Carry on Cowboy

 

I've hit a bit of a painting block recently, not for the first time.  Last year was a really good spell for me with lots of figures painted (mainly Wars of the Roses) and I started this year with 2 or 3 new things in the go.  I find I need more than one project or In get easily bored.

I've assembled and painted my Roman-British/Arthurian infantry, painted (but not based) some models for Gamma Wolves (although I'm now not sure these are the right models for this project) and started on some.of the 54mm Paper Soldiers.  But over the last month or so I've kind of run out of steam.

I know when this happens I need to find something different to distract me and, after a bit of thinking, I remembered the mdf Wild West buildings I'd bought over a lengthy period of time a couple of years ago.  Assembling buildings felt like a bit of a break from painting and would hopefully be understanding, although I'm notoriously impatient and cack-handed when it comes to this sort of thing.

I dug out the Wild West box from the loft and found that I had quite a few more buildings than I remembered.  I'd also painted up a dozen or so cowboys from Artizan... I was shocked to discover I painted these 3 years ago and they still haven't made it onto the table!  

I got to it with PVA and a lack of patience and after a couple of, at times, very frustrating evenings (I need to learn to leave pieces to dry properly and not to fiddle with them!) I have a nice collection of buildings ready for painting.

So, first up is the enormous Warehouse and extension set from TT Combat.  I was given this a few years ago (I think in a giveaway another blogger was doing and embarrassingly I can't remember who!). Although this is listed in their Wild West range it would do for any game set in the 19thC or later.  I'd always been slightly intimidated by this kit so outsourced the assembly to my son who is much better as this sort of thing.

It's a huge model, especially with the extension added.  Unfortunately you need to have it either permanently built on to the side of the main warehouse or not at all, and it seemed a shame not to use it.  It dwarfs the other buildings so would really need to be used in a  different set up... perhaps as part of a mine or in a  more industrial setting. Storage is the biggest issue although it's big enough that I can store other buildings inside it!

The next building is my only 4Ground building.  These are very nice and obviously have the advantage of being pre-painted but are also quite pricey.

The rest of the buildings. The fencing for the corral and the boardwalks are mainly from TT Combat.  The Jailhouse and blacksmith are by Sarissa.  These are definitely nicer than the TT Combat models but again are a bit more expensive.

Of course you have to have a gallows...

The inside of the Jailhouse.

Every town needs a saloon

...and a general store.

 By a stroke of coincidence my pre-order of the new plastic Gunfighters from Great Escape Games turned up as I was building the houses.  And then to provide the final bit of inspiration I needed, Carry on Cowboy was on tv!  Welcome to Stodge City!

So now to do a bit of painting, but already I have the makings of a decent sized town.  Of course I'm now thinking of all the extra bits that I will need to add....

Battle on Endor

 

This week saw the first game with my friend Andrew for about 15 or 16 months.  We decided to go for a Star Wars game and I'd decided Galactic Heroes would be a good rule set and one that Andrew hadn't played before.  It was only on the day of the game that I noticed that we'd actually played GH back in 2019, using the exact same scenario I'd been planning!  Some hasty rethinking was called for so we switched to one from the book with a very familiar plot.

The Rebels, led by Han Solo and Chewbacca are trying to destroy a force field generator on a forest moon to allow the Rebels to destroy the 'Doom Moon' (as it's referred to in the rules, for copyright and comedy reasons).  Opposing them are Boba Fett and IG-88 and a squad of Stormtroopers.

Top Secret Imperial base....

The problem for the Rebels is they have a tight time limit to get the bomb to the generator and 2 figures need to accompany it across the table.  This is where I made my 1st mistake... I'd assumed the table was going to be 3' x 3' but for this scenario it should have been 2' x 2', meaning I was very unlikely to ever get there on time!  I only realised this part way through but never mind!  Han and Chewbacca led the advance, quickly wounding Boba Fett and dodging several shots from the Stormtroopers.  Chewbacca recklessly charged into hand to hand (paw) combat with a Stormtrooper and embarrassingly came of worst, being driven back to the ground and then cruelly shot and killed.

Han continued to trade shots and somehow survived being blasted by Boba's flames which promptly ran out of ammo.  This led to a flurry of 1's on the dice rolling which led to half the figures being out of ammo at one point.  In fact Boba's flames ran out 3 separate times and should probably go back to the shop under warranty.

IG88 hadn't done very much and before he could head off to the battle he suddenly came under now fire from small furry marketing products (note - I didn't have enough Ewoks so had to use Jawas as a less cuddly substitute) 

Jawas Ewoks emerge from
 the undergrowth 

The Ewoks may only have been armed with bows but they were very effective...probably more than the Stormtroopers.  IG88 went down under a hail of arrows and had to crawlmoff into cover to recover.

 Han continued to hold off the Stormtroopers and survive Boba's repeated attempts to toast everyone with his flames.  More Ewoks appeared (these turned up when a Joker was drawn but we decided to limit them to 2 groups as they were proving too powerful).  Andrew then changed tactics and ignored Han, turning his attention to the poor rebels carrying the bomb...if they were despatched the base would be safe.

