perjantai 27. joulukuuta 2019

Mortenhoff Chronicles: Chapters 1 to 5

Greetings!

I am happy to inform you that my WFRP 2nd Edition campaign has progressed quite a bit this year, and I have managed to write the Mortenhoff Chronicles up to date with our finished sessions!

Below you will find two links, one to the brand new fifth chapter of the book, and another featuring the entire book from the very beginning to the end of this most recent chapter. Even if you have read/downloaded/skimmed through the previous files featuring as much of the story as had been written back then, I highly recommend you take this new one as well. Why? Because I've had my players read it through in search of typos and other errors, all of which have been fixed in this latest installment.


Those of you who have been reading the previous chapters will already be familiar with my campaign's player characters:
- Nywon Nuntius, a human scribe
- Toga, a human protagonist
- Dracoh Rigulah, a human cadet
- Kalós Malákas, a human pit fighter
- Mellion, an elf apprentice wizard

In chapter four the group got drawn into a feud between a priest of Morr and a travelling plague doktor in the small hamlet of Bebbanburg. Our adventurers then headed off into the Middle Mountains and entered negotiations with the dwarven outpost that resides there, getting on the tracks of whatever was driving the Gloomfang goblin tribe down into Middenland. The fifth chapter picks the story up from where chapter four left it (naturally!) and sees the group acquire a new task and a new friend. Of sorts...

If you've read this far and have no idea what this is all about, let me explain: I'm the GM of a game of 2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, in which my players play the characters listed above. I have taken it upon myself to write down our every single game session in a novel format, with full-blown dialogues, event descriptions and action sequences from our roleplaying sessions.

Welcome to the Mortenhoff Chronicles!




Enjoy!

PS. I've been thinking about posting a Who's Who in Mortenhoff? article in the near future, as our group has plenty of character art drawn that I could use to show you some of the most important NPCs and, of course, our PCs! What do you think?

torstai 19. joulukuuta 2019

Show Me What You've Got

Greetings!

Today's post is a special one. There's never been anything like it on the blog before. Ever.

What is it, then? A complete assortment of statistics about my miniature collection, of course!

Over the course of two days I took out every single box, bag and crate that I use to store miniatures, to record the number of armies and models I currently have in my entire collection. I also made a note of every miniature that I've finished out of this collection, with Painted-Percentages for the total as well as for each army individually. I compiled all this data into an Excel-sheet, from which I then created some diagrams for you to look at.

Here it is, the cold, hard truth. I currently own 1457 (yes, fourteen hundred and fifty-seven) individual miniatures. Each base holding any number of models (like the Anvil of Doom) was counted as a single miniature, although I keep my war machines and their crews separate, so a Cannon with three crew would still equal four miniatures. Simple!

torstai 12. joulukuuta 2019

Volcrest War -Campaign Finished

Greetings!

The recent half-a-year's campaign, the Volcrest War, has reached it's conclusion after six thrilling Acts that saw both Ghurian land and ancient artefacts change hands in bloody battles across the Sclavinian Valley.

Check out the Campaign Chronicle here to get an idea of the war as a whole.

A huge thanks to our campaign's gamemaster, who tirelessly wrote our glorious victories and bitter defeats into the constantly evolving story of the war, with amazing custom scenarios and in-game bonuses for alliances along the way!

Painting and Preparations

Greetings!

It's been over a month since the last post, I know. My studies got in the way momentarily and disturbed my hobby life, and although I was able to get in a few games here and there, I haven't had time to write battlereports of them. Fortunately that is now in the past and y'all will have lots to read on your holidays as I catch up with my battlereport output!

But first, I have something to show you. I recently got some Citadel Contrast paints in the hopes of this new technological advancement speeding up my backlog, and guess what... it actually works.

