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Forwent.. nice keeping us 'edumakated' in so many ways.

I really like the blue green and How you used it . Subtle and planned but not overwealming the Red. Something to add to my learnings.

Love those Chaos Terminators Siggy! the combination of conversion and your paint job just makes them simply stand out work! very brutal looking and chaosy!

@Solar_lion: Well, I do read my dictionotomy. Cheers, I was really eager to use that kind of turquois on some chaos terminators.

@nerdfest09: Thanks muchly, Mr.NF!



Dragon!



DRAGON!



DRAAGOOOONNN!!



RAWRGRHLHLBLARGH!!



This'un's the dragon from FFG's boardgame Descent.

Silly Siggy.... ;D

Well, forgive my enthusiasm but sometimes one word just sums it all up so very nicely. it was a nice mini to paint. Straightforward, classic. Just the way I enjo- OH NO, WHAT'S THIS?



WARGHBLARGHRGHLRGHL!


:p Yup, this mode of posting is my standard for Descent miniatuers now. The fella's still WIP, mind you.



As for other WIPs - here are some American War of Independence civilians made by the Perrys. I ordered them earlier this year along with a bunch of completely different models but there's the vague plan of doing sommething AWI skirmish like and for interesting scenarios a few civilians are never a wrong choice:

Never ceasing to amaze

All and everything looks great, and enjoying it!

Great looking WARGHBLARGHRGHLRGHL, Siggy!

@Littletower: Thanks muchly, Sir!

@Moltar: Cheers. I think the creature is actually called Queen Ariad but I was too startled to look it up last time I posted.


Well, here are the last two of the Imperial Armada for Freebooter's Fate:



Gunpowder Mary and Not-Lara-Croft-as-a-Pirate. They're still both WIP but have to be finished by next Saturday.

Speaking of which - next Saturday of course is VIVAT II. I'll haul the big glass showcase (and smaller ones) down to tin figure museum Katzelsdorf, pack up some historical figures to showcase, bunch of painting stuff, some lamps and so on, business cards, models and so on and be at the show! Hope to get a bit more time this year to get around to have a look at the tables some more. Looking forward to meeting people of the historical wargaming community again too. We only really have two events throughout the year and it's good to see the people who attend them. There'll be great tables as well of course. Last year we made it into Miniature Wargames magazine.

Speaking of events, I dropped my plans to visit Crisis this year. Maybe next year. Maybe I'll attend Tactica in February(?). Well, so much for all the off-topic stuff, hope you like the figures.

Arggggg.. they be nice figures .. and minatures too!

@Solar_lion: Hur-hur-hur.


Alright, peeps. I just had the long awaited test game of Lion Rampant.



A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to show him what this wargaming stuff is all about and I decided that it would be a nice thing to combine that with a test run of Lion Rampant which I'd gotten right after release. It's a set of historical wargaming rules depicting skirmishes between medieval lords and their retinues of 40-50 men. I might write up a review of the thing in the future because I really like the way these rules work. Very roughly, it works kinda like Hail Caesar/Warmaster in terms of activation.





Given the period and the rather unrefined ways of warfare back then it lends itself perfectly well for adaption. I don't own a collection of proper medieval miniatures yet but I thiought that humans and Dark Elves would work just as well. Maybe you've seen my Dark Elves army at the beginning of this thread. The Empire models I mostly inherited from someone who quit wargaming a few years ago plus the knights and greatswords I recently painted especially for this game.

The general setup was thus: My brother and our friend played whilst I umpired (and provided models, terrain, etc.). This constellation proved to be very managable when trying out new rules sets in the past as the umpire can look up rules and such while the players move and roll dice.

Lion Rampant comes with about ten scenarios which is pretty cool. I chose one of the most interesting ones - The Fugitive. Unfortunately the table wasn't quite as wide as it should have been but at least we had the right length. Proper gaming boards really are next on my to-do list. As for the scenario: The village leader's daughter was kidnapped by some nasty Dark Elves whilst she was picking flowers in the woods. She was able to escape (probably by kicking shins), ran back to the village and hid somewhere in one of the huts, with Dark Elf Leader Roberta the Sly and Boastful and her cronies hot on her heels. To the aid of the village militia comes a detachment of proper imperial soldiers, led by Albrecht the Unheard) Their job is either fending off the Dark Elves or find the girl and escort her off the table. The Dark Elves' aim was to thwart their plans.



