A Harryhausen-Themed Stop-Motion Monster Warband

I have always been an avid fan of stop-motion effects in film. Once the bread and butter special effects in the age before digital animation and CGI, they are now seldom seen. I grew up on films such as “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad” and “Clash of the Titans” wherein actors hacked and stamped in stilted sword and shield combat with bone-dry skeletons, or fought giant scorpions and colossal bronze statues brought to life.

When I saw the models from the Fractured Dimensions Infernal Minions Kickstarter by Brett Zeleznik, I couldn’t help but notice that the Cambian Lord looked very similar to the character of Caliban from the early 80’s "Clash of the Titans" movie. Coupled with a giant scorpion model from Pardulon Models that I had acquired, I suddenly had the idea to build a "Clash of the Titans" Harryhausen-themed warband for Song of Blades and Heroes.

The idea simmered in my mind, and I picked up several models for the warband over the course of the next year

The Cambian Lord (Fractured Dimensions), who was to become “Caliban”

The resin Giant Scorpion (Pardulon Models) dubbed “Fluffy,” one of the most realistic scorpion sculpts out there. Many of the Reaper and similar scorpion miniatures are very unrealistic in proportion and form, and often end up very comic compared to the real thing.

An Abbot Dol Warrior (Fractured Dimensions), very similar in form to the Cambian Lord model. This figure was to become Grimus, a minion of Caliban. (I said themed, not exact to the films!)

A Demon Type V model (Fractured Dimensions), originally a six-armed figure with a snake tail instead of legs and two options for the torso. I also aquired a Reaper Bones Medusa, but eventually opted to instead use the demon model for “Medusa” even though it required some conversion. The PVC material in Bones figures is too flexible in small models.

A Demon Type IV model (Fractured Dimensions) using the helmet and trident option became a flying Warthog monster called “Oinkos” who has been the bane of my opponents this campaign season. While not really a proper fit with the Harryhausen monsters, this model had the same absurdity of form and was thematically a classic in it’s own right.

Skeleton Warriors (Wargames Factory). I looked at several models, primarily looking for the greek style sword and shield. While there are others out there that fit the bill including some produced by Reaper and Otherworld, the cost or materials were negatives. As an added advantage, the Wargames sprues contained the perfect bow and quiver set for the Medusa conversion!

And finally a Talos (Mierce Miniatures), to represent… well… “Talos” a very classic Harryhausen monster of course. I don't have a pic of this fellow just yet.

All of these sat unbuilt and unpainted on my desk until the SBH summer campaign approached, and suddenly I had a week to put together my warband. In three evenings, I assembled and based the entire warband. The Fractured Dimensions models were all very well cast with very few mold lines to remove. The Medusa conversion was very fiddly due to very tiny pieces, and I was forced to drill and pin the bow through the hand so that it would not get knocked off during game play.

Contrary to much of what I have read about the Wargames Factory skeleton models, they were actually very easy to assemble, and work with. The legs are thin, but sufficient to hold up the model, though there is some flex. On the fourth evening of this project, I finished assembly and basing on three skeletons, and painted the warband to a satisfactory tabletop standard, with all of the painting except for a basecoat on the Scoprion model taking place that evening. Talos was not completed at that time, and will be featured in a later blog post.

The detail on the skeleton shields was completed in a follow-up hour of painting.

Overall, while I may yet touch up some of the models, I am very happy with the completed result given the short time frame, and they look great on the tabletop as "Caliban’s Cursed." I created the warband as an "evil" team, allowing Medusa to shoot into combat, and used the standard SBH stats for the skeletons, Fluffy, and Medusa (with the addition of unerring aim to add a small amount of potency without making her overpowering).

Caliban, Grimus, and Oinkos all all received the mutant ability to represent the “Cursed” moniker. I have found it to be a flavorful (but negative) inclusion, since all but two of my mutation roles have been detrimental. I've been forced to use experience advancements to bring them back up to or near original stats.

Caliban was given the necromancer trait to raise more skeletons from combat casualties as the existing ones are destroyed. This is another skill that has proven very difficult to actually use in game. Oinkos has proven to be the brute of the warband. His big, flying, and long move skills make him dangerous in combat, and his primary use has been to quickly take objectives or as a mobile combat support which he excels at. His brutish capability has, however, been offset as the campaign progresses by the fact that fully half of the warband are undead or animals and do not take experience or advancement.

"Caliban's Cursed" has definitely been one of the most creative, fun to build, and fun to and play warbands that I have put together in a summer campaign!

