Strandhogg Fantasy Game 4: Battle at the Ford

FG, an old friend whom I haven't gamed with or indeed met for a few years came over this afternoon to catch up and have a game.

We played a game of Strandhogg in around two hours, which gave us plenty of time to chat over drinks and chips afterwards.

For this game I wanted to field my dwarf warriors instead of my rangers to see how the new stats and unit configuration works, so I picked a suitable scenario from the Warhammer Skirmish booklet.

The battle depicts a goblin incursion into dwarven territory, the boundary which is marked by a stream. The goblins attempt to cross at the ford, which is guarded by a dwarven ballista.

Besides the ballista the dwarves have three warbands: one huscarl and two warriors warband. The goblins have three warbands of foot, one of warg riders, and are joined by a troll.


FG began the assault with a warband of warriors on foot, followed by the warg riders. The ballista dropped a few goblins, but as they surged across the ford the crew had to relocate themselves as the huscarls move forward to cover their movement.

On both flanks the warbands threw out their archers to pick off the advancing goblins.

The warg riders made first contact, charging against the shieldwall of huscarls. The melee here would last a few rounds and draw in the foot warbands from both sides on the dwarven left flank, but the dwarves finally emerged victorious.

On the right flank the dwarven archers retreat uphill as the goblins close, while the warriors come off the hill to form a shieldwall. The dwarven warriors are given better Melee rating than the goblin warriors, but as d10 is used to resolve combat, the combat is not always a sure thing; in addition, the goblins' armour gave them a fair chance to survive a blow. What told however was the goblins' lower Courage rating, which meant they didn't always charge into melee as ordered and could not capitalise on their numerical advantage, and they were more prone to losing figures through failed Morale rolls.

On the other flank the troll slew a few dwarven warriors, but was eventually taken down by a thane, who himself suffered a wound in the combat.

The goblin king attempted to shore up that flank by joining the melee, but was also killed.

The dwarves' joy was however short-lived, as their own king, now moving forward in a shieldwall with his huscarls, was felled by an arrow from the last goblin warband that crossed the ford.The huscarls charged the goblins in a rage, and after a few rounds of melee scattered the invaders. The toll was heavy though - the dwarves have lost their king and half of their forces.

Overall it was a fun game - we both enjoyed moving lots of figures around without having to measure for each one precisely. The shooting templates were fun to use.

The new weapons rules I added gave more flavour to the game. The modifiers for the two-handed axes gave the huscarls a real advantage in melee, as did the 'extra attacker' rule for the spears on the goblin side. FG had however forgotten about the wedge formation I told him - perhaps that may have made a difference on one of the flanks?

I still forget bits of rules though, like the shrinking command radius with casualties, and what happens to warriors when their leaders are slain, so I should stop adding new rules until I am more familiar with the basic ones.

Strandhogg Fantasy Game 3: Ambush!

Last month Adrian and I played a scenario from Warhammer Fantasy Skimish using the Strandhogg rules. Here are the pictures he took on his iPhone.

The dwarves find themselves in an ambush!

A goblin warband flanks the dwarves.

The goblins form an attack wedge against the dwarven shieldwall.

In the shieldwall formation the dwarves can be quite tough, but massed archery does take its toll nonetheless.

The dwarves have generally come off worse in our games, but that's probably because I tend to field mostly the unarmoured Rangers. Now that I have beefed up my Warriors warbands and created a Huscarl warband, I want to see how they do in a Hastings type scenario against the goblins. Hopefully I can do that this weekend.

More Perry WOTR

A little development in the WOTR/Empire project:

I painted a billman and an archer to sort of get the pattern set, and am almost done with the fully-armoured knight (who looks like Robocop). I realise I have made a mistake by gluing the figures onto their bases before fitting their arms on - the heads may not be looking at the correct direction, and I may not be able to rank them all up nicely and may have to rebase them eventually...

I also received the Perry metal dismounted knights today. I was wondering if they would be bigger than the plastic figures, but as you can see they match very well.