Take a look at these Highborn Spearmen / Dreadspears I finished just yesterday:


That's 30 Spearmen with two command groups to allow me splitting the unit (and because I have another 20 Spearmen already painted that have to command). I worked on this unit a couple of hours a night over a week, and some days were too busy to have me paint at all. Yet the unit still got finished a lot faster than I anticipated; trust me, I know. I just painted 40 Highborn Archers with regular paints before these ones. Ungh!

I'm very happy with how the unit turned out. The colours are bright and clean, shadows and highlights are good tabletop quality but on larger surfaces like the shield you still get some natural variation in the saturation of the colour, making it look like the shield was actually covered with a painted cloth of whatever.

The recipe was deceptively simple. Wraithbone base coat for warm colours, Celestra Grey for cold ones. Then you just splash on the colours of your choice: warm on warm and cold on cold. Add some texture to the base and boom. Unit done.


I also tried my hand at a third Bolt Thrower. The war machine itself is mostly regular paints, but the crew and the bolts are almost all Contrast (except metallics). I didn't have a large enough base for the Bolt Thrower to get all the extra flags and ammunition on it, so I decided to give the bonus goodies to the crew.

Works fine, in my opinion. I just didn't want to leave out such evocative bits from the unit. So, with this post the blog is back on track, with several battlereports, campaign finales and Warhammer Roleplay content on the way.

Make sure to pop by every now and then on your holdays. Until then!

keskiviikko 30. lokakuuta 2019

Second Battle of the Prismatikon

Greetings!


Once again the forces of Hammerhal and Anvilgard met upon the battlefield, this time fighting it out to the rhythm of Battleplan: Protect the Wards from the Malign Sorcery book. The Hammerhalians had three Foci on the table, objectives that boasted 15 Wounds and a Save of 3+ each. These Foci could be destroyed in close combat like any other model, but until destroyed they would prevent any and all Anvilgard models from entering the Hammerhal deployment zone.

Should the Anvilgardians get even a single unit into the Hammerhal deployment zone by the end of the 5th battleround, they would be victorious. Any other result would be a successful defense on the part of the defenders!

Onwards, to battle!

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Lord Aenarel watched the mage tap the crystal thrice with her staff, causing the focus to flicker into an arcane life. Golden light danced within the prismatic crystal, growing stronger by the moment and linking up with similar grow from the two other crystals spread out in a line before the assembled ranks of the Hammerhal army. The foci reached out for each other, linking their golden light, and suddenly a bright flash of light washed over the onlookers. As the aelves blinked the colourful afterglow out of their eyes, they beheld a barrier of shimmering, arcane force that stretched out before them, forming a magical palisade in between them and the cloud of dust in the horizon that they knew to be an Anvilgard invasion force.

"The ward is strong and stabilized, my liege," the mage reported, a hint of a proud smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Very well," Aenarel replied, sighing. He was weary to the bone. Losing his eldest son in the incessant fighting over the last few weeks had taken its toll on the old noble.
"Take up position at the altar on our eastern flank. I need someone there to look after the barrier's integrity during the battle. Lothar will make sure the centre holds. No doubt our foe will try to disrupt the foci in any ways take can possibly come up with."
"I'd be disappointed if they didn't," the mage remarked before bowing and taking her leave.



lauantai 12. lokakuuta 2019

Battle of the Razorfang Sprawl

Greetings!

Here comes another battlereport from the Firestorm II campaign, once again with the aelves of Hammerhal and Anvilgard duking it out and seeing who gets to control the Razorfang Sprawl.

The Battleplan we used featured two Watchtowers in the Anvilgard deployment zone, and the aim of the game was to either 1) wipe out the enemy or 2) for the attacker to have any models within 3" of either of the Watchtowers.

Anvilgard was the defender in this scenario, giving them the benefit of cover and the control of the towers, forcing the army of Hammerhal to try and win them over.

On with the story!
________________________________________________________________________

Lord Aenarel soared above the verdant fields astride his dragon, taking in the vista opening up below him. Long columns of mounted Dragon Blade Knights and Reavers were snaking towards the horizon amidst the grassy hills, followed by the army's baggage train with its Levy Spearmen escort. Far ahead the main column, scattered wide into the landscape, were the Lion Rangers Lord Dawnspur had assigned as their trackers, guides and scouts.

