Kings of War Battle - League vs Herd 2

A quick break for lunch and change of scenery from the first battle (AAR here), then on to the main event.

Bas-Ra, the Herd Guardian Champion is encouraging Gugrot and his beastmen Herd to continue their raids which seem to be increasing in intensity and ferocity. The Herd have advanced a larger force led by Bas-Ra himself towards the village of Mardale.

Rapidly mustering whatever forces they can, the League of Rhordia occupy the ground in and around Mardale to block the Herds advance.

Led by Lord Errington and his Halfling commanders, Ogli Starberry and Sergeant Alefast, the League of Rhordia forces deploy their forces and await the rapidly advancing Herd.

Duration: 6 turns, with a 7^th turn on a roll of 4+

Set-Up: The Rhordian forces can deploy anywhere in the bottom SW quarter of the table, in and around the village of Mardale.

The Herd can deploy anywhere North of the River Mar or East of the road. The player who won the last game decides who deploys the first unit.

Who goes first: the player who won the last scenario decides who takes the first turn.

Victory: This is a ‘Kill’ scenario, if at the end of the game, one force has killed/routed at least 10% more in points of units then they are deemed the winners. 

We went into the second battle with full stomachs ('Yay', cried the Halflings) and the advantage going to the League.  They had held off the invasion of the Wild long enough to mount a spirited defence at Mardale.

Bas-Ra had heard nothing from Gugrot.  Hopefully the ford had been taken, preventing the League marching to cut his army off at one of their stinking villages.
When his army arrived however, ranks of soldiers greeted them.  Clearly Gugrot had failed.  Bas-Ra would have to do this the hard way.

The League army defends Mardale

Some of the Herd army survey the river

Bas-Ra's more ponderous troops use the bridge to cross the river, the rest wade through the waters.

The Brutox crosses the bridge

In response, the League army dresses its ranks and cautiously advances, so far unable to see the enemy.  Lord Errington prefered to keep any violence outside the village if possible, but he knew if he could draw the Herd out into the open he would have an advantage.

The League defenders adjust their line

and prepare to face the Herd

The Herd centre advances up the hill, while the Centaurs pause at the foot for the hill and loose a volley at the Halfling scouts. Despite being hard to hit, the devastating volley wipes them out before they can even draw a bowstring.

Bas-Ra surveys the enemy

The bulk of the League army held.  With a cry of "Bacon Sarnies for All" the Halfling Archers darkened the sky with arrows, wiping out the Beastherd.  Ogli Starbrow, the halfling Sorcerer moved round until he could see Bas-Ra and blasted him backwards with gusts of wind.  The power of his magic hat (Zephyr Crown) hurt Bas-Ra
(A couple of turns later we realised that the Crown requires a damage roll. Oops.  We reinstated half Bas-Ra's damage at that point)

Again the bulk of the herd advanced, eager to get to grips with the enemy.  The Centaurs, full of their victory over the Scouts, turned their bows on the Halfling Knights.  These fellows were tougher, although a few fell, plenty remained, clutching their spears with determination.

Lord Errington knew it was time.  He had held his forces back, hoping the enemy would advance within charge range.  He regretted the loss of the Scouts (they had an uncanny ability to find him the best game birds he had ever tasted), but now the enemy must pay.
The Household Knights charged into a regiment of Minotaurs while the City Militia bravely tackled the Longhorns.  The Houseguard moved to encircle the Longhorns, but left their flank dangerously exposed to Bas-Ra himself.  Meanwhile, the Halfling Knights moved up close to the Centaurs, taunting them.  The Halfling Archers loosed at the Brutox, the huge beast easily visible above the melee in front, Sergeant Alefast joined in with the bow gifted him by Sir Pontos (Warbow of Kaba).  The monstrous creature bellowed in pain, but wasn't slowed by their puny arrows. Once again Ogli channeled the arcane magic of his hat at Bas-Ra.  The beast howled in pain and frustration as he was moved out of range of the Houseguard.
The Knights did what they do best, bathing the flanks of their steeds in the blood of the Minotaurs; nothing of the creatures survived the devastating charge.  The Militia were less successful, felling some of the Longhorns, but too few to halt them.

