A Tale of Two Forts: The Dragons Egg

The next game in the ongoing KoW / Vanguard campaign was a Vanguard scenario with the aim of capturing a Dragon Egg. The aim was to pick up the egg and then either be holding it at the end of the game or escape back to your deployment zone. The Basileans once more changed up their force composition but crucially kept the two scouts in from the last game. 

The scenario rules had been slightly changed so units with scout needed to start at least 4" away from the objective rather than touching it. But still this is a massive advantage against any force that has no units with scout.

By the end of the first turn it was clear that it would be pretty much impossible for my Melas Oneiros to win as the Argent Defenders had hold of the egg and had already moved away. With the Basilean special ability of Iron Resolve which makes them very durable as long as they have the power dice to spend and most of my troops being too slow to even have a chance of catching the egg-carrier it was game over after one turn.

The Argent Defenders having traveled a long way where determined to have a fight so rather than turtle up they got stuck in and a decent fight broke out in the market.

The Melas Oneiros once again proved very difficult to kill with a combination of poor attack roles by the Basileans (the gods did not favor them again) and some good rolling by the Night Stalkers.

The new power generating build did help the Basileans as they went toe to toe with the Stalkers and in the end they lost three men and the Stalkers took their first casualty of the campaign. The unfortunate Phantom went down under a barrage of blows from three Basileans but later floated back into camp sporting a bad leg which will slow him down in the next game.

So once again the Basileans lost more men but won the scenario, it would seem they are very strong in any scenario which involves holding onto an objective and the lack of Scout in the Night Stalker army really hampered my chances of competing in the game.

Freebooters

The core component on any English Buccaneer army is likely to be the Freebooters. These men are adept with both ranged and melee weapons and also know how to handle a ship.

As a core unit I bought 12 of these fine fellow and again the sculpts have plenty of detail incorporated so a decent amount of variation can be brought out. For the English force I'm working with red as the main identifying colour so I could use the Militia in with these models to increase the number fielded.

The Freebooters come in both a Veteran and vanilla variety with the Veterans benefiting not only from being Veteran (as the name would suggest) but also a better ranged save. The vanilla choice can be updated to Veteran but do not gain the improved save.

As can be seen from the unit abilities these chaps are happy to keep the fight at range with the optimal range being below 12" so the potential for extra hits comes into play. They also benefit from a free reload when activated with a Spade.

It was also the annual Lincombe Barn tabletop sale today so we had a wonder up to see what was on offer. As usual there was a lot of Warhammer 40K and 28mm WW2 tanks on sale but also a good variety of other pieces. I managed to snag a Reaper Bones dragon from the latest Kickstarter for only £12. As usual you get a lot of model for your pennies and the material used seems to be harder than the previous Reaper Bones stuff I have bought.

I'm not sure what he will be used for yet but I'm certain something will come up.

Homeland Defence

One of the main units for the Spanish Militia are as you would expect from the army name the Milicianos. These can also be fielded as Hostigadores who specialised in skirmish warfare.

This week I completed the 12 men of the Milicianos / Hostigadores, these use the same model in the figure range and a Spanish Militia force cannot include both unit types. The Hostigadores would look to be a good upgrade as for 1 point per model you get a superior ranged save, the ability to make a free move after moving and shooting/fighting and also trained status.

You do lose drilled which makes ranged shooting easier and also the fight save is slightly worse. The Hostigadores would look to be the default choice unless you where short on points and needed to take a cheaper core option.

These models weren't quite as good as the English militia and it looked like the molds may have been reaching end of life as some of the casts lacked the definition of the English. Once again the dip helped out and the models look good from a bit of a distance.

As I had the guys out I let the Milicianos Indios have a play in the jungle, these guys also have the skirmish rule so it looks like Hearts & Spades will be important cards for the Spanish player.
Next up will be the English Freebooters who form the backbone of the Buccaneer army.

Mick and I also got a good game of Kings of War in this week with the points increased to 2250 so he could try out a list that was touted on the Basilean Facebook group.

This was basically a speed list with 2 Hordes of Elohi, 2 Regiments of Knights and then supporting heroes and monsters. It featured only 1 Horde of foot sloggers.
It was an unusual feeling being the slowest on the board and the Basilean formations for the Knights and Elohi make them a scary prospect to fight (gaining Elite and Viscous respectively).

 We did manage to go the full distance despite having a chat about Mick's painting (he's finally started!) and in the end the Basileans came out the victors with my Herd being badly mauled.

