Normans v Anglo Danes and Vikings, game 2.

 This week Charlie took on the role of scenario creator with a game inspired by last week's encounter battle won easily by the Normans. It was Charlie's Normans against a combined Anglo Danish and Viking force although sadly Ian (Ianberht) was ill and missed the game so I controlled both the Anglo Danish and Vikings forces with Charlie in charge of his Normans.  

I set the table up as described in the map that Charlie drew. A few quick dice throws soon decided which side deployed where and who was the attacker. I had to deploy the Anglo Danes in the lower deployment zone whilst half of Charlie's Norman force then deployed in the upper deployment area. The other halves of our forces were in reserve and it was going to be dependent upon the draw of a card as to where they came on. 

We also used my random cards to vary the quality of our leaders. 

Sir Robert de Baskerville was leading the Normans this week and this is his deployment.

Lord Ianberht was back to lead the Anglo Danes despite the Normans calling for the Pope to 

ex-communicate him for being so troublesome. 

The Viking allies turned up before the Norman re-enforcements. 

The Vikings, led by Svend this week happily entered the table close to my right flank. 

(however I forgot that units moving in column still get one move even if the order roll is failed and the new Viking leader proved to be not very good at throwing for orders). 

Charlie moved his Normans quickly across the board to threaten the Anglo Danes. 

Ianberht held his troops secure atop the hill. 

The view of the Normans approaching the Anglo Danish resolute on their hill. 

Then, Ianberht threw caution to the wind and with a wild yell of 'Ut, Ut followed by a few Godemite!' the Anglo Danes charged down the hill at the Normans before they could form their proper battle line. With my order dice allowing me the two moves I needed my guys crashed into the Norman infantry destroying an archer unit and forcing a unit of heavy infantry to withdraw. 

At the left end of the Anglo Danish line one unit of Ceorls were defeated which helped spin the battle line around a tad. 

With the archers gone my Housecarls swept on into a unit of Norman knights , nearly catching them in the flank but they turned to face the rampaging Housecarls and got battered as the Housecarls swung their huge dane axes to great effect. 

It took two rounds of melee to defeat the Norman knights and the Norman commander Sir Robert de Baskerville was killed in the melee. His son was quick to take over command but he was a lesser man.  

My Thegns were pushed back onto the hill (content to Rally up there). Happily the Anglo Danes caused enough damage to the Baskerville's Norman division that it broke and fled the battlefield. 

Slowly the Viking allies were starting to feed into the battle. 

At the top of the picture you can see the Norman reserve moving in column fast down the road . 

Charlies mounted units from his reserve arrive and try to sneak past a unit of Vikings who by now were mostly in position. My viking bondi archers hit the Norman knights with bow fire, killing two and forcing them back in disorder

With the combined Anglo Danish and Viking force only one unit down and a few points of damage rallied off they adopted a strong defensive position with most units also having support. 

Thegn Ianberht looked on in wonder as the remaining outnumbered Norman units decided to withdraw leaving the Anglo Danish/Viking alliance victorious. 

With a huge roar of victory the cry of 'Ut, Ut' was taken up again. Lord Inaberht who had fought in almost every fight was declared 'man of the match'. 

Thanks to Charlie for devising a hugely entertaining scenario which did seem to backfire on him a bit with his reserve entering the table at the furthest point away from the action. 

Hopefully we can fight a third and deciding battle in this series of games soon.  

Finally, here are a few photos of my latest unit for my Macedonians, the Silver Shields. 

It took me a whole month to paint these. They are mainly Wargames Foundry with a few Crusader Miniatures. The standard bearer is from WIP Games and Miniatures. 

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.