Merry Christmas . . everyone!

Christmas day is winding to a close, the family has been visited, large quantities of very nice food has been eaten, presents given and received and a nice day was had by all. Hope all out there have a suitably pleasant Christmas day and you are now all looking forward to Boxing Day second helpings and a bit of gaming perhaps if you're allowed by the Boss.


Anyway, raising a large glass of Cognac, hope all is well and wishing a happy and perhaps a more prosperous year for 2011 for one and all.

Campaign Events Tables

As promised, I have uploaded Random Campaign Events tables into the Resources section of ALBAtwo. A slightly untidy draft but I will tidy up soon on my pdf/excel skills and get tidier copies posted soon.

There are two tables, one each for Major events and one for Minor. These were written up for my long ongoing Solo Campaign which has now drawn to a logical close with a final climactic battle (which I will do a battle rep for in the fullness of time).

I think the tables are fairly self explanatory and are intended to give a useful starting point for anyone wanting to do the campaign thing and should be easily adaptable to your own way of doing things. They are based on my own system which is made up from all sorts of sources so may not 'fit' but feel free to chop, cut, edit etc as you see fit.

Let me know here if there's any questions.

Back from the Virtual Grave

Back in the land of the Virtual Living, my computer had an 'episode' and decided it didn't want to play anymore a couple of weeks ago, fairly terminal really.


However, after much cajoling and generally slapping it about, the beast moves once again. Did lose a bit of data, files etc in the process, but managed to recover most the important stuff. I guess that back-up external hard drive I was going to get for Christmas will be useful, just a bit late.


Not getting much done in the way of gaming recently with the weather curtailing my activities in that regard and 'she who must be obeyed' directing my domestic activities to decorating and re-building kitchens etc etc preventing any real figure painting pursuits, but that should change come next week, fingers crossed with a couple of games re-scheduled and a bit of spare time coming up.


The new files promised for ALBAtwo Resources should be with you over the week end, so watch that space.

Empire AoA List

Another update on the Resources front on ALBAtwo, you can download an Excel file for converting Warhammer Empire armies for use with the Armies of Arcana rules.


The list gives various alternatives for each of the Empire Army choices and playing with them a bit to give them a bit of your own flavour, eg you can add a bit of armour to your core infantry, or add a bit of light cavalry. Check out the download at the ALBAtwo Resources page.


Note this is an Microsoft Excel file so you will need this software on your machine for it to operate, you should have suitable virus protection just in case too.

Hiatus

Have not been doing much in the way of gaming or painting over the last couple of weeks, partly due to work, partly being away for a few days in (or in fact practically on) the Border for a few days round Kelso, and partly laid low(ish) by the dreaded lurgie, which is doing the rounds.

What I have been doing in my more lucid moments is doing a bit of PC gaming is as my want, of an evening.

What I have discovered is the new version of the game Mount & Blade, namely Mount & Blade ; Warband.

An adventure, action orientated game set in a medieval setting, where you can build up a mercenary band and try and carve out an empire, or just run a round and cause mayhem, with real-time combat mounted and on foot including sieges. This update of the game introduces some glaringly missed options from the original, more politics, being able to become king etc etc. Much better. The tech level is circa 1250 to 1350ish and has a good mix of archetypal western medieval type troops; Russian/Moscovite types, Norse types, central European types, and southern Italian types plus Mongol Cavalry and a new faction the Sassanid/Araby types. A good game for meglomaniac medievalists.

I have also discovered a new version of the game 'With Fire & Sword' which takes the game into the renaissance era. Got to check this one out which introduces gunpowder and more formation orientated battles. Hmmm....nice.

Getting back into some painting as my health and free time improve so back to painting up Berbers etc soon. Just in time for the Festive season kicking off.

Mega Mordheim Game

This weekend saw a game with a difference, myself and JTM decided to try something with a bit more bite than our usual Mordheim skirmish game but decided to make it 'bigger' by having each side 3 warbands instead of just one. Not a free for all but sides - 'good vs bad', make your own mind up who is who!


