Hobhounds Choice

If you've been following my blog recently, you'll know that I've been collecting the forces required to refight the classic second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles scenario pack Bloodbath at Orc's Drift.

I started with the Severed Hand tribe, the orcs present at Ashak Rise and Orc's Drift. This was partly because they have the smallest number of orcs, but the numbers are made up with ten hobhounds.

The minis deal for Orc's Drift included ten hobhounds, these were solid based dogs with collars and a ring to attach a lead. They were originally part of the Hobgoblin range, back when they had a pseudo Eastern look and before they became slaves of the Chaos Dwarves (and both races lost all fashion sense).

What is a Hobhound?

I've long thought that 'hobhounds' were some Fae canine, there are many such in folklore, but the second edition rule book merely describes them thus; 

"HOBHOUND

Hobhounds are huge war-dogs, or Mastiffs, used by many races to some degree, but very common amongst the Hobgoblin of the Steppe lands".

So not a Fae creature after all, just a dog, albeit of, perhaps, large size (C.O.U.S's?)

So what to use? I've been overthinking this, as usual, and I have come up with three options.

Option one 

I do have one of the original hobhounds, and I also have four Citadel AD&D range Blink Dogs, I used these back when I last played the campaign years ago. I've also got a few other, more modern, dog minis, and these would certainly fit the bill.

L to R; Original Hobhound, four AD&D Blink Dogs, Crooked Dice Boxer and Old School Miniatures wolf

Option two 

I recently picked up nine Karmanthi Demons (17046) in the Ral Partha Europe summer sale. I'd been looking for a more exotic option for hobhounds, and these seemed to fit the bill. 

Once I'd placed the order, I began to doubt their suitability. Several people suggested they looked more feline than canine, and I wasn't sure how big they were (at three for £3.50, they couldn't be that big, could they?).

When they arrived I was delighted. They are a nice size, and the fangs and spikes remind me of the D&D third edition 'dire' creatures, all spikes, horns and fanged evil versions of normal animals. 

While I only have nine of these, I'd feel honour-bound to include the actual hobhound.

**EDIT** 

It has been pointed out to me that without the spikes, these make very good, if large, Schnauzers. If I removed the spines, they'd fit in with the previous lot, which are based on real dog breeds.

Option three 

This one moves away from traditional Old School. I was browsing through the Dark Alliance 1/72nd scale plastic fantasy figures. If you don't know them, many of them are very very reminiscent of minis from a well known series of fantasy films, based on a well known trilogy*. They include several packs of half orc cavalry, and one pack of just the mounts, Wargs. Suitably fierce and canine, and at 20mm shoulder height, suitably imposing. There are two problems, the models have full harness and saddle (they are exactly the same as the ones supplied in all the half orc cavalry packs), and, as Wargs, they are quite distinctive. I'm assuming I could shave off the worst of the tack, and I'd leave the bits around the muzzle anyway, Grashak Kra needs this to control them.

So, dear reader, what do you think? I've a few thoughts, and one option is definitely in third place (but still something I'd be happy with, otherwise, I wouldn't have mentioned it).

Please leave a comment  about your favourite, or have you any other suggestions?

Thanks.

** ADDENDUM **

I've compared the second edition stats for Hobhounds, pack wolves (pretty much ordinary animal type wolves) and  (giant) wolves. Pack wolves are the weakest.  Wolves are faster than Hobhounds and have a higher WS.  But strangely, Hobhounds have considerably better Personal Characteristics, matching the wolf with 4 Int, but having 8 for Ld, Cl and WP, as opposed to the Wolf having 3 or 4

*Dark Alliance do other stuff too, generic goblins, centaurs, minotaurs etc, some of which could very easily be used in 28mm games.  Plastic Soldier Review has a pretty much up to date look at the range

Orc Villager (0508) Orc Vivandiere*

Just a quick post to show my latest eBay purchase, this delightful orc villager sculpted by the talented Trish Carden.

Looks like meat's back on the menu

There were three orc villagers that I was interested in, but I missed out on the other two. That meant I felt I could go a little higher for this lovely lady.

She's missing her tab, and I'll definitely be giving her a new paint job (she's in the Dettol already), but I'm very pleased to add her to my Oldhammer orcs.

