Warlords of Erehwon - Another Introductory Game

I thought it only fair to introduce T'Other One to Warlords of Erehwon.  Bodvoc and I have been having a lot of fun with the game, and have quite a few plans for scenarios and campaigns, and T'Other One is definitely interested in playing through the Lichemaster stuff. So I set up a short game to introduce the gameplay. 

Basic Stuff 

I went for a straightforward clash for the game and used my recently painted skeletons and zombies, plus an unpainted unit of archers, and a roughly similar force of orcs.

I also printed off an edited QPS and rosters, taking the opportunity change some of the quirkier stat names (Fight for Strength etc).

I've not done a full report, but here's some pictures and a brief rundown of the game. 

If you want a bit of a story, the two warbands are fighting for control of the potentially magical trilthon (though the orcs foolishly forgot to bring along their Shaman, that, or I ran out of points).

The Vale of Sacred Stones

As the mists clear, the two warbands eye each other over the plain,  or the orcs do; very few actual eyeballs in the undead force. 

The Vale as the armies deploy

The undead shuffle on, archers occupying the hill, while the undead champion leads a flanking force. 

The undead left flank

Another flanking force of spear armed skeletons, while the suspiciously boney necromancer holds back. 

The undead right flank

The skeleton archers proved more effective than the orcs; unsurprising, given the poor bow skills of orcs generally. 

The skeleton spears managed to get the charge in against the orc spears, routing them.

On the other flank, the skeleton guard followed the champion and charged into the orcs who followed their champion. Initially,  the orcs held their own,  helped by Grashak Kra crashing into the undead champion. Unfortunately an impressive flurry of blows were largely stopped by the ancient rusting armour. 

As the melee continued, the skeletons gained the upper hand,  eventually driving off the orc warriors and pulling Grashak Kra down. 

Champions clash on the flank

On the other flank the orc warboss and his retinue charged the zombies shuffling out of the woods (they needed to pass an Agility 2 test in the woods - and succeeded!) they took out over half of the walking dead (might have been more if I'd remembered their extra attacks) for no loss.

Unfortunately, the skeleton spears then charged them, gradually dragging down the warboss' chums.

Warboss vs zombies

The orc archers had suffered from the superior undead missile fire, at one point hunkering down rather than returning shots, but enough remained to either charge or shoot at the skeletons with swords. Having chosen to shoot, they did little damage, and were punished when the skeletons charged into them, breaking and running for the hills. I realise now that just charging would have been a better option, ah well, lesson learnt.

At this point only the orc warboss remained (it had been a brutal turn!), surveying the field he decided that discretion was the better part, etc, and joined the remains of his broken force. 

Final Thoughts 

A great fun game, and I'm not at all embarrassed at being absolutely tabled by someone playing their first game. 

Clearly the dice had their favourite that night.  I think the undead passed every single Command test, whereas the orcs passed two. Mind you, Grashak Kra's armour held up even better than the undead champion, passing every Tough reroll. In the end it was weight of attacks that did for him.

But T'Other One played well, and kudos especially to him picking up a new game so quickly. 

I hope we'll play more games of Warlords of Erehwon in the future, and it's been useful for me to get an idea of how the undead play on the battlefield. 

Warlords of Erehwon: Troll Hunt

Bodvoc and I played a game of Warlords of Erehwon recently, continuing our 'not campaign' of orcs vs goblins. 

We'd agreed to boost our forces to 1000 points, and Bodvoc mentioned trying out his newly painted goblin chariot. In response I painted my Old School Miniatures orc chariot. If he was trying out the chariot rules, it made sense if I did too.

As host it was up to me to come up with the scenario. I struggled a bit, but since I'd recently painted up some trolls, but couldn't quite squeeze them into my army, I decided to make them an objective instead. 

Note: both Bodvoc and myself are quite rusty with the rules, we may have made mistakes,  but we're getting more confident. 

Also, we're using home made order dice, partly because, having no gunpowder weapons, 'FIRE' is a meaningless term.

I'm not giving a full turn by turn report, but here's some highlights. 

Opening Moves 

The two sides advance, wary of each other, but more interested in the potential trolls. 

