It Was A Coincidence Officer...Honest...

Well this is a bit awkward...

I've been in a bit of a slump for a week or so and, as long term readers of this blog may remember, to break out of this sort of thing I usually search through the lead mountain for some 'easy wins', models that won't take too much effort to get me feeling like I'm making progress.

This time I settled on two disparate groups of models that were already based and undercoated: some Iron Age hogs, and a group of Victorian Policemen.

The unfortunate connection between the two didn't actually occur to me until later.

The Victorian Police are from Wargames Foundry and I think were given to me with the intention that I might use one to convert a corrupt cop for my Pulp Gangsters. However, instead of that I've decided to paint them up as is.

Even though I don't play any games with a Victorian setting (yet), my thoughts are that they will serve perfectly well for 7TV Pulp games set in Blighty as Police uniforms didn't particularly change that much by the interwar period. 

On top of this they might actually be the start of another unit for my VBCW/Operation Sea Lion army for Bolt Action. With the addition of a second pack from Wargames Foundry, armed only with truncheons, they will make for a nicely themed Urban Militia unit.

Painting was predictably simple. Kantor Blue with a wash of Nuln Oil and all the usual face, hands, guns and trimmings. I've based them for Bolt Action rather than 7TV as I suspect they'll get more use in that form.

 I've had the Iron Age pigs for some time. I thing I was given them by my day when I made the small MDF pigsty. I've done absolutely nothing special with these. The adults are done with Wyldwood contrast paint, whilst the young were done with Skeleton Horde before having rough Mournfang Brown stripes added followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade.

They'll work well enough as scenery in Saga, or even other games. The farm will simply by rearing rare breeds.

Cobwebs blow off, I'm now ready to get on with something a bit more interesting. Hopefully without upsetting any more of the emergency services.

Acquired: -22
Painted: 39
Lead Mountain: 522

Forging Ahead

I've been busy making steady progress in assembling the miniatures needed for the first scenario in the War in Rohan: The Burning of the Westfold.

However, as well as the miniatures, in order to play this scenario I will also need something to burn. Actually, seven somethings.

Here's one...

I'm quite pleased with this little forge, as its largely constructed from stuff I had knocking around the house: coffee stirrers, tongue depressers (don't ask), cardboard and a scouring pad.

I'm particularly chuffed with how the scouring pad has come out as a thatched roof. The corners are a bit neat, so next time I do something like this, I rough it up before painting.

The back of the forge leaves a little to be desired, with a noticeable gap and a slight lean at the far end. I might add some bits and pieces round the sides, and maybe even put a rough patch on the gap, as if the blacksmith hasn't had time to fix it properly.

At the heart of the building is Mantic's Blacksmith's Forge Terrain Crate, adding so nice details to draw the eye away from the roughness of my building.

Once again, I had warping issues which refused to be totally fixed by hot water, particularly on the gorge itself, so I'm glad it's largely hidden. After the issues I faced with the market set, I'm now in a position of being quite unlikely to spend more money on Mantic Terrain, when I can probably get better quality elsewhere.

However, the smaller bits are really nice and make and add some much needed to detail to what could be a dull piece, and overall I'm delighted with it. It will work in Rohan and all sorts of fantasy settings, such as Rangers of Shadow Deep. What's more, should I ever play Saga again, I can use it there too.

Speaking of being delighted, do you remember these chaps from the last post, and the fact that I wasn't happy with them?

Well, I've recently been watching some live streams from Zorpazorp Gaming, who have a ton of Middle Earth related content on YouTube, and saw a suggestion to use GW's Typhus Corrosion technical paint on Uruk-Hai armour. And so I tried it.

It's really dulled down the metal and made it more grimy, and I'm much happier with it. So much so that I now want to go back to these and add a few more details like white hand insignia.

I'm not sure I'm going to do the same with the rest of my Uruk-Hai, as I was happy with them and it serves to make identifying the different types on the board easier.

Despite the fact that when I bought the Mantic Forge I counted it as six models, given that it wason last year's tally, I'm only calling this one model, as it is only one model. This is set against two character models that have arrived and the tally has stayed rather stable - althoughimm now at the end of the birthday money and so I'll start making headway again soon.

Acquired: 184

Painted: 173

So, it's been a while...

