Rattenkrieg auf Middenheim! WHFB Pictures

 

A few weeks back, we decided to dust off a couple of our old Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies and have a go. Conscript Greg brought his Empire panoply and I rolled out with my Skaven. Two thousand points was the engagement level, and I was pretty worried about making the time to get a list together since work has been so mental... however I needn't have worried overly, since in my podcast listening I'd found out about Battlescribe, a free list-building app... both Greg and I used it and it worked pretty well on our iPads.

Greg's guys looked awesome arrayed in a line of battle. I was initially heartened by my superiority in both bodies and magic-users. Greg brought a few scary things though - notably the three artillery pieces and a 15-man knight unit...

Even scarier than they look - and they look plenty scary

I brought some Jezzailists to wield their S6 -4 save weapons against said knights...

Level 4 Grey Seer on his Screaming Bell...

Hell Pit Abomination and a third big block of Clanrats.

Chittering hordes itching to get at the humans...

 

If I recall correctly, this is one of the main things that did me in - Helblaster cannon.



Rats had a simple plan - advance to contact and rip the humans apart. We had superiority in numbers and some big monsters on our side too. What could go wrong?

 



Well, this for one thing... that's the bounce on the Great Cannon shot at the Hellpit Abomination. Yes, he died quickly. No, he did nothing.

Knights ram into the clanrat block with Screaming Bell. I kept forgetting to activate the Bell but it didn't make a great deal of difference as it (and my Grey Seer) died horribly.

Nothing much better on the Plague Monk front - Empire troops took an extra dose of hand sanitizer before the battle and came out refreshed.

Can't remember exactly what this die roll represented but I'm pretty sure it was Not Good for the Skaven :-(

 



All along the line we were getting stuck in but it seemed to no avail. Empire detachments wrapped around and that was it. No coordination = no momentum.



 



Mortar played a part as well dropping templates on the clanrats from afar.

Anyway, this post is kind of an object lesson in posting when the battle is fresh in mind. This one happened some weeks ago and although I'm sure SOME things went my way in the game, all I can remember is abject defeat ;-)  Perhaps that's the Horned Rat's way of saying "must do better next time" :-) Always fun to play WHFB though and the game looked great!

Throwback Thursday: WHFB 1st Edition Tribute

"Throwback Thursday" seems to be a thing now, where people will post photos from days gone by. I was looking through some photo folders from last year and found some pics of a figure I'd painted as a bit of a one-off special project, so I thought I'd post it. While the project itself isn't exactly a "throwback", I think you'll agree that the subject matter definitely fits that description...

This is "Uthmog Elvenblade" - Chaos Champion, part of the Citadel "Champions of Chaos" boxed set (second version) from 1982. Obviously inspired by (or perhaps the inspiration for, it's not clear) the iconic Warhammer Fantasy Battle box art by John Blanche. As I'm a fan of old Citadel stuff I thought it would be fun to add him to my collection, so a casting was duly procured from German eBay. I got the figure for about 6 euros if I recall correctly; not a screaming bargain but much less than some sellers were asking. Old Citadel sellers sometimes seem to think they've discovered the Philosopher's Stone - transmuting lead into gold...!

To add a bit of interest to old Uthmog, I converted a plastic skeleton to be his victim. Merely a matter of a bit of cutting and greenstuff work, not a massive project. I think the addition of the skeleton really puts him into context.

Uthmog himself was painted as faithfully to the box art as I could. He's a great little sculpt, but seriously undersized as compared to the slotta-based era metal Chaos warriors that came later - never mind the plastic giants of the current edition. He's "true 25mm" for sure.

This was a fun mini-project but the only question I have after painting the model is, "why is he called Elvenblade when he wields a war-hammer?"

Anyway, happy Thursday!

It's Not Oldhammer, But...

