The Ultra-Mega Gnoblog: Mordheim Witch Hunters and Tower (WiP)

Game 3 against HE - why couldnt the ME charge in turn 1? Your opponent went first and then you ARE allowed to charge, even in turn 1 : )

Game 3 against HE - why couldnt the ME charge in turn 1? Your opponent went first and then you ARE allowed to charge, even in turn 1 : )

Well, you have me there... It's very possible that I've mistaken who got the first turn, which would actually make a lot of sense; the Maneaters definitely didn't charge turn one and I had thought that the Eagles were in position to redirect straight away.

There's only one way to sum this whole debacle up:



   

Transcribing the Battle Reports even only a couple of days after the event was much harder than I'd expected- I think that next time I definitely need to take short notes from each game: chiefly Winds of Magic, what spells were cast with what power/ dispel dice and how many casualties in each turn. I thought it would be fairly easy to remember who went first, but obviously I was wrong :p

I'm going to have to try and amend the photos, which I think will be a bit more time consuming than I would like, as there's no easy way to change the order of the game without making the later turns look out of place... Basically I've accidentally gotten the turn order the wrong way round- most of my dice for deployment and going first over the day were so bad that I just assumed I'd gone second

I'll try and get everything sorted out tonight and tomorrow (I have a busy day today- after nearly a year being out of work I finally have two interviews with recruiting companies! Woo!).

Sorry bout that, folks...

I've updated all of the pictures and some of the text from the battle report, as I had accidentally gotten the turns mixed up when I was entering the details into Battle Chronicler!

I've learnt a valuable lesson about the usefulness of notes/ pictures (even if they're just to jog my memory later and not for showing online!)

Hope it's enjoyable- if anyone notices any other mistakes, let me know 

Thanks for reading, and for keeping me on my toes 

The big fella doesn't seem to have a name yet, but he's been doing me proud since I converted him up in the days of the previous Ogre army book- back when he had Throttle with Chain instead of Thump with Club.

[In fact, when I saw they'd brought back Thump with Club my happiness at getting a better ability was outweighed by immense sadness that my conversion was now not WYSIWYG... I mean, seriously, trying to drill out his hand to hold the chains - when I didn't own a drill - was such an achievement it's meant that I've used the Giant in just about every game to date, just to get my monies worth out of him! 

Anyway, without further ado, one Slave Giant:





I'm not sure if I'm pleased with the skin tone or not; it doesn't show as well in the photos, although I tried several times and these were the best shots I got. I wanted it to be a nod to the fluff about Giants being the last bastard remnants of the Sky Titans, so I wanted to evoke a cold tone to him. It was my first experience using blue so extensively and I'm not sure I got it quite right.

He's sporting a couple of bruises around his eyes, which I used Cathonian Camoshade and Druchii Violet inks for. I thin that these would have been better had I built up darker colours in the eye sockets, so I might go back and make these more believable/ less shiny by base coating his eyes again and building it up with purples and darker blues/ greens/ yellows.

His nose ring could have come out a bit better, but it was so fiddly that I was happy just for it to stay where it is 

I was in two minds about his 'eyebrows'. Originally I had them painted flesh colour, but I thought I could make out some detailing on the bottoms of them that made them look like they had hair, so I went back and painted it like hair (after washing out my tray of flesh colour) but now I think it looks even more out of place than before! What do people think about the furry caterpillars? Would they be better off skin coloured? Should I try and greenstuff a mono-brow for the amusement factor?

Looks like a car tire on his left arm : )

No worries about the turn 1 charge... remembering 3 games is a challenge! I think it would more sense if you wrote up the battle reps and then posted them with some days between each and hence allowing us to read'n'respond without mixing up games and details. The reps are detailed enough to follow and I enjoy post game thoughts.

Looks like a car tire on his left arm : )

Haha, I hadn't noticed that before I think it's just a bracelet type thing; it came on the model and has a rope-like look to the material. Perhaps some kind of bangle?

No worries about the turn 1 charge... remembering 3 games is a challenge! I think it would more sense if you wrote up the battle reps and then posted them with some days between each and hence allowing us to read'n'respond without mixing up games and details. The reps are detailed enough to follow and I enjoy post game thoughts.