As soon as the news of his nephew's failure in the Vitriolic Swamps had reached him, Aenarel had mustered all available cavalry and set out to the east, leaving the Eyes of the Prismatikon to the garrison of spearmen and archers. He pressed on into the Razorfang Sprawl in an attempt to divide the Anvilgard domain here on the Flamescar Plateau in two, leaving the enemy weakened and open for a killing blow. More than that, he knew Lord Rinos would press his advantage after the Anvilgard victory at the swamps, and the only way to stop the enemy general from achieving that was to strike first.



sunnuntai 29. syyskuuta 2019

Volcrest Campaign Chronicles

Greetings!

This post is up to chronicle the events of the Volcrest War, a new campaign that recently begun in our local gamestore. The campaign advances in two-week Acts, which are divided into Map Conquest Acts and Narrative Quest Acts: the former type is for claiming regions on the campaign map, the latter for acquiring campaign bonuses for your faction.

The campaign is set in a lush valley just east of the Uzhag Plains in the Realm of Ghur. The area is nominally under the control of the Order-aligned Empire of Sclavinia, but since the discovery of an ancient Stormvault in the flying city of Volcrest, the capital of the Empire, forces from the other three Grand Alliances have begun to flock to the region. The aim of the campaign is for the participants to secure their Grand Alliance a region adjacent to the flying city of Volcrest, in order for them to find a way in and pillage the vault... which is easier said than done, since the despotic Emperor Ioann has sealed himself and his loyal followers into the city, preventing all means of entry.

This post will chronicle the events of the war as four Grand Alliances vie for chances to close in on the city and discover a way to get in.


sunnuntai 8. syyskuuta 2019

Siege of Kazad-Zul



Greetings!

Time has come for another game of Old Skål, this time using the rules for Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th Edition despite what I decided back in the Old Skål article. What can I say, well, a little change of pace in WFB is always welcome, so you'll most likely see both 3rd ed and 6th ed batreps here under the Old Skål banner from now on. The game mechanics do not show through the narration anyway, so what does the edition really matter?

This game pitted the stout Dwarves against a fearsome horde of Warriors of Chaos in a siege scenario. There was no time limit for the battle, and the side that shattered the opposition first would be the winner. The Chaos forces totaled up to 945p while the defenders got about a third less, 616p. On the other hand, the defenders did get a huge castle as compensation. I'll include the army lists down below if anyone's interested.

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The eleventh day of the siege dawned warm and hazy, the sun shining down upon the upturned fields surrounding the dwarven hold of Kazad-Zul. Where once had been fields of hardy mountain wheat swaying in the wind, now lay dozens of corpses rotting in the warmth. The air that had once rang to the merry whistling of dwarven workers now resonated with the buzzing of corpse-flies that fed on the waste of the conflict around them.

Ten days before, a sizeable Chaos army had fought its way to the gates of Kazad-Zul, setting camp and laying siege to the hold. Earthworks and palisades were erected around the siege camp to protect the invaders from defender raids and sallies, and thick-timbered catapults had been hammered together and brought to bear against the castle walls. Day after day the hordes of the Dark Gods bashed their might against shieldwalls and masonry, yet no ground was gained. The dwarf hold was well stocked with supplies and fresh water underground, the siege camp was not. Disease and daily skirmishes took their toll on the followers of Chaos.



tiistai 27. elokuuta 2019

Painthammer Quest: Layers over Hammerhal

Greetings!

Since I got a colleague of mine into trying out Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal a while back, I decided to see throught the painting of the box's miniatures. So here comes a collection of painted heroes, adversaries and the big baddie!



perjantai 16. elokuuta 2019

Battle of the Vitriolic Swamps

Greetings!

