Longstreet campaign – Game 1 in 1861

So my friend Chris and I have started a campaign of Longstreet. This is a great brigade/divisional level American Civil War (ACW) game by Sam Mustafa. It has a wonderful campaign system as well. This is the second campaign I have had using this system. I’m again playing the rebels/confederates in this. I did ok last time, so we shall see on this one. Note, you can see the blog posts for the first one done nearly 10 years ago here. You can also see moire details about Longstreet there which is a carddriven system which adds some real twists into games. We are both using all my 10mm figs so the pictures and basing will look quite similar in the photo’s.

We started with the standard 1861 forces and took a random and one chosen personality trails. I have a veteran of the Indian wars (so good at scouting) who is also a fire and brimstone preacher… It felt very fitting to call him Nathanial Battersall, so he became my commander. Chris has an abolitionist Mexican war veteran – whose name is still to be decided by him. The first game was a meeting engagement along a road. That is a very fitting first game so we got to it.

Note the campaign is not necessarily won by winning battles – although that helps of course. But EP’s (Epic Points) decide that and those are gained by not only winning battles but also by massive charges (which are not always the most effective battle tactics – but were seen as very heroic and noble at the time) and also successful defenses against charges (which again were highly praised at the time). So it’s really the personal commanders reputation which is important. There is no way for the Rebels to win the war and although they start strong by the end of the war they are struggling in the specific battles.

As we start in different corners of the table the first 6 or more turns were all about movement and position. I decided to use the rough ground to the side of the road on my table edge as a support and spin a round that – trying to make the battle more left to right vs. straight up/down the table. My guns got in front as did my cavalry while the infantry in lines marched to the center of the table.

The Federal troops had something of a similar view and sent their cavalry advancing in a similar manner. They passed the hill on their side of the table and equally seemed ok to have this left to right fight.

Soon though my cavalry had got around the central standing crops and were looking to get into the Federal rear. So their cavalry and guns did an about face and moved back to counter the rebel cavalry. That would put my cavalry at risk when they deployed but for now meant I was in control on that side. I had plans to dismount the rebel cavalry and try to outflank the federal infantry units if I could.

Meanwhile my infantry continued to advance. Even though one unit got a but ahead I decided to try to keep them fairly close together for mutual support.

As the Federal cavalry moved closer I decided caution was the better part of valor and retired my cavalry somewhat and then dismounted them. They were still somewhat ahead of the now wheeling infantry. Meanwhile the federals also moved into line formation extending their lines but also giving them more musket fire. However, this did allow me to have a concentration of units in one area.

The rebels made the first move and started to close into musket range. This is always a big deal in Longstreet as your opponent gets to fire after you move and before you can react, So the units moving into musket range can get them damaged before they do anything unless you are lucky.

Good use of cards by Chris meant that the rebel actions faltered at this point allowing the Federals to gain the initiative. So, the Federals were the first to charge and after first doing some damage with musket fire they charged which gained them 1 EP. This was on the second rank of my rebel infantry units and so broke up the rebel advance a bit. This charge was successful as well cause some damage on the rebel unit. It also forced lithe rebels to fall back – removing the multiple line of troops threat I had been hoping for.

The only rebel success at this stage was against the Federal cavalry. They had got confused inside musket range of my dismounted rebels and my cavalry managed to move up and get several good volleys off at them without any return fire. Soon the Federal cavalry were down to half their original strength. Rather than dismount (or charge when mounted) and face the bad odds they stayed on their horses and retired back. So the rebel cavalry had driven off their opposition!

But soon enough, I had a the great ‘rebel yell’ card and so the whole of my infantry when into combat. The counter charge on the Federal unit when charged first did not go as well as planned and that bounced off. But further up the line I had 2 units against 1. That went much better for the rebels and destroyed half the original unit in a single fight!

The other Federal infantry regiment had moved too far to be involved in these fights though. It started the march towards the Rebel artillery but so far had not been hurt by that.

