Five Leagues Turn 8 - A Bridge

"The Party awoke to the sound of bells and the smell of smoke on the wind.  A sense of dread washed over Will - he knew only too well what it meant, it had once been him setting the fires.  Was this fate laughing at him?

The trail of refugees coming within the dubious protection of Winterborne's pallisades filled in the details.  A border raid by forces of the Black Baron from the north, burning homesteads and looting.

There was only one thing to do.  Harness up and go out to see what they could do to help"

(Turn 8 started out simply enough, the party had undertaken their various village actions, having a polite conversation with a merchant,  gaining some rations).

Along the way they encountered a Monk tending to refugees who, seeing they were seeking to help, and not soldiers or looters out to capitalise on others misery, spoke kindly with them and gave them his blessings.

However it wasn't long before they encountered the enemy - a group of soldiers looting the toll house next to a bridge.  They were sufficiently distracted by their efforts breaking down the toll house's door that our heroes were able to get close (10" before being spotted). grabbing their weapons, they left two to break in a loot, while the rest dealt with whoever these fools were who thought they could interfere.

(this was a combat travel encounter, against a 'border' threat consisting of 7 raiders.  Two were archers (I treated them as crossbows to match available models), one was a 'Heavy Hitter' (+1 vs toughness and armour), one was 'craven' and one was a 'wimp'.  The adventurers objective was to 'disrupt the job of the other group'.  I interpreted this as stopping them looting - I decided the two worst raiders (the wimp and craven ones) would be doing the looting, and would roll a die per raider per turn.  On a 4+ they had found some decent loot and, once 4 successful rolls had been made, the raiders would try to leave over the bridge).

The raiders battering down the Toll House Door (one archer guards the bridge, just off to the right)

"Main the walls!"

Will and Jocelyn took cover behind a dry stone wall by the roadside and engaged in an entirely unproductive archery duel with the crossbowman in the courtyard, with neither side achieving much despite the short range due to the stone walls between them.  Thomas took Oswald and Finan towards the bridge on the right, to cut off the looters escape (and deal with the other crossbowman), keeping to the shelter of the roadside wall.  Meanwhile Robert, Gregory and Guy went left to hook around the far side of the raiders.

Robert, Oswald and Finan go right...

...and Robert, Gregory and Guy go left.

As Thomas' band closed on the archer on the bridge,  forcing him to retreat behind the bridge parapet, Jocelyn finally manged to drop the crossbowman in the courtyard with a well aimed bolt.  Will seemed unable to find a mark at all, perhaps too distracted by memories of being on the other side in the past.

Grrr, we're fierce!  Back away!

Meanwhile Robert vaulted the wall into the courtyard (next to the privy), only to be met by the heavy hitter and another raider.  Faced with a two on one combat he started by fighting defensively while Gregory and Guy caught up (Robert had a 'fast' action, while the other two were slow).  A well timed counter blow (a natural six rolled while fighting defensively) allowed him to regain the initiative and, whilst he couldn't land a telling blow on either opponent, he was able to force them back, where Gregory was able to fell one of the raiders with his hammer.

"I'll take you both on at once, you scoundrels! (but what is that smell?)"

Robert immediately followed up and struck down the raider's heavy hitter in single combat.  Meanwhile the two raiders inside had finished their looting and emerged back into the courtyard. Faced with the chaos they formed up with the other remaining soldier, planning to break out over the bridge with their ill-gotten gains.

 

"Just you and me now!"

However it was not to be.  Despite Oswald taking, and shrugging off, a crossbow bolt at close range, he and Finan were able to drive off the remaining crossbowman, who decided he was not being paid enough for this sort of thing and fled back across the bridge.  The 'craven' raider also decided he had an important reason to be elsewhere and fled, leaving his two comrades to face Robert and Gregory with their bloodied weapons, backed up by Thomas and Guy.

"This is not worth a penny a day!"

With numbers on our heroes side, the outcome was in little doubt.  Robert struck one of the remaining raiders, barely wounding him (rolled to beat armour but not toughness), but the raider fled nonetheless (a 'wimp' character will flee if struck).  Gregory took on the last raider who, perhaps more skilled than his comrades, was at least able to fend off the former Monks blows.  But in the end it was all too much to face overwhelming odd on his own and he too fled for the border.

 

Um, I'll just be leaving if that's OK with you?"

So the field was held by our adventurers, and the raiders all slain or driven off.  The border threat was reduced by 1, and a stunning round of loot rolls (both Will and Jocelyn successfully adding extra rolls due to their Scrounging skills) unearthed some fine ale and 24(!) marks, already looted from some unfortunate (perhaps Will also miscounted a mark or two when returning the loot stolen from the Toll House, such a task being beneath the likes of Robert).  It turned out that the Local Lord had also offered a bounty to anyone willing to take up arms against the raid, netting the group another two crowns.

