Back to the Slow Grow

I have been doing this for a long time. The blog alone is over 10 years old, and I was painting models for a long time before that. It is slightly concerning therefore, that I seem to have learnt nothing. I keep making the same mistakes, each time somehow convincing myself that this time it will be different. It's all just a little bit of history repeating...

Anyway, I am back painting models for the slow grow. I was completely derailed last month by the battle report, so I'm currently in catch-up mode. I decided that the simple solution would just be to try to make sure I painted 500 points this month, but we're halfway through the month and I haven't actually finished anything yet. I feel like I'm leaving myself a lot of work to do. 

I started off by deciding that my Dwarf army as a whole needs more core units, and that I wouldn't mind having another unit of Longbeards. I have the files for some Kyoushuneko ones that I really quite like, so I printed off a pile of those, and figured I would start with a unit of 25. Sensible size, usable in a normal sized game, and worth a fair chunk of points. And then, being exceptionally clever, I figured I'd paint all of them in a single big batch. You can imagine how this has gone for me...

My mostly complete prototype, showing my chosen colours of yellow and turquoise. My Dwarf units are all different colour combinations, and you'd be surprised how much I feel like I'm running out of good combos.

Hmmm... They're not exactly painted.

I persevered with the full group of 25 until the sand on the bases and the metal wash was done, then selected half of them to try to get to completion. Honestly, I'm still finding a group of 12 (actually 11 if you don't count the prototype, and you really shouldn't) slow going. I might split the second half into 2 smaller groups so I can feel myself making progress. It feels like some sort of admission of defeat, but I know that's foolish thinking. I get there however I get there.

These guys are gradually getting there, but they do have a long way to go.

It wasn't until I started painting these guys that I really noticed that my printer settings are not as "dialed in" as I thought they were, or maybe the cooling weather is making my resin more gloopy. Some parts of these models that were on the underside (with the supports) have really obscured detail. It's quite obvious when you see it, but it doesn't bother me enough to put the models aside. I still really like them overall, and the ones where the shields are on their backs really help the appearance from behind.

Apart from a slightly wobbly axe blade (not sure what happened there), he's pretty clean from the front.

The back of the axe should actually have the same detailing as the front. It's just... not there. Being on the underside just ate the detail.

The shields are from Monstrous Encounters - they actually come from a group of Dwarf skeletons. I decided I liked them more than the shields these guys came with - they're a bit more traditional. The models were printed in one piece, then the shields were glued on separately. Before painting. I'm currently regretting that decision at the moment, as I'm having issues getting colour onto the bits of the shield backs that you can still see when they're glued on. It would have been better to paint them before gluing them, but I'm always in 2 minds about that. Nice to know I chose wrong again.

Overall, the progress of the slow grow has stagnated slightly... 

• Our noble organiser Nick has fallen prey to his own lack of follow-through and gone off to distract himself with other things. 
• Tim works in brief bursts that really don't align with a given month, and keeps disappearing interstate for weeks at a time. He'll probably still have a painted army by the end, but its progress is erratic.
• Noakes occasionally waves around a painted ogre, but I don't think he's really up to speed. 
• Last I checked, Hamish was bogging himself down in painting 35 Dwarfs in a single batch - exactly the sort of folly that inspired my own recent stupidity. I haven't heard from him recently, so it's possible he did not survive. 
• Pete is the one shining example of diligence in the group, having stuck to the schedule month after month. It has been a case of "more of the same" for him in terms of what he's been painting (more Ghouls and Crypt Horrors), but I think he's through that now and moving to other, more interesting things.

Pete and I have played a couple of games since the big battle, and given the slightly shambolic state of the slow grow, I've allowed myself to branch out and start using older models in my armies in order to give the games a bit more variety. 

This made particular sense in the first game, because the army I was playing had nothing to do with the slow grow. Pete pulled his old Skaven army out of storage to give them their first spin in years. I got excited at having more points to play with, and actually used Ungrim Ironfist properly, meaning the army had slayers and all sorts of things in it.

Skaven!

My BSB (leading the thunderers) and the irondrakes both had Strollaz's Rune, so vanguarded onto the field.

It didn't really end up being much of a game, so this isn't really a report. Just a brief recap.

The organ gun blew the whole back rank off the plague monks, even though the irondrakes pretty much failed to help with their own shooting.

The thunderers on the left had a wave of nasties heading for them, but managed to knock some wounds off the hellpit abomination.

The doomwheel rolled toward me, but it and the other shooting did little real damage.

The irondrakes rolled double 1s when they were meant to be helping the longbeards against the plague monks, but it didn't matter. The longbeards gave as good as they got, and there were not enough ratties left for steadfast or a decent leadership bonus. They broke and got run down.

