Warcry stuff so far.

[sundayhero]

thank you for the receipe !

[Pictors Studio]

No problem.

Here are my Untamed Beasts.

So these buggers end up being a lot harder to photograph than the other ones. 

I guess it is because I used more muted tones with them and perhaps the light increased the contrast.  Or I'm just bad at photography, which I'll own.



I don't like these models as much as the Iron Golems but they are still pretty cool models.  And unlike the Iron Golems I won't need any more of them for them to work in my AoS armies.



The Plains Runners are the weakest guys in the force.  I'll probably try to get a game of Warcry in later today with these guys and the Iron Golems, but since I'm scheduled to play AoS today they are definitely joining in that.



They are going to go into my Beasts of Chaos force.  They are going to be humans that have proved their savagery and joined the tribe or humans that were abducted as children and brought up in the tribe, sort of how Eastern Woodland Indians did with European captives.


The plains runners are going to be ungors.  Their relative size and weapon options will fit right in with my ungors and will add a nice bit of diversity to the unit, as well as a few extra guys that will make the unit slightly more robust. 



The prey takers will be in with the Bestigors.  Their two handed weapons will fit right in, although it will be a little difficult to justify the 4+ save.  I suppose the save on a unit is for the unit as a whole and perhaps there are some of the bestigors that have even better armour and make up for these guys just wearing skins and helmets. 

I'm pleased with the models and they would make great generic fantasy barbarian types.  They would work especially well with some weapon swaps, like adding metal ax heads instead of the bone weapons for a more generic fantasy look.

I like the bone weapons and may come up with a figure to use as a "bone-shaper." Some sort of artizan-shaman type that uses magic to craft the trophies that the warriors bring into weapons.  I'll have to have a look about for a barbarian/shaman type who is built like the rest of them, as he would be part bonesmith, but also looks appropriately shamanistic. 

I'll try to get to the other four models in this force later today. 

[sundayhero]

they look good, even if they would deserve good natural light photos !

[Pictors Studio]

Here are some pics from our first game.



We were still learning the rules quite a bit so it took about 45 minutes at 400 pts. a side.  Not a bad little game.  The strategy, set up and terrain cards did mix things up quite a bit more than I was thinking. 

I think the game would have been better still had we used the terrain that came with the set instead of what we had.  However, at this point it would have been unpainted and that would have made the game very much worse. 

[Bloggard]

looks really good on that mat.

nice to hear more impressions of the rules if you get the chance.

[Pictors Studio]

I'll try to get another game in tonight if possible.  From the first game we were getting through the rules.  I need to have another go at reading through the rulebook to see what we got wrong but when I get a chance, I will. 

[mweaver]

Very nice work on those models!

-Michael

[Pictors Studio]

Thanks!  It's been a while since I heard from you Michael.  Hope you are doing well.

Here are the rest of the Untamed Beasts. 

The figures are growing on me more and more.  I didn't end up getting another game in, sorry about that.  I think the Beasts are now my favourite models in this range. 

Here is the whole gang




The lion thing from the front:



Of all the little beasties that GW has been releasing lately, mostly seeming to go with stormcast stuff in the form of mounts or dogs, this one seems the best to me because it is the most like something conceivable.  It is basically a horned lion or saber-tooth horned lion.  Neat little critter.  Nothing especially amazing in terms of sculpt but it is dynamic and the understated nature actually plays in its favour.  It doesn't call too much attention away from the other models in the band and I like that. 



The Beast Talker is probably my favourite model of the bunch.  Dynamically running to keep up with her charge she really seems to look the part.  We don't have any exaggerated sexuality here.  She is barely recognizable as female actually: a great warrior female figure.

Here are the two other champions:



The he-man pose on the leader guy makes him the least interesting model in the bunch for me.  I like the spear guy a lot better.  The weapon seems more cleverly conceived than any other in the group except the blade for the Beast Talker, and he seems to be ready to do business instead of posing heroically like his boss.

I'm working on the terrain next but only have some of the barriers done so far. 



They are pretty characterful and will work also with my nighthaunt army I think.  I'm doing some of the stair pieces next and hope they will be done tonight. 

[Lost Egg]

Looking feral!

So warbands have two champions then...I just kinda assumed they'd have one. That's cool though.

[gibby64]

Great job on the paint! Thoughts on the rules? Some have commented that there's not much depth? What's your opinion?

[Bloggard]

nice work on those figures, and terrain.

