Trollblood Fennblades and Rok.

 

A cold rain drizzled down through the trees onto the assembled Trollkin sheltering there. Since the fighting had renewed in the Thornwood, the Kriel had been driven to move, seeking sanctuary where they could.

Finan Firetongue, Kithkar of the Kriel's Fennblade company moved to stand next to his friend on sentry duty. They stood staring for a few moments through the grey mist which hung low, caused by the light rain further out. The drips from the trees plinking off of their armour, the Kriel tabards soaked but still displaying their proud colours.

"This is a miserable place, I miss the wee old grove" 

"I know Connal, but our duty is to the Kriel, we must protect our families. Doomshaper wouldn't have sent us this way unless there was something here" Finan replied to his friend.

Connal nodded and resumed his lookout and Finan toured the other sentries, sharing a joke or word with each before returning to Connal.

"You know, I hear Rhiannar has started looking for a mate, maybe..." Finan trailed off as Connal held up a hand to silence him. Normally feasting and mating were the main topics of conversation but Finan now followed Connals' gaze westward.

There the orange fire-glow of steam boilers under power betrayed the presence of a human warparty. Shortly two units of slight humans with cloaks and rifles could be seen trying to stealthily approach the woodland.

Giving their position away the human leader had brought their forces forwards too soon, lightning glowing from swords and the lumbering tread of the huge Warjacks. Each painted a rich blue and white, with the Cygnaran crest boldly shining upon them.

Finan gave out a shrill whistle and the Kriel encampment was suddenly a hive of activity. The other Fennblades raced from their sentry positions to join their Kithkar. Kriel Warriors gathered battered sword and iron cast shield, then embraced their family and moved to join their company.

A great booming song-shout sounded, echoing over the noise of gathering warriors and the rain.

"Brothers and Sisters" the voice sang, "Remember our duty to protect the Kriel, our families are here and need us! Rejoice, for we have a chance to prove our valour and worthiness to belong to Braggs' bloodline! This will be a day for deeds to brag about, to work up a thirst and hunger, we will feast afterward the battle is won! The mating musk will be thick in the air, mark my words, oh you lucky lads and lasses!"

Lusty cheers answered the Fellcallers' rallying speech, Finan noticed that Connal joined in enthusiastically with a knowing grin.

The Trollkin formed a ragged battleline at the edge of the trees and waited for the Cygnaran's to come to them...

*****

Out of all the different factions between Warmachine and Hordes, I don't think there are any real standout factions more then the others.

Sure, there are some which I personally feel are weaker, Legion of Everblight for example, as I'm not keen on the blind, insect look of their models, Skorne with their psuedo-Samurai/Oriental look (remember I already have a historical Samurai collection) and Protectorate of Menoth, which whilst they have some miniatures which I really like (The Paladin of the Wall for example) I'm not keen on their Catholic Church/Middle Eastern mix up inspiration.

Until they began introducing the fairytale stuff and demons, I really am not keen on those sections of the range*.

Of the other factions, I really like a lot of what's going on. 

 The Trollbloods are as close as it comes to a true "good guy" faction as they're just trying to survive and make a home for their people after being driven out by the more "civilized" factions fighting through the Thornwood.

Even Cygnar, the posterboys of Warmachine and originally portrayed somewhat as the "good guy" faction, have slowly turned into shades of grey, expelling the religious Menites to the Protectorate and trying to use the Trollbloods as a buffer by giving them weapons and such.

But the Trollblood Kriels, as far as we knew by Mk.2 were just looking for a home to settle, and yes, whilst they had driven Cygnaran folk from their land once. They were promised land by the King and been used as pawns to try to check the Khadoran and Skorne borders, fair is fair**.

The mixture of barbarian tribe and Celtic influence is plain to see on these models and I've tried to incorporate some form of patterning on the tabards of the Fennblades.

I'll get better at this the more I practice I do, maybe go for some more complex patterning on the Heroes and Characters, and leave the rank and file troops with more subdued patterns.

I've kept to a core palette of dirty metal and leather, with the blue skintones and tabards drawing the eye to details.

Again I've used my generic light basing paint scheme.

Rok, is a named Diretroll, one smart enough to use an axe it seems!

This model is actually one of the mail order Extreme Diretrolls direct from Privateer Press, which has had the Top upgrade pack attached to it.

I didn't actually mail order this as I got him in a great deal off of eBay, along with a pair of Troll Impalers and a set of the Sons of Bragg all for £30 as a Father's Day gift this summer just gone past.