The goblins are first to search troll holes, but the first two are empty.

Bagrat the orc shaman, still nursing bruises from their last encounter, creates a magical portal in front of the goblin dervishes, sending them right back, much to their frustration.

The two sides advance towards each other

The orc spears prod a troll out of it's hole, but the vile brute comes out fighting and drives them away and off the battlefield.

The goblin force as they march in

The orcs as they advance

Troll hunting is a risky buisness

The goblins find an occupied troll hole. It's not friendly.

The goblins think they've got the beast, but it's wounds knit back together and it runs off.

Middle Phase 

The goblin dervishes slog towards the action, only for Bagrat to send them back again (absolutely the best way to deal with them, although I have an even more cunning plan for next time, mwah ha ha haaa).

The orc archers move up to the wall, ready to shoot, while the orc swords advance. The guard approach a troll hole, hoping to get there before the goblins, but it's empty.

The goblins in the woods abandon their empty hole and the gobbledogs eye up the guard. A tasty snack?

That's the way to do it!

Hagar Sheol and his ladz uncover and slay a troll. The chariot sights the troll that dealt with the spears and rides it down.

The chariot claims a troll

The dervishes advance and the goblin chariot rides towards the troll that slew so may goblin halberdiers.  Alas, it rides through a strange magic portal and finds itself back at the baseline.

The battlefield mid action

The bulk of the goblin infantry

End Game

The goblin chariot shamelessly copies the orcs and ride down the troll that caused so much damage to the halberdiers.

Goblin chariot vs troll

 

Hagar Sheol and his ladz drag their troll trophy away out of the woods. On the right flank the goblin spears charge round the wall and into the orc guards, peppering them with javelins as they go. The stoic orcs hold, and despite minor losses they wipe out the goblins. 

The orcs then charge the gobbledogs and send them packing too.

The goblin wizard targets the orc swords, causing them to lose heart (aura of timidity), the goblin bows then loose a volley and wipe them out.

Gurk now targets the archers who also lose heart. 

Bagrat then shot his fiery balls at Gurk, incinerating the gobbledog guards. Gurk himself only survived through sheer luck (Tough reroll saved him, but the extra pin).

Despite their magical timidity (order test at -6, rolled a 1), the orc archers shot back but Gurk had had enough and scarpered.

The orc chariot driver cracked his whip and charged the goblin chariot, the two vehicles lock together, but neither gain the upper hand.

Chariot on chariot action

Brave halberdiers watch on

Conclusion 

Well, a great fun game.  I'm not sure if my rather complicated special rules helped or hindered,  but I enjoyed hunting down those trolls.  In hindsight,  it was theoretically easier for the orcs to kill a troll than for the goblins.  That said, I did lose my unit of spears to a troll. 

As for the chariots,  they were great fun to use, and looked great. I'm not sure that our chariot duel was that good an idea, they seemed a bit too equally matched,  struggling and failing to cause any damage to each other. I'm sure we're missing something here. 

It did take us a little while to recall the rules, play speeded up during the day. 

If you're interested, I gave out VPs as 10% of a unit's PV and +35VPs per troll.  Bodvoc won by a few points, a minor victory, but has we fought on I suspect that the orcs would soon have broken.

In the end, the winners were both of us.

Final Thoughts

We are certainly enjoying Warlords of Erehwon.  It's not perfect, (I don't think there is a perfect set of rules), but they give me the old school feel that I'm looking for. I'm sure they are here to stay, and we'll be playing more games in the near future.

I do have one complaint though, the counterintuitive nomenclature.  I'm sure they are good reasons for this, but it adds a layer of confusion for new players (and, perhaps, makes it harder to introduce them).

I'm looking forward to Bodvoc's next scenario, will we benefit from the troll trophies?

Kings of War; Orcs and Undead Clash

I had a quick game of Kings of War with my son recently, my orcs vs his undead. As it was some time since either of us had played, we went for a small 500 point battle (Ambush in the current parlance). The aim was simple,  eradicate the enemy. 

