Fulhurst Moors #3

 

Campaign Diary

In the month of Ostar two monks of Kellos, Brothers Berner and Kunar, arrived at Fulhurst Moors. They had come in search of the lost shrine of Saint Aleeya, which in times past was the site of pilgrimage. It soon became clear that the shrine they were looking for was the same one that our heroes had explored a week before. The monks asked that Arden and Sebastien act as their guides to the shrine, and Rok was also sent along with them (see PC profiles here).

On the first day of their journey our party witnessed a wyvern take a wild pony from a herd on the moorlands. That evening, as Sebastien and Rok were fishing by a brook while the rest made camp, they saw a solitary white pony standing in the water. Sensing something off, Rok returned to camp to fetch the others. When he and Arden returned, they found Sebastien riding on the pony, with a glazed look over his face. Arden, surmising that the pony was in fact some sort of water spirit, rushed forward, trying to rouse Sebastien from his trance, but the pony reared up upon its legs and struck her down. At the same time, the body of the pony turned into water, and Sebastien became engulfed in it, and started to drown. Rok dragged Arden to safety, and then struck at the water spirit, but could not hurt it. Meanwhile, Sebastien regained his senses, and broke himself free from the body of the pony. By then the two monks have arrived, and the pony dissolved into the brook.

The next day's travel was uneventful, and they party arrived at Rothfeld in the afternoon. The villagers received them without much enthusiasm, and Wymer, the headman, openly questioned the wisdom of provoking the undead, and trying to restore a pilgrimage trail that ran through dangerous territories. Rok then stood up and promised that he would destroy all undead at the shrine; his conviction won many of the villagers over, and Wymer agreed to give the party aid.

The next morning the five heroes trekked to the shrine. Once more they arrived at a mist-enshrouded hill, and once more they climbed the stone steps to the summit, and once more skeletal warriors rose from the ground to impede them. The party fought the undead, with Sebastien singing a song of encouragement from the rear, and Arden casting stones from a sling, a skill she had picked up from the goatherd at Fulhurst Moors. They managed to cut down all the undead, but Brother Berner was badly wounded. Nevertheless, they pressed on.

Entering the walled compound at the summit, they once more saw the lone skeletal warrior standing at the threshold of the chapel. The monks demanded the undead to depart in the name of Kellos, but the mention of the name sent the warrior into a rage, and he strode towards the party, swinging an ancient greatsword. There followed a great combat, and for a while it went against our heroes, until its sword broke upon Rok's, and he became unarmed - the orc drove a dagger into the chest of the warrior, and its body and armour crumbled into dust.

The party entered the chapel, where they bathed in the warmth of the fire in a brazier. Upon the plinth on which the brazier was set were inscriptions in an archaic form of the tongue of Terrinoth, which identified the chapel as the resting place of Saint Aleeya, who perished in the battle to destroy the necromancer Sarabis and tear down his tower.

As they descended from the hill, now no longer shrouded in mist, Arden spied in the horizon a hill that resembled the one they are on...

Prepping and Running the Game

Once again the session was pretty conventional, with a couple of wilderness encounters added to plant seeds for future exploration/adventures.

I had planned for the monks to arrive at Fulhurst later in the campaign, but as the players were keen on learning more about the ruined shrine, I moved their appearance forward.

The combats were rather deadly this session, with Arden going down and losing a point of Intelligence permanently. I decided not to make the character recalculate all the skills as a result of this drop, which reduced the impact.

After three sessions, I think there are now enough hooks and plot threads to make this campaign feel sandboxy. The players have the choices of exploring the other hill, further engaging with the villagers of Rothfeld, working with the monks, and tracking down the wyvern or the water spirit.

I realise that I have not bring up the thread about the silver miners - something which I must remedy in the next session.

Fulhurst Moors #2

Campaign Diary

In the month of Lenzin the gnome merchants Louj and Lerj arrived at Fulhurst Moors. In their company was Sebastien Gildenclef, a young bard from the realm of Lorimor, who had heard tales of the adventures of Entana and his party and had come to become his bard.

