Battle Report: Jason and the Harpies

Introduction

A week ago, I promised that there would be 3 battle reports as a result of a recent all-day gaming session.  The first two have already been published:

• Robin Hood's Escape (Song of Blades and Heroes)
• The Hunt for the Calydonian Boar (7th Voyage)

Well, it's time for the 3rd (and last) of this group of games.  It's a slightly larger game of 7th Voyage that involves Jason and the Argonauts vs. a flock of Harpies!

The Scenario

The gods have punished King Phineas for some impiety by turning him blind, exiling him and sending harpies to plague him constantly by stealing or fouling his food (wow, these Olympians don't mess about, do they?!)  However a seer has prophesied that the hero Jason has been chosen to end this punishment and drive off the bird-women monsters.  Shame that Jason can't restore Phineas' sight as well...

We're going to play this as an almost-standard Steal mission, straight from the 7th Voyage rulebook.  The main difference is that in our version, Phineas will be the "item" to be fought over, rather than a fabled and magical Gift of the Gods.  Since he is blind, he may only make 1 move per turn (of 6") and then only if he is guided by a rescuer.

Phineas may not be attacked by the harpies because they've been tasked with tormenting him and not slaying him.

The Heroes

The Argonauts entered the table from the southern side in a fairly classical formation, with heavy infantry in the centre and skirmishers on both flanks.

• Jason the Argonaut (star, in the centre with the blue crest)
• Meleager (co-star Brother in Arms, back rank, blue armour and bare head)
• Antigone ("also starring" Amazon, with the long green dress, beside Jason)
• 5 veterans with shield, armour and spear or sword.
• 8 psiloi with javelins or bow.

The Harpies

The winged monsters set up in a ring around Phineas, centred on the ruined theatre in the middle of the table.

• Podarge, "also starring" harpy leader.
• 9 harpies with a mixture of sword, spear, bow and claws

The Game

Although the table had quite a bit of vegetation on it, the Argonauts decided to march straight up the middle, between the broken columns and towards the theatre.  All of the action would occur in just this quarter of the battlefield.

"Stand aside, please!" called Jason to the harpies.  His men may have felt uneasy at the dark shapes crouched on broken columns and ringing the ragged man who stood alone in the centre of the ruins, but the hero showed no sign that he was perturbed.  "We're just going to collect Phineas and then we'll leave".

The harpies were clearly not impressed by this bravado; they had no intention of giving up their plaything!  Uttering a series of awful screeches, the flock leaped into action.  Some of the monsters took wing and flew overhead to look for an opening, whilst others rushed forwards and attacked the heroes.  Laokoon, taken by surprise at the swiftness of this assault, fell immediately.  Antigone was engaged by Podarge, the leader of the harpies, and immediately took a wound from the terrible creature's attack.

The men struggled to regain their composure, though Antigone the Amazon struck back at the harpy leader and drew blood.  More harpies flew overhead and it looked as if the leaders of the heroes would be swiftly surrounded and cut off from their friends.

On the left flank, psiloi loosed arrows at one of the harpies, but came off worse when one of them was slain by the harpy's return shot.

Quickly, Argonaut reinforcements rushed forwards.  Meleager took some of the pressure off Pheidippides, who had been holding 2 harpies at bay all on his own.  This wasn't without cost, though; Meleager's new opponent promptly injured him.  Apart from this, the tide started to swing, with both Jason and Pheidippides both managing to wound their opposite numbers.  Also, in a bravura show of marksmanship, Phaleros threw a javelin high at one of the flying harpies and pierced the creature's wing.

Almost unnoticed, the 3 psiloi on the right flank ran past the columns and towards Phineas.  Could they get there and rescue him before the harpies could react?

This was the moment that the harpies chose to play a "Weak Spot" event card.  The monster facing Jason struck at him with a blow that was obviously intended to hamstring him.  The clumsy strike missed, but it was obviously a feint as the harpy's next attack struck the hero in the arm and gashed him badly [sometimes this happens - the harpy missed the easy shot at the weak spot but then made the much harder, normal strike!].

The other harpies renewed their assault as well, killing the brave Pheidippides and moving to block the 3 young lads who were attempting to outflank them.  Augeas ran up to assist Phaleros, just as the harpy he had injured landed in front of him, snarling with rage.

