Here come the Elves!

 It was bound to happen. Elves, and in particular, Wood Elves have always been my favourite Fantasy race. So, no surprises then when I decided to paint and collect a Wood Elf army in 15mm for use with our favourite 'Fantastic Battles 'rules. I may have overdone the buying of elves as what you see below cannot be far from 1,000pts yet I must still have about 200 little elves left to paint. The elf figures are mainly from Demonworld and the Mighty Army Wylde Elves from Rebel Miniatures.  

I already have a Dark Elf/Ice Elf army so for my Wood Elves I really wanted to come up with quite a different feel. The Forester trait was an obvious one for much of the army but I also went for Warbeasts for the main infantry unit, hence the wolves on their bases. It looks like a very useful trait and I am going to try out 600 points of Wood Elves in the scenario below...

The Edge of the Wylde

15mm Fantastic Battles, Orcs v a Gnomes of Dingly Dell and Wood Elf Alliance.

1200 pts per side.

Banners fluttering in the wind the Gnome army stood watching the approaching Orc horde. There were thousands of Orcs heading their way. Where were the Elves who had promised to come to the Gnomes aid?

Then...faint laughter and a hint of song on the breeze. A hail of arrows shot towards the Orcs as the Wood Elves emerged from the trees. To battle they cried!

Set the table randomly with a good scattering of woods and area’s of marsh or rough ground. This scenery represents the edge of the Wylde, a fearsome and dangerous place.

Once the table has been set up, dice for who is the attacker and defender and who has which table edge as per usual.

Scenario, Special Rule: Any unit who enters a wood, rough ground or marsh must dice. On a score of 4+ the unit will be stuck there next turn, unable to move. (a slight variant of the Entangle spell). Units must make this throw every turn they are in the terrain.  

So the dice decided that Phil and his Orcs were the defenders and therefore had to deploy first. Ian's Gnomes and my Elves took full advantage of this by deploying most of our troops on the left as Phil had spread his forces fairly evenly over the table. We had also placed quite a lot of woods and rough terrain on the board plus a small lake. This deployment was to really help us in the battle as we could bring lots of troops into battle and outnumber the orcs. 

The Orcs were also badly affected by Mishaps with several units moving forwards or backwards.  

Some of Ian's troops from Dingly Dell including his homemade 'Shrooms' 

The first few turns were largely about getting into position. 

On turn 5 the Orc Warlord Ba'arn Dor was killed leaving his Orc Boar riders impetuous

Some of my mounted Elf Skirmishers and Ian's Green Dragon went on a flanker, tying some of Phils bigger Orc units in knots on the right side. 

The left side of the table is top heavy with battling units whilst the right flank is largely unopposed orc units. This photo also shows how terrain heavy the table was and many units on both sides got entangled in the woods and rough terrain.  

The elf skirmishers and the green dragon kept three large units of orcs busy. 

Can you spot the dragon?

The gnome's Freemen supported by the Shrooms gang up on the orc boar riders. 

My newly painted elite elf infantry with the the Warbeast trait (each base a wolf on it to depict the warbeast aspect) crash into some orc infantry. The 'warbeast' trait proved to be a real beast of a trait, especially as the elves were also 'empowered'. 

Look all the orcs have gone and in one massive hit!

The orcs manage to catch the elf rangers on the edge of a wood. 

Phil's second unit of Orc Boar riders get Shroomed (and flanked on both sides). 

A view down the table, with only the orc units at the top left, but soon enough orcs were destroyed to make the remaining few run off. Overall, an easy win for the Gnome/Elf Alliance through being able to take advantage of their greater numbers on the left flank. 

Another great game but poor Phil was hampered by some truly shockingly bad dice throws as well being out deployed.  

More 6mm Biblical Hail Caesar

 For this week's game we got our 6mm Biblical armies and Hail Caesar rules out once again. Phil and his Egyptians allied with Ian's Elamites to take on my Hittites who had narrowly won the last game. The scenario was that the Egyptian and Elamite forces had to divide their deployment with one force coming in on the top left side and the other on the top right. By contrast the Hittites were able to deploy in one block on the lower right side of the table. 

In the photo below my Hittites are on the left with Pharoh Phil's Egyptian's fast approaching top right and Ian's Elamites on the lower right. My dice throwing for passing orders was shocking all game and the Allies also struggled a bit on the first couple of turns. My plan was simple, try and deal with the Elamites first and put a holding force on my left to keep Phil's Egyptians at bay. 

My poor dice throwing for orders resulted in me not getting to move most of my force and scuppered that plan. 

