Salute Loot

Yesterday was the 2014 Salute wargaming show, held at the Excel centre in London's docklands. It's only 20 minutes away by car for me, so I try and make it every year. This year I was joined by my brother and his wife and their 2 month old daughter. I was please to see that my brother was introducing her to wargaming at a young age. I fully expect her to be painting her first 28's within months.

The Excel venue is a great one for shows of this type, with good transport links, plenty of space and only moderately overpriced food and drink outside the halls. The car park that I usually use, outside the East entrance, was closed for coaches this year, so we were directed into the labyrinth under the venue. Random closures of certain parts made this a real maze, and I drove around fr about 20 minutes trying to find a parking space.

Eventually we managed to get into the hall just before 1pm, by which time all the freebie bags were gone, so I didn't get an of the nice give-aways like the Salute figure, which is a shame. I also thought that the hall seemed darker this year than previous years, but that could just be my failing eyesight. There seemed less gamers there than previous years, and I noticed a few empty tables. The lack of a bring and buy this year possibly contributed to the more spacious feel, as the stores were a little more spread out, which was a welcome change.

I didn't take any photos at the show, but there are some excellent galleries here, here, here and here. I was particularly impressed by the Sword Beach display, and the 1950's Vietnam board. The VSF board on Mars and the IHMN Lost City board also looked great. Unfortunately, because we arrived late, it was the first year that I didn't get to see everything, and missed some of the really good boards that you can see in the links above.

So, onto my haul. All the pictures below are straight from the pack, so include flash and sprue and are unassembled or glued.

 

Firstly, we have a freebie figure that I got from an interesting looking range soon to be launched by Spectre Miniatures. The range appears to be a modern/near future set in the dark, dangerous and sweaty world of unstable African countries. The figure is a CIA agent, and if the rest of the range is of similar quality they could be worth looking out for.

Next we have a collection of miniatures from Ground Zero Games

Firstly we have the Crusty attack bugs and handler. These are really nice giant attack prawns, and crusty with forked stick to prod them towards their enemies. I can see a whole host of uses for the attack prawns, and they are very nicely made, as ever.

Next we have a set of NSL heavy weapons, an autocannon on wheeled mount, grenade launcher on wheeled mount and RAM mortar. All nice, clean sculpts that will add a bit of punch to my Militech forces for the 4th Corporate War game.

I also wanted to pick up some Crusty light cruisers. When I placed an order with GZG after Christmas using my discount voucher, I ordered 4 sets of Heavy Destroyers by mistake instead of 4 light cruisers. Due to a picking error yesterday, I ended up with 2 more heavy cruisers and 2 light cruisers instead of the 4 light cruisers I wanted. I'm destined never to get my light cruiser squadron...

Light on left, heavy on right.

Next we have some really nice civilian vehicles from Critical Mass Games. I picked up a pack of the anti-grav cars and the anti-grav vans. The vans will make really good proxies for AV-4's (aerodyne vehicles) for the 4th Corporate war game, and the I'm going to convert a couple of the cars to be police cruisers by the addition of a styrene lightbar on the roof. I also picked up a Ravager Mech, but as it's in parts, didn't bother to photograph it.

Next we have a single pack of Arthurian Personalities from West Wind Productions Arturian range. These are a really nice set of Arthur, Merlin , Bishop and Owain, who I assume is Owain Ddantgwyn. Really nice figures, especially Merlin leaning on his staff. He just cries out for some faded blue tattoos on his arms.

Next we have a pack of Wargames Foundry figures from their unreleased range. These are a set from the Egyptian Adventures, which are essentially figures from the movie "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns". This set recreates the fight in the throne room between Nefretiri and Anacksunamun (his daughter and his mistress). It's a a nice set of figures which I will be using to bolster my Servants of Ra forces for In Her Majesty's Name.

I seem to recall a distinct lack of boobies in the film...

