Battle Report [OPR AoFS] The Second Battle for the Ruins of Typtich

"The grand city of Tryptich was destroyed in a cataclysm.  Rumours abound that lost treasures lie amid its shattered dwellings, manors, stores, and temples.

Small bands of adventurers from all the races of the world now scour the ruins, battling for control of lost artefacts, and to plunder the golden hoards they find there."

One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish rules continue to be our game of choice at the table, and after last week’s bash we gathered again for another go.

Our resident 3D print guru had printed a bit more terrain so the ruins of Typtich grew a little this week!

Once again, we were down to three players, so we set up the table as normal and had a brief chat about a scenario.  Both we’d used last week hadn’t quite been satisfactory for a three-player game so we cobbled together the idea of one objective marker each (on our home ground) and a central objective.  A simple scrap would ensue with the winner being the player who controlled most objectives at the end of turn four.  As it happens this worked really well and made for the most enjoyable skirmish bash we’ve fought so far.

This week I decided to bring a mixed force of Orcs with Ogre allies, to face off against the Ratmen and Chivalrous Kingdoms.

Orcs with Ogre allies – 400pts competitive validation

• 1x Brute orc boss [1] (dual heavy hand weapons, warcry) – 125pts
• 1x Black orc boss [1] (heavy great weapon) – 60pts
• 3x Black orcs [1] (dual hand weapons) – 20pts each
• 1x Ogre warrior [1] (dual heavy hand weapons) – 45pts
• 2x Ogre shooters [1] – 55pts each

Like last week this is a bit of an elite force with a small number of tough and hard-hitting units. It’s a type of force I’m playing about with a lot, and I quite like it in the skirmish format.

Ratmen – 400pts competitive validation

• 1x Battle master [1] (dual heavy hand weapons, army standard bearer) – 85pts
• 1x Champion [1] (spear, caster[3]) – 90pts
• 1x Night scout [1] -15pts
• 2x Warriors [3] (spears) – 25pts each
• 1x Grenadiers [3] – 30pts
• 2x Rat ogres [1] – 40pts each
• 1x Storm veterans [3] (heavy great weapons) – 50pts

After deployment the night scout snuck forwards towards the centre.

Chivalrous Kingdoms – 400pts competitive validation

• 1 x High Champion [1]
• 1 x Realm defender [1]
• 1 x Quest knight [1] (sergeant)
• 1 x Men at arms [3]
• 2 x Longbowmen [3]
• 4 x Mounted bowmen with Lance [3]

10 units, 24 figures.

We deployed in our respective starting zones with, as it turned out, very similar strategies!  Each of us looked to defend the “home” objective and contest the other two, and this led to a very tense and action-packed battle that was surprisingly balanced.

Readhy for battle...

My orc bosses “warcry” ability made my whole force “fast” so I was able to cover ground as quickly as cavalry.  I set up so that the ogres would defend my home objective and the orcs would rush forwards to try to seize at least one other.

The ogres are set to defend while the orcs are champing at the bit to charge.

Loaded with scrapnel they're ready to rain death.

The Chivalrous Kingdoms set up with a similar two-front approach.

A large force of bow & lance knights gallop out from the ranks of bowmen.

The ratmen formed a more cautious mob, deployed to have options on their lines of advance.

Killkill! Yesyes!!

Turn 1

The orcs and ratmen made a rush for the centre objective, only to find the ruined temple impeded by fallen rubble.  A quick dash to the centre would be stymied by difficult ground to cross.

The Chivalrous riders took a more circuitous route, sending much of its cavalry down a back alley towards the orc-held area. Chivalrous archers killed the rat-scout with longbow fire, and the orges opened with some long-ranged cannon fire, picking off a few horsemen with a hail of “scrapnel”.

An angry orc pushes in to oppose the she-rat scout.

The first of the ratmen push forwards, spears at the ready to meet charges.

The orcs push out in force.

A wall of ratmen creep forwards, trying to see how things are developing.

Chivalrous soldiers canter in past the abandoned privvy.

