The Empire Responds to the invasion of the Uruk Hai
Recommendations: 622
About the Project
I have spent a few years building a large terrain board, some small armies and one large army of Uruk hai. I now want to build up another army to match the size and force of the orcs (Uruk hai) and goblins (Moria). The only two forces I have of any scale is undead and Empire, my mates have some empire too so I shall do my empire principally. And we can use the allies from other human provinces during games to top us up in points as high as possible while the forces slowly come together. Though I may get distracted from the slog again from time to time. This is now part of the process! So expect: undead, Men of Numenor , Eregion Elves, Morian Dwarves and maybe even some dungeon saga. Possibly a small bit of sci fi too as I’ve wanted to get on to my Aliens from the film for ages! But mostly, FOR THE EMPIRE!!!! And dogs of war…..
Related Game: Warhammer Fantasy Battles
Related Genre: Fantasy
This Project is Active
Last pics
The original poster put on Mathew’s Bedroom battlefields podcasts discord. 3 blokes came! Let’s hope for more next time. 
Battle report! 8000 points per side. 15x6 foot table. Assault the baggage train.
Entering the barrow downs,
Forward scout parties had discovered evidence of massed goblinoids on the main path. Estimated numbers in excess of 1000.
Engineering guild representative decided to seek alternate path through the barrow downs. Advance scouting parties sent out to navigate the possible paths and their threat levels. Many parties did not come back, of those that did reports were made of large heavily armoured Orcs in massed ranks advancing over the slopes. One long disused path through the old river valley was estimated to have the least concentration of these foul creatures. But the guild must advance NOW as the enemy scouting forces had clashed with our own and surely had reported back. Who knows how many would concentrate their numbers, descending on these valleys in the days ahead. The guild scouts had not completed their work but time was against the marching column and a decision had to be made.
Once the column had reached the head of the old river valley it was seen what had been missed from the initial assessments, in the base of the valley the river had dried up into a stinking marshy swamp, the bridge was still in place however. But the orcs had started to crest the neighbouring hills, the guild must dash to the opposite ravine and reach open country at the foot of the dwarf holds.
Let’s hope they could do so before reinforcements arrived.
Objective for the orcs, capture supply wagons and gun limbers.
Objective for the empire, deny the enemy supply wagons or get them off the board at the north end of the road for victory.
As a pre game setup we randomly drew out some magic items from the 4th edition magic set, this magic set was the best magic system GW ever produced (in Jason’s opinion) and works brilliantly in other editions too. It was used to draw for the wizards spells also. Two commanders per side, donned their hats of office and decided on their colleges of magic. Each side had a level 4 magic user and a level 2.
Neither side knew what the other had until the game revealed it to them during play. Using the old power card system created a great sense of a game in a game with some proper moments of tension waiting for reveals, with some should I do this now or not moments thrown in.
Magical highlights included:
-double bluffs on power card betting to destroy enemy spells,
-whole units being rendered immobile through ice storms.
-a throughly luckless boyar suspended in mid air for 3 turns!! He watched his unit of winged hussars run around like headless chickens and get cut down before he was released to run about narrowly avoiding massed goblin artillery which missed him!
- the giant Cromwell steam tank being raised in the air and held there by the very same spell!
The empire deployment was pre determined, the orcs could pick and choose where to send their troops in the respective deployment zones. Tactics would shift radically dependant on orc commanders choices.
Other pre game moves was secret recorded deployment of scouts, where were they!?!? Oh bloody hell they were hidden on the rocks at the end of the paths!!
And outriders got some free manoeuvres after deployment to put pressure on straight away. The warg outriders lept towards the mid column, forcing a response immediately in turn one. The engineer guild outriders sped forward in the hope to bloody the nose of the orcs and stem the tide long enough for the head of the column to get off the bridge and make a proper show of itself.
The wargs did their job perfectly, the empire minced towards the enemy and missed every shot for two turns in their wild eyed panic at finding they are utterly useless in real battle and should have stayed at home for their sakes and, more importantly, for the sales of their comrades morale. It was pathetic watching them fail in such a mediocre fashion. They later died out of hand.
