I'm back from "Bring Out Your Lead 2014" and sitting down with my feet up. It's amazing how tiring a three day siege is (with nightly breaks for some excellent ales, a Jungle Meat kebab* and a smidgen of sleep). A massive thank you to Bryan Ansell, his Family and Staff who made us all so very welcome. Today we also got a guided tour of the new Foundry premises and house by Bryan himself. The facility is based in the grounds of his house and whilst there is still a lot of work to be done before it's completed it looks like it promises to be an excellent venue and one that Bryan has said will always be open to the Oldhammer community, which no one would ever deny makes a fitting venue for our annual gatherings.
On to the gaming!
My Skaven were part of the Evil Alliance attempting to take the city of Avalone. Sadly we failed in out efforts to take the castle. To be fair it was a flipping long walk and there was a LOT of Treemen to get through (10+) and those b#ggers take some felling. There were many deployed against my Skaven and frankly if I never see another one again in my lifetime then I'll be a very happy Rat. I tried Warpfire, Poison Wind, Plague Censers and ranked up Clan Rats, all bounced off of them and the Ents minced everything in their paths in return.
I attempted to tunnel under the walls to spring a surprise on the defenders but this was a miserable failure. I only got a few units into the castle grounds itself due to narrow gap filled by routers, a wind blast spell that seemed to never end and some very stubborn defending by Slann, Helblitzen, Estalians and, dare I admit it, Halflings - the shame of it!
Even though we didn't really come close to taking the city I feel my own personal objective was achieved, Warlord Snickit had already decided that if he couldn't take the city above ground he'd play the long game instead. The good people of Avalone now have an outpost of the Skaven Under Empire living beneath their feet. The sewers are infested and as the city goes about it's daily life the Skaven will endure, they will grow in numbers and one day they will rise up and take the city.
Probably the most important part of the weekend was making new friends to play games with. Indeed it looks like those of us in the Bedfordshire region will be aiming to meet up soon and hopefully make it a semi-regular occasion. If nothing else then the weekend was worth it for that! I look forward to taking to the field to playing Fimir, High Elves and Bretonnians and then hit the space lanes to play some Rogue Trader!
Below are a selection photos I took of the event. First up a few shots of the display cabinets with some classics from White Dwarf and other publications:
Next up the awesome Si-Fi scenery made by Whiskey Priest, I am soooooooo going to push to get a game on this stuff!
And now some photos of the siege:
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| Treebeard said "Something is about to happen that has not happened in an age................." Well I got news for ya Treebeard, Ent Moot's happened all the friggin' time here!!!!! |
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| Some of Rab's beautiful Bretonnians |
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| More of Rab's Bretonnians and some of Erny's Dwarfs |
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| Erny's Ginger Nuts |
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| Sending Minors into battle should be illegal............................... |
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| Al'righter I gots me a gun, neow where's my cider |
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| BOOM! |
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| Scum |
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| My Black Skaven sadly became very well aquainted with that organ gun |
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| Some of Thantsants minis including Ajax the Battle Turtle |
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| Lots of people have posted a similar photo to this and they're going on about the Giant's arse but no one seems to have noticed his gonads are out too................................ |
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| Battle Cat (or Cringer) along side the pink panther. |
* Jungle Meat................ mmmmmmmmmmmmm................................a heady mixture of lamb doner, chicken doner and some truly amazing pulled pork.................................
wow! looks absolutely epic.
ReplyDeleteHope to attend next year
The more the merier, it's just a geekfest with lost of like-minded people.
DeleteHehe, that was a massive game, I have no idea how you lot kept track of it. Gimme a shout and we'll sort a game out.
ReplyDeleteDefo, we need to try and sort out a semi regualr meet up of all of us in the "local" area, I certainly need to get more game time in.
DeleteAs for the game - we didn't really, it was all over the place, especially on day 3 when we lost a lot of players to other games, it was like a challenge - come to the table in have a guess at what's going on, we also didn't know wqhat most of the characters, and units had so just went with a lot of "sounds about right".
Your confrontation game looked really interesting so I'm defo going to look at getting in on that action.
Next year I may not go for the one big game and instead have several little games. Not decieded yet. I'm toying with offering up "The Battle of Maugthrod Pass" (the 4th edition boxed set scenario) on the Sunday as a cloudy head clearer.
Brilliant. Thanks for sharing these pics - especially the old citadel stuff BA has. I'll have to head to Foundry when I'm in the UK next Easter just to look at those...
ReplyDeleteIt's defo worth it, the Foundry itself is going through a transformation and whether you get some game sin or not it's worth it for the experience alone.