While on the flank, orge cannon fire thing their ranks...

With the armies we’re using turn 1 was a traditional “approach and position” phase. The battle lines could be seen though, and for my part, my intended rush to the centre needed reassessment as the two enemy forces approached.

Score

• Orcs – 1 objective
• Chivalrous kingdoms – 1 objective
• Ratmen – 1 objective

Turn 2

This turn became a brutal “battle for the flanks”. On my left, the two ogre cannoneers tore the chivalrous cavalry to pieces with more volleys of lethal scrap, halting the flanking ride in its tracks.

And after another volley, there are few knights left.

Meanwhile an amazing fight broke out when the insane black orc boss charged into the heart of the ratman advance. Surrounded and outnumbered, he faced attack after attack by ratmen with spears, the ratman battlemaster, a rat ogre, poisoned bombs lobbed in from afar, and the vicious lightning magic of the ratty sorcerer!  Despite it all, the orc’s armour and dense flesh shrugged off all harm as he wailed and whirled his murderous heavy weapon amid the ratkin ranks! It was a sight to behold, and he was loving the scrap! He dished out wounds in return and all but butchered the ratman battle master.

The most intense battle of the game begins with a near immortal black orc!

Diedie! Killkill!  Noooo!!!

Ratogrekillkill!

Nah, yer can't kill me!  *Whack* Ave some 'o that ratboy!

Alright, I'll back off then. I need some goblins to lick me wounds clean.

Back over on the chivalrous front, the kingdom’s finest heroes rode into the orcs, requiring the orc brute boss and the ogre warrior to step in and blunt the charge.

Charge my noble knights!! Yeah Chaaarge boys! 

Ugh, these orcs can't do it. Let me 'ave a go.

Score

• Orcs – 1 objective
• Chivalrous kingdoms – 1 objective
• Ratmen – 1 objective

Turn 3

The established fronts continued their skirmishing, but elsewhere the battle developed.  In the ruined temple, each force sent a unit in to contest the centre objective.  A lone black orc faced a solid group of chivalrous swordsmen, and a nasty mob of moon-glaive wielding ratty elites, as they all stumbled through the rubble.  I was not confident that my orc would survive!

Over on the chivalrous/ratman front, they engaged forces there, both intent on rushing the other’s objectives.  Battle raged on this newly engaged area, with the rat ogre supported by rats with spears, facing chivalrous riders and longbowmen.

Unusually by the end of turn 3 the battle was still very much in the balance.  The ranks all round were badly thinned, although the ratmen were in far better shape having taken fewer casualties. They were also better positioned. It looked like the battle would be decided on turn 4 and it was possible for each of us to win, depending how the turn went.

The battle for the centre begins in earnest.

Score

• Orcs – 1 objective
• Chivalrous kingdoms – 1 objective
• Ratmen – 1 objective

Turn 4

The last turn began, and a surviving chivalrous knight galloped over to contest the ratman objective! His gallant dash was in vain though and the rat sorcerer killed him with lightning magic, securing the ratman home objective.

The knight rushed to contest the ratman objective, only to die in a blast of lightning.

As a countermove, the rat ogre stormed up to take the chivalrous kingdoms objective, this time with more success.  The objective would be contested.

The rat ogre counters with a more sucessful charge.

Meanwhile in the centre, my orc was killed by the chivalrous soldiers, and then the ratmen drove off these soldiers to take the centre objective.  This was not certain however, as the orcs opened a path for an ogre to advance close enough to contest this centre.

The fighting meant that at the end of turn 4, both the chivalrous kingdoms and orcs had broken and had to take morale tests.  In a final betrayal by the dice gods, chivalrous warriors and the orc’s ogre allies fled the field, leaving three objectives in the hands of the ratmen!

The game went down to the final phases of the last turn before the ratmen secured a dominant win.  It was a marvellous, tense and fun game.

Score

• Orcs – 1 objective
• Chivalrous kingdoms – 0 objectives
• Ratmen – 3 objectives

Another marvellous game of OPR AoFS.  If you’ve not played it, give it a go!