I guess I'll keep chipping away at the pile of plastics until the LOTR dwarves arrive - then that will take precedence.

No word yet from the Flag Dude regarding my request for a custom-made flag - I suppose he is still clearing his email from after Historicon.

More dwarves

I went down to the gaming store to get a bottle of Citadel Dwarf Bronze - it says something about their quality control that despite the number of years between when the dwarves were painted (by the guy I bought them from) and now there is no perceptible difference in the colour of the paint.

Anyway, the paint allowed me to finish the kite shields I bought off ebay (parts from the Wargames Factory Saxon Thegn box), and glue them to the back of my dwarven Huscarls.



There are no straps modelled on the dwarves, but between their beards and the way their arms are held across their chests, it doesn't look obviously absent.

Here's a view of the shields from the back.


I also completed the oval shields for the Hasslefree dwarves. As you can see, with the shield before him, the Hasslefree figure blends in well with his LOTR fellows.

I also gave in and bought the last blister of Murin and Drar from the gaming store, having failed to find a cheaper option on ebay. They are wonderful figures with a lot of dynamism, and I think I will use them as leaders for my Ranger warbands instead of the Warriors warbands. I'll wait for the other 3 metal dwarf warriors I bought on ebay to arrive before painting them all together.

Overcoming Perry Paralysis

One down... 39 more to go. Well, 49 if you count the other figures that I have bought or traded to form this army.

Like many other wargamers, I was daunted when I opened my box of Perry WOTR Infantry; they came at less than S$1 per figure, so I guess one didn't really... expect so much from them. But the sheer prospect of having to remove more than a hundred parts from a sprue, deflash them, decide in what combination to assemble them, whether or not to paint the arms before gluing them to the bodies... Add to that the fact that I will be priming them in white rather than black like I have for the past decades, it all becomes rather overwhelming.

Now the reason why I am priming with white for this project is because yellow forms half of the livery for my troops. I could have chosen a colour scheme that works with black primer, but I decided to use the coat-of-arms of a family whose name a long-time friend shares. The musician in the picture above sports that livery, the banner, as well as the badge for the nobleman.

Admittedly the painting barely makes 'wargames standard', but I am hoping that after a dozen figures I will get better at painting them - if not, there is always the 'mass effect' to fall back on.

With one command figure done, I feel a little relieved. I plan to paint the figures in small batches of 6 or so of the same torso type. The whole project will take me a few months though, but hopefully I can have a game with them before the year ends.

Droids, Mr Rico!

Dozens of them!

Those are the droids I was looking for... all 72 of them! I've organised them into two 'platoons', each with a command/heavy weapon droid, a squad of assault/crab droids, and three squads of battle-droids.

Here's another view of them.





As you can see some of them are still a little bent over from their journey in the droid carrier (aka parcel box).

In this last picture you can see the colour code system I've used to keep track of which figure is from which squad - I've tagged one 'platoon' with red and pinks, and the other one with green and blues.

I don't think I will be free to give them a run soon, but at least now I have a ready opponent for my Space Marines.

More small things, and big plans

The Perry WOTR Infantry box set comes with a lot of bitz, which include these "arrows stuck in ground". While they would look great in a dioramic base, I decided to base them individually on washers so I can use them as "out of ammo" markers for Strandhogg. We haven't been using that rule in our past games, but we learnt in my last game with Adrian that massed archery can be really effective - this rule will go some way towards redressing the balance.

+++

I played a game of Mechwarrior with Adrian and Thomas yesterday - a small 450 pts head-to-head battle. The rules are pretty straightfoward, but the number of types of special weapons and armour and their interaction gives that rock-paper-scissors component to it, which is no doubt a factor in its popularity as a competition game.

Adrian is quite keen on the rules, and we will probably be giving his figures more action soon.

During the game I was also assembling Adrian's Warhammer Wyvern model - a gift from Thomas - for him; he is also painting up the entire contents of the Skull Pass box set, as well as some goblin huts, a goblin chariot, and a goblin wolf-rider I passed him. They have a ready opponent in the LOTR dwarves I have and am still adding to (just won three dwarf warriors on ebay, and will probably be getting a couple of hero figures...), and can look forward to another in my Perry WOTR figures when they are eventually done.

