The Anarchy

This might seem an odd title for a post given the somewhat sedate poses of the models in the photo, but they are technically King Stephen and Empress Mathilda, the two claimants to the throne of England during the civil war known as 'the Anarchy' between 1138 and 1153.

These two miniatures were both picked up from the two Partizan shows in Newark last year. This show always seems to have a pair of matched complementary miniatures to encourage visitors to attend both events during the year.

I decided to paint these two as a palette cleanser after the orks as they're fairly simple miniatures and would allow me to get some quick progress.

King Stephen ruled from 1135 to 1154 and arguably usurped the throne from Mathilda despite having sworn to support her. He managed to get captured by her in 1141 and was only released as an exchange fore Mathilda's husband Robert, who also managed to get captured by Stephen's wife (also called Mathilda) in the same year after the 'rout of Winchester'.

For colours, I decided to base Stephen on this illustration from a set of cigarette cards that was collected by my grandfather. I feel that it's meant that he ended up brighter than had I just gone which what seemed right, but I quite like it. 

Mathilda was married to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, until his death in 1125, and then was the named successor of Henry I of England (her father). Despite the royal court swearing an oath to support her rule, the throne was taken by Stephen of Blois who had the backing of the church.

Despite successes in war, she was never formally crowned Queen of England, but her son, Henry II, claimed the throne as Stephen's successor after Stephen's son Eustace died in 1131.

In terms of colours, most versions of Mathilda I've seen, draw inspiration from this illustration, leaning heavily on the red an black. I like that this leaves the two claimants to the throne with completely different colour palettes.

I can't imagine that I'm going to suddenly build and paint a pair of early medieval armies and so the only slight chances that these might hit the table some time soon is either in a 7TV Fantasy scenario, or possibly in MESBG using the King of Men profile that was used as a excuse to create miniatures for the single shot of the nine human ringbearers before they were turned into Ringwraiths.

It's always good to get a quick win, something that I've added to by passing a mule miniature I'm not going to use on to a friend. I'm edging ever so close to getting the Lead Mountain total below 500 at last.

Acquired: 38
Painted: 138
Lead Mountain: 501

Insert Inappropriate Title Here

I spent ages trying to come up with an appropriate pun-based title for this post, but I couldn't come up with a way to talk about these particular models without inviting the wrong sort of visitors to the page.

Look at my Nobz.

Get Yer Nobz Out

Big Nobz

See what I mean?

Anyway, here they are. The last four Orks I currently own are now painted. Again I've painted them as Bad Moons because that's the core clan of my army with 'specialists' coming from other armies. 

In addition to the one I painted alongside the Warboss, it gives me a unit of 5. However, for the time being, I will need to use two of them as a Mekboy and a Runtherd to allow me to use the Squig Katapult, so until I get some more models I'll be running a unit of three with my Warboss, which is fortunately a thing that's allowed.

This chap here will by my stand in Mekboy for the time-being, and might actually stay in that role, allowing him to have acombi-flamer and a some kind of bioniks (I've not really thought it through) He will probably need a boss pole with a spanner on it if this becomes the case.

This chap was demoted. He was in my original purchase and was destined to be my Warboss until I picked up the bigger model from Assault on Black Reach. He still might end up as a character with a cybork body and an attack squig because I'm already quite fond of him.

The squig is a much brighter orange, it just hasn't come out on the photo.

This is pretty much the exact same model as the other Nob I painted (the left arms are at slightly different angles) so I've gone to the effort of making sure that his flashes of yellow are in different places as. In the long run it won't matter, but whilst they are running about in tiny units, I want there to be at least a touch of visual variation.

Finally there's this chap, who's another one of those problems hidden in eBay photos. He arrived without shoulder pads and had big squared holes in his shoulders. Therefore I've fashioned him pads from the spare foot from the Leviathan Dreadnought kit (I am making loads of use of the spares in that kit) and I positioned them to cover as much of the holes as possible and filled the bits that were still visible. I like that Orks really to respond to the kitbash aesthetic really well.

He still needs a gun of some sort and he might be the one who ends up as my Runtherd as the idea of throwing stikkbombz around a large mob of Gretchin amuses me.