That makes sense. I was worried about it taking a long time to write them up, so was hurrying to get them finished; if taking a little longer would benefit us both I think that's a perfectly reasonable suggestion

One thing that I am quickly finding with Battle Chronicler (the software I downloaded to create the diagrams), is that the movement arrows start from behind the unit, instead of from where it was- that makes it look odd when a unit like the Giant moves 10" in a straight line and wheels 2" at the end. Instead of having a straight arrow and a different facing at the end, it makes the movement arrow rather large and looping, which looks like the unit moved further that it did. The 'Reform' button they have is also odd- it wheels a unit/ model around as though the centre of it's front edge stays still, instead of reforming it's facing with the center of the unit staying put

Lastly things can often move very fast when there's a combat which creates fleeing units- as in the combat between the High Elf Spearmen, the Giant and the Maneaters (Game Three: Turn Five). It looked like the Maneaters and Giant moved in a very bizarre fashion because it doesn't take into account that they move in one direction, then stop, fight combat and move in a second direction afterwards- if there was some way to break the arrows up, to show the direction they moved in more accurately, that would be nice.

(like having 'Unit A --->. |
                                      |
                                      v
                                   Unit A')

Instead of just one diagonal line between both points. It's not a big deal, but something which I think would be a bit clearer. The other thing that takes getting used to (and isn't a problem with the software at all) is that I keep moving people as they moved that turn in real life- so I'll move all the pieces as they did in the movement phase, then have to re-adjust them to include fleeing/ overrunning. I can't seem to think about just skipping to the 'End of the turn' picture. But at least doing it the way I did made it a lot easier to remember individual movements.

Even with those minor things against it, it's still pretty awesome considering it's totally free

Thanks for the updates Bob, always look forward to checking out your progress.

Thank you very much Jimmy, that's very kind of you to say

I haven't been making much progress with my Ogres at the moment, unfortunately. Our gaming group is going to take a break from WHFB for a couple of months (we only meet once a month, so it's not as drastic or long term as it sounds ) and will be delving into Mordheim instead.

It's given me a chance to crack out a few warbands and try my hand at terrain making for once, as scenery is integral to a good game of Mordheim.

With that in mind I've been magnetising lots of wrists and creating some swappable weapons, so that I can get the most out of each figure and the random nature of the upgrades they might accrue.


Witch Hunters:

Captain: Johann Mercer


Warrior Priest: Wilhelm Mercer


Witch Hunter: Lady Eva Winterbourne


Witch Hunter: Markus Graff



Witch Hunter: Lucius 'Loose' Ruth


(Sorry about the blurry pictures, I need to get past the undercoat stage and hopefully they'l be a lot clearer!)

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Because a Mordheim campaign is so much more narrative than Warhammer tournaments, I decided to concoct a little back-story, to explain the choice of models and give it a more unique feel to it.

Essentially, the warband is centred around a family. I like the imagine that the father, Johann Mercer, was a magistrate and a puritanical Sigmarite; he lives a very harsh life, in the manner of people who think that luxury will make him weak. This means that his son, Wilhelm Mercer, was brought up in a strict and formal religious setting; this means that he was expected to join the priesthood when he came of age. Lady Winterbourne was brought in to be his matron and his religious tutor. Markus Graff has worked for Johann Mercer, in the capacity of a court enforcer and bailiff. Lucius 'Loose' Ruth is not only a nod to the anime, Tri-Gun (and the bounty hunter of the same name), but also the only member of the warband not affiliated with the family; I picture him as more of a wanderer, who has joined forces with the puritanical family as they try to make headway in the cursed city, rather than try to go it alone.

Apologies for the bad pictures (and lack of Ogres!) in these posts, but I'll try and swing it back that way soon- I'm painting up this guy below, as an Ogre Bodyguard, with a Witch Hunter feel to him:

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l167/keravin/Mercs/DSCF3416.jpg


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Next up: Terrain!

