Sunday, June 28, 2009

More Picts and Romans

Once again an odd smattering of items…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are all from Gripping Beast, I believe. I’m not sure they were supposed to be “picts”… but that’s what I’m calling them!!


One has been recently painted, the two others simply rebased with the new one to make a Cavalry (General) stand for my Later Pict DBA army (the earlier Picts get a Light Chariot for their General!).

I may have to make a new banner. I thin the silver on this one looks goofy…


These Roman Legionaries, like the Auxilia in the Last Post, are old 80’s Citadel miniatures, produced by Ral Partha in North America.

With eight chunky blobs of led, this stand has some serious weight to it. If you threw it an someone you could really do them some damage.... (not that throwing toys about is an acceptable practice in my house... just sayin'...).

I’ve been working on a few more stands of Auxilia the last evening or two as well…

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Romans!?

This is why I need a PLAN so I’m not so skattered-all-over-the-palce with the painting….

I thought it might be fun to try out painting some of the Romans I have….


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Auxilia – I think these are old 80’s Citadel miniatures that were produced by Ral Partha in North America. Just need three more of these stands to complete the Auxilia for the first army...


Psiloi – Not sure of the manufacturer of these. Only need the one.

Having a quick look at the stuff I’ve got I could EASILY make at least THREE DBA Early Imperial Roman armies… probably four… maybe even FIVE!? Who the heck are they going to fight against (other than themselves)!?

I guess there’s the Picts… but they would be more of an opponent for the Middle Imperial Romans.

I wonder what sort of fantastical elements could a guy add to a Roman army to “HOTTify” it?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Recent Stuff

I’ve been doing a bit of rebasing and sprucing up of bases of stuff I rebased a while back…. Organizing and taking stock of what I have and what needs to be done for various different projects… Been painting a bit on this and that…

Here’s some of the stuff that’s rolled off the workbench in the last couple days.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Here are a few new Mounted Vikings I had and thought I’d paint them up to be a Viking “Hero” stand if I ever wanted to include one in a HOTT game. Im not totally pleased with the flags, they were a bit rushed and may be replaced at some point…


Two of these bad boy Bolshevik commanders were rebased, the third was 95% painted… and I just made the flag. Still a finished figure is a finished figure.

This will be a Bolshevik General in our Great War/Russian Civil War HOTT games. I used him in last night’s game. I classified him as a Spear General, which gave him +5 Combat factor (+4 for spear, +1 for general) versus everything, quick-killed by knights (Armoured Cars) in good going and Warband. I think if worked out pretty good – but don’t actually quick-kill anything themselves... Fairly resilient, slow-moving,


These Tasrist Generals have just been rebased, but look pretty nice so… I called the Rider General… but that gives them a +4 tactical factor and they quick kill shooters – which is the bulk of the stands on the table – so they’d be likely end up being used as shock troops… which just doesn’t seem right for commanders of this era… maybe I’ll only allow him to be used as the commander of the Cossacks – when they’re fielded in large enough numbers to qualify as a command unto themselves!



A couple of Chinese Warlord Generals. Again, just rebasing them…

Maybe I’ll just call all HQ stands – whether the figures are on horses or not – “Spears”

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some Roman Auxilia have some how made it on to my workbench…? along with the other sundry items already cluttering it. I really have to nail down a project to work on and get focused!

Flight to Bashkent

Rick and Jackson are back and we thought we’d have another crack at Great War HOTT. Using, more or less, the same types of things as in the previous game (at some point we will add trenches and wire and aircraft, etc…). I did decide to try a slightly different scenario, however…

Again the only real change we’ve made to the original HOTT rules are to increase the ranges of shooters and the various types of artillery, limit the number of times a stand can recoil – depending on the unit’s quality or morale, and shooters are required to fire on the closest eligible target…

I have a new Command stand for the Bolsheviks and classed it as a “spear” this time. It becomes a bit more resilient – but has no ranged attack (which, really, I don’t think a command stand should have…). it worked out quite nicely.

Bashkent, July 1918

SITUATION

After the debacle at Bahkabad the Tsarists have the Reds on the run! All the units in the area are falling back to the city of Bashkent. The remains of a Regiment from the Bolshevik’s Derkaderka Brigade – reduced to two understrength battalions - is hotly pursued by the “Saviors of Bashkabad” – the 5th “General Bronovich” Rifle Regiment under the command of General Jacksoneyev.

