Category: Wargaming

Great WOOD Game Yesterday

I had two guys over for what turned out to be an excellent game of Wars of Orcs and Dwarves yesterday.

     Kevin and I played the Orcs, and David played the hobbits. The orcs (good guys) were attacking to seize a hilltop and grab Princess McGuffin. The hobbits (bad guys) were defending a waddle wall and the hill. The orces had two “brigades,” each consisting of two “regiments” with hand weapons and one with bows. The hobbits had two units of archers, two units with spears and halberds, an elite unit with swords, a small unit of chariots, and a light artillery piece. The orcs also had one unit of giant blood orcs (with a stealthy commander!) that began in the hobbit’s rear.
Initial disposition of forces showing the hobbit defenses. In the top right you can see our flanking force of giant blood orcs. I normally like to put the hills under the cloth, but they photograph better this way.
Initial dispositions of Kevin’s “brigade” of Minifigs pig-face orcs.
Initial disposition of my brigade of Dragonbait Miniatures pig-faced orcs.
Initial dispositions of hobbit defenders. Most of the figures are Mirliton and Assuat Group. The hydra is a 3D print. They waddle walls and the stone hut are Reynedra.
A close view of the hobbit defenses.
Initial dispositions from a hobbit perspective.
     The good guys’ (orcs’) plan was for me to be aggressive on the orc right to keep the bad guys (hobbits) pinned down, while Kevin maneuvered around the right flank. I thought the plan was going to work well, when after a melee, the hobbit bowmen decided to pursue my orcs. They leapt over the wall and advanced toward me. By the time the smoke cleared, my two hand-weapon units had been crushed by the combined efforts of three units of hobbits.
     A unit of hobbits with halberds and the goose hydra routed the blood orcs in a dynamic melee. Kevin’s fought poorly all day (dismal dice), while David had pretty good luck.
     The key moment came in turn three. Often the brigade commanders’ abilities do not frequently have a major impact, but in this game they were decisive. Kevin used his “Follow Me, Boys!” ability to launch all of his units in a combined assault. His bowmen charged up the hill, defeated one unit and then fell on the rear of the hobbit artillery while his sword unit routed another hobbit unit. At this point, all but one hobbit unit was routed or destroyed. Unfortunately for the good guys (orcs), David’s brigade commander had Rally. This allows the commander, once per game, to automatically rally all units within 36 inches. In the past, this has allowed a commander to rally one or two key units. In this case, David rallied every routing unit, so the hobbits went from completely routed to back in the game. Ouch!
The goos hydra facing off with the giant blood orcs. The orcs had charged the hydra previously, which is why they are disordered. The blood orcs (and most of Kevin’s troops) fought poorly all day (dismal dice rolling). The hobbit unit had eliminated one base of orcs previously. In the next round of melee, the orcs lost two bases to the hydra while inflicting only one hit in return!
Kevin’s brigade of orcs turning the hobbit flank. The Minifigs pig-face orcs in the foreground slipped behind the elite hobbit swordsmen in the woods and routed the hobbit bowmen along the wall and the hobbit artillery from behind. It was Kevin’s finest hour, but it only lasted one activation before David rallied all his troops.
My heavily attritted orcs eventually routed the unit of hobbits they were fighting.
In the lower left, you can see the hobbit bowmen who inexplicably (Reaction Test Result) decided to charge out of their defenses. At this point, the lightly armored bowmen and completely wiped out one of my orc units through a combination of melee and archery.
     In the end the hobbits had five units left, and the orcs were down to two chewed up ones. While the orc commander briefly captured Princess McGuffin, the game was a clear hobbit (bad guy) victory.
The rallied hobbits returning to the fight, supported by the goose hydra.
The orc bowmen had routed the hobbit gunners (seen trying to reoccupy the cannons). This shot is just after David rallied all his troops. You can see the hobbit bowmen returning to the fight in the upper left. This is also right before the orc commander seized (briefly) Princess McGuffin.
     What made this game so fun was the dramatic changes of fortune. At the beginning the orcs thought we were doing well. At the end of turn two, we thought we had lost. In turn three, the hobbits were all mostly routed, and the orcs were celebratory. At the end, it was a clear hobbit victory. The game was bloody, dramatic, and fun!

