Battle Report - Epic Armageddon - Imperial Guard vs Eldar

Hello All,

As discussed in the previous post, where I painted up a bunch of tanks, we decided to try out a game of Epic Armageddon. I quite enjoyed it, but I guess there is a fair bit of nostalgia for me playing these old Games Workshops games, so I am not certain how much everyone else enjoyed it. Anyway here is the report, I was a bit slack on taking pictures so that aspect suffers a bit.

Army Lists:

Steel Legion - Imperial Guard, 2125 POINTS 
Steel Legion (NetEA Army Compendium v2014)
==================================================

SUPER-HEAVY TANK COMPANY [500]
Baneblade, 2 Shadowsword

INFANTRY COMPANY [525]
Commander, 12 Infantry, Hellhound Squadron (3 Hellhounds), Tank Squadron (3 Demolishers)

STORM TROOPER PLATOON [350]
8 Storm Troopers, Valkyrie Transport

SENTINEL SQUADRON [100]
4 Sentinels

THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 Thunderbolts

WARHOUND PACK [500]
2 Warhounds


I only have the bottom half of my sentinels, so replaced them with light tanks, I just changed the stats to make the full vehicles instead of light vehicles, dropped walker, and gave them a loner ranged gun, but same stats.

Eldar, 2125 POINTS 
Biel-Tan Craftworld (NetEA Army Compendium v2014 (v4.2))
==================================================

ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [300]
4 Dire Avenger, 4 Fire Dragon

ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST [525]
2 Dark Reaper, 2 Warp Spider, 2 Howling Banshee, 2 Striking Scorpion, 4 Wave Serpent, Exarch

GUARDIAN WARHOST [325]
Farseer, 7 Guardians, 3 Wraithlords

WINDRIDER TROUPE [200]
6 Jetbikes

ENGINE OF VAUL TROUPE [250]
Cobra

PHOENIX BOMBERS [325]
3 Phoenix Bombers

VAMPIRE RAIDER [200]


I took the Eldar and Serge had the Imperial Guard, as I felt they had less special rules so would be a bit easier. We played the tournament scenario which has 5 goals that you try to complete, and you want to have 2 and more then the enemy after turn 3, or turn 4.

The goals are:

Blitzkrieg: You achieve this goal by capturing the objective that was set up on the opponent’s table edge at the start of the game (i.e., the first objective each player set up).
Break Their Spirit: You achieve this goal by destroying (not breaking) the formation worth the most points in the opposing army. If several formations are tied for the most points, you achieve this goal by destroying any one of them.
Defend To Flag: You achieve this goal if you control all three objectives in your half of the table.
Take And Hold: You achieve this goal by capturing a total of two objectives in your opponent’s half of the table.
They Shall Not Pass: You achieve this goal if there are no unbroken enemy formations in your half of the table.


My idea was that the big guard unit with 12 stands plus 6 tanks will be to hard to kill, so I should go for a blitzkreig and on other objective. But I almost immediately forgot about this and started attacking them!

Here is the initial set up, I had Guardians in the woods on the top then jet bikes aspect warriors and the big Cobra. The Guard have some Scorpion Tanks that scouted forwards, Valkyries hiding in the woods, titans, the big blog, and the heavy tanks. You can kind of see the objectives, 3 green trucks for the guard, and silver squares for the Eldar. In this game you alternate doing unit activations, and you can risk doing 2 in a row. I brought on my bombers and shot up the light tanks, which withdraw broken, and then the Imperial fighters try to shoot me down with not much effect. I brought in my second plane to pick at the infantry in the woods, who had doubled to drive back my jet bikes, and do a bit of damage. The Imperial titans and super heavy tanks shoot at my Guardians but don't do much. Finally I advanced my Cobra a bit trying to be cautious, a marched my mounted aspect warriors way into the woods to attack the storm troopers from behind. I was assuming I would get to move first on turn 2 due to having a much better strategy rating.

Sadly I somehow list and the Guard for to move first! The storm troopers were not keen to fight a bunch of aspect warriors, so they assaulted my unsupported tank and easily killed it. I decided that revenge was important, so I landed my vampire with another company of aspect warriors and was able to destroy all of the storm troopers and their transport with only 1 loss. But now my guys are landed in a not great spot. I called in my bombers to attack the tanks again and get another hell hound, and my mounted aspect warriors fire their lasers at the big unit as well putting a fair number of blast markers on them. The Guards heavy tanks and titans press forward and put a real hurt on my Guardians, I think they break the formation at this point.

