WFB Core Battles

Some of the old game club got together again for another day of WFB gaming. We played two rounds. The army rules were:

• 2000 Points
• No Lords
• 15% Max. Heroes
• 20% Max Special
• No Rare

I drew up two army lists. One for Empire, one for Skaven. I decided to play the Empire list, but when it came time to pack the car, I discovered that the Empire figures were all over the place (some packed in the travel box, some in a cabinet, some out on the desk) and laziness won out. I brought the Skaven. The army looked something like this:

1 Chieftain with heavy armour, shield, warlock augmented weapon
1 Chieftain with battle standard, heavy armour shield, and the magic standard that causes -1 LD to enemies within 12" and units in base contact reroll successful LD tests.
1 Engineer w/ LV1 magic

50 Clanrats with spear & shield
1 PW Mortar
30 Clanrats with shield
1 Warp Fire Thrower
30 Clanrats with shield
1 Warp Fire Thrower
40 Slaves
40 Slaves
30 Monks
6 Rat Ogres + 3 Handlers
2 Swarms
15 Night Runners
1 Warp Grinder



My first game was against a dwarf gunline. It had a bunch of units of 10 dwarfs with either handguns or crossbows, heavy armour and great weapons, three units of 5 miners, each with a drill, a unit of rangers with crossbows, three bolters with engineers, three slayer heroes and a thane.




The dwarfs set up on their back line, with the larger part of the army on a large hill. The slayers and miners were sent out to slow down the advance while everything else got shot up. It largely worked. Most of my Skaven are S3 and it took a ridiculous number of combat rounds to roll just two wounds on each slayer.

The big break for the dwarfs happened when the 50-rat horde, containing both the general and BSB, failed a freak panic test early in the game and spend a couple rounds fleeing, keeping them mostly out of the game.




In the meantime, fire was focused on the unengaged units, whittling them down to numbers too small to be effective by the time they got to combat. It was almost a re-fight of the recent WAB games against Persian and Macedonian missile armies, posted previously.



In the course of the game, I had a pretty freaky dice roll...





Game 2!

Game two was against an Empire army. It was something like:

30 Swordsmen
10 Swordsmen detachment
10 Handgunner detachment
30 Swordsmen
10 Halberdier detachment
10 Handgunner detachment
30 Spearmen
10 Crossbow detachment
10 Crossbow detachment
10 Knights with a Warrior Priest
1 Captain with battle standard
2 Mortars
1 Cannon
1 Engineer



It would be another game of mostly me moving up to contact the enemy. The first turn was brutal, as a couple of mortar rounds dropped my 50-rat horde below half strength. I got my rat ogres into combat with the knights early on, but I rolled horribly, he rolled great, and the result was that I lost combat by a lot and ran away. After a forced pursuit, they turned around, failed a charge and spent a couple turns getting flamed by a fire thrower before blowing a panic test. They rallied at the end, but were effectively removed from the rest of the battle. (At a high cost to me.)



My plan was to stall on one side or the other. I decided on stalling on my right (foreground in the photos) by sending swarms on the far side of the village, and slaves (and the other WFT) "refusing" (I hoped) the flank of the main line. My tunnelers popped up in front of the artillery, but were then charged by the flagellants supporting them from behind. I sent monks over the far hill, but they also got shot to pieces and broke in the second round of combat, after failing to do much of anything in spite of their "buckets o' dice" in combat -- even against mere humans.

The remainder of the horde did win combat in the center, but were then left standing alone just outside of the minimum firing range for the mortars. My only real luck was with a unit of clanrats on my left who made it to combat largely unscathed by missile fire, beat a detachment of crossbowmen, then turned and fought the swordsmen who had defeated my monks. After two rounds of combat, I managed to squeek by with a narrowly won round and lucked out when my opponent failed his break test.

We didn't total points or anything, but looking at the battle, I think it was at best a draw for the Skaven -- and that's being generous. All I had left were a couple units of clanrats. My opponent had lost most of his combat units, but he still had enough shooting to prevent me from turning and charging him effectively. At some point, the knights would be back, as well, though it would probably just be to mop up any remaining rats.




The next games will hopefully be in a couple weeks, and will be Ancients again.

Wargames Factory Resolution

As I explained in a previous entry, I've had a bit of difficulty collecting payment for painting services performed for Wargames Factory.

Yesterday was the final step in a resolution of the issue. I accepted payment in WF product in lieu of cash, and after about a month of delays, said product finally arrived on my doorstep.

