Trying 'General D'Armee' v2 in 15mm

 Howard, Ian and Nigel have been playing a few games of the new version of 'General D'Armee' and this week I was able to go along to Nigel's house to try them out too. Nigel had adapted a scenario where the British and Prussians were attacking, needing to secure a village and a hill with a windmill on it and the French who were withdrawing had to defend them and slow the Allies down. Nigel took on the role of the French with Ian and I dividing the allies up between us. 

Looking along the Allied line towards the village.

The French on the defensive.

Nigel had set up a lovely looking table, ideal for this scenario.  

My British Light cavalry brigade supported by the RHArtillery (turned to the rear to show they are limbered up as I haven't painted the limbers yet) go on the attack.

Turn two and the British Light cavalry smash into the flank of the French artillery deployed just outside the village and wipe them out. 

With the French artillery destroyed the Light Cavalry then withdrew. 

Inspired by the success of the British Light Cavalry, the French heavies aim for Ian's British Foot Artillery.

The result was the same, and the French heavy Cavalry also opted to withdraw.

A view of the French defending the village.

The Prussians advance against the first part of the village and after a couple of turns of intense melee force the French back. 

We had to stop play here as we ran out of time but happily we have left the game set up to hopefully continue next week. 

The game played really well and all three of us felt that the rules have been refined and improved to provide a smoother, quicker moving game. Finally we think we have found the set of rules for Napoleonics for our little gaming group.  

Old School Fantasy project

 For some time now I have had a growing fondness for and need to collect some of the 'old school fantasy' figures I painted, collected and gamed with back in my youth. In the late 1970's and early 1980's I amassed a large collection of Citadel, Hinchliffe, Ral Partha, Conquest Miniatures and others as well. This nostalgia fix has also coincided with me returning to reading some of the fantasy novels I read back then.  

Elric, Conan and the Hobbit (and of course the Lord of the Rings), are the books that started my love of the fantasy genre in games, books and films.

For some stupid reason I sold all my old collection in 1988 to help with a house move and relocation to a new job. So a few years ago I started to cast about on ebay for a few figures and also my long time gaming friend Chris donated quite a few figures, some Asgard Dwarves and the elf below for example. Chris is also joining in with this project and we aim to use the figures to play games of Dragon Rampant amongst others. You can see some of Chris's old school figures and musings on his blog 'The Periodic Painting Table' here: https://periodicpainting.blogspot.com/

Ral Partha Elf lancer, not too sure if his horse is original but it is a good fit? 

Ral Partha elves. I will use these as Sea Elves. Happily the two figures on the far right were actually painted by me back in the 70's/80's and I was delighted to be re-united with these guys (via ebay) after so many years away. I even drew and painted the flag in watercolours. Happily they only needed a quick touch up and they were ready to do battle.  The captain is named Bod Lo'An Foamheart and he just needs a few more of the axe wielding elves to complete his unit.  All names are from the same earlier period of gaming. 

A few lovely Citadel Wood elf types, were these from the Fantasy Tribe range? Just about pre-slotta? I do have a few more of these to paint to make up a unit. The Mage on the right side is Eritas the Scribe, famed for his chronicles of Elvan History (in my little mind at least). 

Far left is a Reaper miniature figure, not too old I think? The rest are more Ral Partha, the two with Spears and Pikes somehow survived the cull so have been with me for around 40+ years.

Second from the left is an Asgard Half-Elf Fighter, the renowned elf adventurer Emyn Lockharn, now on around his seventh incarnation. I used this figure back in the day but this one was newly acquired through ebay and painted up recently. Poor chap never got above 5th level in D&D before something killed him!  

A 'Ghost' miniatures giant (I think) painted as a Frost Giant (if I recall correctly I swapped this figure over into Chris's collection but got it back again a few years ago?) He is supported by some lovely old Asgard Dwarves. Chris donated some of these, others were found on ebay. I still have a few left to paint but need more. The dwarves are newly painted but the frost giant is still in his original paint scheme. 

Old Hinchliffe Dwarves now sold by Broadsword Miniatures available if you contact the very nice chap called Mike who sells them at:

https://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com/p/broadsword-miniatures.html

A group of assorted Rangers with a cleric in their midst. 

