Friday, April 29, 2011

Brawler Bash Game 3 and Some Giant Eagles

I have been working on painting up something big this week, but it's not quite finished.  So instead, I will show you one of the conversions (or kitbashes?) that I made for the Bash.  One problem with slamming big blocks of figures into each other is that said blocks often do not like to line up.  Flyers are the worst.  They typically have huge wings (or in the case of dragons, huge tongues) that stick out and prevent easy alignment.  I've been using Gamezone's eagles lately, and I like them a lot.  However, they practically spill out of a 50mm base.  To fix that problem, I tried this:


Through the magic of bits sellers, I was able to procure 4 of the rocks from the High Elf Dragon kit.  They give the model about six inches of height which puts them well above any infantry that they may have to line up with.  I also think it looks pretty nice.  The conversion was pretty easy.  The rock is designed for a chariot base, so getting it onto a 50x50 required some careful cutting.  This cutting created some holes in what was left, and there were also some indentions where the dragon's feet were supposed to go.  I used a little green stuff to fill those holes, trying my best to sculpt the greenstuff into rock form.  

The eagles then had to be attached.  Gamezone's eagles are metal and possess significant weight.  Balancing them on the rock was difficult.  The swooping one below was simple.  He had a little peg on his tail feathers, and I was able to use a Dremel to drill a perfect sized hole into the rock.  A little glue has held him up perfectly.  The soaring version above was a nightmare.  I tried gluing.  I tried pinning.  I tried praying.  Nothing would make him balance on that rock.  I ended up breaking one of his feet off.  Finally, in despair, I ended up just greenstuffing him to the rock.  Fortunately, the angle of the rock and his giant wings tend to hide the fact that he no longer has feet, but he looks a little rough upon close inspection.  Alas.  Here are some shots of his more cooperative comrade:

As I said, I purchased the rocks in bulk, so I have two rocks left.  I'm trying to figure out what else I can do with them, so if anyone has ideas...

It is appropriate that I am discussing eagles because they played a significant role in game three.  I was 0-2 coming into that game, and I really didn't want to end the first day with no wins.  However, I felt pretty good because I have played Bretonnians more than any other army, and my opponent confessed to knowing very little about High Elves.  As an aside, the hall we were in had gotten so loud that it was almost deafening.  My opponent and I were shouting at each other and were still not able to really understand each other.  That coupled with the fact that this was my third game of Warhammer in nine hours made for some very uncomfortable gaming to say the least.

Anyway, the army I was up against seemed very 7th edition in design.  What I am seeing a lot out of Bret armies is large blocks of peasants, lots of archers, and of course, dueling trebuchets. This army centered on knights.  It did have a trebuchet, but only one.  It also featured a lord on hippogriph, which is not something one sees every day.

For all intents and purposes, the game ended in turn 1.  I took the first turn and moved my horde of white lions into range of all his knights, hoping they would charge me.  They did, and I can say that I truly felt guilty when I explained what 30 strength 6, rerollable, always strikes first attacks meant.  He did a little damage to the white lions, but three units of knights were fleeing.  The eagles got the trebuchet the next turn, and my opponent was left with few options to hurt me.

I will hand it to my opponent though because he made a nifty move with his lord to give himself a chance to win.  We were playing Blood and Glory, which I think is the best of the core scenarios.  I love the way it punishes armies with few banners (and hence few units). I think every tournament should include some version of it to balance deathstar armies a bit. Anyway, I had my general, a banner, and my BSB in a bunker unit hidden behind my lines.  My swordmasters were positioned to protect it from said lord, but they failed their terror test and ran off, allowing his lord to redirect into my bunker's flank.  The only thing that saved that unit was poor rolling on his part.  He flubbed the charge, I stood, and in the next round I was able to finish off the last banner needed for victory.

All in all, it was an enjoyable game against an opponent who definitely kept things fun.  A little drama at the end spiced things up.  This was also the only game in which my horde of white lions did anything.  I know a lot of people swear by them, but as I'll talk about next post, I'm not sold.  Hopefully, I'll also have some pictures of the model on which I have been working.

4 comments:

  1. You could have the second eagle carrying a big rock to drop on somebody! (Although I think it'd be cooler if he had a Brettonian horse in his claws.)

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  2. '30 strength 6, rerollable, always strikes first attacks'

    Shouldn't be any wonder as to why I sold off the O&G after reading that.

    Good job on the Eagles! You would think that they'd be made out of plastic though. I was looking into getting some eagles, terradons, or something to use as Exodite jet bikes, but with every option being made of metal, I decided to skip it. (the fact that my Autarch's 'count as' jet bike is the plastic Gryphon didn't help either.

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  3. That's an awesome idea, Bercilak. I'll have to see about getting one of those horses. I guess having a knight dangling by his stirrup would be too much.

    Cheef, what's the source of your aversion to metals?

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  4. Its a lot harder to work with than plastic when it comes to conversions.

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