Since those to whom I have financial obligations (utility bills, the grocery store, etc.) are not as gracious as I am in taking toy soldiers as "legal tender" I am now looking to convert this plastic currency into something with which I can pay my own bills. After setting aside figures for myself and friends, I have the following available at $12 per box, plus postage:

6x Shock Troops
2x War of Spanish Succession Infantry
1x Ancient Numidian Infantry
5x Ancient Persian Infantry
2x Ancient Persian Cavalry

If you buy three or more, I will drop the price to $10 each. Buyer pays postage.

Phalanx, Primer, Crusader, Campaign

Phalanx Test

This is my first phalanx test figure. The base isn't painted yet. Most of the figure was painted using blocked out colors, then a wash using my Substance-D. The only post-wash painting was the face of the shield and the pike shaft. I'm considering getting some decals for the final shield design.


Armory Primer

There is a saying, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." I would like to amend this to contain the third phrase, "fool me a third time and I must be a f-ing idiot." Why? I primed my first 24 phalanx using Armory primer. I had run out of my usual Krylon, and the only stores that seem to carry it are across town. I had no plans (nor time) to go across town for a can of primer, so I figured I would give the Armory another chance as I still have cans and cans of the stuff (all colors, plus clear) filling a small crate. Everything went fine. I did a test figure and it worked fine. I did a few other figures, they primed fine. I put 24 Macedonians on the painting board -- they turn out fuzzy. F-ing worthless Armory primer.



Crusader Miniatures

On a more positive note, I would like to state (once more) how much I love Crusader brand figures. My first 72 Macedonians (including the one above) are Crusader. I've also got about 24-28 Crusader Thureophori to work on. I also own and have painted some of his Ancient Germans, Spanish, Romans, Numidians, and the recently posted Carthaginians.

They are clean figures, both in terms of sculpting and casting. Because of this they paint up quickly, and look nice and distinct on the tabletop. As a US customer, I appreciate that they have a North American distributor/caster, as it saves me a bundle on postage that I would pay ordering from some of the other UK companies/sculptors that I would otherwise like to buy from. That's a big advantage to adding +40% for overseas postage from the UK from some companies. At any rate, I for all of those reasons I am a fan of, and enjoy painting and collecting Crusader figures!


Ancients Campaign

As much as I had been looking forward to trying to put together a Diadochi campaign, I think I may try a Roman "end of the Republic" campaign first. Of the 5 local WAB players I know, we now have 4 Roman armies, and one "barbarian" who we can easily work in. My thought is to divide into two major factions (Optimates and Populares or whatever) with two Romans in each faction, then toss the barbarian player in as a bit of a wild card. I'll set up a map that will determine resources (points and troop options) are available to those possessing different territories. Points will be assigned in two groups, Core (mainly legion & Roman characters) and Allies/Mercenaries/Levies.

Attacks will be made in adjacent territories, or if an army is in a territory with a port and is willing to risk a hazardous sea voyage (roll on a table for effects) they can move to another port location. Moving into an unoccupied territory means you take possession of it (I'm thinking of throwing in a random table to see if there is some sort of temporary side effect.) Moving into a territory with an enemy army in it means a battle. Each army will have a certain amount of the total faction points assigned to it. Battles can be fought between any player or players from the faction involved, based on who is available to play. I figure this will allow the campaign to continue without getting bogged down by people's schedules, while letting those who are not as frequently available still get to play some occasional games.

I'm thinking of putting a couple of special rules for a few territories and/or troop types. Maybe something like Egypt requiring a dedicated garrison force, Germania can not be conquered, bringing too many foreign troops into Italy or Rome will risk an uprising, some troop options become unreliable if taken too far from home, etc.

At least those are my thoughts thus far. Maybe this can be a practice run for a Successor campaign to see what works & what doesn't.

Game Day 24 & More Vinyl

Game Day 24

Saturday was my old game club's 24th Game Day.

I arrived a bit late for the early game, but it seemed like it had just started, so I got thrown into it. "Toho Monster Explosion" is a home brewed giant monster game that we've played for quite some time. I was Guillon, and my high point was chasing Godzilla off the table. (Well, OK, I had some help, but I was the one to strike the final blow.)

After that I had a bit of a horror theme going. I played in The In-Between, a home brewed mystery game. I went insane at the end of the game. At the same time, a game of Man-o-War was being played on the other side of the room. Now I've got Man-0-War my mind, and may dig up my fleets and try to see if I can dredge up an opponent.