Thomas is meanwhile working on his Blood Angels, which you can see here. Once they are done they can play against my Space Marines, and in the future his own Orks, as well as Adrian's yet-to-be-started Space Marines.

Looks like it will be a busy gaming year.

More on Hasslefree Dwarves

I managed to assmble the Hasslefree dwarves this afternoon. The small area of contact at the wrist meant I couldn't get away with not pinning as I had hoped.





With the shield attached and the figure viewed from the front, it actually blends in well with the LOTR figures. I am pretty sure the effect will be even better once it is painted. This does mean that I will have to make another trip down to the local game store to pick up some copper paint so I can make the shields look similar.

Small things painted

As it turned out I managed to have the small things painted and flocked over the past two evenings, which means I can start work on the Hasslefree dwarves this weekend...

First up are the tombstone and the two dwarven marker stones. I decided to use the dwarven stones because despite their Warhammer Fantasy origin, they do not look out of place next to LOTR dwarves. I like the stone effect I achieved on them. In fact, last night I bought something else on ebay which I plan to paint in the same manner - wait for it...

The marker stones will be useful as decorations (and cover) for my dwarven village in a skirmish game, and can also serve as Objective Markers.

The tombstone I don't really have a use for right now, but to be honest I found myself searching for similar items on ebay, and secretly planning the largest 28mm graveyard in the world...


The standing cross I absolutely love. I flocked it with a shorter grass to indicate that it is of a different scale; the idea is that instead of being on a base, it is atop a low mound. I posed two stands of 15mm Saxons next to it - the base on the left are Two Dragons, and the one on the right Essex (I believe).

Hasslefree and LOTR Dwarf Comparison and Rethinking Strandhogg

The Hasslefree dwarves I ordered arrived today. You can see one of them posed beside an LOTR dwarf warrior below:

The height and torso-to-leg proportion are similar, but the Hasslefree dwarf has bigger face and hands, and a bigger pot-belly. Most importantly, their armour is in Norman style as opposed to the earlier style of the other dwarves - but since I am using these as Thane figures, I guess it's OK.

+++

Last night I realised that if I combined the command system in Strandhogg with the combat system from Warhammer it will mean that two types of dice will be needed during the game, which can slow things down a little (on top of the card-flipping).

After some thought I decided I will instead keep the current combat system, converting the WS stat in Warhammer into the base Melee score in Strandhogg, and break the melee resolution into two die-rolls instead of one. This means that the combatants will still roll 1d10 + Melee score + Modifiers and compare their scores, with the figure scoring higher winning the melee; however, instead of using the difference between the scores to determine the result, I will use a saving throw using the loser's Defence rating instead - this makes the process analogous to the missile resolution (one roll to hit, one roll to save), and allows the weapons to have different effects (e.g. a two-handed axe gives a -2 to save, but the wielder cannot hold a shield, so there is an element of trade-off there). In the event where the loser of a melee makes the save, he is pushed back 1", just as in the current system.

I hope to give it a try soon.

Robogear T-Rex

I guess at the back of my mind I have always wanted this kit since I first saw it, so when I saw it on auction I entered a lowish bid and I was actually a little surprised to win it. I had planned to use it as a Sentinel for a planned Imperial Guard army, but now that I have decided to build a Droids army instead, I guess this little fellow will be in storage.

So what do you get in the box?



There are two main sprues as you can see, plus a separate ziploc bag with the missile launchers and missiles - the missile launchers, which contain springs inside them, are pre-assembled, presumably to make them more kid-friendly. There is an instruction sheet showing you how to assemble the pilot, which is the same size as my Rouge Trader era Imperial Guards except for his longer legs, but since he is going to be seated, it doesn't really matter. In any case, there are two cockpit canopy - one with 'glass' and the other one without. The instructions for assembling the walker is on the back of the box.

