Achilles Rampant! Farewell to the Lad

Reilly is leaving home very shortly and moving to the Australian State of Queensland (thats 2000kms away) so the club fellahs got together for a big bash game last weekend.  In keeping with his favourite genre it was Trojan War, and 10 mates fought it out before the gates of Troy.  

The 15 foot table was graced with some 30 chariots, 27 horse and 540 foot troops, all in 28mm - looked very impressive

My Trojan line, led by Hector, gets ready to defend their beloved Polis

Oh mighty Apollo- give us your blessings this day!

The game was setup with a large swirling chariot and cavalry action on one flank, a broadly open plain for an infantry battle in the centre, and a broken area on the other flank on the banks of the Scamander River.  Here are a selection of pics from the phrenetic, loud and exceptional fun that followed!

The Lad in the centre -playing Achilles naturally! (Yes, I had Hector!)

Crafty Odysseus and his men capture the golden fleece!

Achilles and the Myrmidon seek Hector at the Temple of Apollo

Patroclus advances, seeking his Glory

Paris is Slain by the Greeks, who defile the body 

Achilles flanks the main Trojan line

Hector find Patroclus in the centre of the battlefield and challenges him to a duel

...and takes him down!

...followed by an enraged Achilles challenging Hector

Here is the live action of the Duel (5&6s hit- highest wins)

Achilles defeats Hector - Historical Outcome!

What is it with all this defilement by Chariot today!

So with Hector fallen, the Greeks won the day in the end - thanks very much indeed to the guys for coming along to farewell Reilly. He had a blast and we went home to watch the movie Troy (over a few beers of course)!

The Lads (on the Greek side) having fun!

Rules notes

We used Lion Rampant rules with a few significant modifications, to make the game flow better with so many platers and 60 odd units (!) on the table;.

- Everyone had 6 units, and while they were slightly different to one another, the 5 pairs of players facing one another had identical forces

- Units activation was by "Chit pull" with the Umpire (aka Gav aka Zeus) randomly pulling from 6 Trojan and 6 Greek tokens from a bag Bolt Action style, with everyone on the side indicated attempting to activate a unit of their choice, keeping everyone involved in the action.

- Each Player had a major Hero from the Odyssey: Menolaus faced Paris, Ajax faced Sarpedon, Odysseus faced Aeneas... and Reilly played Achilles facing off against me with Hector, naturally. Each character led a 12 man Foot Companion unit and added their Hero dice to the attack score of their units (eg Odysseus 3 dice, Hector 5 etc)

    For extra authenticity, Achilles was a Level 4 hero, unless Patroclus had been slain - at which time he became a 6!

- VP wise each pair of players had a terrain objective to control at game end worth 3 VPs, and each major unit (not skirmishers) was worth 1 unit if destroyed. Heroes were worth another 1-2 VPs.

- To reflect the fickle influence of the Gods, each player had rerolls equal to d6: 1=zero, 2-5= 1, 6 = 2... +1. So everyone had between 1 and 3 rerolls, to be used anytime during the game.

A return to Mortal Gods...and the Pub!

I'm home in Sydney for the Australia Day long weekend, so a few of us got down to our regular pub for a game and a few (maybe more than a few) beers. Libations were offered to Olympians to reconsecrate the venue, and then we broke out the first game of the year by revisiting Mortal Gods.

Last year during AHPC X, Alan painted a lovely Thrakian Army but he hadn't gotten it onto the table before last night.  His brushwork in detailing all the cloaks is quite stunning.

The Thrakians as a force are quite different to the usual Hoplite army, and offer a really asymmetric matchup. Their Evade ability in particular makes them very hard to pin down, and they are highly mobile including an Ambush ability so they can appear behind your main line unexpectedly. It will take a bit of experimenting to counter their cunning ways (They remind me a lot of Alan's really bloody annoying Welsh army in SAGA actually...)

Form wedge! Phalanx advance!

We cant kill them if we cant catch them Lochagos!

I was reminded of how much I like this game - relatively straightforward but with lots of depth. I might need to unearth some more figures to paint during this AHPC season

Great to be able to play at the pub again!

AHPC X: Ascending the Snowlord's Peak

Followed by his goatlike sherpas, a sweating Paul reaches the plateau and calls out in a loud and mildly intoxicated voice:
"OI! Hear me oh Mighty Snowlord! I approach your mighty kingdom bearing gifts to honour your Majesty"

A mighty voice bellows back from the distance
"Oh Yeah? Go on..."

Paul empties the last dregs from his ale horn before continuing:
"Yes oh Mighty One, thrice you challenged me and thrice I answer the call!

First - your challenge to build a unit for my Mortal Gods collection. May I present a Musician with taste far gentler than my own - with his double barrelled Aulos he can inspire those who fight in your name!

Presenting a Musician who as a seperate unit in Mortal Gods provides buffing bonuses to Phalanx and Light troops alike. More importantly, last year Reilly and I had an amazing tour of ancient Greece together - we had daily competitions to be the first one to find an "Aulos dude" amongst the various friezes and artwork. So this guy is fun for me because of those memories.