In the third time slot, I ran another horror/mystery game. I broke with tradition and brought a board game, Betrayal at the House on the Hill. It was a good game, we ended up with two Traitors, and three of the four remaining Explorers lived and "won" (but just barely.) Another group was playing WFB, Warriors of Chaos against Skaven. I believe the Skaven won, but I'm not certain of that.

The late slot was Circus Maximus. We started with eight charioteers, and by the time we completed the first lap, there were only three left. The lead chariot was in much better shape than the remaining two (of which I was one) and couldn't lose. Below you can see the entry to the second turn, which was the doom of three or four chariots.


Another fun day of games! It's still a way off, but I should start planning something new for Game Day 25.




More Vinyl (New Muny)

Last week I finally finished the next Munny vinyl toy I was working on. Inspired by the opera I attended when I had started it, I have titled him, "Donna Anna's Song of Cruel, Cruel Vengeance," or shortened as, "Giovanni."

Dipping and Bitching

Dipping

I've made my next experiment with dipping. I've headed back to my Paint Machine Project blog for this, as I tracked my time and it seemed appropriate to post there, as that was the whole point of starting that project. My comments are there, in my latest entry. I won't elaborate here, other than to say that I think a bit more experimentation will be done.

Well, that and I'm not sure why I am still referring to it as "dipping" as there is no dipping going on, other than a brush dipping into the wash medium.


Bitching

This is just a bit of an overflow of my bitching elsewhere. But I think my interest in WFB is hitting an all time low. I think I've even got over the 8th edition blues. Well, I still think 6th/7th were better, but I just accepted that 8th edition was the reality of the current game and I came to a state of acceptance.

I think that the current focus on tournaments and competitive play is just pushing my interest further down. I play wargames for the mental challenge (I view the games like a kinetic puzzle, evolving on the tabletop between two or more players,) but also for fun and relaxation. Right now there seems to be too much of a focus on the "meta game" and list building, too little on pushing figures around and rolling dice. Tournaments that were previously relaxing social events are becoming a source of arguments and bitching about determining a "winner" and/or bitching about whoever was decided as the "winner." This is all spilling over into local "friendly" games which, it seems, are now being dictated by this competitive environment.

That's fine for the people who are really into that. I guess it's just not my thing. So I think I've decided I'm done with tournaments, and I'm bordering being done with WFB entirely.

Painting On Deck

Just a few quick photos to show what's "on deck" in terms of my own figures on my painting table.

First, I'm excited to finally be starting work on my Macedonians/Successors/Diadochi. No, they're not "Silver Shields," but I've just cleaned them up and have them ready to prime. The first group of 24 phalanx. These are Crusader figures. Two more groups of 24 are the same. Then there are two groups of 24+/- Foundry figures.




I've also dug up 16 Greek archers from BTD. I think I picked these up from a rare bargain on eBay. Nice figures, though I'd like more variety. These are going to be my next experiment in "dipping" before moving on to the phalanx above. These should see use as Greeks, Cretans and maybe some other regional skirmishy archer types.



Rounding out the previous unit of Carthaginians and elephant (and all their already painted allies & mercenaries) I've partially painted a couple of command figures. Again, Crusader figures. These are from the cavalry command pack, but I'm going to use them as a general and army standard.



And lastly, some more landsknecht pikemen. These are mostly Foundry, along with a few assorted painted figures in the back. I've also got 20 Artizan figures (though some are command) to clean, prime & base to add to this group. I should end up with somewhere near 36 figures in all. I'm not sure these will be a priority, as I'm anxious to try putting together a Hellenistic campaign at some point.

GW Triple Whammy

A few of pieces of GW news this week have me wondering what is going on with them...


First is Forge World's release of Kampfgruppe Normandy, a WWII game. I don't play WWII games, so it's roughly $86.00 price tag (at today's exchange rate, including postage, not not service fees for currency conversion) for US customers won't hurt my bank account.

What also surprises me is that they not only continue to spiral off in other directions, but then have the balls to charge prices like that when they have a reputation for not supporting the other games they've left incomplete. I'm still bitter about buying WAB2 and buying into their promises of army lists that were supposedly soon to follow.


Second is GW's Storm of Magic expansion for WFB. Two of my complaints about 8th edition are the game winning spells they introduced, as well as the increased focus on huge critters (and the associated downplaying of troops, maneuver, tactics, etc.) Any thoughts I may have had that this was an unintentional fluke in the game has been washed away by the description of Storm of Magic, which promises to increase both of those.


