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? 

Oldhammer Elves part 2

I've actually finished painting something!

I'm aware that we're nearly a quarter of the way through 2024, and I've not actually posted anything newly painted this year. This is probably because I've been so caught up in thinning out the minis that I've not allowed myself the time to get any finished.

The First Elven Unit

Back in July I showed the unpainted models for the first unit of elves for Team Good. I've had to revise that slightly. The elves were a mix of 'Wood' and 'High' elves, and didn't quite work as a unit for me. I got part way through them and stopped.

I've managed to obtain a few more old school elves since, and I now have enough for six of this more Sylvan style. I thought I might as well finish the three I'd started before beginning anything new (besides, I'm also part way through painting something for Team Evil).

A (Very) Reduced Model Unit

4210/13 Bow 9, ME 31 (02) - Sylvan Elf, ME 31 (01) - Sylvan Elf

That tactical rock needs some lighter tones.

Initially I painted the grip and tips of the bow as metal, but I though that some sort of horn or ivory might fit wood elves better, besides, I've seen compound bows like this at the Royal Armouries.

So here they are. Individually each one was a joy to paint, and I think that's significant. My dwarves were each painted as individual models with no intention of them being a unit. Perhaps I need to be a bit looser in approaching the elves as well?

I enjoyed keeping to the vague brief of "the greens and browns of the forest" while avoiding having them too uniform. I can't really give exact paint recipes as everything tends to get mixed up on my wet palette, but I gave each elf light green hose and a dark green jacket or tunic. The collars were all reddish brown, based around the rather nice Vallejo Model Color Orange Brown. 

I feel that the contrast between hose and jacket on ME 31 (01) could be greater, and perhaps ME 31 (02) is a bit dark overall. I may go back and touch up a few details at a later stage, but for now I'm calling these done.

The bases were textured using Geek Gaming Scenics Plains of New Zealand mix.  I added more grass tufts to bring out the 'nature' side of the elves.

Oh, and I'm experimenting with my photography again.  I've gone back to my fold up light box, this time using my newer phone.  I think there's an improvement, and I like the effect of the blue background. I think I need to find something without the fabric texture though, as the camera has tried to focus on this and my eyes don't pick that up until I enlarge the pictures.

Oldhammer Elves part 1

When I explained how I'm collecting and organising my Oldhammer minis I showed a group of elves. Well these are going to be the first reduced model unit for my Good Alliance. In that post I suggested a unit size of four, but I'm going for six instead.

L to R; C08 (3C - 11) Bowman, C08 (3C - 08) Guard, C08 (3C - 04) Orc-Slayer, ME 31 (02) Silvan Elf, ME 31 (01) Silvan Elf, 4213/10 Bow 9

These are lovely minis and include some of the classic Lord of the Rings minis that Citadel did long before the films. (I've got quite a few of the ME minis scattered around; I'll have to see if I have a full Fellowship somewhere for a future project).  The first three in the line-up above are all sculpted by Aly Morrison but I don't know who did the others.

I don't think of this lot as an organised unit, so no uniforms; that said, there will be quite a bit of green.  I'll probably go for light green hose and dark green tunics, where relevant, rather like the different greens I used on the Reaper Bones Undead Elf. I'd also like to use some browns, following the description of Legolas "clad in green and brown".

I'll vary the shades slightly as well, as I feel this gives a more naturalistic look to pre-industrial fabrics.  There are some nice details, such as straps, buckles and studs, which will give plenty of interest, but not so much that I get confused as to what to paint things (a complaint I have against many of the more modern minis).

I've also got another unit ready, again lovely Oldhammer models. This time a unit of Light or Heavy Foot. It'll be a while before I paint them though, I think I should do a unit for the Evil side first.

Organising Oldhammer

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I've been slowly painting my few remaining Oldhammer minis, especially dwarves. I can use them in Fistful of Lead, but that only needs around a half dozen minis a side, so I don't really have any larger goal.

You may also know that I paint much more effectively if I have a vague hobby goal to work towards, but I've been struggling to find one for my Oldhammer collection. After chatting with Ben (of The Quest for Stillmania) I realised that I can assemble a couple of Dragon Rampant forces harking back to the early days of fantasy wargaming.  In these early games, armies tended to be a mixed bag of Good vs a mixed bag of Evil; I particularly remember a Warhammer scenario from Tortured Souls magazine based around an evil Runesword. The Good side had captured it and had to keep it out of Evil hands while it was purified. Both sides were a mix of the appropriate races, and the story background made it great fun.

