The Drowned Earth is a tabletop miniatures game where brave heroes and villains risk the dangers of the wilds for glorious riches and ancient technology!
Played on a 3ftx3ft table with 5-15 models a side, TDE is a game of dynamic movement, cinematic action and narrative gameplay, where risk vs reward must be weighed every turn.
At the heart of the game is the Dynamic Movement system, where models can leap, climb, jump off buildings and shoot while doing so!
A combination of cinematic action and an emphasis on named characters means that TDE has a very narrative feel: each game tells a story.
On Table Top have produced a great getting started video on Drowned Earth. I recommend these chaps if you ever want a decent introduction of a wargame.
Getting Started with Drowned Earth
Rules & Miniatures
All the rules and miniatures can be purchased from The Drowned Earth website, though I’m sure some FLGS will offer discounts on these prices.
They have numerous starter armies for the game with one for each faction, and the miniatures look great!
Peter and I are going to a local one day event next weekend run by the Guys from Savage Hammer. The Battle of the Burning Skies will be Peter’s first tournament in ‘a while’ and so he is painting up his Kruleboyz for the event. They promise to be a fun army to start with.
He did set himself a tough target though, and when he said he was starting to rush I offered to help… by actually painting some toys from the Dominion boxset (or two… or three!).
9 Bolt Boyz… ready to be not quite as good as other shooting options!
Regular readers of this blog, and my tournament opponents will know my Destruction paint scheme by now… and all my Destruction armies get the same treatment – Blue clothes, red accident, bronze & verdigris! They also daub red paint on their hands to represent the Bloodfists tribe – this has led to them being called Crimson Fists!
So I’ve finished painting 9, and they’ll appear at Savage Gaming before I get to use them myself, either in Kruleboyz or an adjustment to my Big Waagh list.
A closer view of three of them
They have been lovely sculpts, with the push fit almost working throughout (just needing a dab of glue where the hand meets the Crossbolt! It’s also got me painting a few more Kruleboyz, so I have another 3 on the painting table, a Boss and a Standard Bearer.
I’ll let you know how I get on with the others… but for now I’ve helped Peter and got another box on the Hobby Bingo ticked off – perfect!
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Continuing my re-reading of the Dan Abnett series – Gaunts Ghosts – next up is book 4, Honour Guard.
Gaunts Ghosts – Honour Guard – Black Library
‘Commissar Gaunt and his Ghosts are back in the thick of the action in a battle to defend a vital shrine-world. But the vile forces of Chaos will never allow them to hold their prize for long and as the counter-attack rages, Gaunt is sent after the most priceless relic of all: the remains of the ancient saint who first led humanity to these stars.‘
In Honour Guard, Gaunt and his Ghosts are tasked with taking a Holy Sabat city, but given impossible deadlines by the General in charge, they have to capture the city quickly… allowing chaos to blow up the city.
Gaunt is blamed for the failure and given the opportunity for one last mission before command of the Tanith First and Only is taken from him – he must recover the bones of the Saint and evacuate them from the planet before it is left to Chaos.
The Ghosts fight through an enemy who shouldn’t be there, in numbers unexpected whilst trying to reach their goal. Meanwhile some injured Ghosts try to join up with the rest of the Tanith to be with Gaunt for his last mission.
More lasguns, big guns, tanks, transports, and fighting! All with Abnett’s characteristic page turning style. This book is a great addition to the books of the Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum and shows how humans can overcome the seemingly impossible in a far future where there is only war.
Another great novel and a good read.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
— Declan & Eeyore
Previous Gaunt’s Ghosts Book Reviews on Woehammer:
I have decided to shell out and go for the Stormbringer magazine. This will allow me to bump up the numbers of Orruks I have at a fairly substantial rate.
But I’ve been wondering what I should do with the Stormcast. How should I paint them? What should I do when I have painted them etc etc etc.
So my first question on the matter of the subscription is would you all like me to follow the colour guides and painting guides given in the magazine’s or should I use a different set of colours for each army? Also, should I follow the guides precisely to show how the collection progresses using the guides from the magazine?
A Painting Guide from the Premium Magazine for Mortal Realms
If we decide to go for a different colour scheme to the guides should I produce my own weekly guides on how I used the paints supplied?
Norsehammer Open 2022 was a five game event that took place in Rogaland, Norway on 5th and 6th March. It saw 41 players fight it out to be crowned champion.
1st Ole Vatland – Seraphon
Ole won all five games beating Kruleboyz/Big Yellers in Round 1, Stormcast Eternals/Hallowed Knights in Round 2, Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan in Round 3, Kharadron Overlords/Barak Zilfin in Round 4 and Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs in the last round.
