Beware the (Ral Partha) Jabberwock, my son!

27/09/2015

My first re-blog, but a useful reminder be careful of buying some golden oldies that are still available.

Hobgoblin Orange

Jabberwocky is of course a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his 1871 novel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. More importantly though is Sir John Tenniel’s original illustration that appeared in Carroll’s novel.

image

The two Jabberwock sculpts made by Ral Partha and Citadel in the 80s (the ‘rearing up’ Ral Partha sculpt and the ‘walking on all fours’ version by Citadel) faithfully follow Tenniel’s drawing in pretty much every detail except the vest. I suspect the Jabberwock made it into early Fantasy RPGs/Wargaming entirely due to this picture. Had the Bandersnatch or Jubjub bird been illustrated by Tenniel in such a manner maybe they would have made it into miniature form too.

The Citadel version is less dynamic than the Ral Partha sculpt but it still has charm. It’s been OOP for a few years now but you can still find used ones on eBay occasionally, usually for sensible prices…

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WHFB: A Second Border Patrol

16/12/2014

So Monday before last, Byakhee Roo and I upgraded our forces to 750 points each to expand our options and so that Roo could learn some more. Roo has played wargames for years, has his own mancave, but is a bit rusty on WHFB.

So I finally unleashed more of my Oldhammer Dwarves – all classic pre-slotta and early slotta figures.

Including as you can see, the original Dwarf Bombard, and the even more fearsome Pony Express, comprised of Dwarves on ponies !

Roo fielded more Dogs of War classic regiments, such as the Birdmen of Catrazza.

both sides’ cavalry advanced across the board towards each other…the Pony Express at M6 was a bit slower. 😉

Crunch – Roo’s cavalry get to my troops first – One Eyed Sally’s Clansmen (yes I have named all the units, which guarantees their defeat).

But the Pony Express charged the Birdmen who turned tail (literally) and fled, and then failed their LD test to reform and fled off the board.

Adding insult to injury, One Eyed Sally’s clansmen defeated the knights, and Roo faield another Ld test and his knights hot footed it ! The dwarves couldn’t catch them in the pursuit though.

Reforming, the Pony Express charged into the swordsmen, and defeated them. Obviously they pursued the swordsmen, but guess which K-Niggits had finally rallied and were caught by the Pony Express ?

Yup, the Pony EXpress wiped out the last of the K-Niggits, and it was Game Over !

So after two games it was one all. We agreed to another session the next Monday (yesterday now – its taken me that long to write this up !).

The Pony Express figures,are early Fantasy Tribe Dwarves, plus a few other bits and bobs I’ve got, and I’ll write up a separate post on them by Xmas (Fingers crossed) with close ups. I estimate building the unit of a mere 10 mounted dwarves has cost in the region of £100. Now the nurses tell me it is time for my medication…. 😎

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WHFB: Border Patrol and a lot of Oldhammer – 500 Points

14/12/2014

In preparation for Xmashammer, Byakhee Roo who has not had much recent Warhammer experience asked the flock for some small games to bring him up to date with WHFB v8. I was able to oblige, and wanted to field my Oldhammer Dwarves. Roo also was fielding Oldhammer Dogs of War (DOW).

Aside from a gratuitous posting of a cat, whilst waiting for Roo to turn up after work, I managed to paint the sides of my GW Battleboard which is something that has been bugging me for the last couple of years – yet took less than 5 minutes to do.

So we started off with a 500 points battle. The Portal of Kittens caused disruption but made no overall difference.

My Slayers got nowhere…slowly, being blown apart by the Organ Gun lite, and musketeers.

The Dwarf Clansman, lost the combat against the heavy cavalry and had to make a Leadership test…of course I rolled two 6s, ran away and so Roo pursued and wiped them up.

But not off of the board…

Having defeated my Dwarf Clansman under One Eyed Sally, Roo’s cavalry returned and looked likely to make Shambles’ X-Bows part of the sandwich…I threw the towel in…round one to Roo. The dice were against me as Roo admitted.

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WHFB: But not dealing with blocks of troops !

04/12/2014

So I had managed to engage the Dwarves, and in particular the organ guns even though they’d done for 8 of my 18 CoK in the first turn.

So, having stocked up with Morathai, a level 3 High Sorceress, and a level 2 Sorceress, I zapped the DWarves with hex spells, whilst boosting my own troops.

The Organ Gun crew were wiped out, and so I side swiped the Iron Breakers, aka The Tarpit.
Not so good, never mind.

General BlackJack overseeing my progress.

The Drago-Copter on the refused flank, finished off the two Dark Riders, leaving my flank a bit exposed to this pesky unit.

