The Beastmasters

Introduction
This thread is a continuation of my thread on the old site: Link
I don't think I'll be reposting all the old posts on that thread, so go and have a look if you're interested.


Background
Basically, the Beastmaster tribe is an old tribe from the northern parts of the Ogre Kingdoms. They have traditionally been very big at breeding and training (and eating) the great beasts of that land and keep to the old traditions of ogre kind.
Just a few years ago, an ogre named Gymir returned to his tribe with the remainder of his mercenary band. They had been serving various lords in Cathay and Ind, several of which they had betrayed (and eaten) and they had retured to resupply.
In Ind the ogre mercs had formed an alliance with the outlawed Cult of the Great Hound, daemon-worshippers led by fierce werewolves who drank the blood of their enemies and sought to collect skulls for their dark god.
Gymir had struck a bargain with the cult, with the flesh of fallen enemies being sacrificed to the Great Maw and the blood to the Great Hound, thereby gaining their support.
Having lived the life of a mercenary commander, Gymir was not used to being told what to do (unless he was paid for it) and upon returning to his old tribe there was immediate friction. Within three hours he had killed (and eaten) the former Tyrant and his two oldest sons, claiming the Beastmaster title for himself.
The original plan had just been to make a quick stop back home to stock up on gear and maybe recruit a few young Bulls to suppliment his small but tough band of Maneaters, but Gymir now unexpectedly found he had the resources of an entire tribe at his disposal. Still feeling the desire to wander the land (and eat people), he is currently hiring the larger part of his army out to anyone who will pay him enough.



General army progress
Planned components in my army:

Beastmaster Gymir the Paranoid
1 Tyrant (done)

-Tyrant model with chopped-up and reassembled great weapon, whip from the Beastman special character Khazrak, gut plate from the Maneater with the long coat, back banner from the Black Orc special character Morglum Necksnapper and bitz from about a dozen more minis / plastic kits.

Hlolf Goredigger & Bragel Deepwound
2 Butchers (done)

-made from plastic Bulls, green stuff and a lot of bitz, one has a cauldron from the Siege set

Hergulf Wolfkin
1 Bruiser with Battle standard (done)

-Heavily modified Irongut toting a double banner, like the one in the back of the army book

1 Hunter (done)

-based on the Maneater with the long coat (#2), sculpted on more fur
-scratch built right arm with harpoon launcher
-Flesh Hounds of Khorne as Sabretusks


Jokul's Bulls
6 Bulls (done)

-Golgfag's ogres with an additional old metal ogre
-has been WIP for a couple of years

Hrim's Bulls
6 Bulls (done)

-plastic Bulls with Ironfists and light armour
-banner and bellower have right-handed ironfists made by digging out the fist from the ironfist and gluing in a right hand
-all have light armour made from shields (as shoulder plates), with a bit of green stuff and plasticard

Thrug's Ironguts
5 Ironguts (done)

-all are metal Dragonrune ogres, no command models
-standard bearer converted by making him hold his great axe in one hand and an Irongut banner pole in the other
-heavy armour sculpted on from green stuff and plasticard

Broken sword gang
30 Gnoblar Fighters (done)

-Slightly converted, the champ is the gnobbo sitting on another gnobbo's shoulder. His knife was swapped for a broken sword to match the unit's name "The Broken Sword Gang"
-since the unit will be used as Common goblins with HW+SH in my O&G army they got a musician, a hand swap with a plastic DE horn blower
-magnetizing done

Head onna stick gang
30 Gnoblar Fighters (done)

-As with the other unit this one has a converted champ to match the unit's name, this time it's a Zombie head in replacement of the spear tip, matching the name: "The Head Onna Stick Gang"
-musician has a metal drum from the old Empire soldiers set. Left arm entirely replaced (including puffy sleeve), while the right was swapped at the hand
-as I only had 29 Gnobbos left one Gnobbo is a 4th edition spear goblin who had his weapon swapped with another gnobbo

Grib's Big Game Hunt
8 Gnoblar Trappers (done)

-all are plastic Gnobbos converted to look like a big game hunt (probably a goat). Numerous bitz have been used and I'm waiting to get some bitz off the bretonnian peasant sprues.


2x 2 Leadbelchers (done)

-additional ammo bundles made from spare weapons and an old Snotling ;D

The Night Pack
4 Wherewolves / "Yhetees" (2 done, 2 planned)

-plastic rat ogre bodies with plastic wolf's heads and some green stuff
-champion will be an armoured pack leader

Gnoblar Gunbeast
1 Scraplauncher (done)

-a large mortar shooting scrap instead of a catapult
-mounted on the back of a large rhinox model (same as rhinox cavalry) with a howda made from balse wood and bitz
-I ordered the gnobbos from the original scrappy and converted the rest from other stuff


Stinky Trym
1 Gorger (done)

-the classic Scyla model, with the head from a 40K attack squig Link

Big Wullie
1 Rhinox Cavalry (done!)

-Yay! Link to conversion guide

Tiny Thung
1 Slave Giant (done)

- conversion of the Albion giant with the tree

2 Sword gnobbos (done)

-old, tiny 4th edition Goblins with swords and shields

4 Tooth Gnoblars (done)

-converted Snotlings based individually

2 Luck Gnobbos (done)

-the two Gnobbos spreading coins from the Greasus model

3 Look-out Gnobbos (done)
-one standard look-out, two snotlings from the old pump wagon
-attach with blu-tack to standard tops as needed

1 Dispel Scroll (done)
-Old Scroll bearer Familiar from 3rd edition
-rightmost git in the luckgnobbo picture

6 Spell effect markers (done)
-Green stuff and gravel on 20 mm bases
-see Butcher picture

January 2.
I'm currently playing around with some ship rules which I am writing (doesn't really have anything to do with ogres, I know) and so far it's the Empire: 2, Orcs & Goblins: 0

Empire fleet

War Galley #1
-16 Swordsmen w/FC
-8 Free Companies
-Great cannon

War Galley #2
-16 Halberdiers w/FC
-8 Free Companies
-Mortar


Greenskin fleet

War Galley #1
-25 Goblins with light armour, standard and musician
-10 Orc Boyz with AHW
-Rock Lobber with Bully

War Galley #2
-same as #1


It seems that the Gobbos are faring badly, mostly due to their low Ld. I'll write a few more rules and see if they don't work better in a slightly bigger fleet (the above test is just 600 pts). Methinks a couple of smaller ships will work better alongside a larger one.

Nice to see you again avian, heres a new avatar for you, its small enough for this new forum:

Huge link
 just copy the image into your photobucket and it will fit!

Thanks, but I think I have a resized version of my old one on my hard disk back up north and so I'll be able to use that when I return this weekend.


January 3.
I've been thinking more about next season's campaign army and I've tossed some ideas around with my brother. I definitely want to try out some combos of items and units that I haven't really tried out before, so here is one idea:
(working from memory regarding points values)

Beastmaster Gymir Mawseeker the Paranoid
Bruiser with great weapon, heavy armour, Mawseeker and the Jade Lion
182 pts

Olf Longstrider the Skinner
Hunter with Longstrider and two Daemon Hounds ("Sabretusks")
210 pts


4 Bulls with AHW, standard and bellower
186 pts

4 Bulls with IF, standard and bellower
190 pts

4 Bulls with AHW and bellower
166 pts

4 Ironguts with standard, bellower and the War banner
267 pts

25 Gnoblar Fighters
50 pts

25 Gnoblar Fighters
50 pts

13 Gnoblar Trappers with snarefinger
82 pts

13 Gnoblar Trappers with snarefinger
82 pts


2 Leadbelchers with bellower
120 pts

1 Scraplauncher
165 pts


That comes to exactly 1750 pts, if my calculations are correct, and should mean that the only new model I'd have to make was the Hunter (the Bull Rhinox will continue to proxy as a Scrappy for the time being).

I've never used two units of Trappers before and I'm going to try them out at a larger unit size, so that they will count as a Scoring unit (campaign rule that amongst other things enables them to hold table quarters) and make them more resistant to Panic tests. They may be a bit too expensive at the moment and so they might be dropped down to 10 with no champ.

The other idea is the splitting of my two Bull units into three, which I have my doubts about and I will try having my General join the Ironguts, which should make him more survivable and make it easier to earn Glory.

Looking forward to read more about the adventures of the beastmasters.

Would it be allright if I sent you a pm as I set up a local campaign?  I think you may be able to help me through some rough spots as the one you are involved in sounds smashing.

Sure, no problem. We've played through three* campaigns now and I believe I have gained some measure of insight as to what works and what doesn't.


* four if you count the first one that didn't work, but I didn't run that

January 9.
I search through yet another gaming store for the Tilean Maneater and what do I find? The only Maneater they have in stock in the Empire one. Damn!


Lacking anything better to do, work continues on the ship rules. I intend to cover pretty much everything up to Man o' War size (i.e. really big ships) though currently I'm only working on small and medium-sized vessels. Hopefully I'll get to try them out this week or the next.


Campaign season is also almost upon us, so it's time to finish off those new rules and work on more map tiles. I'll gathe the troops and see if we can't get a couple of days' work in.

I've had a lot of difficulty finding the Pirate Maneater mini.  I checked GW a few times, checked eBay for over a month, and posted a 'Wanted' advert both here and The Warhammer Forum without any luck

In the end I ordered a Maneater from GW online, but they are listed as '1 Random Maneater' there.  So after receiving the confirmation email I quickly replied and asked if they could make sure it's a Pirate Maneater.  A day later I received a response saying that they had checked the order and selected the necessary loose components that make up a Pirate Maneater, rather than just the blister pack at no extra cost.

Maybe you should try this too?

Anyways, keep up the great work with your army diary, it's always a good read

I was looking for a Tilean maneater for a while, and in the end Brutus the Blue sold me one at a pretty decent price. I emailed an independant retailer asking for the specific mode, and they said it was relly rare. God knows why.

Perhaps GW is slowing down production a bit in light of the recent loss in sales and drop in share price?
My online order has been delayed for a few days because they've run out of cavalry bases, and this is GW UK we're talking about, the HQ!

Apologies for the hijack avian

heh, the number of times I hijacked this thread on the old forum;)

January 10.
One local store, which has had problems with getting stock from GW due to the chain it belongs to having financial problems is now breaking out and starting on its own and the manager told me that today he would order £10,000 worth of GW stuff which should arrive next week.
There is hope for my conversion yet!

I have also arranged a game for monday, where I will try out the Naggaroth rules and my planned campaign army.

I'm also currently pondering the campaign schedule. Easter is as always creating problems, but the plan right now is to have the first War Meeting monday in week 5 (jan. 30) and then the following in weeks 8, 11, 14 and 17.

That basically gives us three weeks to finish the new map tiles, so we had better get cracking.

We also played many ship style battles! For orcs we had one main ship which was pretty touch and then lots of not so good rafts covered in goblins and river trolls.... those things were hell to deal with!

The ogre fleet we tried out was pretty half arsed... It had alot of gnoblars and a few ogres running around... but if the ship sank then ogres would drown pretty quickly we found...  

January 12.
What type of rules did you use? I had a look in the General's Compendium and those rules look very clunky and seem to be of the type "Roll a D6 and see if anything exciting happens" (which is also true for most of the rest of the book).


I have painted a bit more on my giant. As before I used quite thinned paint (big models need many layers of highlighting and it doesn't do to start off with thick paint). I painted most of the leather bitz in the same mix of brown (3 parts) and black (1 part) and I'll use different highlights to differentiate the various materials that make up his outfit.


The campaign rules are also nearing completion and I should have a ready version up later today.

This army looks awesome.
Very inspiring, just purchased the start of my army yesterday, im using similar conversions for the gnoblar trappers and gorgers(converted rat ogres).
Keep up the good work!
Chris

January 19.
A little more painting on the Giant. I know it's progressing slowly, but a) I don't have a lot of time to paint, since I'm in the process of moving (Louise and I are moving in together! Yay!), and b) I don't have any other ogre models to paint anyway, so there is no rush.


Hopefully we'll do some more work on the map this afternoon.


Sign-ups for the league and campaign are not progressing as well as I'd hoped. It really shows that the number of active players in town have been declining for some time now (established players move away or find other interests and it's harder to recruit new ones due to GW increasing prices).
*sniff*

January 20.
I'm sure getting more respect from those army logistics people. Moving an army from one place to another is a damn complicated task. Even if this one is only a miniature army, it's a large miniature army and there is a snow storm on at the moment.


We got some good work in on the map yesterday, finishing the structures (mountains and lakes) and spackling them. Cutting polystyrene into interesting and not too regular mountains is not too difficult if you just stop concentrating and just hack up bitz. Our dwarf player spent ages carefully trimming the styrene into little mountains and it ended up looking like a set of bowling pins.
Irregular is good, hack wildly and adjust it later if you are not pleased (spackle will also cover a lot).
I'll add some sand either tonight or tomorrow and we'll paint on sunday.
Regarding "hacking wildly", I cut my left index finger when making some particularly ragged mountains, the result was that the chain (which is unnamed on the map) has now been dubbed the Bloody Mountains, for more than one reason.


