The Return to Herohammer

Note: This post was apparently sitting in "draft" state for 3 years and I totally forgot about it. I never really finished the thought but I figured I'd just post it now and get it there. 

When I dove back into Warhammer and jumped on board the #Oldhammer movement, I really loved the nostalgia, the atmosphere, and most of all, the old sculpts (don't get me wrong, the new modern sculpts are amazing technical miniatures, but I feel like there's just some character missing from them).

But the era that Oldhammer focuses on is Warhammer 3rd edition which was just before my time. I discovered The Hobby and Warhammer when WHFB 4th edition was released in all it's glory, and that's the game that I hold dear.  I will always love it but I also thought I was the only one that loved that version of the game.  It was a time of crazy magic and zany characters; the oft derided "Red Era" where it seems like 50% of every new kit was painted bright red.   When combined with 5th edition, the over-the-top nature of army lists with 50% special characters that dominated the game was dubbed Herohammer, and not in a "charming, nostalgic" way.

The advent of Facebook Groups, however, seems to have provided a place for us forgotten, shunned few that actually loved that era, with red paint and Goblin Green bases.

Anyway, that was a long intro to say that once I found the Herohammer Facebook Group, the nostalgia bug bit me hard and I'm going headfirst into a group of projects that I've always secretly wanted to do. 

Dwarf King Kazador and Cannons

 

Another quick post with recently completed Herohammer units.  Once again this is a combination of things I've been meaning to paint (King Kazador) and things that were "half painted" and never completed.  

First up, a Dwarf "Siege Gun", from Marauder.  The cannon and crew were originally painted up by a buddy back when we first started playing Warhammer 4th edition in high school (he was a fan of the "25% allies" rules, with mostly a High Elf army...any lots of allies). He eventually gifted the cannon to me because I was primarily a dwarf player.  Any it has remained half-painted like this for about 30 years.

I wanted to keep the original theme of "red and yellow" but maybe a little less "ketchup and mustard". 

So the red became muted and the yellow became gold.  

For the crew, I repainted them with mostly red, using yellow as the spot color. 

Next - King Kazador.  I remember he was the first Dwarf special character I purchased soon after getting my hands on the newly released Dwarf Army book.  I used him in a number of games and he was pretty powerful, but for some reason I never got around to painting him.  Probably because I quickly bought and painted Thorgrim on the Throne of Power as well as Ungrim Ironfist.   Anyway, Kazador is ready for battle now. 

Not my best work on the cloak, but better than unpainted metal!

Finally, another half-painted unit.  My other Dwarf Siege Gun.  I painted this cannon myself and it was "done", but I never painted the crew.  After finishing the red cannon, it was time to complete this one as well.   

I didn't take a close up shot, but the cannon barrel was my first real foray into blending (which, back in the 90s, all I had to go on was basic instructions in white dwarf painting articles that definitely left out steps). Either way, I was pretty proud of myself with the dark blue-to-light blue transition on this barrel. I even hand-painted some of the dwarf runes listed in the army book.  

I left the barrel unchanged here (because it was good enough and it's good to look back on what you've done and how much progress you've made) .  But the wheels and the gold trim were never shaded or highlighted, so I finished that up here. 

The crew were completely unpainted. I often just borrowed the fully painted crew from my organ gun.  But now the blue cannon has a proper crew.  I even figured out that the little wooden stool was for the guy to light the cannon. I never realized that until just now. 

I forgot to paint the eyes on these guys - forgive me. 

Not sure why I included two similar pictures here...

Anyway, I'm very happy to have these done. 

Fight in the Forest

 My youngest son loves playing wargames, and he loves playing Warhammer Fantasy with me. He also loves to make up rules and be creative.  So for his recent 10th birthday he wanted to play a game where he was free to make up any rules he wanted, using any figures he wanted.  And so, this past weekend we played the game. He set up the board and only wanted a giant forest, and a specific rule for the trees (I made him write it down before the game so that it was clear before we started).  Basically you were allowed to knock down trees if you charged or came in contact with them. He added some special conditions for dryads (AoS dryads, for that matter).   

He loves playing as Orcs and Goblins. He loves the wacky, zany nature of the army and he has painted a giant squighopper model from AoS as well. Since it’s his game, we just combine all the rules and figures from different versions of the game because it’s fun.

Anyway, this game was High Elves vs Goblins in the forest. It was a ton of fun. He’s really really good at guessing distances so the Rock Lobber and Doom Diver are really effective for him. 

Here's a shot of the deployment

Some elf archers setting up in front of a wood

They've found their target - Blacktooth, the feard Black Orc boss, riding his chariot.

Despite many near misses, the Doom Diver finally hit the Repeater Bolt Throwern which was causing major havoc throughout the game.  Splat!

Lots of missile fire was exchanged back and forth until the goblin line finally hit the central Elf line. This would be the critical moment of the battle. Would the High Elf spearmen units withstand the charge?  After the boars that were pulling the chariot were killed from sustained bow fire, Blacktooth also charged in.

