A second quick update

So due to having to find a new job, things have been a little lax on the blogging front. However, I'm here to recount tales of gaming woe to you. Wednesday night saw another clash between Saxons and Vikings. I took on the Vikings with Terry, whilst John M and Jim were commanding the Saxons. The game was a quick and bloody affair with the Vikings being forced off in quick order. It was enjoyable but the game was hampered with many poor dice rolls on my part. 

The Imperials have entred the base.

However, on a slightly more postive note, I got to try out my christmas present on Thursday night with my friend, Jonathan. This present is, of course, Star Wars Imperial Assault. It's a nice hybrid of RPG and tabletop miniatures game and I've now got a Darth Vader and AT-ST in my colleciton, so I'm happy.

We played the training scenario through twice, allowing us to be both Imperials and Rebels. I lost both games, but had a lot of fun. It's a nice little system and I'm looking forward to playing it more in the not so distant future. 

On the painting front, my out put, so far this month, is not great. Getting another 30 models done. It's not been helped that, despite being at home a lot more, the weather is rubbish, meaning that I can't go outside to undercoat some new toys. And when it was fine to do some undercoating, I went and ran out of spray. Going to get some more over the weekend to resolve this.

However, I've been able to get a bit more work done on the Seige of Gondor front. I've now painted every model I need for scenario 1, for the forces of Gondor. There will be a large round of basing at the end of the month, where I hope to show some the models all nicely painted up.

I have then turned my attention to the forces of Mordor. This has seen me paint up the seven remaining Orc bowmen, that i've had kicking around my painting table for several years. And the several remaining Orc Warriors that I never finished when I was mass painting Orcs for the large Helms Deep battle that I fought in 2007. 

Next up on the Mordor front is Uruk Hai and Warg Rider which will take a few more models of the to paint list. Once I do a round of basing on the Orcs, it should see me being able to play through scenario 1. 

As you can see from the photo to the right,  I've got a long way to go before I've painted everyhting I want. Though you'll not be able to make them out I've spent a lot of time building. I've built another two units for my War of the Roses project and the Mirkwood Cavalry that I brought last year. Now to get that spray paint out and get some paint on them. 

If all things go according to plan, the next battle I should fight will see some Celt on Celt action as a band of maurading Germanic Tribsemen land on the British shores to a hostile welcome committe.

Stay tuned for that. 

Saxons vs Vikings round 2

Or the tale of how I managed to snatch defeat from the hands of Victory.

So, Wednesday night, I had a game of Hail Caeser against Terry and John. They were using a combined force of Vikings and Normans, whilst I would be fighting off their unwarranted advances with a force of Saxons.

Get em lads.

I had two divisions of consisting of five units of thegns plus some slingers each. Terry had two division of Viking hirdmens and John had a mix of warriors on foot and a unit of mounted knights. I won the role off and my right flank marched forced as ordered and set out in traditional shieldwall manoeuvres. My left flank, heard the order, and then ignored it and possibly mishearing the order for a chant of Skulls for the Blood God or Waaaaagh decided to charge forward trying to get grips with the enemy as quickly as possible.

Terry and John's opening turn involved them moving forward and forming a shieldwall of their own. John's crossbow-toting warriors took aim and peppered a small unit of slingers, causing two wounds. Turn two began, and the first of my units made it into combat. Terry had the better of the dice rolling and inflicted more casualties on my men and they retreated to safety but Terry followed up and combat spilled into their turn two.

Terry's Vikings let out a roar and more combats appeared on my right flank. John tried to charge his knights into combat but a failed order role left them stranded in the open. Combat was a brutal affair with my Saxons inflicting wounds that Terry was unable to save. Terry did his best, but I was able to make my morale saves and I had gained the upper hand.

How many units are in this combat then. Answers on a post card to

My turn three became a brutal affair, I charge as many men as I could forward, arranging a string of combats across the middle of the table. On my left flank, I moved my skirmisher with javelins forward with a small unit of slingers and let rip. Inflicting four wounds on the mounted Knights which John was unable to save two off. Having rolled two sixes to wound, John was forced to make a morale save, which the knights failed and fled the table.

The combat was brutal with my men making short work of Terry's units. However, as their third turn began things were not all going their way. I had tried to hack my way through John's unit of foot knights, but they remained  resistant to my axe blows and my unit backed off, losing one of them in the process. As you can see from the photo to the left, it was a big swirling combat, which caused much discussion over the rules.

However, in their third turn things carried on as they had been left off with myself gaining the upper hands. Out of their three divisions, one had been wiped out and another was perilously close to collapsing. It was here I made a few mistakes.

During my fourt turn, I should have done three things that would have guaranteed my victory. I had to move one unit forward into combat and break one of Terry's remaining units. I got into combat, but in a rare flurry of dice rollsTerry won the combat and I was beaten off. The two things that I should have done, which I didn't do was to move my division commander into a unit to brings it's stamina down, taking away it's shattered status, and to move a unit forward into support.

