Battleground and the death of Aragorn (twice)

Today was the Battleground show in Stockton on Tees. Most of my family leave within 10 minutes drive so I spent the night with them and watched Barnsley get hammered by Notts Forest - my Brother in Law (a Barnsley boy) was mortified.
Up bright and early I blew up my Sister's electricity and scared the cat.
The show is one of my favourites, it's a nice size and usually has lots of good games. This year the games were OK with a few standouts, most looked a bit too much like a club night. I took some dodgy photos of the ones I liked. Dave Docherty was missing this year,unwell but on the mend I hear. This was a shame cos I was looking forward to fighting his 1:1 recreation of the Sudan war in 28mm😊

Wilsons Creek ACW

Sudan participation game

DedMan's hand - participation game

WW1

WW2 (can't you tell I didn't take club names)

Cannae - this was huge and a bit mental - see later)

1866 Prussian - Austrian. This looked fun

WW2 Participation game

Roman Civil War - To The Strongest

Frostgrave Participation - one of the nicest tables

Cannae later in the day. This was going to be a disaster

I like the fact there are lots of participation games, I often find demonstration games a little uninspiring. I only played one game, although I did play it twice.. Matt Crump brought his Save the Halfling game, the final scene from the 1st Lord of the Rings Film. It's a great 30 minute game.

Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pipin, along with Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli are spread out on the table and are surrounded by 4 Orc scout units. The aim, using Dragon Rampant Rules, is to get the Halflings to the canoes. The Halflings can't fight and are captured when attacked by the Orcs. Par is 2 halflings and Aragorn has never died in the scenario

I played twice, the shots are from Roy Williamson's game not mine (he did better than me). In both games I saved 2 halflings but I did manage to get Aragorn killed both times ( I am the king of double one), an Boromir once. It was great fun and a proper challenge.

And now the Swag

The books

As a geologist this is intriguing 

My current interest

My Dad will like this

The toys

Marilyn Monroe with a chainsaw - Studio Miniatures

Steam Tank from ironclad - for VBCW miners

It's supposed to look like this

2lb AT gun - think it's only 20mm scale but looks OK

VBCW female militia - Ironclad - these are great.

I also bought a large bag of samurai from the bring and buy (35 inf, 8 cav for £25) but they have been confiscated as a Christmas present for me), and I ordered some 10mm Prussians to  complete the divisions. There is also paint and bases but you know what they look like.

Finally the post man has been

This was £2.83 with free postage (weird price)

I also got this package which I wasn't expecting. After checking that I hadn't bought it while drunk I realised it's from my Secret Santa. May thanks whoever you are, it's perfect

All in all a great day. Off to prep figures now

Secret Santa, Hills and the Alnwick Vampires

The Willey's are running their Secret Santa thing again this year and it was great fun last year trawling a new blog to find presents and I got a really great garden set for VBCW. So I signed up again. For my Santa my Christmas list is anything 28mm VBCW or Colonial African (or oddly enough some 28mm Mega City Judges - see below)
My experiences in Matt Crump's dungeon have made me want to improve my terrain so I've made a couple of papier mache hills, using shop bought hills as templates

As usual the photography is shocking

Finally I've been working on 3 VBCW units. The Alnwick Vampires.

The strange tale of the hunchback vampire that stalked the ground of the castle

bringing terror to the peasants, was the most famously recorded by a medieval

chronicler named William de Newburgh. Lord Percy has unleashed his secret police on Northumberland and the locals quickly called them the Alnwick Vampires and warned their children to be careful in case the Vampires get them

These 3 groups are the command groups for the 3 squads of Vampires and are Empress Spanish Civil War Republican Assault squad command figures. I bought them from Col Bill and were £32 for 28 figures. The figures are great but the grey uniforms were a bugger to paint with lots of subtle shading need - obviously you can't see this in the photos

Finally I've been buying lots of bits and pieces, flock etc. and at the tail end of the Warlord Judge Dredd sale the Angel Gang for £12.50 and free postage. I got the rules as well but they were free.

Secret Santa and the Battle of Rose Cottage

My Secret Santa present was the garden set from Warbases and its great. I painted it up

I decided to use it in a small skirmish with a Ted and Hilda Brown and their grand daughter Daisy

They are armed with shotguns and a chainsaw (Daisy is a tree surgeon obviously), and they are defending their home against Zombies - of course

I used Akula's rules which are card activated and fun to play.

The battle started and Daisy and Hilda advanced to the gate and Daisy "kills" a Zombie but Hilda misses with her shot.

 However the next move the ace of Spades is drawn and all the Zombies advance knocking over the picket fence, causing the Browns to retreat.

The Zombies advance again. .

 Daisy takes out another and Ted blows the head off another

 Bravely Daisy advances but another ace of spades and the zombies swarm forward surrounding her and engaging Hilda. Hilda kills her Zombie and Daisy is a woman possessed.