And welcome to another report from the Firestorm II campaign. The forces of Hammerhal and Anvilgard met once more to do battle, this time deep in the Vitriolic Swamps, which gave us a prime opportunity to play with a plethora of special rules and shenaningans!


First of all, the scenario was Glory Seekers from the Open War cards: both players add up the Wound values of all slain enemy models and score that many Victory Points, with x2 points for monsters and heroes.

tiistai 6. elokuuta 2019

Battle for the Eyes of the Prismatikon

Greetings!

I am happy to bring you yet another battle from our ongoing Firestorm II -campaign, this time pitting my Hammerhal Aelves against a ferocious legion of Seraphon. The Battleplan was one of the surprise battles introduced in the Firestorm rulebook, establishing an interesting betting system to determine which side would be the Defender and which the Attacker.

Well, to put it as simply as possible, the betting system works like this: both players secretly write down a number they are willing to bet in Victory Points. Once the numbers are revealed, the player with the higher number will be the Attacker, whilst the one to bet lower is the Defender (who in this scenario had some special rules hindering his forces). The gist of the system is that at the end of the game, the Defender gets as many Victory Points extra as the Attacker bet at the beginning of the battle!

To use our game here as an example, I secretly bet 125 VP, whilst my opponent bet 400 VP. When the numbers were revealed before deployment, it was thus established that I would be the Defender (having bet lower). BUT! at the end of the game I will received +400 extra Victory Points on top of the VP I got from killing off enemy units. Truly an amazing system in all its simplicity.

So, my forces began the game with D3 units "sleeping" in my camp, meaning they could not do anything, and my opponent also got the first turn. I rolled a 1 for the number of sleeping units, so only my Archers were useless in the first round.

On with the story!

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Having insisted on pressing east even after the battle against the hated Anvilgardians at the Caverns of Fulminax, as opposed to staying put and waiting for reinforcements, Lord Aenarel Dawnspur had put himself in a sticky situation. He had only allowed his depleted forces enough rest so that the accompanying artesans had had time to fashion his levy bowmen some basalt-tipped arrows, half a quiver each, before forced marching his army over to the Eyes of the Prismatikon, a massive array of tall towers tipped with lenses that could focus the searing energies of the Realm of Fire.

With the Caverns of Fulminax behind them now under proper Hammerhal control, they would have a steady supply of weapons utilising the new enhanced basalt that seemed to thrive in the Aqshyan climate, glowing bright hot and melting through armour like it was parchment. Now that he was staring at a Seraphon force descending down on his army's encampment at the Eyes of the Prismatikon, however, even the prospect of future superior weapon shipments did not cheer the old aelf up. The new test-batch of arrowheads would have to prove nigh-miraculous if he hoped to survive ths encounter with his forces intact.



keskiviikko 31. heinäkuuta 2019

Battle of the Caverns of Fulminax

Greetings!

Another battle went down between the aelves of Hammerhal and Anvilgard. As is the habit of the sinister Anvilgardians, the battle setup was an ambush, into which my army happily walked.

The aim of the game was to score Victory Points by destroying enemy units. Deceptively simple!

On with the story...


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With his son having been humiliated at the hands of Dreadlord Rinos Wildbringer, Lord Aenarel Dawnspur was full of righteous anger. After hearing the news he had rounded up all available troops in the landing site at the Coast of Ill Omen, putting together a sizeable legion which he marched off into the mountains in search of the deceitful foe.

They marched for days, making camp at sheltered valleys and hidden ravines amidst the mountains, but as they finally made camp at an old watchtower at the Caverns of Fulminax they were up for an unpleasant surprise...



torstai 25. heinäkuuta 2019

Storming of the Oldentown Castle

Greetings!

This post marks the end of the year-long Streets of Oldentown campaign, as the two leading warbands clash in the shadow of the district's castle. The combatants must fight the neutral forces of the Oldentown Garrison in addition to clashing among themselves, and the warband with a model within 3" of the door to the Castle Tower at the end of any battle round is the victor.