Time to put my thinking cap back on and have a play around with the list, all those flying units are a pain once they turn your flank.

Glorious Glosters

Having been close to completing the English Militia for my Buccaneer force last week I was able to finish them off during the week.

I really like the models and the look of the red with yellow trim makes me want to paint up some more so I can see myself adding more militia / regular soldiers in the future.

The next unit I will be working on are the Spanish Hostigadores who are a skirmishing militia unit. Historically they acted as stay behind forces harassing the enemy after the main army had left.

These chaps being all lost at sea won't be much help in crewing the Tartana as she glides across the sea. She is pretty much complete with the masts, rigging and sails added.

At present the spars aren't glue in place so I can swap the sails over but as I found when I was rigging her up it's a real pain in the arse to do so I may well glue them in place and leave her as she is.

Points wise the Tartana when fully equipped will be a bit more than the Bark but not enough to make the match-up unfair.

The Tartana is a fair bit bigger than the Bark but much of that is due to her bowsprit being longer and at a lower angle. As the lanteen rig doesn't allow for a place to fly a flag I used a spare spar from Bark to add one to the rear of the ship.

That's all the boats completed for now and I don't have any immediate plans to add anymore. this means with the terrain also done and dusted I can concentrate on the armies to actually fight with/over all the bits done so far.

Red or Dead

This weeks painting has had a rather red theme about it as I have been working on the Tartana and some English Militia. Having decided to make up some red sails I thought it only fitting that the hull should be red as well, and that has turned out rather nicely over the week.

Now I've got the hull sorted out I can get to work on the masts, sails and cannons to complete the ship. That will probably be another weeks work but with the next Bank Holiday weekend only seven days away I should have the time to complete her.

My other painting job this week has been the English Militia to go in the Buccaneer force. These guys are the cheap filler in the Buccaneer army and would seem to be better in melee than at shooting.

During a quick bit of research I discovered that a fore-runner of the Glorious Glosters was stationed in Newfoundland at around the correct time so that was a flimsy enough excuse to use yellow trim and assume some had gone south for a warmer time.

These are another set of excellent models with plenty of character, my favorite is the chap huffing his cheeks out to blow on his match.

I was also lucky enough to get a KoW game in with Mick after a few weeks break. Once again we played using the scenario cards. These gave Mick the invade scenario whilst I had a combination of loot and capture. This gave me the chance to break out the jungle terrain and check it held together for a game.

In the end the game was pretty quickly decided by the central clash of forces which saw my Herd wipe out the majority of the Basilean army.

Despite some late heroics by Gnaeus who managed to wipe out my Centuar Longmanes with one charge and then a good nerve roll (I'd manage to leave them outside of Inspiring range) Mick didn't have enough forces left by the end of turn 4 to continue.

Next up for the Blood & Plunder painting will be the Spanish Militia / Hostigadores, these are the cheapest unit in the army and whilst poorly equipped do have the Skirmisher rule which helps them keep out of trouble.

Native Militia

First off the bank holiday blocks are the Milicianos Indios who I started last week. The sculpts are really nice with the models looking good even after my painting efforts.

Each B&P pack comes with four sculpts so you do get duplicates in the units but they are far from mono-pose. For the bases you have a choice of either painting them brown and making the most of the wood effect they are cast with or putting some ground cover on them. As I think we will be playing more land battles than sea I went with the same easy basing material I have been using on the terrain.

My plan is to alternate working on a Spanish unit then an English one, so up next will be the English Militia.

I also completed a longboat which is a nice little model (when compared to the other ships) and can be used a cheap way to get your men about in a naval or amphibious battle. You can also buy the canoa which is the widely used native version so I may well end up getting one of those as well at some point.

Ships (and buildings) work out their capacity by base size, simply you can fit as many models in as you can get without the bases overlapping. I was thinking of adding a larger MDF base onto the models as the metal ones are prone to bending but as this would stop me from fitting the full amount of models onto a ship I gave that idea up.

I also took delivery of the straws for mounting the spars and with a dab of superglue now have a simple and effect method for keeping the spars in place whilst being able to quickly swap the sails out.

This will allow the use of the Bark for both B&P and any other game I can fit it into. The blue setup will be perfect for Vanguard Basileans for instance.

The last thing completed this week are some quick barricades made out of the spare palm tree models I got to make the forests.

These have been attached to the base with a Polyfila & paint mix and then finished off with more of the basing mix.

Cover looks to be very important in B&P as without it you don't get your full ranged save throw so could easily be shot off the table.