Little Wars 2016 - Fantasy battle display game

[jthomlin]

Last Sunday, along with my compatriots in gaming Dave Doolan and Mark Enniss, we put on a display game at Little Wars in Melbourne.

After putting on display games based on the 4 scenarios of the old GW 'Orcs Drift' game in 2014 and multiple skirmish battles themed 'Moorcockapaloosa!' in 2015, we decided to simplify things this year and "have a battle with as many figures on the biggest table we can manage".

In the end we probably failed on that objective as we only used about half the figures we bought along and that was only about 40% of all the painted figures we could muster ...  (and at times we still think we need more ...  )

Anyway to the photos, which turned out much better than anticipated because in an attempt to improve the lighting this year, large floodlights were used which on our table at least only served to create a permanent 'dusk' or 'dawn' mood.

The table ...


Halflings (and friend) with local militia await the green hoard's vanguard as the Dwarf contingent marches to secure the right flank from the approaching undead.


The vanguard attacks ...


Dwarfs deployed ...


Death approaches ...


The vanguard is repulsed, but not without loss ...


Reinforcements arrive in the nick of time, as a wave of Goblins advance  (complete with shadow of doom) ...


While the undead tide washes on the Dwarf shores, Chaos knocks on the front gate! ...


And the back door ...



And seemingly everywhere else! ...



The swarm of Goblins handily dispatched, morale was up until larger misshapen shadows swept over the plain ...


Dave of 'Team Green', was getting a bit pissed about getting bashed about at this stage and was determined to have some success of his own, so things were getting bigger  ... 



We finished then as event itself ran out of puff, and any rumour that some the games ageing participants were also struggling energy-wise due to late-night/early morning last minute unit card construction, will be flatly denied! (It was far too true  )

We had fun, got some nice feedback from attendees and will be back next year, with perhaps a slightly smaller display ...

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[von Lucky]

Your table looked suitably impressive - lovely display. You had enough puff at the end to talk tactics. Which means you know you're going to do something this big again...

[The Dozing Dragon]

Wonderful!

[powerfrog99]

Great stuff I love it  , it reminds me of us doing similar displays during a convention in Mannheim many years ago.
A lot of work, a lot of chats and always great days out 

cheers Thomas


P.S.: I recognised a lot of old friends (miniature wise) 

[eilif]

Amazing, nice Shadow of doom!
Which edition of the rules did you use?

I like the trays as well.  Really shows off the minis and I imagine it makes it alot easier to built an army if you use fewer figures.

[Testudo Maximus]

I was playing at the Battle of Platea game next  to you but couldn't help looking over all the time at your wonderful looking game . Since returning from Little Wars I've done nothing but sort and start prepping more of my older Fantasy figures, so thankyou for the inspiration.
The game looked really great with all those fantastic old figures from every manufacturer , all the  unit massed up and the spotlights did cast an eerie dusk feel to all the games in that area of the hall , I thought it was very atmospheric late in the day  .
I would be interested to know what rules you used , rumour has it you used your own ruleset on the day ?
Please let us all know if you plan on doing anything similar in the local Melbourne area again , cheers Tom

[jthomlin]

Your table looked suitably impressive - lovely display. You had enough puff at the end to talk tactics. Which means you know you're going to do something this big again...

Thanks, the scary thing is that night I was already thinking about next year!

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[jthomlin]

Great stuff I love it  , it reminds me of us doing similar displays during a convention in Mannheim many years ago.
A lot of work, a lot of chats and always great days out 

Thanks Thomas, we feel exactly the same.

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[jthomlin]

Amazing, nice Shadow of doom!
Which edition of the rules did you use?

I like the trays as well.  Really shows off the minis and I imagine it makes it alot easier to built an army if you use fewer figures.

Thanks, I wasn't too impressed with the spotlights that caused the shadows as I sat facing them all day, but they did add some atmosphere.

We were using the game as an opportunity to test some of our homegrown rules ideas, so it was a mixture of me as 'Game Master' and Chipco combat mechanics which were purely a place holder, and in fact we modified a few elements of that during the game.

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[m4jumbo]

Quite impressive!  Love the variety of classic figures. 

[jthomlin]

I was playing at the Battle of Platea game next  to you but couldn't help looking over all the time at your wonderful looking game . Since returning from Little Wars I've done nothing but sort and start prepping more of my older Fantasy figures, so thankyou for the inspiration.
The game looked really great with all those fantastic old figures from every manufacturer , all the  unit massed up and the spotlights did cast an eerie dusk feel to all the games in that area of the hall , I thought it was very atmospheric late in the day  .
I would be interested to know what rules you used , rumour has it you used your own ruleset on the day ?
Please let us all know if you plan on doing anything similar in the local Melbourne area again , cheers Tom

Thanks, your game was pretty impressive as well!

Happy to have a impact on folks motivations, makes it all worthwhile. In fact one of our primary motivations was to produce scenery and get figures based for our own games.

We will probably be doing the Nunawading open day in Croydon on the 27th of August, anyone who wants to participate is welcome so PM me if you are.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the 'rules' were a bit of a mix'n match to help us on our way of writing our own. Hopefully by Nunawading we will have something a bit more concrete.

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson