Adventures on the Wargames Table

The Wargames Table has moved to the Outer Rim but the fun hasn't stopped! Good chum Orange Dave has taken advantage of the brief hobby hiatus to lure me back to gaming in the Dark Ages. I have very fond memories of our games of a few years back and look forward to enjoying lots more fun.

Sunday and our final game of the weekend. George and I would be travelling back almost 1400 years to the hills and valleys north-east of Bath , for a War & Conquest game of The Battle of Deorham 577AD ... and it was a real belter of a game! Game 4 - The Battle Deorham 577AD The Romano-British army (let's call them the good guys ;o)) were comprised of three smaller armies - from Bath, Gloucester and Cirencester - each led by their King.  The Saxons were led by King Ceawilin and the Atheling, Cuthwine.  Naturally, since I live in the South-West, I took command of the Romano-British army trying to preserve the fading light of Rome and hold back the hairy Saxon horde! Here's the field of battle.  That ridge line would be where my brave men would make their stand. Here are the two large armies arrayed for battle!  George has done a grand job on these armies, plenty of flags and banners, shield decals, big units... Stunning stuff :o) Two beautiful armies!...

It's been a while since I last took part in a WaC event (Aug '17 I think!) so I was anticipating an enjoyable day of battling it out in the ancient world with a few good chums. I was especially looking forward to my game with good chum George; the last game was far too long ago! For logistical reasons I could only attend on the Saturday, however this turned out to be the same for a number of other players due to the suddenly inclement weather, the so called mini “beast from the east”. Game One – Saxon Civil War! This game was against Steve, a newcomer to WaC and this was to literally be his first game. Thankfully Rob was on hand to help us with the rules as I was decidedly rusty in places :o) Steve has a lovely Saxon army so I’ve posted a couple of pics here. I dusted off my own Saxons but, as I hadn't used them for three years, I couldn’t quite find all of the figures so we were limited to 2,000pts a side. The forces deploy for battle! My Saxons prepare ...

Wargames Table chum Dave Toone is organising a get together for fans of Warhammer Ancient Battles. Details here on Facebook. D o you miss playing historical mass battles? Do you enjoy exciting, brutal wargaming? Have you got a painted army gathering dust? Then why not reignite your passion for Mass Battle Wargames! Put aside your warbands and gather the entire might of your army for the epic conflicts that lay ahead. Let your mighty heroes stand once more at the head of their troops before they slip into distant memory. Bring hundreds instead of dozens of warriors to fight epic battles, then tell the exaggerated tales of those battles to any fool that will listen! Now is the time to put aside your fear, banish all doubts and book your place in the Warhammer Ancient battles, Shieldwall event. Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th August 2017 The theme for both days will be: The Dark Ages in the British Isles. Using the WAB 1.5 rulebook and the SHIELDWALL su...

At last!!! Orange Dave and I have got our calendars sorted and played the first two rounds of the club Saga campaign which brings me nicely up to date. My faction is a Viking War band led by the indomitable Magnus Håkonsson. I rolled for his traits and got "Learn'd" and "Hard Ruler" - both great for boosting my war band before and after battles, plus the special rule "The Conqueror". Magnus is clearly a man to be reckoned with!! Dave has been busy painting some lovely Foundry figures. The photos are a bit shonky but hopefully you can see how good they are! Some of Dave's lovely Anglo-Danes Game One - I decided to raid the territory of Dave's Warlord, the Anglo-Danish Leofstan the Bastard. The scenario came up as "Scout" so we both cautiously advanced in to an abandoned village. Now, it's been ages since I last played (that's my excuse anyway!) so I was a bit vague about how the game worked, but I soon picked it up. ...

It's been absolutely ages since I played Saga. Daft really when you consider that it's such a good game! So a recent trip to the club saw Mike and I dust off our Dark Ages figures. To keep things simple we chose standard 6pt warbands; Mike with Vikings and me with Anglo-Danes. We also chose the River Crossing scenario where two warlords vie for control of territory by contesting two bridges. To win you have to get as many of your troops across the river whilst keeping the enemy out of your side. Quite a tricky balance! Here are things a little way in to the game, Mike's force is on the right. My plan was to hold the nearer bridge and make a rush across the other, led by my Warlord. The initial attack by the Anglo-Danes goes well. Some Hirdmen are swept off the bridge and the Warlord with his Huscarls set foot in enemy territory. At the other bridge Mike could do little other than shoot (fairly ineffectively!) with his levies since I was using the Anglo-Dane Inti...

Later today we're off to take part in a big Dark Ages battle with chums Steve and Dave. To add some extra interest I've played with history a little (Sweyn II's invasion of northern England) to create this scenario. It is early October of the year 1069 and the weather is turning cold. The trees are clad in their red and gold Autumnal hues. King Sweyn II of Denmark has invaded Northumbria to claim the throne of England. William has assembled his army, along with those Saxons who have accepted the Conqueror’s rule, and marched North. The Saxon Eorls in the North have carefully gathered their strength, raising the fyrd and safeguarding their winter stores. They knew that William was on his way to deal with the invader – but perhaps Sweyn would be victorious? Whichever side won would be weakened, so the Eorls bade their time. Sweyn had been quick to establish a firm grip on his new lands. His men roamed far and wide, raiding and looting, crushing any resistance. Every day...

Saturday afternoon saw us clear away the Romans (with a dust pan and brush?) and Germans and bring out the Saxons and Vikings. This time it was 3,250 points per side. As Phil kindly noted in a comment on my last post, my dice rolling had been frankly appalling in the morning so I was hoping for some kinder dice in this game ... Hmmm? Here's the deployment. I concentrated my Danes on one flank hoping to overwhelm part of the Saxon force before the rest could arrive to help out. Phil has most of his units fielded as a front rank of good/expensive Thegns, backed up by 2 ranks of the weaker Ceorls. All nice and historical. But that does mean there seems to be rather a lot of them! As Phil's skirmishers advance, one of them stops of enjoy the local leisure facilities. Yeugh! With both armies keen to get to grips with one another, it soon was time for a clash of shieldwalls. Here we see a unit of Hirdmen led by a Jarl plough in to the shieldwall of a unit of Thegns/Ceor...