Above you can see the table setup. The houses count as difficult terrain (for simplicity's sake. The watchtower in the centre of the table doesn't count as a house. Each time a human unit enters any of the terrain zones one of the houses is in for the first time they roll a d6 to see if they find the girl in the house. First house they check they'll find the girl on a 6, in the second house they look after her they'll find her on a 5+, on a 4+ in the third house and so on. Once a unit found the girl they have to get her off the table via the eastern edge (humans start on the eastern edge, dark elves on the western edge).

Now for the armies. The human army consisted of the following:



1 Unit of Knights of the White Wolf including Albrecht (= 1 unit of Mounted Men at Arms with the Drilled upgrade]
1 Unit of Greatswords (= 1 unit of Foot Men at Arms)
1 Unit of Imperial Spearmen (= 1 Unit of Foot Serjeants)
1 Unit of Imperial Musketeers (= 1 Unit of Crossbowmen)

...and of course the village militia:


1 Unit of Village Militia (= 1 Unit of Foot Yeomen)

All foot units with the exception of the Greatswords consist of 12 models.


Here are the Dark Elf Attackers:



1 Unit of Cold One Knights including Roberta (= 1 Unit of Mounted Men at Arms)
2 Units of Dark Elf Spearmen (= 2 Units of Expert Foot Serjeants)
1 Unit of Dark Elf Crossbowmen (= 1 Unit of Expert Archers)

Before the first turn we rolled up leader traits. Albrecht, the human leader, got something I can't remember the exact name of but it took away the morale bonus friendly units get in a 12" radius around him. Maybe a bad cold and he couldn't shout orders on that day. Roberta the Dark Elf rolled and came up with "Sly", meaning she can refuse challenges by the other leader without every unit of her retinue having to test for morale.



Then the players chose their boasts. Boasts are a really cool addition to the game. Ultimately, winners and losers are determined by Glory Points. In this scenario the humans get 5 Glory Points if they get the girl off the table, the Dark Elves get 3 Glory Points if they prevent them from doing so. Before the game players can boast to do certain things during the game, more difficult things getting them more Glory if they succeed in it. If they don't fulfill a boast they lose one Glory Point in the end. Think of them as "side quests".



Albrecht's boasts mean that he aims to kill or rout half of the enemy's retinue in points and that the first unit in the game to roll for morale (courage) will be an enemy unit. These would earn him 2 or 1 glory respectively.



Roberta The Sly And Boastful swore to kill the enemy's most valuable unit (the knights), to have each of her units initiate close combat at some point during the game and that at the end of one turn, most of her units would be closer to the enemy's table edge than his units would be.

The Dark Elves, being the attacker, started moving onto the board and towards the village to keep the humans from rescuing the girl and the human army moved into the village as well.



Each side had one unit who didn't quite wanted to keep up, in the case of the humans it was the imperial spearmen, in the case of the dark elves it was the repeater crossbow elves.



Imperial troops quickly split up to search the first three houses but alas - no sign of the girl. This could have been easy but now it looked like it would come to a bloody fight for access to the other three houses.


The village militiamen heroically position themselves in front of the Cold One Knights to lure them into a trap. Albrecht knows that it's impossible to hold back the Cold Ones when they see some easy to grab snacks. The Cold One Knights charged in, shoo'd away the militiamen but on their next turn faced Albrecht's knights. Roberta called out Albercht for a duel.



Very fun to see pretty much the first thing happening in the game is a duel between the two leaders. This is a very uncertain thing as both of them have exactly the same chance of winning or losing any the early loss of a leader would be a very, very bad thing. Both heroes swung mighty blows, each one scored a hit, but they were evenly matched and returned to their units.

Meanwhile at the other side of the central watchtower some Spear Elves wiped out the militiamen and proceeded to attack the Greatswords. Time after time the Elves launched attacks against the Greatswords, but there was no decisive round of combat and the battle went on.


This is the situation at the middle of the game. The battle lines run right though the village, none of the sides can quite break through. Instead there is a nasty grinding away on the units as Dark Elves hurl themselves against the human defenders. And still no sign of the girl, worse yet, no way to get to the rest of the houses to look for her!



At this point the missile units (imperial handgunners and elven crossbowmen) really comes into play, whittling down units on both sides with their salvos. Albrecht falls along with his knights as the horses just wouldn't move (= bad dice rolling on the activation) but his men stand firm and also Roberta's unit of Cold One Knights isreduced to just her and even she has to retreat on her own at one point.

