Orctober!

Last year for Orctober I wrote a post about my views on Orcs and the darker side of Orcs before presenting my solutions over a month later. This ear I decided to realise a project I've been meaning to do for a while. Build an Orc baggage train for use in my rapidly changing version WFB 3rd. Edition!

Unfortunately, as with all my wargaming projects, the reality of time prevented my ambitions. Well not quite, I did not finish the baggage train, but I did get started on painting the models and have an end in site. How ever, at the moment I don't have much to show, just one fully completed model.

I see this model as representing the sort of thing a prisoner would see looming over them as they wondered why they had not been killed. It is an Orc who has got to the point (and age) where eating captives is a simple pleasure. Cooking them and showing that your fellow Orcs that this adds to the enjoyment of battle is his aim in life. He has dozens of snotling and goblin servants who help him prepare the food and find fresh meet while he runs a busy kitchen with his meals in huge demand. Specialties, such as halfling, cooked in a stunty, cooked in a humie would cost you a massive share in the loot you obtained in the battle. But it is worth it!

I'm not massively happy with the results I got painting this, but this is because I haven't painted for a while so need more practise to get back to my usual not very good standard of painting. The model is, of course, a warmonger miniatures Orc.

Five months of peace!

Or at least it would seem like that for anyone who has bothered looking at my blog. Since I last updated, not a great deal has happened with my hobby, with the pressures of the real world keeping me busy. I have not been completely free of gaming though. I have managed to begin what will be my long term project. This is the narrative campaign based on the story line for Weisburg, incorporating development of the characters and further nations. With this, when I say long term, I really mean long term and is to be something burning in the background for the next ten years. It should shape how I develop the fantasy side of my hobby and will be very slow moving providing me with satisfaction of developing a narrative and characters but not much for the spectators. All the fantasy painting I plan will have some role with this, even if they ultimately end up being used with other projects.

So, here is a quick summary of the little progress I made with this over the last 5 months.

Painting
I have done little painting, but the painting I have done is mainly aimed at adding to my citadel free Empire army. As I mentioned, I am aiming to build my own world through a long narrative campaign and these miniature are related to it.

This is a Bright wizard (named Feuer Gehen) and is attached to Prince Otto's banner. Basically I used this model as an excuse to practice painting motion and red, aiming to vary the red giving the impression of both movement and flames, without actually painting the flames. It was the first miniature I had painted for a while and because of this I'm quite happy with the result. The miniature is a modern production of classic Ral Partha Storm Shaman.

This model was an experiment with painting armour and is a grenadier miniature. He represents a champion of law and I plan to expand on the background given for the Gods of law in the WFRP rule book.

Finally, here is a Midlam Miniatures bard in front of a cottage I modelled using the old White Dwarf Modelling workshop articles. Like most of the stuff I paint, he is not done to a particularly high standard, but I included him as an excuse to mention how great Midlam Miniatures were. They basically produce good quality cheap miniatures suitable for roleplay and filling out the ranks of armies that are not based on over scaled, cartoonish models. I have more of these to paint and will include them here when I have done them.

I am now painting at a rate of about one model every 3 weeks, with each model painted in one sitting in an evening. I want to paint more but have no time and so my painting skills are suffering a bit. but I still find it enjoyable to try and bring some life to models so it will remain the core of my attempts at escaping from the pressures of the real world.

Actual Gaming

Having no real time has meant a limited amount of gaming. But I have manged to start my narrative campaign, writing suitable background for Orc and Goblin and Empire armies. I have produced a Might Empires style map and begun movement of banners and a narrative to justify the movement.

Recently I did manage a battle between Empire troops and Goblins, resulting in the capture of White Tale and defeat of Goblins despite embarrassing defeats for some Empire regiments.

Facing down advancing Goblins and a rampaging Snotling Pump Wagon.

The main problems of my last game of WFB 3rd. Edition remained. In particular, the pointlessness of rolling to hit, rolling to injure then rolling to save stuck out and almost painfully slowed the game down. It also stuck out as unrealistic. If some one hits you with a sharp sword and you have no armour, then you will be injured, it won't bounce off a bone because you are a bit tougher than the  person hitting you with a sharp sword. I think in the future the roll to injure table will be ignored, with perhaps a modifier to the armour save for particularly strong creatures or tough monsters.

White Tail struggling to command some Snotlings and a Troll. He currently lives in a cage in an Imperial Baggage train facing daily interrogation by Imperial Wizards and execution when they have gained any enough information from him.

