Defence of the Westfold

This week I have been lending a hand (ie moving some figures about and throwing really bad dice) to Kev who was having a dry run for his club demo game that he is intending to put on at Targe later this week up in Kirriemuir.

The game is a recreation of Theodreds' defence of the Westfold during the War of the Ring involving Rohan and Isengard forces on the banks of the River Isen. Kev is using the GW War of the Ring rules for the game as they are good and simple to use and give a reasonable feel for the forces involved.

All the troops mustered are part (and fairly small part to boot) of Kev's huge LotR collection which includes multitudes more Rohan and some Mordor forces too. You can find more of Kev's WotR festivities on his blog Double Six.

Here follows a couple of shots of the evenings activities;

Initial Deployment

Isengard advances towards the static Rohan lines

Crunch time

Check out the full game at Targe this coming Saturday 12th Nov at Targe for more info and a better look at Kev's impressive troops.

Mordheim Season 3 - The Lair of the Beast

With the next round of the third Mordheim Season up, the usual suspects gathered chasing the Witch Hunters, who had proven victorious in the last round, in search of powerful Holy Relic which was in the hands of one of the Necromancers Captains, Rufus, The Beast of Dalberz, who had been instrumental in much of the destruction of the town and in particular the academic quarter.

Rufus had been tracked to the area of Jurgengard, north east of the remains of Dalberz on route to his stronghold at Slayer's End.

The Witch Hunter's then sprung an ambush on the Fighter and his small bodyguard while passing through the abandoned village.

Along with Andy L's Witch Hunters, following him to the field were Dave's Marienburg Mercenaries, Kev's Vampire led Undead, Andy W's Skaven and my Protectorate of Sigmar. (The Dwarves not managing to make an appearance for this engagement).

The table was the now standard 6' x 6' layout with the Beast and his guard of thugs holed up in part of the village necropolis and the bands deploying in the usual equi-distant fashion around the board. The Witch Hunters getting the initiative and a free move to kick the proceedings off.

The Witch Hunters promptly made a bee-line straight across the board towards the Marienburgers who were directly opposite and the Marienburgers then reciprocated in kind. The two largest (biggest warband ratings) bands then proceeding to clash in the north of the village, largely ignoring the objective and indeed the rest of the combatants for the first half of the round.

Next up were the Undead who played things a bit cannily (due to the newly raised Vampire, brought in to replace the previous now deceased commander) and not wanting to move towards the larger bands to the north, move slowly through the ruins towards their arch enemies the Protectorate.

The Protectorate also reciprocated in kind with a much depleted (but similar warband rating) towards the Undead, generally keeping cover and conjuring up Armour of Righteousness the Warrior Priest was emboldened.

The Skaven, now pushed out on their own by other movement were free to head en-mase towards the objective and Rufus and his small band.

Generally avoiding a couple of poor shots from the guard (other than a knocked down rat) the Skaven horde spread out and headed as quickly as possible and closed on the cornered henchmen.

In fairly short order, over the space of a couple of turns, the Skaven swarmed Rufus and his henchmen and took out a four of the thugs in quick succession.

The Captain in turn charged with his bodyguard, and took down one of the ratty number but otherwise the Skaven were un-phased.

Meanwhile, in the north the Witch Hunters and the Merc's clashed with the newly recruited Ogre Merc for the Witch Hunter's being a prime target barely managed to swing his axe before going down to the fire power of the Merc archers. The Witch Hunter's closed as quickly as possible and got to grips with the mercenaries to even things up and a viscous melee ensued.

To the south, the Protectorate, who were devoid of any missile capability, tried to maneuver into charge range while keeping in cover to avoid the Undead shooting. The Undead slightly withdrawing in return to keep that option. 

My Protectorate having no option moved forward to the attack and forcing the melee but having to give the Undead the first contact option.

