Five Leagues turn 12 - Going Underground

You may recall that after the last encounter, our heroes were joined by a new character, who was rolled up as a 'Wildlands Ranger'.  On reflection, I couldn't think of a character and model for that fitted the description, that didn't just feel like a poor copy of Thomas, one of the existing heroes.

So I re-rolled (it's my solo campaign, so why feel guilty about it?),   The re-roll felt much better, adding a very different type of character to my existing ones, but who I can see fitting into the dynamic, and one who's background explains quite neatly how he came to be rescued from the fanatics.

So welcome our new hero, Giacomo the Witch Slayer.  Hailing from the warmer southern lands on the coast of the inland sea, he has chosen to dedicate his life to exposing the sorcerous and corrupt.  It was his chasing of the cult of the Lady that led him to Winterbourne but, on his own, he was soon overwhelmed and taken captive.  Seeing how the party are taking on the evils in the area, he has decided that working with them will be more effective than working on his own.  However time will tell if he is a genuine team player, or will attempt to manipulate the others to achieve his own ends

The model is a lightly converted Foundry Conquistador, the original helmeted head swapped for one with a soft cap (the helmet is hanging from his belt behind him).

A wandering scholar passed through the village this turn, but had nothing to offer the party other than a riveting description of his thesis on the symbolic role of root vegetable in borderland balads.  I had to pay a gold mark for upkeep this turn, the party having now grown above 8 individuals.  Nothing else happened in town, except for Gregory visiting the village priest, who forgot to bless anyone, but did suggest that the part may want to retrieve a relic that had been left with a hermit in some caves to the north, and who had not been heard from for a while.

This turn's encounter would be against the 'Taken', and would occur in a cave complex.  The party would need to search a particular 'room' (a difficulty 4 challenge).  For battle 'oddities' I rolled up 'Gloom' (no missile attacks beyond 6") which seemed entirely appropriate!  I decided that normal shooting rules would apply outside the caves, and then Gloom rules would apply once they entered the caves.

The first problem I faced was how to represent the cave complex.  As luck would have it, I'd been looking in to this very issue while contemplating how I might run one of Five Leagues scenarios packs, 'The Goblin Hills', and had come across some very nice floor plans published by Heroic Maps, and available through Wargames Vault.  I downloaded the 'Foxtail Hills: The Goblin Caves' map, printed it out and based it on a large sheet of 5mm foamcore I had hanging around.  More 2D than my usual scenery approach, but it would work.

 

The Cave complex, with the Taken spread throughout

 

 

One guards the relic's chest

 

 

 

One of the Taken guards the cave entrance

 

Will and Jocelyn peered out from the woodland at the figure at the entrance to the caves.  Although in the same filthy robes as the cultists and fanatics they had previously fought, there was something ... 'wrong' about this one, the way he moved and twitched .  "Explains why the hermit's not been heard from" whispered Will.  

 

Jocelyn narrowed his eyes, as if looking at the figure was hurting then, "I remember once, it was  harvest fair, 'n this traveller came.  Told old stories using these figures he had on strings.  Made 'em fight 'n dance and all.  Don't know why, but that's what comes to mind.  It's like somethin' else is in charge..."

 

Will knocked an arrow to his bow. "Well, let's see if they bleed like a normal man". 

The first turn's shooting was rubbish, with Jocelyn rolling he first 1, but Will soon had his eye in an dropped the sentry outside the cave.  The Taken were alerted to the party's presence though and started to move towards them.  A second Taken appeared in the cave entrance and engaged our Gregory unsuccessfully but was in turn cut down by Giacomo - he and Robert both had fast actions; normally it would have been Robert charging in first, but with Giacomo's recent captivity likely giving him a thirst for revenge, I diced off between the two of them - I feel a bit of a clash of egos may be coming on...

 

Outnumbered, and about to fall to Giacomo's sword

 

The way was now clear for the rest of the party to enter the caves.  Robert, followed by his faithful Retainer Guy, took the first passage to the right while Gregory led everyone else along the subterranean stream. 

 

 Into the gloomy caves, squeeze in everyone!

 

A Taken blocked Robert's progress - the narrow passageway prevented Guy from supporting him (I chose not to apply the normal penalty for fighting multiple opponents due to the tight space) and hampered his sword swings, but he still managed to fight his way through to a wider, bone strewn cavern, where he dispatched another.

 

One...

