Sir Bivalve and the Uruk-Hai

Sir Bivalve and the Uruk-Hai is another playtest of Warrior Heroes: New Dawn, in the works at Two Hour Wargames.  My aim was to try out the mounted rules with mounted on both sides and to use shooting, which I had not before.

Here are the comic pages, which you will have to click on to see full size.

This game only went 3 turns, but was quite a bit more complicated than the comic pages show.  Let me list the opponents and etc.  Sir Bivalve (Star), Sir Remaunch and Sir Greenclaw were all Rep 5, AC 6 with Born To The Saddle trait. The longbowmen were Rep 4 AC 2.  The warg spearman and bowman were Rep 5. All the other orcs were Rep 4. All the orcs were AC 0, except the mounted bowman who was AC 2. The mounted spear was Born to the Saddle, the mounted sword had the Riddle of Steel, and the mounted bowman had the Way of the Hunter.

The Miasma was only 3, but was never passed by enough to matter in any case.  Also, the figure has to active to try his trait.

The bows were pretty much ineffective, even against one another, causing only a retire.  The other retires were caused by Man Down.

Sir Bivalve got in trouble against his mounted opponent, and had to rely on Star Power to save his skin.

It was a pretty uneven affair, with the human knights riding roughshod over the Uruk-Hai.

DAEMONETTES FOR DESSERT!!

Herewith follows a tale of Sir Cammillus driving the daemonettes from his fief, protecting his serfs from their depredations! Two Hour Wargames "Warrior Heroes: New Dawn (Armies and Adventures 2) playtest. I haven't figured out how to make the pages larger, so you'll be obliged to click on them to read the comments.

The purpose of this game was to playtest the new mounted rules which are on the way. Sir Cammillus was a Rep 5; his spearmen Rep 4.  The barbarian (who played very little part in the game) was Rep 5, the daemonettes Rep 4.

I used a combination of the Non-Player Character reactions, and regular character reactions.

The game went 8 turns, mostly because the last daemonette was so difficult to kill.  Sir Cammillus had to use his Star power a number of times to not be Stunned, which would have killed him.  He was down to 3 dice by the end of the game.  The mount is a great equalizer, as it is a larger base, giving a moderator to melee, and allowing the mounted warrior to keep in combat, if he so chooses. The daemonettes had Born To The Saddle trait, and the knight The Riddle Of Steel. Miasma stayed at 4 for the whole game, so the traits failed about 90% of the time, but never badly enough to Stun The user.

Grishnak's Grief.

Yes it's always that black orc Grishnac, isn't it?  Well, he won't be coming back!
This is a Rally Round the King game of orcs versus elves.  It did not go well for the orcs.
But yours truly forgot some things, of course.  For this game the orc commander had a War Rating of 4 and the elf commander 3.  Of course, the orcs out-scouted the elves, with a skirmish unit against nothing but heavy infantry for the elves.  So the orcs are the attacker.
Here we have the orc army, straight out of the lists.

They stretched out as far as they could.  The wolf riders are off the left of the picture.  They were further hampered by bad going in the middle of their line.

The elves, out-numbered, chose a compact formation with a bow unit on each wing, and the marines as reserve, since they're the fastest elves.

In turn 1, the orcs advanced and the elves brought the bows to touch the back corner of the flank, thereby hopefully staying out of melee, but able to support the line.

In turn 2 the orcs advanced further, while the elves stood firm.

IN turn 3, the orcs advanced into bow range.  The orc unit on the left flank of the center battle line was handled roughly by the bowman.  The bows hit him and cause him to advance 1/2 half move, which caused the bow to take an Enemy Threat test, and fire again.  This time the orc unit ic forced to retire and take 1 hit.  He now has 3 hits, and as a Rep 4 unit is pretty much out of the fight.  The wolf riders advance towards the marines.

The elf commander decides to call a charge, but fails and must stand still.  The elves' right wing bow unit turns 90 degrees to face the skirmish unit, if it ever gets there.

Turn 4: The orc commander orders a charge, and the elves do not countercharge, but stand to receive it.  In the combat the orcs' dice total 16 hits and the elves 18.  This is not so good, as all but 1 orc unit has AC 2 and the elves are all AC 4.