The Federal guns and muskets though had started to impact all along the rebel lines. This was not yet enough to have a morale impact but casualties had started in the rebel ranks. In the center the Federals again charged several times but this time without enough men to get any EP’s or to get a deciding victory. In fact the one of these attacks was beaten off so well as to give the rebels another EP.

I also turned my central unit in the center towards the remaining 2 federal troops towards my edge of the table. But that takes time, these are big units. To do a full 90 turn takes a couple of turns to change to a good fighting formation. But when done my hope was that it would be enough for a flank attacks when they moved up.

But it was not needed. Soon though another mass charge occurred by the Rebels who-still faced the original union forces. That was after a quick set of shooting to weaken the union forces before hand. This gained my rebels another EP’s and also the victory, as the casualties from all this aggression was enough to make the rest of the Union forces to run.

It was late when the game finished. So we will start the next session with the campaign update for our forces but so far I am winning the EP battle with a score of 6 to 3. But, it is still the early days of the war and these forces have a lot more fighting to so before it ends. Also, the Federals do start a little slower than the Rebels in the campaign.

I hope to continue the game write ups so we all shall see how the campaign turns out!

Sideline report – Snagbottom Snots vs. The Misfits

A quick one here as I was not going to write this up but in the end decided to. This week it was 7’s round in the league. So we each put together a sevens team from the normal rosters, I faced Tim’s Misfits – a good coach playing a developing undead team. For the record I don’t think 7’s is a great format for snotlings. They don’t get many of their big underdog advantages and the large screens of defensive players just do not exist in sevens. So I thought this could be a tough game….

The game started with the Misfit’s star ghoul arguing with a ref and getting kicked out the game at the start of their drive! That put the numbers to 6 vs, 9 for the undead on their drive. That was not a good start for the Undead. The misfits got the ball and pressure from the Snots slowly drove the Misfits back towards their own end zone. But the Snot’s big guys were making ineffective hits – which continued all game. At best they stunned the undead but most times did not even do that.

As the half started to draw to a close the undead moved to the left but were contained by the snots. They then executed a good breakout move with the ball carrying ghoul. He moved over to the right and downfield, But the lone ghoul was swarmed by snotlings and taken down. The only chance of either team scoring left now was a risky thrown snotling attempt. To defend against this the ghoul tried to mark the ball but tripped and ko’ed itself for the rest of the game. The snotlings could not even pick up the ball though, and so that meant there was no scoring in the first half.

The Second half had the undead now defending with 6 vs 8 players on the field. But now the undead hits started to tell – even their 2 die uphill hits worked! They soon started removing snotlings from the field. Meanwhile, the Snagbottoms moved the ball towards the Misfits end zone, pushing the ball on the left hand side of the field. The undead continued to build the pressure though and the player numbers on the field were now in their favor. As the time started to run out the snotlings made a move. They did not have enough players to make a cage for the final push, so the hoppa snotling with the ball decided to make a break for it and head for the end zone. But it was taken down by the undead blitzer and removed from the game. There was a quick scramble for the ball before the undead blitzer caught the bouncing ball and ran towards the snotlings end zone. Fortunately for the Snots though, time was too short and the game ended with the undead blitzer not being able to make their end zone. Meanwhile, the rest of the undead team tried and failed to take some final revenge on the snotling trolls player on the field.

So, the game ended as a scoreless draw. Both teams had their chances but in this tight defensive game, neither could break through the opposition.

So a fun but very challenging game in my view. I will say I was incredibly lucky to get out of this with a draw. First the ejection of the block/dodge star ghoul and the self induced KO of the other before the end of the first half really slowed the undead team. I also very rarely failed a 2+ check, so the trolls/pump wagon were reliable and the titchy dodges worked through the game. But my blocks were not good and Tim’s were successful on nearly all his including 2 die uphill blocks. On the team development scale this game was much better for the undead than the snots, with them doing 4 casualties vs. none for the snotlings. But the key for me is this was not a loss… so onto the next game.