Terry and John's fourth and final turn saw one of my shattered units wiped out, which broke my division and I lost the game. It was a highly enjoyable game, and I'm sorry for the lack of pictures. When you get caught up in the game it's hard to take time out take snaps. Terry and John were fun to play against and so, despite kicking myself for losing, I did have a lot of fun playing.

A quick update

So February is here and so it's time for a quick update. Well, there's been a lot of painting done, getting 104 models finished in the month. It's quite an achievement, especially as I've got them all based as well. :)

Plans for February are to carry on with the painting of the models I need to play through the Seige of Gondor. This is going well. I've now added Faramir into the mix. Thankfully the model was already painted, and so all I had to do was a quick touch up and he was then based up with the other 104 models. You can see a bad photo of him to the right.

In terms of this project. The remaining models I need to paint, for the forces of good, are excitingly painted up. This is Beregond, Citadel Guard, and the Warriors of Minas Tirith. Some of these are needed to be based, and this will happen later this month. I hope to be able to spend some time getting better photos of these in due course.

So I am now turning my attention to the forces of evil. I have decided to start with my Orc warriors with bows. This is because I picked five of these models just before Christmas last year and I would love to get them removed from the list of unpainted models. I also have two plastic models still to go. I've found these and they are now on my painting table.

In terms of gaming, I was hoping for another Armada game last week, but Ben never showed. Claiming to have homework to mark. Anyway, on Wednesday, we are planning another Saxons vs Vikings game. This battle report is to follow soon. This is a reminder game of how to play Hail Ceaser as we prepare for the start of our working our way through the Germanica book from Warlord.

Siege of Gondor - Part 1.

So, today is my first post in my new project, replaying the Siege of Gondor. Many years ago, I was able to take part in a large scale game of Helms Deep that looked like this

The forces of Isengard are unleashed

Forth Eorlings

This game was played over an entire Wednesday, between my regular gaming opponents Terry and John. It was a lot of fun, and ever since I've always wanted to do the next big battle in the Lord of the Rings, Minas Tirith. To do this, I want to use the Hail Caesar rules as they would allow us for more troops. Whether this game ever happens is another matter, but a man can use it to help paint through his lead mountain.

And so, I've found myself a good place to start. Back in 2004, just after the release of the Return of the King, Games Workshop brought out the Siege of Gondor source book. So, as I'm now only two models away from having the required amount to play each scenario I decided to start painting my way though this book to help me on my way.

But, to make it more challenging. Instead of just painting enough models to fulfil each scenario's requirements. I am going to paint every single model I have of that miniature. For example, scenario 1, requires me to have painted 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Sword and Shield. I will make sure that all 26, that I own, are painted and based. 

So where to begin. Well the first model, for scenario 1, is Boromir of the White Tower. I originally purchased the model upon it's release in 2004, and it was undercoated and started to be painted, but was never finished. Time to get that sorted. I dug through my pile of unpainted models, and found him. 

A good start. His armour had been painted, as well as the flesh. It wasn't in the best of conditions, but the flesh would be passable, and so I sat down to repaint him. I did a quick google search and hunted down my copy of White Dwarf 263 to find the original painting guide for Boromir and set off painting. and here is the finished result.

Sorry for the poor condition of the photo, but I'm happy with the model and it takes my completed models to 104 for the year. Having only brought 14 models, this is a good thing. This year, I'm aiming to paint enough models to have 4000 painted models, which i'm about 500 away from doing so. Easily doable.

Anyway, back to Boromir. This model painted quickly enough, taking about an hour to do from start to finish. It's not one of my favourite models produced for the range, I think this is due to the thickness of Boromir's banner, but it's now done and I can move onto the next subject. Faramir. It's not mentioned in the Siege of Gondor book which version of Faramir to use. The ranger or the armoured version. I think I have an armoured version to finish off, so that's the one to do.

Tonight, I should get another Star Wars Armada battle in, so keep an eye out for the battle report coming up soon.

World War 3

Gentlemen, first to Moscow gets the prize

So, in a change to my scheduled game of Armada, I ended up playing the new game from Battlefront Miniatures, the creators of Flames of War, Team Yankee. This game is based on a book by Harold Coyle, which is all about, as you can guess by the post title, World War 3.

I played a game against Terry, who is the owner of all the toys on the table. I was given a quick overview of the rules, and then we threw ourselves into the game. We played a straight forward scenario, drive forward and capture an objective, before the enemy. We were both using Americans.

Winning the role off, I chose to be the attacker and advanced slowly forwards. On my left flank, one of my M1 Abrams took a pot shot at an opposing M1. My dice roll, which was not to last, was good and penetrated the tank. However, my dice rolls deserted me at this point and I was only to shake the crew from the tank.

Hello Mr M106

As this was an impromptu game, I can use this point to give my excuse for all of the bad dice rolling. I was using someone else's dice, in this case, Jim's. This failure to destroy terry's tank was a theme that would continue for the rest of the game. I still blame the dice, not my rolling technique. Anyway, back to the game.

Terry moved forwards and his Cobra attack helicopters came in on the side, near my unit of M106's,  and wiped out one of my vehicles.

