Little Wars 2014

 

I spent this last Saturday out at Little Wars 2014 in St Charles IL, an HMGS- Midwest society production it draws a great crowd from pure historical side of the hobby. While there is small cross pollination of new games they're all mainly historical or quasi historically based..there were some exceptions:  a smattering of various Sci Fi games, mostly home brew rules but some well done Battletech type games and really great weird war looking board, that I turned out to be Dust Tactics.  However outside a  small warmachine tournament, and home brew "Battle of the Five Armies" (it is this season for this anyway) I found very little similarities between what goes on here and Adepticon

that wasnt pure historical games.

  

I'd say the majority of the games going on were large Black Powder type games, Napoleonics or American Civil War is various scales, a couple Flames of Wars games and Bolt Action game. all of these being big games, the traditional tournament of the Games Workshop ethos doesnt happen here

I find I am really enjoying these "big game" type of community events more and more as time goes onthey just tend to be more fun, when veil of direct competition isnt a intense and there is no prize hierarchy to worry about, as a comparison if you've been following the local debate on the fate of the Adepticon swagbag, the swagbag at Little Wars is filled with candy/ snacks, including on hell of a brownie..which was quite the treat at 9am Saturday after a 45 min drive with my coffee.

One of the conspicuous things I saw lacking was Medievals which probably led to the popularity of the event I was helping out with. Rich's Battle of Arsuf  Crusades game. Which had both session totally full with people asking for extra tickets and but we had no extra spots. I had fun helping my end of the 14 foot table out helping the guys with the rules, walking them thru the turns. 90% of the players never having played Hail Caesar before but several had played Black Powder so the basic familiarity was rare. both games played a bit differently and in my opinion everyone really enjoyed it.
Rich has more detailed write and photos HERE. I'll leave you with his take on it was his event, I just made the Banner Cart.

The Banner remained uncaptured both games..flying high you could see it many tables away which means I made it big enough

One my favorite things about Little Wars last time was the Vendor Hall it pretty large and has alot of obscure stuff. While not as prolific at the last time around I was here (2012) This year Old Glory was here with literally, every single thing they make. I am not kidding. Part of the problem with buying Old Glory (at least in my opinion) is the website is very mid 90's with poor photographs and it tough to tell what your buying or how there 25mm scale with work with whatever you are aiming for. Well I got to see it all here close up, and it was awesome. I ended up walking out with their fully crew Viking Longboat..which is just a project I want to do one day..with a firm opinion that as soon as hobby budget allows it I am picking up a table full of their Chicago buildings for a Victorian style table. Unfortunately my day here was short due an engagement that evening. Next year I'll definitely be back..its a fun place to run a game or play in one..so we will see what I get myself into. I'll it with some random photos from the event.

 

at least three really great looking Napoleanic games going one, many with a crazy amount of figures.

an elborate martian theme table for what I gather was a home brewed rules game

Nice Bolt Action table from some WI guys I know..nice use of loose foliage and carpet..I'll borrow that idea for sure.

  

Black Powder, Black Powder everywhere

Richards Banner Wagon

Here is my Richard the Lionheart's banner wagon for our Little Wars big game taking place this Saturday. The game is a retelling of the Battle of Arsuf which took place in September of 1191 between Richard's Crusading Armies and Saladin forces. We are using Hail Caesar Rules with 100 point divisions, with 4 divisions a side its a huge game. The event is set up for 8 players, each player taking control of one division.  Rich owns the majority of the models and Mike is bringing the rest. My contribution was the Richards Cart which serves as the Crusaders center piece and Saladins prime objective. (to destroy or capture it.)

The planning for this started way back in December hunting down the models and figuring out the proper size,  but accounts the flag was huge..so I made it huge..in real life numbers it's 12.5 feet high by  22.5 feet long, the beam being a ship mast at about 25 feet.or so

 

Intinerarium regis ricardi is a latin prose narrative of the Third Crusade, and is supposedly a surviving first hand account written in 1220's. The bit on Richards Banner reads:

"..The Normans defended the standard..it was formed of a long beam, like the mast of the ship: made of most solid ceiled work, on four wheels. Bound with iron, and to all appearance no sword or axe could cut or fire injure it. A chosen body of soldiers was generally appointed to guard it..lest it should be broken or thrown down; for if it fell the army would be dispersed and put into confusion"

 

Unfortunately, I came across the narrative a little late in my plans, as it seem the wagon was enclosed and encased in iron as well as part of the shaft. my version here is much more susceptible to damage and very period looking, medievaly speaking which  was the point. the wagon is from Lead Adventure miniatures and  the horse team are Perry Brothers and the 4 men a Norman command pack from Gripping Beast. while I had the miniatures for sometime this project was started for scratch right after Adepticon, so its taken me all of hobby time since to get this far...some touch ups might still be in order.