Comment from the ratman player

“I thought the scenario was an excellent idea - basically, each controlling one objective at the start, with one in the middle and all starting an equal distance from the objective.

My plan formulated itself over the first turn or so and was to contest as many objectives as possible, and try to force morale fails.

I could see which way it was (hopefully) heading, and you will notice that I tried to avoid too much combat, only attacking when my rear line was threatened. The units on my flank were prepared to soak up the chivalrous bow fire, with the Rat Ogre hovering to charge in in the last turn.

Annoyed that I forgot to charge with my Wizard when I had tee'd it up. I got distracted, but hey ho, it all worked out in the end!”

Battle Report [OPR AoFS] Battle for the Ruins of Typtich

It’s been a very long time since I did a battle report, mostly because I enjoy my games to the point of forgetting to photograph them!  I made a special effort last night as we gathered for another bash at a One Page Rules: Age of Fantasy Skirmish.

Usually there’s four to six of us at a session, but for various reasons we were down to three players.  We discussed a one-on-one round robin (one of the advantages of OPR skirmish being that you can get several games in of an evening), but instead decided to go with a three-player free for all.

We set up and played the ‘Bear Hunt’ scenario. The bear was revealed on turn 1, and by the end of turn 2 the game was over with a win to the goblins, so moving quickly on, we set up for a more enjoyable free clash over 5 evenly spaced objectives. This game would be simple. At the end of 4 rounds, the player in control of the most objectives would win. Once captured, an objective remained captured until it was taken by another player. 

Note, in the skirmish versions of OPR we ignore the requirement for a 1” separation between friendly units.

The Forces

Eternal Wardens – 400pts Competitive Validation

Crikey lads, there's loads of 'em out there!

I decided to try out a small but tough force and went with my Eternal Wardens.  Only six figures is less activations that the seven we consider minimum (with somewhere around ten being optimal) so I was worried I’d struggle with objective-based scenarios. But I deployed the following.

• 1x Guardian Elite [1] (dual hand weapons) – 55pts
• 4x Paladins [1] – 60pts each
• 1x Destroyer [1] (Meteor Great Hammer) – 105pts

Goblins – 400pts Competitive Validation

Wicked cackling could be hear resonating through the ruined streets...

• 1x Goblin leader [1] (great weapon) – 30pts
• 1x Goblin leader [1] (dual hand weapons, caster[2], pet cave beast) – 80pts
• 2x Warriors [3] (spears) – 20pts each
• 1x Beast riders [3] (spider riders) – 35pts
• 1x Nasty assassin [1] 25pts
• 2x Shooters [3] – 30pts each
• 1x Troll [1] (heavy great weapon, cave breed) – 65pts
• 1x Fanatic [1] – 65pts

Ratmen – 400pts Competitive Validation

So could the skittering of sewer-caked feet.

• 1x Battle master [1] (dual heavy hand weapons, army standard bearer) – 85pts
• 1x Champion [1] (spear, caster[3]) – 90pts
• 1x Night scout [1] -15pts
• 2x Warriors [3] (spears) – 25pts each
• 1x Grenadiers [3] – 30pts
• 2x Rat ogres [1] – 40pts each
• 1x Storm veterans [3] (heavy great weapons) – 50pts

We set up the urban ruin table, and an “X” of objectives and got to deploying. We each deployed to try to seize as much ground as possible, deciding to deploy within 12” of the centre of a table edge. The ratmen also had a sneaky scout who rushed forwards to immediately try to seize objective 3.  

Look at that sneaky she-rat tryng to win the game from turn 1!

At the end my Eternal Wardens felt distinctly ganged up on! This is going to be a hard fight it seems.

The eternals are definitely the filling an a "nasty mob" sandwich here.

Turn 1

The goblins seized objective 4 and advanced to contest objectives 3 and 5.

The ratmen chose to leave objective 1 for later in the battle and focus their forces on contested 2 and 3.

The eternal wardens spread out to contest 2 and 5 and move to contest the centre objective (3).

