A Short Skirmish (Kings of War Battle Report)

 It's been a while since my last game, and honestly this game... probably doesn't count, as it was a quick, unbalanced thing that my wife and I threw together just to get reacquainted with the rules. Nevertheless, here it is! Elves vs Abyssal Dwarves in a short battle with tiny units. My wife played the elves in this case.

It started off simply enough, with the two forces maneuvering for advantage! No gladestalkers for the elves, but including the tree herder was probably a mistake, balance wise.

Combat begins! The blacksouls did some damage, but never managed anything spectacular.

Flanking action! The elven archers also put on a pretty poor showing overall, being outshot by both the Abyssal dwarf mortar and the decimators. For shame, elves.

The mortar actually did quite well, blasting some holes in the elven lines, but good morale rolls kept them in place. And two terrible rolls did the decimators in.

Finally, numbers and huge trees took their toll, and the surviving Abyssal Dwarves were forced to retreat back to their dark, fiery holds. The elves win!

So, maybe not a very official or rules accurate game, but it felt good to play again. Hopefully the next one will be soon.

December Updates

 That's a thrilling title right there!

Some good things have happened this December, though. I got some new ogres and the new rulebook for Kings of War, which meant it was time for a game of Ambush! New ogres vs elves, in a nice little pillage skirmish:

A nice, fast paced game that ended in victory for the Elves, thanks in no small part to the regiment of gladestalkers. This is definitely my preferred scale.

I'm still trying to complete the Middle Earth bingo, but I've also accepted that it probably won't happen. It was worth the attempt, anyhow.

A Little More Armada

 Been working a bit more with my Empire of Dust ships and I'm... still not happy.

I'm just not finding them much fun to paint! I wish that I was. There's just something about them (ok, it's mainly the sails) that I don't like.

One of these days I'll get a few more dwarf ships, those are just a joy to paint.

Monster March: Done!

 I've done a little more work here and there, and I've reached the point where I feel comfortable calling this beast done!

It was a lot of work, but very satisfying to follow through, and I want to say thank you to Swordmaster (https://swordmasterofhoeth.blogspot.com/) for putting it on in the first place! I'm definitely up for trying this again next year.

Monster March 3 - I'm Tired

 Sadly I've now been sick for over a week, and it has not made making progress easy! But I've done a little here and there, so I decided to post about it!

Mainly I've been adding foliage made by shaving sprues, and trying to give more depth to the trolls skin. Also I dropped the figure once and broke the pitchfork, so that was fun. 

Still, I'm enjoying the painting whenever I can!

Monster March #2 - Paint!

 I'm not finished yet, but I've managed to put some paint on the Halfling Harvester!

As so often happens, I can see in the shot that I made the paint too thick, but ah well. I want to do some more depth to the forest troll's skin, and put a wash on the halfing rider, and.... a lot more. I will get there.

Monster March Post #1

 Well, here's a new project, once again! This one I can say is at least partially thanks to Swordmaster over at the Kings of War forums, who is hosting Monster March. I decided I wanted to participate this year, and I've got a monster of a model to prove it: The Halfling harvester!

Here it is in... not put together form. I admit that I was pretty intimidated, I'm generally no good at putting this type of figure together, and I almost always break a piece or two just getting them separated from the frame thing.

So I was pleasantly surprised when the whole thing went together fairly easily! One of the easiest big figures I've worked on, to be honest. There's some gaps that need filling, but I'm pretty happy.

Wisely (he says about himself) I did not glue the driver down yet. I'm going to paint him seperately. I've learned a thing or two. Just a thing or two, not more.

A Little Armada

 So I've managed to finish five ships for my Kingdoms of Men fleet!

I'm quite happy with them, to be honest. A nice little fleet.

Boats and Bingo

 Back after a month! Which is not to say I haven't been busy, it's just been with other things. I was in a musical! It was exhausting. The end.

 

But here's another ship for the fleet!

 

 And here's another box for LoTR Bingo: A hero of fortitude for both good and evil!

 In this case we've got Frodo for the forces of good, and a Corsair captain (of course) for evil. He doesn't think he's evil though. Just bit rough around the edges.

Three down! And more to go.

Frigate About It

 I'm sorry, that was terrible.

But here's a frigate!

It was only once I finished the sails that I realized that one part of the mast is missing. Alas. I shall find it some day.

Three ships down! Several to go.

