Adrian's Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign - OWAX IX wrap up

Wrap up

The hordes of King F'yar surround the desperate defenders that still resist at Orc's Drift

A peculiar challenge for this year, mixing all those entirely different miniatures. However, a fun one to complete, because it demanded me a bit of planning ahead on the different approaches but also allowed me to switch a little bit and do not feel burnt. I still remember the gazillion goblins of my first orc army, while miniatures that I love to paint it started to feel a bit tiring.

In this case, go back and forth between the orcs, dwarfs, the villagers and different flavor of elves was a little bit less repetitive.

And I wanted to make a proper wrap up of the campaign playing some scenarios. Unfortunately I had few time to play the entire campaign as I was in the field for several days but we could play the battle at Kacha Pass and the crossing of Ashak Rise.

Scenario 1: Kacha Pass

The small wood elf garrison at Kacha Pass guard three major in-roads of the region. The patrols have been intercepted, but the company of wood elves still resist and has also in captivity one half-orc spy with knowledge of the composition and movements of the armies of the Grand League.

The orc horde moves along the path in order to assault the entrance of the compound and block any potential scape route with the half-orc spy by the elves.

Guthrum Mane does not need to assault the entrance while he can breach a new one. The picture includes only three elves without the proxy for the rest of the elf miniatures, 10 enemy archers in total that were alerted by Guthrums roars and noisy stomps. So I flanked the compound also with the archers for support.

First turn for the elves. My friend prepared the scape with the half orc spy just in case he could not force the withdraw of the large orc mob coming from the South. The archers at the gate rise their bows and pointed toward the large blob of greenskins.

Again, the picture is without the proxies but there are 10 archers, with a larger footprint so more of them could shot the first turns until the innevitable combat come to them.

An impressive dice roll will hurt a lot for the orcs.

I always thought that the campaign is almost impossible for the defenders as the orc numbers are almost unstoppable for all the scenarios. But man was I wrong, the elves are lethal when they aim right and the casualties pile up pretty fast.

fortunately for me, the orc mob relentessly continues forward, coming for the elf garrison.

Well, some of the newly painted orcs during the current challenge were able to be in play for a turn.

The elves caused some havoc in the flank, but the orcs were able to resist.

Guthrum Mane is not happy that their friends, who happens to give him all the alcohol he needs, are hurt. He crushed the wall and was able to tackle those pesky archers.

I forgot to take another picture in my second turn but I reorganised the flanking orcs just to move near the main road so their bows can contribute in the hunting of the elves trying to sneak the half orc spy.

My friend in his desperate turn tried to move fast towards the border with the spy and continue shooting. This time however, less orc casualties meant trouble for the orcs defending the gate.

The orc mob was able to get to the gate and engage the elves there. Herndil Merl felt that turn as well as several other elves. So practically you can see the rest of the elves without the need of proxies anymore (Herndil was the banner, he will be gone after this picture). Erdolas avenged his friend and slayed several orcs, further depleting the horde.

Guthrum slayed the rest of the elves defending the southern wall and I decided that as the main combat was going good for the orcs, start razing the stockade as the spy and 4 wood elves surely will scape. My orc archers are not as good as the elves afterall.

In his turn, my friend got the spy and his captors closer to the border and failed to kill my commander. Which left me with an easy option to win. The orcs finally razed another building and Guthrum joined the combat to stomp completely the rest of the elves. I razed the outpost after that as the elves were just able to escape with the spy. Poor Erdolas gave his life trying to kill the horde but he could not beat Fangor Gripe just by a bad dice roll, because he was reduced to a single wound.

The orcs walk with less than half of their forces for the last battle nonetheless.

Scenario 2: Ashak Rise

The Severed Hand orcs move to assault Ashak Rise en masse. The greedy dwarfs are still mining ore there despite the rumors of war against the goblins again. The rush for gold in the River Canis is unavoidable.

We modified this scenario because we measured our small skirmish table and found that it will be unfair for the orcs. As they will crush the dwarfs nonetheless but have no space to try to get to the baggage train as they'll have to waste a turn for each dwarf patrolling. In the original scenario there is some room to maneuver and try avoiding the greedy dwarves going kamikaze so their gold is safe.

