BIG Games - Newbury and Catraeth (Y Gododdin)

In the past two weeks I have been fortunate enough to take part in two BIG games! The first was an all-dayer at the club, led by Carl Fisher and involving Mike Whitaker and Gary (chaps from the ECW campaign running at the club, of which more on Mike's blog). This game used Gary's models (give or take a unit...the man has too many models!) and the Pike & Shotte rules and was a re-fight of first Newbury. Now, I know less than b*gger all about ECW, but nonetheless am really enjoying the campaign and had a real blast at the all day game, managing to help secure a Parliamentarian victory by resolutely advancing across all the fields that actually exist outside Newbury, effectively pinning the Royalist right while my boss (Gary - Earl of Essex) trashed the much better and more numerous Royalsit cavalry and basically did all the hard work!!!  He was assisted by the fact that Mike did a bit of superb role-playing as Pwince Wupert, launching an impetuous cavalry charge that, had it worked, would have meant curtains for Parliament. However, it didn't and it was the Royalist cavalry commands breaking that secured the victory.
Parliament deployment below - my foot commands who were tasked with securing the bridge by advancing across the fields and hedgerows of middle England...oh joy!!

 Below, Royalist right flank opposing me...

 Royalist cavalry below...

 Parliament cavalry...outclassed and outnumbered...but still kicked ass!!!

 My advance...steady as we go lads...trudge, trudge...

 The ECW equivalent of trench warfare. I was coming out on top in this firefight, but only just...it was soon after this point that the Earl of Essex got himself captured (doh!) while his right flank rendered the Royalist position untenable as vast hordes of Parliament troops were about to outflank their line on the right....VICTORY!!

So, that was fun!!!

Now to last Sunday where I joined Sir James of Morris and several chums (Age of Arfur's Steve Jones, Tom and Scrivs, plus Andy McT and Matt) to re-run the mahoosive 'Hail Caesar' refight of the Battle of Catraeth as immortalised in the Dark Age British poem 'Y Gododdin'. This is the one that will appear in Wargames Illustrated's 300th issue in October (we saw the article proof on Sunday...you NEED to buy the mag for this alone (and the other articles will be just as good, trust me!)

Anyway, Sunday saw us take the game to 'The Other Partizan' at Newark. We were slap bang in the middle of the hall next to Simon 'Bigredbat' and Phil Hendry's superb Ad Castores Roman civil war game (@Phil and Simon: sorry I didn't get to chat more than 2 mins to either of you...the game took all of my attention apart from enough time to much a jacket potato and buy a few bits and bobs...)

I took my usual place on the British left and was joined by James and Steve as fellow Britons. Basically, our scenario was as follows (hopefully this enlarges enough to read!):

As heroic and glorious death was the order of the day, we attempted to do just that, only to be thwarted by failed command rolls and stupendous Saxon saving throws. I came last (b*gger all glory!) with the day being well and truly won by Tom whose Saxons kicked our butts quite royally!! Nonetheless, this was one of the best games I have ever been involved in. With over 1000 beautifully painted models on the table, it was quite a spectatcle and the interest we provoked in the punters was, understandably, high!! To all who came over, I hope that you found us all appropriately friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.

A few pics below (I gave up after lunch as fatigue set in...just buy the mag in October as WI's Dan F takes MUCH better pics than me anyway!!)

Full deployment below...

 My models. Note the three new banner bearers. The chap with the yellow banner will be standard bearer in the full unit of Gododdin Teulu I am painting for WAB/Saga/Dux Brit/Dux Bellorum and which are on my painting table as we speak.

 View of the Saxon lines from behind my position below...

Below: the attack goes in...just before it all went dreadfully 'Pete Tong'... Steve Jones looking unconcerned (his Companion cavalry were our best unit, mauling the Saxon left and actually cutting a path of escape, but valiantly returning to die with their comrades...)

I hope you enjoyed these tales of BIG gaming. I heartliy recommend the Hail Caesar and Pike & Shotte rules to all of you. Gather some mates and put on a BIG game of your own...you won't regret it! :-)

Next up, the Dux Britanniarum campaign for Linnius begins!!!

An ENORMOUS Dark Age game of Hail Caesar

Yeah...I know...It's been too long since I last blogged. Truth to tell, I have had neither time nor inclination, nor real reason, as I have had nowt to say... However, today is different!!