One Rebel was gunned down and we realised that even if Han and the surviving rebel did nothing but march to the base they would only just get there at the time limit with no time to actually set it off so we called it a night.  The Empires Death Star remained intact and the rebellion was crushed.

Good fun, despite the cock up with the table size... it might have made a difference but I suspect the Heroes would have been gunned down anyway.

7th Cavalry skirmish and some moral angst

A great game at Eric the Shed's this week with a skirmish between a US cavalry patrol and some rampaging Native Americans.  All the figures and terrain courtesy of Eric.  There's a great write up on his blog here. 

It was a close run thing with the Cavalry just holding off the attacks by the braves.  We used Black Powder v2 with a random activation system for the Native Americans which worked really well.

'A' Troop, pinned down by a creek

Cavalry ride to the rescue

Forming a defensive firing line...

Just in time as the Braves charge in.

If you read Eric's blog post (and you really should!) You'll see he mentions that one of the players had expressed some moral qualms about the setting... that would be me!  Morality in wargames is a tricky thing and can often lead to too much navel-gazing.  I've met players with some very particular ideas about periods or settings that they won't play.  For example, not using SS troops, not playing any 'Colonial' period games, not playing the Confederates, being uncomfortable with anything where there are still living participants etc.  Some of their arguments make sense and others can be a bit random... to be honest though I'd rather play with someone who has thought about it than the kind of player who is very... erm... 'enthusiastic' about certain unsavoury groups (and I've met a few of those too!)

Generally I'm happy to play most things and most sides... I can happily condemn the CSA as a bunch of slave-owning racists while still playing a game with them.  I have a pair of Zulu and British armies (which I really ought to get out more) and have played a lot of Zulu and Dervish games at the Shed without blinking an eye.  But Cavalry vs Native Americans is one period that has always felt uncomfortable to me. Cowboy games are fine, but most Cavalry encounters with Native Americans tended to be pretty squalid massacres (I know there are of course exceptions).  

I realise as I write this, that it makes little sense to have qualms about this but not about for example, the Sudan or South Africa.  Funnily enough playing the game this week didn't cause me any worries once we got going... I guess it's about respecting the bravery of both sides and balancing the game while keeping as much historical accuracy as you can.  I was quite happy to play A Troop, desperately defending the wagons against ferocious Comanches and my concerns disappeared like so much passing tumbleweed.

Up in the loft I have some Darkest Africa figures which I've used with 'Congo' rules and I must admit they do raise some troubling questions and may not make a reappearance.

Brittania - 9 months later

Back  in August last  year I recieved my Kickstarter copy of the PSC boardgame Brittania and quickly managed to play a game with my good friend Anthony (who also had a copy).  And that was it.  It was a game definitely designed for my gaming group to play during the winter months when we tend to retreat to a warmer room and concentrate on boardgames... but of course 2020 happened and we never managed any of that.  There's a post about that 1st game here

So finally I've managed to get the game out of the box and give the 2 player version (Duel Brittania) a proper outing (we only managed a couple of turns first time round).  I'd never played the game when it was 1st published but it strikes me as a sophisticated version of Risk with Dark Age armies.  What's intriguing is that kingdoms rise and fall as the eras progress with players racing ahead in victory points in some periods before falling behind  in others.  In the 2 player game one player controls various Angles and Saxons, along with the Scots and Irish.  The other player has the initial British kingdoms such as Reghed, the Welsh, the Picts etc and later take command of the invading Norse and Danes.

The full game starts with the Roman Invasion and goes all the way through to the arrival of the Normans.  In the quicker Duel version the game begins in 350CE and ends before the Normans show up.  The Duel map is also simplified and there are some rule changes compared to the full game, although I still haven't worked out how major these are.  

The main difference is that during turn #1 the Romans defend until their turn when they disappear, being replaced with a mix of smaller kingdoms.  In each turn nations receive new armies if they have enough territory to maintain them,  before adding any specific troops and leaders for that era.  So for example the Scots may receive some extra troops and Macbeth in a late turn.  Specific events also happen at appropriate points so Reghed,  for example, were able to construct a Burh or fort at Dumbarton Rock.  Annoyingly for me, Arthur put in an appearance for several nations (I guess everyone thinks they have a claim on Arthur!) and can cause brief mayhem with his powerful cavalry.  Thankfully he disappeared as quickly as he appeared!

I was playing the Anglo Saxon side so began the game as an invader, initially raiding from the sea or from Ireland.  As the game progressed my armies stop raiding and occupy regions and in turn are attacked by new invaders in the form of the Norse and Danes as well as any surviving British kingdoms.  Success ebbs and flows and while it can feel like one player is racing ahead, that can all change in the next turn as the historical dynamics change to suit the next era.

The authors reckon 1.5 to 2 hours for the Duel version but we took a lot longer...to be fair we were rattling through the latter turns though so I reckon we'd be a lot faster next time.

