GNW Progress and other Stuff....

 Firstly, the command base of part 1 of Phase Two of my GNW project. I asked Nick to make up one battalion of all Grenadier heads, to depict the grenadier battalion of the Livgarden til Fods (footguards) and he happily obliged. The command stand has now been completed, using one of the flags I located via Google.

The flag used and a very brief overview of the Lifeguards

Closer shots from three different angles....

..... once again, I am very happy with how these figures have come out.

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Next up, I mentioned I had a Sunday afternoon game with my mate Andrew. Once again, the fantasy Frostgrave collection was dusted off and hit the table. To add some variety, I also took along and used a few of my recent Border Reivers collection - at least it got a few of them onto a gaming table and "blooded"!

A view of the gaming area

One of Andrews many outstanding items of scenery

My first warband - the lady in green is a sorceress this time, with the Reiver behind her as a Hero

Andrews hero in the light coloured cloak

The other half of my team, again, a Reiver represents a hero, with an actual genuine Frostgrave sorceress in red behind him

Frostgrave plastic warrior with a female head by Statuesque Miniatures

The Sorceress casts a spell

On the other side, Andrews sorceress was having good success against my "minions"

Two archers deployed to cover the flank of my advance

Ganging up - two girls take on a single peasant!

Two separate sword fights - we won one each

My hero charged across the table and managed to take out the sorceress

Despite rolling 11 on two D6, this poor archer didn't really have much hope against the hero

My other sorceress casts a final spell.

In game one, I lost more figures but by good luck rather than anything else, I lost fewer VIP figures, so when we totted up the victory points, I was surprised to have won by a couple of points - it didnt feel like I was winning during the game!

Team two - the two heroes are two different Reivers and the ladies are the magic users

Sword armed minions

A couple of bow armed Reivers - Andrew was surprised, he did not realise I had any non female figures for this genre!

On any roll of a double, ghastly apparitions would appear randomly on the table and attack either side, based on a die roll. These lovely figures are all painted by Andrew

Luckily, we only rolled one double across both games - this was the ghoul that appeared

Right next to my spear armed Nun 

One of my girls in close combat with an enemy minion

The two sorceresses conspire together to ruin Andrews day

Two heroes locked in mortal combat - after a couple of rounds, my Reiver was victorious

On the other flank, the two heroes also engaged in hand to hand combat - and again, my guy triumphed

But Andrews sorcerer was again zapping my minions at a great rate of knots - I think he dispatched both the nun and the red haired barbarian, before taking out one of my sorceresses too

Like game one, I felt like I had lost - I definitely had more casualties - but because I killed two heroes and Andrew only got one of my sorceresses, plus extra points from achieving particular game missions, I again came out on top by a very small margin.

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Finally, today I had to take a day trip to the port city of Tauranga on the east cost of the Bay of Plenty, about 150 km from my home in Pukekohe and as it was such a nice day, after my meeting, I took the opportunity to take a few pics to share with my blogger buddies 

One of the suburbs of Tauranga is called Mount Maunganui - this is the said mount

View along Mt Maunganui beach

The busy port of Tauranga

Mt Maunganui from another angle

Views of the scenery I drove through between Tauranga and Pukekohe

At Paeroa, on my return journey, I took the opportunity to stop at this place. I have passed it at least 6 or 8 times per year for over 30 years and have never visited - today was the day I remedied that omission!

A hand made scale model of the Bark HMS Endeavour - Captain Cooks ship

This beautiful model of a Royal Navy ship was also hand crafted (its not a scale model kit) by a local retired RNZN man

This 19th century steam barge lay submerged in the local river for about 40 years before it was reclaimed by a group of local enthusiasts, who had intended to restore it - money, however, could not be raised, so its now housed in a purpose built display

A couple of shots of a old steam pleasure cruiser

An Oerlikon (?) AA gun from either a German E Boat or British MTB - both sides used them

An old steam traction engine....

....a long way from its original home - a bit like my good self!

To be honest, the museum was a bit of a disappointment - I am glad I went alone and didn't drag my wife along, Entry was only $8 so it didn't really matter - but I am sure, years ago, they had some kind of military vessel on display, but its not there now. Perhaps I imagined it, or perhaps its been relocated to the Maritime Museum in Auckland. Notwithstanding the underwhelming experience at the museum, it was a pretty good way to spend an 8 hour work day - 5 hours driving, a 90 minute meeting and home an hour earlier than usual!

More Swedes next time.