A Great British Build Off?

First up my most recently completed unit, some Perry miniatures 100yrs War longbow men, to be used a skirmishers in the Wars of the Roses/Never Mind the Billhooks project. I reckon these skirmisher chaps would not be liveried men but local chaps who are good with their bow? 

Gaming friend Chris recently sent me a pdf of the Warhammer village set. With me currently getting into the Wars of the Roses/Never Mind the Billhooks I was chatting with Chris about using some of those buildings to make a small medieval village (that could also cope with being used in our fantasy games). It was then that he challenged me to a great British Build off, select one of the buildings and see what we could both come up with. So building 19 was chosen, a small medieval style cottage, hopefully quite an easy build and a fun project for the both of us. 

The photo shows the printed out plan for building no 19 with a few materials I have been hunting amongst various boxes for. Let the fun commence. 

A mini solo campaign

 With few gaming opportunities arising due to the covid situation I have been tempted into some solo wargaming using the Neil Thomas 'One Hour Wargames' rules. I am currently reading the 'Vindolanda' series of books by Adrian Goldsworthy, excellent novels set in northern Britain during Roman times so it seemed appropriate to dig out my 10mm Romans and Britons. 

The rules are quick and easy but even so, I could not resist playing around with them adding rules for Generals, heroes and replacing the effect of armour with varying saving throws. The book contains very good sections on quick and easy campaigns and plenty of scenarios which even tell you how many units each side can deploy. Once again added a few ideas of my own to create a series of 3 linked games based around rebel British chieftain Bodvoc running rampant around Northern Britain being pursued by brave Legate Albus CCassianus. 

Here are the rules I came up with...

One Hour Wargames Ancients: Romans and Britons.

Unit Type	Move	Missile	Melee	Save	Special Rules
Heavy Infantry: Legionaries Auxilaries	6” 9”	-	D6 +3 D6 +2	4+ 5+	Armoured
Warband	9”	-	D6 +2	6+	No armour
Archers	6”	12”/d6	D6
Skirmishers	9”	12”/d6 -2	D6 -2
Auxiliary Cavalry	12”	-	D6	5+	Armour
Chariots	12”	12”/d6-2	D6	5+
Light Cavalry	12”	12”/d6-2	D6 -2
Ballista	6”	24”/d6 -2	-

Movement: turn/pivot units on their centre point.

Woods/Marsh: only skirmishers may enter.

Rivers: units may cross via bridges and fords only.

Roads: add +3” to move if all movement on road.

Moving and shooting: Archer units may not shoot if they moved, skirmishers, light cavalry and chariots may move and shoot.

Interpenetration: only skirmishers and light cavalry may interpenetrate.

Charge Moves: charging units may turn/pivot once up to 45 degrees before charging.

Shooting: arc of fire + 45 degrees. Units in cover only suffer half hits.

Combat: throw 1x D6 per unit with factors as in chart above...

Terrain Advantage: defenders in woods, on a hill, holding river crossing etc. suffer half hits.

Flank/Rear Attacks: score double hits.

Units are eliminated once they have acquired 15 hits.

Armies: each army is usually comprised of 6 units, with a minimum of 3 Heavy Infantry or Warband.

Generals: each army has a General figure (mounted on a round base) which must be attached to one unit.

If the General and his unit is involved in melee the unit adds +1 to hits inflicted.

If the General's units suffers hits, throw a dice, on a 1 he may be amongst the casualties, throw a dice again, a further score of 1 results in the death of the general.

Scenario Choice: throw a d6 on the chart below to select a group of scenarios and dice again to select the scenario to play.

1: Scenario 1-6

2: Scenario 7-12

3: Scenario 13-18

4: Scenario 19-24

5: Scenario 25-30

6: throw again.

Random Events: at the start of each turn both sides throw a d6, on a score of 6 a random event occurs, throw 2xd6 and read along the chart below.

2: Confusion: 1xd3 of your own units may not move this turn.

3:Ammunition Shortage: 1xd3 of your missile units may not shoot this turn.

4:Demoralization: one unit on your side acquires 1xd6 hits.

5: Initiative: one unit on your side may move twice this turn.

6: Rally: 1xd3 units on your side may remove 1xd3 hits.

7: Enemy Panic: a single enemy unit acquires 1xd6 hits

8:Your army gains one unit of Legionaries/Warband (as appropriate).*

9: Your army gains one unit of Light Cavalry.*

10: Your army gains one unit of skirmishers.*

11:Heavy rain shower, all shooting causes only half hits for the rest of the game.