-- Jon, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Grimy Jewel Campaign: Session 4 Report

Here's the action from a recent session of our Song of Blades & Heroes campaign, written in glorious narrative fashion by new club member Joe!

In retaliation for last harvest season's peasant uprising instigated by Bishop Stuka's outlaws none less than Burggraf Wallenstein of Vildeburg himself dispatched Ritter Ludvig VonDraken to bring the holy man and misguided followers to heel. Ritter VonDraken's lads pursued the fleeing cleric to a questionable tavern on the edge of town.

"How many peasant hovels did we torch during the rebellion?" the knight asked the other armored horseman. Custrel Berndt Schnitzel only smiled grimly and nodded in response. "War without arson...is like sausage without mustard!" bellowed VonDraken. "Fetch your tinderbox, boy, we'll make up firebrands!"

The page-boy, Willi, rapidly set about the task, and soon every knight had a burning torch in hand. Confidently they marched directly towards the inn, except for Custrel Schnitzel. He galloped his horse on a wide left flank, flaming brand casting twisted shadows on the derelict houses.

Just as VonDraken and his three halberdiers passed under an arch, the Bishop sprung his trap!

Three outlaw knights rushed from the shadows and hacked VonDraken from his horse, and the rest of the Bishop's men poured from the inn like rats from a sewer. Some of the leaderless soldiers began to edge away...but not Berndt Schnitzel. The Custrel was no coward! He would show those bastards how to burn a building down! Just as Schnitzel rounded the corner, torch in hand, he noticed a glowing halo about the priest's head as the old fool kept babbling some prayer... The mounted knight's jaw went slack and as his eyes began to roll Ridley Boughdodger rode up and knocked the Custrel from his horse and into unconsciousness.

One of VonDraken's crossbowmen managed to send a quarrel whistling through Brother Roberto's robe, knocking him down. But when the henchmen saw both armored horsemen go down, things began to unravel. One of the crossbowmen, a weakling from Vildeburg no doubt, soiled himself and ran off crying. Willi fell back with the standard trying to rally the faltering warband upon him.

The Bishop's three knights, Sires Chopenblok, Dogget and Hakkenslosh, pressed VonDraken's halberdiers, knocking one to the ground. Being tough mountaineers from the Valkenrath Palisades, they refused to yield. "Spank me with your distaff again, granny," the fallen man jeered. "I seen yer mum's arse," shouted another. Junker Monika Frohlich, now in command, had seen enough. "Retreat, run like hell!" came the cry.

-- Joe, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Grimy Jewel Campaign: Session 3 Report

Kevin and I met up last week to play the "Swordfight" scenario from Hour 11's book of Song of Blades and Heroes scenarios as part of our ongoing campaign.

Our warbands met while exploring some long-forgotten ruins and barrows now overgrown by forest.  The photos here are from early in the game, as our warriors race to explore six burial mounds.

Each warband suffered a few turnovers early in the game, but later got to encounter the mounds -- and each other. Over the course of the game, about 25 spirits of this fallen chaotic community were awoken, attacking the explorers and generally detaining them with grasping claws.

Eventually, my elven priest of autumn was able to avoid the dead things to get away with a magical artifact.

Rolling on Mattias's Arcane and Deadly Objects table, I found my artifact to be a Twisted Circlet -- a chaotic crown that may inspire or ruin one member of my warband. After the escaping the undead, Kevin's warband found a keg of ale mysteriously preserved in the ruins. My warband then encountered another spirit, this one of a hero who fought against the disturbed chaotic entities when they were all alive. As an atonement for enraging the otherwise contained chaos, my warband pledged to take on a mission on behalf of the fallen hero.

-- Tim, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Grimy Jewel Campaign: Session 2 Report

"My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie" 
-- R. Browning

Three bands of warriors approached the barrow wastes cautiously. Unbeknownst to the others, each had been approached in the city of Vildeburg by a gnarled stranger clad in rags. Filthy bandages were wrapped haphazardly around a withered leg, and the figure had crabbed and lurched toward them across the cobblestones in horrible locomotion. Yellow eyes turned towards them, and the slit of a mouth opened from his ludicrously aged countenance. "Heard ye of the Eyes of Silence?" rasped the grotesque. "Old Harba himself … he knows…"  Lured by rumors of wealth untold, the warbands converged on the ruins and barrow mounds the dotted the hills just beyond the High Road to the Wilderlands, just southeast of Vildeburg.

