Daemons vs Warriors

K'zak, fresh from the glorious battle and massacre of the orcs, was feeling confident and marched the horde into the centre of the field again.

The cannon and Bloodcrushers took one flank, although the crushers were poised to head towards the ogres in the centre of the line, rather than around the outside.

The small unit of heavily-armoured warriors, led by their sorcerer lord, made station behind a wooden fence; the dragon ogres hid behind a forest; the ogres snarled and faced off against the horde; and on the right wing, war hounds and horsemen skipped forward uncontested.

Savage Orcs vs Daemons: the Skull Swapmeet

The horde of red daemons spread from one one end of the hill to the other. Next to it, a bizarre cannon appeared to be cruising around on the back on a weird chariot. On the far flank, three massive juggernauts pawed at the ground.

Bonekrunk Stonespitter licked his lips. His tribe were used to krumping tribes of nomadic humans in the dustlands of their home. This looked to be an altogether tougher prospect.

"Maybe give this one a miss, boss?" asked Grunt, the standard bearer of his Big 'Uns.

"Yer cowardly, git!" Bonekrunk spat back, adding a tap with his axe for good measure. "Dey is nuffik but a load of pansy imps! And we ain't missing out on that stunty bonanza!"

Unexpected Guests

For what it's worth, my army selection for the Woffboot would have gone as follows.

The U.N.

Command           

Baeloth the Unadorned 

Level 2 Chaos Sorceror with the Lore of Death, mounted on a Gorebeast Chariot and equipped with a Talisman of Endurance and Chaos Familiar- 330

Core                      

The Undaunted 

20 Chaos Warriors with shields, full command and a Gleaming (if Black) Pennant - 335

The Doom of Gazarkhame

Gorri Slatebreak set his heavy pack down and mopped his sweating brow with a blood-stained gauntlet. Behind him, the rest of the Ironbreakers moved into position, their grim faces crowded with determination. They were close now. Too close to give in to failure. 

They were exhausted, whittled down to a few survivors. The eerie stands of stone trees that sprouted everywhere in the dim caverns of Gazarkhame had taken their toll. Gorri had seen Dwarves turn into prancing, poetry-spouting lunatics, hugging the granite boles of the carvings as they capered. Those who'd managed to keep their brains from melting had been ambushed by Skaven, set upon by orc savages and stalked by lurking horrors from beyond. 

Those who were left were a vicious elite, determined to see their job done. And now they were here, finally, in the very deepest foundations of the hold. He glanced over across the the final cavern, a stony expanse of shadowy, tree-lined rock that could hide any number of foes. The two great foundation pillars stood proud in the centre, both carved with heart-sickening root and leaf emblems that spiralled upwards to the basements of the hold above. At least the stones at the base gave them a bit of cover, even if they'd been carved to look like roots and ferns.

The other engineer team was in position. What was left of their other forces were scattered through the cavern, hurriedly finding ambush positions or setting traps. There wasn't much time. 

Gorri knelt by his pack, adjusting the straps and quickly checking the contents. Fifteen sealed packets of the finest black powder, linked by fuses and primed with blasting caps. It was good to go, he just hoped he had enough time to set the packets into position. If they could destroy even one pillar, Gazarkhame would perish.

They would be too, of course. It was a suicide mission. But they'd all known that before they came. Gazarkhame had to be destroyed at any cost.

"Here they come!" hissed Duthri, grabbing his crossbow pointing out into the darkness. Gorri looked up - sure enough, shadowy forms were flitting from tree to tree in the outer limits of the cavern. "Gods, they're all round us! They're in the trees!"

Gorri narrowed his eyes, ground his teeth and then hefted the pack. Trees. Drong damn them, he'd see them all shattered or die trying. 

"Bring 'em all down!" he yelled, and scrambled into the thicket of stone roots.

The Doom of Gazarkhame is a Warhammer Narrative Battle Scenario for 2 or more players. 

New! 

Exciting! 

Completely Unplaytested!

Filler Night

Okay, not all fillers. In fact, only a couple. I'm new to the idea of unit fillers, but I'm already a fan. Adding levels or a sense of spectacle to a unit seems like a great idea, although it's almost certainly out of my scope and price range for now. But I have a few ideas, including the possible use of some Hobbit scenery. We'll see, though, I don't want to chop that up on a whim.

The goblin cut short what would have otherwise been a pleasantly long walk on the short pier.

But in terms of having a few decorative options, I keep running into this guy from the Bag of Limitless Minions: - 

Remember when this was even an option?

A survivor of my copy of Battle Masters, which probably deserves a nostalgic column itself at some point, this guy is a Marauder Bowman. The punk look died with the army list option, thankfully. Not amazing miniatures, but they've got a lot of character, somehow. I'd already painted this one, but he was very pasty. A quick lick of paint improved things no end, other than his face. His blurry, hideous face. 

Frown of concentration or dreadful 80s  'tache?
You decide.

Who's Da Boss?

(or, if you're reading this in the UK, circa 1991: "The Upper Hand")

Despite having a considerable amount of Savage Orcs to paint up, it became apparent very early on that I had no model that would make a suitable Warboss (putting half my command models on chariots probably didn't help that).

I know it is heresy to spend your money anywhere else than GW, but their only representation for a brutal chieftain of a barbarian tribe was this twinkle-toed prancer...

Tr-la La-la-lally!

Preferring my Warbosses to have both feet on the ground, I looked elsewhere, and discovered a rather splendid 'Orc Brute' from the Avatars of War range (it's no Mantic Games, where you can pick up massive numbers of troops at a good price - but the character models are superb).

Behold my treachery.

Hobbitual Rantings

 More hobbitry, in lieu of a fevered run-up to the Woffboot. Although I am also working on a few more odds and ends for my Chaos Army, just so I can legitimise the army I might have fielded.

In the meantime I bring you these two doughty chaps: -

Milli

Vanilli

With them is their little-known, non-copyright-infringing spellcaster. I did consider various other incarnations - Fandolf the Fawn, Tandolf the Tan or even Rambolf the DP Overalls. But novelty will only get you so far.

Greendolf the Green
(No relation)

Abracamagna

"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts..."

1. The Pledge

Despite my previous adventures in magnetism, attaching detachable elements to my chariots proved to be a very different prospect than gluing a couple of magnets to plastic bases and letting them stick to rubber steel.

To begin with, I had to attach N42 magnets (3mm) directly to the models. This meant drilling a hollow into their feet - or both feet, in the case of the spear-wielding bosses (bigger and more unstable, in the best orky tradition)

"The magician shows you something ordinary. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't."

Since the hole was too large for my slow and steady hand drill, I had to use a power drill and hope for the best (i.e. make a new foot from greenstuff when I drilled too far).

After drilling the model's feet, I glued the magnets in there. They stuck out a bit, as there wasn't enough foot to contain a whole magnet, but that suited me, as I reckoned it would be stronger to 'peg' into the hole anyway.