This change is a more boring, normal defence scenario which may be less hobhounds killed (bad for the good guys) but increasingly heavier casualties for the orcs as they will get to fight an entire front row of dwarves, instead of going after units of a single engineer or three engineers.

The key to this scenario seems to be the complete roadblock of the bridge crossing, so I placed several orcs and the hounds slightly to the West. I'll try to cross the river with this mob instead of using the bridge.

The large mob will cross in a column so it can fit the small passing. Oh look, invisible hobhounds! I don't have wolves or anything to proxy them for now so I have to left them in the pictures because of their footprints, not like with the wood elves.

I realised that I commited again another mistake given that I didn't play for a loooong long time. I would have better deployed the hobhounds front just to flank the dwarfs hoping to snipe the baggage train and that sweet sweet gold.

The dwarves are so few that the only option for my friend is to divide them and expect that some good dices and their resistance blocks the entire orc mob.

Both our second turns will be moving. This is my turn, I tried to cross with the orc flank and they're passing very very slow. The hobhounds reorganised and are behind my main horde, forming a column. It's in his next turn were I spotted the terrible mistake as he started moving his baggage train to the road and I have nothing for pursuing them at the time. By the way, one orc finally fell from a crossbow hit. He was pretty unlucky both turns with his small shooting phase.

The mistake required me a bold move and charge the small batch of dwarves with the main horde instead of going for his heroes. That will make troubles for the small unit, but I needed to get rid of them and try to get for the baggage.

Unfortunately, bad dice rolls and their heavier armour means that the entire unit is blocked. I was completely misguided by later editions were other rows of the unit contributes. Now I am left with Hagar Sheol doing the heavy lift for this bunch of idiots.

Grashak Kra moves the hobhound preparing for getting to the baggage train in future turns.

We forgot to take pictures of the next turns besides we just started the action. As a summary, my second orc unit just got oblitarated by Osrim Chardz and his companions and he almost got me in the flank of the orc horde. He sacrificed one of the mules to save the rest of the baggage train with the gold bags.

At this point we thought of another clever option that would have made an entirely different outcome, even the victory of the dwarfs by points. Maybe the next time some dwarves may hide some of the bags behind the house while the orcs advance, as some of them do not have anything to shoot.
That way the sacrificial baggage mule could get the orcs nothing in return. With the casualties piling up for the orcs, that way it makes this scenario much more difficult.

The wrap up

This has been a fun project as I said. The mix bag of miniatuers made it more easy to get done without getting tired at some point.

I have got almost all the orcs I need for the scenario. Well, in reality I can play the orcs and expect to field every survivor in the final scenario. As I found to my surprise that the orcs do not have such a large advantage I think they got. They'll probably win all the scenarios easily, but the casualty count start to rise pretty fast. That can be problematic in the Orc's Drift against Brommedir elves, as well as trying to get through the heroes.

Now, some pictures of the armies with the miniatures painted in this challenge as well as some of the orcs from my first OWAC.

Hope your liked as much as I like the final results for all the units.

Now, in numbers:

For the armies of the Grand League

Osrim Chardz and 11 dwarf engineers

Commander Brommedir and 14 of his elves

Erdolas Thringal, Hernril Merl (banner) and 9 of his wood elf folks

13 militiamen from Linden Way as well as the storekeeper, his wife, the stable owner and his assistant, the baker, the busker, the inn keeper, his father, his daugther and a serving wench.

The heroes at Orc's Drift including Bertolac, Fembreth and Beli.

The orc hordes of King F'yar

Grashak Kra, the still unemployed hobhound handler without hobhounds from the Severed Hand orcs.

Fangor Gripe, 10 additional orcs and the rock giant Guthurm Mane from the Vile Rune orcs.

Magyar Ironfist, the shaman Bagrash and 15 Kwae Karr orcs.

And finally, King F'yar in his wyvern.

Sadly, I have to get the final photos before a work trip so there is no mighty Ansell pose with the complete challenge as we forgot in the session and could not reshot :(

For the next challenge, I'm preparing something special and definitely I will continue with a Fantasy theme. Maybe even with my own rule of "finnish an army before trying to get something else" and doing some kind of story to follow while getting done some of the dwarf units that are still unpainted from my collection. A bunch of 4ed to 6th ed miners, slayers, thunderers and war machines.

