Brigand War Warhammer Campaign

In less than three weeks a bunch of my friends and cousins will meet for a day of Warhammer Fantasy battles. This will be a large kick off for a small campaign we are running. Below is a list of my Wood Elf units with names to spice up the flavor. If the army does well we will collect points and I will be able to assign small upgrades to particular units. This is a nice upside, but has an equal downside. The unit gives extra points if they are destroyed, and the unit loses its ability if it is destroyed. The bonuses might be short lived!

The Outcasts of Athel Loren
Main Army Battle Roster

Leader – Lord Hannibal, the Renegade
Spellsinger Sulina Whiteleaf
Spellweaver Yuriel Whiteleaf
Branchwraith – Trindal the Black Rose
Noble - Princess Ilyara the Windtouched

Glade Guard 1 – Ariel’s Host
GG 2 – Loren Marksmen
Wardancers – Swift Blades
Dryads 1 – Black Briars
Dryads 2 – Blood Grove (lvl 2 trait "Feared") Now cause Terror
Treekin – Gnarled Jaws
Wild Riders – Twilight Ghosts
Glade Riders – Silver Spears
Warhawk Riders – Screeching Death
Waywatchers – The Faded Leaves
Treeman – Old Rosebud

This is most of the units at my disposal. I thought about taking an Eternal Guard unit, but I'm not sure they will really suit me well. Maybe in the future I will add them to a larger game, but for this one I think the introduction of treekin is enough for now.

November and Battling for Time

November is two days away, which means after those two days Dragon Age: Origins is 3 days further! My writing skill is insufficient to begin to tell you how well Bioware made Mass Effect. It is probably my preferences that make it such an awesome game to me, but no one can refute the list of awards it received either. A Sci-fi epic RPG game, character customization, interaction with companions, a variety of skills-weapons-armor, tons of background and lore, an interesting story with a vast world to traverse, should I go on? What can we expect from Dragon Age: Origins? I believe we can expect everything that made Mass Effect successful, in a Fantasy setting, and more. I dig a nice side romance story in all my RPGs, when a game throws one in that is done well, I am a very happy gamer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is due out the 11th. I am not the die hard COD player that so many people out there are, I recently jumped into COD4 for the Xbox 360 when it was first released. I played COD3 for computer, so this was the first leap back onto the console. What attracted me most was the adaptation from WW2 and previous wars to the Modern Day. The weapons are familiar, the game was done well, and I actually succeed (to a point) in the online multiplayer game! Many of my friends play it and are eager to jump onto Xbox live and hook some people up!

November 21st, a day that will rock the Warhammer world as several armies converge on an area sandwiched between Bretonnia, Athel Loren and the Eastern Mountains. Several forces are arrayed and will possibly be present to wage war, High Elves, Wood Elves, Brettonians, Ogre Kingdoms and Dwarves. We might see an appearance by Dark elves, and maybe even lizardmen if my brother shows.

There was already a minor skirmish of Wood Elf and Dwarf forces. The Wood Elves closed the flanks swiftly and routed two warmachines, but just as they turned to smash the Dwarven center, a beautiful but foreboding elven horn sounded from the forest. The general of the army looked to his Wild Riders and sounded the retreat, the elves vanished into the forest, lacking a few Dryads and wardancers from the encounter. This game was to help the commander of the Dwarf forces to cut his teeth on the warhammer rules. It is one thing to see them on paper and another to experience them on the game table!


I read Rosario+Vampire Four and started on book five. The manga is great! Tsekune, a human, gets involved with different types of monsters at his new school. Moka - a vampire-the most powerful monster, Kurumu-hot succubus-my favorite!, Ginei(aka Gin) a werewolf and hot shot, and Yukari-11yr old witch who has the hots for Moka. Awesome cast of characters, GREAT drawings, a good fun story with great encounters. It is a really good Manga and I would recommend it to anyone interested in chasing down a new book!