I must say that having seen how much space my WD collection takes up (especially compared to how much readable material it contains), I'm strongly tempted to scan the interesting bitz and throw / give away the rest. At least I have stopped buying new issues.

can you please post a link to your step-by-step rhinox rider guide?

January 23.
The Rhinox-building thread can be found here.


I have added sand to the crevices of the mountain chains and to the riverbanks and beaches of the map tiles to give them more texture. On sunday, my brother and I* have painted most of what needs to be painted on the tiles and added "water" made from white glue.

With the previous tiles we didn't remove the tape around the edge of the tiles and just filled the water areas with glue, but this turned out badly as when glue dries it shrinks and the tape ended up beinding inwards in a not-too-pleasing fashion. This time I just poured the glue on and hoped it would be too thick to flow over the edge and lo and behold it generally stayed where it should.

The mountains were painted with a mix of 2 parts grey to 1 part black, highlighted with grey and then a final highlight of 2 parts grey to one part white. It's hard to catch all the crevices, though, so I'll have to go over the mountain tiles with a smaller brush later. The lowlands were just given a coat of a darkish green.

I took some pics which should be up by tomorrow. What is left now is to paint the sandy areas and the smaller cliffs, the sea and the edges of the tiles with water on, then we should be ready to flock.


Still much too few people have signed up for the campaign.


During packing (only a week to go) I came over some old RPG stuff that I wrote years ago, including some very odd stuff. How useful does a "Loot on Corpses" sub-table for types of orc food sound?
Oh, well, my brother is interested in the stuff and hopes to get some playing done with the system. We'll see how that goes.


* Helge decided to come despite being sick, but when he got half way he got so ill that he threw up and decided to go home. Poor guy.

January 24.
One more person has signed up and two more said they would, so that leaves "only" seven more spaces to fill in the campaign + league. Argh, argh, argh.

The annoying thing is that the problem is not that peole don't want to play, there just aren't as many active players around as there used to be.


Painting and flocking of the tiles will continue tonight.

January 25.
Two more people have signed up, so we are getting there, at least.
EDIT: One more, so if the two who have promised to join do, then we are down to four free spots.


The map is nearly done. We flocked the tiles yesterday and painted the sandy areas and the edges. I also started to tape the tiles together (7 and 7 are taped together to make it quicker to assemble the map and store it after use. This is really frustrating, because all the little irregularities now come up to haunt you. Oh well.

Now all that's left is to paint the water (it is currently white), drybrush the sandy areas and do some touch ups.


EDIT: Forgot to add pics yesterday


Coastal tiles


Mountain tiles

Pics from yesterday will hopefully be added tomorrow...

January 26.
At last the league is full at least.
Armies are as follows: Orcs & Goblins, Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Chaos Mortals, Dark Elves and Skaven, so quite varied.
Now I just hope we can fill up the campaign.


Naturally I forgot to upload the pics of the map to my PC, so you'll have to wait untill tomorrow for that.

January 27.
Ta-da!


(try to imagine all the white areas being blue and there you have it)


Packing all my minis is - as suspected - turning out to be difficult, as I lack cases for about 1/4th of them (about 200 minis all in all), largely consisting of cavalry and bigger models.
Argh, what to do!

January 28.
Hurrah! The store got the Maneater that I need for my Hunter conversion in stock. After searching everywhere for it I finally got my talons on it. Yay!

Too bad most of my tools are packed into boxes... Most likely I won't get to start the conversion until late next week. Oh, well.


Since the older posts in this diary are now on another forum, I can describe my plans for converting a Hunter and Tyrant.

Hunter
- Use the body and head of the Tilean Maneater (check)
- Cut away the sword hilt from the left hand and replace with a coiled whip made from ... well, I'll think of something...
- Remove the gnoblar on the shoulder and sculpt on more fur with green stuff.
- Use the Tyrant's gut plate with the sword (from the looks of it, I may have to file down the belly of the model a bit first to make it fit better)
- Scratch-build a crossbow from plasticard, wood and other materials
- Sculpt completely new right arm (use a wire armature covered with GS)


Tyrant
- Use the basic Tyrant body and the head facing towards the right
- Add the gut plate with treasure chests from the Maneater above
- Use the right arm with spiked gauntlet from the same model fitted to one of the armoured shoulders from the Tyrant set
- Take the raised left arm holding the sword and remove the hand and the gnoblar
- The weapon will be based on the great weapon.
- - Cut the haft immediately above and below the hands.
- - Pin the haft below the right hand instead of above it and pin the the maul end of the weapon at the bottom.
- - Cut the hammer from the other right arm above the hand and pin it in place above the left hand.
- - Attach whole thing to the left arm
- Add gnoblar with abacus to shoulder in place of other gnoblar
- Sculpt on more fur
- Done.
- Use GS to add more fur

End result should look something like this, only facing the other way:
http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/newimage.asp?Size=A&Img=4581

The idea you have for the hunter is a good one! it is similar to my tyrant...

I have done the same gut plate swap and got rid of the sword... the gnoblar will be difficult to remove in one piece i belive...

Would like to see pics of how yours turned out

January 30.
"What's that, honey? We are not going to have my minis prominently displayed in the living room? Really? Hmm..."

Oh, well, I have two weeks to decorate before Louise gets back from her exams in Spain. We'll see what I can get done.


I've finished the map. There are a few touch-ups I'd like to make, though, but I need some stuff that I've already packed down, so it will have to wait. With only (it seems) four teams instead of six , we also won't be using the entire map, and so there might be some adjustments.
Hrmf!

February 1.
We have started the campaign, but since I'm a bit busy at the moment and because I want to do a bit more touch-ups on the map, the full website will not go active just yet.

We do have four realms and hope that another will join us at the start of round 2. I have teamed up with Andreas, who plays Empire and we play Red. Having set up a capital in the mountains in the south, we have launched one invasion against Blue (archaon's horde + hell pit) and one sea borne invasion of white (vampires + orcs).


I'm a bit worried about one of the participants of the league, a kid of 14 with a mum who's very enthusiastic about her son's new hobby. Judging by the list he submitted* he's not a very competent player. I have a feeling he'll get splatted by the other players and that his mum will blame me for it.
Oh, well.


I'm getting more settled in our new home and with a bit of luck I might have time to do a bit of converting tonight!


* it's of the "one unit of each type" school of newbie army design, which makes for a rather poor skaven army if you ask me

February 4.
I've located my bitz box and found the Tyrant's gut plate with the sword, which I got from another ogre player last year. It should fit my Hunter (from now on I will say Hunter whenever I mean "Maneater-based Hunter conversion") with only a minimum of filing.

I also found a whip originally belonging to an old Dark Elf special character called Rakarth (Link), which I intend to place in his left hand, probably cutting it into four pieces and then bending it so it appears coiled.

I may decide to use a plastic Bull arm for the right arm, so I don't have to sculpt a complete new one (just the hand), though it will need some trimming and GS to make it fit.

Removing the Gnoblar on the shoulders will not be a neat job and his legs will probably have to go (poor chap), with GS covering the shoulder on the Hunter and new legs sculpted if/when I decide to place the git on the shoulder of my Tyrant (conversion due early April if my schedule holds).

Obviously the crossbow / bolt thrower will be a rather involved conversion. Mainly it will be plasticard and wood, with a bolt made from a Night Goblin spear. I intend to have a quiver with a couple of spare bolts, but not too many (how often does a Hunter fire during a battle anyway?).


First battle of the campaign on monday against the Lizzies of my brother and the Hunter will probably stay home and not be a blowpipe-victim this time.


In other news I just realised that I now have enough space to play FB in my own home AND a DIY store nearby. Naturally I find myself planning a gaming table, made up of 2 x 4' sections that can be stored in the ... uh, what'sitcalled ... store room thingy in the basement. I did make a table one and a half years ago when I was down south and visiting my parents for the summer, but that ended up being too heavy to transport up here. I shall have a look around the store and see what I can find. Current plan is a fibreboard surface mounted on some styrofoam (for stability) covered in something to stop the styrofoam from crumbling.

January 6.
Oh, the agony! Oh, the suffering!
(I'm converting my Hunter and the gnoblar on his shoulder and the sword hilt in his left hand proved particularly difficult to remove.)

Nevertheless, progress so far has been good:


As you can see, there are four areas of the model I've worked on: the scratch-built crossbolt-thrower and right arm, the rebuilt left shoulder where the gnoblar used to sit, the left hand which now holds a whip and the gut plate swap.


I can start with the crossbolt-thrower


It's look is a mix of the goblin spear chukka and a normal crossbow.
- Starting with the stock, I used a piece of square pine rod 4 mm thick and about 50 mm long. Down about 2/3rds of its length I carved out a groove, using a rotary drill bit (which I have never found a use for before) and my trusty Dremel. The bit used has a sort of sphere thingy at the end and is apparently designed for purposes like this.
- At the end of the groove I drilled a small hole and inserted a piece of paper clip to be that part of the mechanism that holds the string.
- On the bottom of the stock I glued on another, shorter rod, and then used a sanding tool to shape it more like a crossbow stock.
- At the end of the stock I glued on a piece of 1 mm thick plasticard, extending 15 mm out on either side.
- I then cout out another piece of plasticard, 10 mm longer than the first, and trimmed the ends to provide something to attach the string to.
- The string is made from thin wire (0.5 mm thick or thereabout). It turned out to break easily if twised too much, so I just did the minimal amount of twisting (around the end of a pair of clippers) and I'll add a bit of GS later to make it seem more secure. I measured the length (60 mm) and then bent it in the middle.
- To make the second layer of plasticard bend more easily, I poured some boiling water in a cup and held the strip there for about half a minute. I then glued it on outside the first strip, bending it back so I could string it and glued the string in place.
- The outer layer of plasticard is the same length as the inner and was also heated before being clued into place. I also added a pair of smaller plasticard bitz to the end of the second layer, to make it more of a groove for the string.
- The bolt is as mentioned above a Night Goblin spear with the fastenings for the spear head trimmed down a bit (they were originally a bit long). I had planned to add fletchings to it, but it looks like the ogre's hand will cover that part.
- To make it seem a bit more viscious (vicious? silly language...) I decided to add a pair of blades, so the hunter could stab people with it after he had shot them. The look is inspired by the Two Towers' Uruk crossbows and consists of another scrap of pine rod (this time only 2 mm thick) and two orc swords.

I have just roughly shaped the hand at the moment, flattening out a piece of GS to have the appropriate thickness and lengt and then wrapping it around the stock (I had originally intended for him to hold around the trigger, but dropped the idea as it would be more fiddly). I then used my knife to define the space between the middle and ring fingers, before doing the same with the two other spaces. I glued the arm (from a plastic Bull) into place and left it to harden.


Working on the shoulder and removing the gnobbo took ages (partially due to having to cool the model every few minutes), but I got him off without sacrificing more than his legs ("Oh, they look tasty. He doesn't need those, does he?" quote one orc in TTT). I used GS to resculpt the collar and add a bit of fur to cover up the rest of the mess on his shoulder.


Getting the sword hilt off was no more fun than getting the gnoblar off, but it took a little less time. I had originally intended for there to be two loops of the whip on either side of his hand, but there wasn't really enough space, so there is only one loop above the hand, which means that the whip coils in a rather odd way, but I hope no-one will notice.


The gut plate swap proved to be as easy as I had anticipated.


Another thing I discovered is that Louise's daylight lamp is great to provide light when taking pictures. I'm particularly happy about that, since it has always been a problem for me to get the light right.

Work will continue either tonight or tomorrow, adding more GS to the hand and whip and adding a quiver of bolts and possibly a hunting spear or two.

February 7.
Ha! A Solid Victory for Gymir.

I must admit that I did some silly mistakes in that battle, but my brother's crappy dice rolling when it counted the most (I don't think he passed a single rally test, and barely managed to dispel anything), meant that I got the upper hand.

My first mistake was getting the choice of table sides and then choosing the crowded one for no actual reason. That meant I had to split my forces into three parts. The right-most part did okay (four Bulls and two 'belchers took out a unit of 20 Saurus Warriors while giving up no VPs themselves), but my Butcher was once again a bit out of place, having only one nearby unit to boost. He did manage to knock out a lot of skinks, though (they were a high priority target).

Of course, it didn't help that when my Butcher tried to get over to my left flank, he walked into an "All that glitters is Gold!" encounter marker (stupid, stupid!) and was removed from the table.