Next up we have some casualty dials from Warbases. Warbases are my go-to service for bases, counters and various other laser cut MDF bits and bobs. They make some nice dark ages buildings which I have just purchased, and they also did the custom order for the large hexes for my micro forests. The casualty dials are really simple, just disks with a window cut into them and a rotating dial with numbers on it. at 60p each, these are a bargain and will be useful for a number of games including Bolt Action, Chain of Command and Dux Brittanium..

I finally picked up a set plastic of hills and escarpments from Kallistra, which I have been uhmming and ahhing over for the last 4 or 5 shows I've been to. They should paint up nicely, and when flocked to match my table will provide a nice alternative to some of the crummy polystyrene pieces I have. The ones below are the smallest pieces of the small, medium and large that you get in each set.

Finally, and my last purchases of the day, we have a few bits from Brigade Models. Firstly we have two sets of their powered armour, which will again be used for my 4th corporate war game, in this case a Militech Commando PA suits. They'll also do double duty as French BH-21 PA suits for a 2300AD game set on Aurore. Very nice models, but the details on the weapons seem a bit soft. Perhaps this is the age of the mould or maybe I just got a slightly rough batch. I got one set of the regular suits, and one set of the heavy weapon suits armed with a mix of rotary cannons and bazookas.

 I also picked up a couple of sets each of their new fleet scale British Fighters. The detail on these really is remarkable. You can even make out the cockpit canopy frame on them, which is a major achievement for a miniature less then 6mm in length. This is clearly a positive result of CGI design and 3-d printing.

The bars on the tail are sprue, but could easily be turned into a rear air-foil to give you a Vampire/Vixen twin boom vibe.

With handy 15mm figure for scale

So, overall quite a nice haul. There were a couple of things I looked at but didn't get, the raiders expansion for Dux Brittanium and some of the new plastic tribal Orcs. I forgot to get some Longhorn fighters from GZG and I also picked up some Northwind and Foundry Arabs for my brother for his birthday present. I managed to stay just within my budget, and resisted the temptation to spend it all on buying every X-Wing ship I could see.

Mighty Armies Campaign Game 5

My two nephews, Orc and Goblin, came over today to continue our irregular series of campaign games for Mighty Armies. We're slowly putting together a nice set of simple campaign rules, and have now introduced favoured units, random events and attrition.

The attrition rules are simple. Each leader can raise as many armies as he likes. Each turn that an army fights it has to be paid for in Gold equal to it's AP cost (usually 44). This represents wages, tribute, the cost of ingredients to keep undead troops animate or dead rats and shiny things for the Lizardmen (who love their bling). After each battle replacements for the the lost troops then also have to be paid for in the same way, or the AP cost of the destroyed units are deducted from the available pool in the next battle as reserves are drawn in to fill the ranks. After each battle the winning side also gains plunder and loot equal to 1d6 x 10 Gold. The losing side gets nothing. In addition to the two villages that generate 20 and 10 gold each, each lair now also generates 20 Gold per turn.

I've drawn up a simple random event table, and once each turn the players roll on it to see what happens:

Roll
2	Omen from the Gods: Your priests receive a fortuitous omen from the gods. You get three re-rolls to use in any of your battles this turn, and instead of automatically routing you get to choose if your army breaks when it reaches 50% strength.
3	Mercenaries: Two stands of Dwarven mercenaries (standard troop types only, no special abilities) offer to join your side for a share of the spoils. You can recruit them for double their AP cost to fight in any one battle.
4	Scouts: Your advanced scouts have found important information about your next battlefield, giving you a tactical advantage. After army setup you may move one of your units by 3 inches in any direction.
5	Healer: A healer offers to join your army for one of your battles. Once, when a unit is destroyed, roll a die. On a 4-6 that unit is instead moved back to your base-line. May not be used on flying units.
6	Struck Gold. One of your mines discovered a rich vein of ore this turn. Gain 10 Gold.
7	No event
8	Famine! One of your villages is stricken by plague and produces 10 Gold less than normal. If you have no villages left, you lose 2 AP from the next battle.
9	Plague! For the first battle this turn your troops fight at an additional -1 in for the first three turns
10	Bad Information! On your first turn of the first battle you get 2 MP less than the rolled number. If you roll a 1, you also lose 1MP from your roll on turn 2.
11	Deserters! Some of your units have fled. You have 2 AP less for your first battle this turn.
12	Raiders! You must fight off an additional attack from raiders this turn. They will have a 40p army with no flying units or spell casters and will attack the closest un-invaded territory to your HQ. Any unengaged army can be used to fight them off. If you are beaten, that territory produces nothing this turn.

