Raging Heroes - Hildegard and Gretchen

Here are the lovely Von Koningsmark sisters - less their oldest sister Brunhilde from Raging Heroes. (Actually the camera light is a bit harsh on their complexion - they're really not that pasty faced). I  had found out about this French company via James Wappel's amazing work here. Although these aren't up to James' standards, they will do well enough as a Master Engineer and Witch Hunter in my Empire army.

That's Hildegard on the left with a Hochland Long Rifle, and appropriately attired in Hochland colors. Gretchen the Witch Hunter has drawn a brace of pistols, and in Ostermark colors - as that's where she was trained in the art along its Southern borders against vampires and other nasties.

Both figures come with optional arms, and Hildegard is actually posed as firing the Long Rifle. I modified the pose to have her holding it upright as I didn't want to obscure her face and other assets. Gretchen also has an arm with a saber.

Both of their leather cloaks have embroidered borders. Gretchen's motto is Den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben - the translation according to the Raging Heroes site: Suggested by T. Pichler (Austria), who wrote: "Basically it means 'Exorcising one devil with another', since Beelzebub is another name for the devil (Teufel), so it plays upon the sci-fi version's motto of the devil sending a woman when he can't make it."  Hildegard's motto is Die Götter würfeln nicht - which according to the Raging Heores site:  Suggested by D. Tornier (Germany), who wrote: It means: "The gods do not roll dice; a variation of Einstein's quote about his disdain for the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics; I assumed the middle sister is the engineer/sniper of the trio…"  He added: "It is her firm conviction that there is no randomness or uncertainty to either the rules that govern this universe or her unerring aim. Ultimately everything, from the trajectory of a cannon ball to even the ebb and flow of the astral winds, can be calculated and likewise any enemy who finds himself in the sights of her skillfully designed rifle are already dead."

That's a lot of background storyline for a border of a cloak, but very interesting nonetheless.  Finally, here's a shot of both sisters next to an older and more experienced Witch Hunter from Citadel.

As you may notice, the girls are slightly taller and far more sleek than Herr Witch Hunter, but blend in well enough. Oh, and the Raging Heroes figures are slotta-based metals. They are comparatively priced with Citadel Finecast models which are resin.

WHFB Game - The Empire vs. Vampire Counts

These are pictures from the game Pat L. (Socal Warhammer) and I played this past Friday at The Game Matrix in Tacoma. The pictures were kindly taken by Rod F. who dropped in after some business in the area - he actually lives up in Forks - about 3-plus hours away!

Pat and I are practicing with our 2.5K WHFB armies that we plan to use at a tournament up in Burnaby, B.C. in a few weeks. The event is called the Wet Coast GT. I know I just started playing WHFB, but want experience this event with over 30 other players with various armies. Well - onto the photos (just a few though).

First up - early in the game, Pat charged his Ethereals into my Order Knights. As we played the Meeting Engagement scenario with troops positioned diagonally across the board, these two units were very close to each other. I only found out after being in combat that only Magic can wound Ethereals. Interestingly enough, because the Ethereals were a small unit - one rank - and I had two ranks, a standard and great armor saves, the Ethereals lost a couple of rounds of combat. I later managed to roll a 1 and lost a Knight.

Same thing happened on the other flank with the Demigryph unit and another unit of Ethereals.

I managed to roll a Misfire on my Steam Tank, and then blew the engine. The shooting wasn't successful either. My Great Cannon did very well by taking out the Necromancer. The Hurricanum also did well against the Grave Guards - I think that's what they were.

The Warrior Priest in the Swordsmen Regiment was killed off along with the Regiment after a one-sided combat against a unit of Crypt Ghouls with the Vampire General and Wight King. My BSB was also in the unit - Oh, and early on, the Witch Hunter was targeted and killed off by his Winged Vampire Lord. I had used the Witch Hunter's Accusation rule against the Vampire Count.

The Empire General took some revenge by defeating the Champion of the same Crypt Ghouls unit - after the Vampire Count refused the Challenge to single-combat.

We called the game soon afterwards. We mainly wanted to get a better feel of our respective armies - Pat will do some tweaking with his, but mine is set as I sent in my list to the GM already. We should be able to get in at least one more practice game before the event.

2.5K WHFB Empire Army

Here is the Empire Army at 2.5K points. Actually still need to add a Master Engineer, but this is pretty much it for now. In the future, some options will be added - like Archers/Huntsmen, Handgunners, Greatswords, Outriders and a Helblaster Volley Gun. This is probably not the best setup for a competition/tournament army, but it has the pretty stuff like the War Altar and Imperial Griffon. Another Great Cannon and/or Steam Tank, as well as Archers/Huntsmen would likely be a better expenditure of points.

For actual battle, the BSB and Warrior Priest would join the Swordsmen Regiment, and the Witch Hunter would join the Halberdier Detachment.