Without being boring, a variety of factors have kept me away from painting and blogging during May. This has prompted rumours of my departure from the blogosphere, however, you'll be delighted to know, that it was simply a temporary hiatus and normal service is about to be restored.

Despite the lack of other activity, I have managed to squeeze a few games in over the past month and this post is all about a quick catch up of my gaming activities.

Way back at the end of April, having got my hands on the Saga Expansion, Northern Fury, I took part in a four-player game of the new scenario, Wooden Oaths. I was using my Vikings as Jomsvikings for a bit of a change and my ally, at least initially, was Pete with his Vikings. Across the table were Matt and his Normans, and Mal and his Saxons.  here's the initial deployment:

Pete advanced some of his force towards Mal's line, whilst the rest move towards me. I was wary of this as Wooden Oaths gives players the chance to switch sides at a moment's notice, and so a bit of backstabbing was possibly on the cards.

Meanwhile, keeping a wary eye on Pete, I charged headlong towards the cowardly, crossbow wielding Normans.  Matt very kindly kept stopping my abilities and so ran my Wrath up nice and early.

 

Pleasantly, Pete didn't betray me, but he did clobber a unit of Matt's cavalry leaving both sides exposed and vulnerable. Never one to avoid an opportunity to be a bastard, in the following turn I charged both Matt and Pete. It was on this turn that we all discovered that Jomsvikings at full Wrath are utter filth. The following turn, to avoid payback, I changed sides again and we all had a friendly chat atop a hill strewn with bodies until the end of turn four when it became every man for himself.

Meanwhile, faced with only half Pete's force, Mal finally attacked and sent the Vikings scurrying back to Norway.

With Pete neutralised, Matt and engaged in a brutal slugging match to see who could die last.

However, with Pete out of the game and Matt and I exhausted, there was nothing to stop Mal's relatively untouched force from claiming victory.

Overall this game was a load of fun and I heartily recommend Wooden Oaths for multi-player games. I'm also glad that I've got an alternative to my Vikings for Saga. The Jomsvikings play differently enough to give variation to my games of Saga until my Bretons get done and there's a brutal pleasure to be taken from watching your opponent struggle with the decision of whether they want to stop the face-stomping now and run up your Wrath, knowing that they are simply enabling a worse face-stomping later.

Early May saw me playing my first game in the club WFB campaign (blog here) which is based on the new campaign book, Blood in the Badlands. Having chosen my starting realm (I'm green) to be close to the Summer Isles, the objective for the first season, I was suddenly threatened on several sides by High Elves, Empire, Orcs and Tomb Kings. Players only fight one battle per turn, so I was matched against Matt's Empire army that had invaded my kingdom.

My Prophetess, Lady Visenya marshalled the peasant levy to muster around the edge of a small hamlet, and despatched a large contingent of Knights to the flank to sweep around the enemy force, which was themed around Matt's War Altar and so thankfully lacked war machines.

The frenzied Sigmarites, led by their 'Arch-Lector', advanced at a pace, but took hea.vy casualties from the Bretonnian arrows and artillery (19 in one shot from the Trebuchet). The Knights Errant swept away the enemy skirmishers whilst the Knights of the Realm and Pegasus Knights thundered into the Inner Circle Knights and ran them down (whist taking a total of zero casualties from the dangerous terrain).

The remains of the Empire host continued towards Visenya in the village, aided by a successful of Final Transmutation that threatened to destroy the Men at Arms, and for a brief moment it seemed that my general might fall beneath the warhammer of the Arch-Lector, until the Paladin stepped up to meet the challenge. With the enemy charge held, the Knights' encircling manoeuvre was complete and they fell like an avalanche on to the rear of the enemy host, routing them and running them down.

In short, I won. But it was one of 'those' games where if it could go wrong for Matt, it did. I destroyed his whole army; he killed about twenty of my models. Here's a picture of the end of the game.  Matt's army is that unit of 15 militia in the middle:

My final game of the month was against...Matt again! This time we played another battle in our ongoing VBCW campagin. Once again the Wortley Militia and their B.U.F. allies would be taking on the Handsworth Volunteers.  We didn't particularly have a story for this game, it was one of many skirmishes during the civil war.

As we were using our bastardised version of 40k for the game, we also used a 40k mission: take and hold.  With two objectives, one in the town and the other in a small cottage along the road near the edge of the table, we would have to split our forces. Matt massed his infatry, supported by his improvised transports in the centre.

