Jaakko and Rugluk - Wrap-up

And here we are again! We've finally reached the end of another season of OWAC. It was an okay season, but I was hoping to get much more done. It was hard to find enough time to paint this spring and I also discovered that painting the same army for two seasons isn't my thing. Anyway, I'm in good spirits at the moment and really looking forward to starting a new project. There's still plenty of goblinoids left to paint, but for the time being I'll be taking my orky work underground and turning my attention to something different.

As usual, I continued painting more models during July, and a hero riding a wyvern and a snotling joined the army. The snotling was glued to the double-decker Pump Wagon from last season (that's why it's in the army picture) to complete an artwork-inspired miniature. There were a few easter eggs hidden in the project, (some of which?) which I'll reveal now. I had planned to include a couple more this season, but I ran out of time.

I already teased the artwork last year. I noticed that the snotlings in the artwork were actual miniatures and decided to recreate the scene. There wasn't room for that many snotlings on the wagon, however, so I settled on the five that I happened to have, placing them in roughly the same positions. This was a salvage project, so I had to leave the guy with the net in place, as it wasn't possible to remove him without breaking something. The miniature is missing the chaos of the original artwork, but hopefully it's still somewhat recognisable. Well, most importantly they've had the chance to mow down a few of those dwarfs!

Rugluk and his bodyguard, Drodab Ironbrow, are both tributes to their respective combat cards. The colours have been adapted to my less saturated palette, and the shield designs aren't identical to the originals as I didn't want to remove the shield bosses.

The wyvern is an upcoming model from Heavy Metal Hordes. It's an impressive sculpt and was an absolute joy to paint.

I also made some terrain, which you can see in the pictures above: a few small fields and a signpost for The Owl. I also started making some swamps, but the water effect resin I used had gone bad, so I'll have to start over.

Here are the points for the project:

+ the siege stuff from last season.

And here's what two seasons of OWAC looks like:

All in all, I'm very happy that I started painting this army. I've had the chance to play several games with it, and it's been an absolute joy. The most recent game was played a week ago, and here are a few photos from it:

Grom charged a unit of Dwarf Crossbowmen after his chariot was destroyed and managed to rout them. A nearby unit of Dwarf Clansmen fled at the sight of the bloodthirsty Grom, who pursued the fleeing dwarfs and hasn't been seen since.

On turn two the Savage Orcs (in the right flank) charged a neighbouring orc unit, succumbed to frenzy, and spent the rest of the battle fighting their own side. The joys of playing orcs! In the previous game, the Savage Orcs panicked at the sound of cannon firing at them and routed. Hopefully they'll manage to reach an enemy one day! Anyway, orcs did good enough and it was a fun game.

And that's it, I guess. My attention is already starting to shift to Season 10, and I'm already planning my next project. Next season will be a special edition, giving us more options than usual, so I'm trying to decide between going 6mm by finally opening my box of Space Marine or starting a Rogue Trader Genestealer Cult project. We'll see what happens!

Thank you, everyone! It has been a pleasure watching your projects grow. Happy painting, and see you again in Season 10! And apologies for the missing Ansell pose. I took the pictures on the literal last minute and I did't have my usual minions to take a picture with me in it.

Oh, and by the way, that's me in the picture, chilling on my throne and commanding my cult.

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

Byron's Invasion of Ulthuan - Wrap up (420 points)

The Ansell

A Warhammer job-well-done should be celebrated with the traditional Ansell pose. 

Byron smiles with satisfaction next to his Goblin Army.

Adding up all of the points totals from each month's post the army (plus Eltharion and the Elf hero) totals 2,874 points. 

The extra minis 

In typical Byron tradition I have spent the last month of OWAC painting up additional models to fill out the army project. 

This final month I have been quite productive. In my previous post I said that I aimed to paint 30 goblins in the final month. I met and exceeded that target!

First is an ELF! This elf hero appears on the front of the box art challenging Grom.

He appears to be a proto-typical White Lion or Captain Korhil. He has a giant axe, uncovered arms, and an animal skin of some sort. 

My conversion cut up 2 5th edition White Lions and a early C series Elf Beastmaster (for the bare arms and head without a helmet).

These pics show the green stuff to fill the gaps. 

Here he is painted up.

Up next is the Wyvern.

