12/28/2021

The battle on the river Glein.

My buddy made a river and wanted to use it, so we met for another WAB game. This time we played the scenario the battle on the river Glen from the the WAB supplement The Age of Arthur. We played at 1.500 points, me Romano-British, my friend Saxons.

I was the attacker so I reached the river first.

The saxons already at the ford.

My Dux with his Commanipulares crossing the river on the left flank.

On the second turn I crossed the river with all my troops but then the Saxons charged and stopped me in my tracks. Those Gedrihts are terrifying.

 
My unit of milites at the ford, with a Tribune and Army Standard, suffered four casualties and inflicted none, and then failed the morale test and fled, panicking two units more with them. The Sagitarii on the centre held and inflicted many casualties on the Saxons.

My cavalry on the left flank overrun a unit of Geoguth and another of slingers but suffered too many casualties to keep fighting and the right flank was lost, so we left the game here as a Saxon victory.

 

We love WAB but always playing the same opponent and with the same armies makes you want to play to something else, so next time we will probably play WWII.

12/05/2021

Vikings versus Anglo-Saxons

Well, I finished these two boxes of Vikings from Zvezda and Anglo-Saxons from Eimhar so I had to have a game with them. What I really love about 1/72 scale is that I got these two armies for less than 20€ and also that they are easy to store.

So I picked Great Hall Burning rules from THW and had a solo battle. I rolled and got Anglo-Saxons on the left with "Penetrate Center" deployment and Vikings on the right with "Hammer and Anvil" deployment. This deployments are from another THW rules called Rally Round the King, but they work perfectly well for this little battle.

Anglo-Saxons have two units of Hirdsmen Rep 5 AC4 on the hill with a unit of Weak Fyrd Rep 3 AC2 behind them and a unit of archers Rep 4 AC2 in front of them. There also are two Fyrd units Rep 4 AC4 on both flanks. All units undisciplined.

Vikings have two units of Huscarls Rep 5 AC4 in the middle section, one with general and standard army. In the forest there are one unit of Berserkers (Fanatics) Rep 4 AC 3 and one unit of Freemen Rep 4 AC4. On their left flank there is another unit of Freemen. They have one unit less than the Anglo-Saxons.

All units have eight figures each except the archers that got only six. I'm playing Vikings against Anglo-Saxons.

First turn. Activation dice: Anglo-Saxons 4 - Vikings 3.

Archers move forward and shoot at the Huscarls without any effect. Fyrds on both flanks also move forward and do Shieldwall. The rest of the army decides to stay in the hill.

I charge with my Berserkers but a champion in the Fyrd challenges my leader and everybody stops to watch the combat. After three rounds of wild melee the Berserkers slays the Anglo-Saxon champion, and then both units clash.

The Vikings lose one warrior whereas the Anglo-Saxons lose their leader, three warriors in melee and another one after the Will Test in which another man is lost!

On the other flank the Vikings charge uphill with less luck and lose more men than the Anglo-Saxons but both hold their position and melee continues in the next turn.

The Huscarls charge the archers but they successfully evade.

Turn 2: Anglo-Saxons 6 - Vikings 5.

Anglo-Saxons do not activate this turn! Both flanks keep fighting whereas the Huscarls charge  the archers one more time. This time they shoot and kill two of them...

but then they are mauled in the ensuing melee.

Turn 3: Anglo-Saxons 6 - Vikings 2.

Anglo-Saxons seem to be shocked and unable to react! The Huscarls finish the rest of the archers, and the Berserkers exterminate the Fyrd on their right flank, but on the hill on the left all the Freemen are slain. Thanks to Loki that the Anglo-Saxons were somehow confused and rout off, leaving the battlefield!

Turn 4: Anglo-Saxons 3 - Vikings 2.

The Hirdmen from the hill finally charge and after much slaughtering they almost annhilate one of the Viking units which had to Fall Back with only two surviving men. The weak Fyrd didn't follow and halted in the top of the hill. Now the Berserkers charge the Hirdmen and they locked in combat while the other unit of Freemen flanks on the right, looking at the Fyrd on the hill.

A feast for the crows.

In the following turn the weak Fyrd in the hill is charged and they rout while all the Hirdmen die with honour. Victory for the Vikings!



11/06/2021

Eilif explores

Well, time passes and Eilif receives orders from king Einar to go on exploration to the North East border to find suitable places for more settlers incoming from MIrholme. Those places are meant to be uninhabited due to their proximity to Zog Rot, the land of the Goblins.

But when Eilif and his new companion Markus (Rep 4 AC2, shield and axe) are about to set off, they are intercepted by a thief who attacks them from distance with his sling (Involuntary Confrontation Encounter). He hits Eilif but his armour stops the pellet and he ducks back. Then Markus charges the thief and makes short work of him with his axe. The party gains one sling for Markus and one Increasing Rep die for killing the thief that Eilif uses to pay Markus' wages for the following mission.

After this short encounter, they move to the border to explore. In the Encounter Explore, PEFs' (Possible Enemy Forces) resolution works differently to other Encounters in WHAT as it is used a specific table for this scenario. The objective is to resolve at least 3 PEFs from a 2+3d3 possible PEFs.

