The Battle of Bogenhof - 19.5k pt SELWG Show demo game
Oct 31, 2021 21:48:37 GMT
KevinC, FvonSigmaringen, and 6 more like this
Post by knoffles on Oct 31, 2021 21:48:37 GMT
So the day of the show arrived and I was out of the door at 7am to drive to the north of the city and got to the venue just before the doors opened to the other clubs putting on games and the traders.
This year, we had moved the show to a new venue, Lee Valley Athletics Club, in North London. Previously it had always been held at Crystal Palace and for me the new venue was much better. I will say that although as a building, it was less interesting the setup meant that everything was on one floor with traders predominantly round the edge and all the games in the middle. It made it so that no one would be missed or pigeon holed to one side (and the loading bay was much closer, so the distance to cart stuff around was much less!). Overall, for me, it felt much better though I can’t comment on footfall etc.
Whilst waiting for the other chaps involved (Greg and Pete) to arrive and the 2 mats for the table, I was able to assist the club by going round and labeling up all the tables, so everyone else putting on games, would know where they should be!
After being a bit useful, I grabbed a club shirt, and we were able to start setting up the table.
This won’t be my normal style of report more of a photo dump with some commentary!
This is as ever also on my blog (and on my instagram) and you can even find a short video of the table before battle commenced on both (Blog post)
Deployment
Dwarves
Wood Elves/Lizards
Empire
The Alliance got first turn.
The Lizards and Melee Wood Elves advance
Empire Vanguards
The rest of the Empire forces advance
Ouch! First successful spell of the game miscasts (Throne had been dispelled but the Wizard escaped anything life ending).
The dwarven counter. In the distance you may notice a large gap. 40 xbow bolts swiftly removed the large unit of wildriders, leaving Orion and the Hero on Stag dangerously exposed! There is also a large Stegadon shaped hole, thanks to the cannon.
On the other flank, the Thunderers removed the Outrider threat and the Ironbreakers chased the Pistoliers off the field of battle.
Eeeeekkk - nothing good was ever going to come of this combat. The Miners were fairly quickly slaughtered but both carnosaurs were left on a single wound, with the Scarvet also slain.
The melee move up to threaten the other dwarves. In the distance, Orion and the hero on Stag charge the Xbow horde and the wildriders bypass the other xbows to hit the Organ Gun on the rear.
The Demi's hit the Ironbreakers, beginning the biggest grind of the game. The other Empire forces advance, with Karl Franz repositioning.
It's worth noting that the dwarf flame cannon, next to the slayers, misfired and destroyed itself on the first turn, yet again managing to do sod all in one of my lists. (In fairness, I may have been able to reroll it due to a Ro Forging. I can't remember if it was a double misfire but wouldn't have been surprised at that outcome as I never have any joy with it...)
The Empire knights start their run of utterly failing to charge the Thunderers and in the process, cop a load of iron shot, repeatedly, to the face!
Facing down the Stank
The longbeards reform to limit the impending charges
Though the Stag rider was slain, he and Orion (with a little heal from the highweaver), butchered their way through the great weapon xbow dwarves. Orion was a beast!!!
Forest Spirit reinforcements arrive to assist the Eternal Guard. In the background, the Hero on Eagle swoops in to assist Orion in finishing off the Xbows.
It did leave him rather exposed to the next horde of great weapon warriors looking to avenge their brethren.
The Stank was taking out handfuls of hammerers but things weren't going entirely its way as the great weapons tore chunks from its hull and the Halbadiers were proving ineffective in the flank (the 2 attacks back apiece were helping, though the reduction in unit size was mainly due to the earlier, gentle administrations of the Irondrakes).
Karl Franz had also joined the fray, hitting the Irondrakes. Deathclaw was burnt to a crisp and only the enchantments of the sliver seal, were stopping him joining the roasted chicken.
The Ironbreaker/Demi grind continued with the dwarves being whittled down and unable to break the knights armour. However the Oldblood was looking poised to join the combat, while the other, riderless carnosaur was running rampage in the background.
The elven shooting had finally removed the other Organ Gun, leaving the way open to the Runelord undertaking the ritual of awakening!
Elven forces started to advance. The waywatchers and scouts had turned to finish off the Gyrobomber threatening their lines. (And i'll make a note that despite the densely populated enemy lines, once again the bombers failed to do a single thing before both being finished off).
Having taken out the Organ Gun, the warhawks were finding the Engineer, a much tougher proposition.
The slayers finally make the charge and although they made a good account of themselves, Dwellers and the Hellblasters had taken too much of a toll on them. Just Ungrim was left at the end of the combat!
The Oldblood joined the combat and the Carnosaur was swiftly targeted to remove it's threat.
The Golem awakes!
And after 6 hours of game play (10-4) and a total of 3 or 4 turns! the show finished and we had to call it there.
It was immense fun. It was as different and enjoyable as playing triumph and treachery. Pete enjoyed it so much that he wants to play another game of 8th again (and he hasn’t played pretty much since the old world was destroyed). We had loads of former fantasy players drop by loving the mass battle and even a couple of youngsters joining to roll some dice.
Would I have done anything differently if I were to do it again? Probably very little as in the main, everything went pretty smoothly. The couple of things that come to mind are:
So overall it was a complete success and although involved quite a bit of work to set up, was fully worth it and I definitely recommend large games (though I understand why they normally are an all weekend job!).
