Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Hello again! Long time, no post. Things have been rather quiet on the blogging front, which I of course feel guilty about, as usual. But these longer gaps seem to have become the norm recently, for better or worse.

The gaps largely relate to me not having done a lot of hobby-related activities in recent weeks. I tried to generate some painting momentum by proclaiming the Year of the Goblin, however after doing pretty well with the first horde of Night Goblins, I kind of ran out of steam. It was partly the Goblins' fault, of course. Night Goblins might be simple to paint, but they're not terribly exciting. 

As it was, I tried to encourage myself by shifting across to painting a couple of characters. I painted these 2 guys shortly after the Night Goblins, however they did little to improve my level of hobby energy, and my momentum stalled. 

A couple of ugly little retro twins who need a hanky. Was too lazy to take a proper photo in the light box, sorry...

Rather than trying to force myself back onto the painting wagon, I decided instead to let myself focus on less demanding things (ie: PC games). This was partly driven by the arrival of a Kickstarter project I backed some time ago, Battletech. I was pretty excited by this, and set about playing my way through the campaign. The game is not without its occasional flaws, but overall I really enjoyed playing through the story.

Turn-based mech combat. Basically it's what it says on the box - the Battletech tabletop game in PC form.

Taking it easy

Sometimes it happens that when you push too hard to achieve hobby goals, you end up suffering from a level of hobby burnout. After all the rush around the most recent battle report, this has happened to me. I haven't painted anything, nor have I pulled my models out and played any games. And as a result, there has been no real activity on this blog either.

Obviously I have not been entirely inactive since my last post. Rather than trying to make myself spend time doing hobby stuff when I don't have the drive, I have been playing PC and video games instead. Normally these games and hobby stuff are warring for my time, and often the hobby wins out, either because I am working towards a specific goal or because time spent painting models feels like long-term progress and works better with watching TV shows with my wife. At the moment it's not really much of a decision, though. I might as well catch up on some of the games I've been ignoring.

Given there's not much happening on the blog from a hobby perspective, I figured I might as well discuss what I've been doing with my time.

MechWarrior Online

One game I had been meaning to try for years is MechWarrior Online. As someone who has played nearly every Battletech-related video game over the years, read nearly all the books and played the odd game on the tabletop, it's hard to believe that I have managed to wait 3 years since the game came out of beta before giving it a go. It helps that a number of friends have jumped in alongside me, so I'm not playing it all alone.

Give-away winners!

Well the time is up for our Grim & The Grave give-away, so it's time to announce the winners. I gathered all the entries together into a list and then rolled dice to determine the winners, as any true gamer would do.

So without further ado, our winners are:

• DeusArchon
• Tom Zom
• mpc

Each will receive a code for the DLC, just as soon as I work out how to send them messages. Maybe I have to add them as friends in Steam. Such mystery...

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who responded.

Giveaway - Total War: The Grim and The Grave

To celebrate the release of Total War: WARHAMMER The Grim & The Grave, I have 3 copies of the DLC to give away! Just leave a comment on this post, make sure you include something so I can identify who you are (Steam handle or something similar), and answer the following question:

• Do you come to Total War:WARHAMMER as a player (or former player) of the tabletop game, or is Total War your first involvement in the Warhammer world?

On Sunday (11/9/2016), 3 of the responses will be chosen at random to receive one of the DLC codes I have in my possession.

Answers will be used for the purposes of careful research (ie: I am just curious).

Also, if you have not already seen it, the guys over at Creative Assembly had a go at recreating the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse at a more sensible level than the hilarious disaster I oversaw here. Go check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy63LVztvdY

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Total War

Having played through the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse on the tabletop, the plan was then to go back and try to recreate it in Total War: Warhammer – The Grim & The Grave. Well, two of us did go through with the plan. The results were… interesting. 

For starters, although we’ve both played the game (James has played it a lot more than me), neither of us had ever played a multiplayer battle before. It was cool to see all the options, including being able to have up to 4 forces a side with either PC or human controllers. We decided to make use of this, as we realized that the battle we had fought was loaded with plenty of Lord choices, but you can only have one per army in TW. We also figured that it would be helpful to have PC allies controlling some of the forces to take the load off us a bit. We then set about roughly recreating the forces. The balance is a bit whacky given that unit sizes can vary wildly on the tabletop, but are set in TW. We went with what we felt best represented a TW version of the armies, which basically meant filling up all 80 available slots on either side. 

We chose the Castle Drakenhof map as it seemed a reasonable fit. We had no control over late-arriving flanking forces, which was slightly disappointing given that it’s something that happens regularly when you’re in the campaign. So we were not able to recreate the flanking element of the tabletop battle. Oh well, we figured we would just line things up and see what happened.

The loading screen. I was using Volkmar. James' lord was actually Vlad, so I assume he must have set a PC player as the no 1 player on his side for Ghorst to show up here. Or the game just moves in mysterious ways.

And then we launched the battle and my PC wept bitter tears of overloadedness.

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Part 4

This is the final part of the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the main page here.

