Recon..and all that!

Saturday 2nd December 2017 -RECON @ New Pudsey

Well...the journey started off strangely - the train arrived 8 mins early at Fitzwilliam but reached Leeds 5 mins late !!!!   Just missed one connection but only 15 mins to the next.  Cold but not as bad as two days before. Recon was the usual boor and numbers were down.

Only purchased 1 bag of (8 metal) 'Fantasy Samurai' (from A.J.Dumlow) that I can use in a HotT army (it's about time I built something to face my Garden Gnomes).

Return journey was a 'piece of cake'.


Sunday 3rd December 2017 - Gt. Houghton

Tried out a game of DBM 200 - Northern Dynasties Chinese v Patrician Romans.  Ian was 'rusty' so it was not surprising when I demolished his cavalry command.  He was about to concede when, on a whim, he decided to have just one more round. You can guess what happened....I couldn't get the last two elements I needed to kill off his army.  The dice gods favored the Romans so that one of my commands broke.  Unfortunately if you have equal sized commands it only needs one extra element to exceed army break point. 

Casualties count for a lot more under DBM 200 - if you are going to lose a command make sure that it is the smaller one. Expensive troops like Reg Kn(F) @ 11 ap are not cost-effective - you need more 'filler'.

With time to spare we played a DBA v3.0 game using similar armies.  True to form I started off well but soon perished.  Oh Well!


Monday 4th December 2017 - WDW  

Another sparsly attended session.  Only two games going on:

Near Future FUBAR - Police v Insurgents - victory went to the rebels (why do I have Star Wars playing in my head?).

DBM - Huns v Northern Dynasties Chinese.  I went for the all mounted option with Jurchen-Chin allies.  Andy had an  Ostrogoth ally which looked remarkably arab.  The result was a draw - we had lost 7 elements (including 4 for a BUA) - they had lost none.  Not exciting.

Purchased 2 x Han Chinese 4h chariots from CJ.   Two standard Essex chariots with crew and canopy.  Except for these two figures that is - don't know what they really are - any suggestions? 

Thought about painting the canopies so did some research.

From the discussion on TMP [http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=466280] it seems that only commanders had these brollies.  Given the emphasis on lightness the heavy discs supplied, formerly, by Essex seem inappropriate.  The canopy shown above is clearly not much more than a sun shade.  For earlier chariots I need to scratch build something and paint it in more muted colours.

As I slowly replace my dual-purpose 4h chariots with 'proper' Chinese models the early Carthaginians will, eventually, get sole use.

 

I'm Barking!

I'm Barking....but not as badly as I was!


Saturday 3rd December 2016 - Recon

Links for photos:
http://toomuchlead.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/another-year-another-recon.html
http://willwarweb.blogspot.co.uk/

Not a busy show.  Numbers were down.  Caliver Books were absent this year and no 15mm manufacturers that I saw.  The whole thing is tired and needs a thorough re-vamp.

I did buy something on the Bring & Buy (which was 40k predominantly) and that was one small book

I traveled to and from the venue by train.  I don't use public transport much so my immune system is not often 'primed'.  Last year I had a raging sore throat for 3 weeks.  This year's passenger was to manifest the following day.


Sunday 4th December 2016 - sunshine (briefly)

I managed to photograph some of my new, fantasy figures whilst 'barking' (loud coughing).

Dark Alliance (72027) Cimmerians (set 1)

Average height (Bottom of foot to eye-line) = 22 to 23 mm
Plastic - 'chewey', hard to cut from the sprue or sand down
Number: 44 (all foot) - the box says 40 figures

4 of each type shown in the pics below:

There are some figures here that could be mixed into other 'conventional' armies - Dark Ages or Vikings maybe!

 
,Monday 5th December 2016 - WDW

Commands & Colours Ancients (boardgame) - Bruttium (Spartican battle)
Liberty (boardgame) - AWI
Fubar Medieval - Saracens, Vikings v Normans

DBM - Makkan v New Kingdom Egyptian - a nail-biting game that could have gone either way.  My command was loosing Bd to Wb(F) at an appalling rate.  I was, however, taking chunks out of his massed hordes.  My command was within one element of destruction when.....the enemy flank march turned up.  Four of my Bw had to flee away from the table edge.  This is where the dice gods stepped in - two Bw found themselves within range of an enemy general Cv(I).  A 6:2 followed with the enemy having no chance to avoid demoralisation and the flank force looking confused.  You couldn't write the script......


Tuesday 6th to Thursday 8th December 2016

Pretty much a blur - had to call the doctor in - Gastric Flu.



Friday 9th December 2016

Recovering slowly and taking small parcels of food.  Managed to put together this blog entry.

Let the train take the strain hey!