12: Inspired: Your General adds +2 hits in melee for the rest of this game.

*any extra units gained should be deployed in their own half of the table next to a randomly selected piece of terrain, as if emerging from ambush.

The fierce Carvetii warlord Bodvoc, fed up with increasing Roman taxes and demands for tribute has roused the tribe in revolt.

Legate Albus Cassianus is marching XX Legion to nip this rebellion in the bud.

The gods (dice) have decreed that the campaign is played using the following scenarios:

29, 12, 24

Romans will be the red player, Britons the blue player.

Heroes:(Optional rule): Each side may select a single hero figure which can be deployed with any (non-skirmisher) unit. Heroes may only be used once in a game and allow the controlling side to re-roll the dice in a melee attack (abiding by the second throw). Once used the hero figure is removed from the table.

So starting with scenario 29, I deployed the units as in the top photo. In this scenario the British were disadvantaged by Bodvoc only being able to activate 2 units a turn. I decided to use the poor British activation to try and get the two units back by their base line up to the frontline. Meanwhile the Romans who were limited to just 4 units and a scorpion ballista felt it best to rush towards the Britons on the hill before the extra units arrived which proved to be a bloody exercise. 

By turn 6 the Romans were gaining the upper hand and even managed to destroy the warband that Bodvoc himself was leading. In the photo below you can see Bodvoc in his chariot and his warband making a run for it, but we can be sure that Bodvoc will return.  

A month of new rules.

 September proved to be a month of acquiring more new rules. Last month I took the plunge and got the second edition of Saga, this month I added to this with 'Never Mind the Billhooks' a set of rules for the Wars of the Roses that came free with Wargames Illustrated magazine, 'Impetus 2nd Edition' and 'Rapid 'Fire Reloaded'. All games that I am keen to play. 

Of course Corona Virus restrictions will severely affect my chances of getting a game in with any of them but of all of the above sets of rules, the 'Never Mind the Billhooks' really caught my interest. So a variety of Perry Miniatures plastic and metal figures have been purchased and the first two units painted. I have gone for the Lancastrian Earl of Northumberland and his retinue of bill and also a unit of archers. 'Billhooks' look like they will capture the flavour of the period and remind me a little of the old Bill Lamming 'Rules for Medieval Warfare' I played back in the late 70's, so they have a touch of nostalgia for me too!

I had originally based the billmen individually but decided to rebase them on 2of 6x4cm mdf bases; this ties in with and makes the figures useable with other rules such as 'Impetus' and 'To the Strongest'.

I also made some simple arrow counters using the spare groups/sheafs of arrows from the Perry sprues. Archer units get to fire 6 times before running out of arrows. I used 12mm dice and frames as they are easier to handle and see. 

Rapid Fire Re-loaded may have to wait for a while but I did manage one game of Second Edition Impetus with my Gauls taking on Pete's Carthaginians. Play was a little slow at first as we got used to the new rules (there are a lot of pages on just moving your troops) but we did speed up a little towards the end. The dice gods favoured my Gauls as I broke though on my left flank and was managing to hold the centre whilst seeming to gain the upper hand on the right flank. A rare victory for my Gauls. 

It was great to play Impetus again and both Pete and I finished wanting to play more games. I really need to paint more Gauls some time soon and perhaps read the rules again!. 

Some games of Saga and stuff.

 My good friend Chris and I have been planning some games for when we can get together which will hopefully be soon? One of those games could be the 'Horror' version of the skirmish game 'a Fistful of Lead'. We talked about some adventures searching for vampire graves as a possible scenario so I made some gravestones, a few with a spooky, ghostly theme. These are Renedra plastic graves with ghosts from some free GW figures I had in the spares box. 

Next off the painting table were some 15mm Horse Archers for my 15mm Saracens. These were a bit of a chore, not sure why, but they took some effort to get completed. I am actually quite pleased with the finished unit which is good as I need a few more of these. 

 Finally thanks to Pete who drove up for a game today. He has been encouraging me to play second edition Saga for a while so today we gave it a go. We played two 6 point games with me playing Anglo Danes against Pete's Vikings. Happily in the first game I was able to disrupt the Viking advance and pick them off almost unit by unit including, eventually his leader for very little loss myself. However in game 2 Pete advanced his Vikings much more rapidly not allowing me time to slow his advance down. It was a close scrap but the Vikings won that game. 

