Review: Kellar's Keep- Hasbro/Avalon Hill

 

Hail fellow adventurers!  Join me as we continue our quest.  A quest worthy of heroes.  A Heroquest?  Those who have been following the blog for a bit know that I received the new version of Heroquest as a gift, and have managed to paint the entire Core set. From there, I purchased and reviewed the Against the Ogre Horde set.  I have also managed to paint that entire expansion up as well.  Therefore, I cast my wandering eye to the future and decide to pick up my next expansion for Heroquest.  This time, I decided on,,,,,

Why Kellar's Keep?  I picked up Against the Ogre Horde because the idea of adding some ranged enemies intrigued me.  The Ogres were just a bonus.  The new hero was also a bonus.  I do want to keep expanding my collection of potential heroes.  However, this expansion does not offer any new monsters, any ne heroes, and not much in the way of special rules or rules enhancement.  So, why did I pick this one up next?  

For a simple reason.  At the end of the original Heroquest campaign ......  

************* Spoilers Ahead!**************

.... <Takes a deep breathe>....

No really, spoilers ahead...... don't read further if you don't want to see them.  I mean it! 

Where was I?  Oh yeah, at the end of the original Heroquest campaign, all is not right in the world.  The Witch Lord has arisen, and the King's army went off to fight Zargon's forces.  Newsflash, the battle did not go well for the King and they remnants of the King's army had to flee and get holed up in Kellar's Keep.  

At the end of the campaign, the Heroes are offered a choice.  Do they go forth and put the Witch Lord back in his tomb once and for all, OR do they go and help the King and the beleaguered forces against Zargon at Kellar's Keep?  Therefore, if you want to continue your adventures and games the players get to choose.  Therefore, it is useful to have the Quest Packs that keep the story going! 

************ End Spoilers!****************

Okay, we are back to our regularly scheduled blog post about Kellar's Keep.  So, we established there are not any new enemy units, no new rules, and no new heroes.  What DO you get for your gold coins than? 

Grab your three best chums, your gear, and all the loot you managed to haul off from the last adventure and let's go dungeon crawling!  

Things I Liked

The idea is that the King and is army are under siege in a Dwarven fortress.  Obviously, the heroes can not go through the front door and save the day.  They need to find a way to sneak into the Keep.  They do this by locating parts of a map within parts of the dwarven stronghold behind enemy lines, re-uniting the map and going inside.  A pretty good hook for a Macguffin hunt and dungeon crawl.

This expansion adds the simple idea that instead of stairways, the players enter through a doorway and leave through a doorway.  They do not always get to rest and re-arm between adventures.  

The game also adds a few "expendable" items like scrolls.  These allow any character to cast a spell using the scroll.  However, they are a 1-use wonder.  There are a few other similar artifacts.    

I do love that the back pages offer the map keys and a blank board map.  They are encouraging you to try to make your own dungeon levels and quests.  Love it.  I need to check out the App and see if they let you build them there.  

Iron for In, Wood for out

Things I Did Not Like

There is not a lot of flavor text to set the scene for each quest.  Perhaps it is not needed, as they are rather straight forward.  After all, this entire thing is a Macguffin hunt.  However, that being said I would have loved a bit more.  

The "boss fight" is a Gargoyle immune to spells.  Kind of lame as it negates the special abilities of two models right away.  It is also on the edge of a cliff, so the fight will keep most players out of the thick of things, so multiple player parties might not have much to do.  

I think when Hasbro "re-vamped" this Quest pack, they should have made a couple of custom models for the undead Dwarven Kings and maybe the boss monster of the fight.  Just using a normal Gargoyle is kinda lame.  I might have to dig into my model collection for something a bit more.... unique.  I also think a "statue" miniature would have been much better than a cardboard token.   

Meh and Other Uncertainties

The new quest book has about 10 quests of various lengths.  Some seem pretty short, others are more robust.  The new cardboard tokens like the straight stairways and short stairways allow for more variety to get in and out of dungeons.  They seem pretty good quality, and Grin's Crag is a good first step to try and evolve the game out-of-the-dungeon  

Boulder...... trap..... very cinematic.  

The game has two new plastic 3D doors, an iron one and a wooden one.  The Iron is the entrance to some levels, while the Wooden is the exit.  Nothing spectacular really, but again adds more dimension to what you can create for your own dungeons. 

There are 17 miniatures.  Just re-boots from the boxed set.  8 Orcs, 6 Gobbos, and 3 abominations.  That said, I am not sure you would every need more than what the core set has to offer on any of these Quests?  I probably missed why you need all these new Greenskins to play this Quest Pack.  

Repeats from the Core set

Final Thoughts

I do love the conclusion of this Questpack.  It feels suitable for the source material.... i.e. Grimdark..... but in a kid friendly way.  It is a Pyrrhic victory and set-up more heroic adventure will be needed to stop the spread of Zargon's evil.     