Wednesday's Social Event

This Wednesday's gaming event will be held at my abode. I, Don Raphael - Inwood Ranger and scoundral extrodinaire and my wife The Duchess of Kentuckiberry, will play host to a miriade of avid game players.

Now cutting to the chase, a bunch of my friends will be coming over the 14th to get in on some gaming action. We are taking a small break from Rysm's Dungeons and Dragons game to play some warhammer. I will be playing Rysm in the final scenario of our five battle campaign. This will start around 4pm so we can be well into the game as the other players arrive.

For a fluffy version of the battle, see the previous post; for a general run down, keep reading. The battle takes place in Mousillon, well inside the borders. The elves mission to seek out a powerful slumbering relic and claim more territory for the forest seems almost complete. The defenders valiantly continue to bring the elves to battle in an effort to send them packing from their realm and claim it once again. The score sits at 85-10 pts, Wood Elves (me) with 85 and the Bretonnians at 10. The 100 point mark needs to be reached for the campaign to be successful for one side. If the Wood Elves march to victory, they should reach 100 points.

That being said, the elves relic is of questionable background. It is quite possible the relic may be of chaos origin. In light of this news, some wood elven units may be unhappy with the path the elves are taking and join against the effort on the side of the Bretonnians.

In another light, many knights have lost their lives bravely at the numerous battles against the wood elves. Some defeats stung much deeper and left many knights dead or severely wounded. A few knights have offered their flag to the wood elves, on the stipulation that Lord Rincewind be brought to justice for his flagrant waste of the Lady's knights.

Now back to the rest of the gaming night. Several of our friends, who we play D&D with, are coming over. Two of them will be learning Warhammer Fantasy on the Battle for Skull Pass. Rysm and I will be assisting, once our game is over, in their knowlegde of the game mechanics and rules. We also may try to get a small game in if there is time.

After the Warhammer Fantasy we will be moving onto a separate Pathfinder RPG game hosted by our friend, Finkle. This game takes place in the world of Pathfinder and may take parts of the adventures built by the creators of Pathfinder. I will be playing a dwarven fighter for this game. A dwarf is a step out of my usual comfort zone of playable races. I usually play a character I think I would like to play, dwarves usually do not fit into that category, but I think I've found a character I may enjoy using. I guess we will see after I come back and post how it went playing him.

That is about all on the list that is on the docket. There will be some Xbox 360 action and who knows what else might pop up into existance. I'll recount the story after the event.

A Battle Approaches

This part of the forest was deathly quiet. The hour was late, the moon and stars masked by heavy clouds and the earth pitched into a deep darkness. Through the thick undergrowth and misshapen trees shone the only light. A few torches and small fires surrounded a small clearing. The flicker of the fire cast unsettling shadows from the twisted and bare trees.

Several sentries, undetectable without the keenest eye, kept vigil hidden from view of anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon this place. Their elven hoods were thrown up and bodies camouflaged with pieces of the forest. In the midst of the clearing stood two individuals, one much larger and broad than the first. Beside the tall man stood a heavy black charger, pawing the soft earth anxiously. The smaller woman, an elf, beside him watched the hole carefully.