The wolf riders get into threat range of marines who are dual armed, and put 1 into the orcs. The wolves completed their charge and take another hit.  The elves take 2 . And the wolf riders retire and take another hit!
 It's now the elves initiative and they continue the melee.  The orcs score 13 to the elves 7. And the 2 orc units on the right fail their UD roll and stand still.  Another orc unit retires and takes another hit.  And the orc leader dies, leaving them with a War Rating of 1.  The loss of their leader causes the wolf riders to rout.

Turn 5:  The orcs have no choice but to tough it out in melee. The orcs take another hit, and so do the elves.  2 of the orc stands rout, and incredibly the elves fall back taking another hit each.

But it's all over for the orcs.  The elves charge, the orcs stand, and the last element in the line rout, leaving the field to the elves.  The orcs have 3 stands left that have not been in combat, but being UD would be fodder for the elves.  The elves have all their stands, but all but 2 have taken hits.

The orcs at the bottom of the picture have no chance against the better disciplined elves.

Did I forget some stuff? You betcha!  I forgot that the orcs have frenzy and are UD, so those two sort of cancel out.  I forgot to start from the right of the line on the orcs twice, which benefited them.  All in all a fun game played in about 45 minutes including taking pictures and writing everything down.  Both sides had the advantage of my dismal die rolling.

Since the beginning of the year...

What have I been doing?  Well, my wife had rotator cuff surgery on Jan. 2.  So, she's not able to wait on me hand and foot.  I actually have to do a few things around the house.  However, she's making good progress.

All I've done so far is a bit of painting.  I painted 10 conquistadors from Monday Knight Productions. http://www.mondayknight.com/Miniature%20Pages/GoldandFeathers/Conquistadors.htm  These are old Pass of the North figures, and nearer true 25mm.  Why these instead of Foundry's lovely figures?  Cost, and they are near in size to some salacious Native American maiden warriors I painted a looong time ago (maybe 20 - 25 years ago.)

So I figured I would emulate Vampifan and show the front and rear of the figures.

I ordered the 10 random figure set.  The 1st figure left is armored with leather studded armor, and has the most detail of the bunch.  The second figure is half-armored and holding a pike.  He was the first one I painted, and I decided that there wouldn't be too many more stripes, since their clothing is basically landesqueknect, and a pain to paint.  The third figure is 3/4 armored.

The arquebusier is unarmored except for the helmet and has a few apostles hanging from his bandolier. Last is the figure in the leather coat and shield.  Because of the great amount of armor, I deviated from my normal course of black undercoating on the metal, and a single coat of some sort of metal paint.  I undercoated in black, the added P3 Pig Iron, and then used GW Mithral Silver for the greater part of the metal, leaving the Pig Iron untouched for depth in the crevices and crannies.  The soft clothing was painted with various P3 and craft acrylics, and then washed with a brown wash.  There skin was painted a darker flesh tone, again craft paint from which the label has long disappeared.

 The remaining 5 from left to right.  The first figure is wearing a leather vest.  The crossbowman is wearing quilted clothe armor.  One of the ends of his crossbow was missing, so I fashioned a new one from scrap lead, pewter, whatever.  The next figure is half-armored and probably a dismounted horseman from his thigh boots.

I consider the next figure to be the leader, so he got a gold-hilted sword and some brass on his helmet, a black scabbard, and matching upper and lower clothing.  The final is basically a duplicate of the second figure in the first bunch but with a burgeonet instead of a morion.  He has pink britches because I saw a photo of a reenactor with pink britches online.

Now for the salacious Native American maidens.  I don't know who made these figures.  I got them a very long time ago, and have 21 including the queen.

I had originally painted all their weapons metal, but a closer look, and a remembered conversation from when I originally painted them convinced me to paint the axes as stone and the spears and daggers as obsidian.  I just added EZ Line bowstrings to all the bows.  The queen is a Ral Partha figure.  I repainted her sword as a wooden club.  I'm sure these were painted with GW and crafts paints, maybe some D&D paints, and washed with a brown wash.

My plan is to have 4 of the conquistadors lost in New Spain searching for Cibola, and running across the maidens.  I'll be using Warrior Heroes Legends.  It covers the armor types, and while it doesn't cover firearms, I have enough experience (and other THW rulesets) for that to be no problem.  The four conquistadors stats are already done, and 11 (2-12 on 2d6) pefs generated to represent the girls.  My aim is to see if heavier armor can just walk over the unarmored.  I also have, unpainted, a couple of bags of early Apaches from the lamented London War Room.

