Saturday 24 March 2018

The Hearthshire Muster

The 10mm halfling muster of Hearthshire is complete (for now), with enough units to muster a 1200 point army for Lord and Lands (or, at a pinch, 2000 points for Kings of War). For the next little while I am planning on working on an army being put together for, and named by, my wee lad, the 'Legion of Super Evil'.









Miniatures are from Eureka, Pendraken, Magister Militum, Alternative Armies and Bad Squiddo Games as indicated in previous posts. Bellow I have compiled the individual unit shots that I have put together during the army's creation.



















El Pollo Diablo!

To finish off my halfling army, I needed* some sort of flying monster. I figured a giant owl or perhaps even a gryphon would be the way to go. I didn't really like much in the way of 10mm monsters I saw, and when I expanded the search to 15mm, I saw the Alternative Armies Cockatrice. Well, what more appropriate monster to support halflings, than a chicken-headed one!?
________
*May not have been an actual need.

Seemingly related to the Greco-Roman basilisk, the English cockatrice was traditionally a two legged serpent with the head of a cockerel which could turn creatures to stone with a single look. Apparently, a cockatrice was born from an egg laid by a rooster, and it's natural enemy was the weasel...

The figure from Alternative Armies comes in three parts (body and two wings). The wings can be positioned an a variety of ways, but I went for the angrey-chicken-running-and-flapping-its-wings look. Although its tail is raised higher, it is 18mm to the eye. It's a marvelous little sculpt and was a lot of fun to paint. 


Wednesday 21 March 2018

Yet more Hearthshire Halflings

Five more units and a third character for the Hearthshire muster. All are 10mm halflings from Magister Militum.





Four of us got together for a multiplayer game of Kings of War last week, using 'the JB amendment' which sees both players rolling to attack in each melee. The armies were 1,500 points each (so 3,000 points a side): the stunty 'Grand Picnic' alliance of dwarves and halflings - we brought the pies, they brought the beer - against an unholy alliance of dark elves and undead.


The game was satisfying enough in that we got figures on the table and played to a decisive completion - no undead remained, and but a few miserable elves were left standing after five turns. The most wonderful moment was when my plucky halfling sergeant (Puck Goodfellow) managed to defeat the undead lord on his bone dragon. Now that was a truly epic moment. However, KoW definitely still lacks a lot of what I am after in a game. I look forward to trying out Lord and Lands on my next outing.

Sunday 11 March 2018

Playtesting Fireside Tales for PDEE

Without giving away too many reveals, we have been beavering away play testing the forthcoming expansion for Palaeo Diet: Eat or be Eaten. Once provisionally called 'Tales of Herc the Hero', it will be called the more open-ended Fireside Tales.

The expansion takes the form of a narrative campaign of five scenarios. There is a simple system for randomising the landscape of each game, and the first four scenarios have both primary and secondary objectives to be achieved; no two games should ever play the same way. 

There are four new beast profiles and reaction charts (bringing the total number of beast types up to ten), and two new ways for beasts to react. 

And for those who don't find life hard enough, Fireside Tales introduces optional rules for smelly hominids meaning that players will want to keep downwind of both predators and prey if they can.


Friday 2 March 2018

More support for the 10mm halflings

From the least tamed borders of Hearthshire, the squire's cousin, Barmbrack Hamfist, gathers support from among the wilder neighbours such as the Treefolk. Luckily, his giant guinea peeg allows him to scurry swiftly through undergrowth and avoid detection for the spies of the shire's foes.

There appears to be a dearth of 10mm halfling magic users out there (strange...), so Barmbrack is a bit of a conversion. Starting with a Magister Militum halfing pony rider, I cut him, drilled him, and stuck him with bits of a cut up pin (one bit as a support for his impressive hat, and another for his wand. He was then glued to the back of a spare Bad Squiddo Games guinea pig. If you don't have a pack of those floating around, you should head over and get some!

A spot of greenstuffing later, and Barmbrack had some trousers, feet and a hat. Sorted! Only now that he is painted have I noticed the size difference between Magiter Militum halfling pony riders and halfling foot by Magister Militum and Eureka (which mix very well). Barmbrack would stand about 7-8mm tall, while the halfling infantry, including the squire, Puck Goodfellow, only stand 5-6mm tall. I'll try not to have the two characters standing next to each other to often.