I'm unlikely to ever collect enough Oldhammer style minis to field, say, a purely dwarven army, but a unit or two in a Dragon Rampant Good army is definitely achievable - especially with reduced model units. I'll begin with units of four (unless they are obviously heroes, wizards, war machines or monsters). If I get enough of anything I can expand to six, then maybe even twelve (I like to keep the unit size even numbers so it's easy to tell if the unit is Battered).

So now I have a rough plan, and I have enough to make a start with a unit of elf archers (Light Missiles with Sharpshooter), an elven repeating crossbow (Heavy Missiles) and some dwarf warriors (Offensive Light or Heavy Foot).  I'm sure I also have a few old Empire minis that might just squeeze in as Oldhammer, and I know I have an old Bretonnian cannon that will be fine.  That's plenty to start with for the Good army.

For Evil I have a few goblins and orcs, though I'm not sure how many (how I regret selling off my collection years ago!).  I've also got a smattering of Undead, Chaos and Dark Elves, certainly enough for reduced model units.  I've also got some of the original Golfag's Ogres Regiment of Renown, which I'll probably use as a group of mercenaries available to either side.

Here are some examples of what might be coming up.

Classic elves

More nice stuff. The Skeleton knight can lead the zombies. The Necromancer is a unit in his own right. 

The lovely old Empire Flagellants will make a unit of Bellicose Foot 

This is going to be a long term project, and I'm certainly not rushing it.  I will keep an eye out for any interesting minis to add to the collection; I would eventually like to have full model units, which is usually twelve in Dragon Rampant, but that seems unlikely, especially with the way prices are going on evilbay at the moment, and initially I'll probably want two Reduced Model Units of six rather than one of twelve.

Battle Amongst the Tombs

I had another gaming day up at Bodvoc's where we played a four player game. Bodvoc devised the following scenario.

Battle over the Graves of the ‘Kryndara’

A multi player game of Kings of War using four 750 point ‘Ambush’ armies.

The Kryndara are an ancient people whose burial grounds are occasionally found scattered amongst the many ruins to be found upon the plains of Babdos. As the opposing armies approach each other it is obvious that the battle is going to take place across the ruins of a Kryndaran graveyard. As the armies close upon their foe, they clash over the remains of the graveyard, can they claim some treasure as well as victory?

Deployment: For deployment, place 4 tokens numbered 1-4 in a bag. The players take it in turns to draw a token from the bag. The number drawn indicates their deployment zone and also they will ally with the army deployed adjacent to them. (One long table side was numbered 1 1nd 2, the opposite side was 3 and 4).  Players then throw a d6, deploying their armies in ascending order, so lowest score first (re-throw ties). Figures may be deployed up to 12” in from the table edge. Other terrain will have been placed randomly on the table.

Duration: the battle last 6 turns plus a possible seventh. At the end of the sixth turn throw a d6, score 1,2 or 3 = game over, 4,5 or 6 and play a final seventh turn.

Chapel and Graves: in the centre of the table is a ruined chapel. Also placed along the centre line are 4 old graves, equally spaced. Then throw 2xd6 for a number of inches and a random direction dice for each grave and locate them where the dice indicate.

The ruined chapel is worth 2VP and each grave is worth 1VP.

To claim the chapel or a grave a player must move a unit into contact with it and be the only player with a unit in contact with it at the end of the game. The first player to contact either the crypt or a grave must throw a d6 with the following effect…

1-3: Chapel/grave is empty

4-5: The angry spirit of a long dead Kryndaran attacks the unit/character

Spirit: SP5, Me5+, De4+, Att1, Ne11, if defeated it will shriek and then fade away.

6: Treasure: throw a d6 again… 1,2: a rusty Blade of Slashing (re-roll 1 melee dice)

3,4: A very decorative Staying stone: +1 to Wavering stat

5,6: Onyx Ring: regeneration 4+, once per game.

Any treasures found/claimed are also worth 1xVP.

Players also gain victory points for routing enemy units, scoring 1VP for each point of unit size their routed foe is worth. We will use glass gems to keep score of VP's. The winners of the game are the allies with the most glass gems at the end of the battle.

We randomly drew who fought where and with whom, Bodvoc had his Silvan Kin of course, and he was allied with Phil using the Orcs I recently based. I used my Karpath Kingdoms of Men and was allied with Ian's blue-skined Ice Orcs.

Bodvoc's sylvan Kin.  750 points of shooty nastiness

750 points of Green-skinned meanness 

My 750 points of bold Men of Karpath

Opening Moves

We set up with the two rival Orc tribes facing off against each other, and the Sylvan Kin keen to renew hostilities with the Men of Karpath.

