Dark Ages - week 1

This week's scenario was "The Fugitive" in which the defenders must find an escaped prisoner who is hiding in one of six rough areas and escape. The first area searched needs a 6, the second a 5+ and so on. An attackers win is worth 3 valour and defenders 5 valour. 

Games 1 and 3 - Irish vs Anglo-Norman

I've listed this as two games as we managed to play through the game twice, swapping roles for the second game. Both had a similar result with the defender finding the prisoner in a wood closer to their base edge and managing to escape for a 5 point win.   

Irish Warriors escort the prisoner

In the first battle the Anglo-Norman attackers were slow moving so the Irish were never really under pressure.  

In the second the attacking Irish moved rapidly and came close to at least engaging the fleeing prisoner. In both game the Irish Warriors proved effective in attacking the Norman infantry.   

 

Irish and Anglo-Normans clash

Game 2 - Norse vs Frankish / Saxons

The Norse were the defenders in this much longer game. Initially they did well with their archers and hurt the Frankish cavalry, but failed to find the prisoner. 

Frankish horse

The Norse only found the prisoner in the very last zone searched and so close to the attackers baseline. Once found the attackers (mostly Saxons) quickly converged to attack the berserkers guarding the prisoner.    

Saxons lie in wait

Crucially the berserkers became "battered" (low morale) and started fleeing towards the base-edge and a possible escape. When only 1 move from safely their morale failed completely and they routed, handing the win to the defending Franks/Saxons right at the death.      

The decisive moment the berserkers rout

So after week 1 the scores are:

• Stu and Chris - 5 valour
• Roy and Mike - 3 valour 

Cotswold Wargames Day 2024

This year saw a change of venue to Big Battles in Cirencester.  As a purpose built wargames venue it meant we didn't have to struggle with tables this year and we were made welcome by genial hosts Derek and Andy who spent the day mingling with the players.

We staged a large French Wars of Religion game, starting with the battle of Dreux in 28mm.

There was a large Lion Rampant game based on the Crusades.  

 

A Dead Man's Hand wild west game, which also one an award for best looking game.   

Two WWII games, one a late-war 1/300th  and an early war Startline game in 15mm.

The Stuart Asquith trophy winner was a Franco-Prussian game in 28mm featuring some hand-cast figures in the toy soldier style.  

There was 10mm Napoleonic's

28mm French vs Ottomans from the 18th century

And finally, we ran a second game in the afternoon depicting the battle of  Vergt.  

The Dark Ages

For our next campaign we're going back to the Dark Ages for some mass skirmish action using Dragon Rampant Version 2. We've played a few of the rule sets using the same system, most recently doing some ACW and Sudan games. 

Between us we can field quite a selection of British / North European armies so we should have some interesting show-downs. 

This week we used Anglo-Normans vs Saxons for a practice game at 32 points with 3 players a-side. The target though is 3 * 24 point games running at once. 

   

September roundup

I've not blogged for a few weeks as I've been busy playing more games than usual. So a quick round-up of the last few weeks.

A visit over to Fishponds saw me playing the Humans in a battle with Twilight Kin (evil elves) and Abyssal Dwarves (evil dwarves) using Kings of War. It was a tough day for the humans who killed some dwarves but struggled with the elves.   

I've also been working on some home-brew fast play rules for the French Wars of Religion. We plan to use them in a seriously big game at the Cotswold Wargames day on the 20th Oct.  

Continuing the testing theme I played Keith Flint at a test game of his new WWII rules, Startline. It was his first game using the US and Normandy. No major kinks so I look forward to seeing them in print.     

Finally some Great North War - in this case a battle from 1702 between Sweden and a Polish / Saxon army, giving a chance to field some colourful units.  

Wars of Religion - week 8

This week the North were renewing their attacks into Southern on all fronts. Three games played 

Game 1 - Landsknechts (north) vs WOR (south)

The south had half their forces in a vanguard position looking to delay the norths advance, whilst inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. They opted for infantry holding the line and horse moving to reinforce. The Germans plan was to push their tercios up the centre and left whilst their less numerous horse protected the right flank. 

The Germans moved up rapidly apparently intent on assaulting the French defending the fields on the centre line. They began taking fire and this seemed to distract them as they stop advancing and settled into an exchange of fire. This suited the French who had the better cover and mostly wanted to delay the attack.       

Eventually the Germans got moving again but were unable to get any scoring units over the half way line. WOR (south) win. 

Game 2 - WOR (south) vs WOR (north)

The southern forces were defending a key strong point guarding the way to their regional capital. They opted to spread their forces across the field in the hopes the north would match the deployment and so draw units away from main objective.

In the early turns the north looked for an opening whilst the south tried to attack to prevent them getting close to the stronghold. This somewhat worked for the early part of the game and the northern horse was pushed back on both flanks. 

 

Southern harquebusier see off the northern cuirassiers 

Up until turn 5 the south were in the lead and a win looked possible, but in turn 6 the north manged to get a couple of units attacking the stronghold and snatched a late win. Northern Win

Game 3 - Polish (north) vs WOR (south) 

Both sides were looking to capture three vital terrain pieces, with one each close their deployment zones and one in the centre.  The largely mounted Polish army massed its heavy horse on their left looking to capture the WOR "home" terrain and the central hill. 

The Polish found that much of the their horse was facing the WOR infantry - not a good match for most armies but the Hussars are capable of tasking-on enemy pike units if things go well.  

On this occasion the gods were with them and they broke the WOR right and swept to victory. Polish win.

Campaign situation

The norths run of good form continues with them winning 5 of the last 6 games and making inroads into enemy territory. We'll likely play a couple more weeks as the north seem to be ahead now.