Appeal Thrown Out!

This just in, I still lost. So the significance of the die rolls in the last photograph is that I lost out on destroying this unit by one inch! How jammy is that!

Wargame Weekend

My son managed to tear himself away from Real Life to come over for a couple of games, I had wanted to do a couple of battles but what with travelling and having to eat and visit the pub, we compromised and went with W&C for Saturday afternoon and X-Wing on Sunday morning. My days of wargaming into the wee small hours are over.
We took 2000 point armies, Stewart the Early Saxons, and me my beloved Romano-British. Nothing spectacular about the layout, a wall of warriors each with some 'chancers' on one of the flanks, we had both chosen the same one, me cavalry and him Franks. I had to kill off the enemy elites to win my objective, so I went straight for his Gedriht which were opposite my Comitatus troops, hoping for a quick victory.

Straight forward deployment, the Franks are behind the tree up on the left.

 

British battle line.

Saxon battle line.

The lines clash.

 Stewart's skirmishers have retreated behind his line while mine failed a glancing attack on the Geoguth warband in the foreground, my Pedyt's with the help of the good Bishop eventually routed this unit. In the centre my other troops wait, hoping the Comitatus can destroy the Gedriht, both leaders were in the centre of the fight here, Aelfrith the Saxon receiving a slash on his left thigh. Way over on my left the Franks keep pushing my archers but never quite catching them, while my cavalry hold back remaining a threat so that the Franks do not flank my line.
 

To the last man!

 Having no experts on hand I am not sure we completed this combat correctly, this is the situation on the last move as the Comitatus killed off five men to leave one companion along with his chief and standard bearer.  It was almost impossible to shift these elite troops with their respective leaders in the front line due to the high morale, so instead there was immense slaughter. Stewart called time and we toted the points up, he was ten in front, giving him the win. However, I have an appeal waiting in the wings, if Aelfrith's men were lifted off as being under minimum numbers would he have been captured, or limped away with that gamy leg, my men too exhausted to bovver? Anyway, the Recrimination Phase in the pub passed uneventfully.
 

Dum, dum, dum, dumda dum.

The X-Wing game involved several of the new ships as Stewart wanted to see what they were like before he fights any more tournaments. I readily admit I am rubbish at this, but it is an excellent, clever game and good fun. It also allows you to buy loads of lovely little spaceships, and yes, I went ahead and repainted mine, the Firespray (red and white ship) in the picture is a personalised ship for the female ace, Kath Scarlett, the others are Stewart's, straight out of the box. I managed to take out the large vessel but lady luck was with Miss Scarlett as she put paid to my remaining ship in very short order at the end.
All told a good couple of days fighting.

What else?

50+ years of wargaming and all we get is the Dark Ages? Well no, I thought I ought to give a more balanced view of my passion for wargaming. I also have both fleets which fought at Jutland in 1916, 1/1200 if memory serves me correctly or it may be 1/2400, they are really small with a battleship about two inches long, I really need to get an up to date set of rules for these and set sail again at some point. Next is WWI again, Wings of War(Glory) with 50+ aircraft covering ground attack, bombers, reconnaissance, scouts and balloons, all of which I repainted as there always seemed to be a better colour scheme than the one the aircraft originally came with. I did have four medieval armies as this was my first love but I sold them last year and I can still see them in the boot of the buyers car as it sped away into the distance, it was like I had just sold my children. I still have men to fight medieval games however, as I am left with a large number of Wars of the Roses (Poleaxed) contingents. I have a huge ACW collection in 15mm with which I use Johnny Reb II on the premise that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Despite finding opponents a rarity I jumped into Dead Man's Hand with both feet and have a pretty decent collection of gunslingers and a town which, against the cliche, is actually big enough, too big really as you don't need a lot of buildings for this game. Then came Star Wars X-Wing, ostensibly to give my son an opponent, but now, with two carrying cases full of starships, a galaxy too far. Thankfully you cannot find divorce lawyers in the yellow pages, which is what my wife would be reaching for if she realised what building a Roman army and one to fight against it actually entailed, in hard cash, time and effort and room to store them. Oh, I nearly forgot, I also have two ACW fleets in 1/600 (Smoke on the Water). You can take the sailor out of the sea but not the sea out of the sailor (ex-RN, when we actually had a navy, but that's enough of that).