So, we decided that each side should be made up of any warbands but not obviously impossible allies, (like witch hunters allied with Chaos Carnival etc etc). Each side could have one warband of up to 300pts rating, one of up to 200pts and one of up to 100pts rating. After our choosing process, mine being fairly easy, JTMs' being a bit more difficult we settled on, in rating order;


The Good Guys - Protectorate of Sigmar, Witch Hunters, and Kislevites
The Bad Guys - Black Orcs, Beastmen and Bandits (Good alliteration there!).


A 6' x 4' table was set up with fairly even terrain with just a couple more difficult areas and then the warbands were each determined to have a random entry point (entry points being each 2' around the table) and a random order of moving. JTMs' deployment was a bit scattered with his Black Orcs starting beside my Protectorate, his Beastmen out on their own in the middle of one side of the table, and his Bandits between my Kislevites and Witch Hunters (who were beside my Protectorate).


The game kicked off with the Protectorate and the Black Orcs rushing towards each other and locking each other in combat pretty quickly with the superior number s of the Protectorate quickly gaining the upper hand with the Witch Hunters giving support while heading off the Beatmen preventing them from lending a hand to their allies.
The Bandits, being the lightest of the bad guys thought that discretion was the better part of valour and headed away from the fray and attempted to intercept the Kislevites who were down the other end of the table.


The Kislevites advanced warily towards the Bandits who also moved cautiously with a mutually ineffective exchange of fire. Mean while the Black Orcs were getting butchered by the righteous might of the Protectorate and their Witch Hunter brethren and the Beastmen finally got into combat against a wall of steel presented by the Witch Hunter heavies, who kept their flanks secure and stopped the Beastmen numbers getting in.

Soon the Black Orcs were cut down to an orc, bellowing defiance to the last (they made their break test saves convincingly, and the Beastmen decided that they were on to the same and decided that they had some very important business else where. The Bandits also faired badly when the Kislevites charged in and cut down four of their number in one round. At this point we called it a night with two of the Black Orcs surrounded by about fifteen or so, the Beastmen in full retreat and the Bandits looking bloodied all for ... not a sigle casualty on the Good Guys side.


Interesting game but with JTMs dice throwing being pretty abysmal, lots of hits but almost no wounds it was a pretty one sided affair with the Bad Guys lack of fire power being noticeable and an unlucky deployment adding to tip the balance.


Next time I think a more their side and our side deployment, or at least a bit more choice would be more interesting. At least this time the villagers can sleep safe in their beds, but next time it might not be so simple....

Dust up in Iskandria

At tonights club night I had a game of Urban War futuristic skirmish game with fellow club members Kev, and Dave K. (Dave ably assisting myself with a bit of suppressing fire on the right flank).
Kev supplied all the troops and most of the terrain too. This was a pity, as Kevs' luck with the dice was abysmal for the whole game failing to wound even once and my dice rolling was above average, so the result was a bit one sided to say the least. Sorry Kev.
I do like the Urban War system with it's order chits indicating the basic 'stance' of each figure which simply translates to a pretty fluid game even when the rules are fairly new, ie to the likes of me has only had a handful of games. (sorry again Kev. It must have been beginners luck ;-) ).
I think a contibuting factor to the result was also the troops. Kev playing the Junkers faction (basically close combat specialist slave soldiers and beasties, and mine were the VASA (the UN in space) who are more tradition marine types with some jump troops, more shooty. The mix seemed unbalanced with the lack of fire power for the Junkers not made up for with the mediocre advantage in combat.
Still, an enjoyable game, for me and Dave at least.

Mordheim Ogre

Just finished painting a Mordheim Ogre which I picked up on ebay earlier this year. The model is the OOP GW figure which was a joy to paint, lots of detail to pick out the shape, and good movement in the figure.


Painted pretty quickly for me. Generally pleased with the result though the base was a bit hurried but still acceptable.


The base itself is a Gale Force 9 magnetic base. I quite like these bases and use them particularly for plastic figures as they lend a bit of weight to the models making them less prone to falling over.

Irregular Magazine

I've just come across the online magazine 'Irregular'.

Something I had previously seen, but not really picked up on it. Current issue 6 has the usual mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy articles with lots of GW stuff, but a healthy dose of other manufacturers too.


