JohnR's Month 5 - Rank and File (573.5 points)

This month I wanted to finish off the minis that had made up the initial forces of the Axis of Evil, as presented waaay back at the beginning of OWAC V, and I’m happy to report mission accomplished. (Mostly*).

First up: wolf riders. The wolfboys are the eyes and ears of the Axis of Evil and their leader Zogrog takes his duties very seriously. He spends his days shouting and strutting about, drilling his troops to peak efficiency. Which for goblins means about as disciplined as a bunch of semi-feral five year olds.

Secondly: leadbelcher, very kindly donated to me, mint in box, about 10 years ago by my old friend Matt P. Matt, if you’re reading this, I finally got it painted buddy!

Aksys might be insane but even he can see that giving an organ gun to the most argumentative and chaotic group in a multi ethnic army is probably a bad idea. So in one of his more lucid moments Aksys introduced the goblins to the concept of civilised discourse and debate, in the hope that it would prevent them simply clubbing each other over the head at the first sign of disagreement.

Unfortunately, being goblins, the loudest and most obnoxious gobbo (who had an opinion about everything and never knew when to shut up) assumed that he was winning the debate by simply drowning out all opposition with an endless torrent of verbal diarrhoea, delivered at maximum volume.

At least, until his mates remembered they could just club the ignorant gobshite over the head. 

Debate over :D

Finally: the splendid Drew Day Williams cloud giant.

Known affectionately as ‘Tiny’ by the gobbos he just turned up at camp one day and began following the Axis of Evil on their raids. Everyone assumed that he was attracted by the mushroom beer the goblins were brewing and the cages of human prisoners available for lunch but in truth he’s avoiding his giant, nagging wife and just glad to be out of the house.

Bonus stuff: Zombies

Probably the most terrible, garbage unit in all of 3rd edition but as an evil sorcerer I want Aksys to be able to cast demonic and necromantic magic and that means being able to summon stuff. Besides I like the idea that these unfortunate wretches are the victims of raids carried out by the Axis of Evil and / or the remains of Axsys' depraved experiments.

Life in the Old World folks: nasty, brutish and short. And sometimes followed by a bout of unlife where you get to nom the brains of your nearest and dearest.

This month's total:

11 Wolf Riders: standard and musician, spears, light armour and shields     169 points
Level 15 Goblin hero: Wolf mount, spear, light armour and shield                 52 points
Hen-pecked Giant:                                                                                          250 points
Lead Belcher:                                                                                                 102.5 points
20 zombies:                                                                                                    Free (and overpriced at that!)

*So yeah I finished most of the above with time to spare so I dutifully pulled the remaining skaven out of the leadpile.

I spent a couple of days staring at them on my paint station then stuffed them back in the 'to do' pile and painted the zombies instead lol. I don't know why, but I just couldn't motivate myself to paint those rats! Maybe next month :)

JohnR's Estalians - Heroes of Might and Magic (632 pts)

 Leaders (and cannon) Month. 

Born the penniless son of Estalian fruit sellers, Diego Monte decided at an early age that peddling oranges in poverty wasn't for him and ran away to seek his fortune in the New World.

Decades later, Don Diego El Comte Del Monte (as he now calls himself) has returned. Commander of  the Galleon 'War Bastard' and captain of a powerful mercenary company.

Del Monte (pictured here with his army standard bearer Matias) is everything a mercenary captain should be: ruthless and brave but with a strong streak of pragmatism and a keen sense of self preservation.

This month I painted command groups for the crossbowmen and handgunners too:

Crossbowmen

Handgunners

The army has also acquired a cannon - probably from the deck of the War Bastard.

The cannon's name is Isabella. (She's named after the gun captain's eldest daughter). She's powerful and dangerous and the gun crew love her, though they admit she's pretty ugly. The cannon's not that good looking either.

Accompanying the army is the Magister Santiago Espinosa 'The Fray Bentos' and his assistant Pedro.

'Fray Bentos' is an honorary title from the Estalian College of Sorcery, of which Espinosa is a senior member. His years of study have given him great power but recently he has become obsessed with his own mortality and has begun to dabble in the dark arts in an attempt to delay the inevitable. So far Espinosa has managed to keep his new knowledge secret, though it has cost him an apprentice.