The Undead, revenants, a couple of necromancers, skeleton spears and a troop of wraiths

The Orcs, gore riders, two regiments of ax and a krusher

Opening Moves

One regiment of ax rush straight forward, keen to get to grips with the enemy, the other regiment is slowed somewhat to avoid the wood. On the flank, the gore riders carefully manoeuvre through the village.

The undead advance with the revenants taking the lead while the wraiths approach the village. At the (s)urging of their masters, the revenants and wraiths move further forward.

Orcs and Undead advance

The first orc ax regiment charges the revenants, but fails to break them.  The other ax regiment moves up and the riders continue picking their way through the village.

The skeletal spears take the opportunity to charge the orc flank. Between them, the two undead units cause some casualties, orcish armour (and stubbornness) isn't up to the task and the first unit is destroyed. The wraiths move towards the rear of the riders and both necromancers use their magic to repair some of the damage done to the revenants.

The armies clash

The first melee

From the undead lines

Middle Phase 

With the first unit of ax destroyed,  the second steps up. They charged the spears,  but didn't do much damage. Meanwhile,  the gore riders round the cottage,  sure they saw something green and glowing. 

The revenants take advantage of the exposed flank, and between them,  the undead repeat their earlier performance against the orcs.

The undead start to thin out the orcs, where's that krusher off to?

The krusher advances towards the necromancers, eager to try his ax on them, and the gore riders continue their ride, hoping to cause havoc in the undead rear, but the wraiths are surged into their flank, fortunately causing only slight damage. 

With the orc infantry wiped out, all the action is behind the undead lines

End Phase

The gores turn to face the wraiths and contemptuously disperse them, then turn to face the rest of the undead.  The krusher catches one of the necromancers; despite some nasty wounds, the wizard holds.

Only one orc regiment and the krusher left

The krusher is stuck in melee with the spears, but does little damage.  The gore riders take the opportunity to charge the revenants,  but fail to break them (by one point!).

In response,  the spears skewer the krusher,  but the revenants make little headway against the gore riders. 

And that was it. Fate decreed no more hostilities.

The end of hostilities

Aftermath

At the finish, one regiment of gore riders remained, facing the revenants, the spears and a necromancer. We both felt that had we played another turn, the gores would have finished off the revenants and turned to face the spears.  Whether the skeletons could have prevailed, we weren't sure.

But that's not what happened, and the undead claimed victory. 

Final Thoughts; Luck and Tactics

This was a great fun game,  reminding us both of why we enjoy Kings of War. 

The game seemed to go very much for the undead in the first few turns, but the orcs,  as they often do, began to turn things around.  Just not enough soon enough. 

My luck was mostly OK, but my son was distinctly luckier.

Revenants need a 4+ to hit

Just need to Surge 2 inches

He was also canny enough to face my infantry two on one with flank charges, this pretty much does for a regiment and I was lucky that the first lot of ax survived their first turn of melee. 

I managed to get stuck manoeuvring around terrain, and the flanking manoeuvre, though it seemed like a smart move, was really a waste of time, though I suppose it kept the wraiths busy and eventually did for them. I'd have been better keeping them as either a mobile reserve, or as a first strike unit, as they might have been better able to break individual undead units on first contact.

The krusher was poorly used. Initially I kept him nicely between the infantry units, forgetting that he doesn't have Inspiring. He'd have been better adding his three attacks to the combats, as there were several instances of failing to break the enemy by one or two points.

The necromancers, on the other hand, were played very well, using Surge and Healing to great effect throughout the game.

This gave both of us the impetus to play more games, and also to paint more troops (though I have something a bit different planned for October).

I've certainly got plenty of unpainted Kings of War orcs, and it's about time I rebased my original army to match the newer stuff, plus the odd bit of repairs.

I understand that there's a new edition due in December. The Mantic News page has Alessio Cavatore's blog where he teases some of the changes, I'm excited to see what they've done.

Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot with Boars

A while ago I showed my recently acquired Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot. It's a nice model, but I wanted a boar chariot, not a wolf chariot. Fortunately, I bought a pack of boars at the same time for just this purpose.

The boars are slightly smaller than the old GW boars, but I'm fine with that. I might look at using the spares as mounts, if I can find suitable orc riders. 

The Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot, comin' right at ya!

Preparation 

The boars have no harness or other equipment, so I decided to add a bit of something, just to make them look right as chariot pulling beasts.

I wound some thread around their bodies at the point where the chariot yoke would be attached. I also gave each boar a bit, one required drilling a hole in the mouth to take it. The bit is simply a piece of wire, bent at the end for reins to fasten on to.

One of the boars had a bald patch on its rump, this was quickly fixed with a bit of greenstuff (the slotta bases are simply for easy handling during painting).

The boars ready for chariot pulling 

Building The Chariot 

There's not much flash, and what there is is easy to clean up. Assembly was straightforward, only four pieces, not including beasts and crew. I found that gluing the wheels a bit away from the body looks better, but there's still a bit of axle sticking out. 

I wanted to add some blades, an option in Warlord's of Erehwon, and I think also in Warhammer. I pondered using spare blades from the old Fantasy Regiment set, but they were far too big. In the end I chose curved knife blades from the Oathmark goblin sprue. I cut a slot in each the end of the axle, and they fit right in. 

Fantasy chariots usually have scythe blades curved the other way, but the knives were sharp on the outside of the curve. I could have easily shaped them, but I don't think orcs are that bothered by convention. Besides, it works to push victims out of the way, making for a slightly smoother ride. Orcs don't go in much for suspension.

The chariot built with added blades

Painting the Boars 

I started with a coat of Vallejo German Green Brown Surface Primer, then a wash of Army Painter Strongtone everywhere except the rope. 

I wanted the crest and along the spine to be much darker, nearly black at the top, so I tried a wash of AP Darktone on these areas. Unfortunately, this just looked a bit wishy-washy, so I gave the same areas a coat of Vallejo Game Color Scorched Brown while the Darktone was still wet. Much better. 

There's a temptation to paint the hairless bits in pink, but a bit of research suggests that wild boar tend to be dark grey.  So a coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Charcoal on the ears, trotters and pads, and lips.

Finally I gave all the fur a light dry brush of VGC Earth, just to make the fur seem more realistic. 

Painting the Chariot 

Painting was straightforward.  After priming and picking out the various metal bits,  I gave all the wood a base coat of VGC Desert Yellow. Then it all got a wash of Strongtone before picking out a few of the planks in different Speedpaints.  I find this adds just enough variety to the wood.

Then I decided that the front of the chariot should be black,  so VXO Charcoal followed by a black ink wash. 

The Crew

These were painted in much the same way as the rest of my Oldhammer orcs. I kept with the idea of them using spoils of war, so some of the colour choices echo previous minis.

Finishing Touches 

The base was cut from PVC Foamboard*, 50mm x 100mm and rounded off at the corners (it cuts very easily). I stuck a piece at the back of the base for the wheels to rest on and cut small pieces with slots to take the pegs on the boars.

The boars were glued in place, then the base was textured to fill in around the extra bits of foamboard using acrylic modelling paste. I sprinkled sand on the wet filler for a bit of extra texture, then the whole lot got a coat of builder's sand. 

The base was then painted, drybrushed and flock etc added. 

The chariot was then pinned onto the base and pinned into the boars.  I disguised these latter pins with some plastic skulls, much more orcy decoration than fluffy dice!

Finally, I used more thread attached to the bits and threaded through the driver's left hand for the reins; fiddly, but worth the effort.

The chariot nearside

Eat our dust

Offside 

I'm very pleased with the chariot.  Its a nice model and paints up well. The little touches, like the reins and the skulls, help personalise it. 

I might at some point get another, I built this with the crew provided, but it might be fun to change them, either replacing or converting some of them. The main chap looks wonderfully goofy; check out the size of his skull, not a lot of room for thinking in there! He makes up for it with his impressive ears though.

The chariot is available from Old School Miniatures, the boars are available separately in a pack of four.

*This isn't the same sort of foamboard used to make model buildings, it's plastic throughout, and much tougher.  It's used in signmaking, among other industries, and can be bought as offcuts.