Space Hulk – Genestealers part 1

Something different this week and the start of a new small project. I have had in my possession a copy of Space Hulk for quite a while. I believe it this is actually the 3rd edition box set. I played a lot of the game in the early 90’s. I must admit I have not played it on the table top since that time. However, I did finish the whole thing on the ipad using the iOS version (that was the campaign vs. the app) quite a few years ago.

It’s a great game overall and if you have never heard of it, it is Games Workshops’s homage (or rip-off depending on your view) of the Aliens movie. So I decided it was time to get it all painted up. Below you can see the first models which I have completed – the nasty Genestealers.

I decided to go with the typical Space Hulk colours of light/dark grey for the body and arms with a pink look for the hands and head. It’s simple and works really well on the models. It’s also fairly fast to paint up and gives a great IMO. It gives them a nasty unnatural look. Thats perfect for the game where these are the aliens stalking around and killing the Space Marines in the dark corridors while they try to do their mission.

So there we are. I look forward to getting this on the table soon.

Deadzone – Three small buildings

I have had a few posts recently on games and show reports etc so time for some figures or at least terrain. So, here are 3 small buildings which are aimed for Deadzone or Necormunda style games. These are all from the Deadzone terrain pack but work nicely for game sci-fi game in a poor area really.

You can see the size and layout from the top below. It would be nice to have the roof completely covered and I may do some simple coffee stir sticks etc items to be able to put a roof over the holes as then it would give access but also look even more run down.

Here you can see the size of these buildings compared to a GW figure. I must admit I do like how these have come out. They work well for what they need to be – simple but decent looking terrain for games.

Sideline report – Snagbottom Snots vs. Batty Riders

Well it’s’ the start of a new Blood Bowl season in our local league and this season I decided I would play something a little silly – snotlings. They are not an awful team, just not great one. They have loads of character though and lots of them as well – as they can get extra rookie players for matches. So here is quick write up of this weeks game. They faced a new Vampire team – which are another can be amazing or can be crap team. This round each time got a free wizard for the game.

So here we are at the first game for the new season of the Hogtown league. It’s wizard week and the crowd is more magical than normal, as well as having wizards on the sidelines. The snotling fans filled up the stadium as normal anyway. There was nice weather for the game and although the Snagbottom snots got a boost of lots of extra linemen as players, none of them got on the field for the first drive because of a mix up in the coaches corner. The game clock was already running when the kik off happened was well, reducing the number of turns in this half for both players.

Still, the Snags received the kick which was deep into their end. A single snotling on stilts picked up the ball and rushed back to midfield, to be quickly surrounded by the rest of the team. The Riders had set up a defensive line in front of the Snags trolls and pump wagon which had started to move up the field. The Riders had a couple of vampires in the Snags backfield threatening the back of the cage. It looked like a standard drive but then it all changed…

A Haemomancer (vampire wizard) on the vampires sideline then ‘did their stuff’ and before he knew it the ball carrier had walked out from his screen and stood next to one of the vampires… With sultry eyes the vampire lady then cast her gaze on the poor snotling before a fellow vamp bashed him straight to the injury tent. That vamp then collected the ball but because of bloodlust it had to stay close to this action – and stunned one of their own thralls just to sate its need for blood.

The Snags coach was hopping mad at this turn of events – literally bouncing from foot to foot with rage! The first play he had planned had gone disastrously wrong already! Added to this, vampire with the ball was out of range of all the big guys on the Snags team. Things looked bad for them, but the vampire bloodlust had at least given them a chance, as they vampires had had to stay close together vs just running in for the early score…

Snotlings recover the ball after the wizard and bomber take down the vamps

The Snags coach tugged the sleeve of a wizard on his sideline and pointed to the vampires. His directions were heard and the wizard cast a fireball at the group of vampires with the ball. When the smoke cleared the vampire lady with the sultry eyes was out of the game and all but the ball carrier were on their back. Then Bomber Driblesnot (the star player bomber for the Snags) earned his money. He sized up the distance and threw a perfect bomb set with a short fuse – expecting the remaining vampire to catch it. That he did but before the vamp could not do anything with it the bomb exploded stunning the vampire and knocking the ball loose.

