The end

This is it, the end of the campaign, the final battle in which Eilif and his king Einar fight an all or nothing battle for survival against the Orcs.

For this battle Eilif has brought everything he could muster from his lands plus three units of Elves, one Mountain Giant and a wizard. The Orcs have also brought all his forces plus four units of big Orcs, three Trolls and two wizards.

I deployed first and then I rolled for the Orcs deployment. I got Penetrate Center, so the Orcs deployed in a very similar way to me, with the shock troops in the centre and cavalry in the wings.

Bottom left, the Elves and one cavalry unit, centre king Einar with his bodyguard (huscarles), the wizard and the Giant, on the right a unit of archers and Eilif' Rangers backed by another unit of cavalry, and finally four more units of Fyrd. In front of them the Orcs deployed as commented and with a unit of skirmishers up front.

Turn 1. Humans 2 - Orcs 6. Orcs don't activate. Humans advance and fire to the Goblin skirmishers. They cannot resist two units of Elves with long bows, one of Rangers and another of archers plus the wizard, and they are all eliminated.

Turn 2. Humans 2 - Orcs 5. Orcs activate first and move forward, then humans charge and the battle is joined.

The Elf archers make one unit of Orc cavalry flee the battlefield and kill a few Orcs on foot. In the centre, king Einar charges one Troll and suffers many casualties, the Giant goes for the Troll in the middle but the combat is inconclusive, the third Troll results wounded but most of the fyrd unit goes down in the process; The Trolls resisted quite well the melee because they had a spell of protection that the Wizard casted on them. Eilif and the archers don't charge but shoot and kill many Orcs. The right flank advances forward unchallenged.

 

 

Same moment from a different perspective. At the bottom you can see the Orc cavalry fleeing from the battle.

Turn 3. Humans 6 - Orcs 3. Humans don't activate and the rest of the Orcs charge and the humans received them in Shieldwall. The evil sorcerer casts a unit of Undead!

The Orc general is slained by the archers in melee as his units suffered many casualtiesfrom bow fire during the charge!

A general view of the massacre.

 The Orcs are already doomed and in the following turn they are finished. Einar charges and kills the wizard, making the Undead unit to disappear, the Giant kills the last Troll, the elves wipe out all the Orcs on the left flank, and the two units of cavalry finish the weakened units of Orcs.

A feast for the crows and new lands to colonise for  Einar and his people!

Happy Christmas!

Giant hunt

After Eilif successfully returning to his king's court with Elf allies, he is commanded by his king to one final quest before the decisive battle king Einar is planning against the invading Orcs.

Eilif is sent to try to hire or recruit one of those legendary Mountain Giants to fight against the Trolls the Orcs are rallying against them. He is allowd to recruit some free men from his kingdom to help him on his quest.

So Eilif Rep 5, AC 4, armed with a Sword of Rage, his comrade Arne Rep 4, AC 4, Sword of Rage and short bow of Seeking, both riding horses and accompanied by two Rep 3 archers and three Rep 4 spearmen, set off on their final mission.

I'm playing a Contact Encounter in which I have to find the Mountain Giant who is being attacked by some Hill Giants in one of their usual territorial quarrels. Basically, I have to help and save him from his attackers.

At the top of the picture there is the Mountain Giant defending the pass to his valley and then four Hill Giants attacking them. One of them has already spotted Eilif and his men at the bottom of the picture.

Hill Giants activate first, the closest to the Mountain Giant attacks him and is smashed against the ground after a few pathetic efforts to win the melee. Other two Hill Giants are on their way while the last one charges Eilif.

This Giant doesn't reach Eilif's men who in their activation shoot arrows to no effect and then charge him.

Eilif and Arne have both extra melee dice for charging on horse and having Swords of Rage plus the numeric superiority. His recruited men weren't so lucky as they were all wiped off like insects.

Finally, it was the Mountain Giant's activation who moves forward looking for some trouble.

