Hearts' Fantasy Projects - Mordheim Style Terrain Completed pg. 2

[hearts261]

Good Morning,
I've decided to take a massive plunge into the fantasy wargaming world again. Long story short I've decided to start with a small(ish) force of dwarves for WH TOW. The project idea is much longer however and I anticipate diverging in all sorts of ways. For now though I wanted to start with a somewhat humble beginning.



So to start, this is the "lead" pile of dwarves I've accumulated over the years. Way back when, I started with Warhammer Fantasy back during the edition that had the Battle For Skull Pass set. I bought a batallion box and some odds and ends to supplement them but then out group wildly pivoted and became obsessed with the first edition of Malifaux. I sold these dwarves to a guy who sold them to a guy who ended up collecting a few more bits and then selling them back to me. Oddly, I ended up buying them back for less than I sold them for so a win-win.



I'm starting with what is basically the currently available box for TOW. Cobbled together from bits I've collected. TOW starter comes with 2 units of melee dwarves, 2 of ranged and 2 gyrocopters. I only own one Copter and right now it doesn't seem worth purchasing any more figures given the mountain in front of me. So to start, its everything that box offers with a Dwarf Lord (from Battle for Skull Pass) subbed out for a second copter



I started by grouping the units generally, then rebasing as needed. I went with the GW "Legal" basing and will probably continue. Movement trays work fine to get them to the table and though I have some ideas, the individual bases should be fine.

And after a night of working I've got this



Some of the figures like the dwarf lord were done already and just needed rebasing to meet my new standard and some needed total repaints. I did a similar "refresh" a couple years ago to give Warlords of Erewhon a test but at that point the figures were on round bases.

My intention to start is to get this force "finished" to match the starter box then try a pretty long list of mass battle fantasy rules as well as a list of skirmish rules to see what I like. I also really want to compare different sets to see whats out there. If anyone is interested I can post the list so you can see. If you have a favorite let me know and if its not on here I'll probably add it.

Finally, I thought this made for a fun comparison



On the left, the updated paintjob and on the right one of the first figures I ever painted. The photo is sadly crap because not through the lense the difference is night and day. I did a ton of corner cutting (black hair is black primer for example) and the paint work is real sloppy. Sadly I forgot this was something I wanted to get a shot of and only remembered before repainting the final one, so that figure on the right is now "new standard" and I no longer have any trace of my old painting on this project.

I've got two units done (plus the lord) at the moment with a third about a third done on the workbench. All of the units have been rebased and I've added another unit to the list already but that will be a surprise once its painted.

I've also detailed all of this on my blog which I'm trying to use much more regularly than I used to. https://gamingwithmitten.blogspot.com/2025/07/fantasy-gaming-1-reclaiming-mountain.html

[pixelgeek]

Well you have all the minis, now the hard work begins :-)

What other games are you thinking of using them in?

[Basementboy]

Looks like a great start! Hyped to see them all painted

[hearts261]

I've got all kinds of games planned. Part of the collecting stuff has always included rules so I'm well stocked for choice. I'm approaching it less as a "I want the definitive set to rule them all" and more "I just want to play a bunch of games and talk with people about design and such. So right now the list is:

Skirmish:
One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish
Thud and Blunder
Sword Weirdos
Saga Age of Magic
Warhost
Fanticide (I'm super on the fence about bothering with this one)
Mordheim
7TV Fantasy
Forbidden Psalm
Song of Blades and Heroes
Dragon Rampant

Big Battles:
Warhammer Old World
Kings of War
Battlecry
Warlords of Erewhon
Hobgoblin
One Page Rules Age of Fantasy and Age of Fantasy Regiments
Fantastic Battles
Midgard

Weirdly though, I also dug out of the pile and found I have a copy of both Osprey Norse Fantasy games, Gods and Mortals and Ragnarok. I also have a copy somewhere of wargods of aegyptus. But all of that stuff is not "generic" in the sense that dwarves are gonna be an easy port.

My vague goal here is to see what the Mountain Holds Starter, gets you across different systems, add what I need to play and see how the games are.

[Basementboy]

Hell yeah! Props to you for being open to trying so many games, though I will say that the Old World is a low-fantasy enough setting that I usually use Lion Rampant rather than Dragon Rampant when I want to set up a skirmish (unless I want to have a magic-heavy faction involved)
I can vouch by Hobgoblin as well! Only been playing for a couple weeks but I'm having a blast with it, really fun and intuitive game. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts it, and all the other games as well

[hearts261]

Having not played Lion Rampant since the original "blue book" and not currently owning a copy of Dragon, what makes you play one over the other?

