Painted Dwarves at Ashak Rise

I've finished the last four dwarves for the Ashak Rise scenario, and here they are.  

Borinn, Snorinn and two followers

Borinn* Fimbul

Dwarf Veteran is the recommended mini for Borinn, but I don't have him, and he's a bit on the expensive side on evilbay at the moment, due to his association with Orc's Drift.

I do have a Ghost Miniatures halberd armed dwarf who long ago lost his halberd. He's wearing a cloak and has a similar passive pose. I replaced his halberd staff with an axe (actually, I tried just adding a plastic axe head first, but it didn't look right) and added a pipe made from a bent piece of wire and a blob of superglue with baking soda added. Bending the wire reminded me of helping my dad make crooks for large recorders, which was a nice moment.

This is what I was trying to match. Gary Chalk's lovely illustration, and yes, I did spill tea over it long ago.

I used the card counter as a guide for Borinn's colour scheme. It's certainly not a perfect copy of the recommended mini, but I hope it's got the same feeling; hooded and cloaked,  axe at rest and with a pipe.

Snorinn* Fimbul 

This is the authentic mini, I mentioned getting him, under his original name, a few weeks ago.

Again, I used the card counter as inspiration for his painting, though frustratingly, the counter doesn't show his shield design, so I've made something up. The visible shield designs show axes, so I went with a red axe.  I'm not happy with this, so may repaint it some time.

Other Ranks

The other two dwarves are MM 10 Marauder Miniatures, from the haul of Old School goodies I recently got. These two are unshielded, and look like they could have just turned up with their hammers, following rumours of gold.

DW18, Dwarf with hammer 

Another gambeson, but simply giving it blue piping has made a difference. I'm aware that the canvas cover could be dyed, but I painted the first one with memories of the ones on display in the archer's barracks in Bolton Castle, North Yorkshire, and once I'd done one like that, changing them would have looked odd.

Otherwise, I think he looks quite dashing with his blond locks.

DW07 Dwarf with hammer and hat 

This chap fits well with a lot of the 'Swiss style' Marauder dwarves, albeit not as fancy. I think it's the scalloped collar. I like the style, and there were quite a few in my haul of dwarves. Marauder did it whole regiment of 'slash and puff' dwarves with long spears, and they are lovely. More recently, manufacturers such as The Assault Group have continued the theme.

I like my fantasy earlier, more High Medieval in style, but I'm starting to appreciate this style more. Certainly this chap fits right in.

I really enjoyed these, They might not be my best painting, but I'm really proud of them.  They took a long time to do, partly because I've been very busy, but also because I didn't want to finish them, they were so much fun to do.  Contrast this with the previous batch that just seemed to drag on.  Ah well.

The Dwarves At Ashak Rise

And here they all are; Borinn and Snorrin Fimbul and the eleven dwarves who followed them. I like their fairly random look.  these aren't a military unit, they are a group of deserters brought together out of greed.

All done?

Actually, if I'm using Warlords of Erehwon, I'll need at least one more dwarf to stick to the rules; faction leaders are accompanied by at least two bodyguards. The rules don't allow characters to join up with units, and the attack economy makes individuals somewhat vulnerable to multiple units. I'll probably take another mini from my already painted dwarves.

I still need to finish the mules who help carry the gold, I've got some minis ready, but they needed a bit of conversion and repair work before painting.

* The named dwarves are pronounced Boring and Snoring. An example of the type of puns with which Orc's Drift is rife. I've no idea why these dwarves are particularly tedious,  it could be a studio in joke? If anyone knows,  please leave a comment. 

More 7TV - MEGAfilms Studios First Pilot?

The whole of MEGAforce tried a quick game of 7TV recently. 

As T'Other One and I have only played once before, and Andy and Grim were completely new, we kept it simple. 

Set, Cast and Script 

T'Other One had set up the terrain, some of his excellent Deadzone stuff along with some scatter from the Aliens game. 

He'd also sorted a couple of casts, Colonialist oppressors and the poor innocent Xenos, mostly taken from his Aliens; Another Day in the Marine Corps, but including three domed helmeted creatures, apparently from Venus, for some firepower. The aim was simply to amass the most Victory Points. 

