Baggage (3)

I have been cracking on with painting Tony's baggage with various Early Medieval escorts.

First up, three Footsore Miniatures Germanic warriors, a Lord with a raven shield, a banner bearer with a draco and a spear armed warrior.

A small hand-cart, I added the side pieces that were left over from making one of the larger Gripping Beast carts, just cut them down to size. The wheels are from the Warlord Games cart. The escort this time is a Gripping Beast Viking, he's a particularly tall chap.

Continuing the manufacturer mash-up, this time a Warlord Games cart pulled by donkeys, but with the solid wheels from the Gripping Beast cart above. This one is escorted by a pair of Gripping Beast Norman footsoldiers.

The final cart is entirely Gripping Beast, the load of hay is made from a piece of Noch Wildgrass Foliage, it's the first time I have tried this and I'm quite happy how it turned out. This is escorted by a pair of Saxons.

Finally, I painted the few remaining baggage items to be used as loot tokens.

Baggage (2)

A few weeks ago I painted a couple of wagons along with some civilians for Tony. This weekend I finished off another five Gripping Beast baggage escorts and civilians.


A Viking civilian, a Norman with sword, a Saxon shepherd with crook and javelin, another Norman with spear and a Saxon with spear.

I also did a seated Viking cleaning his sword, he can be added to a vignette or wagon as Tony sees fit.

These will be in the post in the next few days.

More To The Strongest Arthurian action

Following on from out excellent game at Partizan this past weekend, Martin and I arranged  another game to play at the club on Tuesday evening.

We both chose a 134pt force (well I picked a 130pt force then upped it to match Martin) , I fielded Saxons with:

• General - Heroic, Senior, Mounted (2) 7pts 
• Cavalry (javelins, veteran) (2) 11pts 
• Cavalry (javelins, hero) (2) 10pts
• VP6 (3)

• General - Heroic (2) 6pts
• Warriors (veteran) (3) 13pts
• Warriors (hero) (3) 11pts
• Warriors (hero) (3) 11pts
• Warriors (hero) (3) 11pts
• Light Infantry (javelins) (1) 4pts
• Light Infantry (slings) (1) 4pts
• Camp (3) 1pt
• VP19 (10)

• General - Heroic (2) 6pts
• Warriors (veteran) (3) 13pts
• Warriors (hero) (3) 11pts
• Warriors (hero) (3) 11pts
• Light Infantry (javelins) (1) 4pts
• Camp (3) 1pt
• VP15 (8)

Medals 13

Martin chose Romano British with:

• General - Heroic, Mounted (2) 6pts
• Cavalry (javelins) (2) 9pts
• Cavalry (javelins) (2) 9pts
• Light Cavalry (javelins) (1) 5pts
• Light Cavalry (javelins) (1) 5pts

• General - Heroic, Mounted (2) 6pts
• Warriors (veteran, shock) (3) 14pts
• Warriors (veteran, shock) (3) 14pts
• Light Cavalry (javelins) (1) 5pts
• Light Infantry (javelins) (1) 4pts

• General - Heroic (2) 5pts
• Auxilia (2) 8pts
• Auxilia (2) 8pts
• Light Infantry (bow) (1) 4pts
• Light Infantry (bow) (1) 4pts

• General - Heroic (2) 5pts
• Javelinmen (veteran, hero) (2) 10pts
• Javelinmen (hero) (2) 8pts
• Light Infantry (bow) (1) 4pts
• Camp (3) 1pt

Surprisingly, I won the scouting roll and would be the active player, although Martin had an extra command so still got to plonk down his cavalry (badly - behind a wood) after I had done. The deployments were:

We soon set to action and as can be expected in a Arthurian clash once the lines connect it does ebb and flow. First casualties were a unit of my Saxon cavalry who succumbed to a charge by the British Pedites (Javelinmen) and fared badly. After that it was pretty static as both sides clashed, withdrew, rallied our troops and crashed again.

However things started to get into the balance, Martin had started with a couple of victory medals less than me and on my left flank my smaller command of Saxon warriors succeeded in breaking one of his own Saxon units and also killing the general, that was five medals to me.

But, the Auxilia in the centre put up a hard fight and soon accounted for one of my own warrior units, having already lost the cavalry we were level again.

