Tuesday 18 December 2012

Dux Bellorum Bases (3)

Finally finished the first batch of Dux Bellorum bases, 6 in total so far.
Need another three or four for a Dux Bellorum Saxon force I reckon.
Essentially I have added some static grass and a little clump foliage.










The rules allow for different classes of Saxon warriors. the hearthguard style unit are easy to recognise as they're the only ones in armour:


However the difference between nobles and ordinary warriors is more slight.
I could just go with Duguth models for the more seasoned warriors:


And Geoguth for the less good:


But I may take a leaf from Steve Jones' book and give the better warriors a flag:

At least the cavalry have no such problems:


All the models are from the excellent Musketeer Miniatures Early Saxon range

The bases themselves came from 4Ground

Looking at the pictures I think the edges could do with a small touch up, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the finish.
One or two of the holes are a little snug for the bases, so I may need to go back and do some edging work with a knife or file.
Now to get the others finished and then, maybe, actually get a game in.

Monday 3 December 2012

Bretwalda Report

The Sunday before last that nice chap Scrivs drove me all the way to Peterborough so that we could play toy soldiers in the Bretwalda campaign day the fellows down there had organised.
It was a one day, three games WAB Age of Arthur affair pitting a loosely British faction against frothing Saxon invaders sometime around the 6th Century.
Any and all army lists from the excellent Age of Arthur supplement were permitted and the day promised scenarios, doubles games and struggles for the kingdom of Britannia.
I chose to use my Saxons as Sea Raiders, the earliest variant of the list. No Cynning, ASB or standard Duguth troops allowed, but you do get to take multiple units of the super hard Gedrith.
My list was:
Atheling, Army General
Scop
Wiglera
15 Gedrith
3x24 Geoguth
Thegn on foot
Mounted Thegn
9 Mounted Gedrith
9 skirmishers with slings

By putting the Wiglera in with the Gedrith I could ensure that almost the entire army (with the exception of the cavalry and slingers) was Fierce and would fail Warband tests on a 1 or 2, thereby removing the terrible burden of whether or not to charge forward.
In addition I also had another 250 points made up of a fourth unit of 24 Geoguth led by another Thegn.

As I pointed out to Scrivs it was something of a glass hammer army. With the emphasis firmly on the glass part.

We arrived at the lovely venue, a spacious and airy room owned by St John's Ambulance to find that the Peterboro' Massive had been hard at work preparing. There was a lovely big map, an abundant tuck shop, personalised name badges and even little campaign guide leaflets. Looks like Scrivs will have his work cut out topping that lot for the next event at Maelstrom.
Despite the fact that Scrivs had also bought Saxons with him it turned out we were to be on opposite sides. I was representing the true followers of Woden, while he would be a turncoat ally of the lick-spittle British. Or in fact king of the lick-spittle British as he promptly won the dice off full and fair elections to decide rulers.
Our king led us off to the Saxon Break Out Room where we sat on scatter cushions and threw some ideas at the flagpole to see what looked best going forward, the upshot of which was I was paired with a person whose name badge seemed to say Nic but turned out to be called Andy. He was using a Later Saxon list with big shields, so we agreed a loose plan that I would run forward and throw myself upon the enemy. And he wouldn't. A plan worthy of the great tacticians of days gone by, I'm sure you'll agree.
As is often the way our notional doubles game actually became more like a pair of side by side games. I faced off against Tony (or possibly Tim. Tom?) began with a T anyway. He also had Saxons but again the later type with large shields and a stoic nature. He was allied with Dan who was using Andy's lovely Romano British army.
 Gedrith Cavalry, lurking

 Loathsome turncoat Saxons

 Our battle line

 Andy's lovely Romano Brits

 The central hill is advanced upon

 Whooping geoguth surge forward...

...and crash into the shieldwall

 The elite Gedrith cavalry prepare to run down some peasants

 On the hill my ally hands it out

 Then runs away a bit

 Then comes back again

The battle began well as my Geoguth lurched forward into Tony's lines (let's call him Tony - if you're reading and you're not called Tony, I'm sorry) and astonishingly didn't bounce straight off. However time told and the formed bonus and large shields slowly made a difference. A difference that saw most of my army run away for a bit. Meanwhile the Gedrith cavalry dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied and then failed a panic test and ran off the board. The foot Gedrith gave a bloody nose to one of their saxon opponents, but it was too little too late. Over on my flank Nic/Andy was having problems of his own - although his cavalry saw off the Romano Brits on the far flank, toward our centre rubber spears/poor dice saw his units breaking and fleeing. Although he staged a late game comeback, it was still not enough for us, and the end result saw us go down to a minor defeat.