What surpirsed me was the fact that the kit comes with 3 tiny pots of paint (a blue, a green, and a black, with their corresponding Humbrol (?) codes), and a brush!

Finally, there is the stat card.

There are, however, no decals or even stickers to go with it.

This looks like a fun and easy kit to build. There is some flash, but at least for the walker parts this is easily removable - the bits on the pilot may take a few minutes more. The parts are designed to plug together, and there are 4 holes on each side of the cabin to plug the weapons onto, and it seems you can mount the machineguns in two ways - with the magazine above the barrel, or below. You may want to omit or substitute the missile-launchers - here's where the bit box comes in...

The details are quite good, with rivets everywhere, display screens in the cockpit, and even wires in the engine compartment and at the joints - all in all a very 40K Imperial ethos. It can easily be used as a Sentinel, or with some bits, an Ork walker.

I'll post some pics if I ever get it built and painted.

Small things and taking stock

With the main armies either completed or yet to arrive, I thought it's time to paint up the bits that I gathered over the years.





From left to right, they are: two dwarven statues from the GW Battle at Skull Pass set barricades, a Celtic Cross and a gravestone (both from Ziterdes), and six resin barrels from Itar's Workshop.

They are all scaled for 25/28mm, but the Celtic Cross will probably serve for my 15mm Anglo-Saxon England games. They are all useful in a skirmish game to add colour and cover to the game, and I think the gravestone and barrels can in addition be used for my Blood Bowl pitch.

It's a busy week for me, but with some planning I can probably start work on them this coming Sunday.

+++

It was a fruitful weekend. Not only did we complete the FPW campaign, I also managed to play a game of Strandhogg with Adrian - my LOTR dwarves against his Warhammer Night Goblins.

As much as I like the rules, I can see that the melee system is flawed. For example, under these rules wielding a two-handed axe gives you a +1 in melee vs shieldwall and mounted; however, a figure holding a shield (and a melee weapon) will get a +1 in melee vs all opponents, and get a +1 defence vs missiles - so while a two-handed axe sounds good, it is in all ways inferior to just a sword and spear!

I think what I will do is to port the melee system from Warhammer over to Strandhogg - after all, what appeals to me most about the rules are the fast command and morale system. The Warhammer melee system, while involving a little more maths and many more die-rolls, allows more differentia in the troop types, and adds to the narrative ("They score hit after hit on the troll, but the weapons just bounced off its tough hide!"). Under the Warhammer rules, two-handed axes come with advantages (+2 Strength, which increases your chances of wounding and bypassing armour) and disadvantages (strike last in melee unless you charged, and cannot hold a shield*) - that at least gives a reason for the huscarls to want to carry them.

(* - I have ordered some loose kite shields to glue onto the back of my dwarves holding two-handed axes so they look like they are being slung; I will house-rule that they count as shielded against missiles if there are no enemy figures within 6" - again, there was a reason why the huscarls carried them...)

Finally, I must confess that I have succumbed to the lure of plastics and ordered a box of Perry Plastics WOTR infantry. At 40 figures with a mix of melee, missile and command troops, it's perfect as a human/Bretonnian army for Strandhogg. The planned colour scheme is blue-and-yellow livery, so I am thinking whether or not to depart from my usual black primer and go with a white one instead.

Stay tuned.

FPW Campaign Finale Redux

Well, we did it right this time, and the battle was a closer affair.

We kept the terrain placement and deployment from the previous game.



Once again the French Cavalry Division sacrificed itself to buy the Corps a few precious turns.

And once more they were destroyed and the Prussians began to mass.

But the funneling effect of the terrain meant that they still could not deploy quick enough to attack the fort. The final picture shows the Prussian troops taking the wooded hill to the south of the fort as the sun begins to set. From this position they will be able to shell the fort, but it was clear that they will not be able to take it today...

I think we all enjoyed the short campaign. Coming up next will be our Warring States China campaign, the test game which is scheduled in about 3 weeks.

Aren't you a little short for a dwarf?

