Another War Horse Gaming Day!

   Last Saturday, a few of the HAWKs, Gettysburg Gamers, and some others, got together at War Horse farm for another fun day of gaming hosted by Sam Fuson. 
    In the morning, Sam ran a Sherlock Holmes game using GASLIGHT rules.   Sam's games are a ton of fun as they include a lot of puzzle solving and clue finding, along with the combat.

A view of Sam's beautiful Sherlock Holmes table

Holmes and Watson question a suspect. 

   While Sam was running his game, I played in a Combat Patrol game being run by Buck Surdu.  This was a WWII early war in the Pacific scenario, with American troops defending against a Japanese attack in the Philippines.
   This was a fun and exciting game.  I played on the Japanese side, and we were tasked with pushing forward and trying to get as many troops and tanks as possible into the far 3' of the table.  We were attacking down the length of the table, and the Americans were set up defending in depth along a trail running down the center. The bulk of the table was covered in thick jungle. 
     It was a hard fought battle.  We chose to slog through the jungle; which in the end was a mistake. It took a horrendously long time, and by the time we neared our objective, the Americans had prepared a warm welcoming committee.  We broke for lunch around 1:00 with the American's being declared the victors.

A view of the Pacific table

As the Japanese, we quickly lost both tanks to anti-tank gun fire.  On our right, our holding force, intended to protect the right flank of our advance, got embroiled in a fight with a gung-ho American squad that sucked them in to a prolonged fight and badly chopped them up, as well as preventing them from supporting and protecting our main attack.

     In the afternoon I ran a War of the Roses game using Bear Yourselves Valiantly rules.  The scenario was based on the Battle of Barnet in April of 1471.    The game was a lot of fun, and seesawed back and forth, but in the end the Lancastrian side was declared the winners.

A view of the table.

On the Lancastrian left, Knights move up to protect the flank, as Men-at-Arms suffer withering fire from the Yorkist Longbowmen.

While I was running my game, Sam ran a second game; this time with Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII ; reusing much of the same terrain from his first game.   

Sam's WWII game.

American forces advance through a field and woods.

     All-in-all, it was a great day of gaming, and I look forward to the next time we all can get together!

Cold Wars AAR: Final Battle of the Elvish Frontier

   Friday night at Cold Wars I ran my "Final Battle of the Elvish Frontier" mass-combat fantasy scenario using  Bear Yourselves Valiantly rules and 10mm figures.  The scenario had a column of Elven refugees and treasure wagons fleeing an army of Lizardman and Goblins that was approaching the Elven capital.  Part of the Lizardman/Goblin main force has branched off to intercept this juicy target, and the Elves have rushed a guard to protect it.  The scenario was designed for 6, and I had four players show up.  So I pitched in to help the Elvish side and took the third command, and had the Lizardmen/Goblin commanders divide their third command up among the two of them.

The two other Elvish commanders advance their troops on to the field.  My force of mounted knights entered on turn 3.

The Lizardmen/Goblin commanders consider their next move.

Lizardmen battlegroups advance to cut the Elvish crossroad.

Elven legions move up to keep the road clear.

A view of the table near the middle of the game.  The Elves needed to exit 3 of their 6 treasure/refugee stands off the road at the lower left corner of the photo.

The desperate fight at the end.  With bat swarms and hordes of Warg riders closing in on the Elves' column, the Elvish knights throw themselves into the enemy to stem the tide.   Even the refugees and wagon masters fend off several Warg attacks.  But, alas, it was not to be the Elves' day, as my dismal dice rolling ended up with the knights bloodied and beaten.  I called the game at that point, and declared it a Lizardmen/Goblin victory.

     I had a great group of players, and had a blast GM-ing the game and running the Elves' flying relief column.  As a whole the Elves' dice rolling was miserable, and the Lizardman/Goblin commanders had dice that were hot. Eventually the Elves had been so beat up that there was nothing they could do anymore to stem the tide, so I called the game and declared the Lizardmen/Goblin commanders to be the winners.

"Bear Yourselves Valiantly" and "Frostgrave" Gaming Weekend

   My gaming room saw a lot of activity this weekend, as I hosted both a game of "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" (fantasy mass combat) on Friday night, and a game of Frostgrave (fantasy skirmish) on Saturday afternoon.   Because we were expecting a light turnout for our usual alternate-Friday club meeting, I offered to host the game at my place (especially since an advance scout had reported that the hall where we usually meet had hardly been dug out from the blizzard.)  I had been scheduled to run a playtest of my BYV game for Cold Wars anyway, so having the game at my house made my set up all the more easier.

An overview of the table.  The Elven column enters from the road at the bottom of the photo, and must exit at the end of the table where the road exits at the upper left. Meanwhile, the Lizardmen and Goblins are entering along the long edge on the right.

