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Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The Western Marches: Battle of Wraithwood

 Some time ago now, my friend Chris descended upon our realms here in North Carolina once more to darken the skies with crossbow bolts and cause the ground to rumble with the clattering of a thousand dice. He brought with him a very lovely force of 15mm Renaissance figures painted up as a the retained men of a noble house within the Kingdom of Wallonce in his Western Marches setting.  We played two games of Dragons Rampant during his visit, this first game he squared up against our other friend Chris (I know, it gets confusing), who brought a sizeable force of very spooky skeletons to plague the realms of men with.  As this was in October of last year, I'm a little hazy on the exact disposition of forces and a direct play by play, but I'm going to attempt to catalog the tenor of the game as best as I can below

The Game Size was 24pts and they were playing the "Into the Valley of Certain Death" Scenario, which sees both armies attempting to move off the opposing table edge, through the enemy army and a table filled with dangerous terrain. 



The Retinue of Lord Hollowell of Wallonce
Painted by Chris H.

Lord Hollowell [Elite Foot]
-Goader

Pikemen Militia [Light Foot]

Halberdier Militia [Light Foot] 

                                                Crossbow Militia [Heavy Missiles]
                                               
                                               Alchemist's Company [Scouts w/ 'Spellcaster']





   The Unquiet Dead of the Wraithwood
    Painted by Chris Mc.

   The Bone Lich Mull'Occm [Light Foot w/ Undead]

    4x Skeleton Warriors [Light Foot w/ Undead]
 
    Skeleton Archers [Light Missiles w/ Undead]
 
                                                 Wraiths [Lesser Warbeasts w/ Undead]














An overview of the table before deployment, the forest stands, and the giant mushrooms are all counted as dangerous terrain for the purposes of this scenario, no doubt the evil magic tainting the Wraithwood has seeped deep into the roots of the trees, and encouraged them to new heights of arboreal malice.


A view of the Walloncian line, the ranged arquebuses and crossbows deployed to the right, and the pikes and halberdiers on the left, both wings using the hostile terrain to their advantage, encouraging the undead host to march through a hail of bolts and bullets across dangerous and rough terrain to get to grips with them


The undead, however, have the numbers to weather the fire, and the Wraiths have the 'ranger' ability allowing them to cross through terrain features without distress (after all, who best to traverse the Wraithwood but the Wraiths themselves)


multiple Regiments of Skeleton Warriors move to engage the Walloncian Pikes along the left flank, but several units falter in the rough terrain or fail to organize well enough to charge just yet. Resulting in several Undead units strung out in dangerous terrain, with only one unit making it into close quarters with the Humans on the left.


The Wraiths on the Right have better luck, crashing into the Alchemist's Company and causing some casualties. If the Wraiths can continue to roll up into the Crossbows, it could prove disastrous for the Humans, by taking away their ranged advantage. 


Lord Hollowell and his retainers survey the battle, waiting for the most opportune moment to commit to the fight in earnest.


The Undead were repulsed from the Pikemen and lost a scattering of other units to the restless spirits of the trees. Walloncian strength of arms was holding the line firm for the moment.


Taking decisive action in the center, the Halberdier Militia charged into the entangled Skeleton Warrior units. They made some good progress in causing damage to the skeletons, but not as much as they would have hoped, and were rewarded for their bravery with a hail of arrow fire from the Skeleton Archers, which did a brutal number on the unit, and broke the spirit of the rest, causing them to flee. The Pikes slew another depleted unit of Skeletons but were overwhelmed at last by the last of the Undead's reserve, collapsing the entirety of the Walloncian left.

The Right faired little better, with the Alchemist's Company being slain or fleeing from the Wraith's attack. The Crossbows finished off the battered unit of Wraiths, but they too found themselves overrun by the last of a damaged Skeleton Warriors unit.



Lord Hollowell stands alone. defiant in the face of the Wraithwood's evil


While things might appear grim for the Men of Wallonce, a unit of Elite Foot with a leader is a daunting prospect in Dragons Rampant, and Chris H. did a lot to whittle down the threats on the table with his foot and missiles, before ever engaging with the Elite Foot. Essentially the Humans have a very powerful, heavily armored unit, capable of moving and performing actions reliably, versus the remaining undead force which is comprised primarily of light archers and lightly damaged light foot.


