Small Rewards...

After lots of grinding through infantry, decided it was time to reward myself and start painting the Night Goblin command figs. This musician is almost done. Still need to add additional highlights and more detail work, but he's battle ready.

Background

The Skaven of the Black Chasm lair formed a shaky alliance with Night Goblin Warboss Skragg's Orc & Goblin horde that resides deep in the forest of Loren to invade the Bretonnian town of Parravon. The Bretonnian Baron de Parravon was not prepared for an invasion from both hordes, as his crusader army was off in Lustria looking for an old family relic. He called in a favor from the High Elves and they dispatched the small guard unit from the trading post outside of Marienburg. The High Elves fought off the initial attack, but everyone knows it was simply a minor probe to test the defenses.

While the Baron rushed back from Lustria the High Elves fought multiple delaying actions against the goblin horde. The elves continued to repel the goblins, but the most recent engagement exacted a severe price on the elves. The Baron's arrival could not come at a better time. The elves need to regroup and rest. Unfortunately, the Baron's vanguard were not aware that the elves were aiding their lord, and decided to engage the elves.

Meanwhile, the shaky alliance between the Skaven and Goblins erupted into violence. The Night Goblin Warboss felt like his horde was doing the brunt of the fighting, and as they returned to the forest to prepare for the next assault on Parravon, they ran into the Skaven and a fight ensued.

Escalation Army List

Game 3: 650 Point limit
-General: Orc Big Boss w/ light armor, great axe, shield: 73pts
-Hero: Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armor, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield, spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield, spear, full command: 80pts
-20 Night Goblin Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armor, choppa, extra hand weapon, Standard bearer, musician: 141pts
-10 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 70pts
Army Total: 650


Game 4: 1000 Point limit
-General: Orc Big Boss w/ light armor, +35pts Magic Akk'Rit Axe, shield (need magic item): 104pts
-Hero: Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-Level 2 Night Goblin Shaman: 95pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield, spear, full command: 80pts
-20 Night Goblin Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-6 Fanatics: 125pts
-18 Orc Big Uns w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, shield,  Standard bearer, musician: 195pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa, light armor and bow: 128
Army Total: 956

Escalation Order of Battle

UPDATED:
After a few test battles, it was quickly apparent that a Level 1 Shaman with only a Leadership 5 is not a suitable general whatsoever. Not sure why I ever thought it would work. I've swapped out the shaman for a Night Goblin Big Boss, and filled out the rest of the points with extra Orc Arrer Boyz.

Here's the current plan I have for the remaining battles of the Escalation Campaign.

Game 2: 500 Point limit
-General is Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-16 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon: 112pts
-12 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 84pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 496pts
Army Total: 500pts

Notes: I'm going with the Shaman as my general because I haven't prepped or primed the Night Goblin Big Boss yet.  I'm also giving the Orc Boyz the additional hand weapon because that's what the models have. I'd rather have a shield instead of the additional hand weapon because I lose the bonus strength from the choppas, but I prefer to just use the models as-is.   Also, I apparently can't do math because originally I thought I'd be able to field the entire 16 Orc bowmen, but that put me over the top.


Game 3: 550 Point limit

-General is Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts

-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, musician, standard: 141pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 546pts
Army Total: 529pts (gonna have to add some additional points here somehow...)

Game 4: 600 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe: 36pts
Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-18 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, musician, standard: 141pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 589pts



Game 5: 700 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Big Boss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 51pts
-Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-19 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, full command: 161pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
Army Total: 699pts


Game 6: 1000 Point limit
-General is Night Goblin Warboss w/ light armour, great axe, +15pts Talisman of Protection: 79pts
-Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman: 60pts
-20 Night Goblins with shield and spear, full command (musician, standard, champion): 80pts
-20 Night Goblins w/ shield & spear, full command: 80pts
-20 NG Archers w/ short bows, full command: 80pts
-3 Fanatics: 75pts
-19 Orc Boyz w/ light armour, choppa, extra hand weapon, full command: 161pts
-16 Orc Arrer Boyz w/ choppa and bow: 112pts
-Orc Boar Chariot: 80pts
-Orc Big Boss Hero on Boar w/light armour, shield,  +35pts Magic Akk'Rit Axe: 121
-Snotling Pump Wagon: 40pts
Army Total: 978
Still need to add some points here, so TBD on the rest.

