G-Sled

More Sci-Fi vehicle scratch building going on this week – this time a 28mm Grav-Sled.

I wanted something that could carry some cargo, that I could also pile up a couple figures on, and wasn’t just a wheeled truck.

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


The main body is a left-over hull from a Timashek Legion Grav Tank. Plus some other bits and bobs… The steering wheel is an old Lego bit, as is the control panel.


There’s some plastic sprue attached to the side. Bits of wire for the tie down points and the ladder on the front…


… and here it is all loaded up with a couple crates and a crew.

NO I am NOT getting distracted!?

HOTT Dwarf Chicks

I’m going to wear out that “HOTT This” and “HOTT that” pretty quick aren’t I…?

Another stand of dwarves finished – this time some Dwarven Shield Maidens:

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


Most of these are Ghost Miniatures from Old Glory, Though the leader (front and center) is from Reaper Miniatures. The Ogre Head on the standard is from GW.

I’m not entirely happy with the standard. I made the standard bearer out of a shield maiden with a spear – cut of the spear, drilled out the hand, insert rod/pole… I was originally thinking I’d make a flag to put on there. but then I realized none of my other dwarf standards have flags… they’re just standards with a bunch of junk on them – so I quickly tried to scratch build something for this unit and the results seem a little uninspired. At some point I may replace it, either with a flag or maybe a better standard – take a shield and build up some sort of icon on it with greenstuff of brownstuff… so it’s more in line with the rest of the armies standards.

A flag might not be so bad after all – sure it’d be different from the rest of the army… but this unit is different from the rest of the army!


I had a spare so I mounted her singly for use in skimishy games…

One Year

A year ago today I added a little hit counter to this blog, just to see how many people were popping by to have a look. The counter recorded every hit, rather than unique hits - which, as I understand it, means ever post that someone navigated to added one to the counter - rather than simply recording each new visitor only once. Anyway, in that year it seems to have counted 70,155 hits. It wasn't all just ME hitting reload!! 

Thanks to all of you who have popped by for a visit. Thanks especially to all those who have left friendly comments of encouragement and appreciation. 

HORDES for Hordes of the things!

I painted up my first stand of goblin HORDES for Hordes of the Things this weekend. I have an awful lot more to do…

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


These are GW plastic Night Goblins. Nice and quick and easy to paint – which is good because I think I have another 5 stands (45 figures) of THESE ones to paint… then there’s the Orcs (which I am now considering basing as Warband rather than Hordes…)… and then there’s some Moria Goblins heading my way as part of a trade!? (starting to get rid of some of the 15mm WW2 stuff – and some surplus 28mm Commandos)


I didn’t get rid of ALL the surplus commandos, though… I saved a handful to paint up for my friend John who has from time to time threatened to pick up Hour of Glory and/or Bunkerstorm!. I thought these guys – who are all armed with thompsons, pistols or knives - would be perfect for those games! I liked the way the base turned out. I just modeled the flagstones with green stuff - pretty simple. (Don’t worry, John, I’ll get on that next batch of Descent minis one of these days…).

Gallopin’ Elfies

In an effort to woo Amanda into playing further games of Hordes of the Things I cranked out a couple stands of “Riders” as a new option for the Elf army she’s been using. This isn’t JUST because she’s a girl and therefore likes horsies (she IS, and she DOES…) but from our previous games she recognized a)the value of my “Beasts” ability to charge around the flanks of an army and be a general menace and b) that it’d be nice to have something that could move quickly enough to DEAL WITH things charging around her flanks…

I think I might have another HOTT date lined up for Sunday, so we’ll see how it works out then…

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



These are GW Wood Elf Glade Riders that I got a sprue of in a trade. In the trade I got a whole bunch of single sprues of this and that. I was wondering what the hell I’d do with them all when I got them. They’ve turned out pretty handy for making HOTT stands (Thanks Sean!)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’ve still got the Silverhelms on the painting table and some goblinses and dwarfsies….

