Tale of Four Gamers Part 8: The Carrion Throng

For this month I decided to paint something a bit different and break up painting foot soldiers for a while. These models are great - although the undead birds all have the same basic body they are come with very different and marvellously sculpted heads to give them all a different feel.

I was missing a rider but luckily I was a backer in Diego Serrate's Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter and the little hooded freebie dude with a scythe fits perfectly in both style and logistically - i.e he doesn't look too precarious sat on the back of his mount.

Enjoy!

Pulp Alley - In Space!!

Good morning. Just a short post of some miniatures I painted up recently for a science fiction themed Pulp Alley game. Here we have a cybernetic ally enhanced scientist, his servo droid and a computer console.

I don't remember who makes the console. It is a self assembly MDF kit and it's the my first foray into this particular material. I'd heard all kind of horror stories about the material warping when painted but I was pleasantly surprised that it was both easy to assemble and paint. 

I've got mixed feelings on the effect I painted on the monitor - I used a mixture of paints and inks for this. I don't think I quite achieved that. 

I was trying to aim for that swirly effect that many sixties and seventies science fiction TV shows and films had on the monitors in spaceships and space bases.

Moving on to the scientist. I just love Crooked Dice miniatures. Their sculpting is so crisp and so characterful while their retro and pulp themed line are right up my alley (see what I did there?). I'm not sure this figure is still on release as I can't find it on their website.  In our scenario he was a kidnapped renegade human scientist forced by my genocidal Ordo Xenos Inquisitor to design a viral bomb to the destroy the inhabitants of the planet of the Space Slann!

The servo droid is also from Crooked Dice. He did have an open hatch but I rather stupidly glued it shut - more's the pity as it was a nice touch to the miniature. He was from the Blake's Seven 'inspired' set the Federated Security which is also no longer on the site.

Expect to see more Crooked Dice up on the blog in the future of the 'not Doctor who' variety!

Mordheim - The Battle for the Apprentice

In January as part of the Middlehammer event I GM'ed a six player Mordheim game on the custom Ruins table in Warhammer World. The scenario for the bloodshed was designed as a prequel to the Apocalyptic events described in the Mordheim rulebook with lots of random encounters thrown in...

'In the year 1997 three years before the warpstone comet would smite Mordheim, a wizard Balthazar Barthlomew broke all ties with civilisation and fled to the forests surrounding Altdorf.
No one knew the reason. A legion of builders were recruited and within six months he had constructed a series of buildings in this forbidden wilderness. Fellow magic users secretively joined trickled to the budding complex to join him.
Unsuprisingly this raised the attention of the witch hunters in Altdorf. Diplomacy and brute force were attempted to bring Barthlomew to account but agents sent either did not return or with no memory of what had transpired.
Then on the day of Geheimnistag 1999 Barthlomew's complex was consumed in a magical inferno whose echoes would be felt by sorcerers and wizards across the Warhammer World from Cathay to Ulthuan.
Spies learnt of a lone survivor and with the complex's defences down, various interested parties dispatched their best agents to learn of what had happened and Barthlomew's schemes.. 

And what a multitude of parties we had seeking the apprentice! Count Luthor Von Harkness led a motley crew of flesh eaters, dregs with a mercenary Ogre and a dire wolf in tow. The Empire were represented by two rival factions of warring elector counts, namely the Middenheimers and Reiklanders. Two rival factions of Clan Eschin appeared as well as a small throng of Wood Elves from Athel-Loren.

And so battle commenced..

The Middenheimers split into three groups with the Champions and Captain facing the Reiklander's bowmen and youngbloods and warrior versus the ghouls and dreg of the undead. The archers faced down the killpit at the centre of the woods. There was no glory for them that day. The Captain was mowed down by the Reiklander's arrows their and youngbloods and warrior fell under the clubs and fists of the undead - the rest then fled the battlefield.

A mercenary ogre was awoken from it's slumber amongst the ruins by the sounds of battle and bellowed it would fight for the highest bidder. The Reiklanders accepted the offer and the new combatant ran to the apprentice while Luther Von Harkness and Fester his Ogre mercenary stooge did the same.

The forces of Assasin Adept Davsqueek traversed the rocks at the side of the area (one of them falling to their death) to get closer to their prize while the ghouls split off
to intercept the forces of Assasin Adept Davsqueek before they could strike at their master, one falling to their slings and the other in combat but still allowing the vampire to reach the catatonic Apprentice.

The long await Ogre-on-Ogre action happened in a battle between the undead Lord and his hired Ogre versus the newly arisen Ogre. The new entrant was knocked down before all the combatants were taken out under a volley of sling fire from Davsqueek's Eschin adherents. Their leader gone the no-longer-living shambled despondently off the field of battle.

Meanwhile the other rival Eschin faction under the command of the cowardly Adept Nikeet had decided to hide and await until all the factions had destroyed themselves to pick up the prize. Incensed by these dishonourable tactics a small but indomitable contingent of Wood Elves from Athel-Loren targeted them.

Amongst the bloodshed a freak chaos storm boiled in the skies and lightning struck their Dryad twice knocking it down before he was put out of action by the blows of Ratmen. Blood ran but in the end the ratmen saw too many of them fall and they fled into the ruins.

Davsqueeks' rats now looked like they had the day in the bag as their throng surrounded the disorientated magic user. However numerous Reiklander archers had them in their sights and in a blood massacre they were felled by their arrows. The survivors had had enough and scarpered down their tunnels and away.

The Reiklanders pushed forward, one of their number grabbing the apprentice but two surviving archers of Athel-Loren stared them down daring them to move into the open aiming their arrows at them. The rescuer managed to get into cover and so the elves picked off the Reiklanders providing covering fire.

The rescuer fled out into the open apprentice in tow and was knocked down by an arrow. Crawling he dragged the girl to the edge of the area with him. Seeing no other options, in a mad dash the elves broke out into the open to finish him off but their arrows missed. Bloodied but unbowed victorious the Reiklander dragged her out of the area.

What fate will befall the apprentice and what secrets will she have to tell? Stay tuned to this blog to find out or better still join in on the sequel. To enrol sign up here.

(Thanks to David Delgado for providing many of the pictures)