Bad lighting, don't care

These are terrible pictures in awful lighting, but it's 12:43am and I don't really care. I'm getting close to having 500pts of Orcs and Goblins "battle ready" which is an accomplishment in itself.

I'll post better pictures, soon.

You can see that some of these are in a "half-way" state, but it's still nice to rank up the figs every once in a while.
Got a solid 4 hours of painting in while listening to Episode 8 of the  Skull Bros Awesome Warhammer podcast.

Brushes and Greenskins

I was interested in trying out some new brushes, so I picked up a brush from a local gaming shop (they apparently make their own brushes), along with a few AK Interactive brushes that I grabbed at the Fall-In historical wargaming convention in October.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the AK brushes were synthetic.

Synthetic vs Sable

I've been using Games Workshop brushes exclusively for around 17 years. They're fine sable, natural brushes.  The bristle spread of the synthetic brushes is just...weird. My control of the paint strokes is not as accurate as the sable brushes, but i've found that the synthetic holds it's shape better (so far).
I'm not sure if I can make a change to synthetic; it's so different than what I'm used to. We'll see.

As for the Orcs and Goblins, we're coming up on the next battle in the Escalation Campaign and it's 500 points.  Lots of painting to be done, but I realized I needed to do an inventory of the OnG figs I have and come up with a plan for how I'm going to construct my OnG army for the rest of the campaign. Since this is essentially an excuse to finally paint all the OnG figs I have lying around and use them as a "house" army, I need an accurate count of what I have.  I'm not buying any additional OnG stuff (except in a few special cases); the goal is to paint all the stuff I have and move on to The Empire army that I intend to use.

Current Painted Units:
17 Night Goblin Spearmen
17 Night Goblin Spearmen
18 Night Goblin Archers with champion
16 Orc Boyz
16 Orc Arrer Boyz

Next Up:
Command groups for the Night Goblin units (champion, standard, musician)
Command group for the Orc Boyz (standard, musician)
Night Goblin Shaman
Night Goblin Big Boss
Orc Boar Chariot (rare OOP Marauder chariot)
1 Snotling Pump Wagon (old OOP citadel model)
3 Night Goblin Fanatics
1 Doom Diver

Future Units:
Plastic Boar Chariot (from Skull Pass)
Orc Warlord on Wyvern (rare OOP Marauder model)
  -will be the centerpiece of the army. i've always loved this model
Black Orc Warboss from Games Day (2000?)
Orc Boss (old citadel model)
Orc Hero on Boar (rare OOP Marauder model)

Extra Units for later:
60 Night Goblin Spearmen from 4th edition boxed set
  -I'm considering converting these into "goblins" with hand weapons. we'll see
30 Night Goblin Archers from 4th edition boxed  set
  -not sure what to do with these guys. I hate the hoods.
2 OOP metal River Trolls (need to be stripped and re-painted)
1 Plastic Stone Troll (from Skull Pass)
7 metal Orc Boyz (rare OOP Marauder figs that need to be stripped and re-painted)
4 metal Orc Arrer Boyz (more rare OOP Marauder figs)
10 Plastic Orc Boyz (terrible, terrible models. maybe I just throw 'em away).

This is all OnG stuff that I had lying around, except for the Wyvern, old Boar chariot, and the Pump Wagon.

Next post, I'll lay out my army list plan for the next 5 battles in the Escalation Campaign.

Night Goblin Update

Just a quick post of some pictures showing three stages of Night Goblin and Orc painting.
Plastic, base colors, and first level of highlight. The third stage is what I'm considering "table-top ready", as I mentioned in the earlier painting posts.  These were figs I used in our first escalation battle of 250pts.
I'm feverishly working on the rest of the models to get to the 500pts required for the second battle.

