Knights Panther

In 1986 John Blanche painted an iconic image, a classic which is a real piece of art, the Knights Panther, (reproduced in the 1997 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay GM’s Screen and Reference Pack), it is one of my all time favorite drawings & one that made the Knights Panther my favorite Empire Knightly Order.

With the release of the Old World, GW has been selling a lot of old classic miniatures, this particular painting didn´t have any miniature though, until now:

It isn't an exact reproduction, but very close to the original painting. Despite the fact that I don't play Empire, I am eager to get my hands on this model, it's a lovely model which I will paint up just for the sake of it!

Forge World Preyton

Another monster just in time for Halloween, this time a quite rare one, a Forge World Preyton which I've had ever since they were first released. 

Preytons are a savage and hateful breed of Chaos beast that haunts the forested lands of Bretonnia in the Old World. So renowned is their ferocity that sightings of Preytons will draw Questing Knights from many miles around, seeking to prove their valour by slaying the beasts. Mighty and winged creatures born of the energies of Chaos, hybrid in form like the Chimera, Preytons bear upon their savagely equine heads a pair of blackened and serrated antlers, which have caused foolhardy knights to mistake them for majestic Great Stags, much to their error. 

 I was inspired by the artwork from the Monstrous Arcanum, so a very dark grey skin, almost black, green details & lots of blood!

Rules for the Preyton was only ever released in the Monstrous Arcanum, with a profile that matches something like a Griffon, however it did have some fun options as well as special rules: 

 Impact Hits (D3) 

Fly 

Terror 

Hatred 

Consuming Hatred (wounds inflicted upon the Preyton count towards the Preytons combat result) Endless Malice (might not pursue an enemy it breaks, if so, all enemies within 10" must take a panic test)

 Options:

 Frenzy 

Scaly Skin (5+) 

Forest Stalker (Ambush & no movement penalty in woods)

Fighting a treeman at the outskirts of Loren

As I don´t play 8th edition I guess this will most likely just be a counts as something else model, but it is a great model imo!

Varghulf

 October, or rather Orctober as it is known among most gamers usually means one paints orcs or at least greenskins this month. However for those not into the miniature gaming market, October is mostly known for Halloween, which usually means scary monsters. 

I decided upon painting som monsters this month, the first one got finished last week, a varghulf for my Vampire Counts.

Within every Vampire's black soul lurks a slavering monster, driven to feed on the blood of the living time and again. Most Vampires seek control over this side of their existence, clinging to the trappings of aristocracy, privilege, or - in some extreme cases - a debased form of martial honor.

Yet not all Vampires care for the trappings of mortal life or seek to control their inner urges. There are a few Vampires who allow the animalistic hunter within them to consume their personality completely. These feral predators abandon their citadels in order to run unfettered through the forest, hunting at the head of packs of Dire Wolves or even stranger beasts

Those who revel in such behaviour become physically changed beyond recognition by the necromantic magic of the Vampiric curse. Hence are born the creatures known to the peasants as Varghulfs.

Varghulfs are the result of a Vampire repeatedly overfeeding on blood. Over the centuries, these most devolved of Vampires become blood-mad killers that exist only to feed. Like enraged, starved beasts, they run rampant, devouring whole villages and yet never sating their thirst. They slaughter without mercy, luxuriating in bloody carnage.

Warhammer Wellness

I really wanted to share this video from 90percentgeek, mental health issues are at an all time high & I think this video helps people remember that & try to help in a good way:

R.I.P. MR Ansell

One of the most successful and influential miniature game designers has parted our world. Sadly we mourn the passing of Bryan Ansell. He was vital to our hobby and will be mourned by the community. Warhammer as we know it was born in 1983, when a group of enthusiasts consisting of Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley came together to create the ultimate war board game. Together they invented Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the first edition of the game to be distributed by Games Workshop.

Thanks to Ansell's work, the franchise gained much relevance and Games Workshop became a benchmark in the medium. 

His relatives assured that he died peacefully and surrounded by his loved ones.

Thank you for all the memories created by your game, R.I.P.

