Saturday, September 29, 2018

Dwarf Army - Warband Edition

As has been noted, the new rules (actually, even the not so new rules, but waaaaaay back when there wasn't a warband structure so I'm slow to change!) are based on leaders with warbands of varying sizes.

So my son chose warbands for the leaders and we realised that I'm short a few captains for this type of army.

I may be missing something, but there doesn't appear to be a dwarf leader for rangers or archers so there are a few mixed bands there.

Feel free NOT to click to see larger pics this time, the close range shots aren't always pretty! You can see (hopefully) which dwarves I spent more time painting than others, also a skill level increase, oh, and just the ones that are better since washes were introduced!

Here's the dwarves in their warbands (you may need to click to see this at proper size as it's quite wide).



Durin with a lot of Khazad Guard, a banner, some Iron Guard and some Vault Wardens. As High King he has a powerhouse of a warband!



Etako is my special character/king so he gets a big warband too, though not as impressive as Durin's, of course. My son decided that all of the important dwarves should have at least two Khazad Guard accompanying them, so you'll notice behind each main leader there will be some Khazads. I think it's a nice touch.



The King's Champion band is smaller, with a mix of melee troops. I kept all my archers to two warbands rather than scattering them.



Boggle, the shieldbearer, has a squad of throwing axe rangers as they'll probably be rushing around to protect leaders.



One King/Captain has his two Khazad Guards and ten archers. I actually did a bit of fairly intricate work on painting this guy, there's some freehand on the bottom of his cloak etc. I don't think I have the eyesight to do that anymore!



Another King/Captain has the same set of troops.


And finally, Brynmor has a squad of two Khazads, a Vault Warden team, some shields and some 2-Handed guys. A multi-purpose squad. As long as the purposes involve closing with the enemy and chopping at them.


So there you go, I need another couple captains to get all my dwarf minis on the table. Not sure what to do about that at the moment. Not that we're likely to ever get them all on at once anyway! Still. Have to think about what to do. GW prices are a bit nuts, so might have to hit eBay and hope for a cheap dwarf miniature!

Friday, September 28, 2018

Dwarf Armies

So my son and I got out all my dwarf miniatures to see how many there were now that I've completed the King's Champion.

We arranged them according to type so that I could see them a bit more clearly (with some creative license thrown in to keep things at aleast a little interesting for a 7 year old).

There are:
Balin (who we call Etako).
Dain (who we often call Durin).
2 Dwarf Kings (We often use as captains).
Brynmor (Captain).
Boggle (Shieldbearer).
King's Champion.
14 Warriors with shield
10 Warriors with 2-H weapons
20 Warriors with bows
2 Warriors with banners
8 Rangers with throwing axes
8 Rangers with 2-H weapons
8 Rangers with bows
6 Iron Guards
5 Vault Warden teams
20 Khazad Guards

Click on the pics for bigger sizes as always!



Here are the Vault Wardens and Dain/Durin



Etako with some other Kings and the King's Champion



Some more of the previous, showing some of the line of Iron and Khazad Guard



The back section shows some of the shielded dwarves, warriors and rangers.



Continuing along you can see the main body of axes



Here on the other side are more shields and bows in the back row.



And lastly a sort of side shot to show off the new banners =)



So there you go, roughly 1700 points depending on some of the options for the Kings etc. I know there are bigger armies out there, but I quite like how you can just paint and paint for a while and then put them all together to look pretty cool =)

Next up I need to finish painting some goblin prowler conversions and then do the same for my goblin army!

Battle Company Battle Report - Seize The Area!

So far we have done the introductory narrative mission and a couple of vs. missions. This will be our last vs. mission before the next narrative mission.

Seize The Area involves our two squads having to roll to see where they come in and the objective is to have more than your opponent at the central objective, in this case the only water for miles around.

My son set up the scenery and tried to make obstacles and rough ground fairly equally spread across the map with the objective (the well) in the middle of the ruined tower.



