Iskandria Once More...

This week I have been mainly playing...Urban War.

With no campaign games looming and a bit of a lull generally for the summer season, Kev and myself were looking for a game and we plumped for a game of these old favorites, spurred on by Kev's wish to put his very nice Forward Post terrain bit's from Antenociti's Workshop on the table. No problems there.

With a bit of a change in line up from our previous forays into Iskandria, I went with a squad of Viridian Marine's and Kev played his Koralon gribblies.

The game played out in a fairly typical manner. The first few rounds, the Marine's seemed to be unable to miss anything and the Koralon forces were depleted seemingly with ease and they approached their break point (50%) very quickly. Even by opening a portal and vallumping some gribblies including the big one, into the centre of the Marine's troops failed to make a dent in the troops lines as the Sergeant took out the first alien as it emerged from the portal much to everyone's surprise then succumbed to the onslaught but the next lowly Marine grunt then proceeded to dispatch the next alien with his knife and took a wound from the big nasty and held the centre by himself for several turns.

On the flank it was a similar story as the grunts seemed to have charmed lives and took another couple out in close combat and only losing one of their number in return.

The wheel turned however as it usually does, and with the Koralon forces making their first break test they dropped a gear and the Marine's started using rubber bullets, still hitting everything they aimed at but failing to wound anything. C'est La Guerre.

In fairly quick succession the marine's lost a further four, mainly on the right flank, and once reaching break point, failed their first test and broke.

Another close and enjoyable game, which is always nice.

Dux Britannnium Campaign - October 565 AD

Starting positions after deployment

This game was the last of the campaign year and probably the last game of the campaign for the Scots of Cenel Loarn, and this time they were out to raid their near neighbour's, Ian's Picts in Fib.

We randomly threw up (that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean) the Raid on the Church scenario and with the Scot's as the attackers and Pict's defending, the Scots coming on at one end of the table and with the randomly thrown position of the church half way on one side of the table and the Picts luckily (or unluckily as it turned out) randomly deployed on the same position as the church.

The Scots got a fairly low head start roll and only had the minimum two rounds of move before the game started properly.

The game was there after, extremely short lived. Two of the cavalry unit's squared off and fought each other to the withdrawal as a side show behind the church. The main event was the two bands of warriors lining up to the side of the church, four groups of Pict's and three groups of Scot's (though expanded by four warrior's due to previous game advance's). The Scot's got the charge in first as the order of the activation's came out and with a Carpe Diem card and a couple of extra cards charged in and with the same number of dice each in the first clash the Scots got a massive seven kills and a horribly huge number of shock points too, aided by the effects of the cards used.

The Pict's unsurprisingly broke, and with a second round of combat as they fled and were pursued by two of the Scots Warrior groups were practically destroyed and the Pict's were off the table being so close to the table edge to start taking with them their skirmishers who were caught in the Scot's pursuit. Game end with most of the Pict's off table by the end of the third round of gaming.

This bring's the campaign year to an end for the Scot's and with interest waning for the Dux B campaign, the end of the Campaign too.

I quite enjoy the rules to play, mechanic's wise but the randomness of the play/scenario's often has meant the games were often over before they began. A problem to be redressed by only playing pre-set 'designed' scenario's to balance out the games and make things much more interesting.

Steel Fist Knights & Men at Arms

Recently received these very nicely done knights from the Steel Fist Kick-starter recently run.

Sculpted by Oliver James they are all late Medieval or Renaissance period armoured Men at Arms. The Kick-starter had five sets to choose from (I picked up three of the five sets) and all were very nicely done. The standard Bearer is the add on it you choose three or more sets.

Mr James is looking to do another project which I believe may be mounted figures which if so, I will definitely stump up for.

Really looking forward to get these painted up.

Mordheim Season 3 - Further into the Woods

With the result of Round 2 being the Dwarves gaining the Witches treasure and getting to choose the Warband's ventured next, being Dwarves, Ian plumped to go after more loot rather than heading back to Dalberz and aiding the town now about to be under further attack from the Necromancers minions.

So, leaving the Town to it's ignominious fate, the bands headed further into the Drakwald Forest and hunted down the lair of another of the Coven of Witches which were allied with the Allek the Necromancer.

With the usual suspects all present, it was the usual random deployment with Dave's Marienburger's taking point and starting the turns, next up was Kev and his Vampire lead Undead, Andy W and his Skaven and my Protectorate of Sigmar at the head of the table, Andy L and his Witch Hunter's and finally Ian's Dwarves at the far end opposite the Marienburger's.

In the centre of the table, in amongst the wooded hills was an old woodsman's hut, now occupied by the Witch and her two Dire Wolf pets, waiting to hear the sound of advancing warbands and ready to make her escape.

The Marienburgers kicked proceedings off and advanced to take up a position on the hill to their front. The Undead politely nodding to their evil partners in crime the Skaven, agreed on a non-aggression pact, and began to move round the rear of the rat-pack towards their arch enemies, the Protectorate.

The Skaven i, with the main game objective of looting treasure in mind, made a bee-line foe the Witches hut with the Protectorate moving out at an angle to intercept them.

The Witch Hunters, who on deployment sat facing the Witch and her hounds made a fast advance straight at the Witch with the Dwarves spending a couple of rounds indecisively, first towards the Marienburgers and then changing course and heading round the flank of the Witch Hunters towards the Witches Hut and the oncoming Skaven.

