EXT: St. Oubliette-in-the-Marsh

 The scratch build itch has hit me again. 

INT: Dave's Dungeon Deco

 You name it, we've got it - skulls, sconces, scrolls. That's all your dungeon wall trimmings, right here, right now, priced for incredible value and all in one convenient location! 

EXT: Ravaged Convoy

I don't know, guv. I mean, we can fix it. But it's gonna cost you. 

EXT: Shattered Home

 

The summer weather is kicking in. Too much light and warmth - I need some snowy ruins.

EXT: Ammo Shrine

 

Another Necromunda tile done!

Run to the hills!

Line-of-sight-blocking terrain has always been important in 40k. Back in the early 90s I built a big polystyrene hill, which is usually a central feature of my battlefields. It's made up of three separate sections, so it's quite flexible, though I do usually just use the full version.

By The Power Of ...

My Masters of the Universe / Warhammer 40k mash-up is about to conclude with a flourish!

For as long as he's been bothering Eternia, Skeletor had a dream. he wanted Castle Grayskull...

EXT: Power Mad

Long-time readers of this blog may be aware that I, Stylus, would rather be locked down in a global pandemic than ever paint any scenery for myself.

It's a brave new world.

EXT: Plasma Meter Station

A terrain commission! I'll give you three guesses whether it's for General Stylus or not.

EXT: Rainforest (Plantation Stage)

Well, I haven't really finished anything new here. But I am a year older, and got some new kit for my birthday that I want to show off!

Page Three

After our Advent bonanza, you think I might have tired of blogging about pictures of chests.

No sir! I shall never tire. 

EXT: Ancient Barrow

Been a while since I did one of these!

EXT: Pic'n'Mix Gothic Architecture

Step inside, step inside

Here's all that scenery I promised!

EXT: Frosty Bogs

Dirt cheap, these. Or cheap dirt, one of the two.

As part of my continued thrift drive, I'm trying to find things I can make and do that cost no money at all. Or at least very little - a fresh bottle of PVA from a local modelling store was the only thing I bought for this project.

They're based on card taken from some household litter coated with PVA and sand (the Dreadstone Blight is on a pizza box). Once the PVA is dry, I washed in very watery Scorched Brown paint for the lighter bits, same as the rest of my bases, and Vermin Brown for the darker areas. Scorched Grass and Middenland Tufts for the greenery.

EXT: Ruined Tower

I loathe painting scenery. It's my thrifty Scottish blood - 8 square inches of plastic woodwork seems to absorb two thirds of a pot of paint. Before I know it, there's no brown left and all my spears get orange handles shaded with black ink.

However, needs must when the devil drives and your stock of models is low. If I'm going to be remote hosting battles on my kitchen floor (Mrs K is delighted that I've taken a renewed interest in mopping it), I need something more than British Survey Map standard icons drawn on paper.

This might do.

You probably spotted this Dreadstone Blight in the last battle report. It's been lurking in the back of my cupboards for some time, half-assembled and undercoated. I undercoated it Astronomicon Grey, which is exactly the same colour as GW sprues. If ever paint felt wasted going on, that was it.

Unbeaten: Chaos Warriors vs Wood Elves

It's All-Skype Fight Night!

Prebattle

After a bit of hashing out how we'd do this, General Stylus and I came to the conclusion the easiest solution was to have the physical battle at one end of the line and the other general acting as Rulebooks Monitor on the other. The general with the table would do all the movement, allowing a bit of leeway for their opponent not being able to measure as precisely as they usually would. And the other guy would check all the rules as needed. Dice throwing taken on honour, with the option of holding a camera up to particularly lucky strikes. 

I chose to set the table up, partly because I'd actually been reduced to painting scenery lately (I hate it, it's very resource heavy, dull and messy) and at least had some to show off for a change. 

What I didn't have was 

• A table
• Any scatter or artillery dice
• Templates

Easily fixed! I wasn't raised by Blue Peter for nothing. Twenty minutes of frantic PVAing, cereal box mutilation and dice defacing yielded this. 

Warhammer Island of Blood, eat your heart out

We also decided on a joint battle report! I shall be writing in standard type, Stylus is in bold type this time. 

Hell yes. Bold and beautiful.

Forces

It was with a sinking heart I started working out how to beat Wood Elves with my Warriors of Chaos army. Superlight MSU archers? Hard-hitting fast cavalry? Why the hell didn't I buy more warhounds and horsemen?

Ah well. After three drafts, including one where I had four screening units of unarmed marauders to act as ablative armour and one with a pair of low-level disc riding sorcerors, I decided on something that would at least rest heavy on my opponent's brow. 

The bulk of my painted forces are heavy infantry. Slow but deadly, and vulnerable to enemy archers. But what if I had a magic phase that could help even the odds a little?

The Bull's Eyes

Bilious Bull, Chaos Sorceror Lord of Nurgle – Lore of Nurgle, lvl 3, Chaos Familiar, Poisonous Slime - 285

Gangrenous George, Exalted Hero BsB - Banner of Swiftness, Ruby Ring of Ruin - 175

1 Chariot - 110

15 Nurgle Marauders - G.weapon, light armour, full command - 210

10 Chaos Warriors - shields, full command,  – 180

Mutalith Vortex Beast – 240

1200

Two bound spells (the ever popular Ruby Ring and the Mutalith's Aura of Mutation) plus four of Nurgle's spells - surely something any low-toughness army would blench at. And I could probably boss the magic phase as well. Heh heh heh.

The Twang! Gang

Glade Captain - Elven Steed, Shield, Asrai Spear. Hail of Doom Arrow.
Spellsinger - Lv 2 Shadows, Elven Steed. Dispel Scroll. Seed of Rebirth.
10 x Glade Guard - Musician, Hagbane Tips
10 x Glade Guard - Musician, Starfire Arrows
5 x Wild Riders - Shields, Full Command
5 x Wild Riders - Shields, Full Command
10 x Waywatchers
1 x Great Eagle

1200

The Great Bear is the mounted general (plus one), the unicorn is an elven steed and the Rohirrim are Wild Riders.
Even my proxies have proxies.

Slavar av Mörker

Ding Ding!

In round one, the warbands start by facing off against their most hated foes. Khorne v Slaanesh, Tzeentch v Nurgle, offering the most opportunities for the champions to grab some swift Victory Points. They need to amass ten for a Reward, and there's no final conclusion likely until someone has at least six, so I'm keen to keep this fairly fast.

Gorefaust comes out the best in round one. He manages to personally account for all but one of Eirich's beastmen plus Eirich himself. Even though he loses, he comes out with 12 VPs. This earns him a Reward - the Eye of his God! Khorne is watching with interest, much like nobody else in the stands. Vorti scores a ludicrously powerful chaos weapon, a pet demon dog and a Collar of Khorne all in one fell swoop. And a broken arm and a dead Thug, but it can't all be glory.

Eirich has technically won, but earns nothing - he didn't survive until the end himself, his beastmen don't get VPs, two of them are perma-dead with one crippled and Eirich's ribs are broken for a T penalty. This is all fine. I still don't like Slaanesh.

It's a stalemate from the others - Urge is taken out by a bolt from von Triest's staff, but his virtually unkillable Pestigors (T5, W2) wipe the Tzeetnchian band out entirely. Neumann dies of his wounds and is the first knockout; Urge merely loses an arm and therefore ability to use his only weapon. Lucky he's got that killer face, then.

I am not happy about this.
I mean, I'm all for change, don't get me wrong, I just expected something more positive.