My goal is to be able to field a Dwarf and an Orcsie-Goblin army by the end of February (in addition to the Elf, Viking and Saxon ones I can currently field…). It’d be nice if I could crank out another and be able to filed three a side for the Wargaming Birthday Bash… Hmmmm I don’t think it’s going to be orcs… too many HORDES! Maybe some more Vikings…?

Through March and April I’ll crank out an Undead and Norman army (assuming I ever GET the Norman Army – Nudge, nudge…). That will leave May to build some strongholds, more terrain squares, and a few more optional extras for the various armies…

15mm DBA Persians for trade (or free to a good home!)

The last of my non-WW2 15mm stuffs to trade away (maybe some day soon I shall ditch them too...). Somehow I thought I might fix these up a bit before trading them away, but that’s never going to happen. I’d really like them to be just gone and will trade them away for a song… well… maybe a bit more than a song… maybe some busted-ass, half-painted 28mm junk figure(s) you’ve got…?

They are in a sad state of disrepair. The all could do with some re-basing, many need some touch-ups here and there, most need new spears. A lot of the cavalry are not attached to their horses…? Which is odd because I’ve almost always attached riders before painting… maybe I was going through and “experimental phase”

I think they’re all from Irregular Miniatures..,?

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


The mounted contingent. 1x3Kn, 4x3Cv, 2x2LH. There seems to be 5 or 6 riders missing and many spears!


Two more 2LH – these are from Essex and I’m pretty sure I picked them up to replace The busted up ones in the pics above.

I also have a unopened pack of Falcon Miniatures AW-15 Greek Heavy Cavalry – might have ordered them from the Sentry Box to replace the Kn but were sent the wrong pack or something…? Or maybe I actually ordered these hoping they might be “close enough”… I don’t know… They’re part of the deal, though!


The painted FOOT! 2x2PS, 2x4Bw, 2x4SP? (or 4Ax?), 2x 3AX


The not so painted and busted up Foot! 2x4Sp (Greek Mercenaries), 2x3Ax.

All of the foot need new spears (well… at least the ones that SHOULD have spears!)

Anyway, if anyone’s at all interested and got something good to trade (or could convince me they’re going to a good home where they will be fixed and played with and not just sold on ebay… and willing to pay for postage) post a comment with your email address – I won’t actually PUBLISH the comment…. It’s just a way of letting me know how to get in touch with you without having to publish my email address on this blog….

Orcish Baddies

In my previous post I had alluded to spending a good deal of Saturday painting some baddies for my Savage Saturday game. Here are said baddies:

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


the big baddies. Three of these are citadel minis… really OLD citadel minis, the big one, I think, might be a WOTC D&D figure… but I’m not entirely sure…


The goblin front and center is an old Citadel mini, the four identical ones on the left are old Ral Partha “Greater Goblins”, the three archers on the right are iKore Celtos beasties.

All will be used for Savage Worlds skirmishing. I have another dozen or so to finish up, but I may work on a couple stands of hordes for my Hordes of the Things armies… we shall see…

HOTT Saturday Night

Two of the regular four of my weekly Savage Saturday game decided to phone an hour before the game and tell me they couldn’t make it… Birthday… I guess it’s hard to give a guy a head’s up about things that just sort of pop up like this… it’s not like they happen the same day every year or anything… It’s a good thing I didn’t spend ALL DAY painting orcs to be ready for the evenings game… I might have been a bit bitter…

Anyway, since we couldn’t really carry on the campaign without them, and the ”HOTT Date” went over so well the previous evening, I thought I’d set up another little game of Hordes of the Things for my stalwart Saturday gaming companions (As opposed to the lazy, thoughtless, fair-weather Saturday gaming companions).

Me…?! Bitter…!?

The Battle of Burldak Wood.