The City Militia face the Longhorns

Straining, the Brutox focused the magical energy of the Wild.  With shock the Halfling Archers saw their arrows fall from it's flesh, some of its wounds knitting together.  Looking down it saw the Knights trampling through the bloody remains of it's little brothers; eyes full of anger it charged them.  Following it's lead, the Centaurs charged the Halfling Knights and the Longhorns clashed with the Militia.  Bas-Ras's Totem Bearer took a strange metal sphere from a bag and flung it at Lord Errington.  The metal 'pineapple' bounced off his armour, leaving the Duke looking bemused.  Rage made the Brutox clumsy, it crushed a few knights, but many remained.  The Centaurs slew more Halfling Knights, but they also held.  The City Militia took horrendous casualties, but even so, refused to break under the eye of their Lord, but they wouldn't be fighting immediately either.

At their Lord's urging, the Halfing Knights clashed with the Centaurs and the Household Knights, despite their casualties, rushed the short distance into the Brutox (Wavered, but Counter Charging with Fury).  Lord Errington himself charged into one flank of the Longhorns, whilst his Houseguard took the other.  Seeing their opportunity, the Militia withdrew.  The Halfling Archers wiped out the Totem Bearer with a concentrated volley of arrows, whilst Ogli pushed Bas-Ra into the river where he spluttered and floundered.  (At this point we realised out mistake with the damage and reinstated some of the lost points.  This round of damage was still enough to Waver him though).The Halfling Knights tore through the Centaurs, but miraculously they held (another double 1 Nerve test!).  Their human brethren fared similarly against the Brutox, but Lord Errington and his Houseguard wiped out the Longhorns.

Look, no Longhorns! (and shortly after, no Halfling Knights)

The Brutox again drew on it's magical roots and healed most of it's wounds.  It then waded into the fray once more, and pulled down more of the Knights.  The Centaurs fared even better, finally ridding themselves of the annoying Halfling Knights.

Seeing Bas-Ra unsupported, Lord Errington led his Houseguard against the beast.  The Knights rushed in against the Brutox again, knowing that if they failed to bring it down, they couldn't survive another attack from its fearsome blade.  Sergeant Alefast and the Halfling archers loosed a volley at the Centaurs, who milled around in confusion at their casualties.  Spurred on, the Knights brought the Brutox down finally, and by the river, Bas-Ra was wounded, but fought on.

Full of Fury, Bas-Ra rushed into the Houseguard, to little effect.  The Centaurs turned to face the Knights, but couldn't bring themselves to charge.

In response the Knights charged into the Centaurs, trampling them beneath their hooves.  Bas-Ra barely had time to register this when Lord Errington and his Houseguard cut him down.

Thus the pride of the Wild was lain low, and the expansionist ambition of the League of Rhordia remains unchecked.

Kings of War Battle - League vs Herd 1

I'm back from an enjoyable day of Kings of War against Merlin.  My League of Rhordia faced his Herd twice, one small 500 point game to set the story up (and remind ourselves of the rules and get to grips with what were new armies to both of us), and one larger 1000 point battle.
As is traditional with our gaming days, the host comes up with a storyline to run through the games, Merlin decided the Herd were attempting to halt League expansion into lands they considered sacred wilderlands.
This is my briefing for the first game;

The beastly Herd led by the Longhorn Champion, Gugrot have been raiding local farms and small holdings, killing everyone and taking the livestock. The League of Rhordia is now sending patrols out to counter the beastmen. The patrol  led by Sir Pontos comes across a host of beastmen who seem intent on crossing the River Mar at the ford by Froswick Farm. This river marks your border; you cannot allow this to happen? Can you stop Gugrot and his beasts who walk like men.

Duration: 6 turns, with a 7^th turn on a roll of 4+

Set-Up: both armies deploy within 12” of a table edge as per normal rules.

Who goes first: both players roll a die, highest score chooses who goes first.

Victory: Whoever has control of the ford at the end of the game is deemed the victor. This player will decide who starts deploying first and who takes the first turn next game. 

Here is my write up of the battle, after all, history is written by the victor.  I've tried to keep it as story like as possible, and mostly avoided using game terms.  Where I felt they were needed I've put them as asides in brackets.

The two armies face off outside Froswick Farm

The stout defenders of the League

and the ferocious attackers from the Wild

Sir Pontos sighed in dismay.  He had pushed his troops through the night, yet even so, the Herd had arrived at Froswick Farm.  Unable to fortify the place he knew he would have to fight in the fields.  The Herd hated taking fortified places, in the open they loved to run and hunt and kill.

Even as his troops were taking stock of the enemy, the Herd moved cautiously forward.
In response the House Guard and militia advanced, the halfling knights swinging wide to try and encircle the enemy.  Their bow armed comrades waited for the Herd to come into range.

