Dux Bellorum - 1st game

So having painted my Late Romans and dug out my Late Saxons masquerading as Early Saxons (and some Vikings... shh.. don't tell anyone), it was time to actually get them on the table.

The rules are Dux Bellorum from Osprey which are yet another great set in their blue book series of rules.  They are pretty simple to play but have a suitable Dark Age feel.  I've always felt battles in this period should really emphasise the influence of the individual Commanders and these rules reflect this really well with the use of Leadership Points (LPs).  These allow you to improve the chance of activating a unit, add dice to an attack, cancel hits and enable units to interrupt another units activation... all very useful and of course as the action heats up you don't have enough LPs to go round.  If a unit routs you also lose a LP and this shift in the balance of leadership can make a real difference.

Our battle pitched a Romano British force defending against some raiding Saxons.  As neither of had played before we went for a straightforward scenario without too much complicated terrain although in hindsight the river was a bit of a pain.

The Saxon Horde...

...and the British

The British have Shieldwall infantry which are less aggressive but harder to damage.  A legacy of their Roman training and discipline I guess.  Combined with the LPs allowing hits to be cancelled this can make them pretty tough to damage.  And of course the Brits have Cavalry.

The Saxons are all infantry and have the 'advantage' of an uncontrolled advance.  This means they can charge further  than the British Shieldwall and are more aggressive but they have to charge unless you can make them fail a Bravery test (handily the LPs can be used to help fail tests as well as passing them!).

The  neat lines at the start of the game broke up as the fighting started

The Britons had 3 skirmish units of archers vs my 1 Javelin armed unit.  I'd read people complain that skirmishers are very weak in these rules but the British archers were deadly, combining fire to cause lots of casualties.  To be fair I probably tried ignoring them for too long and should gave tried driving them off sooner.

A very messy fight at the river

Andrew, commanding the Britons, used his cavalry to try and turn my flank, forcing me to split my  warbands and it quickly became obvious that the fight at the river was going to be a sideshow with the battle being decided between the Cavalry and the Saxon warbands on my left flank.

The 2 Warlords slug it out

The fights became very scrappy with a lot of to and fro but the British Cavalry began to press hard and the Saxons units began to disappear, shedding Leadership Points in the process.  The cavalry was also pretty beaten up by this point and could have broken but some careful use of LPs by Andrew stopped me causing enough casualties and eventually the Saxons reached 50% losses and began to melt away from the table.

The rules were very impressive and felt just right for this period.  It was great to actually get my newly painted figures on the table and into action and I've just spotted that Gripping Beast have been previewing the artwork for their forthcoming Picts which would be a great addition.

Samurai #3... Ronin

 

So the final game of our Samurai trilogy unfolded last week (current score son 2, me 0).  Having played a couple of games of Test of Honour we decided to dig out the Osprey rules, Ronin...

I haven't played these for ages but had good memories of them so we decided it would be interesting to compare and contrast with ToH.  In many ways these are a more straightforward set of rules with alternate figure activation and nice straightforward dice (plus modifiers)... no fancy dice required!

The USP for these rules is that each figure has a number of counters in their Combat Pool each turn. At the start of each round you secretly select some for attack and defence, so you could, for example, fight an entire round on the defensive... hoping to hold off your opponent until reinforcements arrive.  Alternatively you could throw everything into multiple attacks and hope to finish your opponent off, but risk being injured in the process.  Counters can also be used to enhance attack or defence rolls or to boost your chance of gaining the initiative in the round.  I believe a similar system is used in Osprey's En Garde rules which I own but which are still in the great 'unplayed rules' pile.

I used some beads for attack and defence counters: I picked these up at a local Hobbycraft and they have a suitable 'Go' style about them...

Some figures also have additional bonuses and skills in certain weapons to add to the list of things to forget each round.  Our game pitted a band on Bushi (or regular warriors) against some Sohei monks who were defending their temple.

The quiet temple...

The monks rush out to defend the temple...

The Bushi arrive, determined to loot the temple

Ashigaru armed with Teppo (or arquebus) take some
long range shots across the river...

The melee concentrates around a rice store.

