Vapnartak 2013

With the years round of wargames shows under-way the first big one is Vapnartak put on by York Wargames Society, 'the best one day show in the North' being their slightly immodest claim, put on at the York Racecourse.

As a club, the FDWC had decided to go down en-masse with a bus load of 24 or so of us making the trip to the show (not counting the trader bods who also increased the body count from the club) with many not having been before.

All in all I liked the show with the venue being a particularly novel one and the layout over several floors and mezzanine, all accessed directly from each other and being a fairly modern building made it a bright and airy place to put on a games show.

50 or so traders plied their wares and mixed in with the usual suspects were a few I had not come across before, which was nice.

The venue was very busy for most of the day, with the time from 11;00 to around 13;00 absolutely heaving. Good for the traders and restaurant (whose fare I was particularly impressed with, though a wee bit pricey) though  did suspect that the ground floor layout presented a bit of an escape hazard as the squeeze of traders and games made a few pinch points which made travelling very stressful and I suspect prevented a good bit of browsing of said traders by the exasperated public at those locales during the busy time. I went and massaged my karma in the bar for an hour which was a haven of peace (comparatively) and beer.

Though a lot of traders I was a bit surprised what appeared to be the relatively small number of games on show. I think this was more to do with the size of the venue as there were about 34 games on offer not including the various tournaments on upstairs including Warmachine, Malifaux and Impetus which gave Joe Public a bit of sport to watch too.

A couple of games caught my eye in particular, the first being a stonker put on bt the Lance & Longbow society, which having read about the games planning and preparation in a recent issue of the society journal 'The Hobilar', was nice to see in the flesh.

I also liked the games put on by Bunker(?) and the League of Extraordinary Keigspeilers, which  also caught my eye.

Many others were good too with lots of effort as usual going in to getting them to the show.

All in all an enjoyable 'day 'oot' and definitely a bit different. All involved in our minor Scots raid of York enjoyed to day and the bus was a good bit heavier on the way back over the border with the loot plundered to the tune of a couple of tons of lead and mdf. My own haul including a plethora of Perry mini's, Ainsty castings and Sarissa kits plus an assortment of other bits and bobs gave the whole affair a good finish.

A well done the York Wargames Crew is I think due, as the venue and the sheer amount on obviuosly took a fair bit of organisation and running. As Terry Thomas would have said...'Good Show!'

This is getting to be annoying!

Intial Empire advance on the HE lines

This week another club game and surprisingly for me another game of WHFB's, two in a row being rare if not unheard of. This week it was a lay-down game with Dave Burns who was wanting a bit of practice for an upcoming tournament, and he was fielding his High Elvesa which he hadn't used for an age.

I fielded the same experimental list that I had used a couple of weeks ago against Ian's Orcs, which though a bit 'soft' for a tournament army had appeared to be quite fun to use and if it managed to get into contact with the High Elves would make mince-meat of them, but that was a big if.

With a standard Pitched Battle scenario we had at it, and the first couple of moves were uneventful except for a spectacular annihilation for a unit of Reavers by the Empire Pistoliers in Rd 1 and their subsequent rout caused by extensive missile fire. The Empire generally advanced as quickly as possible on the HE Line and the Elves tried to slow them down.

The killer for the Empire in this game proved to be the HE Level 4 Wizard with a rather nasty spell book which seemed to kick in pretty quickly and this destroyed firstly the entire unit of flaggellants bar a couple which went down to subsequent archery, then the unit of milita with warrior priest took a pounding over two rounds from spells and archery till it broke just before managing to get the enemy lines. Near the end the Greatswords took the brunt of the magic and was reduced to 25% strength before being charged in the closing minutes by the Sword Masters and a unit of Reavers.

My Mortar trio didn't do to well in this game being remarkably inaccurate but did manage to snipe a few figures here and there, but overall disappointing.

When the remnants of my force reached the HE lines in the person of the General, an Archlector an the unit of Halberdiers with Warrior Priest the result was quite spectacular, with the destruction in one round of a unit of Archers and the entire Unit of Lothern Guard going down in a very gory fashion. but it too little too late.

My Swordsmen didn't fare well against the axe weilding maniacs on the HE right and the mortar crews had been picked off by the remaining eagles so by the end of Rd 5 it was with time out, another drubbing for the Empire.

Quite a fun game for a quickly organised Pitched Battle affair. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the HE army list under 8th Ed though, bet they lose that spell book.

Ruination - The Return - Empire vs Orcses

First game of the year earlier this week, and one planned which was nice, was a re-match from the game back in November where my poor Empire dudes were beset by an Orc horde in the 'Ruination' scenario and the town was duly ruined which you can read about here.