The Studio ready for action

And Action!

The game started gradually, with an early casualty on the Human side when one of the Grunts was set on fire with a Ray Gun and then immolated by the Xenos Queen's Fiery Breath. 

The sneaky humans managed to bag a couple of the objectives and gain revenge on the Venusian who had burnt the trooper earlier. 

The action hotted up, with Xenos creeping nearer. One even scuttling in to shield it's Queen who was Distracted (overacting diva). The second Xenos climbed up to the gantry to tackle the trooper there, leading to a protracted scrap that sadly remained unresolved by the end of filming. 

The shielding Xenos avoided the attention of the human star and survived to fight the human co-star, but after a bit of a scuffle, fell to his knife. Adding insult to injury, the human was unaffected by the dying Xenos' Acid Blood.

"Get me my Agent"

Coming to her senses, the Xenos Queen clambered up to grab an objective, then stole the scene to advance down the gantries towards her rival. Another fiery breath proved ineffective this time, as the director shouted "Cut". MEGAfilms had only booked the studio until 10.30, so filming was stopped. 

Tallying the VPs, the plucky Xenos had one point more, which counts as a draw. What swung it our way was the human star and co-star each having a status at the end. 

Did the Reviewers Like It?

Well, what a game. We're still learning, so there was a lot of looking up rules, and mistakes were made, but I think the rest of MEGAforce really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, we never got into the Finale where the action really hots up. Unfamiliarity slowed us down, alas.

We've already determined to replay this game (the studio bosses thought the script had promise, but needs more pizazz, so they've called for it to be re-filmed) so hopefully things will go faster.

I haven't yet got to grips with any strategies yet. Simply throwing Plot Points in to boost very risky rolls probably isn't the best, and I'm sure I could make more of the various presence strikes (the various non-damaging attacks that apply status effects). When we used them they were nice, but they often seemed harder to use than straight up melee strikes. I suspect they'll come into their own when used against higher Health cast members.

When I discussed my first game, I may have seemed somewhat ambivalent. 

I still maintain that 7TV is one of the best skirmish systems I've played. I'll admit that I'm currently struggling with the meta, but, as T'Other One said, once we find the right setting, it'll click.

7TV is available from Crooked Dice 

**EDIT**

T'Other One has kindly shared his photos, showing a bit more of the action. 

Early stages, see those sneaky humans grabbing objectives

Inconclusive melee

First casualty

Marine in cover faces the approaching Venusians

Whoosh!  Good job those barrels don't hold fuel

And here's the two casts.  We actually removed one trooper and one Xenos.  We never used the Special Effect that brings the Horde on, it does sound like a fun ability.  I suspect it would have seen use in the Finale.

Human Cast, Star, Co-Star and two different types of Extra

Xenos Queen (Star), Xenos', Venusians and (unused) Xenos Horde

More Heroes for Rangers of Shadow Deep

I can't stop doing stuff for RoSD

I've just finished off a couple more heroes, one of the more specialised Companions, and another Ranger (because you can't have too many Ranger minis can you).

Barbarian

While sorting through a box of unfinished minis, I found a handful of Frostgrave Soldiers and Barbarians that I started a few years ago for an abandoned project. Barbarians and Savages are Hero types in RoSD, so I got the hairy chap with the shield finished, ready for action in the Shadow Deep.

I went for fairly neutral colours, none of the greens and yellows of the Alladore uniform. He has painted a star on his shield though to show his allegiance. 

As with the earlier Heroes, I used Sonic Tonic (or Marine Juice) to provide the shading, and a bit of highlighting to finish him off.

Ranger

I also painted another Ranger. She's a Reaper Bones mini, though I can't currently find her name or number on the Reaper website,  I'll update if and when I do.

I'm assuming this lady is an elf, as the style of cloak is similar to some of the earlier elf minis from Reaper. I stuck with greens and browns, though I went with grey boots simply to add a different colour.  I'm not sure what the various decorations are on her tunic. I chose to paint this as a leather jack with metal studs. Some of these studs look like stars, others more like leaves.

