Altdorf mountain patrol

[Demoulius]

Hello folks!

Il be using this painting log to follow the progress of my starting empire army

It started off badly sadly when i left my suitcase with my empire army (and some 40K chaos space marine goodies) at a subway station. When I found out i inmediatly returned and even phoned the local GW and asked the last remaining red(or is it blue now?) shirt to see if he could help me with this. He was a cool enough guy to help me out but sadly it was to late. I had spoken to some of the staff from the subway station and they had seen some shady figure standing next to the suitcase, they thought it was his. A few phone calls later at the subways lost and found and it was evident noone had returned it, even though someone had 'found' it...

Oh well, my love of the hobby is to strong and im back for more currently got 20 halberdiers, 5 knights with GW, 2 mages and a warrior priest assembled. Il be working on my next block of halberdiers tonight but il have to find a suitable camera to take pictures with. My iphone has one but I find the picture quality has much to be desired

My current goal is to make my force a 1000 points, namely this list:
WP with AOMI, dawnstone and GW
lvl 2 (fire or beast) wizard with ironcurse icon
25 halberdiers with full command
20 halberdiers with full command
20 greatswords with full command
great cannon
mortar
10 handgunners/crossbowmen/archers (not sure which ones yet...)

999 points so 1 point to spare...if anyone has any ideas?

[The Yak]

No!!! Its bad enough loosing any bag but a bag with an army (and not just any old army but a bloody Empire one) in it is awfull!!

I like the sound of an Altdorf mountain patrol force. Someones got to keep those pesky Bretons out of The Empire.

Good luck

[Demoulius]

Thanks

My reason to pick this place was that I wanted an army in the colours of Altdorf. The mountains in the empire harbour all sorts of horrors (well any place in the empire does this, but anyway...) It mentions VC, skaven and just any evil you can inmagine (chaos) which happend to be the most popular armies when I started playing

Well that and protecting a borders is in my opinion a honorable and perilous thing to do for a soldier (in warhammer most certainly ) so id like to think my soldiers are exceedingly bad ass at their job

Also I intend to have my general riding a griffon when my army is complete. His fluff is that he found the griffon when it was young and besieged by attackers whom he *shrugs* kindly asked to leave... with his sword :P the critter then got a liking to him and eventually growing out to be his mount

So basicly it was a 'every battle will be fluffy' sort of decision sprinkled with a little bit of 'because its convient'

[pscm]

Oh goodness =[ my heart sank when I read what happened at the station!! Happy to see that it did not deter you from continuing though =D Really liking the fluff, in my opinion, an army with a sense of story and background to it is really enjoyable to put together and paint and then game with!! Looking forward to more =D

[Demoulius]

Thanks pscm. I basicly could stand still and consider the loss ive had or I could keep on going. I still had my health so to speak and aside from the time invested in the modeling (and the money obviously) I hadent lost much else since most of the stuff wasent even painted... The suitcase it was in was also pretty badly damaged and only 1 of the locks was still attached so it boggles my mind what someone would want with it

So a small update. Have finished 20 halberdiers.

Attached 2 pictures of the and 2 pictures of my giant that i bought for when I play SoM

[Demoulius]

New update. Build a few things since last time

First of all my general. So far I will use him in games of 500 points and 1500 points and up

He basicly straight from the empre general kit...with the small edition of a holstered pistol from the pistoliers kit

(general with mundane armour and pistol comes to 125 points, max limit in 500 games, who knew )

that aside ive kitbashed 3 crewmembers for my cannon (alongside my hellblaster the only 2 models I dident lose when my suitcase was lost...since they were on my painting table...)

Since I have a huge bitz box yet was missing parts to make some spare crew members I just went with the flow and made it up as I went

Enter the old grumpy drunk. Hes telling the others what to do whilst keeping his beer to his own. Enter the noble son who was sent to the gunnery school for whatever thing he did. And the 3rd crewmember who...er...is about to blow them all up and is therefor scolded by the grumpy drunk.

