Savages!!!

The end of June's project heralds the beginning of July's project, and as a culmination of my Guildball project, JP came over to give my Morticians a thorough going over with his Butcher's Guild team.

I'd like to point out before I begin, that JP was the winner of the world's first official Guildball tournament last months...with his Butchers. In fact, he apparently won the final in the manner of a steamroller. This wasn't going to be easy. However, it was going to be fun; I haven't played JP since our gaming club folded a couple of years ago, and we have a history of some brutal, and epic Bloodbowl matches (I seem to remember that our Skaven/Norse game broke the scoreboard).

The teams were as follows:

Morticians - Obulos, Dirge, Casket, Graves, Cosset, Silence

Butchers - Ox, Princess, Shank, Meathook, Boiler, Gutter (apparently he was being 'nice' by not using a character called Boar)

We deployed in fairly flat lines, and the game began with Ox kicking straight down the middle and following up. I used Casket to move up and use a range of his abilities to prevent Ox from moving, and then a combination of Silence and Obulos' Puppetmaster skill allowed me to move the ball out to the right towards where Dirge and Cosset were making headway up the field.

Apologies for the rubbish photo.

 I felt that I'd made a good start and then I started to learn how the game really worked. In a flash of special rules, Shank leapt forwards, stole the ball, dodged through my defence and flash a shot straight towards my goal. Score 4-0 to the Butchers. Ouch!

The ball was kicked out and Dirge went to collect it and again move up the right as that was where I had players. I began trying to batted the Butchers in the area, but found Shank hard to lay my hands on and Gutter could heal herself fairly easily. Cosset, however, struggled to do the same and eventually fell in the battle of attrition. 6-0 to the Butchers!

In the middle, Casket was doing an excellent job of tying up the lethal Ox, and when Meathook joined the fray, Graves managed to get behind the pair and unleash a scything blow that hurt Ox, but put Meathook and the nearby Shank onto a dangerously low level of health. However, before I could capitalise on this, Graves also fell to some brutal combination attacks from the Butchers. 8-0.

However, the build of damage I'd been inflicting across the Butchers finally paid dividends and with the writing on the wall in terms of the overall game, Obulos battered Gutter into submission and Dirge launched up field with the ball in a desperate rush to score. 8-2.

However, this was to be my final act as the job of holding up the main Butcher attack alone finally told on poor Casket and he fell before Ox's cleaver and then Boiler was launched towards the fragile Dirge and was more the capable of bringing down the the ball-bearing Bat. 12-2 to the Butchers.

Well, that was brutal.

To be honest, I wasn't at all surprised at the result and I feel that in some areas I did quite well. Casket was very good at keeping Ox occupied and to some extent out of the game. However, instead of attacking him, Casket's actual attacks should have been focused on a squishier player like Meathook, and he would have been helped in this if I'd given Graves more influence to get involved earlier.

Obulos is excellent and his Puppetmaster ability is really useful at controlling play, however, each time I got the ball, I didn't do enough with it and found myself drawn into a slugging match with the Butchers that I was destined to lose. I needed to get the ball moving sooner and be more aware of how easy it is to lose the ball. Cosset really struggled to make an impact, and she may find herself substituted out of a Union player like Mist in my next game.

I'm really enjoying Guildball and this game (my second, as I played another friend's Alchemists using his Fishermen a couple of weeks ago) has really whetted my appetite for more.

So with one project complete, a new one begins. Dave, one of the participants of the 6MMRPC has been working on some excellent Woodland Indians from the French & Indian War, and has inspired me to finally have a crack at the warband I've had kicking around for some years.

I originally bought these for Muskets & Tomahawks, but I never really played that, and then the got co-opted into my continuously false-starting War of 1812 project, and recently they've become a potential opponents for Mike's new Pirates project. And so, with numerous outlets for them, I've finally begun to paint them.

This picture is actually a rarity for me, as I don't normally like to post WIP photos, however, I've done this one to show the skin tone I've got for my Native Americans. I've done some digging on different paint recipes, but it didn't really work, and so I've settled on simply using Ratskin Flesh and a wash. I works for me. :)

So my goal for July is to complete the warband of 22 models and hopefully get some form of game in with them. No idea what rules I'll be using though...

Operation Unthinkable: Guildball Teams

It's coming up to the end of the month and I've finished of my Union team with the team captain, Blackheart, the team mascot, Coin, and the team hatchet-man (literally), Rage. For these three I needed to get a bit more creative than with the previous repaints and hand swaps, and despite some reservations I'm quite pleased with my work.

