Yet More Vikings

I seem to have been on a painting spree lately.

2 x Saxon Mounted Command - Cv(O)
5 x Viking Huscarls - Bd(O)
4 x Viking Raiders - Bd(F)

11 x Viking Raiders - Bd(F)
1 x Welsh spearmen - Ax(O) or Ax(X)

The huscarls will be contributed towards a combined Welsh army using Ben's list.  The Bd(F) may well turn up as Breton allies.  Some of my recently painted Roman cavalry could do service in either army.

On my paint table are 21 cavalry that are nearing completion.  Production has been halted as I managed to break a lance and the Super Glue has dried up (isn't that always the way?). 


Round Up

Saturday 4th August 2018 - Gt. Houghton

2 games of DBN where I was commanding the Austrians v the dastardly Prussians.  I lost the first game 5:3.  Revenge came in the re-match 1:6.

We decided that a house rule was necessary - Jager & LI only get +4 when defending a BUA in melee.  You could argue for a +1 in shooting (rested muskets/partial cover) maybe!

2 games of DBA v3.0

Western Visigoths v Middle Imperial Roman - a 1:4 loss.  Just bad fighting dice.
Early Byzantines v Italian Ostrogoths - my light horse v Ian's Kn(F).  I took the wrong table edge so couldn't use my greater manoeuvrability.  A 1:5 loss.


Monday 6th August 2018 - WDW

Couldn't get there - hopefully I can post later.


Tuesday 7th August 2018 - Completely Off-Topic

Early evening the field behind my house was on fire.  The cereal crop had just been harvested the day before.  The fire brigade was called but could not gain access because of anti-nuisance gates.  They eventually came in from the far side of the hill crest.

You can see how the fire crept up the hill.  Had it not been stopped the un-harvested crop on the far side would have been lost.  Not a big event in world terms but quite spectacular on a local scale.

More Painting Progress

9 elements of 'Roman' cavalry.  The eagle-eyed will spot some Spanish (Mike's Models) and some mounted hoplites.  The rest are indeed Romans but painted mostly as more generic dark ages figures.

The 2h Lch that I purchased at Newark.  Not certain which dynasty it is supposed to be from!  The bases are too long to fit the model on straight - hence the skewed frontage.

I found 20 of these languishing at the bottom of my 'Dark Ages' box.  The riders are a special made by Mike's Models somewhere in the seventies.  An advert in Slingshot asked for people to buy some as the commissioner had to purchase a minimum amount.  They are Early Sarmatians (the horses may be MM or Minifigs).

After sleeping peacefully in their box for decades I have decided to convert them into something useful.  The Carolingian Medium Cavalryman illustrated in the Ian Heath Dark Ages book is pretty close but I will have to add a shield and disguise the quivers.

By adding a suitable figure from the spares box I will have 7 elements of generic DA cavalry for my Welsh and Breton armies. For once I am glad that I am a hoarder.

Round Up

Monday 31st July 2018 - WDW

Square Bashing - Russians v Germans
Wings of War - WW1
Hitler's War (boardgame)
DBM - Scots Common v Medieval Irish - a slow game with no conclusion


Tuesday 1st August 2018

Posted some pictures to the club's Facebook page.

Received Viking huscarls from Essex.  Unfortunately 10 of them were spearmen not axemen. In the fullness of time I will, therefore, have to purchase 6 more axemen.  Have started painting them already.

Painting Progress

15 x Viking Bd(O) - various manufacturers

On the minus side this leaves me 5 elements short (for my Welsh army) but I am awaiting a delivery from Essex of 20 figures. 

On the plus side, however, I have 12 x Viking Irr Bd(F) elements almost completed.  These can be used as Viking raiders or back ranks of Wb(F).

Also nearing completion are 7 elements of Roman cavalry.


Round Up

Saturday 14th July 2018 - Horbury Library

Postscript - even in the two 'modified' games the Romans failed to win.


Monday 16th July 2018 - WDW

DBMM - Hindu Indian v Early Byzantines
Wings of War - WW2 aerial combat - Brits v Germans
Square Bashing - Grmans v Brits 1915
DBM - Sicilian v Islamic Berbers - a damn close run thing.  With one bound to go the enemy only had to lose one more element for it to rout.  We needed two and a half.  Guess what happened!


