Terrain, Travel and Birthdays!
I am currently working on a couple of terrain pieces, that will follow my Warcry review. Among them is the Sigmarite Dais and the Azyrite Townscape, that will go great with the terrain from the Warcry starter kit.
I started with the Sigmarite Dais, a round temple base, that I primed black and gave a coat of grey paint. I added details and several coats of drybrush, beginning with AP Uniform Grey, Skeleton Bone and Weapon Bronce for the metal parts, that got washed with Badab Black.
Painting tricks for optical effects
In the last article I talked about how my painterly aspirations first developed in such a way that I wanted to reach a pro level. However, this was rather the beginning of my journey as a hobbyist and my preference has shifted a lot in the meantime.
One thought was pivotal at that point: How do I perceive the models when I first see them? In my youth I was strongly influenced by the painting style you could see on the packaging, in rule books, or at that time in the White Dwarfs - most hobbyists call this `Eavy Metal style, after the studio team that painted the models for Games Workshop. I realized that I wasn't really striving for the hyper-realistic style often seen at painting competitions, but rather the `Eavy style, because the models had met my eye in this way and my mind automatically judged whether I liked or didn't like them.
This cartoon-like style is basically quite easy to achieve as long as you learn some brush control. The basic principle remains the same, even with high class paintwork: A midtone, or "the basic color" is chosen. This is shaded and then highlighted with distinctive accents in the more edgy areas.
Age of Sigmar: WAAAGHcry?
When I started my skirmish warband in October, this was done on the premise of creating it based on the original rules of Age of Sigmar Skirmish. Since January, AoS Skirmish is now more of an extension of the Generals Handbook and in general, with a new Warhammer Underworlds version and the forthcoming Warcry game, the trend seems to be headed towards smaller skirmish boxed games.
I'm usually a big fan of little characterful warbands that I can put together myself. For example, I like the combination of Savage Orruks and Spiderfang Grots because they have a nice tribal look. A firm constelation makes the whole thing a bit stiff though.
Age of Sigmar Skirmish: Da Hotpawz – Part 1
Among hobbyists, it has become a bit of a tradition to spoof the name of the eighth month of the Roman calendar with the word "orc". A habit that has also been taken over by the industry giant Games Workshop, which leads to increased painting activity in many forums among the friends of the greenskins. Looking through my own shelf, I noticed that I had stacked up a lot of those models myself, which were still waiting for a paintjob. Since I really love the skirmish expansion, I have decided to organize some of my models into several little warbands.
In addition, the Warhammer 40,000 kill team is currently running very well, and if you take a look at some YouTube videos, it seems to be so narrative that it reminds many players of the old Mortheim in style. It may only be a guess, but I could see a game like this also appear for Age of Sigmar in the upcoming future.
Okay, a new project - so far, so good. Now it is time to get around the usual pitfalls and one of them is that you are often making plans too big and that too fast. So to keep track and motivation, I decided to draw the line at a maximum of 50 renown. This has the advantage that there is always an end in sight and on the other hand, that I can divide the structure into smaller, more pleasing chunks. In the first block I will lay the foundation for the warband and its story with 30 renown:
- (24) Savage Big Boss Grukk
- (2) Morrboy Boss
- (2) Morrboy
- (1) Gitmob Grot Boss
- (1) Gitmob Grot with spear and shield
Even at the time of the seventh edition, I always wanted to put a "wild WAAAGH!" on the table, but the sheer amount of models simply put me off. In AoS skirmish I can comfortably pack everything in that I wanted without making it a Herculean task. I started out with an ordinary Bonesplitter.
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire – Spiteclaw’s Swarm
The matching counterparts to the Duardins of The Chosen Axes are the Skaven of Spiteclaw's Swarm. The Skaven, almost human sized rat-men, are one of the few (if not the only) faction that kept their name during The End Times and the introduction of Age of Sigmar. As the "existence" of these giant rats is still argued about in the lore (in the records of the human realms the sights of Skaven is continouisly dismissed and the people who saw them simply labelled as insane), they live in the ground, in dens and caves, and sometimes these large underground settlements cross the cities, deep in the mountains of the dwarfs / Duardin, making the two a fitting bundle for this release of Shadespire.
