Tuesday 31 October 2023

The Men Who Would Be Kings: action on the North West Frontier

Martin came over for a game of TMWWBK using my NWF collection. I hadn't played for ages, so it was a bit of a stumble through at first. We just decided on a line up and fight scenario, which may have been a mistake in retrospect, but we just wanted to get to grips with the game. We did however roll for traits and Martin suffered a litany of drunkards, bumblers and a brutal cavalry commander which we feared would rather hamstring the Imperial forces. My rolls weren't great, with a couple of my leaders led by the bottle (or, more likely something "herbal" in nature and some short range guns - however I did have one hero who would be activating on a 4+!

The British had three units of regular infantry and a unit of regular cavalry. The Pathan forces had two units of Fierce Ghazi, a unit of tribal infantry and three units of irregular infantry. Apart from making the two ghazi fierce we avoided any upgrades.

The Pathan forces arrive to protect their village.


White clad ghazis with obsolete rifle armed regulars in the walled field.


The British arrive on the horizon


One unit of Ghazis on the left surged forward.


The cavalry, cowering under the lash of their brutal leader held the British left



The battle lines draw closer


The ghazis continue their surge forward.

Soon after this however they took fire and a single casualty, were pinned and then promptly routed from the field!

It was down to their less fanatical brethren to hold the field.


The rifle armed Pathans moved toword the orchard.


The remaining Ghazi's closed in on the cavalry.


Whilst the Afghan hero looked on.


The orchard was secured. For now.



Whilst the ghazi faced off the Sikh horse the tribesmen debated whether to attack the unit commanded by a shirker

The ghazi failed to charge home. Which was probably a bad thing.



The ghazhi were driven back by the cavalry but their fellows charged home. Only to discover why charging Close Order imperial troops is a bad plan.



However the ghazi fought back and drove the horse away, though at great cost.
While the tribal infantry were reduced to just three models.



Unfortunately for the ghazi this left them exposed to withering volley fire wiping them out (apart from their cowardly non-combatant leader.)


The brutal leader of the horse had perished in the fighting, which meant the survivor was able to rally. However his charge ended just short of the short range riflemen. With inevitable consequences.


Fire from the hero's unit decimated the shirker's unit and they soon fled the board.

Action now shifted to the Pathan left where two intact units of British remained.


Steady fire from the Afghan's forced first one and then another to withdraw and then flee.


The Afghan village was saved!

This was good fun - took a little while to remember how things worked exactly and the differences between the Rampant systems serve to sometimes trip you up.

I'd quite like to try and have some sort of mini campaign - I think the traits lend themselves to that kind of gaming and scenarios would make for a more entertaining game than line up and fight.


Monday 30 October 2023

Warhammer Orc Boys

These have taken a long time to get over the line but very pleased to have finally got them finished.

A unit of 24 with "board and sword"




Mostly made from the old Boys set but with a few conversions, some heads from other sets and one or two using the 6th edition starter set boys to make up the numbers.




I multibased some, just to make Stephen happy.








Wouldn't be Orctober without some of these.

Sunday 29 October 2023

Even more Agincourt

 Three more - bish, bash, boshed out





Bases need a bit of work...

Saturday 28 October 2023

Lord of the Rings Campaign: Taming of Smeagol and Dead Marshes

Latest intsallment of the campaign. Both General B. and I had painted six Dead Marsh Spectres, so we had double what we needed - which was nice. But first, the taming of Smeagol.

A small board, rocky outcrops (thanks NWF terrain box!) two hobbits and Gollum.

With the hobbits dozing Gollum took the opportunity to have a poo.


Then he sneaked up on them some more.


General B. had lazily failed to paint up two sleeping hobbits just for this scenario, can you believe it) so we had to make do with standing up versions.


Gollum sneaked over undetected. Reached down for the Ringbearer, beat him in combat and then I rolled 3 6s and killed Frodo dead. 
Game over.

So we reset and had another go. This tiem Gollum was detected on the firts turn, he managed to kill Sam but then there followed a seemingly endless dice rolling exercise at the end of which, finally Frodo beat Gollum and the game ended.

This was way up there with the Watcher in the Water for "Worst Scenario Ever", just rubbish. There's no tactics or anything to think about, just who rolls best first.

Anyway, that out of the way we capered on to the Dead Marshes.

As well as the Spectres General B had bought and painted a Nazgul on Winged Fellbeast. Jolly nice job he'd made of it too.


Apparently he's subsequently found another sprue in his plastic pile and even has the old metal one somewhere...


We used Mein Hosts Spectres (even though I had bought mine along, just in case)




Everything starts well spread out and the bad guys are subject to the Sentries rules.


Eventually however one of the Human Spectres blundered into the hobbits. Bravely Frodo pushed Gollum at it and ran off.



Gollum murdered the already deceased bloke.


Even the Fellbeast was subject to the Sentries rule, limiting it to 3" movement most turns.


Eventually however the wind must have turned...



...and the beast flapped ever closer.


Disastrously the Nazgul spotted the fleeing hobbits.


Again Frodo bravely shoved Gollum at the mighty beast while legging it for the table edge.


With safety merely a priority roll away the Nazgul closed in...


...and General B finally came through with a dice roll that saw Frodo escape!

This was good and quite tense in the end. The sentry rule is frustrating (especially in this game where they can't even raise the alarm!) but the number of Spectres did mean it felt like they were constantly closing in.

Next up, Faramir, Rangers and two (2!) Mumaks.