LEADERS Slann Starmaster (265)* – General – Command Trait: Arcane Might – Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration – Spell: Celestial Apotheosis Skink Priest (80)* – Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal Engine of the Gods (265)* – Artefact: Cloak of Feathers – Mount Trait: Beastmaster – Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse BATTLELINE 20 x Skinks (150)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers – Reinforced x 1 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (75)** – Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
UNITS 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280) – Reinforced x 1 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280) – Reinforced x 1 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280) – Reinforced x 1 Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250) TERRAIN Realmshaper Engine
CORE BATTALIONS *Warlord **Hunters of the Heartlands
Danny managed an impressive four wins and one loss, losing against 1st placed Ole Vatland and his Seraphon/Thunder Lizard list in Round 5. He beat Legion of the First Prince in Round 1, Maggotkin of Nurgle/Befouling Host in Round 2, Daughters of Khaine/Khelt Nar in Round 3and Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar in Round 4.
Allegiance: Ironjawz – Warclan: Bloodtoofs – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat
Battleline 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 10 x Orruk Ardboys (170)* – 2x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1 6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* – Jagged Gore-hackas – Reinforced x 1
Lasse also managed to get four wins with a single loss during their weekend. Beating Flesh-eater Courts/Morgaunt in Round 1, losing against Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan in Round 2, then beating Cities of Sigmar/Living City in Round 3, Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs in Round 4 and Skaventide in the final round.
Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Temple: Khailebron – Mortal Realm: Aqshy – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADERS Bloodwrack Medusa (120)* – General – Command Trait: Mistress of Illusion – Artefact: Whisperdeath – Lore of Shadows: Mirror Dance Morathi-Khaine (330)* – Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor The Shadow Queen (330)*
BATTLELINE 15 x Blood Stalkers (540)* – Reinforced x 2 10 x Blood Stalkers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Witch Aelves (120)* – Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
UNITS 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (95)* 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (90)*
Stein performed fantastically over the weekend with an outdated Skaven Battletome. Stein managed an impressive three wins and two losses. Along the way Stein lost against Stormcast Eternals/Hammrs of Sigmar in Round 1, won against Nighthaunt/Emerald Host in Round 2, Legion of the First Prince in Round 3, ironjawz/Ironsunz in Round 4 before losing against 3rd placed Lasse Kalberg and his Daughters of Khaine/Khailebron list in Round 5.
Allegiance: Skaventide – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
With a Warmaster tournament last weekend (12th March), I decided to change some of my Goblins to Squigs which are better on the charge than the goblins (as they are 3/3/0 instead of 2-1/3/0 for Goblins). I really enjoyed using my 6 units at the London GT last year and some small games since, and was eager to include some more models.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
With the recent explosion of 10mm sculpting there are some great sculpts available. Following my purchase of a Pump Wagon on Etsy (designed by Green Skin Miniatures) I went straight to the source and picked up these:
The Squigs from Green Skin Miniatures (from Gumroad)
I don’t have a resin printer myself, but fortunately a fellow Warmaster was looking to test his out, so I bought the files and sent them over to him for the price of the resin. He made 6 units for me; and I’ve painted 3!
3 Goblin Squig Herds for WarmasterA close up of some of the models – the Squig Herders are a great touch
So, overall they are really nice models, and – I have it on good authority – easy to print if you have your own resin printer – if you don’t then they will be available from those who have a merchant license from Green Skin Miniatures.
As with everything I would like this to be community driven, so if you see any typo’s or think paragraphs need rephrasing or moving then please let me know in the form at the end of this article.
Last Weeks Poll Results for Orders
Here are the results from last weeks polls.
Based on these results, the following wording will be added to our living rules:
MORALE DAMAGE All land and air combat units begin the game with a Confident MORALE STATUS. As unsaved hits are suffered by the unit this degrades, as it degrades the unit becomes harder to order and can eventually flee the battlefield. There are five morale levels starting with Confident then degrading through Steady, Nervous, Wavering and finally Broken.
SPACECRAFT DAMAGE Instead of having a MORALE STATUS, SPACECRAFT will suffer damage to their systems from successful hits made against them. Shooting in SPACE COMBATis carried out in the same fashion as the other theatres of war.
THIS WEEKS POLLS
This week I want to focus a little more on the damage to Spacecraft and how it may be allocated.
–Peter
Name Suggestions?
Do you have a name suggestion for the game or do you have any rules suggestions, or a topic you would like us to focus on next. Or perhaps you would like us to reword something in the main document. Anything you want, let us know below.
The aggressive, metal-on-metal WARMACHINE game is set in the Iron Kingdoms, an environment that combines the richness of traditional fantasy with the excitement of steam power and gunpowder. Across the realm, ancient rivalries among nations are exploding into all-out conflict, setting the stage for WARMACHINE and other Iron Kingdom products.
In this 30 mm tabletop miniatures battle game, each player controls an elite soldier-sorcerer who leads an army into battle to fight for king, country, or simply coin. These warcasters are formidable and experienced combatants, and the warjacks they control represent the pinnacle of military might in the Iron Kingdoms.
WARMACHINE puts players directly onto the battlefield as warcasters and their armies clash. A game is fought with the thundering cannons, ripping iron claws, and crushing hammer blows of the giant steam-powered warjacks as well as the devastating spells wrought by the warcasters themselves and the lethal weapons of their warriors. When the dust settles, one side is victorious—and the other is nothing but smoking scrap metal!
