Dwarves Revisited

I briefly had a look at the Fantasy Dwarf collection a few weeks back when I was considering different campaign options. One of the Options I had a look at was running a fantasy campaign using Dragon Rampant (and a campaign system based on the old Mighty Empires game from Games Workshop). You can find that here:

Campaign Considerations Part Three: Fantasy!

Though it was a long time in coming, it was at that point I decided to give up on Hordes of the Things and to start rebasing all those armies for that onto individual bases and reorganize them for Dragon Rampant (and other games). 

I started with the Dwarves and Orcs. 

This is were I've gotten to with the Dwarves...

(Most of the discussion below is about organizing for Dragon Rampant - but there are plenty of other games these could be used in - Song of Blades and Heroes, assorted fantasy role-playing games, even Warcry!?) 

Painted Stuff

All of the painted stuff so far!

(Well... most of the painted stuff)

Easily an entire warband for Dragon Rampant here!

Dwarf Lord on Bear! I could classify him as Elite Cavalry (Single Model Unit). OR maybe have the four Longbeards (below) escort him and call it Elite Foot...?

Old GW Longbeards. Ideally what I'd LIKE to do with these is find either an old GW metal Dwarf Lord or a Longbeard Champion, and either a Longbeard Musician or Standard Bearer, to complete a unit of six and call them Elite Foot. I'm sure I could find two other suitable heavily armoured Dwarves as stand-ons... it would just be nice to have models that are actually from the same range/era/sculptor - especially for a unit of ELITE foot. 

Alternatively, as mentioned above, I could pair these with the Bear Riding Dwarf Champion above and call the whole mess Elite Foot (and the Bear and Dwarf Champion count as a strength point each - two for the model) 

(A Dwarf Lord or Champion could also be a leader for a Cities of Sigmar Warcry warband that would also include these Longbeards and a smattering of the Thunderers below - now classified as "Irondrakes"...?)

Dwarf Foot. I'm not sure if I'd call these Heavy Foot or OFFENSIVE Heavy Foot 

Regular Heavy Foot has the "Wall of Spears" and cost 4 Points. OFFENSIVE Heavy Foot lose the "Wall of Spears" ability, their attack value becomes 4+ and they cost two points more! 

It's one of those weird hang-ups I have about the way abilities are named. It could just as easily have been called Shield Wall (which is really what they "Wall of Spears" special rule describes). But BECAUSE this unit DOESN'T have a single spear in it, I feel a bit weird using these as regular Heavy Foot!? 

Perhaps THIS unit I'll call Offensive Heavy Foot and the rest will just be regular Heavy Foot. 

Heavy Foot. No doubts. I've concentrated ALL the spears into this unit, though. Perhaps what I need to do is spread them out among the next three units and have four units of dwarves with 3-4 spears in it - that I can classify as regular Heavy Foot. 

All the models are from Old Glory Minaitures.  

More Heavy Foot. These are mostly from Old Glory Miniatures. 

Still More Heavy Foot. These are all old Heartbreaker miniatures. 

(Damn... I went looking and discovered these are still available through Ral Partha Europe... I could just order a dozen of these Heartbreaker Dwaves with spears - end up with one more unit, but have even more spears to spread about the units of Heavy Foot...) 

Son of Still More Heavy Foot. These are a mix of Old Glory, Heartbreaker, and Citadel Miniatures. 

Heavy Missile! These are old Games Workshop/Citadel Miniatures Dwarf Thunderers. 

Giant Armoured Badgers! I only have the two. I have no idea who made them. Found them in a Bargain bin for $1 each! How could I pass them up!? 

They were in the old Dwarf Hordes of the Things army on a base together and I classed them as Beasts... For Dragon Rampant...? Perhaps Lesser Warbeasts (Reduced Model Unit - each counting as three Strength Points)

So, with what I had above here, I figure I could field them as:

• 1x Elite Foot (Dwarf Lord on Bear + Longbeards) - 6AP
• 1x Offensive Heavy Foot (12) - 6AP
• 4x Heavy Foot (12) - @4AP = 16AP
• 1x Heavy Missile (12) - 4AP

Total: 32 points!? 

Plenty for a campaign!

I guess if I was just playing a 24point game (or to start a campaign - if everyone started with 24 AP) I could field:

• Elite Foot (Dwarf Lord on Bear + Longbeards) - 6AP
• Offensive Heavy Foot - 6AP
• Heavy Foot - 4AP
• Heavy Foot - 4AP 
• Heavy Missile - 4AP

An assortment of odd extras that just didn't fit into a unit... 

