The Battle of Lettonsfield. 1068.

The Battle of Lettonsfield. 1068.

Today, Ian, Charlie and I met for a 28mm game of Hail Caesar. Ian and Charlie commanded the Saxons whilst I took control of the Normans. Playing on a 6' x 4' table we limited the sides to 340 points in the hope that the armies would fit on the table with a bit of room left for manoeuvre.

The theme of the game was all about one of the many ‘unrecorded’ (made up) clashes between the Saxon and Normans during the unrest up north after the events of 1066, played a a simple encounter battle.  

Bernart, Count of Mortagne leading his knights into battle. He was going to be a busy chap. 

Norman knights about to charge. 

Charlie's Saxon skirmishers pester the local priest. 

These guys were a real pain throughout the battle. 

Here come the knights.

The knights won the melee (just), pushing the saxon line back but opted not to follow up due to all the other enemy units ready to pounce on their flank. 

Bernart led the charge and was wounded in the melee. 

Both sides regroup. 

Elsewhere Ian's Saxon Ceorls thrashed my Norman Heavy Infantry due to my awful dice throwing. 

A very busy, complex melee which the Saxon huscarls won despite being surrounded. 

 That's how bad my dice throwing was!

Next turn my knights tried to charge in again, failed the order but the one unit of 'Fierce Fighted Knights had to go in unsupported. The melee carried on into a second round with my knights being destroyed and the rest of my army looking a bit battered to say the least. Bertrand was also wounded again so I conceded the game at this point. 

Questions from this game? 

Is there any further penalty for a leader figure that is wounded twice? 

If the one unit with Fierce Charge has other knight units supporting it, can the support units move with the Fierce unit if the actual order is failed (but the Fierce unit still has to charge one move)? 

Hail Caesar gave us another close and enjoyable game and happily 340 point armies fitted on the table just nicely. 

More Pillaging, Vikings v Saxons.

 It was time today for a second game of 'Pillage' a fast moving skirmish game. Ian brought along his Saxon force led by the brave and redoubtable Waermund. Nigel and I were acting as Vikings led by the fierce yet Christian warrior Amund. The table was set up ready for the scenario where one side had to lead 3 priests to safety by getting them across the board to safety. I added a small farm to the terrain to tempt players into a bit of pillaging. 

Overhead view of the board, Saxons at the top Vikings at the bottom. 

Peace and quiet at the little farm. 

Nigel took control of a viking berserker and a few other troops. In the background the hazy figures are all Saxons.

The view from the Saxon (Ian) side of the table. 

On my side of the table tactics were fairly basic. After exchanging a couple of rounds of archery Ian and I crashed into each other in a fast and fierce melee.

In this photo Amund was bravely taking on Waermund despite being outnumbered by the sneaky saxon on his flank. 

Elsewhere, Nigels men charged into Ian's other troops and soon got the upperhand. 

Amund sent the priests to hide in the woods whilst he battled it out with the Saxon foe. Trying to achieve the game objective was largely forgotten whilst the troops battled. 

Waermund's last stand. Now on his own Waermund battled until the end. 

A good victory for the Vikings who one assumes now led the priests safely across the board as there were no Saxons left to pester them. 

Great fun. 

The Battle of Formingy, 1450 using Hail Caesar.

 The Battle of Formingy, 1450.

Today we were playing at Charlie's house as he had written a HC scenario for the Battle of Formingy 1450. As usual with Charlie, the scenario was well planned with a few tweaks to try and let the game mimic the actual battle, but no plan survives contact with us lot!

Drawing either a red dice (English) or a blue dice (French) decided what today's pairing were. Charlie became Sir Thomas Kyriel commanding the English army with myself as Sir Robert De Vere as his sub commander. That left Nigel as Jean de Clermont, commander of the French army with Ian as his subcommander, Pierre De Breze. 

 De Breze and de Clermont discuss tactics and deployment.

We were all made aware that Breton reserves would appear to help the French once certain conditions were met. 

The English defensive line.

French deployment, but note that they were not allowed to use the artillery of their crossbows until the English had lost at least 2 units. This was to mimic what happened at the start of the actual battle with the French Knights and Infantry leading the attack. 