And on we go to the battlereport! Below you'll find a collection of atmospheric pictures and descriptions from the fray, along with the story that concludes this campaign.

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A beautiful Marktag turns into a hazy evening in the Oldentown District of the capital city of the Puffington Empire. Workers, merchants and artesans all make their way back home for the night, flowing along the cobbled streets like living streams of duardin, aelves and humans.

Darkness begins to grip the edges of the horizon as the twin suns of Ghur descend towards the distant treelines, the massive city walls hiding the final warming rays from the tucked-in populace of the City of Order.

However, as the shadows gather and the streets grow quiet, sinister plans are put to motion right under the noses of the City Watch...

keskiviikko 10. heinäkuuta 2019

The Ulgumgi - Instahammer 2019

Greetings!

I am both happy and wistful to post about the end of 2019 Tales of Instahammer. Happy, because my Ulgumgi are now in good condition and I can focus on other projects. Wistful, because the event was so much fun over the six months, planning conversions and exploring the theme I had set for my army!

Now, however, the Ulgumgi have gathered in great numbers for a family portret. Only 20 Hirdmen and 20 Huntsmen remain unpainted, and I'll fix that soon as well.

Behold the descendants of the Lost Battalion!


perjantai 21. kesäkuuta 2019

Battle of the Tears of Fate

Greetings!

Here comes the second battle fought in our new Firestorm II campaign, this time pitting my Hammerhalian aelves against their more sinister kin from Anvilgard!

See Battle of the Chains for the previous battle in the campaign, or check out the Faction Focus if you want to read some backstories on the participant factions.


The Battleplan we generated from the Open War cards was a tricky one: an ambush deployment with two objectives and both armies arriving in 2-3 parts? Ouch.

It all became even more ouch when my opponent won the roll-off to choose which part he wanted to play, which put me onto the middle of the board as Player A. Other than that, it was a simple scenario; grab both of the objectives and control them at the end of any of your opponent's turns.

Onto the battle!
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After his swift victory at The Chains, Lord Morduviel Dawnspur took his army south-east, crossing the mountain range dividing the Flamescar Plateau and pressing on to the plains beyond. Day by day his legions drew closer to the Coast of the Searing Sea, the rumoured landing site of the Anvilgard intruders. The forces of Hammerhal were snaking their way through the ancient ruins at the Tears of Fate, navigating the labyrinth that was the husk of a dead city, when Seawarden Sarvaniel suddenly called the column into a halt.

Lowering the hand with which he had signalled the order, Sarvaniel looked around them. Hot winds blew from the east, pulling at their banners and making them flap lazily above the ranks. There was an overwhelming smell of sulphur and ash in the air, and no matter how many swigs one took from a waterskin there was always a dull tang at the back of one's throat. Whispered conversations started rising from the halted soldiery as their officer scanned their surroundings.
"Ithulwin, where's our rearguard? Lord Dawnspur was supposed to bring up the rear with a squadron of Reavers," Sarvaniel inquired, frowning at the dull-grey ash clouds that limited their vision alarmingly.
The adjutant shrugged, the same alarm in his almond-shaped eyes that had overtaken the Seawarden.
"I can't say, my lord. They were right behind us only moments ago."
"What about our forward scouts?"
"Not a word from them either, my lord."

Something was amiss here. Suddenly, a warhorn blew somewhere nearby, startling the aelven column. That was not a Hammerhalian battle-call, that was something else. In a matter of heartbeats the enemy came into view, a giant War Hydra backed by ranks of Drakespawn cavalry rushing at them from amidst the clouds of ash and smoke.
"Ambush! It's the cursed Anvilgardians, FORM ON ME!" Sarvaniel cried out, drawing his sword.

maanantai 17. kesäkuuta 2019

Firestorm Faction Focus

Greetings!

With the newest Firestorm campaign now underway, I thought it might be polite for the three participating warlords to introduce their forces and their respective hobby blogs. Once more troops get painted and the armies are arranged for some family portraits, I'll be adding some character/unit introductions here along with some pretty pictures.


