One Page Rules: Grimdark Firefight Patrol WIP

Face the wrath of the Angels of Death, if you dare!

I have dug out and dusted off some RT01 plastic beakies (Corvus Armour) Space Marines for playing One Page Rules Grimdark Firefight.

I started painting, and based these, many years ago, but Warhammer 40.000 never really got to me as a game, although I have always loved the setting. Now, however, I think that I may actually get a few models finished (I also rebase them on washers instead of the slotta-plinths).

When looking at this picture, I realized that the Devastator Marine had slipped backwards on his base when I positioned him for the photo, so I just rectified that.

When these are ready (150 points) it is time for 200 points worth of Genestealers - I think I have also finally decided on a paint scheme for my 'stealers/Tyranids; the one I started using about 10 years ago never really grew on me, but now I have a fairly good idea about a quick-paint method that should both look good, and allow me to get some finished models on the table in a relatively short time.

SAGA: Age of Magic Dice

Today, I received a parcel from Lenton, UK. This time 11 days from dispatch to arrival (with one day being a Holiday), still is not bad, considering the domestic delivery times of PostNord.

I ordered two of each set of the Age of Magic Dice, so that I can cater for both sides, no matter whar factions are played.

I have been working slowly and steadily on the Skeleton Archers, but now I think it is about time I get some of them - preferably at least eight - ready for the table!

Tomorrow, we shall be visiting my mother-in-law, so I shall not get much hobby time in, but Sunday I should be able to splash some paint on the deadites (unless, of course, the weather suddenly decides to become agreeable, in which case I shall have to do some work in the garden).

I have to take some classes Monday and Tuesday, so this week I shall not be able to make gaming appointments those two days. Hopefully Thursday, I can get an appointment with Emil for some Age of Fantasy, and then perhaps SAGA or Grimdark Firefight with Ulolkish Friday (I shall be at work Fri-Sat-Sun nights), but we shall see about that, he may have other plans, I only got my schedule for the week two days ago.

3D-Printed: Rohan Settlement WIP

120%

I have not done much hobby stuff over the weekend - it was work weekend, and the garden allotted most of my spare time.

But the printer has been busy, as I am experimenting with upscaling Terrain4Print's Small Fantasy Viking House.

As you may recall (otherwise you can check below), I did not find the inherent size of the model convincing for 28mm miniatures, as the doorway stands below  the height of the shoulders of most minis.

Thus, I did a 120% upscaled version, which you can see to the left. It is better, but if that Royal Guard were to enter, he would still have to crouch quite a lot!

I would like the (most of) my buildings to actually look like something the minis could be living in, so I had to make another test. Luckily, my printer had nothing better to do this weekend, so as long as there was PLA on the spool, I could just knock myself out.

The 100% Version

130%

My third print was scaled up by 130% instead, and although I am almost there with that, I think that I shall print a 140% version, before deciding on the size for printing the larger house offered by Terrain4Print.

I am also printing some palisades, and the platform above the gate is printing as I write this.

The palisades are modular, and the files include a pin for assembling the pieces, but I had to scale it up to 105% to get a snug fit, so you may want to print a test or two if you start printing the palisades.

I am waiting for my filament pusher to get a re-stock (should happen next week), as I am running out of some of the filaments I am using (I prefer the light grey PLA for gaming models, as the details pop better than with other colours), but I shall be printing some more palisade pieces (including some 90 degree corners), until I run out of brown and grey stuff - then I shall allow myself to let the printer be employed for non-gaming purposes for a while.

3D Printed: Stone Townhouse

 Another design by Terrain4Print is the Ulvheim series A building and ruins on Thingiverse.

My first print of the intact version (with remixed upper storey and roof by Talismancer ) was at 100%, but I think it is a tiny bit too small for 'heroic' 28mm minis.

Thus, I am now printing another one at 110%, and you can see the first result at the bottom of this post (I am almost out of that Slate Grey PLA, and it is out of stock at my filament pusher's webstore, so I am taking a break from these buildings).

