The Mists Recoil - Dark Shadows Game Reimagined for Warlords of Erehwon

Boðvoc and I finally got around to playing the second game in our campaign based on GWs Dark Shadows booklet.

Boðvoc has done sterling work adapting it for Warlords of Erehwon (henceforth known as WoE). He even wrote a preliminary scenario to determine who was the attacker and who the defender for The Mists Recoil.

NB: I'm having problems orienting the photographs again, so I've removed some of them.  I also forgot to take any of the final turn or two, it was too exciting.

The Scenario 

The original scenario is designed to use the Warhammer Fantasy skirmish rules, essentially those used in Mordheim. We decided not to try to adapt WoE to anything smaller scale; hopefully the rules would be robust enough for our purposes.

The attacker is trying to land their forces in the teeth of an artillery battery and a skeleton defence force (literally, in our case).

The dwarves are arriving in a number of boats at the only safe landing on this stretch of coast. Each unit had it's own boat, a mix of card models, a resin boat and an XPS craft I built years ago for DnD.

In the original, the attacker has 500 points, the defender has three war machines and just 50 points.  Neither side has any magic. 

After working out sample WFB lists and comparing them to the WoE lists, Boðvoc decided on 750 points for the dwarves and 200 for the undead, plus three war machines. 

The invaders are in as many boats as necessary, which move a random 2D6" each turn, with a chance of getting stuck on sandbanks.

He also adapted the Albion weather table, mostly to lessen it's effects on the game (ha).

The Undead 

I had an Undead Hero as the leader of my force. Given the model (a lovely Gary Morley Armoured Wight Champion), I gave it heavy armour. 

The main defence was two Skeleton Bolt Throwers and a Large Stone Thrower (the marvellous Skull Chucker).

I rounded out the force with seven Skeleton Archers. The three war machines are free for this scenario, but I upgraded the stone thrower to a large machine from my small points allowance. 

The Undead Defenders

The Dwarves

Boðvoc had five units; Amlodi Forkbeard, dwarven chieftain,  accompanied by his four drinking companions, Gunnar Funðinsonn Dwarf Ranger and his mates, Ulf the Ranger plus friends (I can imagine some rivalry between these two units), a unit of Archers and a unit of Dwarven Guard led by Brokkir.

Opening Moves 

I threw for the weather, getting 'Misty'; visibility reduced to 1D10+6". Hmm, it looks like the Isle of Albion wasn't quite ready to give up it's secrets to those hairy dwarves. 

This led to a strangely bloodless opening few turns, with the dwarves inching forward while the skeletons scanned the fog, looking for targets.

The Dwarven Fleet sails on

"Row, row, row yer boat"

The Dwarf Guard reach the shore "Land Ahoy!"

The Undead Defenders poised for action

The Main Battle 

Eventually the boats reached the shore.  Brokkir's Guard were first to land, but the mist concealed them as they advanced in the direction of the defenders.  

The remaining dwarves soon joined them ashore, but as the mist thinned, the Skeleton catapult spotted Gunnar and his Rangers.  Fortunately for the dwarves, the shot went wide. In response, the rangers take out one of the catapult's crew.

The dwarven archers target their skeletal opposites, although many arrows seem to strike true, none of the bony lads fall. The skeletons return the favour, but the dwarven armour is too tough for their arrows.

The dwarves otherwise advance towards the cliffs and the undead scan for targets (at this point, most of the advancing dwarves were hidden in the mist).

 

The Dwarves have landed

The mist finally clears, allowing the catapult to target Ulf's rangers, killing four and forcing them to take cover.  Gunnar orders his rangers to return fire ("we've got this for you, Ulf laddie") and take out the remaining catapult crew, neutralising the threat.

The dwarf archers destroy two of the skeleton archers, the bolt throwers target the standing dwarven missile troops, but only 1 of Gunnar's Rangers falls.  The remaining dwarves advance.

The mist rises again.  The dwarven archers finally see off the skeletal archers, but one of the bolt throwers forces Gunnar's Rangers to take cover.  

Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill to tackle the bolt thrower behind the hedge, dragging his reluctant guard with him (they had to carry his beer barrel!).  The hedge proves little defence, and the crew are pounded into dust.  In response, the hulking Undead Champion slays one of Amlodi's guard.  The dwarves hear a thin hissing sound as their axes fail to bite on his armour; could the foul creature be laughing at them?  The dwarves cowered in fear, though Amlodi later claimed that it was a bad batch of beer.

The mist turned to drizzle, giving better visibility, though by this stage all troops could see each other.  Brokkir's dwarf guard rushed the bolt thrower facing them, quickly destroying the crew.  Now only the Champion remained to halt the dwarven invasion.

