Chaos Wasters

jon_1066

Member
“Wots dat chief?”
Vile Flybane looked up as a fiery meteor hurtled over the chaos wastes landing with an ear splitting crash just on the horizon.
“Get the warband together – we’re going to find where that landed”
Not far away a second chaos warband, Howling Mad Murphy’s Marauders, starts moving with the same idea. The race is on.

Search the craters for any Warpstone and get it off your deployment area. Move a figure onto a lump to pick it up – draw a random value for it from the hat
Any Unit may carry 1 lump of warpstone without hindrance. If a unit carrying warpstone is defeated in combat the opposition unit gets to pick it up. Craters are rough terrain and provide cover.

The early moves


The terrain was some Battlefield in a box craters and the rest were aquarium decorations I picked up cheap

Result of the first combat: 2 dead centaurs for 2 skeleton yeomen - not a good trade


This was our first game with Lion Rampant and was a good introduction. It was basically the Tax Collection scenario. The game itself was a bit of a fizzle as both sides scampered off with 2 bits of warpstone each and ended in a draw. The board wasn't really big enough being only 4' by 4'. The highlight was near the end when a unit of Goblin archers were smashed by Chaos Marauder expert yeomen and reduced to 6 figures inflicting only one casualty themselves. The resulting courage tests saw the goblins hold and the Marauders withdraw battered. It was also notable for the chaos thug archers failing every single one of their move activation rolls.

The good thing was it only took an hour and we had time to set up a second battle...
 

lenihan

Moderator
Really interesting to see Lion Rampant adapted in this way! I think I'm going to have to check it out (along with a number of other Osprey titles... this could get messy)
 

jon_1066

Member
It worked really well. The second battle was even more fun than the first as it was even bloodier and actual came to a good conclusion.

Having secured the warpstone both bands aimed to make good use of it by summoning a vile entity from another dimension at a chaos temple. Hold the objective with a unit and get 1 VP each turn (called Glory in LR). Get to six and you win, alternatively whoever has the most at the end wins. We reset the scenery - removing the craters and adding some walls to give a ruined temple in the chaos wastes.

The early moves. My opponent makes a quick grab for the temple with his chaos hounds



I had the cunning plan of sweeping my cavalry around the flank and falling upon his archers in the rear whilst my Chaos Warriors rooted him out of the temple. The rooting went OK: my leader killed his in single combat and the war dogs were destroyed. My Chaos warriors then drove off his Marauders causing them to spend the rest of the battle battered but my Chaos Warriors were destroyed in turn (taking my leader down as well) by a combination of his Chaos Warriors and bowfire.

Later in the game you can see a problem with my plan - his archers had just battered my Marauders and would go on to rout my Beastmen from the field (I rolled snake eyes on the courage test to much hilarity from my opponent!) with my centaurs nowhere in sight.



Having disagreed with my plan they basically spent the first half of the battle hiding behind a rock formation. Eventually the lazy centaurs did get involved and did a number on his archers. My goblins also managed to rout his Chaos Warriors with surprisingly effective (read lucky!) bowfire.

The temple was empty and mine for the taking - however there were less than six units on the board so I had to roll to see if the game ends there and then - anything but a six and we play on.

6!

I lost a whopping 5-0, though it was a pyrrhic victory for my friend as he had only two units left and both were battered. I guess the greater demon he summoned crushed my remaining forces and fed them to his battered units to bolster them back to full health ready for next time!

The Lion Rampant rules were really a lot of fun. The momentum swings back and forth and it gives those same type of narrative moments we fondly remember from back in the day - just without having to spend hours of downtime. Both battles took about an hour each.

Next time we will experiment with a few different troop types that have more special rules with them - I must get my Mounted Chaos Warriors done as I really want to see them wild charging about the place.
 

jon_1066

Member
I will - though it is not out until December so I shan't be getting too excited yet. To be honest in the best traditions of Oldhammer you can just make up most things yourself to fit the figures you have. The troop types in teh game are broad enough that they adapt very easily.
 

jon_1066

Member
Re: Chaos Wasters second battle night

Managed to get together with my old friend last night for another battle. This time the manor and village of Much Squelching in the Mold was under threat from a vile Chaos Warband. In an effort to try out the different troop types in the game the Chaos Warband consisted of two units of thugs/beastmen (representing fierce foot), a unit of mounted chaos warriors (mounted men-at-arms), a unit of foot Chaos Warriors (men-at-arms) and two units of goblin archers (bidowers)

Defending the village were the forces of good consisting of mounted men-at-arms (with stand in war dog), crossbows with pavise, bidowers, serjeants and men-foot at-arms. We also rolled leader characteristics. My leader was in my mounted men-at-arms and was Rash so automatically wild charged without having to roll. My opponents hid in his foot men-at-arms and was insipid so provided no leadership bonus to courage tests. We played the blood bath scenario and set up the terrain with a large corn field on the west and the village outskirts in the south where the humans set up. We played the corn field provided cover against missiles but didn't restrict movement.

