This Year I have Mostly been Painting....

So as it is coming to the end of the year, it seems that that the done thing on Blogland is to have a wee look back at the year. 

I thought I would start this with a look back at what painting I have completed n 2013. No photos I'm afraid as I don't really have anywhere to take decent photos.

So this year, in no articular order I have painted:

1 LOTR Uruk Hai Battering Ram
1 LOTR Uruk Hai Seige Ballista
26 LOTR Moria Goblins
1 LOTR Cave Troll
2 LOTR Nazguls on Fell Beasts
24 Musketeer Late Roman Unarmoured Infantry
4 Musketeer Saxon Slingers
4 Musketeer Saxon Archers
6 Musketeer Late Roman Late Cavalry (3 Javelin and 3 Archers)
8 Musketeer Late Roman Armoured Cavalry
8 Musketeer Late Roman Cataphracts
6 Late Roman Saxon Characters (all the named ones from the range)
4 Judge  Dredd Miniatures
LOTR Mines of Moria Terrains set.
10 WHFB Dark Elf Harpies
10 WHFB 6th Edition Dark Elf Black Guard
1 WHFB Dark Elf Cauldron of Blood
6 15mm Niksphorian Byzantines (as a test for a future project)
2 Beastmen Chaos Hounds for Mordheim
1 Beastman GOR for Mordheim

So that is 21 cavalry, 2 large flying beasties, 101 Infantry, a few bits of terrain, one large infantry model and some war machines.  That is not a bad haul for a years painting.  

 The best thing about this is that the painting has all been very focussed. I have managed to complete a number of projects, and the rest have all been in the advancement of existing projects.

All the musketeer miniatures have been painted to complete the Impetus Late Roman Army and for Dux Brittaniarum.  I now have about 600 points of Late Romans for Impetus and enough models to supply both sides for an occasional game if Dux Britaniarum.  I now consider the Late Romans finished (hooray!!) and don't really feel the need to paint any more.  I still have all the Arthurian characters waiting to get painted and a few other bits and pieces but as I have enough painted just now I can happily wait until I am in the mood.

The LOTR Uruk Hai were done so that I could run Helms Deep, and the Nazgul on Winged Beast were done so I could try out a few scenarios, which we managed to do.  The Moria Goblins were painted as part of the next phase of my Lord of the Rings project, which is put all the pieces together to do most of the Scenarios involving the Fellowship.

The few Beastmen were done as part of the clubs ongoing Mordheim campaign and were needed as my warband expanded.

The Judge Dredd miniatures were painted for a friend and were the only display quality miniatures that I have managed to paint all year.

Having a focused painting plan is very rewarding as you can see definite progress being made, and completing and progressing projects is a great motivator to get more done.  I usually plan and purchase my painting a year in advance, and next year is already looking pretty full.

So far I have planned:

5 Lovely dark Ages buildings from Grand Manner

Finish some simple terrain to represent the wall of Balins Tomb and the Bridge of Kazad Dum

Acquire and paint a Balrog!

Put together and paint the Amon Hen kit that has sat in the loft for the last 7 years!

Paint enough Uruk Hai scouts to make a decent fight for the Fellowship (that will need to be a lot!)

That is probably more than enough for the first 6 months. To top that off I bought into the recent Aliens vs Predator kickstarter, and that should(!) be delivered in May.  I would also like to paint a few more display quality models as well.

I am also eyeing up a 15mm Field of Glory army, probably from the wonderful Legio Heroica range. My taste in gaming is as always dictated by the ranges of miniatures that I like rather than any particular interest in any period.  Wargaming is about being sociable and having an excuse to get the models that I have been painting on the table.

All this on top of a very busy cycling schedule, and an attempt to sell our house and buy a new one so next year is looking like a busy one!

A Hard Won Victory...or not!

Game six of the clubs Mordheim campaign rolled around and I was feeling pretty good about it.  Mordheim is one of my favourite games and this campaign has been quite successful for my Beastmen, with two victories under their belt and fairly minimal casualties as well.

There are 5 regular players in this:

My beastmen
Rory's Kislevites
Andy's Sisters of Sigmar
Dave's Marienburgers
Ian's Reiklanders

So far in the campaign Dave has been forced to retire his original warband due to losses and Ian has had to miss a few games. Andy, Rory and I have been present at every game and are probably on fairly  even footing in terms of the power levels of our warbands.

The scenario was straight treasure hunt, in a ruined village.  In addition to this as I had manage to 'mislay' the Amulet of Alex in the last game it was also up for grabs.  There were 6 treasure tokens on the board and we each had to grab as many as we could, with one secretly being designated as the missing Amulet.

The ruined town, peaceful for now!

My Beastmen, waiting to get stuck in.

 Once again we decided on random deployment, with Ian and Rory deploying quite closely to each other, almost side by side. Dave was at the far end of the table. Andy was quite lucky and managed to get in the middle of one of the long edges, opposite Ian and Rory and most importantly of all within easy distance of three of the six treasures. I ended up deployed at the far end of the table, well away from the action.

Deployment, just slightly out of the action.