Or something...

Added pictures for your liking

[Demoulius]

Played a game at my local GW today. 1000 points against lizardmen.

Im to exhausted to post it all in detail (went to work starting at 8 AM and ending at 5 PM o clock I drove to the GW, played a few hours, ate and now at home at 23:30 )

he basicly had an all skink army except for 1 unit of saurus 4 deep and (I think) 7 wide.

I lost a great number of units but no entire units. 1 unit of halberdiers fled from combat though so he captured a banner. I in turn killed a salamander and 10 skinks. Had 1 sally on 1 wound, had a unit of 7 halberdiers with 1 wound lvl 0 wizard fleeing (miscast lost his levels...) and had a cannon with 1 crewmember remaining and 2 javelin skinks nearby.

I think it would have been pretty close could we have finished the game my great swords were in combat with his saurus, my WP winning the challenge his saurus champ (hero unit) dished out but only wounding it once

Il post a batrep tommorow...for now its sleepy time.

[DeathCat147]

Im glad that you have managed to take negative event and turn it into a positive Demoulius. I look forward to seeing more

[Demoulius]

Thanks

To be fair alot has happend this year that can be summed up with a single word starting with S and ending with HIT.... Or carp with the words re-arranged

This was the only hobby related one however. Having other worse thing happen to you makes you see things in perspective and you realize it isent so bad (if a ****** thing to happen)

Luckily I have money to burn (beeing single apparently saves your bank account? ) so starting over wasent to much of a problem.

Il upload pictures and the batrep today (currently on my break from work )

[vinush]

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing some painting on the models.

THE \/ince

[sasheep]

Sorry to hear about your old army mate, but it is good you are sticking at it
I really like your grumpy drunk crewman. Nice, simple kitbash but it looks exactly right. Are we going to see any paint soon?

[Demoulius]

Hey guys thanks for the replies!

Il start painting when I got my 1000 points army assembled (so i still need 20 greatswords and a unit of 10 missle troops )

First up though the batrep from last thursday:

Played a local lizardmen player, his army was something like this:
skink priest
10 skinks with blowpipes
10 skinks with blowpipes
10 skinks with javelins
10 skinks with javelins
salamander
salamander
big block of 23 saurus (HW+shld) with added saurus hero with a magic sword

and I had:
WP with AOMI, dawnstone and GW
lvl 2 (fire or beast) wizard with ironcurse icon
25 halberdiers with full command
20 halberdiers with full command
20 greatswords with full command
great cannon
mortar
10 archers

we played a scenario where you drew a line through the middle and basicly had to play corner to corner (couldnt play otherwise) but without special deployment rules that apparently applied to the mission. Had some woods and hills (realm of battle board) and a building set up.

Dont recall who went first. As you can see in the added pictures I turtled up around the hill in my corner of the board. He spread his skinks across the middle line and deployed his unit of saurus in the middle. First turn I moved upa abit and magicked some skinks away in a big fire ball. My mortar blew up 8 out of 10 skinks (missing the added wizard) but they dident run. My archers stayed 25 inches away from his nearby skinks (love premeasuring!) so if he moved I had 1 turn to fire before he could fire back...

his turn he...well moved forward. one of his sallies flamed the greatswords, killing 7 and they fled right there (highest LD and added general and still they run...) dont think i suffered much damage in return.

2nd turn greatswords regrouped. i elected a charge on the nearby sally (who missed with his attack last turn) but they fled out of my range. Then redirected against a nearby skink unit who fled as well () my 2nd halberdier unit (with fire wizard) pivoted in place abit. If he charged his saurus against my now misdirected halberdier unit i would get a flank charge off. Also the wizard could now cast at stuff...

