Kingdoms of Men Reinforcements

As well as the Teaczar being busy with the paintbrush I've also been working away on some more troops for Kings of War. With the final battle coming up this week for the Halpi's Rift campaign I wanted to be able to field as many points of my Undead as possible, this meant expanding the KoM army to try and match. Having already painted up a good amount of cavalry I wanted some infantry but also wanted something flexible that wouldn't break the bank. Having a look around I decided that the Victrix Viking set would offer an excellent source of models with enough models for two hordes of infantry. The models are excellent and at only £38 for 60 a real bargain.

Foot Guard with 2-handed weapon

When I got the set I divided the models up into armoured and unarmoured and then further divided into 2-handed and 1-handed for the armoured models and dual-wield and 1-handed for the unarmoured.

This gave me enough models for two troops of each type and a way to build 4 units worth of variation from the pack.

Foot Guard

So this gives me both variations of Foot Guard, the 2-handed version looks like a dangerous hammer, all those attacks hitting on 3's with Crushing Strength (1) will chew through most things.

You could also use the 2-handed option in from of unarmoured troops to represent Pole-Arms.

Foot Guard with 2-handed weapon Horde

Foot Guard Horde

Fanatics

The unarmoured troops are to be used to represent Berserkers and Shield Wall options with the Fanatics offering a fearless hammer option at the expense of being a slightly softer target if caught by a charge.

Shield Wall

Fanatics Horde

Shield Wall Horde

The Army so Far

I'm still waiting on the proper models for the Generals on Winged Beast but it looks like League of Infamy will start shipping next week so it shouldn't be long before I can paint them up. It will be after the end of campaign though which is a bit of a shame.

Small is Beautiful

 As if Saga AoV, a bit of AoC and KoW isn't enough to keep me at least, going until oblivion I've got some 15mm DBA figures I've been 'dipping' into.

This is a little Pictish diorama for a friend.  Never really done a diorama before so didn't know what to expect but I was quite pleased - won't be making a habit of it though.  I'll look to post the actual Pictish warband soonish which is virtually finished (how often do those words come back to haunt me?)

Well, this is um, Orc-Ward

 Moving seamlessly from the Historical Realm into something I'm far less comfortable with and that is the whole world of Fantasy - I'm sure I said I'd never get seduced by the wiles of orcs, dwarfs, elves and anything else springing from the febrile imaginings of Games Workshop (back in the day) and Co.

Nevertheless I've clearly been tricked by some malevolent Mage spinning a Kings of War web about my overwrought senses so that I now find myself the owner of a KoW Abyssal Dwarf force/ Vanguard Company (how did that happen?)

Some early experiments in painting in this unfamiliar fantasy oeuvre - an Abyssal Dwarf Blacksoul; a couple of Slave Orcs - one 'converted' with a boar's head; and a Throwing Mastiff (all Mantic Games models)

 

Pilgrim's Progress

 A couple of Gripping Beast Dark Age infantry 'converted' with a bit of Greenstuff to make a couple of eager Pilgrims off to Saga AoC Universe.  Probably need to do about three more so I've enough for a point.  Did these a couple of years ago now but as I'm on a Blogging Roll thought I'd get them up as well

How about some Archers?

 Not the long-running radio soap for you Ambridge-Avids out there I'm afraid but some more more (largely) Conquest Games Dark Age bowmen (with a few metal Blacktree Designs? thrown in for artistic merit).  This is just one point of Levy Bowmen so I need to steel myself to complete another 12 figures at some point but as noted on an earlier blog those puttees are maddening!

Norman's Progress

 At last, I've finished the Conquest Games Norman Cavalry.  Those puttees were driving me to distraction....

Looking forward now to using them in some AoV Saga encounters.  Still have some other cavalry left to paint but thankfully with different lower leg adornments....

One of the cavalry is actually an old Essex Miniatures Norman bought circa 1990 as I thought it'd make an interesting 'project'.  It only took 30 years (It's the one with what looks like a Winged Mutley on the kite shield - photo 2)

Halpi's Rift: Portal

Last night we played out the last Vanguard game in our Halpi's Rift campaign. The aim was to score points by being in contact with the portal at the end of the turn. An element of peril was present in the form of a D8 roll for each model in contact at the end of each turn, on a 7 or 8 the model was sucked into the portal and removed from the game.

