Inter-campaign projects

Given the lull in campaign activity this seems like an ideal time to review what we're all working on. I've been taking the time to rebase my Dwarves and paint the odd figure for fun. I've been making up some special characters for a narrative campaign.

At left is an Undead Bretonnian Hero, who I'll be using as a Wight Lord. I'll be posting some other figs I've been working on as I finish them off!

Round 5 Part 2

The final game of the round was a very tight affair between Bish and the Dwarves. Bish turned up with an unusual Chaos list consisting of three blocks of Chaos Warriors (one chosen), Chosen Knights, FOUR spawn and hounds. The Dwarves put away Strollaz' Rune and went for the Anvil.
However, it was a poor start for the short fellows, unable to do any damage at all to the warrior horde in the first turn as they relentlessly crossed the table. On his right flank Bish used his hounds to shield the knights from missile fire, whioch proved effective as the Dwarves were unwilling to shoot the hounds to open up the knights for a charge. On the other flank, all three warrior blocks advanced as slowly as the Gyrocopter would allow, with spawn swarming around behind them to protect from the inevitable Miner/Anvil combo attack.
When the miners did arrive, it was in the flank. They were able to win the combat but Bish had wisely taken the Banner of the Gods which meant that all the warriors would be Stubborn, so they held whilst the Spawn closed in. This battle then lasted for pretty much the whole game, Bish refusing to fail a single test (even after the BOTG had gone out of range!) until the Spawn finally arrived to clean up the miners and break them. The other two blocks simply didn't have the movement to get into combat, with the chosen eventually being whittled away to half strength by combined war machine fire.
This meant the decisive battle would be fought between the Longbeards with BSB and the Chosen Knights. When this battle finally occured, it was something of a stalemate. The Dwarven ranks counted against the few casualties the knights were able to slip through. In a challenge between the Chaos Exalted General (leading the knights) and the Dwarf BSB, there were two rounds of goalless draws, with the Chaos general unable to score any wounds despite wielding the Great Fang (no armour saves!), only to see his demonic steed kill the Dwarf in a single round of combat! The longbeards were able to chip away at the knights, occasionally killing one, and neither side could get the upper hand. Eventually the Dwarven Warrior block that had rolled up Frenzy due to heavy drinking at the Brewery arrived in the knight's flank, but still could not break them (Bish's famed poor rolling was nowhere to be seen!), and thus the battle ended in a draw! This was an unusual game because each side passed all but one test for the whole game!
However, a draw was all the Dwarves needed to take their 10th territory and claim the campaign for the stunted folk (much to the displeasure of Dale whose grumbling had been heard prior to the battle!).

Stay tuned for the next campaign, in which Dwarves have been outlawed.

Round 5 Part 1

Round 5 proved to be another split round with Bish making a pilgrimage to the Cathayan highlands to consult a panel of mystic dice gurus. He may well need them as he now has to face the unconquered dwarves in his next match.

The other games proceeded as normal.
In the latest installment of the Battle for Aspendale Gardens, Mark took exception to AG's freshly (and beautifully) painted Kroxigor and Salamander units by mercilessly targetting them with Trebauchet and bow fire, killing them before they saw real action. AG's chances were hampered in this game by more bad rolling, possibly meaning a trip to the dice gurus himself will be in order. He started by failing both Stupidity tests to kick the game off and it pretty much went downhill from there. Mark, who needed little in the way of that kind of help gleefullly seized the opportunity to wipe out every lizard that came under his gaze with a series of sound tactical moves that had the lizards flailing.

It was also a fine night to be an Ogre, as both Staks and Dale had big wins over Ryan and Jack. Whilst the High Elves were beaten to a bloody (if pleasantly smelling) pulp throughout the game, Staks had to recover from early setbacks as two small fleeing units set off a series of failed panic tests across the Ogre lines. The Tyrnat however managed to pull himself and the rest of the army together after this and returned to give the 'kings a sound beating of their own.
Jack was heard to ruminate later that perhaps Tomb Kings aren't the army for him after all.

