HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

The Shadow of the Torturer - Bruce Pennington

Wishing everyone a (belated) happy and prosperous 2025

and Best Wishes for the coming year!

Think it's going to be interesting.

Battle for Blackside - Mordheim Season 4 Turf War Round 3

Had the third round PvP game of our fourth Mordheim Campaign back in the end of January and had the full complement of players attending, Ian with his Carnival of Chaos, Ric with his Middenhemers, Kev and his Halfling Horde, Andy and his Kislevite's, Dave with his trusty Reklanders, and Leigh with his Bretonnians all ready to do Battle for control of the Blackside area of Mordheim.

Battle commences

The game was to be fought in the cramped confines of the tangled streets of one of the many unsavoury area's of Mordheim, so most of the Warbands were forced to close with each other pretty quickly as the street scape limited the shooting oppurtunities of most of the bands.

Middenheimers move out towards the Chaos horrors

The first turn or so was fairly uneventful with al the bands jockeying to see which way each would go, only the Kislevite's boldly marched towards the centre and towards Ian's Nurgle types (and picking up a couple of Wyrdstones on the way).

The Middenheimers mover towards Ian's Chaos forces and the Halflings spread out and advanced generally into the field moving out towards the Middenheimers and Kislevites. Dave's Reiklandrs hugged the table line and moved towards the Kislevite's while Leighs Bretonnians moved out with an eye on the Wyrdstone and the other on the Nurgler's. THe Chaos Warband moved towards the Bretonians keeping to cover to minimise the incoming shooting.

The Halflings spread out seeking sniping oppurtunities
against the Kislevite's and Middenheimers

This was the general trend for the first couple of moves. Neglgable Random Happenings bar a minor wyrdstone encounter for the Kislevite's.

Kislevite's head into the centre

and seek battle with their Arch-enemy

A small amount of opportunity shooting occured now and then from around the board but with little effect to anyone though did make all the Warbands hug the ample cover.

The Reiklanders skirt the action and look to approach
the Kislevites from the rear

The Kislevite's continued their advance to the centre hugging cover so slow progress, the Reiklanders moved round to the Kislevite's rear and the Bretonians made a mounted knightly dash for some choice wyrdstone placements and back again while bracing for the oncoming Nurgle tide. The Halflings and the Middenheimers moved cautiously forward while sniping at each other and anyone that showed above the parapet.

The Bretonians dash for Wyrdstone before the nasty
Chaos types steal it away

Middenheimer cautiously approach Nurgle's
finest while attemping the odd distance shot

The Middenheimers began to close slightly with Chaos forces but the Halflings chose to stand fast and wait for oportunities for their bows. 

The Nurglings and associated nasty types closed with the Bretonnians and quickly developed a close melee with the Carnival quickly downing a knight and pinned the Bretonnians in place while circling round and leaving a couple of outlyers keeping an eye on the slowly approaching Middenheimers.

The Nurgle Chaos tropps close with the Bretonians 
and quickly gain the upperhand in melee

Things quickly get sticky for the Bretonnians

The Reiklanders gain an opening and begin to shoot at the Kislevite's but these are now mid table and have ample cover from the rear attack still some distance away.

Reiklanders open up on the rapidly disappearing Kislevites
but to little effect

The Bretonnians battle on

And then the rains came...

With the next check for Random Occurances landing with Kev, he rolled up a positive result which produced a 'Storm of Chaos' in the form of a Wyrdstone tainted downpour lasting a couple of turns which would inflict a S2 hit to anyone in the open. 

The streets strangely empty...

With the poisonous tainted rain lashing the streets all the bands dove for cover with some better placed to seek shelter than others.

Over the course of the couple of turns most of the bands took some hits but the Halfings and Reiklanders suffered particularly badly. Both Warbands took multiple casualties and at the end of the 2nd round of rain both bands left the field due to the losses.

The Bretonians also quit the field with minor losses from the rain but coupled with combat losses with the Chaos Horde, Leigh chose the better part of valour and retired to lick his wounds being several Hero types down.

The Kislevite's emerge following the deluge

Once the rains had cleared it was down to a three horse race, with the Kislevite's in the strongest position having taken almost no casualties to date but the Middenheimers and Carnival were both still strong in numbers too.

The Middenheimers make a move on the Chaos Warband

The Kislevite's advanced slowly through the twisting streets keeping their numbers together and letting Ric's Middenheimers have first chance against Ian's mighty Nurgle Warband, and the Middenheimers emerging from their cover rushed in slightly piecemeal against the grouped Nurglers but fought a valiant fight but took greater losses than they inflicted in the open street area.

