Sunday 17 March 2024

A Cluster of Radiants: A Tale of 4 Armies

I've had a little bit of a hiatus on the process getting my Wood Elf army rebased and polished up for use in Warhammer: The Old World.

Partly this has been down to getting distracted by Five Leagues From The Borderlands, partly down to life always being busy in March and partly down to the weather being terrible and not being able to take photos.

However, some limited progress has been made. Namely, I've got my characters done.

I have no idea if my current crop of characters will cut the mustard in The Old World, however, I did tend to run rather light on them in 6th/7th edition, and I suspect that might still be the case now. Elves are expensive, and so too much investment in characters leaves you somewhat short of Toughness 3 bodies in your army.

With all three, I've focused on brightening them up, treating the initial paint job as a base coat and highlighting up. The spires moulded on two of them have become bright blue rather than dirty green, and I've brought more gold into all three.

Obviously, they've also all been rebased.

The Glade Lord is, in my opinion, the best model in the old range, a really ferocious and heroic looking model. Yes, he's on a tactical tree-stump but that makes sense for Wood Elves.

Back in the old days I would run him on his own as an Alter Kindred, with the Helm of the Hunt, the Amber Pendant and (sometimes, the Hail of Doom Arrow). After firing off his own volley on the first turn he would run about (with M9) slaughtering whatever he came in contact with and breaking units by himself.

Sadly, this role doesn't seem possible in the new rules and there isn't really a unit I own he can join where a great weapon would be a good idea. He might not see action for a while.


My Spellweaver began life as a Waywatcher character that I picked up cheap as he was missing an arm. I improvised a staff from a banner pole and a Dryad's head and he took over as my chief magical support, moving forests about and generally being annoying.

From what I've seen, magic is going to be incredibly important in The Old World and so I expect to get a lot of use out of him. I'm not sure what spells he'll be casting yet, but he'll be invaluable in terms of magic defence.


Finally, the army battle standard bearer (BSB) began life as a High Elf Shadow Warrior and simply got an army swap. Again, I think I picked him up second hand.

BSBs can be invaluable in bolstering the morale of the main line, and even though I never expect my Glade Guard to do much in combat, being able to hold for a turn longer than expected can be crucial.

This character is the most likely to be given a magic bow, allowing him to add to the volleys of the Glade Guard he supports.

And that's it for now. These three were painted last week and I've been waiting for a chance to photograph them. I have more in the pipeline that I finished today, so depending on the weather and the time I get home, you might see them tomorrow.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 204
Lead Mountain: 849

Saturday 9 March 2024

Hawk the Slayer #3: Deserters

After a flurry of activity last weekend, I sat down this week to roll up the next campaign turn keen to get another battle under my belt.

However, Five Leagues From The Borderlands had other ideas, and despite my enthusiasm for thrilling more thrilling adventures, the game seemed inten on giving me anything but adventure...

Campaign Turn 3

After camping on the edge of the Fey Woods, the group took their ease. Dana studied maps of the area the former nun had picked up in Lakesmouth, and with this information, Hawk was able to scout a route back that would avoid unnecessary problems.

This was fortunate as Breda was injured whilst foraging, so Hawk's (gained scouting skill) well chosen route allowed the party to return to town quickly with the information they had retrieved, complete their contract and get paid.

Whilst in Lakesmouth, Hawk learned that there was a caravan arriving in High Home, and so he purposed to head their first.

Campaign Turn 4

Realising that time was running out on his promise to help Gethir recruit more men to help the Town Guard, Hawk was determined to set out to the other settlements in the area quickly.

Before departing, Dana consulted a renowned scholar about routes and shared what she had learned with Gort (gained scouting skill).

En route to High Home the group travelled with and befriended a somewhat sociable villager called Sampson. A somewhat pessimistic soul, he told them of the enemies patrolling the area, specifically a band of deserters from Lakesmouth, who had taken to robbing vulnerable travellers on the road south.

Determined to complete his current task, Hawk made an oath to deal with those cowards before long.

Once in High Home, Hawk set about encouraging able bodies men to join Gethir's militia in Lakesmouth whilst the others perused the goods available for trade on the caravan. Crow purchased a talisman that he claimed would keep his soul safe.



