War in the Underway - battle two

“Heeeeeeeaaar meeeeee oh Gork! Heeeeed meee oh Mork” wailed Slitlik da Warty, Gruzzkup’s “tame” Shaman, prancing from foot to foot and gesticulating like an Orc with a Nipper Squig down his trousers

Snatch and Gash, the two Trolls idly scratched themselves and drooled contentedly – the magician's cavorting seeming to comfort them.

Meanwhile the night goblin herders clashed their instruments, poked their squigs and occasionally punched one another whilst trying to avoid the gnashing jaws of their charges.

Only the two Orc crew on the chariot seemed to be taking things seriously. Checking their choppas, and tightening the straps lashing the warboars to their rickety contraption.

“GORKANMORKANGORKANMRKANGOARK…” chanted Slitlik, his voice reaching a crazed crescendo

“I wish to Gork e’d shut iz noise, he’ll have da ceiling down in a minute….”

 Da Enemy

 

 Spear Ladz, pointy but squishy

 Shooty Ladz. Taint natural.

And so to game two. I had my level two shaman, a pair of trolls, a squig herd and an Orc Chariot at my disposal, facing off against five units and a Back Orc warboss. Gulp.

My plan, such as it was, was to hope for Foot of Gork and roll six dice at it each turn. While trying not to die. As it happened, I did indeed get Foot of Gork, so the plan was going well…

Snatch and Gash, their attention grabbed by something glittering and shiny, lurched off into the blackness. The shiny things turned out to be pointy and hurty and came whizzing at them, but mostly felt tickly if they hit. Slitlik raised his hands high and felt the Waaagh energy of the cave channel trough him before forming into a huge clawed foot shape beneath the roof of the cavern. His gibberings of delight turned into a wail of horror as the foot smashed into the ground inches from his cowering form.

 Oooo. Black Orcsez

In the back of their chariot the Orc warriors gazed on with contempt as the diminutive greenskins prodded and poked the snarling squigs into position. Rushing headlong toward them was a mob of Orcs with some boarboys bringing up the rear. There was some kind of commotion going on as the boarboys tried to force their mounts past the Orc boys and so, seizing their moment the chariot driver shoved his prodder into the buttocks of one of the boars and they careened off into the Orc mob, the crimson tide of squigs bouncing along beside them. The half-crazed squiggly beasts and their equally demented herders launched themselves at the Orcs as the rattling creaking chariot wrought further damage, the dumbfounded Boys turned tail and fled only to be crushed beneath the chariots wheels as it ploughed into the waiting Boarboys.

 Crikey squigs pack a punch. They made mincemeat of the Orc boys before they could pick up a spear and the chariot made quite a mess too.

With their arrows having no effect on Gash and Snatch, the invading Orcs threw down their bows and charged. Confused by this sudden turn of events, the trolls decided to amble away but were pulled down and slaughtered by the Arrer boys. Slitlik begged Gork for help. Then Mork. But nothing was forthcoming, except a hail of bolts from Ruglud's boys.

With a mighty wail and a gnashing of teeth and frothing of jaw the Squigs and their frantically scurrying keepers smashed aside the Boarboys and turned to face the Black Orcs.

“I fink” whispered one chariot orc to another "We should leave da littluns to it an’ go see how Slitlik’s gerrin on” “Yer” agreed his driver as he swiftly turned the chariot away from the impending carnage. And carnage there duly was, though not quite as one sided as might have been expected – the Squigs managed to kill almost all the hulking Black Orcs in a display of wanton violence, before eventually succumbing to the cunning of their leader.

 Crump!

Slitlik span around on the spot and cavorted like an Orc possessed, green sparks issuing from every orifice, but still he couldn’t rain destruction on the Arrer boys. Mindful of Gruzzkup's urgings to “Keep an eye on da Wizard” the Orc chariot crashed into the Orc archers and a furious fight erupted. Seeing their moment Ruglud’s boys charged in to the wooden contraption and duly smashed it to matchwood. With that Slitlik gathered up is red cape and made off into the shadows heaping curses on the remaining invaders.

Well that was bloody. And good fun. At the end only Slitlik remained alive, but I'd still dne enough to claim the game.

Squigs are all kinds of awesome, and chariots are pretty good too.

On adding up I was the clear winner, so game three would be the decider, and I still had my biggest force left to use…

“Gork an Mork iz happee oh mighty Gruzzkup. We done dem uvva greenies good an’ proppa” crowed Slitlik.

