Dux Britanniarum Campaign - March 565 AD

Last week saw our Dux Britannarium campaign kicking off.

With this being my first game of the campaign and also my first game of Dux B things were going to be a bit dicey or so I thought.

Luckily (or not) it was Ian's (the other Scotti Player) only second game, so we were both beginners.

For the first turn (March 565 AD) Ian had stolen the march on me (as I was about to raid into Flotla), and with no regard for his brethren raided into his fellow Scotti realm of Cenel Gabhrain forcing me to defend the homestead.

The scenario we rolled was the Wagon Train one, which turned out to be the most complicated (for Dux B novices anyway) and provided a few problems from the outset, mainly with the scenario written for the Saxon/British bands, it doesn't translate well into the Raiders band units, so a bit of improv was required. With both forces being Scotti, we had identical forces.

My task was, with roughly half my force, to escort three wagons from one end of the table to an opposite corner where the gates of my holding were, and the rest of my force were hold up. Ian threw for his deployment and ended up right in the middle as close to my train as was possible.

Ian launched his assault on my wagon train pretty quickly and moved into position and lobbed a few missiles at my troops, while his cavalry moved around the front of my train to position himself for attack and block my route.

My re-enforcements exited the steading and started to make their way to the action.

Ian's cavalry and lord charged into the flank of two of my spear who had managed to form up with my Lord and 2nd in the line up and bounced the cavalry with minor casualties but inflicted a few shock points on both sides.

Now muddling through and still with the cards dealt at the beginning, which turned out to be pretty good (Carpe Diem and a couple of other good ones) my now three spear ranked up and charged the bounced and shaken cavalry and inflicted more shock and five casualties breaking them and carrying on into Ian's skirmishers and automatically scattering them.

Ian, with half his force gone and really only his untouched spear on the field and my skirmishers and cavalry fast approaching decided to leg it. I didn't contest his departure deciding not to push my beginners luck.

Good first game and once we got the hang of things it went fairly easily, helped along by some sage advice from Andy who is organising the campaign and who was playing Kev on the adjacent table.

Casualties were light on both sides, so we are both available for raiding next month.

Need to get a move on and get the Children of Gabran painted up for the next outing.

York and the Leeds Armouries

Just back from a few days away with the 'other half' down to parts foreign and fantastical, (well Yorkshire) and had a great and relaxing time floating about, eating in the local eateries and drinking in the local drinkeries and just taking in the local vibe generally around York mainly.

We have always had an enjoyable time when down t'York and this time was no exception. Took a bit of time between shopping bouts to have a good look at some of the interesting and thought provoking architectural around the city center (and beyond).

A good source of idea's generally and lot's to get the creative juices going and get lot's of possible terrain pieces formulated.

The obvious tudor and late medieval pieces and the twisting streets in the Shambles are archetypal of the medieval-esque fantasy world of Mordheim and all the other genre's, but to get some of the details of how these buildings actually were built gives a whole new level to spin out.

The Minster is always a favourite place to visit but the Chapter House in particular is a must see and is set to be the main inspiration for a future terrain piece that I've now planned.

Throughout the town, there are many Tudor and slightly later buildings which I do like, mainly because they don't fall into the typical mould of black & white timber and plaster look but are brick and/or stone built like the Treasurers House or indeed parts of the City Wall and it's many gates, many of which were re-built in Tudor times or even into the Seventeenth Century. Even some of the municipal Victorian buildings are interesting for their own reasons and are still a good source for ideas for interesting models.

After our stay in York, and on our way back oop North, my better half agreed to a detour to Leeds and a visit to The Armouries.

Haven't been there since the late Eighties, not that long after it opened, and the significant changes in the way of full urban development and dockland regeneration has taken place (and indeed appears to be on going) around the site so a big change there. Apparently, due to high costs and the loss of the grazing nearby the Museum has had to sell off their horses (and indded their hawks and falcons etc) so no more regular Jousting and Cavalry displays in the Tourney yard like those we enjoyed way back when.

We did enjoy the displays and shows that they were running which included display and demonstration of two handed sword fighting which as my favourite on the day. 