Before the battle starts the Silverbreeze cavalry have claimed one grave.  

The Green-skinned Gore Riders claim one tomb while the Ice Orcs occupy the chapel.

The Ice Orcs advance, claiming another grave, while their green kin wait. Sylvan Kin shooting has already routed the Mounted Scouts 

Clash of the Gore Riders. The Green Orcs were hindered charging through a pond and needed 4+ to hit 

This is the result

Sylvan Kin shooting wavers the Bowmen, slowing down the second Spear Phalanx. Mayster proves singularly ineffective with his Fireball

Mid Battle

The leading Spear Phalanx has fallen to the Sylvan Kin 

The Green Orc Gore Riders use their superior numbers to see off the Ice Orc troop, they turn to face Dennis the Krudger on his gore, Gnasher 

Artem and the Foot Guard charge the elves. Despite causing a lot of damage, the elves hold firm (note that double 1 Nerve test).

Dennis has seen off the opposing Gore Riders

The melee hots up between the men and the elves.  Meanwhile we decide there's something wrong with the Ice Orcs*

Mayster takes moves to investigate one of the graves, but Emyn Lockharn charges him.  The adjusted Ice Orcs turn to face the Sylvan Kin, while their second Krudger tackles Emyn Lockharn

The Orc table half, less action, but tense manoeuvring

End Phase

The Skulks charge their icy brethren in the flank, so the Hunters turn their attention on the Ice Orc Ax  

Emyn flees the melee, but is chased by the Krudger and is hurt badly, and the Hunters fall beneath the Ice Orc axs.  Meanwhile, with Anichka holding off the Forest Shamblers, the Guard are free to charge down the Sylvan Kin standard bearer. Sadly, the General can't rout the Shamblers, despite chopping many branches off. Mayster finally causes some damage with his Fireball, scorching the cavalry, but it's too little too late.

As the battle ends the men of Karpath have suffered badly. The Foot Guard remain, as do all their heroes, but the rest of the army have fled. The Sylvan Kin are reduced to the Silverbreeze Cavalry and the Forest Shamblers, led by a badly wounded Emyn Lockhart.

This was a great fun game, with the opening turns dominated, on my table side at least, by Elven archery.  Once I was able to get to grips with them, they didn't seem so tough, though I had bad luck with the dice, and Bodvoc had better than average rolls.  I was really hampered by the terrain, It forced me to advance one unit wide, and the elves were able to concentrate their archery (11 shots from the Hunters and Emyn, plus 3 from the inevitable Army Standard Bearer with Boomstick, and 7 more from the Silverbreeze Cavalry) where they wished.  Had I been able to present a choice of targets I would no doubt have got more units into contact and the elves would have paid dearly.

The Orc side of the table was a lot less bloody, we suspect that the orcs had actually made a pact to do some half-hearted fighting and we expect future battles between the reduced Sylvan Kin and the Green-skin Orcs, and the men of Karpath and the Ice Orcs.  In actual fact, Phil, commanding my orcs, had never played before, and wanted to watch most of the action.  I'm sure he'll be diving right in next time!

Ultimately, the Syvan Kin/Orc alliance won by 2 victory points, a much closer result that it looked like at the beginning.

You can read Bodvoc's version of events here.

*The Ice Orc problem; due to a mis-communication, and confusion between editions, the Ice Orcs were mixing up troops and regiment sizes.  Although they were stated correctly, there were roughly twice as many Ice Orcs as there should have been.  After readjusting them they seemed a lot less scary to their Green-skinned opponents.

Kings of War Ambush Game 2

So on with the second of our Ambush games, but first a quick word about the terrain. Most of my stuff is currently packed away, so I was making do. Both the buildings are based on ones on the covers of The Citadel Journal Spring '85, just built using strong card, filler, balsa etc*. They both look ok, so I might pretty them up a bit to match my more recent builds. The hedges are from Green Scene, and need proper basing, a bit of cutting and sticking to get rid of the very flat tops, and probably some more varied shades and textures of turf. The walls are old plastic toy farm pieces, I'll just replace them. Woods need some work too, and I borrowed some of these from Bodvoc. It's a reasonable terrain set though, especially on my old Realm of Battle boards, and I think I'll get it sorted out properly early next year.

The first Ambush game report is here, we went into the second game with me technically having a win. Looking at the remains of my army, it didn't feel like it.  We haven't yet considered any knock on effects of previous games, I might do this in future, but for now we are just playing games, having fun, and slowly growing our new armies.

