Mike, Phil, Alex and Bruce played a Cthulhu game and actually won! Just the introductory scenario.
Mike won the record for going through three characters in just 1 game!
Author Archive
Saturday 25th July: Eldritch Horror Leave a comment
Saturday 18th July: High Society and Nations Leave a comment
Mike introduced us to Nations and we also played High Society which was fun.
Saturday 11th July: Sword and Spear Leave a comment
Sword and Spear
Mike and Phil played a Helm’s Deep Scenario using Sword and Spear.
We based it on the Mid-Republican Romans and Late Successor lists. Mainly so we could use Trolls (Elephants). We used GW Models and Helm’s Deep terrain piece.
The scenario was set outside Helm’s deep where an invigorated Théoden has linked up with his Nephew Eomer and Gandalf ahead of time. There they deploy for battle outside the Hornburg gates ready to fight off Saruman and his horde from Isengard.
In order to test out the new Phalanx and Elephant rules we had not used before Isengard was allowed to have two units each of these (despite normally being restricted to one unit of Trolls (Elephants) in the list). The Rohan (Romans) on the other hand were allowed a unit of Companion Cavalry (Royal Guard).
Mike chose to do a big scouting effort which allowed him to see where Phil placed his cavalry and then disrupt his plans by putting Elephants in the way!
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- Rohan deployed outside Helm’s Deep Fortress.
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- Isengard deployed with the Trolls to their Left and the Pike blocks in the centre. Behind is the Siege Camp ready with explosives and battering ram.
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- Rohan cavalry on their left flank advance.
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- Pikes advance in the centre. The Rohan infantry hold back not knowing quite what else to do!
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- Pike block. Behind it the Artillery have been disrupted by fire from the Royal Huntsmen.
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- Théoden brings his Guard forward to face the Trolls not realising just how quickly those beasts can move!
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- The Trolls charge catching the Guard without Impetus. Their Spears are thus useless and the Trolls make short work of them. The next unit is caught by the other Trolls in the same way! The Royal Huntsmen having moved closer in a futile attempt to be ready to help later. Théoden is killed! Seeing this the Huntsmen flee.
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- A unit of Rohan cavalry having charged the Trolls and been uterrly destroyed the rest of the cavalry decide to bypass them and head towards the Crossbowmen and the Siege Camp.
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- Gandalf leads the charge driving off the Warg Scouts and Uruk Scouts behind them easily.
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- The Uruk Warriors smash into the Rohan infantry who throw their spears futilely against the advancing wall of steel.
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- Dunlendings with polearms (Spears) advance to face the Rohan cavalry thus negating their threat against the flank of the Phalanx.
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- The Rohan infantry cower infront of the walls of the Fortress!
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- The Trolls are too busy eating Rohan horsemeat to do much else other than threaten the Camp!
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- The Rohan cavalry led by Erkenbrand and Eomer have completed the encirclement and are just about to destroy the crossbowmen and capture the Siege Camp.
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- The End!
Finally with Théoden dead and the centre collapsed the Uruk Hai assisted by the Trolls would have been able to attack Helm’s Deep itself. Though the Rohan Cavalry had been able to encircle and attack the Siege Camp Isengard had enough Uruk Hai Medium Infantry in reserve to hold them off. Also having destroyed the Skirmishers (Light Warg Archers and Light Infantry Archers) he left himself exposed then to a flank charge when the remaining Warg Riders managed to move twice whilst he was caught stationary.
So Victory was quite rightly awarded to Mike and the Forces of Isengard.
This was a good learning game of the new rules for Commands and Elephants. Each Army had two split colours of activation dice). We did flanks (cavalry) and centre (infantry) as separate colours. Also Phil learnt how important it is not to be outscouted and have to deploy first. Plus he learnt how Spear armed infantry are only good against mounted troops (such as Trolls/ Elephants) if they have Impetus and these units move amazingly fast with the right dice and Mike in charge! Phil struggled to activate his units and in combat had some bad rolls. However this reflected the tactical position and was definitely not just bad luck!
Next time we will restrict Trolls/ Elephants to one unit as outlined in the lists. Untrained troops and their inability to manoeuvre are not ideal. Cavalry with this trait should really be restricted to those closer to mounted infantry when creating future lists.
