New Years Resolutions 2020/2021

 So... 2020, the year that has been both too long and too short at the same time, is finally over. At least with the situation, I have gotten a fair bit of painting done. Let's see how I got through the resolutions I made last year.

• Bad Squiddo Games released some Amazons in a kickstarter. I got them, just need to paint them (which should be quick, as they're already primed and waiting)

As expected, these were swift and easy. They even got expanded later with a dedicated mage.

• Bad Squiddo Games also released some Dwarves at the same time. These are not primed yet, but should also get some loving paint. Possibly, I'll combine them with some Oathmark and/or Atlantis Miniatures Dwarves.

It took some time, but they all got done in time. Admittedly, most of them were quick, but as usual the last 10% took 90% of the time. Eh, they're done. And I hear rumours of another Bad Squiddo kickstarter "soon"...

• The Landsknecht need more love. Let's aim for the pikeblock being done, and hopefully some crossbowmen as well.

Managed to chip away some more, and I have now painted most of the old built models. I might have to make an actual post with these soon...

• Expand the Blood & Plunder French with some more Sailors (also primed and ready)

Swift and deadly, as French tend to be.

• Similar for the Blood & Plunder Spanish, one starter box should round out my force nicely.

These also got rounded off, and I should now have all the Spanish I'll need.

• Dito (although smaller) for the Blood & Plunder Dutch, they can do with a few more sailors, mostly to get up to units of 8. And maybe a second unit of Enter Ploeg

The Dutch, however, has been put on the back burner for now. Models are ready, but other stuff managed to push past them in the painting queue (yes, despite this year, I still have a significant painting queue).

• Shipwise, I have a Bark, a Tartana and a Piragua that need some paint (these are all from last year, and primed, so should be quick)

They were quick. Sadly, I haven't gotten to use them in an actual game, though.

• The Galleon! Keep the shippainting going, get this humongous thing done.

However, that was that for ships. The Galleon has been assembled and primed, but no actual final paint on it yet. Guess it'll have to wait for next year.

• Firelock is also releasing a 6th Rate Frigate for Blood & Plunder... I need it! Even if it's supposedly almost as huge and the Galleon

I got the 6th Rate, and it is as assembled and primed as the Galleon, but that's about it.

• Oak & Iron is incoming. Since I intend to run demos for this come Gothcon, it will be catapulted to the front of the queue as soon as I get it.

Both the Oak & Iron delivery, and Gothcon, became casualties of corona. I've got it, and a few of the ships have been painted, but not nearly enough for a post yet. Ah, well, next year, for sure.

• Take 2 on the Mace of Malcor Monsters for Frostgrave.

I have managed a few, and by "a few" I mean exactly 4. To little surprise, that is not enough for a photo session or a blog post. But at least I have another 8 that I've started to prepare, so next year?

• Victrix Vikings have caught my eyes, and I'm tempted to get a pack to paint as Jomsvikings for SAGA

The Vikings, however, got done with a vengeance. I still have a few more to assemble and paint, but this is a full warband (that even managed to see some careful gaming, when things were calmer).

• Perry Mounted Knights are assembled, but still waiting for paint. Let's try to do something about that. Perhaps I can use them for SAGA: Age of Magic...

Two of them have gotten primed, but that's about it. However, a friend got me Age of Empires II, and suddenly I have motivation to paint these up as french knights (no idea what game to use them for as that, but you can often find some way to use heavily armored mounted warriors, I think).

• Speaking of SAGA: Age of Magic, I have 2, or potentially 3, new ideas for warbands, either on their way (yay, kickstarters), or at least planned for purchase as soon as the FLGS gets them. (I'm being non-specific in the interrest of being coy with the fellows at the club, always fun springing surprises on them)

One of these ideas got tabled (and I will blame that one on temporary insanity), another was kickstarter'd, and has gotten delayed (but will hopefully be delivered early next year, and I can't wait to get my hands on it), but the third one...

The third one would be my Gauls, which not only got finished, but also rapidly expanded for SAGA: Age of Hannibal when it arrived.

• Blood & Valor (also from Firelock) is coming, I should probably look into it (which means whichever plastic ww1 army I find most interresting... or go with Italians, because my competence at the table shouldn't prevent me from playing historically)

It has not exactly been a good year for starting entirely new games in unfamiliar eras, so no...

Of course, as is usual for me, there were a few unscheduled things that got painted as well. And talking of starting new games, Oathmark was released...

...which meant that not only did my dwarves get a few additions, although mostly on the level of rounding out units...