SCENARIO

The Bolsheviks set up anywhere within 1500 paces of the west table edge. The Tsarists then set up within 600 paces. The Bolsheviks then take the first move.

The Bolshevik’s win by either breaking the Tsarist force or by exiting 50% of their starting force off the East table edge. The Tsarist will win if they prevent the Bosheviks from doing so.

FORCES

Tsarist Forces

5th “General Bronovich” Rifle Regiment – General Jacksoneyev

1x Regimental commander (Rider) General – Regular

8x Rifle Companies (Shooters) - Conscript
1x Machingun Company (Artillery) - Regular
1x Field Battery (Artillery) - Regular

2nd Timashenko Cossack Regiment – attached
3x Cavalry (Riders) – Regular

Bolshevik forces

3rd Regiment Derkaderka Brigade – General Lowellowski

1x Regimental Commander (Spear) – Regular
6x Rifle Companies (Shooters) – Conscript
1x Machinegun Companies (Artillery) - Regular


THE GAME


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The bolshies are on the run!

Rick decided to deploy them all facing where he was going so they could be moved most quickly as a group. They could have been deployed facing the enemy but would have had to use a lot more PIPs to retire as a group can’t move backwards, only individual stands.


…and they’re off! The Cossacks are closing fast!


One of the battalions is left behind to slow the Cossacks… unfortunately they were left on the reverse slope of a hill…


The Cossacks charge over the hill and into the riflemen waiting there in ambush!

(meanwhile the Tsarist artillery has set up and caused some disruption in the main Bolshevik line).


…and the Cossacks wipe out the Blosheviks on the hill…


…and continue to shase down the rest of the Bolsheviks!


The Bolshies are caught!


MG and Rifle companies are destroyed. The command group reels from the ferocious charge…. It is all over…


Fun and quick.

If I played it again I’d have only given the Tsarists two stands of Cavalry… or three but made the general a foot unit….

I think we should try a bigger game using the “Big Battle” rules, with multiple commands, sometime soon… I’m also anxious to try out some rules for trenches and wire… SMG armed troops… Airplanes…

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Last of the Uruk-hai foot

No… really…

The last two stands of Uruk-hai Pike/Spear I did just didn’t work out so well… All those advancing guys with their pikes out front… they couldn’t be set in the drawer… they couldn’t be lined up against any on the battle field… I was about to rip the two bases apart and just use the ones with the pikes upright ans accept that I would only ever have three stands of Spear in my Isengard army… then Mr. Miller gave me 6 more with pikes upright that he got as part of some mega deal…

So now I have four stands of Uruk-hai pike:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are all plastic Lord of the Rings figures from Games Workshop. The two stands in front have the newly painted lot on them – they are mixed with five others taken off the stands that originally had Uruks with their pikes out front.

Don’t go thinking that I’ve just pitched the others though… I simply rebased them onto washers and will use them for skirmishi gamin’:


…well, if I ever need some pike armed orcs in a skirmish game….

Now I just have three more stands of Warg Riders to finish up and that’s it… of corse those warg riders will take some time as they are all busted up and a number of them are missing limbs that will need to be remade from scratch out of modeling putty… mutter-grumble…

Maybe I should get on that though – because once they’re done that’s an army that’s complete! Done! I can walk away from and say “my work here is finished!” How often do you get to do that!?

Here’s the entire army of Isengard so far…


That’s 32 AP:

1x Magician
5x Blade
4x Spear
2x Warband
2x Shooter
1x Beasts or Riders (Warg Riders) (+3 more to do!)


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some mounted Vikings I’m planning to use as a “Hero” for my HOTT Norse has made it’s way to the front of the workbench, as have a handful of LOTR Dwarf Archers… they’re all a little crammed for space as a bunch of Warrior Wimmin (winged or otherwise) for Amanda’s HOTT chick army are still hanging out there and some plastic descent figures which are trying to move their way up… hard to say which will get done first…

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Elvish Sorceress

Here’s another addition to Amanda’s “HOTT Chick” army – an Elvish Sorceress:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are all not-quite-current Wood Elf figures from Games Workshop. I thought the Sorceress herself would look lonely on the base all by her self so I added a pair of female wood elf scouts I happen to have as "assistants" or "bodyguards"...