But not worry! The orcs had decided they hated themselves, a round of terrible animosity rolls (cheers Luke!) had the effect of showing us one unit of Uruk hai really disliked the pikes in front of them. They killed the whole regiment to an orc. 👍
Lee the giant bravely died on a steam tank and m, in his death throes, fell on it to damage its hull quite disastrously.
The head of the column had largely collapsed by Turn 4 but no wagons had been captured. Plenty had been blown up by misfire rolls or by enemy artillery. The only chance for the orcs to gain victory was to capture one of the central war wagons. Enter the valiant Hussite hero, known here as Stalwart Stan. Who throughly saved the day in being the most impossible but to crack against a horde of black orcs. Completely improbable defence was made.
In other news a load of spiders had found the empire surprise of a howitzer hidden in a supply wagon.
The rear of the empire column had finally started to catch up when 2 things happened, the night goblin reinforcements arrived. Took a look. Half ran away. 🤷🏻♂️
But not enough to force the empire to turn and face them. BUT! As the empire came about, the Stargate activated and some strange looking fellows arrived with magic staffs and blasted molten fire upon everyone in sight!
Finally, alas the elven host sent to scout out this unusual orc activity by their high elven master, stumbled across the beleaguered empire column too late to aid any victory.
The result was an inconclusive engagement, neither side gained victory, neither side lost everything. The first big engagement of the wizards war has concluded. The dwarfs are unsure of business with the empire can be as reliable as it once was.
The orcs had proven their capabilities in war, now the continued advance into the counts border territories can begin. Three ares are now under threat from orcish invasion,
-the Norscan sea ports at the river mouth, so relied upon for its fishing in feeding the populace of the north western plains.
- the dwarf mines of mount Zee-Da-Guld, responsible for the stable imperial mint. Losing this would force the count to dangerously destabilise his currency and many peasants could starve in the resulting inflation. Not to mention the loss in trade from the very miffed dwarfs who expect their mine protected by the counts forces!
- The sacred Temple of Amon Hen is at risk of falling to enemy hands. Such a wealth of ancient artifacts and power would surely be a boon to any necromancer wishing to rob the graves of millennia in the temple crypts. Rumours of armies buried alive long ago exist around that holy places history.
Jason opinion,-The scenario turned out very well, it had a few options of tactics for both sides and would allow us to re play it and get a very different game each time. I would try to link up the empire forces next time, and use the wagons as defensive points to rally around. Weaken the orc forces then attempt a break out manoeuvre later in the game to dash a supply wagon or two to the finish line. I found the game thoroughly enjoyable and flowed really well, it was great to meet chaps who like to game narratively and it made it a winning experience of a tabletop battle spectacle for me. I look forward to the next engagement in our tale! The roll out mats from Lidl recommended by Dr Spork are a winner! There is only 5 in this game, 6×15 foot. a 6th exists which would give us a 6×18 foot table but we would need more players for that!😉
Sorry I ate allll the Frazzles chaps. They were lovely though!
Big’Jan arrives!
Big’Jan Cos there is a little Jan where he comes from so we had to be able to tell who was being talked about. This Giant is in permanent Imperial employ, he is unusually intelligent for one of that breed and has developed a rudimentary passion for business of all things. He is known to the Imperial court as ‘His Royal Majesties Great Dredger’, the only one to hold this contract. Jan takes his post most seriously and enjoys his contract. A giant can clear sludge from moats quicker and cheaper than any team of men! Especially with that big stick of his. Jan is much sought after on the Emperors province, he dredges at half the rates of rival companies but does it in a 1/4 of the time, on his own. His great wealth is spent on fine clothes to show his status as well as looking a member of the team on the battlefield. He also buys the finest of wines to be stored in his Griffon skin wine bottle. The emperor ensures this griffon skin and his food satchel is well stocked, even though Big’Jan is intelligent for giant kind he can get a bit crotchety on campaign if his skins are a bit empty. The Emperor recognised that it can be very poor for the men’s morale when someone 10 times the size of a man and dressed as one of the elite takes horses and wandering drunks for ‘man snacks and blood wine!’ But! When properly catered to, Big’Jan is awesome to see striding through your enemies ranks! An unstoppable dredger of death. The college of magic goes to war
Admittedly there is a giant and two warrior priests but they will join the religious nutbag wagon train. The rest is all from the Royal College of Applied Magical Arts 
Some lovely old metal minis in here, love the 1970’s lead fella. Real character in his pose without being all over the place like modern minis.
