The start of (another) new project

So I was visiting Dragon's Lair in Odense yesterday, with my girlfriend, when I stumbled upon a grand clearance sale of all things Kings of War. And, well, here's the end result of that haul:

So I guess that it's fair to say that I'm starting a couple of new armies in the near future.

The above was only £35 (retails at around £210) and as fate would have it I had long been considering getting myself some Mantic miniatures for fantasy wargaming - just so that I could join up with the budding crowd of GOB-28 players and easily could convert others to a more fun version of Warhammer Fantasy etc.

So, now I have some 50 Elves, 58 Orcs and around 95 (more) Undead awaiting assembly and paintjobs... I'd say that's quite a fair amount to get going for GOB-games and possibly even for some playtest purposes in the future when I start work, in earnest, on a fantasy mass-battle game that I've had kicking around.

But... yeah, I'm still stunned at the volume of plastic I got home for next to nothing!

The Orcs are Marauding - First Game vs. Michael

The scene Wednesday night, upon deployment, as Michael and I had our second game together - and his first with his fully painted army!

Michaels great 'Ironskin' Goblins - the two units of these proved to be a pain in the neck as they seemed almost impossible to kill off!

Last wednesday I had a great game of GOB15 with my mate Michael who had painted up his very first army in, well, forever really. It looks rather good on the tabletop and this also meant that we could finally adhere to my houserules of no gaming without painted miniatures!

Astute readers may note that we're playing on a 'new' battleboard than what I've shown on the blog up until now. It's the old 4' by 4' battleboards that I made way back when and the only reason as to why I pulled them out of storage is because each of the individual boards are only 2' by 2' - making it easy to set up a nice battlefield for GOB15 that actually fits my tablespace! Still - I prefer my mats and I'm going to be making a couple of 3' by 2' mats in the spring for my GOB15 games - the current one is just a tiny bit too big for my table space.

The skeleton horde fights against the Ironskins... for something like three turns in a row, which gave the greenskins ample opportunity to outflank me.

However it also meant that my unit of the match - the Skeleton Knights - had an equal oppurtunity to outflank on the right hand side; hitting the Ironskin unit in the side again and again in the vain hope of giving me a couple of points!

Mere moments before the skeleton Horde, alongside the Necromancer are demolished by a party of War Orcs that hit them in the flank time and again, which finally freed up the Ironskins to hit my Skeleton Warriors in their flank, killing the remnants off outright and thus winning Michael the game.

The game was a good one as ever. It came down to a couple of tactical errors on my part coupled with the wrong die-result in the wrong die-roll. But once again it made it clear just how much I enjoy the game in itself. It really is great! However it is not perfect and we discussed some things that we might need to change at some point in our "league".

First off it doesn't seem "fair" that the defender may include the Camp and Baggage as part of his point cost when deploying as he has not paid for them either. We're instead suggesting that the Camp and Baggage are taken out of the equation during deployment and that the defender has to place half his points worth of troops on the table. Otherwise, there's little point in being the attacker apart from the first turn.

Further, there's still some niggles about the Camps and Baggage as well. I'd personally prefer that the camp had a number of "hit points" equal to the number of sutlers and what not that would appear as part of a habitat roll and that they would then act as a unit on their own. This would then mean that upon contacting the camp, you'd "move to contact" with the camp instead of just mosing in and setting it ablaze.

And finally - how exactly does unit foot-print work in GOB? We couldn't really figure out whether a unit could move through an enemy unit based on the unit leader or the figures around the unit leader. Does the models in a unit signify the area of no-go-zone as for movement or do you base it on the unit leader fully?

Still - a great game and we're slowly getting ready to publish a completed set of rulesadditions for GOB15 - next up, we're looking into making ourselves a couple of scenarios, especially one suited for three players. Any ideas for this are more than welcome!

Seawood Elves clash with Hogwild Beastmen

Another installment of the GOB-15 Diaries.

Last night it so happened that Duncan and I had ourselves a small game of GOB-15 once more; it was a first outing for a lot of his newly painted miniatures as well as a first outing for my Wood Elf army as well which meant a lot of lessons to be learned.

Our initial deployment of forces, as provided to you by State-Of-The-Art-Special-Effects

One of the first things I noted right away was how much of a point drain a unit of Chosen can become for the Seawood Elves in these small 36 point affairs. While they most certainly pack a punch, they are more easily outflanked in these lesser affairs. They are quite an investment, not only in points but also in deployment as you really need to have a better plan than my: "... Erh, right, they'll... uhm.... attack... that one!".