My left flank was doing okay-ish, but a crappy flee roll from my Gnoblars meant I couldn't get more than two Bulls in contact with his Cavalry and when they failed to do any damage at all they lost the combat and got run down.

The centre was a bit of a mess half way through the game, with progressively nastier units charging each other, with doomed units choosing to flee. In the end his General's Saurus unit charged my General's Ironguts (whos Trollguts spell he continued to fail to dispel, much to my amusement).  His champion had been splatted by a lucky Scrappy shot in round two (the only thing it killed in the whole game), and so his General had no option but to accept my General's challenge. The Scar-Veteran got to strike first, but even with the Portent of Far (re-roll 1s to hit and to wound) he failed to even hit Gymir and got splatted in return. The Ironguts continued by Regenerating three out of the four wounds he caused and killed seven Saurus Warriors, breaking the unit.

In the following turns I mopped up his centre, while the remains of his right flank harassed my Scrappy and eventually drove it off the table.

Since I had killed his General (he got a Hand Injury and -1 WS when he rolled for injury), I got a whooping 5 Glory in my first battle. This not only gives me more Hero, Special and Rare slots, but also a roll on the Advancement table, where I got the option of +1 Strength or one Strength skill. Lots of nice things there, so what should I choose:

a) +1 Strength
b) Killing blow - The character gains the Killing blow ability when using a mundane close-combat weapon.
c) Master Strike - Models hit by the character suffer an additional –2 to their armour saves (-3 if they have less WS than the character).
d) Mighty blow - The character may choose at the start of each Combat phase any number of attacks to give up. Each attack given up gives him +1 S for that phase.
e) Resilient - All non-magical close combat attacks that hit the character suffer a –1 Strength penalty.
f) Strongman - When using a weapon that would normally make him strike last, the character strikes at Initiative 3.


Ah, I want them all. What to choose, what to choose?
I must admit that Resilient (effectively taking Gymir up to T7) is very tempting, as is bumping him up to S6 (in which case he could take an Ironfist instead of his usual Great weapon, perhaps).

I am a big fan of killing blow... but it would probobly be a bit of a waste.... so go for resiliant or +1 str! they are the best two by far!

I might go for Resilient, just because casting Toothcracker on him will be hilarious. Best Toughness in the game.


In other news I'm really excited about the new starter box minis we are seeing pictures of these days and I've already agreed a swap with a local dwarf player. More greenies for me (as if I don't have enough already :wink: )

I think Strongman sounds pretty wicked, but are you using a great weapon? Other wise, yeah, resiliant would be very cool.

good work with the hunter Avian, can't wait to see the tyrant!

I think Strongman sounds pretty wicked, but are you using a great weapon? Other wise, yeah, resiliant would be very cool.

So far it's been GW, HA and Jade Lion (plus Mawseeker, which I'm stuck with for the campaign). Strongman would be helpful if I end up bogged down in combat, which I hope not to be.

Anyway, here is my army list for yesterday's battle:

Gymir Mawseeker (Bruiser)
- GW, HA, Jade Lion, Mawseeker
- started off on his own so as not to slow the unit down if he failed his Stupidity test, then joined Ironguts in round 3

Hlolf Goredigger (Butcher)
- 2 Tooth Gnoblars (completely forgot), Bangstick
- on his own, but went off to dig for gold (da git!)

4 Bulls
- AWH, Bellower

4 Bulls
- IF, Full command

4 Bulls
- AHW, Full command

4 Ironguts
- Full command, War banner

30 Gnoblar Fighters
- Groinbiter

30 Gnoblar Fighters
- Groinbiter

30 Gnoblar Fighters
- Groinbiter

13 Trappers
- Snarefinger

2 Leadbelchers
- Bellower

Scraplauncher


I have a battle against the Vampire Counts on Thursday and though I have no more points than I currently have, I can now include 3 Heroes, 3 Special units and 1 Rare unit. I'm contemplating swapping the Ironguts for Maneaters (the dead don't shoot) and reducing the Bulls a bit (the champs are just there to spend points, since I lack Core ogres) to get more Leadbelchers.

Concerning the 'belchers, they actually got to fire twice this battle, since the opponent hung back. The first time the pair of them fired, they got 18 shots and killed 3 Saurus Warriors. The second time they shot they got 4 shots and killed 2 Saurus Warriors.
Oh, well.

February 10.
Another victory for Gymir, yet it feels like a defeat. Why? For one thing, I was only about 80 pts away from a Solid Victory, which would have meant that we conquered the territory. Secondly, I don't think I played very well and thirdly my army list wasn't very good.

Starting with the last part, I had now swapped two Bulls for two more 'belchers (which ended up doing nothing), giving me two units of 3 Bulls with a bellower (one with AHW, one with IF), one unit of 4 Bulls with AHW and full command, 4 Ironguts with FC and War banner and two pairs of 'belchers.

I can blame the not-too-great list on not having played much against Vampire Counts, thus forgetting that Spirit Hosts are great against Ogres. Had I remembered this, I would have swapped all my 'belchers for three Werewolves (Yhetees) and gone through those ghosts like Skrag the Slaughterer through a Halfling garden party.
As it was, I charged in with my 'guts, hoping that their War Banner and good US would wear them down, something that failed to happen since they had 4 Wounds each and a BSB nearby. Aargh!

One good thing that happened was my Gorger showing up at the right moment, and holding his Black Knights up for most of the game, so that my largest Bull unit had time to chew their way through a unit of skellies*  and flank the knights. It's a shame he didn't manage to finish off the Wight Lord, though.

In the end I only lost the Gorger and the Scrappy (which again failed a Panic test on its paltry Ld of 5), while taking out slightly less than half his army.

I can blame some of it on bad luck though, not managing to dispel a single Invocation of Nehek all through the game and fluffing some critical to-hit rolls.
Oh well, at least I get a +10 initiative bonus to follow up on that invasion next turn (though it's not too tempting) and Gymir got a point of Glory while my opponent got none.


Beaking around the game store, I came across a pack of old Warmaster Ogres, which I thought might look good as an invasion marker for my army. I asked the manager how much he wanted for it and he said I could have it for £2, which was quite a good offer. I will add a couple of gobbos from the O&G command set which I bought ages ago to represent gnobbos and paint it up for next meeting.


Getting home, I was too beat to do much work on my Hunter, but I did draw some Encounter markers which can be printed out and used in the campaign. Will see if I can't get them online...


And here we have the luvverly new map:



* he had 5 units of 20 skellies, 4 Spirit Hosts, 9 Black Knights with a Wight Lord BSB and a Necromancer General, not what I had expected

February 13.
I got some more time to spend on my Hunter and thus more green stuff was added. I'm not going to say that sculpting the right hand has proved to be more difficult than I imagined, but that is only because I imagined it to be pretty damn difficult, which it is.
Oh well, eventually it will look good.

I have also added more details to the crossbolt-thrower, by adding padding to the stock, a trigger and a bit of GS where the string is wrapped around the bow. I'll cut up some thin plastic rod and make rivets to make it more realist, and then some more rivets to make it look ogre-made.

To represent the Werewolf ("Greyback") pelt, I crawed out a plastic wolf's head (including removing the lower jaw) and then glued it onto his left upper arm, adding GS to make up fur and a few dreadlocks, so it would look more like a werewolf's head and less like a normal wolf's.

I'm considering adding a horn pushed through the skink of his skalp (his head is mostly shaved, so this should work well). It should be easy enough, but I'll have to test it with Blu-tack first to make sure it doesn't look too unrealistic.

February 14.
Just a quick note; I have been told that the DIY store just a couple of hundred meters away is giving away slightly damaged MDF board, which is great for my gaming table project.


I also believe I forgot to mention my plan for the remaining Warmaster Ogres: Ogre Kids!
Glue them onto 20 mm bases and count them as Trappers.
(Of course, the proportions are all wrong for children, and in any case it's a rather silly idea, so I doubt I will actually do it, but it was funny there and then. )


EDIT: My bitz order has arrived in Oslo. It should be here in a few days.

And I have passed a thousand view on this thread. Go me!

February 15.
Sculpting continues on the Hunter and his right hand is finally beginning to look okay. I haven't decided whether to add finger nails or not - I doubt anyone will notice and it's another chore.

I have also added more details to the crossbolt-thrower and it looks much better than the plain version you see in the WIP picture. Added rivets were made from slices of a night goblin spear and arrow, giving two different sizes.

Having decided to add a horn (taken from a Dwarf helmet) pushed through his scalp, I must say that the result looks okay and I'll probably add another through the skin of his chest.

Now I'll just add a little bit more details and then glue the right arm on. After that I'll add a hunting spear or two (made from orc spears and some wooden rods), as well as an arrow quiver and some other details.

February 16.
The Hunter is nearly ready to paint. I added the final details to his right hand and crossbow yesterday, glued it on and sculpted fur over the join. I also added some more details, but when I realised I had inadvertedly squashed the fur I had just sculpted I figured I'd let it rest over night and let it harden before I did more work on it.

February 17.
I've finally got the map script up and running. Go me!


Round 1

February 20.
Hurrah! My Hunter is ready to paint!

I did the last fiddling on him this weekend, adding a couple of hunting spears (each made from a piece of bamboo barbeque skewer, an orc spear tip and a spike from the same kit) to his back (made a sort of holster for them out of GS, not sure how it would work in real life, but hopefully nobody cares) and a quiver with two spare bolts for his crossbow. '

The quiver was made from a piece of balsa wood, which is easy to shape, with a bit of GS added to represent leather and a couple of slices of plastic rod as rivets. The two bolts were made from orc spear hafts (left over from making the spears), to which I added small bits of plasticard to be fletchings. Onto the visible surfaces* of the fletchings I then added a very thin layer of GS, into which I scored lines to give the impression of feathers or whatever ogres use for fletchings.
(It should be mentioned that I haven't added fletchings to the bolt already loaded, mostly due to having already sculpted the hand over that area already. :wink: )

I had thought about adding a bear trap hanging from his belt but dropped the idea because 1) there wasn't enough room between the spears and quiver, and 2) the model doesn't have a belt**.


*each of the two bolts have two fletchings, each of which have two surfaces, but only three of those eight surfaces are visible unless you turn the model upside down. Work saved!

** ok, so he has a belt beneath the coat, but that is only visible for about 5mm on the front of the model, space where I'd already hung a skull.


Next war meeting today.

February 21.
A quick pic of my Hunter, just before he's off to be painted (probably no time until next week, though). Sadly a bit blurry and not too well lighted (I was in a hurry).




We got another two players join the campaign yesterday (High and Wood Elves - booo!), so now we are ten, which is a lot better than the previous eight. This means an expansion of the map, but I didn't have time to take a pic before I had to run for the bus yesterday and I left the map at the club instead of bringing it with me (stupid!), so the updated version won't be up until wednesday next week.

EDIT: Ok, I did a temporary version until I get a proper, new picture. You can see that the Black players are attacking from off the map. :wink:


Anyway, the Yellows are definitely picking on us (and one of the Blacks), and all of our little colony territories out in the west are under attack. Meanwhile I have sent 600 pts of Ogres off to join Andreas' Empire against the Orcs (so we have a good chance of taking that territory) and Gymir is off to raid the neighbouring Blues.

Annoyingly, one game was not played until yesterday right before the meeting and two battles are still not played (I was assured they'll be played this week), so we are a bit behind schedule.
Argh, slow people!


And I'm still waiting for my bitz!  
EDIT: Ulrik hasn't sent them yet. That explains things. Oh, well...


I've been thinking about my gaming table (i.e. getting one) and I have decided that when I get one, it should match the bases of my ogre army (brownish-grey) instead of green and then I'll make terrain to fit. It would then be a Badlands / Darklands table. Examples of terrain would be making a forest of dead trees (textured bent wire), swamps, tangled scrub, etc, etc.

February 22.
Yay, I got a heap of bretonnian bitz from my team mate Andreas, including some dead small animals which I'll add to my Trappers.


Lacking time to actually paint anything until next Tues.... Wedn... Thursday (damn!) I have been thinking more about my painting schedule.

I have divided my army creation into three steps, though there are overlaps.
Batch 1 - Establishing the army (I already had 11 ogres and the parts for a giant, to which I added a battalion box and a second box of gnobbos. Not much in the way of converting at this stage)
Batch 2 - Replacing proxies (having gotten a decent amount of games in, I set about replacing some proxy models with special conversions. Everything at this stage is unique)
Batch 3 - Expanding the army (at this stage I add more rank and file models, buying a second battalion box and possibly a Butcher to convert a Slaughtermaster).


Currently the schedule is thus:
Early march: Paint Hunter (Batch 2) + finish painting Slave Giant (Batch 1)
Late march: Convert and paint Gorger (Batch 2)
Early april: Convert and paint Scraplauncher (Batch 2)
Late april: Convert and paint Tyrant (Batch 2)
Early may: Convert and paint two more Werewolves (Batch 2)

Of course, everything is approximate and the order is largely decided by which proxies look decent enough as it is (ex: I'm currently using an Irongut champion model as my General and that's less of a proxy than using a Bull Rhinox as a Scrappy).