'Civilian' figures are always a little harder to find than 'combatant' figures, but when a range has a unique scale and proportion, finding 'civilian' figures that will match the bulk of your force can be even more difficult.

I like the dwarves from the GW LOTR range, but I haven't had much luck finding dwarf figures that are compatible with them.

But I keep trying.


The latest addition to the collection is a 'Shireling' from Red Box Games, which I thought looked the part of a dwarf 'civilian'. Unfortunately you can see that while it can still pass as a wizened old dwarf next to the LOTR figure, it is decidedly dwarfed by the Reaper female dwarf, which can pass as a plus-size female next to the LOTR dwarf...

Well, such is life. I'll just have to keep watching for new stuff to be released...

Desert/Arid hills

A gaming session organised at the last minute meant I had to come up with some hills to go with my new desert/arid mat before the day's end. I spent half my lunchtime today looking for cork placemats but couldn't find any... I needed a plan B.

A quick visit to the local bookstore got me three large corrugated plastic boards and a roll of brown paper. Once I got home I spread the brown paper on the kitchen floor and dabbed splotches of off-white paint on the surface with a piece of sponge. After a jog and dinner, it was dry and ready for the next part of the project...

I cut the corrugated plastic boards into various hill-like shapes and stacked three together with alternating grains - in the fashion of a piece of plywood. After that it was just a simple matter of cutting a corresponding piece of the brown paper and wrapping that around the hill and taping it down.

The results:

I got one ridge, three medium round hills and two small round hills, all for less than S$15.

Not too shabby.

Space Marines Completed!

Well, it took almost 4 months, but here's everyone, I think...

That's the command squad atop the hill, and the Terminator squad and two Combat squads, as well as the Dreadnought in front of them.

I can't even recall when the first of these figures was bought - it might have been close to 20 years ago.


I quite like the limited palette - it sort of ties the whole force together.

Here's the command squad - now complete with the apothecary just finished today - posing together. There's actually quite a variance in height between the figures, but because they are all standing on pieces of rock and carrying or wearing long stuff, it's not that obvious.

I've actually ordered another non-GW figure to go with the force... a bit of a gag figure, but not everything has to be about the actual gaming, right?

FPW Campaign Finale

Edit: We actually played the clock roll wrongly... a rematch has been scheduled in two weeks' time. I apologise for the error.


It's almost 4 months since we started the FPW campaign (the planning and purchasing of figures and rules preceeded the actual play by many months though) but this afternoon we fought the final battle in the series.


(This means that I've played three 3-person games, two 2-person games and three solo games this year, an average of one game every three weeks, which isn't too shabby...)


By the time the terrain was laid down, I thought the French would be eliminated before the second Prussian Corps arrives...


wahj placed the fort smack in the middle of the table, and Martin quickly placed clear squares from his side of the table towards it. This gave the Prussians a straight line of attack to the fort. wahj remedied the situation by placing a village on one side of the road, and a wooded hill on the other.

The French have suffered heavy casualties from the first two games, and to add insult to injury I have rolled very bad dice for them during the recovery phase, while the rolls for the Prussians were much more favourable.

The Prussian main line of advance will come down the main road, while the other Corps will arrive on the turn after the clock passes 20 - which by the laws of averages will be Turn 7.



However, as Martin forfeited the railway table/game, this meant the French 3rd Division and their Cavalry Division start the game at full strength. wahj capitalised on this by placing the entire French Cavalry Division on the road, ready to sell their lives dearly to save their country. The First Division was deployed at the village to punish the Prussians as they try to move towards the fort, while the Second Division was deployed to the far left, in anticipation of the other Prussian Corps. The bulk of Third Division was held at the fort, with its artillery and some elements deployed on the wooded hill in front of the fort, which overlooked the Prussian route of advance.