So on to turn 3, time to start getting objectives. I decided it was time for my mounted aspect warrior formation to get some action so they assault the infantry and tanks on the hill. This went decently well for my but not great and I pushed them back with heavy losses, they were broken but still alive! I marched my other unit of aspect warriors to a take and hold objective, and sent my recovered jet bikes way down by the mountain to threaten the other. The imperial fighters flew a sortie but not much effect. The Titans continued to pund my Guardians and the heavy tanks headed back to their blitz objective. So without breaking their spirit I wasn't able to get 2 objectives. It looks like in the picture I also have defend the flag, so maybe we forgot about that or somethign else happened after.

So turn 4 I made a big mistake. I should have assaulted with my aspect warriors, but instead brought in the bombers again and shot up the unit. This game the heavy takes a good option to shoot my mounted aspect warriors so broke and headed back to the river. The fighters, scorpion, and titans then all shot them up and the titans got on that objective to prevent defend the flag. I used my other aspect warriors to kill the scorpion, apparently this was my revenge company hah.

Finally the titans wiped out the aspect warriors, and the heavy tanks broke my jet bikes. I landed my Vampire by the Guards blitz as a bit of a hail mary, it was possible to win if they failed every save, but they did not. I must have moved it by this picture. So we both had the break their spirit objective and that is it. In tie breaker the Guard had slightly more points of stuff alive so they were the winners!

So as noted above I really enjoyed getting a game in of this finally. Inspired by Guerrilla Miniatures Games who had a video for it on their sit. I felt the battle tech unit fit in well and I will likely try to add more. A bit of a tough situation for the Eldar, I would like to change out a few things but they are not in production and nothing really matches them so maybe out of luck on that.

Anyway we will have a new game sometime in the future who knows when, hope you enjoyed this!

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Frostgrave & Epic

Hello Folks,

Another bit of painting done, starting to bog down a bit now if I am honest. I have been working on the terrain for the cemetery, using the GW Garden of Morr set. This is a really nice set but it is taking forever. I decided to get some colors in and paint things rather then just having everything grey which I have seen before. But man there are allot of little things in this set, but getting through it.

Also I didn't have time to set up my booth yesterday, because it was a mad rush to get ready for to days game as you will see, so the pictures are a bit yellow and blurry so bear with me on that.

Garden of Mor:

Here are the first 2 mausoleums, I am happy with how they turned out, but ya took awhile to get done. I will add a few bits of flock as well once I have the set done. I did the statue before so all that is left now is the biggest mausoleum and all the fences, which are big and detailed as well. This set covers up a good portion of a table but allot to do before cangames!

Skeleton Mage:

I also got this skeleton mage type guy. I guess he could be an apprentice with the Litch, or a monster. Really I just thought it was a cool model.


Then on Monday I decided that it would be a good idea to try and play a game of Epic today. So that meant I had to get some more stuff done to bring up the Imperial Guard to a playable level. I hit on the idea of using some Battletech models that I have had to proky and fill in. Plus I got a few tanks in the mail on Monday.

Big Tanks:

I forget what these were called, but they are a big tank with a huge gun, so I decided they would be Shadowsowrd super heavy tanks so hunt down big things. I painted the gun red so it is meant to be some kind of giant glowing plasma blast cannon or maybe a giant heat ray.

Scorpion Light Tanks:

Also did a pair of these little guys, I already had 2 painted. These are basically going to be sentinels, but I am going to modify the stats a bit to make them tanks and not walkers.

Fighters:

A couple of fighters, again I don't remember the real name but they will stand in as thunderbolt fighters. Need to bring some air support into the battle. I am quite fond of these.

Leman Russ Demolisher Tanks:

Now some real epic models. One thing that really stands out is how many weapons they have. The other tanks have a main gun and maybe a machine gun. These 40k tanks have a main gun, 2 plasma cannons, and a lascannon. Bit of a different aesthetic.

Hellhound Tanks:

Finally I have a set of Hellhound tanks, some big flamers to bring the pain. I think these are from a different version of Epic maybe as I think they are meant to be smaller but they are bigger.

I sprayed all these tanks and planes Monday, and painted them all yesterday, so as you can see that is allot for one day. But now I can do a pair of 2125 point forces to try out a game. I like the look of the Battletech stuff so might have to pick up a few more over the summer maybe. Would be fun to get some helicopters and boats and stuff.

