The encounter in the Tall Timbers

Last night Beli’s Band met the Knights of George St. in a couple of encounters at John’s place. Despite promises, Keith never showed, so what was to be a three-way encounter was just between the two of us. There was a ‘treasure’ in the centre of the field, which was worth VP for the one that opened it. Surprisingly, despite short moves, I got there first (John had trouble with activation rolls). John also didn’t have much luck in combat, as Woodsman William was killed by Lhadr, when he was in combat with both Flakki and Bofor as well. Then Snorri and Holgar defeated Sergeant Bob, who had fallen, so his armour did not protect him in a close fight. Lhadr took on Sir Cumference ably supported by Gramr (I think Flakki or Bofor may have shot at him first); anyway, it was a gruesome sight, and the rest of Sir Cumference’s band did not stick around.

The scene of the carnage; the dwarves get massed around three corpses, while the remains of Sir Cumference's command are about to flee on their second morale check).

Gramr and Lhadr (both Greedy) prepare to despoit sir Cumference's corpse while the rest of the band look on.

Squire Robert, Woodsman Wayne, Squire Geoffrey and Squire Micheal beating a hasty retreat.

In the second encounter we sought magical treasure. The terrain was similar to the last encounter, but moved a little more centrally. We placed three corpses to indicate the possible location of the treasure. Two were in a central wood and one was atop the crag on the side. I went after the two in the wood, reaching one with Lhadr (his greed seemed to get him to these things quickly!) and one with Gifr. Both proved elusive, and it was left to Squire Geoffrey to climb the crag and find a ring (I think) of regeneration. Given he’s already tough, this seemed less useful. Anyway, he was soon shot at by the two crossbow armed dwarves and took a kip (fell and never stood) for the remainder of the encounter.

The real action was between Woodsman Wayne and most of the dwarves, who went after him with a will, but despite the numbers, couldn’t beat him. Holgar was in the thick of it, and Gramr went in to provide first support. Wayne despatched Gramr messily, causing his handler, Bofor, to retire a little, but the rest were unmoved (actually, I forgot that Holgar was not Fearless, so he didn’t take a morale check as he should have. At one stage Wayne was surrounded by Holgar, Snorri, Lhadr and Nar (he’d forced Grifr to retire (lucky dog!)); at odds of 3-1 or 4-1 he won each encounter until finally Snorri, I think, proved too much for him. Certainly, it was the last of the four combats; a very valiant fight; he was spurred on, no doubt, by the rude gibes of the dwarves, ‘Pick on someone your own size’ and so forth.

With Wayne down, Sir Cumference, who’d been trying to direct an encircling attack, found himself isolated. Beli attacked him, supported, I think, by Gifr, and he went down in a gruesome mess—again! At this point resistance collapsed, although Woodsman William was not routed, but chose to retire, as he had no support.

This was the first time we ventured into difficult terrain (because of the treasures), which was hard work for the dwarves, and created command and control issues for the leaders.

• Review:

The dwarves proved a tough warband (though good dice helped them); the short move was not much of a problem, as their warriors had high qualities and could usually make two moves. The high combat scores made them pretty tough as well. The dogs did well, though they didn’t succeed in killing anyone while he was down (they got at least one attack like this). They did get to add numbers to others’ attacks, though they are very vulnerable if the enemy gets to hit back.

This is a fun warband and I’m keen to use it again, though next week I’ll probably try out a mounted one to see how it works. I’ve got a few Byzantines I’ll use for this. John, after having Sir Cumference die horribly in each encounter, is planning to revamp his warband’s stats. Wayne’s valiant performance has got him thinking of a promotion (assuming the dwarves gave him a restorative brandy and bandaged his wounds).

We’ve now played three games of SBH and are starting to get the hang of the rules. What slows us down is the search for clarification in the FAQ that are scattered around the rules and the Free Hacks. Anyway, we’re getting faster and starting to see different tactics.

Beli’s Band, a SBH Warband

I’ve made a SBH warband out of the three elements of dwarves that I’d got done for HOTT. I’d like to get a HOTT dwarf army done, but I reckon I won’t have much time for painting in the next while as I get ready for a trip to Europe. I’ve spent a bit of time naming and describing the figures in this warband, and I’ve even made cards for them, a novelty that might wear off:

The figures are all 15mm Chariot apart from the dogs which are Peter Pig (Gifr) and Irregular (Gramr). The cards were prepared using CCG Maker, which is fairly flaky to be honest. The novelty of it may wear off. I should get to try this warband out tomorrow with John and Keith.