Empire Turn 4

Empire Turn 4

The battlefield was littered with corpses and broken bones and everywhere the snow was turning red with the blood of the living. The Empire lines were holding their own, however the right flank was being sorely tested and the Grand Theogonist himself was in grave peril.

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Part 3

This is a continuation of the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the main page here.

Empire Turn 3

Empire Turn 3

Volkmar decides to get his hands dirty.

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Part 2

This is a continuation of the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the main page here.

Empire Turn 2

Empire Turn 2

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Part 1

This is the first part of the Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse report. You can find the introduction here, and the main page here.

Volkmar pulled his cloak tighter to try to shield himself from the cold air as the war altar upon which he rode swayed slightly in the wind. Despite the fact that spring had arrived in the Empire before this expedition set out, winter still clung to Sylvania. A thick layer of snow lay on the ground and the biting wind and dark clouds overhead made it clear that more could soon be forthcoming. The Grand Theogonist had no doubt that these brooding clouds were the reason that Sylvania had not escaped winter’s clutches. It was said that these clouds were a constant presence over this land nowadays. Volkmar scowled. It had always been a cursed place, but now it was cursed, dark and cold.

Despite the snow, the army had been making steady progress as it pressed deeper into Sylvania far faster than would normally have been possible. The warnings which they were acting upon had stressed the need for haste, and to that end they had engaged a pair of wizards from the Light College to help ease their passage. The entire march across the Empire and into Sylvania had taken less than half the time it should have. Volkmar did not pretend to understand how the wizards achieved this (indeed, the less Sigmar-fearing men such as himself knew of such practices, the better), but it was hard not to notice that the days seemed to drag on far longer than normal, and the way the villagers they passed along the way seemed to be moving in slow motion. 

With any luck, their mission to thwart the plans of the foul necromancer Helman Ghorst would soon be accomplished. The force they had assembled was formidable and their arrival in Sylvania had been incredibly swift. Already the ruined towers of Vanhaldenschlosse were coming into view over the tops of the trees. If he were not Volkmar the Grim, he might have allowed himself a slightly satisfied smile.

As if to prove that he was right to be such a grumpy pessimist, these thoughts were interrupted by shouted warnings from the pistoliers at the head of the column, followed by pistols firing and the eerie howls of wolves. The familiar moment of queasiness came and went as the Light wizards aborted their time-altering incantations, and the world seemed to blur and then settle around them. The sights and sounds of the forest around them became clearer, and movement could be seen through the trees.

Ignoring the cold, Volkmar now shrugged the cloak from his shoulders and reached for his weapon. They had marched hard and could not have hoped to have made better progress than this. Now it was time to fight.

The packs of wolves and ghouls that threw themselves at the Empire army did little to slow it down as it marched the remaining few miles to Vanhaldenschlosse. The formations spread out into a battle line as they came to the clearing around the ruined castle. 

An army of the undead was ready and waiting for them.

Volkmar drew the horses pulling the war altar to a halt as he surveyed the enemy lines. The experience hard-won from countless battles over the years allowed him to assess the strength of the undead force, and it gave him some grim satisfaction. The army he led was the stronger. It would be a battle, but they had the advantage.

A tired-looking pistolier galloped up to spoil the mood. "My lord, more undead are approaching from the west. They will be here within the hour".

Volkmar’s expression darkened once more into its customary scowl. Whatever advantage they held, it would not last for long.

"Best get on with it then," he muttered.

The Armies

Vampire Counts

• HG Helman Ghorst
  Overall General. Master Necromancer (Level 4, Lore of Vampires) with Cursed Book, Talisman of Preservation on Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone
• LvC1 Luthor von Carstein
  General. Vampire Lord (Level 1, Lore of Vampires) with Armour of Fortune, Sword of Bloodshed, Shield
• HotHF Horror of the High Fells
  Strigoi Ghoul King on Terrorgheist with Red Fury
• AvC1 Abraxas von Carstein
  Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with Heavy Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Endurance
• MK Master Kraven
  Master Necromancer (Level 4, Lore of Death)
• N Necromancer
  Level 2, Lore of Death
• G1 80 Ghouls
  Led by Banshee
• Z1 90 Zombies
  Led by Wraith
• DW1 10 Dire Wolves
• GG1 20 Grave Guard
• FB1 6 Fell Bats
• V1 15 Vargheists
• H 5 Hexwraiths
• T1 Terrorgheist
• T2 Terrorgheist
• GG2 50 Grave Guard
  Razor Standard. Led by Wight King
• S1 50 Skeletons
  led by Vampire
• Z2 60 Zombies
• CC1 Corpse Cart
• BK1 10 Black Knights
• V2 Varghulf
• V3 Varghulf
• W1 6 Wraiths
  Led by Banshee
• BC1 Black Coach
• DW2 10 Dire Wolves
• FB2 6 Fell Bats
• BC2 Black Coach
• BC3 Black Coach
• BS 5 Bat Swarms
  led by Wight King on Barded Steed with Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• BK2 15 Black Knights
• FB3 10 Fell Bats
• FB4 10 Fell Bats
• GG3 25 Grave Guard
• S2 60 Skeletons
  led by Wraith
• GG4 60 Grave Guard
  Banner of the Barrows, led by Wight King with Heavy Armour, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• G2 60 Ghouls
• Z3 44 Zombies
• Z4 40 Zombies
• VvC Vlad von Carstein
  Reinforcement General
• LvC2 Lucius von Carstein
  Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Shadow)
• AvC2 Altschul von Carstein
  Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with Heavy Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Endurance
• G3 60 Ghouls
  led by Wraith
• G4 60 Ghouls
  led by Wraith
• DW3 10 Dire Wolves
• DW4 10 Dire Wolves
• V4 Varghulf
• V5 Varghulf
• S3 70 Skeletons
• Z5 50 Zombies
• GG5 45 Grave Guard
  Banner of Swiftness, led by Vampire (Level 1, Lore of Vampires) with Heavy Armour, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• BK3 15 Black Knights
• W2 8 Wraiths
  led by Banshee
• CC2 Corpse Cart
• FB5 6 Fell Bats