“Dat’s as maybe, but where’s da rest of da lads, eh?” roared the Orc warboss

 Check out Stevos Mini Blog for the other side of things

War in the Underway - battle one

Gruzzkup sniffed the air. Down here in the dark foetid caverns deep beneath the mountains the air was stale and dank. But Gruzzkup could smell something. The sharp, invasive tang of intruders. A mass of them he smelled – greenskins, like his own tribe. Seeking shelter he guessed, fleeing something bigger and more powerful than them, looking for a place to lie low, lick wounds and then return to the fight.

But these caverns were Gruzzkup’s. He’d led da boys here, driven the stunties and the ratmen off, subjugated the pale moon worshiping runts and formed a kingdom of his own. This was his place; no-one just marched in here and claimed it as their own. He hefted his choppa, kicked a few scampering snotlings from around his bed and surveyed the lads all dozing around the cave. His body pulsed with the rhythms of Gork and Mork, da Waaagh was rising and he had heads to crush

After the qualified success of our Sigmar’s Blood campaign recently we were casting around for another hobby gee-gaw to get our creative juices flowing.

I’d heard about the underway, an online campaign available for download from iTunes. Currently it’s only available on the iPad. GW claims this is because it allows certain features to be enabled, but clearly the subtext is that if you don’t have the latest techno wizardry from Apple you’re not a proper hobbyist.

Fortunately my chum is a PROPER HOBBYIST ™ and is in possession of an iPad, so he was able to download the campaign for about a fiver. And what you get is pretty good value for money (if you ignore the entry requirement of a £300 iPad).

A simple campaign structure with some nice little quirks and a clever campaign tracker (which is the bit iPads can do that Androids can’t).

I was determined to use my greenskins as this would provide me with a reason to actually finish off some units and maybe finally get a fully painted and based army. My opponent also selected to be greenskins – partly because he fancied doing the army, but mostly because Orcs v Orcs makes for a funny match-up.

We therefore picked ourselves 1500pts of Orcs and Goblins each. To add a layer of entirely unnecessary complexity we decided the campaign will be an escalation one, with the first two games at 1500 pts., the second two 2K and the last ones 2500 pts. (if we get that far). This will mean the armies evolve a bit and we can add cool stuff as we go along.

After picking your army you each secretly pick a stratagem, and then you compare the two stratagems in order to decide which games you’ll play next. We’d both picked some sort of advance stratagem, which meant our first game would actually be three games. We were required to split our armies into three sub armies, with one twice the size of the others and then pitch them into combat against one another, without knowing which army you’d be be facing. Whoever wins most out of the three games wins the round….

And so to the first game – my small goblin force against a modest (but still scary Orc army). It was time to get the Underway campaign, ahem, under way…

Nubbinz da Gitt clasped tightly onto the horns of his ferocious Giant Squig Muncha and let rip what was either a war-cry or a wail of fear. Some of the spear goblins nearby giggled, and a smattering of sharp stones was flung at their slightly deranged leader. With one bounce, Muncha and rider waded into the mob and a hideous gulping sound soon calmed any signs of insubordination.

“Right den lads, dere’s some uvva greenies after our mushrooms and da boss sez we gotta stop em!” Nubbinz shouted. The hooded heads of the tribe nodded their agreement. Or simply watched Muncha bouncing up and down – it was difficult to tell.

“Youse lot block da way and stick ‘em wiv arrerz, me and Muncha’ll nip round the back and take ‘em by surpriiiiiiiiiise….”

The goblins watched as the angry red blob bounced off into the darkness with Nubbinz clinging on and alternately wailing and soiling himself. However their attention was soon dragged from the amusing spectacle as from behind the column of rock in the centre of the cavern they could just make out the shapes of orcs and warboars bearing down on them. As they marshalled themselves to defend the cavern, the roof issued an ominous cracking sound….

 Da fin black line

 Yikes!

The Underway campaign has several (well, quite a lot) of random events and distractions that are rolled for at the start of various turns, all of which are designed to give a special underground flavour. The first of these is a cave-in roll that may happen at the start of each player turn. Sure enough the first turn of the campaign saw a cave in occur, and a chunk of the ceiling came crashing down and killed a bunch of my goblins. This is the reason I’ve now fabricated a cave-in marker.

Realizing the cavern side he was bouncing along was empty Nubbinz frantically hauled on the soft fleshy parts of Muncha’s head and forced the rabid creature to turn right and head back toward the fast advancing Orcs. Despite seeing some of their fellows crushed by falling rocks the Night Goblins held firm and Kint Uckee , leader of da Bloo Moonz even managed to pluck a boarboy from his saddle. Wailing frantically Nubbinz and Muncha bounced into the Savage Orcs who promptly thrust their leader forward to fight the slavering beast.

