War in the Underway - the climax!

Gruzzkup gazed off thoughtfully into the distance whilst stroking the shaft of his chopper.
At last, he had his enemy cornered. He'd pushed Snazzgob into the depths of the stunty hole and now he had the chance once and fer all to show all the greenskins who Mork or Gork liked bestest.
His gamble to force his way roughly up the gorge had paid off, he'd caught the enemy napping. Shame about that little runt Nubbinz, but 'dems da breaks.
Now, to war and glory for Gork. And Mork!

The final game in the Underway campaign.

Gruzzkup has tracked his foe deep into the abandoned Dwarf caverns and has bought him to battle by forcing his way up the gorge. Snazzgob and his lads were in a defensive position on a low rise, but I had the first turn and Gork (or possibly Mork) on my side. A rapid advance meant Nuibbinz and Muncha had fallen down a chasm, but apart from that my army was intact.
However as I prepared to advance ominous creaking noises came from the ceiling of the cavern. Steve and I placed our dice ("I'll be even,Steven" I duly said) and with a crack some slabs came down and crushed three boarboys to death. Ouch.
It got worse as fighting broke out between the Spider Riders and the Squigs holding up the centre of my line. However the chariots rumbled forward and the boarboys scared off the opposing spiders.

Snazzgob's spearladz

Shooty ladz

Bouncy, chewy ladz

Snazzgob cowers at the back

Da wagginz lead da way

Subtly different image

Snazzgob played cagey in response with only his boarboys advancing

Da left flank

Spearboys, no problem

Da enemy centre

My boarboys crashed into the spear block, but were held, meanwhile one of my chariots thundered into the Big 'Un boarboys, The Night Goblin block advanced to launch their fanatics toward the boarboys and the archers unleashed their fanatic toward the Savage Orc Boars

Rumble, creak, smash!

Stop squabblin'!

At this point I stopped taking pictures for a bit. Suffice to say it all started to go wrong.
The Squigs carried on squabbling and Gruzzkup and his Big Uns took a spell to the face slowing them right down
My wizard attempted Foot of Gork and got it off. The big green foot scattered away from Snazzgob's Black Orcs, before stamping down on my archers, killing all but two, before scattering again away from the Savage Orcs and then coming to a stop. Oh.
The chariots both killed a few Orcs, but not enough to really damage either unit, and so Snazzgob's Savage Orc boys were able to smash in to the Trolls. Meanwhile on the left the spearmen and the Savage Orc Boarboys made short work of my boarboys, and the resulting flight spread panic to the Night Goblin archers who ran away, never to return.
Critically at this point the Trolls were unable to hold the Savage Orcs and fled, taking the Savages away from my Big 'Uns. Snazzgob's boarboys splintered the second chariot and then made the Night Goblins flee their Terror causing banner and ran them down.
With that the game was really up. The Squigs finally munched their way through the crossbowmen and a unit of archers, but Gruzzkup and his lads were surrounded...

Gruzzkup leads da ladz on

The trap closes

Orc of da match

Gruzzkup and da boyz crush some spiders...

...and make off into the darkness

Snazzgob however, decided that discretion was the better part of Orcyness and held his boys back, fearful of the havoc Gruzzkup would visit on his men. And so the mighty Orc warlord was left to chase off some spiders, before leaving the field with his unit, if not his pride, still intact.

A bloody and painful defeat for Gruzzkup. Steve played well, learning from previous battles that hurtling forward into my Big Uns is not always the best tactic. I was a bit unlucky, if the trolls had held I'd have got into the flank of the Savage Orcs and animosity hampered my first couple of turns but was mostly simply outplayed.

I really enjoyed the Underway campaign. Nice and simple but with a bit of flavour, and the Orcs v Orcs was nicely thematic. And it finally pushed me to finish my Orc army. So a fiver well spent (by Steve). 

The Underway rules are of course now also available in the Nagash book. If you feel like paying forty five more quid to read three hundred pages of (humour free) Warhammer background.

