CCLXX. St. Christopher, the Cynocephalus Mummy

This boxed saint is inspired by Eastern Orthodox representations of St. Christopher with the head of a dog. 

In other news, I've upgraded my camera. The trusty Olympus 'idiot' that served me for many years is now retired and replaced by a Canon EOS 250D. I'm still getting used to the wealth of options this thing has. It's so, so, so nice to be able to take higher quality photos.   

*   *   *

Today is the last day you can enter the Miniatures Without Borders charity raffle. All money collected from the tickets is going directly to Doctors Without Borders. You can enter here: LINK, and the video below is a gallery of the prizes donated by artists from the Inq/AoS28 community.

CCLXIX. AoS28: Sunhold Ghosts

Today I have a whole bunch of ghostly figures to show off. Many of these waited for their turn since the time Soul Wars was released. The almost monochrome colour scheme I used is really simple to do. I can whip up a step-by-step tutorial if there's enough interest.

The Graveyard Spirit.
This model was built by @ingrimmson, and I liked it so much I bought it off him. 

The Executioner.
Lord Executioner from the Souls Wars box. I only removed the jaws from the ghostly skulls, the rest is out of the box.

The Jailor.
Spirit Torment from the Souls Wars box. I replaced the original head with a Flagellant head, and removed the chain and keys originally trailing behind the figure.

A group of Spectres.
Converted Chainrasps from the Souls Wars box and the Thorns of the Briar Queen WHU warband. I got rid of all their faces to make them more eerie and mysterious. An empty nothing is scarier than a screaming skull, looks like. There were also some hand swaps.

A bigger group of Spectres.

A few more Spectres.
These differ from the standard hooded head profile of the rest. They could be interesting from the narrative perspective. The models are originally from the Thorns of the Briar Queen set. I got rid of their weapons to make them look ambiguous in terms of their intentions - are they enemies or NPCs in need of help?

CCLXVIII. The Amfast Campaign vol.4

After the last mission we put it up to a vote here and on Instagram what our next encounter would be: the Well or the Docks. The extremely close race was won by the Well. We played the mission at last, and here is how it went.

The acolytes of Uras. They got a bit of a makeover since the previous game.

Neither of us bought any upgrades between battles. Gordon decided to save his 20 for a more expensive upgrade later, and I was an idiot and thought I only had 14 and not 25, and that I therefore couldn’t afford the upgrade I wanted. I seriously have to pay better attention next time, because I really could have used that Gunslinger upgrade…

SETUP

A bit of scouting, as well as interrogating the frightened populace in the vicinity of the Stormcast camp, brought to our attention that the acolytes of Uras have tampered with water in the city. In their effort to bring in more followers to their foul deity, they used a curse: all water in the city has been made unsafe to drink, and can be cleansed only if taken to a priest of Uras to be blessed. Only the heathen faithful may receive sustenance.  Many have renounced Sigmar to survive, and many of stronger resolve have fallen seriously ill.

Our objective: the main well. It's made mostly of plaster, with a few GW plastic bits.  

The curse’s origin is said to be in the main well, and our mission this time is to reclaim it from the clutches of Chaos. The well was in the centre of the 2’x4’ board, surrounded by ruins and guarded by three Chaos Infantrymen, their Sergeant, two Chaos Pikemen, a Chaos Warrior and a Chaos Chosen. There was an NPC in this game: a sister of Sigmar’s faith, who was being mistreated by the Chaos Warrior next to the well.

Since we learned a bit about how the system works from the first two fights, we’ve made some changes on the unit profiles of our enemies. We also implemented some rules from Planet 28: Death on the Periphery, the solo&co-op expansion for Planet 28.

THE GAME

Gordon and Loriana started the game on one of the 2’ board edges. Our plan was to advance and shoot, hopefully taking out or at least seriously injuring the melee enemies before they get to us. Since Loriana was still crap in close combat, she took the high ground on the ruins next to the well and fired at the nearby enemies. I had really atrocious rolls, missing almost all my shots in the first few turns. Gordon stayed on the ground since he can shoot in melee.  

At some point the Chaos Warrior next to the well threw his nun prisoner into the water to drown, and joined the carnage. He was successful in climbing up to Loriana's position and distrupting her shooting, to which she jumped down with intention to escape him and rush to the nun's rescue. There was a firing squad of Chaos Infantrymen in her way, sadly. Gordon dispatched the Pikemen and was fighting in melee with the Chaos Chosen at the time. He took some serious damage, and unlucky Loriana failed in her attempts to offer support fire.