The Egyptian's advancing. 

The Elamites were coming for me too, those Elamite Onager drawn battle carts proved to be very tough and really slowed down my plan. When my Hittite chariots clashed with the Elamite battle carts their 3+ save was a nasty shock. When they managed to wound my C-in-C it was even worse and it was still only turn 3. 

A slow advance from my Hittites (top) did not help either. 

This game will be remembered for the high amount of Blunders thrown by both sides resulting in some amusing unforeseen events. 

Look at all those damage and red disorder counters as what is left of my poor Hittite Chariots beat a hasty retreat. 

Phil started to try and work his chariots around my left flank. Some top shooting from my archers resulted in one unit of chariots failing a Break Test (scoring 3 on 2xd6) so off they went. Otherwise, shooting from both sides was pretty poor for most of the game. 

In the centre the Elamites and Egyptians worked very well together and made excellent use of supporting troops to defeat some of my best infantry in melee. 

Despite fierce fighting all over the table the Egyptian's and Elamites always seemed to be doing that bit better than the Hittites so gradually division by division my army started to crumble and withdraw. 

This seemed to be a really hard-fought battle yet the result was quite an emphatic win for Pharoh Phil and his Elamite Allies. Hail Caesar is one of our favourite sets of rules as we always get a great game in. 

 

15mm Vikings

Just over a year ago I decided I would like to collect Vikings, Saxons and Normans in 15mm for use mainly with the 'Hail Caesar' rules. The main make of figures I decided to collect was 'Forged in Battle' as I really enjoyed painting up lots of their Greeks and Persians. Having acquired boxed army sets of the three forces I have also gradually been adding extra troops and unit command figures from Forged in Battle and a few other companies such as Baudea and Splintered Light. 

So far I have mainly concentrated on my Vikings although I have painted a few units of Anglo-Saxons/Anglo Danish. Then Dan Mersey released his Wiglaf Early Saxons so, being a wargames butterfly, a few units of those were also painted. Recently I have got back to the Vikings and below is a photo of my latest unit just completed today. 

You can possibly just see that there are three bases each of eight figures to a standard unit. This basing system I have borrowed is that from the Art de L'Guerre rules and it seems to be a sensible development of the old DBA style basing. These are all Forged in Battle figures and I have based them like this so that I can easily adapt my unit size or put a unit into column. 

The photo below shows units of Vikings with 2, 3 and 4 bases per unit to show how this works. This basing system will also allow me to use the same figures in a range of rules from 'To the Strongest' to 'Fantastic Battles'.  

Here are a few photo's of my Viking force to date, over 160 figures painted so far. 

I have really enjoyed painting these Vikings but still have over 100 to do. However, I do keep getting side-tracked and have been painting all sorts of other stuff in between. Hopefully it will not be too long before I can get a game in with these brave little Vikings. I will be using army lists derived from the Hail Caesar 'Shieldwall' supplement but with a few alterations based on my own ideas of what warfare in this era would be like. 

  

6mm Hail Caesar, Hittites against Egyptians and Arab Raiders

 This week's game was 6mm Hail Caesar using our chariot armies. Rather than devise a specific scenario I came up with a random chart to distribute the various items of scenery that I have. It had already been decided that the entire might of my Hittite army would take on Phil's Egyptians and Ian's Arab Raiders with a total of 600 points per side in a straightforward clash of two armies. 

Terrain for Biblical Hail Caesar.

Divide the table up into six sections as in the diagram below.

1	2	3
4	5	6

Then throw for terrain in each section once on the table below. If for example ‘2’ is thrown for a second section use the second terrain type listed etc... First time a number is thrown use the terrain from the first column, second column if that number comes up again and so on. 

1	Clear	Clear	Clear
2	Rough Ground	Fort	Clear
3	Rough Ground	House	Clear
4	Farm	Hill	Clear
5	Hill	Hut	Palm Grove
6	Oasis	Hill	Clear

Then use the first diagram above to help position each terrain item in place within each section of the table.

Dice for which army deploys on which side of the table.

Deployment is at least 24” apart.

So, with Ian throwing the dice and me placing the scenery we came up with the setup in the photo below, and you can also see how we deployed, Hittites on the right, Egyptians and Arabs on the left.  

The dice also decided that I would deploy first and that Ian and Phil would take the first turn. 

600 points a-side makes for an impressive number of units on the table (56 in total). 

The first three turns were fairly cautious manoeuvring from both sides and with some fairly ineffective missile fire from everyone too.  