"I don't like it." the man said at last. "Nothing about the forest feels right, are you sure about this relic?"
"The Spellweaver and lords of the forest seem sure enough. That is good enough for me to come to this place." she replied. "Why, do a few gnarled trees and shadows put you on edge, Lord Hannibal?"
The man clenched his jaw, considering the area around him a moment before replying, "No, they do not, Princess. What might come out of this ground does." He finished speaking and hefted himself up into the saddle of the charger. The princess looked over at him, unwillingly to express unwillingness to remain in this part of the forest alone. It was Mousillon, as the humans called it, and who knows what they might find. It was suppose to be a lost artifact to return to Athel Loren, but she felt, skeptical.
"Going so soon?" she started to say and tried to devise a method to keep him here.
"Yes, any moment your scouts will be coming to tell you Lord Rincewind is preparing for battle." Lord Hannibal indicated with a hand at a figure slipping through trees towards their position.
"Again? These humans are most frustrating, they must breed like orcs!" The princess turned to intercept the elven runner.
"Yes, but if they were orcs they would have killed Lord Rincewind by now, and elected a stronger leader." Hannibal added pointedly. "Unless Lord Rincewind is strong enough to behead them first, and thus remain in power."
Princess Ilyara frowned and was glad they did not have any other such armies to contend with. The scout rushed up to her and knelt.
"My lady, I bring word of an approaching host of Bretonnian knights." the elf finished between breaths.
"Rise my brother and send another to carry the word, we assemble for battle." The princess moved beside Hannibal and shifted into a wolf. The man looked down at her and smirked, "Not staying to watch the dig?" The wolf snarled and rushed off into the forest, followed closely by the black charger.

Warhammer Fantasy Campaign Battle 4 - The Panty Raid(Camp Assault)

The Great Panty Raid was named for the fourth battle of this Warhammer Fantasy Campaign. Between my Wood Elves and Lord Rincewind's Bretonnians. The theme of this battle was to out manuever the opposing army (most likely at dawn or dusk) and attempt to gain the advantage by ravaging the enemies camp. Since I am partial to female characters and elves, and Lord Rincewind had a damsel (and hopefully a couple others at camp haha) we decided to jokingly name this the Panty Raid! Successfully winning the battle would yield lacy plunder to the opposing force! Here follows is my account of the battle.

















Above is my armies deployment. Pay no mind to the pegasus knights with my Warhawk rider, she is rather stubborn and thinks she can make mounts of them, she always manages to kill a knight with shooting more than 50% of the time so I don't argue. From Bottom picture to top We have (left to right)


(Sorry about the retardedness of going from bottom to top, the blogger moved them all around and this the third time i've changed the writing to try and fit the pictures!!)


My highborn (lord) Alter kindred with Bow of Loren, Arcane bodkins (no armor save) pageant of shrikes, and briarsheath.
3 warhawk riders
10 GG
Waywatchers deployed in the open more than 12 in away from his army (was gambling here)
GG in the forest
Noble with GW, Helm of the Hunt (HoTH), and Hail of Doom Arrow (HoDA) Alter kindred
8 wardancers
Treeman
Dryads
6 Wildriders coming out of camp still carrying win
and farrrr to the right the 5 glade riders.

I wanted to free up some points in this game for another GG unit so I dropped a character. My branchwraith did not come, so I was very light on magic. I knew, and hoped, my friend would be light on the magic. He never uses much of it and I was banking on him taking one damsel to my one level 2 spellsinger (yes I took a level 2 while most would argue take a level 1 instead to save pts)

I rolled treesinging first and i was unahppy because I would have to accept call of the hunt if I rolled it next. I rolled Ariel's Blessing instead, manageable to cast on 3 dice. I took one scroll - didnt need it he never cast anything - and a deepwood sphere. I kept the SS in a wood with the GG knowing he would charge and they would flee out, if he got in the wood he would suffer S5 hits on any model in the wood with my SS, even partially, in my magic phase - plus I could cast treesinging to damage him.















Above is his deployment, Bottom picture to Top one (left to right):
10 Peasant Bowmen (PB)
5 Knights Errant (KE)
10 Skirmishing bowmen
10 more PB
5 Peasant Yeomen infront of the bowmen
9 knights errant (I think)
8 Knights errant with Paladin BSB in it (starting the left of the right picture now)
4 horrid, wretched, dirty pegasus knights (PK)
Lord on a pegasus behind them, just getting his lazy butt up out of the mud.
Trebuchet behind the PK
5 Grail Knights (GK) with damsel level 1 - Lord of Life spell that heals wounds to models.
and of course, the required KoTR unit, who says it needs to be big? Just needs to be, and it is that at 5 models.

Now starts the battle.

















