Saturday 30 June 2012

Mordheim - Beastman Warband.

Beastmen!

My Beastmen Raider warband.

Beastmen Raiders



By Tuomas Pirenen,
as appeared in Empire in Flames 
& Annual 2002 Errata.

Beastmen are brutish creatures, the Children of Chaos and Old Night. They roam the great forests of the Old World, and are amongst the most bitter enemies of mankind. The raging power of Chaos has given them a ferocious vitality which makes them shrug off ghastly wounds and carry on fighting regardless of the consequences. Even the Orcs are comparatively vulnerable to damage compared to the awesome vitality of the Beastmen.

Beastmen are a crossbreed between men and animals, usually resulting in the horned head of a goat, though many other variations are also known to exist. The Beastmen are divided into to two distinct breeds: Ungors, who are more numerous, twisted creatures that combine the worst qualities of man and beast, and Gors, a giant breed of Beastmen, a mix between some powerful animal and man.

The Ungor are smaller Beastmen, who cannot compete with Gors in strength and power. They may have one horn or many, but these won’t be recognized as those of goat. Shamans are very special Beastmen and are revered by all Beastmen, for they are the prophets and servants of Chaos Powers.

Each warband of Beastmen includes a mix of some Bestigor, Gor warriors and Ungor who are the mainstay of the tribes. Seven great Herdstones stand hidden in the forests surrounding the city of Mordheim. From there the Beastmen warbands come to raid the city: Warherd of Thulak, Headtakers of Gorlord Zharak, the Horned Ones of Krazak Gore, and many others.

The shards of the meteorite are seen as holy objects, which can be sold to the powerful Beastlords and revered Shamans in exchange for new weapons and services of warriors. For the tribes of Beastmen the battles fought in Mordheim are part of a great religious war, an effort to bring down the civilization of man which offends the Chaos Gods. After the taint of man has been wiped from the face of the earth then the Beastmen shall inherit.

Appearance: Beastmen Gors stand some six-seven feet tall, and their heavily muscled bodies are covered with fur. Ungor are lesser beastmen, no larger than humans, but their tough bodies and vicious tempers easily make them a match to any human warrior.

Beastmen wear little clothing, but often dress in the fur of their defeated rivals. They usually carry the skulls of their vanquished enemies as these are thought to bring good luck. While most Beastmen have dark brown skin and fur, black-furred or even albino Beastmen are not unknown. Beastmen wear heavy armlets and necklaces which serve as armor as well as decoration. Apart from the most primitive clubs and wooden shields, the Beastmen make few weapons. It is not the nature of Chaos to create, but to destroy.

Choice of Warriors:

A Beastman Warband must include a minimum of 3 models. You have 500 Gold Crowns which you can use to recruit your initial warband. The maximum number of warriors in the warband is 15, though some buildings in the warband’s encampment may increase this.

  • Beastman Chief: Each Beastman Warband must have one Chief: no more, no less!
  • Shaman: Your warband may include a single Beastman Shaman.
  • Bestigors: Your warband may include up to two Bestigors.
  • Centigors: Your warband may include a single Centigor.
  • Gors: Your warband may include up to five Gors.
  • Ungor: Any number of models may be Ungor.
  • Minotaur: Your Warband may include a single Minotaur.
  • Warhounds of Chaos: Your Warband may include up to five Chaos Hounds.

Starting Experience:

  • Beastman Chief starts with 20 experience.
  • Beastman Shaman starts with 11 experience.
  • Bestigors start with 8 experience.
  • Centigors start with 8 experience.
  • All Henchmen start with 0 experience.

Beastmen's Skill Tables

  • Chief may choose from the Combat, Strength, Speed or Special Skills.
  • Shaman may choose from the Combat, Speed or Special Skills.
  • Bestigors may choose from the Combat, Strength or Special Skills.
  • Centigors may choose from the Combat, Strength or Special Skills.

Beastmen's Maximum Characteristics

OEIF ERRATA: Page 71, Maximum Characteristics; Replace the entry with:
Profile
M
WS
BS
S
T
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I
A
Ld
Ungor666443747
Centigor976454649
Minotaur665555659
Others*576455649
*This includes all the non-Centigor Heroes and the Gor Henchmen.

