Frostgrave club league - Week Five

On Sunday, we held the latest round of our Frostgrave "league". This time, the game was slightly different as Andy had designed a scenario, so he didn't bring his Band of Frogs, instead acting as the game Umpire (in a sort of Dungeon Master way) and Kevin handled the role of Undead and Monsters player.

The scenario was all about bands of adventurers exploring a location in the Frozen City that was known to be a place of dread; the burial place of a great necromancer and three of his most important underlings. The tombs were surrounded by a wall that no one had ever climbed over, well no one had ever come back again so the assumption was that there was some terrible force at work here. The tomb enclosure had four entrances, one at each corner. Surrounding the enclosure were a variety of rooms and courtyards, some which had clearly served as libraries, refectories and storerooms for the necromancer's entourage, plus a number of smaller tombs and monuments. The only ways into the necromancer's domain were via secret doors which opened from behind bookcases.

Unusually, Owen, Richard and me all decided not to attack one another, because there were unknown perils that had to be dealt with first.

All of the photographs below show various points in the game. The domain of the necromancer was, unsurprisingly a place where the Dead stalked the passages and open spaces and, whenever a location was explored something horrible was likely to emerge, even if there was treasure to be found as well.

Here is my band's first appearance. There were lots of places here when treasures might be found.

Unhappily, there were also many Ghouls, some of which emerged from a noisome privy just outside the Refectory area. These would cause me a lot of problems.

There were also piles of treasure scattered around. Sadly, most of these proved to be nothing more than enchanted rubbish of no value at all.

My fighters spent a lot of time trying to eliminate one particularly tenacious and unpleasant Ghoul.

Elsewhere, Richard's Apprentice, accompanied by a Knight explored a scriptorium just inside the tomb enclosure.

Owen's desperadoes spent no time at all in penetrating into the tomb enclosure.

The gems here represent small items of treasure that have been found. None of these were large and were no impediment to movement, although they did hamper a fighter in combat.

Owen's band were now close to the actual tombs of the evil wizards.

Having finally seen off a number of Ghouls, Skeletons and Bony Hands which grasped my treasure hunters by their ankles, my band was also inside the tomb area.

We were running out of time. However, We were all successful in finding at least a few small items of loot, plus a major treasure. When the time came to tot up our gains, each of us had found part of a map and a key, as well as some gold coins. I also found a Magic Dagger. Unhappily, my Infantryman, who had been incapacitated in the game never recovered from his wounds. Sic transit .............

The pieces of the map. when joined up purport to show the real location of the Necromancer, and the keys will open up doors, hopefully revealing great treasures, but probably more likely a host of undesirables. Once again, our three bands will have to cooperate for our mutual benefit if we are to triumph.

In the post-game reckoning, I decided to replace my Infantryman with another Treasure Hunter and I have given the Magic Dagger to my Thief. My wizard has now advanced to Level 10, so not bad overall, really.

Some 15mm Jump Off Points for Chain of Command

A long time ago, back in early 2017, to be precise, I painted up some JoPs for Coc in 15mm. I have used these ever since for my games of CoC, but I have always been conscious that they are actually a bit big and that they could better serve as small pieces of terrain. Also, I have always needed more of them

Anyway, at the club's Reveille show, I bought a blister pack of small Baueda items from Magister Militum that I thought would make better alternatives, and now I have painted them, ready for next Sunday's game against Brian's Soviets.

These are considerably smaller, each being based on a 3cm round MDF base, and they will be far less obtrusive on the table. In the blister there was also another piece, which is the one on the 5cm square base (which I have textured with Javis cork and sand and pebble mix). This will be useful for a number of things, but certainly will work as hard cover for infantry in CoC.

15mm resin scenic stuff

I am always on the lookout for 15mm scenic items, especially things for WW2 that I can use in games of CoC.

Therefore I was really pleased to pick up these nice resin ruined buildings from Ironclad Miniatures at the club's recent Reveille show. First, there is a really nice ruined factory. I very much like the two storage tanks at one end of the building.

The other one is a ruined building that could either be a house or part of a larger factory complex.

Both of these paint up really well. The models are clean and have no flash. I hope that more buildings of this type will appear in the future. Well done, Ironclad!