He's been a different experience painting as it's a lot of blue, which isn't a colour I've use a lot.

I worked his skin up from a dark Kantor Blue bsse, by drybrushing up through Caledor Sky, Calgar Blue and then Thunderhawk Blue all over to give that weather beaten blue-grey look. I then went back and picked out the visible veins on his flesh with pure Kantor Blue.

Likewise the stone sections, his back, shoulders, knuckles, beard, started at Mechanicus Standard grey washed with Nuln Oil.

Instead of starting the drybrushing with Mechanicus Grey, I opted instead to start with Stormvermin Fur, then Karak Stone and finally a drybrush of Ulthuan Grey.

I kept the tanned leather the same as on the Fennblades, reasoning that this guy wouldn't be wearing Kriel colours, but I added a second layer of colour to the leather using Tallarn Sand, when washed with Earthshade the two browns blended together to create a nice interest on the kilt.

Finally as the Leadbelcher was mixing into the grey stone areas too much, I painted his runes with Retributor Armour, reasoning that the Trollblood Kriels would give offerings to this Avatar of Destruction, stamping them with warding runes to protect Rok in battle.

A face only a mother could love...

These two units clear another two boxes for an additional Twenty points. This gives me a new total of One Thousand and Fifty points.

I'm not sure what will be on the plate for Warmachine next, I mainly work on these models as and when I feel a need for a break from GW models.

Until next time...

* Again this is just my opinion about the factions in the game. If you like them, you do you.

**Mk.2 is the last book I bought when I was playing Warmachine/Hordes regularly years ago (where does the time go?). I know that there has been updates and the story moved forwards a lot, but I work with what I know and like.

The Devil Dogs Mercenary Company for hire!

The morning had started as a crisp, clear winters day, fresh white snow had fallen, but was now rent with furrows from Khadoran bombardments currently ranging in on their southern enemies.

"You there, Devil Dogs is it? Why are you not in position?" A Cygnaran journeyman cried as he ran up to the unit.

"Aye we're the Devil Dogs alreet" replied Bowdyn, casually whipping his chain-net back and forth as the others readied hand cannons and pick axes, "we're waiting on our boss to get back from your high-ups, then we'll move".

"Bloody Mercenaries" the journeyman sighed and marched further on.

"I think ve vill see action soon comrades, ze Khadoran singing is becoming louder" Andrei warned as he kept lookout towards the enemy.

A few moments later, Captain Sam MacHorne made her way along the line looking for her company.

"Boss, Boss, over here, what's the word?"

"Mornin' my lucky chums, word is that we'll be busy. A major push by those northern idiot's today, so's the word. No offence Andrei" she said, looking at her Khadoran gunner.

"Ah none taken kapitan".

They all ducked as they were showered with clumps of snow and dirt from a nearby explosion.

"We're to head towards hangman hill and see if we can do anything about this bombardment" McHorne said over the din.

"Yes" she continued, "I know this will be a hard slog, but if the coin is there..."

 "We do not care" the rest of the Devil Dogs shouted as one finishing the motto of the company.

***

A whistling shriek heralded another incoming artillery shell and the Devil Dogs ducked their heads as they sprinted through the slush. They were getting close to the Khador warjacks' now and the heat from the steam boilers had melted the dirty snow around.

Ash and smoke drifted lazily in the air from the machines and gunfire. The gunners ahead of MacHorne fired punching several winter guard off their feet.

"Bowdyn, net that destroyer, gunners cover, heavies do your thing, but try to save the cannon arm" she shouted, and the troops rushed to follow her orders.

Within moments Bowdyn and two others were hacking with their pickaxes at the stricken Warjack, its own huge axe pinned to the floor by the heavy chains Bowdyn had cast at it.

The gunners by this point were firing their heavy alchemical scatter shells at the second Destroyer keeping it stunned in a cloud of disorientating smoke.

"Stop right there Cyka, you vill die for zis insult to ze Motherland!" A Khadoran voice rang out as the enemy Warcaster charged MacHorne with his axe swinging.

She turned and parried, tried to shoot but his free hand battered her cannon away. He swung again trying to cut across her stomach, but with the slush underfoot she slipped and fell backwards loosing grip on her sword.

"Shit, ze boss, ve need to get to ze boss, she's in trouble" Andrei shouted seeing the situation unfolding.

The Khadoran loomed over her, axe raised high for a killing blow, when he was overtaken by smoke and thunder. When the smoke had cleared and MacHorne has shook the ringing from her ears she looked around to find that the unfortunate man had disintegrated from the waist up.