Both sides pushed up towards the portal during Turn 1 with the Undead having two models in contact and the Men one at the end of the turn. Some 'good' rolling by the Undead meant that the Revenant Turner was lost to the void. Strike one for the void. Necromancer Hare realised that disposable bodies were the key to victory so raised an additional skeleton. The Men had gone for a more elite force with no Grunts so didn't have the bodies to throw at the portal that the Undead could muster.

Turn 2 saw an exchange of ranged fire and as the Men pulled back into a line behind the hill Pascal the Soul Reaver charged the only Man in contact with the portal, his swings went astray and failed to kill the Foot Guard. A few more of the Undead made contact with the portal and the Undead scored an additional 3 points to the 1 of the Men. Unfortunately some more high rolls by the Undead saw both Pascal and Leonard (Revenant) disappear from the field. This meant the Undead had lost three good and experienced fighters to the portal and the Men none. Hare the Necromancer again raised another replacement Skeleton to try and keep the numbers up.

Turn 3 saw some intense combat in and around the portal with the Men's Ogre charging in to kill a Skeleton and then in turn being removed by Radolf the Undying (Werewolf) and Tasha (Revenant) in combination. One of the Men's Foot Guards also took out Akatasos (Skeleton Archer) who had been raised from amongst the Men's dead several weeks before. 

The Men again only scored 1 victory point with the Undead scoring a couple more.

Turn 4 sealed the Undead victory with the Men's Leader of Men charging Radolf who he failed to kill which was unfortunate as it only upset the Werewolf who disembowelled him in a furious round of combat. The Undead had by this point opened up enough of a lead that the Men could not even hope for a draw and the Men had also lost over half their Warband.

So a resounding if costly victory for the Undead with multiple casualties taken, mostly from the Portal.

Both Warbands now need to reform and join their main armies in time for the big battle which will round off the campaign.

Deadzone: Double Spectra

Just a  quick post this week as I've only got WIP's on the figure front and we've not been able to get a game in.

Whilst putting a post up on the Deadzone Facebook group I did wonder what a double Spectra list would look like. The model is so nice and painted up real easy so doing a second would not be a chore by any means.

In order to field two Vehicle type models you need to unlock them with three Troop type models each, so that would mean six Marionettes. With that many Marionettes to fit in in makes sense to use the Marionette Prime, not only is it the cheapest leader the Asterians can field it also has a decent splat to use with all those Marionette's.

I headed over to the best Deadzone builder currently available and put in the minimum requirements for the Strike Team. It quickly became apparent that it would need a 175/200 point team in order to fit double Spectra's as it just could not be done at 150 points. 

Looking at 200 points you get one of each type of Spectra which is ideal as the sword variant also looks good and it means the models can add some variety to the team. With your six Marionette's and the Prime you have 30 points left over to play with.

Prime With New Gold Identification Mark

I went with a Marionette Specialist with Grenade Launcher and the Matsudan Ozeki with Ion Barrage to add some field control. Both of these are able to Pin opposing models which means they are knocked down meaning they need to stand up (wasting an action) before they can act and also making them more vulnerable to the melee attacks of the Sword Spectra.

On the modelling front this is all pretty straightforward as I have all the models apart from trhe second Spectra. I did update the Marionette Prime a little to help it stand out from the others by adding a Gold identification mark on it's head. As for the second Spectra, well fortunately one of the expansions for Star Saga came back into stock this week, so it gave the reason to place an order. I have Retake the Blackstar on order along with the Spectra and a few other bits from the lovely Matt @The Pit Gaming who pointed out that it was available again. This also means I have the makings of yet another faction as the box contains the Volt Chaser Veer-myn.

Halpi's Rift: Salt the Earth

This week we played the penultimate Kings of War game in our Halpi's Rift campaign with the battle taking place on the Ethereal Plane, the home of the Nightstalkers. The scenario channelling table and special rules seem the most lack-lustre of the ones so far and didn't really make any impact on the game, so I won't go through them.

