Slow Grow Catch-up

After spending an eternity painting the Anvil of Doom (and playing Total War), I had not only allowed it to take its whole month (which was more than I had really expected), but it also took a fair chunk out of the following month, in which I was meant to be working on something else. It meant I was quite a bit behind, and had some catching up to do.

Late last week, Tim had suggested that we play a Slow Grow game at the club on the Saturday. I agreed, but wanting to actually take the new anvil for a spin, we needed the game to be a bit larger. We agreed to stretch to 1500 points, which meant I really needed more core troops if I wanted to field a legal army. I had only just started painting a group of Warriors, so I needed to get them to a point where they wouldn't look completely embarrassing on the table.

I also decided that I really wanted a battle standard bearer - one on an oath stone, because I already have a painted Dwarf battle standard, and the oath stone would help justify having a second model to choose from. I didn't have a suitable model, so I decided to print one. On Friday. When the game was on Saturday. Because I am stupid.

Anyway, by 1am on Saturday morning, this is how things looked...

A dozen base-coated Warriors, and a BSB on oath stone who only existed as a puddle of liquid resin earlier on Friday.

It was actually kind of fun working in the kind of last-minute pre-tournament frenzy that used to happen so often when we attended tournaments regularly. Pete was at the table with me, working on his undead. And it turned out Tim was going through the same thing at his place, so we were regretting our foolish life choices as a team.

You can see what they looked like on the table in my little run-down of our game below. Since then however, I have finished the BSB:

I'm not sold on the book thing at the top of the banner. It seemed dumb to leave it blank, but I think the runes are too large and I might need to blot them out and replace them with some less recognisable tiny scribbles. The big rune on the banner is the Master Rune of Valaya.

The model is a 3D printed "Longbraid" standard bearer from Kyoushuneko, however I re-sized her to make her more broad, as the original proportions felt a little scrawny for a hero. It meant I ended up digitally assembling and supporting it myself, and it's possible having the banner on a lean meant the details on the back came out all fuzzy. The details are certainly not what they are on the front. Anyway, I decided to paint it like it was just the back of the stitching rather than decorated on both sides, which sort of conceals whatever damage I did. The axe is a random GW one I stuck on her back when I realised she was unarmed (another no-no for a hero).

Her facial details didn't really stand out to me, so she's not really very well detailed in under the helm. Again, it could be my printing, or it could be how the model was designed. Either way, you really can't see much of her with that banner in the way anyway. So I'm not too fussed.

As for our battle, I ended up with a very different list from what I had used previously. Adding the Warriors meant I had the core I needed for 1500 points, but a unit of 12 felt like it would be little more than a speed-bump against lances of Bretonnian knights. So I decided to include the unit filler I sneaked in a few months back, and pushed the unit up to 20. This was my list:

• Runelord on Anvil of Doom with Great Weapon, Rune of Stone
• Thane with Battle Standard, Master Rune of Grungni, Strollaz's Rune, Great Weapon
• Thane with Great Weapon, 2 Runes of Iron, Rune of Stone
• Master Engineer with Great Weapon, Rune of Stone
• 20 Warriors with Shields, Command
• 16 Thunderers with Shields, Command
• 10 Hammerers
• 10 Miners
• Organ Gun

So I didn't touch the Bolt Throwers and 2 of the Engineers, as well as omitting the odd Thunderer and Miner. Having a proper block of Warriors made me almost feel like I had a real battle line of troops. It was novel.

For his part, Tim had to stretch some of his units a little more in order to fill out the 1500 points. His list looked something like:

• Prophetess (Level 4, Lore of Heavens) with Book of Ashur
• Paladin with Battle Standard with Sword of Might, maybe the Gromril Great Helm
• 6 Knights of the Realm with Banner of Swiftness
• 30 Men-at-arms
• 10 Bowmen
• 10 Bowmen
• 6 Grail Knights with Banner of Defense
• 3 Pegasus Knights
• Trebuchet

We set up the scenery, then promptly rolled Battle for the Pass, and had to play length-wise down the table. I got the first turn, which was exciting. Then we remembered that he was meant to pray anyway, so it was a hollow victory.