 

The most challenging about the build was of course the Flag, the final version was iteration Three.

The first being a failed all green stuff banner which looked cool but had poor texture to paint on and a very tough surface to free hand paint the lion on. I spent three nights on the GS banner before deciding it looked like crap and realizing it would take far too long to free hand both sides of the banner. and said "let try something else"  I moved over to a paper banner by itself, wasnt liking that either, then I remembered I have used foil banners before but wasnt happy with the there appearance. Then I came up with what will be the way I do all my banners forever .  I set up my banner in photoshop after finding an appropriate image and printed it out on sticker paper, I then put a piece of folded foil inside the sticker paper but cut it short so the edges of the sticker paper would seal on all sides. this way the interior foil would give it a nice bend. The next issue was the printed red on the flag was not robust enought and looked fake, so I hand painted the paper careful avoiding the lion and then touched up the lion itself with some highlights as the paper absorbed the paint its took on very nice texture and foil became even more ply able for bending., in the end I was really happy with this method and that is way I will be making historical banners from now on of any size. the flag and mast are attached to the cart with a heavy magnet so it can be removed and this piece can be used a standard baggage cart in other Hail Caesar games.

 

The cart made it first appearance on the table last night at Rich's place where demo'd the game once again and you can see the banner wagon makes an impressive piece among the hundreds of models on the table. it must have motivated the Crusaders because they sent Saladin running for the hills this time in a clear victory (last time it was draw only by failure of objective, in terms of casualties, we were decimated)

Looking forward to Saturday and pictures of the event, I missed Little Wars last year but last went in 2012 and thought it was great, hope to see more of the same look for a follow up early next week!

The Battle of Arsuf

 Tuesday evening we returned to one of our favorites, Warlord Games "Hail Caesar!" . After a couple years of WAB and its WAB II incarnation. Hail Caesars game mechanics quickly won us over and its been our large format "go to" game ever since.

 This match was a demo for an event our group, (when I say our group, I mean  Rich) is running at Little Wars in late April. The Battle of Arsuf  was a pivotal battle of Richard I's 3rd Crusade.  Rich has a massive Arab army he's been working on for years, and a large amount of Crusaders as well, with couple of us helping out filling out the remaing details. With 4 divisions per side at 450 points per side this is a huge "Hail Caesar" game.

 The game coincidentally or not played out similar to our notes on the real battle.  I was running the Crusader Vanguard and was quickly engaged by annoying Skirmishers, including the incredibly annoying Nafitum (who throw flasks of flaming oil, immediately causing a break check on any wound. super dangerous to Cavalry) Having faced them before my Templars and Mounted Sergeants charged from the line getting lucky with a 3 move Order, However the Nafitum easily evaded. However if I could stand my ground the next round of shooting, I was in excellent potion to run down a whole bunch of skirmishers and med infantry with tough Cavalry, I survived the shooting
and did just that. This led to early collapse of lead flank turning the battle back toward Saladin.

 On the rear flank, per the Battle the Hospitaller Knights broke ranks with a 3 move charge and quickly got themselves in trouble until Mike end up reinforcing them and after several turns it did break his way.

 In the Center a long stalemate of failed orders under King Richard led to Saladin and his Body Guard
just waiting him out to see how the battles on flanks were going.  One of the great things about Hail Caesar, unlike various version of Warhammer is the Late Game , In Warhammer the fate of the game is often decided in the first two turns, and barring some extraordinary circumstance the game becomes an attrition toward the inevitable. Not so in Hail Caesar! where the late game of turns 5 and 6 often is the battle decider. This always keeps the game exciting until the last turn.

