The Mules Of Ashak Rise

(Almost) The final Minis for Ashak Rise

Apart from orcs, hobhounds and dwarves, there are three mules at Ashak Rise.  Their job is to help the dwarves escape with the gold.  Thus they have an important role in this game, so I can't ignore them.

Mule Train!

When I played the game back in the nineties,  I used plastic toy donkeys made for farm sets.  These are now hard to find (I believe Britains are no longer in business) so I need another alternative

The 1999 playthrough with plastic farm donkeys

This time I wanted to find some suitable minis and paint them up. After all they'll make great objective markers in other games as well. 

Searching through my various piles of minis turned up one donkey. I believe it is still made by Wargames Foundry, along with other suitable beasts of burden.  But I was sure I had other minis. Among them an old Citadel Bill the Pony*.

Well I found a very mangled horse and another one laden with equipment.  They did look very much like small riding horses though, not beasts of burden. 

Two small horses

But a bit of putty later, and I think they'll do.  I sculpted various sacks, bags and blanket rolls, and even had a go at a wooden box**. To finish them off I added some bits from my bits box (mostly stuff from the ever useful North Star Frostgrave sprues).

Painting was straightforward though I took a long time trying to decide how to paint the various bits of baggage. 

The completed baggage section

Plus One Dwarf 

When I showed the last four dwarves I did mention that for Warlords of Erehwon I'd need an extra. When I found this chap in the lead pile I knew it had to be him. After all, the dwarves at Ashak Rise are panning for gold.

He's a D7 Dwarf Villager (Prospector, 86 - 12) sculpted by Trish Carden.  A small range that, like the human and orc villagers I appreciate a lot more now than back in the day when I had a lot more of them.  I think he's a great mini, his eager expression (I deliberately tried to give him a wide eyed look) as he gazes at his golden nugget and his buck teeth really give him character.

As with the beasts of burden, he took longer than I expected.  But this time it was because I was enjoying painting him so much that I didn't want to stop.

"Gold, its all mine I tell you"

So that's the dwarves for Ashak Rise actually finished***. 

What's Next?

Well there's the hobhounds to complete the Severed Hands.  They are all based and primed, so they shouldn't take long.

Then there's the terrain to look at.  I've already repaired the bridge, but there's a hut plus a river, road, hills and woods.

And perhaps even a better playing surface?
Fortunately, Dave Stone runs a terrain challenge over summer, so I think some of this will be done for that.

Beyond that, I've already started looking at the next scenario, Linden Way, and my favourite of the preliminary games.

*Sadly,  my memory was faulty. The equine in question was actually a mount, possibly for Tom Bombadil?  What's more, it's an imperfect cast, missing the end of it's nose. 

** Why not go all out with the bits or model things, eg with tissue and thread? Well I wanted to see what I could sculpt.

There are some things that didn't work, which is why the wooden box is mostly covered with a shield and some rope, but I'm generally pleased with the results. 

*** I'm prone to getting side-tracked, as the prospector shows, but I might actually be able to stop for the Dwarves of Ashak Rise now.

Orc's Drift Terrain: Bridge and Outhouse Restoration

I've struggled to get any painting done recently. Lots of real world stuff getting in the way, and what hobby time I can grab seems to have coincided with the hottest part of the day, and paint just dries too quickly. 

But I am sorting through terrain for Orc's Drift, and recently found my original bridge model. 

As with most of my stuff,  it's suffered over the years, but it's easily fixed. 

I've also got the outhouse, which needs a few bits sorting and updating. 

Painting may be off the table, but this kind of terrain work is fine, in fact, the faster drying time helps when gluing tiles on rooves.

Dwarves test out the new facilities

The Bridge Over the River Canis

Bridges are always useful.  They can be objectives and they provide interesting movement choices. Quite apart from it's place in the Orc's Drift campaign,  it's a very useful terrain piece to have in the collection. 

The underside of the bridge, showing construction and damage

The top of the bridge

I originally built the bridge from a card photocopy of the original, reinforced underneath with the thick card that I used to get from my job in printing.  Thinner card (about 1mm) forms the coping stones and filler gives the rest of the surfaces some texture. 

Over the years one side has broken and is hanging off, help in place only by some of the coping stones. 

To repair it I ran a bead of hot glue underneath to hold together and strengthen the internal joints. PVA glue was then used to repair the broken pieces of card coping.  

A quick touch up of paint brought the bridge back to full working condition, although I'm not sure if I should add a base.  I'm waiting until I've made some river sections before deciding what to do.

The fixed bridge from below

and as seen on the battlefield

The Outhouse 

Although an outhouse isn't really appropriate for a humano-centric pseudo-Medieval setting, it plays an important role in the inspiration material for Orc's Drift, so it's a must for the game. 

The Outhouse, currently vacant

That tired looking tiled roof

The model was built on a core of that lovely thick card again.  The walls were clad in wooden spills. These were the 80s hobbyist's equivalent of coffee stir sticks, sold in tobacconists (the 80s equivalent of Vape Shops) for lighting pipes (the 80s equivalent of... sorry, I'll stop now). 

The roof was tiled with thin card, and looks a bit tired. So I replaced it, using slightly thicker card (mail order card envelopes) this time around. To match the wooden construction I tried to give the effect of wooden shingles by scribing lines to texture the card like wood.  You can be the judge of how effective it is.

The updated outhouse, engaged

The Outhouse definitely needs a small base but I'll probably base a number of the buildings at once to keep them consistent. 

Both models got a bit of ink staining, Vallejo Game Ink Dark Green, to give an aged look and accentuate some of the textures.

So that's a couple of my old models renovated, and more terrain for the Orc's Drift project, and beyond that, for gaming in general.  I'm going to have to build some of the Orc's Drift terrain again, but I've at least one more building that I might be able to restore, though it's in far worse condition than the bridge.

Citadel Giant Restoration: Part 1

I was recently given a commission to strip and repair the old Citadel Giant ready for it's new owner.

The giant in it's current damaged state and wearing it's old paint job.

The repair work in question is fixing the broken ankle, the stripping is partly to check the condition; there's no obvious lead rot, but we want to be sure, and partly to give the new owner a blank canvas to work on. There's nothing wrong with the original paint job, but I completely understand the new owner wanting to put their stamp on it.

If you don't know the Citadel Giant, it's a truly stunning mini. There are some great pictures on Stuff of Legends.

Standing nearly 200mm tall, and coming with a selection of heads and optional hands and weapons and weighs in around 1700g (not including the extra components). 

The optional pieces

Unfortunately, some of the accessories are missing; the captives (snacks?) and the sword that the giant uses as a knife. I have seen a set of captives plus a spare head on eBay, but at close to £200, I'm not tempted.

Stripping the paint should be fairly straightforward. The procedure is the same as I used for the Rogue Trader Orks back in 2021, the only issue is the sheer  size. A larger tub and a full bottle of Dettol should do the trick.

The repair needs a bit more thought, but I've already got some ideas, please comment if you've got any suggestions. 

And please note, the giant is not for sale!

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