Chaos Banner!

 As part of my chaos army in the on-going Call of the Crown painting challenge, I decided to finally tackle my favorite chaos banner from the Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness book.

Some quick background. When I first began a chaos army back when I started in WHFB 20+ years ago, I tried to recreate this banner.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, and eventually I lost it. 

Now, I was determined to finally try again, but also terrified to try and tackle it. I was really afraid I would screw it up.  But over the past few years, I learned some basic tips and approaches for free-handing banners and it has really made approaching banners much less daunting.

Here's a few pictures throughout the stages. 

First, trace it out with a sketch using pencil. it helps to draw very light "guide lines" down the center and halfway point vertical and horizontal.  Then, use a micro artists ink pen, trace over the pencil in black. 

Then start filling in the main colors.  This is regular printer paper.  Make sure to thin down your paints.  Also, I painted the back of the banner first (all black) so that I didn't mess up the completed work when flipping it over. I learned that the hard way.

You can see the artist's pen in this picture. Not too expensive, I picked them up at A.C. Moore (or Michael's art supply store, i forget).   I began filling in the rest of the colors here.  Try to work from the background "layer" forward.  

Here's the completed banner.  I also used the micro pen to write in the text on the scroll. 

...And here's the side-by-side.  I might still go back and add some thin rope (probably sewing thread). 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my recreation.  The flames were definitely the hardest part.  I really love the ridiculously large size of the banner from the Oldhammer era.  It looks awesome on the battlefield.  This Chaos army and my orcs and goblins will definitely have lots of unnecessarily large banners. 

The Warpstone Conflict

Apparently this has been stuck in "draft" for a while.  It was some brief background for the campaign we were playing a few years ago. I should probably organize it under the campaign page.  But at least it's here for now.  It's also a little out of date.

War has broken out in the Old World again. What began as a few small skirmishes in Bretonnia outside of Parravon when a goblin horde emerged from the forest of Athel Loren has turned into full-scale open warfare across Bretonnia and southern provinces of The Empire.  The war escalated when a massive piece of warpstone landed outside the village of Lietzburg in southern Talabecland, which has drawn major heroes into the conflict, from Skaven Lord Thrott, to the reemergence of infamous Orc Chieftain Gorfang Rotgut and even the Emperor Karl Franz.

Below is the timeline of events.

Imperial Year 1870: Marquis de Parravon leaves for a campaign in Lustria.
1871: Gorfang Rotgut send goblin Boss Skragg of the Crooked Moon Night Goblins to Bretonnia town of Parravon to "cause a ruckus".
- goblins raids occur outside of Parravon
- word reaches the Marquis who requests help from his old Elf ally, Prince Althran
1872: Prince blah lands in Bretonnia and repels the raiding goblins

-skaven mount n attack which fails
-skragg gets annoy with his ally, and launches attack against skaven. lose, retreat back to forest
local bretonnian lord doesnt know that marquis has asked for help and attacks the elves

baron edmund takes his army Leitzburg's first and invades down to fight the elves/skaven


things cool down as gorfang realizes he needs to take matters into his own hands


warpstone crashes, skaven send a force to leitzburg and retrieve it

word of the warpstone reaches Ulthuan and they send very powerful mages to "assist" prince blah's army and retrieve the warpstone before the rest falls into the hands of the skaven

Lizards of albion happen to be in bretonnia gathering materials for construction of new Temple ...
hear bout warpstone and go on the march

As gorfang gathers the rest of his Waagh, he sends the black orc lord and lieutenant Skullface to distract whoever he finds (turns out to be the lizards)

Thrott sends an army and hits Empire army with Baron Edmund, but gets routed back to bretonnia

Waaagh Gorfang reaches the Bretonnian town of Summersall Fort along the river briene, and hits a massive SKaven force led by Thanquol in response to the rout of Thrott's force

Call of the Crown Painting Challenge 2020

 I've decided to join the inaugural painting challenge for the Herohammer Crown of Command Podcast, the "Call of Command".  2000 points, 200 point per month.

This was the final push I needed to finally paint my Chaos Army.  Everything kicks off on September 1st. 

I came up with some names for most of the characters and units to help provide some context and color.  As I complete each unit, I'll take pictures and start building a separate background page for the army.

Warband Name: Crimson Blades

Led by Chaos Lord Marus Crimsonblade

He rides a griffon, Chiron

Unit of Chaos Warriors, "the Ragebringers"; the unit's Champion of Khorne hasn't been named yet.