Blackheart, Team Captain, Central Midfielder

This is not the model I originally planned to use. I'd orginally intended to build Blackheart from an ancient Citadel miniature, Lord Aquila. However, when I got him out of the deep recesses of the bits box I found that a smidge of scale creep had happened and he was now a midget. Therefore I returned to the bits box to see what I could find and the best I could do was a Wizards of the Coast D&D Red Dragon Samurai (no, I don't know what one of those is either).

I quite like the helmet, but the rest of the mode was somewhat flat and featureless. What's more that sword had some kind of dodgy flame effect, so that needed to go. However, I managed to cover up some of the dullest elements of the model by adding a cloak from a Heroclix Robin model. I'm particularly pleased with the fur collar I manage to sculpt out of 'blue stuff' onto the cloak to cover the join.

Overall, I'm pleased that I've managed to make a model that I really didn't like into something useable that I wouldn't be too embarrassed to use in public.

Coin, Team Mascot

The mascot probably present the biggest obstacle to cheaphammering Guildball. The Union's mascot is a snake with a distended belly due to Blackheart feeding it his gold. Not having a snake to hand, I got creative and joined the head and tail of a Heroclix Lizard (as in Spider-man) model. Sadly, the picture reveals part of the join that I hadn't noticed, but I'm still happy with my creation.

I'm perhaps most pleased with the treasure pile, which was made from a Bretonnian chest and some coins I made by cutting some plastic rod. It's a technique I may use to improve my Batman loot counters.

Rage, Attacking Midfielder

Rage is a player who seems to be wholly focused on  damaging the opposition. He is a loner who can't gain benefits from working in conjunction with his teammates. The official model is clearly based on Daniel Day-Lewis' character from 'The Gangs of New York', and I felt it important for character recognition that mine also had a top hat.

Fortunately, I had a War of 1812 militiaman I wasn't planning to use and so a simple head swap onto a model made from the old Empire Free Company box from GW mad a suitable model for Rage. I also added a different hand and weapon to sword the model originally had.

So that's the Union team complete. I'm not as happy with them as I am the Mortician's, but that's largely because they were a last minute solution to realising that I couldn't really do a Masons team. They're good enough to allow me to begin to play games with my friends, and perhaps tempt them into the game.

What's more, both Rage and Mist are eligible to play for the Morticians, allowing me to mix up my line up in games against people who already play the game.

So with 12 models and two teams created I'm going to claim my first joker from #6MMRPC for completing a project, and a bundle of previous unused models have been removed from the lead pile. I probably need to create a ball and some goals at some point, and I need to get round to printing out the Union cards, but those were never in my targets for the month.

In terms of next month, I'm not sure what I'm going to work on yet, and next week's post will provide details and the 'before' pictures for my next project. I'm torn between finishing off my Flames of War Americans, putting together a either a Native Warband or a US War of 1812 force for Muskets & Tomahawks, or returning to some Batman miniatures.

On the subject of Batman, I'll be attending another tournament at Titan Games in Lichfield on Saturday. This time I'm taking the Dark Knight himself. Expect another tournament report in the coming days.

Cheaphammering Guildball: Joining The Union

After finishing the Morticians' Guild last week, I've turned my attentions to a new team. Initially I'd planned to build the Masons' Guild but a couple of issues arose to change my mind. Firstly, I was struggling to identify how to make their mascot, which is a baboon; I had thought about using a snotling or child, but neither of these are animals and it bugged me. Secondly, I was planning to use a plastic human Bloodbowl team I've had knocking about for years as a base for the male players, but they really haven't aged well and being one piece plastics, converting them was likely to be a pain. Thirdly, and most improtantly, my close study of the Guildball range recently has led me to the conclusion that if/when I actually buy a team, the Masons are the team I like the most and so it seemed daft to do them twice.

And so, in order to meet my target, I needed to choose a second team and I settled up the Union, a bunch of shady mercenaries who as well as playing for their own team, are also able to feature in other Guild teams.

Snakeskin, Fangtooth, Coin, Blackheart, Rage, Decimate, Mist & Gutter

This decision turned out to be quite straightforward as I had been intending to make a couple of Union players to provide some versatility in my squads and cover for players I didn't know how to make. I'd already picked out my base models for a few players, and these are the ones I've been getting on with this week. From left to right: Gutter, Mist and Snakeskin. (apologies about picture quality - the light is terrible today)

Gutter, Central Midfielder

Gutter is a brawler, who is not only able to dish out damage, but also heals when she hurts others. Her hook and chain can be used to haul enemies closer, or inflict damage on everybody near her, including her own team. The models I've used is a Mage Knight character I've had for years (I've no idea why I had her, I never played the game). I had been planning to use this model for the Masons' captain, Honour, but when I switched focus she just as easily fit Gutter. A hand swap (from a LotR Rohirrim - smaller model = smaller hands better for female characters), a head swap (Wargames Factory Female Survivors sprue) and a bodged together hook and chain made for a straightforward build.