I’m a real fan of simple but characterful metal models. They just draw me in aesthetically every time over the dancing posers of many styles.
Only two mounted wizards but I like options so two is enough.
New rulesets? Why bother?
It’s no secret, I do not like learning new rules. I’ve tried to pick up the Hail Caesar rulesets, I just look at the pretty pictures and read the history side of things. I cannot be arsed to learn the rules. A major mental block occurs and I just put the lovely books to one side.
Then I came across Warhammer ancient battles. It was as if a Christmas tree had lit up in my head. It’s allllll the same
Rules as the old warhammer. Completely suitable for 4th through 6th edition. All the stats and special rules just lift out and drop perfectly into my games and best of all I pick it up intuitively, with next to no effort as I already have this framework burned into my soul from years of play.
A few of the supplements give extra depth and nuance with some additional flavourful rules like Parthian shot for your skirmishing light horse archers. Testudo, extra weapons options, war wagon rules, extra artillery options, more formations and more troop types and abilities. More than I can ever faithfully get through in a lifetime if added to the plethora of Warhammer supplements over the years. It’s given me a new lease of life in my fantasy wargaming, I’ve been able to invent my own troop types for classic races and do so with authority, integrity and good fun.
I don’t need new rules. I don’t need to
Teach my mates any new rules. I don’t need to rebase or adapt any of my miniatures!!!! Huzzah!
I am going to Incorporate the war wagons from WAB into a mega game in April of warhammer fantasy. And some rules for pike block formations with abilities for light horse to add extra dimensions to fantasy gaming.
I’m forced to consider the point of new rules. If you have an existing ruleset, all be it ‘out of date’ or extremely well known and well trod. If you get extra pieces to add in to a well established, large player base ruleset without having to by and learn a whole plethora of stuff from the ground up then does it really matter that it’s not a ‘perfect ruleset’!?
Does it matter if it isn’t as streamlined as many designers now would want? I don’t think it does. I think the merits of knowing the code rules and having plenty of people already with familiarity and miniatures ready to go more than out weighs the detracting factors. I’m only going to learn hail Caesar/kings of war if the collection gets soooo unwieldy in scope that I want a super paired back rules system to pop at quickly. But I really don’t care about ‘quickly’ so far. I like the intricacy and layering of these elements. It’s a great flavour generator in games.
Perhaps I’m just classic in my tastes
What a spiffing resource, with rules I know intuitively due to my pedigree. 
Cracking extra details to add in to fantasy.
With a classic 1980’s games master publication to teach me the lost skill of running a games mastered wargame. I’m thoroughly convinced that this style of play is worth dredging back up in this time of pick up and play. There is so much potential fun with this method. Maybe if I drag my whole collection to that special place in the north west of Europe I could run a special massive game for the Irish we love so well to play and promote this classic way of having fun?! What you think?Some details
Made myself some units of outriders as I don’t like the massive looking multi barrelled guns of the old miniatures. I used plastic rod and glued bundles of 7 together to make a 6 barrelled effect at a more believable scale. Made them into pistols and carbines.
I’ve used 100% contrast paints on these fellas, but I must be doing something wrong. Some of the contrasts seem to work fine, but others elude me. The yellows are a bit sketchy and some of the browns are not ideal. Not sure I like my paint scheme on the pistoliers or the outriders. But they are complete, and I’m not re doing them.
Gathered the canon and mortar into batteries. Love the look of them.
Very pleased with the Hussite war wagons. The crew and crossbows are all contrast paints but turned out great! The unit of red Stradiots joining the Kislev force (love the Kislev) are contrast paint too. I’m not convinced on the tzarinas banners, I think I need to re paint them like the purple ice wizard in the Kislev foot troop unit. 
Steam tanks part 2
The steam tanks head out with wagon train in support. I’m particularly pleased with the smoke and the cannister shotte casualties on the main tanks base. The casualty is one miniature cut in half and the two sides used as two corpses. The models stand too proud of the ground if they aren’t reduced like this.
Close up of cannister shotte.
