Adventures on the Wargames Table

Scarab supremo Rob Broom took along his War & Conquest "Amphipolis" demo battle to the Devizes Wargames Club show "Attack! 2012", so my wife and I went along to help show off the game, play toy soldiers and generally chat to other gamers about what a great game W&C is. The first game saw me lead the Spartans whilst Jennifer took command of the Greeks. Now, I forgot to take any pictures (doh!?) so you'll just have to take my word that whilst the Spartans fought like .. err .. Spartans, it was a narrow win for the Greeks! A nail-biting game where victory was held in the balance until the final turn. Whilst playing we were able to chat to visitors, explaining the rules mechanisms, the background to the game, etc. This is something that I rather enjoy doing and I hope to attend some more shows with Rob (so please do stop by and say "hello"). Game two was a rematch but we swapped sides ... and I remembered my camera! Above we see the Greek...

The soldiers in a fort need somewhere to sleep, eat, etc. So here's a small barracks block to go in to the outpost fort. and I forgot to take step by step pictures but hopefully you can see that it's basically a box with a sloping roof (the area of which is exactly the same as a Wills plastic pantile roof section). The wooden areas are simply yet more coffee sticks. The door is scribed balsa wood. I added the card strip around the lower part of the building to denote the area that will be painted a mid-red colour, whilst the plaster above will be light cream. I've now textured the walls with masonry paint, so it's ready for some undercoat and painting. There's no chimney pots as I've found these to be quite fragile. After all, it's wargaming scenery, not an exact historical model. I may build another as one seems a bit lacking, although I might make a start on a watch tower, or a grain store ... maybe I need a bigger fort? Happy gaming.

Here's an update on progress with the fort. The embanked slopes have been smoothed out with polyfilla and sand/grit glued on with PVA. I've made a gate using more coffee stirring sticks and match-sticks. Plus I've cut away some of the earth around the gate and re-inforced the bank with logs made from kebab sticks (not likely to use for BBQ's given the "Summer" weather so far!) Here's the gate from within the fort. I mounted the gate sections on small pieces to plastic to improve stability and cut it at angle so they will easily stand in the open position. I've made properly hinged gates before but they are generally too fragile. Next comes the painting! Or maybe I should build a barracks block ... and a watch tower? Or perhaps I should paint a few more chaps to man the ramparts?

Sunday evening and another trip to Iron Acton for a game of Saga againgst Orange Dave. As it had proved to be quite a hectic day I arrived a bit later than usual so there was only time for one game. Initially we rolled Clash of Warlords but having played that a couple of times Dave went in search of a river so that we could play the Battle at the Ford scenario. Had I been more organised I could have brought my nice 'Coritani' rubber river, but Dave managed to locate a suitable stand-in in the form of some strips of blue vinyl. Fords and bridges were more of a problem so in the best traditions of wargaming ... we improvised! A low rocky hill became a ford and a resin building roof section became a bridge. I had planned to ignore one crossing point and mass my forces at the other, but a quick re-read of the scenario showed that victory points were scored for getting troops across the river, not holding the bridge/ford. So I clearly needed to contest both crossings. My Warlord and...

I should be painting more lovely Aventine Romans for the next War & Conquest gaming day but after watching "The Eagle" recently I was inspired to build something for my Romans... a small "outpost" fort. If I may digress slightly; we have very recently put our house on the market, so my affirmation that I needed to build some Roman scenery was greeted less than enthusiastically by the Chief Exec. However, I promised not to make too much mess and to tidy up when I was done. Anyway, I'd like to build a "proper" fortress but since I usually game on a 6' x 4' table I thought a more modest option would be best. Here are the wooden walls. I opted for the 'planked' look as (a) the materials were free and (b) I made a log pallisade style fortification years ago and trimming all those twigs was a lot of effort. These are made from coffee stirring sticks liberated from my favourite coffee shop, along with large match-sticks for the p...

After spending several months in the Dark Ages with Saxons, Vikings and Saga (and successfully completing two large warbands), I'm now firmly back in Roman mode. One of the reasons is the forthcoming Scarab Miniatures War & Conquest Gaming Day on the 19th August. I had thought to try to get enough Saxons done for this event but (a) I can't paint that fast, (b) many of the other gamers will be bringing along suitable allies or opponents for my Romans, so Rob has persuaded me to use my Romans ... and paint some more! For details of the event please have a look here . Another important reason is my discovery of Aventine Miniatures newest Early Imperial Romans. I knew about their 160-190AD range (with Niedermörmter style helmets) but my existing range of figures had the Gallic style helmet, so imagine my delight when I saw the range had expanded to include figures with Gallic 'I' & 'J' style helmets!!! I ordered a couple of packs and Keith very kindly...

As promised here's the battle reports from a few Sundays ago when, in the glorious warm sunshine, I headed for the Bristol Biguns club in Iron Acton to enjoy a some games of SAGA against fellow Dark Ages enthusiast Dave. Our previous encounters had been close affairs and honours were even, so all was to play for! I used my 6 point Anglo-Danish warband consisting of Warlord 3 x 4 Huscarls (Hearthguard, fielded as 2 units of 6) 2 x 8 Ceorls (Warriors, fielded as a unit of 10 and a unit of 6) 1 x 12 Geburs (Levies, armed with slings) Dave has switched from Normans to playing Welsh. This definitely suits his playing style better. Interestingly Dave is using his Lord of the Rings collection of Rohan figures as Welsh, and very good they look too. He also had 6 points. Hero of the Viking Age "Maredudd ab Owain" (He wasn't the conqueror of Gwynedd and Powys for nothing!) 2 x 4 Mounted Teulu (pronounced "Taily", Hearthguard) 3 x 8 Priodaur (Warriors, fie...