Still not very large armies, but getting bigger...

Look at all those half-painted models hanging around with not-Ungrim. Better than unpainted, I guess.

Tim did an impressive job getting a painted 1500 point army ready in a hurry, then undermined it somewhat with the massive black base for the Trebuchet. Oh well...

The knights nearer the centre received an upgrade to Grail Knights for this battle, in order to help Tim make the points.

My army standard included Strollaz's rune, which gives the unit vanguard. My Warriors then bravely swaggered across the field before the battle commenced, confident that they could take on the entire Bretonnian army on their own. I'm not entirely sure why they were this confident, but there you go. They then continued their bold advance in my first turn, whilst the rest of my forces wondered what they were up to, and whether they should be holding their positions, or following their leaders. Most of my shooting was out of range, and the Organ Gun was woeful in the first turn.

We've got this!

Clearly Tim agreed that the Warriors were too much for him, because the Men-at-Arms moved up to block them and nobody was brave enough to charge in and commence the combat. This turn saw the Prophetess cast Chain Lightning at my Anvil, bounce it through and kill several Thunderers, then on into the Organ Gun for a wound as well. I had elected to dispel Comet of Cassandora instead. I would spend most of the game watching Tim cast spells instead of actually being able to control them at all.

The Pegasus Knights had moved up to menace the Organ Gun, careful to sit more than 12" away from the Hammerers. The Hammerers cared little for this sensible level of caution, and somehow lunged across the field into combat anyway (I think I rolled an 11 on the dice. It was very surprising and impressive). 

Unfortunately this photo is halfway through Tim removing his casualties. The Hammerers arrived having been bolstered by the Anvil managing to boost their armour saves (the only time I managed to get that through), the Pegasus Knights clearly freaked out at their plight and largely whiffed their attacks, and the Hammerers pounded them, leaving a single wounded knight. He fled, I elected not to pursue, and was rewarded by watching him flee all of about 4" before rallying. I really thought he'd leave the field...

The reason I was able to actually get a spell off with the Anvil was because the Prophetess was busy running away after not-Ungrim boldly charged out of his unit to try to get to grips with her and her Bowman friends. When they fled, he tried to change his charge to the Trebuchet, but his little legs didn't carry him fast enough. Meanwhile my Miners had arrived, and were approaching the fleeing archers from the other direction.

After being useless the previous turn, the Organ Gun now fired up and blasted away most of the Knights of the Realm trying to make their way around the outside of the forest.

With not-Ungrim out of the way, the Men-at-Arms decided to accept inevitability and charged the Warriors right in front of them.

The Grail Knights left the Men-at-Arms to their work and changed course to intercept not-Ungrim.

The Realm Knights decided to ignore the warning shot from the previous turn, and rushed headlong toward its position.

Not-Ungrim made it to the Trebuchet on the second attempt, and managed to swat a couple of the crew. Unfortunately the rest held their ground, meaning the Grail Knights were well-positioned to attempt a rescue...

The struggle between the Warriors and the Men-at-Arms turned out to be a mighty one. The Dwarfs received the charge with their Shieldwall parry saves, but were hindered by Iceshard Blizzard whilst the Bretonnians benefited from Harmonic Convergence. Like, 3 times. This combat went forever and the spells came in over and over. Each turn would see maybe 2 Warriors and 4 Men-at-Arms perish, the Dwarfs would win the combat, and their enemies would hold their ground. Over and over...

The fleeing Prophetess and her entourage rallied at the first opportunity, looking at the approaching Miners. The thing was, they were not approaching quickly enough. I think it took them 3 attempts to actually complete the charge, with the Bowmen firing ineffectually at them the whole time. In the meantime the Prophetess got bored and wandered off, deciding that nothing interesting was ever going to happen here.

At this point not-Ungrim might have been wishing he'd done a better job of dealing with the Trebuchet. He ended up in a challenge with a random Grail Knight and failed to kill him.

