Just a dwarf…

 … playing a flute.  And why not?

Marauder Miniatures originally (before any recent re-releases).

I think my eyesight is getting too poor to do painted eyes that stand up to close scrutiny!

Psychostyrene Dwarves

 I want to take you back in time, to 1985; the year of Live Aid, the Brixton riots, the first CDs and, most importantly of all, Citadel Miniature’s first ever multi-part 28mm miniatures.

Along with their mortal enemies, the Drastic Plastic Orcs, the Psychostyrene Dwarves were the shape of things to come!

And now, after many years sitting unloved in the ‘lead’ pile, they’ve been brought blinking into the sun.

Coming in at 75p a blister pack (!), they came with one body, a choice of three heads, two weapons, and a separate knife and sword in scabbard.

I painted two of them a long, long time ago (with the blue and green tunics) and, for old times sake, they’ve just had a bit of tidying up and a wash for shade.  Some repairs and replacement parts were also necessary for some of them.

The originals came with some lovely shield transfers, but only two remain, sadly (the far right is obviously my shaky freehand).

By modern standards they’re a bit rough.  Detail on the heads in particular is quite soft.  But they scrub up ok.

Off for a night on the town 1985 style!

The Battle of Troll Bridge - Fantasy Warriors

The stone bridge over the Scir Burn, the first good river crossing encountered out of the High Passes through the mountains, once had an older name.  But to the locals it is now only known as the Troll Bridge, after the battle fought there during the second Great Orc and Goblin War. 

While the missus and the miniature were away, and I was able to set up the front room with the gaming table, I snuck in another game of Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors, between my growing Orc Hordes and Dwarven Muster.  I didn't want the Dwarves to be able to just sit tight and wait for the Orcs to come to them (which plays to their strengths), so the scenario was that the Orcs were attempting to seize a bridge, which would allow them quick access to the rich lowlands.  The Dwarves had to stop them.  If one side gained an advantage in scouting, I would place the bridge nearer to their lines.

I didn't bother with points values, just chucked everything I could onto the table.

Both sides were split into three commands, each assigning one to scouting:

Orcs

Command 1: Warchief(3), 2 units of 12 Orcs, three trolls

Command 2: Battle Leader(1), 10 Archers, one ballista, 10 Orcs

Command 3 (scouting) Battle Leader(2), 6 Wolf Riders

Sooth Sayer and Mage (15 magic points)

Dwarves:

Warchief, Messenger, Mage (15 magic points)

Command 1: Battle Leader, 14 Great Axes, two units of 12 infantry

Command 2: Battle Leader, 10 crossbows, 1 giant crossbow

Command 3 (Scouting): Battle Leader, 5 archers

 

Both sides sent a command out to scout, but neither could gain the advantage, so the bridge was placed squarely in the middle of the table, on the Dwarves right flank (I'll give all directions from the Dwaves perspective for clarity) and both scouting commands started the game disordered, on hold orders, and at the back of the table.

 With the clock showing only one turn until sunset, the Orcs were not too concerned about bad light.  The Sooth Sayer predicted good omens for the Greenskins, as the Brukk Bitter Brand, the Warchief, boasted to his followers that they would find him in the thick of the fighting, then gave orders to his command to attack, and to the archers to Oppose.  Lacking a messenger, Brukk got his Mage, Crooked Shal, to send new orders to the Wolf rider by Eldritch Command, which succeeded.

The Dwarf Warchief, Lorgear Granitehelm, eschewed the reading of the Omens as too great a risk, and made no boasts, instead remaining just behind the battle line, where he could best control his forces and send new orders if needed.  Knowing that the lighter armoured orcs were likely to reach the bridge first, he sent order to his infantry to attack as quickly as they could, while his missile troops would try to inflict as much damage as possible on the advancing Orc horde.  His messenger successfully carried new orders to the archers to advance within bow-shot and support the left flank.

 

The Orc line surged forwards, the Trolls rapidly outpacing their smaller brethren.  As both sides exchanged largely ineffective arrow storms, the Dwarven Mage attempted to Blast the opposition, only to fail and use up all of his magical energy!