The armies start to advance, Phil was the boldest pushing his chariots forward in the middle and Ian was trying his usual tactic of worming his way around my flank on the right with his camel riders. The next four turns were full of action and melee.

My Syrian Chariots move to counter Ian's camels. 

The chariots proved to be quite tough and caused the opposition a lot of problems. 

Decent fighting values and good shooting too. 

My Hittite Chariots were also on my right and proved to be a very tough unit too. 

Phil's Philistines managed to flank my archers and took out 3 units. 

Then Phil's chariots clash with my mercenary infantry and got the better of me. 

On the right my chariot units were slowly gaining the upper hand and Ian's Arab army was slowly heading towards it's breakpoint.  

Over on the other flank my troops started the fight back as I finally manged to get more of my units involved.  

Hittite chariots looking for more Arabs to chase. 

With injured units from both sides scattered all over the table we sadly ran out of time to fully complete the game. With Ian's Arabs mostly broken and Phil having also lost one of his commands, my Hittites had lost only two commands; plus I also had one quite large and mainly untouched command left so we agreed on a close fought victory for the Hittites and so that is how history shall remember this game. 

This was another great game enjoyed by all three of us. It seems that Hail Caesar is getting a second edition soon, expanded to include sieges and the Wars of the Roses; that is a win win for me so I shall be definitely investing in a copy. I will probably get a few new armies too.   

Battle on the River Fomawr

This week saw us play yet another game of the excellent Fantastic Battles, again using 15mm figures. Having moved house recently this was the first game to be hosted at my new abode. As we are still busy decorating and sorting we had to set up and play in the lounge. Soon I hope to have the third bedroom as a dedicated wargames room, but more about that if/when it happens. For now, on with the game... 

Battle along the River Fomawr.

 1,200 points per side, Fey Elves against Orc/Dwellers of Dingly Dell.  

   As the King of the Fey, Crasterlon Ice-Heart looks to spread his powers southwards, the Orcs and their Dwellers of Dingly Dell allies march north to block his way. The two armies clash as both forces followed the path along the banks of the River Fomawr. 

 From the map you can see there is a temple on the left/west side and a shamans hut on the right/eastern side. Using the scores indicated on the far left column; the temple and the shamans hut are placed on their respective flanks by throwing a d6 for each and placing them in the centre of that flank section of the map. All other terrain pieces were diced for and positioned randomly.

Temple: treat as a settlement (p21). 

Shaman's Hut: First unit or character to make contact with the Shaman's hut throw a d6. Score 1,2: Shaman joins your force as a Magic User. 

           3,4: There is a large flash of light and the shaman disappears for good. 

          5,6: The shaman runs 4bw towards your enemy force to try and join them as a Magic User for the rest of the game. Shaman is called 'Old Col', he dresses like a Druid and he has the following spells... Entangle x1 (4+) and Bless x2 (3+). 

 All other pre-game procedures are as on p19.

So the dice decided that I was the attacker setting up along the Northern edge with the Orcs and dwellers of Dingly Dell deploying opposite me. The temple remained mid-table but the shaman's hut was moved south towards the Allied forces. Both sides had a couple of units wander forward in their enthusiasm to get to the enemy. 

Here is the table after deployment, watch that green dragon.  

Yup, Ian's Dingly Dell's Green Dragon got to the temple first and sought aid from the gods gaining a useful prophecy dice. 

A photo of the Fey line with the orcs opposite and the Dingly Dell folk on the far flank. 

On the eastern flank a Dingly Dell gnome, Bobby Dazzler sought the aid of the druid Old Col who promptly ran off to join the Fey. After Col had cast a couple of helpful Bless spells, the two met again in melee where they managed to kill each other. 

Meanwhile King Crasterlon ordered his wyvern to charge some peasant folk, aided by his wolf pack. However, the peasant folk were actually pretty tough. This melee lasted most of the battle with me feeding in my Draconians and Light cavalry too before I finally killed them, but not before Crasterlon and his Wyvern were slain by the peasant folk. 

Over on the other side of the battlefield Phil's Orcs managed to get the best of the Fey, but again over a number of turns. Phil made excellent use of the Empower spell so that by mid-game things were not looking good for the Fey. 

Both sides fed in more and more units into the frey. Steadily I slowly edged my way back into the battle so that by the final turn we were not too sure which side would break first...or would both armies break simultaneously?

 It was so close and exciting by now I forgot to take more photo's. 

Sadly for me, the one melee left that I stood a chance of winning resulted in a poor dice throw for me then the Orcs finished off my elves in the middle and took the win in a very hard-fought game. 

Great fun!