Sunday Fantasy Skirmish Games

 Andrew and I got together today for another couple of games using his home made fantasy skirmish rules and the various tiles he has collected together from a multitude of boxed kick starter games he has invested in over the last few years.

I think I have said previously that I have no background in fantasy/RPG type games - I went straight into historical gaming in my teens and never trod the D&D type path, but I have always liked the look of many of the fantasy figure ranges and even now, with more than enough figures in my small collection to meet the needs of Andrews rules or Frostgrave etc, I am tempted to buy even more of this type of figure, as they are such fun to paint and generally so well sculpted!

I arrived about 1030 and game one commenced around 11 and lasted maybe 90 minutes (another advantage of this type of gaming in  my opinion!). I took A LOT of pictures so you may get a bit bored scrolling through - some were taken to remind me of key elements of the game so I will add some comments to some images and just leave the rest to tell the story. 

The playing table with Andrews beautiful terrain and lovely array of tiles

My first warband, one hero, two sorceresses and nine standard fighters, a couple armed with firearms

Andrews war band

One sorcerer and a hero with magic blue sword

The other group, including the second sorceress

At the end of each turn, if Andrew rolled a double, monsters could randomly appear at one of eighteen possible locations - twelve along the table edge plus six points on the table itself. In addition, whenever a firearm was used, the noise might attract their unwanted attention. These are the first two Beastmen who unhelpfully appeared right in the centre of my baseline!

Two of Andrews fighters sneak around my flank

One of the stranger looking figures was one of Andrews two magic makers..

The previously pictured strange looking magic maker attempted a spell, and rolled a double 1 - a fumble! This allowed me to roll an attack back at him, and he turned himself into a frog!

Archer and pistoleer attempt to hit Andrews second magician

A general melee on my left flank as three of Andrews fighters charge home

Meanwhile, on my right, a lone spearmen tries to hold off the two Beastmen

Another charge from Andrew - one figure came up short and failed to make contact with my sorceress - he is likely to regret his temerity as soon as she figures out the best spell to use on him!

More bloody Beastmen appear!

Andrews surviving sorceress casts a spell

One of Andrews fighters launches an attack on my other sorceress...

....while the Beastmen have killed the gallant spearmen and are now engaged with a female fighter armed with both sword and dagger

At this point, I had killed one of Andrews sorcerers (2 points) plus six fighters (1 point each). On the basis that he had only killed one of my fighters, I also added my achieved objective card (another 2 points)

General view of the table at the end of game one

Game two saw a new team, including nine plastic female Zombie Survivors that I painted years ago but have never had any excuse to put on a table. The hero is the lady in red with the top hat and the other two unarmed ladies to each side of her are my magic makers

My plan was to take up a central defensive position and try to wipe out Andrews force with fire power

In one successful round of automatic gunfire and spell casting, I took out four of Andrews figures, including his blue sworded hero AND one of his magicians - six points PLUS another two for an aim achieved - a pretty good start.....however...

All the noise created by assorted M16 and Uzi gunfire attracted some unwanted attention - once again right behind the rear centre of my positions!

The Beastmen advance

One of Andrews fighters charges but fell short and allowed my figure to blaze away - but to no effect this time!

Andrews remaining sorceress skulking in cover

One of Andrews fighters charges home against my sorceress in green

Beatsmen move against the rear of my position...

....as my ladies turn to face them, guns ready

But the gunfire was ineffective, and the Beastmen close into combat

A confused mix of individual combats ensued

Beastmen attack both Andrews and my figures with equal ferocity

And all my gunfire has awoken THIS bloody Troll - right in the centre of my position - GREAT!

Meanwhile, Andrew has troubles of his own with Beastmen and skeletons appearing in his rear!

Its hard to tell the difference but this is one of Andrews fighters, not one of the Beastmen

Andrews lone fighter takes on a Beastman and six skeletons

These ladies a

have their hands full with two Beastmen each to contend with

The lady in green cast a blinding spell that dissolved the Troll where it stood, before it could do any damage Phew!