Blueraven's Seraphon

Worldship entered realspace after receiving distress call from Flamescar Plateu’s beacon. Primitive races had invaded Seraphons ancient territory and managed somehow trigger beacons warning signal.

During the travel around Mortal Realms, most of the ships denizens had stayed in suspended animation. Much had changed when they finally landed near Realm of Fire. Necroquake had disturbed the balance of realm magic and new races had emerged from hiding.

With technology that seemed like magic to the lesser races, worldship teleported scouting party to the Plateu to investigate the disturbance.

Led by Saurus Oldblood roughly translated Kraq-nar Jaws of Death, the scouting party advanced deep in to the enemy territory.

Be sure to check out his impressive myriad of content at Blueraven's Blog.


VainVader's Anvilgard

Wild Beast Hunting Cohort Three of the First Safeguard Army of City of Anvilgard, in command of Dreadlord Rinos Wildbringer, riding Qidir the Loud, a Black Dragon

While Rinos and his cohort were usually patrolling and hunting in the nearby jungle areas of Anvilgard, it was not unheard of them to sail ships and campaign elsewhere as well. This time their destination was Flamescar Plateau and they were not hunting primarily wild beasts, but knowledge and secrets long forgotten. However, the beasts would not be forgotten, since a large number of different beasts travelled the seas with the army, as mounts to the valiant knights.

Their black ships with red sails arrived at Searing Sea and disembarked army looked anxiously to move forward to inland, area very much different to their home jungle.

Head over to his cozy blog and have a look at all the stuff he's painting at Vain Vader.


ExtraBushyBeards' Hammerhal

Lord Morduviel Dawnspur assessed his troops as they marched by. Mounted Reavers from Hammerhal's outer rim far-ranging patrols, Citizen Archers from the Highborn Quarter garrison, Levy Spearmen drafted from the lowlier aelven population in the southern Craftsmen's Disctrict, a Repeater Bolt Thrower funded from Morduviel's personal coffers and an Archmage of the Eldritch Council with an entourage of Swordmaster bodyguards. A hint of a smile passed across the aelven lord's features, but only momentarily.

Morduviel was very pleased by the enthusiasm and open-mindedness the aelven aristocracy of Hammerhal had shown towards his family's ambitions in sending an armed force to safeguard the peace and tranquility of the Flamescar Plateau. House Dawnspur had received valuable intelligence on the movements of an Anvilgardian fleet making it's way to the plateau through the Bay of the Searing Sea, and they had resolved to stop the usurpers in their tracks. Flamescar Plateau and all its natural resources and ancient treasures were the rightful possessions of the Free City of Hammerhal, after all.

As his legions marched on in lockstep, emerging from their fortified encampment and disappearing into the hazy dawn along the strands of the Coast of Ill Omen, Lord Morduviel cast a gaze at the ranks of Spireguard bringing up the rear of the column. Oh yes, he mused to himself. Just this morn a squadron of sleek, white-flanked Hawkships had sailed in along the murky waters of the coast, landing several cohorts of spear-and-bow Spireguard Marines to reinforce his already considerable army. A courtesy of his family's friends high up in the Swifthawk Agency, no doubt.


I see no reason in placing a link here.



torstai 13. kesäkuuta 2019

Battle of the Chains

Greetings!

Here comes the very first battlereport of the Firestorm II Campaign I announced not too long ago, featuring my Hammerhalian Aelves facing off against the Seraphon under the command of Oldblood Kraq-Nar.

This battle took place at The Chains, a region littered with ancient duardin chainforts that can be manipulated to lash out against any interlopers: army generals within 1" of a Chainfort terrain feature may inflict D3 mortal wounds on any enemy within 12" of the terrain feature. A nasty special rule!