Third are the rumors of the discontinuation of metal figures from GW. According to many sources, retailers have been told there will be no more metal, and further rumors indicate that they may be switching to resin. I've bought very few of the metal figures in the past few years, as I can't stomach paying $12-$18 for a single infantry figure. Since every other time GW has announced an "improvement" and "cost savings" it has been immediately followed by increased prices, I expect the resin figures to be of lower quality (unless they've really got something new up their sleeves) and at a higher price.


Every bit of GW related news the past couple years seems to be driving me further away from their games. I'm seeking ancients rules elsewhere. I sold of all the figures I had collected for a WFB wood elf army, and just sold off most of my unpainted Skaven and I am thinking of putting the painted stuff up for sale next. While I hear some people rabidly supporting the company, I just don't see much appeal any more, and have seen a fair number of other long time veterans departing as well.

Dipping Experiment - Continued

I'm pretty happy with the results of my Minwax dipping experiment, and my subsequent home-brewed dip experiment (see below.)

So here are the Carthaginians, post-dip. After the dip, I painted the shields using a quick three layer technique (hard to see the shading, the photo washed out the white.) And finally I added a layer of matte varnish. I just used Krylon UV Protection Matte. I thought I might have to pull out the "big guns" of matte varnish (Testors) but it doesn't seem necessary. These are simple figures with a lot of mail, but overall I'm happy with the results. The only minor change I should have made was using a different color for the spears.



As a result of discussion of my attempts at replicating GW's Delvan Mud wash in the replies to my last entry, I took some anonymous advice and sought out a bottle of Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber. I found it at the local craft store for a whopping $0.79 and it is perfect. Far darker than any of the other browns I currently have, but a bit warmer than black.

I mixed up a batch of Future, water, DBU (dark burnt umber) and a bit of anti-shine additive and applied it to the figure below. It was a little two thin, so I added more DBU the the mix and gave it another coat before the first had fully dried. I probably should have used another figure, but I was impatient. So the results look good. I think I need to fine tune the mix a bit (maybe less/no water?) and apply it to a fresh figure. But I'm optimistic.

I have labeled the bottle with this mix, "Substance D" -- as in "D"evan Mud replacement (and "D"ark Burnt Umber.) But also because I am a Philip K. Dick fan, ans Scanner Darkly is one of my favorite books.


So here's my plan, then.... I'm going to try some more figures using both my Substance D and the Minwax. Then I hope to make use of "dipping" one some of the piles of rank and file troops that have backed up in my collection and get them on the battlefield.

Taking the Plunge -- With Dipping

I'm finally making my first experimental foray into using the "Dip."

After much reading on the internets, I actually purchased these supplies almost a year ago. But I've just now got around to trying them.



Here are my shiney shiney Carthaginians spearmen, basecoated.



And here is a somewhat poorly lit shot after the "dip." I didn't actually dip the figures, but used the "apply heavy wash with brush" method. But that's a bit much to say or type quickly.


So far the results look OK. Hard to say until they dry completely and I can hit them with a matte clearcoat. But so far I'm not sure the results are quite as good as I could get with a similar wash method using GW's Delvan Mud. The trade off, of course, is that the large tin of Minwax costs less than two tiny bottles of Delvan Mud. And for what it's worth, I can skip the gloss coat and go straight to the matte.

After considering the Devan vs. Minwax, I tried mixing up a new homebrew wash of Future, Reaper anti-shine addative, a bit of water, a bit of matte medium, and some dark brown paint. I used Vallejo "Leather Brown" which paints very dark straight out of the bottle, but as a wash it turned out far too light. I may dump it and try using some dark artists acrylic in a new batch. I think I have something pretty dark, but don't remember what (Umber? Van Dyke?)

Not that I'm ready to give up on the Minwax yet. I've got a lot of the stuff and a bunch of figures that need painting. I will continue to experiment, and will post further photos as I finish these guys.



This last photo shows why the above photo was poorly lit. I've got my "dipping station" set up on a separate table, so I can let it sit & dry overnight while not getting in the way of my regular painting spaces.

eBay stuff

I've put some of my unsold stuff on eBay. I will be adding a few more items later in the week.

http://shop.ebay.com/zerotwentythree/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25

Right now there's some 40k, WFB and Warmachine.

I will be adding more WFB, 40k, those WWI French I previously posted here in the next couple days.

Bid early, bid often. (And help me pay my bills!)