Yup, I'm back and damned glad to be so too! No disrespect to any Irish folk reading this, but Dublin wasn't that great really....Some cool pubs, but as I'm not much of a drinker and can't stand Guiness, I was onto a loser really! On the plus side, the Medieval/Viking exhibition 'Dublinia' is really rather fab and rescued the holiday. Oh and the people themselves....really friendly and very helpful to two English folk who hadn't got a clue!!!
The wedding was good too, incidentally. Great ceremony, great people and great food....The bride had kindly 'arranged' with the band for the evning do that I would get up and do a number with them. Always tricky, that...you never know if they are gonna be a decent band or a bunch of melons and THEY don't know if the person getting up can really play or not... Anyway, I did Bryan Adams' 'Summer of 69' with them-probably one of the easiest songs to play and a sure-fire crowd pleaser and it went well....lived up to my 'guitarhero' persona anyway and surprised those folk who knew that I 'play a bit of guitar' but who didn't realise that I actually really can play guitar fairly well!!!!
So, one more day off before going back to work and today I am going to the flicks to see the Last Legion and then will come the frenzied attempts to finish painting Tony's Saxons and my Teulu. All being well, about two weeks should see both complete...the Saxons sooner I hope (and so does Tony, I'll bet...a patient man, our Tony!!!!)
Also coming up shortly, battle 3 in the Raiding Season against the Picts and the commencement of the club Mordheim campaign...which reminds me...I really must work out a gang and paint it...by Nov 6th!!! ARRRGH!!! Oh well, basecoats only I reckon...that'll at least stop me getting penalised for having unpainted models....I can top 'em up later!!!
Right...film starts in an hour so I'm off...
See ya...
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Monday, 15 October 2007
An Even BIGGER Question...
Will 'The Last Legion' film that comes out on Friday be utterly shite? Initial reviews seem to think so... Bloody shame, as the novel is a cracking read if one is an Arthurian/late Roman Empire nut like wot I is....
Nonetheless, utterly shite or otherwise, I feel that it is my duty to view it, as there are so few 'non-kniggets in armour' Arthurian movies out there that even a shite one has to be viewed.
Talking of which, Tristan and Isolde isn't a bad movie. A bit slow, but probably the most realistically portrayed post-Roman warriors and battle tactics (aside from the Irish archer on horseback...ouch...should've been lobbing javelins and ok, the Irish in the movie are more Saxon looking, but hey...you can't have it all ways...) that I've seen... Ok, I know that doesn't say a lot, but check out the scale armour, various leather accoutrements, vaguely spangenhelm helmets and Pictish shields, etc...
Worth hiring for a wet Sunday afternoon or even forking out a fiver for...no worse than Clive Owen's King Arthur, which I found mildly entertaining if only for the Nazi-ish Saxons and the pretty cool battle on the ice (armour-piercing crossbows aside!!!!!!)
On the painting front, am off to Dublin for the wife's cousin's wedding this coming weekend, so that'll slow progress down, but I have to say that the Teulu and Tony's Saxons are looking pretty darn good thus far... Cloaks, hair, shields, weapons/helmets and banners still to do....so about 2/3 of the way through really. At least the Saxons have LBM transfers for the bucklers, so that'll speed that bit up and their hair is dry-brushable, as is the fur on the cloaks, so that'll take a few minutes to do... It'll be worth the wait once they are done, I can assure you!! Trouble is, I have three banners (two British & one Saxon) to do, but I'll do those last and will make sure that I do the Saxon banner first so I can get them sent off to their very patient owner!!!!
Anyway, it's been a pig of a day, so I'm gonna chill for an hour...
See ya...
Nonetheless, utterly shite or otherwise, I feel that it is my duty to view it, as there are so few 'non-kniggets in armour' Arthurian movies out there that even a shite one has to be viewed.