That night, a goat was taken from the pen by kobolds. The next morning, Arden, Fangrir, and Sebastien (see PC profiles here) tracked the kobolds to their lair: a cave in a hillside. Wary of entering, the party at first tried to lure the kobolds out by having Sebastien mimic a goat's call, and when that failed, they decided to smoke the kobolds out. The kobolds surged out en mass, and for a while Fangrir was in danger of being dragged into the cave by them, but after a struggle, the kobolds scattered into the open, but not before pilfering small items from our heroes.

The next day, our heroes escorted Louj and Lerj on their journey to Rothfeld, where they planned to trade salt and iron for sheep wool. At Rothfeld, the party noticed a light in the distance to the north. The residents of Rothfeld informed them that the light was rumoured to be from a shrine to Kellos, that for unknown reasons had been abandoned for centuries. Our curious heroes decided to investigate, and set out that night towards the light.

They came upon a mist-shrouded hill, with stone steps that led towards a ruined compound at its summit. Our heroes climbed up, but halfway up the stairs skeletal warriors erupted from the ground beside the stairs and attacked them. Out heroes were able to defeat the undead, but were wounded themselves. Upon reaching the summit, they found a ruined walled compound, at the far end of which was chapel where an open flame burned in a brazier. Standing at the door to the chapel was another skeletal warrior. Our heroes decided they were too injured to risk further combat, and returned to Rothfeld.

Prepping and Running the Game

This being the first actual "sandbox" part of the campaign, I ran it like a usual session with an obvious plot. There players did have some freedom on how they wished to tackle the challenges presented, and wisely decided to retreat instead of confronting the boss monster.

Fulhurst Moors #1

Campaign Diary

Fangrir, Potter, and Rok were sent to Greyhaven to deliver the tax of herbs, and to escort the scholar Arden back to Fulhurst Moors (see PC profiles here).

The party was approached by a persistent grey partridge as they were leaving the hunting lodge at Weilbach. Against Arden's protest, Potter insisted on following the bird. The partridge led the party to a ruined stone building in the woods west of Weilbach, where they found Baldor, a hermit, trapped inside a cage of living vines. Baldor explained that he was a caretaker of the woods, and had been gifted a staff from a Hulda, a guardian spirit, to help him in his work. Three days ago, his apprentice Cartan stole his staff, trapped him in a cage of vines, and left to kill the Hulda so he could take her powers for himself.

Potter tried to cut Baldor free, but the vines would regrow each time a branch was cut. Baldor urged to party to find Cartan and stop him before it was too late, and sent the partridge, his familiar, to lead them to the forest pool where the Hulda lived.

Along the way the party was attacked by a bear, sent no doubt by Cartan, which Rok slew with a single sword thrust to the heart.

Arriving at the forest pool, the party found Cartan squatting at the edge of the now frozen pond with a staff in one hand; a thumping sound could be hear coming from below the ice - the Hulda was trapped under the ice and drowning. The party tried to approach Cartan, but Cartan trapped Fangrir with magical vines that sprouted from the ground, and froze Rok's feet to the ground.

Potter tossed a handful of marbles onto the pond surface, and Arden tripped the apprentice. In the ensuing struggle Cartan lost his staff, and Potter broke the ice above the Hulda's face, allowing her to draw breath.

Rok and Fangrir broke their restraints and rushed to the pond. Fangrir thrusted his spear into Cartan's back, killing him. Rok enlarged the opening in the ice, allowing the Hulda to rise from the water. The enraged wood-wife's branch-like fingers extended from her hands and pierced through Cartan's skin and then his flesh, which she then tore apart.

The ice began to melt, prompting the party to get onto firm ground. As he did so Fangrir spied a glint, and picked up a silver bracelet with a single blue crystal shard on it. Arden would later identify it as a Frost Runebound shard.

The Hulda declared that Baldor had shown that he could not be trusted with her powers, and so she reclaimed her staff, but she also granted Potter a boon for saving her life.

