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 :)

Frostgrave.. a start

Now, there's a good chance that I'll never actually play this game. (I have yet to get a game of Lion Rampant, despite finishing my Retinue a while back).. but I was hit by the cosh of inspiration last week and sometimes there is as much joy in the planning and building of a project as there is in playing the game. (?) Having a week off work helped ;-)

Anyhoo.. I was ordering something else on Amazon, and on a whim, having read a little about it (for example, on Tom's blog), I ordered the Frostgrave book. I don't really 'do' fantasy but perhaps secretly I've always looked back in fondness at those days of Tunnels and Trolls with my brother..

As I read the book, I realised that here was an opportunity for some proper 'bashing'.. so started on a number of smaller projects as part of the bigger one... a common thread here is thrift*!

Firstly, scenery. The game is set in a frozen ruined city. I decided to make use of some thin ply rescued from a set of trashed bedroom furniture for the bases, and with hot glue gun and masking tape at hand, set to cutting up and sticking together a load of corrugated cardboard walls. 

cardboard, tape and emulsion

I splashed some greyish emulsion over the pieces to help bind it and keep the masking tape in place, then applied some textured spray paint that I picked up from B&Q - this was an experiment and I quite like the result. Finally, a dab of white emulsion around the bases and voila - cheap and simple, but hopefully effective, terrain pieces!

Textured paint and white emulsion

Next up, figures. Being short of any fantasy figures, I did order a couple of suitable 'wizard' Reaper Bones figures from eBay, these have yet to be painted but were pretty cheap and I'm quite impressed.

For the 'soldiers', I had a number of Fireforge figures left on the sprues, along with a few spare metal dark ages types. With the plastic figures, rather than mess about with greenstuff, I had great fun adding packs, capes, heads and various other modifications using various sources ranging from Greeks to Russian WW2! About half of these are painted up..

a motley crew

Roman helmet plume

Prussian Fusilier backpack

Fireforge figure, with Greek cape and French Hussar head!

Whilst preparing the soldiers, I also dug out some English Heritage gift shop figures which are now painted and based up as statues for my frozen city!

Finally, when I last saw my brother, he handed me a box and said that there were some 'tanks or something' inside - he was having a clear out. Turned out to be a right little mixture of figures, including a group of old Orcs. I think these may have been Asgard. Most likely bought from Tabletop Games (we used to live not far from the old shop). The paint was pretty faded but I figured these could be revived. Rather than completely re-start, I've tried to keep the theme intact, the shields are untouched for example.. but I've re-coloured and added some shading and highlighting as well as re-basing. I haven't tried to repair the broken weapons. Not sure these will see any use in Frostgrave, but I like them and they have been with us for many years!

*The cost of the Frostgrave project so far..

The rulebook - £10.00

Textured Spray paint - £7.95

Gale Force 9 snow - £3.00

4 wizardy figures (ebay) - £10 (ish)

So.. altogether about £30 for the rules, all the scenery and two factions/warbands. Not bad!

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 German affair..

On Tuesday my Prussians took to the field for a game against Quint's Austrians. As this was more of a 'test' than a proper game, we didn't concern ourselves too much with points or strictly accurate formations.. If I remember rightly;

The Austrians 

CinC
Cavalry Brigade with two small regiments, one of Dragoons, one tough Cuirassiers
Infantry Brigade with 4 Hungarian battalions and one Grenadier
Infantry Brigade with 2 Grenadier battalions and two 12 per gun batteries

My Prussians were more numerous but lower quality generally..

CinC
Cavalry Brigade of Dragoons and Hussars. Both regiments larger than the Austrians
Infantry Brigade with 3 Landwehr battalions, Two line musket and 1 Light (Fusilier), supported by a medium Gun battery
Infantry Brigade with 3 Landwehr Battalions, Two Reserve infantry battalions and a medium gun battery in support

As we were playing on  fairly small table, I struggled to deploy my fat blue line with any room for manoeuvre.. however, I placed my horse out on the left, decided to hold the centre with one Infantry brigade and to push on my right with the other. 

(Only had my phone again, and in poor light, so apologies for crap pictures..)

