Hmmmm it's been a while!

Well it's been a while since I last posted! 

Not sure what happened but life got hectic and blogging stopped.

However hobbying didn't 😊 There's quite a lot to record on here but I thought I'd start with a battle report.

Originally I was going to play out the Idol of Gork campaign from 5ed Warhammer Fantasy Battles. However I got a massive painting block after trying to paint 20 Empire Crossbows in black and yellow! So that's on the back burner at present.

Recently my mate Tom suggested playing the Grudge of Drong campaign as he's got the necessary dwarfs all painted up so I could concentrate on painting up the High Elves. Now my High Elf army mainly consists of the minis from the 4ed boxed set and the Island of Blood boxed set (8ed I think) so it was missing some key units mainly Shadow warriors, giant eagles and some Sword Masters. I found some great sculpts on Thingiverse and set about printing them out. As always this proved to be far more difficult than anticipated as the printer hadn't been used for years so it took ages to get it dialled in effectively.

The 3d printed Shadow warriors certainly have a 4ed vibe about them. I struggled to get all the bows to print effectively so some more time fiddling with print settings and supports needed I think.

And the 'Giant' Eagles which are probably closer in size to the older Warhawks so again I bit of fiddling and a re-print necessary I think.

Now neither of those units were printed before the first battle so I had to proxy the Shadow warriors in the first battle🤦

The pictures aren't great as I didn't manage to finish painting all of the elves despite staying up into the wee small hours.

We decided to play the campaign out with The Old World rules just to see how it worked out. This required a little juggling especially with the Elves to make the forces equal points. In the end we played a 1300pt battle sticking as closely as possible to the "historic" armies listed in the campaign pack.

Below is the battle report.

"Krudd Mad-Mattock Master Engineer and kinsman to Drong the Hard called an extraordinary meeting of the Engineers and Miners guild... Soon the ravines that led to Krag Bryn resounded with revolutionary slogans: "Down with Queen Helgar!"... a motley throng of drunken and disgruntled dwarf rebels was marching on the Queens stronghold." and so starts the Tale of the Grudge of Drong a bitter feud between Elves and Dwarfs a taste of the vicious war of the beard that was yet to come.

The Dwarfs are met by an Elven Expeditionary force led by Fendar a High Elf noble of Tor Eldoth. Fendar meets the Dwarfs in the pass and draws a line in the sand stating that the dwarfs will be killed if they cross the line. The battle starts when the first drunken dwarf stumbles over the line.

The Armies deploy. Fendar leads a unit of 9 Silver Helms. Elfanor the mage leads a unit of 30 Spearmen. There are 10 Shadow Warriors and then two units of Archers make up the flanks.

The Dwarfs have a unit of Thunderers 15 strong, 28 warriors, a unit of miners 32 strong led by Krudd and his BSB and 15 Ironbreakers make up the left flank.

The large areas of stones indicate difficult ground the two brown mounds with square holes in the top are abandoned mine shafts.

The Drunken dwarfs surged forwards with a roar of defiance their entire line staggering forward. the Thunderers take aim at the elven spearmen and let loose a volley but in their drunken state they only manage to take down one of the noble elves standing coolly waiting for the slaughter to commence.

The Elves then advance with the archers and Shadow warriors all advancing in to advantageous firing positions. the archers on the left flank open up on the Dwarven thunderers hitting 11 times but the tough dwarfs shrug most of the arrows off and only two fall to the Elven barrage. The Shadow Warriors also let loose on the thunderers bringing down another stout dwarf. The archers on the right flank fail to find their mark and completely miss the large unit of miners. Maybe it's not just the dwarfs who have been on the drink!

End of turn 1. Both sides have advanced slightly and casualties are starting to mount up.

The view from the Elven lines (I really need to get some tails on those Silver Helms!

The cunningly disguised Shadow Warriors posing as Bretonnian Squires!

The right flank expertly balanced on a handy box of dice!

Seeing their comrades fall to Elven bow fire filled the Dwarfs with a righteous vigour, which when fuelled with copious amounts of ale saw them again stumble drunkenly forwards toward the elven lines. they redressed the ranks in a few places to level up the battle line but continued their haphazard advance.

The Thunderers again fired at the Elven Archers on the hill to the High Elves left but again the effects of the strong Bugmans XXXXXXX meant they only took down 1 elf.

The Elven Centre advanced cautiously toward the Dwarfs, wanting to maximise the time for the archers to thin the ranks. The Archers on the left flank retaliate against the Thunderers killing two of the stoic little fellas. The Shadow Warriors shot at the Dwarf Warriors to their front taking down 1 and the Archers on the right flank fire on the miners taking down 3 making up for their poor showing with their first volley.

Dwarven lines at the end of turn 2 (forgot to take a picture of the elves! )

The dwarfs continued their drunken advance except the Iron breakers who had to stop to vomit as they'd imbibed far to liberally at the extraordinary meeting. This disrupted the dwarven battle line and the Elves could see an opening! the dwarfs continued to advance upon the Elven centre placing themselves dangerously close to the elven units. The thunderers fired upon the archers but continued with their appalling accuracy hitting a few trees and a crow, but completely missing the Elven unit in front of them.

