Wednesday 21 December 2011

Overcoming obstacles

Hello all,
after a long draught on the hobby side I finally got some stuff done yesterday evening. Not much but it may be the beginning of a long and fruitful winter :-).
In our last game I realised that there are three things I need in order to make the field of battle look better; more road, obstacles, and something to clutter the tabletop to make it look more natural (these would probably not have any effect on the game - purely visual).
So the first obstacle to overcome were the obstacles... (see what I did there? :-)). And here are a few pictures of the first stage of them:




There are also two defended areas for the artillery to park in - of no benefit ruleswise but it should look better :-).



Most of the metal pieces are from Irregular Miniatures while the trees and hedges are from Heki or Noch - wonderful stuff.

The two odd objects - which I really hope you recognize - were bought in a small shop in San Francisco recently for the prize of 1 dollar combined. I hope that with a little tender love and care they will end up as somewhat amusing pieces for the battlefield...


All the best, and a merry christmas to all,
Kasper.

Monday 14 November 2011

2500p Medieval Warmaster Battle Report - "Seize and Control"

Hello all,
As promised here are the battle report of our latest Warmaster Medieval battle.

The Scenario
The full rules of the scenario (even though they are quite short) can be found here: http://warmasterdk.blogspot.com/2011/11/seize-and-control.html. But basically it is a scenario where at the end of each players turn if he controls one of the three central objectives (the hills, city, and forrest) he receives one victory point for each.
A quick note on the scenario: It worked well, gave Infantry a large role to play and was easy to keep taps on. Perhaps a few minor adjustments - it seemed weird that confused units could control an objective (even as rare a thing to happen) and perhaps introduce a rule to represent some random insurgence could throw units out of objects - local militias getting angry at loosing all their food? i.e. on a six the controlling units are moved outside of the object?

Army lists:
The Black Teutonians of Wales (Teutonic Order) 
2500p - BP: 13 - Commanded by Uffe
Grand Master, 2x Lords
6 x Brother Knights (How do ya like mechanised medieval armies, eh? Bloody tiger tanks!)
3 x Crusader Knights
2 x Light Horses
7 x Crossbowmen
8 x Spearmen wih pavisses.

The Glorious House of York
2500p BP: 22 - Commanded by Kasper
King Richard, 2 x Lords
3 x Men-at-Arms-Mounted
4 x Currours
2 x Hobilars
12 x Shire Bill, 5 with stakes
8 x Shire Longbows
6 x Irish
5 x Peasants
2 x Heavy Cannons
1 x Organ Guns

Deployment:
A few notes on my depoyment (i.e. York's) may be in order; the infantry were supposed to swarm the objectives on the flanks and sacrifice themselves while the cavalry and cannones were there to try and deter the Teutonian monster cavalry from participating. The Irish were the principal sacrificial troops to open up a path for the rest of the infantry  while the peasantbrigades were there to fill up objectives with cannonfodder...

  Three shots of the Yorkian deployment



  And two of the Teutonian lineup (Buuuuh-Hiss at the unpainted lead!)


Turn 1  - House of York



First turn saw some placing infantry moves. In the center a full brigade managed three order rolls and firmly entrenched themselves upon the hill, daring anyone to come and dislodge them. On the other flanks more infantry moved up, marred by the first of many blunders this game. A few barrages of the british longbows drove the Teutonian Light Horses backwards dazed and confused.

Yorkian infantry bravely occupy the hill...
Victory Points: 1
Turn 1  - Teutonic Order
The countermoves were impressive; infantry swept forward on each flank while a strong brigade of feared Brother Knights moved rashly forward into a position from where they were threatening the entire right and centre of the Yorkian army.

Victory Points: 0
Turn 2 - House of York

 Deciding something had to be done Richard III boldly led the charge of all the Men-at-Arms Mounted into the Brother Knights. Although casualties were high on both sides the Yorkians were triumphant destroying whole unit and causing much damage besides. They were able to just push the combat behind the line of sight of the remianing Brother Knights (BK4) hoping to survive a few hours more.
The Irish on both sides used the oppurtunity to sneak unnoticed into both flanking objectives and start looting.