Amlodi was in no state to appreciate his triumph, he lay shivering in the mud with his drinking chums.  Elsewhere, Brokkir and his troops faffed around behind the hedge (slight misreading of the rules on obstacles here).  

The dwarves close in

The End Phase 

With the defenders reduced to just the champion, the dwarves had cleared the way for their army.  But they still wanted to destroy the huge creature.  

Amlodi was to take no part in this, apparently he wanted to see what the rest of his lads could do.  Archers shot, Rangers scrambled up cliffs and hacked, but in the end, the spirit inhabiting the corpse saw that it's task here was over.

It had failed to hold off the dwarves, due partly to the cursed mists.  

His master's new ally, that dark clad stranger, had promised the weather would be to their advantage.  He lied.

There would be more bodies to inhabit, more battles to fight ere Albion was won, but for now the spirit fled back to it's master to await further orders.

Only the Undead Champion remained atop the hill.

Reflections

Well, that was a great fun game.  I think both of us had a fair idea of how it would play out on the table top, but we were both wrong.  The first few turns may not look like much (the dwarven boats slowly moving forward, concealed by the mist), but it was actually quite tense.

As I expected, once the dwarves got on to the hill, the Undead were doomed.  I hadn't expected the dwarven shooting to be so effective, and I expected a bit more from mine.  I didn't manage to take out a single dwarven unit, though I found the image of the proud dwarven leader cowering in the mud at the feet of the mighty Undead Champion hilarious. I suspect Boðvoc doesn't agree.

We made a few minor mistakes, but we are becoming more conversant with the rules, and they seem pretty good for our purposes.

You can read the victor's account over on The War Crow

A Note on the Terrain 

I was hosting, so the terrain is mine. This is part of my ongoing upgrade of my wargaming terrain.  The baseboard is in the process of being made, for this battle I simply used the three 2' x 4' sheets on the dining room table.  The 'grass' is one of those cheap fake grass mats from Lidl, with the blue cloth I used to use for games of Man o' War for the sea.  The two part hill is a recent build, and not quite finished.  I do intend to rebase those hedges in the near future too.

What's Next?

The next scenario is an Ambush.  The victorious dwarves are pushing forwards, trying to catch the undead already on the isle.  I will have twice the points of the attackers, I guess I'd better get some more undead painted then.

I certainly need a Dark Emissary, and have been collecting bits to kitbash one.

MEGAforce Boardgames Night: Dad's Army

T'Other One and I played his copy of the Dad's Army, a recent charity shop acquisition. 

The game was a 2021 re-release, the original, by Denis Fisher was released in the 70s.

Set up for play

How to Play

Each player has two characters, cardboard standees with cartoon versions of iconic characters (Cpt Mainwaring, Sgt Wilson, Lance Corporal Jones, Pike, Walker, Godfrey, the Vicar and the Verger). They are paired by token colour. 

The objective is to be the first to get both characters to a square, randomly determined at the start of the game, and different for each player. Movement is by d6 throw, and all movement points must be used. 

To help and hinder, various squares are War Department depots, with cards that allow an additional move of a specified character; air raid cards that move all characters* to the air raid shelters, then players place a random number of bomb tokens, which block squares (certain squares are 'unbombable', though not, interestingly, the safe squares you are aiming for); 'Union Jack' cards that allow removal of a random number of bombs; and the Mr Hodges card, allowing the player to swap any character on the board* with the irritating ARP Warden. 

And that's it.

T'Other One has played this before, it was my first try. The game took about 30 minutes to play. 

Who do you think you are kidding?

For me, if a game based on an IP is to work, it has to provide a good play experience, and it also has to feel like the IP (I must finish off my post about GWs Doctor Who game).

Dad's Army does neither.  

There are some interesting game play ideas, but they aren't used to best advantage. Placement of bombs can be quite tactical, but the availability of Union Jacks means they are a minor hazard. 

The one sheet rule book is sketchy, and often confusing.  I suspect folk less used to board games would find it baffling. 

As for the Dad's Army feel, the board artwork is reasonable, with some reference to both Wartime Britain, in the form of propaganda posters and locations such as Jones' Shop (but sadly no Jolly Roger Ice Cream Parlour).

There is no practical difference between the different characters, you're simply moving bits of cardboard around. You could replace the names and you'd have a rather pedestrian board game nominally set in Wartime Britain. 

Grades

I'll give this one a D. Possibly a D+ for mechanics and D- for veracity to the source material and general 'feel'. 