I used the horn/ivory look for the bow handle and tips, as seen on one of my Oldhammer elves. 

This is a nice mini, if a little large compared to the various North Star plastics, but that's fine.  People vary in height and I think that wargames regiments, with everyone the same height, can look a bit artificial.

I like her pose, carefully assessing the situation, but ready for action.

There are a few little details that I might go over later, but she's ready for the table now.

This is something that I've found myself doing more frequently recently. Details on the Ranger above and bits on my previous lot of dwarves. Telling myself that I'll return to a mini at a later date.  I wonder why? 

Warlords of Erehwon; Attack on Jomstead

I had another great game of WoE recently when I visited Bodvoc.  The purpose was to get a better grip on the rules, which we certain did, sometimes though making mistakes.

The Mission 

As is traditional, the host came up with the scenario, n this case a raid for loot which was available both from two static sources (the farm buildings at Jomstead) and two mobile ones (Jom and Osbert).

The Armies 

We played with just short of 900 points; both of us expanding the armies we used in the previous game. I'm using mostly my Severed Hands orcs, but gave Grashak Kra four Hobhounds (using the Gobbledog profile from the goblin army list) and I tried a Shaman again. Otherwise it was largely a case of increasing the size of the units. 

Bodvoc took a Shaman too, his main addition was a unit of Goblin Dervishes.

The goblins of Kruk the Destroyer

The Severed Hand orcs

Opening Moves

Both armies gradually advance. There is some ineffective shooting. 

Both the Hobhounds and the Gobbledogs approach each other 

The Gobbledogs seize the initiative and charge the Hobhounds.  Some savage biting ensues and the orcish pack is wiped out. 

In response,  the orc spears charge the remaining Gobbledogs who fall beneath a hail of thrown and thrust spears.

Mid Battle 

The Dervishes swing round the farm and smash into the orc spears quickly destroying the unit. The orc Shaman looses his Fiery Balls at them, slaying some of them. The smouldering remainder just grin and clutch their weapons.

Gurk, the Goblin Shaman, steps forward and with a gesture the orcs facing him tremble with dread.*

End Game 

The Dervishes contact the Orc Shaman,  wiping out him and his bodyguard,  but lose some of their number. They spin on into Hagar Sheol, killing his bodyguard as they finally exhaust themselves.  Hagar Sheol decides enough is enough and flees, er, makes a tactical withdrawal. 

Elsewhere, the remaining orc warriors charge the cowardly goblin archers in the woods. Amazingly,  the goblins survive, and are able to turn the tables and drive the orcs away **.

The remaining orc archers try to down the goblin Shaman, but fail to hit.

At half the number of units, the orcs were broken, and the dice dictated that the game was done.

So another glorious defeat for Hagar Sheol. At least he survived, merely making a tactical withdrawal (in my mind anyway). Partly this is due to my almost deliberate avoidance of any loot, I had hoped to take some from the cold dead hands of the goblins, and perhaps focus on the farmers in the last couple of turns, but Bodvoc's clever tactics kept me on the back foot most of the game. 

The Devishes are scary.  They managed to whirl their way through three of my units, including my underused Shaman. 

I was a little unlucky with my dice in the second half, but I did pretty well to begin with with my spear armed orcs. I seemed to be good at getting the goblin units down to one or two remaining minis, but failing to finish them off.  Kruk and Gurk being notable examples.

Conclusions

I do need to look at my army and find a credible response to things like Dervishes as I'm sure that I'll be seeing them quite often.  I also need to work out the best response to annoying missile troops hiding in cover (and remember that they don't benefit from that cover when charged).

I think that something faster would be useful, we were both surprised that Gobbledogs (or Hobhounds) aren't Fast. 

Unfortunately, orc boar riders are expensive.  I have thought about doing some conversions using the Old School Miniatures boars that I got a while back, I just need to find the right orcs to go on them. 

Orcs aren't great at shooting.  I think splitting my ten archers into two units was a mistake.  I've got some nice war machines to paint up, but they still rely on an Accuracy of 4, so would be of limited value. 