Otherwise the aim of the game was simple, there were three objectives on the board and the player controlling the majority of them at the end of the game would be the victor. However, should either player control all three objectives at any point in the game, at the end of their own turn, the victory would go to him. Overall a very nice and simple scenario, spiced up by the random Twist we rolled for our game: every unit gained +2" Movement as well as +1 to Run and Charge rolls, making everyone painfully fast in a game of take-and-hold!

On with the story!

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Lord Morduviel Dawnspur assessed his troops as they marched by. Mounted Reavers from Hammerhal's outer rim far-ranging patrols, Citizen Archers from the Highborn Quarter garrison, Levy Spearmen drafted from the lowlier aelven population in the southern Craftsmen's Disctrict, a Repeater Bolt Thrower funded from Morduviel's personal coffers and an Archmage of the Eldritch Council with an entourage of Swordmaster bodyguards. A hint of a smile passed across the aelven lord's features, but only momentarily.

Morduviel was very pleased by the enthusiasm and open-mindedness the aelven aristocracy of Hammerhal had shown towards his family's ambitions in sending an armed force to safeguard the peace and tranquility of the Flamescar Plateau. House Dawnspur had received valuable intelligence on the movements of an Anvilgardian fleet making it's way to the plateau through the Bay of the Searing Sea, and they had resolved to stop the usurpers in their tracks. Flamescar Plateau and all its natural resources and ancient treasures were the rightful possessions of the Free City of Hammerhal, after all.

As his legions marched on in lockstep, emerging from their fortified encampment and disappearing into the hazy dawn along the strands of the Coast of Ill Omen, Lord Morduviel cast a gaze at the ranks of Spireguard bringing up the rear of the column. Oh yes, he mused to himself. Just this morn a squadron of sleek, white-flanked Hawkships had sailed in along the murky waters of the coast, landing several cohorts of spear-and-bow Spireguard Marines to reinforce his already considerable army. A courtesy of his family's friends high up in the Swifthawk Agency, no doubt.


keskiviikko 5. kesäkuuta 2019

Firestorm II Campaign

Greetings!

I promised this summer would bring new campaigns and lots of batreps and painting, and this is the post that starts things off by announcing....


Firestorm II
Second War for the Flamescar Plateau

This post will serve as a landing page for this campaign's overall progress, and as such will be constantly updated as the war rages on. Last time there were four warlords competing for the possession of the Flamescar Plateau, one from each Grand Alliance, but this time there are three armies... all of which hail from the same Grand Alliance.

The Free City Hammerhal sends forth a contingent of aelves drawn from the city's massive population, while the shadowy city-port of Anvilgard provisions a competing force to race its sister city of Hammerhal for the control of the Flamescar region. Above the armsrace of the two Cities of Order, a more mysterious power gathers... The Seraphon are bound for the plateau as well, led by the ancent Oldblood Kraq-Nar in search of a disturbance their worldship detected on its voyage through the void in between the Realms.

While waiting for more battlereports and tidings of war, be sure to check out this campaign's Firestorm Faction Focus!

This campaign is still in progress and will receive fairly regular updates.

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tiistai 21. toukokuuta 2019

Mortenhoff Chronicles: Chapters 1 to 4

Greetings!

Some while ago I managed to achieve an immensely rewarding and astonishing personal feat. The Mortenhoff Chronicles finally caught up with the events of my WHFRP campaign! Yes, that's right, I have now written each and every session of my group's roleplaying campaign into novel format, no more, no less!

This means that the pace at which the Chronicles will get updates here in the blog will slow down quite a lot; I need to wait for my group to play more sessions of WHFRP, I need to write those sessions into novel narration and I need to collect enough of these sessions to band them together to form a new chapter! So, those of you who have been following these Mortenhoff Chronicles updates, you will be needing a bit more patience from now on regarding these write-ups of mine.

I know you can manage, the duardin are famous for their cautious, painstaking pace at which all things in life are commenced.