Here's a gratuitious shot of my new lava crater. Nice sunny day outside, perfect for staying inside =)



I managed to roll three of my guys in one spot against my brother's single spear guy, so they immediately charged in and Brynmor takes the first kill of the day!



Oh, I should mention as you see this aerial shot that my brother's old war wounds and previous injuries meant that we were playing with the same number (8) of troops as each other even though usually he gets more! It seemed unfortunate for this particular mission as my better defence meant that it was unlikely he could win. We decided to play on for all the xp anyway!

You can see that there are troops scattered across the map! This would be a great mission (or mission type) to play for those of you who really like a fun skirmishy game rather than starting with each player all set in battle lines.



By winning priority, his Haradrim manage to keep running away from the dwarves as the humans have longer legs!



The mounted troops can really cover a lot of ground quickly! Especially compared to dwarves! My two archers came in off by themselves and took multiple shots, though nothing hit.



And Loki, newly advanced to a Ranger is taken out on the charge by The Falcon! Loki did an awesome job last game, but not this time!



Boggle uses some might to finally get in a charge, throws an axe and slams into the new spearman!



And the cavalry continue to take out archers, Archie falling beneath the horses hooves this time!



Looking at the actual objective, there is pretty even representation, but the dwarven heroes have entered the building!



The Falcon charges into Diva and uses a point of might to slay the dwarf. It was at this point (after the cavalry had done so well) that we realised we'd been forgetting to roll double dice after the charge knocks a dwarf down! Not that he'd needed it, but that's how well the cavalry had been going!



In the doorway a Haradrim archer is trapped by Boggle and another dwarf, but the dwarves manage to fumble their weapons!



Brynmor charges forward and takes out a spearman while Etako barely fends off the charging horse and The Wolf (in the corner).



The Falcon uses his last point of might to overcome Skodi, who shielded up but couldn't withstand the horse charging! Meanwhile the man in the doorway manages to fend off two dwarves again!



In the courtyard an amazing melee breaks out as the dwarves fail all of their rolls but manage to stay alive.



Etako takes out The Wolf in the corner and it's four against four! I was convinced the dwarves would walk right over the Haradrim, but instead they've charged into battle!



Etako uses his might to try and take out The Falcon, but fails. Monty is taken out! Suddenly the dwarves have a broken force! Does the game continue?...



Yes, the die is rolled and the game continues on! Boggle fails his courage test (after feeling so awful about failing to kill the guy trapped in the doorway for so many turns!)



A low angle shot shows the true MVP of the match, The Falcon on horseback!



The game continues on for yet another turn, The Talon takes out Brynmor, Etako wins his fight against The Falcon, but can't get a wound in. And the game is over! Harad victory!



Oh... my... goodness! That was a crazy match! It looked as though the dwarves would romp it in, but starting scattered, being slow and (to be honest) rolling terribly did not help them. Really though, my brother played to the strengths of his force and made sure to set up cavalry charges whenever he could to great effect, taking out my less armoured guys first and working up to the tougher guys.

Such a fun game, I love it when you think you've got it figured and then there's a surprise!

Post-game Brynmor gets an Old Battle Wound and Defiant Diva will miss the next game. I also realised I'd cheated previously by upgrading dwarves to heavy dwarf armour who weren't eligible for it. So I took that all back and with the extra influence I rolled on the reinforcement charts and got a Vault Warden team and another 2-handed axe warrior! I still only have one special rule, Furious Charge but now have 11 characters!!

My brother continued upgrading to horses wherever possible as well as war spears. He now has three heroes with special rules (Bane of Kings, Steady Aim and Lethal Aim) and 11 characters.

Our next missions will be narrative again - a spider filled forest!

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

King's Champion - Second Herald


Well, here are the trio!

My son is looking forward to helping me get all the dwarves out to take a group army shot later today, so I'll post that when we get it done.



Here's a view from slightly higher up...


And from directly behind to see those dynamically flowing cloaks.


And from the other side...



I realised the other view from behind obscured the banners a bit so here's another shot showing the banners a bit more. 



