Ice Elves v Undead (15mm Fantastic Battles in the snowy wastes north of the Wylde).

 It was just Ian and I playing today so we opted for a game of Fantastic Battles, one of our favourite sets of rules. It was quite a large 1500 pts a side battle with my Ice Elves or Fey commanded by Crasterlon Ice-Heart taking on Ian's Undead led by the infamous Krugrand Hymax. I should have guessed that Ian had been busy tweaking his list, chopping and changing traits to give me some unpleasant surprises. 

Over the last few months I have slowly added some snowy trees and hills to my snowy terrain collection and now a I have painted up a snow clad long house, a Fey Longhouse as in the photo above. I may need to add some white paint to my snow texture on the house? It was great to get the snowy scenery on the gaming table. 

Deployment, before mishaps, all neat and tidy.

Mishaps caused units on both sides to lose resolve and other units to surge forward or retreat backwards. Perhaps the most disruption mishaps have caused in our games. 

The undead hydra spent the whole game 'impetuous just wandering up and down Ian's right flank to no great effect. 

My Tiger riders and their Captain, 'Raglethan, the bringer of Sorrows' wonder why so many of their friends are wandering forward out of control. 

The undead look on in glee.

The rest of the Fey Ice Elves advance.

We both rolled for 'Objectives' and both rolled 'Iconoclasm' so we spent the first couple of turns

racing for the tokens, my Fey won 2v1 and both sides enjoyed removing some of the resolve lost during 'mishaps'. 

Drabula, the undead rogue with his pesky Jagged x-bow of pain (Phoenix Bow) was caught by my wolf pack and the two spent the next three turns in melee until the wolves finally managed to throw a six. 

We were quickly into melee and the rat powered undead chariots got the better of my snow trolls. 

The tiger riders supported by the yeti won the fight against Esmerelda the giant undead cow and her undead dragon friend. 

Sadly, elsewhere and not recorded in any photo's the Undead were slowly and surely gaining the upperhand. With our gaming time running out Ian managed to kill my magelord and destroy several companies and a captain in turn 5 compared to the captain and about 4 companies of undead the Fey killed. We called it a solid Undead victory with them destroying 437pts of Fey including MageLord Crasterlon Iceheart compared to the 293pts of undead destroyed during the battle. Ian fully deserved the victory with his good use of magic and prophecy dice. Ian twice saved captains by using prophecy dice to alter my dice good throws. 

I need to think about increasing my number of captains and magicians (on the painting table already) and a few of my units need their stats and traits tweaking. 

Perhaps Crasterlon will rise again, but as a Fey or an undead!

28mm Hail Caesar, Normans take on an Irish, Saxon and Viking alliance.

 We got the 28mm Dark Ages figures out for today's game of Hail Caesar, a straightforward encounter battle to see how well this would play on a 6x4ft table. Forces were around 300 points each side with 3 divisions each. Nigel and I took command of the Normans whilst Ian was in charge of the Rebel Alliance, one division each of Irish (Ian had painted these), Vikings and Saxons. Using some ideas from the Shieldwall supplement I had written out a few random cards that affected leaders and each side chose one, but kept the effects secret until they were used. 

(My photo's seem to have been jumbled as I uploaded them but I will try my best). 

Ian, true to form, sent his Irish Light cavalry round on a flanker.

He sent his Irish warband on a rapid advance, the Saxons also advanced in support. 

His Viking division refused to move for the first two turns, leaving the Irish a bit exposed. 

This was the scene after initial deployment.

Incredibly, two Irish Warbands crash into some Norman archers and get repelled. 

A good view along the Norman line, you can see the advancing Saxons and Irish at the top. 

Nigel's Norman Infantry at the top did very well defeating the Irish Warbands.

The Normans advance to meet the Irish and Saxon rapid advance (top right), thankfully Ian really struggled to get his Viking division moving. 

In a big melee, Noman divisional commander Drogo was killed and the Irish Commander was injured both in the same turn. 

The Irish warbands come in again against Norman archers and crossbow and pushed them back. The Irish warbands were soon defeated and the their division broke. 

Norman Knights crash into Saxon foot and defeat them. 

It was looking bleak for the Alliance. 

Bit by bit, the enemy Alliance was losing units and all looked good for the Normans. 

In a desperate measure, the Viking veteran Huscarles tried to break the Norman Knights but were defeated. This proved to be the final break point for the Alliance. 

...and so the battle ended with a resounding Norman victory.

As my games table is only 6x4ft we did wonder how well a game of 28mm Hail Caesar would work, would it all seem a bit crowded? With our reasonably small armies of around 300pts there was just enough room for a bit of manoeuvre but we were certainly in contact quickly. It was a really enjoyable game and I enjoyed getting the 28mm armies on the table.