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. 

Lion Rampant set during the Barons War

 We played a game of Lion Rampant today using our Barons War figures. We had tried a few games of the  Barons War rules but have decided that they are not for us, too many tokens and fussy rules that slow the game down. We prefer the subtle fast playing simplicity of Lion Rampant, each to their own!

Ian (Lord Gwiddell de Lombare) and Nigel (Robin Hood) each had a 16pt warband on one side with Charlie (Sir Richard de Bolton) and myself (Sir John de Lacy) with 16pts each on the other side. We played scenario 6 'a gentle stroll' which meant that Charlie and I had to start in one corner and try and survive and move off the diagonally opposite corner of the tabel with Ian and Nigel on a split deployment trying to prevent that. 

Sir John de Lacy deployed at the back with Sir Richard de Bolton leading the march across the board, all part of a cunning plan. Of course that plan was abandoned once the game was a turn or two old. 

Lord Gwiddell de Lombare deploys his troops. 

Robin Hood and his not so Merry Men, Robin is in the blurred unit at the front. 

Robin's skirmish unit was soon battered by bowfire from Charlie's and mine missile troops. 

Two more of Robins units/men, cowering behind the woods but heading for the centre of the board; no doubt part of a nefarious plan to ambush our troops. .

I seem to have not taken photos of the route of Robin Hood. He was lurking near the hill, bottom right but he was also suffering heavy casualties from missile fire and was soon battered and eventually routed from the table. Nigel's 'Courage Test' dice throws were truly awful today. Robin Hood was going to be badly missed by his remaining men. 

Sir John de Lacy took a couple of turns to get moving but here he is aiming for the blurred enemy cavalry on the left of the photo. 

Charlie and I get our troops close to the centre of the table. 

A view from behind mine and Charlie's units, Ian's knights are lurking top right whilst Nigel's last unit is near the chapel and is about to be routed.

Ian's mounted knights charge Charlie's foot knights, although Ian won both units survived. 

Sir John de Lacy also charged Lord Gwiddell's knights and his mounted Serjeants in some great rounds of melee where I eventually came out on top. 

With Sir John de Lacy and Sir Richard de Bolton now holding the centre and with Robin Hoods force totally destroyed the remaning few men of Lord Gwiddell de Lombare took to their heels and ran, game over, solid victory for Charlie and I. This was a fun game to play, full of twists and turns. We intend to play Lion Rampant again next week. 

New KOW army: Empire of Dust

 Well I blame good friend Mister C for this, off I go painting yet another new army. This one is for Kings of War and is the Empire of Dust; a sort of undead ancient Egyptian army. Mister C suggested we buy an Ogre/Empire of Dust starter set and split it so we went with that; an excellent way to each start a new force. A few weeks later and I have painted all the figures from the starter set and a couple extra so here are a few photo's of my progress so far. 

Everything I have painted so far, marching off to find some Ogres to kill.

All desert scenery has been 'borrowed' from my Bolt Action Afrika Korps collection and it seems a perfect fit.  

My characters pose beside my regiment of revenant cavalry. 

Note I have only used 8 of the 10 figures supplied, based in 4's (troops).

A regiment of skeleton warriors.

Here I have used 16 figures for the regiment and to me, they fill the base nicely. 

A troop of skeleton spearman, 8 figures on the base. 

Two troops or one regiment of skeleton archers. 

The characters, a Cursed High Priest (from MaxMini), a Mantic Ahmunite Pharoah and an Army Standard Bearer which is from a unit of MaxMini mummies. 

Next up will be some Enslaved Guardians and Scavengers (both from MaxMini). MisterC also suggested we get another starter set which we have done, doubling the basic troop types I can use. I will adapt some of the cavalry into mounted characters and Skeleton Archer Cavalry and will definitely paint up another troop of Skeleton Spearmen so I can make the existing one into a regiment. 

  

Kingdoms of Men v Elves, 1500pts per side Kings of War game.

 Ian and I set up once again for another battle between the Human Kingdoms of Men army and the Elves. Nigel also came along this week and a quick dice throw put him on my side with the elves. Could the elves finally get a win, Nigel is certainly good with his dice throws. This week we played scenario 3 'Push' which involves grabbing loot tokens again. This time it was better to be holding the loot tokens in the opponent's half of the table to score more victory points at the end of the game. The KoM got 2 loot tokens (white gems) but the elves only got one (green gem) and there was one central one (red). With the aim being to control gems in your opponents half I decide attack was the best option. 

Armies after deployment, KoMen on the left, elves on the right who have used their 'scout' moves on any unit who had it. The plan was to use missile fire on the elf right flank backed up by the Drakon Riders (all commanded by Nigel) and over on the let flank I took control of the hard hitting 'tree' based troops to counter the nasty KoM knights. 

Ian took the first turn and advanced his wizard, Rodnar the Red, in our turn Nigel shot him to pieces with his Kindred Gladestalkers. Rodnar was a real pest last battle so I was happy to see him go. 

Ian took revenge by destroying my elf ballista.

