Workbench: Urlaubsprojekte

 

Endlich Urlaub, und ich bin sogar schon etwas zum Malen gekommen. Erstes Projekt waren ein paar Zivilisten, damit die Engel in Rapture was zum Jagen haben (da gibts eine Siegbedingung, bei der die Engel Zivilisten aufscheuchen und einsammeln müssen). 

Um die Wartezeit auf die Auslieferung der Minis aus dem Kickstarterpaket zu verkürzen, hatte ich mir dafür von einem anderen Hersteller Minis zum Umwidmen geholt: 

Die Idee ist, statt der orangen Gefängnisoveralls einfach Arbeitsklamotten zu malen, dann können das ganz normale Handwerker sein, zB in der Tankstelle oder der Autowerkstatt (davon kommen die Bilder noch).

Allerdings hatte ich nicht richtig gesehen, dass zwei davon bewaffnet sind. Den Schützen (rechts oben auf der Packung) male ich als Freizeitrambo statt als Handwerker, dem Läufer (rechts unten) habe ich das auf dem Rücken getragene Gewehr mit dem Dremel recht und schlecht runtergehobelt.

So sieht das Ergebnis direkt nach dem Malen aus, wie immer mit Licht und Schatten direkt aus einer Schicht Aquarellfarbe auf weißer Grundierung. Dazu Freihand-Reflektierstreifen als Auflockerung.

Als nächstes geht's nochmal an eine Runde Geländebau, dafür hab ich heute von der Spielepyramide zum Vergleich mit der selbst bemalten MDF Garage (Fotos davon komme auch irgendwann nochmal) mal noch ein paar fertige Mauerelemente von Bandua und ein paar bedruckte Kartongebäude und -Container geholt, plus eine Straße zum Ausrollen.

Außerdem muss ich jetzt endlich mal das erste Batallion Ernestinisch-Sachsen für mein Zinna-Projekt fertigkriegen. Das Problem ist dabei die Frage nach Farbe und Motiv der Fahnen - kronoskaf bietet aus Verzweiflung über die fehlenden Quellen aus dem 18. Jahrhundert nur Wappen und Farben aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, die halte ich für unbrauchbar. Jetzt hab ich ziemlich viel gelesen und rumrecherchiert und mir ein paar Optionen ausgedacht, die dann halt meine Fantasyversion der Fahnen werden.

Hier stehen die 30mm Flachfiguren vor den 28mm vollplastischen. Im direkten Vergleich sieht man mal wieder, dass die vollplastischen sowohl größer als auch anders proportioniert sind, obwohl auch die Mantix Minis ähnlich wie die von Rapture für sich genommen ganz gut proportioniert aussehen, also nicht so dick und comicartig wie manches andere in dem Bereich.

Hochelfen Phönixgarde

Im letzten Urlaub habe ich auch ein paar halbfertige Figuren aus der Grabbelkiste mit unerledigten Restposten dabeigehabt, darunter den Fahnenträger und einen Gardisten der Phönixgarde, die ansonsten schon seit Jahren in ihrer Kiste im Keller schlummert.

Nachdem die beiden jetzt fertigbemalt und lackiert sind, ist also auch die Phönixgarde komplett:

Hochelfen Phönixgarde - bemalt über einen Zeitraum von fünf Jahren oder so von drei Leuten im alter zwischen acht und 45, daher einigermaßen uneinheitliches Bild aber immerhin fertig und einsatzbereit.

Die Figuren sind übrigens die alten Metallfiguren, noch nicht die aktuellen Plastikbausätze. Also schön massiv in der Hand, doof allerdings, dass der Standartenträger ständig kippelt weil seine Fahne ihn auf die Seite zieht...

Rückansicht der Kommandogruppe - Chef und Fähnrich heben sich durch andere Mantelfarben von den Mannschaften ab (der Musiker, rechts neben dem Fähnrich, nicht - ups)

Battle Report: Border Skirmish II

Noch ein Repost von meiner alten Demonworld-Seite...

