Painting in July

 I was really pleased to be quite productive in July, after June's hiatus.

First up a Balrog/Fire Demon. These are a pair of 3d prints i picked, part of a batch of demons/devils. My first attempt make the fire too bright, I wanted the impression of oily flames, the sort that would be producing a lot of dark. black smoke. 

I based one for the dungeon/underground, but I'm not sure how to base the other one yet.

Another big demon with an axe from the same set. This will be joining my Jotunheim Norse-myth based armies for Midgard.

Two smaller devils from the set, these will be summoned bodyguards for a Chronipia sorcerer.

A unit of wood elf bowmen/rangers for Midgard, that I got from a supplier on Etsy.

A pack of frost imps/ Again these were in the set of 3d prints, they will be a flying skirmish unit in Jotunheim.

Sone fiery spirits/ghosts, again for Jotunheim.

A Giant Snow Eagle, another flyer for Jotunheim.

A change of direction, some of Ironclad's new VSF releases, southern colonial types, perhaps?

Finally for July, I expanded by Barrow Downs terrain with some 3d printed stuff. Three small barrows, some ruined causeway roads and walls. These are really nice prints and so, soooo much lighter than my existing solid resin pieces.

Let's hope August goes as well. Probably not a lot of painting as i am planning to revisit the basing on my 28mm historical armies to tie them in better for Midgard games. Starting with Saxons/Franks and Late Romans.

Painting in May

 I didn't get so much done in May, real life got in the way for the first couple of weeks.

I did manage to paint a dragon for Midgard Heroic Battles. This was a 3d print a friend printed off for me.

Some frog people, some cheap 3d print off Ebay. I thought they had a lot of character and would fit in with my Boglanders.

Some more tentacled aliens from Ramshackle Games.

Another of Curtis' sculpts from Ramshackle Games, an orc shaman on a dungar. I've no idea what I will use this for, but I am sure to find a use somewhere.

Finally, some more war trolls for Middle Earth, based up for Midgard. These are the rest of a box of 1/72 trolls from Dark Alliance.

June is going to be a bust as far as painting goes for me. I just hope I can get back in the swing of things in July and regain the momentum.

Elves vs Orcs with Midgard

 Mark came over to continue his induction into the Midgard community. I think I am nearly there, convincing him that Midgard is the best rules for us to use for our big Middle Earth games.

I decided to go for a variation on David Hunter's superb Crossings of the Eyewash scenario, moving to a mid-Third Age setting, pitting a Noldor force from Lindon against an orc host out of Angmar.

We went for two 500 point armies, with approximately one third of the elves arriving (or not) later as reinforcements.

Here is the initial dispositions, can the hard-pressed elves hold the fords until their reinforcements arrive? We use double depth units for the orc foot, which makes them look very threatening.

Turn One

The orcs advance across the table. A few units were a little reluctant to mix it up with the elves, and hung back to see what happened. The elves stood their ground, except for the horse archers who advanced to take a pop at the leading warg riders, but missed!

Turn Two

The orcs keep moving forward, mainly due to the use of a lot of Mighty Deeds by their leaders to keep their units moving. warg riders charge the mounted archers, who fail to evade.😟

The mounted archers put up a good fight, but are destroyed.

The rest of the orc horde keep advancing all across the table.

Turn Three

The orcs close in on the fords and one unit charges across western ford.

But the over eager orcs are pushed back with a bloody nose by elf spears.

In the defender's phase the elves launch attacks at both fords.

Whilst out on the eastern flank the elf heavy cavalry charge into the warg riders.

Turn Four

Mixed results at the eastern ford, as one elf unit is forced back, whilst their comrades are reduced to bloody rags in the middle of the river.

At the western ford another orc unit dissolves, while the trolls and elf axemen keep pounding at each other.

Both units are simultaneously wiped out, leaving just the two heroes locked in single combat.

At the end of turn 4 the orcs reputation is now down to zero, but the scenario gives them bonus points for being aggressive at the fords, which keeps them in the game.

Turn Five

With most of the orc riders destroyed the snaga now take on the elf cavalry. At this point Shagbad the orc champion steps up and, insulting Orodreth the elf lord's horse, issues a challenge to single combat. Foolish orc! Level 1 champion vs Level 3 Hero with a Legendary Weapon, it's all over in a single round of combat!