Andrews heroic loan swordsman still hanging on

By this stage, I had lost half my force to the bloody Beastmen - I think Andrew only had a single point and that was from firing the first shot of the game and achieving one of his mission cards, not inflicting any loss on me - so I decided to disengage and leg it off the table......

.....leaving one of Andrews figures and a host of monsters in possession of my former position

Skeletons move in on Andrews sorceress

While two of the Beastmen pursue and engage my hero and second sorceress in combat before they reach the table edge - dammit!

The last of Andrews force goes down fighting

The survivors of my band thankfully make it off the table edge - those bleedin' Beastmen killed half my girls!

A really fun day was had, so thanks to Andrew for hosting the day, writing the rules and providing the beautiful scenery to game on, plus the opportunity to use some figures that rarely see the light of day (mind you, isn't that a description that would fit almost all of our collections?!)

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed the pics and narrative.

GNW Swedish "Pommerska" Cavalry Regiment - First Two Squadrons

Pommerska translates to Pomeranian I believe, so thus, this regiment in Swedish service was presumably recruited from areas of Germany that were at the time, part of Sweden's Baltic "Empire". Such esoteric considerations were not part of my decision making process when picking this unit as one of the five cavalry regiments to paint for my Swedish force - it was, of course, the red turn backs and cuffs!

I had meant to do a couple of other things to this unit, such as attempt the main design from their flag on the red banner on the trumpeters instrument, and also do something on the blue holster covers - probably the Carolean double C arms....but I forgot and they have taken so long to proceed across the painting desk that when I remembered, after basing them, I decided to just leave them as you see them - I think they look fine the way they are!

Once again, the command figures are spread over two bases and the six figures are positioned in such a way as the two squadrons combined form a V shaped wedge.

The Pommerska Cavalry regiment was established in 1688 with Nils Bielke's cavalry regiment as a base (Established in 1685). Participated in the Holstein campaign in 1700. The regiment was a part of the Swedish main army in Poland between 1702-05. Four companies participated in General Stenbock's campaign in 1712. Surrendered in Tönningen 1713. The remaining companies surrendered at the fall of Stralsunds in 1715. About 30 of the soldiers in the regiment managed to escape and cross the Baltic Sea to Sweden. In 1716 they were inserted into the German Dragoon Regiment.

Thanks for visiting!

Independence Day Games - The Battle of Monmouth (Courthouse)

 It being the 4th of July, we all agreed an AWI game should be played, and Barry arranged a scenario based on the opening phase of the Battle of Monmouth, where the American advance guard under Lee encounter Clintons rearguard, as shown in the map below ( I believe this is the actual map Barry used to set up his game)

The 42nd Foot (Black Watch) at the battle of Monmouth, 28 June 1778

With seven players, Rick, Chris and I took the Brits in game one, whilst opposite us were John, Paul, Nick and Mark. We had one less infantry units but slightly more guns (mainly small battalion guns but with a couple of RA light batteries) and we had a small cavalry force on each flank whilst the Yankee Doodles only had one such

The initial layout, Brits to the left. We basically had four commands of two battalions each plus a gun or two - as we only had three on our side, Rick took two command, comprising our entire centre and left wing (the far distance in the image)

A view from the other end of the table - Nick was on the left and Rick on the right

One of Nicks beautifully painted Militia units - Perry and Foundry figures I believe

A British regiment from Marks collection of Perry plastics

The first clash - Mark charges the US Dragoons against the British cavalry commanded by Chris, who counter charged. The Brits destroyed their opponents and broke through onto the rear of a retiring Continental infantry regiment, who as a result also quit the field!

In the centre, Rick backed the superior training and morale of his British regulars against a greater number of Rebels, commanded by both John and Paul

A view of the American left flank - where are they?? Chris's cavalry can be seen heading for the rear of the Rebels position, as his infantry advance in their wake

A few moves later and Chris had caught up with Marks retiring Americans and overran this small gun that was trying to cover Marks retreat

In the centre, the Brits were coming off a distant second in the close range musketry duel

The Americans charged from the woods and hit one of Ricks units in the flank, destroying it

Paul's Americans overrun one of Ricks battalion guns.

