Fred’s 2023 Painting and Gaming Diary

[fred.]

Fab report, looks great!

Thanks Will

[fred.]

AWT Manifestations

Got some painting done this week on some AWT Manifestations and scenic items.



All the bits together - due to my existing WWI figures having a mix of grassy basing for early war, and mud for late war, I've done two sets of Manifestations - which in 10mm is pretty quick and easy.

I have 4 of the 6 types painted here, I am missing the smallest (brownies) and the largest (Crushers, aka giants) I can cover these from existing fantasy figures whilst I find some specifically for AWT



Grassy based Manifestations - from left to right, Haunters, Beguilers (which like to manifest in mires), Prowlers (wolves and bears) and finally Devourers (trolls, etc). Figures are a mix of Pendraken, Magister Militum and Copplestone.



Muddy basing - with tufts of flowers to represent the new growth mentioned in AWT. Same set of creatures as with the grassy basing, with the addition of some archers in the back, who are a spectral special summoning for the British.


Bones - 3d printed models, scaled up significantly, these are to be used as scenery for ancient dinosaur bones revealed when the sea levels change. Really liking these models, and they have painted up quickly and simpler. I have a bunch more (mainly smaller ones) still to paint.

Adding another 32 figures, and 4 pieces of terrain.

Painted totals for 2023 to  594 figures : 114 cavalry : 14 vehicles : 10 guns : 4 terrain

[fred.]

AWT - Russian Attackers vs German Defenders

Played and systematic scenario last night, with 20pts of Germans defending against 30pts of Russians (who came on in 2 waves, 20pts at the start, and the reminder at the start of turn 3)

We played a house rule that HMGs are affected by the difficult shot rules, and when making a difficult shot roll half dice. This seemed to work well stopping Armoured cars waltzing around shooting stuff up, and making troops in cover pretty resistant to MG fire.

A/C still seem rather invulnerable - so we will have a think about how HMGs might affect them.

There were 3 objectives near the German base line (represented by the large bones)


Righ flank, my Russians aimed to hold on this flank


The left flank - my forces mass, masked by the hill

The initial couple of turns saw my right flank moving forward - even using Orders to add some movement it was pretty steady pace. My mortar was hugely effective at neutralising the German field gun - not least due to some terrible rolling for priority by the German player - getting a total of 4, on 2d6+1d3!


Reinforcements arrive at the start of turn 3 - mainly cavalry


I managed to Manifest some Prowlers (bears!) who immediately went on the Rampage, but this meant they charged the German Field Gun - I pretty sure this gun failed to get off a shot all game!

No photo - but the Germans managed to Manifest their own Prowlers (wolves) on my flank - but they were shot up by my Tachanka then destroyed by my cavalry.

My next Manifestion - went for Devourers - needed 16 on 6d6

Failure!

The Germans tried the same tactics - but with more success

Their Devour drops in on my flank - the Tachanka attempts to shoot it up, but is shrugs off the shooting (saving on a 1-5 on a d6 vs shooting). My Cossacks charge, and lose a couple of stands, manage to inflict 1 wound, which the Devour recovers by Feasting on the casualties! This is why I wanted a Devourer on the German base line!


Got an infantry section onto the left hand objective, my A/C is threading the central one, but is being cautious as there are a lot of German infantry around. The German A/C has been engaged by my infantry pinning it in melee.

I manifested some Beguilers near the central objective - giving me control of two objectives - which was the win condition!

But!

The Germans also Manifested their own Beguilers in a mire, and used their Entrance ability to pull my infantry off the objective! Leaving me only holding one.

This was a good fun game. Felt a tough ask for the attacker - there was a lot of distance to cover in the 6 turns.

Rituals feel a bit meh, it just feels you are better to pile a load of command tokens in to attempt to generate Manifestation dice.



 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

What a load of fun! Great report! 

[fred.]

What a load of fun! Great report! 

Thanks Will - I think we've now got the core of the rules down (although there are still a few things that need checking) so the game flows better.