The party returned to Baldor, whose cage of vine had disappeared, and there they told their tale to the hermit.

Prepping and Running the Game

So began my return to Terrinoth.

I did not keep a campaign log for our previous campaign as writing them took too much time, but I think they do serve a purpose, and so I decided to try to do so for this campaign, although I will attempt to keep the accounts more brief.

I had planned to start the campaign in Fulhurst Moors, but due to scheduling issue I decided to run a more conventional scenario instead.

The scenario came from Adventures & Interludes for The Hero's Journey, which I abridged and adapted.

While it was not a sandbox scenario per se, I liked the fact that the scenario helped plant a few seeds that I may be able to reap the benefits of later in the campaign.

For a start there was some inter-PC conflict: Arden was a scholar, while Potter was an illiterate peasant woman; Fangrir and Rok both serve under the same mentor, one out of gratitude, while the other plans revenge.

Arden's player plans to 'multi-class' the character to a Mage later, and the encounter with the Hulda may provide a narrative means to allow that.

The Frost runebound shard was included in the scenario to explain Cartan's ability to use ice-based magic, and I was prepared to just drop it into the setting and see what it leads to. By chance it was picked up by a dragonkin character, and dragons (and by extension dragonkin) have an affinity and attraction to magic, so who knows where this will lead us to.

The next session should see the PCs back in Fulhurst Moors, where the hexcrawl proper can begin.

Fulhurst Moors - Cast of Characters

Player Characters

Arden, human scholar. A scholar of legendary creatures at Greyhaven University, Arden had come to Fulhurst Moors to learn from the experiences of Entana and Strigoi (see below).

Fangrir, dragonkin fighter. Fangrir was orphaned when his father, a raider, was killed by Strigoi while attacking Rok's village (see below). He grew up on the streets of Strangehaven. When he learned of the whereabouts of Strigoi, he sought him out to avenge his father, but was defeated in combat. Strigoi offered to take him as a student and train him in combat, until he could defeat him.

Potter, human witch. An orphan in Fulhurst Moors, Potter was taken in by Mother Lenka, the village "wise woman". Since Mother Lenka's disappearance the year prior, Potter had taken over her duties, collecting the village's tax of herbs and wild plants to the University.

Rok, orc knight. When Rok was a child, his village came under the attack by Dragonkin raiders. The villagers hired a band of mercenaries led by Strigoi (see below), who drove the raiders away. Now an adult, Rok had sought Strigoi out to become his follower. He is made a ministerialis (bonded knight) bvy Entana (see below)

Sebastien Gildenclef, human bard from Lorimor.

Non-player Characters (residents of Fulhurst Moors)

Entana Vernier, human wizard, vogt of Fulhurst Moors. After attaining his Masters, Entana was made the vogt of Fulhurst Moors.

Strigoi, orc fighter, marshal of Fulhurst Moors. Formerly Entana's bodyguard, Strigoi had been appointed marshal of the village.

Gio Gerbo, gnome rogue. A member of Entana's party and the most famous gnome in Terrinoth, Gio travels through the Baronies, singing songs about their exploits when he is not in Fulhurst Moors.

Graenson, human scholar, steward of Fulhurst Moors. Son of the Bursar of Greyhaven University, Graenson was assigned to become steward for Entana.

Annas, human, chamberlain of Fulhurst Moors.

Elrir, human, reeve of Fulhurst Moors.

Non-player Characters (others)

Wymer, human, headman of Rothfeld

Conquerors and Kings: Battle of Fulford Gate

We were supposed to play this battle in September, but an illness prevented us from doing so, so we were late to the "960" celebration by a month, and our Hastings game will be played in November instead.

Tostig and the advance guard arrive; in the foreground, the book that started my love for the period

This was a chance for my figures to meet some old friends - wahj's Vikings which they last faced two decades ago - and some new opponents - Rafael's Vikings.

The Saxon right holds off the Norse

I used the scenario from Little Wars TV for our terrain, with the lists modified for C&K. wahj, playing Tostig and the advance guard, decided to attack immediately on the left. The Saxons meanwhile pushed their light troops across the stream on their flanks.