Siege campaign

The breathless and tattered messenger staggered towards the entrance of the Dwarf hold, falling at the feet of the long bearded sentry. "The Skaven, they´re coming, he gasped, the Skaven are coming..."

During vacation, I went to meet a close friend of mine, we had decided on a weekend of wargaming, to give it a bit of a twist, we decided on playing a short campaign which would end with a siege game. We wanted a classic match-up so decided on Dwarfs vs Skaven.

First Scenario - Forlorn hope

A dwarf patrol is the first to encounter the vanguard of the Skaven, they immediately dispatch a messenger, while the rest of the patrol try to delay the Skaven so the messenger can warn the garrison.

The objective was simple, 500 points of Dwarfs most hold a pass vs 750 points of Skaven, if they manage, the Dwarfs will get a free bombardment on the Skaven troops in the Final Siege, if not, the Skaven will get to buy siege equipment at a discount.

Here you can see where the Skaven has to break through, a big unit of Dwarf Warriors with spears will try & hold while Behram Gundarson, the Slayer hero leads a few crossbowmen towards a glorious death vs the Rat Ogres.

Things look grim for the Dwarfs

It was a quick battle, the Skaven pushed towards the Dwarfs, the Spearmen held until the final dwarf was killed, however it had taken too long, the Crossbowmen were still alive & well, while Behram Gundarson was futile in his attempts at getting killed by the Rat Ogres (he was killing them).

A solid victory for the Dwarfs.

The Dwarf hold erupted into a frenzy as battle horns sounded the call to arms, stout dwarfs left their work to arm themselves, as the final soldiers found their places and the dust began to settle, Einar Dantesson, the commander of the hold, strode into the courtyard.

"Dawi" he said, our time for glory has come. Even now the foul Skaven horde approaches, we are all that stands between them and our loved ones.

He stared at each of his followers in turn, their grim faces showing neither fear or sadness - only resolution, a grim determination.

"The skaven are foul, honourless creatures, not strong like us, we will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail!"

Scenario 2 - Infiltrate

Eshin Gutter Runners has managed to infiltrate the hold, their objective is to sabotage the food and ammunition stores, the dwarf sentries must try to stop them before they reach the storage.

If the Dwarfs win they get a few pieces of free Siege Equipment, however if the Skaven win, all siege equipment will cost twice as much for the Dwarfs.

Gutter Runners are closing in

Jonas was this close to manage to get a 2:nd torch into contact with the storage, which would've won him the game

It was a close battle, the skaven were just 1 inch away from winning the scenario, but the dwarfs managed to surround the Gutter Runners & kill them off.

He could feel the rumbling in his feet, it was a low quiet one, not many would´ve noticed, but Nori Craggenson wasn´t just a dwarf smith, he was also an experienced miner, he had been mining these tunnels for years and nothing out of the ordinary went unnoticed to him. 

Skreech whipped his tail nervously, he didn´t like the idea of undermining the Dwarf walls, not only could the troublesome dawi show up, but if they did manage to accomplish their mission, there was a very huge risk of the tunnel collapsing right over them. "Quick-quick" he urged his slaves, "dig-dig, faster".

The dwarf miners moved down the long tunnel swiftly, Nori led them himself, he had been sure something was wrong, and as sure as any dwarf saying, he was right, in the distance he could see them, there they were, Skaven, in their mines! "Charge!" He yelled.

Skreech turned around at the sound of the booming voice, not quick enough, the dawi had intercepted them, well at least it was just a small mining party, perhaps they could kill them before the alarm went off, "Kill-kill the Dawi!"

Scenario 3 - Undermine

The third and final battle before the proper siege would see the skaven attempt to undermine the walls, if they managed they would inflict heavy damage on one of the walls, the dwarfs would have to stop them in time.

Surrounded on all sides, Nori fights on!

The battlefield is split in the middle, Nori led a unit of miners at the right side, while a champion led a unit of dwarf warriors armed with spears on the left side, they had 4 turns to try & break through the skaven lines.

As valiant & brave as any dwarf, all the units fought until the bitter end, but the frenzied plaguemonks led by Skreech was too much, they slaughtered the small unit of slayers as well as every last miner, only Nori was alive & fighting at the end of turn 4.

