21 July - 20 July Napoleonic Game vs The Uncle

Caught up with The Uncle for the first time in a while yesterday. He'd had a Napoleonic game the day before with one of his friends and he very kindly left his Russian force behind so that I could use it. This was my first game set in the period, although I have been looking into it lately as The Youngest has expressed an interest in playing something were they still had nice looking uniforms. We used the Tremble Ye Tyrants rule set which played nicely to the amount of time I had before needing to get home, again this being my first game in the period I cannot compare the rules to anything else.

As I stated I was playing a Russian force against a French force fielded by The Uncle with some German and Belgium allies.

The game played well and by the end of the first turn I had the movement rules sorted and picked up the combat and morale rules within a couple of rolls. Shooting works on a D20 system with melee using a D6.

I'm afraid I didn't really note what most of the force was so I won't go as in depth as usual with the battle report, but it was an enjoyable game which looked like I would take the victory at the end (we did have to stop before it was a definite victory for either side). My right flank was admittedly looking like it wouldn't hold for much longer, but my grenadiers had smashed their way through quite a large amount of his centre. And while my lancers had been forced back by his Cuirassiers (I may be wrong as to the classification of his cavalry), they left a path to some infantry who had time to reform to square and I would have been able to clear the path for my medium artillery. On the left flank we had similar amounts of infantry, but I had the advantage of being already formed up in line formation whilst The Uncle was still stuck in column and attack column. I'll put up a few shots and again I apologise for the lack of "normal" report.

I enjoyed the game a lot so hopefully at some stage I'll get another in and this time I'll take better notes instead of trusting myself to remember a whole mess of things I've just heard on the day ;)

14th July - 12th July Bolt Action Games vs The Youngest

The Youngest has been on a push this school holidays trying to get her WW2 Italians knocked over so she can move on to her next project either her Martian Dreadball team or her Wild West Indians I'm told. I'm fairly impressed with the effort she's made on them. We decided that seeing as we hadn't managed to fit in a miniature game so far in the holidays we'd take advantage of having a day to ourselves and have a game before she went back to school yesterday.

She's been keen to play another game of Bolt Action since beating me with The Wife's Japanese previously, so I set up an abandoned farm area on the table and we set up for a Total Annihilation scenario. I let her pick her side (the forested/hilly side of the road) and off we went.

The first turn had both of us advancing cautiously up with most of our forces. I kept my Hetzer and Flamethrower team carrying Half-track in reserve. She chose to keep her armoured car, an infantry unit and her medium machine gun and mortar teams back to re-enforce her line as needed.

For the next couple of turns she managed to keep me on the back foot. The first pins, wounding shots and unit kills going to her. I was forced to play defensively and ended up mostly trying to get pins out on her more well placed units trying to open up some room to move. 

She finally made a mistake on the left flank falling for a unit with a couple of panzerfaust and sending all her fire that way. Thankfully they stayed up and the order dice were kind enough to allow me to then follow up with a second unit who the following turn managed to take out her tankette, just. But that reduced the number of pins she was  able to spread across that side quite significantly. She did then re-enforce with another full strength infantry unit, but it was too late on that side.
  The centre had us bother well matched with little movement on either side, but on the right flank some bad dice rolls cost her the game. It wasn't until turn three I managed to get my half track on and she did her best to take it out before I could get anywhere with it. Using her last order die to take a shot, rolling a five and missing by one. Then her first order die of turn four went to it rather than her tank. Unfortunately on both counts as she then rolled a four (needing a five and again missing by one) and then losing her tank to my next order die before she had a chance to get some pins on the killing unit.

More bad luck for her as The Wife came home and decided she would pull order dice for us and proceeded to give me almost all of mine a row. Which allowed me to throw quite a lot of pin markers around including managing to actually use my flamethrower team for the first time ever! This led to her conceding the game with five units either killed or fled and bed time fast approaching.

We had a great time and are definitely going to get another one in some time soon. We're also going to be looking at some different options for her Italians to give her a bit of flexibility depending on opponent and scenario.

12th July - Finished Anyaral Empire Trader's Caravan

Well, it's been sitting on the edge of my painting table getting splashes of colour here and there. Finally I've cleared everything else I had on the go at the moment and got them on to the centre stage and focused all my attention on them. I waffled a little on the bases toying with either a desert or stone base, but ended up with a "wasteland" blend of them both. At first I wasn't sure if I was happy with the bases or not, but once I'd done a little wasted plant tufting and scattered rocks I think it's finished up rather nicely.

Traders Caravan

Fubarnii Trader Boss on Enuk

Casanii Scout 

Enuk carrying fresh produce

Young Fubarnii caravan guard

Fully laden Baruk

Fubarnii Trader

Young Fubarnii

"Packhorse" Enuk

Another group shot

I've now got my Mortician team from guild ball on the table undercoated and ready to go, I was leaning toward starting some of my Wrath of Kings gear or perhaps starting on what I already have of my Abyssal Dwarves for Kings of War (needed for my challenge later this year against my niece and her Dwarves) but Toby is pretty keen to get a game of Guildball in now both our pledges have arrived. I've ordered some Micro-art studio graveyard bases to go along with these but I'll hopefully get some painting time in tomorrow with The Daughters heading back to school again.

Also I got a game of Bolt Action in with The Youngest this afternoon. She's been working hard all week on her Italians and has made some pretty decent headway so we figured we had to fit in a game before school started again. I should get some from of AAR up tomorrow time permitting.

