A Greek Tragedy

The other day I got another of my infrequent game days in against Merlin.  I hosted this time, and we managed to get in two games, a Clash! game and a 1520 point KoWH game.

I used my newly painted, never before seen Greeks (with a couple of units of Scythian allies) and Merlin used his Spartans with mythological help from a regiment of Centaurs plus hero.

The Clash game was a straight up fight, with honours going to my Greeks.  My two phalanxes of hoplites gave me a strong core to my army, and along with the incredibly lucky chance of routing his cavalry early on, the game went very  much my way.

The two Clash! forces face off, Merlin's Spartans at the top, my Athenians at the bottom.

Merlin's Spartans (L to R): Light Cavalry, Kryptea, Commander, Spartiate hoplites and Slingers

My Athenians (L to R): Skirmishers with a Phalanx of Hoplites behind, Commander just peeping out from behind a second Phalanx and Slingers

Sadly, the dice gods deserted me then, that or my planning and tactics were poor.

We played a variant of the Loot scenario, since I had enjoyed it so much against T'Other One in KoW.  This time we were trying to capture, or save, three civilians.  Had it been necessary to determine an outright winner, one of them would randomly turn out to be a spy.  In the end, Merlin won so comprehensively this was unnecessary.  Alas, we wree so tied up in the game that I only took a couple of photos.

The game started with Merlin grabbing one objective with his Criptea Vanguard moving into contact with it.  One of my skirmishing units quickly claimed another, but soon lost it to the marauding herd of Centaurs, these, plus there hero, were a tough proposition, and thoroughly destroyed my attempt at a flanking maneuver with my Skythian allies.  On the other flank, the Spartan cavalry easily snatched the remaining civilian, and held onto him, despite running down a couple of my units plus my poor priest.
It was only in the centre that I really had any luck, and my three phalanxes held out almost until the end against Merlins Spartan king and routed all his main infantry.  Still, it was far too little too late.

A great fun day of gaming, and we both decided to do more KoWH.  it was, perhaps, a mistake to go to just over 1500 points; if we had kept it back to 1250 or so we could have fielded entirely historical forces.

We have both given a lot of thought since the battle to how the lists are built, and have, inevitably, drawn up our own lists in an attempt to reflect how we believe armies of the time were fielded and would fight.

Frostgrave Again

Monday night saw a second game in our intermittent campaign.  The same Necromancer and Soothsayer were there against Hakon the Wise, my nordic style Enchanter.  The fourth player was my eldest who brought a blocky looking warband of Lego minifigures led by an Elementalist, and supported by a suspiciously familiar apprentice.

We played the Mausoleum from the main rulebook, and I had made (most of) a model to represent it. Again, I didn't take notes for a detailed write up, but there were several highlights.

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The Soothsayer's knight, who last game was felled by a wandering  monster late on in the game, this time succumbed to a lowly skeleton in the first turn.

The Elementalist twice tried to cast Elemental Shards into two opposing warbands, both times rolling a 1.  Ouch!   

Fortunately Harry, er the apprentice, was there to Leap him to safety.

Hakon's men face off against the Elementalist's, rather large, thug

By turn four most of the treasure had been claimed, a pretty successful game for all the wizards.

I felt the scenario certainly added to the immersion of the game, though once again we had to draw the game to a close after 4 turns.  With four players, and a relative unfamiliarity with the rules, I don't think that's bad, but I suspect a two player game would play slicker and faster.

Once again we started out pretty bloodless (apart from the poor knight), but by the end, most warbands had been involved in a scrap or two.

Oh, and the red counters?  They were markers to show which models had been activated.

Spartan Light Cavalry

Just completed some light cavalry for my Spartan army. 15mm Westwind/Forged in Battle figures.

Frostgrave Bound

As part of our 'All Change August' we had a four player game of Frostgrave last night.  It was the first game for three of the players (and I have only played a few games).

I used my 'Men of the North' warband with an Enchanter and one of the players used my 'Sons of Empire' with a Summoner., you can see them both here.  T'Other One brought a freshly (and very nicely) painted Necromancer with assorted hangers-on, most, appropriately, from Reaper Bones.  The fourth player had to make do with assorted D&D pre-paints (some of which made my first warband ages ago).

I set up the ruins in advance, using most of my runed terrain on a roughly 3' square mat.

Close to the beginning, the necromancer and soothsayer's warbands can be seen in the top table corners.

Judas the Summoner (just peeking out from under the floor of the ruin) and his warband savagely pick on one of my thugs (in red on the first floor of the ruin).

The battle hots up around the platform between the necromancers forces and those of the soothsayer.

I think it went well, I certainly enjoyed it, though it did play a bit slowly at first as we grappled with the rules. 

We used the new experience chart in Maze of Malcor (and also available here), which doesn't reward kills other than wandering monsters, and is more rewarding of casting spells.  Perhaps because of this, there was very little fighting to begin with.  We all seemed intent on securing a treasure or two before scrapping over the last few.

