WFB DE: the Humble Warrior Regiment

Hey Everyone

Congratulations to our giveaway winner Bill Jenkins, and JQ & I would like to thank you all for your readership. Keep a heads up as more giveaways would come along in the future :)

Today we will be taking a look at the bread and butter core unit of the Dark Elves: the warrior regiment. I'll refer to them as "warriors" in spite of 8th edition terms. "Dreadspears" is too corny for me, and I am pissed about how new editions change everything =  $$$ for GW. This unit was another ebay find for me, painted at a reasonable price.

DE and a nice grassy landscape - can only be bad news...

The warrior regiments are derived from the DE citizenry, and all members are expected to serve in their local militias. DE warriors are the typical basic infantry unit: mundane stats and dependence on numbers. Magic banners and shields are added to ensure a degree of durability of the unit.

DE gender equality: males and females fight alongside each other.

I've only played my DE army twice. Once against a High Elf army, and another against Chaos. The HE army was brought down by my hydra (they're awesome), while the Chaos fight was more even...unfortunately the battle was invalidated by the incorrect use of rules. My fully beefed up DE warrior regiment surprisingly (or luckily) held the line against a Chaos warrior regiment.

All citizens form the rank and file of this unit.

Assassins are one reason why playing DE is maliciously fun. They can hide in regiments and then be unleashed at the right moment on an unsuspecting character. Your enemy will always be on their toes if they know you have an assassin around. They have ridiculous WS, and with an added hand weapon, they can spell the end of most characters.

Blades so tarnished they could give you tetanus just by looking at it.

I picked DE as my "evil" army and wanted to explore if the writers could construct a feasible society that was evil, and yet had an eye on realm longevity. In short, a "lawful evil" society that still had some statutes in place, and question whether GW could move evil societies beyond caricature.

DE: Slavers 'r Us of WFB.

Boy was I in for disappointment! The DE turned out to be just plain evil, exploiting their slaves to death (using their corpses as fertilizer), holding countless blood orgies, backstabbing each other on a regular basis, and always seething with hatred every single day. Going to maximum evil/exploitative on the majority of actions is a sure way of destroying your own empire.

LET'S FIGHT FOR EVIL!!!!!

So far, I am still skeptical if such a completely evil society could truly exist in a fantasy world. I could also be missing the point, as fantasy could be the creating of caricatures without a nod to realism. On the flip-side, realism in fantasy worlds may have an "equalizing" effect, where all sides appear to be all morally imperfect. Should fantasy be another world by itself, or should it reflect the real world we live in?

I think that depends on what you like in the end...Tolkien or GRRM?

Close-up for the shield.

WFB: Empire Steamtank

Hey Everyone

Today we will delve into the world of WFB, a realm that is about as consistent as the Sun has been rising all this time - in terms of price hikes. But it is also a place of dreams and memories, as our minds bring the miniatures to life, and battle tales are traded between commanders. I hate the price hikes and new editions.

The Empire of Men is made up of pretty average people. It continually faces enemies who naturally possess the strength of beasts, reflexes only matched by lightning, and even tough hides that readily double as armor. And all the poor humans have are St3, T3, W1. The world of WFB is indeed a harsh place for all humankind (I'm not forgetting about the Brettonians).

However, the Empire had one massive ace (or gameplay mechanic) up its sleeve - invention. The Empire also have the dwarves as erstwhile allies, and their combined efforts have created feats of engineering: cannons that blast holes past most armor, handguns that send volleys of death. Perhaps one of the most fearsome creations by the Empire is the gigantic steam tank.

The steam tank is a rare sight on the battlefield, with only 8 in service (out of 12) and unlike their real-life counterparts, lack a running factory. Leonardo of Miragliano invented and built the steam tank, but passed away in a tragic engineering accident and all knowledge of making another steam tank disappeared with him. Two of the 4 steam tanks lost were salvaged by non-Empire forces, namely the Skaven with their Rat-Tank, and the Halflings of Mootland with "Kathleen."