To his left, his artillery stolen from the local regiment, was placed to support his strike force attacking the cottage.

 

The Wortley Dragon, my improvised tank, steamed up the road and began to pour fire (to not much effect actually) on the Handsworth centre.

Whilst the Wortley Militia made their way across the cornfields towards the cottage.  However, they were pinned down at the fence line and came under heavy artillery fire.

Meanwhile, the B.U.F. push into the town, firstly met heavy fire and were then hit with a charge by the Handsworth Sword Dancers. Taking refuge behind the wreckage of their vehicles, the B.U.F. drove of the cavalry and pressed on towards their objective.

However, the destruction of the Wortley Militia and the failure of the Dragon to seize the initiative saw the cottage fall into the hands of the Handsworth men.

Realising that time was running out, the B.U.F. mounted a desperate final push saw to take the town. Despite infliciting terrible casualties on the enemy, a single vehicle contested the objective and the day belonged to Handsworth.

Once again the light-hearted setting of VBCW made for a fun game and saw sentences uttered that had never before graced the English language: "the Lewis guns on the bus with open fire on the Rington's Tea Van." What's more, I feel that our games continue to show that the rules for Warhammer 40k are actually fast, fun and balanced when you actually stop trying to balance things with special rules and points.

This week will see me playing Flames of War against Pete in our long-delayed 'tank-off'. My next post will also demonstrate that I've actually been doing some painting too.

Spring Tide: A Tale of Woe

Last Sunday was the second WFC Saga event, Spring Tide, held (after some last minute terrain shifting) at the Green Room in Sheffield. Unlike the previous event, Winter is Coming, held last November, this was a campaign day rather than a straight tournament. There were 12 players divided into three factions: Vikings, Welsh and Anglo-Danes/Saxons, using four point warbands. We fought over the area surrounding Shrewsbury after the local Saxon Cheiftain had died leaving a power vacuum.

I brought along my Viking warband, looking forward to getting stuck in...oh how I would be disappointed...

Game 1 - The Battle of the Pant Mounds

Clash of Warlords vs Carl's Welsh

Vikings: Warlord, 8 Hirdmen, 8 Bondi, 8 Bondi

Welsh: Warlord, 4 Teulu, 4 Teulu, 8 Priodaur, 8 Priodaur

The Welsh Warlord and his loyal retainers stride to the top of a rocky outcrop to survey the field of battle.

Seeing the Welsh position divided by the great hill, the shrewd Viking chieftain elects to mass his warband on the left, facing only half of the Welsh force. His goal was to smash this part of the enemy warband before their Warlord could bring up his support. The Viking also aimed to hit the end of the Welsh line first to avoid the inevitable hail of javelins if the Northmen strayed too close to the heights.

The Vikings advance confidently towards the Welsh. Despite taking a couple of hits from the enemy Javelins, the Bondi smash into the Priodaur and drive them back.

With the Priodaur pushed back, the Teulu were isolated below the hill. The Viking Warlord knew that if he could slaughter these seasoned warriors in full view of their Chieftain, the Welsh leader would surely become dismayed and lose stomach for the fight (I was aiming to wipe them out and spread fatigue to the Warlord and Teulu on the hill), and so he lead his storgest Hirdmen screaming war cries towards the enemy.

A lone Teulu staggered away from the fight (curses!) and it seemed that the Vikings would continue their surge deep into the Welsh lines. However the Welsh Warlord simply seemed more incensed by the slaughter of his men and he and his retainers hurled javelins down upon their foe with great wrath, slaying the greater part of the Hirdmen (I wasn't aware that the Welsh were allowed to be equipped with machine guns!), leaving only one alive.

The Viking position suddenly looked desperate as the Welsh began to press forwards, hurling javelins as they came.

The howling Welshmen savagely hunted down the last Hirdman.

And their Warlord led the chase after the defeated Viking leader.

It was only a matter of time until they caught him.

Ignominious defeat. This game began well, but when my big charge was blunted by the survival of the Teulu and the subsequent hail of death that the Welsh unleashed I was literally caught between a rock and a hard place. I'm not sure what I would have done differently, not having archers meant that I had to go after the Welsh, which plays into many of their most effective abilities. A unit of Levies (that I don't own) would have made the Welsh come to me and the Viking counter-punch is deadly.