The late game situation:


Right at this point the imperial player decides to go for a final push through the elven lines and on to the pigsty where they finally find the girl. But it's almost like Roberte was just waiting for this to happen and the elves overpower the unit of stalwart spearmen who tried to escort the girl off the board and into safety. The game is over as the girl is captured.



Glory Points are calculated, the Dark Elves ending up with 5 points versus the Humans' zero.

It was a really enjoyable game, the rules resonated well with everyone involved. Not sure if the lists are all that even and the table was quite a bit too narrow to maneuver properly but oh well. It was a really good time and our pal who's first foray into wargaming this was already asked for another game. I'm sure that this isn't the last we hear of Roberta and Albrecht. :p

The rules of the game are rather easy to learn. There are a few things that might irk me a little (no frontages, no rear charges and so on. In this regard if feels a bit Saga-like which is a game that just doesn't work for me, but then the activation and combat mechanics are right up my alley. Let's see) but I'm not quite sure yet. Maybe next time I'll have a game myself. And there already are plans for proper historical gaming with these rules, doing something Crusade-y.

Heyhey, here's a preview of the Imperial Armada warband I just finished. Detail pics are to follow!




Hope you like ithem!


Oh, and because I'll do anything but prepare for this Saturday's wargames show I'll be showing off stuff at I finished these fences!





Took me a while to finish them because I wanted to figure out a way to have them on swappable bases for even more varied application. In the end I went for magnets. Because these fences aren't only handy for sooo many games but also can pop up in lots of periods/settings. I got ten sections of 13cm each, so 1.30m or 4ft 3" of LOS-blocking goodness. Again, very simple to build and paint. I would have loved to add some posters, anarchy signs and other grafitti and whatnot but these are supposed to be as universally usable as possible so yeah..

Battle report was enjoyable as always. The finished warband looks just great, as does the fencing. Yep... a million-and-one applications.

Hullo, I'm back from VIVAT and brought a bunch of pictures!


comment: By "Tabletop" German speaking peeps usually mean "miniature wargaming".

VIVAT is Austria's only wargaming event which is all about historical wargaming. The community is somewhat fractured and not too huge so it's great that we got this event for many of us to meet up once a year. As last year, the location was Zinnfigurenwelt Katzelsdorf and was offered for free by the museum's director who in return got a t-shirt.



We had quite a lot more space this year around due to also having access to a room in the neighboring school. But let's start at the museum itself, with the American Civil War table, run by Christoph and Victor (both of whom also helped me hauling my stuff around, mainly the glass cabinet!):




(Christoph made some snazzy QR codes for each one of the tables. My name - appropriately underlined - is on the sheet because I contributed some of the figures and terrain for the table)



Some of you might recognize the barn, some of the fences and so on...





I droned on about it last year but here are some actual pictures of the set pieces displayed in the museum:



This isn't a painting (well, the very farthest layer is of course with the shapes of the farthest hourses and the sky), it's all models of houses and flat miniatures. They are presented in a very clever way, with most of the showcases being "taped off" so you have to look at the pieces from a certain angle which makes them look their absolute best. A closer look:



Same here:



A little medieval scene:





Where's Waldo?



Somehow there is something extremely endearing about this sort of modell vignettes, don't you think?



Of course there also were some non-flat figures on site as well. And look, someone even snuck in some 40k stuff.



A scene from the 17th century. Possibly from the TYW?


Here's the table of the Österreichische Gesellschaft für historische Simulation (Austrian Society for historical simulation):


including some issues of their magazing Manöverkritik.
...as well as a game of Wings of War they set up:



On the day we had four vendors on the site (not counting myself because, hey, I'm your artiste-pal-next-door who's just playing) - Silent Night Games, the guy who does the meeples and markers, s-games.at and Chris Figurenshop. Here's the latter's stand:



Sandwiched in between the two WW1 tables there was the Napoleonics table, showcasing General de Brigade:






On the upper level some of the guys gave demo games of Operation Squad (featuring the Germans I painted for one of the guys in summer):






The ww2 table of the Wiener Planspiel guys has become a fixture of the show:



You can't see them in the picture, but the table is divided into squares. Saves a lot of time arguing about movement allowances and whether or not these guys are it to this spot and so on. A mechanism which recently got picked up the Mantic's Deadzone for instance.