 When the Crusader counter attack finally comes in turn 5 with support of the Templars rolling up on Saladins Right Flank while the rear flank was steadily collapsing. Rich wisely pulled Saladin back and reformed a tight unit with his Bodyguard Cavalry..unfortunately the exhausted Crusaders didnt get the orders off complete to bridge the distance and the game ended in DRAW with the none of the four objectives (two for either side being completed).

The Battle of Arsuf

Saladins Forces

Division I

Mamluks with Spear and Bow
Berber Heavy Cavalry
Turcoman Light Horse X 2

Division II
Dismounted Mamluk x 2
Medium Archers
City Militia with Spears

Division III

Mamluks Bodyguard
Mamluks Spear and Bow
Syran Heavy Cavarly
Turcoman Light Horse

Division IV
Ghazi warband Fanatics
Medium Archers
City Militia with Spear
Light Archers X 2
Nafitum

Objectives
Break Hospitaller Division
Destroy Army Standard


Richard I  Forces

Vanguard Division

Holy Order Knights (Templars) Heavy Cavalry
Heavy Infantry
Heavy Crossbow
Mounter Sergeants - Heavy Cavalry

Division I- English
Crusader Knights- Heavy Cavalry
Heavy Infantry
Heavy Crossbow
Archers

Division II- Outreamer
Crusader Knights- Heavy Cavalry
Heavy Infantry
Heavy Crossbow
Archers

Rear Guard- Hospitallers
Hospitaller Knights - Heavy Cavalry
Heavy Infantry
Heavy Crossbow
Turcopole Horsemen (Light Cavalry)

Objectives
Break or Rout Saladin and his Bodyguard
Break two of the three Cavalary Divisions


Looking forward to this game at little wars I am putting together Richard I giant army standard which should be a nice table center piece. I've missed playing HC  this was a really fun game!

Antiquity Campaign- Round 5

Hail Caesar! play continued early this month with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.
5 of 8 Rounds are complete a couple of good games, has my Sparta dominating.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple

  My Spartans defeated Rome in somewhat close battle, that was somewhat misrepresent in the lopsided score Rome small but difficult units were giving me fits until things broke my way late games. My Victory allowed me secure all border territories ,I had been squabbling with take a  Macedonian territory and finally after 3 rounds remove the remaining Syracuse Troops from Sparta   In the East Byzantium and Syracuse had a close match with Syracuse prevailing.  The Persians ambushed Macedonia with a huge win. Round 6 is this Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 4

Hail Caesar! play continued early this month with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple


Here is our map after 4 rounds. My Spartans triumphantly defeated Macedonia in a very hard fought battle. My Victory allowed me secure all border territories I had been squabbling with and partially remove Syracuse Troops from Sparta -but stragglers still remain.Rome continued battling Syracuse, with Rome giving up some territory in this week.  In the East Byzantium laid a crushing defeat on the Persians causing them to cede territory. Round 5 happens this coming Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 3

Hail Caesar! play continued pre-holidays with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome) Yellow
Syracuse- Orange
Sparta- Red
Macedonia - Green
Persians- Achaemenid - Blue
Rome (Byzantium)- Purple


Here is our map after 3 rounds in our  Both my Spartans and Syracuse where the big losers this week, Syracuse soundly driven back by Rome and Spartan getting mauled in "300" fashion by the Persian Hordes. I need a win this week or I fear Sparta will go the way of Sparta just years earlier under my command. I'm up against either Rome or Macedonia this week...either one is going to be tough.
Round 4 happens this coming Tuesday.

Antiquity Campaign- Round 2

The Campaign Map after 2 rounds

Hail Caesar play continues with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia
Persians- Achaemenid
Rome (Byzantium)


My Sparta played Jeff's Romans this week. and it typical Spartan fashion we won the battle but lost the war. In this case I broke his 50% threshold first so the game ended and I won the game however the points tallied up for the campaign scoring in terms of unit losses and objective points Jeff came out on top. Thats what happens when you have a few of expensive units and alot of cheap ones and lose the expensive ones.  Final Score 25 Byzantium, 23 Sparta.  Syracuse, in a or macro campaign, in which moves are based on your game scores- not whom you physically played that week. Took the Spartan Capital, so I had move it. I did take 4 other territories...we will how it goes in Round 3!

Antiquity Campaign Round 1

The Campaign Map after one round of play. Stars are number of Armies in individual territories.