Another Border Skirmish

After the recent Isthak incursions into Elvish territory the Thanaril had taken to patrolling their borders more aggressively with local forces. However, so far they had not caught up again with the Isthaki invaders. Instead, the stupid humans had taken up arms and started causing trouble on the border! Athulain had hoped that this nonsense would stop after the inconclusive border skirmish he had fought with a local Empires contingent a few weeks ago.

But to his surprise the humans kept coming. In fact, they had dared send a motley collection of provincial troops into the Northern reaches of the Elf forests! He would teach them to stay home peacefully once and for all. And to humiliate them in their unbelievable carelessness (his scouts had advised him that the humans had neither brought any magic users nor any flyers to explore the battle field!) and preposterousness (they had even dared to bring a unit of dwarfs!) he would do it in style - just with a few local units of Thanaril and the support of a few Luthari archers. [As this was a learning game for the Elf player, we decided not to use the rules for magic and flyers to keep things simpler].

The Armies (1550 points)

The Empire had ventured into Elvish territory with a local force of provincial pikemen and crossbow archers, a cannon, some mounted archers and a bull heard from the east and support from a unit of noble lancers under Jorghan the Paladin and some dwarf arquebusiers. They were commanded by Dar Kilmor.

The Elves countered this army with a Thanaril contingent of hunters, spear bearers and Thirgar lancers. They were led by Athulain with help from Imriel, and supported by a unit of badger people and some young treemen who started the battle hidden in the woods on one flank.

The Battle

In classical fashion, both armies sent their right wings (full of cavalry) forward to charge the enemy.

The Empire charge was led by the bulls, who charged straight into the hunters and spears and kept them busy for (nearly) the rest of the battle. The noble lancers under Jorghan's command were not as lucky, as they were surprised by the hidden treemen before they could charge the Luthari or other targets. They spent a long time hacking away at the treemen, hardly doing any damage but suffering a slow death by attrition themselves. Later, the pikemen started to join the fray, and Jorghan got away from the futile engagement with the treemen and attacked the Luthari, too.

The Luthari archers were the only Elf unit that did not do much - they had set up too far behind the woods to get in much missile fire, and were caught in the flank later as they were trying to march to more open fields of fire behind the melee of the Thanaril on their side.

The melee on this flank continued almost through the end of the day. The Thanaril spearmen and hunters were nearly destroyed, and the badgers had a hard time surviving the crossbow fire and the threatening charge of the pikemen. But they held out more than long enough to see the battle decided on the other wing.

On the Elves' right the Thirgar lancers went charging straight ahead. They soon found themselves faced with a selection of targets (or threats, depending on your viewpoint): the mounted archers who had advanced to their right flank, the cannon that kept shooting at them (with little effect) and the hated Dwarves.

They decided to take the initiative and charge the most important threat first, the mounted archers [in this move, both armies had equal amounts of attack orders issued, but the Elves won the die roll to resolve the tie and opted (wisely) to move first.] They smashed right into the ranks of the archers and nearly annihilated the unit on first contact [including a couple of second attacks due to their higher initiative, the Thirgar performed 6 melee attacks on the archers and scored kills on all six of them - no die roll was higher than 6 in this first round of melee...].

This furious attack more or less decided the battle on the Empire's left flank, and it was then only a matter of time for the victorious Thirgar to ride down the cannon and the arquebusiers (who withdrew to the central hill before being charged), and then to threaten the rear of the remaining humans who were already involved in heavy fighting with the Thanaril infantry. The rest was mopping up and chasing the few remaining humans from the field.

Athulain was very satisfied how the day had gone. The Thanaril had lost a few valuable fighters, but they had utterly routed the human imbeciles who had dared invade the forests of Iconessa.