As set up by the deployment dispositions, my eternal wardens were in the thick of the fighting, with both flanks swamped by enemies.  

On my right, swarms of ratmen and their leader similarly tried to overrun my position. The eternal paladins really held their own though and proved to be very tough fighters.

There's rats coming through the walls over here chaps!

On my left, the paladins fought a desperate action against a swarm of giant spiders, goblin warriors and a lumbering troll.

Err...there's one over here too...but I'm more worried about them goblins.

All three forces sent warriors into the centre.  As the ratmen pushed in a rat-ogre I decided to send my slow-moving destroyer in to take it down and contest or hold the centre objective.

As is usual for the first turn in OPR it’s mostly a positional turn where each side tries to get into a solid position to launch its main attack on turn two.  This game followed that pattern pretty closely but there was some fighting on both of the eternal wardens’ flanks, with wounds exchanged by all sides. 

The eternal wardens ‘battle wedge’ advanced in formation, and the goblins and ratmen both swarmed forth to meet it.

The fight begins at objective 5

One notable combat was between the ratmen’s leader and one of the eternal paladins. Both had the capability to destroy the other in one round of fighting but neither did!

"When he bends down, you smack his brain out with your sword"

Turn 2

The real fighting began in earnest, with exchanges all along the front lines.

Around objective two, the ratmen swarmed the paladins there, wounding him but losing a few warriors in return.  The other paladin here continued to trade blows with the ratman leader in a vicious hand to hand fight.

At objective 3 in the centre, some goblin warriors skulked about, while a paladin was torn to pieces by the rat ogre. In response the eternal wardens’ destroyer lumbered forwards and in a single mighty attack with his meteor hammer obliterated the rat ogre, much to the alarm of the onlooking ratman spell-caster!

SKWEEEE!!!! Gold boy be dead soon! Yesyes!!

Maybe so, but he will be avenged

Shocked ratmen wavering in the face of the destroyer.
The rat-sorcerer looks on in horror and throws some ineffective rat magic at him.

At objective 5 a desperate fight continued with the paladin this time contesting with the goblin swarm, their troll and spider riders.  It was only a matter of time for the paladin to fall, but that time was not quite yet, despite a series of relentless attacks.

I'm not sure I'll survive this...

There were a few limited exchanges (mostly goblin archery) between the goblins and ratmen.

At the end of turn 2 the goblins remained in the lead, controlling objective 4.  All other objectives remained contested. The ratmen had suffered the worst losses of the fighting but most of the eternal wardens were badly wounded. Goblin losses were much lighter.

Turn 3

As ever in OPR, this was the decisive turn of the game.

The skirmishing continued around objective 2, with the ratman warriors chopped up, and the ratman leader on the losing end of another bitter melee.

The combined melee attacks by the troll and spider riders, and a vicious volley of close ranged bow fire from the goblin archers, the paladins were finally cut down, giving the goblins control of objective 5.

In the centre, objective three remained contested by all three forces.

Losses mounted and by the end of the turn both the eternal wardens and the ratmen were testing morale.  Significant numbers of ratmen, seeing how things were going, decided to slink off into the ruined sewers.  The noble wardens stood their ground and at the end of turn 3 the victory conditions were pretty much set.

The goblins held objectives 4 and 5.

The eternal wardens held objective 2.

Objective 3 remained contested.

Objective 1 remained uncontrolled.

Turn 4

With the game pretty much over, we played out turn 4 with what was left.

The main two flashpoints were objective 3, where the eternal warden destroyed tried and failed to clear out the petty warrior scum around him. Over at objective 1, the ratmen rushed over to seize it, only to find the goblin nasty assassin, until this point lurking in ambush, arrived to deny the ratmen their prize!

We played out the remaining fights, and at the end of the turn the goblins took their hard-fought victory!

After action comments

OPR continues to delight with some excellent and enjoyable gameplay. After a year or so of playing the larger game, we’re having fun with the skirmish version for a while that plays differently due to the possible survivability of the units/models. It changes your considerations and frictions, and means you often concentrate of finishing off stunned models to ensure they don’t recover.

