The path of the wolf. Einar's saga chapter two.

It is April 896 when Einar's party crosses Altengard border and enters a frontier town. There they have a meeting with the local authorities who demand an explanation of their situation. As there is no conflict I assume they are granted some kind of pass to travel through Altengard unmolested.

Einar rolled 4d6 for his Rep plus 1d6 for Hrafnkel being a skald; and the local authorities rolled 5d6 for their leader Rep, a knight, plus 1d6 for being Einar's party foreigners. They both rolled the same number of successes and therefore there was no conflict and they could keep travelling.

May 896. At the next month they reach the inside country of Altengard and visit a town where there is again an encounter with the local authorities asking them their reasons to be there. This time, although they have a salvo conduct (+1d6 in the talk the talk chart), the NPC scores one more success than them but grant them pass for a price or if they lend them a man to help to give some military instruction to some peasants. Einar gives them Thord on the condition to meet him next month at the capital.

I decided not to roll for Rep, Hardiness and Social Standing advancements as they didn't have any fight. Nonetheless, as Einar seemed to do it quite well when talking repeatedly to the authorities I thought about a new skill: diplomacy, which it would give +1d6 in the talk the talk chart. Einar rolled twice for the two past talk the talk encounters but as he didn't score any six he didn't get that new skill.

June 896. Summer starts with our heroes finally entering in Altengard, the capital of the empire. There they are quickly confronted with a hostile group with unknown intentions. As they weren't the local authorities, Einar's pass wasn't very useful. Nonetheless, in the talk the talk Einar manages to swept off their feet. The hostile group resulted to be one of the most powerful groups from the city underworld; and they promise to help Einar every time he finds himself in trouble.

July 896. Einar party waits for Thord. In the meantime Hrafnkel takes the opportunity to make two more potions of strengh four.

August 896, somewhere in the country of Altengard. The party is heading south with the intention to take a ship to cross the Sea of Strife to Treyine. On the way they see a small and peaceful village called Bogenhoff or something like that; so peaceful that awakes Einar's Viking instincts, and decides to raid and plunder it.
The villagers are alert enough, possibly due to the small garrison stationed there, and will roll for initiative normally.

For fifth time I rolled for a possible encounter. The ER inside the country is 2 and I score 1 & 2, encounter! Then I roll 3 which means they are locals. The terrain is Woody and the encounter is a raid in a village as attacker, as I rolled an 8 in the Adventurers encounter table. Checking How Many Enemies I got the same CV than my party, and I generate one knight Rep 5 who becomes Big Bad with Hardiness 3, 2 skirmishers, 2 arquebusiers and 5 infantry for a total CV of 11 in the Altengard army list. After deploying all the terrain and rolling to see which enemies were inside the houses and which outside, I choose to deploy my forces at the bottom of the board, inside the woods.

Before the battle just reminding you that I'm playing in a 60x60 cm. board with 10mm miniatures and that I halve all distances in the game. And don't forget to click on the pics for a bigger view.

Deployment

Defenders activate first but do not do anything as they cannot see a thing. Actually they do not anything at all until Einar's party finishes to cross the forest. Once they reach the border of the forest they spotted a mounted knight. Snorry and Hrafnkel release both arrows but miss as they were running.

The knight randomly charges at Thord, who somehow manages to resist the charge.

The knight in melee rolls 5d6 for his Rep plus 1d6 for bigger base, plus 1d6 for pole arm in first contact (lance) and plus 1d6 for being protected vs. weapon, 8d6 in total! Thus here I decided to apply some house rules to balance such a powerful and cheap unit: Charging cavalry against enemy in difficult terrain such as wood, behave as infantry in the Charge Table. Also, infantry defending in difficult terrain from cavalry charge, has a +1d6 in melee.

The knight charges against the wood

Now Hrafnkel fires at the enemy infantry standing next to the temple and misses, making the enemy to advance towards him. Then Snorri fires at him and finally kills him (OD).
Einar and Fafnir charges the knight who is engaged in melee with Thord. Einars charges but Fafnir halts and the knight parry all Einar's strikes.
Now the knight attacks again Thord and finishes him (OOF).