For a few months I have watched Dallas dive more and more into his "Oldhammer" interest.  I did not ever really play 3rd Edition Fantasy, so I can't exactly relate - Rogue Trader 40k is more my retro gaming passion.  But Dallas' interest has inspired me to dust off my relatively old (if not "Oldhammer") Empire force for Fantasy.  I haven't played a game with them since, maybe, 2007 or 2008, I think, and I cannot remember the last time I painted a figure to add to them.  So it should be fun to get started again! I found these three character figures in my pile-o-stuff in the basement, and will paint them up for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (where I am getting killed).

There are two Empire engineers, and one "Captain of the Empire". Dallas might recognize the Captain in the middle - it was a gift from him! Thanks dude! I often take forever to paint figures I receive as gifts, but I get to them eventually...

There's No Hammer Like Oldhammer (Orcs and Skaven)

So lately, I've been on a bit of a fantasy kick... in particular, I've been obsessed with the old Citadel range, circa 1987-91 or so. You remember, the models from the old red and blue catalogs, before skulls skulls and more skulls, Finecast(tm), army book escalation, overmuscled Orcs, etc... just the old-school stuff back from when I was a teenager.

 

About a year (or more?) ago I acquired a bunch of fantasy Orcs from a well-known TMP member called John. Got 'em for a song. Some were painted, and some were old Citadel models, and some were even painted old Citadel models! I got about 100 models, and there were maybe 20 Kev Adams Citadel Orcs, and for what I paid, I'd've been happy if that was all I got.

So anyway, I busied myself with touching up the models, re-basing them, and painting the shields. These models are the core of the gang Conscript John used in our New Year's Day game. Aren't they superb models? The new Orcs don't have a patch on 'em, I'm afraid :-(

While the Orcs didn't qualify for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I recently painted some Skaven that did. Above are the assassin adept and Clan Eshin Sorceror I used in the recent game. (Yes, I know they're a Plague Monk and a Night Runner)
 

I just love the old-school flava!!

Here's the unit I painted - 15 models. There are a few more to come, but for me the beauty of Oldhammer is the individual character of the models. I mean, there are guys with halberds, swords, clubs and slings in there, but they all just kinda look cool en masse.

Perhaps the idea might just be cool enough to suck in some fellow Conscripts...?

New Year's Day Game - Mordheim!

In accordance with ancient custom, once again this year I hosted a game on New Year's Day, accompanied by a delicious lunch prepared by my wonderful wife. One of my recent obsessions has been old-school fantasy gaming a la "Oldhammer", so for New Year's 2014 I decided to run a fantasy game. I wanted to run a multi-player game that would get everybody involved, so I picked GW's "Mordheim" for the rules, and set about designing a basic scenario and some 500gc warbands for the boys to push around.
   

The backstory to the game was this: on New Year's Day, the magical energies of the Old World are at their peak. At the edge of the Chaos Wastes, warbands of adventurers gather to tap the mystical energies of the ancient standing stones. The table is laid out with three such stones. Each turn that a Hero is in base contact with a stone during the combat phase (and is not involved in combat), the warband adds d6 power points to its stock. If the warband's leader is in contact with a stone, the number of points added is 2d6. The game lasts for 8 turns; the warband with the most power points at the end of the game, wins!
  

Stinky the Troll gets ionto it with the Chaos Warriors

Conscripts Greg, Frederick, John, Dave and Kevin came out for the game. Greg brought a Marienburger warband and Dave brought a really cool gang composed of old Talisman figures. John ran a gang of Orcs and their pet troll, Frederick took an Undead gang, Kevin selected Chaos Warriors, and I ran my newly painted Oldhammer Skaven - no model newer than 1987! 

Skaven surround a standing stone

Harry the Hammer about to hammer on an Orc

Pet Blue Horror lets the Orcs know what he thinks of 'em

Looking good for John's Orcs but looks were deceiving

Frederick's shambling zombies shamble forward

Marienburger captian confronts Vampire and attendant dregs

Marienburger wizard and master of the flaming balls

L to R: Dallas (in Reimer jersey), Kevin, John, Dave, Frederick, Greg

Frederick jumped out to an early lead that was unassailable - his Vampire moved very fast and his die rolling once in contact with the stone was astounding. He ended up with 30 points. His opposite number, Greg, had to leave early so we ruled that their stone had run out of power points ;-) I totally forgot my Skaven boss's "infiltrate" ability but our fast moving got a few models in contact early and garnered me 19 points. Although I whittled away enough of Dave's warband to force a bottle check, he passed the Rout test (with the help of a Bard re-roll at +1) and inflicted enough damage on the rats to force us to check... which I of course blew. Dave ended up scoring 8 points. On the far side, John and Kevin waged a see-saw battle that saw John's Orcs finally crack under the pressure of Kev's elite Chaos Warriors. Kevin scored 8 points and John made off with 5. 

