Total War Map Campaign pt.2

Game:  Rome: Total War

Mod:  Warhammer Total War

Map Maker :  Hexagrapher (Free)

Rules for Campaign:  Here
[Click on Photos for a Better Look]

With the Nyssoak Confederation growing in strength and wealth by the hour, the Noblemen and Coastal Kings of the barren Jarra region, with the assistance of the dispossessed shamanic congress of the Lurtuk swear an oath of mutual military assistance, forming the Jarra Tribes as a nation state. 

The Winds of the North again grow in Power, icy winds blow across the bleak forests and uncomfortable shadows contort at the horizons edge.

The Khuvtan fortify their borders,  the Nyssoak take cautious positions in their newly captured territory. 

In the South, the Saladin march on the Hill Tribes (minor faction), and with their 2nd and 3rd Armies join the tribes in pitched battle. 

The Armies of the Saladin arrayed for battle

The missile cavalry of the Saladin armies, skirmish with the onrushing tribesmen. Saladin regiments reveal themselves from ambush and rain arrows onto the enemy

Halberd wielding infantry hit the tribesmen 

The Hill Tribe begins to break, Saladin Infantry assault remaining tribal regiments

The Hill Tribe falters and begins to rout, Saladin cavalry chase down the enemy

Saladin Archer view of the battlefield.

In the North, the Jarra Tribes, send their 2nd Army, North to put down another indigenous population, this time a population of brutal volcano worshippers called the Acktrag. 

The Jarra, deploy in a fish hook on the top of a ridge to make the best of their ranged weapons 

The Acktrag advance,  with flanking ranged cavalry hitting the Jarra on the left. and the main body avoiding the bottom of the ridge as best as possible.

a view from the bottom of the ridge up towards the Jarra

The Acktrag assault on the Jarra left is beaten back, though it is a close run thing

Jarra Spearmen charge down the ridge to catch the regrouping Acktrag before they can reconstitute a threat

The way up to the Jarra left is littered with corpses

Through an unfortunate turn of events for the regrouping Acktrag in the valley below, cavalry and light infantry regiments chasing routing Acktrag missile cav, have surrounded them, The remaining Acktrag would be charged from three sides, only 3 tribesmen would make it from the battlefield alive

a view in the valley after the battles end

More to come!

-Your Favorite Madman-

Video Game Map Campaign. (Rules and Opening)

Myself and JD, both having downloaded and played the Warhammer Total War mod for the venerable Rome Total War (yes the first one) and enjoyed it thoroughly. However recently we were of the mind to utilize a mod to develop our own nations and map using a roleplaying game map maker called "Hexagrapher" which can be downloaded Here.

The Overall Rules for our campaign and the overall pricing of armies and how we go about the moving of NPC factions is facilitated in a .pdf file (living document) that can be downloaded via google drive Here


The Starting Map.

The Khuvtan Templocracy. is a religious oligarchy which lives in the snow bound landscape of the north, just at the border of the weird and twisted lands which harbor a mysterious force called 'the winds of the north', played by myself

The Republic of the Lurtuk Expanse, is a conglomerate of tribal bands living in a coniferous enchanted jungle, they are lead by a Congress of Arch Shaman, they are NPC's

The Nyssoak Confederation is a alliance of Elven Merchant Guilds living in the fertile ground between two mighty seas. they are NPC's

The Saladin are city-state, seeking to expand its influence and status to dizzying heights. Their city has a direct democracy, but the people that live in the outlying spaces under their control are little more than serfs. they are NPC's

The Duhsurg Merchantdom, focuses on economic domination and establishing a stranglehold on foreign trade through use of small private merchanthouse armies to monopolize the fisheries off their coast and in the nearby rivers. Played by JD.

Turn 1, saw some small movements in army positioning and the Nyssoak declare war on the Lurtuk Confederation. 

The 3rd Splinter Host of the Nyssoak engage the Barechest Warriors of the Lurtuk Republic. and rout the army in a Heroic Victory. 

3rd Splinter Host Spearmen Brace for the Lurtuk charge.

Turn 2, saw the Winds of the North gain a small modicum of power. The Khuvtan marshall their armies in preparation.  The Lurtuk mobilize its Republican Army,  as the Nyssoak Grane Host marches on the fields south of the capitol.   A mighty battle erupts which served to bring down the Republic.

The Nyssoak Grane Host suffers some casualties but many tribesmen and magical creations lie broken upon the field.  The next day the Lurtuk Shaman Congress concedes to the Elves.  The Lurtuk Beastrider's Army scatters into the Expanse to cause trouble for the occupying elves for years to come.