With a mix of effective shooting and a reasonable charge, the Undead croaked a Crusader, a Templar and one the Acolytes and knocked the Warrior Priest to the ground with Kev's dice being very kind to him (but not to me).

The Protectorate response was poor with exceptionally rubbish dice except the bold remaining Crusader who managed to roll a critical against the newbie Vampire and things look ominous for a second but a a successful roll with a Lucky Charm saved the day for the Vamp. Otherwise the other Acolyte went down on his charge against the much mightier Dreg who took him apart.

The Skaven now overwhelmed the ruffian captain and his thugs, and with most of their number swarming in, including the hefty Rat Ogre, the fight was short lived. The Captain and his lieutenant went down and were duly searched and the relic 'The Witches Hammer', a holy tome was duly uncovered.

The rats consolidated their advancing sweep across the centre and hoovered up at least three of the treasure tokens scattered in this region in the process. The Skaven Sorcerer then began his incantations in preparation for destroying the hated holy relic.

The Witch Hunters and Marienburger's continued to take lumps out of each other, both sides trading blows and neither side gaining the advantage.

The Skaven tidy things up and now have a eye on the Undead and Protectorate battling to the south along with some unclaimed treasure tokens in the intervening ruins.

The Undead now pressed their advantage on the Protectorate and charged in with most of their number now out numbering the Protectorate 3 to 1 and with little trouble took out the Warrior Priest on the ground and the remaining Crusader leaving one solitary Templar who with hate filled zealousness stood his ground swinging his sword at the surrounding Undead Minions (and failed to wound anything again thanks to another lucky charm). The combat saw his demise under a mass of teeth and claws.

To the north and casualties mounting the Marienburger's were beginning to get the worst of the comdat and with any likelihood of any further treasure being had, the Merc's voluntarily broke for hills with the loss of five of their number.

The Witch Hunter's only marginally better off and on break tests remained and began an advance on proceedings to the south but a ways off.

On their first break check on their way south, the Witch Hunter's failed their test and disappeared into the gathering darkness.

With the Skaven sorcerer successfully destroying the ancient tome, the Skaven now advanced in a wide arc towards the Undead who consolidated their line and put out a blocking fear causing ghoul to slow things down. 

This tactic from the Undead was unprecedentedly successful as with the first round of shooting from the Undead at the advancing Skaven, they managed to pick off the Skaven Captain who had exposed his position going for the last treasure token onto of some ruins.

This then meant it was practically impossible for the Skaven to successfully overcome the fear causing blockers and failed to initiatate a charge due to the low Leadership scores caused by the loss of their leader. A brief tussle was had between the Rat Ogre and a Skaven Gutter runner and one of the blocking zombies (who repeatedly fell down but failed to die) and with things looking pointless and a large haul of treasure in tow, Andy decided there was no point in lingering and voluntarily broke leaving the Undead their third victory of the campaign.

A bit of a surprise result for all concerned and with no losses at all and a good haul of experience, Kev's Undead were very happy with the result from tactical play.

Losses were minimal for everyone post game and even the Protectorate who went down to a man didn't loose any one (though no exploration cash and a couple sitting out the next game pretty much puts them out of contention in the campaign).

Next up, the Undead have decided on the strategic view (and to prolong the campaign) to carry out a raid on one of their neighbouring warbands and plumped for the Marienburger's being the biggest threat of the choice available, so the Merc's are to try and defend their camp from the other bands as best they can.

Dr Strange - A Review

Managed to go and see the latest movie offering from the Marvel stable in the shape of 'Dr Strange' yesterday.

I had been looking forward to see this one as Dr Strange was always a favourite character of mine back in the glory comic days of my youth, though I never seemed to manage to get many of the comics at the time, mainly due to all the pot-heads had swiped them before I could get to the shop where I got my weekly/monthly comic fix.

With Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead, I was hopeful of a decent portrayal of the mystic character and I wasn't disappointed. The film is very well cast with Tilda Swinton (always playing the 'weird or intense character in a film she's in) as the Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo and Benedict Wong as Wong (funnily enough) who brings a good level of humour to the story. Solid bad guy place goes to Mads Mikkelsen who plays the main antagonist Kaecilius and does this suitably menacingly.

The plot of the film basically forms around the origin story of Dr Strange who is easily the initially least likeable Marvel character being an arrogant, self obsessed neuro-surgeon who has a life changing accident and manages to estrange (pardon the pun) all who are near him in the process and ends up seeking a cure for his injuries in Napal. There the adventure real begins.

I wont follow the whole film plot as a spoiler but needless to say, if you know anything of the comic-book history of the character the film includes a large degree very effective and brain melting psychedelic scenes and mind bending spatial jenga particularly during the New York combat scene, think the film Inception hear but just more mandala-like, Lots of Escher inspired impossibles are prevalent throughout these scenes, definitely worth seeing these in 3D as the 2D may loose some of the 'wow'.

The movie does not offer up any major surprises plot-wise though there are a great deal of internal nods and bumps, particularly in a dark humour kind of way.. A good sharp wit is evident through out and the screenplay does give the audience credit of a good dose of intellect to catch the humour. The very well done almost slapstick humour induced from Dr Stranges' cloak is particularly well done.

The usual end credit teasers are there as would be predicted and the Marvel Universe tie in with the bigger world is there with the next in line being the next in the Thor story line and the hunt for Odin. Should be good.

Thoroughly recommended film, enjoyable at several levels a definitely good escapism, 'Dr Strange' gets a solid 9 out of 10 'must see from the Warblog.

Scatter Terrain - Barriers

I've just recently finished painting up the first batch of six barriers sections for use in my Future Wars project (and of course anything else suitable) with a colour scheme and look I had decided upon a while ago.

There are another eighteen pieces all of which are from Ainsty Castings are fairly ubiquitous around these parts for use in modern/ultra modern games.

The photo's show a slightly lightened version of the paint job and as I was going for a bit used and abused look, this has fairly well worked out. A couple of lessons learnt in the process of producing these bits, not so much in the painting of the pieces but mainly in the production and use of the water slide transfers I made for the pieces.

I made the transfers from downloading images from the interweb and adjusted/edited in photoshop and printed the images out on white transfer paper (to get a sharper, brighter image) and duly sealed the prints prior to use. I cut the transfers to size prior to use but noticed that once soaked and applied, the transfers developed a slight white edge around them where the colouring had leached slightly.

Now once applied and a quick run of wash applied to the edges of the transfers actually looked pretty good and a bit more 'worn' appearing, so a good accident as it were, but unintentional, so I would like to experiment and find out how to avoid this. Probably printing the transfers out on clear sheets will be the likely cure, but we'll see how this works out for clarity.

Having done this first batch as a trial, I'll produce the rest of the two dozen pieces and aim for a uniform finish, but with a bit of experimentation on the transfer front.

Rogue Star Frenzy

Well, maybe not actually frenzy, but keen interest may be more my level (not being the excitable type), OK Rogue Star Keen Interest is about at the moment with the fairly soon to be released next offering from the Osprey Gaming stable.

The rules are by Andrea Sfiligoi, he of 'Song of Blades and Heroes' fame (illustrations by Johan Egerkrans, who's work I'm not familiar with) and are a Sci-Fi Skirmish rules set. The Osprey blurb follows to avoid me paraphrasing;

'Rogue Stars is a character-based science fiction skirmish wargame, where players command crews of bounty hunters, space pirates, merchants, prospectors, smugglers, mercenary outfits, planetary police and other such shady factions from the fringes of galactic civilisation. Crews can vary in size, typically from four to six, and the character and crew creation systems allow for practically any concept to be built. Detailed environmental rules that include options for flora, fauna, gravity, dangerous terrain and atmosphere, and scenario design rules that ensure that missions are varied and demand adaptation and cunning on the parts of the combatants, make practically any encounter possible. Run contraband tech to rebel fighters on an ocean world while hunted by an alien kill-team or hunt down a research vessel and fight zero-gravity boarding actions in the cold depths of space - whatever you can imagine, you can do.'

