Sunday 29 May 2016

Warmonger Miniatures 10mm Landsknecht Hellebardiere's have arrived!

I highlighted in a previous post here that Warmonger Miniatures was running another Kickstarter for his 10mm Landsknecht miniatures. This time for the Hellebardiere (Halberdiers).


I opted for four units of the new Hellebardiere and during the week, the miniatures arrived in the post. Warmonger has done another fantastic job and is true to his word in running and delivery of his Kickstarters. So if you want to know about any future 10mm Landsknecht miniatures projects, sign up to his email notifications on his webstore and stay informed. Moreover, you can pick up some of these mini's now for yourself at his webstore.

Below are some images showing a comparison with the now out-of-production GW Empire Warmaster Halberdiers for reference. Both are the same height, though the Warmonger mini's look slightly stockier than the GW miniatures. Moreover you can see that Warmonger has made his miniatures in strips of two-man a piece rather than the GW strip version. GW did produce a series of Elite Halberdiers that was done in a two-man a piece strip, and Warmonger has followed this style of strip production. By doing this you get to provide a greater level of variety to your stands than the standard GW Halberdier's permitted. You can also cut most of them into single miniatures if you so desire.


You can also see what comes in a single packet of his Halberdiers below. Each packet makes up a Warmaster unit of three stands and comes with a command strip. You can also see the 15 two-man strips that come in various poses within the packet. So if you are after either a Landsknecht army or some excellent proxies or additions to your Warmaster Empire Army, stop by Warmongers webstore and check these out.

Sunday 22 May 2016

Revenge at Arnesvelt, Warmaster 2000 point-a-side Battle Report, Part 2

Its been a little while since I posted on this battle report. Part One can be found here. Below is what happened during the second turn of the battle.

TURN 2


The Alliance won priority for Turn 2 and moved first.

ALLIED COMMAND PHASE

Empire Command
One unit of Empire Knights was within Initiative range of the Chaos Hounds and, having seen the Halberdiers mauled to a man, charged down the vial flea bitten critters.


The Empire Hero then attempted to move the Helblaster unit forward and into range of the tower occupied by the Ungor Raiders. Frustratingly though the Helblaster crews were deaf to his orders. No doubt years of working next to loud explosions from these rocket launchers had defended them!

Next the Empire Wizard ordered the Great Swords forwards and up the slope towards the NE entrance of the town.


The Wizard then ordered the separated units of Crossbowmen back into line formation, forming them back up as a brigade.

Captain Van Bekk of Marienburg, the Empire General, then ordered forward the second unit of Empire Knights (having had to determine line-of-sight with a die roll!). The Knights eagerly obeyed and charged the Chaos Hounds that their compatriots had just charged moments ago.


With that, the Empire forces completed their part of the Allied Command Phase and the Bretonnians began their manoeuvring.

Bretonnian Command
The Squires, having seen the Flagellates mauled to pieces in front of them, used their Initiative to charge the Chaos Hounds before them.


Duke Gisoreux (the Bretonnian General), mounted on his Pegasus, surveyed the situation before him. His allies had been badly mauled the previous turn and could soon be forced to retreat from battle. Worse still from the forest reinforcements of Beastmen were closing in their direction. Seeing this, the General hatched a daring plan to secure victory for the Alliance. He would lead his knights directly against the Beastlord General. If he could charge the Beastlord down and destroy him the Beastmen would become like a rudderless ship. Leaderless they would offer little cohesive resistance against the Allied forces. He must destroy the Beastlord, and quickly!

The Beastlord had crossed the river but was the only group of Beastmen reinforcements thus far to have done so. Leaving the rest of his forces to take the SE entrance to Arnesvelt, Duke Gisoreux urged his Knights forward to close the gap between themselves and the Beastlord.


Charge!

With this, the Allied Command Phase came to an end.

ALLIED SHOOTING PHASE

The Empire Cannons once again opened fire on the Ungor Raiders holed up in the ruined tower. This time however they scored only a single hit.


The Empire Crossbowmen then opened fire targeting the Ungor Raiders. However the Ungors had learnt from the previous turn and the crossbow quarrels ricocheted off the ruined tower's walls causing no damage.

The Empire Wizard however was not going to be phased by walls of stone. Also targeting the Ungor Raiders in the tower, he cast Ball of Flame. The fireball slammed into the interior of the tower causing 1 hit on the Ungors.

The Bretonnian Enchantress then cast Lady's Favour in an attempt to move a unit of Bretonnian Bowmen in to range of the ruined tower. However the spell failed and the archers remained where they were. As a result, the last stand of Ungor Raiders remained behind the tower walls with only 1 hit remaining. Given however that there was no combat about to take place at the tower this turn, the Ungors could bind their wounds and stay in the battle. The Allied Shooting Phase now closed.

ALLIED COMBAT PHASE

The Empire Knight's charge produced a devastating 12 hits to the Chaos Hounds 1 hit (after armour saves). This saw the Hounds loose 4 stands.


With only one stand left, and having lost the round of combat, the last stand of Chaos Hounds at the NE entrance to the town retreated 5cm's away from the Knights. The Knights, not wanting to be charged in the side by the Gor's holed up in the ruined chapel, elect to fall back. The fall back roll taking them 14cm back from the NE entrance to Arnesvelt, just outside on the Initiative range of the Gors in the chapel.