So barring a few spare Gnoblars to do, that is all the Orks I've bought recently painted. I now have about 1000 points in second edition, which should be good for a game, although I'm going nowhere near the Eldar until I have a Weirdboy. I'm still planning to kitbash another artillery piece and I'll probably aim to get at least a game in before I buy more.

Acquired: 39

Painted: 136

Lead Mountain: 504

More Dakka!

One of the things I enjoy about building an army with assorted eBay lots, is the fact that the army evolves organically as you try to make some sense of other people's decisions. That's what has happened in this post...

...and I've also painted a pencil sharpener.

Ploughing through my small, recently acquired, Ork backlog I've come to what appears to be a mismatched group of Lootas, where for some reason whoever I bought these from had built two as Burnas and two as Lootas, leaving not enough to make a unit of each. 

Fortunately, 2nd edition 40k still gives me options for how to use them in the army.

The Burnas have been painted in Bad Moon colours to enable them to fit into my ever growing bolter mob and beginning to take advantage of the Bad Moon special rule to allow them to have as many special weapons as they like.

However, the two Lootas will unsurprisingly join my Deathskulls (which is handy given that one of them has a big skull on it). After a bit of discussion with Matt, despite having options for Auto-cannons or Heavy Bolters, I've decided to count their guns as Kustom Mega Blasters so that I don't have to remember what each gun is. Also, they look more than a bit 'kustom'.

Finally, the pencil sharpener...erm, Squig Katapult.

This is genuinely a souvenir trebuchet pencil sharpener I bought many years ago, possibly with the intention of using it in my Bretonnian army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It used to have a firing mechanism, which would have been fun mid-game, but I've rendered it 'safe' to prevent the arm from being permanently vertical.

I've not done much in terms of converting the original model, apart from adding a few more boards using coffee stirrers (which are fortunately exactly the same width as the boards on the model) and an old Goblin shield.

I can't shake the feeling that it looks a a bit like the yellow 2CV from For Your Eyes Only. However, janky-homebrew conversions are what wargaming in the early 90s was all about, so I feel that it's totally appropriate for a 2nd edition army.

It will be crewed by two of the Gretchin without any ranged weapons.

I can't promise that this is the last of the ropey artillery to appear given that I've found a few more Gnoblars at the bottom of my bitz box. On the subject of which, I did a bit of sorting and ended up disposing of a handful of broken models that had been lurking in there for years. It doesn't affect the Lead Mountain score (as I never counted the contents of the bitz box), but it does help to balance out some of my recent purchases.

Acquired: 39
Painted: 132
Lead Mountain: 508

Theodred's Fate

It's been a while since we ventured into Middle Earth, but I've still a few more things to paint before the Fellowship can enter Moria, therefore Matt and I returned to the lapsed War in Rohan campaign to fight the second scenario: The First Battle of the Fords of Isen.

Due to the limitations of my collection, the forces were not exactly as detailed in the War in Rohan campaign book. The Rohirrim were short of three Outriders, but had an extra Rider of Rohan in Elfhelm's command, whereas for the forces of Isengard, Thrydan Wolfsbane was replaced with Gorulf Ironskin and the 9 Dunlendings were substituted by 12 Wildmen of Dunland.

Also, for reference, we used alternate models for the Rohirrim heroes. Theodred is Eomer, Gamling is Grimbold of Grimslade and Elfhelm is a Royal Guard with a ridiculously long spear. 

Deployment

Having heard the news of Saruman's servants advancing into Rohan, Theodred had recklessly led a small force to hold the Fords of Isen against the invaders.

In order to support this effort, Grimbold of Grimslade was marching his Helmingas with all haste to support his prince.

This was fortunate, as Theodred was massively outnumbered and the evil servants of Isengard were swarming down to engulf his small force.

Turns 1-2

Leaving his force to block the ford, Theodred rode back to greet Grimbold's reserves and give orders to reinforce the fords and hold until whenever Elfhelm arrived.

Volleys of black-fletched arrows sang out towards the shieldwall and gaps began to appear in the line. Some of them embedded with thicker, shorter quarrels, impacting with deadly force.

Vrasku watched as his shots went true, dropping the strawheads where they stood.

