Norse Irish

Finally got around to finishing a new DBA army: Norse Irish.

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


These are the new stands 8 stands of Auxilia (including an Auxilia General). The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast and Old Glory.

Here’s the whole army (including a bunch of Psiloi and a couple of Blade (Norse/Viking mercenaries?):


Yes, the stands are not the suggested depths or number of figures. This army, like all my other DBA/HOTT armies, I’ve based foot on 40mm deep bases and, for the most part, used 1.5x the suggested number of figures. So, Psiloi have three, Auxilia have four, the Blade have six.

I am anxious to try these out. So far the only Dark Age armies I’ve have are the Normans, Vikings and Anglo-Danish/Saxons. Generally the Vikings almost always defeat the Anglo-Danish/Saxons and the Normans simply destroy everyone! I’m wondering how these armies will fair fighting the Irish who, being mostly Auxilia and Psiloi, will likely hide in swamps, and woods and on high steep hills and ambush all those Knights and Blades and Spear (who all don’t do so good in Bad-Going terrain).

I also have a couple of options to use for Hordes of the Things:


Some Irish Wolfhounds (Beasts) and some Leprechauns (lurkers?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More DBA/HotT madness! The year is 2/3 done and I’m just over 600 foot figures painted – I’ll probably make 900… can I make it 1000? Might be hard considering I’ll probably squeak some cavalry in there (being all inspired by Neldoreth’s Scythians… I think I might actually get around to painting a few of my own!!). Mostly I want to concentrate on finishing up some dark age armies (Vikings, Anglo-Saxon/Danish, Pre-feudal Scotts, and Welsh) and some more HOTT armies/options (Dwarves and Elves mostly… and maybe some orcs…. Undead… Centaurs…)

Yeah… I should totally do those Centaurs…

I’m thinking I might try and run another HOTT or DBA campaign in February… we shall see..

Odds and Sods (Scots/Irish & Survivors)

A couple odd things rolling off the workbench this weekend.

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


These were in my bin of “Dark Age Irish”. I know the figures are from Old Glory, but I can’t remember if any of them were actually labeled “Irish” or if they were “Scots”…? What does it matter really – I mean, the original Scots WERE Irish that came across and beat down and assimilated the original Pictish inhabitants, right?

I was working on these because I was working on others from the same box to try and finish up a DBA Norse Irish army. It seemed like the easiest to finish up of the Dark Age DBA armies that I have figures for but aren’t completed… I also have pre-feudal Scots and Welsh (and enough Vikings and English/Anglo-Danish/Middle Anglo-Saxon for at least another army or two of those….). I’ve also been using some sub-standard proxies in the Anglo-Danish army for a while and have been debating whether to finish up the actual figures I’m going to use in the army or just keep using the ones I’m using (because they work…) and finish up other armies first – then come back and finish up… bah… whatever…

Anyway – I have figures for three stands of Auxilia finished up (including the Auxilia General) but just need to finish the bases (and flag) and I have five more stands to do. If I did a stand each evening I’d have the army complete by next weekend – BOOYAH! That’s what I’m going to do – get some armies FINISHED!

Maybe after the Irish I’ll finish up the actual Anglo-Danish (and a couple extra spear to make the Middle Anglo-Saxon options). Then maybe I’ll look to tackling the Welsh or Scotts…

Or maybe some fantasy armies – finish up a few options for Elves, Orcs, or Dwarves…

What I need to do is take stock and come up with a plan and stick to it. I’ve been meaning to do this for weeks… but just don’t seem to find the time.


These are Copplestone Castings “Sewer Scavengers” (or something like that…). They will likely see action as some sort of survivors in either a Zombie game or some other post apocalypse/dark future scenario…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

NORSE IRISH DBA ARMY!!!

(and maybe a couple other odd dark age/medieval/fantasy types…)

Unicorn… Women… Children…

Some more odds and extras…

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


I think this unicorn is from RAFM. The neck looked kind of funny to me so I carved a bit off of it before painting.