In this chapter, Dracoh, Toga, Kalós, Nywon and Mellion find themselves in the Garden of Morr near the small hamlet of Bebbanburg, where their recent adventure has taken them to the source of the local undead menace. How will the group solve the necromantic dilemma? What can they do about the alleged charlatan doctor in the village? Can Mellion the Elf survive an encounter with the dwarves?

Here are the files for you, first Chapter 4 itself, and then the entire collection so far if you like reading your stories in their proper context (the collection includes many fixed typos all across the first three chapters):




Enjoy!

sunnuntai 19. toukokuuta 2019

Hammer Time

Greetings!

Just a quick update on my Tales of Instahammer 2019 project, the Ulgumgi army. This month was themed "The Hammer", with the intention of participants adding something of beautiful creation or terrible destruction to their armies. Well, my take on "The Hammer" was this:


keskiviikko 8. toukokuuta 2019

Battle of Arden Forest


Greetings!

It is time to splash out the very first Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd Edition battlereport! This is the first game of 3rd Edition I've ever played but it went rather well, considering I had only just finished reading the rules and creating two 1000p army lists to pit against each other.

The battle was a simple lineup between the forces of Bretonnia and the Dwarves, as I thought a Pitched Battle would be the easiest way to test out the ruleset. In later games I hope to include a bit more narrative objectives and story-driven victory conditions!

In this particular game I also left out magic spells and magic items, just to leave me with the basic rules used together with advanced formations and weapon stats. Without further ado, let's have a look at the army lists!



perjantai 3. toukokuuta 2019

Old Skål Cometh


Greetings.

As a reader of my blog you might be a little confused at the sight of this post and that peculiar banner atop it. What is this "Old Skål" nonsense? Let me elaborate.

Before the year 2018 went out, I made a promise here at ExtraBushyBeards. I swore to bring existing campaigns to a closure, to start a bunch of new ones and to generally uphold all the things going on in the blog: shareable campaign systems, stories, narrative battle reports and pics of painted models. However, I also made a solemn promise on a wholly different matter... to start working on a project that would breathe the dark, grimy air of The World That Was. To start posting material on one of the old editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, a pedecessor of Age of Sigmar.

What this promise means is that I'm going to start collecting armies and rules for one of the older editions and to keep those models on square bases for that specific purpose. It also means you will be able to see WHFB-stuff on this page alongside all things Age of Sigmar.

No-one ever said these two game systems couldn't co-exist in a hobbyist's life.

maanantai 29. huhtikuuta 2019

Battle of Mork's Tooth

Greetings!

Here comes another game I played at the local store a couple of weeks ago, the merciless Battleplan: Three Places of Power pitting my Sunsplitterz against a force of Seraphon in a race to capture battlefield objectives using only Heroes. I have played this Battleplan before, and I like its concept, but I feel it too often favours factions with a wide selection of strong heroes, as opposed to horde armies or largely neglected ones like Freeguild, Dispossessed or Aelves.

We had an extra rule to spice up the scenario: a wandering Troglodon skulking the battlefield, which both forces could try to take control of by casting a scenario-specific spell on it!

I picked two casters to lead my orruks into the fray, with a healthy unit of 20 Morboyz acting as the heart of my army. Let's see how my orange maniacs fare against celestial daemons!

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Prophet Wozoc Squinteye squinted his eyes beneath his warmask. In the distance a sharp stony spike reached out towards the skies from the desolate landscape, towering high above the treetops. The rock was known as "Mork's Tooth", a holy place of ancient power to the greenskins of the region, and the Sunsplitterz had decided to visit it on their way from one defeat to another in the Realm of Ghur.

Wozoc squinted again. Was that a trick of light he was seeing? It was as if the air around the Tooth was twisting in upon itself and glittering in the rays of the evening sun. Suddenly there was a loud crack as the fold in reality flashed, producing a full force of Seraphon, the repitilian guardians of the firmament. Wozoc did not know what the Saurus and Skinks were about here on holy greenskin lands, but by Gorkamorka's guts he and his boyz would teach them a lesson for trespassing!