As can be seen below, both storeys have a nice level of interior details, and I plan to print some furniture to add to the gaming experience of having this kind of housing populating a town/city table.

Ulolkish and I have agreed to do 3D printed city/town/ruins scenery as a joint project; I print and clean up the pieces, and he paints at least half of them, and we can then have a large set of the stuff to use between us (we live only 11 kilometers apart, so it is a matter of less than ½ hour to fetch a big box by car).

I recently had some trouble with my CR10S, and as a consequence I have been printing with a bit too little retaction, causing some stringing. While this can be easily removed, I am going to play around with the settings to see if I can avoid it completely - like I am now again returning to use a skirt for bed adhesion instead of a brim, as the latter means more cleaning up to do before the pieces can be painted.

I have not yet printed the trap door for the roof, but I guess I may be doing that later today in some dark brown filament I have running on the printer at the moment.

Here are all the pieces of the first building.

To the right and below you can see the ground floor printed at 110%.

I think it fits the GW Skelly better, as it looks like he could actually pass under the door arch without banging his skull against it.

I shall, of course, still use the first one, but I am certain that I shall print further buildings at the slightly larger size!

Over the next couple of days, I am going to print a larger version of the 'Fantasy Viking' Rohan house, and also some palisades for protecting those Rohan settlements from Wild Men and Uruk-Hai raiders! And, of course, as mentined, a roof trapdoor for the Ulvheim building.

2019-05-22: Age of Fantasy Skirmish, 2nd Game

With short notice, I managed to get a Wednesday gaming appointment with Emil, a former workmate who has a taste for fantasy and sci-fi, and we played the same 150 points forces used by Ulolkish and me Monday.

We rolled up 3 Objectives, and I won the Roll-off and thus the initiative for the first Round.

In all the mayhem and excitement, I forgot to take pics after Rounds 1 and 2, but my plans worked fine, as my Necromancer actually raised some Zombies... 😏

The Gondor archers managed to take out two Skeletons in cover at one point in Round 2 or 3, and all in all the dice were behaving less stubbornly than usual.

The raised Zombies worked a treat, blocking the Gondorians from attacking the Necromancer and guarding the Objective on my left, while my Skeleton Horseman swept around the entire battlefield to threaten the Objective in the far tower ruin.

ON Turn 4, another mob of hungry shamblers clawed their way out of the ground near the threatened objective on my left, and effectively decided the game for me. Below is the final lay of the land, the game ending 2-1 in favour of Argonor.

Conclusion:

I like this game very much! It is simple, fast-flowing, and a newcomer can pick up the rules along the way while playing.

Wizards are very powerful in small games, being able to cause a lot of turmoil with their spells. Next game I shall turn up to 200 or 250 points, and maybe I shall build another Lord of the Rings themed warband to face off against the Gondorians - Mordor Nazgûl and Orcs, or Haradrim could be interesting choices.

I have repaired my two Knights of Minas Tirith (painted for Battle Companies years ago, and shattered when a box of (painted 😡) minis tilted over and hit the floor) - at least I hope the one with a horse's broken leg will prove well enough welded by the Poly Cement; the other one, a conversion, just had to be glued to the horse. I also may opt to field a Boromir, Captain of the White Tower, as a Hero alongside the Knight of Dol Amroth.

2019-05-21: God of Battles, Undead vs Chaos

I actually anticipated playing against Kevin's Greenskins today, and had built my army accordingly, but he brought a Chaos Demon army built on the T'lekkan list. It is always nice to see a new painted army on the table, and as it were, the tactics I built my army for somewhat succeeded!

Kevin postioned his units fairly evenly over the width of the table, apart from the Behemoth (Greater Demon of Slaneesh?), a hulking Enormous monster capable of taking on entire legions on its own, as it would turn out, which was placed on his extreme left flank, just opposite my Camp. I concentrated my relatively few infantry units near my camp, and left my Blacksoul in a Chariot and my Knights to covering most of my table edge.

