Guest display: Jorma Jormasson's mighty avenging dwarven warhost of terror by Raaka-Arska

As it happens I have a couple of friends with nice Oldhammer armies or soon to be an army projects. However these guys are not into blogging and I felt that it´s a shame if their work does not get wider attention. Therefore I´ve started a new series of articles under the headline Guest display. In these articles I will present the works of my friends in a somewhat irregular schedule.

First up is Raaka-Arska with his growing old school dwarf army. Let´s hear it from Arska himself.

Enjoy!

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                           Jorma Jormasson's mighty avenging dwarven warhost of terror

I have dreamed for a long time about creating a full army for good old Warhammer third edition. All that with principle that army must have a lot of character and ton of heavy metal from the 80s. Now that work has started with characterful Dwarf warhost and it has been a blast!

From the experience I knew that planning a project properly really pays off so I started by writing 1000 point army list. Rulebook and Warhammer Armies book serve as inspiration to this project along awesome blogs like this.

Most important inspiration for the project is still Wayne Englands legendary Dwarf army which was presented in the White Dwarf #135. Stylish and unique look with steel, blue and white all used in harmony. All this led me to first important decision right away, should I go with original 80's look on bases with simple flock and Goblin Green or something bit more modern?

I decided to go with bit more modern look but still keep bases simple and make sure they won't take too much attention from the main thing, miniatures. Snow is really powerful element and easy to add but I had never used it on bases, even after all these years, so that was set. Basic grey, few plants, and lots of snow. I also wanted to keep regiments and heroes on same low level so no hero will pose well, heroically on big rock or anything like that.

Dwarves have really hard limits on minimum troops:
1 hero
20 Dwarf Crossbowmen
40 Dwarf Warriors

In practice those can be halved on small games but I will keep limits on my mind anyway. Then there is always Baggage Train to add (Bugmans cart, smith and his tools of trade or even juggernaut).

Starter list is going to be this:

1 x Level 10 hero (famous Jorma Jormasson himself)

20 x Dwarf Crossbowmen (Bugman's rangers)
Shields
Heavy Armour
Full Command
(these will most likely be split into two units later)

5 x Giant Slayer

1 x Three man Bolt Thrower
Heavy armor

1 x Three man Stone Thrower
(this will be Goblobber but I while I am by no means powergamer I just cannot make myself to pay 25 points to downgrade Stone Thrower for worse.)

Bugman's cart is going to be on high priority to paint and do it's magic as unit filler first and as Baggage Train later. I also need unit of Warriors but one big unit of troops will be enough now. I would love to add Wizard to army at some point just because in 3rd edition I can!

This is the first post from me as guest and hopefully it inspires other to paint some dwarfs.

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And here are the pictures. Comments by VK.

A classic bolt thrower with three dwarf crew. The batchy

snow bases work very well here.

 Who cares if gunpowder is explosive - I´ll smoke my pipe

where ever I want to. Really like the cool commander.

 A goblobber with a single crew member.

 Another dwarfy machine of destruction - the flame thrower.

A frenzied squad of Marauder troll slayers.

WIP Jorma Jormasson himself.

 Dragon company, Bugman´s rangers and the cart waiting to be painted.

Trouble at the Fur Hunters´ Hut - 3rd edition WFB Battle Report

When the alarm sounded captain Chaelamin felt perhaps a bit too much satisfaction for being right as the situation was grave serious. He had made his men to take up defensive positions and to set up guard posts around the fur trader hut. They had not protested but he had seen the looks in their eyes. They had been marching all day and would have wanted to rest.

But now it was both his own seekers and the fur hunters he had sent out to guard dute that had spotted the enemy. And Chaelamin himself could see green shapes emerging from the morning mist.

"Get those civilians inside and away from the windows!!!" Chaelamin shouted. To his disappointment some of the fur hunters had their families at the site and they would only be in way now. As if the dwarfs POWs weren´t enough.

Reports were coming in now - there were greens skins coming in from every directions. They would have to fight. Chaelamin only wished that the dwarves would come as agreed.

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Big boss Grumbud listened to the goblin chief with disgust. That git was trying to tell him how to lead the raid. The only reason he had tolerated the goblin so long is that his own mob was still too small to make the attack themselves. They need the loot and to get the loot he needs the gobbo chief and his troops. But if the chief would get itself killed Grumbud could keep all to loot his boyz.

