Warhammer: The return!


So, after a long hiatus and a period of low enthusiasm I am back on the Wargaming band wagon. The Stoke Rogue's dalliance with Armies of Arcana as our main source of Fantasy wargaming, has come and gone (although we still intend to play the odd game now and again) and Warhammer has once again risen to pre-eminence as our Fantasy rules of choice. Not however, the latest sets available from Games Workshop. After some debate and a bit of soul searching it was decided by majority decision to return to our "golden era" of WHFB 6th Edition.


6th Edition was the point at which most of our current group of players felt that Warhammer was at its peak, and we played extensively during that period. Indeed, it was during 6th Ed that the Stoke Rogues tournament team burned ever so briefly (and not so brightly) on the national tournament scene. It was also during 6th Ed that our own Stoke Wargames Group Warhammer Tournament came into existence, and although we haven't run it for many years it is still occupies a special place in the hearts of those who played in and remember it.


So, it's early days, but I am really keen to crack on with this new lease of life for an old system. So stay tuned over the next weeks and months to see how thing pan out.

Part 2

As promised, some more picture from last week game.


The Chaos and Orcs mix it up on our left flank!

Whilst the Undead boys whoop some ass on the right flank!

Meanwhile, Dave's general decides this might be a good time to get out of dodge!

This game is still in progress, so I will post more pics once it is completed!

StokeRogue

Sean of the DEAD!

This Friday we were very happy to be joined by Sean, for his first AoA outing. Once again Dave and I teamed up with 2000 points of Orcs each, whilst Ade and Sean had 2000 points of Chaos (Ade) and 2000 points of Undead (Sean). We played the standard "tournament" style game both sides looking to push the other to 30% losses or better.

Not a battle report as such, as again this was really a basic training session, but some nice pictures to feast your eyes upon.

The Orc heros!

The Orc infantry marches to battle!

Supporting fire!

A couple of new unit types, flyers and vehicles, to try out the rules!

Orc cavalry was in available in large numbers!

A few pictures from the game.

Orc left and right.

Unholy Alliance left and right.

More to follow soon!

Progress report

Firstly an apology. Last Friday we did finish the game that we started on the 28/01/14. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I could take a single photo, so I will just give a brief rundown of how it went.

Many warriors on both sides were lost. Dave's flank suffered heavily at the hands of the Chaos elite troops, whilst on my flank Ade’s lower quality troops were roughly handled by my Orcs. The decisive moment came from a "slight dodgy" ballista hit on the elite Chaos Chosen Knights, which killed enough to make them flee. This meant that both sides reached 30% loses at the same time, so both had to test. The Orcs got lucky and passed their army morale, the Chaos were less fortunate and failed - handing a very jammy win to the Orc commanders.

Another of our gaming group, Sean, was able to come along and watch that night. He has been interested in playing AoA with us for a while, and this game really fired him up to join in. The upshot is that this Friday we will repeat this format of the game. Dave and I will again bring 2000 points of Orcs each, whilst our opponents will be Ade with 2000 points of Chaos and Sean with 2000 points of Undead. With luck I will remember to charge my camera battery so that I can share some images with you.

In other news, most of Stoke Wargames Group went down to Alumwell this Sunday for the WMMS wargames show. This show has been a big favourite of ours over the years, and usually is considered to be one of the best shows on the calendar. I thought that this year was slightly below par, as usual there were some very nice demo games to see (Zulu's seemed to very popular this year for some reason), but otherwise I thought it was very uninspiring (unless you love laser cut mdf terrain which seems to be everywhere atm). Also, it may have just been me, but I thought that it didn't seem to be very well attended this year. Still it was good to see all the guys from the club as well as some old friends from the community. Special mention for the guys from our own club who put on a very nice looking (and worryingly topical) Crimean War demo.

Finally, Dave and I went to see my old trading buddy Tom this week. Dave picked up some nice additions to his Barbarian and Orc armies, whilst I acquired this beast to bolster my growing Giant collection. Giant Kings Army coming to a battlefield soon I think!

He comes from Black Scorpion miniatures, with a few extra bits and bobs added on.

http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=132

StokeRogue

To Battle (28/02/14)

So, after witnessing last weeks battle, Dave was all fired up to take his lovely old school Orc army out for a spin. As there was going to be 3 of us we decided that Dave and I would take 2000 points of Orcs each and ally up, whilst Ade would up his Chaos boys to 4000 (roughly split into 2 2000 point chunks in case anybody else turned up and wanted to play). Strangely, both Dave's and my armies ended up looking pretty similar. We both had a unit of 10 Boar Boyz, a unit of 10 Longbow Orcs and 2 units of 20 Orc warriors. The only real difference was that Dave included some Trolls and a Giant, whilst I took a ballista and my new fav's the pumpwagons!