The scenario was Salt the Earth which plays as a standard hold the objective game but adds the twist that at the end of your turn you can destroy any objective that you hold. We took turns in placing objectives and they ended up mostly on the Undead left (Mick placed the red ones and I the blue ones).

The armies were much the same as before but the Kingdom of Men did bring in a Giant and a Troop of Berserkers so dropped a General on Winged Beast and the Archer Troop.

I won the roll for first turn and took first go, my plan was to remove the two objectives I didn't think I had a chance of holding and could reach so I moved then surged my Revenant Cavalry Troops up and removed the blue token on my far right and the red token on my far left. The rest of the Undead line shambled forwards. The KoM moved forwards and let off some shooting which caused a few wounds but did not take any units off.

Turn 2 saw my chaff on the left engage with the Mounted Scouts in the hope they could block up that flank for a while, unfortunately the Wraiths got a bit carried away and removed the Troop they charged. In the centre I continued to push forwards and forgetting about the Wild Charge on the Berserkers left myself in charge range of them and the Giant.

On the Undead right I managed to surge a revenant cavalry troop into the General on Winged Beast and caused some wounds so he was grounded.

During the Men's turn they double charged the Revenant Cavalry with the General and Captain but failed to rout them, right hand Wraith Troop also withstood a double charge for Knight & Mounted Scout Regiments, this kept the right flank nice and stable.

In the centre the Giant and Berserkers double charged a Troll Horde and again failed to remove it, a Knight Regiment did clear the left hand Wraiths though.

Back on the Undead right for the next turn the Undead took out the Knights which had bounced off the Wraiths and also cleared the Giant and Berserkers. The Zombie Legion managed an impressive number of wounds have flank charged the Giant (with the Trolls going into the front) and the Goreblight took care of the Berserkers. The fight between the Revenant Cavalry Troop and the KoM top-brass continued with the Cavalry managing to waver the General on Winged Beast.

On the Undead left the Revenant Cavalry Regiment made a hindered charge into the free Knight Regiment and only managed a few wounds. At this point things looked good for the Undead.

On the Men's turn they managed to bring some good dice and took off all the Cavalry on the left flank and also one-shot the Zombie Legion. This swung the game in the Men's favour.

I seem to be missing a couple of photos at this point but the Undead Goreblight and Troll Horde charged the Polearm Horde and failed to rout it, but crucially they did enough damage to waver the men, the other Troll Horde also did enough damage to waver the Foot Guards alongside the Polearm Horde. On the Undead right the KoM leaders finished off the Revenant Cavalry Troop and the Undead killed the Scout Regiment and started to move the Wraiths back onto the objective on that side.

On the KoM's turn 4 they took off the Goreblight in the centre leaving a Knight Regiment well placed to clean up the Undead in the centre and moved the other Regiment to claim an objective. The Undead did manage in Turn 5 to charge and kill the General on Winged Beast, taking a important flying and scoring unit out of the game. The real hero for the Undead was Revenant King Death who charged the flanking Knights caused two wounds (out of three attacks) and then rolled well enough to waver the knights. This gave the two Troll Hordes enough time to take off the Polearm Horde and Foot Guard. 

During the Men's turn 5 they couldn't do much with one of their scoring units being wavered but the other did charge and remove a Troll Horde which left the Undead with 3 scoring units and the KoM with 2.

When at the start of Turn 6 the remaining Troll Horde took off one of the Knight Hordes it was clear the Undead had done just enough to gain a win and the Men conceded defeat. 

This was a good battle with the result in doubt right up until Turn 6, it could have gone either way with the men suffering 3 wavers in a crucial turn 4 which saw the game swing away from them.

The Kingdom of Men welcomed a new arrival into the army with the inclusion of a giant. With the big 4,000 points a side coming up soon I wanted to add some extra points into the mix for a modest outlay of money and time, the giants fit the bill for this. 

The models are from the Reaper Bones range so under £10 each and I painted them up in pretty much a day with some base colours for the flesh and then contrast paints over the top.

Giants are Titans so come on the 75mm square base and have great nerve and good defence, couple that with Crushing Strength (4) and they are wounding everything on a 2+, which is pretty handy.