Dwarf Army - Completed

So for years I have had some Dwarf miniatures from Citadel and Asgard (plus a couple of others makes). Recently I pick up a few axe dwarfs and crossbow from SHQ to finish off the units into groups of 12 figures, so they can be used in Dragon Rampant and for Kings of War (on the sabot bases). 

First up the whole army and the leaders (Asgard Lord, Reaper Cleric and the very old Corbett Shortstuff from the Dwarf Kings a Court). 

Then the Spear and Pike units (almost exclusively Asgard), a couple mixed warrior and crossbow units (warrior unit an even mix of Citadel and Asgard, while the crossbow unit was mainly Asgard). 

This is the heavy unit with the new SHQ axe warriors - the Red/Blue painted helmets was done to try to match in the very old Citadel armoured dwarfs in the front rank. I think it works pretty well. 

All based at the same time, so they match up pretty well. I was planning to put them on a gaming mat rather than the table top .....

I am planning to make a steam tank (steel behemoth in Kings of War) for extra power - just realised that I forgot to include the dwarf cannon (d'oh!). The other option is to use the Earth Elemental with the cleric.

Need to get to the table .....

Morts

Barbarians - Finished .....

Another months (possibly years) of hanging around the painting tray I have finally finished the sodding barbarians (apart from basing). They are a mash up of Frostgrave barbarians and GW Chaos bits. The plan was to get them as an additional unit for a Dragon Rampant/SAGA forces with the Gripping Beas Viking/GW mash-ups I did a while ago. Unfortunately I am not happy with then at all.

Group shot and then some close up pictures.

I have to say that like the Skitarii Vanguard, these were not the painting experience I hoped for - in fact they were a chore to paint. Oh well will try something else to paint.

Morts

A Game of Maurice - First game time in a while

Steedo and I had a quick game of Maurice in the afternoon (with copious cups of tea, rather than the copious amounts of alcohol). As it was the first game in a while, we played with identical armies (no special abilities) and mirrored terrain on each side of the river. The objective was to control both bridges - this was going to be a tough game for both of us.
The game started with the myself setting up first as the defender and Steedo as the attacker. I had set most of my army in column formation (Steedo had set up his whole army at one bridge) - but I didn't have any march cards to change formation or move, so I had to pass on the first few turns.
Steedo managed to get his cavalry across the bridge on my right flank while I still had my troops in column - and fortunately his attack was held off.

Meanwhile I had managed to get my cavalry across the other bridge and held off Steedo's cavalry (having almost been caught in the flank!). Steedo then resumed his attack on my right flank, which eventually led to the the loss of two cavalry regiments each and neither of us holding the bridge. We then returned to my left flank - where I managed to get both my cavalry units into an attack - one slightly disadvantaged my a ploughed field, however I had used the "Confusion" card to drag in one of Steedo's units to equal out the mud. This engagement was a win for my forces! Unfortunately for me we had ran out of cards and the game was called.

The final tallies were Steedo - 4 units lost, one objective held, 7 on the army morale. For myself 2 units lost, one objective held, 5 on army morale (but this was down to Steedo playing "Death of a Hero" twice, for 4 morale off me and later playing "Rousing Speech" to put 2 back on his!). In th spirit of the enlightenment we called it a draw and discussed who might win if we continued - possibly me as I might have be able to get around the back of Steedo's artillery, but the infantry fight would have been very attritional. In retrospect the capture of both bridges without any other way of get across the river made this a challenging battle in which the infantry played little part. Although I think the game played in a very historical way.
It was  really good to get Maurice back to the table - will need to get an Imagi-nations campaign sorted....... Too much to do and too little time .....

Morts

Kill Team - Skitarii Vanguard

Well after a month or two I have finished painting the Skitarii Vanguard for my kill team (not finished basing them, but that might take a couple more days). I was really looking forward to painting these, more than the Rangers, but I found them a real pain to paint - lots of fiddly details. I couldn't seem to get their overcoats highlights right (this is the second attempt on those). Not a joy to paint - hopefully they look ok and when the basing is done, they'll pass muster. No doubt when I'll spot some mistakes and details I've missed.

I went for a soviet style colour scheme - which I think works well as they work as cogs in the great machine. When the basing is done I will get a full shot of the complete kill team.
Of course now I don't have a reason not to finish the barbarians who have been haunting my desk for a year or so ..... They have not quite been the painting experience I hoped or assumed they would be. - perhaps I need at paint so individuals for a bit to get the paint vibe going again. This has been quite a frustrating time at the painting table.

Morts

A Half Century for DK

The collective gathered to celebrate DK's 50th birthday, in a surprise gaming day organised by DK's better half. The day started with myself, Sylon, Steedo and Snake-eyes heading up the 'Shill to watch England beat the Aussies in the rugby World Cup quarter final - a cracking start the the day!
Then off to DK's to secretly set up a game of Tzolk'in - the Mayan Calendar.  Then we waited for the birthday boy!
DK's wife duped him in to the Annex and he was duly surprised and equally disappointed by the lack of bacon sandwich and the fact that his "planned" birthday game session for a fortnights time was just a ruse ......
Then we started drinking ..... Well DK started on the 6 1.5 litre bottles of Lambrini we had got for him  and a game of .... Umm I can't remember but I think it was a pirate themed game sourced by Snake.
Then we started playing Tzolk'in. We had watch some play throughs, but the rules appear rather daunting. The game is a rather clever placement and the retrieval game. With moving cogs too make the placement and retrieval even move challenging. The objective was to collect corn, climb up the temple hierarchy, collect gold, stone, wood, crystal skulls and build stuff with the resources......
As implied by the name of the game (well the calendar part anyway), timing and planning is everything in this game. I have to say I had little of either in this game. I was briefly second, but this tragically didn't last, as I didn't have a clear way forward and ended up not being able to feed my workers so lost my victory points. However Sylon was on top form as the picture of the final standings on the board.