Next the Bretonnian Squires took on the last stand of Chaos Hounds at the SE entrance to town. The Squires, armed with a Sword of Fate, scored 8 hits to the Hound's 2 hits (after armour saves). The Hounds are subsequently crushed under the iron shod hoofs of the Squires charges. The Squires, not wishing to be separated from the rest of the Bretonnian forces and suffer a fate like the Empire Flagellates, elected to hold their position just outside of the SE entrance to the town.


With that, the Allies go in Turn 2 came to an end. The Beastmen were the ones now licking their wounds. They had lost 3 units and had two others down to a single stand each. However, with a Breakpoint number of 11 units, and the scenario Break Point special rule (see here), the Beastmen would need to loose a total of 12 units in order to be routed from the field of battle. With three units down, there was still a long way to go.

BEASTMEN COMMAND PHASE

The Beastmen Gors holed up in the ruined chapel were just outside of Initiative range of the Empire Knights. As such, they were unable to charge the Knights. Therefore Malagor, still inside the ruined tower that had copped such a beating from the Empire Cannons, attempting to order the brigade of Gors out of the ruined chapel. It would take Malagor two successful command rolls to get the brigade of Gors to attack the Empire Knights. Malagor's braying was heard on the first command roll, the Gors exiting the ruins. However Malagor's braying of a second command failed to be heard by the Gors and the stopped dead, right in front of the Knights!


Try as he may, the Centigor Hero back at the river crossing could not get his Centigors across the river. The brute beasts just kept frolicking in the cool waters and ignoring his commands to get across. Meanwhile Jim the Wargor encountered similar problems with his troops as they also steadfastly refused to leave the river and get stuck into the battle.

The Beastigor General, Khorgor of the Black Horn, resplendent (for a Bestigor) on his Tuskgor Chariot was not likewise frustrated. This dark creature's imposing stature easily inspired his Bestigor/Gor/Razorgor brigade forward. Not wanting to bring them within easy charge range of the Bretonnian Knights however, the Beastlord didn't push his troops forward a second time.



BEASTMEN SHOOTING PHASE

The Ungor Raider stand in the ruined tower was able to score a single hit on the Empire Crossbows. However Malagor failed to follow this up by shooting a Chaos Bolt. No other units were within shooting range so no Alliance stands were lost during the Shooting Phase.

BEASTMEN COMBAT PHASE

With no units in combat, the Combat Phase was over just as soon as it began. And with that, Turn 2 came to a crashing holt. The Beastmen had lost 3 units and two others were down to a single stand each. The Alliance hadn't lost any units this turn, much to the relief of the Empire General. But all this could change in the turn to come!

Sunday 15 May 2016

Ral Partha's Chaos Wars Dwarf, Undead, Troglodyte Miniatures by Iron Wind Metals Company

Painted Dwarf & Undead Armies

From the Chaos Wars No.2 Kickstarter, an update by Iron Wind Metals

We took some more photos of the painted minis last night.















Feel free to share these images, specifically if it will help introduce people to the project.

The nostalgia that I feel for this game is hard not to contain. I feel like I did when a friend and I used to go into the city, to the Tin Soldier shop, and browse through all the excellent miniatures there. I would scrape my savings for weeks and then make the special trip to buy just a packet of these beauties, goblins especially. Now, with a family of my own, I'm really looking forward to introducing this game the my kids. Priceless.

Saturday 14 May 2016

Calling all Halo fans... Dropships incoming!


An update arrived via email from Spartan Games regarding their upcoming Halo Ground Battles game.

Calling all Halo fans... Dropships incoming!

We're very excited to announce that our largest models to date, the heavyweight UNSC Pelican and the Covenant Phantom Dropships are available to pre-order now!




As you can see from the images we've supplied, our model makers are working from actual in-game digital models to guarantee an incredible level of accuracy. We've also given you a nice reference of scale by comparing these with an Xbox One Controller - as you can see, it could almost fit inside either model!



"These are two of the biggest models we've had the fortune to make for our Halo games," explains Spartan Games Creative Director, Neil Fawcett. "We showed the Pelican off at Salute 2016 in London, and Halo fans loved it. Folk who weren't even wargamers told us they wanted one. And folks' eyes lit up when they heard the Phantom was coming. So we figured we had to figure out how crazy demand for the models will be, so as to be able to satisfy demand when the new tabletop ground game launches."

The models are still being finalised, with these renders showing a work in progress, so they do carry a "Pending Licensor Approval" status from 343 Industries. As we move closer to them being officially signed off, we'll be sharing more updates.




The models will ship with a number of additional pieces pertinent to each model, so the box contents will include one highly detailed multi-part resin model, as well as:
Acrylic Flight Stand
Faction Miniatures (they are Dropships after all!)
Weapon Fits
Ownership Certificate
Full Assembly Insructions

Note also that some pewter components may be included.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more updates coming soon - we hope you guys are as excited about these models as we are!

Yeah baby! Got to get me some of these... when I'm not so broke....