Monday 31 August 2015

The Treasures of Tromney - our Age of Sigmar Campaign continues

Warboss  Nubbinz  peered forward into the gloom. He sniffed the air. Nothing.  
Where was he? Where was he?
He felt naked and vulnerable without his choppa and without the reassuring bulk and sharp teef of Muncha beneath him.
“’ello?" he called in to the darkness "Where are ya, rat-boy?”
“Right here-here” said a voice in his ear
The proud warboss leapt in the air and let out a hideous shriek
“Whaddya fink yer playin’ at, sneakin up on me like dat!”
“Sneak-sneak?” grinned the ratman “just walked up behind you-you”
Like the goblin the Skaven warlord was unarmed. Like him he carried a sack. The two warriors glared at each other.
They were meeting in the middle of a large cavern, alone and unarmed to divide the spoils of their recent raid on Tromney. Slowly the night goblin lowered his sack and emptied its content onto the floor. The Skaven, keeping his eyes fixed on the greenskin did likewise.
“Right den” said the goblin “we takez it in turnz - I’ll go first. One for me, one for yoo, one for me. Oh, look, we've run out. Dats it den. All done. Fairz fair.”
The Ratman glared, hair bristling on his neck.
“We fight-fight and die-die more than you-you, greenman. The loot-loot is ours. All of it”
Nubbinz stared at him His mouth opened and closed
“Why you….”
His retort was interrupted by a huge blast. Both warriors were hurled to the floor and covered in earth as a cannonball buried itself in the ground between them.
“Flee-flee!” shrieked the ratman
“Betrayal!” yelled the goblin as they both ran into the shadows…

After the attack on the Empire village General von Tanzsalle has rallied his forces and launched a punitive revenge mission to recover the Treasures of Tromney.  Force marching through the tunnels his forces have become scattered but he interrupts the evil warbosses as they meet to exchange their treasure…

So once more we convened at the Ilko Gaming Hut for what appears to be an ongoing narrative campaign for Age of Sigmar. The three armies will clash in a cavern where the evil forces were about to divide their ill gotten gains from the last battle.

I came up with a random deployment mechanic, we placed the treasure in the centre of the board and away we went.

 The ratmen deploy behind the giant puffball

 It was quite gloomy in the Night Goblin corner of the cavern

 Von Tanzsalle arrives!


As is traditional Steve won the roll to go first and advanced at speed. However it was the Empire who made best progress toward the treasure, keen to retrieve the jewels of Tromney.

 Squeek, squeek forward-forward!



The Good General deliberated over which of his many Official Games Workshop Measuring Devices (tm) he should make use of. We pointed out that Warhammer is dead, so the weird dividers thing was definitely not allowed.

 Forward for Tromney!


 The slaves sneak forward


 Still dark, innit?


Honour (and treasure) is reclaimed!

The Empire seized the treasures and prepared to make good their escape, but the Skaven warlord declared that he would stop-stop them. Meanwhile my goblins bounded forward.

 The skaven form up in line

 Nubbinz and Mucha take on von Tanzsalle


With a whoop and a yell and a mighty bounce Nubbinz, Muncha and the spearmen crashed into General von Tanzsalle. The fight ground on for several rounds as Korbin the Priest healed the general. This problem was solved by the Skaven warlord, who removed the Priests head from his shoulders. Which allowed Muncha to devour the brave general.


 In the flank - the way rats like it.

Aaagh he's killed Klaus und Hans!

Meanwhile the Skaven went in pursuit of the retreating swordsmen, catching them before they could escape with the loot. The Warlock flew at the cannon crew and set about them with his pointy stick.

There now followed a slightly weird stand off in the centre of the board - you can't charge enemy if you start your turn closer than 3" from them - only retreat and as neither the goblins nor the Skaven warlord wanted to back away from the treasure we remained locked together.

 No honour, these ratmen.

Yum, yum, rats bum.

Any sense of allegiance between the evil armies was abandoned at this point as clanrats charged the goblin archers. The ratmen claimed the goblins had been shooting at them for a while, but this was a technicality as far as I was concerned.
At this point the Squig Herd finally arrived and bounded into the Warlord, with disaterous consequences for the rat general. However, the overconfident bouncers then met their match on the spears of the Stormvermin.

 Stab-stab die-die!

And again...

The Skaven were now able to mop up the remains of the Empire army and fall upon the Night Goblins. Nubbinz and Muncha grabbed a treasure and fled, but the Squig herders met the same fate as their erstwhile charges and even the Goblin shaman was surrounded and torn apart in a flurry of teeth and claws.

Another fun game. I think we've hit on a successful formula and size for these games and they're flowing better as we get to grips with the rules.
We've decided to continue the story later in the week. The Skaven will attempt to take their treasures as tribute to the local rat leader, hotly pursued by the Tromney defence force. However the Night Goblins have prepared an ambush...

