Painting Update

Hello Folks,

No gaming this week but thought I would toss up a small painting update. I did a few more Necrons over the weekend, thought I would do something easy to get the ball rolling again after the cangames rush.

Necron Warriors:

First up the last 4 Necron Warriors. The come in sets of 12 but I only did 8 of the second lot. So thought I would finish that up.

The Deceiver:

Then I painted the deceiver. I didn't want to mess around with fine cast so I found an old metal one on Ebay. I thought it would be a nightmare to assemble but turned out not to bad. I think the base should be bigger but this is the size he came with and I never had any bigger ones.

Not a big update but a few shiny gold guys to look at anyway! Have a few more of these to do. After that I think I will do a few more spies. I have an itching to finally play 7TV.

Pledge Status, 2018:

Bought: 108 got a few French Team Yankee tanks
Painted: 115
Total: -7

Thanks;

Mike

Battle Report - Saga Age of Magic

Hello All,

This past weekend I got a chance to try out another game of Age of Magic with Duncan. I wanted to use my Lhorne guys again do I went for an Other World army  to fight the undead.

I took:

Aspiring Deathbringer (Warlord)
Demon Prince (Behemoth)
Slaughter Priest (Sorceror)
10 Blood Warriors (Hearthguard)
3 Wrath-Mongers (Bipedal Creatures)
8 Demons (Warriors)

Now that I am adding this up I realize this is only 7 points not 8, so that is a big mistake! We also made an error on how the horse attack ability works for the undead giving the zombies to many attacks sometimes.

We rolled for a mission in book of battles and got:

Bleak Moor (normal terrain)
Refused Flank (plat on short edges)
Unknown Length (roll at end of turn 5 to see if there is a 6th)
A dash of nostalgia (warlords get 2 saga dice)
Carnage (victory points by survival)

Here is the set up. I split my force with the elites on the left of the forest, and the rest on the right.

Not much movement for undead turn 1 but they gave the little demons nightmares.

I moved up to get ready for carnage. Leading with the demon prince. Who charged the zombies.

Next turn the undead made it their goal to kill the prince. First some skeletons then the ghost all charged him. Both taking heavy damage especially the ghosts.

I finished the ghosts by casting a spell. Moved up the small demons who avoided nightmares, and killed the skeletons. Going well so far.

The undead countered with the zombies and killed a hearthgusrd unit. I think this was the only time the extra dice for the horse mattered.

Anyway I felt like I had few units and dice left so time decisive action. The death bringer charged the zombies alone. He killed a disappointing amount and they swarmed him next turn

Not looking good.

I played turn 5 hoping for no turn 6. So I charged the last hearthguard and the creatures. They both did alright.

But there was a turn 6 and khorne got wiped out.

Was a fun game, I like the fantasy saga. Still figuring out the factions. It seems clear that counting points is important and you cant leave units at home!

Thanks;
Mike

Cangames Report - Part 2

Hello All,

On to the second part of Cangames coverage, this one is for the games I didn't organize.

Cruel Seas:

First up is good Duncan's cruel seas game, I was only really supposed to help out but admirably took over a bit.

In this game 2 well escorted convoys are meeting in the English channel. The Germans are escorting a damaged U-Boat, and the Brits have a liberty ship and merchant tanker. These are the target ships both sides need to sink.

Lots of British, but you can see an E boat coming from the side.

Full table view, you can see the U boat in the far corner, sailing along the senic white cliffs of Dover.

Bug scrum of torpedo boats in the middle, lots of boats sunk.

In the end not so much as a shot was fired at any if the target vessels so we had a real draw.

This game went pretty well, everyone enjoyed it. Maybe we had a bit to many ships/people for the bolt action dice bag act7vation  but it was fine.


Louisberg:

Lastly I played in Ed's Louisberg scenario. I'm on the English side so our job is to take the city, as Amherst my job specifically is to take the King's bastion.

Here's a shot of the center and right sections. The king bastion is on the right with the governor's mansion and garden party.

Artillery phase over  time to advance. John managed to open the weak point so good for us. My guys are advancing and start shooting up the French on the walls.

Closing in on the walls. I tried some early assaults but found out it's better to do some shooting  first.

Less defenders now time for action.

In the end we were able to take all 3 of our objectives so it was a pretty successful assault for Amherst!

Overall it was a fun game, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Just look how happy even losing makes Bruce!

Thanks;
Mike

Cangames Report - Part 1

Hello Folks,

Time for the traditional cangames posts. I was involved in 4 games this year so I figure 2 posts should cover it. I guess part 1 will be my games and part 2 others games.