The Uruk-hai crashed into the Rohirrim line, which looked like it would buckle and break until Theodred recklessly charged into support his faltering men.

Theodred heroically cut down several of the foul creatures, but as his allies were cut down or pushed back, he was in danger of advancing too far and being cut off.

Things looked desperate and it was doubtful that even the Helmingas would help to stem the tide, but at that moment, clear horns sounded in the distance.

Elfhelm had arrived...early... 

Turns 3-6

Riding down towards the river, Elfhelm divided his forces. He led the main group as fast as he could to support Prince Theodred whilst directing a smaller force to slow their horses and fire into the mass of Uruks to thin the herd.

Meanwhile, Grimbold and the Helmingas rushed in to fill the gaps in the Rohirrim line and preventing Theodred being isolated (a timely heroic move and Theodred being able to tactically charge backwards saved his bacon here).

Grimbold's commanding voice could be heard bolstering morale as the wave of Uruk-hai crashed against the Rohirrim shield wall. Urging the men to fight defensively, the men of Rohan did not slay many of their foes but had begun to push them backwards, step by step, across the river.

Riding to the rescue, Elfhelm realised his cavalry could not make an impact in the battle at the ford and slowed his advance to fire arrows into the mass of the enemy.

The press at the ford became more intense as Gorulf Ironskin struggled to get through the struggling mass of bodies to make his axes count in the fight. The Warg Riders moved to behind the ford to shield themselves from the arrows now flying thick and fast from the other side of the river.

With the enemy cavalry hiding from view, Elfhelm wheeled his cavalry to take aim at the Uruk Scouts who were making themselves a nuisance on the southern bank and had taken the horses from under two of his riders. 

The massed bows of the Rohirrim began to tell and one by one the Uruk Scouts fell. With the ranged threat from Isengard neutralised, it was all about the fight at the ford.

Turns 7-9

Grimbold was tiring (out of Might) and greater strength of the Uruk-hai was beginning to tell. Theodred was a flurry of slaughter, but he couldn't be everywhere. As once again the line began to buckle, Elfhelm rode into the ford to take command and ensure that the shield wall held.

Theodred's recklessness caused him once again to plunge into the heart of the enemy lines and he found himself surrounded and alone on the far bank.

He once again slew all about him, but another surge of the enemy cut down more of the men of Rohan, but the line held once again as Elfhelm's men thundered into to ford.

The charge of the Riders threw the Uruks back in disarray and put a ring of steel around the prince, but Gorulf Ironskin was now able to make his axes felt and Riders were hewn from their horses around him.

The defensive line Elfhelm had posted as a rear-guard were also drawn into the frothing, bloody fray as men, horse and Uruks died in the frothing waters of the fords.

Turns 10-12

Despite taking heavy losses, the Rohirrim has pushed the remaining forces of Isengard back across the river and Theodred was leading from the front.

Vrasku and Gorulf Ironskin had been given two goals: to take the fords and to slay the impetuous prince of Rohan. Control of the fords was now beyond their reach, but Theodred was still within striking distance.

Vrasku and the remaining Uruks and Wildmen threw themselves into the enemy, trying to leave Gorulf a path through to Theodred, A single Rider stood in his way and was hewn down in a furious frenzy. Ironskin's path to the prince was clear.

As the Dunlending chieftain charged into the heir to the throne of Rohan, the rest of the Rohirrim rode to his aid and aimed to finish off the last of the enemy forces. Vrasku was surrounded and trapped, but somehow managed to overcome Grimbold and several of the men of Rohan, bursting out of the ring of foes and running for the safety of the treeline.

Gorulf and Theodred clash in a battle of champions. Their skills were evenly matched and their blades were a blur of steel. Suddenly the flurry of blows stopped. Gorulf stood still, staring as blood flowed from the wound in his throat cut by Theodred's sword.

The fords had been held.

