Done the first round of painting
After a few months of painting I finally have the first two 2000 point armies ready for Oathmark 1. The last three characters and the unit of Undead cavalry are still waiting to dry before a final spray of matte varnish so I don’t have any photos. Those will probably be ready tomorrow. While I was basing those figures I also based twenty Shield Wolf Miniatures Mountain Orcs. These were part of the set of Orcs I picked up last year and were already painted. They were part of a large unit for Kings of War so I had to remove them from the large base they were on and individually base them. The standard bearer model had the banner break and I was unable to repair it so I had to build a new arm that has been successfully ‘grafted’ on and I need to repaint the arm before the unit is complete.
The armies
So here are the two armies that I am hoping to get in some games with.
Undead army
| # | Tot | Unit | A | M | F | S | D | CD | H | Pts | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 168 | Skeletal Spearmen | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 12 | Undead, Uncaring, Unthinking, Brace, Spellcaster Control |
| 1 | 50 | Skeletal Champion | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 50 | Undead, Uncaring, Unthinking, Champion, Spellcaster Control, Magic Items |
| 10 | 140 | Skeletal Archer | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 14 | Undead, Uncaring, Unthinking, Fire Over, Spellcaster Control |
| 14 | 238 | Revenant Warrior | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 17 | Undead, Uncaring |
| 1 | 52 | Revenant Champion | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 52 | Undead, Uncaring, Champion, Magic Items |
| 5 | 350 | Revenant Cavalry | 4 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 70 | Undead, Uncaring, Charge (3) |
| 10 | 60 | Goblin Slave | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | Charge (1) |
| 15 | 90 | Goblin Slave Slinger | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | None |
| 10 | 150 | Ghoul | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 15 | Undead, Uncaring, Nimble, Wild Charge |
| 1 | 95 | Skeletal Light Catapult | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 95 | Artillery, Crew (3), Indirect Fire, Undead, Uncaring, Unthinking, Spellcaster Control |
| 1 | 162 | Revenant Captain (Horse) | 4 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 162 | Undead, Uncaring, Command (1), Magic Items |
| 2 | 200 | Necromancer 2 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 100 | Spellcaster (1), Shielding (1), Fire Over, Magic Items |
| 1 | 200 | Necromancer 3 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 200 | Spellcaster (1), Shielding (1), Fire Over, Magic Items |
| 85 | 1955 |
Originally the force had a unit of Undead cavalry with ten models in it. That turned out to be almost a third of the army points and was also overkill. Cavalry in Oathmark is expensive and having more than five models isn’t usually a good ROI. I reduced it to five models which allowed me to add a unit of ten ghouls as well as a third Necromancer.
Elf/Dwarf army
| # | Tot | Unit | A | M | F | S | D | CD | H | Pts | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 162 | Elf Soldier | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 18 | Shielding (1) |
| 1 | 73 | Elf Champion | 3 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 73 | Champion, Shielding (1), Magic Items |
| 10 | 240 | Elf Archer | 3 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 24 | Fire Over, Aimed fire |
| 10 | 150 | Dwarf Soldier | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 15 | Shielding (1) |
| 10 | 150 | Dwarf Archer | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 15 | |
| 9 | 144 | Dwarf Spearman | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 16 | Shielding (1), Brace |
| 1 | 62 | Dwarf Champion | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 62 | Champion, Shielding (1), Magic Items |
| 9 | 180 | Dwarf Linebreaker | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 20 | None |
| 1 | 62 | Dwarf Champion | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 62 | Champion, Shielding (1), Magic Items |
| 5 | 160 | Elf Mounted Rangers | 3 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 32 | Aimed Fire |
| 1 | 140 | Dwarf Heavy Catapult | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 140 | Artillery, Crew (4) Indirect Fire, Shielding (1) |
| 1 | 60 | Dwarf Spellcaster 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 60 | Spellcaster (2), Shielding (1), Fire Over, Magic Items |
| 1 | 130 | Elf Spellcaster 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 130 | Spellcaster (2), Shielding (1), Fire Over, Magic Items |
| 1 | 293 | Dwarf General | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 293 | Command (2), Shielding (1), Magic Items |
| 69 | 2006 |
This army is almost entirely unchanged with two exceptions. First, I used the fan-created updated Elf army point costs. Elf characters and cavalry are widely accepted to be over-priced. Most of the standard troops are on par with the other armies but adding spellcasters, champions, cavalry or commanders will quickly unbalance a force with elves in it. The second change I made was adding a Dwarf general to the force 2. The Elves and Dwarves really don’t need a commander. With an Activation value of 3 and 4 respectively they don’t typically need to worry about activating units. It will make it possible to do multi-unit activations but the main thing is to help any new players learn about what commanders do and why they are needed in armies that have units other than Elves and Dwarves. The Elf & Dwarf army is slightly over 2000 points but I don’t think it will be problematic.
Up next
I assembled a few miniatures last week. From the North Star Elf Heavy Infantry box I assembled ten Elves with axes and ten Elves with two-handed swords. These are both Linebreakers in Oathmark but if I use them in Age of Fantasy they will be units of Swordmasters and Lion Knights. Each Heavy Infantry sprue has two two-handed swords and two axes. So you can easily make ten models you just need to get the additional weapons from the other sprues. Sadly there doesn’t appear to be any option to give the standard bearer one of the heavy weapons and so in each unit it is just equipped with a sword.
Also in that pile are 15 Dwarf Rangers with bows, five Goblin Wolf Riders with bows, ten Mountain Orcs with spears, two Elf ballistas, 16 Skeleton Soldiers and eight character models including a very fun looking armoured orc sculpted by Bobby Jackson. It is an old metal figure and I can’t find it on the Reaper website but I did find these two models that look like they might make fun Orc characters 3.
These minis have, mostly, been primed white with no zenithal prime. It is an experiment to see if there is really much point doing that sort of priming method for smaller figures. I am not sure what I will paint next but it may be determined by what I want to add to the Oathmark forces. Or whatever will be the most fun to paint. I am going to be doing a bit more assembly in the coming month as I want to build up a bit of a backlog of primed units before it gets too cold. I don’t have a problem using brush on primer but it tends to get a bit tedious for units with more than ten models or for cavalry units or monsters.