Leviathan Project Log Part 1

Hi!

Well after a busy start to the year, I seem to have got distracted with other projects which is a bit of a shame as I have been pretty productive in the Leviathan department!

Interestingly I seem to be getting folks looking up Leviathan all of a sudden with a bit of a flurry of posts over on Facebook about it and it's got me to wondering how I can develop this blog. I had thought of setting myself a bit of a challenge but am notoriously rubbish when it comes to such things, especially if I have to paint a load of stuff.

An Elven Dragonbane Rider is confronted by a unit of Dwarven Troops

This got me to thinking about the possibilities of playing Leviathan and developing the setting in a more skirmish style approach. Think Gorkamorka but fantasy if you will, with small groups of warriors from the assorted races accompanied by one or two resin beasties and play out some heavily scenario based games with them.

With this in mind, I took a look at what I could do with approximately 250-300 points in the rules. On first glance, it wasn't too promising as it wouldn't give the supposed minimum requirements for a game. Typically this is a single character leading at least one, but often more units 5 models or more.

But what if I chucked out this and instead used the points given for individual models as the basis for smaller warbands?

After a bit of a rummage, I discovered that for just over 250 points, my Elves could have a champion mounted on an Earthbound Dragon, a single Dragonbane rider armed with a lance, two infantry with hand weapons and shields and a single powerlancer.

With a wee bit more tweaking to make things interesting, I decided to go for 300 points for a starting warband and if I feel brave, I will always have the option to paint up more to build a full sized force.

Half Orcs tangle with Tox Spirits

Looking at my bits box, I think I have enough Elves to make do for the time being as the Dragonbane rider is done already, I have the Earthbound based and ready to prime and I think I have some Elven infantry lying around somewhere which may need a bit of TLC but I think they should do for the time being.

Further rummaging amongst the armylists has given me the impression that each force should be able to manage a playable little warband with the exception of the Dwarves whose use of heavy tanks and artillery may make them a bit too powerful but I'll see what I can put together.

I'm also keen to add some new denizens to the mix with the Tox Spirits and Half Orcs being first in line so I shall have to put together a bit of background for each and some playtest rules for them to see how they perform in a skirmish!

Hopefully I'll get an update on soon with some more painted stuff and random ramblings so watch this space.

All the best!

Elven Dragonbane Rider

Hi!

I had intended to just start work on the Elven Earthbound but wanted to get a bit of practice in painting large resin models so settled on an Elven Dragonbane rider to get things going.

Elven Dragonbane

I was gifted some Leviathan gubbins a while back and amongst them were a pair of Dragonbane riders, the swift moving cavalry of the Elves. 

Catalogue Pic

The models themselves were, I always felt some of the worst from the Leviathan range, with the stange pot bellied lizards with their odd pose and the puny lances their riders came with but on closer inspection, I found them to be an absolute pleasure to work on.

The pair I have were missing their lances so I bodged one from plastic rod and an old Dark Elf speartip that I had lying around and the longer lance looks far better than the stubby ones that originally came with the pack.

Painting wise, I went for a dark red for the Dragonbane who are the mutated offspring of true dragons so I wanted to go for something a bit menacing. The rider ended up being gold and black which wasn't my original plan but it just looked right when I looked at it so I'll stick with it as it gives him a sense of sinister richness which works for the thrice cursed Elves of Aeroth!

The miniatures themselves are absolutely chock full of character with the Dragonbane having lovely scales and texture on it's skin and the rider looking suitably debauched and alien and there's some lovely little details such as grinning faces hidden about his armour that was loads of fun to paint!

I suspect the second rider will get a banner or possibly a powerlance to see how they work in the game. One of the most annoying things about Leviathan is that for the most part, the cavalry models all single poses and sometimes I wish the sculptors had given them separate heads so that they at least have a little bit of variation.

I plan on converting the second rider a wee bit to see if I can't give him a bit of variety so we shall see how he goes.

All in all, I really enjoyed working on the first of my Elves and really need to see if I can track down some suitable infantry for them.

I may have to try and track down some of the Tim Prow Heartbreaker Elves as they are really similar style wise and suitably chunky figures but are really hard to find these days as I don't think they were too popular back in the day.

Ideally I'd use some of the old Citadel Dark Elves but they are rather pricey to pick up second hand so I will need to have a bit of a ponder as to what I can do.

In the meantime, All the best!