Saturday 20th June: Song of Blades and Heroes Leave a comment
A Song of Ice and Fire
Thorin’s Company of Trusty Dwarves must brave the Dungeon. They have a map detailing a route through the mountain though it is unclear at points. The map is of a natural volcanic cavern that offers them a beneficial short cut on their quest. By all accounts the caverns lie abandoned but Gandalf suspects this may no longer be the case. Thorin however is determined to proceed.
Thorin and Co.
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| Points: | Personality: 189 (38%) | Warrior: 314 (62%) | Total: 503 |
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| Special Rules: Cleric – SBH pg. 12; Fearless – SBH pg. 13; Free Disengage – SBH pg. 13; Leader – SBH pg. 13, 16; Lethal – SBH pg. 14; Magic-User – SBH pg. 14, 9-10; Sharpshooter – SWW pg. 19; Shooter: Medium – SBH pg. 14; Shooter: Short – SBH pg. 14; Short Move – SBH pg. 14; Steadfast – SBH pg. 15; Stealth – SBH pg. 15; Traps – SGD pg. 10; |
| Rulebooks: User – User Created; SBH – Song of Blades & Heroes; SGD – Song of Gold & Darkness; SWW – Song of Wind & Water; SAM – Song of Arthur & Merlin; SDG – Song of Deeds & Glory;Pictures from the game outlining the main points of action below.Mike and Bruce played as Thorin and Gandalf respectively and Phil played as the Evil overlord. Thorin’s Co had the quiet as a Mouse reward due to their previous success which meant that Bilbo could scout ahead and be a Sneak if only one long stick away.For thlis game I used some rules for SoBH / SGD I found on the net and adapted them as scenario rules. I did prefer the wandering monster rules there as otherwise they can be annoying and occur too frequently plus I always forget to check using the basic system. So we played that these were tested for only when no monsters were available. The players did not actualy know this but their aggressive playstyle taking on each room as quickly as possible and leaving stragglers to fight their own battles did effectively counter wandering monsters. Phil only rolled once and failed. In designing the scenario I went for 1000 points of monsters but in the interests of time only went for four rooms. In retrospect I think I maybe made the earlier rooms too weak and not enough of a challenge and the last room too powerful. Some bad luck on Evil activations for the first 3 rooms made it a disaster for Evil until the last room when luck turned rapidly on poor Dwalin and Thorin. So maybe the balance was fine and just a bad moment for Thorin and Dwalin trying to enter a packed room through a narrow passage. It was a fun scenario though and it was good to get my new dwarven hero figures on the table (see post two below). I used the Treasure rules from the player made guide I found and the heroes garnered 80 gold which was a good haul.
Thorin and Dwalin are hastily gathered by their friends (with Dwalin sporting an especially nasty wound) under the cover of Gandalf’s powerful light spells. Giving them just enough time to snatch them away and Oin is able to stabilise their injuries. The heroes duck into one of the side branches and are quickly lost in the passages below the montain. Next time The Winged Devil will pursue them into the Darkness deep down below to enact revenge as the destruction of his goblinoid minions has set his evil plans back some time and such an insult cannot be allowed to pass. Especially as the Black Numenorean envoys will be passing any suggestion of weakness back to the Dark Lord himself. The heroes will use the 80 gold coins to improve their warband. It seems that Bilbo on searching the Hobgoblin Sorceror’s chest has spotted a useful scroll that can be used against Devils and similar creatures by Oin or Gandalf. One can only imagine the Hobgoblin was keeping such a precious item secretly handy in case his former master turned on him. This will allow one of the two to be Lethal to Devils. When I upgrade the Band for the next scenario. Also I think they can buy Bombur to make the party complete.
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Saturday June 14th: Sword and Spear Leave a comment
The Hunnic Empire and their Subject Gepid allies have crossed the Danube and are raiding and pillaging as they go into Roman territory. A relief force of Roman Field Army troops have mobilised in defence. Intercepting the invaders at a river crossing guarded by a watch tower along a Roman road the Romans prepare for battle. A Church burns already looted by advancing raiders whilst the forces deploy for battle. The Romans deploy first with Cataphracts and light horse to their left flank and infantry cantre and right. The Huns deploy cavalry on their own right flank with infantry centre and left. The Gepid shock cavalry deploy to the rear left flank awaiting a gap in the line to smash through.
