I added some new units to my 2mm Undead army and a new army to my 2mm collection: the Cimmerians. These are a human people of nomads of the steppes, with a fixation of conquering the whole world. They fight on horse or camels, armed with bows and accompanied by war elephants. (well, not a very original background, but I had just these miniatures to make a new army, so... let's go on).

When they meet another people, they leave them a choice: surrender and join their army, or die! The Undead, being already dead, refused the first option, and this gave me the chance to make a nice little game, with the Pz8 two-pages Fantasy rules... (you can download the pdf file after the battle report).

I added a point system to the rules (something unusual for me) to aid the army compositions, and wrote down a new "Magic Spells" section. Both things seem to work alright... here is the Order of Battle (75 points armies):

CIMMERIANS
2 x War Elephants (Monsters, Average) @ 10 pts
4 x Noblemen (Heavy Mounted, Bow, Veteran) @ 9 pts
4 x Horse Archers (Light Mounted, Bow, Average) @ 5 pts
Roll 1D3 = Magic Spells (1)

UNDEAD
3 x Bowmen (Heavy Foot, Bow, Raw) @ 6 pts
3 x Phalanx ((Heavy Foot, Shielded, Raw) @ 6 pts
2 x Cataphracts (Shock Mounted, Fully Armoured, Average) @ 10 pts
1 x Scythed Chariots (Heavy Chariots, Average) @ 8 points
1 x Skirmishers (Light Foot, Sling) @ 3 points
2 x Horse Archers (Light Mounted, Bow, Raw) @ 4 points
Roll 1D3 = Magic Spells (1)

The Cimmerians harassed the advancing Undead with their arrows, with no particular effect, while the Scythed Chariot approached one group of Cimmerian Noblemen, covered by Skirmishers and Light Horse. The Cimmerians used their spell: "Hawk Eye"! and a precise salvo of arrows Shocked the Undead Skirmishers, while another good D6 roll had the same effect on the Light Horse. The two units were finished off by the Noblemen, that were attacked by the Scythed Chariots. The Undead used their spell "Fury!" and the Scythed Chariots slaughtered one unit of the Noblemen, before crashing in the process.

The Undead heavy foot contact the Cimmerian Horse Archer and one unit is destroyed, but the others make a  Break Off and continue to shoot them at distance. In the meantime the mighty 2mm Elephants collide into them, but the melee is indecisive. 


On the other side of the battlefield, the Cimmerian noblemen manage to Shock the Black Cataphracts of King Rigor Mortis XIV with their arrows, and charge them with success. Then they menace the exposed side of the Undead foot, but before they encircle them, the Cimmerian Elephants kill another enemy unit, ending the battle.

I attach to this post the most recent version of the rules, complete with some sample Elf, Dwarf, Human, Undead and Cimmerian units... hope you like it and if you try them, let me know.

I did my first solo game with my 2mm Fantasy Armies and the 2-pages Pz8 Fantasy Wargame Rules. 

GOOD ALLIANCE
2 x Human Cavalry (Average / Heavy Mounted)
2 x Human Light Foot (Raw / Bow / Unarmoured)
1 x Dwarf Light Foot (Average / Crossbow / Armoured)
2 x Dwarf Heavy Foot ( Veteran / Axe / Armoured) (1 with Average General)
2 x Elves Heavy Foot (Average / Longbow & Sword / Unarmoured
1 x Elves Light Chariot (Average / Heavy Mounted)

Roll 1D6 = 5 x Magic Spells

UNDEAD 
2 x Light Cavalry (Average / Bow / Light Mounted)
1 x Artillery (Average)
1 x Scythed Chariots (Veteran / Heavy Mounted)
2 x Light Foot (Raw / Javelin / Unarmoured)
2 x Warbands (Average / Shielded)
2 x Shock Cavalry (Veteran / Fully Armoured)


Roll 1D6 = 1 x Magic Spells

The Undead advance but the Good Alliance play their first spell and one unit of Black Cataphracts, with their King Rigor Mortis XIX, changes side! This causes a bit of confusion in the Undead army, that halt their advance on the hill to fight their former General. Another successful spell and another Black Cataphract unit is Shocked. Mmmm... a black day for the Undead.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Human cavalry gallops towards the Undead light huns, that shoot their bows without results. The Humans charge the Undead, and rout them, even if the Bone Catapults cause some Disorder in their ranks. But a successful "Heal" spell removes this damage, and the Human cavalry flee the Undead artillerymen.

In the meantime, the Good Alliance Light Foot move through the Woods and engage the Undead skirmishers, killing one of their unit. The only one magic spell of the Undead fails; their feared Scythed Chariots charges the Dwarf Heavy Foot and manages to Shock one unit, before breaking to pieces.

With 5 units routed, the Undead army is defeated and the Good Alliance is victorious!

The game took only half an hour and was fun, even if there are still many little details to fix.  I am not 100% sure of the Attack / Defence factors and above all, as you probably noticed, the Magic Spells can drastically unbalance the battle. Maybe allowing only 1D3 = nr of spells would be better, will try next time... for the Second Undead Invasion.

Recently I have been fiddling with a two pages set of Ancient & Medieval wargame rules (early draft can be downloaded from the Pz8 Yahoogroup) and its Fantasy variant. I did some first games with card counters in lieu of miniatures, but then I remembered that I had an assortment of 2mm ancient strips and blocks from Irregular Miniatures, somewhere in my bits box.

After a first inspection I realized that I would not be able to make some proper historical armies, but I could make some Fantasy forces instead. I am not very found of Irregular 2mm blocks of infantry in close order - they look like, ehm, "blocks" to my poor old eyes - but there are many different strips in open order that can make for excellent fantasy hordes, and the cavalry strips are very nice.

Since I wanted something really quick, cheap and playable on a minimal surface, I glued each single strip on a 20x10mm base, that gives something to hold while painting. Two bases make a 20x20mm unit, that is just a little smaller than my usual microarmour 25x25mm bases - so still handy to move on the table. A flexible system, since I can make bigger units (say 40x20mm) placing 4 strips together, etc.

When I paint the 2mm microbs, I start from the bases. Texture with fine sand and PVA glue, than paint brown. After it, I paint the little men, horses and chariots with black undercoat. This is the most time consuming phase; painting the actual miniatures is just a matter of a quick drybrush in a basic colour, than I add some details that stand out, like shields in a contrasting colour, and / or a flag. I am not able to paint faces, bows, spears or other details in this scale and to be honest, I think that they do not add too much to the final effect. I rather spend some more time on the base, drybrushing them in different shades of green and sand, and adding a small clump of static grass on the rear side (this helps to understand where is the unit facing!)

Here is a small painting guide for the 2mm races I have done so far, with the strips code from the Irregular Miniatures 2mm range:

DWARVES: Gun metal with red shields and flag, bronze helmets. 
 ABG13 Peltast/Auxiliary Infantry  = Axemen
BG3 Skirmish Infantry = Crossbowmen (these are kneeling skirmishers, so make good 1mm high Dwarves!)

HUMANS: Gun metal cavalry, blue/purple/green infantry, all with gun metal helmets. 
 ABG14 Lancers Cavalry ABG12 Light Infantry Archers

ELVES: white tunics, horses, chariots, with silver helmets.
ABG7 Two Horse Chariots  
ABG24 Loose Order Bowman

UNDEAD: Light sand with brown chariots and engines, black horse armour and flags.
ABG3 Regular Peltast Infantry 
ABG6 Barbarian infantry  
ABG9 Light Horse Archers
ABG10 Light Cavalry w javelin  
ABG19 Four Horse Chariot 
ABG25 Siege Engine