And, of course, I forgot that I had bags of Frontier conquistadors and mule train that I got from Time Portal Hobbies a couple of months ago.  There are a total of 4 mounted figures, more than enough for any conquistador game, even were I to add of the Frontier.  Oh, the Monday Knight Productions figures have the seeder (a leather-worker tool) eyes just like Frontier.

No, they will never see Aztecs.  Now all I need is the time to play the game!

Hasslefree & Reaper

In the usual gamer's ADHD, I've been painting 28's instead of 15mm modern Africa.  These are all Hasslefree with the exception of one Reaper.

First up are fem-Asterix (Rennie) and fem-Obelix (Tilda).  Nice figures who only resemble the originals in clothing.  In this case, I'm glad that Kev added a top to Tilda.  I know, betraying my dirty old man mojo, but the figure is more useable. Hmmm, fem-Asterix eyes didn't come out quite level, did they?

Here are two of Hasslefree's modern figures.  I chose Morgan with a small pistol (held up behind her hair) because I grow tired of enormous pistols.  This is definitely an Impact 1 auto-pistol.  The other is Dionne, who appears to be several months pregnant.  I'm also very tired of painting people in black, so she got brightened up.  Morgan's base is by Bobe's Hobby House and has a Mauser Auto-pistol and another auto-pistol molded into it.  The base is a tiled floor.  The purse is from Wargames Factory's Zombie Vixens.  Hey, at least she HAS a purse!

This is the topless Hayden from Hasslefree and feral dwarf from Reaper.  I didn't realize just how muscular the feral dwarf was until I had her primed.  There is a difficult to remove mold line down the left side of her face, so I painted it as a scar.  Hayden might want to cover up around her. (Oooh, non-pc!)
                                            
I tried something new on Hayden.  I had read Matt Parkes Paints in issue 299 of Wargames Illustrated and he showed a method of painting Tudor gold engraved armor.  So I tried it in kind of reverse with a disposable .005 drafting pen.  Obviously, I need to improve my technique, but I thought it was more interesting than just solid tattoos.  I'd also like to get a dark blue drafting pen, if available.

I bravely show my first attempt.  By the by, the ink is non-water soluble, but is shiny, so a matte coat is needed afterwards, not a problem for me, since all my figures get a matte coat after everything but the metallics are painted.

I tilted the figure up slightly so the neck tattoo would show better.

And this one shows her facial tattoo better.

That's all for now, but there's lots more on the painting table, mostly Black Orc.  Having started painting figures in the '70's, I have some partiality to children of a lesser sculpture.

Looting the farm, a Warrior Heroes Legends skirmish

I wanted to become more familiar with the combat in WHL and the heroic melee optional add-on.  So I set up a little skirmish in which 4 barbarians would attempt to overcome a Milesian farm.

The background:
Barbarian raids had become a little too familiar in the area of Heimdal's farm.  So when he and his brother-in-law Golroth decided to add a new compound to the farm, they kept their weapons nearby.  Heimdal's first wife had died several years back, and he became acquainted with a young shield maiden, Friztkie, and married her.  His teenage son Hymie didn't seem to care, since she was a better cook than his father.  Hymie had just returned with their flock of sheep and was practicing with his sling, his only weapon.

Toondar the barbarian had convinced some drinking buddies that a farm raid was just the thing to keep them in ale.  Maki, a mongol bowman, Ali, a Saracen, and Raquel, a spearwoman liked ale enough to join him.

The Barbarians

All the figures, except the missile men,  have the standard Warriror attribute of Resilient.

Ali, Rep 4, spear, AC2, and Vicious.

Maki, Rep 3, bow, sword, shield, dagger, AC2, no attribute.

Toondar, Rep 5, 2-handed axe, AC2, no additional attribute. The leader.

Raquel, Rep 4, spear, dagger, AC2, Brawler.

The Milesians

Golroth, Rep 4, 2-handed sword, AC2, Strong-willed.

Hymie, Rep 3, sling, AC2, no attribute.

Friztkie, Rep 4, sword, shield, AC2, Rage.

Heimdal, Rep 5, 2-handed axe, AC2, no additional attribute.  The leader.

The barbarians crept up on the farm, and saw the two men working on the fences, and the teenager practicing with his sling.  They did not see Friztkie bathing in the stream behind the house.  There was a large open space to cover, and though the men were busily mending the fence, they saw the barbarians long before they could reach them, except Hymie, who went down with an arrow and not a sound before he knew the barbarians were there.

