Latest Kings of War painting.

 Here are a few photo's of the latest figures I have painted up for my Kings of War armies. Good friend and long time wargaming buddie Mister C recently rekindled my love of playing Kings of War. Note we have stayed with version 3 of the rules as the few of my friends who play KOW all have that edition of the rules. 

Elf King mounted leading a unit of Stormwind Cavalry. Figures are from the Oathmark range and all shields and the banner are handpainted. 

Oathmark Wood Elves painted as Kindred Galdestalkers.

View of the back of the Gladestalkers to show their camo-cloaks. 

Note that I chamfer all my mdf bases. For my elves I then cover the base with pva glue before sprinkling fine grit (from Javis). Once dry this is stained with a heavy wash of artists Burnt Umber acrylic. Once that is dry I drybrush the bases with Vallejo US army drab and then a lighter drybrush with Iraqi Sand and finally a few tufts and some flock. 

Onto my new army the Empire of Dust. These Scavengers are figures from the MaxMini range, great figures with a really wide selection of well detailed resin figures to choose from and at a good price. A bit fiddly to assemble but super glue works on them really well. 

More MaxMini's, this time Enslaved Guardians with a resin Cursed High Priest figure I bought from ebay. I wish the High Priest had a scroll instead of a spell book as that would have seemed more apt? 

A rear view to show off their fancy striped headdress. I am currently assembling another 3 of the Enslaved Guardians to make this regiment scale up to a Horde. 

For my Empire of Dust army the bases are also chamfered and I have made a basing material from a mix of pva, artists burnt umber paint and grit. Once this has been spread around the figures bases and allowed to dry the base is then painted with Vallejo Desert Brown, dry brushed with Vallejo Desert Yellow and finally dry brushed with Iraqi Sand. I then add a few dried out looking tufts and a sprinkle of grit here and there. The grit when dry is then dry brushed with Iraqi Sand.  

I have really enjoyed painting all of these figures and there are many more to come but no doubt I will get distracted by other projects at some point.  

Lion Rampant: Scenario Bloodfeud

 It was just Ian and I today for our game of Lion Rampant playing scenario 16: Bloodfeud. A quick set of dice throws soon decided that Ian (Sir Michael de Pap) was the attacker who needed to kill the opposing leader. I was the defender Sir John de Lacy who needed to defeat the opposing warband to win the game and the dice also decided that I should take the first turn. 

Sir John de Lacy posing atop a hill. 

His son Richard de Lacy advances on foot. 

Sir Pap about to advance. 

Robin Hood was on Sir Pap's side, front right unit. After his excellent performance last game I was out for vengence on him. 

Sir Richard de Lacy decided to attack.

As did his father, Sir John. 

My scouts shoot at Robin Hood's unit and very nearly got the double one needed to kill the leader. A throw of 1,2 happened about 4 times during this game on a variety of leaders.

My cavalry units heading off around the right flank. 

My light cavalry charge into Ian's crossbowmen.

Sir John de Lacy about turns and heads in the opposite direction. 

Richard de Lacy and Robin Hood close in on each other's warbands. 

At this point Ian;s shooting was slowly whittling my units down as they advanced. 

Things hotting up in the centre. 

 Richard de Lacy and his men charge Robin Hood and his Merry Men and kill them all including Robin, things are looking good. 

Then it all got very exciting for a few turns. When we fought a melee, my troops generally did very well but as Ian had paid the points to boost his archery his bowfire played havoc with my troops. 

I forgot to take photo's for a while as things were so hectic. It had looked likely that Ian would win the game then things swung my way especially as Sir Michael de Pap was slain, leaving Ian leaderless but with a few more units than me. With so little left on the table we thought about calling it a slight win for Ian but Sir John de Lacy persuaded him to have one last turn.

However, Sir John need to rally himself from being battered first but failed miserably. As he had been pushed back into the stream Ian said he had drowned there and so we went with that and Ian won again.  