DK had done a top job of doing up the cogs, as always.

Tzolk'in had taken about 3 and a hall hours and a whole bottle of Lambrini by DK - after packingWe then started the second game - Quartermaster General: 1914.
This a area control, card management game for 5 player (which was convenient), which 2 players (myself and Snake-eyes) representing the Central powers and 3 (DK, Steedo and Sylon) representing the Entente powers. Again DK had done a nice job of the playing pieces - although the base colours were a little difficult to spot and differentiate. This is a really clever game with all the major events of the Great War covered - the cards could be used for attack and defence bonuses. I did struggle with which cards I needed to "prepare", so they can be used in battle and attrition. Especially as the Austro-Hungarian had a number of cards which only provided defence in certain areas - so when I thought I had defence cards they couldn't be used due to location limitations. DK was well oiled with Lambrini by this point and had a rather assuming turn, where he forgot what he had done and Snake-eyes trying unsuccessfully explain what he'd done, only to then run through the turn again ... We had a break for a pub tea and more beer!

On our return we concluded QM: 1914, with a result a repreat of the real war. Overall a really smart game, with many challenges. You really need to know the deck you are playing with and consider the areas you are going to focus on or that the cards direct you towards.

After a brief discussion we played a game of Skulls - which again I took an early lead only for Sylon to win in the end.

A cracking days gaming to celebrate DK's half century and an impressive amount of alcohol consumed by all but especially DK - about 3.5 litres of Lambrini and a larger top!

Morts

Kell - Snake-eye's character

So in between a epic game of Eclipse and work I have managed to complete Snake-eye's character for the pirate RPG campaign that we occasionally manage to play - too much to do and too little time.
The character is a cleric equipped with a quarter staff and crossbow.

Apparently he is meant to be a healer, but has now become the captain of his own ship ......

Hopefully Snake-eyes will be happy with him.

Morts

Back to the table - Eclipse

The full collective got together to play Eclipse for the first time in 7 years!!!! Actually it was the first time playing for Snake-eyes on Sylon.
The set up was taking a bit ok time so DK, Sylon and myself helpfully went outside and played Kubb (a old Viking game) - the first game was a win to DK and Sylon, so I called on Steedo's boy to my side, reasoning that his youth and spatial awareness from years of academy football training would help to bring victory to me. Unfortunately the boy didn't knock a single pawn over .... And DK and Sylon won again. To save me from any further humiliation in garden games we went into play Eclipse.

So Eclipse is a classic 4X game, where you have to create an economic engine to paid for fleets, research and exploration ..... and battle! We all had the same race (humans) so a totally level playing field for us. I started and decided to explore - unfortunately I found an attacking ancient so binned it and effectively lost a move .... Steedo ran into the same problem and the others were either luckier or did some research.
The challenge of the game is to get an engine going so you can pay for expansion, research and ships - but there is never enough money as the more you expand the more it costs. Certainly the issue that Sylon, Steedo and myself had was that we couldn't get the orange planets which pay for you to expand more .... Snake-eyes strategy seemed to be one of avoiding contact with the other civilisations (coward). Sylon when on his usual (might not be ..... but he does seem to rush in sometimes) attack things before you have fully buffed up your ships with researched upgrades. DK did some exploration and the jammy git came across the "morph shield", which cost nothing to power up, gave -1 to hit, +2 initiative and regeneration .... Which when coupled with improved Hull made his cruisers almost unbeatable. DK also got his economic engine for the game running - allowing more research and building.
As the game progressed Sylon was eliminated, by the evil DK and his bloody super cruisers, Steedo was his usual weaselly self by stealing my systems while I was busy trying and failing to reduce DK's lead. Git. Snake-eyes was hiding in his own little part of the Galaxy. DK was busy just collecting systems.

TL - Early game, TR - Mid game, BL - my fleet going head to head with DK's super ships (I did manage to destroy one), BR - end game DK's ships and the treacherous Steedo's red ships in my space!
Final scores 40 for DK, 32 for Steedo, 24 for Snake-eyes and myself and 11 for Sylon.

The game played well but was rather long (2.30am finish), but this was partly due to Steedo knocking  over a glass which then appeared to explode over the table and a brief discussion around Brexit. Hopefully we will play this again within 7 years, but there are a couple of things to think about are the player boards, which have lots on them and are easy to knock so you don't know what was where. The board does require a large table, as systems can go off in all sorts of directions. The catch up mechanism didn't seem to work in our game with himself and Sylon  (eventually knocked out) out of the winning the game with at least a third to go. Finally the "morph" shields were just too powerful when coupled with extra hull and improved weapons. Sylon said online other groups had only allowed one or two of its options - but Steedo said he was going to get rid of it.

Morts