The Road to Armies on Parade, Part 2
Horribly late, but not because I failed to finish my board for Armies on Parade. Rather, the hype for Shadows of Commorragh made me forget to post about the trip of the Free Companies of the Guilded Hand to the Manchester Warhammer store.
As planned, I updated the colour scheme on Gudrun's Grudgebreakers (tribute to Long Drong's Slayers) and Steve 'Seagul' Boffin's Kitchen Crew to match the rest of the Free Companies.
I've also rebased a few objective markers I had done for Mordheim as they'd been perfect to represent the chest and scattered loot from the cover of the Dogs of War Army Book. Obviously, since then they've seen some action in Warcry games.
What was left to do, was to set them on the board. I decided to use my Ruins of Phos, the first set of scenery I did at the dawn of the Age of Sigmar.
I'm really proud that the board captured the spirit of the Dogs of War Army Book cover by only using models developed with gaming, rather than a painting competition, in mind. Alas that was a reference only hoary hobbist could get. So, while with a couple of guys we spent the morning reminishing about the Dogs of War army, the popular vote went to more current, and definitely better painted, Age of Sigmar boards. But who cares, I had fun!
And in case anyone was wondering, Kalyustar was on the board as well, just lurking in the back. That wizard always had a certain attraction for forboding locations.
In fact, you'll soon see him walking again through the twisted woods of the Harrowmark. Stay tuned!
The Road to Armies on Parade, Part 1
After finishing the Void Phoenixes inspiration has dried out a bit. This was not really helping as I wanted to try Warcry but simply can't bring myself to play with unpainted models. Hence, I went back to my Orcs & Goblins army from the 8th edition Fantasy days. 3500 points and counting of old currency, all locked away and still on their square bases.
The first models to jump at me when I opened the army case were not the Black Orcs I was looking for. Rather, it was Ruglud's Armoured Orcs. As I hefted the metal (!) models I was reminded of my Free Companies of the Gilded Hand and the project to pay tribute to the Regiments of Renown from ages past. And then, inspiration struck me. What if I was to enter the new Themed Army category for Armies on Parade by recreating with my models the cover of the Dogs of War Army Book?
Ruglud's Orcs could take the place of the goblins. All that was needed was a bit of rebasing!
Since I've used red and yellow as the unifying colours for all the human regiments, I touched up the paint work on the orcs so that they looked coherent when put next to them. The same went for Skargat's Ironforged Ogors, the very first warband I assembled for Age of Sigmar and used during the Season of War.
As I was rebasing and painting them, I also cobbled together an Ardboyz warband, lead by none other than Badruk 'eadsplitta, glorious limited edition model from Games Day 2005.
He only needed a new base, while his boyz needed some touches of colour as they had been batch painted in a rather monochromatic scheme. After all, who cares for individuality when you can't see the details of ranked up models?
What I did was adding the splatters of blood on their weapons and picking up some of the armour plates in bronze to break up the dull metal I had painted so long ago.
As 10 Ardboyz makes for a decently varied Warcry roster and as there are exactly 10 names in the Core Book random name generator, the rest of the unit only got new bases and some licks of bronze. I'm not going to use them for Warcry, but who knows, I might play the odd big army Age of Sigmar game and one more unit is always handy!
The next models that will need a new coat of paint will be Gudrun's Grudgebreakers, my duardin privateers, and the halflings of the Kitchen Crew, which you can also see in the posts from the Season of War period. Then, it'll be just a matter of composing my board for Armies on Parade...
Aurelian's Aurpards
The Aurpards were founded in the Age of Myth by the first Venithyan merchants that joined their resources to establish the Gilded Hand cartel. They were the only company to include both the red and yellow of the Gilded Hand heraldry on their own shields and were known as the Gilded Guard. At that time, aurpards, pack felids that prowled the gold-rich Glimmerpeak, posed the gratest threat to the Venithyan convoys on the first leg of their land journey to the Mercurial Gate. It became customary for the Gilded Guard to don the striped pelts of the beasts they killed during their journeys and to depict the aurpard on their shields and helm crests, thus earning them a new name among the Venithyan populace. Expert pikemen, they remained the foremost Free Company as the Gilded Hand turned into an alchemist guild. Through the Age of Chaos, the Realmgate Wars and the Season of War, they continued to unflinchingly serve their masters and to protect Venithya. Their current captain, Aurelian, has reintroduced the practice for parties of recruits to kill an aurpard before they can formally join the Company. Having to work together to separate the beast from the pack, corner and skewer it on their pikes, they develop a spirit of camaraderie the like of which is not seen among other Free Companies. Rightly proud of their skills and heritage, the Aurpards have recently been claimed by Lord Captain Rodrik as his personal bodyguard. Ever since, Aurelian has proven to be an excellent second-in-command and many in Venithya are sure he will succeed the hoary veteran at the head of the city armies.