Bottom picture is my first movement of my left flank. Glade riders didnt make it out of LoS of the PB and take 3 casaulties on his turn and actually flee back behind the WR. His other shooting is negligible. On my right flank (bottom pic) I fire away with 20 GG, HoDA that only rolls 5 shots, Waywatchers that moved just within 15 inches of his PK to shoot for Killing Blow (KB) 3 warhawk riders fire, and my Highborn fires at his GK killing 1 (lucky 2 Ward Saves). After all the firing he had 1 PK left and I was happy with that because that unit bugs the heck out of me.

On his turn he charges out at my Waywatchers (WW) with his Lord, Pegsus Knight, and Grail Knights - my Waywatchers flee, and I hoped they would roll just over a 6 to get out of flyer range, they rolled an 11 and ran all the way behind the Wardancers. His flyers had to move full distance and are out of position, his GK stop at 8 inches. This is shown in the picture below

He moved his KoTR to cover chargers of the GK or PK I think, moved his KE on the left to charged my GG and turned his other KE w/BSB to cover his peasants incase i charged them, foolishly, with my Wildriders or dryads. Next round I dont have pics for but I charge his lord with myWD - they fight and lose in challenge but hold. Then lose when charged by his GK, flee and are caught, his PK goes down to firing and a few more GK are picked off by my lord off picture, my Warhawks fly out of LoS of his 5 KoTR and line up the Trebuchet for a charge. WW fail to rally and flee 10 inches, almost just off the table edge.

Hext his KE charged my GG, they flee and his unit stops just infront of the woods, darn! His BSB KE unit charges my treeman, who is sitting just to the left of this picture in regards to the KE unit and Peasant Yoeman base showing.

I take a play from his handbook and challenge the paladin so the rest of the unit can't hit. We do no wounds to each other! I lose combat, need an 8 stubborn and roll a 9, get run down. There goes the treeman, to his defense he has never broke from the many combats he has fought, so it was inevitable and set his BSB unit up perfectly to receive my WR flank charge and Noble rear charge.















bottom picture is my warhawks murdering the dreaded Trebuchet, in the right hands of someone who guesses guess range weapons like the devil, this is deadly. I am just glad I dont have a horde army and when it does scatter it misses! It didn't manage much this game, and I didnt give it chance. The "Pegsus herder" killed 2 crew, no wounds back, and outnumber sent them packing, I hoped to roll high enough to get off the board and away from his KoTR and I did, see you next WE turn!

In the top picture is my left flank, his right. My dryads charged his PW and wiff, killing one, he fears me but has more models and hits on 6's instead of running. Go figure he manges to kill 1 and outnumbers me. I roll over the 7 I need and my dryads run!! OMG tree forces are having a rough day. They dont get run down but hit my glade riders that turned to face that direction on my turn. They fight next time around and the riders kill two and the horses one, no PB hits so they flee and are caught by my riders, who get to set up for flank charge on the next PB unit!

















bottom pic is my battle with the BSB and KE still picking out treeman splinters. The charge yields me about 5 WR wounds and 1 horse, and 4 from the Noble. In all they kill about 5 or 6, not getting hit back. With a banner/warbanner/fank charge, rear, and negating ranks he needs a 2 to stay, with the reroll he fails and they run. Both pursue and the WR hit the side of the KE unit outside the woods, Noble gets 1 inch behind the fleeing unit.

In the top one is just a picture of the dryads running and the GR getting their hands dirty handling some peasant rabble.
















This bottom pic shows the WR smashing into the KE flank, they manage to do well in combat again, even the horses, and the unit flees, don't catch them, but charge the next turn and they almost make it out of my units 18 inch charge range - so are destroyed. The lord charges my WW that rally at the table edge, I lose 3 in the fight, fail break test and they run off, Lord holds. GK can just see the last GG on the left and charges only to die in stand and shoot.

