Edwin Earns His Keep

 Fought a quick game of WHFB 4th edition in the continuing story of the Warpstone Conflict.

A quick recap of the most recent events: 

Lord Edwin the 3rd, newly honored as the Baron of Lietzburg, was young to his title and had not yet earned the right to bear the family heirloom, the Dragon Blade - the traditional sign of the full and rightful Baron.  He would need to prove himself on the field of battle; until then he would have to carry the Blessed Sword, a secondary artifact in the family's armory. 

So far, Edwin had not fared well as a young commander, recently attacking a Dwarf keep in the mountains of Wissenland, thinking the Dwarfs had found the warpstone and if he could retrieve it he would finally prove worthy enough to take up the Dragon Blade.  Unfortunately for Edwin, King Azegor repelled the Talabeclanders and Edwin was seen fleeing the battle field. 

Edwin regrouped, and after a few months, raised a small force to invade the Loren Forest where his commanders believed orc and goblin camp of Waaaggh Grom the Paunch and Night Goblin boss Skragg was located.  Of course, Boss Skragg was not involved in this scrap because he was too busy licking his wounds after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Dwarf King Azegor.  Grom was also not at the camp, so the greenskins would be led by Skullface (notorious Black Orc, riding his chariot The Basher.

So that's the setting. A small battle, roughly 1100 points per side (4th ed army books).

Some Deployment shots:

Newly acquired squig hoppers in the Orc camp

Yes, that's a unit of common goblins.  A sight rarely seen on the battlefield.

Lord Edwin's newly raised force. 

Now, some action shots. 

This is somewhere around turn 2 or 3.  The Doom Diver catapult malfunctioned and shot the diver straight ahead, bouncing along the ground slamming into the first thing it hit which was...

...Skullface's chariot The Basher!  The impact killed both boars, so Skullface had to abandon his ride and trudge forward on foot.

The two battle lines approach each other. The other orc chariot on the greenskin left flank when far across the hill trying to outflank the Empire, but Baron saw it and ordered his halberdiers to wheel and counter. The common goblins were led by the NG shaman, Zom the third.  Originally they were going to hold back until Zom realized his Waaagh spell was a hand-to-hand combat only spell, so...they reluctantly moved towards the skirmishing Stirland Archers.  On the right flank, Blok the troll passed his stupidity tests by staying nice and close to Skullface, advancing towards the empire cannon on the hill, "Old Blue".   Fred the Giant was roused from a long nap and decided the pistoliers looked like a tasty snack.

It's about to get interesting...

Fred and the squighoppers approach the Pistoliers (i need a name for them, too). 

Back on the Empire right flank, the orc chariot was short on the charge the previous turn, so the halberdiers took the initiative and charged into the chariot, winning combat, and breaking them.  This caused the goblins to lose their panic check and flee.  

The amethyst wizard looks on as the halberdiers begin to chase the fleeing greenskins 

In the magic phase, the wizard cast Hold Fast on the chariot (night goblin shaman Zom was fleeing so he could not dispel).  This meant they would be stuck and would not be able to rally on their upcoming turn, potentially setting up a charge and destroy by the halberdiers next turn (cunning!).  

Nothing much happened on the next greenskin turn - Skullface and the orc boys tried to charge but were short, setting up the counter charge by Lord Edwin and the spearmen.    The Halberdiers successfully charged the orc chariot that was stuck by Hold Fast, destroying them, and causing the goblin unit to flee off the board.  The entire goblin left flank had collapsed at the hands of a single empire unit.   Also, Old Blue fired the cannon at Blok the Troll, killing him outright!

This would be the penultimate combat, as we reached the 4th turn. The spearmen failed to cause much damage and the orc boys (with additional hand weapons) caused enough damage to win combat (despite the spearmen carrying the Banner of Defiance into combat) and rout the spearmen...however...

...Lord Edwin saw his chance to prove his doubters wrong and launched into combat against Skullface with a fury he had not previous brought to bear.  Edwin used the power of the Blessed Sword and defeated Skullface, causing to fail his panic check as well. 

At this point, I called the game for the Empire.  The young baron defeated the greenskin army led by Skullface, sacked their camp, and recovered the warpstone.  Upon returning to Castle Lietziger, the seniors of the family presented the most treasured family heirloom, The Dragon Blade, to Edwin III, hailing him as the full and rightful Baron of Lietzburg.

This battle was a lot of fun, and it's time name the amethyst wizard as well as the unit of halberdiers. 