In the next turn Einar's party doesn't activate and the knight, seeing the enemy holed up in cover (they didn't dare to go out in the open), fatally decides to dismount.

Hrafnkel fires with his long bow at the knight at point blank, piercing his plate armour and stunning him to the ground. Einar quickly takes advantage of the situation and caps the knight before he has time to rise from the ground.

The knight resulted OOF from Hrafnkel shot, but rolled 3 dice for his Hardiness (I'm using Hardiness like Star Power) and scored 1, 4 & 6, losing one Hardiness or Star Power point but softening down the wound from OOF to Stun as there are no Knocked down in WHAA. After that, Einar charged the knight who fought with just 1d6 and couldn't survive the melee.

After killing the knight and the infantry soldier and seeing no one else in the surroundings, Einar and Fafnir advances towards the temple with the intention to explore it. Snorri and Hrafnkel take positions behind them with their bows ready.

Rushing to the temple

Einar and Fafnir enter into the temple and find an arquebusier. They charge him but he fires at Einar who miraculously reaches him unscathed, and slaughters him with a mighty strike of his sword (OD).

"Who is it!?"

In the test of wills Einar charged the arquebusier who could fire first but missed the shot.

The two skirmishers deployed at the far top right of the village, spotted Einar and Fafnir entering into the temple and run towards them. After that, Snorri and Hrafnkel take position and fire at each of them and killing them on the spot (both OOF).

The skirmishers were caught in the open and with armour AC2, the poor bastards didn't stand any chance to survive.

Following the same strategy, Einar and Fafnir enter into the next building while Snorri and Hrafnkel flank them with their bows ready. In the next building Einar and Fafnir found two infantry and one arquebusier. Both sides stare at each other.

The defenders size the initiative and the arquebusier fires at Fafnir and misses, while one infantry stands, the other charges Einar who holds him.

Now it is Einar's turn who kill the infantry man (OOF) while Fafnir struggles with the arquebusier. Then Snorri and Hrafnkel come in help, finishing the arquebusier and the other infantry man.

The last two defenders are found together in the next house and quickly dispatched. Let pillage commence!

They star searching in the temple and then in the rest of the houses but don't find anything. Villagers must have hidden all precious items and regretfully there is nobody left to interrogate about them.
They haven't found anything of value but at least they are alive and kicking and have improved their skills and endurance after so many months of travelling and fighting.

I scored a 4 in the Loot & Boot Table. Then I rolled for Rep, Hardiness and Social Standing advancements for Einar, Fafnir and Hrafnkel. Einar is now Rep 5 Hardiness 3 and Social Standing 6. Fafnir is also Rep 5 and Hardiness 3.
After that I rolled for the recovery of Thord who was OOF by the knight at the beginning of the encounter and scored 5 & 6 which resulted OD. Then I decided to try it with a potion given by the healer, but the healer scored a 5 and the Thord scored 5 & 5, so the potion didn't work and so they let Thord go to Valhalla. The company had lost one member and now its CV is 13.
Finally I rolled to see if there were a pursuit after the raid but I scored a six so there weren't.

This is it for now. Here we leave our heroes travelling south to take a ship to Treyine and then head East towards the lands of the Dwarfs. I hope you have enjoyed this new chapter from the Einar's saga.

More Warmaster figures on individual bases

I bought this blister on ebay for 0.99 GBP and it comes with 24 individual 10 mm. figures and 12 different poses! This skirmish blister is great to get figures for your skirmish games in 10mm. Warmaster range has another one with dwarves; a pity GW didn't make skirmishers for the rest of the races.
In these two pictures you can see the twelve different poses. As you can see, very dynamic to be 10 mm. and with an unbeatable quality in sculpting and casting.
Click on the pictures for a larger version.

Expanding WHAA

I'm uploading my house rules to be used in any WHAA campaign. These rules are still untested, so if you fancy try them I'd appreciate your feedback.