Release date is scheduled for 15th Dec but Nick at North Star is running a low key Nickstarter for the project from the 1st November which nets you I think a free mini if signed up for.

There are a core of 17 figures due to be released to go with the rules, all based on the illustrations within the rules and sculpted by Mr Copplestone, so I will be snatching up these releases. Based on the pics released so far, they look to be very useful and full of character.

Obviously with these type of rules typical of Osprey releases, any figures can be utilised and I can foresee lots of Rogue Trader type figures being resurrected from the depths of cupboards and storage boxes for use with these rules. Terrain I suspect will be key to successful games here, so lots of terrain production required and enjoyed to look forward to.

I look forward to the release in a frenzy with interest...

Deep Cut Wasteland Game Mat

I had been thinking about picking up one of the vast array of game mats now currently available for some time and recently got around to doing something about it and picked up one of the Deep Cut Studio's 6' x 4' mouse mat material game mats via Weyland Game's.

The mat chosen, for a variety of reasons, but mainly it's looks as it appears to be a good deserty cum wasteland cum bleak base would be suitable for a good selection of games I have planned.

Once ordered, the mat was shipped in very quick time and was in my possession with in two working days which I think is pretty good service.

The product however was slightly disappointing. The actual mat size, material and finish is very good and looks to be fairly durable. The only problem is the actual graphic displayed on the mat.

Colour rendition with lighting correction
(Actual colour may be a bit darker than this)

The actual image on the mat is of a significantly different colour than that indicated on the manufacturers web site. The image above taken with correct lighting correction is considerably darker and of a much more ochre hue than that of the marketing image.

Colour rendition without lighting correction
(basic AWB setting)

I took a bench mark photo without lighting correction and you can see this is a lot closer to the marketing image in finish (though paler). Whether the difference in the image is due to printing error/differences or whether the the image on the web shop is at fault and not rendered correctly I don't know.

Now, I would say I'm intending to keep the mat as it is a nice product in it's entirety. It is however not what was indicated and in a product whose desirability is based solely on it's look, this difference is a bit disappointing.

I will probably get a bit less use out of the mat as the dark ochre/tan colour places it much more uniquely rather than the much lighter image which is a lot more variable but I will be looking into my next game mat buy a lot more closely before I part with a not insignificant amount of cash.

Mordheim Season 3 - The Raid

The campaign continues a pace with the group squeezing in the next game pretty quickly since the last round and with Ian being kind to his fellow combatants had decided that he would not raid his neighbouring warbands of either Kev's Undead or Andy L's Witch Hunters but decided he'd rather do a bit of damage to Allek's growing empire (probably a wise move) and instead moved to raid the Witch Coven who were allied with Allek the Necromancer.

All the usual suspects were present in the form of Ian's Dwarves, Andy W's Skaven, Kev's Undead, Andy L's Witch Hunters, Dave's Marienburg Mercenaries and my Protectorate of Sigmar.

Following the previous games where they had been played on the usual 6 x 4 table and resultant advantages to random warbands on set up, things had been agreed to be mixed up a bit and the set up this time was on a 6 x 6 table with the unsuspecting Warlocks and guard Warg's in the centre and all the warbands equidistant around the table randomly selected positions.

The Dwarves being the winners from last time got a free move and were then the first to kick things off with a move towards the nasties and then the Skaven moved in the Dwarves direction being their arch enemies. The tooled up Mercenaries with addition of the freed hirelings from the Dalberz jail were next up but moved cautiously forming a bit of firing line as they began to advance towards the Witches territory.