The 1sr zombie scores a hit but only rips Daisy's skirt but Daisy kills it. The 2nd zombie rips Daisy's shirt before she kills it. At this rate she will be naked before she is dead. Daisy kills another 2 zombies and is now channeling River Tamm

The zombies advance again and overwhelm Daisy and then Ted and finally Hilda

The Zombies win but it was a fun hour.

It's been a sad day for music with the death of Lemmy, He was from the same suburb as me and while we are name dropping Slash's grand parents lived next door to my grandparents. Stoke has a short but illustrious list of great musicians and Robbie Williams.

You may have missed the death of John Bradbury, the drummer in The Specials and to be honest I much preferred them so this is the song

Wargames Foundry are a proper professional organisation

I wasn't planning on posting twice today but as I was a home reading a PhD thesis the postman came and delivered 2 parcels.
I opened the 1st one without thinking and it is the garden set from from Warbases. Very nice but I'd not placed an order with them. Baffled I looked at the label and it said SS on the address. it was my Secret Santa present from the love in run by Ian and Cath at the Blog with No Name. I was planning to leave it until Christmas but it's too late now. To my Secret Santa thank you it's really great and was on my to buy list.
The second parcel was from Wargames Foundry and contained 2 bonus round models for the Painting Challenge, which will remain nameless for the moment but are really great. I've always liked Foundry figures, they are generally brilliant and are less pricey than they used to be.
However there was a problem with the order, I'd ordered 2 packs of NW Frontier Highland infantry and recieved 2 packs of Norman infantry (NM11 and NM12 not NW11 and NW12). This is an annoyance but human error and I have no problem with people making mistakes because they are human and it's a simple mistake to make (I've worked on a production line and understand).
I called Wargames and Marcus answered. I explained the problem and he was mortified and quickly promised to send out replacements. On top of that I could keep the Normans. Brilliant. I love good customer service. I have a lot of Foundry figures but haven't bought any for ages but I will be going back to buy more stuff.
This is the only possible song

So much to say, so hard to make it interesting

This is my 50th post and as I write I've had 4636 hits, approximately. I done some stuff and generally flitted about since April when I started but it's been fun.
It's Secret Santa time over at The Blog with No Name and I've joined in the fun.

I've been asked to provide a list of periods and genre's I'm interested in. Well as you an see from the blog it's pretty much everything in 28mm except medieval (just don't have any figs), Napoleonic (too hard to paint and you need too many figs) WW2 and sci fi. Otherwise pretty much everything else takes my fancy. 

Finally I got round to fighting a major VBCW battle (excuse the lighting the lights in my spare room are rubbish), Dinnington miners vs Northumberland Rangers. The miners have control of a large warehouse in Seaton Burn and are using it to store a cache of supplies. The Northumberland Rangers have been sent by the Duke to capture the supplies.

The Rangers enter from the bottom and are faced with a built up area around the warehouse at the top, Maggot's farm to the right and Lime hill to the left. Lots of places for ambush and lots of cover for the enemy

Lime hill is manned by 1/2 squad of miners with a Bren and the Rangers enter within range of their guns. 

1st turn and miners get the initiative but the squad fails its command rol so as they sit and watch the Rangers squad deploys and opens fire killing 2 men and routing the miners off the hill. 

On the otherside of the map the other 2 squads of Rangers including a HQ squad with a Vickers and a knee mortar, advance to towards the wall.

The miners panic and deploy all their figures, OK I panicked. This puts 1/2 squad in farm and other squads in the Bay Horse pub, Meeker terrace and the warehouse.

The rangers advance to the wall undercover and open fire on the miners in the farm, Their 1st volley kills 1 miner and the miners return fire killing a Ranger.

The 2nd volley annihilates the miners. 3 turns and all outlying defenders are removed for the loss of 1 man. This could be a doddle.

The second phase of the battle (today) sees the Rangers assault the village

The 1st squad of rangers took up residence on the hill out of range of the miners in Meeker Terrace

Meanwhile the HQ squad and the 2nd squad advanced through the farm to attack the bay Horse pub

The 2nd squad unleashed another brutal volley on the miners in the Bay Horse and drove them from the upstairs windows enabling them to advance to the hedge under cover

from where they killed the remaining miners in the pub - there are worse places to die (they could have been defending a tea shop... no wait they have cake.)

Meanwhile the HQ squad HMG opened fire on the troops defending the fence line and killed a couple but the miners HMG fired and took out the Ranger's HMG. The knee mortar and the miners homemade trench mortar used up all their rounds in an ineffective duel.

The coup de gras was squad 2 lapping round the Bay Horse and occupying the houses opposite the warehouse. 

This left the miners effectively surrounded and even more out numbered than the start of the battle. I decided to call it off then - no point in last man standing, although I may resume tomorrow and fight the battle of the warehouse.

Generally it was a kicking with the miners losing 16 men to the Rangers 4. Weight of fire was important for the Rangers but the miners were too passive and I panicked so they were picked off piecemeal. 

The 2nd squad of rangers were heroic and medals will be awarded so they deserve this song