In the picture below we can see our heroes entering the map on section 9 (top left corner) and three generated PEFs (I scored 2+1 PEFs that were deployed randomly on sections 1, 3 and 6 -the map is divided into 9 sections-).

So in the first turn Eilif party activates first and they keep moving on the road to try to resolve the closest PEF.

But then it's the PEFs' activation and the closest one moves first and it is resolved as soon as they can see it. It is some food that can be gathered. They are some rabbit traps that someone set and now they take them (gain 1d6).

The second closest PEFs also moves forward and when it comes out from the woods in turns into a group of Goblins! They are probably the owners of those rabbit traps. Eilif is Twilight alignment (neutral) and could interact with them who are Black Moon (evil), but the fact that they are outnumbering Eilif and also being Markus Red Sun alignment (good), makes them immediately attack (they gained the initiative and acted first).

The Goblin archers shoot and hit both targets who result unharmed but shocked, and run for cover behind a hill. Then the leader of the Goblins (Rep 4, AC4, sword) and two of his warriors Rep 3, AC2, charge. The warriors make contact but their leader moves slower because of his heavier armour and doesn't make it.

Goblins warriors are Lightweight and Rep 3, so they are easily dispatched by both Eilif and Markus. Their leader witness how his warriors are slain but he doesn't flee.

It's next turn and Eilif and Markus don't activate but Goblins do. The leader charges at Eilif whereas the archers move to get a position to shoot at them. The last PEF also moves forward but stays out of sight behind the hill's crest.

The leader is rather tough for a Goblin as he is knocked down two consecutive times in the melee before he is finished. When the leader is down one of the archers flee but the other looses an arrow and hits Eilif who again ducks back behind some bushes. Then Markus charges the archer and kills him (I forgot to take that last picture). 

The last PEF resulted to be more rabbit traps that gave them another Advancement Rep d6.


So they successfully explored the area and got one 2d6 from some food gathered plus 1d6 for mission accomplished and also 3d6 more from the looting of the dead Goblins. Regretfully, their weapons and armour couldn't be recovered for being too small.

Eilif has now 12 d6 in total so he thinks it's time to move to the Capital where Einar's castle is to report back of his exploration and spend some cash as well.

11/01/2021

Eilif, rough ranger.

This is the first encounter of a new campaign I am playing with the new rulebook from Two Hour Wargames' Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir, a solo immersive Fantasy skirmish adventure. But I wanted to start this adventure as a continuation of my last campaign with the previous edition of this fantastic ruleset, and this is how it ended Einar's adventurers with the first edition of Warrior Heroes I played on 2012:

The campaign started more than one year ago and it has lasted more than a year in the Einar's world as well. Einar lost dear friends but gained new ones, he met all kind of creatures and monsters, travelled great part of Talomir, made raids, rescued people and explored dungeons.

All this exciting high adventure thanks to Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventurers ruleset from Two Hour Wargames, the best fantasy skirmish ruleset out there IMHO. Now I will sat and patiently wait for the second release of WHAA with the new mechanics from CRFV and new adventures in the world of Talomir!

In the meantime, Einar will send word to his father to move all his people from the North to the Border Kingdoms, and from his castle to conquer the land of the Orcs and found a new kingdom...but that's is a another story.”

Well, finally there is a second edition of Warrior Heroes (WHAT) and now I'm playing a new campaign, starting it where the first one ended.

Eilif is a young Mirholman who followed Einar's father exodus from Mirholme to the Border Kingdoms where Einar took a castle near the frontier with Naz-Goth, land of Orcs. Mirholme settlers are tough people but Orcs too! and they are always raiding Mirholme farm's.

Eilif has no farm or property but a great heart and a strong arm. He likes being alone in the wild and with no people around, so he patrols the borders and helps settlers as any good Ranger would do. He has a small hut in the slums surrounding Einar's castle.

Star: Eilif

Race: Human

Nationality: Mirholme

Alignment: Twilight (neutral)

Male

Rep 5

Class: Ranger

Skills: People 4, Savvy 5

Attributes: Race – Wary. Class – Tough and Dual

Weapons: Short bow, sword and knife

Armour: Reinforced leather AC2

Shield: No.

House rule: Rangers live in the wild and need to be resourceful so they can hunt and heal minor wounds easily. They also are excellent trackers and can find lost followers. Therefore, any Ranger in your group will add 1d6 to the roll for “After the Encounter Recovery” on page 25 of the rules.

Every month in Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir starts with one involuntary encounter and then if the player wants, a voluntary one. I rolled and got no involuntary encounter so I moved to the voluntary one:

Eilif's story starts with him tracking and hunting down a pack of wolves who has been killing cattle from several farms.

It's a Hunting encounter. Eilif has to kill the alpha male and the rest of the pack 1 (alpha male)+1d6 wolves (Ferocious).

House rule: Eilif can roll on the Hunt table once per new section he moves into until he kills all the wolves or runs out of sections. A PEF will be generated on a score of doubles when rolling for activation.

