Early Dark Ages War & Conquest Gaming Day in Peterborough (UK) on Sunday 13th September

Just a quick message to publicise a small War and Conquest event that Rob Broom (author of rules and ex-WAB head honcho) and I are running on Sunday 13th September.

It's a very low-key (i.e. not overly competitive) type of day and we are hoping to use it to showcase some new army lists for the very late Roman/Arthurian period that I have been working on with Rob, although I believe there will be options for Classical era games if people don't have Late Roman/Arthurian/late Barbarian armies.

It'll be held at our regular venue which is the St John's Ambulance HQ in the town centre. Dedicated free parking and central city location so loads of food vendors nearby, plus space for up to 24 players on 6x4 tables.

We are hoping that we can encourage experienced and newbie War and Conquest players to come along and enjoy a relaxed day of gaming.

For further details of armies, event costs, etc, please reply to this thread or drop me an email if you have my address.

Hope to see some of you there!

More for Dragon Rampant - Elite Wood Elf Foot...

Here's a unit of 'Elite Foot' for my Dragon Rampant Wood Elves. The unit was painted differently to the knights, as I undercoated white. The mail was then painted black and dry brushed with whatever GW currently call the old Boltgun Metal and Chainmail. I then base coated everything else with mid-tone colours before brushing on Army Painter Strong Tone dip. I left this 48 hours before dullcoting the models. I then highlighted up using the base coat colour plus an extra lighter highlight on everything. This is slightly different to my usual dip and highlight approach, which base coats with the lightest shade and only highlights once with that same shade. However, I think this new method looks closer to my old Dallimore-esque technique - not quite as good, but much closer! The shields were layer painted - never use dip on shields!!

The models have mostly been converted with wire spear shafts and spearheads from the current High Elf spearmen, or similar...I got them from one of the online 'bits' people... I bought a couple of the spearmen damaged off EBAY with knackered swords so decided to buy and convert...

In game terms they function just like Foot Men-at-Arms in Lion Rampant and can be used to represent a prince and his bodyguard, either as a unit of 6 like this or as a unit of 3 with each counting as having 2 wounds. I think I'll field them in a unit of 6 as they look better that way.

Oldhammer Elves for Osprey's Upcoming Dragon Rampant Rules

As you all know, I have been busily play testing Dan Mersey's upcoming Colonial rules and was absolutely delighted when an email popped into my inbox the other week with a pre-publication draft of his Dragon Rampant fantasy rules attached as a 'thank you' for my involvement in play testing! As you know, I like a bit of fantasy gaming so this was some result!

Anyway, the rules encourage players to conform to fantasy stereotypes when building forces, (although you can really do whatever you like, as it's so flexible) so, in fit of excitement and, being desperate to paint something other than Colonial native types for a while, I dragged out my Oldhammer Elves and began to design ideas for war bands. It soon became apparent that, as most of my unpainted 80s models are Wood Elf in nature, that I should go with that.

Accordingly, I dragged out the general model I painted as a High Elf months and months ago and, having rebased him on a large base, refreshed his colour scheme to become more Wood Elf. I then set about the armoured lancers on metal armoured horses that I had originally intended to paint as High Elf Siver Helms. I had begun these in the 3-layer Dallimore style about 18 months ago but got no further than painting the mail and horse armour. Despite this and my failing eyesight, I bit the bullet and set about layering a couple up and here is the result.

I can field the general as a 'single model unit' or as a 'reduced model unit' with the two knights added and either way, they function like a unit of 6 knights in Lion Rampant, so I have options. I also intend to paint another 4 knights so I can actually field a full strength unit of lancers if need be. I also have a unit of elite foot and one of 3 units of archers on the painting table although they are being done in dip and highlights style, as layering just takes me too long these days... Don't get me wrong, the layering looks brilliant on these cavalry, but the thought of painting about 100 Elves in full layered style is too daunting (yes..I have enough models for about 60 points in Dragon Rampant...and I just bought an old Treeman model off EBAY!!!!)

Anyway, the pics...

Enjoy...

Fun Times at Campaign in Milton Keynes...

Went to Campaign in Milton Keynes today with Cameron, as his mum was away at a holistic therapy show in Birmingham.

It's an odd one to go to, as it's full of competition gamers playing their games and is slap-bang in the middle of the shopping centre! The latter means it's free entry and they get a fair bit of 'passing trade', which is cool.

Anyway, the club was represented with its Dambusters Challenge game that won an award at Salute this year - sorry, didn't get pics as I was playing it with Cameron and forgot to go back and take photos later due to us getting involved with a Darkest Africa participation game (of which more in a mo) but do head on over here to get an idea of how awesome the Dambusters game is! Cameron and I managed to avoid all the Jerry flak AND hit the dam... Jolly good show... Brilliant idea, brilliantly executed. Well done, club-mates!!