In the next turn he is simultaneously attacked by the last two Hill Giants. A fierce fight is ensued in which all the combatants lose some Rep but little else.

Eiflis hurries to help the Mountain Giant before it is too late. The archers can't make it this turn without horses.

There are a few more rounds of combat and the archers finally arrive and add their weight to the general melee. In the end, one Hill Giant is killed by Eilif and the other by the Mountain Giant whereas Arne barely survives with Rep 1 and one of the archers is crushed to death.

So that was all, a short and very fast game in which Einar managed to save the now grateful Giant, and so, bringing him to his side for his king. 

Next there will be a huge all-or-nothing battle deciding the future of Eilif's people as a conclusion of this campaign in which I am alternatively using one ruleset for skirmishes (Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir) and another for battles (heavily modified Great Hall Burning), both from Two Hour Wargames.

1/72 Bloodletters

My son asked me to print him 20 Bloodletters in 1/72 scale but I doubt I ever see them fully painted. Anyway, I have to say they look really good and I am considering to print some other stuff for my self, like cave bears and wolves for my 1/72 Fantasy adventures. 

In my previous post you can see one of these ones next to a human. I think they turned out a bit big but I don't care much about it.

Half of them already based (I used 25mm Warlord round bases).

 

The other half already primed and waiting for my son to paint them.

Summoner and Summoned

 Just experimenting with 3D for figures I cannot get in 1/72 scale otherwise.

A great present!

This post is to give a huge thank to Jeff aka Jack Hooligan from Lead Adventure forum for his incredible generosity, and also to share it with you, people in the hobby. Jeff sent from USA to Spain all you can see below just because. I must say that when he told me he was going to send me a few figures I wasn't expecting such big and fantastic lot!

All these models together with magnets, bases, painting and shipping are worth quite money, but what I most appreciate is the gesture of generosity from one wargamer to another. I don't think these kinds of acts can be seen in other hobbies; and this is not the first one I receive or send, but never to big. So one more time my friend, thank you very much for eveything and let me tell that I will treasure and use them with the same love as if I'd have painted them. 

I just hope this doesn't mean you're leaving the hobby.

So this is all he sent me:

A box of "Skaven" from Caesar miniatures that I had in mind to buy for a future project. Abot 40 miniatures.

 

Also from Caesar, Elves, OOP adventurers and Dwarves. I'm specially happy with the non-Gandalf miniature so difficult to get.

 

A full undead army that I'll be using next Summer for the LOTR campaign I'm planning.

 

Four nicely painted Cyclops from Dark Alliance that I was thinking about purchasing, and I'll be using in my next game.

 

A greatly painted metal 25mm. old Skaven miniature from GW to be used as Rat Ogre.

 

Elhiem metal 20mm. characters that I wanted but never ordered due to the excessive P&P they have. Now I have them all.

 

From the same lot, these two already painted up to good level plust on primed in grey, though I may rebase them in 2 cent coins. Now I have more casters that I possibly ever use, and a lot of characters for any RPG adventure!

Norse Giant

Ok, it is a Frost Giant from Reaper Bones for 28mm miniatures, but on one hand it is a bit short for being a Giant at that scale, and on the other hand I did not want a Frost Giant painted like a Smurf and with a hard-to-believe ice sword.

I wanted a "Norse" Giant like the ones you can see in Games of Thrones, and I wanted it in leather, wood, stone and bones and without any metal, to give it some prehistoric flavour. I also saw it perfect for 1/72 scale.

So this is how it turned out; a real king in the North.

I'm not quite happy with the "bone" sword but I didn't want one made of ice or stone, so there you go, some spine taken from a long-ago dead leviathan.

 

Close up of the face. I 'm happy with the eyes as I could not see them very well with my poor eyesight.

As you can see, it is just perfect for 1/72 scale.

Road to Lothgolin II

After safely reaching the border of the Elves forest, Eilif and his man dismount and try to sneak behind the Orc patrols to get in contact with the Elves.

