Trying Warlords of Erehwon. - Again

If you read my earlier post about my first ever game of Warlords or Erehwon, you may have gained the impression that I didn't like the rules.

Well, I was prepared to give them a second go, so Bodvoc drove down with some of his lovely Old School goblins to tackle a portion of my Severed Hand orcs.

Last game I felt overwhelmed with the options and all the different things going on, so I deliberately went for a small 500 point battle with straightforward goals and, on my side at least, no magic.

The background, briefly, was that the goblin leader, Kruk the Destroyer, urged on by his wizard, Gurk, decided to take advantage of the orcs' drubbing at the hands of the dwarves last time. Hopefully they would be weaker and easily beaten.

The field of battle (yes, lots of Middle Earth terrain, it's what I had to hand)

The Opening Stages

The battle began with both sides running forward to gain ground. The orc spears were so enthusiastic that they exhausted themselves.

The advance then slowed slightly, and the orc archers took up position (nicely exposed in the open, despite the ruins close by).

Goblins filled one of the woods and picked their way through.

The orc spears rested, but under the stern eye of Hagar Sheol they got ready for the coming action.

The orcs amass behind their hideous totem 

What's that coming over the hill, is it a monstrous goblin horde?

The two sides advance

Orc archers train their bows on a wood full of goblins 

The Middle Phase

As the goblin bows prepared to shoot, the orc archers snatched the advantage and loosed first. The goblins were better shots though, and killed two orcs for the loss of only one goblin.

On the other flank, a unit of goblins charged into the orc spears. One fell to a well thrown spear, which tipped the balance in the subsequent melee. As the remaining goblins staggered back, the orcs wiped them out.

The Goblin Guard then tried to finish off the depleted orc spears, but the larger unit of orc warriors were waiting for just such an opportunity, and smashed into them part way. Despite the Guard being elite, they were still only goblins, and the orc warriors killed all but their leader. Having taken some casualties, they decided not to press the fight, a decision they would later regret.

In response, Gurk gestured wildly, waved his arms and pointed at the warriors - to no effect.

(At this point I tried to use Hagar to Rally and remove the pins on the remaining orc spears, however, on close reading of the rules, it appears that this only works if the allied unit is actually Routing).

The orc spears then tried to rally, but despite being under the watchful eye of Hagar Sheol, they ended up Down again.

The End

The goblin bows continued to shoot at the remaining orc archers, killing two more, the remaining orc fled the scene.

The orc warriors charged into the goblin wizard, killing his ferocious pet Gobble-dogs. But they pulled down two of the orcs, and, with their earlier casualties, the orcs broke.

Hagar managed to stop their rout, but that stopped him participating in a fight.

Gurk's magic was more effective this time, and Grashak Kra was struck with doubt and fear. Kruk tried to take advantage of this, but Grashak retreated, and Kruk stayed his charge, snorting in disgust.

The orc spears remain hunkered down.

Kruk then charged the orc warriors, but they gave better than they got, and the goblins withdrew. 

The goblin bows turned their attention on poor Grashak Kra, felling him.

Hagar decided it was time he took a hand, charging Kruk and his depleted bodyguard. The frenzied orcs chopped their way through the bodyguard and gave Kruk pause. The two warchiefs snarled and prepared to continue their duel, but each, perhaps, saw something in the others' eyes. They lowered their weapons and nodded at each other with new-found respect. Why waste greenskin blood when they had mutual enemies?

The remains of the orc archers 

Wizard bashing, though surprisingly less effective than I thought it was going to be

After Battle Musings

Well, what a difference. I deliberately set out to try and learn the game and try and get some understanding of what tactics to use.

I'd say I succeeded, and had a great fun game too. Sadly, time ran out before we could run the follow on fight between the Warchiefs, so we called a draw (of course, both privately feeling that we'd have won if we'd played another turn).  The fact that the game was so close, and had moments when it swung one way or another, show, I think, that the rules are sound and that we will have a lot of fun with this going forward.

I'll do another post talking about the rules, but briefly, I did enjoy them this time around.  There are areas that we are still vague about (we occasionally forgot to take Order Tests for units with pins for example), and there are aspects of them that are odd or annoying, such as some of the naming conventions, but there is a depth of tactics that we are just starting to learn, and I look forward to more games, and, who knows? Maybe Warlords of Orc's Drift?

ORCTOBER - Restore or Start Again?

One of the main reasons for choosing 6mm orcs for an Orctober project was that I have a lot already painted (loads unpainted as well, of course) and I wanted them to have a purpose. Now these were done many many years ago. I can't remember when, exactly, but Bodvoc and I collected the 6mm Irregular Fantasy range way back in the late eighties or early nineties.  We adapted a set of 6mm SF rules from a wargaming magazine.  I still have a copy of our rules, but as I recall, they never quite worked.  We spent so much time play-testing them and altering them, that we never got round to actually just playing and enjoying them.