Not quite appropriately in the "creepy dolls section" I was to be found with my painting table:


Speakig of creepy dolls, this was my view for most of the day (unless there were people dropping by for a chat, ask questions about my services or to watch me paint stuff:




You may have seen this glass cabinet (dubbed "the snowwhite coffin" and following that my car was dubbed "hobbit hearse" due to the way I transport the thing :p ) before. I haul it with me to shows. And of course many will know it from their homes too because it's from IKEA.

So far I often forgot taking pictures of my own stuff when I was at shows so this time I took the time and made some more pictures of the stuff I put on display, going from bottom to the top:











A the very top I got a single showcase box for the napoleonic Austrians and some of the 15mm Persians in the front:



A bit further down the hall: The Saga table.




...as well as the fantastically painted ship models for his Trafalgar game:


A look into the other room across the yard:


In the other room across the yard there were two WW1 themed tables. The first one used Bolt Action rules with a few fan-made amendments for WW1. It's the usual Late War Western Front thing:



I possibly chose the worst time of the day to take these photos but oh well. This way you got the rather comical lighting of the sides, with the British side drenched in searing light while the Germans lie in the shadows.



In the same room a game with a theme which is especially close to my heart took place - Thirty Years War, the of Lutter at Barenberge 1626 where Tilly's and Danish king's Christian IV's troops met on the battlefield. Shame it's all 15mm and not 10mm, so not compatible with my minis. They used the Field of Glory Renaissance rules set.






Then there was the other WW1 table. This time 20mm and it's Austrian-Hungarian troops facing off against Russian troops.





...and here we got some k.u.k. troops:



In the end the winners of the vote for the best tables of the show were announced. Both WW1 tables won along with I think the TYW one, but I'm not sure to be honest. Sorry. :/







Well, and that's that. I was dead tired when I arrived home but it was a great day out. It's nice meeting the people, old and new, picked up some new commission projects, had a ton of good chats with the guys and so on. Good stuff, good day. Thanks to the organizers and the owner of the location and thanks to everyone who dropped by to say hello.

Oh, and I didn't buy all to much either. Believe me, I tried, but I couldn't find anything and I already have unhealthy amounts of models lying around at home. So all I picked up (except for the show-only miniature which you'll see later at some point) was a blister of Soviet scouts from Warlord Games and a baggy of 15mm light cavalry who might fit my Persians.

What? No selfies??

Looks like a fantastic time Siggy! Really love seeing all those beautiful armies and great terrain. Really something special.\\

That's great, Siggy, looked like fun! Thanks for sharing!

Wow Siggy, that was some great read! :-) looks like a ball of fun mate and even though it' not my forte I really liked checking out the people who have the passion for those historicals, must be some very passionate gamers in that scene? you'd have to get everything historically correct i'm guessing or all hell could break loose!

Hooray, thanks for the replies, guys. I'm never quite sure if these reports from minor happenings from the not-quite-premier end of the world aren't a complete bore.

@Gitsplitta: Since thet things that recently happened to my esteemed colleagues by the filthy hands of the hacker 4chon-and-redsit (I think he refers to it as "The Fopsining") I am a lot more concious about the pictures I take of myself. Thanks for the comment, glad you liked the pictures!

@Cosmic: Cheers!

@nerdfest09: Glad you liked it and that someone read it at all! I don't think that it's much harsher than say with 40k. And nobody gets everything historically correct. There are people who play very, very loosely, others enjoy their games to be authentic or research particular battles to recreate. Some don't bother or even find it interesting if they're playing Samurai versus Vikings (thank god they're in a minority though ). But really, the community by no means is any better or worse than the sci-fi/fantasy crowds. There are some other basic mindsets at work, mainly concerning the interchangability of model manufacturers and rule sets (which I very, very much appreciate.) Then again, there are some whole other problems around like agreeing on a set of rules, basing conventions and so on. It always comes down to the people playing and their compatibility. Sure, it sucks if someone doesn't care about historicity at all, but it's the same as with somebody not caring at all about the background when you play 40k, Warmachine, etc.




Right, today I received a link to my pal virago's photos of the show. It's always interesting to see the differences between his style of photography and mine. I get all impressed with lots of models, try to get them all in the picture and end up with one tree in focus and lots of little wobbly objects around it which are the models. virago takes proper pictures of miniatures. So here we go!

