6mm Hail Caesar: Here come the Assyrians.

 Nigel showed us his completed 6mm Assyrian army a few weeks ago so we thought it was about time it saw some action. Would his Assyrians suffer the fate of all newly painted armies...? Only time would tell but his Assyrians are certainly a well painted and lovely looking 6mm army. See photo below. 

 With four players we each chose 300 points of troops plus 3 command/leaders. (Early in the game we discovered that we had all selected too many chariots and need to pay closer attention to the armylist limits).  For today's game I loosely based the scenario on the battle of Shrewsbury, a medieval battle of 1403 where Harry Hotspur of the powerful Northern Percy family rebelled and opposed the rule of Henry IV. Although we mainly randomly placed the terrain, once we had decided which players were teamed up on each side deployment was as in the battle of Shrewsbury. For this game I referred to each side as the Royalist and the Rebels. The Rebels deployed in the centre in one long block and the Royalists came on in two blocks, one angling in from each flank. The aim was simple, to capture or kill the opposing leader. The main commander of each side had a leadership rating of 9 whilst all other leader figures were leadership 8. 

Dice decided that Nigel and his Assyrian's allied with Phil's Egyptians to be the Royalists with Nigel being a biblical Henry IV, leaving Ian's Elamites to ally with my Hittites 

Phil's Egyptian marines advance.

My cunning plan to destroy the Assyrian light troops and a section of their 4 horse chariots which had done a two-pronged advance soon backfired and Nigel wiped out my Hittite chariots in two turns and routed our Hittite Harry Hotspur. Never in the whole of Hittite history had such poor dice throwing ever been seen before. Thus, Nigel's Assyrians proved the newly painted army trope completely wrong. 

This part of the Assyrian force hardly moved, it was his chariots that did for me. 

Nigel, Pharoh Phil and Ian discuss tactics whilst laughing at my dice throws. 

Assyrian Chariots make tough units

The Egyptians were slowly gaining the upper hand on the right flank which was a much closer fight. 

Assyrian chariots surround and rout my Hittite chariots taking our Biblical Harry Hotspur with them, the Royalist forces are winning already.   

Two turns in and what is left of my chariots are falling back. 

With my force broken and Nigel's mostly untouched Assyrians aiming to come and help Phil's Egyptians, Ian wisely chose to withdraw from the battle, and we awarded the Royalist force a resounding victory. Great fun despite a complete drubbing for my Hittites. 

Fistful of Lead: Might and Melee

 Today 4 of us got together to try out the Fistful of Lead Fantasy game, Might and Melee. We decided to stick with the basic skirmish rules and not add in magic. So the following Retinues took part...

Chris: Humans, Ian: Goblins, Phil: Norse, Myself: Wood Elves

We tried out the first scenario which is a straightforward clash of Retinues looking to gain Renown. In the photo below you can see some of Phil's Norse retinue advancing towards the river. 

Ian's Goblin Retinue go hunting humans. 

Ian (Goblins) and Chris (Humans) were the first to get into action. The Humans proved too tough for the goblins but were weakened by the melee. 

Red (wound) and yellow (shock) counters start to appear in the wood - we removed the trees to make movement easier.  

My Wood Elves decided to go join the fray, attacking the humans. They did very well at first. 

Phil then attacked my elves so we were now all involved in the fight. 

After 8 turns of frantic gaming three of the retinues were badly harmed but Phil's Norse had played a canny game waiting until everyone else was fighting before joining in. However, when we came to add up how much Renown we had each earned Chris was a clear winner. 

We all enjoyed the rules agreeing that it was a fast, fun skirmish system. It is the type of game that creates many cinematic and exciting moments for the players. The simple campaign system adds extra interest allowing you to develop your retinues from game to game. 

First game of Lion Rampant v2.

