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)

 

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.

Halpi's Rift: Kill the Bard

This week saw the Vanguard companies clash in a effort to seize the Lute of Insatiable Darkness from a wondering minstrel. The sides would need to re-kill the minstrel and then take and hold his instrument by the end of turn 5.

The opposing forces start in opposite corners of the table with the bard moving along the road, at the start of each turn a dice roll decides how far the bard moves. One rule I don't recall noticing before is that 1/2 of each warband needs to enter the field of play starting at the beginning of turn 2.

The first move saw both sides move up some with both commanders opting to bring on their fastest troops in the second wave.

Turn 2 saw some more manoeuvring and Akatasos (former Kingdom of Men hunter) managed to kill one of the two grunts the Men had pushed towards the bard. The living KoM hunter managed to get a wound on the bard

During Turn 3 both sides mostly concentrated on attacking the bard but Akatasos did manage to kill the second KoM Grunt. The Undead charged in two revenants and a raised Skeleton and the KoM a Foot Guard. The bard managed to survive the assault but took a couple more wounds.

The Bard and his Magic Maracas

Turn 4 saw the bard skip a little further and be group charged by the Undead Revenants and Skeleton who where in turn charged by the KoM Leader and Foot Guard. In an impressive display of defensive ability no one died (or re-died)

With the KoM finishing their activations well before the Undead it left Radolf able to charge in and finish off the bard and then claim the lute, it also meant that his back could be covered by Pascal (Soul Reaver) and another raised skeleton.

The start of Turn 5 saw the Men try to shoot down Radolf and only cause one wound, he was then able to skedaddle out of range of any pursuit and claim victory for the Undead, we called it a day at that point.

This was an unusual game in the low number of casualties caused, only 2 KoM Grunts and the bard died and not many other models where wounded. It does mean the Undead have the benefit of the Lute in the next big battle which will be Salt the Earth. It will be the first time either of us have played that scenario so that should be interesting.

Halpi's Rift: Keep the Flame Alight

This week saw our intrepid warbands venture onto the Empyrean Plane, the home of the Shining Ones. The Men started with control of the beacon and wanted to keep it alight in the hopes of attracting some Celestial intervention, the Undead wanted to prevent this from happening.

We'd played this scenario before and under the original rules it proved very difficult for the attacker to win, this time we played the FAQ'd version. In the updated version it was only a short action to light/douse the beacon and this could be done even if an enemy was in contact with the beacon if the model taking the action was not engaged with the enemy. This makes it much easier for the attacker to win and gives the defender more work to do.

The first move saw the Undead push up and the Men largely hold position. The Men were shocked to see that one of the Undead archers looked surprising like Akatasos, a former brother in arms who had fallen and they thought been safely buried after the last battle. 

In the second turn the Men tried to peg the Undead back by charging three foot guards into their lines, the Undead moved their left flanking force back into the centre. Two of the Foot Guard were cut down in short order and the Men also took some pot shots into the archers sending Akatasos back into the grave from which he was raised.

In the third turn the Undead managed to finish off Foot Guard and moved forwards to position themselves for charges in the next. The Men rushed towards the beacon and also put some withering fire into Radolf (the werewolf). Radolf had been incapacitated in the two previous battles by the ranged fire of the Men and this time he was knocked down but not finished off.

In the picture below we can see the start of round 4 where Radolf is on his feet once again and just about to charge in and kill the Ogre warrior in on fell swoop, he was then finished off by Senban the Men's leader. The remaining Undead archers also managed to remove one of the Men's Hunters.

By the end of turn 4 the Undead had pushed up to within charge range of the Beacon and also caused enough casualties to take the Men over their break point. With no way of being able to stop the Undead from putting the beacon out the Men withdrew from the field rather than face mounting casualties.

With the battlefield secure Leonard the Revenant healer in the warband was able to work on Radolf who was once again brought back from death with no ill effects, the others in the warband have now started to call him Radolf the Undying. Necromancer Hare was also able to use his arts to reconstruct the corpse of Akatasos so he could be compelled to fight again. Things did not go so well for the Men as the Newbie Foot Guard who had just been recruited into the Warband perished from his wounds and some of the others received some lasting wounds.

I also completed the Great Winged Half-breed for Mr T's Abyssal Dwarf army, this was a surprise gift for him to add into his army. Knowing that his painting speed is not the highest I thought I would tackle the large part of the model and leave him to work his magic on the rider.

