Hell cannon insurance

Rattling noises reflected against the cliffs of the small pass as the demonic cannon was pulled by panting Dragon Ogres. Three small creatures were running around the troublesome carriage commanding and cursing in an old strange language.
'These terrible high hats better make sure the cannon will be safely transported to the fortress. We payed a high enough price for this machine.' Nurgly mumbled by himself. The chaos wizard and his warrior revenue had made the long travel into the Dark Lands to obtain the Hell Cannon. Negotiating with the Dawi'zharr was hard, but gold, wyrdstone and above all a group of captured dwarfs was a price the Chaos Dwarfs could not resist. 'The imposing war machine would be an important resource in his masters army' Nurgly observed, 'but this one looks even more menacing and tempestuous.'

The chosen path took the small detachment through a cramped mountain pass. Nurgly sent a group of scouts ahead. They took off on their horses towards the left flank and some time later their horns could be heard in the distance, raising the alarm. After a small curse Nurgly organised the battle line. He could feel the presence of magic forces nearby, even of a kind of magister he had not encountered before. Stretching out in the palanquin, he scanned the pass. There were some arcane ruins halfway, but the forces he felt were stronger... With a small kick he commanded the Nurgling mounts forward. The warriors followed, leaving the Dragon Ogres to guard the precious cannon and it's crew.

On both flanks forests hid the enemy, but in the centre a group of Ogres was spotted, carrying what seems to be barrels on their shoulders. 'Curses, those dumb brutes.. I would have been happy to recruit them' went through the mind of the wizard 'let's hope they're few in numbers...' Behind him the chaos cannon roared and fired, spitting a foul projectile towards the ogres. The shot missed and the demon inside the machine screamed and grumbled. 'Hopefully those high hats will keep it under control!' Nurgly crackled.

The Ogre unit marched nearer and from the woods on the left flank two giant tiger like creatures emerged, threatening the marauder scouts. 'Move a little closer to those' came from the mouth of the wizard before he descended in deep concentration. Dark energies were folded up into a powerful spell, hitting one of the sabre tusk, killing it instantly. Moments later the scouts hurled a volley of axes towards the second beast, with the same effect. The Hell cannon added to this by hitting the lead belcher's. The ogres only took one wound, but the impact of the shot made them panic.

However the Ogres did not give in that easily. The lead belchers rallied and with a agile move occupied the center position again, bringing Nurgly and his group within shooting range. Even worse, from the forest on the right flank a massive group of Ogres broke out, being led by a huge Ogre. In this unit Nurgly spotted his adverary, a Butcher. 'Fire at them' Nurgly had jumped up and screamed in the direction of the Hell cannon crew. The chaos dwarf tried to turn the warmachine toward the Ogre unit. But then the demon bound inside the cannon jumped at the change. The spirited machine broke loose and devoured the three chaos dwarfs!

Things went downhill for the Nurgle worshippers. Nurgly and his revenue took two salvo's of cannon fire from the ogre cannon carriers. And how hard the chaos wizard tried, his magic powers could not overwhelm thite raw forces of the ogre magic. The winds of magic caused more victims amongst his bodyguard (despite that the Butcher was one time lucky to escape with just a wound left). Manoeuvring hard to keep his revenue out of charge range of the big block of Ogres, Nurgly saw the Hell cannon stampeding towards them! The ogres took their change/bait and charged the broken free demonic warmachine. A terrible clash broke out. The hell cannon was damaged by impact hits and the attacks of the butcher and his ogres. But somehow it survived, the demon was still bound to the carcass of the machine, howling and twisting. With a final move it puked out the remains of its venomous ordnance, killing the butcher!

The stubborn and murderous fight of the hell cannon turned out to be the pivoting point of the battle. Not only did the Ogres lose their general, their main unit was stuck too long in battle with the war machine and was outmanoeuvred by the unit of dragon ogres. These creatures charged into the rear of the big block of ogres and despite losing a dragon ogre in the fight, wounded enough ogres to break them. Simultaneously Nurgly and the remains of his unit chaos warriors charged like they were blessed by Khorne (rolling 11 on their distance roll where a 9 or 10 was needed). The lead belchers were overwhelmed and broken. In one and half turn the battle had turned completely, even the late arrival of a Gorger could not change the outcome...

Nurgly sighed as he walked around the remains of the hell cannon. A bubbling puddle of reeking mud indicated the place where the Ogre general had been submerged by the spit of the demon. Some nurglings were paddling in it and swarming over the twisted and bruised metal barrel and parts that once formed a mighty cannon. With a sudden kick Nurgly send one flying into the mouth of the barrel and a swallowing noise could be heard, followed by a hiss of steam. 'Let those prisoners take the barrel and as many parts as they can carry' the wizard ordered. The warriors and dragon ogres forced the group of captured ogres to comply. The small caravan took off, back towards the Dark Lands. 'Hopefully those pesky high hats will be able to repair the cannon' Nurgly thought 'perhaps I could claim that this should be within insurance regulations?'

Light and heavy support

Finally some reinforcements arrive for my russian/czechoslovak tank army. Three hard hitting SU-85's and five (slightly less useful) T-70's.
With these vehicles ready, I'll start painting their adversaries, german Waffen SS troops. (Unless I happen to find a 1:144 Lavotchkin La-5 for some air support...)

The business side of the SU-85's..

.. the T-70's holding a picknick (in the town center of Zwolle?)

Chaos in Carpathia, our first attempt

About a year ago we purchased the rules for chaps in Carpathia. Also a year ago we purchased the mini's that we were going to play for this game. Our warbands were collecting dust ever since :) But now was the time to dust of the old rules and get the game started. Something different then the ever present Mordheim, WHFB and whatnot. Since it was our first game, we chose a simple scenario within the city just to get to know the rules a bit. 3 warbands were present: Vampires, Witchhunters and my own warband: werewolves. I actually had some time this year to paint them, so fully coloured my warband members took to the battle field. My assylum inmates were some victorian ladies that banded with the wolves. The leader of the pack is the "dottore" in human form, but with the wolf features to distinguish him from a regular human. This post will from the werewolves point of view obviously. First thing I noticed with the werewolves was there movement. Specifically the enormous movement available to them (maybe I'm a bit biassed by playing with dwarves). Anyway, the werewolves were running around on buildings and parapets en suddenly getting shot at by vampires (or there henchmen). The order of play is refreshing. Every time a character or group moves, shoots, fights etc. until the next warband character or group can make its actions. This gives a good sence of everything happening at once. The werewolves were running and hiding while the witchhunters and vampires quickly got to grips with each other. It was a matter of who got control of the mob of our scenario. Nice to see influence working and a mob swirling back and forth. Eventually the withhunters got control of the mob after they lost a victim to it. My werewolves were getting in combat with the vampires and slayed some bloodsuckers. The combat mechanics gave us at first the idea, that all warband stats and members were very evenly matched. It took a while before a casualty fell in hand to hand combat. My wolf pack suffered a big loss at the beginning leaving only 2 wolves but they held out in the next rounds of combat. I found that odd, since their vitality (life) is measured by the amount of wolves left. Apparantly their stats were enough to survive and getting no wounds. The vampires had a bad time against the wolves, the fact that the withchunters were harassing them, wasn't helping either. All in all a fun game and our first contact with the game mechanics of Chaos in Carpathia. Defintely a game we will pick up and start a campaign with. For me, new wolves have been painted and the warband grows! :)