Light at the end of the Tunnel?

 Just over four weeks now without a wargame, an unheard of experience for me, maybe even a first. I will also admit that during some of that time wargaming was not the first thing on my mind, the oak panelled study, the drawer with my service revolver did make an appearance a few times. I am still on the mend however slowly and things are improving.

Jimi is coming round to fight a small Dux Britanniarum skirmish tomorrow, I thought about WWII, then a War and Conquest clash but I now know that might be pushing things a game too far. With help from the missus, a saint that woman, a saint, as I cannot yet lift up boxes full of metal troops or terrain I have sorted out a nice little table and am looking forward to the game. I have not played Dux Britanniarum since 2015, a real shame as it is a nice little game.

As I said above I have kind of retreated a bit from all things wargaming but not entirely, I arranged friend Stuart to print me off a few pieces of BEF armour, and I bought the nice renaissance Cardinal set from Perrys just in case I ever get around to adding Papal troops to the Italian Wars, cannot really make my mind up about these just now. In order to round off my supports for the BEF in 1940 I got a Warlord 2 pdr and a 1st Corps Boys anti-tank rifle, the former easy to build which is unusual in my experience of Warlord guns and the latter a nice little crew.

Matilda I.

A9.

Vickers MkVI.

All of the above have taken eons longer than I normally take to finish something, mate Phil Robinson helped me out with decals for the British tanks and info on where they went, much obliged Phil. I am still on with the gun and rifle crews, after some time my back hurts. I had an issue with one of the Perry figures and they sent me out a replacement very quickly with no fuss.

Papal Leader.

I have had a hard time reading as well not helped by my biography of the Emperor Justinian being like wading through treacle, I should have known better and did not follow my own due diligence and missed the BCE and CE nonsense. I know the Byzantines would argue about angels on a pin head or some such but get over it or better still ignore it and get on with the battles, I gave up. I am back on track again with the excellent Sword Beach by Stephen Fisher, at last an in depth look at what happened on a British beach, warts and all.

I have also had time of course to watch plenty of TV, but sadly have found nothing to write home about. I did try 'Eric' although it didn't seem like my cup of char. The main character was an alchoholic wife abuser, his mate at work had been lifted for interfering with children, there was a deviant club almost next door, most of the men were gay or wierd and peadophiles were behind every lamp post, is this really entertainment? I retreated to binge watch Seinfeld and have now moved on to Rising Damp and sit chuckling over the comic genius of the writer and performances of the actors, especially Leonard Rossiter, knowing it would never see the light of day now.

Jimi did turn up today and he took charge of a Saxon warband hell bent on plundering a village before the local Lord turned up, I mentioned above it was 2015 the last time I playd and it will be 3015 before I go near it again. The game is certainly not a 'pick up' game and I floundered at the first hurdle as Jimi decided to have a duel between the Champions, we gave up with that. The Saxons at first made for the village but as the Romano-British moved fairly swiftly he turned his men to meet them, two leaders did however kick a couple of doors down in an effort to find some loot, they didn't. In the first combat I threw some levy into an attack with a hand of fate cards which could have brought down King Kong, first blood to the British. We got a second attack in each but it was going to be a long slog so as we were running out of time we called a halt.

Not a great game but we enjoyed a few hours of banter and threw some dice, it was a great pick me up for me and I realised maybe another week of recovery and I should be back to wargaming normal, at least here.

And just when I thought I was finished with British SYW infantry, friend David Bickley dropped these guys on me while Julian popped off this lovely ACW cavalryman on his way past. What a lot of nice people in this hobby.

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday I completed amendments to maps for the book on General Pulteney  'Putty' so I now await the author's OK for completion. I don't have a lot of maps on the go at the moment so I might spend some of the day on YouTube doing some 'training' to hone my skills.

I got the paint tray sorted out yesterday evening and am now nearing completion of the cataphracts, once I am happy I am going to go over them again and try and pick out some of the excellent detail on the leatherwork and armour of these figures, I normally of course would be leaping to base them but I have to learn patience with this army, I may also get some time to clean up the next unit on the list, again I am going against form and doing the Sagittarii instead of line infantry much as I am desperate to get my first real Romans done, patience, patience.

