Dwarves Vs. Orcs

Rick came over on Saturday evening and we played one final round in our September Song of Blades and Heroes campaign. I think we’re going to call it quits on this campaign and perhaps start a new one some time in October.

SCENARIO

The Dwarves were attacking. The Orcs decided to defend in the swampy marsh area.

The scenario was “Take the Land”. Victory points were only scored for being in possession of objectives and the game ended when one side was wiped out or one side controlled all three objectives.

FORCES

Gurk’s Explorers (The Boy’s New Orc Warband)

Gurk – Orc Warcheif

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 100 points, 1 xp

Leader, Tough

Augurt – Ogre

Quality 4+, Combat 4, 50 points, 1 xp

Big, Long Move

Orc Warrior #1

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 1 xp

Orc Warrior #2

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 1 xp

Orc Warrior #3

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 1 xp

Orc Warrior #4

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 1 xp

Orc Warrior #5

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 1 xp

Goblin Warrior #1

Quality 4+, Combat 2, 15 points, 1 xp

Goblin Warrior #2

Quality 4+, Combat 2, 15 points, 1 xp

295 points

34 gold

Curly’s Crusaders (Rick’s Warband)

Curly – Dwaf Commander

Quality 2+, Combat 4, 95 Points, 1 xp

Leader, Fearless

Dwarf Warrior #1

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points, 1 xp

Dwarf Warrior #2

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points, 1 xp

Dwarf Warrior #3

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points, 1 xp

Dwarf Warrior #4

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points, 1 xp

Dwarf Warrior #5

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points, 1 xp

265 points

21 gold

THE GAME

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

All set up to go – Rick’s Dwarves on the left, The Boy’s Orcs on the right. The Objectives were the outhouse, the campfire and the little tree in the centre of the woods.

On turn one the Orcs rushed ahead and seized the outhouse (I guess a few of them REALLY had to go) – others however were having trouble remembering how to tie their shoes and had to have the boss come over and remind them…

On the Dwarves first turn they all surged forward and seized the campfire! Huzzah!

On the Orcs second turn the boy started off with the orc that had rolled the  turn-over last turn… and rolled another turn-over… Having ascertained that he did, in fact not NEED to tie his shoes BECAUSE HE WASN’T WEARING ANY he promptly further held up the tribe by pointing out an odd looking cloud in the sky that he was pretty sure was looking at him funny prompting a vigorous debate amongst the orcs as to whether a cloud could, in fact, look at you at all…

At least they scored a victory point…

The Dwarves collected a victory point as well and the rest of the warband surged ahead towards the Orcs.

The Orcs apparently continued their debate about clouds or perhaps whether, if they had no shoes, was it necessary to tie their toes together…? (another turn-over was rolled for their first activation)

They did, however score another victory point for holding the out house.

As the Dwarves charged into view the debates quickly ended and the Orcs shambled forward to set up a defensive line… well… SOME of them…

On the Dwarves fourth turn they charged into combat, cutting down an Orc and driving another back.

At the beginning of Turn Five, the orcs got one of their goblins into contact with a second objective – which, starting with the next turn, would start netting them TWO victory points per turn… for what it was worth…? Also one of the Orcs holding the outhouse stepped away to take up the position in the line where one of his Orc brothers fell.

That was about it… someone rolled a turn-over…

The Dwarves surged forward and cut down two more Orcs!

I don’t have enough casualty markers to show where they ALL fell… just the two that died this particular turn.

Curly himself also decided to get in on the action this turn, charging in against Gurk and

At the beginning of Turn Six things started looking up for the Orcs. “Looking up”, in this case, is sort of a relative term meaning “didn’t suck as much…”

The Orcs did score TWO victory points – though I have yet to figure out how that was ever supposed to help them… Gurk charged back into combat with Curly and Knocked him down! The Ogre finally activated and charged into combat with a dwarf…

… caving his head in with his gigantic club.

The Orc and goblin that had been sitting at the table edge from the beginning of the game finally got moving and charged a Dwarf!

Things looked even BETTER at the beginning of the Dwarfs next turn when Curly got up and attacked Gurk again – and got knocked back down on his ass! (so he would start the ORcs next turn down and be at the mercy of Gurk!)

Things started to slip after that...