The Dead Also Rises

There have been a few games here and there over the last few months that we'll need to catch up on, but we have a new entrant to the story - The Undead!  It's been a long time since I've played Undead and these are some of the earliest miniatures I ever painted.  A bunch of them were painted by myself and a buddy in a frantic one-night drybrushing and chestnut ink session before I took them up to the old Philadelphia Games Workshop store for a game the next day. 

Anyway, in our continuing sagaNight Goblin Boss Skragg has found himself second-in-command of first Waaagh Gorfang to now Waaagh Grom the Paunch.  But Grom is a little bit hands off, and leaves Skragg to his own devices from time to time.  Always the opportunist, Skragg led his growing tribe of goblins, the Mad Moons, on a raid of a small hamlet outside Leitzburg.   Little did he know that this sleepy hamlet was the domain of a vampire, Count Dimitri Ptyccin.  Dimitri is a minor vampire count in a sparsely populated area leaving him without much dead to bring forth.  Nevertheless, Dmitri mobilized a small skeleton horde to repel the invading greenskins. 

In this game I played WHFB 4th ed rules, and the Warhammer Magic supplement. Night Goblin general was a Big Boss (hero level) and the Undead general was a Vampire Count (hero level).   NG's had a level 2 shaman (Zom the Third). 

Deployment

Turn 1

Skragg sends the pump wagon contraption along with his new squig hoppers off to the right flank around the trees to try and slow down the skeleton horsemen. The two archer units moved up on the left flank, trying to spread out, while the night goblin spear blocks moved up.  Night Goblin Shaman Zom the 3rd attempted to cast a spell but it fizzled out under the gaze of the vampire Dimitri. 

Skragg ordered his doom diver, The Slinga' to hit the unit of horsemen on their left flank.  The crazy diver got very close but hit the ground just short of the musty skeleton horses. 

Meanwhile, the undead horde shambled forth slowly.  Dimitri attempted to cast a spell and raise additional skeletons, but much to his surprise (and Skragg's, for that matter), the Zom the 3rd's dispel spell worked, and his Waaagh magic power was so great that it destroyed Dimitri's knowledge of the spell!

Turn 2

As usual, the Mad Moons couldn't go very long before having some animosity break out.  The lead archer unit. The Death Stiks, decided the "common gobbos" behind them were just too common for their liking and turn around to shoot at them, killing 3 of them.  The Mooners (spearmen next to the archers) got very distracted by this outbreak and decided to stop moving and start yelling at the Death Stiks.    The Slinga' missed the horsemen again, and Zom's spell was easily dispelled. 

Dmitri powered his horde forward, continuing with his plan to have the horsemen hit the goblin line as soon as possible and see if they fearfully run away. 

Turn 3

Zom the Third sucks up all the winds of magic and casts Total Power Waagh! which was so powerful that Count Dimitri takes a wound.  The Death Stiks unleashed fanatic but he doesn't hit anything.  The squig hoppers hopped just short of the horses (I improbably rolled a 7 for each hopper)

Foot of Gork came down, but the heel managed to just knock the skeletons down but not break them apart.

(double ones on the roll to wound!)

The Horsemen on the Undead right flank reformed to go 8 wide, preparing for the fanatic to run through them.  The rest of the Undead army continued its slow, inevitable advance. Flagger's unleash fanatic to stop the chariot.

Turn 4

Mooners fail animosity again. Squig hoppers hopped over the steeds.  Fanatic went wrong direction and hit the archers killing three, while the other fanatic spun towards the vampire.

Pump wagon slammed into steeds, killed 7!

Archer units unload into the steeds, killing 2, but then the doom diver scores a direct hit, killing two more!

Steeds charge the Death Stikkas and somehow they steel their resolve and hold for the charge.  Horsemen win combat, run them over and slam into the common gobbos.

The chariot charges the Flaggers who pass because Skragg is wearing the Crown of Command, but then the Mooners unleash their fanatic, feeding it the mad cap mushrooms that they were saving.  

Horsemen kill all the pump wagon crew.

Turn 5

Undead: Horsemen win combat, run down the common gobbos off the board. the Mooners roll a 3 and pass panic check no problem but fail animosity.  Flaggers fail animosity as well but charge the chariot defeat in combat. 

Doom diver scores direct hit on skeleton warriors, but only kill one and cause wound on the wight champ.   Zom again gets Total Power, casting Waaagh! again and wounding Count Dimitri - he was one left, but has stored the "Escape" magic card just in case...

On the Undead turn, Dimitri and his unit charge the Flaggers who pass their fear check and they issue double challenges.