 

Two!

 

 

 

While Robert was cutting his way down the side corridor, Gregory was proving he could use that hammer for more than knocking in fence posts, holding the pathway beside the stream and crushing two more advancing Taken by himself, Before Giacomo stepped up and finished off the last one.

 

 

 Reinforcements arrive for the Taken

Gregory prepares to do some righteous smighting

 

 

All Gregory's smiting done, Giacomo steps in to finish off the last Taken

 

With all the enemy gone, the gang were able to search the caves at their leisure.  As well as the relic to return to the 'safe' hands of the Village Priest,  the adventurers found yet another captive of these fanatics (rolled 'willing volunteer' for a loot roll), who decided to join them, and passed on what he had learned of another camp where they had held him a while (other loot roll was 'Evidence).

 

The Dark Secrets level was dropped a further -1 (now standing only at one) , Robert, Thomas, Guy and Giacommo all levelled up.  Oswald's 'flash of inspiration' roll resulted in him confirming his desire to become an adventurer like Thomas and the others and he joined the ranks of 'Heroes'.  

Our newest party member turned to out to be a 'Wily Rogue' and also successfully rolled to become a hero, rather than just a follower.  Now I need to go and find a suitable miniature, the party is definitely growing!

Tanks, Tanks, Tanks

 A few years back I made some 1/72 Armourfast tanks for my British/Commonwealth forces.  Armourfast are cheap, come two to a box, but are definitely basic, and at the time I wasn't too impressed with the Shermans in particular (the Cromwells aren't bad).  Since then I've mostly built Italeri or PSC.

That said, I've seen a few build of these kits recently that looked quite nice, so I thought I'd revisit them using some of what I've learned in the intervening years, and I'm very glad I did!  With an all over wash of GW Agrax Earthshade, then a drybrush with VJ Russian Uniform and khaki for edge highlights, plus a few bits of stowage, I think they've brushed up quite nice!

Two Shermans (one Firefly).  Crewman is from the HAT Tank Riders set.  Details are still a little soft, but hatches etc look much better.

The Cromwells.  These are a better kit than the Shermans overall, much better detail on panel lines, rivets etc. and took shading and highlighting very well.  Although still with the Armourfast aversion to including any tools on the mold.  Another HAT crewman, although this one looks a bit like he's been caught short (not good for the gunner or loader!).

Bit of a curate's egg here - a diecast commonwealth 105mm Sherman, treated same as above.  As far as I can tell these were only used by Canadian and Polish forces in Italy.  Ah well, it's another tank, and when I'm playing solo I'll just squint at it!

Lockdown Catch Up - 1

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so thought I should catch up on what's been going on.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home during all of this.  It's weird trying to do my work and manage the team remotely, and I do miss my most excellent colleagues, but it's a far better position to be in than many have.  Of course lockdown also means having the little miniature at home as well (she was just getting to the end of her Reception year, how time flies!).  In that respect I'm also fortunate that my other half is not currently working, having left the primary teaching profession about 18 months ago! So she's (mostly) enjoying the challenge of picking up the home schooling, which leaves me able to work.  Nonetheless, I'm not finding that I have any more time for hobbies, if anything I have less.  Previously I might use a lunchtime at work to prepare for or write up a game, read a book on the bus to work or, when working from home around one day a week, sneak in a quick half hour of painting at lunch.  Now any spare time is used preparing meals, or just to give Mel a break from the Miniature!

That said, I've still been sneaking in a bit of progress here and there!

1. Found a Lockdown Opponent!

The Little Miniature (not so little any more) kept asking about the 'knights and ghosts' that Daddy was painting (those GW Sigmarines and Chainrasps) and asked what the board that came with them was for.  The explanation led to a request to have a game, so off we duly went!

She took the 'knights'.  We managed a whole game before she got bored and just wanted to play, but she did enjoy it, probably because she won ;-)

It did remind me of some of the reasons I drifted away from Warhammer following the great fluff mess up though.  I accept that this is a simplified version of a simplified game, but in terms of actual tactics there weren't any.  It's pretty much down to luck of the dice.

She's asked me to paint a mounted knight for her and I have plans for a jousting game.  Which brings me on to...

