Sunday 31 March 2019

Quick NWF Terrain Cloth

The one thing I wasn't happy about when playing my solo TMWWBK game last week was the gaming mat. I'm sure some parts of the NWF are indeed a verdant green, but the terrain of my minds eye is rather more rocky, deserty, arid and, well, altogether browner than that.
So I pottered off to Boyes in search of a suitable cloth and purchased 2m of some "Camel" coloured fleece.
It comes 150cm wide, so around 5ft which means it'll fit across my 4ft table and allow me to place hills and the like underneath. The 2m length is more than enough for TMWWBK games which need 6ft.

In order to break up the uniform nature of the cloth I hung it on the washing line, grabbed an assortment of rattle cans and sprayed some random browns, greens and deserty yellows.


Once dry I chucked it over some hill shapes, added some scatter terrain and voila


I'm very pleased with the result - looks much more like the rugged foothills of Ilkestaan than previously.
The cloth cost £13 and the cans I already had, so a bargain in my book.

Saturday 30 March 2019

Ogres v Slaanesh - a Warhammer 8th edition game

General B. was once again unavailable for Wednesday night soldiering so I made the short trip northwards to the North Nottingham Palais des Jeux to game with Steve. Inevitably our chosen system was Warhammer 8th edition, greatest of all the games. I took Ogres and Steve pulled out his Aston Villa themed Slaanesh Chaos force.
We played the meteorite scenario. where you get a point each turn for each meteorite you control.
Sadly the NNPdJ isn't as well illuminated at the Sherwood Soldier Shack, so the pictures came out a little dark and then post production attempts to improve them have left them a little weird looking.

The Leadbelchers hid behind a privet hedge. Hur, hur!


The Ogres formed a wall of grey flesh.


Nasty Chaos Marauder types.


The Villa-ns of the piece.


Odd that the Dragon Ogres have blue faces - surely a BCFC thing?


Trolls! Fortunately I have something burny for them to deal with.


The Ogres mostly rumbled forward. And crashed into the Trolls, waving their burny flag.


The Giant decided to have a pop at the Dragon Ogres.


Over on the right the 'belchers were in a spot of bother.



Ouch.

The warriors went to help the Dragon Ogres - who actually seemed to be doing OK.


As a result of their intervention the giant fell over. On top of the warriors. Steve and I both rushed for our clear plastic fallen Giant templates. Probably the first time they've ever been used.
Six (appropriately for Slaanesh) warriors were crushed.

The Big Lads decided to deal with the Dragon Ogres.


The Butcher and his boys went after the Marauders. Who proved a bit spiky.


At this point I forgot to take any more pictures. And not just because I began to lose quite heavily.

The Lord of Slaaanesh on his Boobworm killed the BSB's unit and then came back around to help the warriors sort out the Ogre Lord and his bodyguard. The Ogres killed him, but lost the fight. The giant Chaos beasty and the remaining troll drove off the butcher and the late arriving Gorger wasn't able to secure enough VPs to pull bacjk the game for me.

Good fun and over quite quickly (two charge-y armies not much magic or shooting).
Makes me want to paint my Mournfangs....

Thursday 28 March 2019

Of Gods and Mortals - The Hunt for the Dagda's Pot

James came around with an assortment of Celts for a game of OGAM in the Soldier Shack.

He took Nuada Silver Arm and a bunch of Tuatha Dé Danann. I took a force of Celts and heroic horses under the auspices of Epona.

The scenario (which took a little puzzling out) was from the Celts book. Epona and her crew had pinched the Dagda's pot and Nuada had set out to get it back.

The Celts gave the pot to their nobles to carry.



Nuada and the Tuatha Dé Danann were determined to get it back



Using Nuada's sneaky magics a unit of Tuatha Dé Danann appeared amongst the Celtic horde.



Nuada meanwhile set about chasing off Carpark Sumo Celt and his mates.


The púca decided to have a pop at the Tuatha


Epona sent her horses to help out


Meanwhile Cú Chulainn spent most of his time fluffing activation rolls and handing the turn over to the enemy.


