Halloween Special - Elizabethan Witch Wars.

With the Crowz fresh off the paint table perfect timing for a Halloween outing and the Elizabethan Witch Wars. 

Strange things were happening in England's green and pleasant land since the Spanish had launched their invasion, the plague pits were full and the earth had started to spit back the dead forcing the living to band together.

With the dead on the march and Witches in the air the Spanish abandoned the town looking to regroup before heading to the coast, but over night candle lights were seen in the windows of the town. There were people still alive in the town.

A rescue party was organised to free the townsfolk.

On seeing the human foe entering the field, the Witches summoned their dark forces, Zombies, Werewolves and Crowz…. Scary stuff....

The Buckler men supported by the heavy cavalry advanced on the left flank they had to secure two out of three houses to win the game. As they moved forward the forces of evil rushed to meet them, they only had one mission... Kill.

The Crowz swarmed towards the human prey and the wolves raced forward, the living braced themselves.

Meanwhile the cavalry moved forwards to counter the fowl beasts hacking and slashing with their heavy swords, they rode down a werewolf as it scrambled to meet them.

The cavalry pressed on but the dead were closing in on all sides.

The Cavalry were forced to flee, Count Escobala and his body guards needed to steady the line, they rushed one of the werewolves catching it cold before it could rush forward.

Claws and teeth meet iron and steel in a titanic battle.

The count was fast and his rapier pierced the heart of the evil creature. The battle was turning in the favour of the living.

Unfortunately the witching hour was upon us and the game had to end there. 

The Warlords of Erehwon worked really well combat was quick and could easily handle the large number of units on the table, we made a couple of mistakes and we need to make a couple of tweaks to reflect the good and evil forces.

The evil hordes are cheap and you get plenty of them, which gives the living plenty to chop through.

More to come in the weeks ahead.

Zombicide: Black Plague – Murder of Crowz

I was looking for something a little extra to add to the zombie games whilst it's a fantasy setting I wanted to keep it realistic as possible so not to many strange elements. A Murder of Crowz is perfect an evil feel without being to strange.

Google throws up plenty of singular crows but I wanted mass for what I had in mind, Zombicide's offering was perfect.

Zombicide extra's seem to go for silly prices on e-bay, anyhow finally picked up a set for a reasonable price. 

 

I did think about rebasing then but kept then on the original bases so I can return them to the board game but also the expanded Elizabethan games. With 15 models in the box more than enough to generate 3-4 units.

Add in a few witches and your have yourself an air wing....
Sufficiently dark and scary without to much of a fantasy feel....

War of the Worlds: The New Wave

Well that was a nice surprise for a wet Saturday morning Grey Fox Games Kickstarter drops through the door. Fantastic art work and a very professional feel to it. The extra mouse mat playing area was a great add on.

War of the Worlds - The New Wave is a deck building game set several years after the original War of the Worlds invasion.

Having ran my own WOTW's campaign how could I resist this deck building game. The extra-terrestrial invasion is occurring once again, but this time the Martians have arrived on a giant spaceship that lands in Scotland. 

During the game, one player commands the alien forces, and the other one leads the plucky Brits. Players purchase action cards as well as Units and Buildings which help with controlling areas of the board. The game comes with some lovely miniatures to replace the card board options.

The main objective of the invaders is to completely annihilate the population of Great Britain, while the opposite side needs to deal enough damage to the Martian army.

Civilians need to be protected and both sides look to look to inflict 30 points of damage.

With 45 minutes playing time perfect for some mid-week gaming.

Escape to the Country - Part 2

Having your own gaming space does have it's advantages, it means you can keep the table set up to continue where you left off. So part 2 of our walk in the Worcester countryside.
I am sure those sneaking dead fella's had crept forward since last week....

As we saw in part one as the dead increased their grip on the urban areas, the living were forced into the countryside for supplies and protection from the risen. But nothing brings the dead shambling your way than loud noises. So you can imagine what the blast of a shotgun will do.

