Painting Update - Red Book of the Elf King, ADLG, Blood Bowl

Here's a look at what I've been working on since the last update. 

These are the six Thanes currently released for the Red Book of the Elf King. They're somewhat akin to the Warcasters and Warlocks of Warmachine/Hordes. They're powerful warriors capable of wading into a fight, while also having access to powerful spells. Each Thane has its own special rules and weapons, and tend towards either being better at close combat or spellcasting. 

A Circle of Companions accompany the Thane into battle, and a normal sized game of Red Book of the Elf King will see a Thane leading six units of Companions (made up of three elves each).

The stats and abilities of the Companions change depending on which Thane is leading the warband - some might be able to move and shoot their magic with a slight penalty, while others ignore Courage tests taken from magical attacks. It makes for a fun bit of variation.

I also completed a Tamil Indian army for ADLG, and ran it at a tournament (you can find the AARs on the blog).

It's a pretty simple force - lots of Medium Foot and Elephants, with some Mediocre Bowmen and Cavalry to round out the flanks. With poor command and no initiative, it really relies on marching forward and hoping the first round of combat goes well.

In its first tournament, I lost two games and won one. Hopefully I can get this force out on the table in the near future.

Recently I kickstarted a Blood Bowl team from Gaspez Arts. It's supposed to be a Slann team, but modelled after the Kislev that were added to the Blood Bowl video game (who wanted to add the Slann, but weren't allowed by Games Workshop. Thus, Fantasy Russian Acrobats). The miniatures are resin and the details are crisp. I'm looking forward to playing them soon.

As for what's coming up, I'm heading to Fall In! this weekend. I'll be taking part in a Warmaster Revolution tournament, as well as playing in a few other convention games. And there will probably be loot to show off as well.

Barrage 2018, Tamil Indians vs. Medieval Hungarians - ADLG AAR

My final game at Barrage was against Walt and his Medieval Hungarians. 

Like Bill, Walt decided to dismount his knights as the game started. He also decided to deploy heavily to his left, which would effectively leave one of my commands out of the fight.

The fighting started on the right in the forest, where Walts line of light infantry decided to charge into my command. For some reason, I decided to fight in the forest, knowing that my medium infantry and elephants would be at a disadvantage, while Walt's light infantry wouldn't. This resulted in a quagmire that bogged that command down in the difficult ground for the rest of the game.

The rest of the game didn't go well either - with Walt's commands interpenetrating and nudging each other all over the place, it was difficult to keep track of who was in command of what.

Ultimately, Walt managed to force my army to break, although his own army was just a couple of lost cohesion points away from breaking as well.

Overall, I placed 5th out of ten players. The Tamil force was interesting, if a little boring - there's no real tactical depth to the force. I missed the speed and maneuverability of light horse and real cavalry, and I may build a force with them for the next tournament I go to. Maybe I should expand my Avar?

Barrage 2018, Tamil Indians vs. Medieval Germans - ADLG AAR

My second game at Barrage was against Bill and his Medieval Germans. 

Unlike Joe, Bill decided to dismount what cavalry he could at the start of the game. 

However, since this mean most of his units were heavy infantry, I technically had a "faster" army, and I managed to reach the middle of the battlefield first. 

This meant that when combat came, I was able to claim the top of the hill on the left, which gave me a height advantage in combat. 

While my right flank ponderously swung around, the other two commands were having a decent go of it thanks to some hot dice, and I was able to liberally spread cohesion damaged against Bill's army. 

This time, the Indians managed to hang on in the scrum, and enough of Bill's units routed for me to score a victory.

Barrage 2018, Tamil Indians vs. Nikephorian Byzantines - ADLG AAR

This past weekend I travelled down to Maryland to take part in a 15mm L'Art de la Guerre tournament at Barrage 2018.

I had been furiously working on a Tamil Indian force, thinking I'd been in the Ancients bracket of the tournament (the split being between pre- and post-1000 CE lists). 

However, I was surprised to discover I had been placed in the post-1000 bracket!

That didn't affect my overall strategy much, however. With Elephants, Impetuous infantry, and Ordinary commanders, my army would simply march across the table and hope to roll high on the dice when in combat. 

My first opponent was Joe, who brought Nikephorian Byzantines. 

Despite all the elephants on the table, he elected to keep his units mounted, which allowed him to rapidly re-deployed his knights and heavy cavalry away from one of my commands. 

With all the shooting available to his army, I decided to push my units into combat as quickly as possible. The first round went decently for me, with the Elephants and Impact/Impetus Medium Swordsmen causing cohesion lost across Joe's line of infantry. 

Unfortunately, the dice then swung completely in the other direction, and I saw most of the two commands in combat simply evaporate, leaving Joe with the win. 

Go for the Gold - ADLG AAR

Since moving away from the main group of players, I haven't had a chance to get ADLG out on the table. 

Recently, while rearranging my hobby room, I realized that a 15mm DBx-based army I bought last year off of eBay could potentially be large enough to form a ADLG force. Flipping through the book, I decided to try the game's Swiss Army knife faction - the Condottieri. 

