Age of Fantasy Quest: Game 1

“Right then… keep yer mouths shut.” whispered Ulskrag as he peered down the broad steps and strung his bow. “There’s bound to be some of those filthy longbeards about… their stink is all over the place!”

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m giving another one-page-rules game a try – this time Age of Fantasy Quest (with the aim of trying to tie it into my Five Leagues from the Borderlands game – in which I’m playing a bunch of orcs battling against the dwarves of Balin’s company during their failed re-colonisation of Moria).

Now I did get a few rules wrong during the first half of the game (or just forgot things here and there) - but it worked out reasonably well in the end – though I think it would be better if I had more table space (though that’s not something I can change at the moment).

Anyway… on with the game!

 

Ulskrag ordered Izdin (his second in command – a large orcish brute wielding a heavy axe) and the rest of the patrol down into the chamber, and had them form a defensive line between himself and the group of dwarves that appeared out of the darkness.

 

The bearded folk were few in number, little more than a patrol themselves, and so the lads (Bagash, Kildig, and Gitnik) faced them head on – charging in (with their spears leading the way), while Izdin came around at them from their flank.

This resulted in the death of all three dwarves – though Bagash was also slain in the exchange.

 

Meanwhile, Ulskrag took his time to make his mark on a pile of stones to indicate the passing of his patrol (as was their custom – it being a means of ensuring the orcs actually patrolled their allotted areas), before moving deeper into the ruinous chamber. 

However, it seemed that their recent engagement, brief though it was, had not gone unnoticed, and more dwarves rushed in through an open archway on this lower level.

This time, the remaining lads (Kildig, and Gitnik) advanced a short distance and set themselves to meet the enemy's charge… and succeeded in beating them back (this time without loss).

Like before, Ulskrag had begun making his mark on the appointed stone – but seeing that the dwarves had not been dealt with, he moved into position to take a shot at them with his trusty bow… but missed dramatically – his arrow disappearing into the darkness of the passage from which they had emerged.

Seeing this, Izdin (his blood still up from the previous encounter) charged into the dwarves, his axe swinging left and right as he cut all three down in a matter of mere seconds.

Both impressed and a little intimidated by this, Ulskrag called Kildig, and Gitnik over to watch his back while he continued with his task (he actually failed the roll to complete this several times during the course of this encounter – so I had him spend two power to turn a failed roll into a success).

 

With the primary mission complete (i.e. both objectives had been achieved) it was time to roll up a secondary objective. This resulted in ‘safeguard’ – which meant that a marker is placed in the centre of the table, and a hero will need to make three successful dex texts when within 3” of it to ‘safegaurd’ that area from enemy attacks. In story terms I interpreted this as the group having to hold that area while Ulskrag daubed the stones with the blood of their enemies - to mark this area as orc territory).

 

However, before doing that he chose to search the area for any indication as to what the dwarves might be up to in this hall (as there was also a search token next to one of the primary objectives)… but this turned up nothing of interest… though the delay meant that more of Balin’s folk had made their way into this area – this time descending from a higher level (i.e. through door 1).

The resulting battle proved costly…

 

...and although this newest threat was eventually dealt with – it cost the lives of Kildig, and Gitnik.

With the halls falling quiet once more, Ulskrag searched another promising area for possible loot, and this time uncovered a strange elixir.

Once again, the delay meant that yet more dwarves poured into the area… and, the remaining pair of orcs chose to hide behind a ruined pillar while this next group (armed with hammers) made their way towards the middle of the hall.

 

Then, with one of the ruined portions of the chamber between them, Ulskrag began raining arrows down upon them…

...before fleeing again.

 

(Now, if I’m reading things right, the AI rules as written state that if an enemy doesn’t have line of sight to a hero they head towards an AI goal – so they never pursue a hero once they turn a corner for example. However, I don’t really like that – so I adopted an Advanced HeroQuest rule, and judged that when a hero disappears from view, its enemies will pursue it for one round (following the direction the hero took)… and if their movement doesn’t bring the Hero back into sight, then, and only then, will they head back towards an AI goal).

So, with the dwarves giving up the chase, the pair decided to investigate another of the chamber’s corners…

 

...but came up empty handed once again.

Now, with the dwarves’ backs turned, the pair climbed a set of crumbling steps that led up to a platform that overlooked the central portion of the chamber, and prepared their final assault.

