Cadbury World

No...not that one...there's no chocolate involved in this post...

Last weekend we squeezed in a couple of nights away before everywhere gets busy for Easter.  We'd booked a room at The Compasses Inn which is a pub we've stayed in several times over the last 20-odd years.  It's located in Lower Chicksgrove, a very small village (really just a string of houses) in Wiltshire: the pub serves really nice food and more importantly, really nice beer and has 4 bedrooms available.  Crucially for us it's also dog-friendly so we were able to bring the hounds along and I can highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in that part of the country

Lizzie testing the bed...

Of course in among the eating and drinking we also wandered around the Wiltshire countryside and managed to squeeze in a couple of castles on the way.  We nearly made it 3 but despite popping round to Old Wardour Castle twice we failed to get in...once because it was shut and once because it was booked for a wedding and was really busy!

Our first stop was Sherborne Old Castle...

This was initially built in the 12th century and was renovated by Sir Walter Raleigh who almost immediately became bored with it and built a new home nearby instead!  During the English Civil War it was a Royalist castle and was besieged twice; eventually after a 16 day siege fell to Cromwell and Fairfax who described it as "malicious and mischievous".  Not surprisingly there isn't a great deal left after they'd exacted their revenge but the ruins are still pretty impressive.

We then made our way to Cadbury Castle...also known as Camelet.  There has been settlement here since Neolithic times but it was during the 1st century BC that the hill fort fortifications were started.  It was re-fortified after the Roman withdrawal and evidence suggests it was occupied by a local Chieftain...hmmm...I wonder who that could have been...

The panorama from the top, looking out over Somerset

Rain over Glastonbury...luckily not over us!

Some of the dips and folds from the earthworks

Trigger on the earthworks, preparing to repel the Romans

The very steep path...I'm clearly very unfit!

Of course with a name like Camelet, local tradition has it that this was Camelot (cue Monty Python quotes...)  and there is a theory that it was a base from which Arthur launched his attack at the Battle of Mount Badon which may or may not have been to the north near Bath.  To be fair there isn't much evidence (or indeed any evidence) to back this up but who cares about that...I climbed to the top of Camelot!!

The path up to the top is short and very steep and both my wife and I were a bit breathless...embarrassingly we were passed by a very elderly man with a walking stick who didn't appear to be struggling at all!!

Saga three ways

A visit to Eric the Shed's place this week for a game of Saga...something I haven't played for several years.  I've played quite a few games in the past when it was a new and shiney thing but not for a few years...people at the club seemed to find it a bit 'gamey' which it is I guess.

I was even tempted into digging out my Vikings from the loft...they were banished there after falling out of the loft hatch and bouncing down the stairs not once, but twice in the space of 10 minutes!  After the second crash I couldn't bear to look in the box to see how bad the damage was so they've languished upstairs since then.

Actually the damage wasn't too bad...a few broken spears and arms and one figure who had snapped off at the ankles but mostly they were surprisingly intact.  Gripping Beast plastics are surprisingly durable!

Eric had set up a 3 way game which set 2 bands of  rival Viking raiders against some Anglo-Danes defending a hill-top church.  Initially the Danes looked hard pressed as both groups of Vikings converged on the hill although my initial attack went badly, losing a unit of Bondi completely and taking a hit on my elite Hearthguard.  This did manage to take out his archers but it was too costly an attack.

My Vikings are in the centre...Warband #2 arrived by sea from the left

The Danes gather around the church

Viking raiders #1

On my left flank I was nervously eyeing up the other Viking band who were pressing the Danes back but I was convinced it was only a matter of time before they turned on me.  My nerve gave out first and my archers turned on the rival Vikings, peppering a unit of Bondi and I followed this up with a charge from my spearman.   Of course this prompted a pretty violent response from the Vikings who unleashed their own attacks leaving both of us weakened and pretty much handing the game to the Danes.  They completed the victory by finally charging off the hill and killing my Warlord....that's what I get for impatience and paranoia!!!

Ready to drive off the Anglo-Danish archers

It took a little while for the nuances of Saga to come back to me but it's a great game and it was nice to get out a long neglected army.

Like all raiding Vikings we were well supplied with rations foraged from the enemy....

Authentic Viking raiding supplies

Sunday round up

So that's the Aztecs and Conquistadors finally re-based and completed...well, I say completed...

I came across an unopened box of Aztecs while sorting them out so I'll paint up some of these as extras for the Aztecs and allies for the Spanish.  Nice to kind of finish a project though!

