Battle In The Old World!

 

The heat of battle.

The stars were crossed, the runes were cast and someone performed augury on a rat. Yes, after a very long time, The Bob* and I finally managed to make a game happen**. And what a bloody affair it turned out to be! 

It was satisfying to deploy an army of mostly painted miniatures. Half of which were fully painted while the other half was at least half painted. None of these half painted units have been shown on this blog yet, so this report is their debut.

Mustering in the hanger bay o' pre-deployment.

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The Masters of Hoeth [1000 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms, Open War

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++ Characters [158 pts] ++

Noble (Loremaster) [158 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Sword of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- General

- On foot

- The Loremaster's Cloak

- Seed of Rebirth

- Earthing Rod

- Loremaster

++ Core Units [275 pts] ++

10 Elven Archers [135 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Veteran

- Sentinel (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

5 Ellyrian Reavers [140 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Shortbows

- Light armour

- Scouts

- Skirmishers

- Harbinger (champion)

- Standard bearer [Banner of Ellyrion]

- Musician

++ Special Units [487 pts] ++

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [168 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [168 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord

- Standard bearer

- Musician

8 Shadow Warriors [151 pts] 

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Feigned Flight

- Shadow Walker [Seed of Rebirth + Burning Blade]

++ Rare Units [80 pts] ++

Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts] 

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Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

The Empire Knights and General. 

Bob mustered his Empire army. 

76 pts- Captain of the Empire, Battle Standard Bearer, Full Plate Armour

119 pts- Captain of the Empire, Shield, General, Barded Warhorse, Full Plate Armour, Sword of Might, Talisman Of Protection

80  pts- Master Mage, Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic, Dispel Scroll

128 pts- 5 Empire Knights, Lance, Preceptor, Standard Bearer, Musician

80 pts - 10 State Missile Troops, Handgun

80 pts - 10 State Missile Troops, Handgun

105 pts - 15 State Troops, Halberd, Sergeant, Standard Bearer, Musician

135 pts- 15 Veteran State Troops, Shield, Sergeant, Standard Bearer, Musician

185  pts- 15 Empire Greatswords, Count's Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician

We agreed to keep things simple, nothing too over the top or powerful, and focus on learning the rules. The only war machine was the High Elf bolt thrower, and we had one Calvary unit each. 

We also only had one mage each who were only level 1 wizards. 

The Empire battle line. 

We agreed to play the Pitch Battle scenario from the BRB as the focus in that mission is the accumulation of Victory Points by the elimination of the opposition. Death was on the line. 

The High Elf deployment. 

The face off. 

Turn 1

Lots of mass movement occurred in this turn. However the Empire hand gunners spot movement in the nearby woods and fire upon the Shadow Warriors. Their Evasive skill proved quite helpful here, but even more so when all the successful shots failed to wound. 

"Are those apes shooting at us?!"

On the High Elf turn, the Bolt Thrower picked off an Imperial Knight as they crested the small grassy knoll. 

"Nice shot!"

Turn 2

The Knights charge into the closest unit of Swordmasters. 

The foe is engaged. 

They were all cut down except for the attached General  who was now wounded. The General slayed a single Swordmaster. 

"Horse meat is back on the menu!"

Failing morale by a lot, the General turned and fled. The Swordmasters tried to catch him,  but even their agility was no match for a terrified horse. 

"RETREAT! RETREAT!"

Feeling cocky, the Swordmasters charged the Empire Greatswords. But were ill-prepared for the post 1.5 FAQ counter attack (even though those same rules just helped them defeat the Knights and route the General)  and were slain down to a single Elf! Ouch! 

Hubris revealed. 

The second unit of Swordmasters, with the attached Loremaster, charged the Veteran  Empire State Troops. The Loremaster found himself in combat with the Halberdiers. 

The Loremaster's folly. 

This also proved foolish as the Vet. State Troops were also joined with the Army Battle Standard who assisted them with Combat Resolution to the point that the Empire won the combat!  They pushed back the Swordmasters, while their Loremaster was left behind, trampled into the mud by the Empire Halberdiers. 

A clash of Great weapons! 

I don't have a pic of this next bit, but the 10 man unit of Handgunners were wiped out from all my missile troops (Bolt Thrower, Reavers, Shadow Warriors and Archers) focusing their fire on them. 

Turn 3

The General Rallies (rolled double 1s!) and joins the Greatswords. 

The Halberdiers flank charge the Swordmasters.

"Pig-pile on the elves!"

Despite being piled onto by the blood thirsty humans, the Swordmasters were not destroyed as they were pushed back in good order.  But their numbers were being reduced for sure! 

The quagmire continues...

Over on the other flank the combined shooting from the High Elf force riddle the remaining handgunner who just would not flee the battle. It was up to the Reavers to set up a charge and hopefully finish them off next turn. 