Saga Age of Magic:

On Friday afternoon I organized some games of the new saga rules. Mainly to try it out and see what we think. I brought in some extra armies as well encase some new people wanted to give it a go. In the end there was 5 of us so we got try out a couple of single player games and a big melee.

Here's the happy summer table I brought with undead facing orcs and goblins from the 80s!

Duncans table with Roman's facing hordes.

Tods tablecwith the big melee in action. Goal was to capture the house of victory, and have troops survive. Kind of k8ng of the hill.

Tod insulted the dignity of the Empire of Newfoundland, one of the example fantasy kingdoms in the book, so I had my big meat me smash his warlord.

Sadly all my troops were killed, but that is all in accordance with the blood gods plan. Undead where the clear winner, have by far the most guys left and the house.

In the end age of magic seemed fun, have a few new warbands in the ideas phase now for sure!

Avalon Pensula Campaign:

The other game I ran was s muskets and tomahawks scenario for the siege of Carbonesr Island in 1697. This was a small simple fight but with lots of fun stuff.

Here's is the set up. French are in the ship and boats, they have to take the island to complete their burning of every English settlement around the bay.

First vollies crack out as the ship sails.

French and Indians in boats approaching the beach, and they fire off a volley.

Getting close to soil!

The cards give the natives a burst of initiative and they charge the defenders.

Slowly pushing back the defenders.

A final whiff of grape shot from the cannon does some damage, but to little to late. Next turn the English surrender the island.

I thought this went pretty well, but maybe was a bit fast. My games often are. I feel like I should have had another unit of English sailors to defend and maybe a bigger island, but I am happy with how it went.

I would like to do some more Avalon games, and some with Peter Easton. I'm also tempted to get some of the new blacknppwder French and Indian war stuff that is coming out. If they had some plastics I would for sure, but the ranges are all metal and not that great in my opinion so that is s hold back.

Any way those are the games I ran, the other games to follow tomorrow! Be sure to le me know what you think!

Thanks;
Mike

Painting Update!

Hello Folks,

Time for another overdue painting update. I decided I had to get this out before Cangames coverage which is coming. Mainly the last stuff needed to run my game, some of witch got done at the last minute.

French Militia:

Last unit fir the French. On to the brave defenders.

Artillery:

These were some of the last guys unpainted, but a few sailors and a cannon. I need to do some more sailors at some point. The front and center one is the free lady pirate.

English Militia and Captain:

Some regular type troops, and their leader.

Indian Canoes:

Some boats for the natives, these are from the Huron iroquois wars kickstarter awhile back.

Longboat:

Very nice resin model  single piece.

Frigate:

The main ship, very nice model. Pretty much just 1 big piece so very solid. Was actually really easy to assemble and paint. I could see myself wainting to do another smaller ship.

Carbonear Island:

Of course main event is the island.

Ruins:

I also painted a bunch of ruins from GW to add another fantasy table. I'm not sure how many are in the box, and they were crazy fast to do so I will leave them out of the count.

Armed Trawler:

Lastly I painted another ship for Duncans cruel seas game.

So that's the painting, cangames coverage to follow.

Pledge Status, 2018:

Bought: 95
Painted: 110
Total: -15

Thanks;

Mike

Battle Report - SAGA

Hello All,

This past Saturday i had the chance to do a quick game of Saga with Duncan, and get some more work done on terrain for Cangames.

Age of Magic had still not arrived, but I was in the mood for some fantasy so I took some Rohan guys and called the Saxons!

We did the random mission generator and got:

Marshy country
Vanguard
Until dusk
A good day to die
Sacrifice

Basically murder in a swamp. Facing Frank's with their Emperor.

Here is the set up, a couple of big units of warriors flanking archers in a swamp, with mounted and king Theoden off to the left. Facing down the household cavalry and there buds.

Turn 1 Frank's move up and a bit of shooting.

I advance a bit and charge the levy, which goes very poorly and all but 1 knight die.

Next turn he gets killed by javelins and the household charge Eowyns unit. They get beat up real bad but kill a couple of the household. This puts me in an awkward spot thou done to 4 saga duce already!

I tried to change the flow by assisting the emperor with my other big unit of warriors. But this plan narrowly failed sadly.

The household crush my unit taking a few casualties. Not good.

I decide the rest is up to the archers so fall back and shoot them. But not hugely effective.

Oh great the household ar coming. But it warriors who charge, the levy in the swamp actually do really well.

I move u9 my knights to get in the fight

In the end allot of stuff is dead, only 1 household member remains. But the Frank's are up by around 5 massacre points so it is a win for them.

Was a fun game, really look forward to trying to age of magic. That will start in Friday!

Thanks;
Mike