The Scenario

Continuing with my idea of a group of plucky human settlers holding out against the absentee landlords of the Sylvan Kin, another hamlet has been built around a large tree.  Unknown to the settlers, the tree is sacred to the Sylvan Kin (in my WFB version it was a dormant Treeman).  The thought of it in the hands of the humans has driven the Sylvan Kin to anger, they want nothing more than the complete eradication of the settlement.

I chose the Salt the Earth scenario with the tree as the central objective.  I decided it was worth double points as well.  Otherwise, everything was as per the rulebook.

Out two armies were the same, but we slightly re-jigged the terrain.  On the photos the big tree is the central objective, the rest are either red or green tokens.  

Scouting moves

Emyn Lockharn and the Gladestalkers have taken up positions closer to the village.  Fortunately for me, they were on opposite flanks.

Turn one

The Tallspears and Silverbreeze advance and both claim an objective, Emyn shoots at the Mounted Scouts, wavering them.  

The Phalanxes both advance towards the village, while the bowmen take cover behind a wood, determined to claim the objective nearby.  Artem follows the Phalanxes and the Scouts, unable to advance or shoot at Emyn, merely wait.

Turn two

The Tallspears and Silverbreeze remain stationary, The cavalry getting some shots off at the Bowmen. Emyn once more damages the Mounted Scouts.

The Scouts have recovered and shoot bac, causing my first damage all day, hooray!.  The Phalanxes both advance towards the village, while the Bowmen take cover behind a wood, though not well enough to shield them from the Silverbreeze.  Artem ponders where he is best placed.  Perhaps the sneaky elven leader is a worthy target?  

The Mounted Scouts in their archery duel with Emyn Lockharn.  You can just see the elf cowering in the far wood.

Turn three

Emyn's archery once more dismays the Scouts who try in vain to manoeuvre out of his line of sight.  The Silverbreeze advance towards the village.  

Both Phalanxes take control of the tree in the village while the Bowmen inexplicably don't bother to shoot at the Silverbreeze (I had line of sight, although they were in cover.  I could have got off ten shots, but I forgot).  Artem moves off towards where Emyn was last seen.

Turn four

Emyn moves behind the tower (out of sight on the picture, typical) to shoot the Scouts who break.  The Silverbreeze shoot at one of the Phalanxes, but miss!  The Gladestalkers move off their hill towards the wood.

Despite being on the opposite side of the tower to Emyn, Artem can't see him, so moves into the wood the elf previously occupied. One Phalanx moves forwards towards the Silverbreeze and the Bowmen finally cotton on and shoot the cavalry.

Turn five

The Gladestalkers move into the wood.  The Silverbreeze find their mark this time, but the Phalanx aren't daunted.  

Artem spots Emyn and charges at him.  In melee the elf is less than impressive.  The Phalanx charges the Silverbreeze, but the wall makes their attack less efficient, the Bowmen are similarly hampered in their assault on the Gladestalkers.

Turn six

The Silverbreeze shoot at the remaining Phalanx, but the damage is minimal.  The Gladestalkers waver the Bowmen, while Emyn fights back against Artem but can't land a hit.  

The Phalanx stay close to the tree and Artem hits Emyn once again, but can't quite finish him off (damn Inspiring re roll).

Turn seven

The Gladestalkers rout the Bowmen and claim the objective near the wood.  The Silverbreeze manage to waver the remaining Phalanx, and Emyn once more wishes he were shooting rather than trying to fight.

In response Artem again hits the elven commander, but can only waver him.  The Phalanx remain guarding the tree.

As the battle finishes, the elves control three objectives to the humans' one, though the tree is worth double points.  A definite elven victory.  Presumably Artem orders teh Spear Phalanx to retreat in an orderly fashion back to another village, there to recruit more soldiers ready for the elves' next attack.

Final Thoughts

This was a far more interesting game; the scenario forced the elves to move to objectives, rather than just shooting my army to pieces.  I felt somewhat vindicated in that I managed to damage most of the elven units, though I was unable to rout any of them.  I regret missing that round of shooting against the Silverbreeze, given how close the Phalanx came to routing them in melee, it might have made all the difference, as it would have robbed Bodvoc of an objective and given it to me.  I was far less confident of the Bowmen taking on the Gladestalkers, especially in the woods, as was borne out in the battle.  Emyn Lockharn is a nasty leader to face, especially in such a small game.  On his own he managed to waver my Mounted Scouts twice, before destroying them.  I had hoped they would be able to at least contact him, possibly taking him out and then threatening the Tallspears.  Then again, he is more points than the Scouts, so that should have given me a clue.