The second problem was the lack of command rules. Basically it makes no difference who is the general and what he is doing, the forces can move as the player wants them to and according to plan. I propose to try and experiment with my next game and use the Warmaster activation rules. Basically this allows no moves without orders other than initiative based moves when the enemy are virtually on top of you. Hopefully this will add amore tense tactical angle that will bring the characters of the commanders to life instead of the current situation where they are basically just better soldiers and everyone knows what they are doing, despite the fog of war.

I will feed back on how these changes work and if the game of Warhammer remains the same. They are in the spirit of Oldhammer and making the game more interesting and narrative based, rather than bogged down in rules, although a quick look at some of the people in the Oldhammer community suggests that I risk being burned as a heretic for trying such things.

Until I get to write about these experiences, all the best to all the fellow middle aged gamers out there.

Weisburg miniatures.

Here is a selection of miniatures I painted this week. As ever they have my own particular style which is aimed to be interesting, rather than Golden Demon competition material.

Starting with modes that can be used for roleplay and a baggage train. They are Reaper townsfolk models (specifically rioters) along with pack animals from Foundry. I'm fairly happy with how these turned out and just need to do some work on the mules' and donkey's bases'. I particularly like the man with the scythe who, once painted, turned out to be a very characterful model.

We then have two models that I feel fit the background in my last post. Lady Winona Von Haugwitt and her bodyguard Zara. Again these are Foundry miniatures. I am a bit disappointed with how the sword looks on Lady Winona having to do some repairs to it since the model arrived broken. I also need to work on their bases and might glaze Winonas dress. However they do, in my opinion, start to bring to life the narrative I have begun writing.

Weisburg; my Empire province.

Following my last post's I want to elaborate on the narrative that I am trying to build for my games. As I mentioned I am basing it in my own version of the Empire with the majority of the world and politics being influenced by the world of WFRP 1st. edition with my own additions. I am currently planning to  use a map and the original Mighty Empires system as a basis for the game with a greatly increased narrative backing up and elaborating on each action, so that I eventually have a history of the province based on gaming events that flows like a real history.

The most sensible time to start seemed to be 2477. This is well before the actual events of the enemy within and following the 'defeat' of Drachenfels at the start of Jack Yeovils novel. So there is not to many major events that could encroach on a narrative that is meant to fit in with the great WFRP.

An introduction to the recent history of Weisburg
Weisburg is a small province in the North West of the Empire in the shadow of the Grey Mountains. it is largely isolated from the rest of the Empire by the great forest and rivers. While the nobility of Weisburg have previously played their part in the wider politics of the Empire, forming alliances with various factions, the Earl of Weisburg does not have voting privileges and the provinces relative geographical isolation and lack of real funds has meant that Weisburg is often ignored.

This physical and political separation has given Wesiburg and inward looking sensibility, dealing with local issues despite what the consequences for the outside world might be. Perhaps paradoxically, it has also attracted people who feel they can use this isolation to build power. This ranges from religious fanatics and would be politicians seeking to be big fish in a small pond, through to wizards who seek to practise their art away from the attention of the outside world. a recent magic storm on the outskirts of the provinces borders while being unusual, is not an unheard of event and is something that is put down to these visitors who have settled in Weisburg. It has also attracted the attention of fanatics following law who, with the 'defeat' of Drachenfels, plan to turn their attention to the Provinces in the shadow of the Grey mountains.

However, the recent history of Weisburg has been dominated by the Graf, Hans Bismarck, and his slow seizure of power. Bismarck was a merchant who left the Empire to trade from Marienburg. He then left Marienburg to earn his fortune in Lustria, returning laden with gold and a loyal groups of men at arms who had followed him across Lustria and now had a stake in the gold.

Upon his return, Bismarck rapidly recruited more men at arms, using his wealth to recruit men who were both skilled and trustworthy. But his next move was seen as strange for someone with his wealth. He journeyed to the small province of Weisburg.

However Bismarck realised that he only had economic power and if he needed to have permanent political power, instead of just influence, he needed to join the Empires nobility and become part of the rising power in the Old World. Weisburg offered this opportunity. His money soon bought him local power and the support, although not the friendship, of Weisburg's Earl, Otto Von Haugwitt. In exchange for helping Weisburgs failing funds, Bismarck was appointed Graf.