This will replace the Elf sorceress that she’s been borrowing from my Elf Army.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Across the Floe River

Since I got Amanda interested in Hordes of the Things she has expressed an interest in having an army of her own – preferably one of “HOTT chicks” – some kick-ass, amazon warrior wimmins. She is a closet fan (or... not-so-closet, now…) of action films with hot chicks flying on wires kicking ass – Charlies Angels, Matrix, Ultraviolet, Underworld, etc, etc.

Like I was going to pass up an opportunity to not only be buying toys that my wife totally approved of – but even had her chipping in here and there!?

I have finally finished enough to field a 24AP army. I still have a number of optional stands to finish painting but we thought we’d try out what she’s got so far!

SITUATION

The Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness has been liberating women from tyranny and oppression throughout the magical land of Timm. Unfortunately there are a great many oppressive tyrants throughout the land so their numbers have grown and grown and they have come to control a considerable amount of territory…

While they are mostly peaceful and have no immediate territorial or imperial ambitions, they do vigorously defend their lands (and occasionally raid across the borders for acceptable “breeders”).

Gukra the Merciless – warlord of the Burgark Orc Tribe thought a bunch of helpless women might be easy pickin’s and lead his host across the Floe River.

SCENARIO

This was a pretty standard HOTT scenario with the Orcs as attackers, the Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness defending.

FORCES

Burgark Orc Tribe
Hero General (Gukra the Merciless and his personal bodyguard)
2x Behemoth (Trolls and Giants)
2x Beasts (Wolves)
1x Warband (Big Mean Orcs)
6x Horde (hordes of nasty little goblins)

the Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness
1x Hero General (Libby the Bold)
1x Magician (Elf Sorceress)
2x Shooters (Elf and Ngoni Archers)
2x Warband (Dark Elf Witch Elves)
3x Blade (Dwarf Shieldmaidens)
1x Riders (Centaur Mares)


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Amanda and her “HOTT Chick” Army – The Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness


The Orcs, having crossed the river marshall their forces and form a formidable battle line!


The view from the other end. (I think I had the better “view”, distracting though it was…!?)


The hard-hitting Dwarvish Shieldmaidens march out to meet the Orcs head-on, along with the Centaurs, their General and the Magician.


I was plagued with bad PIP rolls to start the game rolling one on my first turn and two on the second, and then another one or two on the third… so was a bit slow to get going.


CRUNCH!! The lines meet! Unfortunately it is the Giants and Trolls lined up opposite the Shieldmaidens – Blades and Behemoths, not a good match up. The Horde and Beasts, again held up by bad PIP rolls.


Same thing, different view.


One stand of Shieldmaidens held their ground against the relentless assaults of Gukra the Merciless, but their sisters off to the right were forced to give ground to the behemoths…


The Leagues line was slowly forced back and eventually the Behemoths punched a hole through it. Against I wasn’t able to exploit this for a turn or two due to bad PIP rolls. Though I have to say Amanda had her fair share of bad rolls and I had an insane number of lucky rolls – almost always scoring fives and sixes whenever she happened to have overwhelming odds and/or quick-kill opportunities…


Eventually the Leagues main line was all but smashed – only the Magician and General held back the onslaught. Things were looking down, she had lost four stands (three Blade and the Riders) and I had lost none! Luckily Amanda FINALLY made some ensorcellement rolls and set the behemoths, on after the other, and then again, to temporary flight… which messed up things for me.


I finally got some PIPs and got the Wolves moving (but not enough to flank here, not that it mattered as Beasts quick-kill shooters) but the nasty Archers held their ground!?


Then she had the PIPs going for her and flanked the wolves with the Witch Elves (Warband) and took them out one at a time…


A couple times I had their General engaged to her front by my Warband and flanked by my general – not wanting the heroes to engage each other directly – as that’s an instant death situation – which I generally try to avoid.

After this point most of the rest of the pictures I took were out of focus…?! I actually got my Hero General in contact with their stronghold! Even odds for tactical factors, all I had to do was roll higher… no such luck!