I'm starting to get a collection of the Orc villagers. They make great unit fillers. My Severed Hand orcs are mostly in units or multiples of ten, so the villagers are great to bump a unit up to twelve for Dragon Rampant. They'll also make good 'baggage', should that be relevant (it was a thing in third edition Warhammer).

In case you can't make out what's happening from my quick snaps, the orc is carrying a halfling under her arm. The halfling is desperately kicking his legs, while she waves a cleaver. I'll leave it to your imagination what happens next.

*The title Orc Vivandier is mine, Lost Minis Wiki just has her down as an orc villager.

The Walking Dead

MEGAforce tried Mantic Game's 'The Walking Dead' miniatures game recently. As there were only three of us, and it's been a very long time since any of us tried it (back in 2016, during the beta testing), T'Other One graciously offered to act as referee for Grim and myself.

We played through the intro game. Rick and Carl were facing off against Derek, Sandra and Patrick in an attempt to scavenge as many supplies as possible, while avoiding the Walkers, of course.

Starting positions; it's quiet, but there's a Walker near every potential supply point (the round tokens).

As the game progresses, Derek's mob have cleared out most of the supplies, though these included a lurker, a booby trap and an empty cardboard box. Meanwhile, Rick and Carl have only managed to find an old gun and some bandages, and at the cost of Rick being bitten.

Rick and Carl head towards the opposition. If they can't find supplies themselves, perhaps they can take them from Derek and Co?

They attempt to gang up on Patrick and draw more Walkers on to Derek and Sandra in the commotion.

However, despite using the bandages he found earlier, Rick succumbs to the bite.

As the tension rises, Patrick loses his nerve, but in his panic he goes berserk.

Carl doesn't last long on his own against Sandra and Patrick, though he probably gained some satisfaction from seeing Derek ripped apart by Walkers.

Rick regains his feet, but there's a clumsiness to his movements, and an unholy hunger in his eyes. With Patrick already feverish from a bite he took earlier, Sandra had better get out quick.

Aftermath

That was a fun game. I didn't do well with Rick and Carl, holding just two supply tokens, and, well, just actually losing both my characters. Even Carl's Lucky Hat failed to save him from the opposition. Grim split his three to collect as many tokens as possible, Sneaking to avoid Walker notice. I ran in the first turn, which got both Rick and Carl stuck in protracted encounters with Walkers, which resulted in Rick's eventually fatal bite. Grim even played a 'car alarm' event to draw more in against them.

Final Thoughts

The game really gives the feel of the graphic novels (and TV series). Lots of sneaking around to avoid notice, and plenty of flavourful events. There's a mechanism for increasing tension throughout the game as well, with many event cards getting progressively nastier with the rising tension.

I think the only negative I'd say (apart from our lack of familiarity with the rules, which is bound to improve), is the nature of the scenarios. If they are all just scraps over supplies, they could get a bit samey. 

However, there are a whole series of story packs, introducing characters and situations from the comics, and I suspect that these will provide more interest. 

So thanks to T'Other One for generously stepping back and watching us play. I wonder how well the game would work with three or more players?

The Severed Hand Progress

A short while ago I mentioned that I'd painted half the infantry for the Severed Hand tribe. Now I've finished half of the remaining minis, so three quarters of the way there.

These are a mixed bunch of command, spear armed orcs and sword or axe armed orcs and will bulk out existing units.

Another eight Severed Hand orcs

Grashak Kra or C15 (85 - 04)

This Perry Twins C15 Orc is named 'Warlord' in the catalogues, though his tab demotes him to Orc Officer.  To me he will always be Grashak Kra.

Grashak Kra is an independent hero and leads a pack of 'hobhounds'. I've still to decide exactly what I'll use for these, but I've got a few ideas. 

I gave him a colourful crest to his helmet, I may go back and add a little black lining to help it stand out.  He's wearing a tunic of the yellow and black fabric that a lot of his tribe wear.  I'll use this as a uniform when I come to paint some of the Good Force.

The Rhythm Section, ORC1 (C - 01) 

Drummer with hood is a Kev Adams mini from the command packs, he provides an important musical accompaniment for the unit, or at least a steady beat. 

He is one of three variant drummers, and there are also three gong players, such as Luglud, who I painted here.

