Friday 20 September 2013

First chaos dwarf ironsworn

These are my first conversions for chaos dwarf ironsworn.

Pretty simple conversion of the classic blood bowl chaos dwarf minis with the axe head from one of the plastic chaos dwarf warriors with remainder of the axe comes from a skeleton spear.  The shields are chaos marauder infantry shields.

My goal is to convert about 20 of these guys.


Tuesday 17 September 2013

Return of the mighty Heroquest

Like many gamers one of my first experiences with miniature gaming was through a fantastic game produced by games workshop and Milton Bradley called Heroquest.  

Here is a youtube link to the great ad for the game: http://youtu.be/FY_YRatOInA

Although i never actually remember using "fire of wrath" is was a great game will cool miniatures and accessories.

Anyway the good news which has been reported around is that a Spanish company is to release a new version in time for the originals 25th anniversary.

The following is from a Spanish fan site:

- Spanish company GameZone will create a new heroquest 25th aniversary edition.
- They have distribution rights to Spain but not to other countries, but they will release the game in multiple languages and there are plenty of spanish online shops with worldwide shipment.
- They may use a crowdfunding campaign but it's not confirmed.
- There will be initially four heroes in male and female versions.
- Furniture and tokens will be all in 3D (resin) instead of cardboard.
- The board will be reversible (two in one).
- There won't be fimirs, but there will be equivalent reptilian creatures.
- It won't be overly expensive (in line with Descent V2).

Great news.

Sunday 15 September 2013

Rumours of new Dark Elf miniatures

I don't usually put too much weight in rumours like this but this one sounds legit.

Dark elves are one army I have always struggled with, their multiple options for a shooty or a close combat monster or a mix of both has always proved a challenge for me.  

The current approach to army books should see some of those magic item combos pulled into line but I am sure there will be plenty of nasties in the new book.

Throwe in a new monster (kraken) and redone throne of blood and this will no doubt be a big winner for those on the dark side of the pointy ear brigade.

Via bell of lost souls:

The fell Druchii march forth from Naggarond.  Here's the latest word on the upcoming Dark Elves release doing the rounds:




1) NEW Plastic Dark Elf Warrior Box(Makes Spearmen, swordsmen, & crossbowmen)The new Warriors look quite different to me. But then again I am a big geek that notices stuff like that. They have cloaks that come down their back and all the helmets don't cover the eyes any more.
The cloaks hang down from underneath the shoulder armor and cover the back of the chain mail. It definitely is new for them but it looks really cool. The Druchii warriors also have shoulder armor. It makes them look simply awesome. The skull embossed on their shields looks great too.
The Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings.
It does not appear that any of the banners have designs sculpted onto them. The pictures we have of the warriors show 2 regiments, one armed with swords and shields and one armed with spears and shield. Our source tell us that they will make crossbows but we don't have a picture of them.

2) NEW PLastic Dark Riders/WarlocksWarlocks appear to have one hand weapon
The warlocks are bare chested, and the weapons look mundane...aka not glowing. They look like large jagged daggers. They are held in reverse grips which looks pretty slick. The warlock champions eyes are glowing which IMO hints at some magical abilities. 
The Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings.
The Dark Riders are very cool looking. Sleek looking horses with only a bit of armor. All of the Riders are hunched over in the saddle to give the illusion of speeding fast cav. The helmets appear to be open faced and they are armed with spears in the picture I have, once again that doesn't mean they wont get crossbows (in the pictures we have they are in the back ground behind the Warlocks). 
There does not appear to be a command group for the Warlocks, only a unit champion. 

3) NEW Plastic Blackguard/ExecutionersThe Warriors, Black Guard, and Dark Riders all have cloaks. None of them appear to have face coverings. The Executioners appear to have skull faced helms. The theme to me appears to be a more sinister version of their High Elf bretheren. The plate armor has very spiked and jagged edges. The style will still fit well with the Shades and Reaper but next to these new models they will look very dated.
-Black Guard look very stalwart with large halberds and high helms with 3 spikes on each side with a flowing plume on top. Their armor is black trimmed in gold and they have dark purple cloaks. The unit champion is holding a sword by the hilt with the blade planted in the ground. Musician is a drummer.
-The executioners have what look like skull helms, and their armor is a brighter silver than the Black Guard. Their tunics are red in color and the Draiches are all held on the left hand side of their bodies (their left our right). They look very cool ranked up.
The Executioner champ is armed with an axe and is holding the decapitated head of a High Elf. Pretty dang cool.