The Archers open fire onto Lord Hollowells Retinue, but struggle to score damage against their Armor 4, despite getting a fair number of hits.


The last of the Skeleton Warriors, move to charge the Humans, but fail to activate sadly, leading to Lord Hollowell's forces engaging and destroying the last of the Skeletal Warriors


With the dedicated melee infantry gone, the game was largely decided. The Skeleton Archers fired off a parting volley into the retinue, effecting no casualties, and vanished into the dark eaves of the Wraithwood, no doubt taking the word of the defeat to their Dark Masters


The Banner of Lord Hollowell stands tall on the battlefield, and the first rays of sunlight break over the gray cast clouds, lightening the heaviness in the air and returning some life to the haunted trees and dead grass. The Dark Magic of the Wraithwood has been repulsed for now but at a considerable human cost, no great reveille will be held this night, merely a stoic toast that those that fell did not do so in vain.


Minor Walloncian Victory. 

Hobby: Midland Bandits #1



A few old Wargames Factory Viking Huscarls with pieces from the Frostgrave Cultists added on, these friendly fellows are the first in a wave of shield-bearing infantry to accompany my Knights of the Feast in games of Dragons Rampant.  For their base, I want to get some tall grass and meadow flowers with likely a dark brown earth color like Stirland Battlemire, with small rocks to break things up visually. 

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Vitritian Interregnum: Game 4



Ankor Thrume processed the rotting, particle-laden air through the grille of his augmetic filtration units and gazed at the burning skyline of Grestian Bay, the Heretic forces had broken through the noble Skitarii's initial attempts at containing them in the Outlands. They had tracked the Chaos forces movements across the dried ocean floors of the planet and waited as they set up a base of operations in Grestian Bay, confirming the blessed Magi's hypothesis that the next clue to the Omnissiahs artifact was buried somewhere within the vast sprawl of once majestic trading concourses and coastal palaces. It was his duty to ensure that they did not escape again, the vast campaign of orbital bombardment and Precision Airstrikes had been in service to this end, crippling the lesser forces of the unaugmented human infantry that stood in his Maniples direct line of advance, and ensuring that all avenues available to other traitor armored groups or fast reaction infantry were mired in chemical fire, rubble, and debris.

His true target was finally revealing itself, clad in ceramite and gripping chainswords, backlit by the white glow of centuries dead city. Thrume would have grinned if he still had a mouth; he pulsed deployment orders to his Maniple across the noosphere. The Battle was nigh

 






Centurions of Innocence 5th Company [Chaos Space Marines]

Points: 753
Legion: World Eaters





HQ

[Warlord] "The Lamb"  Chaos Lord 
        - Trait: Violent Urgency
        - Mark of Khorne, Plasma Pistol, Ul'o'cca the Black Axe

Daemon Prince
        -Hellforged Sword, Mark of Khorne, Talisman of Burning Blood, Wings

Exalted Champion
        -Mark of Khorne, Gorefather, Plasma Pistol.


Troops

Chaos Cultists
        -9 Cultists W/ Autogun, 1 Cult Champion, Mark of Khorne

Khorne Berzerkers
        -3 Berzerkers with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, 
        -1 Berzerkers with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword
        -1 Berzerker Champion with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist

Khorne Berzerkers
        -3 Berzerkers with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, 
        -1 Berzerkers with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword
        -1 Berzerker Champion with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist

Elites

Helbrute
        -Mark of Khorne, Power Scourge, and Reaper Autocannon

Possessed 
        -5 Possessed, Mark of Khorne.