Pledge Status 2016:
Bought: 173 
Painted: 144
Total: -29  

Thanks;
Mike

Just for fun here is a quick shot of the forces for today.

Blight Town - Playtest 3

So another Wednesday gaming day to report on. Went for Frostgrave again, another play test for scenario 2, looting Blight Town. It was mostly the same but the trolls were a bit more dangerous, Hoggar had strength now and kept moving up, and the other Troll could throw a rock.

I think the arrangement of the torches was a bit worse this time, so that is something to be careful of.

I set up my guys in the usual fashion to rush forward, and the elementalist crammed them all together.

Turn 1 mostly has people moving up getting close to treasures. I have my Templar back now so I am hoping he will do some damage! I sent my apprentice and some theifs up high to grab a treasure and run some interference. My apprentice used push to knock an enemy theif away from my treasure.

I lost a few guys to fire balls but then the real fight got going as the Plague Cultists were engaged. The crossbow guys are not really pulling their weight at this time if I am honest.

Close up of some action, my theif jumped into combat with the demonic apprentice who always passes his rolls. I am not certain if you can fall into base contact but we allowed it, no actino to fight thou as falling ends your turn.

Then the Templar and the Knight square off to see who is the most holy. This fight pretty much lasts the rest of the game hah. They both have magic items to boot.

Of course the Trolls are due to show up and start mashing people, which they do mostly. I am down a few guys at this point, so mainly trying to limp away with a few treasures.

The Bog Troll is having a good time killing guys, but Hoggar seems to have run into some problems. He took a big hit from elemental bolt, and then got killed in combat by the demon apprentice! I started moving up my wizard deciding that he would now have to go for a treasure himself.

Meanwhile the Knight and Templar continue to have a chat.

In the end my Templar won out, and my Wizard got his hands on some loot, so that was not bad. My guys all passed their rolls to not die and I ended up with 3 treasures, so learned some new spells. Slippery Pete was upgraded to a treasure hunter. The elementalists Knight ended up with a bad wound so will miss a game, but got 4 treasures so hired on a second Knight and fired a thug.

I am happy that the board set up and scenarios are working well, so we will probably take a bit of a break now until I can get my second table running. Assuming that I ever do!

My main concern for Cangames is how long games are talking. It seems like you are looking at around 2 hours for a game by the time all the out of game stuff is done, so I think we may have to scale back from 3 scenarios to 2 scenario per table. That is something to think about. But if we do that and play in both slots people can do the campaign for 2 different tables, or move around mroe if they choose. I still really like the idea of having 3 or 4 really different est up thou and people can choose where to explore and find some fun stuff, so some special treasures are definitely called for.

Might be an idea to have my second table as a bit more co-operative also, I am planning to have a look at the new Dark Alchemy book and see what I think.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Frostgrave & Epic Armageddon

Hello Folks,

Well another week or so gone, which means it's time for another painting update. I got a bit more stuff completed for Frostgrave. I also picked up a box of Games Workshop skeletons, because I thought they were nice, to accompany the Skeleton King on my planned second table. Also I decided it was time to take a bit of a diversion from doing fantasy stuff, so I decided to paint something totally different as a change up. I find it important to mix it up now and then.

Apothecary and Man at Arms:

First up there is the Apothecary who can hand out potions, and a Man at Arms, who is tought to kill. The Man at Arms is from the Frostgrave Soldiers kit which I am starting to get a bit bored of painting guys from if I am honest, but still handy to have a few more. The potion man is a metal guy from Northstar and I thought he was pretty cool. I like the backpack of stuff.

Archer & Pyromancer:

Next up is an archer, pretty standard stuff. The Pyromancer was Kevin's idea, it is based on the pyromancers from Dark Souls which have a glowing fire glove that shoots fire balls. So I painted his glove with red and orange. I thought it was kind of funny, he probably will just be a normal old cultist thou.

Ice Crystals:

A few more terrain bits. I got these from Fandom they are just blues bones crystals. But I based them and tossed on some white edge highlights which makes them look a bit better. Give things a bit of a magical ice place feel. They were easy and cheap so I might get more stuff like that I dunno. I really need to get going on the main items for table 2!

Storm Troopers:

Well as previously discussed I decided it was time for a small mix up. This time I decided that 6mm Sci-Fi was the opposite of 28mm Fantasy models. Also I have watched a couple of battle reports of Epic games on the Guerrilla Miniatures Games you tube sight, so I was thinking it would be fun to play Epic Armageddon again. I have had this blister of Storm Troopers sitting unopened in my bitz box for literally 10 years! I got them when I was on my work term in Scotland. Sadly the Valkyrie transports were open and in the same place, so some parts have been lost. But since they are no longer available I decided to just paint them anyway, the 2 complete ones give the idea anyway.

