Speedpainted Levies

Greetings!

Before going on into the two new maps I've made and the narrative skirmish campaign that's coming up, let me show you some speedpainted Svedonnians I managed to finish some time ago.

Here they are, 24 Met-at-Arms from Momminiaturas, painted so fast and easy I almost feel ashamed (almost!):

Well, what's the technique then? These two pics must seem like nothing more than the usual sloppy paintjobs my blog's filled to the brim with. Oh, but believe me, the time I spent on these chaps doesn't warrant quality like this at all!

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

As you can see there is texture on the tabards and shields of these pesky peasants, just like it should be. What's special about them is that I only applied one thinthinthin coat of each colour. No layering, no highlights, no drybrushing.

Step by step:

 First I basecoated them all Abaddon Black. Then, I took the largest brush I have and went wild with some Dawnstone, making sure I made all the details more visible from the plain black.

 Second, I took up some White Scar and drybrushed all models again, this time taking care to use a vertical motion so that this lighter colour only caught the areas where light would hit (brushing down across the model, top to bottom, then lifting the brush back up and repeating).

 Third, I gave the regiment a heavy wash of Nuln Oil, followed bya drubrush of White Scar as in Step 2 above.

Lastly, after all these messy layers of blacks, greys and whites, we have the lighting already done on the entire regiment! The highest parts and bumbs of the models are white/light grey while the deepest crevasses remain black/dark grey.

Then I picked the main colours I wanted to use: Caledor Sky, Yriel Yellow, Mournfang Brown, XV-88 and Ironbreaker. I thinned each one generously on a wet palette and applied them carefully to the models of the regiment, so that the previously done lighting effects show through.

The skin of the Men-at-Arms was done by simply applying two layers of Reikland Fleshshade over the lighting effects. This is a messy technique and the results might not please everyone's eye, but it is an extremely fast way to get your endless masses of mooks to an acceptable tabletop standard within a reasonable time.

That's all for now, next we'll take a look at one of the new maps!

Puffington Post

Bochenfels Bossfight

Some time after the fateful Ambush at Fenrus Ruins the two surviving grot leaders attempted something treacherous and foolish back at the Waaagh!'s encampment in the smouldering remains of the city of Bochenfels. What happened and why? What came out of it? Read on to find out!

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Warboss Urgokh Da Choppa was slogging through the debris that littered the dead city. Bones and burned timber cracked under his heavy footfalls, all obstacles crumbling feebly from the path of the current Lord of Bochenfels. Behind him walked his two bodyguards, Da Left and Da Right, as they were known. Not that he needed any protection, really, but Urgokh didn't mind a few extra pairs of eyes with him when dealing with grots, sneaky bastards that they are.

Wolfboss Elgar had requested a meeting in the Grot Quarter of the ruined settlement, by the 'umie belltower. As far as Urgokh could recall, the grot boss should have been foraging around the city perimeter with his tribe and some orruk backup. Perhaps something noteworthy had come up that the git wanted to report. Something worth of Warboss' time.

Urgokh felt like cracking skulls today, so he secretly hoped the news weren't worth this slogging across the entire damned town.

The grot encampment finally revealed itself after a couple of streets and corners, a district marked by makeshift earthworks and spiky barricades. No sentries could be seen on the ramshackle towers raised from the wreckage. Urgokh gazed around him with mounting anger.

Schemy Sketches

Greetings!

I am happy to inform you that more Svedonnian models (painted) are on their way. In the meantime I'll show you some sketches I make every now and then.

After skimming through my stash of old rulebooks for Warhammer Fantasy Battles I got inspired to try out the sketch-like landscape illustrations of huge armies and battles that can be found sprinkled across the pages. What illustrations do I mean? Take a look and I think you'll see what I mean.

Recognise this? I have taken to doodling out one or two of these every now and then, I just love the way this style uses general lines and shapes to give suggestions of figures and landscaped. As much as possible is left for the onlooker's imagination.

Medieval Muster

Greetings!

I thought that in between my many battle reports and maps you'd like to see how I'm doing on the painting table these days. Recently I've been hammering out my Svedonnia collection as there's a narrative map campaign coming up for them, and I need as many of them as possible to defend their homeland. Yes, the campaign is supposed to take place on Svedonnian soil!