Threeway fight develops as the Kislevites move
toward their hated enemy

The approaching Kislevite's forced the Chaos troops to split their forces to keep an eye on both front and flank so this limited their effectiveness but the toughness of the Chaos troops bluinting the middenheimers attack.

Middenheimers and Chaos fight it out as
the Kislevites approach cautiosly

The Kislevite's consolidate 
(and pose for the photo opportunity)

After two or three rounds of the slightlt one sided exchange the Middenheimers broke but having inflicted a couple of casualties on the Chaos band.

Kislevite's push forward but struggle to get the
numbers in to make the difference

Andy now chose his moment for a full attack but the cramped confines of the alleys limiting his number advantage on the slightly spread out Chaos types.

A strong and fierce melee ensued in the narrow alley but both sides held back from full engagement with the Chaos trusting to his dice and toughness and the Kislevite's with an eye to survival and lack of opportinity to engage.

All the big hitters of both bands joined in and much claws, teeth and sabres flashing ensued and several rounds of vicious melee was had againsdt the hated rivals.

Once again things went down to both bands being on rout checks and after a few passed checks on Ian's part (with a good chance of success due to his leaders Ld at max) Andy failed his 2nd or third check and it was all over.

Chaos numbers and Toughness prove too much
for the Kislevite's

So in the end Ian dice and ability to keep the numbers in the melee's in his favour give him a third victory in the Campaign and push him further ahead in the Turf War. Time will tell if this is an unassailable lead or not already.

The positions for the end of Turn 3 following al the Scouting and Raiding is as the Campaign Map;

Season 4 Mordheim Map - Turn 3 End

Turn 4 PvP game has been played and awaiting final turn orders and results before posting up batrep but will follow shortly with Turn 5 opening game due this month.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2024

and Best Wishes for the coming year

Mordheim Season 4 - Turf War - Round 1

Blood on the streets of Mordheim

This is a bit of a catch up post for our recent Season 4 Mordheim Campaign kick-off which was played a wee while ago at the club.

The campaign was originally planned to have it's inauguration on the March monday 2020 that the pandemic lock-down kicked in and was moth-balled for two and half years.

Following a slow and a gradual return to normality and the club opening up again, discussions crept up to resurrect the campaign. I was slow to get back to the club and gaming generally due to family constraints but managed eventually and having been chased by various bods, dug out the campaign background, map and rules (having to re-write some bits as couldn't find it all) and we re-arranged a new kick-off with a slightly revised line-up of Players. And so after a bit of a serious nudge, we got the campaign under way after a short (three and half years) hiatus.

This campaign was to be a bit different from the previous as being entirely set within the confines of Mordheim east side and is basically a gang war for territory. Winner of the campaign will be the Warband which controls the largest number of territories and amasses the greatest wealth in the process.

The culprits for the Season are; Dave K's Reiklanders setting up in the Wharf District, Ians Carnival of Chaos camped out in the Back O the Wall north of the Great Library, Andy's Kislevite's in the East behind the Temple of Sigmar and Abbeie Ward, Kev's Halflings south east of the Market Square at the Wazard Mansions, Ric's Middenheimers to the South around the Clock Tower, and Leighs Bretonnians in the west at the Adventurer's Wharf.

Things kick-off with all cagey

With the first game PvP game organised, all was ready for the off but at the last minute Kev had to call off as he had picked up Covid (not without a great deal of irony as Kev was the priincipal instigator in getting the season back under way) so it was to be a five sided barney for the first game for a fight to control the north quadrant of the Market Square.

The empty Market, but not for long

With the devistated Market area fairly open and only the remains of Merchant stalls offering much cover on most of the board, the two sides of the market which had the street fronts and buildings were attractive to the fledgling warbands to seek as much cover as possible initially.

Dave's Reiklanders kicked off proceedings and took as much cover as possible entering the fray on the open east side. Ric's Middenheimers took up shooting postions among the ruins of the guild hall to the south est and began to take pot shots at the covering Reiklanders.

The South of the square was empty of combatants and Andy's Kislevite's moved out of the streets to the south west and probed north and east into the open market area's relatively free from enemy's. Leigh's Bretonnians to the North west positioned themselves for a foray into the centre while watching for enemies moving towards them and Ian's Chaos forged to wards the centre and tentatively moved to cover facing the Bretonians. All the warbands targetting warp stone for quick and easy pickings while watching to see where the others would head.

The Middenheimers move out to engage the Reiklanders
while skirting out to hoover up some ripe Warpstone

Once all warbands could see itial directions of play, the game broke up into it's usual pairings with the odd number player (in this game it was Leigh's Bretonnians) getting sandwiched between the Chaos Bods and Kislevite's.