Which he did. I cast fireball (2d6) got inresistable. got a few hits and killed off 6 skinks. Then he lost both of his wizard levels to the miscast

great cannon fired at the sally who fled and hit it dead one! doing 1 wound. my archers shot at the sally who killed the greatswords last turn and killed off all the handlers and put a wound on the sally itself. mortar did nothing (i think)

he charged the lone sally in my arhcers (stand and shoot did nothing) his sally and skinks regrouped. his saurus shuffled forward.

His magic saw him cast a hex (-1 to hit) on my block of halberdiers who tried to charge last turn (and succeed) and saw him cast the big 'im pushing you backwards with wind' spell on the increased version that pushed them back a few inches...

he killed one of my cannon crew with the 2 javelin skinks (mortar victims from turn 1) the unit of 4 skinks surged forward to fire at the greatswords who had just regrouped but his magic had pushed them out of range. in combat his sally killed off 2 archers, they dident do damge in return but stayed put!

my 3rd turn i declared charges. halberdiers charged the sally who regrouped last turn (12 inches away) halberdiers charged the saurus (12 inches away) and greatswords charged the 4 skinks (about 10 inches away) he elected stand and shoot with the skinks, killing 1 greatswords and the rest stayed put. I made all my charged with rolls of 10-12 each

my wizard couldnt cast anymore but I used my powerdice to get the 4+ wardsave off on the wizard since he was in the unit halberdiers (and in the front rank...)

shooting saw both my artillary pieces misfiring. luckily they dident blow up though and could fire again next turn.

in combat my halberdiers in combat with the sally suffered 5 casualties and did nothing in return (hex+subject to fear=6+ to hit....and 4+ to wound) but static combat res and musician saw them win anyway. sally dident run.

halberdiers charging the saurus kill 2, lost alot in return 10 and fled (thus losing the banner) had 8 halberdiers and the wizard left. the 4++ from the priest paid off though as his saurus hero targetted my wizard but i deflected both wounds with it! they fled through the unit of 4 skinks though and thus had to make dangerous terrain test. i lost 1 halberdier and the wizard got 1 wound....

the greatswords lost 1 to the skinks and killed them off in return and overran into the saurus (thus giving me the charged bonus next turn!)

my 8 archers, against all odds killed off the sally (who whiffed his attacks) I think they killed more in hand to hand then at range....

his turn, a unit of skinks shot at the archers but with terrible rolling only killed 1. the skink tried to cast the wind blow spell with 6 dice and was hoping for a miscast (he placed his priest next to my block of halberdiers in combat with the sally) he dident get it but the spell did go through, blowing my fleeing halberdiers away even further towards my table edge.

in combat his saurus hero challenged my WP. I accepted. he had a flaming sword of hotec? (some lizardmen sounding name) so he decreased his armour save to 5+. with the reroll it was no problem and i suffered no wounds. In return i put 1 wound on the hero. In combat the saurus whiffed with most of their attacks, killing 2 great swords. I killed a few in return (cant recall numbers but either way I won combat) he was steadfast though so dident run.

In combat with the sally i dident suffer fear and wounded the bugger once. Again got a draw though so again the musician payed off. He dident run...

We had to call the game there as the shop was closing.
I had lost:
0 full units. Did lose a banner to a retreating unit though so 100 points to him.

He lost:
a unit of 10 skinks. 1 sally.

So with regards to victory points it could have gone either way. He had a unit of 2 skinks with javelins left, a sally down to 1 wound (in combat with a big bunch of angry halberdiers) in return my unit of greatswords were unlikely to win off against the (bigger) unit of saurus. And unless my cannon get a few shots off chances were pretty high hed kill the last of the great cannon crewmember still around (the angry drunk btw!)

Well that was battle 1. Stay tuned for battle 2!

[Demoulius]

Right battle 2. I was up against dark elves. Not to sure on what his list was (as he dident have any, nor hid armybook with him) but I saw him in the shop from time to time so trusted him enough...

