Well, finally had the first game of the year at the club this week, which was actually one of the games from last year that was postponed due to the inclement weather, namely the scenario I had thought up loosely based on the old 'Baggage Train' scenario.
Dave K, my regular Renaissance adversary took the mantle of the English, rescuing their captured Duke who is being escorted through rough country to the local seat of power to be 'interrogated' by the indigenous Spanish forces.
Simple terrain a winding road end to end of the table with a reasonable assortment of difficult terrain and soft cover where the rescuers had picked as being to ripe spot for a rumble. The forces were roughly equal in both numbers and points (using the old Sword & Pistol Rules), the Spanish having the edge in training, the English in missile power.
The Spanish need to get the prisoner to the opposite end, the English to either long edge intact, if the prisoner is killed then it's a draw. Fairly simple.
In the end the missile fire early on disrupted the Spanish sufficiently and caused a ripple of wounds which tipped the edge in the inevitable melee. Both sides having a few fleeing the field and some slumped bodies lying by a lonely road side but in the end the English managed a daring rescue and I'm sure were suitably rewarded by their magnanimous lord who no doubt allowed them to continue their service in a foreign field until they died of scurvy.
Next time for a replay, the Spanish will have a bolstered number to allow for the ambush that's coming and to give them a bit more of a chance. Also, the rules are a bit flat so we intend to use a slightly adapted version of the Retinue Medieval Skirmish rules which definately give the game a bit more flair. Still, good to get the year off to a bloody and thoroughly violent start.
Spanish Arquibusier (Mid 16th Century)
A Happy New Year to one and all! I hope Santa was kind to you all and you got all that you had hoped for. I traditionally don't get anything remotely gaming orientated unless I put the appropriate article in a loved ones hand and say, 'get me this for my Christmas'. I didn't do that this Christmas, so got a nice selection of the usual family kind of presents, hmmm nice.
Anyway, I have had an inkling to do some GW Tau for a long time, probably since they were released in fact, so just after the day, I went over to my local GW store, after doing the rounds post-christmas returns and cashing in vouchers and such and picked up the Tau Battleforce box set.
I managed to get away unscathed while family in tow, as one of my daughters ex teachers was in the store buying stuff for himself (an on going RPG'er) and his son, and he distracted family while I purchased said item.
I haven't really decided what I'm going to do with all these goodies, I don't play 40K, or at least haven't in a good number of years, so this is going to be a modelling only project which is fair enough and opens up all sorts of possibilities for modelling that if gaming requirements were necessary then that set of practicalities would take precedence,
I'm looking forward to do some fevourish gluing together ala Airfix kits over the next couple of days and put some thought into colour schemes. Initial thoughts are White/Grey/Black or White/ Light Bl;ue/Grey but I might go for something more colourful. We'll see.
The next few days before the dreaded work beckons should hopefully be reasonably productive hobby wise, interspersed with more domestic activities but looking forward to a good gaming year. Figures crossed.
In the end the missile fire early on disrupted the Spanish sufficiently and caused a ripple of wounds which tipped the edge in the inevitable melee. Both sides having a few fleeing the field and some slumped bodies lying by a lonely road side but in the end the English managed a daring rescue and I'm sure were suitably rewarded by their magnanimous lord who no doubt allowed them to continue their service in a foreign field until they died of scurvy.