The view from behind the French artillery.

Over on Charlie's flank the French Knights and infantry come charging in. This led to a prolonged and involved melee but eventually the French broke through.  

On the other flank, Ian largely held back, hoping for Nigel to break through and also to try and tempt my troops to leave the defensive line. 

The stakes certainly helped disrupt the French attack. 

Nigel and his French troops start to break through the English defences. 

Melee was taking place all along Charlie's line. 

Charlie had to turn an infantry unit, led by Kyriel to try and protect his flank. 

The unit of English men at arms is defeated and Kyriel is captured for ransom. 

With Kyriel's division now broken I advanced my units beyond the stakes to avoid Nigel's mounted knights being able to charge me in the flank. I attacked Ian's troops and was doing quite well until eventually Nigel was able to catch me in the flank and that was battle over. 

We didn't manage to meet the conditions that would cause the French reserves to arrive but as it turned out the French did not need them!

Well done to Charlie for writing a scenario that we all enjoyed immensely. Once again we had used his large collection of 20mm plastics and the terrain and figures looked amazing.  

Troll Hunt (a game of Warlords of Erewhon)

 Troll Hunt

A Warlords of Erewhon scenario using our Old School fantasy figures.

Great fun today as I drove down to my friend Chris's house for a game of Warlords of Erewhon (WoE). We opted to play 1,000 pts per side as we now both have quite large forces. As Chris was host he dreamed up the scenario, a 'troll hunt' which promised to be both fun and chaos. This is what he came up with...A troll hunt in Oddlestane Valley, a well known lair for trolls. The idea was that troll fat can be used in various ways such as lubricating chariot wheels and our rival goblin and orc warbands were trying to hunt some trolls. A few counters were distributed across the board and a quick d6 score of 4+ would reveal a troll which would then fight whoever had caused it to emerge from it's lair. 

Chris deployed his Orcs on the left whilst my Goblins deployed on the right side. 

The green counters represent potential troll lairs. 

A goblin chariot in search of some troll grease!

...and so is an Orc chariot.

Both models were playing their first game and we both needed to read up on the rules concerning chariots. 

They proved to be quite tough. 

Goblin guard battle it out with a troll they found...the troll won!

NOTE: Chris had made his own order dice with easy to read symbols. 

Orc Warlord Hagar Sheol and his unit claims the first troll kill.

Elsewhere the goblins had managed to locate and kill a couple of trolls too. 

Both chariots ended up dragging troll corpses behind them. 

The Orc war chariot claims a second troll. 

The two chariots ended up in battle and fought two rounds of melee but without a winner as chariots proved to be tough to wound. 

Goblins take on another troll. 

Elsewhere various goblin and orc units clashed with the goblins getting the better of the orcs (but only just). Having also killed two trolls each when we decided to halt the game as we were running out of time the goblins scraped a minor victory by about 20 points. 

We hadn't played WoE for a while so we were a bit rusty with the rules but the game is fast playing so we did manage 5 turns. 

Thanks to Chris for hosting, the game was great fun and left us wanting to play more games.  

The Venutius Revolt, a 10mm Romans v Britons game of Hail Caesar.

 The Venutius Revolt, AD71.

In AD 69 Venutius was replaced as husband of Queen Cartimandua by Vellocatus, his armour bearer. Earlier in her reign, Cartimandua had helped capture Caractacus in AD 46, her actions helping the Brigantes become a valued client Kingdom under Roman rule. In AD 71 ex King Venutius revolted and led a large portion of the Brigantian population who did not like Roman rule in a fight for freedom. New Emperor Vespasian appointed Quintus Petilius Cerialis as Governor of Britain. Cerialis moved quickly, defeating the rebel Brigantians and annexing their territory. This scenario represents one of the battles of the revolt. 

Set the table up similar to the drawing below…

Deployment as per the map, d6 per side throw for Initiative as usual. Forces are as on the leader deployment cards. 

Britons Objectives: The Britons score a minor victory by capturing or destroying the central watchtower. They achieve a major victory by defeating the Roman force. 

