[15mm Fantasy] Modelling Log Update

Ruined tower from Magister Militium

While I haven't posted for the last couple of months, progress has continued with my 15mm Fantasy forces for Kings of War.

In late February/early March I came across a new 15mm Fantasy Manufacturer - Battle Valor Games - apparently rising from the ashes of an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign. BVG has been steadily releasing figures in their Orcian (Orc), Frigian (Northmen) and Dwarian (Dwarves) ranges over the last month. I've picked up several packs of Orcians and Dwarians (I have decided that I will eventually make a Dwarf force and that these will be my Dwarves), and more recently an Orcian catapult and crew, and a Frigian War Mammoth (to be my Orc King's mount).

Left: Orcians, Right: Bugbears (originally Splintered Light, now CP Models).

The Orcians are large creatures, almost troll-like in size. In Kings of War terms, the Orcians would easily fill the role of Greatax Orcs.

The figures themselves are very nice to paint up, and come in a wide variety of equipment and poses - from a 30-figure pack I could find only a couple of identical figures and several in

Left: Splintered Light Orcs; Right: Orcians

similar poses but with different equipment, helmets, etc. Shields are separate, which allows further customization.

Also in February, I completed a number of other units for my Kings of War project, as well as some rather nice skeletons for AD&D. More pictures can be found on my modelling log.

[15mm Fantasy] Kings of War Battle #2

Over the last couple of months I've been painting up 15mm fantasy figures for an Army of the Unseelie Courts - sinister Elves and their allies. I'm currently trialing Kings of War from Mantic Games as a possible fantasy massed battle ruleset - the Basic 2nd Edition rules are available for free from here.

Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos - my camera does not like trying to capture small details in average ambient artificial light.

Last Friday night John came over for a game of Kings of War and fielded a 1500 point Kingdoms of Men army, using figures from his Maximilian Imperial DBR army.

Kingdoms of Men Army - L - R: Troop of Mounted Scouts; Regiment of Knights; Regiment of Arquebusiers; Pike Block Horde; Army Standard Bearer Hero; Regiment of Arquebusiers; Wizard Hero; Two Cannon; Regiment of Knights; General Hero

To keep things simple (it was John's first game and my second), I decided not to use Artifacts or any other funky stuff. This was the army I selected:

Army List for the Unseelie Court, with Orc Allies

Army of the Unseelie Court: L - R: Two Troops of Gargoyles, Regiment of Trolls; Hydra; Dark Lord on Black Pegasus; Troop of Dark Elf Crossbowmen; Three Regiments of Dark Elf Spears; Troop of Dark Knights; Regiment of Orcs; Troop of Orc Gore Riders

Terrain was straight forward as well - a hill on the Dark Elf Left Flank and a village (Blocking Terrain) on the Dark Elf Right Flank. We played on a 3' x 3' table, and changed all movement distances and ranges from inches to centimeters.

As the battle began, both the Dark Elves and the Kingdoms of Men advanced their right flanks, while refusing their left wings. I quickly realized that there was quite a way to go to cross the table to engage the Kingdoms of Men left, and that I could potentially take a lot of fire from their guns and arquebusiers before I had to deal with their Knights.

L to R: Gargoyles attack the Kingdom's of Men Heavy Gun. The KoM Knights came under fire from the Dark Elf Crossbowmen and started to take casualties and waver. The KoM General positioned himself for a flank attack. Dark Elf spears wheel to engage the rest of the KoM line. The Trolls and Dark Elf Crossbowmen press forward, with the Hydra and the Dark Lord in support. 

Double-Moving, the Dark Elf right wing pressed on past the village. The two Gargoyle troops swept in to attack the heavy guns while the Dark Elf Crossbow troop opened fire on the Kingdom Knights, causing them to waver. The Mannish Wizard and the guns quickly dispatched one troop of Gargoyles, but the other troop managed to attack one of the guns.

The Kingdom Knights prepare to charge the Regiment of Trolls

Under a subsequent hail of crossbow bolts, the Kingdom Knights pulled themselves together (passed a second Waver test - rats!) and charged the Troll regiment. The fury of their charge swept the Trolls away.

Behind the Right Flank of the Kingdoms of Men: As the Mounted Scouts and the Knights moved forward, the Dark Elf Dark Knights and Orc Gore Riders seize the hill top. Behind them, the Orc Regiment moves up in support.

Meanwhile, on the Dark Elf left flank, the Dark Knights and Orc Gore Riders secured the hilltop, with the Orc Regiment moving up behind them. In the center, the Dark Elf spear regiments began to drift to the left to better engage the Mannish Pike Block horde.