The pictures were rushed so the lighting isn't correct.   The first level highlighting is done with a mixture of techniques depending on the part of the model.  Skin was done with just an ink wash on the orcs. The goblin had some minor highlights applied to the skin after the wash.
The yellow moon had brown ink wash, then some yellow reapplied sparingly to raised edges of the moon.
The black cloak was actually done in reverse. Grey highlights applied, then a liberal wash of black ink toned down the grey and blended it in.

The leather body armor on the orc was done with a brown Vallejo paint, and then black ink (Nuln Oil) right over it.

More to follow!

Escalation Weekend

We fought our first escalation battles this weekend. Two simple 250-point skirmishes designed to force people to paint figures, and a chance to work through the game mechanics since we had some new players.
Skaven beat the Orcs and Goblins with a great hook charge into the Orc Arrer Boys, and the High Elves beat the Bretonnians.

Horde vs Horde...

Setting up that surprising charge

High Elf Spears withstood charge
and routed Bretonnian Knights

After that, we took out a large number of extra figs we had lying around and played a large (relatively speaking) battle. 1200 points, no magic, no magic items, and only one hero serving as your general.

Big Battle:
Skaven and Orc & Goblin alliance vs High Elves.
Skaven had two units of 20 clanrats
2 Warp Throwers
10 Plague Monks
A Rat-Ogre pack of 2 Rat-Ogres
A Hero/Chieftain that served as the Army General.
Orcs & Goblins consisted of 2 units of 20 Night Goblin Spearmen
3 Fanatics
20 Night Goblins archers
16 Orc Boyz
16 Orc Arrer Boyz

Total was roughly 1230 points.

The High Elves Order of Battle was the following:
8 Dragon Princes
3 units of 10 Elven Archers
5 Reaver Knights
1 Hero that served as Army General
10 Swordmasters of Hoeth
25 Elven Spearmen

Total roughly 1225 points.

We took a bunch of overhead shots of the deployment, a few shots of turn 1-3, but then somehow got zero pictures of turns 4,5,6.  So, I don't have great notes and this will be a very sparse battle report.

On the Allied side of the board, the Orcs & Goblins lined up on their left flank, and the Skaven took the right flank near the village.  From the OnG side, it was Orc Arrer Boyz in front of the hill, NG Archers, Orc Boyz, NG Spearmen, Skaven Clan Rats with General and warp-fire thrower hanging out behind them,  then a column of Rat-Ogres,  Plague Monks and NG spearmen, with another unit of Clan Rats holding the extreme right flank.

On the High Elf side going from HE left-to-right, Archers on left flank hill, Dragon Princes, some elven ruins left-center, then big block of High Elf Spearmen with General behind them, Swordmasters of Hoeth set back off the front line, Reaver Knights, then two units of 10 Archers taking the hill on right flank.

Close-up of the High Elf deployment

Close-up of Skaven + Orcs and Goblins deployment

Turn One Skaven
Skaven and Orcs advance across the board. A few goblin units squabble from animosity.
Warpfire Thrower fires but ends up hitting its own Clanrats.
Turn One High Elves
Not much happens. All High Elf bows including the Reavers shot at the center unit of goblin spearmen.
Only 4 died.

The Horde advances!

Turn Two Skaven
Advance continues, goblin archers killed a Reaver knight. Warpfire killed a few spearmen.
Turn Two High Elves
Dragon Princes charged the Clan Rats.
Amazingly lose the combat after missing many hits and rolling lots of 1s.  Clan rats lap around.
Reavers charge the goblin archers. Combat is a draw.

Turn Three Skaven
Rat Ogres charge in flank (dragon princes pass panic and fear tests)
Goblin spearmen in center move up, unleash 3 fanatics into the center of the battle lines. Spearmen lose 3 guys, swordmasters lost two, and 3rd fanatic went only a few inches in front of the spearmen.
Few other units suffer from animosity.
Orc Archers pepper high elf archers on the hill.
Goblins archers win combat. Reavers flee.
Rat-Ogre charge was ineffective, Dragon Princes kill some rats, but rank bonuses, charge, and outnumber bonus results in a drawn combat.