That said, it is a bit "underwhelming" and I can see why it does not cost nearly as much as the Against the Ogre Horde box.  It is about half the size in minis and new stuff.  However, the new ideas it adds are useful, and it does continue the story based on the Heroes choices.  I personally think this could have been available as a downloadable Questpack online without the minis.  When I am done getting these guys painted I will have 20 Orks, 12 Goblins, and 6 Abominations.  I will now have enough Greenskins for some pretty epic HQ clashes!   

Now, we just need that re-release of Battlemasters so we can have some epic Heroquest/Battlemaster cross-over games!   

On The Painting Desk: A Ludus of Gladiators

 

I have a large collection of Crusader Miniatures gladiators to play The Games: Blood and Spectacles with.  I can easily field just about any combination of gladiator types, and I probably have enough models for 3 different gladiator troupes.  However, when I ordered my Chaos Guard Kill Team from Only Games I also picked up a pack of the Wargames Atlantic 3D printed gladiators.  Did I need more gladiators?  Not at all.  Do I have more gladiators?  Oh yeah! 

About 9 bodies and an assortment of gladiator gear, weapons, and heads came in the mail.  The models needed a bit of work removing flash and connection points.  About the same as removing flash and sprue connections from just about any models.  The bodies came as one piece, with separate arms and heads.  It looked like I could make a wide variety of gladiator types.  I started by gluing the torsos to some washers to act as bases.  

Before I got too far in the project, I decided I needed to get out the rules again to make the appropriate gladiators I would need.  Glancing at the Ludus creation rules the core of the Laniste's troupe was 1 gladiator of each class.  That meant I needed a Heavy, Medium, and Light type as a base.  It would be a no-brainer to go with a Murmillo, Secutor, and Retarius as those were the "core" gladiator types.  However, I had some options to make a few more exotic designs like a Gaulus (Big axe) or Dimachaerus (Two swords).  Oh, time to make some decisions! 

One thing I noticed right away was that the proportions on these guys are much more accurate.  The Crusader models have a bit more exaggeration in order to make their type obvious.  Not so much with these 3D Prints.  That makes some of their helmets look a lot less interesting or intimidating, but much more realistic in scale.  The weapons too are more delicate and less blocky.  Not sure how I feel about it yet, and am a bit concerned with how they will mix in with my existing Troupes?   

Primed, but not fully undercoated yet

 Per the rules, you start with 500 Denarii to spend.  I want the core of my Troupe to be hardened fighters, so I spend the money on 3 Deserters to be my core gladiators.  I decide on a Hoplomachus for my Heavy, a Dimachaerus for my Medium, and a Retarius for my Light.  That takes up about half of my recruiting cash up front, and now it is time to fill in the rest with some back-ups!  I probably want at least 1 back-up per type as well.  I pick-up 3 slaves to train-up as well, and I chose a Murmillo (Heavy), Secutor (Medium) and Retarius (Light).  That is 6 Gladiators for 3 events per Games?  I do not think that is enough.  I decide to purchase a Barbarian Gaulus for the giggles.  That will leave me some money in the bank.  A Troupe of 7 gladiators out of the 10 I have to paint.  The others can be used as Damnati or Noxi opponents as needed.  The rest of my money gets split-up and goes into reserve.       

1. Deserter- Hoplomachus  
2. Deserter- Dimachaerus
3. Deserter- Retarius
4. Slave- Murmillo
5. Slave- Secutor
6. Slave- Retarius
7. Barbarian - Gaulus

With that sorted, it is on to the painting!  I start by doing my standard Grey Seer spray, then dark grey wash, and then white highlight.  Nothing too special there, but it is a different approach then what I used on my Crusader gladiator models, so we will see how they look together.  

Primed and Ready! 

For these guys, I wanted a wide variety of skin tones, and my speed paints were not going to be up to the challenge.  When painting, I try to go from the lowest point, i.e. skin; and work my way up on a model.  I was going to have to use my Armypainter paints along with my Flesh Wash to get the desired outcomes.  I used Elven Flesh, Barbarian Skin, Tanned Flesh, Fur Brown, and Monster Brown as my base skin tones.  Hopefully, that would give me a wide-variety of skin tones to match the cosmopolitan look of the Roman Empire?  We will have to see how it all turns out in the end!  

Diversity and Inclusion in this Ludus

From that step, I decided to go back to my Speedpaints and Metallic Speedpaints to finish them all off.  I was not 100% sure how that would look with my existing Base+Wash gladiators from Crusader.  Plus, I have not really used the Speedpaints on Historical models.  This would be a big experiment for me.  It would probably help me decide how I was going to paint my Anglo-Saxons next. 