Talking of which, Tristan and Isolde isn't a bad movie. A bit slow, but probably the most realistically portrayed post-Roman warriors and battle tactics (aside from the Irish archer on horseback...ouch...should've been lobbing javelins and ok, the Irish in the movie are more Saxon looking, but hey...you can't have it all ways...) that I've seen... Ok, I know that doesn't say a lot, but check out the scale armour, various leather accoutrements, vaguely spangenhelm helmets and Pictish shields, etc...
Worth hiring for a wet Sunday afternoon or even forking out a fiver for...no worse than Clive Owen's King Arthur, which I found mildly entertaining if only for the Nazi-ish Saxons and the pretty cool battle on the ice (armour-piercing crossbows aside!!!!!!)
On the painting front, am off to Dublin for the wife's cousin's wedding this coming weekend, so that'll slow progress down, but I have to say that the Teulu and Tony's Saxons are looking pretty darn good thus far... Cloaks, hair, shields, weapons/helmets and banners still to do....so about 2/3 of the way through really. At least the Saxons have LBM transfers for the bucklers, so that'll speed that bit up and their hair is dry-brushable, as is the fur on the cloaks, so that'll take a few minutes to do... It'll be worth the wait once they are done, I can assure you!! Trouble is, I have three banners (two British & one Saxon) to do, but I'll do those last and will make sure that I do the Saxon banner first so I can get them sent off to their very patient owner!!!!
Anyway, it's been a pig of a day, so I'm gonna chill for an hour...
See ya...
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Questions...questions....questions...???
Question 1. How are the Saxons and Teulu coming on? Well, you'll be delighted to hear that the answer is 'slowly, but very nicely, thank you!' Tunic patterning is all done and looking suitably posh and noble and we are now painting lots of belts, shoes and general leatherwork, after which it'll be the wooden back of all the shields followed by the cloaks. The wife is away all day Saturday, so, aside from re-stringing the old geetar ready for next week's warm-up gig in preparation for the Thin Lizzy tribute thingy, it's paint slapping all the way!!!! Not long now, Tony, if you are reading this!!!!
Question 2. What will I be painting after the Saxons and Teulu are done? Hmmmm....Dunno...Possibly slapping a paint job on some of my WFB Dwarfs, but then again, the boxload of French-Indian war skirmish models (Rangers, Mohegan allies, civilians and nasty Frenchie allied Injuns) are really tempting me... Trouble is, I have a few old colonial movies to watch on DVD and that'll make me wanna buy NW Frontier skirmish models (Some lovely new stuff by Castaway Arts in Australia...1880's British, Sepoy and Pathans...REALLY nice!! Tempting...Must resist...) Also have the latest version of '4 Feathers' picked up for a bargain £5 (I heard it wasn't great, but for £5...) so watching that will make me want to buy Perry Sudan stuff...NOOOO!!! Must resist!!!!
Then of course, there's Soapy's and Bill's Saxons which I want as allies and enemies for my Brits... Oh dear, so much to buy and so little time available to paint it all....
Question 3. Will Darrell post any more pics of painted Welshies on his 'Just Add Water...' blog this side of 2009? :-) Sorry Darrell...couldn't resist...although you are getting very close to your deadline and are probably too busy painting to take photos... How many models do you actually need to get finished now?
Question 4. Why am I waffling about on here and not slapping more paint on those Saxons and Teulu? Bloody good question for which I have no answer....
See ya....
Question 2. What will I be painting after the Saxons and Teulu are done? Hmmmm....Dunno...Possibly slapping a paint job on some of my WFB Dwarfs, but then again, the boxload of French-Indian war skirmish models (Rangers, Mohegan allies, civilians and nasty Frenchie allied Injuns) are really tempting me... Trouble is, I have a few old colonial movies to watch on DVD and that'll make me wanna buy NW Frontier skirmish models (Some lovely new stuff by Castaway Arts in Australia...1880's British, Sepoy and Pathans...REALLY nice!! Tempting...Must resist...) Also have the latest version of '4 Feathers' picked up for a bargain £5 (I heard it wasn't great, but for £5...) so watching that will make me want to buy Perry Sudan stuff...NOOOO!!! Must resist!!!!