The centre of the field, seemingly going well for me, but that was a prelude before the two large blocks of Dwarves closed in on my centre which was depleted. The CoK were in combat with the Iron Breakers, but failed to break them, the Warlocks had fled.

A bit like this !

The Silver Talons got a flank charge, and the Warlocks were crushed.

Resulting in my centre collapsing. I threw the towel in, as I could not see how I would break one or more of the Dwarven blocks of infantry. As it was my CoK bogged down in the Iron Breaker Tar Pit had received a flank charge.

So what did I learn ?

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WHFB: Taking out Organ Guns

04/12/2014

A short notice game of Warhammer with Byakhee Anthony last w/e. Not helped by a double booking having to drop off Xmas presents with my Aunt & Uncle who were up visiting my parents.

So against Dwarves, I knew Organ Guns would feature, and so had popped over to druchhi.net for some ideas…

My line up, after inspection by General BlackJack, included a lot of small fast cavalry units to deal with the Organ Guns.

The Vanguard move: lots of fast cavalry = a large move forward !

Note the traitor General receiving bribes from Anthony ! 😀

The Dwarven line – he refused one flank. However, he had 3 pesky Drago-Copters as we call them, nasty little beardy things.

Shades popped up as well to again try and shoot down Drago-Copters and or Organ Guns.

But the Dwarves also came with 3 large blocks of troops, as well as an X-Bow unit.

Dwarves won first move and the Drago-Copter on the refused flank, flamed some Dark Riders who held their ground.

And then they charged the Drago-Copter !

However, the X-bows did for all but one of a unit of Warlocks that were shielding the lareger of my two CoK units, allowing the Organ Gun to hit (18 times) and destroy 8 out of the 11 CoK in the first turn. My army as a whole moved forward as fast as they could.

https://i0.wp.com/i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj495/giles_the_zog/WHFB%202014%2011%2029/WHFB2014112912_zps88c5811c.jpg

Having lost one unit of 5 Warlocks, it was good to see the 9damaged) unit of 10 Warlocks got into combat with the Organ Gun crew.

And the Shades charged the Drago-Copter that had failed to significantly damage them with its flame cannon.

So far so good ?

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WHFB: A Return Match – Part Three (Final)

03/09/2014

The Orc Warriors, predictably given 14+ casualties, collapsed and were run down by the Silver Talons and CoK, who followed up into Eeza Ugezod’s Black Orc Warriors.

At this poinjt it was looking good for me, but not good enough for me to rest on my laurels. I’d lost the Dark Riders to the Trolls who were holding out, CoK Chariots, Shades and Warlocks.

My second lot of Dark Riders also fled failing their LD test and were essentially out of the game. That left my flank exposed.

The dice hated me throughout the game….

And then I had a breakthrough – Eric finished off the Trolls, and charged straight into Harboth’s (a column of 40 Big ‘Uns), and defeated them in combat.

SAY WHAT ?

Yup, I trashed a fair number of his lot and sustained minor wounds to Eric, as they had more Ranks than Eric, Harboth’s were Steadfast, so a straight roll on LD…except with Abyssal Howl I forced him to re-roll his LD roll…and Gav rolled two 5’s (total of 10)…and of course at this point it dawned on both of us that the Orc BSB had just been wiped out in the Orc Warrior unit the Silver Talons and CoK had over-run ! So NO re-rolls allowed, AND they were more than 12″ away from Eeza Ugezod, so no LD 10….ADIOS.

To add insult to injury(s) Eric then followed up and caught them wiping out the entire unit.

The CoK and Silver Talons waded into the Black Orcs, with a rather ferocious assault. Again with predictable results.

Defeating them in combat and again running them down.

My General on Manticore destroyed the goblins min combat, but had the Manticore shot out from underneath him, but was left inches away from a very nervous looking Orc Shaman. The Gioblin spearmen were left stranded deep in my lines fighting the spearmen.

It was 10.30pm, Gav threw in the towel. We calculated that he had 2100 points left and I had 3500 points left – a victory for me.

Comments:

  • The army list is highly aggressive and works well with the new rules and army book.
  • Warlocks are good in many ways, but even with a Ward Save of 4+ are still brittle when fighting against Orc Wolf Riders.
  • Trolls can be very effective against highly armoured opponents.
  • Don’t rely on any one part of the army – magic proved to be not as effective this game as the last.
  • Gave has now played almost a smany times this year as me and is rapidly improving his game play, so don’t rely on your enemy’s inexperience.
  • The novelty of some of the new units wears off – looks like I am going to have to introduce more of the new units in the DE army and rotate through them to keep my opponents off balance.
  • 5k is a lot of points – we spent about 2 hours setting up and 7 hours playing to get three turns in.

Most importantly we had a good fun time.

And I got my hat-trick of wins !