First the Dwarves knocked down the Ogre…

Then at the beginning of Turn Seven The Boy activated Gurk… and rolled a four and two ones!? So… at least Gurk would get a chance to crush the downed Curly before the turn ended abruptly… The had equal combat scores, but Gurk got +2 because Curly was knocked down and all Gurk had to do was beat Curly’s score to take him out…

Rick rolled a five…

The boy rolled a two… nope… can’t even kill a downed opponent…

The Dwarves finished up Turn Seven by taking out the Ogre and scoring a Gruesome Kill on a goblin – triggering a few morale checks… a few fled, none of the objectives still had guys in contact… so The Boy conceded the game and all the remaining Orcs fled.

I had thought, upon reading the scenario, that it might be interesting – there was no scoring victory points for taking out enemy – only holding the objectives… but as there was no time limit and it was only ended by one side being wiped out (or the odd possibility of one side controlling all three objectives) it still came down to a slugfest with the victor being the on that vanquished all his enemies… I think it would be hard to win this on victory points alone…

In the post game it was found that the Ogre and two of the orcs died, while one orc was moderately wounded and would suffer a reduction in quality for the next game (had there been a next game), and the other injured Orc would fully recover before the next encounter. The Orcs collected 20 gold – enough to hire a new Ogre, but that would leave them down two Orcs and a Goblin – though those that remained were slowly gaining some experience!?

The Dwarf injured by the Ogre was found to be well and truly dead. The Dwarves collected 40 gold and wandered through a Haunted Wood in their exploration phase…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’m not sure… I haven’t been really painting much…. Not sure if I’m going to continue this campaign… or start a new one… or what…

We shall see what we shall see. 

Argonauts and Colonel Lawrence

Wow… I can’t believe I haven’t posted any new figures all month!?

I’ve been working on these a while. Nice to finally have them done and to be able to post them all in one big group.

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

The Argonauts from Wargames Foundry

Jason, Zetes and a couple other Argonauts. (They make a Zetes, but no Calais... I'll have to find another winged fellow for his brother Boread)

More Argonauts

Still more Argonauts

Even MORE Argonauts.

I started making a ship for them a while back… perhaps I should dig that out now and finish it up.

A few dead Argonauts – a few Greek casualties from Warlord Games that I painted up in the same manner as my Argonauts.

Two other random Greeks I happened to finish up at the same time (both from Black Tree Design).

And finally… Colonel T. E. Lawrence from Artizan Designs.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign Week 2

This week we continued our Fall Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign (using the campaign system from Song of Deeds and Glory). Only Amanda and the kids were available to play so they took turns playing each other getting in  two games each.

GAME ONE

The Boy’s Lizards faced off against The Girl’s Elves for game one…

SCENARIO

The Champions of Lagozed were attacking Elysthyth’s Wander’s.

The Scenario was Sieze the High Ground – for each turn one warband held the designated high ground they got a bonus victory point (in addition to the 1 per 20 points of foes defeated).

FORCES

Champions of Lagozed (The Boy’s Warband)

Garthoth – Lizardman Champion

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 82 Points, 1 xp

Amphibious, Tailslap, Tough

Lizardman Warrior #1

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points, 1xp

Amphibious, Tailslap

Lizardman Warrior #2

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points, 1xp

Amphibious, Tailslap

Lizardman Warrior #3

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points, 1xp

Amphibious, Tailslap

- Missing this game due to injury

238 points

10 gold

Elysthyth’s Wander’s (The Girl’s Warband)

Elysthyth – Elf Wizard

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 70 Points, 1 xp

Magic-user, Forester

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points, 1 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points, 1 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Elf Warrior

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 38 Points, 1 xp

Elf Sneak

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 53 Points, 1 xp

Stealth, Forester

301 points

29 gold

Warband Advances: Tough as Nails

THE GAME

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

End of Tune One – Elves are racing towards the high ground – the Lizards are slowly slinking their way there.

End of Turn Two – Elves have made it to the high ground… lizards… not so much…

Turn Three Elves collect a victory point for holding the high ground.

On their fourth turn, one Elf archer knocks down the Lizardman Champion – a second archer makes him lose a level of quality. The also collect another victory point for holding the high ground.