Mike’s Romans certainly had the better of the action dice. However they rolled badly when saving against being hit in combat. In the end we decided it was a very close barbarian victory. The Hunnic cavalry advanced rapidly and even charged the Cataphracts deployed to shore up the gap on the Roman left. They charged whilst the Romans had no action die but lost one unit of horse archers who had strayed too close in the process. The Cataphracts however held their ground whilst more huns attempted to encircle them. In the centre both infantry lines eventually clashed with no real winners on either side. Roman cavalry moved towards their left of centre but in this time the Gepid cavalry were eventually moved round to oppose them. The force of the barbarian attack had been blunted across the line as the Romans held but numbers were beginning to tell and the Cataphracts did appear exposed on the Roman left wing.
Friday 12th June: The Hobbit: Painting complete. Leave a comment
Big thanks to James for all the excellent painting work on these figures from the Hobbit films. I am very pleased with his work on my Hobbit figures. Bigger pictures here.
You can check out his website at Yggdrasil painting studio.
Saturday 6th June 2015: LoTR LCG and Star Wars Leave a comment
Phil, Mike, Darryl and Bruce played into the Pit, the Khazad Dum first scenario for LoTR LCG. After an initially difficult start where Mike’s Aragorn was defeated by a lucky strike from an Orc Patrol Leader (an extra plus one Shadow Card bonus as he was the last player) the players managed to defeat the scenario. In just 4-5 turns they scored about 205 points between them which is not so bad. This is the first Multiplayer Scenario the team have won. As Darryl pointed out the new cards and decks really made a difference as now the team where able to actually do things with the cards. The Decks used were Dain and Thorin’s Company, Elrond and Vilya, Legolas and Eowyn, with Aragorn as Sentinel. They worked very well together with Aragorn as Defender, Legolas as Destroyer plus Dain and Elrond as multi-purpose.
Next we started but did not finish a game of Star Wars were Bruce played Darth on the first turn and then quickly destroyed any Jedi including Luke who left the academy. However the Rebels did manage to destroy 1 base so it was not all bad for them.
Saturday 16th May: Lord of the Rings LCG: Journey Along the Anduin Leave a comment
A Two Handed Solo game using the all new Decks: Thalin’s Company and Elrond with Vilya the Ring of Air. These two decks did seem to work well together with the doughty dwarves creating a good party of fellows and Elrond and Glorfindel proving mighty powerful themselves. Success with an Old Score of 60.
Have also created another deck for a better three player game with Legolas and then two more decks for a fourth player: one themed on Aragorn, Gondor and Rohan and a second around Creatures (Eagles) led by Beorn with support from Imrahil and Brand son of Bain.
Finally, created a LoTR LCG page with the scores from my games. Obviously not included the multiple defeats!
Saturday 9th May: Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game: Khazad Dum Leave a comment
Mike, Phil and Darryl took on the Seventh Level. Phil had made some thematic mono-sphere Dwarf decks as Darryl and Mike had not played many games before (Darryl just once and Mike never). Needless to say the Seventh Level was very tough for these rather weak decks. The players did actually get to the final stage but when Phil’s support/ quest deck hit 50 Threat it was all over for the Heroes.
Clearly better decks were needed. So our players have hit the boards and internet sites and created much better decks with some astute purchases.
Saturday 2nd May: Star Wars Leave a comment
Star Wars Imperial Assault.
We continued our campaign with our heroes being tempted onto the Luxury Cruise side mission. Who could resist a Luxury Cruise? They decided to leave Chewbacca at home again.
Phil played the Imperials and upgraded the Elite Stormtroopers with his new Combat Veteran Card. The Heroes with Mike’s Gharkan killed a few but Phil re-deployed and they dealt a lot of damage wounding the Wookie. Darryl’s Scout took a nasty hit from the Interrogation Protocol Droid (single use card) that left him stunned and weakened. In this state he was easy prey for more Droids and Basic Stormtroopers. The Players took out two Consoles before the Royal Guard arrived in force (Elites and Standards) who finished off Mike’s Gharkan and Bruce’s Soldier in short order.
This was a nasty scenario for the players who suffered against the upgraded and re-inforced Elite Stormtroopers especially. Despite being able to do a lot of damage they were vulnerable to sheer numbers.
So far we have 4 Rebel and 3 Imperial Victories. Close.
Star Wars the LCG by FFG.
Darryl introduced us to this new game. Bruce played a Rancor so no one did much to start with and we did not get very far. However we did learn the rules for next time.
Updated the Painting Backlog (Lead Mountain) page
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