Footage of the Prophetess slinking out the back of the Bowman unit, leaving them to do all the work.

With nothing to shoot and gradually losing the will to live by watching the eternal combat in front of them, the Runelord steered his anvil out of the way and the Thunderers hurried forward. Maybe they could save us all from this everlasting torment.

Over on the flank, the Hammerers had dealt with the last Pegasus Knight after he rallied, and were now disposing of the Bowmen. They were doing a great job. That flank at least was going well.

Here you can see the Miners are much closer, having failed their charge about 17 gazillion times, whilst the Bowmen did their best to use all their ammunition on warning shots rather than actually killing any of them. Not-Ungrim has taken a wound, because he's busy being embarrassed by a single Grail Knight. In the second round he would once again fail to wound him, but this time he'd lose his nerve and run away...

...and get sat on by a horse. What a way to go. What a general. What a guy.

As the Grail Knights reformed and wiped squished Dwarf Thane from their horses' hooves, the Men-at-Arms finally decided they were sick of losing combat and fled. The Warriors elected not to pursue them, so of course they fled 3" or something. Maybe 2. The Warriors faced the Grail Knights instead. It was a silly decision, given it was my turn next. Should have chased them.

I had been thinking the Warriors would charge the Grail Knights, but then I realised the Thunderers and Organ Gun were in range, and even the Anvil of Doom could have a go. Sitting back and giving them a volley seemed like a better bet. I couldn't get the spell through, but everything else fired, and I killed... Nothing. I couldn't bring down a single Grail Knight. The Lady's Blessing ran strong with these guys.

The Miners did eventually make it to the useless Bowmen, but it turned out they were far more dangerous in close combat, and much like all of Tim's other stuff, they didn't believe in breaking from combat.

Having discovered that they were apparently immortal, the Grail Knights wasted no time in charging the Warriors. Another challenge was issued, presumably the same Knight accepted, and it was my BSB's turn to discover that these guys simply wouldn't die, no matter how many times you hit them with a great weapon. At least my unit held its ground again.

My Hammerers had done a splendid job of cleaning up the far flank, and the Prophetess showed her appreciation by blasting them with Chain Lightning and leaving a pair of smoking boots where the last one had stood. I think the Trebuchet might have helped thin their numbers before that, having finally found its range after rolling 3 misfires earlier.

Look at this. How stupid. JUST RUN AWAY! Know when you're beaten!

Here at least, one thing went almost right. The Men-at-Arms had rallied and decided to face the oncoming Hammerers (before they got pulverised with rocks and lightning). This meant the Thunderers were in their rear, and they charged in and smacked them about a bit. For a wonder, they actually fled (charging in the rear with a banner probably helped). But now that I had decided to actually pursue them, they fled 11" or something. So I couldn't catch them. Typical.

This is actually how things finished. My poor Warriors had taken a beating, but were still there. My BSB did eventually kill her opponent (I think he passed the first 6 ward saves before finally succumbing in a challenge). My Thunderers were still chasing the Men-at-Arms, but they were still on the field.

And the Miners did eventually wipe out the Bowmen, but did so too slowly to actually manage to charge the Trebuchet. They had turned up in Turn 2, and never gotten to the enemy war machine. So bizarre.

Overall, I had narrowly won the battle. I had destroyed both units of Bowmen, the Knights of the Realm, and the Pegasus Knights. Tim had wiped out the Hammerers and my Thane, but all the other damage we had done didn't amount to any points. It was a weird game. I had succeeded in a couple of key rolls early, like the charge of the Hammerers, and getting my entire army Hatred with the D3 roll at the start. But I had largely been a spectator as Tim had forced through maybe 15 spells, and his troops had been variously unbreakable and immortal at inconvenient times. What had we learned? I have no idea. Maybe I need to invest in a rune of Spellbreaking or two next time.

Anyway, it's pretty cool that we were able to field 1500 point armies as part of the painting challenge. It feels like progress.

'Til next time!