Adventures on the Wargames Table

“In a land of myth, and a time of magic…” Yes, good chum Orange Dave has lured me in to trying out Age of Magic. I’ve played a lot of Saga (first edition) over the years mainly with Saxons, Vikings and Normans, so I’m familiar with the basic game mechanics although second edition is obviously going to be a bit different. My plan for this gaming year is to get a few projects finished, so this “new” project might seem at odds with that aim. However, I’ve had most of these figures for ages, only the big fellow was a recent purchase. These are some of my favourite Foundry figures and I’m really looking forward to painting them. Here’s my force primed and ready for painting. A unit of 8 elite warriors (Hearthguard, 2 points) Two units of 12 warriors (3 points) A unit of 12 archers & slingers (Levy, 1 point) The Wicker Man... or 'Alan' is I like to call him. (Monster, Titan, 1 point) He’s from Crooked Dice games ( here ) and is beautifully cast in good quality resi...

As readers will know I occasionally blog about Orange Dave’s modelling exploits, mainly because he’s too busy dealing with groupies, fans and signature-seekers, etc. Here's some of his recent work. It's a faction specific terrain feature for use with Undead in Saga Age of Magic. I think the basic idea is that units within a certain range of this feature get to re-animate fallen warriors? Or perhaps magic is more effective? I'm not really sure, lol! Anyway, I thought Dave was joking when he sent me this picture. But there is a base under those stones. Ah, now with added skellies. Here's a couple more pics. Thanks for looking 😎

After some post-game-two refreshments we got right on with game three, "Probe among the Olive Groves" (we also threw in a nice little vineyard for good measure). Here's the original map from the KgvL PSC. For our game, the FJs deploy along the North Eastern edge whilst the Australians advance along the road from the South West. Some of the hedges were replaced with low stone walls but we agreed the same level of cover. The field at the 'top' was replaced with a vineyard. Dave had also made a splendid sunken lane stone wall feature so that helped remind us to treat the lane from the fork to the edge of the buildings as having restricted visibility and improved cover. Dave kindly reset the scenery and I have to say we were quite pleased with how our combined scenic efforts looked. As I mentioned before, my pics were not really good enough to use, but here’s a couple of pics of the ‘prototype’ battlefield that Dave and I used to figure out what extras we might need. ...

Congratulations to your Majesty on the occasion of your Platinum Jubilee! An absolute legend 😎 It’s all flag waving and red-white-and-blue here at the table today!

Friday morning dawned bright and early so Dave and I planned to get a couple more games of Crete campaign completed. After the first battle my Aussies were now ‘as keen as mustard’ to give Jerry ‘what for’. Luckily for the Allies some heavy support was now available in the shape of a Matilda. Historically these were stationed near the airfields, but remember, our campaign is a 'what-if' based on the theme of better coordinated and more aggressive Allied counter-attacks. Before we set to, Dave rolled to see if any more of his men reported for duty after the scattered drop but alas for him they did not. Including the men lost or missing after the first battle, he was now fielding just over 50% of his total forces. However, having seen how much firepower even his depleted squads could manage to throw out, I knew I'd have to be extra careful to avoid unnecessary casualties. Early in the battle the Australians bring on the Matilda! There's also a 2" mortar team but the...

A couple of little scenic pieces for my good friend Orange Dave. The first is a thatched hut with stores and a cheeky dog. The second is a chicken coop. Both models are from Hovels with animals from Redoubt. All painted and based as per my usual Thatched Buildings and Mediterranean recipes. Please have a look at the “How To” tab/page above for more info. Both pieces should be suitable for a range of historical and fantasy gaming so hopefully Dave (and I) will get plenty of opportunities to use them.

This is the "Patrol on the hill top" battle, game one, table one. Overnight on the 20th May the Germans have gathered men and equipment from their scattered drops, consolidated their position and pushed pickets out to warn of the expected counter-attack by Allied forces. As the sun rises on the 21st May, forward elements of the 2/1st Australians advance through olive groves looking for their German paratrooper adversaries. Whilst this table is covered in olive groves and vineyards we decided that, in keeping with the original 'Von Luck' campaign, the sparsely planted trees and vines would count as soft cover across the table. The pic below shows the result of the Patrol Phase. Dave has pushed his paras forward on the flank but held his other Jump Off Points back a little. I pushed forward as far as I can but ended up with a JOP on each flank and one further back in the middle. My plan was to push forward hard and fast in an attempt to overwhelm his position. My suppo...