Then of course, there's Soapy's and Bill's Saxons which I want as allies and enemies for my Brits... Oh dear, so much to buy and so little time available to paint it all....
Question 3. Will Darrell post any more pics of painted Welshies on his 'Just Add Water...' blog this side of 2009? :-) Sorry Darrell...couldn't resist...although you are getting very close to your deadline and are probably too busy painting to take photos... How many models do you actually need to get finished now?
Question 4. Why am I waffling about on here and not slapping more paint on those Saxons and Teulu? Bloody good question for which I have no answer....
See ya....
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Vengeance is sweet!!!!
"The clash of swords is silenced
The splintering of shields is over.
The haunting cries of the wounded and dying,
Harsh, piercing cries of ravens gorged.
Pictish dead un-numbered.
Honour returns to Briton lands!
The River Glein runs red,
Her waters a charnel house of graveyard reek.
Scene of slaughter, heroic battle,
Forests of spearshafts lay waste to the Picts.
Urien avenged!
Honour returns to Briton lands.
Fierce was the charge of Llywarch's Teulu...
Unnumbered the foe,
Undaunted the Cymri,
The splintering shield-rim,
The war-song upholding
Dying like heroes for the honour of Llywarch.
Honour returns to Briton lands."
Aahhhh....you can't beat a bit of shite pseudo-Welsh poetry first thing of a morning!! They don't call me a literacy expert for nothing!!! (Err...actually, on the basis of that poem, they wouldn't call me literacy expert at all, but hey...who cares?)
Anyhoo folks, why am I writing crap poetry? Well, last night saw battle two of the 'Raiding Season' and the Britons have managed a close-run victory against Mike's Picts! Urien is almost avenged (see earlier post if you're wondering what the hell I'm on about) The river crossing is our's and now our warriors strike deep into the Pictish heartland, to plunder the spoils of war!
In a close-fought and bloody encounter, the Britons held the bridge and contested the ford. It was a game where both players went for it BIG style, where both our comitatus units were slaughtered, where the Picts' Saxon allies were rather pathetic and where both players had our share of very good and very bad dice rolls. In short, a bloody great game that tested our generalship and really went to the wire!!! (Especially when my Combrogi warbanded OFF the bridge in turn 6, leaving me from a position of victory, to a position of defeat!! Luckily, next turn - my last- they were able to pop back ON to the bridge and save my blushes!!! ) Now, THAT is what wargaming is about!!!
As usual, we forgot a couple of things in the excitement, but hey...not to worry! It balanced out in the end!
Anyway, the next game is 'The Cattle Raid', where I attempt to herd my plunder off the table and the Picts try to get it back!!!! A great fun scenario that I have played before as the attacker..and a great excuse to get my recently painted Gripping Beast cows and sheep back out onto the gaming table!!!!
On the painting front, slow progress, as I'm painting tunic decoration on Teulu and Saxons, but that'll be done by Sunday ready for leather work then the cloaks... We're getting there!!!!!
Right.. off to work....
See ya...
The splintering of shields is over.
The haunting cries of the wounded and dying,
Harsh, piercing cries of ravens gorged.
Pictish dead un-numbered.
Honour returns to Briton lands!
The River Glein runs red,
Her waters a charnel house of graveyard reek.
Scene of slaughter, heroic battle,
Forests of spearshafts lay waste to the Picts.
Urien avenged!
Honour returns to Briton lands.
Fierce was the charge of Llywarch's Teulu...
Unnumbered the foe,
Undaunted the Cymri,
The splintering shield-rim,
The war-song upholding
Dying like heroes for the honour of Llywarch.
Honour returns to Briton lands."
Aahhhh....you can't beat a bit of shite pseudo-Welsh poetry first thing of a morning!! They don't call me a literacy expert for nothing!!! (Err...actually, on the basis of that poem, they wouldn't call me literacy expert at all, but hey...who cares?)