The opening moves

The Herd continued their advance, the centaurs loosing arrows at the House Guard, though causing few casualties and the Beastherd turn to face the Halfling Knights
The League right flank continued its advance, the House Guard unable to march through the ploughed field.  Sir Pontos drew back a shaft on the enchanted Warbow and missed, with a chorus of sniffs the halflings at his side showed him how to do it, and a volley of arrows felled a few of the Longhorns.

The Longhorns are starting to take damage, while the Beastherd face the Halfling Knights

who arch on towards the enemy lines

The Herd stepped up to the road, the Centaurs again shooting at the House Guard, but their arrows went wide or bounced off the human's strong armour.  From the Herd's right flank a mass of squealing boars charged the Halfling Knights. Despite their sharp tusks the boars accomplished little.

The Knights and Boars clash

Sir Pontos ordered his right flank to advance as he drew his bow again.  Better luck this time as a Longhorn fell, pierced by his arrow.  Shrugging, the halfling archers felled more Longhorn, but the beasts refused to break (double 1 Nerve test).  As the boars milled around, the halflings urged their wardogs onwards with a shout of "bring home the bacon".  The Beast pack fell to their onslaught and the knights urged their hounds onwards.

Gugrot surveys the battlefield, his Beastherd has gone, he'll have to protect the right flank himself.

Gugrot saw it was time for him to smash his enemy.  He ordered the Centaurs and Longhorns to charge the House Guard and the City Militia.  Trusting to his army, he determined to take on the halfling knights himself.  He slew with joyous rage, stepping back to see the halflings and their dogs milling around in confusion.  Alas the rest of his army fared less well.  The Centaurs were unable to harm any of the House Guard, and the Longhorns were too far away, they ran as fast as possible, but ended up some distance from the City Militia.

The Herd attack

Sir Pontos blanched as he saw the knights in trouble.  There was little he could do from where he was.  Best to concentrate on the forces around him.  The House Guard smashed into the Centaurs, and displaying a precision to be proud of, the Militia smartly pivoted around to smash into the Centaur's flank.  Trusting to their training he once more drew his bow and loosed at the Longhorns, but he was distracted by thoughts of the knight's probable fate and missed.  The Halfling Archers were less happy.  They knew their brothers were doomed and determined to make the Herd pay.  Another volley felled many more Longhorns, but still the beasts refused to break (another double 1 Nerve test).  On the right flank the combined might of House Guard and Militia destroyed the Centaurs, the men then tried to dress ranks to face the remaining enemy (I forgot to pivot the House Guard and Militia, a disastrous error for the Militia it turned out).

With a snarl of rage Gugrot smashed into the Halfling Knights.  This wasn't supposed to be how it happened.  Bas-Ra had told him it would be a great triumph for the Wild, but he could see few of his army left.  The Longhorns, perhaps learning from the Militia, were able to charge their flank, smashing them utterly, then pulling back round to face the pesky archers.  Gugrot pulled down many more Halflings, but the plucky chaps refused to break.

The Longhorns in their moment of triumph, and the House Guard can't even see them!

Sir Pontos ordered the House Guard to turn to face the enemy, that was the trouble with these fancy noble types, sometimes they missed the obvious.  With a nod to the archers they all loosed, and the storm of arrows felled the remaining Longhorns.  The battered Halfling Knights tried to withdraw, no longer having the stomach for fighting.

The Halfing Knights are in a tight spot

Gugrot knew he was doomed, only he remained, but he would take down these pesky half-men and their dogs before he died.  Head down he caught the last of the knights on his horns, then turned to face the rest of the League force.

Gugrot faces the remaining League army

Calmly, Sir Pontos ordered the House Guard to advance towards the Herd leader.  Volleys of arrows injured the creature, yet still it came.  With a final volley of missiles (and another double 1 Nerve test!) Gugrot shook the bloodlust from his eyes.  Seeing his cause was doomed he fled back to the Wild that had birthed him.  The Humans and their halfling allies would have the advantage now; they would be able to get word to their forces at Mardale, and Bas-Ra's army would face prepared defenders, not panicking villagers.

A great fun game.  Victory to the League, but I've a feeling Gugrot will be back.
The second battle was a larger affair, you can read the AAR here.

