2010 Gaming

Looking at the Board Game Geek Stats I played a few games this year.

Savage Worlds was the most played game at 47 plays. Of those it seems 20 were World War (or Weird War) Two games, 14 were Realms of Cthulhu, 4 were set in Rokugan (the setting of the Legends of the Five Rings series of games), and the balance (9) were likely Sci-Fi or generic fantasy skirmishes… SW skirmishing was up considerably from The Previous Year where I apparently only got in 18 games…

I apparently played 20 games of Kids of Carcasonne… I don’t remember playing that many… I’m not doubting it or anything, they must have mostly been at the beginning of the year.

In terms of other miniature wargames I only got in 6 games of DBA and 5 games of HOTT – both waaaay down from the previous year where I played 68 games of HOTT and 28 games of DBA…

I also played two games of Contemptible Little Armies, and an “Unpublished Prototype” – John’s homegrown “Old School” Horse and Musket rules. (and I WILL be giving Black Powder a try tonight!)

For next year…

While I definitely want to keep the weekly Savage Worlds games going, I hope to get some more wargaming in; Contemptible Little Armies, DBA, Hordes of the Things, and some Black Powder if it works out okay. I wouldn’t mind dusting off some of the moderns to get in a game or two of Cold War Commander or even Blitzkrieg Commander.

To facilitatie this I’m thinking I should set up a biweekly war game night and/or set aside one Saturday afternoon each month to play some games. Of course the Saturday afternoon I was also thinking I might use for some of the big board wargames I’ve pickedup recently… Age of Conan, Warrior Knights, Soldier Kings, Red Russia, etc.

I’d definitely like to run another HOTT or DBA campaign this year. Probably a weekend thing, but I’d like to try an extended wargames campaign with local players at some point…

We shall see. Thanks to everyone that played games with me this year – I hope we can play more in the coming year!

28mm WW2 – To Do

I sat down and figured out how many 28mm WW2 things I have to finish up this evening (because I apparently have nothing better to do!?)… All part of the planning process, I guess.

Soviet Infantry & Guns: 187 painted, 9 to do, 196 total, 95.4% complete
Soviet Vehicles: 6 painted, 5 to do, 11 total, 55% complete
Canadian Infantry & Guns: 109 painted, 1 to do, 110 total, 99% complete
Canadian Vehicles: 2 painted, 4 to do, 6 total, 33% complete
SAS/LRDG: 28painted, 28 total, 100% complete
British/Canadian Paras: 58 painted, 30 to do, 88 total, 66% complete
British Commandos: 46 painted, 32 to do, 78 total, 58% complete
French Foreign Legion: 30 painted, 30 total, 100% complete
Armed Civilians: 46 painted, 33 to do, 79 total, 58% complete
Italians: 0 painted, 53 to do, 53 total, 0% complete
USA – ETO: 15 painted, 42 to do, 57 total, 26% complete
USA – PTO: 10 painted, 10 total, 100% complete
ANZAC: 28 painted, 5 to do, 33 total, 85% complete
Japanese: 38 painted, 38 to do, 76 total, 50% complete
German Heer (European) Infantry & Guns: 64 painted, 79 to do, 143 total, 49% complete
German Heer (European) Vehicles: 6 painted, 10 to do, 16 total, 38% complete
DAK Infantry & Guns: 34 painted, 22 to do, 56 total, 60% complete
DAK Vehicles: 0 painted, 3 to do, 3 total, 0% complete
Uboat Crew: 16 painted, 16 total, 100% complete
Fallshirmjägers: 12 painted, 35 to do, 47 total, 25% complete
Gebirgsjägers: 15painted, 15 total, 100% complete
SS: 36 painted, 24 to do, 60 total, 60% complete

Total Infantry & Guns: 772 painted, 403 to do, 1211 total, 63% complete
Total Vehicles: 14 painted, 22 to do, 36 total, 39% complete

The Soviet infantry will be done in an evening’s work – they’re all casualties and are primed and most of the bases are gooped. Next up will be the Canadian Shermans (and that 6 Pdr AT gun!). After that the Soviet T-34s. Then all the Canadians and Soviets will be complete…