Aurelian's Aurpards are the last human Free Company I'd planned and wanted to be a tribute to the pikemen introduced in the Dogs of War Army Book. There were many pikemen companies, but I've always favoured Leopold's Leopards, in no small part because of the great illustration that featured in their profile page.
On the other side, I found that the original models didn't quite capture the feeling of that illustration, in particular the nobility conveyed by the helms and their crests.
So, my objective was to have models that more closely reembled the fighters in the picture. To achieve that, I had avoided using the armoured Freeguild Guard bodies for my other companies. Once combined with the Empire Knights' arms, helms, shields and pelts, I had exactly what I wanted!
For Aurelian himself I used the last head from the Freeguild General, the one with the helm sculpted as a felid head with a laurel. I also wanted his pike to look slightly different, so I combined the Empire Knight banner bearer arm with the pike from the really old Unded Chariot (think it was a 1992 model!).
The musician and banner bearer required some additional work to give them armoured left arms with weapons, which I made by combining Empire Militia and Knight of the White Wolf arms with spare blades from the Freeguildguard. The banner bearer has a machete-like blade, which was a way to link to Leopold's original model.
As always, I tried to give a tribute to the colour scheme of the original models, hence the white trousers. However, since I kept copper or gold armour for my heroes, the Aurpards were given a dull iron armour. As always, the red and yellow tie the models with the other Free Companies, but they are more prominent on them as the oldest Venithyan Free Company.
For the pelts, since I'm not good enough of a painter to do leopard spots, I went for an easier striped pattern. And I have to say, I'm rather pleased of
how they actually turned out!
And with them, my time with Freeguild is over! This project started with the release of Age of Sigmar and the Empire Batallion going on Last Chance to Buy. It feels right that it finishes before the second edition comes out.
But do not be fooled, I'm not done with the Free Companies! There are still non-human Regiments of Renown that I want to replicate!
Lord Captain Rodrik
Rodrik Harlsjen has never shown any inclination for the subtlety of magic and politics, although he could count a score of ancestors in the inner circle of the Gilded Hand. And yet, he now sits at their inner councils as their foremost military advisor. He rose to prominence at the head of his own Free Company, Rodrik's Valiants, during the final stages of the Season of War. In a series of running skirmishes, the Valiants hunted down the plague-ridden servants of the Horned Rat that had infiltrated the Pen, the shanty town were merchants grots, mercenary orruks, maneaters and other unsavoury but useful types are confined by order of the Gilded Hand. Over the following months, Rodrik's men one by one fell to unknown diseases. But their captain's skills at inspiring a rowdy bunch of militiamen recruited from the populace of inner Venithya did not go unnoticed. In the years to follow, Rodrik was tasked to lead both small and large armies and has secured new trade routes, cleared pockets of Chaos worshippers and repelled marauding orruks more than any other general in the payroll of the Gilded Hand. As the Season of Woe begun, the old veteran was quick to realise that the unquiet dead were the real threat and made sure that all men under his command were ready to fight such an unnatural enemy. It was this foresight, and his unparalleled skill to inspire the soldiery by fighting in the first line, that earned him the title of Lord Captain and his position within the Gilded Hand. As magic itself seems to be dying in Chamon, the alchemists of the Gilded Hand trust that Rodrik will keep their mercenaries as an effective bulwark against any force menacing Venithya.
The inspiration for Lord Captain Rodrik comes from both the cover of the Dogs of War Army Book and the model of Roderigo Delmonte, Captain of the Alcatani Fellowship.
The body of the Freeguild General on foot was already perfect to represent both the model and the illustration. The kit also comes with a nice head with an eye patch. For the arms, I used one with hammer from the old Empire Knights of the White Wolf, while the one with dagger is from the Empire Militia with a hand swap and a dagger from the Freeguild Handgunners. Finally a pelt, again from the Knights of the White Wolf, and a pistol from the Duardin Thunderers completed the base model.