Aftermath

This was a really tense affair which the pictures don't really capture. The pushing and shoving at the ford was full of intricacies and back and forth, and certainly, early in the game the Rohirrim could easily have been cut down, but three elements seemed to turn the tide of the battle:

1. Elfhelm's cavalry arrived as early as they possibly could, wiping out the Uruk-hai's advantage almost immediately. Had they turned up on turn 9 (as was possible) things could have been very different.
2. Having more heroes was a real bonus to the Rohirrim as it meant that I was able to ignore the whims of the initiative dice for much of the battle and prevent the line from breaking and the Uruk-hai surging through the gaps.
3. Fighting defensively at the fords had the unforeseen effect of keeping Gorulf Ironskin trapped behind his own men for much of the battle. He would have cut down the Rohirrim line and although he lost to Theodred, if he'd had allies in that fight, things might have been different.

Unfortunately, Theodred surviving means that Theoden's will won't break and Grima Wormtongue will not be able to convince him to not oppose Saruman, ultimately ruining the entire plot of The Lord of the Rings.

Oh well...looks like the campaign is over...

Postscript

As the strawheads gathered around their prince and cheered their victory, Vrasku watched from the darkness of the treeline.

Theodred, the warrior who had seemed to burn like a bright flame in battle. Such a warrior would rally the men of Rohan and lead them against Saruman's forces. The muster of the horselords would run down the Uruk-hai on the plains and the White Wizard's plans would come to nothing.

Lifting his crossbow, he took careful aim at Theodred and let fly. The shot flew true and thunked into the shoulder of the crowing princeling, knocking him from his horse. Vrasku leered, the blow wouldn't kill him, but the venom he had smeared onto it would eat away at the man and lay him low in a day or two. His end would be painful, and he would never ride again.

As horses thundered up towards his hiding place, Vrasku turned and slipped into the shadows. He alone would return to Isengard to tell Saruman of what had transpired.

Bad Moon Rising

 A few more Orks done, bringing a little much-needed leadership to proceedings. In fact, adding the Warboss now gets my force to a playable level, although I've got a little bit to go before getting to 1000 points.

The Warboss is actually a model I've painted before. In the last post I mentioned previously starting an Ork army some years ago. This army was based on the contents of the Assault on Black Reach starter box for 5th edition, which included the same Warboss.

One of my many downsizing exercises saw the army sold as I wasn't playing 40k and I kept only the Blood Angels. The army never got used by me.

Therefore. I'm really pleased to get my hands this model again as I really like it. It was actually already painted really well so I only needed to alter a few colours to make him a Bad Moon and tie him into the rest of my army, so he didn't actually take too much time to do.

However, in a classic eBay 'buyer beware' moment I didn't actually realise that the model was missing part of the power claw until I was actually painting it.

Fortunately, I managed to use one of the claws from 'the kit that keeps on giving' (the Leviathan Dreadnought - I'd already carved up spare parts to provide shoulder pads for some of the Deathskulls) to replace the missing piece and stuffed some wire into the holes to cover up gaps.

It works, even though the blade is notably thinner - it's Orks, things not matching is their style.

The Nob is also one from the Assault on Black Reach set and was similarly mainly painted and so just needed a little touching up.

Again, I've made him a Bad Moon as I'm going to have my burgeoning Nobs mob be from the same clan as the Warboss, as that makes sense to me. It also means that until I paint the rest, he can lead the Bad Moon boys mob.

I did a bit more digging in my bitz box to put together a few more Gnoblars as Gretchin, and one of them got given another Imperial Militia blunderbuss tucked behind its shield.

The other one doesn't have a firearm, and I now have a few like this. I have several options for these, including using them as assistants for characters, hunting out some weapons, or, and currently this is favourite, using them as crew for some scratch-built artillery.

I'll have to see what I can come up with.

The battle standard bearer it kitbashed to with an inch of his life. It consists of a Gnoblar base model, a Bretonnian banner pole, a Zombie banner and what I assume is a Goblin icon, although I've no idea where it came from. I will have to track down a pistol of some sort at some point.

In case you were wondering, I have weighted the base quite significantly.

I'm really pleased with the freehand symbol on the banner. I used an image I found online as a reference, but it came out much better than I was expecting. I suspect that part of it was the fact that I did use a reference image and the fact that it's quite large.

Anyway, five more Orks done, although three of them are bitz box and don't affect the Lead Mountain. Only a few more to do now.