Beastmaster, Sigvald the Low, leading his two chaos hounds, Balefur and Zuch

Dragon Ogre Tarthaek

Bloodthirster, Skullpile Bluntgore.  His "true daemon" name is K'aaohwae F'ppaeowfs (randomly generated from the Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness Daemonic Name Generator!)

I'll fill in the more of the backstories later, but I wanted to get these written down before I forgot.

Gorfang's Last Chance

Here's a quick recap of the third and final chapter of Gorfang Rotgut's attempt to capture Nuln.

The previous battle ended with the Empire barely holding off the orcs on the outskirts of Nuln which bought enough time for Elector Countess Emmanuelle von Liebwitz to muster up enough of the town defenses and get the famous "guns of Nuln" onto the city wall before the rest of Waaagh Gorfang crash into the city. 

The new Baron, young Edwin, son of Edwin "The Absent", led the forces in that skirmish but lost his nerve during the combat and quit the field early.  Countess Emmanuelle is giving him one more chance to restore honor to himself and to the family name as he leads the forces of the Empire against the Orcs and Goblins.

Here's the initial deployment. Lots of artillery lining the city walls.  Note the foot and mounted units of Reiksguard on the left - double Reiksguard!

At the start of the game after the greenskins moved up the Helbaster volley gun malfunctioned in glorious fashion on the first shot, exploding and completely mowing down the river trolls before disintegrating.

As Fred the giant advanced through the pastures of the farm, he charged the unit of halberdiers and the routed off the board.  Seeing that his right flanks was sorely threatened by the Giant, Edwin attempted to avenge his father’s untimely death at the hands of Fred and so he charged him (also trying to improve his reputation after retreating from the field of battle in the last engagement)

Neither Fred nor Edwin did any damage, but Gorfang used the opportunity to charge in with his chariot, killing the new Baron Edwin!

The wizard used a transport spell to move the Knights Panther across the battlefield straight into combat with the Night Goblin spearmen unit, The Flaggers.  They were so startled as the knights suddenly charged them out of nowhere that they didn't have time to throw out the fanatics until after the charge happened.  Incredibly, both fanatics annihilated the entire unit of Knights Panther. 

Grom the Paunch made a surprise appearance and tried to be a hero (and eventually take over the Waaagh if/when Gorfang inevitably failed) and charged the rear of the unsuspecting Reiksguard on foot. Taken completely unawares, they routed and Grom ran them all down, barely stopping before running into the large orc mob The Reds.

Grom the paunch surprise rear attack hits home

Things were looking bleak for the Empire, but after watching both Lord Edwin and their foot counterparts get run down by chariots, the mounted Reiksguard decided to try and defend the honor of the Reiskguard order and charged into the flank of The Reds.  The orc mob was not prepared at all for this with their attention focused on the carnage in front of them caused by Grom.  The Knights killed 5 orcs on the charge, the orcs broke and fled from this flank attack, and the Knights ran them down! Skullface and Oglok the 'Orrible manage to escape, but the Flaggers night goblins failed their panic check, and this was enough for Grom to decide that discretion was the better part of “hero of the day”, and fled the field to let Gorfang take all the blame for this debacle.

Against all odds, the Empire forces under young Lord Edwin had repelled the last gasp of Gorfang’s Waaagh and saved Nuln from an imminent sacking.  Edwin, even in death, successfully "led" the Empire forces and was given credit for defeating and dispersing Waaagh Gorfang and saving Nuln, restoring honor to himself and family by avenging his father's death.  Over the years "Baron Edwin" becomes an honorific title, assumed by whomever in the family takes over as the new Baron of Lietziger, along with the family heirloom Dragon Blade. 

Grom the Paunch

Gorfang's Waaagh is gaining some notoriety and has attracted the attention of the famous goblin king, Grom the Paunch.  For now, he's helping Gorfang, but if this plan doesn't work, Grom won't wait long before he takes over.

 

Grom's legendary gut seems to be getting bigger, or is that just my imagination?

Grom's loyal sidekick, Niblit, looking a little mischievous here. 

We've been unable to verify whether or not Grom ever named the wolves pulling his chariot. 

Grom's good-faith contribution to Gorfang includes one of his more reliable bolt thrower teams.

From left to right, Jammer, Bunk, and One-Eye.  Grom's confidence in this team is mostly based on their ability to figure out how the thing works. In fact, Jammer and One-Eye are the only two remaining from the original crew so Grom assigned Bunk to make sure One-Eye (the spotter) has an extra set of eyes to help his aim because "three eyz is betta than two!"