Pedro is Espinosa's new apprentice. He suspects that his predecessor might have learned an unpleasant secret about his master and that his death may not have been an accident. Pedro is clever and ambitious and determined not to suffer the same fate.

El Comte Del Monte: Level 20 Human Hero, light armour, shield, warhorse: 114 points
Matias: Level 5 Hero, light armour, shield, warhorse, army standard: 89 points

2x Tilean Crossbowmen (+2 Missile Elite) inc Standard : 36 points

2x Bandolleros Gringos (+1 Missile Elite) inc Standard: 33 points

'Isabella': 3 Man Cannon: 60 points

The Fray Bentos: Level 20 Human Wizard: 240 points
Espinosa knows the following spells: Battle Magic 1: Leg Breaking, Ignite Missiles, Enthuse, Cause Animosity. Battle Magic 2: Raze, Lightning Bolt. Battle Magic 3: Animate Sword, Cause Fear. Necromantic 1: Hand of Death, Zone of Life. Necromantic 2: Control Undead. Necromantic 3: Life in Death.

Pedro: Level 5 Human Wizard: 60 points

Pedro Knows the following spells: Battle Magic 1: Immunity from Poison, Cause Animosity, Fireball.

Here's how the army looks now:

I've almost run out of stuff to paint. I had planned to add a couple more regiments to the army but they're not Estalians and I'm worried that they won't really fit. Maybe I'll just mulligan June :-)

JohnR's Estalians - Count the Hooves and Divide by Four. (414 points.)

Rank and File Month 4 

My late uncle's go-to joke when we had to count sheep or cattle in a field.

Feel like I made good progress this month.

Estalian Caballeros led by Rocco 'The Tilean Stallion' Sindaco.

Among an army of swaggards and braggards Los Caballeros are the most boastful and rambunctious of the lot. Rumour has it that Rocco shares a certain characteristic in common with his horse. His comrades joke that he's a mutant; but the luckiest mutant alive!

Border Horse - 'Los Escorpiones' led by Estofado De Carne.

Invariably found in the vanguard of the army the life of a cavalry scout can be brutally short. On the upside, with a little luck, you can be the first amongst the enemy's baggage train and first in the queue at the whore house at the next town.

Rocco Sindaco: Level 10 Human Hero, light armour, shield, lance and warhorse: 66 points.

9 Estalian Caballeros (+1 Shock Elite): light armour, shields and lances, standard: 200 points.

Estofado De Carne: Level 5 Human Hero, light armour, shield, spear and warhorse: 40 points.

5 Border Horse: light armour, shields and spears, standard: 108 points.

It's starting to look like an army :)

The plan is to do characters next. Though I'll probably wind up painting more rank and file 😂

JohnR's Estalians - I need re-training (313 points)

 Rank and file month 3

A month is too long. After a couple of days I've forgotten my passwords, how to use blogger, the settings on my camera, what the OWAC rules are, the name of my missus and where I left the dog...

Anyhoo, here is this month's offering:

Estalian Hombres Villanos led by 'El Destello Corazón!'.

Mystery surrounds this infamous swordsman. Some say he's the illegitimate son of the Emperor Karl Franz and an Estalian serving wench. Others that he's seeking the six fingered orc who killed his father. Whatever the truth he's a dashing swords-master: irresistible to women, deadly to his enemies and adored by his men. 

'El Destello Corazón!' Level 15 hero, light armour and additional hand weapon: 83 points

21 Hombres Villanos +2 Shock Elite, hand weapons, light armour and shields, standard and musician: 230 points

The army so far:

Not sure if I'm allowed to post a group shot yet. If I'm not I'm sure The Overlord will delete it. Like I said: I can't remember the rules 😁

JohnR's 252 points, not bad for an evening's work.

Rank & File month #2

 I'm kidding of course.

Actually this month was a bit of a slog so I'm pretty happy to have added 22 mini's to the army:

It helped that the crossbowmen were started in January :)

These comprise the bulk of the army's missile troops and are used as skirmishers, or to support the infantry blocks in battle. As such they don't have their own command groups, though I might add these later.

10 Tilean Crossbowmen (+2 missile elite), light armour and crossbows: 120 points.

12 Estalian Bandolleros Gringos (+1 missile elite), light armour and handguns: 132 points.

Total: 252 points

Onward and upward, bring it on March !

