A Tale of Four Gamers- The gauntlet is thrown.

Ever since its first appearance in White Dwarf, A Tale of Four Gamers has been a much-adopted challenge. The premise is simple. Four gamers agree to simultaneously attempt to build an army over an agreed period of time and then pit the four armies against one another in the forum of their choosing. Having watched with interest a number of fellow Oldhammerers giving it a go in previous years I was keen to get in on the action this time around. There are at least four half-formed armies in my painting queue, so it would be good to get motivated to paint at least one of them in the coming year. After a few flagons of ale on Saturday night at BOYL it didn't take too much to convince Richard, Dave (Snickit's Tail) and Erny (Erny's Place) to join me. We agreed on 2000pt 3rd Edition Armies (picked from the Warhammer Armies lists) with 500pts to be done every month starting from now. So that's the major logistics sorted, now what army to choose?

I had a reasonable idea what my three co-builders would be working on, and there's no fear of doubling up. I've pretty much done my Undead horde (with only chariots left to paint up) so that one's in the can. I won't let on what the other two are planning, but it sounds like it will be a lot of fun! My pick of themes comes down to Chaos, Halflings, Snotlings and Skaven. My Chaos troops are currently involved in a half-stalled Path To Glory warbands campaign, so I don't want to break that up taking units out. Besides, I don't really have enough for 2000 points. Snotlings and Halflings are a lot of fun, but they don't fit well with any lists in the Armies book unless proxying. Skaven it is then. I've been wanting to get onto these chaps for a good long time and helpfully I just received a parcel of ratty goodies from Rochie which will form the basis of a goodly 2000pts. To work!

Here's what I have to work with then. In time-honoured tradition I am going to build a list based on what I have and what I like rather than any strategic goals, but I have been consulting two handy references. The first is the original Tale of Four Gamers, in which Roy Barber's skaven seemed to face nothing but defeat after defeat. This was in the era of 4th Edition, so the skaven lists looked quite different, but his learning to use the furry ones on the table was still good experience to read about. The second is the great tome on skaven itself, Andy Chambers run down of his own army. The photos of which inspired many a ratman player and have recently resurfaced as Andy took 'modern' photos shining ever more light upon his fabled horde.

Studying these works, that stack of blisters and lead and Warhammer Armies I drew up my list to work from:

General: White Skaven Sorcerer (L20)
Army Standard: Lv5 Hero with Dread Banner

58 Clanrats with spears and shields

40 Skavenslaves with shields

20 Storm Vermin with 2-handed weapons and a Relic Banner lead by a L10 Warpweaver

20 Black Skaven with halberds and a Relic Banner lead by a L10 Warpweaver

8 Plague Monks lead by a L10 Warpweaver

4 Beastmasters, 2 with 18 Giant Rats, 2 with 2 Rat Ogres

5 Poisoned Wind Globadiers

2 Warpfire-Thrower teams

4 Jezzails

My original plan was to use AHQ skaven for my Storm Vermin, since they're big and have large weapons and shields, and use Storm Vermin for my Black Skaven. However I have over 60 AHQ skaven, so I decided to put them to good use as my Clanrat unit instead. I have a few of the Fantasy Regiments skaven which will be pressed into service as Skavenslaves, then I plan to do massed slaves on the cheap (well, cheap compare to eBay prices anyway) by sculpting these 'dollies', getting them cast up and then converting them, adding heads, clothing and weapons to give myself a decent horde of mixed slaves.

 

Rochie's box contained most of the 'special' elements (jezzails, warpfire-throwers, poisoned wind globes), leaving me with some giant rats and a single rat ogre to find. Ral Partha Europe's Giant Rats are great, if a bit smaller than the classic GW sculpts- I might need to use more than 1 per base. That's those sorted. So really just the rat ogre and a few character sculpts I like the look of to source.

So what's the first month going to be?

I'd like to get the Clanrats out of the way, so I'm going to tackle that big unit first. They're the most regimented, being all in the same pose, so will probably be the most dull to paint. But that's counterbalanced by the fact I really like the sculpts (yeah yeah, I know) and given that Andy Chambers built big units from them they'll be a good subject to test my paint scheme on. 58 is only 389 points, so that leaves me with 111 points left to paint. I can't do the Skavenslaves as they aren't sculpted yet (and doing two big units would make my head hurt and my brushes fall apart!) so I'm going for the Poisoned Wind Globadiers at 130pts, making my September efforts 509pts total. Ok. To the painting station!

A Tale of Four Gamers- The gauntlet is thrown.

One week more...

Yup, just one more week and then I promise I will shut up about Factious Waste and post some hobby stuff. Promise! Well. BOYL's coming up after all...