"I say ol' chap, they're coming right for us!" "Huh, who?"

Looking over their stats, it occurred to me that the HE Archers were not exactly a push-over when it came to melee, so in a desperate gamble to save the dwindling Great Swords, I sent them charging into the rear of the halberiers. It was a crazy melee as you could guess from this photo. The sword and shield bearing State Trooper took the brunt of the casualties but the Army Banner continued to turn the tide for the Empire. 

The archers dive in. 

Turn 4.

Consumed with frustration (because at this point neither one of us could get a spell to go off), madness and perhaps a touch of malice, the Empire Wizard finally manages to cast Pillar of Fire into the woods! 

"Muhaha! Die elf scum!"

The Pillar of Fire comes scary close to the skulking Shadow Warriors within it. 

Things get heated in the woods. 

Meanwhile the  meatgrinder in the middle continued on as the Great Swords joined the ruckus, felling the last of the Swordmasters. 

(Leave it to us noobs to complicate things).

Half of the Shadow Warriors were immolated as the Pillar of Fire moved over them. The screams still haunt this area even still...

Meanwhile the Archers defeated the halberiers causing them to route. The last State Trooper with the Battle Standard were not at all bothered by their panicking brethren as they continued to gather war trophies from the fallen High Elves.  

SO much death. 

The Reavers succeed in defeating the handgunners in melee and running them down as they attempted to route. To be fair, it was the horses who did most of the killing (of course). 

Horses for the win. 

Turn 5

Seeking a bigger war trophy the Battle Standard and his State trooper buddy charged the Bolt Thrower. The crew put up a valiant fight, killing off the last State Trooper bu the Army Standard still eeked out a win, destroying the War Machine and it's routing crew. 

"Me son will like these 'ere helm feathers!"

The Great Swords butchered the archers, only the Sentinel (i.e. Champion) survived as the found safty in the woods. 

On the High Elf turn, there wasn't much more to do. The hot and smoldering Shadow Warriors emerging from the burning woods to perforate the wizard with arrows, ending his witchy ways (for now). 

Within minutes of our set time limit, and seeing the state of things, we decided this was a good place to stop. It was a total blood bath, with no unit left unscathed. 

The shattered forces. 

Tallying up the VPs as per the scenario rules, we determined the following scores:

High Elves:  574

Empire of Man: 708.

A resounding victory for the Empire!!!

Whew! That was a fun game. 

It looked grim for the Empire in the early stages of the game but when the Great Swords stomped the crap out of the Swordmasters, clearly it was not going to be so easy for the elves. I would say that the Great Swords were the MVP of this game. 

I was impressed with what the elves can do with shooting, and having experienced it now, I think I can form a more focused strategy with them going forward. 

I will say this though: 'new model syndrome" is a thing for sure! All of my fully painted models were all eliminated and all the survivors are from units I have yet to finish. Total weirdness.

My biggest mistake was not continuing after the General. Not only was he worth a lot of VP, but bonus VP as well. Die and learn, right?

Well we both had a great time, and we are already talking about doing another one soon. 

"I'll get you next time elves, and next time my fire will be even hotter!!! Muhahaha!"

*He doesn't blog anymore but I love to remind the world that he used to as I enjoyed his posts. But if you are determined enough, you might be able to find him on Instagram...

** Also thanks again to The Outpost for allowing us to stay after hours so we could make this happen. You guys rock!!!

Wizzzard!

Wizzzard!!!

My list of unfinished projects would make Tolkien jealous. One such project is my old Warhammer Fantasy Empire army. Recently Da Masta Cheef asked for some pics of my old Empire models for reference (uh-oh, it can't be good...) and I dug out some models and sent him the pics. While looking through this virtually abandoned army, I couldn't help but feel sad or even guilty for having never finished that army. I decided I should paint something from it, so I selected an old plastic wizard that I haven't touched in pretty much 10 years.

Around about that time I had posted a pic of it on a thread on Warhammer-Empire in which I proclaimed that I would share a pic of the model when I finished painting it. Haha, Gosh, I really hope no one was holding their breath! By the way, fun fact: the title of that thread (and this post) comes from an old Alltel commercial that was popular at the time.

Screen shot snippet from Warhammer-Empire. 

He stayed as he appeared in the pic above for about ten years. So I started off slow, painting the gem stones first. Then I added a highlight to the skin.

Gemstones painted. 

Next I painted the scrolls....and it was an avalanche from there. Before I knew it, he was finished!

Gray Wizard- Finished but the flocking.

Due to how much, or in this case how little, surface area I had to work with I opted to use static grass and leaves for the base. I think the leaves look great on fantasy bases, especially on terrain pieces.

Gray Wizard- now with flock!

 I left the feather white. I had orginally planned to make it a lot more colorful, but I decided that there was too much color on this already and that I needed to keep it simple.