The left flank fared a little better, breaking the stormvermin, however they were unable to break the Plague censer bearers and therefore failed their mission. The skaven undermined the tunnels & left one of the walls heavily damaged before the final assault.

The skaven pushed back the dwarfs with sheer weight of numbers, while the dwarfs fought on stubbornly, they were slowly forced back by the relentless skaven. Pick-axe chopped at diseased skaven fur, rusted skaven blades crunched into dwarf mail, spatters of blood flew everywhere. The glow of the torches illuminated a scene of relentless savagery. No quarter would be asked, no quarter would be given... A great explosion was heard, the tunnels were filled by a green, toxic smoke, it was too late, Nori gave up a snarl and pushed further into the skavenlines, meanwhile Skreech had achieved what he came for and decided it was better to continue this fight another time, leaving his subjects to face the crazed dwarf, to report to his superiors of the missions success of course.

Scenario 4 - Assault the walls

The entrance to the Dwarf hold

The skaven assault the walls

In the final battle, a 2500 points skaven army assault the castle, which is defended by a small 1250 points Dwarf army (with a few mercenary ogres allied in). I forgot to take pics during most of the battle as it was just too much happening. 

The dwarfs were fighting on the defensive, their orders were to protect the keep at all costs so their kin could get enough time to use the escape tunnels & reach Karak Eight Peaks. For every ratman that fell, another two fought each other to take its place. Einar Dantesson fought in the front lines, among the rubble of the fallen wall, his magical hammer killing a skaven with every sweep until they avoided him like the plague, the skaven stopped the assault, snarling and squeaking. The ratmen parted ranks to let a huge, black fured skaven through. His dirty robes were covered in mold, a jet black amulet was in place of one of his eyes and in his hands were a flail that ended with a pair of snarling skulls. "Die-die dwarf thing."

Einar was exhausted, but like any honourable dawi, he took up the challenge, charging the new threat, he quickly realized that every blow he struck against the rat spawn, hurt himself, wounds opened up on his body and soon he could barely move, the Skaven shouted out with evil glee and swinged his deadly flail above his head, hitting his mark. Einar was down...

Panting, blood from their many wounds dripping down their armour, the dwarfs didn´t break like most races would, instead they silently committed their souls to Grungni & renewed their efforts, they fought like in a trance, pushing back the skaven, which in turn panicked their entire line, one by one the skaven either fell down dead, or ran of the battlefield in a mass panic, victory for the Dawi, but at what cost?

The skaven made a full out attack, assaulting both the weakened wall, as well as the gate and the front part of the fortress. Meanwhile a skaven engineer with the Cloak of Mists and Shadows was running rampant in the castle, casting spells, however the valiant dwarfs stood their ground, despite the loss of all 3 characters (Dwarf Lord, Slayer champion & the Rune Priest, ironically I hadn´t lost a character in any of the 3 previous battles, but lost all of them in the final game). Toughness 4 & LD 9 on troops help a lot when defending. It was a great ending to the campaign, although if I am to be honest, I think the small battles leading up to the final siege were more fun than the siege itself!

Einar with his valiant bodyguards

Playing Warhammer scenarios without preparation.

I thought of this idea after I had a talk with a friend of mine about warhammer scenarios. We both agreed that it was a lot more fun to play different scenarios rather than just Pitched Battle all the time, but also came to the conclusion that several scenarios rarely get played because they need more preparation. As an example, if someone wants to play a game with me, we usually agree on point-values & maybe some extra restrictions. But unless we have specified a specific scenario, then we will both show up with the same amount of points & scenarios such as Last Stand won't be viable to play.

So the idea I had was, what if you both (or all if more than 2 people) agree to make one army of 1000 points, one of 1500 points & finally a 2000 point army.

Before you begin, both players roll a D3 & use the army you roll:

1: 1000 points

2: 1500 points

3: 2000 points

A warband of Chaos ambush the Lizardmen

Then depending on which armies both players rolled, consult the chart below:

If both armies are of the same value, play Meeting Engagement (Battle Book, page 26)

If one army is twice as big as the other, play Last Stand (Battle Book, page 30)

If one army is 500 points bigger than the other, play Ambush (Battle Book, page 29)

When playing the Last Stand scenario, make sure the defending army gets at least 1 piece of terrain they can defend, otherwise it will be a very 1 sided battle.

