Distractions

 

Haven't managed much painting recently and also got distracted by fantasy figures for League of Dungeoneers which I have played a couple of times recently.

So, quickly painted up some Reaper Bones Skeletons and some Giant Rats.

I need to get back to the 40mm AWI and get thm finished and off the painting table.

Lord of The Rings

 

I haven't managed to get my 25mm LOTR collection on the table in the game for quite a while.  The gamer I used to play with at Guildford Wargames Club hasn't returned after Covid and so the figures have sat in their boxes.

A chance conversation with a new member Pat revealed that he had some LOTR figures (in fact, quite a few) and so we decided to play a game using my rules of choice - Kings of Wars.

Several years ago someone developed fan lists for LOTR for use with Kings of War and we used those lists to produce 2000 point armies for both sides.

Pat came up with a Rohan list and I produced a mix of Goblins and Uruk-hai lead by Saruman.

I like the Kings of War rules (from Mantic games) as they are extremely simple.  You only do anything (including rolling dice) in your turn. There are no complicated additional factors and movement is straight forward.

The units stay on the table as a whole unit until they are destroyed, so no figure removal.

Pat came up with a list using Rohan Cavalry Hordes of 16 figures, which I hadn't faced before.  I had a couple of hordes of goblins, but otherwise had regiments of Uruk-Hai.

The game didn't go well for me as a horde of cavalry is hard to beat.  I was unlucky with die rolls.  On three occasions I rolled and destroyed a unit, only for a nearby inspiration character to force a reroll when I rolled lower and the unit ended up merely wavering.

I ended the game with just 1 unit and Saruman left on the table- I did forget a couple of special rules which would have helped the Uruks in combat but generally I rolled badly and Pat's massed troops were more effective.

We enjoyed the game and it has made me realise that I need to get my movement trays properly painted and flocked and to, at the very least, get all the figure bases flocked the same so make them a coherent whole.  So have started on that and reorganising the boxes of figures to take up less space and to be easier to store.

I have around 500-600 figures all together but could do with more Good Forces.

I think Saruman wasn't effective enough for his points value so I'll be tweaking the army list in the future - or maybe just fielding a Balrog!

League of Dungeoneers

 

Played my first game of League of Dungeoneers yesterday.  This is a cooperative/ Solo RPG game similar to Dungeons and Dragons and focusing on adventures and dungeon crawling.

There was a Kickstarter for it last year and I received the truly enormous box a few months ago.  I have been wanting to try the game out and having mentioned it to a friend he was keen to get it on the table.

I've been playing games over the last few weeks during the day with this friend  as he had the misfortunate before Christmas to come off his bicycle on a patch of diesel and fractured his pelvis.  This has meant being stuck at home with not much to do.

We have played Thunder Road Vendetta,  Marvel Champions and Pandemic:Fall of Rome.  Having rolled up some characters last week we gave this game a run out this week.

The game is a staggering achievement as it is the work of just one person and it is beautifully produced.   The characters generation is similar to D&D and we ended up with a Human Wizard, a Dwarf Warrior, an Elf Thief and a Halfling Warrior Priest.

We played through the first encounter - which is a battle with 4 bandits and really just teaches you the combat system.  You use a bag with initiative tokens and the appropriate colour lets you or the enemy act with one character.  There is a simple but effective list of interactions for the AI driven enemy.

We defeated the bandits and then went into a settlement which are spread across a map of the world.  You can buy and sell items, rest, gamble, etc, etc in the settlements (and they all have different facilities and different quests available).

The starting quest is to clear out the basement of a town hall infested with Giant Rats.  You create a deck of cards from the exploration deck (4 Corridors and 4 rooms, including an objective room) and then the dungeon is built up as you draw cards and lay down the room cards - similar to Advanced Heroquest.  There are encounters in the rooms, traps, wandering mosters and treasure to search for.

We only managed to get a couple of rooms into the quest (though sprung a nasty trap in doing so) before we had to stop and pack away but we will be resuming the game soon.

I have been looking for a good dungeon crawl experience for a number of years and have a fully painted set of Heroquest, bought and sold Descent (too complex and fiddly) and have bought Dungeon Saga: Origins from Mantic Games (not yet tried out).

From the read through and initial play, I think that League of Dungeoneers is going to scratch the Dungeoncrawl itch - it is detailed enough to be satisfying, with a decent difficulty level and gives a good narrative without needing a Dungeon Master.

Other people seem to agree as it scores 8.8 on Boardgame Geek.

It has also got me painting some of the several hundred Reaper Bones figures I own...