For the most part, I was batch painting this guys.  I started with their foot wear and slowly moved up the models.  I would take a look at what the details were and then gather a couple paint options for that detail.  Then, I would put them in little groups and paint them up.  They took about one evening to get all the block painting done, and then I let them dry.  

Block Painted with Speedpaints

After letting them dry, I gave them all an Armypainter Soft Tone wash.  That would cover any missed gaps, define the models a bit more, and just dirty them up a bit to look more like gladiators.  I find the soft tone works pretty well for fleshy models or natural colors as it is based on a brown, sepia like tone for the wash.  

Painting is done!

That left the final step, basing.  My gladiators I have based differently than my other figures. Instead of the usual Territorial Brown with scattered lichen, I will be using beach sand to base them.  I stuck with the Territorial Brown, lathed it onto the bases.  Then, I dipped it into the sand and tapped off any excess.  This only took a few minutes to get them all based up.  

Based up

Here they are next to some of the other gladiators from Crusader.  

Wargames Atlantic 3D Prints on the left, Crusader metal gladiators on the right

Well, that was a nice little palette cleanser and test before going onto the next project.  The Anglo-Saxon army.  That has about 50 models in it.  However, as a test for using Speedpaints on Historical models, I think these turned out well.  In addition, I was able to successfully combine using regular Armypainter and Speedpaints to get a good result.  Doing this also sped up the time it took me to finish these 10 guys tookabout 3 days of work time, or a weekend for a unit.  A good pace.  

Until next time!  

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On The Painting Desk- Persian Chariots

 

I have a pretty large Achaemenid Persian army all ready.  I painted it up to play the Ionian Revolt for Men of Bronze.  It has heavy and light cavalry forces, skirmishers, archers, Immortals, and Sparabara to make up the ranks.  However, one thing that I always wanted to add was some Persian Chariots.  Chariots had been a staple in Persian armies from the earliest periods all the way to the infamous scythed chariots used in the final battles against Alexander.  It felt odd not having more chariots in my force.  I had been bugging a few manufacturers to make a Persian chariot in plastic for a while now.  

Wargames Atlantic heard my cries.  However, instead of just making a Persian chariot, they were much smarter than me.  They made a "generic" chariot kit that could be used with all manner of  chariot based armies!  They purposely left crew out of the kit, and gave you the space to put on any crew you wished from Persians, to Minoans, to Gauls, to Egyptians, etc.  Pretty clever really.  As soon as they were up for pre-order, I picked up a set, and I got a box of Persians to crew them. 

Most of my existing Persian force was from Victrix.  However, I had been happy with my Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish, so decided to give their Persians a shot too.  I could use extra soldiers to bulk out me large Persian force anyway.  I was contemplating putting on a Battle of Cunaxa from Xenophon's Anabasis.  As that was a civil war, the bulk of the troops would need to look like they came from the Persian army.       

I eagerly broke open the boxes to take a look at what I had gotten myself into.  First, I had been assembling a lot of Victrix and GW models in the last few years.  Therefore, I was a bit surprised when the boxes had no directions.  I gulped, hoping I would be able to figure it all out.  However, upon closer inspection, nothing looked to complicated.  

Chariot Sprues

 

Persian Infantry Sprues

Persian Chariots seemed to be a two-man variety, with two crew and four horses.  I based this take on the Gold Chariot model from the Oxus Treasure vault.  There is some speculation, that the Persians were the first to yoke four horses to a chariot.  Obviously, this set would only have two horses.  In addition, there were no parts for Scythes in this kit.  A few upgrades I think Wargame Atlantic could add to their 3D Printing Tribes options would be parts to make a four-horse and/or scythed chariot.   

I am going to go out on a big limb, and say that Scythed Chariots may not have actually been a thing.  What?  Impossible you say!  Xenophon talks about them, Alexander's biographers talk about them, and so do Romans!  How can you say they may not have been a thing?  Well, all of those sources are from a Western perspective.  There is not really any surviving details from an Eastern perspective.  It is possible, that Scythed Chariot is just a regurgitated trope about "exotic foreign armies" where the truth was something different.  

There is no doubt that Chariots played a role in warfare in the East.  We know that prior to selective breeding of horses to carry riders, they were the fastest way to get around.  In addition, not all areas were suitable for raising horses as strong, big, and skeletally sound enough to carry people.  Therefore, the Chariot as a weapon platform has a long history across the world.  However, Scythed Chariots?  Not so much data about them.  For example, the Oxus Treasure chariot model is NOT a scythed chariot.  In fact, I could not find any Persian references to them at all, but I am not an expert. 

However, whenever Western sources talked about facing off against Eastern and other "exotic foreign" armies the scythed chariot seemed to have been a trope.  The writers loved to talk about the vicious wounds that these weapons could inflict.  They also delighted in talking about how ineffective they were against the stars of western warfare "Heavy Infantry".  Therefore, I am not sure how much of the story of Scythed Chariots is propaganda, intended to entertain, or just a common trope of East meets West narratives.  Classic Historians were as interested in entertaining and story-tellers as much as they were interested in educating.  