Early moves, Prussians on the left

The Austrians came on in good order in the centre, taking just about enough fire to keep them at bay, whilst stretched command distances made my right wing very slow to move into position.

The main lines draw closer

Reserves manoevre on the Prussian Right

The Armchairs (!) form a stout line

Some notable events included a heroic cavalry skirmish which saw the Prussians numbers make the difference, and terrifying and devastating fire from the Austrian guns, who expertly manhandled, deployed and loosed a very accurate volley at the Fusiliers, driving them off the field in dismay.

The cavalry about to join

The rules are Quint and Ade's own and mostly use D10s a system of accumulated morale/damage and a simple but very effective way of limiting command ability. There are a couple of areas to tweak and define but they are easy to pick up and give a good game.. the intention being that they give a good Napoleonic game, and not a generic horse and musket war-game. 

Our battle drew to a close before we really reached a proper outcome but our analysis was that it was fairly balanced at that point..

The climax of the action

Napoleonic Goodness

This morning I popped down to the Polly to join Quint and Ade who are play-testing their upcoming Napoleonic rules. Apart from the obvious pleasures of a table full of gorgeous painted 28mm Napoleonics, it is always interesting to be in on the thought processes and get some understanding of (and hopefully some input into) how a particular rules set comes about. Quint generously gave me the Austrian cavalry on the right wing to 'command' and I resisted the urge to send them charging in straight away (I struggle to 'get' cavalry, usually abuse them badly)

My Prussians were too late arriving today to appear on the table, but hopefully will get an airing soon.

The battle did not get too far as there was quite a bit of debate (all positive and constructive), and explanation of concepts.. however, an enjoyable way to spend a few hours on a Saturday!

I took some pictures on my phone, not expecting much.. they actually didn't come out too badly, so I shall share here.. I can't claim credit for any figures or terrain, everything is Ade and Quint..

Fire and Fury in 6mm

Tuesday night's game was a first for me.. the first game of Fire and Fury in around 20 years (I have the rules, bought them new in 1990 but only ever played them through solo once or twice at best)..Scrivs brought his collection of 6mm ACW and had set up a scenario.. being hopelessly ignorant of ACW and blaming the heatwave for my short term memory loss, I can't remember the name of it!

We rolled to randomly allocate sides and I ended up with the US. My job was essentially to effect a fighting retreat. A line of troops started the day in an advanced position but were under orders to retreat to the south of a point on the table, whilst some reserves arrived from the rear, with orders to advance no further than that southerly point. The rebs, meanwhile, were to come on and basically attack!

It was a very enjoyable game, definitely a close run thing, with total VPs at the end of the game giving the Confederates a narrow victory. I was pleased with the performance of my rather reluctant and average boys overall.. just about managed to get back in some order and form a line before becoming overwhelmed by the Reb advance.

The rules were far easier than I remember them being too, which made the game that bit more fun as I wasn't having to spend the whole game learning the stuff.

We were both on phones, so no great pictures, especially with the armies being 6mm, but a couple here..

US guns making a dash for home, being hotly pursued by the Confederate lines

The table from the Confederate end, the Union forces can be seen  forming a line up near the farm

The far left if the Union line, Stahel trying to get his cavalry dismounted

The Rebs breakthrough on the last turn, much whooping and a-hollering no doubt!

Shiny Toy Town soldiers

Apart from the flag, my little 'unit' of Toy Town soldiers is done. I really like these. These evening they paraded to salute the evening sun..

I just need to finish off the gun and crew, and a couple of lancers now.
I have no idea what I'll do with these really. Far too pricey to buy proper 'armies', nice as they are, but sometimes you've got to just do stuff because you like it.

Missed most of Partizan on Sunday due to a poor night on Saturday, but did pop down for an hour or so and caught up with a few friends.

Yesterday had a very enjoyable first game of 'Bag the Hun' with Scrivs.. I can see me painting teeny tiny planes in the near future!

Simon Miller also pointed me toward Tom Fuss blog 'Skull and Crown' where he describes his up and coming galley rules and pretty special wooden ship models - this looks like fun!