Snazzgob's version of events is available here

More Naps Dipped

Some Victrix Naps that I assembled many years ago, and have just painted in the hope of playing Song of Drums and Shakos before the year is out.
They're not as nice as the Perry ones, a bit cartoony, and they were a monstrous ball-ace to assemble - endless fiddly bits. I believe this has been addressed in recent kits - march attack and less Tamiya like assembly. They've also been in the wars a bit, a bayonet, a pom-pom and the officers sword have all snapped - a combination of more brittle plastic than Perry, less robust pieces and some rough handling too. I quite like the kneeling pose (especially for skirmishing) but the officer is oddly proportioned. I suspect I'll do a few more Perry ones before revisiting this set, if ever.
Simple block colours and dip - servicable.

The quest for correct camera set-up continues.

Dux Brit Freebie

I finally painted this chap up that I got a couple of years ago free with Dux Brit.

I'm still playing with camera settings, hence the slightly different colours...

I have to agree with Scrivs, not the nicest model. The pose is very awkward, head at midday, feet at ten past one and arm at three. Not a pose I'd want to hold for very long. And he's small compared with the chunky Musketeer and GB figs. Still he'll do as a spare officer for my Late Romans.

Playing with the new camera

A couple of snaps taken as I'm trying to work out my new camera.
Struggling to get it to focus up close.
Mainly bashing buttons and shouting at it at the moment.
Sure it'll all work out.

Two shots of some British I'm trying to finish for a game of Drums and Shakos. Same models, same set-up, different white balance preset.
Think I slightly prefer the warmth of the top one.

Another mushroom for some underway gaming.

Partizan

Today I went, accompanied by smallest boy, to my local wargames show, Partizan (actually the Other Partizan) at Kelham Hall in Newark.
Having missed the event in a tent earlier in the year I wanted to make sure I made it to this one. Partizan was the first non-Games Day wargames show I attended, and started me off on the slippery slope away from solely fantasy and into the historical. So it always holds a special place in my affections and I try and get along as often as possible.
This year some chums were putting on demo games and although family commitments meant I couldn't actually help out with the games I wanted to at least drop by and show support.

I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures, so here they are:

These three were from Scrivs' excellent Spanish Civil War game using Chain of Command rules, aided and abetted by Matt.
Scrivs reckons he's painted around 300 SCW miniatures and built most of the scenery on this board in the eight months since James introduced him to the period!
There's plenty more info over on Scrivs' blog.

These three were from Steve Jones lovely looking AWI game.
I'll hopefuly be helping him with a different game from this conflict at Salute next year (along with the usual suspects from Keren and Dux Bellorum games).
It all looks lovely and it's a fascinating period, but I'm staying firm.
More on Steve's blog abut his AWI obsession.

These two were from a very nice looking Dark Age game put on by the Westbury Wargamers.
Had a pleasant chat about Picts with the chap overseeing things whose name I neglected to get.
I'm a sucker for all things Dark Age and this had some lovely looking models and nice terrain

Finally these were from the massive Large Pydna 168BC game staged by BigRedBat and his chums. Small boy was very impressed with the massed pike blocks.

However, highlight of the show for smallest child was definitely the World War One Subbuteo game.
He loved it so much he played twice. Once against me (a 0-0 draw) and once against another gamer, who edged it 1-0 (at least he didn't go out to the Germans on penalties). It appeared to be Great War Miniatures in the main, on custom bases, and we flicked to kick in the time honoured fashion.

Although the aforementioned family commitments meant it was just a flying visit it looked a great show as always and I was glad I made the effort.
Bumped into the usual collection of reprobates and ne'er-do-wells that it's always a pleasure to see in the flesh, including Big Jim, Craig and Pete from Ooop North and Mike, Andy and Graeme of the Peterboro' massive who were running "Dead's Army" (sorry, forgot to take pictures) and encouraging me to attend their event in November..

My haul was modest.
A copy of Lion Rampant from the always reliable Mr Nick Northstar (I had meant to pop along to  Northstar and grab this earlier in the week, but work got the better of me). I do try and buy from proper wargames suppliers and avoid giving money to tax dodging online discounters.
Lots of info about the game over on author Dan Mersey's blog.

The other was a stag and hind from Warbases. To dress the table a bit in Dux Bellorum games.

I had hoped to see if I could spot Loki on the Warbases stand and congratulate him personally on his very brave post from earlier this week (do go and read it if you haven't already), but time (and small boy) were against me. Maybe at Derby.