Ulskrag took aim and loosed his arrows, while Izdin charged in with is axe held high.

However, more of the sneaky beardlings had made their way into the area, and were already heading towards the skirmish in the centre of the room. As such Ulskrag jumped down and joined the fray.

The resulting battle ended with Izdin felling the last of the remaining hammerers, while Ulskrag finally threw caution aside, and charged the newly arrived axemen… slaughtering them all with his orcish blades.

 

With the halls falling quiet again, if only briefly, Ulskrag took the time to daub markings onto the fallen stones in the blood of his enemies (as a warning to any other dwarves that might journey this way).

(Note that I once again failed a couple of necessary rolls to complete the secondary objective – so I used two power to convert those fails onto a sucess. However, this quickly depleted my power score… but I think you can still do that with zero power remaining… but it instead comes off your wound total.)

But no sooner had he finished, the sound of yet more hurried footfalls echoed throughout the chamber… the heavy stomp of dwarven boots - this time approaching from behind (i.e. door 6).

Looking each other up and down, both Ulskrag and Izdin could see that they were in no shape to fight off more of the hated longbeards; both were wounded, and more than half of their patrol lay dead.

So, with their mission complete, they decided to flee the hall – spitting foul curses at the pursuing dwarves, before quickly outpacing them and disappearing into the long dark of Moria.

 

Age of Fantasy Quest: the set-up

In my last Five Leagues from the Borderlands game, my party of orcs arrived at the Uruk Hold (a large orc encampment deep within Moria) after being ambushed by some of Balin’s folk along the way.

Upon reaching their destination, they fell in with a group of returning scouts as they made their way past the outer barricades, and into the camp proper.

Anyway, before I continue with Muzlug and Lagashi’s story (and also because there are other games I would like to try out over the holiday period), I thought I would rewind slightly, and play out a battle using the One Page Rules ‘Age of Fantasy: Quest’ ruleset… and use that scenario to represent the patrol that these scouts were returning from… and maybe weave that into the story somehow (maybe Muzlug & Co. will investigate the same area too… you know… since I already have the table set up ;) ).

However, before I get started, I will say that I’m not playing ‘Quest’ rules as written… and instead of having multiple ‘heroes’ I’m just going to have the one – but he will be accompanied by a small warband that’s worth the same amount of points (i.e. my hero came out to 90 points, so I have put a 90 point list together to represent his small patrol, and together that should roughly equal the power level of two heroes for the purposes of working out the strength of the various ‘waves’ that they’ll be encountering… if you’re familiar with the way ‘Quest’ works, then you’ll know what I mean).

Speaking of which, here’s a picture of Ulskrag’s patrol:

 

Left to right: Ulskrag (orc ranger 90pts), 3 goblin warriors with spears and ‘furious’ (30pts), and Izdin (black orc – 60pts).

Now, this is more of a test game than anything else – so there’s not much of a story – other than Ulskrag being tasked to patrol the area I’ve got set up on my (small) table… and then taking it from there.

 

So, as you can see, the way I’ve got things broken up into 4 quarters (shown in red) is a little unconventional – but that’s because my playing space is made up of 2 magnetic blackboards (which my tiles are attached to)… one larger than the other (hence the L shape).

Furthermore, rather than having the heroes and enemies arrive at random table corners, I’ve instead set things up so that there are six specific entrances (shown in blue) – which, as you’ve probably guessed, I can randomise with the roll of a d6.

Now, as far as the mission goes I’ve selected an ‘Investigation’ – which means I need to investigate two markers (which I’m rationalising as my patrol route), and I also ended up with 4 search tokens as well.

The last thing I placed was the ‘sentries’ (in this case a group of 3 dwarf axemen)… and rolled to see what doorway my patrol would be entering from...

 

...and with that, I think it’s time to start the mission!

(but that will be my next post ;) )

Building a Dwarf Army Pt.5

It’s been almost a month since I last posted about my dwarf army progress… and in that post I said that I’d pretty much got everything done except my banner bearer (as I wasn’t sure how to paint the banner itself).

However, if this is your first time here, before I go any further, I’ll post links to the previous four parts of this project below (just in case you have any questions about the models, the paints, etc.)

