Battle Report: The Vampyr Of The Riding

 Last weekend, I had the privilege and pleasure of playing one of the most enjoyable games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle I've ever played. 

And I have played quite a few good games of Warhammer, so let me assure you of the quality of what I experienced last week. 

"Playing with yourself again, are we?' wonders the ancient reader, familiar with events long ago on this blog. 

Thanks for asking - but no. This exchange involved a real, actual human opponent that, well, wasn't me. 

There are a few reasons for the superlative experience, I think:

1. I felt the desperate rush to paint something in a way I've not experienced since my Warhammer infused childhood. 
2. The desperation caused me to look again at figures I had in my collection that had not yet been stripped, or were semi-painted, or, well, anywhere close to allowing me to do something I haven't done for a while. Thus I realised that a large proportion of the dwarves in my collection were still waiting to be stripped down, but were actually in quite good condition. Salvageable condition.  Quickly salvageable - achievable within about a week or so. 
3. ...which created a whole new possibility, the results of which you will read about shortly
4. The chap with whom I had played has not, for various reasons, had very many or good experiences with any versions of Warhammer, but had a jib squarely cut in the oldhammer pattern. I submit to the reader that this was very fertile ground.
5. I had to formulate both forces as a result of owning all the figures and also being the more experienced player. Long have I pondered how capable the 4th edition of Warhammer would be if tackled responsibly, and this was a very, very rich opportunity to explore that. 
6. Having played The Battle At The East Gate of Karak Eight Peaks at Bring Out Your Lead with the formidable Gillson brothers, I was still on a high, because that was another of the most enjoyable games of Warhammer I've experienced in a very long time. I wanted to play some more 4th edition.
7. The chap that I played against has previously visited me to play 3rd edition. For a new starter, 3rd edition is a tough prospect, and he found the detail distracting. 4th edition felt like it would serve well in this scenario. 

Now it has been a long time since I've crafted enough narrative to enrich a battle report. The few games I've been able to play have all been rushed and boundaried by unfair and ridiculous constraints, which mean they've not received the love (or the player engagement) they deserved. I had entered this game expecting the same thing, and although I had formulated some of the narrative (enough to shape some of the force selection), it was only after the event that I realised the thing deserved more, because it was so good. 

Which leads us to the game itself. As all games should, we'll begin with a prologue...

***

The Striganie people of Cruel Sylvania, called also in ancient times the Fennone, have a long habit of opening the stories told of and by their people with a time one hundred and one years in the past. Be the matter last week, last year or last decade; it occured one hundred and one years ago. 

And so it is with this story so faithfully retold to me by that redoubtable people. It settles me to say the story, starting as they do with this curious endearment of theirs.

For one hundred years ago and one, a peace had settled on The Auld Ryding. In that time, it was known simply as The Riding, and contained within its borders the villages of Shoodthorpe (referred to by some as Stoodthorpe), Averridge and Mayby. Modern day cartographers will tell you that the village of Stoodhof must necessarily be - or be found upon - the remains of Stoodthorpe, and indeed, the same for Maylhof with long forgotten Mayby. 

The Auld Ryding nuzzles like a hound at his master's feet into the roots of the Black Mountains, in the northern shadow of the peaks that boundary the freezing flows of the Black Water Lake.

Should it ever be that you conduct your business in lonely Zhufbar, or indeed travel west from that place to warmer Imperial climes of Einsamholtz, Averheim or even far away Nuln, you may very well find yourself taking your mutton at the Inn of the Green King in Averridge as you pass by.

Now it came to pass that the peace was shattered: there fell a great tragedy upon the Roogslaugh family, who resided at their family estate of Hill House: the great house burned down, and with it, all of its once noble occupants. 

The folk of The Riding claim the house was put to the torch by an angry crowd from Shoodthorpe, for the house was profane in the eyes of all good and holy men. In that house was practiced necromancie, and daemonologie, and other acts of malice and wrongdoing. 

