New Wargame Room

  I have been busy with kids on summer break from school so any opportunity for a game has been snatched up. When the weather finally started to behave like summer there was only one thing to do!

 The "Hail Caesar" rulebook had eventually arrived in the post so we played a scenario from the book. "With your shield, or on it" a small hoplite battle from the Peloponnesian War. Athenians and Thebans try to block the passage of a Spartan and Corinthian force.
 By the usual scale of "Hail Caesar" this is a small game with only a few units. Great for learning the system and we managed to fit three plays into the afternoon. These photos are from the first of those clashes.
I commanded the Spartan led forces against the Athenian/Theban allies commanded by Glynn.

Foreground shows Spartans and Corinthians (Spartans on right). The allies in position along the road.
There is another allied unit "hidden" in the sunken road through the forest, undeployed at start.

   Confident (perhaps arrogant) in their ability to defeat any enemy, the Spartans advance. The hidden Athenian unit breaks cover to join their allies left flank.

  The scenario did feature a few skirmishing units but as the phalanxes marched straight towards each other, these lighter units quickly decided to get out of harms way, unvalorous but probably wise!

         Unsuprisingly the Spartans and Athenians are first to test their mettle in the othismos.
 
Over the next few minutes the rest of the phalanxes engaged, lots of pushing and shoving with no real advantage to either side. Eventually the quality of the Spartan units showed and a gap appeared in the allied line.

                                              Bloody slaughter ensued !!!

   The Athenians mostly fled leaving the brave Thebans to be surrounded and cut to pieces although they took a heavy toll on the Corinthians. A mighty victory for the Lacedaemonians.

   In both refights the Spartans also won but the results always hung in the balance until one or two allied units broke and their line collapsed.
 The rules gave a fun and fast game although the table was a bit too big for a small battle with 20mm figures. I had scaled all the rules distances to two thirds of those given.
I had just finished the Spartan Hoplites by Zvelda and this was their battle debut. Very nice figs and I think a Spartan army could be in the works.
 More "Hail Caesar" battles will be played and will probably be bigger than this one.

Girls, girls, girls!

With Glynn parading his new "Orlock" gang I was getting jealous. So I made a major effort to dig out my own "Escher" figures and finish painting them.
Most of these figures have been on the "Leadpile" for 5+ years. Shamefull.

Anyway, here they are...

      "The Ladies" have already made a gaming debut with two hard fought battles against the Orlocks.
    Honours are shared at one win each but both games were practise "knock-arounds". New gang rosters will be needed for the future.
  Eagle-eyed Necromunda fans may notice that the Escher ladies have not just some weapon conversions but have been altered with the addition of large amounts of "green stuff".
Sad old man wargamer ! Nuff said !

Busy busy busy

Ok,  I have eventually recovered from the shock of "blogger.com" changing their software to this updated version. just as soon as I get used to a system they change it. 4 months later and I am only now ready to post!
Not all the websites fault. I just needed something worth posting.

Over the last four months there have been several games mostly boardgames. Unfortunately boardgames do not always come across well in photos which has left this blog a bit empty.

Recently my eldest, Glynn, has managed to fit in a game of Necromunda at the club.
Somehow I was conscripted to paint his gang!

                                  The "Heavy Brigade". The "scummer" is "Fat Bob"

                                                            A choice of leader models.

                                                      All the young dudes!

             With a few spare figures that had been kicking around for years and a new boxed set from GW, Glynn has more than enough figures for a gang. Looking forward to a few games. Ross at the club is hoping to kick off a campaign very soon.

Games and more games.

So many things to post. Starting with a slip back to 29/12/11 when Dave made a trip over to mine for an evenings gaming.
First of all I would like to point out that Dave arrived bearing gifts! Home made onion and pepper bhajis.
Top class stuff, gratefully recieved and devoured! Note to self:- get Dave over more often.
  The purpose of the evening was to try out some new games. Forbidden Island, Lost Battles and Fuedo.