Anyhoo folks, why am I writing crap poetry? Well, last night saw battle two of the 'Raiding Season' and the Britons have managed a close-run victory against Mike's Picts! Urien is almost avenged (see earlier post if you're wondering what the hell I'm on about) The river crossing is our's and now our warriors strike deep into the Pictish heartland, to plunder the spoils of war!
In a close-fought and bloody encounter, the Britons held the bridge and contested the ford. It was a game where both players went for it BIG style, where both our comitatus units were slaughtered, where the Picts' Saxon allies were rather pathetic and where both players had our share of very good and very bad dice rolls. In short, a bloody great game that tested our generalship and really went to the wire!!! (Especially when my Combrogi warbanded OFF the bridge in turn 6, leaving me from a position of victory, to a position of defeat!! Luckily, next turn - my last- they were able to pop back ON to the bridge and save my blushes!!! ) Now, THAT is what wargaming is about!!!
As usual, we forgot a couple of things in the excitement, but hey...not to worry! It balanced out in the end!
Anyway, the next game is 'The Cattle Raid', where I attempt to herd my plunder off the table and the Picts try to get it back!!!! A great fun scenario that I have played before as the attacker..and a great excuse to get my recently painted Gripping Beast cows and sheep back out onto the gaming table!!!!
On the painting front, slow progress, as I'm painting tunic decoration on Teulu and Saxons, but that'll be done by Sunday ready for leather work then the cloaks... We're getting there!!!!!
Right.. off to work....
See ya...
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Have you tried..?
Playing Age of Arthur British Kingdoms against Shieldwall Vikings?
Well....
Don't!!!!!
I did last night. I played well, tactically sound, etc, and I was given a right mullaring!! Didn't help that the bloody Teulu failed a panic test and fled off table, but by then I'd realised that you just can't hurt the Vikings. My opponent played with Norwegians and fielded 3 formed and two skirmishing hirdmen units, including 6 berserkers, a unit of bondi spear and a unit of bondi archers. He had a unit of thralls too....
I managed to draw out most of the berserkers without too much loss (lots of dead skirmishers), but let's face it. His hirdmen hit on 3 and wound on 4. I hit on 4 and wound on 5... Add to that the Hersir in every unit and the Konnagg....errr.....king chappie and...well...bloody pointless!!! In one combat, a unit of hirdmen killed 4 combrogi with berserkers, then scored 12 hits with their Hersir and ordinary attacks. I lost the combat by 9 points and I started with a rank extra!!!!!
BTW, it was a 2000pt game to give my mate a practice for the Derby Worlds tourney at the weekend. Apparently, some nasty gamers on some forum or other (not SAD WAB, of course) have been laughing at all the AoA players that are going and gleefully plotting the calamitous slaughter that will ensue when their (planned to the nth degree) BTGG and Shieldwall, etc, armies meet the AoA ones... Not what gaming's all about really is it? Where's the fun and tension of a tightly fought, tactically challenging battle..? But no...they'd rather have a spawnily-won 3000 victory points win that they can gloat about to their (virtual?) pals while planning their next beardy army list... And you wonder why I don't do tourneys??? I hope that Grahame doesn't have a hard time of it, as he (like a lot of others who go and suffer at the hands of these tossers) is not of that ilk at all....A least he's got a rock-hard army!!!!
Still, it's always good to play against Grahame...he plays very fair even when dishing out mayhem with an Army I couldn't really hurt!! He and I are gonna do the Raiding Season campaign from AoA at some point and that should be a different tale!!!! Much more balanced and great fun. (he plays Romano-Brits, BTW)
On the painting front, slower progress on the Saxons and Teulu, but then I am in tunic-painting mode now, so that takes longer. Looking good though and they will be worth the wait!!
Right, garlic bread starter has been served by the darling wife with main course not a gazillion miles behind, so I'm gonna scarper.
See ya....
Well....
Don't!!!!!
I did last night. I played well, tactically sound, etc, and I was given a right mullaring!! Didn't help that the bloody Teulu failed a panic test and fled off table, but by then I'd realised that you just can't hurt the Vikings. My opponent played with Norwegians and fielded 3 formed and two skirmishing hirdmen units, including 6 berserkers, a unit of bondi spear and a unit of bondi archers. He had a unit of thralls too....