Skitarii of Forge World Metallica [Adeptus Mechanicus]

Points: 744
Forge World:  Metallica




HQ

[Warlord] "Ankor Thrume Uh-8"  Techpriest Enginseer
        - Trait: Learnings of the Genetor (PA)
        - The Omniscient Mask

Techpriest Manipulus 
        -Trait: Divinations of the Magos
        -Magnarail Lance, Mechanicus Locum 

Troops

Skitarii Vanguards
        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines
        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine

Skitarii Vanguards
        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines
        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine

Skitarii Vanguards
        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines
        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine


Elites

Secutarii Hoplites
        -9 Secutarii Hoplites with Arc Lances, and Mag-Inverter Shield
        -1 Hoplite Alpha with Arc Lance, and Mag-Inverter Shield

Secutarii Hoplites
        -9 Secutarii Hoplites with Arc Lances, and Mag-Inverter Shield
        -1 Hoplite Alpha with Arc Lance, and Mag-Inverter Shield

Sicarian Ruststalkers
        -5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with Chordclaws and Transonic Razor
        -1 Ruststalker Princeps with Transonic Blades


Fast Attack

Sydonian Dragoons
        -3 Sydonian Dragoons with Phosphor Serpenta and Taser Lance


Dedicated Transport

Skorpius Dunerider
        -2 Cognis Heavy Stubbers, Twin Cognis Heavy Stubber

========================================================================

So, myself and Chris are back at it again, with our Chaos versus Adeptus Mechanicus narrative slow-grow campaign. This time, the mission was a pure and simple Kill Points game, with deployment along long table edges, as it was likely to be the last game we played in 8th Edition, it felt appropriate to use the "classic" game setup.







The Mechanicus Set up, along the town's outskirts, with the Dunerider on their far-right and filled with Sicarian Infiltrators, the core of the battleline comprised of Vanguard and Hoplites is a vicious prospect to attack, and the Sydonian Dragoons are a punishing unit that, if you allow them to survive will absolutely tear a hole in your forces.  Chris' Mechanicus force is very interesting, as its highly aggressive and close combat-focused, with aura debuffs from vanguard and truly intimidating damage output from their specialist units.


My Chaos forces set up within the heart of the town, I was attempting to get as far forward as I could, and overlap my Character's aura abilities onto my Berzerkers, which would be pivotal if I was going to overcome the Vanguard-Hoplite wall



I lose a Berzerker squad to the entire armies worth of Mechanicus fire, and move up my troops, using the cultists to screen my left from the transport mounted Ruststalkers, and positioning the rest in preparation for a charge



Both forces move forward aggressively, I think I made a critical error in this turn, with my placement of the Daemon Prince, I chose to go after the core of the Mechanicus forces, which hampered my placement of models and likely led to their encirclement and destruction in the coming turn. I was considering going after the Dunerider and its occupants with the prince, which may have been a better choice as it would have forced some of the Mechanicus' infantry to either commit to helping the Infiltrators, or at the very least would have slowed the Ruststalkers down




I committed the majority of forces into destroying the Sydonian Dragoons, (which are an excellent "distraction carnifex" im finding), this led to me killing that target, and damaging some Vanguard, but opening up the majority of my force to be counter charged by Hoplites. My hope was that I would have enough of my forces left after the counter attack, to be able to break out and continue my attack, this proved to be wishful thinking.







In the end, the Mechanicus' Counter-attack, consisting of both HQ characters, debuffing Vanguard, and the very hard hitting Hoplites did a lot more damage to my main forces than I was really hoping they would, and the Ruststalkers tore into my rearguard and really shut down the game. It was a textbook encirclement by Chris, and I do really need to be more careful with how I commit to different targets in Melee. I think that target prioritization really cost me the game here, but regardless it was a ton of fun to play, and i'm looking forward to locking blades again with Chris soon in 9th Edition.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all stay safe!



Thursday, July 23, 2020

Hobby: Order of Purest Sun


We've been dabbling for a little while now with Dragons Rampant, which is an excellent ruleset from Osprey Publishing.  Its a generic fantasy toolkit, and I often see the Warhammer Fantasy armies of yore fielded once again under its rules. Its very balanced and still quite flexible with a selection of fantastical abilities and attributes to add onto a list of core unit profiles to tailor units to meet your ideas. 

Being as I loved the old world of Warhammer Fantasy, and that I felt that many of the Fantasy miniatures I had are more modern and would fit better into my ideas for Age of Sigmar. I picked up some more old school hand sculpted human fantasy figures from some third party sites. The primary one being EOE ORBIS  aka. Blacktree Miniatures.  