We started our antiquity campaign using Warlord Games. Hail Caesar rule set a few weeks ago, a sick day today gave me the time to get this map posted.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia

Persians
Rome (Byzantium)

Totally quasi historical based on time frame around the Peloponnesian Wars. Syracuse and Macedonia were the big winners on Tuesday scoring close to 30 points a piece while the rest of us scored less than 10 points. My Spartans looks to Syracuse in a game that seem close until it broke open huge for Rich around round 4. it was all downhill from there.

Hail Caesar! Fall Campaign

Summer has turned to Fall for our next Hail Caesar Campaign.  With our homebrew rules defined.
a new map in order, armies being built and itchy dice we are now just working on an agreeable date to start, which I am hoping is Oct 16th.  The participants are Syracuse, Rome, Sparta, Macedonia, and two different Persian lists: The Seleucid Empire, and Achaemenid Empire.

Again our quasi historical re-imagining of the Peloponnesian War. Not sure on everyone else's army status, (other than Chris and Rich are fully built and painted) while the rest of are in some build phase. Time is my worst enemy of late, I hope to be losing the proxies of at least the full army by the end of the month. If you want to read more about the campaign join up on the blog forum (link on the left) activity has been slow of late but once we get going on this it certainly will pick up alot.

I'll of be doing our bi-weekly updates here on the blog. Ok back to trying to paint some Angmar!.

So it Begins! BBB 2012!

 

I know my posting frequency has been abysmal this summer, I have painted a decent amount of solo figures but the photography has been slacking. I've been working on some Hirst Arts projects, some random Fantasy figures, trying to paint the incredible slog that is not one but two 200+ figure Historical Armies. I've been quite busy with non-hobby related life and before I knew it this summer had come and went. As September rolled around I knew it was time to get back to the only game I am still playing competitively. GW's Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. 

There are really only two event per year I can attend, Adepticon's Championships and Bilbo's Birthday Bash, Last years BBB was the biggest tournament turnout for the game yet, and I am glad to see this years event looks like it will sell out all its 30 spots by the time the event rolls around. Not as big as last years turnout- but that is do to limited space.

This year's  BBB requires you to bring 2, 600 points Armies, One Good, One Evil. This was the original Bilbo's format back in 2009.  In honor of the format I have brought back my original Grey Company army, they needed an update to get 600 points of pure Grey Company, I definitely needed some more models.

I have added, Halbarad, 4 more rangers, ( I had too many guys with Spears) so I needed 4 more without spears, I have added 2 Dunedain as well. My Dunedain are actually different versions of Aragorn from the Citadel line that was manufactured in the mid 1980's I love putting the old models in the with new. I had original planned to buy a blister of Dunedain from GW direct until I found out it was going to cost me $25 with Shipping for a single blister! I didnt really have $100 of stuff to order for free shipping and I didnt have any luck coming up used ones so this was my alternative, I'm quite happy with the results (its should be pretty easy to ID these models in any of the shots)

I still about a dozen models to paint for my evil army,- Angmar., something I have never run before
and features a host of models I am anxious to try out, Including the Witch King , The Troll Chieftain - Buhrdur and some Barrow Wights.

Still working on my display as well have several ideas, and as always with LotR, the real competition is in the Appearance category, although with the new books the competitive window seems to have opened up a bit,  Really looking forward to this, its always a great event with great folks, I have got about 6 weeks to go and with what I left to do, I might even get a new entry in the painting contest.


In other news our Summer Hail Caesar Campaign has been pushed back to fall, mainly due to people conflicting schedules. I am horribly behind on my Spartan Army, I manage to build one unit of the Plastics telling myself  "I can do this" and I just ran out of gas...I can paint 10 figures in the time it takes me to assemble a 24-32 man unit of plastics..that kind of time sink just doenst add up to me as a hobbyist. I still have 3 more units to build, Unless I breakdown and buy the metals from Gorgon. I do enjoy playing the Spartan on the table top, a rock solid army. Our Campaign this time is centered around Peloponnesian Wars, it looking like a great one with 6 players this time,  I just need to get my damn Army on the table.... With BBB, The Campaign, the Hobbit Release, and if I actually finish a project or two..I should have some stuff to talk about here over the next couple months..bout time.

