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I managed to play the Battle of Kadesh twice. The Hittites won both encounters but to very different degrees and both sides using very different tactics.



You can read the details on my blog here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/04/battle-report-battle-of-kadesh.html

The Sorceror's Tower : In which we kick glass cannon butt

One problem I have with Lasting Tales are its unprotected sorcerers. Thematically, it makes sense for a sorcerer to be all fight, low defense, and arrogant enough that it doesn't need minions, but RAW, heroes can each attack first before the sorcerer can fight back. The AI doesn't have minions protecting elite spellcasters, so you may want to add this AI rule to keep sorcerers from being blown to bits and stabbed before it has a chance to fight back. This makes the game more challenging, of course.

In any case, the scenario is unique in that it divides the board into four smaller quadrants, as the heroes teleport from one to another, finding the sorcerer's orbs to weaken him (reduce his resistance). Besides the Rogue Wizard, as adversaries, we chose a Vampire Lord (spellcaster) and Wraiths (melee minions). The scenario is tough because the minions spawn on the same quadrant as the heroes -- no walking two feet to get to the fight!

The game starts challenging, with two groups of adversaries on the board. Well, when you've selected two adversary groups, you start the game with all your enemies nearby! Thankfully (?) I thematically set up the board suchthat the Vampire Lord was protecting one of the orbs (so powerful it makes ivy grow upwards!) to capture behind a three-story tower that separated him (no LOS) to the heroes, while the wraith minions went after us. Nothing like combat in the first turn!

After a challenging fight (minions are nasty!), we went after the Vampire Lord. Busting open the door, the wizard threw a lightning bolt at him, then the paladin shimmied down a ladder and punctured him while he was in bat form. Silly Vampire! After obtaining the orb, we teleported into another quadrant with another challenging fight with a bunch of minions, as the paladins became punching bags, while the wizard, who had the Fleet of Foot spell, went after the orb and grabbed a scroll from a treasure chest while she was at it. Clerics are sure good at keeping paladins alive!





The climax of the game was tense, but kinda dumb. Before activating a sorcerer, you roll on its Magic Table. While this works sorta well, the Rogue Wizard chose... Teleport! This moved him closer to us, avoiding all that terrain that was protecting him. No doubt, his arrogance and confidence that his minions on the board would protect him would, well, protect him. One lightning bolt and paladin who had the Hate(Sorcerer) ability later, he found out otherwise.

Weekend update-

classic battle tech-



House 5th ed 40K



MCP





My games-

House 5th ed 40K demon hunters/deathwatch VS iron hands-



MCP-

Xmen VS brotherhood of mutants

Been playing a lot of Armoured Clash lately. This was 2k points, Mission Lord of the Manor, Union vs. Crown.

Crown Deployment


Union Advancing


Flanking Bikers


Strafing Run


Heavy Tanks engaging Mechs


The Lone Star flies victorious


Full battle report:
https://atlachsshipyard.blogspot.com/2025/04/armoured-clash-battle-for-hill-fort-2k.html

Tonight's game: (40K) Knight on Knight violence.

Chaos vs Imperial.
It was a good mech brawl & an Imperial victory.

Update-

classic battle tech-







A little introductory training game for 5th ed 40K very close only 4 minis left on the table at the end. Typhus won the day.



My games-

75 point WM/H MKIII game



A couple games of classic battle tech-

Grimdark Future - Word Bearers vs. Crimson Fists. Stupidly forgot my concrete battlemat so it's just on shiny grey table!

Got an early charge off with my possessed:


A tense firefight for the multi-level mid board:


A duel between a Librarian and my kitbashed Daemon Prince (both survived to fight another day!):


Game ended on a draw - three contested objectives and one held by each side.

Love the walkways on the table.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I took my newly painted Anglo-Saxon army out for a spin against a group of marauding Vikings.



All the minis are from Victrix.