With no male heir, following his sons renouncing of their heritage in favour of religious beliefs, the Earl announced that whoever married his daughter would be heir. To the fury of his daughter, Lady Winona Haugwith, the Earl also stated that the Graf rule until he had an heir, effectively leaving her powerless and a prize to cement someone else's power.

The Earl died later that year, falling from his horse after an encounter with a mutant from the forest that had found it's way on to the Earl's estate. the Graf took power, announcing a year later that he was engaged to Lady Winona Haugwitt. He informed the Lady by letter.

The Lady was not simply going to allow this and took two actions. The first was to flee to the family castle with her loyal staff. She manned it with a small force of mercenary swordsmen and then sought help from possible allies.

Bismarck attempted to pressurise her allies and Lady Winona was disappointed by the response. It would seem that Bismarck's influence was very wide reaching. Of the response she got, one was from a Halfling retainer knighted by her father. He bought a small force of Halflings and pledged his life to the Lady.

The other responder stopped The Graf from storming the castle. It was the Emperor who declared that "...no woman of noble blood should be forced to marry a commoner!" Bismarck had no choice but to accept this. he could not go against the declaration of The Emperor. But he could try and change his mind. So began a stand off.

Lady Winona remained exhiled in the castle with Bismarck refusing to allow her to go beyond it's walls until she agreed to marriage. Something he had the both the physical power to do and the legal right as Graf to enact.

Bismarck himself began trying to build allies to change the Emperor's mind with varying success. Amongst those he approached was Prince Friedrich Von Sturm, the ambitious son of an elector counts Prince Von Sturm at first turned  down Bismarck's approachs for assistance with his advisers unanimous about not getting involved.

But at the same time a new menace was presenting itself. Following an increase in what is loosely described as unnatural activity around Weisburg, street preachers and clergy in the North West of the Empire were preaching for action. Prince Otto saw this as an opportunity to raise his profile as the man of action the Empire needed as the next Emperor. Although he was naive believing the fellow electors wanted that kind of Emperor, he was careful to choose what he did so he would not become entrenched in a long unwinnable war based on cleaning up Weisburg.

Instead he found an easier opportunity. A horder of green skins had gradually been sweeping south towards Weisburg since the recent magical storm. The Prince asked for Bismarck to give some forces to help fight the green skins in return for his political support.

Bismarck agreed and their combined forces converged at the village of Gimte, ready to face off the Orc and Goblin forces. The battle was a disaster.Out numbered the Empires forces were over run and although Prince Otto managed to marshal an orderly retreat he was humiliated.

Prince Otto's father nearly disowned him. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that it would be a public admission of weakness. Instead he went to the Emperor and suggested his son win the new war that he had started and use it to sure up the borders of Weisburg and the West of the Empire. Borders that has  been insecure since the Gwyn Eira dwarf war.

Prince Otto leapt at the opportunity, still believing he was the hero the Empire needed. He saw a way of ruling and expanding his family power with Weisburg. Even better, he was being given command of the Imperial Guard to achieve his goals. A wiser man would of realised that the open nature of the goals were not only setting him up for failure, but also meant that he never had real power in Weisburg or his own army. Prince Otto ignored this and at the head of a force of Imperial guard and Knights from various backgrounds, some of whom were even loyal to his family, Prince Otto rode into the province and the capital of Weisburg. he stood in front of the cheering crowds and declared himself protector of Weisburg!

A world to game in.

Like most people into wargaming my age, time appears to conspire against me, coupled with a problem finding opponents. If I'm honest, he finding opponents bit doesn't bother me that much since I've developed a very particular style of play which features abandoning rules if they get in the way of the flow of the narrative. The big up to the game, the developing of narratives and armies, the assigning of characters to models I paint and the preparation of figures and painting of them gives the most satisfaction. How they do in battle is part of the narrative, but the battle (the game) is a small part of the hobby. There are exceptions of course (e.g. Blood Bowl is a game that has to be played, but then only as part of a league) but every game is a part of a wider campaign and narrative I'm building and finding opponents to take part in this is great but not the be all and end all of the hobby or the reason I do it.

The time aspect is more frustrating. Trying to fit in a hobby around family, work, mundane tasks, other hobbies (including reading) is frustrating. Looking at what I've collected and what I want to do with it compared to what I have the time to achieve is saddening but it also reminds me that when I gamed as a teenager I did not have that much time either. Back then I had other things effecting my time and rarely had the time or resources (each paint pot cost quite a lot, even back then) to put on the game that were advertised in White Dwarf. Looking at it honestly, my hobby time as a teenager was always in competition with other things in my life and there was a reason I did not ever achieve the big games that were advertised in White Dwarf.

