Friday 29 July 2016

Battle Report - Frostgrave

Howdy folks,

A couple of weeks back, I made it over to Mike's place for some Frostgrave gaming...Mike was good to go, however...I was having some trouble making decisions that day, so I did not have my warband information complete.

While I got my Wizard and his crew together, Mike threw down a pretty respectable table.  We chose one of the scenarios from the MRB (the mausoleum scenario, if I recall correctly)  and added in a little bit of Lich'ly goodness with a couple of beasties from the Lich expansion.  At first I was pretty torqued because I had forgotten my camera, but then a few brain cells kicked in and I remembered I had my phone.  So, bare with me, I very rarely use the camera on my cellphone, but here is the action.

If you would also like, Mike already posted his battle report HERE.

Hope you enjoy the pics, it was a pretty awesome game...looking forward to some more Frostgrave in the very near future.

A new section of the Northern City for our adventurers...the remains of a mausoleum and crypt on the edge of a small hamlet of huts.  Amazingly there were some old wheat field which still found a way to keep on growing...from this perspective, my warband would be coming in from the right and Mike's was on the left.



A close up of one of the crypts and some of the scatter terrain...Mike put together a great looking table in no time flat! I think my favourite part was the various scatter pieces that added to the character of the table...truly making his an expedition into the dead Northern City... 

My Necromancer, formerly known as @ entered the hamlet with a Templar and Crossbowman at his side...I elected to spend the gc on higher quality troops for this scenario...trying to get the feel for the different soldiers.  My warband consisted of an Apprentice, Templar, Crossbowman, Treasure Hunter, Thief, and a Ranger.  As well, as part of my 'Out of Turn' spells, I was able to conjur an animal companion and raise a zombie.

On the other side of the table Mike brings in his warband...a little lower cost than my troops, Mike was fortunate to have 2 archers AND some raised platforms on his side of the hamlet to take advantage of...hmmm...
In the foreground of the shot above, you can just see the balder than bald head of my Apprentice in white and red-trim robes, Mr. Bones my Thief stands next to him, and Ragnar the Ranger on his left side as they take the main path into the hamlet.
A close up of our intrepid 3...taking the main road into town...maybe less intrepid and more on the foolish side...


On my left, Fido the Zombie and Snarl the Wolf enter into town...up and to the right of them you can see @ the Necromancer as he makes his way with Skald the Treasure Hunter to his left, trying to get some cover from  behind a hut.

Overview of the table...my Templar moves up to the building edge to provide support for my thief at the lower right building...Mr. B is about to run to the first piece of treasure
**For this scenario, there are 3 pieces of treasure for each player which are placed 'inside' 6 huts...the huts should be near the centre of the table**

Mr. B cannot resist temptation and makes a grab for a book and statue laying around...there can't be any risk in doing this...no risk at all!!
Before he can scream "It's mine" a severely peeved Werewolf pops out of the hut...apparently the book is overdue at the Northern City library, the fines must be ridiculous because he starts to tear ass towards Mr. B...
**For this scenario, whenever a piece of treasure is about to be grabbed a die roll is supposed to occur to see if any beasts appear...For our game, Mike and I decided to make this an automatic thing and chose a variety of beasts, the die role determined who was going to jump in**

Lucky me I rolled for a Werewolf with my first piece of treasure...and a Death Knight looking Wraith Knight for my second piece...lucky lucky me!!

Just prior to this treasure grab, Mike had successfully cast a push from his Apprentice (IIRC...) and sent Skald 7 inches back from his position...this burned one of my actions next turn getting back into position, then grabbing the treasure, and then having a Wraith Knight screaming about late fees at me...

Luckily, the action on the left side (which I forgot to picture) had Fido and Snarl move up to the middle of the left side, take some turns scratching and biting a couple of Mike's warband...Snarl lasted a few turns, ate an adventurer, wounded another...Fido died a zombie death, but this allowed me to summon another zombie...So when the Wraith Knight popped up, @ beat feet backwards and then summoned another Zombie...Snowball the Zombie jumped into the fray and engaged in combat with the Knight.
As Snowball holds the Wraith Knight in place in combat, @ moves towards the main path and Skald very bravely gets the f#$k out of dodge making a dash for the table edge with a treasure.

In the centre, the Apprentice and crew around him grab the treasure, fight the Werewolf (who promptly eats a Templar...not as filling as one would think)...as it quickly sets its sights on my Crossbowman...Mr. B takes the main path towards the table edge.  Ragnar tries to provide cover fire with his bow and the Apprentice tries throwing some bone darts downrange...

 Oh, and in the background we can see that Mike has rolled for the 'Mimic', treasure chest on steroids with a bit of an appetite of its own...

@ is trying to gracefully back away from the Wraith Knight...hoping the Zombie can hold his own for a bit...

Middle of the hamlet progress shot...on the left, Mike pulled up a Ghast but quickly defeated it...the Mimic is charging hard for one of Mike's soldiers in the middle of town, and I am slowly retreating back having lost my Wolf, Zombie, Templar, and Crossbowman...my Necro, Ranger, and Treasure Hunter are all injured at this point within a point or 2 of being wounded...

Now, if dealing with various hungry, angry beasts wasn't enough...Mike continued to rain imp after imp down on my crew...I think I took out 3-4 imps, this last one steps over the disappearing corpse of Mr. B (who took an arrow in the back of the head, killing him and forcing him to drop the treasure) on its way to Ragnar who is rushing to grab the treasure...to their front, the Werewolf is about to devour my Crossbowman...