You can read the results and see more pictures at my Blood and Spectacles Blog:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/04/battle-report-fury-of-northman-battle.html

Short night tonight, a bunch of our guys all got sick around the same time. got a few games of house 5th ed 40K in but that's about it-

A heavy proxied test list from the 5th ed grey knights codex (mostly Jakero and death cult assasins).




A black templar force from 4th ed going up against a double force org iron hands/imperial guard armored company list.




I ended up fighting both those forces on a city mat-

i was running a 3rd ed demon hunters force with an allied detachment from our brother inquisitorial organization (death watch).

Played a game of 6th on the weekend. Friend of mine stopped playing and sold his stuff back during 8th edition. He still wanted to play and I have multiple armies so I made it work!

Week in review-

game night highlights-a warmachine tournament-







Heavy gear



MCP-





House 5th ed 40K



My games-

MCP-

expaned on the "wat if....." series with Captain Carter hanging out with the hydra stomper. fighting some spider foes.

Overall it was a good game, i only lost Captain Carter, and i took down abomination and bullseye. unfortunately he had already gotten ahead of me on points enough to win the game. i was pretty focused so i also forgot to snap more pics.



Warmachine MKIII

Last day for the generic fantasy Wildspire Miniatures Gamefound Relic miniatures campaign, although you can make a late pledge at the same price.
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/wildspire-miniatures/realm-reforged

Anyway, it's the solo Lasting Tales Ambush Scenario! It's actually wilderness, but I didn't think of taking pics until after setting up the board for a settlement adventure.

I'm "cheating" by picking weaker elite units, in this case a Bandit Captain and Assassin. Not only do Elite units have the Loot trait, but the Bandit Captain sprinkles treasure around the board once you reach so-many casualties. And you win the scenario with a number of casualties, so weak minions are fine, too. Besides, its an ambush, so bandits are thematic, right??

Of course, it's not all a cakewalk when the enemy starts with five Bandit Targeteers on high ground and rock cover, and shoots four crossbow bolts at your only armored guy, who can't even reach them. Thankfully, abusing the rules resulted in them abandoning cover for better range, resulting in the Ranger picking them off (not fast enough) from the forest, where, because he's a Ranger, they can't see him. Wizard, meanwhile, uses the OP "Fleet of Foot" spell to run around the map picking up treasure.

The thief, meanwhile, has the OP Backstab ability. Spend your action on one turn for a Hide, let everyone attack the dwarf, then, next turn, pop out of the bushes and add +1d6 to the attack. Since he's at 3rd level, he can then make a second strike. With that second strike at 3rd level, melee units become *very* useful. Takes down a Bandit Captain and a Rogue Wizard that way. Gains a vial of poison from one, and strange Arabian lamp from the other!

Wildspire Miniatures Classic Encounters and Heroes
Battle System's "Village Set"
Archon's "Elven Woods". Hard plastic. Highly recommended b/c you'll frequently use it in wilderness encounters.
Terra Tiles' "Mystic Woods" OOP 😞
Mantic Terrain Terrain Crate (crate and trees). Soft plastic.

My last post for a while-

The game store game night.

classic battle tech-





House 5th ed game of 40K -



MCP-



My games started with a power grudge match of MCP with a few of the most powerful characters in the game. -My side was malekith, ghost rider and cosmic ghost rider, his side was dormamu, gladiator, nova prime.



Then it was on to battle tech-

i got in 3 games, the first was a heavy fight against a steiner force, then we reset and did mediums, then i finished the night with a heavy battle against comstar-

We played a game of Castles in the Sky at my gaming guild. It had been a bit since we had played, so we did a simple Battleship, Cruiser, Escort fleet and got stuck in.



The Americans were quickly knocked out, with the French soon following. The British ruled the skies! We saw ships stalling, exploding, and sinking this day.

You can read all the gory details on my blog:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/05/battle-report-castles-in-sky-clash-over.html

I got to play a game of Odin's Ravens: Viking Age Bad Boys. The game is a model-vs-model skirmish game that can be played solo, versus, or co-op. There is even a campaign too.