WHFB Empire Witch Hunter

I picked this guy up yesterday at the GW store I played at. I put him in the Halberdier detachment, but forgot to use his Accusation ability at the start of the game.

He has a lot of bells and whistles for a fairly low points cost. Some of his special rules besides Accusation are Killing Blow, Sniper, Grim Resolve - auto passes Fear tests, and Tools of Judgement - re-roll Combat To Wounds against Wizards and Undead/Daemonic stuff.

Here he's armed with a Great Weapon here, but I will also have a model with a Brace of Pistols.

He also has a Leadership of 8, so he's pretty good all-around.

WHFB The Empire vs. Ogre Kingdoms

I ended up going to the local GW store down the street and played a pick up game pitting my 2.5K Empire army against a 2.5K Ogre Kingdoms army. The Ogre army was heavy on powerful close combat troops - which I had not experienced before in my one-week long WHFB experience. Here is a shot of the Empire troops with the Demigryphs and Great Cannon just out of the picture on the left and right flanks. This time I was able to get my Empire General mounted on an Imperial Griffon on the table.

Early on, my opponent focused his cannon fire on my Steam Tank and put it out of action by Turn 2. He said he hated Steam Tanks - well it appeared so. My Knights, with an Empire Captain, foolishly got too close to the Ogre's Stonehorn. He ended up charging into the Knights and after defeating them in Combat, pursued them after a failed Break test - and overtook them!

The left flank had the Ogre's Mournfang cavalry hit the Demigryphs in the flank. After couple of rounds of combat, the lone Demigryph survivor actually returned to take them in their flank and broke and over took them after winning that round of Combat!

The center saw a lot of back and forth action with the Hurricanum successfully sending some bad weather to some of the Ogre units, as well as adding Portents of Battle to nearby units which give them +1 to Hit in combat. The War Altar and Arch Lector riding it gave nearby units Hatred and successuly cast Hammer of Sigmar prayers - which gave them to Wound re-rolls. With my die rolling they all came in very handy!

The Ogre Tyrant challenged the Empire General, which was of course accepted. After a couple of rounds of combat, the General was killed, but the loyal Griffon remained to take on all comers. As a consolation, the Hurricanum defeated and broke an Ironguts unit. The Empire Swordsmen did well by first defeating and overtaking a Gnoblar unit and then hitting a Leadbelchers unit in the flank. The pesky Leadbelchers were defeated and overrun on the pursuit.

Thanks to the warhorses and Arch Lector, the War Altar was able to kill off the Stonehorn in Turn 4. We called the game at the top of Turn 5 - I still had the bottom of 5, but my opponent had to leave to attend to family business. No problem as I learned a lot again, and surprising killed or chased off a lot of the enemy to boot.

Empire Knight & Realm of Battle Terrain Board

Needing one more knight to get a rank bonus for Combat, I did a kit-bash of sorts. I used the body of the Empire General that came with the Griffon kit, a helmeted head and shield from the Demigryph kit, a horse head/neck from the Knights kit and a Bretonnian horse body. I had the horse body for a long time - never painted.

He'll be the Preceptor for the unit.

I painted the cloth barding a gray to have it blend in with the rest of the unit's plate barding. There appears to be mail under the cloth barding which matches the horse head armor.

As the lance is rectangular, I decided to paint it length-wise instead of spiraled.

I also painted up a 2X2 feet Realm of Battle board which I plan to use to display the army. After washing it to remove any oils or debris, it was sprayed with flat black. Over this the rocks and skulls were dry-brushed grays. The rest of the boards was painted with a watered-down coat of brown.

Static grass was then glued over the brown areas. I understand there is an electric applicator to ensure the grass stands up when glued down, but didn't want to invest in one of those and just went ahead and sifted the grass and then tilted the board on its side to remove any grass excess.

Probably not to everyone's tastes, but I rather like the numerous skulls in the pits.

WHFB Empire Great Cannon

This is an OOP model that is all metal except for the wheels which are either plastic or resin. The crew are painted up as belonging to Talabheim. I was considering painting them up in the colors of another city, but the red and white pop pretty good against the cannon.

The crew are a bit on the short/stocky side, but very nicely sculpted nevertheless.

Another welcome addition to the Empire army.

Hopefully, this Great Cannon and the Steam Tank will be providing good heavy artillery support.

Empire Characters for the War Altar & Hurricanum

Finished up the characters that came with the War Altar and Hurricanum. Here's Volkmar the Upset (aka Grim) riding the War Altar. He wears a bling item - the Jade Griffon which gives him the Regeneration special rule. He also wields his Staff of Command which adds +2 Strength to his close combat attacks from the altar. I plan to use the model as a Battle Wizard as he costs too much as Volkmar.

Here's the Arch Lector who can channel Power and Dispel dice the same as Wizards. He also know three Battle Prayers which act as augment spells. The Horn of Sigmar next to him causes Terror on a charged enemy unit.

