Like falling off a bike, or something.. (a return to the blog)

I'm at that age now when any event marking the passage of time prompts me to declare "Blimey!" .. for example, apparently it's 25 years since Alanis Morissette released Jagged Little Pill ?!

Conversation in recent months about wargaming blogs made me realise that it's almost five years since I last posted here!

Blimey!

So, I've been sitting on my typing hands for a fair bit of 2021, wondering whether I ought to start this blog up again, and where to start etc, as the realisation dawned upon me that this really is a 'first world problem' and considering that nobody is likely to read the thing anyway.. why not just pick it up again as a way of recording and encouraging myself to keep up hobby momentum!

I won't try to recap the last five years.. games have been played, new shiny projects have come and gone.. but in fairness, playing with trains definitely took precedence up until around 2019.. and Youtubing became very much my route to 'share' hobby stuff, rather than using a blog. (See my channel here by the way, I've even posted a couple of solo Dragon Rampant games, which hasn't pleased the model railroad followers!)

I got talking to Tom and James at one of the shows, rolled some dice.. and we started organising games..Tom's covered much of it on his excellent blog. 

Lockdown happened which has obviously had an impact on all of that, although like many people, we managed to get some virtual games done too.. including a fun Muskets and Tomahawks campaign set in the French Indian wars played out on Zoom.

Tom and I are planning a Chain of Command 1940 campaign (we've even built terrain pieces and painted armies!), so looking forward to that.. as well as trying out some cold war gone hot with Scrivs, newly returned from the colonies..

So.. I'm going to try to post regularly again.. even if it's brief and rubbish.. I think it might be a good exercise.

A super-brief highlight reel of some stuff that's passed over my table in 2021 so far (excluding Zoom games):

Painting up Perry Wars of the Roses army.. 3D printing stakes for archers.. starting a 'Bag the Hun' collection for the Flying Tigers.. building, painting and rigging 'Black Seas' ships.. building and expanding fantasy Dragon Rampant armies for my own 'Nordmark' setting.. getting some HeHe based and realising how many more I need to start playing 'Death in a Dark Continent'.. building up a British BAOR force in 1/144 using Northag plastish models and 3D prints (and 3D printing Soviets) to play 'Seven Days to the River Rhine' with Scrivs any time soon! .. rebasing some ancient 15mm 18th century stuff for some ImagiNation solo games...

Playing some solo 1866 games using 6mm armies and Neil Thomas 19th Century rules.. starting a big project to rebase and re-arm my Arthurian armies back to WAB.. 3D printing tanks from 1/300 to 1/48.. more Dragon Rampant.. scratch building and kit building real estate for 1940 games.. and painting up gorgeous Aventine EIR romans for Infamy Infamy (which I will probably never play)

(the buildings are all actually the right way up in real life, that is to say, with roof skyward.. but I thought I'd get you to tilt your head to one side, just for fun!)

More Arthurians

Hot on the heels of Partizan, Scrivs and I planned to meet up for a game on Tuesday..
"Fancy a small game.. something skirmishy perhaps?" says I, particularly after the massive epic Arthurian do on Sunday.. 

...short version, a few texts later and we decided to play a game of To The Strongest!

And I'm glad we did. Had a cracking game, probably all the better for having played so recently - very little time was spent looking up rules etc (Although I do tend to forget to modify Saves - learning point).

We played around 130 points each - Scrivs will be posting soon no doubt, and took pictures on a proper camera, so hopefully with better ones than I have here from my phone..

The armies deployed

Up against his Saxon host, I fielded my Romano-British force - a mix of Romanised 'Auxilia', Pedites (javelin men), Light Bows and cavalry, with a strong wing of Saxon mercenaries or allies (Two deep veteran war bands with Shock)

I made a fundamental mistake in deployment and placed my cavalry, very useful troops, in a stupid spot from which they never really recovered. For much of the game, the Saxon horse faced no real opposition.

For much of the game it was fairly fluid.. on my right the Saxons met their compatriots head on and got into a grinding melee.. 

Although one of the Saxon war bands broke through, I had some success in the centre, and on the left things were pretty balanced, swinging back and forth.

However, in a couple of turns things went quite wrong for me.. Firstly one of those big mercenary Saxon war bands was destroyed, taking their general with them - losing me 5 of my 11 medals in one go! Then over on my left I managed to get some success, getting a few medals back, but charged my flanking foot straight into the path of the Saxon advance! (Charging units occupy the square vacated by destroyed units). That was it - although Scrivs lost a few more medals, I was down to 1 and it was a a matter of time before my army quit the field, having enough for one Tuesday night. Can't say I blame them really.

One observation.. I've found that when I'm playing games with TtS! that I'm not playing the rules, or the game.. I'm actually thinking about the situation in front of me, trying to decide where to act, where to take a chance and where to play it safe..for me, that makes it an enjoyable ruleset. (Doesn't make me any better or improve my chances of winning clearly!!)

** I just realised that there are no cards to be seen on any of these pics.. we did use them, honest!

Partizan 2.. Arthurian To The Strongest!

Today was the last ever Partizan show to be held at Kelham Hall. In some ways sad, as for me it's been a place of bi-annual pilgrimage for many many years.. my first ever war-games show was Partizan, just before they moved to Kelham Hall and I've only missed a few. On the other hand, it's dark and a logistical mare, so probably about time.

Anyway - by way of a send off, I was lucky enough to be involved in helping out with a rather splendid game (actually two games), showcasing Simon's To The Strongest! rules.. The two tables represented both ends of the Arthurian period, with Picts and Late Romans fighting it on one side, and Arthur's Britons taking on a Saxon horde on the other table.