The Empire

• VtG Volkmar the Grim
  Overall General. Riding War Altar
• EG Empire General Franz Stark
  Right Flank General. Riding Barded Steed with Full Plate, Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Ogre Blade
• AL Arch Lector Derych
  Left Flank General. Armour of Meteoric Iron, Mace of Helsturm
• Grf1 Empire General
  On Griffon with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Endurance
• Grf2 Empire General
  On Griffon with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Endurance
• Grf3 Empire General
  On Griffon with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Endurance
• BSB1 Battle Standard Bearer
  Barded Steed with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• BSB2 Battle Standard Bearer
  Barded Steed with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• BSB3 Battle Standard Bearer
  Full Plate Armour, Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Sword of Might
• WL1 Wizard Lord
  Level 4, Lore of Fire
• WL2 Wizard Lord
  Level 4, Lore of Heavens
• WL3 Wizard Lord
  Level 4, Lore of Light
• BW1 Battle Wizard
  Level 2, Lore of Fire
• BW2 Battle Wizard
  Level 2, Lore of Heavens
• BW3 Battle Wizard
  Level 2, Lore of Light
• Hal1 60 Halberdiers
  led by Captain with Full Plate, Shield, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance, Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon, Witch Hunter with Brace of Pistols
• Hal2 60 Halberdiers
  led by Captain with Full Plate, Shield, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance, Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon, Witch Hunter with Brace of Pistols
• Hal3 60 Halberdiers
  led by Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon
• G1 60 Greatswords
  Razor Standard. Led by Captain with Full Plate, Shield, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance, Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon
• Sw1 60 Swordsmen
  led by Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon
• Flag1 60 Flagellants
• G2 40 Greatswords
  led by Warrior Priest with Heavy Armour and Great Weapon
• ICWWK 20 Inner Circle White Wolf Knights
  led by Warrior Priest on Barded Steed with Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
• WWK 20 White Wolf Knights
  led by Captain with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance
• ICKP 40 Inner Circle Knights Panther
  Steel Standard. Led by Captain with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance
• K1 24 Knights
  Led by Captain with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance
• K2 16 Knights
• Reik 16 Reiksguard
  Led by Captain with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance
• Demi1 10 Demigryph Knights
  Banner of Swiftness
• Xbow1 40 Crossbowmen
• Hgun1 40 Handgunners
• Hgun2 40 Handgunners
• Xbow2 16 Crossbowmen
• P1 5 Pistoliers
• P2 5 Pistoliers
• P3 5 Pistoliers
• O 5 Outriders
• Sp1 40 Spearmen
• Sp2 40 Spearmen
• FC 30 Free Company
• Hal4 35 Halberdiers
• Flag2 30 Flagellants
• Sw2 30 Swordsmen
• Xbow3 19 Crossbowmen
• A 20 Archers
• Hgun3 10 Handgunners
• Demi2 3 Demigryph Knights
• K3 10 Knights
• ST1 Steam Tank
• ST2 Steam Tank
• ST3 Steam Tank
• GC1 Great Cannon
• GC2 Great Cannon
• GC3 Great Cannon
• GC4 Great Cannon
• GC5 Great Cannon
• M1 Mortar
• M2 Mortar
• M3 Mortar
• VG1 Volley Gun
• VG2 Volley Gun
• VG3 Volley Gun
• RB1 Rocket Battery
• RB2 Rocket Battery
• E1 Engineer
• E2 Engineer

Deployment

Deployment

Along the Empire line.

The Battle of Vanhaldenschlosse: Introduction

And now for something a little different.

In honour of the new The Grim & The Grave expansion for Total War: Warhammer, we were invited to organise one of our traditional battle reports based around the characters being added to the game. We will then go back and try to recreate the battle in Total War, and see how that plays out.

Total War: Warhammer. The Grim & The Grave

Distractions abound

So I really should be writing up more of the battles that have occurred in the Albion campaign, but a combination of factors have stalled my progress. My work situation has been (and still is) changing. I have continued to focus a fair bit of attention on my Ogre Siegebreaker project. And now Warhammer Total War has come out...