Check out those feet nailed to the drum

A fun touch is the drum skin. If you look closely you can see a face at the front and feet at the back. He's used the flayed skin of a victim. A nice accompaniment to the quivers here.

Orc with axe and 0502/15, Kroglod Cleaver

I can't find an exact identification for the orc with the axe and helmet, but he looks like a variant of 0502/08, Hurt, in which case these are both Kev Adams sculpts.

They'll fill out the hand weapon armed unit here. I'm looking for a few more orcs with two handed weapons to eventually form their own unit. If they don't have shields, they can be part of any of the tribes. 

0502/09 Orbid and BDD" (09) Orc

Orbid is another Kev Adams orc, I don't know who sculpted the other orc.  

They are both destined to join the rest of the orc spears here.

When I started painting Orbid, I thought he was the same mini as Gubbut the Armpit. But he's a variant sculpt. I chose a paint scheme as different as possible, thinking they were the same. Now I rather wish I'd painted them as similar as possible, so that the differences in the models might stand out more.

Orbid and Gubbut

The other orc comes from the Dungeon Monsters box, back when GW produced official minis for D&D/AD&D.  While they didn't keep the old pig face design, the shield shape and hood are clearly based on the original AD&D Monster Manual illustration.

I thought the hood was like the traditional Hollywood version of a jester, so I painted it in bright colours.

4709/44 Spear 15 and ORC5 (10) Chopit

The imaginatively named Spear 15 is by Kev Adams, and Chopit is a Trish Carden Orc Villager (I've also seen him referred to online as 'burglar').

Spear 15 will join the rest of the spear orcs, while the villager will join the hand weapon orcs. Eventually Spear 15 may join in the two handed weapon unit, as he looks to be wielding a halberd. The villager is currently a filler while I paint more orcs.

A Unit of Spears

I now have ten spear armed orcs, enough for a unit (if I'm playing Dragon Rampant, I'll add a couple of villagers to bulk it up to twelve). 

Looking Ahead

Just eight more Severed Hand orcs to paint.  Plus ten hobhounds, once I've decided what to use.  Hopefully I'll get the rest of infantry finished soon-ish, in fact they are already on the painting table, primed, and ready for the metals.

Old School Miniatures Ewal Dwergar

My recent order to Old School Miniatures included a pack of their Ewal Dwergar. They are very reminiscent of the original Chaos Dwarves, not the more modern Big Hat ones.

They are sculpted by John Pickford, the same chap who did Towerhead, and fit right in with him, though he does tower head and shoulders (and hat) above them.

The pack includes eight bodies, two each of four different sculpts, eight different hand weapons, two left arms, ten different heads and eight plain round shields.

Quality of sculpting and casting is first rate, they look like they will be a joy to paint. I've seen some lovely painted examples on Blues Marauding Miniatures, 

As with the chariot, the price is very affordable (currently £18 for the pack of eight). I'm tempted to get a few more packs to build up a small Chaos Dwarf force, perhaps allies of my various orc tribes. All led by Towerhead of course.

Old School Miniatures do quite a range of Ewal Dwergar, including characters, civilians, command, crossbows, handguns, great weapons and cavalry in the form of boar riders (the source of the extra boars I got for the chariot) and boar centaurs. There's even artillery, and an entertaining version of the fabled 'ass cannon'.

Features such as wings, a goat leg or the occasional extra head were common in the original Citadel sculpts, but these are Ewal Dwergar, not Chaos Dwarves. It should be relatively easy to add a greenstuff tentacle or two, should I wish.  Regardless, they are not going to be mistaken for good dwarves.

First Game of Warlords of Erehwon

I recently tried Warlord Games' Warlords of Erehwon by Rick Priestly.  Bodvoc suggested it as an alternative for the size of games we normally use Dragon Rampant for.
The game is based on Bolt Action, a squad level WWII game, and Gates of Antares, a SciFi skirmish game, both from Warlord Games.  I'll admit, I was also looking for a rules system for Orc's Drift.

As an introduction, Bodvoc set up terrain for the first scenario in the book, essentially a straight forward clash.  To add a little extra interest he placed a dwarven statue in the middle of the table, with the intention that my orcs would try and deface it.

We both had just short of 700 points; my orcs vs Bodvoc's lovely Old School dwarves (many of them gifts from myself).