And on the flank, Ricks Light Infantry battalion was pummeled from three sides by Nick!

One of my battalions catches Paul's retiring unit in the rear - and destroys it!

Chris chases the final unit of Marks command from the field of battle. 

At this point, John, Paul and Nick had basically wiped out Ricks two commands, but not without loss, whereas Chris and I had destroyed Mark and roughly handled Paul. The Americans had held their right flank (Nick) and broken through in the centre, but Chris and I had turned their left flank and were rolling up their line.  The game was pretty evenly balanced really but as it was lunch time and three of seven players now had no troops to play with, Umpire Barry called it as a narrow British victory - to much wailing and gnashing of wooden false teeth from the Rebel side - and we broke for lunch and to reset and replay the game in the afternoon.

Just a quick interlude here - I have taken this view from Barry's place previously but I do love to show my erstwhile countrymen in the UK what mid winter here in Auckland looks like - pretty cool at 3 or 4 deg C - but its still pretty nice weather!

On to the second version of the battle!

This time, we swapped Marks Perry plastic Brits for my much older metal Front Rank and Old Glory figures, and swapped sides, with Chris now taking two American commands on the left while I took the third and Rick took the right flank with two militia units and a gun.

Chris was so quick off the mark that I am not quite sure what happened here - he charged Nicks command with the sole American cavalry unit - and although they were wiped out, one of Nicks battalions quit the field too - so it was a fair exchange!

My 23rd Welch Fuzileers deputising for the Guards battalion - Front Rank figures

Old Glory 42nd Highland Regiment of Foot - The Black Watch

Chris pours fire into one of Marks units

Having driven back the Black Watch, my two American units advance to take the Guards in the flank

And Chris is blasting the advancing redcoats too - hence the gap!

The British cavalry detachment commanded by John - Old Glory figures

With most of the troops in Chris, Mark AND Nicks commands near breaking point, bad activation throws were likely to decide the outcome - This is the view of half the table after Mark and Nick both rolled low and their entire commands dispersed. Chris was down to one battalion I think, as was Paul. John retained his entire command on the British side, while both Rick and I were more or less unscathed from our efforts - an overwhelming American victory in game two!

It was quite fun to play a scenario where we had very limited forces and a decision could be got in a couple of hours play, allowing us to swap sides and play through again from the opposite side of the table - of course being on the winning side in both games undoubtedly increased my level of enjoyment - even though game one was more of a draw than a British win, to be honest.

So, happy Independence Day to all my American readers, I hope we did your national day justice with our small tribute!

First Ebor GNW Swedish Cavalry Regiment - Karleska Regiment - Completed

 It has taken a bit longer than it should have done, but tonight I finally got some images of the first of my five 12 man cavalry units comprising Ebor figures. This is the only unit I bought wearing the Karpus hat, the remaining four regiments will all be sporting the more common or garden tricorn headgear.

The Karleska Regiment were also chosen because they have an unusual uniform - viz grey coat faced blue, in contrast with the bulk of the cavalry, who seem to have worn blue coats with blue turn backs and cuffs - not exactly inspiring painting fodder!

                                   

The full twelve man regiment in line, ready to take on the Russian or Saxon enemy

                                   

                                    

The First Squadron, comprising the three figure command group plus three troopers

The Second Squadron of six charging troopers

The Swedish cavalry charged in a wedge shape, which I have tried to represent by placing each squadron in a V shape across two bases, as shown above'

Next up will be the tricorn wearing Pommerska Cavalry Regiment, selected by dint of their red facing colour

And finally for this evening, after all the talk from the US Pacific North West about 42 deg C temperatures, just a couple of images to cool things down, as we here in the southern hemisphere head towards mid winter....

Sleet/hail in our back garden on Tues this week - not very impressive by many peoples standards, but this is literally the first time I have seen it lying on the ground in our part of the country in the thirty plus years I have lived here!

My car at 630am this morning after I had scraped the frost off all the windows prior to leaving for work. Frost is not unheard of - we have a few mornings of it every winter - but its not so common as to be unremarkable.