Turning to look their own Warjack which they had outpaced with their sprint had finally caught up with them just in time. Smoke still curled from the twin heavy cannons depositing soot across the dark green armour plating.

"Thank you Rusty" she said, using the affectionate nickname she had for it, before motioning it off to counter the second Destroyer which the heavies we're now heading towards.

'If the coin is there, we do not care' MacHorne mentally intoned to herself as she pulled herself up and recovered her weapons...

*****

Back to Warmachine for this next post and something a little different from my recent Cryxian gear.

This time I delved into the murky world of the Mercenaries and painted up the unit of Devil Dogs, accompanied by a salvaged Warjack.

In Warmachine terms these guys are an anti-Warjack unit. You hire them point them at the enemy Warjacks and let them do their thing.

Their leader, Captain Sam McHorne, took control over the company through a gambling game and reorganised them to fight against the newer Warjacks. After the previous leader has neglected to update their wargear and left them stuck facing off against infantry with no way to protect themselves from the steam robots attacking them.

To this end I chose to paint my unit in a uniform dark green with metallic armour, figuring that McHorne would have kitted them out not only with weapons, but uniforms as well.

Captain McHorne in the middle flanked by her two gunners.

The three "Heavies" which come in the box with their pickaxes and the chain-net for tying down Warjacks.

Lastly, their salvaged 'Jack.

This was a Cygnar light Warjack (I don't know the type), but someone had taken a Dremel of such to the top plate which was a metal add-on and not completely obliterated the Cygnar symbol there.

A little work with a needle file removed most of the rest of the symbol with what is left looking like a damaged salvaged plate.

Figuring that the Devil Dogs could always be looking for edges on the field, I attached this to them and painted it up in the same colours as the unit.

As this Warjack uses coal rather then Necrotite like the Cryxian ones, I took pains to weather the smokestacks for accumulated soot, as well as make the entire lower section dusty.

I can't see the mercenaries cleaning this thing too much, apart from for maintenance or maybe punishment duty.

For the Dragon Rampant rules for this unit, I am considering fielding them as a unit of Heavy Foot with the Mixed Weapons option from the Light Foot added to them for their guns.

I'd possibly add a second Light Warjack to the unit to justify the twelve wounds for the unit.

Six infantry at one would each and two light Warjacks at three wounds each.

This would make the unit itself cost Six points, that's about average for a unit in Dragon Rampant.

Hobby Bingo time and these complete another "Unit of 2+ models" box and add another ten points.

This brings my new total up to Seven Hundred and Ten points now.

Until next time...

Cryxian Helljacks.

 

Blackstrike ducked as a hail of bullets scuttered in from the shore. The raiding party had landed upon the beach but we're now pinned down behind what hasty cover they could find.

The Cygnar defence was proving too formidable for her light force, already she saw that two of her Satyxis sisters lay dead.

Mayam the Sly, cursed witch muttered an incantation under her breathe. Sickly green runes appeared and circled her hand briefly, before launching away towards the enemy.

A flash of green mist heralded the choking cries of a few Trenchers as they were caught in the sorcerous mist, but it wouldn't be enough. There were still too many soldiers to mount an organised defence and Blackstrike cursed viciously in all the dark languages she knew. 

Screams erupted from the right. The stench of melting, steaming flesh accompanying, told her that the forces Bonejacks had finally come ashore. The Defiler spewing gouts of acid into the packed trench, lending the Bonerippers a chance to launch themselves into the fray.

A muffled growl drew her attention back to the sheeted form on the landing boats.

"Quartermaster, ye be releasing the payload" she shouted.

The Quartermaster grunted and nodded in acknowledgement and hauled the tarpaulin back revealing the straining black iron form of the Slayer. Deft, dead fingers drew a cutlass and slashed the magical blade across the alchemically treated chains holding the raging Helljack down.

The Slayer surged forwards, slicing a few unfortunate pirates in half with its claws as it hurled itself towards the enemy. The pirates it had eviscerated pulled themselves back together as the dark magic animating them reknit flesh and bone under the Quartermasters steely one-eyed gaze.

In seconds the Slayer had waded through the torrent of fire from the Cygnaran's and entered melee. Body parts were thrown as children's toys might be, and the volume of firepower slackened enough for Blackstrike to raise her head.

The carnage was impressive and she idly wondered what a heavier chassis Helljack was capable of. She regained her composure and shouted to her Satyxis.

"Into the breech girls, follow the Slayer, Kill any ye find still breathin'".

*****

Later on as they took stock of the plunder from the raid Blackstrike was visited by a ghostly floating highwayman. The Pistolwraith, bowed it's macabre head in her presence.