Lessons learned

• Elves versus Empire is a great combination to play with beginners of the game. The units are not too exotic, there are no special elites that need a lot of tactical experience, and very few special rules are needed. In addition, if you don't use magic and flying rules, a newbie playing the Elves has a good chance of beating the Empire. This means that he/she will feel in control of his/her forces right from the beginning and really enjoy laying the game, instead of being stressed about handling new rules and losing to a veteran player with more tactical experience. Highly recommended! (In a more competitive environment, an Empire player has to use all means available, like lots of magic, fire, dragons etc to have at least a small chance of winning against the other aces, at least in this general's experience).
• Units without morale and/or with high initiative really dominate melee. This clearly visible in how long the bull herd managed to keep multiple Thanaril units busy before being completely eliminated, but even more in the furious charges of the Elf lancers that let them literally sweep away several enemies in short time - here the second attacks of a model with higher initiative really help!
• It is very hard to do anything against treemen if you can't set them on fire. They are so tough (high armor, many hit points) that a normal melee against them takes ages, and while they continue fighting your unit will keep losing elements and rout sooner or later. So remember to bring a fire mage or three, and/or some units that can shoot burning missiles, if you face treemen.

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2003. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. Illustration created using the Powerpoint template from Christian 'Firehawk' Reznicek, used with permission (thanks Firehawk!). If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know at koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com (remove the SPAMBLOCK before using the mail address). If you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Battle Report: Border Skirmish I

Border Skirmish

After the recent Isthak incursions into Elvish territory the Thanaril had taken to patrolling their borders more aggressively with local forces. Unfortunately the local leaders of the Empire's southern provinces felt threatened by the more frequent appearance of Elves at their borders and had also started patrolling more intensively with whatever forces they could find in the region. On this day, two patrols met across the river that marks the border between the forest of the Thanaril and the Southern province of Annakam.

The Armies (1200 points)

The Elves had a Thanaril contingent of hunters, spearbearers, archers and skirmishers, supported by the badgers in the center and the Luthari archers under Caliar Ildriel on their right flank. On the very left flank Andor was waiting to cross the river and disturb the attack of the Empire troups.

The Empire had a local force of provincial crossbows and pikemen on their center and left. They were led by the noble mounted knights and supported by the dwarf arquebusiers behind mantlets [yes, we used the 1st edition mantlets]. Their commander was Dar Kilmore in the center. On their right flank, facing the other river fording, the positioned the rolling fortress with flamethrower and the Order's knights on foot with Gordan Orkslayer as their leader.

The Battle

The Empire troups were determined to protect their borders. On their right flank the rolling fortress advanced partly into the river, blocking the small ford completely. Although the Thanaril archers tried hard, they could hardly scratch the massive tower on wheels. The Thanaril spearbearers were stupid enough to try and attack the fortress in the water. However, after getting into contact they discovered how nasty the flame attacks can be and dispersed, with part of the unit staying so close to the tower and the rest so far away that the flames could not reach them.

Because the fortress chose to simply block the ford until the end of the game, it defeated all efforts of the Thanarils left flank to do anything; the unit of Order's knights on foot behind it together with Gordan spent the whole army marching back and forth in beautifully studied formation changes, but without a chance (or a need) to to anything more. Some observers felt reminded of the dwarves' performance in the famous battle of Bassano...

On the left flank of the Empire more action took place. The block of dwarves and crossbowmen advanced very slowly behind their mantlets, not causing or losing many casualties throughout the game. But the mounted knights quickly rode into the river at its wider ford and crashed right into the Thanaril skirmishers who advanced to slow them doen. They did this so skilfully that they even managed to bind the hunters and the Luthari in melee for a couple of rounds until the skirmishers were dispersed and the badgers found the space to crush into the knights and destroy most of them in a single round of combat.

Immediately after the fleeing knights the pikemen had moved up and replaced them in the melee for control of he larger ford, holding their own until nightfall.

At the end of the day, both sides retired fatigued and with limited losses, but knowing that they had defended their honour well in a close fought border skirmish. Unfortunately both knew that their next encounters with Isthak would not be such limited affairs...