The Saxons attack across Germany Beck

When the main body of Harald's arrived, Rafael sent them to attack the Saxon right. The Saxons then launched their army across the creek. The two lines clashed, but neither side achieved a decisive victory. The Vikings then decided to hold off in the centre, and attack the weaker flanks of the Saxons, while the Saxons consolidated in the centre. The double-envelopment would probably have worked, but the game clock had run down before the attacks could develop.

The game ran pretty quickly and smoothly, even though I extended the game clock beyond the usual 36 to allow for Harald's late arrival. This is the sixth C&K game we have played this year, and by now we are all quite familiar with the rules and I did not have to revise the night before the game. I feel we are really reaping the reward for sticking with a set of rules.

Stay tuned for our Hastings game next month.

Return to Terrinoth - Fulhurst Moors

Art by Jon Hodgson

A post for my players as we plan for our next campaign.

The Rules

We will use the Dragonbane rules, with the Book of Magic expansion.

The Setting

The setting is Terrinoth, the fantasy setting created by Fantasy Flight Game. You can find out more about the setting at this wikia, but do be aware that the information may not coincide 100% with my game world.

The Premise

The PCs are all retainers who have pledged their service with the wizard Entana Vernier, who is vogt (lord) of the village of Fulhurst Moor, which lies of the edge of The Mistlands. You may choose a to be a character who is already living in Fulhurst Moor, or a new arrival from another place.

Each session will cover roughly two weeks of in-game time, during which we will resolve the domain/settlement improvements and events, explore the region, and follow quest lines which are chosen by the players or which emerge from the actions of the characters and the NPCs they interact with. Each session should be self-contained, so we can continue our drop-in, drop-out format.

Creating Your Character

We will use the Standard Array for stats: 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15.

The Kin and Professions allowed are discussed below. You get a +1 in your key Attribute.

Do also come up with a short-term goal and a long-term goal for your character, as well as an enemy from his/her past and also an ally from his/her past.

Character Kin

The following kins are open (Terrinoth race/Dragonbane kin equivalent: brief description):

• Human/Human: You may choose to be either of Terrinoth (generic fantasy medieval European, specifically German) origin, urban or rural, or from Isheim (fantasy Viking), Lorimor (fantasy medieval France), Torue Albes (fantasy England, with a maritime emphasis), or Al-Kalim (fantasy Arabian).

    Kin Ability: Adaptive. When making a skill roll, may use another skill of your choice.

• Forge Dwarf/Dwarf: Dwarves who live in the mixed human-dwarf city of Forge in Terrinoth.

• Dunwarr Dwarf/Dwarf: Dwarves who live in the dwarven kingdom of Dunwarr to the north of Terrinoth.

    Kin Ability: Unforgiving. When attacking someone who harmed you in the past, get a boon to the roll.

• Lowborn Elf/Elf: Elves who are descended from the first generation (Highborn) elves who came to Terrinoth, and hail from the Aymhelim Forest to the south of Terrinoth.

• Free Cities Elf/Elf: Elves who have taken up living in human cities, mostly in Dawnsmoor, near the Aymhelim Forest.

    Kin Ability: Inner Peace. Heal an additional d6 HP, d6 Willpower, and condition during Stretch Rest.

• Burrow Gnome/Halfling: Burrow Gnomes live in large matriarchal bands and have mostly abandoned interaction with the other races, but occasionally, some will still succumb to the lure of adventure.

• Wanderer Gnome/Halfling: Wanderer Gnomes roam all over the world in communal caravans, making a living as traders, performers, and occasionally even as labourers or craftsmen in human communities.

    Kin Ability: Hard to Catch. Get a boon to Evade roll.

• Broken Plains Orc, Stone-Dweller Orc/Mallard: Once viewed as enemies of Man, orcs have become accepted as one of the 'civilised' races since they switch sides and allied with Terrinoth during the Dragon Wars 800 years ago. Broken Plains Orcs live a nomadic lifestyle on the Broken Plains east of Terrinoth, while the Stone-Dweller Orcs have abandoned their traditional ways and live among humans in their cities.