Nigel them moved in on some over bold human archers and squished them between the Silver Breeze Cavalry and the Drakon Riders on their flank. 

My Forest Shamblers, supported by the Hunters of the Wild destroyed the first unit of knights. The second unit of knights was fighting my Tree Herder and those knights were eventually killed too. 

KoMen leader Tancred charged his pegasus into the Tree Herder and soon wished he hadn't. 

Meanwhile Nigel targeted the spearmen with every unit he could and also routed them.

This battle was going very well for the elves. 

So, we only played 4 turns and all the human force had been routed apart from the giant who had been dithering around at the back. With the elves controlling all but one of the tokens and being in the KoMen half of the table a comfortable win for the elves was declared, at last!

The game was so short I only took a few photo's but at least my elves gained a win this week. 

 

Kingdoms of Men v Elves, 1500pts per side.

 Ian and I upped our points total again to 1500pts per side. It was Kingdoms of Men (KoM) against Elves again with the elves still searching for their first win. We chose scenario 2, 'Loot' and diced off for table edge and were soon deployed.

Deployment, Elves to the left, KoM to the right. 

Any green gems you can see are the loot tokens. 

The elf centre was quite woody!

Rodnar the Red wizard soon fireballed my Silverbreeze cavalry, off they ran. 

My Elf force getting into position to counter Ian's KoM deployment. 

My elves had quite a few shooty units but shot poorly and their rolls for Nerve were even worse, I couldn't seem to throw above 6 on 2xd6! This resulted in the elves being out shot by the KoM. 

Ian had two of these fast moving units of knights, both equipped with their 'Indomitable Will'.

Hurrah, took me over half the game but the KoM artillery finally gets destroyed.

Otherwise, things were not going well for the elves. 

There was an almighty clash in the centre, lots of heavy hitting units involved. 

My poor Hunters of the Wild got minced but...

...the Drakon Riders enjoyed charging the Knights in the rear. 

27 dice of pain and the Knights were destroyed. 

My Tree Herder went off on his own rampaging through a variety of infantry units. 

That was fun too, suddenly I seemed in with a chance, although Ian had been a bit cannier about grabbing the loot tokens.  

At long last that damned giant got his cum uppance although the remaining unit of knights were lurking threateningly close by. 

Turn 6 and those pesky knights charge and destroy my poor Drakon Riders in the final action of the game. The dice decided that there would not be a seventh turn. So with Ian in charge of 2x loot tokens compared to my none it was a KoM victory. A seventh turn would have allowed me to possibly gain two loot tokens and thus a win but it was not to be. 

This was a fun game as initially it was not going well for the elves but after our usual tea and cake break melee seemed to go mainly my way but I was just a tad to late to start gaining the advantage in the game. 

So much fun that we play again next week, probably scenario 3. 

1200pts each of Kings of War Battle.

 Ian was back today for another Kingdoms of Men v Elves battle, this time we went bigger with 1200 pts a side. We played the pillage scenario and it was an absolute cracker of a game. After we had placed the 5 objective markers Ian won the dice throw to take the first turn. 

My Elves to the left, Ian's Men to the right. This photo was taken after Ian's first move. 

Ian sent his general, Tancred forward on his pegasus supported by a giant. 

This was a crafty move as it trapped my elf mounted archers in the corner, fearing to move as the enemy would be able to charge them wherever they moved to. 

Tancred charges in and these two units where then locked in melee for about 3 turns. 

Tancred was a poor fighter. 

Over on the left Seritas the Scribe, the elf mage looks confidently across at his human enemy. 

Note the bolt thrower, deadly in the first turn, not so good from then on. 

In the centre my poor elf archers were caught by the human phalanx and in the flank by the giant. That was the end of my archers. That giant hits hard, especially in your flank. 

Another view of the demise of my archers. 

At this point Ian was holding his 2 units of mounted knights back, he didn't really need them yet.

I was damaging quite a few of Ian's units but my dice throws for the enemy nerve were awful.  

The giant rushes across to help Tancred defeat my Silver Breeze cavalry.

I forgot about taking photo's as Ian's Knights finally entered the battle. On the left he was able to charge my forest shamblers and rout them as they were also caught in the rear by that beast of a giant. 

Tancred flew across to attack Lord Cadvan Dunmail, leader of the elves who turned around and slew Tancred (finally a decent Nerve test throw of the dice). 

We had been so busy battling the objective markers were almost forgotten about. By the end of turn 6 I controlled 2 to Ian's one. Unfortunately for me Ian successfully rolled for a 7th turn and his knights came crashing in turning the result in his favour. So a narrow win for the Kingdoms of Men, two objectives to the elves one. The Kingdoms of Men had also killed 560pts of elves, whereas the elves had only killed 440pts worth of Humans. A worthy win for Ian. but a fun game for both of us.  

Here is the 'giant' man of the match, slayer of elves and all round tough guy. 

But wait, there is rumour of help coming for the elves...yes, we play again next week, going up to 1500pts this time.