Game 1
Tim, Joe, and Jon rolled the "Gemstone Hunt," an objective-based scenario with the goal to take and hold treasure placed throughout the ruins during setup. The warbands quickly advanced towards all four of the ‘Eyes of Silence’ gemstones hidden within the ruins and cairns. Tim’s forces were known (and avoided) far and wide as "Rufus’s Enduring Expedition" quickly advanced towards two of the ‘Eyes’ on the western end of the map, while Joe’s mounted captain, knight, and men-at-arms moved to claim the jewels on the eastern side. Jon’s warband "Caliban’s Cursed" found itself split and arrayed against both Tim and Joe’s forces. 

Caliban led a force of three skeleton warriors and another warrior (with a cursed visage like Caliban himself) into the western ruins and clashed against Rufus's minions. Broderick the Lightning Warrior and James the Gnome (calling him a lawn gnome to his face is not recommended) moved in and claimed the gemstone 'Eyes' before Caliban's Cursed could collect them. A fierce melee ensued -- Tim’s assassin Tindae struck with quick, silent slashes, and Niphrid the Autumnal Spellcaster summoned forth a Wall of Fear. Caliban’s mutant and skeletons shrugged off the attack with effort. Tim’s warrior Ebufurth the Caveman Berserker found himself surrounded by skeletons and was stuck down by the aptly named Slack-Jaw.

The skeleton Bonehead likewise dispatched Daichi the monk in a gruesome manner, causing much of Tim’s warband to disperse in disarray, with gemstones in tow. Caliban attempted to raise the berserker with necromantic arts, but was unable to do so before game's end.

On the eastern side of the ruins, Oinkos the flying mutant warthog was able to swoop in and gather both of the gemstones in the area over the course of several turns.

Fluffy the Giant Scorpion blocked ingress via a narrow path and faced off against Joe’s men-at-arms and crossbowmen. His armor deflected arrows and strikes alike for multiple turns and stalled forward advancement. Using Fluffy as a defensive front, Medusa hung back taking shots at billmen and knights while slowly advancing, but she was unable to pierce their armor.

Despite multiple knock downs, the scorpion only managed to slay a single billman in the broiling combat.  Rolling three failures on activation on his final roll ensured he was unable to remove any additional opponents and laid the foundation for his demise. Additional billmen and the mounted lord moved in each turn until the even the massive insect's reflexes were overwhelmed by multiple opponents.  Fluffy was severely damaged and slunk defeated from combat to nurse his wounds.

The same turn, Joe's billmen and knight were able to break through to Medusa. While shielding his eyes from her baleful glare, the knight was able to fatally pierce her scales, removing her as a threat

The end result found Tim in control of two gemstones, Joe with no gemstones but two kills worth seven victory points, and Jon with two gemstones and three kills totaling nine victory points, and leaving Jon in control of the scenario by only a couple of points. The giant scorpion will miss the next campaign round due to injuries, and Medusa will have to roll at the start of each game for how her "brain injury" will affect her performance during that battle. Should make for some interesting gameplay...

Old Harba's mad eyes gleamed with feverish guile watching the departing warbands. The Eyes of Silence loose again in the waking world?! "... Never ye mind the curse..."

Game 2
While the three-way melee was going on the other side of the table, Kevin and Karl faced off in an urban battle. The object of their game was to be the first to reach an alley in the center of town, read a vital clue and then deface the wall before the opponent could do the same. In this case, the alley was a small brambly patch between the local church and watchtower.

Though Kevin fielded some fearsome foes, victory would be mostly a matter of speed and maneuver. With a few lucky moves (or perhaps because the objective was next to a church) Karl's ecclesiastical followers rushed forward and filled the alley. Despite facing generally tougher foes, they managed to read the message and deface it before taking too many casualties.

For winning the scenario, they received the "Strange Map," which they can use in the future to modify an exploration roll. While exploring, they were ambushed but they fought bravely and slew an evil shaman. Unfortunately, luck was not entirely with them this week, and one of their angry townsfolk succumbed to his wounds. Though having lost two warriors, the Bishop's Crusade carries on in its quest to bring the light of truth to Qaarra.

-- Jon, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Warband Project, Part One

 
Since becoming involved in Chicago Skirmish Wargames, I’ve made it my mission to collect a diverse array of fantasy miniatures from a variety of manufacturers and game lines. Because the games we play don’t require any particular set of figures, I've been able to pick up pretty much any old miniature, kit or blister pack that caught my interest over the years – safe in the knowledge that eventually it would hit the table in some sort of skirmish battle.