Here's a few pictures of a tower, that I've spent most of today tinkering with. It's (hopefully!) the first of many interesting, and slightly wacky designs to make my games in the City of the Damned much more colourful, enjoyable and varied, whilst still being easy to set-up, take down and mix around.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that since I game on a budget these days, I'm looking for the most cost effective ways to get my hobby fix. The three plastic floors of the building are made from a set of plastic food storage tubs, which I picked up at a local 99p Store.

The strong 'No More Nails' type adhesive was also bought at the same store, whilst the cardboard for the upper floor's roof, the roof itself and (what will eventually be) the roofing tiles came from various boxes around the house- the thin type was a from a boxed set of miniatures and the corrugated stuff from my laptop case and a box of groceries respectively.

All told this project has cost less than £2 to date, which is great news and should hopefully mean I can make further projects easily, as well as share a good way to make cheap terrain (providing it all works out anyway )


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Without further ado, I give you:


First up, was a quick test to define the basic shape of the roof. This has been my first attempt at making, what I now know is a 'square hip-joint roof', and it was much more technical/ difficult than I imagined, due to a lack of tools (like a protractor to measure the angles I'd made the roof pieces!)

I've included some of my Witch Hunters warband next to the Tower, for size comparisons. The white stuff you can see on the second floor is a strong adhesive (of the 'No More Nails' variety) which I used to seal the top module to the lid of the second one. This creates a seal that stops it from sliding around, but still means I can leave it loose and take the top floor off when someone moves into the floor below.



This is how the floors compare to each other in terms of size when there are models in them; I think that the ground floor will mostly be an entrance hall or storage room- there will be a staircase/ ladder in it and then not much else. If I decide to have the staircase on the outside of the tower - which will be an interesting technical challenge for someone new to building buildings! - it will likely serve as a storage room that can only be accessed from the level above, which would be perfect for scenarios which call for treasure chests and other items to be found in the building.



I'm half tempted to have a playable fourth floor, in the attic. I could tinker with creating a second roof, that, rather than being a square-based pyramid, would be the traditional rectangular 'V' shape; if I do go down that route, I can create balconies at each end of the rectangular base, for some epic snipers nests. Here's a shot for comparison- it's a long way to fall if you get knocked down near the edge though!



This shot is to demonstrate a couple of things:

Firstly that by un-stacking the buildings, they should hopefully be able to provide more use as single story ruins. I'd need to add some doors of course (but I will later on as I build the stairs and/ or ladders and/ or balconies) but I think it would be great to have that much variety in my terrain for once. By keeping a few spare pieces of carboard around, it would be easy to create flat roofs on each of the individual buildings as well. The lids which I glues onto the bases of each floor function well as actual terrain bases, and add a skirting-board style look to them, which I like.

Secondly, I was trying to figure out the best way to plan for access to each floor; I realised that for realistic staircases (each step being 20mm wide and 5mm tall) would take up a lot of space. That's what the brown marker is for. Having seen just how much space I give up in the building, I'm leaning more towards outside entry- having a staircase and elevated walkway that winds round the building like a Helter-Skelter. That way I can keep as much space as possible on the inside for extra details and room to move.



Another shot of the modular buildings when used to create alleyways:



To keep the floor of the roof from sliding off (as the roof will most likely be heavier than the floor below), I had to create some buffers out of spare cardboard, which you can see in the corners (the logo in the middle is the last worldly sighting of my laptop case ):



This last shot shows the roof, as the adhesive is drying. I'll peel the masking tape off tomorrow and add some roof slates, cut from non-corrugated cardboard; they'll be around 1cm - 1.5cm wide and have various lengths to stop them looking too 'samey'. In pencil you can see the outline for one of the dormer windows, which I'd like to make, but might leave since it's very technical. I also decided that since I have the largest lid going spare (since I made my own roof platform) that it would make a nice base for the entire building. By setting the entrance level further back, it creates the impression of a garden. I liked this idea so much that I'm going to look into finding or making some fences, so that I can create a proper scenic base for the whole thing, and add some less often seen terrain to my table at the same time.





It's all very rough at the moment, but it's really got my imagination fired up- which is a novelty these days! 

Looks cool! Excited to see more as you go along.

Really keen to see how this turns out!