After those I’ll probably pluck away at assorted Germans (Heer and SS) and maybe quickly finish up the ANZACs in my possession and maybe even the Japanese…

British Commandos and Paras will work there way in there at some point, as well as the Fallschirmjägers and Armed Civilians…

The Italians and DAK are pretty low priority at the moment. They should be higher as I’ve got great terrain… But there’s only so many times Desert Commandos can storm a desert village…

The Americans are pretty low too… (Sorry, John… maybe if you came out and played WW2 games with us I’d get motivated…). Once I get some Normandy terrain built I’ll get more excited about them…

Looking at the rate I’ve been painting (which has been dropping lately), it’s still take another SIX MONTHS to finish all of this!?

Ugh…

I don’t even want to think about all the other stuff I have now…

What to do... What to do...?

Well I've been re-basing and painting a few new figures for my AK-47 Republic armies... The re-basing has put more figures on a base ans so I'm having to paint up quite a few extras to be able to field two formations. When I actually have some units completed I'll post some pics.

Of course then I was looking at Stephen Thomson's finished WW2 forces this morning and have a hankering to get back to the 28mm WW2 stuff and just finish it up before moving on to other things (as I had been planning to do - and doing a good job of sticking to it - for... well... most of this year...)

Oh and Bob's Pretty Pikemen got me thinking about my ECW stuff waiting in the wings...

Urrrrr....

Okay... finish AK-47 armies... THEN finish 28mm WW2... THEN I'll have to think about what to do next... probably something DBA/HOTT related, though perhaps some of it's variants covering the English Civil War or Seven Years War.

Too much fun stuff to paint, so little time...

Busy-Busy-Busy!

I've been rather busy lately painting up a storm. Nothing to show here because... well... I haven't been painting miniatures... I've been painting... well... Other Stuff.

I'm rather excited about painting pictures at the moment and I'm going to ride that wave for a bit. Totally giving up on painting more than I purchased this year... but I'll get caught up next year! There's really very little I actually CAN purchase for some time, so...

I did get in a game of Contemptible Little Armies last week and when I have a moment I'm going to get a game report up here. I'll likely have another game this Thursday...

Should also be finished up my next painting in the next day or two - which some of you may get a kick out of, so I'll post it here as well!

Starting to think about another game weekend in the new year - could be a HOTT campaign... could be a Savage Worlds WW2 mini skirmish campaign... it would likely be around the weekend of February 25-26-27 (my annual Wargaming Birthday Bash),

Game Plan 2010… The Final Stretch

We’re into the last few months of 2010. I’ve stayed pretty focused through most of the summer, cranking out an incredible number of 28mm WW2 figures. I was only briefly distracted over the last couple weeks with ideas of things fantastical and/or ancient… (and almost distracted by some micro sci-fi!?)

This last week or so I’ve been doing some organizing and “tidying” and taking stock and got refocused on things (relatively) modern. My plan, for the balance of 2010, is to complete the 28mm WW2 era stuff that I currently have.

Taking stock I’ve found that I have 1233 World War Two era figures (in 28mm). Of those 781 are painted, and 452 are not-so-painted. Looking over at the totals on the left there it seems I’ve currently painted 604 28mm foot so far this year and purchased 1041… So if I manage to paint ALL of them by the end of the year I will succeed in my goal to paint more figures than I’ve purchased. Well… at least more of the 28mm foot… mounted, vehicles and big baddies – I’ll have to get caught up on next year.

Breaking down the WW2 era infantry I have (Painted/Not-So-Painted):

Soviets 166/0
German Heer (European Fronts) 79/75
German late War SS 20/20
German Fallshirmjägers 11/36
German DAK 34/23
Italians 0/53
Canadians 49/56
British/Candian Paras 59/32
British Commandos 47/32
British SAS/LRDG 28/0
French Foreign Legion 30/0
Japanese 38/0
Australians 27/3
U.S. Marines PTO 10/0
U.S. Army ETO 15/42
Armed Civilians/Partisans/Resistance 47/22
Pulp Adventure 121/50

(I’ve included all the “Pulp Adventure” skirmish figures as there is a fair bit of cross over – in fact it was hard to determine sometimes which should be classified simply as “Armed Civilians/Partisans/Resistance” and which should be “Pulp Adventure” – of course there was a great many that could be either “Pulp Adventure” or “Victorian SF/Horror” or “Back of Beyond”, etc, etc…. anyway… they’ve been nominally organized into appropriate drawers and those currently in the “Pulp Adventure” are included…)

Of course then there’s tanks and vehicles… I’ll try and get those done as well, but the main focus in the infantry.