PART 1  /  PART 2  /  PART 3  /  PART 4

Anyway, with all that out of the way, I’m pleased to say that I did paint up the banner guy in the end… and I just went with a simple painted-on design to get it done reasonably quickly and easily:

And now that he’s done, he can get added to the rest of his unit (a unit of ‘dwarf hammer elites’ and an attached ‘champion’ for the OPR Regiments game):

And, while I’m at it I’ll also post pics of the other units too (mountain warriors & champion, bearded veterans & sergeant, and marksmen & sergeant):

Actually, if you’re interested here’s the full 750 point army list using the OPR army builder app (which is great BTW):

Now, typically, as soon as I was done there was an update to some of the rules and point costs – which did mean that I had to re-jigger things slightly to get them back up to the aforementioned 750 points… but at least I didn’t have to paint any more models (or scrap ones I’d already done).

And with that, I think I’m going to call them done for now!

They’re not my best work (as this was always meant to be something to get done quickly/efficiently/cheaply) – but, even so, I’m still pretty happy with how the army looks as a whole…

 

...and I’d be more than happy to push them around the table if I ever get the chance (or to use as a loan army to teach someone the rules).

Though, I suppose I could make some matching movement trays for them… but that’s a job for another time... as my next project is to make a few more bits of dwarf(ish) themed terrain...

 ...but more on that later :)

Five Leagues From the Borderlands (part 8) – Ambushed!

Before I begin, I just want to quickly say that I probably played this game over a year ago, and so my memory of it isn’t perfect. I’m also not sure why I didn’t post a bat-rep at the time – but since I recently stumbled upon my notes (and found a few pictures on my hard drive) I thought it would be a good time to share them – especially since I’m thinking of restarting the game (or doing something similar with the newer ‘Deep Below’ spin-off).

Anyway, we left off with our little band of orcs acquiring a ‘contract’ – which involved visiting the Orc Outpost, the Uruk Hold, and the Loot Exchange settlements within 5 turns, and making an 8+ speech test in at least two of them.

I had interpreted this as having to re-establish connections between some of the orc groups that had taken up abode in the various halls of the dwarven complex… and, as such, had decided to return ‘home’ this turn (back to the Orc Outpost) – and gained a ‘friend’ along the way.

CAMPAIGN TURN 4

Town Events: Wandering healer

Hard Times: 2 upkeep (I used 1 ration to offset this)

Activities: Performed a successful speech test (with a +1 ‘friend’ bonus), recruited another follower, and visited the blacksmith to repair Muzlug’s spear.

Research: No result

Trade: Sold 'jars' for 2 gold.

My interpretation:

It turned out that Bagna (the sniveling wretch that befriended the group on their return journey) had the ear of Grob (the settlement's leader), and was able to get Lagashi an audience with him within a few days.

In the meantime, Muzlug was able to exchange some of the loot that they had found for a new spear shaft, and Pushdug convinced him that he probably knew a couple of good lads that might also want in on their escapades.

However, as it turned out, only one of these ‘lads’ was still alive… an axe wielding orc by the name of Dinshat – who was currently being patched up by a healer of sorts.

And since the rest of his band were currently missing (being the heavily armed patrol that had failed to return) he was easily convinced to slink away and join Muzlug’s Mob when no-one was looking.

Later, when Lagashi eventually got her audience with the great orc Grob, he was quick to agree that messengers should be sent down to the ‘Uruk Hold’ on the level below - as whispers had reached his ears of it falling back into Dwarven hands. And, even though he doubted those rumours to be true, he was no fool, and knew it to be wise to be seen to do ‘something’ (sending someone to check for example) …even if only to stave off challenges from those that were all to eager to take his place.

Therefore, Lagashi was quick to relay this news to Muzlug - resulting in the pair gathering their small warband, and heading off in short order.

 

TRAVEL ROLL: Waylaid by foes (petty robbers)

It was already late when the warband moved out – and so it wasn’t overly long before the group set up camp in an empty room at the end of a grand (but ruinous) hall. They even lit a small fire (against Pushdug’s advice) as they settled down – not fearing much due to the fact that they hadn't travelled all that far from the outpost.

Then, during Snagluk’s watch, the quiet, but unmistakable sound of booted feet echoed out in the main hall… and sneaking a look (with eyes well accustomed to the dark) he espied the unmistakable shapes of dwarven figures approaching their position. They had seen the light of the campfire perhaps… and were creeping closer and closer with each passing heartbeat.