I've also created a turn tracker with different seasons on it, so we can start to do some interesting things with weather if battles take place in the winter, for instance, or with gold for harvest time and planting in autumn and spring.

We rolled events for this turn and Orc, running the Barbarian Hordes, got a Famine. Goblin, running the undead army got Plague, and queried how undead troops could catch the plague. I suggested it could be an infestation of rats or bloodworms or a magical malaise that had come over the controlling necromancer. I got Bad Information - so not a great turn all round.

There are four battles this turn, as the campaign map below shows.

We fought Orc's Barbarians attacking the town (Alchemist), defended by Goblins Undead.

Both sides created their armies using 44 points and including flying units. This battle saw the début of some new units for both sides. The Barbarians had some Berserkers (Heavy Infantry, Horde, Fearless) and the Undead had a bone Chariot (chariot) and some Spectres (Heavy Infantry, Flying, Horde).

The battle lines were drawn up:

We ruled that the walled compound to the south could be entered and units placed inside, but the walls blocked line of sight and halted movement (as you had to climb over them. The round tower and the watchtower were impassible to all but flying units and the other building delineated an area of the town that blocked line of sight and was difficult going, so we'd just move them around as needed to accommodate units moving in and out of the town.

I've had a few people comment that the previous reports "helicopter view" wasn't the best, so I've tried to get a few more action shots this time. I won't do a full blow by blow account, but try and let the pictures show the sequence of events:

Skeleton scouts in the village.

The Spectres take flight and advance on the left flank, but the Barbarian Shaman binds one of them in place.

The bone beast moves up in the centre, as the Wolfpack advances on the Undead right flank.

The Spectres elect to leave the bound unit behind and continue their advance.

The Undead chariot decides to switch flanks, and races across the Undead rear area

Turn 3. The Barbarians have been plagued by low MP rolls, whilst the Undead have had good rolls. The Barbarian Berserkers are trying to engage the Wolfpack on the left, but their slow speed is hampering them, and all they can see is difficult terrain in front of them.

The Lich (general) moves up to support the bone beast and scouts in the village.

The Spectres charge the Barbarian shaman and rout him....

But are counter charged by the Barbarian King and his favoured unit of Bison Cavalry. They have the Shieldbreaker spacial ability, so get to roll two dice in the first round of combat. 

The Spectres lose a unit and are pushed back, just in time for the Shaman to blast them with a fireball.

Meanwhile, the Direwolf is charged by the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack is the Undead favoured unit and have Dragon Forged Lances (or claws, in this instance) giving them a +1 bonus to charges. They beat the Direwolf, forcing it to retreat, but their rampager ability allows them to follow up and move back into contact!

The Direwolf defends himself and routs the Wolfpack, killing one of them. He is then joined by the Barbarian King and Shieldbreaker cavalry to face the Lich. The Barbarian Shaman binds the bone beast and chariot in place, as the Beserkers slowly move into the village to try a rear attack. 

The Barbarians charge the Lich, but are driven back (terrible roll for the Barbarians, great for the Undead), losing a stand of the Shieldbreaker Cavalry. The Bone Chariot picks off the birdman who had been spotting for the Shaman. 

The Barbarians re-organise and prepare to receive charge, The Beserkers just aren't fast enough to get through the town in time to help.