"Oi, Rhybag! Me wantz u and ur gobboz to attacks from ze otter side of ze hut. We meetz in da middle rightz? Ze first boss over ze wall getz a speshul prize."

Chief Rhybag hurried on it´s way. Grumbud knew that all boyz and gobbos should be in position now. As the sun rose he ordered the advance. And then the alarm sounded. The elves had noticed them.

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Lord Dumbell heard the horn and knew something was not right. He made sure that they were not under attack themselves and reformed his units from marching columns to a battle line. He could see the building where the exhange of POWs was supposed to take place but he could see the goblinoids too. There were at least one unit of orcs and goblins right between him and the hut site. And he could see arrows being fired from the wall that protected the hut´s yard.

They would have to fight through the orcs and goblins to make it to the exhange. Dumbell made sure that the elf prisoners were secured and then the dwarves moved in.

This is a battle report about a 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario I GM´ed a week ago. The scenario required three players each playing goblinods, high elves or dwarves. The scenario background was that the warring elves and dwarfs had agreed on armistice and an exhange of prisoners of war. Elves and dwarfs are to meet at an elven fur hunter hut for the exhange.

Not knowing about the POW exhange a small tribe of orcs with their goblin supporters are looking for easy loot. They have surrounded the fur hunter hut and are to attack.

Each side has their own objectives and some special rules. Each player received a written briefing and list of troops before the game.

BRIEFINGS, SPECIAL RULES AND LISTS

Orcs & goblins:

Oi gitz!!! You´z big boss Grumbud of ze purple ´edz tribe. Yer luck wiv ze lootz ´az been poor an´ ze boyz iz gettin´ restless. Nothin´ dad a good ol ´ead bashin´ won´t keep in line but ya really need to get ´em fightin´ ze enemies an´ not each other. Ya ´as gotz a tips from ze gobboz dat dere iz da pointy earz ´untin´ ´ut wid lots an´ lots of ´idez ´n supplies to grab nearby. Ya ´az promized to take dem gobbos wid uz to share da lootz. Dem scumbagz ´as no gutz to go an´ bash ze tree ´uggerz demselves.
Dem gobbos say dere iz lots but not lots an´ lots of dem fancy pantz at ze ´ut. Ya haz cum up wid da brilliunt planz. Yer boyz an´ ze gobbos ´as ze hut surrounded an´ you´z ´as ordered everywun to attacks at ze first light.

Ya haz dem four set up areaz - wun at each side of ze ´ut. No set upz closer dan 16” of dem ´ut - ya not want dem ´ippies to spot ya too early. Ya wanna ´ave ze ´utz surrounded - not lettin´ ze pointy earz run away iz we. Ya haz to set at least wun mob of dem boyz or gobbos on each area. Rememba dat dem gobbos iz not to be trusted - ya haz to ´ave a mob of dem boys or wun of dem shamanz ur chiefz in da same are wiv each of dem gobbo mobz.


Ya needz to get dem buildingz intactz as ze lootz iz in dere. An´ ya not mind if dem gobbos getz bashed and not haz to share da loot wiv ´em.

Commo´n ya gitz, weez gunna ´ave a proppa bashin´!!!

Success conditions:
 Complete success: Both buildings survive and are captured by your troops. Gobbo chief Rhybag is killed or routed off the board. No more than 50% of boyz are lost as casualties.


Partial success: You capture the hut site but one or more of the following happens: one building is destroyed / chief Rhybag survives and is not routed off board / more than 50% of the boyz are lost as casualties


Failure: Hut site is not captured or both buildings are destroyed. Boss Grumbud is killed.

Elves:

Sir, You are in charge of the four dwarven prisoners of war whom as by the armistice agreement are to be exchanged to four elven warriors captured by the dwarves during the hostilities.

The exchange is to take place at this fur hunting hut your small troupe reached late last night. Your scouts caught a sight of some goblins along the road here two nights ago but the scoundrels hurried back to the cover of woods and have not bothered you since. Upon arrival you set up a defensive perimeter inside the l hut´s walled yard and ordered your troops to rest with guards on duty. Scouts were sent to patrol the nearby woods.