    Kin Ability: Ill-tempered. Gain a boon when making a skill roll. Become Angry.

• Dragon Hybrid/Wolfkin: Created by the dragons as foot soldiers during the Dragon Wars 800 years ago, these humanoid hybrids were left behind after the war ended abruptly. Once hunted mercilessly by the humans, they have in recent times become more tolerated. 

    Kin Ability: Hunting Instinct. Designate a creature. You can follow the scent of the prey for a full day.

Professions

The following professions are available:

Artisan, Bard, Fighter, Hunter, Knight, Mage, Mariner, Merchant, Scholar, Thief.

The following schools of magic are available for Mages:

Animism (Nature magic), Elementalism (Elemental magic), Harmonism (Bardic magic), Illusionism (Illusion magic), Mentalism (Psychic magic), Symbolism (Sigil magic), Witchcraft (Witchcraft).

The following schools of magic are classified as Runebound magic/wizardry:

Animism (Nature magic), Elementalism (Elemental magic), Illusionism (Illusion magic), Mentalism (Psychic magic), Symbolism (Sigil magic).

Wizards in the setting learn new spells by finding and studying Runebound crystal shards instead of copying them into their spellbooks. This makes it a very challenging class to play in the game.

Optional Rules in Play

Healing

Round Rest: recover 0 HP, d4 HP. Once per combat.

Shift Rest: recover d4 HP, d4 WP. Twice per day (including night shift, sleep).

If another character uses the Healing skill, recover an additional d4HP, but that character may not rest.

Death Rolls and Injury

When character recovers from Death rolls, roll on the following table:

Injury Table

Roll            Effect

20            False hope. Character dies.

19            Lose 1 Strength. Become Exhausted

18            Lose 1 Constitution. Become Sickly

17            Lose 1 Agility. Become Dazed

16            Lose 1 Intelligence. Become Angry

15            Lose 1 Will. Becomes Scared

14            Lose 1 Charisma. Become Disheartened

2-13        Gain one Condition

1              Gain 1d6 of Hit Points. Gain one Condition

Losing a point of stat this way will reduce all the related Skills.

Encumbrance

We will use a house-rule version of the encumbrance rules - characters are assumed to be capable of carrying their personal gear like weapons and armour, group items like tents, cooking gear, and adventuring gear like rope and grappling hooks.

Characters with Strength less than 13 can carry an additional item; characters with Strength 13 to 16 can carry two additional items, and characters with Strength 17 or higher can carry three additional items.

Battle for Bukit Timah Village

Conquerors and Kings: Battle of Arbalo

The opposing sides size each other up

For our August game we once more played Conquerors and Kings, with Martin once more commanding his Early Imperial Romans. The scenario was the battle of Arbalo, where the Romans are ambushed in a narrow pass by the Germans. The battlefield was simple: a forest with a narrow central clear path that opened up towards the German side of the table; the Romans had to exit with at least half of their forces 'at strength' (i.e. at at least half strength), while the Germans had to prevent that.

Martin decided to simplify the tactical problem by essentially deploying on only half of the table, putting his legionaries on the left hand side of the path, with the left flank protected by auxilia in the woods, and the right flank protected by cavalry.

Confused fighting in the woods

The Germans sent out flanking forces on both flanks. The forces on the Roman left was more successful, quickly neutralising the auxilia. The main Roman column pushed on ahead while the battle in the woods was going on, leaving the auxilia to their fate, but when the Germans tried to exit the woods to engage the legionaries, they failed their movement rolls and never made it.

German flanking forces are unable to exit the woods to threaten the Roman centre

The fight on the other flank went in the favour of the Germans too, but the cavalry had played their part in delaying their enemies. The legionaries in the centre continued their push, routing the enemies in front of them, but it was still not enough - only five 'at strength' units made it off the table, making it a narrow win for the Germans.