Of course, the pelt is of a wolf, while I wanted to have a lion, and the head is bald, while I needed long flowing hair. That's where the Green Stuff came handy. The hairs were easy. The lion's head required trimming down the long snout of the wolf and then resculpting the details. In the end , the lion looks like one of those you see in Buddhist temples, but that's fine! All kind of animals exist in the Mortal Realms, right?
When it came to paint the model, I kept the dark copper of Roderigo, but turned it into burnished gold. together with the red on the clothing, this ties Rodrik with my other Freeguild Captain, Aldrik Tarsyn. From the illustration, I kept the streak of blonde hair, but turned it white. I reasoned that, together with the beard, this would be a nice hint at the time that has passed for that character. Think of it, that illustration is now twentyone years old and the World-that-Was is no more...it would be strange if the character still looked the same.
Because of the golden armour, painting the lion pelt in natural browns will have created no contrast, so I went for a black and white striped pattern. This also allowed me to differentiate between Rodrik's hair and the lion's mane.
With him, my Free Companies are almost done. There is just one more companies on the painting desk. Stay tuned, as I want to finish them before the new edition hits us!
Kalyustar stared into the empty sockets of the skull. Its green-black shine had an almost eerie quality. Kalyustar's thoughts drifted back, to the Eclipse. Back then, his obsession was the elusive sigmarite, the only substance in the Realms he had not been able to add to his laboratory. He had wrested many secrets from sorcerers and priests, in the gloom of the Eclipse, until a wizened sorcerer pointed him towards Shyish and its realmstone. In the Harrowmark, he had come so close to capture a large amount of it, only to see it fall in the ghostly hands of the White Lady. And now, as more dread portents plunged the Realms in confusion, he held it in its vitrified form. Yet, he was no longer sure he could waste it to capture some sigmarite. And then, the voices came back. 'With me, you could capture an even more elusive substance. With me, you could refine and mould it'. Kalyustar the Soulchemist, the voices had called him. But whose soul was to be melted and refashioned in the crucible of his magic?
I wanted to model a new version of Kalyustar, the Wizard I had created for the Ex Profundis' Eclipse competion, ever since, during the Harrowmark Run campaign I had started to turn in-game events into the beginning of a possible fall from grace.
When Malign Portent was announced and with Warboss Kurgan and Wailslake we started to plan for our next campaign, I decided it was time to do it. We were already setting our campaigns in Shiysh, in the Harrowmark region created by Warboss Kurgan, so it only seemed logical to explore how Kalyustar would be affected by the events of the Time of Tribulations. After some chat on the DAoS group, I took on the suggestion by Matthew Benner to use a regular Battle Wizard with scrying sphere, but to swap the sphere for a skull, to hint at Kalyustar's inner struggle over alchemy or necromancy.
I once again found a Liberator head and cut the halo and cheek guards to recreate Kalyustar's mask. Kalyustar's staff was again made exactly in the same way as for the first model: the twin-tailed comet staff top was shaved to leave only the sphere, which was then topped with the Liberator halo and decorated with vials from the Freeguild Crossbowmen/Handgunners. More vials were added to Kalyustar's belt, as a nod to the vials hanging from the barding of his horse in his previous incarnation.
For the skull, I had initially used one from the Khemri Skeleton Warriors, but I realised it looked too big and I was not really happy with the almost caricatural look of the eye sockets (first WIP picture). I then replaced it with a smaller, more realistic skull (second WIP pic). I also dry-fitted the left arm with the open hand hovering above the scrying sphere, as I really liked the idea of him kind of caressing the skull. Unfortunately, the hand hid the face if I wanted to keep it staring at the skull. So I took another left arm from the Wizard kit, removed the staff hand and replaced it with the open hand.
The flowing stole of the left arm was square, so I shaved it and touched it up with green stuff. At the same time, I resculpted the area around the sleeve rim that had been damaged when removing the staff. In this way, both arms are now covered in pointy sleeves. The addition of the drawn back hood from the Wizard kit completed the conversion and ensured that all elements of the original model were also in the new one.
I have obviously replicated the colour scheme of the first model, but went for slightly darker hues for the mask and robe and added some corrosion to the staff top. As I was painting the model, I realised that, if I had painted the skull as if bone, this would have created no contrast between the mask and the skull. Luckly, the fluff in Malign Portent made it clear that Shadeglass is vitrified Shyishian realmstone. It was too good a narrative hook not to pick it up.