There were some great moments, including a big melee around the necromancer's and summoner's knights, with various thugs joining in.  One thug dropped a treasure to get there (we quickly house-ruled that dropping a treasure is a free action), leaving it unattended for Hakon the Wise, my enchanter, to Telekinesis it to safely.  We had to draw things to a close after four turns, though by that point all the treasures had been secured.  At the very end of the game, the soothsayer's knight was killed by a wandering skeleton.  Unfortunate.  In the end we all got some gold and a few shinies, Judas went up to level 1, and the rest of us made level 2.

In summary, great fun, and the ruins looked good.  I think the tower I made a while back using foam textured with a Green Stuff World roller looked best, and I must get more terrain made to this standard.  The cardboard stuff is OK, but not on the same level.  I also need to round up more monsters, although very few arrived in this game.  I suppose I could paint another warband for the soothsayer, if we get to playing this as a campaign, probably using either old heroclix/mage knight minis, or the actual official Frostgrave minis.

Milestone

I was quite surprised this morning to see that my little blog has had over 10000 views!  I suspect that quite a few of these are thanks to Mother Russia, but it looks good.

When I started this blog it was for personal reasons. I needed a way to help me organise my hobby time a little better, and I thought that some, at least, of the stuff I was doing was worth sharing.
I guess both aims are being met, though I could still do with increasing my focus on projects (I never did get that 18mm Martian project finished.  I have the minis though, and it might make a fun Dragon Rampant project).

Well, back to painting Ancients for another game of KoWH coming up next week, and thank-you for reading.

More Spartans

I just finished a couple of new units for my Spartan Army, some hoplites and a unit of slingers. I thought it was about time for a group shot. I am really pleased with how this army is coming together with more yet to come.

The Final Battle

With the campaign currently all to play for, we went into the final battle, a straight up fight with 1500 points apeace.

There's a lot more room, but a lot more troops too, nevertheless, I felt a lot less cramped in my deployment.

The Undead advance across the battlefield.  On the orc's left flank the wraiths charge the skulks vainly hiding in the woods and destroy them and their wight comrades do the same to the other skulk troops on the hill.

On the other flank the werewolf horde charges the gore riders who weather the storm with a few casualties.

The Revenant King and the Necromancer try to Surge the revenant cavalry into the greataxes, but their magic is not quite powerful enough (much undead muttering about the lack of quality of the Black Iron Crown).

The Krudger takes a chance and urges his slasher forwards to try and eliminate the wights to secure the left flank.  Unfortunately, although he does significant damage, it isn't enough to destroy them.  Most of the rest of the orc army remains where it is, though the gore riders and the trolls catch the werewolves and wipe them out (extreme top right of photo) and the greataxes charge the revenant cavalry, also destroying them.  The greataxes then withdraw back to the orc lines while the gore riders turned to face the undead lines.

The Revenant King sees his chance and charges the flank of the Krudger.  With the wights attacking as well, the bold orc is wavered.  The wraiths pass through the wood and turn to face the orc flank.  The necromancer attempts to surge them further, but has a minimal effect.  Over by the tower, the zombie trolls charge over a fence into an axe regiment, but they are so disrupted by the obstacle that they manage little damage.

The furious Krudger countercharges the wights and wipes them out while the greataxes target the flank of the foul undead worm that the Revenant King rides.  Despite the huge target they are unable to bring him down.  

The axe horde turns to face the wraiths while two axe regiments charge the zombie trolls and wipe them out.

The Revenant King charges the Krudger and finishes him off.  The wraiths and the mummies both charge the flanks of the greataxes.  They waver the orcs, but can't quite destroy them.  By the tower, the revenants attempt to move closer to the orcs (or away from the gore riders).  Arcane power encourages them to move faster.

The axe horde catches the wraiths in the flank and causes horrendous damage, but insufficient to dispel the unquiet spirits.  The greataxes and axes charge the mummies and tear them to shreds, while the gore riders charge teh revenants near the tower.  Despite the fence hindering them they still wipe out the revenants and grind them into dust.

With few undead troops remaining, the necromancer and standard bearer have to take a more active part.  Both charge an axe regiment, but do little damage.  More successfully, the Revenant King goads his charnel worm and charges the greataxes, finally destroying them.

The gore riders charge the undead standard bearer, wiping him out and then running through to take out the necromancer too. The axe horde finally banish the wraiths, and the axe regiment pulls down the Revenant King, finally wiping out the undead menace. 

Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?

As I mentioned earlier, we are trying a series of different games throughout August.  Last week we tried the Savage Worlds Test Drive 'The Wild Hunt'.  It went well, although the amount of story to get through was a bit ambitious for a two hour session (I suspect it is designed for a four hour convention slot), but with a bit of editing it fitted and everyone had fun.

Last night we played Cthulhu Wars, T'Other One's massive board game.  I have played a couple of times before, but this was the first time I had played it with five players (self included), and my first time with Hastur/The King in Yellow.

That's a lot of monsters (and Great Old Ones)

By the end of the game just about everything was on the board.

Ultimately we had to rush the ending, though we did get a result.  I won, though if we had had more time to finish up properly I suspect that either Shub Niggurath or Nyarlathotep would have beaten me.

Good fun though.