The prisoners are locked up in the storage building with their hands tied so that they cannot escape in case the dwarves try some foul play. The prisoners are unarmed but their equipment is held by your troops and is to be returned to their rightful owners upon exchange.

There are six hunters present and you have taken them under your command. To your big disappointment there are some civilians including a child at the hut. You have ordered them to stay in the main building to be out of your way until everything is clear with the exchange.

You have very strict orders from lord Darcassan not to jeopardize the armistice in any way. Your most important job is to get the four elven prisoners in your custody and to safely escort them along the road to safety. As important as that is to release the dwarven prisoners of war to their brethren and guarantee their safe exit from the area. In case there is a confrontation of any sort you are to preserve your troops as far as possible but without endangering your most important mission - the safe exchange of prisoners.

Scouts may be set up anywhere on the map within 15” of the huts. Civilians must start the game in the main hut. Everyone else sets up within the logging hut perimeter.

The dwarves should arrive in the morning from the east.

Godspeed!


Special rules:
The dwarf prisoners start the game with their hands and feet tied. They set up in the storage building that is locked. They cannot move or fight and if attacked will receive free hack hits. The prisoners have normal dwarf profile. They start unarmed (improvised weapons) and unarmored. If there is an elf model within 2” of the storage building door, the elf player may declare the release of prisoners at any time. From that moment the dwarf player gets the control of the prisoners. He may then choose if he wants to put them in normal or skirmishing formation. After release each prisoners gets a hand weapon and a shield. If the prisoners spend one turn putting on their equipment (no movement or others actions) they can add light armor. The prisoners are considered saved if they exit the battle field via the road to east.


The main building has two windows on the long side and one on each end. There is also one window next to the door. The storage building has no windows. Both buildings are wooden with very flammable roof. Two models can use missile weapons from each window and two models can engage in hand to hand combat through a window. The building is divided in three sections. Each section can have 6 models in it. Therefore there is room for a maximum of 18 models in the main building. Models in the building don´t have to be in base to base contact but are still considered to be in normal formation. Models cannot be pushed back from a window position. A model not engaged in hand to hand combat may be moved to another window during the elf player´s movement or reserve phase. Rank bonuses do not affect combat resolution when fighting through windows. A model/turn may climb in/out of a window in movement phase when there is no model on the other side in contact with the window. Moving through window uses the models movement completely. Moving through window may put a model in base to base contact with enemy. They will enter hand to hand combat, but moving through window does not count as a charge.


Success conditions:
Complete success: All dwarven prisoners escape to safety. All elven prisoners escape to safety. All civilians escape to safety. No more than 50% of your troops are lost.


Success: At least ¾ of dwarven prisoners, elven prisoners and civilians escape. No more than 50% of your troops are lost.


Minimal success: At least ½ of prisoners and civilians escape.


Failure: Less than ½ of prisoners survive. Fighting between elves and dwarves break out.

Dwarfs:

Lord Dumbell! Take care of the prisoner exchange. Do not harm elf prisoners unnecessarily. Return with our brothers. Do not kill any elves unless they attack first. Slight bruising is acceptable. No more than four kegs of ale per warrior a day before return.

You enter the area from east beginning from turn 2. You may deploy as many units as you wish. Units not deployed on turn 2 will be deployed on subsequent turns on your will. Safe exit at same location.

Axes high!


Special rules:
The elven prisoners start attached to one of the dwarf units. They must set up in 2x2 formation and be placed in base to base contact with the back side of the unit they are attached to. They cannot fight and don´t affect the combat resolution rank bonus of the unit they are with. In case they are attacked they may be moved out of harm’s way to another side of the unit. If there is no room and they end up in combat enemy can score free hacks vs. them. The prisoners will move with their parent unit including rout etc. Missile hits against the unit will be randomly divided between the dwarves and the prisoners. The dwarf player can at any time declare he has released the prisoners. At that moment the elven player issues their control and they will act on his turn. The prisoners have normal elf profile and they are unarmed (improvised weapons) and carry no armor. From release on they will act as skirmishers.


Success conditions:
Total success: All dwarf prisoners exit to safety

Partial success: At least ½ of prisoners exit to safety

Failure: Less than ½ of the prisoners survive. You have to shave your head, dye your beard orange and seek your death in the troll caves.

THE GAME

 The elf player did his initial set up secretly on a piece of paper. Then the orcs ond goblins were put on the table. And after that the elves. Orcs would move first.