To complement these two, I have also painted up some pieces from Baueda, again purchased at Reveille, from the Magister Militum stall. I am a big fan of Baueda resin stuff. It is always a joy to paint and the WW2 stuff has lots of nice details. This small building was made from two pieces glued together on an MDF base to  make another ruined building for the factory complex. I added more debris using Javis crumbled cork boulders and sand and stone mix. I really like the way this turned out once it was painted up.

Finally, here are two other Baueda pieces, plus a resin fuel dump I picked up from the The Square stand at Colours.

Clearly, the two Baueda pieces will work as part of the factory complex. The fuel dump is always going to be useful. It will work nicely with the one I painted earlier in the year. I reckon that if you want a fuel dump, you want at least two stacks of oildrums.

I have a game of CoC planned for a couple of weeks' time, so I think that my Germans might be defending a bombed out factory against the evil Bolshevik hordes.

I've got quite a few other resin things that still need work. So, it is either get those done first, or go back to my 28mm FIW Régiment de Guyenne troops, which I need for the end of January. Decisions, decisions!

A new Sharp Practice mini-project; French forces for the French and Indian War

The French and Indian War,  which was fought in North America between the British and French colonies began in 1754 and ran on until 1763. From 1756 onwards, it can be viewed as part of the much larger Seven Years' War. It started out as a conflict between the colonists and their local forces, but gradually regular troops from France and Britain began to be deployed as the conflict grew.

I am painting up a smallish 28mm French force for a Sharp Practice weekend in January next year at Bristol Independent Gaming. Each player has 65 points available for their troops and mine is going to consist of the following;

Leaders (total 22pts);

Status III - Capitaine Philippe Au Brion, the impoverished son of an Irish emigré military family. He is accompanied by a Musician (drummer) 10 pts

Status II - Capitaine Henri Thierry, 6pts

Status I -  Lieutenant Pierre Lardon, 3pts

                Lieutenant Jean Merluche 3pts

Troops (total 42pts);

3 groups of 8 Fusiliers of the Régiment de Guyenne (18pts)

3 groups of 6 Compagnie Franche de la Marine Skirmishers (24pts)

Support (total 1pt);

Burning torches 1pt (not sure how useful these will be)

This gives me a grand total of exactly 65pts.

Capt. Au Brion is the force commander and leads the fusiliers. He is assisted by Lt. Lardon. 

Capt. Thierry commands the skirmishers, with Lt. Merluche as his deputy.

Before starting on this little project, I looked around for the what I thought would provide the best fit for the kind of force I wanted to paint. I decided on the Warlord boxed sets of Compagnie Franche and Line Infantry, and I bought two of the latter, so that I'd have enough figures for my plans.

So far, I have completed the skirmishing force made up of troops from the Compagnies Franches de la Marine, autonomous companies of infantry who were attached to the  French Marine Royale and who served both on ships and as garrison troops in the various French overseas colonies. Until the FIW, these were the only regular French troops stationed in Nouvelle France, the French possessions in North America.

Anyway, here is where I am with this project so far.

First, here are Capitaine Thierry, on the left with the drawn sword and Lieutenant Merluche.

Next are their troops, in three groups of six skirmishers. Note that there is a lot of variation in the dress of these soldiers. in the first group I have added in one figure from the box of line infantry. This is because I didn't want any figures with an officer's gorget amongst the rank and file. I see this figure as being a low-ranking NCO, and therefore not a leader in SP terms. While on active service, the troops of the Compagnies Franches wore a relaxed service dress that included some items adopted from the Native tribes of the region. The hooded capot tunic was also popular. Troops were issued with swords, as were line infantry of the period, but these were often replaced with tomahawks.

Finally, I have painted up two Deployment Points. Both of these are resin items from Coritani Miniatures, whose products can be found here. Both of these DPs are using surplus figures. The one on the left is from the Compagnies Franches box and the other one, painted up to represent an office of the Régiment de Guyenne, is from the box of line infantry.

My next task is to get my line troops prepped and undercoated.

Two more tanks for What A Tanker!