Kings of War League of Rhordia - Further Reinforcements

At the beginning of March I blogged about my League army and how it needed some remedial work.  I also showed a regiment of crossbows that were part finished and teased about something dog related (but not Dogs of War).
Well I've got a fair bit done throughout March, in and among my other projects.  That's the beauty of the five box system; you can put a project down without feeling you are abandoning it.

Anyway, here's some pictures of the completed League stuff.

Here are those crossbows, finished and based.

The rear troop when deployed as a regiment,

and the front troop.

Those dogs I mentioned.  Halfling knights on warhounds.

The command troop, the command figures are simple conversions of the existing poses.

Rear troop

Some genuine Dogs of War.  That's two regiments (or one horde if placed side by side).

This is what one of the regiments looks like from above.

I have to say I'm pleased with my 15mm progress throughout March.  I've flags to add, but that that's all.  

The crossbows are Essex miniatures.  There are four different poses in the regiment, I have used a different one in each rank.  As is normal for my missile units I haven't added any command figures.

The halfling cavalry are Splintered Light,(I mentioned here about receiving them and the good service provided).  The banner is just a single colour to match the cloaks, I felt it was too fiddly to add any more detail.  The cross design on the shield is supposed to be a crossed knife and fork; they are halflings after all.  I have another troop of these painted with red cloaks, but I'm waiting to finish the final four to make another regiment (the minis had gone missing when I was prepping them).

The pikemen are from a variety of different manufacturers.  I had already painted up a number of the gambeson wearing pikemen years ago for my Empire army.  These were some of the unpainted minis left over, plus some others culled from one of my boxes of old lead.  The minis aren't great for detail, but en masse I think they look fine.  I replaced all the pikes on the minis, which entailed a fair bit of trimming, drilling, straightening wire, cutting and filling points.  

36 times!

It'll be a long while before I do that again, though I do have enough for another couple of regiments.

I've also got a character figure almost finished, and I have rashly started on a new 15mm project, inspired by some old minis I have (more on that later).

So sticking to a structured painting schedule and approaching it methodically has worked really well here.  I'm tempted to say it takes the fun out of it, but actually knowing that I would actually manage to finish a unit I could use on the battlefield gave me a goal to aim for and helped a lot.

I'm due for a game of Kings of War tomorrow against Merlin, and I'll finally get to use my League army.  Of course I'll let you know how it went.  And Merlin, if you're reading this pre battle, don't worry; not all of this will be playing tomorrow.

Kings of War - Mantic Wraiths

I recently painted a wraith for an undead warband for Vanguard and I liked the paint scheme so much I decided to do some more.  I have a set of two 500 point armies for teaching Kings of War, though it was built back in the days of first edition and was based on the Morgoth's Revenge boxed set.  To work in 2nd Edition it needs a bit of re jigging (an ongoing process that really deserves a box of it's own), and one change was the troop of wraiths.  Troops are now 10 minis rather than either 10 or 5, and the boxed set only had five of them.  When I finally tracked them down I was surprised to find that of the five I had only painted one!

Looking at what I had already painted a while ago I realized I wouldn't reliably be able to match the paint scheme (and I prefered the new wraith) so I moved the earlier wraith to the Vanguard warband, and painted up five new ones to go with the latest paint job.  If you're interested, the one I painted for Vanguard is the one on the left with the two handed sword.  Coincidentally the same pose as the older one that is now part of the Vanguard warband.

Six Mantic Wraiths

I'm happy to use just six wraiths to represent a troop of ten; the unit footprint is correct, and I've added some additional interest with a couple of gravestones.  The small one at the front (which marks the unit's centre point) is from the Mantic skeleton sprue; the larger one at the back is from the Renedra gravestones set, an excellent source of stuff for Undead bases.  I'm not too happy with the veining I tried on the marble, it looks more like biro graffiti, at least it's at the back of the unit and one day I'll go over it again and make it look more natural.

The wraiths were pretty easy to paint.  A white undercoat followed by VGC Bonewhite for the bones, followed by VGC Bright Bronze for the metal armour and similar.  Anything iron I painted in VGC Chainmail.  The metal was given a wash of black ink and the bones and iron a wash of AP Strongtone, then the robes were repainted white.  Once all this was done, the robes and armour were given a wash of VGC Green Ink, with touches of Dark Green ink in the deeper folds.  This ink nicely dulls the bronze and gives a feel of age.  As this is a bit of a special unit, at least in a small army, I added a few extra highlights to the bone and some of the weapons.  I'm really pleased with the effect, they almost glow.