The forces of Tzeentch make a last stand vs the followers of Slaanesh

Not only will you play different scenarios, but it will also be a tactical challenge as you can't prepare for many of the scenarios (your armybuilding will have to be more allround), nor do you even know beforehand how many points you will have!

We tried it out with 4 players, each one playing each other, for a total of 3 games each, it worked remarkably well, this is something I will be doing more & I encourage you to try it, this could work with just about any edition of warhammer, not just 5th!.

Kholtrag the Vile, Bray shaman

Bray-Shamans, known also as the Speakers of the Dark Council, are powerful, if primitive, sorcerers who occupy a unique and privileged position within the brutal and bitter world of the beastmen. They have no need to defend themselves from other members of their tribe, for none would dare assault them, the priests of the beastmen. Not even the mightiest Beastlord would harm a Bray-Shaman, for they speak the will of the Dark Gods, and those that defy the gods pay the highest price of all.

I originally painted this model for the Crown of Command fanzine painting competition, but when I was asked to be one of the judges I had to withdraw my entry. I painted the model in colourful robes & with lots of red details to get a nice 90's GW feel. 

Kholthrag made his debut on the Warhammer Renaissance weekend, used as a lowly level 1 shaman with Van Horstmann's Speculum. While not doing as great as my discrider, he did kill a few Phoenix guard in the first game & managed to kill a Vampire Count in a challenge, pretty good start!

Warhammer Renaissance weekend

 Rogue Trader Copenhagen was supposed to arrange an oldhammer weekend the 26:th of March, but due to various reasons it was changed to a Warhammer Renaissance weekend instead. Now I've played a total of 2 games of Warhammer Renaissance before & that was prior to the changes done in 2022 so I was a total noob, but I figured it could still be pretty fun to just have a weekend with games against new opponents & therefore I decided to join anyway.

I hadn't decided on what to play except Chaos, so I made a list for each God. Seeing as Warhammer Renaissance uses the magic system of 4th edition, where players can cast spells in the opponents magic phase, I quickly discarded Khorne, a magic user would literally be twice as good as compared to 5th edition, seeing as at least 2 other players would play Khorne, it was an even easier choice. Each army I did had at least a level 3 spellcaster, while the one I ended up with, Tzeentch, had both a level 4 & a level 1.

Characters:

Slyrax Van Horstmann: Chaos Sorcerer Lord: Mark of Tzeentch, disc, Destiny of Tzeentch, Breathe Fire, Infusion of White, Dispel Scroll. 

Chaos Hero: Mark of Tzeentch, Flail, Chaos Armour, Scaly Skin, Drums of Marching. 

Beastman Shaman: Van Horstmann’s Speculum. 

Regiments:

6 Chaos Knights: Command with Assault Banner. 

12 Chaos Hounds / 3 Beastmasters: 

Auxilary Units:

21 Bestigors:  Command with Banner of Hatred. 

5 Harpies. 

War Machines / Monsters:

2 Heavy Marauder Chariots: Scythes.

1 Chaos Spawn.

My Chaos army

Slyrax Van Horstmann on disc

I got up pretty early, had everything packed since the night before (or so I thought, I had of course forgot to pack movement trays), took the train to Copenhagen, along for the ride was Emil. 

In total 8 players showed up, it might not sound like much, but hey the official Warhammer Renaissance world championship only had 6 players!

3 Chaos armies (2 Khorne, 1 Tzeentch)

2 High Elf players

2 Undead players (Vampire counts Blood Dragons & classic Undead)

1 Chaos Dwarf player

My first game was against a guy named Frederik who had a lovely High elf army painted in a nice 90´s retro style. His army had 2 spellcasters as well, and also a hero with Moon Bow (Bolt thrower), a Bolt Thrower, an eagle & a pair of chariots, while his troops were Spearmen, Archers, Phoenix guard, Silver Helms & Ellyrian reavers. His army was faster & had more ranged threats, but mine was more durable & had bigger units.