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WHFB: A Return Match – Part Two

02/09/2014 2 Comments

I pumped up the Silver Talons, as they were facing off against a lot of big units – Augment spells like Blades of Aiban and Glittering Robes.

The Warlocks charged the Wolf Riders, with mixed results, and were eventually defeated, so they are not an uber combat unit, at least not against Orc Wolf Riders.

The Dark Riders having defeated the Spider Riders followed up into the Orc Arrer Boys, along with the Shades, who were in turned charged by the Savage Orcs.

The panoramic view. The Silver Talons charged the Orc Warriors.

We broke for our evening meal – a take out curry.

And returned to find BlackJack surveying the battlefield.

Redark (hunter in the Dark…dun dun derr), flank charged the large Night Goblin archers who stood and took it (foolishly).

And the CoK charged in against the Orc Warriors to back up the Silver Talons.

But the Goblin Spear horde charged my rather smaller spear unit, with the lavishly equipped Faegyn Cheapsoul.
Eric, and Spitty charged in against the Trolls following the defeat of the Dark Riders and the CoK chariot.

Combat ensued, with the Orc Warriors racking up the casualties, after their champion wussied out of a challenge against Samartik, the hero leading the Silver Talons. There was only possible result when there is a disparity of ~14 on the combat resolution…

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WHFB: A Return Match – Part One

31/08/2014

Byakhee Gav and I had a return match on Saturday – again 5k points a side with a full day’s gaming pizza and curry.

Our armies were substantially unchanged. I didn’t have time to photo my new heroes before they hit the gaming table.

So 5k Orcs & Goblins vs 5k Dark Elves.

Deployment was very similar to last time, unsurprising given similar armies !

I deployed my Scouts (Shades) well forward in the ruins on both extreme flanks.

With a hefty back up of Fast Cavalry, and flying critters.

Though Gav won the dice off for Vanguard moves, my scouts stymied most of his moves and (for example) his Goblin Spider Riders only inched (!) forward, whilst my Dark Riders had full rein to move forward 12 inches to support Mengils’.

And the Fast Cavalry on the other flank caught up with the Shades in the ruins.

Gav has learnt from me however, and having won initiative took an aggressive approach charging the trolls in against the Dark Riders (eek), and also hexed them to reduce their Initiative.

And Spider Riders against the rather cooped up Dark Riders on the other side of the board. Fortunately, the Savage Orcs had failed their charge due to animosity and the Wolf Riders also failed their charge.

His army as a whole advanced, Night Goblin Fanatics were released and just got in the way.

But the Dark Riders held in combat, and allowed the Shades to flank charge the Spider Riders.

Mengils’ charged the Spider Riders who had cautiously advanced up the steps of the Temple of Skulls, and proceeded to wipe them out, unable to follow up into the Orc Arrer Boyz because of course they are Reavers and were busy butchering the corpses for brilliant new fashions to wear. 😉

Even a flank attack from a CoK chariot was not enough to save the other Dark Riders from the pestilent Trolls who were busy reliving a friday night’s binge of lager, chips ‘n’ curry on everyone near and far.

And could my newly painted CoK Hero with his smart RXB hit a single Goblin Fanatic and kill him – NO – of course not ! So the nutter remained right in front of the CoK unit and I had to take a hit (literally) the next turn and charge through him and take the damage.

That was just Turn One, which we finished about 4pm after starting at 1pm….

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WHFB: Dark Elf Standards

20/08/2014

When I had the 5k points game with Byakhee Gav I was rummaging around the DE Infantry box wondering where all the standards had gone – I had enough to populate my units but thought I was a bit light on them.

By co-incidence, sifting through the geological strata of the Play Room floor, I found underneath the Ruins, a couple of semi-finished DE Standard bearers. So I finished them off.

These are the old DE Infantry standard bearers enlivened with CoK arms and banners in one case. I used the new DE transfers to decorate them.

And they really are WYSIWYG, with shields on their backs !
😛

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WHFB: Ruins – 2

20/08/2014

These are the second set of ruins that are from GW’s LOTR range:

Again done using movement tray as the paving.

I’ve left the inside bare, so you can put a unit on movement tray inside it (within limits).

The bricks and bushes as normal, but its not that exciting – rectangular base. BUT, it is another item of scenery and I am sure we can work out some rules for skirmishers et al to use the upper storey.

As mentioned before, these kits are subject to a bit of warpage in the plastic casting, and you can see i9t here with the floor for the upper storey.

Interestingly, this has also been noted elsewhere on the Warlord ruined farmhouse which again uses a fairly thick plastic production. I’ll be doing up one of those sets for the upcoming AVBCW game JP & I are now actively planning for the 27th September (as in JP is sending out the briefing notes).

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