The unit is based on a Warbases movement tray.  I've had these a while and I think I had them custom made (Warbases are excellent at that).  I got them originally for my elves, a long neglected project, and they have eight rather than ten holes that fit the circular base on the bottom of a Mantic mini.  The holes are offset as well, giving a rather irregular look.  I just filled in a couple of the holes since there were only six wraiths.

Once again I have used Luke's APS' basing scatter; this is the Arid Grasslands mix, as opposed to the Patchy Plains I used on the handgunners, which I think looks good for undead.  I haven't added any tufts (yet), but might try a few of the drier looking ones.

I've also been playing around with a new photo booth/light box thingy (a nice birthday pressie) and with editing the photos a bit.  I hope you can see an improvement.  I'm even going through some past photos on here and either replacing them or at least editing them to give (hopefully) better results.  So it might be worth revisiting past favourites (or not).  Please let me know if you think things have improved.

Various Vanguard Minis

I'm finding it difficult to settle on one project at the moment, can you tell?  At least I am tending to finish minis or units and the five box system is helping keep me on track.  Or on five tracks rather.

Anyway, I've been doing Vanguard things recently as well.  I suppose I could think of my handgunners as potential recruits for a Kingdoms of Men Vanguard force, but I have others on the go as well.  Way back when the game was beta tested I collected three of the four sample warbands.  I finished my goblins ages ago, and have been adding some of the KoW goblin metal heros to it; they are are part way through base coating now.
I also put together undead and dwarves, though until recently I hadn't got much beyond the basecoat stage of those.  A few weeks ago I dug out the dwarves to show a friend how to play, and more recently T'Other One (he of the awesome undead) came round and I ran him through a small game.
I have found that for a first game its easier to go for half size warbands.  There's a lot less going on, so the new concepts, such as Fatigue and Forced Fatigue seem more straight-forward.

As I suspected, T'Other One prefered to use undead, but alas, didn't have any ready singly based.  So I got a quick job done to get the undead sample warband table ready.

The game itself was fun, though the undead fared badly (partly due to me erroneously advising T'other One on the best tactics for undead.  Oops, sorry).  I suspect I'll see some of his undead shambling towards me in the near future.
I liked using the dwarves.  As a player who usually chooses orcs, goblins etc, it was nice to have troops that can take a bit of punishment.  While the dwarves took a lot of wounds between them, none of them fell.

I have since put some more work in on some of the Undead, and the dwarves need a bit of extra work too (I'm particularly unhappy with the yellow).  Here are the finished Undead, just a few more to go now, and I need to decide on what to use as a second necromancer for a full sized warband.

Skeletons and Revenants.  All Mantic models, and, I think, really nice.  

I need a shield design for the Revenants at least.  I'm tempted by a red rose in answer to T'Other One's white rose undead, but I can't quite bring myself to do that.

Wraith and Zombies.  Again mantic models.

Actually, this isn't the wraith we used in the above game.  I'll explain more about that in another post.  

Once again I look at my scenery and think it could do with improvement.  I have had some thoughts in that direction (as soon as a box becomes free) so I should be scenery building (and consolidating what I already have) in the near future.

Kingdoms of Men Reinforcements - Part five, Varnishing and Finishing

With the wash is dry I varnished the Handgunners to protect them.  I've owned minis for long enough to appreciate the value of a good coat of varnish; it doesn't prevent paint wearing off completely, but it minimises it.
Last time I mentioned that I might add some extra details, but I decided against it for now.  I can always add detail later, even after varnishing.
As I suggested I was a little disappointed with the finish after washing, particularly the yellow.  My son, knowing what a chore I had found putting on the highlights cheekily suggested I re-highlight.  I may even do this in the future, but not now.

The varnish I use is gloss yacht varnish, pretty robust stuff that should protect the paint from most things.  I brushed this on, rather than dipping, though I did drop one of the rear rank into the varnish.  After some work he seems OK, and very little different to the rest, so maybe in future?

Once the varnish is dry, and it takes a couple of days to be sure, especially in cool weather (what happened to that warm February?), I used Rowney Matt to dull down the shine.

At this point I decided to try something a little different for base texture.  Normally I would paint the bases Burnt Umber and then apply sand and PVA, plus another coat of thinned PVA to fix it, then paint the whole lot in Burnt Umber again, followed by a couple of drybrushes, then apply flock and tufts.
But I saw Luke of Luke's APS using a new (to me) product of his, Base Ready scatter.  You can see him using it here (and check out his channel, he has some great ideas).