Until next challenge,
Adrian’s out

Adrian April's Rank and File month - Brommedir's Bows (306 points)

Rank and File month #3

Brommedir is the elf leader of the small garrison stationed at Orc's Drift. Their elves are in charge of guarding the supplies of the Grand League army as well as the gold chest for the payment of the soldiers.

Normally it would have been a dull and boring task, far from the real fight against the goblin armies. Patrolling the river while the dwarves fix the bridges. Escort the wounded until they can be sent back to Palesandre. Everything changed when news of a second army of orcs approaching from the mountains.

The return of King F'yar from the mountain pass was a surprise, but the elves will barricade and fight in the crossroad. Every step towards Palesandre will cost them blood.

Time for the elf garrison that will make the last stand against the orc hordes at Orc's Drift. I changed a little bit my starting plan and got a proper old school Brommedir proxy for the garrison. Recently an original Brommedir popped up in Europe, if you're the buyer that brought it from Sweden reading this, lucky you!

Lahaven Ramjewe, the champion of the classic Regiments of Renown Lothern City Guard will do the job.

Brommedir is not armed with a magic sword but I wanted to make it pop a little bit over the normal metals.

He is commanding 14 armoured archers with shields. I coverted them to have a different kind of helmet that align more with me (yet unpainted) elf kindred warriors or militia. Also, they will have a different appearance from the other armored archers with the typical pinty helmet.

I used the medieval japanese style for the clothes and bows following my previous OWAC high elf army. This time mixing a white and dark blue with the magenta. I plan to freehand some shields with the griffon design as well as feathers.

I could have posted this image and said that it is only an example of the shields. But, unfortunately, the shields are my Achille's heel on every OWAC and I couldn't finnish all the freehand. At least this time I did not lose a bag of shields, or worse, a box of shields already painted like in previous editions. One of the dwarf shields exploded nonetheless. Literally. Next time I will not clone bits with purely white milliput, it breaks easily if the part is pretty thin.

Did I say dwarves? Ah, yes, I painted some additional miniatures too.

The miners of Ashak Rise guard the baggage just before travelling back to Palesandre.

I finnished my Ashak Rise dwarves. I used several dwarves that were left unpainted from my Dragon Company. This was the perfect opportunity to complete the unit at 20 dwarves.

And lets not forget about the baggage train used in the campaign. They will be also useful for ttrpg or baggage trains for any of my armies. I think that they come from Foundry Miniatures but I am not entirely sure. The Orc's Drift campaign was again the excuse to paint them, as they were sitting in my desk for years!

That makes:

Brommedir + 14 elf archers with shield = 246 points

4 dwarf sappers = 60 points

For the next entry, the Kwae Karr orcs and let's hope for some surprise I got in the mail.

Until then,
Adrian’s out

Adrian's Blood Bath at Orc's Drift

 

Long time, no see. 

After a long pause for a year, I'm back on track with the objective of completing yet another batch of old metal miniatures.

 

I've been thinking about how do I want to expand and round-up the orc army I am collecting and was my first entry on the OWAC. With the colours, motifs and the clan heraldry chosen is no secret that I got in mind collecting the entire Blood Bath at Orc's Drift army and after that, maybe adding some more trolls, a giant and some warmachines. 

As I doubt I will get my hands in the amazing Man Mangler in a foreseeable future and doubt if having a unit of boars and some wolves, the army lacked the last punch to get another complete run on the OWAC, which not only I love participating. It is an opportunity to complete entire projects that are sitting in the shelves unpainted. THE opportunity (don't skip a challenge if you can get here or start one with your friends, you'll notice how your projects get completed at last!).

However, the "special" rules for this year gave me the opportunity to try tinkering the other units of the campaign, with the goal of finish most of the miniatures needed. And following this year challenge, do some cool pictures that resembles the art of the old campaign book.

The (December) workbench

 

I finally got a box of Ruglud's armored orcs. Some of the most awesome orc sculpts out there. My plan is having a big blob of these fellas ranked up, going with the Kwae Karr clan heraldry.
 