On the fifth turn, one of the Lizardmen made it up to the heights. He was quickly outnumbered, knocked down, and taken out of action by the Elves – it was a gruesome kill, actually, so the remaining lizardmen had to check morale and both fled off the table… end of game…

In the post-game explorations and so forth the Lizards collected only 10 gold for their troubles – not enough to replace any of the loses from the last two games. Things got worse in the exploration phase when the Lizardmen stumbled on a DEATH TRAP which further reduced their numbers to only two (the champion and one other lizardman…). At this point The Boy decided to retire this warband and make a new one…

The Elves faired a little better… the collected 30 gold, but then in the Exploration phase they were ambusehed – by Lizardmen!? In the ambush one of the Archers was wounded and would miss the next game.

GAME TWO

SCENARIO

Amanda’s Amazons were the attackers.

Treasure Hunt Scenario – locate treasure at one of three possible locations. 1 VP per 25 points of enemy taken out, plus 5 VP for whowever has the treasure at the end of the game (+d6x5 gold!)

FORCES

Elysthyth’s Wander’s (The Girl’s Warband)

Elysthyth – Elf Wizard

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 70 Points, 2 xp

Magic-user, Forester

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points, 2 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

- missing this game due to injury

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points, 2 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Elf Warrior

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 38 Points, 2 xp

Elf Sneak

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 53 Points, 2 xp

Stealth, Forester

301 points

59 gold

Campaign Points: 2

Warband Advances: Tough as Nails, Explorers

Amanda’s Amazons

Lasthena – Amazon Infantry Leader

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 70 Points, 1 xp

Leader

Kyra – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3,  30 Points, 1 xp

Herophile – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 30 Points, 1 xp

Niobe – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 30 Points, 1 xp

Eurycleia – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 1 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Polydora – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 1 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Cybele – Amazon Light Infantry

Quality 3+, Combat 2, 28 Points, 1 xp

Shooter Medium

Emile – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 0 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

338 points

22 gold

Campaign Points: 1

Warband Advances: Tough as Nails

THE GAME

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

Amazons first move – already in contact with the first treasure location!

Not to be outdone, The Girl rushed her Elves in there as fast as she could… which, unfortunately, meant the Elf Wizard ended up way out in front of everyone else…

This kind of proved to be her undoing as in the Amazons next turn and archer knocked the Wizard down and a Warrior rushed in…

…and took her out of the action!

The first location turned out not to hold the treasure.

No such luck at the second location.

So everyone started for the third treasure chest.

When the Elves lost their Archer to one of the Amazons Archers, they decided it was time to call it a day…

In the Post Game The Elves collected 30 gold! The Elf Elite archer made a full recovery! Unfortunately the Wizard required extensive surgery (or healing spell components) which cost 50 gold! During their explorations they came across a Cursed Glade – which they decided to avoid using their Explorers warband advance, but that in turn lead them through some nasty swamps where one of her archers picked up a nasty cough… but being an Elf she quickly recovered and suffered no long-term adverse effects.

The Amazons suffered no injuries, collected 60 gold between income and the treasure chest, then found a Blessed Glade in their explorations (which gave one member a charm stone)

GAME THREE

Fr our third game – which we actually played Sunday morning – The Boy’s new Orc warband faced off against the Amazons

SCENARIO

The Amazons were attacking.

The scenario was Breakthrough – Amazons got 1 victory point per 15 points worth of figures they get off the far end of the table, the Orcs got 1 victory point per 20 points worth of foes defeated.

FORCES

Amanda’s Amazons

Lasthena – Amazon Infantry Leader

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 70 Points, 2 xp

Leader

Phoebe – Amazon Sub-Commander

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 60 Points, 0 xp

Leader

Kyra – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3,  30 Points, 2 xp

Herophile – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 30 Points, 2 xp

Niobe – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 30 Points, 2 xp

Eurycleia – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 2 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Polydora – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 2 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Cybele – Amazon Light Infantry

Quality 3+, Combat 2, 28 Points, 2 xp

Shooter Medium

Emile – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points, 1 xp

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

398 points

22 gold

Campaign Points: 2

Warband Advances: Tough as Nails, Retain the Initiative

Gurk’s Explorers (The Boy’s New Orc Warband - all painted by himself)

Gurk – Orc Warcheif

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 100 points, 0 xp

Leader, Tough

Augurt – Ogre

Quality 4+, Combat 4, 50 points,

Big, Long Move

Orc Warrior #1

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 0 xp

Orc Warrior #2

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 0 xp

Orc Warrior #3

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 0 xp

Orc Warrior #4

Quality 4+, Combat 3, 23 points, 0 xp

Goblin Warrior #1

Quality 4+, Combat 2, 15 points, 0 xp

Goblin Warrior #2

Quality 4+, Combat 2, 15 points, 0 xp

THE GAME

The Boy picked the river crossing board thinking it might provide a bit of a barrier to the Amazons - not considering that Amanda might choose one of the river end edges to start on. Once she did, he set up more or less as close to the centre as possible to give himself a chance to run to which ever side of the river the Amazons set up on.