I had a lot of trouble with my ancient paints and the yellow in particular, but from anything other than really close up I think it looks okay.

My blending wasn't very smooth either, but I'm sure you all know what it's like when you just don't have hours to spend!

Looking forward to seeing the grand dwarf army =)

Monday, September 24, 2018

King's Champion - First Herald

I know I haven't named them yet, I'm working on it!

In the meanwhile, here is the King's Champion - First Herald.

You'll have to excuse the slightly garish colours in the up close photo.



Now the King's Champion is accompanied!



I still think that there's need of a second Herald when going up against a Balrog! So I'd better get painting!



Sunday, September 23, 2018

King's Champion

One of the dwarf models I've always thought looked cool but didn't have was the King's Champion.

Well now I have it and have painted the champion (yet to do the heralds). 

I'm pretty happy with it, though I'm still not 100% happy as some of my paints have not reconstituted well (maybe I should buy some paints that aren't 10 years old!). Also, my freehand skills are not what they used to be so the cloak is highlighted and shaded, but I haven't done any freehand on it as I used to do. Maybe I will some time when my confidence and skills are back!

Anyway, here he is being ordered to battle by Etako (click photo for larger image)...



View of cloak on back...



And a front view (the last thing a goblin facing him will ever see!)



Friday, September 21, 2018

Battle Companies - Treasure Hunt!

Our next Battle Company mission was "Recovery" or "Treasure Hunt" as we called it.

Five tokens are on the board, evenly spread across the center. One of them has a "T" on the reverse side. The object is to search each one to find the treasure, then escape with it off the other side of the board!

This mission might penalise the shorter movement distance of the dwarf team!


The Falcon's Honour, with now with a couple of horses, gets to two tokens super quickly - the treasure is found right in the center of the board!

Loki (foreground) draws back and shoots at The Falcon himself, hitting his horse and sending it packing! The Falcon, however, flips gracefully to his feet, none the worse for wear.


The treasure counts as a heavy object, it cannot be taken by horse, a model carrying it moves at half speed and two models can carry it moving at normal speed.


With only five dwarves in Etako's Expeditionary force this mission, they are well spread out. The Harad carry the treasure towards Brynmor and Skodi in a big pack. A thowing axe from Brynmor takes out The Hawk and Loki shoots again and takes out The Serpent! The dwarven ranged assaults are proving to be deadly!


Brynmor and Skodi charge at the Haradrim, Brynmor using might to take out "The Tiger". But where did the treasure go??


In one of my new all time favourite plays in a strategy battle game, a line of Haradrim shunt the treasure from one guy to the next like some sort of amazing football play! It moves halfway across the map and away from my slower dwarves!


The Talon holds up Brynmor and Skodi to give his friends time to get away and lives to tell the tale!


The football treasure is carried around the back of the ruins, keeping out of Loki's bowshot and the other Haradrim play a defensive block to stop the other dwarves from getting to it!


But as soon as Loki has line of sight he takes out "The Wolf" who was out in front acting point and ready to shuffle the treasure even further along!


Meanwhile Etako and Boggle scramble to try and get within throwing axe range, but are blocked at every turn! Etako throws an axe, uses a point of might and wounds "The Fang" who saves with his own point of fate and might!


Now the two leaders face off, Etako and The Falcon. The falcon uses a point of might to win the fight and a second point of might to wound Etako! Fate has fled him this time and down goes the dwarf! That second point of might upgrade on the Falcon is really useful!


Keeping the run going, Loki takes out "The Fang" clearing him for a final shot at the treasure bearers! 


They have sprinted as fast as they can and make it right to the edge of the board!


And they make it! Loki misses his last shot and the other dwarves are still well too far behind to do anything about it!

What an awesome game - so different and so fun! Seriously, if you've only ever played deathmatch games give some of these other types of game a go. 

They really give different play styles and different team compositions a chance to shine.

We both agreed that Loki gets dwarf of the match, his shooting was fantastic (and in the post-game upgrade phase he becomes a ranger - giving him an even better shoot score!)