My mounted men-at-arms at game start


Bidowers take up position in an orchard


Serjeants and men-at-arms lurk behind a wall


The chaos forces had trouble moving at the start so I advanced my crossbows and bidowers to set a trap for the chaos knights. Once in range the crossbows legged it and the bidowers lured them towards the orchard.


It was high risk since if the crossbows hadn't moved they would have been charged and if the bidowers had failed their evade they would have been slaughtered. However it worked like a dream and my lowly skirmishing bidowers kept half his army occupied for a good long time. They managed to pick off some knights and thugs whilst the crossbows also added firepower. Eventually the knights got to this point but were routed by crossbow fire in the next turn. Such is the fate of newly painted minis - didn't inflict a single casualty!


I sent my men-at-arms and serjeants to take on some bidowers and beastmen. Again it worked like a treat - the beastmen wild charged Serjeants in Schiltron and were battered before my men-at-arms routed them off the table. Things were looking great. Unfortunately the photos weren't as the lighting wasn't good so this part of the action is rather blurry so no pictures sorry.

With his left flank in disarray and his right flank crumbling I went for the coup de gras and sent forward the serjeants and men-at-arms. Lowly goblin bidowers were my undoing. They slowly picked off my men-at-arms and then disaster. My men-at-arms charged them, they failed their evade and it should be a slaughter with much rejoicing for the residents of Much Squelching! No, there would be much mourning! A lousy roll on my part (only two dead goblins) and great rolling on his (what do you mean they killed Sir Fallsonhissword?) followed by a disastrous courage test and my men-at-arms routed from the field leaving the goblins laughing! OK my serjeants will do better, or not. Two casualties to bow fire from the bidowers as they closed range were enough to send them routing from the field as well(double 1, why now!).

The battle hangs in the balance. The cursed bidowers are just off shot to the right of the picture


So did my opponent allow those brave bidowers to rest and receive the thanks of the rest of the warband having taken out almost half my troops by themselves? No! They were sent forward to be the live goat in a trap for my mounted men-at-arms. They were slaughtered to a man (and their corpses chopped into little pieces) but they had done the job required of them by luring my leader into challenge range. Not being so Insipid now the challenge was issued - I accepted and was hacked from my horse. Courage tests were passed but the battle had shifted. Could the initiative be grabbed back?

If I could just rout one of his remaining units he would be below half strength and have to take a courage test at -1 which would surely mean calamity. I was in the same position - one more lost unit and I was fairly sure the rest of my army would evaporate. My wild charging knights sought revenge attacking the foot men-at-arms. After some back and forth the end game:


The last remaining knight would win the battle single handed charging down the scummy goblin bidowers (they were just in range thankfully) and routing them from the field, this battered the remaining units on my opponents side and we called the battle there. A victory for the forces of good! It really swung back and forth and at the end could have gone either way. It was a hell of a lot of fun with much cursing of the dice gods. The stars of the show were definitely the lowly bidowers. Just shows every dog has its day and every unit has its use.
 

jon_1066

Member
Fought another battle a couple of nights ago - again using Lion Rampant with my old Warhammer figures. This time is was the turn of the undead to threaten Much Squelching. I set up the board with a graveyard covering about half of it surrounded by an impassable wall. It was to be a blood feud match up where the residents of the village have to slay the necromancer before he can unleash his legions of undead. The necromancer started hidden in one of the three mausoleums and could summon his undead units one at a time by rolling a 7+ on two dice.

My opponent chose to take the undead so I was left with the residents. I had two units of bidowers, two units of foot men-at-arms, some serjeants and a unit of mounted serjeants. The undead had two units of yeomen, one expert yeomen, the necromancer and body guards (men-at-arms) and some hell hounds (mounted serjeants). The undead were Relentless (didn't have to take courage tests). The battle would end with the death of the necromancer or the loss of half my force.

My men at arms look towards the graveyard


Battle about to be joined


Bidowers distract some skeletons


I managed to fight my way into the graveyard through the gates then made a calamitous error by leaving the gates unguarded. The necromance simply strolled out and I had to fight my way back out of the graveyard again! Meanwhile the units left on the outside were mopped up.

Bidowers manage to evade the necromancer


Serjeants about to be battered by the hell hounds (were then finished off by the necromancer)


The Bidowers were then battered by the hell hounds before breaking

My men-at-arms in pursuit of the necromancer


The final stand


In the end the necromancer was slain but I only had five models left (even though they were the rump of 16 points worth of units) so it was a bit of a hollow victory. The undead worked well - they were an attritional nuisance. Obviously the graveyard isn't finished yet and the figures still need basing!
 

Masterwork

Member
Fantastic looking games! Where did you get the brown mat with green stripes? Looks ideal for farmland.

If I were you I'd spend half an hour on basing up your minis. A decent base will really make the figures so much better!

At least your getting games in which is more than what most of us manage to do!
 

jon_1066

Member
Thanks.

I am still unsure how I want to base them up - should I build a static grass applicator, what colours, use sand for texture, etc. It is really my next big project: experiment and try to get something I am happy with. I can then apply it to all the models and have a consistent scheme.

The mats are cut up door mats from B&Q! They were only a couple of quid. I then ran a bead of PVA down the strips and liberally covered with green flock to produce the green stripes.
 
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