Saturday 1 December 2018

Battle Companies Campaign Update

Another small get together this week to keep the Battle Companies Campaign alive with four attendees; myself Andy W, Kev and Kenny mustering their Arnor, Mordor Orcs, Warg Riders and Easterlings respectively, playing a round robin bout, two games each with random generated scenarios.

First up for myself was a game against Kenny's Easterlings. Kenny's band was down a fair bit from my Arnor Company so went the defender in a 'Stand your Ground' scenario. This was pretty straight forward and I won the tussle but the Easterling two bows did significantly better than my eight and managed to take down half my Company before submitting to the higher numbers once combat was joined. No losses were incurred on either side but I ended up gaining an Arnor Warrior and have two hobbit archers sitting out the next game. Kenny managed to increase his band by two warriors.

My next game as we all moved round a chair was up against Kev's Warg Riders. His Company had a significant higher rating than mine so I started with six re-rolls and the same Influence points right off the bat. With two hobbit archers sitting out the game and Kev only having one scout type sitting out the game, things seemed a bit stacked against me in rating and in numbers. The scenario rolled was 'Recovery', with five counters in the middle, one the 'relic' searched for and each band starting at opposite ends and objective to find the relic and take it off the opposite side from deployment.


Deployment for Recovery Scenario
The Companies advanced and the Arnor forces managed an early kill to archery for a change as they advanced and reaching the line of counters first too due to Kev keeping as much to cover as possible as he advanced. The first counter approached proved to be the relic so all was down to the fight to follow.

Early game was a mixed affair with casualties on both sides and an early good round from Kev where his scout took down two of the Arnor force in one round and the Orc numbers looked to begin to tell.

Mid-late game Orc numbers telling
The Arnor force now seemed to pick up a step (mainly down to Kev's inability to get the wound rolls in) and the warriors carrying the relic took a fair bit to drop but they eventually did, but the Arnor Warriors, (including the Captain who managed to get his first kills of the campaign, and getting two to boot) managed to pick up the pace and the tide turned quite spectacularly and managed to turn the numbers round with the Arnor forces outnumbering the Orcs by a good margin at the end.

Kev went for the objective though and leaving a couple to slow down the Arnor troops managed to get two orcs on the relic and managed a free move towards the base line with only his captain intervening. Last round and the Orcs got he initiative and the win but with only three orcs alive and narrowly loosing his captain too.

Great game with big loses on both sides but I was happy with the way my band stood up to uneven odds at the beginning and nearly pulling out the win but Kev's tactics at the end getting the well deserved win.

The other two games of Kev's Warg Riders versus Andy's Mordor Orcs was a hard fought game too with Kev just managing a win in a 'Show of Strength' scenario, and Kenny's Easterlings against Andy's Orcs which though quite one sided ended up with the Easterlings getting a whopping 13 Influence points and a much needed injection to the Company.

The scores on the doors of three Evil wins and 1 Good win were added to the running total and the Evil side moves further ahead to 15/21.

Next up more random scenarios for the other four players and the next Campaign Scenario; 'Bridge over the Mitheithel'.

Thursday 8 November 2018

Middle Earth SBG - Matched play


This weeks club match was my first trial in anger of the new Middle Earth SBG rules from GW. Playing against Kevin with him supplying the forces as usual in the form of Theoden and his Riders pitted against the vile Lurtz and his gang of Uruh-Hai thugs. I of course chose to play Lurtz's force.


Forces close
Early shooting worked well for the Uruk-Hai and 2 or three Rohan unhorsed and three or more Royal Guard are shot in the first couple of rounds, the Uruk-Hai hero claiming a couple on his own.

Lurtz gets pinned in the doorway
Kev goes for the charge and a line develops across the field but this limits shooting so everyone pretty much piles in.

Rohan charge in to the pike block and bounce while the Warg Riders
 counter charge the centre

The fight on the right begins to go Evils way with numbers telling

Cavalry dual goes Evils way with the Rohan failing to get the kills

Theoden rides tp buff up his forces on the Evil left flank

The mid game goes by with priority shifting and a couple of heroic charges declared and countered. Rohan gets the hits but the Uruk-Hai get the kills. Rohan failing to close the gap in numbers that they need to.



Numbers thin mid game with Rohan getting a good round
In the closing rounds Kev got a couple of better rounds and scored a decent number of kills but the Uruk;Hai continued to eat away steadily at the Rohan force.

