CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, and welcome to Autumn (according to the BBC at any rate).

I picked up a copy of the latest issue of "Miniature Wargames" magazine a few days back, whilst on holiday (issue number whatever for September) and had my customary flick-through before settling down to read the bits I like the look of at my leisure some time later.

I got to the back cover.

My eyes lit up.

Here is why...

Picture the scene.

It is just after Christmas in the year of Our Lord, 1973.

Six year old G left his native Gloucester a few months previously as his father sought work elsewhere. You can imagine how gut-wrenching this was to your poor scribe...

Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev had, amongst other things, received a boxed game produced by Parker Games (I think) for Christmas and, with several of his friends around to our house for something of a Yuletide party, that boxed game was brought out and set up on the kitchen table. Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev played the Germans - he was strange like that...
I remember his friends Mel and Steve, but no one else, but I do remember the game had all sides portrayed and I got the Dutch.

I should apologise at this point, as I did not even know the Dutch had been in the Second World War let alone the fact that the Germans had bothered to capture any of them. Having since seen photos of the bombing of Rotterdam and learned rather more of 20th Century history in the ensuing years, I can only beg forgiveness for my ignorance from our Batavian cousins.

Now, as we all collected rope, keys, avoided Germans, etc, I got out through the wire and made my bid for freedom. Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev sent a sentry after me. I rolled the dice and moved. He played a card and...

"Shoot to Kill" was displayed upon the card. He shot. I died. I was out of the game. My first foray into a game I have played loads of times since ended sadly.

AND HERE IT IS AGAIN, IN ALL IT'S GLORY!!!

Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev has mislaid his original copy and seems to think I have it. I do not. If I should, by some miracle, ever find it in the cavernous dump of old things that is my loft, I will naturally return it with profuse apologies, but, in the meantime, perhaps I should just buy myself a copy of this issue and perhaps get one for him for Christmas 2016...

THIS IS A SERIOUS MUST-HAVE!!!

There is a big, family holiday set for the end of July 2017 down in deepest Somerset. I will be there, as will Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev, Nephew Nick and various other worthies. This game is DEFINITELY getting an outing.

G

Just how did the tortoise beat the hare?

Hello again.

I have had the makings of a Mordor Orc army for GW's "Lord of the Rings" game for ages, but have struggled to get them ready for battle with the various big projects I have had on for the past few years on behalf of the "Wyrley Retinue". Well, now I have no major project on for next year, I have managed to pursue some more of Sauron's less-than-finest with a view to finishing this little project off this year.

I bought these mounted fellows ready-built, undercoated and with the Wargs already done a couple of years ago from the Stafford Games (RIP) secondhand table. They cost me £18 for 18 figures, which, at GW prices, is a BARGAIN!!!

So, I have finally got around to painting them and they fulfil both my Mordor Orc reinforcements desire and the love of crud - their stats in the game are rather poor, as befits a lowly Orc. They are just rather speedier crud than their foot-slogging brethren.

I did not touch the Wargs at all, but tarted up the bases, which had basic texture work done (sand and glue probably), and painted the riders throughout.

 



As you can see, I have three "squadrons" of six figures each, one with spear, one with bow and one with sword. The sword and spear guys also have shields, which is nice. That armour rating needs to be as high as possible in my book!

G

The Quest for THE Rules, Part 2

Hello,

In the second instalment of Nephew Nick's and my quest to find the definitive set of rules for our forthcoming Dark Ages Ireland show game for 2017, we moved on from Games Workshop's "Lord of the Rings" set (which we liked overall, but had one or two reservations about), to another possibly suitable offering in the form of Dan Mersey's "Lion Rampant".

We have only tried this set out for a single game before, a quickly-arranged affair using my Late Medievals. I set up the forces, working out something that was vaguely Viking and something else that was vaguely Irish, and we set to.

I was most enthused by the idea of "Fierce Foot", but then discovered just how rubbish they are when defending! Nick placed great store in his huscarls, greatly aided by the fact that we used the Foot Men at Arms stats for them...

The Vikings won is all I will say for now.

Nephew Nick's Vikings set up ready to take it to the Irish. Those huscarls are ROCK HARD when counted as Foot Men At Arms. Perhaps a downgrade to Armour 3???

The Bhoys!

I used my Warlord and his "Fierce Foot" (he was "rash" in the game, so upgraded the unit he was with from their actual status) as a reinforcing unit to take advantage of my breakthrough in the centre...at least, that was the plan. It actually worked until I ran out of figures and he ended up having to take on all comers!

Nick's Vikings, with one or two of my figures knocking around somewhere.

The Warlord's unit broke through, but was overwhelmed in the end.


So, what did we think?