He ran the ACW table so that's where we start:












On to the Thirty Years War table with some really cool pictures:











All 15mm and you can see that thing TYW wargamers put up with - as good as no uniforms. This requires dedication. Amazing armies on display here.


Speaking of dedication, here are closer pictures of the Trafalgar game:







Then some more WW1.

28mm:


20mm:



(including some orthodox priests)

Some Waterlooesque action. Yeah, there's that anniversary coming up next year and with it a big, big project:


In case you were wondering what a ridiculously large picture of some of my 15mm light Persian infantry looked like:


...and last but not least - Operation Squad (sadly not including any of the germans I painted but I'll post them again if you like. :p ):







Well, that's that. No, wait, it isn't! I painted the scouts I bought at VIVAT:





Here they are with four of their pals from Black Tree Design:


Yup, these Warlord figures are rather colourful. One sniper, one guy with hand grenades, one with a wire cutter, one with radio equipment, another guy with a map, one guy running "hush"ing at the viewer and brandishing a knife and one guy giving a hand sign and holding binoculars. On their own they would be a bit too over the top but they go pretty well with the more down to earth poses of the BTD figures. So they make for a nice addition, especially as they can be used for so many things besides what they're made for. These can act as depictions of a sniper, engineers, forward observers and so on. Pretty good. I need to make some sort of army shot some time. The only thing I still need (apart from funky support choices and a T-34/76 turret) probably are about four more dudes with SMGs, two more scouts with rifles (if possible. Otherwise I use regular dudes with rifles). Chain of Command's soviet scouts sections are a junior leader with SMG and two teams of two riflemen and two guys with SMGs each. And it's surprisingly hard to find soviet scouts with rifles. Once I got those I've got enough stuff to field either a regular rifle platoon or a tank riders platoon.

Those armies are sure spectacular Sigur. Thanks for sharing all those pics.

New scouts look great! Very interesting designs too.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks muchly!


Hey ho, dudes and dudettes. After a week of visits to customers (I was served pastries on BOTH occasions :cool: ), putting stuff away from vivat and so on I finally got to get back into swing.

Starting out with the last Descent2.0 miniatures for now:





They're intended to be some kind of blueish grey black kinda colour but I decided that Fantasy Flight Games' authors, artists and illustrators have no idea about what their monsters should look like. They reminded me of plant/bug monsters right from the get-go so I started out green. Then I had a look at them and thought they remembered me of something...



Of course, Sichlor! (I only know the first 150 pokémen. I'm THAT old.) So I took a few pointers from that one, added the colourful stripes (those are on the original artwork as well) and that was pretty much it. Hope you like them.


Right before VIVAT I received an order from Hasslefree too. Remember the 2012 sculpting competition they did? Well, they finally got around to doing the "winners mould" (all the winning miniatures were cast and sent to all the participants, plus each participant would receive a cast of their own entry. My mini didn't win and was deemed uncastable so there won't ever be any casts of Super Initiative Gear Unit Risa beyond the master model. :p ). Anyway, I felt bad for just getting the free stuff and it never takes too much to make me order some random Hasslefree mini so I got Haela, a female Dwarf adjusting her helmet. There aren't enough minis with an "adjusting helmet" pose. :p Look how tiny she is next to the CSM termiantor.


(the Dwarf is the one in the right

Very cute pose. I'm not quite happy with the painting so far, but she's WIP.

Well, that's that. Er..so what's new with you guys? Enjoying the weekend?

Oh, bloggery stuff: At VIVAT my cellphone broke down. I don't want to badmouth a company (you know me, I'd never do that ) but if you are considering getting a cellphone by ZTE - maybe they are not very good. No matter how big the company is in China. So I'm back on my non-smartypants phone again and I really like it. it's nice to have tangible buttons and being able to write text messages without having to look at the display. It's nice being able to navigate the phone without having to look at the display. Sure, I can't surf the interwebs but I don't do that on the smartphone much either. Funnily enough, the only site (apart from maybe google maps if I'm lost) i tend to read on the smartphone was the Too Fat Lardies blog and maybe Dinosaur Comics.

Second thing that broke down: my graphics card. Threw me into a quandary because the computer's kind of old-ish so I wasn't sure whether to get a new get-by graphics card and maybe a new computer in 2, 3 years from now or a new computer now. But i'm very happy with my current machine so a cheap-o graphics card it is. It's not like I need a powerful computer really. Maybe I'll get an SSD to run windows/photo editing on. Does anyone of you have experiences with those things? Do they improve performance that radically?