This example was bought from a second-hand store. It was well-painted and with a price tag a little above the price of a new kit, it was an offer I couldn't resist. The top section is removable and allows you to look into the inside of the steam tank. The person who owned it must have put a lot of time into painting it, an effort that has my admiration.

The steam tank is a behemoth on the battlefield. The typical version is armed with 2 cannons, a hull-level steam-powered cannon, and a turret mounted steam gun. While the steam cannon has less firepower than the wheeled great cannon, the combination of solid armor (I heard it's reduced in 7th edition) and mobility allows the steam tank wreck havoc across the battlefield in ways a static cannon cannot.

6th edition rules limited it to 2000pt armies, and I haven't been able to field one due to the small size of my army :( From what I've read, the steam tank is a double-edged sword. While super-powerful and super-tough, it is highly unreliable and requires strict control. The steam engine can overboil from unspent steam points, and the misfire table has terrible consequences. Misfires have a 1/6 chance of happening, which translates to about 16%, which is a pretty high risk. But hey, nothing beats terrifying the crap out of your opponents and blasting holes through them...if it all works out!

Just imagine the possibilities...

Hope you all enjoyed this post, and JQ and I are thankful for your continued support.

Cherrio!

Bretonnian Pegasus Knights

It is time for some Fantasy this week!

Today, I shall feature the last work for Warhammer that I have done. After much time, I have finally completed my Pegasus Knights of Bretonnia. So enjoy the pics of my works below!

Many Pegasus Knights hail from the Province of Paragon

 And most of these Knight hail from Rich Families. To ride a pegasus is one of High Stature.

These guys pack quite a punch when it comes to Flying Units. As a Flying Cavalry, its charge increases the strength of the attack. Furthermore, it has armor and has more than one attack. With the greater accessibility as a flying unit, the Pegasus Knights can serve as a great harassing and flanking unit. I decided to go with a more brighter tone of colours and adding more defined highlighting for these Knights.

Layering and Drybrushing the Pegasus was a great joy for me

The Winged Insignia is the Emblem of a Pegasus Knight

Furthermore, the heraldry were painted on rather than using the default decals as none of the decals' colours suited how I painted the Pegasus Knights. On paper, these guys are one of Bretonnia's finest which is why I am considering to paint a few more of them for my Bretonnian Army. On top of that, they look magnificent with their poses.

Charge from Above!!

However, due to time constraint and my lack of enthusiasm on GW plans for Warhammer as a whole, I don't think I will have anymore Warhammer Miniatures for the first half of this year to say the least.

I do apologize to all my Warhammer fans if this disappoint you but I only have so much time and I will be dedicating more time making Modern Military Miniatures and Model Kits whose companies treasure their customers. In fact, while there was a recent update of the Dwarf Army Book, I have not even procure it. Let alone read my Daemon and Warriors of Chaos Army Books. I find it rather strange that every fantasy post pertaining to GW and Warhammer has never been a positive one for quite a while.

Flanking with these guys can be so so deadly. Deadly, yet beautiful

It is quite tragic because my lack lustre interest in Warhammer is primarily arising from the way GW treats their fan base and the exorbitant prices they charge for their products. However, as I have said before, I will continue to do Fantasy Miniatures but not all will be just from GW. Despite my continuous whining about GW, I am still very dependent on their acrylic paints. As such, I can't totally cut them off and not support them. I will give them recognition on their high quality paint. Hopefully, they won't go beyond a certain mark in terms of charging their pants.

In any case, while I would only be showcasing or working on one or two GW miniatures this year, I will still continue to feature interesting Fantasy Miniature news I happen to find.

Thanks once again for reading! You can see the rest of my Pegasus Knights pics on the Toyconstruct facebook page here. Till then, See you all soon!

Bloodletters of Khorne

Good Day to all of you again!