But it is also true that my teenage gaming was kept alive by two things. It was playing simple, easy to play games that were fun, challenging and fast moving and it was very easy to throw them together. The other thing that kept me gong was the wider narrative that did not just focus on the armies  I was fielding, but the idea that the game and what it represented fitted into a wider universe that I was helping to develop.

Space Hulk, for example,  was (and I'm sure still is) a quick game with endless possibilities and very simple rules. What kept me playing a campaign each weekend for about a year was the idea that the Marines in my force were individuals and they were part of the wider universe, not just a playing piece. By the time I would reach game six of a campaign, there was the underlying sense that these were the survivors of the marines elite first company, each had a story and I had witnessed them fighting this far.

Likewise, the Realm of Chaos books helped to revitalise Warhammer and give it a permanent place in my memories because it built a narrative and a background that lifted the models beyond being just pieces in a tactical battle game. A story was being brought to life. The quick easy games with warbands were just moving the story forward and the warband and champions story was what you were involved in, not simply a collection of statistics that enabled you to flank.

While this is a repeat of what I've already been saying in the previous posts of this sporadic blog, it is also something I feel I need to focus more on. I try to give al the armies I paint a theme but if I'm to get the most out of the little time I spend on this hobby, I need to focus less on gaming and more on my idea of world building. The way the army fits together for a game is a direct reflection of the role it plays in a world and the more complex and detailed this world is, not only will the narrative behind the game become stronger, but it will also make coming up with scenarios easier with multiple possibilities resulting from all parts of the game.

So I have come up with a few ideas about the world that I want to build a narrative around for my games.

It's the Warhammer world, but my Warhammer world.
The Warhammer world of my  teenage games was directly related to the highly developed and believable world of WFRP first edition. By being based on roleplaying game this world was developed and realistic, being given from the perspective of a powerless individual, without much control on the chaos around them.

The Enemy Within campaign, and to a lesser extent the original Warhammer novels, further developed this world and had a setting where interaction of the characters reflected the real world, complete with rules for class and superstition clouding what was really happening.

By the end of the Third edition of WFB this world had been abandoned. Leading into the fourth edition, armies were to become hero lead with the awesome elites being the emphasis. Rules for realistic things such as baggage trains and levies were largely abandoned along with most of the different religions and tensions in the empire (and other factions). Instead a high fantasy existed where the Emperor was a great warrior, not the compromise between different factions and society was not just  permanently at conflict but was in organised armies. The  forest moved from something to be feared containing beastmen and other horrors that preyed on isolated villages, to something another battleground for the highly organised Landsknecht armies of the warrior Empire.

The hidden war between the nobility, sometimes breaking into open armed conflict, mentioned in White Dwarf 91 article on nobility in WFRP was abandoned in favour of the united warrior nobility. The magic that posed both a threat and promise of power was formalised and controlled in official state universities and registered war wizards, destroying the possibility of adventure and creating a simplistic good and bad that drained the  colour and character from the Warhammer world.

This world changed with each edition and now no longer exists. Games Workshop put it out of it's misery, perhaps realising it was only nostalgia that kept it going and they had developed in a limited way. It's replacement is something that is not really aimed at gamers my age but does look as if it is full of more possibilities, returning to a kind of Michael Moorcock world of endless realms and eternal Champions. It should guarantee the continuation of Games Workshop with enough to inspire any imagination (other than the imagination of tournament players who found they could not win without thinking anymore). It reminds me of the aspects of the Warhammer world that was presented in 'Slaves to Darkness' and 'the Lost and the Damned'.

But I am not currently looking for that. I want to use the Warhammer world of first edition WFRP, the Warhammer world of my youth, and then expand it filling in the unwritten background or changing the background I don't like. This will be the world for my games, just as everyone has their own 'Enemy Within' campaign and events. If, for example, you like Orcs being rapists and feel this has to be done to make Warhammer real, I am not going to get into long arguments on background with you. Although I might question why you are insistent on this and what it says about you...

This will allow me to have 'Song of Fire and Ice' political style infighting,  reformation style religious conflict, every character to be equally important and to have their own aims and perspective, an overriding threat of apocalypse (very '80s cold war style) and Tolkien style ancient history effecting each kingdom with the irony being it is often based on lies. The 1st edition WFRP had all this and lots of room for expansion as well as more detail for armies that the later army books missed.