-------
A voice from atop the mountain yells down:
"Well thats OK I guess, but not very inspiring and not a skull to be seen - what else have you got?"

Paul opens the next bag:
"Next I bring as thee Commanded - heavily armed beastmen - they do smell a bit gamey mind, but they will fight fiercely for you my Lord!"

Presenting an elite unit of Bestigors - heavily armoured and wielding powerful double-handed weapons.  They promise to chop their opponents to bits before lashing the bloody remnants to the herdstone.  10 Warriors and a Champion to lead them.

The Snowlord declares: "Thats more like it! And a few skulls too I see - how many?"

Paul: "A mere 20 my Lord, but there is more"

Snowlord: "More? This is indeed a bountiful offering - bring forward the last"

Paul: "I have saved the best til last your magnificence. I have slaved hard at the painting bench with these, crafting them to the best of my ability. May I present:

Kharn and the Kharnivores!

This is my new World Eaters Kill Team - long range firepower is not their speciality!

I did a lot of conversions on these boys, to give me all sorts of weapon options - from double chainswords, double chain axes, combos of both and lighting claws

And to lead them an anti-hero: infamous Kharn the Betrayer!

Snowlord: Very nice - and 64 skulls between them too! Whats that they are standing on?

Paul: That is part of my offering of Lord, the Throne of Skulls!

It boasts an impressive 226 skulls. (amusingly, I had just bought this when I ran into Barks at CanCon - it was hard to keep the inner smile from my face knowing I had this secret weapon for our side duel)

To summarise my offerings: 23 x 28mm infantry models, one standard terrain cube, points for the map location and I do believe, My Lord, you said something about a skull bonus?

Skull-o-meter Overload: 310 Skulls!!!
(This brings my total skull count to 543 metric noggins!)

This bountiful offering was duly rewarded, taking me over the 1k point mark for AHPC 10
https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/03/paul-og-ascends-snowlords-peak-475.html

Making a Wargames mat

I wasn't happy with my array of gaming mats for use with Mortal Gods - they are all too woody, green and more like Northern Europe.  So I decided to experiment and try making my own. The parameters were to be: looks Mediterranean and is easily portable for use on club nights.

The finished product - WIP pics below

I went with a 3 x 4 size, using a cotton based material as a base which was pinned into place with drawing pins (to stop curling) with a few feet extra on each side.  The first step was to make the base layer using caulk which I scraped thinly (with a strip of mdf) across the whole surface. This took a lot longer than expected and used a lot more caulk than I anticipated, possibly because of the absorbant nature of the base cotton material.

Once this was done a few small patches of gravel were made, as was a small track sized road from one side to the other - I used some ballast as the road surface and some kitty litter along the edges. These were all pressed into the soft caulk and left to dry overnight.

I chose a dark coffee coloured caulk to use, so it would be a good base colour

The next day another, thinner, layer of caulk was applied - as it dried and got tacky, I applied a range of cloths and material (including my index finger about a thousand times) to try and raise areas and provide a textured surface that would be suitable for drybrushing. In this way I would minimise the use of sand or other materials which are both abrasive to figures and which are prone to falling off when the mat is rolled.  

First drybrushing layer was a Tamiya Earth colour, followed by lighter cremes

Once that dried, I started drybrushing (using a range of browns and beige colours from Dulux style wall paint "sample pots") and the mat began to take shape.

After three layers of deliberately uneven drybrushing

Detail of the road texture

After giving the paint an hour to dry I began flocking, initially using yellow, light green and brown and a little bit of clump foliage

In going for a drier climate look, the darker/green colours are at the centre, surrounded by the lighter patches where the vegetation is struggling. I was also trying to avoid thick patches of flock that might be prone to falling off when rolled.

Trying out with some olive trees

The mat was then left for a week to thoroughly dry (I was travelling interstate), and it slightly lightened in colour as it did.  I then did another layer of drybrushing, including a little over the patches of flock to help blend them in.  I then started adding some Woodlands light green and medium green coarse turf in a blended fashion.  This added in additional texture, as well as helping avoid a spotty look by adding clumps in the areas between large flock patches.

I also applied a thinned out brown artist's ink along the road edge to define it better.

With the turf laid down, two light layers of watered down PVA were applied with a spray gun to help seal everything in place.

Of course, all Greek themed boards look better with a temple, poplars and some Spartans in position (not mine though, unfortunately!)

It was now trimmed down to size using a stanley knife and a long straight edge, and I did some final drybrushing to the road surface and rock edges - ready for battle!

Picking out the road edge and the odd rock in white on the mat really made it pop

On to road to Corinth...

I'm pretty happy with the outcome and I picked up some good techniques during this project. Thanks to club mates Mac and Gav for their invaluable assistance and advice along the way (and more than a few of the materials Gav - cheers mate).  

Overall materiel costs were similar to buying a commercial product, but I think I have achieved a better outcome and enjoyed some time with my mates along the way.