Desert Forces

 

... or pretty much, what I did during New Zealand's second COVID lockdown.

So the goal was to do something with the hordes of 20mm figures that had been replaced by newer sculpts and companies and recklessly stuffed in a box, and had come home from far to many Bring and Buys.

The second goal was to find a game and a way to teach my stepson about losing during a game, especially your 'favourite' figure of the day.

The result was a Black Powder supplement - greatly simplified with the addition of heroes, magic, monsters and machines, desert scenery and the desert forces themselves - which were meant to be reinforced by Redbox's Dark Alliance Mummies and Anubis army, which have as yet, failed to show up from muster - international shipping being what it is.

Excellent Adventures - Black Powder Supplement

I grabbed Hordes of the Things, Warmaster Revolution and Black Powder V2 and munged the first two into the third. What resulted was an exceptionally fun, and funny, not to be taken seriously supplement which worked really well - with very little rule changes for core BP rules.

We had hordes, steam tanks, Giger-moths, stoic British infantry, and crazy magicians firing off their fizzing silliness all over the place. Instead of trying to 'win' the object was to tell the 'story' and not mind which side you were on or who won - I guess teaching how to lose before teaching how to win - sounds counterintuitive I know, but I don't think we've laughed so much in ages.

Terrain

Building upon previous desert escapades, we updated the Temple of Seth with a couple of extensions.

Then, 'build a pyramid' he said, 'from the bricks we made from das' he said, 'it'll be fun'.

Ten hours later and we have a small pyramid, which I have to admit, set the scene nicely, even for the pyramids in northern Sudan (who knew they had them???)

And of course you have to have an abandoned fort and a hastily erected stone defence robbed from said pyramid (see the 'good guy' photos for the stone defence).

The 'Bad Guys'

The bad guys, in a homage to Indiana Jones baddies, red and black theme and warriors from the Esci Set 238 Muslim Warriors and Italeri Set 6010 Saracen Warriors, flying horrors from Eagle Games Egyptian 'Age of Mythology' sprue, and a giant Djinn from the 25mm Ral Partha range.

Led by a great As-Sihr (magician) and hell bent on reaching the pyramid cemetery at Meroe to raise the dead and basically do 'bad things'.

Classic hordes of bad guys for your chosen heroes to fight, backed by a mighty Djinn hero.

The red and black certainly put colour on the board and the forces were finished off by further Eagle Games Egyptian sculpts of various monsters - used in a summoning/charm spell during the shooting round.

The 'Good Guys'

A lot of these were re-based from various HoTT forces and further photos can be found here.

Victoria's Forces

Stirling lads from various regiments stationed at Suakin, set out to chase and confront the As-Sihr forces. 

Mostly drawn from the old Esci Set 232Colonial India British Infantry and A Call To Arms Set 57 British Infantry Zulu War boxes of 1/72 awesomeness.

Including a regiment ordered to wear their red coats - one last time - to show the As-Sihr forces they were just as 'red' blooded as they were.

Inspired, many of the KRRC donned their old dark green for the coming battle.

The rest of the forces wore their new khaki smocks.

The special brigade (the only one with red epaulets) were led by their general.

Even a regimental chaplain volunteered to meet the As-Sihr and all their magical fizzing silliness, quoting "This maniacal fuddery-duddery just won't do!" - essentially a 'magician' that uses the Dwarven 'dispel magic' spell from Warmaster,

Envigoured by their comrades, the Camel Regiment joined in also, ditching their camels for local ponies - Italeri converted confederate cavalry.

Dismounted, the Camel Regiment loved to blow their own horn - Esci conversions.

Lost in the desert, a Major and his colleagues struggle on.

Some gas-powered Giger-moths for scouting and machine gun action.

A hero in a steam-driven armoured car joined the fray.

Along with a steam-driven tank (converted from Emhar, I think)

Sepoy Regiment

Worried by the rate at which the As-Sihr forces were drawing supporters from across the northern Sudan, the British dispatched reinforcements from India in the form of some Sepoys and cavalry. Drawn from the same Esci set above and Strelets Set 057 Bengal Lancers.

The general and some light foot troops.

A full regiment of Sepoys was a welcome sight given what faced the force at the Meroe pyramid cemetery.

As fierce as any British soldier.

Drawn from all over India.

The Indian 'lights' were a welcome addition for scouting and flank duties.

Those Caught In-between

The Mahdi's and Local Forces

Forces to make up the numbers on either side, depending on who they choose to support.

The addition of Red Sea pirates never hurt.

Madhist rifle-armed forces to make up more numbers.

A company of 'imports' from the Northern Frontier.

Most Excellent Adventures

So, having reused many very old bits and pieces, some most excellent adventures were had in the northern Sudanese desert. I might cobble together the additional rules for the future and wasn't really surprised that the magic from Warmaster fit right in to Black Powder given the lineage of these rulesets.

The heroes, machines and monsters required an adjustment of thinking for unit sizes (We only used Small and Tiny units for 'company-level' units), but all in all a completely unexpected success and now these figures can be used by a subsequent generation - as well as this one :)

Empire Halberdiers: AWL and long overdue

What does, 2 new horses, permanent employment with weekly travel, 2 house moves, and a new partner with munchkin in tow equal? Absent Without Leave from wargames and blogging for nearly two years!

And, it's only been 18 years since I started painting my Empire Warmaster army, but I have just completed another, entire single unit: Games Workshop's Empire Helberdiers.

This also completes the first full brigade of halberdiers for the army, of which 3000 points worth were purchased and nearly 1000 points worth have been painted. Extrapolating (because we can), this means the army will be finished some time between 2058, or at one unit per eighteen years,  2559... hmmmm.

