Short cuts make long delays

Arthur's friend Oliver was over on Sunday, so we tried Scenario 2 of the Quest of the Ringbearer, 'Short Cuts make Long Delays'.  In this scenario, Frodo with Sam and Pippin are walking to meet Merry in Buckland, when Frodo has a bad feeling and persuades his companions to leave the road and proceed cross-country.  Three ringwraiths start searching for Frodo, and at the far end of the board, elf hero Gildor Inglorion detects that Frodo needs his help and moves protect him from the ringwraiths.

Here is the initial table setup.  Lots of trees to allow the hobbits plenty of space to hide from Nazgul searches!

The ringwraiths are subject to the rules for 'sentries' until at least one of them can spot a hobbit.  Sentries have semi-randomised movement, and an additional challenge is that they can't see the hobbits unless they are almost on top of them (i.e., within 3").  Hobbits on the other hand must check courage every turn - however as they are quite brave, this did not turn out to be a problem for them.

Hobbits using the cover of the trees to escape the view of the pursuing ringwraith.

Gildor rushing to the rescue.

The ringwraith at the bottom of the picture was distracted and moved backwards in his hobbit search!

Pippin finally failed a courage test and fell behind, while Sam stays close to Frodo.  Meanwhile, Gildor eliminates the first ringwraith (this also raises the alarm, so an end to all the sentry tests and courage tests).

Pippin connects with Gildor and helps him to fight the second ringwraith.

Rather than sticking around to finish off the second ringwraith, Gildor hurries off to intercept the third ringwraith.

Pippin and Gildor then stop the last ringwaith, while Sam and Frodo escape to the safety of the elf encampment.

This turned out to be a straightforward win for the hobbits and their friend Gildor.  We finished quickly, so tried the same scenario again with Oliver taking the ringwraiths.  In the second game, the alarm was raised on the second turn, but the end result was the same with a clear defeat for the Nazgul.  Maybe once we get a better understanding of Nazgul powers, they will become more deadly!

MG08 and granatenwerfer

 Expanding on my late WWI German zug, here is the famous German WWI machine gun, the maschinengewehr 08 or MG08 on sled mount, and the kleine Granatenwerfer 16. 

The MG08 is of course extremely important for any WWI game.  I have several German MG for early war, but was missing one for later in the war, after the introduction of the Stahlhelm.  This model is from Great War Miniatures, with an ammunition carrier added from the GWM German LMG set.

For this model, I put magnets on the loader and spotter so they can be removed if needed.  In a recent WWII Bolt Action game, my MMG was reduced to a single gunner, so if that happens with this model, I'll be ready.

I've also added a granatenwerfer, which was a light grenade launcher developed for trench warfare.  This model is also from Great War Miniatures.

Ersatz Ringwraiths (edit to add before shots)

 As Arthur and I want to play the Quest of the Ringbearer, we are going to need some Ringwraiths or Nazgûl.  I am not ready to pay GW prices for the official, New Line Productions-sanctioned figures, so I have decided to make my own!

For the foot figures, I started with Victrix Anglo-Saxon Huscarles, and added some greenstuff roughly shaped into the cloaks that are the main visual cue for the ringwraiths.

EDIT:  here are the original figures

And with greenstuff cloaks added.

I let little patches of mail show through to allow hints of their original status of great kings or lords of men.

One of the mounted figures started life as a Perry Miniatures War of the Roses mounted man at arms.  This is the only one with 'work in progress' photos.

The other mounted ringwraith needed much less conversion, it started as a D&D Headless Horseman, so the only modification was to add a cloaked head (a monk's head from the Victrix Anglo-Saxons).  Frodo on Asfaloth is a Wargames Atlantic halfling mounted on a Rohan horse - so I didn't completely neglect the GW product!

Unfortunately the black ended up looking a bit glossy.  I may see if I can retouch the Nazgûl a bit to dull them down somewhat.

Farmer Maggot's Crop

 A while back, we had a go at the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game.  Arthur wasn't too keen on it at the time, but since then he's developed a bit more of an interest.  So we decided to have another go at the narrative campaign for the Quest of the Ringbearer.

First game in the book has Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin trying to rob Farmer Maggot's crop.  It's a great intro game, as there are only 8 models in the whole game (Farmer Maggot, his three hounds, Fang, Grip and Wolf, and the four young hobbits).  Furthermore, the young hobbits don't have Might, Will or Fate in this game, so we were able to focus on the primary game mechanics.

The scenario starts with the four young ones planning their raid on Maggot's field.  Maggot is in his house, and the dogs are at the kennel.  Frodo and his team need to collect the goods from the enclosed field and take them back to the stash point (the small grey crypt).

Three dogs at the kennel.

The dogs are (not surprisingly) much faster than the hobbits.  Here, Merry and Pippin distract the hounds while Frodo and Sam gather some goods.

Frodo and Sam haul their loot to the stash point, while Merry and Pippin battle the dogs.  Two of the dogs were chased back to the kennel, where Maggot refreshes them and send them back into the fray.

Maggot encourages Fang to get back into the fight.

Farmer Maggot decides that the time has come that he should directly confront the thieves.  The three dogs have Sam cornered, while Frodo and his cousins haul two more loot markers to the stash point. 

Sam has had enough and is chased away, leaving Frodo to face Maggot and the dogs.

Frodo is chased away as Merry and Pippin move up to try and help him.

With Frodo gone, Farmer Maggot captures Merry while the dogs get Pippin.

In the end, it was a near run game.  Frodo and company were able to take 4 loot bundles to the stash point, but they needed 5 to win the game.  It was fun, and we're looking forward to carrying on the quest.  If you are nearby to Burnaby, let me know and maybe you can join in one of the coming games.

Winter is coming

It is a lovely (Canadian) Thanksgiving Monday here in Burnaby, the leaves are changing colour and starting to fall.  That means winter is coming, so here are some winter-themed Pulp Figures to prepare for it.

Happy turkey day, everyone!

JTFM Bunker

 Here is a nice little piece of resin terrain, a bunker from JTFM/Die Waffenkammer.  Not much to say about it - it should come in handy for a variety of games.  Wargames Atlantic Germans for scale.

Roof lifts off to allow access to the interior.

Wargames Atlantic WWI Germans

I have a pretty good selection of early war (1914-15) armies for WWI Western Front, including French, British/Canadian and German forces.  I've also got a pretty good force of late war (1917-18) Canadians, but they were missing a suitable opponent.  So I picked up a box of Wargames Atlantic Germans to provide my Canucks with a suitable opponent.  As I've found with other WGA boxes, there are plenty of bits that allow the troops to be customised as desired.  While I chose to provide these soldiers with Stahlhelm, but the box includes enough heads with gas masks, pickelhaube, or feldmutze to equip all the troops.  

I've carried on with different bases for leaders and special weapons.  Officers and NCOs on hex bases.  The straps for the binoculars are a bit blocky.  

The gunner with the MG08/15 on the right and his loader are from the WGA box, and the Lewis gunner and loader are from Great War Miniatures.  Size matches nicely.

Another size comparison.  You can see that the plastic rifle on the left is pretty thin, so that is one place where the difference between plastic and metal figures will be noticeable.

A selection of the regular soldiers.  As WWI Germans really embraced grenades, so I piled on as many grenades onto each model as I could.  I only realised after I finished assembling the models that each of the stick grenades had a small clip to show where it would hook onto the soldiers belt or webbing.  Oops!  Main thing is that there are loads of grenades.

I did actually have one late war German model - this field gun and crew from Renegade Miniatures.