 

The foul smelling trolls smashed into the Dwarven Great axes.  Both sides took casualties despite the dwarves' armour and the Trolls resilience but, while the Dwarves stood firm, the Trolls were shaken by the stubborn refusal of the small things in front of them to just lay down and die, that they first became shaken, and then routed!

The rest of the Orc line briefly halted to hurl insults and threats at the stoic dwarves before plunging into battle.  The vile taunts left the dwarven crossbows shaken but did not stop them expending the last of their bolts into the nearest unit of Orc Warriors.  Sadly, rather than breaking them, the casualties just worked the greenskins up into a state of bloodlust!  But the Orcs did not have it all their way, as one of the units of Dwarf warriors also decided that the best answer to being insulted was to bury their axes in the Orcs directly to their front!

Battle was now well and truly joined as Orc and Dwarf fought in close quarters.  Brukk killed one of the Dwarf Battle Leaders but the disciplined Dwarf commend held form despite the loss, and in fact left Brukk's own unit shaken.  Slightly battered by their rout of the trolls, the great axes had no time to rest as they found themselves facing a line of fresh orcs warriors.

One the left, Warchief Granitehelm tried to send new order to his missile troops to attack the orcs to their front, but the message was garbled, disorganising the crossbows further.

By this point, both sides had taken casualties and had shaken units.  The Orc Warchief's boast has paid of in one respect, slaying one of the dwarf battle leaders (without him, shaken or disorganised units in his command could not recover), but the trade off was that he could no longer send out new orders to his troops, leaving his archers and ballista out of volleys and unsure what to do.  An attempt those same archers to threaten the dwarf warriors to their front backfired, as the Dwarves responded in kind so effectively that the Orcs ended up Shaken, only to then be charged and routed in one swift move!

But the Dwarves were not having it all their own way.  The Wolf Riders had now got back into position, and routed the shaken dwarf crossbows with threat alone, taking with them the Battle Leader that had joined them to try and get them back into order.

With the crossbows gone, the Wolf Riders now had an open door into the Dwarve's rear, and a possible chance to take out the Dwarf General, with only a small lightly armed unit of dwarven archers in any position to stop them.  A volley of arrows from the archers caused casualties before they were charged - miraculously they held and inflicted further casualties but, once again, the Orcs responded by going into a state of bllodlust.  

In a single moment, the Dwarf situation on the left suddenly looked vulnerable, with marauding wolf riders and two of their three battle leaders already fallen.

However, just as suddenly, the fickle gods of battle turned their eyes the other way: first, despite being charged by a unit of Orcs in a state of bloodlust, the Giant Crossbow team held their ground and even forced a casualty test on the enemy (which they passed). But more importantly, right in the thick of the hardest fighting, the dwarves slew Brukk Bitter Brand.  Word of the fall of their leader (who had promised he would be found in the heart of battle, but presumably alive) spread quickly amongst the Orc ranks - resulting in every single one routing off the table!

So, at the last, a clear victory for the Dwarves, who held the bridge having lost only one unit in its entirety.  The Orcs would need to find longer, harder routes down to the fertile lands beyond.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game.  I still think one of the things Fantasy Warriors Excels at is creating a sense of narrative - with the Orcs reading the omens, boasting warchiefs, and units hurling threats at each other before combat.

The way that units become degraded over the course of a game, becoming shaken, disorganised (or even bloodthirsty) is also something that I like a lot, in comparison ot Warhammer's very binary approach (you are either fleeing or completely rallied) .  I also like how characters are not single handed machines of carnage but have a genuine role to play in leading and commanding, which can lead to some difficult choices - both of the Dwarf Battle Leaders that were lost had only joined those units to try to overcome the effects of being shaken and disorganised; while the Orc Warchief may have added a fair bit of combat power to the unit he was in, but once engaged in combat, could do little to influence the wider battle.

It is a less dynamic game than Warhammer, which can see some units nipping around the battlefield like they have had too much caffeine.  The relative immaturity compared to WFB (which was in its third edition by this point) is also there in what WFB covered and FW did not - such as skirmishers, what happens with unusual situations like being attacked in the flank, and various other matters of detail.  But I think these are easily resolved with some common sense.