Dark Ages Campaign Concludes

Round 8 of our Dark Age Campaign came to an end last week. With a three way on territories going into the last round it was really anyone's prize to seize in Round 8. Rich and I had fantastic game it was very close with me probably slightly ahead going into the last couple turns. I made a gamble move I didn't need to go for some big points and it backfired, leading me to a bad luck serious of event that took me for slightly winning to a major loss. If I had just played conservative the last few turns a close score between Rich and I really would have changed the map dynamic above to where (given Chris's  score)  the winner would have been decided by a few territories or a tie breaker of total armies raised. In the end the big Victory for Rich . Gave the Caliphate of Cordoda the clear Campaign Win. Conquering nearly half of the known world (even back in Ireland, again after I kicked him out once, argh!)  Chris wrapped up in second with a good score and wisely invading all the remaining neutrals territories he could last round..Chris picked a I think 6 territories the last turn. The Saxons got a serious push back but maintained a decent sized empire all the way across the North. The poor Normans survive barely, with a few territories even reverting to Neutral Baronys.


I am pretty happy with the way this Campaign system worked out..there were a few tweaks along the way. But I'm confident good system with some unique mechanics if you want to play a map based campaign with  moves against multiple opponents in a single round and want to resolve them with just one game. Best part about the system is that it can be used for any size army game..its totally neutral to what you use it for, you could use it for a board or card game if you wanted to...you give even play your favorite themed campaign and resolve all the games playing chess. You'll be reading about the first two of my own projects. a Skirmish Fantasy Ruleset and The Campaign Systems throughout the year here.  You'll also get to see the campaign playtested again this year as we gear up for another Ancients Campaign, (Antiquity this time, probably 300BC ish) later in the Summer.

I'll leave with a pair of Battle narratives written by both Rich and Chris describing their victories
in the final round!  Hail Caesar for the Win!.

Round 8 - Arabs vs Saxons on the river board
Mission: Take the High Ground (objectives)

John set up broadly, with each division equally in one third of the table. I set up the Damascus division in the center in 2 ranks; Berbers in a line to the right and split the Ghulams with the 2 heavy between the infantry divisions & the light units skirmishing on the left flank.

The center hill was the key component of the battle. John moved Huscarls & a large Coerls unit onto the hill which were charged by the heavy Ghulams. While able to chase off the Huscarls, the Royal Ghulams were flanked by archers (and despite counter charging with my own archers) and were broken. (In the final round, John managed to roll 3 6's out of 4 dice for hits!) The second Ghulam unit was shaken and chased off. And to top it off, the C-in-C was lost fighting the Huscarls.

The Damascus unit dithered about in the center for a number of turns, either being disordered by skirmishers or slacking about with critical lack of leadership.

The Berbers on the right flank fended off all attempts to cross the river & spent most of the game shooting up a cavalry unit & some Coerls. I believe John failed to move the final 3 rounds of the game & I had no reason to leave my objective unguarded.

Shooting on the left flank started well with John's heavy cav being blown off the board by a pair of 1s on a shooting break check. Slowly, the rest of the division crossed the river & chased my shooters back into the center of the board. The standard unit of Turkomen were broken by the Vikings, but it set up a flank charge by the Damascus archers which pushed John's units off the board.

Top of the eighth. Its looking bleak for team Arab. Surrounded by Saxons and down on points. The Viking/Coerl group needed 3 moves to charge into the Damascus Archers - and they succeed. Luckily, the Archers are only pushed back by the combat & the Vikings are shaken to prevent any pursuit. Huscarls with C-in-C charge into the foot Ghulams + City Spearmen. Being fully rested from doing nothing this game, Team Arab breaks the Huscarls & kills the C-in-C. Moving up, the units are ready for a final charge against the large Coerls guarding John's objective.

Bottom of the eighth. The Volunteers - a unit which last took an aggressive action some time in early January, pass their leadership with double 1s & rear charge the Viking/Coerls. With a flurry of righteous blows, the Vikings are dispatched to Valhalla. Game ends with the Ghulam/City Spear team breaking the Coerls and claiming the objective. Adds up to 30 victory points being scored in the eighth.

Final: John 12 Rich 37


Round 8 -Normandy vs Byzantium
Pitched Battle

The board had a small town on one side, hill in the center, and forest on the other. Both players deployed, avoiding the town on one flank, between mid-field and the board edge with the forest, loading all the cavalry on the forest side.