Now, Kalyustar the Soulchemist, formerly of the Gilded Hand, will fight through the Time of Tribulations in our very own Skirmish campaign Thy Soul to Keep. Who knows, at the end of it, I might have to convert yet another Kalyustar as a fully fledged Necromancer.
Triumph & Treachery at Warhmmer World
On 21 and 22 October I've joined a bunch of great hobbists at Warhammer World for the Triumph & Treachery II event. The event used the Triumph & Treachery rules fro multi-player battles from the General's Handbook 2017. Although I had not used them before, I knew I was in for a treat, as with all the narrative game rules GW has been realising lately. And I wasn't disappointed! We were also given a deck of cards for all the Secret Objectives and Treacherous Acts you can use in game. They're a really nice little kit I'm sure I'll use in plenty more games.
For my army, I took my recently finished Free Companies, bumping them up to 1000 points with the addition of Gudrun's Grudgebreakers, my tribute to Long Drong's Slayers, and their ship cook Steve 'Seagull' with his Kitchen Crew. Who doesn't love an old style Halfling Hot Pot Catapult?
The two days were an absolute blast of laughter, with plenty of 'Shenanings!' shouts as people scrambled for their Treacherous Acts cards and hatched all kind of mischief on their opponents. I was so taken in the games that I often forgot to take pictures, but here are some from my first game, featuring the dreaded Mongo by Nigel Bartlett (Best Army Winner), some disgusting servants of Nurgle by Rob Nixon (Triumph Champion) and a 60-strong Moonclan Grot horde that really was scary!
I wanted to show the character of my Free Companies throughout the event. As mercenaries, that was easy. It was just a matter of selling my services to any other army in need of help or some extra arms...until it suited me of course! This lead to some really funny moments.
As we were playing Battle for the Artefact, a Lord of Change grabbed the artefact and tried to run away. I slowed it down with a Treacherous Act, making it stop exactly where I needed it, close to a Baleful Realmgate. As we rolled for initiative, I agreed for a truce with the player most of my units were engaged in combat if he let me have the next turn so that I could get to the Lord of Change. He won the roll off and stuck to his part of the deal. I moved Gudrun, a Dispossesed Unforged, through another Realmgate and he safely came out of the other, 3.5" away from the Greater Deamon. For good measure, in the shooting phase I shoot all I had at the guy that let me have the turn. And then Gudrun charged the Lord of Change brandishing his Relic Blade. We both played Treacherous Acts to boost combat skills, but they canceled each other out. Gudrun still hit on 3s. Out of 6 attacks, 5 hit, then 4 wounded. Tzeentch was looking the other way as the Lord of Change failed to save all of them. The Relic Blade doubled Gudrun's Damage to 2, and as he was fighting a CHAOS model, that was doubled again. 4x2x2=16 wounds...And the Lord of Change vanished back to the Realm of Chaos! Pity I was so excited about the whole thing and didn't take a single picture. But I did for the other epic moment.
Gudrun, Steve 'Seagull' and his Kitchen Crew were charged by a Mournghoul. Nasty beast that! The revenant quickly dispatched Gudrun, but then, the Halflings put up a surprising resistance (bad dices for the Mournghoul, good ones for the Halflings, you know). This gave time for a retinue of Stormcast Paladins I was allied with to move in. They pounded the revenant and then moved on, leaving Steve as the only survivor.
I had Kingslayer as my secret objective and the Lord Celestant leading the Paladins was already wounded...so Steve took at shot at him. After all, it was not the Lord Celestant that had saved him and the orders were clear: kill the enemy leaders! As usually, however, even if he needed 3+ to hit and can re-rolls ones, I rolled a 2.
These, and countless more acts of backstabbing, won a name for the Free Companies, even if they didn't win a single battle. But, at the end of the day...guess what? I had been voted the Most Treacherous Opponent by two, if not three, of the other players I faced in each of the five games!
Now, getting the trophy was a big satisfaction, but the biggest price was having a lot of fun playing against really cool armies. Just look at them on the the pictures taken by the Event Team people! If you're curious to see who the talented painters and crafty generals that shared in the day triumphs are, go here.
And if you ever have the chance, don't miss on the opportunity to join events at Warhammer World. It is really a great experience.
