A Trio of Terrain Projects

We begin this year with photos of a few terrain projects I have been working on.

The first of these is an "Afghan fort" style building in 15mm which I must have acquired more than two decades ago. I cannot remember who made it, but I doubt it is still in production. It sat in the same box as my adobe buildings all this time, until my renewed interest in the Indian Mutiny made me dig it out again. I decided that it needed to sit on an elevation, and made a low hillock out of cork coasters, including steps which wound its way up. I then textured the hillock, and painted it to match the arid mat which I would use the piece with.

Hopefully it will see some action soon.

The second of these are some cardstock buildings from Paper Terrain, which I bought and built last year when I was planning an Epic scale ACW project. The cardstock isn't really thick, but when based on a stiff base, they look durable enough.

A couple of the buildings were a little trickier to assemble, but they do add interest to the tabletop.

The final one of these is the East Gate of Moria terrain piece. The inspiration for this was Midgard heroic Battles, which I couldn't resist buying. I already own many dwarves and Moria goblins, so naturally my thought turned to the war between these two races as described by Tolkien in the appendix to The Lord of the Rings. The final battle of Azanulbizar took place outside the East Gate of Moria, where Azog slew Nain in single combat, and was in turn slain by Dain Ironfoot. The account of the battle seemed to be exactly the kind of battle Midgard is written for.

I decided to make terrain piece depicting the East Gate of Moria, consisting of an elevation, a gate, and maybe a mountainside. It turned out FG already has a resin dwarven gate/arch, so I was spared the effort of making one. I made the base using corrugated boards, then textured, painted, and added vegetation to it to match the mat we would use it for. Finally, I printed a picture of a dwarven-style gate I found on google and blu-tac'ed it to the arch.

FG and I tried the rules earlier this week, and we plan to run it for the gang later this month, so stay tuned for the battle report.

2024 in Review and Looking Ahead

A visit to the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne

2024 was a pretty good year for gaming. We managed some eleven sessions of wargaming, including two participation games at local conventions, and 17 sessions of RPG, two of which were one-shots GM'd by my friends.

A few major changes took place this year, chief of which was me moving to a new place; this necessitated a change in my work schedule, and resulted in attrition in my Monday evening RPG group, which in turn led my to take a break from a regular RPG schedule after we concluded our Three Worlds campaign.

On the wargaming front, we made contact with another group of wargamers in Singapore, which greatly expanded the pool of players and games each side could now "access". Hopefully this will result in more regular gaming.

I managed to play most of the rules I set out to play during the year, and while I didn't not start new armies, I did expand my 15mm Indian Mutiny and Saracen armies to bulk them up for the rules I enjoyed. This was done with the help of a professional painter, to whom I have also sent some 15mm Tribal Germans to be painted - they should be fighting against Martin's EIR in the new year.

As with previous years there were unplanned purchases of rules, this year being Here's the Ruckus, and Midgard Heroic Battles, neither of which required me to get new figures. The former didn't excite me as much as I hoped it would, its niche being already filled by other sets of rules I own and like, while the latter, which I resisted for weeks before relenting, turned out to fill a gap in my rules collection which I have been hoping to fill. An order for movement trays went out, and we should be playing our first game as early as January.

I do realise that I have been tardy with AARs the past year, and I apologise for it. Hopefully in the coming year I will be able to settle into a routine and post them in a more timely fashion.

Have a good gaming year ahead.

Everything I painted this Year

15mm Historical

Terrain

Games Expo 2024

After making contact with another wargaming group during a convention in October, we were invited to put up a game for their own convention in December. Martin and I decided to attend and reprise the Indian Mutiny game FG and I ran in the previous convention, since we already had the scenario and charts ready.

Once again we managed to run two sessions, and although the British came closer than ever to winning, victory continues to elude them!
 

The convention featured other games, including an A Song of Ice & Fire tournament, many boardgames, and a few RPGs, but the centre-piece of the convention was a giant Bolt Action Bastogne game which ran for some eight hours. 

Martin and I made more new friends, and no doubt more gaming will come from these meetings.

Conquerors & Kings and Kill Team

For the month of December we played the long-awaited battle between wahj's Late Romans vs Martin's Sassanid Persians. They were a matched pair of armies, but have not met in the field for many years.