So what next for our slow grow games?  I've had some thoughts what to add to my force to bring it up to 750 points.  I think I can manage without any extra painting by using my old Empire/Kingdoms of Men forces, but I will get the next Spear Phalanx of the Oathmark humans done, so the 'Charity Army' can go on sale.

*The cottage also appears in the Warhammer Townscape as building 36.  I shortened the tower and added a wooden top with battlements.  There is another building, a tower-house, which is similar to one in the Townscape, which could optionally be attached to the cottage.  I think this might make an ideal extra building for the settlement, and provide higher blocking terrain.

Kings of War Ambush Game 1

Kings of War Gaming

I had a couple of small games of Kings of War with Bodvoc recently. It's been a little while since we played, but we've both got the new Red Book and fancied trying the Ambush style games. It's not really a new idea for us, we tend to start new armies at 500 points and our Clash games of Kings of War Historical were very much in this vein. Still, it's nice to have the idea formalised.

Small Scale Campaigning

We both took the opportunity to try out new armies, I used my new Kingdoms of Men and Bodvoc has started a Sylvan Kin army, using mostly Oathmark minis.

I based a couple of games on a short campaign I wrote years ago for Warhammer Fantasy Battle where Wood Elves were trying to drive Imperial settlers out of their woods. Nothing special, I simply wrote some story around a couple of the scenarios in the book, but it gave a bit of background and allowed us to develop a story.  We decided that if we enjoyed the games, we could start a small slow grow campaign.

Game One

The first game was an Invade scenario, representing the elves attempting to drive the humans out while they pushed back.  I used the same 500 point force I've used in various training games (Artem, Hero with Inspiring Talisman, troop of Mounted Scouts, regiment of Bowmen and two regiments of Spear Phalanx), Bodvoc had a Master Hunter (unsurprisingly called Emyn Lockharn) to lead his elves, a troop of Silverbreeze cavalry, a troop of Sylvan Gladestalkers and a troop of Kindred Tallspears.  

Both forces deploy, but the sneaky elves have a trick or two up their green-sleeves

The Sylvan Kin amass for battle.  There may not be many of them, but they are all staunch warriors, and damn good shots too!

Emyn Lockharn and the Gladestakers had slunk forwards before the battle (Scout moves) to hold a commanding position raining arrows down on the hapless humans.  By turn one they had routed my Mounted scouts who I had hoped to ride ruin down on the elven flank.

Artem led his Spearmen towards the waiting elves, right into volleys of arrows.  By turn three the first phalanx was routed by the elves' concentrated missile fire.  Artem then decided to take cover in the village.  Meanwhile my Bowmen set off on a fruitless flank march to try and get in position to shoot at the Tallspears.  They fell to the elven arrows before doing anything worthwhile.

The elves dress their ranks and make towards the village.  I try to adjust the colour on my phone camera.

Artem and his remaining troops take refuge in the village.  

The Silverbreeze are able to manouver round to the village gateway and shoot at the phalanx.  Fortunately for me they can't quite get rid of them.

The view of the marauding elves from the village.

Results and Conclusion (I feel like I'm writing up O-Level chemistry experiments)

By the end of turn six I had one hero and one regiment left, and hadn't managed to hurt the elves at all.  The combined elven shooting had seen off all the rest of my force.  However, I had a regiment worth 3 VPs on the other half of the table, whereas only the Silverbreeze were on my half, giving me an unlikely victory.  Clearly the elves found the humans just a little too hard to dislodge (yeah, right) so backed off, no doubt to try some other sneaky trick later.

The revised Shoot 4+ is nasty to face, but highly appropriate for elves.  It certainly held them in good stead, especially when I lined my army up for Bodvoc to focus his shooting on them so effectively.  I also deployed very badly, especially given the aim of the game.  Better tactics would have been simply to march a Phalanx up one flank to safety rather than waste the Bowmen, though I was never going to win a shooting match with them against the elves.

Lessons learned, possibly, and it was still great fun to play.

Bodvoc has written his account of the two games on his blog here, you 'll have to wait a little while for my account, but I can say that we had a lot of fun, and are already planning some reinforcements to our armies.  I'm in a bit of a quandary here though.  The aim with my army is to sell it once I've got 500 points painted up; the money going to a suitable charity working in Ukraine.  My next unit will definitely be the missing Spear Phalanx, that's why one of my old GW Empire regiments made an appearance.  I'm not sure if I should do another force using the Oathmark Humans (I have quite a few, but not enough to re-do this army without buying more), or get back to painting my many GW Empire troops.  Choices.

*EDIT* My report of the second game is here.