Mist, Striker

This elusive character strikes from the shadows, stealing the ball and evading pursuit. Mist is also available to play for the Morticians and was one of the Union characters I'd always intended to do as he can bring some much needed speed to their line-up. It's because of this that I've kept the colour scheme so similar to my Morticians team. This was also a simple build, using a D&D Githyanki with hand swaps from GW Wood Elves and adding a mask over the lower part of the face - this is not only matches the character design, but also covers the frankly terrible facial features on this model.

Snakeskin, Winger

Snakeskin is also nimble and fast, but as well as being able to steal the ball, she can dish out damage, along with the poison condition, which can really hamper opponents. This probably makes her the most versatile of the three players I've done so far. She was also the easiest model I've done all month, and is simply a Heroclix Spoiler (a Batman character), repainted with a shortsword added. I actually have a couple of these models and one of them is due to be painted up to join my BMG collection.

So that's three down and three to go. These three were the easy ones, and I'm having to be more creative to make my remaining players: Blackheart, Coin and Rage.

Cheaphammering Guildball - Finishing the Morticians

Guildball requires six players on a full team, and I now have that. I've completed the final two players on my kit-bashed Mortician's Guild team: Cosset and Casket. That means I can now start playing games and losing badly.

COSSET, Winger

Cosset is a screaming banshee of a player, able to attack without spending influence and able to take damage to increase her attack potential. For this model I used a Wargames Factory Zombie Vixen body with arms taken from the Wargames Factory Female Survivors sprue. Wargames Factory's kits are really versatile, but the heads lack definition, and so I used a metal head from a Crossover Miniatures superhero model. I think it's meant to be a female version of Vision from the Avengers, but I feel that it give my Cosset a creepy porcelain doll feel.

CASKET, Central Midfielder

My final player is a bigger guy, built for endurance and obstruction. Casket has the fun ability to trap enemy player in the coffin he carries about, and so it wasn't optional about whether I gave the model his unusual backpack.

The base model is a Heroclix Solomon Grundy that I'd been planning to turn into a tank zombie. A simple weapon swap was easy enough to do, and the coffin was the last thing I bought before the beginning of the Mountain Reduction Challenge, in a pack of four from Warbases. The most difficult part of the model was solving how I was going to secure the coffin to his back.  I settled on actually using painted string, an idea that came from my five-year-old daughter, and frankly, it was better than anything that I could come up with. I like it.

So that's my Mortician's Guild team finished. I've even printed out the game cards and am ready to play. However, my goal was to make two teams and, as I'll detail in my next post, the plan to do the Mason's Guild has hit problems, the solutions to which have called on some heavy duty lateral thinking.

Cheaphammering Guildball - the Mortician's Guild

I've completed the first four miniatures in my kit-bashed Mortician's team for Guildball. I'm building a Mortician's team simply because it's the easiest one to do given that I've had a WFB Undead army for 25 years and so have plenty of appropriate bits knocking about.

Guildball requires six models to play: a captain, a mascot and four other players. There are no points values in the game, and so you can swap any players eligible to play for your team in and out as you wish. There are currently seven possible players for the Morticians, along with five Union (mercenary) players, who can be used by the Morticians. I'm only aiming to make six of the Mortician characters (mainly because there's one that I can't think of a way to build), and later I'll also be making some of the Union players.

First off the production line are Obulus, Dirge, Silence and Graves.

Here are the models I'm trying to represent. Just to be clear, I don't think my kit-bashed team are as good as the official miniatures (in fact, I will almost certainly buy an official team at some point), but I think they're good enough to enable me to play games, and for opponents to know which player is which.

Graves, Cosset, Casket, Obulus, Ghast, Silence, Dirge (on Silence's shoulder)

OBULOUS, Team Captain, Defensive Midfielder

As the team captain and chief play-maker of the Mortician's Guild, I wanted Obulus to be characterful and imposing. As such, I decided to use one of the first miniatures I ever owned, a Liche from the Games Workshop 'Skeleton War Machines' boxed set, and gave him a head swap with a plastic zombie as it had more detail (and a beard...that was important). The age of the miniature is given away by its absolutely MASSIVE hands, but I still like the miniature, and the pose is suitable for a character with an ability called Puppet Master, that allows him to control opposition players.

DIRGE, Team Mascot

The first thing that you're likely to notice is that my Dirge is a bat, and not a Crow. I'm aware of this. However, I figured that just like a crow, a bat has wings (relevant to movement rules) and is somewhat Gothic and graveyardish in atmosphere. The bat I used is from one of my briefly useful Bat Swarms for WFB. I've pinned it to the gravestone to prevent having an obtrusive flight stand, and I hope that it looks like Dirge is flying over the gravestone.