The Libby charged in to save the day and struck down Gukra the Merciless!! That didn’t quite end things. Though I had lost my general I hadn’t lost MORE than Amanda, we were even. So on her next turn Libby charged down a stand of goblin Horde – thinking that would be an easy kill and end the game… then I rolled a six. The game did end that turn, however, because her Magician – who was now on a roll – forced back my Orc warband into a poorly positioned Behemoth and that was that….

Losses

Burgark Orc Tribe
Hero General (Gukra the Merciless and his personal bodyguard)
2x Beasts (Wolves)
1x Warband (Big Mean Orcs)


The Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness
3x Blade (Dwarf Shieldmaidens)
1x Riders (Centaur Mares)

It was fun to play again – as we hadn’t gotten a game in together for a while now. I think I finally found a use for horde…. They didn’t really do much but they did block a large area and threaten flanks while the behemoths got down to the business of crunching and munching things…

Amanda really pulled it out of the fire to win after being down four stands! Bravo!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A Couple More HOTTies

I finished up two more stands for Amanda’s “HOTT Chick” army – the Saphistic League of Unity and Togetherness.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


First is the “Hero” stand, and will probably be the General of the Army. The model is from Hasslefree Miniatures. at first I had considered some crazy tiger stripes... but in the end I checked with Amanda and she seemed to want just plain-jane, gold-brown lioness colouring.


Next is a stand of “Riders”. I actually ordered 4 so she could have two stands, but only 3 figures have showed up so far. I have the third figure painted, hopefully number four will show up this week. The figures are from Shadowforge Miniatures. (I should clarify I ordered these in though my local game store and the issue of the missing mini, as far as I know, is with their Distributor, not Shadowforge...)

So Amanda technically has enough to field a 24 AP army… maybe I’ll get her to try it out tomorrow! I still have a Behemoth, a couple Magicians, and two more stands of Warband to paint…

Friday, June 12, 2009

Assault on Bashkabad

I wanted to switch gears and play something a little different. I am totally enamored with Hordes of the Things and it’s flexibility and the ease to which it can be adapted to just about any period.

I have a lot of Great War Era figures and I found a copy of the “Hordes in the Trenches” variant and thought I’d give it a go. While providing much inspiration I tweaked it a bit further – simplifying a few things.

I wanted to try out a simple scenario with just a few element types to see how well it worked (Rifles, cavalry, machineguns and field guns) If it works out, with each game I will add some new elements (trenches, barrages, wire, gas, tanks, armoured cars, aircraft, etc, etc..)

Some of the tweaks were changes in what “Quick-kills” what – mostly bringing it back in line with regular HOTT – generally everything is as it is in HOTT – only some distance shooting ranges have changed.. I’m going to make some changes as to how the trenches work. I was also considering limited recoils – like Bruce MacFarlane has used in his WW2 and Modern versions of HOTT – stands have a limited number of recoils before they are lost, depending on their Morale or effectiveness value – Concript = 2 Recoils, Regular = 3 Recoils, Veteran = 4 Recoils, Elite = 5 Recoils.

Bashkabad, June 1918

SITUATION

The Red and White forces have been fighting back and forth across the desolate region of Derkaderkastan. The city of Bashkabad has recently been lost to the enemy – it is a critical supply point and must be retaken!

SCENARIO

This will be a pretty standard HOTT scenario. The players will dice to see who is the attacker, The Defender will set up the terrain, the attacker will determine which side he would most like to attack from and then dice for it. Once determined which side the attacker is coming from, the defender will set up his “stronghold” (the city of Bashkabad) and deploy his forces before it. The attacker will then set up his forces opposite. The defender then takes the first turn.

The game will be won when one side breaks the other (by eliminating half their force – or destroying their General and more elements than they have lost…) or the city (stronghold) is captured.