Still others claim that the house was consumed by daemons, come to collect the souls of Count Roogslaugh and his kin that were long over-due.

Yet the Striganie make a third claim, by which they swear, that the house in fact was set on fire by the youngest son of the Count: Daniel Roogslaugh. In their telling, young Daniel desired one thing above all others in life:

To be a woman. 

Being as yet unlearned in the ways of his family's spellcraft, he beseeched his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts and any of the servants with the heart to listen to entreat whatever dark gods and powers with whom they kept appointments to grant him this one desire - but to no avail. 

Full of shame, his father and his brothers beat the boy within an inch of his life and ejected him from the house, bidding him never to return. Young Daniel was compelled to live a scoundrels life, reduced to eating worms and beetles and whatever gruel the pigs of Shoodthorpe could not reach in their troughs. 

Full of rage and spite, Daniel survived and grew strong in his adversity. There came a travelling circus to Shoodthorpe who took in the boy, where he learned the skills of acting, and powder, and disguise. In the years that followed, he succumbed to his craven appetite for all things feminine: consuming costly fashion, spreading innane gossip and fainting as the occasion saw fit. He also abandoned the Roogslough name, setting on Danielle Le Roux, or has he became known: Danni.

At the height of his new performing career, it came to pass that Danni beguiled and fascinated a wealthy theatre goer. The gentleman, whose name was Andru Wwoydlebber (of the West Hochland Wwoydlebbers) was also a fearsome vampyr, known in society only as The Bantam of the Opera, on account of the cockerel mask he donned at such events. He pledged his love for Danni and on the night of their wedding, bestowed upon Danni the Kiss Everlasting. Too late did Wwoydlebber perceive the truth: he had not made sure that the girl was pure, as directed by the ancient wisdom of the Tone Loc. Nay, declared the vampyr: he was not about to play around with no Osca Myewina (a derogatory term the Striganie declined to illuminate) and thrashed Danni within an inch of his life before expelling him into the night in his wrath.

Long did Danni wander, developing erudition in the way of the vampyr. Finally, the master of his dark power, he returned to Hill House to exact his revenge on his former family. Terrible was his vengeance that night; not a creature made a sound in all The Riding, lest they drew the ire of the avenging vampyr in all his terrible fury.

Yet, even with his dying breath, the old Count Roogslough pronounced a curse upon Danni: paralysed shall he be, as unto stone, until one hundred years and one had passed. At once, Danni was turned to stone and there stood in the burning ruins of his family home. 

In the time that followed, many grave robbers and their ilk visited the ruin of Hill House, prospecting for whatever wealth there remained. In a daring display of bravado, once such character cleaned up the statue that Danni had become, and, struck by the look of anguish on the statue's face, was this able to sell it to the village council of Averridge as a statue of the Martyr Morga, Our Lady of Sigmar Distressed, for no less than one hundred pieces of silver. The statue was placed in the market square, and there dwelt until the passing of one fateful Hexenstag.

And so it was that late on that evening of Hexenstag, when a single cloud interrupted the full light of Mannsleib, that the curse was finally broken, and the young vampyr, possessed with the hunger of one hundred and one years of waiting, came to his senses. Immediately, he locked eyes with the rotund (some cruel folk had been known to say 'porcine') Lady Weller, gazing vacantly out of her parlour window. With unnatural power and grace, Danni leapt up to her window, compelling her with his daemonic charm to allow him to enter, whereupon she yielded to his most base desires: the waxing of his upper lip and the immediate trimming of his split ends. This done, the two discussed the fashions of the modern, conscientious  lady, before he drained her of every drop of blood her formidable form could muster and fled with her wardrobe. 

Beset with sorrow, Sir Weller demanded the village constabulary immediately bring to justice the wicked vampyr. Their leader, the brave Captain Prangle, knew a little of vampyrs and realised he and his men would be quickly outclassed by such a vicious beast of the night as the one that had so brutally murdered the good lady. To this end, he secured the services of the Thunderbuckle clan - merchant hill dwarves that had been looking to expand into the area. 