DeleteWow, the games looked great. Love all the pictures, even if I was looking up a giants asshole in one. Your "cowpie" looked good on the table. That description had me laughing so hard my wife had to ask me what was up. I also really liked your Top 13 figure post. I had thought of doing that myself, but most of my figures are unfinished.
ReplyDeleteHa ha - too kind. I think I got away with that one, I'll do some wotk on that piece and you never know, it may end up in another posted up game.
DeleteI still need to do my non-Skaven top 10. They're always worth a read, go for it, I;d be really interested to see what you post up.
Everything looks so enticing; the collection, the terrain, the armies. Damned treemmen. Must remember that degenerative blade next time.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting!
You still have to wound the b#ggers which is easier said than done.
DeleteI need to find a real way of combating such threats as I'll need a plan for tough, high wound, scary things the more games I play outside my usual circle (and inside too seeing as Erny now has his Griffon riding gneral painted up).
Degenerative strike + mighty strike+ parrying may give your general a chance against treemen.
DeleteThe griffon calls for a case of good luck and a luck jezzailachis hit when it drops to attack level.
Or a 100pt lightning bolt ring :)
Mighty Strike only gives strength 10 for one attack. However, a slight tweek to your selection to being Parasitic (is this Degeneration in your Army book?), Mighty Strike and Fireblade then if you can wound with the 1 strength 10 attack, roll high on the 2d6 wounds from the Fireblade on the Treeeman (flamable target) and use the Parasitic nature to steal the Treeman's strength to boost his strength from that point on then it should "Popeye" up the General to be able to take the rest of them.................................................
DeleteNo I'm my book degen is a 5pt buy which reduces toughness by d6 in creatures of toughness 5 or better. Parasitic steals stats as you well know.
DeleteOooooooo, don't think I have that in mine! Very good for just 5 points!
DeleteAwesome pics! That siege looks epic! Loved your little AAR too. Next time maybe a few chaos greater deamons for those treemen ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Yes, I'm going to look at painting up a 4th edition Greater Daemon of the Horned Rat I have knocking around somewhere. Going to have to fight fire with fire I guess. One Treeman isn't so bad but we played two games, one a build up game and another the actual event and in both the Treemen made a mess of anything they came into contact with and there was just so many. Two or three players and two or three (or more) each, it was just insane.
DeleteI may look to see if I can knock up some rules for Skaven cannon (not the Warp Lightning thing, I'm not fan). I also like the idea of creating some Clan Skrye pimped up stolen gyrocopters.....................
I remember liking the Skaven deamon model. Of course, Skaven gyrocopters would be a funny sight!
DeleteOh yes indeedy, I have a plan forming that's so sneaky you could stick whiskers and a tail on it and call it Eshin!
DeleteSkaven players...as sneaky as their troops ;-)
DeleteGotta play the part, it's all part of the theatre of it all!
DeleteGobsmacking, I hope you had half as much fun as that looks!
ReplyDeleteWe all have a good time, although frustrating at times. Would I do a massive game again next year? Maybe not, not because it wasn't fun but because I felt a little anchored in by it, severals maller games would allow for more variation, both in opponents and also in games being played, would love to get some Rogue Trader in and maybe some other editions of Warhammer.
ReplyDeleteBattle cat and Cringer are awesome.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, beautiful painting and a nifty idea!
ReplyDeleteAh, c'mon Snickit... you know you loved the treemen really! A great game, even if I share your misgivings about it, and I enjoyed spending so much of the weekend with you. We'll have to get our local players together soonish.
ReplyDeleteTreemen. Love them? No! We're biting, gnawing little insects, we come with axes and burn down the forrests just like Orcsies.
DeleteSadly they're isn't much we can do against so tough an opponent.
I reckon Jezzails should be able to take them down a peg or two but aside form a tooled up character (as tooled up as one can be in 3rd, which isn't very) is about all I can work out, well, that and possibly a Battle Banner.
Defo get together soonish. Maybe leave it a few weeks so partners aren't left tapping feet so soon after BOYL but after that it should defo be a semi regular occurance, dunno if I could do weekly but definately a minimum of once or twice a month.
Cheers for all your efforts against the Treemen and inside the city, even if the tunnel became a log jam - did you ever get round to infecting Avalone's water supply?
ReplyDeleteI think my Warlord pissed it after the battle but aside from that not yet................................
DeleteNo worries, in the grand scheme of things Skaven are cannon fodder anyhow so being used for a game of golf by the Ent Moot was fitting overall!