Old Dog Learns New (Terrain) Tricks - A Minor Detour

Remember when I said I'd be getting more of those excellent textured rollers from Green Stuff World?

They got here last week! Yay! Together with the round cutters I ordered earlier, I have sorted my pre-industrial urban figure basing needs.

Naturally, I couldn't resist a road test at the earliest opportunity, so I rolled out some DAS and gave them a shot. I can definitely say they do what it says on the tin.

That's a Warbases 40mm MDF base at the left, and the results of the test are to the right. Clockwise from the top left, Cobblestone, Small Cobblestone, the Brick roller (as used on my ruined tower piece from the last post), and Flagstone. No buyer's remorse here!

Of course, that now means that I have to get back to work on my Frostgrave warband, which had kind of stalled at the 'wizards plus two other guys' stage when last we looked...

So six more figures and I'll have a functioning warband. Only taken nearly four years...

What's up next then? Stay tuned!

Ev

Old Dog Learns New (Terrain) Tricks - Part the First

It all started innocently enough.

Like so many of us in lockdown, my e-commerce activity has shown a bit of a spike lately. 150 or so MDF rounds from Warbases, some assorted Hellenistic figs from Warlord and Polemarch, and this thingy below;

It's a textured roller from Green Stuff World, and it has opened a veritable tin of terrain worms here at Chez Ev.

Of course, I had to test it out straight away, so it was off to the shops for a pound of Das air-drying clay. Grabbed a cardboard tube from the stash in the garage, rolled out a couple of sheets of the Das with the brickwork roller, stuck it to the tube with PVA glue, and left it to dry. This last step took longer than anticipated. Like a week longer.

But here's the result;

That worked well, thinks I, but what am I going to do with it? Why, make a piece of SAGA or fantasy skirmish terrain, of course! I drag out a Warbases terrain base and get to work with some extruded polystyrene foam and the hot glue gun. Oh, did I not mention the new glue gun...?

"This is the DeWalt Ceramic Glue Gun, the most powerful hot glue gun in the world..."

So yeah, things were escalating quickly...

Adding to the mayhem, I started looking for hints and tips on building realistic rocky terrain, and stumbled upon some YouTube channels which were to prove my downfall; Boulder Creek Railroad, The Terrain Tutor and Luke's APS. I admit it. I was hooked. What these guys can't do with foam, plaster and glue isn't worth doing.

Several days and a few dozen hours of viewing later, I'd grabbed some Woodland Scenics Rock Moulds, some Sculptamold Modelling Compound, and went a little bit crazy.

The rocks were cast in plaster of Paris and hot-glued on and around the edges of the foam, and blended into the piece with Sculptamold. Sculptamold is a mix of shredded tissue paper and plaster of Paris. It dries as hard as plaster, but weighs less and can be sculpted as it dries. In retrospect, I'd probably use less of it in future and leave more of the plaster rocks exposed. You'll see why later.

So where is this going? Somewhere potentially quite expensive and with a very steep learning curve!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Updates to Portable Wargame Fantasy

I've managed to play a couple of games with actual, real people over the last week and this has given me the opportunity to review and in some areas revise my Portable Wargame Fantasy variant.

There's nothing like a good play test or three and it has become apparent from that some aspects were not quite right. The rules on the link above have been updates as follows now:

• Quick Reference Sheet added
• Generals, Spellcasters and Heroes cleaned up to remove ambiguity between troop types and special abilities, plus a lowering of the cost of Generals
• New troop type "Mobs" added to allow for really a poor quality 1 point unit

I've got another solo game planned for tomorrow so will be further testing the mods.

Cheers,

Millsy

Solo Fantasy Campaign - Battle of Ironwald (1)

The first battle of my solo fantasy campaign sees the Orcs get the jump on the Empire of Man and attempt to consolidate their hold on the North, attacking Ironwald from Mageholt with support from Lochpine. The Orcs rolled better when generating army total points and have the larger force.

Attacker - Orcs Force total: 30 + 1d4(3) + 1d4(3) = 36 points Warboss x 1 Orc Skirmishers x 3 Orc Warriors x 3 Orc Wolf Riders x 2 Trolls x 1 Total: Warboss + 9 units Exhaustion Point: 12

Defender - Empire of Man Force total: 30 + 1d8(1) = 31 points General x 1 Handgunners x 1 Halberdiers x 2 Crossbowmen x 1 Knights x 3 Total: General + 7 units Exhaustion Point: 10

The Battlefield

The battlefield is rolling countryside, dotted with low hills, open woodland and some enclosed farmland.

The Battle

Setup

The Empire of Man are blocking the road with the cavalry, with supporting infantry on either flank. The Orcs look to smash the Empire centre with their heavy infantry, while skirmishers advance through the fields on the right supported by a unit of trolls and the wolf riders push up on the left.

Turn 1

The Orcs advance straight forward and are met by the Empire forces. The Orcs cause havoc, wounding three Empire units including two knights with their first charge,

Turn 2

Driven back, the Empire forces consolidate and fight back strongly.

Turn 3

The Orcs attempt to press their advantage with a unit of wolf riders flanking the Empire's right.

Turn 4

Despite being under pressure the Empire forces hold firm, inflict more wounds and rebuff the flanking wolf riders.

Turn 5

Turn 5 sees the first of many casualties, with the Orcs coming off worse despite their numerical advantage.

Turn 6

Both sides are badly knocked around but the Orcs are worse off and have reached their exhaustion point. Blaming everyone but himself the Orc commander withdraws from the field to lick his wounds. A memorable victory for The Empire of Man against the odds.

So that's the first campaign turn over with and victory goes to The Empire of Man ensuring they hold Ironwald. They can no look to go on the offensive and turn the table on the Orcs. Here's a few shots of the troops in melee.

Cheers,

Millsy

9th Blogiversary

Hi All,

Today is the 9th anniversary of the blog!

Last year was a very quiet one blog-wise and we missed the date somehow, but with the current lockdown I've been spending more time here again. Thanks to everyone who continues to drop by and say hi. In the current climate staying connected is more important than ever.

Have a great weekend folks and stay safe!

Cheers,
Millsy