Imperial Guard Infantry Company:

I had fun painting the Storm Troopers so decided to do another one. These are from the old plastic set. The Storm Troopers are the fancy guys and these are the grunts. Luckily these are all one piece models so no parts could be missing! 12 bases plus a command stand, and a couple of commissar bases in the back ground.

Sadly this is all the Epic models I randomly had in my bitz box. The rest I left back home in Newfoundland (but I sent for them). Well I also have the lower half of 4 sentinels glued to pennies, but the upper halfs are all lost. I think an army will be possible when I get the rest of the stuff, I forget how much is painted thou, and I have my old Eldar army here and that is fully painted. So I think there will be an Epic game coming some time.

I may have ordered some non-GW 6mm sci fi stuff as well...

Pledge Status 2016:
Bought: 171 
Painted: 136 (Only counting the 6mm stuff as 0.5 pts per base)
Total: -35  

Thanks;
Mike

(Frostgrave) Blight Town - Play Test 2

Hello All,

Time for a report on the second mission for Blight Town. Serge is on vacation down in the states this week, but I was able to find another victim so work continues. Thanks to Kevin for helping me try it out!

As before here is a copy of the scenario that is being worked on.

Looting Blight Town!

Set-Up

Terrain is pre-set. Place the 2 baggage terrain elements in the centre of the board, this contains 4 treasures. Place 4 Plague Cultists in contact with the hoard, one facing each table edge.  Players then place 1 treasure token each, 11” from edges and 6” from each other. Treasures must be placed on the walkways and not in the swamp. The hoard should not start illuminated by a torch.

Special Rules

The Plague Cultists do not follow the normal rules for creatures. Instead they remain standing by the cart, and will not move except to force combat, or to manoeuvre into combat with someone in base contact with the hoard. A Plague Cultist will always move and attack the closest figure touching the hoard. If a Plague Cultist wins combat they will always push back the opposing figure, and will not take a second action if one is available.

The Plague Cultists are delaying for time. Keep track of the number of turns that have passed, during the creature phase of the third turn Hoggar and 1 Bog Troll will enter the board from the centre of a non-player edge. In a 4 player game they enter from corners. Roll to see where Hoggar enters and place the Troll on the opposite edge. They act as normal with the exception that they will always wander towards the hoard.

Blight Town is covered in a murky swamp haze. Line of sight is limited to 12”, but models additionally have line of sight to the area within 3” of a torch.

While in the swamp areas of the map models suffer from the ‘wounded’ state.

The high platforms may be accessed only by ladders, models may not climb posts. The lower level platforms may be climbed at the cost of 1 movement action.

Torches and ladders may be affected by the telekinesis and push spells (Fight 0), but the distance moved is halved.

Add an additional Bog Troll and 2 additional Cultists for each additional player above 2.

Treasure and Experience

Death Cultists and the Troll have bounties of 10 Gold and Hoggar has a 20 Gold bounty. Do not roll for random monsters in this scenario.

Monster

M

F

S

A

W

H

Notes

Plague Cultist

4

+2

+2

11

+0

10

Bog Troll

4

+4

0

14

+2

16

Large Weapon (2 Handed), Throw Rock (Range 10” Dmg +2)

Hoggar

4

+4

0

14

+2

16

Large Weapon (2 Handed)

Spell Caster

Bounty (20GC)

Hoggar AI

1

Enemy visible within 4" Move Attack

2

Enemy Visible within 6" Charge

3

enemy visible outside 6" Poison Dart or Curse if Target Poisoned, and move 4”

4

No enemy visible Wander 4" cast Curse if enemy visible, else Strength and move 4”

Blight Town Treasure Table

Spell Fey Light

d20 Roll

Treasure

Purchase Price

Illusionist

1–4

1 Potion

200gc

Range: Sight

5–8

2 Potions

300gc

Cast: 10

9–12

3 Potions

250gc

Place a light source token, this operates as per the Blight Town Torch

13–16

Bog Shoes

250gc

Rules, note this may not be useful in other locals.

17–20

Grimoire: Fey Light

250gc

Bog Shoes

A model with these shoes is not affected by bog terrain.