GRAVES, Winger

Graves seems to be a fairly combative character, who seems to be capable in both attacking and defensive rolls. He's been cobbled together using a combination of Empire Free Company and Bretonnian bits, along with an Ancient German head. I'm a bit disappointed with the positioning of the weapon arm, but I keep telling myself that he's in the middle of his 'Scything Blow' special move. I've used the same skin tone technique that I use for my zombies to give these character a deathly feel.

SILENCE, Central Midfielder

This was a simple repaint of a Wizkids Star Wars Miniature Game figure (one of the very few I still own). I'm really quite pleased with the face on this model as the detail were very shallow and I put a lot of work into shading the eyes, which like the rest of the team are blank to add to the deathly palour of the skin. My only concern with this miniature, is it doesn't have the exaggerated extremities of the GW figures, and so comes across as having a bit of a tiny head. Individually, though, I'm really happy with how he came out.

So that's my progress so far. I'm mid-way through the next team member, and then I've got some clipping and sticking to allow me to complete the team next week. I set my target to complete two teams (which is twelve models) this month, so it looks I'm current ahead of schedule...can it last?

Operation Unthinkable: Dropzone Commander

So this month I set myself the goal of completing my brand spanking new Resistance starter set for Dropzone Commander, and I'm pleased to say that I've been successful with a few days to spare.

This is my final battlegroup, featuring a Kraken Hovercraft and three AA Gun Wagons. This unit is my main defence against enemy aircraft, and main strike force against enemy troop carriers. I believe that unlike most transports, the Kraken allows the Gun Wagons to fire on the turn that they disembark, which means that I will have quite a threatening alpha strike capability against enemy transports. However, the Gun Wagons are some of the only vehicles in the game that don't have active countermeasures and so enemies can shoot them from distance, and so I'll need to be careful with them (for reference - it seems that all of the other vehicles without active countermeasures are also in the Resistance list...hmmm...).

The Kraken was probably my least favourite model to paint in the army. Not only is rather dull as a model, but it also, unlike the other models in the set, seemed to have a lot of release agent from the moulding process all over it, so it took some effort to get the paint to stick to it. On the up side, it painted up quickly, and if I have to do another one at some point, I'll cope.

On the other hand, the Gun Wagons are loads of fun. They've been described as having a 'Mad Max' feel to them, but I can't escape the image of these being part of a rather extreme Top Gear special (maybe if they return to Patagonia...). When it came to painting them, I wanted to break from the military theme, whilst still using colours that appear in the rest of the army at points, which I hope makes them different, whilst not breaking the overall look of the army. Personally, I think this works.

The feature I like most about this battle group is that the Kraken can actually carry the Gun Wagons without me having to faff around with magnets. The design of the model has also allowed me to leave the ramp unstuck, so that I can open and close it as necessary.

Finally, a shot of the whole army. This is the first time I've worked with lots of resin pieces and I have to say, it's really enjoyable to work with. The crisp detail, ease of trimming and cleaning up, simplicity of assembly and the way it makes my painting style work well are all massive positives, and have made me glad that I went with this army rather than the cheaper plastic sets. As long as the game doesn't suck, I'll certainly be adding to this army at a later date.

So with eyes on next month, not only am I committing to another Operation Unthinkable target, I'm also beginning the handily titled: Six Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge (hereafter referred as 6MMRPC). The only major changes to my current behaviour this asks for are that I am only allowed to buy models three times in the next six month unless I complete projects and earn more Jokers, and I need to post something every week.

As I'm aiming at completing six projects in that time, I should be able to spend when I need to, and it's always good to have a little pressure to post.

So my next Operation Unthinkable challenge is to complete two Guildball teams. I played a game against Craig this week and found it to be a cracking little game. However, with no money to spend, I'm going to go back to my Cheaphammer roots and knock up my teams from stuff I already have. I order to claim a joker once this is done, I need to post a 'before' picture, so here's two of my bits boxes:

The teams I'm going to try to make are the Mortician's Guild, which will primarily use elements from my WFB Undead army, and the Mason's Guild, which will lean heavily on my Bretonnians and some plastic Bloodbowl miniatures. My minimum requirements are to make three models for each team (including the team leader), which is the minimum requirement for a game, but the ultimate aim is to get to six for each team, although I may need to burn a Joker for this as I've no idea what I'm going to use for the Mason's mascot, which is a baboon.

This little project will also allow me to revisit the commandments of Cheaphammer, which newer readers may be unfamiliar with, and will serve as a timely reminder of just how cheap I can be.