Thursday, September 20, 2012

1st Company of the Muster of the Great Hall 'King's Axes'

 "...In that grim moment, the King's Axes arrived, with some other Dwarf warriors, and great was the joy and relief of our exhausted people, hemmed in on nearly every side as they were by the green-skinned horde, at the site of the Mountain folks' dark faces and bright axes coming swiftly up the western road!  It is perhaps well that I should take a moment here to speak somewhat of these famous warriors... 




I have often heard this regiment referred to as the "King's Guard"  by our own people, but this is not strictly correct.  The Dwarf King's Bodyguards are in fact called his"Door Wards", and our people here in the River Lands have seldom seen them, for they remain always with the King, and would not travel in our Country unless the King himself was marching to war.  The "King's Axes" are a company of the finest warriors in the Thunder Mountain community, the only standing army the Dwarves maintain.  All Dwarf males (and some females) make time to forge weapons and to train in the arts of war, but the "King's Axes" are the only company paid with the King's own coin to train continually as warriors and to stand by to march at any hour, in the furtherance of any bloody goal the King should have in mind.  Rare indeed is the expeditionary force sent from Thunder Mount which does not have this gallant company as it's core.



















 ...The Grim standard of this famous company, fashioned in part from the carcasses of slaughtered Goblin champions, is happily a common and a welcome sight in our country, its familiarity an earnest of the bond between the people of the Thunder Mountain and the Black River.





...The Company is always led by one of the King's mightiest champions, clad in the finest mithril armour, and wielding the dreaded Frost Blade, Icicle...


 - Olorrin, The Black River Chronicles









"AXES OF THE DWARVES!!"




                                                       "THE DWARVES ARE UPON YOU!"




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14 comments:

  1. private wierdSeptember 20, 2012 at 9:45 PM

    Hey Mouse, I love these dwarves! Nice work.

    I'm also on a bit of a pre-slotta/no-slotta dwarven mania right now. If you ever fancy a game via the internet, Dwarf on Dwarf, I'd been definitely down with that.

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    1. MouseSeptember 21, 2012 at 1:07 AM

      Thanks, P.W!

      I have no idea how a minis game over the net would work, but I'm 100% into giving it a shot!

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    2. private wierdSeptember 21, 2012 at 9:48 PM

      Hi Mouse,

      Hey, that's great! I thought maybe we could each have a table/space set up that looks roughly similar and play by email or by blog. We would each use our own minis as the army we are commanding and have proxies for the other guy's army, maybe even proxies with pictures of the other player's army attached to it. For example, your "King's Axes" would be represented on my table by say a unit of my GW dwarves but with the photo of your dwarves in front of it. And likewise, a unit of my pre-slotta dwarves would represented by, say your beautiful chaos guys, with a picture of my actual unit in front of them. And then we would simply play 3rd edition Warhammer (or 2nd, whichever you prefer). We could approach it as a fun cyberspace experiment. We would also be breaking new ground since the only other internet Warhammer games (a-la the wonderful Warhammmer for Adults) have be played just in one location. Anyway, just an idea. I would be open for any suggestions/other possibilities. Looking forward to exploring this and playing some classic Warhammer with pre-slotta figs.

      P.W.

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    3. MouseSeptember 23, 2012 at 10:04 PM

      I think it's a fantastic idea and I am down for it! Right now the only dwarves I have that are painted and ready to fight are the ones on the blog, here...I have bunches more that are about half painted...I am thinking 3rd edition rules...but I do have the 2nd edition rules and army list if you prefer that...How many points were you thinking? 1500? 2000?

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    4. private wierdSeptember 24, 2012 at 10:38 PM

      Hi Mouse,

      YES!!! Let's do it! How about a 1000 points to keep it easy and soon? Or maybe we don't even need any points? Perhaps just a story? Perhaps just a story set in the first declining years of the Dwarven Empire? And 3rd edition sounds like the way to go...Looking forward to this!

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    5. MouseSeptember 25, 2012 at 12:17 PM

      I think I can put together a 1,000 point force very soon, maybe by the end of the week...I've almost got a third infantry regiment finished...