"Ye be bein' busy mistress" it said, it's voice a mere whisper but seemed to be loud enough to hear.

"Aye, Ashor" she replied, using the wraith's true-name and it slumped further, "did ye find what Mistress Ravenmane seeks? Can I get her to the prize before one of the other bitch captains?"

Eyes glowing with balefire, Ashor lifted his skull head to look directly at Blackstrike.

"Yes, mistress!"

*****

As before, when I finished the Satyxis off, I was intending to get these 'Jacks finished during June. But then July passed in a blur as I think I only had three or four days off from work for the entire month!

I finally got these models finished earlier this week, following the same colours and washes in the order I applied them to the Satyxis.

Just with less Gold for these to make them more sinister, as the Warjacks here have some large panels which if painted gold could upset the dark, brooding look of the force.

A Slayer, the big guy at the back.

Two Bonerippers, the smaller guys with the tusks.

And a Defiler, closest the to camera.

I'm happy with the consistent look to these models and am hopeful that it is easily replicated in the future as I hope to find some more of these.

With these complete I decided to photograph the entire force, including the Pistolwraith whom I painted several months ago but never got round to posting on here:

I even included Gorman Di Wolfe at the back simply because he was painted as part of this batch, but isn't attached to the force permanently.

Hobby bingo time, and this ticks off one of the Vehicle/Monster boxes I need to fill out giving me ten points.

More importantly, it fills out THREE lines giving me another One-Hundred and Fifty points ontop for a net gain this time of One-Hundred and Sixty points.

Pushing me ever closer to closing the gap with Chris and completing the first grid:

Up next for Warmachine will be some more Mercenaries in the force of the Devil Dogs, and possibly a start to me Trollkin force.

Until next time...

Satyxis Infantry completed.

 

Barely making a sound the darkwood boats of the Cryxian raiding party skimmed the waves towards the shore and the unsuspecting Cygnaran fortified village ahead. If the moons were on their side then they would make landfall undetected and the raid would be much more swift.

Vabath Blackstrike, Satyxis Lieutenant, almost wished for something to reveal their presence to the enemy, to give some excitement to the raid.

Almost...

She had learned early on to savour an enemies dread and panic when the raiders showed themselves out of the gloom, as if appearing out of thin air like some of Lord Toruk's other soldiers. Besides, what was the point in launching the raid if she didn't get chance to actually kill something up-close, as all Satyxis preferred to?

She ginned, licking pointed canine teeth as she glanced around at her raider cohort. Satyxis sisters all around were checking their armour, sharpening horns and hefting the vicious lacerator chain whips which they favoured.

Their dark purple skin blending into the midnight gloom as well as any camouflage the humans might use, and she'd faced their ranger units before.

Oars rose and sank in the choppy waves as the slaves rowed to the quiet counting of the Quarter-Master, glaring icily at them whenever an oar make a noise in the water. To the left and right, three and four more landing boats respectively, surged forwards along with their own. The telltale green glow of Cryxian Bonejacks shone underwater as the amphibious contraptions made their way to shore, if you knew where to look.

Subdued under a heavy black tarpaulin, their own Slayer Helljack waited, chained to the deck lest it reveal their position.

A cry sounded from the shore, another and another. Then a series of flares were fired into the air and the garrison could clearly see the incoming raiders now. The dusky yellow light illuminating all ahead. Blackstrike saw a platoon of Long Gunners and several platoons worth of Trenchers sprinting for the defences. Somewhere a chain cannon started up and the bullets began to rip into the aves towards them.

Be careful what you wish for, for Lord Toruk will provide she thought to herself, whipping around to face the crew.

“So much for stealth, Quarter-Master as you will!” She snarled.

“ROW!” The Quarter-Master bellowed, stamping his peg leg into the deck to keep time.“ROW!” His whip rose and fell, inciting shrieks of pain from the unfortunates it hit.“ROW! OR YE'LL BE FED TO THE EXHUMINATIONS CREW!”.The landing boat surged forwards like a horse kicked to gallop.

Blackstrike smiled and shuddered at the threat, knowing what horrors dwelt upon the decks of the Black Ship Exhumination. She glanced back towards their own ship from which they had launched earlier.

Black Ship Blood Tempest sat, silhouetted against the midnight blue sky. She lit up ghostly green as her cannon's roared towards the shore, the whistling munitions arcing overhead.

The Blood Tempest glowed green again. Her crew were well trained as any in the Black Fleet but they couldn't reload and fire that fast, Blackstrike thought, when she saw the second ship in the gloom.