So I am going to focus on finishing my proxy Empire army using mainly Perry Miniatures. I plan to base it on the list in Warhammer armies and around the politics and threat to an invented small province that reflects and adds to the world of WFRP 1st edition, not the world of Warhammer as it was developed, even if I might borrow some of the aspects of these later developments. But in all I want it to be based upon getting a reflection of the world in my mind, rather than an army that is aimed at taking all comers. It is a reflection of a narrative. The skill and fun comes from being able to play and win within these constraints, producing heroes doing truly great things, not from building undefeatable armies.

The underlying focuses for my army will be the following:

The Enemy Within as a source book
As  mentioned above, the Empire army evolved into a form of Landsknecht  soldiers as WFB 3rd. edition developed. This was the continued in all subsequent editions. While it provided a very visually interesting army and fitted with the idea of a professional standing army, it didn't really fit with the kind of world portrayed in WFRP. The Empire is not a great power, but a political mess barely holding together.

In reality the Empire, in it's present incarnation, has only lasted for 200 years since Magnus the pious defeated Chaos incursions and united the Empire. The Empires armies are made up of many different elements, with the Imperial Guard forming the personal bodyguard of the Emperor and being an elite with in the army. With this, there are the provinces standing armies, ranging from nobles personal retinues, through to town militias. equipment and training varies with these forces. Finally there are mercenaries, used throughout the Empire and if we look at real history, they were often a vital element in providing a professional boost to a states armies in times of war (and were the role played by the original Landsknecht.

There is more detailed information on this on pages 28-29 of the 1995 Hogshead printing of 'Shadows over the Bofenhagen' and was originally in 'The Enemy Within' adventure module. A quick read through it shows that the best match army list is the one in Warhammer Armies and this gives plenty of scope to play with when trying to make this source material into an army.

The struggles of the Nobility
This is best summed up with  quotes from the White Dwarf 91 article on nobility:

"Imperial politics are based on the division of power among the electors, for whom the Emperor is but a figurehead. The divisions and alliances among the Electors tend to be at their most critical during the election of a new Emperor, but the process takes place all the time. Normally there are only a small number of figures at anyone time with the drive, energy and influence to be considered major figures in the hierarchy of the Empire... Behind these figures, a complex web of supporters spreads throughout all areas of the Imperial life."

And

"One of the sad truths about the noble class is that they love fighting. No harm in that, you'd have thought, given the enemies beyond the border, but the fact is they prefer fighting each other. There is a kind of institutionalised violence in the Empire called the Private War. This is a family feud blown out of all proportions, involving the raising of armies, battles, sieges etc. It's called a private war because it is actually illegal to 'join in'- you are supposed to be hired by one of the principle parties involved, related to one of them, a retainer of one of them or just one of them. The rules of the private war are simple; you can d what you like to the people on the other side, but you are supposed to avoid general mayhem around the place."

In other words, the nobility are not united but are full of differing interests, feuds, power struggles and questionable loyalty. Basically I aim to reflect this in the background to my Empire army and let it show in the campaigns that it is involved in.

Religion
WFRP, reflecting renaissance Germany, has religion as a major factor. The obvious conflict between followers of the cult of Sigmar and followers of Ulric are well covered and can be easily represented. But WFRP mentions the other ods which might be followed by conscripts in the army or the alternative to Ulric, Myrmidia, the Goddess of War who represents strategy and is seen as unfit for a warrior to follow by Ulric's worshippers.

Then there is the opposite to the Chaos Gods, the Gods of law. Long neglected with only a paragraph for each of them. I  see that there followers can have as harmful an impact as the followers of the Chaos Gods with their triumph also representing the destruction of society and the world. Solkan, the master of vengeance and law could be used as a deity for defeated champions and a motivation for witch hunters and puritan politicians.

Magic
White Dwarf issues 113 and 114 presented the beginnings of what became colour magic for Warhammer. The interesting thing was that it gave background that individualised the magic users and encouraged them to be more than simply a choice for the army. The underlying suggestions are that magic is a powerful addition to society and has it's own secret underworld and power struggles. It would be foolish not to tap into this rich vein and tie it up into the narrative of my games. Coupled with the struggles of the nobility, the reason for battles and the objectives in the scenario can be extremely varied.