This year, we had moved the show to a new venue, Lee Valley Athletics Club, in North London. Previously it had always been held at Crystal Palace and for me the new venue was much better. I will say that although as a building, it was less interesting the setup meant that everything was on one floor with traders predominantly round the edge and all the games in the middle. It made it so that no one would be missed or pigeon holed to one side (and the loading bay was much closer, so the distance to cart stuff around was much less!). Overall, for me, it felt much better though I can’t comment on footfall etc.
Whilst waiting for the other chaps involved (Greg and Pete) to arrive and the 2 mats for the table, I was able to assist the club by going round and labeling up all the tables, so everyone else putting on games, would know where they should be!
After being a bit useful, I grabbed a club shirt, and we were able to start setting up the table.
This won’t be my normal style of report more of a photo dump with some commentary!
This is as ever also on my blog (and on my instagram) and you can even find a short video of the table before battle commenced on both (Blog post)
Deployment
Dwarves
Wood Elves/Lizards
Empire
The Alliance got first turn.
The Lizards and Melee Wood Elves advance
Empire Vanguards
The rest of the Empire forces advance
Ouch! First successful spell of the game miscasts (Throne had been dispelled but the Wizard escaped anything life ending).
The dwarven counter. In the distance you may notice a large gap. 40 xbow bolts swiftly removed the large unit of wildriders, leaving Orion and the Hero on Stag dangerously exposed! There is also a large Stegadon shaped hole, thanks to the cannon.
On the other flank, the Thunderers removed the Outrider threat and the Ironbreakers chased the Pistoliers off the field of battle.
Eeeeekkk - nothing good was ever going to come of this combat. The Miners were fairly quickly slaughtered but both carnosaurs were left on a single wound, with the Scarvet also slain.
The melee move up to threaten the other dwarves. In the distance, Orion and the hero on Stag charge the Xbow horde and the wildriders bypass the other xbows to hit the Organ Gun on the rear.
The Demi's hit the Ironbreakers, beginning the biggest grind of the game. The other Empire forces advance, with Karl Franz repositioning.
It's worth noting that the dwarf flame cannon, next to the slayers, misfired and destroyed itself on the first turn, yet again managing to do sod all in one of my lists. (In fairness, I may have been able to reroll it due to a Ro Forging. I can't remember if it was a double misfire but wouldn't have been surprised at that outcome as I never have any joy with it...)
The Empire knights start their run of utterly failing to charge the Thunderers and in the process, cop a load of iron shot, repeatedly, to the face!
Facing down the Stank
The longbeards reform to limit the impending charges
Though the Stag rider was slain, he and Orion (with a little heal from the highweaver), butchered their way through the great weapon xbow dwarves. Orion was a beast!!!
Forest Spirit reinforcements arrive to assist the Eternal Guard. In the background, the Hero on Eagle swoops in to assist Orion in finishing off the Xbows.
It did leave him rather exposed to the next horde of great weapon warriors looking to avenge their brethren.
The Stank was taking out handfuls of hammerers but things weren't going entirely its way as the great weapons tore chunks from its hull and the Halbadiers were proving ineffective in the flank (the 2 attacks back apiece were helping, though the reduction in unit size was mainly due to the earlier, gentle administrations of the Irondrakes).
Karl Franz had also joined the fray, hitting the Irondrakes. Deathclaw was burnt to a crisp and only the enchantments of the sliver seal, were stopping him joining the roasted chicken.
The Ironbreaker/Demi grind continued with the dwarves being whittled down and unable to break the knights armour. However the Oldblood was looking poised to join the combat, while the other, riderless carnosaur was running rampage in the background.
The elven shooting had finally removed the other Organ Gun, leaving the way open to the Runelord undertaking the ritual of awakening!
Elven forces started to advance. The waywatchers and scouts had turned to finish off the Gyrobomber threatening their lines. (And i'll make a note that despite the densely populated enemy lines, once again the bombers failed to do a single thing before both being finished off).
Having taken out the Organ Gun, the warhawks were finding the Engineer, a much tougher proposition.
The slayers finally make the charge and although they made a good account of themselves, Dwellers and the Hellblasters had taken too much of a toll on them. Just Ungrim was left at the end of the combat!
The Oldblood joined the combat and the Carnosaur was swiftly targeted to remove it's threat.
The Golem awakes!
And after 6 hours of game play (10-4) and a total of 3 or 4 turns! the show finished and we had to call it there.
It was immense fun. It was as different and enjoyable as playing triumph and treachery. Pete enjoyed it so much that he wants to play another game of 8th again (and he hasn’t played pretty much since the old world was destroyed). We had loads of former fantasy players drop by loving the mass battle and even a couple of youngsters joining to roll some dice.
Would I have done anything differently if I were to do it again? Probably very little as in the main, everything went pretty smoothly. The couple of things that come to mind are:
- Balance the size of the forces a bit more. Mainly as the dwarves could have done with a few more blocks, in order to cover the whole width of the table.
- Awakened the golem earlier. Not having run a game this size, I’d not considered how many turns we would be able to complete in the time available.
- Refine the magic phase. On the fly we did the magic phases as: The Empire and Woodelf each rolled 2D6 (so 4D6 in all), with the dwarves getting the highest dice of each of the 2D6 rolls. In the dwarf turn, just 2D6 were rolled. This seemed to work fairly well but if it was done again with a different army (that used magic), it may not work as well.
So overall it was a complete success and although involved quite a bit of work to set up, was fully worth it and I definitely recommend large games (though I understand why they normally are an all weekend job!).