I finished up a second unit minus the bases. This is a pretty basic unit of Thunderers. 16 strong. I'm about half way through the Quarellers now and starting to feel a bit of the slog creep in. I'm trying to finish this box first before I add anything extra but may divert to something else just for a change of pace.



I had a bit of a manic evening of cleaning and organizing while I was looking for some Odds and Ends and discovered that I have a lot more stuff for The Old World than I thought. Doing some digging I found I have enough stuff to do a High Elf Force, a Goblin Army, and a Tomb King Force. I've also got a handful of stuff from my AOS days that is really more Old World like Ogres. I've also got a pile of Lizardmen. So I don't know exactly what the next step is now. The world is my oyster.

[Pattus Magnus]

They may not have been the most exciting figures to paint, but that unit certainly looks good! Painting a more interesting figure or unit is a good idea, but (if it were me) picking something from the same army might be the way to go. That way it’s building up a table-ready force. I tend to switch between armies and projects and find that I often end up with a bunch of units that don’t make an army. It gets frustrating!

[hearts261]

That's the main reason I haven't broken the streak yet. I have a mountain of nicely painted half started armies and very few "fully playable" armies. I think I can stomach another unit and a half. The plus side here is when i go to start some of these other forces Itll be easier to just add a unit or two now to get them playable. I don't want to bury the lead but the second game on my list is gonna have me add an artillery piece so I cleaned it up and rebased it. I took a slight detour to paint a bust I had half finished to break up some monotony but I really want to finish these up.

[Pattus Magnus]

I think most of us have been in a similar position! The artillery piece seems like a good change of pace.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

I do love a good dwarf force (my unpainted stunties are looking very sheepish, wondering why I haven’t finished them). Really good to see Thud and Blunder so high up on your list - it’s a brilliant ruleset that’ll allow you to do anything from small skirmishes to dungeon delves or a mordheim equivalent. Just a shame it’s not more popular here. Looking forwards to seeing your force progress.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[hearts261]

I managed to finish that third block. This is a 16 man unit of Quarrellers. I didn't enjoy these anywhere near as much. This is a unit that came to me built by someone else with some paint on it. Whoever started them used red for the cloth and trim and I didn't bother to reprime. It ended up being kind of a pain to cover especially with gold. I also started painting the crossbows a wood color before realizing that its pretty much all metal so time wasted there.



At least they're done now. I've discovered I'm missing a couple key things in my work bench when I went for the masking tape to do the flight stand on the Gyrocopter so I opted to prime the last block of warriors for now. I'm taking a slight aside though to crack out a quick Frostgrave Warband so that will probably be next on the list.

[Basementboy]

Having not played Lion Rampant since the original "blue book" and not currently owning a copy of Dragon, what makes you play one over the other?

Nothing to make me prefer one over another! But I enjoy the human side of the setting more, and factions like Kislev, Brettonia, The Empire, etc are all basically just historical armies with the odd magic item- and that means Lion Rampant just seems to fit pretty well. If I'm setting up a game with two magic-heavy factions then I'd likely go for DR instead, but just due to what me and my friends collect it doesn't happen often.
And I haven't seen the second edition either! Still just using the old blue book myself

[Basementboy]

(And as a total aside, the Quarrellers look lovely )

[mikedemana]

I own a lot of the rules on that list, but not all of them. I still think the Rampant games belong on the Big Battle list. Of course, that could be because we typically have three players per side each with a standard sized army! 

Mike Demana

[hearts261]

I don't disagree with you Mike. The decision to split the list is mostly arbitrary 

As an aside, I made the mistake of reading Koyote's lovely Age of Magic thread, and Elbows various incredible fantasy works and am having a crisis of basing. I won't call a figure "finished' til its flocked etc but I've made the decision to not worry about painting the ground work until i've tried a couple games. I've never been as much of a fan of individual square bases as I am of round and now that I'm eyeing a second force I'm less sure I want to commit to these forever when in theory, printer goes brrr and is capable of trays.

Regardless, painting progress continues, the final dwarf unit has migrated to the bench and is second in the queue to get painted. Masking tape will be purchased tomorrow for the copter and a game has been scheduled.