When he did finally get involved the Tuatha knocked him down.


Back at the pot a giant was making a huge nuisance of himself.


Epona briefly got involved




Finally the combined might of Cú Chulainn, the púca and some Celts pushed some Tuatha away.



The pot fight wasn't going anywhere



Until Nuada got involved and proved himself a prayer fortified badass.


At which point he picked up the pot and pottered off. Pursued by horses to no avail.
A win for the bloke with the bionic arm.


What a great fun game. I don't think I've ever seen so many 1s and 2s rolled for activation, the turns kept switching back and forth, keeping both of us on our toes. At one point Nuada even rolled two 1s and handed it back to me. Not sure I've ever experienced a God turnover before.
I got distracted, first by some Tuatha Dé Danann suddenly popping up behind me and then by a dirty great giant rampaging around in front. Combine that with Cú Chulainn seemingly finding it impossible to roll anything above a 2 and I was always on the back foot.

It all looked lovely and was a hoot to play though.

Monday 25 March 2019

The Relief of Fort Ookinall (1)

One of the advantages of one's own Soldier Shack is that you can leave games set up. This week finding myself once again without the company of either Steve or General Ballroom I decided to take advantage of this and begin playing through a solo The Men Who Would Be Kings campaign.

I've worked out a simple set of rules that follow a colonial force as they advance (by one of three routes) to come to the aid of some of their beleaguered fellows.
A common enough scenario for Colonial powers, easily transferred to the Sudan or elsewhere, but in my case the action was taking place in the late 19th Century in the far flung province of Ilkestaan high in the North West Frontier.

My first choice as commander of the relief force was whether to take the shorter bud more deadly pass through the high mountains, the wide open spaces of the plains (that would take longer to traverse), or the compromise middle road. I plumped for the middle way - give the system a trial under it's default setting.

And so, under Captain Maurice Micklewhite, a mixed force of the first and second companies of the 99th Humberside Regiment together with the Sikhs of the Royal Dilshad Rifles and a mountain gun crewed by more stout Sikh fellows set forth to relieve Fort Ookinall which had been cut off by the wily (is there any other kind) Pathan Warlord Al-Bhabij.

The first two day's travel passed relatively peacefully. A minor act of valour saw young lieutenant Wiseman much praised by Captain Micklewhite and his reputation rise in the eyes of the men. However during the night three men snuck away from the column and deserted!

Soon after the column set out on the third day Micklewhite spotted something high up in the surrounding hills. Anxious to get on but fearful of an ambush he arrayed the men into a fighting line....





As the Humbersiders nervously began to advance a sudden cry went up and tribesmen emerged from their hiding places!



Disaster then struck as whilst the British were distracted a force of fierce swordsmen appeared from nowhere and fell on the rear of the unprepared Sikhs.


The Dilshad rifles were cut down in large numbers and the two survivors fled for their lives. Scenting blood more Pathans appeared.


At this point the mountain gun remembered crew how to work the levers and poured shot into the rampaging Pathans.


Te Sikhs stoutly stood their ground and their fire held back the Pathans.


The 1/99th were, in their turn attacked.


And further Afghans appeared and took cover from which they poured forth fire.



Stout defensive work by 1/99th (with assistance from the mountain gun) largely drove off the attackers, but still more poured on from the nearby hillsides.




Eventually cold British steel swept away the central Pathan menace.


Much to the relief of the stoic survivors of the Dilshad rifles.






Another attack in the centre was met with volley fire and driven back.


A final desperate charge by the attacking Afghans once more failed on the bayonets of the British.



And with that Al-Bhabij snuck off ready to fight another day.

A good fun game. Solo play does sometimes feel a bit of a dice rolling exercise but the campaign system means I've got a bit more of a story gig on in my head (and some casualties to take in to account. TMWWBK is a good, fast and fun set of rules.

The column now has four more days to make it to the Fort before things turn very bad for the defenders!