 We ended up with four players for the game, which featured a Elven rearguard trying to keep marauding Lizardmen and their Goblin allies away from a retreating column of refugees and treasure fleeing the nearby Elven capital, which was under attack by the Lizardmen.

The treasure wagons and refugees enter, along with two groups of reinforcements.

      The game went down to the wire, with the column of refugees approaching the exit area just as a warband of Wargs cut the road.  We had to end due to the lateness of the hour, but it would have been a close and exciting contest to see how it would have ended.

Meanwhile, the small Elven force that starts the game on the table, tries to hold back the tide of swarming enemies.

     The next day, Saturday, I was scheduled to help Don Hogge  with a demo of Frostgrave at a local game store.  Then, just as I was getting ready to leave, Don texted me from the store to let me know that due to the blizzard, the store's tournament schedule had been pushed back; and the table we would have used for the demo, was being commandeered for other purposes.   So I suggested that Don, and another friend who was coming to the demo, Jim, just come over to my place for a quick pick-up game of Frostgrave anyway since the store was only about 10 minutes from my house.   It would be a great opportunity to put my new waterfront terrain into action, as well as some of my new Dwarven Forge City Builder terrain.

An overview of the table.

      The highlights for me were my Illusionist wizard and apprentice casting the Glow spell on about 5 enemy figures, allowing my pair of archers to have great success in drilling several of them with arrows. This is a tactic I will have to remember in the future.  I also managed to cast a Mind Control spell on Don's medium construct, and used it to bash on his wizard.

My wizard and a small group of his soldiers enter by the statue of the ice queen! :)

     In the end, when the dust (or would that be snow?) settled, Don won with 4 treasures, I got 3, and Jim got 2.  I'm really looking forward to starting the campaign later this month.

While nearby, the rest of my warband enters under the leadership of the apprentice.

Fall-In Friday Night: Island of the Lizardmen

  Friday night at Fall-In I ran my "Battle for the Island of the Lizardmen" game, using 10mm figures and "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" rules.  The set-up for the game is that the Dwarves have allied with the Lizardmen in order to gain access to their volcanic jungle island, to use the volcanic power to construct a super weapon.  The Elves have found about about this, and have sent an expeditionary force to put an end to it.

        The game was intended for 6 players, but unfortunately we only got 4.  So, I jumped in to fill  the fifth spot, and an Elf player took two commands. The Elves have three objectives they need to accomplish: destroy the under-construction super weapon, destroy the Lizardmen village, and destroy the Dwarves' encampment.

      Both sides have deployment problems they must overcome. For the Elves, they can only disembark two bases of troops from their boats per turn; and for the Lizards, they have to move their troops through dense jungle to meet the Elvish threat, which greatly slows them down.

   The Elven plan quickly fell apart, as many of their troops became bogged down in fighting the Lizards in the jungle, and another Elf force, attempting a flanking manure, became slowed down by a bridge crossing. Then, due to long range flanking artillery fire from the Dwarven encampment (which the Elves chose to bypass) the Elves crossing the bridge failed their morale check and ended up retreating back over it, just as they were reaching the other side.

     The unfortunate tactical setbacks, combined with very cold Elf dice, resulted in a Lizardman victory; with the Dwarf-Lizard alliance retaining control of all three objectives.
  Everyone seemed to have fun though; and as a GM, it was nice to get a chance to command a few troops on the table as well.

10mm Mage-King of the Lizardmen (Games Workshop Conversion)

   This week I completed the commander-in-chief figure for my Lizardman Army: The Mage-King of the Lizardmen.  For the base of it I used the Games Workshop Lizardman "Tetto'eko" figure, which I was fortunate enough  to get a good deal on from a friend at last year's Barrage convention Flea Market.

    To make the conversion from 28mm to 10mm I did a couple modification.  First, I cut the tall feathers off of each of the side partitions to reduce the overall height appearance. And then I simply didn't add the pair of pillars that are suppose to go on the deck, and the three that are mounted underneath. After I assembled the throne, I test fit different arrangements of Pendraken 10mm Lizardmen until I found a pleasing composition.  It was then just a matter of painting the throne and its occupants.

  I am pleased with how it came out.  I think the original model is just scale-neutral enough to make a convincing king-sized 10mm throne.

10mm Mind Eaters

   This past week, I completed a warband of 10mm Mind Eaters.  Recently, I painted up a pair of  Reaper 25mm Mind Eaters and mounted them  on a base for Bear Yourselves Valiantly to represent giant Mind Eaters.  You can see that post here.

    While working on these figures, I was struck by their passing resemblance to the adrenal/toxin sacs that come with various GW Tyranid sets; and I got the idea that some of these bits might make good in-scale 10mm Mind Eaters.  So I ordered a set of them off of Ebay, and painted them up.  I think they turned out pretty good.

    I statted them up so they have ranged attacks that do Morale results only, and gave them a modifier that penalizes any troops trying to close with them or stand against their charges.