FORCES

Tsarist Forces

5th “General Bronovich” Rifle Regiment

1x Rifle (Shooter) General - Regular
6x Rifle Companies (Shooters) - 3 battalions of 2 stands each - Conscript
1x Machingun Company (Artillery) - Regular
1x Field Battery (Artillery) - Regular

2nd Timashenko Cossack Regiment – attached
3x Cavalry (Riders) – Regular

Bolshevik forces

3rd Regiment Derkaderka Brigade

1x Rifle General (Shooter) – Regular
9x Rifle Companies (Shooters) – Conscript
2x Machinegun Companies (Artillery) - Regular

THE GAME

Rick and Jackson arrived first and decided to square off against each other. It was decided that Rick should play the Bolsheviks and Jackson took the Tsarists.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Comrade Rickovich.


The Bolsheviks would be defending first so Rick set up his forces before the city of Bashkabad. Not wanting to be pounded by the Tsarists artillery he immediately set off to meet them!


General Jacksonev marshals his troops and marches on Bashkabad – the Cossacks break off and advance ahead of the main line.


The Cossacks charge the Bolshevik’s right


The Cossacks crash into the Bolshevik’s line!


One company of Bolsheviks break and run, another repulses the Cossack’s charge, the third is locked in a confused melee!


Bolshevik’s are shifted from the center of the line to help fight off the Cossacks. One Squadron is flanked and in danger of being anahilated.


But the ferocious Cossacks set another company of Bolsheviks to flight and push back those on their flank!


The main line of the Tsarists advance to find the center of the Bolshevik’s line has crumbled. All that remains are skirmished on the flanks.


There is a sharp infantry engagement on what was the left of the Bolshevik’s line.


The Bolshevik’s last reserves are committed to the engagement on their left.


It is too late. The Cossacks sweep up the last that remains on the right, there are too few remaining on the left. The city is lost!

Gary showed up to watch and John and I had a go. It was now the Bolshevik’s turn to try and re-take the city!


After the execution of Comrade Rickovich, Comrade Brownovich is brought in to try and retake the city…


Unfotunately for Brownovich, General Bertolovski, who started his career as the top ranking student to ever pass through the Imperial Military Academy in St. Petersburg, who started the Russo-Japanese war as a platoon commander and by the end commander a regiment, who was one of the most distinguished commanders to fight the Germans on the Eastern front… Was brought in to defend Bashkabad…


Brownovich was trained as a cavalry officer (well… okay he was a stable boy for a cavalry officer before the revolution elevated him to the rank of regimental commander…) and so he tried to execute a daring flanking maneuver with a column of infantry. Something that really ought to be done by horses… Perhaps he figures his troops were dumb as mules… and mules are sort of like horses… so…


The flanking column of two battalions marches off under the watchful eye of Comrade Brownovich. “Shoot any that come back this way!” he commanded as they marched off!


His Third battalion along with the Regiments Machineguns deployed to try and hold the Tsarist line in place while the flanking column whisked by them. Of course he deployed the holding force far enough away that they couldn’t be menaced by the Tarists artillery battery… and at that range the Bolsheviks weren’t much of a threat…


As the column marches towards the Tsarists flank General Bertolovski redeloys his guns and sets one of his understrength battalions up on a hill to block them.


The guns catch the column before it can get into the cover of the hill and the column is broken up!


The lines redeploy on the flank.


The Bolshevik holding force was in fact SO far away the Cossacks galloped across the front of the Tsarist lines to support the other flank without any worry.


The Bolshevik line straightens out before assauting the hill – would they make it to the high ground before the cavalry!?


The two lines straddled the hill and battle back and forth on it briefly.


Eventually the Bolsheviks were pushed off the hill and routed.


In his report Comrade Brownovich claimed that this flanking maneuver was really just a “feint” the real assault was to be executed on the OTHER flank with the remaining battalion after the entire Tsarist line was redeployed to deal with the “feint”.


The Tsarists clear off the last of the two-battalion flanking column.


The remaining battalion bravely charged the Tsarists line but was beaten off. The morale of the Bolshevik’s was shattered and they gave up the assault.

Comrade Brownovich narrowly escaped the the firing squad himself by preemptively executing several of his subordinates and claimed it was THEIR incompetence and lack of dedication to the revolution that caused his cunning and subtle plan to fail. The Red Army Command Thought this showed "potential" and decided to spare him... this time...

Conclusions

A totally fun game! Everyone had a great time. The action played out VERY quickly. The limited recoils added an interesting new dimension and helped with speeding up the play. WE’ll definitely be playing this again!!