For the Argonauts, Amphion (the last hoplite reserve) ran along the line of the columns to try to relieve the pressure on their leaders.  Encouraged by this. Meleager slashed at his opponent and drew blood from the foul monster.

In the chick fight in the centre, Antigone finally saw an opening and stabbed at Podarge.  Stupefied, the harpy felt the spear bite deep; she slid off the Amazon's weapon and fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

At the back, one of the javelinmen distracted the harpy in front of him, whilst his colleague ran past and grabbed the startled Phineas by the elbow.  "Come with me if you want to live!" the lad shouted - but already further harpies were taking to the skies in pursuit.

As Phineas and the psiloi ran and stumbled away from the theatre, the Argonauts struck back with renewed vigour.  Antigone ran to cover the brave lad, whilst both Jason and Augeas slew their opponents.  Another javelin-man ran up behind a third harpy and struck the creature a damaging blow from behind, whilst the Greek archers on the left flank finally achieved a hit on their opposite number.

The harpies gave chase to Phineas and his would-be rescuers, shrieking loudly.  Still, with their leader dead they seemed to be a bit sluggish and not as many of them reacted as before.

Jason now ran to assist the pursued humans, but he was too late.  Antigone spun round and impaled the harpy who was approaching her from behind; she left the creature dying in the dust.  At the same time, the Greek archers scored further hits on the harpy with the bow and killed the monster outright.

This was the final straw for the remaining harpies.  With 5 of their number down, the rest became shaken and most of them fled.  In turn, that meant that the flock was wiped out and all of the remainder also took to their wings and made off.  Jason and the Argonauts were victorious: Phineas was saved!

Conclusion

Although the final tally looks lop-sided (50% of the harpies dead in exchange for 2 hoplites and 2 psiloi), the game felt really close right up to the end.  Casts without some form of star leader are very brittle when they start to take casualties!

The Argonauts' flanking manoeuvre always seemed like a forlorn hope; there were just too many unengaged harpies and they might have been able to block such a move.  Surprisingly, it worked pretty much as intended - perhaps because the monsters just didn't have enough activations to chase the psiloi as well as fight the hoplites.

Could the harpies have made more use of their distinct characteristics (especially flying and screech)?  Possibly they could have used the flying to outnumber and surround the small groups of humans one at a time, but as it was the screeching was very effective in bringing further harpies into the fight.  It really did feel like fighting a flock of enraged birds!

(Wo)man of the match: Antigone, for sure!  She single-handedly slew the harpies' leader and then finished off another monster.  Jason struggled to deal with just one of the creatures and none of the other humans or any of the harpies were particularly distinguished in the fight.  Credit to Agaios, the teenager who ran through the harpies in just a tunic to rescue Phineas, though.

Greek Mythology: Harpies: part 2

Introduction

Last week, I showed how I had converted my harpy models.  I promised then that I would show the painted versions soon.  Well, this is sooner than I expected, but I've got nothing else for today's article so here they are!

Unarmed Harpies

As I hinted in part 1, I've decided to paint these creatures with a purple skin tone.  I wasn't sure about this, though I had decided that I didn't particularly want any normal human colouring.  After all, these are supposed to be monsters!

Some research on the internet suggested that the most popular visualisations of harpies were a Caucasian ("white") flesh, followed by a variety of greens, slate blues and purples.  My elder son suggested that I colour them something like pigeons, with grey bodies and iridescent green hair.  It's an interesting idea, but I couldn't quite bring myself to try it.

In the end, I noticed that the harpy from the 1963 classic Jason and the Argonauts was somewhat purple.  If it's good enough for Ray Harryhausen then it's good enough for me - purple it is!

Melee Weapons

Careful observers of these pictures will notice that there are several different forms of harpy in this flock.  Some have human legs, but most have bird-like legs.  A few harpies have their wings and arms fused together, with claws instead of hands, but the remainder have separate limbs.

I suppose one could argue that these physical traits corresponded to the level of curse placed on the different individuals by the gods, or perhaps to their degree of depravity and consequent physical degeneration.  I don't feel any need to come up with any particular explanation for the various forms; they add some variety and that's good enough for me!