Orc boyz and trolls advancing from north and led by Grumbud himself. Defending the wall are elf archers. Chief Rhybag´s gobbos and the orc shaman are just barely visible in the horizon.

 Orc arrers and gobbo stickas closing in from east.

And from west more boyz and a mob of wolfboyz. In the woods the elf fur

hunters are taking aim on green skins.

The fur hunting hut and it´s defenders. On top left corner a unit on seekers. Manning the north wall are archers. In the bigger building are the ship company and civilians. Dwarf POWs are held in the smaller building. In the yard there is also captain Chaelamin mounted on his horse and the fur hunter´s hunting dog´s with their handler.

First blood was drawn by orc arrers who really didn´t want to share the loot with stinking gobbos. Failing their animosity test they wheeled a and shot at gobbo stickas killing three of them.

Suprisingly everyone else passed their anomosity tests and moved towards the hut. On elf turn there was very little movement. On shooting phase everyone who could shot at advancing orcs & goblins. Some were killed but not enough to force a panic test.

On turn two the trolls did what they do best and failed their stupidity roll. They staggered on and ended right in front of the main orc boyz unit preventing them form advancing. Grumbud decided to take matters into his own hands and left the boyz unit he was with to join with trolls and bash some sense into their thick skulls.

Elf captain and hunting dogs left the hut yard to face the gobbos and orc shaman coming in from south. A single fanatic was released from the gobbo unit by the elf presence but the loonie did not reach his target.

And then came the dwarfs. Between them and the hut site were just the orc arrers and gobbo stickas. And the stickas were just preparing to charge the elf seekers in the forest in front of them.

On turn three big boss Grumbud managed to get the trolls under his command and bashed some sense into them. They and the boyz would be ready to storm the yard next turn. Orc arrers retreated away from the advancing dwarfs and stickes charged to elf seekers who chose to stand and shoot.

On the other side of battle field wolf boyz changed the elf hunters who received the charge shooting with their hunting bows. The lone gaoblin fanatic in the middle crashed into hut wall and died. Two of the hunting dogs were roasted by a fireball from orc shaman.

In the top left corner stickas charge the seekers. The fanatic is just about to make his final move and head straight into the wall.

The elf captain decided to take out the orc spell caster and charged him. The remaining dog and his handler retreated back to safety of the walls. The ship company that had stayed in the main building started to move out to be ready to face the orcs and goblin.

The elf archers defending the north wall took aim on trolls directly in front of them and scored a huge amount of hits. And managed to down a troll. This was too much for the others who broke and took big boss Grumbud with them! Suddenly the orc leader was on the run.

Luckily for the orcs the boyz mob was not affected. They would charge soon.

Chaelamin took care of the orc shaman quickly with one thrust of his lance. Seekers killed a couple of stickas but lost one of their number too and were pushed back. Hunters could not hurt the wolfboyz and were pushed back too.

The dwarfs marched as fast as they could. They could see that the elf situation was getting worse every second.

Big boss Grumbud´s not so glorious flight from battle.

As Grumbud and his bodyguards were out of the way the boyz mob was able to charge the elf archers defending the northern wall. Chief Rhybag´s stickas turned their ranks to face the elf captain who had slaughtered the orc shaman and peppered him with javelins. And against all odds wounded him.

Orc arrers who had been running away from the advancing dwarfs were positioning themselves to be able to charge the ship company next turn. After moving they released their arrows and a single marine was pierced by a red feathered arrow.

Both the seekers and the hunters were slowly being grinded down and pushed back the stickas and the wolfboyz. They could kill a few gobbos every now and them but the sheer number of enemies meant that they could not win a round of combat. At the north wall defending archers were pushed back by the boyz who were now in the yard for the first time.

Luckily for the elves the other unit of boyz was a bit of stuck behind the gobbo unit and could not engage anyone.

Desperate to buy some time the elf captain charged to goblin horde in front of him. The lone hunting dog handler and his remaining hound joined in too. Close combat was raging all over. Again the elves were pushed back in every single combat. They were really on the edge of braking.

The last remaining seeker trying to hold on against the stickas

while captain Chaelamin and the hunting dog handler charge the gobbos.