Roman Objectives: to defeat the Britons and try to capture or kill Venutius

Also, the Roman sentry units by the watch tower must successfully order a messenger (move of 12”) across to the main roman force to inform Cerialis that the Britons are approaching. Thus, the main Roman force must be deployed over 24” away from the tower sentries. This gives the Britons a chance to advance quickly and overwhelm the tower. 

The dice soon decided that Ian and Charlie would be the Ancient British with Nigel and I controlling the Romans. The Romans moved first and failed to get the messenger moving far enough to activate the Roman army so the Britons took full advantage and Charlie in particular swarmed his forces forward as fast as his order dice wold allow him. 

The messenger ran just the one move and the scouts went with him. 

So the rest of the Romans were unaware of the fast approaching British mob. 

The coloured cards contained the special rules for the varying generals and their troops. 

Charlie moves the Britons forward whilst Roman Nigel, sits back and watches. 

Ian acting as Ventius, opted to hold back a bit. 

Charlie's light horse threw javelins at a Roman cohort of Legionaries who threw miserably on their break test and routed them. 

The left flank was a standoff between the Ian and myself for quite a few turns.

Charlie and Nigel were in full battle mode. Although Charlie eventually won through on this flank, Nigel did very well with his auxiliary troops considering how heavily outnumbered he was. 

When Ian and I finally closed on each other the Romans did very well breaking Venutius' division and wounding the main man in the process.  

However, Charlie then turned his Britons towards my badly damaged Legions and was able to destroy their division winning the game for the Britons. This was quite a hard fought fight but the british fully deserved their win. 

15mm Fantastic Battles: Wylde Elves v Dingly Dell: Serenity

 Back to Fantastic Battles this week and our third game in a loosely linked series of games. This time Ian created the scenario and I was intrigued to see what devious game he had planned...

Serenity.

The Wylde Elves moved further along the Greenspyke River, gathering allies as they go. Dingley Dell scouts followed them shadowing their every move. The elves decided to make a stand. They chose the mysterious mist covered plain of 'Serenity'. To the Wylde Elves this is a sacred place, unseen by most. Talk amongst the older, wiser elves is about a place of healing but also confusion. As the forces march towards one another they spy many flying creatures flying in circles over the mist but non fly into it.   

Ian also told me there were further notes about Serenity which I may discover as we play. 

The dice decided that the Wylde Elves would be the attacker which gave me the advantage of seeing how Ian deployed his nefarious troops of Dingly Dell before I deployed my own.  

Both sides deployed with the mist shrouded'Serenity' in the centre. 

Dingly Dell to the left, Wylde Elves to the right. 

In this photo from behind Dingly Dell lines you can see a strange creature flying out of the mist. 

Thankfully as troops advanced into the mist it dissipated but what else could happen?  

Mishaps were fairly kind to both sides with just the odd unit advancing or retreating. 

Strange creatures emerge from the mist and fly away as it all clears. 

There in the centre of the 'mist' is a strange cairn. Small animals move around, seemingly injured creatures moving towards it, healed creatures moving away. 

 The injured imps move into contact with it and have 2 wounds removed!!!!

The centaur archers take out 'Butch and Sundance' with their shooting. 

The oncoming mushimen then clashed with the centaurs and defeated them. 

The Dingly Dell archmage Pyhruss (the flame demon) summons many little creatures/swarms to harass the Wylde Elf guardians. 

Here the game got so involved I forgot to take photos for a couple of turns. Much damage was done to both sides but the elves also lost a couple of characters which played havoc with the control of their units. 

Last turn and it is so close that either side could win. The crafy Dingly Dell mage managed to 'Blink' my Treemen out of contact with the witches. If I had killed them the Dingly Dell force would have been broken. 

In the same turn, my poor elf guardians, have being blasted by artillery all game get charged and destroyed by the fiendish spider riders taking me over my breakpoint by one point. 

 Victory goes to Dingly Dell! (again!!!). 

As for Serenity, the sacred grove which was just over 4BW wide was classed as Malodorous to all who entered but anyone who touched the cairn also got 'Regenerated' 

 Flying creatures cannot enter the glade. Sadly for me, my mounted elf archers charged through the glade to clash with the imps and were penalised for being in the glade but still squished the imps. 

Once again Fantastic Battles had given us a great game and a very close one too.  One day the elves shall have their revenge!