Overall view of the two battles

The figures and scenery were all from our joint collections, and hopefully there will be some better pictures appearing soon, as my phone really wasn't up to the job today!

The games were for participation and we had good fun introducing new players (often Dads with Sons) to the rules..nice to meet lots of new people and share the fun of the game.

Along with all the people who came along and played, (some names I didn't get, sorry).. the team today included:

Simon Miller

Steve Jones

James Morris (who needs to start a Blog!)

Paul Scrivens-Smith

Dan Mersey

Last year at Partizan, Simon presented James with a perfect baboon for Keren (long story!).. Scrivs and James returned the gesture today with some lovely Asterix legionaries painted up for Simon.. I didn't get a picture of the figures, but did capture the moment.. I think he was pleased :)

Tidying up the Arthurians

An upcoming possible big thing at the second Partizan show has kicked my backside into gear and I've spent a little time tidying up the Arthurians that I had re-based a while back.

Quite a few figures had lost their spears, and the bases were a bit messy. These figures have been re-based so many times, and this will definitely be the last for them. They are all Gripping Beast figures, mostly purchased ages ago (probably more years than I think) after reading the Cornwell Arthur books. 

They were originally based up for WAB and organised to the 'Fall of the West' supplement before James and Steve released their Arthur book.

They are all on 120mm unit bases, great for games of To The Strongest! and also for Hail Caesar or Dux Bellorum  (most of the units have integral dice frames).

Some skirmishers to finish off.. but these others are pretty ready I think.

(I'm not going to start re-painting shields and try to touch up too much)

A Dark Age clash

Last Tuesday at the Polly we had another game of To The Strongest! This time we decided to play our 'Arthurian' armies again.. Simon Miller kindly sent over a list for the Sub Roman British and I loosely based my force on this list. I say loosely.. it started out that way but as we were having a four player bash with new converts, we decided on fielding slightly bigger forces and I added a larger command of allied Saxons to my army. 

I really need to carry out some maintenance on this army.. all Gripping Beast.. painted a few years ago and rebased a few times.. quite a few spears and swords to re-attach!

Scrivs has an account of the game on his blog.. along with OOBs.. I also relied upon my phone and didn't get any great photos.. however, hopefully give an impression of the scale of the game.

Simon's rules are proving to be a hit and it's been interesting to try out different angles and feed back our thoughts (for example, on the 'small' manipular Roman units) In this game, the British were a mix or Auxiliaries and Javelinmen, and this seemed to suit their use very well.

There was rash talk of a medieval 'project' following a first viewing of new lists, more of that soon no doubt!

So, poor photos..

New Year game

Right, well happy New Year to my three 'followers' ! And anyone else who happens across this site.. I'm hoping to get much more gaming in next year and looking forward to new projects and plans. (Not least the Victrix Republican Roman release).

Our planned family board game afternoon didn't happen today, and the weather rather put me off a trip to Newark to visit the annual Toy Fair (giant swap meet). So, I thought I'd get some toys out on the dining table and have a little solo game.

I've kind of read through Dux Bellorum a couple of times, and worked through a few moves, but haven't really got the game into my head yet, so I thought I'd give that a go.

I played a straight-forward battle without any special rules to confuse myself with.. two 32 point armies, Romano British and Saxon, faced each other across the fields.

(These are all 28mm, mostly Gripping Beast, units based on 120mm frontage, so could have done with a bigger table perhaps)

I have to say that I'm not really any closer to getting my head around the rules. There are some great ideas in the book, such as the use of Leadership Points, but I do find the layout very confusing and spent a lot of time flicking through the pages, trying to clarify things. The multiple combats seem straight forward enough on paper, but I did find myself 'fudging' the odd combat here and there to keep the game moving.

I reckon I may have to play this against a real life person to properly understand it. 

Anyway, the game bogged down in a very Dark Ages toe to toe scrum, the Saxons eventually pulling off a minor victory.

Arthur re-based again

Some years ago I finished reading the Cornwell Arthur books, just as Gripping Beast put out their pretty special Arthurian ranges. I assembled a couple of small WAB armies, based around Romano British and the GB German Tribes warbands.
I used the 'Fall of the West' WAB book - probably still my favourite. When James Morris' excellent Arthur supplement came out, reading of the Saxon bucklers etc, I found that my armies seemed rather anochronistic.. the Romano British and the later Saxons.. one side needed to move back or forward a hundred years or so.
Anyway. I only played a few games of WAB. Some time later, I decided to try out some other rules.. perhaps Neil Thomas Ancient and Medieval Wargames, or Impetus.. I re-based the whole lot onto unit-sized bases. I loved the look of this, being able to organise the units into little dioramas, huddled together in a shieldwall. For one reason or another though, I didn't really take to the rules for this period and I took a breath and rebased the whole lot again for WAB.

And then put them away.

Fast forward a year or so, I'm re-discovering wargames and I buy Dux Bellorum. The group I meet with also play Hail Caesar (I haven't tried it yet)..I recently resolved to get this lot rebased again.. back to the unit sized bases. As I got them out on the table, I despaired at the thought of tearing the figures off the bases again, and the resultant inevitable breakages and damage. However, with a bit of fiddling about, I've managed to avoid doing that altogether.

What I have done is to stick the WAB- based figures directly onto 120mm x 60mm unit bases. I've used dice frames from minibits on the rear of each base. This will be for recording hits etc in either Dux Bellorum or Hail Caesar. There are a few gaps here and there, but a bit of filler and scenic material will sort that out.

The cavalry units are on two bases for depth. I'm still unsure how to base the skirmishing types, but for now, I'm happy that I can soon once again use these much-loved figures. (Will probably be one army rather than a 'matched pair')