... I also got a whole bunch of elves! Not quite an army on their own, but since Oathmark allows for mixing races, they make formidable allies to the dwarves.

Back before things got too bad, I also got some Rangers of Shadow Deep played, in co-op mode, which ended with a few models for that swiftly getting painted. Despite RoSD being a possible single player game, I haven't actually played it that way, yet...

There was also various loose and sundry, including a few more 15mm tanks, some dragons for a friend, several more-or-less random rpg characters, and a whole lot of built but unpainted stuff (darnit, I'm supposed to reduce the amount of unpainted stuff I have).

What about next year? By now, it's tradition that I make a whole lot of resolutions (and fulfil about half of them), so...

Let's start with the carry overs (the ones I am supposed to prioritize):

• Blood & Plunder need some more Dutch.
• And that Galleon.
• And of course the 6th Rate.
• Oak & Iron needs paint and love. At least these ships are smaller...
• That last warband for SAGA: Age of Magic, as soon as the kickstarter gets here.
• Mace of Malcor, now take 3.
• The Mounted Knights from Perry. Now, with some idea for getting started.

And, of course, some new ones.

• As said, I have some ideas for the Perry knights. And it requires more Perry, that has to be ordered (as soon as we know how brexit works), built, and painted. Should be easy, right?
• I have at least 2 ideas for SAGA: Age of Hannibal warbands, one easy and one hard (why do I always look at factions with a significant portion mounted on horses...)
• I also intend to finally make my own table. I have a good base (a friend got rid of his and asked me if I wanted it), but I need terrain for it, especially trees. The idea is to be able to run the first mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and perhaps combine it with some Frostgrave
• Talking about Frostgrave, Kromlech has some absolutely stunning terrain for it, that I need. (I just need to figure out how and where to store it first, because it doesn't look small.)
• Those Napoleonics have refused to leave, and I'm currently considering focusing on one battle, and then building a brigade from each side of that battle. No idea if it will see any table other than against myself, but it would somewhat solve my problem of being unable to pick a side and regiment.
• The Landsknecht are in eternal need of reinforcements. Perhaps a cannon this year, and possibly some ponybird knights.
• Oathmark has managed to do the impossible, and tempt me with undead. These will have to form a second army/kingdom.
• There are also promises of several exciting new Oathmark kits. Revenants will join the undead, Dwarven Light Infantry will be welcome for some variety among the short folk... and the Human Cavalry might just tempt me into a third kingdom
• Stargrave ("Frostgrave IN SPACE") is coming, so I will of course need at least one crew for that, possibly two, once it's released.

Happy new year, and may the dice see a lot more table than last year

/Fool Out

Dwarfen ladies from Bad Squiddo Games

 It would seem that 2020 finally caught up with me. But here's some that's been painted throughout the year. Along with the Amazons (that I painted in January) from Bad Squiddo Games kickstarter, I got a band of dwarfen ladies (the initial reason I pledged). They have now all been finished, even the ones I didn't quite know what to do with. Not all by me, but they're all painted.

First up, the ones I had some idea about

These three make excellent leaders for my Oathmark Dwarfs. A grizzled General, a proper Princess, and a veteran Warrior (who got a shield from Oathmark Dwarf Heavy Infantry, to fit in with her unit of Warriors).

The Princess, of course, got a similar cloak to her father, with an intricate fishnet design. Why do I do this to myself?

These three fills out the Soldiers for now, but are ready to form a nucleus of Militia (once it's tie to expand again).

These three Shieldmaidens were strictly speaking released after the kickstarter, but looks absolutely fabulous and had to be had. With Oathmark Dwarf Infantry shields to match the rest of their units (their own, fancy, shields will instead be used for various characters).

Baggage trains is something that's rarely cared for in tabletop wargames, but sometimes it's useful. Until then, they can serve as unit filler, or generic marker for pretty much anything somewhat mobile.

Don't trust that pony, though, he's got a twisted sense of ownership...

Finally (for my part), a random dwarfen bard. You never know when such might be useful, especially as I've started to use miniatures when playing roleplaying games as well.

This wizened wizard was not, in fact, painted by me, but by a good friend, who I've had the joy to introduce to painting minis this year. Still, she's part of the kickstarter, and needs to be represented.

Finally, these stunning adventuresses was painted by another good friend, and someone who I consider myself to have only a sliver of his talent, of at best. He needed something to paint as an adventuring group, and since I didn't have any good ideas for what to use these for, he got them. Then I got them back, in incredible colors.

That's it for me this year. Happy holidays, and see you all on the other side of the fireworks (when it's once again time for me to look through what I've painted this year, and see how it matches my resolutions)

/Fool Out.