For this battle, as the eternal warden’s player I definitely felt ganged up on! The eternal wardens played far better than I thought they would, and despite only six activations, I was able to contest where I needed to.  Its interesting that a unit of three 1-hit models seems like a unit of one 3-hit model, but the difference is the 3-hit model retains all its attacks whereas the 1-hit model unit is reduced by losses. I really missed not having a caster though.  I’m not sure if they are decisive because they are so random, but it felt wrong not to have at least one knocking about throwing magic!

I’d planned to try to seize three objectives.  I think that overstretched my resources. In hindsight I should have put 3 units onto capturing objective 2 and 3 units onto objective 5, secured those and then if needed, gone for the centre.  None-the-less it was a great game and a lot of fun.

We’ve seen the goblins on the table for a few games now and they are a good, solid force with a lot of flexibility. Played well they are a force to reckon with.

The ratmen, like the eternal wardens, were making their first appearance at our table. Like the goblins they seemed like a good force with lots of options.  The poisoned bomb throwers were nasty, and two rat ogres were scary to face!

A note on the models

Obviously, the eternal wardens make use of Games Workshop fantasy models, but our group now has a few 3D printer owners in it and 3D prints are making their way into our games in force. Its hard not to see this technology as at least part of the future of wargaming as it becomes easier and more available to use. It does need a bit of set up and the kit won’t be usable by everyone but still.

Anyway, our game here made use of a variety of 3D printed models and terrain (as well as terrain from our club stock to bulk the table out.

Sandfang Ratkin: Artisans Guild - https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-sandfang-ratkins-complete-set-51-308008

Faldorn Goblins: Artisans Guild - https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-faldorn-goblins-complete-set-46-272514

PLA Terrain Sets: Philip Sinn Miniatures -

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-scatter-ruins-i-295675

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-scatter-ruins-2-323506

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-scatter-ruins-3-324277

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-scatter-ruins-4-325300

Resin Terrain Set: Cast N Play - https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-town-ruins-set-pre-supported-318365

Syvaneth & Wood Elves

On to my next project. In fact, this is my next-but-one project as I just finished building a Khorne fantasy force.  However, the paint I need for it won’t be delivered until Wednesday, so I skipped on to the next cranny of the Lead Mountain. 

I picked out a random box to find a bunch of Games Workshop fantasy Age ofSigmar Sylvaneth models that I acquired in the Before Times.

First up there’s a couple of treemen, the bits for which were spread across six partially used sprues. Luckily this time I actually had the build instructions, so it wasn’t a guessing game to put them together. These large figures turned out to be surprisingly delicate but unusually for Games Workshop were straightforward to assemble. Sure, there were parts that were unnecessarily split into lots of little bits, but there wasn’t anything too taxing.

Putting them together from the various sprues I was missing the parts for a lower leg, so I went looking online for replacement bits.  I’ve tried to get bits in the past directly from Games Workshop, only to be told that "they don’t do that". Seems like a missed opportunity to me but what do I know?

Anyway, the various “bitz” seller sites don’t seem to have the parts I’m after, and in desperation I even turned to ebay without success. 

So…well…its down to a bit of manual sculpting as I’ve not yet jumped into the 3D printing pool.  I don’t do much of this and I’m not very good at it but from time to time I do have to sort out some gap filling etc. so… As this was a fairly big part, greenstuff on its own wouldn’t work well.  I’m aware that greenstuff can be mixed in with milliput to make a modelling clay that is greater than the sum of its parts, so after a bit of research I threw the two products together in a roughly 60/40 mix (with milliput being the 60%). I’m not sure if I should have mixed the two products independently and then mashed them together, but I just started with the four components and worked them together.  It seemed to do the job so I set about moulding a very crude treeman leg. I mixed in some plastic bits to try and spruce it up a bit.  Its not great but when painted I think it’ll be fine.

Oh, and I mixed far too much so I made a couple of "logs" for the bases with that was left over.