These were some of my most enjoyable games of Saga, I may even be a convert? I still find the battleboards a little strange in the weighting of the powers they grant. The game seems balanced/geared towards favouring Vikings with all their attack benefits. Still I sense more games being played in the future. Thankyou Pete for a fun day of gaming. 

Moving House and first post Lockdown game.

 Moving house is a hectic and time absorbing job. Over the last 4 weeks I have had very little time to paint anything but doors and walls but I did manage to complete a couple of 15mm resin houses from 'Hovels' for my 'Soldiers of God' Crusades project. These are super buildings and great value. I have a tower to do at some point too. 

Before we moved I had completed a unit of dismounted knights which I have just managed to get based. Painting the heraldry was fun, but I got a bit fed up with blue and white stripes. 

 I also realised that the way my Crusades figures are based I would be able to use them for games of both 'Lion Rampant' and 'Dragon Rampant' if I use counters to keep score of hits. This led to me painting up some desert themed 15mm fantasy for Crusader themed games with a fantasy twist. 

So the Draconians will be a 'reduced model unit' and the goblins will be 'light foot' and I have started to write a series of 3 linked scenarios to use these figures in. 

This week I finally got my first 'post lockdown' game in, travelling back up across the Dales to Steve's house where he had set up a gaming table in his garage. We were both keen to try the 'Soldiers of God' rules so with me leading the Crusaders and Steve the Saracens we set up two small 150 point armies.

 The first couple of moves were quite slow as we got a handle on the rules. The game then advanced quite quickly. By the end of turn 5 we were both down to about half our morale total. Turn 6 saw units and leaders tumbling on both sides leaving my Crusaders with just 1 point of Morale left but the Saracens were down to 0 points so routed. 

 So a very, very narrow victory for the Crusaders. We both really enjoyed the rules and loved how the special pack of cards added random but very period specific flavour to the game. We are both keen to try another, bigger game soon. We got a few things wrong probably, but another read through of the book should see us get it right next game. Now, what would I be best to paint next, the bathroom door or more Crusaders? 

Richard 1st and a few more new units.

Life had been a bit busy recently as we are moving house next week. Thus I have been packing figures in boxes rather than painting them. However, I am looking forward to the move as I will have a room to have a wargames table set up 99% of the time. So, looking forward to having more gaming space I have managed to complete more Third Crusade figures in 15mm. Most of these are 'Gladiator Games' Crusades figures from the excellent 'Fighting 15's' company. First up is a Richard 1st command stand having a chat with a Saracen commander. I also finished re-painting and basing a few more palm trees. 

I also got a few more units finished, including the first unit of Saracen spearmen. 

Add to that some Crusader archers and a unit of dismounted knights. The knights were completed just this morning and have not had their bases textured yet as my basing stuff is all packed away. 

This means I only need paint a unit of Crusader spearmen and I will have completed the basic army for the suggested scenario in the Soldiers of God rulebook. I need to send off for these which I will do so soon adding lots of Saracen troops to the order to complete their basic army for the starter scenario too. 

I recently bought a few 'Hovels' 15mm desert dwellings, excellent resin models and these will be painted up once we are settled in the new house. I also need to make an orchard and a few pieces of rough ground and even a marsh for the desert!

A painting crusade.

I have been really enjoying painting 15mm figures for the Crusades for use with the excellent 'Soldiers of God' rules. Having only started the project mid-may I have been making good progress with 6 units, a command base and a base of baggage now complete plus a few palm trees. Here is a photo of the collection as of today...

I have painted figures for the Crusaders army so far but do intend to collect armies for both sides. There is a small, sample battle in the book and my aim is to collect all the figures needed for that game first and then build from there. 

You can also see I have been busy re-painting some of the cheap plastic palm trees and basing them up. I also daubed a few sand and earth colours onto a fleece throw I got cheaply from Boyes a few years ago. Gaming buddy Stig found these, I think is was £3.99 for a cloth over 5x3 foot, just large enough for a decent game in 15mm.

Robert De Sable leading his Templar Knights

My most recently completed units are the Museum Miniatures Templar Knights and some pilgrims (Essex, Outpost Wargames and Gladiator Games figures) plus the base of baggage.  All other projects seem side-lined for the moment as I concentrate on these. The big question is, how long will my butterfly mind be able to stay on task before I am off painting other stuff?