The Annals of Linnius Chapter 11: Raid on the Wagon Train

"Early Spring in the year of Our Lord 476 AD. These are the chronicles of the kingdom of Linnius, recorded by myself, Publius Librarius, scribe to his Royal Majesty King Mascuidius.

For months now the land has been quiet. No sign has been seen of Saxon raiders coming from the North from the lands around our old Royal city. It seems strange to wake in strange halls, to walk unfamiliar streets and to sleep in halls that, fine as they are, in no way resemble home. But this is where we are, brought to this by the Saex raiders from north of the Humbre river.

Shortly after the last frosts of winter, spies in the old kingdom did report that the Saex lord’s men did grow restless. It is said that they did grow bored, fat and lazy, living off the fat of the land…OUR land stolen from us after the Great Defeat. Hearing this news, the Paefectus Andrucius did double the guards, increase the patrols and increase the training of the levy in preparation for the new campaign season.

It began sooner than we thought. The Praefectus did march his main force North towards the border, taking wagons full of supplies to the Decurio Maximius Minimus who did command the garrison of the newly constructed fort at Slea-Ford through the winter.

Marching through wooded and marshy terrain just south of the fort, the wagon train did fall victim to  dastardly ambush by the Saex! Fortunately, the Saex lord’s men were not under good control and did spring the ambush early, thus allowing the Praefectus to deploy the shieldwall in defence of the wagons while the diminutive decurio could be seen bringing levy from the fort to his aid.

The fight was fierce and in the balance for some time. The Saex hearthguard did resort to their goading, thus allowing their companions to shatter the shieldwall and drive the milites back into the woods. The decurio Geraint did attempt to bring the levy to their aid but was caught by a Saex charge and driven back with the milites into the woods. This did result in two wagons being lost to enemy, although the Praefectus did soon regain control of his men, forcing the Saex back, shattering a group of the enemy hearthguard whose volleys of javelins did simply bounce ineffectually from the shieldwall.

Maximus Minimus did undertake sterling work with the levy and did prevent the remaining Saex warriors from cutting the remaining wagon off from the fort. The levy under the diminutive decurio did earn much accolade in this fight for their shieldwall did hold firm under the heathen assault!

Eventually, the Saex lord did withdraw from the field, leaving two of the wagons still in the Praefectus’ possession. While the Praefectus will no doubt mourn the loss of the food and the handful of spears within that one wagon, its loss will not greatly disadvantage the kingdom. The Saex did lose more men in this fight, largely due to the shieldwalls holding firm and this is more important to the kingdom."

This was the first time that Mike and I had played Dux Britanniarum since late 2012!! We felt it was time to resurrect the campaign and this game was the result. We made very few mistakes despite feeling very uncertain of the rules! In the event, the game was tense and very enjoyable, although Mike did consistently roll below average dice, whereas mine tended to average out. Of particular cringeworthyness was the 12 dice rolled for 'strong arm' javelin attack which caused no hits at all!!  Also, my shield walls were particularly effective in this game, especially the levy under Maximus Minimus near the fort!

Here are some pictures.....

The wagon train outpaces its escort...

The Saex spring the ambush...

Maximus Minimus leads the levy from the fort...

Shieldwall formed, awaiting the onslaught. The wagons trundle onward , now moving at snail's pace!!

View of the shield wall from behind the Saex hearth guard...

Saex attack!!! Dead milites...not good...

Geraint's levy get caught napping...

Wider view of the combat...

After the combats. Half the Saex hearth guard are gone, but there's big hole in the line...

Maximus Minimus' levy about to show the Saex how it's done...

That wagon is our's!!!

2015 Review

2015 was quite a productive wargaming year at Guitarheroandy Towers...

I finally got myself into War and Conquest, to the point of actually writing sone Arthurian era Army Organisation Lists and even helped to organise a gaming day at the club, which was well attended and enjoyed by all who came. Great set of rules, WAC. I must play more of it. It has supplanted WAB in my affections for sure and is my 'go-to' Ancient/Dark Ages rules et now. I also owe Rob Broom a few more lists as well, so that's on the agenda for 2016.

I was also really proud to be asked by Dan Mersey to join the play testing group for 'The Men Who Would Be Kings, his upcoming Colonial rules. This proved to be one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I have ever had as the experience of play testing was both interesting and very rewarding. Also, the fact that the rules are bloody great really helped, of course!! Thanks must also go to my fellow club members who helped out, especially Andy MacTaggart who has shared many games with me during and after the play test period

Linked to that was the inaugural Hereward Wargame Show, where Andy and I put on a 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' demo/participation game. - the first 'official' outing of the rules at a UK show!!! This was such a great fun endeavour! While I had previously been involved in demo games with James Morris at a couple of shows, this was my first one taking a lead and it seemed to be a great success! There was something of a mammoth painting drive from Andy and myself to get the forces ready - incidentally, almost all of my NW Frontier forces were painted in the past 18 months - quite an undertaking!! Anyway, all who played on the day had a good time and most seemed to love the rules. Andy and I are already talking about ideas for a similar kind of thing at next year's show.

