Fred - 2017 Painting Diary

[fred.]

Great report and it's probably just my eyes but I couldn't fault the pics .

Good to see that your rules set is progressing.

Thanks. The rules are working well, we seem to have finally got somewhere with magic. The key ingredient is that we get lots of toys on the table and the game cracks along at a pace.

A really great looking game. Makes me want to get out my Narnia army or my LotR army! Or my Halloween army would be fun too!!!

Your armies look great too!

Thanks Terry. Glad it makes you want to play some fantasy games - your armies sound fun. I'm wondering to give the Lizardmen a rest this week, and perhaps go with the Fishmen, or the Beast Herd.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hello

The key ingredient is that we get lots of toys on the table and the game cracks along at a pace.

Yes, this is the main aim after all.

Be interested to see what you've done with magic. I've tended to take it down to be basic and generic rather than overly complicated.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[fred.]

The most significant change with magic is to make a lot of the buffing spells area effect - this makes it feel a lot more useful when you can give 3-6 units a +1 on their defence. We are still working on the spell list - I think mainly to cut it down as some spells get used a lot more than others.

We also allow casters to attempt to teleport before casting, this allows them to get into position better to cast the spells (most of which are quite short range). But you can only teleport to where you can see, so if you only get a single success on your teleport you can be quite restricted to where you go on a busy battlefield, with 2+ successes you can get to most places.

[fred.]

Game - Empire vs Demons

This is becoming more of a games thread, than a painting thread. But thats kind of where I am with time at the minute.

This battle changed things up a bit. To set up the table, I rolled for habitation, getting a 10 (on a d10) and hillyness getting a 2. Which made a very different table terrain wise. We are trying out some new scouting rules, the Demons managed to out-scout the Empire convincingly, and choose a scenario where they were able to deploy forwards, while the Empire was in a fairly narrow deployment area.

Left flank end of turn 1

I've managed to get some light troops out to the flank, there is some Demonic cavalry lurking behind the buildings. The Demons have generally run forward. I rolled a lot of 1s for command rolls, so my troops stood around. Or held their carefully chosen positions 

Right Flank end of turn 1

Again I've managed to get some cavalry out to the flank. The steam tank has trundled forward and combined with lots of other shooting has managed to kill one unit of demons - hence the two green demon units stood strangely apart.

I then forgot to take photos for much of the rest of the game...

I was plagued by bad dice rolls early on, failing lots of command rolls (1 of a d10) and one wizard repeatedly failing to cast (needing 6+ on about 6 rolls). The demons milled around alot, really struggling to come into combat. I'm not entirely sure why - partly due to spreading out, then not having commanders in the right place. Partly due to the terrain, and partly due to Steve worrying about hiding units that were wounded so they didn't get killed.

End of the Game left flank

My light troops held up the demons long enough on the left, for the knights to finally get over, and engage where they smashed the remaining demons. The cannons had been doing sterling work shooting over the pond killing demonic units. By the pond my skirmishers had caused enough delay to allow the cannons to shoot stuff. I think all 3 demonic units visible were quite badly wounded. In the centre the demons had got into to combat, but had taken their time to kill the crossbow men, and my halberdiers had the best of the demons nearer the village.

Right flank, end of game

Much the same story - I got enough units forward to stall the attack, and allow my shooting to cause lots of damage.
In the village the demons inched forward in to volleys of fire from the hell blasters and hand gunners. The steam tank was engaged in melee for many rounds, but the demons couldn't batter through its armour. On the flank the demons where initially successful, but the knights counter charged clearing them out.
The giant green demon finally made it over the hill - and my mage zipped forward and cast a stun spell - which stopped him in his tracks, just as he might have done something useful.

Steve through in the towel at this stage - but I'm not convinced he had lost at this point. His cause wasn't helped by having left 300 points of troops off table to be summoned on, then not being able to summon them, as his giant demons are also his casters, and they were busy doing other stuff - like fighting, or hiding behind a hill!

A good game, with a different feel - very tight and claustrophobic  - due to the terrain and the scenario.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Looks great

[Womble67]

Looks brilliant Fred

Take care

Andy

[fred.]

Thanks chaps. Always good to get the Empire army on the table as they are so colourful.

Can anyone spot the stand of Pendraken figures?

Edit - There is quite a bit of Pendraken terrain and animals, but they don't count.

[Techno]

Zippy ! 

Cheers - Phil

[Smoking gun]

Very colourful. It sounds like the poor dice throws at the beginning didn't spoil it for you.

Martin

[fred.]

Thanks,

It sounds like the poor dice throws at the beginning didn't spoil it for you.

No - it kind of kept my troops sitting where they deployed. Which wasn't too bad. The enemy suffered bad dice rolls later, which probably hampered them more. I think with any activation mechanism its good that you can fail to move stuff, but you don't want to be in a position of failing to move too much stuff!

[fred.]

Had a play with setting up a blog yesterday, to try to capture what I do on an army by army basis. This is to complement the painting thread, which is chronological.

Its early days yet, but feel free to have a look:  https://fantasticalarmies.blogspot.co.uk

[d_Guy]

Six posts already and lots of great pics! Welcome to blogging.

[Roy]

Looks great 

[fred.]

Thanks chaps.

16 posts, I'll have you know 

The worrying part of this exercise was making a list of my armies - and getting it wrong the first time, and finally getting to 17!!!

And this is just the 10mm Fantasy ones.

[fred.]

Chunk of progress on the blog over the last couple of days, now up to 39 posts, but still only covering 14 of the 17 armies...

https://fantasticalarmies.blogspot.co.uk