2D and 3D Terrain

One thing I've realized about the miniatures gaming hobby is that you need a lot of terrain unless you want to fight in the desert / plains / snow all the time. Accumulating all of this terrain is practically another hobby unto itself, with a different set of skills required if you're the DIY type of person. For me, I buy as much out-of-the box stuff as possible.

A big terrain challenge is variety. While I've collected a lot of Battlefront's excellent terrain, it's still pretty repetitive unless you buy a lot of it. That gets expensive and brings storage issues into the equation.  Additionally, if you game at more than one scale and in different genres you've compounded the terrain issues.

There's not much to do for it, except try to get as much utility from every piece of terrain in your collection. For me, at least, having every game feature that same hill and forest with the same cabin gets a little old. I'm especially tired of my GW gaming mat, which is an unvarying green felt covering.

I've been playing a lot of board games recently, and a few of them (Battle of Westros and Descent 2 come to mind) play like mini games. I realized the answer to my variety problems has been right under my nose for a while. The RPG world has a huge variety of setting and terrains suitable for miniature gaming. You just have to be fine with it being flat, 2d stuff.

Not only was I fine with it, but I was also greatly surprised with it. I've invested in a few Gamemastery flip maps as well as some wilderness "dungeon tiles" from WOTC. These provided a whole new variety of terrain for my gaming. The flip mats are good sized, 24x30" of high gloss finish. I tried to take some pictures of a game but glare ruined it. Still, the look was pretty awesome and I was able to have a fight inside a forest, which is not something I get to do too often.  I was using the "Deep Woods" flip mat.

I took things a step further and added some 3d terrain to the maps, and things looked even better.  I snapped a few pictures of a battle between Dark Elves and Beastmen that I played as part of an on-going campaign. The Dark Elves were raiding the Beastmen camp to recover an important artifact that they had unwittingly in their possession.

The photography sucks and there's a blue cast from an open window messing with the colors. I'm just throwing this out here for illustrative purposes anyway. These are all tiles from WotC's Essential Wilderness set. The tiles gave me a about a 20" x 20" play area.  Stuffed into this area were different levels of terrain, fallen logs, trees, patches of rough terrain, rocks, and a puddle / pool.  I put on my huts from Gale Force 9 and I was ready to go in just 10 minutes. Clean up took about the same time -- just whisk everything back into the box.

This play area is a lot smaller than I usually use. However, I've found that in my solo campaigns I basically have mostly wasted space on the tabletop. Preparing terrain for areas that won't even be the focus of the battle makes little sense to me. Most of the battle with my small sized forces only focus into a small section, about the size you see here.  With all the terrain in the way, there was a lot of maneuvering and the small area felt a lot larger.

Well, you get the idea by now. If you like variety and don't mind 2D terrain, you should investigate game mats and dungeon tiles. While these are almost exclusively targeted for fantasy games, I can see many of them being "genre neutral." If you pepper in a few 3d pieces, you'll have some pretty sharp looking tables for your games.

Oh, and if anyone cares, the Dark Elves wiped up twice their number of beastmen. Frenzied Witch Elves, while fragile, are really scary in combat. I'm using Savage Worlds for the game, which easily accommodates Warhammer stats. Anyway, the Beastmen eventually broke and ran off the board.

Strippers with Swords!

A while back I bought a package of Blood Vestals and their leader figure from Raging Heroes. My intention was to use them for my Twilight Kin army. Well, they're a little too pricey to make a 20 model unit. I put them in my box of unpainted models and left them there until recently.

So here they are in all their stripper with swords glory.

The poses on some are somewhat wacky and impractical. One looks like she wrenched her back out of place. But on the whole these models are exquisitely sculpted. In fact, my paint job probably ruins some of the detail and beauty of the faces. But I guess it's not as bad as some paint jobs.

I digress. I'll probably end up working these into a fantasy game at some point as "evil elves." I gave them glowing green eyes to make them look suitably sinister. Due to the gratuitous flesh the models themselves lacked much opportunity to bring in color. So I used their hair to create variation.  Also I was a little miffed that the leader model doesn't scale correctly to the other models.

