Battlelore- Daqan Lords

Daqan Lords

The Daqan Lords are the generic human good guys in BattleLore. I wanted to emphasize strong blues with yellow accents and clean whites. A simple stripe adds a touch of class.

The Citadel Guard are pretty straightforward.

Citadel Guard

The Yeoman Archers can fire twice if they don't move, and they have two quivers- cause or effect? They also point their fingers where they want their arrows to go.

Yeoman Archers

The Riverwatch Riders' horses are different colours only because I couldn't remember how I did my practice horse! I tried a few different combos, but couldn't match the first shade and didn't go back to correct things.

Riverwatch Riders

The Rune Golems were the easiest to paint with successive drybrushings. Unfortunately, this shows up where I was too lazy to deflash the head.

Rune Golems

The Roc Warrior- Caw, Caw!

Roc Warrior

The Blue Bird of Awesomeness

I really want to emphasize the colours of the different factions- so much so that I re-did the Roc because it needed to be more blue. I'm still not too happy with the wings, they need more care and attention for a centerpiece figure. I had a look on Google for blue falcons* for further inspiration. By chance, I saw a book cover with a big bird style I borrowed.

Roc Mk I- I painted over this because it was messy and not blue enough

A blue falcon- this is the look I want.

This is similar!

*and learned some interesting US military slang.

Battlelore- overview, painted figures and AAR

Overview

Fantasy Flight Games' new edition of Battlelore is my latest guilty pleasure. I can have a quick yet challenging fantasy battle with core rules I'm familiar with, without the baggage of the Warhammer Old World or the gravitas of Middle Earth. The base game comes with the human 'Daqan Lords', and the desert nomad chaos bad guys, the 'Uthuk Y'llan'. I'm confident FFG will produce the other fantasy tropes from its Terrinoth realms- elves, orcs, dwarfs, and undead.

Gameplay is the usual Commands and Colors hex-based, card- and custom-dice driven orders and combat. Tweaks include:

• Victory points based on area control rather than unit destruction
• Three-strong rather than four-strong units
• Faction-based 'Lore' (card-managed magic and abilities)
• Retreats are away from the attacker, rather than towards the baseline
• Any card may be used to activate one unit anywhere
• Single-strength units are weaker
• Simplified terrain
• No pre-set scenarios- there's a system to create a scenario, an army and hidden deployment

Painted figures

BattleLore painted miniatures

My focus isn't on the game as much as the figures. I do like to paint my boardgame pieces... (War of the Ring, Battle Cry, Doom, Mansions of Madness)

Uthuk Y'llan

Daqan Lords

The figures are this bastard-size between 20-25mm. This is a minor disappointment insofar as FFG did say the figures were going to be 28mm. I'd actually have been happier if they'd gone nuts with 15 or 10mm, and had loads of figures- there is something about a massed battle with lots of little little men and loads of banners that satisfies my soul. Three guys as a unit just ain't right. If you really wanted to, you could replace some of the figures with massed smaller scale miniatures- some of the monsters are scale-less, anyway.

HäT, Zvezda, BattleLore, GW

Italeri, Zvezda, BattleLore, GW

I took more care painting these than I had planned. I had two goals: to make the figures 'pop' on the tabletop, and to attain clear factional identities of red and blue. I was happy with the basing, I wanted it to complement the board.

For more picture of the miniatures see here (Daqan Lords) and here (U'thuq Y'llan).

AAR

Here's a solo game I knocked out, spending a bit of time fiddling with the FFG scenario editor to make maps. My solo rules were to draw one card for each side, and play it as well as possible. I ignored lore. Note that this scenario does not have area control victory points. It's a bit of effort to make a report like this, I won't be doing it often, but let me know if you've got any suggestions to enhance clarity. (Click to embiggen)

On the box, FFG has cheekily subtitled this 'A game of fantasy battles'; c.f. GW's 'Warhammer: The game of fantasy battles'.

Leviathan 2014

WSGS

On Saturday, I briefly stuck my head in to Leviathan, the annual wargaming convention run every April by Sydney's Western Suburbs' Gaming Society. It is held at a local high school.

I didn't play any games myself, but caught up with some old friends and took some pics.

Drop Zone Commander

Seven Years Picnic from MBD

Wooden Ships and Iron Men with Langton and Skytrex

I am a sucker for a nice Infinity table

or two

or three.

A Chain of Command demo table

Halflings vs High Elves at Blood Bowl- later in the game, Deeproot scored!

There were other games going on- including 40K, Hordes, Warhammer, Flames of War, Lord of the Rings, & Bolt Action- but I didn't get photos. There were going to be games of Saga and X-Wing the next day as well.

I was unable to resist these 15mm French-Indian war figures at the second hand stall- I think they are Blue Moon- only $15!

[UPDATE- the figures are Freikorps15 and Essex]

Custom display base

My friend Talula asked me to, and I quote, "flock my wood". I clearly understood that she needed to display her porcelain lamb. She already had a wooden plinth and glass dome. So I flocked her wood with due care and attention:

The Harrying of the North- Saga report

A Saga battle- Clash of the warlords- 6 points Normans vs Anglo-Danes.

Northern England, late tenth century. Ealdorman Godwin's Anglo-Danes stand against the Norman invaders... learn more about the Harrying of the North here.

The club's light-narrative Saga campaign continues. My Anglo-Danes face a bow-heavy Norman force, led by William the Bastard himself.

Anglo-Danes

• Ealdorman Godwin
• 2 Hearthguard (Dane axes)
• 3 Warriors
• 1 Levy

Normans

• William the Bastard
• 1 Hearthguard (mounted)
• 4 Warriors (bows)

William's army is allowed to have an excess of bows. Quelle fromage! My only chance was to advance swiftly across the open ground and close with him before his arrows did too much damage.

Setup- The Normans cower in a corner.

The Norman occupation force- Warriors in front, Hearthguard and William behind.

Turns1-3: His Massed Volleys destroy my levy and most of my warriors. Storm of Arrows is very effective for William the Bastard. I try to pile fatigue on him but without too much success.

The Levy have been destroyed by ranged fire.

The Anglo-Danes come closer...

...closer...

...while the arrows take their toll.

Turn 4: A depleted and angry pair of my warriors sacrifice themselves against the right of the Norman line, but without destroying a unit. My overstrength Hearthguard damage (but don't destroy) the adjacent bows, but are cut down to a man by a devestating counter-charge from William and his mounted Knights.

The Hearthguard hack into the Norman line...

...but are cut down by a mounted charge.

Turn 5: The warlords face off- Godwin's mighty axe unhorses William for victory!

William (far right)- honour demands he charge Godwin!

But horses and axes don't mix...

This was close- the ranged abilities of the Normans had me on the ropes, and the only chance I had to take William out in hand-to-hand combat paid off.

Getting in early for International Tabletop Day!

Saga Vikings 6 points

I finally got these finished! I'm happy with the limited palette, which ties them together as a force.They are all Gripping Beast figures- the Berserkers and Levy are metal, the rest are plastic. Follow these links for more pics:

• Warlord
• 4 Berserkers
• 8 Hearthguard (pics below)
• 16 Warriors
• 12 Levies

When I finished off the Warriors, I also took the opportunity to improve the Hearthguard's helmets, swords, and shields.

Viking Warriors

It's been a while, but I finally got my Gripping Beast plastic Viking warriors done for Saga. The figures are, by design, generic, but the faces are very characterful and a pleasure to paint. I hadn't planned to have detailed shields, but got caught up and painted a few designs on.

I'm just tarting up my Hearthguard, and next time I'll show pics of my entire Viking force.