Conquerors and Kings: Battle of Callinicus

For our July game we returned to Conquerors and Kings. Once again, wahj faced Rafael; we have played several games by now, so the game went rather smoothly.

I wanted a chance for Rafael to field his Macedonian Successor army, and found a suitable battle in the form of the Battle of Callinicus.

The Macedonians and Thracian allies

The battle was unusual as it featured only light troops and cavalry, with the iconic heavy infantry from both sides - the Macedonian phalanx and the Roman legionaries- sitting out. I wanted to see how the battle would have gone on if both sides decided to commit their heavy infantry. 

Romans and Pergamene allies

I had both players deploy their light troops and cavalry as usual, then let them roll for their heavy infantry as reinforcements.

The lines clashed, with the cavalry wings coming to a standoff quite soon afterwards. In the centre, the quality of the Macedonian Agema and Thracians gave Rafael the advantage. Both sides were only able to bring on about half of their heavy infantry by the time the game ended, but the Macedonians were a little quicker on the draw and overwhelm the Roman line before it could be stabilised.

We have played enough games of C&K for me to be confident in using it for historical scenarios. We are planning to play historical scenarios with C&K for the next three months, so stay tuned.

15mm Khurasan Miniatures

A few weeks ago I bought some Khurasan miniatures to add to my existing armies.

Here are some crossbowmen from their (older) Frankish/Norman range, based as Bow/formed instead of Psiloi/skirmisher, to use in my First Crusade games.

Here is a war drum from their Sung Chinese range. There are two drums and two drummers in a pack, so I am passing half of the pack to wahj. I painted mine to match my Warring States Zhao army, adding a spare pikeman I have as a standard bearer. Since the basic style of the Chinese war drum did not change for centuries, I think this will pass as a command or just a decorative base.

The main reason why I made the order in the first place was to get these Nikephorian Byzantine archers. I bought some Nikephorian Byzantine archers from Forged in Battle's War & Empire range to use as Armenian mercenary archers, and liked the way they look, and so I decided to add a couple more bases to allow me to field two units of them in my Conquerors and Kings games.

The Khurasan miniatures are a little thinner and have smaller heads than the War & Empire ones, but they mix together well enough. 

I am glad I managed to complete all of them this week, as I have a terrain project to complete for another multi-player demonstration game which Eugene is planning for August. Stay tuned.

TMWWBK: Battle of Isandlwana

When Eugene was playing the Indian Mutiny game I hosted in January, he felt frustrated ("in a good way") by how the mutineers were pinned down by fire and could not reach the British lines. It occurred to him then that the game mechanic could be used for a game of the Battle of Isandlwana, which he had the figures for, in 10mm.

We continued the discussion after the session, exchanged many messages over the following weeks, and soon we had a plan. I modified the cork hills I had in my collection to represent Mount Isandlwana, made a few paper bell tents and a flag base, while Eugene painted up more Zulus, and in March we ran a multi-player game for seven players at Elias Community Centre, which was documented by Eugene in the video below:

Do check his channel out for more videos, and subscribe for future videos.

Nolzor's Marvellous Miniatures: Xorns

Long-time readers will notice that I have stopped posting my RPG reports for quite a while now. My week-night RPG sessions have become few and irregular, but we are still playing - I have just decided that I cannot afford the time to write lengthy reports of every session.

We did, in fact, play a Dying Earth campaign using Forbidden Lands rules, and have just started a Dungeon Inc. campaign.

Dungeon Inc. is a new RPG from The Merry Mushmen, where players play monsters employed by the eponymous company to kill adventurers and take their stuff for the company. In between jobs they engage in office politics.

So far the player characters include: a genteel, refined dragonborn, a sneaky kobold who hates do-gooders, a territorial skeleton, a minotaur who is easy to miss, a cowardly sasquath, and a greedy xorn, whom we see in the photo above.

The figures are given to me by the character's player, and is from the Nolzor's Marvellous Miniatures range. You get two figures in the pack: one standing on the floor and the other bursting out of the ground, as xorns do. They come pre-primed, and rather interestingly have transparent blobes for eyes. I avoided painting over the eyes, and simply painted them over with yellow ink, and adding a black line for their irises.