Anyway, so that leaves the question how did the Persians actually use a chariot?  There are a few ways they could be used: 

1. Shock platforms - Here is the "classic" example of the Scythed Chariot used in a charge to disrupt enemy formations through their speed, momentum, and power.  This is the de facto use in wargames for Scythed Chariots.   
2. Missile Boats - Here is a more traditional Egyptian style of scooting around and firing arrows at the enemy.  In this model, they act more like a disruption and skirmish force, using speed to maneuver, get into firing position, and then get away before the enemy can retaliate.   
3. Battle Taxi- In this style, the Chariots just move heavily armored soldiers around and drop them off in the thickest fighting.  This is the Homeric style.   
4. Skirmishers - This is a similar approach as traditional cavalry, where they go out and attack stragglers, small groups, or chase down broken foes.    

Xenophon talks about them as both option 1 and option 4.  However, I find it very likely that Persian chariots probably made use of bow-armed troops.  After all, Persian armies focused on speed and firepower for their success.  Cavalry and lightly armored troops with missile weapons were the norm.  Therefore, I find option 2 to be a very compelling use case for a chariot in Persian armies.  

After putting together the models, I find it hard to believe that chariots could ever be used as a Shock platform, they are delicate little things.  I also have a hard time believing people fired arrows from the back with any accuracy.  You would feel every bump!  They must have raced to an area, stopped and fired, and then got going again.  

It is important to note that we never hear about Chariots being a decisive force in either Persian or Greco-Roman sources.  They are treated as just another form of cavalry.  In fact, Sources seem to indicate that they may not have been deployed in their own units, but were probably spread across the frontage of infantry units to act as Skirmishers themselves.  Again, these seems to lean towards Options 2 and 4 as compelling ways for the Persians to have used them.  It is unlikely they would have been operating in large swarms of Chariots!

Granted, the most common Persian enemy was Steppe peoples.  This was a mix of horse mounted troops and foot infantry but most likely lacking the heavy infantry we see in Western armies.  Against such light foot-based foes, the Scythed Chariot may have been very successful!  Sadly, we know very little about the Persia campaigns away from fighting Westerners.  The Persians themselves left us few records on the topic.    

All of this to decide a simple question, how many men in the chariot and how to equip them?  Looking at the model, I think I can only fit 2 in each car.  Therefore, I will try to have 1 soldier/driver and 1 archer.  This fits my conception of how the Persians would use chariots as another form of mounted skirmisher rather than a shock unit on its own.  I am sure others will feel strongly a different way, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.  

All crewed up.  I decided to give this guys all armored bodies.  An investment in a chariot must have been pretty steep.  You would probably try to make is survivable with some skilled soldiers in it.  I also kept the horses, cars, and riders all separate for ease of painting.  

With that done, it was time to go onto painting.  The first step was undercoating.  My original Persians I brush under coated with cheap white acrylic paint.  I did not want these guys to look noticeably different, so I figured I better do the same with them. 

This proved to be a big mistake.  I had trouble getting my Armypainter paints to adhere very well to the models.  In the future, before assembling Wargames Atlantic miniatures I think I will want to give them a bath in warm, soapy water to make sure any manufacturing chemicals are cleaned off.  These can make paint adherence and issue.  In addition, you may want to consider using a plastic spray primer instead of brush priming with a white acrylic.  I think the smoother application of a spray would help resolve this issue.  

I also went back to take a look at my Persian Cavalry, and tried to paint my Chariots in a way that will "fit in" with my existing units.  That meant lots of "natural" colors in yellow and brown, with some accents using orange, light blue, and purple.  I wanted my charioteers to be colorful.  

Once I had the basic colors blocked in, it was time for washing and touch-ups.  This is the technique I have traditionally used for my ancients and my other Persians.  These guys would need to fit in.  For wash, I used an Armypainter Soft Tone which is primarily a brown based wash.  

The wash always helps a model look finished!  The last step was to decide how I wanted to base these models.  I was unsure how to approach it.  For my gladiator chariots, I based them on 1 large base.  I dug around, and did not find anything similar I could use on these models.  I also had plenty of 60mm x 60mm bases I could use.  Ultimately, I decided to not base the models together.  Instead, I kept all three parts separate.  The charioteers can be removed from the chariot, the chariot can be disconnected from the horses.  That way I could swap out crew and steeds with other models if I wished.  

The horses and the Charioteers had puddle bases built onto the model.  Therefore, I decided to paint the Chariot crew bases Oak Brown.  That was the same color as the interior of the Chariot car.  The horses, I based using my traditional method of Territorial Beige cheap acrylic painted base with scatter sprinkled onto it.  

Here is the final result....

