Normans against Saxons and Vikings. 28mm Hail Caesar.

 Another game of Hail Caesar this week. We have discovered that games of around 300 points in 2 'divisions' work well on my 6' x 4'ft table. Charlie brought along 300 points of his Normans to take on 150 pts each of Ian's Saxons and my Vikings. It was a straightforward encounter battle with a small added challenge for each side.  The attacker has to raid a small dwelling in the opposing half of the table and get away with a wagon loaded with loot. The defending side has to try and get a mounted messenger off the opposing table edge (a plea for aid perhaps?). I also produced a set of cards and players drew one card per leader figure. These cards could increase your leaders abilities or add an extra skirmish unit to your force or any number of things. A quick dice off decided that Ian and I were the attackers and Charlie was the defender. 

My Vikings look across at the approaching Normans, especially the Norman cavalry on the left. 

Vikings and Saxons to the left, Normans to the right. 

The white cards are from a random pack which can upgrade your leader, add an extra unit or there also a few 'random' events. My Viking leader Torsten was upgraded, Ian (Ianberht) got a random event which allowed us to place a marsh in front of the advancing Norman cavalry. Charlie's main commander Beohmund was upgraded to Ld 9 and Roger de Baskerville got a Papal Banner allowing him to re-roll a failed Break Test.  

Charlie sends his Norman cavalry forward. 

Note the red headed figure hiding at the back, that is the messenger. 

He easily got across the board as Norman missile fire forced my archers sent to hunt him down were forced back behind a hill and in disorder. 

Ian's saxons form a defensive line to face the approaching Normans. 

The house is the one we needed to try and loot., we never got near it. 

Breton light cavalry harass Ian's Houscarles with javelins. 

Ian charges in, the Bretons counter charge...

No more Breton Cavalry., the only unit Charlie lost.  

So far so good for the Saxon/Viking alliance. 

Charlie attacked my Vikings with a combined infantry and cavalry attack.

My Vikings received a right good beating and the whole division broke and my commander was also killed in the melee. My luck was dreadful today, makes up for last weeks good luck! 

On the Saxon flank, Ian's force were also in trouble with quite a few disordered units. He used his turn to withdraw across the stream. The unit of skirmishers in front of the Norman cavalry is all that is left of the Vikings and they are trying to withdraw. 

At this point a resounding  and well deserved victory was declared to Charlie and his nasty Normans. 

We play again next week, same sides but Ian and I are hoping for a better performance, especially from my Vikings.   

Macedonians v Greeks in 28mm

 Back to Hail Caesar today which is one of our favourite rulesets to play. Ian and Charlie deployed an alliance of mainly Thebans with a few Spartans whilst I deployed my Macedonians facing them. However, Charlie was due to arrive a little late so Spartan deployment was delayed for the first turn or two. 

Ian's Theban hoplites. 

My Greek Mercenaries helping the Macedonians. 

My Macedonians are ready for battle. 

A closer view of the Greek Companion Cavalry. 

So with Charlie and his Spartans delayed my Macedonians decided to advance. 

My Greek mercenaries also advanced, but not quite as quickly. 

Turn 2 and I decided to declare a charge. I would need 3 moves for my Macedonians to contact the Thebans and that is exactly what I got so my companions and pike phalanx supported by the Hypaspists hit the Theban line.

The Greek mercenaries also advanced towards Charlies Spartans who were just appearing. 

A couple of rounds of melee saw the hoplites in front of my companion cavalry break and my pike units were steadily pushing the other hoplites off the board. 

All of Charlie's troops had arrvived by now and he wasted no time in attacking. Charlie was in control of the Theban Sacred Band (unit with clubs on their shields) and also his Spartans.  They attacked my Hypaspists and broke them after a couple or rounds of melee.

Charlie then advanced his hoplite units beyond my pike block in the hope that I could not attack him. 

In the top of this photo my Greek mercenary hoplites finally get into the action fighting the Spartans. My Pike block has turned around to get back into the battle, aiming for the Theban Sacred Band. My Greeks defeated the Spartans and with the Sacred Band already on 5 casualties a Macedonian win was declared. 