Privateer Press have done a great introductory video to Warmachine, after which I’ve also included a Battle Report from Ash at Guerilla Miniatures because I find these very enjoyable to watch.
Warmachine – Gameplay Tutorial
Battle Report
Rules & Miniatures
All the rules and miniatures can be purchased from Privateer Press, though I’m sure some FLGS will offer discounts on these prices.
They have two starter armies from the six factions available. Both of these are reasonably priced at $39.99.
There are a few more Warmaster tournaments being run in the UK at the moment, with resin armies being a great way for players to get back into Warmaster (or to play it for the first time).
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Saffron Walden (just south of Cambridge) is a long-running tournament ran by Janners and Jim the Gent and had been growing before COVID interupted the world. Well it was back on Saturday and I planned to take along my Goblins. But what to take…?
From the Tri-Wiz Facebook page
For me Goblins need to be a horde army, and Warmaster delivers this option in spades. I’d also recently got some new squigs and painted them up for the tournament (more on those in a future Hobby Update) and so came up with this.
Created by the Warmaster Army Builder webpage
Characters
The army is led by nine (9!) characters because Goblins fail command rolls a lot… and I mean a lot! So I’ve got a general (only command 8), 4 Heroes (2 riding Wyverns) and 4 Shamans (1 with a Scroll of Dispelling). The Wyverns are really the force multipliers here; being able to add 3 attacks to a combat and potentially reduce your opponent’s attacks due to terror is great – and with 100cm move they can wiz from one side of the battle line to the other reasonably easy.
The shamans bring a number of spells not available in most armies (most are limited to 2 wizards) and the fantasic Gerroff (move opponent’s units backwards) and Waaagh (extra attacks for Goblins and characters) can bring some unexpected punch or annoyance for the army.
Units– Goblins and Squig Herds
Warmaster games at Tri-Wiz would be timed or break point only, so I needed to ensure I could afford to lose units – to this end I brought 10 Goblins and 9 Squigs. For 30 points each these are a great way to get the break point to a good high level, and they can do some damage in combat – the Squigs especially are great value although the lack of armour can mean that an opponent rolling well will beat you in combats. Trust to the dice!
Units – Trolls
Although very expensive in a horde army and with -1 command in an army with shockingly low command the Trolls a much needed punch unit. With 5 attacks, 5+ save and a small regeneration ability they will cause a lot of mayhem and still only count as one break point. I’ve learnt with Trolls to only expect them to charge on initative though, so you are often limited in what you can charge – but when you succeeed with an order they will often steam roller anything in the game.
Units – Wolf Riders
I find 6 units of Wolf Riders to be the perfect number – they can harrass and their abilty to evade in any direction and set up more shooting is great – however the recent changes to fast cavalry rules mean that they can now be pursued by other cavalry, and so I would need to be more careful with them than previously.
Units – Pump Wagon
These little terrors don’t count towards break but at 50 points they are expensive… so I take one to cause people to think – Some goblins players take lots of them and do multiple charges into the same unit; however with D6 attacks (+2 for charge in open) they are the epitomy of dice; and I don’t always roll well – 1 is fun though and very Goblin themed.
Units – Spear Chukkas
The Goblin army is also allowed 4 units of Spear Chukkas but I think this is too many for the points, and so I just take 2. This is enough to cause significant damage to units in column (12 attacks) with no armour save allowed and can even scare off cavalry (8 attacks), with a good range (40cm). They suffer that if an opponent can kill my 2; they can easily kill another 2, which is a lot of easy break.
I’ll let you know how I got on later in the week! Happy Warmastering.
Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age is an independent table top miniature wargame set in a fantasy world, in which players take control of armies and set them upon one another in conflicts ranging from minor skirmishes to mighty battles with hundreds of models.
The game and all of its rules are completely free to download and use, and consist of a main rulebook and over fifteen army documents, ranging from stoic men and noble elves to the feral orcs and dread worshipers of the dark gods. You can easily assemble your own army using appropriate 28mm miniatures from any manufacturer.
Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age has been created by a group of experienced wargamers, a large supportive staff and continuous input from the wargaming community. We aim to provide a competitive, balanced and fun game, with updates and new rules to be released regularly.
Dark Wizard Gaming has a number of excellent YouTube videos explaining how to play 9th Age these are only up to the Charge phase, after this I’ve included a Battle Report from Guerilla Miniatures showing how it plays.
Episode 1 – Intro
Episode 2 – Models, Units and Line of Sight
Episode 3 – Characteristics
Episode 4 – Building an Army
Episode 5 – Setting up a Game
Episode 6 – Charge Phase
Battle Report
Rules
The 9th Age has a fantastic website where you can download the core rules and read through the various factions.
Miniatures
As for miniatures you can use all your old Warhammer Fantasy battle miniatures and any other Fantasy miniature range as long as they fit within the description of the available armies.