Next blog I'll start showing how my Empire army looks and how I'm beginning to develop the narrative around it. hopefully there won't be too much gap between this post and the next.

A WFB 3rd edition battle report and pictures.

I don't have that much time to game at the moment and what little time I have had has reduced to nothing due to a recent house move and work commitments. But I still plan to try and continue with my hobby (and by default this blog), continuing with focusing on the bits that interest me and developing interesting narratives to base my hobby around.

Despite this lack of time, I did mange to try out third edition rules and fight a battle before Christmas on an improvised table. I played alone and did aim at re-familiarising myself with the rules by basically playing a scenario based on a defence against an advancing horde. I used all my Orc and Goblin force and my developing Empire Force, which is based on Perry Miniatures fantastic historical models. Photos are of course rubbish but were only taken to give an idea of the action, not to be beautiful diaromas. If they were, I failed at the first hurdle of providing a decent table.

This is not competition wargaming or wargaming to sell miniatures, it is to have fun in an evening while telling a story.

Background
Following the events outlined in the previous post, the Orc and Goblin horde has begun raiding and wiping out towns in the West of the Empire. Prince Horatio, an elector count, has decided to build his reputation by taking on the force. He has entered into a bargain with the merchant Bismarck. In exchange for the use of his troops, he will support Bismarcks attempt to marry the Duchess Winona. This would bring the Merchant Bismark into nobility and give him claim to throne of the small Duchy of Weisburg and real power. As it stands, Bismark is already a powerful figure in Weisburg having purchased land and power with gold that he gained from adventuring in Lustria. While known as unpredictable, he is a powerful figure who's backing is depended upon by nearly all the factions in Weisburg.

All that is except the Duchess Winona, who despises the figure and has claim to the inheritance of the Duchy when her frail father dies after her elder brother renounced all claim to the his inheritance and became a warrior priest of Sigmar. Her father listens to his daughter but is increasingly pressured to marry her off with increasingly influential voices telling him to arrange a wedding between Bismarck and her for the good of the Duchy. Bismarck see's that only a bit more pressure is needed and so has started to ally himself with nobles outside of Weisburg. Prince Horatio, the son of an Elector Count who is already seeking glory presents himself as a perfect ally.

So far the Orc and Goblin Horde has presented no real threat, other than a stream of refuges and distress from small villagers. Nobles are not wanting to mobilise against it,  seeing an all out war as what is wanted and so what should be avoided, allowing the Horde to break down under the weight of infighting. Prince Horatio agreed with this, until something happened. A group of clergy, from various religions started preaching about the evils of ignoring the greenskin menace. Prince Horatio's advisers advised to ignore this, until slowly one by one they did u-turns and advised the Prince that it would improve his standing if he engaged in crusade aganst the green tide.

It was a week after the last adviser changed his mind that Bismarck approached the adviser with a proposition. In exchange for his support of the marriage of the Duchess Winona, Bismarck would allow the use of his private army and they would face off against the Green Horde along their path of advance.

While their was no real path of advance, the village of Gimte provided a clear target for the Greenskins and agood place to assemble to beat them. The Prince agreed. He marshalled his small force of pikemen and called for help amongst the noble Knights aligned to his father and to Weisburg. He had a force and marched on Gimte.

The edge of Gimte and beginnings of the Great Forest. The Field of Battle

The Battle
Bismarck and The Prince's forces were camped in Gimte for a week before something happened. It started with scouts not returning and those that did reported a large force of Greenskins gathering but not approaching. The force outnumbered the Princes and Bismarck's combined forces. Bismarck's commanders and The Prince agreed open battle would not be possible and they would have to allow the Greenskins to break against their defences in Gimte. They set up with the nights on the Eastern flank next to the elite mercenary swordsmen of Bismark. Then the Princes artillery and Pike at the edge of the village and Bismarcks gunners and crossbowmen defending the village. The aim was to keep the Greenskin form the village and the break as many advancing as possible.

I did say the table was improvised! Empire Knights assembling

The Greenskins came on mass, with Night Goblin Archers and infantry heading for the village and Goblin Spears heading for the Princes men and Elite Swords. They were backed by a huge spider crawling with goblins and Orc boys.

The Empire fired on the goblins and soon a healthy number of casualties were being made.

 But more and more Greenskins entered the field of battle and the giant spider advanced onto the Empires right flank.