Forbidden Island is a co-op game. Players rush around an island collecting treasures before jumping into a helicopter to escape. Not a bad backdrop for a game but add in the major problem that the island is sinking and all of a sudden  things get exciting.
We played three games with increasing difficulty levels each time.
Although the players "Won" each game against the system, each game was close and required planning and a bit of luck to survive.
A good "filler" game and one I would be happy to play again.

Next up was "Lost Battles" but I will hold the details for my next posting which will cover this game and several other battles.

So that brings us to "Fuedo".

Initially I was going to summarise this with "If you have nothing good to say, say nothing" but that might be unfair so I'll try to dig up some positives.
   The box is "pretty". The boards are thick and sturdy and the counters are nicely illustrated, big and thick. Most importantly this game let us constantly quote our favourite lines from Monty Pythons "Holy Grail" movie. This is not a mechanic of the game, just our usual table humour.
This is what I would call a "Mathematics" game. Get the highest value counters next to an opponents lower counters and you win. Not a bad system in itself but add in lots of "fiddly" exemptions, and exemptions to those exemptions all wrapped up in a rulebook which (I hope) suffered in translation, left me uninterested and confused. The entire "medieval" theme seems to be pasted on and the addition of a randomised "teleporting Black Death" felt clunky and arbitrary.
  Most of this is personal opinion and taste so please check this out for yourself. It may appeal to others. Not my "cup of tea".
Overall the evening was a lot of fun. My eldest son joined in for the games and assisted Dave through the Lost Battles refight of Marathon 490BC.
We ended the evening with a few plans for the upcoming "Loaded Dice" club meeting on Friday 13th.
Nice one, and Thanks to Dave for driving all the way up here.

Time Warp

Oh Crikey, the holiday season just flew past in a haze of overeating, wrapping paper, visitors and bad TV. Despite some efforts the gaming was a lot less common than planned. But some dice were rolled, cards played and battles lost.
Firstly, Xmas morning, i finally got my grubby mitts on "Lost Battles".
This boardgame has been produced to a very high quality. Components are thick, thick card for the map tiles and counters (of which there are several million;-).  A glossy 70 page rulebook which also covers the "Empire" game (strategic overview of 200 years warfare that focuses on Carthage, Rome, Macedon and Persian empires). The rule book is heavily illustrated with examples and therefore not as daunting as at first glance it would appear.In fact, compared to most miniature/boardgames the rules are elegant and simple.
The "Empire" map is heavy mounted card and a work of art.
Included in the box is a 300 page book by Prof Phil Sabin, Lost Battles, Reconstructing the great clashes of the ancient world. This hefty tome gives a detailed description of all the battles in the game (40 in all) and extensive design notes on the games rules and structures. The full game rules are included which makes this book an ideal purchase for miniature players (although the game can be played with a single paper map with the troops drawn in pencil).
Two heavy six sided dice and some game tokens, topped off with the thoughtfull addition of ziplock bags.

A quick pic of the final result of a battle. Unfortunately I still have not developed my photography skills enough to avoid glare.

The quality of the game is impressive but how will it play?
Stay tuned for more posts!

Slapping paint on.

I have been busy painting and as usual getting bogged down with multiple projects
instead of finishing one before starting another.
On the plus side, I have just finished three of these projects and have time to post some results.

First up and just for fun,

"Alexander & Bucephalus"

54mm figure from "El Viejo Dragon" This has been lying around in a drawer for years. I enjoyed building and painting this so might try more in the future.

Gone a bit quiet around here.

Oh dear !  Weeks without a post. Unfortunately also weeks without a game.
here is some movement behind the scenes.

The boardgame version of "Lost Battles" is on the way to this address.
40 ancient battles are included. The boardgame is perfect for travel and evenings when time is an issue.
The rules are written in such a way to fully support use of miniatures without having to rebase.
So I am considering prepping my 20mm plastic Persians. just base colours and a coat of "army painter"

I am currently painting up some more Grey Knight Terminators for Space Hulk.
Photos will follow when ready.

In the meantime, here is a pic of a 10mm Wargame. Played around 5 years ago with Warmaster ancients rules.

A Roman Legion is ambushed and wiped out by hordes of barbarians. Boo!

That will have to do for now, hope to have more interesting news soon!