In the end the Rohan centre disintegrated and the melee seperated into two fights around the ruins and the two Rohan main hero's with Rohan doing slightly better on the left and clearing the far side of the ruins but the Uruk-Hai doing the same between the ruins.

End mid game the Rohan force was broken.

End game? Theodens line looks about to end as the king and his son are
cut off and surrounded
Even though the Rohan force is broken it doesn't lose many to rout due to good courage and buffs but continue to lose to the Uruk-Hai attrition. With the Uruk-Hai looking to have already won and still unbroken things look grim but it's still not all one side.


The end nears and playing through the final round to see how things pan out Kev manages to take out a couple of the general Uruk and Theodred cuts down Sharku and thus gets the Uruk-Hai below break point and despite overwhelming numbers Theodred miraculously survives the final round.

Theodred likewise surrounded but manages to survive

The other side however Theoden and the Rohan Captain are cut down by Lurtz and Ugluk and the massing Uruk-Hai.

Surrounded, Theoden is cut down by Lurtz and his Uruk-Hai

In the end we totaled up the victory points and the death of Theoden proved to be the clincher with a narrow 6 to 5 victory going to the Uruk-Hai but with the Rohan force scattered and only 8 left on the board and the Uruk-Hai broken but with 17 or so left fighting. Rohan closing the gap near the end but not enough to tip things

Very enjoyable game all in all. Kev felt it to be a bit one sided and Rohan getting beaten up due to his inability to get the kills despite hitting lots. I felt the game was pretty even but the numbers on the Uruk-hai side giving the edge and limiting the Rohan Cavalry charge advantage.

Definitely up for another rematch on the matched play or give a scenario a try.

The rules were all pretty familiar with really only the changes to the hero rules to pick up on. Certainly seem to be reasonable and will be up for more trials soon.

Saturday 3 November 2018

Rogue Stars - A Quick Tour of Duty


This week I was mostly playing Rogue Stars.

Several bods at t'club got together for a RS fest organised by Andy W and I joined in to give the rules a try as I'd not managed to attend previous gatherings.



Six of us teamed up in pairs and rolled up random scenarios for a pre-set Crew as supplied by Andy with myself picking up an Inquisitor based Crew against Andy's Cultists which proved to be an interesting pair up. The scenario we rolled being the Rescue with one of my crew being the captive to be rescued.

The game worked out to be a very evenly matched pair up with both sides giving each other a bloody nose. Initially things tended to go to the Cultists way while the Inquisition was a man down, but try as he might Andy failed to capitalise on the advantage by taking anyone out but repeatedly wounding the Servitor Cherub to the extreme and the Crusader ended the game with over 9 pins but only 1 wound but both refusing to get killed but the Inquisitor did go down mid game to an uncharacteristic good wound dice throw from Andy.


In the end the Cherub freed the Medic from the clutches of the Cult and she made a bee line for escape but taking out a Cultist with a Mind Bolt before getting tangled up but repeated knock downs.

In the end, the the honour's were pretty even with three down each side but a narrow points victory to the Inquisition.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game and I believe the others enjoyed their games too. Interesting game mechanics but with a fair bit of variety available in the seemingly light rules. Definitely get another outing with Rogue Stars soon.


Monday 15 October 2018

War & Conquest - Further Trials

Last week myself and Dave K wound up the WaC machine and had another outing for our Berbers and Andalusian's for another trial game with a bit more knowledge behind us.

We went for 2500 pts a piece to give a bit more scope for troops on the field even though this was probably a bit too large a game to be likely to complete on a club night.

My line up was fairly similar to the previous game but the change was to ditch the skirmishers and add a small unit of mercenary knights plus a unit of Mercenary Spear. The Archers being added to the spear units to make up two large combined Spear/bow units, and the addition of a Captain. The General upgrade was ditched as well. Dave's line up was pretty much the same as before with the addition of more jinete types to fill out the points values but still went for the big unit of knights.



We went for clear and boring table to simulate the plains of Spain (and more importantly, keep the rule's simpler so we could concentrate on the moving and combat).

With a better understanding of the rules this time round we got much further through the game but still didn't manage a conclusion, though this was more to do with army size than rule checking this time round, though there was still a fair bit of that.



The game was much more balanced this time and produced much food for thought.