As planned then, we had decided to stage a re-fight with the tables turned with 2400pts of Empire troops attacking 1800pts of Orcs entrenched in four buildings and misc barricades. The objective being to capture or retain as many buildings as possible each building counting as 1 victory point except the 'strongpoint' in this case the watch tower, which counts as 2 victory points. The buildings could also be destroyed but then don't count VC's but can be denied from your opponent.

Intial move with the Empire moving onto the battlefield

Ian's Orcs deployed first and his deployment was once again pretty good, his army being pretty much standard troop types but with a bit of artillery support in the way of 3 Bolt Throwers, a Catapult and a Doom Diver and a reasonable reserve.

My Empire troops then deployed off table, ready to move on in the first turn, with a battery of 3 mortars as an experiment along with a fairly standard troop deployment and selection of almost entirely infantry bar a lone unit of Pistoliers as artillery hunters.

The first move was uneventful with the Empire troops moving onto the field and a bit of mutual artillery sniping to small effect.

Second turn the Empire continued it's advance as quickly as possible and the artillery dual continued with a slight advantage in casualties caused by the Empire. 

The Empire close on the Orc lines

The Pistoliers decided that rather than face the vageries of a Pump Wagon charge, decided to charge it and with only one loss for the destruction of the Pump Wagon this was a wise decision.

The only other conflicts of note were regarding Ian's two small Wolf Rider units bent on mischief, the unit on his left flank decided to break in panic from the destruction of the Pump Wagon, the other on the right flank move towards the Empire where a unit of Archers peppered it with arrows but only causing one casualty and not enough for a panic test.

The third round proved to be the crunch with the Empire centre charging into the Orc lines. I had pretty reasonably surmised that nothing in the Empire army was amn enough to dislodge the Orc General and his bodyguard from the Watchtower, so the plan was to sweep the two supporting Orc Archer units and try and take the other three buildings to get a narrow victory.

Now the Flaggellent unit had been the target of much of Ian's shooting on the way in, both missile and magic and by the time they got in the were reduced to about a third or quarter of their number by the time they charged in and though supported by a slightly depleted Greatsword unit the charge in ended in a draw and a continuing melee.

On the other side where a slightly depleted Swordsmen unit and the army General, an Arch Lector charged into the other, around half strength Orc Archer unit and only managed the same result, a drawn melee.

The Pistoliers and archers shot away at the Orc artillery to small effect and the Mortars beginning to run out of viable targets began lobbing shells at one of the buildings holding a compliment of Orcs.

At round four, it was already apparent with the failure of the Empire first charge to dislodge the Orc Archers from the wall that I was going to toil with taking any of the buildings housing untouched Orc melee units with depleted numbers of Greatswords Swordsmen or Halberdiers, so a slight change of plan was attempted, namely in lobbing Mortar shells at one of the buildings to perhaps damage or destroy the building and therefore negating the Orc victory point but more importantly softening up the Orcs inside to a possible (if very likely fruitless assault) from my infantry.

Alas, most of the shells fell short (or long) of their mark.

Round four continued with the Empire managing to break the Orc Archer Unit on the right and pursuing and destroying them but losing the last of the Flaggellents in the process. The Sordsmen and General had a second drawn melee with the other Orc Archer unit and the Pistoliers charged a Bolt Thrower (because it was easier to charge and melee, than it was to shoot at the bloody thing) and destoyed it. The Orc left flank Wolf Rider unit rallied but didn't yet return to the fray, but the right flank Wolf Rider unit now circled round behind my one untouched unit of Halberdiers who were forced to turn to meet the small but delaying threat. (They likely weren't going to reach the town in any event for at least a couple of turns).

Round five proved to be the final round (out of a permitted 7 turns) as time beat us. The remnants of the Greatswords charged one of the buildings and took more casualties than they dished out against a unit of Black Orcs housed in the central buildings, the swordsmen and General finally broke the remaining Orc Archer Unit and made a bee line for the un-occupied building on the Orc left. The Mortars again pounded away at the other building in vain hope of reducing it and it's occupants to rubble but only managed some supperficial damage and a couple of casualties inside.

At this point it was obvious that even if lucky, I was unlikely to manage a draw with the best of my Units depleted and unlikely to win in melee against the entrenched Orc units to oust them from one of the occupied buildings and so with time beating us, victory once again going to Ian's Orcs.

A good battle this time once again and an interesting scenario that I would play again. The seven round limit seemed strange last time as it looked with the Orcs that this was way too generous, but with the slower and less deadly Empire they would need the seven rounds in all likelyhood to gain a good victory, all going well.

The Empire once again seemed to lack a bit of 'oomph' and just didn't really seem up to the task in hand, dice throwing was average, neither up nor down and Ian's dice throwing the same or perhaps going towards the poor side so that wasn't the issue. It was always going to be difficult with the Orc Toughness being the 'to over-come' factor never minding the extra -1 to hit for the cover etc. The Mortars as an experiment were a reasonable success but lacked accuracy on the day to swing it enough. The random mage spells being in-offence but augmentary didn't help but I've always thought that the magic phase for most armies tends to cancel each other out unless you get a mis-cast or unstoppable.