This is my army.

This is the positions early in the game (the Chaos stuff had just made its first move of the game at this point). Ade had put most of his best quality stuff on our left, the side that poor old Dave had ended up on. This left me facing a horde of low quality Marauder units.

The formidable Chaos center!

The brave Orc battleline!

On our extreme left Dave's Giant, Boar Boyz and Trolls face of against the elite Chaos cavalry.

On our extreme right a massed combat breaks out after I made a stupid move and get some Orc boys badly flanked. Luckily Ade's troops on this side aren't quite good enough to break through in 1 move and so reinforcements from both side pile in!

In the center things are very even as Ade's Chaos warriors with pole arms mash one of Dave's Orc units, whilst in turn my Boar Boys run down a big unit of Marauders!

This combat phase saw Dave's Giant die, 1 Orc unit wiped out, 1 Marauder unit broken and ridden down by Boar boys and a Marauder light cavalry unit break and flee! Many other combats were also going on, but most of them were inconclusive.

At this point we sadly ran out of time, but fear not as we have left the game set up to finish next Friday! Any experienced followers of the game will notice that at this point our tactics don't really extend beyond "line up and fight", but this is OK as the main thing is we are all having a good laugh and learning the rules.

StokeRogue

Standing on the shoulders of Giants

So, one of the things I enjoyed most about last Fridays game, was the fact that I got to use a unit of Giants! As a former WHFB player I haven't seen units of Giants since 3rd edition, as since then they have been classed a lone monster. This got me thinking that it would be nice one day to get all my giants on the battlefield, either in a Giant Kings army or as part of a "big game". To whet my appetite, I dug out some of my giants for a photo shoot.

Old Marauder giant - one of my favorite figures of all time, re-based for AoA.

Giant of Albion converted into an Ogre Kingdom Slave Giant

Another Marauder giant - this time pretty extensively converted.

GW giant, last metal giant before they went to plastic kits I believe.

Fe fi fo fum ask not whence the thunder comes! Group shot.

And finally the big daddy, affectionately known as Andre to his friends! A forgeworld piece that they sadly don't make anymore.

I know that I  have one of the new style plastic giants painted somewhere, but I cant find him at the moment. I'm also confident that somewhere in my hobby room I have both of the Giants of Albion that need to be assembled  and painted. Hopefully some time soon I can get all these gentlemen completed and based for something special - maybe if all the guys get their giants together as well it would be truly spectacular!

StokeRogue

To battle! (Friday 21/2/14)

Fridays game at the club saw my Orcs take on Ade's Chaos for the second time. Dave and Jason also came along, although they were happy to watch and pick up the rules. 3500 points was the agreed total and for only the second time we decided it was O.K. to use wizards (we left them out of the first few games to concentrate on the basic rules).

This game was no tactical master class by any means, pretty much just a straight up slug-fest until 1 side broke. In the end the Orcs lost by failing their army morale roll, although the Chaos army was only just above the threshold for testing themselves.

This was a very interesting game for a number of reasons. Firstly, Ade had really beefed up the Chaos warriors since our first game, Long weapons and 2 skill 3 attacks each made them extremely efficient in combat and they totally took my Orc units apart. Secondly, I included a unit of 2 Giants in my list. This was the first time we had used Sweep attacks and we surprised at how effective they were, especially against the lower skilled/equipped marauder units that they fought against. Finally, on a bit of a whim, I fired my own longbow Orcs into a melee between my "Runt Wagons" and some Chaos Marauders. After most of my shots missed the chaos troops I rolled to hit my own wagons and ended up destroying 2 out of the 3 in the unit, much to the amusement of everybody witnessing! Clearly I need to think a bit longer before doing that again.

When I got home I reviewed the pictures I had taken, and sadly for some reason a lot of them had not come out very well. Anyway, here is a selection of the few that did come out to give you an idea of the game. 

Ade's Chaos army before the battle. He had a mix of very expensive Chaos Warriors and Knights, with lots of cheap Marauder units!

 My 2 big Orc blocks charge the Chaos Warriors with pole arms.

A brutal combat later and 1 unit is destroyed, whilst the other legs it!

Early positions!

Some Giants about to introduce us all to "SWEEP ATTACK!"

The perfect result of any wargame - happy gamers!

Also going on at the club that night was an interesting looking Wild West game. Don't know much about the rules but the terrain was stunning.

That's all folks.

StokeRogue