The Fluffy Kittens of War

With a free weekend, my friend Matt came up for a game of good 'ol Warhammer 6th Edition.  His High Elves versus, for a change, my Dogs of War (which I had just rescued from the attic).  Unfortunately it seemed my whole army suffered from 'newly painted' syndrome (they're not newly painted, but this is only about their second outing on the table).  A combination of stupid mistakes on my part, good tactics on Matt's, and some truly awful dice rolls resulted in disaster!

My army was heavy on the infantry, with quite a few Regiments of Renown.  Matt's had quite a few small blocks of spear elves but, more worryingly, a lot of chariots (I hate chariots, as will become clear!).

 

Pikemen, Heavy Cavalry, Ricco's Republican Guard

  

The full battle line, light cavalry at the rear

 

Braganza's Besiegers and Halfling Hotpot! (Ogres just out of sight beyond) 

 

Marksman of Miragliano. Paymaster and bodyguard to rear

 

 Opening moves from Matt

 

 

 Elves at the pub!

 

We rolled up the 'meeting enagement' scenario.  This is where my first mistake came in.  Because of where I had put them in the list, my General (in the pike block) and Paymaster weren't close enough to provide mutual support, particularly re-rolls for break tests (as the paymaster acts like an army standard). 

 

My second big mistake came when I moved my duellists, armed with pistols, out of the woods to attack an advancing unit of spear elves.  I forgot that you can't move a full 8" and still shoot (in my defence, my Empire Pistoliers can, so that was a bad bit of 'muscle memory' at work).  Left stranded, they were then charged by the elves, fled, but rolled utterly appallingly on their flee roll.  This was to become a theme... 

 

My centre totally collapsed shortly after, largely a result of chariot strikes, resulting in the loss of my general, heavy cavalry and pike block.  With the Paymaster too far away, I didn't benefit from any re-rolls.  Ricco's Republican Guard lasted longer, but only slightly longer - despite rolling 20 dice for the pikes, plus 3 attacks for Ricco, I just could not land enough hits.  Matt had no such problem, and my rolling for break tests was terrible!

 

Matt also passed two fear tests to charge the ogres, who also couldn't hit anything and also failed their break test and ran! 

Things were now looking very dodgy.  All I had left were Braganza's Besiegers, a hotpot, and the light cavalry on the left; and the Marksmen of Miragliano and Paymaster's bodyguard on the right.

In the circumstances, they didn't do too bad.  Two units of spear elves were routed, a cauldron landed square on a chariot, Braganza's Besiegers managed to win a combat, and the Marksmen of Miragliano came off best in an archery duel with Elf bowmen (having already destroyed a unit of spears).  The light cavalry however lost a combat they shouldn't have lost and (guess what?) failed a break test and then got run down due to a terrible flee roll...

 

Shockingly, I won a round of combat here!

 

But the writing was not only on the wall by this point, it was also on the ceiling, floor, and every door and window.  The left wing inevitably crumbled - although war machine crews can't normally charge, we decided to let the halflings go out in a blaze of glory, charging a chariot in the flank with cleavers and spoons.  The result was inevitable...

 

  

All they needed was to cause one wound!  They didn't...

 

But some measure of glory was retained on the right, by the Paymaster's Bodyguard, who fought on for round after round, seeing off a chariot, and holding back two units of spears, until finally the Paymaster fell and, losing their 'Stubborn' attribute, the survivors decided to hotfoot it off the battlefield.

 

 

Feeling surrounded

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look!  The Chariot's gone!  

 

Moments later, the Paymaster bit the dust and it was all over

 

Well, that didn't go too well did it!  Would I take the DoW again after that?  Yes, I would.  Some of the problems were entirely down to me, like getting my duellists killed, and separating the general and paymaster.  But even with my terrible dice rolling, the Regiments of Renown were good - the fact they have a pretty tough character in each unit makes them pretty survivable compared to normal units in combat.  I think Matt was a bit shocked to be on the receiving end of BS4 crossbow bolts, and I like the 3+  save with the besiegers.  I think I would either drop the heavy cavalry though, or take a smaller unit of Vollands Venators, to get the character.