2. Youtube

I've been watching a lot of videos on Youtube recently, particularly whilst cooking tea (anyone remember the mother's cooking in the old BBC sitcom 'Butterflies'?  Mel's is like that, only with more lentils... so cooking is mostly my thing).  Particular favourites have included:

Modern History TV  Presented by Jason Kingsley (and his wonderful horses), co-founder of Rebel Software and jouster (I've seen him joust at Bolsover and Leeds).  I'm no longer allowed to watch these without the Miniature present, as she enjoys them too!  He's got a knack of being just as interesting about jousting techniques as he is about ink from the Middle Ages, and the ones on food are fascinating.

Todd's Workshop makes historical weapons and move props.  The videos testing bows and crossbows are excellent, and he also explains in a really nice, genuine way why movie swords and props aren't always historically accurate.

The Chieftain's Hatch Get's up close with all kinds of tanks.  A former tanker on Abrams, so he knows his stuff.  Plus his collaboration with LindyBeige on the Churchill is hilariously fun and informative.

Plus anything from the Tank Museum at Bovington (not a million miles from where I grew up.  Boy has that museum got its Social Media Strategy sorted!

And while we're on the subject of tanks...

3. Reading!

Yes, I actually managed to read a book!  'Tank Action' by David Render.  He was a Troop commander with the Sherwood Foresters (the same unit as Stuart Hills, who wrote the excellent 'By Tank into Normandy').  As well as being an excellent, and often moving, account of his time as a commander, it's also fertile ground for wargamers, with some great descriptions of Troop level actions (along with some nice, clear diagrams).  Food for thought as well about how well our rules represent reality - his experience of working with infantry is often not good, but our troops are usually perfectly co-ordinated.  Plus how many rule sets could cope with recreating his commander's successful(!) one-on-one, head-on duel with a Tiger, in a 75mm equipped Sherman! It was interesting to note that they preferred to use HE against Tigers rather than the armour piercing rounds, to smash as much equipment on them as they could and effectively beat them into submission!

The only thing that bugged me was frequent descriptions of panzers being grey, whereas I'd always thought in Normandy they would be in that Dunkelgelb base.  Whether this reflects the impression they left, what they actually looked like after weeks of dust and dirt collecting, or just an overzealous editor who'd watched 'Battle of the Bulge' too often I'm not sure!

Whilst still on tanks...

4. Tiny Tanks!

I hoisted some GHQ Churchills out of storage as something to work on whilst waiting for my work laptop to restart after crashing (an alarmingly frequent occurrence for what felt a very long week), as I could work on them in a very small space with only a couple of paints, and they didn't take long for each one.

I've now found the Cromwells, Jagpanthers and infantry I had lying around too.  Post Market Garden game anyone?

Next Time...

Orcs and Fantasy Warriors!

Here's the results of some time spent painting a sprue of Warlord Games US Infantry.  There should also be a BAR gunner here, but when I went to the painting table the morning after finishing them, it was covered in cardboard boxes that had materialised from somewhere and all that was left if him was his base.  Possibly LTH (Lost To Hoover).

Pretty easy to assemble, although a few quibbles about the sprue.  Could do with more left arms.  The arm holding the Thompson at rest doesn't seem to have a corresponding left (Improvised with one intended to support a firing weapon and a spare grenade).  Also there aren't enough Garands to equip all six models on the sprue, which would seem to be useful (although there are plenty of other options including Thompsons, Grease Guns, BAR, trench gun and a Springfield).  Possibly when you get a full box it's less of an issue.

Parts fitted pretty well, and painting was a pretty pleasant experience, with very little 'soft' areas, which can be an issue with plastics.

Advancing with M1 Garand 

Running with Springfield 

Advancing with M1 Carbine (and stogie) 

Thompson and grenade at the ready 

Firing with M1 Garand

Just Deserts

Melissa and Rosa are away for a few days with family, so I'm powering my way through some painting (or attempting to).  The last few evenings have been dedicated to some more of the Warlord Games giveaway sprues, and the desert war in particular.

Brits first.  Assembly was pretty easy.  Rather nicely, the sprue seems to contain the parts to produce some pretty good copies of the old airfix models.  Couldn't resist doing at least one, can you guess which?

Next, Afrika Korp.  I actually constructed these first but painted them second (no idea why).  Again, it's possible to do a pretty good copy of the old Airfix soldiers.  The grenadier is a bit of an homage!  I was struggling to work out how to get that strange pale green for the uniforms, but then doing the packs and webbing for the 8th army, using the GW camo shade over khaki and Green Grey I figured it out!