Oh, and then there's this guy... Original paintjob from the late 80s..? I can't remember if this was Citadel or Marauder miniatures. I think we only ever got one in at the Wizards Corner (where I worked in the late 80s). It was so fun I had to pick it up. I had no intention of ever building a dwarf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle... it was just so fun! Damn, I would have loved to have a half dozen of them to have a unit (that I'd probably NEVER, EVER use!?) 

My miniature purchases have NEVER been directd by what would be "sensible" or "good" in the game, but rather what "should" be in a unit (bog standard infantry) or stuff that was fun... 

MORE Dwarves from the late 80s - recently re-based. 

A trio of Dwarves from... I'm not sure where I got them from, but they're currently sold by Warmonger Miniatures. I thought it might be fun to put together a warband of these - either for Frostgrave or Song of Blades and Heroes or En Garde or even a unit of 12 for Dragon Rampant... then I looked at what they're selling them for these days! YIKES! (£4.00 each!? I know... I know... there are a LOT of GW miniatures that work out to more... I just don't think I could justify that to myself, let along Amanda, at this point... MAYBE if I got ALL of the unpainted minis below painted AND I was got playing Frostgrave or Song of Blades and Heroes or En Garde or  Dragon Rampant on the regular...). 

Frostgrave Warbands

These didn't end up in the "painted" group picture above as I had them stored elsewhere and forgot about them at the time. They're kind of their own separate thing - there's a mix of painted and unpainted stuff and they're based differently - on flagstones or cobblestones - but most DO have about twelve in each group... so...  

The Blue Wizards' Warband. I haven't worked out what each of these is yet... just grouped them together and decided they'd make a fun warband, if ever I got back to playing Frostgrave!? (MOST the models are from Lead Adventure Miniatures - I think they apprentice might be from Black Tree Design...?) 

As there are twelve of them, I wondered if they could be fielded as a unit in Dragon Rampant. Perhaps I could field them as Heavy Foot + the Spellcaster (or Wizardling) special rule - for 8AP (or 6)... I could make them OFFENSIVE as well, for another 2 points!? Offensive Heavy Foot + Spellcaster would be 10AP!? 

I don't LOVE the actual Spellcaster Fantastical Special Rule... I kind of prefer to abstract spell casters (just as in Hordes of the Things) as Elite Foot + Missile... still 8AP. instead of sturdy, skilled warriors in heavy armour, it's a wizard and companions and the good armour comes from defensive spells and the brutal close combat (or ranges attacks) all come from offensive spells. An attack is and attack, whether it comes from physical blows using muscle and steel or some sort of magic attack (fireballs, lightening, raining stones, blast of freezing wind, roots popping up from the ground and dragging their enemy down below the earth with them) whatever it is, dice are rolled, and models are removed from the action!

A second Frostgrave Warband 

I had a third pair of wizards from Lead Adventure Miniatures, so I've grouped them together with the leftovers of the Lead Adventure Miniatures... not quite enough for a warband. I suppose I could add in some of the assorted extras... OR.. if ever I got the above warbands finished.... AND I started playing Frostgrave again... AND I needed ANOTHER Dwarf warband... I coule always order a few more to finish up this third warband... 

Still To Do

This is all that other stuff I have that still needs to be painted... It's actually a LOT LESS than I'd thought... Which leaves me kind of feeling like I should concentrate on THESE and just GET THEM DONE!!!!

Six more heavily armoured Dwarves I thought I could use as another unit of Elite Foot. (All from Old Glory Miniatures) 

Dwarf Miners - Offensive Heavy Foot!?

If I was being silly, I could give them the Burrowing fantastical rule... but only if I was being VERY silly... 

Crossbow armed Dwarves from Black Tree Design. I feel like Crossbow armed troops are meant to be Heavy Missile... but a small part of me wants to call them Light Missile, just to differentiate from the Thunderers and their guns...? 

Six extra crossbow... do I get six more to fill out a second unit of Light/Heavy Missile...? Or I just use these as is and call them Scouts!? The look like they're dressed a little too fancy to be scouts. Maybe if I paint the others in bright colours and I do these in drab greens and browns...? 

Another Unit of Heavy Foot. 

Eight spare Thunderers... Do I track down four more to make a full unit...? Use six of them as Scouts!? just sell them off!? I don't know... 

assortment of other unpainted minis that didn't fit into a particular unit. I'm sure there are a few more that just got missed, were stored elsewhere... but there are not THAT many... 

And that's pretty much it! I'm sure there are some I missed - because they've been dropped into temporary storage boxes when I cleared off the painting table at one point or another... There are a few other dwarves that are in different boxes - because they are part of different collections. Some of the Age of Sigmar Duardin (Warhammer Underworlds warbands, etc). 

I actually have an entire separate collection of Dwarves that could make a complete second army for Dragon Rampant (the Highland Dwarves!). I'll deal with them in a separate post, at some point!