Turn 2: Barbarians 1, Milesians 2

Heimdal and Golroth advance to charge range and do so!  

Friztkie hears the commotion and comes running, but can't get within charge range.

Heimdal and Toondar swing and miss, neither gaining advantage.  Golroth rushes Raquel, and is pushed back in heroic combat, with Raquel following up.  Ali charges Heimdal, and is pushed back.  Heimdal can't follow up because he's locked in with Toondar. 

Activation now goes to the barbarians.  Toondar and Heimdal keep one another at bay.  Golroth knocks Raquel down, even after being pushed back.  Maki fires at Fritzkie and misses.  She is caught unprepared, and runs for the cover of the house.  Ali charges Heimdal again, and is pushed back again.

Turn 3:  Barbarians 6, Milesians 5 (this was going to become familiar to the barbarians)

Toondar knocks Heimdal down.  Golroth keeps Raquel prone.  Friztkie is too far to benefit from Heimdal's leadership.  Besides, he's prone, not Carrying On.

Turn 4 Barbarians 6, Milesians 4

Heimdal safely stands up.  Raquel successfully holds Golroth off, but Friztkie charges in and kills her.

Turn 5: Barbarians 5, Milesians 2

Toondar and Heimdal tie again, and Ali charges in, and gets knocked down!  Golroth and Frizkie charge Toondar.  Golroth is evenly matched, and Friztkie gets knocked down!

Turn 6: Barbarians 2, Milesians 5

Heimdal pushes Toondar back, and then knocks him down. Ali stands up.  Maki fires at Golroth and misses, and Golroth ignores it!

Turn 7: Barbarians 5, Milesians 2

Since Toondar is prone, his Rep cannot be used to motivate his troops.  (This may have been a GM error, since he would stand up at the beginning of the turn.)

Heimdal probably makes a strategic error and choses to charge Ali, since Toondar can only stand up.  Ali pushed Heimdal back, and then is knocked down by Golroth, who also charges in.

Turn 8: Barbarians 1, Milesians 6

Toondar attacks Heimdal again, and is killed for his trouble!  Ali stands up.

And gets knocked down again by Golroth!

 Maki looses an arrow at Friztkie, which enrages her and she charges him.  He fires again and misses.  And

is killed by Friztkie!

Ali is an NPC and outnumbered 3 to 1, and flees.

If you haven't obtained the heroic melee combat, some of the Knock Downs may seem a little strange.  The Recover from Knock Down chart is exchanged for one in which, condensed, pass 2d6,loser is pushed back 2" with the winner automatically remaining in contact. Pass 1d6, knocked down and must spend one full activation prone before arising.  Pass 0d6, OOF.  This makes the melee in small groups like the ones I used more detailed, and perhaps last longer.

I tried to make the groups as equal as possible, since I was getting used to the rules, and wanted to learn the mechanics without too much falderol.  Of course, this little skirmish didn't take into account People and Savvy skills, but those are more role play goodies.

I'm very happy with this, my first attempt to use the system.  I was a little disappointed that the slinger had no chance to return fire, but, oh, well.  

All of the Milesians are from Alternative Armies.

Toondar is a slotta-base figure of I know not what manufacturer.  Maki and Raquel are old GW, and Ali is from Harlequin, now Black Tree Design.

The totals, and after battle dodads.  Maki OOF'ed 1 figure, and then missed 4 times.  Heimdal killed Toondar, his opposite number.  Friztkie did best, killing 2 figures.  Hymie died of his wound.  The Milesians have gained 1 helmet, a sword, a shield, a bow, a dagger, and a 2-handed axe.  Friztkie may be able to wear the fur bikini after some alterations.  Probably no one wants Toondars fur loincloth. But boots are always welcome.

Cromak Returns!

Yes, gentlefolk, Cromak has returned to the ring!  His latest bout is featured below.  Cromak's opponent is Niobe, a Hykarian female warrior with a two-handed axe, a Savvy of 4, Strength of 4, and a Speed of 5!  In addition to the warrior attributes, she has Guile! And she is a 6 pointer.

Cromak is a slow mover, so she will probably always move first, and win more Maneuvers.  Their weapons are equal, but her lesser Strength could tell in the long run.

Right off the bat Cromak moves from his gate to the heart of the arena, as does Niobe.  But then, Niobe, apparently afraid of Cromak's reputation, hesitates.
                                 

She hesitates again, drawing boos from the crowd, and abuse from Cromak!