 Today we decided to dig out our 28mm Wars of the Roses figures for a game of the second edition of Lion Rampant, settling on the first scenario of 'Bloodbath' as a good game for us to learn the rules. We chose 4x 24 point forces without too many upgrades to try and keep the rules straightforward. It was decided that I (Lancastrian) would run two forces along one table edge as I had best knowledge of the rules whilst Ian and Phil (Yorkist) took 24 pts of troops each on the other side. 

Sir Harry of Austwick (me) sets off to find the enemy. 

Lord Ruddemell (Phil) took up a defensive position. 

Sir John Lawkland (me) opposes Lord Ruddemell

Godwin the Brown (Ian's troops at the top) out manoeuvred my troops on the left so I had to pull back and re-position my units. 

Ian's Kerns got into the woods to challenge my handgonners but the handgonners won. 

Godwin the Brown (Ian) set up a strong defensive line. 

Some of Sir Harry of Austwick's troops re-positioned and feeling a bit happier.

Clash of Knights, fought over a few turns and won by Sir Harry who then advanced on the rest of the enemy troops. 

Sir Harry's troops start to get the better of Godwin the Browns and unexpectedly slowly wipe them out, but with hardly anyone left themselves.  

On the other flank Sir John Lawkland's men were wiped out by Lord Ruddemell's troops leaving Sir John to fight to the last man. 

Overall, a slight win for the Yorkists (Ian and Phil). 

We all really enjoyed the game and found the rules worked well and we all look forward to playing again soon. 

 

Club Day at Scruton

 Really enjoyed myself today with a first trip back up to see the lads at the Scruton Club. John very kindly hosted a 15mm Black Powder game for me using slightly amended rules to better suit the period. John has clearly put a lot of time into his Franco Prussian project recently and has also created some wonderful terrain to go with it. John (Prussians) proceeded to give me (French) a right drubbing but I still really enjoyed the game. It looked great and was played in good spirit. 

From behind the Prussian lines.

The French view.

One of the main clashes as the Prussians managed to occupy the chateau and the French could not dislodge them. 

The two divisions of cavalry about to clash-this did not go well for the French either.

The victorious Prussian cavalry then enjoyed rampaging across my left flank. 

Not much later with half of my army in flight a Prussian victory was declared. 

There were a few other games going on too. This one is 10mm ACW.

10mm Pony Wars, looked like all sorts of western chaos was going on. 

10mm Seven Years War 

Overall, a most enjoyable day, catching up with old friends and having a good game. 

10mm ACW using Black Powder: Capture the Railway Station

 Having decided to play 10mm ACW this week (using Black Powder rules) and Ian having scratch-built a model rail station devising a scenario was easy. We plonked the station in the exact table centre and both sides were told to capture it. If they could not capture the station then they had to try and destroy a section of track to prevent the enemy from using it. The game would last 12 turns. 

The dice decided that the Union (Ian and Nigel) would enter on the town/built up part of the board whilst the Confederates (Phil and me) would come onto the board on the more rural/farmed side of the board.  As well as a few fields there was also a good mix of heavy and light woods. 

The Rebels won the initiative and were able to rapidly send forward their cavalry brigade who dismounted and grabbed the station. 

The train (very nice but pure decoration in this scenario). 

A very large Union Infantry brigade (led by General Ian) marched forward through the town towards the station. 

Overview of the station. At this point of the game both sides started to suffer a dreadful run of failed Command Throws resulting in not much happening on either flank. 

The Confederate Brigade on the right flank failing their Command Throw for the 5th turn out of six so far. It was at this point we remembered that some units such as limbered artillery could still have 1 move even if the Command roll was failed. 

Union horse (led by General Nigel) finally move across the railway. 

The Union infantry finally charge the station bravely held by the Confederate cavalry...

... and the Union infantry get sent packing.

 We discovered that it is very hard to dislodge units from buildings. 

On the Confederate right the Union cavalry tried to turn our flank but some excellent shooting from General Phil soon put a holt to that. On the left, both sides finally advanced into the action. The Confederate Infantry were able to repel the Union attack. Union General Ian had one last try at attacking the station but was repelled once again. Getting desperate the Union General Nigel tried to destroy the rail line with artillery fire but failed by just one point. 