The surviving members of the Elven host mop up tribesmen in the woods. 

The tribesmen came in brazen waves to wash upon the Elves, but outflanking Nyssoak missile cavalry and hardworking archers kept the Lurtuk at bay, and inflicted a grim toll on their number

As the glittering Elven warriors marched through the open gates of the Lurtuk Capital triumphant in their step, the question now upon the minds of everyone.  Were the elves destined to be rulers of all, or had their brutal offensive captured to much territory too quickly?




Thanks for reading !

Let me know if you'd like to see more in-depth battle reports or more content of this style in the future


-Your Favorite Madman-

15mm Imperial Fist Tac. Marine

Hey all, the Orion Heavy Infantry from Blue Moon arrived the other week, along with some necessary Westarc minis.   I've tried my hardest to replicate a space marine in this scale, let me know your thoughts,  i plan on bulking up his legs.  I also have a platoon of British FV432's that will serve as Razorbacks.

yesterday, i had a whole gang of guys over for a minis' day.  Owen, JD, and newcomer Kaleb,   we worked on 15mm Sci-fi,  played a small skirmish with those,  myself and JD played a 1500 point Orc v WoC battle in WFB,  and there was a lot of talking about possible manufacturers for Orks, Dark Eldar, and Tau for 15mm 40k.  Hopefully we may soon see several Ork Units WAAAAGHING across the games table.

The one on the far right was done by Chris.

Imperial Fists Scout in 15mm

Being the negative influence that I am, i was able to talk my buddy Chris into building and painting 40k stuff in 15mm.   The intention of this will be to represent what we consider "realistic" engagements in the setting.  So long range tank fights and a variety of more true to form operations.   I've got an idea for a battlefield that I think might be enjoyable in the Segmentum Tempestus.

I've taken the bull by the horns this go around, in that i've taken up the challenge of making space marines.  While the mini's i plan on using for the Full-Brothers and Heros are in the mail. I've made a few scouts and a few chaos elements.  But for right now the only guy i've got painted his this one scout.

If you'd like to see Chris' ventures in this check them out ...   Here

If you want to see some truly inspiring 15mm 40k work you need to see Gunners Wargaming Blog

and also check out Pawn Cocktail for some neat Astra Tempestus Scions.

Thats all for right now.

-Your Favorite Madman

1st Vineleaf Phalanx

Im organizing assets for the next Westarc story update, but in the meantime thought that i'd share with you a little bit of a side project that came from left field the other day. These little guys are the very lovely work of "Splintered Light" under their 20mm Woodland Warriors section,  they are very good sculpts, and have a lot of character to them.   These belong to Chris, but I really enjoyed painting them so much i'll probably be getting some of my own very soon.

I have a world in mind for the setting,  and I intend to use Hail Caesar for possibly gaming these guys. The frogs here are going to be part of a larger Otter-Frog army that will be doing battle against Rats and other critters.  I think my only complaint is that the skin is too dark and muddy, my original intent there was to get a real feeling flesh tone, but i think a cartoony bright green would bring them out a lot more. 

Link:

Splintered Light 20mm Woodland Warriors

Thanks for Reading !  
Westarc part 3 coming as soon as possible.

The Tale of the West Arc (pt1)

In 4534, the nations of the world initiated the 3rd World War.  It was inevitable… though we had tried all we could to stop it.   

The great nations, and corporate states of humanity tore into each other across the cities, farms and oil fields of every continent. Anti-gravity tanks, robotics, and mechanized suits yielding casualties as high as 2 billion,  thanks to rampant overpopulation,  the supply of warm bodies was plentiful.

At first, the conflict was kept conventional,  the forbidden weapons of our past being kept locked away in their darkened silos. But it was too great a temptation, and the sins of man were made manifest in wholesale destruction and horror.   Gravitic, Ionic, and Nuclear weapons scoured the Earth into heated ash deserts. Only a handful of nations and the off world colonies were spared from the 

holocaust

.

The colonies could not hold all the survivors for long,  illness, civil unrest and anarchy threatened to exterminate us. In a final gambit,  1.5 million souls each were placed aboard “The Western Arc”  and “The Eastern Arc”   given all the technology, research and information that humanity had, they were pointed at opposite halves of the milky way, and sent to find a new home….

While the Fate of both Eastarc and the Sol. Colonies  would make bold tales in their own right.

This Is the Tale of Westarc.   

- To be Continued...



Last painting is by Reid Southen.

