A few undead

As I noted in an earlier post I'm going to run a 4000 a side game of WFB Undead vs Bretonnian. I'm making steady progress which should have everything finished by the end of October including a decent gaming table.  In the meantime here is a couple of shots of some of the more exotic undead I have already painted. I've also painted 60 odd figures from the skeleton horde boxed set but they are pretty bog standard. Easy to paint though!

Grenadier Wraith riding wyvern

Citadel series undead cavalry

Nazgul on winged beast

Games I collected for the artwork

As the title suggests I'm a bit of a collector. That collecting includes purchasing a few games over the years simply for the art. I've actually updated the blog using a pic from one of these - the healer from GWs version of Cosmic Encounter by John Blanche. Now I've found stuff by JB to be a bit hit and miss but I love the Alien cards he did for Cosmic Encounter. Here are a couple of my favourites:

The Assessor would fit me well given my day job with the tax office (I had to admit to that). I haven't assessed anyone for a long time though...

Another favourite of mine because of the JB artwork is Chaos Marauders. The artwork is colourful as one would expect and it has an element of humour that GW no longer seems to have. I'm inspired to paint up a chaos warrior in the same colour scheme as the chaos marauder card!

And I couldn't leave out Warlock - the art might be in black and white but it is absolutely magnificent (even if the photo below isn't...). One shouldn't be surprised though considering it is by Russ Nicholson  who did the internal artwork for the early Fighting Fantasy books which I read back in the day. I also loved the artwork he did for the Warhammer siege articles in White Dwarf. 

Sadly I haven't even played any of these games. But that doesn't stop me drooling over the art every once in a while! 

Test game - some pics

I've finally gotten around to uploading the handful of pics I took of my WFB test game. A bit late I know. I did have a good excuse - honest! I've also summarised the turns (well I did leave out movement) and that summary follows these pics for those who are interested. In respect to that do people find such things interesting - what I've done is a bit bland...Anyway to the pics:

Setup from the chaos side

Set up from the Bretonnian side

Early movements

The first clashes

The hippogriff routs the knights - right off the table!

The forces of chaos avoid the organ gun!

Titanic clash - the Chaos warriors, troll and Chevaliers battle it out

The forces slug it out for control of the centre of the battlefield - sheer numbers won out for the Bretonnians

Turn 1

Chaos went first as they won the initiative. The trolls (inc the sorcerer attached to the unit) failed their stupidity test and as a result wandered around aimlessly. 

The bazooka overshot the knights. The mortar shoot landed smack bang in the middle of the landsknechts killing 8; the landsknechts passed their leadership test and as such held firm. 

The level 2 sorcerer cast two lightning bolts at the foot knights, killing three. The level 3 sorcerer (the contingent commander of the chaos allies) attempted to summon a horde of lesser daemons which failed to appear that turn.

The Bretonnian archers fired at the centaurs but failed to cause any damage. The organ gun also fired at the centaurs killing 3 of them. The centaurs passed their leadership test. The cannon fired at the trolls killing one of them – the troll failed to regenerate.

The level 4 wizard cast a ravine spell under the chaos warriors – 3 warriors, plus the army general, fall into the ravine as do the chaos dwarf swivel gun team. As the army general has been killed in this manner I determined that any unit within 12 inches must take an immediate rout test. The chaos dwarf mortar and bazooka teams passed this whilst the level 2 wizard did not. As a result he routs.

The level 2 wizard casts magic mist onto the remaining warriors. It dissipates at the end of the Bretonnian turn (I rolled a 1 on a D3).

Turn 2

Chaos

The level 2 sorcerer routs off the table; the trolls fail their stupidity test.

The bazooka fires at the foot knights – the shoot deviates and kills 2 knights whilst inflicting two wounds on the level 4 wizard! The mortar fires at the landsknechts again and strikes home killing 5. The unit’s commander suffers 1 wound.

The centaur’s charge the skirmishing bowmen – as the centaurs represent less than ¼ of the unit strength of the bowmen the bowmen do not have to run away – they can stand and fight as is. The centaurs kill all 3 archers that they are in contact with.