Now I’ve come to a sort of retrospective point. The last five years of collecting, painting and gaming has left me with a huge collection of battlefield-ready fantasy figures. Some are veterans of many campaigns, with unique characters and legendary battlefield exploits. Others haven’t yet tasted the fury of battle and await their first chance at glory.

Here, then is the Warband Project – Part One: my attempt at categorizing and showcasing the many warbands I’ve put onto the battlefield over the last five years of gaming with Chicago Skirmish Wargames.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Many figures remain carefully packed away in figure cases, awaiting their moment on the battlefield. This particular post also doesn’t include my dwarves and undead collections – both of which have grown to the point where they are armies in their own right, suitable for skirmish gaming or Kings of War-scale mass battles.

Defenders of the Battle-Forge

This warband was inspired by the adventuring crew featured in an old-school AD&D/OSRIC campaign I played years ago. My character, Kjeld the Battle-Priest, explored the wilderlands with a motley band of fighters, treasure-seekers and ne’er-do-wells. Eventually Kjeld attracted a small group of followers, based around his Battle-Forge in a frontier village. He is the bearded guy with the big hammer in this photo, and he’s surrounded by his porters, hirelings and stalwart allies.

Vaxion’s Black-Hearted Brigands

Where there are heroes, there must also be villains. Vaxion is a highwayman by trade and has attracted the dregs of society to his grim cause. These guys are ideal for any scenario where you need some basic bad guys to harass and interdict another player.

Raiders of the Edelmark Sewers

There are … things … lurking in the tunnels and drainpipes beneath the city of Edelmark. This warband is just a snapshot of one such group that took part in an incursion onto the streets of the unsuspecting city. A foul troll leads the way, followed by stinking, chittering ratmen, along with a putrid swamp monster. Who knows what else lurks in the ichor-spattered corridors of the Edelmark catacombs?

Duke Baldric’s Overland Escort

When Duke Baldric makes his months-long circuit to inspect his frontier holdings, he is accompanied by a trusted escort of hard-bitten warriors. Led by Duke Baldric (ahorse, with the winged helm), Sir Hershel and Terfidor the Azure Mage, this warband was originally created for a scenario where they had to escort Duke Baldric across the battlefield. Since then their numbers have grown (or shrank) based on the number of fighters that Duke Baldric was able to muster over the years.

The Cursed Horsemen of Frostvale 

In the wind-scoured wastelands of the far north, where snow-frosted trees cling to craggy mountains and men wrap themselves in furs the year round, a band of horsemen sallies forth to raid the barely civilized lands to the south. In their wake, men whisper of a terrible curse that lies heavy upon the warband -- and of unspeakable barbarity that grips the fighters in the heat of battle. Woe to those who spy the Cursed Horsemen of Frostvale at the gates of their village of an autumn evening!

These are horsemen of chaos, definitely evil, probably cannibals, who occasionally ally with the Scourge of Longrieve (see below).

Findrel the Navigator and the Moonbeam Company 

Findrel (the armored elf in the center with the upraised hand) has been part of my collection for years, but I never had a decent group of elven warriors to send into battle alongside him – until now. The cavalry and infantry figures were commissions from a speedy contract painter and arrived just a few weeks ago. As such, the Moonbeam Company has not taken part in significant battles to date.

The story behind the warband is that they are the crew of a majestic elven sailing ship called the Moonbeam that was abandoned off the coast of Qaarra after a storm many years ago. Since then, they have been investigating reports of a spectral ghost ship glowing in the moonlight, which appears on an ill wind all along the troubled shores of the continent. Will they ever find their way back to their vessel?

Grubb’s Bonecrushers

Sometimes you just need some orcs or goblins to stand between the adventurers and their goal. Grubb's Bonecrushers fulfills this role admirably. In my mind, they're hobgoblins, sort of halfway between orcs and goblins. These are some of the oldest minis in my current collection, having been painted back in 2009 or so. (Hardly ancient, I know, but still....)

The Scourge of Longrieve

After the doom-cloud had swept across Qaarra and the fearful population had been left to quake and mourn, the mysterious Leathern Gate in the northern mountains opened once again, briefly creating a portal between Qaarra and the Wyrdwold. From the grimacing doorway came the Scourge of Longrieve, a band of raiders, cutthroats and foul creatures bent on looting the jewels of Qaarra. They broke like a wave upon the idyllic village of Longrieve, earning their name through senseless butchery and slaughter.