The combined arms units were quite powerful but more aligned for defence as the bows massed fire could only be used stationary so Dave pretty much avoided these keeping clear of their fire power especially the Merc's. In future I would probably field more but smaller units to give a bit more flexibility.

The small unit of Merc Knights proved to be too small to be really useful (at 6 Figs) but still held up the cavalry flank but were really too fragile.

The Berber Cavalry faired pretty well against the Knightly types causing mild casualties and remaining out of contact with their feigned flight and would hopefully draw the knights off the table or put them out of position for long enough for the game to be decided else where.

With the bulk of the Infantry not coming to blows before we ran out of time, not much was picked up here, but I did do a unsupported advance with my Guard Cavalry to see what would happen and a few points were noted here in rules terms mainly about counter charging.

Another interesting game with much food for thought, though Dave has a slightly jaded view of the rules we will have some more games to try and at least get a game to a conclusion. I find the rules fairly light and quite easy on the brain, just needing some familiarity to smooth things and certainly take out the extreme results that WaB was prone to quite nicely.

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Antidiluvian New Medievals on Horizon

Recently announced forth coming releases from Antediluvian Miniatures are some additions to their historical offerings in their 'Wars of the Bruces' range. Announced are as below, Scots Spearmen;





























Great looking sculpts from Matthew Bickley and with more to come, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in these most useful mini's.


Tuesday 14 August 2018

Claymore '18

Attended this years Claymore show through in Edinburgh a week or so ago, so been a bit remiss in getting posted but hey-ho.

A fairly nice day for the event but still quite warm in-doors but not as bad as previous years.

I thought the show fairly quiet this time, certainly not the usual buzz on previous years (though I didn't manage along last year, the only year I've missed since the shows inception). In fact I thought the atmosphere pretty flat all in all but that may just be me.

The usual traders were all present including a couple of extra ones I'd not seen before but didn't pick much up as shopping list was pretty small this time and not very successful on the accessories front so will need to get online so not really an issue. I did buy one Lucid Eye figure just for painting but nothing much else caught my eye.

A fair selection of games on show but not many with a wow factor. I did like the Durham Wargames Club Cossacks vs Ottoman game if only for it's unusualness, very nice.

Durham WC game




The Tradeston WC game was eye catching, looking pretty epic if only because of the size, but nice.


Tradestons game

The League of Augsburg game was quite nice too but really a display rather than a game but eye candy none the less.


League of Augsberg

I don't really do the 'bring and buy' thing as i can't be bothered with the scrum etc but I did note that the stall was half the size it used to be, so probably a sign of the online selling thang nowadays.

I only stayed for an hour and a half and things were getting quieter when I left so I can only assume the numbers were down on previous. The confusing thing was the car park was full when I arrived and was still full when I left ( in previous years I've always managed to park fairly easily) perhaps there was something else on too which scared some folks away?

All in all a bit flat, which is a shame really as it has been a really great show in days past and I'm sure will be next time.

Friday 20 July 2018

War and Conquest - Four Year hiatus

OK, its took a bit longer than I thought, a lot longer in fact. Four years in fact. That is to say when I said four years ago we would have another trial game of War and Conquest rules, I didn't think that it would take that long, but it did. But at least it finally happened.

The game was a 2000pt affair keeping things simple with my opponent of four years ago Dave K taking the Andalusians and myself the Almoravids again, probably with similar lists.


We did take a bit of time to get into the swing of things with both of us struggling to find rules we were looking for but knew existed but managed to track things down eventually.

We did struggle a bit as the first contact produced a fairly complicated melee with light troops fleeing through friends on both sides and a strong flank attack with multiple knock on effects, so this did pose a good test of the rules and a stronger test on ourselves to find the appropriate solutions to the problem. As a result we didn't get very far through the game which is probably just as well for me as things were looking pretty dicey by the end of round two.


We'll dig the rules out again (soon this time) to have another, more informed bash with the rules as they do have some nice points though as last visited they are very WABish. Looking at the army lists, I think these need to be re-visited but no tinkering with these until another couple of games under the belt.

I suspect we did get a few things wrong but thats all part of the process, we even talked about digging out WAB 2nd edition to see how that compares.

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Battle Companies Campaign Update


Managed to get another small get together for the Club Battle Companies campaign last week. A fairly small gathering with Alan, Dave K, Andy W, Kev and myself getting another couple of games under the belt.