On Turn 1, my Knights and Chariot sped forward on my left, hoping to hit the Demons' apparently weak flank.

On Turn 2, Blacksoul in the Chariot despatched a Demon unit. The Behemoth strode steadily forward, while I pulled back my defensive line a bit to stall the inevitable clash.

Turn 3, the Behemoth destroyed a Skeleton Horde, while my knights got mauled by something unnatural... Another Skeleton Horde drove some Demons into the woods.

Turn 4. The Behemoth destroyed another Skeleton Horde.

The remaining 3 Knights were wiped out, and my Blacksoul went in with a vengeance.

Turn 5, my Camp Followers beat off a Demonic attack, and my Chariot burned the enemy Baggage Train - but the Behemoth destroyed the 3rd Skeleton Horde and broke my army. For the first time ever, my Necromancer had to flee the battlefield...

Conclusion:

The Lords of Undeath severely lack some big nasties like the ones that can be fielded my many other armies. I may have to give up using my Necromancer, and instead field another Chariot for chasing soft targets, while my buffed up Blacksoul tries to keep check on any biggie fielded by my opponent. I must say, I dislike this kind of meta game decisions; a points based battle/war game should allow you to build an army to the same points value as your opponent, and then be able to take on whatever he used his points on.

Oh, well, it's all fun and games...

2019-05-20: Age of Fantasy, First Game

An entire table of Ziterdes ruins!

Ulolkish and I played the standard basic game with the recommended starting forces of 150 pts. each, and rolled up four objectives to place on the table.

The Mortal Gods bases are just for convenience, as most groups are 3 strong.

In all my eagerness, I forgot to take a photo of the initial setup, but it was pretty straightforward. I won the roll off, chose table edge, and moved first on the first Round.

In the first couple of Rounds, we forgot to make Fear Tests when my Undead came into contact with enemies, but all in all we rather quickly got to grips with the rules (especially considering we just played four hours of God of Battles).

I very quickly seized 3 of the 4 objectives, while the last one was contested.

The Necromancer tried raising some Zombies, but without any luck.

Skeleton Horsemen apparently are made of glass (or very brittle bone) - after killing one Gondor Fiefdom Warrior off at impact, my lone rider hit the dust. Argonor kept muttering incantations, but nothing happened...

I managed to seize the fourth objective, but was about to loose the one in the center of the board.

Which happened soon enough. My lacking ability to roll more than 2 on a D6 still kept Argonor from bolstering the ranks of the Undead with some not so fresh meat.

On Round 4, a lone surviving Fiefdom Warrior leapt for the objective on my far right, and managed to seize it - and Argonor finally succeeded in summoning a bunch of Zombies, which kept the objective in the building on my left from being taken by some Warriors of Minas Tirith.

End Score: 2-2 - a fitting end for our first foray into One Page Rules!

I showed OPR Grimdark Skirmish to Ulolkish afterwards, as I think it quite possible that we might dust off some of our old W40K minis for a scrap now and then, knowing we can set up and play a game in less than 1½ hours, and he seemed to agree.

2019-05-20: God of Battles, Undead vs Dwarves

Some might say I am a bit of a masochist, as I keep inviting Ulolkish  to play his Dwarves against my Undead, but we still had some house rules playtesting to do, and it feels appropriate to keep testing with the same two armies.

This time we tested this:

Pushbacks

When a melee has been fought (both sides having attacked), the unit inflicting the most casualties is the winner of that combat.

When two Formed Units (or a Formed Unit and a Tenacious Loose Unit) are fighting, instead of being locked in place until one is destroyed, use the following:

The winner decides if if he wants to Push Back the loser. I he does not decide to do so, the units remain in place. If the winner decides to Push Back, the loser is moved 4 inches directly backwards, and the winner is moved forward and placed in contact with the winner.

and:

Necromancer

When the top card of the Power Deck is flipped to attempt Raising a skeleton, if the card flipped is not of a value sufficient to raise the type of skeleton the Necromancer wishes, the Necromancer may play additional cards from his Power Hand, as if powering a Miracle.