Turn two arrived and with the sound of engines a pair of warthogs came swooping in, firing Gatling cannon shots left right causing serious damage on a pair of M113. I was also able to take out the M1 that I had shot in the previous turn and his mate, seeing the gaping ruin of the tank, ran for it.

It was obligatory to make engine sounds

Terry responded in time, and I soon found the M1's and my Commander, that I had been advancing through the middle of the battlefield, were caught in a rain of bullets. A storm that they didn't last very long in. On a more positive side, Terry's helicopters were unable to destroy any more vehicles at the rear of the table. However, unseen by me, one of his M1's slipped around the side and was near the objective.

Turn 3, and the Warthogs came flying back onto the table and launched a couple of missiles into Terry's mechanised platoon, causing a lot of damage, or so we thought. Terry had two anti-aircraft on the board, and we had forgotten to use them. We back-tracked, and he let rip, causing my two aircraft to rain down shrapnel, instead of firey death.

My tanks trying to make a last minute dash
for the objective. It failed.

As a condolence, my two Abram's on the left flank made a mad dash for the objective, if I could hold out for two more turns, I could snatch victory from the hands of defeat. Sadly, in Terry's turn three, my remaining units were systematically targeted and destroyed. The game was over, and Terry was the victor.

So, did I enjoy this game. Yes, yes I did. The game mechanics are nice and simple, and I enjoyed having stat cards for each of my units. I had a lot of fun playing it, but I'm not rushing out to get myself an army. At the moment, there are only two forces, US and Soviets. I believe that Brits and Germans may be added in the not so distant future.

However, for the moment, I can say no to collecting my own forces. If I were to get into some cold war wargaming, I would be looking for something in the sixties, using the 7tv rules from Crooked Dice studios, which I hope to pick up later this year. I watched the Man from U.N.C.L.E. film over Christmas and that inspired my wargaming juices more than this.

It doesn't mean I won't play it again in the future. I'll just use my own dice next time.

Quick Update

So, as I attended my first Wednesday night gathering, I discovered that my good friend, and regular opponent, Jim has started a blog. Head over, the link is over in the left side of the site and it's Wednesday Night Warlords. Good times.

I popped over to Warlord on Tuesday and picked up the first models from the new models in the Savage Core range. I feel in love with the Cro-Magons. I picked up the three blister. One chief, and six warriors. I love these models and I am looking forward to painting them up shortly.

I also feel and picked up my first Gates of Antares models. The Concord strike team. Again, I'm looking forward to painting them up. However, I've discovered that I've purchased wrongly. Today, Warlord previewed there Ghar Command Crawler and I've fallen in love. I have to have me one of those.

That's all for now. Next time, another update on my Bosworth project.

First battle in Space

So Wednesday night saw the first game of the year, and Jim and I took to the stars to play another game of Star Wars Armada. This is the third game that I’ve played and the second for Jim. I really like this game and it has a great positive in the fact that all of the ships come pre-painted, however, the rule book is a bit messy and could be presented better. But the rules are good, and I can buy a Star Destroyer, so I can let it slide. 

However, in the immortal of Benny, from the Lego Movie. Spaceships.

The fleets square of.

So, Jim took the forces of the Empire, with one Victory Class Star Destroyer, a Gladiator-class Star Destroyer, and an Imperial Raider. All of which were backed up by six Tie Fighter squadrons. I was playing the forces of the Rebellion and had a mark two Assault Frigate, two Nebulon B Frigates and a CR90 Corvette. These were backed up with four X-Wing squadrons.

So, turn one began and for both sides it was a matter of igniting the engines and sending the fleet forwards. All of the ships were out of range at the moment and so turn one ended quickly.

Going first, I send forward one of the Nebulon B and brought it into firing range. However, Jim’s fleet were still out of range. 

Jim responded by sending his raider forward, guns blazing, reducing my Nebulon B’s shield to nothing. I responded by sending the Assault Frigate forward,  responding in kind to Jim’s raider and targeting the Victory Class Star Destroyer.

Jim then moved in the Victory and inflicted heavy damage on my Nebulon B Frigate, leaving it limping forward. The remainder of the turn saw us trading shots with each other, I managed to take out one of this Tie Fighter Squadrons. 

Wait until you see the white of their eyes.

The third turn began and with some bad news for Jim as his Raider was destroyed under a withering barrage of fire from the Nebulon B Frigate and the Assault Frigate. It took a bit of doing, as my dice kept coming up blanks. But I got there. However, Jim was able to devastate the Nebulon B bringing it close enough to destruction, but it was still in there.

The fourth and final turn began and Jim finally was able to destroy the severely wounded Nebulon B Frigate. With a final barrage from the X-Wings destroying another of Jim's tie fighter squadrons. I had destroyed one frigate and two squadrons. Jim, in return, destroyed one of my frigates and X-Wing squadrons. We called it a minor victory to me, which was a good way to start the New Year. 

Next week, I'll be playing my friend Ben and we'll see how it goes again.