Myself and Andy W played the next campaign specific scenario 'Catching the Thread', with Andy's Mordor Orcs attacking my Arnor band who were in possession of the ruined village searching for the relic 'The Thread'.



The outcome of the scenario was a definite military victory to the Orcs as the strength of my band is definitely in the shooting department but this strength sadly eluded me as any of my guys couldn't hit a barn door if it was lying on top of them on the day. The Orcs lost a few guys in the end but my band went down almost to a man. It didn't help that one of my Rangers was so well camouflaged that I forgot to use him for most of the game. (You might spot him in the bottom left of the first photo above).



A good hard fought game and most enjoyable. The game result proved to be a draw in the end as I managed to prevent the Orcs getting a hold of the relic (the objective) right up to the last turn though losing it myself right at the end as my last man standing fled the field.

On the other games there was a prethala of other mayhem with Warg Riders, Elves, and the men of Gondor battling it out but several draws and one evil win were the results there.

With other previous games results in and a large increase in the number of no score draws adding up, the side of Evil is now slowly creeping ahead in the campaign tally with a score 11/14 good to evil wins.

Monday 2 July 2018

Terrain Trials - Supplemental

Way back when in the mists of time, when I was trying out some trial works for terrain boards, specifically the Frost Ruins from Heroic Maps under my Terrain Board Trials - Side 2 post, I had had the idea to do some scenery elevation platforms utilising off cuts and spare card bits.

This as is usual with myself took a bit of time to get round to, and following my also usual over engineering a solution, I've finally got round to doing some of these 'elevators'.



Using some strips of polystyrene packing bits I had lying about, were glued together to make a suitable thickness and cut into uniform lengths. These were then clad in foam core to make square and smooth. (You would be surprised on the variance on the dimensions from apparently uniform polystyrene, though low grade packing right enough).

These were then covered in a couple of sheets from the Heroic Maps sheets I had left over but also a couple of extra sheets printed off mirror imaged to cover each piece completely. The elevations then had some photo-shopped 'arches' printed on card and stuck on once again.



Finished articles are pretty robust and definitely useful for adding a bit of change of height to city scape terrain layouts, though a bit more work intensive then previously thought. I will add another couple of blocks in time to increase variety/coverage.

Saturday 16 June 2018

Strongsword - Trial game


This weeks club game was a trial of the new fantasy skirmish rules from Westfalia 'Strongsword'. Written by Dan Mersey and released as part of a kickstarter with the usual plethora of mini's (all of which are very nice). Kev at the club jumping in to the kickstarter for the figs and picking up the rules to give them a try.



All the figs etc are Kev's (though not from the kickstarter) and Kev umpired the game with myself and Dave K being the willing victims for the rules trial.

The scenario (from the rules) chosen to trial the rules was a raid on a Troll village with a band of human ruffians (Dave) and a band of Goblin Veterans (myself) doing the raiding. 

Trolls in the middle of the village and another three at random doorways when approached and Humans and Goblins approaching from either side of the village. I won't go through a blow by blow account of the game but the victory went to the Humans on a scalp point count (so much for each of the Trolls and a varying amount for each warrior, veteran, hero or champion) with them picking up four of the trolls to bow fire early on.


Humans and Goblins advance on the innocent trolls

The fight was pretty even once contact was gained (similar stats for a goblin veteran to a human for instance) and the limited magic used was fairly minor mostly an add on to the combat rather than a game changer but that was on a one game only view. There's probably more to that with more games under the belt.

In fact all the game mechanics were pretty simple with everything being done on a D10 which I like and pretty similar to most of Dans' game mechanics in other rule sets like Dragon Rampant et al. Nothing there to tax the brain and easy enough to pick up a game with any issues. The rules are pretty inexpensive so not much to dish out and give them a try and certainly pretty on the eye with a clear typeface and decent layout.

Like most skirmish games, the enjoyment from these rules will depend on a good round of scenario's and there are some in the rules to get you going and more available online apparently.


Goblins take cover from the Human firing line

I quite enjoyed the game over all and for a small(ish) set of fast play rules thought they were fine and would be happy to air the rules again.. This may be the issue here in that there wasn't anything innovative or particularly unique about the rules and if you've other skirmish rule sets already, nothing in particular to drag you over to Strongsword. If you don't already, then these will serve you well without issue.

