Chaos Dwarfs Army recap

 

Now that my second regiment of Chaos Dwarf berserkers is finished, and my appetite for painting dwarfs is starting to fade, it's time to check where I stand in terms of points before launching a new project. The plan was to play a 6th Edition game with 1000 to 1500 army points, using my dwarfs as proxies for the Chaos Warriors army list from the Ravening Hordes supplement.

Characters

Luckily, I have already painted a Chaos Sorcerer (80 points) who can serve as the army general. As he stands atop a desecrated Anvil of Doom, I will give him a Chaos Warrior Chariot (+100), and a Chaos armour (+12), and upgrade him to Level 2 (+35), for a total of 227 points.

Core Units

My first, and for now only, regiment of Chaos Warriors includes a musician (+10), a standard-bearer (+10), and a champion (+10). I've also given them a shield (+1) and a Chaos armour (+2), for a total of 160 points.

My two regiments of  Chaos Marauders also include a musician (+10), a standard-bearer (+10), and a champion (+10). It makes 70 points of Troll Biters and 90 points of Troll Eaters, as they have also a Great weapon (+2). Given the time spent painting them, that's a ridiculously low number of points 😩

Rare Unit

Last but not least, 3 Chaos Trolls, for a total of 150 points.

 

That only brings me to 697 points... Ugh... And I thought Chaos armies were easy to complete! 

So, what's next? I have already converted a dwarf wizard (80 points) ready to support the army general. Although I'm not a fan of the sculpts, I also have the second trio of Marauder MM40 Trolls to paint, and at 50 points the model, they're worth the effort! Another quick win would be a Chaos Spawn (50 points), or, more exciting, an Aspiring Champion (70 points) riding a Dameon Steed as a Chaos Reward (50 points). And of course, I still have a bunch of unpainted MM90 Chaos Dwarfs that were my initial motivation for starting this army. We'll see!

OWAC V - Conclusion

Well, now that I'm close to the 100 painted Marauder Dwarfs, maybe it's time for a few pictures of the mercenary forces collected so far. 

With 40 dwarfs warriors (pikemen and halberdiers) and 20 quarellers, the mandatory troops are done. Regarding the thunderers, I have reached the maximum allowed by the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book. Two wizards seem more than enough for a dwarf army, and all the hammerers I had are now painted. And of course, any decent mercenary army cannot go out without his paymaster 😎

So, what's left? 

• Warmachines for sure, and their design easily fits with the Swiss flavour of the army
• the army general on his fracking poney. One day I will paint him, I swear 😖
• More wild dwarfs would be nice if I could convert some slayers
• 10 Iron breakers should be OK too if I find the courage (NMM plus shields, double pain)
• More than enough models to align a third regiment of pikemen or a regiment of sworsdmen
  
• Last but not least... Longbeards! The only (but major) problem is that they do not fit at all with their budies. I have a couple of ideas, but it will require time and conversions. We'll see...
  

In the meantime:

Stupid idea

Remember the posts where I was trying to encourage people to build other armies than dwarves? Well, good news... it worked!
...
On me :/

I've recently started to buy the old Jes Goodwin's skaven to make my own ratmen force. Since I totally lack imagination, I'm dutifully following the list given in WD 137 as a mail order special offer. As I am a reasonable guy (well sort of...), I've decided to focus on the battle force...which is 1500 points worth 'only'. Knowing the cost of a skaven, it means about 80 miniatures!

So, if we recap the current state of my force:

• 1 White skaven sorcerer with halberd: got it
• 1 Clan Chieftain with army standard: got it
• 1 Clan Eshin Assassin: still searching the proper model to convert
• 36 clanrats warriors: only 15 models
• 25 skavenslaves: only 16 models, most of them armed with spears
• 10 Gutter Runners: only 3 models
• 3 Fire Thrower Teams: got them
• 2 Jezzailachis Teams: got them (my favorite!)
• 2 Poison Wind Globadiers: got them
• 2 Beast Masters and 4 Rat Ogres: got them

So if you suffer from an excess of OOP Citadel ratmen, let me know! Below are the models I'm still looking for: the green dots are totally missing, and I don't have any spare of the uncrossed ones, so I could be interested too.


And as I couldn't finish a post without showing a single mini, here is the only skaven model I have ever painted. It was in 2005, and as you can see, there are some dwarf bits too :o)

-

Next time hopefully, I'll be able to show some new models.

Viva Bretonnia!