I managed to draw out most of the berserkers without too much loss (lots of dead skirmishers), but let's face it. His hirdmen hit on 3 and wound on 4. I hit on 4 and wound on 5... Add to that the Hersir in every unit and the Konnagg....errr.....king chappie and...well...bloody pointless!!! In one combat, a unit of hirdmen killed 4 combrogi with berserkers, then scored 12 hits with their Hersir and ordinary attacks. I lost the combat by 9 points and I started with a rank extra!!!!!
BTW, it was a 2000pt game to give my mate a practice for the Derby Worlds tourney at the weekend. Apparently, some nasty gamers on some forum or other (not SAD WAB, of course) have been laughing at all the AoA players that are going and gleefully plotting the calamitous slaughter that will ensue when their (planned to the nth degree) BTGG and Shieldwall, etc, armies meet the AoA ones... Not what gaming's all about really is it? Where's the fun and tension of a tightly fought, tactically challenging battle..? But no...they'd rather have a spawnily-won 3000 victory points win that they can gloat about to their (virtual?) pals while planning their next beardy army list... And you wonder why I don't do tourneys??? I hope that Grahame doesn't have a hard time of it, as he (like a lot of others who go and suffer at the hands of these tossers) is not of that ilk at all....A least he's got a rock-hard army!!!!
Still, it's always good to play against Grahame...he plays very fair even when dishing out mayhem with an Army I couldn't really hurt!! He and I are gonna do the Raiding Season campaign from AoA at some point and that should be a different tale!!!! Much more balanced and great fun. (he plays Romano-Brits, BTW)
On the painting front, slower progress on the Saxons and Teulu, but then I am in tunic-painting mode now, so that takes longer. Looking good though and they will be worth the wait!!
Right, garlic bread starter has been served by the darling wife with main course not a gazillion miles behind, so I'm gonna scarper.
See ya....
Thursday, 20 September 2007
A-Painting We Will Go...
Well, after a long time of inactivity on the paintbrush front (for several reasons, not least of which was the fact that all my brushes were knacked...nice new set arrived from Foundry last Friday, tho...) I'm back in the swing of it. Tony's Saxons are coming on nicely and so are my foot Teulu.
Have approached it a bit differently this time in that I'm doing a mega batch-paint job, so all 20 of the Saxons and all 22 of the Teulu have their armour finished and the flesh tones will be done by close of play tonight. After that, it's basecoat the trousers and tunics before settling in to the highlighting. I'l probably do that by colour..i.e. all the blue tunics first, then all the green, etc...It seems to be speeding me up a tad, but as the detail painting sets in, I fear that'll change. Still, I'm really enthused again right now, so it's all systems go!
One thing I will say, is that the Musketeer Saxons are a bloody JOY to paint! Their faces are particularly great and I think represent my best fizzog painting ever!!! That's entirely due to Bill's masterful sculpting which allows superior fine-line brushwork...Ta Bill!!!
I'm currently struggling against an overwhelming urge to spend a fortune on those and Soapy's new GB Saxons, pics of which, painted in all their glory, caused a real froth of excitement this week, but, as I just bought a large box of GW Dwarfs for WFB (not the shitty new edition, BTW, but the 'still really rather fun to play' previous edition), I can't really justify it just yet. But fear not, they shall be purchased sooner or later....
Oh, by the way, on the 'fame & glory' front, have any of you spotted some of my combrogi and pagenses in this month's Wargames Illustrated magazine? Yup, there they are, right up in the corner of one page of the 'Hot Lead' report...No caption to say they are mine, mind you (shame on you Mr magazine man!) but, hey...a photo in a mag is a photo in a mag....
Right...better stop all this wafflin' and get back to the brush work.
See ya!
PS No pics of anything as previously promised cos I haven't had the time to get everything all set up, but I'll get round to it eventually!