His list was roughly:
lvl 2 sorceress with dispell scroll (as I found out later)
unit of 5 cold one knights.
unit of 20 (er... warriors) with spears (sorceress went in this unit)
unit of 10 warriors with some fancy crossbows
unit of 20(?) dark elf...somethings (they had some rule warrior elite meaning they rerolled hits every turn had halberds and heavy armour)
war hydra

So the army looked pretty small and aside from the hydra i thought 'what the heck, doesent look to scary'

We played scenario 3 (IIRC) dawn assault. i won the roll to go first and took it. My mortar showed up on my left, alongside a unit of 20 halberdiers. In the middle I basicly got the rest of my army.

He got his unit of spear elves with sorceres on my left, everything else bar the fancy elves with heavy armour in the middle. The fancy elves were on my right.

He tried to take first turn and failed. I went first and snuck my troops forward a little (and with little I mean a little, 4 inches) forest on my left was a poisened thicket and the one on my right was a fungus forest.

My first turn shooting saw me kill off 7 or 8 of the spear elves. Targetted the war hydra (had clear LOS to it ) but my cannonball stopped 2 inches short of it

My fireballs were stopped. My flaming short of rhuin on my cannon (to instant kill the hydra ) was also stopped. Did put a ward save on the wizard though since he had used up all his dispell dice.

My archers shot at the spear elves and killed 1 (yay)

His turn he slugged forward, the hydra zooming to my right hiding behind my big block of halberdiers with wizard (curses) he shot his crossbows at my left most block of halberdiers killing 2. I stopped all his magic (he had shadow and pit of shades and the signature btw)

My 2nd turn my halberdier unit passed their stupidity test. I reformed the unit to fafce the hydra (or rather the wizard faced the hydra. on my left I marched my archers forward, ending in the spear elves blind spot. The rest stayed put.

I cast the boosted fireball (cast on 10, 2D6 S4 hits) on the his hydra but suddenly he pulled out the dispel scroll. To be fair I said it was ok to play without an army list but this left a sour taste in my mouth. We were like: wow. I could have casted the biggest boosted version and got it off! And he thought for a bit and just said 'scroll'

..............

Aaaaanyway....

My mortar blew up a full rank of 6 of the fancy pants elves (yay) but the cannon misfired, unable to fire this turn and the next

His 2nd turn he wanted to charge with the knights. He rolled for stupidity and got just that. He moved forward and ended his movement a few inches away from my greatswords. He decided to just move the rest of his army around and dident otherwise charge. His war hydra zoomed forward and ended next to the wizards unit blindspot. In his magic phase he got inresistable on the signature (boosted) on the greatswords but lost all the rest of his spelldice due to miscast 7 (and 2 spear elves...)

Then the hydra came along and flamed 17 of my 25 halberdiers I dont care how much that freak costs....Its not enough!

My 3rd turn I wanted to reform what was left of my halberdiers but they suffered from stupidity and shuffled forward one whole inch....

I did charge his cold ones with my greatswords and his spears with my halberdiers though. Since I could only cast my WP's bound spells I cast the unbreakable but he dispelled it. My mortar misfired and the cannon was still unable to fire so I moved it 4 inches away from the hydra...

Combat saw me slaughtering off both units with some casualties, overran with the halberdiers but restrained with greatswords (killed them all off and the fancy elves were nearby to otherwise flank charge...)

His 3rd turn his hydra charged my small unit of halbies and the fancy elves charged the great swords. The 10 crossbows shot at my left halberd unit.

The hydra killed off the entire halberd unit and the lone wizard ran but was horribly overrun. Combat with the fancy elves saw me losing by like....7 or 8 points due to wound suffered but beeing stubborn my great swords stayed put. (had like 9 left at this stage!!)

4th turn saw me charging the crossbows with my halbies. My cannon blowing up itself and my mortar suffering ANOTHER missfire....... in combat my greatswords were cut down to a man and the warrior priest (my general) overrun. In combat with the crossbows i got a draw but since i had a musician i won, he dident run (damn)

His 4th turn his hydra charged my archers (who ran due to terror) and his fancy elf unit turning around. In combat with the crossbows I won again (barely) but he stayed put.