      Do you want to set aside a weekend to do it?

      storyline: Fading Dwarven clans feud over the mining rights to an important vein of mithril silver? Maybe a mix of above ground and subterranean fighting? ...Just a thought.

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    6. private wierdSeptember 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM

      Sure, sounds good, but I think my Dwarves might have another agenda going on as well (Lord Asgard sees himself as the great "Uniter"). And how about an above ground fight? Lord Asgard again, he has this thing about mines.

      A weekend evening would be best for me. I work on Saturdays, and Sundays are family days. But once everyone is in bed, bring it on! By the way, I'm not sure if we are in the same time zone? I am in British Columbia, (Pacific Time Zone). Regardless, I'm sure we'll figure out a good time to make this happen. It'll be fun!

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    7. MouseSeptember 27, 2012 at 11:35 PM

      Actually that sounds great! My concept for the Thunder Mountain colony was that a handful of survivors from a fallen Dwarf city fled to a small range of mountains on the edge of the Border Princes long ago. Over the centuries they've developed a distinctly separatist attitude as concerns the Dwarf Empire. Could be that Lord Asgard has come south to bring them back into the fold?

      No need to go below ground if you prefer not to.
      I'm in NE California so the time shouldn't be a problem. I think Sunday the 7th should be ok for me, the weekend of the 14th I'm working...the weekend after I'll be free also. Let me know what works for you...

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    8. private wierdSeptember 29, 2012 at 10:46 PM

      Hi Mouse,

      I like your Thunder Mountain concept! And I can see Lord Asgard wanting to bring them back into the fold, but mainly because both groups seem to share a very similar attitude towards the rest of the Dwarven Empire! And the motley gang of followers that he has gathered over the years really don't seem to be at home anywhere. For one reason, they are all pre-slotta in a world where slotta reigns supreme. Egads! I almost want our two armies to join forces! But no, they must meet in combat.

      Sunday the 7th is Thanksgiving for us up here, and it is kind of a big deal, but I really want to get started with our battle. Please let me get back to you tomorrow about the 7th. I'm really looking forward to this encounter!

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    9. MouseSeptember 30, 2012 at 8:19 PM

      Don't worry if you can't do it on the 7th...that just gives me more time to get dwarves painted, and to think up stuff for the scenario....plus I have to get the room lighted properly for pictures and stuff, and that could take some time...Most of the pictures I've got up on the blog were just taken on my desk in front of my computer...

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    10. private wierdOctober 1, 2012 at 11:59 AM

      Hi Mouse,

      So it looks like I will be done with this year's Thanksgiving Extravaganza by about 11:00 at night. I will be able (and probably itchin' and needing) to play right after that if that is not too late for you. But also, we don't really have to play in real time. It would be fine to play in a manner similar to how we are communicating right here, ie. one of us could post our turn on our blog and the other player can respond with their saves and their turn on their blog the next day, or whenever it is convenient for him. And continue in that fashion. Anyway, having said that, I am happy to begin whenever you like. We should also talk about what kind of terrain set-up we can both manage and would both like for our game.

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    11. MouseOctober 2, 2012 at 6:26 PM

      Might be tough to play for very long if we start at 11 on Sunday, but we can at least get set up and maybe play the first round or so. Good thinking on the method of turn-taking. I think that will work out super sweet!

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  2. ThantsantsSeptember 21, 2012 at 2:50 PM

    Nice work - love your writing as well.

    Is the standard a conversion - either way it looks great!

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    Replies
    1. MouseSeptember 23, 2012 at 10:21 PM

      Thanks very much, Thantsants...I'm very glad you're enjoying my campaign 'world'. (actually more like a small region within the Warhammer world). I plan on posting a bunch more background info and story fragments about the exiled Baron von Refn's little colony in the Border Princes as time goes on. I'm rebuilding and repainting my entire fantasy collection within the context of this campaign region. Kind of a big project. But fun.

      The standard bearer is a figure I've had for years and just recently stripped and repainted...I can't be 100% certain, but I am pretty sure he is a Harlequin/Black Tree figure, cast in the early 90's...I always liked the stuffed goblins nailed to the standard.

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