 Boing, slavver, boing

One of the other rules for Underway is that there’s 50% chance one of your units will be affected by pit traps and have to take difficult terrain tests. As I’d decided largely to stand still (spears and missile weapons) this wasn’t so bad for me, but had a detrimental effect on the Boarboyz

With a rabid yell, the boarboys spurred their mounts on toward the archers. A swirling goblin mass launched himself from the ranks spinning an enormous metal ball and whirled through the boarboys, who parted and let him through with no consequences! Fortunately Kint Uckee was able to kill one with a well-placed arrow before another lost his footing in the darkness and threw his rider with a sickening thud. The two remaining warriors crashed into the puny archers, but astonishingly they were pulled down and gutted before they could wreak havoc. Kint Uckee raised his bow high and let forth a puny warcry of triumph. Muncha lurched forward and bit a chunk out of the Savage Orc before him, but the vicious Orc raised his stone axe high and hacked back. Gathering all his courage Nubbinz hung on and prepared to fight again. Amongst the archers a vicious argument broke, out, punches were thrown and suddenly they lurched forward and hurled their spitting mass at into the flank of the savage Orcs. Delighted to take a break from watching their leader, the big greenskins hefted their crude weapons and smashed the goblins to the ground. Muncha meanwhile failed to hurt the warboss, who ended his bouncing with a thump of his axe. Nubbinz gathered his soiled robes about himself and fled, as did the remaining Bloo Moonz, but not quickly enough to escape the onrushing Savage Orcs.

 Charge!

 Run fer it!

At this point I realised I might actually be winning. And I certainly didn’t fancy my chances with a unit of Night Goblin spears against a virtually untouched mob of Savage Orcs.

Backing away from the carnage Da Stikkas cowered behind the recent rockfall and hoped the rampaging Savage Orcs would just leave them be. Nubbinz meanwhile, paused in headlong flight and gathered his breath and thoughts. Only for a huge ball and chain to crash through his skull and bring his battle to an abrupt end.

And so the battle drew to a close. The savage Orcs didn’t have time to get round to the Night Goblins and I passed the Animosity test that would have forced me to charge them (with fatal consequences).

We totalled up the points, to discover that we’d had a draw.

We then totalled them up again a bit later remembering to add in the captured standard to discover a narrow win for the Orcs.

Then we had another go when I got home, checked my army list and discovered there wasn’t a standard for them to capture.

Finally I remembered that Nubbinz was my general for this game and he was dead, so it was a narrow Orc victory after all.

Probably.

“’Salright lads, I fink dey’ve gone” Nikka da Stikka whispered to the rest of da Stikkas. “I fink we got away wiv it”. There was a small, feeble cheer.

“Right, let’s get back to Gruzzkup and let him know it was all Nubbinz fault”

Da surviverz

 

You can read an alternate version of events over on Stevos MiniBlog

Cave in! (2)

I finished this off last night.
Quick spray and drybrush with some Wilko tester pots.
It will doubtless add immeasurably to our gaming pleasure.

Squiggly Beasts

I've been doing some work on my unit of Squigs and Herders.
Truth to tell they've been sittng around 2/3 finished for several years.
However as they hark from GWs "who cares if it ranks up" period ('97-'03 roughly) I couldn't ever make the leap into completing the unit. In the end I gave up trying to get them to rank up on the bases supplied and have instead rammed smaller numbers of them on larger bases.

With a few spares for "change"  when casualties start to bite this should see me able to actually base and varnish them.

Cave in!

We've started playing the Underway campaign (battle reports to follow). As we discovered at the start of the first game it's possible for part of the ceiling of the caves to fall in and crush your troops, leaving a big pile of rubble behind.
So I set to work making a cave in marker.
One old CD, some circles of polystyrene ceiling tile and an assortment of rock chips later...

I then added some sand to fill the gaps a bit and add a bit more texture.

If it stops raining for more than five minutes I'll hopefully get this sprayed later today.

SAGA Scottish Warriors

The warriors that I started last year have finally been finished.
Two points of 8 each for SAGA.

And a few individual shots.

I kept these very simple. I did checks on a few because even through I know tartans are many years after this period, it helps to say "Scotsman" on the tabletop.

Crusader miniatures again, characterful and easy to paint.

With the Thegns and the Warlord this gives me a 4 point warband. I may have to go back to see Mr Nick at Northstar and get myself another couple of points.

Warhammer Crystal Terrain

The second of the pieces I picked up from Wargames Terrain Workshop at Salute.

Cast in red resin, I've just painted the base with a variety of greys and given the crystals a wash with ink.

Perfectly serviceable. I think I may order a couple more...