2017-07-06, Vacation 2017, Day 3: Astrid Lindgren's World, Part 3, Ronia the Robber's Daughter I

As promised yesterday here are the pics I took of the Robbers' castle from Ronia the Robber's Daughter.

The castle has interiors, and it is possible to go up inside the towers.

The open front with the stage is of course used for enacting scenes from the story, as will be seen in the next post.

2017-07-06, Vacation 2017, Day 3: Astrid Lindgren's World, Part 2

A miniature version of the three farms in 'The Children of Noisy Village'/'Cherry Time at Bullerby':

Some characters from 'Ronia the Robber's Daughter'

- Which leads directly to the next post where we descend deep into the dark forests of medieval Sweden.

Some Fireforge Stuff Arrived

Today, I received these two boxes directly from Fireforge Games.

I orderred them to make some peasant survivors and zombies for Rangers of the Shadow Deep (my tweaked version of it, anyway), and I hope to be able to make zombie versions of the peasants, but I shall not dive right into it, as I am busy painting Pirates for Åcon later this month.

Oathmark: 2500pts, Isengard vs Human-Elves Alliance

Wednesday I played yet another game of Oathmark, this time Emil commanded an alliance of my Gondor, Rohan, and High Elf forces against the same Isengard army that I used against Ulolkish's Dwarves.

This time I decided to try a refused right flank, and a sweeping left flank attack with some Wargs and Warg Riders through the woods at the far end of the table,

The first turn was mostly 'Forward unto Battle', except for my Shaman, who failed his Activation Roll on three dice...

Turn 2 both armies advanced, and my Shamanmade his signature move and laid out a Smoke screen to prevent the High Elf Archers (blue unit facing my right) doing their thing.

In Turn 3 I moved a bit further forward than first intended in the center to get the units there protected by the hill (my Shaman had failed his activation, and thus had not been able to conjure up more Smoke).

Turn 4 saw the first real fighting.

The Rohan Swordsmen burst through the Smoke and into the Dunlendings and breaking them.

Which resulted in my Shaman suddenly finding himself in something of a predicament.

But my Orcs moved forward and thus offered some protection.

The Elf Linebreakers smashed into the Uruk-Hai Pikemen, and did not fare well.

The battlefield at the end of Turn 4. The sunlight falling in through one of the roof windows was quite annoying at this point.

We did not play through Turn 5, - when the Elven Bowmen marched past the smoke, they were attacked by the Wargs and Disordered - and soon after they were Broken by Orcish arrows, which made my opponent toss in the towel.

AT this point we had been at it for about 4 hours (interrupted by me picking up Anna from school), and Emil clearly found this amount of time too much for a game.

As I have stated in an earlier post, one of my concerns regarding Oathmark is the pace of the game, especially because of the somewhat clunky combat rules, and both of my two latest games have, indeed, lingered on (well, the last one would have, had not Emil given up) beyond a reasonable  time span.

My only fast game was the 2000 points played against Kevin, and that one contained  far less units. I think a 'Mass Battle Game' as Oathmark is proclaimed to be should be able to handle at least a score of units aside without lasting more than an evening, and I cannot see that happening with this game.

I still have to play more games and get better acquainted with the rules (although I had to look up a rule only once or twice during this game) before I decide whether to keep Oathmark as a 'go to' game, go back to tweaking God of Battles, or maybe even do a mash-up of GoB and Oathmark, as suggested by Ulolkish.

Oathmark: 2,500pts, Orcs & Goblins vs Dwarves

Yesterday, I played against Ulolkish's Dwarves (augmented by 19 minis of mine) in the garage attic.

We played on the large table, so allowed for setting up 12" in from the table edges.

On Turn 1 we mostly used Forward unto Battle - except for my Shaman (Lvl 3) who laid out some Smoke to cover my advance on the left.

NOTE: We have house-ruled that 25x25 units-of-one have no facings/can turn freely to see/move in the direction of the player's choice. The main reasons for this is that it seems odd and cumbersome that a single person has to suffer the same maneuver restrictions as a body of men in formation.

This may make Spellcasters too powerful, as they can cast more spells than usual, and I am toying with the idea of allowing some kind of dispel/nullify counter action by an opposing wizard to balance it out.

On Turn 2 my Shaman laid out some more Smoke, and the Dwarven Archers started moving around it (and in behind the flank unit.

Apart from that, the turn saw only general advance.

Turn 3 saw some blood drawn by bowfire, and the battlelines were closing in.

- And the second Smoke screen dissipated.

Turn 4 saw some real action all over the battlefield, with units charging and counter-charging. On my far right it looked as if the Dwarven flank was about to be turned.

But the flank held, supported by the Runesmitth (Lvl 5) who rained death on the Wolves of Isengard in the form of a Lightning Bolt.

We had to turn the remaining Smoke aside to avoid getting the Uruks entangled in the cotton.

Turn 5 made it really clear that I need larger units for my Isengard army. Had some of the units surrounding the Dwarven flank unit, I might actually have annihilated it and been able to start turning the flank. Instead, the unit held its ground, and with the continued support from the Runesmith and the Archers, it was a real pain...

Turn 6 saw my lines worn  ever so much down, and the stubborn little buggers on my right still refused to die.

My Shaman conjured up a new screen of Smoke in an attempt to minimize losses to the Dwarven Archers.

On the left much fighting had occurred, situation still inconclusive, but I was way behind on points.

But when in Turn 7 the Runesmith broke my remaining Wolves with a Lightning Bolt, and Cascading Panic disordered some of the nearby units, I did no longer see Victory withing reach (and it was getting quite late in the evening), so I called it quits.

We did not count the Victory Points/losses, but I am quite sure that the Dwarves had more points remaining on the table than my army. I really need to get some various types of Orcs (Oathmark: Goblins) painted, especially Archers as I feel heavily out-'gunned', even by only one large unit of enemy bowmen, but also to bring more staying power and Rank Bonuses to the table.

This game took an awful lot of time, about five hours if I remember correctly, and I was suffering horribly from 'combat fatigue' towards the end (headache, could not remember/calculate Target Numbers, etc.). It surprised me that it took that long, as my last game (2,000pts) lasted only two hours all in all, but of course my many small units in this game slowed down things considerably.

I am playing a game tomorrow on the same table with the same list against an army made up of my own Gondorians, Rohirrim, and High Elves commanded by Emil, and I have been contemplating using different tactics to see if I can gain an advantage tht way.