Sunday, April 29, 2012

Picts!?

Yes… Picts….

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

These are two elements of Psiloi for my Pict DBA army. All the figures are from Wargames Foundry.

Here’s the backside of them to show off their pretty tartans.

Two individual Picts for skirmish gamin’ (from Wargames Foundry). The chap on the right looks a little like a sentry. I kept imagining him as the opposite of THESE GUYS - just on the other side of the wall (in the woods, rather than the watchtower).

Here’s the backside of these guys to show off their pretty tartans.

Okay, fine… since I promissed more Greeks stuff in my last post; Here's a Greek woman! Also from Wargames Foundry.

 There’s nothing special about her backside.

Well… not that’s apparent in the way I painted the miniature…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 Still a bunch of Greek Hoplites and Amazons populating my workbench… but there’s also Centaurs lurking at the rear… other Greek heroes and monsters and whatnot… so who knows… Maybe Zulus and Martians!?

Friday, April 27, 2012

Assorted Ancients

A I’ve been working on some Greek and Amazon Hoplites… but managed to finish up a number of various ancient gods, heroes, and civilians in the meantime…

 (Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

First, a few goddesses from Wargames Foundry - from left to right are; Demeter, Aphrodite (with her precious Golden Apple) and Hestia.

Some slightly less that divine Greek Women. The three more voluptuous ones on the left are also from the Foundry. The two malnourished waifs on the right are from Warlord Games.

One of the Argonauts from the Foundry. I liked their colour scheme of black and bronze so I went with that…

A few Romans. The two in front are from Crusader Miniatures. I picked them up last summer during our Gladiator Campaign. The chap on the right I figured would be Ludus owner – some Neveau-riche pimp-daddy trying to look rich by wearing as much gold as he can but just looking gaudy… I just picked up Cthulhu Invictus… thought these guys might be handy…

Their attendant servant is from Wargames Factory.

Some ripped Egyptian Priest from Crocodile Games.

A not-so-ancient (more Dark Ages) Spanish noble – also from Crusader Miniatures.

 Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

 More ancients… Probably Greeks and Amazons…

 Ugh... not a fan of the new changes to blogger....

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Hera, Amazons, and Perseus

A few more Wargames Foundry Greek Mythology figures.

My copy of Agon arrived earlier this week but I was too busy to really have a look at it. I may or may not actually ever try the rules, but rather likely will use it for inspiration and add-ons to a Savage Worlds campaign.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Hera


Amazons


Perseus

I now have three Perseus figures, though there’s nothing really anything about this figure that makes him obviously Perseus, and thus he could be used as any sort of hero (though I did leave his shield unpainted, polished bronze (so he could look in the reflection to see Gorgons and such…). The other Perseus figures are holding severed gorgon heads and one is wearing winged sandals… The only thing that makes the figure above a “Perseus” is the fact that it came in a pack called ”Perseus and the Gaeae”

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Greek Myth stuff…

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Normans and Saxons


Following up the games on Monday with David, John popped for a couple quick games on Thursday. I wanted to try out Normans versus Saxons with the latest draft so John took the Normans and I fully expected to be slaughtered…

GAME ONE

FORCES

Normans
1x Knight General
7x Knights
2x Spear
2x Bow

Anglo-Danish
1x Blade General
2x Blade
9x Spear


THE GAME

The Anglo-Danish were defending so I chose at road for my compulsory terrain and a waterway and two gentle hills for the optional…. I’d debated taking some bad going – difficult hills or woods or such – hoping it might clutter up the field a bit and cause the Normans to be split up a bit and I could perhaps launch an attack on one of the smaller segments – much as I had (attempted to do) in a game with Christian a while back… but ultimately decided against it.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The Anglo-Danish on the left, the Normans on the right. The Waterway kind of cramped out deployment zone.


After the first bound or two we’d straightened out our lines and I just sat with one end anchored on a hill and awaited the Normans charge.


Steadily the came – not getting ahead of their supporting infantry on the flanks.


BLAM! The lines met and John could not stop rolling ones!?



