Wars of Liberation rules playtest

Chum Matt has been working on some rules for the wars of liberation fought in South America in the nineteenth century. On the basis that if a simpleton like I can understand things the rules must be reasonably clear he asked me to have a playtest game with him.

So we picked a couple of small forces, rolled up the scenario and table (the rules have a section for generating this, along with a campaign system) and away we went.

I had Argentinians, apparently.

As well as the main scenario objective all our commanders also had "side plot" type objectives to fulfil that would gather more VPs.

I'm not even sure what force Matt was using - Chilean?

My cannon was pounding away from the safety of a built up area.

As some of my skirmishers tried to hold my left flank.

A stiff fight broke out on my left.

My white clad foes proved rather superior in this exchange.

Cavalry caught more of my skirmishers in the open and in column. This went as well as one might expect...

Suddenly Matt's reinforcements turned up (I had forgotten I was only facing 2/3 of his army and thought I was doing rather well!)

My brave skirmishers were holding the centre.

But my left was crumbling.

More cavalry arrived to threaten my artillery

However some lucky roles saw my battered infantry ransack the enemy baggage train. Ending the game.

Just as well, as I was in front, but losing ground (my VPs on the right!).

There was just time to snap a couple of pictures of my heroic skirmishers holding off a detremined cavalry charge!

This was very jolly and played well - I'd got the hang of the basics pretty quickly. It did also look very jolly and set me off thinking about small scale Naps...

When he started Matt was planning to use 6mm armies with 2mm terrain but the advent of the comparitively cheap Warlord plastic 13.5mm figures means we were using those with the much smaller scenery. It worked fine from my perspective, but that's the explanation if anyone feels it's a bit odd. The rules work fine with more similarly sized models and terrain and there's no compulsion to do it this way if the aesthetics don't suit you.

Lord of the Rings Campaign - Pass of Caradhras and Endless Wargs!

 To General B.'s once more to continue the journey of the Fellowship.

First up an attempt to cross the terrifying Pass of Caradhras - in this case represented by the somewhat less terrifying method of using a deck of cards.

Once we'd found and read the errata (as written the rules miss out a fairly crucial point about turning the cards face up!) it turned out that what the game lacked in visual splendour it made up for in tension and speed of play.

In fact we enjoyed it enough to swap sides and play twice - the Fellowship escaping on both occasions.

Then we set up for a proper game of soldiers.

This game sees the Fellowship surrounded by an endless supply of hungry Wargs. All they have to do is survive - but the Wargs keep on coming!

The Fellowship set up in the centre

Wargs pour on from all sides

The Wargs race toward their prey. Legolas shoots a couple but they're soon back.

Gandalf and Aragorn move to block the way.

But there's Wargs everywhere!

Oooooooooooowwwwooooooooo!!!!

Soon Bormomir is hacking wolves apart for fun (but burning through his might)

At one point the Wargs close right in and Merry and Bill the Pony get eaten.

Gimli racks up a huge pile of Warg pelts

Legolas goes down under a tide of claws and teeth but Aragorn just keeps on butchering Wargs

Sam and Frodo remain alive and the Warg tide is stemmed.

Just as the Wargs begin massing for another attack the priority roll is tied and the game ends!

A win for the Fellowship. A tight and tense game (if a little repetitive when feeding Wargs into the Aragorn/Gimli blender).

I actually took lots more pictures, but they are a bit "samey" TBH.

However the Fellowship has used a *lot* of Might and Fate getting this far, which may make getting through the Mines of Moria a tricky proposition...

Warmaster scenery

 Been working on some scenery bits and pieces.

First up some hedges. Resin pieces, a bit rough and ready in places. Simple drybrush jobs.

They were from a company called Marbeth Designs - a bit of internet sleuthing suggests their moulds were picked up by Baggage Train a number of years ago, no idea if they're still available.

But speaking of Baggage Train here's some of their Sxon buildings that I figure will do nicely for Chaos Marauder housing or rural Kislev.

Contrast paints over a grey undercoat doing the hard work.

They're actually 6mm scale I think, but I like buildings to be small for WM - not least because a stand of models is supposed to represent several hundred infantry - not just the ten or so actual models.

And finally some fences from Pendraken. Two sets here - you get four regular and one gate per set. Simple MDF jobs.