5th July - Saga vs The Brother

Two weeks in a row! Such a thing is unheard of, but it's true. So this week we got together again at The Brother's house and pushed some minis around again, this time Saga. My Vikings took to the field again against a changed Welsh line up. The previous game ended in a victory for myself with a last turn push over the river in the Cross the Ford scenario. This time we decided to play just a standard Clash of the Warlords game.

The other big change this game was the size of our forces with both of us having more options available. This time we played a full size six point game.

Vikings

One Warlord

One choice of Beserkers (Special Hearthguard)

Two choices of Hirdmen (Hearthguard)

Two choices of Bondi (Warriors)

One choice of Thralls w/- Bow (Levies)

Welsh

One mounted Warlord

Two choices of mounted Teulu (Hearthguard)

Three choices of Priodaur (Warriors)

One choice of Bonnedig w/- Bow (Levies)

I deployed all my choices as standard units, four for hearthguard, eight for warriors and twelve for the levies. The Brother set his up in larger blocks with one massive eight man hearthguard unit and two twelve man warrior units and again his levies as a twelve man block.

Bird's eye view of the battlefield

Welsh battleline

Viking forces

The forces lined up across the table with The Brother winning deployment thanks to his much grander facial hair (damn tied roll rule). However at the end of deployment I managed to grab the first play and we got down to business.







Both of our first turns saw abysmal rolls with the saga dice so all we had was both of us moving up towards our opponent.

The centre of the field as the action begins

The Thralls soften the Teulu

And the Beserkers take their toll

The saga dice must be cursed! Another terrible roll on my part, but I could still get some moves out. Pushing the levies up into range of the Teulu. Taking a fatigue I then ordered them to fire. The shafts flew true but some hastily raised shields met the fall and but a single man fell from his saddle. Using the Warlord's 'We Obey' rules my Beserkers head toward the mounted men. A second activation see's them head in to cross blades. As they clash the fatigue seems to melt from the frothing Viking hearthguard thanks to Frigg and they fight with ferocity, just not the ferocity I was hoping for. One warrior falls, but they manage to pull two men from their lofty perches and hack them as they lie upon the ground and their comrades pull back.

Did I mention cowardly dogs?

The Brother responded in cowardly Welsh fashion hurling Javelins at the Berserkers cutting them all down using The Deadly Strike from distance before galloping to the edge of the battle field to rest up. He then pushed his right flank forward with the centre of the field now left hollow.

It was turn three I began to question the validity of a Levy choice for this particular scenario. Yes bows can be nice but, no in a scenario where the opponent can use hit and run tactics with particularly with mounted troops they just don't justify themselves. So I pushed them into the centre of the table and left them there for chance. It was also about this stage I realised that I would not be killing his Warlord (the scenarios victory condition) and needed to focus on getting a mass of kills for victory points. In view of this I began to push forward in order to get stuck in and get some kills. I did fire off a shot at his more central Priodaur mass but failed to get a single kill.

How could any red blooded warrior just
stand and take such taunting?

Did I mention cowardly Welsh tactics yet? The Brother began with Taunting my Bondi on my left, drawing them forward with rage but leaving them short of actually coming to grips and proving their manliness on their jeering foes. Then again a volley of javelin fire and a hasty retreat left me with another dead Viking. On the other flank he moved forward but was unable to get into range.

The Welsh line advances

The fourth turn for me was about positioning. I pulled back on the left to try to conserve casualties and to force The Brother to gain fatigue if he wanted to reach me in a single turn. On the right I pushed the Bondi out and around to get them ready for a hit at his Bonnedig. My Hirdmen pushed toward his Priodaur but due to some Holy Ground failed to make the distance falling just short. For him his right flank rested and on the left the Priodaur pulled back under covering fire from the Bonnedig but they were unable to fell any of the brave Hirdmen.

The aftermath of a truly epic melee

I began the fifth turn with my Bondi moving up toward the Bonnedig in an attempt to draw what The Brother would of course save anyway for the Hirdman, with them again finding Holy Ground between them and the Priodaur but the gap was closing. So the Bondi smashed into the Bonnedig filled with the power of Thor and Frigg and after an epic two round melee (which I of course got caught up in and forgot to photograph it in it's stages) left the young untried men decimated felling eight men at an admittedly high cost of four of themselves. The Brother began moving up into range, but the current victory total sitting slightly in his favour and having the last turn I think he felt confident enough not to push his forces opting to keep them fresh for a last turn push.

Turn six, do or die for me. Loading up my battle board I pushed the Bondi into the Bonnedig aiming to finish off the unit easily. Disaster! All four of my supposedly seasoned warriors fell to the bow wielding Welsh rabble only managing to take two of them out with them. Now trailing slightly my last hope was a change of Hirdmen into the Priodaur block, finally there was no Holy Ground to save them. A huge amount of blows struck true on both sides, but some how the Welsh armour proved to be the sturdier with all my hearthguard laying dead on the field with but an equal number of warriors joining them. I honestly don't think it could have been a more disappointing last turn for me.

More Welsh cowardice

The Brother smiling moved in for the kill with his mounted Teulu but despite two rounds of javelin fire including one with The Deadly Strike (which I admittedly countered with my Asgard ability) he only managed to take on more Viking out before the game ended.

The day closes and both sides
prepare to withdraw from the
field

The Brother took the day this time with a thirteen to eight victory. It was a hard fought game and well won in the end with his hit and run tactics clinching the win. I really enjoyed the game and I've got an idea of how to counter the tactic next time we clash, the Gods (Dice) willing.

Perhaps next time these two may cross blades.....

Check out his companion post for another view and a few more pictures of the game.