For Vehicles we have (again... Painted/Not-So-Painted):

Soviets 6/0*
German Heer (European Fronts) 7**/10
German late War SS (Use Heer stuff above)
German DAK 0/1
Canadians 0/6
U.S. Army ETO 0/1

* I might order myself a few T-34s this weekend… we shall see…
** six of these are pre-painted plastic models that are pretty good… I may repaint them sometime, but for now they are passable and useable.

I’ve even come up with a bit of a schedule:

August (like, this weekend)
Finish up the armed civilians

September - Commonwealth
The Canadians (including the tanks)
Paras
Commandos

October/November – Germans
Heer (including tanks and vehicles)
Late War SS
Fallschirmjägers
DAK

December – The Rest
Americans
Italians
Pulp Adventure
(and Soveit tanks, if I get them…)

I may not get it all done… but it’s good to have something to shoot for!

So, for 2011…? In the new year, after finishing up any WW2 era stuff I haven’t quite finished I thought I might try and finish up the rest of the early twentieth century stuff (Great War Western Front/East Africa/RCW/Back of Beyond forces), and some Victorian SF/Horror skirmishy stuff… and after that I want to get cracking on some DBA and HOTT armies. My plan, for the following three or four years, is to finish up one DBA/HOTT army every month… I have plenty armies with all options ready to be painted:

Elves**
Dwarves**
Goblins
Orcs**
Undead
Narnia
Amazons**
Cetaurs*
Rohan*
Mordor*
Moria
Viking x2
Anglo-Danish** x2
Scots
Irish*
Welsh
Early Imperial Rome x4
Early Germans
Skythians
Thracians
Classic Indians
Lion Clan*
Unicorn Clan
Dragon Clan
Crab Clan
Scorpion Clan
Shadowlands (oni)
SYW Englsih**
SYW French**
SYW other?
Jacobites
ECW Parliament x2
ECW Royalist* x2
ECW Scots Covenanters
ECW Scots Royalists*

*Armies that I have a start on and just need to finish up
**Armies that I have a complete army that can be fielded but need some extra options or that I have a second complete army/command to paint!


Also over the last week of looking through the bins and seeing what I have I’ve come to the realization that I have enough…

Yep, you read that right: I HAVE ENOUGH STUFF

(Well, for some time at least – and with one, small, exception… being the aforementioned T-34s)

I’ve decided that (after this weekend) I am not going to buy any more toys until at least 2012. Oh, there’s a few other things I can think of that I might like (1940 French, SAS mounted Jeep patrol, Italian tanks, more early war Russian and German tanks, etc…) but, seriously… I’ve got to get some stuff DONE before I can be buying any more stuff!!!


Back to assembling the Humber and panting armed civilians…

The Staghound: Part One

So, I picked up a Harlequin/Black Tree Design Staghound off ebay. I knew I had seen it listed… somewhere… as part of the arsenel of items the Canadian Army used in World War Two… it was a good deal… so I bid, and won it. It arrived last week some time.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Nice big solid heavy model… Not really sure where all those bits go just yet… and some of the parts look like they don’t quite fit seamlessly together (understatement) and will require a fair bit of modeling experience and expertise to put together. Luckily I have said experience and expertise (what I lack is time!). If I’d pickedup a model like this twenty (or even ten) years ago – it would have looked like crap when it was done. It might still…

I do like that it comes with some stowage. I also have a couple commonwealth turret crew from another ebay purchase which I will be adding.

Maybe I’ll do a bit of a step-by-step assembly and painting series of posts…?