I did manage to finish some leaders and characters for my Early Saxons, these are actually some I prepared earlier, they were originally and still can be, used for Dux Brittaniarum, from left to right a bard, thegn, shaman and thegn, but now I can integrate them into my War and Conquest army. What is correct is it WAC or W&C? They are all Gripping Beast figures and although the guy on the right is not striking a dramatic pose he has a quiet menace about him which I like.

I also need to get off my backside and get a classical Greek list sorted out for November's tournament which promises to be the largest so far with 20 players, 6 completely new to the rules, Foundry have intimated they can do two more tables so there are also 4 reserve places at the moment. I really am looking forward to this. I'll have to start saving in case I am caught for a round at the bar!

Roman Army
New Brushes      £19.99

New total         £266.81

Scots wi Hae!

A bit of a red letter day today. I have just ordered up the last figures for my Dark Age armies, I also managed to salvage a bunch from my Dux Britanniarum reserves, so I managed to save myself some time and money, the Dux guys are already painted and only need some shield changes and hey presto! OK I still want to add some plastic skirmishers, javelins and slings but no big deal, I have them already. So I am still on target for a new army by the summer.

I have also sent away the last map for the Barbarossa Derailed Atlas to the author for his perusal, I will still have some tidying up to do and no doubt some corrections or additions he may require, but the hard work is done. Although no sooner had I sent the drafts than I got another commission of around 8-10 maps/diagrams for a book on tanks circa WWI.

With a little time to myself I also plan to complete the last battle for my Dark Age scenario booklet today and get to work on the layout.

And that isn't all, as well as the troops I also ordered up a case of twelve (hopefully) excellent wines for myself, it's all me, me, me at the moment.

Now, the Scottish thing, I have just sat back and watched the second part of the BBC series "After Bannockburn", as you may be aware I am usually fairly harsh in my criticism of historical movies or documentaries being almost impossible to please, and a pain in the backside to listen to. But this one was different, alright I could carp that watching you might think Scotland was nothing but hills and it might make you wonder why the Scots king lived in a big wooden shed rather than a castle, albeit one with a big wooden fence around it. But apart from that we got grubby, authentic looking Scots soldiers rather than grubby, tartan clad buffoons, and best of all a heap of experts whose comments and theories really made you think why the Scots were in Ireland, and why they failed. One of the main reasons was something completely new to me about the period and something I would never have guessed at. I do recommend you get a look at this before it is archived.

Did I also mention it is Pub Wednesday, life just doesn't get any better than this.

Tax Collector AAR (Dux Britanniarum)

A quiet afternoon away from maps so what better than to play the Tax Collector and give all my troops a chance to get back on the horse so to speak, after being thrown to the floor. It gave me a chance to get most of my 28mm Dark Age terrain out, but now I see that I require at least one or two more trees, possibly some wattle fencing, that all elusive Roman Villa and a road. I looked at the very nice but expensive Roman road made by Grand Manner but I have settled on one by Terrain Mat which is flexible and nice and simple, you can even get it with cart tracks on it, by settled I mean I am looking at it, not quite buying it though, not yet.

You can get the gist of the game from the Scenario page.

 Our man sets up his stall, his friends in attendance and even a representative of the church to make sure things are handled correctly, or more likely to see that God's share is not short.

A quiet pastoral scene, a slight delay perhaps as they work out the password and username for the new fangled abacus.

And now it happens, Ceolwulf a notorious raider has arrived with almost his entire band of warriors, lacking only some missile troops.

Tribune Atticus appears at almost the same time, but with only his bodyguard, however he boldly steps forth.

 

 "We're outta here" the fat cat's try and catch their wagon, leaving behind their collected goods, as the driver is more interested in putting space between himself and the Saxons.

 Ceolwulf closes on the prize, while the rest of the British turn up and sprint for the village making excellent time. But not quick enough, Ceolwulf holds the line while his companion Eadbald makes off at an astounding rate for home. Osfrid the remaining Saxon noble throws his men into Atticus' bodyguard with a superb hand of attack cards and .... blows it! One slight wound on the British commander, 16+ dice and one hit.

 

 Just as the British warriors under Magnus form shield wall and look like having a chance at an overwhelming attack on Ceolwulf and his hearthguard, the wily Saxon takes the lead and legs it.