The Grail Knight unit was picked off by more lord shots, and the damsel got 1 wound from my pageant of shrikes, this last turn i shot them again and they wounded her, and she rolled her 6 ward save!!! The NERVE! So I took the Glade guard and pummeled them with arrows, doing enough to randomize a wound to her and finish her pretty little self off, and take a GK leaving that lone model left.















Bottom shows the dryads rallying and taking more heat from the PB on the left shooting. Good thing they get -1 for moving and -1 for shooting skirmishers. The Glade riders avenge their fallen friends and charge more peasants, doing some nice spear hits and chase them off, catching the unit.

Top picture just shows his Paladin and unit turning around, they suffer the effects of the Deepwood sphere but live, and even treesinging doesnt do much. My GG move to see them and shoot, only killing maybe 1. But.... The far unit of GG, I wanted to shoot at his lord before committing my Lords arrows. They fire and doe a nice amount of hits, he rolls his armor save and fails 3 out of 5 or 6 of them. No biggie, he has 3 wounds and a 4 up ward save (due to items) and fails ALL three rolls - again. Easy come easy go said the treeman.


The GG finishing him off allowed my lord to pepper his 5 KoTR and kill 2 and u can see where my WR caught his KE in the back of the pic.

After this there was some more maneuvering around his KoTR with my Warhawks and my GR headed back towards camp, WR went to mop up those KoTR and noble headed left to help with the knights stuck in the woods and the PB. My friend had to concede at this point because of family obligations so we ended there. I took some prized banners, damsel "clothing articles", the camp and the day

Highborn: "Will you wear this?"
Princess Ilyara: "In your dreams, buddy."



The End

Stalemate at Blackadder

Here was fought the battle of Blackadder. Many a peasant was slain this day, much attributed to the elves, but the Prince would say otherwise! He slayed hundreds of them! Anyway, my Blackadder TV show reference is somewhat off, Rysm might glean a peek into that episode and how it compares to this battle. To the right are the Brets, seemingly more numerous than the poor elves! But I did have two units in the buildings, one scout unit in the closest, and a waywatcher unit in the building on the right. They impacted the battle very little. My bowmen are hiding at the bottom left of the screen in the forest, with a spellsinger even deeper in there. For future reference that grey building is 24 inches from the hill with the trebuchet, not that anyone is counting. (inside joke)

This battle was magic heavy, and when I say that I mean we took our Lords as casters, with one additional caster required. Since my magic is anything but, offensive. I took a level 3, threw glamourweave on him and a mount - waste. The one good thing about this lord is that he took the wand of the Wych Elm - allows me to reroll dispel attempts. My level one spellsinger carried two dispel scrolls. I also took a Branchwraith with the level 1 wizard upgrade and cluster of radiants to add an additional dispel die. My dispel dice were up to 7! Good for neutering the Bretonnian magic, maybe not a Dark elf or Chaos magic phase, but a start.

Both the picture above and below are facing each other on the battle field. This is the side my wood elves eventually conquered, but were conquered when it came to the other side. It was a turn or two of staring at each other and the treeman moving himself up in the trees along with my noble. Bowfire was exchanged between the Glade riders and the peasants with each side losing some. Peasant Yeomen found there ways into the middle to bait, and my noble almost bit, and she probably should have because her +3 ward save didnt save the charge she gladly accepted. Don't use leadership dice for armor saves, they will do you wrong. The knights errant smashed into her and then ran into the treeman, who gladly held opened his gnarley arms to his old friends, and then the wardancers pranced into their flank. Dryads moved up to find the skirmishing villien Bill and got within an inch. The next turn they charged the bowmen who fled through another set of knights errant. This led the fear causing dryads into the knights errant, who turned tail and charged (fearlessly) off the table - past the running bowmen. Eventually Bill got his dream and fought the branchwraith mono y tree spirit. To his credit Bill would have hit the wraith, had he got his turn to strike.