Our rules worked around using the 5 minis wide strips that Irregular Miniatures were making at the time.  So my orcs were painted up as the strips.  At some point later I must have experimented with using them for Hordes of the Things, because quite a few of them are stuck randomly on card bases that match that system.

Later still, Bodvoc and myself used 6mm for some battles using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargaming.  I started afresh with these, painting up a goblin army that will, one day, be rebased for Fantastic Battle (probably).

Rescuing The Old Orcs

The orcs are painted very much in the style of the time, check out the photo on my initial Orctober post to get some idea.  I undercoated everything in Goblin Green, then just added a few details for weapons, shields etc. I'd like them to look a bit more like my current style.  I think I've done a better job in 6mm with my dwarves, but do I want to start again with the orcs? 

Not if I can save something from the paint jobs the orcs already have.  

Time for some experimenting.  I've stuck fifteen orcs of various kinds on to a lolly stick to see what I can do.

A Wash and (Dry) Brush Up?

The first experiment was giving the orcs a wash of equal parts Army Painter Strong Tone and Dark Tone.  This shades the minis and tones down that garish eighties orc skin. 

 

The test orcs after a wash

They already look better, but can I do anything more?  Despite the wash they still look a bit 'flat'.

When I painted my dwarves I realised that just a small amount of extreme highlighting made a big difference at this scale.  This is the essence of my method for mass painting most minis these days, just taken to the max.

I tried drybrushing to pick out details, but it didn't work very well in 6mm, its too easy to obscure the detail I want to accentuate.

But very careful application of a few highlights works much better.  There's more control, and it allows me to change some of the colour choices I made all those years ago.  I don't need to add much to really make them 'pop'.

The test orcs after highlighting

I'm happy with how they look now.  Perhaps not quite how I'd paint them if I were starting from scratch, but certainly good enough, and, importantly, I've shown that they are worth saving.

they'll get a wash (the usual Army Painter Soft Tone/Strong Tone mix) before being based.  I'll add a few bow armed orcs in the mix as irregular troops in Fantastic Battles have some short range missile attacks.

Now on with the rest of them.

Unit Identity

Previously I'd tried to give the orcs shields with unit symbols on them.  You may notice crossed bones and a blue moon among other shields in the photo earlier (and if you look carefully above after the wash).  Now I'm not going to copy the shields I've used on the Orc's Drift tribes, but a variety of different shield colours across a unit does give a pleasingly random look to the horde, which is what I'm after now.

#ORCTOBER

ORCTOBER - Planning the 500

Before I start painting 500 points of orcs, I want some idea what that will consist of.  The Fantastic Battles rulebook includes a goblin list, and I've previously worked out a list for Mordor (and Gondor) troops for our 10mm Lord of the Rings games, but I want a distinctive feel to the army, and neither of these quite fit what I'm looking for.

Nic Wright's excellent Fantastic Battles (my battered first edition copy)

What a Piece of Work is Orc
I want my orcs to be a bit more like the typical fantasy wargame orc.  Big, hitting hard, but with discipline problems.  The rule book goblins (and my Mordor orcs) have Unreliable as their species' trait. If your not familiar with Fantastic Battles, this means that they are slightly more likely to suffer pre-battle mishaps, and if there are no commanders near are more likely to do their own thing in battle.

To more closely model the old WFB Animosity rules I'm using the Belligerent trait from the additional rules (available on the Fantastic Battles Facebook page).  This gives them a bonus in melee, but with a chance that they will attack their own side.  

But the point of the exercise is to enjoy painting tiny orcs, and I'm in danger of getting too nit picky over points and balance.

Wish List

Instead of looking at details of the stat lines and traits, I'm better off deciding what minis I want to paint.  

I'll need a Warlord, and at least one hero.  As with the dwarves, I can make these up from various cut up infantry and cavalry strips.  There are some individual characters in the range, but I'm not sure if I have any of them.  

Although I doubt I'll need a shaman yet, I can use odd individual minis for that too.  Perhaps even a human wizard, either the evil genius behind the orcs, a la Saruman, or someone co-opted for their magical knowledge, and who is ambitious enough to overlook the orcs' less pleasant side (and their lack of hygiene).

I want some infantry, probably a mix of the spear and sword armed orcs. I don't see them as organised or disciplined enough for spear phalanxes, and they will be irregular. 

I might include a unit of tougher (or at least better equipped and organised) troops. I have some of the Man-orcs, and they'll do nicely. They'll make up an elite (or at leas regular) core of the horde eventually.

