ShireCon 24

While lamenting the loss of our No 1 Wargaming apprentice (who regularly kicks our arses on the table, just to show what fantastic instructors we are), Slowpainter John and I attended ShireCon over the weekend. This is a small and relatively new show, at the same venue at MOAB held in late Sep). We also caught up some some locally infamous characters, including Frank showcasing his awesome "Blood on the Sands" gladiator game and experimenting with some new gladiators classes

Head Lanista Frank showcasing his great Gladiator game

Interestingly, there were zero traders, just games and a bring and buy. On offer was some Kings of War, a small 40k tourney, and a Blood Bowl 7s competition "The Outback Cup" 

A dozen or so BB coaches focused on their game

Some snazzy Black Orcs lead their team!

The Outback Cup - now in its fourth year (not counting COVID!)

This quick play "Grimdark Future" game was being demoed and had quite a bit of interest - basically a "not KillTeam", the basic rules and army lists are available FREE through the website here: https://www.onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future-firefight

Some Old World action at play

Back to Blood on the Sands, it was great to see Frank running some new players through the game, as well as experimenting with four new Gladiator classes - looking forward to givng them ago. 

The Lansita's T-shirt says it all really... :-)

Frank also had samples of his new custom dice on show, as well as some mdf hex tile arena which really look the business

New dice!

The newly available mdf hex tile arena

I got a few small treasures from the Bring and buy, this "Legion A-A5 speeder truck" from the Star War Legion line, with a view to using it in 5 Parsecs from Home for my crew to boost around in. Now it needs a snazzy paintjob!

Adieu AHPC Season XIV

Another year and another great Dad & Lad hobby event! Naturally, we lost some productivity by playing games against one another, but its a great problem to have and we both met our challenge targets which was great! 

From Paul: 

With my work schedule having me away for more than a third of the Challenge, I set a modest target to achieve 8,000 lifetime challenge points (over 10 Challenges) but ended up cracking a thousand points for only the fourth time, and submitted above my last few years' average.

More lead models than plastic this year, so it felt like a thousand points worth carrying it!

I had a couple of different projects prepped but in November & December we enjoyed a few games of To The Strongest, which reinvigorated our stalled Roman Civil Wars project from AHPC IX. That became a throughly wonderful focus and I've now got the army ready for the tabletop to face Alan, which is exciting! Naturally, there was space for some Beastmen to celebrate the release of The Old World too :-)

And cumulatively, my 10 Challenges look thus:

(Season VI isn't spoken of in polite company...)

And this was a unique event in the history of AHPC, and wont happen again I'm sure!

Thanks for the Project inspiration and keeping me on track mate!

From Reilly: 

While thoroughly distracted with preparing to move house, I set a low bar to get the last few units done in order to finish my 3000+ point Warhammer Fantasy Battles Spider Goblin army. Whilst happy that I managed to get the few units done, inevitably with the release of The Old World more units to paint came flooding in and the project continues to grow. 

These massive spiders never cease to impress me
with their presence on the table... before they die.

From us both: Many thanks indeed to our Minion Millsy (the Antopodean 'paint and sip' sessions were excellent!) the broader minion crew that made Season XIV happen, and the wonderful AHPC community for their encouragement, banter and kind comments.

As ever the lion's share of gratitude goes to Curt and Lady Sarah - another wonderful hobby event, and thankyou for your tireless enthusiasm and passion for this project!!!

See you next year!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/03/adieu-season-14-from-og-boys.html

Achilles Rampant! Farewell to the Lad

Reilly is leaving home very shortly and moving to the Australian State of Queensland (thats 2000kms away) so the club fellahs got together for a big bash game last weekend.  In keeping with his favourite genre it was Trojan War, and 10 mates fought it out before the gates of Troy.  

The 15 foot table was graced with some 30 chariots, 27 horse and 540 foot troops, all in 28mm - looked very impressive

My Trojan line, led by Hector, gets ready to defend their beloved Polis

Oh mighty Zeus give us your blessing this day!

The game was setup with a large swirling chariot and cavalry action on one flank, a broadly open plain for an infantry battle in the centre, and a broken area on the other flank on the banks of the Scamander River.  Here are a selection of pics from the phrenetic, loud and exceptional fun that followeed!

The Lad in the centre -playing Achilles naturally! (Yes, I had Hector!)

Crafty Odysseus and his men capture the golden fleece!

Achilles and the Myrmidon seek Hector at the Temple of Apollo

Patroclus advances, seeking his Glory

Paris is Slain by the Greeks, who 

Achilles flanks the main Trojan line

Hector find Patroclus in the centre of the battlefield and challenges him to a duel

...and takes him down!

...followed by an enraged Achilles challenging Hector

Here is the live action of the Duel (5&6s hit- highest wins)

Achilles defeats Hector - Historical Outcome!

What is it with all this defilement by Chariot today!

So with Hector fallen, the Greeks won the day in the end - thanks very much indeed to the guys for coming along to farewell Reilly. He had a blast and we went home to watch the movie Troy over a few beers of course!

Rules notes

We used Lion Rampant rules with a few significant modifications, to make the game flow better with so many platers and 60 odd units on the table;.

- Everyone had 6 units, and while they were slightly different to one another, the 5 pairs of players facinhg one another had identical forces

- Units activation was by "Chit pull" with the Umpire (aka Gav aka Zeus) randomly pulling from 6 Trojan and 6 Greek tokens from a bag Bolt Action style, with everyone on the side indicated attempting to activate a unit of their choice, keeping everyone involved in the action.

- Each Player had a major Hero from the Odyssey: Menolaus faced Paris, Ajax faced Sarpedon, Odysseus faced Aeneas... and Reilly played Achilles facing off against me with Hector, naturally. Each character led a 12 man Foot Companion units and added a number of dice to the attack score of their units (eg Odysseus 3 dice, Hector 5 etc)

    For extra authenticity, Achilles was a Level 4 hero, until Patroclus was slain - at which time he became a 6!

- VP wise each pair of players had a terrain objective to control at game end worth 3 VPs, and each major unit (not skirmishers) was worth 1 unit if destroyed. Heroes weere worth another 1-2 VPs.

- To reflect the fickle influence of the Gods, each player had rerolls equal to d6: 1=zero, 2-5= 1, 6 = 2... +1. Soe everyone had between 1 and 3 rerolls, to be used anytime during the game.

AHPC 14: Roman Baggage elements

Yes I know I said I had submitted my last post but I got home from my travels early enough to get these baggage elements finished before I departed again.

First up is this Centurion's Tent by Debris of War. A lovely one piece resin model, it really sets the Camp scene well. The design is of leather panels stitched together with goat skin reinforcing over the seams

And if you are setting up the Centurion's tent, then it needs supplies- in this case a wine cart! This is by War Bases and comprises a mdf wagon, metal oxen and a resin insert for the wine amphorae. I added the grass to give the impression of straw packing around them

https://warbases.co.uk/product/roman-wine-cart/

How thematic that my last post was dated on the Ides of March!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/03/from-paul-og-roman-baggage-elements-33.html