The recent Dwarf games have been very fun, but the last lists largely tapped out my collection of units. Fun drove my hobbying as 4E spoilers rolled out, and I ended up flat-footed with the change to list building, having started up a ton of Specialists and war machines, but not much else. I am still working to change that but up first for new additions are two more Specialist units, painted up while working on the more mundane Core units, to break up that more monotonous painting.
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| Shiny dwarfs. |
The first up is an Ironguard troop. The models are from GW, fancy Dwarfs though I don't know their classification (Longbeards maybe?). They were mislabeled as Ironbreakers at Noble Knight, and after wishlisting them for fun, and 6ish months of them not going away, I pounced when they were slapped with a price cut. For painting, the coloring is minimal with a darker metal/iron base, brighter silvers as a drybrush and on the shields, and then a light bronze on all the trim or raised bits. As-is typical with GW, one could go really crazy with gems and such, but we are calling these good for now.
They certainly look like fancy dwarfs, and while I feel like the crew and their assorted gear would lend themselves more towards a skirmishing warband, I don't play any skirmishing games right now, so we'll use them as a troop of Ironguard. Multi-basing is a big draw for me for Kings of War, letting me field larger units without breaking the wallet, and while I haven't embarked on this road too often, it can lend itself to some unique story telling or personal fluff.
I went with white beards as a bit of a homage to the maxim "beware an old man in a profession where men usually die young," but this could also be some nice story-telling too, where these are all that is left of a renowned regiment, sticking around to fulfill an ancient oath or satisfy a grudge at all costs.
On the table, I don't think these will see too much play as the Specialist slot is limited, and in very high demand, particularly for my collection, but it's a new unit, and we'll try to fit them in sometime. A troop is comparable to the Undead Wraiths which I quite like, and these could be similarly troublesome for an opponent to remove as Def6 can demand an over-commitment.
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| More Rangers! Now I just need enough Core units to run a second battalion... |
Next up are more Rangers. Unfortunately, a dwarf battalion is limited to just two units of Rangers, and I think they are probably best in regiments for the extra Nerve and better use of a more important slot, but like the Ironguard, I think Ranger troops do have utility, and a troop might be fun to mix in way down the road, when my Specialist slots won't be as in-demand.
Hobby-wise these are all Mantic! We have dwarf bodies, two Northern Alliance backpacks, and then, because I saved all the moose / elk horns from these and the previous conversions, I was able to carve notches in the helmets and stick the horns in to create another unique Free Dwarf-looking unit. I dig it, and I got to use up a lot of extra bits instead of losing or forgetting about them.
Mastiffs and Markers.
...And last up for the palette-cleansers we have some various markers. These are a little less than half of the Mastiffs I have in my pile, and were painted up because they have been primed for like, two years. Five seems a bit much nowadays, as instead of a unit upgrade, these are doled out via Command Orders, but hey, we have them. I also had some primed mallets, so I painted them up as well, and they can be used to help me remember Bane Chant or the Retaliate Command.
These were fun, but the push is to finish up some more Core units soon so I can start playing around with some actual builds. More hobbying posts to come soon!