This was a fun game once again and not a single leader figure survived. On reflection I feel I should have held back a bit as Ian's bowmen were superior to mine. I could then tried to have taken advantage of any of his units who strayed too far forward unsupported. We live and learn and I have to say Ian outsmarted me today. But I shall have my revenge! 

 

Lion Rampant: Defending the Indefensible.

 Today we had a 3 player game of Lion Rampant with Ian and Nigel controlling retinues of 20pts each on one side as the attackers. I controlled the defenders as 2 retinues of 20pts each (as Charlie was poorly and unable to play). I had to put some of my troops in a central position defending a stone cross my Lord had constructed on land disputed with the rival Lord (Ian). Ian and Nigel needed to get into the table centre and topple the cross, I had to defend it. 

My retinues at the bottom with some of the troops deployed centrally to defend the cross. 

Most of the opposing retinues.

The defenders of the cross. The disadvantage for these troops was being out of command range that can help with activation throws. 

My Lord John de Lacy and his men about to advance. 

My mounted sergeants head off to protect my flank. 

Ian's scouts were the first unit to rout, shot to pieces by my crossbowmen bravely defending the fence. 

Ian sent his lord Luca de Caggiano around the other flank with a unit of mounted sejeants in support. 

After a couple of rounds of fierce fighting and missile fire only Sir Luca was left of Ian's cavalry although my troops were battered too. 

Sir John de Lacy, my Lord, moves towards the centre to defend his cross. 

A unit of skirmishing bowmen kill Sir Luca, causing all of Ian's remaing troops to take a courasge test and off they all ran. 

My lesser Lord Richard de Bolton, moves around the chapel towards the cross to add to it's defence. 

In the centre my knights wild charged into a variety of units causing mayhem to the opposition and also to themselves. 

My foot sergeants chase off Ian's last unit, some crossbowmen. 

Now things got so exciting that I forgot all about photographs. 

It was looking favourable for my remaining troops but I had not factored in how deadly Robin Hood (Nigel) and his deadly bowmen were. 

Over the next few turns Robin Hood and his merrymen and also a unit of skirmishers picked off my remaining troops unit by unit. My throws for activation in these last few turns were awful whilst suddenly Nigels dice were on fire. 

So with a narrow, hard fought win Robin Hood and his merrymen dance around the cross before toppling it. This was a very exciting game that could have gone either way. So much fun that we play again next week. 

Lion Rampant: the Taxman Cometh.

 For this week's game of Lion Rampant we chose 'the Taxman Cometh', scenario. Ian took control of two 16pt forces to contest the tax tokens against Charlie and I, each with a 16pt force. We were using our Barons War figures again.

My Warband led Sir John de Lacy with Charlie's Warband in the background led by Sir Richard de Bolton as we deploy. 

Ian's Lord's warband near to us, Robin Hood at the far side. 

We threw for different Leader skills and Charlie got 'Inspired' which was very useful for the extra unit activations he got. 

The table just before turn 1. There are 6 mdf tokens of varying value to represent the tax collected. The players need to find them and collect them, whoever collects the most tax by the end is the winner. 

Happily all of my warband obeyed orders and moved forwards. 

Charlie's peasants rushed into the first building to find a tax token (worth 1pt). 

My cavalry opt to go around the side of the house to try and clash with Ian's knights, plus they picked up a tax token in the marsh. 

Ian's peasants celebrate their tax find in the cottage.  

Robin Hood's missile heavy force take up a central position.

My knights dice for a wild charge and decided that was a good idea. 

But they charge Ian's skirmishers and wipe them out. 

The two units of knights did clash and both survived but at below half strength. 

Then Ian threw his Mounted Sergeants in and after a couple of rounds of melee with them and another against his knights my knights including Sir John de Lacy were routed. 

My mounted Sergeants were also involved but were also routed. 

The death of de Lacy.

His tax token was gleefully picked up by Ian's knights. 