New Project and Phones

There are several wargaming periods which I like but have never done anything about i.e. The Italian Wars, English Civil War and some others which escape me for the moment. The Dark Ages until Dux Britanniarum was one of those periods, and from playing that game I have moved to bigger battles with War & Conquest. Having looked at the whole period from 450 - 1066AD there are several battles which stir the imagination, to that end I have decided to look at doing a scenario book for large battles and adding it to the Potomac Publications stable on Wargame Vault. It is not easy as many of these battles are known only by name or that some king or other died there, in many instances no one even knows where they were fought. This aside, snippets can be found which we wargamers can build on to provide an evening or afternoons entertainment, I have also decided to keep it small, ten battles should do it. Here is a taste, the draft map for Brunanburh, a pivotal conflict from 973AD.

Now to the phone part, ever wonder why, when you phone some outfit and are told your call is important but you have to wait while your brain is turned to mush by some music you have never heard, that you never find them on a quiet period, or an open line, your are never first, you always have to wait!

War & Conquest Tournament 2014

I know this is a bit late as the tournament was held in November, but I did not have a blog then and as I stuck my neck out and went, having only played two trial games, it deserves a mention. I will fall in with the general concensus and say it was a great event, well organised by Phil and Dave, and played in a wonderful sense of fair play and fun by the contenders. I had to learn fast, but not fast enough as I came in 12 out of 14. Oh, and I took my Romano-British.

Deployment phase for Reece Payne (Welsh) against a smiling Lex Luthor (Dave Toone).

 Game 1: Confused and running out of space.

Game 1:  The army I feared, Late Romans (Tony Rodwell), is poised to hit my already suffering line of battle, but I got a surprising win, however my elation was not to last.

Game 2:  Normans (Dave Howes), at first dismissive of the small infantry centre I held high hopes for this game, but was soon disabused of that. I was slaughtered and taught a lesson by an excellent player.

 Game 3: Normans again! I had to deploy first, which was a big disadvantage, but I was going to take it steady this time. It was not to be, my Comitatus cavalry fled the field on the second turn leaving my right hanging. Things went downhill rapidly from there. Once again I was at the mercy of a very good player.

 Game 3: Lawrence Widdecombe painted this host in two weeks to bring to the tournament, the picture does not do them credit. Lawrence went on to win the tourney, which made me feel slightly better about my defeat.

 Game 3: A laugh at my expense no doubt, but indicitive of the atmosphere; Michael Curtis, John Grant, Dave Toone, Simon Curtis.

 Game 4: My game in the foreground against Saxons (Phil Turner).

Game 4: I thought I played well in this game, and as you can see Phil was taking a lot of casualties and had cavalry on his right flank. With time running out I threw my foot elites into a lone Saxon unit which had punched a hole in my line expecting an easy couple of points. To my horror the Comitatus were routed and promptly fled, they were taken out as was a unit of mounted Milites behind them. We decided on a draw, and I was left to gnash my teeth at what might have been.

Anyway, another tournament in May and I hope to be there, renew acquaintances and have some fun.

OK, got a bit further tonight thanks to Kisha Jaggers on YouTube, this is going to take a little time and effort to eventually get the look I want and to get into a routine.

Blog Template

Well, I don't seem to be getting anywhere fast, as usual it seems less than friendly to an old guy. However, as I am hanging up the paintbrush until next week, I shall persevere and if all else fails fall back on YouTube.

Resolutions

No point in making any normal resolutions because I never keep to them, lose weight, exercise, drink less etc. I have made some wargaming resolutions though. The big one is to build a 3rd Century Roman army after I complete my two Dark Age armies, two reasons here, every wargamer wants a Roman army at some stage and this one will allow me to compete in any Ancient War and Conquest tournaments rather than confining myself to the Dark Ages. Of course they will need someone to fight, so it will be Sassanid Persians for 2016! I have also decided to look at doing a Dark Ages scenario booklet, originally it was going to be small scale skirmish as there seems to be no support coming for Dux Britanniarum apart form the original six scenarios, but I have now decided to look at large battles. What else, well I still need to find someone who can come to the house and fight on a semi regular basis, not holding my breath there though, I do want to attend any W&C events at Newark and possibly further afield. Why am I doing this when there are countless wargaming blogs out there, why not.