Treefolk from Pendraken. Cracking - and cranky - little figures these are.

Lord and Lands

What is it?
Written by Craig Armstrong and published through Lulu, Lord and Lands is framed as a fast-play, unit based, scale agnostic, mass battle* game. It is written with both historical and fantasy games in mind.

As the author says, the game was inspired by Microworld's 6mm fantasy ranges, but LaL is not written in anyway to be restricted by those ranges, nor is is written specifically for 6mm armies. All distances are measured in base widths, so as long as the opposing armies are based using the same conventions, there are no limits to the scale of miniatures used.

There is no individual figure removal. Instead, units have set hit points which they can sustain before the unit breaks and is removed from play. Units can be rallied by commanders and can also be pushed back in a melee. There are rules for missile units making closing shots against charging opponents, and rules for evading skirmishers. For me, these are all very nice things to see in a game.

There is command friction. Players dice for pips at the start of a turn and use the pips to activate units. Pips can also be held back and used later to buff a unit's movement (by up to 2BW), their shooting or their melee effectiveness (by up to +2). Players alternate moving units, shooting, and choosing which melees to resolve, so both players are always engaged in the game.

Melee and shooting can be resolved with dice rolls (using a rule of 4+), or by 'dipping' a hand into a bag of chips. Depending on the effectiveness of a unit and modifiers, you might only get to roll one die/make one dip, or you get six or eight rolls/dips, but you will never be asked to roll a whole bucket of dice. Modifiers to attacks impact on the number of roll/dips you make, keeping rolling to hit quite simple. Melees used opposed rolls/dips, so both units have a chance to harm the other.

*Armies are built on a points basis. I have been advised to start with 1000 point armies, but you can clearly play with many more and, in that sense, the game seems very scaleable.

For what it's worth, it looks like 1000 points will by me 13 units and three characters for my Hearthshire militia. You'd get a few less units in an army with more capable fighters.

Pre-made army lists are available as a free download from the author's website, and these seem pretty open and flexible. There are a range of different unresticted troop types in each list, and then one or two units that have a 'Only one unit per 1000 points of the army' type restrictions. Reading over the lists, you can see the clear influence of the Microworld Miniatures ranges, but there are some really nice ideas.

The only thing that made me raise an eyebrow is that some of the movement rates don't seem compatible between lists. Rexunus (human) levy have a move of 4BW, while most cavalry (including Rexunus cavalry) move 5BW. Dwarves only have a 1BW , and gnolls only move 2BW, while viking warriors move 3BW. However, players are permitted (encouraged?) to play around and create their own profiles. There is a pdf unit builder/points calculator that makes tweaking or creating profiles super easy. For my halflings and my son's legion of super evil, I think we will use movement guidelines of 2BW for halflings, dwarves, undead, heavily armoured human foot knights and other slower types, 3BW for most humans, elves and orcs, and 4, 5, or 6 BW for mounted, depending on the miniatures.

I put this to Craig and he responded with the following:
I think you’ve made fair and valid comments dude, if players don’t like movement rates they have the means to change them and adjust points values accordingly. I suppose all I’d say is a movement does not necessarily mean this group of men move 150ft in 3 mins, they also encompass maintaining formation, orders, rough ground etc plus game play and ‘feel’ of the army.
Fair enough. :)


There are seven generic spells, and 14 race specific spells, so if you want magic on the table (and why not have it in a fantasy game!?), you are well catered for with a range of aggressive, defensive and buffing spells.

Oh, and if you are interested in sieges, there are rules for fortifications, buildings and siege equipment - even mining under a wall!

How does it read?
The hardcopy version of the rule book is a well presented 6"x9" softcover, using colour throughout and making use of easy to read fonts.

The rules read very well on the whole. There are a couple of small typos, but they are easily forgiven. After all, I misspelt 'ordnance' throughout Irregular Wars 2nd edition. These things can happen quite easily! However, the author shows a reckless disregard for possessive apostrophes which did cause me to re-read a couple of lines to work out what was being said. That's it though, that is about the limit of my complaints.

Everything seems very logical. and well laid out. There are also sporadic diagrams to illustrate various mechanics. There were no points in the rules that made me scratch my head and wonder at the reasoning.

How does it play?
Not sure yet, I'll let you know!