Hobhounds for Ashak Rise Complete

Ashak Rise Minis Finally Finished*

I've finally finished the remaining Hobhounds for Ashak Rise.  I'd got six of the Ral Partha Karmanthi Demons left to bring the pack up to ten; with the two proper Hobhounds and the other two Demons already painted,  this finishes off the orc forces for the battle. 

The remaining six hobhounds

The Paint Scheme

I tried to match the painting to the earlier mini, though actually I think they look better.  Briefly,  they are painted all over with Vallejo Model Color Orange Brown, followed by a stripe of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown along the spine.  Before this was completely dry, I used watered down VGC Charred Brown to extend the dark colour down the flanks, becoming less intense away from the spine.  Then a drybrush of VMC Sunny Skin Tone, especially on the undersides. To add shade, I gave them a good coat of  'Marine Juice/Sonic Tonic', then finished off by painting the various spikes etc in VGC Khaki, then highlight with VGC Bonewhite.  Eyes and nose are just Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Charcoal. 

The Finished Unit

So here's Hobhound handler Grashak Kra of the Severed Hand tribe, with his pack of beasts. 

I'll admit to being a little intimidated by six models all requiring similar paint jobs, but when I got round to it they were fast and fun to do.

So that's all the minis for Ashak Rise finished; Dwarves, Pack Beasts, Orcs and Hobhounds.

Of course, I still need to look at the terrain, but perhaps not quite yet?

* Yes, finished, really!

Though as I've mentioned before, I'll return to the Severed Hand and add more models, just not anything required for this scenario.

Warlords of Erehwon; Attack on Jomstead

I had another great game of WoE recently when I visited Bodvoc.  The purpose was to get a better grip on the rules, which we certain did, sometimes though making mistakes.

The Mission 

As is traditional, the host came up with the scenario, n this case a raid for loot which was available both from two static sources (the farm buildings at Jomstead) and two mobile ones (Jom and Osbert).

The Armies 

We played with just short of 900 points; both of us expanding the armies we used in the previous game. I'm using mostly my Severed Hands orcs, but gave Grashak Kra four Hobhounds (using the Gobbledog profile from the goblin army list) and I tried a Shaman again. Otherwise it was largely a case of increasing the size of the units. 

Bodvoc took a Shaman too, his main addition was a unit of Goblin Dervishes.

The goblins of Kruk the Destroyer

The Severed Hand orcs

Opening Moves

Both armies gradually advance. There is some ineffective shooting. 

Both the Hobhounds and the Gobbledogs approach each other 

The Gobbledogs seize the initiative and charge the Hobhounds.  Some savage biting ensues and the orcish pack is wiped out. 

In response,  the orc spears charge the remaining Gobbledogs who fall beneath a hail of thrown and thrust spears.

Mid Battle 

The Dervishes swing round the farm and smash into the orc spears quickly destroying the unit. The orc Shaman looses his Fiery Balls at them, slaying some of them. The smouldering remainder just grin and clutch their weapons.

Gurk, the Goblin Shaman, steps forward and with a gesture the orcs facing him tremble with dread.*

End Game 

The Dervishes contact the Orc Shaman,  wiping out him and his bodyguard,  but lose some of their number. They spin on into Hagar Sheol, killing his bodyguard as they finally exhaust themselves.  Hagar Sheol decides enough is enough and flees, er, makes a tactical withdrawal. 

Elsewhere, the remaining orc warriors charge the cowardly goblin archers in the woods. Amazingly,  the goblins survive, and are able to turn the tables and drive the orcs away **.

The remaining orc archers try to down the goblin Shaman, but fail to hit.

At half the number of units, the orcs were broken, and the dice dictated that the game was done.

So another glorious defeat for Hagar Sheol. At least he survived, merely making a tactical withdrawal (in my mind anyway). Partly this is due to my almost deliberate avoidance of any loot, I had hoped to take some from the cold dead hands of the goblins, and perhaps focus on the farmers in the last couple of turns, but Bodvoc's clever tactics kept me on the back foot most of the game. 

The Devishes are scary.  They managed to whirl their way through three of my units, including my underused Shaman. 

I was a little unlucky with my dice in the second half, but I did pretty well to begin with with my spear armed orcs. I seemed to be good at getting the goblin units down to one or two remaining minis, but failing to finish them off.  Kruk and Gurk being notable examples.

