Warhammer Triumph and Treachery - New Year battle

And so as the year turns we assembled at the North Notts Palias des Jeux for our semi-regular New Year Warhammer game. Four players this time. I took my Ogres with Kislev Allies, Von Kenton (of Von Lenton) had Vampires with Chaos Knight Allies, Kieran had Chaos with some Skaven along for the ride and Stephen had his High Elves with some of the lesser seen (at least in this part of North Notts) Lizardmen allies. 1200 point main forces and 300 points of Mercenaries.

I concocted a not entirely successful scenario wherein a Captain of the Empire who had discovered the Lost Book of To Me Kupa had looked within and been driven mad and was wandering randomly about. The Vampires and Tzeentch Chaos wanted his arcane knowledge for themselves, the High Elves wanted to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands and the Ogres wanted to flog him to the highest bidder.

The Ogres set up in one corner

von Kenton muttered something about "the smell of easy victory points" and set up as close as he could to me.

The Elves were in the far corner from me - with the Chaos forces and their Skaven masters servants opposite

My Kislev horse archers sallied forth

Pretty soon the Lizards were munching through the Chaos forces (after they'd been seriously whittled by Elven bow fire)

The Khorne knights decided to join the fun as von Kenton tried to build his zombie horde to take on the Ogres.

Filthy Elves, sneaking about shooting stuff.

Despite foul (card) play eventually my Ogres charged home and brutally dealt with the nascent Zombie horde and their pet Vampire.

The Ironguts found the Hexwraiths tougher fayre but I'd remembered to give the Bruiser a magic sword after the last game.

The Kislev Kontingent rather unwisely turned their flank toward an Elf bolt Thrower. Fortunately the shot failed to do any wounds.

Zombies and Hexwraiths in the cookpot the Butcher politely knocked on the door and asked if the Skeletons wanted to come out and be made into stock play.

The Elves were ripping the remains of the Chaos forces to bits.

The Ogres surrounded von Kenton.

And then chrged him from behind.

Hur, hur, hur!

With very few warriors remaining the Elves and their Lizard chums feasted on Skaven.

Despite a final charge from the few warrior remnants the Elves (mostly) held firm.

At the end of turn five we called a halt to the slaughter. I had wiped out von Kenton - at last claiming revenge for numerous previous betrayals.

This was my mighty treasure chest.

Alas it was not quite large enough - Stephen had 25 more in his pot and so the Ulthuan force claimed the field.

What super fun. Despite no beer drinking (back to work tomorrow - boo) plenty of trash was talked and many were the laughs had. But as always, Warhammer was the real winner!

Frostgrave: Hunt for the Golem - Attack Site

With the eldest boy returned from University and Covid playing havoc with meeting plans we found we had time for a little family Frostgrave.

I was hoping we'd get to play the complete Golem campaign but last minute itinerary changes means it looks like this may in fact be the only game in the Frozen City.

I decided to switch things up and take the Thaumaturge I painted a while ago - the boys stuck with their tried and tested Necromacer (eldest) and Elementalist (younger) - not least because I only recently painted up new models for just such an eventuality.

The site of Golem based destruction. Insufficient corpses (we'd need 15!) meant I used pennies to indicate the mangled entrails of less successful warbands

Gretty Babel thaumat-urges her men into the killing zone.

While her apprentice Lyrna Moy is well protected.

The Necromancer's "kill squad" picked a fight over by the well.

Lyrna wisely kept her distance.

The Elementalist kept finding wounded men. Then ignoring them in favour of more treasure.

"Excuse me while I step over this semi-frozen almost dead bloke"

The  battle was going, ahem, "well" for the Necromancer as Barbra Ian the Barbarian sliced up the Infantryman.

With a thief helpfully pointing out the target the crossbowman took aim.

Meanwhile my Man at Arms was making off with a suit of armour.

Barbra and the Hound have thinned out Gretty's lads.

But the torch-lad holds firm.

 Eventually however he was extinguished.

Meanwhile the Elementalist had run off with most of the treasure - although the Necromancer found the Top Secret Golem Instruction Manual.

A good fun little game - mostly spent remembering how the rules work and looking up spell effects.

Empire Civil War - Game Two

Regular readers (thank you both) will recall that Stephen and I began an Empire Civil War campaign a while ago. Stuff has gotten in the way since then (mainly drinking and playing big T&T games) but rearranged Christmas plans (thanks Covid!) meant we were able to resume.

After the first game the Nordland army has forced their way into Middenheim territory. The Middenheim army turns to counter attack! This was a scenario adapted from one in Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames book, which is in turn based loosely on the battle of Langensalza. Apparently.

I deployed a forlorn hope, the Nordlanders had their full army, but I knew of two secret river crossings! Whoever held both village and bridge at the end would win.

The thin blue and white (and allies) line deploys.

The Blue and Yellow Nordland men arrive.

With an artillery park

And lots of shooty horseymen

The Nordland knights waste no time in charging the MIddenheim crossbows. Sadly the river only make them scarier!

A-ha - the Middenheim knights arrive by a secret crossing.

The knights chase off the shooty horseymen and canter into some Nordland swords.

The blue and yellow knights return to the field after running down the crossbows.

And square off with the Middenheim swordsmen.

To everyone's astonishment the swordsmen break the knights and send them fleeing from the field!

And then my camera ran out of power. Boo!

So I was unable to record a rare victory for the blue and white (and allies) army.

My knights broke through on the left flank and were able to force their way into the village. Eventually the spearmen caught up with them and they were able to hold on and contest the village.

With my swordsmen holding the bridge it was victory to Middenheim.

Hurrah for Warhammer!

Merry Christmas

 

Hope Santa bought you lots of toy soldiers.

Borgut Facebeater

Decided to paint this chap a while ago - but as is the way he sat half-finished for a while.

Anyway he's all done now.

He was a special character in Storm of Chaos, so naturally no longer has any rules in the existing game. I'm sure it'll be fine to just use the old rules. I mean after all they were all extensively playtested and not in any way made up in a couple of days to satisfy the sales bits of GW who were shouting at Gav.