Not sure what I could try to make the Empire a bit more of a challenge in this scenario, in both battles they've managed to stay intact and deal a bit of damage but don't have the moxy to get Orcs shifted from the buildings or the keep them out on a unit to unit basis. Food for thought though and enjoyable scenario's for that reason.

Planning 2013

With the look back of my successes and failures hobby-wise done and a review of how things fared, I am now planning my year ahead. I don't expect the plan to survive intact after contact with the enemy once again, but it pays to have a 'plan' in any event.

I've decided to try and put a bit more structure around my planning this year and put some definite targets to work to, as I felt my plan for the last year was a bit amorphous and therefore was to easy to let slip.

On that basis I've decided at an optimistic general painting target of 8 figures a week (excluding holiday break) so a target of 400 figures for the year (cavalry figures counting as 2). I know this is a fairly low a number compared to many out there who have a pretty prolific output, but it's definitely a big stretch target for me and allows for a week or two's in-activity which can be caught up on the following week.

It's difficult for me to be proscriptive in what I do hobby-wise as I have eclectic interests at the best of times but there's no point in planning lot's of things that just wont get done so I'm deliberately keeping my list a bit more achievable (I hope).

Terrain Projects

• Abbey Project - This is one I'm enjoying so far, but it has dragged out a bit, so I'm going to concentrate on getting this one pushed along. The plan for the whole project incorporates 20 or so pieces and with the first four complete, I am aiming to get this to the half way stage by the end of the year. This will include two of the larger pieces in the set and so I don't intend to expand terrain project wise beyond the the Abbey (excepting the Future Wars below). The planned pieces for this year will be the Gatehouse, the walls for the walled garden/orchard, Ruined Colonnade West, Ruined Colonnade East, the Bell Tower, and the South Cloister.

Army Projects

• El Cid Berber Army - My Almohad army did get some attention over the last year but by no means enough and so is going to be my main thrust to getting some paint on figures. With 150ish figures targetted this makes up about a third of my target. I plan to do these over the year to spread the interest. The units planned will include some minor modelling so should keep the interest levels high but slow down the out put.

• Italian Wars - Still very much high on my interest levels and all the figures are bought that I need for the planned forces (though that probably wont stop me getting more). Targeted around 120 figures here, with the first off the list being the Garde Ecossaise unit which just needs a bit of a kick to get finished off. Then followed by Italian Pike and then by various French Cavalry units and some artillery.

• Hungarian Black Army - Didn't see any activity over the last year really and plan to rectify this over the coming months with again around 80 figures targeted including the languishing Clipeati, and a multitude of cavalry plus a rather nice battery of bombards.

Skirmish Projects

• Future Wars Project - The one I did get some movement on over the last year so I plan to get everything finished off in the painting front here. All the figures and vehicles are assembled and primed and ready to rock so a hopefully easy 50 figures worth to finish off over the year with the aim being to get these done for Easter (my aim last year, but I have added quite a bit to this list since then :-) ). The project now includes for the First Platoon, First Company, Third Scots Mechanised Infantry and now incorporates the The Enemy with suitable mechanised support. I've also started some terrain pieces for this project to give the planned games a bit of 3 dimensional playing but these are at the early stages but keeping the terrain simple to make the building fairly painless and hopefully quick to do.

• Mordheim - With another club campaign planned for this year coming, I've started up another warband this time Kislevites and so another modelling challenge. 15 figures planned out and about half already under way, this little mini-project should be a fairly quick and enjoyable painting and modelling excursion with the kick off early in the year I'll be getting this one moving first.

I know the odd other figure will creep in to the painting planned, the odd fantasy, medieval or renaissance skirmish figure that takes my fancy over the year which will make a break from what ever I happen to be doing at the time, or even the occasional small unit for my Empire forces but hopefully this will be in addition to the planned focus.

With various rule sets purchased and played or not played over the last year, I would like to stick to a fairly select group of rules. I've decided that Impetus doesn't suit my tastes for the Italian Wars so going to go with the Pike & Shotte rules to see how they pan out there. For my Berbers, it will still be Impetus no doubt (being a favourite at the club) but would like to try War & Conquest with that army and to re-visit the Crusader Rules which I have enjoyed in the past with my Berbers.

I'm planning a mini campaign for later in the year for my Berbers as per a previous post on the Conquest of Majorca, and that will give me something to aim for as far as my painting progress is concerned, and I will likely use either W&C or Crusader rules for that, deciding where to go once I've had a couple of games of each.

There will also be the occasional pick up game at the club where there is an abundance of variety there which is always excellent, so I wont be wearying for a game or a change of pace.