Monday 23rd July 2018 - Al's Place

DBM - Thebans v Phokians.  At the drawing of stumps we had lost two EEs and the opposition none.  A really booooooring draw.


Sunday 29th July 2018 - Halifax

Another visit to the model shop purchasing only one box of plastics:

Strelets M071 - British Light Infantry in Egypt.

Bearing in mind that the French only fought the British, on land, at the tail end of the Egyptian war.   I probably don't need that many of these figures. 

The 'Tarleton' type helmets were worn by the British Legion during the American revolution so I can see where the surplus is likely to end up. For the mounted arm I can always use Mexican cavalry from Imex.

Gad Sir! The Heat!

Getting on with the vikings but the heat makes life difficult in so many ways.  Still I have managed to fit in some wargaming activities.



Monday 2nd July 2018 - WDW

DBA v2.2 - two games between Tim & Jim using medievals (basically WoR & French Ordinance).  Honours were even.

DBM 3.2 - Early Crusader v Syrian (an actual historical match-up). No Chris again as he's glued to the box (England were playing).   

I had the crusader left where a flank march turned up on the second bound.  Al thought that the game was over and that we would be rolled up.  Robin Hood must have been in our ranks as I fought off the enemy horse in spite of being 'sandwiched' a number of times.  Al also shot off many of the attacking Wb(F) in the centre. 

Inevitably the Wb eventually broke through our Sp (so C-in-C's command gone).  Our glorious leader desperately charged the Wb (with some side supports) breaking that command.  So a 6:4 defeat for us but a good game.


Sunday 8th July 2018 - Halifax

In spite of the queues for the Antiques Road Show I managed to get into the model shop.  Wisely I had let the train take the strain as parking can be difficult at the best of times.  Anyway..I purchase 3 boxes from (what seems to be) a dwindling stockpile of 1/72nd figures.

Imex 515 - Mexican Cavalry at the Alamo - this will join my small stock for this period.

Strelets M068 - French Line Infantry in Egypt - much needed opposition for the Turks.  Very difficult to remove from the sprue resulting in a number of breakages.

HaT 8130 Sumerian Chariots - 3 chariots in a box big enough for 6. 


Monday 9th July 2018 - WDW

"Forager" - Napoleonic card-driven skirmish game
"Wings of War" - WW2 Brits v Germans
Sc-Fi in 6mm - Andy's rules

DBM - Hatrene (Arabo-Aramaean) v Early Tamil Indian - Al's shooting wasn't so good this time and his command eventually broke.  However...all 3 Hatrene generals had managed to inflict sufficient casualties to break the Tamil army.


Saturday 14th July 2018 - Horbury Library

More outreach games - this time Romans v Barbarians (Celts).  I played 2 games (of 6mm) turning the Roman flanks both times.  When I left the game had been 'fudged' with the Romans now able to occupy the entire ridge.

The Postman Cometh

Tuesday 26th June 2018

Received a delivery from Alternative Armies:

1 x VNT27  Coatl Winged Serpent
3 x ARC7  Arab Camel Spearmen
3 x ME8a  Welsh Long Spear and Shield
1 x Druidess

I have been looking at the Winged Serpent for some time now but baulked at the £5 p&p charge.  The 10% discount on all figures (plus a free bonus figure) pushed me over the edge to place an order. 

Coatl Winged Serpent - in 4 parts - body, 2 x wings, crest.  This is destined for a HotT army (Aztec-ish) - maybe as a god or a behemoth.  Very nice sculpt (look on their website for a painted version).

Arab camel spearmen - OK - too many flash lines and unimaginative pose.  Will probably not buy any more of these but stick to Peter Pig.

Welsh long spear and shield - useful upright figures that will provide greater variety in my growing Welsh army. 

Druidess - plastic figure - nice sculpt - maybe for a HotT army as an ally.

Service was quick and the figures well packed.  The stamps amounted to £1.40.  Given the excessively high charge for p&p I can't see me using their mail order service again - pity!