1. The rules were very quick and bloody, perhaps too much so! We may well be able to play this three or four times per show!!!
2. The rules worked well.
3. The Irish should all be fleet footed as per the rules, even the Fierce Foot, to allow for faster movement.
4. The Irish also deserve a job lot of javelins.
5. Viking huscarls are IMMENSE!!!
6. We have a plethora of ideas to enhance the game with mini-scenarios within the main game, different victory conditions and so on.
7. We can easily accommodate several players per side, which would allow us to have some participation element.
8. WE LIKED THESE RULES A LOT!

It is debateable whether we will continue our quest having found "Lion Rampant" to our liking so much, but something like "Legends of the High Seas", basic (i.e. 1st Edition-ish) Warhammer and no doubt a few others may yet get a try out. Hmmm.

G

The Quest for THE Rules

Hello again.

Nephew Nick, Nephew Paul and I decided several months ago what next year's show game would be in terms of its theme, but we did not sort out all the details. One of the missing details was which set of rules to use to depict our chosen arena. We have one definitive, period and scale-specific set to hand, but I at least had reservations about their suitability for a smooth-flowing, demo and possibly participation set up at a show. This is because they require certain specific tools to be able to use them, which adds a small amount to the game complexity, the likelihood of forgetting something and so on.

And so, the quest for alternatives began in earnest yesterday morning with a game or two Chez Nick.

We have some ideas for alternative sets and the first of those was to try out "The Lord of the Rings" fantasy battle game rules, Games Workshop's Tolkien-inspired offering that accompanied their alliance with Peter Jackson's films. (This is not the later big battle rules by the way). It is not a set I am massively familiar with, though I have played a few times and, indeed, after several years waiting to finish them, I almost have my Mordor Orcs ready to go! (It is that absence of a major project allowing me to do other mini projects instead yet again. I quite like this no project thingy!!!)

So here, hopefully for your delight and delectation, I have some photos of three things that do not feature very prominently on my blog to date. Firstly, they are taken from a game in progress. Secondly, they are fantasy figures. Thirdly, they are not mine. A fourth factor, which is unfortunately rather too common, is the poor quality of the photos! I am no photographer at the best of times but the weather conditions yesterday made light and dark a somewhat random affair, so apologies in advance!

I took the part of the valiant Dwarves, led by a King, with four Captains and various warrior types. I chose not to drag out the usual suspects like Balin or Dain Ironfoot. Arrayed against me were Nephew Nick, aka Durburz the Moria Goblin King, with sundry nefarious Goblin types, a couple of Bat Swarms and three Cave Trolls (I told you it was dark outside, even in daylight!) We had a nice, even 755pts each on the table.

It was a very close run thing, with Nephew Nick's favoured lilac dice doing their usual "roll 'em high" routine rather too often for my liking!

The Dwarf battleline, King Thorin Snowbeard of the Solitary Knoll centre right. (The Solitary Knoll is very like the Lonely Mountain, but a lot smaller...)

The Goblin right flank, with two of those pesky trolls...

This troll would have won the "Troll of the Match" award, if he could hit a barn door with his spear...The Shaman points the way to the enemy, if the Goblins or Troll were in any doubt about that, but it was rather funny when he failed dismally to cast his first spell, despite a re-roll!

A longer shot of the Dwarf line, the Goblin archers having already started to cause a gap or two. Better get into melee asap.

Those drums. Forever banging away like small, green Cozy Powells, these two helped keep the Goblins interested in the fight with their motivational percussion.

A few lowly Dwarf archers take on a Cave Troll and some Bats. This was only likely to go one way...and it did! The good news for the Dwarves was that it took a fair amount of time before the Cave Troll was able to burst through and attack the left of the Dwarf battle line.

Carnage. The Dwarves have broken through in the centre, but are in difficulty on their flanks. King Thorin himself almost single-handedly shored up the left flank of the Dwarf line, but those Trolls were going nowhere fast.

Both sides hit their breakpoint simultaneously. From here on in, it was a question of whose morale would hold longest.

Naturally, the Dwarves held on longest and this is the final scene, where the last Troll is cut down for a Dwarf victory. I say "Victory", but how many games are truly such with an almost 90% casualty rate for the victors??? To misquote Lord Cornwallis, "With another victory like that, we shall be ruined." A wounded King Thorin, a wounded Captain, an unwounded Captain, a Khazad Guard and a Dwarf warrior are all who will trek home to the Solitary Knoll for beer and bathtime tonight... 

So, did these rules work for us and is our quest complete? Yes and no. The rules worked fine, but they are a little labour intensive with each individual man to man combat worked out individually and they give far too much freedom for individual figures to do what they want to most of the time. However, the mechanisms are simple and they would be easy to convert to our chosen Dark Ages scenario, so they are still in contention for that outing next year. A few more games and some alternative rules will trim things down a bit further.