Neither of us made any attempts at subtlety.  I had split my troops and one of my Samurai and an Ashigaru armed with a spear made a brave rush towards the river but were quickly driven back by Bow and Teppo-fire, leaving the Samurai badly wounded and out of the fight.

Everyone else was drawn into an increasingly brutal melee which I really ought to have won.  At one stage I had a 2:1 advantage in numbers but my son fought a defensive couple of rounds, holding me off long enough for some extra monks to arrive to balance the odds.

more Teppo-fire rings out but with little effect...

The markers in the picture above indicate light or grievous wounds so you can see how bloody the fight was!  Despite my early advantage, the battle slipped away from me and my troops were cut down, leaving the monks victorious and me conceding a 3-0 defeat in our latest round of games.

On reflection we decided that we preferred these to Test of Honour... nothing wrong with ToH but these felt less chance driven and had more elements of tactics and skill in choosing where and how to balance attack and defence. That's enough Samurai for now though... time for them to retire to the loft to lick their wounds and find something else for our next game.

Rebels and Patriots x 2

A first outing this week for my AWI troops.  I've been working on these for a little while now and had a mix of regulars and militia ready but, thanks to a last minute eBay bargain and some very last minute painting, I was able add some Natives to the British forces and equip the rebels with a  cannon.

My plan for these was to use Rebels and Patriots as a ruleset.  These are another of the generally excellent Osprey blue books and follow the Lion Rampant model.  They are designed for games in the North American theatre from the French Indian Wars through to the ACW but could easily be used in other settings...they'd certainly be very suitable for Napoleonic games.

The game uses an IGOUGO model.   Each turn units need to pass an activation roll to complete an Action (move, fire, charge, rally, skirmish etc) but unlike Lion Rampant failing the roll doesn't mean your turn is over, and all units get a chance to try and do something each turn.

Units generally need to roll a 6 on 2d6 to succeed with an action.  The odds can be improved by having your leader within 12" or by being in Close Order.  I really ought to have remembered that...

We decided to play out the 1st scenario in the book which is a straightforward tussle to take command of a hill in the centre of the table.

My commander lead from the front, heading towards the hill with the leading company of the 2nd New York regiment. Andrew sensibly kept his commander in a supporting unit which meant he wasn't exposed to fire.  The 2nd NY came under fire from the Indians in the woods and a unit of skirmishers who kept popping out from behind the hill to take very effective pot shots.

Having taken casualties I had to pass a morale test, which I failed.  And in the next turn I had to take another one...which I failed badly.  As I now had too many disorder markers as a result of the failed tests, the company decided to rout, taking the commander with it!

This set a pattern for the rest of the game with poor activation rolls on both sides and some really bad morale rolls on my part.  Had I thought to get my units into close order (or at least passed the activation rolls to get them there) and not lost my commander I might have had a chance but as it was Andrew's more aggressive approach meant he had seized the hill and my units were rapidly melting away, giving him the victory.

This unit is a little bit outgunned...

I was lucky enough to have a second chance to try out the game a week or so later against another regular opponent Anthony.  I decided to stick to the same scenario and forces and see if I could improve on my shoddy performance.

Again my troops bravely marched towards the hill in the centre of the table...

...and so did the British.

We looked set for a major tussle in the centre of the field but then Anthony was able to combine fire from a couple of units on one of the Continentals which was pretty devastating.  This is something I should have learned from the 1st game: as the casualties begin to mount and units also acquire disorder markers it can quickly become very tricky to stop them routing

Neither of us was keen to commit to taking the hill...we both realised that whoever was brave or foolish enough to get to the top first would be blown away by the waiting units on the other side so the fight developed on either flank

On my right flank I managed to shoot up the Natives with my skirmishers and drive them back and out of the game (or so I thought...).  My own skirmishers were driven back in response but I was hopeful of holding off the enenmy on this side of the army.

On my left the artillery was doing a sterling job of holding back the approaching Light Infantry who had cunningly advanced through the woods but casualties were beginning to mount on my infantry on this flank. The British had a unit of Loyalist Militia who had been upgraded to 'Good Shots' giving them a +1 to hit.  As units normally hit on a 5 or 6 this makes quite a difference and my Green Militia that were opposing them weren't impressed!