In other news I got a new camera for my birthday, so hopefully the quality of photography will improve over the coming weeks.

Another Game of Dux Bellorum

So last night we convened once more to play Dux Bellorum after last week's jolly reminder of the rules.
This time we went for the full 32 points of goodness. I took my Saxons

• Warrior Companions
• 1 Noble Riders
• 1 Nobles
• 4 Ordinary Warriors
• 1 skirmishers (bows)
• 2 extra LP

On the Welsh side of the table there were

• Mounted Companions
• 2 Noble Riders
• 1 Nobles
• 4 Ordinary Warriors
• 2 skirmishers (bows)

Again we played the basic Annals battle. I set up with a solid wall of warriors across the centre of the board, with my cavalry and skirmishers on the left flank. The Welsh had riders and skirmishers on each flank, and a slightly smaller line of bodies in the centre.

 Dawn breaks and the enemy appears

 My right flank. Securely held.

 Welshies. Thousands of 'em

 They shall not pass

 The field of battle

The first rounds saw a cautious advance in the centre by my warriors whilst the Welsh held fast but pushed their cavalry on the flanks. I advanced my skirmishers, not being quite sure what else to do with them.My cavalry, outnumbered on my right, pulled back to the centre.

 The Welsh core

 Welsh Companions

On about turn three it all kicked off.
The skirmishers charged one another and the far left of my line broke ranks to charge into some Welsh bowmen. I span my Companions around and slammed them into some Noble riders who had appeared behind my lines, but the warriors on the right of my line failed to charge the Welsh Companions lurking in the woods.

 Carnage. The Welsh skirmishers die, but so do the Saxon warriors

 Saxon Companions get stuck in

Cavalry to the rescue

The Welsh slammed two cavalry units into the exposed right of my line and I threw the nobles in to even up the fight. Meanwhile my Noble riders rushed to support the companions who were struggling to defeat the Welsh riders as the rest of my line raced forward to take on the Welsh infantry.

 The Saxon right is enveloped

 A scrum develops in the centre

 On the Saxon left the Welsh horse hold out

 Even the skirmishers get stuck in

My battle line was well and truly fractured now, and I was a bit worried!

 Finally the Welsh horse are eliminated

 The centre grinds on

 My right flank hangs on deperately

The game turned into something of a grind with each of us taking a unit or so off every turn.

 The Saxon right is rent apart

Saxon Companions to the rescue

After dispatching (finally) the Welsh horse on my left my Companions threw themselves in support of the centre (where I was on a knife edge) whilst the riders charged in support of my left flank.

By this point the welsh had begun to hemorrhage LPs and the advantage I had by starting with eight began to tell as i was able to shore up some crumbling units while my opponent just had to watch as his were ground down.

The shattered Welsh remains

 

Finally we both reached 50% break point in the same turn. This also meant the Welsh were out of LPs for future turns. We began to roll morale checks for our units and although my Saxons held firm the death of the Welsh companions had clearly been enough for the rest of the force with two more routing, taking them above 75% and granting me the victory!

So how did it play?
Truth to tell, not as well as the last game. It all seemed to bog down a bit, and we struggled a bit working out charges. Some of that will speed up as we play more games, but the middle part of the game seemed to be more about who could best place their LPs than any sort of tactics at the tabletop level.
I think some of that is due to lack of familiarity and skill - if I'd been the Welsh I might have tried to use my cavalry more flexibly. Disengaging and then picking my fights. As it was I always had more LPs as the Saxons and was able to use that to keep me in fights I'd otherwise have lost.
I enjoyed it, and it took about two hours to play (which will probably speed up) it's nice and fluid and seems quite Dark Agey, but I did find myself thinking on the drive home - why don't we just play Age of Arthur WAB...?

Dux Bellorum Campaign (2)

A little fiddling with an England and Wales map in paint and hey presto, a map.
Now all I have to do is annotate it to match the card numbers I dealt out in the earlier post.
Oh, and move York up a row.

I could have spent more time and effort to get the nodes to map more accurately to post Roman settlements and the like but I decided the workload to results ratio was out of whack and also that I'd start to break the inherent simplicity of the campaign as originally presented, so this'll do for now.