'Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,' the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. 'Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.'

-Robert E. Howard
Beyond The Black River

Corrupt Cliffs

Corrupt Cliffs
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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Central Asian Agency - IHMN

Quite a bit of progress on my company for "In Her Majesty's Name".

First up, a mission statement:

A loose confederation of governments with interests in the steppe regions. Using their collective strengths they attempt to recover supernatural and technological marvels before the West.


What this means?  I am largely ignoring the politics of the steppe region.  In my world the governments there openly fought over their interests in that region, but globally knew the West was a far greater danger and so formed a loose alliance.  Mongols, Russians, Tibetans.


First up:
Mongols.  I have been detailing my horse painting, but as our first game approached I moved onto the riders.



Mongols on their temporary steeds for painting.  Various stages.

Mongols painted and pinned to their horses.  Riding into battle.
Next up:
Tibetans.  I have very few fantastical elements in my force so I went a little more fun with my Tibetan guys.

Yeti with a base coats of various blue colors.


Yetis more or less leady to kick some ass.



Finally:
Russians.

Nothing even remotely close to completed here.  I have on the table some riflemen from Siberia and a female heroine to lead the company.
Central Asian Agency.




Friday, March 11, 2016

Horses.

The clubs next planned set of rules is "In Her Majesties Name".  Essentially a VSF/Steampunk type ruleset.  It is set in the 1890s with the World's powers seeking new technology and artifacts.

My band will be an alliance of those types found around Central Asia, not wholly a government that existed, or that on the surface were talking hospitably in those days.  In the back rooms, in the dark corners, an alliance was reached and a band of Russian and Mongols formed to seeking power for both their people.

The current band is planned as a unit of Mongols (Mounted), a unit of Siberian riflemen (foot), some dogs and a couple of yetis.


The first few posts in this series are going to focus on the Mongol side of things and the first will go over horses.



Basic horse crazy glued to cavalry base and then smoothed out with 2 part putty.


Base with Vallejo Grey pumice added for texture.


Horse blocked out in a Black Brown for a base color.


Horse with color layers built up over the body of the horse. Saddle and reins painted as well.


Black wash applied at creases.


Umber and soft tone washes added to entire model.


Essentially finished model.  Ended up redefining the reins again, as I felt the washes diluted things too much.

Finished horse.


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

I'm a WIZARD mind you! 400 point Song of Blades Skirmish.


This past Sunday we had a game day.  Six of us showed up, which is pretty much our whole club at this point.  Two of our members were hot into a game of Galleys and Galleons, so the remaining 4 of us played a 4 way, hold the center scenario.  30 points of death reigned on an enemy was worth a victory point, as well as holding the central crates uncontested at the end of a turn gained you a victory point.  The sides were Orcs vs Halflings vs Elves vs Undead.

This also marked the first appearance of my Goblin Shaman to support the Orcs.  He was a low combat, high quality, Magic using, leader.  This report mostly focusses on my end of the table which involved the Orcs and Undead.

Goblin Shaman and Orc Butcher, A Savage Orc with Q4+ and C6.

So it Begins



The first few turns involve the Undead and Orcs simply free moving forward towards the center.  The Elves and Halflings took their chances a few times making quality checks.  In the end the Undead and Orcs got to a choke point which forces them to stop using free-moves.

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The Orcs and Undead approach each other cautiously, while off in the distance the Halfing Giant begins to flank my Orcs.  The Orc Archer contingent is almost dispatched to deal with him and split the Orc party up when the Elven Hero unleashes a storm of arrows killing the leader, a wizard, of the Halfling band causing them to rethink their role in this battle.  The Giant flanking the orcs decides this battle is not for him and flees from the table leaving the Orc Archers to stay with the original warband.

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From the ranks of the Undead a Banshee slips forward and howls at the Orc Butchers in an attempt to strike terror and death into them.  Unimpressed the two Orc Butchers rush forward confident their Cave Troll will follow up to support them.  In their blind fury the banshee stands no chance and is struck down in a feat of Orcish violence.  Unfortunately the Troll refuses to move and stands it’s ground, leaving the Butchers alone against the Undead.  The Goblin Shaman, sensing favorable winds of magic, begins his chant and is able to transfix one of the ghouls which is then cut down by the arrow from an Orcish bow.

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With the two Orc Butchers left to fend for themselves things turn ugly quickly. The Undead Horde sweep against them killing one while the other barely manages to hold his ground before the Troll finally comes into the fray.  The Shaman’s chant is again heard, and the last ghoul freezes transfixed long enough to earn it’s death.  Unfortunately the Orc Butcher and Troll are unable to take advantage of this to move against the fearsome Vampire.

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Meanwhile…….The Elves continue to move up to try and take the objectives while their Giant Tree fights valiantly to kill the Giant Slayers from the Halflings.

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Sensing his moment the Vampire moves to slay the Goblin Shaman causing so much havoc among his warriors.  Unfortunately in his haste he fumbles and is unable to move up and so choses to move back away from the onslaught.  Sensing the tide of battle shifting the Orcs press forward killing the winged horror in the line of Undead.  Through a bloody battle the Orcs finally bring down the creature, but their advance leaves their shaman horribly exposed……

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 As it was feared the two undead wolves, sensing blood, captapult around the orcs and fall on the hapless Shaman.  Powerful in magic, weak in combat he falls quickly under their slavering jaws and is torn apart.


First overcome with disbelief that their Shaman could die, the Orcs fall back slightly before their confusion turns back to howls of RAGE and they fall on the two Wolves, killing one and leave the other one to be locked in combat as the Troll relentlessly approaches him under a volley of Elven archer fire.