The warband expansion of Spiteclaw's Swarm consists of 4 Skaven clan rats and Skritch Spiteclaw himself. It is set at a price tag of 22.50 EUR and contains two pre-coloured sprues in brown, a card deck and brief instructions on the assembly.
The card deck covers 65 cards, 5 cards for the warband itself, 29 are unique cards for the Orruk warband and 31 universal cards (split across objectives, upgrades and ploys) to be used with any Warhammer Underworlds warband.
Preview to Warhammer Fest Europe 2018
With the Warhammer Fest Europe returns the former Games Day in a new form to Germany. But not like in the past events to Cologne, but to Duesseldorf.
On the 18th and 19th August 2018, so the coming weekend, Warhammer Fest Europe will be held on the European mainland. The Warhammer Community page covered the Warhammer Fest UK in an extensive post over here: Warhammer Fest Live Blog.
Why am I looking forward to the Warhammer Fest? For that, we have to first take a look back to the years of 2008 'til 2010, the last times I was to Games Day Germany in the famous Guerzenich. Imagine entering the grim dark world of Warhammer in a gothic building, in the heart of the old town of Cologne.
The new venue for Warhammer Fest Europe is the Maritim Hotel in Duesseldorf, so there will be plenty of room and parking (which was kind of a problem at the Guerzenich). You could even get there by plane due to the proximity to the airport, if you wanted to. Just make sure you land at Duesseldorf Airport (DUS) and not "Duesseldorf" Weeze (NRN).
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire – The Chosen Axes
The next double of the Shadespire warband extensions, after the Sepulchral Guard and Ironskulls's Boyz, will be The Chosen Axes and Spikeclaw's Swarm, beginning with the Fyreslayers.
The Fyreslayers are part of the Duardin race and are searching for the Ur-Gold, the remains of their god Grimnir. Grimnir fell when he fought Vulcatrix, the mother of Salamanders, and burst into the metallic shards of Ur-Gold. The Ur-Gold is accepted by the Fyreslayers as payment for their mercenary duty (they will fight against and alongside anyone as long as the payment fits) and can be forged by the Runemasters into mighty runes. As such even the rumours of Ur-Gold in the mirrored city is motivation enough for any Fyreslayer to go on this journey.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Skirmish
Almost a year ago, in June 2017, Games Workshop has released an expansion for skirmish games, a band-oriented approach to playing Age of Sigmar, with just a handful of models. This scaling preserves the simplicity of Age of Sigmar's original framework and breaks the games playtime down to 30 to 60 minutes.
What is it about?
The rules of AoS Skirmish aim at building small, thematic warbands. Choosing your warband is limited only within the grand alliance, not within a specific battletome. The size of the warbands is estimated throughout a points value called "renown" and is usually between 25 and 100 renown large. From there on, the game takes on a size that is already sufficient for regular Age of Sigmar games. The gangs clash in different scenarios, half of which are designed for a balanced game, while the other half contains a certain imbalance. All six scenarios can be played as a linked sequential campaign.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Malign Sorcery
With the second edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar the magic "came back" to Warhammer. With Malign Sorcery Games Workshop released the first full magic supplement for Age of Sigmar and the latest since the 4th/5th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Let me show you the contents of this box in this unboxing review.
Malign Sorcery was released along the Soul Wars and is 60 EUR. The box is rather huge, as you can see from the comparison to a Primaris Space Marine. Inside the huge card board box is a sealed bag, which contains the sprues, the rule set for Malign Sorcery, the assembly instructions and the magic cards.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Shattered Dominion Objectives
Usually Christmas or the turn of the year is the time for terrain with Games Workshop. But with the new Age of Sigmar edition just released there is a new set of objective markers available, the Shattered Dominion Objectives.
Of the new terrain sets, many have their own rules of how they affect the game play and benefit a certain faction (you remember the Shipwreck I covered earlier on this blog). Yes, this is technically terrain, but not really, they have names but no special rules (but hey, nobody is forcing you to not use your own house rules to change that). I am really interested in this - as it is a fantasy set - that will make good use with a broad variety of fantasy rules. So let's see in this review what is in the box.
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