Painting Update - Guild Ball, Arena Rex, Kings of War, Horizon Wars

We're back this week with some single additions and half of a "big" project. 

Gen Con has come and gone, and thanks to some ninja-shopping from Kevyn, I managed to get my hands on some exclusive releases.

Wrecker is the Season 2 mascot for the Masons, and hasn't been released yet. He's an interesting addition (with a somewhat boring model), and I'm curious as to how he works in the team compared to Marbles. The baboon is a damage modifier, while the giant armadillo seems to occupy the footballing space more, with some methods to push models around as he moves.

Lupa is a gladiator for Ludus Magnus, and was originally available only through the Kickstarter. Now she can be bought exclusively at certain conventions. She brings some hitting power to the Magnus ludi, but can be stopped by the opponent by spending Favor dice - which can put the Magnus player at a Favor advantage. She's also a pain to take a picture of thanks to her stance.

Although I lost interest in Kings of War as a fantasy mass-combat ruleset earlier this year, I'm planning on attending a local tournament just to get some games in and support the local scene. The problem is, I no longer have an army for the game, having sold off my League of Rhordia/Kingdoms of Men force not too long ago. Luckily, Kevyn's letting me borrow his Ogres mega-army. As a thank you, I picked up this Reaper Bones giant and will pass it along to Kevyn, after using it in the tournament.

As for the "big" project, I completed half of the forces I'm putting together for Horizon Wars. The above miniatures are all from the Army of the Reach, the military force of Harker's Reach, one of the most powerful manufacturing cities on Kressidia. They're the main opposition to the UMC (United Mercantile Consortium) and their mercenary companies.

This is a big force; an average game of Horizon Wars may range from 15 to 30 points, and what I've painted adds up to 67 points!

The armored elements of the army consist of Mobile Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, and Armored Artillery. The vehicles are from Brigade Models, as are the infantry.

There are plenty of foot infantry options; Light Artillery, Recon, Airborne Infantry, Special Forces, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry. Again, these are all from Brigade Models.

These Heavy Gear mechs have been repurposed as paratrooper variants of medium Gator and light Caiman mechs. I'll be adding more when Dream Pod 9 releases their plastic starter set, which contains 30 mechs!

Now that the Reach forces are done, I'm starting work on the UMC, which is made up of various private military companies. This should break up some of the monotony, as everything in the faction won't need to look alike.

Fight in the Shade - Wargods AAR

Carl and I finally got the chance to play a game of Wargods, with two warbands from Aegyptus. Since it was my first game ever, and Carl's first game in more than five years, we decided for a straight bash across a 4x4 table. 

Carl was kind enough to loan me some of his models, so I could get my warband up to 1500~ points. 

My list:

• Asar Harbinger of Osiris - Hand Weapon, Medium Armor, Shield, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Master of Words - Hand Weapon, Light Armor
• Asar Priestess of Isis - Hand Weapon, Light Armor
• Asar Champion - Double Hand Weapon, Medium Armor, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Champion - Spear, Shield, Medium Armor, Amulet of Isis
• Sebeki Champion - Hand Weapon x2, Amulet of Isis
• Asar Warriors (14) - Hand Weapons, Medium Armor, Shields, Standard, Musician
• Asar Warriors (14) - Spears, Medium Armor, Shields, Standard, Musician
• Asar Warriors (10) - Improvised Weapons, Slings, Light Armor
• Sebeki Warriors (6) - Double Hand Weapons, Standard, Musician
• Anubi Warriors (10) - Hand Weapons, Bows, Light Armor

Carl's List

• Basti Harbinger of Bast - Hand Weapon, Spear, Amulet of Bast
• Basti Master of Words - Hand Weapon, Amulet of Bast
• Asar Priestess of Bast
• Asar Champion - Hand Weapon, Shield
• Asar Champion - Hand Weapon, Shield
• Basti Warriors (10) - Hand Weapons x2, Standard, Amulet of Bast
• Basti Warriors (10) - Bows, Amulet of Bast
• Asar Warriors (12) - Spear, Shields, Standard
• Asar Warriors (12) - Hand Weapon, Shields, Standard
• Sebeki Warriors (12) - Hand Weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields, Amulet of Bast

You'll noticed that the lists are split between a smaller force with more armor, and a larger force with little armor. I was curious as to how this would turn out - would Carl's force be offensive enough to reach my lines before taking casualties from a lack of armor saves?