They're commanded by the chieftain Magyar Ironfist. I got an old C15 orc shaman to be Bagrash that's still in the mail somewhere. I went for other miniature because the Bagrash model is superb but not so easily read as an orc shaman.

For the Vile Rune orcs I already had a lot of Harboth's archers and C15 orcs painted, so I got Fangor Gripe in my hands and a batch of C15/16 orcs with none other than Guthrum Mane. However, some of the FF orcs and Guthrum needed some repairs.

So they got their scimitar and glaive respectively repaired. Hope that the FF orc spear doesn't break because it has bent several times in the process (and already arrived bent).

Now that I had the putty out, why not repleace some of the heads in a pair of quite characterful hobgoblin and orc sculpts. 

Voilá, instead of repeated sculpts, a new orc and hobgoblin. Normally I would have reserved them for trading, but I love both of them and  think that the conversions works pretty well with the swap.

The Challenge

Now that we got the basics done, it's time to present the units for this year. More or less in the batch I'll try to paint each month bare for the leaders month which will be a mix of the campaign characters.

Brommedir's bows at Orc's drift

I dunno how many elf archers I still have. I swear that this may be the last of the lot but maybe I discover another ton of them in a box somewhere else. 14 monopose elf archers that will have a small shield in the left arm. Brommedir itself is an special, yet pretty new, metal model.

Maybe I'll proxy Brommedir with an elf captain that's also in the mail, because I almost got my hands in one but missed in the last minute.

Osrim Chardz's dwarf engineers

The opportunity to paint the last 5 of my Uther's Dragon Company dwarves and a bunch of awesome dwarf engineer or miner sculpts. The leader is none other than a Dwarf of Legend that I think it's a good proxy for Osrim, which was impossible for me to snipe one in ebay or the groups.

The Linden Way Militia

A collection of Perry Miniatures, Midlam Miniatures and oldhammer citizens (as well as some of the characters still in the same mail as their other friends and foes). I almost got the entire militia unit and all the special civilians.

Oh, and yeah, that's Beli in the mix. Hope I can also get my hands in Gymlet from the personalities at Orc's Drift.

The characters at Orc's Drift will be painted probably in the leader month. Whereas the militia and the townsfolk divided between a rank and file and the wildcard, as I hope to make the entire scenery for the campaign.

Funny thing about the humans, I almost got in my hands the original elf which is the base of Mayor Leofwine sculpt and it's a million times more easy to get. I didn't expect that at the time they crossed scultps between different races (e.g., some different types of characters or units based on the same human, but not from elf range). However, I think that'll proxy him in the future, because it is not a miniature that I like a lot.

The Kwae Karr Orcs

I will probably expand some of them in its month because I want a unit of 20 without the special characters and also to get a Kwae Karr banner without damaging the original Ruglud banner.

The Vile Rune Orcs

I love the classic C15 orcs and some of the FF range too. Led by Fangor Gripe.

Grashak Kra, the handler from the Severed Hand Orcs

Not handling pretty much at the moment. But cannot miss in a challange about the pretty ilustrations of the book.

Last but not least

King Fyar's in his winged serpent

In his wyvern. I'll try to do a conversion that allow replacing the old wyvern shaman and the original wyvern rider. I went for the amazing 4th/5th edition wyvern because it got an official recast with the made to order and it was one of my favourite monsters of all time.

Oh, and don't forget that there are spies among us. An half-orc spy, from the orcs of Midlam Miniatures.

Let's pretend that the orc army is the main one, that will be a total of 669.5 points of orcs to add to my previous army, and 30 more orcs to the horde.

Brommedir elves will be another 246 points as an unit of kith warriors with long bows and armour. Osrim and his sappers another 200 points. And the town militia probably 135 points of human villains with bare minimum. So that gives me a total of 1250.5 points following the traditional rules.

Let see how I can complete the challenge, including the pictures resembling the art from the campaign book.

PS: Mathew Sullivan from the Oldenhammer in Toronto, your army was an inspiration years ago to start this project, and your Harboth's are amazing, so I used them for the intro picture if you can read this.

Until January's update, Merry Christmass, a happy New Year aaaaand 

Adrian's out.