SITUATION

The Human kingdoms of the south corrupted by the vile Sorcerer known as “Timm” are on the march to invade the rich Dwarven kingdom. Already beset by the Orcs from the North the Dwarf King Goldbur was only able to scrounge a small force of Dwarvish Infantry and an artillery regiment along with a smattering of human and Halfling allies. Realizing that if the Dwarf kingdom fell it would greatly upset the balance of good and evil in the world, Queen Amandalyll decided to set aside their differences and sent her army to the aid of the dwarves. The Dwarf and Elf armies march out to meet the humans and met them where they were assembling at a border keep near the Burldak Wood.

SCENARIO

We played a Big Battle Hordes of the Things game. I happened to roll low so I was defending against Darrin and Amanda.

Darrin was playing a scratch force led by the Dwarves and Amanda made a return with her Elves. I threw together two forces of humans based on my Saxon and Viking Armies.

FORCES

The Army of the Elf Queen Amandalyll

1x Blade General
2x Magicians
1x Knights
2x Blades
4x Shooters

The Army of King Goldbur

1x Blade General (Dwarves)
2x Blade (Dwarves)
1x Artillery (Dwarves)
3x Warband (Halflings)
2x Warband (Picts)
1x Shooters (Picts)
1x Cleric (Pict Priestess)


The Army of Timm the Sorcerer

General Ulrich’s Force (Norse)
1x Blade General
8x Blade
1x Shooter
1x Magician (Timm the Sorcerer)

General Lancabit’s Force (Saxons)
1x Blade General
2x Blade
6x Spear
1x Behemoth (trolls)
1x Beasts (wolves)

THE GAME

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


The Elves set up across from the forces of Timm the Sorcerer. To the left is the Burldak Wood.


In the opposite corner the Dwarves and allies formed up in a column to squeeze through the bottleneck between the wood and the table edge and march on my flank.


There’s a closer view of them.


The Norse and the Elves advance towards each other.


The Saxons started off with some really bad pip rolls I sent off the beasts and Behemoths to harass the Dwarvish column and delay them to give me time to redeploy the Saxons.


The lines of Elves and Norse meet – and an epic clash it was!! CRUNCH!!


In that first clash most of the Elves recoiled from the “fury of the Norsemen”, one unit of archers was wiped out .


The wolves got to the flank of the column and caused some trouble for Darrin, limiting his options for maneuver. He made a very clever move however – moving out a stand of Halfling warband to block my movement toward the column.


Darrin got pretty lucky with the pip rolls. In another turn he had the beginning of a line formed to meet the rushing wolves and trolls.


In another turn it was a pretty solid looking line of steady dwarves flanked by ferocious Pictish and Halfling warbands!


On the other side of the woods things weren’t going so well for the Elves. The Norse were slowly whittling away at them and pushing them back towards their table edge.


Fortunes reversed and it was Darrin who couldn’t get the pips he needed to maneuver warbands to my flanks and finish off my beasts and behemoths and move forward to harass my Saxons. Meanwhile I was steadily moving the Saxons forward and forming them into a line on the hill


The Elf command was eventually demoralized and it was all they could do to just hold on….


The Saxons line came down off the hill and clashed with the Dwarves and their allies!


There was a lot of movement back and forth there, no one ever really having the upper hand.

Eventually word got to the Dwarves that the Elvish line had collapsed and they were forced to retire from the battlefield!


Here’s a view of the field of battle at the end of the game. In the right foreground are the elves and the Norse. In the center background, beyond the Burldak Wood are the Dwarves and allies clashing with the Saxons and assorted nasty Beasties…


Another view of the field of battle.

Darrin never did get to try out his artillery... or his cleric for that matter… About half way through the game Amanda and Darrin decided they really should have been deployed opposite – the dwarves facing the Norse and the Elves flanking around the woods… Ah well, we all learned a lot again and had a lot of fun!


