Journey to the end of the world

I've recently returned from a tour of west Wales, plenty of castles and dark ages stuff on show, plus some Napoleonic material. I may be inspired to further round of terrain building.

First up some Dark Ages Welsh buildings at St Fagan's - a round house, a section of stone wall and a Welsh kings hall. The wall seems quite luxurious being stone but I suppose it is for a king.
 

Next the gatehouse at St David's cathedral - definitely more defensive than pretty.  

From the Napoleonic era is a recent tapestry depicting the French invasion of Fishguard in 1797. I've only shown a couple of frames from the 100 metre tapestry which was done for the 200th anniversary in 1997.

Also in Fishguard a small fort overlooking the harbour. A shot was fired at the approaching French but the garrison only had blanks so it was more a warning than a threat.    

Way back to the Iron Age is this tomb Pentre Ifan from about 3500 BC.

Now a few shots of Pembroke castle which is fairly complete and mostly accessible. The gatehouse is especially impressive although largely rebuilt in the 1920s.

And finally a pill-box at Cardigan castle overlooking the main bridge. Decent lines of fire...

Begorrah

Before we start the campaign proper, we had a final round of practise games. This gave me my first go at the Irish I'll be using as I've been on teaching duties for the previous games. This week we played Vikings vs Anglo Danes and Irish vs Vikings in a scenario where you each had to capture the others flag.

Vikings vs Anglo Danes

In this game the Vikings were the aggressors pushing forward to come to grips with the Anglo Danes, who preferred to hang back in shield wall and look to build fatigue on the Norsemen.  The Vikings had the better of the exchanges, chipping away at the English shieldwall in a series of attacks.

As they hit the last two turns the Anglo Danes warlord went on the attack, with his Saga abilities making him all but invulnerable. This shored-up[ the position and allowed them to hang-on for a draw.  

 

Irish vs Vikings

On the other table a very shooty Irish army took on a second Viking force. The Irish have several abilities that enable them to exploit rough terrain and boost their shooting power. They also have mini warlords to help them motivate their poor quality units more easily. The weak point is no armour  so the units are vulnerable in the open.

The Vikings advanced in the centre while the Irish looked to envelope them using the rough ground as cover. The Irish pelted the Vikings with javelins bogging them down and whittling away the Norsemen.  

Four moves in the Vikings advanced and been blunted and they were pushed back onto their objective. the Irish pursued and heavy shooting soon cleared away the last of the Vikings.

An Irish battle group attacks

The nights are drawing in - tome for some Dark Ages

Our next campaign is due to be a foray into SAGA - the popular Dark Ages skirmish campaign. The structure means it only really works well as 1 vs 1 so we'll be looking to run 3 games a night with all battles contributing to an overall campaign. This week we played a further practice game with Welsh vs Vikings and Anglo Danes vs Vikings.

First-up the Welsh vs Vikings, a tense shooty affair

The Vikings vs Anglo Danes was more direct

Gain Glory Or Die – A Saga Campaign

Players each control one of 6 factions, fighting either for the English or the invaders. The armies are those of Olaf Guthfrithson of Dublin against Athelstan of England in the 930s.

English                                              Invaders

Anglo-Saxons (Mike)                         Dublin Vikings (John)

Anglo-Danes (Roy)                            Strathclyde Welsh (Nigel)

Danelaw Vikings (Richard)                Irish (Stu)

 

The games are 6 points with each players fighting the enemies in rotation. Victory in battle builds your fame both for the side and the player individually, with both being determined at the end of the campaign. The winner receives a bonus ability to use in the next battle.

Turn 1
	Anglo-dane	Anglo-saxon	Danelaw Viking
Dublin Viking
Strathclyde
Irish

Turn 2
	Anglo-dane	Anglo-saxon	Danelaw Viking
Viking 1
Strathclyde
Irish

Cotswold Wargames Day 2019

This weekend I popped along to the second Cotswold  Wargaming Day hosted by Keith Flint in Northleach.  CWD-19, as its now known, featured 8 games in a variety of scales with prizes once again awarded by Stuart the Elder.

There were a couple of 28/30mm 18th Century games, which are always eye-catching. A historical encounter using 30mm Smiths plastics that are almost as old as me and an imaginations battle with a splendid castle as a backdrop.

There was also a wild-west shootout that won best terrain. Can you spot the iron-age pigs drafted into China Town?

A game of Black Powder set in the Caribbean won best game.

I also managed to get a shot of a Spanish-Mexican clash in 20mm and some 10mm Napoleonic's with old school terrain. I failed to get decent shots of a WWII battle and some WWII aircraft in 1/300th.

 

The Big Red One - a project completed

After some months of painting (mostly reds) I've now completed by Forces of the Abyss army. I've played several games against it but have yet to command them. They have lots of tools with fast units, hard hitting units, some big infantry blocks and a good range of heroes and monsters. I'd planned about 2000 point but I think its well over 4000 now.

First up is half the core infantry - Lower Abyssals, Larvae, and some cheeky Imps. These units are designed to hold ground and bog-down the enemy

Imps

Lower Abyssal

Larvae

The other half of the core infantry - Succubi, Flame bearers and Efreets. These bring melee punch and distance shooting respectively.

Flame Bearers

Succubi

Efreets

Next up are the heavy hitters, large demons to break the enemy lines. Here were have Despoilers flanked by Molochs.

Despoilers

Molochs

Every army needs some spend and punch. For the Abyssals its the Abyssal Horsemen and the Hellequins. These three units could be used as either.

Hellequins

Abyssal Horse / Hellequins

The final set of major units are fast-moving troops designed to interfere with the enemy plans or guard the flanks.  Here we have Hellhounds and Tortured Souls. These are mostly purple as I needed a break from red and black!

Tortured Souls

Hellhounds

Finally we have the various heroes and individuals who complete the army.

From left to right a Demon lord / Arch Fiend, Ba'Su'su the vile and the Seductress enchantress.

Another Arch Fiend, very much the centre-piece of the army.

Again from left to right - a warlock, Helllquin Bloodmasque, a Champion, and a standard bearer.

So there you have it an awful lot of red paint.