Dever-esque Fantasy battles

[swiftnick]

Like many of us my early teens were spent poring over the adverts and pictures in White dwarf. This was in the Era when it was still a RPG magazine. One of the highlights was any article by Joe Dever who's Lone Wolf books had become a big thing. The articles, usually battle reports or scenarios were accompanied by photographs illustrating the battles. These gave a tantalising glimpse into a world og large scale fantasy battles that seemed unobtainable at a time when figures were bought 1 or 2 at a time using pocket money. As is often the case I fell out of love with fantasy gaming just when I could actually afford to game it in a reasonable scale. I didn't return to it until I discovered HOTT which had a low figure count and invariably was played in 15mm.
Now that I am getting on a bit I have started looking back on those days with Rose tinted specs and have amassed a reasonable collection of Dever articles and books. So have thought i would like to put together a Dever game for when the local gaming club opens up again.
Have chosen Thistlewood as a good game to go for. The armies aren't too huge and a fun scenario to ease back into gaming with.

[swiftnick]

Joe Dever kindly and generously left the rights of his published material to the project Aon and can be accessed free.
https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home

The Thistlewood article from White Dwarf can be found here.
https://www.projectaon.org/en/pdf/misc/LW-Articles.pdf

[Hobgoblin]

Have you seen the Thistlewood project on the Broadswords and Beasts blog?


http://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com/search/label/Thistlewood

[swiftnick]

 

The Scenarion introduction:

Scenario. Foro Malas, an accomplished thief of a foreign guild, has successfully stolen the legendary golden chalice of Landemar, reputedly the most securely guarded treasure of King Amias’ richkingdom. The King has mobilised his army to hunt and capture the thief and to restore the holy relic to the cathedral altar before the news of its disappearance becomes widespread. From snatches of information the King has deduced that the thief is in, hiding in the small northern village of Thistlewood.
Lord Vassago, evil necromancer and ruler of the King’s neighbouring Northlands, has learnt of the theft and is anxious to intercept the thief on his flight from the King. He has also discovered that Foro Malas is in hiding in Thistlewood and that the King is less than one day away, but Vassago is determined to capture the chalice despite the risk of a costly battle. The relic is reputed to have great magical properties; should it fall into the hands of Vassago the security ofthe entire kingdom would be jeopardised as he would be able to command great power and influence over it's populace.

Joe helpfully provided army lists and Warhammer stats to suit 2, 4 or 6 player games. I am aiming for 4 to 6 players but will be using Dragon rampant. I am still playing around with the army lists at the momentas have made the baddies a bit too strong.

King’s Army List
Character/Unit No of Figures Move WS BS Strength Toughness Wounds Initiative Attacks
King Amias       ( 1– 1– 1)       3    10   6      3             C              4           10         2
Baron Galen      ( 1– 1– 1)       3      8   4      2             B              2           8          2
Imperial Guard ( 3–5–10)        3     6    4      2             B              2           6          1
Royal Centaurs ( 3–5–10)        8      3    4     3             C              2           3          2
Kings Pikes Regt (10–15–20)    3     4    3      2             B              1           3          1
Kings Sword Regt (10–15–20)   3     4    3      2             B             1            3          1
Kings Mace Regt (10–15–20)     3     4    3      2             B              1          3          1
Loyal Half-Elves (10–15–20)     4½    4   5      2             B             1           6          1
Loyal Dwarves (10–15–20)       3½    4   3      2              C            1           2          1
Galen’s Cavalry (10–20–30)      8       4   4      2             B             1           3          1
Bishop Milendon ( 1– 1– 1)        4      6    4      3            C              4         14          3
Mastery Level: 4
Constitution: 23
Spells: Level 1: Cure light injury, blessing x2, flight, gift of tongues, aura of mighty resistance.
Level 2: Telepathy, aura of steadfastness x2, hold door, mystic mist.
Level 3: Aura of invisibility, banish undead, inv isibility, inspiration.
Level 4: Wall shaker.
Talismans: Silver Crucifix, Golden Horn of Power, Mace of the White Lord (= +2 to hit, +2 to kill.)