Ric's Middenheimers moved out towards Dave's Reiklanders while skirting wide to pick up any available Warp Stone in the open Market area. Dave reciprocating in like with an eye covering the Chaos bods emerging in the centre but not closing for now.

Middenheimers engage with Reiklanders

Meanwhile Ian's Carnival of Chaos moved cautiously out in the centre of the table keeping to the cover and moving to hover up any shards available and turning to face Leighs Bretonians to his right. Leigh also fairly cautious with Chaos to his left and moving in and Kislev to his right though more distant also kept to cover and set up in cover for taking pot shots at the approaching horde and picking up any nearby warpstone. While the getting was good Leighs mounted knight made a staraight beeline for the centre of the board to pick up the spare warpstone while the centre was clear and bods otherwise engaged.

Bretonnians position for the oncoming tide

Andy's Kislevites also generally kept to cover initially though moving wide to tempt Rics Middenheimers out and perhaps pick any unclaimed warpstone in the area and moved slowly north towards the Bretonnians.

Middenheimers slowly taking the worst vs Reiklanders 

With the game direction fixed, the warbands then downed and entered into the matter at hand. The Middenheimers and Reiklanders engaged with missile bods adding support while the Reiklanders kept a weather eye on Chaos to their rear and the Middenheimers sent a wide scouting foray towards the Kislevites.

Chaos and the Bretonnians faced up with the Bretonians laying down as much fire as possible while Chaos slowly advanced keeping to cover as much as possible before charging in. The Kislevites a bit further away advanced mainly towards the Bretonnians and approaching Chaos hordlings and a countering group to the infringing Middenheimers.

Kislevites and Middenheimers battle in the market

The Middenheimers and Kislevite skirmish was brief and costly to the Middeneheimers with the Kislivites quickly gaining the upper hand though this did seperate some of the Kislevites from the main event to the north.

The melee between the Reiklanders and Middenheimers to the east was protracted but ulimately fewll in favour of the Reiklanders with minimal losses, the spreading out of the Middenheimers ultimately proving to be spread to thin and Ric's Warband was the first to reach break point and decided to voluntarily flee the field with reasonable booty in tow.

Middenheimers moving wide and spread out towards the open market

The onslaught of the chaos hordes and a rapidly declining situation for the Bretonnians with Ians Chaos troops moving in enmasse and coming to blows and the Kislevites moving in to his flank, Leigh took the 'live to fight another day' option and voluntarily fled as soon as he was able flowing several losses to melee.

Kislevites close on the Bretonnian/Chaos melee and
join the fray

With the three way melee resolved with the Bretonnians departure, the Kislevites and Chaos forces engaged in a hard fought melee but with nearly a quarter of the Kislevite forces delayd to the south and slow to get into the fray and the Chaos troops consolidated more or less the tide of the melee though at first to and fro quickly moved in Chaos's favour.

The main struggle draws to a close with the Kislevites and
Chaos in full melee

The extended melee though hard fought went in Chaos's favour and Andy's Kislevites ultimately broke leaving the Reiklanders and Chaos Warbands both bruised though the Chaos troops having taken more loses with it's battles with both the Bretonians and Kislevites but left the two surviving forces pretty seperated either side of the open market.

Ian's Carnival troupe moved to engage with the Reiklanders but Dave played the tactical card and moved away while trying to take pot shots at the advancing Nurgle horrors and force a break test.

The Chaos troops quickly reached break point and Ian's Leadership throws were universally successful and eventually managed to make contact with the retiring Reiklanders with Dave bowing to the inevitable and charging in to try and reduce the numbers in his favour. 

The resulting running skirmishing went badly for the Reiklanders as they retired over the previously hard fought ground and this pushed the Reiklanders into break tests too and so in the final turns it was down to who failed the break test first with this ultimately being the Reiklanders, leaving the Nurgle horde masters of the field.

All the bands managed to pick up reasonable loot and losses were largely minimal though with the usual smatterring of injuries and so on. 

The campaign is set to be a fairly rich one and with territories and area's of control additional recruitment is available to all the bands so any losses will be easily replaced and long term give each of the Warbands a pot to draw replacements from though they do need to husband their bands as any territorial gains will need to be garrisoned.

Interesting first match and the first campaign turn concluded including scouting raids and trading and  the second campaign battle has already been foght and will post up the batrep for this fairly shortly.

All about the Base - Remix

 

Following on from my recent experiments with modelling and casting resin bases, I had decided I wanted to try an alternative casting material and aware that I had used polyester resin previously (only because that's what I had lying about) which is not the first choice I procured some fastcast polyurythane resin along with resin dye to see how that turned out.