EDIT: One poster sent me a PM asking how I take pictures of my minis. Here is how:
(note that I am not an expert and I have learned mainly by trial and error - mostly error)

I use a fairly standard digicam (borrowed from my brother). I have tried using the "close-up" setting, but in my experience using the normal setting works just as well, but you need more distance to the model to get a good focus.

To get good pictures you need good lighting. I have found that a daylight lamp that my girlfriend has gives the best light, though failing that a decent desk lamp or two will do. Something I did in the beginning and I've now found to be a big mistake is to use both a normal light bulb and a fluorescent lamp at the same time. That gave very odd colours. Place the lamp at a 45 degree angle to the line between the camera and the model and try not to get too much shadow.

For background I use a large sheet of white paper. I tape the top of the sheet to the wall behind my desk and the bottom of the sheet to the desk. This gives a good curve and avoids a cluttered background.

To avoid blurry pictures, lean the camera onto something - some books, the back of a chair, etc. Merely holding it in your hands will generally give you a shaky picture. Using a tripod and a timer will probably give you the best results, but I don't have a timer.

Having transferred the pics to my PC, I usually cut out the interesting parts (there is often more dull, white background than you want) and scale it down to a more appropriate size using a program called PhotoImpact. If the colours are off I also do my best to correct this using the options in that program.

The pics are then uploaded to my home area on the university web server, and then I link to them using [img]web adress of picture[/img]

February 28.
A vital game tonight, as I defend our Coastal Stronghold, the capital of our little western colony against the marauding Dwarf fleet. I really have to avoid a Solid loss, or we'll lose all benefits from our colony territories.

I haven't decided on an exact army list yet, but since we're down to 1650 pts, it'sll most likely be a version of last battle's list, with a few things left out.  I'll probably drop the Scrappy (the dwarfs have cannons, high toughness and good armour, all of which makes it less useful) and possibly use a larger unit of 'belchers as well as some Werewolves again*.


On friday I'm battling a new HE player and on monday I'm raiding the skaven. That will only be a 1050 pt battle and I have considered an "army" consisting of Gymir, a BSB joining a single unit of 8 Maneaters. That will probably make it almost impossible for the opponent to gain any VPs, but I fear it will be too easy for him to gain a lot of VPs by contesting table quarters and I do need some kind of victory to gain anything.


* ok, so they've almost never done any good, but as with all crappy units, if you don't use 'em for a while you forget how crappy they are.

March 1.
Another Solid Victory for Gymir against the stunted ones.

I used the following list:

Gymir (Bruiser)
-Mawseeker, Jade Lion, GW; HA

Olf (Hunter)
-Longstrider, 2 Daemon Hounds

4 Bulls
-AHW, Bellower

4 Bulls
-IF, Bellower

4 Bulls
-AHW, Standard, Bellower

4 Ironguts
-FC, War Banner

24 Gnobbos

23 Gnobbos

10 Trappers

10 Trappers

3 'belchers
-Bellower

1 Gorger


He had a Thane, BSB, three BIG infantry units (25-30) of Warriors, Longbeards and Hammerers, two units of 10 Thunderers and two cannons with some upgrades.


I started off suffering from some bad luck, the Trapper skirmish screen that would protect my expensive units from his Quarrelers ("Oh, so those crossbow-armed models are Thunderers? Thanks for telling me.") of course Bickered in the first turn (if I knew he only had 24" range I would never have deployed them there) and my Leadbelcher salvo went completely wrong, only 1 model was within range and naturally he got a Misfire and caused 4 wounds on his own unit.

Other things went better. My Gorger took out one cannon and a Bull unit got the other before it did too much damage and I managed to more or less neutralise the Thunderers (though I lost the remaining 'belchers and the Hunter, so it was not exactly a good trade).

Most importantly my 'guts and General got to his lines without even getting shot at and managed to clobber his Warrior unit and kill his General (He refused my General's challenge, but the Gut Lord and one other Irongut splatted him), who then had to roll on the injury table and got captured - he now adorns my PC monitor.

I did a few silly things this battle and would probably have been better off with more Bulls and a Butcher than a Hunter and 'belchers, but I got a Solid and 3 Glory at least. The Gnobbos did good, holding three table quarters and two objectives for me.


In somewhat less good news Andreas only got a Draw against the White Orc army, even though he had 550 pts more than his opponent. It seems that he is not as good a player as I had hoped, but I'll try to insist on him playing more aggressively (his Knights keep getting charged by infantry) and hopefully things will go better.


My gaming table plan is put on ice for the moment - I'll have to use the workroom down in the basement and working in an unheated room when it's around -15 degrees C is a bit too unpleasant.
Apart from that my plan is to buy a 4 x 8' fibreboard and cut it into two 4 x 4' parts. That makes the whole thing drastically less complicated (one connection between boards instead of 3), the plan being to simply add some ... what'sitcalled ... thin wooden boards on the underside and then use wooden pins and a simple latch mechanism to hold them together.

March 2.
My table plans being put on hold for the moment, I have decided to start the castle building project instead (this will be for the local gaming club, not for myself) and went looking for some textured wallpaper (the white type you are supposed to paint). I did find a type that resembled FB-scale mortared stone, but they were out. Will return next week.

Instead I picked up some colour samples for my table - annoyingly enough the selction of dirty brownish-greys are rather slim. We shall see.


Battle against the High Elves of the Black realm tomorrow. Never played against the guy before or even seen him play, so I have no idea what type of army he'll be going for. I guess I'll go for a rather standard army, ditching the Hunter for a Butcher after his miserable performance in the face of enemy firepower.

March 3.
For my army today I plan to take about the same as I did last time, only swapping the 'belchers for a scrappy, the Hunter for a Butcher and the second Trapper unit for a third Fighter unit. Spare points go to beefing up the Bulls and/or Fighters.


EDIT: I decided to only drop one Belcher, reasoning that a unit of those would be better than a third Fighter unit and a heap of bitty upgrades. List will be thus:

Gymir Mawseeker (Bruiser)
-GW, HA, Mawseeker, Jade Lion

Hlulf Goredigger (Butcher)
-Bangstick

4 Bulls
-AHW, Bellower

4 Bulls
-IF, Bellower

4 Bulls
-AHW, Standard, Bellower

4 Ironguts
-FC, War Banner

25 Gnobbos

25 Gnobbos

10 Trappers
-Snarefinger

2 'belchers
-Bellower

1 Scraplauncher

1 Gorger

March 5.
Gymir wins again! Another Solid victory to add to his long list of victories (I don't know how long that list actually is, but I know for a fact that I have only lost 5 times with my ogres in total, so it's got to be pretty long)

This time it was the Gnobbos who saved the day. I had to set up first in the centre of the table (where there was a lot of buildings, and my High Elf opponent could deploy on either or both sides. I quickly realised that I had messed up my deployment when he concentrated nearly all his units on one side and my units on the other side were set up with a difficult way over to where the action was.

So basically one Bull unit, my Ironguts and one unit of Gnobbos was facing his entire army (and the Bulls were quickly blown away). I pushed the Gnobbos forward and hoped to buy myself time. He flank charged them with 3 Silver Helms, but as luck would have it the knights only killed 1 gnobbo (though the horses killed 2 more, as normal) and the gnobbos killed one knight in return. Only lose combat by 1 they passed their Break test with Gymir close by. They actually stayed in the combat for two more player turns, buying me enough time to get my 'belchers up. Getting 20 shots off in total, they blasted four of the knights in his Commander's unit too bloody shreds. The Commander and standard bearer charged Gymir's Ironguts, and though the Commander did 2 Wounds on Gymir with his Foe Bane (Wound on 2+ vs. 3+ Wound models), he was smashed to a pulp in return and so was the last knight.

My guys followed up into his Swordmasters and slaughtered them, panicing some nearby Spearmen (much to the disappointment of my Gorger, who once again had only just gotten into combat with a nice big unit before his enemies ran away screaming).

With another unit of Silver Helms decimated by an irresistible Bonecruncher and the Archer units beat up by my Scrappy and one surviving 'belcher (that combat actually lasted four rounds, with the Archers losing by 1 most rounds but staying in the combat. The same happened on the rather peaceful other flank, where a unit of 25 Gnobbos were fighting against some Shadow Warriors they just couldn't break (though they got them down to half strength).

This battle was odd in that the Bulls did nearly nothing, apart from getting shot and zapped (I managed to dispel Fury of Khaine ONE measly time - my opponent consistently rolled above average to cast, below average for the number of wounds but above average again when rolling to wound, I would have much preffered it the other way around) and my Gnobbos did a lot, but with a Solid win and 5 Glory for Gymir I'm not complaining.

Those extra Glory gave him a second Advancement roll which turned out to be -yet again - +1 Strength or a Strength skill.

Seeing that Resilient (effectively +1 T in combat) turned out the be rather dull, I want to go for +1 S this time. That means I could swap my Great weapon for an Ironfist and have 5 S6 attacks with a -3 save modifier, 4 S6 attacks with a -4 save modifier or 4 S6 attacks with a -3 save modifier and a 3+ armour save.

I have to decide before tomorrow afternoon, when I'm raiding the Clan Moulder Skaven next door, so if you think that any of the following would be better, let me know:

- Killing blow.
The character gains the Killing blow ability when using a mundane close-combat weapon.
- Master strike.
Models hit by the character suffer an additional –2 to their armour saves (-3 if they have less WS than the character).
- Mighty blow.
The character may choose at the start of each Combat phase any number of attacks to give up. Each attack given up gives him +1 S for that phase.
- Strongman.
When using a weapon that would normally make him strike last, the character strikes at Initiative 3.



As I was out walking with my honeybunny, I also came across a patch of slate (luckily there seemed to have been a small earth slide there recently, everything else is covered in snow), which could look nice on the bases of my models (my Gorger, for example, if Ulrik ever gets moving and sends me my bitz!).

March 6.
I'm battling the Skaven of Clan Moulder today in a raid on one of their homeland territories (he gets reduced to the same amount of points as me (from 1925 to 1050 in this case), but the result gets shifted three steps in his favour, so Im playing for a victory of some sort, in which case I'll raze his territory.
I haven't quite decided on a list, but I think I'll give my Hunter another try, as well as giving my Maneaters their first outing this season.

Andreas will also have a game against my brother and I'm more concerned that he'll get completely squished by the scaly ones.

March 7.
Aaaaargh, my team mate Andreas is proving to be more of a git than I first suspected.
"Well, if those Free Companies are out of charge range I'm going home!"
"If I can't re-roll Artillery dice with the Second Sign then I'm going home!"
And then he actually spent ten minutes insisting that his opponent roll for his spells first and then getting really worked up when he refused to do this. Half the time he was insisting that everybody would do things his odd ways and refusing to do it any other way, all the while complaining about how he was losing, how the GW games designers should be deported and/or shot* and how his people had been mistreated ("You're norwegian like the rest of us", we argued).
Oh, cruel fates! Why have you lumbered me with such an immature fucking wanker?



In other news, I played a draw against the Clan Moulder army, which - considering that this was a Raid - gained me nothing beyond the 2 Glory for splatting his General with my General.
I must admit that I was too reckless, barging in with my General and accompanying Maneaters. They whupped some slaves, but a 3 for pursuit set them up for a flank charge and on the third attempt they failed their Stubborn test and got run down (damn! at least Gymir only got -2 Initiative), though at least my General splatted his before that happened and Thomas' Master Moulder got Thaumaphobia (refuses to carry magic items, which is understandable since he failed all 3 Ward saves he attempted).

Oh, well, -2 In isn't so bad and with his 2 extra Glory he now has 15 (I have decided to give 1 to my Senior Officer) and his third Advancement roll became +1 WS, BS & In (thus he ended up at In2). His stats are now effectively (with AHW):

Gymir Mawseeker the Nervous
M: 6, WS: 6, BS: 4, S: 6, T: 7, W: 4, I: 2, A: 5, Ld: 8
Cause Fear, Stupid



EDIT: I have finally gotten the new map up and running, though now of course I have to adjust all the coordinates (about 77 pix down and 8 to the right), since the map is bigger. Argh!



* not neccesarily in that order

March 10.
Not much time for working on the models lately, though I have done a tiny bit of work on my campaign marker (filed down the pointy hoods on the Night goblins so they'll look like gnobbos and then realise I don't have any GS left to enlarge their noses and ears).

What I have done is start work on the campaign rules for this autumn. Seeing as the map campaign rules now work quite well, it is time to try something else. The idea is to have a sort of Mordheim campaign where the players take control of small-time gangs in the Border Princes out to make it big by enganging in various criminal* activities.



