Scaling Leviathan

Hi!

I've been rather busy at work over the last week or so and I've had to sacrifice hobby time much to my frustration but I have been perusing my well thumbed copy of Leviathan and have been musing about how best to scale my efforts to play the game.

Looking back, I think this image showcases the sort of size of force I want to aim for:

Assorted Rabble (sadly mostly sold off years ago)

While Leviathan can cater towards massive armies and would look utterly amazing with vast numbers of giant warbeasts smashing each other on an epic scale, I can't help but notice that I don't have the space required for the suggested 8x4' board. 

 Goblin Archers (long lost)

At best, I think I can squeeze in a 4x4' or at a pinch a 6x4' which is a bit of an issue for full on clashes but I've settled on a more convenient sort of approach which will centre around skirmishes of infantry with the odd cavalry or warbeast for an initial period to give me the chance to actually play some games! 

I'm planning to then scale things up a bit to something more like 2nd edition 40k with decent sized warbands duking it out with several more warbeasts and artillery.

Sadly, I need to really get myself a decent amount of infantry to make this plan feasible as I'm currently sadly short of pretty much everything I need. While I've got a fair number of Dwarves to paint up, the other forces are rather puny at present and that needs sorting out soon.

I think I will be perusing the interwebs for some suitable figures and hope to get some updates going as I've lost a fair amount of time with work stuff so would like the chance to get back up to speed with something far more fun...

Orc Necrodon Rider

Hi!

As promised, here's the first of my Orcish horde Necrodon riders!

Necrodon Rider

I had this guy pretty much finished for some time but have been waiting for some bases to arrive from Warbases as he was rather prone to tipping over on a normal 40mm or even 50mm round. I ended up with a 60x40mm rounded edge base and with the addition of some Das Clay to bulk out the base, he's surprisingly steady.

The model is largely as is from the blister with the only addition being a plastic sword from GW's Ork box and a little bit of putty work to bulk out his jacket as he had a rather elfin waistline.

Heavy Cavalry!

I'm really pleased with how he's turned out and the whole figure was an absolute pleasure to paint and allowed me to experiment with washes quite a lot to get the nice warm yellow for the beasts hide. I may yet rework the shield but am rather sorted with it just now and will be starting a second model soon!

Looking at the size of the Orc rider, I do wonder if I need to try and source some of the larger Orcish sculpts to fit in but I like the idea of the Necrodon riders being the elite and reserved for the big guys who can manage.

I've given him a ruddy brown skin colour inkeeping with the artwork from the book and rather like it compared to a more typical greenskin and am rather looking forward to adding some more to make a unit.

Hopefully I'll be able to convert a few riders so they aren't all mono pose as well so watch this space!-

Pocket Leviathan

Hi!

I've been pondering putting together a pocket version of Leviathan that will allow me to playtest the rules without needing to use the recommended 8'x4' table for a full game.

By simply halving ranges and using a 2'x3' board, combined with some handy cardboard counters, I tried a few games back in 2016 and had my first actual games of Leviathan. While it gives me the opportunity to try out the rules and get the hang of how each unit and force works, It does lack rather badly on the visual impact front.

I'll be painting my way through as much as I can over the coming months but I do want to have the chance to play some more games and give myself a thorough grounding in how the game mechanics work and the assorted forces strengths, weaknesses and quirks.

If anyone's interested, the battle reports can be found here:

Battle Report 1

Battle Report 2

Battle Report 3

Battle Report 4

Looking back at these early battle reports, I find myself remembering some of the good and bad points of the system and the odd element that needs tweaking to really be playable but I must admit that I am quite surprised that I managed to play four full 1000 point battle reports in less than a month. Surely this year I will do better!

Using a similar approach will also give me the opportunity to playtest some of the new units I want to introduce and dare I say it, Earthpower too!

Dur Zamor

I am hoping to post the first such report on Monday which is my next day off and will hopefully involve a rumble on the border between the Orcish Horde of Krull Dwarfslayer and the stalwart forces of Dur Zamor, the Dwarven frontier settlement.

Till then, All the best!