Druids doing unspeakable things to goats

 

The Age of Arthur collection has been much neglected these past few years, it was packed in boxes and bought with me to the US, but has lain un-played for these past five years with no new troops added to the forces.

Last year my LGS had a sale on and I picked up this Westwind Productions "Druids Making a Sacrifice with rock & goat" with a thought of adding it to the lead mountain in the eventuality that the Age of Arthur collection came back to the top of the painting list at some time.

One of the Chambers of Challenge for this years AHPC was:

Shrine: Dearly beloved Challengers, let us bow our heads, and create … a religious-themed entry in this chamber. A model which is worshipping, praying, genuflecting, preaching, pilgrimaging, scourging, crusading, venerating … or maybe just visiting parishioners for tea. Clerics welcome!

I thought this piece would be perfect.

I have realised that after painting and basing though that the druids are all facing inwards, so a lot of detail I added to them is not that visible.

I'm rather pleased how it all came out and it will make a nice bit of table decoration when I next get around to playing an Age of Arthur game.

Age of Arthur campaign day

On Saturday I ran an Age of Arthur event at the Polly and I am sure we all had a great day.

Eight factions would try to control as much of Brittania as they could following the withdrawal of Rome. We all played

Ady - Twilight of Brittania
Andy - Twilight of Brittania
Carl - Early Saxon Kingdoms
James - Welsh

Keith - Twilight of Brittania 

Paul - Early Saxon Kingdoms

Pete - Welsh

Phil - Early Saxon Kingdoms

We all played three rounds against a variety of opponents using six or so different scenarios. Depending upon the scale of victory you gained and lost territories and if characters were killed or captured you gained and lost gold.

At the end of the day James Morris's Welsh were the most successful faction almost reaching the Anglian coast.

Here are more photos from the event, I think eveybodies army appears in at least one picture.

Vortigern meets the lawnmower

This is a very tardy report of a game I played against Richard a week last Tuesday, so the details may be a bit sketchy.

We fancied a game in preparation for my Age of Arthur campaign day on the 13th February   which unfortunately Richard cannot now attend as he is off on his holidays.

I picked a pretty standard Early Saxon Kingdoms force of Cynning, Atheling, Thane, Scop and Wiglera leading a unit of Gedricht, two units of Duguth and a unit of Geoguth. Support was provided by a small unit of skirmishing Duguth and two units of peasants.

Richard fielded the sample Vortigern list from the Age of Arthur book, making up the extra 100pts by bolstering the cavalry unit.

Both armies deployed, the Romano-British with their Pedyts in the centre with their flanks anchored on two fields of crops, Vortigern took the cavalry on the left. Heignst was on the far right with  his unit of Geoguth while Horsca and his Geoguth supported the Pedyts.

The Saxons formed a solid line with the Gedricht in the centre flanked by Duguth while the Geguth were on the right.

Opening the action the Romano-British slingers caused the Saxon javelinmen to flee the field, a great start for Vortigern whose troops began a general advance.

The Saxons countered with a surge of their own, unfortunately due to their warband rules, not necessarily in the intended direction!

Battle was joined, Vortigerns slingers kept up a great hit rate causing much consternation in the Saxon ranks. The Roman cavalry crashed into the Geoguth and after a protracted combat scattered them to the winds riding around the rear of the Saxon army.

Horsca and his Gedricht were involved in a combat with my Duguth on the left flank that lasted almost the entire game until my Duguth eventually broke - small wonder really as I had been using them as Geoguth up until that time!

However, the Duguth formed a solid line in front of the cavalry and eventually beat them off causing Vortigern to flee the table. The Saxon Cynning finally had is moment and launched his Gedricht, first smashing the Geoguth of Heignst and then a unit of Pedyts.

After a bright start for the forces of Vortigern the sharp blades and superior swordsmanship of the Gedricht had won the day.  

Age of Arthur Day - Saturday 13th February

Age of Arthur Campaign Day

I am pleased to invite you to a one day WAB 2.0 Campaign day at the Polly Bowls Club in Sutton in Ashfield on Saturday 13th February 2016. The cost of the day is £10.00 and includes a buffet lunch and teas and coffees throughout the day. If you are there on time there will probably also be pastries and croissants for breakfast.

I currently have space for 16 players.

Arriving in the morning you will be split into (hopefully) equal sized factions and over the course of the day you will play three games of Warhammer Ancient Battles. Dependent on the results of the game you will either gain or lose territories and gold. The winners of the campaign will be the team of players who control the most territories, and the team that has amassed the most lucre.

If you are planning on staying over on the Saturday night, please let me know and we can arrange to go out for a curry.

Your Army

Players will pick a 1600 point list from the earlier lists (pre-600 CE) in the Age of Arthur supplement. Chosen troops from one of the following lists:

• The Twilight of Britannia
• The Age of Vortigern
• Brittany
• The British Kingdoms
• The Welsh Kingdoms in the West
• The Welsh Kingdoms in the North
• Dumnonia and the Southwest
• The Sea Raiders
• Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
• Early Merovingian Franks
• Early Southern Pictish Kingdoms
• The Picts of the North
• The Attecotti
• Scots-Irish Raiders and Settlers (no chariots!)
• Dalriada
• The Kingdoms of Ireland (no chariots!)

Your army must be made of representative models and be fully painted and based to a least a gaming standard. There may be a prize for the best painted army at the event.

Army List Submission

Please submit your lists by Sunday 8th February to smith.paul18@sky.com

Games

Starting at 09:30, during the day you will play in a mixture of singles and doubles games with different scenarios. If you would like to forge an alliance with any specific player or group of players for the event, please let me know and I’ll accommodate you. Else, you will be associated with an ally commensurate with your army and situation on the campaign map.