THE BATTLE

Now I’m fairly sure I had some comprehensive notes to accompany these photo’s – but all I can seem to find are half a dozen bullet points – so maybe I had intended to write up this bat-rep straight away instead of relying on my notes (as I do remember the whole thing being fairly short and sweet).

Anyway, the set-up looked like this:

And, at the start, the dwarves moved in using the ‘infiltration’ rules (for a defensive battle), before eventually being spotted by Snagluk – who was the only one to act in the quick phase of the first round… but in his panic his shot was well wide of the mark.

During the next few rounds, the two opposing forces rushed to meet each other – but the main dwarven contingent were temporarily halted as tendrils of dark magic swirled around them – making their limbs heavy, and their boots feel like lead (i.e. Lagashi cast ‘bind’).

After dispatching a couple of the filthy longbeards, two of their number turned tail and fled like the cowards that they are – leaving their leader alone to face the consequences of their actions.

Needless to say, it didn’t go well for the lone dwarf… and (acting in the quick phase) Pushdug charged in and cut the fool down with a single blow!

RESOLUTION

Even though this was a travel battle, I think I still treat this like a regular battle – and need to do all the usual ‘resolution stage’ stuff… so:

1. No adventure points gained.

2. No injuries.

3. Advancements... 

• Muzlug 2 XP
• Lagashi 2 XP
• Pushdug 3XP (+1 for killing their leader) he also gains +1 combat skill at lvl 1
• Golb – nothing gained
• Snagluk – gains the pathwise skill.
• Dinshat – gains the battlewise skill.

4. Loot – found a delvers kit.

5. Unusual find – found the remains of a victim (I need to return a token to a random settlement)

6. Settle in – reached the ‘Uruk Hold' settlement.

7. News Travels – Rangers have been scouting the area (+2AP)

My interpretation:

With the echoing footsteps of the fleeing dwarves fading into the depths, the warband took stock. None of them had been injured (other than a few scratches and bruises), and so counted themselves lucky.

Pushdug gloated over the fact that he had warned them about lighting a fire… and this time Lagashi was inclined to agree. However, Muzlug berated the group for letting two of the dwarves escape – stating that the group would now need to move with haste themselves – before the bearded cowards could return with more of their filthy kin.

Despite this, they did a quick search of the bodies, and looted a few supplies/tools of sturdy dwarven make – and also discovered the decapitated head of a large orc brute tied up in a sack.

Dinshat, the newest member of the warband, confirmed that this was Rutgot – the leader of the missing patrol… and stated that news of this should probably be taken back to the outpost.

(note that I used a Story Point to change the location that this needed to be returned to – having it be the Outpost that they had just left – as I thought that fit the story better)

Despite this, Muzlug ordered the group on… and to make it ‘double quick’ since he believed that the dwarves were on to them (as he didn’t want to face a larger force of the beardlings with his own meagre band).

And yet, they arrived at the outskirts of the Uruk Hold (an orc camp that could rival the populace of a small town) without further event, and fell in (and exchanged news) with a group of returning scouts, as they made their way past the outer barricades...

Building a Dwarf Army Pt.4

As I mentioned in my previous ‘building a dwarf army post’ – my (revised) plan was to try and get this entire army done within the space of a month… and I almost did it.

At the end of the last post I shared a picture of all the core troops done… so all that was left was the various command models.

Well, here they are:

The two guys on the left are conversions (using the EM4 miniatures as the base model), and the two guys on the right are metal models from Black Tree Design (though both were originally holding hammers, so the spear guy is another conversion).

However, that does leave one more mini to go before I can call the army complete… and that’s this fella:

...and I’ve been putting off painting it as I’m not sure how to tackle the banner.

Some thoughts I had were to simply ‘quarter it’ and call it done (this is supposed to be a quickly painted project after all), or I could buy some decals (though that makes it more expensive), or I could try to sculpt something onto the banner itself (a large rune for example) in greenstuff (as that would probably be a bit easier for me to achieve than trying to freehand a design).

But I’m still not 100% sure about what to do yet – so I’ve put him to one side for now.