I've got a dentist's appointment on Monday (just a check-up). On Tuesday there's another game of Lion Rampant scheduled. Again with the Fantasy minis of course. That reminds me, most of my new terrain is still with a pal of mine from VIVAT. Doh. Well, expect the next battle report to be a little less ravishing looking. But that really is all the news I've got. Stop grilling me about inane private details!

Sometimes... you just need to share.

My parents are coming in for the weekend... which is great... but can be just a bit wearing.

There you go. Now I've shared too!

Any new commissions in the pipe, Sigur? And are you done withthe show circuit for the yezr?

That reminds me, I was considering a Hasslefree order - shall have to run the numbers...

@Gitsplitta: I bet that it can be. Enjoyed the weekend then?

@Dysartes: Sure, always! Well, the show circuit in my case sadly really only is one show in fall. One more in spring, maybe another one next year in spring, let's see. My problem is that a.) I can't really do two-day events running a table on my own and b.) these events cost quite a bit to have a table on. Plus, two of them don't attract that many people in the first place, the third is three days, very expensive to be at and not quite my clientel either. Oh yes, order HF stuff! It's pretty. It's not cheap but it's nice. By now I own several HF minis and for none except one I really have any gaming use.


Currently I'm working on a Space Hulk Broodlord and a space crusade genestealer. Erm. That's the news.

Great looking stuff as always! (I always feel a little guilty that I don't say that as much as I think it... that's my share.)

WRT Super Initiative Gear Unit Risa, if you can pop those back bits off she is definitely castable in resin at least. She might not be worth mailing to the 'States and back for me to do it, but you ought to be able to find a resin caster worth his salt who can do that for you.

@Wehrkind: Thanks for the comment! Yeah, I kept the wings pop-off-able and considered taking a shot of casting her up myself but then - it's not an amazing mini, I can't see anybody but me (being emotionally attached to the lass for having sculpted her) having a great interest in owning the mini so I just painted her up and that's it. Haven't even finished painting her I'm afraid.

Right-o, here's the latest:






Broodlord and Genestealer, a.k.a. Swarmfleet Nimrod! The comedic duo which has the whole known universe in stiches. Tuesdays at 7 on Comedy Central.


I really like the look of the old genestealers. Sure, I like the Broodlord as well but I don't think I ever painted an original genestealer before so this one sticks out a bit more for me. I mean I do own a few of the fellas from my Space Crusade boxes, but never painted any of the models. Good stuff though. I like the wide head on the genestealers, the warts and such. Not that this changed all that much but the Space Hulk genestealers just look a little sleeker. Cool models too of course.

The Broodlord is always fun to paint. More work than I had remembered him to be but fun nonetheless. I used the same colour scheme I used on the Space Hulk genestealers when I did them the first time around because I like the contrast of the dark blue carapace with the lighter skin. And if you've browsed this thread before you probably know that I'm a sucker for shiny, dark blue surfaces. Anyway, hope you like the dudes!

As always, amazing looking things to see!

Picture-tour of the event was great too, thanks!

@Littletower: Thank you, glad you enjoy the pictures!

Two nights ago we had another go at Lion Rampant. This time my regular wargaming opponent dropped by to test the rules. He was pitted against my brother (who again took the role of the Dark Elves and their commander Roberta the Boastful and Sly). Whilst Mr.Gaming Nemesis brought his own Empire models of old (in a seasonal black-and-orange colour scheme), led by Brave Sir Robin.

The lists looked as such:

Dark Elves
1 unit Cold One Knights (= 1 Unit of Mounted Men-at-Arms), including Roberta the Sly and Boastful (leader)
2 units of Spear Elves [Spelfs] (= 2 Units of Foot Sergeants)
1 unit of Repeating Crossbow Elves (= 1 Unit of Expert Archers)
1 unit of Blood Cult of Khaine [mix of Shades, Witches and Assassins] (= 1 Unit of Ferocious Infantry)

Empire
1 unit of Knights (= 1 Unit of Mounted Men-at-Arms), including Brave Sir Robin the Vulnerable (leader)
2 units of Spearmen (= 1 Units of Foot Sergeants)
1 unit of Crossbow Dwarfs (= 1 Unit of Crossbowmen)
1 unit of Pistoliers (= 1 Unit of Mounted Yeomen)



The scenario was less refined this time. Scenario A: Blood Bath. Both sides would battle it out. As soon as there are just five or less units on the table at the beginning of any turn you roll a dice. If the number on the dice is higher than the number of units on the table the game ends and the player who has more units on the table than the other player gains 5 Glory Points.