I mean, come on. The difference isn't too bad, but it's a little ridiculous that models from the same company that are meant to form a group don't scale together. I matched them up to my GW Witch Elves, which is what I assume these models are supposed to represent. The leader came closer to the scale of GW, but overall they were a fairly good match. The Raging Heroes models are a little smaller. I hesitate to say "realistic" as their waist size probably would not allow for any internal organs. But this is fantasy.

Overall I'm happy with the way these came out. I don't have an immediate use for these models, but I enjoyed painting them. It was a good lesson in painting smoothly highlighted flesh.

Mighty Armies: Dark Elves

I can't believe it has taken me nearly all of September to complete this little army. I guess I've erroneously concluded that small scale means super fast painting. To a degree this is true. However, there's still a lot of models to cover, with lots of detail, and neatness still counts. Basing these guys is half the battle too. It's a little more challenging with multi-figure bases, at least for me.

Enough whining! Here are some pictures of the Dark Elves. First up are a few different views of the army all together. I couldn't decide which set up would show them better. So now you have two shots of them. You need to enlarge the pictures to see the details, of course.

All told there are 16 stands and about 46 models here. I've got units of great swords, spears, crossbows, and cavalry. I've added in a monster, a "dragon man" and its handler, as well as two commanders and a wizard.  Here are some detailed shots of the army.

I think you can tell which pictures are which units. I made my leader units different colors in case I wanted to run two different Dark Elf armies. My theme colors are dark red with silver and dull orange accents. The blue leader, who turned out to be a chick, was to be my main general. I was thinking the different color would make her easy to see on the battle field.

This was a fun army to paint, though I wasn't inspired to start it.  Maybe that's why it took so long. But once I started working on it, I found myself really enjoying these models. They're excellent sculpts with lots of detail. Like all dark elves, there are female models mixed in with the males, wearing the obligatory useless armor. I kept my painting faithful to the model, no matter how impractical. At 15mm scale showing some midriff is not that exciting. But whatever.

So I'm done with all my 15mm Mighty Armies stuff for now. I plan to reinforce each of my armies before moving on to new ones. Right now, Mighty Armies isn't high on my "game time list." So it'll be a while before I get to them. Still, I really like this line and will certainly expand to more armies in the future.

Dark Elf Heroes

As I promised in my last post, I completed a few Dark Elf heroes to lead my Kings of War Twilight Kin army. I also painted 4 replacement Witch Elves for old school Witch Elves mixed into my unit. I managed to find a few of the metal blisters of the new sculpts for a good price on Chaos Orc Superstore.  I love that place.  I didn't bother taking pictures of the four witch elves.  But below are the two new leaders.

Up first is the Lokhir Fellheart model.  I'll be using him as a Twilight Kin lord. I dispensed with all the fancy sword painting that GW does, going with a basic metallic. I gave his helmet a few washes of brown and green to make it look old.  I think it came out nice. 

 
Next is a Dark Elf Sorceress. She'll play the same role in my Twilight Kin army. I gave her colors that tie in to the spearmen's shields. She came out nice, I think. I have her the typical "Drow" treatment that I've given to all of my models.  She just exposes enough hair and flesh for you to see it.

I'm going to work on something else next.  When I return to the Twilight Kin, it will be to complete a 20 man unit of crossbowmen and some cavalry.  But I want to do something else for now.  I just haven't figured out what that is yet.

Dark Elf Spearmen

While I haven't been posting up much, I've still been busy with my various miniatures projects. I've had a lot less time to work on models than I'm used to having. So my output has decreased. But today I put finishing touches on more of my Dark Elf / Twilight Kin forces.  While these are GW dark elf models, they work perfectly for Kings of War Twilight Kin, which is what I'm planning. Here are two core units of 20 spearmen each.

I've tried to stay away from the purple and black color scheme that seems "dark elf standard" these days. I've gone for a pale gray green with subdued darker greens and dull reds. I've also been painting their flesh with Reaper's Dark Elf Skin triad, and it works great. The old school GW models even show hair, so that got painted white. Hopefully they look like Drow!


Here are a few sample models I pulled out.

The lot of dark elf models I bought earlier this year actually came with printed banners on adhesive paper. I only got one but liked the looks of it. Most modeled banners looks so heavy, or you get the banner hanging in the faces of other models. This one bends back naturally to get out of a neighboring model's way. I wish all banners were like that. But I also understand the challenge and rewards of hand painting your own banner. I thought about doing that for my other unit. Maybe some other time.

