Reading

Recently I have been reading and very much enjoying this:


Marvellously simple, no fancy pictures, just lots of enthusiasm leaking off the pages. Content over style one might say. It's very definitely Old School in presentation, thinking and content, so may not be to everyone's taste, and the models in some of the pictures are less than aesthetically pleasing (ACW boats, I'm looking at you) but to my mind that adds to the charm. There are lots of interesting ideas and passion in here, and a simple love of messing about with toy soldiers and it seems to me that's more important than pretty much anything.
I for one will be subscribing and I urge you to go here and do likewise!

Also the other day I popped into Caliver Books who were their usual charming and helpful selves (though as they were busy and I in a rush I didn't get a cup of tea this time).
I was looking for a copy of Feathestone's Solo Wargaming, but they'd sold out so instead settled on this:
Another reprint from the fine chaps at John Curry Events who appear to be embarked on the noble quest of re-printng all those old wargames books I grew up borrowing from the library (Solo Wargaming is the one I remember most fondly, hence my visit to Caliver).
This one was new to me and consists of a short section of generic skirmish rules followed by a number of different scenarios for different periods from Vikings raiding Saxons to Lord of the Rings (I wonder if New Line Cinema know!) to the far future via Napoleonics and WW2.
The rules themselves look a bit messy to me, though Donald is at pains to point out how easy they are to master while the scenarios seem to be something of an excuse for Mr F to exercise his frustrated prose writing urges - they do go on a bit. Most of them do contain some real gems of historic knowledge and insight into warfare that betray his military background.
The book also suffers a bit from being a re-print - it's clearly been scanned through some sort of OCR software or similar and that results in a few typo howlers and the pictures are grainy and uninspiring. A good edit could have tidied most of the typos up in pretty short order - it all felt a bit rushed and sloppy.
So as a rules manual it fails to stimulate me and the scenarios didn't exactly have me salivating to start any new periods, never mind dust off existing models. However I did enjoy reading it, for nostalgic reasons and because I find most of the books from this period to be quite charming in their slightly homespun way. So, it's no Charge! or The Wargame, but I felt I'd made a good purchase, and who knows maybe one day I'll get some French Foreign Legion and some Mexicans and have a bash at one of the scenarios...

Campaign

Our WFB campaign kicked off on Wednesday night.
Here's the map at the start of the campaign. Myself and Paul are commanding the evil (red) armies based around Mondkindsberg, facing Stephen and Matt with the forces of good based around Ingwerstadt.

Armies can move two hexes, though all cav forces can move an extra hex and mountains and rivers may impede progress.
Here's the map at the end of the first turn of map moves:
The good army A is all mounted and so has sped around to the north. We've seized Gork's Noggin (must fix the apostrophes on the map!) and Tor Elith.
There was just one battle to resolve. Our Daemon and Ogre alliance against their Dwarf and High Elf combo.
Unsurprisingly we enjoyed a hail of shooting for more turns than we'd have liked before giving it out a bit in combat. Most of my army spent most of the game fleeing but at the end I'd only actually lost my Scraplauncher and Gnoblar units so not actually coughed up all that many VP's. Paul's Daemons had caused more damage but what he'd lost was expensive, all of which added up to a narrow victory (200VP's or so) to the forces of good. It was a great fun game with explosive miscasts and lots of things dying in extended combats, a good advert for all the things that are great about WFB 8th.
So our army must now retreat a hex and then we have our next set of map moves. Looks like the good cavalry will be making for or capital, so we may need to pull an army back to defend, apart from that it must be all out attack!

Hot Lead 2010 Part the Second

So, fortified by Mrs Miggin's famous slap-up feed it was time for some more hardcore miniature on miniature action.
Hereditary Enemies was the name of this particular game. So who would my Almoravids face? Fellow Berbers, effete Andalusians or perhaps Infidel Christian Knights?
No.
Caledonians, obviously.
Clearly these Caledonians were a bit lost but Ibn Coldir had at last left the steppes as the battlefield was a desert. I was looking forward to this as I know Jim quite well from these events. His armies are always lovely looking, he plays in the right spirit and we always seem to have a laugh and this was no exception. Tactics and subtlety were not the order of the day, Jim having picked an all warband army to save on those difficult "shall I move forward or not" decisions and me possessing a Wargames dictionary that stops well before S or T. (Some unkind souls would say it barely gets past A for Attack but it clearly gets as far as C for Charge!).
Amusingly most of the units that got Hatred as part of the scenario were skirmishers. So we both gleefully threw them forward to die. Despite some skilful manoeuvring by my mounted troops the camels died to a hump and the horse fled from the board. No change there then.
In the middle it came down it some serious fighting between ranked up units with Jim's characters (and superior grasp of rules and tactics) making the difference. My General did come off better in hand to hand with a hairy Scot but apart from that I did a lot of running away and removing casualties. However a final unlucky bout of panic gripped the Caledonians and I was the undeserving recipient of far more victory points than I warranted.
A great fun game with a top opponent.

The Black Guard pick on some weedy skirmishers

We hate you! No, we hate you!

Picking on someone their own size the BG come off worst!

