Mordheim 2022: Witch Hunter games

Misery is the river of the world.

As a follow up to Eric’s two posts about his experiences playing his Undead warband at the Mordheim 2022 event, I wanted to describe my experiences. As followers of this website may know, of my brothers and I, I do not do much in the way of building models and painting, largely due to mental health issues, which you can hear more about on episode 91 of our podcast. When I attended the Mordheim 2019 event in Helsinki, Ana Polanšćak was kind enough to build a Witch Hunters warband for me to use. After the event, she very generously gifted me four of the miniatures from the warband. For this new event, I decided it would be fun to use those miniatures and explore what has happened to them in the three years that have elapsed since. 

Painting: Ana Polanšćak Custodian Wraith

The Shadow at the Bottom of the World.

As Halloween draws near, I decided it might be fun to paint a creepy model. After looking through my collection, I found some of Ana Polanšćak’s sculpts from her first Kickstarter (Harwood Hobbies Kickstarter). In the past I painted one of her Blood Fiends and Skull Familiars, along with a small gargoyle. I found the skull-headed ghost she created, a custodian wraith, and decided it would be ideal to paint to celebrate the season!

Boneforest: the Addicted and the Witch

Inhabitants of Boneforest.

If you have been following the work of Helge Wilhelm Dahl, you might have seen that he is working on a miniature game with Nitri Michele, to be released later this year by Hollow Press, called Boneforest! While details for the game are relatively sparse, it seems to be set in a world occupied by the creepy and corpulent monstrosities he has been creating for years (and has released via Etsy and numerous Kickstarters), that is populated by the titular bonetrees. Recently it was revealed that Ana Polanšćak, of the Gardens of Hecate fame, is doing the official painting for the game, and has been revealing new models from the game weekly. Excitingly, Helge contacted us and asked if we would be interested in painting some of the miniatures to be displayed as alternative paint schemes for the game release! Not ones to pass on the opportunity to paint some macabre models, we jumped at the opportunity. We ended up painting two models, one of the Addicted (Adam painted this one), and one of the Witches (Eric painted this one)!

Painting: Ana Polanšćak Gargoyle

Gargoyle and Hess Poison-breath.

After a few months of little hobby activity, I finally convinced myself to get out some paints. To get back into the swing of painting again, I wanted to find a pretty simple model, one that I could finish in one or two painting sessions. In 2019, I had a great time testing out some GW Contrast paints on two of Ana Polanšćak’s models, a Blood Fiend and Skull Familiar. I realized I still had a diminutive Gargoyle she also designed for the Harwood Hobbies Kickstarter, and decided it would be a great model to get me excited about the painting process again!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 84: Chatting with Ana Polanšćak about Gardens of Hecate and her new Kickstarter

Ana Polanšćak joined us on this episode to talk about Gardens of Hecate, her long term hobby project which has expanded into a painting studio. We discuss what the hobby community is like in Croatia and how she started in the hobby. We talk at length about how she found her distinctive macabre style of miniature creation and how she is unafraid to constantly try new things to achieve her visions. We also talk about her focus on creating immersive narratives with her games like Legen and Sunhold, and how she is using these games to create her own ruleset, Fabula. We move on to discuss her involvement in various community events like Tor Megiddo and Mordheim 2019, and their importance in expanding the community and pushing ourselves further creatively. Finally we talk about how she turned her blog Gardens of Hecate into a business and her Kickstarter with Dave Taylor.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2019, a year in review

Marching on to 2020!

2019 marked the end of the decade, and 7 full years of Between the Bolter and Me as a blog! The year was defined by the Mordheim 2019 event, with a large number of our posts detailing the creation of our warbands and the event itself. We did a lot of other smaller projects as well, including painting a host of models created by some of our favorite artists (Ana Polanscak and Helge Wilhelm Dahl). We continued to do live streaming on Twitch and YouTube, resulting in some of our best episodes of Dragged into Turbolasers with guests like Weirding Way and Modern Synthesist. With this post, we wanted to review everything we did in 2019!

Tabletop Fantasy Miniatures by Ana Polanscak

Blood Simple.

Now that the days are getting shorter and the leaves are falling from the trees in the United States (and October is starting to wind down), it is hard not to think about Halloween! It is a time to carve Jack-o'-lanterns and watch John Carpenter films. With these thoughts in my head, I wanted to paint some miniatures that put me in the same state of mind. It dawned on me that I had a collections of miniatures from Ana Polanscak’s Kickstarter that fit the theme excellently. I particularly like the Blood Fiend and diminutive Skull Familiar included in the set. The lore Ana created for the Blood Fiend is particularly evocative: it harbors the tortured spirit of an old warhorse that was fed on the diet of a carnivore! For these two models, I decided to see if I could paint them quickly using Games Workshop Contrast paints.

Mordheim 2019: Using Ana Polanšćak's Witch Hunters at Mordheim 2019

In all these days will a famine lay upon all of your lands, and a plague upon all of your people.

This article was published previously on Echoes of Imperium, describing Greg's thoughts about Mordheim and the Witch Hunter warband that Ana Polanšćak built for him to use at the Mordheim 2019 event.

I started into the miniature wargaming hobby not long before Mordheim was released. Being fairly young, and lacking a disposable income, I was not able to play it at the time. That did not stop me from spending many an hour reading about it in the pages of White Dwarf magazine. Something about the setting really stuck with me, and felt very unique, even for the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It was not until much later that I finally latched on to what it was that made it so distinctive. 

Mordheim 2019: Witch Hunter games

The grim figure of the Sigmarite Warrior Priest Vieuxpont goads his pack of blood-thirsty warhounds into battle, followed by two fanatics proclaiming prophecies of impending doom.

As a follow up to Eric’s post describing the endeavors of his undead at the Mordheim 2019 event, I wanted to write about my experience using the incredible Witch Hunter warband that Ana Polanšćak created! The first game was against Johan Egerkrans' Undead Warband, and the second was against Ana Polanšćak’s Cult of the Possessed and Mikko Luoma's Chaos Dwarves.

A look back: Best Blogs of 2016

After having posts detailing our favorite models of 2016 and documenting our exploits, it is time that we highlight some of our favorite blogs and hobbyists from the past year! It was a truly remarkable year, filled with the creations of so many talented hobbyists that we could never name them all. But below is a small selection of ones that really stirred our imaginations. We endeavored to highlight blogs we have not mentioned in previous years, but would encourage you to look at our selections from 2015 and 2014, as most are still producing stunning work!