Army Gallery Pages

I have a lot of stuff. I've never denied it and at times revel in it. There is an obvious issue with this however in that sometimes even I can't remember what I have or when it last saw the light of day.

That being the case, I've decided to start collecting all the various images and content from across the blog which relate to specific armies in my collection. I'm doing this partly for insurance and documentation purposes but also so that it is easy to share galleries of painted armies for those interested.

Tonight I put together the first one - Heinrich Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Feel free to have a look and tell me what you think. I plan to do at least one a month hopefully.

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

Nothing happening but plenty going on...

Things are in an odd sort of holding pattern here at Millsy Towers. I'm working on a pile of different projects which are all at various stages that aren't really blogworthy in and of themselves. However, I felt bound to make some sort of blogging effort to keep things ticking over and ensure people don't think I've sunk in a pit of post-Painting Challenge despair.

Painting Challenge
Speaking of the 4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, Curt has started posting the various final prize rounds. I'm very pleased to be able to report I managed a double honourable mention for the Challenger's Choice Award and also took out top spot for the People's Choice Award. If you cast a vote my way for either you have my heartfelt appreciation! Some eye candy...

Challenger's Choice honourable mention - 2,500pts of Warhammer Undead goodness

Challenger's Choice honourable mention  AND People's Choice top spot - Ney with the Reargaurd in 1812

ECW Campaign
On another note, I've spent some time recently preparing to run a not-so-solo ECW campaign using a combination of various rule sets. The plan is to have the campaign level fun shared between myself as Royalists and my wonderful internet gaming buddies Adam and Curt (yes, THAT one) running Parliament.

All the strategic campaign level stuff will be done with a modified set of Warhammer ECW campaign rules, all three of us playing a part. The lads and I will work out a number of table-top battle scenarios per campaign year and they will supply orders for the Parliament forces. I'll then fight them out at Chez Millsy playing my side in person and Parliament by "remote control" (this is the solo bit). For the tabletop rules I'll use Clarence Henderson's popular Victory Without Quarter.

It should all be jolly good fun and I'll be blogging about the progress as we go...

Some terrain
Finally, I'm about 3/4 of the way through assembling and painting a Celtic stone cross for use in Dark Age and other period games. It's the same one Evan did such a wonderful job with here.

And that's it for now...

Cheers,
Millsy

4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Wrap Up

Wow, what a ride! The 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is done and dusted for another year. It's actually a full three months long but looking back it always seems more like three minutes.

Curt is a living legend (at least of the blogosphere) and deserves truck loads of kudos for putting the event on. When Sarah finally decides she's had enough and throws you out there's always a bed for you at my place mate.

This year there was a total of 60 participants from all over the globe battling it out and producing some truly amazing entries in terms of quality, quantity and breadth. I finished a pretty creditable 9th on the points tally which is an improvement of 4 places on last year. It's not really about that for me though even though it is fun to be a bit competitive. What's more important is sharing the fun with all the other amazing participants and seeing all their wonder and inspiring work.

Some highlights of my challenge...
Final ranking: 9/60
Points total: 1948 (beating my initial target of 1250 and just short of my revised 2000 target)
Bonus rounds: Submitted for all seven and snuck home for a win on the final Last Stand round.
Achievements: Painted something like 250 x 28mm miniatures and a swag of other stuff. That included a complete Dystopian Wars Britannian fleet and also an entire 2,500pt Warhammer Fantasy Battle army (that one inside of a month!)

Not bad at all and I'm pretty chuffed with what I achieved. Here's a quick visual recap...

A fair chunk of Dystopian Wars

My favourite entry, Kemmler and Co

2,500 points of Undead in one month :-)

Watch out Cromwell, Rupert's coming for you!

I'll show you where the Iron Crosses grow!

They call him the Cereal Box Kid

And lastly my winning entry from the final bonus round, The Retreat from Moscow in 28mm. Cheers to everyone who voted for me. I was very flattered and a little surprised to take the podium given the quality of the opposition.

And that's it. When I list it out like it makes me wonder where I found the time. Just putting the list together took a good 20 minutes alone. Now it's time for a breather from the painting desk and maybe a little something medicinal to tide me over the depression from it being all over for another year.

Thanks for looking and please leave a comment or three!

Cheers,

Millsy