The Wyvern doesn't appear on the box art, but the Battle for Maugthrond Pass scenario includes an Orc Shaman on Wyvern, Black Tooth. I am making a goblin army, so it will be a goblin shaman on Wyvern.

This Wyvern has a few conversions going on. The base is the Grenadier Wyvern. It has a storm dragon head and a giant scorpion stinger added. 

This is a WIP pic of the wyvern. My daughter suggested earth tones for the Wyvern. 

The Wyvern has a magnetic saddle so that I can swap out riders (if I get around to painting an Orc rider).

This is the Wyvern painted up. The banner is based on the banner from the Standee that came with the starter box. 

The Wyvern had a very quick turnaround. The monster arrived in the mail on the 28th and he was completed on the 31st. 

Then, even more goblins.

This is the final goblin banner from the starter box art. 

Finally a goblin shaman and scroll cady. 

1 Elf hero w/ Heavy Armor and two-handed weapon

1 Wyvern with level 3 Goblin Shaman

1 Goblin Shaman (and familiar)

17 spear goblins

7 goblin archers

4 goblin clubbers

Total 420 points.

The Artwork!

So, from the beginning, my goal was to recreate the artwork on the 4th edition starter box. 

Below is my attempt at recreating the box art with minis. The tricky thing with photographing minis is the focus. To fix this issue I tried to do a stacked focus image using my iphone camera and my photo editing skills using Microsoft word. When you change the focus it also wiggles the position of things, so it took a bit of work to fix it up. It definitely isn't perfect, but it gets the vibe right. If someone has been skills at stacking focus I'd be happy to share the original pics and let them have a go at it. 

The Shelf

At the beginning of OWAC I set the goal of filling an entire Ikea shelf with goblins. I think I've gotten quite close to the goal. There are a few gaps here and there, but I am going to call it a success. 

The Battle for Maugthrond Pass

Prep.

My goal was to play the most authentic version of the Maugthrond pass (while using more minis than just those included in the starter box.)

I had the Magic Item cards

I printed off photocopies of the spells and glued them to card stock.

I prepared 2000 point armies for both factions:

The High Elf army

The Goblin army

Next, the scenario allocates the High Elf forces between a village and 4 watch towers:

So, I had my son, without knowing the larger context, allocate his forces between the 4 towers and the village. 

I then set up the table to match the map.

I only had 2 woods terrain pieces. So I had to improvise with some lichen and moss, as well as some fields on the west side of the map. 

Not exactly an elven tower, but neither was the cardboard tower that came with the set.

The standing stone was improvise by covering a Warhammer Quest door in lichen and moss. 

Byron (Goblins) and Edward (High Elves) exchange glances before the battle.

Goblin Turn 1

Play in Maughthrond Pass follows a light script. Goblins go first. 

And, as the script says..... the mist recedes to reveal the goblin army. 

I deployed my army with Grom in the center. He was the general in an army that sorely lacked leadership. His 7Ld had a lot of work to do. I was also counting on his horn of urgok to rally wayward goblins. My next priority was avoiding a traffic jam. The goblin deployment is narrow so units invariably end up arrayed in layers. So, I put the wolf riders and trolls in the front, the chariots behind those, and the footslogging infantry behind. 

My first turn went off without a hitch! not a single failed animosity nor failed stupidity test! Things were looking up for Grom. A solid first turn movement phase. The wolf riders advanced on Grom's left to anticipate the forces in the village advancing. 

Shooting phase.

My catapult (the starter box didn't have rules for a doom diver) tried to crash rocks down on the heads of the east tower defenders.

BUT! The scatter dice had other ideas! I opted to GM this moment to allow this stray rock to count as notice of the Goblin's advance for the village, allowing them to move on turn 1. 

It's hard to ignore a rock clattering right in front of you.

I forgot about my magic phase.

Elf Turn 1

The council of Elril and Thronduin.

Elril and Thronduin swing into action! Both advance toward the rampant goblin hordes. And the wizard heads to the tower for a better vantage point.

Light the Beacon! In order to call for aid, the elves at the Eastern Tower must attempt to light the beacons.

Edward set two elves to light the beacon. But the results would have to wait until the end of the turn.

Shooting.

Edward got excited by the prospect that his bolt thrower might be able to kill an entire troll in one go. He scored a hit, wounded, rolled two wounds, but the troll regenerated one of the wounds. 

Magic.

The wizard's fireball was ineffectual.

The beacon is lit!