The snotlings then rallied back and secured the ball. But their coach was again animate on the side line, He had realized they were running out of time to score in the half. So a hand off the to a hoppa occurred as the Snags moved the ball into midfield. The Riders were now down on players with multiple injuries and KO’s – many caused by their own players. They did work to put up a good defense. With typical snotling slipperiness though the ball was moved to within scoring range and the snotlings set a wide screen of players to try to stop more hits on the ball carrier. They knew they needed their luck vs. the agile vamps. The Riders blitzed a Vampire who ran through the screen to get to hit the ball carrier, but failed again to knock the ball carrier down. That allowed the Snags to score at the last chance for them in the half.

The Snags coach continued to be highly animated though. In the discussions around the ejection of Bomber Briddlesnot the refs had had enough of him. He was also ejected from the game before the end of the half – having to sit in the bar next door for the rest of the game…

The second half started with the Riders receiving the ball. They started to move down the left sideline with it. The Snags reacted and moved to stop this. But, on the right side of the field the Snags troll Big Blue KO’ed himself with a wild block. This opened an opportunity and the vampires on that side and so they moved the ball to that side trying to outpace the slow snotlings. But this move put the protective cage close to the Snags own bomber – who was on the field after the sending off of Driddlesnot. He had obviously been taking notes from the star, and threw a bomb which although did not take the ball carrier down did open up a path for a Troll blitz of him. That worked perfectly and the ball bounced loose just in the Vamps half.

The snotlings now swarmed though the remaining vampires and collected the ball. They knew they could not safely secure it though. That was the case and the Vamps did take the ball carrier down but down, but it fell kindly for the snots and they could not pickup the ball. So, the snots recovered the ball and this time managed to move free . They once again set up with a loose protective screen behind the ball carrier. In a move reminiscent of the first half a ‘heroic’ Vampire blitz tried to stop the snotling going in for the score. He managed to get next to his target before failing a rush and tripping. So that was then 2 to 0 with 4 turns left in the game.

A failed rush allows the snotlings to score a second time

The Riders tried to score to at least get something from the game but without rerolls it was not going to be easy. That was not helped by their thrower fumbling the ball on first pickup. Their move developed well after the initial failure though until a desperate 2 die uphill snotling block on the ball carrying vampire tripped him up. With that, neither side could score and the game soon ended.

The TD saving snotling was the toast of the Snags team drinking party which went on well into the evening. You don’t get much better than that as a snotling lineman – taking down a vampire with the ball! Will he become a key player in the Snags future… well only time and Nuffle will tell.

Well that was a fun game with a lot of die rolls. I have to say really my dice were kind to me….My trolls were very good – causing multiple casualties and rarely going stupid, I did have a few 1’s followed by 1 – the coach argue the call was the notable one, but my dice were good all through the game really. Vampire bloodlust was a major problem for them though, and the dice were generally not as kind to them. That dice luck helped me a lot. That said, the bombers were the stars in both the scoring drives. They stopped the Vampire drives, enabling the snotling rush and screen to work

One thing to note was, in the first half to try to save the score one Vampire blitzed and made an amazing ten 2+ dice rolls in a single move (blood lust then 7 dodges, 2 rush’s) all at 2+. I have never seen a single player have as many rolls in a single move… He nearly did it as well… Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), he had to use 2 rerolls to do that and thus did not have a rerolls for the hit which became all pushes – allowing the snotling hopper to go on and score.

This game lives up to the hype though – a very silly affair over all. Those vamps are nasty though and once they get some skills will be a real challenge.