[DivisMal]

Great job on the paint! Thoughts on the rules? Some have commented that there's not much depth? What's your opinion?

Yes, please give us an opinion. I’m also keen to know how they play!

[Pictors Studio]

Water dripped from Baegro's hands, the leather around his weapons was soaked through to the bone and where his feet sank into the deep mud he could feel the sharp bone fragments from the long dead.

Baegro was the first to see it.  Despite the mist and the still falling drizzle he saw it glowing through the pooling water.  The slight glow of it drew his eyes out. 

They had spread out in small groups searching the area.  The metal-faced witch had not lied.  Baegro had been loathe to trust her, but it had not been his decision.

The small group of savage warriors moved quickly and shouted out to their companions to join them.  The other one had to be nearby.

As they came up on it Baegro knew he had been right about the witch.



Through the mist they could see another glow on the ground and a hulking, metal clad form crouching over it along with several other figures partially hidden behind its form. 


With a shout the warriors were off, the mud sucked at their feet as they tried to move across the ground.

The enemy moved up to meet them, the three figures around the massive monster ran forward. 

Water and blood splashed off of the Iron Golem as Baegro's weapon smashed into him.  The warrior's hammer hit Baegro hard in the shoulder and the two separated a few paces and circled each other. 



Kalik and Malm moved around the two enemy warriors and moved towards the glow in the ground.  The Ogor stood over it ready to defend the warband's possession. 

Suddenly Kalik and Malm heard the monster grunt in pain and start to turn to face the attack.  They could see the bone spear sticking out of his back before a yank pulled the creature off of its feet and drew it several paces away from the objective before it could regain its feet. 



As it did though it smashed its fists into its attacker and Korum staggered as the blows rained down upon him.

The dwarf retreated back when he saw the Ogor pulled away.

He wasn't fast but he was able to obtain his goal before Kalik and Malm could get there. 



Then a piercing scream of denial echoed off the ruins behind him.  He turned to see Kashim struggling to get to grips with the enemy, but they were firmly in place. 



The witch had played them false, she had told them the truth about where they would find the Bog Eyes, but she had also told their rivals.  On an even field the Untamed Beasts might have an even chance of taking out the Iron Golems, with the Bog Eyes in their enemy's possession retreat was the only option.

[Pictors Studio]

I managed to get two games in last night. 

It is not the first time I've been pleasantly surprised by rules that seemed a bit weak when reading through them.  Because of how you set the game up this plays a lot different from many skirmish games.

First you divide your army up into three groups: the shield, the daggar and the hammer.  I guess  the idea is that the shield is the bulk of your troops, the daggar are your quick and deadly troops and the hammer are your  . . . hammering troops, the big, heavy hitters.

At least that is how I've done it so far.

After you do that you pull a card for the terrain set up, the deployment of the troops, the objective and another one for a random event or thing that is happening.

So our cards looked like this for the game described above. 



The terrain was set up to match as close as possible based on what I had in the house at the time and painted.

It is tough to see the deployment card but the two shield parts are set up on opposite sides of the board in about the middle of each half.  Then the daggars are set up to come in on the flanks of their own side while the hammers are set up to come in behind the enemy's shield troops.  The daggars and hammer groups are all set up in reserve. They come in on the second turn. 

The mission is to be the closest to two objectives at the end of a battle round.  Both players get to place an objective within certain limits.  Both players placed their objectives by their shield groups.

The twist was that it had been raining and the ground was sodden so troops moved slower.

This created a surprisingly narrative game and I liked that a lot, it was easy to imagine what was going on while playing and writing up the report afterwards was a snap.

It was a short game, it ended on the second turn because the Beasts player had moved up over confidently and left their objective exposed with the hopes that their dagger group could reach it but because of the rain they couldn't and the Iron Golem hammer groups seized it while the Iron Golems stayed on their own objective and at the second battle round they had both.

You really need to focus on the objectives to win the game. 

The play itself is more interesting than I thought it would be.  It seemed pretty gimmicky but ended up being decent.  Not super in depth but there were decisions to make about which model to activate and who was going to take advantage of the special actions that you had available. 

I'll keep playing it and try to get in another game on Wednesday.

[fred]

Good write up - both the narrative one, and the explanation / mechanics one.

We’ve used various of the GW cards to setup games and they do tend to give interesting games, much more so than the line up across the table and charge that is the staple of too many games.