Early game saw an instant start to hostilities between Rory and Ian, who pretty much laid into each other right form the first turn.  This pretty much went on for most of the game, with Ian eventually coming of worse and being the first to exit the game.  Andy quickly took up some high ground in the middle of the board and secured three of the treasures, including the missing amulet.

Kislevites advance

Sisters take up a commanding position in the middle of the battlefield

Early game, you can just see my Beastmen at the far end of the battle.

Dave's Marienburgers also took up a commanding position at one end of he battlefield and advanced towards the Sisters of Sigmar in an effort to try and secure some treasure, which they managed pretty much without anyone noticing.  

My trusty Centigor failed his drunkenness test for the first two turns of the game, basically stopping me from getting very far, but I still managed to secure one of the treasure tokens.  

Mid game saw Dave and Andy fight for possession of the treasures, with neither side gaining much of an upper hand.  Rory tried to consolidate his position after seeing of Ian and started heading towards the centre of the table.  My Beastmen advanced up the table as best they could, taking full advantage of the large amount of cover available.

Sneaking up the board.

Hiding behind every wall.

Still sneaking and hiding.

More sneaking and hiding.

Towards the end of the game I was finally starting to get close to the action when Andy decided to withdraw towards the other end of the table.  Just as I was getting close to the enemy Dave and Andy decided that they had had enough and left the table, leaving only Rory and I in contention.

Finally getting ready for the big charge.

Come back you cowards!

Rory's Kislevites and I then faced off. The only die I had rolled all game was the drunkenness test for my Centigor so I was keen to get stuck in. Rory was one model away from break point so took up a defencive position in readiness.  I managed to get pretty close to him and launched the first wave of my assault, consisting of the chaos hounds and the centigor.  That was less than impressive so in went wave two, but as soon as Rory had enough casualties to allow him he decided enough was enough and legged it, leaving my Beastment victorious!

Kislevites looking a bit nervous.

The Beastmen finally get stuck in!

So victory number three for my Beastment, although not through any effort on my part. Man of the match had to go to Andy as he managed to make off with half the treasure. In the end I lost one Chaos Hound and managed to some pretty decent advances on some of my Heroes.  More of a filler game for me, with not much going on and a chance for wounded to recover and funds to be restored.  With the campaign now past the half way mark the prospect of purchasing a Minotaur are looking pretty remote. How much use he would be this late in the campaign is debatable, but it would still be nice to get him anyway just so I can paint one up!

Game seven in the January. I cannot wait!

Church Raid

No games for the last couple of weeks so there have not been any updates.

This was my second game of Dux Britaniarum and was a follow up to my game against Dave a few months ago.  This would follow my Saxon Lords raids into the English kingdom of Caer Colun, located on the Saxon Shore on the East Coast of England.

We rolled for the random Raid scenario and I ended up trying to rob an English church. In Dux B most of the various details of the scenarios are generated randomly.  As it turned out the church was located at the far end of the 6x4foot table, with just over half the English defenders arriving mid way up the opposite long edge of the table.  I was lucky and my force managed three full turns of movement before the game started proper.

Early game I sent a unit of Hearthguard and a unit of warriors towards the church to start searching for the loot, while the rest of my force, commanded by my Lord and one of his nobles took position on a hill in a n attempt to keep the English away and buy some time for the church to be ransacked.

The Saxon raiders

One group make for the church, although they forgot their glasses!

Saxons take the hill, ready to stall the English

Two lines of English, good warriors to the front, Levies huddling at the rear.

The English advanced in two lines, with the front consisting of the main warriors and elites, and a second shieldwall of Levies reluctantly forming a second line.

The Saxons reached the church quite quickly and started to look for the loot and it was not long before the two forces clashed on the hill.  The initial combats went the way of the English, with some excellent dice rolling from Dave and some clever use of the Fate Card deck meaning that my Saxon force was depleted very quickly, due to a lot of kills.

Luckily my two units of elite managed to salvage the centre and it quickly became a war of attrition. After three turns I decided to give up the looting of the church as I was running short of men and the group that was in the church came out to join the fight.

The initial clash of warriors. the Saxons came of very badly from this!

Elites take advantage of the poor manoeuverability of the shieldwall.

Running out of troops!

Saxon Lord runs out of troops and decides to make a run for it!

The game went right down to the wire and I eventually managed to break Dave's forces, but I only had one point of moral left myself. The main difference was that I had chased of a large chunk of his force through accumulation of shock, whereas I had had a lot of men killed.  

In the end I only managed a narrow victory, mainly thanks to the extreme amount of casualties I had suffered, while not managing to inflict many in return.

Post game discussion turned to the scenario itself. We both agreed that while we liked the raid scenarios there was not really much point in trying to actually complete them. The chances of them being successful were quite slim and the Saxon forces were strong enough at this stage of the game to just take on the English in a head on fight. Of course the risk of this is that casualties can become a problem. I was lucky in this game as I rolled very high for my initial roll and had a moral of 8 against Dave's five. Otherwise it would have been a disastrous day for the Saxons. Perhaps there needs to be more incentive ot actually try and complete the raid propoerly, although some of them look very dificult to complete!

I still had a good time and am keen to play again, but I don't think that it will be a game that I play a lot of. Perhaps 2-3 times a year.