The dwarf thunderers had finally marched in range of the orc arrers. They took aim and BANG! Three of the ten muskets misfired and two dwarfs were killed. And no hits scored on orcs. It really did not start well for stunties.

The dwarf POWs in the smaller hut had been alarmed by the noises of fighting and they managed to break themselves free. Armed with what weapons they could find they bursted out of the shag and charged right to the flank of the orc boyz pressing hard on elf archers. That was the boost that the defenders needed. Several orcs were killed and the rest were pushed back. The situation was stabilized at least for a while.

On the next orc turn the arrers charged to elf ship company now defending the south wall. The marines did not fare well and got pushed back into the main building. On the north wall elves and dwarfs killed a number of boyz. A single dwarf was lost too. Rest of the orcs broke. The archers did not choose to follow but the dwarf POWs wanted to avenge their brother and went into pursuit. That put them into a dangerous position as wolfboyz had taken care of the last of hunters and would be able to charge the dwarfs next turn.

Hunting dog handler and his hound were slain. Now it was just the elf captain fighting the gobbos. He got pushed back. The stickas finished the last seeker.

At this point the elf civilians saw their chance and using windows as exits bolted towards the dwarf lines for safety. Seeing the wolfboyz that threatened to dwarf POWs the elf archers formed a shooting line to protect them. They would not jeopardize the chance for peace with the dwarfs.

Once again the elves were pushed back all around. Their captain was hit several times but his armor protected him against the weak goblin weapons. Ship company was being reduced to less than five elves but the survivors held on swearing to protect the fleeing civilians.

Dwarfs advanced and would be in charge range next turn. Their flamethrower had come to range of the gobbos in combat with the elf captain. Not caring too much for the elf´s safety they launched their fiery ball but it missed both the gobbos and the luckily the elf too. The forest they were partially in caught fire. The former dwarf POW headed for safety of their own lines.

During the last couple of turns it became clear that the orcs had secured to hut site. The ship company was killed to last elf inside the main building. Dwarf quarrelers got to charge chief Rhybag´s gobbos and rescued the elf captain who was down to his last wound at that time.

As all the civilians and POWs were behind the now combined dwarf/elf line and orcs firmly holding the hut site I called it a day. Dwarfs and elves would be happy to retreat and orcs had no interest in following them.

Forest fire rages after careless use of a flame thrower.

So how did each side fare? 

The orcs secured the hut site with both building intact. But roughly 50% of the boyz were lost and big boss Grumbud was routed himself with chief Rhybag surviving. A partial success was awarded to orcs.

The dwarfs lost one POW and got a partial success too.

The elves managed to get all civilians and POWs to safety and only one dwarf POW was lost. On the other hand almost all elf troops were killed. I awarded the elf player with a partial success too. Even if there was no such category in the briefing.

LESSONS LEARNED

 It took us roughly three hours to play this scenario. I had not had time to play test it so I was pretty anxious to see how it worked. On general level I am happy with the result. I felt that the players were having a good time and I didn´t have to interfere too much with GM´ing. Thank you guys for playing!!!

If I were to GM this again I would perhaps change the roles of elves and dwarfs around. Now the dwarf player spent most of his time just marching. Quicker troops would mean more action.

The trolls could have been too powerfull for this scenario. Now they actually worked against the orc player. I might reduce their number to one in any case.

The elf player´s success conditions are a bit too harsh. I would remove the No-more-than-50%-of-rour-troops-are-lost requirement for the side that starts in the hut site.

The orc player needs to play actively as TL did in this game. I was expecting to see a break out try by the elves but LM chose to defend the yard and wait for dwarfs. And as we saw it worked well enough.

Elf civilians running for safety.

Hope you enjoyed reading. Sorry for crappy pics. Forgot my camera home and had to use mobile.

Where is he now - Dwarf Mountaineer

Was it the climate change that melted the glaciers connecting the dwarf keeps and therefore making the ski troops obsolete? Or did the yodlers just blow themselves up with those blunderbusses of theirs? Perhaps we´ll never know...

The dwarf mountaineers appeared in WD116 where there was both rules and a new mini for them. Here´s the rule page:

Being scouts the mountaineer act in every sense as skirmishers except that they can charge normal troops and they don´t have to run away if charged by such (WFB rules page 101). Their points value is pretty low as normally scouts cost you additinal 5 points. "Correct" value for a blunderbuss armed dwarf should be 15 (dwarf 8 + scout 5 + blunderbuss 2).