The goblins overcame the elves by weight of numbers, breaking them and causing them to flee off the table.

 Blacktooth and his trusty companion broke the other spearmen unit and ran them down.

The Goblins were determined to wipe all the Elves out of the forest, and were successful!  There was some last minute failed animosty checks with the goblins, resulting in them charging the Giant Squighopper. That was a good laugh.

Overall, a fun battle.  I really enjoyed playing with so many trees on the table. And it's always fun to play games with your kids.  Happy Birthday buddy!

Oldhammer Dwarf Swivel Gun

 It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I’ve been slowly plodding away at various projects that I’ve always wanted to paint. My Projects of Shame are doing pretty well, but I also wanted to paint a few things that were either half completed or on my long term list.  

First up, a Dwarf Swivel Gun team. 

 I’ve had two of these kits since way back in high school when we were playing Warhammer 4th ed.  I can’t remember where I purchased them, but the models were cool and I wanted to use them.

 Back then, they weren’t in the Dwarf Army book (these were originally a 3rd ed unit), and couldn’t find any types of rules until I flipped through my Realms of Chaos book, and they had a unit listing for Chaos Dwarfs swivel guns.  I used those rules in a game against Le Coq Fou and his orc and goblin army.   Let’s just say….they were under pointed and over powered!  Two swivel gun teams just mowed down goblin units, boar boys, and chariots.  It was ridiculous. I also think that was the last time the swivel guns saw the battle field.  

Either way- I had quickly painted both units just to get them on the table, and the paint jobs were not good.  

here’s my first repainted unit with a side by side of on of the original paint jobs saved for posterity.  

I still have to decide the paint color scheme for the second swivel gun team, but it’s great to have the first team painted and ready to take the battlefield. 

Battle for Maugthrond Pass

Waaaay back in the early 90s when Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th edition (the best edition) came out, I got the boxed set, and like many people, played the scenario that came with it - the Battle for Maugthrond Pass.   Also like many people, we (as my best friend Le Coq Fou mentioned) frantically glued all the plastic goblins and elves and had to use the cardboard cutout "standees" to represent the cool units and characters like High Elf Prince Eltharion on Stormwing, the repeater bolt thrower, the Orc shaman Blacktooth riding the Wyvern, the stone thrower, and of course, Grom the Paunch.  With a bedsheet draped over some books for hills and a paper cutout template to represent the woods, we thought wargaming couldn't get any better.

Some 30+ years later, I realized that I now owned all of the actual miniatures for those cardboard standees and, even more surprising, I had finished painting them.  The only thing left to paint was a few high elf archers and spearmen.  All the goblins were painted, too (technically they were night goblins from the Skull Pass boxed set and a few oldhammer metal goblin archers, but good enough).

It was time to refight that scenario with fully painted armies on a real wargaming table.  

Here's a summary of the refight and a photodump. The scenario was surprisingly balanced and a lot of fun.  Staggering the elf reinforcement arrivals certainly helped, as did delaying Etharion's arrival until Turn 5.  Any earlier and he probably would have wiped the field.  For the sake of fun, we adjusted a few unfortunate early die rolls (like the stone thrower misfiring and destroying itself on turn 1!), and tweaked a few rules near the end to keep the cinematic effect going.

(Click the picture for larger image)

Overhead shot from a different angle than the map.  Use the directional arrows to re-orient...

Thronduin's guard patrolling the village. They can't move until the warning beacon is lit.  Neither can the elf archer reinforcements.  

The goblin horde, led by Grom, emerge from the early morning mists of the forest.

The Orc Shaman Blacktooth managed to get some pretty good spells.

The main goblin spearmen unit ignore the watchtower and march as quickly as possible to the village before the warning beacon can be lit.

After the first elf was killed trying to light the beacon himself, 3 more elves ran down together

The orc stonethrower crew estimated the distance perfectly to nail the bolt thrower, but their accuracy was a little off....and instead had a direct hit on the goblin spearmen!

4 gobbos squashed by a stone. oops.

Blacktooth, after spending a turn to successfully extract the power of the magic Standing Stone and charge up the Black Amulet (victory points!), he cast Da Krunch, summoning Gork's foot (or was it Mork??) to flatten half of the elf archers.  The promptly failed their panic check and fled.

By now, the warning beacon was lit, so the archer reinforcements began to enter the battlefield.  But it was too late for the smaller spearmen guard unit.  Grom charged the unit and wiped them out, then angled into the village to lend support to the goblin spearmen who had charged the larger guard unit (Thronduin's Guard). The supporting elf archer unit failed their panic check from the nearby destruction of the other spearmen unit had nowhere to go, boxed in by Blacktooth.

Turn 5, Eltharion has arrived to "save the day".  He almost did...

This battle was epic. Eltharion charged, and the Sword of Teclis did it's damage - killing Blacktooth. But the Black Amulet was still able to bounce a few wounds back onto Eltharion, ALMOST killing him. On the next turn, Eltharion eliminated the wyvern who was loyally standing guard over the dead body of his master. 

