Stargrave: Battle for the overgrown factory

Recently I played a game of Stargrave, the sci-fi skirmishing game by Osprey Publishing. This time I played a proper crew vs. crew game in a scenario from the main rulebook called 'Overgrown Factory'. Two rival crews attempt to pillage an old overgrown factory in the midst of the jungle, risking both the local wildlife, still active and dangerous bits of machinery and a fully armed and operational warbot that'll enter the game shooting at some point. Sure sounds like a recipe for disaster fun. here's our game setup.

I've always dreamed of having a cool table to play miniatures games on. This one manages to fulfil that dream quite nicely. 

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way redux

During the lockdown I turned Bloodbath at Orc's Drift into an Age of Sigmar campaign aptly named Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift. On Saturday the ninth I will be hosting the full campaign with a small group of friends, before that time I wanted to retest the third skirmish in the campaign: Linden Way. Here's the battlefield for the scenario's redux. A synopsis of the original tryout is here. 

The re-imagined Linden Way table. I forgot to bring a lake and a few copses of trees. We solved it by improvising.

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way

With another lockdown lifted, I got a chance to test scenario number three from my reimagining of the classic Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign. This time the villagers of Linden Way had to escape while a small visiting army tried to hold the little town against yet another invading horde. As with the previous scenario's I first had to reinvent the table layout as wargaming tables have shrunk (while quite ironically the models keep on growing  #scalecreep). Here's the Linden Way table for the Blood Bath at Orruk's Drift campaign.

Linden Way reimagined for a smaller table. I made an improvised lake by cutting a plastic tab divider to shape and covering the edges with moss.  

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #2 Ashak Rise

This week I had time to test out scenario number two for my re-imagining of the classic Bloodbath at Orc's Drift campaign. The original scenario featured a small band of greedy dwarf deserters trying to save their gold from a chance encounter with an invading orc warband. This new version sees a small Order/Death army defending the same old shack from an invading Chaos/Destruction host. Slightly bigger scale, same principle. 

The game opened with a unit of skeletons and a lone Tomb Banshee standing close to the bridge on the road leading past Ahsak's Rise mining cottage.

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #1 Kachas Pass

As far as I'm concerned the best wargames are narrative games. This year I planned to slap Oldhammer and Age of Sigmar together and reimagine a classic. Unfortunately grandfather Nurgle's 2020 tour made it irresponsible to host a day of group gaming. On the plus side it gave me time to actually polish my scenario. To take it up one notch (and because we can safely have limited contact again) I actually tested the first scenario. Now there's a first. Here's some ramblings about applying old school wargaming to new rulesets. 

With a roar the invading Skaven horde stormed the stockade manned by two units of Dark Elves and their commander. 

Oldhammer meets Age of Sigmar: Battle for Black Fire Pass

As most likely none of you missed, GW recently announced that its necromancers are hard at work resurrecting the Old World. They expect to take about two or three years to give us more clarity on what this will mean. Meanwhile as one of those madmen that like both the current AoS lore AND the Old World I've just decided to go have fun right now (as to what is planned: que sera sera). One of the things on my to-do list was fight a big battle over Black Fire Pass. Yesterday evening, I did just that.

And some call this a skirmish game...

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part three)

It took a bit long to get the report from battle two out of three done, but I think I more than make up for it with this one. Last Wednesday I fought the final battle between me Legion of Blood army and the Seraphon. Having lost the previous one I was the defender of a ruined castle and all I had to do was hold out until reinforcements arrived. You can see what happened next below, or click here to download a PDF version if you prefer.

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part two)

With all the holidays coming to a close I had a chance to play the second part of my three part Age of Sigmar campaign. The scenario for this one was The Barrowfields from Malign Sorcery (p. 54). My Legion of Blood had to perform as many rituals as possible to discover the location of a hidden Seraphon base. A risky endeavor as failure would point the Seraphon straight at my own home base. It was a nice clash, that due to time constraints had to be decided with a role-off...You can read how it all went down (more or less) in the comic below, also available as a PDF here.

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part one)

The release of a new edition of Age of Sigmar seemed like an excellent time to set-up a small scale campaign. After a bit of a chat at my local gaming club (Sword Brethren Eindhoven) I was warned to tone my ambitions down to make it work (excellent advice, I tend to get carried away). In the end I proposed running three linked scenario's one-on-one, leaving all the more complicated multiplayer campaign planning for some other time...

Storytelling in wargaming through AoS Open War Cards and other means

Playing this scenario pack actually got me to read Shakespeare (for a great bard, he showed a decided lack of interest in featuring treemen in his tales).

True old school Warhammer requires a game master as well as (at least) two players to fight battles. Fantasy (and sci-fi) wargaming followed pen and paper roleplaying in that regard. That is not entirely surprising as Gary Gygax & friends started D&D out as a variant system to wargaming. It should be no surprise that the oldest game supplements Games Workshop released tended to be adventure like campaign packs linking mutliple battles into a story. I vaguely recall playing through The Tragedy of McDeath campaign in the eighties (sadly with cardboard counters (if only I had taken the 100 quid miniatures deal way back then)). Unfortunately I remember the long discussion between players and GM about the utter lack of balance in the missions better than the actual game itself. That and playing an Appetite for Destruction cassette so many times the tape actually wore down. Sigh, happy times, nostalgia.  Looking back through the booklet makes me want to revisit this scenario someday, AoS style of course. It has rules for buildings that beg to be made into warscrolls and scenario's with interesting special rules. Let's first finish my drawn out move to a new house, then do something with the Grudge of Drong and set McDeath AoS style to somewhere after that...