BOYL 2017 - A Tale of Two Gamers!

The first game I played at BOYL this year (other than the excellent Jetbike race on the Helsreach table) was the culmination of the Tale of Four Gamers: Nerves of Lead painting challenge myself and three other friends embarked on soon after last year's BOYL.

For various reasons two of our compadres had to drop out so that left me and Ashley to duke it out on the table top. To spice things up a bit we decided to introduce a simple scenario with a limited number of turns rather than just a line 'em up and knock 'em down style battle.

To this effect Ashley's Liche had taken possession of a cache of magical spices...

Shady Characters

Thought I'd make a change this month and get my quota for the Tale of Four Gamers challenge out of the way early - I only just got last month's entry posted on Facebook for adjudication at what must have been close to two minutes to midnight on the 28th Feb!

This month I've gone for a unit of 10 Shadows - Dark Elf scouts equipped with shields, hand weapons and repeating crossbows, weighing in at 180 points.

Getting the General idea...

Hey I think I'm getting better at this Tale of Four Gamers lark - got my entry ready to share with the world and there's still over a week of December left!

Either that or I've set my sights low in terms of model count...

Yep it's the latter as this month I've decided to tackle my army general to give me a breather on the painting front what with the coming festivities and all.

Femme Fatales!

Hmmm, this is getting a bit of a habit - posting up pics of my latest addition to the Tale of Four Gamers challenge on the last day of the month. This won't be an option next month as there's little chance of me being sober enough to hold a camera straight let alone a paint brush! A little more organisation is called for methinks...

Anyhow, here's November's offering - a L5 Dark Elf Sorceress mounted on a Cold One (100 points) and six Witch Elves with light armour, additional hand weapons and poisoned attacks (84 points). That along with the unit of 11 warriors led by a L5 hero (with light armour, shields, hand weapons and  standard) and the Jaded Sisters (2 L5 heroines with light armour, double handed weapons and poisoned attacks) gives me a total of 480 points - 30 points ahead of the game!

Tale of Four Gamers: Nerves of Lead - The Jaded Sisters

Well that was a busy October in (non hobby terms) and a sprint finish in the last week (in hobby terms). My entry for the Tale of Four Gamers this month only just squeezed in thanks to a last minute post on Facebook at 23.59am of the last night of October! 

This tardiness was mainly due to being distracted by preparations for this year's Night of the Living Lead which I attended last weekend - more of which in another post - and being distracted by shiny new models at the Foundry - namely the titular (in more ways than one) sisters who will be joining my Dark Elf army as L5 Heroines equipped with heavy armour, double handed weapons and poisoned attacks. They weigh in at 112 points which along with the 34 points overspend from last month means that I'm only 4 points shy of the 150 points target. I guess I'll be finishing the unit of Crossbows I had been working on another time!

Anyway, enough of the boring points stuff - on with the juicy background!

Twin sisters born in to the Nephrite clan, Calemirnith and Calemirthel were inseparable despite the stark differences in their characters. Blessed with a cold beauty, Calemirthel soon became renowned as quite the prize amongst the nobility of Ghaba Ghanaf. Of course anyone foolish enough to consider her a trophy for the taking would soon be disabused of the notion.

Calemirthel - Seductress of Har Ganeth

What Calemirnith lacked in the terms of her sister's beauty, she more than made up for with her savagery and appetite for depravity. Her reputation went before her and all quailed at the prospect of becoming the object of her callous desires.

Calemirnith - Mistress of Har Ganeth

In fact the sisters made it their personal goal to sample all the sensory pleasures that cold Ghaba Ghanaf had to offer. No act was too base and no whim too perverse. And yet it was not enough. With much of the nobility, eligible or otherwise, dead or crippled and the city's slave population decimated thanks to the sister's tender mercies, the Elders of Ghaba Ghanaf certainly breathed a sigh of relief when they halted their reign of lubricious terror, jaded and weary of such things.

However accusations of heresy were soon levelled at the sisters and they were tried and found guilty of worshipping Slaanesh. In penance Calemirthel and Calemirnith were locked into suits of jade armour and forced to pledge their allegiance to Khaine. They were inducted into the fanatical sect of the Brides of Khaine and are now closely observed by their fellow Witch Elves for any further sign of heresy.

I'm currently painting up the small unit of Witch Elves for this month so they can keep an eye on the sisters although I'll need to throw something else in to the mix to make up the points for the 150 points target...

A Tale of Four Gamers: Nerves of Lead

The 1st of September ushered in one of the many challenges I have taken up this year in the form of the familiar Tale of Four Gamers. Thanks to Ashley at Little Lead People who, inspired by the hi-jinks of Messrs Warlord Paul, Orlygg, Chico and Steve at BOYL 2016, suggested we have also have a go at the challenge.  

I gather the Warlord Paul, Orlygg, Steve and Chico are repeating the success of their Tale of Four Gamers - this time with Mordheim and only one miniature a month in their Tale of Four Gamers: City of Lead. To differentiate ourselves from our esteemed other four gamers, we're calling our challenge   Tale of Four Gamers: Nerves of Lead. Clear as mud I'm sure! Anyhow the upshot of it all is that between now and BOYL 2017 we have to paint up 150 points worth of troops each month and either blog about them or post them on facebook. Oh and we get to fight each others' armies at BOYL 2017 as well!

We've decided to stick with Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd ed. and I'm looking forward to seeing my fellow gamers' armies taking shape. I've picked Dark Elves, Ashley has succumbed to the lure of Undeath, Matthew is taking to the field with Orcs and Adam stands alone for the forces of good with his Wood Elves. 

So why Dark Elves? I've never really had much to do with Elves of any kind really other than those required for the Orc's Drift scenarios. The High Elves were a bit goody-two-shoes for me and Wood Elves are really just a bunch of tree-huggers aren't they? Mind you I do have a large tub full of them to paint up another time...