Cedric the Wonder Halfling

I love narrative campaigns, they throw up the weirdest storylines and create characters that you would never have considered otherwise. Take this chap for example:

Behold! Cedric the Wonder Halfling!

In the campaign that we've just kicked off over on the Beard Bunker we combined elements of roleplaying with the wargaming and occasionally had our characters nipping off on missions that didn't require a full army to accomplish. In one of these missions (very early on) we were introduced to Cedric Sneakfoot, a halfling poacher and general naer-do-well who had fallen afowl of the law in Hochland and was being used as a dogsbody with threat of prison as a motivating factor. He was added to our little party as a local liason while we hunted for an artefact that my Dwarfs wanted back rather badly. Tom, who was playing Cedric, doesn't have a warhammer army so this was the best way for him to quickly get involved. Rather than going through the whole thing I shall summerise that Cedric started to get quite a reputation. He felled a goblin chief with his arrows and even leapt screaming onto the back of a grave guard which was threatening a mate of his. By the end of the mission, my Runesmith Dwalin Gravenrune was deeply impressed with the little guy and essentially blackmailed the authorities into signing Cedric over to him as a local liason and guide.

Cedric and Dwalin, bestest buds.

So fast forward through and the second mission had us investigating the ruins of a town when we were attacked by crazed fanatics. Once again Cedric was a sniper extroardinare and slew everything he aimed at with just the right amount of respectful pleading for us to get our rear ends in gear. Given that the dynamic of Cedric and Dwalin was somewhere between Jeeves & Worcester and Alfred & Batman we were having a great time with the pairing. I decided that Cedric would become a permanent part of my Dwarf army working as a slightly over cautious bodyguard to Dwalin. Rules wise we just made him a bow shooting stand and fire monkey with killing blow, he'll sod off after shooting and make himself scarce.

Given that Tom, and therefore the model of Cedric (which is a Reaper Miniatures Dicarus Darksword) live in darkest Devon. I needed to have one of my very own, a quick ebay search and a "warm up the painting muscles after a week away" session later and Cedric is reborn as Cedric Dwarf-friend with fancy new duds and a slightly brighter outlook on life.

This is the kind of thing I meant at the top of this post when I said "create characters that you would never have considered otherwise". There is no way on this earth that I would have thought that adding a tiny halfling dude with a shortbow to my Dwarf army was a good idea before these events. Now? I can't picture Dwalin without him. This sort of thing moves characters from a simple amalgamation of game changing statistics into living, breathing people whose agendas and lives you care about! No longer are you grumbling because your runesmith died and you don't get his nifty "no magic for you" ability. No, now you are reprising an Anakin "Noooooooo" because Dwalin the badass dwarf has been cruelly snatched from this world (only to be rescued and healed up by Cedric no doubt). It really brings the game to life in a way that the slightly more "Chess like" game style of stripping everything down to pure numbers doesn't.  Another example, these guys:

Just normal Quarreller Rangers. Not particularly well armoured (just light armour in fact) and toting crossbows and great weapons. Hitty, but fragile. Well, not in this campaign. These guys have been the absolute Daddy. Kicking ass and taking names wherever they went. Stromni's Wanderer's have become feared far beyond their points/ability calculation should warrent. And thats why I love the narrative element of this game of ours. I'm back to work here folks, and to prove it:

Titan 2 is underway! Until next time folks.

TTFN

Sneaky little Skavenses (FoPVP)

Hello to you all! Today we've got another in our very occasional series called "Friends of PVP". This time it is the Skaven of Mark Sarton (Assistant Kogz over on the Beard Bunker). For those who are less aware of them, the Skaven are man-sized rat men with a meglomaniacal personality somewhere between Blofeld and Hitler.

The core of Mark's Skaven is very much the humble clanrat. He's a big believer in Skaven being the horde...

Yup, really hordes! This one is about 70 strong and normally has a warboss in it! Ouch.

The skavenslaves units include enslaved humans, goblins and orcs, its one of my favourite features of the army. The slaves of the Skaven should be all races! None can stand before the rodent master race!

Backing up all the Clanrats are some of the weapon teams that the Skaven are rightly feared for.

These Forgeworld wolf rats are an evil addition, lightning fast and durable enough to handle a unit twice their size they have acquired a justified level of apprehension in the Beard Bunker campaign.

The resin holds some lovely details including the brands on the hind quarters.

This is Voltik, the leader of the army and mad inventor providing the master plan. He's based on the Ikkit Claw model and uses his rules.

Skivvit Backbreaker provides some serious muscle and along with the massive static combat resolution that the horde provides is a tough customer to take out!

Then there is the first Warlock Engineer, called... Lucky Sh*twhiskers. Yup, Sh*twhiskers. Somehow it totally fits and has become my favourite character in Mark's army. He is kinda hapless and succeeds in spite of himself!

Slightly more destructive is Blevvy, he's another Warplock Engineer. Equipped with a doom rocket and capable of Skitterleaping into the ideal position to use it he can carve a massive hole in the opponant's lines.

Look out for more of Mark's Skaven on the Beard Bunker, until next time.

TTFN

Three thousand points of Dwarfs Done!