And I have the nice, new map for Round 2 all updated too:



* ok, so there is no law, but you get the idea

March 11.
Our little castle building project will kick off tomorrow, with the outlining of the basic shapes and cutting out the bases (I'll buy a large sheet of fibreboard (or whatever it's called in english) later today) and walls, for which we'll use corrugated cardboard with glued on textured wallpaper and thick card to make it more visually pleasing.

Details, like parapets and windows will be cast in plaster (hopefully some friends of mine will let us borrow the moulds) and then glued on.

My basic idea is to start with a basic square shape - four towers and four wall sections, one of which has a gate. I made a gate for an orc fort I started on some time ago out of wood with hinges made from thick aluminum foil and that worked quite well, so I might use the same method here.


And Ulrik has finally sent my bitz, so they should be here on monday.

March 13.
We have started work on the castle, having cut out the bases for the sections and started assembling the walls.
The bases are (as mentioned above) made from fibreboard, which I got at 50% off at a DIY store because it was slightly damaged. It will also provide bases for any other terrain we'll build.

To cut out the bases I thought I'd use a saw, so I went down to the basement, where the late husband of the little old lady upstairs had a DIY room, thinking that everybody who has a DIY room has a standard, normal saw.
Wrong!
(Or at least, if he did have a normal saw, I couldn't find it.)
Eventually I found a saw in the garage which was not too bad, but which was probably more suited to cutting up firewood than precision cutting of terrain pieces. It worked, but we had to do some sanding with my Dremel afterwards.

Oh, well.

The plan is to make the walls 10 cm high, 30 cm long and 6 cm across, making them plausably high and wide enough for two models to fit on the top. The plaster bricks we'll use to make the ramparts are 1/2 " high, which is an annoying height (if we make the ramparts one row high it will reach most models to the waist, and if we make it two rows high it will reach them to the neck) and we'll probably fix it by making them two rows high and then gluing on a strip of corrugated cardboard on top of the wall inside the ramparts to give models on the wall something to stand on.

I'll see if I can't find some plaster powder, textured wallpaper and thick card today.


Late as always I remembered that I was going to cut up some foam rubber to make transporting the campaign markers easier (I currently transport them in a box filled with puffed rice), thus I didn't have time to finish the job before the War Meeting tonight. Well started is half done, at least.

I would probably had more time, if I hadn't tried to finish my army marker for the campaign at the same time. Using GS to enlargen the ears and nose on a 1cm tall Goblin so he'll look more like a Gnobbo is not much fun, let me tell you that.


My bitz should arrive today!

March 14.
So many exciting things happening. Louise wondered if I was bored the other day, but I just couldn't decide what to do.

I got my bitz (7 scrappy gnobbos, 1 trapper and most of the bitz needed for a gorger) and I'm really looking forward to doing some more conversions (just this moring I balanced the two scraplauncher gnobbos hauling up stuff on top of the coffee jar, they looked very sweet and I must get a photo).
The Gorger (most recent Scyla) was a bit smaller than I had hoped, but it's no biggie. I'm undecided on how much to alter on the basic model. The head will be a replacement, the tail will be removed and I plan to add some bones pushed through the skin, but I haven't decided whether to do something more advanced or not.


I stopped by the paint store again and asked for that textured wallpaper they'd said they'd get back in stock some time last week. They said come back on wednesday, the gits.
At least I got some carton and some decent quality plaster powder. I'd been warned that if the plaster chips it would leave little white spots all over the castle, so I asked if you could mix paint in the plaster and that was indeed possible, so I'll add black to make it a dark grey. That should mean I avoid the problem with chipping and save time on painting, since I'll only need to highlight the thing.


War meeting went well. People seem to be ganging up on black, which is fine by me (that's what you get if you are nice players, everybody invades you so they'll have someone pleasant to fight). I had Andreas send me 600 pts of reinforcements, and I hope we might achieve something. The battle will probably be held next week and that's the only battle for me this round.
Will update the map tomorrow.

I managed to sell the Dwarf General back for 5 resources, with Helge being a bit upset with me for going behind his back and offering his general for sale to the Blue realm, who'd sacrifice him. Being a nice guy, it made me feel a bit bad. Oh, well, I hope he'll see the humour of it eventually.


The Wårcon tournie is coming up this weekend, with the last frantic activity going on. Helge and I will go out and look for prizes on Thursday. I'm not sure if I'm even able to field 2500 pts of Ogres, so it might be Orcs & Goblins for me (though as the organizer I might not get to play at all, not that I mind, since I'm not a tournament player at heart).


Fiddling around with the "Gangs of New Lyonesse" rules is also fun.

that's all good, Avian, but a few of us are following this diary mostly for the pics of your fantastic army! When are the hinter and the slavegiant finished? I've been whaiting for finished slavegiant pics since december 14, Man, that's 25% of a year!

Well, the good news is that Louise has bought herself a digicam, which means that I should be able to post lots of pics without needing to borrow my brother's cam.
The bad news is that she hasn't bought a memory card yet.
The other bad news is that I don't have much time to paint at the moment.
The third piece of bad news is that converting a Gorger is a lot more fun than painting a Slave Giant.

There should be some time either tonight or tomorrow, though. I'm hoping to enter the Big Models category at the tournie with either the Giant or the Rhinox, so that might convince me to put some more work into it and there is not much left to do - a little highlighting and some work on the base.

ok, I can whait then, cool!

March 16.
I have finished my Slave Giant. As I suspected there was little left to do; his nails (yellowish-grey), the bird's nest and squirrel in the tree, the snotling handler and the base. I did a bit of work last night and then got up early* and finished it. I'm quite pleased and I hope to win a prize at the tournie (we bought some nice brushes for the "best painted" awards, which I could need).
Pics when my honeybunny buys a memory card.


The tournie starts tomorrow (well, actually the tournie itself starts on saturday, but the event starts tomorrow) and I hope I might be able to field a 2500 pt Ogre army without too many proxies (Bull Rhinox as Scrappy, Werewolf as Gorger**).
I just hope it goes all right, I actually had a nightmare about rules lawyers from Oslo making trouble. What is it with Oslo-players anyway?


* well, earlier than Louise, anyway, which is rare enough in itself
** Louise wondered what a Gorger was, so I showed her the entry in the army book. She now likes Ogres even less than before (though she thinks Gnobbos are sweet), the big meanies

who is Louise?

Louise is my girlfriend. We live together in one appartment* of an odd, old(ish) house also populated by a little old lady with bad hearing, a lesbian couple I can't remember the names of and two other women we never see and rarely hear.

Louise is very sweet and I love her dearly.

She is also studying to be a psychologist, which means that she'll one day get a real job, as opposed to me, who studies history.



* The house seems to have been infrequently redorated by the owner who is apparently colour blind and has ten thumbs (we had a flooding in the bathroom the other day because a the water hose from the washing machine came loose and the damn floor slopes away from the drain).

March 17.
I have startet experimenting with casting little bricks in plaster and it's great fun!
I did a couple of mistakes, though.

The tip I got from the guy I borrowed the mould from was to put the plaster powder with some water in a glass jar and shake it to get a good mix. That did not work well, especially when paint was added, so I swapped to using a plastic cup and stirring with a chopstick. I drew a line on the outside of the cup to find out how much powder was needed to cast all the little blocks in one tray, so I wouldn't need to guess each time.
To this I added a bit of black paint, to get a nice, grey color all through the block.
I found it was easiest to mix the plaster so it was rather runny, about the consistency of paint. Thicker than that and it gets difficult to pour.

Having poured the plaster into the mould, you wait for 5 - 10 minutes and then scrape off any excess plaster, so you get a flat side to the blocks. The first time I cast the stuff I left and only returned after one and a half hours and by that time it was rock solid. Luckily I only cast up four little blocks that time, so it's no great loss and I can test gluing on those.

After an hour or so the plaster is solid enough to remove from the mould and I've heard you can speed up the process but putting the mould in the oven at 100 degrees C with the door open for "a while" (I haven't tried this yet, so I don't have an exact length).



Tournament day today! Yay! Will report on how it went on monday. If anyone wants to take a look at the scenario pack, it can be downloaded from her, though parts of it are in norwegian.



In less than good news, my team-mate is starting to freak out people with his talk of how people are capitalists and should be shot and several people now just want to avoid him all together.  

March 20.
Tournament is over and done with and it ran quite smoothly with 30 participants, which is close to a new record. As the organizer, I got to fight only 4 out of 5 battles, against the Empire (draw), Skaven (Massacre in my favour), Tomb Kings (draw) and Lizardmen (draw).

My list was thus (made in a hurry and thus not really optimal):

Tyrant
-Tenderiser, Necklace, Jade Lion, HA, Luck Gnobbo

Butcher
-Bangstick, Scroll, 2 Tooth Gnobbos

Butcher
-Skullmantle, Laurels, 2 Tooth Gnobbos

Bruiser
-Battle standard, HA


5 Bulls
-AWH, Standard, Bellower

7 Bulls
-IF, LA, Standard, Bellower

4 Ironguts
-Full command, War Banner

30 Gnobbo Fighters

30 Gnobbo Fighters

10 Trappers


2 Leadbelchers
-Bellower

2 Leadbelchers
-Bellower

Scraplauncher

Slave Giant

Gorger



How things went:

My Tyrant did well, dying after a suicidal charge after his unit got shot up by a Hellblaster in game 1. In game 2 he did nothing special, but my opponent conceded when his unit got into action, so it's not all bad. In game 3 his unit held after losing by 6(!) to a combined flank and rear charge by chariots and a scorpion. He then moved into combat and killed all the chariots. He then whupped some archers and the casket of souls, which would have created a lot of havoc had his LD9 not been present.
In the fourth game he did 8 wounds on a Kroxigor unit by himself and held order in the line. His Necklace caused 2 wounds on my General and prevented only 1, so a net loss. Jade Lion was useful a couple of times as well.

My Butchers survived all battles except the last one, where one died to a Miscast (I Miscast twice during four games) and the other died to a mix of casting too many spells and the other Butcher's miscast. Laurels on one Butcher was a mistake and should have been a second scroll. Apart from that they did very well, and vs. Skaven did me a whole lot of good in scaring away weapon teams with multiple castings of Braingobbler (something that also worked well against the Empire, silencing a bothersome cannon). Trollguts was also very nice, since three of my opponents had more magic than I did.

The BSB did very good. In the first battle his unit turned the enemy right flank, in the second he kept the Giant in the combat (essential with no Stubbornness), in the third he splatted the Hierophant (though not soon enough) and in the fourth battle he not only kept his own unit in combat with the Temple Guard through three rounds of lost combats, he contributed enough dead Lizardmen to make me win the fourth, breaking the scaly ones. He later failed to prevent a round of Panic, but at least he killed some more skinks. An item to stop hostile magic would have been nice.


The smaller Bull unit was usually joined by a Butcher and one of the fighty characters (usually my General) and did quite okay, only being reduced below half strength in the last battle (curse that Stegadon Giant bow).

The second unit also did quite well, though light armour was a mistake and did virtually nothing. I never used the fists defensively. In my first battle they got shot up by a lucky Hellblaster shot when my opponent decided he didn't want to charge me (wups!), and in the last battle they finally managed to auto-break the Temple Guard after four combat rounds (thank the Great Maw for Trollguts).'

My Ironguts got unlucky in the first round, narrowly losing to some Halberdiers thanks to that nasty Griffon Standard (doubles rank bonus). In the second round they killed some swarms and contributed to the collapse of the Skaven centre and in the third round they killed a skeleton unit and some archers. In the fourth round they fled from a Saurus Cavalry charge, but rallied and in my last turn hacked a saurus unit to bitz. Over all a good show.

My Gnobbos, well, they were cheap, didn't die too much and sometimes claimed table quarters.


The 'belchers were a bit variable. In my first battle one unit shot at what I for some reason thought was pistoliers but actually was knights (somehow the lances didn't tip me off) and then fled around a bit until they were destroyed, while the other unit fluffed a charge against a detachment and got run down. In the second round one team blasted away all the pack masters from two giant rat units, chased away some Night runners, got flanked by 3 Censer Bearers and one master-less rat pack and chased away both!
In my third battle one 'belcher managed to blast one Liche to death (my opponent thought targeting his priests was cheesy, probably because it was bad for him) before he too expired. The other team did little.
In my last battle one team got chased off straight away (blasted with magic and then the remaining belcher got Doom and Darkness cast on him, causing him to panic and never rally), while the other managed to kill some skinks and then die.

The Scrappy proved to be the biggest liability in the army, dying in three of the battles and only doing something worthwhile in one (killing half a spearman unit and two of the crew from the Hellblaster). Once he died to a S10 Warp lightning hit, once Bad-tempered got it into a hopeless charge and once some bad rolling saw it die to the Casket (died after two turns despite having Ld9). In the fourth battle it charged some saurus warriors and fluffed it's attacks, but luckily it later rallied.