So far Ron Ron has gone on his first mission, which he failed spectacularly by eating the MacGuffin. Hopefully he will do better on his next mission.

Archecore World Fortress Tank

I came across the Archecore World Fortress Tank at a toy store in Taiwan a few months ago. The toy line is in 1/35 scale, but the size and vibe of this model fit the 28mm WW1 sci-fi forces I own, so I decided to buy it and repaint it to suit.

The model is pre-assembled and could not be disassembled for easier painting, but fortunately the turret could be removed from the hull. I primed the model black, and sprayed on a base coat of Tamiya Field Grey. I then used a make-up sponge to apply a light shade of field grey - some of the recessed parts proved hard to reach, as you can see from the photos.

Once the base colour was applied, I applied some Black Templars decals I had lying around, and then worked on the weathering.

I decided to paint most of the tank in field grey, so the only parts that had to be painted another colour were the exhaust pipes and the tracks. Once all the colours were applied, I added by mud and dust with a large make-up brush.

I hope to use this model in an attack-defence scenario in a game of Blood and Valor soon.

War & Empire Nikephorian Skutatoi Bowmen

I painted a pack of later Byzantine archers from Forged in Battle as Armenian mercenary archers in Fatimid service. The Armenian archers seem to have been an important part of the Fatimid armies, and feature in various army lists, so even though I already have a large number of archers elements in my Saracen army, I wanted a unit them to make my Fatikid army more legitimate.

Despite their prominence in history, I wasn't able to find figures in 15mm that matched what I imagined them to look like, which is how Perry Miniatures' 28mm Armenian archers look like. Fortunately, these later Byzantine archers look similar enough for my purpose.

As with the other War & Empire figures, they are quick to paint. I am tempted to add another unit of these someday.

Blood and Valor

 For our session in May we played two games of Blood and Valor by Firelock Games.

I got the B&V rules several years ago when they first came out and created a buzz on youtube. I had earlier planned on using Trench Hammer from Nordic Weasel Games with my Warzone figures, but decided to give the B&V rules an actual play to see if they make a more 'fun' game.

We played a simple Attack-Defence scenario, with attackers having five units vs the defender's four. We played the scenario twice, switching sides after the first game. I lost both times, which I believe means the game is balanced.

The combat rules themselves are rather standard, but the initiative and fatigue systems add extra considerations for the players, which makes the game feel rather different from an IGOUGO mass skirmish game with no real morale effect. We enjoyed them enough to want to play them again, and I have a toy tank which I am currently painting to use for the game.

Perry Miniatures Spanish Guerrillas

Here are fifteen Spanish Guerillas from Perry Miniatures' plastic box set which I painted for our Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket games. They required some filling to assemble, but as usual are a delight to paint.

TMWWBK - Getting Away with It

The British camp by the Nile

For our April game, we played another game of The Men Who Would Be Kings, this time in Epic (13.5mm) scale using Rafael's beautifully painted figures, and this time using measurements instead of grids.

The genesis for this game came when I learned that Rafael has an Epic scale Napoleonic Ottoman army, a British army, but not a French army. I wanted to run a game using his armies, and recalled a scenario from Battlegames' Tabletop Teasers compilation that featured the French army looting an Egyptian site and the Ottoman and British trying to stop them - well, who's to say the British couldn't do a spot of looting themselves after seeing off the French?

I floated the idea to Rafael, and he got onboard, printing, assembling, and painting a ketch (that would end up doing sterling service in the game) just for the scenario. I made a few simple river barges (from wooden boat models bought off Shopee), tents, painted up a half-buried sphinx (snapped off an aquarium decoration also from Shopee), and based some palm trees (again Shopee) onto cork sheets, to which I added tufts to represent reeds - I thought they didn't look half bad placed against the river terrain piece.