You've probably all seen it by now, but in case there's anyone new looking this is a near-future skirmish game I've been working on for many years now. It takes a strategic, action-based system and places it in a broad and comprehensive campaign framework to give you a strong narrative without the highly random elements that so often come with such games. Much of the rulebook is dedicated to background, scenarios and campaign elements that would work with any tabletop skirmish, so even if you're not interested in learning a new game I hope you'll find plenty of useful inspiration here. The seven factions in the book cover sci-fi commandos, insane lawmen, space cowboys, techno barbarians, pulp gangsters, revolutionary anarchists and gadget-laden craftspeople from an earlier century, so whatever miniatures you like to game with you'll be able to find something that fits!

If you have any of The Woods books you can also mix in the Action Tables from there to give you riding beasts and 'magical' aspects to the game. Or, of course, you can take the vehicle and firearm rules from Factious Waste to mix into your sci-fantasy!

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

Thanks for looking.

One week more...

The Waste is back!

6 months later and Oakbound are ready for a smaller campaign to get the Factious Waste rulebook to print. There've been some small revisions, some expansions and a whole lot more artwork so I hope you like what we've done with it!

Stonking cover art from Simon Lee Tranter

Mark Copplestone classic from Moonraker Minis and terrain from Fogou Models pose for some great photos.

 

Heresy miniatures fit in perfectly too!

 

 

The campaign will be live from 6pm tonight here. Hope you'll come and say hi.

The Waste is back!

Warbands in the Woods

For the second GROG game of the year we gathered for a 4-player session of The Woods, testing out the new warbands lists and scenario generator that Chris and I have been working on. As always Harry's table boasted a beautiful array of scenery breathing life into the ancient woodlands...

 



A Myeri Losbast makes his way through a shadowy mushroom glen...

Standing stones and caverns in a corner of the forest...

Tall conifers dominate the centre of the board, rising above the remote settlement...

Swampy pools and stone buildings on the border of the woodland...

Much of the terrain was courtesy of the companies that have put their support behind The Woods- Fogou Models (Dark Age buildings), Scotia Grendel (fungus, standing stones, ruined city) and Model Tree Shop (Trees, assorted, and a goodly amount of flock!).

The first game was a 4-warband confrontation in the middle of the wood. Mike's Wulver Cult were aiming to waylay Chris' Tuatha Bears, in particular their leader who had slighted the honour of the cult. Chris' outcast Bears were already carrying a wounded member (perhaps from their last encounter with the cult) and were simply trying to reach safety. A member of Harry's Fae Rade had been captured by my Myeri warparty and needed rescuing whilst my Myeri were trying to retrieve an ancestral artefact stolen by the leader of Mike's cult. The four warbands converged on an island at the heart of the forest...

The Myeri were hoping that speed and discipline would win the day. Their Draoi Geomancer cast a shroud of mists to conceal the group as the Losbastun took the lead with their Meirge and his totem. The captive Fae was given into the care of the group's Scealai so as not to slow down the warriors' advance.

Across the other side of the wood the Wulver Cult were advancing quickly towards their quarry. With their high Decisiveness and frightening weaponry they looked like they would have the edge over their foe.

The Tuatha Bears advanced steadily, keeping their distance from the cult. With a wounded member they couldn't move fast without splitting up.

The Fae made as much use of cover as possible, keeping their options open.

The pack of Whist Hounds manoeuvred into position to attack the Myeri from behind, but the mists prevented them from using their great speed to charge. The Fae Rademaster moved into position to dispel the fog.

The Tuatha were preparing for their clash at the centre of the board. Chris' Comlann formed up into a unit in shieldwall formation whilst slingers attempted a few shots at the shadowy figures in the trees. The cult's deerhound bounded ahead of the band, intent on taking down the quarry.

As the mists dissipated the Whist Hounds pounced upon the hapless Scealai, tearing his limb from limb. The uilleann pipes deflated with a pitiful rasp. As another of the Fae wove fate to elevate the captive to safety the Myeri formed up to perform the terrifying Peru-Peru dance. The Fae fled whilst the exhausted Whist Hounds cowered with fear.

Angered by the presence of the Fae the Myeri abandoned their mission and tried to take down their hated enemy. The Whist Hounds recovered, however, and the result was a stand-off until the Fae gathered enough stamina to magic their adversaries across the board. There they finally caught up with the Wulver cult, but by that time they were on their way off the board having completed their objective with only the loss of their deerhound. The Fae were successful in retrieving their captive colleague and the cult had exacted their revenge, leaving the Myeri and Bears to lick their wounds.

All in all happy with how the warbands lists played out. There are a few points values to tweak and a bit of wording to change but none of the bands seemed excessively overpowered. When it came to picking objectives some seemed more suited to particular warbands than others, as would be expected, but the next games showed that none of them was a walk in the park.

Warbands in the Woods