Age of Arthur WAB weekender - Double Trouble

After the first round of battles we revisited the map. Mighty victors got to take two territories off an opponent, close run victors just one, so the territory of the Yellow Angles began to diminish.

I never liked Kings Lynn anyway

Then it was on to a big old doubles game using our full 1500 point plus 300 reserve armies.
I was paired with Wayne against Big Jim and Steve, fighting over the river. Steve had chariots (as did Wayne) and had fought over the river in the previous game and felt the water rather got in the way, so the four of us had a quick conflab and agreed some amended rules that meant Steve could enjoy the game a bit more - that's what I like about these events, it's much more about ensuring everyone has a fun time with their soldiers than strict enforcement of The Rules.

Lined up, like a big long line of men with sharp sticks

With that Jim and I lined up opposite one another and left the two charioteers to fight over the ford. Jim was using his late Romans (jolly nice they are too) which I find a tough nut to crack with their Shieldwall and stuff, and with a river in the way too I wasn't terribly hopeful. Sure enough Jim raced his men to the waters edge, then dropped anchor in Shieldwall and waited for me to fail Warband tests.

On my command, hide behind your shields!

Splash, splash, splash

Soon enough my Geoguth and Wiglera obliged (they are, after all, Fierce!) and romped across the bridge into his waiting unit of Double Hard Roman types (I'm pretty sure that's what they're called in the book). Astonishingly they didn't just bounce off, but in fact hung around for a couple of turns before running off home to their mums.
 

Not yet lads...oh, bugger

Meanwhile to my right the chariot part of the battlefield was see-sawing like one of those plank based pieces of equipment you find in children’s play areas; as first Steve's chariots made mincemeat of some passing noble Irishmen before being involved in an Early Mediaeval fender bender with Wayne’s chariots and fleeing back towards the ford.

Rumble, squeak, neigh, splash

PRANG!

My reinforcement force finally turned up a few turns late on my left, but with crushing predictability appeared on my side of the river, rather than in Jim's rear area. Forgetting what I'd planned when picking 12 Geoguth in their pants as part of this force (SKIRMISHERS, you fool!) I formed them in to a spectacularly ineffective ranked unit. Then I ran away from Jim's scary Saxons with my cavalry.

Back at the river it was slow going against the shieldwalls, though at least I wasn't actually losing and eventually I gained a toehold on the far bank. By which time my ally had wiped out his opponent and was thundering along through enemy territory to show me how it should be done.

Double PRANG!

A brief conflab and we realised that we held one of the objectives and as long as I didn't fail any Warband tests I should be able to at east contest the other one, giving us the win. Astonishingly I was able to carry out this simple plan, in the face of some high class taunting from Jim, and the battle drew to a close with us gaining a Major Victory!

A great fun game played in good spirits by all concerned.

Age of Arthur Wab Weekender - the fun begins

Last Saturday I packed up the Early Saxons and headed off bright and early to Maelstrom games for a weekend of Age of Arthur gaming. True to form I'd been up the night before finishing off a few models (to a fairly rudimentary standard), frantically searching out movement trays of approximately the right dimensions and flocking a river. Friday night, a resin river and a bumper bag of static grass - truly I am living the dream.

This was my army, a full 1500 points of:
Cynning, Hail of Blows
Thegn, ASB,
Scop   
Wiglera   
Atheling
23 Duguth, Full Command   
24 Duguth, Full Command   
20 Gedrith, Light Armour, Full Command
24 Geoguth, Throwing Spear, Full Command
9 Skirmishers (slings)

And an additional 300 points
Thegn, Throwing Spear, Light Armour, Horse           
8 Mounted Duguth, Horses, Full Command
12 Geoguth

These would be used in some of the scenarios and be subject to random deployment cards to add to the fun.


On arrival I was pleased to see most of the usual suspects. Counting up I reckoned I'd played against half of the attendees at previous events so I was looking forward to getting in some games against new opponents

First order of the day was to claim our starting territories. Scrivs had made a nice map of Britain C500AD and through the medium of Tiddlywinks we built our homelands. As a practicing Anglian Warlord I grabbed the eastern counties with a fetching yellow colour.

The high water mark of Anglian exansion

We were then paired off against nearby rivals. As I'd played Scrivs (blue) in a couple of recent warm-up games that left regular nemesis Tom as my nearest rival, so I was to be fighting his Franks- so much for meeting new opponents.

The battle was to be a pitched one, so in true AoA style we lined up and went at it. Tom made some excuses about not having quite finished his army, but I think he just likes to borrow Jim's models (and who can blame him, they are rather nice). At least in this battle he was using AoA Franks who're not quite as frisky as the FotW ones he used at the last event. The result, however, was remarkably similar.

Tom/Jim's Battle Line

 

 Right men I want a steady, tactica...oh stuff it, Charge!

 Get 'em lads!

CRUNCH!

 

I chased off a few skirmishers then the battle lines clashed and then I came off worst.

 The Claw! The Claw, flee the Claw!

Run away!!!

As usual when Tom and I play we had to ask some of the grown-ups how the rules actually worked, but we muddled through in good spirits with Tom in the end getting a well deserved close run victory.
As usual a good fun game with a splendid opponent.

Happy Birthday Bob!

The Zim turns 70 today.
So I dug out this Black Scorpion model that I bought on a whim a few years ago and painted it.

That's lot's more pictures than strictly necessary, but hey, he's 70!

Not sure why the model is called Bob '66 and has 1966 on the base as the pictures on which the model is based were taken in summer 1965 at the Highway 61 Revisited sessions (/Dylan Geek)

I'm already well into a personal celebratory Bob Fest in the Great Man's honour.
So far I've listened to The Freewheeling and Highway 61 is on now with one of my favourites, Desolation Row blaring out as I type. Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, John Wesley Harding, Modern Times and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid will all definitely get an airing along with as many others as I can manage before Mrs Toms Toy Soldiers comes home and the fun stops.

This evening it'll be either Pat Garett, the No Direction Home DVD, or whatever the BBC has to offer on TV.

Happy Birthday Bob.

WAB Weekender

Spent the weekend at the excellent Maelstrom venue playing games of WAB using my Age of Arthur Saxons.
A splendid event, great company and games played in the right and proper spirit.
I'll report on the games I played over the rest of this week, but in the meantime here's some eye candy from some of the games I didn't play in (I apologise for the poor quality of the snaps, I think it's a combination of the lighting in Maelstrom not being ideal, my camera being a bit rubbish and me being a lot rubbish)

As you can see, lots of lovely armies and lots of fun games. I had a super time.

AoW Orc Shaman Finished

Here's the finished article:

Pretty happy with how he's turned out, but glad to get him off the workbench.
I really must get some R&F finished for this army!