Wallace fails again

Another shot at Hammer of the Scots last night, once again due to cultural stereotyping I was playing William Wallace and Simon Edward I. Lessons had been learned in the last game and it showed it this one, we got into the swing of things fairly quickly but took more time to deliberate our moves, especially during the all important winter phase when you can see whole swathes of your army disappear or change sides.

It was Simon's turn to suffer the slings and arrows of the Dice Gods, he twice tried to knock out the Bruce stronghold of Annan but was twice sent back over the border, he did manage on a third expedition to take my hero out. This left the Lowlands pretty much under English domination. Meanwhile Wallace in the North was advancing the cause of Scottish Independence, slowly but surely taking over and showing the northern lords the error of their ways.

The Rebellion begins.

Bruce holds out.

The North rises.

We again only managed to get halfway through the campaign but as the midpoint approached the Scots had almost attained the North and held the environs of Stirling, having won a battle which would go down in history almost as famous as Bannockburn. We both had the same number of Nobles so the game was actually a draw, but I felt the English tooth had been pulled.

I enjoyed the game, Simon less so as his die rolling was really that bad. I also due to some luck with the cards managed to spring a Truce on him during the last turn  two years in succession, which meant his carefully built up armies could not attack and as I had slipped into undefended areas just before the truce they fell to me. You had to be there, I was chuffed. It is not an easy game to win for either side, they both have problems and these mainly come as you struggle keep your men in the field during the winter phase then build up their strength so that you can take a large army on campaign. The Scots have the option to crown a king but that is not an easy thing to achieve, neither is getting enough Nobles to ensure the French turn up.

Elsewhere we had two more boardgames and a Chain of Command early war desert clash between the British and Italians, the terrain pieces were very nice as was the Rolls Royce armoured car used, in fact it all looked very good. I did notice though that there didn't seem to be much in the way of movement, I could be wrong as I am biased against CoC in that respect.

Ryan is back from his hols and came bearing gifts, Simon got a bunch of Total War games free gratis and I became the proud owner of what I believe must be an English Civil War cannonball, dug up by Ryan's grandfather. He also organised a game against the Twelfth with his Successors for next week, the Thunderbolts may be getting combat fatigue as they are on campaign in Greece again tomorrow afternoon. I also have an away game on Sunday against my son, the Saxons this time as he is scared of the Patricians and calls them 'walking tanks' which of course they are not.

There will be a lull after that for two to three weeks as I go on my hols and then recover, providing I don't glow in the dark having been within close range of North Korean missiles or fallout.