Another fun game played with 2 divisions per side which just fits nicely on my 6x4 foot table with a bit of room for manoeuvre. I was very surprised just how well my dice behaved themselves today with some great dice throwing at just the right times. Ian was trying to hold until the Spartans arrived but my quick moving Macedonians outwitted him and then fought really well and took full advantage of the opportunity given the them by the delayed Sparans. 

Next week we switch to Normans v Vikings and Anglo Danes, can't wait!

Bridge to Victory, 10mm Rebels and Patriots.

 Ian and I met again today for our second game of Rebels and Patriots using our 10mm figures. We opted to try scenario C 'Bridge to Victory' where one side has to try and build a bridge within a set time and the other side has to try and stop them. It was decided that Ian and his Union forces would be the bridge builders and my Confederates would have to try and stop him. We had also read up on the rules, determined to correct the error we made when allocating disorder. 

Looking at Ian's scratchbuilt rail station and across to the Union troops advancing towards the river. Top right my Confederates can be seen starting their advance. 

Overhead photo of the game, the Union were allowed to deploy a bit nearer to the river to try and get their engineers into position.

My artillery is heading for the hill. I also rolled a double '6' for activation and a further dice throw allowed me to bring on an extra 4 points of troops. I decided to use my zouves to depict a regular line infantry unit. 

The union wagon by the river shows where the engineers opted to build their bridge. Ian had to throw activation dice for each unit of engineer's each turn. A successful activation roll allowed Ian to add that dice score to his bridge construction points. He needed 60 to complete the bridge.  

Overhead view of the Union engineer's in place by the river. They failed so many activation rolls that bridge building progressed very slowly.  

Confederate artillery enjoying firing at the Union line infantry. Ian used 'close order' for many of his troops in an attempt to increase his fire power. 

The Union troops started to advance across the river to my left. I sent my cavalry across to scare them off. 

Ian managed to do enough damage to my artillery to scare them off (a poor throw on my Morale test did not help). Time was now running out for Ian's bridge building attempt.

Last turn of the game and my cavalry destroyed Ian's union marine troops. Ian's engineer's got the bridge building total up to 51 points falling 9 short of his required 60 giving my Confederates a narrow win. Adding up the Honour points Ian achieved 3 whilst I took 4. Another great game, helped by the result being so close. 

10mm Rebels and Patriots (a first game).

 So Ian and I decided to try the 'Rebels and Patriots' rules using our 10mm ACW forces and we were very much looking forward to trying out this Lion Rampant variant. Ian used his Union troops and I was using my Confederates. As a first game it also seemed to make sense to play the first scenario: 'First Clash at Lament Ridge'. Note that our infantry figures are not based quite correctly for these rules but we just ruled that each infantry base counted as 6 models. Just to add to the fun our electricity was cut off for the day (without warning) so to start with the game was played in torchlight as my spare room only has a small window. 

My Rebs advance on the church, the objective that both sides needed to control. 

A slightly different view of my forces. 

Here come Ian's Union forces. 

My unit of Shock Cavalry went off on a flanker (which took all game and to zero effect). 

As the two sides close on each other my cannon opened fire and proved to be very effective (with the help of some great dice throwing).

Ian seemed to have deployed his troops better and was more able to get his units into a central position better than I could. I felt quite out numbered around the church. 

Some Union troops suffering disorder (red counter). 

I managed to get to the church first and was able to claim 1 point of honour before Ian's infantry moved up to challenge me. At this point we started to fire upon each other and shooting seemed quite lethal. We later found out that we were applying 'disorder' counters incorrectly but we both suffered from this mistake. 

As the action got fiercer I forgot to take any photo's for a while. Bit by bit my forces wore down Ian's and my Officer was able to grab quite a few points of honour by three of Ian's infantry units routing plus his cannon whilst amazingly I lost no units. 

Now for the fun part. In these rules if you play a series of games (a campaign) you develop your officers through experience gained by defeating the enemy. I gained 6 points of honour (not enough to gain another trait yet) compared to Ian's zero. He also had to throw on the Officer casualty table but got away with that as his own troops rescued him so he is fit for the next game.  

Oh look, 10 turns later and my cavalry are still trying to get round the woods...I think that they are still there! 

We really enjoyed these rules and will play again next week, perhaps a bigger multi player game if some of our other gaming friends are around? We will also do better with the rules. 