Last weekend I was one of the 'Dark-Ages A-listers' (quote James Morris) who were invited by Mr Morris to Nottingham to play a giganto-normous Hail Caesar game for an article to be published in Wargames Illustrated 300th issue bumper special for Sept 2012. We were to re-fight part of Y-Gododdin for this mammoth undertaking and so pitted 200 mounted Welsh plus various foot troops against the best part of 700+ Saxons. The pic above was taken by WI UK head honcho Dan and shows just how much better the pics in the mag will be compared to mine below come September!!!


Anyway, I had never played HC before but it wasn't gonna stop me! I painted a handful of additional Welsh cavalry (dipped and single highlight...!!) to give me a full HC division and I was off! I am not allowed to say too much about the game to avoid detracting from James' article and I have stuck to pics of the whole table to give you an idae of scale, plus a few pics of my division in action. Hopefully this is ok! If not, I'm sure James or Dan will chastise me and I'll then edit this post somewhat!!


Below, the set up...that's a lot of toys!!!


Here's the Saxon lines...

Here's one of my fellow Welsh commanders, Steve Jones (he of WAB Age of Arthur fame) looking somehat bemused by the enormity of his task on the Welsh right flank.

Here is my division on the Welsh left, simply charged with slaughtering as many of the foe as gloriously as possible... Tom W D (http://tomstoysoldiers.blogspot.com/) was our supreme leader and held the centre.

Here's my own models. Note my Welsh infantry banners temporarily transplanted to cavalrymen as I didn't have time to paint 3 new Welsh standards prior to the battle!!

Here's a great example of how HC can b*gger up your plans good and proper (below). You have to roll less than or equal to your command value to get orders through to your troops...clearly Tom ahs managed this, whereas me and Steve haven't!!!!!! Refused flanks anyone??!!

Here's my glorious charge about to go gloriously wrong (yes, it isn't just in WAB where it all goes t*ts up for me!!!)

Battle lines clash across the board...Mr Morris (our esteemed umpire) is just deciding whether it's me or Tom who gets the dubious honour of being first to charge that wall of Saxon death!!!! This is because, in HC, units within 12" of the enemy can move without a leadership test. Me and Tom both had units with 9" (cavalry charge distance) so both potentially could claim that honour. I won't spoil the article and tell you who got it...

This is me about to launch a second charge into what is now looking like a FLOOD of Saxons...

Well, stone the crows (or should that be "stone the ravens???" Sorry...in joke for the Arthurian fans amongst you...) look at this!! In HC, if you obliterate the enemy in combat, you can make a sweeping advance...especially handy when his supporting units roll shite panic dice and get obliterated also!! So, yes...my cavalry have actually broken through, slaughtering 2 Saxon units and seeing daylight!!! Can you spot the two dipped figs in this unit???

My other cavalry didn't fare quite as well...too many of the heathen b*ggers!!!!

And that's all I can show you, as I don't wish to give any more away!!

It was a fabulous day out. HC is a great rule set for this size game. We played 7 turns in approx 6 hours, including breaks. The Saxons were led by Dan 'Dux Bellorum/Glutter of Ravens' Mersey (http://boardgamegeek.com/blog/444/dux-blogorum) and were ably assited by Paul 'Scrivs' Smith (HC expert) and Andy Mactaggart. Some of us had never played HC before, which shows you how easy it was to pick up.

And, more to the point, I am re-invigorated and ready to rock again with my gaming and painting! I have a new Welsh mounted Teulu unit ready to go on the painting table and I have been sorting all my Dark Age models for dual roles in WAB and Hail Caesar. This has meant a few alterations here and there to get the right size units and some banners have had to be replaced anyway due to transportation accidents (dontcha hate it when a banner cross-pole bends and the flag rips???!! That's happened twice with Romano-Brit cavalry banners recently!)

Then there are the new rules! Dan's "Dux Bellorum" is out in August (pics of my models in the rule book, we hope!!) and the "Too Fat Lardies" have a STUNNING looking Arthurian set in the works (http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=730 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p-745 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p-755 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p-766 http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/) This latter set look like they could be the mutt's nutz of Arthurian wargaming for me (although Dan's set sounds interesting too...) Wargaming the Dark Ages has not been as exciting since WAB Age of Arthur came out!!!

I hope that you enjoyed the above!! I hope to be back soon... :-)