The rules do revolve around Westfalia's range of figures and obviously now a days you need to have a set of rules to support these (apparently) so thats fine and to be expected. The figures are very nicely done as always ( I particularly like the kobolds) are a suitably fantasy generic but with a few specific ones which are a bit different (like the arab style hobbits for instance) which fit warbands for the rules but will be used elsewhere without any issues to slow you down.

You can download a preview version of the Strongsword rules here.


Friday 1 June 2018

Battle Companies Campaign update

Another game under the belt for my Arnor Battle Company in our ongoing campaign in the wilds of Rhudaur.

Only a short update with a couple of players taking part this time to get some games in to catch up with the other players with Dave K's B team Elf squad, Alan L's Gondor, Kenny's Easterlings and my Arnor company taking part.

Alan and Kenny and myself having one game apiece and Dave's elves two.

My game with Alan's Gondor BC was a pretty hard fought affair with Gondor playing hide and seek while the Arnor force advanced cautiously. The one active Gondor Archer in hiding over the coarse of the game picking off three of the Arnor force while the tree he hid behind must had about forty arrows sticking in it. I soon abandoned this coarse as the Gondor Knight and associated hero's advanced into charge range.

Gondor plays hide n seek with Arnor while Elves and
 Easterlings battle in the background


Things went a bit pear shaped for Alan now as my archer heavy squad took affect and his numbers dropped quickly. Alan managed to get his knight and a hero into combat but his dice were lowsey and the Arnor force managed to take down his entire force bar one who broke in the face of the Arnor charge.

Dave's B team Elves managed to get two victories both hard fought and the second turned defeat into victory. You can check out his batrep here.

Campaign is certainly getting interesting as the companies beef up so looking forward to the next big get together at the end of the month for more games and the next Campaign story scenario.


Sunday 13 May 2018

Carronade '18


Yesterday was the next annual FDWC show, Carronade '18 and another successful show it was too.

The show is now pretty much at capacity and with 50+ or so traders plus a couple of charities selling hobby related materials and 40 or so Clubs show-casing games there isn't any facility to grow further, which doesn't seem to be an issue. Just about right for the show I think.

The weather was very good on the day, and with most game shows this kept the numbers attending down slightly on the previous couple of years but with over 800 punters through the door plus club members and clubs with their games etc, well over 1200 peeps so not too shabby for these parts.

It was a busy day but with the warm weather, the halls were a bit stuffy but for a change the upstairs halls were much more pleasant for the painting competition and games hall, and the Flea Market next door which was much appreciated.


The Wargame Society of Contemptible Bastards - To the Strongest Rose 28mm WOTR

Games in the back hall;

League of Alzheimers - Crusades Game






3:10 to Yuma - Glasgow and District ?

SESWC - Arsuf 3rd Crusades (I think)


Congrats to Leuchars Veterans for their Win in the Particption Games Category and their 'Carry On up the Khyber', and the Wildlings for the Runner-Up position in the same category with their 9th Age game, congratulations also to Kirriemuir for winning the Demo game category with their 'T in the Park WWII game, and Durham's Port Republic 1862 game getting Runner-Up.








Games in the first hall;












The painting competition was again present and as with  the door entry numbers, this year was the first year the number of entries was down slightly on previous years with sixty four entries over the seven categories.

The main victims of this reduction appeared to be the Historical Vehicle category where there was only two entries (one of which had to withdraw early) and the Historical Single Figure category with only three entrants.

Once again, the level of entries was pretty high and several eye-catching pieces were present.







Games in the Upstairs game hall;

Wildlings 9th Age - Battle of Stivelyn (Participation Games Runner-UP)


St Aidans - Ghost Archipelago

Stirling Wargames - Necromunda



You can find the full post show debrief on the club website soon here.


Single Fantasy/Sci-Fi Entries

Junior Entries


Fantasy/Sci-Fi Unit Entries

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Unit Entries

Historical Unit Entries

Historical Unit Entries

Fantasy/SciFi Vehicle Entries


Winner & Runner-Up - Fantasy/Sci-Fi Vehicle

Winner & Runner-Up - Single Historical

Winner & Runner-Up - Single Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Winner & Runner-Up - Fantasy/Sci-Fi Unit


Winner - Historical Unit (& Best of Show)

Runner-Up - Histrical Unit

Winner - Historical Vehicle (and only final
 entry)

Winner & Runner-up - Fantasy/SciFi Vehicle

A couple of the central hall games in progress



Another good and enjoyable show and the club show committe are already planning next years fray. 

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