Barbarians Rally, Bone Chariot snipes the Shaman and the Lich Rallies as the Beserkers amble through the village.

Barbarians decide to charge again, and are beaten back, again.  Berserkers emerge from the village, but are still too far away to help. The Barbarians only need to lose one more unit to rout.

The end.... surrounded on all sides and charged from the rear, the Barbarian King is defeated.

A bad day for the Barbarians, who fail to seize the town from the Undead. They also have to fight off an attack from the Lizardmen this turn. The undead gain 50 Gold from the victory, but also have to fight off the Orcs at the Town, and are attacking the Orcs at the Fletchers. Could be a costly round for them...

Mighty Armies Campaign Game 3 - Orcs Vs. Undead at the Fletcher's Cottage

Our third battle of the Mighty Armies campaign saw Goblin's Undead face off against MBB's Orcs (actually my orcs, but MBB has no 10mm fantasy, so it was that or face off against the 3rd Reich in 6mm). It also saw the return of my patent pending "Shake-a-tron 3000 Blur-o-matic" mobile phone photography technique. Next game I WILL remember the proper camera.

The Orcs and undead legions were facing off for ownership of the Fletcher's Cabin. As a reminder, possession of this upgrades archers by 1 level, so from shooting 1 to shooting 2, shooting 2 to Long Ranged and Long Range to Artillery Range. The Undead started with possession, and also had the explosive ammo for their catapult as a result of holding the town with it's attendant Alchemist from the invading barbarian hordes in game 1. 

The cabin was placed in the centre and then 5 stands of trees were placed, alternating placement by each side with a random roll giving the Undead first placement. Goblin made a bit of a boo-boo here and placed three of the stands near his baseline. He had quite a shooty army build, with Long Ranged archers and the exploding ammo of his catapult, but he reduced their effectiveness by putting them all behind the LOS blocking trees. The Orcs Flying Beast had Scout, so could setup further forward than the other troops.

Setup

Turn 1
Turn 1 started with the undead making an aggressive charge up the centre with their wolf packs, and the bone beast levitating into the air to confront the Orcs flying beast. The Bone Beast and Flying Beast would proceed to dogfight for the next 3 turns, diving away or drawing in combat each turn.

The Orcs responded by advancing across the board, with all units pushing forward.

Turn 1

Turn 2
Limited movement on turn 2. The Undead moved up their heavies, the Vampire and Mummies, on the right and began to move their archers forward, looking to get out of the woods. The Orcs began to consolidate their right flank, advancing the Trolls and the Orc archers.

Turn 2

Turn 3
The limitations of the Shake-a-tron 3000 show up here, as all the other pictures apart from the one below of turns 3 and 4 are useless. On turn 3 the Undead advanced their wolf packs to the right and the Vampire and General straight forward setting up to threaten the flanks of any Orc cavalry charge. Unfortunately they were a bit premature, as the orcs general split off from the cavalry and advanced around the woods to allow the cavalry to use their mobility and charge the wolf packs and destroy them all. The undead archers continued to stroll through the woods as the trolls and Orc Archers moved into a position guarding the Orcs right flank.

Turn 4
On turn 4 the archers reached the edge of the wood and a gentleman's agreement said that the two half-stands that were out of the woods were as good as a single stand, so they had a pot-shot at the trolls. The mouldering bowstrings of the skeleton archers proved effective and one unit of trolls met their end. On the opposite side of the battlefield the Vampire Lord split off from the mummies to meet up with the single stand of undead cavalry and form another attacking force. The mummies advanced through the woods.  The dogfight between the bone beast and flying beast was concluded as the magics animating the bone beast were disrupted by the flying beasts attacks and it fell to the ground in pieces. On the Orcs turn the cavalry trampled over the corpses of the wolf packs to charge the Mummies. The now unoccupied Flying beast dropped down behind the mummies to support the attack. The combat was very close, and a single stand was destroyed. The mummies would have been pushed back, and thus destroyed by their retreat being blocked by the flying beast behind them, but they were fearless, so didn't need to retreat.