The head and saddle are metal and add a lot of weight to the model so I glued them together and painted them separately from the rest. With hindsight it would have been easier to paint the wings before gluing them on as well but it wasn't a massive issue. I went largely with the red & black studio paint scheme and used the new Army Painter metallic colours for the scales and then mostly contrast with a black wash and dry brushed highlights for the rest. Once all stuck together it's a large and imposing model and hopefully with grace the field of battle once Mr T has enough Abyssal Dwarfs to play a game with.

Halpi's Rift: Capture the Chroneas

 Having been transported through the portal last week onto the Abyssal Plane both sides sent out their Vanguard forces to try a tame a nearby Chroneas, with the hope of turning the powerful monster to their own uses.

The aim was to wear down the Chroneas and accumulate enough victory points over the 5 turns in order to be able to field it in the next battle.

Once more Burke the leader of the Undead Company took the field along with his trusty veterans of the last battle, Radolf despite being felled had shown remarkable regenerative powers and suffered no long term ill.

Undead

1 * Burke the Necromancer

3 * Skeleton Archers

3 * Leonard, Tasha & Turner the Revenants

1 * Pascal the Soul Reaver

1 * Radolf the Werewolf

And also as before, Senban the leader of the KoM Company declined to take the field and sent a lieutenant instead. The KoM also sent a berserker instead of their Ogre to this battle.

KoM

1 * Leader

1 * Akatasos the Hunter (Skirmisher)

1 * Skirmisher

2 * Foot Guard

1 * Foot Soldier

1 * Wizard

1 * Berserker

The first turn saw the Men push up and loose some shots at the Chroneas whilst for the Undead Radolf made use of his superior speed to charge and cause damage on the target, this gave Burke a 3-0 VP lead at the end of T1.

Rolling for the direction that the Chroneas moves is always a tense moment in this scenario and the first move was away from both forces so caused little damage, with only Radolf taking a wound. Turner the Revenant was shot away by the Men however. It also meant that both sides could get some melee units into contact. Both sides managed to cause an equal amount of wounds so it remained 3-0 to the Undead.

The Turn 3 movement was less kind to the KoM as it took the Chroneas through their forces killing their Foot Soldier, it did mean however that the Chroneas was a long way from the Undead forces. The turn also saw Radolf being floored once again by Akatasos the Hunter making good use of his Pound ability. Whilst Radolf was able to survive the fire from the other Skirmisher and the KoM Wizard he was finished off by the Berserker. So once again Radolf perished though this time he had killed a Foot Guard before he died.

With the Undead unable to cause any wounds on the Chroneas the Leader of Men had a free swing to gain 3 VP's, unfortunately that free swing entirely missed so whilst the KoM got 1 VP for the death of Radolf the Undead still lead 3-1.

Start of T4

On Turn 4 the Chroneas again crashed through the KoM and knocked several down, the Undead also managed to concentrate enough fire on Akatasos to kill him and revenge the death of Radolf. The KoM Berserker charged into Pascal the Soul Reaver and despite causing a wound was then knocked to the ground to be finished off by Tasha the Revenant. Pascal then killed the other Foot Guard straight out and this left the Men with only 3 men left. The positioning of the Chroneas did mean however that the Undead could not cause any damage on it and the remaining KoM skirmisher managed to cause a couple of wounds on the Chroneas so they took the lead 4-3 going into the final round.

Start of T5

During the last turn the Undead knew they could at least get a draw by killing the KoM Wizard so the Skeleton Archers threw everything into the effort and managed with the final ranged shot to take the Wizard out, tying the scores at 4-4. The KoM where unable to get into position to put any damage on the Chroneas so with a Surge and then a charge Leonard the Revenant was able to make contact with the beast and get 5 solid hits, victory beckoned!

Unfortunately the beast made all it's saves so the scenario ended in a tie 4-4, though the Men had suffered significantly more casualties than the Undead who had lost Radolf and also the Revenant Turner.

After a fierce battle both sides rolled for their wounded, Radolf with the help of Leonard the Company Healer once again made a full recovery and Turner was left in a weakened state. The KoM did not fair so well with Akatasos the Hunter who had caused so much trouble to Radolf dying of his wounds. The KoM also had a Foot Guard who whilst trying to evade capture after the battle was cut down. The Wizard managed a full recovery though so it was not all bad news for Senban.

Halpi's Rift: Seizing the Keys

 The Halpi's Rift campaign and update book is this year's supplement for Kings of War, it includes some lore and also extra magic spells and effects to spice up your games. We decided to play some linked games with alternating Vanguard and KoW games taking place across the various planes of magic detailed in the book. Before the armies could reach open the portal to the other planes they required a key (or keys) and fortunately they had heard of the power Artefacts of Kyron that had previously been brought to the region many moons ago during a war between the Twilight Kin and one of the many Kingdoms of Men.