We forgot to mention the wheeling contraption of death, the "Def Wagun".   This one is actually Skragg's because neither Gorfang nor Grom would think they actually need one of these unreliable lawn mowers.

This last pic has nothing to with the campaign.  As i've mentioned before, when i build these old kits like to recreate the box art as best i can, so...whaddya think??

Waaagh Gorfang

I've added this to the campaign characters page, but this post includes some additional units that make up Gorfang's Waaagh as part of the Warpstone Conflict.

Gorfang's High Command

Gorfang Rotgut: Famous (or infamous?) Orc Chieftan of Orcs of Black Crag.  Gorfang is in his later years but still manages to bring together various tribes for medium-sized Waaaghs.  His current Waaagh came together when he basically noticed an enterprising Night Goblin Boss named Skragg, and basically just took over.  

Barrzug the Satisfied:  Barrzug is a very power orc shaman that sometimes aids Gorfang.  He tends to hang back on his mighty wyvern, Crakat, blasting foes from afar, content to let the annoying night goblins do the dirty work. 

Skullface: Brutal Black Orc that is Gorfang's main underboss.  Skullface is too out of control to lead his own tribe so instead he hangs around with Gorfang because Gorfang always finds a way to enter a good scrap.  And if any of the upstart Night Goblins get a little too mouthy, Skullface just looks at them sternly.  Or runs them over in his chariot.

Skullface can often be seen riding in his personal chariot, The Basher.

Oglok The 'orrible:  Another famous orc boss, Oglok has joined Gorfang for this latest Waaagh.  He leads a mob of Orcs called The Reds, known for the red pants, and red banner.

Oglok and The Reds

Boss Skragg: Night Goblin boss of the Crooked Moon Night Goblins, one of Gorfang's leaders. Skragg had been cobbling together a decent sized tribe called the Mad Moons within the Crooked Moon,  scheming and angling for his own horde, but keeps failing.  For now,  the Mad Moons are a key part of Gorfang's Waaagh.

Zom the Third: Zom is Skragg's shaman.  He's the third shaman because the mushrooms that Skragg keeps giving his shamans have proven to be a little too potent and they keep blowing up their heads.  The failure to employ a top quality shaman has been one of biggest drawbacks to Skragg's career.

Blok the Troll: Blok is a stone troll that Skragg keeps trying to lure into battle, but every time he gets into battle he forgets why he's there.

Fred the Giant: Skragg has also convinced Fred, the local giant, to join them as part of Gorfang's Waaagh.  Sometimes, Fred has a great day and gets to bash some heads, eat some elves, and stomp on some 'umies. Other days, Fred falls down. 

When Fred is there with Blok, Blok usually focuses much better and generally attacks whatever Fred does.  

The Slinga':  Skragg swears that this contraption is going to be the thing that puts him over the top and give him his own tribe, then he can finally leave Gorfang's Waaagh and start his own.  The problem is...that it keeps breaking.

The Ball Busta's:  Skragg doesn't seem to realize that his pack of fanatics is really what gives him a fighting chance. But Gorfang did, and that's why he's the Warlord.

Skragg's Mad Moon Tribe:  These mobs form the core of Skragg's Mad Moon Tribe.  Two spearmen mobs and one archer mob.

The Flaggers: These guys are considered the "First" or "Best" mob because they won the brawl to see who got to use the actual flag as their banner.   They always get the best fanatics, and end up with the best stories (whether true or not).

They're led by Bythe the Scythe, and his two henchmen Miiika (holding the flag) and Gonger (guess what he's holding...).

The Mooners: The Second Mob is the Mooners.  Since they're "second mob" they get the worst, most uncontrollable fanatics, or sometimes they don't get any and they act as "bait".   It's a tough life being in "second mob". 

Death Stiks: The mob of archers tries hard, but they always seemed to get shot up by their enemies "better fliyn' stiks" and run away.  So they came up with a new, more menacing name for themselves, the "Death Stiks" - hopefull Gork (or Mork) will give 'em some juice in the next battle. 

Word on the street is that Gorfang has secured the services of an orc bolt thrower and some common gobbos, but we haven't seen them yet...

Update June 21 2020:

We've got some additions to the Waaagh here

Empire Inventory

I had a bunch of time on my hand during the pandemic so I went through and did an inventory of all my empire stuff, so this is my electronic copy for easy access.