The Normans lost three Knights and a Bow. The English lost two spear.


Game over…

Wow…

That was fast.

Now I should mention that I was cheating. I realized after the second game when we were figuring out probability and I was rereading through the flank support and realized that it is only against other FOOT!? (DOH!!!) Not that I would have mattered a whole lot as the rolls were pretty ghastly.

Well since that was so fast we rolled up some new terrain and tried again…

GAME TWO


No Waterway this time, just three gentle hills…. Which I just realized was not legal… there should have been SOME kind of bad-going… DOH!!!


The lines meet!


Normans lost two Knights, including the General and I lost two spear…


In the following bound I moved my General and Blade s down the hill a bit to meet the Norman Bow and destroyed them… end of game…

Again, atrocious luck on John’s part. Though I may not have actually killed his General if I hadn’t been such a big dummy and… well… been cheating!

Anyway, we spent some time figuring out odds of various outcomes and ultimately decided that it all seemed to work out rather well.

Spear versus Knight for example; 4/36 (11%) Spear will KO the Knights, 10/36 (28%) the Knights will break though and ride down the spear, and the remaining 22/36 (61%) the Knights will recoil from the spear…. Spear is pretty solid. Sure, there’s a chance the Knights will ride them down… but it’s more likely that the Knights will recoil and there is a chance that they will impale themselves on the spears and die.

Blades seem considerably more volatile – 15/36 (42%) they will be swept away by the knights, 8/36 (22%) they will destroy the Knights, the remaining 13/36 (36%) The Knights recoil from the Blade… Compared to Spear the Blade have double the chances of killing the knights, but are also almost twice as likely to be killed by the Knights.

I’d definitely like to try this again (without… y’know… cheating!?) and also try a Viking vs. Norman battle.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hoplite – Psiloi – Centaur

A couple more individual figures from Wargames Foundry .

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A Greek Hoplite and Psiloi (light infantry skirmisher)


Centaur.


Other side of Centaur. I’m not so sure about the black background on the shield.. I may change that…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a couple of individual Amazons lined up and an element’s worth of hoplites on the workbench. Hopefully get some of those done tonight. Tomorrow night I might be playing some more DBA.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Meanwhile, Somewhere in Wales…

David popped by this evening for a couple quick tries at the latest draft of the DBA3.0 rules. We just used the rules as written – no changes to the terrain placement. The really new thing was the side support for spear…

GAME ONE

David thought he’d try out the Welsh, I took the Anglo-Saxons because I wanted to try out this new-fangled spear side support.

FORCES

Middle Anglo-Saxon III/24b
1x Spear General
10x Spear
1x Psiloi

Welsh III/19a
1x Cavalry General
9x Warband
2x Psiloi

THE GAME

The dice said I was invading Wales so David picked two Difficult Hills and three Woods and diced for their locations. One of the woods was discarded as it didn’t fit in the section rolled. Both the Difficult hills ended up on one side of the table and as I did NOT want to have to try and winkle the bloody Welsh (WARBANDS!) off of difficult hills with Saxon Fyrd (SPEAR) I chose that side to deploy on!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Unfortunately deploying on that side put two large bad-going features at the front of my deployment zone…

Painstakingly trying to get those coloumn of English spear down off the steep hills before the Welsh got to them – despite being uphill of them, the Welsh would still have the advantage there!


First contact was with some Welsh skirmishers on my left…


…which recoiled my own skirmishers back up onto the hill!


The battle was more or less split in two and devolved into two drunken brawls on the flanks – while my general sat in a valley in the middle wondering what the hell was going on!?


Over on my right Warband were attacking Spear


…and scored some initial success! (English down one!)


Meanwhile over on the right…


It was the reverse (tied up; one-to-one)

Whoops! Looking at this picture I just realized the Welsh should have pursued me up to the hill…


GRARRR! Right back into it went my lads!


Shoving the Welsh back (before they could


The lines meet again… well.. out on the flanks…


The Welsh General galloped up to give some support to his troops – overlapping my Spear.