Aaron had the first turn and it was pretty uneventful. His infantry divisions crept forward, and his cavalry division stumbled over it's own hooves (a theme for the next 2 turns). Chris shuffled forward and into shooting range.

The face off between the Cavalry divisions lasted a couple turns. Aaron failed to move his cavalry - he was sweating because he deployed his units sideways on the board so that they would fit - but he did manage to hold off Chris' charge with shooting disruption. Supporting Chris' peltasts took the woods and began a game long poo-flinging contest with Aaron's archers, with no side the victor. Aaron finally engaged the cavalry units, and after a few combats over a couple turns a Pyrric victory resulted; Aaron was left with a shaken heavy cav and Chris, a small light horse archer. These two units were then stuck in a perpetual cycle of shooting wounds and rallies.

Chris' center division mimicked Aaron's cav and stared at the hill for half the game. Eventually, Chris' lancers were able to 'lance' a unit of archers and half a medium unit before becoming shaken, themselves. The rest of the division joined the other infantry.

The infantry divisions of both sides stayed about 15 inches apart until the last few turns. Chris was able to disrupt Aaron's line with shooting for a couple turns. Aaron even managed to disrupt his own line with a blunder. He was able to return fire, but Aaron's archers seemed to do more harm slowing the advance of his heavies than good. Aaron was unluckier than Chris in roughly even combats when the armies finally met, establishing a victory for the Byzantine Empire.

Final: Chris 22 Aaron 10

Dark Age Campaign Round 8

A somewhat belated post as the Campaign concluded this week, but here is the map as of the beginning of the move turn for the last round. Round 7, had the Normans coming back and beating my Saxons in a last ditch effort with a score of 24-12, While The Caliphate again made gains against the Byzantines 22-11. Again both close games for the most part until the tides turned with some key combats. In my case it was the Norman Cavalry again getting the best of me, and the luck I had in our previous meet was none withstanding. While the Normans had their bragging rights with the victory this week, their empire has about crumbled while the other 3 Empires all had 19 territories each, with Rich in the lead for total number of armies. Final moves had as all trying to reinforce hold territory and squeak up what could to win the campaign. I'll be back with final post for last rounds games as soon as we all update our data.

Dark Age Campaign Round 7

Here is our Campaign Map post 6 rounds of play. Moves are pending for round 7 based on the above.
 Scores last rounds where The Saxons over the Byzantines 34 -19 and The Caliphate over the Normans 34-10.

If you've been following this at all you'll see the Caliphate has been slowed slightly the last couple rounds a Saxon victory in Round 5 (barely) and a equal score forcing draws in Round 6 enabled me to consolidate and rebuild. Chris and his Byzantines have likewise held there own, and the loss to Saxons last round only really set the dispute over a neutral territory we where fighting over. What we currently have is 3 way ties with 19 territories a piece...Rich is in the lead with 101 Armies versus 81 for Chris and 80 for myself. Most number of territories at the end of 8 is declared the winner, with number of Armies as the tie breaker. The Norman empire is in its last throes, with 8 Territories and 24 armies he has suffered from a combination of being * man in the middle* and bad luck.. Dismissing his Heavy Cavalry would be foolish however and I since he and I are playing this week
I should probably work to complete absorb him and have him fighting for me in the last round, however a loss in that scenario would probably knock me out of the running so it might be best to skirmish against border territories and try for another smaller expansion protecting my Empires strength. However a strong push from either Rich or Chris with a high score could make that moot as well. Decisions, Decisions.

Dark Age Campaign Round 6

Here we have the Campaign Map, after 5 turns and before our moves for turn 6. Only 3 turns to go. Luckily, The Saxons called in their Pagan favors, (thanks in part to one bulletproof and credibly lucky Medium Cavalry unit) and beat the Arab force by 4 points!...basically nothing, 1 point on kill points and I killed the Caliphate General netting 3 more. It was great game.  I made some big gains early, but started losing it toward turn 6 (of 8) finally coming back with a decent last round to close it, although my super cavalry finally succumbed to shooting the last turn..(losing me 4 points). This close spread of our game while forcing him out my territories barely phased him as he only lost 10 armies the whole round, and when he musters for his turn 6 moves, he'll 82 armies in the field, and still firmly in the lead, The Byzantines come in second with 69 armies ( Besting the Normans 28-10) After this victory, I have regrouped to third place with 60 armies. Normandy cant catch a break rounding out the bottom at 28.