Things start badly for the cops, stuck in a fight to the death the Sarge yells for help and is joined by his unit including little Timmy who clearly got carried away swinging his crowbar into the cadavers unfortunately he is brought down by the rotting mass.
The Sarge gets away dragging an unconscious comrade as the dead munch down on poor Timmy.... Welcome to turn one. Gulp....

Meanwhile whilst the forces of law and order look to restore law and order the nasty bikers continue to rob the place.

Whilst Timmy is being served up as a starter, the Mercia Boys fall back grabbing their breath for a few moments, when up pops a silly little girl was a pea shooter who lets off a round at the police.
No respect some people.

A volley of shotgun blasts sends the bikers for cover ducking behind the burnt out wreaks. But not before the detective catches one square in the chest and as he lies on the floor another round strikes him through the skull....
We went all last week with no casualties then two in less than an 20 minutes.

Now at this point we should have perhaps took stock and turned on the dead but no, we had to get into a gun fight and as both sides blazed away the dead increased in number appearing from doorways and alleys.

The tide of death reached us both. The boys in blue stood in the street as the walkers clawed at their body armour. Whilst the Bikers tried to slip past the garages to head back to their car but were chased by yet more walkers.

Now we may be knee deep in the dead, but we both still found time to fire off a shot or two at the only living on the board. It seems that old habits are hard to shake off. The Sarge takes a blast to his flak jacket which knocks him to the floor, he lashes out kicking the dead away.

Bow girl finally runs out of arrows and becomes the main course. The dead rip at her flesh and she is consumed by the risen.

Whilst the dead feast, the police make a break for it and what better way to distract the dead than with a few fresh meals, blasting away at the fleeing bikers who are knocked to the ground by the close range shot. 

Unable to recover from their wounded and shaken status they are caught by the walkers who tear into them. Brainzzzzz…..

Both sides decide that enough is enough and headed back to their vehicles far fewer in number than at the start of the day. Low on ammo and a little battered. but on a brighter note the supplies that they had picked up would last that little bit longer with fewer mouths to feed.

A cracking game
With us all itching for more.

Warlords of Erehwon - Elizabethan Zombie Wars

The latest Antediluvian Miniatures got me thinking about scaling up the Elizabethan Zombie Wars. I took the plunge and picked up a copy of  Warlord's Warlords of Erehwon rules.

The rules are well put together and well laid out, although a touch more proof reading would not have gone a miss. 
Much like many of Rick's offerings they are quick to pick up and very playable and should more than handle the larger units that I have in mind.

I also picked up this cracking sculpt from Heresy Miniatures whilst a glimpse of what's to come for the Zombie wars revisited.

It may seem to be a bit of a paradox but I do like my fantasy gaming to be based on a degree of history and keeping the focus on Elizabethan times, I spent some time reading up on the Witchcraft Act of 1563. The stuff you find on the web.

The Act was passed to persecute those witches said to invoke evils spirits to commit murder. There were also a number of superstitions revolving around witchcraft:

• Witches had the ability to fly using broomsticks.
• Witches used a huge black pot or cauldron to make and brew their magic potions.
• Witches had the ability to change into animal forms like cats, dogs, raven, etc.

Now that sounds like my sort of game... :-)

Most supposed witches were usually old women, and invariably poor. Any who were unfortunate enough to be ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’ ! If they also had a cat this was taken a proof, as witches always had a ‘familiar’, the cat being the most common. If convicted many were hanged or tortured with thumb screws or leg irons.

But what if the Witches were real and fought back?

With plenty of Zombies already painted up, what else could I bring in from English folklore to plague the English and Spanish.

Reading through the rules there are loads of special characteristics and stats available for your regular fantasy army lists but a couple of tweaks to these should allow me to pull together the various forces and factions for the Elizabethan wars.

Something to do while I wait for the paint to dry on the latest additions.

Wyvern Wargamers - Sunday night is Sharp Practice Night

A little behind on postings....
Club Night and all things Sharp Practice are on offer over at the Wyverns.

First up a cracking outing in the woodlands of North America, a French raiding party is about to have the tables turned on them as they attempt to raid an Indian village.