The Orc Gore Rider troop charged the Mannish Scouts and rapidly chased them away, while the Mannish Knights charged the Dark Elf Dark Knights. The Dark Knights fled and the Mannish Knights impetuously surged after them (John rolled a 4 for the Follow Up). This nicely exposed their flank to the Orc Gore Riders who promptly charged home - flank charges by decent units, even as small as a Troop, can be devastating in the flank. The Mannish Knights routed, exposing the flank of the infantry line.

With casualties mounting, the Dark Elf right looked set to collapse, but the rout of the Mannish Knights relieved the pressure.

Back on the right flank, with the Troll regiment and the two troops of Gargoyles routed, the Dark Elf right was looking a little tatty. Reforming from defeating the Trolls, the Mannish Knights attacked the Hydra and the Dark Lord, but were repulsed. A volley from the Dark Elf crossbowmen caused a waver test which the Knights failed in rather a spectacular fashion. With one of the Mannish guns wavering, the other gun and the Mannish Wizard rained shot and shell and Lightning Bolts down on the Dark Elf crossbowmen.

In the center, the left-most Dark Elf Spear Regiment engaged a Mannish arquebusier regiment. The Orc Gore Riders were able to sweep in on their flank with another flank attack which shattered the Arquebusiers. The center Dark Elf Spear regiment took on the Mannish Pike Horde and suffered heavy casualties, while the right-most Dark Elf Spear Regiment was scattered by the second Mannish Arquebusier regiment.

At this point we completed Turn 6 and rolled to see if the battle would continue - it did not. After a quick points tot-up, we discovered that we had achieved a Draw - a difference of 85 points between both sides which is less than the 150 points (10% of army points) needed to determine victory. So this was a Losing Draw to the Dark Elves and a Winning Draw to the Kingdoms of Men.

It was a fun battle and fortunes changed several time over the course of the game. A 3' wide table seems to be a good width for a 1500 point 15mm battle, though 3' deep may be a little deep. As we both advanced cautiously, it wasn't until about Turn 3 we actually came within range.

John's already planning his revenge for the next game.

[15mm Fantasy] Army Building - Painting Progress

The Army of the Unseelie Court - as of mid-December

My Army of the Unseelie Courts is slowly taking shape. At the moment I have more Orcs and Goblinoids painted than Dark Elves, so the army is more an Orc Army with Dark Elf allies.

My latest unit completed is a regiment of Man-Orc pike from Eureka Miniatures.

Man-Orc Pike

These are great figures and very reminiscent of Saruman's army at the battle of  Helm's Deep in the Two Towers movie.

Orc Legion with Shaman and archers plus Dark Elf troop and archers

 These Orcs are from Splintered Light Miniatures - Orcs with great axes at the rear and Orc Shaman and archers at the front. The Dark Elves are from Ral Partha Europe and are essentially the figure mix from the Blighthaven company pack (with an extra archer).

Ogres, Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarves

A pair of Ogres from Splintered Light; Goblin and Orc Archers, also from Splintered Light; an Orc Regiment from Splintered Light; three Dwarves from Splintered Light; and an Orc Shaman from Eureka Miniatures.

The Witch King leading his Orcish Hosts

From 15mm.co.uk, a Wraith Lord (or Witch-King) on his fell-beast, leading his Orc hosts.

The Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Autumn Courts

The Queen of Air and Darkness, an Elf Queen from 15mm.co.uk,

Dark Elves

And some of her subjects, from Ral Partha Europe.

[15mm Fantasy] Army Building - the Host of the Unseelie Court

As I painted and based more fantasy figures, a clearer idea of the army I'm building has emerged - the Host of the Unseelie Court.

The Witch King of the Winter Court

Wanting a Fantasy army that didn't follow the usual tropes, and fascinated by the RPE Dark Elf figures with their asiatic-style armour, I cast around and came across references to the Unseelie Court -

The Unseelie Court consists of the darkly-inclined fairies. Unlike the Seelie Court, no offense is necessary to bring down their assaults. As a group (or "host"), they appear at night and assault travelers, often carrying them through the air, beating them, and forcing them to commit such acts as shooting at cattle. - Wikipedia

So, Dark Elves without the Warhammer silliness, plus I could use Orcs, Ogres, Trolls and Goblins as the lesser denizens of the Unseelie realm.

[15mm Fantasy] Kings of War Battle #1

My friend Jonathan and I had our first battle using the Kings of War rules from Mantic Games tonight.

