28mm 'On Bloody Ground' and a quick bit of 15mm 'Valour and Fortitude'.

 First up a few photo's of the most recently re-based 28mm Dark Age figures. Re-basing also means having to paint a few new figures to help make up units but I am really enjoying getting my rather haphazard collection into some form of fighting shape. 

A couple of units of Vikings; some figures in the formed unit are from the old Citadel range of Vikings, now produced by Wargames Foundry. In the game they represented Lord Bo of Craven and his men. 

I have also re-based my villagers to match my current basing style. These figures have seen action across several hundred years of British history. 

We also needed a few extra light cavalry for today's game so I quickly painted up these Picts which pretended to be Viking Scouts today. I also made a quick and easy turn counter. There is a square slot for the dice formed from matchsticks and the tree is just for decoration. Many games, 'On Bloody Ground' included play over six turns but happily my D12 also fits in the dice slot for longer games. All of the above were part of today's game.

I also got a unit of Anglo Danish Huscarles ready but these were not part of our game as I hadn't anticipated getting them ready in time as I had to paint a few extra figures to complete the unit. 

Finally, an Anglo Danish command stand and some baggage. 

I may get some twigs and make some 'logs' to be loaded in the back of the wagon. 

So, Ian and Nigel came round for a full day of gaming and we decided to play two games. Our first game today was a first try of 'On Bloody Ground' with the 28mm figures. We have played a couple of times before but in 15mm. Here is my plan for the game...

 The Battle of Ghigleswic, 1069

A scenario for the ‘On Bloody Ground’ rules.

The recently published rules ‘On Bloody Ground’ for wargaming in the 1066 period have recently motivated me to (at long last) rebase my 28mm Dark Age (or Early Medieval) figures. I have mainly Normans with just a few of units of Vikings and Anglo Danes and I am well on my way with all the rebasing so it is time to get some of them on the table.

Inspired by a recent visit to Lancaster Museum and their small display about Lancaster in Norman times I did a bit more research and came up with the a few extra interesting snippets and names plus some gaming ideas.

Lancaster, known as Loncastre back in Norman times was granted to Roger de Poitou in 1069 after the ‘Harrying of the North’. He was also granted lands around the Craven area where my gaming friends and I live (and we always enjoy games inspired by the real history of our home). Roger found Craven a difficult area to subjugate due to the isolated nature of it’s settlements spread amongst the hills and dales. Granting the land to Roger de Poitou had deposed Bo, the Lord of Craven who was probably not too happy about that. Another Norman Lord, Robert de Romille was granted lands around Skipton at the same time.

Using these few facts led me to come up with the following scenario idea. For our history 're-imagined' game, and limited by a largely Norman collection of figures I set up the scenario with Bo, the deposed Lord of Craven seeking an alliance with Robert de Romille asking for his help to rebel against Roger de Poitou. In return Bo would ask to be re-instated as Lord of Craven but as a vassal lord to Robert.

Bo, (who I am imagining as an Anglo-Dane so I can use my recently rebased units of Vikings) raised the local forces in rebellion and also hired some mercenary Irish freebooters (friend Ian’s contribution to the game). Robert de Romille came to fight alongside Bo with a small part of his Norman retinue. Hearing of the rebellion Roger de Poitou gathered his forces and hurried over to the Craven area, coming across the rebel forces in the valley close to the Saxon church of St Alekelda in Ghigleswic (modern Giggleswick).

The forces of Robert de Romille	The forces of Roger de Poitou
1x Duke: Robert de Romille 1x unit of Mounted Milites 1x unit of Liberi Spearmen 1x unit of Crossbow Armed Serjeants 1x unit of Coloni skirmishers with bow 1x Hersir: Lord Bo of Craven 1x unit of Viking Hirdmen 1x unit of Thrall skirmishers with bows 1x unit of Scots-Irish mercenaries 1x unit of Mounted Scouts	1x Duke: Roger de Poitou 1x Count: Count Wido 2x units of Mounted Milites 1x unit of Liberi Spearmen 1x unit of Stipendarii Mercenaries 1x unit of Liberi Archers 1x unit of skirmishing Serjeants with crossbow 1x unit of Pueri Light Cavalry

Objectives: for this 6 turn game, killing (or capturing) the enemy leaders is very important. Players will gain an extra 50 victory points for every enemy commander they can kill or capture. All other victory conditions as per the main rulebook. 

Nigel and Ian just after deployment. 

Ian played the part of Robert de Romille with Nigel as his ally Lord Bo of Craven. That left me in charge of the all Norman force of Roger de Poitou. Both sides had almost 1,700 points. 

Deployment with my Normans on the right.

First main action of the game saw my light cavalry see off the enemy mounted scouts and the nearby skirmish archers failed their panic test and also broke and ran.  

Big clash of mounted Knights in the centre, Ian's Knights got the upper hand until I was able to charge in with my other unit of knights as well. 

My light cavalry (bottom left) are now nicely placed behind Nigel's advancing warband. 

The two main parts of the armies close in on each other. 

My Norman archers were not very effective, mainly due to my poor dice throws. Here is their dice throw with 4 dice trying to wound the advancing crossbowmen. 

Ian.s Liberi Spearmen (top of pic) crash into the flank of my Mercenary Stipendarii and give them a good tonking just as Nigel's Warband crash through my spearmen ready to pounce on my baggage.  

A scattering of bodies is all that remains of my Stipendarii. We are not 100% we played the flank attack correctly but it was certainly devastating. 

After 5 turns we declared lunchtime and called it quits with the Rebel forces of Duke Robert and Lord Bo having killed many more of Duke Roger's men. However Duke Robert had just been captured by my Knights and Count Wido was captured by Nigel's rampaging warband. So a narrow win for the rebels but an interesting situation for the captured leaders that could be used for the next scenario.

The game was great fast, furious fun. There were a couple of things we were not too sure on but being sensible gamers we managed to fudge our way through.  I shall ask for clarification on the authors facebook page as they always give very fast feedback. 

After lunch, for our second game we had a go at playing the free rule set available to download from the Perry Miniatures website called 'Valour and Fortitude'. This is part of our continuing quest to find some quick play Napoleonic rules that will actually allow us to play a game to completion. 

This is a set of rules still under development so we downloaded the latest draft and armylists. Choosing armies of around 140 points we chose to play scenario1, 'Set Piece Battle'.

Placing 5 green counters as the objective points we deployed our armies and set too.  

My British approach the battlefield. 

Looking across the French lines. 

My Hussars getting taught a lesson by French Heavy Dragoons and my infantry facing a French grand battery. 

British infantry occupy the central farmhouse. 

Four turns played resulted in an even spread of the objectives claimed. 

As this was the first time we had played Valour and Fortitude (V+F) progress was understandably slow at first. After a couple of turns we started to speed up but it was sometimes difficult at times to find the rules we needed. The rules do give the impression of a fast fun game one you know what you are doing. However, having fitted in 4 turns we reckon a good re-read and another game next week should have us playing through turns much quicker. 

Overall a very enjoyable day of gaming.