You can read the full details on the blog here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/06/battle-report-odins-ravens-into-lair-of.html

Rules are here:
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/524504/Odins-Ravens-Viking-Age-Bad-Boys

This one was a bit odd, but I used the basic Heroquest game and tried to modify it to use as an Inquisitor/Dark Heresy style game of Throne Agents in the 40K universe......



I made a few simple mods, but really not much was needed. Of course, you can see how I tackled it on my blog. Some of it worked, and some of it didn't.

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/06/battle-report-operation-hemlock.html

Some pictures from our recent KT games. Good fun and and a few surprises - for example the Vespid play surprisingly well, I think they are one little buff away from becoming a solid, dependable, mid-tier team (buy 3rd APL for a Communion Point once per turn, maybe?). Haven't tried them on ITD yet, though, they probably suffer badly there as their ease of use of Vantage Points is one of the main strengths IMO.

Played a game of BLKOUT with my daughter yesterday. It was her first time playing this game, and my first time playing the game in an 'in door' environment. Over the last week or so we had assembled the fantastic Black Site Studio "CORMORANT CLASS FREIGHTER " core set and the tight quarters expansion (only used the core set for our game though). Set is super modular, and what you see is about 26 inches by 22 inches as set up.

Daughter played Manticore. These are well armored and hard hitting, though a bit slow. They are a good faction for newer folks as they are more forgiving of errors. I played the UN 3rd BN. We did not use battle drills or armory access for her first game, just so we could focus on teaching her the mechanics.

The tight terrain made most engagements close range, so close that at one point she got some guys under the minimum range of my Peacemaker's weapon systems. The Peacemaker is the bigger robot (or interdiction suite in BLKOUT speak) on the 40mm base. Game was a lot of fun, and she asked if we could play again today, and we will.


UN Deployment


Full board at start of turn 1.


Manticore deployment


Peacemaker 'leaning out' (game mechanism to shoot around corners, taking advantage of cover).


Trying to outflank each other


UN reservists taking advantage of Pointmen shield ability


Manticore troops leaning out to cover corridor.


Pointman about to get cut down.


Cyka moving into position. He is a real brute, have fire power, great armor, and the only Manticore figure that can takes two hits to kill.


UN Reservists trying to cover the corner.

Back to the Fellowship of Destiny as we continue on our Quest for Heroes! This time, the Fellowship is helping Prince Magnus find the king's missing wizard, Wardoz. With mentor's help, they set-out to the Wizard's underground lab to find him.



You can see how it goes on the blog here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2025/06/heroquest-lost-wizard.html

I have returned.....after 6 weeks stuck at home after surgery

There were a bunch of battle tech games going on other tables but i was busy with my own games so i only snapped this pic



We also had an MCP table set up-

This is X-force going up against some spider foes-



The main draw for me today was some classic warmachine.

Did a 75 point game with a mix of objectives.



and then another friend showed up later so we did a 50 point mosh pit game.



I had promised a guy some MCP-i broke out a bunch of my "what-if" models to represent my avengers-captain Carter(captain america), hydra stomper(Hulk), Byrdie the duck(captain marvel) and maverick who was just maverick.




The last game of the night was some classic battle tech for a little davion and steiner throw down, i had a lot of gauss, and he had lots of RAC5. it was a rough match with lots of exploding mechs.
I forced his Jager to withdraw from engine damage, i straight up killed his tank, and he returned the favor on my cestus. my thunderbolt exploded all over his thunderbolt. then he killed my dragon fire leaving my marauder to face down his axeman and thunderbolt. the marauder took a pounding, but i exploded the ammo on the thunderbolt, fortunately for me his had CASE so the explosion just blew out the axeman behind him which also exploded. giving me a narrow win.

They had some music festival going on around where our FLGS is and really messed up parking so most people canceled for the day, i still managed to get in a couple games of classic battle tech, granted i had to loan out my mechs to the other players since they didn't bring anything, at least i got some games in.

Glad you have recovered.

Maggotkin Vs More Gravelords