Oathmark - first Battle Report

So. This dropped in yesterday. (Don't wory, most likely a deeper review will follow in due time, but meanwhile, there has been plenty written over the internet about Oathmark in the last few weeks as the books started to drop).

And a combination of factors means that today, I had the fastest planned game ever. And it might be a first on the internet, or very close. It's not a game playing with against myself. I didn't conscript some moderately interested spouse/kid/dog/neightbour. It's an honest to the gods game between two miniature wargamers facing each other over the table. And because this has been known to be coming for some time, we even had ready, all painted, forces (and ready kingdoms, to justify any mix, even if we're not doing campaigns off the bat). Life can be good sometimes.

The forces from the Northern Wolf-lords consisted of
A Human Prince on a horse
4 Human Heavy Cavalry
1 Wulver (Dire Wolf, really)
10 Human Warriors
20 Human Spearmen
10 Human Rangers
Totaling 995 points

The Old Alliance fielded a patrol consisting of
A Dwarven Captain
A Dwarven Champion
A Dwarven Spellcaster (level 2, with Fireball and Resolute)
16 Dwarven Spearmen
9 Dwarven Linebreakers
10 Elven Archers
Totaling 988 points.

To make things as easy as possible for a first game, we went with Pitched Battle (form up in lines, march to the beat of the drums, kill and don't die, always an easy mission to test out a system with). Similarly, to reduce clutter, but still possibly get a small taste of mayhem, we decided to run with Strange Events, but not the Catastrophic ones.

"Up" on the table were a forest (smaller trees assumed in between the three larger ones), while "down" was just some rough ground where the former trees had been cut down. Some houses and stone walls rounded out the battlefield.

The Wolf-lords formed up with the Wulver (Dire Wolf) holding the left flank, Warriors on the other side of the house, Spearmen next to them, Rangers ready to move into the forest, and the Heavy Cavalry, with the Prince, on the right flank, ready to sweep down.

The, significantly smaller, Alliance force deployed with the dwarven Spearmen led by the Captain up front, Elven Archers behind them (ready to fire over their shorter companions). The Linebreakers anchored the right flank, while the Spellcaster sheltered between the blocks of fighters.

First thing that happened, an unexpected hero stepped forward among the Warriors for the Wolf-lords (he rolled a double 10 for initiative round 1, and got a free Champion).

Most of Turn 1 was uneventful maneuvering as the forces closed in, but the Dwarven Spellcaster stepped forth and, annoyed at the young interlopers, threw a fireball at the Rangers skulking behind the forest. Succeeding at casting the spell (rolling 2 dice and needing at least one 7), he then proceeded to immolate one Ranger (Fireball: 3 dice shooting attack, Shoot 4 vs the Rangers Defence 8, needing 4s). It could have gone better, but at least the Rangers no longer had a second full rank.

At the end of Turn 1, the forces had closed in, but nothing more interresting had happened.

Turn 2 opened with more of the same. Another Fireball, this time at the approaching Warriors (Defense 10, so needing 10-4=6s). Another charred body hit the ground.

The Warriors, led by their unexpected hero, bravely continue onwards, and step into charge range from the enemy Spearmen, relying on their own to provide a nasty countercharge into the enemy flank if exposed.

The dwarves decide that that is quite unnecessary, but answer not with Dwarven Spears, but with Elven arrows (the warriors defense of 10 vs Elven Shoot of 3, +1 for the extra rank = 6 to hit). 3 more Warriors fall to the deadly Archers, and they're temporarily disordered (They needed to roll more than their Activation of 5, +3 for the casualties, -1 for just being shot at, on either of two dice. A 1 and a 2 did not suffice).

The Human Rangers have managed to get themselves into position, and let loose on the Dwarven Spearmen (Defense 10 - Shoot 2 = 8 to hit). Dwarven blood hits the ground as one of them fall.

Needing to roll 4s (Activation of 4, +1 for casualty, -1 for shooting) on either of three dice (one extra dice from the Captains Command ability), only her steady voice keeps the spears steady. For now. (Seriously, that was a close call, succeeding only on one of the dice, the other two abysmal failures).

The start of Turn 3 see some significant losses on the side of the Northern Wolf-lords, but the Old Alliance have so far had little of it. That is about to change.

Right of the start, the Dire Wolf charge into the Linebreakers. It promises to be a bloody fight, as the Dire Wolf (Wulver) will hit on (Linebreaker Defense 11 - Wulver Fight 3 - Wulver has Charge (2) =) 6s, and has 3 dice, while the Linebreakers will similarly hit on (Wulver Defense 10 - Linebreaker Fight 3 =) 7s, and has a grand total of 5 dice, one of which is a Champion die (so do double damage on a hit)

The brutal exchange sees two Linebreakers gored and dead, while the Dire Wolf takes 2 Wounds.