Total Losses

The Army of the Elf Queen Amandalyll
2x Magicians
1x Blades
4x Shooters

The Army of King Goldbur
1x Blade (Dwarves)
1x Warband (Halflings)
1x Warband (Picts)


The Army of Timm the Sorcerer

General Ulrich’s Force (Norse)
1x Blade

yeah… I only lost ONE STAND!!!!

BOO-YAH!!!

HOTT Date with the Wife

I had a HOTT date with my wife last night…. and I shall spare no details…

Okay, so she’s played board games... and role-playing games… and I’ve even gotten her to play a little Mordhiem (Shadow Elves)… but this was kind of a big step, all that previous gaming had been only when other friends of mine came over, she’d join in. This was just us playing some head to head action. Also Hordes of the Things is almost like…well… a “real” war game….

I had actually been reading on Board Game Geek (and maybe elsewhere…?) about others experiences playing HOTT with their wives and how they got them to play along… and it just happened that I was painting up my HOT(T) Druidic/Pagan Priestess for my Pictish army and she commented that she thought it was a nice figure and she’d like to play it in a game… Well, of course I jumped at that opportunity and started discussing possible additional forces she might be interested in playing… She came up with the idea of an all-HOT(T)-chick army… (I should mention that Amanda is secretly a huge fan of movies with hot chicks that kick ass – Charlies Angels, Underworld, Matrix, etc…). Now I have neither and a “all-HOT(T)-chick army” or even my Pictish army complete for her to lead with the Pictish Priestess… But I did talk her into trying out some Elves….

FORCES

The Army of the Elf Queen Amandalyll

1x Magician General (Queen Amandalyll)
1x Magician
1x Knights
3x Blades
4x Shooters


The Army of the Witch Queen Maevella

1x Magician General (Witch Queen Maevella)
1x Behemoth (Trolls)
1x Beasts (Wolves)
2x Warband (Naked Warrior Fanatics)
5x Blade (Norse Mercenaries)

THE GAME – The Battle of Morgelli Hill

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


Queen Amandalyll and her forces ready to defend the Keep of the Forest.

Now Generally when I introduce someone to a new game I try to help them out as best I can and make lots of suggestions for different options for set up and strategy and the plusses and minuses to each option… Unfortunately it’s been a while since I’ve play a LOT of DBA and, indeed this is only my third game of Hordes of the Things, so it was really quite a learning experience for both of us.


Here’s another shot of her set up. She put the Elvish Axemen (Blades) in a second line behind the first because she figured they were too slow…. It probably wouldn’t have been a bad move if they’d stayed there to defend the stronghold against flankers.


There’s the rest of the table with Morgelli Hill in the middle.

I ended up with a large forest smack-dab in the middle of my deployment zone! So I grouped the bulk of my forces off to one side hoping to somehow spread them out after I got them past the woods. I just had to accept that, with the elves going first, already deployed in a line, and the slowest troops in that line being faster than my blades… she was going to get to the top of the hill first… I also deployed the beasts in the woods to run around the flank and maybe munch on some archers along the way. The trolls I deployed so they could go and whomp on the knights.


I started off slowly – building momentum…. Amanda’s main line made it to the top of the hill before I was even past the forest and starting to spread out my line. The beasts made a break for the flanks.


Amanda decided to pull the Knights out of the right of her line – where they were facing my trolls (Behemoths) – and bring them all the way around the back to the other end of the line where they might be able to deal with my beasts and warbands…


Elves on the hill.

Unfortunately she brought up the blades to stand behind the first line where they mostly just got in the way when the line started to recoil and get broken up and were unable to quickly turn to meet treats to their flank when I eventually got stuff around there.


GRRAAARRR!! The beasts chew on some Elfie-flesh. I think these archers may have held their ground for a turn before the wolves tore them to shreds… It was the first blood of the game and Amanda was saddened by their loss…


The wolves then followed up and started to roll up the line to chew on some more archers. Round two didn’t work out quite so well for me. I rolled a ONE!? EEEP! The archers were shooters in contact with “mounted” and uphill… I think she only had to roll a three to double me. The wolves died in a hail of arrows. Then we were even.


