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....
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
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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