 

They also discovered some vital information on one of the enemy soldiers (more on that when I decide what it was).

 

Thoughts

 

a quick and pretty fun game.  I wonder what would have happened had all the raiders been outside from the start, but I thought the pair of cowards doing the looting made a nice story element.  Against an opponent with better toughness (4), half decent armour and behind a wall, archery was a pretty minimal part of the game again this time.  Will had a pretty poor turn of it, a fact that Robert is likely to point out to him at length.

 

I wonder what that 'vital information' will turn out to be? 

More Reiksguard

 A couple more GW Reiksgard from the 1990s.  One was unpainted, the other just required a day or so in Dettol, and then cleaned up nicely.

 

Not sure about that flail.  Looks like a good way to spend a whole battle rapping your own knuckles.  Good job he's wearing gauntlets!

 

 

Family shot of the growing collection.

Thought it might be useful (for me as much as anything) to record how they were painted.  I started from bare metal, cleaned and given a good scrub to make it as shiny as possible.  Then a wash of GW Nuln Oil.

They then get a progressive highlight by careful drybrushing with Vallejo Chainmail Silver, followed by silver.  Details and other colours are then added; undercoating specific areas if they need it.

Best part about these two though?  No pesky eyes to paint!

Maxim Bang

After spending what turned out to be weeks painting a unit of White Wolves, I fancied something simpler and quicker. A painting sorbet if you will.

My thought alighted on this chap.  One of the original Squats, a Rogue Trader Space Dwarf.  This one went by the name of 'Maxim Bang' in the adverts as I recall.

He was already undercoated, so I could get started immediately, and he was done in an evening.

A fun model to paint, and a pleasing result.

Knights of the White Wolf

Work on the old school Empire Knights continues, this time a small unit of Knights of the White Wolf, Templars of the Cult of Ulric.  A much smaller unit that the knights Panther, but still took a while with all the interruptions of Christmas - my painting area had to returned to its original purpose of a dining table!

I have painted a unit of White Wolves before, converted from the plastic knights kit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_grey_area/602634864/in/album-72157594344276325/

As with the Reiksgard and Knights Panther, I wanted to reflect the 'classic' paintjobs, but in my own style.  Here's how they looked on the cover of the box when released under 4th edition Warhammer.

I decided I wanted to go with the very white pelts, which fits the name and the look of actual Arctic Wolves (which ironically are smaller than their other wolfy brethren), and the darker armour.  I was unsure about the red horse armour; the only other time I have done completely coloured armour was for my daughter's 'blue knight'.  I also find large areas of red challenging, and I found the original colour too bright.  In the end I decided to try it out as a challenge, and use a darker shade of red.  The white hammer shafts were right out though, they look ridiculous!  

I don't quite have one of each model produced.  Whereas most of the knight ranges consisted of a Grand Master, standard and two 'trooper' models, the white wolves had three basic models.  I still need to source the one holding his hammer two handed (I've already done the Grand Master in my old unit).

 

 

 The old GW models look to have been painted in a shade of dark grey, but I wanted to stick with metallics.  The look I wanted was of armour that had been well cared for but still exposed to the elements.  Historically 'munition' type armour was often heat treated, making it darker, and/or rubbed with grease of lanolin to protect it from tarnishing.  The result is a dark metal, with a hint of brown.  To achieve the effect I started with a black undercoat, then basecoated with GW Boltgun metal.  To this I applied washed of Nuln Oil and Agrax Eartshade.  I then used Vallejo Chainmail Silver to highlight any parts of the armour that would rub and wear.  The unpainted parts of the horse armour were treated the same way but without the Eartshade, so that it would look subtly different.

The barding was, in theory, simple.  I used Vallejo Game Colour Red Gore for the base, highlighted with a GW red.  What I hadn't accounted for was putting thin red onto a black undercoat!  It took around half a dozen coats to get even coverage on the large areas.  On the neck of some models it actually helped to develop shading, so pros and cons overall.

The standard is scanned and printed from the original White Dwarf article, as with the other units.

Pretty pleased with the result overall!

Next up I think will be a nice simple single figure as a 'palette cleanser'.

Knights Panther

It's taken a while, what with interruptions from life, work, and a bout of Covid that went through the whole household - me and the missus are double vaccinated, so no worse than bad flu, although we still both get tired easily a few weeks after.  The Little Miniature was largely symptomless, and managed pretty well considering she was stuck indoors and away from school and friends for two weeks.