700 points of orcs 

700 points of dwarves 

The field of battle 

The orcs advance 

As do the dwarves

"What are those filthy orcs doing to our statue?"

The high point of the game for the orcs, their leader reaches the statue

The dwarves take back their hill 

This isn't intended to be a full battle report, but essentially, after reaching the hill at the end of the first turn, it all went wrong for my orcs.  I struggled to get through the tough dwarven armour, lacking much in the way of armour piercing weapons, and I never managed to bring superiority of numbers to bear.  

The dwarves, armed with Big Axes or Bloomin' Big Axes cut through the orc light armour like butter.  This was at least partly due to my absolutely appalling dice throwing. 

I eventually conceded after losing nearly three quarters of my army. Bodvoc had lost just five dwarves.  His account can be found here.

Whilst I had a lot of fun playing a game with Bodvoc for the first time in many may months, and it was great to get my orcs on the battlefield at last, I can't honestly say I actually enjoyed the game itself.

There were, of course, issues of not fully understanding the game or the tactics required.  Orcs seem to need a quite different way of handling in Warlords of Erewhon, the dwarves maybe less so?

I'm sure that it was my bad luck that was the reason behind my lack of enjoyment, and I'll certainly play at least one more game to see if it's the game for me.

I really hope it is; there are some great ideas in Warlords of Erehwon.  The book is a good read (something you can't say about a lot of rules books).  Concepts are well explained, and there are photographs of many different manufacturers'' miniatures.  The order dice, used to both determine sequence of play and indicate what actions a unit may perform, are an excellent idea (though we did find a couple of occasions where extra counters were required).  The army lists are comprehensive and army building is straight forward.  There are no super powerful troops, though at the time I thought the combination of well armoured dwarves with bloomin' big axes (its genuinely a term from the rule book, a bit much for my poor orcs.  I shall have to look hard at the lists and choose more wisely.

The armies cover most of the normal fantasy wargaming tropes.  There does seem to have been an effort to avoid some of the more egregiously OP units that may have cropped up in certain well known fantasy wargames, which is all to the good.  

Rick Priestley's website, This Gaming Life has a lot of supplementary material, including extra lists and a points calculator for those wanting to build their own troops from scratch.  The Facebook group also has additional resources and even more lists.

In conclusion, I really want to love this ruleset. At the moment I can't, and I don't know if that's simply because the first game went so much against me that I felt completely powerless, or because I'm noticing things that don't quite gel with what I'm looking for.

If you've any experience of Warlords of Erehwon, please leave a comment.

Only time (and more games) will tell.

Four A Miniatures Towerhead

Earlier this year I received an awesome mini.

He is (they are) Tower head, and how I came to own him is quite a tale.

"So You Ask Me For a Tale of the Acquisition of Miniatures?"

When I was painting the Marauder Goblin Wolf Riders (you can see the finished minis here), there were a couple of bits that I wasn't sure if they were fur or tattered mail, so I searched online for images.

I found Blues Marauding Miniatures and blitzed it from the beginning. A fascinating read, with inspirational painting and some great ideas. The ethos is very much one of collecting what works rather than sticking slavishly to one range or manufacturer. To this end there is mention of several companies producing 'new old school', and I'm always interested to find out about miniature manufacturers who are still producing Old School stuff.

One picture in particular really caught my attention, the Towerhead Chaos Dwarf sculpted by John Pickford and produced by Four A Miniatures. Alas, the links to Four A were dead, so I sighed and moved on.

Then, very recently, there was mention of the Four A range in one of the Oldhammer Facebook groups, and that they were available new on eBay. When I was asked for birthday present suggestions by my daughter and son-in-law, Towerhead was top of the list.

I really like this mini. It harks back to the original Chaos Dwarves before they got fangs and big hats. But more than that, I can see echoes of the film Labyrinth (forty years old!) with Bryan Froud's various wonderful fey creatures. There is a character who argues with it's hat, and I can see these two acting just the same.

If you like the look of Towerhead, he's available here. Follow the link and you'll find more John Pickford Chaos Dwarves and some delightful Kev Adams Goblins.

When I got him (them) he immediately doubled my existing Chaos Dwarf collection. I still have a battered 'Spikes Harvey Wotan' from the White Dwarf mini game 'The Crude, The Mad and The Rusty'. I've since added a pack of Old School Miniatures Ewal Dwergar, also sculpted by John Pickford. They'll get a review post of their own soon.

