Hi All,
More odds and ends painting to clear the backlog.
Having painted the witch hunter last week I felt I had to have something for him to hunt.
I have been threatening to unleash Frostie and his horde for some time as the idea of killer Christmas trees, beligerant Gingerbread men, vicious Christmas presents, and hordes of snowman has some warped appeal………. hey I never claimed to be sane!
Jack Frost
By C.E. Pike
Look out! Look out!
Jack Frost is about!|
He’s after our fingers and toes;
And all through the night,
The gay little sprite
Is working where nobody knows.
He’ll climb each tree,
So nimble is he,
His silvery powder he’ll shake.
To windows he’ll creep
And while we’re asleep
Such wonderful pictures he’ll make.
Across the grass
He’ll merrily pass,
And change all its greenness to white.
Then home he will go
And laugh ho, ho ho!
What fun I have had in the night.
“Frostie’s Horde” was supplied painted from Alternastive Armies some time ago but until now have never been used in anger.
The bulk of “Freddie’s Followers” were brought at a bring and buy stand some time ago so I am unsure about who the figure manufacurers are or who was responsible for the painting. I do know that Brian Hall from Hall of Ancient Warriors painted the infantry.
Well the introductions complete it was time to get down to business. As regular readers would be aware we play DBA games on a regular basis, but have yet to explore their “fantasy” equivalent “Hordes of the Things”. This was about to change.
The rules are quite similar and in fact I decided to just use the normal DBA rules with the additional “fantasy” troop types and statistics added.
As normal with the DBA type games the three of us played each other and used both armies. The total ended up in Jack’s favour winning two out of the three games.
Hordes of the things (HOTT) was an interesting twist to our normal DBA games. The consensus was that it provided a good game with some interesting tactical options being provided by the wider range of troop types.
I have had these figures on my painting desk for some time so decided to extract the digit and get them finished. I am reasonably happy with the result given my painting limitations.
Viking Shaman from Footsore miniatures:
A Witch Hunter – maker unknown:
An Assassin figure also from an unknown manufacturer:
The Footsore “Odin” figure that i will just use as a hero:
A Saga Warrior Priest:
I hope to use some of these in our regular Wednesday night’s game when we play “Strongsword”.
Well, it was going to be interesting to see how the “What a Tanker” rules worked with multiple players a side, and in particular to see how much, if at all, the game slowed down with the majority being new to the game.
I decided to use T26B soviet tanks and Panzer MkII C German tanks as an introduction.
As this game was just for people to understand the system and to get used to the intricacies of the game, we played the “King of the Ring” scenario to make sure everyone received enough game time to learn. After all it is no fun if you are knocked in the first turn…………… unless it is John and he hasn’t even had a chance to move!!!
In this scenario “knocked out” tanks return with the same or a different crew depending if they survived the knock-out blow.
In order to even things up I also gave the Soviets “souped up engines” to make them “Fast” in game terms and equal on points to the Germans at 7 points each.
The table was typical Russian countryside with a few burnt out building on the crossroads. Line of sight was deliberately limited although there were plenty of opportunities to obtain good firing lines if players were canny enough.
My normal change to the rules to provide greater uncertainty of the order of play was used.
The turn order cards are shuffled and dealt randomly. Players using a wild dice to increase their chance of winning the initiative are dealt an extra card for each wild dice. They can decide which card they use, potentially allowing them the choice to move early in the turn or later if more beneficial. The advantage of this system is the current player does not know who is moving next and has to take a more conservative approach or risk the consequences.
With Kelly’s heroes playing in the background the game began.
A Russian tank brews up from a point blank flanks shot.
Two into one ain’t bad – especially if you are the two. Another Russian tank ceases to exist.
The Russians are finally successful.
More negative waves Boris?
Another German ceases to exist.
While we were just playing to get a sense of the rules and how the system worked the Germans ended up in front with 5 kills to two.
A great fun game thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Another Strongsword game to grace a leisurely Wednesday evening. Dave K had been wanting to use his Slaneesh Daemon army for some time so decided to use them as Kobolds within the Strongsword game system.