The mag also sports a good selection of historical, modelling, painting and review/convention articles which make this mag a step above the rest. And interestingly, and not a little refreshing but no advertising, just articles.


Definately worth checking out on http://irregularmagazine.com/

Jan Jiskra - Hungarian Hero

Finally got the Resources section of ALBAtwo up and running with a copy of a very good article from Bob Black from back in 1986 from Military Modelling magazine.

The article deals with the forgotten Jan Jiskra, a contemporary with Jan Hunyadi and Mattias Corvinus etc from 15th Century Hungary. The Article comes complete with three plates (the above pic being the first of the three) of Hungarian Troops of the period by Richard Judson (More folically challenged readers, like myself, will recognise his works from the likes of WRGs Ian Heath books etc). The Gallery has downloads of good resolution scans of the figure plates for those interested.


http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/albatwo2/resources.html for the article
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/albatwo2/hungariangallery.html for the Hungarian Gallery


Recommended reading for those interested in Eastern Medieval history, and the plates are nice. Bobs writing on this kind of subject, including the Lance and Longbows publication on John Hunyadi are excellently researched and among the few publications on the subject in English.

Crusader Club Game

Just had another recent game of Crusader using my Berbers, with club member Dave K on our Club night this week.


Ended in another victory for the Berbers but not without some close moments. Really like the Crusader Rules and have always enjoyed the games I have played using these rules. As with most fast play rules, there are always situations where the rules appear silly or annoyingly won't let you do what you want to do but all in all a recommended set for anyone playing Ancient/Dark Age/Medieval games.

The picture above is of our Crusader game at the end of August, a narrow victory to the Berbers but only because of running out of time on the club night.

Working t' mill

Thought I'd add to the jumble by posting a picture of my hobby work station. No real reason other than it seems to be a thing to do, so here it is, my station under the stairs.....

Nice and cosy, since I gave it a spring clean last winter, it's even got a carpet now!

Turkey Trot

Back from Turkey and managed to survive, but only just. Good relaxing holiday, with too much sun, beer and food....oh well. Not much in the way of military style delights in the area, and I couldn't convince my better half that an hour and a half bus trip in 35 degrees to go to the museum in Antalya would be a good idea, but as with most areas of Turkey, your never far from some Greek/Roman/Byzantine/Ottoman ruins.

Left, the Temple of Appollon, and above, the Agora, both in Side.


Nice town and the usual resort type stuff, nice people just the beach sucked big time, since the whole beach for miles is literally covered from the sea wall to the high tide line in sun loungers and of course you can't use the loungers unless you buy food or beer etc. If you want to sit and play on the sand to build sand castles, you just can't.


Back to normality now, and with some new ideas and charged up for some gaming, there's lots to keep occupied with now family duty is done.

Oldies but Goldies

Been doing a little bit of painting recently and have managed to tidey up some figures which have been rattling about for years, in this case in excess of twenty. The first one has taken me the twenty odd years to get around to getting it painted, even though it is part of my Witch Hunters Warband for Mordheim, the other two have just been rebased to give them a bit more longevity.

All are citadel miniatures from the Eighties, the first is from their fighters range and was always a favourite figure, don't ask me why I haven't got around to getting him painted before now. The next is from one of the Regiments of Renown, Skarlocs Wood Elf Archers and was the predecessor to the current wardancers. The last is from the Champion Eternal Box Set, namely Corum, both of these were painted a long time ago but have stood up not too badly.


I've also painted up a couple of the main bad guys from my Angmar LOTR Strategy Game army project, ie the easy ones namely the Witch King himself and a couple of Castellans.

Fairly pleased with the way the figures turned out though the photos don't show them at their best being a bit to bright and the basing will get redone at some point as they were a bit hurried but OK.


I am working on my own Angmar Army list. I don't like the Spooks and Ghouls only list that GW have come up with, so I have just about finished my version which I will post soon in the Albatwo Resource section, keep watching.

Claymore 2010, Purchases

Had an enjoyable day out at this years Claymore even if the halls were very hot and close but a good day anyway with the new venue being a definite improvement.

The traders were doing well I noticed but I was being fairly circumspect and, bieng fairly skint, didn't buy too much even though saw lots to be tempted by.