I don't expect much from orc archery, especially compared to the arrow-fest that Bodvoc's elves will have, but a company or two will give at least a bit of a threat.

Cavalry are more important, and I can have both orcs on wolves and wild wolves. There's also a nice orc chariot model that I'd like to include.

The last thing on my wish list is some form of monster. I've a few options here; trolls, ogres, a giant, not to mention more exotic creatures.

So out of that lot I'm going to cobble together some sort of list, but, as Bodvoc suggested in a recent comment, I'll aim to paint nice units and then choose the army. I've plenty to work with after all, and lots to expand with once I've got this lot finished.

Fantastic Battles is available from Irregular Wars, no relation to Irregular Miniatures, whose minis I am using for this project.

#ORCTOBER

Orctober 2024

I last did something special for 'Orctober' in 2021 when I managed to paint a couple of Ripper Suits for Deadzone,  some 15mm orcs and I started a 10mm Mordor army for Fantastic Battles.
This year I think I'll do some more orcs, it's not like I haven't had practice recently.

But what? Simply painting more Old School orcs is a bit too much like the rest of the year (though I do have some nice pre slotta orcs to do sometime). 

Orctober Suggestions
I had a couple of ideas; more Rogue Trader Orks, or some 6mm orcs to oppose the 6mm dwarves that I painted for Fantastic Battles.

The Rogue Trader Orks would be ten more to bulk out the ones I did back in 2022. It would give me some special and heavy weapon support, and if they go well I'll add in a character mini or two. It would give me enough old school orks for a skirmish game, and if I got those done, I've a Dreadnought and even a buggy to paint.

The 6mm orcs are from Irregular Miniatures and have already been painted and are currently based up for Hordes of the Things. As I said regarding the dwarves, this puzzles me, as I've no recollection of ever playing HotT in that scale). But I'd like to get them painted in my current style. I might even simply try a wash and a highlight. If this works, I can get a second 6mm FB army done. I've got lots of them, including cavalry, artillery and monsters. I've also got loads of goblins, but I think I'll keep those as a separate force.

Further Suggestions
Chatting with Bodvoc he added a couple of other suggestions. Post a picture a day from my orc collection (this seems a bit like self promotion - says the chap publishing a blog) or build some orc terrain. I do like making terrain, but I tend to need some impetus to get round to doing it. A challenge perhaps?

And a Decision
In the spirit of compromise, we are combining my 6mm orc idea (you'd already guessed that from the photo below, hadn't you) and Bodvoc's terrain idea. What's more, he's joining in with elves to give me the extra impetus to finish this (an early Nelfember project?)

So by the end of October we both aim to have 500 points of Fantastic Battles 6mm finished, along with a piece of terrain.

This should be fun, but first I have to work out a list and see if I can repair and update the painted orcs or will it be 'Strip and Start Again'?

Some of the painted 6mm orcs

#ORCTOBER

Artefacts From my Gaming Past - Aquila Lite-Man

All the RPGaDAY stuff got me thinking back to my early gaming days. This coincided with me finding an old mini from the seventies.

There's not a lot to say about this mini itself, except that it's probably one of the oldest minis that I still own.  I don't know why I painted it purple either, but it seems to suit the rather unearthly look of the thing.

It's from the Minifigs Science Fiction range and Lost Minis Wiki identifies it as SF 18 Aquila Lite-Man from the mid 1970s (it appears in the 1975 catalogue). 

I can't remember why I bought it, though it might have been some sort of wraith in early D&D (which would date my purchase to around '77-78) but it brought memories flooding back, and that's what these Artefacts posts are all about.

Way Back in the Mists of Last Century (provide your own wibbly-wobbly SFX)

I bought a few of this range back in the seventies on rare and much anticipated trips to the Model Railway Supermarket in Bradford. There was no plan to buying them, I just got minis I liked the look of.

Back then, shops selling minis were rare, and often the minis were just a small section among other hobbies, such as plastic kits, model planes and railways (much later Something Wicked was also like this). 

I always found model soldiers fascinating, going right back to plastic Britain's soldiers, but the opportunity to buy the smaller lead ones was very rare. 

I do have vague memories of a shop in Scarborough where I bought some Highlanders, and there was a shop in Howarth called, appropriately, Land of Gondal*, which had a good selection of historical stuff.  I remember them having a table of small cardboard boxes, each with a code for the particular mini and the relevant mini inside.  Very trusting. 

My first trips to the shop in Bradford were true expeditions. A bus to Bradford, then a long walk (well, to my young legs; it was over a mile and a half each way) to the shop. We later worked out which bus to take, but it still felt special.