In what looked set to become a legendary heroic charge, Prince Horatio ordered his knights to charge the beast. Unfortunately heroism is a lot easier in legends than it is on paper and the knights panicked at the enormity of their task and stayed in place, struck down by fear. The Goblins spurred their Araknorak (the spider) forward and charged instead. The Knights ended up locked in combat with the beast, only just holding and not routing.

To add to this, mangler squigs started to rampage through the Empire lines and the majority of the Empire forces looked set to be left out of the battle as Orcs and Goblins closed on the crossbowmen and gunners defending the village.

 In an effort to engage and split the advancing greenskins who looked set to ignore the majority of his defences the Prince ordered his pike men forward to form a block in the centre of the field. Unfortunately they were charged by the Orc General and accompanying battle standard barer. Two models but I imagine it would be the equivalent of 50 (1 model represents 25 actual soldiers) super hard, huge Orcs armed to the Teeth lead by a couple of maniacs. They were followed by more Orcs and a Goblin regiment side charging the pike men.

With this the Prince ordered those who could to withdraw. Bismarck had already gone, abandoning his mercenaries who gave a fighting withdrawal. The Empire weren't routed but they were defeated. The village was the Orcs and symbolically, for this disparate group of tribes, they had defeated the Empire for the first time. They were ready to stop raiding and march to war! The reign of Finbad the Unrepentant, warlord and Emperor was about to begin!

Lessons
The battle showed a few things to me. Firstly it highlighted the flaws of 3rd. edition Warhammer. Despite it allowing more depth and range of actions, it drags as the battle gets bigger. If I am to continue resurrecting it, I will limit my games to 1500-3000 point afairs. In particular the combat system drags and does need honing down. Close combat should be short quick and brutal, not a drawn out affair. Anyone who has done martial arts training will tell you that you cannot physically spend hours fighting back and forward, but third editon seems to suggest this is exactly what happens over a tiny strip of land.

The second issue was manoeuvre and orders. I want a game where the general is giving and struggling to give orders, not just being a leadership bonus while units can freely manoeuvre. In my next game, I'm tempted to use some kind of order system based on Warmaster, to represent orders struggling to get through. The logical thing would be to back this up with an initiative move system which could result in forces doing the opposite of what you want them to do.

Finally the use of all my Orc and Goblin armies was over the top and made the game one sided. While I don't want to end up tied to army lists and points, I need to both remember restraint and use suitable size armies for time and space that match up more evenly. So I'll probably never paly with my full Orc and Goblin force using third edition rules again

My Orc and Goblin army

My Orc and Goblin army

My Orc army has been produced over my 29 years of on/off playing Warhammer. Basically when I first played Warhammer I played a lot of battles against Dwarfs with Orcs, before developing an interest in chaos thanks to the mighty Realm of Chaos books. When I got back into Warhammer, I wanted some continuity from the early days while using  a mixture of my old models and some of the best of the new models. It comes to 4000 points based around the 8th. edition Orc and goblin list, although it roughly matches this using a list based in third edition Warhammer Armies. But the aim is to play loose games of third edition based Warhammer with it. I am still in the process of adjusting rules to fit some of the new profiles for models such as the Arachnorak and squigs so that I can easily play with my version of 3rd. edition. But a bit of friendly play testing and adjustment should work this out. After all I don't do competitive gaming and it is playing out the narrative and the challenges this throws up that is most important.

So, the background!

In the Grey Mountains, the Dwarfs' of the  seven holds of Eira Gwyn fought a devastating 20year war of attrition against invading groups of Orcs. The battles would range from bloody sieges to personal, small scale skirmishes aimed at keeping mountain passes open. Finally a bloody push managed to drive the majority of the Orcs into the forests that marked the beginning of the Empire and allow the final five years to be based around mopping up the small groups of Orcs and Goblins that remained in the areas around Eira Gwyn and what the Dwarfs considered their territory.

The Orcs in the forest entertained themselves by fighting amongst themselves, beastmen, bullying the local spider worshipping goblin tribes and avoiding two nasty Orc characters. These were Finbad the Unrepentant and Gomidja.

Finbad the Unrepentant was a huge Orc who refused to accept that Orcs were defeated in Eira Gwyn. It was rumoured that he, along with his small band of big 'uns, was planning another big war. This was fine, however, despite their love of violence, Dwarfs did not like getting massacred and embarrassing defeats. The Empire was too strong around the  forests, the beastmen were too strong and the Dwarfs were definitely too strong to take on in a big war. Little fights were the order of the day and more fun. Finbad didn't accept this, but if you told him he would simply show you how good he was at war and completely destroying his opponents. He was very good, or so the Orc corpses would suggest.

