Tuesday 31 December 2019

Warhammer Triumph and Treachery - Skaven Goblins and Dwarfs

And so to the penultimate game of 2019 (I've got an OGAM game lined up for this afternoon, but it won't appear on the blog until next year).
The traditional festive Triumph and Treachery and Drinking game.
This year Spandex was indisposed on account of having moved to Surrey and therefore taken up golf and Brexit.
Kenton (from Lenton) was however available to step into his rat shaped shoes.
Steve and I decided to make it a kind of prequel to Karak Eight Peaks, so we each took the relevant special character. Steve had recently painted Belegar and already had Skarsnik in his collection, so he had a go at drunken speed painting Queek the night before. He wasn't quite finished.

I took the pointy black hat of Skarsnik and Steve took the Dwarfs because he's the shortest. 1200 points plus 300 points of allies.

The hordes of Skarsnik (plus Ogre allies)


Belegar's dwarfs with Nordland sell-swords.


Rats. Fahsands, of 'em.



Once set up was over we remembered Skarsnik's special rule that stops deployment and that spiders could move before starting. So we fudged that a bit.
Then we cracked open the beers and cracked on.

The spiders unleashed the fanatics. Which proved ultimately fatal for them and a waste of their points.


But it did slow down the rat ogres.


Kenton attempted to fire the warp-lightning cannon. He did it wrong because the rules are ridiculously complex.
So I let him have another go.
He rolled a misfire and it blew up.
Ho we (I) laughed.

Th Ogres bravely faced off against the organ gun.


The Nordlanders backed off.


Despite pledges of allegiance from the rats, the dwarfs trudged toward them.


And even appeared on the hill (where the exploding war machine had once been)


Steve's rat Ogres have Minotaur bodies.



Eventually the big guys got it on.


The fact that the trolls have a save and the rat ogres don't meant the battle went my way.

Meanwhile Queek assaulted the tower where my archers had spent the entire game squabbling.


The mercenary ogres killed the Nordlanders, then barrelled (ho-ho!) into the organ gun.


Queek and his ratty lads forced the gobbos from the tower. (Stubborn on Skarsnik's LD8 and I rolled a ten)

The trolls grabbed the gobbo archers and made them run off.


Meanwhile Belegar made very short work of various rats.


Oh, this is when the trolls charged the gobbos.


Their pursuit dragged them out of Skarsnik's leadership range. Skarsnik then decided to squabble.


Belegar prepared to charge the tower, expecting to bring doom to Queek. But a well placed treachery card meant he could only declare Skarsnik as an enemy!


This fight was evenly poised. Until the goblins threw their nets on themselves.


As a result Belegar smashed them aside and claimed enough victory points to snatch the game at the death.

That was great fun. Our drinking was relatively moderate which meant the game flowed on and despite a lunch break at 'Spoons it played through in about five hours. the 1200+300 seems to be a sweet spot for games of T&T - though in this case the fact that two of the armies had no magic (only the rats had anything) also made it faster.

We're now planning on maybe re-doing La Maisontaal for our traditional Easter Good Friday Massacre.

Thursday 26 December 2019

Wednesday 25 December 2019

Tuesday 24 December 2019

Warhammer Goblins

Over on the Hoodlings Hole blog an All Goblin Warhammer campaign is taking place.
I deem this to be a Very Good Thing, so Stephen and I are considering doing the same in the new year.
Hence these venerable 4th Edition Warhammer starter set goblins.

Dead quick paint jobs, but they'll do. I think I have 30 of them, so should make a decent sized unit.

Monday 9 December 2019

Kislevember Kossars

Yes, yes I know it's not Kislevember any more.
But these were finished last month (apart from basing).








These five plus the three from earlier in November mean I can now field a unit of 20 kossars!

So I couldn't resist a unit shot:



I do have some more in the lead pile. However I'm not sure a horde of 30 unarmoured human bowmen with always strikes last great weapons is really made entirely of win.
I suspect I'm better off using them as archers who can maybe give a bloody nose before expiring when charged, rather than a fighty unit that can shoot as well. So I may at some point do another command and a few more to see if I can get two units of 15-20.

