Old School Goblin Goodies

 With a game against my friend Chris coming up next week I felt it was time to add a few more figures to my goblin army. We have settled on the 'Warlords of Erehwon (WoE)' as our set of rules and we have both been busy (in our slow way) adding to our 'Old School' armies. Chris is collecting very early slotta based Orcs (amongst other things) whilst my preference is for pre slotta figures and I am happily collecting dwarves and elves as well as my goblins. I just wish I could paint them as fast as I can buy them. 

The central figure of Kruk the Destroyer is not new but his four chunky bodyguard figures are.

 All Nick Lund sculpts from Chronicle or Grenadier? 

This is an old pre slotta Ral Partha goblin chariot, still available.

These little guys are also Ral Partha goblins I think. In WoE you can have goblin dervishes and these little guys are what I have decided to use. Wimpy but psychotic!

In WoE you can have a pack of Gobble Dogs but I use this wolf pack. Gobbledog sounds a bit daft to me. The wolves are not new but the goblin leader with a whip is. He is a citadel hobgoblin maybe? The wolves are from the 'Old Glory' fantasy range. 

Here is a real treat. My friend Alan that I gamed against whilst we were still at school in the 1970's recently gifted me his entire collection of over 650 figures, all painted in enamels and dating from around 1975 to 1985. The photo above shows the part of his collection that I have cherry picked for myself. The bulk of these are Skytrex/Age of Joman goblins, early sculpts by Bryan Ansell . These are quite crudely sculpted figures by today's standards but back in the day they were amongst my favourites and are full of character, leaping straight out of Mirkwood right at my imagination. They are out of production now but Alan also had a few of their elves and I have managed to acquire some of their dwarves which are currently in the post and on their way to me. These will all be stripped and given a fresh coat of paint eventually. 

The rest of Alan's collection is gradually being sorted into lots and sold with the money going to him. 

Anyone recognise this guy? This is Mund the Troll (in my little world). Back in my youth I had this exact same figure, a small troll from Heritage I believe. I have tried to paint him in the same colours that I painted the original back in the 70's. He was called Herman back then.  

One thing to note about my goblin army is it's many sources of figures. When we were first collecting, painting and playing with these figures we quite happily bought figures from as many ranges as we could. We were quite happy with this free form collecting back then so I happily embrace it again as I try to recapture the armies of my youth. 

General D'Armee v2, Battle for the Crossroads.

 As we are still getting used to the rules we kept today's game quite small, just a few brigades per side. The scenario was also kept simple; a battle for a centrally placed crossroads. Ian took control of the French and Charlie and I were commanding the British. 

British on the left, French to the right. The crossroads is easily seen in the centre. 

Charlie positioned the British artillery on the central hill, overlooking the crossroads. He spent most of the battle firing on the French artillery to great effect. 

A steady advance from Charlie's Infantry Brigade. 

Ian's French cavalry prepare to attack, supported by some horse artillery.

Ian also tried to advance his infantry but they often became 'Hesitant'. 

Sadly for Ian he was bedevilled all game by poor command and equally poor dice throws. 

The view from behind the British foot artillery. 

Charlie using 'tasking' on his skirmishers. 

The French lancers come charging into the British Hussars. Much to my surprise, the Hussars won causing the whole French cavalry brigade to withdraw leaving that whole flank open.  

On the other flank the French Line Infantry charge the British line, fail and become unformed so the British charged in. This fight was still on going when Ian's other Infantry Battalion had to withdraw. This led to a comfortable victory for the British who had also advanced onto the crossroads thus improving the victory conditions. 

We still had our heads buried in the rulebook for large parts of this game but this has hopefully taught us a lot about many aspects of the rules. We play again next week . 

15mm General D'Armee.

 A couple of weeks back Ian and Nigel had their first game of General D'Armee v2 for a while (I was ill with a cold at the time). Today Charlie and myself joined them for a game down in Nigel's cellar which makes an excellent gaming venue. Nigel has been busy painting up Prussians so it was no surprise when some of them made an appearance on the table. Our main objective of this game was for all of us to gain a better understanding of the rules. 

Nigel had created a scenario loosely based on a Peninsula battle but with his Prussians replacing the Portuguese as we moved the scene forward to 1815. 

My English troops with their Prussian Allies (led by Charlie) are defending the hill on the left whilst Ian and Nigel command the French who have to advance over the river to attack us. There is one bridge and two fords which helped to channel the French attack. 

The French come pouring across the bridge and fords. 

Nigel always presents a good looking table to game on and today's looked great. 

Nigel's central Brigade had their advance hampered by not only the river but by his Brigade becoming Hesitant at least 3 times during the battle. 

In this photo Charlie's Prussians stayed on the hill pushing his skirmishers forward. With the river slowing down his progress Ian was only just getting into position to assault the hill. However, quite a few of his front units were 'worn' by Charlie's skirmish fire. 

Nigel finally gets his troops ready for the attack. 

Charlie and I had made good use of 'Skirmisher Tasking' to also slow down the French. 

On my extreme right, winning the initiative proved useful as my small cavalry Brigade charged home against Nigel's cavalry Brigade to great effect, breaking the lead unit and forcing the supporting unit to retreat back over the river and in need of rallying as they were now a Faltering division.  

Another view of the cavalry action, with the flash on this time. 

So with 9 turns played and the French attack stalling we called the game a British victory. However, the main objective, to gain a better understanding of the rules was achieved. 

We play again next week.