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

After the Amazon’s first turn – racing up one side of the board.

The Orcs move to intercept!

Amazon’s second turn – a Goblin warrior is knocked down by an Amazon archer firing at point blank range. An Amazon warrior is knocked down by an orc…

The Ogre enters the fray! GRAAARRRR! He only made it into contact – and on the ORcs next turn he rolled two ones and a two (no action, turn over)

Amazons making for the board edge to exit (and score lots of victory points!)

Two Amazons are more or less left behind to distract and hold up the Orcs and Goblins (and Ogre!)

One bunch of Amazons leave the table…

The Ogre tries to chase down some of the Amazons making for the edge of the board.

The Ogre caught up with the newly recruited junior leader.

And smashed her head in with his massive club! The nearby Amazon slinger passed the morale test called for from the gruesome death!

One of the Amazons in the blocking force is finally overwhelmed and taken out.

The remaining Amazon archer – the last one on the table – flees away from the edge where she needs to leave – because there’s an OGRE over that way – and it seems certain death to go that way.

But the Orcs chase her down.

She is also overwhelmed and taken down.

The Amazons scored 17 victory points for the bunch they were successfully able to get off the edge of the board. The Orcs only scored 7 victory points for the Amazons taken out. The two Amazons in the blocking party miraculously survived!! Teh Amazons took in 10 gold in income and during the exploration phase ran into a Merchant Caravan who swindled them out of 15 gold!

The Orcs collected 30 gold in income. One of those gold they wasted at a Roadside Shrine they encountered which offered nothing in return for their offering…

Next weekend was the last weekend I had planned to run this preliminary campaign. Unfortunately three of the guys I thought might play in the campaign haven’t made it to a single game yet!? Another has only made it to one… I had planned on wrappingup this campaign next weekend and starting a new, longer campaign in October… I guess we’ll see what happens and who shows up next week. 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Still working on those Greeks… not getting much painting done… so the next post might be next week’s campaign report… 

New Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign

Wow… September hit like a… like a… something that… um… well, it’s been very busy. I’ve hardly even painted anything in the last two weeks. (I did however finish building the first – of SIX – bookshelves I need to build this fall).

This week we finally kicked off the first of our Fall Song of Blades and Heroes Campaigns (using the campaign system from Song of Deeds and Glory). The plan is to run a short campaign through September – for everyone to learn the campaign system and get some sense of what works good in a campaign warband – and then run a longer campaign through October, November, and December. (Also I figured it’d give them a month to source out their OWN figures for the second campaign!)

FORCES

Amanda’s Amazons

Lasthena – Amazon Infantry Leader

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 70 Points

Leader

Kyra – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3,  Points 30

Herophile – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3,  Points 30

Niobe – Amazon Warrior

Quality 3+, Combat 3,  Points 30

Eurycleia – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Polydora – Elite Amazon Archer

Quality 3+, Combat 3, 50 Points

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

Cybele – Amazon Light Infantry

Quality 3+, Combat 2, 28 Points

Shooter Medium

288 points

12 gold

Curly’s Crusaders (Rick’s Warband)

Curly – Dwaf Commander

Quality 2+, Combat 4, 95 Points

Leader, Fearless

Dwarf Warrior #1

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

Dwarf Warrior #2

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

Dwarf Warrior #3

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

Dwarf Warrior #4

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

Dwarf Warrior #5

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

Dwarf Warrior #6

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 34 Points

299 points

1 gold

Champions of Lagozed (The Boy’s Warband)

Garthoth – Lizardman Champion

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 82 Points

Amphibious, Tailslap, Tough

Lizardman Warrior #1

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points

Amphibious, Tailslap

Lizardman Warrior #2

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points

Amphibious, Tailslap

Lizardman Warrior #3

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points

Amphibious, Tailslap

Lizardman Warrior #4

Quality 3+, Combat 4, 52 Points

Amphibious, Tailslap

290 points

10 gold

Elysthyth’s Wander’s (The Girl’s Warband)