Game over, and with the Confederate cavalry still holding the station they claimed the victory. 

Good fun game, lots of action and plenty of banter too.  

 

Here come the Elves!

 It was bound to happen. Elves, and in particular, Wood Elves have always been my favourite Fantasy race. So, no surprises then when I decided to paint and collect a Wood Elf army in 15mm for use with our favourite 'Fantastic Battles 'rules. I may have overdone the buying of elves as what you see below cannot be far from 1,000pts yet I must still have about 200 little elves left to paint. The elf figures are mainly from Demonworld and the Mighty Army Wylde Elves from Rebel Miniatures.  

I already have a Dark Elf/Ice Elf army so for my Wood Elves I really wanted to come up with quite a different feel. The Forester trait was an obvious one for much of the army but I also went for Warbeasts for the main infantry unit, hence the wolves on their bases. It looks like a very useful trait and I am going to try out 600 points of Wood Elves in the scenario below...

The Edge of the Wylde

15mm Fantastic Battles, Orcs v a Gnomes of Dingly Dell and Wood Elf Alliance.

1200 pts per side.

Banners fluttering in the wind the Gnome army stood watching the approaching Orc horde. There were thousands of Orcs heading their way. Where were the Elves who had promised to come to the Gnomes aid?

Then...faint laughter and a hint of song on the breeze. A hail of arrows shot towards the Orcs as the Wood Elves emerged from the trees. To battle they cried!

Set the table randomly with a good scattering of woods and area’s of marsh or rough ground. This scenery represents the edge of the Wylde, a fearsome and dangerous place.

Once the table has been set up, dice for who is the attacker and defender and who has which table edge as per usual.

Scenario, Special Rule: Any unit who enters a wood, rough ground or marsh must dice. On a score of 4+ the unit will be stuck there next turn, unable to move. (a slight variant of the Entangle spell). Units must make this throw every turn they are in the terrain.  

So the dice decided that Phil and his Orcs were the defenders and therefore had to deploy first. Ian's Gnomes and my Elves took full advantage of this by deploying most of our troops on the left as Phil had spread his forces fairly evenly over the table. We had also placed quite a lot of woods and rough terrain on the board plus a small lake. This deployment was to really help us in the battle as we could bring lots of troops into battle and outnumber the orcs. 

The Orcs were also badly affected by Mishaps with several units moving forwards or backwards.  

Some of Ian's troops from Dingly Dell including his homemade 'Shrooms' 

The first few turns were largely about getting into position. 

On turn 5 the Orc Warlord Ba'arn Dor was killed leaving his Orc Boar riders impetuous

Some of my mounted Elf Skirmishers and Ian's Green Dragon went on a flanker, tying some of Phils bigger Orc units in knots on the right side. 

The left side of the table is top heavy with battling units whilst the right flank is largely unopposed orc units. This photo also shows how terrain heavy the table was and many units on both sides got entangled in the woods and rough terrain.  

The elf skirmishers and the green dragon kept three large units of orcs busy. 

Can you spot the dragon?

The gnome's Freemen supported by the Shrooms gang up on the orc boar riders. 

My newly painted elite elf infantry with the the Warbeast trait (each base a wolf on it to depict the warbeast aspect) crash into some orc infantry. The 'warbeast' trait proved to be a real beast of a trait, especially as the elves were also 'empowered'. 

Look all the orcs have gone and in one massive hit!

The orcs manage to catch the elf rangers on the edge of a wood. 

Phil's second unit of Orc Boar riders get Shroomed (and flanked on both sides). 

A view down the table, with only the orc units at the top left, but soon enough orcs were destroyed to make the remaining few run off. Overall, an easy win for the Gnome/Elf Alliance through being able to take advantage of their greater numbers on the left flank. 

Another great game but poor Phil was hampered by some truly shockingly bad dice throws as well being out deployed.