 

Meanwhile, Thronduin's guard routed the goblin spearmen, but didn't catch them - this left their rear flank exposed to a charge from Grom...who was also charged simultaneously by Eltharion (i forget how we got into this situation, but it was legit)

Anyway, for fun we decided to have the chariot attack (and the wolves) count against the high elf spearmen, but then have Grom and Eltharion fight each other as a challenge. We resolved everything simultaneously, and Grom managed to kill Eltharion (he only had one wound left...), and the chariot attack just murdered 75% of the elf spearmen unit,  who was run down by the chariot after the fled. 

The final overhead shot. We counted up the victory points, and the Goblins won 25-11!   A resounding victory.

My son and I had a blast playing this scenario. It definitely helped that we tried to make decisions in keeping with the "narrative play" instead of the absolute best tactical/game rules decision. For example, with only 1 wound left, risking 10 victory points by having Eltharion charge Grom was not the best idea (it basically won the game for the Goblins), but there was no way that Eltharion was passing up a chance to battle his arch enemy and try to repel the Goblin lord. Plus, this is Herohammer - the characters are destined to fight each other!

Hope to have some more refights over the remaining holidays of 2023.

Projects of Shame

 I saw this concept mentioning by somebody and I immediately thought it would be a good mental hobby push for me.

It's a bit of a different look than just the "lead mountain". 

The Projects of Shame can be defined however you like for your own needs, but for me, they are generally projects that fall into basic description of “a project, large or small, that was a major motivation but has lingered for too long of a time, and I would be totally embarrassed and or dejected if I never finished it.”

 

Here's my list:

-Warhammer Fantasy Empire “Company of Honour” unit. This was a unit described in the 6th ed Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire supplemental book.  This was an obsession for a while and I did a lot of miniatures research, eventually buying lots (and lots) of figures from multiple manufacturers in order to build this regiment.  I still have not tackled this.  

-US Rocketeer Corps.  This unit is considered a “project of shame” for me because it was really the very first “non GW” set of figures I ever purchased, and at the first Historical convention I ever attended.  Update: complete!

-Warhammer Fantasy unit of Dwarf Spearmen.  I originally purchased a blister of 4 dwarf spearmen from a hobby story in Germany back in 1996 and then could never find more spearmen. I always wanted to recreate that famous unit painted up green and yellow in an old white dwarf.  I've finally acquired enough of them (with a healthy quantity donated by Le Coq Fou!) and I'm almost complete.  Just need to paint a banner, and find the musician figure, and this unit will be done.

-The Epic Blood Angels army – FINISHED!  (further work is just “adding more units” to it.).  Still need to take some pictures and post here.

-Trafalgar ships for Form on the Admiral's Wake. Same story. Bought these a long time and then it languished. 1/3000th scale.

-War of the Roses.  I’ve been thinking, planning, and slowly purchasing stuff for WotR.  The only reason I haven’t tackled it is because it’s a pretty huge project especially in 28mm. With Nevermind the Billhooks, I have finally started this project, so that's good. 

-Chaos Army.  I’ve painted the major set of models that I’ve been always wanting to paint. From my perspective, this is no longer on the list of shame.  Now I can just slowly add to it.

These were my big ones. I'm slowly making progress.  This post will be here to remind me what I should focus on without getting too distracted by other shiny things.

Empire Cannon, Mortar, and some flags

 I'm trying to put a lot of focus on painting up Warhammer units and figures that are either "half done" or I've had for a while and always wanted to put on the table, but couldn't because they weren't painted. 

These two units are right up there. I have had two Empire Great Cannons painted, but only one with crew (and the crew were poorly painted), and the Empire Mortar has been primed since 1995, but I never got around to painting it. 

I'm happy to say I've finished repainting one of the cannons, and the mortar is fully finished as well. Soon I'll finish re-painting the other cannon.  These aren't my best pictures, but good enough for now.

Some folks in the Crown of Command FB group were asking for details on how I painted the crew.  From my notes:

bases were GW Warboss Green, drybrushed with GW Flash Gitz Yellow.  This is a close enough approximation to the original Gobin Green/Sunburst Yellow that we all know and love.

The beige smocks/tabards/shirts were Vallejo Model Color (VMC) US Field Drab, then highlighted by adding VMC Green Ochre, then add VMC Buff for final highlight.

The black was VMC Black mixed with a little GW Mephiston Red (never go with straight black - need some depth).  Highlighting black can be tough, so I just added a little VMC Green Ochre to this to get some basic highlights on the extreme edges.  I usually try to use colors from the rest of the model /palette to tie it all together - black will usually be a reflection of the color of the clothing nearby. Be careful or it turns to grey.

For the red, it's GW Mephiston or VMC Flat Red, then adding VMC Vermillion for highlights, then final highlight a light touch of GW Wild Rider Red (it's almost orange). 

Flesh - Reaper Master Series Fair skin (i think 9047), then a thinned wash of Army Painter Soft Tone.

I also finally got around to hand painting some banners for two of my Empire units, the Swordsmen and the Halberdiers.