PS: did anyone spot my new games mat, under a tenner from Temu!

A bit bright but well worth the money. 

Old School Fantasy Figure Recruits

 May has and will be so busy that I have no chance for any gaming this month. However, the painting goes on and I have added some new recruits to my Old School Fantasy collection. First up, good friend Mister C kindly gave some unpainted 25mm Irregular Miniatures Dwarves on Ponies. Irregular Miniatures have a charm all of their own, seemingly crude perhaps at first glance but full of detail when you actually paint them. 

I have painted up 6 of these fine models making a good unit for both 'Dragon Rampant (DR)' and 'Warlords of Erehwon (WOE)'. Mister C may regret giving me these when we play the next game in our Dark Shadows campaign (using WOE rather than Warhammer). 

Rear view of the dwarves whilst they practise their 'about turn' orders. 

I recently spotted this elf model on ebay (a Ral Partha elf I believe?). The figure looks so close in style to some old Dixon miniature Elves I painted a few months back that I decided to get the model and paint it in the same colours. 

(I have to confess that I am not sure if this elf is male or female?)

Here is the whole unit. Enough for a unit in WOE but I need a few more for a DR unit. 

Note the 'leader' which I created by adding a plastic feather from a more modern plastic sprue of Oathmark Elves.  I am wondering though if the newly added model may make a better leader

Dark Shadows: The Mists Recoil

 Today Chris and I enjoyed our second game in our slow grow 'Dark Shadows' campaign. The first game was a scenario of our own design that was fight for possession of a map teling of the whereabouts of Albion. Today my 'old school' dwarves took to their ships to try and force a landing against Chris's 'old school' undead. 

The original campaign booklet was for Warhammer Fantasy but we have opted to use the 'Warlords of Erehwon' (WoE) rules. We had to convert the points values from Warhammer army lists to WoE ones and try to make sure it was a balanced game. Our discussions resulted in Chris have 200pts of undead plus 3 war machines. I had 750pts of dwarves placed in ships advancing upon Albion's shore. . 

Here the dwarves can be seen advancing in their assorted boats. We had devised a simplified version of the weather chart more balanced to clear weather. I asked Chris to make the throw for weather and of course he threw very low resulting in the table being covered in mist. This completely took out his main advantage in that his artillery could not see the dwarf ships approaching. Also, the dwarf ships had to throw 2xd6 for movement in inches. However, if they threw a double they would make the move but end up stranded on a sandbank. 

The undead cower behind the hedges and wait for the mist to clear. One stone thrower and two bolt throwers plus a unit of arches and an Undead Champion. The cliff was classed as a hill rather than anything tougher for the dwarves to get up onto.

Happily for me all my ships got to land their troops safely. 

Brokkir and his dwarf guard were the first to land. 

Dwarf Ranger, Gunnar Fundinnson and his fellow rangers disembark. 

As the dwarves advance on the hill the mist cleared enough for the undead artillery to open fire but the dwarf rangers and archers returned fire. 

Undead skull crusher with their champion just behind. With a great shot the artillery kill 4 of Ulf's dwarf rangers. 

The dwarves slowly surround the hill and start to target the crew of the war machines and also the undead archers. The stone thrower lost all it's crew and one of the bolt throwers suffer casualties too. The mist rolled back in but we were all just within visual range of each other. The skeleton archers were talso destroyed.

Over on the dwarf right flank, Dwarf Lord Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill with his bodyguard and kill the crew around the second bolt thrower. This led to a prolonged fight with the Undead Champion who proved to be a very tough opponent.

By now there was just the undead champion left but even when a unit of dwarf rangers came to help we found him difficult to kill(destroy?). Sadly, at this point we ran out of time. With the undead champion down to his last wound but  being surrounded by dwarves so Chris graciously conceded the game. 

This was a fun game and certainly did not run as I expected. The mist played a huge part in the game as the undead could not harm the dwarves whilst still in their boats. Once the dwarves landed their superior numbers helped secure the victory. 

Our next encounter will be 'the Fens' scenario with a smaller dwarven force attacking the undead and trying to break through their ranks.  We have also created an 'After game progression' chart. The dwarves got one throw of the dice on the chart resulting in them being able to cause 'confusion' on one enemy unit next game.