 

It did also remind me I hate High Elf chariots.  I don't think it's just sour grapes, and I have to give credit to Matt for how well he uses them (combining them with a spear unit that charges shortly after), but they're tough (T5), dominate the table with a 10" charge, their impact hits occur before the pikes can strike (which seems...odd), and they're quite cheap for all that.  OK, their impact hits can be very variable (D6), but if they roll high they are devastating to infantry.

 

It also got me thinking about one of the changes that has been suggested for the Old World.  The possible return of pushbacks from 2nd/3rd edition.   The current rules are tough on Ld 7 armies, as any break test will always be at 6 or less.  That one point shift down from the average on 2D6 of a '7', immediately pushes you immediately from 'slightly more likely to pass than not' to 'more than likely to fail'.  Interested to see how that might change.

 

Five Leagues Turn 15 - Someone think of the children!

I'm really behind with posting at the moment!  This is the second Five Leagues from the Borderland game from the 'Hen Night Weekend' (which was so long ago the wedding has now happened, the little miniature being a very proud bridesmaid for her Auntie).  This was a bit different for a number of reasons - bit the most interesting one was that the (now not so) little miniature joined me, helping set up the scenario and make choices for our brave heroes!

The turn started poorly, with the group waking up to find that some swine had swiped 12 gold marks from them.  A heated discussion followed as Robert accused Will of the crime, with Gregory and Thomas having to defuse the situation.  The situation was compounded by the band now being so large that they had to pay two more marks for upkeep, and another for more arrows.  Gregory put his skills to use earning back three marks helping out on the farms around the village whilst Giacomo visited the town healer to get himself back in action.

Almost back up to strength (Oswald still needed another turn to recover), our heroes went out adventuring, only for Thomas to come across something completely new: Monster Tracks!  Perhaps drawn by the chaos following the border incursion, two ogres had come down from the mountains and were preying on the nearby farms [I rolled up 'tough battle', which adds an extra enemy - I'm not sure it is supposed to apply to monsters but, as ogres are relatively weak, and the band quite strong, I went with it].

 

"Must be sumfink 'ere wurf eatin'.  Let's 'ave a butchers!"

(Mordheim Mercenary ogre and Citadel Ogre Brigand) 

Following the tracks brought them to a farmstead, just as the ogres closed in for the attack.  To complicate matters, Giacomo, Thomas and Gregory found the fleeing family who told them in a panic that they had been unable to get to the children, who had been playing in the edge of the woods! [I rolled up 'Fetch' as the objective, and thought it would be a good opportunity to us the Hasslefree Brats that I had painted up].

"Someone save the children! (keep up Grandad!)"

"and the sheep, if you can!"

The poor mites, busy pulling the wings off flies and blissfully unaware of what awaits on the other side of the farmhouse!

Thomas immediately volunteered to dash around the back of the longhouse to rescue the brats little ones, while the rest of the band would draw the ogres away.  Will, Jocelyn and Raymond would do their best to turn the beasts into pincushions while Robert and Guy, and Giacomo and Gregory, led two groups at each ogre.

The battlefield, beautifully (and convincingly) prepared by Rosa! (Heroes entering from the right)

"Over here foul creature, meet your doom on my sword!"

Robert and his faithful retainer, Guy, rushed forwards on the left; keen for the glory of felling the great beast!

But sadly, for Robert's ego at least, it was not to be; As two dead-on shots from Jocelyn saw the first ogre fall to the ground dead [I know that's not Jocelyn in the picture, but I didn't catch one of the momentous event], leaving Robert yelling in frustration!

On the right, the second ogre smashed aside the hay cart, to be met by Giacomo, Gregory and Finan.  The ensuing melee gave Thomas his chance to dash over the road to the farmhouse unseen.

Initially beaten back, another great shot from Jocelyn wounded the axe wielding brute, distracting it long enough for Giacomo to dart in and thrust his sword into the creature's black heart!

 

"Come with me if you want to live!"

Thomas finally reached the children, and successfully persuaded them to come with him, but by then the danger was all over.  At least he was able to hand them safely back to their worried families with no bits nibbled!

"Your children are safe!"

"Great, but what about the sheep?"