Campaign Turn 5

An evening spent meeting the locals and helping the town guard recruits train passed before the party headed north on the final leg of their journey to the Vale.

The journey north was uneventful, largely because much of it was by boat. However, Gort was intrigued by the islands, an unexplored location, in the middle of the lake and loudly considered the possibility of them being home to all sorts of treasure and monsters.

Campaign Turn 6

Upon arrival in the Vale, they found it inhabited by supportive locals, who eagerly listened to Hawk as he sought to help the Town Guard recruit, toake up for those that had deserted, complete Gethir's contract.

Gort headed straight to a tavern to meet the locals and got talking to a garlic farmer named Greg, whose sheep had run amok. Greg told Gort of his grandfather's lost sword and wondered if the adventurers might search it out (contract, locate item), however with no information on its whereabouts, Gort made no promises.

Meanwhile, Crow went foraging for herbs and came back with Springweed Berries.

Heading south again, Hawk decided to make good on his oath to confront the deserters-turned-bandits whose cowardly behaviour had set them off on this adventure in the first place...

As you can see, the random tables in the game seemed intent on providing me with uneventful travels across the region as I efficiently completed tasks, gaining gold and skills as I went.

Therefore, after finishing the Guard Captain's contract, I decided to take matters into my own hands and go looking for trouble.


The Deserters in question had popped up as a result of a 'news travels' roll and were currently reducing the amount of Adventure Points I could gain from my escapades. They also fit in nicely with completing the  recruitment narrative, as these guys running off to become bandits had caused the problems I'd rolled up on turn one.

I had to fight a meeting engagement and hold the field at the end of the game to remove them from the map. Conveniently, I gained the eliminate the enemy objectives, which meant I had kill at least four of them within six turns.

When it came to generating the deserters, I got only seven of them without a leader. Two had slings, but after dealing with all those goblins, I was fairly confident I could handle them...






Well that almost went horribly wrong. I advanced Dana too far forward when she is the least capable fighter in the group. She may be a hero now, but she almost came a cropper and was fortunate to roll a knocked out result for her injury.

However, the rest of the fight went as expected. Two of the Deserters ran away quickly, causing the rest to become fearless, but they really couldn't match blades with Hawk, Gort and Breda. After his first killing shot, Crow was quiet in this game, as was the Woman (who can't actually teleport, I'm just using that to explain why she moves so fast) despite both being invaluable in the last game.

The loot was minimal, just some battered weapons and a crossbow, whilst the news travels roll revealed a letter that needs delivering further a small reward.

I've got no definite plans as to how to proceed, so I may just get on with that and see what happens. 

Gort really does want to go to the island though...

Tuesday 5 March 2024

Hawk the Slayer #2: Into The Whisper Woods

Bursting with enthusiasm after the first battle of my Five Leagues from the Borderlands solo campaign, I immediately leapt into the next campaign turn, in which Hawk and friends get sent on a mission into the mystical Fey Woods of the north.


Before we get to that, there's the brief tale of how they got there...

Campaign Turn 2

With Lakesmouth still short handed, the party continue to help the town guard out. Whilst patroling taverns and dealing with drunks and pickpockets, they take the opportunity to talk to likely recruits for the guard, encouraging them to take the captain's shilling as per the deal (contract, negotiate a deal) he had offered them, with some success.

A Town Crier announces that the Town Council are offering good money for adventurers willing to risk danger. Whilst Gort and Crow try and fail to goad locals into an archery contest (Gamble), Hawk goes to speak to the Council who are keen to retrieve vital intelligence on events beyond north reach from a messenger who has gone missing in branch of the Whisper Woods known to be haunted by the Fey (contract, retrieve item).


Hawk accepts the task and, prioritising the job with more urgent need (and, incidentally, better pay), gathers his companions to travel north.

The journey passes without incident, and Hawk, Gort, Crow, The Woman, Breda and Dana prepare to enter the ill-omened Whisper Woods.

The mission actually required the group to travel to an unexplored location to retrieve the item. Although the travel was uneventful, the location turned out to be Fey Woods, which would involve a site battle against members of the Ice-Heart Court, even though they weren't a threat in my campaign.