The last thing was to put them in with my existing Persian Cavalry and see how they looked.....

Overall, I am happy to add these chariots to my forces!  The Men of Bronze core rulebook has a Battle of Cunaxa scenario.  I think it it time to dig that out and see what I need to make that happen on the tabletop! 

It also got me thinking about the Carthaginians in Sicily again.  The first war against the Greeks on the island featured Carthaginian Chariot forces!  

Until next time.

 

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Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict: Battle of Kadesh II: Candle-powered How-do-you-do!

 

I want to eventually run an "Educational" game around the Battle of Kadesh at my local libraries.  This will be with people who don't know anything about wargaming and probably don't know much about ancient history.  Chances are they will be a mix of children, teens, and adults.  I have never done anything like this before.  

Therefore, I want to test run the Battle of Kadesh scenario from the In Strife and Conflict rulebook to see if it will do what I need it to do for the demo game.  Therefore, I ran this scenario a few times to see how different folks would play it.  

Forces

Egyptians

3 Light Chariots

- Composite Bows

- General

1 Professional Infantry

2 Auxiliary Infantry

- Composite Bows

4 Archers

Hittites

3 Heavy Chariots

- Javelins

- 1 General

1 Auxiliary Infantry

2 Levy Infantry

- Bows

2 Skirmishers

Mission: 

We followed the outline in the main rulebook for the battle.  

Set-up:

Of course, we will be playing today on a 72MU by 48MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch.  

Using the core rulebook rules, we set-up the table per the scenario.  The Egyptians start with a limited number of units on the table, representing the Pharaoh and his advanced force.  The Hittites get all their troops to start with on the other side of the river.  

Crossing the Orontes River is Dangerous terrain, but only Difficult at the Fords.  The fields around Kadesh are also Difficult.  The city itself is Impassable.  

King Muwatalli II and his Hittite Army

The Pharaoh is out ahead of the main army with his Sherden Guards and some Archers of the Ra division.  The rest of the Egyptian army will begin trying to get to the battle starting in turn 4. 

The Ra Division out front near Kadesh

I will be giving an overview of the battle below, pulled out into my usual three sections of Maneuvers, Battle, and End Phases.  I will then give some final thoughts at the end. 

Maneuver Phase

The Hittites seem to be following a more historical depiction of the battle.  The King and his chariots are going around the city and towards the fords on the South side of Kadesh.  Meanwhile, the Pharaoh confident in his divine heritage moves forward, as the Hittite infantry move to block him crossing the ford.  

As the Pharaoh moves across the Orontes, he draws first blood with a volley of arrows into the Hittite skirmishers.  His Sherden were on the shore looking to follow.  Perhaps the Pharaoh has bitten off more than he can chew?    

Battle Phase

Poor Command and Control by the Pharaoh allows the Hittites to reinforce the ford on the North side of Kadesh.  This blocks the Pharaoh from forcing his crossing, and gets him tangled up with Hittite Spearmen.  The Sherden Guards are following-up, but fording the river has delayed them from helping the impetuous Pharaoh, The Heavy Hittite Chariots begin to cross the Orontes River south of Kadesh, the upper branch.  

Hittite Skirmishers join the fight at the ford with the Pharaoh.  With the aid of the light troops, and some re-rolls; the Pharaoh is easily routed!  Meanwhile, other parts of the Egyptian army begins to enter the field of battle.  A unit of Light Chariots, 2 Archer units, and a Auxiliary Infantry unit with bows.  Too little, too late!  

The Hittites reinforce their shoreline on the North side of Kadesh, while the Egyptians rain arrows down upon them.  The Hittite King and his chariots race around Kadesh towards the second ford and the bulk of the Egyptian army.  The newly arrived Egyptian forces move to try to reinforce the last ford before the Hittites can get to it.  

Egyptian bowfire clears the Hittite Spearmen off the ford, and the Sherden begin to march across again.  However, the crossing is the target of murderous and accurate bow and javelin attacks from the Hittites as the Sea People cross.  

To the South of Kadesh, the Hittite chariots get to the second ford of the Orontes and find the Egyptians blocking their advance.  The enemy has been located at last!  The lead chariot throws their javelins but fail to cause much disruption.  

The Hittite Heavy Chariots are met with murderous Egyptian bow fire, and the initial attack is quickly blunted and sent reeling!  Failures of King Mutuwalli II with Command and Control lead tot he heavy loss of life.  

At the other ford, the Hittite missiles manage to rout the crossing Sherden Guards, failing to get across.  This causes the Egyptian forces there to start to waiver.  A Hittite skirmisher unit is set to wavering from Egyptian counter-fire.

The Hittites decide to bid all of their King's Decree except 1 to get initiative, and once they have it they launch a charge with their Heavy Chariots, determined to break their way across the ford.  The charge hits home, and pushes the Egyptians back and wavering, losing two courage but at the cost of 1 in return.