The level 3 sorcerer is sucked into the void trying to summon the horde of lesser daemons.

Bretonnian

The archers and centaurs fight out a draw as neither side inflicts any casualties. The Noblees D’Epee charge the minotaurs (leadership test for charging a feared enemy passed) – they kill one and inflict two wounds on a third

Both level 1 wizards launch fire balls at the chaos warriors wounding one of them.

Turn 3

Chaos

The trolls pass their stupidity test; the sorcerer attached to the unit decides to leave it. The trolls charge the Chevaliers – two are killed although one regenerates. That troll subsequently routs!

The Hippogriff charges the Noblees D’Epee and kills the two it is in contact with pushing the unit back; as the Hippogriff is a feared creature this causes and automatic rout and the unit routs off the board! The hippogriff follows as its obligation (1 engagement per a 10 magic point binding) to the hoard has been met.

The Manticore charges the level 4 wizard and kills him.

The chaos knights charge the foot knights but fail to cause any casualties; neither do the foot knights in return

The centaurs cause kill 2 more archers pushing them back. They are forced to take a leadership test and rout; the centaurs kill another 3 archers. 

The mortar fires at the landsknechts killing 5 including the commander! The mortar misses.

The remaining sorcerer launches two fireballs at the Chevaliers, killing 2.

Bretonnian

The archers rout off the board.

The cannon fires at the other unit of chaos warriors killing 2. The organ gun fires one barrel (the only one it has managed to reload) at the minotaurs and kills one.

The Chevaliers kill the remaining troll but again he regenerates!

The knights and chaos warriors exchange blows for no result. 

Two of the three remaining wizards launch fireballs at the mortar and bazooka respectively but fail to cause any damage.

Turn 4

Chaos 

The bazooka hits one of the wizards but fails to do any damage; the mortar misses the retainers.

The sorcerer launches 2 fireballs at the cannon crew killing all three of them. The chaos warriors kill two foot knights whilst losing one of their own. The remaining warrior holds.

Bretonnian 

The Chevaliers charge the chaos warriors – a knight (the standard bearer) and warrior are killed. 

The combat between the foot knights and chaos warrior is a draw. 

One of the wizards hits the mortar crew with a fire ball killing one crew member.

Turn 5

Chaos

The centaurs charge the organ gun crew killing all three for the loss of one wound.

The chaos hounds charge one of the wizards causing two wounds and losing none in return. The wizard fails to cause any damage and is pushed back.

The Chaos warriors kill one of the Chevaliers; the troll charges the Chevaliers killing one. The Chevaliers are forced to take a leadership test due to total casualties – they fail this test and rout away from the warriors and off the table!

The minotaur charges the foot knights who hold – neither party causes any casualties.

Bretonnian

The foot knights and chaos warrior fail to damage each other; same re the knights and the minotaur.

The hounds kill the wizard.

One of the two remaining wizards kills a bazooka team member with a fireball.

Turn 6

Chaos

The chaos warrior is wounded by the foot knight – he fails his leadership test, routs and is killed. The minotaur and knights fail to hit each other.

The chaos hounds charge one of the remaining wizards – neither side causes damage. 

Bretonnian

The landknechts charge the handler of the chaos hounds causing one wound. The chaos hounds and the wizard exchange blows for no damage. The minotaur wounded and pushed back passing rout test.

Turn 7

The centaurs charge the retainers; killing two. The centaurs are pushed back due to the rank and standard bonuses of the retainers. Due to casualties they have already taken they are forced to take a rout test which they fail.

At this stage I called an end to the game as chaos really had nothing left that could survive other than the remaining sorcerer and chaos warriors out on the far flank. 

So what did I learnt?

I’ve already put a couple of quick comments up on an earlier post. In addition to those here are the main things I learnt:

• Be careful with your set up as some units can be rendered ineffective if you get that wrong
• Also be careful where you use certain units, especially cavalry. The Bretonnian cavalry routed so close to the edge of the board that they had no chance to rally
• If the enemy has war machines that use templates don’t mass your troops – doing so presents targets that are easier to hit, even if the war machines shot deviates.
• One shouldn’t put their faith in large cost, one chance, moves. The obvious one in the game I played was the contingent commander trying to summon a horde of lesser daemons. If it succeeds then the game might be over – but the odds of that aren’t really high. And if it doesn’t then the sorcerer (and his points) are wasted. Having said that it is a fun thing to try in  a non-competition game.