As previously mentioned, we have been on a hiatus for quite awhile. It has been so long that I have forgotten as to whether I may have featured or publish posts that I might have mistakenly post before.

Nevertheless, we are back to our old regular ways of posting more awesome geeky posts. I assure you that there will be more to come and I plan to at the very least post more than the past previous two years and get you guys into reading more of our features.

For today, I am going to feature my recent accomplishment in Warhammer.

Have a look at my Bloodletters of Khorne!

Regiment of Khorne

While these daemons are simple enough to paint due to its one colour get-up. I decided to do much layering and blend many shades of red and orange together. Furthermore, I thought giving the flaming backdrop for these minions of Khorne would provide a more terrifying atmosphere to showcase their power.

Bloodletter Champion: Bloodreaper

In my opinion, among all minions of Chaos, the Bloodletters are the most menacing core minions of them all. I am also always enchanted by their Hellblades which have the Killing Blow ability that proviides a great deal of POW to a battle.

 

The Blood Reaper is given a special base in which I made from green stuff. Essentially, the Champion walks on fire.

Bloodletter of Khonre scans for challengers

The Notoriety of the Hellblade

The Pinnacle of Fear in the Hearts of Men

It has been quite a long while since I last put my various armies to battle. And with Warhammer being much more alienated from its community, it has given me less impetus and motivation to want to get updated and play the current game. Furthermore, with the new updates on the Daemons of Chaos, the Bloodletters of Khorne have become a little less scary with the higher cost of fielding them and the drop in strength. It seems that without their herald, they aren't as powerful as before

The Sculpt looks scary and I am hoping my paintjob makes them even more menacing. But on paper, they seem like...paper.

Despite all the downright bummer aspect of the company, the cost of keeping updated and playing the game, I still have a liking for fantasy miniatures. Having been collecting, assembling and painting these guys for 13 years or so, I have a special place in my heart for these guys.

And while I may be less of a gamer, I will still from time to time, get a few miniatures to paint. In fact, it is due to painting my fantasy miniatures that have enabled my skills in drawing and painting to improve. Through that, I am able to transfer these skills into drawing better stuff and painting better for my military models too.

Till next time, please enjoy the rest of my Bloodletter on our facebook page album here.

Cheerios!

Wood Elf Spellweaver

Hail fellow nerds!

JQ and I have embarked on taking photos in our "photo studio" (aka JQ's room), and I have just begun to process the photos we have taken so far. We've taken mostly WFB for now, but will proceed with modern military with our next scheduled photoshoot. It was nostalgic shooting back in JQ's room, remembering how we started this blog, and we have much to thank you guys/girls for your continued and warm support :)

Today, I will be featuring a Wood Elf Spellweaver. I don't collect or play WE, but I bought a couple of figures from a painting service as I thought they looked pretty cool...and I could always use them in a proxy army lol (at least they're painted!).

The Wood Elves are non tax-paying residents of Bretonnia and live in the forest of Athel Loren, the oldest forest known in the Old World. Time is warped in Athel Loren, and travelers (or interlopers) who get lost for a couple of hours may exit centuries later, or get lost for decades but leave only mere minutes since their fateful entry.

Athel Loren is a self-aware forest imbued with magic, and is a neutral entity in the WFB world - it favors neither Order or Chaos. While the Wood Elves have become allies of the Kingdom of Bretonnia, they remain estranged from their High Elf cousins. Somehow in my mind, elves always seem to be super aloof and proud even to their own kin (exception: DE who just hate everyone else).

Wood Elves are born with an affinity with magic, and Spellweavers (or the less powerful Spellsingers) are feared on the battlefield, provided they pass spell checks and do not miscast haha. With spells that can render regiments ethereal and mend wounds. they can prove to be useful additions to any WE army.

Tree painting background was done by JQ.

