Dwarf Army - Warband Edition

As has been noted, the new rules (actually, even the not so new rules, but waaaaaay back when there wasn't a warband structure so I'm slow to change!) are based on leaders with warbands of varying sizes.

So my son chose warbands for the leaders and we realised that I'm short a few captains for this type of army.

I may be missing something, but there doesn't appear to be a dwarf leader for rangers or archers so there are a few mixed bands there.

Feel free NOT to click to see larger pics this time, the close range shots aren't always pretty! You can see (hopefully) which dwarves I spent more time painting than others, also a skill level increase, oh, and just the ones that are better since washes were introduced!

Here's the dwarves in their warbands (you may need to click to see this at proper size as it's quite wide).

Durin with a lot of Khazad Guard, a banner, some Iron Guard and some Vault Wardens. As High King he has a powerhouse of a warband!

Etako is my special character/king so he gets a big warband too, though not as impressive as Durin's, of course. My son decided that all of the important dwarves should have at least two Khazad Guard accompanying them, so you'll notice behind each main leader there will be some Khazads. I think it's a nice touch.

The King's Champion band is smaller, with a mix of melee troops. I kept all my archers to two warbands rather than scattering them.

Boggle, the shieldbearer, has a squad of throwing axe rangers as they'll probably be rushing around to protect leaders.

One King/Captain has his two Khazad Guards and ten archers. I actually did a bit of fairly intricate work on painting this guy, there's some freehand on the bottom of his cloak etc. I don't think I have the eyesight to do that anymore!

Another King/Captain has the same set of troops.

And finally, Brynmor has a squad of two Khazads, a Vault Warden team, some shields and some 2-Handed guys. A multi-purpose squad. As long as the purposes involve closing with the enemy and chopping at them.

So there you go, I need another couple captains to get all my dwarf minis on the table. Not sure what to do about that at the moment. Not that we're likely to ever get them all on at once anyway! Still. Have to think about what to do. GW prices are a bit nuts, so might have to hit eBay and hope for a cheap dwarf miniature!

Dwarf Armies

So my son and I got out all my dwarf miniatures to see how many there were now that I've completed the King's Champion.

We arranged them according to type so that I could see them a bit more clearly (with some creative license thrown in to keep things at aleast a little interesting for a 7 year old).

There are:
Balin (who we call Etako).
Dain (who we often call Durin).
2 Dwarf Kings (We often use as captains).
Brynmor (Captain).
Boggle (Shieldbearer).
King's Champion.
14 Warriors with shield
10 Warriors with 2-H weapons
20 Warriors with bows
2 Warriors with banners
8 Rangers with throwing axes
8 Rangers with 2-H weapons
8 Rangers with bows
6 Iron Guards
5 Vault Warden teams
20 Khazad Guards

Click on the pics for bigger sizes as always!

Here are the Vault Wardens and Dain/Durin

Etako with some other Kings and the King's Champion

Some more of the previous, showing some of the line of Iron and Khazad Guard

The back section shows some of the shielded dwarves, warriors and rangers.

Continuing along you can see the main body of axes

Here on the other side are more shields and bows in the back row.

And lastly a sort of side shot to show off the new banners =)

So there you go, roughly 1700 points depending on some of the options for the Kings etc. I know there are bigger armies out there, but I quite like how you can just paint and paint for a while and then put them all together to look pretty cool =)

Next up I need to finish painting some goblin prowler conversions and then do the same for my goblin army!

King's Champion - Second Herald

Well, here are the trio!

My son is looking forward to helping me get all the dwarves out to take a group army shot later today, so I'll post that when we get it done.

Here's a view from slightly higher up...

And from directly behind to see those dynamically flowing cloaks.

And from the other side...

I realised the other view from behind obscured the banners a bit so here's another shot showing the banners a bit more. 

I had a lot of trouble with my ancient paints and the yellow in particular, but from anything other than really close up I think it looks okay.

My blending wasn't very smooth either, but I'm sure you all know what it's like when you just don't have hours to spend!

Looking forward to seeing the grand dwarf army =)

King's Champion - First Herald

I know I haven't named them yet, I'm working on it!

In the meanwhile, here is the King's Champion - First Herald.

You'll have to excuse the slightly garish colours in the up close photo.

Now the King's Champion is accompanied!

I still think that there's need of a second Herald when going up against a Balrog! So I'd better get painting!

King's Champion

One of the dwarf models I've always thought looked cool but didn't have was the King's Champion.

Well now I have it and have painted the champion (yet to do the heralds). 

I'm pretty happy with it, though I'm still not 100% happy as some of my paints have not reconstituted well (maybe I should buy some paints that aren't 10 years old!). Also, my freehand skills are not what they used to be so the cloak is highlighted and shaded, but I haven't done any freehand on it as I used to do. Maybe I will some time when my confidence and skills are back!

Anyway, here he is being ordered to battle by Etako (click photo for larger image)...

View of cloak on back...

And a front view (the last thing a goblin facing him will ever see!)