By the end some enemies routed, most were killed. Since we took our sweet time, we were not able to save the drowning nun, and she died on our hands. But she did reveal useful information with her last breath. The curse on the Amfast water supply comes from the demon-possessed body bound in the well. It is the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Sigmar. There is hope that the holy relic kept in their convent will help us exorcise her. Gordon and Loriana fished the unfortunate woman out of the well, thus removing the curse Uras put on the water. They took her with them to the base. 

AFTERMATH 

In this battle Loriana earned 14 GP from from her shots and kills. This means her GP total goes up to 39. Gordon outperformed her greatly, earning over twice as much: 30 GP. Combined with his old Glory, he now has 50GP and is able to purchase even the most expensive upgrades from the list.  Neither one of us was taken out this game, so there is no loss of Glory.

*

Now for a bit of audience participation again. Once more, we have two options for our next mission and you can vote to decide which one we will do.

There are two locations we can visit next: the Docks and the Convent. We can go to the Docks to destroy the shipment of weaponry that has arrived to the city to equip the growing Chaos army, or we can go retrieve the relic of St. Beatrice from the desecrated convent of Sisters of Sigmar. Which one would you like to see next? The Docks or the Convent? Give us your vote in the comments. I will keep it open until Friday. Then I will start working on the special terrain features required for the location with more votes, so we can play the mission.

Sister of Sigmar. The model was built using bits from Frostgrave female wizards kit.

CCLXIII. Bone Gheist and Deadwalkers

A few more additions to the ranks of common enemies in the city of Sunhold.

Bone Gheists. These eerie levitating craniums were built using Alien Lab Miniatures large skulls, paperclips and PVA glue.

Added four more Deadwalkers vulgaris to the crowd, bringing their numbers up to nine. The newcomers were converted from a mix of Mantic Ghoul and Zombie parts.

Two more Deadwalker Crossbowmen. Converted from Perry HYW plastics, just like the original one.

Two more Deadwalker Footsoldiers. Same thing; converted from Perry medieval plastics.

And one more Deadwalker Knight, here with the earlier two.

CCLXI. AoS28: Sunhold Chaos Cultists

A happy family...

You will recognise models from my Mordheim MMXIX warband. They have now been rebased and repurposed for the future, and I added two new minis which will open interesting narrative opportunities.

 The new arrivals are this mother and child cultists. They were both converted from Heresy Miniatures ghouls.

 Deranged Cultists with sticks.

  Deranged Cultists with stones.

 The Possessed. A cultist possessed by a Daemon, given superhuman strength, speed and ferocity.

 A Madman. A cultist who believes they are possessed by a Daemon.

Chaos Cultist Priest. Chanting and blood sacrifice galore.

 Feral Mongrel. There are packs of these roaming the ruins.

They are all enemies commonly encountered in Sunhold, and we made them Fabula profiles so we can use them in our games:

Even though the Sunhold: the First Triumvirate event had to be postponed indefinitely due to the overall plague and the earthquakes that devastated Zagreb in March, participants are still creating amazing stuff. Check the newest updates from @vmkuriljov (dwarf warband sculpted from scratch), @totally_not_panicking (the Princeling's adventuring party) and @lazaraie (bell ringer).

*   *   *

As for the Amfast Campaign, the votes have been counted here and on Instagram. The next place Loriana and Gordon are liberating is... the well. Thanks to everyone who voted. It was an extremely close race. I am currently making the required scenery piece, and I'm hoping we will play our next game next week.

 

 *   *   *

In other news, I was the guest artist in the online Warhammer-themed comic Mortel Realms run by my friend Pierre.

That's all for this week. Run along.

CCLX. The Amfast Campaign vol.3

The second mission of the Amfast Campaign, where our Stormcast were ambushed by Chaos troops led by the Sergeant who escaped us in the first game.