Elsewhere , Charlie's units had claimed 3 tokens and were in a good central position. 

Charlie also managed to activate his crossbow unit to shoot and rout Robin Hood and his not so merry men . By now Charlie still had 3 tokens and Ian controlled the other 3. However, Charlie's tokens  worth 5 units of tax but Ian's totalled 6. With Ian's units in a good position to withdraw with their tax and Charlie too far away to stand any real chance of catching them, a narrow victory was declared for Ian. 

All three of us agreed that this was a really enjoyable game. I can't play for a couple of weeks but when we next play it will be Lion Rampant again, perhaps trying slightly larger warbands.  

Orcs v Elves, Kings of War.

 MisterC came up for our long anticipated game of Kings of War today. With our wives heading off for a walk MisterC and I set up. He had brought his Orc army along to face my Elves. As I had set the table up MisterC chose table edge and quick dice throws decided that I would start deployment first and then take first turn. 

Deployment, elves to the left, orcs to the right. 

We were playing scenario 4: Dominate, a fight to control the centre of the board. 

A close up of MisterC's new unit of orcs (the red ones) and his Orc Wardrum which was to have quite an impact on the game. 

First moves, my elves move their missile troops forward to shoot at the advancing Gore riders. Elf shooting was good and we caused enough damage to Rout them but the nearby Orc Krudger used his 'Inspiring' rule to force a re-throw which saved them. The elves also shot at the far troop of Moraxes and should have routed them as well but the Inspiring re-throw also saved them. 

Note the Drakon Riders who used their fly and nimble to get around the flank of the trolls and lead them on quite a dance. 

Taking cover in the woods 0n the left, some Orc Skulks shoot at my Kindred Elf Archers and scored an incredible five 6's with their 8 attacks. Thankfully this resulted in just 3 damage which the elves were able to shrug off. 

Why is my Magic user standing out in the open, someone could charge him...?

Meanwhile the elf Kindred Archers entered the woods on the left and rout the Orc Skulks.

Whoops, Eritas the Scribe gets eaten by Gore riders. That was very careless of me as he had been using his Lightning Bolt to great effect. 

Orc Sandwich as I try and get as many elf units attacking just two orc ax units, some getting the extra attacks for flank and rear attacks. I was hoping to control the table centre by the end of this turn but sadly for me, one of the orc units survived. Damned wardrum helping them survive. (Good use of that by MisterC). 

My Silverbreeze Cavalry bravely charge into the flank of the Gore Riders who survive then turn and squish my poor cavalry troop. I think a certain Wardrum or Inspiring character helped the Gore Riders again. 

At this point my Elves seemed to have the upperhand. The trolls were stranded out wide having no effect on the game and we were winning the big central clash. 

If you look closely you may spot Elf Prince, Cadvan Dunmail finally entering the fray. 

The orc Moraxes routed my Elf Kindred archers in the wood so my Drakon Rides flew over and routed them in return, things still going well for the elves. 

With that damned Orc Wardrum saving the remaining Orc unit again MisterC was able to move some of his characters into the melee and his Godspeaker, Baragh (magic user) started blasting elves with his Fireball spell. 

Oh no, my Tree Shamblers and then the Drakon Riders get routed and suddenly things are not going well for the elves. The orc warlord Huglik the Vile alongside Vesp the Orc flager had ganged up on the Drakons to see them off. 

Finally with just 2 characters and my bolt thrower left and the Orc trolls largely untouched and in control of the table centre my remaining few elves withdrew to fight another day. MisterC was certainly in control of the table centre. 

This was a classic and most enjoyable game of Kings of War. After 3 turns MisterC and his Orcs were looking doomed, by the end of turn 5 it was the elves who were running off leaving what few Orcs were left to enjoy a narrow but deserved victory. 

This is how wargaming should be, great fun with a good mate. 

I think next time I play Orcs I will have an Orc Wardrum kill squad in my army.