A blunderbuss is a pretty rarely seen weapon in WFB. It has a range of 16" and it hits with S3 and -2 armor modifier on 0-8" range. For 8-16" range the strengh is reduced to S1 and no armor modifier. One of the mountaineer´s special rules is that the blunderbusses can be fired when doing a downhill charge or ski charge as it is called. With the blunderbuss´ tendency to misfire on to-hit-roll of 1 this can lead to pretty hilarious situations. Imagine exploding dwarves speeding down a hill side - yodeling as they come!

The rule about using a blunderbuss in ski charge lacks the explanation on how the casualties caused by shooting are handled. I would use the throwing spear rule as a basis so that the wounds caused would count directly towards close combat result. The other option could be to count them seperately which could lead into the unit that is shot at breaking before melee. Use a GM or agree before playing how to deal with this.

The ski charge is a nice special rule that lets your mountaineer charge triple their movement rate when going downhill. To help one to able to do that charge a player employing mountaineer can place one hill on his side of the table. That can give one a tactical advantage as you could place your heavy artillery and missile troops on that hill too. Perhaps the best way to use mountaineers is as artillery guards. Make use of the hill you get to place and blast away with everything you got. And if the enemy gets close engage him with your mountaineer.

On normal movement mountaineers can do double their movement rate if doing down a slope. Good skiing skills mean that they do not suffer penalties on going down a steep hill. They can also negate movement penalties for moving in a forest on a downhill slope.

Muontaineers can have a special magic instrument in the form of Yodel of Doom. The yodel puts the mointaineers in the state of battle lust that gives them a +1 to hit rolls on first round of close combat and on all following turns if they are not pushed back. Yodel is a must for mountaineers!

Dwarf mountaineer diorama from WD.

The original model is pretty sought after and you propably won´t get one for cheap. The only examply on ebay when this was written had a price tag of 84€ on him. And with minimum size of unit is five you´ll be paying A LOT to complete one.

Luckily Ral Partha produces a good alternative model in the form of DW020 Ullr the Intrepid. His weapon is not exatly a blunderbuss by the looks of it rather than a short musket or something like that. But as this mini costs only a friction of what the original mountaineer model does I think most of us can live with the not-trumpet-like barrel. Or can make one with some green stuff.

And this kickstarter should be a must for all mountaineer fans. A full unit of skiing dwarfs with real blundersbusses, a banner and all. Looks very promising!

A wonderful dwarf mointaineer from Billy Bunter´s Collection.

What I would like to see is a painted unit of mountaineers. I wonder if any of my readers has one? Or even better - a battle report including these alpine dwarfs.

If you want another view on the mountaineers Orlygg has written about them in his Realm of Chaos 80´s blog.

Where is he now - the Dwarf Sapper

Disclaimer - The following monologue by an old dwarf sapper is purely fictional and does not fully fit into the official Warhammer fluff. Don´t take it too seriously.

"Yeah - looking back it was the Battle of Dungal Hill that started it. After that so called `glorious victory´ every damn dwarf kid wanted to a miner. Heroes of the Dungal Hill. Heroes my ass. And we were just too blind to see what was happening. The guild elders told us that it´s just a mode quirk that will wear out in a couple of years. How could we not see what was coming!”

*sip*

“It took a few years but slowly things started to change. We the sappers were still an important asset in almost every army. You know - building stockades and bridges. And even doing demolitions if needed. With our tools and prefabricated materials we could set up a defensive strongpoint in a matter of minutes. That´s what I call professionalism!”

*sip*

 “But at the same time the use of miners on a battlefield was studied at the Dwarven Royal Military Academy (DRMA) and miner education was increased in every vocational school across the dwarven realms. Being a sapper was no longer considered ´cool´ and we got only those kids deemed unfit for being a miner.”

*big sip*

“Then came the big sieges of Barak Varr and the Iron Rock and sealed our faith. You know - in a pitched battle you have to be able to build that stockade or bridge fast. And it was us sappers who could do that. Sieges are different. They take time and the generals soon noticed that normal grunts could do the earthworks and tunnel digging themselves. It didn´t matter that it took longer - they had all the time in the world. The grunts did with no extra pay and our union was not ready to renegotiate the sapper salaries.”