The Romano-British were in a great position to roll up my flank from the centre, but the fates were with me, I managed to rally the troops for one last fight and destroy enough units to break the Romano-British. The gods were with the Saxons today!

A great game and we will have to get a few more in.

Martins own report can be found here.

 

Saga Day with Steve

Victoria is away so I had plenty of spare time at the weekend. First of all I organised a board-games night for Friday evening, but that was cancelled due to a few last minute drop outs, leaving only myself and Quint.

On Saturday I gave Steve a call and we arranged to play on the Sunday at his. After some discussion of what we were going to do we settled on BlitzKreig Commander, but had a last minute change of heart. I would introduce him to both Saga and Dead Mans Hand.

After a frantic last minute search for my gunfighters I loaded up the car and drove over to Steves.

We first of all set up a 4pt game pitting myself with the Vikings against Steve using my Saxons as Anglo-Danish, just to get a feel for the battle boards and the rules. It's been quite some time since I last played so was quite rusty.

Having got to grips with the basics (both of us!) we then had a 6pt Clash of Warlords again with myself using the Vikings and Steve the Anglo-Danish after a titanic struggle the Anglo-Danish Warlord went down in the sixth round!

We then had some lunch and set to for the afternoon entertainment.

By now, Steve was getting quite into Saga and we decided to play that again rather than Dead Mans Hand. Now with the new territory of the Byzantine supplement. Digging out the old Lamming Byzantines that were painted nearly 50 years ago Steve would use those and I would use my Vikings as the Pagan Rus.

We set up another Clash of Warlords and set down to study our battle boards - Pagan Rus! Bloody Hell, about two turns in we decided that we ought to both look at the battle boards and start again.

Despite the 'magic' Pagan Rus abilities our last game was a much closer affair, although they dis win out in the end the Byzantines had a much better time of it.

The Saga of the three Angry Viking Warlords

The hill between myself and Nick soon became a bloody battleground

Yesterday evening Nick, Martin and myself played a Saga three way at the club using the Feast for Crows scenario. Martin and I had not played for a very long time - actually almost a year to the day - but Nick was fresh from his adventures at the Stoke Challenge over the weekend.

My warband

I took my Vikings as had Nick, Martin had bought both Anglo-Danes and Vikings, it seemed apt though that he should use the Vikings and we could have a brutal mash-up over who called whose wife ugly or who called somebodies pint a poof!

We all picked from the basic Viking lists in the Saga rule book and all chose very different lists. I used my Warlord along with two units of six Hirdmen and a unit of 8 Bondi. I managed to use both the Jarl Sigvaldi and Svenn models that I had painted and never used, both as Hirdmen. The remainder of my models are from the lovely Shieldwall Miniatures range.

Nicks warband

Martin used his Warlord, a unit of four Berserkers, a unit of eight Hirdmen and a unit of eight Bondi, his figures a a mix of Foundry, Black Tree, Artizan, etc. Finally Nick used his Warlord, a unit of four Berserkers, a unit of four Hirdmen, a unit of twelve Bondi and a unit of four Bondi, these are all made from Wargames Factory plastics. As you can see, all very different forces.

We deployed, I was unfortunately second to pick, so ended up sandwiched between Nick and Martins force, this was going to be bloody. Although I was somewhat protected from Martins troops due to the dense woodland in his corner of the table.

Martins warband

Nick and I immediately moved towards each other in an attempt to knock some lumps off before Martin got there and polished off the remainders, I despatched a unit of Hirdmen to try to hold off Martins force.

On the second turn Nick launched his Berserkers into my Hirdmen who locked shields and killed them off for only the loss of a single Hirdman. My Hirdmen then pushed on into the large unit of Bondi but were driven off with a couple of casualties. My Bondi then engaged Nicks Bondi, building up their fatigue and killing a couple before my remaining Hirdmen finished them off.

Prepare to die Berserker!