The Battle for Cleves. 1805 (Napoleon Total War)

I played a game of Napoleon Total War the other day, which was perhaps the most engaging battle I've played in a long time. i was so excited i decided to post it here for your viewing pleasures.

Now a quick aside. I'm running "Darthmod" which adds effects and makes the AI more difficult and a number of additional "realism" things.   I'm playing the campaign on Hard. which is the highest difficulty you can get without adding artificial bonuses to the enemy like additional health etc. Also, i'd like to apologize in advance for the large pictures, its the only way that i could get it for you to see them well enough.

To set the scene...

I'm playing as Prussia,  and I've only recently allied with the Coalition, and taken my first territories and begun technological expansion.  I'm massing troops in the Cleves-Mark, preparing for an invasion of the Batavian Republic, things are going well,  the Batavians suspected nothing and in fact were very friendly with us. (part of my deception campaign).    

But shockingly, the Dutch allied with Napoleon, and a titanic host of Batavian Troops crossed the border in to the Cleves-Mark.  I scramble soldiers all across Prussia, but it is no use,  my army of understrength veterans and town garrisons must hold off two grand armies of the Dutch!

Here you can see, the Order of Battle,  The Dutch have some 7000 fresh, inexperienced troops to my 5000 tired and blooded soldiers. 

 A View from the Garrison forces defenses, The Dismounted Dragoons were the Town HQ.  The culmination of the defense would be the church and the apartments around the cannons. 

The campaign army, marches in from the extreme left of the Dutch armies flank, some 5 minutes march from the city.  A desperate rearguard cavalry action is utilized to ensure the infantry and cannon make it to the city. 

Hoping to use their numbers against them, I deploy the Campaign army onto "Bulwark Hill"  to force the Dutch to flood in between and around the two defense centers. 

The Dutch send their first waves down the slope at us.

The Dutch Cavalry are the first to hit the forward trenches. 

The Boys on Bulwark Hill, see off several regiments of the Dutch Line. But the Garrison in the city is in serious danger of being drowned by Batavian regulars. 

The mines in the road detonate in the middle of a Batavian militia regiment, but still the horde of Dutch press forward. 

 a view from the cannonade into the smoke of the forward line

Prussian regulars hold desperately against the Dutch in the forward line

The forward line falters, and the Bulwark Hill defense moves down from the hill to sweep into the Dutch flank in the city to hopefully save the garrison there. 

The Garrison holds off against thousands of Dutch...

The Campaign army blitz across the field to relieve the pressure on the Garrison forces

The Dutch troops turn to face the more potent threat, and the battle turns into a desperate running fight from east to west as I push the Dutch out of my town. 

You can see the extent of how far the first onslaught pushed in before we ripped them out of the city. 

The Garrison HQ is attacked by nearly 300 Dutch Line Infantry, but the 90 some odd Dragoons hold firm and the Dutch are found wanting. 

A spot of good luck as several regiments rally and return to the fight

The cannonade, just before the campaign army arrives to reinforce them. 

the smoke clears as the first dutch wave is seen off. Prussia still holds the town!

I move my campaign army into the town into defense positions, and to mop up the remaining Dutch.

The resistance is still quite stiff in some places. 

To my horror, the Dutch reinforcement column arrives. nearly another 1500 fresh Dutch soldiers. 

As I reform into new defense lines, the Dutch cannons break open the skies with fire and smoke. a vast bombardment precedes the final Dutch assault...

The defense this time is more flexible, several regiments are to initiate a running skirmish line, leading dutch regiments into centers of defense where (hopefully) they will be destroyed. 

*note- there is only 15 minutes left in the hour long clock till I claim victory through attrition. 

A more complete view of the defenses.

The forward line, draws dutch militia into additional Prussian regiments.

A view from Bulwark Hill out towards the city, as the Dutch close for the final assault.

Dutch Militia fight with entrenched Prussians

HERE THEY COME !!!!

Fighting engulfs both sides of town

Swirling melee's begin all across the line

Overwhelming musket fire take their toll on the beleaguered defenders routing many regiments.  

The Dragoons still hold firm in the smoke and blood. as the timer begins to run down.

I've held for just under an hour at this point in the engagement. 

After an hour of holding against all odds. victory, (albeit a close one.) is Prussia's!

The final casualties.

Dutch-  4219

Prussians- 3521

I have only 1400 men to stop an army of 3000. Hopefully the reinforcements are able to get here soon...

Hope you enjoyed this,  if you liked it enough i'd be happy to do more of it.

-Your Favorite Madman-