G

Something new (AGAIN!!!)

Greetings from an English Summer!

I picked up a copy of August's issue of "Wargames Illustrated" a few days ago and, flicking through as I do when I first purchase any magazine, I came across the "Wargaming News" section on page 4 and there was the advert for the "The Men Who Would Be Kings" (TMWWBK) rules from Osprey, newly published and penned by Daniel Mersey, who did such a good job on things such as "Lion Rampant" amongst others.

I have enjoyed the Osprey rules in the main and have most of them to date, but I have never been interested in Colonial games, preferring to match various European armies against each other, whatever the historical time period. So, why the interest?

1. Daniel Mersey's offerings are uniformly very good in my opinion and I firmly believe this will be no exception.
2. These rules were previewed in an earlier issue of "WI" and I loved the idea, even hoping I could get an early copy at Barrage last month.
3. They fit in with my current niche of painting large (-ish) skirmish forces, as I have for SAGA, am doing for "Sharp Practice 2/ Muskets & Tomahawks" and intend to do with some Peninsular War figures again for SP2.

I cannot see myself charging hordes of Zulus/ Mahdists/ Mutineers/ Matabele/ Pathans/ Other at a line of sundry Europeans (with or without red coats), but I can see myself running some small scale actions in various far-flung parts of the Empire. (Queen Victoria, God Bless Her!)

Actually, I can see myself defending a pa from Forest Rangers in New Zealand or fighting Boxers with Schutztruppen, which is rather different from the classic red line (and I still dislike painting red, hence my dearth of "British" troops in my entire figure collection).

But, everyone has to start somewhere, and I had these lying around after my "Malta" project. I used the more Arab-looking figures in Perry's Mahdist box for Corsairs/ North Africans, but still had some less well-dressed bodies and a horde of Fuzzy-Wuzzy heads, so here are my fledgling Beja/ Bija figures for "TMWWBK".

I may even paint them at some point and build myself a quick Sudan set-up, but I am mindful that I have no desert terrain at all, so it would be a bigger project than originally anticipated. Then again, I have a liking for Empress Miniatures' Maoris and Tiger Miniatures' Schutztruppen, as well as Redoubt's Boxers...

The absence of a large show project is greatly assisting the fulfilment of these mini-projects!

G

A full combat unit of sixteen irregulars, armed in traditional manner. These figures were very easy to make from the figures in the set.

I only had enough remaining figures for four riflemen, but I think there should be sixteen in the unit. Looks like I will have to buy another box then!

Barrage Show, Stafford, 10th July, 2016

Sunday, 10th July saw the latest outing for the "Wyrley Retinue", the occasion being the annual Barrage Show in Stafford. We took a 10x6ft version of our "Battle of Canny, c.1476" demo game and we all had a good time (I think), with the Swiss earning another win, but a more hard-fought one than previously, but the Burgundian left had pretty much beaten the Swiss right (another dodgy showing from "Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev" with the Bernese contingent!). Still, I got to beat up Nephew Ben with the Lorrainers and a mixed Swiss contingent and the Zurichers broke through the Burgundian centre right, so it was all going well by closing time!

It was not all entirely good though.

The weather was alternately (very) wet and dry, which made emptying the car amusing! The venue was stiflingly hot and there was arguably too much crammed into the main hall which made it feel hotter and more claustrophobic than perhaps was necessary. Several traders were also a bit peeved that people did not know they were there in a second hall.

Note to organisers: put the tourney games in the small hall and move the trade presence to the main one, which would also probably free up some space there too.

However, there were numerous good bits too.

1. £150 was raised for a local hospice from raffle ticket sales.
2. James Morris (and friends') Verdun game. Take a look at this game if you see it offered at a show. It is a very simply but excellently staged rendition of a small section of a fort on the Verdun front (Fort Vaux, I think), beautifully modelled and with a novel game played over, in and around it.
3. The Athlone game from Derby (I think). Colourful, well-modelled and with some very nice touches. I almost broke out my stalled 1690 figure project...
4. Some very decent trade offerings for a small show.
5. Many other, smaller games from Telford and others, which I did not get much chance to see in detail.

Overall, a well done to the organisers and I am looking forward to seeing this show get bigger and better again for next year.

I would show you photos of the best bits, but my camera died without taking a shot in anger and then my phone refused to yield its contents!

So the only pictures you get are of my customarily too frequent purchases! I only went to the show with the intention of buying two things - "Sharp Practice 2" and, if I could get an early copy, Dan Mersey's latest offering via Osprey Publishing, for colonial games, namely "The Men Who Would Be Kings".