Jeff McC's Wood Elves - March (213 Points)

March is done. I'm pleased to report the new job did not cut down on painting like I thought it might, so, added with getting ahead in Feb, I'm done early.  This month saw the following added to the force:

8 Archers - 88 points

These painted up fairly quickly, Ive continued with the fall palette reds and browns for the cloaks, next month will add some more color with greens, oranges and yellow.  I also found the elf from Warhammer quest, when I was rummaging through some boxes, he matches fairly well with these and will make a nice champion, so I'll be adding him as a bonus model next month.

4 Wood Riders with longbows - 104 points

 The second 4 members of the Wood rider unit also were added this month. The horses go quickly, but I'm finding the riders a bit fiddly to paint. And I rounded things out with the first of the beastmaster's wildcats.

Wildcat - 22 points

And since we're midway through the challenge, here's a shot of the force so far (apologies for the depth of field blur - eventually I will get better at the group shots)

Brennan and the Final Frog Leg...

Well!  this is my second OWAC and it has been a great ride.  I've had a wonderful opertunity to paint an army that I never thought I would own and actually get a game in with it.  All round a wonderful oldhammer success! And a big thank you to to the over-lord for leadership, cheerleading and being an overall solid leader.

My childhood wargaming didn't involve Warhmmer Fantasy until I was a little older, maybe 14/15.  By that time, 4th edition Warhammer was the newest, greatest thing, and I missed out on the Slann.  I knew about Space Slann from RT, but I was a little too obsessed with Imperial Guard and Orks (with a k) back then to dig into where the idea for those froggy fellas came from.  Later, as my love of old minis turned to the games I hadn't played.  When I realized what I had missed and promptly did the old eBay search for Slann.  I then learned that, somethings would have to wait. But luck was on my side, about 12 years later, I got an opportunity to buy a Slann army at a very decent rate.  I begged and bargained with my spouse and viola!  I now have a bounty of frogs!

What's that? You played a game with them, how'd it go?  I hear you asking.  It went OK. Short version, I lost.  I played against undead.  We played 3rd edition warhammer and used the lists from Warhammer Armies.  We played around 1200 points, so small armies.  I had what was painted at the time, without anything in the realm of a magical upgrade.   Well what does that mean?  Lots and lots of frog infantry!  What I think the army needed was a few more heroes and some cav and light stuff to screen the main advance.  I felt like my flanks were too vulnerable and I didn't have the material to strike out at new developments.  I didn't role the best spells, but there are ways to mitigate that risk too (rings, rings for everyone!).  I also think I need some cheaper, points wise, support troops.  So I'm going to add:
2 units of 8 cold one riders (5 were painted last month)
1 unit of 20 braves
1 more wizard on palanquin
1 unit of two animal handlers with 6 cold one hounds
1 unit of two animal handlers with maybe 5 saber tooth's

The cold ones will get go up the middle, supported by infantry and the hounds will just try to get in the way.  I've have more hounds, but getting them is challenge, unless I just use alligators from the foundry or something like that.

I'd also love another unit with blowpipes.  That is going to take some serious patience to acquire.

So here's what I did:

LV 15 hero with 2 Handed Weapon and Heavy Armor - 117

LV 15 Wizard on a Litter - 199

15 Eagle Warrior with 2 handed weapons and a standard - 240

15 Alligator Warriors w 2 handed weapons and a standard - 208

16 Span Band with shield and standard - 170

10 Venom Tribe - 120

5 Scouts with poison and shields - 70

5 Cold One Riders w/ Light armor and shields - 185

For a total of 1309

A huge congrats to all the competitors who attempted and completed the challenge.  This is one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of working with in wargaming and I hope the OWAC continues for many years to come!

Jeff McC's Dark Elves - June (215 Points)

This one was down to the wire, but I made it. June included me retiring from the Navy, my eldest graduating from High School, selling one house, finding and buying another, and prepping the house for the movers who showed up on the 1st of July. Whew! Somewhere in all of that I got these done, though I'll admit, I was still applying paint on the 30th of June.