There came also a renowned wizard of the Grey order: Elrich Lang, who specialised uniquely in the hunting of vampyrs and the consumption of alcohol, preferring especially the heady ciders of the southern Empire. Having heard of the plight of the village of Averridge whilst on route to the Shrine of Gadd (on account of the legend of that places brew house), he immediately volunteered to join the company of men and dwarves, to seek out and destroy The Vampyr of The Riding.

***

 Location

An ancient map of The Riding:

 Note that the right hand side of the map is, in fact, south. This map:

 

 

...better shows both the position of The Riding in the Empire, as well as its true orientation (the top of the map is north).

***

Forces

So remember when I spoke about being responsible with the rules? Well, in my opinion, one of the greatest contributors to the horror of 4th edition was the irresponsible use of lists and the delegation of the players' abilities to have fun down to the rule books and army lists. 

I love (LOVE!) the early army books from 4th edition because they have the right amount of passion and none of the marketing finesse (as in, power creep...) that the later editions would introduce. 

In this case, I was able to achieve what I wanted within the bounds of the army books, but this is strictly coincidence, as opposed to my being boundaried by what the books offered. There were some differences to what might have happened in 4th edition way back when:

• I did not use points to determine the forces. I went with a looks-and-feels-right approach. 
• Whilst I don't think characters should buy magic items directly (random draw or pay for random draw), having no points basically just meant I would randomise the magic items. 
• The player could determine which item was best suited to which character (sometimes, I'd advocate the character has what the character has, but this felt right this time). 
• I opted not to use the Chaos Gift cards (so no Eternal Labour...), even though I was really aching to. I didn't want Matt's 4th edition experience to have his chaos characters forced off the table before he could apply himself to the situation. I did use spells and magic items from that set, however. 

 

***

 

The Undead

The Undead. Clickening will embiggen.

 

CHARACTERS

 

Danni Le Roux - Vampire Lord

Items:

• Blessed Sword (Grants WS 10. Yeah, I know.)

Spells:

• Raise the Dead 
• Vanhels Dans Macabre

Captain Vorador - Wight Champion

Items:

• Wight Blade (1 W = 1d3 W)
  
• Heavy Armour

 

Lord Helke - Wight Champion

Items:

• Wight Blade (1 W = 1d3 W)
• Heavy Armour

 

Mihartiskaphut - Mummy Tomb Lord

Items:

• Manticore
• Dragonhelm (2+ save against fire attacks)

 

Scuttlebotch - Chaos Hero

Items:

• Mark of Nurgle (+1 Toughnesss)
• Tormentor Sword (Surviving victims are subject to Stupidity)
• Potion of Chaos
• Heavy Armour 

 

Livvissspot the Insidious - Sorcerer

Items:

• Mark of Slaanesh
• Dispel Magic Scroll
  

Spells: 

• Cacaphonic Choir
  

 

TROOPS

The Old Barrowmen of Stoodthorpe - 20 Zombies

Items:

• Evil disposition and pathetic moaning 

 

The 1st Companie of Averridge - 19 Skeletons

Led by Captain Vorador

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Spears
• Shields
• Light Armour
  

The Reapers of Farie Tor - 19 Skeletons

Led by Lord Helke

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Two Handed Weapons
  
• Light Armour 

 

The Hateful Eight - 8 Chaos Warriors

Items:

• Banner
• Two Handed Weapons
• Heavy Armour

 

The Blessed Few - 8 Plaguebearers of Nurgle

Items:

• Plague Swords (1 W = instant death)
• Cloud of Flies
• Daemon Saving Throw

Spells:

• Pillar of Putrefaction (bit of a lemon for these chaps...)
  

 

***

 

The Dwarves

Dwarves. And Halflings. And the brave constables of Averridge.