As the lead elements of the Prussian Corps arrived the Cavalry Division launched itself into an attack, and lucky die-rolls meant that the cavalry continued to harass the head of the Prussian column, buying the French several turns - we played the rules wrongly here, forgetting that a repulsed unit takes one full turn to recover, but in any case the French cavalry always managed to keep a unit in that square, and wahj managed to seize the initiative each turn.
Both players also rolled high values for the clock, which meant that even as wahj traded time for initiative, the clock ran faster than expected; by turn 4 the second Prussian Corps had entered the table!
After they finally eliminated the French Cavalry Division with concentrated artillery, the Prussians begin to envelop the village from both directions, but for by sundown the Prussians had not pushed a man beyond the middle-line of the table.

I am personally quite surprised by the outcome of the battle - even taking the rule-error we made (and extending the clock by 20 to make up for it) the French pulled off a remarkable forward defence. I suppose part of the problem was that the Prussians had only two routes of entry because Martin forfeited a game; this meant wahj could concentrate his forces and defend against only two sectors instead of three.


I enjoyed the campaign very much, from the rules, the figures, the terrain, and to the actual gameplay. We are quite taken with the grid system and our next project - Warring States China - will also utilise the same; well, wahj did spend quite a bundle on the felt sheets...


I also handed Martin the 15mm Mediterranean card buildings from PaperTerrain this afternoon; he seems rather enthused and is planning to actually put the monastery set on a hill! With the frequency which we play at, however, his handiwork might only see tabletop play around Christmas!

*****

Looking back at the "work plan" I set our little group at the end of last year, we are about a month behind schedule. Next up is the Warring States campaign, the rules for which wahj and I have had many hours of discussion over. Hopefully we can get a test game done this month and move to the full 4-game campaign afterwards.

In the meantime Martin will have a few months to build the 15mm buildings and select a set of rules for our Peninsular Campaign, which will see us till the end of this year.


I am still not sure what project to take up when the baton comes back to me next year - like the guys said: who knows what new rules or period will hit the market by then?


I do have a complete set of figures painted for the Indian Mutiny (the name of the blog was originally chosen on account of this planned project), but I am not sure if we will want to play something just 50 years after our preceeding project... The number of paired armies we have in common give many possibilities: Hittite vs. Sea Peoples (wahj has been eyeing the Baueda Troy for years now...), Romans vs. Sassanids, Dark Ages Britain, First Crusade, Wars of the Roses... and in between we can always play filler games of Strandhogg (I am bidding on more dwarves - need more dwarves with shields if I am to capitalise on the Shieldwall rule, you see...) and FUBAR 40K (now that I have the droids I am looking for...).


Well, we'll just take it as it comes, what?

These are the droids I am looking for

I picked up the Star Wars miniatures I ordered from Noble Knight Games from the post office during lunchtime.

Here you can see the battle droids posed alongside my Space Marines. The droids are a little taller than the Marine, but as the fluff has then at 1.9m tall, and they are skinny, they look quite all right (yes, I know by fluff the Space Marine is 2.5m tall...). These droids are numbered #28 and #30 in the Star Wars system; there are many more poses available, but I picked these two because they have the same colour as the other droids I decided to include in my army.

This is the combat droid, which I plan to stat as a platoon support weapon droid. Presumably the prominent antennae allow them to communicate with the frontline troops so they can direct their fire. I like their drum-like 'torso', which gives the impression that they are packed with fuel to power their blaster cannons.

Finally, we have the Huge Crab Droid, which I ordered by mistake - I actually wanted the smaller crab droid as a close-combat droid, but ordered this one instead. As you can see it *is* huge and looks like it can crush a Space Marine with a single blow. Its base is actually hard, rigid plastic, unlike the bases of the other two droid types, which are soft plastic - at this size a softer plastic will probably warp too much. I will probably keep one or two of these guys for myself and stat them up as heavy assault vehicles and pass the rest to someone else.


On the way to the post office I also picked up a box of these 'gems' from a nail art shop for S$3.90.


I figured I need a way to distinguish the squads for the droids, and thought these would do the trick. I plan to use the red, pink, and dark red gems for the squads from one platoon, and the blue, light blue and green gems for the other one.