The Giant was the runner-up for the biggest liability in the army, for two reasons:
1) T5 and no save what so ever.
2) The useless "Throttle with chain" attack.
Lack of stubbornness was not a biggie with the BSB close by and actually got him out of a combat where he'd otherwise have died. Against the Empire he took 3 Wounds to a cannon shot, but got off a flank charge on the Griffon Standard Halberdiers, swinging the combat 11 points in my favour (loss of 6 pts of rank bonus, 1 point for flank, 4 dead enemies). Against the skaven he threw a Clanrat champion onto a Ratling gun, which was good, stuffed two censer bearers into his pants (and throwing a third onto some giant rats), before falling over without hitting anything.
In my third battle he died due to some lucky rolling on behalf of the Tomb Swarms (5 wounds in one combat round from 10 attacks, nuts!) and in the fourth he rolled "Throttle with chain" three times in a row against Kroxes and achieved nothing while taking 5 Wounds himself. Note to self: stay away from big things.

The Gorger did not impress. In the first battle he got blown away by a long-range lucky cannon shot just as he was about to much on a Hellblaster who couldn't fire at him. In the second battle he chased down some under-achieving jezzails. In the third battle he first took 3 Wounds due to the Casket (if only I had another Scroll) and then failed to kill the Priest guarding it in combat before being killed himself. In the fourth battle I forgot him up until my last turn, which was really just as well, since he would probably have been shot by skinks anyway.

March 21.
I've started work on my Gorger, including getting him a nice, new head and a scenic base with some of the slate I found on it. He did lose his fanged tail, but that was to chaosy really.

The body is annoyingly scrawny, though (swap one Morrisson mini for another and what do you expect), and having found no better replacement in my extensive bitz collection I am tempted to bulk up the body and make him seem more deserving of T5 and 4 Wounds.

Happily he is tall enough (just very stooped, but that's okay), so it's just a matter of building up his lower body and possibly his legs with putty (I'll probably use FIMO for the basic shape and GS to add texture).

Pics no time soon!

March 22.
I've been pondering my gaming table plans for a while now and I think I might have a workable solution. Since our living room table is too small for a 8' long table, I'll have to limit myself to a 6' long one, made in three separate pieces. I found some instructions here
My plan is to do something rather similar to this, but with lower supports on the underside and not in one big piece. The top will be nailed and glued to the supports and the different sections will be joined together by some sort of clamps.


Other humorous news: One of the other people who helped organise the tournie called me last night and wondered why his big box of terrain had not been dropped off at the local game store, as he had asked us to do (he having left the tournie early and the rest of us having been left behind to put things back in order).
My reply was that since he had made his rocky terrain from actual stone nobody wanted to carry the heavy load all across midtown.
Hah!

Right, I have uploaded some stuff, though I'm not certain I got the workings of it right.


August 7.
Still no time to paint and play, but I've had more time to write tactics articles, much helped by the fact that my dearly loved desk is now placed in the living room of our new apartment, rather than in the bedroom, as it was previously.

Thus:
Misc. big stuff

Tactics for dummies


I have also made an effort to make some kind of long term storage for my models, since they tend to take up a lot of space. The first try is just a simple cardboard box, about 25 x 32 cm and 35 cm tall. I divided this into layers by cutting out cardboard rectangles which just fit inside the box (with a couple of small holes in each, so it's possible to lift them out again).
On each layer, to hold the floors up and keep the minis from getting squashed, I have added dividers, made from four "C"-shaped pieces of cardboard, placed together so that they form an angular "8" which just fits inside the box. This then leaves space for two large units or four smaller units on each layer and leaves them relatively stable, since my units are either magnetised or clamped into shelves from my carrying case.



In other news: Women are truly mysterious creatures. Louise will for example happily let me buy matresses on my own, but going shopping for a few dinner plates without her is completely out of the question.

Right, I have uploaded some stuff, though I'm not certain I got the workings of it right.

Looks pretty good so far - you might want to log in, though, makes it easier for the rest of us to follow changes ...

Cheers, Mutter

Log in? I thought I would be logged in since I was logged into the forum? Oh, well...


August 8.
A couple of more articles:

Ogre Weapon Options

Sample Ogre army lists (WIP)

(I have also updated some of the other articles a bit)

Plans for the moment is to write up some more sample army lists and then do an article on Gut Magic and one on the ogre magic items.

August 9.
Another day, another dollar*. My semi-temporary idea for storing unused minis is turning into an origami project in cardboard, but with me that is only to be expected.

I've also started working on an article on the Ogre magic items, which should be up by tomorrow.


Later, the same day:
Got the Magic item article done:
Ogre Magic Items




* I've sold the Giant Rats I got in the box when I bought the Rat Ogres for my Yhetee conversion project**.

** For rather more than a dollar.

August 11.

Another article:
Gut Magic

I've also updated the sample army lists with a few more examples and did some cleaning here and there.

August 13.
Battle tomorrow (orcs) and on thursday (chaos), so I should break out my paints and finish the Scrappy, I think.


In other news, we are starting to get a decent idea of how the greenskin book is going to be like and I dug out my two previous ones to compare. It seems that they are going more back to the 5th edition book, with the reintroduction of Spider Riders and the splitting of the squig herd into the previous two different units.

On the downside, it seems that they are going back to a more 5th edition points level, with Boar Boyz for example going up 4 pts. And they were struggling to be effective as it were.

Maybe I'll just keep using my Ogres until everyone else has had their armies adjusted to a 7th edition price level as well...

Avian, on the Herdstone you said (Well, I suppose it was you, as the member's name was Avian. He hadn't got your avatar though) but you said that characters would not be able to join monsters and Chariots in 7th edition? Does this apply to the following characters? (Join monsters):

Treeman ancients
Daemon Princes
Ogre Tyrants
Ogre Bruisers
Ogre Butchers
Oger Slaughtermasters
Chaos Doombulls
Characters on monstrous mounts (eg: Daemonic Herald on Daemon Steed)

And these? (Join Chariots):

Tomb Kings in Chariots

 - Kyte

Characters cannot join monsters at all and characters in chariots can only join chariot units. I'm not sure what you are asking with the first list...

Characters cannot join monsters at all and characters in chariots can only join chariot units. I'm not sure what you are asking with the first list...

The first list is characters, who are monsters themselves. Will this mean that ogre characters can't join ogre units?

Ogres are NOT monsters, they are specifically described as large infantry models in the new rulebook.

Ogres are NOT monsters, they are specifically described as large infantry models in the new rulebook.

You didn't mention that anywhere in the thread on the Herdstone

Why would I? Ogres weren't monsters in 6th edition, so it's not as if it's a rule change.

Why would I? Ogres weren't monsters in 6th edition, so it's not as if it's a rule change.

nah! Minotaurs and trolls were monsters, weren't they?

Ogres arn't monsters.....tomb kings in chariots can join chariot units because they are chariot UNITS.

August 15.
The most amusing thing about the battle yesterday was my opponent saying at the start of the battle that he would like to get an idea of how much his Great Shaman killed during the battle and would I like to put those models killed by him to one side?
At the end of the battle, his Great Shaman had caused two wounds on my Scraplauncher, earning him a net total of 0 VPs.

Anyway, I won quite clearly, though we only had time for four turns each. My list was something like:

Tyrant
-Tenderiser, Kineater, Thiefstone, HA

BSB
-Greatskull, HA, LOG

Butcher
- Bangstick, scroll, 2 TGs

Butcher
- Skullmantle, powerstone, 2 TGs

6 Bulls
- AHW, Std/Bell

6 Bulls
- AHW, Std/Bell

4 Ironguts
- Full command, war banner

30 Fighters

30 Fighters

8 Trappers

2 'belchers

2 'belchers

Scraplauncher

Bull Rhinox
- IF, HA

Gorger


Things got a bit congested in the centre, due to terrain and too many units, but I otherwise managed to do things mostly right. One Bull unit, Butcher #2 and my General charged his Big 'Uns and Big Boss General and my General smacked his Boss around, causing six wounds. My guys won the combat by miles, but failed to run him down and he rallied and we charged again.

This time he accepted my General's challenge with his own General (silly thing to do, considering how badly I'd whupped his Boss) and Gymir caused a total of 8 Wounds on him, killing him four times over.


His magic didn't do all that much, largely thanks to him generally rolling a dice too little when attempting to cast or dispel anything. One shaman also blew up and my Leadbelcher hit squad splatted his other level 2 shaman.

congrats on the fun battle - I wish I had opponents in my area that ran magic-light allowing me to drop some dispel scrolls, but generally I'm getting faced with 10+ power dice ever battle (with 13 power dice not being rare!)

He did have 10 power dice - one fourth level and two second levels. So it's not that he ran a magic-light army, he just wasn't very good at using magic. :p


August 16.
Been working on an article on Tyrants and wondering what I'm going to take against the Chaos army tomorrow. My opponent is ten years younger than me and apparently has played a lot less, so it would be embarassing to lose.

August 17.
Chalk up another victory for Gymir and his crew, greatly helped by Mr. Duckass' inability to fail Braingobbler-induced Panic tests.

List was about the same as before, though I split the Bulls into three units of 4 (no reason for big units to protect against missile fire), the Bull Rhinox was swapped for a Slavegiant (it did okay*) and some item-shuffling - Tenderiser, Longstrider and Necklace** on Tyrant, 2 Thiefstones on BSB.

My opponent made a couple of mistakes, which I profited from, firstly he advanced the Spawn to far in front of his army, letting Gymir and one Bull unit splat it and overrun into a Herd, which decided to flee the table along with one Shaman. Secondly he gave my Giant a great opportunity to flank charge his Warriors, a charge that eventually proved fatal for the Giant, but not before some warriors were killed and the Scrappy got a chance to charge in as well. Eventually a Bull unit provided the final nail in the coffin and the remaining Warriors were run down.

My Gorger also had fun. I added it mainly on the off-chance that it might hold up a large unit of marauders, but my opponent didn't have any. Instead, Stinky Trym got to eat a Chaos Chariot, though it took a staggering six combat phases before it was all devoured.


* Though as expected the attempt to throttle a chaos chariot failed miserably

** Yes, it caused a Wound on the Tyrant and yes, it was the only wound he took that battle...

congrats on the win Avian - do you think you'll be keeping a giant in your army in future?

Eh, well, I kinda doubt it. On the one hand, it's a lot more manoeuverable than a Bull Rhinox and doesn't have the suicide charge rule, but on the other hand it's completely random what he does.

I actually don't mind the loss of Stubborn all that much, since I use a BSB most of the time, it's the 50% chance for the useless Throttle with chain attack that really bugs me.


(Oh, and the model tipped over and dislocated an elbow, which will have to be fixed)

August 18.

Another little article, devoted to our dearly loved killing machines:

Ogre Tyrants

You are gold Avian! Can you use a Ironfist as a shield while also using a Magic Single Handed Weapon? As the Ironfist does count as a Weapon in the Option section but it also says you can choose it to be a shield at the start of the Combat phase...Hmmm My Head Hurts.....

Can you use a Ironfist as a shield while also using a Magic Single Handed Weapon?

Yep, the ironfist is never described as a weapon (unless you use it as an additional hand weapon). You chose it from the same bullet point as weapons, but that doesn't really mean anything - there are other examples of units that have weapons and armour in the same bullet point.

Dogs of War Duellists, for example, can have additional hand weapons, pistols or shields, without that making the shield a weapon.

August 22.
Most humorous moment of yesterday's splatting of the Lizardmen:

In the first turn, the Skink crew of his Stegadon shoot at my General's unit with the Giant Bow, manage to hit Gymir, wound him (despite needing a 5+), Gymir fails his re-rollable 5+ Ward and takes 3 Wounds. Booo!

A few turns later, Gymir and my Bull Rhinox charge the Stegadon and kill the beast outright, leaving the five skink crew to continue on foot. They lose the combat by miles and are outnumbered as well. Normally they would auto-flee, but in 7th edition the Insane Courage rule lets you pass any Break test on a double 1. The skinks are obviously reasoning that "If it bleeds, we can kill it!" and decide to stick around by rolling a double 1.

That was truly insane courage! Five skinks facing off against a huge Tyrant and an even bigger Rhinox rider!

Next turn my General has trouble even hitting his tiny opponents, killing only 1 and the skinks see a glimmer of hope before the Bull Rhinox stomp all over them and squish them flat!



Apart from that, I cannot claim too much glory for the win, as the dice did a lot and my opponent helped them.