Once again a Kingdom of Men force is vying for the power that comes with control of powerful (and unpredictable) magic but this time they are facing off against the Undead hordes controlled by Lady Mhorgana.

No one knows the exact origins of Lady Mhorgana but it is believed she was once a powerful human sorceress who became envious of the long life-span of her Elven counterparts. Her envy pushed her down the path of studying the dark art of Necromancy and her natural power allowed her to become a true master of the art and extend her un-life almost indefinitely.
Over the centuries she built up a large army of re-animated servants as she defiled tomb after tomb, though lately she has recruited underlings to raise the dead whilst she employs her power to control her servants.
Now she has noticed the powerful new magic emanating from the Halpi Mountains and is determined that it should be hers alone.  

In order to seize these powerful artefacts both sides despatched their Vanguard forces, small elite bands of warriors trained in raids and special operations. The forces of Lady Mhorgana are lead by Burke the Animator.

Once a common grave robber with a natural aptitude for magic, Burke's life changed when he fell foul of Lady Mhorgana whilst out plying his wicked craft. Now in the thrall of the Lady he acts as her chief scout and animator, always on the look out for new graves & tombs to rob and fresh recruits for her army. Burke works on the promise of riches and an existence as long as his mistresses. Only success can bring these rewards as failing the Lady can only bring pain and damnation.

The Men where being lead by the enigmatic Leader, Leader of Men, it is thought he may be related to Hero, Hero of Men, and The Captain (Captain of Men), but the genealogy is somewhat confused.

During the first turn both sides advanced towards the centre objective and the Men covered the right objective with their Skirmishers whilst the Undead pushed Radolf the Werewolf and the Soul Reaver Pascal over to that side as well.

At the end of turn 1 things looked set for a big clash in the centre and for the Undead to try and close on the Men's ranged troops on the flank.

The first act of turn two was for the two Skirmishers to fire on Radolf as a group shoot. The first had been upgraded to a Hunter as part of the Leaders retinue, this give the Hunter the Pound special rule which means if he scores 3 hits the target is automatically knocked down. The Hunter managed to get his 3 hits and also caused 2 wounds (Radolf had 4 health to start with) and so Radolf was knocked to the group and badly wounded. The second skirmisher fired and also manged to cause 2 wounds, as Radolf was already on the ground he needed to make a nerve test or be incapacitated (all rolls on a D8), with a nerve of 4+ he duly rolled a 2 and was removed from the battle.

This left Pascal and the rest of the Undead on the back-foot and not wishing to share the fate of Radolf he moved over into the centre near Burke.

What followed for the next few turns until round 5 (the last of the game) was largely a stalemate, with the Men not wishing to be first onto the hill and the Undead spending time raising fresh skeletons and losing a few bodies to shooting.

Burke sent a newly raised Skeleton wide left and right in order to be able to contest the two objectives during the last turn and at the end of turn four the Undead lurched into action. Using the warband special Surge (2) ability to get a free move and then a group defence (move and then brace) Burke managed to position the three Revenants in front of the central objective and in a defensive posture which made them more difficult to kill.

The last turn saw Leader (Leader of Men) realise he could not hope to battle through to the central objective (4 Victory Points) but that he could win via holding both of the others (3 VP's each). Burke for the Undead managed to threaten his right objective enough to keep drawing forces to that side with the loss of only some newly raised Skeletons.

In the centre the Undead held strong and scored 4VP's.

On the Undead right the Men took control of the objective having killed a Skeleton contesting it and scored themselves 3 VP's.

On the Undead left the objective was contested but Pascal did manage a bit of revenge when he charged in and killed one of the Foot Guards. Once the battle was complete we rolled off for ownership of the banner and the Undead came away with the trophy.

So the Undead came away 4-3 victors which looked unlikely when Radolf died so early on, but them Men fearful of losses so early in the campaign chose the path of safety rather than glory and did not push the advantage.

Each side can now carry the artefacts they control into the next battle to gain the following benefits:

Sword of Striking – unit gains Elite rule for melee
Armour of Recuperation – unit gains regen 6+ , this does not stack if unit already has regen
Banner of Kyron – unit gains inspiring 

This battle was fought with 150 points a side:

Undead

1 * Necromancer
3 * Skeleton Archers
3 * Revenants
1 * Soul Reaver
1 * Werewolf

Men

1 * Leader
2 * Skirmisher
2 * Foot Guard
1 * Foot Soldier
1 * Wizard
1 * Ogre Warrior

The next battle will be KoW 2,000 points, playing the Dominate scenario, as both sides seek to activate the Portal.