Below the Men at Arms move to surround the house in the picture. They heard there were elven women and drink inside. They charged to the building and met with the 7 waywatchers, who themselves were drunk by the shooting rounds that followed, and fought them hardily for the right to the brothel and drink! The battle was fought in initiative order, to the benefit of the armorless extra hand weapon wielding waywatchers. Striking first the waywatchers take down about five men at arms, allowing five to strike back causing no wounds. The peasants take a step back and think about digging under with spoons, before being barreled over by a different kind of forest "spirits".

The battle ended in a draw. With the Bretonnians surrounding their precious trebuchet in the fifth turn and coursing out from it, catiously, to claim another table side. The Elves were routed and had no presence there, and were too far away to bring themselves to bear against the Brets from their now human deprived side of Blackadder. A single scout lived (still not worth the points against a mostly armored foe like brets) The waywatchers also survived the day but should be strung up by their big toes for lousy shooting from such a promising position. Coming soon, the elves regroup to try and gain momentum to push further into Mousillon.

Gamesday 2009

So, this post is somewhat, belated? Gamesday was a week ago, and I am just now getting around to posting about it. Apologies, but I can get pretty busy... (or lazy) This Gamesday was held at Baltimore, and Ace of Cakes make an armored squig including swallowed squig herder! At first glance I thought this was just a statue, but I recalled overhearing Ace of Cakes was in the building and someone mentioned this beastly thing was actually a cake. Don't get caught licking the icing on this one.

The event included many Club gaming tables and several GW ran events. People could partake in an Apocalypse battle between the Imperium Tanks and Orc Super Heavies. Or they could take control of one of the many forces defending or assailing Minas Tirith pictured above. It was a very big table with a huge model of the famous Lord of the Ring city to add to the flavor. I was not sure who was exactly winning, but I saw many dead riders of Rohan!

The Golden Demon is truely a highlight for many of the avid adventurers of Gamesday. I always consider entering into the competition with my meager skills, until I see things like this one. Above is a regiment submission, I believe, of Bretonnian Knights. My camera skills only take away from this incredible artwork. You had to be there in person and look with your own eyes directly at these tremendous models. I am sure some people would not be as awed as I, but this was a high light for me. Below is a conversation using Bretonnian bitz and Saint Celestine from my sisters 40k army. I could pick it out easily and it held a place in my memories of GD 2009. Awesome modelling.

Here is another picture of the Squig Herder cake. It is crazy what they can do with some cooked cake batter and some glue. Save me a leg!

My camera died at some point during the wandering of the arena. My cousins, Greg and David, and I participated in the conversion contest. You were given sprues of Chaos Warriors and Space Marines and told to make the best, craziest, whatever your mind could think of and you could glue to a base, model to enter into the competition. I have no idea who won, or what the winning model was comprised of that allowed it to win. After looking at some of the crazy stuff I saw, it must be phoenominal.

We traveled to the scenary make and take and I met my old friend from the bunker Joe Neet. We exchanged some friendly banter and he supplied my cousins and I with some cities of death sprues and we went to town making some buildings. I eagerly made a two storey building to act as a church for the next Warhammer Fantasy battle between myself and a friend. It turned out very well.

My friend Dave and his gaming club was present and totally were hosed out of winning the banner contest. GW usually held the contests until close to the end of the day when most everyone was finished gaming . This year the banner and costume contest were overshadowed by events still ongoing. The time was moved up drastically and many people did not participate in judging the banners or the costumes. Several people with costumes did not even make the contest, which was a shame because they had some very good ones. I will not even touch on, what was suppose to be a seminar, that I attended. Nothing good can come from me talking about, but I will say that I was severely disappointed - and not because I had some super question I wanted answered that would never be, but because nothing came out of that seminar, nothing.

Will I go to Gamesday 2010? Who knows, probably, for $25 I got to enjoy a day out in Baltimore, make some scenary, make a chaos dude, check out some armies, meet up with old friends, maybe make a costume next year, who knows? Bring some friends, split parking costs, smuggle in some snack bars to munch on to cut down on food $$$, and have a good time!