Sunday 26 November 2017

Battle Report - Old West

Hello All,

Have another battle report for you, busy day today! This time it is an Old West Game, Duncan came over to take the Law Men and give it a go. Playing Dead Man's Hand again, mainly has allot to do with being a bit to lazy to learn a new game, but it is pretty fun anyway. Decided to do the Hanging Scenario.

Hang em High:

For the first scene we have a gallows where in outlaw is about to be hung, with a crowd of unlookers. A few deputies are watching the proceedings, but a trio of outlaws are there to save their pal.


Crowd with some lawmen visible, an outlaw with a rifle is way over hiding behind the hardware store, another on the other side of it, and one with the 'ladies' in the Bar.


Utilizing the surprise 2 outlaws storm the gallows, while the rifle provides covering fire, putting a pin on the deputy by the stairs.


They went up top and put some pins on the closest guy to the gallows, shot guns are dangerous at close range!


Gun fighting continues with the rifle advancing and the other outlw trying to sneak around the platform.


He heads into the crowd and grabs a hostage putting the deputies off, not real keen on shooting the lady with the kid, you can kind of see them behind the gallows.


Mr. Rifle line up another great shot.


And takes out another deputy, things are looking bad for them. But the last guy on the gallows managed to tag the outlaw and he lost his hostage.


Having run out of ammo, he decided that fisticuffs was the way to go.


He lost that battle, and I had a card for a parting shot but he had no ammo! So 2 deputies down, but in this mission the outlaws loose if 2 guys are done, so somehow the Law managed to pull it off. The poor Rifleman got arrested.

Get me Out of Here!:

Scene 2, this time the Outlaws have 2 break their pal out of prison. They get the gunfighter a better shot, but are outnumbered and the rifle guy is wounded. They have to escape off the edge. Truth be told we started the jail to close to the edge, but oh well.


Here is the initial shot, towns folk more spread out, some more deputies around town, one on the roof of the bar. But he has a shotgun, so maybe not the ideal place.


The Outlaws hoof it with the Law cracking of shots and in hot pursuit. They are not keen on the cop killing rifle guy escaping town.


Bit of a shot up happens. The rifle guy get shot in the back, but the other to guys are able to escape leaving another deputy in the dust. No one really feels like a winner so we call this one a draw. Was a bit shorter oddly. Normally scene 2 is longer then 1, but  again jail is a bit close to the edge. You can almost hear the mariachi band up there playing a mocking tune.

Fast Train to Safety:

Scene 3, one of the law men is secretly chosen as a witness to the murder of the last deputy (Sheriff), he has to get to the train station and escape to bring in the heavy hitters. Both sides are kind of split up into 3 groups to head in. With the Outlaws to stop them dead.


Turn 1 quickly devolves into a major scrum in the Bar, which is where I had put most of the civilians, including the boxers hah. Both bosses are facing off, but not one gets a hit on turn 1. The Outlaw boss even getting a jam!


Well turn 2 the Boss gets the drop, and with a jammed gun it is time for punching! He charges in a rolls high beating the Sherrif to down and winning the scenario. But we decided to keep playing anyway.


Things in the Bar go from bad to worse and almost everyone is heading in there. But the next rifle man is up on the roof of the train station and he manages to take down a deputy or 2. With more guys in place the Outlaws are able to edge in with some luck and edge it out with the bar under control.


But a pair of deputies, unhappy with the rifle guy decided to give him the boots and sneak up through the train station. They give him a few good licks, but another deputy goes down.


Eventually the last guy fails his never test and leaves town. Leaving the Outlaws in control.


Was a really fun set of scenarios. But to be fair I kind of messed up the second one with the jail a bit out of place. But the first one came off very well, fun story with the hostage and fist fight on the gallows. The Outlaws came very close to running out of cards and forcing a draw, or getting that last deputy, but was just out of ammo at the wrong time!

Anyway hope you enjoyed reading.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Escape from Goblin Town!

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming battle report! Bit late getting it up this time, but that happens sometimes. Anyway we did the second Hobbit scenario that has the Dwarves with all their weapons secured, trying to run out of Goblin Town. We mixed in a few old moria goblins with bows to mix things up a bit.




Here is the set up, dwarves spread out accross 3 entrances. No time limit this time, but they need to get 8 off including Thorin and Gandalf to win, 8 without them is a draw, otherwise a loss. Lots of Goblins to fight through! Also if 10 models are on a platform at the same time it may collapse yikes.


Everyone starts moving accross of course. Thorin and a group on the Left, Gandalf and a group in the center, and Gloin leading a group on the right.


Thorin and his guys having a real hard time pushing through, must be tired.


Dwalin is on form thou murdering Goblins left right and center. The Armored Goblins formed up and shower whoever they can with arrows, mostly going after Gandlaf when possible, so he is taking some hits and having to spend fate. Poor old guy.


Goblins have not been rolling well for reinforcements, so the Town is getting a bit bare, and the Dwarves are really pushing across.


Gandalf came across the halfway point so we decided it was time for the King to arrive. The scenario clarifies that he doesn't start on the table but doesn't say when he shows up!


He decides that it is his roll in life to toss Thorin over the edge. Let GOllum deal with his broken corpse I guess.


The King counts as 5 guys so it encourages the Dwarves to not gang up on him over much. Meanwhile on the other side the dwarves keep up their rampage. But as they get close more and more Goblins are rammed up in front of them.


Dwarves win the first round of combat with the king, but his fat mostly protects him. But Thorin did get on in with Orcrist.


