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Monday 15 August 2011

Clickable pic of the WW1 Brits from the last post

Hopefully!!! :-)

I'm Back! Raiding Season Campaign Game 1

Well, yes...I'm still here! Having been forced by a number of circumstances, including total painting burnout, to back off from painting and gaming in general, I have, at last, been tempted back!

So, to get me back in the mood for some serious Dark Age gaming action for 2012 (can't say anything official yet, but it's gonna be HUGE), I persuaded my mate Carl to play the WAB Age of Arthur Raiding Season campaign with me.

I have taken Northern Welsh against his early Saxon kingdoms, so, in game 1, Urien of Rheged (me!!) won the dice-off and became the attacker, launching a massive raid South into Mercia against Carl's pagan horde!

The first game in the campaign is 'Bassas Ford'. No pics, as Carl's whole army is unpainted and anyway, I
Carl deployed his whole army, (1 unit of Gedriht + General, 2 x Duguth, one lead by his ASB, the other by a Wiglera, 1 unit of Geoguth and 2 of skirmishers) while I deployed a unit of javelinmen, a unit of mounted combogi with theri character (Owein, a Tiern). He then fought a prolonged challenge against an Atheling (who I presume led Carl's Geoguth...) For each turn the challenge lasted, I was able to deploy a further unit plus accompaying characters and luckily, our challengers were so shite at fighting that I was able to deploy all my units before my Tiern finally hacked his opponent to the ground and, having removed his head and waved it at the growling Saxons, made his way back to his mounted combrogi!!

The scenario is all about the attacker getting his general and lots of units over a river running diagonally across the whole length of table, with a central ford and flanking (very narrow) bridge! I therefore weighted my mounted Teulu (+ Urien and his ASB) and my mounted combrogi led by my Tiern onto the flank and decided to sacrifice the poor bloody infantry (2 x 23 combrogi led by Uchelwyrs) and 1 x 15 combrogi. As our troops are all light open order, we decide that the river rules in the supplement superceded all WAB 2.0 difficult ground rules otherwise the river was no real barrier.

The game went well! Predictably, my combrogi facing the Gedriht were annihilated, as were the 15 facing off against the Geoguth. The unit facing the Duguth lasted most of the game before eventually being run down. However, my mounted combrogi forced a flank crossing in the face of Saxon javelinmen and my Teulu ground the Wiglera's Duguth into the dust, the Rex challenging and slaughtering the Wiglera into the bargain. This meant that I had the general and 2 units across the river, fulfilling the 'close-run victory' conditions I'd aimed for with nothing Carl could do about it!! Huzzah!!!

In the post-game character dice rolling, the Saxon Wiglera escaped lasting injury, as did one of my Uchelwyrs. The Saxon Atheling and the other Welsh Uchelwyr both suffered wounds, the Saxon being reduced to WS 3 and the Uchelwyr reduced to 1 wound!!

So, one up to the Welsh and in a couple of weeks, we will play game 2, which, as I won a close-run victory, is the 'Roman Road', where Carl's 1000pts wil try to ambush my 1500pt column and prevent me exiting the board!!!

Watch out for a report on that around 5th Sept ish.

And keep popping back, cos I have Welsh cavalry on the painting table, testing a new 'speed painting' technique using army painter dip and 1 highlight - here's a picture of some WW1 Brits I painted a couple of months ago using the technique... Twice as quick as my layering, although how it'll work with Dark Age troops, especially the horses, who knows??!!! In the next week or so, hopefully, we'll find out!


Sunday 20 March 2011

The Pine Wood Of Tevar in Wargames Illustrated!! (plus other news)

Hi All
Just a quick 'heads up' that a mahoosive (14 page!!!!) article of the Pine Wood of Tevar game, written by James Morris and featuring gazillions of lovely pics of our armies, should be appearing in the May issue of Wargames Illustrated. I have seen the proofs of the article...it's really rather mega!!!!

In other news, painting has stopped in the Guitarheroandy household. I just can't get up any enthusiasm for it. This is largely due to work pressures, family stuff, band stuff and the fact that I am regularly attending wargames club for the first time in over a year. We are mostly playing the dark Age skirmish rule set called 'Pig Wars', which is fast, frantic, bloody and great fun - about as far removed from WAB as one can get in mechanics, but just as much fun. However, contrary to many of the WABbers out there, I am not stopping playing WAB in the light of all the new ancient sets coming out, or as a result of ForgeWorld's apparent lack of desire to bring out new supplements. In fact, I am attending an event in April (Fall of the West/Age of Arthur) and my wargames club is about to start a Late Roman Republic/early Empire campaign, so all is well and WABbing here in Peterborough at any rate!