Here are two more recruits to my Afrika Korps tank force for the TwoFatLardies What A Tanker game. On the left is a Panzer III with the longer 5cm KwK 39 L/60 gun, which means that it is  a Panzer III Ausf. J, although the ones with the longer gun were later reclassified as Ausf. L variants. The smaller tank on the right is, of course a Panzer II, armed with the 2cm KwK 30 L/55 cannon. As it has five road wheels, it is an Ausf. F variant, produced in 1941/42, rather than the earlier Ausf. C, so ideal as a vehicle serving in the North African campaign.

Both of these are Battlefront 15mm resin models. Although I am a big fan of plastic tanks, I think that for WaT resin models make more sense to me, because I don't really need to buy a box of five PSC models if I am only going to need one or two. I quite like the extra weight of resin vehicles for WaT.

Of course, when I eventually do something about my CoC in the desert project, these will be perfect for that too.

The Shieldmaidens are in action. Two Saga AARs

On Sunday I finally got my Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath Shieldmaidens onto the table in an all-Scandi pair of battles against Clive's Anglo-Danes.

In the first game my force was as follows;

Freyja (War Leader)

One group of 4 Berserker Hearthguards

One group of 8 armoured Hearthguards

Two groups of Warriors

One group of Shieldmaidens (4 warriors led by a Valkyrie, plus a warrior with a War Banner)

My lack of ranged attacks left me at a clear disadvantage and my plans were massively disrupted by losing all my Berserkers to archery. From then on, I just had to attack, using Ullr and Thor abilities to maximise my hits. Unhappily, Clive was able to use the defensive abilities of the Anglo-Danes to pretty much negate my ability to score hits.

Net result: a win for the Anglo-Danes. Here are the pictures of the first battle. i think, from looking at these that my initial deployment was terrible.

Here are my short-lived and ineffective Berserkers.

Some spear-armed Warriors.

My main strike force. desperately trying to get into a better position.

With the Berserkers gone, Clive's defensive line starts to look like a problem.

My large Hearthguard unit gets ready to attack.

The Shieldmaidens led by the Valkyrie are completely useless here.

After two rounds of combat, my Hearthguards vanquish one of Clive's groups of 6 Hearthguards, but I am left in a weak condition in a dangerously exposed place.

Clive's bow-armed Levies and a group of Warriors combine to cause havoc to my spear-armed Warriors. After six rounds of play, I am defeated.

Here is the second game. I decided to replace the Berserkers with 12 Levies with bows.

I have retained the Shirldmaiden unit and have two groups of Hearthguards, one of 4 and the other of 8.

My other unit is one of 8 Warriors.

Things start off much more equally, with my archers targeting one of Clive's groups of Warriors.

I send my Warriors into melee with the archers. This is quite a success, forcing them to retreat.

Elsewhere, the two battle lines watch each other warily, no doubt exchanging insults and expletives.

My Warriors were attacked by Clive's Warriors. I use Ullr and am victorious. His Warriors are destroyed, but once again, I am left weakened and in range of the bow-armed Levies.

Battle is soon joined in the centre. My large group of Hearthguard charge in and destroy one group of Clive's Anglo-Danish Hearthguards, but are then themselves wiped out. 

I send in the Shieldmaidens, who are all killed except for the Valkyrie. However, they have weakened Clive's line. My smaller Hearthguard group charges, but is defeated. The battle is over. The Vikings have lost again.

I wasn't too upset at losing both games, because they were fun to play. The Vikings really do have to attack and try and cause maximum damage, which I generally managed to do quite regularly, but the real strength of the Anglo-Danes comes from their abilities to roll a lot of Save dice, which they also managed to do pretty regularly.

My main mistake was the way I used the Loki ability. I kept on forgetting to make it the first ability, but when I did, it really helped make a difference in melee.

These two armies are pretty much two sides of the same coin. One attacks ferociously and the other defends doggedly.

Reveille 2018

This coming Sunday, 25th November is the Lincombe Barn Wargames Society's annual show, Reveille II.

As you can see from the picture of the flyer above, the show is at the usual address, the Downend Folk House, Overndale Rd, Downend, Bristol BS16 2RW and doors open at 10am. 

The prices for admission are:

Adults (18 and over) - £3.00;

Juniors (13 - 17) - £1.50; and

Under 13 years - free.

There will be a large number of trade stalls, including Ironclad Miniatures, Magister Militum, Warlord, Great Escape Games and many others.