The combined Power Value MUST equal or surpass the points cost of the target unit – for instance, you must have a combined value of at least 12 to raise an Undead Knight, although an unmodified flipped ‘10’ is enough for raising any kind of Undead model. (This part we introduced in our last game, and we have decided to keep it.)

Raise Dead

As we do not feel the Necromancer's innate ability, even with the above augmentation, to raise 1 Skeleton whenever one or more enemies are slain is providing a proper necromantic feel, we now introduce a new Necromancer Miracle:

Raise Dead
Target: Friendly eligible Undead Unit (see Effect)
Cost: 10
Effect: Raise 1 Guardian of Midnight, OR 1 Undead Knight, OR up to2 Skeleton Warriors, OR up to 3 Skeleton Archers, OR up to 4 Skeletons (Horde) and add them to a unit of the appropriate type which has suffered casualties (it may not exceed its original size).
Duration: Instant


The Necromancer may choose this Miracle to be part of his Miracle Hand, but by doing so he forfeits his right to discard one of the Miracle Cards he then draws to complete his hand. If it is not chosen in advance, it is shuffled with the rest of the Miracle Cards, and may be drawn at random like the rest of the Miracles.

The first turn saw steady advance by both armies. My Chariot and Guardians of Midnight were kept behind the flanks for now.

Turn 2, the battle lines closed in. My Skeleton Warriors took position on the hill on the left, while the Dwarven Miners passed my line.

On Turn 3, battle was joined, and the Miners surfaced in contact with my Baggage Train. My Chariot sped towards the enemy Camp.

On my extreme right my Skeleton Horde was getting hammered, and Argonor was Raising Dead like a madman to keep the unit on the battlefield.

On Turn 4 a Skeleton Horde with a Blacksoul charged the Dwarven Archers. The red dice hit on 3+, the white on 4+. This kind of dice result is not even a rare occurrence when I play wargames.

The Miners sacked my Baggage, and my Chariot moved into contact with the enemy Camp.

All over the front, my Skeletons were crumbling in droves, and my Necromancer had all but depleted his Divine Goodwill (Sacrifice Cards).

Only 4 points lost out of the 52 on the table, but almost all my units were closed to being wiped out by now.

At least, I had inflicted some casualties, and even had raised some Skeletons from the slain foes...

We did not complete Turn 5 - just for show I sacked the Dwarven Camp, but there was not much doubt that my army would break, this turn or the next, and that I could hardly hope to do any significant damage to the enemy Main Force with my decimated units. Thus, we noted this down as another Dwarven victory, and sat down to evaluate the House Rules tested.

We felt that the pushback rule needs a Morale Test for a unit to avoid pushing on when winning a combat. The test should be taken at ML -2 or -3 to make it possible even for Unbreakable units to get 'drawn out' and exposed to flank attacks and the likes. This will be tested the next time we play.

The Raise Dead Miracle worked very well. It did not upset balance, because there is a trade-off to be paid in Sacrifice Cards, and thus in effectiveness when it comes to using other Miracles and dispelling enemy Miracles.

We kind of felt that not being able to discard a Miracle to see if the Necromancer can get a more interesting one is too restrictive, and I gave it a lot of thought how to change it, without making the Necromancer too powerful.

What we agreed to try is a 5 points Rod of Resurrection working the same way as the Raise Dead Miracle, still being powered by Sacrifice Cards, but usable as many times during the Necromancer's Activation as he can pay the 10 Sacrifice pips.

With this, the Necromancer will draw Miracle Cards as normal before the game, and being able to discard one he does not want. I may even get my cold prying hands on one of the destructive Miracles some time...