I went for the additional skirmisher stands for the first brigade, although not sure anyone ever used them.

There is however, an amazing amount of detail on them as there is on the halberdiers themselves

I was nonplused by the time I'd mostly finished the unit and left for eight months requiring shields and flocking to be completed. But once the unit came together with the other completed units, I was happy with the result.

Not bad for 10mm figures at all and with an entire brigade finished, maybe its time to actually crack out another few units to complete a 1000 points.

Warmaster: Empire Crossbowmen

Yes, Warmaster - fantasy at that.  Continuing on with the Clear the Desk painting challenge, I found a unit of undercoated Empire crossbowmen sitting at the back in one of the alcoves.


These figures and Warmaster itself are fantastic, although long OOP - but one can hope. The rules are now a 'living rulebook' and available for free online at Dark Press, and Rick Preistley has his own site, but more focused on ancients rather than fantasy.


You'll notice that there are three units finished, even though I only found one in the desk. Well, it turns out I forgot how many figures made up a unit and painted half in blue dominant scheme and the other red dominant. Then counted. Then went - "oh dear" (I didn't really, but the expletives used do not bear repeating).


So then I went on the hunt for another blister, found one, got confused as to how many I had, then had a panic, then found another unit I'd bought painted from the interweb, amongst the finished Empire stuff.


Greatly relieved that I could still field 3000 points when I finish  the rest of the army (its only been 17 years!), to go with the finished Tomb King army, I realised that the painted one looked a little dull compared to the new units, and touched it up.


Had an 'OMG! These guys are so cool!' moment when I uploaded the pics. So cool... so single... :)

So, that's one alcove of the painting desk completely cleared of prepped figures and now the home for glues. On to the next alcove and I see two 15mm armoured behemoths from GZG undercoated, washed, and drybrushed - and I ask myself why didn't I just finish those megaliths of death at the time?

Boudica's Best: Warmaster Ancients

So Nick came out for a game again and asked if we could give Warmaster Ancients a go.

He'd prepared a couple of lists using Britons and Romans, and brought all the figures, so we set the table up and off we went.

Nick: Romans: blades and cavalry
Dave: Britons: chariots, warband, and cavalry

Deployment: Britons

Right flank to Left flank I massed a brigade of warband on the right.


Another in the right centre.


Fanatics in the centre with their general, fighting naked - as only great warriors do.



With chariots left centre.


And the lights holding the left in the morning mist (a.k.a overexposure).


Deployment: Romans

Facing off, left flank to right flank were some lights.


The legion in the centre.


Some veterans and warband on the left centre.


And the light and heavy cavalry on the far left.


Early Phases (a.k.a. I'd forgotten how to play and thought my chariots were like Tomb King chariots

Turn 1

Off went my warband on the right flank singing "if I only could... I'd go running up that hill, with no problem' - yay!


The chariots swept forward.

And everything else failed to activate.

Nick brought up his left flank.


The legion moved forward.


'If you go down in the woods today...' His veterans and companions went for a walk in the woods.


And his cavalry and general swept forward also.


Turn 2

My light cavalry dominated the hill in front of them.


The chariots went forward to close the gap, there were two steep sided hills with cliffs dividing the centre with a five base wide gap between them.


My fanatics shot forward...


... before some shooting drove back Nick's cavalry - we thought off the edge of the board but some magic rule prevented it.


Turns 3+

OK it was now that I realised that my army had no armour and the chariots were light, this called for a redeployment  to reinforce the left flank and some delaying tactics in the next few rounds while I figured out what to do.


So I pulled back and sent the fanatics towards the Roman veterans to buy some time.


Finishing with a sprint on my right flank which got that warband across the board and behind some woods.


And the first real clash happened with me sacrificing the fanatics.


In the meantime Nick broke up his legion which is what I was hoping was going to happen.


And moved his flank troops into the woods.


Leaving some of his legion 'da, da, da, da, da, da all alone, da, da, da, da, da, da all alone' (that's a Gorillas' song for those of you that didn't know).


But he pushed forward on my left flank with his cavalry and general.


Occupying the hill I'd abandoned when realising I needed to regroup.


As expected the fanatics got pummeled for several rounds...


... before being destroyed.


Then this happened...


... only it didn't as I drove back Nick's cavalry with closing fire.


Which ended well for the Brits after several rounds of combat.


Final Phases

OK so this is when I realised that the shooting in Warmaster Ancients is much better than Warmaster. 2 shots per stand as opposed to one, even if range for skirmishers is pants - 15cm. So I started shooting everything I could with everything I had.

I pushed Nick's cavalry and his general over the cliffs with drive backs (that's his hand about to remove the figures).


Which started clearing the centre.


And the left flank.


And Nick reformed and moved up his centre.


Then I got the blood lust :) and in went the warbands - first at the hill in the centre right.


Shot from Nick's side of the hill.


And into his lights in the woods on the right flank.


And two units into his lonesome legion at the back.


I kept up the shooting causing casualties, disrupting his veterans and driving back their warband companions.


A warband smashed through the lights in the woods after several pursuits and headed for the Spanish lights next.


Then the combat with the legion began and went well after the first round of combat.


And after continued pursuit...


The legion was destroyed.


Nick's centre legion pushed back the oncoming warband hoard...


... and he graciously conceded, knowing that once the blood lust of the Brits is peaked, there is normally no stopping them - oh Boudica how great and pretty thou were!

Cool game and pays to a) remember the rules, b) understand what your army is made up of :)

Here's some gratuitous shots of my Carthaginian and Roman commands from Newline.

The Roman general from the high command set.


The Cart general (Hannibal) and standard bearer.