Carl said that this was his first proper game of Saga, but I'd say that he'd got the hang of is already, he did everything right to take advantage when I overstretched myself. This game also set the tone of my day against the Welsh. Chase them down, fail to make a significant impact, get whittled down in a hail of javelins, have my Warlord killed by a final charge. Read on, you'll see I'm right.

Game 2 - Dispute at Wem

Challenge vs. Mal's Anglo-Danes

Viking - Warlord, 4 Berserkers, 8 Hirdmen, 8 Bondi

Anglo-Danes - Warlord, 8 Huscarls, 4 Huscarls with Dane-Axes, 8 Ceorls

The Anglo-Danish Thegn strides out from the shieldwall to parley with the Viking raiders.

When talks turn to dispute, the loyal Ceorls rush out to support their lord, driving the Viking back...

...but the ambush incenses the Berserkers who leap forward into the fray...

...butchering the Ceorls...

...and severely wounding the Thegn.

More warriors rush forwards to support both Warlords.

The Huscarls leap towards the Viking Cheiftain...
...but the Bondi leap to his defence and the Huscarls are driven back.

In a last bid for glory, the last of the Huscarls sweep forwards bringing their great axes down upon the brave Bondi...

...yet the arrival of a host of Hirdmen sees off the last Anglo-Danish threat...

...and they surround the Thegn and cut him down.

Victory! From the moment that Mal's initial assault with the Ceorls failed to have a significant impact, this game was going my way. The Berserkers were outstanding, slicing through the Ceorls and then inflicting a massive eight wounds on the Warlord. This put the battle firmly in my grasp and the fact that I still had eight Hirdmen left to bring in at the end is indicative of what was happening to Mal's dice.

To be honest, I feel that of all the factions, the Anglo-Danes are the ones that I've got the measure of with my Vikings. Speed seems key to taking the initiative in the Challenge and the use of Frigg to gain a charge range of L with no fatigue cost, gives the Vikings the edge in speed over the Anglo-Danes, who seem to be at their best when they sit back.

That was the high point of the day in terms of winning and losing, and I went of to lunch feeling full of optimism. Little did I know (as I bought my M1A1 Shermans with the 15% discount JP had arranged for the day at Wargames Emporium - great move) that my afternoon would be full of Welsh, Welsh and more Welsh. And defeat, defeat and more defeat!

Game 3 - The Massacre at Oswestry

4 Players: Viking vs. Welsh

My Vikings: Warlord, 8 Hirdmen, 8 Bondi, 8 Bondi

Gaz's Vikings: Warlord, 6 Hirdmen, 6 Hirdmen, 4 Hirdmen

Mike's Welsh: Warlord, 4 Mounted Teulu, 4 Teulu, 4 Teulu, 4 Mounted Priodaur, 4 Priodaur

Dave's Welsh: Warlord, 4 Mounted Teulu, 8 Mounted Priodaur, 8 Priodaur, 12 Levy (Javelins)

The Northmen had learned that a Welsh warband (Mike's) had camped for the night outside of Oswestry, awaiting reinforcement for an assault on the town.
If the Vikings could concentrate their forces before the Warband was reinforced, they could destroy the Welsh piecemeal and so they advances on the Welsh camp from two directions.

Welsh scouts spotted the advancing Vikings, hurled their javelins and fled back to their lines.

The horde of Welsh reinforcements appeared on the horizon to the south, the Viking had not made enough headway.

More Welsh scouts skirmished with the flank of the northern Viking force.
Whilst the massed cavalry ambushed the spread out western Vikings. However, the norther Vikings were now ready to hurl themselves into the Welsh lines. 8 Hirdmen were poised to attack only 4 Teulu and spread fatigue through the enemy lines before pressing on to slaughter the isolated Warlord...

...this picture has been censored due to images of unseemly brutality on the part of the FOUR Teulu agains the EIGHT Hirdmen, however the dice I rolled tell the story of what happened pretty well.

With the loss of the Hirdmen, thing looked grim for the Northmen.

The remaining Vikings were picked of by javelins and coordinated charges.

One Viking Warlord fell.
Quickly followed by the other. A slaughter!