I've also been busy selling off stuff that has been lying in the loft for years.  It's one of those jobs that I've been meaning to do for ages but now that I've started it's been quite fun watching the eBay counters ticking round as bids arrive (usually).  It's been interesting to see what items sell and what are unloved.  Making a bit of cash is a nice bonus although that only holds water if no one asks how much I paid for the items in the first place. 

The other danger is that I find things in the selling pile and then decide that actually I'd rather keep them.  I nearly didn't post a set of Warlord Games Romans and Celts which I bought and painted when hard plastics first came on the market...they've never actually seen a game but once I opened up the box I immediately started thinking about keeping them and, of course, I'd need to add some more figures!  Good sense prevailed though and they were quickly photographed and wrapped in bubble wrap and have gone off to new homes where hopefully they'll get some use.  I did weaken though when I came across some 15mm Marlburian figures...I was going to sell these (remnants of a club project that never got off the ground I think) but then remembered that I'd  enjoyed researching and painting the various regiments so they've been put aside and spared trial by eBay. 

Gaming-wise I took part in an excellent and rather bloody Pike and Shotte ECW game at Eric the Shed's earlier in the week in which he'd decided to extend his already huge table to just under 20'.  Although the table has always seemed more than big enough this did mean that even with 5 of us playing, there was plenty of room for manoeuvre...or lack of manoeuvre in my case as I repeatedly failed to get my forces moving for several turns. This actually proved a blessing in the end as it meant that my opponent had moved away, responding to the carnage in the centre of the table and allowing me to get into a decent position relatively undisturbed and eventually win my bit of the battle at least...great fun!

More Re-basing

More re-basing...it's quite therapeutic once you get into a routine!  Strip the figure off the old base and glue it to the next...add some Vallejo textured basing stuff, give the figures an Army painter dip, add some flock... and repeat...

 I've now re-based around a 125 Aztecs and 40-odd Spanish. I'm finishing off the remaining 20 Aztecs and that will leave another 44 Spanish....phew.  I've also discovered a couple of new boxes of unpainted Aztecs that I must have bought somewhere.  Although I already have lots of Aztecs I'll probably add a few more as Tlaxcalan allies for the Spanish

I spotted that the last issue of Wargames Illustrated has an adaptation of Congo for a South American setting and this includes cards etc for Conquistadors so I think an expedition to El Dorado might be on the cards!

The next batch of Conquistadors

A Jaguar Knight

The Aztecs so far...

Spring cleaning and Aztecs

No, I haven't been spring-cleaning my Aztecs....I suspect that would be a bit of a chore given all the blood and gore from the human sacrifices.

No, I've been having a bit of a clear out of rules books, figures and boardgames.  I finally came to the conclusion that there is far too much stuff stacked up in the loft so a major clear out is in order with a  pile of stuff headed to eBay.

I've also finally resumed a couple of projects, beginning with sorting out the large amount of 20mm Aztecs that I'd acquired a few years ago.   I'd made a bit of a start on these some time ago but they've then  languished under my desk so I've spent a therapeutic evening rebating lots of figures.  They were actually quite well based already  (seriously...they seem to have been coated in concrete!) but I wanted to have them individually based.

I've now used up all my 20mm bases from Warbases and have textured all the bases and dipped a lot of the Aztecs in Army Painter shade.  More bases are on order as well as some movement trays.  There are a few Conquistadors that need rebasing but a lot of progress has been made!

Cavalier 17

As always Cavalier at Tonbridge in Kent marks the start of the show season for me.  It's one of about 4 that I try and get along to and it's only a 45 minute drive although this does involve the M25 so the actual journey time could be anyone's guess.

It's not the biggest show...in fact it's the smallest of the ones I go to....but it's usually fun and there are a decent showing of traders to tempt me.  Actually my haul this year was very small...a couple of Osprey rulebooks: Chosen Men and Pikeman's Lament.  I would have picked  up another Osprey, Rogue Stars, but when I went back to the stand where I'd seen a couple of copies they'd both gone. 
I nearly bought a boardgame but resisted and didn't feel the urge to buy any more figures or terrain.  I'm planning a bit of a cull in the loft with quite a bit headed to EBay in the near future as there is too much up there that hasn't seen the light of day in years... mainly rules and boardgames I think but there are some figures on their way to a new home too.

Here is an assortment of photos...as always I've tried to remember who was putting on the game but didn't always get the details so apologies to those I missed...

