Saga: Irish Warriors

This is the first unit of warriors for my Irish Saga army that I've completed.

Will be adding flock and possibly some static grass in the future.

Hand painted all the shields, I enjoy doing these, as I did with the Vikings. Thin the paint, make sure your brush is OK and away you go. They are all slightly different, but that makes them a bit individual.

I've kept the colours quite mute but spent quite a while thinking about and then painting the shield designs. I got inspiration for them from the Gripping Beast designs they have on their website.

They are Footsore Miniatures models and I rather like them, I bought their war band deal and then got a unit of hounds to bring them to 5 pts. See the undercoated models I posted last month here.

I've ordered my copy of the new rules and look forward to getting them soon, next week hopefully :-)

Rogue Trooper Unit

Carried on with the Rogue themed Astra Militarium yesterday and managed to paint another 9 to a half reasonable standard. Looking at these I think I need to spend some more time working on the skin tones. Its a bit blocky to say the least.

I like how they look from a distance, so on the tabletop they'll be fine, but when you see them through the lens of a camera/phone then.....

My first unit complete, think I will launch into another and then I have a couple of Chimera that need repainting and giving some insignia to draw them together with the Rogue Trooper feel.

Not sure what weaponry I can put into each unit at the moment, not having a rulebook, but not going to worry about that for the moment, just having fun. 

KOW: Night-Stalkers V Abyssal Dwarves 2000 pts

Played Steve down at WWarriors on Monday evening, Night-Stalkers V Abyssal Dwarfs, an interesting first game for the Night-Stalkers, lots of fun .

Night-Stalkers

Troops of Spectres x2

Regiments of Phantoms x2

Horde of Bloodworms

Horde of Butchers

Horde of Fiends

Horrors x2 with Bane chant

Planar Apparition

Shadow Hulk

Void Lurker with Blade of slashing

Abyssal Dwarfs

Troops of Gargoyles x2

Horde of Lesser Obsidian Golems x2

one with Slashing Blade

Infernok (I)

Horde of Abyssal Grotesques

Dragon Fire Team x2

Hordes of Blacksouls x2 

One with dogs, other with Brew of Strength

Overmaster with Banner of the Griffin

Iron-Caster with Surge 8

Dravak Dalken (I)

First mistake, not a huge one though, I threw the Spectre troop on the right too far forward in an attempt to silence one of Steve's  Dragon Fire teams which was a waste of time and left me vulnerable.  

I knew the Bloodworms were going to die, no problems although I did think they may have lasted one round of combat, but no!

Steve didn't roll remarkably but it was enough to spell the Bloodworms doom.

Bloodworms gone, the Butchers and Fiends got to charge Steve's Golem Horde and wiped them out. While the Hulk routed the Gargoyles. 

At this moment I felt the left flank was going OK while I knew I was ignoring the right.

Second mistake though, I had flown one unit of Phantoms behind Steve's Grotesques in order to 

Surge them, with a Horror, into the flank of the Golems, but hadn't realised the Horror didn't have LOS to the Phantoms, so they were left stranded.

Good image of the ignore right :-)

From both angles. Mike, who was watching pointed out that I ignored it at my peril. Clever sod.

Third mistake, I thought I had turned the Hulk enough to make sure any charge from the Greater Golem or the Grotesques would be in the front, but no, the Grotesques were definitely in my side.....

Fourth mistake, was my use of the Lurker, seen to the rear of Steve's army by the wall, it was a fair idea to get behind his lines and turn for a rear charge, but not if it would be stood right next to 2 Fire Teams and an Iron Caster, whose combined shooting stripped the Lurker of his impetus and wounds. 

Charged in the front the Hulk would have survived I'm sure, not in the side however. My Lurker is now wavered, and what's worse I didn't even turn him to face his tormentors- perhaps he liked it!

Steve used the weapons teams well and with the Iron caster kept chipping away at the Lurker.

The Greater Golem got rid of the Phantoms and the Grotesques routed the Hulk. Still I had some good charges all lined up, the second Phantom regiment into the Grotesques and the Butchers into the Greater Golem, both flank charges.

But as you can see the god of dice was not with me, 24 attacks from the Phantoms gave me 3 wounds and the Butchers, who had 36 attacks, did something similar. I had a chance to clear the left flank in this turn, but it did not happen.

Fifth mistake, I had completely forgotten that the 2 Horrors had Bane chant, which would have helped wound both the Golem and Grotesques, but not how I was throwing dice.

The Fiends were overwhelmed by Steve's right flank, nicely played :-)

Counter charges from the Abyssal Dwarfs.

Only the Planar Apparition left now and the Butchers. Oh and the lone Spectre troop over on the right.

A desperate last attack before the other world entities were driven from our mortal realm to shudder somewhere in the glowering darkness... they went down Greg's I think for a pasty.

The final counter from the Abyssals saw the rout of the last of the army.

Epilogue

First off a good game, always fun to play young Steve, it was his birthday yesterday. 

Happy Birthday fella!

I made plenty of, "New Model Army" type mistakes and I certainly didn't roll overly well, but that's par for the course with me. 

Steve's Golems are hard to rout and the Grotesques pack a punch.

As for the Night-Stalkers they need a bit of a fiddle with, I need something to shoot with, screamers or a Mindscreech. As I am Mr Limpy at moment it might be a good opportunity to build one or both for my next game in 2 weeks. Also I don't think I need 2 Horrors.

Thanks for reading.

If indeed you still are.

:-)

D&D: The Isle of Cal

As part of my growing enthusiasm for D&D 5e I have been drawing some maps, primarily for myself, but also for the players to use to help them navigate the world.

I have scanned the original drawing, obviously, with the idea of printing off another copy on which I can add notes too. Haven't done much drawing for a while and since I fell over yesterday walking the dogs and have a fat ankle now, there may well be more in the pipeline!

Originally the location was based on the island of Corsica, but has gone through several incarnations and now has little semblance to the place that inspired me.

But its easy to see why. I have a book all about the place that I was given when my Grandfather died some 20 years ago. The rugged mountainous landscape and the history of the place excited me.

Anyway you will see more of this material in the coming weeks.