The rest of the army will probably arrive over the next couple of weeks as I ordered them from a number of sellers. I'll post pictures of the 'normal' sized crab droid when they arrive.

6mm Vauban Fort

The finale of our FPW campaign will be centred over this Vauban Fort from Paper Terrain.

This is actually their 6mm scale fort, but as it measures 7" per side, it's just the right size for our purpose - their 10/12mm scale fort is about twice that size.

The entire kit also gives you barrack buildings (intact and ruined forms) as well as a demilune, but the basic structure will have to suffice for now.

The whole thing probably took me about 6 hours to put together over 3 evenings in front of the television, and even though I am not too good with the knife it turned out "wargame standard" enough, I think.

The figures are painted by Realistic Modelling.

Strandhogg Fantasy Game 2: More pictures

A brave Thane faces off against a Troll

Arjun has already described the scenario, so here are some close-up shots from the Strandhogg game.

The charge by the Warg riders up the hill

At the midway point of the game, you can see the Goblins re-forming at the bottom right, while the mules are escaping from the top left.

The Troll was killed in single combat by a brave Dwarf ...

... who shall henceforth be called Trollbane!

Strandhogg Fantasy Game 2: Get to the boat!

Marty was unable to make the game today, so wahj and I played a game of Strandhogg Fantasy. I took only a few photos, but wahj should be along to post his better ones soon...

I borrowed the scenario from the Tabletop Teaser in one issue of Battlegames: the background is that the goblin scouts report that a strong dwarf column has been spotted escorting two pack mules to a ferry; guessing that the cargo they are carrying is precious, the goblin chieftain organised a dawn raid on the dwarven camp, before they can load the cargo...

As dawn breaks the dwarven sentry posted on the hilllock by the camp spotted a goblin warband heading their way, led by a band of warg riders, and supported by a troll!



The goblins enter from one corner; the dwarven ferry point is at the opposite corner, while the dwarven camp is in the centre of the table. Woods on the other two corners basically reduced the goblin approach to two: left of the pond, or right... or so I thought.


I deployed one band of rangers to the hillock, and despatched the other two to either side of the pond to block off the goblin approach, while the warriors formed to the left of the pond in a shieldwall, anticipating that the warg riders will come that way; the mule drivers headed swiftly for the ferry. I have planned the scenario such that it will take them about the same number of turns to reach it as it would take the warg riders, so time is of the essence here.

To my surprise the warg riders initially made straight for the hillock, but were repelled. They then turned to the dwarven left flank, bypassing the shieldwall and making straight for the mules this time.

I now made a mistake in my strategy - instead of driving the mules straight to the ferry, I moved them to the hillock on the left. I planned to deploy their precious cargo - a dwarven ballista, but before I could do so the warg riders have come dangerously close, forcing me to move them off the hillock again.

To the right of the pond the troll charged against a dwarven warband, was wounded twice by arrows, and finally felled in melee by a Thane.

In the centre of the table a goblin warbands fight a bloody melee with the dwarves rangers, who came off worse.

To the left the goblin chieftain leads the other warband against the dwarven warriors. Here the combat is more equal, and the two sides fight to a standstill.


Near the ferry the battle comes to a climax as the warg riders, now numbering only 3 out of the original 8, despatched the dwarven warband protecting the mule drivers and actually grabbed the reins of the two mules, but in the final moments the surviving Thane and a ranger from the centre warband slay a warg rider and caused the other one to flee.

The leader of the warg riders, himself wounded twice and seeing that it is not possible for him to drive both mules back to the goblin side of the table, decided to quit the field.


We called the game is a marginal victory for the dwarves, although if we carried on there was a chance the goblins could still win.

During the game wahj revealed that he too owned a few LOTR figures! I guess we may be playing Strandhogg again in the near future...

The rules used was Strandhogg, with fantasy modifications made by myself. The figures are all GW LOTR figures, with the exception of the troll, which is a Gamezone Troll, and the mules, which are from Mega Miniatures.

The mat and the hills are from GW. The building is from an ebay seller. The boat is a Zvezda Medieval Life Boat.