In our game I was very lucky with dice rolls (and Callum was equally unlucky) and I built up a pretty unassailable lead, helped by destroying a lot of the Saxon Shore forts early in the game and gaining extra points.  The map on the final turn actually looked pretty historical with the Saxons holding central and SE England with the Danes in the North.  The Welsh pretty much held all of Wales and there were a scattering of minor kingdoms left although not all necessarily where you'd expect to find them!

The end of the game...
I was red/blue and
Callum was purple/black

The game definitely lived up to my expectations...we both came away with definite ideas about things we'd do differently next time, and its one we'd both replay.

Towton - a Billhooks extravaganza

Back last Autumn I'd posted several reports of the Wars of the Roses games that we'd been playing through, hosted by Eric the Shed.

Last year our idea for a WotR campaign had morphed into a plan to play through each major battles in turn using the excellent Never Mind the Billhooks rules.  There's lots of background info on Eric's blog and my posts can be found here and here

As with so many things, Covid put the games on hold but now we're allowed to get back together so we've resumed the sequence.   We picked up where we'd left off with the Battle of Wakefield: there are posts about it on Eric's blog here and here.

Our next game is a bit out of sequence however: we always knew that Towton was going to be too big to play out in an evening so we had to find time for an all-day extravaganza.  This battle let all 5 of the regular players combine our figures, bringing over 1500 miniatures onto the 15' long table for a 6 hour marathon (with a brief pause for pizza!)

I'll leave it to Eric to post all the details of the refight on his blog in due course... it only seems fair since he did all the work in bringing it all together and hosting the game.  I won't provide spoilers for the result but I can say that it really went down to the wire with the battle being decided on what was effectively the last throw of the dice.  We used Never Mind the Billhooks with a few house rules including a mechanism for determining wind speed and direction and snowfall.  The wind at Towton played a significant factor in affecting the effectiveness of each sides arrow-fire and this proved the case in our game with the Lancastrians being severely hampered by firing into a strong wind.  The heavy snow also affected the arrow fire but also limited the effectiveness of commanders who struggled to be seen in the wintry conditions.

I'll post a link to Eric's blog post when it eventually gets published but in the meantime here are a selection of photos from the Lancastrian side of the table..

Vikings - battle at the river

 

Now we're allowed out and can meet up with friends indoors it's time to start games again!

First up is a game with my friend Anthony, using Tabletop Battles rules and his excellent collection of 40mm Saxon and Vikings.

I hadn't come across these rules before but they are designed to be scale and period agnostic, which is a bold ambition, and are grid based.  Essentially they are rather like a gridded version of DBA which is no bad thing as it removes a lot of the gamey geometry moves that you can get with the WRG rules.  The other difference is that instead of using a d6, these rules use a d12 which brings big changes to the probabilities of combat results (scoring more than your opponent causes a push back, doubling their score destroys the unit).  Combats are combined where units are adjacent which means there is the potential (especially with the d12 scores) to double your opponents score and remove swathes of the army in one go.  We were a bit worried about this as we thought the game could be over very quickly but actually this wasn't the case at all and we had a back and forth battle which filled the whole evening.

The Vikings spot a building to pillage

The Viking leader

As we hadn't tried the rules before we stuck with balanced armies and tried out the full terrain deployment mechanism.  This gave us a shallow river running across the middle of the table which was fordable but would slow units down.  There was a bridge and a ford and it looked likely that these would become the focus of the game.  We also had a small village on my left and a wood on my right.

More Vikings

The Saxon commander...boo!

The Saxons approach the river

 On my left flank my archers piled into the built up area, forcing back some of the approaching Saxons with bow fire.  The Saxon archers managed to cross the river but were quickly destroyed by a Viking warband.  This flank quickly turned into a stalemate with neither of us willing to risk the crossing.

The centre was held by the elite Hearthguard but, again neither side was willing to try crossing and being disadvantaged by the river.  It was the right flank that would prove decisive.

Yet another battle across the river

On the right the Saxons bravely forced the river, driving the defending Vikings back into a small wood.  The Saxons charged again but were repulsed and forced back into the water.  Really this was the critical point of the game:  if the Saxons had instead been able to destroy the Viking warbands that had fallen back into the wood (and which were therefore fighting with a disadvantage) it could have been all over.  There followed a series of clashes at the riverbank before the dice gods smiled and the Saxon units were destroyed.  Anthony did his best to redeploy his Hearthguard onto the flank to shore up the hole that had appeared in the line, but I now had the advantage of numbers and was able to cross the river (presumably on a bridge of Saxon dead...)

The Saxons were now outflanked and driven back with losses mounting.  As we reached the 8th turn which marked the end of the game the demise of another Saxon Warband gave me the points needed for the win.

All in all a great game... I've always liked DBA as a system and the addition of a grid makes a real difference.  I'm not sure if the rules can really stretch through to the 20th century as they claim but it would be interesting to try them out.  I'm already thinking these would be a good set to try out with my 54mm Franco-Prussian paper soldiers (when I get my finger out and cut out enough figures!)