Archers

I'm quite pleased with the way that these 2 more complex conversions came out.  You really cannot tell where are the joints between plastic and metal, especially on the arms.  Unless you look back at last week's unpainted figures, of course - but that would be cheating!

The Flock

I would have liked to model some of the harpies in flight.  I'm slightly disappointed that none of the poses really lent themselves to this, though the one with outstretched wings might have worked.  Perhaps I'll get some more of these models some day and see if I can manage such a conversion?

As always, I've given them what I hope are appropriate names.  This is slightly complicated by the fact that there weren't anything like this many harpies in the original Greek myths.  However, once you add in variations of the tales by different authors (and later retelling by the Romans and others), it is possible to come up with a reasonable variety of names.

Conclusion

Once again, these were very simple models to paint, as the bulk of each figure is just a pale violet undercoat with a dark wash.  I'm still not totally convinced that the purple colour is good, but at least they cannot possibly be mistaken for humans.  It should make it much simpler to tell friend and enemy during a game!

Greek Mythology: Harpies: part 1

Introduction

I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment with my 28mm models from ancient Greek legends.  Last week, I showed my satyrs and at the end of that article I promised harpies.  Well, here they are - at least, in their unpainted form.

These models come from the Wargames Foundry Greek Mythology range.  There are 4 packs of harpies, each of 5 models, so you'd imagine that there was a lot of variety in this collection.  However, 2 of the packs have feathered wings and 2 have leathery wings; I prefer not to mix and match these, so my choice was reduced to 2 packs.  Added to this, when I picked up a couple of packets at Salute 2014 earlier this year the Foundry stall had sold out of all apart from 1 variety.

So, I've got 2 packets (10 models), with 5 distinct sculpts, though some of the poses are quite similar to others.  I'd like to add a bit of variety; what can I do?  These figures aren't very good for repositioning limbs, as the arms are often tightly coupled to the wings and the wings are very solid.

Inspiration came from reading a passage in the 7th Voyage rulebook.  In the suggested scenario, the cast of harpies have a variety of different weapons (and none).  Although that might not make any functional difference in some rules, it will in others - and it should be relatively easy to achieve.  Let's give them some weapons!

Claws and clubs

The first batch of harpies that I'm showing here have not been given any weapons.  3 of the 4 models are straight out of the packet, whilst the other one (3rd from the left) has been cut off its base and its legs have been repositioned.  I've placed a flat rock on the base and mounted the harpy on a wire; it's meant to look as if she's leaping from the rock onto her prey.

Spears

It was very easy to drill out the hands in a couple of the harpies (especially as Foundry use a relatively soft metal for casting).  To arm them, I found a couple of javelins from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors kit; these smaller spears worked well since the harpies are not quite as chunky as many modern 28mm figures.

Swords

I have a number of spare swords from various Warhammer kits, but all of them were really far too big for my taste (imagine that!).  This caused me some difficulty until I remembered that I also had a part sprue of goblin warg riders from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings range.  Excellent - the LotR models are a very good fit, scale-wise, for these harpies.  Fortunately for me, there were 2 spare swords on the sprue.  Again, I drilled out the hands of the recipients.  Each sword was cut into 2 across the middle of the hilt, with the blade part pushed into the drilled hand from one side and the pommel part pushed into the hand from the other side.

Bows

I was determined that some of my harpies would have ranged weapons.  Again, I raided the LotR warg riders, but this time I cut off the hand or arm that was holding a bow.  These were spliced carefully onto the harpies, after carefully removing their own hands.

These were certainly the most complex conversions of the bunch.  As well as the bows themselves, I added quivers (from the same donor sprue); in turn these needed belts or straps to hold them.  I added a loin cloth to one of the harpies, mainly to help disguise my botched belt.  The other model didn't need such an adjustment as a conveniently-positioned arm already obscured the join between quiver and belt.

All Ready for Painting

So, here's my group of 10 unpainted harpies, based and ready to be undercoated.  In the original Greek myths, there were only 2 (sometimes 3?) of these creatures, but where's the fun in that?  I want a whole flock of demi-humans with a bad attitude.  I see them as something like enormous seagulls: aggressive, dirty and noisy!

I've already painted these figures, but I think that pictures of the finished models can wait for another time.  However, I'll give you a hint as to their appearance: purple!