Zomtober 2014 (Week 1 - Kind of...)

Zomtober 2014 is upon us! The rules (as outlined on Brummie's Wargaming Blog and from where I have shamelessly stolen the above image...) are simple. Paint one or more zombie or survivor figures and post the results on your blog by the end of each Sunday in October. 

Now, being very busy with the recent arrival of Mr P and my new dad duties, I managed to miss the first deadline. But Simon took into account my new circumstances and very kindly allowed me to join as an official participant nevertheless. Thanks, Simon! So this 'Week 1' post is more about describing what I am going to be aiming for during Week 2!

This seems like a great opportunity to paint some of the figures that came with the Hospital 911 set I got for ATZ after backing the Kickstarter a few months back. As I don't hold myself to be a great painter, I am opting to paint a batch of 15mm figures instead of showing of artistic skill on a couple of 28mm!

So this week, I'm going to get to grips with the hospital staff. Technically the figures are "hospital zombies", but I have plenty of zeds and no doctors, so I have opted to paint them as survivors. Luckily you can't really tell they should be zombies at this scale!

I'm also going to paint couple of police as hospital security. You know what? Google really struggles to give good image results for a search like "USA hospital security uniforms"! So I've decided on a black and white scheme. 

When I have finished the hospital staff and a couple of security chaps, I'll be ready for the first couple of scenarios in the Hospital 911 book. 

In the meantime, I've put together a checklist of everything I want to paint in scenario order to focus my Zomtober efforts and hopefully stay on track!

Scenario	Models	Quant	Done?
1,2	Hospital Staff	8(?)
1,2	Hospital Security	2
1,2	Print and laminate 3rd Floor map	n/a
3	Police Officers	Min 2
3	Gangers	6(?)
3	Print and laminate Underground level 1	n/a
4	Police officer (for elevator surprise)	1
5	SWAT with SMG	4
7	Print and laminate rest of hospital	n/a
7	SWAT with SMG (reinforcements)	6
8,9	Reporter and cameraman	2
10,11	Gangers	6
12	Thief	1
13,14	Firemen	4
n/a	Suzie: Zombie hunter	1
	Extras
	Zombies	Loads
	Army	8+
	Riot Police	8+
	Convert cars to police cars	2

 

WHFB 4th Edition Books

In keeping with my recently increasing obsession with Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition, I made a list of all the available publications (using the excellent Lexicanum website) and was happy to see I've got quite a lot of them! On the downside, this has prompted a huge desire to collect the rest! Still, it is the kind of thing that can be done quite cheaply with time and patience!

On the downside, you'll see from my list that I've expanded slightly into the 5th Edition books as well. I figured that as there is not a massive amount of difference between the two editions, why would I deny myself access to army books for Bretonnians and Lizardmen!

So here is my current list. If anyone is able to help out with any of the below, feel free to drop me a message. 

The only thing I am unsure about is the 5th Edition Seige supplement, as I only seem to find bad reviews of it online. I might be better off using the Siege and Conquest book for Warhammer Ancient Battles...

One thing I am wondering about is why the Vampire Counts book cover is done in such a different style to the other 4th/5th army books? Was it the last one published before 6th Edition came out and intended as the 'new look' but then abandoned? Who knows?!

In other news, I'm in the process of assembling some Chaos Warriors and hope to make progress in painting my Chaos Army soon. 

Part of me is wondering if I should go the whole hog and start a new blog for WHF 4th Ed. Oldhammer blogs seem to be quite popular, although I would probably class my efforts as more 'Retrohammer'. Oooh, there's my blog name sorted out...

A New Arrival and a Few Ramblings

It has been a while since my last blog entry, and for good reason. On 12 September 2014 my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy so our world has had a bit of a shake up! Needless to say my hobby time has been greatly shortened for one of the best reasons possible, but it hasn't stopped me thinking about it and formulating ideas and projects!

I've also got a few blog posts waiting to be written up when I finally get round to it, including a boxing match in the Star Wars universe, an ECW game using the excellent paper models from Billy Bones' Workshop and a quest for my ideal miniature skeletons! And this is just scratching the surface! I also blame my lack of productivity on the Blogger app, which allows me to draft posts which I then polish up on the laptop. Unfortunately it is far too easy to draft up and entry and then get distracted and never get round to finishing it!

But in the meantime, my main hobby 'thought time' has actually been taken up by Warhammer 4th editon. A couple of small eBay purchases have moved my collection of publications towards completion and helped along my newly growing Chaos army, while a notepad by my bedside has seen several speculative army lists written up during the sleepless nights that come with a baby only a few days old!