Here they are on their magnetic infantry bases.

On to the figures from the Hurricanum (and Luminark) kit. Three figures come with this kit and at least one of them can be used as a Wizard - which is what I have done. Here's one of the Acolytes on the forward platform of the Hurricanum. As he holds a cool staff, he could also double as a Wizard.

Here's the actual Wizard model from the kit. With the long cape, he looks more appropriate as a Wizard.

Here's the other Acolyte carrying all the scrolls and such - a pretty cool figure with lots of character.

All of the figures are magnetized and can be removed from the Hurricanum and placed on infantry bases if needed. The Wizard will be on foot and attached to one of the infantry units.

Next up is a Great Cannon. It is an older metal model that Guy Bowers gave to me as a gift when he visited us last month for Enfilade!

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - First Game Ever

Thanks to my buddy Scott A. who brought his Dark Elf army, and mentoring from Pat L. (Socal Warhammer), I was able to get familiar with Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I do have some experience with Warhammer Ancient Battles, so it wasn't too hard to pick up the basics. What was very interesting was the Magic Phase - it really did some damage to both of our armies. Prior to the start of the game I took a few gratuitous pictures of my Empire army to date - the Imperial Griffon wasn't used in the game today, though. Scott only had about 1,300 points of Dark Elves, so being a gentleman, I only used 2,000 points of my Empire guys :)!

In the staged photos, Volmar the Grim is on the War Altar and a Light Wizard is on the Hurricanum. For the game, I used Volkmar as the Battle Wizard.

I finished the Engineer Commander for the Steam Tank this morning, before the game. He did very well as the Steam Cannon and Steam Gun did pretty good shooting. It was great getting familiar with the Steam Points rules. The cannon fire was the same as that as in WAB, which I used a lot with my Late-HYW French army.

The game itself was very close, although Scott's army was about 700 points less than mine.As usual my tactics left a lot to be desired, but I wanted to concentrate on learning the Magic Phase and other minor differences between WAB and WHFB. Not much really, but still a few things to remember and get better at. The photo below is from Turn 4 or so, my army pretty much bunched up on my end of the table. The Dark Elves are a very shooty army - practically all of Scott's units had crossbows which could fire twice! At the start of the game, a unit of Shades flanked my right and later started crossbow double-tapping my Order Knights. If it wasn't for the knights' great armor save, they would've been decimated quickly.

The shot below was kindly taken by our buddy Rod who stopped in all the way from Forks. It shows my Demigryphs rotating around in circles trying to get into contact with those pesky Dark Riders!

No complaints though - I was happy to see both my Order Knights and Demigryph Knights survive multiple missile attacks. My BSB was killed off by a Magic attack, but the War Altar charged into Scott's Corsairs and broke them off the field. The Hurricanum did well enough, it provided some weather attacks and survived. We played 6 turns and feel we both learned a lot, particularly with Pat's mentoring and coaching. We plan to play again next Saturday. I may even get a practice game in prior to as there is a Games Workshop store right down the street from where I live.

Empire Characters - WIP

Started on the character figures that came with the Hurricaum, War Altar and Steam Tank.

Here is a Light Wizard and Volkmar the Grim. They are magnetized and can go on the vehicles as well as on the infantry base. I will use these two as Battle Wizards for a play test tomorrow - my first time playing Warhammer Fantasy.

In the photo above, from left to right: Steam Tank Engineer, an Acolyte, an Arch Lector and another Acolyte. These also have magnets underneath for switching to their respective vehicles or to go on infantry bases. The Engineer's arms are magnetized for optional arms.

Empire Steam Tank - Ready for Battle

Well, it does still need the Engineer to operate it, but the tank itself is done

I initially painted the shields in the Talabheim colors of red and white, but the white got lost in the silver. I decided to paint them in the Altdorf colors of blue and red - especially after my wife agreed that red and blue would look better against the silver.

That's a Hochland Long Rifle mounted atop the turret; the turret itself holds a Steam Gun which functions as a Breath Weapon. The main body houses a Steam Cannon, which works the same as a normal Cannon except the range is based on how many Steam Points are allocated - up to 36" using 3 Steam Points for 12" a point.

The turret can spin 360 degrees and the cannons can pivot a bit up and down. The road wheels could spin, but not after being glued to the base.

I was going to add some wording onto the scroll, but will hold off until I can figure out what to write.

From straight on, it looks like a space capsule.

This was the last component for a 2,000 point army, but I still need to paint the Engineer as well as two Acolytes to operate the Hurricanum, the Arch Lector to ride the War Altar, and two figures that will double as Wizards. All of these figures will have magnets to have them on their respective vehicles are on separate foot bases, if needed. My buddy Scott and I will be playing a WHFB game this Saturday at The Game Matrix. This will be my first such game and Scott hasn't played since the 3rd edition. Should be fun!