New Year, Same Boats

 Well, not entirely the same. I was fortunate to receive a little package in the mail today.

Yes, I'm finally ready to get the Kingdoms of Men ships based and ready! For one thing, actually knowing the right base sizes is a bonus. And the acrylic bases are... well, they're all right. I might have liked some darker shades for the water, but ah well. They work!

 

As demonstrated here, my two brigs based and ready to set sail! Of course, I'll need a few more ships than that, but I'm on my way.

 

A Very Short Report

 I finally had a chance to get in another game of Kings of War!

Elves fought Ratkin in this one, at... well, still not really a "legal" points level. We went with 750 points with the scenario to hold the center of the board, and it ended up quite a close game.

I didn't take many pictures, but here you can see the Silverbreeze cavalry holding the line as a roadblock, keeping my regiments from getting flanked. In the end, the Ratkin horde in the center were routed in time, and though I lost over half of my army, I was able to hold on to a tie.

Note the fine grass tablecloth. No longer will I do battle on bare plywood.

Heavy Skeletons (That's an odd Term)

 I haven't forgotten about my little skeletons! These one's are a bit buffer, all armed with two handed weapons and so on. My thinking was to use them as counts-as wights. Got to have a few of those guys, right?

I've still got some more of these undead figures, enough to make another couple units, I think, but I'm taking a break for now.

Empire of Dust Armada (of One)

 I got some paint down on my first Empire of Dust ship, the little guy from the starter set:

Just a little guy, hanging out in the skeleton seas (couch cushion)

Armada and Dwarfs

 I said I was more excited about this post, and I am! Because I have painted several dwarf ships for Armada:

The dwarf ships are fairly simple and fun to paint, which is of course a bonus for someone like me, who is not the best at painting. These ones I mainly painted in metallic colors, bronze, silver and copper, with purple for a bit of variety. Purple doesn't seem to be a color people associate with dwarfs, but perhaps it should be. I mean, I like it.

I've managed to get a hold of the rules, and a few Empire of Dust ships too, so I'm hoping to try out a little game soon.

Spear Skeletons (Skelespears?)

 Here's the next unit, ready to do their duty as skeletons holdin' spears.

Not much exciting to say about these guys, the sculpts aren't too varied but they work for a regiment of spears. I'm a bit more excited about the next few posts.

Skeleton/Ghost Warriors

 As promised, I put together another little unit!

These fellows are armed with a whole bunch of weapons: swords, axes, picks, etc. But since they all have shields I figured they could work well as the basic skeleton warriors.

Why are they ghostly skeletons? That's something I'm still working out. Perhaps for next time.

Here and Back Again

 Well, it's been a bit again. Life! It's a mess

I've had time to work on another little project, though. Picked up some little undead guys for a nice price, and I've started working on very simple displays with them. Far from fancy, but it's been fun to try out.. Here's one!

Meant for kings of war, of course! I figure these guys can serve as skeleton archers, and I've got a couple more units in the works! I might just end up with a little playable skeleton army. The scale is smaller than mantics, of course, so maybe they could just be undead halflings.

Back with Elves and a New Project!

 It's been a busy time in my life, in a good way. And by that I mean that I am now married! It was a longer journey than any of us expected, I think, thanks to covid, but we got there, and things could not have been more perfect. Even when a grasshopper landed on my wife during the wedding. I mean, we decided to take that as a good omen. Grasshoppers are good signs, right?

Anyhow, I have had time for hobby related nonsense recently, so here it is!

First off, my nephews were visiting for the wedding, and one of them helped me finish off the elf horse archers!

He did a really amazing job! There's bits that need work, but heck, that applies to my own painting too. Maybe even more so. For 10 years old, he's doing just fine.

And for my next project... well, I ended up with a lot more than I initially meant to.

I grew up reading the lord of the rings, literally. My parents read the books to me and my sisters as bed time stories. So it's really surprising that I've never picked any of these up before. I went with the corsairs of umbar because I always found them a bit intriguing, plus they look like they'll be fun to paint! We shall see.

The Next Step With Elves

 Turns our my army is going to have elves from at least three different companies now! Which I am ok with, I'm going for completion rather than... most other things. So here is the newest member of the force:

He's an elf archer from the now somewhat old GW isle of blood set. I picked up five of them for a good price on ebay, so they shall now do service as a troop of silverbreeze cavalry. I painted this one up as a test. Yes, the horse is green. Gotta have green horses. Four more to go!