 Cavalry collides in a massive frenzy
 A stand-off on the right flank

 Final positions in the centre

Victory Points:  3
Turn 2 - Teutonic Order
 Never fearing a combat the Teutnian charged in: succeding in many fansy order rolls botht he Brother Knights and the infantry behind them entered the fray and caused many bold Yorkian knights to die. On the other flank the infantry brigade tried assaulting the village but were thrown back by the defending Irish.
In the centre the brave York infantry were assaulted by hundreds of knights but, due to a miracle, managed to repel them and, although heavily damaged, held the centre hill.
The Teutonian might charges in..
... and are thrown back after serious fighting.
Victory Points: 0
Turn 3 - House of York
Deciding to try a bit of longranged destruction the Yorkians held their ground, except for a unit of Hobilars who together with the remains of the M-a-A destroyed a unit of Brother Knights before withdrawing.
The longbow and Cannon shots drove the tattered remians of one Brother Knights unit back (BK3).
A view from behind the Yorkian lines
Victory Points: 2
Turn 3 - Teutonic Order
Angry and even more angry the Teutonian might rumbled forward and killed every single infantryman on the hill, causing it to turn red with blood.
The Yorkian infantry are thrashed.
Victory Points: 1
Turn 4 - House of York
While the right infantry redeployed to take some crack shots at the centre cavalry the remaining M-a-A charged an inviting flank of the Teutonian cavalry line. Causing disappointing casualties they decided to hang in there. While they were fighting cannons and longbows caused massive confusiont o the other Teutonian cavalry units in the centre - buying their comrades another hour to live in. In a similar sacrifice the Hobilars moved in front of several units to protect the falnk of the MaA.
The long line of Teutonian cavalry are hit in the flank by Kig Richard III's finest knights.
And the Irish are busy pillaging the village.
Victory Points: 2
Turn 4 - Teutonic Order
Moving in for the kill the Crusader knights almost destroys the remaining MaA but the preceeding round of artillery fire had left many of the units dazed and now they were still in disarray.
oth infantry sides failed their order rolls as all eyes were upon the decimation of the nobility in the centre.


Victory Points:  1
Turn 5 - House of York
In an effort to save their comrades the brave Currours charge in and push back the Teutonian knights, many of whom die slipping on the bloodsoaked hill.
Infantry divisions redeploy and start shooting at the backside of the Teutonians.
The Currours charge in to rescue the remaining Men-at-Arms.
Victory Points:  1
Turn 5 - Teutonic Order
As the Teutonian knights slaughter the Currours the infantry are boldened by their efforts. The Master Gunner finally decides to do something and moves forward, as do the infantry brigade on the right, although they fail their attempt at charging.
Victory Points: 1
Turn 6 - House of York
Deploying th elast of his knights, Richard III orders the Currours to charge the centre where they destroy and push back the remaining Teutonians. More infantry move forward to secure the hill, while the Irish fall back a few meters to remain hidden in the forrest.
The last mounted reinforcements are deployed by the Yorkian general

Victory Points: 1
Turn 6 - Teutonic Order
To save the day the remaing two stands of Brother Knights charge in to clear the hill. Although they fight amazingly in the end the masses of Currours bring them down. The Infantry tries to roll up the falnk of the Yorkins but the order didn't make it to the spearmen (at least thats what they would claim afterwards...)
Witht hat the game ended - a game where the cavalry almost obliterated each other and the infantry had a strangely quite day at the front. Of the nine heavy knight units the Teutonians fielded only one remained and only one stand from the seven the York side fielded. While most of the light horses were still alive the sound of dying horses must have been intimidating (and one could not say that no animals were harmed during the production of this battle report :-)).
In the end ten units of cavalry and four of infantry died upon that hill - it must have been soaked in blood!

 The last Brother Knights charge in to tip the scales

Victory Points: 0


Victory Points and Casualties:
Total Victory Points
Teutonic Order: 3
House of York: 10
Teutonic Order:
6 x Brother Knights [!]: 870
2 x Crusader Knights: 270
½ x Light Horse: 35
Total: 1175

House of York:
3 x Men-at-Arms-Mounted: 405
3½ x Currours: 385
2 x Shire Bill: 90
2 x Longbow: 90
Total: 970

