A REAL BATTLE REPORT!!!!

Hello everyone,

 

I hope all is well on your respective ends. Well, as the title says, this post is all about battle reporting! Yup, it has been some time, but after almost a year I was able to get together with Mike and Duncan to get some proper gaming in. Given some of the homelife dynamics that we have to be careful of, the vaccine deployment has offered some relief on that front, so it seemed like the right time to hit the table!

 

Now as always, Mike has beaten me to the punch, so you can read his side of events here. 

Not only did this give me an opportunity to get a game in, but at Duncan's suggestion of SAGA it also gave me an opportunity to get my Viking Warband on the table...I've had these gents waiting in the wings for some time so just showing up was already a win-win.

Onto the reporting!

The table size was standardish size of the gamemat, I think about a 3x3 with some scattered terrain about the field...some trees and rock formations. Mike was setup on my left (Natives) and Duncan (witchcrafty/sorceror Norse Gaels) on my right, and I setup my Viking War Chief, the fearless Bohner Offheft, along with a Hearthguard, Berserkers, and 2 groups of Warriors.

The Setup:

Duncan’s Gaels…3 Hearthguards and a buttload of SAGA sorcery.

Mike’s warband…I think 1 Hearthguard and 3 warriors with some javelin throwers…so pretty much the only ranged capability on the table.

And my Vikings…Warriors centre and right, Zerkers on the left, Hearth just behind Bohner.

The Mixup:

Duncan leaps forward to Mike's leading warriors and makes some noise with them...

Moving up, Zerkers taking to the woods

Mike's warriors maneuvering...

Mike's warriors move to the edge of the woods, my Zerkers go...well berserk and charge into contact.

Much flailing and bloodlusting...each group fought to the last man.

Duncan moving Hearthguards forward, my warriors continue moving towards the clearing...some what line abreast...very organized.

My warriors leap from the hill crest and charge into contact with one of Duncan's Hearthguard.

 

After much bloodletting each group is down to one each...7 warriors and 3 heartguards to the end.

 Mike sitting pretty with 2 groups of warriors and his warchief

 

At this point, I rush my hearthguard forward to relieve the sole warrior and met out Viking justice...whatever that may be...sounds just like what I've doing...rush foward and bash! If I remember correctly, my hearthguard do their thing...kill Duncan's last guard, but then they get jumped by his Warchief and lose a couple of their number...but it forces Brodir back...and he takes some hits...

 

  Bohner rushes forward...I think he fights Duncan's warchief, gets him good and tired...and then Mike throws a javellin at him and kills him...sigh. My warriors keep up the pressure and rush the rock formation dealing damage to Mike's warriors and then push left to go toe to toe with his other grouping...

Bonher joins his warriors and Mike throws another javelin volley to reduce our numbers...he is successful and pulls out ahead for the victory.

Final view of the field of battle...not much left. I lost one group of warriors, my hearthguard, and berserkers...a great day for Valhalla, but not much combat power at the end of the game.

Overall a very enjoyable slugfest and great to have the gaming opportunity.

SAGA - Battle Report

Hello folks,

A couple of weeks back I had the chance to get a game of Saga in with Duncan and Mike...it had been some time since I had put a warband on the table so I was pretty pumped to get my Crusaders into the field.  Similar to last time, my force looked great, but hit the field rather horseless...that's okay, I haven't had a serious go at trying to paint horses yet and given where my painting is at these days I am pretty happy with my current warband.

Anyhow, the game went pretty smooth, luckily for me the guys have a great grip on the ruleset and battleboard which let me focus on trying to relearn as much as possible and get engaged.  If I remember correctly, the scenario was the multi-player scenario from the book (I think there may only be one) and it came down to collecting as many points as possible...the warlord collected points by making charges (a little tough for grunts, pretty cool for horse soldiers), survivability, kill numbers, and killing the other warlord.

At the end, Duncan came in first, I was second, and Mike took final slot...to be fair, Mike did an excellent job of placing his troops in very accessible positions.  So yeah, he generously set up his force equitably...and Duncan and I may have made some liberties with that.

I'll do my best to write some narrative as the pics go by...but please enjoy them nonetheless.  Cheers.

Initial setup...ish.  This is near the beginning of our first turn.  Duncan has deployed to the left, Mike is at top of the field with some of his force, the remainder is in mid-field mixing it up with my Foot Soldiers.  They took an initial charge from Mike's cavalry and some hits between his archers and my crossbowman. 

bit of a close-up...lost a couple of men, took an archer or two with them...

The battle board...some very awesome abilities there...the board feels very crusadery...very apropos...

The Soldiers take another round of hits...Mike moves his troops forward, Duncan harasses his lines with charges and special moves 

Mike's archers finally fall to my crossbowman...his cavalry take a beating from Duncan...and I slowly move my grunts forward with my Warlord prodding them along.

My lone Soldier squares of against the galloping horde...dies a true crusader death...

My warriors move forward and have varied success mixing it up...

The rest of the force make their way to supporting my crossbowman...

 the crossbowman join their crusading brothers in the light...between the pics, Mike's troops are taken apart piecemeal by both Duncan and I, his Warlord goes out swinging, and Duncan and I start getting some close range contact.  AND then we run out of time.  All in all, an other excellent game.

First Painting Update of the Year

Howdy folks,

In the interest of getting eyeballs on figs, please enjoy this very short post...

As promised I am finally getting to putting up pics of the first painting update of the year.  While I have posted painting progress, it was just to close out some painting updates from the last year.  This post is certainly a mix of genres and miniature companies and all figs were completed by the end of January.

Hope you enjoy the pics...

These two figures were from a line called Ral Partha...I'm not very familiar with it and if I recall correctly, I purchased this pack of 2 Banditos in a clearance bin...maybe in North Bay.  They did paint up quite nicely and are a little on the 'epic-y' side of the scale, but they should fit in nicely with my other figs. 

 

 

I cannot recall where Clint came from...I remember getting a little plastic bag thrown my way from my buddy Mike, but other than that...that's all I got.  The figure is a little on the small side of 28mm, especially when compared with the two amigos above...however, just like them I elected to keep the basing fairly simple on this one.  For the most part, the inspiration for Clint's paint scheme came from the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

 

 

These two are from Hasslefree Miniatures from their human sci-fi range...inspired from the Battlestar Galactica reimagined series, I couldn't wait to get to these two.  Nailing the exact colour of their uniforms was a challenge as screen shots from the series shows a wide variance in tone depending on lighting conditions...I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait to add some more of these BSG inspired models to the fray. 

 

Another Hasslefree figure, I bought this zombie Doc on a whim and figured that I could add him in wherever in my gaming 'verse.  I took a little extra time to get some shades on his labcoat and show some good 'zombification' on him...I also took some extra time on the basing to get the look of post-apoc...

 

Finally, the last two are remainders from another blister of knights from Crusader Miniatures that I used for my SAGA Crusader army; in this case I themed them rather generically and based them for some Frostgrave-y type locales.  I thought I'd try my hand at some sculpting of extras using milliput.  I also was curious how my new painting technique would look on these figures as my previous knights were painted when I relied heavily on a base coat and a dry brush.  I'm pretty happy overall with the results, I really like how the painting came out...and I know that I certainly need some more practice on sculpting, but with fairly non-critical additions like furs or bags, the sculpting can be pretty forgiving.

 

 

 

2019 Expedition up Mt. Lead.

Painted:
28mm          8 (+8)

Bought:       0

Progress:   +8


WHATS NEXT

1. some pics from a new game I just picked up...

2. a few pics trying out Warlord's Cruel Seas...

3. a Star Wars Legion update...