Animals

Beastmen are fearsome creatures of Chaos that do not interact with other races other than in war. A Beastmen warband may never hire any Hired Sword unless specifically stated with the Hired Sword.


Heroes

1 Beastman Chieftain; 65 gold crowns to hire
Beastman chieftains have gained their position through sheer brutality. He leads the Beastmen
to Mordheim to gather the Chaos Stones to his Herdstone.

M
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543441417
Weapons/Armor: The Beastman Chieftain may be equipped with weapons and armor chosen from the Beastmen Equipment list.
Special Rules:
  • Leader: Any Warrior within 6" of the Beastman Chieftain may use his Leadership when taking Ld tests.
     
0-1 Beastman Shaman; 45 gold crowns to hire
Beastmen Shamans are prophets of the Dark Gods, and the most respected of all the Beastmen.
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Weapons/Armor: Beastman Shamans may be equipped with weapons chosen from the Beastmen Equipment list except that they never wear armor.
Special Rules:
  • Wizard: A Beastman Shaman is a Wizard and may use Chaos Rituals as detailed in the Magic section.
     
0-2 Bestigors; 45 gold crowns to hire
Bestigors are the largest type of Beastmen, the great horned warriors of the Beastman Warbands. They are massive creatures with an inhuman resistance of pain.
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Weapons/Armor: Beastmen Gors may be equipped with weapons chosen from the Beastmen Equipment list.
0-1 Centigors; 80 gold crowns to hire
A Centigor is a disturbing cross between a horse or oxen and Beastman. Being quadruped grants them great strength and speed whilst their humanoid upper torsos allow them to wield weapons. These beast-centaurs are powerful creatures but are not particularly agile or dexterous.
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84344121(2)7
Weapons/Armor: Beastmen Centigors may be equipped with weapons chosen from the Gor Equipment list.
Special Rules:
  • Drunken: Centigors are inclined to drink vast quantities of noxious beer and looted wine and spirits before battle, working themselves up to a drunken frenzy. Roll 1D6 at the start of each turn. On a roll of 1, they must test for stupidity that turn. On a 2-5 nothing happens and on the roll of a 6 they become subject to frenzy for that turn. Whilst the subject to both stupidity or frenzy they are immune to all other forms of psychology.
  •  Woodland Dwelling: Centigors are creatures of the deep, dark forests. They suffer no movement penalties for moving through wooded areas.
  • Trample: As well as their weapons, Centigors use their hooves and sheer size to crush their enemies. This counts as an additional attack, which does not benefits from weapon bonuses or penalties.

Henchmen

(In groups of 1-5)
0+ Ungor; 25 gold crowns to hire
Ungor are the most numerous of the Beastmen. They are small, spiteful creatures, but dangerous in large masses.

M
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533331316
Weapons/Armor: Ungor may be armed with weapons and armor chosen from Ungor Equipment list.
Special Rules:
  • Lowest of the Low: Ungor are on the lowest rung of Beastmen society and regardless of how much Experience they accrue they will never acquire a position of authority. If an Ungor rolls "That lad's got talent" skill, it must be re-rolled.
0-5 Gor; 35 gold crowns to hire
Gor are nearly as numerous as Ungor but are larger and more brutish...

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543341316
Weapons/Armor: Ungor may be armed with weapons and armor chosen from Beastmen Equipment list.
0-5 Warhounds of Chaos; 15 gold crowns to hire
Chaos Hounds are titanic, mastiff-like creatures which are insanely dangerous in combat.
M
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740431315
Weapons/Armor: None! Apart from their fangs and nasty tempers the Chaos Hounds don’t have weapons and can fight without any penalties.
Special Rules:
  • Animals: Chaos Hounds are animals and never gain experience.
     
0-1 Minotaur; 200 gold crowns to hire
Minotaurs are gigantic, bull-headed Beastmen. Fearsome and powerful, any Beastman Chief will try to recruit a Minotaur into his warband if possible.
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643443438
Weapons/Armor: Minotaurs may be armed with weapons and armor chosen from Beastmen Equipment list.
Special Rules:
  • Fear: Minotaurs are huge, bellowing monsters and cause Fear. See Psychology section for details.
  • Large Target: Minotaurs are Large Targets as defined in the shooting rules.
  • Bloodgreed: If a Minotaur puts all of its enemies Out Of Action in Hand-To-Hand combat, it becomes Frenzied on a D6 roll of 4+.
  • Animal: A Minotaur is far more bestial than its Beastmen brethren and although it may gain experience it may never become a Hero.