Summary, or 'How to play Demonworld'

This game illustrated two simple ways to make Demonworld games fun: simple scenarios, and a roleplaying approach.

In terms of scenarios, terrain can make a big difference. In this case, using a river as the central feature of a small battlefield made all the difference. Fords as the only points wehere rivers can be crossed (or at least crossed fast) focus the game in ways you will never see on other battlefields.

And the choice of armies can be varied to give some color, too. In this game, we both happened to choose armies focusing on standard troups, with only the bare minimum of one two star commander and an extra hero, and few elite troups, on both sides.

This fit in nicely with the roleplaying approach - my opponent started the game looking at the map and the armies and devising a simple background plot (by saying that the river marked the border between Iconessa and the Empire, and defining the goal of his Empire army to keep the Elves off Empire territory). He then used the background plot to bring color into the interpretation of game events (which happen to fit nicely in with games I played earlier against other opponents, so I could even link it together with an earlier battle report), and looked at the background when he needed to make strategic decisions (e.g. how aggressively to attack, or whether to cross the river, or simply block the fords where possible).

Having a small story appearing out of the game, and varying terrain and armies so it's not always the same stuff you see at tournaments, is a wonderful way to make DW gaming fun. So merci, Claude, for a great game!

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com (remove the SPAMBLOCK and the following dot before using the mail address. If you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Demonworld Minis: Elfen 2

So, heute ein weiterer Satz Bilder von den Demonworld-Elfen. Nach den Standardeinheiten kommen jetzt einpaar besondere und Eliteeinheiten.

Das Demonworld-Pendant zu Hochelfen sind die Ratselfen, zum Beispiel die Luthari-Bogenschützen:

Und hier die gleiche Einheit nochmal auf Bases montiert und im Gelände:

Als eine weitere kleine Eliteeinheit gibt es Pegasusreiter:

Zum Abschluß noch ein paar Helden und Anführer der Elfen:

Und der ganz besondere General Athulain Gilfar.

Battle report: Snow over Iconessa

Snow over Iconessa

Athulae was worried. She had started to feel uneasy a few weeks ago, when rumors arrived in the woods of Iconessa that the Human hero Jorghan the Paladin had left for the North after subduing the Orcs, and no news of his expedition had surfaced since then [the last game of my Empire army against Isthak was such a crushing defeat that I didn't feel like writing up a report... Jorghan survived, though]. And now, apparently out of thin air, an Isthaki force with lots of Demonic hordes had arrived very close to the Elves' homeland, the forests of Iconessa. How they had come there, whether by magic or (Athulae hoped) on foot, marching through the regions east of the human empire that were deserted by the Orcs after their last defeat, nobody knew. The Elvish counselors were all very uneasy about these events.

As a first line of defense Athulain Gilfar had been tasked to face the invaders with a hastily collected ragtag army - some local Thanaril hunters, skirmishers, archers and spear bearers brought together by Ilea the Nymph had been joined by a detachment of badger people under the leadership of Farendil, their master. Athulain had brought a unit of Luthari archers with him. When they deployed in the hills outside of the Elves' home forest they realized that in the night a few treemen had moved up to a little woods in the center of their position to aid the Thanaril in defense of their home.

But what Athulae saw lined up on the other side of the battle line was truly frightening: Two units of huge Dai Re Coon ice demons and an even larger Ice Giant in the center, some Torgogs and two units of fierce looking beastmen [brothers of the Icelord and Berserkers] on the Isthaki's right and some Polar Bear Riders behind a wild looking hero [Barsak] on their left, with several single figures, a few women that looked like magic users and a mounted knight behind their lines.