The elf cavalry keep up the momentum, forcing the orcs back with heavy losses.

Fierce fighting continues at the fords.

Turn Six

Finally, the first elf reinforcements arrive!

As the orc offensive on the east flank grinds to a halt.

The eastern ford is held, and just as the orcs start to pour across the western ford, the reinforcement cavalry crash into them, throwing them back into the river.

At the end of turn 6 the elves have a reputation of 1 and the orcs are at -2. A very narrow win to the elves. A great game and a lot of fun. It was so close at the end, it could easily have gone either way!

 Mark certainly now agrees that Midgard are the way forward for our Middle Earth big battles. This was only his second game and, apart from the odd prompt from me, he had no problem handling 500 points.

War of the Dwarves and Orcs - Middle Earth with Midgard Heroic Battles

 I finally managed to get Mark over to try out Midgard with some of my Middle earth forces. mark and I have substantial Middle Earth armies and have played with various rulesets over the years. We were both disappointed with Oathmark and I have been nagging him to try Midgard for some time.

We fought an encounter between an orc horde and a dwarf host, fought sometime during the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, following the murder of King Thrór by Azog the Orc-chieftain of Moria. Mark took the orcs and I took the dwarves for our game and the orcs were the attackers.

As this was Mark's first time using the rules I stuck to just small 300 point armies for both sides.

The orc horde prepare to deploy.

The dwarf battle line seems puny by comparison.

TURN ONE

The main orc force advances. The orcish heroes/champions used up most of their Mighty Deeds in this first turn to keep the line together.

Except for the snaga dross on the flank, where one unit refused to move at all!

On the far side of the table the warg riders start an outflanking manoeuvre.
The dwarves mainly stood their ground, except for the skirmishers on the flanks, who both advances and took pot shots. The left flank missed, but the right flanker scored a hit on the leading snaga unit.

TURN TWO

The orcs kept moving forward (mostly) and both skirmishers were charged, but evaded.

However, that left the left flank skirmisher vulnerable to the warg riders, who took the opportunity and caught the dwarf archers on the hill, wiping them out. First kill to the orcs!

I took advantage of the dwarf king's With Me trait, and threw the dwarven centre forward to crash into the orc mass. They pushed the orcs back with heavy loses, but only one of the orc units broke. Mainly due to Mark not having used the Orc commander so far, so that he was able to use his Mighty Deeds to re-roll failed command tests. The surviving dwarf skirmishers kept up a dance around the hapless snaga unit, inflicted a second hit, but failing to cause them to break.

TURN THREE

Not a lot the orcs could do in the centre, except continue with a slugging match, which they kept on losing, one unit breaking under the pressure. The snaga tried to charge the skirmishers, but failed. 

On the other flank the warg riders charged a dwarf infantry unit and successfully forced them back off the hill.

The collapsing orc line had revealed the trolls behind them, so I charged two dwarf units into the big beasties, hoping to overwhelm them by sheer weight of numbers. It wasn't a success, the trolls threw both units back and pursued the nearest one.

On the far side the warg riders and over-reached themselves. After two rounds of melee (all be it successful ones), they were now fight at half effect. Up against dwarf axemen, this wasn't pretty and the unit was cut down to a man (er orc/warg).

At the end of turn three, things were looking really bad for the orcs, as their reputation was down to  1!.

TURN FOUR

Now the dwarves started to suffer the effects of prolonged melees. Weaken by the previous fights, now they were facing trolls and fresh units of orcs.

In the centre an epic clash between elite black uruks and dwarves, each side fought each other to a standstill. Just out of shot the trolls destroyed the unit facing them.

The battered dwarf hearthguard were charged by an orc unit. Despite inflicting heavy losses on their attackers, the dwarves were finally destroyed, although the dwarf king survived.
The skirmishers hit the snaga again, pushing them back. As the snaga are classed Brittle, this forced a command test, which they failed and promptly ran away!

The end of turn four was the end of the game, as the orcs were now reduced to zero reputation. But it had been a very close result in the end.

A great game and a lot of fun. This is what I like about Midgard, things can dramatically change around in no time at all!

I was really pleased with by dwarf skirmishers, well one of them anyway. Dancing around the larger, more ponderous unit, keeping just out of reach until their morale broke, classic skirmishing tactics, which the rules reflected well.