Have approached it a bit differently this time in that I'm doing a mega batch-paint job, so all 20 of the Saxons and all 22 of the Teulu have their armour finished and the flesh tones will be done by close of play tonight. After that, it's basecoat the trousers and tunics before settling in to the highlighting. I'l probably do that by colour..i.e. all the blue tunics first, then all the green, etc...It seems to be speeding me up a tad, but as the detail painting sets in, I fear that'll change. Still, I'm really enthused again right now, so it's all systems go!
One thing I will say, is that the Musketeer Saxons are a bloody JOY to paint! Their faces are particularly great and I think represent my best fizzog painting ever!!! That's entirely due to Bill's masterful sculpting which allows superior fine-line brushwork...Ta Bill!!!
I'm currently struggling against an overwhelming urge to spend a fortune on those and Soapy's new GB Saxons, pics of which, painted in all their glory, caused a real froth of excitement this week, but, as I just bought a large box of GW Dwarfs for WFB (not the shitty new edition, BTW, but the 'still really rather fun to play' previous edition), I can't really justify it just yet. But fear not, they shall be purchased sooner or later....
Oh, by the way, on the 'fame & glory' front, have any of you spotted some of my combrogi and pagenses in this month's Wargames Illustrated magazine? Yup, there they are, right up in the corner of one page of the 'Hot Lead' report...No caption to say they are mine, mind you (shame on you Mr magazine man!) but, hey...a photo in a mag is a photo in a mag....
Right...better stop all this wafflin' and get back to the brush work.
See ya!
PS No pics of anything as previously promised cos I haven't had the time to get everything all set up, but I'll get round to it eventually!
Thursday, 6 September 2007
A Lament for King Urien
Ok, let me explain.....
Tonight saw the first game in the 'Raiding Season' campaign between my British Kingdoms and Mike Evans' (of Evans/Gleeson events and Huntingdon Wargames Club fame) Southern Picts.
It was the battle of Bassas Ford, so, retinue and army chosen, we set up for battle!!!! I was determined the attacker and basically had to start the game with skirmishers and one formed unit, plus one character against the entire Pict host. My character would fight a duel in the ford and every turn it lasted, I could bring on a unit. After that, I had to dice for arrivals...
So, I thought I'd risk the big one and took an army with my Rex (King Urien...you can guess where this is going, can't you?). He sat in the ford for the challenge backed up by his Teulu. The Picts Allied saxon Atheling stepped up to face the challenge...
Anyway, the challenge lasted 2 turns. despite going first in both turns, Urien received 2 wounds (despite Finest bleedin' armour!!) although he slew the Atheling! Now the fun started, as I failed to bring any more than 1 unit of combrogi to the field.
Bear in mind that, to win this, I have to have 3 full units across the river after 6 turns. Mike basically rushed the river and denied me crossing opportunities....eventually, after losing 2 Teulu to missile fire (3+ save...bollox!!!) I succumbed and charged the Teulu into the allied saxon gedriht..if they won, it would be ok, if they lost...flank charge by Pict nobles with more characters than is humanly possible. The Teulu slammed home and killed 9 (yes...9!!) saxons!! Result...but FBIGO of course, but out of range of the Pict nobles, so we followed up and hit them again.
By this time, I have some more troops on the table, but the Pict nobles have charged my combrogi at the ford...oh dear.
Next turn, the Teulu charge again and kill...2 saxons...WHAT? Only 2!!! And yes, they killed two back (3+ save...bollox..) except it's even worse as Mike has realised that the Rex has only one wound and showers 6 attacks at him!!! They wound and kill him!!! So much of the army now legs it and the Teulu flee with nowhere to go as they are too close to the other Picts and are therefore destroyed...Bugger!!!!
I conceded at this point as 1 unit of combrogi still hadn't arrived and I couldn't even get a bloody stand off!!!!
So I roll on the character casualty table....and get a 1...That's the Rex permanently dead then!! At least the ASB survived!!!!!
What a disaster of a game!!! (albeit a great fun disaster!!!) The chances of losing so many wounds on the Rex and Teulu with finest armour was remote, but to lose the Rex permanently was horridly bad luck!!!
