Halpi's Rift: Finale. Part 1

 

This week we started the final battle of the Halpi's Rift campaign, this being the climatic battle we went all out and fielded 5,000 points a side. Due to this being such a large clash and our love of chatting the battle will be fought over two sessions.

The final scenario is control which sees the table divided into 6 sections with the person who has the most unit strength in a section at the end of the game controlling the section and earning 1 Victory Point. An additional VP is awarded if you control the central section in you opponents half of the table.

I setup the extra table length to give us 8 foot in total of which 7 is playable area, this gave me a reason to get out the town walls I had built a little while ago.

With such a high points game it meant that not many models got left in the boxes for these armies and the lists look like this:

Undead:

1 * Zombie Legion

2 * Skeleton Spearmen Horde

1 * Revenant Regiment

4 * Wraith Troop

2 * Soul Reaver Infantry Regiment

2 * Revenant Cavalry Troop

1 * Revenant Cavalry Regiment

2 * Soul Reaver Cavalry Regiment

2 * Zombie Troll Horde

1 * Wights Horde

1 * Balefire Catapult

2 * Goreblight

1 * Vampire on Undead Pegasus

3 * Revenant King on Horse

1 * Revenant King on Great Flying Worm (Toad)

1 * Liche Queen

1 * Necromancer

Kingdoms of Men:

1 * Foot Guard Regiment

2 * Foot Guard Horde

3 * Fanatics Troop

2 * Bowmen Regiment

4 * Knights Regiment

2 * Troop Mounted Sergeants

2 * Regiment Mounted Sergeants

1 * Troop Mounted Scouts

2 * Regiment Mounted Scouts

2 * Giants

2 * General on Horse

3 * General on Winged Beast

1 * Assassin

2 * Wizard on Horse

1 * Wizard on Pegasus

1 * The Captain

The KoM won the roll for first turn and opted to let the Undead start so I pushed everything forwards to close the range. The KoM have a lot more shooting than the Undead (all the Wizards have Lightning Bolt as well) so I couldn't really sit back. I did however have one catapult and the Liche Queen with Blizzard who combined in a display of pretty much max rolling to remove the Mounted Scouts Regiment in the centre of the KoM lines.

The KoM didn't move forwards in the centre and pushed a bit on the flanks opting to let their superior ranged attacks take a toll on the Undead.

This lead to the loss of both Revenant Cavalry Troops (one on each flank), so honours pretty much even after Turn 1.

The Undead Turn 2 saw them continue to push forwards along the line, this time the Catapult & Liche Queen combo pretty much fluffed all their rolls only causing light damage.

Somehow I managed to forget to take any pictures at the end of the KoM T2 but I did remember to take one at the start of Undead T3 before the combats. T2 the KoM again pushed forwards a little and let the shooting do the work, this time with no units being removed. One KoM Sergeants Troop on their extreme left did rush forwards to try and tempt the Undead flyers out.

The Undead on Turn 3 committed to some charges on their right (see above) and took off a Knights Regiment and the Sergeants Troop.

Otherwise they continued to push forwards along the line.

The Liche Queen & Balefire combo once again bore fruit with the 2nd Mounted Scouts Regiment being removed.

During the KoM 3rd turn the fight on the Undead right intensified with the KoM committing multiple units into the fray. Unfortunately for them some good damage rolls were let down by some poor nerve test rolls and the Vampire on Pegasus and Skeleton Spearmen who should have been removed stayed on the table.

The KoM also started to push forwards more along the rest of the line so it looks like Turn 4 will see much more close combat.

So that's the half way point with the Undead probably slightly ahead on kills but with territory control being the name of the game and the KoM still having the edge in faster scoring units they are still well in the game.

Iron Age: Ring of Stone

This week I took delivery of the Iron Age ringfort from the Fogou Models kickstarter project. I'd gone all-in on this project as I'd been so impressed with the quality on the previous project I backed with them. The resin Fogou use doesn't need to be washed before you start to paint it so you can get stuck straight into the painting stage. The fact that they have used grey resin for the stonework also means it could just be given a quick drybrush and put straight into play which is great for the empire builder in a hurry.

I have already started undercoating some of the bits during the week and even completed a test wall piece over a couple of days. In theory with the test out of the way most of the stonework will be pretty quick to get completed.

I've got enough bits for a reasonable sized village and the fort came with a fantasy style tower and door configuration as well as the more historic plain door. I think I may want to magnetise the fantasy door parts so they stay together during play but don't require both towers and the gates to be stuck together. 

In amongst the various wall parts are a breached section for siege games and some grain stores on stilts as well as a large range of pots and other produce storage.

I've completed one test wall section this week which didn't take very long. It's a black undercoat with two progressively lighter grey dry brush layers and then some browns and a blue-grey applied with a sponge, a black wash went over the top of all that. A couple of mini grass tufts where then added on to give an extra splash of colour and interest.

I suspect this will be several weeks work to get all the bits completed but it should look great as a back drop for some Age of Hannibal SAGA once done.