This means that the forces that Edward assigned to the other watch towers will arrive on turn 3.

Goblin Turn 2

First things first, Black Tooth arrives! 

Then, Animosity and stupidity.

Animosity wasn't terrible. Only 1 unit failed animosity. Squabbling broke out as the chariot crew fought over which way to go. 

Then the Trolls failed their stupidity. This was devastating but also entirely foreseeable as trolls are notoriously unreliable - even with Grom's .... unequaled leadership. I needed them to charge the elves on the hill and smash them to pieces. Nope. Instead the absent-minded trolls' less than rapid advance rippled back, halting all of the goblins behind them. 

But, no matter. Grom will adapt!

The chariot on the left declared a charge. Thronduin decided to flee from the chariot and escaped being run down. The Wolf Riders advanced preparing to overrun the village. 

Black Tooth sprang onto the standing stone. Edward and I agreed that the Shaman should have to sit next to the standing stone a turn longer than prescribed by the rules. 

Grom advanced around the Trolls. He positioned himself to run down the elves on the hill. 

This picture captures the traffic jam of goblins held up by the trolls. Over 70 goblins held up by 5 trolls.

This time I remembered my magic phase.

First, radiance of power from Black Tooth to protect Grom from those pesky archers and bolt thrower. Edward attempted to dispel it but failed. 

Radiance of Power on the trolls. 

Edward responded with a Fireball targeting my wolf riders. Dispelled.

Everything felt like it was going well for Grom. The elves on the left had fled. The Trolls and Grom were immune to Elf ranged attacks. What could possibly go wrong?

Elf Turn 2. 

Declaring charges. Elril steeled his will and resolved to do something Grom had not anticipated. Elril charged against Grom. [it should be noted that normally the wizard would have been in the way, but Byron decided, since he was a lone character it'd make sense that a formation or troops could simply move around him and thereby allowed the charge to happen.]

Thronduin rallied his men.

Elril charges home. This was the decisive moment that spelled Grom's doom. Elril and his men scored two wounds, slaying Grom's wolves. Grom attempted to strike back with his mighty axe. He hit twice and needed a 4+ to wound the upstart, Elril. Both rolls failed. Grom lost the combat and broke. 

Grom attempted to flee the combat (with two wolves dead, he now rolled 2d6 instead of 3d6.) and was caught by the daring elves. 5" to the Elves' 7".

Grom was pitilessly cut down and slain. 

Suddenly Everything fell into chaos and bedlam! Without Grom's stalwart 7 ld and the horn of Urgok, goblins everywhere began fleeing for their lives! Nearly every single goblin unit nearby failed its panic test. 

You can see all of the failed Ld tests.

The goblins scattered.

The left flank evaporated. Black Tooth. Gone. The wolf Riders. Gone. One of the chariots. Gone. Archers. Gone. 

Goblin Turn 3.

At the top of Turn 3, the Trolls failed their stupidity and lumbered forward. The catapult failed its animosity. An the chariot on the left that had initially stuck around while everything fled around it also took flight. All that was left to act this turn was a chariot and the block of goblin spearmen. 

The Chariot crew screamed bloody revenge and rolled their chariot to run down Elril. He may have caught Grom flat footed, but he was no match for a chariot at full speed!

The Chariot rolled a 1 for impact hits, causing 3 impact hits (d6+2 hits for the scythes). 3 Elves were killed. But Elril would not not go down so easily. Using his sword of switft slaying he hacked at the chariot causing 1 wound to each the crew, chariot, and wolves. In reply the chariot crew caused one wound on the brave Elril. But, because the elves started with +1 rank and the chariot did not have enough models to count the +1 flank bonus, the combat was a tie. 

The Goblin counter attack was beaten. 

Elf Turn 3

Elven reinforcements from the other towers poured onto the battlefield. 

The goblins were hopelessly outnumbered.

From the north tower, Shadow Warriors and Phoenix guard.

From the West, Archers and another bolt thrower.

From the South, archers and reaver knights.

Close combat. Elril and his men routed the limping chariot and cut it down in pursuit. The remaining goblins fled while the trolls gaped in confusion. The battle was over. A single unit of 10 spearmen and an elf hero had almost single handedly routed an entire 2000 point army of goblins.

Elril claims the field daring any goblins to challenge him.

Elril was declared the Warden of Tor Yvresse for his brave and bold defense at Maugthrond Pass.