Friday 21 August 2015

Age of Sigmar Threesome Action

Mannsleib and Morrsleib hung low in the air, both almost concealed behind thickening clouds over the small hamlet of Tromney.  Hector Korbin blew on his hands and scanned the distant tree line. No sign of movement, but he knew they were coming - his Sigmar-sense was tingling.
"Anything to report" the Warrior Priest called over to the leader of Felchbagz Halbardiers?
The man shook his head.
"Where's von Tanzsalle?" the priest asked. The sergeant gestured behind him with his thumb.
"In there, he's taken those two halfling girls in for questioning"
From the squeals and sounds of banging headboards it appeared the good General was taking to the task with gusto.
Korbin's attention was dragged from the General's 'interrogation techniques' by a cry from the right. His eyes snapped back to the treeline and now he could see shapes, small and scurrying, and some that appeared to be bouncing...
"To arms men - put your faith in Sigmar and we shall carry this night!" he bellowed.

What's this, TWO games of Age of Sigmar in less than seven days?
Well that's what was Plat du Jour at the Ilko Gaming Hut as General Ballroom was itching for a game with us.

Steve came up with a scenario whereby my Night Goblins and his Skaven were aiming to loot an Empire village of it's treasures. The local militia having got wind of this has summoned a small force of state troops to defend the place.
We figured that the AoS random who goes next mechanic would work just fine for the three of us and if we resolved fights in the order of who's turn was next then all would be well. Probably.

In a nod toward Realm of Chaos shenanigans Steve had decided that forces would be largely random. I think this is because he knows I have no luck with dice. And sure enough all my units were below average - where his and General B's were slightly above. So far so predictable.

My goblin "horde" 



 Gen B's men are lovely, innit?


Ready for the off

We set up and almost inevitably Steve got the first turn and wasted no time in running forward with all his men rats.



Skitter, squeek, skitter

I likewise advanced on the left flank. My Shaman unleashed a Bad Moon spell and killed a few swordsmen and the archers continued the whittling of the same unit.

The swordsmen retreat

In the Empire turn the thin purple line largely stood still, apart from the swordsmen who retreated a little into the shade of the covered market.
Those that could shoot, did.
The handgunners killed a single ratman and both cannon shots ploughed into the ground in front of the squigs.


Miraculously I won the roll for next round and advanced once more. However my shaman was now stuck in the woods and couldn't zap the swordsmen again. The archers did shoot a few more swordsmen.

The Empire responded - shooting a couple more skaven and this time the cannon flew true and killed both squigs.

 Note absence of bouncing red critters



The skaven again raced forward and their shaman tried to cast a spell but was resisted by the Empire warrior priest.
The warpfire thrower killed a few men (and we thought it was a bit scary) and then the Skaven charged home against the handgunners and halbardiers



 Charge! Charge! Stab! Stab!


In the fighting phase blows were traded with neither side managing to make much impact.

The next turn began with the Empire as General von Tanzsalle finally made an appearance on the battlefield. The second unit of Swordsmen charged home against the night Goblin spears.





In the shooting phase the handgunners shot the skaven they were fighting, much to Steve's surprise. The fighting continued with the Skaven warlord and slaves tackling the halbardiers.

My goblins got to go before the swordsmen and delivered a surprising amount of damage. In return the Empire stalwarts failed to inflict more than a single wound.

Meanwhile the Stormvermin were ploughing through the swordsmen and Gen B threw both the Empire general and warrior priest in to support them.

The halbardiers butchered the skaven slaves and did three wounds to the Skaven general - who started to spray the musk of fear.

By the way, if you've ever wondered what kind of benighted fool has the money to lack of sense ratio necessary to purchase the GW metal measuring device, I have the answer. It's a man who's just had a stroke.



Meanwhile back at the game the goblins once more attacked the swordsmen and astonishingly manged to wipe them out.
In a quest for glory one of the squig herders ran into the lake to try and retrieve the treasure concealed therein. He drowned.

Weight of numbers began to tell on the handgunners and the Stormvermin proved considerably handier than they did in most versions of Warhammer and chopped down the warrior priest.

 *Musk Spray*


In the last round of combat the Empire general was similarly cut down by the rampant Stormvermin the handgunners were wiped out and the Skaven warlord managed to chop down the halbardiers who were surrounding him.

I briefly toyed with the idea of breaking the evil alliance and turning on the Skaven, but in the end decided that the truce would hold on this occasion.

And with that the game drew to a close.

Well I actually quite enjoyed that.
Small numbers of units, not too many special rules, lots of lovely painted models and convivial company meant we had a fun game.
I wouldn't want to play with much bigger forces than this, but there was something about it that felt a bit like a very early version of Warhammer (1-3rd ed) with the small units skirmishing.
I think the scenario and the three player dynamic meant we avoided the "one big pile-up in the middle" effect.
I'm still not going to be picking AoS as first choice game any time soon, but more evenings like this are definitely all right by me.

Thursday 20 August 2015

More Frostgrave models

Here's the finished Arab warband



Also I picked this up at Barrage a few weeks ago intending to use it as one of the ice worms in the rulebook. He's a Reaper Bones worm of some sort




But he's a bit small for the stats really. So I've ordered the big one from the Reaper Bones range.