My intention is for these brave men at arms to stand sentinel against my Warriors of Chaos army, that I inherited from Chris some time ago now, and which is comprised nearly entirely of early plastic warriors from 5th Edition WFB. 

A shot of the two (nearly) complete units for the Empire. A unit of Ostermark State Troops, and a small unit of lesser knights 



Saturday, July 18, 2020

Hobby: Knights of the Feast



I've decided to work on some Chaos Warriors, partially to use in my Age of Sigmar setting "Synn", and to act as the Elite Foot in a Dragons Rampant setting that's been cooked up by my buddy Chris from Sippin' on Paint Water fame. 




The unit in its glory. I used a combination of the standard Warriors of Chaos Kit, with pieces from the Frostgrave Cultist box and a small selection of pouches and skulls from Mantic's skeleton infantry. The unit standard is the backpack banner from the Mk4 Space Marines.


Any good monstrous killer knight worth their salt needs to have the latest in flesh cape fashion. 





Friday, July 10, 2020

Jornath: The Battle of Sluice Processional 74 East

Thanks in large part to the successful diverting strikes of the Knightly Houses and Astra Militarum, the Orkish Hordes pouring onto the vast undeveloped plains beyond the Hive, despite the Navy's best efforts, were delayed from properly organizing a major incursion into Linces Hive before it could be prepared for defense.  Of course though, the attack eventually came, with a massive wave of clanking alien walkers, and snorting war machines hurling themselves at the walls.  Unbeknownst to the Orks, their avenue of advance had been carefully directed by Imperial diversionary attacks, airstrikes, deliberate terrain preparations, and the placement of sacrificial elements to drive a mass of Orks into a deadly trap. 

Sluice Processional 74 East, is an outflow basin a half kilometer in width that is designed to flush a slurry of industrial waste, and sewage back out into the wastelands. It was determined to be the weakest portion of the Hive's perimeter, as it presents a natural breach in the walls, and was the only Sluice Processional where perimeter void shield generator pylons were accessible from ground level. 

When 8500 Orks arrived in the Sluiceway they found themselves funneled into a deadly assault against nearly two full companies of Astartes from the Imperial Dragoons and Sons of Medusa, as well as Noble Custodian Guards from the Akhelian Shield, and a Full Detachment of Knights from House Raven. Brutal Fusilades of Boltguns and Super-Heavy Weaponry tore into an Orkish Motorized Army Group which continued to suicidally careen into the Imperial Line, tearing into the noble Astartes. At the height of the fighting, as the line bowed, the Imperial force commander, the Imperial Dragoon's Lieutenant Thade, sallied into the heart of the Greenskin tide accompanied by his chapters Assault Marines, Intercessors, and the Emperor's Own Custodes. Thade's Sally would break the Orks resolve fully, and started a cascade of disorder into the aliens advance, eventually leading to the Ork withdraw back out into the wastelands.




Ork Flyers soar overhead of the fighting, coming in low to drop high explosives into Knights, and bunkers full of Astartes.

Imperial Dragoon Intercessors, slay Ork Boyz beneath the Void Shield Pylons.



Lt. Thade leads the Defenders of Linces Hive into the heart of the Alien horde




Assault Marines and Terminators deploy amongst the aliens, closing off their line of retreat


The moments following Thade Sally


Armigers of House Raven fire Thermal Spears into Ork Trukks during Thades Sally 




Lt. Thade fearlessly confronts a Killa Kan Mob, the Litany of Hate loud upon his lips as he closes with the clanking machines


Brother Hedrastes, surveys the roadway before his squad's position, in the wake of the alien's first push into their lines.


Demi-Squad Colique struggles to hold back elite infantry and heavy support elements along the extreme left flank


Hellblasters of the Sons of Medusa hold a trench line against Blood Axe Ork Warriors


Evil Sunz Ork Boyz surge past a Battlefortress, trading fire with the Knights of House Raven




A massive melee stretches across the battlefield, as the Emperor's chosen close to deny the Ork advance






Epistolary Gideon of the Imperial Dragoons, directs his strike force's fire as the Ork tide closes