The Captain America Orcs Get Reinforcements

Way back in 1983 Mark Morin painted 12 Minifigs orcs.  As Mark and I are old groganrds, he and I remember the story differently.  As I remember the story, Mark found these figures somewhere and gifted a set to me and Patty’s New Wave Bar and Grill Militia to Dave Wood.  As Mark remembers the story, he was looking for something to paint as he was just entering the hobby.  I handed him these figures, and he painted them.  In any event, they were a gift that I have maintained for many years.  Due to the garish painting scheme, these became known as the “Captain America Orcs.”

The Captain America Orcs. In this picture the flocked base is one of Mark’s originals. The unlocked bases are the new ones.

A year ago (or so) when I started working on Wars of Orcs and Dwarves, I found the few fantasy figures I had and remounted them on two-inch square bases.  In the intervening years, I had forgotten who produced these figures.

I had enough figures to make three bases.  I wanted two more bases worth of these figures.  After all these years, I couldn’t remember who produced the figures, so I posted a picture to the Vintage Lead Facebook page.  Not only did someone (several actually) identify the figures, but it turns out they were still in production.  I found the Minifigs Web site.  (Searching for Minifigs is tricky, because the search results are mostly Lego mini figures.)  I ordered the missing figures (and some others in different poses, and the order shipped quickly.

Last weekend I finished painting them and one evening I based them and flocked the bases.  The tricky bit was trying to match the colors.  They were originally painted with Poly-S.  I think they turned out pretty close to the originals.  I block painted them like Mark’s.

The original figures participated in a recent fight (and got spanked).  Buck’s Law says that the first time a new unit participates in a game, it usually gets smacked around.  Since I am adding two more bases to the unit, I don’t know if Buck’s Law will be invoked in the next game.

Orcs for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on the blog.  Work and life have interfered.  I’m sure that both people who read the blog didn’t miss anything.  🙂

I have been developing Wars of Orcs and Dwarves, which is the general fantasy, massed battles application of Wars of Ozz.  As I began development, I realized I had very few fantasy figures.  Those I had were individual figures for skirmish games or RPGs.  I have been painting hobbits like crazy.  Now that the hobbit army is nearly complete, I have begun to work on orcs and goblins for them to fight.

Dragon Bait pig-face orcs ready for flocking

I decided to go with AD&D yellow skin on my orcs instead of GW green.  I really like the look of them.

My orcs and goblins are a mix of Old Glory and pig-faced orcs from the recent Dragon Bait Miniatures Kickstarter.

Another view of the pig-faced orcs

This picture shows the pig-faced orcs supported by an orc shaman and hero and backed up by Old Glory giant blood orcs.

Dragon Bait pig-face orcs supported by an orc shaman and hero and backed up by giant Old Glory blood orcs.

 

Progress on Wars of Orcs and Dwarves

I’ve continued to work on WOOD via Zoom games. Development is coming along okay. There is the typical tension between those wanting to complicate to game to account for every nuance of a particular vision of fantasy battles (whatever that means) and trying to keep all the mechanics consistent and streamlines.

The start of a recent WOOD Zoom game in which the undead faces off against humans.

I don’t have my own fantasy armies. In the past any fantasy figures I painted were for role playing games to were instated into GASLIGHT games. So, I have been working to create a hobbit army.

A regiment of hobbit musketeers.
A closer look at the musketeers

These hobbits were 3D printed on my resin printer. I think I prefer metal figures, but printing figures is a cost effective way to build up an army very quickly.

Heavily armored hobbit cavalry.
The whole “brigade” of hobbits: 3D printed hobbit heavy cavalry (top left), old Heritage Lord of the Rings hobbit cavalry (center top), 3D printed hobbit spearmen (top right), and musketeers (center bottom).
A close look at a 3D printed hobbit ranger I am using as my general.
A final look at the hobbit brigade. You can see the paint scheme on the badgers of the 3D printed cavalry.

I am currently working on three regiments of hobbit infantry in Italian Renaissance style dress from The Assault Group.

Munchkin Balloon

The crewmen of the Munchkin balloon. Though it only has three figures, the rules state that it takes five hits like an artillery battery.

The LAST set of Ozz figures I had to paint is this balloon. I am awaiting the dire Lions, Tigers, and Bears, but until they arrive, I am out of Ozz figures. In late Summer I had three linear yards of bags of Ozz figures. I have been knocking out one or two units a week.

A closeup of the balloon
A long shot of the whole balloon and its stand.