The potentially interesting ideas in gameplay can't raise it to a C because it's so annoying seeing them wasted here. For instance, at the start of the game each player draws two numbered cards, one pink and one black, to give a grid reference for their destination square. This is neat (though better colour printing on the board would make this more obvious) but it's never used again. It could be used for the bombs (though that removes tactical placement), or at least for where Hodges sends an opposing character, and surely there could be extra War Department cards that capitalise on the random location generation?

I would have liked to have seen more characterisation; perhaps Godfrey moves slower?  Maybe some reference to specific situations in the episodes?  But I doubt it would be worth it.

I understand that T'Other One is donating it to another charity shop.  Hopefully the next purchasers get more out of this than we did.

Caveats

I mentioned above that the game is a re-release.

The original game has a backstory of the Home Guard in an occupied Warmington On Sea. There are landmines to cope with, and part of the objective seems to have been to cover swastika markers with Union Jacks.  Understandably, these have been removed in the modern version, but I'm not sure if there was any more interesting game play involved with this aspect.

I wonder if a casual group with a love of the source material might enjoy this?  Even so, I think they might expect a bit more characterisation.

*unless the character has arrived at the destination square, in which case they're safe.

Citadel Skull chucker Painted

Long time readers might remember that I picked up the Skull Chucker at RECON in 2023? Back when I was just starting to collect Oldhammer minis?

The Skull Chucker came in MD8, Machinery of Destruction,  Undead War Machines. The set also included a skeletal chariot, and came with it's own backstory (you can find it on Stuff of Legends).

It might have taken a while get around to it, but Dark Shadows has given me the impetus to get it done. I need three war machines, since, following Boðvoc's introductory scenario, I'm defending the shores of Albion against the marauding dwarves. 

Machinery of Destruction,  the Skull Chucker

Painting the Skull Chucker 

After stripping and re assembly, painting was straightforward.  I used the same method that I use on ordinary skeletons.  

I'm not sure it's quite as effective on such large bones, but it certainly fits in with the rest of my undead. 

I added some thread, which doesn't quite look right now I've painted it; a combination of colour choice and it not matching the sculpted rope detail on the catapult arms. At least I can repaint it at some later date. Perhaps I should have completely covered the existing detail?

The catapult with it's ammo

From the side

Rear view - skulls go here!

The Crew

These were painted the same way as all my skeletons.  The minis are nice, with little details like the shackles on some of the crews' ankles. 

Presumably the big bone is some something to do with a winding mechanism, and the pile of skulls is fun.

The Skeleton Crew

The crew again

Rear view

While I'm not completely happy with the painting, especially the actual Skull Chucker, I'm delighted to actually own this Oldhammer gem and it's great to get it finished.  It was a lot of fun to do.

What's Next?

At some point I'd like to make a base and magnetise everything, but that's not immediately necessary. 

I need two more War machines in our next game; they're already finished, just waiting for their post to be finished.  They are quite different from the Skull Chucker, so they'll get their own post. 

Undead aside, I'm continuing with the Scrapjacks, and I have a few bits of other stuff in progress,  such as some more Rangers. 

More Morley

Following on from the last post, I should mention these two skeletal musicians. 

These are from the Skeleton Command set (4514/2 and 4514/3), all sculpted by Gary Morley. Like the zombies, they were released for 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles, so Middlehammer rather than Oldhammer by most folks' reckoning, but I like them, so that's all that matters really.

Two Skeleton Musicians

These were a kind gift from good friend T'Other One, who has a huge collection of undead of all kinds. (Check out his blog, appropriately called Vault of the Undead). Luckily for me, these were surplus, and I eagerly snapped them up. 

Many thanks, these chaps will be joining my growing undead horde. I'm short of one skeleton for my Necromancer's personal guard; the more ornately equipped one will be just right. The other chap will work nicely among my growing horde.

Recent Purchases and a Find

More Zombies

When I painted the most recent batch of Zombies I was impressed by the Gary Morley minis.  

These were produced for fourth edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle (1992). They might not be quite the Oldhammer aesthetic, but they are nice minis nevertheless, so I kept an eye out for any more. 

While browsing evilbay I found some at a reasonable price, so I've three more to add to the collection, a command set, and what I originally thought was one of the ordinary zombies.

Three zombies and a 'bot

The chap on the left isn't actually a Gary Morley sculpt. In fact it's not even Citadel.  I finally IDed it as one of the Marauder Skeletons (MM 50 06/B) sculpted by Aly Morrison. It might technically be a skeleton, but it sure looks like a zombie to me; in fact several of the MM50 skeletons would do as zombies (check them out on Lost Minis Wiki)  

It fits in well with the GW look of the time, and it's nice to have another 'martial' zombie.