CHARACTERS

Hesior Thunderbuckle - Dwarf Lord

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Master Rune of Flight (throw weapon up to 12")
  
• Rune of Cleaving (+1S)
  
• Rune of Parrying (Enemy automatically misses one attack)
  
• Heavy Armour 
• Master Rune of Adamant (+2 Sv)
  
• Rune of Fortitude (+1T)
  
• Talisman
• Master Rune of Spite (4+ Save, if saved, wound is rebounded on enemy)

 

Bofel The Wise - Rune Lord

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Master Rune of Swiftness (Always attacks first)
  
• Heavy Armour 
• Rune of Resistance (Reroll failed armour save on unmodified 4+)
  
• Rune of Stone (+1 Sv)
  
• Talisman
• Rune of the Furnace (Immune to fire based damage)
  

 

Tuvith Thunderbuckle - Dwarf Hero

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Rune of Might (Double strength if enemy toughness greater than his)
• Crossbow
  
• Light Armour 
• Rune of Stone (+1 Sv)

 

Thrassuid Gravelhood - Battle Standard Bearer

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Shield
  
• Heavy Armour
• Battle Standard
• Master Rune of Stromni Readbeard (+1 Combat resolution for all friendly units within 12") 

 

Josef Bugman - Dwarf Hero

• Hand Weapon
• Rune of Cleaving (+1 S)
• Rune of Fury (+1 A)
  
• Crossbow
• Shield
  
• Light Armour 
• Rune of Resistance (Reroll failed armour save on unmodified 4+)
  
• Bugman's Tankard (Recover 1 W per drink, 3 uses per game)

 

'Owd' Tom Thyksson - Champion

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Two-Handed Weapon 
• Crossbow
  
• Shield
  
• Light Armour

 

Captain Roland Prangle - General of the Empire

Items:

• Blade of Leaping Copper (+1 A)
• Golden Helm of Atrazar (2+ Sv)
  

Spells:

• Raise the Dead 
• Vanhels Dans Macabre

 

Elrich Lang - Master Wizard of the Grey Order

Items:

• Destroy Magic Scroll
  

Spells:

• The Crown of Taidron
  
• Bridge of Shadows
• Radiance of Ptolos

 

TROOPS

The Thunderbuckle Household Guard - 11 Hammerers

Led by Hesior Thunderbuckle

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Two Handed Weapons
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Heavy Armour
  

 

The Grand Companie of The Long Beard - 13 Longbeards

Led by Thrassuid Gravelhood

Items:

• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Heavy Armour

 

The 7th Thunderbuckle Light Brigade - 9 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Bofel The Wise

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

Tuvith's Scouting Party - 4 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Thuvith Thunderbuckle

Items:

• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Crossbows
  
• Light Armour

 

Bugman's Dwarf Rangers - 8 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Josef Bugman

Accompanied by 'Owd' Tom Thyksson

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Two-Handed weapons
• Crossbows
  
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

The Averridge 1st Company of the Constabulary - 29 Imperial Halberdiers

Led by Captain Roland Prangle

Items:

• Banner
• Halberds
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

WAR MACHINES

 

Big Jessie - Cannon 

Items:

• Halfling Crew
  

 

***

 

The next post will cover the battle itself.

***

GAME NAVIGATOR

Narrative & Army Lists
Deployment
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4

Look - lead!

"Oh," I hear you say. "You're back, are you? I know we hadn't agreed anything, but it seemed fair to expect the next turn in the ongoing saga of The Bridge Over the River Chai oh, you know - sometime soon after the last one was published? A week seems reasonable?"

"And now you tell me you still don't have it? You've got a lot of nerve showing up here, let me tell you!"

Yes, I suppose you're right. Nearly a month has passed since the last report on those crazy orcs and dwarves. It may gall you to know that the contestants are now busy on their eighth turn, but I have yet to even start writing up turn five.

Lets explain: its all to do with New Years resolutions, you see. Having spent the year week after Christmas firmly ensconced in the bosom of my family, I wasn't able to do much by way of hobby work. I was only able to return to the business of modelling work on or about the time of the New Year - a time rife with idiotic promises of life improvements. I decided to pledge to myself that I would not assemble/strip/prepare another figure until I had finished painting everything that was 'hanging around' on the desk.