Against poorly armoured opponents such as goblins, I think more spears will be good.  The pre contact volley of spears was suitably impressive.

And I must learn to be more careful with measuring.  Several times I roughly measured distances, mostly to make sure that the Dervishes were just out of reach, only to find that I was out, and they were just in reach.  This cost me the orc spears, and possibly more.

Mistakes Were Made

This was a learning exercise, Bodvoc and I don't get to play often enough and we are still very much learning the game.  

* We made this spell far more effective than it should be, it crippled my centre.  At the time I didn't really understand how to use the Rally order, which would have helped.

** Giving the goblins cover for being in the woods is fine against missiles, but we granted it in melee too.  Oops, no wonder nine rampaging orc warriors failed against ten puny goblin archers.

But anyway, a great fun game, and I even got another mini from Bodvoc's Old School Haul for my orc's Drift project, so win-win (or lose-win in Hagar Sheol's case).

You can read Bodvoc's account over on The War Crow

Champions of Midgard; MEGAforce Board Games Night

A Viking Saga

Grim brought another new game along recently: Champions of Midgard. 

Each player is a Viking leader vying to become the new jarl of the township. This is achieved by racking up Glory.

The best way to gain Glory is by defeating Monsters, either the Trolls that constantly threaten the town, the Draugr that lurk nearby threatening villages, or the legendary Monsters found overseas.

But to do this you need Viking warriors (dice of different colours) and you get these in various ways by placing your worker meeples.

Worker Phase

There are various locations about town that grant resources such as food, coin or wood, or the various warrior types, swordsmen, spearmen or axemen.  Some locations allow you to build a private ship or hire a public longship.

Placing a worker meeple in a location blocks it for the rest of the current turn. Once this phase is over, combat begins. You did remember to place meeples where you want to fight, didn't you?

Fighting Phase

Players then assign Viking warrior dice to fight. Only one player per target, and no fighting among yourselves!

Combat is straightforward, the monster has a set offense (the number of warrior dice it automatically kills) and a set defence (the number of hits required to kill it).  The warrior dice are thrown and the results applied.  The dice have some blank faces, and shield results block kills from the monster.  Swordsmen are the weakest warriors, and axemen the strongest.

The game plays over eight turns, and although T'Other One and myself were new to Champions of Midgard, we'd all got pretty fast as play went on.

There are lots of nice details, such as Destinies, which grant extra Glory at the end for certain achievements, as an example, I had Draugr Slayer, and got extra points for killing the most undead. 

Runes are one off special abilities and the Merchant's Quay provides new goods each turn.

My favourite bit is fighting the legendary monsters, such as Fenris Cubs or Lyndwurm. They are all found overseas, so you need a ship. There are a couple of public ships available or you can build your own. The ships are equipped with warriors, but they also need meat to feed them. A deck of cards represents potential hazards on the way, such as storms or whirlpools, and these can rob you of meat or warriors. Then the survivors get to fight the Monster.

The board at the start of play. T'Other One won with just short of 100 Glory! Grim and myself trailed around the 70s.

Final Thoughts

Champions of Midgard is a great fun game. At it's heart it's a resource management game, but there is enough 'dressing' that it really feels like a Saga. The artwork, especially the board itself, looks great, my only complaint being the horned helmets. I thought we'd buried that bit of Victorian nonsense back in the eighties.

Component quality is good, with wooden meeples (deluxe versions are available with horned helmeted meeples, just wrong).

I'll definitely put this in S Tier, it provides a great evening's entertainment.  I grew up reading the Icelandic Sagas, so this is just my sort of game.

Champions of Midgard is designed by Ole Steiness and produced by Grey Fox Games, and there are a couple of supplements introducing more Jotuns and Valholl and a couple more options for expeditions.

More Oldhammer Dwarves

More for Ashak Rise

With the Severed Hand Orcs painted (barring 6 hobhounds) I've been working on their opposition. I can use some of the dwarves I painted ages ago, but I need a few more.