A slight misreading of the rules leads to the Dire Wolf winning, and pushing back the slow dwarves 6" (looking at the rules now, it is not bodies that count, but the amount of hits scored, so it should have been a draw, with both units moving back 1").

After a fizzled Fireball from the Spellcaster (attempting to finsih the almost dead Dire Wolf), the Warriors then charge into the Dwarven Spearmen for another brutal fight. The Spearmens will hit on (Warriors Defense 10 - Fight 2, - 2 for extra ranks) 6s, felling 4 of the Warriors. But striking back on (Defence 10 - Fight 3, and no extra ranks) 7s, the Warriors not only hit twice, but one of those hits is the Champion Dice rolling a natural 10. Instead of hitting more ordinary dwarves, the Captain is beheaded and killed.

It is still a victory for the Dwarves, but at what cost? Rolling only a single dice for morale due to the loss of their leader, the Spearmen are Disordered.

It is then of small comfort that the Elven Archers finish of the mad Wolf on their flank, needing only a single hit to kill it, rolling 5 dice on (Defense 10 - Shoot 3 - 1 extra rank =) 6s.

The Human Heavy Cavalry continue up the flank, as the Rangers down another Speardwarf (still needing 8s to hit). The dwarves remain somewhat steady, though.

And on to Turn 4. Things are looking significantly bleaker for the Old Alliance now, as they're left leaderless and shaken, even with the surprising light casualties.

The Rangers open up with their 3rd volley on the Dwarven Spearmen, still needing (Defense 10 - Shoot 2 =) 8s manage a spectacular 3 hits with two 9s and a 10.

The Dwarves now need to roll a morale test on (Activation 4, +3 casualties, -1 for just being shot at =) 6, on a single dice due to the loss of their leader, and already Disrupted, fail spectacularly, decide that enough is enough, and Break. The rest of the force remain steady, but things have suddenly taken a distinct turn for the worse.

Once again, the Elven Archers can only get vengeance by finishing off the few remaining Warriors, and then wheel to present their front to the oncoming horde of Humans, while the Spellcaster fizzle his magic and head out of there. The Linebreakers are finally getting close to the fighting again after having been so brutally pushed back by the wolf.

Turn 5, and while both forces are significantly weaker, it is the Old Alliance who have the largest bleeding gap with the flight of the Speardwarves.

But a swift seizing of the initiative by the Alliance (a double 10 for me, and the Elven Archers suddenly having a Champion as well), sees the Linebreakers charging into the exposed flank of the Human Spearmen.

But not all goes according to plan. While the Linebreakers hit on (Defense 10 - Fight 3 =) 7, with a full 5 dice including Champion die, and down 3 Humans (Champion die once again doing nothing), the Humans, hitting back on (Defense 11 - Fight 2, no bonuses due to hit in the flank =) 9s, still manage to down 2 Linebreakers. Morale is successful all around.

And the sneaky Human Heavy Cavalry manages to catch the Linebreakers in the flank as well with some fancy maneuvering. Things look bleak even as the Champion steps forward and Fights Alone (because from the flank, it means more dice at better Fight). Still, it means (Defence 13 - Fight 4, no bonuses =) 9s to hit, on 3 dice, while the Cavalry will hit back on (Defence 11 - Fight 3 - Charge (3) - 1 for hitting the flank =) 4s with all their 5 dice. Even after removing one dice each, due to the Champion having Shielding, this is looking grim. The only hope, is if the Dwarven Champion die comes up a 10, killing the Human Prince and possibly turning things around.

It does not. In fact, there is not a single hit, while the Cavalry hits with all ut one of their dice, leaving the Champion standing alone and Disordered.

Turn 6, and things are swiftly going from bad to worse for the Alliance.

The Wolf-lord activates first, and the Spearmen charge into the elusive Elven Archers that have tortured them every step of the way. But while Elves and Archers both are a bit squishy (Defense 9 - Fight 2 - 2 ranks = 5s to hit), only 2 fall, and they strike back with surprising alactrity (Defense 9 - Fight 1 = 8s to hit, and Champion die which once again proved useless), and a Spearman also falls.

The lone Champion of the Linebreakers is swifly ridden down as the mage tries to make some barbeque of the Cavalry, but fails to hit anything. The Human Rangers are by now left far behind and are not able to spot any Dwarves or Elves behind the charging masses of their own friends.