We alternated deploying units and characters up to 6" away from the table edge. I kept my units close together, while Carl had his spread out a little more.

During the first turn, our units started moving across the table. My Master of Words cast Far-Seeing Eyes, doubling the range of his next spell.

Turn two say both sides still advancing. However, my Master of Words then cast The Land's Despite, reaching out and slowing the large unit of Sebeki's Move Value from 4 to 2, which would last for five turns. Thanks to the dune in front of the Sebeki, they were only moving 1-2" per turn, effectively keeping them out of the battle. This had the added benefit of keeping the unit of Asar Warriors trapped behind them.

This turn also saw the start of ranged combat, and thanks to some hot dice rolling on my part, I managed to cause four casualties to Carl's Basti archers, who then failed their rout save and turned tail. I moved my Master of Words up, but regretted that decision when Carl's slingers managed to knock a wound off of the magic-user. His own wizard then prepped for the next round with a Far-Seeing Eyes spell.

On the next turn, some concentrated shooting between my archers and slingers forced another rout with Carl's Basti swordsmen. In retaliation, Carl's Master of Words threw down an extended-range Spiky Ground in front of my Sebeki unit. Luckily, the hardy lizardmen were able to march across the ensconced terrain with no ill effect.

My Master of Words, in an attempt to make his way to the front and gain an unobstructed view of the battle, caught another barrage of sling-bullets and went down.

Long-ranged fire continued to wreck havoc across Carl's battleline. His Basti warriors failed to rally, unlike the archers, and so ran off the table. The same happened to his unit of Asar swordsmen, who routed after a deadly hail of arrows and bullets cut down a quarter of their numbers. With my left flank unopposed, my own swordsmen marched forward at the double time.

On the right, my unit of Sebeki were moving as quickly as possible. Carl had managed to hit them with Sulfurous Fissures, preventing them from charging into the slingers. His Master of Words then cast Hailstorm on the slingers, and the increased damage managed to kill two of the Sebeki. This, however, gave the lizardmen room to maneuver into a charge that then routed the slingers, and prevented the still-slowed enemy Sebeki from being able to charge into contact.

In the center, Carl's and my own Harbingers finally met, and began a Provocation. Meanwhile, my Anubi archers wiped out their Basti counterparts with some seriously scary accurate shots from their bows, but not before the Basti managed to kill a couple Asar swordsmen.

After a couple rounds of combat, my armored Harbinger won the fight, killing the Harbinger of Bast and absorbing his Ka.

With the death of their leader, Carl's army broke, with all of his units (save the slingers, who had managed to rally) routing, turning and retreating towards the opposite table edge. We decided to call it there - there was little chance that Carl's units could recover, and I held the advantage of a mostly intact force in addition to my Harbinger. 

I had a lot of fun playing Wargods for the first time. It's very Herohammer-esque, with all the characters running around, and I like the smaller unit sizes (where 14-15 models is a standard unit, compared to the 20+ of Kings of War, Warhammer, or the 9th Age). The rules are pretty simple, and the command counters, combined with alternating activations of the player's choice, is ingenious. Hopefully I'll get to play more in the future, along with adding some more miniatures to the collection.  

Painting Update - Frostgrave, Strange Aeons, Wargods

I'm at the shore for the week, so let's take a look at everything I've managed to paint since the last update. 

These miniatures are going to go with the rest of the Frostgrave warband, adding to the variety of different classes that can be hired in the game. Additionally, I could always use these for Open Combat, which I still need to play.

This group of Threshold Agents are from the Strange Aeons starter set, in addition to a kickstarter bonus Priest.

Opposing the Threshold agency are the Lurkers, encompassing all of humanity's worst nightmares. The starter set includes the Cultist Leader and his followers, the Fishman, and the Formless Thing. The Maniac and the Cultist Midget were Kickstarter bonuses, and Kevyn passed along the Shambler, which he received two of accidentally with his Cult of the Black Goat membership. I can probably use it as a Blasphemous Construct.