Some Conquest Miniatures goblins from their 1970's 'Age of Jotun' range. If anyone can tell me where I can buy more of this range I would be very happy. They were sculpted by Bryan Ansell I believe? 

I really like these goblins from Hinchliffe/Broadsword . Full of character, despite still having some left to paint I need more. You can see a Tolkien influence on their shields. 

I have a steadily growing collection of old school figures that I keep adding too. My painting is slow on this project as I tend to fit them in between the various historical projects on the go but it is just a sheer pleasure to collect these figures again. The painting will happen in time. 

Lion Rampant: The hunt for Brother Alwin.

 We had a four player game today so we tried scenario 4, the Fugitive. A saxon monk, brother Alwin is on the run and hiding somewhere on the table. Six tokens were placed on the table, each of which could be Alwin. Who would find him first? and could they get him off the table. We had Nigel and Charlie both playing Normans (both of whom wish for the kudos of capturing the monk), Ian his Irish and I used my usual warband of Anglo Danes led by Wulfgar the Slayer.  The Normans wished to capture Alwin as he is a known rebel sympathiser, my Anglo Danes wished to rescue the poor monk from the Normans and the Irish will sell him to the highest bidder! I also placed a heavily laden wagon in the centre of the table which was moved randomly and also became an objective.

Each warband was randomly deployed in a corner of the table and the dice decided that Ian and I were deployed on the west and the two Norman players on the east. This helped create an alliance between the Normans so Ian and I teamed up too. 

In the first turn Ian and then I had chances to locate the errant monk but it was a group of Norman skirmishers controlled by Charlie who actually captured him. A short while later Nigel captured the wagon so very early on the Normans had both objectives

Ian's Irish and my Anglo-Danes at the bottom v Nigel's Normand and Charlies Normans at the top end. It soon turned into an all out battle. 

Charlies Normans led by Bishop Odo. Trait: may re-roll one missed attack per turn. 

Nigel's Normans led by Tallifer, trait: allowed to re-roll one failed activation per turn. 

This trait proved to be really helpful to Nigel. 

Ian's Irish, led by some unrecorded rogue: trait, Leaders unit automatically Wild Charge. Ian finds the 'Wild Charge' trait of his Irish frustrating at times and Nigel's Norman Knights dealt with them quite easily. However, the Irish did keep Nigels force engaged for the whole game. 

My Anglo-Danes led by Wulfgar the Slayer. Trait: he is only hit on a 6 in duels. 

Nigel captures the wagon. and soon moved it behind his troops.  

Charlie's skirmishes locate and capture Alwin and managed to hold onto him all game. 

The Norman's advance. 

The Irish and Anglo Danes create a defensive line. The Anglo Danes did very well but with the Irish being beaten on their left it seemed that they would be hit in their flank soon. 

Anglo Danish huscarle's chopping up Norman Knights. 

Despite doing well against Charlie's Normans I just could not break through in time to try and 'free' Alwin the Monk. 

The one remaining Norman knight has to withdraw. 

Note the standard of Wulgar approaching from the left. 

Wulgar challenged Odo to a duel and using his leadership trait defeated Odo and forced Charlie's units to test their Courage. My Anglo Danes were gradually beating the Normans  on this flank but by our last turn Ian's Irish had all but left the battle. The Normans still possessed both objectives so it was a clear Norman victory.  

This was a really enjoyable 4-player game.  Clear objectives and the varying fighting styles of the forces involved all helped make it fun. 

Lion Rampant: Defending the Indefensible (scenario 3).

 For today's game we decided to give scenario 3, 'Defending the Indefensible' a go. Placing a small church in the table centre to be the main target of the attack we let the dice decide who would be the Attacker and who would be the Defender (who is allowed to deploy up to 10 points of troops in contact with the church as an initial defence force). 

With Ian and his Irish as the attacker, I became the defender and you can see my 10 points of troops defending the church and the Irish advancing towards it.  

Right at the top you can see my leader, Wulfgar the Slayer and his heavy infantry units rushing to help the defenders. A lucky Dice throw has awarded him the very useful 'Strong' trait (may re-roll 1 missed hit) which proved critical at least 3 times. Ian was rather less impressed with his leader, Donacha O'Leary's 'Insipid' trait which robbed him of his +1 Leadership Courage bonus. This also played quite a big part in the game. 