Nick then committed his Hirdmen to the fight killing the last of mine on that flank. By now my other unit of Hirdmen were engaged with Martins Bersekers who fared much better than Nicks, for the loss of three figures each. I was getting very thin on the ground although had killed loads of the enemy. With only my warlord on one flank I did a do-or-die move and charged into Nicks warlord and we traded blows ineffectually for a couple of turns before my warlord got the better of his and despatched him. However it was turn five and by now Martins Hirdmen had finished off the last of mine, I was down to the solitary warlord. Turn six and I moved my warlord to attack Martins remaining berserker and both were killed in the ensuing scrap.

My warlord does for Nicks

As I had no figures left, the final turn was played out between Martin and Nick, the Hirdmen clashed and Nicks remaining three were done for, but managed to take out four of Martins in return. It was time to tot up the casualties.

Despite being up against it in all the combats I had managed to kill:

• Nicks Warlord, 1 Hirdman, 4 Berserkers and 12 Bondi plus of Martins 4 Berserkers and 3 Hirdmen.
• Nick killed of  mine 6 Hirdmen and 8 Bondi and of Martins, 4 Hirdmen.
• Martin killed my Warlord and 6 Hirdmen and of Nick, 3 Hirdmen.

I was a clear winner, despite losing all of my troops in the process.

My mighty pile of kills

Martins collection of kills

Nicks pile of kills

Dux Bellorum - The re-match

On Tuesday evening Martin (TableTopMog) and I had another crack at Dux Bellorum.

Deployments

I used the same Saxon force as the previous game we had: Foot Commitatus, 2 Noble Warriors, 4 Ordinary Warriors, 1 Skirmisher with javelins and 2 extra Leadership Points.

Martin went for a slight change in his Twilight of Brittania force, dropping a Ordinary Riders for the Hurled Weapons upgrade: Mounted Comitatus, 1 Noble Rider, 1 Ordinary Riders, 4 Ordinary Shieldwall, 2 Skirmishers with bows and 1 extra Leadership Point, Hurled Weapons.

This time I would be the aggressor, so Martin set the table up with an impassable area on one flank, a haunted ruin only populated by goats, and a low hill on the other flank.

British centre

The Britons deployed with their infantry in the centre with a unit of riders and bowmen on his right flank and his Comitatus, nobles and bowmen on the other flank. I deployed three blocks of Noble and Ordinary Warriors weighted towards my right with the skirmishers on the extreme right.

I did intend to take a photo after each turn, but that fell apart after a few turns.

We were soon advancing towards the Britons, I split my force to clear the centre and concentrate on the flanks. After some desultory bow fire the British horse crashed into the Saxons almost wiping out one of the Warriors before withdrawing.

The lines close

The Saxon advance continued and soon my troops on the right were engaged with the Comitatus and Noble cavalry in a prolonged fight that drew two units of spearmen from the British centre. The British left was looking exposed, the Riders were soon despatched along with the bowmen, but my reduced warriors on that flank were struggling against the solid blocks of infantry.

On my right we made the breakthrough we needed, having dealt with the British archers, my skirmishers moved around the flank while my warriors saw off the Nobles, the Comitatus were looking quite exposed and were eventually charged in the flank while I positioned the javelinmen behind them.

Casualties start to tell

Of course the British Comitatus won the ensuing round of melee but we maintained contact and were soon grinding them down especially as the skirmishers prevented them from falling back and therefore taking additional cohesion points.

As we drew to a close the British had been reduced to a single unit of spearmen and the Comitatus, the latter eventually broke and the Saxons, having only lost three units of Warriors themselves were victorious.

After the game Martin and I were both very much of the same thought. The rules are ok, but the armies seem a bit small and the game a bit formulaic. We started with seven core units and had to reduce the British to a single unit to get a result, that seemed rather a lot. If we had played DBA we would have started with a dozen units and the game would have been over when reduced to three units.

 Here are some more photos from the game, my Saxons are mainly Musketeer Miniatures painted by myself, while Martins Twilight of Brittania are mainly Gripping Beast painted by himself.

The Saxon line

British Comitatus and Nobel Riders

The ghost and goat haunted outcrop

Skirmishers clash

Things go well on the Saxon left

The Warriors get stuck in

The British shieldwall proves a tougher prospect

Saxon and British Comitatus units grind away at each other

The British right under pressure

Likewise on the left

Saxon Nobles take on two units of spearmen

Things about to go bad for the British commander

But he fights off the first wave