I do hope to pick up a paintbrush again soon, but need some inspiration! I keep looking at my colonials, but it feels like a mountain to climb...and I still have more Arthurians I want to do, but somehow...well...can't be bothered!! At least my repetitive strain injury has massively improved, which means that I am physically able to paint should the muse decide to return!!

I hope to post some pics from the WAB Spring Open (if I remember to take a camera!) and will keep you posted on developments with painting should any occur!!

Thank you all for your patience and for continuing to look me up on here occasionally...

Cheers

Andy

Monday 7 February 2011

Gary Moore - R.I.P.


Another of my guitar heroes from my teenage years bites the dust...


R.I.P Gary...

Saturday 8 January 2011

Happy New Year!

Well, hello one and all. Happy New Year! Sorry it's taken me nearly a fortnight to get around to that!!

So...2011...b*gger me, how did that one sneak up on us, eh? And, more to the point, what is going to happen on this blog in 2011??

Well, the repetitive strain injury is no worse, although I haven't painted in weeks and haven't had a proper session on the guitar in a while either. Now Crimble is out of the way, I can at least get the painting kit back in the lounge so I can try a bit now and then when I get a mo in the evenings, not that I seem to have much time spare these days...

So, what's the 2011 plan? Well, changes are afoot from what I thought I'd do in my last message: My wargames club is going to run a WAB 2.0 Late Republican/Early Imperial Roman campaign around Easter and I do want to paint a new unit of Auxiliaries to go with my Sulla Romans. I have a load of Foundry Greek peltasts and will be using them (to fit in with my 'Sulla in the East' theme). Ideally, I need to layer paint them to match my Caesarian legionaries, but I may do them in the style of my (on hold) repo Romans, so basecoat, dip, one highlight...depends how the arm holds out and how lazy I get/how little time I end up with!! Once they are done I will have 3500pts of Romans which is cool. I did field them all in a game against my mate Grahame's EIR last week and won a close-run victory in a 5 and a half hour epic encounter!!

I have also been on the hunt for alternatives to WAB for Age of Arthur. I have found two great little sets for skirmish type games (Brytenwalda - http://brytenwalda.blogspot.com/) and Tod Kershner's 'Pig Wars'. Both are light years away from WAB's systems and need far less models. Pig Wars is especially good for multi-player games. If you want a copy of Pig Wars, join the Pig Warriors Yahoo group where you can contact the author and receive a download of the rules for $10, plus access to various additioanl files in the Yahoo group's file section. Well worth a look!

Anyway, along with these, I have been writing my own rules for the period - sort of GW Lord of the Rings in scale (30-60 models per side, large scale skirmish). I now have almost enough to playtest, I just need to type up a couple of playtest scenarios. Some of you already know about this and have offered to read/playtest, which is kind! Expect to receive an email shortly! If any others fancy a look, let me know. I am not claiming that they are great...they may not well even be reasonable, or even remotely playable, but it has been a fun and very interesting experience writing them! If you do have a read/play, you'll see bits of Triumph& Tragedy, bits of LOTR, bits of WAB...all given my unique 'twist'. Am hoping to start my own playtesting shortly as well, so watch this space for further info...

Talking of Arthurians, I do have a hankering to paint some more Age of Arthur stuff and willbe doing a few more Franks/Saxons this year, enough to do a warband for each of the rulesets mentioned above, but not a full WAB army yet. I also want to do a unit of Wolftail warriors and Arthur's cavalry based on Cornwell's books. They'll be useable in the skirmish rules and might see light of day in aWAB army at some point. It may take me months to do them, but I intend to have a go!!

I also intend to do a bit more with my colonials. I intend to get 2 or 3 squads of Brits and another mass of Pathans done in 'dipping' mode this year. I have half a Sikh unit basecoated already and intend to finish those this month.

Finally, on the back-burner are the Repo Romans, as I'll not have time to do them this year and gaming the era isn't high on my priority list this year. Also, I do intend to paint 2 more El Cid units: Knights Hospitaller and spearmen in the livery of the Hospital to join my 'Alfonso the Battler' El Cid force. These will wait til late in the year if I do them at all this year...

So that's me so far. Hopefully I wil get my a*se in gear and post more this year. Thanks to those who still follow this blog. I appreciate it.

Cheers
Andy