One of the magic users must have been a powerful conjurer, because without an interruption three Dai Re Coon commanders joined the ranks of the Isthakis as the battle was joined. As the Isthakis closed up to the Elves, they lost very few fighters to the Elves' missile fire. Athulae herself found few targets for her bow of Iconessa, although she did manage to hit a few of the Dai Re Coon. The only help for the Thanaril was the forest itself - even though they were not within their own proper territory, the Elvish influence was still so strong that the one Ice Witch magic user failed to create a blizzard for more than a few minutes until the soft warmth of the trees brought the sun out again [the Ice witch fumbled on her second attempt at a blizzard spell and lost all magic abilities for the rest of the game].

On the Elves' left flank the Thanaril skirmishers couldn't do more than slow the big beastmen berserkers down. But they did that so efficiently that the beastmen did not contribute singificantly to the rest of the battle [the brothers of the Icelord were stuck behind the Torgogs all the time and didn't really do anything, either. Which means that Isthak effectively won the battle using 1800 points against 2000...]. At the same time, Ilea daringly went to the front to try and banish some demons before they hit the Thanaril ranks, and to attack the Torgogs with the Lord Bow she had brought to the battle. However, before she could do anything she was attacked by the Isthaki knight [Norfred] and killed despite Athulains attempts to defend her (of course the cowardly evil knight hit on the Loreath before turning against the High Elf hero...). After Ilea fell Athulae lost sight of Athulain as he struggled with the masses of Torgogs around him [he was swallowed twice, and due to a rule mistake we made him take too many hits from the Torgogs - had we played the Torgogs correctly he might well have survived].

On her right, Athulae saw the polar bears smash right into the Thanaril archers and spear bearers after Barsak had tied up the bowmen in melee. The bears were cut down very slowly by the numerically superior wood elves, but tied up the whole flank for nearly the whole battle.

In the middle, the Ice Giant spent most of his time stomping and trampling over the Thanaril, badger and Luthari lines again and again. One after the other, all the defenders of the forest there died under the feet of the giant or in melee with the overpowering demons, the only survivor being Farendil who held his own against one of the Ice witch fighter heros, The only local success for the Elves came as the treemen emerged from their hiding places in the woods and fell into the Dai Re Coons' back as they were fighting the wood elf hunters and spearmen. This one unit of demons was completely eliminated, and due to the timely help of the treemen even Athulae, who had been drawn into the melee, survived this clash.

But as night fell, more than half of the Thanaril and the Ilah Ri were destroyed, Athulae and Ilea were nowhere in sight, and the field belonged to the demonic hordes from the north.

As she withdrew with the remaining troops towards the forests of Iconessa, Athulae could only hope that the sacrifice of this advance force had not been in vain. At least the next wave of Thanaril defenders would have to face less of the frightening Ice Demons, and most of the evil heroes, as well as the huge Giant in their ranks, had suffered many wounds that would not heal in time for the next encounter. So maybe this wave of intruders could be stopped, after all. But it was clear that the Elves would not be able to sustain similar losses very often, and Athulae hoped that the powerful Elvish mages in the capital would soon figure out what had caused this Isthak incursion in the south, and find ways to prevent them in the future. In any case, the Elves would have to take up patrolling their borders much more aggressively than they were used to.

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know - if you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Demonworld Minis: Elfen

So, Fortsetzung der Demonworldbilder. Eine meiner größeren Armeen sind die Elfen (die Einheiten bei Demonworld sind ja zwischen 12 und 24 Figuren stark, die Bilder hier zeigen immer nur ein paar Minis pro Einheit, wegen der Details und weil sie so leichter zu fotografieren bzw scannen waren).

Es geht los mit leichten Truppen, den Waldelfen (sogenannte Thanaril) Plänklern.

Dann kommen die Bogenschützen, das sind ja in allen Fantasywelten die Leib- und Magentruppen von ordentlichen Waldelfen.

Dann gibt es Speerträger (auf Bild klicken bringt eine Version in besserer Auflösung hoch):

Und dann noch die Jäger, eine der flexibelsten Thanarileinheiten (können gut schießen und gut kämpfen).

Fortsetzung folgt.