On the whole Kislevember was a bit of a wash out. Work was busy and the weather meant even undercoating models was almost impossible. I did finish a unit of Warmaster archers - they just need basing which I'll try and do this week. I have also started some Horse Archers.

Thursday 5 December 2019

Warhammer 8th edition Ogres v Orcs

General B. was unable to play this week (get well soon) so Steve and I seized the opportunity to play the Greatest of All the Games - Warhammer.

he took Orcs. I took Ogres. I also took some very poor pictures. I blame the sub standard lighting levels in the North Notts Gaming Hall.

 Incey Wincey and the savage orcs stuck together on the left flank.


My Iron Guts took a chariot in the face. I think Steve was trying to hold me up, rather than expecting it to kill anything.


Toward the centre the Orc Biguns caught my big Bull unit.



A second chariot crashed in to the trappers, but sadly passed the difficult terrain test.



The yetis charged the not at all Cheesy "Night Goblins with a Forest Goblin standard bearer with Spider Banner and regular goblin hero to get better leadership for the unit" Combo. They did little and died poorly.


The smaller Bull unit was attacked by the Savage Orcs. Fortunately the butcher managed to increase toughness and make the unit stubborn.


 Having chopped the chariots into kindling the Iron Guts decided to test great weapons against a Ginat Spider.

 The rain of poisoned arrows had whittled the Belcers down to a single model.


Jenkins the Sabretooth was doing sterling service march blocking stuff.

Orcs. Just 'cos.

In the end i destroyed the Orc left wing , but ran out of big grey bodies anywhere else on the battlefield.
And so victory to the foul greenskins

I do like a good game of Warhammer

Monday 2 December 2019

Battle in the First Age of Middle Earth

James and Martin came around to the soldier shack for a big old game set in the First Age of middle earth. Based on a battle in the Silmarillion and adapted from a scenario in a recent edition of Miniature Wargames. I'm not Tolkien buff but I think Nogbad the Bad was chasing  Emilloesteves the Elf ("not another bloody elf" - C. S Lewis) Lord when Norbert and Pubert decided to step up and let the elves escape. Or something.

Anyway we were to use James excellent rules which we've previously tested for use in our mythic Celtic games.
James has been fettling a veritable horde of Oathmark Orcs, I have a fair few Orcs and Moria Goblines and Martin too has a number of the bad guys. For humans James' Saxon army took the field.
Although not part of the original story James had a cut off unit or two of Elf cavalry who were hoping to flee the field.

Martin and I took command of the forces of Evil (though as Martin pointed out labelling them as such doesn't help - perhaps Orcs are just misunderstood) whilst James had the humans and elves.

 The isolated elf cavalry

 The pursuing Wargs

 Orcs and Werewolf (there wolf, at the front)


 Venerable Chronicle Orc that once belonged to Joe Dever

 Sax...er human defenders of Middle Earth




The elf riders are conversions using Oathmark elves and Gripping Beast and Conquest  horses and legs



 Werewof! Right there wolf!



 The wargs soon trapped the elves





 And captured their leader to take back to Swindon or some other dark and terrible place



 Meanwhile the werewolf (he's right there wolf) drove the orcs onwards and over some archers




 Nogbad  Gothmog arrived with some trolls



 The Werewolf (in the river wolf) issued a challenge only to discover how terminal they can be


 The Men waded into the ford


 At the other ford Nogb...errr...Gothmog got involved






 Gothmog soon triumphed and forced his way over



 Another challenge swirled at the other ford










I the end it was all in vain the forces of evil smashed through and set off after the fleeing elves leaving the bodies of men to be washed away in the waters.

A good fun game. The rues seem to work very well and give a step up from Dragon Rampant sized games whilst still remaining quite fast play.

I might have to start painting some more Orcs...