G

Eagle Figures are a company I have seen at loads of shows, but not bought from before, as I do not really "do" the periods they offer figures for. However, the opportunity to add a few more figures for my Thirty Years' War collection was too good to miss, so a unit pack of musketeers with rest was duly purchased. Spanish guerrillas, Austrian Pandours....and "Sharp Practice 2" newly released could change all that though...

The "Wyrley Retinue" AGM decision (OK, a small gathering of three of us at my house a few months ago) was that next year's demo game would be something we already had and Nephew Nick was most keen to do a "Vikings in Ireland" game. We all agreed so there we are. Thus, I thought I would buy myself some Irish cavalry from Ainsty. I added in a few Welsh cavalry for variety...They will all be speaking Gaelic when they take to the table though. 

And who would not have a stone circle in their Irish/ Ancient British games?

Three boxes of Perry plastics and I hope to have a Peninsular War set up for Sharp Practice. Infantry, Hussars and Dragoons pretty much covers all I will need for the first few units. Then back to Eagle Figures in the near future for some Spanish?

One ruleset to rule them all, one ruleset to find them...What I ACTUALLY went to the show with the intention of buying! I thought I would buy both the cards and chips in case I lose one or the other...

And now for something COMPLETELY different!

I did not get to play the demo game on show by Questing Knight games of Wellington, Shropshire, and have not even seen the latest "Mad Max" film even though I have the DVD, but this was a must-buy when I saw it. Four double-sided road boards, some cars and bikes, game aids and artwork...What is not to like???

"Goblins. Fahsends of 'em"

Hello to you all on this last day of June.

In about three and a half months, I have brought my little (no pun intended) fantasy project to a state where I can successfully call something "finished". Well, strictly speaking, I may well add more figures in due course, but I have more than enough painted, based, varnished and ready to go to play some games of "Warband" if ever I can get the Nephews or sundry other associates in the same place at the same time sometime soon...

So, here for your delectation/ mild amusement/ distaste (set your own level to suit), I give you the "Burning Skulls" and their various hangers on. I don't normally paint Orcs green, but they looked right after I had painted the first few, so I stuck with it. Technically, in the rules, they are classed as "goblins" anyway, which I do paint green...

I am over-thinking this...

I was concerned about how I would base them (and was right to be), but settled on Basetex. This has caused a tiny bit of base warping as it has dried and contracted, but I hope to be able to sort that out by magnetising the ends of the bases only, rather than the middle. I trust this will cause the base to be pulled into shape better during storage, but I must admit there is no science behind this. I also stuck the figures down in stages on those bases with 20+ figures, then did a bit of texturing, then added more figures, etc. I am happy with the end result though.

They are not all I have been doing during this past three+ months, as I have also painted their High Elf opponents, but they are neither varnished nor based so you will not see them yet. Maybe by the end of July. And then there are the proposed reinforcements. And then I want some 10mm Balrogs. And something akin to some Haradrim would not go amiss...

Talk about project creep.

All the figures are Pendraken. I am impressed with them, especially given their size. They also cover lots of historical stuff for those not inclined towards fantasy, so do check them out at shows or their website.

G

The Bossmen - a command unit and another of shamen/ shamans. The little boxes at the rear corner of each base hold little dice used to mark unit strength in the "Warband" rules.

The boss and his entourage. The basic command pack only comes with five figures, so I added some spare warriors. Can you spot the theme for these bodyguard-types?

Mighty Magic-men of Mordor! Or hapless dupes if truth be told...I have a habit in fantasy games of seeing my wizards blow themselves up. I deliberately left other figures off this base: 1) See the first part of this caption and, 2) I doubt anyone would really want to stand by the average Orc shaman because they would probably expect some pain in my book!

Artillery (small scale). Reinforcements will include some bigger stuff...These will do for now.

Blokes on dogs. Erm, Wolf Riders, I mean.

What is the Black Speech word for "Charge!!!"

Blokes with bent sticks. The rearmost unit is one of Scouts, who have suitable special rules in the "Warband" book to do with something called "scouting". No, I don't know what that is either...

A close up of some of the blokes with bent sticks.

Ah, the Mirkwood Leichte Panzer Division.

Warriors!

And a close up of some general cannon fodder/ warriors.

And some others who wanted the publicity...

BIG STUFF, in the form of some Trolls. I don't know why I did three units. In the "Warband" rules, you can only have 200pts of these "Special" types, and these bases are 90pts each! Oh yes, I remember now. I don't just want to play basic games! (And I am a megalomaniac with a passion for big gribblies!)

Bill, Tom and the other one. With three of their friends.

And a few more. Where is Turin Turambar when you need him? (Go and read "The Silmarillion" if you don't get the reference you heathen).