4) NEW Plastic Coldone Chariot/Scroungerunner(Pulled by horses)The new chariot crew is armed with spears and what looks to be a large crossbow or bolt thrower on the chariot.
For the Scroungerunner charoit the crew look similar to Corsairs. The passenger shooting the crossbow/boltthrower has what appears to be a sea dragon cloak on. There are reins but they look like just normal black leather. The horses look awesome and angry. Both are black in color with red eyes. The chariot only has one wheel that is centered on the back part. Sounds stupid, looks cool. And as usual nasty spikes and blades al
And yes the Cold Ones on the chariot match the current Cold One Knights.


5) NEW Plastic Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne(This model is AMAZING)The Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne look very cool. If you are a fan of the newer larger models GW has been putting out for WHFB you will really dig it. It is a bit toned down compared to the Empire Celestial Hurricanum/Luminark of Hysh and has blades and hooks on it to make it very sinister and Dark Elf.
The Cauldron of Blood/Blood Throne are on a bigger base than the chariot base.
Yes the Cauldron and the Blood throne both have 6 wheels. They are on the same chassis, just with different stuff on the altar. I just noticed that the Witch Elves on Blood Throne have metal masks that cover the front of their face with the exception of their chin and mouth area and of course their eyes.
Ok and now to answer the Medusa question: She has the lower body of a snake and it appears there are other snakes on her base. The right side of her torso is bare, including her breast. In her right hand she is holding a spear. She has armor over her left breast and has a nasty looking clawed gauntlet on her hand. Her mouth is agape and she has snakes for hair. There is also a significant amount of blood on the model.

6) NEW Plastic Hydra/Kraken About Hydra:It looks bigger and beefier.
Yes the Hydra does have 2 handlers.
-The Kraken has 5 heads/fanged maws. The have spines and scales with smooth neck and belly flesh. Scales are painted a Dark Grey with the softer flesh painted blue. Looks awesome.
The Kraken doesn't have tentacles, it has four legs with webbed appendages ending in claws and it also has a tail.
Yes the Kraken has multiple heads. From the pic it looks like there is one main head with eyes and the other four necks end with fanged maws. Very cool looking. It may sound stupid to people as it is walking but wait until the picture comes out before passing judgement. 
You have to clear your head of any preconceived notions of what a Kraken is or looks like. Because lets face it, an 8 legged octopus creature flopping around on land would just not look right. It has 4 limbs that end in webbed feet with claws on them. It also has 5 heads. The main head has beady little eyes right above the mouth. The lower jaw on the main head extends kind of like an octopus tentacle but with teeth on it. The other heads end in an mouth with teeth and 4 claws around the head that look to facilitate grabbing their next meal.

7) NEW Plastic Witch Elf box-The pictures we have of the Witch Elves has them with two hand weapons.
The witches are also sporting thigh high boots and are very dynamic with their poses. I wonder how much of a pain in the butt it will be to get them to rank up.
The Witch Elves look great. No mowhawks or anything like that. Long flowing hair, thigh high black boots and red loincloths and for lack of a better terms bras. They appear to have open mouths so lord only knows what they are saying before they come in and hack my poor High Elves to bits. 

There appears to be a command group for the Witch Elves.

Saturday 14 September 2013

Alternate grudge thrower

I have been working on my chaos dwarf list using the dwarf rule book.

An essential inclusion is the grudge thrower with two runes of penetration and a rune of accuracy.  The current dwarf mini does not suit the look of my big hats so I have decided to get this hex catapult from eBay store Mrs Velard.

It will fit in nicely with my two earthshaker cannons which I will use as cannons.  

For less then $10 USD this is a real bargain.


Wednesday 11 September 2013

2000 Point Tournament List

I have toyed around with a couple of tournament lists but always try to take a competitive list but one that is not going to put future opponents agreeing to future friendly games.