Sure enough, my purchased miniatures could be used with the Florentine variation. I sent an email to Sam asking if he'd like to try out the game. 

Sam accepted, and took up the role as the commander for my Free Company. So, our two mercenary forces would go at each other somewhere in the plains of western Europe.

Sam won initiative and chose to defend.

Unfortunately, my terrain collection is really only meant for Triumph! and DBA - I'm going to need to fix that with some felt cloth - so the pieces were somewhat smaller than they should have been. Three fields, a village, a water feature, a gully, and a gentle hill covered the battlefield.

Our forces consisted of:

Condottieri (Florentine)
Initiative: 2

1st Command, C-in-C, Competant
-4 Heavy Knights Impact
-1 Medium Cavalry Crossbow
-2 Light Horse Bow

2nd Command, Competant
-2 Foot Knight
-2 Mixed Unit Heavy Spearmen/Crossbows
-1 Levy
-2 Medium Cavalry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-2 Mediocre Pikemen
-2 Elite Longbowmen
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow
-1 Heavy Artillery

Free Company
Initiative: 1

1st Command, C-in-C, Brilliant
-5 Heavy Knights Impetuous
-2 Light Infantry Javelin

2nd Command, Ordinary
-2 Elite Foot Knights
-2 Foot Knights
-2 Heavy Swordsmen 2HW
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-4 Elite Longbowmen with Stakes

Both sides advanced towards each other for the first couple turns. I realized my mistake in deploying my heavy artillery on the flank. I wanted my pikes and longbows to be just outside the fields, but doing so meant blocking my artillery's line of sight.

In the center, our two lines of knights ended up facing each other when Sam charged my light horse, causing them to flee behind my own knights.

The battle looked something akin to a giant wheel, with the two armies taking mirrored actions - advancing on one flank, holding on the other, and fighting a brutal melee in the center.

Sam's impetuous knights surged forward and hit my own knights. While the combat ended up with more of his units taking cohesion hits, two of my four knights lost two cohesion each in the attack.

On the right flank, Sam's archers had managed to rout one of my mixed units, but the rest of the command charged into combat.

While I technically had the better force for close combat, the Elite status of the longbowmen managed to save them in a few key combats, although one unit was routed by my knights.

In the center, Sam had lost most of his knights, but my remaining units all had become disordered.

Sam's command of foot infantry had finally gotten close to spitting range, but my longbowmen and artillery weren't doing much to help the situation.

Seeing an opportunity, Sam decided to risk fighting in the fields against my longbowmen and Mediocre pikes. And it paid off! At the end of his turn, both armies had reached their breakpoints (19 for the Free Company, and 21 for the Condottieri). However, since the Condottieri had gone over their breakpoint (22 points), we decided that the game was a minor victory for the Free Company.

This was a good chance to relearn ADLG's rules, although I'm certain there were plenty of instances where I got it wrong. I'm hoping to introduce the rules to more people in the area and get some interest going.

Trunk to Trunk - ADLG AAR

Bob and I met up at Stomping Grounds for a game of L'Art de la Guerre, with thanks to Chris for hastily assembling enough terrain and a mat for us to play on. 

I was the defender, and failed to place either the river or the village on the table. The terrain for the game ended up being three fields and a gentle hill.

The game was an Indian civil war. Bob was running a Classical Indian list, with a bunch of elite elephants and mixed medium swordsmen/bowmen units. I had a Tamil Indian list, with ordinary elephants, impetuous medium swordsmen, and a few mediocre bowmen.

For the first turn, both sides simply advanced. Bob and I quickly realized that this game was going to come down to dice rolls - neither side had the command quality or right types of units for any fancy maneuvering.

As the gap closed, Bob's mixed units opened fire, causing disorder in my battleline.

Undeterred, my generals forced their units forward, and the two lines clashed. Bob's dice were hot, and my units took the brunt of the damage in the first turn of the fighting.

However, the dice turned to my side, though the fact that Bob's infantry units were mediocre quality in combat helped. Holes started to appear in both sides' lines.

Units on both sides continued to rout, but the majority were on Bob's side. And with a break point of 24 to 19, my larger force could hang on longer than Bob's smaller, more expensive army.

Finally, one last round of combat saw enough units routed on Bob's side (including disordered tokens, which we had sort of forgotten to count until this point in the game) to pass his army's breakpoint. However, my Tamil force had also seen a high amount of routed units and disorder tokens, so we decided that the game ended with a minor victory to my side.

Painting Update - Test of Honour, ADLG

With no games played this past week or so, I've managed to get some painting done. 

My focus right now is completing two warbands for Test of Honour. The two forces are commanded by a pair of brothers - Jiro and Saburo - after the death of their older brother and warlord, Taro. Both wish to take the place of their brother, and suspect the other of having killed their elder sibling.

These ashigaru are loyal to Jiro. There's three groups of spearmen, one of archers, and one of muskets.

I've also painted a pair of unarmored samurai for Test of Honour. One is the special pre-order miniature that Warlord made for the game, and the other is Oda Nobunaga from North Star's "Giants in Miniature" line.