Victory for the dark elves (going off VP's)

The store was closing so we had to call the game. Dont know how many turns you ussually play but next turn could be pretty important to determine the outcome.

If my mortar could get a hit (all the times he could fire i got direct hits!) i could take out his fancy elf unit who were now down to 5 or 6 men (or rather elves) if my halberdiers could beat and overrun the fancy elves they would be out of range off the fancy elves and if my archers could regroup they wouldnt give up victory points (unless he killed them off in his own turn which was very much also possible...)

A lot of what ifs but basicly my army got eaten up by 2 units.... Hydra and unit blob of 20 elfs with halberdiers hitting at iniative 6.... How the hell do you beat that?

[Demoulius]

Real life is throwing a spanner in the works it seems...

Played another game last weekend though game against a buddies new ork and goblin army.

Some highlights. Cannon brought down a goblin chariot first turn and made 10 goblin wolf riders run of the board

Greatswords (20 strong) took it up against like.... 40 goblins and almost won out. Unluckily he got 10 wounds in 1 round (failed 6 of those to ) and i rolled a 10 for their LD8 stubborn LD test.....

Cannon otherwise did fap damage. Cannonball kept stopping 1 inch in front of its target

Thats about it Only need to assemble 10 more greatswords and I can start slapping on paint on these hobos! Have assembled 10 crossbowmen and 5 halberdiers allready between posting downtime

[Demoulius]

Progress!

Attached the picture with my latest models!

Finaly got my 1000 points army assembled completly and i can start painting finaly

[Demoulius]

Finaly a PAINTING update!

With my 1000 points army completly assembled I basecoated everything and started painting my army

I started on the crossbows as I dont care if I ruin their paintjob I can experiment abit, see which colour scheme i like the most (as in which colours....cant decide on a scheme as I paint them altdorf colours )

Still undecided what to do with the feathers though... Any ideas?

[Demoulius]

Update time

5 crossbows nearly finished. Still need to do highlights and give the feather a colour (still at a loss what colour I should make them )

They took a little while longer than I would have liked but I was experimenting with colours to get something I liked

Basicly most of the model is a foundation paint with 1 (sometimes 2) colours ontop of it.

Gets a pretty good tabletop quality I think

Painting progress for my 1000 points army

undercoated
warrior priest
fire wizard
20 great swords
20 halberdiers
25 halberdiers
great cannon
mortar
5 crossbows

painted
5 crossbows (in this case 95% complete)

[Karak Norn Clansman]

I think they're really good, but why dont you base the models before painting? One saves some time that way.

[Demoulius]

@Karak Norn Clansman. It would save time wouldnt it? I just eh... Never think about it when i start undercoating

Curse my slow painting speed! Crossbowmen 6 to 10 are almost finished. After spending 4 or so hours though theyre still not done... Faces and details still need to be done (and bases and highlights obviously )

Im abit taken aback by how abyssal my progress with these guys is... My other army is blood angels (been so for 12 years now) and i can paint those alot faster....granted big parts of their armour are painted the same colour

Im allready looking forward to units like knights and greatswords with big parts of armour. Perhaps I can paint those abit faster?

Added the picture of the crossbows as an attachment... Still need to find a way to add pictures the normal way but I dont got a picture dump

[Demoulius]

Have finished the crossbows since last update (no picture sorry) and have started on my halberdiers

The speed at which my crossbows got painted showed me that painting models complete details takes up ALOT of time. So I will be painting the front rank (and when I feel giddy the second rank) in detail and just do the other el rapido.\

Cant spend hours painting models that only cost 5 points now can I?

Picture provided of the current state of the halberdiers front rank. I do my painting more spread out now and its making it much more managable This progress has been achieved by 2 sessions of about 1 hour t o an hour and a half each.

Still far from finished but do-able at this rate I suspect il finish the rushed troopers in one session of this length