The first item I did pick up was from the bring and buy, and was a set of the GW Mordheim Sisters of Sigmar. Most are destined to join the ranks of my Empire Militia unit with a couple being rounded up for conversion duties.

The next two offerings were picked up from Dave Thomas' stall, namely a Andalsian Characters/Personalities pack by Artizan Miniatures, and a Copplestone 'Trooper Officers' blister pack which completes my requirements for my Future Wars project, just need to get them based and painted.

My only other purchase was for some terrain modelling materials picked up from Mutineer Miniatures (Hi Brian, Mark and Kenny) which offer a very extensive range of said materials, paints etc (plug, plug!).

On the Workbench Update

As promised a bit of progress on the ruined terrain piece, even quicker than I thought.

Flocked, varnished etc and just needs some finishing touches; a couple of more tufts of grass and a wee bit of detritis, wood etc and it will be done.

Should be finished off over the next couple of days.

On the Workbench this month

Some WIP for my Almohad Berber Army for WAB, namely my Hasham Guard Cavalry. Early days yet but hope to get them finished before I'm off to Turkey.

These are Artizan Miniatures which I really like. Easy to paint but with enough detail to give the figures character.

Some more WIP, this time some more terrain for my on going ruined theme. This one is high on my priority list and should be finished soon.

Again made from Hirst Arts moulds and a bit of imagination. Watch this space for the finished article soon.

Somewhere in Italy

Recently have had a small skirmish with Dave K at the club, trying out something a bit differant, namely a Renaissance period skirmish. This was using the old (1985ish) Table Top Games rules 'Sword and Pistol'.

A fun set of rules and very fast play (well fast play for 1985). My Spanish troops were set up in the middle of the italianate scenery round some eclosed fields and Daves English troops came on at a random position with his cavalry coming on on a random position again being diced for when they came on.

Daves forces advanced towards my position with a bit of sporadic fire from the two sides. But when it came to blows a sizable proportion of Dave's yoemen decided they didn't want to face the finest troops in Europe in hand-to-hand combat and fled hotly pursued by a couple of my troops. Following that the mercenary captain cut down a further couple of his opponents. Daves cavalry arrived, slightly too late, bowling over a couple of the Spanish, a continue on through the melee to vistas distant as the skirmish was all but over.

A quick and enjoyable game. The rules thouroughly recommended if you can find a copy.

Renaissance Bash

Recent events have allowed me to get to the club after a fair hiatus, with Dave K inviting me for a game on Monday last and we picked to have a WRG 2nd Ed game Renaissance bash(just to keep the flame alive for the long over due Grand Finale of our Marignano campaign).

I came up with the bare bones of an idea for a scenario to try, a variation on the ambush idea where a slightly weaker blocking force has the drop on a larger force appearing in line of march, and has to prevent it from progressing on it's way, with a time limit to make it an issue.

With some fairly basic rules made up we proceeded to have an enjoyable barny 'somewhere in Italy' with my French enjoying an initial advantage but Daves Imperialist numbers soon coming to bare and although I had seriously slowed him down it would not be long before he broke through by the time we ended the game. The scenario idea while interesting, probably needs some work to make it a viable challage, but certainly food for thought.

New Warblog

A new update on the site, and a new Blog. Hopefully this should make the updating much easier and therefore more frequent.

Have been doing a little of the last few weeks with sadly only a couple of games. My most recent outing was an interesting LOTR game with JTM. Definately a game of two halves. Just a chance encounter somwhere in the Wilds with my Angmar troops against his Southrons.

The first half was definately mine and managed to get his force well down to under half strength and JTM ready to through in the towel. All was going well tactics, dice rolling etc so I managed to convince him to continue with the game to see how it would end. Alas the fates intervened and my luck turned, or Johns did. Anyway I lost a couple of troops in quick succession and I started to check Courage which I invariably failed and JTMs survivors managed to pick on my guys individually and JTM managed to grab victory from the jaws of defeat, (or I managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory). Certainly a good game and a real nail biter to the end.

Apart from that, my hobby time has been intermittantly been spent on painting Moors (slowly), painting my Angmar troops and playing with terrain ideas, so should be some new piccy updates on the siute soon.