From what I've read about them, Spellweavers have greatly benefited from the new 8th Ed rules, and are considered almost automatic choices for WE armies 1000pts and above. The new Lore of Life and Lore of Beasts have been improved, and a highlight is the Flesh to Stone spell, which increases toughness from T3 to a whopping T7. That's really super cool and I really hate playing with T3, especially against Chaos. For a more detailed discussion of WE tactics, check out Dice of Doom's summary of the 8th Ed Army, and there's a blog dedicated to all things WE.

The backgrounds are courtesy of JQ, who thought of using the tree and flower backgrounds to give the pictures an arboreal feel. Ever since we have studied abroad and away from each other, one of the things I miss most is being able to get together with JQ and just dive into photoshoots. I've tried shooting by myself, but the creative synergy of a partnership trumps working alone.

The Bretonnia Magic-caster's Club: A Bret Damsel with the WE Spellweaver 

With just a few weeks left of my time in Singapore, I hope to get at least one more photoshoot with JQ before we part ways again. Taking photos of our minis and toys is always a fun activity, not only exercising our creativity, but also allowing us to keep this blog running and stay in touch with you all!

Take care and stay tuned for more posts :)

Dwarven Hammerers

Good day to all you Fantasy Fans!

It's HAMMER TIME!!! (Pun Intended)

Today, I shall be featuring my next dwarven regiment that I have completed. They are none other than the Dwarven Hammerers! Looking at my Dwarf Army, I can say that it has grown to an impressive armed force that is ready to earn some battle scars and wounds on the tabletop. One thing that my army really lacks of now is war experience. However, I am running really low on time this year to be able to play much Warhammer in the tabletop community. Hopefully, I will be able to clock in a few battles and feature to you all some nice battle reports and battle scenes.

The Hammerers patrolling their Underground Forts

Similar to a few of my other posts, I made an attempt to do another unique background illustrating the underground fortresses of the dwarves. Inspired by the huge pillars in the Mines of Moria, I decided to give this background a black and white touch to it. It isn't a great work of art but i was hoping that it would suffice in adding more dynamics to my photography taking.

Hammerer Regiment marching the stony path

For those who do not already know what Dwarven Hammerers are, I shall give a brief description about them. Dwarven Hammerers are the king's personal guards and are accorded a high status within the stronghold. Only a Dwarf who has proven courageous enough over the course of many battles may be selected to join the Hammerers.

"Duty to King and Hold", The Hammerer's Motto

While great skill, strength and courage are needed to be a Hammerer, complete loyalty to liege is the most important of all attributes. A Hammerer must dedicate his life to serve the king and is bound by oath to serve him well.

Stubborn among Dwarves

Hammerers are regarded as Stubborn even among Dwarves but their resolute character is what makes them stand out above the rest. In the battlefield, it is an inspiration to see the great hammers around the King go up and down slaying great numbers of enemies. Through the chaos, they stand firm.

A Lone Hammerer Raises his Hammer

Since my Dwarven throng has the Army colour of green, I decided that I would make my Hammerers uniform to that aspect. However, I gave a more regal touch by using a blend of Elysian and Skarsnik Green. Using a very small portion of Skull White paint, I would lighten the green and layer the Dwarf's colour part of their uniform from a dark green to a lighter green.

The Hammerers Insignia.

Similar to how I paint my Dwarf warriors, I will layer from a dark tone to a light tone. Applying Chain mail Silver to the armor and lightening up to a blend of White and Mithril Silver. For the Dwarves beard, I would use a primary base of Snakebite leather and Brown and layer the outline areas with Bleach Bone mixed with a small proportion of Snakebite Leather. I could have easily used another colour rather than mixing to get a perfect fit for my layering but I'd rather save the money and play around with the available Citadel Paints I have. In any case, that has always been how I paint my miniatures. (The most hardest part of painting the Hammerers was blending Mithril silver with Shining gold in the right amounts to make the insignia above)

In any case, I feel that the Hammerers would probably need an upgrade. They look neat but the pose that they have limits the miniature details. While taking these photoes, there were many times I couldn't find an angle to bring them to life. More often than not, I felt like the figures were more 2D . From the side, they look pretty cool. But taking a pic of them from the front really doesn't bring out their face and coolness like the Ironbreakers.