And from the rear. 

And with that, he is done. And he turned out pretty close to how I first imagined he would. I sort of based his color scheme from my memory of the first Hobbit book that I read. That edition was oversized with color illustrations throughout it, and Gandalf was colored close to how this wizard turned out. It was fun to revisit the Empire again and I am pleased with how it turned out. I may look at some more fantasy pieces to distract myself with soon...

Civil Wars of the Empire

In recent times some of us are feeling a bit of 40k fatigue and have been toeing the waters of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I too am eye-balling and flirting with getting an army functional for some Fantasy play as I am suffering from a bit of Space Wolf Gray burn out. So after my plans for the evening were dashed, I wandered over to Hobbytown to catch Da Masta Cheef and theBob play a game of Empire vs. Empire. I intended to only stay for a brief while, but I was hooked! I couldn't break away from seeing these two surprisingly well balanced armies duke it out on the plain of death! Anyway, I think one of those chaps is going to discuss it on their blog this week and I assisted Da Masta Cheef with some photos, so keep checking those links!

 

 

 

I was keenly impressed with seeing these two Empire armies just tear into each other. And it got me thinking of years gone by when my Empire army was being mustered! I contributed to Crisis in Marienburg, an online campaign that warhammer-empire hosted way back in 2008 (gosh, it doesn't seem that long ago!) and from there I invented the background elements for my army. In particular General Franz Grausocken * of Reikland (green-socks that reek...get it? -ha!) my Pegasus riding ass-kicker (in the name of Sigmar of course)! And a few other characters. I had a complete blast writing updates for my character during stages of the campaign but I did not get in many games at all. Check that link to see some of the short stories I wrote.

 

Still, it was an AWESOME campaign, so much so that I was going to attempt to write an adaption for it for WHFRP 2ndEd but didn't get far with it due to work-overload, personal issues and the biggest one, the announcement of WHFRP 3rd edition which my gaming group and I, having just spent a small fortune tracking down the 2nd edition books, just opted not to try. Anyway, the point being is that this was an awesome campaign set during a particular period of turmoil in the Empire when various factions all fought for the crown, and Marienburg decided to make things VERY difficult for those living upstream of the Reik. It fits in very well with established background material and the material written by the campaign staff (and us players) really made it come to life. So with three Empire players (at least) in our local group, it got me thinking about trying to create a small campaign, perhaps using Mordheim rules for a few smaller scenarios as well, that I could bundle together for us or other smaller groups to play that might have a similar feel to it? I don't know for sure, nor do I know how keen my local players would be on it, but still, it got me thinking about Warhammer Fantasy again regardless.   

 

The Crisis in Marienburg campaign map.



Presented here in this blog post is General Grausocken on his Pegasus. I might show him off more from different angles and better lighting so you can see some more detail on him. It took me a while to paint this model. The horse bits were easy, as was the rider, it was that blasted throne! That thing was insanely detailed! Not that it was hard to paint, but deciding what color to paint it was a bit of a trial. This was a model that I bought used off of ebay and one of it's legs had been badly "converted" by the previous owner so I had to re-sculpt part of it. In a way I don't consider it done yet because I at the time was having a frustrating time getting the banner to come out right, and then 40K pulled me back in. However, I am working on a standard bearer for my Space Wolves and when I do sit down to draw and paint that banner I will probably tackle this one too.

 



 So at this point I have 4 possible armies I could muster:

1. Empire. Of which Grausocken might be the only completely painted guy (sans banner).
2. High Elves. I regard this as my primary Fantasy army actually, I just love the model range.
3. Daemons. She Who Milks could bring some sour-love to those Stirlanders...
4. Orcs. I have managed to accumulate quite a lot of WHFB orcs over the years... 

Grausocken vs. Oddgob!

 I will be announcing on here soon which of my WHFB armies I indeed to make functional.

Meanwhile, here is a bit of 'in character-ish' discussion from the Crisis In Marienburg campaign:

"My big question here is, why are we letting the Marienburgers (here by referred to as the defeated) define the terms of their surrender?  Clearly we need to be talking to the Middenlanders who have done more internal damage to the city than us, and to whom we have already signed an agreement to divide the city via the river.

The defeated should never have a hand in deciding their fate. In fact, I think the Marienburg Alliance should be permanently dissolved, and we allow the League to step in to govern the merchant districts and all aspects of commerce and trade. The defeated need to be ousted from power-permanently. We have conquered them; and for the consequences of their actions and betrayals that kicked off this campaign in the first place, they need to accept the new paradigm.

I reject any treaty that allows the people who sponsored the starvation of our Empire, who would seek to ally with orcs to kill our sons and brothers, a seat of power of any kind."
-General Grausocken 

*Update: it seems that the original website is gone again. I will try to revamp this post with the info if I can ever find it.