Gomidja, on the other hand, was weird and dangerous. He was a powerful Orc shaman and he only appeared when he had a dark purpose, casting magic that caused deveestation, but also made the average Orc warrior feel strange. It was not clear what he believed in, but during the Eira Gwyn war he had turned up to battles and sieges where he then focused on plundering and capturing specific objectives, despite what the Orc chieftans tried to tell him what to do. It was also noted that any Orc who tried to tell him what to do met with a very sticky fate, meaning that he was left alone and any help he gave was gratefully accepted, even if it wasn't that helpful.

The Red Back tribe was the largest tribe of Forest Goblins and they were sick of the Orcs. It was bad enough fearing the Beastmen of the forests, without having to avoid the new influx of Orcs. After a while they decided to get their shaman, White Tail, to do something. The shaman decided to consult their god Araknorak, Red Back.  After a slow start the sky darkened and the drumming and dancing of the ceremony took on a life of it's own. The clouds darkened and spiders swarmed through the trees, White Tail and his assistants danced and let the sacred spiders bite them. Then at it's height, White Tail was struck by green lightening and from the sky and fell to the ground. Red Back emerged from the cave and stood over the prostate goblin before lifting him and cocconing him in silk.

The spider remained guardian for the rest of the night as the other goblins looked on in fear and awe, As dawn approached, a ripping sound could be heard. From the cocoon White Tail emerged. HE looked around at the hundreds of goblins and spoke! He told the Goblins he had ea vision. He would lead the Goblins against the Beastmen at skull rock clearing, freeing up the entrances to the Snarling Moon Night Goblin tribes caves. The Night Goblins would be in their debt and free to collect the forest mushrooms that were prized by their shamans. They would ally with the forest goblins. White Tail then assured the awe struck Goblins that they could then order Finbad to join them and he would, because he would see the Goblins power at defeating the Beastmen. They could then take on the Empire and be free from hiding from bigger foes. Foes would hide from them!

From the darkness of the woods an unseen watcher smiled and lent on his staff, tired from the spell he had just cast. Gomidja's plan was beginning, he would take Finbad to watch the battle at Skull Rock and from here he would build an army!

Pictures

All done with a poor camera which is unfortunately over harsh on the highlights.

A group photograph of the Orcs' and Goblins' ready for war.

Finbad with Harboth's archers in the background

Above is Finbad the Unrepentant with Harboths archers who joined his army in the interest of violence and looting. Harboth's archers were a Christmas present in about 1989. I never painted them until I started collecting Orcs' and Goblins' a few years ago. They are one of a few links in this army to my past gaming.

A Black Orc hero and White Tail, the shaman who thinks he is general

I basically built the platform for White Tail to give the impression of grandeur and the potential for magic power. All of this is borrowed from Gamidja who has his own (non- Orcish) aims and oacts but needs an army that would not follow him alone. Finbad is also Gamidjas puppet but is manipulated differently with Gomidja persuading him that they both have the same aims.

Lunarus, forge world shaman and one of my favourite miniatures.

The army is very strongly shamans. I noticed this as I painted it, but it fits with the narrative I'm developing for my battles with unseen and unknown power struggles between magic users of all races being partly behind all battles. This is above even some generals who never truly understand the wars they fight.

Red Back

Finally a shot of Red Back, the model that I got form my wife for my birthday three years ago that re-started my Orc and Goblin collection. The photgraph definitely doesn't do it justice and I will eventually get some better daylight ones done. I used an airbrush for the first time while painting this and I learnt quite a bit about painting as I did it. It is not the best thing I've painted, but  it is the largest and it showed me how inspiring some of games Workshops modern models are, despite what some older gamers say. In the bottom left corner are some Nigh Goblin archers. I really didn't want to paint such a big unit in balck. In fact I almost didn't bother with such a big unit but felt it fitted with my idea of how goblins would fight. In the ed I used brown in instead of black since I felt it gave a better, more gritty look and seperates them from the cartooney image of Night Goblins in 4th. and 5th. edition.

I won't list the exact army here, since, as I mentioned, I am still trying to work out how to play games based on third edition rules with some models that did not exsist in that version. There for there is not an exact list or points values. But then who needs point values, this is narrative gaming with each model and unit having it's own story!