First, we spent some of the Glory Points we earned in game one. This is the list of available upgrades I concocted for the campaign, using the Planet 28 core rulebook:

• Blessed by the God King (When making a skill roll this character may roll 2D10 and keep the Lowest score.) +30GP
• Bulwark (Enemies receive no bonus when charging this character. ) +10GP
• Inspiring zeal (A single friendly character within line of sight receives +1D10 to their skills during their next turn, distributed as you like. Once per game.) +15GP
• Radiant aura (This character projects a radiant aura - enemy characters receive +1 damage for each turn they spend in base contact with this character. ) +15GP
• Fear (This character inspires terror in all who see them - enemy characters wishing to charge them must first make a break test.) +15GP
• Heal (This character may heal 1D6 hit points to any character in base contact. ) +20GP
• Throw (This character may throw any character in base contact 1D12 cm in a direction of their choosing. Characters thrown off of ledges must take fall damage. ) +15GP
• Arcana (This character has access to a range of magical or psychic powers. ) +30GP
• Explosive Bolts (Characters within 5cm of any character hit by this weapon take D6 damage. ) +20GP
• Antimaterial Bolts (When hit by this weapon, target characters armour is reduced by one D for the rest of the game. ) +30GP
• Knock back Bolts (Targets hit by this weapon are thrown backwards 1D12cm. ) +20GP
• Sniper (This character may re-roll any failed skill rolls when shooting. )+20GP
• Gunslinger (This character may make shoot actions when locked in combat.)+20GP
• Celestial Silver Armour (2D10+5. +1 Agility. +5 HP. ) +50GP
• Spiked Armour (Whenever an enemy makes a successful melee attack against this character they take D4 damage.) +25GP
• Reinforced Armour (This character may make an additional 1D4 armour roll whenever they take damage. ) +8GP
• Winged Greaves (This character receives +1D6 to their movement speed.) +6GP

Loriana expended 8 of her 19 GP to procure Reinforced Armour. Gordon spent his entire 20GP to receive the Gunslinger upgrade.

SETUP

 

After they captured a Chaos camp in Mission 1, Loriana and Gordon go out to inspect the neighbourhood. While they are creeping through the ruined city streets, they are surprised by a group of Chaos soldiers.

The mission is to retreat back where we came from (cross the table edge way behind our characters’ backs). We are surrounded by three Chaos Infantrymen who shoot at us with rifles, their Sergeant, and a pair of Pikemen who cut off our escape route.

We played on a 2'x4' board, using my collection of plastic ruins terrain.

Once again, we used the Planet 28 rules system. Now that we’ve played it a bit more we have a better understanding of the system. We noticed that we made a few design mistakes in creating some of our enemies, which we will make sure to correct for future games. Nic released solo & co-op rules for the system (Planet 28: Death on the Periphery), but they landed after we played this game. We will definitely take a look at the new rules before the next one, though.

THE GAME

 

Gordon and Loriana started the game surrounded. We were confident enough in our firepower and armour, so we elected not to start retreating right away. The Sergeant who escaped us was right in front of us, shouting taunts and curses. And shooting lead. We were happy to be reunited with an old friend, and proceeded to greet him back. Gordon quickly scored the kill.

The Pikemen revealed themselves, blocking our fastest escape route and slowly advancing with their pikes ready. We exchanged shots with the Infantrymen, taking out one each and making the third one flee in terror. 

The Pikemen proved much tougher to take out due to their strong armour. Loriana took a fine amount of damage from their pikes, so much she used up her Healing Potion, and eventually decided to withdraw. Gordon was on top of a building at the time, trying to shoot them from there as they pursued Loriana in her retreat. 

She managed to get away, and Gordon stayed concealed until the Pikemen left the scene. Then he withdrew back to the camp as well.

AFTERMATH

In this battle Loriana earned 9 GP from successful hits and 5GP for her one kill. This means her GP total is now 25. Gordon earned 10 GP from shots and 10 from taking out an Infantryman and the Sergeant. He is once again at 20GP. Since we retreated from the battlefield and didn’t loot the single treasure chest that was on the board, we earned 0 GP from securing treasure. Neither one of us was taken out this game (though we were worried for Loriana at a point), so there is no loss of Glory.

*

Now for a bit of audience participation. We’ve settled in the city, showed we are not to be trifled with. It’s time to begin purging Amfast from the corrupting influence of Uras. We have two options for our next mission, and you can help us decide which one we will do. If you will direct your gaze to our campaign map:

There are two locations we can visit next: the Well and the Docks. The Amfast water supply has been corrupted by Uras. We can go inspect the main well to see what is happening there and try to fix it. Or, we can go to the Docks to destroy the shipment of weaponry that has arrived to the city to equip the growing Chaos army. Which one would you like to see next? The Well or the Docks? Give us your vote in the comments. I will keep it open until Friday. Then I will start working on the special terrain features required for the location with more votes, so we can play the mission.

The campaign map was created by splicing together a number of old woodcuts I downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. It was all printed out, and the paper was aged with coffee. Then we put wax seals on it for extra pizzazz.