Because of my general interests being more on the Medieval and Renaissance, we spent a large proportion of our time in the Museum (when not having coffee that is) on the Second Floor where the majority of the space is laid over to arms and armour from early times to the renaissance including the pretty famous Pavia display.

I was very impressed with the model making and the various miniatures showing types of armour and so on. I would think that making a full set of 15th Century armour in all it's detail and individual pieces would be far harder than making a full sized suit.

The museum itself is a reasonably interesting building and won several awards when constructed and on a fairly windy and a bit cold Friday at the beginning of May was a surprising pleasant place to while away an afternoon.

Looking around the museum at the surrounding urban aquatic scene things there were pretty interesting too, with working canal locks in use and water taxi's plying the waters around barges, it was quite interesting.

Looking out on the 'street' however was another matter, where looking out for terrain idea's (as you do) I was struck that the very quiet ways around the museum actually looked quite 'model-like'. That's urban planning for you I suppose.

Doesn't look real, does it?

In any event, the trip was thoroughly enjoyable and worth waiting for a repeat visit and the fact that the Museum is free is quite amazing and the shop (which sells wargaming (Mainly Warlord Games) proceeds go to maintaining the Museum is surprisingly reasonable in prices and worth supporting.

 A good stop and a great way to finish our trip t' Yorkshire. No doubt we will return.

Avengers; Age of Ultron

Went to see the latest Avenger flick when it came out on thursday. I'd been looking forward to more of the previous Avengers and related film action/humour mix and I wasn't disappointed.

All the previous characters make an appearance Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, the Hulk, Black Widow etc, and with what is a pretty complicated plot line (for Hollywood blockbusters) a few new character are introduced to add the Marvel Universe crew detailed in the movie. Along with a passel of the supporting characters from previous Avenger support movies adding to the mix.

With the main protagonist being Ultron, it is no surprise that The Vision (my favourite Avenger from my childhood) makes an appearance to join the ranks and help fight the bad guys. Played by Paul Bettany, I was quite happy with the portrayal but thought the back story for the film of how The Vision is created a bit poor.

The whole film is slightly darker than the previous Avenger movies, with a part of the humour being a bit more on the black side, but there is still the slapstick and the buddy humour which helps you associate with the heroes.

James Spader is a genius choice for Ultron and his droll and dry delivery is a perfect foil for the gungho and right-on hereos.

The look of Ultron, which goes through several changes through the movie, is pretty good and a fair update of the slightly naff look from the comics, though perhaps a bit too anthropomorphised, but all good really.

The fight/action scenes are great throughout, from minute one right up to the end and the big climactic fight scene at the end actually had me smiling away to myself, really good cinema. The production team and Joss Whedon have got the formula for this type of movie down pat now and it's difficult to say where they have got anything wrong in terms of putting an enjoyable romp together.

The ingredients are all there for the geeks (including me) for spotting the references and other characters etc and stir in a dose of hard tech machines and weapons, a sprinkling of women in skin tight suits with guns and some pretty good dialogue, you've got a winner. The whole plot thing has of course been altered to suit the Hollywood/movie version of events and to fit into the two hour or so timescale of the movie but this is not something that bothers me.

No spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie but some of the additional characters added into the Marvel-verse are the Maximoff siblings Pietro and Wanda (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) withe Wanda being another favourite from my childhood getting added to the Avengers, though the costume has been suitably watered down to make it more 'acceptable', though she does spend most of the film not an Avenger so the standard get up is OK. (There is a glimpse later on of her 'hero' get-up). 

The plot has time to get a bit of character development in too with Hawkeye and the Black Widow in particular getting a bit of depth built up and there is even a bit of a love story in there too which is an integral part of the Avengers comics from way back and again is fair enough, adding to movie mix.

The wind down ending is once again, getting a bit traditional in it's make up setting up the next movie in the series (The Avengers will return) with what looks to be a slightly different line up from the last couple. Tis is probably due to a couple of the actors getting a bit bored with the parts or just a bit older, but this is also in keeping with the comics which often have a different cast from series to series. There are after all a LOT of Avengers to choose from.

Still waiting for the 'Avengers Assemble!' though.

All in all a great movie and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. A recommended must see and gets the 9 out of 10 from the Warblog to go with it.