Turn 3/4

Turn 5
Turn 5 was over quite quickly. On their right flank the Orc archers fired on the skeleton bowmen emerging from the forest and killed one unit. On their left flank the Orc wolf rider cavalry and bone beast once again attacked the Mummies and destroyed the last stand. With more than 50% of his forces destroyed, the Vampire Lord was forced from the field and the Fletcher was left to the tender mercies of the Orcs.

With the first full campaign turn over the campaign map looks like this:

The Orcs and Lizard-men both own 4 territories and 2 special locations. The Undead have 3 territories and 1 special location and the Barbarians have been pushed back to just 2 locations. Next turn sees the Barbarians attack the Wizards Tower, the Orcs attack the Town, the Undead attack the Mill and the Lizard-men attack the Barbarians +10gp location. Favoured units will start appearing at the end of the next campaign turn too.

Mighty Armies Campaign game 1

I had Orc and Goblin over at the weekend. MBB was due to come over too, but a scheduling mix up meant he wasn't here at the same time as the younglings. They both said they wanted to play with the armies that AGG and I had painted for them at Christmas, so we set up a quick 44 point game, with flying units. Whilst choosing armies, we also decided to start up a quick campaign. Between the three of us we worked out a nodal campaign map for four players (Me, Orc, Goblin and MBB). I'm working on a campaign map for us, but we decided that certain locations would give certain benefits. We worked out the following:

Mill - extra supplies. Gives owning player 2 extra army points for each battle

Fletcher - Archer units get Long Ranged for free, or if already long ranged can use artillery range.

Volcano - You can try and persuade a Dragon to join you for 1/2 price. Roll a dice. 1-3 he eats 2 army points worth of troops, 4-6, dragon for 1/2 price (flying monster)

Wizards Tower - you can try and persuade a wizard to join you for 1/2 price. Roll a dice. 1-3 he turns 2 army points worth of troops into frogs, 4-6 buy a magic user for 1/2 price (can't also be general)

Town - Alchemist. Your artillery gain exploding ammunition. If a unit is destroyed by an artillery shot, roll a dice. 1-3, no effect, 4-6 another unit adjacent to it in a group is also destroyed.

We decided that the campaign would be over once one player owns the majority of the locations, and that if a players home location was destroyed, he'd carry on playing but as a vassal of the conqueror. To keep it simple we assume that each empire always has enough troops to field an army, so there are no rules for attrition or supply. We did say that each player can nominate one Group that can gain experience from game to game, but haven't decided how that will work yet.

Here's a rough draft of the campaign map:

Still a work in progress....

The players are:

Orc - The Barbarian Hordes

Goblin - The Undead Legions

MBB - The Orcs of the Red Hand

Me - The Lizardfolk Tribes

We started the campaign turn off by each player selecting a territory to advance into. The board quickly filled up until there were no empty spaces left and we had to advance into enemy territory. This resulted in three battles this turn:

Barbarians vs. Undead in the town.

Lizards vs. Barbarians at the Wizards Tower 

Orcs versus Undead in the mountains

We decided to play the first battle in the town. The Barbarians had claimed Wizards Tower, and the Undead the Fletcher, so they built their armies accordingly. The Barbarians petitioned the Wizard to join them, but Wizards being the cantankerous things they are he declined and blasted away two of The Barbarians army points, so they started with 42 instead of 44 (we normally play with 44 point armies and flying units as standard).

The armies lined up:

Initial setup

The river was impassable except at the two fords and the bridge. The fords were difficult going. The town blocked line of sight and the forests blocked line of sight and were difficult going.

Turn 1

Turn 1 saw initial manoeuvring on both sides. For the Undead the bone beast and wolf pack moved along the Eastern flanks into the woods. The Barbarians moved their Bison Cavalry to the west and advanced the warriors towards the eastern ford. The pictures were all taken with my phone camera, so apologies for the  variable quality:

Blurry turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 2 saw the Barbarians continue their advance. Their Shaman got line of sight to the mummies on the western flank and bound them in place. The Undead began to put their long-ranged archers in place to cover the western ford, and the wolf pack and bone beast moved through the forest. The flying Vampire general took to the field and moved up to support the eastern thrust.