The balloon kit comes with the lucite rod. One of the things I like about this kit is that the rod goes up through the gondola to the balloon. The gondola is actually suspended from the balloon by the lines (wire). I have built other airships over the years where the base is connected to the gondola and then the lines actually hold up the balloon. The Old Glory balloon seems more stable. The gas bag is made of a very light foamy resin. This reduced the weight on the end of the moment arm. I glued the base that came with the kit to an old CD, which provides enough stability.

New Figures for Ozz and WOOD

The Summoning Bell for Ozz

I have been working hard to finish the last of my Wars of Ozz figures. If we are ever allowed to peacefully assemble again, I want to have every Ozz figure painted to use in demonstration / participation games at conventions. A few months ago, I had three linear yards of Ozz figures to paint. The last of them are the summoning bell (pictured above) and the Munchkin balloon, which I hope to complete later today.

I have also recently completed a few other Ozz figures to get to this point.

Impkin Infantry Regiment
Impkin artillery battery
Gnomes. This is a faction that will be released later in the year and is not available to the public yet.
A final unit of Winkie cavalry, mounted on Zilks
Gillikin infantry fighting giants of the Albine mountains.

In addition ot figures of Wars of Ozz, I am painting up a couple of fantasy armies for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD). WOOD is an adaptation of Wars of Ozz (WOZZ) for general, massed-battle, fantasy games. I haven’t traditionally done much fantasy gaming. As we were testing Bear Yourselves Valiantly, I relied on Chris Palmer and Dave Wood to provide figures for the play tests. I used to think I had a lot of fantasy figures “back in the day.” In getting ready for WOOD games at conventions, I realized that I only had enough figures to make three units, hardly enough for a massed-battle game. Most of my fantasy figures were individuals for role-playing games or G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. So, I have started to assemble six players worth of figures.

Roomans. These are old Ral Partha figures from the late 1970s or early 1980s. I really like these figures, but they are out of production, and they were only made in two poses of pikemen.
Ductaurs: I ordered some plastic centaurs. When they arrived, though advertised as 28mm, the seems a little small to me. I had some extra duck heads from Star Hat Miniatures, so I did a quick head swap. I am happy with the results, but I fear the plastic weapons are going to be too fragile for gaming.

So far, for WOOD, I have a very complex spreadsheet that can be used to “stat out” units for WOOD. The idea is that players can bring whatever armies they have. (Apparently a large number of gamers were orphaned when GW discontinued Warhammer in favor of Age of Sigmar. So WOOD has not back story or lore. This means instead of providing pre-approved army lists, I need to provide a mechanism for players to determine the costs of the units they want to use. In addition, my friends have been creating army lists with WOOD stats for armies from other gaming systems.

Recently Completed Ozz Figures — Just in the Nick of Time

During the development of Wars of Ozz, I was getting figures from Old Glory as they became available. During most of the development, I didn’t have the mounted leaders and substituted other figures for testing. A month or so prior to Kickstarter fulfillment, I received a huge box full of lead. I have been working diligently since August to get all the Ozz figures painted (minus the few packs I don’t have yet) by Christmas. There is nothing special about getting them done by Christmas other than I want to have everything ready to go so that I can run demonstration/participation games if and when we are ever allowed to peacefully assemble again. This morning, I completed a bunch of figures that I will show.

Zoraster, the Wizard
Glenda, an ally of the Wizard and ruler of the Quadlings
The VonGuffling brothers who lead the Quadling armies
Three more mounted Quadling leaders

I also completed a bunch of Munchkin mounted leaders to put in front of various Munchkin regiments and to be used as brigade commanders. Munchkins are known for the horses of a different color.

Toward the end of development, I added four “personality” figures, a Kansas farm girl, a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion.

Finally, I completed the pack of lesser witches.

I like the big crystal ball on the table.

Enjoy!

Fearsome Scarecrows (and some other stuff)

As promised, I am posting some pictures of the Wars of Ozz Fearsome Scarecrows pack. These took a little longer to paint than other units, because I wanted them to have a lot of variation in colors for that scruffy look.

Once I finished all the base colors I had a little fun with dots and stripes on some of them. I really like the variety of weapons. I think my favorite are the ones with rakes.

Here is a sneak preview for you! The Land of Harvest, as it grows into its own faction, will have a unit of corn people. I only have one from the master mold. These are not yet in production molds.

I plan to get two units. I’ll paint one as yellow corn, like this one. I plan to paint the other as Indian corn.

I also completed some Quadling officers.

Finally, my friend Mark sent me these two figures that I couldn’t resist painting before Christmas.

Enjoy!