Adrian and I played the Romans, and we managed to roll what I thought was a good terrain set-up for our predominantly infantry army. Our main line was anchored on two patches of rough ground, with the centre on a hill, and a small reserve force in the rear. Cavalry covered the extreme left flank.

Martin was worried about the deployment, but nevetheless decided launching cavalry charges on the flanks was the best option. On the Roman right the charge in the rough ground was repelled, but the troops in the open ground were routed by the Persian heavy cavalry, and the reserve force was unable to plug the gap.

On the Roman left there was a large cavalry melee, but Persian cataphracti triumphed against Goth and Roman cavalry. The Roman lines was thus cut up and surrounded.

Roman counter-attack on the left

This was the second game in a row where heavy cavalry settled the issue quite quickly and decisively. I wonder if this is a feature or bug of the game, as the lists do allow armies with historically large cavalry proportions to replicate that in the game. Or perhaps it is a matter of us not having figured out how to counter cavalry-heavy armies.

The next game should hopefully fit two infantry-dominant armies, and we'll see if they give a closer game.

For our second game we played Kill Team, pitting FG's newly-painted Ork Commandos versus Adrian's newly-painted Veteran Guardsmen. The figures were beautiful sculpts and the players did a great job with them, but I found the play rather complex and slow. Perhaps this is a game that requires investment on the part of the player to appreciate its full potential.

Battle of Hollabrunn

Last week we managed to get together for a mid-week game of grid-based Napoleonics. What's more, we hosted two members from another gaming group whom we got to know at a convention we went to the month before.

The scenario was Battle of Hollanbrunn, a rearguard action in the aftermath of Wagram that saw Massena's Corps catch up with the Austrians.

The game started with a Vincent's Division holding Hollanbrunn in the middle of the table, and the French cavalry arriving at their base edge. FG, commanding the cavalry on the French left, thrusted his squadrons forward and engaged the Austrian cavalry. In doing so, he crested a plateau and found another two other Austrian divisions behind the town.

The Austrians sent their cavalry and half of Kottulinsky's division to counter the French movement - a fatal error.

The opening set-up

On turn 3 the player playing the role of Massena, arrived late to the session but in perfect timing for the game. He quickly assessed these situation, and Neuenstein's Division on a march through the woods on the Austrian left, and then sent the light infantry from the Friedrich's Division to skirmish against Hollanbrunn's defenders while he organised a grand battery on the ridge overlooking the town.

While there are no national characteristics in these rules, the French had six commanders (albeit two being cavalry commanders that commanded only their respective squadrons), to the Austrians' four. In addition, Vincent had to command both cavalry and infantry and artillery. Having over estimated the importance of the French cavalry attack on their right, the Austrians were in addition plagued by poor dice rolls on the part of their artillery, and superb dice rolls on the part of the French which saw them moving through the woods on the flank at great speed. Belatedly they realised their peril, but with only three real commanders to speak of they could not redeploy their forces in time to counter the French, lost the town, and only by running down the game clock did they avoid a French major victory.

Mid-point of the game, with the French flank attack developing and the Austrians making their countermove

It was a fun game, and the timing was perfect, with the battle played to a resolution just as the game clock ran out and within the time we allotted for play.

In the discussions after the game one of the players was inspired to start painting 15mm Napoleonics, and Martin was motivated to paint up a few more units for his British-Portuguese army, which will allow us to play some Peninsular Wars scenarios in the future.

Kill Team

 Adrian hosted a game of the latest edition of Kill Team, where I pitted my warzone Bauhaus and Shieldwolf Miniatures figures against his Traitor Guard figures commanded by FG.

The rules are pretty standard to me, but the range is really helped by the beautiful figures and terrain. The gang have ordered several starter armies, but I have managed to pass the Saving Throw. I did scratch-build a Mekboy workshop shed for Adrian's terrain set, inspired by Orktober and GW's Mekboy Workshop terrain.

One peeve I do have with the system is the rather restrictive army lists, but hopefully that means that the lists have been playtested for balance.

I am tempted by the aesthetics of a Genestealer Cult army, so if we continue to play Kill Team, I may need to make another Saving Throw in the future.