Acquired: 47

Painted: 127

Lead Mountain: 513

'ERE WE GO!

 So...yeah...

...this happened...

Playing those games of 2nd Edition 40k has made me want to start a new army and I've gone with Orks. I've not gone with 2nd Edition models because the cost would be a bit prohibitive on an army that needs to be as big as an Ork army does.

Why Orks? It's the army I wanted at the time I was reading all those White Dwarf articles, vainly supporting Jervis Johnson as he got repeatedly smashed. I've actually started Ork armies in 40k and WFB before but always been put off by the scale of the painting. However, now that I enjoy painting more than I did and and somewhat faster at it, I've decided to have another go.

As this is me, I began by heading to eBay to see what I could pick up and managed to get my hands on about 30 Orks for £20, which seemed a decent deal and set about painting them.

I began with a unit of 9 Goff Boys (who may end up as Skarboyz) and a Nob which I painted according to Midwinter Minis speed painting Ork Boyz guide (so rather than saying what I did, you should go there, it's a good guide) give or take a few paints and choices.

I made sure to get checks on each model (my free handing is never amazing, but these are Orks, so it doesn't matter) and ensured that there was a bit of red on each model because these are destined for 2nd Edition games. They're a bit grimmer and grittier than most 2nd Edition models, but I'm happy with how they've come out...although I have just noticed that the barrels still need doing.

I then moved on to a unit of 6 Deathskulls with missile launchers (not 'rokkits' as these are for 2nd Edition). 

One of the pleasures of eBay is letting somebody else make choices for you. In this case there were only two genuine rokkit launcher boys in the unit. The rest were just missiles stuck onto sticks. I was going to try to add firing mechanisms to these (and I still might) but I figured that if Orks believe a rokkit on a stick will work, then it will.

An interesting detail of this unit is that several of the kitbashed models use fantasy Orcs as a base. This actually works out really well as it suits the 'loota' nature of the Deathskulls and gives them a more ramshackle appearance.

I'd done these two units fairly quickly and had got it into my head that I would hold off on posting until I'd painted the whole lot I'd bought. Then two things happened.

Firstly, work became a bit busy, meaning that my output slowed down. Secondly, I bought more stuff (a Warboss, some Nobs and special weapons, and a bunch of Gretchin) and so my deadlines got pushed further out.

I only go back to painting the Gretchin this week, their number supplemented by a handful of Gnoblars that were lurking at the bottom of the bits box. Two of these were given blunderbusses from the old Empire Militia kit, but two still need ranged weapons or are destined to become assistants for characters.

Being smaller and less detailed, I worked through the Gretchin quite quickly, the only major difference in method being using a lighter green for highlighting the skin. However, it had now been almost two weeks since my last post.

Therefore I made the decision to finish off the last of the larger mobs and post where I was up. And so I did and here they are: the Bad Moon boyz.

The pervious mobs of Orks had sort of chosen their clan for me as Goffs are melee specialists and Deathskulls are allowed more than two heavy weapons. However, when it came to the bolter (not 'shoota' remember, this is 2nd Edition) armed boyz thins were less clear cut. 

I opted for Bad Moons for a number of reasons. Firstly, them all having bolters or heavy stubbers (not 'big shootas') did reflect the Bad Moons background of having the best stuff, even though their particular rule is about having more special weapons. Secondly, I'd already mentally decided that I wanted a mob of each clan, meaning that the others were all likely to be special units: Snakebite boarboyz, Evil Sunz bikers and Blood Axe Kommandos. Finally, I had decided for the flimsiest reason that my Warboss would be a Bad Moon and so I could add more models to this mob as I went along, including special weapons as I got my hands on them and therefore this would be the only clan that might be represented more than once.

And there we have it. Although the idea of saving up painting for a big drop was nice, the practicality left me struggling to meet artificial deadlines, which is not a thing I want in my hobby. I'll return to posting more often but with less content. Additionally, keeping track of the Lead Mountain was quite tricky, especially as a visit to Chillcon added a couple more free miniatures to the pile (I picked up the Star Saga game really cheaply too, but I have no intention of painting the miniatures for that).

Acquired: 47

Painted: 122

Lead Mountain:515