So next time we have to play the River Glein..where I have to assault the ford and bridge.(my least fave scenario, as I've only won it once in 4 attempts as the attacker..although Mike did sportingly offer to attack instead) Of course, I am now without my beloved Rex Urien, so goodness knows what I'm gonna do now!!
Actually, I do know....I am going to post an entry into the great Welsh Book of Grudges and the Picts shall appear next to bloody Dalriada Irish in my list of 'most hated'....
Mike has very sportingly said that if my Tiern that takes over as general wins a mighty victory in the next game, he can upgrade to Rex, which is not in the rules but was really kind and I'll take him up on it..although I can't see it happening with the River Glein...Although, a plan is forming...I may have to be very cunning with this one...
Next game probably won't be til early October, but I'll keep you all posted...
Tonight saw the first game in the 'Raiding Season' campaign between my British Kingdoms and Mike Evans' (of Evans/Gleeson events and Huntingdon Wargames Club fame) Southern Picts.
It was the battle of Bassas Ford, so, retinue and army chosen, we set up for battle!!!! I was determined the attacker and basically had to start the game with skirmishers and one formed unit, plus one character against the entire Pict host. My character would fight a duel in the ford and every turn it lasted, I could bring on a unit. After that, I had to dice for arrivals...
So, I thought I'd risk the big one and took an army with my Rex (King Urien...you can guess where this is going, can't you?). He sat in the ford for the challenge backed up by his Teulu. The Picts Allied saxon Atheling stepped up to face the challenge...
Anyway, the challenge lasted 2 turns. despite going first in both turns, Urien received 2 wounds (despite Finest bleedin' armour!!) although he slew the Atheling! Now the fun started, as I failed to bring any more than 1 unit of combrogi to the field.
Bear in mind that, to win this, I have to have 3 full units across the river after 6 turns. Mike basically rushed the river and denied me crossing opportunities....eventually, after losing 2 Teulu to missile fire (3+ save...bollox!!!) I succumbed and charged the Teulu into the allied saxon gedriht..if they won, it would be ok, if they lost...flank charge by Pict nobles with more characters than is humanly possible. The Teulu slammed home and killed 9 (yes...9!!) saxons!! Result...but FBIGO of course, but out of range of the Pict nobles, so we followed up and hit them again.
By this time, I have some more troops on the table, but the Pict nobles have charged my combrogi at the ford...oh dear.
Next turn, the Teulu charge again and kill...2 saxons...WHAT? Only 2!!! And yes, they killed two back (3+ save...bollox..) except it's even worse as Mike has realised that the Rex has only one wound and showers 6 attacks at him!!! They wound and kill him!!! So much of the army now legs it and the Teulu flee with nowhere to go as they are too close to the other Picts and are therefore destroyed...Bugger!!!!
I conceded at this point as 1 unit of combrogi still hadn't arrived and I couldn't even get a bloody stand off!!!!
So I roll on the character casualty table....and get a 1...That's the Rex permanently dead then!! At least the ASB survived!!!!!
What a disaster of a game!!! (albeit a great fun disaster!!!) The chances of losing so many wounds on the Rex and Teulu with finest armour was remote, but to lose the Rex permanently was horridly bad luck!!!
So next time we have to play the River Glein..where I have to assault the ford and bridge.(my least fave scenario, as I've only won it once in 4 attempts as the attacker..although Mike did sportingly offer to attack instead) Of course, I am now without my beloved Rex Urien, so goodness knows what I'm gonna do now!!
Actually, I do know....I am going to post an entry into the great Welsh Book of Grudges and the Picts shall appear next to bloody Dalriada Irish in my list of 'most hated'....
Mike has very sportingly said that if my Tiern that takes over as general wins a mighty victory in the next game, he can upgrade to Rex, which is not in the rules but was really kind and I'll take him up on it..although I can't see it happening with the River Glein...Although, a plan is forming...I may have to be very cunning with this one...
Next game probably won't be til early October, but I'll keep you all posted...
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