I would like to have a think about Scouting though.  I'm not keen on the idea of scouting with whole commands, which leaves them out of the main battle for a whole.  I need to come up with something that allows for smaller detachments to be made for the purpose of Scouting.

TTFN

Short, Plastic and Cheap! EM4 Dwarves

As regular readers may be aware, I'm quite fond of the old Grenadier Model's Fantasy Warriors game.  The original game came with two plastic armies of Orcs and Dwarves, each with three different models - and did it before Warhammer Fantasy Battles did!

I wasn't able to get the game when originally out, but you can still get the models from EM4 miniatures, and they are ridiculously cheap!  I finally got around to ordering some  of everything to bulk out the dwarf and orc armies that I seem to have developed almost by accident.  I got nearly 100 models for about twenty quid, so now I have a pile of grey plastic!

I thought I would start with the Dwarf crossbows.  My understanding is they were sculpted by Mark Copplestone, but to fit in with the style of Nick Lund.  They are cast in a firm grey plastic, which is solid but easy enough to cut, and takes polystyrene cement well.  I did a couple of helmet swaps for variety (these came from the GW Empire Militia and Frostgrave soldiers), which were really easy to do.

Unpainted, they look a bit basic, and they do have a really annoying casting lug on the back.  But the lug can be chopped away fairly easily.  The crossbow is a little odd - the arms are very short, but I think they actually paint up really nicely overall!

Pre painting (you can see the orcs in progress in the background)

 

You can just about see the lug, but it's cleaned up pretty well

Style and size wise they seem to fit in pretty well with my other Nick Lund Dwarves (the difference in flock actually stands out more than the models)!  They look slightly shorter, but I think that is partly because the metal models have an MDF base, and then quite a thick metal base as well.

One issue to be aware of is that they come on a roughly 25mm integral base.  As most of my Dwarfs are on 20mm bases, I wanted them to fit in.  Ironic given recent announcements by GW about the forthcoming Old World!  For a couple of them I chopped the existing base down to size, but realised they were solid enough for me to just cut them off the integral base and mount them on a ready cut base, which was quicker and neater overall.  Could be more interesting with the spear Dwarfs though, as I don't think the pose will rank up well on a 20x20!
 

Time Gentlemen Please

More bystanders, this time from Hasslefree Miniatures - bartender and dwarf patron.

 

 

The detail on the barman's face is a little soft, which made it tricky to get a result I was happy with - I'd say I got to about 'meh', which will have to do.  The dwarf patron however is a lovely little sculpt - simple, unfussy, but lots of character in that face and sharp details like belt and boot buckles.  You just know he's going to give you his opinions on why goblins aren't like they were in his day, whether you want him to or not.

Maxim Bang

After spending what turned out to be weeks painting a unit of White Wolves, I fancied something simpler and quicker. A painting sorbet if you will.

My thought alighted on this chap.  One of the original Squats, a Rogue Trader Space Dwarf.  This one went by the name of 'Maxim Bang' in the adverts as I recall.

He was already undercoated, so I could get started immediately, and he was done in an evening.

A fun model to paint, and a pleasing result.

Little John and other stuff

Update time!  A few more Nick Lund Dwarves, a late 80’s Citadel Man at Arms, and almost finished Hathersage’s most famous deceased resident!

Great little model.  Perry sculpt I think.

Seven Dwarfs who probably don’t whistle while they work or live in a cottage in the woods. Former Grenadier Models by Nick Lund.

And finally, joining Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, Little John (and his big stick).  Local Derbyshire legend has it that Little John is buried in the Churchyard in nearby Hathersage

Little John is from Footsore Miniatures new 'Baron's War' range. Nice model overall, but he does seem a little slim in the waist, definitely child-bearing hips (or maybe he has his purse hidden under there)!

 

And here's his (alleged) grave in Hathersage. Hathersage is well worth a visit if you find yourself in the Peak District.  It can be a little busy, but it's well placed for some lovely walks.