I have one more "core unit" for the Twilight Kin force and that is 20 crossbowmen.  From there I can work on specialty units. Up next immediately are 4 witch elf replacements for the old school witch elves I have. Then I'll paint up two characters to lead the army. After that I'll probably move on to a different project for a while.

OOOH HOOO Withcy Woman

Technically they are Witch Elves, but that Eagles song just kept playing in my head whenever I worked on these models. I'm glad to be done with them and rid myself of the song.  These are the first models from the batch of Dark Elves I got several weeks ago. I'm beginning to doubt if I'll ever get all those models painted! I'll be using them for Kings of War or skirmish games. Neither option will need as many Dark Elves as I own.

So foregoing raven hair and ruby lips (and sparks from fingertips.... there's that damn song again!) I chose to paint them as Drow.  The overall effect, when ranked up in a unit, is a confused mass of black and white.  Take a look at what I mean.

I used Reaper's Dark Elf skin tone triad, which is a nice grayed lavender color. I used a very gray green for their clothing.  Overall, I like the effect on individual models.  Here are some close ups of the girls.

Overall I think they came out pretty good, and I like the colors.  I got a kick out of the 80s ripped fishnet stockings.  These Witch Elves could be on the cover of a Ratt album.

A full unit consists of 20 models for Kings of War. I only had 16 of the newest sculpts, and had to back fill with the old school Witch Elves.

I hate these models, as they are all hair and ugly as sin. I'd much prefer to have all the newest sculpts. I still have a bunch of these old ones.  If anyone wants these models, I'd be willing to trade one for one for the new witch elves.  I still want Witch Elves, but just not these hags.  They're all hair and their weapons look like hunks of metal, not very interesting to paint.

So I just wanted a break from all the military stuff that I have been painting (and still have to paint). I've got some 15mm sci-fi to show you soon.  Then I'm teeing up 15mm fantasy!  I played a few games of Mighty Armies last night and I think I'm really going to like it.  I hope so, since I've already got three armies for it!

Dark Elves

I have always wanted a Dark Elf army. It was on my list to buy right after I completed my Ogre Kingdoms army. Well, I never finished the ogre army, and that means Dark Elves became a forgotten plan. As time went on my friends stopped playing WHFB and GW prices made it an impossible project.

While I wasn't looking for this army, a great deal came my way. I was able to pick up a lot of stuff, more than I'll use for a skirmish game. Here's a picture of the everything I picked up.

So what's in these boxes?  I spent some time cataloging everything.  Since some of these are "old school" models I guessed at what they were.  The list is in no particular order.

• 3 Sorceresses with skull staff
• 1 Sorceress on Cold One
• Morathi on Dark Pegasus
• Cauldron of Blood and crew
• 4 Repeater bolt throwers
• 3 Assassins
• 18 Cold One Riders with Command
• War Hydra and 3 handlers
• 40 Spearmen with cmd
• 32 Crossbows with cmd
• 20 "Old school" plastic warriors (Hand weapon & shields)
• 1 Executioner Command team (5 models)
• 38 Black Guard with Command (Some old school models in this; I guessed they were Black Guard)
• 14 Shades
• 20 Corsairs with cmd
• 10 Dark Riders with cmd
• 32 Witch Elves with cmd
• 2 Familiars

That's 260 models and a retail price of $1,364.  I won't report what I paid for this, but it was not $1,364!  The nice thing is these are all assembled and unpainted with no basing.  I get to do it my way!

I'm not playing WHFB anymore, and no one around me is interested.  At a cost of $1k to get started, it's no wonder. While I have a lot of models now, it's still not enough to make standard units.  I'd still have to dump more money into this to get a playable army.  I wouldn't do that, but do plan to get that awesome DE lord on a black dragon.  He'll be my reward for painting this whole force.

I've got some great plans for this army, especially the Witch Elves.  I want to paint them up as Drow, not the pale-faced bad boy elves that GW does.  Also, I should really consider looking at Kings of War as an alternative to WHFB.  I bet this force would work fine.  Now if only I can find an opponent for KoW!  I have two other armies in GW format to use in KoW.  I just need a willing player.

That's all for now.  I've got some painting to do.