I found some bits for some wood elf archers, so threw them together with some weird fairy creatures. As I’ll be using this force for OnePage Rules fantasy games, these will do for units with the “warning cry” special ability.

And there’s also a good bunch of branchwraiths which I’ll put together.  Seventeen so far, but there’s more to come.  Now these things are relatively easy to build, but again could be easier.  They pain problem is that their feet are TINY, so there’s very little contact points to attach them to their bases. So that’s a bit of a struggle.

With the figure haul construction completed, I undercoated them in a mix of wraithbone (ivory) and white.  The wood elf archers are going to be predominantly shades of green and brown so I did these in a green undercoat. 

I have a basic idea of the colour scheme I plan to use for the tree beasties, which is intended to make the painting simple and quick.  I'm hoping to get these completed in no more than 4-5 hours.

So I started on one figure with a simple colour test of Games Workshop's Aggaros Dunes contast paint. To give a bit of colour interest I'll also use Plaguebearer Flesh contrast paint to throw a bit of green in there.

I'm happy with the first trial so I'll press ahead.

Ultimately I'll also probably use some other geen washes to mayby highlight the "Celtic" style skin markings on these miniatures, and maybe hint at internal energy glows.  Maybe some Waywatchers Green, or some yellow glazes?  Not sure yet.
I also need to decide what colour to do the little faerie creatures hitching a ride on the dryads. GW's "box art" has the Sylvaneth contrasting colour as a sort of ice blue, and blue sits very well next to brown.  However, I'm thinking that I want to keep the army with a limited palette of green and brown, so maybe I'll do them in a bright "glowing" green?

Typically this is how non-historical projects will develop for me.  I'll have a broad view of what colours I want, but that palette will change and evolve as I proceed.

UPDATE

After a couple of hours work of an evening, I have the dryads finished.  Using Aggaros Dunes this was super quick and simple to do.

To give a bit of visual interest I also used Plaguebearers Flesh to give a subtle green hint on the "loincloth" that each model sort of has, as well as on the hands and other twig-like extremities.

I used Waywatchers Green glaze on the faces, and a light drybrush of Ushabti bone on the obvious skulls, bones, etc. I used Tesserach Glow technical paint on the fairies.

Finally I applied my simple base cover (a mix of coarse and fine sand with some grey rocks, and then dabs of static grass).

I'm not sure I entirely like the finished product, but wood is always difficult to paint.  We think that natural wood is brown, but it almost always isn't, so translating that onto a model in a satisfactory hue is trick at best.  When the whole model is wood(!) it's even harder. But stepping back from the pseudo-artistic anguish, the wargamer "slapdash" approach says "that'll do".

With these little fairies i just gave them a wash of Tesserach Glow and called it done!
In OPR there's a special ability called "warning cry" that is usually
skinned as a watchful pet.  I'll use these as markers for that I think.

Next up will be the treemen, which i'll finish in a similar palette using similar methods.

I also dug out a small collection of very old wood elf figures. These are a mix of bad early-GW (1995?) plastic monopose archers (which I'll probably bin), and some nice metal miniatures from 1993, mostly archers, war dancers, and spearmen.  These look like Jez Goodwin sculpts which is always nice!  The plastic horses are missing tails so I may dump them and replace them with some modern plastic ones from Victrix. I have a bunch of Napoleonics left over from my Turnip28 armies, so they'll do. But I'm not sure yet what I'll do with these. I still have the four more modern plastic archers to paint. I know I want a green and brown colour scheme on them so these older metal models will most likely get the same treatment. 

Bent and damaged but unbowed! The tailless horses will need replacing though...

A treasure trove of antiques! Not all of these will get used I think.

 UPDATE 2

The treemen are done. Interestingly I'm not sure the scheme and painting techniques worked as well on these bigger figures than on the smaller dryads, but they're done and table ready so, "much success". 

The miliput/greenstuff sculpting has blended in fine.

So yeah, I'm not terribly good at doing glow effects.

I wasn't sure how to paint the sword.
I'd considered a bright "magical" green, but decided instead
on a dull bronze.

Sort of glowy face. Sort of.