Protectorate move towards the Skaven while the Vampire
crew circle round

The Witch on her first turn having immediately got someone within 10" of her hut made a bolt for freedom, and randomly determined, headed straight into the Witch Hunter's. For a round or so we thought the old woman and her two poodles were going to take the WH's to bit's, which would have been amusing but it was not to be, and Andy pulled out all the stops and took out the Witch and her Hounds gaining extra experience and a treasure token for his trouble.

Undead advance through the woods

The game naturally split into two halves with the targets now zero'd in. The Undead advanced quickly towards contact with the Protectorate and the Protectorate changed face to suit and the Skaven continued their dash for the prize on the southern half of the table. On the North the Marienburgers, Dwarves and Witch Hunters began skirting each other a maneuvering but the Dwarves and Witch Hunters also making a non-aggression pact danced round each other and the WH's headed purposefully towards the Marienburgers, their arch enemies leaving the Dwarves to move towards the on coming Skaven being their enemies.

The Skaven reach the hut and search furiously while the
Marienburger's survey the oncoming WH's

The initial clashes were then set with the each of the rival pairs heading for each other. The first to hit was the Undead and Protectorate pair up. With a volley of arrows coming at them as the Undead headed into contact, all failing to hit their mark, the Vampire and hounds charged in knocking a couple of the Sigmarite's to the ground. The Skaven sent a couple of giant rats into the Protectorate flank just to slow them down too.

The Undead (and a couple of Rats) charge the Protectorate

The Protectorate hit back was pretty much ineffectual mainly due to the fear causing enemy ability and with the Wardog's not managing to make contact with the zombies taking up the Undead rear, and an archer taking out one of the giant rats but otherwise not a scratch.

The Skaven reached the hut and a bit of a scrap ensued with the WH's rear as they in turn advanced on the Marienburger's splitting their force slightly.

The Witch Hunters split their attention between the Marienburger's
and the Skaven while the Dwarves slowly advance

The Undead next proceeded to pretty much take apart the Protectorate as the rest of their number piled in and at the end of the scrap over a round or two, the Vampire even managing to get his wound stealing spell off in the melee, one Undead had fallen at the end but only two of the Protectorate were still fighting and the Protectorate beat a very hasty retreat putting them out of the game.

Dwarves and Marienburger's mop up the Skaven

The Skaven were next to get a drubbing as the Witch Hunter's rear guard took a hand at dishing out punishment and the Dwarves arrived to add a fair whack to the proceedings. In pretty short order, the Skaven were down to only their Sorcerer who had jumped in to the Witches hut and just managing to give it a good search over the minimum two rounds before they broke to avoid loosing the Treasure they had picked up in the hut.

Dwarves beating up some Skaven

The next part of the proceedings involved the Witch Hunter's charging the Marienburger firing line uphill taking shots as they advanced though in good order. The charge, wehen it hit was not very effective with only one of the Marienburger number getting knocked down.

The hit back from the mercenaries was a bit more effective an a couple of the Witch Hunters went down. To much ribbing and cat calls the Witch Hunters on their next turn voluntarily routed not wanting to lose any of their number.

Marienburgers begin to venture down from their vantage point

And then there were three. The Undead continued their circuit of the field and began to move in on the Dwarves who consolidated their rankls and moved to meet them. Meanwhile the Marienburger's moved forward cautiously finally coming off their high point and seeing how the on coming fight would fair. 

Undead close on the Dwarves

The Undead spread out and attacked the Dwarves in two waves. Once again the fear causing played it's part and though Kev was unhappy about the toughness of the Dwarves and expected a beating up, the Vampire managed to cast his wound gaining spell once again and his forces dealt a fair beating to the Dwarves though not all his own way and dropped a couple of his number but not nearly as bad as he had feared. The Marienburger's from a safe distance lobbed arrows at anything that could be seen.

Ian realising there was little to gain from continuing the fight with the loot gone and all treasure tokens already hoovered up decided to beat a retreat from the field having dropped three of his number.

Dwarves caught between the advancing Marienburgers
and the Undead

The Marienburger's, largely untouched now headed away from the Undead main force and headed to the Undead deployment area where the Vampire had sent a couple of Zombies carting the treasure tokens they had picked up, in the hope of knicking them. The Vampire crew now head back from whence they had come to fight of the mercenaries..

Undead and Dwarves clash.

The last fight when it came was brief and bloody with the Merc's lining up once again and but failing to do much in the shooting phase and when the Undead hit the fear causing undead dropped a couple in the initial hit and the next round saw enough casualties for Dave to decide that enough was enough, giving the Undead their second victory.

A very different type of game this time with all the players playing it canny and looking to maximize gain and experience and much maneuvering and grand sweeps (almost Napoleonic in feel, with firing lines and all).

The post game round up produce a few loses for most, but the Protectorate, having lost their captain last time and his step-in having lost an arm now proceeded to get a disabling chest wound, the Templar also receiving a chest wound, the other Acolyte a leg wound and missing the next game, and ignominiously the Huntsman lost an eye and Crusader down too and little cash it look's like the High Priest of Sigmar is going to pension out this group and appoint another Sigmarite hit squad to see if they can do a bit better than the last.

With another 'evil side' victory, the bands now move back to 'civilised' parts and look to add some recruits to their cause by way of a prison break, while leaving the town of Dalberz to it's grizzly fate and it's inhabitants adding to the ranks of Allex the Necromancer's growing army.