Anyway, looking up the Staghound I found that it was used in Army Corps armoured car regiments. That would be the 1st Armoured Car Regiment (Royal Canadian Dragoons), for the 1st Canadian Army Corps, or the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons) for the 2nd Canadian Army Corps. As all my other stuff is being modeled as elements of the 2nd Canadian Army Corps, I guess that will make this a Staghound from the 12th Manitoba Dragoons (18th Armoured Car Regiment).

Now my first big question is: What the heck did a CORPS level armoured car reconnaissance unit do!? I take they weren’t out on the sharp end trying to determine the location of the enemy…? I figure that would be the Armoured and Infantry Division’s reconnaissance unit’s job… Were they just for scouting out new locations for the Corps HQs? Providing a little defense and security for the Corps HQ? Seriously, anybody out there have any ideas…?

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to google the Dragoons – they’re probably a militia unit now, and often they have their own websites. Some of the better ones have unit histories and stuff…

Well, what do you know…

12th Manitoba Dragoons

Hmmmm… not much about what they actually DID with their Staghounds…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably WON’T be updates on the Staghound… but you never know…

Tidied up the painting table again last night. Cleared off all the distractions. I did a bit of stock-taking last night and counted up all my WW2 era stuff (including the “pulp adventure” 20s/30s stuff) and found I have about 1240!? (I was a little shocked too!) Of that about three quarters are painted. I have 455 infantry figures to paint. If I managed to paint them all in the next four months I’d achieve the goal of at least painting more 28mm foot than I purchased… Let’s not talk about the tanks…

The first items I’m finishing up are the Armed Civilians and a handful of Canadians to finish up the first platoon. Watch for those in the next couple days.

I might get started on this Staghound. It’s probably not going to be particularly useful… but…

Um... some more tanks arrived today (late war German - 2x PzkwIVH, 2x Panther, 1x Tiger). I heard a rumor that West Wind Productions might be doing the same sale again next week... and I may just have to pick up a couple T-34s...

Cleaning and Organizing

Amanda’s been at home on vacation the last week and has been on a bit of a cleaning and organizing warpath. To stay out of her way (and look like I’m doing something too!) I took on an organizational project myself that’s been long overdue…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Of course Amand pointed out it looks even WORSE now that I’m trying to clean things up…


I have to agree a bit… but I think of it as the storm before the calm.

It doesn’t help that all the stuff that has been disseminating from the War Room throughout the house over the last… oh… year, has been unceremoniously dumped on the game table to be “dealt with” by the raging cleanbot.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Russians… and maybe a tidy game room…?

Canadian Campaign in Northwest Europe

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the East Front skirmish Campaign I am currently running. But I have to admit I’ve been getting pretty excited about doing a Canadian Campaign for World War Two.

I’ve kind of settled on doing a campaign set in Northwest Europe, beginning with D-Day. I guess I could have done one starting with Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), which the 1st Canaidan Division participated in. I’m not ruling out doing a Sicilian/Italian campaign, in fact I’m pretty sure I’ll do a Sicilian/Italian campaign as some point. I’m far more familiar with that campaign.


The fact is, however, the Canadians I’ve been working on lately are more suitable for Northwest Europe.

The idea of a Canadian campaign has almost distracted me from the current East Front Campaign. Fortunately, having given the Canadian campaign some further thought I’ve realized I have a lot to do before I’ll be able to get that off the ground.

I imagine the campaign will follow a platoon of The Regina Rifles from D-Day to VE-Day. Ideally I’d like to find a good history of the Regina Rifles – preferably some personal memoirs – to use as a scenario generator. The Saskatchewan Information and Library Services shows three books on the Regina Rilfes (Look To Your Front, Up the Johns, and The Regina Rifles) I’m sure I’ve had one of those out and it was pretty good. I’ll have to check out the others as well.

I also found a really good website with a fair bit of handy info:

Regina Rifles

If anyone else knows of good sources of info – in particular any good, readable memoirs – please post a comment!!