Let me know what you guys think about the level of the paint job and do you think the Hammerers need a makeover? Hit me up about it.

Dwarf Organ Gun

Good day Fellow Fantasy Wargammers!

In spite of all the big hoohas about Games Workshop, I shall continue to feature all my fantasy miniatures I collect and paint up. I won't deny that in terms of wargaming, Warhammer is still up there and it is a prominent game in my local community. As such, I will continue to paint what miniatures I already have and expand my 4 armies to the minimum pointage of 2k to play. This is comparatively smaller to what I had planned before. However, I won't be buying directly from GW just to give myself some slight semblance of rebellion against their institution. Back to today's post, I shall be featuring my Dwarven Organ Cannon.

The Shooter of Great Balls of Fire

The Dwarf Organ Cannon is one of the reasons that compelled me to start a Dwarf army. It is a great war machine that complements the Dwarf Cannons. And with these war machines and a gun line, it would make for a great defense against the vanguard of the enemy.

One of the Three Dwarf Crew

Dwarf Loader

I am not sure, but after getting these guys, I realized that they have really huge ass muscular arms compared to the normal dwarves. I guess this is due to their constant manning of heavy machinery. And I must say, the Organ Gun is definitely a heavy machine as well as a heavy hitter.

Gunpowder and Heavy Steel.

Speaking of the Dwarf Organ Guns, when it comes to the realm of fantasy, more often than not, we see that Dwarves have the innate skills and traits to make superior weaponry, have mastery of gunpowder and the ability to develop high technology. This is also the case when it comes to the Warhammer World. (E.g Organ Gun, Gyrocopter, Dwarven Axe Thrower and more) However, much to my annoyance of the Warhammer World, The Empire and the College of Engineers seem to have one up against the Dwarves in technological research. Their masterpiece being the Steamtank, which is a horribly powerful war machine. Oh well, but then again, I guess the Human race innate ability is to be a Jack of all trades and have mastery over some skills.

Manly Dwarf is Manly.

Just look at his biceps and triceps.

Speaking of Dwarves, I believe many of you Fantasy fans out there have already watch the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Any opinions on the movie? I must say that I was quite happy when they were making the Hobbit as it showed more of the Dwarves than they did in Lord of the Rings. However, many of the dwarves in the party didn't have the manly Dwarf beard that they usually have.

We could argue that they are very young dwarves but Thorin Oakenshield's Beard was less than glowering and he is the King's Grandson. While my knowledge on the Hobbit is rusty and my knowledge of all the dwarves in the Hobbit adventure party horrifyingly rudimentary, it puzzles me that the Heir to Erebor has an embarrassingly short beard by Dwarven standards. So much so that, I am sure Gimli would frown upon too. The only acceptable beards by dwarven standard to me are Balin's and Dwalin's. (Pictured below from top left to right respectively)

Thankfully, I was able to get a detailed Hobbit folklore and possible explanation to Thorin's short beard in the movie from Rekyr who has a tumblr blog about these dwarves. Perhaps, you guys can give your take on the explanation too. Regardless, I still fine the lack of beards for the other dwarves rather unacceptable. :p

 However, the show was entertaining and stirring to say the least. While critics may point out that there is nothing new in terms of movie direction and the format is similar to the Lord of the Rings movie, I must retort that this is an indirect prequel to LOTR and because the audiences have been to Middle Earth, we can't apply something fresh to characters you have seen before. Furthermore, the book was way shorter than LOTR so the development of the story through the movie is surprisingly in-depth and vivid in comparison.

Finally, the Thorin's song was a real ear pleaser that display the sorrow he has and stirs one's heart for the dwarves finding a new home.

Till next post, take care fellow fantasy trekkers!