The main pair
The last base for steam tank number 3 (on its way), the one with the Hellblaster. I got excited by the idea of leaving tread marks. So I avoided putting glue in the wheel areas trailing behind and added flesh wash to the grooves and this is what I’ve got. Then I thought, people and orcs would run right? They would leave their weapons in the rush too. Said weapons would get crushed. So crushed weapons.2 out of 3 complete for the steam tanks.
Look at the smoke, I love the smoke. This is the strange wool that comes in the Perry miniatures boxes. It is scratchy nasty stuff that has more rigidity than cotton wool. It seems to do just fine as smoke. I made the banners using a home inkjet printer. Now I’m thinking about the engineers. I really like the blue on the tanks and I reason that red jackets would stand out nicely on these lords of steam.1st corp Hussite war wagons are ace. Best one is the cannon!
I don’t usually like resin, but I approve of resin for the wagon and metal for the cool details and horses. I still get the heft and sense of value I want from handling a miniature. Well done 1st corp.
Just got to base them and hook up the horses with jewellers chain or something. But these are the last of my wagons fully made up. Just got to paint the bastards now…
15mm. Don’t fecking distract me you bugger!!!
Some buggars have led me down a garden path. 15mm to be exact. Fantasy pike and shotte and fantasy hail Caesar here we come. And all in a scale that can be played quickly on a dining table in a short evening. The small steam tank does look a little large with the soldier compared to the 28mm to an Elsa. But it looks more like tanks do next to people in the tank museum. So it seems fine to me.
What do we think? Is warlord games chaps 15mm or not? The chap on the left is from some unrelated company that has sold 15mm for decades. It looks the same to me. But loadsa people claim it’s 13.5mm not 15mm. Has most 15mm been ‘heroic’ scale for all this time? The warlord chap is certainly slimmer. 
Warlord on left to another 15mm chap from yonder year.
I think the variation in 15mm may be quite large. Perhaps warlord are the first to do true scale using modern computers for design and get a more ‘accurate’ proportioning? Don’t know that I care really.2 out of 3 on the way
I like Blue it seems. ‘I’m blue and a de boo doo die a adabo de da o’ or some such. I never was good with remembering song lyrics Old school terrain.
Firsts time I’ve made one of these in 20-25 years. Inspired by the old GW red book of terrain dreams I re-did my last efforts. All cardboard and stirring sticks. One evening to make then one evening to paint. Really enjoyed it.Mini bat rep
Ambush the Imperial wagon train. First turn and the hidden surprise has not been revealed. The orcs surge forwards and the imperials turn to face the threat. Minor orc and goblin damage from imperial fire power. The light cannon unlimbers and turns to face.
The surprise reveals itself, a halfling howitzer! It unleashes an abominable amount of firepower on the Uruk general and his unit, half the Uruks dead. Then, the empire get nasty and open up a grape shot on the remainder, only the general survives on two wounds! 
Turn 3 and the howitzer explodes and leaves the wagon a burning wreck! The bolt throwers turn the empire cavalry into mush and the empire general is totally destroyed by two Uruk hai units converging on his flanks. 
Then in an unbelievable feat of battle fury, the Uruk hai general passes his moral check, charges the empire Arquebusiers and causes them to panic and flee. He catches and destroys them! Fprcing neighbouring empire units to flee en masse. The head of the empire column collapses and one wagon exits the table. 
At the rear of the column the empire start to flee from loosing their general. The game ends on turn 5 with a minor victory to the Uruk hai. The empire managed to get one wagon off the board but the orcs failed to capture any wagons by the end of the game. But it was agreed that with the empire fleeing bar the crossbowmen that it was pretty much fish in a barrel at that point. The rules for surprise halfling howitzer wagons proved great fun. As was the objective of capturing wagons. I did not manage a full mega game this holiday (too much illness and re arranged family commitments decimated my player base) but I shall definitely try this scenario again this half term but aim to do it with 3x the forces on a 12x6. Can’t wait!Part 2, more future dungeon
The overall time it has taken is 35-45 hours. The cost in the end is principally paint, glue and a couple items like the stargate, and a couple bits of second hand GW gribblies like a crane, some scatter terrain and some second hand Mantic sci fi doors. The rest is entirely rubbish. Bits that fell off my van, broken dishwasher spares. Some stuff from a toilet cistern, a boiler manifold and good old Dyson hoovers with fridge packaging. Overall the cost is around £85-95.