Then there was Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant - I have really enjoyed playing with these rules, especially using Lion Rampant for Arthurian gaming. I intend to use Dragon Rampant for a few Arthurian games in 2016 too!

On the painting front, lots of Colonials, and a few Fantasy models was pretty much the sum total of my efforts and it'll continue in a similar vein in 2016.

Thanks to all who read and  comment on my occasional posts... I do hope to blogs  little more frequently in 2016, real life permitting!!

Season's Greetings!!!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

In 2016 I will be playing much Dragon Rampant (finishing my High Elf war band at the moment and about to get stuck back into my Wood Elves plus my Mythical Greek and Egyptian Undead war bands.) I will also be playing more The Men Who Would Be Kings, plus rebooting the stalled Dux Britaniarum campaign with Mike 'Trouble at t' Mill" Whitaker. Add to that more War & Conquest (watch for news of another all dayer for that at Peterborough Wargames Club) and putting on another demo/participation game at the second Hereward wargame show, plus writing more W&C army lists and doing an article for Wargames Illustrated magazine and I'll be a very busy wargamer in 2016!!!

I do hope that you'll join me on my journey through my various projects in 2016 as I hope to blog more of it next year than I have in 2015, all being well!

Whatever you are doing over the festive season, enjoy yourselves...

British Fort for the NW Frontier

I picked up a superb little model fort from Colonel Bill's at the Hereward Wargame Show! I'd been looking for one for a while, kinda a bit like these...only smaller, obviously.

Luckily, Colonel Bill had one of the Unfeasibly French Foreign Legion desert forts left when I took a break from my demo game at the show and it was PERFECT for the job!!

Anyway, I've painted it up and aim to use it tomorrow in a TMWWBK participation game at the club.

Here's a few pics of the finished model, defended by The Guides Infantry...

The Men Who Would Be Kings at Peterborough's Hereward Wargame Show

Please forgive the lateness of this post - it's been a fortnight since the show!!

Here are some pictures from the demo/participation game that Andy MacTaggart and I put on at the first ever Hereward Wargame Show in Peterborough on 1st November.

The scenario involved a standard 24pt field force of British infantry having just burned a rebellious Jalfrezi Pathan tribal village (sorry...very carry On Up The Khyber, I know!!), withdrawing back to their camp while being assailed by a 24pt Pathan force, supported by about 20 pts of reinforcements that entered the table in random places. To help the British, a 20pt relief force left the camp as soon as firing broke out or the 'hills came alive' with tribesmen. We played the game twice on the day with one British and one Pathan victory.

We took great care over the table set up, using new gaming mats from Deep Cut Studios, as sold by Bigredbat Simon Miller in his online store. We were very pleased with both the layout and the scenario and most of the players who joined us on the day were full of praise for the rules and indeed seemed to thoroughly enjoy the games.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Am just putting some paint on a lovely desert fort I bought at the show for my NW Frontier games. It's meant to be a French Foreign Legion fort, but it'll be great for my games! After that, it's more painting for Dragon Rampant...

Hereward Wargame Show, Sunday 1st November at The Cresset in Peterborough, UK

Just a final reminder that Hereward Wargame show is at the Cresset in Peterborough, UK on Sunday 1st November and that Andy MacTaggart and I will be putting on a demo-participation game of The Men Who Would Be Kings. We'll run at least two games on the day and can take 4 players each time for derring-do on the Northwest Frontier. We still hope that author Dan Mersey may be able to join us and we hope that Osprey will send us a few pics of the official cover. What you'll definitely see is over a hundred and twenty Pathan and about 60 Anglo-Indian models (including a mountain gun and Bengal Lancers...oh yes!!) and some cool looking scenery (including the lovely Pathan watchtower that James from Oshiro Model Terrain made for me) in a challenging and fun scenario loosely based on an incident from the relief of Chitral.

We [i]really[/i] hope to see some of you there! If you are a follower of this blog, do make yourself known to us if you pop over to play or to watch... :D

The Men Who Would Be Kings at Hereward Wargame Show, 1.11.15

Peterborough Wargames Club are pleased to announce that we will be running a demo/participation game of the upcoming Osprey Publications Colonial Ruleset 'The Men Who Would be Kings', by Dan Mersey at the first ever Hereward Wargame Show at The Cresset in Peterborough on Sunday 1st November.

This game is fully endorsed by Osprey and as far as we know is the first public outing for the rules anywhere. We are also very much hoping that author Dan Mersey will join us for the day!

The game is set on the NW Frontier and pits and Anglo-Indian field force against a large Pathan force. It's a tricky scenario for both sides!

We will be able to accommodate up to 6 players on the day and people are welcome to pop in and out of the games as they want, so there's no commitment to playing the game all the way to conclusion if you don't want to.

We very much hope that some of the readers of this blog will be able to pop over and see us. Andy MacTaggart and I will be running the game and we can promise a good game! We ran our first play test tonight at my house and will be running another at the club on Monday. The first test game went really well, which is a good omen!

Here's a pic to whet the appetite... Apologies for poor lighting and for some unfinished models, but we are still finishing a few bits and pieces off!!