In game terms, this was my attempt to make a true chaos warband for last summer’s SBH campaign. I tossed together a whole bunch of disparate models: a mindflayer, a sorceror, two gnolls, an orc, an anti-paladin, maybe a few others. It was a lot of fun to get them all on the battlefield together.

The Hour of the Rat

When the Clock of Omens strikes thirteen, families know to bar the door and place their heaviest cook-pots atop open drains and sewer pipes. For it is the Hour of the Rat, when the chittering hordes surge from the under-depths, led by fearsome chaos ratmen armored in scavenged mail and plate, and wielding blades of corrupted steel. They visit the surface world to raid for treasure and slaves -- but the day may yet come when these ratmen do not slink back into the catacombs at dawn, but instead stay to rule the realm that they have conquered.

This is an old-school Skaven warband composed of some vintage Citadel miniatures. They can easily ally with the Raiders of the Edelmark Sewers or the Scourge of Longrieve for larger scenarios featuring chaos foes.

That's all for now! I'll be back soon with the next installment, featuring an assortment of warbands drawn from my undead and dwarf armies, plus some leftover figures that don't currently have a home.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

More Reinforcements: Knights and Warjacks for Kings of War

Recently I added two new units to my Kings of War chaos army: a unit of warjacks and a block of chaos knights. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Wait, what? Warjacks in Kings of War? I thought you could only use them in that other game?"

Well, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that Chicago Skirmish Wargames generally scoffs at games that limit the models you can use in your army. If something looks cool, we'll find a way to get it onto the battlefield! In this case, I'm using the warjacks as "Lesser Obsidian Golems" in Kings of War. I've always wanted to paint a warjack, and when this opportunity arose, I figured "Why not paint six of them!"

Thanks to fellow club members Tim and Mattias, who helped me source these figures at the bargain basement prices, which in turn made this project possible. There's no way I'd be able to do a unit of warjacks at anything near MSRP.

My chaos army is mostly drawn from the Kingdoms of Man army list, with allies from Undead and Abyssal Dwarves lists. Golems are a hard-hitting (if slow-moving) unit of soulless automatons. The official Mantic miniatures are fine figures, but the Khador warjacks are a better visual fit with my army's style. With their axes and large armored shoulders, they look a lot like mechanical versions of the chaos warriors and knights that make up the core of my force.

The pic below shows the difference in height between shorter original metal models and the taller current plastic models.

The two plastic jacks below are the leader models for the group. The jack on the left is stock. On the right, I modified the legs for a more dynamic pose and converted a left arm to arm it with two axes.

Except for a plastic head on the right, the two metal jacks below are built from stock metal parts. However, I think in Warmachine one of them would have a gun arm. Kings of War golems don't have ranged weapons, so I did a lot of mixing and matching in order to make them all armed with different variations of hand weapons.

The two metal warjacks below benefited from a bag of Khador warjack spare parts that Tim found, which yielded some alternate heads to give a bit more variation to the unit. The one on the right I call "The Boxer." He has two plastic fists and a face with a jaw that juts out. The one on the left has a plastic fist and I converted a double-bladed axe for his right hand.

These guys were painted quickly with base colors and a dip. I matte varnished the red areas, but left most of the metalic areas a bit glossy. They've only got about four colors anyway, so it was an easy job. The bases are just bits of pine bark with sand and gravel.

It's lucky that Lesser Obsidian Golems are the only infantry unit in KoW that are on 50mm bases, because these guys are just barely able to rank up on the tabletop with the 50mm round bases that they come with. The 40mm bases used by most large infantry in the game would have been unworkable.

Also, I recently took possession of these six chaos knights, straight from Mattias's workbench.

You might recognize them -- they are actually just the plastic chaos knights from Battlemasters, the 1990s board game from Games Workshop and Milton Bradley. The figures don't have much fine details, but they're workable. I think you'll agree that Mattias has taken them to a whole new level with his painting. All I did was clean them up and glue some skully-bits to their shields and then give them the rocky basing style to match the rest of the army.

For our Song of Blades and Heroes games, I created a bit of background, calling them the "Night Herons of the Black Crown." Mattias took that literally and gave them a starscape motif on their armor, bringing real visual interest to figures that don't possess an abundance of detail.

I chose one knight and overbrushed various decorative elements and rivets in bronze, though I probably should have been a bit more thorough. He may serve as a mounted general for the army.