The Seawood Elf Gloryboys!

The game itself was great - as all of our GOB15 games have been - with some half-hearted opening moves from ranged attacks and the scuffle of light troops as the main battle lines slowly drew to a close. Then there were heated exchange of swords and wounds followed by the inevitable collapse of any higher plan other than 'Get 'em!' It was great fun and lovely to see that Duncan had painted up a host of new models for his army.

 Herdlord with his Brutes - alongside with a, what turned out to be of the Heavy sort, Chariot and another unit of Brutes

Duncan's Monster of the Deep Woods (counts as a Minotaur)

I find myself completely enamoured with how much fun and tactical thinking is to be found in such a simple and elegant design as this. Jake Thornton has really pulled a rather magnificent stunt here - albeit I'd wish that it wasn't as locked to Foundry's ill-fated miniature line. While manageable (as you can plainly see from our armies) it would be great for it to encompass many more races and factions which would make it easier to tailor it to other available miniatures... but that's neither here nor there.

The game itself ended in a sound defeat for my Seawood Elves. The Chosen unit overextended itself on the weaker of my two flanks, leavning it open to a sound thrashing in the flank(!) by the Ravagers. It was short and ugly as they minced their way through the Seawood's finest. The loss of the Seekers and Merwolves as they fought to prevent the Ravagers from pillaging their camp sealed the deal and the Seawood Elves broke tail and ran off...

What I learned from this battle was that I should consider going for the 'lesser' units from the list rather than relying on a single block of troops to carry the day. While the Chosen are an effective unit, I was most definitely blindsided by their prowess in battle that I forgot about the key aspect of all warfare - manouver.
Naturally I've already taken this to heart and have begun painting up the next batch of Marines for the army; I'm hoping to employ 3 units of Marines and then 2 units of Seekers in my next battle and see whether my gut-feeling of using the army in a more hit'n'run manner will bear fruit.

Quote of the Game -
"So... Is that a heavy chariot?" (moments before it got peppered by bolts in the flank as - indeed - it was a heavy chariot.)

15mm God of Battles Army Project

The GOB15 Diaries

An early game of 24 points aside of Undeath vs. Undeath with the improvised demo I held at this years Horisont 2013

So I recently fell in love with two things I had never ever thought myself throwing my love at.

First there was a sudden flutter of hearts towards all things fantasy. All of a sudden I found myself considering the magnificent empires of elvish kings and the vile machinations of the undead, before long both of these had joined the considerable lead pile - along with a host of dwarves, orcs, goblins, dragons, eagles and all creatures large and small from any good Monsters Manual.

I have always been a rather fanatic avid fan of all things science fiction; rayguns, robots and rockets will always be my first, true love - but I have finally found a room for fantasy. I guess it was inevitable seeing as I first fell for Harry Potter, then Lord of the Rings and it all clicked into place when I first started seeing a Game of Thrones on HBO. That, and the fact that Duncan kept pestering me about it...

My 36 points of Undeath as it stands right now.

And then I fell - whole heartedly - in love with (fantasy) mass battle games. I can't really say what it is apart from the fact that it feels more like a wargame to me than any of the tens of skirmish games that I've tried over the years. It's all about the marching of units across the field of battle for them to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand; the employment of the nessecary force at the pivotal point of the battle - whenever the dice chatter along the table I can hear the clash of swords and battlecries of soldiers.

Whilst a rant for another post then I've recently been in a bit of a slump when it came to writing on Rosetta and as an extension thereof also playing skirmish games. They just don't really feel right to me, and as such - the Rosetta Skirmish System has been shelved for the time being. There is just something in the level of detail in these games that keeps on nagging me; either they're too light or too heavy on the detail - and their activation mechanics never really feel like a fluid, cinematic skirmish would feel like. Ah well, as I said - another post for another time.

It might also be that Jake Thornton has produced a really fine set of wargaming rules with his God of Battles ruleset. Which is what the GOB15 Diaries are going to be all about - it's going to be a diary, of sorts, that will detail my 15mm fantasy games, set in Duncan's home-made setting (which I'm sure he'll chime in on later), using Jake Thornton's God of Battles rules and hopefully filled with exciting ideas, battlereports and what have you. Already plans are in motion for the 8 or so GOB15-players in Denmark to meet up and do battle at some point in the new year...

And my first foray into 'count-as' territory; 36 points (almost) of Wood Elves, using the Sea Elf armylist.

... And speaking of which; Happy New Year everyone! Let the new year roll up and let's see if I can't keep this blogging up a bit more in 2014!