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.

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 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.

Pendraken 10mm Lizardman Cavalry Completed for BYV

This week I completed my first base of Lizardman cavalry, and a Lizardman Cavalry Leader,  for my 10mm Lizardman Armies for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  The figures are from Pendraken.

     This was also the first chance I had had to try using one of the new Minibits dice frames, some of us had recently ordered, on the command stand.  I think I like the look of it, and they will really help players keep their command dice with the proper stands, as often they are left behind on the table when players move their units.

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.

10mm Lizardmen Giant Turtles with Howdahs for BYV

This week I completed two giant turtles with howdahs for a planned Lizardman army I want to build for my "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" forces.  The turtles are actually 15mm models from a lot of 15mm Lizardmen figures I bought on the TMP marketplace a while ago.  The Lizardmen figures are from Pendraken.     The original 15mm howdahs stood too tall for the 10mm figures, so I had to cut  the walls down about an 8th of an inch all around.

GASLIGHT at Origins 2012

This past weekend, Buck Surdu, Dave Wood, Greg Priebe, and I, traveled out to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins convention.  Out goal was to showcase our "G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T." and "Look,Sarge, No Charts" rules systems to a different set of gamers other than the regular folks we see at the local HMGS East conventions.
   Buck and I each ran two GASLIGHT games and two LSNC games, and Dave Wood ran three additional LSNC games.  The two GASLIGHT games I ran were a Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario and a regular Basic GASLIGHT scenario.
  We arrived Thursday evening, and Friday morning I set up my first game which was my Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario called "Hunt for the Valkyrie on Mars."  The back story for this scenario was that a large German aircraft carrier on Mars had been caught in a Martian storm and blown off course and badly damaged.  It was now lost in the middle of nowhere and crippled.  The German and British fleets were searching for her, the Brits wanting to destroy her, and the Germans wanting to save her.

The German Aircraft Carrier 'Valkyrie' launches two fighter groups in an attempt to fight off a pair of attacking British patrol ships.

A player moves his ships.

A view of the battle, as ships from both sides swarm around the Valkyrie.

Two players check the range for ship to ship firing

The fighter groups attack again.

In the end, the Valkyrie's engines failed her as she suffered a series of failed Sustain rolls, leaving her susceptible to torpedo attacks from the British.  She eventually took a critical hit, and broke apart and fell to the Martian surface.  All the players seemed to have  good time, and i really enjoyed GM-ing the game.

That evening I ran my "Lost Legion of Venus" GASLIGHT game.  This game has a French force consisting of Foreign Legion and regulars which is lost somewhere on Venus and has become surrounded by hordes of local Parrotmen and Lizardmen.  The French must survive the battle and beat off the attackers to win.

A view of the table near the start of the game.

The French form what the players dubbed the "French Question Mark" formation

The Lizardmen's pet dinosaur moves to attack a French Walker

A view of the French defensive perimeter.

The dinosaur attack on the walker damages it's gun barrel and the player controlling the walker coincidentally rolls to Shoot and jams the gun (a roll of 20). The dinosaur, however falls down (roll of 20 on a melee attack) and our heroine, Victoria Hawkes seizes the opportunity and rushes forward to attack the beast while he's down.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the French line, the second walker has succumb to a shot from one of the Parrotmen's big guns, and is destroyed. It's crew however survive and bail out of the wreck.

Another view of the table as a player measures their rifle range.

A brave Foreign Legion officer, his company destroyed, fights off two lizardmen and the Lizardman King.

The French defenders are slowly overwhelmed.

The game was declared a marginal Venusian victory at the end.  The French forces were shattered, and their walkers destroyed or disabled. Though surprisingly, Victoria Hawkes, usually a bullet magnet, survived!
  All the players seemed to have a good time, and really got into the spirit of the game.  For me, the great players and the way the battle unfolded, made it one of the best runnings of a GASLIGHT game I have had the pleasure to run.