Fireforge Knights on Pegasus Review

I recently received the Knights on Pegasus from Fireforge games. As these are not carried at shows or by UK shops I ordered direct - it took about 10 days to come but the handy courier tracker kept me informed on their progress from Italy.

The box builds four of the Knights and with four Pegasus sprues and one knights plus four 40*40mm bases.

The knights are the standard Fireforge sprue, in this case with the Teutonic heads. They are the hard plastic type and come with a selection of heads and weapons.

The Pegasus are formed from a soft grey resin material, so must be super glued. The detail is crisp and being soft resin they are easily removed from the sprue. A choice of two heads is included. Each Pegasus has an integral cloud-textured stand that fits into the body.  

Once assembled each knight is 80mm high and has a wingspan of 100mm. Assembly was quick but I allowed plenty of drying team between major components as I've found even superglue stays tacky on the resin for a while.  

 
All in all they look pretty good and I'm looking forward to painting them up. These chaps are destined to be Elohi for my latest Basilean Kings of War project.

Gain Glory or Die - a Saga darkages campaign

We gathered this week on a wet and windy night for the first round of the campaign. The Welsh were unable to come, so it was Danelaw Vikings vs Dublin Vikings and Anglo-Danes vs Irish. The scenario involved grabbing some centrally placed livestock and getting them off the table for a later feast.

Irish vs Anglo-Danes

On this table the Irish pushed forward quickly and began showering the Danes with javelin fire. They were able to pin down the Danes for a few moves and quickly grab one of the precious sheep.

Anglo-Danes holding the hill

Irish on the right in this picture

After a couple of turns the Danes had lost 2 units and were under pressure from the Irish. They mounted a successful charge against the Irish Hearth Guards but lost further troops.

The game ended 32-16 to the Irish, so a solid win for them. The Danes struggled to make headway against the Irish hidden in the cover.

Vikings vs Vikings

The second table was an all Viking affair. The armies were similar but the Danelaw group fielded a unit of shield chewing berserkers. The Danelaw's moved first and rapidly grabbed all three cows using fatigue moves.

Dubliners at the bottom

It was then a foot-race, but a few sacrificial charges gave the Danelaw vital breathing space from the Dubliners. By 4 turns in it was clear that the Danelaw would be the winners as there lead was so high.

A good win for the Danelaw over their Dublin rivals. The Berserkers proved devastating but fragile, which is about right.

The Campaign 

So its 6 point a side after week 1.  

A tale of two forts - the final Vanguard

This weekend we neared the conclusion of the Tale of Two forts campaign with the final Vanguard skirmish game. This scenario involves trying to tame a rampaging giant by wounding him and killing the enemy. This is my favourite of the scenarios - random but it looks great.

The Nightstalkers deployed mostly centrally with small units of shooters on the flanks. I went for two pods; Sisterhood troops supported by men-at-arms and sergeants to attack the giant with ogre and Paladins looking to block the enemy.
 

The faster moving Nightstalkers reached the giant in turn 1 and by the end of turn 2 were 6-0 up on VPs. The rampaging giant had though tenderised the Nightstalkers with a few well placed stomps.  

By turn 3 I[ pulled back to 6-5 and causalities were mounting for the Nightstalkers as my Basileans managed to chew through the centre of their lies.  

As we hit turn 4 the Nightstalkers were mostly dead and I had pulled-out a lead that could not be overtaken.

So a solid win for the Basileans who now have the honour of using the giant in the final siege battle of the campaign. Despite famously killed few Nightstalkers through the campaign they did win 3 and draw 1 of the 5 games.  

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