This was a list I took to a 2000 point tournament last year which although small was good fun to use.  Four games in one day with no restrictions or comp restrictions or penalties.

My list

Level 4 Daemonsmith Sorcerer - blood of Hashut, enchanted shield, talisman of preservation and crown of command and lore of Hashut Infernal Castellan Bsb with mask of furnace 22 Infernal guard – great weapons, shields and full command with the banner of eternal flame 29 blunderbuss with full command Magma cannon Kdaai destroyer


Game 1 warriors of chaos- using the old book as the new one was too recent saw the return of the marauder hordes, lots of marauder horse and skull crushers.  Great game but I was smashed 20/0 and the only bright part was using magic to take out the bsb leading a marauder cav unit.
Game 2 ogres- 3 sabre tusk redirectors, ogre block with butcher, stone horn with hunter and 2 other stone horns (yes 3 stone horns in one 2000 point army)
Big 18/2 win for me as a stone horn charged the destroyer who killed it in the first round and then managed to get the 2nd one too.  At this point he went for his third but before he could get there it was killed by my warriors.  
Game 3 high elves- lots of swordmasters, archers, eagles and a unit of silver helms.  Destroyer led from the front and was charged by some sword masters with a hero with dragon armour- big mistake as the destroyer ripped them apart and then chased everything else whilst the blunderbuss and warriors cleaned up the rest.
19/ 1 win for the big hats 
Game 4 ogres- destroyer gets charged by bull block and stone horn - 2 rounds of combat the bulls are running with the stone horn which get caught by the destroyer - I think he likes stone horn meat!
I turned the tyrant's ogre block flammable and the magma cannon soften them up with 18 wounds in one shot!  Destroyer and flaming warriors do the rest.  Blunderbuss take out some mournfang and it’s a 20/0 win for me.
  
Lessons learnt
With only 4 deployments I kept my destroyer back a little and avoided compulsory frenzy charges by being close to lord and bsb.  I also used him to draw out big units and either made them flammable or gave him hatred.  He ripped them apart and generally only took wounds due to burning bright.
Blunderbuss were deadly but when I was outflanked such as in the first game even stubborn did not save me.
Warriors were solid with flaming great weapons and the bsb providing some back up.
Using our lore of Hashut was great and when combined with the magma cannon lots of ogres burned!  
I ended up fifth overall which I was happy with as I had not played this list before.








Monday 9 September 2013

Further chaos dwarf slayers update

Further update on the chaos dwarf slayers.

Extra green stuff to make the noses bigger and the some more work on the hats.  Will try to green stuff some arrows on the sides of the hat.

 Painting to follow (time permitting).


Sunday 8 September 2013

Hellcannon

Pretty easy one this - no major changes just added the earthshaker crew to the standard hellcannon.

Really happy how this one turned out.

Chaos dwarf slayers

First the good news, it looks like I have qualified for the Western Australia ultimates tournament which is our master event.  The bad news is the tamurkhan chaos dwarf list is not eligible for use.

Although all qualifying events have allowed the use of chaos dwarfs and I am disappointed I thought instead I would use my chaos dwarfs as dwarfs.  Heresy to some but substituting is pretty straight forward with infantry and and some war machines such as magma cannon as flame cannon and old earthshaker as cannon.  Obviously no iron daemon, bull centaurs or hobgoblins  but I did find my old avatars of war berserkers who needed some cosmetic surgery to give them a proper nose and some proper teeth courtesy of some dryad bits.

Although slayers are known for their Mohawks these dudes will still be sporting some serious big hats.  

These are a couple of work in progress dudes.  The big hats will have transfers from the old chaos dwarf transfer sheet as symbols rather than the gold symbols like the rest of the army.

Hashut protective tattoos will also be applied.

Updates to follow pending my new son and his sleep patterns.


Wednesday 4 September 2013

Tale of painter white dwarf review

I think these guys do the best online review of each new white dwarf.

Tends to focus on content and not let price increases dictate the quality of the review.

Enjoy: http://taleofpainters.blogspot.de/2013/09/review-white-dwarf-august-2013.html