Hotlead 2024 – ADLG games

I played in the ALDG tournament in Hotlead in Ontario, Canada which was Crusader themed event. I have had a quite a few practice games with various lists to decide what to take to the competition. In the end I took Teutonic Knights, as although I had tried Crusaders (early and late) I found them quite limited. Yes, they could win but many battles ended up a pretty straight forward concept of set up, charge forward and pray for good dice rolls. I like to think I can have a little more influence (even if at times negative) with maneuvering in the results. Oh and my trusting just to luck usually works out badly for me anyway.

I had also tried some Arab lists, but these can come unstuck vs. all the knights and heavy spearmen of the western forces. This is especially true if things go wrong with dice, which often happens for me. So, I did not that good to feel confident in giving that a go…

So in the end my list choice was was Teutonic and built as below, in the 3 commands. This gave a break point of 23. It had 1 solid foot command and 1 terrain foot command, each with some knights to make holes in the opponents lines (with luck). The third command also had a couple of knights but also had some ‘javelin armed mounted troops’ to hopefully delay other forces and then pounce on weak opponents. The list looked as below:

• 1 competent commander, 2 x med impact knights, 3 x javelin med cavalry, 2 x javelin light horse
• 1 competent commander, 2 x elite med impact knights, 3 x med infantry, 2 x heavy spear, 1 x light foot
• 1 competent commander, 2 x elite med impact knights, 4 x heavy spear, 1 x crossbow, 1 x light foot

In the end there were 12 players in the competition, which is a decent number for this area – as ADLG is not big other than in Ottawa. All of the games were against Later Crusader forces but each was quite different. I defended in the plains each time (see what I mean about poor die rolls) and set up with 3 fields, a marsh as my terrain each time. The thought process was fields give some rough for the medium foot to hopefully use but are not so impactful to my cavalry. Meanwhile the marsh is a problem for many of the Crusader period forces – few have many light troops who can cope with the difficult terrain. So that could break up forces and cause problems.

First Game

My first game was vs. Duncan and his Richard the Lionheart (a strategist) list. He had 1 command full of impetuous knights and 2 commands of spears and crossbows (some of the 1/2 and 1/2 types). This stretched all across the table. His knights with supporting light horse faced my main spear command and my mounted faced his spears and bows. The terrain feel so it would not impact much of the central fighting area.

It was not long before the Crusader knight crashed into the spears and knights of the Teutonic line. I had managed to get a light foot around one flank to hopefully help on that side, but limited command meant that did not happen soon enough. The first round of rolls went very poorly for me and this was not a good sign – the slow grind of spear was starting to happen and would continue for the next few turns causing much damage to my army.

On the other side of the table (the left) I had been trying to get my light horse around the flank of the Crusader line,. This was while using the other mounted troops to throw javelins and get involved where they could and then evade from Crusader charges. This ended up not really workin well. Poor pip’s did not help but I think I played this wrong and should have just got stuck in more vs trying to delay that. As it was the Crusader bowmen started to whittle the cohesion of troops away on this flank. They also pinned and killed the light horse removing that threat as well.

I had another round or two of combats, especially one where I rolled poorly and this game was really over at that point. All along the line my troops were in trouble, The Crusader had done enough with their bowmen on the left flank to help add to the attrition as well.

In reality, I did not have a good plan for this battle. I did not know how to tackle and break up the long Crusader battle line. There were few combats where I had the advantage after the Crusader knights charged in – and I lost many of those. My spear line did eventually win on that side against some of those knight on the right flank but it was in the center and left where I lost the game. The medium foot and elite knights died to mediocre spears/bowmen.

Maybe a better plan would have been to delay and try to break up the Crusader line with the field and hill, but I am not sure that would have worked…It would have meant fighting very close to my table edge as well. All that said, it was a loss but I had done a good amount of damage to the Crusaders and they were not far from breaking, so it could have been worse.