These are a rag tag bunch of dwarves, drawn to Ashak Rise by the lure of gold. As such, there's no attempt at a uniform look for them. If I'm sticking to the Command Sheets, they should all be unshielded, and most of my dwarves do carry shields, unless they have crossbows or similar. I'm sure I can find enough though, and they should look suitably irregular*.

Four Dwarves

I began these four last year, but they kept getting put to one side. They were becoming what Orlyyg of Realm of Chaos 80s calls Moriarty Miniatures.

But with the end of the Paint What You Got Challenge, I set myself the task of doing some finishing off of part done minis. These dwarves seemed ideal.

I'll be honest, I struggled with these. I'm still not completely happy with them, but they are done now and bring me closer to having the dwarves I need for Ashak Rise. Just four more to go, and they are already primed and on painting handles.

Part of the issue was colour choice. There's a lot of leather and wood, both areas that I start from a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Scorched Brown, so for a long time they all looked very 'samey'. I'm not sure that off white is the right choice for the gambesons. They've been grey, bright white and in one case, blue and white before settling on this off white, and I'm still not completely happy with it. 

Three of them are Citadel Imperial Dwarves designed by the Perry Twins, the remaining one is a Ral Partha Dwarf Warrior (18007). 

L to R; Grimboar, Bardin, Hargir and Dwarf Warrior

D5 (16) Grimboar

Grimboar is, perhaps, the worst for the colour choices,  as they are all armour and equipment,  with just a little flesh showing.  I realised later that I could have added a bit of blue as piping around the armour (I might return to the mini and do this). I like to have some blue on all my dwarves,  and currently all they have are the fletchings on the ammunition. 

Random thought; it must get hot in that padded jacket. 

D5 (05) Bardin

Bardin has been in the wars (aka been rattling around in the bottom of a box for years).  Some of the detail has been lost, you can see the mail on his right arm is now worn smooth. The left tip of the crossbow is also deformed,  but it's not as obvious. 

Still, he's the dwarf I'm happiest with out of this lot.

C06 (ID-07) Hargir the Cautious 

Hargir is less prone to overheating, with their arms unprotected.  This gave me the opportunity to paint their tunic sleeves blue. 

Ral Partha Dwarf Warrior (18007)

The dwarf warrior is a nice, cleanly cast miniature.  I don't know who sculpted it, but it was originally for Das Schwarte Auge (Roleplaying game?). Detail is a little finer than the Citadel dwarves, and he's certainly more slender,  but I don't think he looks too out of place. 

Looking at him now, I could have made more of the canteen on his belt, maybe a nice red leather? Another thing to go back to.

So, four more dwarves ready to fight for that gold, or at least try and escape with it. 

The GW dwarves have a humour to them that I find lacking in the Ral Partha dwarf, particularly the gambeson wearing warriors with just their noses poking out. As they have no visible beards, perhaps they are female warriors?

*If we look at the card counters provided in the scenario pack (I talked about them back in November 2022), some of the dwarves do have shields.  It looks as if the dwarf counters provided are intended for use both at Ashak Rise, and at Orc's Drift.

Old School Bonanza

New Oldhammer Goodies

First, go and read Bodvoc's account of how he got a large number of lovely old minis. 

Back again?  Have you read it?

Good

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

Fortunately he didn't want them all, so I got the opportunity to add some to my Lead Mountain.

Now while it was tempting, when asked "is there anything you'd like " to just reply "everything, thank you very much ", I knew that I had to be selective. 

So what did I end up with?

Fantasy Tribes Orcs

One of my long-term goals is to put together a collection of minis to replay classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign,  Bloodbath at Orc's Drift,  though probably with a different set of rules. I've finished painting the Severed Hand tribe, (but for a few Hobhounds) using various metal orcs mostly from the eighties.

For the Vile Rune tribe I wanted to use the old pre slotta Fantasy Tribes orcs. They have a personal attraction for me as they were a range i bought a lot of back in the 80s and I think they are just full of character.

Collecting them looked to be a slow process though, and expensive. I can't understand why folk ask so much for them, yet so few people admit to liking them.

Well now I've got plenty.

And talking of Orc tribes, I got a second genuine Hobhound too, which I've already painted up.