We rolled scenario & got capture the middle.

Turn 1

A bit of shuffling in the first turn from both of us & then hell broke loose on the 2nd turn, his eagle charged my wizard, which promptly killed it. Slyrax then continued to wreak havoc with spells & his Breath attack while one of my spawns sprouted extra limbs & doubled its movement to 22" & charged a chariot. 

I wont go into details, but my opponent gave up in turn 4, he had 2 Ellyrian Reavers left while I had only lost my hounds & my Harpies (but had also gained a 2:nd spawn as well as a new unit of Horrors).

MVP was Slyrax, with a kill tally of:

16 Spearmen, 16 Phoenix Guard, 15 Archers, 3 Ellyrian reavers, 1 eagle, the level 2 wizard & the hero as well as a unit champion, add to this a chariot that paniced off the table due to killed spearmen & a Bolt Thrower that got killed by the Horrors he had raised. My regiments didn't do anything the entire game but hold the objective, not a single model killed....

2:nd game was a multiplayer game, I paired up with Jimmi (Khorne) & got to fight Totter (High Elves) & Emil (Blood Dragon vampires).

This time the scenario was hold the village, so we set up a village in the middle.

Due to a magic item the elves were forced to deploy their entire army & give up the first turn before anything else happened.

Emil's undead marched towards the village while the elves stayed back & tried to kill with shooting & spells. The chaos forces surged forwards. 

Turn 2 saw the same trend continue, Slyrax was now behind the enemy lines & would stay there for the rest of the game. The Chaos forces set up a trap for for the Blood Knights while a chariot got wings & charged the elven cavalry, only to be killed by the magical blade of the Elven general (a seriously over powered weapon that allowed its carrier to gain attacks up to a total of 4, each attack would hit & wound on a 2+, while causing D3 wounds without any saves, the downside being that the elven army had to deploy first, cost of the weapon? 0 points....).

In turn 3 the Blood knights happily exposed themselves for the trap, Emil claimed they would still win, 4 charges & a combat later saw the Bloodthirsty knights break all enemies but the marauder horsemen, toughness 5, 1+ armour save & 2 wounds each meant they were tougher than even a dwarf clad in mithril!

Fighting commenced in the village, the chaos forces being victorous in both fights.

Slyrax started his magical bombardment once again, killing Alarielle to make sure to have a superior magic phase. 

2 turns later the elves were all dead, the Vampire counts had their super deathstar of Blood Knights alive & well, but lured far away from the objective.

Slyrax proved his worth once again, this time his tally was: Alarielle, the elven Battle standard bearer, 16 Maiden Guard & an elven chariot.

Elven deployment

Turn 1 about to begin

From left to right: Chaos Lord on Manticore, chaos chariot, hounds & marauder horsemen vs the Blood Dragons...

At least the chaos forces holds the village

Flesh Hounds get demolished by the elven general.

A few extra pics from other games:

This is as 90's as it gets!

Khorne vs Blood Dragons, no magic what so ever!

My thoughts afterwards:

I'm still not a fan of having both support attacks as well as step-up, makes the combats a bit too dependent on the dice & forces you to either go for the tough troops or have some LD boost (I got hatred on my Bestigors with LD 9), it also makes strength enhancing weapons the superior choice.

Magic in both turns is off the charts, spell casters are essential & far superior to close combat characters, the biggest reason for me to play 5th over 4th edition is the magicphase, Warhammer Renaissance goes in the middle, having a set number of winds of magic (2D6), but allows you to cast in your opponents phase as well. Balder, if you´re reading this, this is not balanced, the reason for creating Warhammer Renaissance is supposed to make a 90´s warhammer edition where troops matter, so far after a total of 4 games, my troops never matter more than my characters & those characters are more specifically the spellcasters. Maybe allow non-spellcasters access to dispel scrolls or allow Total power to be dispelled by normal dispel cards (maybe always a roll of 5+ or something), because magic hurts & I'm glad I didn't bring a Khorne army.

Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the changes, I think just like regular warhammer 4th & 5th edition, one needs to talk with the opponent before any game & agree about what type of game both people want, cause it can go out of hand pretty quickly.