Conclusions

I do need to look at my army and find a credible response to things like Dervishes as I'm sure that I'll be seeing them quite often.  I also need to work out the best response to annoying missile troops hiding in cover (and remember that they don't benefit from that cover when charged).

I think that something faster would be useful, we were both surprised that Gobbledogs (or Hobhounds) aren't Fast. 

Unfortunately, orc boar riders are expensive.  I have thought about doing some conversions using the Old School Miniatures boars that I got a while back, I just need to find the right orcs to go on them. 

Orcs aren't great at shooting.  I think splitting my ten archers into two units was a mistake.  I've got some nice war machines to paint up, but they still rely on an Accuracy of 4, so would be of limited value. 

Against poorly armoured opponents such as goblins, I think more spears will be good.  The pre contact volley of spears was suitably impressive.

And I must learn to be more careful with measuring.  Several times I roughly measured distances, mostly to make sure that the Dervishes were just out of reach, only to find that I was out, and they were just in reach.  This cost me the orc spears, and possibly more.

Mistakes Were Made

This was a learning exercise, Bodvoc and I don't get to play often enough and we are still very much learning the game.  

* We made this spell far more effective than it should be, it crippled my centre.  At the time I didn't really understand how to use the Rally order, which would have helped.

** Giving the goblins cover for being in the woods is fine against missiles, but we granted it in melee too.  Oops, no wonder nine rampaging orc warriors failed against ten puny goblin archers.

But anyway, a great fun game, and I even got another mini from Bodvoc's Old School Haul for my orc's Drift project, so win-win (or lose-win in Hagar Sheol's case).

You can read Bodvoc's account over on The War Crow

Painted Hobhound and Birthday Dwarves

Another Hobhound

When I first discussed what to use for the Severed Hands' Hobhound pack, and even when I showed my painted suggestions,  I was resigned to only having one of the official minis. 

Well Bodvoc managed to acquire me a second one,  and in a different pose too.

Painting

Painting was pretty straightforward,  I used Vallejo Game Color Khaki as the basecoat for most of the fur, and VMC Scorched Brown for the mane. Then highlight with VGC Bleached Bone or Leather Brown before giving everything a wash with Marine Juice (or Sonic Tonic). Finally,  a bit of extra highlighting then the usual varnishing and basing. 

The new hobhound

Both 'official' hobhounds

More Dwarves

I didn't think one Hobhound merited a post on its own,  so here are my latest acquisitions, funded with some recent birthday money. 

They were all picked up on evilbay under their original catalogue names; Tribesman, Retainer and Clan Chief from the C06 range of Dwarves from the mid 1980s.

Dwarves by Other Names

But for collectors of the minis from the second edition scenario packs, they are better known as Beli, and Snorinn Fimbul from Bloodbath at Orc's Drift and Arka Zargull from the Tragedy of McDeath. 

Picking them up under their original names does mean quite a saving, some of the prices for minis with scenario connections are staggering.  Orc's Drift only had two brand new minis; Osrim Chardz, the dwarf leader in the final battle, and Hagar Sheol, the Severed Hands chieftain.  Brommedir and Erdolas do have their names on the tabs, but they were originally available in the C08 Elf range. I wonder if more minis were cast to meet demand, with the new names on the tab?

Snorrin is the son of the Dwarf leader at Ashak Rise, and will probably end up facing the Hobhound above.  I don't have his father, the mini is available, but so far I've only seen him as Borinn, rather than just a C06 Veteran. I do have plans for an alternative mini, more on that later.

Beli is one of the patients at the hospital at Orc's Drift.  The poor chap has suffered a head wound, and is subject to some of the Psychology rules that were part of the fun of second edition.  He is a companion to Gymlet (C06 Decrepit Wizard), who I painted up a while ago.

Arka Zargull is the leader of the Dwarven miners in one of the McDeath scenarios, and also a punning reference to the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers during the Miner's Strike.  As this was 40 years ago, it seemed relevant to get him, bringing my total of McDeath minis up to 2.75 (approximately).