Vassago’s Army List
Character/Unit    No of Figures Move WS BS Strength Toughness Wounds Initiative Attacks
N’aarsh                 ( 1– 1– 1)    3½    8   5       2              E            3          9           2
Ugrash-Ka             ( 1– 1– 1)     6      3   3       4              D           4          3           2
Wyvern                  ( 1– 1– 2)     4      5  –       5              E            5          2           2
Trolls                     ( 2– 3– 5)     6       3  –       4             B            3          1           3
BIack Uruks          ( 5–10–20)     4       4  3       2             B            1          3           1
Vile Rune Orcs      (30–40–50)     3      3   3       2             B            1          2           1
Black Sun Goblins (30–40–50)     3      3   2       2             B             1          2          1
Skeletons             (10–20–25)    4½    2   2       1             B             1          2          1 
Ghouls                  ( 5–10–15)    4       2   –       2             C             1          1          2
Pack Wolves          (10–20–30)    9      3   –       2              B            1          2          1
Lord Vassago           ( 1– 1– 1)    4½    8   1       3             E             4         10         2
Mastery Level: 4
Constitution: 19
Spells: Level 1: Raise recent dead, curse, detect hidden doors, flight, wind blast.
Level 2: Blood lust, cause severe wound, cursed repugnance, bani sh undead x 2.
Level 3: Create zombie, inspiration, invisibility, summon undead.
Level 4: Restore life, blast.
Talismans: Hell Knife, Darkstone, Sceptre of Power (over orcs/goblins/trolls) Range – 12”.
NB: No more than 25% of total army should be armed with missile weapons.

[swiftnick]

Have you seen the Thistlewood project on the Broadswords and Beasts blog?


[img=http://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com/search/label/Thistlewood]http://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com/search/label/Thistlewood[/img][/u]

Hi Justin , Yes I have and very inspiring it is too. I am not going to be as purist as that. Happy to use figures with an old school feel.

[swiftnick]

A tentative Royal army list using Dragon Rampant:

King Amias
Baron Galen
Imperial Guard Elite foot, 6 figures, 6 points
Royal centaurs, Heavy riders, 6 figures, 4 points.
Kings Pike, Heavy foot, 12 figures , 4 points.
Kings sword, Heavy foot, 12 figures, 4 points
Kings Mace, Heavy foot, 12 figures, 4 points
Loyal half Elves, Light missiles ( Sharpshooter ), 12 figures, 6 points.
Loyal Dwarves Bellicose foot, 12 figures , 4 points
Galens cavalry , Elite Riders, 6 figures, 6 points, I am thinking of 3 units of these.
Bishop

I reckon I can knock out 2 units a month. So have started buying these one of baddies and one of Goodies.

[Bloggard]

good stuff.

[swiftnick]

The first weeks work:

Loyal Half Elves Bought unseen from Essex miniatures.



Got this chap as the leader but not feeling it.


Black Uruks again Essex miniatures pleasingly old School and nice and chunky.






You will notice I am a bit light on figures. Unfortunately I ordered them when pished! The rest are hopefully on their way to me now.

[swiftnick]

I forgot I hadn't posted the Dragon rampant list for Lord Vassago's army.

N'aarsh x 1
Ugrash-Ka x 1
Wyvern x 1
Trolls : 2.3.5  Offensive heavy foot 3 figures for 6 points
Black Uruks : 5.10.20 Bellicose foot 12 figures for 4 points
Vile rune orcs : 30.40.50 Heavy foot 3 x 12 figures @ 4 points for 12 points
Black Sun Goblins: 30.40.50 Light foot (+1 missiles) 3 x 12 figures @4 points for 12 points.
Skeletons : 10.20.25 Light foot 2 x 12 figures @ 3 points for 6 points.
Ghouls : 5.10.25 Bellicose foot  12 figures for 4 points
Pack wolves : 10.20.30 Lesser warbeasts, 4 x 6 figures @ 4 points for 16 points
Lord Vassago

[swiftnick]

The figures I forgot to order from essex arrived and are now painted.



The figures for my Black sun Goblins arrived from Alternative armies. Reasonable old school and pretty cheap just now as 20% off plus a free troll with every order.
Painted sample as below:


Sorry about the pictures this is a new phone.

[Sir_Theo]

Nice stuff. Im a huge Lone Wolf fan  I reread all the game books on Project Aon a while back. I will read that WD stuff with interest.

For old school models still available im a big fan of the old Grenadier stuff, which you can get from a variety of sources (Forlorm Hope, Miriliton etc) the Copplestone sculpted Wood Elves are a particularly favourite.

[Hobgoblin]

Looking good! I love the Cursaa's orcs - really great figures!

[swiftnick]

The Black Sun Goblins now finally painted. You will notice there is a figure missing.

[swiftnick]

Remember I was missing 1 x Black Sun Goblin.
I found this chap in my bits box.



The next unit of " goodies " the single unit of imperial guard. In this case lovely Old school Essex varangian guard.





Now thinking about the Vile Rune Orcs. I don't really want to pay big bucks for old school orcs. But I do have some of these North Star figures.





Literally the only figure I have ever painted Orc Green.

[Hobgoblin]

Coming along nicely! The goblins in particular are looking great. What do you have planned for the bases?