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.

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...

Yes I have been at it again with the brushes! After seeing Dave and Dan's lovely Viking and Irish figures at the recent Devizes show I was inpsired to paint these fellows. I have really enjoyed painting them; it's quite some time since I did any 'proper' painting. By that I mean not using the dip. For these I start from a black undercoat and apply a Foundry-esque style three colour process. Here they are with their shields (LBMS of course!). A close up. Another close up. I hope that these will be start of a Norse/Scots force. All Crusader figures apart from the chap with yellow and black 'raven' style shield - he's a GB Early Saxon!. Finally ... things on the blog will go quiet for a bit as we'll soon be off for our Summer holidays! Cheerio

What better way to spend a day of the recent Bank Holiday weekend than by getting a few chums to come and play some Dark Ages War & Conquest? The armies total roughly 5,000pts per side. The scenario can be found here . "Early Summer in the the year of our Lord 934, on the blessed St Walburgha's day, the cruel Pagans did form an alliance between Norseman and Dane, and make war upon our realm. Having visited much slaughter and rapine upon the good people of Mercia their numberless host crossed into Wessex. Brave Aethelstan of Wessex, with aid from the stout men of Kent, led by Uhtred Dane-Slayer, formed their shieldwalls beside the steading of Ultfun and the monastery of St Aethelbert. A great battle was fought and many good men did perish. Praise the Lord that the Heathens were stopped and their invasion crushed." Here are the armies lined up and ready to do battle. You can also see Prize-Winning Phil (did I mention that he picked up TWO prizes at Legionary!) ab...

Snorri and Sven  - the jolly Vikings - would like to wish everyone a Merry Yuletide Season and a very Happy New Year! Although I'm not too sure that Mrs Snorri and Mrs Sven are so keen on the celebrations beginning under the village fir tree!? Sensibly, the geese are making a run for it too! Finally, a big Thank You to all my readers and fellow bloggers for your support and encouragement. It really is greatly appreciated. Matt :o)

What better way to celebrate the recent-ish passing of another year here on the Wargames Table than with a weekend of gaming with friends? Day 1 saw us take to the field of Stamford Bridge in 1066 for our slightly re-interpreted version of the famous battle between the Saxons of Harold Godwinson and the Vikings of Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson. Details of the scenario for War & Conquest may be found here on the Scarab forum, but the basic idea was that the Saxon march north had been delayed by bad weather and Harald’s Vikings were ready for them! Dramatis Personae Steve ~ King Harald Hardrada Jenny ~ Earl Tostig Godwinson Matt ~ Earl Edwin of Mercia Phil ~ King Harold Godwinson Armies Both sides were approx 4,500pts with the Kings having the slightly larger force on each side. All of the characters were simply named versions of the standard characters in the respective army lists. Deployment; Harald's Vikings on the left and Tostig's in the foreground...