All in all things are playing out great, I play the Byzantines next week and a big loss for either of us will be brutal. The Normans are on the verge of being absorbed, if that does happen, we'll have to Aaron play the campaign out as Vassal of whomever does it. Personally having re tooled his list, I think he's overdue for the big upset.

 In other news I have been gearing for my Spring projects for Adepticon and even made some headway painting my Saxons..more on all that soon.

Dark Age Campaign Round 5

Round 5 of our Quasi Historical Dark Ages Campaign is tonight. Above is the current map of the world before the festivities. As you can see the Green of the Caliphate of Cordoda, led by the Mighty Almanzor is spreading across the known world as quickly as the plague. My Saxons got lucky with a minor victory against the Normans last week but since the results against all opponents are based on Scores in the games you play my winning score of '30" was no match for Rich's "40" so I continue to lose ground to the Caliphate. I face off against the Caliphate tonight and all my Map moves are against Green, with the hope of kicking them out of Ireland and England, and not losing any more territory. A bad round with a low score against Rich in which I face aggressive moves from the Normans could legitmately knock me out maybe not this round by next...with the position Aaron and I are in we not make the 8 rounds of campaign!. and he faces of against Chris and the Byzantines tonight!. So wish the underdogs luck.

Despite my only semi serious gloom and doom above. This campaign and Warlords Hail Caesar rules have been great time. We are going to be hosting Hail Caesar open gaming at Adepticon this year so if your looking for something to do Saturday Night or just want to check it out..please keep it in mind!

Hocus Focus

The center sections where designed to use the GW hill as a bridge to change the new table up, yes,that hill needs reflocked to match.

No one is more aware that the content here has been sluggish of late, more so than I- but no apologies.The  absence of Warhammer from my gaming calendar clearly leaves a big hole in my blogging pursuits, mainly because like it or not I found myself being a pundit about the machinations of Games Workshop, nearly as much as I talked about my own gaming experiences. While I am still quite of The Lord of the Rings SBG, and its due for its biggest year of releases (or might that be year after next?? as the films are 12. 2012 and 12. 2013) so I am sure I will be drug back into to conversations about how GW made some great models and ruined the game or totally killed metal for resin,etc. Regardless that day is a good ways off So I want to refocus on what I am currently doing which has always the bulk of hobby for me which is painting miniatures and building terrain. I've been working on a bit of both of late, as well fleshing out the most ambitious project I've been working on to date.




"My Skirmish Dungeon keeps growing, I do want to add another square foot to it..but at that point with replacement pieces being plasters it no longer portable. It will reach multi configurations soon enough."

I've had numerous things going on since I had any type of real gaming update in early November. Mainly getting 10 tables of terrain ready for Adepticon 2012 and my Legends of the High Seas event. The majority of is pretty much there, with exception of the tallest order finishing at least one probably two large Pirate Ships, these are big projects that will run me right up to Adepticon I am sure and I am not even getting started until next month.In last month, I have been tweaking older pieces, build a couple of new boards, and got a slew of figures based up and ready for paint for Hail Caesar, Lord of the Rings, Legends of the High Seas, and generic Fantasy miniatures for Skirmish gaming.



The new 4x4 boards are coming along, that river is going to be redone a proper shade and give some liquid resin for realism...I am using all woodland scenics products at this point.



Hail Caesar- No secret I love this rule set, the support warlord is giving it and its suprising depth in its simplicity My Saxon Army is huge, I keep buying models for it trying to configure a force that can deliver against Cavalry. Its really no surprise that English lost at Hastings...they would have needed a 1000 of Prince Harry's Longbows to have stood a chance but that was almost 400 years off. Anyway the great unpainted horde is looking strong (mainly thanks to some quasi historical but totally legal Mercenary units  but I am going to dig into some heavy painting soon as we (the club) are going to be doing Hail Caesar demo games Saturday night a Adepticon and while this huge of an army wont be done by any stretch..I hope to keep it from being too embarrassing. HC's been my groups main focus since early summer and the current campaign is going very well (although Rich and his Arabs are pounding us all into rubble) talk of moving to the medieval period (HYW, WotR) is probably going to become a reality at some point.



recent skirmish shot, pre resin.