*a really big sip*

“So the commanders did some quick math, money made our world go around and all of a sudden we were no longer needed in those sieges. Over the time we were sort of forgotten. No longer were we called even for a normal campaign. We became obsolete. Many sappers re-educated themselves to miners, many became unemployed. And stayed that way. Structural unemployment - that´s what the clan elders called it. Ah - then there´s me - building fences and walls for rich ladies´ gardens all around the Empire to put the food on the table for my family. How sad is that?!?”.

*falls silent*

One of the troop types that was lost with the streamlining of rules that happened when WFB went from 3rd to 4th edition is sappers. In the 3rd edition WFB: Armies the dwarves were the only race to employ them. What we got with 4th edition is miners who were just normal infantry grunts with two-handed picks and no special skills.

Five lovely sapper teams by TL. Check SoL for

more Oldhammer dwarf engineer models.

Sappers appeared in the 1987 published Ravening Hordes - The Official Warhammer Battle Army Lists for 2nd edition WFB. They are indroduced under the dwarf army list as special troops. Once again WG has been faithful to their ever appearing unconsistency - there rules are there but the sappers don´t exits in the army list itself! How typical.

2nd edition WFB - the rules are there but troop list

and points value are missing. From Ravening Hordes.

For 3rd edition the rules evolved a bit. The unit size for sappers is fixed as a two model team and rules for building streamlined a bit. Same options for building and demolishing are retained with small rule modifications. And now there´s the points value too.

Sappers as per 3rd edition rule book. Now with points value too.

The tactical  use of sappers is not widely - or actually not at all - discussed in the 3rd edition books. In the Ravening hordes we find this paragraph that gives a good idea on where and how to employ them.

Build cover. Stand and shoot. Sounds good to me.

Warhammer Siege brought us detailed rules for castles and how to attack and defend them. Sappers are mentioned there under special troop types. They gice certain bonuses to mining and contruction works.

Sappers are recognized in the Warhammer Siege.

With 4th edition the sappers were lost. What we got instead was the dwarf miners. Who in the beginning were just another unit of infantry but carrying two-handed picks. No building or demolishing. Nothing special. The tactical use of building stockades as described above lost. Just a bunch of new models to be bought. Pretty dull. I guess the original sapper rules, even in their simplicity, were just too complicated for the new way of playing Warhammer.

4th edition Dwarf miner unit from Dwarf army book page 87.

Could it be any more uninspiring?

Dwarf sappers make a reappearence in a form of Dwarfen expert engineers in the 6th edition WFB. Very little information about them can be found apart from this page kindly delivered Josh. But as we see they construct walls and do other kinds of building and demolishing works. The rules cover just the wall building and all else is left for GM to determine.

6th edition "sappers".

At the current end of the line for sappers/miners stands the AoS. At least in this Warscroll for dwarfs (or Duardin?) there are miners who can set up underground and emerge in your movement phase no closer than 9" of enemy anywhere on the battlefield. Either they dig really fast or they can really well predict where the enemy is going to be.

A miner unit can have a biting  mule drawing a steam harpoon armed cart and their leader can wield a steam drill. And the miners can throw blasting charges too. Not my kind of miners really.

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Hope you liked this first look on lost troop types. Sound out if you want to read about foresters, falconers or something else that was lost in history.

Baggage train compendium

As mentioned in an earlier posting baggage trains bring a lot of realism to a WFB army. Using the WFB: Armies lists as a guideline there are nine armies that can include a baggage train to their composition. For this posting I´ve done some googling and tried to find sites about the baggage trains people have used for each of those armies. I hope that wargamers who concider getting a group of camp followers and carts can get inspirations out of these.

I´ve only included sites with pictures and therefore these is more stuff for some armies than others. Some are just single pictures among other material so please scroll down if you don´t see what you were looking for right away.

Updates:

26.10.2016 - Added a pic and couple of links to Dark elf part

6.12.2016 - Added a pic and a link to Dwarf part

High elf



For high elves I´m going to have use my own army as an example as I was unable to find any other pictures of a high elf baggage train. The reason might be that high elves are one of the rarest if not the rarest 3rd edition WFB armies around.

A cart and five camp follower. Enough for a 1000 point army.

I´m  going to expand this with another cart and more civilians

to make it suitable for 2000 points.