At the Northern ford, the Egyptian Light Chariots seize the initiative and push across the Orontes.  They open fire on the disrupted skirmishers and send them fleeing to the four winds.  However, the Archers are too busy re-organizing to press the archery duel.  However, Hittite counter-fire is enough to drive the Egyptian chariots back, scattering them yet again!     

 

End Phase

The momentum of both sides has been blunted, and the battle is winding down.  The Hittite Heavy Chariots try to push through the last ford South of Kadesh, but the disrupted Egyptians manage to stay strong with support from a nearby archer unit.  At the other flashpoint, Egyptian archery forces the last Hittite skirmisher to switch to Open Order and fall back.  This leaves them disrupted.  However, the Egyptians do not try to force the ford yet again.  

In a last push, King Mutuwalli II throws everything he has into the battle South of Kadesh along the shores of the Orontes River.  However, despite disrupting the Egyptian lines, he can not break through.  For their part, the Egyptians are content to have held the Hittites back, and do not try to cross the Orontes again.  

Conclusion

Some big divergences from what we know of the historical battle.  The Hittite Chariotry followed a more historical approach, but were held by the Egyptians.  Meanwhile the Pharaohs efforts to cross the Orontes and act aggressively were obviously and painfully halted.  He was forces to flee back to his camp with his tail between his legs!  This looks like a much closer battle than the last Battle of Kadesh we fought. 

Hittites earned 24 point but lost 18 points for +6 points.  The Egyptians did the inverse.  Therefore, the Hittites win the battle again!  

This less than decisive win matches what we know of the aftermath of the actual battle.  Kadesh seems to have stayed in Hittite control, Egyptian influence in the area waned, and the Pharaoh did not venture forth again into the Levant.  A relatively historical outcome for this one.    

Final Thoughts

Crossing a contested river is hard!  Both sides failed to manage it!  Missile power ruled the day.  A single missile unit was not enough to stop a determined advance, but the force that was better able to coordinate their firepower was able to route attackers.  In addition, the chariots were very mobile and allowed rapid re-deployment and maneuver, but were not overwhelmingly powerful in the attack.  That seemed about what I wanted out of this ruleset.

I think the next step is to create some unit cards with one side being game details, and the other being some historical details.  I.e. why chariots?  Who was Ramesses II?  What was needed for Bronze weapons?  Why Bronze?  Etc.  I would also like a timeline of the "historical" battle that I could project during the game as we go through some of the phases of the battle.  Maybe a map of the area as well?  Anyway, the tools to make it a "learning" game.  Then, I will be ready to take it to the local libraries and college for some demos!  Two players on the Hittite side, three on the Egyptian side, and me as the GM should be do-able.   

Until next time! 

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On the Painting Desk: Finishing off Against the Ogres - Heroquest

 

I finished my Heroquest core set, and picked up the Against the Ogres as my first supplement so that I could add the ranged enemies into my collection.  I was pretty impressed with the quality of the models and the supplement in general.  However, I can't play it until I have all the models painted.  Therefore, I got to work making sure I had it all painted. 

Last time, I painted up the furniture first, then the new heroes, and the Skeleton archers.  That left me with the missile goblins, archer orcs, and the Ogres themselves.  As usual, I undercoat primed them with Grey Seer spray.  Then, I gave them a dark grey wash then day brushed them white.  They were all ready for me to start with Armpainter Speedpaints.  So, let's get into it....

I decided to start with the Goblins.  For some reason, these guys gave me a hard time.  Perhaps it was the small detail, perhaps I wasn't sure how to paint them?  I figured a good place to start was malignant green skin to get me started.  I really loved the boomerangs as missile weapons, unique and fun weapons for the little guys.  I wanted to mostly have Magic Blue as their main color.  

After the goblins, I moved onto the Orc bowman.  Unlike the Goblins, the Orcs are wearing some decent armor, chunky.  I had been using Greylord Grey for the armor.  It gives is a very wrought iron and roughly finished look.  The skin is Malignant Green again to tie them into the Goblins.  The Bows are Pallid Bone.  The most fun was choosing the colors for the female Orc's hair.  I like deciding hair colors when I paint.  

That finished off my Greenskins!  They were ready to take on some Heroes and show them why Zargon's victory was inevitable!  

Okay, with the Greenskins done it was time to focus on the Ogres.  I wanted to make them different from the other enemies, so I wanted  unique "Ogre" skin-tone for them.  The Skeletons were Pallid Bone, the Orcs/Gobbos used Malignant Green, and I used various skin tones for the Heroes.  Therefore, I did some testing and decided on Sand Golem brown for the Ogre skin.  I also decided I did not want m Ogres to have much "modern" metal, so I limited them to Golds, Bronze, and Coppers.  After all, Bone weapons are a common feature in the quests.  This gave them a very earth-tone look.  