Elfanor summoned to winds of magic and prepared to cast his spell Vaul's unmaking but the winds eluded him and he failed to cast it. With a yell of Triumph Fendar and his Silver Helms charged the Dwarven miners. resplendent in their glittering mail lances lowered. but as they thundered forwards the miners standard started to glow. The Elves hesitated, their charge faltered and they merely bumped into the miners their lances rendered useless by the cunning dwarven runes.

The Archers on the right flank fired at the Warriors hitting 10 but only one dwarf fell to the elven barrage. The Shadow warriors also fire on the warriors killing another 2. Finally the archers on the right flank also fire at the warriors taking down another stout hearted dwarf.

Fendar challenges Krudd mad-mattock to a noble duel and the boisterous dwarf full of alcohol fuelled confidence accepts. Fendars consummate elven skills combined with his blade of darting steel meant that hi hit Drong twice and wounded both times but the Dwarfs armour deflected both hits. in response Drongs drunken swings of his mattock  managed to hit Fendar twice but the fine Ithilmar armour turned both strikes. The noble elves still full of hesitation failed to land a single telling blow upon the dwarven miners.  In response the dwarfs smashed four silver helms to the floor. Facing such a vicious onslaught the Elves fell back in good order the dwarfs in their drunken state failed to keep up with the retreating elves.

End of tunr 3 and things are looking decidedly dicey for the Elves. The Dwarven rune of hesitation has caused a massive problem for the Elves. 

Now is the time for decisive action, but still suffering from the effects of the dwarven rune the elves hesitate unsure of what to do next. 

As the dwarfs continue to stumble forwards under the influence of the alcohol one of the thunderers falls into an abandoned mine shaft. the miners then declare charge against the silver helms which the noble elves stand firm to receive. 

The Thunderers continue their archery duel with the archers on the hill killing another elven archer. In the challenge between Krudd and Fendar, Fendar takes a wound while Krudds armour saves him yet again turning away two of the elf's strikes. The silverhelms manage to hack down two of the miners and suffer no losses in return until the Dwarven Thane hoisting the Battle Standard swings his weapon and brings an elf low. The Silver Helms reluctantly give ground to the dwarven advance.

Now was the time for decisive action for the elves, the Archers on the right flank should have charged the miners in the flank, neutralising their rank bonus and magic banner but instead they continued with the original plan of shooting as many dwarfs as possible. The archers on the left flank shot the thunderers killing 1, the Shadow warriors also shot at the thunderers killing another dwarf and the Archers on the right flank fired on the warriors killing 1.

Krudd struck a mighty blow against Fendar smashing the noble elf to the ground. the miners strike down another 2 silver helms and the remaining elven knights flee from the battlefield in ignominy.

End of turn four and it's looking very bad for the Elves. Krudd is almost certainly going to break through and escape the Elves trap.

The battle wasn't done yet. The dwarven warriors and Iron breakers both charged the Elven spearmen but the Iron breakers, still under the influence of the Bugmans tripped over their feet and failed to make it into contact with the Elves. The Dwarven warriors having exerted themselves too much started vomiting as they crashed into the elven ranks. 

The thunderers finally starting to sober up fired at the Archers on the hill and took down 3 of the brave elves. in the battle in the centre the swift elves kill 2 dwarfs while the drunken dwarfs failed to take down any of the spearmen. The dwarfs reluctantly give ground to the superior Elven skills.

The Elves continue to pour arrows into the dwarfs killing three more thunderers although the archers on the right flank again miss the entire unit of miners.

The spearmen hack at the dwarven warriors cutting down another 2 the dwarfs manage to bring down 1 elf in return. under the influence of the alcohol the dwarfs see things far worse than they actually are and they break and flee. the triumphant elves run them down and wipe out the entire unit of warriors.

As the sun sets the remaining elves perform a fighting retreat, carrying the seriously injured body of the captain with them. The victorious Dwarfs crack open another barrel of ale and continue their advance upon Krag Bryn.

This was a close fought battle which closely followed the course of the 'historic' battle report in the campaign pack. The dwarfs rune of hesitation certainly played a key role in this victory, allowing the miners to withstand the charge of the silver helms. Without that rune it's quite likely that things would have gone much worse for the miners. The elves also failed to act decisively in the last two turns. if the archers had charged the miners in the flank then it may have been just enough for the Silverhelms to survive and turn the tide of the combat. We decided not to let the Shadow Warriors deploy with their special rules which also made things more difficult for the elves. Having a unit in the dwarven rear which could have charge the miners from behind whilst the Silver Helms charge the front may have also turned the tide.

The Dwarfs played very much as they had in the original game. Krudd is tough to kill and he's got some pretty solid units to depend upon. The rules for drunken dwarves are amusing and add a nice element to the game, they certainly make the dwarfs faster as most were stumbling forwards by 3" a turn before they marched. We did laugh at the drunken Thunderer falling into the abandoned mineshaft as well.

Overall converting the game to The Old World involved very little. we allowed the characters to take the same magic items as they have in the battle scrolls and they worked pretty well. The biggest difficulty is the magic phase as it's very different to 5ed and played no part at all in this battle. With a different spell it may have been more decisive. We were also learning how to play The Old World so no doubt we made some errors but on the whole it was a really fun game which lasted  3-4 hours.

The next battle is the Ambush on the Dwarf Road, where the elves ambush a Rune Lord and his retinue on the way to meet with Drong. We'll see how this one plays out in the next battle report.