I’ve been reading through the Osprey book on Juno Beach (well… Gold AND Juno Beach) and just from that it seem to me the first two (or three) obvious scenarios would be:

#1 The Beach – landing on the beach and getting off it taking out beach defences along the way, and

#2 Clearing Courseulles – street fighting – this could end up being a series of scenarios in itself…

And this brings me to my first big sticking points: Terrain and Tanks! I have some landing craft I had built for another scenario that could be pressed into service as assault craft. I also have LOADS of Barbed Wire from the Vimy Project… but I’ll definitely need some bunkers; casements, tobruk emplacements, etc. I’ll probably need something to represent a sea wall and some of the beach obstacles might be fun – if only just for show. For the second scenario I’m going to need to build some French looking buildings (definitely be referring to Kevin’s Blog for some inspiration there…

Then there are the supporting tanks of 1st Hussars… Of course if all the players are in one platoon, or even one section to start with, I’d really only need one Sherman, maybe two… but that’s one or two more than I currently have and I’ve pretty much expended my gaming budget for the year… so… (if anybody’s wondering what to get me for my birthday… or has one and wants to trade for a pile of 15mm ACW stuff…?).

That’s just the Canadian tanks… Very shortly after D-Day I’m quite certain I’ll be needing some tanks for the 21st Panzer Division and/or the 12th SS… I do have a Panzer IV, but I’ll probably need some of the big cats as well (Pumas and Panthers and Tigers, OH MY!). And maybe some early war French tanks – that 21 Panzer Division was supposedly equipped with. Of course that would probably just be an excuse to start an Early War French force….

After the French village terrain, I’ll be needing some French countryside terrain…

In terms of other miniatures I think I’m pretty much set. Well, mostly…

I have almost enough Canadians for two full strength platoons (once I get them all painted) – I may be shy a bren gunner or two and a couple riflemen… but when were any sections at full strength anyway!? Other than the tanks I also have some 3” mortars for support – not that they would even really need to be on the table…!? I should probably pick up a six pound AT gun (support from the battalion AT platoon) and maybe a 17 pound AT gun – from Divisional AT Artillery battery. Other artillery would all be off table.

For the Germans I’ll have enough regular Heer for two full platoons as well, plus a great deal of odd extra support things – engineers, AT guns, etc. They will all do for the 716th Division soldiers and could be pressed into action as panzer grenadiers from the 21st Panzer Division. I also have enough SS to make up a full panzer grenadier platoon for when they bump into the 12th SS. I’m not sure if I really need half tracks…?

I still need to paint a few of those, but I’ve got time…

“Do-I-Count-Them” Canaucks…?

A couple more Canadians… Not sure if I should count them on my painted tally because they WERE previously painted as British Commandos (more brown-ish khaki uniform). Probably not. Though I’m not keeping a total Painted vs. Unpainted (just a tally of how many things I paint – whether for me or someone else)… and though the uniform that I repainted probably covers 80+% of the figures surface area… I probably won’t…

Anyway, here they are:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are all from Crusader Miniatures.

I did a bit of stocktaking and organizing of the WW2 stuff and came up with a bit of a plan. I was going to publish it on the blog (thinking that if it’s “published” somewhere I might be more likely to stick to it), but then decided I wouldn’t waste the time just to bore anyone with it, and besides publishing toy plans has never stopped me from abandoning a project part way through it I stop having fun with it!!

It has been handy to sort out what I have and what I “need” or what I could possibly add to each of the forces. It was during the stocktaking that I realized I had surplus commandos that could be repainted to fill in a couple of the gaps in the Canadian force. If I hadn’t I probably would have just bought a couple more brens and a command pack to get an officer and ended up with surplus commandos…

The short version of the “plan” is that I have 512 painted 28mm WW2 figures and about 268 to paint (plus about painted vehicles and two to paint – plus three more in the nefarious netherworld of “pre-painted die-cast stuff that I’m still not sure if I’m going to boher repainting them….”). If I painted 10 per week (easy) I could finish all the WW2 stuff I have by the end of the year.

Of course I’ll work on some other stuff – I’ll HAVE to if I want to reach the “painted more than I bought” goal. I have to paint over 460 figures to make that goal (assuming I actually manage to NOT buy anymore stuff for the rest of the year) – not impossible… (either then painting or the not purchasing…!)