Then Niobe slips past Cromak's guard, but is unable to strike home.

Her greater speed and agility keep the two of them bouncing back and forth, unable to connect with each other, until Niobe steps out of Cromak's way, and gives him a slight belly wound as he charges, and he goes down.

Elated, Niobe does a victory dance instead of charging in while Cromak is on the ground, and he regains his feet!  (NPG movement)  By this time, both Cromak and Niobe are out of bonus dice.

Cromak charges in and nearly severs Niobe's right arm, pushing her backing her back!

But even wounded, Niobe's speed and Guile make it very difficult for either to gain an advantage.  They go round and round, slashing and hacking, dodging and feinting to no effect.  But time is beginning to tell on Niobe as her life's blood reddens the sand!

Niobe knows there's no surrender and continues to fight, even as little sparkles outline her narrowing vision!  With desperate swings, she forces Cromak back to the wall, but cannot overcome his defense.

And suddenly, she collapses, robbing Cromak of a killing stroke, as her blood ceases to flow from her wound.

Cromak is the victor, but Niobe's vigor had kept him out of the center of the arena, and backed to the wall.  It is not a pretty, manly victory, as Cromak would have wanted, but he consoles himself with another point of Fame, his earnings, and his returns on his bets!  Little cost for a good return, but nothing to brag about over a mug of ale.  But the barmaid salves his cut on his belly, and he tries unsuccessfully to increase his speed with a Fame point.

Because the fighters were so evenly matched, there were many retakes, and the NPG table insured that Niobe would use her bonus dice quickly, though not quite as quickly as Cromak.  He now has a total of 8 Fame points, with 6 useable, having failed to increase his Speed twice.

Buildings for The Governor's Daughter

The latest $3 for 2 scenarios included The Governor's Daughter, in which the player attempts to rescue her from pirates!  This inspired me to build a bunch of buildings that have been sitting around as a PDFs since 2006.  These are from Miniature Wargaming.
 http://www.miniaturewargaming.com/  Here's the direct link to them.
  http://www.miniaturewargaming.com/index.php/mwg/comments/bamboo_hut_paper_models/

They're pretty simple, with two pieces for the walls, and one for the roof.  However, they also have ruined walls that the unharmed building slips over.  A VERY tight fit.  That's why all mine have a base of black mat board underneath them; to aid in removing the ruined building from inside the complete one.  The ruined building has two pieces for the walls and one for the floor.  The walls fold over to give inside and outside details.

Here's all I built. (I realized later that The Governor's Daughter has 12 huts, not ll.)

The large hut is in the foreground.  They're pretty simple, as they should be, having a door, and a window in each side wall for the small hut, and a door, and two windows in the front and rear wall for the large hut.

This is the large hut from the front.  The only "accessory" is the red door hanging to glue over the tan one.  The figure is a Front Rank FIW British officer on campaign.  The building's footprint is about 4-1/2" x 3-3/8".

This is the small hut.  It's about 3-3/8" square.  As you can see, the door on the small hut is on the low wall and the door on the large hut is on the high wall.  The windows on the side wall of the small hut are like the ones on the large hut, but there is only one per side.  There are no openings on the rear of the small hut.

This is the ruined insert for the small building.  There is smoke damage starting at the floor and decreasing as it rises up the wall.

And here's an interior shot.  The windows and door could be cut out, but I don't know if I would recommend it, since the fit is so tight, and that would add to more fiddlieness!

If you choose to make these, here are a few tips that helped me.
 
When you make the ruined walls there is a gluing tab on both sides on the left end of the wall piece.  Remove one.  You can slip the still attached tab inside the other wall it you leave about 1/4" at the end unglued.

Fold and glue the ruined walls before cutting the irregular to edges.  You can never match them perfectly.

I put a bead of glue around the bottom of the inside of the walls, and then slipped the floor in from the top.  It's easier that way.

The small hut's ruined walls are a very tight fit.  I recommend that you glue a base with a tiny bit of an overhang to the bottom of the floor to keep from having to crush the inner walls slightly to slip them out.  The large hut has no such problem, and will slip in and out very easily.

So that's it.  It took me a little more than a day to finish all of these.  I printed them out Saturday evening, assembled one small and the large hut and their interiors.  Then on Sunday I assembled the rest with plenty of stops to rest my back, and a 3-hour visit from my Mom, and cut and glued the bases in about an hour on Monday.