Back on the left the Natives had somehow reformed and regained their nerve and, having sneaked through the woods, suddenly charged my Skirmishers, wiping them out completely in a single round of combat and then swung onto the flank of one of my Line Infantry units routing it in turn (Natives are allowed to do that sort of thing!).

At this point discretion seemed the better part of valour and the Americans decided that the British could keep the hill after all.


So, despite managing to learn nothing from my first defeat and crashing out twice in a row, how were the rules?  Like most of the Osprey rules these are excellent value and a really simple but effective ruleset for the period (or periods in this case as they cover such a broad timespan).  It would be easy enough to adapt them for other settings or to add in house rules to suit your own local gaming groups preferences without unbalancing things and they are very quick and easy to pick up.

Now I just need to work out how to win...

A flurry of painting!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but it's been a remarkably productive spell.  I'm really slow at painting usually but somehow seem to have been able to knuckle down and get on with
painting recently.


A friend asked if I would paint up a set of figures from a starter set for Core Space.  I hadn't heard of this before but it is a science fiction boardgame/skirmish set which pits various factions of traders, the Galactic Corps and The Purge  against each other.  It's produced by Battlesystems who are known for making a really good range of modular terrain pieces in card.... https://shop.battlesystems.co.uk/core-space-11-c.asp.  I've no idea what the game system is like but the miniatures are very nice indeed.

I've also painted up a box of Warlord Games AWI infantry ready for a game later this week which will be the first outing for this project and my first chance to try the Rebels and Patriots rules from Osprey.

And there's more!  As a regular gamer at Eric the Shed's I have been lucky enough to play with his fantastic collection of figures.  After the last all day extravaganza (there's a post about it here) we were talking about what to do next and the idea came up of something which all the players could contribute to.  The Wars of the Roses was an immediate thought as it's easy for each player to put together a retinue of men at arms, bowmen and billmen and the setting is ripe for the various factions to then stab each other in the back (or the front).  As we are all fans of Kingmaker there is a ready made campaign system waiting to be used as well.

I had a suspicion that I had some figures stashed away in the loft from a long-abandoned WotR project at the Guildford club and after a bit of slightly risky archaeology in the mounds of boxes in the loft I unearthed 2 boxes: Men at Arms and European Mercenaries, both by Perry Miniatures. A week later I then found another box of bow and billmen which I'd obviously started to build.  No idea where the assembled figures are but there are enough for me to make a small start on Lord Percy's retinue.

Friday round up

I've had a busy day off today... we're having some unseasonal sunshine so the day has been filled with dog walking and chores.  Now the windows are cleaned, pot of soup made and bags of clothes have been sorted for the charity shop I can hopefully find some time for a spot of painting.

Recently I've been very focused on painting boats for Cruel Seas and making more Paper Jacobites, so it was a slightly odd feeling when I finished all of these and realised I didn't have anything immediate to work on.  Of course I quickly remembered that I had a starter set of 1:200 scale planes for Warlord Games Blood Red Skies which have been languishing in their box for a few months so these have been dug out and I've started painting again.

The starter set comes with 6 Spitfires and 6 Me109s.  I already have quite a few planes in 1:300 and I had thought they would match up ok but having compared the models I don't think this will work and I can see myself investing in more of the larger planes.

Disappointingly the starter.set came with some rather naff stickers rather than decals.  I think this may have been changed in later sets but I'll have to order some better decals.

I've also been giving some thought to Salute purchases.  I'm on a spending limit and don't have any great plans but I do plan to pick up some minis for Burrows and Badgers.  I first came across this a couple of years ago at Salute 2017 where I had a chat with Michael Lovejoy at Oathsworn Miniatures.  They produce the game and a great range of figures.

It's clearly heavily inspired by things like Redwall and Mouseguard and may be a bit twee for some, but the range of fantasy mice, squirrels, badgers and other woodland animals is really well sculpted and the game has intrigues me.  I've resisted until recently when I decided, sod it, I fancy the game!    I've also just seen an ad for this  new range from Northumbrian Tin Soldier which looks excellent.  I've picked up a copy of the Burrows and Badgers rulebook which looks like a decent set of fantasy skirmish rules.... kind of like Frostgrave with bushy tails.The rules are published by Osprey and are very pretty to look at.