Here are some units I've managed to paint up in a couple of weeks:

A Damsel and an Enchantress (which is actually just a mounted Damsel with a glued-on horn) ready to bestow protection upon the valiant knights of Svedonnia. To make them stand out from the crowd I took time to make their colours more magical/brighter than the rest of the army, to mark their position high above the mere mortals trudging in the mud with a sword in hand. I really liked painting their hair, though, as it gave me an opportunity to use some stronger colours in contrast to the dominant blue.

Map of Puffington Empire

Greetings!

Some time ago you got the chance to take a closer look at the Kingdom of Svedonnia and its various places of high importance. Today you'll get to do the same for Puffington Empire, the home of my Freeguilders.

Second Battle of the Prismatikon

Hail!

This is the last battle of our Firestorm campaign, the very last. After 6 real-life months of campaigning in the Flamescar Plateau we set up a huge table to play our final, four-way conflict that had the chance to yield handfuls of Glory Points to several factions.

When the game began Order and Death were ticking at 14 Glory Points, Destruction at 9 and Chaos at 25. Thirty points were required to win the campaign.

Each of us drew a hand of cards from our Domain decks, giving each player an army of roughly 1200-1400 points to play the final battle with. We used modified Triumph & Treachery rules and the scenario was Battle for the Artefact. Players could score Victory points in two ways:

1 VP for every 5 wounds inflicted in a phase (yes, phase)

10 VP for having your general carry the Artefact at the end of the game. The Artefact started the game in the middle, and only generals could interact with it by picking it up.

An interesting scenario for four armies to fight. Let's see how it all went down!

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Map of Svedonnia

Greetings!

I've been messing around with Campaign Cartograher 3 a lot lately, trying to learn the ropes in order to make a bunch of maps for my Age of Sigmar armies to base their background narratives on. It is time to take a look at the first map I've been able to put together!

Rivers do not work like that, I know.

Here is the Kingdom of Svedonnia in all its glory. Svedonnia is a small human nation somewhere in Ghur, thriving on spice trade on the coast of the Sea of Spices. The kingdom is ruled over by a king who distributes the land to his vassal nobles, who in turn gift their land to knights and landowners in return for military service or peasant levies.

Compendium Map Campaigns

Greetings!

Today I'm here to bring you a new campaign pack to go with the previous two. This time I took the juiciest parts from both the General's Handbook 2017 and General's Compendium 2003, added in some self-made maps and some Open War cards... and boom. We have a map campaign to play.

Yup. I've squeezed a little bit from both of those books into a game system that let's you fight map campaigns in Age of Sigmar! There's even a set of Grand-Alliance-specific markers in there to help you mark stuff on the map and get the campaign running as soon as possible.

Battle for Sporehollows

Greetings!

Once more the Firestorm Campaign gets a narrative battle report, this time telling the legend of a battle recently fought between Sunsplitterz and the Ghosts of the Crimson Path.

As a friendly reminder, there's an entire post called Factions of the Firestorm that introduces the forces currently battling it out in the Flamescar Plateau.

The battle took place in the Sporehollows, a region where neither orruks nor the undead could get any reinforcements from their garrisons. The battleplan was drawn from the Open War deck, dictating that one objective would be placed in he middle of the table and could be carried around by units. As a little twist to the game there was a Storm of Magic raging amidst the clouds above the armies, boosting all spellcasting to a terrifying extent.

On with the story!

Ambush at Fenrus Ruins

Greetings!

You're all familiar with my ongoing Iron Grudge campaign by now. It's the mother of all background stories, a great overarching story line into which most of my Narrative Battle Reports are tied in one way or another. Now this massive campaign has experienced yet another fresh event!

High King Ungrim Ironhelm has led his duardin legions on a crusade against the ever-present threat of Waaagh! Urgokh, and was last seen leading his forces through forested lowlands after clearing a tribe of grots from the Sneakpass. Ungrim has sent out forage parties, scouts and vanguards to keep an eye out on their surroundings as they march, but now a different kind of plan has come to fruition...