There were a few things I identified as “need to get” items to finish off a few basic forces:

- A platoon command team for the second British Para platoon (~4)
- A section, an LMG team, and a platoon command to finish off an Italian platoon (~15)
- Five LMG teams, and three SMG armed section commanders to finish an SS Panzer Grenadier platoon (~13)
- Three LMG teams to finish off a Fallshirmjäger platoon (6)
- Two Bren teams, two 2” mortar teams and about ten riflemen to finish off two platoons of Canadians (~18).

There were a few “nice to get” items:
- a few more Japanese to fill out a “full-strength” platoon
- a third section of Australians, as well as a mortar, MG, AT, and platoon command
- Commando Vickers team
- German infantry gun

And finally, in the category of “someday” items (in no particular order...):
- 3x Sherman V and a Sherman VC for a Canadian armoured platoon.
- 3x BT-7 and/or 3x T-26 for early war Russian tank platoon(s)
- T-34 platoon (3-4)
- Some Japanese tanks (for Soviet-Japanese tank battles in Manchuria!)
- 4x German half tracks for the DAK or SS Panzer Grenadiers
- Mortars, AT guns, Third platoon for the Canadian Infantry?
- more German tanks (not sure what variety or combination…)
- More partisans/generic armed civilians
- Jeep mounted SAS and/or truck mounted LRDG
- Third British Para Platoon?! Plus a company command!?
- Italian tanks (Couple CV-33, and maybe some M11-39 or M13-40)
- a few more Russian DP LMGs
- a second BA-64

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Bobbies and Diggers are still at the front of the painting table – thought I’ve kind of been working on rebasing the last of the WW2 stuff that are still on the older, smaller washers.

(I have also located the missing Elves and did a bit of work on the magician last night!)

What was the plan again...?

"Paint at least twice as many figures as I buy"...?

Was that it...? Can't be!

Must have been "Buy twice as many figures as I paint!"

Aye-yi-yi!

So… Now What?!

I don’t know…. Usually the week after a big gaming event I start thinking about what’s next. But right now I feel like I’m at a bit of a loss.

For the moment I’ve actually cancelled my weekly Wednesday gaming night… I’ll probably do the same for Savage Saturday shortly… and I’m officially canceling the gaming weekend originally planned for the end of May… and not making any promises about holding any future gaming weekends…

Oh, I’m not saying that I’m not playing games anymore. I’m just not having regularly scheduled weekly games. I need some time to recharge and get some painting done. Work on some projects… and rethink the format of larger (weekend) events.

I also want to get out on the bike some more.

So what AM I going to be working on… I don’t know… I don’t really feel like working on any big projects at the moment. Though I do like focusing on one thing and getting stuff done – because it’s the way to GET STUFF DONE - I feel totally scattered at the moment and trying to launch into one thing right now would be setting myself up for failure. There’s a half dozen or so projects I’d LIKE to be working RIGHT NOW! These include the Seven Years War British and French (and possibly some “imagi-nations”), Dark Ages DBA armies (Scots, Irish, Welsh, More English, and More Vikings), English Civil War, various Generic HOTT armies (Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, etc…), Lord of the Rings HOTT armies (Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, etc), Samurai DBA/HOTT armies, Sci-fi/Modern/Pulp/Horror skirmish… I’ve even occasionally had a hankering to bust out the 20mm Modern stuff…!? But obviously I just don’t have the time to do it ALL right now.

What I DO seem to have a lot of on the workbench lately is Sci-Fi Skirmish things (should have some pics of the latest stuff posted tomorrow).

We shall see.

2010 Winter Wargaming Weekend Part 1 – Friday Night

For the last… I don’t know… five or six years (or so?) I have had a wargaming birthday bash in February. I’ve tried to extend that over a weekend at least once before. Last year I hosted two campaign weekends, and this year I had hoped to host a Wargame Birthday Bash Campaign Weekend! Due to some scheduling issues and the fact that originally CVT and Amanda thought they might run in the Brain Freeze half-marathon this weekend I put it off a week into March.

This weekend was originally supposed to be the “Second Annual HOTT Campaign Weekend”, but for a variety of reasons I decided at the last minute to drop the campaign idea and just host a series of one-off games over the weekend.

Friday night we kicked off with the traditional homemade Pizza dinner, followed by a Hordes of the Things MEGA-BATTLE!

CVT, Terry, and Cory all came out from Edmonton and some how ended up playing on the same side against Amanda, Rick and Jackson. Given the armies selected it was hard to decide what to call the sides in the report… “Good”…? “Bad”…? I think I’ll stick with invader and defender…

THE FORCES

Invaders

Normans – Cory
1x Hero General Count Cory de Moutard
4x Knights – Knoble Knights in shining armour
2x Spear – Foot Soldiers
2x Shooters - Archers
1x Cleric – The Arch bishop of Moutard and his entourage
1x Horde – Religious Rabble whipped into a frenzy by the Archbishop

Irish Picts – CVT
1x Hero General (Bran Mac Tighem)
6x Warband – Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warriors
3x Riders - Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warriors on horses
1x Beast –Irish Wolfhounds

Vikings – Terry
1x Blade General – Haggis Hammerhand
9x Blade – Viking Hirdsmen
2x Warband - Berserkers


Defenders

Warrior Wymins – Amanda
1x Hero General – General Libby
1x Magician – Elvish Sorceress
3x Blades – Dwarven Shieldmaidens
1x Riders - Centaur Mares
3x Warbands – Two Witch elves and one Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warrior Wymin
1x Shooters – Elvish Archers

Samurai – Jackson
1x Rider General - General Katsumoto
1x Rider – Mounted Samurai
2x Spear – Ashigaru
3x Shooters – Archers
1x Blade – Earth Elementals
2x Beasts – Lions

Orcs – Rick
1x Hero General - Oberherr Biestreiter
1x Hero
5x Riders – Wolf Riders
3x Beasts – Wolves sans Riders


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The battle lines… The picture is taken from the North end of the table on the left (east end of the table) from North to South were; The Irish-Picts (with their commander CVT smiling behind them!), The Normans, and the Vikings. On the right (West side of the table), form North to South: The Samurai, The Warrior Wymin, and the Orcs (with their commander Rick eying up his opponents dispositions and plotting his demise…).


The Irish Pict Army of Bran Mac Tighem


The Samurai Army of General Katsumoto


The Warrior Wymin Army of General Libby


The Orcish Horde of Oberherr Biestreiter


The Norman Army of Count Cory de Moutard

Somehow I didn’t get a shot of the Vikings…?


The action started off fast and furious (well at least at the North end of the table)! Within two turns Irish Pict Riders were galloping towards a gap between the marsh and the end of the Warrior Wymins lines – heading, presumably, for the stronghold!


Some Lions from the Samurai Army tried to head them off – attacking out of the marsh… It seemed like a good idea at the time Beasts vs. mounted being +4 and the mounted, fighting against an opponent in bad-going was an effective +1…


Unfortunately when they DIDN’T knock them out the pursued into a rather awkward position…


Didn’t seem to matter in the end, because despite even odds the lions doubled the Riders score the next time around and poof - they were gone!!


Rick and Amanda

The Forces to the South were a little slower to get going


General mayhem ensued in the North as the Irish Picts and Samurai went at it hamer and tongs… and Bran Mac Tighem looking like he might be in a bad way… Archers to the front, Lions flanking…


Nope Bran Mac Tighem rode down those archers and sent the Lions back into the swamp in confusion – they were disrupted by the presence of the other pride and slinked off the field of battle


Once again Lions attacking Irish Pict Riders out of the Swamp and Bran Mac Tighem charging archers!


The mounted Irish Picts were driven back…


… and the Ashigaru archers were driven into the dirt!


Shortly after that the rest of the Irish Pict and Samurai armies clashed!


It went badly for the Irish Picts…


But the next run the Irish Picts gave back as good as they got...


…. taking out another unit of archers and the second pride of lions… The Samurai Army was now teetering on the brink of collapse!