Greetings and jubilations to all! Why am in such a celebratory humour? Because 3000 points of Dwarfs are finished! The Beard Bunker challenge is complete. Lets take a look at the final few models:

The miners are deeply, deeply silly models but they do possess a charm all of their own and the rules are handy! The most interesting - for me anyway - parts of the painting are what I did not do rather than I what I did. For starters, you won't see a whole bunch of object source lighting (OSL) on these guys. I was in two minds about this. On the one hand, it would have been delicious to have every light source on these guys emitting light. The problem was that it would have made them look like they were in the dark, none of the rest of the army is painted this way. I decided in the end that daylight overrules candlelight and left them as just the flames.

Yes kids, its a steam powered jackhammer, silly... but cool.

The other ommission was one that I thought I would be using extensively, weathering. Miners end up filthy, absolutely covered in mud, dust, coal dirt and the like. I did a test model with a dramatic amount of dust and dirt and realised that the unit would look like mud golems. In the end I erred on the side of army cohesion and kept them fairly clean.

The last model to be painted was the Stormbourne host Army Battle Standard. A thane by the name of Vindalf Stormbourne, brother of Hafnir. As usual the camera has played its cruel tricks and made the lines look scrappier than they really are. The design of the standard marries a ships wheel, the axe of the Stormbournes carried by Hafnir, and a pair of crossed anchors with the three ancestor heads of the brothers that founded the Stormbourne naval legacy.

When I do a banner like this I frequently mock up a design either on paper or in this case on photoshop. In this instance I changed a few elements when painting but the essence of the thing is the same and saved a lot of head scratching.

Vindalf himself was a limited edition standard bearer from a very old army box. His helm is one of the most remarkable features of the model, being a beautiful boar capped, sapphire studded creation fit for a prince of a noble household.

The other feature I really like is the combover. It tells you so much about the character of the man in one instant. Vain, proud, stubborn, a little deluded. It fits the arrogant and hubris laden character of the Stormbourne family really nicely.

And so here is a beautiful thing. A completed workometer. Indeed, a completed 3000 point workometer. I don't mind saying that I am chuffed. Over on the Beard Bunker there is a photo of the completed army as part of the campaign set up. Back to work on Monday-ish (I usually need to warm up after a protracted break - these lads were finished Monday, I just based them today). So progress will be back to normal!

TTFN

Beard Bunker Campaign Week

Greetings shipmates, I've been away for a while (back to work Monday-ish). If anyone is curious what I've been up to, or who these people are:

or indeed where this is and why we care:

Then head over to the Beard Bunker where we are finally starting to post the early stages of our campaign opener event!

TTFN

Nerd Thunder IV - The Guns of Nuvverork

Greetings shipmates! Well, it is that time again. Pirate Viking Painting has joined forces with the Beard Bunker and made the perilous trek all the way to the frigid wastes of Nottinghamshire to partake in battle of epic proportions. To add to the blog confluence even James and Sophie of Battles & Biscuits dropped by. But we know why we are really here, to show some pics of 8000 points of Orks facing four 2000 point armies of Space Marines over a 12'x6' table full of lovely scenery!

The lovely Tau table was our focus for this year's efforts. The large buildings made for excellent objectives.

Setting the battle roughly around the War of Dakka the Orks had made their own modifications too...

Warhammer World's scenery meisters are genuinely inspirational

The Junktown scenery was brought from the Beard Bunker specially.

Mark's Kill Tank rumbling out of the Mek's Workshop

Speed Freaks roar onto the table.

THIS is how Blood Angels deploy... FROM ORBIT

Ork forces mass around the workshop

"Eyup twinkle toes" two dreadnoughts tag team the Orks in the centre.

The Raven Guard desperately try to demolish the Tau railguns being targetted on the flyers.

This is your shokk attack gun and lootas

This is your shokk attack gun and lootas on double 1's...

Things look pretty good right now, unfortunately, things weren't going to stay that way.

The scouts are still trying to demolish those bunkers.

Deathskull lootas colonising the Tau command building.

My dreadnoughts suddenly have a slightly sick feeling

The grots are... largely inconsequential actually.

Noticing impending peril the Ravenwing roar in.

The Furioso pops a warboss like a grape and the regular dread desperately fights off the Deff Dreads.

Sneaky little Dark Angels in the forests.

Less sneaky Dark Angels...

The Space Wolves advance under the watchful eyes of the Long Fangs.

Assault Squads arrive and... scatter badly.

Crank up Ride of the Valkyries, the air support is here!

The war for the centre power station is getting hot.

Ragnar Blackmane and his tactical dreadnought cronies charge in

By this point there aren't many Blood Angels left, in fact there is Lemartes and two Death Company

You've never seen a man happier than when Phil Stutcinskas likes Mark's Orks.

Deathwing reinforcements teleport in.

The Nephilim was ace, zooming around and wrecking Ork vehicles days.

This mosh went on for a while...

Walkers stalk the Dark Angels.

The table as of the end of turn 3.

Charlie and Maisey try to win the battle by poking.

Dark Angels draw a bead on the impending walker-geddon.

Raven Guard dreadnought tries desperately to smack a Kill Tank.

What happens when two assault marine units smack a large ork unit.

The Lootas survey the battlefield.

Like Hamlet the stage is strewn with corpses at the end.

Well, fun was had! The battle ended in a hard fought draw with all my Blood Angels killed except Lemartes! Charlie is going to do a more thorough write up on the Beard Bunker soon but I felt we should see pretty pictures as soon as possible!

TTFN