The two members of the Zombie Command will go nicely with the recent mob, though the standard bearer could paint up as a skeleton, having less flesh on it than the Marauder 'skeleton'.

They're currently all sitting in the Dettol bath and will get added to the painting queue soon.

'bot for Scrapjacks?

And finally, a robot.  I found this clanker while clearing through a box of stuff. It one of a handful that I bought back in the 1980s.  It's actually a cake decoration,  and originally had flexible arms and pincer claws.  I bought a few to use in Rogue Trader games,  though never got beyond removing the arms.

I'm showing it here because I think it would be ideal as a maintenance bot in Scrapjacks.  Sadly,  only one isn't really enough.  I do have more,  somewhere,  but probably not another five.  And I do wish now that I hadn't removed those pincer arms.

I may paint it up anyway, it should be fun. I might find something suitable to replace the missing arms.

What's Next?

I'm busy painting stuff (as well as rehearsing), Scrapjacks and things for the next Dark Shadows game. 

Edit 

A Google search shows the following information about the little robot. 

More Miscellaneous Zombies

In between building the Scrapjacks I've finished off a unit of ten zombies. I started these last year, and for some reason I got stuck with them.

Still, all done now, so here they are.

Ten zombies.  Brainzzz

Miscellaneous Zombies 

I needed another ten zombies for the third battle in the Terror of the Lichemaster campaign. These minis are a mix of manufacturers, though many of them are Citadel/Games Workshop.

Painting was straightforward, much the same as the dancing zombies I did last year. I'm not sure the skin tones came out quite as well, but en mass they look fine.

Citadel 

Six GW/Citadel Zombies

Shambling away

The oldest mini (extreme left) is an Unarmed Zombie, ADD96 (3a) sculpted by Bob Naismith. Released in 1986 when Citadel did official AD&D minis. He was missing his slotta tab, but it was simple to pin him on a base. He's a nice zombie (if that's ok to say), though he lacks the character of some of the C18 zombies such as Peck Gregory or Khand Meat.

Then there are three are Gary Morley sculpts, Zombie 1, 3, and 6. They date back to 1992. A couple of these look suitably ex military, wit bits of armour, so I gave them the black and yellow livery that seems to crop up a lot in my painting, though always, so far, in the hands of the opposition. I really like these sculpts, especially the chap with the helm. My only complaint is that they are large compared to a lot of my older minis,  but differing heights is definitely a thing. I wish I had more of these. 

Finally (the two on the right) a couple of the plastic Zombie regiment multipart minis from 2000. Not a lot to say here. They're OK, but detail is a little shallow. I've got a lot of these, so I suppose I'll be painting more of them in the future. They are at least a great source of bits, and I'll be using them for various projects in the future.

Grenadier and Ral Partha

Zombie and Wight

Grenadier (l) and Ral Partha (r)

The chap on the left is a Grenadier zombie, but from their Horror range rather than a fantasy mini. I thought he looked a bit like a butler, hence the black jacket.

The right hand mini is a Dungeons and Dragons Wight from Ral Partha rather than a zombie, but it looks the part. He was difficult to photograph well, his hunched pose hides a lot of the details. 

I realise that these two look rather same-y together. 

And Finally..

Zombie and ????

Asgard and ????

These two are an Ásgarð FM 73 Zombie and an unknown,  possibly a ghoul? Probably not a zombie. They are fairly crude by modern standards, but they both painted up nicely and I'm pleased with the results.

Thanks to the Old School Miniatures Facebook group for IDing the Ásgarð zombie and tracking down the exact sculpt of the AD&D zombie.  Alas the last mini seems to have foxed the collective.  If you know what it is, please leave a comment.

So ten zombies for Heinrich Kemmler to make life miserable for the villagers of Frugelhoffen. They'll also crop up in my Warlords of Erehwon Undead force as they (slowly) attempt to invade Albion.

They have a rather mixed look, and I might split them into smaller units to later bulk up to ten.

What's Next?

I'm painting Scrapjacks, but I do need to get some stuff done for the next Dark Shadows game.

Kitbashing Scrapjacks

As March rattles towards its conclusion and we see the turn of another season (and I see that bus pass edge ever closer), how am I doing with the Scrapjacks stuff I planned last post?

Well, everything is built and I'm on with the painting.  They were generally fun to do, so here's what I've got and how I did it.

Scrapjacks 

There are four types of  'jacks in the Quickstart.  Each has a different role, and, conveniently, they have different equipment, so should be recognisable on the board.  

While I'm not trying to match every bit of equipment, it does give me something to aim at and it should help with identification when playing the game.