For example: His Kroxigors charge one Bull unit with a BSB (a lot more useful in 7th!), fluff their attacks and only do two wounds. In return the Ogres really kick some tail and I win by about 7 points. Whee! The kroxes break and my pursuit roll gives me a nice flank charge opportunity into his Temple Guard.  I also throw in my Bull Rhinox and General in the front, so I win by a lot, outnumber him and break him (he was only fielding a generic list and so did not have the Cause Fear banner).

On the other flank his Saurus cav with Hero are shot up quite a bit and the Hero and musician charge some gnobbos only to lose the combat by 1 point and break. Sadly they were not run down.

In the centre, my Bulls with Butcher (Siegebreaker!) charge his spear-armed Saurus and lose badly (I think I managed to kill one guy), but stay in the combat, since my opponent had not dispelled Toothcracker. Big mistake. In the second round I roll a lot better and auto-break him.

Go me!


List was pretty standard:

Tank Tyrant
-Mawseeker, Sword of Might, Ironfist, Heavy armour, Greedy Fist, Wyrdstone Necklace, Jade Lion, Luck Gnoblar

BSB
-Rock Eye (spotted his "extra move" banner), HA

Butcher
- Bangstick, scroll, 2 TGs

Butcher
- Skullmantle, Siegebreaker, 2 TGs

4 Bulls
-AHW, Bell

4 Bulls
- AHW, Std/Bell

4 Bulls
- IF, Std/Bell

4 Ironguts
- Full command, war banner

30 Fighters

30 Fighters

8 Trappers

2 'belchers

2 'belchers

Scraplauncher

Bull Rhinox
- IF, HA

Gorger

And we have my lengthy Ogre beginners article:

Ogre Kingdoms army basics

as well as some Suggested changes to the Ogre army

Those aricles you keep writing are grand Avian.
Tanks m8.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.


I don't have many more ideas for tactics articles at the moment, so I'm jotting down some ideas for Ogre mini-games instead, based on those sports mentioned in the Ogre Culture pages in the army book. The Git Tossing game is about ready to play test and I believe my concept idea for Runtspike should work as well.

looing foreward to that.
Found a game on the GW site called gut olympics.  Is it similar to that one?

I have never heard of the Gut Olympics...

You can find it here: http://oz.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/ogrekingdoms/extras/gutolympics/default.htm

He he! The Git Tossing is obviously somewhat like Runt Punting, but has more choices involved.

Thats great Avian, my tyrant got killed by a Brettonian Lord the other day, he didn't even have the D3 wounds, S5 vs T5 things, it was a darn Sword of MIght!! And my tyrant had toothcracker!! Has anyone seen a typo in the small rulebook that comes with the battle of skull pass box that says maneaters are movement 8? Lol

..............That's a bit off...........lol.........


"And in the new rules my maneater is M8!"

"Show me."

*Pulls out little rulebook and shows*

"Show me the army book."

"Darn....."

@avian: When will we see pictures of your finished yhetee unit and scraplauncher? Are these 3 the last things you need to go?

 - Kyte

Well, the Scrappy still isn't quite done, as it still has some bits here and there that need paint and the last two werewolves are still in their component parts. Furthermore, my mother is visiting us at the moment, so I don't have a lot of time for minis.
Expect the Scrappy some time next week...


EDIT: Yes, those three models are the only further Ogres I plan to do for the next year or so, when I start on Step 4 of my arm, which will include a trio of converted metal Maneaters, a converted Slaughtermaster and a second battalion box to get some more Core models in.

Before Step 4, I may do a bit more work on some of the plastic ogres I already have, since I am not satisfied with all of them. That would include sculpting light armour on the leadbelchers and adding more fur and things here and there.

Ok, cool. What about 2 more Rhinox Riders?

 - Kyte

I'll probably make one other (with a standard) when I get the battalion box, but I've never planned to have a full unit.

EDIT: I'm in th eprocess of giving my website an overhaul these days, so if something does not work ... uh ... it should work after a while... or something.

August 29.
And now we have rules for the noble sport of Git Tossing. Please read through them, try them out and give feedback.

The Snotling Pump Wagon Rally v2 rules should also be up soon.


I'm busily changing much of my page to using more dynamic code at the moment, which takes some time and leaves less time for actual gaming. Hopefully this change should make later changes easier and quicker.
Note that the new adress for my main page is now http://folk.ntnu.no/~tarjeia/avian/index.php

I probably should have swapped to running more php years ago, but swapping it all seemed so much work (and indeed it is!). Now each actual page will only contain the actual text, which makes it easier to alter things later.

Great stuff as usual, Avian.
That git tossing game should be hilarious.  I'll try it out shortly and tell you how it went.
Cheers!

August 30.
The Snotling Pump Wagon Rally rules are up and I'm polishing the rules for Runtspike and thinking about Bang!

Should even have some time to paint the Scrappy tonight!

Should even have some time to paint the Scrappy tonight!

At last!!!

 - Kyte

August 31.
Scrappy is almost finished, all that is left is a quick drybrush of the static grass, the pupils of the Rhinox and the buckles on the harness, which I keep forgetting. I should have time for that tonight, so pics should be up quite soon.
I decided to paint the banner on the back in blue with slightly off-white symbols. I chose blue to make it more visible and also because the High Elf shield one of the gnobbos is chucking into the barrel of the mortar is slightly off-white with a blue symbol and that way it seems less out of place. Maybe the banner was scavenged from a High Elf banner and the symbols painted on later by the Gnobbos?
The symbols are one representing Fire / Civilisation, which I thought fitting since it is a gunpowder weapon, one drawing of a Rhinox (for obvious reasons) and a lot of little gnobbo heads around these.


Oh, and I also finished the rules for Runtspike. Have a go and tell me what you think!
Watch out for Bang! and Gnoblar Pig Jousting in the near future.

I love the goblin invaders game - I'm going to have a go with a hunter and some gnoblars

great work!

September 4.
As I suspected, it took about ten minutes to put the finishing touches on the Scrappy, which is now all done*. Hurrah!
Sadly I did not have the time or decent light to get photos, so you'll have to wait a while for that.

In the meantime, you can have a go at Bang!

Now all that is left to do with my Ogres for the time being is to convert up and paint two more werewolves.


* okay, so I might add another gnoblar or two to it at some point, but that won't happen until I get a second battalion box and that won't be for another year or so.

How do you keep coming up with all that stuff?  Your mini-games are a lot of fun!

I bet you're just doing it for the pet gnoblars. 

That looks like alot of fun there Avian!

Hehehe......

I would think that would be more suited for Orcs and Goblins, but then again, Nobody Likes a Gnoblar

Rest assured that there will be an Ogre-only no-laughs Bull Fighting game soon, for those who want a more serious game without greenskins.

I await this incredible new creation with baited breath

September 6.
Having finished my Scrappy, I turn my gaze to the last two Werewolves, one of whom will be a Pack leader. The pack leader will have a lot of stuff to show he's the boss and possibly also a piece of slate to stand on (I'm not a great fan of heaps of junk on bases, though). He'll get shoulder plates (you only get 1 per box), spikes and the armoured plastic wolf head, as well as the Khornate amulet thingy I removed from one of the "Sabretusks". He'll probably get dreads.

The other will probably get the a mane/pony tail thingy you get a few of in the Dark Eldar box, blended in with some more GS to make a mane. I may make this a female one, which naturally means it will get breasts.

September 10.
I've started working on the last two werewolves. The leader is going to be resting his left foot on a rock that is sticking out of the ground (a piece of slate), which necessitated cutting into his right leg at the knee and ankle and gently twisting it to be more straight. I considered giving him the arm with the hand replaced by a blade, but decided against it to make him look more "human" and less animal. As mentioned, he's also getting armour plates (including the armoured wolf head) and some bone spikes protruding from his back to make him look different from the rank and file.

The last werewolf is in a much more normal pose. I'm not sure about the mane thingy from the DE set now that I've had a chance to do a mock-up and I may end up simply giving him dreads or something similar.

September 18.
Finally! Pics of my converted Scraplauncher all done!


Side view


The howdah, with the gnoblars hard at work loading the great mortar


One of the gnoblars tasked with steering the rhinox got tugged from the howdah and fell flat on his face, the poor git


The other side of the howdah


Front right view


Rear left. Note the hobbled feet to prevent the rhinox stampeding (this also explains it's lower M than the Bull Rhinox)


Rear view. I had originally planned to add a rope ladder hanging from the rear left of the howdah, but at some point I completely forgot about it.


Close up of one lazy Gnoblar watching the others do all the work.

very nice!

I like the manacles especially.

DAMN IT'S NICE! Worth all the waiting time!

 - Kyte

September 28.
Since I was taking some WIP pics of my orcs, I thought I might just as well take a couple of the last two werewolves:

10000 views avian - congratulations!

And I'm the one to tip the scales

Yes, yes, yes. Go me!

It's a shame I did not have time to finish the Werewolves before I got the new Orcs, as they are now quite low on the priority list. On the other hand, finishing them might not take more than a few days, so I might be able to convince myself to just do them and have a completed Ogre army.

We shall see...

And we have my lengthy Ogre beginners article:

Ogre Kingdoms army basics

as well as some Suggested changes to the Ogre army

cant find the article >_< bbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuu  buuuuuuuuuu ( this is me crying hahah )

That's because I've done a bit of updating and converted the old html-files to php.

Correct links are:

Ogre Army Basics

Suggested changes to the Ogre army

October 17.
Another crushing victory for Gymir and much hilarity all around.

My army:

Tyrant
-Kineater
-Sword of Striking
-Rock Eye
-Thiefstone
-Luck Gnoblar
-Heavy armour

Bruiser
-BSB
-Greatskull
-Heavy armour

Butcher
-2 TGs
-Bangstick
-Dispel Scroll

Butcher
-2TGs
-Skullmantle
-Power stone


4 Bulls
-AHW
-Bellower

4 Bulls
-AHW
-Standard & Bellower

4 Bulls
-IF
-Standard & Bellower

4 Ironguts
-FC
-War Banner

29 Gnobbo Fighters

29 Gnobbo Fighters

8 Trappers


2 Leadbelchers
-Bellower

2 Leadbelchers
-Bellower

Scraplauncher

Bull Rhinox
-IF, HA

Gorger

2499 pts


Deployment - High Elves
My left to my right:

-10 Silver Helms with full upgrade kit and full command in the far corner. They had the banner that made them immune to fear and terror.
-2 Bolt throwers on a small hill
-5 Dragon Princes with full command between the small hill and the large central hill. They were joined by the Elf Prince who had a 1+ re-rollable armour save and a 4+ Ward save, as well as the sword that let him always wound on 2+.
-a lone mage just behind the hill. He had the lore of Beast and the item that stole a PD from me and made it into a DD. He never got a spell off during the entire battle.
-19 Swordmasters will full comand and the banner of D3 extra power dice just on the other side of the hill. They were joined by the randomly determined general, a mage with High magic, a magic ring with a bound nasty magic missile and maybe some other item as well. He never got a spell off either.
-a chariot just beside the swordmasters
-a unit of 19 spearmen with full command. They were joined by a mage with the other bound spell ring and an item that gave him an extra power dice. She had the Lore of Life.
-another chariot
-5 Silver helms with full upgrades and a musician
-behind these there were a further two bolt throwers (yay...)

Deployment - Ogres
From my left to my right

-trappers hiding in a scrub just across from the silver helms
-a unit of fighters
-a pair of 'belchers just opposite his Dragon princes
-my bannerless Bulls just opposite the large central hill
-one Bull unit with the BSB and the Butcher with Skullmantle opposite his Swordmasters
-The Bull Rhinox
-the third Bull unit with my general and the other Butcher opposite his spearmen
-the Scrappy (both it and the Rhinox were kept close to the general to avoid unintended charges)
-the Ironguts opposite the Silver Helms
-the second unit of Gnoblars were hiding in the rear here


It may or may not be clear, but his cavalry on his right flank was basically quite far from the action and I had deployed my 'belchers, some gnobbos and the most throwaway Bulls unit to keep them at arm's length while the rest of my units dealt with his infantry, chariots and small unit of silver helms on the other flank. Note also that all his units who had either good leadership or were immune to fear were off on the far flank, while those units that faced the larger part of my army all had Ld8 (Swordmasters may have had Ld9, I can't remember...)