He is in the wilderness in the border of Border Kingdoms in Talomir: Encounter Rating 1, daytime. Einar's castle is in the Interior of the Border Kingdoms, with many farms spreading up to the border close to the Orcs from Naz-Goth where Eilif is now.

Eilif moves forward but he loses the wolf pack tracks and finds nothing.

He decides to move westwards and then he stumbles upon a wandering wolf. He quickly looses an arrow and it.

Eilif now moves north and finds another wolf.


He misses and the creature hides away in the thick of the forest (Duckback).

He chases it into the bushes and then the wolf comes out and attacks him. Eilif swiftly draws his sword and dagger right before he's locked in a deadly melee.

The beast is easily dispatched and Eilif then advances eastwards and meets with the pack!

He acts first and kills one with an arrow. Another flees and last one charges him, but after two frantic rounds of cutting and stabbing the vermin is down.

He has already slew four of the five wolves. Now he needs to find the one that fled.

And he finds it near an abandoned farm. Eilif shoots but misses and the wolf hides behind the building.

He goes after him but the monster revolves with ferocious desperation and rips Eilif's arm, causing a lot of blood. Luckily, he can react and finally kill the beast! (Star Power).

With the whole pack exterminated, Eilif heads for a small village not far from this place to rest and lick up his wounds.

All right, so it was a successful encounter and Eilif got 1 Increasing Rep d6 but as he also had to use his Star Power to survive from the wolf's attack, he gained 1 Decreasing Rep d6 with a final balance of 0d6s in his pocket.

He also looted the wolves (he skinned them all but one and got four pelts to sell them later).

After this encounter Eilif sets off for the village White Rock to sell the wolves pelts and try to recruit somebody as well.

I rolled again for an involuntary encounter and again got none, so Eilif is now in White Rock and he is doing a Carousing encounter. The village is formed by a Blacksmith's and two huts (rolled on the charts) so it is a very small settlement. 

Outside the village he meets with a healer Rep 4 with the name of Ralha Part and as they exchange pleasentries, Einar trades three of his wolves' pelts for 3 Increasing Rep d6s. 

He then enters into the Blacksmith's and there he meets the blacksmith Rowlf Rep 4 and a group of three townsfolk, a labourer, a tradesman and a dancing girl. Eilif has been in the wild for too long and is eyeballing the dancing girl who is giggling and staring back at him. He starts a conversation with her and in no time they leave the blacksmith's together (Eilif gets another 3d6 Increasing Rep d6s).

Later, he returns to the smithy and after a bit of sweet talk with the labourer Markus (Rep 4, AC 2, axe and shield) he convinces him to accompany him on his next adventure. Eilif loses 1d6 with the sweet talk and another buying him a shield.

He now talks with the blacksmith and sells him his last wolf pelt as well as his AC2 armour that replaces with a new AC4 armour. He has 6 Increasing Rep d6s unspent.

10/19/2021

Dark Alliance Orcs set 1. Happy Orctober!

To celebrate Orctober I put aside the painting of Vikings and hastily painted a model of all the different poses in the box. They are much more crude than Zvezda Vikings and have some flash too, but they are Orc rabble after all and will do as they are.

They look better in the flesh but anyway, I'm not happy with so much metal on them and I think I'm going to paint next ones on black armour and will try other skin tones too. 

Although they look like they need to have their eyes painted, they really don't from tabletop distance.


All models from Dark Alliance have the bad custom of having their shields facing opposite to their enemies.

So happy Orctober!


10/09/2021

WAB again

Well, this is my second battle of WAB, this time played with 1.500 points. 

My Romano-British at the bottom with all units deployed except for two cavalry units reserved for flanking. I thought of defending from the hill with the Sagittari on top of it but the Saxons deployed most of their army on the opposite side.

I decided to lure as much of the Saxon units as possible with my skirmishers, hoping my opponent would roll many ones on his warband activations while I wait for my cavalry on the opposite flank.

My cavalry arrived on the third turn and I hoped I could charge the back of the Saxon army while they were fighting my infantry units, but soon their archers in the woods started to fire at them.

And my infantry was still too far to engage them.

My archers finally walked down from the hill and started to move toward the enemy.

Saxons stopped moving and fire with all javelins and bows and I lost my first soldiers.

 But my skirmishers on the left flank made flee one of his Doguth units.

My other unit of Rustici and the Sagtitari rushing from the hill toward the left flank.

The Saxon cavalry was threatening mine and as I couldn't charge the enemy infantry, I moved it up the hill. The clash between the two armies was imminent.

Saxons finally charged my allied Duguth unit and one unit of Milites on Shieldwall. On the left my Rustici annihilated one unit of Saxon Duguth with their javelins, helped with some arrows from the Sagittari.

But two Saxon units of Gedrith with WS4 and Strength 4 plus light armour were too much for my poor Milites, and they steadly trashed my units turn after turn. Meanwhile, a fresh unit of Milites was trapped in the forest, unable to help his comrades.

It seemed that the battle was lost but suddenly my mounted Commanipulares charged down the hill and killed six Saxon riders in one go, and in their pursue they caught them and then charged on the flank of another unit of Duguth!


At that moment we had to stop the game and decided to call it a draw. I'm loving WAB and wondering why I didn't play it before.