Some women and children for various manufacturers. The woman on the extreme left (with hands on her hips) is from Mega Miniatures, and the other woman is from Gripping Beast. The Children are from Warlord Games.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably more fantasy stuff at the moment…

Isengard Invades Lothlorien… Again…

When will they ever learn... !?

I’m sure a couple years ago I played an Isengard vs Lothlorien game with Amanda.

Anyway, this evening the Girl was determined to play The Elves and include wizards in the army, despite my many warnings that it’s a “tricky” army to play. The Boy took the Isengard orcs to fight against them, so we decided the Elves must be the Elves of Lothlorien.

SITUATION

A band of Orcs from Isengard has been sent to invade the lands of Lothlorien. The Elves stand waiting.

SCENARIO

Orcs attacking, Elves defending.

FORCES

Elves of Lothlorien
1x Magician General – Lady Galadriel
2x Magicians – Other Elf wizards
3x Blade – Elf Warriors
3x Shooters – Elf Archers

Orcs of Isengard
1x Blade General - Mudruck
4x Blade – Orc Warriors
4x Spear – Orcs with Pike
2x Shooter – Orc Archers
1x Beast – Warg Riders


THE GAME


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


The army of Lothlorien arrayed for battle.


The Boy with Mudruck’s army of Uruk-hai.


The Girl, ostensibly leading the Elves.


The armies advance.


The Elf magicians blasting the Orc general caused him to retire momentarily making a slight dent in the line.


The Warg riders carged out of the bush looking for some fresh elf meat….


… but were shot down in tempest of elf archery.


Again the Orc General is recoiled by Elvish sorcery.


Not waiting for their general to catch up the Orcs crash into the Elvish lines.


Along the entire line the orcs are beaten back by the righteous fury of the elves defending their homeland. The center of the Orcs line begins to crumble as the warriors there are dealt some punishing blows by the Elvish wizards and begin to fade away.


The Elvish archer on the left of the line begin to maneuver – having little else to do…


Again the orcs rush the elves.


This time they are able to overwhelm the Elves and turn their flank.


Panic begins to spread amongst the Elf Warriors and the right of the line begins to break.


Meanwhile the Orc archers at the extreme right of their line find nothing in between them and the Elvish stronghold and make a break for it.


I think Finnegan thought this was a particularly clever move…. Not sure if he realized he’d actually have to attack it once they got there…


What a mess. Lots of shoving back and forth. The Girl began to loose interest/patience at this point and in a very whiney voice asked why everyone was always just getting pushed back?!


Zones of Control everywhere… but no one with enough PIPs to turn any flanks.


The archers getting ever closer to the Elvish stronghold. A single band of Elvish Warriors being ever pushed back towards his one table edge – but effectively holding back two Orc blade and four spear!?


Oh so close… Will those wiley orc archers sack Lothlorien while the Elf army is otherwise engaged...!?

At about this time The Girl had had itm,retired to bed, and I took over the Elves.


Finally got enough PIPs to get some flank contacts going on.


Poof there goes another band of Orc warriors.


Finnegan was so full of glee at the idea of his archers getting in contact with the Elves stronghold I don’t think he quit realized how exposed and imperiled his General was.


It looks bad for the Elves… but really at this point they’d only lost ONE stand to three of the Orcs…


Once again not enough PIPS to engage the general AND turn his flank.


But who needs a flank contact when you roll lucky like this!! Dead General game over – the remaining Orcs flee in terror back to Isengard… well… those that aren’t cut down as they try to leave…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of the same…. Might try and get in another game with the kids tomorrow. I think Mr. Miller is joining me tomorrow evening for a night of painting – so there should be some new toys on display here Tuesday sometime.

Dork Tower Miniatures

And now for something completely different… (or… maybe not so much…)

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


These are Dork Tower miniatures from Steve Jackson Games. From left to right we have; Matt, Carson, Ken, Igor, Kayleigh, and Gilly, the Perky Goth.