Beyond that I have no plans for Salute spending (yeah...we've heard that before!!!)


I played in an excellent game at Eric the Shed's on Monday...a refight of the Zulu Wars battle of Khambula, almost on the anniversary of the battle.    There's a great write up on Eric's blog here.  It was a great game...not least because we managed (just) to not get overrun by the hordes of angry Zulus.

Oh, and I managed to get myself temporarily banned from TMP for a few days for calling an idiot ' a bit of a dick'...ho hum.I   should know better than to get into arguments with right-wing idiots on the internet but I couldn't help biting. :)   The whole moderation/banning thing on TMP is really quite strange and arbitrary  The site itself seems to be a pale shadow of what it was a few years ago and certainly less useful that other sites such as Lead Adventure Forum.

Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

And here we have it...the first bit of temptation for 2017.  Over on Joe McCullough's blog there is an announcement about the latest development in the Frostgrave world.
 
I've played a couple of games of Frostgrave and enjoyed it although I haven't played it more recently, but now it looks like the next logical development is....Pirates! 
 
http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.co.uk
 
 
According to the post the game is set in "A dense maze of shifting islands, the Ghost Archipelago is covered in the ruins of lost civilizations that are hidden deep in the jungles and rocky mountains. More than one intelligent race calls these islands home, and scores of deadly animals hunt in the swamps and forests".
 
The same team behind Frostgrave are involved so we can expect to see figures from Northstar again (and a Nickstarter perhaps?).  At least it isn't due until the 2nd half of the year so I can start saving my pennies....

I'm a Dude (apparently)!!!

This weekend I made a start on building some of the figures from the Frostgrave Soldiers box that I bought a little while ago.  The box allows you to make 20 figures which make up the poor foot soldiers of the average Frostgrave band.  I decided to make up 10 figures to start as this seems a reasonable amount to get painted and feel like I've achieved something before moving onto the next batch.

I suppose I should have had a look through the rulebook again to decide on the optimum combination of heavier armed troops vs bow or crossbow etc but I simply went with what seemed like nice combinations of weapons and equipment rather than applying any logical thought.

I have to say that assembling these figures is a lot easier than some other plastic figures I've built...arms and heads fit neatly and logically together with the body.  Some other figures I've assembled have required a lot of head scratching to make sure I haven't put a limb on upside down or given someone a dislocated shoulder! The figures really were genuinely fun to build with a nice range of accessories to overload your party with...all that's missing is a 10' pole!

Having started painting again for the first time in ages I've realised how old some of my paints are and keep opening bottles to discover that they have completely solidified.  So this afternoon I ventured off to my nearest GW shop to pick up a can of Chaos Black spray and a few bottles of assorted paint.  I was greeted by the GW employee with "Dude....what are you painting!!?"   I've tried explaining that I was painting historical stuff before which has either been met with a blank gaze or, in a couple of rare cases, an interesting chat about what the manager actually like to play when he isn't being a Chaos Space Imp.  In this case I mentioned a few things which were met with a vacant stare and the repeated mutterings of ..Dude...":  I've decided to take this as a compliment!  Then I mentioned that I was also painting some figures for Frostgrave... a really nice Fantasy skirmish game from Osprey.  By this point none of the words were apparently making sense to the hapless GW lackey...a skirmish game that isn't Age of Sigmar???...does not compute!!!!  I took my paints and made my excuses....

I popped into WH Smiths to get the latest WI and also picked up the second edition of Tabletop Gaming.  If you haven't come across this, it's an interesting mix of reviews of lots of boardgames.  Issue 1 seemed to be very review focused with lots about Eurogames etc which made an interesting change. 

For this issue there seems to have been a bit more focusing on the British market and more articles and interviews rather than hundreds of short reviews.  In among the features are articles on Frostgrave, Age of Sigmar, Kings of War, Beyond the Gates of Antares and the forthcoming Dungeon Saga etc so well worth picking a copy up...at 130 pages there's a lot of reading in it!