To be honest, I think the Gaz and I were always going to be up against it in this game. We lacked numbers and any ranged ability and were quite badly separated at the start. The enemy had cavalry and javelins a plenty and Mike and Dave knew what they were doing so they used a combination of Taunt, Hit and Run and Holy Ground to isolate and destroy our units one at a time. A spectacularly bad round of combat from my Hirdmen didn't help, but I still think we would have lost.

On the other hand, this game was probably the most fun of the day simply because it was so desperate as Gaz and I tried increasingly futile tactics to get back on terms.

At least having played the Welsh twice and the Anglo-Danes only once I would probably find myself up against a less tricksy Anglo-Danish force in the next game...

...WRONG!

Game 4 - The Halls of Valhalla

12 Players across three boards

On my board:

My Vikings: Warlord, 8 Hirdmen, 8 Bondi, 8 Bondi

Mike's Welsh: Warlord, 4 Mounted Teulu, 4 Teulu, 4 Teulu, 4 Mounted Priodaur, 4 Priodaur

Andy's Welsh: Warlord, 4 Teulu, 4 Teulu, 8 Priodaur, 12 Levies

Kev's Anglo-Danes: Warlord, 4 Huscarls, 10 Ceorls, 6 Ceorls, 12 Levies

The Welsh had arrived to capture Shrewsbury and the Saxons manned the Church hoping to defend both roads to where other battles were taking place for control of the the town. Initially dismayed by the appearance of Viking on his flank, the Saxon Thegn was relieved when to appeared that the Viking had only one aim, vengeance upon the Welsh.

The Viking line surged forwards towards their bitter foes.

Despite taking losses to the Welsh javelins, the Vikings pushed on...

...and the Hirdmen looked set to isolate and slaughter the Welsh Warlord.

Suddenly, the Welshmen took the initiative and after a withering hail of javelins, their Warlord led the Teulu into the Hirdmen, butchering them and then the Viking Warlord.

The Bondi were left isolated and confused.
Ripe to be hunted down by packs of screaming Welshmen.

Meanwhile, after trading arrow and javelins on the other flank, the stand off was altered by the arrival of another horde of Welshmen.

Despite their stalwart defence, the Anglo-Danes couldn't hope to stand against this new enemy...

...and the end was inevitable.

Aaarrgghh! I had him. I was facing Mike again and I was poised to smash into his Warlord and wreak my vengeance, but on a single dice roll, he seized the initiative and the window of opportunity was closed with javelins.

I really need some bows.

And so ended my day and the campaign. The Welsh had driven the Saxons out of Shrewsbury and into Mercia and what remained of the Vikings returned north empty handed.

Tactically, I don't think I did too much wrong despite getting hammered three times by the Welsh. As I said earlier, I do need to get round to painting some Levies as I was critically short of range a lot of the time. I also think that 8 Hirdmen is too much in a four point game of Saga. I was sacrificing a Saga dice for either complete overkill or total dice fluffing. I probably won't take such a big unit in small games again. I did have some bad dice at some crucial moments, but that's dice games, if your going to complain about dice you might as well stop playing. The key point is that my opponents really took advantage very well when things went wrong for me. I was beaten by good players, not dice.

At the end of the day was the prize-giving. The Welsh players all got one of the Limited Edition Macbeth models for their victory and I fear that the Scottish hordes may descend upon us next time. To my surprise I was given most sporting (it's really nice to know that people enjoy playing against you) and was given the choice of several prizes. I chose this:

This seemed to cause some surprise as I turned down a Jomsviking Warband. My reasons were simple: I'm building a Breton Warband and was planning to convert William as my Warlord anyway; I already have Vikings that I can use as Jomsvikings; the Jomsvikings would go to the back of my painting pile (remember those tanks I bought at lunch?); and most importantly I'd just spent the day being slaughtered with a force very similar to the Jomsvikings...I'd had enough. Give me horses and javelins for the next one please!

More importantly, the Jomsvikings then went to Mike who deservedly won the prize for best painted warband. Given how brilliant his Welsh are (sadly my pictures don't do them justice), those Jomsvikings are going to be stunning. Also, the next time we meet he'll have slow moving chaps with no bows and I'll have horses and javelins...vengeance shall be miiinnnneee!!!!

All in all a great day. Well organised, well run, great location, great games, nice people, cheap figures. What more could you ask?