With one of the locals leading his mule cart to safety, Ian tried to make good use of the stream to create a defensive line. Sadly for him his two units of bow armed skirmishers often failed to activate so their shooting into my shieldwall troops was less effective than I feared. 

Anglo-Danes to the left, Irish to the right.

One of my veteran heavy infantry units of huscarls charged over the stream into Ian's leaders unit. After a couple of rounds of closely fought combat Ian's leader and his unit became battered and retreated over the hedge behind them. On his next turn when trying to rally his unit, Donacha the Insipid failed miserably and routed from the battle causing Courage tests all round on his other units. This caused chaos for the Irish and really swung the battle my way. 

Over on my far left my skirmishing bowmen managed to see off the Irish light cavalry who also became battered and eventually fled the battle as well. 

Wulfgar the Slayer took up an heroic pose on the bridge having helped see off some of the Irish.

With half of the Irish units now destroyed victory was awarded to Wulfgar and his Anglo-Danes, their church was safe. This was another fun game that could of gone either way. 

We will play again very soon.  

Back to Lion Rampant

 I have always enjoyed playing Lion Rampant and some of its spin-off variants so eagerly snapped up version 2 of the rules but then only played it once. Today was the day to put that right. Friend Ian and I have a slow grow 28mm project aiming at large battles in the Dark Ages (or Early Medieval Period for the purists out there) but Lion Rampant provides the ideal set of rules for some decent sized skirmish action whilst our armies grow. 

I opted to use some of my Anglo Danish figures whilst Ian used his Irish and it seemed to make sense to play scenario 1:Bloodbath to help teach Ian the rules (and see how well I remembered them!).  I called my Leader Wulfgar but left him to forge his own surname in battle but randomly throwing for a leader skill I threw a double 6 and got 'Great Leader' with it's very useful automatic activation rule. Ian named his leader Dermot and gained 'Rash-Wild Charge' as a Leader skill for the leaders unit. 

For 'Boasts' we decided to throw a d3 each giving me 3pts of boasts to Ian's 2. I chose..

'I shall strike the first blow 'and 'They will tremble before me' whilst Ian chose 'I shall burn their homes'.

Irish to the left, Anglo Danes to the right. 

As the Attackers Wulfgar and his men took the first turn. 

Irish deployment.

Anglo Danish deployment.

We found the required 3" gap between units rule a little restrictive on both deployment and movement but we opted to play the rules as they are for our first game. 

As the warband's advance they pause for a photo shoot with the rulebook. 

Irish light cavalry and skirmish archers try to get around the Anglo Danish flank. 

Irish chieftain Dermot advances his unit into contact with the hut to try and set it alight. 

 It took him three turns, but 2 glory points earned. 

The Irish start to adopt a defensive position.

At the top the Irish seem to be arcing around the Anglo Danes. Wulfgar had put most of his units into 'Shieldwall' anticipating the Irish 'Wild Charge'.

Irish units hiding behind the hut (with their damp matches). 

Best way to get the Irish out from behind their defences was to advance to within their Wild Charge range but in Shieldwall-note the shield marker. Shieldwall proved to be a very effective formation to adopt against the Irish warrior units.

Irish light cavalry become involved in a 'stand-off' with an Anglo Danish 'shieldwall'. 

Dermot finally gets the hut alight and now decides to try and get involved in the melee which seemed to be going my way.  Dermot's elite infantry were very tough in melee but with two Irish units 'battered' in the same turn I earned my 2 glory points.

Dermot challenged Wulfgar to single combat but did not live to regret it. 

Both sides were losing units but the Anglo Danes seemed to have the upperhand. 

Over on the left wing my skirmishers tried to tease the Irish warriors into an advance but failed their evade roll, got caught in melee which they lost and had to retreat. 

At this point we finished the game with Wulfgar, now known as 'Wulfgar the Slayer' and his Anglo Danish warband victorious, but only just. 

It was great to be playing Lion Rampant again. We got a few things wrong but will correct those come the next game which will be very soon. We also think we will be much quicker working through the game next time.