Darktan Bloodclaw, Skaven Warlord, and More Rats

Pasha Dan issuing a challenge to take on my ratty hordes with his Chaos Dwarves has gotten some momentum going on painting all these Skaven. Of course, seeing what can be done with some fast block painting, dry brush, and then an ink wash helps make these figures a lot less intimidating too. 

On! On! Kill the Man-things! Yes! Yes!

Of course I'm going for decent table top standard, not Golden Daemon or suitable for print photographry as well. That helps a lot when you aren't trying to edge highlight every thing.

And people think Napoleonics are complicated? I guess it depends upon what you're used too.

So here's a unit of Stormvermin. One of the little wee buggers broke at the ankle because of the stupid pegs GW forces you to use. But some plastic cement and a judiciously placed piece of clump foliage and he's right as rain.

A unit of Clanrats.

I do like the little rats included at the feet or on the shoulders of some of them.

My math tells me I'll have a few figures left over, and I hate left over figures. So I made one with a particularly commanding pose into a minor hero and gave him a purple robe instead of the normal dingy grey. Because he's special. His name is either Klik, or Spam.

And the best for last, my Army Commander, Darktan Bloodclaw riding his Clawbeast, another horribly tortured beastie from the Skaven labs. He's so big, I naturally had to load him up: armour 4, legendary weapon, brutal, plus some missile fire ability (note the gatling pistol). Of course, if he dies, I lose 8 of my 16 Reputation. 

The name Darktan is from the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Several other of my Skaven characters are named from the same book.

The figure was very complicated to assemble. Fortunately there were clear instructions. But we're almost entering scale model building territory here. I get why some GW folks paint the parts on the sprue.

I hope his glaive looks suitable ancient, legendary, and magical. I used some washes over silver to try and get the effect.

I've got a freind at work printing some movement trays for me, designed by another friend on the Quar Discord Server. Dan and I might try a match up in a couple of weeks. Although I will have to conscript some enslaved goblins to make up the numbers. Downgrading Darktan to a level 3 just doesn't seem right.

Quar Clash of Rhyfles Chaos!

Had six of the gang over on Saturday night for a big game of Clash of Rhyfles. CoR breaks down at bigger ponts levels so I bascially ran a Convention game and set up three 1v1 patrol games and laid out a 6 foot table dividied into three boards. I then planned out six approximately 340 point patrols trying to get a few different things on the table to see how they work. The patrols were in teams, Royalist and Crusader. Each patrol on each team got to do the activations on their card. So if the Crusaders had a 4 card, then each Crusader Patrol got to do 4 actions.

Crusaders deployed along the left hand edge, the Royalists on the right hand edge.

Yellow dice on cloth edge marking the board edges, dividng the table into three 2 foot square zones. Although there was a bit of sniping into adjacent zones.

Gloam Hyyn had a Yawdryl, Milwer with Cryfen LMG, 5x rhyflers, 1x marksquar, a cook, a poacher with shotgun, and a trapper. 340 pts.

Coftyrans had a basic squad of Yawdryl, Milwer, Cryfen LMG, 7 rhyflers, a Caerten, and a Cook. 338 pts.

The PPCLI had a squad of Yawdryl with SMG, Milwer with SMG, 6 ryhflers, 2 grenadiers and Scatter Gunner. 332 pts.

The Tollyn-Maeryn had a Yawdryl, Milwer with SMG, 2 LMGs, 2 rhyfle grenadiers, 6 rhyflers, the Irrascable Lone Buck (infiltrate and Skill 13), and the Home Dyna. 340 pts.

The Crusaders had a basic squad of Yawdryl, Milwer, 4 rhyflers, 1 marksquar, 3 rhyflers with ryshis, an LMG and a loader. 338 pts. 

 

The Toulmorese being all Skill 13 were much more expensive. They had a Yawdryl, a Milwer,  4 rhyflers with bogens, 2 with ryshis and a mortarquar. 340 pts.

Coftyrans, commanded by your humble correspondent advance in the center.

PPCLI advance into the village 

Tollyn-Maeryn moving forward on the other side of the village 

Crusaders advance in the center opposite the Coftyrans 

Toulmorese in the jungle 

Gloam-Hyyn in the jungle too. The traps were interesting but not game changing. Next time I should try the Sarf-Cyn handler.

Weirdy-Beardy ran his Scatter Gunner over the bridge to enfilade the bulk of Scotty's squad deployed along the stream. BLAM! A grenade followed up, leaving most of Scotty's patrol OOA

The Rhyfle Grenadier in the yard has been tended to by Mumsy and takes a break from lobbing bombs across the stream to shoot the Scatter Gunner. 

The Irrascable Lone Buck has infiltrated behind the PPCLI to get into a fight with a Grenadier, eventually winning.

Another grenade lofted across the stream to take out the Rhyfle Grenadier behind the fence, but the grenade deviated onto Mumsy! The Home Dyna was knocked OOA and the offending PPCLI grenadier was Gobsmacked with shame. 

After more grenades and sniping, the Tolly-Maeryn Yawdryl charges out of the house with what was left of his squad and over the bridge. One of his team renders the Gobsmacked grenadier OOA. *thump with a rhyfle butt* "And THAT'S for hurting Mumsy!"

Gloam-Hyyn getting stymied in the brush

End game in the village. All of the PPCLI are OOA or actually dead. The Tollyn-Maeryn have 3 still standing on the PPCLI side of the board. 

End game in the middle. The Crusaders and Coftyrans have stalemated at the center line.

End game in the jungle. Between the ryshi and the mortar breaking up any attempt by the Gloam-Hyyn to do anything, and the Gloamers potting exposed Toullies, they are stalemated as well. 

"What's going on? Did I miss something?"

It was loud. It was crazy. It gave me a headache. I was essentially trying to play and GM 3 different games. It was kinda fun though. But we did a bunch of indirect fire and got a better handle on grenades and the mortar. I need to do some solo games to learn heavy weapons, blast weapons, and tractors so I can start putting those on the table next time. I also need to make some blast templates.

This was Game 32 of the year!

No Mini Left Behind!

I had a poor lonely one-armed Skaven left over. No left arm, and a metal right arm holding a cudgel. 

Consigned to oblivion in the Bitz Box. 

I hate left over figures. 

Then I saw this graphic:

And said to myself: "Self, that'd make a great Skaven banner!"

But who to carry it?

Then, fueled by a quiet day at work and some chatter on Bluesky, I had a thunderbolt of inspiration, and remembered the one-armed Skaven.

Digging through leftover plastic sprues for a left arm, or a standard, or both.  

But plastic hands are really too small to drill out.

The Oathmark Human Cavalry set has a left hand holding a sword. I covered the shoulder with a Wargames Atlantic Goth cloak. 

Parts from four different manufacturers!

Drilling out the metal fist I then added a RAFM spear.

Some epoxy sculpting putty is used to tie in the cloak better with the right shoulder. 

Several attempts to paint the words were botched, so I just went with a generic Skaven design. Electrical Pete said he needed a tactical rock to make him a low level hero. That would also help correct his lean to the right. A small piece of bark was quickly found and everything glued to a washer.

While finishing him I also finished repainting a Skaven with a barbed whip, who will hopefully keep the Rat Ogres on task.

"On! On! Kill the Man-things! Yes, yes!"

I also finished a second unit of Gutter Runners.  They needed repainting, and I added a Gothic sling to one upraised had that had been brandishing a triangular Skaven thingy (throwing weapon?).

The Beast Master and the 2nd Gutter Runners were all glued on to GW 20mm squares which were a pain to cut them off of. Fortunately I didn't break anything.

My horde of Skaven is growing!