Of course I forgot to take a camera.

We decided to play a 1000 point game, using 15mm figures, on a 2' x 2' table.

Jonathan opted for an Elvish Army and selected: 1 Hero/Elf King; 1 Elf Spellcaster; 1 Elf Cavalry Regiment; 2 Elf Cavalry Troops; 1 Elf Archer Troop; 1 Elf Regiment of Guard. All his troops were Veterans (which meant that any "to hit" dice that rolled a '1' could be re-rolled.

I opted for an Orc/Evil Men Alliance (where I picked units from several lists), selecting: an Orc Hero; an Orc Spellcaster; a Human Spearman Phalanx Regiment; a Human Knight Regiment; an Ogre regiment; 2 Goblin Archer Troops; a Bugbear Regiment. The Bugbears were statted as a Troll Regiment, but couldn't regenerate.

The Game looked nice and played a lot like a big battle version of DBA or HoTT. Getting the 1st charge often proved decisive. I rather enjoyed the game - my first wargame in over a year - even though I lost. It was quite a near-run thing and could have gone either way into the last turn.

Downsides: IGOUGO can be a little frustrating if you're watching your clock being cleaned. There seems little incentive to take any troop type other than Heavy Cavalry with Thunderous Charge (2). First charge is often decisive.

Upsides: Fast play - we finished the game in under 2 hours, including working out army lists. The magic system is quite fun. Unit special abilities are a fun addition.

I would play again, but I think Jonathan sees it as a "play if nothing else available" - he would like something a little more complex. I would like to try 1000 points on a larger table where you can't line the field wall to wall - forcing manoeuvre tactics and a greater consideration of flanks.

[15mm Fantasy] Enter, the Bugbear

As those who follow my Modeling Log will be aware, for the last couple of months I've been working on 25mm Science Fiction figures for my Traveller game. This little diversion was born out of a desire to have some suitable figures to hand for use when my players get themselves into the sort of trouble that requires a tactical map. Needless to say, with close to 50 figures now painted, I think that this little project is getting close to its end.

The 6mm Traveller campaign is still ticking over - I have been working out the Order of Battle for both the defenders and the attackers on the colony world of Auru, which has meant that I have had to look at Imperial and Geithurian Republic Star Fleets.The background design work is almost complete, and gives me the option to fight out fleet encounters as well as dirtside operations. I'm even looking at possibly using the Classic Traveller High Guard combat rules with the Trillion Credit Squadron updates for this side of the campaign.

Bugbear Shaman or Spellcaster

One of the members of the Facebook 15mm Fantasy Wargames Group posted some photos of a recent battle using the Kings of War rules from Mantic Games, but with 15mm figures. It looked like fun, the core rules are free, I have some Medieval/Renaissance 15mm armies that have been sitting in a box for too long, and a friend who is up for a game.

Bugbears and Human Warrior (also from Splintered Light)

The game is set for next weekend but, as it was a long weekend here this weekend, I cracked on with a party pack of Bugbears I bought from Splintered Light about a year ago. While 20mm scale from Splintered Light's small 20mm Fantasy range, the figures work well as large goblinoids in 15mm (I have not seen the current Bugbear pack in the Dungeon Crawl: Warbands range to compare sizes, but the 20mm figures definitely look large and chunky in comparison).

The 20mm Bugbears appear to have been on-sold to CP Models in the UK.

The players trialing Kings of War in 15mm are using WRG style basing (40mm x 20mm for Infantry, 40mm x 30mm for Cavalry) so they can use either historical figures, or figures based up for Hordes of the Things (WRG's Fantasy rules). With that in mind, I based up my 12 Bugbear warriors as four elements (3 figures to the element) of Infantry - the first basing I've done in this style for many years - and I was pleasantly pleased with the result.

Bugbear Warband with Shaman/Spell Caster

As the Shaman/Spellcaster is a Specialist, I decided to leave him on his round base.

The Kings of War rules look pretty straight forward, after one read through - the people using them say that there are a lot of tactical subtleties which, I guess, will come out in play.

The Army Lists have a very Warhammerish feel about them which makes me go slightly "meh", but them seem reasonably easy to customize. Currently, I'm thinking of a sort of Evil Alliance, led by a Sorcerer, with Dark Elves and Orcs. Support being provided by allies or mercenaries, such as the Bugbears, a band of Gnolls I still have to paint, some trolls and some Ogres. As I have more than enough single mounted figures for Dungeons and Dragons or Skirmish Gaming, I will quite enjoy basing up the rest on element bases.