With the Skeleton Warriors assembled I was almost in position to start actually playing games. All I needed was some fast stuff, and ideally some cheap fast stuff, which is where the plastic Wolves came in. One box of Goblin Wolf Riders, pass the Goblins on, ten Dire Wolves, done.
Originally, I had twenty of these, but I've no idea where half of them have got to.* I did stretch to a metal Doom Wolf for one unit, for slightly more efficient wizard hunting and posing dramatically on nearby crags.
To sit alongside these and complete my 500 point Border Patrol army, I added some ladies.
I've ended up painting all three metal Banshees for this army, but this was my first and my favourite, the one who's not even pretending to be a combatant. In a moment of synchronicity, my decision to claim her as the ghost of Emmanuelle von Carstein (the former lady mistress of Castle Templehof) was mirrored in the Night's Dark Masters supplement for WFRP, and thus Whispering Nell was born.
Then there's the Vampire. I was quite taken with Marianna Chevaux from the Mordheim range, even if she's very titchy (even by the standards of metal Mordheim models), but I had to do something about her embarrassing pants/garter situation - it was a little bit too boudoir for my taste. Hence the leggings. Just... leave it all dark and boring and have the attention focused on the rich purple gown and the bodice. I spent too damn long highlighting a pair of 25mm bosoms, and yes, that is the sort of thing that turns you blind. And good lord, now that I'm seeing her in the unforgiving light of a macro lens twenty years later, her eyes look awful. They're fine on the table, I swear.
She's had a variety of names over the years - she's been a Carmilla, a Clarimonde and a Margarita, depending on which strand of vampire literature I wanted to riff off at the time. Maybe I was trying to deny the slightly awkward observation that, at the time, I was dating a petite pale goth lass who looked very good in purple velvet, and as such this petite pale goth lass was of course, at heart, a Madelaine.
That first 500 points comprised a Vampire Thrall with Summon Wolves and Earthbind as her Bloodline powers, a unit of 20 Skeleton Warriors with all the trimmings, two units of 5 Dire Wolves and a Banshee. They would go to war, for the very first time ever, against my good friend and comrade Dr. Shiny's Skaven: a Warlock Engineer with all the kit, a unit of about 24 Clanrats with the inevitable Ratling Gun, and a sodding bastard Rat Swarm that just would not sodding bastard die. Swarms and the Undead are a match made in hell - a big block of Unbreakable wounds that have to be chewed through with the relatively small amount of Attacks on offer - even before you blend in the Skaven's ability to throw their insulting amount of "Skeletons die on 2s" firepower into melee.
In preparation for that first engagement, I sat down with my notebook, in which I kept all my army lists and paint recipes and frothy fluff ideas, and drew out deployment maps, working out exactly how far apart the units needed to be so that I could protect the Banshee from Warp Lightning and still march the Dire Wolves to somewhere efficient.
We wrote up a battle report - and it was an exhaustively detailed first-person battle report from the perspective of the two commanders on the ground - but that was twenty years and several email address migrations ago, and the forum where we originally posted it has also gone to the dust, its Invisionfree URL long since forgotten. I don't even remember who won. I think it was me - Shiny is adamant that he has never beaten the Sylvanians - but all that's stuck in my memory is that GODDAMN Rat Swarm. A single base that absolutely ruined my day.
* Actually, that's not true. I think they're in Jersey, somewhere. That's the last place I knew they were.
Funnily enough the last Vampire The Masquerade adventure I started plotting which has been languishing in development hell for the last couple of years was to have featured a prominent blood drinking NPC of import by the (former, back when she was alive) name of Madeline. Not quite the same name I know but similar enough for me to find it an amusing coincidence.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest some possible options for a more permanent name if that vampire countess still does not have one, but my vampire forte is more focused in the visual media so might not be as helpful if you're trying to stick to purely literature.
Your experience with the Rat Swarm sounds a lot like my recent experience with goddamn Squig Hoppers, which between their master's keen distance perception and some charmed bounce dice have been able to pinball between my elves with tiresome frequency on two separate occasions now. It also reminds me of why I'm not looking forward to trying to chew through Necrons with mostly AP5 pulse guns in 40k.
Your attempts at eye painting look like they at least went better than my first attempts at painting eyes on horses that I discovered to my horror a few days ago. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
I eventually settled on Ariette (going back to WFRP sourcebooks again, like I did with the Banshee), after some time as a Clarimonde and a Margarita. I suspect it's all the same vampire and nobody's learned her real name or where she's really from.
DeleteSquig Hoppers are one of those allegedly "fun" units that collapse into an easily exploited horrorshow in the hands of an Orc and Goblin player who's trying. I could say some very negative things about the whole Night Goblin Fun Bus if I wanted to but I'm trying not to be super salty on this blog.
I'm not too bothered by the eyes - as long as they look fine from four feet away they ARE fine. Wargames miniatures were meant to be viewed from a distance under room lighting, not under the harsh glare of the macro button. It's merely the shock of seeing this model that close for the first time, you know?
I suppose it's also possible that it's all the same vampire using different aliases over the centuries. I know Warhammer vampires usually don't care about credibly passing for mortals nearly as much as their oWOD cousins do, but if she had some kind of diplomatic job that required making regular appearances in societies outside of Sylvania and Musillion it could be necessary.
DeleteFor what it's worth I've actually found the Night Goblin Fun Bus manageable enough so far all things considered. For every time a Squig Hopper pinballs through a quarter of my army on its own, there's also a time when the whole Goblin force has crumpled like a packet of crisps after a chain reaction of Leadership 5 Panic tests. It probably helps that Wood Elves are uniquely blessed with a wide array of options for prematurely triggering a lot of the Fun shenanigans - I'm certainly not looking forward to having to wade through it with Bretonnians or Dwarfs.
Plus the player behind it is one of those Here For The Lulz greenskin players which is always a big plus.