You may notice that I used Absolution Green as a unique "Ogre" hair color, as well as Graveyard Grey which provided a black hair look. Again, I gave each one a unique "color" to help differentiate them a bit if needed in game.  I have tried to do that for all the miniatures in the game.  None of them are exactly the same.  

This left me with the final three "Character" model miniatures from the Boxed set.  They are an Ogre Champion/Gladiator, a Ogre Warlord, and the Ogre king.  After getting them primed with the rest, I decided to paint them each individually.  I painted all their exposed skin first.  Then, I actually painted from their feet up, trying to go the lowest details first.  This way, I was layering up the model.  

Here is the Ogre Champion and Ogre General.  The Fierce Weaselmancer is there for scale.  

That left me with just one model for my Against the Ogre Horde box.  The last model was the biggest one of the set yet!  The Ogre King.  I painted him all by himself, no other projects on the table.  I started like the other character Ogres, all the skin first using Sand Golem.  Then, I got too work painting from the feet up.  There is a surprising amount of detail in this boardgame model and it takes paint after priming very easily.  Good definition in all of these models so far.  

Well, that's my first Heroquest supplement down.  I should probably get playing the core campaign soon!  Then, I can think about what supplement I want to get next.  Part of me wants Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witchlord so that I have all the core campaigns.  However, those boxes do not really add anything but more models I all ready have and quests.  I am really interested in adding more Hero types next.  That might sway my decision to a different set. I am open to suggestions for which Heroquest supplement is the best to get next.  

However, it will be a bit of time until I paint any more Heroquest!  My next project is some more Persians, this time I want to add some chariots to my force so that I can do the Battle of Cunaxa from Xenophon's Anabasis some day/  Those models are from Wargames Atlantic, so I am interested to see how they fit in with my Victrix minis.  

Speaking of Victrix, I also picked up an army of Anglo-Saxons from them.  Those were the intended main adversary for my Fury of the Northman rules.  However, I made an army of Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish to fight my Victrix Vikings first.  The Anlgo-Saxons will be about 50-60 miniatures or so.  Both of these projects I will most likely NOT be using Speedpaint, and using my more traditional base colors and a wash methods to match the rest of my historical forces.  That should be interesting to see how that goes. 

Until next time! 

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Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict - Battle of Kadesh Test Run

I want to eventually run a "Educational" game around the Battle of Kadesh at my local libraries.  This will be with people who don't know anything about wargaming and probably don't know much about ancient history.  Chances are they will be a mix of children, teens, and adults.  I have never done anything like this before.  

Therefore, I want to test run the Battle of Kadesh scenario from the In Strife and Conflict rulebook to see if it will do what I need it to do for the demo game.  Therefore, let's get it on the table and see what happens!  

Forces

Egyptians

3 Light Chariots

- Composite Bows

- General

1 Professional Infantry

2 Auxiliary Infantry

- Composite Bows

4 Archers

Hittites

3 Heavy Chariots

- Javelins

- 1 General

1 Auxiliary Infantry

2 Levy Infantry

- Bows

2 Skirmishers

Mission: 

We followed the set-up and parameters located in the In Strife and Conflict main rules. 

Set-up:

Of course, we will be playing today on a 72MU by 48MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch.  

Using the core rulebook rules, we set-up the table per the scenario.  The Egyptians start with a limited number of units on the table, representing the Pharaoh and his advanced force.  The Hittites get all their troops to start with on the other side of the river.  

Crossing the Orontes River is Dangerous terrain, but only Difficult at the Fords.  The fields around Kadesh are also Difficult.  The city itself is Impassable.  

Hittites on the left

I will be giving an overview of the battle below, pulled out into my usual three sections of Maneuvers, Battle, and End Phases.  I will then give some final thoughts at the end. 

Maneuver Phase

The Hittites start with 8 King's Decree to the Egyptian 3.  The Egyptians will increase when more units enter the board.... hopefully.  It is no surprise, that the Hittites can easily bid enough to go first.   As the Hittites press forward, the Pharaoh looks to threaten crossing the river west of the city.  He sends runs back to his main force, urging them to join him for the battle.  As the Hittite main force approaches the opposite side of the Orontes, the Pharaoh wisely turns away.  

The Hittites were stacking up and preparing to cross the Orontes, when the rest of the Egyptian army arrived on-scene.  With the arrival of the rest of the army, the Egyptians seize the initiative! The Sherden guards storm across the ford and try to attack! However, the ford is too much for them and they become disordered going across, falling short of their foes!  The Archers support the attack with a rain of arrows, that weaken the Hittite infantry on the other side. 

With that, the Battle of Kadesh begins in earnest. 