It took a while to actually get some of this, and the Handgunners sat for a few weeks waiting patiently.  Eventually it arrived, along with the recommended glue (some sort of rubber solution glue?).  It's easy to apply and looks good.  However, I didn't have enough long tufts to finish off the regiment (short tufts tend to get lost in and among the rest of the base texture).  My Chillcon haul sorted that, so finally, here they are.

I really like the effect the base ready scatter gives, but it's very different from the rest of my bases, so I might use this for the Kingdoms of Men from now on, and eventually and gradually rebase the existing models.

There are a couple of points though.  The glue seems very good, but I suspect there will be some shedding.  I might give them a sealing coat of thinned PVA.  Also some of the grit is rich in iron (its the bits that give the darker shades).  Fine, but it tends to stick to the magnets on the bases.  I suppose that sorts out the problem of any loose scatter; it sticks to the bottom of the base.

So that's another regiment for the Kingdoms of Men.  I'll most likely use them as two troops in the game, but I knew if I only painted ten, it would take me ages to get round to doing the rest (and I've at least as many to do again).  I haven't included any command models, I tend not to with missile troops, but I might convert something as a leader, in which case, he can replace one of the front rank and that gives me a spare handgunner for the next regiment. 

I have several more units planned for the Kingdoms, all drawn from my unpainted Empire minis.  But they will have to wait for now, as I might get some scenery sorted first.

Chillcon Haul

Yesterday it was Chillcon, one of my favourite wargames shows.  I'll admit I don't cope well with crowds, so the bigger shows, like Vapnartak, are not for me.

Anyway, what was the show like, and what did I get to add to my MABLE*?

The show was great, it was clearly busy, but not too crowded as the space available was ample.
I went with a list, both for myself and for Merlin.  Alas, I couldn't find anything from his list, and my list was only partially filled.

Thud and Blunder, since Merlin got this I was determined to track it down.  It uses essentially the same engine as In her Majesty's Name and Blood Eagle, but is far more geared to a traditional fantasy game (there are pages of spells for instance, and there are sample characters to make up an adventuring party).  I hope this will give me the opportunity to play games with pretty much any fantasy minis I have.  I certainly have no real complaints with the Blood Eagle games I played a while ago, though I suspect on a much larger scale the granularity of the game might slow it down somewhat.

I theory, I shouldn't need to paint anything up for this as I have stuff for Vanguard, plus loads of D&D minis of various sorts.  I'm sure I will do a dedicated warband though.

Dwarven MDF cut terrain from Lasercut Architect. I've seen these two dwarven buildings on the internet before, in real life they were good enough for me to buy.  There is a third, slightly larger, building and a bridge in the same style.  If cottage 1 (on the left) looks slightly familiar, it is based loosely on a card model of a dwarven brewery that was available in a scenario pack many years ago.  I liked the original and always planned to build one of my own.  Now I don't have to.  The designer was interested to hear that there could be a market for similar buildings in 15mm.  

I have a terrain project planned for the near future, so these will come in useful.

Oathsworn under their 'Sensible Shoes' label.  I've not noticed these before, but they are nice minis for RPG characters (and a few monsters).  My new D&D campaign features Dragonborn as an important PC/NPC race, so I was pleased to add to my currently small collection.  

Tieflings this time.  My son likes these, so I picked up what we could find.

I needed some good sized tufts to finish of some bases (then I can show the handgunners).  I can pick up Army painter stuff quite easily in my FLGS, but these were a little more out of the ordinary.

Mantic were selling packs of the Star Saga scenery at a very reasonable price, so I got a pack to use as extra stuff for Deadzone.  I understand that interactive scenery will be a thing in DZ soon.

There were many impressive display games; Mantic's Vanguard was particularly appealing, but for sheer nostalgia this was awesome. 

This is Dark Ops' 3D Heroquest board.  I'm sure this boardgame (released in the 1980s, don't you feel old now?) is responsible for more people joining the hobby than pretty much anything else.

What didn't I get?  Well I wanted some bases from Warbases, but I didn't think to order them in advance.  I'll put in a postal order.  I was also after a few odd minis; a plastic GW archer to complete my kingdoms of Men archer regiment, and some old school minis for another mini project i have coming up.  

It didn't matter though, I'm more than happy with what I got, and when it comes down to adding to the lead pile, there are only two new minis for me (plus a bit of terrain admittedly).

*Miniatures Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy