocking goblins. They've got ten turns to get at least three dwarves across. If they don't make it, or if the goblins kill two or more of them, it's a win for the gobboes.

A Hoard o' Marauders

Another day, another twenty marauders. Not really, I wish I could paint that fast. But I've been chipping away at this lot steadily over the last week, and my current to-do list is now down to six. Plus thirty six plastic goblins and Gandalf and the dwarves and all that stuff. But I'm not counting that yet. 

Here's the new batch of Tzeentchian shields, ranked up and semi-individually: -

Happy Shoggmanay

In the spirit of starting as one means to go on, here's a new model for the new year: -

I finished this off a couple of days ago. Then I realised I could wait until the New Year and have a terrible pun as the title, and, well, it would take a stronger man than I to resist that.

Know what I mean, nudge nudge wink wink?

The black and blue theme worked well in the end, but the hair was a bugger to get as I wanted it. Nothing seemed to work, it was either too washed out or not blue enough. In the end, a surprise wash with thinned out Polished Blue did the trick, although it does mean he's got a slightly disco glitter look in certain lights.