Elysthyth – Elf Wizard

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 70 Points

Magic-user, Forester

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Elf Elite Archer

Quality 2+, Combat 3, 70 Points

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Elf Warrior

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 38 Points

Elf Sneak

Quality 2+, Combat 2, 53 Points

Stealth, Forester

301 points

0 gold

ROUND ONE

For this round we determined Elysthyth’s Wander’s would battle against Curly’s Crusaders and the Champions of Lagozed would battle against Amanda’s Amazons

GAME ONE

Elysthyth’s Wander’s  was defending against Curly’s Crusaders. The Girl picked out the “Clearing in the Woods” Game Board and they rolled “Accidental Meeting” for a scenario.

Dwarves and Elves scattered about the woods in an Accidental Meeting engagement.

We’ve not played this scenario before. Each takes turns deploying the other players models such that none are within One Long of another figure. It was quite fun. It would such to play with a warband of goblins or something with mostly Q4+… you’d never get then all together…

This elf as a bit surrounded… The Girl was a bit overwhelmed as to what to do and briefly considered conceding before they even started!? WE encouraged her to try it out a couple turns and I ended up giving an awful lot of advice…

With their 2+ Quality the elves very quickly gathered together and started raining arrows down on the slow-moving dwarves who were desperately avoiding the woods. (Woods are for cutting down and making axe-handles!)

At the other end of the table Curly gathered up a few of his warriors and charged into the middle of the clearing. Curly (seeing he could make it to the wizard and wanted to show off to his pals) made the mistake of charging ahead of his mates… He managed to knock the wizard down, but in the Elves next turn he was surrounded, and cut down. The loss of their leader unsettled a few of his compatriots who fled. Another Dwarf was killed in a gruesome fashion (arrow through the neck) that caused more to flee, which brought the numbers on the table lower than those that had left and antoehr morale test carried off all bu one of the Dwarves…

The last dwarf standing.

Checking afterwards Curly managed to survive without a scratch. Apparently when the rest of the Dwarves thought he’d been killed, it turns out the elves had simple pinned him down, bound and gagged him. He was later found still bound and gagged (and naked) wanding out of the woods with a fresh tattoo on his but that read something like “Elves Kick Ass”.

The Other Dwarf was well and truly dead.

Elysthyth’s Wander’s netted 13 victory points, one campaign point, and 30 gold for this adventure. Rolling on the exploration temple the Elves discovered a Temple of Evil – which they declined to sack (due to the one in six chance of incurring the wrath of the evil deities!).

Curly’s Crusaders gained no victory points or campaign points, but did collect 20 gold and found an abandoned keg of ale in their explorations. Not enough to Hire a replacemtn for their lost warrior, so they’ll be down a bit for the next game.

GAME TWO

Next The Boy’s Champions of Lagozed battled Amanda’s Amazons. The Amazon’s defended a mountain pass and rolled “On Dangerous Ground” for a scenario.

Somehow I only managed to take one picture of this entire game…. This is just at the start of the Lizards’ second turn. the Lizardman warrior in contact with the Amazon light infantry is about to take her down… The only casualty the Amazons suffered in this game.

The first success for the Amazons was to take Garathoth down an notch – being tough, his first wound only reduced his quality – but it was enough that when they outnumbered and Gruesomely Killed one of the other lizardman warriors he fled the field! Another Lizardman warrior was felled before the rest fled.

After the battle Amanda collected 11 victory points, a campaign point and 60 gold! Her injured slinger was seriously injured and will miss the next game. In their explorations the Amazons discovered a Haunted Wood… lacking a necromancer, no ghouls joined their warband…

The Champions of Lagozed collected 1 victory point and 20 gold. The came across a roadside shrine to Lagozed and made an offering, but Lagozed did not show them favour… The injured Lizardman was moderately wounded and will suffer a reduction in quality for the next game. Like the Dwarves, they were not able to aquire enough gold to replace the lost warrior (the one that suffered a gruesome kill) and will be down one on their next game.  

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a few Greeks I’ve been working on that hopefully I’ll finish up this week. other than that, there will be a report of next week’s games one week from today (hopefully a few others might be able to make it out).