As if losing his 'kill' to an archer wasn't bad enough for Robert, he had now had to see Giacomo 'steal' the glory.  Another heated 'debate' between the knight and the archers broke out until Gregory was able to restore order!

The mopping up phase saw the grateful farmers dig deep and reward the adventurers which, along with some coins 'rescued' from the ogre's loot, saw the band regain all of the twelve marks they had lost at the start of the turn.

 

Other loot included a 'quick' light weapon, which Jocelyn took to replace his existing knife, and some torches .  The ogres had also clearly encountered some other brave adventurer who had been less fortunate as, stuffed in the ogre's bag with various unsavoury items stored (presumably) as a snack for later, was a full set of knight's armour and an enchanted weapon, a 'Heart Seeker'!

What about my chopper?

 Another ogre (I don’t have a problem…).  This time 90’s vintage from Marauder Miniatures.

Do you like my Horn?

Time for another ‘c’ series ogre!

Last of 2022 - Ogre & Goblins

As the year ends, I squeezed in a few final models complete, although I’d been working on them for a while, on and off.

All sculpts from Nick Lund I believe.  The ogre was, if I recall correctly, from Citadel Miniature’s old ‘Chronicle’ range from the ‘80s.  I’d hoped the pale fur on the shoulders would make the dark skinned face stand out more, but it’s not turned out too bad regardless.

The goblins are from Forlorn Hope Games, but I’m pretty sure were originally part of Grenadier’s Fantasy Warriors range.  I couldn’t decide on a skin colour so, taking inspiration from the trolls I did, decided on a mix of colours, for that slightly chaotic look.

I’m not that taken with the GW style of ‘gobbos’ - these are more up my street, mean and cruel looking.  I decided to be brave and go a bit ‘old Skool’ with individual, highly decorated shields.  I’d like to thank all the other painters and bloggers I ‘borrowed’ from or was liberally inspired by in producing these!  

Much as I like them, I couldn’t help but ponder why goblins otherwise dressed in rags would have such highly decorated shields.  I came up with two ideas:

1. They decorate their shields with images of whatever gods or demons they worship, believing they frighten the enemy and bring good fortune, hence the attention paid in comparison to the rest of their gear; or

2. The folk living in ‘goblin country’ decorate them and leave them as ‘tribute’, in the hope it will catch a goblin’s eye and persuade them to leave them alone. For a while at least.

I like the first idea, as it hints at goblin society and beliefs, and the second because it echoes old folk tales of leaving gifts for spirits and supernatural beings - like leaving a bit of a Cornish pasty to appease the tommyknockers.

Anyway, expect more goblins to follow! 

Citadel Ogre - Matthog

Continuing with my Citadel Ogre obsession, here’s another one from the ‘C23’ range from the ‘80s.  This chap was advertised as ‘Matthog’, an ogre mercenary.  Whilst I like pretty much all the ogres from this period, I would say this is one of the weaker ones.  The sculpting on the creatures back in particular looks rushed and poorly defined.  There’s not much sense of any anatomy going on under the skin.  

That said, I thought he painted up pretty nicely.  I didn’t do much rust effect on the metal parts, but still tried to make it look tarnished and worn - I think it worked.  No contrast paints for the skin this time, tried it but it didn’t have the right depth of colour across such a large area of flesh.

What a big Chopper!

Yes, another ogre.  This time from Marauder Miniatures, the company set up by Trish and Ally Morrison, but cast and distributed by Citadel.  The Morrison's sculpting style is a bit cartoonish, big hands and exaggerated features, but it works well for the range of ogres they did.  The faces in particular are very characterful, and the landsknechte style outfits make for a distinctive look.

 

I used three layers of contrast paints for the flesh, which in hindsight I think was one coat too many.  Live and learn (I did the flesh at the same time as Golgfag, subject of the previous post).  I've not 'rusted up' the halberd and breastplate too much.  The uniforms suggest a but more organisation to these chaps than the more feral 'C' series ogres, I reckon someone is helping them at least keep the rust off.  I tried to use a combination of washes to give the effect you sometimes see on metal that has been treated (usually with some kind of fat) to rust protect it.

 

A surprisingly uncluttered sculpt, considering the clothing style.  This was a pleasant painting job.

Love the detail of the pet rat on the hat!