Recent 10mm: A Hero, a Leader , and an Elemental

  I recently completed some 10mm fantasy figures which included a Lizardman Hero, A Fire Elemental, and a Cursed Knight Leader.
   I had a leftover Lizardman figure (I believe he was made by A.I.M.) and thought that he bared a striking resemblance to  a certain purple TV Dinosaur, so couldn't help but paint him up as the great Lizardman Hero, B'uar-Nee!

     Recently I painted three  28mm Barrow Wardens from Reaper's Bones line, and was really pleased with the results. So I thought I would experiment with a Warmaster Chaos Leader I had, to see if the rust effect I had used on the Barrow Wardens, would translate to 10mm.  I'm very pleased with the results, and think I will now paint a unit of Chaos Knights I have as this sort of "Cursed Knight" look.

    I don't know who made this figure.  I received  it in a short-lived birthday figure exchange I was part of a few years ago, and since it was 15mm (I think) I never did anything with it.  I came across it the other day; and not knowing what it was supposed to be, was struck by how the sculpted "fur" ?  looked a lot like flames on it.  So I decided to paint him up like a fire elemental.  I think the result is pretty good.

10mm Lizardman Flyers, and Small Attack Lizards

   I recently completed a 10mm Lizardman pterodactyl-mounted leader and unit base fom my Lizardman armies for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.   These were actually 15mm figures, I got in  a lot I bought online; but because the riders are sitting cross-legged on their mounts, their actual height looks shorter.  They therefore fit in just fine with their 10mm brothers.

      I also completed this base of small lizards and a handler for them.  The small lizards are from the same lot of 15mm figures the flyers were from.  The handler is a 10mm lizardman warrior from Pendraken.

Dwarf War Machine Conversion: 25mm to 10mm

  While I was at Huzzah last month, I found this cool old Ral Partha Dwarf  "Steam Cannon" War Machine in the flea market.  It was missing it's crew, but that was fine with me, because when I saw it I immediately thought about it's possibilities as a 10mm Dwarven "Ogre" type vehicle for my Dwarven Army for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  And the price was certainly right. :)

   The kit itself was easy to assemble.  I then raided my 10mm figures box for some spare Warmaster Dwarf Cannon crewmen to man the machine.  I test fit the Dwarf crew around the deck, and when satisfied, I glued the machine to a 3" x 3" metal base (BYV units have 3" frontage, and I needed the 3" depth to fit the model), and the crew I glued to a tongue depressor for ease of handling while panting.   I then sprayed the vehicle and crew with flat black primer.

        The painting itself was straightforward, and when complete I glued the crew onto the vehicle and then flocked the base.

    I'm really pleased with how this model came out.   For the most part, the parts of the vehicle are scale variable, so the 10mm crew doesn't look too out of place on the deck.

10mm Giant Poison Dart Frog Swarms

     Over this past weekend I finished up a couple bases of giant poison dart frog swarms to accompany my 10mm Lizardman army for use with "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.   The figures were from a pack I picked up in a flea market a while back and were made by Chariot (now sold by Magister Millitum) and intended for 15mm. I think they work fine for 10mm too.
   

Two bases and a command stand.

A close up.

Shown with some 10mm Pendraken Lizardmen for scale.

10mm Pendraken Lizardmen Units

     This past week I completed some more units for my planned 10mm Lizardman Army for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  Some of my readers will remember that a few weeks ago I posted the Giant Turtles that were the first Lizardman units I painted.
   So far, I did three stands of spear-armed troops, one of archers, and a Battlegroup leader, Wing Commander, and a Shaman.  Next up I hope to finish some cavalry and other assorted troops.

Three spear wielding Warbands and one of archers

The Wing Commander on his personal war-turtle "Pooky", a Battlegroup leader with banner, and a wise old shaman 

A close up of the regal Wing Commander

Battlegroup leader

Shaman

Spear close-up....

..and archers.

Recently Painted 10mm Fantasy: Trojan Rabbit, and Sea-Elf Wizard

    This weekend I finished up a couple 10mm stands for my "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" fantasy armies.  The first of these is a 10mm 3-D printed "Trojan Rabbit", purchased from Shapeways.  My friend, Buck Surdu, and I both got one of these; and in talking about it, we decided we'd treat it as a kind of self-propelled  armored personal carrier.  So, to enable the "self-propelled' part, I modified some extra War-of-the-Roses figures I had to become "pushers", and glued them on the base as if pushing the rabbit forward.

Un cadeau!

Let's hope they remembered to get inside this time!

   The other figure I completed this week was an Elf Wizard for my Sea-Elf army.  I used an extra GW High Elf Wizard I had, and painted him in my Sea-Elf army colors.  I tried to paint him as if standing upon a water spout, and casting some sort of water-based spell.

Sea-Elf Wizard