I like these minis, they’re a lot of fun. I wish there were more goofy-cartoony miniatures out there…

I have to admit I never really read Dork Tower until I bought these… actually I never really read it until I started PAINTING these!? I picked these up super cheap off ebay from a seller that I was buying a bunch of other stuff from a year or so ago… I’ve picked up a few of the collections from the local library – they’re good fun.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Oh, probably some more HOTT action… Fantasy role-playing characters… and some Elves…

HotT/DBA Double-Header

Rather than carrying on with our Gladiator Campaign, I busted out some HOTT & DBA this Saturday night.

First game was Hordes of the Things, which I played against Rick…

SITUATION

Too long have the Orcs of Gorgwent held Rickvold, ancient stronghold of the Ricklet Dwarf clan… Young Rickli Bearwrastler son of Crickli, the new clan chieftan, has decided to lead his clan in against the stronghold to wrest it from the evil squatters!

SCENARIO

Dwarves attacking Orcs.

FORCES

The Orcs of Gorgwent
1x Hero General – Nmit Twofang
1x Behemoth – Cave Trolls
6 x Riders – Wolf Riders
2x Beast – Wolf Packs

The Ricklet dwarf Clan
1x Hero General - Rickli Bearwrastler, son of Crickli
6x Blade – Dwarf Warriors
2x Shooters – Dwarves with guns
2x Beasts – assorted wild critters.

THE GAME


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


The Orcish battleline ready to defend their ill-gotten digs.


Short, but full of righteous fury: The Ricklet Dwarf Clan.


The lines advance… I pulled my beasts out of the woods and tried to maneuver them to flank the dwarf line, but Rick mirrored my movements – Beast on Beast is an instant death situation which I try my best to avoid… So I hung out for a turn and hoped for better PIPs to bring in some riders to deal with them and then hopefully turn the flank.


Unfortunately the shooty dwarves blasted a whole pack of Wolf Riders to… well... wherever Orcs go when they die…


The lines were about to meet and Rick has sadly lined up his Hero General with my Hero General – another instant death situation I generally try even HARDER to avoid… (I guess if I really wanted to try even harder to avoid it, I’d stop taking bloody Hero Generals and take it as a Rider General and have one more element in my line… but I digress…).


Riders Contacted the Pack of Woodland critters and scattered them… but it wasn’t nearly enough.


The main line met and Rick won the Hero General vs. Hero General roll (actually the dice tied, but he had an overlap) so game over, Dwarves “won”.

Of course the Orcs were left more or less intact and scattered only to regroup in the woods nearby…. They would soon return to harry the Dwarves…

Around the time that first quick game wrapped up Dave and Patrick arrived and I decided to itroduce them to HOTT/DBA. Dave chose Vikings and Patrick took Anglo-Danish…

SITUATION

Them Anglos haven’t been payin up the Danegeld… Time to go give them a thumping to remind them who’s boss.

SCENARIO

Vikings attacking Anglo-Danish.

FORCES

Vikings
1x Blade General
10x Blade
1x Warband

AngloDanish
1x Blade General
2x Blade
8x Spear
1x Psiloi

THE GAME


The foes form their battle lines…


Eyeing each other across the field of battle they begin their advance…


The battle lines clash!


There is much shoving back and forth, neither gaining the upperhand.


The Vikings charge back in, turning the Anglo-Danish flank.


A unit of Spear is lost!


Further down the line another Spear is lost.


Most of the rest of the Anglo-Danish line is pushed back.


Desperately the Anglo-Danes rejoin the fray.


Catching the Berserks off balance they are destroyed of driven off… but it is too little, too late.


Elsewhere the Anglo-Dane Huscarls begin to crumble and the rest of the line is driven back..


The Vikings Surge forward.


More of the Fyrd spearmen are lost at the end of the line, many panicking about being flanked and fleeing into the woods.


Back in the middle of the line the Huscarls continue to crumble… sealing the Anglo-Danes doom.


If that weren’t bad enough, the Viking General’s personal guard massacred another batch of fyrdmen.


Enough to lose a game all in one turn – on top of the previous losses… Not a good day for the Anglo-Danish….

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More o’ the same… painted toys… HOTT/DBA battle reports…