Economy

In Warrior Heroes it is assumed that all of the basic needs of the character and his followers are taken care by their job and what they can loot and scavenge from defeated enemies. But money is still needed for some special things and moments during the game:

You will need money to bribe, pay ramsons and buy special items like armours or magic items.

As said, money is for special things and thus that money is special as well, and apart from the one commonly used for everyday life. You can spend “special money” in the same way you can earn it.

In every capital of every kingdom you will find a Tavern, a Shop, an Arena and a Castle of the lord.

Tavern

In the Tavern you can sell prisioners, pay ramsons, hire mercenaries and play some special encounters.

Selling and buying

You can earn some money by selling captured enemies (you can never have more prisioners than followers) in the slave market or by ramsoning important personalities like nobles or kings.

Likewise, if you or some of your followers is captured by the enemy, you can pay their ramson instead of playing the Escape encounter.

Class	Price
Grunts	CV x 10 Gold Crowns
Nobles, Chieftains, Heroes	CV x 100 Gold Crowns
Kings, Emperors*	CV x 1.000 Gold Crowns

* Kings are found commanding groups of CV 100 or higher.

Hiring

You can also spend some more money hiring special characters for your company. Roll 1d6 to see if you find somebody to hire; with 1-4 there is nobody at the moment, with a 5 there is one special character for hire, and with 6 there are two available. These characters cost their CV x 100 GC each. They are generated from the local army list and then upgraded to big bad; they can start with a Rep higher than yours. Their alignment cannot be opposite to yours.

Special encounters

Sometimes you can find someone who may need of your services. Roll 1d6 and if a 6 is scored there is someone with a mission for you. Roll again 1d6:

1-2 Escort goods to a near village (short caravan without any guards but your men). Roll for two possible encounters.

3-4 Kill the bandits that has taken a near village (raid attackers scenario). 2d6 Rep 3 inhabitants with improvised weapons will help you. Use looting table to represent peasants generosity for being rescued.

5 Dangerous bandits pestering the area, find their base and destroy them all. Use patrol scenario; passing 2d6 in the scout table will mean you have found the entrance to the bandits lair. The bandit base is a dungeon. The bandit forces will be normal bandits generated from the caravan guard list (1-4) or deserters generated from the local army list (5-6).

6 Tower of the Elephant. You must enter into a wizard tower by night to recover an important artifact. Start by the roof and go down three levels to find it. Each level has 1d6 rooms. Generate guards (use caravan guard list), wizard and looting with the WHAA dungeon rules. Wizard will have 2d6 Rep.

You will receive an extra Social Advancement upon successful completion of each mission.

Shop

Another place to earn or spend some money by selling or buying special items. Roll in the magic potion, magic weapons and magic items tables to find out which items are on sale:

Class	Price
Armour*	AC x 100 Gold Crowns
Magic Armour	(AC + ability**) x 1.000 Gold Crowns
Magic Weapon	(Impact + ability**) x 1.000 Gold Crowns
Special Items	Ability x 100 Gold Crowns
Magic Items	Ability x 1.000 Gold Crowns
Potions	100 Gold Crowns
Scrolls	100 Gold Crowns

*Armours refer to those looted in a raid or bought in a shop, but not those scavenged from the battlefield.

**Each ability is 5 points worth, so an item with one ability would cost 5 x 100 Gold Crowns.

Arena

Tournament

A good way of earning some money is participating in a tournament. Weapons used in tournaments are blunt and nobody can be killed in them, but this not means a character may not result seriously injured. Treat all OD as OOF and all OOF as KO.

All tournaments have five rounds of general melee, formed by a random number of teams. Your goal is being the last standing man in the last round; if you result OOF in any round before the end then the tournament is over for you. On the other hand, if you win the tournament you will earn 3.000 GC and 1 extra Social Advancement.

Participants in the tournament will be picked from the local army list. For the three first rounds you have to roll 1d6 to set the number of teams participating in the melee, and 2d6 to set the CV for them. For the last two rounds you have to roll 1d3 for the number of teams and 1d6 for the CV of them. Put your character in one of the teams at random, and pick dice of different colours for the activation of each team.