3D-Printed: Dragon Egg

The last week, I have been printing a couple of gift boxes in the shape of dragon eggs as seen in the Game of Thrones TV show, as I wanted to use them for delivering our presents to the two youngsters whose confirmations we attended this weekend (one Saturday, one Sunday).

Of course, my printer had to act up, causing me a lot of grief and wasted filament, until I figured out what exactly was wrong and could mend it.

But I managed to finish the last bottom just in time for today, and we could fill up the egg with Magic the Gathering booster packs for the son of one of my old friends (yesterday was the daughter of an even older friend who wished for funds for buying a parrot).

Both parties well finished, my printer is now building mortal Gods style bases I am planning to use for One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish (as well as Mortal Gods/Mythic), as it also uses 3-man groups of many troop types.

Some 3-Man Sabots

The relatively new 'Mortal Gods' game is using some special 3-man bases, and of course, somebody has made 3D-printable versions. Mortal Gods use minis based on 25 mm bases, and as I base most of my minis on 20 mm washers, I had to re-scale the file to 80% to make it work.

As you can see below, the re-scaled sabot base fits like a glove for my 20 mm based minis.

I am probably going to get Mortal Gods, or the fantasy version 'Mythic' at some point, but I am printing the bases for One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish, where most bread-and-butter troop types come in groups/units of three, so these are actually perfect for that game, too.

I am going to print some round 'light troop' 3-man bases, too, but right now I focus on the triangular 'formed up' bases, as I need six or seven of those for my first test games of OPRAoFS, the first hopefully occurring Monday afternoon. Well, 'need' is probably an exaggeration, as the minis in a group just have to stay within a certain distance, and moving three minis at a time is not that big a deal, but printing some bases fitting for the game is just too big a temptation, as it instantly means some extra geek points! 😆

Preparing Some Ruins

I have managed to get two ('two' seems to be the theme of this post) gaming appointments for after the weekend (Monday GoB. 40 points, at 10 a.m. with Ulolkish, possibly followed by a quick tussle using the above and additional buildings, and Tuesday GoB, 36 points, at 6:30 p.m. with Kevin, where I shall try using my Army of Darkness just a tiny bit more effectively that the last time, and possibly also introduce him to AoF), so earlier today I was rummaging around in the garage attic to alter the table for GoB, and set up a secondary table for Age of Fantasy, as we are to be away most of both Saturday and Sunday for two seperate confirmation celebrations.

I have had these two two-part Ziterdes ruins (Emperor's Palace and Administratum Wangun) in my possession for quite a few years, but in preparing a 4x4 table for One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish, I found that it was about time I got the upper floors secured with some strong glue.

Should Auld Acquaintance...

I just unearthed these two ancient critters - probably perfect for some of the games I play...

Just the other day, I also found this alternative Treeman, and I think that I now have to track down a third one, so that I may use them together in SAGA Age of Magic.

Well, that will have to wait a bit - this upcoming weekend we are attending no less than TWO confirmation celebrations, so we shall be away both Saturday and Sunday, and the little time left is probably required for mending the garden in one way or another.

I love that generic fantasy rules are all the rage these days - I have been doing 'generic' for quite a lot of years, but now it seems to become a mainstream thing to use one's minis for rules not made by the minis' manufacturers. Took the gaming scene long enough...

My Newest Tool

This photo was taken with the wrong light settings - but as it is not meant to show off my meagre painting skills, it is of no dire consequences.

I recently bought the Citadel Assembly Handle, as I am to embark on a fairly extensive project, rebasing plastic Riders of Rohan with their idiotic singular-point-of-contact horses, and I expect to have to apply support to the horses while the glue sets. If this turns out to work nicely for that purpose, I may actually purchase a some more of the handles, so that I can have more than one horse glued in a setting.

The above Skeleton snapped off the plastic base while I was cutting away some of it (the base), and as Poly Cement does not dry very quickly, I felt it was time to get some use out of the handle - and it seems to do the job very nicely!