Despite having to leave one group to their fate, the rest of the Saxons literally sprint off the table leaving a bitter Atticus, but a surprisingly cheerful tax man. Ceolwulf on the other hand was beside himself having lost six warriors to cart off an empty chest!

Nothing is certain in Dux Britanniarum, you have to play the cards you are dealt and also go along with the activation process, the Gods certainly favoured the Saxons in this game, they got all their men on first, and made more than decent movement rolls, especially when fleeing. The British on the other hand brought one group on for the first round, then, just as Magnus had an opportunity to charge in Shieldwall, Ceolwulf played a Step Forth and legged it. Despite 'winning' the game, the Saxons lost the only combat of the day, some really dire die rolls on their side, and found the chest empty on their return to their ships.

Definitely one to play again, but maybe next time I will have that road and some more trees.

My Romano-British are more Roman than British, they started off less uniform, but I could not resist the pull of Late Romans and the Little Big Man Studio transfers, I have since corrected this with my much larger War & Conquest Romano-British army which is a lot rougher around the edges and with which I am pretty chuffed.

Can't Move, You Needed a 4

OK, so what is the big deal these days with activation, and that’s with a capital A. There doesn’t seem to be a rule set which does not go out of its way to stop you doing what you want on the wargame table. Yes, I realise that things didn’t always go well for real commanders and there were subordinates who were tardy at best and downright disobedient at worst, although the former probably outnumbers the latter. But if a general sends an order to a Corps commander to advance, half of his troops don’t suddenly decide to sit put and do nothing because, to be honest I can’t even think of a because, they just wouldn’t. A battalion commander forms an attack plan against a defended farmhouse at 0600 hrs, then for the next three hours two platoons and three sections simply do nothing. We all forget to move someone, or shoot, or manoeuvre, that’s fog enough for me, I have lost battles because I forgot a rule or was so busy doing something at one end of the table I ignored the other end. I have nothing against differing activations as long as everyone eventually gets to do something. I have seen people spend hours waiting for a certain card or the right number on a die to turn up before actually managing to take part in a game.  I have four games with activation of one kind or another, War & Conquest, Dead Man's Hand, Dux Britanniarum and X-Wing, all clever and unpredictable, but everything gets a move, you won’t lose a game because you didn’t role a 4 or get a face card. X-Wing may be predictable but nonetheless it has a clever activation sequence which usually baffles me and leaves my starships acting more like dodgems at the fairground.

Disaster

Club night and I was up against Matt's Irish Raiders with my Romano-British in our Dux Britanniarum campaign. I have not beat 'those people' as R.E. Lee called the enemy, I have been close, but no coconuts. I had to protect the village and I got the jump on Matt and could have set up comfortably behind the hedges in shieldwall, but there is no point waiting a week for a game and then sitting in a corner all night. I find with Dux sometimes the objective of the raid becomes secondary to destroying the enemy, if you do that, you win anyway. Matt thought the same and bounded up the centre and straight into my waiting troops, not yet quite ready to receive him. With both of us on low force morale I thought kill the foot raiders and it's end of story, back to mine for a nightcap. A magnificent fight ensued in which I suffered horrendous casualties but simply could not kill the Raiders, because of the rules they take more shock than kills. Despite all this, and losing a couple of groups, my men made one more heroic effort, but Matt made his Force Morale throws and threw in his cavalry along with the 'I never miss incredible Irish Dark Age Sniper" and it was game over.
What can I moan about? Well, I am glad you asked that question, I had several chances to kill or deliver shock and twice I managed neither, I had good hit dice but lousy kill dice and needing sixes makes it even harder. I do have to say Matt's men did fight well.

Both sides eager for battle.

The Irish foot are pushed back, but there are too many empty slots in my ranks.

 And now disaster number two. While moving some wargame gear at the end and trying to not knock over someone else's boxes, I knocked mine over, for the first time ever I dropped a box of soldiers, you can imagine how sick I felt.

Bits and pieces.

I rushed home only wanting to see the damage, it looked worse than it was but I still spent an hour and a half with a tube of superglue until after midnight.

Sorted!

I got up at 0600 hrs this morning and put the finishing touches to my boys, never again. Now off for a well deserved bagel. And last but not least, I had a report that the link to my map site was 'dead', it has now been fixed, so go and look.