The Protectorate go for a short walk

The much depleted Protectorate with not much to lose and a lot to gain moved towards the Merc's in the hope to engage the much higher warband rated band to try and gain extra xp's. The undead without their leader moved cautiously to start and advanced towards the centre and the Witch Hunter's moved to intercept the Undead.

To the north of the Witch's hidey-hole the Skaven and the Dwarves clashed pretty much immediately and with decidedly poor dice the Dwarves quickly got the sharp side of the encounter and Andy's Skaven pressed the advantage.

The Protectorate advanced again towards the Mercenaries but with a pile of long distance shots coming from the Merc's the front cannon fodder in the form of the one Archer and one Crusader of the Protectorates were dropped and the Protectorate promptly failed their break test and decided it would be a great idea to be somewhere else.

The Witch Hunters and Undead continued their solid advances towards the Coven and obliquely each other, the WH's taking out a rogue Warg in the process.

Skaven surround the Dwarves and pour shots at the slower fighters

Things quickly changed in the following round as the fight between the Dwarves and the Skaven abruptly ended with all being much surprised as the Dwarves broke from a break test forced from their losses from the previous turn and took an early bath and the Skaven now turned their attention to a wide advance towards the Mercenaries and the Witch's Coven.

The Skaven and Dwarves have at it in a large scrum

The Marienburger's continue their slow and steady advance with Dave's penchant for forming firing lines, and tried to take out the odd roving Warg with little initial success.

Mean while the Undead closed on some Resources and tried to attempt some destruction before the the Witch Hunter's could interrupt and spoil things.

Undead rush to battle and the Witch Hunters close

The coming fight between the Witch Hunters and the Undead soon came and quickly escalated as both side pushed their bands into the fight with the Witch Hunter's having the numbers and the extra punch with the Undead being without their heavy hitter looked a bit worse for wear pretty quickly.

The Marienburger's finally began to close on the prize and torched a couple of resource piles as they advanced and did manage to drop a Warg as they moved forward now with an eye to the advance screen of the Skaven coming from their flank.

With movement now pretty close to the Witch's Coven, the remaining Warlocks made a break for freedom while another Warg went down to the attention of the remaining warbands.

The Merc's chase a lone Warg

Without much effort the Skaven and Witch Hunter's did for the fleeing Warlocks with rats and missile fire and more Witch resources were torched.

The WH's pick up some XPs while finishing
off the last of the Warg's

The Undead broke pretty quickly from the fight with the Witch Hunters and took off to nurse their wounds and keep as much cash as possible and the Witch Hunters moved into and around the central ruins destroying any remaining caches they could find.

The Skaven snipe and move for position

The Skaven moved to pick up some XP's from destroying any caches they could find on the north side and now moved into combat with the emerging Mercenaries.

The Skaven rush to battle (and booty)

The Marienburger's attention was now split between the advancing Witch Hunters and the increasing numbers of Skaven forces. 

Witch Hunters and Marienburger's close

Though the Skaven did fairly well in the ensuing skuffle, they failed to get the the dice result's and with a couple of losses, the inevitable break test was failed and the ratty-ones left the field having successfully split the mercenary forces up.

The Merc's battle Skaven and the Witch Hunters

This just left the Merc's and the Witch Hunter's on the field to battle it out.

As the two sides closed in earnest, it was evens as they clashed with both sides one away from a mandatory break test.

Final Rumble in the ruins,
the WH's and Merc's battle it out

Neither side held back and both put all they could muster into the final melee, but with the Merc's slightly poorer stance and the WH's much more consolidated the final fight was brief and the Merc's dropped a man first and failed their break test leaving the Witch Hunters victorious and their first of the campaign.

Another good barney and now roughly half way through the campaign, the bands are beginning to shape up (most of them anyway).

Things are getting tougher for the Warbands and with a 'good side' victory, the bands move again following the Witch Hunters to take out an outpost of the Necromancer and grab an heirloom to aid in the fight against the foul hordes (or destroy it to stop it being used).