The Widower, Pirate Queen Skarre was here!

“Sisters, our queen is here. Her word be law, an' she wamt this raid fast and bloody, an offering to the Dragon! Glorious Dragonfather, master of us all, eternal torment, AYE!” She cried, met with bloodthirsty cheers from her crew.

“YE WILL ROW!” came the call of the Quarter-Master...

 

*****

Here are the finished infantry for the Warmachine army I started.

Some good Horny Women with Whips!

I was taking part in a "point-a-day" painting challenge, but seem to have failed it terribly due to some exhausting shifts at work recently, and the tendency to never seem to make progress on these models as they were on the painting table.

Don't mis-interperate that, I was making progress. one of two basecoats and a wash per night before work, but they didn't seem to be progressing to my eye so motivation began to wane a little around mid-month.

So, Skarre Ravenmane, Mayam the Sly - the Blood Hag, Vabath Blackstrike and her unit of Raiders, the Warwitch Initiate Betre and the Rogue Alchemist Gorman Di Wulfe are all finished.

I also have a finished Pistol Wraith somewhere which I will post when I dig him out to photograph.

One thing I am not happy about with these models is that I picked up a can of Satin varnish by accident at the hardware shop in town, so they have a slight glossy finish, nothing hitting with a later of matte varnish can fix later on.

Also the fact that the camera close-ups are very cruel to the painting, especially as these are metal models with all the imperfections which they include.

The models look good from three feet away on the table and that's more what matters overall I think, also waiting for grass Tufts, but I'm calling them finished for now.

As for the 'Jacks, well...

I got the bases started and the green glow effect done at least.

I also filled out a few more boxes on the Hobby Bingo grid:

Skarre fills the Hero box, Mayam, Batre and Gorman fill the Any Model box and Blackstrike and the Satyxis fill the 10+ models box, giving me thirty points for the month, if I'd have gotten the 'Jacks done I could have filled two Vehicle/Monster boxes and checked off two more lines as well.

Something to aim for going forwards.

More on these soon in the future.

Point a Day challenge - a Warmachine army.

 

Since January I've been buying used Warmachine/Hordes miniatures cheaply off of eBay.

I used to play the game way back when it was first released and really enjoyed the setting.

What's not to like with a steampunk/fantasy/pirate/Soviet/robot/beastly setting where nearly anything goes?

Anyway, so after having a clear out and discovering that I had nearly all the first edition books barring the last one, I decided to spend a few pounds and see what I could get ahold of.

Shocked by the prices of new gear (seriously check it out, 13 infantry models are roughly £50...And people complain about GW's pricing!), I quickly turned to eBay. 

There things were somewhat saner, if a little more limited.

Which brings us onto the subject of this post, in the course of buying stuff I also joined a Warmachine painting and modelling group on Facebook which is running a painting challenge each month.

This is called "Point-A-Day" and the aim is to paint up at least as many points of gear as there are days in the month, so 30 points at least for June.

I've cobbled together a force using my favourite faction and a sub-faction in the game.

The Cryx, who are steampunk undead pirates who are led by a dragon who is a god!

The Satyxis are a sub-faction made up of warrior women who were corrupted by the dragons presence causing them to grow horns from their head and develop an affinity to blood magic, kind of like voodoo.

My list of things to paint include this little lot which I have based and primed:

The core of the force:

Skarre Ravenmane, the Pirate Queen.

A Satyxis Blood Hag.

And ten Satyxis Raiders.

They are supported by:

Gorman Di Wolfe, the Rogue Alchemist.

A Warwitch Initiate.

A Slayer Helljack.

Two Deathripper Bonejacks.

And a Defiler Bonejack.

The Helljack and Bonejacks are the main draw for the setting, being steam powered (in this case some form of soulfuel instead of coal) robots which have a basic instinct for fighting. You can also bounce spells off of the Bonejacks to target things you can't reach or even see!

I'm going to use this paint scheme from the Druchii codex for 40k as the colours of the army:

I like the black highlighted with red, and the usual scheme for Cryxian stuff is black and dark metal, contrasted with a vibrant, sickly bright green.

I wanted to do something different with my gear.

If I manage to clear this lot before the end of the month, I've also gotten a Mercenary unit of the Devil Dogs based and primed:

Led by Captain Sam McHorne, these humans are Warjack hunters and will fight for anyone who has coin, apart from Cryx...

I'll do a future post with a rundown of the setting in more detail, but that's it for now.

Until next time...

 - Lewis