Tim's Birthday Bash Wargaming Weekend

So Friday I loaded up the car and headed off  to Saskatoon to welcome Tim to the years that the body begins to rebel. Ahh well, he will find out in due course.


The drive was fantastic, dry highway, not too busy & this in February in the Prairies. After a quick run into the Dragons Den, I headed to Tim's to have a quick rest & chat before the festivities began.


We had a large multi-player battle of DBA in preparation for the campaign that would begin on Saturday. Here are the pics I took focussing on my part of the battle & you can read more here


With 2 Viking Player allies, it was decided I would hold the centre against the Norman Knights

Below we are disheartened to learn that the river would not be of any assistance and the Knights come barrelling across.

Surprisingly enough the battle went totally opposite of what was expected. As knights were hurled back and held at bay. The Knight General broke through but was to meet his demise. It was one of the shortest DBA games I have ever played.

Saturday

On Saturday, the crew arrived and the campaign was afoot. We had to bid how many elements we were willing to lose in order to determine army choice order. I chose to start with my full compliment as did John. So we diced and I got the Pre-Feudal Scots.

Here is where the armies started on a wonderfully painted campaign map by Tim.

I decided to wait for the Spring Turn and just defended the realm to see if my predictions would pan out. Of course I had to be right & saw the Vikings land upon my shores. So the Scottish Army marched to hurl them back into the sea. Here is the deployment. It should be mentioned that the Vikings were down a couple elements from the bidding. This battle should have been a sure victory. Alas, the Vikings had brought a shaman (Kiera Sixspell) with them & her foretelling (dicerolling) would speed the Vikings to victory.



Here after a solid strategy of flanking the outnumbered Vikings, we see Kiera Sixspell waiting to aid her followers. The lesson from this battle was not lost on the Scots..

"Nevah' bet agin a Wee Lass wen it com ta dice"

As expected the Vikings followed the retreating Scots to their capital and another field battle ensued. An Emissary had been sent to the Irish (John) with promise of Wives (aka sheep) for them if they would lend a contingent. The Irish quickly agreed, however as luck would have it, they found the women (aka sheep) before they reached the battle & were not appearing in this battle. The Scots were defeated & forced into Vassalage by the Vikings.

More of the battle reports can be found here

Sunday

Today Tim set up a battle using his modified rules from several different rule sets. Rather than attempt to duplicate the action, it will be easier just to read it and view the images here

It was a good weekend &  ended with playing a game of The Hobbit with Tim and his family. It was nice to finally be able to play games with Tim again. I look forward to the next gathering & will seek the aid of Kiera Sixspell!

EWG Game night 21 Feb 12

Tonight we had a good showing at the club with 3 full games being ran, but I will leave the details to Bob & just focus on the game I played in.  This evening it was a new game for us which Scott brought called War Rockets. The spacecraft we were flying were reminiscent of Buck Rogers & Flash Gordon...ahh the memories

This evenings battle pitted Scott (the host) & myself against Chen & Mark. Here Scott explains the nuances of rolling a 1. He proved it by rolling 3 in a row during the battle.

This is an image of the largest ships in my fleet

At the other end of the table Scott squared off against Mark, it was where the largest of the forces ships engaged & were eventually both destroyed.

After several rounds, I was able to eventually whittle Chens forces. Here the last of his large ships is about to explode as its crew are stunned & unable to do anything. His small ship did try to thwart its end by getting a lucky hit on my ship.

All in all a fun little game, great for a club night as the rules were simple & the dynamics easy to pick up. Of course it all comes down to the lucky dice. Each force differed in that the red ships, while slower, were better at defence, while the blue force had better speed, but weaker defence. The models were well done by Scott (as the images show) and we look forward to seeing more of this game at the club and Mayday!

And so it begins....

Well now it has come to it. The painting desk is ready for the most part..just some fiddling with the shelves & whats on them to do. Most important however is that I can now start painting my miniatures again!!!

Then it hit me. Where do I start? What should I do first? Have a plan? Just grab a box & start?....I think the last will become the norm after my first batch.

The fact that we will be playing some SAGA at Mayday, I decided it was best that I find (2 hours later) the warband I bought for this system.

So here we are with the box of Welsh that I had bought when the game launched. All the figures in this box are equal to a 4pt warband.

This closeup shows the figures split into their types..Warlord, Hearthguard (4 figures), 2 groups of Warriors (8 figures each) and a group of Levies (12 figures)

I figured I would start with the Warlord & his Hearthguard, so here they are with their bases removed & primed white.  The next time you see these fellows will be when they are completed.

DBA Campaign Night 2

We gathered for our monthly DBA evening a night early this year, due to Valentine's Day falling on our regular Tuesday night.

As the hosts gathered it would seem fate smiled on me this eve...or perhaps  gave my opponents a cold shoulder, cursing their dice.

We each played two games this eve.  As I trundled forward with my Classical Indians (II/3)



My first encounter was against Chen and his Parthians (II/37)

Chen attempted a sweep around his left with light horse and knights, which I countered with a holding action by my cavalry. I realized they would be a short solution to a bad situation there, so rushed forward with my main line against his knights

This is when disaster struck for Chen...a series of 1's against my 5's & 6's. His batttle line vanished under the elephants, his general seeing his forces plight threw himself under the chariot wheels.

The battle wasn't a total loss for Chen as he did manage to destroy the one cavalry he had closed the door on. Final tally 5G/1 for the Classical Indians

My next encounter was with Dennis and his Thessalian's (II/5d). The battle lines are arrayed with Dennis the attacker.

After attempting to confuse my mounted elements by riding his Lt Horse across the front of the battle line. The forces closed and fought. While his light horse were smashed under the tusks and feet of the elephants, he spear held, repulsing all of my elephants. The battle ended however as the Heavy Chariot managed to destroy a spear element. Final tally 4/2 for the Classical Indians.

All in all a good night for me, compared with my dismal first campaign night.

EWG Club Night 7 Feb 12

WOW! Ok! I got it! 2 months since I last posted. Ok, here we go finally. Even got some photos.

Now with all the hubbaloo done, I have still been gaming at the club since November, but I haven't taken along the camera...no excuse honestly.

Tonight however, with Dave bringing out Kampfgruppe Normandie for us to play, the camera was a must.

This first shot is of the battlefield setup. The 7th armoured start in column on the road near Villers Bocage.

Here we have the lead column of Cromwells and a Firefly. Another column was still within the town, which is what my partner Kevin ran

A shot of the town with Wittmen's Tigers about to pounce.

The first game saw the British draw first blood as a Tiger is brewed up.

And the reaction by Shutzen Scott as he draws a 'chit'

A daring move by Kevin to take fire from the Pzr IV

Unfortunately for that Cromwell, it was time for tea, though it did lead to the Panzers demise.

The battle ended with all the German Tanks knocked out.

So we switched sides. Kevin and I taking the role of Wittmen's troop. Wittmen had to bail out of his burning Tiger and rushed over to take command of the tank seen here, and managed to single handedly knock out the entire troop of Shermans that snuck into the rear. That added to the tally of a further troop of tank caught by the Tigers within the town.

All in all a very interesting set of rules. When vehicles were knocked out, the side losing the vehicle/element had to draw a chit to see how much "morale" their side lost. We never did see either side reach their break point. Another interesting aspect is that there were some chits within the cup that provided a random event. Those who know me, know just how much I enjoy random things that occur within games.

So now I look forward to next Tuesday's DBA night.