Now, you may recall at some junction that I was planning to proceed into some sort of Chaos army, possibly based on Nurgle. That wasn't going to happen with my desk in the state it was at the end of 2012. I would have liked to show you a picture, but so taken with my cause was I that I didn't even hesitate  to get to work. So you'll just have to believe me.

The next part of the story is this: I now I have a nine month old living in the house. That's not a surprise - I've was here when she arrived, but far from becoming less demanding, it appears that little girls require more and more time as they get on (and, according to my experience of women, the increment is exponential...).

I mention this because it means I only have a small window of hobby opportunity available. As far as I am concerned (and you, no doubt), the business of hobby work - the actual stripping, gluing and painting parts - are different to the writing about the stripping, gluing and painting parts. I lost that argument - as far as my wife is concerned, its just hobby time - if I choose to spend it writing about the hobby as opposed to just doing the hobby, well - that's my own stupid fault.

So, in order to satisfy me new years resolution, I was required - nay - forced - to paint, leading to Turn five just falling by the wayside.

See - not so judgemental now, are we? I'm the victim here!

Anyway, rest assured, I'll get on with Turn 5 (and the rest) from this week onwards.

Still, I ended up painting some stuff.  A ghost (spectre/wraith/ethereal of your choice), a skull chucker, a corpse cart, a chaos dwarf bazuka and thirty two goblins. Also, I repaired Onowitz Mann'fluh - cos I broke him.

A brief note on the goblins. You've come across the terms strategic and tactical. You are reading a blog about wargames, so of course you have. In information technology, these terms are used slightly differently. Strategic describes the right thing - the correct approach, the gold standard. Most of my modelling work is strategic. Tactical describes quick and dirty - its not great - it just gets you over the hump, as it were. The thirty two goblins were tactical. I had purchased a bunch of goblins a long time ago. They were painted, but not especially well, as I thought. I stripped the metals, but the plastics I had just left. They just happened to be on the desk (due to reorganising). When I looked at them, it occurred to me that if I just gave them a black wash and rebased them - well, they would do. So that's what I did. I'm not especially proud of it, but as you'll see, this move has launched my meagre forces into 'army' status.

Now, there are pictures. And some more explanation.

Right, so on to the payload. Today started like this:

Given that going to work would have resulted in instant death (you know - health and safety and all that), I stayed home.

Much better.

With this sudden injection of time, I decided to take all of my painted stuff, put it on a table and take pictures. For you. Apparently, pictures are worth thousands of words. Here are thirty two thousand words worth of pictures:

It feels appropriate at this junction to highlight that I had no access to special lighting, which accounts for the fact that the flash managed to darken (romanticise?) most of the pictures.

Sorry.

Now I ended up in this situation where I had all these figures on the table. Having looked at them, it occurred to me that I might be able to split them all into two different forces - opposing forces.

Risking the wrath of The Minister of the Interior, quickly laid out a potential battle - between the Undead and the Goblins (with friends!):

So that's what I've been busy with.

Friends?

Oh? What now? You saw some modern figures? Okay, okay - you got me. There are some current edition things in there. Specifically, the goblin bolt thrower? Yes, and the crew? Sure, okay.

As I said:

Tactical.

Milestone Reached!

In this post:

Terror of the Lichemaster milestone reached!
Undead army milestone reached!
Two educated men outsmarted by a camera!
I buy a modern citadel product!

Lets start at the bottom of the list.

I went to visit Andre in order to play my first game of Warhammer 3rd edition in twenty years. You can find him on the map. Its always nice to actually meet people that you have only dealt with digitally. They never live how or where you would expect them to, and they never look how you thought they would.