As you can see, I have not put the clamps to use, as that paticular mini is mostly painted, and I do not want to damage the paint, if it can be avoided, but the arms provide sufficient support to hold a man-sized 28mm mini in place.

I wonder how well the strength of the arms will hold up to metal and/or resin horses, but that time that worry.

A Growing Contingent of Archers

I now have enough rebased Skeleton Archers to form two points of bow-armed warriors for SAGA Age of Magic. As I am soon also going to try out One Page Rules Age of Fantasy, I can have five 3-man groups out of these (and as I have two more, not in the pic, actually six groups in all), should I need that many.

The next couple of days, I have to finish a job application and prepare the appendices (I may get it completed tomorrow), and until it is done, I shall not have much hobby time, but I have another four models to rebase so that I can field two full units for God of Battles (and also 3 points for SAGA, to also be organized into two units of 12, including the Leader and Standard Bearer models).

It is quite nice to do units without having a set deadline for their use - does not feel as stressful that way 😁

3D-Printed: Edoras House WIP

As part of my cross-games Rohan project, I thought it was time to get some Rohan themed building into the mix.

This building is Terrain4Prints's Smaller Fantasy Viking House from Thingiverse. I think it is a tad on the small side for 28mm minis, so the next one I shall print at 120%, and see if that fits my taste better.

I shall, of course, still paint and use this, as variation is the salt of the earth, anyway.

Skeleton Archer Unit WIP

I managed to squeeze a bit of hobby time in today, so got the two broken models repaired, and rebased another four, bringing the archers up to 12 models - just enough for a God of Battles unit, and 1½ point of warriors for SAGA Age of Magic, for example.

I intend to get another 12 archers rebased, and then 12 warriors, before I start painting them (but I may start putting filler on some of the bases, soon, as I want to be able get some three-archer groups ready for OPR Age of Fantasy Skirmish rather soonish, which I intend to use as an introduction to fantasy wargaming for Emil.

Skeleton Archers WIP

The only work I have done on these until now is the rebasing. Part of a large Khemri job lot I purchased a couple of years back, they have been sitting idly in my Necropolis (large cardboard crate with unused Undead plastic), but with SAGA Age of Magic now almost ready to be played, and with My God of Battles Lords of Undeath in need of some ranged support, and the fantasy version of Mortal Gods 'Mythic' probably coming out later this year, now it is time to do something about it.

In addition to the above mentioned games, I have recently downloaded One Page Rules' Age of Fantasy Skirmish, and I  also have a hunch that I may have to get Warlords of Erehwon. 😏

One of the skellies lost an arm in the process, I shall have to poly cement it back on tomorrow, and I also got a wee tad overzealous with the Dremel, and cut of 1/4 of a bow on the last of these first eight archers; I think I shall just cut off the hand, and glue the hand form a spare archer arm on instead.

The observant reader will have noticed something new behind the Skeletons - it is also a work in progress, and I should have something to show tomorrow!

SAGA 2nd Edition and Age of Magic

I ordered these two from North Star on May 1th, and they arrived here on May 8th!

I have been wanting to play some SAGA Fantasy for quite a while, but I have not been able to convince anybody of playing A Fantastic SAGA with me, although I think that fan-powered project is quite remarkable.

I have also been holding off buying 2nd Edition as I like 1st Ed. a lot, and I have almost everything for it, but with Age of Magic coming out, I had to take the plunge...

I have been reading a lot since Wednesday, and that is the reason why I have not yet started painting the Rohan Royal Guards, and also did not yet find the time to assemble the Renedra Saxon Tents.

I have no firm grasp of the rules, yet, but Age of Magic seems to bring back strongly flavoured Battleboards, which has been a thing complained about missing from 2nd Edition.

Tomorrow, the weather should be dry and sunny, and I shall probably have to spend some time in the garden, but I hope to also start rebasing some Skeletons I dug out of a box in the garage attic yesterday.