With the gods of War on their sides the Indian Big man comes out of the bag first he pushes the movable deployment forward deep into French flanking the French.

Meanwhile to the front the British and their Indian allies push forward.

On the far left the French charge forward pushing the Indian's back, but in turn are countered charged by yet more Indians. In a bloody affair the French commander is killed and their force morale slips down into single figures.

With their leader taken from the field the French morale creeps ever more towards the danger zone. The final blow comes as the Indian bolstered by their victory in melee drive into the exposed flank.

Meanwhile across the hall. The first outing for 10mm Indian Mutiny coming to a wargames show near you....

Looking forward to see how this develops in the weeks ahead.

Antediluvian Miniatures - Kickstarter - Conquerors of Mictlan - Painted (Finally)

Time to catch up on some of the outliers. Last September I picked up the Antediluvian Miniatures - Kickstarter - Conquerors of Mictlan Range. Well a year later they finally made it off the paint table.... Shameful.

These will be perfect for the Ghost Archipelago or the Elizabethan Zombie War Projects, as always with Antediluvian some great sculpts and really rich in character.

Spanish Officer types, the chap on the left with his two handed broadsword has a full face mask, whilst the second character even comes with his own monkey.

More Spanish men-at-arms lets see how the rapier fares against the wandering dead......

Born adventurers, it must be over 20 years since I last painted a dwarf but these guys should come in handy in the campaigns ahead.

The scholars and the young prince. Already thinking about the scenario's for these characters.

I was pretty impressed with Warlords of Erehwon Warlords fantasy rules when we first gave them a run out. With plenty of scope for some of the odd ideas I had for the Elizabethan games.
I think these figures might just push me over the edge to make the purchase.

Zombieland meets Countryfile - Part 1

A cracking zombie outing and something a little different for this weeks midweek game, two teams of survivors seeking out supplies of food, water and a safe place to rest.
The setting our own backyard and the village of Stoulton in Worcestershire.

Background and Timeline.

2018

African states have the largest outbreak of Ebola ever seen.

Top medical consultants around the world advise Governments to close their borders and ground all aircraft.

Governments refuse due to the economic situation, fearing a fall back towards the market crashes in recent years.

Governments push through untested drug trials designed to stop the Ebola outbreak.

Initially the trials worked and patients began to recover. After 48 hours of starting the treatment a minority of patients began suffering from total organ failure resulting in death.

Once dead the body would appear to re animate with a lust for human flesh. 

The epidemic quickly spread with International flights easily spreading the infected to all corners of the earth.

2019

The United Kingdom, like other Western Countries, quickly became over run by the walking dead. Society quickly broke down starting in major cities around the Country.

London and Manchester were the first cities to fall and all communication was lost. 

The Government was abolished with those few members surviving going underground to safe zones believed to be old cold war bunkers.

Small communities have survived by retreating behind walled towns or hamlets.

The few that remain face a day to day uphill struggle to survive.

All major populated areas have as best that you can tell been over run by the undead.

Worcester can be seen from the distance and appears to be burning, big thick plumes of smoke billow out from that direction.

It is believed that the undead horde will be at its worst in the cities.

As law and order breakdown different factions look to carve out a safe place to survive the outbreak. Heading into the less populated areas a detachment of Police head into the village outskirts. Meanwhile a biker gang coming out of Birmingham approach the village from the North.

A mean looking bunch armed with clubs, crowbars and a loose collection of firearms. The roar of the engine of the GT brings the dead shambling forwards. The perfect start for a day in the country.

Meanwhile after quietly entering the village the boom of the shotgun blasts brings the dead to the fence line, their fingers clawed at the wooden fence seeking human flesh.

Having escaped the clutches of the dead the PC's ran down the road towards the petrol station looking to grab a car or dive into a building. The dead start to fill the street.

What a time to lose your initiative :-(.
Swamped by walkers, shotgun blasts and swinging batons brought more of the dead out of the their dark corners. Will they survive stay tuned for Part 2.

A great game and looking forward to seeing if the PC's can survive the rising dead.