But a lot of the time I have been thinking about what draws me towards 4th Edition Warhammer compared to the more widely accepted 'old-school' option of 3rd edition, which I also own. So I thought I'd put these thoughts in order for anyone who might be interested, and here are the results!

1) The rules are simple but effective.

The move from 3rd to 4th editon Warhammer was notable for many reasons, but one of the most significant ones was the stripping back of the rules to a book about a quarter the size if the previous version. Now, I've greatly enjoyed the games of 3rd edition that I have played, but find myself wanting something more simple for my fantasy games and which gives games I can complete solo in a reasonable amount of time. In general I am in favour of more complex rules over simpler ones, but when it comes to Warhammer I want to focus on the spectacle of clashing armies rather than a large rulebook. It's worth remembering that the rules themselves are reasonably sound, to the extent that the 5th edition (which is not hugely different from 4th) formed the basis of the highly popular Warhammer Ancient Battles. (This is something key to my comments in point 4 later on...). It really is a case of horses for courses though. If I wanted a good set of fantasy rules to use in my own setting, I would probably lean toward 3rd edition due to its sheer scope and encouragement to 'do your own thing'. 

2) I really like the army books.

Perhaps this is a contentious issue, but I do really enjoy the early army books. 4th saw a shift from one single book, to individual ones for each of the races. There are, of course, definite advantages to only needing one book, but in the transition to 4th I feel an opportunity was taken to flesh out the Warhammer setting and increase the unique feel of each army and add some of my favourite war machines! For example, Skaven saw the introduction of the Doomwheel and Screaming Bell, two classic war machines. For me there is nothing quite like taking one of the army books from my shelves and flicking through, soaking up the feeling of the earlier Warhammer setting and thinking about new armies to field. Of course, I may not be so enthusiastic if the books were expensive, but it has not taken me very long to build an almost complete collection, often spending no more than £2 for a book! In fact, some special rules and units aside, the black and white army lists and Battle Bestiary given with the 4th editon box set are all you need to play a game. You don't even need the army books (and if you are a Bretonnia fan you'd be waiting until 5th editon for one anyway!)

3) It is 'my' version of Warhammer

I actually boought the 4th edition of Warhammer second hand about 15 years ago or so, but it languished without being played. Then I got a copy of 3rd edition after becoming quite taken by the emerging Oldhammer movement (kudos at this point to Gaj at Warhammer for Adults, as it was his blog which inspired me). After playing a few games of 3rd and reading more about the figures of the time, I realised that it didn't really mesh with what I recalled of Warhammer from White Dwarf in my youth. This was for the quite simple reason that  4th edition had just come out when I started to buy the occasional issue of White Dwarf and it was the battle reports, figures and articles from this era which captured my imagination. Although the first issue ever bought was 186 (due to the instructions on how to build an Ork Gobsmasha!), I remember more clearly the period between seeing Elves and Goblins in the adverts for the boxed game and then Bretonnians and Lizardmen. So for this quite simple reason, 4th edition is the version I am drawn to more than any other. 

4) You don't have to play it as 'Herohammer'

In point 1 of this post, I made reference to the connection between 5th edition and Warhammer Ancient Battles. One of the most frequent accusations you can find levelled at 4th & 5th editions is that they represent the 'Herohammer' period of the game, where battles were decided by who had the strongest hero laden with the the most game breaking magical weapons. But as WAB demonstrates with it's lack of heroes and magic but the same core rules, this doesn't have to be the case and in fact it is mostly down to the players. If you don't want to play Herohammer, then limited the amount of magic or heroic characters and play the game you want. In fact, reading through some of the supplements published, they specifically encourage an approach counter to what the two editions have become known for. Sure, game breaking hero and magic options exist, but you can take control of the game you play and limit or allow this as suits you. 

5) It's the spirit of the game that counts.

Not really a point specific to 4th edition, but one of the most important to me. If you take a look at Warhammer for Adults and other blogs such as Realm of Chaos 80s, you will find that there is not a single mention of how to design a great army or max out the strengths of your force. It is all about having fun and playing games in the spirit of shared enjoyment. And this can be done with whatever set of rules you enjoy. 

So I raise a glass to 'my' version of Warhammer and happily sit surrounded by my source books, delving into the rich background and planning the narrative behind my next game. In fact, only today I read an old White Dwarf article from the 4th edition period extolling the virtues of the narrative campaign. Who'd have thought it?!

So anyway, that's a summary of my random sleep-deprived thoughts on 4th editon for now. The only question now is how long until my son works out how to roll dice?!

August 1914

A friend came to see me on one of the evenings of the last week — he thinks it was on Monday, August 3rd. We were standing at a window of my room in the Foreign Office. It was getting dusk, and the lamps were being lit in the space below on which we were looking. My friend recalls that I remarked on this with the words: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."