First attempt using the previously made base moulds was partially successful as I mixed too much resin, basically more than I could pour before it began to set. Living up to it's name as 'Fast Cast'. What I managed to pour worked out fine and trying again with half the amount of resin produced a variety of bases fairly easily and a lot quicker and less smelly than the polyester, all of which was nice.

The castings are a lot sharper, as the filler I had used in the polyester casting did blur things a bit though I did like the 'feel' of the castings produced. Polyurythane is obviously the way to go and I picked up some alternative 'white fastcast' at the same time to see how that works out as this has a slightly longer pot life.

I also knocked up a quick mould to cast up some small scatter terrain bits to individualise the various castings which I had deliberately kept fairly blank, especially so I could tart up bases as required with these decorations. This mould worked out fine and I can now produce rubble, scatter and battlefield detritus to my hearts content. A few choice bits are already added to the Kroot Killteam bases which are currently in progress and will post up soon.

All about the Base

 

First figs receiving newly cast bases

Having been getting into Killteam recently and investing in the 'Into the Dark' set when released last year I had started building up the teams included in the box with the Kroot band being the first to be assembled.

I had also invested in the 'Imperrium' magazine during Covid as a occupational therapy activity and had started assembling some of the new marine figures and a few others and intended to use the terrain bits included with the magazine for use with Killteam scenario's.

On assembling the first figs and basing them I had decided I wanted to get some modern or techy basing for the figures to difference them from other 40K ranges I already have. Having some of the GSW rollers from a small previous project ,I had tried to put on some rolled results on to the standard plastic bases for a couple of the SM figs but this prooved to give a very thick look to the base which I really didn't like.

Having never really liked the plastic bevelled edge bases from Citadel since first slotta base release back in the day and preferring a fairly thin square edge to my basing I decided I would sculpt up and cast some basing for the Killteam and SM figures and would add in some alternative basing for some of the other bits picked up recently like for my Sisters of Battle and fantasy skirmish bits too.

I had tried some bought resin bases previously from a couple of manufacturers and though the sculpting is OK and often very nice for the chosen products I have found the quality control over the castings is usually fairly poor with a general extreme variance particularly on the thickness of the castings and sanding the the extreme ones to a cosistent level a big pain and extremely laborious.

Selection of scuplted blanks

First up was to produce some blanks and I duly purchased some MDF circular 2mm bases to give a regular size and applied various textured clay pieces to the bases with a bit of chopping and changing and mixing the various textures to give a bit of variety and embelishment for some of the plainer basing.

A fair bit of finishing and minor sculpting and ensuring all the blanks were of suitable sizing and edges square etc. followed.

First moulds and casting results

Next up once I was happy with sufficient variety of bases of varying sizes (28mm, 32mm and 40mm) I made up some moulds with some silcone I had left over, enough for 3 sizable moulds.

The only resin I had to cat up first time was some clear water polyester resin, which although stinks to high heaven does give a fairly sharp cast result but is quite plasticy and hard so I added in a small amount of marble filler which makes the resin a bit friendlier and a much nicer feel. Also makes the casting a bit easier to work with though does blur the casting results slightly.

First bases cast, cleaned, and undercoated

The whole process though fairly labour intensive, especially at the beginning in the blank preparation, is simple enough and fairly enjoyable. I picked at the production in small bursts so as not to sicken myself with extended work.

I also limited myself to the number of casting blanks scuplted so I could produce enough bases for the figures I had already assembled and was wanting to get painted and into some gaming, though this has still been a few months in production over all.

Ready to get painting

Quite happy with the results of the project thus far and had to stop myself in sculpting up more and different bases, but have a few plans for some more and hopefully better basing.

The character and larger models I have planned will be individually scuplted as not wanting to make up castings for ones I would only use once or twice, but I intend to incorporate bits of the castings I have done so as to unify the band or army feel for all the figures.

Will post up the finished articles in due coarse.

Scatter Terrain - Plasma Pipes

Small update on a recently very quiet blog.

Have been painting up some scatter terrain for Kill Team and general Sci-Fi skirmishy things and just completed the plasma pipes which I have left in their constituent parts so I can use them in any way suits the game in hand.

They did take ages to do and not 100% happy with the way they turned out but decided long enough time spent on them. Was going for a slightly grubby steampunk feel which was sort of acheived. They do look better in the flesh than on photo's (but I'm mucking about with new lighting so added another thing to muck about with) and they'll certainly do as scatter once mixed in with other terrain bits on the table.

On other news I have been getting some gaming in and working on (as usual) multiple projects since last updates and am looking to get a few more posts in to update progress and gaming I've been managing to get in.

More on this shortly.