Ottoman forces surge towards the British camp in the middle of the table

The British started the game divided into two parts, one in the centre of the table at the dig site, from where they must drive two wagons loaded with loot to the riverbank, where the other half of the British forces are. Docked at the riverbank are barges, and a ketch with howitzers.

The Ottoman forces are also divided into two parts, with one representing the professional and household troops of the local lord, and the other the local tribal forces.

To add randomness to the game, I forsook grid movement and returned to the tape measure, giving the wagons a move of 2d4 per turn. The random movement distance, coupled with the activation rolls and random move distance when units move At the Double, added suspense to each turn.

Ottoman Irregular forces

British forces hold off the Ottoman

Home stretch!

It was a close game, with the British successfully loading both wagons of loot onto the barges with the Ottoman Janissaries just one move away.

This is definitely one scenario I would like to run again.

Conquerors & Kings: Battle of Dorylaeum

The Turks block the Crusaders' march

Earlier this month we played the battle of Dorylaeum using Peter Pig's Conquerors & Kings rules. We had play the same scenario many years ago using (I think) Warmaster Ancients rules, but it's an interesting scenario that bears replaying.

I needed 20 bases of light cavalry for this scenario, so I took the opportunity to finally get some Turkic light horse from Khurasan Miniatures and had them painted just in time for the game.

Clash of cavalry

I had done the maths beforehand and expected the Crusaders to deploy themselves in a compact formation and wait for the Turks to close before delivering a charge. wahj, playing the Crusaders, had a different idea. He charged straight at the Turkish line before Rafael had a chance to get organised, and quickly threw them back.

The knights became isolated as a result, and became surrounded. To make things worse, the Turkish scouting party had returned and now threatened the Crusader's left flank. Fortunately for them, their armour saved them from actually taking casualties, and they knights managed to fall back behind the safety of the infantry.

The Crusaders were able to hold their own until the arrival of their reinforcements later in the game, when the Turks decided to withdraw.

Having played this game in my mind for several weeks while preparing for the session, I was surprised that both players used their forces very differently from how I imagined they would. I would certainly like to try the scenario again with new players when I have the chance.

Garrison Miniatures Villagers and more Gripping Beast Arab Infantry

To add to my collection of 28mm figures for skirmish games, I ordered some villager figures from Garrison Miniatures via ebay. I chose this specific set because I felt the clothing of the figures were generic enough to allow them to do double duty: for our Ruckus Reconquista games, and our Fistful of Lead Peninsular War games.

To provide our Barons' Wars figures with more opponents, I also bought and painted a sprue of Gripping Beast's Arab Infantry. This brings my total "Saracen" force to 20 foot and 6 mounted figures, which will be sufficient for most skirmish scenarios.

I have also ordered a box of Perry Miniatures' new Spanish Guerillas, which will give us more options for our Fistful of Lead games.

Battle of Znaim

For our game in February we played the Battle of Znaim.

The battle saw the French coming upon the Austrian army as their baggage train is making its way through the town of Oblass.

Fg and I, playing the French, initially planned to send two divisions across the river to our left and capture the town of Oblass, while the other divisions on our right screened the rest of the Austrians.

However, the Austrians moved their right wing up, and fg decided against crossing the river, and instead tried to capture the town of Tesswitz in the middle of the table instead.

The struggle for Tesswitz became the main focus of the battle, as fg sent two divisions to try to push the Austrians out. But the Austrians put up a stout defence, sending in their heavy cavalry to spoil the French attack - they were successful, but were in turn destroyed by the French light cavalry sent in a counter-attack the next turn.

Meanwhile, I pushed the French right wing forward to engage the Austrian left, and positioned the corps artillery so it could bombard Tesswitz.

But it was too late - the Austrian baggage train cleared the town, allowing the Austrian reserve to come onto the table. The French made one last effort to capture the town, but failed.

This was once more a tight game, with the clock being very unforgiving to the French. The Austrians started the battle dispersed, which gave the French a narrow window of opportunity to capitalise on their concentration.

We are planning another Napoleonic game for the month of March, so stay tuned!