Lord of the Rings- Too many projects might be fun, but its not your friend when you're trying to commit to a game system and play competitively ( the main reason Warmachine isnt taking off for me other than very casually, is that it requires a huge committment) My plan was too do awhole new army by Adepticon for the Championships and while only 40 models it has Cavarly, alot of Freehand and need of cool display. So I felt its better suited for next year BBB in the fall. Coming off the Best Appearance award has some pressure to put out ( with three GD winners as regular participants in the Championships yearly) so running my Orcs again is a necessity but I have swapped out around 20 of the crummy plastic troopers for old citadel metals that are just killer and will be a pleasure to paint and will really pop..I've switched up the list to make a bit tougher as those crappy Warg Riders just needed to go..so I need to put about two weeks into this army to get ready for the Championships this year and I am excited to how V.2 turns out.




I recently did this Reaper model as Red Sonja for my daughter whose taken a keen interest in my Skirmish solo play. When I showed her some Comic Covers of Red Sonja..she said Oooo, I want to be her for Halloween...I said better now than when you're 16...

Legends of the High Seas- There is alot of good detail going on for this event , enough to merit alot of talk between now and then.which is better off as a series of itds own posts which should start very soon as finish off the Shipwreck board, and move on the large galleon and finishing the Brig. Skirmish Gaming- Quite alot going on here. I have tweaking several of the older board mainly used for Pirates. like the Dungeon. Finishing the details adding the Water Cavern which will soon have resin water and better looking rocks that those cork boards.  I've mentioned I like making everything I can to be multipurpose so my new 4x4's for Skirmish Gaming are also my new 4 X8 for large army gaming. 2 4x4 sections that can flip around to different configs..with river running down the middle. We've been using it for HC and it working out great with lots of spots for specific terrain rules depending on how we set it up.

 The more interesting thing on the Skirmish gaming front is I've been "hobbyist" game writer for many years, pages and pages of unplaytest ideas, games, campaigns or just general ramblings. late last year, I got the 15mm Sci Fi "bug" as they say mainly from all the great new miniatures being released and going through my old stuff, the RPG game Traveller and its companion Skirmish game Snapshot..trying to update Snapshots early 80's rules for the kind of game I wanted to play in 2011 led to one thing , then another, then some playtesting, then some changes, then more playtesting, then new concepts. Pretty soon it wasnt remotely like Snapshot anymore, but I was really liking it, Then I bump it back up to 28mm and built the Warehouse Hulk to test out the concepts and the ride stopped there. (Although considering the use the Hulk is getting ( i.e NONE), I am considering put it up for sale..so if the guy that offered me close to 4 figures for it last year is still out there hit me up!- or anyone else but serious inquires only..you're talking a 100+ hour project here.) Along the way I started thinking about how the concepts of my little game translated to Fantasy Skirmish, and while the Sci Fi version still had some big holes still to fill due to the complex nature of the genre. Bringing it home to Fantasy fits like a glove, its also a very playable as a solo game which is very cool, in fact I've done a dozen or so playtests solo and its been very addicting (a good sign) I dare say it has some unique mechanics and I look forward to some 1 vs 1 with one of the guys soon. Anyway given that and the way our current campaign is playing out..I want to formulize these things and look into some Indie self publishing. I am not going to share any more details at moment other than to say, I look forward to exploring this alot more in the next year and see if its worth the effort, if only for my own satifisfaction.




Skirmish solo play shots from "The Game" whose actual moniker will remain a secret for the time being.


My point here is of course, getting refocused, new year, new directions and all that The games may change  but my basic loves are all still there. Its just you won't see me telling you how "Storm of Magic" or "Blood in Badlands" are pure marketing scams from GW that only further push old players away and fool new players or the more gullible old ones into buying way more models than they need to play a whole alot of other better games and at double the prices! I wont do this because I havent read these books and dont plan too. ..I just dont care..let someone else do it.  So look for alot more hobby content and lot less caring about what GW is or isnt doing . There will surely be some of that again eventually, but with all of the above plus .a Flames of War day in Jan, a pal trying to get me to play some Uncharted Seas...and the current Chicago Warmachine craze..why bother?




This didnt end well for the good guys.


........Next up The Dark Ages Campaign, Round 5!