Second Game

The second game was again vs later Crusaders with I think again with Richard the Lionheart (the strategist). This army was run by Jeff and he had upgraded the knights to be impact – but only had a few of them. They were all in a single command deployed on his left. He also had a micro command flank march – I had guessed it was small but it turned out to be a single element in the end.

The terrain fell somewhat like the last game but there was a field a little more forward in the center of my deployment zone. Learning from the previous game I decided that I would try to use that to break up the Crusader battle line this time. In the deployment, like the previous game my mounted command faced spear and bowmen vs any mounted.

This time though I wheeled my line on the field to the right and forced the knights to match my line as they charged home, An unfortunate error by me did leave a medium swordsman exposed and able to be charged in the open by a Crusader knight without them moving into the rough! Luckily though, although it was damaged it survived long enough for my forces to get into the fighting with some overlaps. Things were too close though for either side to get on the flanks of fighting until late on in the game.

On the left side of the field (really the center and left of the battle) my medium swordsmen ran out and with the spears and knights of their command took on the central Crusader foot command. This time I had more success with the combats and this started to go my way.

The right was flank was more ‘dinking and ducking’ with the javelin cavalry. I had a little more space than last game and managed to get 1 of the light horse through a field on the side and into the back of the Crusader army. Meanwhile the medium javelin cavalry themselves managed to attack and flank one of the bowmen which had charged forward to disrupt them. So although they were all spilt up from that the javelin mounted unit were having more success than last game.

Soon the Crusader flank march came on this left side as well and supported the now advancing Crusader spear/bowmen engaged the Javelin cavalry. The cavalry had not been able to form a line but at least had been able to face themselves towards the oncoming Crusaders, having run out space to evade any more. This was not looking great for my fore though…

The center of the battle was a different story. The medium swordsmen had taken out mediocre spearmen and the other troops had had some success as well. The loose light horse in the Crusader back field now became vital as well. It charged the Crusader units which were trying to flank the Teutonic knights holding the end my overlapped line. This relived pressure on the Teutonic knights and allowed them to stay in the fight – and even win.

The medium swordsmen had just enough command, time and movement to start to come in and help on the right side where the Crusader Knight vs. Teutonic spearman/knight battle was still going on. It was roughly even with casualties on both side until that happened. But the odds were starting to tip to the Crusaders until those medium swordsmen arrives. They made the difference and soon this flank started to collapse for the Crusaders.

The game was at this point very close, with both of our forces near their break point. I was lucky with my combat rolls in the next turn in the combats of the javelin cavalry facing the spears/bowmen and the light horse on the left flank. A cavalry unit killed the flank march light horse and the others held against the Crusader foot, meaning that the Crusader army broke first. So this was a victory for the Teutons – but only just…

Third Game

So the third game came around and yes – I faced another later Crusader force…This one run by Nick. I think he did not had a strategist but did have a mixture of impact and impetuous knights. He had the most knights I had faced all day – I think 10 in total. This time the terrain fell with fields mostly on the left side and on Nicks side of the table. There was a marsh was in the center of his deployment area. This split his force into the mounted side on the right of the marsh and the foot on the left.

I deployed my mounted and main spear commands to face the open area where I expected the knights to be and was correct. So the spears and knights faced the impetuous charge of the knights while the javelin cavalry (and their knights) would protected the flank of that fight. The javelin cavalry took hits from the Crusader light foot but evaded all the charges and then came back to annoy the Crusaders. Meanwhile my knights held the flank.This had been my plan when facing knights and for the first time (in the last game of the day) it worked!

I was VERY lucky with the combat dice and won every one of the initial fights vs the Crusader knights. I rolled I think at least five 6’s in a row! Nick rolled some 6’s as well but such is luck at times. This was a deciding factor for that engagement. This is just like in the first game but in that one thing did not go well for me in similar circumstances. That really helped in the long run as it allowed the spears to grind down the knights over the next few turns.

On the left in the fields, my medium swordsmen and spearmen with a couple of elite knights took on the Crusader foot. This was about an even match and over the next few turns. There were losses on each side. The Crusaders had an advantage in numbers, but could not really bring them in fast enough to make a difference.