The results have Dale breathing down the Dwarven neck for overall honours, but will now be relying of Bish to turn his fortunes around or see the campaign fall into Dwarven hands.

Round 4 : The Split Round

The split round began with Staks claiming AG's Lizardman 'scalp'. Stak's Ogres have quietly begun racking up victories of late and this was no exception. Another disturbing trend has been AG's dice rolling (as shall be seen in Round 5!). Is it time for new dice?

A week later the other three games were fought, with AG proving the Ogres simply had the advantage by defeating his own Lizard army with Staks Ogres in a reverse fixture friendly.
On the other table Bish yet again snatched defeat from victory's jaws, this time against Dale, andother rising star of the Ogre Kingdoms.
Across the room the Dwarves put away another contender, with the help of some iffy Bretonnian dice from Mark. Mark's freakish ability to miss with his knights but hit with the horses made little headway upon the dwarven ranks. Other features were two lances being run down after breaking by two separte Dwarf units, and the Dwarven brewery proving its worth by making the Longbeards Unbreakable.
In the final battle, Jack succumbed narrowly to Ryan High Elves in a controversial fixture that was stopped early due to bad light. After the dust had settled Ryan had the upper hand by a fraction, although Jack was heard to be mumbling a week later about scoring irregularities (or something). For some Tomb Kings, a Curse isn't apparently enough.

The standings now have the dwarves within a whisker of taking the campaign, but with Ogres 'sneaking' up behind them.

The map!

Round 3 - The Bloodening

Bish has decided to abandon the Lord of Change and throw his lot in with the Blood God. Khorne's bloody eye cast across our campaign led to a festival of carnage with three massacres, and a bloody but slim victory to Staks. "I am a desperate man." said Bish as he scared the bejesus out of Jack by pulling out the much feared Khorne demons led by a massive Bllodthirster. Jack need not have worried as Tzeentch punished Bish for his sacrilege with yet another string af poor dice rolls, the mighty Bloodthirster popping after being defeated by the Tomb Guard's musician. Jack's years behind the trumpet have apparently not gone astray!

Shortly after, Tomb King Dimetap (Holy Sparrow of the Desert and Lord of the Blue Trouser) began rolling up the Chaos line and Bish seeeing the writing on the wall admitted defeat and pondered what my lie ahead.

Across the room Khorne's hand was slapped firmly across the High Elf cheek, as Ryan's entire cavalry flank collapsed at the hands of a single unit of Dwarven warriors. The mighty bearded ones collecteds four banners as they rolled up the flank themselves claiming a Dragon Prince unit, two Silver Helm units and the High Elf BSB, completely disrupting the Elf battle plan and leaving the remaining two elf elite infantry units to deal with three Dwarven elite blocks on their own. Despite all of the remaining elves being slain or roouted from the table, the High Elf Prince and his bodyguard nonetheless covered themselves in glory by holding against a unit odf Longbeards in their front and a full unit of Ironbreakers led by the Dwarf BSB in their flank. They were still fighting on as the battle concluded, standing unconquered when all others had fled!

Khorne also helped the lizardmen (and their cannon) annihilate Dale's hapless ogres. The lizards (and their cannon) used their elite army status to the hilt by using only a handfull of skinks to cover their core and filling the army with specials and rares. The Ogres didn't cope, despite their Tyrant bravely attempting to take on two units to the front and flank and a Stegadon on the other. Despite racking up an impressive +8 in combat resolution himself, it nonetheless failed to resist the Lizards' (and their cannon) +12, and broke accordingly, effectively ending the fight.

By the way, the Liizards had a cannon!

Finally Staks fought off a strong challenge from the Bretonninas to record his first ever win over Mark, albeit a narrow one.

Once the dust had settled, the Dwarves stood alone now as the largest empire thanks to their All or Nothing event. Naturally this meant they had to wear a second Disaster (mercifully having no effect) and having their Gold nicked! On the upside they were able to claim the collapsed High Elf soap mine and rebuild the exploded Brewery.