Elf lady and some supplies. 

A minstrel and a reading elf woman.





Chaos

Mouse, the author of the Tales From the Big Board blog has created a very atmospheric baggae train for his chaos army. You can see it here and here. I really like the way Mouse has connected some of the minis with the art of Albrecht Durer and Pieter Bruegel. It´s a very oldhammer chaos entirety.

And be sure to check out this thread for inspirational material. So many cool ideas.

Both Carnival of Chaos Plague Cart and Cabaret of Chaos Pleasure (and Pain) Wagon would fit any Nurgle or Slaanesh army.

The lost and the very damned blog has this chaos warband with some civilian followers.

edit. After publishing found this chaos baggage train from Hammer & Banner blog.



Bretonnia

There is very little to be found directly connected to bretonnian baggage trains. Google brough up just this one page that has a nice scratch build wagon for a bretonnian army.

This baggage train is for Saga but it uses old bretonnian trebuchet crew minis and has a very bretonnian spirit in it as a whole. They really look like scruffy peasant following on the trails of the army itself.

And another one for Saga that would go well with bretonnia or empire.

Marauder miniatures´ MM62 Citizens range has a lot of nice models for bretonnian (or empire) camp followers.

Chris´ miniature woes presents a wide range of painted Dark age/Fantasy villagers that could be used both for bretonnia and empire.

Xin´s lair has these painted Gripping Beast civilians that would fit any human baggage train.

Paul´s Pods has this huge Medieval army with a large baggage train.

Dark elf

So far I have not been able to find a single picture of a dark elf baggage train - painted or unpainted. Any link would be appreciated.

Update 26.10.2016

Dieselmonkey sent a couple of pictures of his WIP dark elf baggage train to Oldhammer forum and gave me permission to publish them here. Here´s the group photo. 

Check out rest of the pictures here. And Dieselmonkeys wonderful dark elf force here.

Dwarf

I don´t think there´s model that says dwarf baggage train better than Bugman´s cart. There are many dwarf baggage trains to be found around the internet. Perhaps it´s because there are quite a lot of suitable models for camp followers for a dwarf army.

Here´s one project with a bear drawn beer wagon.

Another fine example at the stuff of legends site.

Cookie's Chuck Wagon from the Tales From the Big Board blog. And the same baggage train with 2nd cart and more camp followers.

A dwarf baggage train can been seen in this battle report.

Jon´s wargames minis has a Battle for skull pass wagon as a center piece for a baggage train.

This tired dwarf on a pony would go nicely with Bugman´s cart.

 This baggage train is by Thomas Foss. Be sure to visit his blog.

Empire

Citadel has produced a set for empire baggage train. Here´s a painted example of one.

The hoodling hole blog has a supply wagon acting as a unit filled in a halberdier unit. It has a very empire feel in it.

This forum thread is mostly about dwarves but scrolling down you can find a nice example of a painted empire wagon and camp followers.

My opinion is that most of the models presented in the bretonnia part would work perfectly for empire with a different paint job. Little less shabbyness and little more uniformity and there you have your empire civilians.

Orcs & goblins



Captives, slaver, drunks - Oldenhammer in Toronto blog has it all. This orc baggage train really captures the spirit of orc baggage train.

Another fine example - bear wagon, drunks, severed head. Sword & Dorkery blog brings you very orky set.

And once again we go to Tales From the Big Board blog for Flo's Field Kitchen and JackJaw's Junkwagon. Just wonderful stuff!

edit. A super cool additions from Hammer & Banner blog here, here and here.



Slann

Goblin Lee´s huge slann army has a baggage train that was in WIP state. Nice conversions of both slann and lobotomized human slaves. As Lee states they really bring character and completeness to his army.

Note that slann baggage trains do not include wagons but have twice the number of camp followers than other armies.

Wood elf

Last but not least we have wood elves and the Oldenhammer in Toronto blog that got me into this baggaga train thing. Using pack horses instead of wagons is a good idea and fits the theme of a wood elf army better than heavy carts. Nice conversion of a javelin throwing elf warrior there.

Well, that concludes this rather long posting. I hope that you did find the links listed here useful.

Until next time!

p.s. Please let me know if there´s a dead link. Or if I´m linking to your site and you want the link removed. Or if you want me to get your site included.