Future Planning 

I'm looking forward to painting Towerhead, though the amount of detail is a little intimidating. I think I'll go down the enamelled metal route, but I'll use my Ewal Dwergar to experiment.

Once I reach a convenient pause in the orcs of course.

The Severed Hand Orcs

I discussed my initial ideas for collecting orcs based around the classic Orc's Drift campaign pack here. My fairly random painting has produced more Severed Hand Orcs than any other tribe so far, so I thought it was time to assess what I have and what I want to complete them.

The Tribe of the Severed Hand

The Severed Hand are led by Hagar Sheol. The champion Grashak Kra has a pack of ten 'Hobhounds'. There are also thirty warriors in light armour; twenty also have shields and spears and ten have bows.

Looking at what I've got painted, I've managed sixteen orcs, half of the infantry.

Half a Tribe

I'll be treating the twenty spears as two lots of ten, and mixing orcs with spears and orcs with other melee weapons.

Ok, the picture loses much of the details, but you get the idea

Here are five archers, five orcs armed with miscellaneous hand weapons and six spear armed orcs.  

You can find more on the individual groups here for the archers, here for the spears and here for the warriors.

Everything But The Hobhounds

The good news is that I have most of the rest of the tribe in the unpainted pile (see below).  The only thing I'm missing is Hobhounds.  I do have one, but even back when we played through the campaign we had to substitute.  I used the old Citadel D&D Blink Dogs as Hobhounds back then, and I still have some of them, albeit not in great condition.

I checked the description of Hobhounds in the Battle Bestiary and they are any kind of dog commonly domesticated by various races.  The original minis were part of the Hobgoblin range.  They do occasionally crop up in the second hand market, but as Hobgoblins are a fairly sought after army, they aren't particularly cheap, especially for something with relatively limited use.  I'll have to improvise with a selection of various dog models, I'm sure I can find something. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

I've read theories that a more modern version of the campaign would replace the Hobhounds with Squigs (Copper Oracle suggests this in his inspirational Old World Army Challenge Orc's Drift entries here, and the OWAC is well worth checking out).  I suspect that's right, GW tightened up their vision of the greenskins as later editions came out.  But for this project I'm sticking with the Old School feel, so Hobhounds it is

Looking forward 

You've seen the painted infantry, here's the rest.

The rest of the Severed Hand infantry, mostly ready for the painting table 

I'm splitting this lot into two batches of eight, which does put a finishing goal worryingly close.  In fact, I've already started on the first batch. 

Good job I've got those Hobhounds to sort out or I'd be in danger of actually finishing something.

Old School Miniatures

Most of my recent old school mini collecting has been original Citadel from the eighties. But there are companies making old school minis still.  Some of these use the original moulds; I see that the old Minifigs Mythical Earth range is available, and the early Aurora Rococo, with its amazing elves is too.

Other companies sculpt new minis in the old school style, and I've just received some from the appropriately named Old School Miniatures. 

New Old School

I found out about the company from Blue's Marauding Miniatures, a blog I came across when I was searching for ideas for painting my Marauder wolf riders. I'd been looking for an orc chariot for a while, and kept on missing out on evilbay.  I realised that recent minis sales allowed me a bit of purchasing, so I sent off for an orc chariot, a pack of boars and some 'Ewal Dwergar'.

I'll look at the naughty dwarves separately, but I will say that all the minis are very good, and exceptional value.

OSM Orc Chariot

One Orc Chariot, easy assembly

The chariot is sculpted by Andy 'Atom' Taylor and is very good, the archer is rather Kev Adams style, the other crew slightly less so (the driver with the whip reminds me more of the Marauder style) but all look the part, and make very respectable orcs, if you can call orcs respectable.  The only thing I'd have liked to have seen extra is a set of blades, but that's easily scratch built.

I'd like to see more orcs from Andy, but sadly these are the only ones in the range so far.  The remaining minis in their Orcs and Goblins range are all Kev Adams goblins, I believe they were a recent Kickstarter.

The chariot itself is sturdy and goes together well.  I tried to assemble it with Blutac sufficiently for a photograph, but that didn't work. You can see a fully assembled and painted chariot on OSM's website.