Thanks Mattias! The addition of these two units brings my Kings of War army close to a solid 2,000 points. I've got a few more units on the way, but for now I can slow down a bit knowing that the army is almost big enough for most any game that we would play. In case you missed it, both units took part in a huge Kings of War battle earlier this month, though I didn't finish basing them until afterwards.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Quake & Mourn Campaign Report: Session 6, the Epic Finale!

After a summer spent playing out our Quake & Mourn campaign -- more than a dozen Song of Blades & Heroes games played out over five sessions -- we geared up for one final, epic finale earlier this month. Our chosen venue was The Gaming Goat in Oak Park, IL, and they graciously provided plenty of table space on a busy Thursday night.

We pulled out all the stops for this game and hauled much of our best terrain to the Gaming Goat. Karl set up a visually gorgeous scenario set in Vildeburg, the main city in our campaign world. A city wall split the table down the middle and provided space for two side-by-side games, with Karl and Ian (a new player who was joining us for his first game) controlled a city militia faction defending the walls. These defenders played a role in both games. Here's the battlefield:

Though a little less experienced than the most battle-hardened campaign warbands, Pat's and Josh's forces nonetheless got down to business as the campaign finale. Both warbands deployed in the mercantile district of Vildeburg, with its towering guild houses and cobbled streets.

Across the battlefield were the objectives: two oak-and-steel doors guarded by the very best militia that money could buy. These stalwart fighters were commanded by Ian, who brought his gorgeously painted Warhammer Empire figures to the table as town guards. They occupied Vildeburg's walls and towers as the game began, but they moved down to the street level as the game progressed.

As Josh and Pat sent their warbands racing through the neighborhoods toward the castle gates, Karl sprang his trap! The grim undead legions that had been creeping north over the course of the campaign had finally breached the city walls of Vildeburg! These vassals were the advance force of Lord Kalessin's host, which had been moving slowly up out of the southern deserts over the course of the campaign. The skeletons now poured into the streets as the warbands fought their way through the city.

Josh and I avoided any big fights until we reached the base of the city walls, where Ian's stout brigade of city militia stood shoulder to shoulder, armor gleaming in the flickering firelight of the ravaged city. A huge fight developed as the three warbands crashed into each other.

Behind us, the undead continued their implacable advance, gobbling up Josh's warband in a tide of rusted steel.

In the end, only Volstag, Horseman of the Wastes, managed to escape through the castle gate...

Across the table, the Tharks and the Dire Men rode on the Citadel of Vildeburg in haste. Fulgid Glim's wild cavalry -- unused to fighting in the closed spaces of the capital city slums and whose horses were easily frighted by the discharge of musketry -- met stiff resistance from the street fighters of the City Watch.

The City Watch was no match, however, for the efficiency of the Thark's advance. The creatures from beyond quickly seized command of the slum's square and stockyard. While their vicious mounts tore the Knights Protectorate to shreds, the warriors dispatched their adversaries with an eerie serenity.

In the end, the Thark's command gained the tower with ease while their comrades turned to face the implacable undead  for the good of the collective. The Tainted Thegn and his remaining captains on the other hand, readied to make a desperate attempt to escape the cursed city, and to leave the land of Qaarra that had claimed so much from them.

As the defenders turned to face the relentless undead horde, a precious few had scaled the heights of the tower parapets and now prepared for a duel to the death high atop the chaos in the streets below. Tim's Tharks clashed with Pat's chaos horseman (allied with Mattias's sneaky wyrdwolders) in a brief, bloody skirmish, before the green-skinned aliens brought down the wrathful chaos warriors.

Tim's Tharks had won the battle, but faced with a tide of skittering undead warriors in the streets below, it seems all but certain that they have lost the war!

And thus ended Quake & Mourn, our third fantasy campaign! For those keeping track at home, here are the final win/loss/tie tallies.

• The Druids of Vitu Daru (Josh) 3-2 
• The Scourge of Longrieve (Pat) 3-4-1 
• The Tainted Thegn and his Dire Men (Mattias) 2-3-1 
• Tharks of the Wyl'st Horde (Tim) 6-4-2 
• Deep Woods Vengers (Karl) 4-5-1 
• The Unnamed Orcs (Terrence) 1-1 
• Nobanga's Ronin (Jon) 2-1

As you can see, Tim was the big winner with the most games played at the most victories. He was one of only two players with an actual winning record (the other being Josh). You can re-read all the session reports (as well as background on the game world) right here.We'll certainly continue to play Song of Blades & Heroes here and there through the long Chicago winter, and you can expect another full-fledged campaign come next spring and summer.

-- Karl, Pat and Mattias, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club members