janewilliams20 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
janewilliams20) wrote2009-09-05 05:17 pm
janewilliams20) wrote2009-09-05 05:17 pm
Berkeley report, part I
Yes, it's that time of year again when I head off to the Tudor Arms near Slimbridge for a weekend's wargaming. Very good pub including accomodation, BTW, well worth using. Real ales, real ciders, real perrys, good food.
http://www.thetudorarms.co.uk/
As usual, I drove down Friday, had a pleasant evening in the bar with friends, and will be home Sunday night.
I've adjusted Kallyr's army this year: still Hero General with warbands and fliers, but with added paladin to deal with enemy Magicians. Elmalandti Bluespruce, devotee of Ohorlanth, the Great Storm. Lots and lots of Air magic, including a "Snatch Breath feat". "he and his personal band of followers, the Stormwalkers (all Orlanthi godi), fly ceaselessly across Sartar as both a military threat to the Lunars and an endless, wandering worship service to Orlanth." He's a naked flyer, lots of runes, on a "cloud" base with the top of a blue spruce poking out. Blue plastic drinking straw bits for a lightning bolt and some general Air magic.
I've also done a complete new Gloranthan army, designed to face Kallyr (though not yet used for that). The Crimson Grffin, from Penny Love's "The Widow's Tale". I acquired a rather lovely Chaos Mammoth a while back, too big to be used on a HOTT base, but a great Stronghold. A Mage Knights Griffin and lady rider (mounted sidesaddle - I got a few of those!) makes CG herself, some Orlanthi spearmen (originally Rohirrim) I'd picked up at the same time got their cloaks dyed red and any Air runes painted over to be her Tarshite spears. Three scorpionmen from Simon Miller (beasts) plus a bit one I'd had around for ages (yes, all assembled and painted by me) as a Behemoth, and some Flagellant Hordes for her Danfive Xaroni.
I did do a bit of finalising in the bar Friday night, writing the banners and so on on the Hordes with my finest pen. "Redeploy me" on a back banner, "Repent, the last bound is nigh" on another two forward-facing banners, and a book got turned into an ABC for teaching. "All Bats Crimson Die Every Fireday", if your eyesight's good enough.
Anyway, the fights.
Round 1 was against Gordon Malcolm in 15mm (I used my chess army) and his Cirith Ungol. A complete terrain board, impassable in the centre with diagonal stretches of spider-webbed bad going from that to every corner, so you had to pass through them to advance. Assorted other bits of impassable columns placed in awkward spots. The Witchking as an AHG, Shelob as a Dragon, smaller spiders as Beasts, and some shooters and lurkers. Notice the way his troops love that bad going? My knights, hordes, and cleric, however... So it was going to be down to my AHG and flyer wingmen.
Shelob arrived very early, and my AHG promptly shot off to the other side of the battlefield. We attacked the strongohld for a bit, but never got quite enough dice. Meanwhile the Knights got Lurked at, the Hordes failed to get anywhere, and the Beasts ran up their web to join in. A flyer down, I retreated from the stronghold. Things were getting rather bogged down, but we managed an AHG v AHG duel: and I got lucky dice. A very enjoyable and educational game.
Round 2, I was with Kallyr - against Boudicca! We quickly realised that these two ought to be allies: but there was the question of who would be in charge of the alliance to settle, so we had a battle anyway.
Elmalandti did a great job of stopping her two druids from doing anything useful, but I messed up with my flyers. Boudicca herself was a Knight General, but she had a Hero on the flank (the flank that didn't have druids, that is). He could, and did, contact flyers and make them flee off the board. In the centre, the warbands had the usual shoving match, and Kallyr and Boudicca had a heroic duel. This was the wrong time for a 1:6 roll :(
Round 3, v Peter Card and some sort of Victorian SF. Airboat general, behemoth (called the Vital Spark), artillery, and some shooters and warband. Much of this painted red... OK, so that's a moonboat and Lunars with Mostali support.
The flyers did a great job of messing up the flanks, turning the Behemoth out of the main line, and keeping the Airboat occupied trying to keep up with them. Warband and shooters had a shoving match, but I lost my flyers to the behemoth (once down they got surrounded), and the artillery shot down my paladin.
Draw, but with Peter having a slight advantage on AP killed.
Finally round 4, and Tony Horobin with his Norse Giants. All huge figures, real giants in 25mm, only the Hordes being human-sized. Blades, hordes, warband, a behemoth, some Knights and Fenris Wolf as a God. I'd sent off the flyers to disrupt a knightly flank and annoy the behemoth, sent off a few warband to sit in bad going and keep the hordes and blades off our backs, when Tony rolled a 6, and Fenris arrived. This is known as the "cower, whimper and wait for him to roll a 1" phase of the battle by some people. What Kallyr did, of course, was attack. A flyer can't harm a God (well, not unless you get some unlikely rolls), but it can turn it, and distract it. The God, as a result, ended up sitting behind my lines "Barkering" Kallyr - she couldn't go back, all she could do was go forward, and without much backup. So she did. She and Elmalandti did a Heroic Charge at the enemy lines, with Fenris following up next turn to nibble at her heels and block her retreat. She of course ignored him, and did a rather nice job of wiping out the enemy centre. Some stacked warband dealt with the Behemoth (friction kills from flyers are your friend), and the game ended as a win for me due to Tony running out of troops. One flyer, for half his army.
