The Lost Burgomeister.

"The town of Eichewäldchen once had a Burgomeister by the name of  'Herr Thomas der Langweilige'. Some would say Herr Thomas was a decent, but very boring man that rarely did something unexpected. One day that all changed when Herr Thomas decided to go for a walk into the Drakwald forest and vanished. Nobody knew what had happened to the former Burgomeister and the villagers of Eichewäldchen had often searched for him without success. It simply seemed that he got lost during his walk in the dense forest, never to return again..."

Damn, the past few weeks seemed to have flown by as I was working on some terrain pieces... My goal is actually to build as much terrain as I can before the campaign starts, so we can have lots of different terrain setups for our Hochland themed board. And so I've finished building some barricades and a statue, to add some cover and scatter pieces to our board! I will show the results below.

Statue of Herr Thomas der Langweilige, the Lost Burgomeister of Eichewäldchen.

So first there is the statue that I made! It was made out of an old metal Empire Helblaster crew member and a miniature pedestal. I tried to make it look more realistic by adding some weathering to it. Although the weathering might be simple and subtle, I'm pretty happy how it turned out as it added some more colour to the piece that would otherwise only be a few shades of grey. To be honest I followed a guide that I found on the internet on how to paint weathered statues and that really worked well for me! Normally I don't use guides often as I'm a bit to stubborn to do so, but this experience motivates me to use guides more often in the future as it made me learn some great techniques.

For me personally the magic of Mordheim has always been in the narrative aspect of the game, where you and your gaming group can create some amazing stories set in the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy by playing the game togheter. Every member of everyone's warband can be a unique character with its own personal backstory that makes the setting even more interesting! Therefore I also wanted to create a backstory for this statue, which resulted in the story that you can read at the top of this post. Even though some of the backstories might be small, I still hope they make the setting even more lively and immersive. Most of the backstories I come up with are actually based on people or happenings from my own real life, which makes it easier for me to create them. And so is the story behind the statue, which is actually based on a person who inspired me to get into Mordheim!

Back in 2007 when I was around 13/14 years old I was searching on YouTube (which was pretty new back then) for Warhammer videos and stumbled upon a video by a group of friends that were playing a game called Mordheim. Back then I didn't knew what Mordheim was, but it certainly looked really cool in the video! I had so many questions about Mordheim that I decided to sent the creator of the video a message and after a while I got a response by a guy named Thomas. I remember Thomas as a very friendly and helpful guy that gladly answered all the questions that I had about the game. After a while he also told me that he had a blog called 'The Boring Mordheim Blog', where he shared all of his miniatures and battle reports. I was amazed by all the beautiful miniatures and terrain pieces he made and ever since I really wanted to get into Mordheim aswell. Thomas became a big inspiration for me and I still regurarly visit his blog for some inspiration and it brings back so many memories! Mordheim is a big youth sentiment of mine and following the Boring Mordheim Blog by Thomas was a big part of it. I've actually never met Thomas in real life and we haven't spoken in ages, but I still cherish those memories alot and therefore I really wanted to create a terrain piece with a backstory in honour of it. And so the story of Herr Thomas der Langweilige was born, which actually means Sir Thomas the Boring in German as a small reference to the name of the blog.

Next to the statue I made some small barricades! Nothing to fancy, just some fences that could provide some much needed cover on the battlefield. I tried to add some small details such as shields with the red and green colours of Hochland that would make them fit in the overall theme of the board more properly.

Hochland Barricade 1.

Hochland Barricade 2.

As Hochland is described as a heavily wooded province, I imagined that logging would probably be an important way of living for the people of Hochland and so I decided to make some woodpiles as barricades! I made them out of dried branches, which served as an excellent base for the terrain pieces as the natural texture of the branches is just great! I really think these small pieces capture the atmosphere of Hochland and will fit the board just right! I added some small details like animals to make the pieces look more alive and interesting.

Woodpile with Owl

Close up of the owl.

Two woodpiles and a hatchet.

Simple woodpile.

Woodpile with a snake.

Well, that's a pretty long post! I will be working on some more terrain and will try to make some decent pictures of my warband, The Eichewäldchen Forest Patrol. That actually reminds me that I still have to come up with some background stories for them... So plenty of work to do!

Untill next time,

Tom

Welcome to the White Cat Inn!

'In the heavily wooded lands of the Barony of Hochland, once stood the White Cat Inn. The inn was actually named after a well known legend among the people of Hochland. As legend said that a white cat once roamed the forests during the pitch-black nights and helped travellers that got lost in the forest back to safety of the nearby villages. And now the White Cat Inn serves as a safe resting place for weary travellers, named in honour after the White Cat from the legends of old.'