 Second round goes to the king, the Goblins got initative so where able to split the attackers and have Thorin fighting him alone. But Gandalf came to the rescue and used all of his will to immobilize the poor guy! This meant even winning he couldn't attack and thus couldn't toss Thorin over.  We ran out of time at this point, so I guess it is kind of a Draw, but we are more or less giving it to the Dwarves. They will get to gang up on the king next turn, and he doesn't have a good record fighting 3 at once.

Was a fun scenario, but I don't like how the Goblins all just get jammed up in front of the Dwarves at the end, doesn't quite have the chase effect. Maybe a few tweaks would help.

As a bonus here are a few shots of a fun Napoleonic game Tod ran on Friday. I didn't get enough for a full report but still can be interesting.


 Thanks;
Mike


Wednesday 15 November 2017

Battle Report - Balin's Tomb

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming Battle Report! Once more playing the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, this time thou it's a Lord of the Rings Scenario, well mostly. We are doing Balin's Tomb with the Goblins attacking the Fellowship of the Ring, but we have Hobbit style Goblins, and the Goblin King instead of a Cave Troll as that is what we have painted. Also I kind of feel like it would be more of a challenge for the heroes.

To win this scenario the Fellowship has to bring down the King, for the Goblins to win they have to kill any for heroes, so the Hobbits realistically hah.

We hear drums, drums in the deepThey are ...
Here is the initial set up, fighty heroes by Balin's Tomb, Gandalf and the Hobbits by the well. Goblin coming in from the door, and the trap doors. The King come on a tied priority roll or if all the Goblins die.


Turn 1 the Fellowship spreads out a bit, Gandalf pastes a Goblin with a sorcerous blast, and Legolas misses three shots. Gimili wanted to show him how to shoot however and killed a goblin with a throwing axe.


Next turn more Goblins arrive and they surge forward, mostly trying to surround Legolas. But some fight all the big heroes. The Heroes have to use some might in general but kill a bunch of Goblins.


Next turn things shift around a bit, Gimli and Boromir are in the front taking the brunt of the Goblins, but some are still pressing in. I think this turn Gimli was surrounded and had to use up all his might to avoid loosing a fight to 4 Goblins, couldn't let Legolas see that!


Next turnt he Fellowship starts trying to pull back to limit how many Goblins can get in the fight, and try and let Legolas get some shots in. but Boromi is still having to fight allot of guys. The Fellowhip is hanging on but using up a fair bit of might and fate sometimes.


Next turn with a good having the priority the heroes regroup. The Goblins all hide from the elves arrows. Still a few fights on the side with Aragorn and Pippin vs some Goblins.
 

Aragorn and a couple of the Hobbits, Merry and Pippin. They are both doing pretty well but have each used their fate to stay alive!


The Goblin numbers are dwindling so the Fellowship is feeling pretty safe.


So we decided to just make the King arrive. He came on during the mop up of the Goblins and Boromir ended up having to fight the big guy alone!


He pushes him back first turn, but the Goblins get Merry!


Then the King puts down Boromir! Things are falling apart. Gandalf tried to immobilize the king to support the Boromir but he resisted.


The rest of the fellowship closes in for the killing, hoping to use numbers to get the hits in.


The king is loosing fights and getting pushed back, but his thick blubber is preventing him form taking any wounds.


Trapped in the corner, even Sam get in there to whack him in the knee with his frying pan! Which is pretty dangerous really as the King can easily kill him if he wins.


But it was not to be as the Fellowship eventually bring him down. Aragon did most of the wounds, but I think it was Gandalf who got the killing blow, with his sword cutting through the blubber.

FYI Gimli crushed Legolas in the numbers came the poor elf hardly killed anyone. I guess the drums put off his aim. In the end this was a pretty fun scenario, a but tough for the Goblins as usual I guess, but they got pretty close, killing both Merry and Boromir! Those are big losses so early in the rings quest.

Hope you al enjoyed it. Probably will try out another Goblin town game next week, but we shall have to wait and see what seems most fun!

Thanks;
Mike

Monday 13 November 2017

Painting - Fellowship of the Ring

Hello All,

Time for another panting update! Been a few weeks so got allot of stuff done, plus made good use of the long weekend to push out the Fellowship of the Ring! So as usual here are a few pictures of what I have been doing lately.

Uruk-Hai Crossbows:


Bunch of Uruk-Hai ready to shoot some dwarfs, or whoever I guess hah. Still lots more Uruk-Hai to do but I ran out of the plain bases, so had to switch gears a bit. But it was kind of time anyway I guess.

Riders of Rohan, Westfold Red Shields:


A few Riders, these are really great models, but take a bit of time to paint. Have a few more partially done, plus Erkenbrand in progress. But decided I needed to paint the rest of the Fellowship for some reason.

Big Heroes:


Heres the 4 punchy guys from the Fellowship. I really felt like these models were not that great, especially Boromir and Aragorn, but once there painted they are actually pretty cool I think. Some better version exist thou I guess.

Hobbits:

 

All the little guys, these are pretty cool as well. I really like Sam and his frying pan!

Full Fellowship:


Terrain:


To finish things off, all the terrain that comes in the Fellow Ship of the Ring starter set, plus a few extra pillars from the wiz kids packs. I figured a few more pillars wouldn't hurt anyone.

I guess the thing now is to either do Balin's Tomb, or else the Fellowship can have a run through Goblin town for fun.


Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 385
Painted: 390 
Total: 5

Thanks;
Mike