Fanatics unleashed in Turn 3

Turn Three High Elves
Reavers continue fleeing.
Archers again ineffective with shooting.
Large combat sees the Dragon Princes lose by weight of numbers, fail their break check and run. The clan rats pursue and catch them, wiping out the Dragon Princes.
Things are not looking good for the High Elves at this point.

The Dragon Princes broke from this combat
and were overrun by Clan Rats!

Turn Four Skaven
Fanatics fly around, one splatters himself against the Elven ruins.
Orc Archers pick off a few elf bowmen on the hill.
Turn Four High Elves
Reavers flee off the board.
Spearmen move up to entice clan rats into a charge.
Swordmasters and General take matters into their own hands, charging into the Orc Boyz.
Surprisingly they lose combat by one and Orcs lap around.

Turn Five Skaven.
Warp Thrower kills one of the fanatics.
Clan Rats take the bait and charge the block of spearmen.
Swordmasters and general kill 4 boyz, win combat. Orcs break and flee, Swords pursue and catch them. Panic checks down the line. Goblin Spearmen flee.  Goblins archers flee.
Spearmen kill 10 clan rats and break them. They flee, spearmen pursue but don't catch.
This causes the plague monks to panic, along with the skaven general, rat ogres and warp fire teams.
Suddenly, the tide has turned. The Swordmasters deciding to take the fight to the Orcs may have been the key move in this battle.
Turn Five High Elves
Spearmen charge the fleeing clan rats, forcing them to run again.
The Swordmasters continue up and charge the goblin spearmen.
Archers kill 3 orc arrer boyz, one short of 4 needed to force a panic check.
Swordmasters win combat and cause them to break.

Turn 6 Skaven
Fail to rally general, but rat-ogres rally.
Turn 6 High Elf
Archers kill 2 orcs.
Game Over!

After tallying up the Victory Points, the High Elves pull off a stunning victory of almost 400pts more than the Allies.

Basing

Trying to decide on the color of the dirt for the bases.  I finished five Night Goblin spearmen with (on the left) darker brown for the rocks and dirt, and the five on the right with a lighter gray-brown color.

Down with the brown, or okay with gray?

Whatever I choose will be used on all the bases for the rest of the Orc & Goblin house army.
The biggest issue is what will the color look like on a large scale with the entire army based that way? The grey color is more subtle and keeps the attention on the figs, where it should be. The brown is very strong and might be distracting, but there's something about it that keeps bringing me back.

Finished Product

Here's a few shots of a finished Night Goblin spearmen. They rest have the pebbles and sand glued and are currently drying.

Latest Goblin Figs

We're getting ready for an escalation campaign, so I'm frantically painting goblins.
Spearmen are 95% done (battle-ready, not done-done). Still need to base them.

Night Goblin archers are 50% done.  I took a few different shots with different camera settings, but I didn't bother with a consistent background. Click the pics for zoom-in.

You'll notice that some of the figs have different skin tones; I was experimenting with what shade of green I wanted and different wash techniques. It's been over 15 years since I've used inks and washes so it took me a little while to come up with something. I might end up going with different skins to give some variety. I'm also tempted to go with brown tunics or hoods. We'll see.

The escalation armies are looking like Orcs & Goblins, Bretonnians, High Elves, Skaven, and Empire.
First battle will be a skirmish at about 250 pts, hopefully around the end of October.  Again, we're playing 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Battle Ready Night Goblins

Here's a quick picture of the first batch of Night Goblin spearmen that I've finished painting. They're "battle ready".  Not gonna win a Golden Demon award, but good enough for the tabletop.

Zoom in for details...

Still need to actually base the models; I just slapped a coat of green paint for the picture.

A few things are left unfinished that I can complete later:
1) teeth and eyes
2) another layer of highlighting
3) general cleanup

The Rematch

NOTE: This battle report was complete, and then Blogger lost all my saved changes. So...
I'm only posting what little text it still has, along with the pictures we took. 
I'm too disgusted to recreate all that work.