Dom - 7 territories

AG - 6 territories

Mark, Jack - 5 territories

Dale - 4 territories

Ryan, Staks - 3 territories

Bish - 2 territories

If Bishnak was slain in the forest, would anyone hear him fall?

Of course they would! All eight participants in the campaign saw it first hand! muahaha!

How evident Bishnak's campaign tactic was - pick on the easy guys! Well Bish, if you've played the easy guys and you're still strapped for a win I suggest you find a new plan!

As you can see, Tyrant Gutstaks was very please with the victory as it was his first against Bish(imixupmyruleswithconfrontation)nak. Well fed ogres are happy ogres and nothing tastes quite as good on a red fire BBQ as tzeentch flesh, or was it yellow fire? Then again there is always the orange fire BBQ.

Tyrant Gutstaks must admit, playing the scout scenario definately helps the battle plan. When Bishnak deployed heavy on one flank I had the advantage with forests dividing up half the table which were perfect for my yhetee's to take advantage of. So the question is, was Bish unlucky to miscast on the last turn, giving me a free spell which resulted in panicking a 280 point knight unit? Definately! But one must remember that Tyrant Gutstaks was equally unlucky with the efforts of two rhinox riders who must have come to battle with gut-cramps, as they couldn't hit the side of an ogre cave even if they tried! Bishnak charged my rhinox with two level 2 scorcerors and a flank charge with 5 chaos hounds. After receiving 4 wounds, they only managed to kill one hound with their 8 strength 6 and 8 strength 4 attacks back! Losing combat by 3 they fled and were cut down. Never will I let rhinox feast on gnoblar toads before battle again! Bad indigestion I say!

Round 2 - Attack of the Gnoblars

Having two Ogre players in the land means one thing: a plague of Gnoblars. The little buggers have reached epidemic proportions causing all manner of problems.

The first notable effect has been to compleltely nerf Bish's end game dice rolling: clearly the Gnoblars have been helping his opponents steal games from him. This time Staks was the beneficiary, stealing the game in the last turn thanks to a helpful miscast from Bish and numerous panicking Tzeentch units.

Further afield, Jack's TK's and the Dwarves went head to head playing out a hard fought draw. Tomb King Dimetap the Magnificent (resplendent in his blue conquering trousers) saved the day for the 'kings, killing the Dwarven BSB and General and claiming three banners and a table quarter whiule the rest of the army crumbled. However, the Gnoblars ran rife amongst the Dwarven settlements, spiking a particularly heady ale leading to an epic explosion that destroyed the Dwarven Brewery and shortly after one of their mines.

In High Elf lands, the Gnoblar pest had destroyed one of the newly established soap mines, distracting the entire elf army who couldn't wash sufficiently to present themselves for battle. The upshot of this was they were unable to press home an early advantage against AG's lizards, whose general managed to pull out an insane courage roll to hold against the HE Prince on his dragon, before slaying both the rider and the beast! The demoralised elves, smelling bad and without their General, folded up and were massacred by the rampant creatures, who capitalised on their building boom to build a new mine.

After Round 2:

Dom, Mark, Dale: 5 terrtories

Ryan, AG: 4 territories

Staks, Jack: 3 territories

Bish: 2 territories

Mark's Flopsies and Woofters Vs Dale's Gut Disciples

Mark and I duked it out last night for the rights to be the ruler who would wipe out Jack (Pity Dom didnt realise the plan, and drew with the muppet, so he is safe for now)

Terrain was a mixed bag, with hill in the corner of Marks deployment zone, and a forest in the middle. I had a forest about a third of the way in from the left hand side, and a forest in the middle of the table about a third of the way in from the right. A building was placing right in the middle.

Going Left to Right across the table (from my point of view) Mark deployed his Trebuchet and archer unit on the hill, with MaA unit protecting them, and a bus of grails and a big bus of errants towards the middle of the table. A unit of mounted yeoman were next to them. His General on Hippogryph was hiding behind a forest in the middle of his deployment zone, with some skirmishing archers in front. Another unit of mounted yeoman provided a screen for his big unit of KotR (with BSB and damsel) with a smaller bus next to them.