Welcome to the White Cat Inn, a wargaming blog where we will share the tales of our hobby adventures! But first, let me explain the origin of why we went for 'The White Cat Inn'. It's actually a pretty long story, but I will try to keep it short. 'The White Cat Inn' is named after our cat Jette, who has as the name might suggest, indeed a beautiful coat of white fur, haha! Back in 2017 Rosie (my girlfriend) and me got a small apartment in a small town in the Netherlands and we couldn't be happier! Finally we had a place to call our own, but sadly our happy feelings disappeared soon... During the renovation of our apartment we found out that there was a pretty bad leakage in our ceiling that we couldn't fix ourselves. We had to wait for our housing corporation to fix it and oh well, let's say it took longer than we hoped for. A couple of months passed by and we couldn't go on with our renovation, which left us living in some kind of ruin for quite some time. To make things even 'better' I got diagnosed with 'Glandular fever' (also known as the 'kissing disease') during that time, which left me tired for months... As you might understand we didn't really have the start in our apartment that we had imagined and therefore it didn't really feel like a home to us for a long time. But, that all changed when we adopted Jette! With Jette waiting for us at our apartment everyday, it actually started to feel like a home to us! And so, 'The White Cat Inn' was born, as it is now our happy place thanks to our little white furball!

Before I forget, let me introduce myself and the other members of our fine gaming group. First of all, there is me, Tom. I'm currently 26 years old and in the final stages of my studies. I guess it al started 16 years ago when I was 10 years old and bought my first box of Space Marines at the local toy store. I still remember that moment and ever since I've been in love with this hobby! During all those years I've tried lots of different systems, but became especially interested in Mordheim. It's something I always seem to be coming back to, as I liked the idea of creating a small group of customized miniatures that all have their own personal backstory alot! I have to be honest though, in all those years it's only been since a couple of months that I've finished building and painting my first warband ever! I used to be easily distracted and therefore had the bad habbit to never finish building and painting projects that I started... but I guess growing older helped me alot to actually finish the projects that I started, and I've got to say that it feels good! My current warband is called the 'Eichewäldchen Forest Patrol', a group of Hochland soldiers responsible for keeping the town and forest of Eichewäldchen safe from the many threats that lurk in these forests. Currently I'm working on building as much terrain as I can, so we can actually start playing our campaign! I will post more about that in the coming time, so stay tuned...

But enough about me, time to introduce the other members of our gaming group! This is Rosie, my lovely girlfriend. Don't let her smile fool you though, she is one of the most avid people I know when it comes to playing (tabletop)games! She doesn't like to lose and will fight untill the bitter end to win at all costs! Currently Rosie is working on a Dwarf treasure hunter warband and it is coming along nicely. Rosie has a great talent for painting miniatures and she is making some exciting progress as she only started painting miniatures 2 years ago.

And then there is my cousin, Mike (also known als Miekel). He's just a couple of months older than me and is known for his unlimited knowledge of awesome movie quotes! Mike is a big fan of the Warhammer 40.000 universe and has been working on his Imperial Guard army for quite some time now. It all started with the Warhammer 40.000 starter set back from 3rd edition and ever since he has been a big hobby enthusiast. Mike currently lives in the United States and normally visits the Netherlands every Christmas break, so that's something we always look forward to! Unfortunately therefore we can't play as much games as we would like, but we try to make every moment count when he visits us.

And this is Aäron, our newest member of the group! We have actually known each other for years, but only recently Aäron started getting involved in the hobby. However, he has been familiar with tabletop gaming for a long, long time since his older brother used to play Warhammer Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons back when he was in High School. Currently Aäron is working on a Marienburg Mercenary warband lead by the infamous 'Aramor den Schwendelaere', a greedy merchant from Marienburg. Despite that Aäron is pretty new to the hobby, he's getting the hang of painting quickly and is always striving to get better!

And there is the giant of our group, Axel! It's safe to say that this man is almost a giant with an height of almost 2 meters tall! He's known for his roaring laughter and is the kind of player that knows every rule of a game by heart. Very usefull for us, haha! I've known Axel since the first day of High school and we became friends because we both were interested in Warhammer. Currently Axel has an Orcs and Goblins warband finished and ready for battle, lead by the dangerous 'Axog the Defiler'!  We've actually been talking about having a Mordheim campaign for over 10 years now, so it's going to be a special moment when we'll finally play our first game togheter...

And last, but certainly not least, our cat Jette! Well, I guess Jette rarely paints any miniature or plays any game at all, but she's always curious what we're doing, which makes her in someway part our group! Jette is just the sweetest little furball you'll ever meet, always looking for some attention!

In the coming time I will try to post about our hobby adventures as much as I can. Sadly due to the 'Corona crisis' it's currently impossible to come togheter as we used to do. Nevertheless we still try to make the best of it and look forward to the time when we can hobby togheter again! For now I'll try to make as much terrain as I can, so we'll have a decent table to game on whenever that is possible! I'll also work some more on the background of our setting, as we're planning an Empire in Flames campaign set in the Grand Barony of Hochland, so stay tuned for more!

Well, that's all for now, untill next time!

Tom