More Barons War: The Prize.

 For our second game of Baron's War we played scenario 2: the Prize. We imagined that a local priest had hidden a document listing some of the rebel lords and both sides were keen to lay their hands on it. Ian sided with Nigel to take on my retinue; we are still playing at 500pts per side. 

Turn 1 and I sent in my mounted serjeants to capture the scroll.

Well that was easy...

Easy until Nigel loosed some arrows at my serjeants...   

...and just to finish them off, Ian charged his Knights command group into my serjeants. Three men down and my serjeants were 'broken'. We threw a dice to decide if in their flight the serjeants dropped the scroll. Luckily for me they did not so their flight was quite fortunate as they fled to safety with the scroll. 

Elsewhere lightly armed green troops danced around the wood trying to avoid each other. 

Then Ian sneaked his slingers into the wood to try and attack my archers who pulled back. 

My knightly command group charged Ian's and slew his commander. By the rule this meant game over as we only had one commander each so Ian could not try to elect a new commander (and I also had the scroll). Ian's command group was broken with just one knight left. 

Having claimed the scroll and killed their Commander I pulled my troops back to secure the win and forcing them to give chase but they never caught the serjeants holding the scroll. 

This was our second game (Nigel's first game) but it was really enjoyable once again. We are still finding our way through the rules but are improving our knowledge each week. Next week we increase the points to 600 per side with another leader figure each which should prove useful...I might try using some mounted knights but don't tell the others!  

Barons War: big trouble at Little Bardon.

 Ian came round today for our first game of Barons War. We opted to use a 500pt force each and chose scenario 1: Behind Enemy Lines. Once we had decided who deployed at which table edge I set up my Barons tent as an objective for Ian to head for; it must have had important documents in it? Ian deployed a broken wagon as the objective I was aiming for, filled with the local taxes no doubt. After deployment the table looked like this...

Sir John de Lacy, my leader and his men. 

I have forgotten Ian's leaders name, something to do with a bucket I think? But here is his retinue. Note the wagon at the back...that should have been deployed at least 6" I have just realised.  

As you can see, there was quite a lot of terrain to deal with but the rules for terrain are clearly defined and easy to use. . 

Turn 1 and my mounted serjeants went off on a flanker.

Ian lined the hedge by the cornfield with his crossbowmen. 

In the game, activations, movement and shooting all proved to be quite easy to play. We did have to refer to the rules a bit during play and even then we probably did a few things wrong?

My mounted serjeants swing back into the centre catching Ian's slingers. The combat did not go as well as I hoped and the slingers escaped to run off and hide in the woods. They then proved to be a real nuisance to me all game, slings seem quite effective in the game, Ian certainly used them to great effect.  The game uses d10 for most things and this size of dice certainly gave enough variety to the differing troop abilities. 

Next the mounted serjeants took on a big gang of levy with improvised weapons and fared well here, sending the levy packing. 

Note the tokens. Ian and I thought we may get confused over the tokens but we were soon able to remember which token indicated what. I have put the initial of their meaning on the tokens which not only helped me but means I shouldn't mix my tokens up with other players. 

Here my foot serjeants start a move towards the table centre. Over on my flank my levy archers did very well fending off the spearmen Ian had tried to send around that flank. 

All that remains of Ian's levy, note the weary and broken tokens. The Weary rule is a clever way of deducting a -1 to most of tired or broken troops dice throws. 

Note we used our usual casualty markers to record Morale Penalties. These are mainly caused each time a unit loses a figure. I need to check But I think you cannot have more than 6? 

Now for the main event as our Barons and their command groups clash in the table centre. These heavily armoured knights are difficult to damage.  

After a couple of rounds of melee both units pulled back quite battered. 

This was also the last action of turn 6 so the game ended. Although neither side had captured their objective Ian conceded the game. I had killed far more of his troops than he had of mine and my remaining mounted serjeant had now broken through the enemy lines and was heading for Ian's wagon. 

Ian and I both really enjoyed playing the game, this is a set of rules that are a definite keeper. We both resolve to re-read the rules ready to play again next week where Nigel and Charlie will be playing too.

Barons War progress

 I thought it was time to do an update with my progress painting The Barons War figures. I took up the 'Paint what you got' challenge set by Dave Stone on his blog at... https://wargamesculptorsblog.blogspot.com/ 

My aim was to paint all 24 serjeant foot figures that I got for Christmas by the end of February and I am very pleased with my progress so far. I have assembled and undercoated all of the figures and made a good start with the painting of them. All shields, flags etc are hand painted as usual.   

Six serjeants with falchion and shield. 

Six crossbowmen in padded armour. 

That means I am half way through the challenge with plenty of time left. 

I have also painted a few other figures and suitable scenery. 

Mounted version of Sir John de Lacy with his banner bearer and another mounted knight. 

(I have seen three different versions of the de Lacy heraldry).

All knights need a tent to get changed in, here is Sir John de Lacy's.

(plastic tent from ebay). 

Happily we play our first game of Barons war on Tuesday and I am really looking forward to it. 

The Battle of Siddum Valley, a biblical Hail Caesar game in 6mm.

 The Battle of Siddum Valley: Hittes v Elamites. 

"Habiru, Bright Sun, King of the Hattie challenges Kutti, the base born King of the Elamites to Battle. He promises him a slaves yoke on the Hill of Goyim and his army shall be as bones and dust in the Valley of Siddum."

Today's game was a 6mm biblical clash using the Hail Caesar rules as usual. It was 400 points of my Hittites against the same total of Ian's Elamites (helped by Nigel). With large hills on either flank and the rocky hill of Goyim mid table it was an encounter battle made awkward by the central hill. 

Habiru, King of the Hittites leaving the pub and on his way to the battle.

The Hittites deploy (bottom of the photo) with the Elamites at the top. 

The rough hill of Goyim is central with larger hills either side of the valley. 

Before the game I had made some cards with random leader values and a few traits. Nigel claimed 3 for the Elamites whilst Ian chose 3 for my Hittites - he very kindly (and unknowingly) dealt me the best card from the pack which I quickly allocated to King Habiru. 

My Hittite right division (on the right of the photo) advance towards Nigel's left division and soon discovered that most of them were bow armed. These two divisions ended up in an almost all game face -off. 

My Hittite centre division quickly advanced and took the central hill. 

This is where most of my missile troops were. 

On my left flank we had a great chariot v chariot clash and with the help of my Sea Peoples Warband infantry eventually broke Ian's division. 

Back at the right, with my Hittite Spearman having taken most of the Elamite bowfire. I then got my own archers into a position and started to whittle away at their opposing archers.  With the Hittites getting the upper hand on this flank, the far side Elamite division already broken the remaining Elamites withdrew to fight another day, hopefully next Tuesday afternoon.  

Many are the Elamites that are now reduced to bones and dust. 

King Kutti escaped but we will get him next time. 

The card denoting King Habiru's leadership gave him Leadership 10 with a FV of 4. 

That proved to be most helpful.(there was only one of them in the pack).