Once the niceties had been attended to, Andre showed me his gaming set-up. I'll talk about that in another post, but two of the things he had on the table were the Citadel Battlemat and, well, another Citadel Battlemat. What blew my mind is that it is not the crusty paper roll that was produced a few years ago, but its actually a cloth (or cloth backed) 6'x4' gaming mat.

You can iron it.*

So I bought one. It meant I had to have a conversation with a GW store worker (marine?) with a serious BO problem, but even so, the product is still worth it.

In fact, so pleased was I with the thing that I broke out the figures and took pictures. It makes staging much easier for me. These are the pictures I will show you today.

What I won't do, is show you pictures of the battle.

I know, I know. I'm sorry. I had left my camera at home, you see. As the proprietor of a blog, it is simply irresponsible. Were blogging a licensed activity, my license would be revoked.

Fortunately (no doubt for Andre as well), Andre is married to a very nice woman, who has a very nice camera. She offered to lend it to us, and the two of us had a go with the thing. I don't think I'm a stupid man. I don't think Andre is a stupid man.  We combined our intellects and assaulted the camera with verve.

We were overcome. In the end, we decided that it was better for our own states of mind that we play than we dither with his wife's extremely powerful and confusing camera. Also, we would have had to do a lot with the lighting. And we hadn't played Warhammer 3rd ed. for twenty years - we reasoned that you, dear reader, would be forgiving. Like men released from prison after a twenty year incarceration, our minds were only on one thing.

I can summarise the battle very simply: I took Undead. He took Wood Elves. No Wood Elves were harmed in the prosecution of that battle. The treeman (technically not a wood elf) was also unhurt.

Now that you have dealt with your disappointment, we can move onto a silver lining of this specific cloud. As a result of preparing for the game, I had to paint some figures. Let us bask in their glory now.

Stage 1: Buying into the game

For the purposes of constructing my army, I've used the Warhammer Armies book. I realise that we are amongst gentlemen here, old-hammerers of distinction and class, so I know of no compelling reason to enforce the distasteful habits associated with vendor-supplied army lists. But, as I consider Warhammer Armies a thing of beauty that has largely informed my interpretation of fantasy warfare, I have elected to bind myself to its tenets. 

So, in order to buy into the game, as it were, one requires simply this: a General, 20 skeletons and 10 grim reapers (skeletons with two handed weapons). 

Although I've discussed this milestone before, I thought it would be nice to look at the thing again. And it allowed me to play around with my figures, scenery and the new battlemat.

31 figures!

Stage 2: Cleaning up a bit, really

Just another 10 grim reapers. I pictured this as I thought this would be the next logical step for those pursuing an undead army. I like the figure 20 more than I like the figure 10.

41 figures!

Stage 3: Enough units to manoeuvre with 

What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster?

I suppose it sort of is, as it's not an animal, vegetable or mineral. It's a liche, to be sure, with 20 of his favourite zombies.

62 Figures!

Now feels like the right time to some close-ups. Below: grim reapers!

Zombies! And the liche:

Skeletons, comprising of enough of the Nightmare Legion to be considered the Nightmare Legion:

Stage 4: Inviting some friends to play

I've had these chaos dwarves hanging around for a while. They looked bored. As an open minded, 21st century, equal opportunity employer, I thought it prudent to offer them an opportunity with my undead.

Figures: 72!

And you can see them a little closer too, if you like. Looking at the picture, I see that I have forgotten to  do any highights to the banner, which I destroyed earlier in its life through varnishing. I've corrected the damage, but it looks very flat.

Hooray for chaos dwarves!

So, what we have here is a legal (*cringe*) Undead Army. Let's talk about the milestones.

For some unknown reason that I cannot surface, an assortment of figures following the same broad outlook on life (and death) becomes an army when it reaches 70 figures. Less than 70 figures? Gang. 70 and onwards? Army. I don't know why.

So the Undead Army milestone is simply this: it's now an army.