I first went there to buy some of the Minifigs Mythical Earth range, and my remaining handful have the title of oldest minis still owned, but they are for another post.  I even remember seeing small books with the words "Dungeons and Dragons" on them, but I ignored them, I was there for the lead.

There would have been a good number of cabinets of historical minis, and a few of the then new fantasy minis.  I remember some of the ranges even now.  Minifigs produced Mythical Earth, the Science Fiction range and a Sword and sorcery range that were to Conan what the Mythical Earth minis were to The Lord of the Rings.

As I moved from Middle Earth wargaming to D&D the trips became more focused on RPG minis (hence Aquila Lite-Man).  I was no longer making the expedition with my parents but with the gaming group from college.  They were rather raucous journeys!

Enough misty-eyed memories.  Now I'll have to think of something to do with the Aquila Lite-Man.

*That's right, Gondal, not Gondor.  A no-prize (or possibly a self-administered pat on the back) if you comment why it's appropriate.

Kerwin the Rogue

As part of the 'Grand Sort-Out' I found an old character mini recently. Kerwin the Rogue.

Kerwin was one of the pregens in the fourth edition Starter, Keep on the Shadowfell. One of the players chose him, and another chose the pregen dwarf fighter, Kathra. I seem to remember that the rest of the group rolled up their characters, but these two players missed that session.

We used one of the WotC prepainted plastic minis at first (they did specific minis for both Kerwin and Kathra), but there was also a small range of better sculpted metal mini. I had at least two of these (the other one was Sovelis, half elven bard).

Sadly, Kerwin met an unfortunate end in Specularum. He fought the law, and the law won.

I stripped the original paint job and removed an added crossbow, which reflected the character's equipment, but added nothing to the looks of the mini.

I gave Kerwin a muted paint job. He is a rogue after all. I rather enjoyed the challenge of painting brown clothing but making different areas distinctive. The red headband is a nod to the original prepainted mini, and the red piping echoes this.

The blue trousers are simply because I wanted a dark colour to help with hiding and I thought an extra colour would look good.

I've now given Kerwin back to the player, something I like to do when a character mini is no longer in play.

I must apologise for the poor quality of the photos. Two of my lights had run out of batteries, and I didn't have any spares.

Kerwin's player is a rather good photographer (much better than I am), so hopefully he'll share some pictures, in which case I'll post them here.

RPGaDAY 2024 Review

RPGADAY 2024 Review 

Well, that was fun! 

It's been an interesting experience, and helped me think about what I play and why. It may even affect what I play in the future, particularly relevant with D&D 24 looming.

I'm not really surprised that I sound like an old school Grognard, but it's refreshing to see that I've mentioned more than just D&D and Call of Cthulhu. I like to think that I've dabbled in a few lesser known titles, though I've been reading a few other entries, and there are some truly obscure games out there.

I've definitely come to some sort of understanding of why I play games, and what sort of games are likely to appeal to me. 

Despite no longer being in the world of work, time seems as precious as ever, and inevitably I have to compromise when it comes to RPGs. 

In the past I've run several different games on different nights, using different systems (running D&D in both 4E and 5E was a challenge). I can't really do that anymore. The cognitive load is greater than I want to give these days.

I've realised that I don't enjoy a game if I feel I'm lost in the rules. I know that I might make poor choices within the game, but I want them to be my poor choices, not just because I don't understand the details of the game rules.

I appreciate that there's bound to be a period when I'm learning a new game, but, much as with my wargaming, I'm wary if something new comes along. Do I already have a game that does the same sort of thing? If so, is it worth learning something else new?

I've also realised that I like playing in games where the players act as a group to achieve a goal. I'm all for personal goals and motivations, but I've a personal dislike of games that set the players against each other. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this style of game, just that they aren't for me.

And if I'm playing a fantasy game, I want it to feel heroic. 

Honourable Unmentioned 

I realised that I've played quite a few different games over the forty plus years that I've been roleplaying, and many of them haven't been mentioned. 

Here's a list of the ones that I can remember.

So, in no particular order;

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 

Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game 

Runequest

Fiasco

Shadow Chasers (and various other Polyhedron magazine games)

GURPS

Tunnels and Trolls 

The Arduin Grimoire (or is this just a D&D supplement?)

Dragon Warriors 

Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying

Basic Roleplay System (the OSR clone)

Traveller

True d20 (the Pulp version, not the Mecha version. I regularly get asked to run this again)

Microlite d20

Warrior Cats 

SAGA roleplaying system 

Star Wars (the WotC d20 version)

STOCSlite

Maelstrom 

Lone Wolf (RPG based on the game books)

TORG (both versions)

Empire of the Petal Throne 

Beneath the Sands (devised by a fellow player/GM at the FLGS)

MERPS

Maybe some of them will get a mention next year.

#RPGaDAY24