Welsh King Maredudd ab Owain

I got this lovely Footsore model as a freebie a while ago with an order I did. TBH I'm not sure my order was big enough to qualify, but they threw him in anyway - thanks guys!

I don't have a Welsh army (though I'd quite like one, one day) but I started throwing some paint on him a while ago. And now he's finished.

After I'd finished painting the Welsh Dragon on his shield it occurred to me that I could have just used him as a character for my Picts (should they ever progress) or even in amongst my Saxons - one British Isles Dark Age warrior looking much like another. But I'm glad I went for the Welsh option - if only because it gives me an excuse to buy more soldiers.

Although mine was a freebie his is available to buy from Footsore

Two games of 'Mead Price'

After a gaming drought approaching a whole month Martin and I got together to push soldiers around and roll dice. Neither of us had much appetite for anything requiring a great deal of brain capacity so Martin suggested we give chum James'  two page 'Mead Price' rules a go. James wrote these for playing quick and dirty Dark Age games at Sutton Hoo recently. I was hoping to go but COVID put paid to me travelling, but you can read all James adventures here.

The rukes are very simple - rather like the two people deciding to play them and can be downloaded for free here.

We both had Late Roman/Roman British forces - Martin's mostly from the excellent Gripping Beast range, mine mostly Footsore.

My King and his hearthguard held the centre

With warriors and skirmishers on both flamks

Likewise the usurper was in the centre of Martin's line.

It's not a game that encourages much in the way of hanging about, so we both raced forward.

My line became rather fractured and although I was pressing home aggressively my Reputation was suffering.

 

The Warlords were going at it toe to toe, but the random event cards meant I was throwing more dice and whittling the enemy away.

Eventually my Warlord cut down the usurper and his hearthguard and I escaped with victory - just!

It was fun and brutal and quite quick, so we lined 'em up and had at it again.

This time I placed my Warlord on my right flank.

Again both sides pushed up.

Though my Warlord was slow off the mark.

Devastating shooting by Martin's skirmishers saw both of my skirmisher units dead on the first turn!

His cavalry pushed home behind the lines.

A ryn of further bad luck, including an event that cost me more reputation saw my goblet emty all too quickly and I was routed from the field!

Two games played in less than two hours. You wouldn't want to play something this simple all the time, but as a change of pace and a chance to push some pretty soldiers around it was just what we needed.

We did add a few "house rules" as we went through. We decided skirmishers could move in any direction (not just straight forward or back) and could shoot as well even if they changed facing. We shuffled the deck whenever the random event card came up (we used cards instead of tokens) which meant not every unit got to move each turn. Finally we gave a charging unit 1 extra dice to roll in combat - just because it felt right.

WAB Raiding Season: Bassa's Ford

As the seasons turn and the leave take on the golden and amber hues of Autumn so have the minds of the Sherwood Hucknall and Ilkeston Team moved on to the Dark Ages.
This time last year Steve and I were frantically preparing for the Peterborough WAB Age of Arthur gaming day so clearly something about this time of year puts a man in mind of blokes in drab clothes stabbing other blokes in drab clothes with pointy sticks.

As General Ballroom has been struck down with Lazyitis (get up!) Steve and I have agreed on a campaign. Specifically the excellent Raiding Season campaign from the Age of Arthur book. He's painting up a Saxon army, I'm going to use my Late Romans.

Game One sees the attackers attempting to force their way across a strategic river crossing to invade enemy territory. Saxons v Romans - clearly the hairy Germanics will be the attackers.

In heroic Dark Age style the game begins with a duel of champions in the ford.
The Romans, not wanting to get their togas in a twist have hired a hairy barbarian of their own to do the dirty work.

The duel raged for several turns but eventually the sell-sword was chopped down and the Saxon returned triumphant to the attacking force.

The fight had given time for the Saxons to catch up and most of the invaders were on the starting line.

 Gedrith. Yikes.

Whats Latin for "You shall not pass!"?

The Saxons formed The Bus of War and headed for the ford.

But stout Romans marched to meet them.

Sell-sword Saxons crashed home too.
A few failed warband tests also meant the ford got a bit congested at this point.

Unfortunately the Saxon allies, being only youths, were no match for their big brothers on the opposition and eventually fled. Causing the first Panic Bomb of the game as milites and slingers also broke.

Luckily the Roman spear rallied and turned to face the hairy barbarian horde.

Back at the ford the Roman Magnate had got his lads blocking the passage.

The unit they'd defeated duly rallied mid-stream. Blocking the ford again. How we (I) laughed.

Then Steve remembered they were light infantry and they scuttled aside.

Leaving the Gedrith free at last to charge home.

The remaining Duguth also took advantage of this lightness and spread out along the river bank and began peppering Roman's with javelins.

At this point the cavalry arrived!

Charging home into the archers.

Easily defeating the Sagittarians they turned to pepper the rear of the spear.

This was all rather too much for the stout spearmen who headed off home at pace.

The Gedrith then did what Gedrith do best and murdered the Magnate in the face to claim the field for the pagan hordes!

A great fun game. This scenario is a challenge for the attacker but the Saxons stuck at the task and are now on the loose in Roman territory!

In the campaign wrap-up the Saxons accrued a fair bit of glory, and the Gedrith are now veterans (!).

All my characters survived, though the Roman pair are now carrying injuries.

Looking forward to the next game now.

Footsore Late Roman Spearmen (5)

Six more.
So just the command to go and then some serious shield stickering.

Footsore Late Roman Spearmen (4)

Some Paedos Pedyt.
16 down, just eight more to go and a couple of characters and the army is done.
Bar a few shields.

Footsore Romano British Command

The command models for the second unit of Milites come from the Footsore Romano British command pack. Bill sculpted these to mix in with the late Romans to give a more distinctly RB feel.
Gives a bit of variety,which is nice.

This weekend is Paedo Pedyt weekend. Same models as in the previous units, but going for a less uniform feel - a mixture of brown sprays (and maybe the odd green spray) to start with. Then their shields will have Chi-Rho symbols, rather than the uniformity of the Milites. Hoping to create the look of some random militia dragged out onto the battlefield to defend their homes from hairy barbarian invaders.

Footsore Late Roman Standard bearer

This guy has been finished for a while but somehow missed his photo opportunity

Footsore Late Roman Sagittarii (4)

Four more of these all finished off.

12 is a goodly number for what should be a pretty effective (by AoA standards) shooting unit.