AHPC Bonus Round Entry - Nasty Hobbitses!

The first Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge IX Bonus Round is up and contains some amazing stuff. My entry is the iconic Warhammer Fantasy Dogs of War unit Lumpin Croop's Halfling Cocks.

Make sure you check out all the fabulous work and vote for your favourites!

Cheers,
Millsy

Dogs of War vs. Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns

Given recent demands by the great unwashed masses for more after action reports I decided to do the right thing. Autumn blessed us with glorious weather today and I already had the table set up on the deck when Russ arrived for a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

I've been itching to give Kemmler's boys a run out since I finished them and who better to pit them against than the equally fluffy Dogs of War? The forces, at 2150 points per side, were as follows:

Dogs of War under General Russ Lucrezzia Belladonna Captain Paymaster 16 x Paymaster's Bodyguard 5 x Knights 5 x Knights 5 x Light Cavalry 24 x Pikemen 10 x Crossbowmen 10 x Duellists 24 x Cursed Company 1 x Cannon

Kemmler's Undead under General Millsy Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster Krell, King of Wights Barrow Wight on Chariot 24 x Skeletons 10 x Unquiet Horsemen 3 x Simulacra 3 x Simulacra 15 x Barrow Guardians 1 x Winged Nightmare

Since the Undead had not been run before we kept it to a simple meeting engagement to assess Kemmler's powers and see if he was a game breaker. Make sure you click for larger images...

Deployment

Dogs of War to the North - Kemmler's Undead to the South

Dogs of War in all their glory

Fearsome Undead arrayed for battle

Turn 1
Russ won the toss and elected to bat. He marched pretty much everything forward and fired his cannon to small effect killing a skeleton warrior. I also marched forward and then tried a spell which Russ attempted to dispel. He miscast his dispel wounding his general, something that was to become an ongoing theme.

Turn 2
Russ continued to advance and tried a spell of his own which Kemmler successfully dealt with. He also misfired his cannon. In response I also continued to advance and hit him with another spell killing a couple of Paymaster's Guards which he also miscast against. This time it was even worse - a free spell for me and another wound plus a loss of level for Lucrezzia Belladonna!

Turn 3

Russ continued his advance albeit more cautiously, trying to jockey for a chance to charge first. He couldn't get it to work though and I charged my Unquiet Horsemen and Barrow Wight Chariot into the Cursed Company, right alongside one of my units of Simulacra and Krell into his Pikemen. Kemmler successfully cast another spell and two more Paymaster's Guards died. For the third time in a row Russ miscast his dispel leaving me thinking it was all going according to plan.

However, Richter commanding the Cursed Company began the second theme of the day - an ongoing string of successful challenges which eventually killed my Unquiet Horsemen's commander and my Barrow Wight before also wounding Krell. Coupled with some appalling attack rolls by me and Russ was back in the game.

Cursed Company? Ha! Cursed dice!

Turn 4
At this point Russ decided (with good reason!) that Kemmler needed to be dealt with and attempted (unsuccessfully?!?) to kill him with a spell. In response I charged everything that wasn't into combat forward and soon we had a battle right across the line with my troops getting the upper hand everywhere apart from against the Cursed Company. The Pikemen broke and ran never to return and Lucrezzia Belladonna was killed with another spell by Kemmler, leaving me with total air superiority of the magical kind.

Turn 5
Russ bravely fought on and killed a few troops across the line without causing any real damage of note. I decided I'd had enough and set my Winged Nightmare on his Paymaster to devastating effect, killing him outright in one combat. Chaos ensued as Russ failed all but one of his panic tests and his army collapsed leaving me in command of the field.

And so it ended, a comprehensive victory for Kemmler and the Undead, due in large part to Russ and his abiding love for miscast dispel rolls. I'd like to say I outplayed him but I think his dice did far more damage than I ever did. Ironically, Kemmler didn't seem over powerful as his spells were only indirectly effective due to all the miscast dispel rolls.

Regardless of the result, we had a great time and the usual good natured spirit that pervades all my games against Russ was present once again. Great fun and we'll certainly be doing this again sooner rather than later.

Cheers,
Millsy

Los Liones de Lustria - WFB Knights

This is the last of the units from my 500 point painting challenge mega-entry.

They're for my Dogs of War army and will be used independently or brigaded with another unit of five depending on how I want to play them I guess. I've named them Los Liones de Lustria in my deliberately bad Lustrian mock-Spanish. Translated into English it is something like The Lions of Lustria.

They're GW plastics from the Empire range with old skool spearmen shields as I wanted the lion motif in relief and also a different shaped shield for variety. They were undercoated in black and then the metallic finished dry brushed and inked before the blue was applied. The banners are all home made using Photoshop and some free clip art.

On a side note, the workbench is currently groaning under the weight of some Space Marines and ECW Royalist cavalry amongst other things.

Cheers,

Millsy

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

Time for another yearly round-up as we see off 2013 and welcome 2014. This has been a bumper year for the blog, more than quadrupling our followers and adding another 77 posts which is 18 more than the previous year. Maybe with a little help we'll crack the 100 per annum?

So did things go according to Glorious Plan Millsy in 2013? I think you already know the answer is a resounding NO! Here's what I had planned...

• Some more ECW, mostly command stands plus a unit of dragoons

• A division of Saxons in 15mm for my Napoleonic force

• The remaining grenadier platoons for my Flames of War MW German Grenadiers

• About 30 or so 28mm Napoleonics for Cory and I for skirmish games

• and finally...

• A very large number (200+) 28mm imagi-nation troops for both Evan and myself

ECW command stands worked out well but the dragoons were a total write-off. In fact I sold the Warlord miniatures and haven't replaced them as Renegade are not shipping at present. Best we don't mention the Napoleonic Saxons at all. Or the Grenadiers for that matter. The 28mm Napoleonics got a fair bit of love but there are more to go. The 28mm imagination troops did get a decent look in but there are piles more of those to do also.

So if I didn't complete even half my intended projects what DID get done? Here's a quick pictorial review...

It's fair to say I've knocked off a LOT of stuff, not least a sizable unplanned 40K Space Marine force, the best part of a Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Britannia fleet, almost all of an Oldhammer Undead army, an entire 28mm dark age village, a complete Necromunda Cawdor gang and a slew (is that the right word?) of seemingly random stuff. Almost all of which WASN'T in the plan. I even wrote the darn thing down to help! Oh well ;-)

Stay tuned for Glorious Plan Millsy 2014. Guaranteed it won't survive contact with the enemy either...

Cheers,

Millsy