So, having destroyed most of Jerry's industry with nary so much as a shred of shrapnel in the fuselage, and having gained our medals, we wandered round the rest of the show and ended up playing a fabulous Colonial game with Black Wolf wargamers. This was an awesome game where Cameron commanded a British force of 2 units of Naval Brigade types and 1 unit of redcoats attempting to get to the safety of their river boat having burnt the village of a rebellious Ngoni chief.

Although in hindsight, the rules were weighted fairly heavily in favour of the Brits, while in-game, this was not so evident and there were a few nail-biting moments before Cameron finally destroyed the native force and got his men to safety! He LOVED it! So huge thanks to the Black Wolf guys who ran it really well and were brilliant with Cameron. A very successful participation game and I shall be taking some lessons learned from this to our own Hereward show in November where I intend to run a Colonial participation game with Andy Mac.

Here's a couple of pics of a little boy having a FABULOUS time!!

New Project for 2015/16

I am very pleased to be able to announce that I have decided on a brand new project for 2015/16. By that, I mean something to get my teeth into that I might actually finish and that I will actually game (as opposed to all the nice things that I have models for 'cos I like them, but currently  have little chance of gaming, e.g Wars of the Roses, French Indian War).

This will be an Indian Mutiny project for The Men Who Would Be Kings. The aim is to have two sizeable forces completed by the time the rules are officially released in August 2016.

The forces will comprise a mixture of units from Mutineer Miniatures and the upcoming range from Iron Duke Miniatures as sold by Empress Miniatures. This means that I will be able to use models from two of my favourite sculptors, Paul Hicks (whose marvellous Empress British Colonial infantry are the 'Suffolk Regt' in my NW Frontier Games) and Mike Owen.

Using the two ranges means I will get the best of both worlds, as Mike Owen is a master of characterful 'character' models and the 'at the ready' and 'march attack' type poses (although IMHO, his firing poses are never quite right) and Paul seems to just have a fabulous eye for great poses - his 'firing pose' figures are superb (check out my 'Suffolks' for proof of that) and he also produces some great models in other poses too. Check out the (currently small) gallery on the Iron Duke website here for initial releases in the range. Also, check out the workbench here...those Sikhs!!! Wow!!

The 'backstory' for my forces is a British Field Force attempting to overthrow the Rani of Rhanjipur (a fictional personage and locality not so loosely based on the real Rani of Jhansi in the Mutiny...look her up) in late 1857/early 1858. This means that all my British troops can be armed with the Enfield Rifle and, as the campaign starts in the 'cold season', I can have a wide range of uniform colours for the Brits, including at least one red coated unit (whereas a summer campaign would see them all in white/dyed various early khaki shades). The story is that rebel fugitives from Delhi have persuaded the (hitherto undecided) garrison regiments in Rhanjipur to rebel. The rebellious Sepoys look to the Rhani for leadership, as they know that she harbours a deep dislike of the British as she has been ill-treated by them since the demise of her husband and, being a woman of remarkable temper and blessed with the personality of command, she is a natural choice to lead...

I have been interested in this period since I was a teenager but have never been able to find a reason to game it. TMWWBK is giving me an excellent excuse to finally put together the forces and have a bash and these new ranges are 'the dog's flopsy bits!!!' (err...that means they area a 'bit good' for those of you to whom English is not a first language or to whom such imagery is unfamiliar!!)

The first order has just gone to Mutineer Miniatures for a bunch of rebellious Sepoys, The Rani and friends and a few of her own private army of matchlock men...

Exciting times!! I will also continue to work on the later Colonials as I still need to get more stuff on the table for that. British artillery and more Pathan Swordsmen will hopefully be complete early next week if not before...

Colonial Updates

Since my last post, we have put in a fair few hours on The Men Who Would Be Kings play tests. We have tried another couple of scenarios, one involving the defence of a static object (we chose a waterhole) and the other a 'remnants of a defeated force retreating to safety' scenario (Maiwand, anyone?)

Once again, we found that the main rule mechanisms enabled us to have extremely enjoyable games. In both scenarios, we tweaked the abilities of the Ghazis to better suit their role on the NW Frontier - a great feature of the rules being that players are encouraged to use their 'theatre-specific' knowledge to help to customise their forces appropriately. In all games, we have found that rolling for unit leadership traits has added some good 'colour' to the games without completely b*ggering up the scenario or spoiling anyone's fun (even if the roll leads to dodgy traits, it all seems to add to the fun factor.)