The last piece is a camp for my Free Company force in L'Art de la Guerre - the last piece needed to play the game, apart from terrain.

Painting Update - SW:A, ADLG

Here's what I've been working on since the last update. 

This group of Harlequins was my original choice for a kill team when the local gaming group started a Shadow War campaign in anticipation of Warhammer 40,000's 8th Edition, as I only needed a single box of miniatures. The team is headed by a Troupe Leader, backed up by a pair of Virutosos and three Players (or Mimes, the less experienced versions). I also picked up a Death Jester, who helped cover a couple of the Harlequins weaknesses - a lack of long range and large blast templates.

Of course, after a couple weeks, the group realized that the Harlequins seemed far too powerful, and so they were put on the sidelines in favor of an Ork mob.

I've also been working on a Free Company force for L'Art de la Guerre. This is the general's command - heavy knights supported by a couple units of light infantry with crossbows. The light infantry can move as quickly as the knights, so they're useful for covering and attacking flanks in combat.

The second command is comprised of heavy infantry - foot knights and halberdiers. The javelin-armed light infantry provide cover from shooting for the unarmored halberdiers, and can act as flank support in combat.

The third command is the smallest and comprises the ranged elements in the force. These English Longbowmen are Elite and reduce the protection of units they're shooting. They're not great in combat, however, so this is a command that will need to keep away from the enemy or place them in terrain that will offer some bonuses.

Camel Dervish - ADLG AAR

This past weekend I took a trip over to On Military Matters to play a game of ADLG with Dennis, the store's owner. 

Dennis' Sumerians won the initiative roll and elected to attack. My Free Company had three commands consisting of knights, heavy swordsmen, and longbowmen. The Sumerian commands had camel-mounted archers, heavy spearmen, and a mixed group of heavy chariots and medium spearmen.

Both sides advanced. The camels got within bow range of the knights and managed a few hits.

As the infantry stand off, the knights continued to chase after the camels.

Here's where I think I made a mistake (apart from, as usual, deployment) - I took a turn to try and rally the disorder from the knights instead of moving after the camels. This gave Dennis the opportunity to move some infantry from the middle command over and threaten the knights, drawing one of them off.

The knights kicked their mounts back into motion, leaving one unit behind to be swarmed by Sumerian spearmen.

The camels, forced to the edge of the table, split into two groups, forcing the knights to split up. Tired of waiting, the Free Company's heavy infantry started to advanced on the Sumerian infantry.

Unfortunately, the camels were able to take the knights apart with support from the diverted infantry. The Sumerian heavy infantry turned and retreated, along with the chariots, as the medium infantry moved into the flanks of the longbowmen.

At this point, I conceded. I was more than halfway to my breakpoint, and I knew that my own heavy infantry wouldn't get into combat before Dennis would be able to chew up my longbowmen with his medium infantry and chariots.

Camp Curry - ADLG AAR

Chris, Carl, Bob and I decided to play a 300 point game of ADLG this past Sunday. Bob and Carl were commanding a Tamil Indian army, while Chris and I led a Brutus-Cassius Alliance Roman force. 

The field of battle consists of a coastline blocking one flank, a gentle hill on the Roman right flank, and three fields on the Indian side.

The attacking Indians had three commands of Elephants and their accompanying light infantry screen, and a massive command of bowmen, elite impetuous medium swordsmen, and a pair of light chariots.

The defending Romans had three commands of elite Legionaries with light infantry, and a command of light horses with some medium cavalry backing them up.

The first turn saw both armies moving forward.

A pair of Roman-allied light horse were chased off by the mass of Indian bowmen, while the light forces on both sides exchanged fire with arrows, slings and javelins.

The two armies closed. The light horse and medium cavalry continued to harass the Indian flank. A light chariot was forced into combat, unable to retreat due to the coastline, but managed to beat the legionaries in combat. In the center, a charge from the Elephants came just sort of the Roman infantry, who charged in against the massive beasts.

Progress on the flanks grounded to a halt, with the cavalry unwilling to commit to combat and the mass of bowmen slowly advancing. In the center, however, the Elephants had apparently walked into a mass of man-sized blenders, as three of the elephants fell in combat.

The Roman cavalry was forced to commit, as continuing to evade would leave the Roman camp open to attack. The center was clear of most Indian units, but the Roman lines were in disarray. Incredibly, the Light Chariot was still holding up the Romans by the coast.

Indian swordsmen charged through the bowmen as the Romans attempted to reform their lines. A lone Roman-allied light horse fled a charging elephant. The horsemen realized, then, that the Indian camp was completely undefended.

The light chariot gone, the Romans on the left finally prepared to get stuck in - only for the Indian bowmen to rout a Legionary unit and bring another close to breaking. On the right, the Roman cavalry began to waver, hoping for reinforcements to arrive soon.

The lines of battle continued to adjust as the Romans attempted to shift their forces to the mass of Indian infantry.

The Roman-allied light horse finally managed to contact the camp, causing a massive morale loss. That, plus other routed units, pushed the Indians past their break point. It was a close match, however - had the dice not so heavily favored the Romans in the center at the beginning of the game, then the outcome would have been much different.