Viscount Grey of Fallodon, "Twenty-Five Years 1892-1916" (New York, 1925)

Bitten by the ECW bug?

It may surprise you to know I am not the type to spuriously start a new project. (Aside from Wild West, FIW, B-Movie Aliens, Starship Troopers, and 15mm Rogue Trader, all of which are at various stages of limited progression.)

I forget what I was browsing for at the time, but I came across some very nice ECW paper figures on the Billy Bones website. Now, I've experimented with paper figures before, and enjoyed them, but it is true that they can't beat 'proper' figures. 

So what would make a difference? Thinking about this, I have felt that paper figures should offer something, stylistically, that metal figures don't. From my forays into the world of paper, I'm left feeling that there are two broad categories of figure. The first attempts to produce some reasonably realistic figures that look quite accurate on the table. The second goes down more cartoony lines, but still satisfies the same aesthetic principle of trying to recreate the visual effect of painted figures. 

From my perspective, both these offer a decent quick fix, but afterward leave me wanting to play with metal or plastic. Enter Billy Bones Workshop. 

Currently, they offer two ranges: ACW and ECW. Both offer stylised paper figures which invoke recognisable imagery from the period. In the case of the ACW figures they look like they are photos taken during the period and for the ECW figures a style is employed reminiscent of woodcut art common in that era. Even better, the ECW set includes common terrain features such as hedges, roads, rivers and buildings, all drawn in the same way. So the overall effect is something which is not so easy to replicate with miniatures and highlights one of the strengths of paper figures.

I have only assembled a few stands, but here are a couple of pictures from each range, taken from the Billy Bones site:



 

So that's the figures sorted for my games, but I need rules as well! Perfect Captain came to the rescue here with what looks to be an excellent set of wargame and campaign rules. And they are all free (with the option to donate to charity)! I set up the start of my campaign last night and hope to post on how it develops. First impressions of the campaign rules are good. There seem to be a couple of holes, but nothing which can't be fixed and certainly nothing worth complaining about given the price!

Here's a picture of the campaign map, followed by the starting garrisons. 

Royalist forces

Parliamentarian garrisons

In this close up you can see the markets making up one of the garrisons:

On the top left is the commander, the codes show his attributes, in this case that he is Disciplined and Bookish. Disciplined is useful in battle and in taking some campaign actions. Bookish can be positive when taking certain campaign actions. It comes in handy when developing fortifications or organising more forces for your army.

Most of the unit counters have a number, showing how many bases (squadrons) currently make up the company. 6 is full strength. Gun markers represent one base of artillery. So this garrison is quite mixed. Two units of Seasoned Pike, two of Seasoned Musketeers, one of Harquebusiers and a light gun. Worth noting is that, while you might start with some Seasoned troops, the time scale of the campaign (usually about half a year) means you don't get a chance to replace these and any forces you recruit will be Trained Band, consequently not as good in battle.

I've just calculated income for the first turn and determined the weather (which has turned out to be bad). I am now about to issue orders. More on that later!

Star Wars Game (5150)

 I took advantage of the fact that I still had the table ready from my recent Slaughterloo game and decided to have a Star Wars game using the 5150 Star Army rules by Two Hour Wargames. I ended taking a few more pictures than I expected, so this is something of a pictoral summary, with my comments and observations dotted between. Click on the pictures if you want to see larger ones.

The set up: an alien jungle planet. Three possible enemy contacts were set up, two toward the top left of the picture and one by the stone column.

I decided to semi-generate some reinforcements by organising the squads I would use and assigning each one a card. When required, I drew from a card deck to see what turned up. I made up stats as I went and have them filed in a box for future use.

Due to an odd die roll on the first turn, I ended up getting reinforcements before my platoon arrived on the table! 4 Phase 1 Dark Troopers. As it happened they were not so useful...

The Dark Troopers make first contact: A Rebel squad in a defensive position. Might be tough to shift them.

Rebel fire takes out two of the Dark Troopers.

My main force arrives. On the left flank I deploy two squads and the platoon command squad. All are troops of average quality (Rep 4)

On the right flank I deploy my weaker squad. Unfortunately all Rep 3. This would mean they would be less likely to activate efficiently, but I figured all I wanted them to do at this stage was take and hold the jungle in front of them.

The final Dark Trooper attempts to charge and falls to Rebel fire. Useless robots!

On the right, my Stormtroopers advance and survey the carnage!

Contact with the other PEFs. One is a Rebel Squad of average quality but with a poor leader. The other is a poor squad of Klatoonians.