Turn 1 - High Elves
My opponent had fewer units than me, thus it was no surprise that he got the option to go first, which he took.
Movement: His cavalry on the far flank push forward quickly, his units on the other flank somewhat less so.
Magic: He has 11 PD plus two bound spells. He gets an Irresistible Master of Stone from the central hill onto my least important Bulls. One of them dies, but they are within 12" of the general (everything important is) and pass the test. Then another mage miscasts and the magic phase ends. Phew!
Shooting: Bolt throwers do 2 wounds on my left unit of 'belchers and one on the right one (I asked him afterwards why he shot them so much, and he claimed they looked scary). No test needs to be taken.
Combat: None


Turn 1 - Ogres
Both gnobbo units on my left flank Bicker.
Movement: My right flank pushed forward quickly to deal with their opponents before the cavalry arrives to catch me in the flank, particularly the Bulls with my BSB go full speed ahead. Belchers on the left move up to target his Dragon Princes while those on the left march forward to hopefully get in the way of the cavalry and chariots.
Magic: Having 5 PD to his 6 DD with a +1 to dispel means not a lot happens, though I do manage to get off Trollguts on the Ironguts.
Shooting: Scraplauncher aims at the spearmen. My guess is a little short, though I still manage to get 8 elves plus the life mage under the template. My opponent manages to roll a 1 for the "Look Out, Madam!" and predictably this is followed by a 6 to wound, slaying her outright with Killing blow. Hurrah! On the other flank, the 'belchers kill a Dragon prince.
Combat: None


Turn 2 - High Elves
Movement: His cavalry on my left flank charge the 'belchers, who flee but are run down. This keeps them from getting into position to do any real damage for another turn. Both chariots and the Swordmasters charge my Bulls with BSB, though one chariot and the swordmasters fail their Fear test (good old Skullmantle), though the Swordmasters were probably out of range anyway. His spearmen and small Silver helm unit do nothing much.
Magic: He is down to 7 PD and only one bound spell vs. my 4 DD. Some bad rolling means nothing happens.
Shooting: Bolt throwers do 3 wounds on the Bull Rhinox, which looks big and scary.
Combat: The charging chariot does 4 wounds on the Bulls, but takes 2 wounds in return from the BSB. It breaks and flees through the Swordmasters, killing two elves in the process.


Turn 2- Ogres
Gnoblars on the right bicker. Who cares? Gorger fails to turn up.
Movement: Bulls with BSB and the Bull Rhinox charge the Swordmasters, who decide to flee (3"!) and are run down. Since the chariot is once again in the way, we declare another charge against that and it flees a bit more. Bulls on the left move up to prevent the Silver Helms from simply marching past them. Everything else advances.
Magic: 5 PD vs. 4 DD - much better. Worries about Bonecruncher and Braingobbler means I get off Toothcracher on the BSB's unit.
Shooting: Scrappy targets a bolt thrower but misses. 'belchers on the right do 2 wounds on the chariot there. Gnobbos on the right throw junk at the two cavalry units but do no damage.
Combat: None


Turn 3 - High Elves
Spearmen fail terror test for standing right next to the Bull Rhinox and flee sideways, presenting their flank to the 'belchers.
Movement: Silver Helms on my left charge the standard-less Bulls, who roll badly and are run down. Non-fleeing chariot tries to charge my General's unit but fails Fear test. Small Silver Helm unit tries to charge the 'belchers and do the same. Fleeing chariot rallies in front of the BSB's unit.
Magic: 4 PD vs. 4 DD. Nothing happens (in fact, that irresistible Master of Stone was the only spell he got through in all the game).
Shooting: Bolt throwers kill the Bull Rhinox (boo!) and does 3 wounds to the Scrappy (boo again!). BSB's unit passes their Panic test.
Combat: None


Turn 3 - Ogres
I forget to roll for my Gorger
Movement: BSB's Bull unit charges the newly-rallied chariot, which fails it's Fear test and runs off the table. 'belchers charge the fleeing Spearmen, who flee off the table. Ironguts charge the small Silver Helm unit, which does the same, panicing one Bolt thrower which also runs off. Will nothing stand and fight? Deciding that this half of the table is more or less safe, Gymir and his unit turns to face the oncoming High Elf cavalry. Trappers move up towards the table quarter which is now empty apart from the two bolt throwers.
Magic: I manage to get off Toothcracker on Gymir's unit.
Shooting: Scrappy targets the lone remaining mage, but misses. Gnoblars throw sharp stuff at the large Silver Helm unit and manages to kill one! Go gobbos! That neatly removed their rank bonus.
Combat: None


Turn 4 - High Elves
Movement: Chariot tries to charge Gymir's unit in the rear, but fails its third Fear test in a row. Ha ha! Cavalry moves up to charge next turn.
Magic: Nothing
Shooting: Bolt throwers kill the Scrappy (though the nearby gnobbos are not worried) and panic the Trappers, who later flee off the table.
Combat: None


Turn 4 - Ogres
Gorger turns up and moves up to the Bolt throwers, making sure that one of them blocks LOS for the other.
Movement: 'belchers charge the unlucky chariot, but fail to catch it or drive it off the table. Two remaining Bulls units and the Ironguts try to form a battle line and suceed more or less.
Magic: Nothing much happens. One Butcher is out of range and the other heals himself.
Shooting: Nothing left can shoot more than 8", so no shooting.
Combat: None


Turn 5 - High Elves
Movement: Silver Helms charge Gymir's unit. Other cavalry unit moves up in hope of a successful Wolf Hunts spell. Chariot rallies.
Magic: Wolf Hunts is dispelled (with a scroll, just to be sure)
Shooting: Remaining Bolt throwers fail to damage the BSB's unit but kill one of the two remaining 'belchers.
Combat: Gymir challenges the Knightly champion and takes a wound (he only has heavy armour), as do one Bull. In return, only the champion is killed. Ogres lose combat by 1, though pass the test by miles (I'm stubborn on a re-rollable Ld9, but rolled snake eyes just to be sure).


Turn 5 - Ogres
Movement: Gorger charges bolt thrower.
Magic: Not much is in range and so I heal the other Butcher. My opponent manages to dispel Toothcracker.
Shooting: Sharp stuff kills the Dragon Prince champion!
Combat: Elves do a wound or so before the ogres strike back and kill four knights, breaking the remaining four, who flee out of range. Gorger kills one Bolt thrower crewman, runs down the other and pursues into the remaining machine. Leadbelcher kills the crew of the machine he charged.


Turn 6 - High Elves
Movement: Dragon Princes charge Ironguts. Silver Helms rally.
Magic: Nothing
Shooting: Remaining bolt thrower is in combat and so cannot shoot.
Combat: Elf Prince challenges the Gut Lord and does 4 wounds, but one bounces off the armour and another is saved by Regeneration. The two wounds done by the remaining knights are also regenerated. Ironguts kill the three Dragon Princes, breaking the Prince. Gorger kills one crewman from second bolt thrower and break the last crewman.


Turn 6 - Ogres
Movement: Gymir's unit charged the remaining Silver Helms. Gorger and Ironguts charge fleeing elves for no effect (they couldn't rally anyway).
Magic: Nothing
Shooting: Nothing
Combat: Remaining Silver Helms are all killed by Gymir and his unit.


At the end of the battle, my opponent was left with one chariot at half strength, one mage and one fleeing general. Better than last time, when I killed his entire army. :p


Conclusion
For the first half of the battle, most of my army and his main heavy cavalry units moved counter-clockwise around the table. At that point, the main part of my army clashed with and destroyed the main part of his army, while his heavy cavalry got bogged down by the elements on my left flank, which meant that even though that part of his army had very good movement, it really moved no faster than my M6 guys on the other half of the table. The result was that when his cavalry had moved about halfway around the centre of my table and moved up from my left rear, the main part of my army, which was more or less unharmed (though I had lost both large beasties) and ready for him while he had had both his cavalry units weakened. We actually clashed just outside the right part of my deployment zone on favourable odds for me.

Magic-wise my opponent had a lot more power and dispel resources than me, though I managed to take out a lot of his in turn 1 and 2, while he hardly made an effort to take out my Butchers at all. His missile fire and spells were mostly aimed at my 'belchers and beasties, who are when all is said and done - support units and not vital to my plan. My important units only lost one ogre in total.

I asked him afterwards why he shot them so much, and he claimed they looked scary

That is one of the funniest things I have heard all morning, thanks for the laugh and grats on the win

October 27.
Hah! My skillz are so leet I can hardly believe it:
Ogre Kingdoms Characters Gallery

Yes, I am making a gallery script from scratch. Go me! Still a bit WIP at the moment, but I'm getting there.


In other news: We have snow in Trondheim at the moment.

In other news: We have snow in Trondheim at the moment.

that's early, isn't it?

Not particularly, but I don't think it will remain very long. If it last until tomorrow I'll take some pics in daylight.

December 2.
Here I am ready to post pics of my finished Night Gobbos and it turns out I forgot to transfer them to my memory stick. D'oh!

Anyway, in addition to the existing Sabretusk Packs and Cave Bear, I have uploaded some suggestions for three additional Ogre characters:

Ogre Tribal Elder

Ogre Slaver

Yhetee Frostbringer

In addition to this, there are two more units I more or less definite rules for, which should be up soon.

Let me know what you think!

I really like the look of the frost bringer (haven'y had chance to read the rest yet). I think it's a good addition to the army and makes themed yhettee lists viable (just like your other ideas have made the themed hunter list more of a possibility). You're really plugging the gap in the ogre kingdoms list allowing people to start making listst that differ from the accepted 'cookie cutter' competative list. Maybe I missed it, but do you clarify oif the Frostbringer is a hero or a Lord in your rules?

Looking forward to reading the rest

Thanks
Corai

He is a Hero, as stated in the first line below the introductory bit.

I really like the idea of the Slaver. It gives the list a rank-bonus unit with a little punch.

I like the idead but the frostbringer is a bit overpowerful for his points.
The differences from a bruise for only 35 points are.
+1 movement
+1 strength
+ 2 Iniative.
Also he counts as having aura of frost, scale terrain and embodiment of chill that could effectively make him as strong as a lvl 1 wizard. Finally he counts as having a magical handweapon and the cheapest one available to bruisers is a biting blade which is 10 points!
The only downsides are that he can only be the army general if there is no other characters. It can also not have upgrades like great weapons although it is already str 6. also it cannot join units except for yhettes.
Don't you think that seems a bit underpriced for your hero. Just my thoughts.
Tri

I like the idead but the frostbringer is a bit overpowerful for his points.
The differences from a bruise for only 35 points are.
+1 movement
+1 strength
+ 2 Iniative.
Also he counts as having aura of frost, scale terrain and embodiment of chill that could effectively make him as strong as a lvl 1 wizard. Finally he counts as having a magical handweapon and the cheapest one available to bruisers is a biting blade which is 10 points!
The only downsides are that he can only be the army general if there is no other characters. It can also not have upgrades like great weapons although it is already str 6. also it cannot join units except for yhettes.
Don't you think that seems a bit underpriced for your hero. Just my thoughts.
Tri

When put into that context, it does appear a bit underpirced, but it does work differantly within the context of the list as a whole. I'm curious why Avian gave it that points cost (not having a clue about point costing myself) and what the reasoning behind it is.

Thanks
Corai

Thanks for the feedback!

The reasoning behind pricing the Frostbringer is that while he has a couple of boosted stats compared to a Bruiser, he is also not a proper Ogre, which comes with several disadvantages (such as being unable to be boosted by Gut Magic, not having an Ogre club, etc.). He also cannot have any kind of mundane equipment, while a Bruiser can have a great weapon for a mere 8 points and get S7.

As he is also unable to join any unit apart from other Yhetees, I also feel it is unreasonable to count Aura of Frost as a significant advantage, as enemies attacking him would get -1 to hit due to the other Yhetees anyway. Similarly, an Ice weapon is of limited use in itself against most opponents (to be honest I assume that most players will buy a magic weapon for him anyway, which means that the Ice Weapon will rarely be used).

If you want, you can compare him to the Hunter, which seems to be priced according to how his stats compare to a Bruiser, with no consideration that the rules limiting how he can be used limits his usefulness. Considering that a pack of Yhetees with a Frostbringer costs 360 pts minimum and has no armour save at all, I don't think he is undercosted. And he is the most expensive Hero available.

Though of course I have not play tested him yet, so I may (and probably will) have to adjust his cost and special rules after trying him out in a game or two.

Nice set of rules.

I think you have set the maximum unit size for slaves slightly to low to be effective, seeing as they will die like flies. On the other hand, when in CC they have a big brutish ogre that's hard to wound in the front rank, so maybe it'll work.

Bloodfreeze is a bit nasty if you have at least two butchers to back it up. He could nicely kill off big knight units on his own. Playtesting will tell. EDIT: I can see a role for the frostbringer as a lone monster jumping from cover to cover and causing terror tests when needed. Common magic items seems a bit out of place on the frostfiend, and btw, since he casts bound spells, can he take arcane common items?

So your next test game will have Tribal elder, hunter, frostbringer and slaver as characters? Could make for an interesting read.

Common magic items seems a bit out of place on the frostfiend, and btw, since he casts bound spells, can he take arcane common items?

Yeah, I've been wondering about the whole item bit and considered disallowing alltogether. As he is explicitly not a Wizard, he cannot take Arcane items (in the same manner as an Orc Big Boss with the 'Itty Ring cannot ).