Marauder Dwarves 

I got a good number of these too, certainly enough to fill the ranks for Ashak Rise and Orc's Drift. In fact, I've now got enough for a reasonable skirmish force for Warlords of Erehwon, should I ever decide I need one.

McDeath Giant (mostly)

I recognised the giant's body immediately, even painted green. It was used for Marcu Grimmock, the giant in the third scenario in the Tragedy of McDeath scenario pack. He's actually just a giant from the C28 range, not specific to the scenario, but, like a lot of other minis, inclusion in the army deal has given him a certain cachet. Still, without the 'proper' head, he's not quite right for me, so I'll be looking for that elusive bonce. 

I do have vague long term plans for McDeath, but for now, he's just a very nice giant.

Minifigs Mythical Earth 

I've got a post dedicated to this range in the works (soon), but suffice to say I've now got quite a few orcs and man orcs to add to my collection of wargs, treemen and cavalry. What I don't have, yet, is any clear idea of what to do with them. While I still have a copy of the rules they were designed to be used with, I don't really have sufficient minis for useful armies. I'll certainly get some painted up though, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

There's also a small contingent of the slightly later Minifigs Dungeons and Dragons High Elves (back right in the photo above).  They might not look very elven, but they match the illustration in the first Monster Manual. 

Space Hulk; MEGAforce Board Game Night

The recent MEGAforce evening saw a return to a Games Workshop classic from 1989,  Space Hulk.

What is Space Hulk?

The game pits small squads of Terminator Marines against Genestealers in the cramped confines of an abandoned  drifting spaceship. 

The Marines have storm bolters and heavy flamers while the 'Stealers just have speed and very sharp claws. 

There are lots of great rules features, such as putting Marines Overwatch (and the attendant risk of bolters jamming), the use of 'blips' to hide the number of 'Stealers out of direct line of sight, and the time limit on the Marines turns, that give the game the right feel.  Its fast and deadly, and if the Marine player doesn't move fast, it goes very badly very quickly.

I've played this before, many moons ago, using T'Other One's nicely painted minis, complete with metal Terminators (rather than the plastic ones), but it was Grim's first go. We shared control of the five Marines, and our objective was simply to disable a terminal with a flamer shot. T'Other One had hordes of stealers trying to stop us.

Ready for Action, the flamer burst marks the target room

One Marine down

Two Marines down

Victory! (for the 'Stealers)

The mission didn't go well for us, T'Other One did a great job of keeping up pressure from multiple directions. Eventually we lost the Heavy Flamer, and with it, any chance of winning. The remaining Marine fell the following turn.

I could blame our bad luck with the Command Dice (a d6 for extra Action Points) or T'Other One's good luck with the blips, but to be honest, he kept us on the back foot (boot? claw?) from the start.

Take Two 

But Space Hulk is a pretty quick game to play, especially the early missions, so we tried again.

This time we had better luck and forged ahead. There were fewer 'Stealers and we managed to burn the launch controls, albeit at the cost of one of the marines who opened the final door and selflessly stepped into the room to allow the flamer to fire. His sacrifice will be remembered.

Only one 'Stealer to hold off, Victory is ours!

Over recent years we've played quite a few old GW board games, many of which I remember with fondness from back in the eighties and nineties, and mostly from my collection. But they've generally felt clunky and a lot less fun than the newer generations of games.

But Space Hulk stands up very well. It's still a slick rule set, simple enough to grasp, but with lots of potential for tactical thinking. It's also exciting, and captures the tension of a beleaguered crew beset by swarms of enemies.

There were a couple more editions, the most recent with some amazing minis, but the first edition is still, to me, the best.

I usually give a tier ranking for our board games,  well,  if you're looking for a tense fast paced action shoot em up, then definitely S Tier.  What it does,  it does very well. 

I'd go as far as saying that I prefer it to Aliens, mostly down to the less complex rule set. It doesn't have the cooperative side that Aliens has though. 

GW released a couple of supplements, introducing Librarians with psychic powers and Genestealer hybrids with weapons, but the base game is enough for me.

Somewhere in the loft of shame I have my own copy, perhaps it's time to get it out and get it painted.