Last phase of my cunning plan, a series of articles published in 1991 featuring the painting of a Bretonnian army. To be fair, I have mixed feelings about this one: some models are really great, others are barely tabletop level. Still, some tips and design ideas can be very helpful and if you're not totally convinced, check Blue in VT and Stone Cold Lead's blogs to see OOP bretonnian models painted by talented guys. 

To my knowledge, it all began with a 'Eavy Metal article published in WD136 explaining the painting of bretonnian knights (if you look closely at the second picture, you'll notice the unique apparition of some crossbowmen, knights and men-at-arms probably coming from an older army).


One month later in WD137, several regiments were joining the bretonnian army: les Archers de Brest, les Arbalétriers de Lyons, le Baron d'Angon, l'Ordonnance du Roi, the Feudal levy and les Hommes de Renault. Interesting color schemes, but look at the peasants and the cannon servants: they've received the basic flat colors on each area... and that's all! Rather disappointing considering the usual 'Eavy Metal standards...

Best article of the series IMO, WD138 showed a new unit of knights and three character models: the General, the Army Standard Bearer and a Wizard. Painted with more care than the rank and files, they really stand out and give us a glimpse of what a bretonnian army can be when painted at the highest standards.



As far as I know, WD143 featured the last addition to this army: a regiment of Mounted Spearmen, painted by Neil McIntosh and Matthew Fletcher.

"The horses were all painted different colours, but the techniques for the shading and highlighting were the same. After the base coat was dry, the highlights were gently drybrushed on in lighter shades of the base colour. To smooth out any roughness in the highlights, a thin wash of ink was applied before the reins were painted in Chaos Black. When the black was dry, the reins were painted Skull White, leaving a thin line of black on the edges of the reins to make them stand out against the horse. Finally, the white coat was painted over with Blood Red."

 

 And that's it! I don't think I've ever seen this army again.

Spring-Summer collection: Wood Elves

Tired of beards, heavy armours and short legs? Good news for you: Citadel has also produced a whole range of Wood Elves. And when you'll see Mike McVey's incredible army, you won't hesitate anymore: long bows, cavalry, eagles, wardancers... I count to three and when you wake up, you'll start collecting a new army...

One... two... three... Sell your dwarfs. Now!

We, old fashionned dwarf collectors, should praise Grungni for Mike McVey's choice: imagine the result if, instead of Wayne England, who is a very honorable painter, Mike McVey, the ultimate 'Eavy Metal artist, had decided on dwarfs. 20 years later, even the ugliest model would sell for crazy prices... well, OK, it's already the case :(

So back to WD141: 10 pages of pure delight. If one excepts the first regiment of plastic wood elves,  I think we have here the ultimate weapon to make the dwarf prices collapse: striking color schemes, amazing painting job, banners designed with the help of John Blanche and Jess Goodwin and great conversion ideas... IMO, the best army ever published in White Dwarf.


Three months later, Mike McVey published in WD 144 the last big unit of his army: the Elven Lords cavalry. Again, a pleasure for the eyes and hopefully, an inspiration for starting a new OOP collection :o)

Collecting Dark Elves

I'm not sure this is a good idea to write this post, since one of my future projects involves painting a warband of dark elves. But, dwarfs first! And I'll see later if I need to lower the prices of OOP Dark Elves :-)

This small army was published in WD 144: it is mainly composed of Marauder Miniatures, but also includes some nice old Citadel models. Among other things, the authors explain their method to get colored metals, and I think it works quite well. The only thing I'm not fond of is the unit of witch elves. IMO, these models are the weak point of the whole MM70 range, and honestly, I haven't the slightest 'painting' idea to improve their look (should you know some pictures of great painting jobs on these minis, please share!).

I've also included this advertisement published in WD 138 because witch elves excepted, most of the models are really cool and well painted (I need to get these whelp masters and their warhounds!).

Buy Skaven, sell dwarfs!

OK, step 2 of my plan: the legendary pages featuring Mr. Chambers' ratmen. I think I've read this article at least a thousand times: the amazing number of painted models, the choice of colors, the banners, the conversion ideas... should you buy a White Dwarf issue in your life, this is definitely number 137.

Now, you have an excellent reason to sell your dwarfs to buy these magnificent models sculpted by the grandmaster himself, Jes Goodwin!

Damn', I'm pretty sure I've seen the screaming bell Andy mentions in his conclusions in another issue of WD... sadly, I can't find it.

P.S. Don't forget to visit Nico's blog, he painted a great skaven army last year.