Between games the victors were allowed to replace pins in the map with ones of their own colour if they'd won a major victory. Those suffering a minor defeat had to remove a chocolate coin from their treasury and put it in the rival factions pot. I described this as My Chocolate Shame. Andy McTaggart reckons using this phrase will drive traffic to my blog. I hope any new visitors aren't too disappointed.

We then adjourned to the pub for a burger, with both kings in attendance and looking very fetching in their crowns. Post food we again entered the Saxon breakout room and after extensive workshopping and a brainstorming session, divvied up the scenarios between us.
I found myself facing Dan from my previous battle, but as our forces hadn't really engaged in that game we figured that was just fine. The struggle was for a rather desirable hill and some fetching Dark Age accommodation.
 Gentlemen, start your engines...

 Andy/Dan's men

 Sling it baby

 Up to the ochee

 Slingers clear the way

 On the hill, fighting breaks out

 The Gedrith smash home

 Dannus Maximus occupies the house

 Are you Arthur in disguise...?

 The Geoguth want in!

 The elites close on one another

 This is our 'ouse now!

 No Romans, no dogs, no smoking!

 Chaarge! No, Wait!

We'll huff and we'll puff...

This battle swung both ways, with Dan claiming the house and hill early on. Repeated assaults by different units of Geoguth eventually ousted the Romano Brits from the house and my cavalry cleared away their Arthurian opponents before claiming the hill. By turn six I had the game in the bag. Unfortunately it turned out to be an eight turn affair (blimmin' rules) and Dan was able to surround the house and evict the partying Geoguth. In a display of dubious honour my gedrith cavalry declined to charge Dan's hearthguard and instead ran on to the bottom of the hill on the final turn to  leave it "contested" and swing me another minor loss rather than a major one and ensure My Chocolate Shame (hello new readers!) continued.

By this stage the British defenders were on top and only heroic mighty victories in the last round would do for the Saxon cause. Oh well. 
In this game I was paired with Andy and his Romano Brits (who I recognised as the Saxons Grahame had used against me on at least one previous occasion). I would be trying to gain entrance to a well defended watchtower and Andy would be trying to stop me.

 The titular tower

 My battleline

 Chaarge, what can go wrong?

 This is what can go wrong

 The Gedrith will save us...

 Or possibly not...

 Let us in!!!

Charge (again)

The battle proved frustrating for me as wave upon wave of Geoguth bounced off the well defended palisade  whilst slingers in the tower took a toll. By the time the Gedrith got in on the act they'd been whittled to a point of ineffectiveness and by the time Andy's reinforcements arrived I was already well on the back foot. 
Eventually it was all over and Andy had scored a mighty victory - so at least I was spared More Chocolate Shame!

And with that the event was all over. Britannia remained in the hands of it's defenders and their perfidious allies. My dice remained as hot as ever in the charity dice off and I won nowt. I'd had three splendid games against three splendid fellows and seen some lovely armies and generally had a super time.
Massive thanks to Andy and the rest of the Peterborough crew who organised a smooth and hugely entertaining day.

But don't just take my word for it, read these other versions of events:






Thursday 29 November 2012

Vampires and Chaos a Warhammer battle report

The four of us from my last post have embarked upon a campaign.
We're using the rather splendid Warlord Campaign Rules. There are two Vampire players, Hall-Scurry the Skaven and my mighty Chaos warriors. My first game was against one of the perfidious vampire players and due to some unfortunate rolls I was starting on 1850 points to his 2K.
I also misread the rules a bit, so was even more hamstrung than the rules intended.
Nevertheless fun was had.
Sadly once again my camera reacted badly to the energy saving lights and the pictures are properly rubbish, but here they are:









The game was notable for repeated low rolls on the winds of magic - I think the highest was 8 and we had at least two of double 1. My Hellcannon blew up on turn one, and I had a short and painful reminder not to go toe to toe with a big unit of graveguard. The combination of a slightly smaller army, not picked as well as it might be, some terrible dice rolling and some all round poor play meant I was broken by the middle of turn four. Not the best start to a campaign, I'm sure you'll agree. But a good fun game that started to show me some of the fun to be had with a Warriors of Chaos army.