Battle Phase

Hittite bowman from the follow-on infantry try to barrage the Sherden with arrows, but they fail to find their mark.  Hittite spearmen wade into the ford and attack the disorganized Sherden.  The men of Hattusa are supported by a unit of Skirmishers.  The fighting is indecisive and neither side seems to be able to dislodge the other.  Meanwhile, the Egyptian army rushes to aid their forward units. 

The battle at the Ford rages, as a second Hittite Skirmisher unit manages to charge the Sherden from the flank.  It is enough to start to push the Pharaoh's guards back to the shoreline.  Meanwhile, the Hittite Heavy Chariots look like they are going to try a dangerous crossing! 

The Egyptian archers of the Amun division move in to support the Sherden at the Orontes shore.  With a great push, the Hittite spearmen and support manage to force the ford.  However, with the effort they are a spent force!  Heavy Chariots begin fording the river further upstream.  Seeing the Hittite spearmen fallback, an approaching Levy infantry becomes disordered!  

The Egyptian army is moving up to support their chariots, when the Hittites try to steal the Initiative, but fail.  Egyptian Light Chariots pepper the crossing heavy chariots with arrows, but only cause minor casualties.  The Heavy Chariots come roaring out of the river and attack!  They catch an Egyptian Infantry unit and the Pharaoh's unit with their attack!  The Pharaoh could not Evade as he was out of King's Decree, but a supporting Light Chariot unit snaps to his aid.  The Chariots exchange casualties.  The Chariots vs. the Infantry cause the Egyptians to be pushed back.  

An Egyptian Archer unit charges into support the Egyptian Infantry against the Hittite Heavy Chariots.  The battle is fierce and both units are reduce to 1 Courage left.  A second Egyptian Infantry unit manages to move up and lend support as well, enough to rout the Hittites!  

With a unit of Heavy Chariots routing, the Hittites need to start making collapse tests!  One of the Levy Infantry turns tail and runs!  

End Phase

Egyptians maintain the initiative, as the Hittites do not have many units left.  However, the Pharaoh is in danger!  None of the other Egyptian units can get to the Pharaoh to help out.  Ramesses puts up a valiant fight, but ultimately has to flee the field, along with his supporting Light Chariot unit.  Meanwhile, the Hittite King Muwatalli II emerged from his river crossing and attacked the severely depleted Egyptian infantry unit and easily routed it. 

With their Pharaoh fleeing this time, the Egyptians had to make some collapse tests.  The two remaining Archer units decided to withdraw in good order.  With the Egyptians shaken, the Hittites took the initiative! 

King Muwatalli II crashed into the flank of the remaining Egyptian unit and caused it to reel back, batterdd.  However, the troops quickly re-organized.  Meanwhile, the last Egyptian Light Chariot unit maneuvered close to the badly mauled Hittite Heavy Chariots and filled them full of arrows.  The survivors turned and fled.  At this, the remaining Hittite Levy Infantry became disordered.  

The destruction of the Hittite unit forces another set of Collapse tests on the Hittites.  They both passed.  With that, King Muwatalli II surveyed the battlefield and the coming dusk.  He withdrew back across the Orontes River and castled up within the walls of Kadesh, his remaining infantry joining him.  

Conclusion: 

Before we go to the points, neither side completely collapsed, so this will be a pyrrhic victory at best.  King Muwatalli II will also gain some propaganda points for driving Pharaoh Ramesses from the field of battle.    

The Egyptians scored 37 VPs for routed units and lost 55 points for - 17 points.  Ouch! 

The Hittites scored 55 points and lost 37, so + 17 points!  

A minor victory for the Hittites!  

Final Thoughts

Let's go the historical record on this one!  Here is how the battle of Kadesh unfolded per Ramesses own propaganda.

Per Wikipedia

Our battle took place a bit differently.  Here the battle took place on the South side of the river, while our battle took place on the opposite side, before the river split and the walls of Kadesh.  In out battle, the Hittites did manage to break through the Amun division with the Pharaoh, but did not engage with him until a bit later.  Ramesses would have us believe that he manage to force the Hittites back, but in our battle he fled the scene.  Historically, it was a draw but there are signs that it was a Hittite victory as Egyptian influence in the region waned after the battle.  Some minor discrepancies, but the overall flow and outcome of the battle seems to match with what we saw historically.  Just the point of decision changed a bit.  

As the Egyptian player, I think the battle folded about how I had planned it, minus losing the Pharaoh.  Interestingly, the Hittite player thought about using his chariots to move around the South side of the city as the real battle did, but decided not to due to the turn limit.  He did not think he would get to grips with the enemy fast enough.  

Next time, I will consider making the river Impassable instead of Dangerous terrain.  The Hittite Heavy Chariots crashed across with little problem.  However, if I make it impassable the fords will become the major choke points and killing grounds.  That may limit the free-wheeling nature of Chariot Warfare and detract from the flavor of the game.  I will have to test that out. 

Overall, a fun little battle that took about 90 minutes to complete.  Until next time! 

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