The game was won though in the center with my spears and knights destroying the impetuous Crusader knights they faced. That freed up those troops to move to support the Javelin cavalry who were running out of room to evade. The cavalry they had managed to stay on the table and drew the impetuous knights into fights vs. my knights which now went my way with the added support/flank charges. Some of those central troops also started to move to support the other flank and helped swing those fights as well. So the game was soon over.

That said I had lost a reasonable number of fights on the left and the javelin cavalry had started to come off worse to the Crusader knights who caught them. So the Crusaders had started to make a significant comeback in the game but it was not enough. Their army which had reach their break point. So a nice win for the Teutonics in the end – but a lucky one for sure.

In Conclusion

Well it was a fun event and I really enjoy the games. All my opponents were great and overall the event was very enjoyable and well organized. The first and last game were decided more by terrain setup, deployment and dice as much as tactics in my opinion. That was sort of how I envisioned Later Crusader matchups and so did not bring them. In the end I had the in game effect of facing them 3 times anyway. Oh and yes there were moves and tactics etc but knight vs. knight and knights vs. spears straight forward punch up in a line is always a little luck focused that way. I still think I can get better with the evading cavalry – I did ok but thats an area for me to improve in.

So thanks to one and all for a fun day of gaming. I was very happy with the 2 wins and a loss result – and all three had been fairly close matches in the end.

Hothead 2024

Well another Hotlead convention is over, and it was fun and well organized as normal. It was well attended but felt a little more sociable than last years ‘first back from Covid’ affair to me. Maybe was me but although it was well attended there did not feel to be as many people pushed into the event hall as last year. Thats good though IMO and I diid not ask the official numbers so my feeling may not math actual attendance numbers. There was a verey good number of people in enjoying themselves though and a huge variety of games.

I played in the ADLG tournament and was only there on the Saturday so did not see everything. I was a little late getting there compared to previous years and so I felt a little rushed at times (especially early on). I’ll do a separate post on that competition but the bring and buy was popular and I managed to get rid of a few things – of course replaced by others things I bought both on the bring and buy and also some of the vendors… I was controlled this year compared to some years though.

Below are a few pictures of the various games I looked at. All the games were at a very high level of interaction (all games are participation games at Hotlead) and visual appeal. I just wiiish I could have played in all of them….

I did take quite a bit of time to look around and catch up with friends though so that was great as well.

Late Roman – Supporting Cavalry

A quick post this time. First a couple of simple but very useful bases. These are bow armed medium cavalry for the Roman Army. Most lists do not allow many units of these and they normally would be more Foederati (allied mercenaries) rather than troops raised naturally in Roman control lands. After all mounted bowman-ship takes a lot of practice and skill which was not that commonly used in settled Roman lands.

As these are aimed for a Roman force though I did give them a consistent look with similar shields and cloaks. This allows them to seamlessly fit into the force as needed.

Next are 3 bases of cavalry – but again a little more random than you might expect for mainline Roman troops. Although that is likely more of our expectation on how formal and controlled late Roman armies were than the reality. Still for this it works.

These again are great for a few mercenary troops and can be also morphed into the opposing forces if needed as well. They have a combination of shield styles although more of the oblong ones which does put them into the earlier vs. later period of the first millennium. Still there are a lost of uses I can put these too so they will get on the table top at some point.

So there we are. Simple but effective troops for the Romans.

Blood Bowl – Chaos Chosen Part 2

Just to follow up on the last post, included here are the 8 beast-men from the Chaos Chosen team box. These are the other half to that first post and also have been painted so that I can use the Minotaur which I did last year with the team as well – you see that here if you are interested. I know they now have options like as Troll and Ogre but I do not have models painted for those yet…

So here are the first set of 4 models. I have to say I like the dynamic poses of these models and they painted up ok as well.