...and Skald keeps running like a mofo...the Wraith Knight easily deals with Snowball the Zombie...but he does make it off table next turn...
With the Zombie gone, the Wraith Knight angrily walks about looking for his next victim...@ the Necro is 1 point from being wounded and is keeping a low profile...even electing not to try to summon Snowball 2...
If I recall correctly, Ragnar at this point gets into combat with the Wraith Knight, @ moves behind the stonewall, and my Apprentice grabs the treasure and starts the move off table...

...in the distance, you can now see Mike's wizard...a bitter vindictive soul who keeps LOS with my Apprentice for the sole purpose of delaying his movement so the Wraith can get to him...such hatred, sigh...
Suffice to say, my Apprentice does make it to the table edge...I now have to pieces of treasure to my name...Mike successfully avoids any more beasts...does NOT grab the last piece of treasure as his warband is feeling pretty weak, he did lose his Apprentice afterall...and they leave the table with 3 pieces.

Overall, a very great game...extremely enjoyable!!! My soldiers recovered nicely as did my Wizard...Mike's apprentice suffered a permanent injury  (crushed leg IIRC...).

Until next time in the Northern City.
Cheers.

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 1

Howdy folks,

It has been quite sometime since I dedicated time to conducting research, so for the past 4 weeks or so I've been googling, reading articles, and made my way through 5 books on the subject of Vimy Ridge.  With the 100th anniversary coming up in April, my buddy Ed (Mr. Maersk Grozny) and I are going to put together a Vimy inspired gaming table for Cangames 2017.

Inspired by my research and some of the images I've been able to find, I have taken this knowledge and put it into action in basing my Canadian Artillery Detachment.

Originally I had hoped to build up a similar looking position as pictured above, however with the size of the Battlefront bases and not wanting to overcrowd the base I went with the look below.
As you can see, the real estate gets pretty tight.  So with that in mind I adapted my approach from the pictured gun position above and started building a suitable gun platform.
 Work in progress picture #1 and #2... 

Unfortunately the picture is very very yellow, however I think it shows my attempts to show the duckboards and planking that were part of the construction of artillery positions in the build-up to the Easter assault.  An excellent resource in this case has been the book "Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment"...it is a series of essays which cover the build-up, fighting, and aftermath of the battle.



Wednesday 27 July 2016

Random Hasslefree Figs and a Studio Miniatures...

Howdy folks,

Inspired from some musings during out last Force On Force game, SS Maersk Grozny, I decided to get some 28mm painting in so that perhaps in the near future I can convince Duncan and the others to move towards some Ambush Z, World War Z, or Zombies gaming depending on your label of choice.

At some point after the Maersk, Duncan had said that he would only entertain certain scenarios at 28mm...so, armed with that I thought I'd tackle some Hasslefree figs that I had bought some time ago.  These figs are great...outstanding details, very clean, and with such character it is hard to limit your purchases.

With post-apoc and zombie futures in mind, I give you a mad Max, Bubba the Elvis-onator, and Nomad the gunBear...

**EDIT: thanks to some very keen eyes, I mis-ID'ed Max.  This fig is actually from Studio Miniatures...now I just have to figure out how it came into my collection, lol...

Cheers.

Mandatory group shot..I tried a few filters on the top pic...original below it...
 

I tried to paint Max as if he was walking down a cratered and very dirty road...not too much on his mind that his double barrel can't mend...
 
Since I took these pics, I also flocked the base with some yellow-ish, summertime burnt grass.

I really like the idea of an Elvis impersonator or the man himself standing around in jumper, guitar, and pistol in hand.  If you're a fan of the movie "3000 Miles to Graceland" then I'm sure you'll like this fig...

I thought I'd paint Bubba standing in the remains of his favourite 50's diner

Well armed for the coming apocalypse is Nomad...a great looking figure armed with C9 (or M249 or SAW or Minimi depending on your label), MP-5 SMG, pistol, and a plethora of magazines.

Friday 1 July 2016

Great War - CEF - 2nd Platoon

Happy Canada Day everyone!!

Just thought I'd put up a quick post to celebrate July 1st and thought...hey, what better than some pictures of my latest WW1 installment.  I had actually painted these fellows up by the end of January, but had not completed the basing.  With the arrival of TY, this platoon was put on the back burner for my Sov horde of T72s...

So, near the end of May I collected these warriors from the WIP pile and finished up the basing for them...this time, I elected to not colour the interior of the craters to get the mud bog effect...I went instead for a little clarity on the gaming table and just coloured the craters with a strong wash to help differentiate the platoon from the these fellows.

My plan over the course of the summer is to finish a few random figs from the WIP pile, some 28mm...I'm thinking modern...and then near mid August get back to finishing my CEF troops...I have another rifle platoon, some artillery, and machine guns to finish up.

Enjoy the pics...and at the bottom, a couple of Canada Day inspired pics and a link...

 
2 Platoon...CEF, 49th Battalion...Loyal Eddies 
 
A few team close ups...grenadiers and riflemen
Lewis team... 
Rifle team charging forward
 
The Company so far...2 x rifle platoons with Company OC, 2iC, and 2 x sniper/marksman teams 
A view of the troops in line...
A random pic of the mid point of the company, 2 different basing styles beside each other...

the crater colour is more apparent in this pic
Having fun with a filter...action pic... 

So, again happy Canada Day...enjoy something maple...have a beer, some back bacon, and put on your favourite Rush tape/cd/mp3...

-BobandDoug.com-
 
 

-CBC.ca-