Old Skaven Madness - part 2 - Plague Priest

Hello all!
Continuing down memory lane with a revisit to my old Skaven - Clan Ressak.
Today's vermin is my plague priest - I used to love these characters as they were the only ones that could actually fight and kill something...

Plague Priest

Im really not sure what parts were used, but I think I can identify a Grey seer (maybe the one from the Screaming Bell?), Lord Skrolks staff and the gun hand from a Doomwheel driver. He is sporting the last uniform version that my "Monks of Madness" (my main Plague monk unit) were painted in and the yellow was hell to paint on top of the black but looked pretty good with thrity of them lined up.

Plague Priest

Plague Priest

Check back as we continue with more Plague Monks before deciding what else to show :-).
Best regards,
Kasper

Old Skaven Madness - part 1 - Plague Monk Banner

Hello all!

Skaven!?! I hear you utter in surprise and ridicule, but yes: Skaven!

Twenty or twenty five years ago I began playing Warhammer and did so seriously for at least 15 years (e.g. a ton of competitions and at least a game every fourteen day). After this period I still enjoyed painting and converting these 28mm figures. 

The result is a Skaven army that includes ancient models, an absurd amount of conversion and about a million manhours :-). But unfortunately also a Skaven army (about 7000points) that I have not really seen in ten years due to my dislike of the last couple of Warhammer editions ("Herohammer").

This complete lack of interest (or rather feeling a great sadness every time I saw their containers in the basement) has somewhat disappeared due to the new edition of Warhammer that stresses the type of armies I enjoyed (huge blocks) and the new Skaven models. But no, I probably wont be playing any Warhammer games but I decided to take out the old rats and take a few pictures of them - which resulted in a nice afternoon of reliving old days :-).

I´ll start out with the banner bearer and champion from one of the Plague monk units as the banner really sums up my skaven army :-).

Plague Monk Banner

The Banner bearer is the old plague monk banner bearer, while the champion is a combination of a jezzail champion and a globadier hand, and a couple of horns to finish him off. The banner proudly presents a minotaur head - probably one that they have recently killed. There used to be some more stuff on top of the head but that seems to have fallen off.

Plague Monk Banner

I hope you´ll come back and see more of these Skaven as I share them over the next weeks.
Best regards,
Kasper

Report on the "The Battle of Marignano" scenario

Hello all,

I know its been silent around here but while preparing for a Warmaster battle in the near future I found out that I have not reported on how our first test run of the Battle of Marignano scenario went.

And to be honest it was a blast - one of the best scenarios we have ever played. The game was intense and shifted back and forth. The Swiss side had almost given up hope of accomplishing anything by turn two when a small division managed to pummel their way through and by sheer cunning (and a bit of luck) managed to seize the camp and win the battle. The battle was fierce especiallyas the french cannons continously blasted the Swiss into confucion and back towards their deployment making a steady advance almost impossible for the cumbersome pike-blocks. the victory was helped by the French commander of the rear guards slow deployment which allowed the swiss pike blocks to get there in the end. 

Good advice would be to spread out the pike blocks as quickly as possible while the French should really focus on defending and keeping some cavalry in reserve for destroying anything that gets too enar the camp - remember your objectives :-).

The victory points reflect the close battle: 500 points of Swiss losses to 475 French (mostly cannons and crossbowmen).

It was really close - which is a sign of a good scenario and I am pretty happy with the forces and objectives.

We did discuss a few changes to bring a better sense of balance to the game which I will share with you:

*We would suggest to reduce the distance between the hill and the river to no more than 15cm (instead of 25).

* The player objectives might need some more work - e.g. the amount of troops that Bartolomeo d'Alviano needs to destroy are too high, maybe reduce this to 200 points. The cavalry charges and defence objectives worked well and really brought a purpose to each force. Maybe one of the Swiss captains can get the objective of clearing the river of any remaining defending infantry.

* One change we discussed but could not agree upon was the "Light Horse with Commander Robert III, de la Marck" This was a major pain for the invading swiss and should rightly be so, but maybe using "normal" light horse stats would improve the game a bit.

Anyways, I really recommend trying this scenario if you can manage to gather 4-6 players - it was a real blast and we shall definately try it agian in the future.

There is no real battle report as my computer broke a couple of days before this game but there are a few pictures:

In the early morning light the Swiss surge forward to push back the defending French

Intense fighting in front of the river

Yet more Swiss are blown apart by heavy French fire

A view from behind the French camp

The Swiss have circumvented the hill and have taken the camp!

Final positions - only a handful of pike units made it to the hill but it was enough for a swiss victory in a very counterhistorical victory

I really hope you will try this scenario and if there are any questions do not hesitate to contact me!
Best regards,
Kasper