Night Goblin champ and the wight duel but fail to cause wounds.  In true Herohammer form, it comes down to the final combat between the generals - Dimitri vs Skragg.  The Vampire Count Dimitri goes first, causes 3 wounds, and defeats Skragg.  

The Night Goblin Flaggers fail the break check automatically, flee and the skeletons run them down causing and the Mooners fail their panic check.  The game is over.  Count Dimitri's skeleton horde has fended off the night goblin attack on his sleepy hamlet, and Skragg needs to sulk back to Grom's leadership hut and hope he doesn't notice...

Frostgrave at Historicon 2021

We (myself and Le Coq Fou) played some Frostgrave at Historicon 2021 this year.  It's been a while since we've played Frostgrave (or anything, for that matter).  Almost forgot how much I love this game.  We are still playing first edition. 

Until now, we've only been playing stand alone games and haven't used the treasure, items, or experience points system.  This is the first game in our new campaign where we will try all of that out.

Needless to say, I highly recommend NOT having both your Wizard and Apprentice die in the first game of a campaign...

Le Coq Fou has the Necromancer warband in that creepy yellow with creepy hooded masks, and I have the Thaumaturge warband, painted in the standard "box art" colors as is my habit. At some point we will start building in the narrative background for the warbands and the campaign setting (Wizard names, etc.). 

Gorfang's Last Chance

Here's a quick recap of the third and final chapter of Gorfang Rotgut's attempt to capture Nuln.

The previous battle ended with the Empire barely holding off the orcs on the outskirts of Nuln which bought enough time for Elector Countess Emmanuelle von Liebwitz to muster up enough of the town defenses and get the famous "guns of Nuln" onto the city wall before the rest of Waaagh Gorfang crash into the city. 

The new Baron, young Edwin, son of Edwin "The Absent", led the forces in that skirmish but lost his nerve during the combat and quit the field early.  Countess Emmanuelle is giving him one more chance to restore honor to himself and to the family name as he leads the forces of the Empire against the Orcs and Goblins.

Here's the initial deployment. Lots of artillery lining the city walls.  Note the foot and mounted units of Reiksguard on the left - double Reiksguard!

At the start of the game after the greenskins moved up the Helbaster volley gun malfunctioned in glorious fashion on the first shot, exploding and completely mowing down the river trolls before disintegrating.

As Fred the giant advanced through the pastures of the farm, he charged the unit of halberdiers and the routed off the board.  Seeing that his right flanks was sorely threatened by the Giant, Edwin attempted to avenge his father’s untimely death at the hands of Fred and so he charged him (also trying to improve his reputation after retreating from the field of battle in the last engagement)

Neither Fred nor Edwin did any damage, but Gorfang used the opportunity to charge in with his chariot, killing the new Baron Edwin!

The wizard used a transport spell to move the Knights Panther across the battlefield straight into combat with the Night Goblin spearmen unit, The Flaggers.  They were so startled as the knights suddenly charged them out of nowhere that they didn't have time to throw out the fanatics until after the charge happened.  Incredibly, both fanatics annihilated the entire unit of Knights Panther. 

Grom the Paunch made a surprise appearance and tried to be a hero (and eventually take over the Waaagh if/when Gorfang inevitably failed) and charged the rear of the unsuspecting Reiksguard on foot. Taken completely unawares, they routed and Grom ran them all down, barely stopping before running into the large orc mob The Reds.

Grom the paunch surprise rear attack hits home

Things were looking bleak for the Empire, but after watching both Lord Edwin and their foot counterparts get run down by chariots, the mounted Reiksguard decided to try and defend the honor of the Reiskguard order and charged into the flank of The Reds.  The orc mob was not prepared at all for this with their attention focused on the carnage in front of them caused by Grom.  The Knights killed 5 orcs on the charge, the orcs broke and fled from this flank attack, and the Knights ran them down! Skullface and Oglok the 'Orrible manage to escape, but the Flaggers night goblins failed their panic check, and this was enough for Grom to decide that discretion was the better part of “hero of the day”, and fled the field to let Gorfang take all the blame for this debacle.

Against all odds, the Empire forces under young Lord Edwin had repelled the last gasp of Gorfang’s Waaagh and saved Nuln from an imminent sacking.  Edwin, even in death, successfully "led" the Empire forces and was given credit for defeating and dispersing Waaagh Gorfang and saving Nuln, restoring honor to himself and family by avenging his father's death.  Over the years "Baron Edwin" becomes an honorific title, assumed by whomever in the family takes over as the new Baron of Lietziger, along with the family heirloom Dragon Blade.