F U, Blogger (and F U, Google, by proxy)


We decided to refight the battle between the Dwarfs and Night Goblins, beefing up both armies slightly. We also had a friend that was interested in learning Warhammer Fantasy Battle so he came over and took the helm of the greenskin army. My cousin commanded the Dwarfs once again.

Reminder - we're using 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules.

The Armies

Dwarf Army List:
Dwarf Lord as General w/ heavy armor and shield - 66pts
20 Dwarf Warriors w/ light armor and shield, champion, standard, musician - 190pts
20 Dwarf Warriors w/ light armor and shield, champion, standard, musician - 190pts
19 Crossbowmen w/ light armor and shield, champion, standard, musician - 190pts
10 Thunderers - 120pts
Cannon - 100pts
Cannon - 100pts
Gyrocopter - 100pts
Total: about 964pts

Night Goblin Army List:
Night Goblin Big Boss as General w/light armor, Rending Axe Magic item - 67pts
20 NG Spearmen w/ shields, champion, standard, musician - 90pts
20 NG Spearmen w/ shields, champion, standard, musician - 90pts
20 NG Archers w/ champion, standard, musician - 90pts
Level 2 Night Goblin Shaman - 85pts
10 Spider Riders w/ spears, shield, champion, standard, musician - 180pts
Troll - 50pts, lead by Big Boss w/ Biting Blade magic item, additional hand weapon - 44pts
16 Orc Boys w/Choppas and extra hand weapon - 97pts
16 Orc Arrer Boys w/bows - 112pts
3 Night Goblin Fanatics - 75pts

Terrain on the battlefield was set up the same as the previous Night Goblin / Dwarf battle.  After deployment, it was clear that this would be a very different battle than the first engagement.

View of the oncoming Goblin horde...

After Turn 1.  Dwarf Red cannon on right flank misfired, blue cannon on left flank overshot target.

Turn 2, the gyrocopter opened fire.

 Then the night goblins turned to engage in combat. Gyro passed the break check.

Animosity crippled the movement of the gobbos, leaving the spider riders squabbling on the extreme left flank.

Turn 3, the dwarf blue cannon got a great shot, hitting a bunch of night goblins spearmen.

Next round of combat saw the gyrocopter fleeing!

 Spider riders overcame their animosity and moved up the flank.

 Overhead shot after turn 3.

 Turn 4, Orc boys line up for a charge into the Thunderers.

Thunderers couldn't withstand the charge and were broken from combat.  This was a critical moment in the battle.  Up until now, Goblins had been really affected by animosity.

End of Turn 4: The sight of the Thunderers broken from combat caused the two main Dwarf warrior units, one led by their general, to panic and flee.  The Dwarfs almost lost the battle here and only the short legs of the Dwarfs prevented them from running off the table.

Turn 5: Dwarf cannons and Crossbows finally had some shots hit home and caused casualties across the Dwarf line but nothing major.  Also, magic up until now had been ineffective.
As you can see in the two shots below, the dwarf units rallied.  Barely.

 Overhead shot after Turn 5: You can see that the Troll has slowly moved up the center after lots of failed Stupidity tests, the Orc Boys are the only unit to make it into the Dwarf line, and the rest of the goblin units have been affected by animosity. The center goblin archer unit has suffered artillery casualties.

 The Night Goblin spearmen unit with their Big Boss general broke the gyrocopter in combat again.  The gyro fled into the forest and crashed into the trees, getting destroyed.

In the round of combat with the Orcs, the Thunderers caused two wounds and both were saved by armor if a 6 was rolled. Both sixes!

 Turn 6:
Dwarfs charged the Troll.

 Dwarfs defeated the Troll in combat and he broke, running away (much to the chagrin of his goblin big boss minder).

 The spider riders finally overcame their animosity and charged the dwarf red cannon on the dwarf right flank. They lost and the spiders over-ran them in pursuit but went a little too far off the board.

 At the end of turn 6, the Night Goblins had 3 table quarters, victory points from the cannon and gyrocopter, giving them the big win over the Dwarfs!

Still annoyed that I lost the entire writeup about this battle.