Roberta happily kept her leader trait (Sly = may refuse a challenge without her unit and units around her having to roll for morale), Brave Sir Robin rolled and got the trait Vulnerable (increased chance of getting killed if his unit suffers casualties in combat). Boasts were exchanged. Sir Robin, bravely, rolled for a random boast and got "My sword shall not be drawn" (successful if him and his unit never get into combat in this game). Based on this, Roberta chose the boasts "I shall slay your leader" and "I shall slay your mightiest warriors" (meaning the Empire knights). Dodgy, but such are the ways of the Dark Elf I suppose.



Other than last time the two retinues entered over the wide edges of the table. Units moved onto the table as activated.





The Empire's light cavalry probably had to biggest psychological impact. A mobile, shooting unit which also had special rules to move and shoot during the same turn and also evade charges. You may notice that we had to proxy one model because in warhammer you always have only five light cavalry models painted, but cavalry is always six models in lion rampant.

If I had to describe the game in one word it probably would be "unlucky", but the bad luck was spread about equally over both sides. Possibly the Empire getting the shorter end of the stick with both spear units running away and quickly dispersing after only taking few casualties and the crossbow dwarfs being stuck whilst trying to climb a hill all game. Lateron in the game they were completely wiped out by the Cold One Knights after a failed roll for Evade.



They never made it on top of the hill, never shot a single salvo, and were run down by the cult of khaine:



After this onslaught the three remaining dwarfs retreated but rallied right at the table edge where they spent the rest of the game.

Of course the leaders met in battle. Brave Sir Robin had kept his knights out of combat for a few turns but at one point the Cold One Knights came so close that the Empire's knights couldn't stop themselves from charging (Mounted Men-at-Arms have the Wild Charge special rule, meaning they have to roll for charging enemies once they are in range), killing all of them but Roberta. She had to retreat but immediately rushed back to take revenge on the knights on her own.



She moved up and challenged Sir Robin to a duel (to fulfill her boast). He accepted and blows were exchanged. As with the last game both players rolled the same number of successes and the duel ended in a draw.



Afterwards, Roberta was ridden down by the knights who started rampaging though the dark elves' lines after most of the human army had retreated or got killed. More dice were rolled and after my brother's crossbow elves fired "the decisive salvo" he demanded a picture taken of the result, to have the dice shamed publically for their failure to produce 4+s:


(there were two more dice rolled, one was a 1, the other one I can't remember)

Swiftly the Empire player retaliated with a charge and this result:


See what I mean by "unfortunate"? I bought these dice around 2005 and they are the dice I use almost exclusively (after I was forbidden to use the warhammer dice due to unreadable pips). And yeah, I'm afraid they kind of suck when it comes to fantasy gaming. I lost countless games with my Dark Elves back them due to these dice.

Anyway, the Empire knights killed some more elves, took little casualties in return (one or two knights as well as Sir Robin who got killed due to his Vulnerable trait) and soon there were only five units left on the table. After two more player turns the game ended with the Empire coming out slightly on top.

End Scores

EMPIRE - 4 (5 glory points for winning, -1 for unsuccessful boast)
DARK ELVES - 2 (3 glory points for successful boasts, -1 for one unsuccessful boast)

It was a close game. At the beginning it looked like the Dark Elves would wipe the floor with the humans but their knights, once they got into swing, slaughtered and routed lots and lots of elves. It was a very close game though and more than a few times the players were howling or scoffing at the results the dice gave them.

Mr. Gaming Nemesis liked the rules, at least the stuff that was there. But they are kind of lacking in depth and common sense a little. The rules allow for things which just wouldn't fly in other games like cavalry charging through a friendly unit of spearmen, units firing through friendly units and so on. And of course it's very luck-dependant. Often a unit activation roll is a 7+ on 2d6, so almost a 50/50 chance of them doing something or your turn ending.

The author of the rules made a very interesting post on Boardgamegeeks about the lack of formations in the game:

"This rule was dropped part way through development, so this is very much a work in progress, should you wish to add an extra tactical level to the game. It is not something that I’ve followed up on, so the rules added here are more of a curiousity or a jumping off point should you wish to consider flank and rear attacks.