So what is next?

I’ve got a few things planned. They are:

• A 4000 point game between the undead and Bretonnian. I’m finishing off figures for the former (about 10 left and they are so easy to paint plus some basing and extra shields); for the latter I’m going to add some Ogre mercenaries to see how they go as I have 10 painted Ogre figures in my collection. The undead will include some ethereal troops (wights and wraiths maybe) as I would like to try them out.
• Try out the revised cannon rules that GW published in White Dwarf magazine in the early 90’s – from what I recall they are far more realistic than the rules in the WFB book (automatic hits just sound too easy to me…)

Make a bigger, sturdier, table using chipboard or something similar. Personally a 7 foot by 5 foot table (or thereabouts) sounds reasonable.  

   

   

Carnage - a quick summary of the test game

Only a quick post tonight and no pics yet - I'll post up a few with some comments over the weekend. Here is what I learned (in no particular order):

1. Proper book-keeping is a must. I spent quite a bit of time flicking backwards and forwards in the warhammer armies book checking stats for the various units/creatures
2. Magic can be really powerful - the level 4 Bretonnian Wizard took out the chaos army general and 3 chaos warriors (out of a unit of five) by casting a ravine spell under them. That changed the whole game.
3. Engines of war can be devastating. Both sides engines caused significant damage which was well in excess of their cost. I can understand why GW changed the rules for cannon late in 3rd edition.
4. Flying creatures that cause fear are equally devastating - the manticore and hippogriff made mincemeat of the level 4 Bretonnian wizard and +1 elite cavalry respectively. As one shot units they have to be used carefully but if they are well...
5. Take care using mounted troops near the table edge because if they rout in all likelihood they will rout off the table before you can attempt to rally them.
6. Don't use expensive characters to do risky things - the level 3 chaos sorcerer was sucked into the void trying to summon a demon horde. Given there is a 1 in 6 chance of this happening the upside (the summoning actually works) may not be worth it. 

Set to go...

As the title says I'm ready for my test game tomorrow. The kids aren't around during the day as they are at childcare and school whilst the youngest at 4 weeks isn't going to play with my little men. I'm heading back to work on Monday so I've cut things pretty fine...tomorrow really was the last day to run a WFB 3rd edition game. I've also taken a number of pics of the units/figures that will be clashing tomorrow. Without further ado here they are:

The chaos hordes sorcerers

A couple of dull witted trolls

Demons that the hordes sorcerers hope to summon to their aid (and if they manage to do so I suspect things will get pretty nasty)

Chaos warriors - I ran out of time to do a decent banner so used a spare banner from the game battle-masters that I had lying around. I will fix the standard down the track as I want to add a menacing looking banner to this unit. I've also used a number of shield decals from the Citadel Arcane Armourials set which I love.

Bazooka

Mortar (citadel strangely referred to this as a petard when it isn't. No idea why - maybe they thought mortar sounded too boring) 

Chaos centaurs with two headed champion 

Noblees D'Epee (+1 elite)  

Bretonnian Wizards - guy in purple is actually from the clerics range but I liked the figure so I'll use him as a wizard.

Organ gun - I never got around to attaching the spiked ram even though I still have it.

Some of the retainers - I love the guy on the left who is giving the bird. At some stage I'll add a fleur-de-lis to his surcoat 

A small selection of the Nulner Landsknechtes - the famous Iron Crown Legion

And finally the battlefield. The farmlet is actually toy I had as a kid which I painted up. It looks pretty good too and the scale is pretty much on the money.

Some better photos...

Yes another unimaginative title. I've taken some better quality pics of some of the units I'll be using in my WFB 3rd edition test game. Slightly out of focus at the end of each unit but the vast majority of figures are nice and clear - you can certainly get an idea whether the paint jobs are decent or not...