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 March Wild card month - Building the Orc's Drift

Wild card month

The small settlement of Linden Way is comprised of several small houses around the trading post and several crop fields nearby. It is built in the intersection of the paths that come from the mountain passes. The real town is Meledir at the East, and many of the innhabitants of Linden Way have families there. Unlucky for them, they're the only defence between Meledir and the hordes coming from the North. 

For this month I have built some of the terrain needed for the campaign that will come handy for other battles too. I've painted some miniatures too! but the protagonist here will be the terrain tutorial. I had in mind this before the council reunited and our beloved overlord suggested to do something really wild. It is a shame, because that post give me the idea of formatting this post as a white dwarf article but I do not have time for that in this moment!

As you can see, there are small things in the corners of the houses from the Townscape terrain, the same pieces that came in the campaign box back in the days of the Blood Bath at Orc's Drift. That's because I was experimenting with an idea of a modular Citadel Townscape terrain using the amazing system of Battle System hard cardboard terrain. Those small clips can be purchased separately ad the small lips around the insertion make the connections stable, the cardboard is also not damaged by the use so easily. They are also resistant to bending by the weight if you distribute them properly with the available system of insertions cut in the cardboard. So I got inspired by the system and started to glue two pieces of cardboard, one of the typical grey dense recycled cardboard that comes with magazines, another from cereal boxes. That gives us the appropiate width for the pins. 

I suggest cutting the pieces first, the same way as you want to cut if you were going to glue them together, and then when it is dry and hard, do the cutouts for the pin. I didn't got the pictures but I also ensure that the cardboard doesn't dry bent in the entire process. When I glue the two pieces or glue the Townscape terrain piece to the cardboard, I let it dry between baker paper sheets over a flat surface and with a lot of weight over them, like a book and several packages.

Tadaaa, the walls are mounted with the system and it is strong enough for an afternoon of play. You can also paint the sides of the cardboard with colour markers to hide the cardboard further.

As you may see in the picture, some houses have small sheds or porches that will be a bit overengineering if I made them compatible with the modular pin system.

Instead, we glue them the old way and do not make them modular but a small building addons that will be placed during the play. If you are not confident that the stress of battle and you ravening hordes will not make it fall turn after turn, I've an untested solution. Make the missing wall of thin cardboard and put a strong magnet in the inner part of the house wall and in the interior of the shed or small house extension. The width of the combined house and shed cardboard is good enough for both magnet to stay in place.

Next you have the complex overhanging houses that I made modular and only glued as a single piece the overhang (pictured). Lastly, there is no way to make the roof modulars without CAD design my own pins in the precise angles of each roof and then 3D printing. That's a tempting overengineering there but the project is too complex to add further steps and I want that you can replicate the method. So I make a normal roof over cardboard and cut some foam pieces with the appropiate shape and glue them in the interior.

Now for the rivers and crossroads.

We start with a white foam shape with the appropiate distance. It is a little bigger than the bridge in Townscape but fits perfectly with the width of the river I am planning. The stones are cardboard cuts placed in the sides.

The other, more unstable crossing is made with foam, lots of recycled woodsticks and recycled sprues. Never throw the stick that they give you with a take away coffee, they're perfect for this kind of things. Also, ice creams are good for this type of project. Hope that I didn't mess with your regime with that particular advice.

The pebbles of the path are done in EVA foam, pebble by pebble drawn with a pen. Now that we have a bridge, there must be a path leading to them.

I wanted that the paths were flexible to put over a mat with the hills underneath instead of all of them as separated pieces over the mat. Also, whether the hills are terrain pieces over or under the mat, flexible paths allows us to put them coming from the hills naturally.

I made them using a brown felt fabric tightly stretched over a surface and applying a coat of caulk mixed with brown acrylic paint and fine sand. I've lots of fine volcanic beach sand but anything extra fine will make the trick. You can mix a small batch of bigger grains and pebbles or add them when the caulk mix is applied and rolling a painting roll over them just to press a little bit. Let it settle for 48 hours before cutting and painting a little bit with additional tones.

The fences are made with the same sticks cut in half over larger sticks. You'll need additional batch of larger ice creams for this. The smaller coffe sticks are cut with a fairly secure, you'll definetly won't cut your fingers or have a knife nailed to your arm, cutting method.

Also, I'll leave here a picture of the primed bridges and fences that will be painted with oil paint/xpress/contrast for speed. Just apply a coat of cheap black acrylic paint mixed with diluted pva glue and it will be a hardcoat appropiate for terrain and sealing the foam if, for some reason, you want to apply a spray paint instead.

As everything start coming together, if we have bridges and paths, we will want a river to cross. My first run was a flexible river similar to the pathways. I used a mat instead of a cloth and make a little bump on the sides of the river before applying the caulk. 

The water was made with a transparent caulk mixed with a little bit of blue ink applied over the previous layer after painting a little bit of greenish blue over the brown caulk.

This is looking good.

HOWEVER...

As some of you may have guessed, I've the luck of not having to repair a lot of things in the house so I didn't know that some caulks will not stick together pretty well and the foldable rivers started to come apart. So I'll leave it in the tutorial as a DO NOT ATTEMPT. Or if you have a solution with another product or preparing the first caulk layer, I will want to hear it.

Second attempt, cutting and carving some wood. Here is the woodcraftmanship part of the tutorial.

The good part of this method is that the carving makes a good looking water after painting and sealing with several layers of gloos varnish or transparent UV resin. This makes the river solid, but hey, theyre finished and at least will make the table stable putting some weight over the mat.

Now, finish painting the other pieces.

As I said, they were painted with oil paint diluted in mineral spirit. You can do some more preshading work painting the stonework, some strips of the wood veins ad some details in pure white. Always coat them before applying oil paint. If you're tinting the stone or wood with contrast/xpress you're good to go without coating with varnish. I used oil paint because it is fairly cheap, a little mix will cover all the wood planks, stone, etc. for the entire batch.

I noticed that the second bridge has few wight and may be a little unstable during a battle, so I glued some weight in the part that is not visible under the planks.

I did not forgot to paint some more miniatures. Fortunately, the package that I was waiting with the other villagers and the Overlord offering is finally here.

It is a lovely mix of Midlam and Citadel villagers. I think that my favourites are the Citadel elder and rat catcher and the Midlam potion seller.

For our beloved Overlord, a Citadel thug encounter for any roleplaying session. This guy is the kinda appearing in the middle of the path at night and asking you if you painted all your monthly miniatues or else he will dispatch you to the Field of Bones.

And now, some pictures of Linden Way and Ashak Rise.

A small town patrol looking for any troublemaker.

(I noticed that it is some problem with the tavern cutout from Townscape and the walls do not line properly as you can see in the back. D'oh)

A troop of orcs cross the river while the inhabitants are unsuspectful.

The dwarfs of Ashak Rise are starting they're daily work in the mineral deposits.

This month adds 10 miniatures and a lot of terrain. Almost everything done for Ashak Rise, the Orc's Drift and Linden Way except for the ruins and tower for Linden Way and the stone walls for Orc's Drift.

Next month I think that I may add the troop of elves.

Until then,
Adrian’s out