Depending on your game result you will lose or gain up to two of your territories and gain or lose gold.

Special Rules for the Campaign Day

• With the release of WAB 2.0, units that are fleeing may not use the leadership of any character in the unit. Having spoken with James Morris, the author of the El Cid and Age of Arthur supplements, this is not intended and the leadership of any character in the unit may be used.
• Light infantry who start the game deployed in skirmish formation may elect not to field a standard bearer, replace the model with a normal trooper.
• As the campaign is set in mainland Britannia and the Irish only used chariots on 'home turf' you are not allowed the Chieftains Chariot upgrade.

Payment Details

Please may a PayPal payment to smith.paul18@sky.com your place will not be confirmed until Payment is received.

Cancellations after Saturday 31st January will not be refunded.

If you have any special needs please contact me before the event and I will try to make any reasonable adjustments.

Venue

The event will be held at the Polly Bowls Club, Sports Ground, 10 Unwin Road, Sutton in Ashfield, Notts, NG17 4HN.
From the South exit junction 28 of the M1 and follow the A38 Mansfield signs. Stay with this dual carriageway through all sets of traffic lights (this is a long stretch, easily five of six miles) until you come to a set of lights with a pub called the King and Miller and a Macdonald’s on your left. Filter left and go past McDonalds, turn left at the next set of lights and you are on Unwin Road, the entrance to the sports grounds are on your left, if you get as far as the Unwin Social Club you have gone too far.
The venue can be quite difficult to find as it is behind some buildings off of Unwin Road, however if you look out for the Rugby Club banner, go down the right hand side of the green-panelled building and drive around the rugby pitch the car park and bowls club building are at the bottom.

Please try to arrive at 09:00 for an 09:30 start.

This is the entrance you are looking for, drive down the right hand side of that green-panelled building and around the sports pitches

'Satellite' image showing the location of the venue

Local Accommodation

TRAVELODGE MANSFIELD

Travelodge have an excellent hotel with plenty of rooms within two minutes’ drive or 5 minutes walk of the venue. They've a lot of space and ample parking!
Telephone: 0871 984 6140
Website: http://www.travelodge.co.uk
Address: Lakeside Point, Mansfield Road, Sutton in Ashfield,
Nottinghamshire. NG17 4NP

PINE LODGE HOTEL

A lovely hotel is the Pine Lodge, situated on the A60 Nottingham Road. It has twenty bedrooms and various prices. Telephone: (01623) 622 308
Address: 281-283 Nottingham Road, Mansfield. NG18 4SE
Website: http://www.pinelodge-hotel.co.uk

PORTLAND HALL HOTEL

A lovely Georgian mansion of a hotel set in fifteen acres of parkland, the Portland Hall is relatively difficult to find but worth it if you're not bothered how much you spend. It's about fifteen minutes from the venue by car.
Telephone: (0871) 716 1883
Address: Carr Bank Park, Windmill Lane, Mansfield. NG18 2AL

PARKHURST GUEST HOUSE

The Parkhurst Guest House, situated fifteen minutes from the venue by car, is really a bed-and-breakfast so it should suit those on a tight budget.
Telephone: 01623 627 324
Address: 28 Woodhouse Road, Mansfield. NG18 2AF

MANSFIELD GUEST HOUSE

Next door to the Parkhurst is the Mansfield Guest House, and again if you prefer bed and breakfasts to hotels you can find none better in Mansfield.
Telephone: 01623 629 352
Address: 27 Woodhouse Road, Mansfield. NG18 2AF

Entrants:

1. Paul Scrivens-Smith - PAID
2. Carl Fisher - PAID
3. Andy Hawes - PAID
4. Keith Tait - PAID
5. Philip Morgan - PAID
6. Philip Morgan - PAID
7. Ady McWalter

Age of Arthur at The Other Partizan 2015

Today Simon, James, Martin, Steve and myself gathered together our Age of Arthur collections and put on a pair of games at the final Partizan from Kelham Hall using Simons rather splendid To The Strongest rules.

Having arrived back from the U.S.A. on Friday I had very little to do with the organising of this game, I just needed to grab my figures and turn up. This was harder than I expected, when the alarm went off at 0700 I was so fatigued with jet lag that I could not get up so I texted the guys to say that I would not be there until 0900 and went back to bed.

After a quick shower and breakfast I loaded the car and arrived at a tardy 0915 just in time for my troops to be needed. We finished setting up the two battles and I think they looked rather fine!.

The show opened at 1000 and the first visitors started coming into the Coach House where we were situated, as this was participation we signed up the first group of players and started the first game at 1100 I was making sure that the Britons and Saxons game ran well while Simon managed the game between the Picts and Brittania forces.

James helped out on my side and the forces were soon in action and the Britons were losing cavalry quite badly.

The British infantry joined the fray and the Saxon warbands soon started to fall though and as we broke for lunch both forces had lost 9 victory medals.

After a quick lunch of unsuitable food I went into the Dome to view the other games and there were some lovely displays on offer. I did take quite a few pictures but they all came out very dark.

I then went up on to the balcony and was able to get some rather better shots with my zoom lens.

It was now time to restart our game, but despite some sugary food, one Redbull, one Coke and a coffee I was struggling to keep my eyes open so retired leaving my figures in the care of the chaps.

In keeping with my recent slow down in figure purchases I only picked up some Testors Dullcote from Great Escape Games and a lovely Renault FT-17 from First Corps. I hope to have that painted soon, it can do double duty in both the WWI and the Spanish Civil War games.

Hopefully, Simon, Martin and Steve will have some better reports up of the action on their respective blogs soon.

Edit: I took a few pictures of our game on my phone but it died. Having breathed some life back into it, here they are.