But there is another, richer milestone. I've painted enough undead rank and file to cover the forces of the Lichemaster in The Terror of the Lichemaster. I'm still missing the commander-in-chief, but I'm sure we'll all sleep better tonight knowing that his forces are ready for him when he arrives. Now I need to start working the Imperial side.

So, what's next, now that I have an army? I was hoping to move into another army to create an opposing force for the undead. Having learned from experience from the game against Andre, I realise that I need to spend some more time on the undead, as they're quite bad at warfare.

There are two angles to this - the first is that now that I have enough rank and flle, I can focus on the more interesting things like the war machines and the corpse cart. I have some cavalry to throw at the problem and I believe I've sourced some carrion crows as well.

The second, and probably the route I'll explore next, is that I can pursue the creation of a second army, which could be both the opposing force and, when larger forces are required, part of the undead army.

If we consult the knowledge locked deeply within the tome of The Lost and the Damned, we see that Nurgle is also an equal opportunity employer, seeing the undead as boon members of his armed forces. Things have to be done in multiples of 7, of course, so I'd need to paint two extra skeletons and another zombie, but that is achievable. We see now that this force would not become part of the undead, but rather, the undead would become part of a Realms of Chaos Nurgle army.

In a bizarre and unplanned twist of fate, I have more RoC champions of Nurgle than of any other deity. It must be destinee destanie destany fate!



*Cool iron, use a cloth over it. Iron the material bit, not the grass bit. It's a gaming mat, not a pair of jeans...

More Zombies.

More zombies. Y'know. Loitering...

...as is the wont of zombies.

Another six zombies. I can't believe it. Okay, they're not completely complete, a they'll want some basing, but still. Six extra zombies. That means I've painted seventeen models in one month so far. And the month isn't even over yet!

Here they are, in all their grizzly glory:

Apologies for the lack of staging, but the scenery is in a cupboard which was alarmingly close to my sleeping infant daughter. It wasn't a hard decision to make: you'll just have to do without staging. Let sleeping infants lie...

In related news, however, things are lining up for my first physical game of warhammer 3rd edition since, well, 1992?

Twenty years ago.

If we take a look at Skarsnik's player finder, we might note that there is a man the local sheriff knows as 'Andre':

I'm located at the other pin. We've been threatening violence towards each other for months, but jobs, kids and other real-life activities have thus far prevented our joyous slaughter. But, on Monday, the 27th Day of September (EDIT:August, you retard...), I shall scrounge whatever painted items I can find, mash up some sort of army list and deliver twenty years of pent-up frustration to somewhere South of Hampton.

So I'm trying to get as much stuff painted as I can. Hopefully, I'll post up the list by the following weekend. I also have a secret fantasy that I might actually produce something for the Golden Gobbo - which is still unpainted, unbased, unmounted and, well, un-thought-of. What a backstory, should that entry be able to mark its (his? her? Its? I'm not telling!) debut with glorious slaughter on the field of battle!

But, no promises. New Dad. Still got twenty months before I can't use that anymore...

Look! Zombies!

Now that Oldhammer appears to be sorting itself out, what with forums, painting contests and other bits and bobs, the humble hobbyist is left with nothing but the business of painting.

I've painted some zombies.

Although the blog has been silent for a while, I have been diligently beetling along whenever I've had some space.

Washes have proven to be a loyal friend at this junction. As described in the link, the key thing for me was to move faster than normal. I reckon I spent about six or so hours on them (in total, not elapsed time. Elapsed time was about a month...).

Note the way old-school three in a row slottabase. Usually, I have to destroy those to get the figures out, but this one was still useable.

Anyway, these are the zombies:

I've been painting these as I continue forward with my Lichemaster objective. There are twenty zombies involved in the Lichemaster story - ten for Mikael Jacsen and another ten as part of Krell's contingent. I ended up painting eleven because I appear to have forgotten how to count. Anyway, I suppose that's good news, because then there are only nine left.

I haven't varnished or embellished the bases yet. I hate flocking bases. You can substitute the 'lo' with any vowel you think makes sense, if you really want my view on the thing.