This is a Defence Encounter played by the rules WHAT but with at twist. This time both sides, attacker and defender, are moved by the game's AI, and I'll be a third party trying to pass through the Orcs and kill as many of them as I can to help the Elves and have a favourable welcome. Eilif and his Ranger companion will start on turn 2 behind Orc units. Also, the three PEFs will be alrady loaded and resolved.

I am using new rules for weapons, armour and other things such as Combat Perks, Co-Stars, wounded characters, etc. from the supplement for WHAT,Crunchy.

Eilif is a Star and Ranger (dual class), with the Combat Perk Critical Hit, Rep 5, AC4, magic Sword of Rage, short bow and knife.

His companion Arne is Co-Star, Ranger (dual class), with the magic Armour of Protection AC2, short sword, knife and short bow.

All Elves are Rep 4. Archers with long bow, AC2, Marksman (3d6 for shooting). Fighters with two handed swords and AC4.

All Orcs are REp 4 except their leader who is Rep 5; their armour vary from AC2-3-4-5 depending on what they are wearing. The are all Rage (3d6 when charging into melee).

Turn 1. Orcs 1 - Elves 3

The Orcs entering in Lothgolin.

Elves keep their positions and then Orcs charge. Some are shot down but others reach melee and slaughter the Elves.

In the centre they suffer more casualties due to cross fire but they finally reach their target and eliminate it.

A closer view of the massacre.

The Orcs on the left cannot reach the Elves and suffer a casualty while another ducks back behind some bushes.

Turn 2. Orcs 4 - Elves 2

After killing the first Elves, the Orcs charge to another group but this time they are stopped with one shot down, another shocked and a third running away in panic. The one standing is killed later on the Elves activation.

The surviving Orcs in the middle with their chieftain charge the Elves infantry, suffering both sides one casualty each and both holding their ground.

On the left the Orcs finally charge and kill the Elves but they pay the price too.

On the Elves turn Eilif and Arne enter the board behind the Orcs and kill two of them with their bows.

Turn 3. Orcs 4 - Elves 6!

Elves do not activate and Orcs charge. Their leader kills another Elf and the succumbs overwhelmed by the Elf superiority in numbers.

The surviving Orcs in the left flank charge Eilif. One falls before them but the other attacks Arne who is down Out of Fight. Then, Einar dispatches the last Orc and finally meets with the Elves.

 

 The Elves are happy to see them and very receptive. Einar is quickly taken to their lord to who he will speak on behalf of his king Einar for an alliance against the invading Orcs.

But first he is allowed to loot all the slained Orcs. The Elves despise registering Orc bodies and let Eilif keep all the loot. He gets 14 Advance Rep d6, one magic Armour of Agility, one magic Sword of Rage (another), one magic Sword of seeking and one magic short bow of Seeking, yay!

P.S. - I think I should have made Orc groups of eight instead of six. That would have made twice as much as Elves, which I think it would have been more balanced and interesting.

Dark Alliance Orcs set 3

Happy Orctober!

Orctober is as good as any other excuse to splash some paint on some Orcs. Below you can see the ten different poses contained in the box, with four sprues like that.

In my view, this is the best box of Orcs from the three sets delivered so far as they have special characters like the female or the chieftain, as well as more dynamic and colourful poses. Regretfully, there are not any musician or standard bearer in the box, nor anything that could be used as a magician.

This time I decided to give them a darker skin tone, more akin to Tolkien's description.

If you look closely, you'll see there is some flock adhered to the figures. This is because in my eagerness to get them finished, I sprayed matt varnish without brushing off the excess of flock first, and when I realised it was too late :(

 

Caesar Wood Elves with swords and others

These Elves are all from the same box with the archers except from one figure who comes from the Adventurer's set, the not Tauriel with two knives (first on the left).

This could work as a guard unit or as linebreakers.

And these are the three units of Elves I painted from the box. There are still enough miniatures for another unit as there are 35 in the box, but I'm done with Elves at the moment.