We found that Hoggar should keep moving as he casts spells so that was added, and the Troll was given the ability to throw his rock. We found the regular Troll was the more threatening, as Hoggar tended to get stuck doing not much, so it was felt that the AI should be adjusted.


So on to the battle report:

So here we are on the first turn, my Enchanter and his guys are facing off against a bunch of Ratmen! I decided to use the new Wizard models I had just painted, because why not. So I put my Wizard and a few guys in the center, 2 thugs to fight for treasure and a crossbow man for overwatch, my apprentice and some theifs to run for the high up treasure, and a couple of theifs on the bottomw to flank around. The Rats more or less charge straight in.

I got my apprentice to give the bear a big push and sent him packing, this oddly started to become my favorite spell.

This is the end of the first round, everyone has moved up for position getting ready to attack.

Round 2 the rats surge towards the middle to start fighting the cultists.

I was able to kill the bear with crossbow bolts, and jumped my wizard to get in on the action a bit. But my guys have started dieing, so that is not great.

Turn 3 the scrum got going for real. My thief made it to a treasure way up top, and a rat man is escaping with his. All kinds of fight going on around the hoard, and my heroic thief Slippery Pete, first of his name is battling against a ratman treasure hunter, a ratman infantry man, and a troll is giving him looks.

Turn 4 ended now, allot of people on the main platform have died, including ym wizard! But my aprentice and her pals are limping off with some treasure. Meanwhile Sipppery Pete stands firm against 2 Ratmen and a Troll! The Rat Captain has jump accross and started a fight with my Crossbow guy, and a battle for the hoard continues, but the plague cultists are getting killed.

And the final result. Slipper Pete went on to kill both of the Ratmen he was fighting, but his wounds were to great to also kill the Troll, who went on to mash another Rat. My Apprentice was able to survive and pushed the theif with treasure off the table so I got one, and the Ratmen managed to get 2, 1 from the hoard, and all the bounties for killing the cultists.

I thought this mission was good fun with lots of fighting going on, and the Trolls showing up to put a good fear in people. Still working to tweak the monsters and their AI, and I want to have a nice table of flavorful special treasures. The last mission is going to involve defeating the chaos witch Quelaag but still have to work on that business. I guess it will be a bit like a mini-litch fight.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting Frostgrave - Part 3

Hello Folks,

Time for another painting update. This time I have a bunch of Frostgrave soldiers that have been finished off. Working to get stuff ready for cangames, my idea is to have a table of soldiers each with a card of stats and people can choose what they want to quickly make a warband. Wizards will work the same with pre-selected spells.

Anyway here are some guys I painted.

Illusionist and Apprentice:

These are bones models so they don't paint up that perfect if I am honest, but they are not to bad. I felt like they made a good pair so I felt like painting them for whatever reason. Went with bright colors for a change as the book says Illusionist use bright colors!

Crossbow Men:

Next up a pair of crossbow guys, from the Frostgrave plastic set. I need these for my current warband, but also want them for Cangames. I am trying to get a good selection of soldiers. They turned ok pretty cool, but I think for the next set I will change out the blue for some other color.

Infantry Men:

Then I have a pair of guys with 2 handed weapons. I quite like the halberd guy, but the huge sword I am not as keen on.

Theif:

Lastly there is the theif. I am quite fond of the lantern & pointing arms and the wrinkly face so I put them all together. This guy just wants to grab some loot and be gone.

Cultist Theifs:

Then I decided it was time for a change so I decided to try out a sprue from the Cultist box. These guys are way easier to paint as they don't have layers of clothers and leather everywhere. Also I think they look cool. Not sure if they will be soldiers to hire or monsters. Maybe some of both / depends on how many soldiers I get. Note the point arm from the other box hah.

Cultist Thugs:

This pair were much less successful if I am honest, in particular the chain guy is doing a mummy walk. But theifs and thugs are the bread and butter of Frostgrave so I figure you need allot.

Cultist Infantryman:

Lastly a cultist with a 2 handed weapon. Just a big club to smack people with. I am mostly keeping to the cheaper end of soldiers with these plastic sets, my intention is to use some more unique models for the fancier types, but we will see. I have more wizards and an apothecary on the way now.

Spider Swarms:

Finally for today are the spider swarms, more bones models. I did these mainly because I thought the rat piles were so cool, but they turned out kinda lame. Only took a few minuets thou so no big loss.

Pledge Status 2016:
Bought: 155 
Painted: 116 
Total: -39 (getting there) 

Thanks;
Mike