Back-to-back Warhammer Fantasy games

My friend, Rafael, and I took advantage of his temporary bachelor status, while his family got a head-start on the holiday travel, and we squeezed in two games over the weekend, his High Elves versus my Lizardmen.

I learned that people who have Google+ accounts can read the Comments in the Google+ Photos album (as far as I can tell, anyway).  So I can offer battle reports again, albeit for a smaller audience.

Here's the link to the first game.

And here's the link to the second one.

Lizardmen awaken from their slumber!

It's been a while since my Lizardmen army has seen the gaming table, so I relished the opportunity to bring out the colors, at a game in Culpeper with my friend, Aaron.  Aaron was recently bitten by the Warhammer Fantasy bug, and he bought the Island of Blood starter set.

Aaron arranged the game at a local game store, which had just opened in Culpeper.  Aaron promoted the game, in order to generate buzz and grow a more local wargaming community.  Culpeper is about an hour-and-half away from me, but I was glad to lend a hand and help spark some more interest in our great hobby!

Aaron assembled, primed, and basecoated all of his Skaven forces in only two weeks!  Bravo!  Not shown in this first photo are his Rat Ogres, another weapon team, and his other hero character.  Aaron will be adding more washes, highlights, and details, but this is a great start.  Always a pleasure to see a painted force across the table.

Aaron devised his own scenario, to use as a graduated learning aid.  His Skaven kidnapped a Skink Priest, and a small holding party of 500 points is tasked to delay the pursuing Lizardman army.  The Lizardmen have a full 1000 points, but they must spread out their deployment from reserves, in 350/350/300 splits, over the first 3 turns.  Victory points are awarded for the ability of the Lizardmen to force the Skaven off the river vs the duration that the Skaven can hold their position or remain in play.

The Lizardmen succeeded in the near-impossible task of dislodging the Skaven from the river by Turn 2, but not by anything that the Lizardmen did.  The Skaven had the misfortune to have their Warplock Engineer blow himself up on his first ever attempt to cast magic.  This frightful calamity caused the other two units to turn tail and run!  River clear.  Mission accomplished!

Another Skaven player joined forces with Aaron for a second game.  We played a basic Battleline scenario with 1000 points per side. 

Unfortunately, I stopped taking photos.  But here are a couple of Aaron's photos:

Salamander fire and Skink Priest magic (Curse of the Midnight Wind, of all things!) softened up the Skaven, while, in return, the Skaven warpstone-powered war machine was belabored by the ill fortune of blowing up, and their magic was likewise cursed with Miscasts.  Lizardmen pressed the advantage and charged their weakened eternal nemesis.  Here, the rodents turn tail and flee.

In the upper left, Plague Monks and Slave Rats surround the mighty Stegosaurus, in an attempt to bring it low.  But the Steg had initiated the encounter by braving the icy waters of the powerful river, giving the Stegadon an unheard-of jump boost in Initiative, enabling him to, again, soften the foe beforehand (literally, by Stomping them underfoot!).

Ultimately, the Lizardmen capitalized on their early advantage and their good fortune (my dice were HOT, for a change!), and they claimed victory.

Good times!

Terraclips Terrain

This weekend I finally took the shrinkwrap off of my Terraclips terrain set that I bought over two years ago.  I knew that as soon as I took it out of the box, I would never get it back in -- it would explode into 10 times its original volume, which meant, where do I store this stuff?

The new momentum that my game group has, playing Malifaux, tempted me to throw caution to the wind.  I played with my new "Lego toys for adults" and loved it.

The artwork on these tiles is fantastic.  Just about every piece is different, and it's loaded with little details, like spilled applesacks, leaking pipes, rubbish, sewer grills, etc.

The design is very impressive, too.  Very well engineered, in terms of fit, versatility, rigidness, and compatibility with miniatures bases.  I'm surprised we don't see more of these, regularly being used, say, in the game stores.

I have another box set, the one with the buildings.  Now I wish I had picked up the sewers set, as well.

Turns out I have some containers that hold these few assembled pieces perfectly, along with the remaining spares.

So glad to finally be able to add the third dimension to my skirmish games.  This will probably motivate me to work on my custom-made canal district.

Regiments of Renown Returns

I feared Regiments of Renown was going to wither on the vine.  As it so happens, I requested to play it as my birthday wish, and my good pal, Steve, was willing to humor me.  The games were such a blast, we may very well keep the momentum moving forward after all!

We planned to play a 3-round series, plus a game of Malifaux, so that Steve could gain some practice with his Colette crew.  While we did play 3 games of Regiments of Renown, we treated the first game as a throw-away, instructional game, so that Steve could refresh himself on basic Warhammer rules, and so that both of us could work out the kinks that Regiments of Renown adds to the game.  Of our follow-on "proper" games, we both won one game, and we decided to save the tie-breaker for another day!

Steve played Bretonnians, and I played my same Orcs & Goblins list.  We kept the terrain the same and just switched sides -- the confrontation takes place in a swampy, jungle, near a ruined fort.

Here is a photo from our first competitive game.  It is at the end of Turn 1, and the Orcs rush out from the safety of the jungle canopy, risking the open ground while in sight of the Bretonnian archers.  Luckily for the Orcs, the archers are mere, untrained peasants, and they can't shoot for crap.

Meanwhile, on back side of the fort, the Squig Hoppers and Goblin Wolf Rider harass the Bretonnian noble and his Yeoman accomplice, in an effort to delay or prevent them from flanking the Orc main force.

'Tis a suicide mission for the poor gobbos (even the Squigs' ravenous maws can't bite through that damn plate mail), but they succeed in delaying the Bretonnian hero wannabe.  His impetuous plan spells doom on the men-at-arms that he left behind.  They are felled by goblin arrows, orc choppas, and one lone, but very hungry, Squig.

Here is the deployment for the final game, with the Bretonnians using the dense landscape to force Squig Hoppers to risk charging through the mucky swamp.

The noble knight again, impetuously, leads the way with his Yeoman, taunting and baiting the gaggle of orcs and gobbos.  Perhaps not what he quite expected, all three Squig Hoppers launch across the swamp, along with the Rockjaw, the orc Leader, and his Regimental Standard-bearer, to boot.  Every one of them survive the dash across the swamp!

The battle becomes a protracted stalemate, as neither Leader can manage to kill the other.  Bretonnians manage to kill enough of the other combatants, though, to force a Rout test, which the low-Leadership Orcs indeed fail, and they abandon the field.

We shall meet again, human scum, and you shall be crushed under our green heel!