These objective markers were pretty easy to paint up. The crates and chest come with the starter, while the pumpkins, jack-o'-lantern, and Pickman grave were kickstarter extras.

A pair of Asar warriors will be rounding out the hand weapon unit in my warband.

Cowtown Chaos - Fistful of Lead AAR

Carl wanted to get some more Fistful of Lead games in, which also meant I could bring out my newly painted miniature. Russ decided to get in on the action as well, making the game something of a standoff between the three gangs. 

Carl's Cowtown plastic terrain mixed in pretty well with the store's terrain, and covered up a 4x4 table pretty well. We also agreed that our posses were only carrying pistols, so we wouldn't have to worry about rifles reaching across the table.

My gang started out behind a couple of barns.

Russ' gang began behind the cover of a low wall.

And Carl's gang arrived just outside the town's wooden gate.

Half of my gang started towards Carl's starting position. Unfortunately, it meant that my gunslingers had to advance across an open street, while Carl's banditos could safely fire from behind cover.

Meanwhile, the other half of my gang started a fight with Russ' just outside the town saloon.

Meanwhile, the remnants of Carl's and Russ' gangs began having a shootout near the town's entrance.

I did manage to gun down one of Carl's cowboys...

While also fighting off Russ' advance.

Russ was forced to move cautiously forward, outgunned by Carl's gang members.

Fortunately, Russ's attack on my right was blunted - he was down three men, though I had taken some pretty nasty wounds in return.

My mad dash across the street costed me one of my men, while another found a dud in his revolver and was forced to reload.

Russ did manage to force Carl's gang back out through the town's entrance.

A risky charge from my moonshine-wielding delinquent ended poorly, with the man's blood mixing with the potent drink on the dusty ground. Not liking his odds, Russ' lone gunman retreated after being pinned from a hail of fire.

My attack across the street ended in failure, however, when Carl's Red Lady gunned down another of my gang, while the wounded fellow above bled out and died.

Carl's men rallied near the gatehouse, launching another attack on Russ' two remaining gunslingers.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, I tried rushing to Russ' aid. Unfortunately, Carl steamrollered over Russ' last two gang members. We decided that my last two models ran for it, instead of taking a chance of fighting Carl's bloodthirsty band.

Ramming Speed! - Galleys, Guns and Glory AAR

Since Historicon moved to Virginia, On Military Matters has been running a "Not Going to Historicon" gaming weekend. I got the chance to play a couple games at this year's weekend, one of which was an modified Ancients version of the normally Renaissance based Galleys, Guns and Glory rules, run by Troy. 

The scenario was a pretty simple demolition derby between two Greek navies - the Reds and Yellows. Both had two quinqueremes (one of which held the fleet admiral), five quadrireme, and two triremes.

For the first couple of turns, both fleets moved forward at maximum speed.

Just before the ships impacted, some lowered their oars, slowing down and jockeying for position.

And then, both sides surged forwards, colliding into each other. Wood crunched and groaned as sailors roared and screamed. Both sides lost a ship from the impacts, while one entanglement resulted in both ships catching fire. This turn highlighted one of Troy's changes - ships that moved at full speed in the previous turn kept a "Momentum" token, indicating how quickly they were moving. A ship ramming an enemy from the front was in turned rammed itself, giving the other player a chance to do damage.

The quinquereme under my control managed to clear an enemy quadrireme, but left it empty instead of taking it as a prize. At the same time, the two flagships of the fleets engaged.

The melee continued, with the two burning quadriremes taking enough damage to eventually break apart and sink. Unfortunately, my bid to hold off the green quinquereme in the middle failed, and I lost most of the ship's crew. The two flagships kept fighting, but it seemed like the Yellow's crew had the upper hand.

I managed to clear another of the enemy's triremes, but between my quadrireme and quinquereme, maneuvering became difficult. The crews of the flagships continued their fight.

And then, the Red admiral fell, his ship's crew slaughtered. The sight of the Red's leader falling into the sea was enough to break the fleet, with half the ships beginning to reverse away from the fight, while the other half simply surrendered.

Troy's modifications to the rules made for a great game, and I'm hoping to get more games in some time in the future.