The tournament will be held in a circular or oval clear suface with all the teams deployed equidistant and facing each other.

Circus

This is another way of earning money, similar to tournaments but more risky. Here participants will be equipped with their own weapons in a general melee of all against all. The winner will be the last characer alive and will earn 5.000 GC. Roll 2d6 for the number of participants and generate them with local and surrounding army lists.

Tournaments and Circus can only be fighted once a year in the same capital city, but if you like that sport you can travel all the capital cities of Talomir!

Castle of the lord

Here you can offer your services as a mercenary or sign it for his army. Also, you can ask him if he has some mission for you. Roll 1d6 and with 5-6 he will offer a mission. Roll 1d6 again to find out which:

1 Escort him to a neighbour capital city at random.

2 Deliver a letter to the lord of a neighbour capital city at random.

3 Assasinate a merchant who is offending the lord demanding his many debts. You alone against the merchant Rep 3 improvised weapons and his body guard in a dark alley (generate him by rolling once on the local army list).

4 Bring him alive a enemy noble for a ransom or for interrogation.

5 Raise 1d6 Rep 4 soldiers for his army. You have to recruit them in the normal way and then give them to him.

6 Collect taxes from a reluctant city. Go to talk the talk with their hostile inhabitants.

You will receive one extra Social Advancement plus 1d6 x 100 Gold Crowns for each accomplished mission.

Painted Warmaster Empire soldiers on single bases

They come from the Warmaster Empire range, command and arquebusiers blisters, and I painted them for my skirmishes with WHAA. They'll fight as Altengardians. As usual you can click on them for a larger version.

Dipping Chaos Warhounds

After dipping the Marauder horsemen I went for the Warhounds, and you can see the results below. I'm afraid they didn't come out as well as the Marauders although I used the same mixture but they are still acceptable IMO.

Before the dipping

After the dipping


A closer view

Pendraken vikings.

A picture of some of the vikings I painted to use them as Mirholmen for my WHAA campaign, Einar's Saga. The miniature in the very center is from Copplestone's. These Pendraken figures are not the best from them, but once painted they're OK. You may see it bigger by clicking upon it.

The Peaceful battle. Our third FWC game.

Why peaceful? Because there weren't shoots or casualties and because nobody won or lost. How was it possible you may wonder? Let's blame the Orks.

This time we chose to play the second scenario, Colonization, assault phase. Me being the attacker with 4.000 points of Marines and my opponent with 2.000 points of defending Orks. The Marines enter the board with orbital deployment whereas Orks with mobile deployment, being the Marines the first to move.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Marine Orbital deployment

After deploying, the Marine infantry and most of the troops rushed towards the city at the west. The Orks deployed their commanders (easily distinguishable as they are mounted on round bases) on the west and north sides of the battlefield but failed all their rolls to deploy the troops. They failed again on the second turn.

In the meantime, the Marines took advantageous positions to wait for the enemy which meant that the Orks wouldn't risk to deploy before suppressing first some Marine units with their artillery batteries ( they had 27 dice to hit!).

Marine forces in position and covering the Orks's deployment areas

The Ork batteries failed their command rolls for several turns and in one occasion they hit both Marine Coyote Titans and left them without shields but unsuppressed, they didn't dare to try deployment in the end and so game turns were slowly passing.

Marines waiting and waiting for the Orks

Finally, on turn 9 (the game lasted 10 turns), one Ork battle group entered on the bottom right of the board where there were only a few Marines squads defending the city. On the last turn the Marine CO was suppressed and the closest HQ failed his activation; the rest of the troops were too far to do anything. Thus, the Orks on the last activation of the game assaulted the city without opposition as well as without any effect on the game.

A futile charge as a goodbye

In the end, Marines had a bike recce and a tactical squad casualties, and the Orks exactly the same. One more casualty was me who died from boredom. Next time Marines will be defenders and Orks if possible won't use mobile deployment.