And so back to the room for some feet-up time, typing this up, and using the pub WIFI to post it, I hope.
http://www.thetudorarms.co.uk/
As usual, I drove down Friday, had a pleasant evening in the bar with friends, and will be home Sunday night.
I've adjusted Kallyr's army this year: still Hero General with warbands and fliers, but with added paladin to deal with enemy Magicians. Elmalandti Bluespruce, devotee of Ohorlanth, the Great Storm. Lots and lots of Air magic, including a "Snatch Breath feat". "he and his personal band of followers, the Stormwalkers (all Orlanthi godi), fly ceaselessly across Sartar as both a military threat to the Lunars and an endless, wandering worship service to Orlanth." He's a naked flyer, lots of runes, on a "cloud" base with the top of a blue spruce poking out. Blue plastic drinking straw bits for a lightning bolt and some general Air magic.
I've also done a complete new Gloranthan army, designed to face Kallyr (though not yet used for that). The Crimson Grffin, from Penny Love's "The Widow's Tale". I acquired a rather lovely Chaos Mammoth a while back, too big to be used on a HOTT base, but a great Stronghold. A Mage Knights Griffin and lady rider (mounted sidesaddle - I got a few of those!) makes CG herself, some Orlanthi spearmen (originally Rohirrim) I'd picked up at the same time got their cloaks dyed red and any Air runes painted over to be her Tarshite spears. Three scorpionmen from Simon Miller (beasts) plus a bit one I'd had around for ages (yes, all assembled and painted by me) as a Behemoth, and some Flagellant Hordes for her Danfive Xaroni.
I did do a bit of finalising in the bar Friday night, writing the banners and so on on the Hordes with my finest pen. "Redeploy me" on a back banner, "Repent, the last bound is nigh" on another two forward-facing banners, and a book got turned into an ABC for teaching. "All Bats Crimson Die Every Fireday", if your eyesight's good enough.
Anyway, the fights.
Round 1 was against Gordon Malcolm in 15mm (I used my chess army) and his Cirith Ungol. A complete terrain board, impassable in the centre with diagonal stretches of spider-webbed bad going from that to every corner, so you had to pass through them to advance. Assorted other bits of impassable columns placed in awkward spots. The Witchking as an AHG, Shelob as a Dragon, smaller spiders as Beasts, and some shooters and lurkers. Notice the way his troops love that bad going? My knights, hordes, and cleric, however... So it was going to be down to my AHG and flyer wingmen.
Shelob arrived very early, and my AHG promptly shot off to the other side of the battlefield. We attacked the strongohld for a bit, but never got quite enough dice. Meanwhile the Knights got Lurked at, the Hordes failed to get anywhere, and the Beasts ran up their web to join in. A flyer down, I retreated from the stronghold. Things were getting rather bogged down, but we managed an AHG v AHG duel: and I got lucky dice. A very enjoyable and educational game.
Round 2, I was with Kallyr - against Boudicca! We quickly realised that these two ought to be allies: but there was the question of who would be in charge of the alliance to settle, so we had a battle anyway.
Elmalandti did a great job of stopping her two druids from doing anything useful, but I messed up with my flyers. Boudicca herself was a Knight General, but she had a Hero on the flank (the flank that didn't have druids, that is). He could, and did, contact flyers and make them flee off the board. In the centre, the warbands had the usual shoving match, and Kallyr and Boudicca had a heroic duel. This was the wrong time for a 1:6 roll :(
Round 3, v Peter Card and some sort of Victorian SF. Airboat general, behemoth (called the Vital Spark), artillery, and some shooters and warband. Much of this painted red... OK, so that's a moonboat and Lunars with Mostali support.
The flyers did a great job of messing up the flanks, turning the Behemoth out of the main line, and keeping the Airboat occupied trying to keep up with them. Warband and shooters had a shoving match, but I lost my flyers to the behemoth (once down they got surrounded), and the artillery shot down my paladin.
Draw, but with Peter having a slight advantage on AP killed.
Finally round 4, and Tony Horobin with his Norse Giants. All huge figures, real giants in 25mm, only the Hordes being human-sized. Blades, hordes, warband, a behemoth, some Knights and Fenris Wolf as a God. I'd sent off the flyers to disrupt a knightly flank and annoy the behemoth, sent off a few warband to sit in bad going and keep the hordes and blades off our backs, when Tony rolled a 6, and Fenris arrived. This is known as the "cower, whimper and wait for him to roll a 1" phase of the battle by some people. What Kallyr did, of course, was attack. A flyer can't harm a God (well, not unless you get some unlikely rolls), but it can turn it, and distract it. The God, as a result, ended up sitting behind my lines "Barkering" Kallyr - she couldn't go back, all she could do was go forward, and without much backup. So she did. She and Elmalandti did a Heroic Charge at the enemy lines, with Fenris following up next turn to nibble at her heels and block her retreat. She of course ignored him, and did a rather nice job of wiping out the enemy centre. Some stacked warband dealt with the Behemoth (friction kills from flyers are your friend), and the game ended as a win for me due to Tony running out of troops. One flyer, for half his army.
And so back to the room for some feet-up time, typing this up, and using the pub WIFI to post it, I hope.