Saturday, August 13, 2022

Herohammer at Historicon 2022

 It was great to be back at Lancaster Convention Center in downtown Lancaster PA, for Historicon 2022.

This isn't a full convention review, but rather a quick recap of one of the games I played on Friday.

A big highlight was a Friday meetup with some of the Oldhammer in the US guys, where we played some Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition (Herohammer, more appropriately).  Since all of my miniatures are temporarily packed away during the basement refinish project, Anthony was kind enough to bring an entire High Elf army for me to use, while he played the Orcs and Goblins.  Dustin brought some scenery, and we were able to get a great game in.  

Apologies for the poor pictures - the lighting in that particular room was poor.  We did our best, including Anthony attempting to use his phone flashlight as an additional light source, to varying success. Anthony generated the army lists ahead of time and his miniatures are beautifully painted.  The pictures do not do them justice.

Summary - 1000 points per side.  Only one mage (on the High Elf side).  Orcs had a unit of boar boyz (awesome 3rd ed metal boars), wolf riders (also 3rd/4th ed metal), Big 'Uns (Knightmare games i think), Rock lobber, bolt thrower, and a boar chariot.

High Elves had two bolt throwers, unit of spearmen with battle standard bearer, two units of archers, a mage on a horse, and a chariot.  Mage drew Fiery Convocation from High Magic as his one spell, and it would become very instrumental later in the battle. 

Here's the overhead picture of the deployment (High Elves closest, Orcs and Goblins at top of picture).

The Greenskin battle line forms...
Wolf riders!
High Elf Reaver Knights, archers, and the mage (also the general).   I kept the chariot back as a reserve (at first...)
High army book and Battle Magic book in all their glorious colors.  Also can see the old card-based High Magic spells. 
The Reavers move up with the chariot in support
After High Elf turn 1...
The orc Boar chariot charges the Reavers.  The battle is joined!
A few turns later, and the spearmen had taken a number of hits from the orc stone thrower and bolt thrower.  The wolf riders were approaching on the flank...
...here the come...
fast forward a few turns - the orc boar chariot destroyed the reaver unit - the high elf unit then destroyed the boar chariot (in pursuit), and flank charged the boar boys.  At one point we thought the boars fled on a panic check but then we remembered the the orc general had the Crown of Command, and Anthony passed his leadership check. Phew!
Anthony unleashed his rock lobber on my High Elf mage, with a perfect guess of range, then he rolled a hit on the artillery die, and proceeded to roll a one for the wound roll! The mage amazingly survived.  Which was unfortunate for the Orcs because the mage just kept frying units with the Fiery Convocation.  Easily the MVP of the battle. 
The wolf riders swung around the building on the extreme left flank of the high elves - the remaining spearmen reformed and took the charge, but the wolf riders were still getting roasted by the Fiery Convocation spell. 

After turn 5 (or 6), we called the game and the High Elves won a close victory.  It was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I actually commanded a High Elf army. 

I couldn't stick around for the next game, which was Dustin and his awesome Dwarf army, vs another gent that came by and was watching the first game.  

Anyway, great fun.  Thanks again to Anthony and Dustin.  Hopefully we'll get to do it again at Fall-In 2022.