Beastmen Special Skills

Beastman Heroes may use the following Skill table instead of any of the standard Skill tables available to them.
  • Shaggy Hide: The Beastman’s massively shaggy hide acts as armor, deflecting sword strokes and protecting him from harm. The model gains a 6+ Armor Save that can be combined with other armor as normal.
  • Mutant: The Beastman may buy one mutation. See mutants Section on special rules.
  • Fearless: Immune to Fear and All Alone tests.
  • Horned One: The Beastman has mighty horns, and can make an additional Attack with its basic Strength on a turn it charges.
  • Bellowing Roar: Only the Beastman Chief may have this skill. He may re-roll any failed Rout tests.
  • Manhater: Will be affected by the rules of Hatred when fighting any Human warbands.

Sunday 24 June 2012

Wattle Fencing.


Being a lazy modeller I have been after some reasonable looking wattle fencing and wanted to take the strain out of making it myself. I do have some 'home-made' fences but I wanted to check out a few of the companies that made some.

Renedra wattle fencing. 

Above we have Renedra, who seem the obvious first choice, with their nice straightforward looking plastic offering, reasonably priced at £6 a frame. Each frame consists of 5 sections each 124mm long and 2 sections of 60mm long plus a gate. I thinks its also available from Gripping Beast for £4.50! Having seen this 'in the flesh' I have to say it looks pretty good painted, if a tad small in height. 

Hovels Celtic farmastead.

Next is the 'hurdle fencing' from Hovels Ltd. Can't really comment as I have not actually seen this but it looks reasonable in the pictures.

Irregular Miniatures.

Above we have the wattle fence offering from Irregular Miniatures. This looks fairly good painted and is very cheap at £3.50 for 5x1" pieces.

Products for Wargamers.

Next is the WTFE01 Wattle Fence from Products for Wargamers. This is a very reasonable £1.50 for a ready to use approximately 6" strip. Not quite as detailed as some but I am sure the two Vikings hiding behind it don't really care too much.

Grand Manner.

At the other end of the scale we have the wonderful work of the folk over at Grand Manner. The large wattle pen above comes in at £12.70 for the unpainted and a whopping £25.40 for the painted version. Having said that, like all their products, its pretty sweet...

Brother Thomas admires the new pig enclosure. Dreamholme wattle fence.

Finally and by pure fluke, I came across Dreamholme Scenics (see what they did there) who provide a nice 6 piece set of fencing,  for £6 unpainted or £11 painted. I ordered some of the painted fencing right off the bat as I like the look of a few of their other items so thought I would test them out with this. I must say I am very pleased - quick delivery, well packaged and a nice paint job, perfect for a lazy chap like me!

Also in the picture above is a set of crates from p.m.c. games, again pre-painted and nice and cheap from their ebay shop.

Any other suggestions??

Wednesday 20 June 2012

The Assault Group: Tin-Pot Dictator.



I was lucky enough to come across The Assault Groups Facebook promotion and signed myself up for the free mini. They have a nice range in everything from Somalis to Samurai.

All you need to do is 'Like' their Facebook page, post a comment on the wall asking for a free miniature and then drop them an email to request which one you want. Simple.

General Mwangi.

I went for 'The General' - a tin-pot dictator type if ever I saw one!

The full list of freebie miniatures are:
Freebie Miniatures list.
When you purchase £33.00 of any TAG product we will add you a Free miniature.
If you choose not to specify we will send you a suitable mini from the one we have, but if you would like you can choose any from the list shown.
Just add your choice to the "Customer Comments" box and we will do the rest...

World War Two
Japanese
American
German
Soviet Russian
British
Renaissance
Ultra Modern
Afghans
British
Chechen
US.
Africans
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Criminal gangs
Russian
SWATs
Medieval Asia
Japanese

Mongols

Chinese

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VCS
American
Australian