BUT WAIT this is not a tale of Demons but of the Saga of “Darak the Dvergar Weaponsmith”!!!
The minions who fought alongside the great warrior consisted of two “small” armies from our own fantasy Viking lists.
The first consisted of a Leader, Hearth guard, Giant, three warrior spearmen, and two warrior archers.
The second was led by one of the Norn sisters (spell caster) Darak the Dvergar Weaponsmith, an Ogre (oversized Hearthguard), three warrior spearmen and two warrior archers.
The battle did not start well for the “good guys” with the giant of David S biting the dust to the puny Slaneesh bow fire (flamers of Tzeentch).
The Slaneesh Daemon on chariot (Kobold Centipede) came on from the rear in ambush but was met by the Viking leader who promptly died. It was becoming a really bad day for the good guys!
The Viking warriors closed into hand to hand combat where the superiority was sure to win the day. You guessed it. They all died or ran away!!
Vikings heading to the hills.
With the Daemon on his chariot dispatched Darak fights on -his fate unknown.
Big DBA game 25 July 2018 – 300 Spartans
For this game we tried to “re-fight” the Thermopylae pass battle. Perhaps better known as “The 300 Spartans”.We used the rules from Big DBA. But we set up the terrain based on our perception from reading about the battle.
Spartan King Leonidas took his body guard (300) hoplites with him to the pass at Thermopylae to delay the Persian army while the other Greek City States organised help. He had a small force of non-Spartan forces with him too
His intention was to hold up the Persians at the Middle Wall in the narrow pass between the hills and the sea.
Another small force of non-Spartan soldiers was stationed in the end of the secret pathway.
The battle field was set up so that the battle zones were big enough for the game and the secret route through the mountains was small enough to get troops through it in the game.
All the hills (except the two light green ones on the left) and the sea are impassable terrain.
Special rules for this game:
The Battle Commences
Start
In the middle you see the Spartans lined up at the wall with other Greek troops behind them. Towards the back of the table you see the Persians filing through the pass and forming up opposite the Spartans.
In the bottom left corner is the Greek force guarding the secret pathway.
The Persian army is on the back of the board to the right and the Persian forces to come through the secret pathway are in a column at the back of the board in the middle.
The gap between the hills at the bottom of the table is where a Persian general must exit to satisfy one of the winning conditions.
These show more detail on the armies start positions taken from their respective side of the table.
The Persians form up opposite the Spartans and commence shooting with no effect.
The Spartans sally forth in a counter attack. The Spartans inflict heavy losses on the Persians without loss to themselves.
The Persian Immortals get into the fight.
Its day 2 and the Persian column is surging through the secret pathway.
The Immortals are starting to have an impact on the Spartans. Heavy fighting continues throughout the day. Both sides suffer losses.
The Persian column is nearing the end of the secret pathway and encounters the small Greek force defending it. The Greeks retire to the narrow pass to set up a defence.
End of day 2. The Persians have managed to eliminate 3 stands of Spartans. The Spartans have retired to the wall. The Persians reform and start shooting at daybreak.
The Persian column engages the Greeks blocking the end of the secret pathway. On hearing about the Persians coming through the secret pathway Leonidas sends four of his other Greek troops back to help but all but one of them runs away.
The Greek force blocking the Persian advance through the secret pathway has been eliminated and a Persian General exits the table winning the game for the Persians. This was turn 21.
Show the final positions.
Huh?
What happened?
Darkening the sky with his storm of arrows did not work for the Persian King Xerxes. In fact shooting was very ineffective.
The Spartans sallied forth from their defences and inflicted heavy losses on the Persians in day 1 and day 2. The Persian Immortals got into the battle on day two and started to inflict losses on the Spartans.
In some ways the game mimicked reality. The Spartans were not all eliminated but having been surrounded and cut off by the Persians it was deemed a Persian victory.
In the real battle the Greek force guarding the secret pathway set themselves up in a defensive position on a hill. The Persians engaged them with a holding force while the rest of the Persians simply by passed the Greeks.
In the real battle all the Greeks sent back by Leonidas to block the end of the secret pathway ran away.
A great game won by the Great King Xerxes!!!