They came from the Dark Lands...(Chaos Dwarf project)

[beefcake]

Well at least they're dwarfs, so short figures, wide but short.

[Elbows]

That's the trade off...I don't have to paint legs, bodies or necks...just hats.  Lots of hats.  Too many hats.

[Mac Finn]

Amazing Stuff!

Elbows, I'm in NC and was wondering if you would recommend your printer of these beauties??

[Elbows]

Sure, I used a guy called LittleGoatCompany or LittleGoatCo.  He's on Etsy and eBay.  His prices have gone up a little bit, but I kept an eye out for sales and you frequenlty get discounts on eBay if you buy more than one set, etc.  I think he's based out of Washington state.

I've never had a broken or bad delivery...though admittedly right now one package is lost in the mail that I just ordered!    Not his fault I imagine.

The guy often includes some freebies (often with minor misprinted stuff), and he even 3D prints little shipping cases for the more fragile poses, etc.  Can definitely recommend.

[Mac Finn]

Appreciate you my friend, give the USPS a hallpass for a bit...but only for a bit

Keep the Stunties in the spotlight

[Elbows]

An alternate cannon sculpt which I don't love...but I had it, so I painted it.  This will serve as a siege cannon (a larger form of artillery) for the Chaos Dwarfs.

Shown with the Earthshaker for scale.

[killshot]

This is an awesome project!  I love these Fabelzel Chaos Dwarfs. 

[Basementboy]

Very nice! I agree with you, the more detailed smaller sculpt is a bit nicer, but the sheer size of this cannon means it's sure to look very impressive on the table. Lovely painting as always

[Frugalmax]

Dang, that's a big mortar/cannon! Do you use different rules for the two sizes or are they both the same? I could see a fun scenario where the Chaos Dwarves (and their downtrodden servants) have to wheel the massive gun into range of the enemy wall, and they only have one shot (how do they load that thing?), while the defenders need to sally out to stop the gun or else (in which case the gun is more of a slow moving objective than anything else). Great work as always!

By the way I'm very impressed at how you regularly turn out such numbers at such a high quality- really cool!

[Elbows]

Yeah, in our rules the large cannon would be a "siege engine", so immobile and more powerful (but can only target structures, fortifications and units inside them), while the smaller one would be a normal artillery piece (and I give it the mortar trait for obvious reasons).

They're supposed to load this one with an ogre, but I didn't have a suitable place to get one without being fleeced, so I didn't bother. Siege engines can only be used in a few siege scenarios, so it's unlikely it'll see the table often, until I get a castle built...

[Elbows]

Campaign Game 6...a summary.

Having lost 4/5 games, the Dwarfs have been on the back foot.  After the ritual slaughter of one of their captains and his son, the Dwarfs fled, fading into the wilderness as the Chaos Dwarf host moved further along the valleys toward the Border Princes region.  The Dwarfs did notice though that the Chaos Dwarfs were not advancing quickly and they were unable to figure out why (story points to follow...).

Game 6 started as an ambush scenario.  1/3rds of the slightly larger Chaos Dwarf force was kept off the table as reinforcements (in this case, I had advantage during the game thanks to a campaign card, so I was able to choose which 3rd, which helped immensely).  I selected all mounted Hobgoblin units.  The remaining 2/3rds of the units were deployed (as shown) in a large marching column, just shy of a river/stream.

The Dwarfs were then allowed to deploy on both sides and would take first turn.  While a smaller army budget, the Dwarfs would have the advantage of ambushing and could fight for a few turns before the Hobgoblin reinforcements returned (having wandered too far from the column...as Hobgoblins are wont to do...)

Result: the Chaos Dwarfs survived much of the ambush, losing only a few units...they then re-formed in time to pressure the Dwarfs from a renewed fighting line, and the Hobgoblins which arrived quickly (units have different Reinforcement speeds, with light cavalry, chariots, etc. arriving the fastest...hence why I chose them!).  The Chaos Dwarfs won 9 victory points to 8 (an army wins a scenario at 9 victory points).

[Frugalmax]

Looks like another great game! Those dwarfs can't get any luck, can they? Though they clearly sprung (sprang?) the trap too soon- Wait until they've gotten at least halfway across the bridge, dwarfs!

Nice job!

[Elbows]

Yeah, sadly they didn't have a choice.  Because I used a strategy card to gain advantage, I was able to put all my reinforcements as my fastest units.  Meaning, the Dwarfs only had one turn before my reinforcements would begin showing up.  If I'd not had advantage the units which would have been reinforcements would have been randomized, meaning there's a chance that slower infantry units would have been coming to reinforce.

When a unit is a reinforcement, it has a value which is the turn it can start rolling to arrive.  While Light Cavalry/Light Chariots, etc. have a Reinforcement value of 2 (so they start rolling on turn 2), stuff like Heavy Infantry is Turn 6...meaning the Dwarfs would have had much more time before anyone showed up, and then even on foot..heavy infantry would have struggled to close the distance.

Using agents, etc. you can force enemy units to become reinforcements in many scenarios, so had I been lucky enough to have some Scout agents, I could have possibly delayed his own units, etc.  There's a decent amount of off-table stuff that has an impact in the game.

[Frugalmax]

That sounds cool! Seems like you have a bunch of cool systems related to building the campaign. Also cool to hear about strategy cards- don't think I've heard of things like that since the days of WH40K 2nd edition. If I recall those were a pretty fun way to throw a bit of something extra into the game- though they did lack much rhyme or reason. It sounds like you've built them into your campaign system which is a very cool idea!

I must admit our system is far less organized and thrown together ad hoc. Though we'll occasionally do a more structured bit of a campaign, most of the time it's more of a case of "let's say what happens next is this" and we'll build some asymmetrical scenario based on what happened in the last few games. Lately we've even been abandoning points values altogether in favor of what seems like a good force for the scenario.

Thanks for sharing!

[Elbows]

Right now the actual campaign system is kind of up in the air as to how detailed/crunchy it will be.  Right now we're running two campaigns and they're both just narrative.  If the story aligns to playtest a scenario I've written (I have maybe ten at the moment), then we use one, but several have been made up on the spot.

Right now the only campaign elements in play are weather (seasonal, with a chance for 'extreme weather' which has more of an impact on the game), a seasonal event table which isn't complete, and the use of Triumph and Defeat decks - a split deck of poker cards, where the winner draws a random Triumph card, and the loser draws a Defeat card.  Defeat cards must be played during the next game, while Triumph cards may be played or held until future games.  These are done using poker decks, so that you can easily play in several campaigns without needing to buy or keep track of extra components.

The Triumph deck is full of single-game bonuses, boosts to units, legendary heroes, magical items, extra traits, allied units, etc.  The Defeat deck is full of single-game penalties such as sickness, exhaustion, mutinies, etc.

The weather is simple and seasonal, so that in a campaign turn ideally each player would take a turn each season then the seasons would roll over.

Scenarios also have a list of available follow-up scenarios that the winner of the scenario can pick for the next game...putting the winner in control slightly with perhaps the more advantageous position in future games, etc.

Not sure if it's going to end up being crunchy and map-based, or just loosely narrative based (my preference).