I had a unit of bulls and a unit of gnoblars accross from the hill, and the yhettis in the forest. I had the other unit of bulls looking to poke through the gap between the building and the forest on my left, with guts and more guts looking to flank whatever came through. Bull Rhinox was opposite his big KotR unit. Trappers took cover in the building.

Going into the game, I had a cunning plan. I 'recruited' a maneater to join my cause, the plan being to join my Tyrant in with him, but run them single file. This would mean that Mark's lances charging me would only be in contact with the Tyrant, who with T6 and stubbon (thanks to the Maneater) should stick around, even if the tenderizing didnt get me over the top. However, like most cunning plans, Mark saw right through it, although the standoff did contribute to his failed Terror test which saw his big KotR unit (complete with BSB and damsel) run from the table.

I basically spent the entire game moving around in circles, trying to set up flee and flank, or pursue and flank manouves, given that Mark's army out-charged me by a sizable amount.

The big moment of the game was Mark casting The Wolf Hunts on his General, who was 1" behind a unit of guts, and 3 " behind my Rhinox. I let this go, as I assumed he would charge the gut, who would then flee, and I could charge my Tyrant in in my turn for some tenderizing love. However, Mark chose to charge the Rhinox, who I also got to flee (and escape, but never to rally, damn LD 7!)This left Mark's General with a 4 strong gut unit with standard smacking him in the flank. 1 Bull Charge wound and 3 normal wounds later, the hippogryph was dead, and the lord did 3 wounds back. Testing on a 6, he held (damn you grail vow!).

This allowed his errants to join the party, who then smacked down 1 gut. The lord then did 2 wounds, allowing the 2 remaining guts to smack at him. 3 hits resulted in 3 wounds, with Mark failing his 6+ AS and 5(4?)+ ward. Yay!

Despite killing/terrorising off the table his Lord (and Hippogryph), BSB, 1 Damsel, and big KotR unit, the fact that I lost both butchers, most of my guts, and the Bull Rhinox meant that it was a minor victory to Mark.

I was fairly happy with how I played (I would have taken a minor loss at the start of the game!) but in hindsight I placed terrain and deployed like I would with the dwarves. 4-wide 40mm bases take up a lot of room!

Next time Mark, next time!!

*shakes fist*

Round 1 - The opening skirmishes

Round 1 began with each general placing his capital city using the time honoured method of first in best dressed, before events were selected and challenges thrown down.

Dale picked land grab and celebrated his charge to the top by thrashing his fellow Ogre Staks before taking as much territory as he could grab in his oversized sweaty fist.

Ryan's Elves completely lured Bish's poor Tzeentchians into a false sense of security by appearing to lose the game only to curse the chaos dice and turn the entire battle around at the last moment before a crowd of appreciative onlookers. The Elves then embarked on a pleasant river cruise taking two river tiles on their travels and building mines on both of them. They are understood to be soap mines.

Dom's Dwarves also kicked off well, engaging AG's lizrds in an all out slugfest, with most units into combat by turn two. Once the dust had settled the Dwarven lord rested proudly on his axe with the heads of the Oldblood and his BSB hanging from his belt. The Dwarves also seized two territries, one in the mountains where they began mining stright away thanks to their Building Boom event, and also on the river bank where they built the most essential building in any Dwarf realm, the brewery!

Finally, despite some highly accurate catapult fire, Jack was unable to do anything but get trampled underfoot as Marks Brets galloped over him to deliver a diplomatic massage that they wouldn't have to fight next round. Reeling from surprise, Jack then had all his money stolen by AG leaving him wondering why is everyone so unkind!

After Round 1 the scores are in:

Dale : 5 Territories

Mark, Ryan, Dom: 4 Territories

AG, Bish, Staks, Jack: 1 Territory

Let slip the Vagabonds of War

The Players
AG - Lizardmen
Dom - Dwarves (of course!)
Staks - Ogre Kingdoms
Jack - Tomb Kings
Mark - Brets
Dale - Ogre Kingdoms
Ryan - High Elves
Bish - Tzeentch Mortals