That's the basis of the plan for the year gaming-wise for me and I'm already reading others plans for the year and getting idea's for other stuff so better get going before I get distracted before I start.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing all a Happy and Prosperous New Year, hope it's a good one!

Great looking Empire Unit

Don't usually towt for other blogsas a rule but saw this unit being done over the last couple of weeks and now it's complete and thought I'd share.

James Wappels' Empire Handgunners

If you haven't seen James' work, have a look at his blog here, it's well worth it for some marvellous eye candy, mainly sci-fi fantasy but getting into historical. Check it out.

That Was the Year that Was - 2012

With another year drawing to a close, it's time to look back on the progress and projects that we've been up to in Warblog Towers over 2012 and see how they match up with the planned activities.

It's certainly been an eventful year and one full of change and various goings on within the hobby and out, daughter getting married, getting made redundant and now getting several job offers for the new year, all sorts of visitors (friends, family, and others) from around the world, a few people gone and some new arrivals. The ups and downs have generally kept me away from the hobby a great deal but it's been a blast.

At the beginning of the year I laid out (very roughly) a plan of attack for my hobby activities and this was really the first time that I'd really thought about what I wanted to achieve in the coming twelve months and found the process quite rewarding on several levels.

The 'Plan' for the year could be broken down into three main categories; 1 - Ongoing Armies/Projects, 2 - New Armies/Projects and 3 - Terrain Projects and all have had varying amounts of success and progress through the year.

1 - Ongoing Armies/Projects

• El Cid Berber Army - Has been an ongoing project for some time and I had thought to get at least two or three units finished off over the year. Progress has been mixed for this army and though failing dismally to get units actually finished, I've managed to rebase a multitude and progress several units to the point of 'nearly completed' status. I'll put that one down to 'must try harder' though progress has been made.

Berber Skirmishers

• Hungarian Black Army - Had thought to do a little on this project but really only targeted one unit to be completed. Total failure there, but I did manage to get some semblance of order to the planned army and got a few bits assembled and under-coated.

Armigeri WIP for Black Army Project

• Italian Wars Project - Thought to get this project moving towards the end of the year but though lots of lead bought and a fair number of figs prepared and undercoated, no real progress. This one gets a 'must try harder' sticker too.

Italian Pike WIP

• Warhammer Empire Army - A low priority in the painting stakes, but though the troops have had a few outings over the year (and didn't manage to win a single game I may add), the paint brush didn't get used here either much. No progress.

Empire Flaggelants WIP

• Mordheim Project - One that was really a bit more of a success in that several figures were painted up over the year and the first campaign was played and brought to a conclusion with all that participated having fun and another campaign planned for the new year. I would put this under the 'completed successfully' category.

Gunnery School Cadets for Mordheim

2 - New Armies/Projects

• Future Wars - Probably the main thrust of my interest over the first part of the year, though I didn't manage to get the platoon finished off it is well developed and the idea grew over the year to encapsulate a whole game including the original platoon, the Enemy, game rules and planned out terrain. Though not completed, I did get this one moving and will be high on the agenda for next years plan.

First Section completed with Pin-up

• Malburian Project - No progress at all here. 

3 - Terrain Projects

• Abbey Terrain Project - Planned progress here has actually been met and largely exceeded with the parts started all finished, the next parts planned and well under way. Really carried out early on in the year and casting and material gathering since but pleased about this one. and will be continuing with the build next year.

Abbey Ruins 003

• Scatter Terrain - Didn't manage to get any other miscellaneous bits and bobs done through the year as planned so no progress on this one.
• Misc Modelling - a slow steady march on things which took my whim but nothing to shout about.

All in all a pretty poor showing from what I thought at the beginning of the year would be a bumper one in modelling and modelling terms and though I've managed to get more done this year, in terms of overall progress, than the last two years combined, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped.

The reasons for this are many fold and all fairly mundane and the usual life bits that get in the way of all of us wargamers at some point, mine all seemed to come this year from about April onwards, so from that point of view I'm actually quite pleased that I managed to get done what I did.

Though the painting and modelling progress has been disappointing overall, I have had lot's of great gaming through the year and picked up a fair bit of experience along the way too. I've expanded my gaming network in several unexpected ways and now in contact with more people than ever before in the hobby which is fantastic on all sorts of levels. The FDWC has had a very good year and with lots of new and active members there is another good bonus and different thoughts and games and preferences appearing there, the pot pouri that is the club is an even better source of inspiration and chat. All good there.

The real learner from this year (baring the unforeseen life bits) is what I can and should be able to achieve for the next year and so I'm planning the wargaming activities for 2013 with an open (and probably optimistic) mind. Lot's to build on and projects to explore and will be doing a bit of planning over the next few days and see if I can get 2013 off to an even better start.

Can you guess what I'm adding to my projects for next year?