I suspect the crew would have preferred a higher front for their own protection, but it makes it easier to see them.  

The wolves are OK, but stylistically don't match either the Citadel or the Marauder ones I already have*. I deliberately ordered a pack of boars for the chariot anyway, as I wanted boar power rather than wolf power for my orcs, so this isn't a problem.  The boars are great and I don't have any in my Orc force, so there's nothing to match.  I may well use the wolves as hobhounds for the Severed Hand orcs, they are fun minis, a good size, but with longer, thinner snouts than the wolves I already have.

Casting is very clean, the wheel rims and one of the boars have some flash, but its easily removed. Mould lines are at a minimum and are in very sensible places.
 

Boar-ing, actually no, very nice boars

I'm looking forward to painting the chariot, but it will be after I've made more progress on the Orc's Drift stuff.

In Summary

I highly recommend Old School Miniatures stuff. They cover quite a range, from orcs and goblins, through gnomes (delightful garden gnome style rather than the short dwarf style) and Medieval Marginalia (must get the bagpiper) to SciFi minis.

Prices are very reasonable, coming in at significantly cheaper than most Oldhammer stuff sells for now, and when I ordered, they had a sale on.

I probably don't need any more chariots; I am, though, tempted to see if I can scratch build one for the spare boars to pull. I will get a few more Ewal Dwergar though.

And maybe some Kev Adams goblins.

And perhaps some miscellaneous undead.

And...

And...

*So apparently I can accept, indeed relish, different styles of orcs and goblins, but I want my wolves to be the same style.  That's just me being contrary.

Board Game Night: Moon

We played Moon again at the latest MEGAforce board/card game night.

Moon is from Sinister Fish, and is the third in a loose series by designer Haakon Hoel Gaardner, all based around the idea of developing a settlement.

How it plays 

In Moon the idea is to build the most popular moonbase over three eras. At the end of the game the base with the most 'hearts' (likes?) becomes the lunar capital.

Each player starts with a base which grants one resource and one flag, or specialism. Structure cards are added which grant extra resources (blue structures) or flags (yellow structures). 

There are also a few pink structures which can be 'flipped' once each era to gain some extra boost, often bonus hearts dependant on the number of certain resources currently owned, but there are other effects, such as unflipping another card or gaining access to the discard deck. 

Black cards are structures that usually add bonus hearts at the very end of the game.

There are a small number of Reputation cards that grant assorted bonuses and are claimed on meeting certain requirements.

Building structures usually requires spending resources and having access to flags.

The game uses a 'pick and pass' mechanic; each hand represents a travelling expedition of settlers, scientists and technicians. They travel from base to base, offering their services to each base in turn, allowing the building of structures. Each hand includes an expedition card, giving a special rule that can be accessed, such as trading in one resource for an extra heart.

When the structure cards in each hand are exhausted the current era ends and various bonus hearts are awarded, such as for the player with the most of each flag.

The game then plays through again, using the next era's deck of structure cards and new Expedition cards.

There's a more, I haven't mentioned the rovers or assimilation, but hopefully I've given some idea of how the game plays.

What's good about Moon 

The different eras give a feel of progression. Era 1 structures are the basics of lunar living; basic accommodation, roads, solar panels and even toilets. Era 2 has more exciting stuff, such as ice mines and elevated roads and Era 3 includes museums, opera houses and trades unions.

The Expedition and Reputation cards are drawn randomly vary from game to game, and the hands draw from much bigger decks, so there's something new each time, so far we have seen several new ones each game (and I've managed to miss collecting Reputation cards I've earned just about every game).

The artwork is appealing, and there are fun quotes, such as 'they dug too deeply' on the mine. 

We are all starting to develop strategies now, though with the random nature of the cards, these are not always a sure bet. I'm gaining a reputation as the Water Baron of the moon, though it doesn't always pay off.

In Conclusion 

I really enjoy this game, this is the third or fourth time I've played, and the large number of cards leads to a different experience each time. 

I'll place it firmly in S tier, just ahead of Era! 

The winning moonbase 125 heats at the game's end

If you like the sound of this, Moon can be purchased from various online retailers, though stocks do fluctuate. Certainly Sinister Fish usually have it in stock, along with a deluxe version and teh Valkyrie expansion.