Anyway, continuing with my efforts to paint as many as I can of the Empire miniatures from the mid 1990s, here is a unit of the Knights Panther.

I'm pleased with the overall result and look of the unit.  Whilst I generally enjoyed painting them,  they certainly took much longer than the Reiksgard I did a while back, and not just because it's a slightly bigger unit.  The models overall 'look' is much more ornate than the Reiksgard, even thought there are still only a limited number of poses (two knights, a standard bearer and the Grand Master).  The armour has more detail, the crests are much more fancy and complex, and you have those Panther pelts to paint up as well.  Of course I then made my life more difficult with the colour choices.

Speaking of colour choices, it was an issue I spent a while pondering.  The Knights Panther are supposed to be a fairly wealthy secular order, so I used a lot more gold detailing on the armour, on the fluting and on visors etc.  I think they contrast nicely with the more austere and uniform Reiksgard.

Although generally painted with a blue appearance these days, this order's earliest appearances used black and gold themes, starting with John Blanche's well known painting, and then onto their first appearance as a well described unit in the 3rd edition army list published in White Dwarf.  The blue colouring seems to have started to appear when they were first sold as a boxed unit for Warhammer 4th edition, and has stuck ever since.  In the end I went with the blue theme as a contrast to my other Empire units (which mostly use the black and yellow of Averland) and because, well, I just like the colour!

John Blanche's famous image

As represented in White Dwarf issue 147

 

The mid 1990's 'Blue' period

The banner was scanned from White Dwarf 147, printed out and then glued.  I could have gone with a more blue version from later illustrations but, in keeping with aiming for that early '90s vibe, and to provide a contrast to all that blue, I went with this one.

The Knights Panther, a brief history

 

If you're interested in the history of this order in terms of the game fluff and narrative, the Wiki is a good place to start. This is more about there appearances in my own memories of Warhammer.

The first reference I recall to the Knights Panther (and I don't have the book to hand to check this unfortunately) was a very brief line in Ravening Hordes, the army list book for the second edition of Warhammer.  They then got referenced again in the 3rd edition 'Warhammer Armies' - where they were mentioned as one of the secular orders of 'Hohensknechtes' that are a unit option.  It was about this time that the first named Knight panther model appeared, a multi part metal model (torso, legs and arms).  It wasn't until issue 147 of White Dwarf that they started to get a fleshed out background and dedicated range of models, when the Empire got a whole new range of models and army list (arguably the precursor to the modern army list/books).

Panther, Leopard or What?

 

Just as an aside, those hides that the knights are wearing, which are described as coming from Araby, the Old Worlds expy for North Africa/the Middle East, would be more likely from a Leopard.  The nearest real world equivalent we would refer to as a 'panther' would be the jaguar, which is native to South America, the Old World's Lustria.

So why aren't they called the Knights Leopard?  So glad you asked...

The panther actually turns up a lot in medieval heraldry as a legendary creature (sometimes depicted breathing fire).

 

 

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112849863 

'Panthera' is also the genus (biological classification) that includes most of the big cats.

So well done GW, someone knew what they were talking about on this one!

Knights of the White Wolf next!

Grand Master of the Order of Knights Panther

Exactly what it says in the title.  Games Workshop circa mid 1990s (and still available recently in finecast), this one's metal and purchased second hand.  Not the smoothest job, a few awkward corners, and the surcoat isn't sculpted in a way that takes washes and highlighting that well.  Got there in the end though!  He will be joined by a full of knights from the same era soon (hopefully).

The dratted plastic horse are always losing tails, this one is no exception, and I don't currently have enough replacements.

 

What a big Chopper!

Yes, another ogre.  This time from Marauder Miniatures, the company set up by Trish and Ally Morrison, but cast and distributed by Citadel.  The Morrison's sculpting style is a bit cartoonish, big hands and exaggerated features, but it works well for the range of ogres they did.  The faces in particular are very characterful, and the landsknechte style outfits make for a distinctive look.

 

I used three layers of contrast paints for the flesh, which in hindsight I think was one coat too many.  Live and learn (I did the flesh at the same time as Golgfag, subject of the previous post).  I've not 'rusted up' the halberd and breastplate too much.  The uniforms suggest a but more organisation to these chaps than the more feral 'C' series ogres, I reckon someone is helping them at least keep the rust off.  I tried to use a combination of washes to give the effect you sometimes see on metal that has been treated (usually with some kind of fat) to rust protect it.

 

A surprisingly uncluttered sculpt, considering the clothing style.  This was a pleasant painting job.

Love the detail of the pet rat on the hat!