Next week Frostgrave.

Something Ancient, Something New

A quick aside from the War of the Crown AARs.
As I mentioned recently, I was due a day's gaming with Merlin.  Well this happened last week and we got the opportunity to try not just KoWH, but our Clash variant (details here).

Merlin used his Spartans and I used my Scythians.  After the usual 'show and tell' we got down to the first of three Clash games.  As we had both anticipated, it was a pretty quick game, with my cavalry running rings around his infantry.  The game was an Ambush scenario, with one of Merlin's units hidden somewhere in a patch of Difficult Ground.  I managed to stay away from most of the potential hiding places, and pulled of a convincing victory.

This is what can happen when an entire cavalry army takes on a largely infantry force.

The second game was closer, and the third game, where we both had flanking forces was a Spartan victory as Merlin's flanking force was able to take out mine.

We really enjoyed the scale of these battles, and the KoWH system generally.  Being able to get three games comfortably in four hours gaming time (including chat etc) was a bonus.  It occurred to us that this would be ideal for a multi player club game, with each player bringing their own Clash force.

The Chase for the Crown

Following the enormous fun we had with the first battle, we moved on to a 1000 point Invade game.
The undead had the Black iron Crown from the first game, now a larger orc force was pursuing them to try and recapture it.

Both armies face off, the skulks were then able to sneak forwards to the edge of the wood (Vanguard move)

The entire undead army moved forward, the Revenant King using his powers, and those of the Black Iron Crown to surge a unit of revenants further. 

The orcs ignored the horde of zombies on their left flank.  That would be a tarpit they would do well to avoid.  The gore riders on the right flank stayed put; they were just too far away from the revenant cavalry, and didn't fancy being charged rather than doing the charging.  Two regiments of orc axes moved forwards in the middle of the field, and the trolls ranged far ahead over the hill, hoping to draw out the enemy.  The skulks loosed a volley at the mummies, but the damage they did was trivial.

The revenant cavalry held; this was going to be a game of cavalry chicken.  The mummies then charged the trolls, and at the arcane urging of their king, a regiment of revenants joined in.  The trolls took a fair bit of damage, but merely shrugged and stood firm.

Meanwhile, on the orc's left flank those zombies shuffle onwards.

The gore riders had a plan!  They moved forward slightly to bait the revenant cavalry.  At their side, the moraxes readied their blades in anticipation.  The trolls charged the revenants that had hurt them previously, whilst the forward axe regiment charged another lot of revenants.  The Krudger 'encouraged' his pet goblin, who Zapped the Revenant King, but to little effect.  Both the trolls and the axes were disappointing in melee, both did some damage, but had to back off.

Taking the bait, the revenant cavalry charged the gore riders.  The revenants moved in against their troll foes again, and the other revenant unit took on the orc axes.  Seeing an opportunity, the mummies were able to take the axes in the flank.  None of the undead were able to break their enemy, but all the combats were brutal; the axes in particular took a lot of damage, and the trolls were wavered.  

Behind the line, the wights awaited their chance, and those zombies shuffled forwards again, this time over the wall and into Orc territory.

The gore riders sprung their trap; with the help of the morax in the flank, they charged the revenant cavalry. Seeing how tough the revenant infantry were, the trolls withdrew whilst the Flagger rode up to behind them, and the Krudger climbed the hill, dragging his reluctant goblin with him.  The axes charged the revenants, with the skulks to the side charging the revenant flank.  There was insufficient room for the other axe regiment to contact the mummies as the trolls were in the way.  The gore riders and moraxes destroyed the revenant cavalry, but elsewhere the revenant infantry held, thanks to the presence of their king.

The central melee showing how cramped it got.

The revenants charged in against the axes once more, whilst their companions facing the trolls also charged in.  The mummies moved turned to face the troll flank and the Revenant King (s)urged them in.   The zombies began the slow process of turning round to face the orc line, and the Wights once more waited for the chance to fight.  Both the trolls and the axes were slain, the undead took the opportunity to dress their ranks.  They had wiped out a substantial portion of the enemy, and were close to getting their army into enemy territory.

The gore riders marched off into the undead lands, perhaps unaware of how the battle was going on the other side of the hill.  On top of the hill, the moraxes charged the revenants, but the undead warriors held.  The remaining axe regiment charged the mummies, with the help of their Krudger, despite causing considerable damage, the mummies held.  The skulks desperately charged the other revenant regiment, but did little more than a scratch.

In response, the revenants countercharged the skulks and the mummies and Revenant King charged the axes.  The skulks were wiped out, but the axes held.  On the hill, the revenants charged the moraxes and destroyed them, then moved up into enemy territory.

The gore riders continued their march forwards, but the axes and the orc heroes withdrew, the goblin managing to zap the revenants.

The mummies and the Revenant King once more charged the axes, this time wiping them out.  The revenants charged the Krudger, but did little damage to him.

As the battle draws to a close, the orc heroes withdrew, keener to fight another day than be needlessly slaughtered.  On the orc's right flank the gore riders rode 'triumphant', only to realise they were the only orc unit to make it this far and that victory belonged to the undead.