Elves and Irish

The boy and I were playing HOTT again today. Junior decided he wanted to play something he hadn’t played before – The Elves - despite the fact that I’ve told him they’re “tricky” to play (this is probably because I beat him soundly with them last time we played). I was anxious to try out my new Norse Irish - not that playing them in HOTT wold give me a really good feel for them as the army is almost entirely Auxilia and Psiloi – neither of which are used in HOTT. I ended up classifying all the Irish as “warband”.

SITUATION

Paddy mac Cumhaill, the less-well-known, younger brother of Fionn mac Cumhaill, lived on the border of faerieland and was jealous of the Sídhe (Elves) that lived within – certain that they possessed much gold and would not share it. So he gathered up his followers and decided to invade and take some of that gold for himself.

SCENARIO

The Irish under Paddy mac Cumhaill attacking The Sidhe (Elves) of Faerieland.

FORCES

The Irish
1x Warband General (Paddy mac Cumhaill)
10x Warband (Irish Warriors)
1x Beasts (Irish wolfhounds)

The Sídhe
1x Blade General
2x Blade (Elves with axes)
3x Shooters (Elf Archers)
3x Magicians (Efl Wizards)

THE GAME


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


Young Finn and the Sidhe (Elves) of Faerieland


The Wily Irish under Paddy mac Cumhaill advance into the land of the Sidhe lusting for their gold.


On The elves first turn they advanced. On my first turn I rolled only one PIP so I sent some lads over on the flank sneaking off around the far side of the woods.


The Elves sent a Magician to try and block them from flanking the Elvish line.


The rest of the elvish line continues to advance on the Irish…


The Irish line begins to advance as well…


The next turn the elves only rolled 1 PIP – unable to move the whole line (because of the magicians – which require and exta PIP just to move) Finnegan moved up his archers to loose a volley at the Irish line!


The Elvish arrows made a chink in the line – driving back a band of Irish warriors.


On the Irish bound the flanking warriors and the beast surrounded the Elvish magician…


…and destroyed him! (or, as I assured Finnegan, realizing he was in danger, he likely teleported off to safety far from the field of battle...).



With only 2 PIPs the Elves were only able to move up the rest of the line to meet the archers. The volleys from the archers drove back another batch of irish warriors.


On the following bound the Irish line rushed the Elves!


One band of warriors simple disappeared before one of the powerful Elvish magicians!?


The overall result of the clash was the right of the Irish line in utter chaos – some having surged forward following retreating elves, others fallen back. On the left of the line the general and the other warriors at his side fell back more or less in good order…


The Elvosh blade followed them up on the following bound …


… And utterly crushed the Irish – destroying Paddy mac Cumhaill’s personal guard and a great many other Irish warriors besides.


Other Irish warriors were surrounded by archers and pin-cushioned in a deadly hail of close accurate archery.


… and that was the game; Irish lost their general and three others, Elves lost a magician.

Fun times.

I’d like to try the Irish out in DBA soon, however…

In other news I’ve wrapped up the Savage Saturday Gladiator Campaign on Saturday. Next week we’ll be starting a new fantasy campaign.

Thinking a little more seriously about some weekend HOTT and/or DBA campaigns next year – probably both – one in February and maybe one in June… The DBA one will be a Dark Ages campaign (Vikings, Anglos, Normans, Welsh, Irish, Scots… maybe an additional Viking – if I get it done… maybe West Franks and an additional Anglo-saxon/Danish kingdom if I can convince CVT to come out and bring his toys…).

I need to get making some new terrain squares - I need some more bad-going for the wily Irish to hide in!

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.