9 Goblins and one Captain would be patroling the woods whilst I had two missions to complete: to grab the item from the centre of the board and to explore at least three objectives (which could turn out to be good or bad things). To add to the complications, all movement was reduced.

Whatever happened, this was definitely going to be a longer affair than the last one.












So...that went well...I feel I need a disclaimer to say that I wasn't cheating. 

The party, especially Hawk and Crow, cut through the goblins with ease; the item was retrieved alarmingly quickly; I kept finding loot at every location and at no point was anybody in real danger.

It didn't feel that straightforward in the game, as random rolls can go against you, but I feel I've got a better handle on how to tip combat in my favour.

The loot I gained was as follows:
  • Harness of Vengeance (enchanted armour)
  • Scout's Cloak,
  • Set of Alarm Traps, 
  • 2 sets of Partial Armour, 
  • Shield, 
  • Coil of Rope, 
  • Ferrets’ Drink (magic potion),
  • Fey Steel Fencing Sword
In addition to this, the battle also revealed another unexplored location in the Whisper Woods along with a Monster Lair, both of which I decided to leave for a later date.


Although the scenario didn't grant me any Adventure Points, all four heroes gained enough experience to gain an advancement:
  • Hawk improved his Luck to replace the point lost last turn,
  • Gort saw his Combat ability improve, 
  • Crow enhanced his scouting with the Wilderness skill,
  • The Woman developed better Casting.
In addition to this both Brida and Dana had moments of inspiration and are now heroes rather than followers. Dana even gained the Scholar skill into the bargain.

I know things won't always go this well, but it was nice to have a 'big damn heroes' moment and be able to tool up the party with plenty of equipment before bigger dangers befall them.

I'm sure it won't last.

Saturday 2 March 2024

Hawk the Slayer #1: The Taken

Just before Christmas I picked up Five Leagues From The Borderlands, the fantasy sibling of Modiphius' sci-fi solo skirmish game Five Parsecs From Home.

The game sits somewhere between gang management games like Necromunda and rpg-lite skirmish games like Rangers of Shadow Deep. It's perfect for solo campaigns and appeals to the creative or, if you are like me, derivative.

As such, my campaign is going to be a sequel series to 80s cult classic Hawk the Slayer.


Five Leagues from the Borderlands is very flexible in how you build your starting warband. I opted to select my heroes' races and backgrounds, but randomly roll the rest. I then attributed weapons and equipment to characters to reflect their abilities.

My starting line up is:

Hawk - Human Noble
Bastard Sword, Partial Armour, Shield


The hero of our tale and my avatar. Following the defeat of his brother Voltan, Hawk's band travels the land confronting evil and helping the defenceless (sort of like the A-Team). He doesn't actually have a shield, I'm using it's effects to account for the Mind Sword blocking and parrying.

Gort - Duskling Outsider
Warhammer, Partial Armour, Helmet 


A 'giant' (he's just really tall) who lives for fighting and feasting. More preoccupied with lining his pockets and filling his belly than doing good, Gort follows Hawk because he seems to have a knack for finding trouble. Again, the helmet is more a reflection of his natural toughness.

Crow - Feyblood Outsider
Fencing Sword, Fine Self Bow, Light Armour


With the the Silver Forest burnt and gone, Crow knows that he is the last of his race. Lethally accurate with his bow, Crow seeks to do some good in the world so that his folk might be remembered fondly.

Woman - Human Mystic
Staff, Light Armour
Spells: Fog, Foresight, Illuminate, Manipulate, Torment


The mysterious blind woman wields strange powers that grant her 'sight' of a different form. She seems to know what fate awaits Hawk, but only reveals information through hints and riddles.

Sister Dana - Human Wandering Nun
Staff, Sling


After tending to Crow's wounds following the Battle of Caddonbury Abbey, Dana suffered a crisis of faith and decided to travel with Crow when he left to join Hawk. She seeks to help where she can.

Breda of Danatur - Loyal Former Soldier
Standard Weapon, Light Armour


Having served Hawk's father, when she heard of his exploits in Caddonbury, Brida travelled to join him and pledged her loyalty to his cause, once again pleased to be following a good man.