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 3 saw the Barbarians gain initiative again. The Barbarian King had the Tactician skill, so gained +1 to his initiative roll each turn. The Bison Cavalry moved up and crossed the western ford. In the centre the King and Shaman advanced into the town, and the catapult slowly advanced. On the east the warriors held position  just out of range of the wolf pack, and the dire wolf moved up to support them. The catapult took a pot-shot at one of the wolf packs, but to no effect.

The Undead only had a few command points this turn, so had to pick carefully. The archers wheeled in place and fired on the Bison, killing one of them.

Archers in position...

The wolf pack and bone beast moved up towards the ford, but couldn't quite reach it.

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 4 saw the Undead win initiative. They only had a few maneuver point this turn, so on the western flank they finally roused the mummies into action to try and protect the archers, but it seemed to be too little, too late. They also diverted the bat swarm to bolster the archers and fired on the Bison to no effect. The wolf pack and bone beast held their ground as they were blasted by lightning no less that three times by the Shaman, fired on by the artillery and then charged by the barbarian warriors. They warriors, hampered by the difficult terrain of the ford, lost the battle and had a stand killed and were pushed back. The wolf packs rampage meant that they could follow up, and their mobility meant they were unhindered by the difficult terrain of the ford, so they immediately chased the fleeing barbarians down.

In the west the Bison riders charged the archers and bat swarm and emerged victorious. One stand of archers was killed and the rest recoiled.

Barbarians flee, chased by the wolfpacks.

Turn 4

Turn 5

I forgot to take any pictures on turn 5, so my colourful prose will have to suffice. The bat swarm flew back to support the Vampire, who moved into the town ready to confront the barbarian king. The wolf pack attacked the barbarian warriors in the rear and destroyed them. The archers wheeled in place and fired on the bison riders to no effect. The bison in turn charged and killed the archers. The catapult fired on the wolf pack and killed one, and the hawk man conducted a surprise attack on the rear of the group and the other!

Turn 6

I've included the casualties for turn 5 and 6 in the picture below. The barbarians won initiative this turn. The king advanced onto the bridge with the shaman. The bison cavalry wheeled around the village and the catapult fired on and killed the bone beast. In the Undead turn the vampire advanced onto the bridge and the bat swarm flew and landed behind the Shaman and the King. Caught between that Vampire and the Bat Swarm, the Barbarian king and his Shaman were both killed.

Turn 6

Turn 7

Turn 7 was mostly consolidation for the final battle. The vampire flew north to join the mummies and single stand of Skeleton Warriors. The hawk man and Dire Wolf moved up ready to join with the Bison Cavalry. The catapult fired on the landed bats on the bridge and killed them.

Turn 7

Turn 8

Turn 8 saw the Barbarian forces link up as the undead shuffled about in place.

Turn 8

Turn 9

Turn 9 saw the barbarian forces charge, with the hawk men diving to the rear in a surprise attack. Unfortunately for the barbarians, even with the assistance of the dire wolf and the hawk man surprise, the might of the vampire and his Mummies was just too much. All of the bison cavalry, and the hawk man, were destroyed. The Dire wolf made his death save and loped off howling. With just a catapult and the Dire Wolf left, the Barbarians had been roundly defeated.

 This was a really fun and exciting battle, and the fortunes wavered back and forth several times. With the Undead now in control of the town and the fletcher's, next campaign turn will no doubt see a very shooty undead army emerging (although Goblin has enquired about undead, flying, heavy cavalry - a scary thought!). We realised afterwards (well, I realised) That's missed off a few important rules, like the proper victory conditions, and how armies react when generals are killed, but we'll fold them in for the next game.