Final thoughts
House of York:
Well the "men of the match"-award should defintely go to both brigades of Irish who more or less won me the game on Victory points by controlling two objectives almost throughout the game. As for the rest of the army I feel it performed well - the cavalry was able to compete with the scary Teutonian Brother Knights and even (through some lucky charges) managed to wipe them all out - albeit at heavy casualties to themselves. Their job was to keep the Cavalry away from my infantry, and in that they succeded. 
The role intended for the infantry was to seize and control, which they did - perhaps a bit sluggish and many units never reached a suitable location to start shooting from, but thats all due to the die. 
The cannons on the other hand is a bit of a "Hmmm". they did manage to kill 2/3's of a Brother Knight unit and sow confusion in another turn but is that woth 150points? Well I guess it sis (but the organ gun is gone forever :-)).
All in all a great game; won by infantry but through the workings of the cavalry and a bit of heavy support fire from the artillery - just as it should be :-).

I'll let Uffe explain what went wrong on the Teutonian side of the battle. One thing I should mention is that although many command rolls were missed if he had focused more on getting the infantry into the city and the forrest the Victory Point difference would have been much lower but I guess he got focused on the cavalry battles in the centre - which were bloody fun as well :-).

Hope you enjoyed the report - these beasts take an enormous amount of time to compile so I hope it is worth it!

All the best,
Kasper

Monday 7 November 2011

Flagdownloadspage: full of win!

Hello all,
I just wanted to bring to your attention a certain page on ye internet. This contains several full sheets of high detail, well drawn, and (best of all) free banners to download. They look excellent and covers several historic eras; I was drawn by their banners for the House of York but noticed American Civil War and the 30 years saxon war as well.
http://grimsbywargamessociety.webs.com/flagdownloads.htm
Give it a look, now there are no excuses for not having historical correct banners for all units!
Here is a small preview of the quality:

There's a ton of work gone into each sheet so it is very nice of them to allow these to be used free of charge!

All the best,
Kasper


Sunday 6 November 2011

Seize and Control

So, yesterday was the day where we finally played another game of Warmaster Medieval - its been around four months zero gaming on that front.

There will be a full lenght battle report sometime during this week but I can say it was an intense, bloody, and fun game - it is not an exageration to state that all the horses of the House of York and the Teutonic Order were slaughtered!

The scenario functioned well - it would need no alterations.

I'll leave you with a picture of the hill that would become so incredible bloody.


All the best,
Kasper

Monday 31 October 2011

Finally: a game!

Hello all,
after many looong months of no gaming it seems we shall be having us a fancy Warmaster game next weekend!

The scenario will be something along these lines:
(ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOMED!)

Warmaster Scenario: Seize and Control:
In any larger seige the control of nearby resources is of the utmost importance for all involved. This scenario represents a large foraging army sent out to places of import near such a seige where they encounter the opposing army. Both sides seek to gain control of the stretegic objectives on the field of battle, perhaps more important than inflciting casualties.

2500 points (min/max limits as for 2000p).
Deployment: Hidden setup, 20cm in. 
Special rules:
Skirmishing moves (i.e. skirmishers gets a free move after all deplouyment has been done, the one with the most skirmishing units begins).
Artillery Master (i.e. our old favorite Special Character - tons of rules - this game he will be bringing a unit of Crossbowmen and an Organ Gun for free).

Victory Conditions:
Normal victory points will only be used to decide a tie, and break points are not applied.
After each player's turn he will be awarded one point for each of the objectives he is in control of.
The objectives are the central hill, forrest and city.
To control one of these a player must have scoring troops (i.e. not skirmishers, artillery or troops belonging to the Artilery Master. In addition characters and units reduced to one stand cannot control anything) within the boundaries of the objective and be the only player to have troops in the particular objective. If a player controls an objective he will be awarded one point; i.e. up to three points by each player may be grabbed each turn.
After the battle the points will decide who won the game.
In addition 2 points will be awarded for bringing the enemy to their break point and 2 for killing/capturing the enemy general.

Map:
All the best - and of course a battle report will follow...
Kasper

Thursday 28 July 2011

Old Skaven Madness - part 38 - Harpy family picture

Hello all,
I almost forgot a few pictures of the unit of Harpies - all together ready to wreak havoc on dwarven cannons or elven Repeater Crossbows (actually they most often ran away from carrions - but thats another tale :-)).






Best regards,
Kasper

You might also find this interesting:

Related Posts with Thumbnails