And it's Turn 7. By now, victory is quite clear, but we decide to play on simply for the rules practice.

The Elves manage to get off another volley before the Spearmen can activate, felling 2 more.

But the Spearmen remain steady (certainly helped by their Prince fighting next to them), and in vengeance moves in and kill two more Elves, for no kills in return (have I mentioned that the Champion die, it does nothing?).

The Cavalry then decides to ride down the Spellcaster as they did the Champion. Spellcasters are about as squishy as Elves, so that is swiftly done, but not before his raven manages to peck out the eyes of one of the knights (who knew, the one Heavy Cavalry killed, was killed by a decrepit old hermit with a wooden staff, despite needing 11s (which means 10, rerolled into 8+ in Oathmark) to hit). It isn't even the first time this particular model have proven to be surprisingly dangerous in melee...

And with that, there are only 6 Elves remaining of the Old Alliance patrol, and they wisely decide to surrender. Enough blood have been spilled this day.

The whole game, from deployment (well, first picture, once deployment was done) to the end (last picture) was 1 hour, 20 minutes. Not bad for a first play.

...

So. That was fun (now, a few hours later, despite the savage buttkicking I got handed to me).

First up, we naturally screwed up a few rules, since we got the book yesterday, and had had enough time to read through it once.

First of all, I did a major mistake in assuming that when the Spell Description said "any unit", it meant any unit, missing the fact that all spells require Line of Sight. It would have made little difference, since the Spellcaster had Line of Sight (and no range is specified) when he successfully cast, and failed to cast/failed to hit when I didn't have Line of Sight (due to running away).

We also made a mistake in deciding who won combat. It is the number of hits caused (before possibly redirecting some of them on a Leader/Officer), not the number of bodies going down. Makes large, multi-wound models not quite as strong.

Finally, through all the shooting we did, we forgot that Shielding removes dice, so we should have rolled one less dice throughout almost all of the shooting, which would make shooting less powerful (although I will claim that I needed all the help I could get, considering the results).

Now, with that out of the way, what did we think of the rules, why did it go like it did, what could we (I) have done better?

First up, the rules are very good, simple while not being simplistic. We only had a few times we needed to look up exactly how something worked or if something was possible, and every time, it was quick to find and easy to understand (and keep in mind, we had each read the rules once before this). Compared to some other games I've played, that is quite exceptional. I might have found a fantasy mass battle system that fits me, at long last.

The battle hinged on one, pivotal (cinematic) moment. When the Human Warriors charged into the Dwarven Spearmen, and their Champion (that got generated by a random event, mind you), swiftly decapitated the Dwarven Captain. This lead to the Speardwarven swiftly becoming Disordered, and soon thereafter Broke. The Linebreakers were somewhat out of position to help, but could have come back swinging had they had another turn before it all went to pieces. But as it were, they were too few, and too late.

But in the end, I think my major mistake was the list. I broke one of the axioms I always try to play by when designing lists, "boys before toys", ie more bodies on the field before focusing on elite, small units that may or may not be able to pull their weight if caught out of position. Specifically, I had 3 characters where I should probably have been satisfied with 1. This left me both low on bodies, and low on units. For next time, I will have to think of something better. Especially as I already run on few bodies with my choice of Dwarves (not exactly cheap) and Elves (bloody expensive), I don't think I can afford too many (also expensive) characters. Not if I want enough bodies to get the mission done and remain standing.

But one thing is certain. Do NOT put captains in the first line. They do not provide anything there, and they're vulnerable to a lucky Champion championing around. There is a nice line in the rulebook, "Character figures are rarely attached to units of archers or slingers...". I will freely call that a bold faced lie, quite possibly the biggest one in the book (I can even accept the only one in the book). My captains will henceforth serve among the archers, BEHIND the frontline (lets leave that spot to the Champions, those nutters can go kill each other).

For final thoughts, the system currently feels a little bit unbalanced (or it's my choice of units), in that the elite (elves and dwarves), while individually better, are not actually better in aggregate than the masses of goblins and humans, while having significantly fewer to loose. But it is very much a first feeling, more games will definitely be needed before I can say it with anything even remotely resembling coherence. Perhaps I've just managed to hit a bad mix of expensive, but not quite good/fast enough to make use of it, units. Perhaps I just need more experience and/or become a better player. (Or perhaps I need to get a horde of Goblins and Orcs, and accept my inner berserker) ;)

But one thing is certain. This looks like a game worth to keep, and worth to keep playing. (The fact that the art alone makes the rulebook worth it doesn't make things worse).

/Fool Out