Thanks to the guys for coming out, it was a great afternoon spent watching the Winter Classic on TV and playing a fun game. But especially, thanks to Pam for making our amazing "pub lunch" of meat pie, BBQ potatoes and carrots, yam soup and apple peach cobbler. So yummy! And lastly, thanks to everybody who reads and follows our ramblings. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to do this blog if it weren't for you. Have a peaceful and happy 2014!

"Xeno Boners" T-Shirt Added to Shop!

After a mighty struggle with Cafepress' intellectual property department, we've succeeded in adding the massively cool "Xeno Boners" t-shirt design to our online schwag shop.

The design came about during one of our Thursday-night bull sessions about some new 40K codex or other... when Conscript Mike A. (I believe) offered the sage opinion that "Xenos got boned, again." We riffed a bit on that theme and Conscript Kevin immortalized the phrase in brilliantly satirical fashion.

Buy one (or more!) today and be the talk of your next GW-sanctioned tournament event!

You can get it (along with much other cool Fawcett gear) at our cafepress store: http://www.cafepress.ca/fawcettavenueconscripts

Occupy Mordheim!

"OCCUPY MORDHEIM! WE ARE THE 99%! WE HAVE DEGREES FROM THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY AT ALTDORF AND WE WANT OUR SHARE OF WYRDSTONE!!"

 

So last week we further amortized the 4x4 table with a game of Mordheim. I supplied three warbands - Vampire Counts, Sisters of Sigmar, and my favourite, Orcs. I say that the last is my favourite because it's composed entirely of old-school models from my youth - Orcs of the Severed Hand, some ancient (1982!) Ral Partha Bugbears, and a Citadel Troll. 

Conscript Indo rolled with the Orcs and Conscript Greg B. assumed leadership of the Sisters warband. We rolled a scenario at random and it was "Occupy".

 

"Occupy" involves placing an objective marker on D3+2 buildings. The game lasts 8 turns, and if you have a model in an objective building and no member of the other warband does, you get a point. The side with the most points wins! Above we see a (blurry- dammit) photo of two Orcs and a Bugbear moving through the graveyard.

More blur, which is especially annoying since I only had one beer that night. It's the Troll with the leader of the Orc warband and another bugbear.

A better picture of the Troll. Easy to get in focus as he did very little in the game... due to Stupidity. Mini-rant follows... the Mordheim rules are not clear at all on the Stupidity rule, in particular whether a leader's Leadership may be used to take the test. In one section it says "the leader's Leadership may be used to take Leadership tests..." and in the Stupidity section, "the model must roll under its Leadership to pass the test." We played it the latter way but with a Ld of 4 the Troll was pretty much ineffective. Will play it the other way next time!

Panorama of the battlefield set on the outskirts of Mordheim.

Some Sisters beat on an Orc. This combat was amusing as five Sisters had him Knocked Down, then three took off (below)... then the Orc got up and kept fighting!

Sisters head off to another objective building.

"Duurrrrrr..."

Bugbear feels the beat... in the end the Sisters won by two objectives to one. I really feel bad about the Troll Stupidity rule interpretation since the Troll was a major part of the warband and was essentially useless... oh, except for beating one of his Orc allies to death in close combat after an EXTREMELY unfortunate Animosity check resulted in the Orc attacking him.

I like Mordheim a lot. Small warbands, fast play and some interesting scenarios provided. I also like using the 4x4 terrain board from time to time and it works well for this game. I'm hoping we can use it for a further game in the "Battle for the Farm" 40K mini-campaign!