Thus far, we are finding that the scenarios are balancing the forces quite well, although the Pathans are thus far ahead in their victories - the British have only won one of the play test games and that by virtue of the fact that they were actually able to deploy into a proper line and shoot the living daylights out of the enemy. Having said that, in most other games, the Pathans have suffered heavily in their victories, which feels about right!

Overall, we love these rules. They are good fun and give a lot of 'cinematic period feel'. A minor handful of folk following my progress on the Lead Adventure Forum (I have posted bat reps there) have muttered about a few things, but in general, they seem to be players who probably either moan about every set of rules and just enjoy being negative or are the sort of players who prefer a more 'historical simulation' type of rule set. I personally think that anyone who enjoys a fun evening's gaming with well thought-out scenarios, excellent 'feel' for the period and a hefty does of humour will love TMWWBK when it comes out next year. Players who approach things in an overly 'serious' manner or who like 'nit-picky' rule systems may wish to look elsewhere...

Here are a few pics from the recent games...

The 'Defend the Waterhole' scenario: (Full report here.) Essentially, the Sikhs held the waterhole for most of the game before being shot down by Pathan sharpshooters. The Pathan swordsmen shot their bolt too early and were cut down by massed gunnery from the Brits and Gurkhas. In the end, the Pathans were unable to achieve their objective ion the face of the British fire.

Retreat from Maiwand. (Full report here.) In this game, the Pathans out-generalled the Brits, by slowing them down with relentless sniping, finally over-running the remnants with swordsmen, although the Gurkhas stubbornly held out and inflicted heavy casualties.

More Pathan reinforcements and a British mountain Gun are almost painted and will be in the next game...

More Colonial Fun...

So, a couple of weeks ago, Andy MacTaggart and I reconvened chez moi to have another bash at 'The Men Who Would Be Kings'. As per the previous game, the scenario was set on India's NW Frontier at the end of the 19th Century.

Since the previous game, I had managed to paint some extra troops, so the Anglo Indians were joined by a unit of Gurkhas and the Pathans had extra riflemen.

This time, we tried some upgrades, so the British troops had an upgrade to enable them to hit on 4+ in shooting (to represent the magazine rifles they had in the 1897 conflict), the Sikhs had an upgrade to enable them to fight better and the Gurkhas an experimental rule to allow them to ignore difficult ground.

The Pathans had a unit of Ghazis who also were upgraded so they fought better and one riflemen unit was upgraded to shoot better as well.

The scenario saw the Anglo Indian force patrolling the hills and the Pathans trying to prevent them doing it. The Pathans had some clever hidden deployment rules for all bar one riflemen unit.

The leadership rolls saw all the Pathans with ridiculously good leadership and the British with average leadership. This was to make a big difference in the game, as the Pathans resolutely refused to become pinned under British fire, while the constant trickle of casualties from Pathan rifle fire whittled the Anglo-Indians away. Eventually, the Anglo-Indians did manage to patrol 3 out of 6 areas of the board, but were forced into a dramatic last stand, where the British unit, although cut down to the last man, inflicted such casualties on the Pathans that the game result was a draw!!

It was a great game and, although Dan has since tweaked the rules, there were no massive issues. In fact, the tweaks he has made will make the rules even better.

Poor lighting in my kitchen-diner makes the pics a bit rubbish, but here are a few...

Set-up...Pathan riflemen left centre. Cattle and small rocky outcrops are the 'patrol areas' the Brits need to check out...

View from behind the Pathan riflemen...

Pathan hidden deployment brings the Ghazis on behind the Sikhs! That cannot be good (if one is a Sikh!)

Pathan riflemen deploy skulking in the rocks overlooking one of the patrol areas...sneaky blighters!

View of the table after a couple of turns...

The Sikhs activate and give the Ghazis a taste of Martini Henry medicine... 

View of the table as the Sikhs force the Ghazis back, losing many men in the process. Bottom right, The Gurkhas claim an objective and top right, The Brits do likewise...

...Success is short-lived, as Pathan reinforcements arrive and put severe pressure on the Gurkhas a Sikhs as they strive for the fourth objective... Two or three turns later, both Indian units were cut down.

The Suffolk Regt face the inevitable, but their Lee Metford volleys cause fearful execution  amongst the enemy...

The end is now moments away...another valiant last-stand and more posthumous Victoria Crosses...

Shortly after the game, the weather cleared, allowing photography outside, so I took several pics of the collection as it stands, minus one unit of Pathans who needed highlights and the final touches to basing, although they had played in the game in their unfinished state...

I'm really pleased with the way the scenery worked out - a bit of delicate balancing of aquarium features and a very large old Last Valley desert hill...

'Pinned' markers (or 'Suppression' markers for Triumph & Tragedy) coming next along with a Mountain gun...