With the rules as written, the direction a unit is facing does not make any difference to the direction in which it can see, move, shoot, or even charge its enemies. Some players might enjoy the added tactical challenge of introducing complications of flank and rear facing in small unit miniatures games. If both you and your opponent agree, use the following rules:

• Models may move in any direction without penalty, but at the end of the unit’s movement, ensure that all models are facing in one direction.
• To change the direction a unit is facing requires a Move activation, even if the models just turn on the spot.
• Units may only Shoot at targets across the 180° arc to their front, measured from the unit’s forward-most model. At least one model from the target unit must be fully within this arc.
• Units may only Attack units within that same arc; the same applies for Wild Charges (they may not be made against units outside of the arc).
• Units shot at or Attacked by a unit beginning its move or shooting from behind its front arc count their Armour as 1 lower than normal (so Armour 2 becomes Armour 1). This is pretty deadly so don’t get flanked!
• Schiltrons cannot be flanked.

So I would almost suggest adding these rules, plus: Units may never move or shoot through any other units. I think that these changes make the game a little more tactial. It still is wildly dice-dependant, and I'm okay with that, but these rules just reduce some of the more head-scratching moments.

This is not to say that the rules are bad. As I said before, what is there is good. For seasoned wargamers, especially those who are used to historical wargaming, you may need some additional bits here and there. Last game, which was a friend's first miniature wargame ever, it was perfect and he was highly enthusiastic about the game. The only reason he only dropped by for a bit for the game two nights ago was that he had to get up at an ungodly hour the next morning.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little report. Maybe I should wrap all of this up in a review for the site. Let's see.


Oh, I also painted a test Marine (i usually do test minis for first time customers just to make sure I get it right and according to their wishes) for a Blood Angels army commission:



The customer is very happy with the look. The green Melta gun part will be replaced with corroded metal and I will add some dust to the "feet" and tabard but that about it. Hope you like the Marine as well!

Like that marine Sigur. The somewhat subdued colors work really well together.

Very nice marine! The subtlety really works for me.

I appreciate the battle reports to. I am half working on a fantasy rules set that is much more "historicals" in flavor, and getting to see some alternate systems is really pleasant and thought provoking for me. When I get a workable system together I will shoot a beta your way for testing! (This will probably be sometime after my dissertation defense in two years... so you know, no rush )

@Gitsplitta: Cheers. When I painted him I was afraid he'd end up looking too bright (the red mainly)

@Wehrkind: Good man. Have you accepted our lord and savior the Meeples and Miniatures podcast in your life, Sir? If you want to pick up on lots of different rules sets which aren't part of the dull mainstream this one is a gold mine. Apart from that, I of course am very much looking forward to seeing those rules. Are they more proper battles or skirmish-y in nature? Do you have any particular scale in mind for the miniatures or is it a "scale agnostic" thing?

Huh, I will have to check out Meeples and Miniatures! Hadn't heard of it, but then I am pretty noobish on the podcast front. I listen to one economics themed one and that's about it. I will definitely check out this one though! (Assuming it is in English; my Deutsch is no where near good enough for that anymore )

The rule set is sort of a skirmish size, with small units of 5-20 (5-10 being normal). It started as a project with Jin to tweak the WHFB rules to remove the parts we didn't like, but over time we realized we kind of hated everything. The idea is to do a warband sized engagement (~30-60 models on a side) with a focus on scenario, movement and command, which I think is the best bet for a 28mm battle game. The general activation idea is that each player takes turns activating a unit and moving/attacking etc., with the trick that hero/command models can activate extra nearby units along with them, adding more coordination. So you can get along with more cohesive movement and placement early on, but as you start losing commanders your forces become more disjointed. There are some extra tricks in there related to that, such as initiating melee during an activation initiates melee for everyone in that melee on both sides, meaning that getting multiple lesser units into a more powerful unit is often very valuable compared to feeding them in piecemeal, etc.
Anyway, still working on the magic system and statting out models and points. We are shooting for an ancients style theme, with phalanxes of dwarves, barbarians tribes of humans and the like. I hope to be able to build a system that is flexible enough to use basically any models you want to fit in without making something ridiculously complicated and breakable. The plus side of that is that with apps you can make a really complicated point system that costs out units without having to rely on the player being able to execute logarithms and the like.

Anyway, end ramble