My gyrocopter on the right caused all sorts of fuss in threatening the warp lightning cannon, and it chose to move out of sight at least once before deciding to hold its ground and fire, at which point it promptly removed the gyrocopter.

The slaves near the longbeards were fleeing after the gyrocopter hit them with its steam gun whilst lining up the charge on the warp lightning cannon. It meant nothing could really see the longbeards, which also meant not much could be done about them.

In the end the doomwheel was the one hope. Ungrim and his slayers had also rolled double 1s when intending to charge and kill it, meaning it was free to intervene with the longbeards. However it took a few wounds from shooting, went out of control, mashed a few stormvermin, and only then was it free to charge the enemy...

It did indeed get into the flank of the longbeards, but its charge was not enough to cripple them and they were able to finish it off in return.

The stormvermin panicked, and this meant my unit was able to reform looking at the flank of the clanrat unit with all the enemy characters packed into it... Unsurprisingly, Pete elected to flee from the charge.

On the left, the thunderers had managed to wear the charge of the censer bearers and kill them off, then stared down the rat ogres who didn't dare invite a stand-and-shoot reaction (they went around and cleaned up a bolt thrower instead). The abomination rolled terribly for its charge, and never made it into combat. It got shot the following turn.

The clanrats with the grey seer and his friends never came back. Either I scared them off the field immediately with the gyrocopter, or did so the following turn after they failed their rally test.

The rat ogres were behind my lines after killing one of the bolt throwers, and Ungrim decided to head back and deal with them himself. He need not have bothered - the organ gun blew them away all by itself. Poor Ungrim. Never got to fight.

Having fired a second time for almost no damage, the irondrakes eventually got to fight some clanrats, and even they couldn't stuff that up too badly. I'm pretty sure I won, broke the unit, and Pete conceded. It was all very one-sided.

A couple of weeks later we lined up again. This time Pete was using his slow grow undead, although I elected to still use some of my non-slow-grow stuff for the sake of variety. I used Ungrim as a normal lord, took a single gyrocopter with vanguard as well as the vanguarding irondrakes, and I even decided to sneak a dragon slayer in because I had some points left. The hammerers were back in place of the slayers, so it was almost a slow grow list. I had no organ gun, though - this was a smaller game at 2000 points.

Only a couple of photos for this one, all of them taken by Pete instead of me. Here we are in my Turn 2.

We rolled up the Watchtower scenario, so that oversized chicken coop in the middle of the field was our objective. Pete "won" the roll-off to control it (by which I mean, he lost the roll-off for table sides and first turn. He had nothing he could deploy in it). I basically moved up and pecked at a few things with shooting, but started charging the building pretty early on after Pete moved a unit of 8 Crypt Horrors and a Vampire into it in Turn 1. The Vampire didn't last long when we decided he had to fight due to 3 Horrors leaving a single slot left in the "10 per side" thing. The Longbeards made short work of him, but bounced off the building.

A worthy doom for the dragon slayer.

Pete decided to bait my slayer with his varghulf, and of course I accepted the invitation. I then rolled surprisingly well and landed 2 wounds after Pete passed 1 regeneration roll. He then passed another against my deathblow as the varghulf pounded the Dwarf into the ground. So close. He could so easily have died.

After Pete's second turn.

Having dealt with the slayer, the varghulf decided to interfere with the longbeards attacking the building. He bought one turn, but once they had turned to face him, he had no hope. The irondrakes charged instead, and did quite well. But then they were obliged to flee when the horde of ghouls led by the vampire lord charged them. They got away, but were out of the fight.

I managed a longish charge on the crypt horrors on the flank with both the warriors (led by my lord) and hammerers, and after Pete rolled quite poorly for saves, I wiped them out in a single turn. I then got to charge the ghouls with the hammerers and my lord, but after agonising for ages over what to do, the vampire lord eventually accepted my lord's challenge, and immediately landed 5 hits, 5 wounds, and I failed 3 saves on 5+ armour and 5+ regeneration. So I died. It was very sad. Should have bought the real Ungrim.

The longbeards resumed their assaults on the building every turn once the varghulf was dealt with, but they were taking some damage in return.

This was the true epic fight of the battle. After a vanguard, the gyrocopter flew behind Pete's lines before charging the flank of the bats in turn 2. They were still there at the end of the game, with the gyrocopter on a single wound. There had been some epic air-swing attacks, and I think the gyrocopter failed Fear twice. Very impressive. But not dead!

The game ended abruptly after Turn 4 when Pete rolled a 6. It meant there were still maybe 2 Crypt Horrors in the building, and the battle was his. I would have been slightly up on victory points, but I didn't have the objective.

Anyway, it was nice to play some games with a broader array of units available to me. I look forward to some more games where I can actually use Ungrim properly. Maybe he'll even get into combat!