Round Up

Saturday 16th June 2018 - WDW

Age of Eagles - Durnstein 1805 (NE Austria) - Chris to provide report.


Monday 25th June 2018 - WDW

DBM - Syrian v Wars of the Roses (Lancs) - a close run game with the Lancastrians winning. 
Spearhead - Dutch & British v Russians (near future).
Germania Magna - tile & card game.  A frustrating game.  I struggled to pick up warriors for most of the game and when I did I no longer had the money to activate them.  Maybe it would be better with more players and/or tweaking the gold & tribal cards set-up.


Saturday 30th June 2018 - Gt. Houghton

More DBA v3.0 gmes:
(1)  Dacians v Gauls (0:4 loss) - we both made mistakes on this game but mine were fatal.
(2)  Early Sumerian v Zagros Mountaineers (3:4 win)
(3)  Umbrians v Samnites (4:0 loss)
(4)  Belisarian Byzantines v Italian Ostrogothic (0:5 win) - in this game the infantry (bar one Wb) were mere observers.  Ian attacked with double-ranked Lh but they failed to break my cavalry. 
(5)  War of the Roses (Lambert Simnel) v French Ordinance (4:1 loss) - my single victory was from shooting.  Otherwise once the Kn got in it was carnage.  With Kn quick-killing everything I had there was no way to win.  In theory Kn are killed on a draw - there were none.

Incidentally - TA & Co have three more DBA v3.0 games on their site:
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRAe5rGG3lYIHXFgkrC3wQ

Feudal Spanish v Fanatic Berber
Koguryo Korean v Tang Chinese
Hindu Indian v Rajputs

More Scraps from the (paint) Table

Realising my need for 3-to-a-base archers I purchased these at Partizan, Newark.  Turns out that most of them are, in fact, crossbowmen.  As DBM does not differentiate between bows this is not a problem for their main usage.  I will have to be more careful when playing DBA v3 though.

Still awaiting paint are the cavalry that I used on Monday plus a mass of Viking axemen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Round Up

Saturday 16th June 2018 - WDW

Chris was running a Napoleonic game.


Monday 18th June 2018 - Wrenthorpe

A rare trip to Al's garage to play a DBM game.  I took Latins (1.55) and Al fielded Philistines.  Andy used one of his famous (and complex) deployments for our Latins.  After loosing 2/3 of our Cv(O) to Al's Cv(S) the situation didn't look good.  Our allied Volscian Wb(F) seemed unable to get up to speed and broke before they reached the Reg Sp(I) opposition.  Luckily, enough of the enemy left flank had fallen so it was a draw.  A tough fight with a tricky army to use effectively.

Scraps from the (paint) Table

3(x7) Hordes - figures from Caesar H014 Hebrew Warriors.  Built for my chariot sub-period of ancients these mobs could also be used for 'Napoleon in Egypt' or even 'WW1 in the Middle East'.

These two are for my Renaissance wargaming.  Both can be used with the  "Irregular Warfare" ruleset and the dogs also for DBA-RRR.  IR only requires one priest figure but I thought that 3 looked more the part.  Of course they both might find a place in a HotT army as well.

I  have just finished some Chinese bow/xbow (hopefully more pics next week) and started on the Vikings.  Unfortunately, the chariot project has stalled owing to a lack of suitable wheels.


Round Up

Monday 4th June 2018 - WDW

The AGM meant that only two games were played:

Oregan (boardgame) - a 4-hander with yours truly coming in third.  Still a fun game though.

King of the Battlefield - French v British in India.  Unfortunately Mr C forgot the European troops so club 'Napoleonics' had to be drafted in to fill the gaps.  The game had to be abandoned when the business meeting started.


Title:  "Bonaparte in Egypt" 
Author:  J. Christopher Herold
Pub:  Hamish Hamilton 1962
Size: 424 pages

Notes:
An interesting read. 
The author is obviously not a fan of Napoleon. 
The British don't fight the French until very late in the day.
A Napoleonic pipe-dream.
Nap's lack of preparation, cares nothing for lost lives, only in it for glory, doesn't see (or want to see) the reality of the situation.

Altogether a complete farce of a campaign.

Thanks to Chris for the loan.