The North Barrens Campaign


My campaign will be set in a sparsely populated region known as the North Barrens. Hawk has travelled her to help the settlers confront the many threats of the region:
  • Bandits (the Ruin Within) prowl the roads and trails, making trade difficult,
  • There are rumours of unquiet sprits (the Whispers from Beyond) haunting the woods and preying upon lost souls,
  • To the north, a great host of evil warriors (the Faceless Kingdom) bear down on the region.
I'm addition there is adventure and exploration aplenty available. The ruins of North Reach lure many a treasure seeker to their doom, and other unexplored locations dot the wilderness.

Turn 0

The journey to the trade town of Lakesmouth was largely uneventful for out companions, who upon arrival perused the markets and found prices to bejz somewhat higher than in the affluent south. They would have to do something to fatten their purses before too long.

Travel Roll - Uneventful Travels

Turn 1

The following day, Hawk and friends began to explore the town and look for work. Sister Dana had a chance conversation with a wandering healer which revealed that several of the town guard were injured or missing, and so they were currently short handed.

Reporting to Gerith, the guard captain, Hawk offered to help. Seeing that these were seasoned warriors, the captain immediately offered them a reward if they could locate several missing guardsmen who had disappeared on patrol.

The woman sought to use her mystic insight, but found that it was clouded by something. Hawk tried more conventional means of information gathering and asked around. Picking up a few leads allowed Crow to find a trail and follow it to a ruined and mist-shrouded chapel just outside town.

Realising something wicked lurked within, Crow returned to gather the rest of the band before exploring.

Local Events: Wandering Healer

Campaign Activities: Help the Town Guard and Meet the Locals (contract offer)

Contract: Gather Information for an Individual
Expertise Test - The Woman, failed
Speech Test - Hawk, passed
Wits Test - Crow, passed
Reward - Villager Friend+ 1 Gold Mark

Adventure: Ride Patrol (Signs of Danger:
Foes: Whispers from Beyond, 5 Taken + Unknown Enemy + Captain
Encounter: Meeting Engagement - Scout the Area






Hawk had fortunately only been knocked out by the deadly blow the undead creature had inflicted. Crow gave the dust time he had liberated to the Woman to unlock its secrets.

Despite discovering the gruesome fate of his guards, Captain Gethir was very grateful to Hawk for what he had done and offered to pay the group to travel to the settlements of High Home and the Vale to recruit new town guards.

Adventure Points: 1

Injuries : Hawk used a Luck point to avoid death.

Experience: Dana gained the Devotion skill and Brida gained Leadership. None of the heroes have advanced yet.

Loot: Old dusty manual 

News Travels: A friend needs your help.

Contract: Negotiate a Deal for a Friend
Travel to 3 settlements
Attempt Speech 8+ tests in each and pass 2
Reward - 1 Gold Mark + 1 Story Point

***

So that's the start of my campaign. Technically I won the battle but almost losing Hawk in his first fight has made me reconsider rushing into combat.

I'm already hooked into my own storyline and am keen to move on to the next turn. I'm really enjoying weaving the results of random rolls into a coherent narrative and as such I'm tempted to take up the captain's contract simply because it gives some direction for the next turn. It also fits with the bands goals if helping the region defend itself.

I know this has been a little long winded, but I hope it makes some sense and is enjoyable to read. I'm trying to balance the narrative with the mechanics.

Sunday 25 February 2024

Whirling Death: A Tale of 4 Armies

Progress continues with getting my Wood Elf Army rebased for Warhammer: The Old World with what are, to my mind, the quintessential Warhammer Wood Elf unit: the Wardancers.


I say this in full knowledge of the fact that many will consider Glade Guard or the mighty Treeman to be more iconic. There might even be folk out there that idolise the heady days of the four-horse chariot racing between the trees.

However, Glade Guard (Archers) and Treemen are arguably lifted straight out of the pages of Tolkien (whilst the chariot was a gloriously silly thing), whereas Wardancers have always felt very much a Warhammer concept.