As the Troll comes face to face with the Undead Wolf, the Elven arrows aimed for him strike home against the Undead killing it.  With it’s death, a shudder is felt through the Undead horde as they begin to crumble to dust, the entire host vanishes as if it had been a nightmare…..

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Seeing their chance to crush the stinking Elves, the remaining Orc Butcher, utters a mighty war cry and charges the Elves.  Initially things go well as the Orc’s brute strength cause the Elves to falter…

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But the Butcher can not finish the job quickly enough and with their Shaman gone the raiding party is unable to react as a cohesive force to support him. The Dryads sweep in to surround him falling on him and tearing him to pieces.

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Only three remain from the might raiding party, unable to stand due to their massive losses the Orcish Horde falls back and regroups…

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But even as they flee an Elven arrow strikes home killing another of the Orcs.  In the final moments of the battle the Troll sensing blood as an Elf came forward abandoned his idea to flea the field and rushed head long to his death.  The final Orc Archer thought better and left to fight another day.

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Overall this was a very enjoyable game.  The addition of the Shaman was instrumental to having success against the Undead.  In the end I killed a lot of Undead, The Elves killed a lot of Halflings and Orcs and controlled the centre for the longest and so not that surprisingly, had the most victory points.

Attack Track

I found myself in Walmart the other day and while I was there I went through the matchbox selection hoping to find an elusive Rotowarrior. I came up empty handed. I did find a LARGE number of Matchbox Attack Tracks though, and bought a couple for $1 each. I had picked up a dual launcher a little while ago that was decent scale, but I thought these might be on the small side, but for the low price I figured why not.


As I suspected it was a little small, but not uselessly small.  Here is one of them taken with a small force of Sahadeen from Rebel Minis



For the low price these could easily be a remote launcher platform, or perhaps something cooler with some conversion skills.  I'm not sure what I will use mine for, but I am sure I will figure something out.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Song Of Blades and Heros: Skirmish club

This past Saturday the new Skirmish Gaming Club at the local games store (Sentry Box) had it's first official games.

We played a few games here and there to learn the rules earlier but this was the first official game day.

During the day the various members got in a 3 way battle, a 2 way battle and a 4 way battle.


Orcs vs Chaos Dwarves vs Goblins/Minotaurs
Elves vs Halflings
Orca vs Elves vs Halfings vs Chaos Dwarves


What follows is the Battle Report of the "Orcs vs Chaos Dwarves vs Goblins/Minotaurs" battle from the Orcs side of things.


The three armies approached the lightly forested area each moving forward to the place in a small copse of trees that held long forgotten magic gems.


The Minotaurs and Orcs reach the trees first with the Chaos Dwarves taking their time due to.....motivational issues, and a bad starting set of activation rolls.

The Minotaurs and Goblins begin to search the trees but come up empty handed as the Orcs arrive on the scene and begin their own search of the area.

Finally an Orc finds a magic gem and begins to move away hoping to get off the field, likewise the goblin horde also finds and begins to move some gems.  Finally the Chaos Dwarves arrive to attack the flank of the Orcs and Goblins.  A small skirmish occurs with the Orcs and a Chaos Dwarf is knocked down.

Finally the Orcs manage to kill one of the Dwarves, but as they do the hulk of an Ogre shows up and smashes the victorious Orc to the ground, at the same time a second Dwarf appears and the combined effort of him and his leader another Orc is brought to the ground and killed.

The Orc Chieftain falls under the combined attacks of Dwarves and Goblins, but he is tough and despite being pressed down and kept off balance maintains his position.  In the north the second unit of flanking Dwarves has begun to push through the wall of Goblins.

The Ogre and Chaos Dwarves push in and attack the Orc with the gem knocking him down in a mad melee to gain control of the magic rock.  In the trees the Orc swordsmen engage with the Minotaurs in an effort to claim the stones for their shamans.

The Orcs in the trees are no match for the larger, stronger Minotaurs and are pushed down and back in the frenzy of battle.  The Orc Chieftan stays strong and despite overwhelming odds stands up madly slashing with his axe at the 4 opponents trying to bring him down.

In the north the goblins hold their own, knocking down the chaos dwarf and begin to swarm him.
The swarm of Goblins proves too much and while fallen two of the goblins swarm over the dwarf while a third ends his life with a dagger.
 
The Orcs in the trees fair horrible and another Orc falls gored by the Minotaurs before the last Orc Swordsman runs for his life.  The Great Orc Chieftan makes his last stand as the final three enemies he is engaging finally deliver more damage than he can stand and forces him to the ground for the last time.
 
The final Orc recovers his wits and turns to meet his final doom as a Chaos dwarf and their Hobgoblin allies show up to end his life.
As killing swept the battlefield the main engagements took place between the Orcs and Chaos Dwarves leaving a fairly open corridor for the Goblins and Minotaurs to grab and escape with the magic gems.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Orcs.

Over the past week I have made a effort to finish off my Orc warband.  I had enough models to build a workable SoBH warband, but I wanted more options as well, and I had a few more models to paint.


I had 3 guys left, and they had been sitting on my bench for a long while.  Late last week I started painting two of the Orcs so I would have them to play on Saturday.  Saturday morning, I abandoned the twin painting and finished one guy.  This week I finished the second and last night I painted up my Goblin shaman.

The next project is a VSF flavored warband for In Her Majesties Name.


Working on the last two Orcs, most base coating is down.
Orc completed for games on Saturday.  Shield Orc was put off.
 
Finished shield man.  He has a lot of red staining all over him: armor, shield, sword, face.  I have dumbed him "The Butcher"
 
Goblin Shaman in progress.  Mostly completed.
  
Goblin Shaman and The Butcher.  I added black to finish of the shaman's base as well.