That being said, I’ve still been splashing a bit of paint around… as I want to paint up some orcs next. However, the plan for these is to take one sprue of the various orc and goblin kits that have a vaguely Tolkienesque look about them…

(Oathmark orcs and goblins, Wargames Atlantic goblins, and Warlord Games orcs)

...and see what kind of warband I can make with them.

This will also give me A LOT of spare heads when I’m done – so the plan is to see if I can use some of those to convert some of the EM4 orcs that I have as well.

But, as you can see, I’ve not assembled any of these yet, and what I’ve been doing instead is having a go at painting some of the existing (mostly metal) models that I have in my collection – to see if I can work out a colour scheme that I like (mainly for the skin tones).

So, with that in mind, here’s the first two tests on some old Ral Partha orcs…

...which don’t look too bad – but not 100% how I want them (though the guy on the left isn’t too far off).

I’m also considering using these ‘test models’ as a little warband in their own right for a couple of games of Deep Below (a Five Leagues from the Borderlands spin-off) – as I’m probably going to do a few more test models before I’m done… and it would be good to have something in mind for the models (other than them being just tests).

Anyway, as far as the dwarves go, they’re pretty much done (save for the banner bearer)… and it did take around a month to finish them (the first primer was applied on the 22nd September, and the last varnish went on on the 21st October) – and I even had days (almost a week at one point) where I didn’t do anything at all.

So, all in all, I think that’s pretty good going for someone like me :)

Building a Dwarf Army Pt.3

The last time I posted my progress on my small dwarf army, I explained how I was splitting the models up into a few different groups – so that I could paint all the models with blond beards first, then do a second batch of greybeards, and so on.

And while I haven’t had as much time to spend on these as when I first started the project… progress has been made:

So, as you can see in the above picture… I’ve finished all the grey-bearded models on the left, the brown-bearded models on the right, and I’ve also squeezed in a few ginger guys as well.

However, it would be a pretty short blog post if I left it there, so I thought I would show exactly how I’m painting these – with a few pictures showing all of the steps I’m using to get them done in a reasonably quick and easy manner… so here goes!

First the models are undercoated…

...and, as you can see, I’m using a brush on grey primer for this.

Next I paint all of the silver areas…

...and I’m not to careful with this – I just get it in on as quickly as possible.

After that I paint in the skin (note that unless otherwise stated, when two paint bottles are shown, I’m using one drop of each to get the desired colour)…

...and again, I’m only careful on the areas close to the metal… and I don’t worry too much if it gets on the beard etc.

Then I paint the beard itself…

...which, in this case is a ginger colour (and this is the only colour I change on the various minis).

And then I paint in any red(ish) cloth…

...which isn’t a lot on this guy.

Next it’s the green trim around the armour…

...as this complements the red quite nicely.

Then it’s time for a few browns…

...first for the boots, gloves, pouches, etc.

And then a darker colour for the wood and weapon handles:

(note that when there is a white rim on the bottles – these are the Model Colour range… not my main Game Colour paints)

Next is any gold trim etc…

...so the metal plates on the arms, dagger hilts, extra armour plates, and so on.

And finally I tidy up any areas where I might have made a bit of a mess…

...but, generally speaking, it’s usually just dotting the little metal studs.

Once that’s had a few minutes to dry I then apply a wash of 2 parts Fleshshade to one part Wash medium to the face and beard…

...though the beard wash changes depending on it’s colour.

Then the rest of the model gets covered in marine juice/sonic tonic…

...which, if you’re not familiar with, the Sonic Sledgehammer youtube channel has a video HERE.

And when that’s dry (and has also darkened everything down a bit), I add a few highlights with the same original colours – though this isn’t anything too crazy – just a bit of tidying up really...

 ...and, this is when I paint the base too (as you can see I was actually working on two models at the same time when taking these pic’s).

These are then left overnight before I varnish and base them…

...as I also use a brush on varnish – so I like to make sure the paint has had plenty of time to dry/set. Plus, as you can see, I’m just using some ‘geek gaming’ base-ready stuff on the bases – as I think that’s one of the quickest ways of getting them done.

So, that’s all I’m doing with these guys – but if I group them all together...

...they don’t look too bad at all (nothing to shout about – but perfectly good enough for gaming purposes).

And, while I still have a handful more to paint (mostly the ‘command’ types), I think I’m still on track for getting them all done within the space of a month.

So, with any luck, I’ll have them all done when I post the next update (fingers crossed).