The view from the jungle edge. Fortunately, the enemy were mostly armed with blaster pistols and not in a position to take any shots.

I start to suffer from Rebel fire. Aside from being generally better, the Light Repeating Blaster would lay down heavy enough fire to force the Stormtroopers back into the jungle, meaning that Imperial return fire would be less effective even if it didn't cause casualties.

The exchange of fire between the two squads continues, while the Klatoonians advance on the left.

On the right flank, my Rep 3 Troopers start to suffer from the higher quality Rebel fire, although due to their armour, a lot of the Troopers lying down did not take severe wounds.

Here is an example of what happens when poorly skilled and badly armoured forces advance into the open

Zap! Over half the squad goes down.

Zap! Zap! My follow up fire wipes out the rest. The reaction system used in THW games mean that your forces can react to fire targeted at them, and then follow up with their own fire when active, so a well positioned and trained force can have a brutal effect.

Happy days! I take out the pesky Rebel heavy weapon. This should make things easier for me.

On the right, Rebel fire keeps on forcing my Troopers to fall back to cover. Of course, ones which have been stunned are less able to do so, which meant that the 'good guys' could mercilessly shoot them while they lay on the floor! Rebel scum!

I decide to start a flanking maneuver. I had a squad to the left of the one in the jungle hiding in some ruins. I felt it was time to move them round at attack the Rebels from two angles.

Sorry, blurry picture! Ewww. Gives me a headache just looking at it. But this is a squad which came to reinforce my efforts

Still not managing to shift the rebels on the right....

Despite my best efforts there seems to be a bit of a stalemate on the left flank...

Well, why not just shove everything at them and see what stick?

Yet more Imperial casualties on the right. I was basically using this squad to keep the Rebels in place while I sorted out the left flank.

A bloody conflict ensues in the jungle as I recklessly throw in my jungle scouts.

Annoyingly, this was the only time I partially failed a Man Down test in the game, resulting in two troopers deserting when one was taken out.

On the right flank I finally only have one trooper left, so the Rebels opt to charge into the jungle and finish the job. So the right side of the table is now secured by the Rebels with minimal casualties.

It takes two squads to shift the Rebels out of the jungle. Unfortunately this puts them out of sight of my forces.

The Rebels on what used to be my right flank start to advance towards the river.

Boom! What's this? Another blurry photo? It can only mean one thing: Imperial reinforcements? Did I get so excited by getting more troops that my hands started shaking?! I felt the battle could really turn in my favour now, as I got a good squad of Sith Troopers, all armed with light repeating blasters. In short, quite a devastating squad to have!

"Jungle secured, Sir!"

Rebel Troopers take up position in cover in response to the appearance of the Sith Trooper reinforcements.

The view from behind the Rebels

What's this?! Rebel reinforcements. Uh oh. The Mon Calamari are not exceptional in terms of armour or weaponry, but they do get a bonus to hit in moist environments (and a penalty in dry ones), so the fact that they turned up on a jungle planet was good for the Rebels.

Distracted by finishing off the Rebels, none of my force is positioned to respond to enemy reinforcements.

Sith Troopers advance to the edge of cover. Not only are they excellent warriors, but they have great weapons. The result...?

... The brutal destruction of the Rebels across the river.

 

The changing situation on the left flank. The Mon Calamari suffer from Imperial fire.

Having taken care of the first squad of Rebels, the Sith Troopers move towards the Mon Calamari. The result was a nasty exchange of fire, which saw extensive Rebel casualties.

The scouts advance across the river just to make sure the remaining Rebels were no threat.

At this point I decided to end the game. I rolled the activation dice a couple of times in case the Rebels got reinforcements, but nothing turned up. I had definitely succeeded in my goal of defeating the enemy force.

Luck was on my side, I think. Although the game might seem a little one sided in retrospect, I was never entirely sure what might have happened from turn to turn. Sure, the Sith Troopers were great to get, but they came in relatively late. It was unfortunate for the Rebels that they had the Klatoonians as they never had a chance to do anything and were an easy target for my higher quality soldiers. But in any case, it was a fun game. I did limit myself to infantry, something I won't do next game. One other thing I forgot to mention was that I rolled a result of Bad Intel before the game. I could quite easily have found myself facing a force twice the size, or being outflanked at the beginning, which would obviously have changed things. I was lucky there.

A final point is that, although I won this game, if I had been playing a campaign it would have been less impressive. I managed to lose a whole squad and there was a good chance I would have had to go without replacements in the next game (you don't keep reinforcements rolled during the battle). So I could have faced a similar enemy force with only two thirds of my force, making future missions much harder. Star Army certainly produces a good one-off game, but I am certainly eager to play a proper campaign against the Rebels!