 5 Hell Drakes with Lances 

(43 points each)

 A little better view of the shields

I'm rather pleased with this unit, especially since I was questioning some of my color choices all the way through. I pushed outside my comfort zone with the orange and turquoise, but I think it came together in the end.  This is another of the Khorne/Khaine units in the army, and I wanted to stand them apart a bit from the more fanatically devoted units like the witch elves, and I think the orange and turquoise helped achieve that.  I was also pleased that I was able to find a friend willing to sell me the 4th lancer during the course of the challenge, allowing me to field an all marauder unit and leaving me enough riders with hand weapons on the earlier style of cold ones to  put together a unit of Doom Drakes later on. (OWAC 3?)

I've enjoyed this year's challenge; I find a deadline massively helpful for getting things done.  I'll show off the completed force in next month's summary post, so that just leaves one question at this point....Any oldhammerers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area?

Brennan's Lizard Riders (185 Points)

Hey Ho, Let's Go

Hey Ho, Let's Go

Hey Ho, Let's Go

They're forming in one short line

They can't charge without planning

The Lizards have like no minds

Lizard-Krieg Plop...

Its June and I painted some cold one riders!  I found out that running a infantry only army was going to give me some headaches in a game that James and I played.  The long and short of it, was that I really could have used something that could charge out of the line a little faster than armored infantry.  I'm used to using some light cav to screen my flanks too.  Slann don't really have that and cold-ones are a bit of challenge to use in third ed.  You have to plan the charges a turn ahead, they suffer from stupidity and they smell really bad.  I think I will deploy them in the center, so any potential targets will have a harder time getting away.  I think flank security duty will have to go to some animal handlers.

I went for a green lizard for the blue froggy.  I realized that I ended up doing the exact opposite that most folks do!  Maybe I should have done yellow frogs...  Kinda late now though!

I really enjoyed shading and coloring the mouths, with all the tongues and the teeth.  It really brought the model to life.

I counted the riders as wearing light armor and carrying shields.  The stats say they have spears, but umm my guys must have lost theirs or something....  That brings me to 185 points for June! 

Brennan and Confused Frogmen (240 points)

Happy May!

This month I bring you the last of the planned regiments, 15 Eagle Warriors with a Standard.  I kept the froggies blue.  The Eagle Warriors are wearing an Eagle Suit.  They have a great two-handed weapons and have a shield.  I do have some shields that are more Aztec-like, but I like the idea of the Slann having adapted some materials from their contact with the Old Worlders.  So shields and the smattering of swords seems to give the army the right feel, to me anyway.  I have to say I love them.  The great wide faces, big eyes (which make them a breeze to paint) and the feather suits!  Note, the talons on the end of the suits legs and sleeves.  Also, there is a bit nice fringe on the end of the legs to make them look more like bird legs,

I did some research and for the Aztecs, the more wealthy you were, the more likely your suit would be made from other textiles, but made to look like feathers, rather than actual feathers. That gave me license to go the way I wanted with them.  I thought about doing a couple of all white suits and maybe a black one, but they are +3 elites and in the end I decided to give them a uniform appearance.  I like to have move variation in uniform the lower you are on the Elite scale.  I varied the base brown slightly, from nut browns to a conker brown.   When I play them, I will probably use another, more fancy Slann as a hero to make the character standout nicely.

The one challenge, like I had with the Alligator Warriors, was the fact that there was only one Eagle Warrior casting produced.  You can vary the base mounting slightly to give some variation, but unless yu are far better sculptor/converter than I am, you will end up with a fairly uniform appearance.  Especially if you want them wearing near identical suits.

In summations for May we have:
15 Eagle Warriors with 2 handed weapons and a standard - 240

Ratwig's OWAC II Entry #5: Tomomori's Mercenary Samurai (212 points)

Submission 5 consists of 18 Mercenary Samurai. Tomomori is a Lord Sekiguchi lieutenant who recruits ronin into a band of pirates. Some have nothing but their weapon, others having a little more means. If noticed for their skill, they may be pulled to the Lord’s personal Hatamoto bodyguard contingent.

These are some more older Citadel figs I had from the ‘80’s sitting with the rocket launcher waiting for some paint. The leader’s name, “Tomomori”, was sculpted in the figure’s base. Only three of these are slotta bases, the rest are older with solid bases.

18 x Mercenary Samurai Warriors with level 5 leader, whose only upgrade is double handed weapon. Total points: 212

Thanks,

Ratwig out