Unlike some of the models in these sets you can also vary the poses a little and with the different heads it makes these all look unique enough for my taste. Yes there are still really 2 copies of 4 models but with the different heads they still look different enough to get away with it.

The second set of 4 demonstrate this nicely. You can see model 11 and 12 are the same – just with different heads/horns but thats enough of a difference to make them work. Unique scults would be nice but I know that costs more for Games Workshop.

So finally, here is a picture of the full chosen team. You can see they are all about the same size and do make for a nice team on the table. The 12 players from the set and 2 additional Nurgle ones give a nice number of figs for the team as well. Added to that, as I dislike the Nurgle beastman models, if I play that team to a reasonable level I may well just use these Beastmen figures for the Pestigores as that would work as well.

Blood Bowl – Red Chaos Chosen Part 1

This last weekend I went to my first Blood Bowl tournament in a long time (I think over 12 years). It was in Hamilton (an hour down the road from me) but an easy drive early in the morning. Overall it was great day out. I came 6th out of 12 which I was very happy with that. I took a Nurgle team – not a common team in tournaments I believe, but one which did ok with. The build criteria they had for that tournament was not too bad for them. I won one game, drew one and lost the other 2. In this I managed to ‘kill’ quite a few opposing players and the total in my games had 3 TD’s (2 against me and 1 for me). No reports for those games as it was just too much to play and take photo’s remember all the plays etc. It was a low scoring high injury affair, which also helped me in the rankings with bonus points. I made a couple of mistakes though which may have cost me a win in the draw and/or a draw in one of my losses, but such is life.

Tournament blood bowl is a little different from league and the game in 2 hours which is what we had in this one was a challenge for me. I managed it, (in 3 of the 4 games) but it takes control and focus to get the game done in that time frame. Mistakes happen – as I mentioned above which is a factor as well. Player placement etc is even more the key for success than in league play I find.

In that theme I decided to show some Blood Bowl figs I have been working on. First two are Nurgle plague Pestigors. These were part of the team I used this last weekend. They have a red theme, as they match the rest of the Chaos Chosen team (which I will be showing here) but that also fits in with my Nurgle team as well, as that is muti-coloured with the various colours of player clothing.

I must admit I am not a fan of these models. They are ok but GW could have made them look a little nicer. They are from one of GW’s early kits as well so have limited customization options or differences from each other. Still they do the job and do have that ugly Nurgle look about them.

The pictures I took for this were a little dark, so these after playing with them came out a bit over exposed. That said I think you can get the idea of the models from them.

I painted these up for inclusion in the Chaos Chosen team as well as Nurgle as these models will work well for specialist Beastman models. That can be either if a player gets special skills or act as a journeyman when others get injured. Either way their use will make for a clear visual differentiator for those players. It also gives my team a couple of extra possible reserves above whats in the standard GW box for the Chaos Chosen.

Next we have the ‘hard men’ of the Chaos Chosen team – the strength 4 warriors/blitzers. The models are again OK but not great. I think they are a little bland to be honest for GW chaos figures. They are about same size as the above Pestigors (don’t let the pic fool you) so do not stand out too much as medium big guys. On the team they obviously stand out as they are different to the beastmen though.

There are 2 pairs of identical models. These players are not fast but do have Strength 4 pl and are Move 5 – so are really the same as Orc bigun’s. Their advantage in the team is access to strength skills as well as that raw stat. This means these guys are the line and the backbone of a Chaos Chosen team.

I got this box at a discount (second hand) and decided to paint them as I like the chaos Chosen team – even though I at times find them a hard team to get really working well. The team starts with so few skills that it can be a tough one to get really working well. But the advantage is that adding this to the Nurgle box it allows me to use the models from both boxes to expand either team.

So there we are the 1st half of the Chaos Chosen (with a few extras). I’m not sure what they might be called though at this point if/when I play them. But they are a nice team to have in the wings and an easy team for new players to either use or face when I anm teaching the game to people.