A bit later on – our lines have now met. My warband kept recoiling from the archers. The behemoths crunched into their flank destroying some archers (or maybe it was their flank contact when the archers recoiled from a magic attack that destroyed them…?). Amanda figured out that trolls don’t like sparks and so every time they got near the flank she would blast them with the magicians and make them flee 600 paces.

It was around this time that the whole Magician General thing seemed a little… I don’t know… Precarious?! I tried to keep my distance from her mages in case she got a good pip roll and decided to double-team the witch-queen!


Slowly trying to shove the elves off the hill and flank them. I’ve shoved them right into the blades and Amanda was now having a hard time trying to pull them back, individually, and turn them to face the trolls and blades I was trying to sneak around the flank.


Some of the Elf Blades finally moving back and the Knights are now in a position to threaten the Warbands.


Alrigth at this point I thought it was about to all go downhill for me. The Warbands have been flanked… There goes two stands thought I…


Here’s Amanda’s big dice roll to blast my warband! After all the factors were counted I think we were both +3 for our combat factors… all she had to do was roll higher than me…

It was not to be.


Instead the Warband forced the archers back and turned to face the Elvish Knights.


The situation starting to look a little more desperate… The elves being pushed back to the doorstep of their keep… the Elvish Knights being pushed down the hill b a bunch of wild naked fanatic humans covered in body-paint and tattoos…


RETREAT!!!

The Warband finally got the best of the Knights. I had always been +5 (+3 plus a rear support factor and uphill) and the knights had +3 vs. Foot, but also had a quick kill… Amanda had started to wonder if I might just shove them off the table, but I knew once I pushed them off the hill things might get a bit more dicey with that quick kill vs. Warband. As it turned out I roll a 6 and she rolled a 2 on the last turn they were on the hill and that was if for the Knights…


For three turns in a row the Elvish magic duo tried to double-team my Magician General – a dicey proposition as the lower roller gets Ensorcelled! She was making a reasonable enough gamble though – her primary attacker was the subordinate magician and she had a +1 advantage over me and if she DID win – my general (along with 4AP worth of stuff) was out of play! The first two turns we rolled dead even, on the third attempt she finally ensorcelled my witch-queen (The elephant is marking the location as I couldn’t find any frongs…)


What to do…? What to do….?

Despite having taken out my General things were still looking pretty grim for the elves. They had by this point lost all of their archers and the knights. One more loss would have lost them the game.

Amanda for about the middle third of the game had the most horrendous luck – she would constantly roll two’s and three’s for here pips while I seemed to roll only fives and sixes…. Generally I try to let my opponent win their first game (who ever wants to play again if in the first game they get CLOBBERED!) but what can you do when the dice are just against you!

I moved that line of five blade in against he one blade and two magicians – and brought the warbands screaming up…


Some how the elves repelled the charging blades. Then they brought up their own and took out two of my own and that was that!!!


A jubilant Amanda with the remains of her force!

She’ll play again!

I tried to convince her to wear a tight tank top or her bikini top so I could post some gratuitous booby shots like the ones that seems so popular on Board Game Geek these days (like This One… or This One… or This One… or This One…. over 700 thumbs up for one of them there... the most I ever got for an image was five... anyway, you get the idea… ) but she wouldn’t go for it… Ah well… She played the game - as if that isn't cool enough!?


The remaining elements when the human army broke.

Conclusions

Total Losses:

The Army of the Elf Queen Amandalyll
1x Knights
4x Shooters
(10AP)

The Army of the Witch Queen Maevella
1x Magician General (ensorcelled)
1x Beasts
1x Warband
2x Blade
(12AP)

It was a close hard fought battle!

I think we both learned a lot. It will be interesting to see how the next game goes…

Now to teach it to the kids...