Fenris Descending by Maidstone Wargames.   Lots of little tin can type robots...

Big X Wing game... Gravesend Gamers

Large Scale D Day game by (I think) Crawley Wargames Club

Nope...not sure...

Impressive looking Chain of Command game titled 'Calvados and Chips'...

put on by the 'League of Gentlemen Anti-Alchemists'

The game featured an array of vegetable plots...

Society of Ancients - battle of Cannae

Rainham Wargames Club Naval Game...Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls Rules

Vietnam - North London Wargames

On an unrelated (but still vaguely wargamey) point, we went to see The Divine Comedy at the London Palladium this week...one of my favourite bands.  Here's a picture of Neil Hannon in full uniform...he didn't explain why, although their latest album includes a song called Napoleon Complex and one about Catherine the Great, and lets face it...who needs an excuse to dress up!

I'm tempted to post this to the Napoleonics boards on TMP and ask about the accuracy of the uniform but I suspect it would cause apoplexy among some of the denizens over there!

Brilliant concert!

Bits and Pieces (and storage solutions)

There's been a bit of a lull in posting for the last few weeks but I've been busy in the meantime with some games and a spot of semi successful building.

My paints (mostly GW paints as they're easy to get) tend to be chaotically chucked in a large storage box which means it can take ages to find the one I want.  I came across a Kickstarter deal for a self-assembly storage box from Warmage.de and rather rashly bought one

There were various options for GW or Vallejo style paints and varying sizes so I went for the standard GW one.   There were also options for a lamp, brush storage etc which I left out.  Building things, and any form of DIY in general isn't my thing...I'm very much of the "get a wee man in" school of DIY but I thought I'd give it a go and actually it wasn't too bad... the various stages are shown below and it all seemed to work!

The only bit that I still haven't got to grips with is the locking mechanism which consists of 4 pegs which slide through and twist, locking the lid.  For the life of me I can't get these to either go all the way through and/or twist but it may be that I'm being too gentle.  If all else fails a couple of elastic bands work just as well, even if they aren't as aesthetically pleasing.  Despite the fail on the locking device, which may well be down to my construction techniques rather than the design, I'm pleased with it and it should help organise some of the clutter.

I've also managed to fit in a few games.  I've had a couple of games of Conan, both of which were very enjoyable.  I played the same scenario twice, once as a player and once as the Overlord/umpire.  In the first game we nearly succeeded in escaping from the clutches of some evil Picts with the Princess and the head of their leader but fell down at the last hurdle as the turn limit counted down.  On the second outing (as Overlord this time) the players took their time getting organised but managed on the very last turn to escape the village and win the game.  In both games the mechanics worked really well and there weren't too many uncertainties in the rules.

There's a review of Conan in the latest Tabletop Gaming magazine which praises the game mechanics but is very critical of a couple of points.  The 1st of these I definitely agree with which is the lack of a campaign system or even an attempt to link the scenarios together.  Players acquire treasure from chests etc in each scenario and it would nice for these to have some meaning beyond an immediate fix of health points.  This shouldn't be too difficult to introduce if wanted though.

Their 2nd criticism is a bit more complex and is around the generally racist and sexist tones of the Conan universe.  Undoubtedly the books are both racist and sexist and the scenarios certainly suffer from a lack of strong female heroes apart from Belit.  The Princess figure only seems to exist to be rescued.  A number of the enemies also suffer from racial stereotypes as well.  Now, as a dyed-in-the-wool lefty I do get the issues that this throws up but I can't help but think that a game set in the Conan world needs to reflect the books.  Perhaps more effort could have been made to challenge some of the stereotypes though.  Food for thought perhaps.

Interestingly I bought the game as a Kickstarter and I happened to see it (without all the Kickstarter bonus bits and pieces) in Static Games in Glasgow today at an eye-watering £92!!  When did everything get so expensive!!???


Finally last week I had another game of Star Wars Rebellion and despite starting earlier than usual we still didn't quite get to a conclusion.  Still excellent fun though.  I really enjoy the mission section which does give a very cinematic feel as you despatch Princess Leia or Boba Fett etc.  on missions to stymie the enemy or gain rewards.  By the end of the evening I'd managed to increase the Rebels reputation and was only a few points from a win, but the Empire had a fleet sitting in the system adjacent to my Secret Base (which luckily remained secret) and I suspect they would have discovered it in a turn or 2 so a very close ending.