We played Battleplan: The Trap with around 1200p of greenskins against ~1000p of duardin. This was to simulate the ambush Brewmaster Dorinsson has set up with inferior troop numbers in order to get rid of Wolfboss Elgar and his tribe of nomad grots.

The lighting on the pics is a bit off, so sorry about that. Without further ado, let's get to it!

Is It Worth It?

It was already getting dark in the capital of the Puffington Empire, somewhere in the Realm of Ghur. Two figures strode casually along the dark grey battlements, patrolling the perimeter of the bustling free city of Puffington, the single most largest settlement in the area. Several miles across and surrounded by thick walls and bastions, this imposing fortress city housed hundreds of thousands of men, aelves and duardin alongside their Stormcast protectors. Despite its size, wealth and importance the entire complex was silent, sleeping.

The two figures were almost indiscernible in the darkness, any colours and heraldry blending into the darkness that the setting night brought with it. Only their silhouettes could be distinguished against the faintly-lit horizon: one with the size and proportions of a man, the other with almost twice those both. The soft shuffle of the man's boots against the flat rock of the ramparts was accompanied by slower, heavier metallic clangs of the giant. They spoke in low tones, their voices audible only to each other as the words drowned in the evening breeze sighing against the stone crenellations.

They came to a large gatehouse, opening the reinforced wooden door to step into the warmth of the braziers inside. For a moment, yellow torchlight washed over the battlements and muttered greetings could be heard from inside, only to be cut off when the door was pulled shut behind them. For several moments only wind blew across the walls. Then the door on the opposite wall of the gatehouse opened, again casting a brief pillar of light across the flagstones.

"That's the West Gate, then! We're a good hour or so ahead of the schedule, Iberius. How about we stop for a moment to catch our breaths?" Ludwig called out to his companion as they left the gate's garrison to their games of dice and cards.

"No need on my behalf. I'm not fatiqued," replied the towering Stormcast as he yanked the door shut behind them, plunging them into darkness once more. The freeguilder snorted.

"Of course you're not."

"...But you obviously are, so let us rest for a moment or two."

Strengthening the Sentinels

Evening!

After I finished painting the first batch of my Scarlet Sentinels warrior chamber of Stormcast Eternals, they have not been seen in this blog that much. Not at all, actually. Now that is about to change: I have fairly recently finished painting 10 Liberators, with custom Grandhammers!

"Custom-what?", you're asking. Let me show you!

Here they are in all their glory, 10 Liberators with Prime and two Grandhammers (and an additional Prime if I ever need 2 units of 5 men). These are all models from the Age of Sigmar starter set, so they're monopose and armed with shields and warhammers. They bear the colours of my own Warrior Chamber: the Scarlet Sentinels, and as such their livery is dark red, purple, gold and steel. They stand upon the flagstones of an Order settlement, just like my Freeguild, to bind these two armies together in their background narrative.

I mentioned they were Easy-to-Build models from the starter set. What about those Grandhammers? I scratch-built them myself.

Battle of the Lifesprings

Greetings!

Back again with yet another narrative battle report from our ongoing Firestorm campaign, this time pitting the armies of Order, Destruction and Chaos against each other in a three-way game!

The scenario provided us with a special rule that healed every General when they stood in their own territory during their hero phase. Our objectives were drawn from the Open War deck, and the scenario we drew rewarded points for having models in neutral or opponent's territories.

On with the story!

Puffington Irregulars

Greetings!

Recently I've been working on a massive regiment of 50 Freeguild Militia. Believe it or not, now they're all done.

Sergeant Kelner, the commanding officer of the regiment

Sir Gilbert, an old knight and trusted mentor of the hot-headed sergeant

Puffington Irregulars, a motley lot of variably voluntary warriors from the free city of Puffington

Yup, that's 50 unique armed men built from a couple of boxes of good ol' Empire Free Companies and tons of Freeguild bits. I have to say it did take a while to assemble them in batches of 10, then painting them in batches of 10 and finally making cobblestone bases for each of them in one batch of 50 25mm round bases. Whew!

Want to have a peek at the process of how this regiment came to be? Read on, then...