Although I may be wrong about this as almost all of Games Workshop's IP is nicked from somewhere, Wardancers make Warhammer Wood Elves different and are responsible, I think, for pushing the design team in a more tribal direction over time, away from the well used tropes of Middle Earth.


Although I didn't strip these models, they did need fairly extensive work doing. I used my original base coat and wash paint job as a starting point and set about highlighting up pretty much every aspect of the models.

I was somewhat surprised to discover how slack I'd been at trimming flash from these models, and so there was a fair bit of tidying up to do.


The miniatures are from a range of iterations of Wardancers and I think the guy with the spear is the oldest of the bunch.

As well as cleaning up untidy paint jobs, I also took the hair and leaves to brighter yellow and green respectively to give the miniatures a bit more 'pop' on the tabletop.

Simultaneously I calmed down the orange, using Ratskin Flesh, as my Trollslayer Orange had dried up and I'm impatient. Having said that, it gives them a more earthy tone that I like.

I also took the time to get some difference between some of the browns use on the models, something I'd not bothered with previously. This also adds some visual interests.

As I'd used orange on the model, the orange leaves aren't as crucial for this unit, but it does tie the army together well.

I've now actually managed to physically rebase the entire army except for the Treeman and the Treekin as they are currently having layers of sludge removed from them. The characters and cavalry are next in line for the tidying up treatment.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 201
Lead Mountain: 849

Thursday 22 February 2024

Awakening of the Wood: A Tale of 4 Armies

And back to the forest I go for, I believe, the only unit for the Wood Elves that is actually still available on the Games Workshop website: Dryads.

Not that I ever buy direct from GW; that way madness lies.

Dryads are one of those kits that I remember to actually be a bit of a pleasure to both assemble and paint. They used to come in a box of 12 (it's 16 now) and had enough bits and variation to make every model pretty unique looking.

They also had really dynamic poses for the time, and really sinister look, so I can see why they have remained part of the Age of Sigmar range.

In fact, I think that the Dryads might have dictated the direction that the Sylvaneth (that the copywritable name GW gave to Wood Elves) range went in.

On top of that, when it came to painting, a brown base coat with a wash, followed by picking out the leaves and eyes got them looking good very quickly.

So much so that when it came to rebasing this unit, I felt no need to do any repainting at all, except for changing the eye colour.

In fact the only irritating thing about the unit was that they came in a box of 12, but the minimum unit size was 8.

Fortunately, there were enough spare bits on the sprues for me to fashion three extra Dryads emerging from the ground, something that looks much better following the rebase thanks to the Green Stuff World leaves, giving them an ambushing vibe.

I then took my total to 16, and two units by adding the metal special character model Drycha to one of the units as this was still cheaper than buying a second box.

Amusingly, now that Dryads are available as boxes of 16, Warhammer: The Old World allows you to take units of 5...plus ca change...

Drycha serves as the Nymph (unit champion) for the unit, whilst a conveniently placed animal skull identifies the Nymph in the other unit.

You'll notice that Drycha and the second unit have a more yellowish hue than the first. This is to make the units distinguishable on the tabletop (the first unit also have leaves).

Previously I had achieved this by giving them a light drybrush of a bone colour, as I was aiming for a silver birch sort of effect. However, during the rebase I gave them a coat of Skeleton Horde contrast paint to make them less jarring.

Apart from unit numbers, the reason I didn't originally use Drycha as a Branchwraith (a Dryad character) was that I had a plan to convert one of the Juan Diaz Daemonettes.

It's nothing more clever than Dryad bits stuck to the Daemonette body: notably replacing the claw arm with a Dryad arm and having lots of branches protruding from her head and back.


I'm aware that the camera really suggests that over ten years ago I really should have thinned my paints when doing the skin. However I'm leaving this model as it is for three reasons.

Firstly, I didn't want strip the model as I like it and I'm not sure that I would achieve the same effect again. Secondly, adding even more paint could just ruin it. Finally, the overly thick paint gives her skin a 'bark-like' texture which seems appropriate, suggesting that her alluring appearance is an illusion.

I'm only counting eight of these as having been painted, as one unit and the Branchwraith only had their eyes done. Still, it's nice to make some quick progress towards getting the full army done.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 193
Lead Mountain: 849