The four 'jacks ready for painting; Patch, Torch, Rigger and Yard dog

Patch 

Patch is the medic who also deals with suit breaches; essentially it's their job to keep the rest of the crew functioning.  A big case full of first aid gear and something that looks like it might seal tears on EVA suits will emphasize the role.

I used Stargrave body and arms, with an Anvil Industries helmet. I chose the left arm with big case and found a neat device on another left arm that looks like a staple gun. It was easy to switch this on to a right arm/hand; presumably it seals suit breaches. I used one of the fabric looking packs on the back.

Torch

Torch 

Torch carries a wrecking bar and a coil pistol. Its their job to open things up to find that valuable salvage. The wrecking bar is the distinctive kit, so I modelled something to show it.  I was actually thinking of something along the lines of a Hooley Bar* (Halligan Bar in the US). I'm sure it would do the job nicely. 

The body is one of the Stargrave Mercenaries, with an Anvil Industries bubble helmet. The Halligan Bar is scratch built using plasticard built on the Stargrave arm holding a missile which was shaved down to leave the shaft for the bar and provided the spike.

They have a pistol in the right hand (I couldn't think what else to use). The pack is from the Warpath Firefight GCPS Infantry sprue.

Rigger

Rigger's fancy pack

Rigger is armed with a coil pistol and a vibro-knife, a fairly generic load, but their speciality is getting stuff to work, even if only temporarily; if Torch can't break it open, Rigger bypasses the electronics.  

So some sort of tech device, and definitely the data pad to show the role.

I chose an open helmet. I see it as a clear secondary visor inside the gold tinted one; Rigger needs the best vision possible when working.

The left arm with data pad is was a given. The device in the right hand is the top of the missile from one of the Stargrave sprues (definitely not a sonic screwdriver).

The fancy pack is the Rangers Com Pack from Mantic's GCPS Infantry sprue. 
.

Yard dog (sorry, no pic, I seem to have lot it) is the muscle, armed with a Riot gun and a shock baton.  There's lots of gun options on the Stargrave sprues, it's just a case of choosing a nice one.  

The shock baton is a mace taken from the Oathmark Human infantry sprue, and the pack is a cylindar and greebles from the Stargrave sets.

There are some options that closely match the illustrations in the Quickstart, but I chose something a bit like the Pulse Rifle in Aliens.

Maintenance 'bots 

"Remove all unauthorized organics"

These are the Mechanite Dreadball team, one of two teams that came as multi part kits allowing coaches to choose different accessories. I chose parts that hopefully make each bot look a bit different from it's fellows. I didn't really have a plan beyond that.

The team, like most of Mantic's Dreadball stuff, is made of 'Restic'. This is a resin/plastic, and gained quite a reputation.  It doesn't clean up as easily as either hard plastic or metals and it can need the hot water treatment to fit. 

In Mantic's defence, it allowed them to get a lot of stuff out at a reasonable price, in a short time, and once cleaned up and painted it looks fine.  I don't think they use it anymore, it's been replaced with resin or a PVC style plastic. 

The bits fit together pretty well, though the arm joints don't have a large contact point.  I foresee some drilling and pinning in the future. 

Raiders 

Six Marauders contemplating a career change to Raiders 

Raiders are the basic humanoid opposition in the Quickstart. I'd grand plans for kitbashing these using GCPS troopers or one of the human Dreadball teams, or even spare Star Saga minis.

But time was passing, and in the end I went for an easy option; Warpath Marauders. 

These date back to the original release of Warpath, shortly after Kings of War. They are variants of the plastic orc sprues, but with some Sci Fi bits replacing the traditional axes and shields.

They are not what I imagine the raiders to look like, and if I like the game well enough to buy the full version, I'll definitely replace them with something like the Stargrave Scavengers or the Death Fields Cannon Fodder. But I've a large box of the Marauders (I've already used some for skulks as they have a useful unshielded left arm), so they'll do.

What's Next?

That's the Scrapjacks built, I'm applying paint now. 

I suspect the main problem will be deciding on colour schemes, though I've a few vague ideas.

Scenery wise I've gathered more than enough bits for the POIs, and I've got a spare computer terminal from Star Saga for an objective. Even better, quite a bit of this is already painted, though I might do a bit of touch up as they are quite old paint jobs.

I've also made a 12 inch square board, which should be sufficient to try the game, though ideally I'll make a second one.

I do have other stuff to do too; some undead for the next Dark Shadows game, and I need to start planning for the next live D&D session.  Plenty to keep me busy!

*I first came across this neat bit of real world kit in "What Abigail Did That Summer", by Ben Aaronovitch.