That’s about the time when the forces far to the south FINALLY came to blows! The majority of the Vikings for some reason refused to charge up the hill to attack the Wolf Riders defending it instead they sent in units on the flanks to see if they could get some advantage there.


At the North end of the line the Vikings managed to drive off a mob of Wolf Riders.


Those at the south end of the line weren’t so lucky – a unit of Vikings was surrounded and annihilated.


The Samurai’s Giant turned and started rolling up the line…


… helping to destroy another TWO warbands of Wild-ass Irish Pict Warriors


General Katsumoto looked like he might be in a bad way for a moment. But his bodyguard of hand picked Samurai held off the assaults on all sides and all involved remained locked in bitter combat!


All the while the Norman Army was slowly (as a result of poor communication along the lines) trying to deploy their line opposite the Warrior Wimyn who steadfastly defended the gates of their Stronghold!


The Samurai’s Giant moved up again while General Katsumoto remained locked in combat!


General Katsumoto and his personal Yojimbo put up a fight that would ensure their honor, but they were no match for the overwhelming odds stacked against them…


Unfortunately the last of the Irish Pict Warbands were also wiped out…

This meant BOTH the Irish Pict AND the Samurai commands were demoralized and would soon begin to disintegrate – especially the Samurai, lacking a general!

This all before the other two commands were even seriously engaged!?


The Orcs and the Vikings picked up their tit for tat exchange…


The Orcs riding down another unit of Hirdsmen…


On his next turn Bran Mac Tighem was able to rally all of his remaining forces into a single group and keep them on the table…

The Samurai weren’t so lucky… The next turn the Giant, Mounted Samurai and Earth Elementals all left the field of battle leaving only the two stands of Ashigaru Spearmen!


Dum-de-dum…. Normans still maneuvering into position…


Down South the Berserks took out a pack of Wolves.


Finally the wolves got a bit bored and came down off the hill and the two lines met!


Another unit of Hirdsmen were wiped out tipping the balance back in the Orcs favour.


Then the Wolves and one of the Heroes took out another pair…


Enraged, the Berserks destroyed another pack of wolves!


Bran Mac Tighem rallied his remaining riders and galloped off towards the Defenders stronghold…


The remaining players consider the mess in the south. I think both of those commands were perilously close to being demoralized as well and losing two or three more stands would have lost the game for the defenders at this point!


Amanda.


The Normans line finally arrayed for battle


An errant band of Norman Knights charge a pack of Orc Wolf Riders!


The Wolf Riders are ridden down!


The Warrior Wimyn charge forward to meet the Norman line!


There was a lot of shoving back and forth. The Elvish Sorceress, however, enscorcelled Count Cory de Moutard! On their next turn the Normans rolled a one, the entire command was demoralized and left the field of battle.

Game Over.

The defenders really pulled it out of the fire! Things looked pretty bad when most of Jackson’s army left the table… and looked even worse as the Orcs slowly got chipped away at and Bran mac Tighem started galloping towards the Stronghold!

It was a fun game to watch. Thanks to everyone that came out – Especially CVT, Terry, and Cory!

The rest of the weekend’s games were all Savage Worlds Skirmish games played on Saturday. To follow the action you’ll have to mosey on over to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

There’s a lot of sci-fi stuff working it’s way on to my workbench these days… There’s the last of the Viridian Strike Commandos (which I may to a How-To paint guide for…) and some other fun stuff… Space ships, 40K Catachans (including a sentinel…). I’d also like to work on some new terrain and some scratch built vehicles.

Of course Friday Night’s HOTT game has got me thinking about getting back to work on Fantasy and Dark Ages stuff…. and the DBAX Seven Years War games of the last couple weeks have got me thinking about painting more of that!?

I’ve decided to make no promises about the format or theme of the Wargames Weekend originally planned for May. Indeed I’m starting to think I may not even HAVE the Wargame Weekend in May. We’ll see… Either way I’m not making any grand plans for any big events and just going to work on whatever suits my fancy for the next little bit… try and finish up a few projects that have been “on the go” for a while but repeatedly shoved to the side because there was other more pressing “MUST DO” things coming up.