5 Pistoliers

2 crossbowmen

1 Captain (hero model)

3 handgunners

2 champions (or heroes)

1 engineer (more of a 6th edition model)

1 Reiksguard foot knight

1 loose Ice Queen (no horse)

1 new in blister Ice Queen

8 halfling archers

1 hafling hot pot

3 knights of the white wolf

1 mortar with crew

2 empire great cannon with crew

4 kislev winged lancers

2 kislev horse archers

2 outriders

1 mounted amber wizard new in blister

1 mounted grey wizard new in blister

1 mounted celestial wizard new in blister

1 mounted amethyst wizard new in blister

4 light magic acolytes

1 mounted elector count of Hochland new in blister

1 knight of blazing sun

2 Grand Master of Knights Panther (no horse)

1 Ludwig von Schwarzhelm

1 mounted hero / captain of Reiksguard

1 loose Karl Franz

1 mounted knight panther

2 plastic knights (6th ed style, modern ones)

1 blister of modern halberdier commands (for the company of honour)

2 loose standard/musician for greatsword regiment

1 swordsman

1 new in box steam tank

2 new in box Karl Franz with Deathclaw (original box and newer packaging)

1 new empire mounted general (I might sell this thing)

2 Reaper Wizards

12 flagellants

Bunch of loose archers

Lots of Foundry halberdiers

Collection of old Citadel sculpts for a free company militia

1 musician

24 New in box modern empire plastic knights (3 boxes of 8)

5 new modern empire plastic knights (already prepped and based, just never primed them)

 

I think that’s it.

Herohammer Battle #2

The title says "Herohammer Battle #2", but where's battle #1? I didn't create a blog post for it yet.  Maybe I will. There's a brief chronicle of the battle over on the Herohammer FB group.

Quick recap of Battle #1: The small beginnings of an Orc and Goblin Waaagh! emerged from Black Fire Pass and overran the Empire town of Averheim.  The town's burgomeister had called for help and Lord Edmund The Absent mustered a pretty sizable force to repel the greenskins, but he was defeated when the Black Orc Warboss chopped his head off, Fred the Giant smashed the other hero off his pegasus and the entire army routed.   The greenskins, having sacked Averheim, are about to cross the River Aver and threaten the City of Nuln.

Battle #2:
After hearing of the "Debacle at Averheim", the Elector Countess of Wissenland Emmanuelle von Liebwitz recognized the menace and quickly mobilized the local town milita on the outskirts of Nuln to slow down the vanguard, hoping to buy some time while marshaling a more effective force to deal with the horde.

Since this is a solo game, I wanted to keep this battle a little smaller and more manageable so the armies are led by hero-level characters. Also, this is the first time I'm using the "magic item draft" idea - armies don't pay for magic items.  Before the battle, draw a magic item cards equal to the number of champions/characters in your army then assign them as you see fit (this is really just my interpretation). I'm not including the points for the magic items in the lists below.

The Army Lists:

Orc and Goblins Vanguard:
-General - Night Goblin Big Boss w/light armor and shield 36pts and the Blade of Ensorcelled Iron
-30 Night Goblin Spearmen w/shields, champion, standard, musician 123.5pts and the Banner of Defiance
-1 NG fanatic 35 pts
-22 common goblins = 55 pts
-18 Orc Boys w/light armor, shields, extra hand weapon, champ, standard, musician 213.5pts and the Banner of - champion wears the Ring of Corin
-15 Orc Boys w/light armor, shields, extra hand weapon - 142.5pts
-6 Wolf Riders, shields and spears 66 pts
Level 1 NG Shaman 28pts w/ Skull Wand of Kaloth
Snotling Pump Wagon 40pts
Doom Diver 100pts
Stone Troll 65pts
Greenskin Total 868.5pts

Empire Local Militia of Nuln (so lots of gunpowder...):
General - Lord Edwin (son of the late, headless Lord Edmund) Hero. Warhorse, heavy barding, heavy armor, shield, carrying the the family heirloom Dragon Blade, recovered from the battlefield when his father fell before the greenskins could loot it. 76pts
-5 Pistoliers 110pts
-14 Halberdiers light armor, champion, standard.  Champion carrying the Sword of Reslilience, unit carrying the Valorous Standard 165pts
-18 Swordsmen with champion, musician, standard, Relic Sword and Standard of Shielding 163pts
-17 handgunners with champion carrying Tormentor Sword 158pts
-8 Crossbows 64pts
1 Mortar 100 points
2 Great Cannons 200 points
Empire Total 1,036pts

The Empire have an advantage here as they knew the orcs and goblins were coming, and this is just the vanguard of the army.

Here are the pre-battle pictures for battle #2.

Wait, I thought Edmund lost his head??