And the Spear were destroyed! (English down two)


Lines evened out on the right again.


And another Welsh Warband is destroyed by the Spear (tied, again, at two)


Here I thought I might have had a chance for a quick victory – the Saxon Spear General vs. the Welsh Cavalry General flanked by spear… of course I had an overlap as well… my +4 to his +3…


NO such luck, the Generals' element shoved of the attackers and pursued the following turn.


Over on the right the English success continued (Welsh now down three)


The Welsh surge forward again…


And took down another spear over on my right…

…and I think killed the General, because that was apparently the end of the game… but I don’t seem to have taken any pictures… Anyway, close game, lots of fun. Catching the Welsh in the open is great – if you can deploy in the open. Having to deal with the bad-going kind of hampered my ability to maneuver to meet the onrushing Welsh Horde…

I also got to try out the side-support for spear, which I’ve got my head around now and it seems pretty neat! Spear recoiling from Warband on a tie came up a couple times… kind of glad they don’t have rear support anymore… Not sure if I’ll be so glad when I’m playing the Welsh.

Well since that was so quick, we played another.

GAME TWO

As David was having fun with the Welsh and just getting the hang of warband he stuck with them. I took the Norse Irish… just for… well… something different…?

FORCES

Norse IrishIII/46
1x Auxilia General
7x Auxilia
4x Psiloi

Welsh III/19a
1x Cavalry General
9x Warband
2x Psiloi

THE GAME


This game took place entirely on one half of the table. The table was pretty even – difficult hills in opposite corners and woods in opposite corners… Not that I was terribly concerned about either with the Irish… I was all Auxilia and Psiloi…


The Welsh first move was to secure their position on the hill.


Two moves on and my line of Auxilia was at the base of the hill, the Psiloi, who had been kind of left behind were maneuvering to the flank in an attempt to swing round and cause trouble on his flanks.


Anticipating this the Welsh sent down their own skirmishers to deal with them.


Skirmishers skirmishing on the flanks…


I’m not sure if I’d noticed it in previous drafts, but on the read through earlier in the day I noticed that an element with a flank edge less than one base width from the table edge, as these are, is counted as overlapped… interesting.

It helped do in these Psiloi.

Finding himself outnumbered four to one and potentially being overlapped on both sides, the Welsh skirmishers retired…


The following bound I scored five PIPs so up the hill we went!


It was a bit of a bloody mess… but ultimately the Irish took down two of the Welsh Warbands – we quickly discovered that sitting on a difficult hill is a great strategy against Vikings (Blade), English (Spear) or Normans (Knights)… doesn’t work so brilliantly against the Irish (Auxilia and Psiloi) who were able to maneuver and turn flanks…


Here’s one of those funny things in the rules.. I’d sent this Auxilia out to guard against the General turning around and flanking the flankers… In fact I was able to go far enough to catch him in my Threat Zone – thus keeping him from galloping to the other side of the hill and relieving the flanked warbands there and scattering those annoying Psiloi…

Now The whole threat zone thing reads: “An element… in an enemy TZ with no part of another element in its path, can move only: (a) to contact the front edge or overlap such a TZ-ing element, (b) to move straight forwards towards or to become more lined up and parallel to is without contacting it, or (c) only directly to it’s own rear…” Now, as it’s “own rear” is facing the Irish Auxilia here… is his ONLY option to ride towards the Auxilia…!? He can’t gallop away?! What am I missing…?


As it turns out he did turn about and contact the Irish Auxilia… and it didn’t work out to well for the Irish…


The Irish Warband that had pursued a recoiling Irish Auxilia the previous bound (and found themselves overlapped on both sides) was destroyed and that was the end of the game.

Again fast and fun.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I hope to get in another couple games later in the week with John and/or David again… stay tuned for those reports. Or perhaps now that I’ve got the space cleared I could get in a couple games with the kids some afternoon or another?

Should also finish up some Greeks over the next couple days. After these two games I'm pretty fired up to get some more Spear elements finished up for a Greek Hoplite army!!