A Plague of Pestilens Counters

We are starting a Path to Glory at the local shop, so my Skaven have been seeing some action lately. One of the things I'm discovering is that there are a lot of different sources for buffing the units, and keeping track of it all can get pretty confusing, especially when the opponent gets a double turn and one of your units gets to fight in three rounds of combat before your hero phase comes around again. There have been many times when I wasn't sure if I was applying a bonus longer than I should have.

I've been "rewiring" my brain to think procedurally in terms of the hero phase:

1. Remove spell counters and buffs that were in play.

2. Make any special moves that occur at the start of the hero phase.

3. Roll for effects that replace models (for the undead).

4. Make any other test that occur in the hero phase.

5. Cast spells.

6. Use the general's command ability.

When it comes to the Clan Pestilens Skaven, it seems that every unit either has or benefits from abilities that give a bonus to the wound roll. And sometimes those abilities are applied to an enemy unit, and sometimes they are applied to a friendly unit.

For example, Plague Priests can Wither an enemy unit, granting +1 to any wound rolls made against it. Plague Monk units have a one-use-only scroll that will also affect an enemy unit, allowing any wound rolls of 1 to be re-rolled against that enemy unit. The Plague Furnace, however, can Bless a single friendly unit, allowing them to re-roll any of their failed wound rolls.

Keeping track of which of these buffs were in play, and which units were benefiting from them was getting pretty confusing, so I put together some counters to make things easier:

 

 

More Age of Sigmar

My buddy Chris came out to visit last week, and he pitted his Khorne Bloodbound army against my Undead. (And we got to break in my new terrain!) You can see more of Chris's models on his blog: World of Walton'scrafts

We played the Escalation scenario from the General's Handbook. Each of us divided our army into three parts, deployed the first third, and then the rest would arrive in turns two and three. The battlefield was divided diagonally, and we were trying to control three objectives– The mausoleum in the upper right corner, the large monument in the center, and the small shrine in the lower left corner.

 

Modeling: Wound Markers

I've gotten the go-ahead to post pictures of the finished Wild West Exodus demo table. I'm finishing up the gallery refit, and I'll have those up next week.

In the mean time, here's a short tutorial on some wound counters. I couldn't get them finished in time for the battle with Steve's Empire, but I have them for next time.

Wound Markers

My initial wound counters were made ages ago for games of Warmaster. They're simply 40K bases with skeleton shield icons on them. Over the years, they've been getting scraped up from knocking around in my dice bag, and it's time for new ones.

 

 

The new markers are modeled as tombstones, using left over sprue.

 

 

I use the cross intersections from the older skeleton sprues. If you're building some of these for yourself, take note of the angled corner. Most sprues have rounded corners, but the angled ones look a little more convincing for tombstone crosses.

 

 

First I shave down any irregularities on the surface.

 

 

Next, using clippers and a hobby knife, I trim the ends to create a uniform cross-shape. 

 

 

Then the bottom is cut at an angle so the tombstone will sit slightly crooked.

 

 

I make sure the basic shape of the cross is consistent...

 

 

...then distress the edges and corners with a knife.

 

 

The tombstones are based on small coins, with some sand and ballast.

 

 

Finally, the markers are stuck to popsicle sticks, spray primed, and painted to match my army's basing scheme.

 

 

Here's the finished batch:

 

 

I've also made similar wound markers for my Skaven army, using the rat skulls in the old Clanrat regiment.

 

 

Simple but effective! The point with all these counters is to maintain the visual aesthetic of the hobby and eliminate the need to put dice on the table for any reason other than when they're being rolled.

'Til next time!

Gearing Up: Counters

Preparing for a game like this reminds me of the days before a Grand Tournament. (Remember those?) I'd spend time going through my miniatures, making sure everything is in shape, racing to finish that last model.

I've wanted to make some new counters to represent spell effects, fear, and the like. Anything that can maintain the aesthetic rather than placing a die on the battlefield. I've already got a few such counters:

Turn Counter

This is an older piece- a classic Wight mounted on a round base. The skull on the statue's base is the "pointer" keeping track of the turns. The decals on the shields are 40K Space Marine water-slide transfers.

 

 

Black Coach Effects

For my black coach, I'd made a "mini coach" using the Warmaster model. To match the full-sized coach details like the wings and dragon head were added, and I even sculpted fire on the wheels.

 

 

The dial is made from a styrene disc, sandwiched between two dreadnought bases. This counter was built during the 6th edition, when the black coach didn't have the current Evocation or Death rules, but rather accumulated wounds on its profile. Hence, the dial goes all the way up to 20. Now, I use it to track the current level of the coach's Evocation, and I use wound counters to mark of its damage.

 

 

Making a Curse of Years Counter

Curse of Years is one of my favorite spells, and it's survived through every edition since I began playing. For anyone unfamiliar with the spell's effect, you roll a die for every model in the target unit. on a 6 the model suffers a wound with no chance for an armor save. It remains in play, and in the following magic phase it will cause wounds on a 5+. The number decreases each turn until the spell is dispelled, or the entire unit has crumbled to dust.

I've had an idea for a counter representing the spell's effects for some time and this week I finally put it together:

Initial Assembly

The pair of counters uses two Corpsemaster models from the corpse cart kit. There will be one counter to mark the unit suffering the effects of the Curse, and a counter to track the spell's level progression.

I've selected the clawed left hand, and the whip right hand. After clipping away the whip and handle, I cut and bent the index finger a bit to create a pointing gesture. 

 

 

I wanted the model to be an empty cloak with just the skull and hands, so all the detail was clipped away (breastplate, skirt and feet). I shaved the torso as smooth and concave as possible, and then glued the arms in place.

 

 

On the back, I used a file to create some additional folds in the cloak and pare down the shape of the cloth wrapping around the back leg.

 

 

Next, I drilled a hole in the bottom of the figure and inserted a length of heavy gauge floral wire.

 

 

Putty Work

On the inside of the cloak, I added some modeling putty and smoothed it out to create a seamless transition.

 

 

On the outside, I filled the gap where the parts of the model join, and blended the putty to follow the folds in the cloak.

 

 

When the putty had dried, a skull was glued into the hood.

 

 

The Base

For the unit marker, I built up a pile of bones on the base of the counter. Most of those bones came from the crypt ghoul kit; the breastplate is from the skeleton kit.

 

 

For the other counter, I needed to incorporate a way to track the spell's progression. My initial concept was to have skulls on pegs, which I'd remove as the spell increased in power; the number of remaining skulls indicated the dice roll needed to wound the target models.

 

 

I wasn't very satisfied with the peg idea. It was a little fiddly to have to reach in and pull each one out, and then make sure they didn't get lost. As I was priming the miniature, I got the idea to use a scroll with numbers on it.

I used a heat gun to melt and bend a strip of styrene plastic to create a flowing scroll that would trail down and attach to the base. 

 

 

The Finished Counters

They painted up pretty quickly; the scroll work probably took the most time. Now I have two beautiful counters to represent the effects of the Curse of Years. The Wraith rotates on its post to point his bony finger at the appropriate number on the scroll.

 

 

Now the real question: Will I get to use my fancy new counter, or will it sit idly on the sidelines as Steve inconsiderately dispels my every attempt to cast Curse of Years? Coming up, the battle report!

'Til next time!