You're going home in an Almoravid Ambulance

Death in the afternoon

And so to the final game. Doubles. I was drawn with a fellow Almoravid player whose name I have forgotten. Sorry. And we were to take on Case, all the way from Holland using GB's own Almoravids allied with my regular opponent John with his Andalusians. Naturally having played John many times I lined up opposite Case and we went at it. It was one of those games where everything went right for me, and everything wrong for Case. I routed his horse, wiped out his spearmen, chased off his archers and only struggled to bring down his Black Guard. My camels fled the board obviously, but apart from that I suffered very little. Credit to Case he took it all very well (better than I probably would have done) despite poor luck playing more part than any tactical genius on my part.
Over on my left John ad my ally played out a much closer struggle, but I think we just nicked the overall victory.
Anyway, pics:

The two battle lines face off

Case's Cavalry get ready to bounce off

John's Andalusians swing round the far left

Andalusian v Andalusian Action!

Clash on the hill

The Black Guard that wouldn't die!

And with that it was all over.
A charity dice roll off raised a large amount of cash for the British Legion Helicopter appeal (I may have misheard) though as usual I won nowt.
My first opponent Graeme was the overall winner (he couldn't have done it without me, I like to think) and some other prizes were handed out too. My mighty performance in the last game (sorry Case), and undeserved points against Jim raised me to mid-table respectability but that's not really the point. Four great games, four great opponents, and Martin and the Beasties making great hosts mean I'm definitely already planning and looking forward to the next one. Roll on Cold Steel!

Hot Lead 2010 Report Part One

I've been very remiss in getting my report from last weekends Hot Lead up.
Real life and all that stuff.
So before the memory fades too much here's a far from in-depth look at what went on...

Game One was against Graeme's Rus.
I'd never played them before. All I knew was that they were from Beyond the Golden Gate supplement and therefore undoubtedly a bit...well...frisky.
As it turned out the list itself played no part whatsoever in humiliating demise, and Graeme was a thoroughly nice chap to play against. In fact I played him in the first round at Cold Steel a year or so ago, so clearly this is destined to be a pattern at future GB events.
We played the Booty recapturing scenario where the horrble Pagan Viking types were making off with some of Allahs goods. As a largely infantry based army chasing down Parthian shotting cavalrymen I was already on the back foot. Deploying nowhere near the Rus ensured it was even more uphill than strictly necessary.
Anyway, some pictures:

Parthian Shotters lure away Ibn Coldir's camels

You see those blokes on horses on the hill? Don't go near them!

Come on lads, it's gettin away!

Remember the blokes on the hill? Oh.

Eat spear Infidel!

The Black Guard fail to make an impact

Graeme played the scenario very well and I, well, I didn't. I killed a single unit of skirmshers whist Graeme got pretty much his entire army and the baggage off the board.
A good fun game and pretty much what I expected for the result.

So Game Two and I was playing against Rus, for a change. Clearly Ibn Coldir had got lost somewhere on the Steppes. Daves army was similar, but had a big block of fighty blokes on foot where Graeme had his small block of fighty blokes on horses. I was defending my shrine (actually Ibn Coldir's favourite camel) and thought that with my defensive strength I might do ok...
As it happened I was incorrect.
My cavary charged off into the back-field but were run off by some warbanders and never really got back to the fight. Parthian Shotting dudes (them again) peppered me on the other flank and it turned out that big blocks of spearmen are not what you need to beat up berserkers (even the friendly BtGG beserkers).
Images of the carnage:

Almoravid Battle line

Rus, ready to rumble!

Steady, lads, steady...

Fight, stab etc.!

Ouch!

Dave played a better game than I did, I made some charges when I shouldn't and largely squandered the horse. As a result Camelburgers were on the menu for the Pagans!
So after two games and a couple of hidings (both of which were charmingly and entertainingly administered) I was well on target for Wooden Spoon glory!
Part two to follow...

Another El Cid Game

John came over last night for anther El Cid game. Sadly no pictures this time.
We played the Ransom scenario from the El Cid book using 1500 point armies on an 8x4 table.
Interestingly the flanks didn't get much use and the game would have fitted comfortably on a 6x4.
Most of the action took place in the centre of the battlefield, where an unfortunate series of panic tests saw Johns Andalusians end up fleeing just as he had got into a strong position.
On the right flank my camels finally redeeemed themselves after all their previous poor performances wiping out some jinettes and Johns irritating slingers.
Other than that the game was notable for me playing more cautiously than usual, not launching headlong charges with my spear blocks but waiting instead for the Andalusians to charge me. Tactics, whoda thought it?!
In the end I won a narrow victory, having lost just a single unit of spearmen and capturing John's Shaykh.
Tonight it's WFB 8th, 2k points of my Dwarfs taking on Tomb Kings (I think).

Almoravid Pictures

I've been playing with my camera, lightbox thingy and Photoshop Elements.
Here are the results so far:

Ibn Coldir's favourite camel

Another view

Black Guard Standard Bearer

Army Standard Bearer

I'm struggling to get pictures of units done, getting focus is proving tricky. Probably because my cameras not very good, and nor am I. More practice needed.
To come is another camel and some geese, you lucky people.

Almoravids

Mixed Berber Spearmen and Archers

Tribal Skirmishers

A couple more of the units I took to Hot Lead yesterday (though two of the Squirmishers are AWOL).
A jolly time was had, battles were won (technically that should be battle, singular) and battles (definately plural) were lost.
I'll put an expanded report and pictures up here or on the WAB list later this week.
I'll also try and take pictures of the rest of the army too.