A HOTT Friday (Goblins v. Elves)

Last Friday I caught up with a friend for a spot of HOTT. There’s a group of guys playing HOTT with GW figures on 80mm wide bases. I took my figures anyway for a bit of show-and-tell. As it turned out there were only three of us and my figures were the most finished (the other two had 28mm armies still being painted, so we got out my Goblins and had a 36 point HOTT game with them. I was the Goblin chief with: 2xWb (1=cmd), 8xHd, 2xBh (Trolls and Ogres), 1xDr (the new Green one), 1xFl (Bats), 2xRd (wolf riders), 2xLu (Spiders), 1xSh, 1xBs (Wolves). Facing them were a coalition of all that is good and decent led by Keith and John. They had: 1xAHr (=cmd) (Hippogriff rider), 2xBh (Walking Tree and Giant), 2xHd (Human peasants), 1xSp (Wood Elves), 2xSh (Rangers and Wood Elves), 2xRd (Centaurs), 1xSh (Dwarves), 2xBd (Dwarves), 2xBs (Bears).

I was the attacker and faced the enemy across an open plain flanked by craggy hills and towering trees (28mm scale!); unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. On their left flank they had the peasants next to the Elven spear and the walking tree with the rangers and Elven archers in the woods guarding the flank. The General was in reserve. On the other flank they had the bears guarding the flank on the hill and the dwarves and giant in a line in the open. To face this I arrayed the general facing the Elves, flanked by his hordes and with the archers and wolves on the far flank. On the other flank I had the Troll and Ogres flanked by wolf riders. The bats were in reserve.

I got off to a great start, rolling a 6 and having the dragon arrive straight away (actually I think the spiders must have arrived on the first turn against the bears, but were chased off). Old Greeny pinned the bears while my mounted went against the Dwarves and destroyed the Giant ally. I had very much the better of the PIPs, but the battle was in the balance when the Aerial Hero started to turn the flank of my mounted. At this point my hordes had already started to get into action, without being impressive (no surprises there!). I had the option of pouring my PIPs into the combat with the hordes, with little chance of anything decisive, or gambling on the dragon attacking the aerial hero with the bats flanking it to prevent recoil. This brought the game down to, in effect, a coin toss, as the odds were 6-6. However, if I won the enemy broke; if I lost the dragon fled and I could carry on, though very exposed to their general. As it turned out, that dragon was a mean old bugger, and he minced the aerial hero and gave me the game. He’s showing real promise (unlike the red dragon that notoriously refused to show up in his early games). He’s given the Goblins their first victory ever!

HOTT Fridays may become a regular event for me, though I’m reluctant to commit to a 28mm army. Keith was very interested in the 15mm fantasy I had, though I doubt I’ll convince them all to go 15mm.

Another dragon

Sinister Green Dragon.

Well, inspired by a game of HOTT the other day and a chance comment on Fanaticus about my present dragon, I decided to paint the Splintered Light dragon that I got last year. I’m pleased with how it’s come out. It was a bit of a hassle gluing on the wings, as I soon found that superglue was not strong enough. I drilled out the wings and the shoulders and joined them with wire and Araldite two-part epoxy. They weren’t totally correctly lined up, but after I undercoated them you’d hardly know, and I was likely to make a bigger mess with green stuff trying to fix it.

I decided to make it green to fit in with his goblin buddies. I used a base coat of ‘Snot Green’ mixed with Silver and then did the scales ‘Scaly Green’ (what else!) mixed with ‘Boltgun Metal’ and the spine and wing bones ‘Dark Angel Green’ mixed with Gold. I finished it with a black Klear wash.

The other side.

It could possibly do with a deeper base, as its head extends out from the front somewhat. However, attacks from the sides and behind could also get problematic with the tail sticking out and the wings being very wide. You can see how big it is when it’s next to my other dragon (who looks very cuddly by comparison!).

The Green Dragon meets the cute Red one (oops, lost his tail!).

I’m planning to do some more HOTT figures. I’m going to paint two elements of beasts (giant boars). These will be part of a Dwarven army that I’ll aim to finish next: I need to do a hero and two more elements of blades; otherwise I’m planning some halfling allies (one element each of shooters and lurkers) and some artillery. The final army will be:

4xBd (1=cmd)
1xHr
2xSh
1xArt
1xLu
0-2xFl (eagles)
0-2xBs (boars)

I’ve got more blades and shooters I could paint, but this would be enough for a bare minimum, and it wouldn’t take too much work. I quite like the idea of having one element of boars and the halfling lurkers to anchor one flank in bad going and having one element of eagles as a mobile reserve. It’d be good to have an army to face the goblins that wasn’t a composite of various humans (part of the problem is that I’m light on mounted to make most of my human armies interesting).

The dragon against his goblin allies for comparison of scale.

Anyway, I’ve finally finished an element this year (I should get those Ancient Britons done any time soon!).