Vietnam

Flames of war Vietnam!

It may be old news for some but ive just noticed it. Looks very interesting. Click on the title, or if the link doesnt work then go to the FOW homepage and have a butchers!

Cheers
Steve.

HOTT ....progress....

Now then,

Ive been quite busy these last few evenings, as my son is pestering me for a game of HOTT, so ive managed to get two armies based up, note that i changed my mind on the large bases for the elves and re-based them all too.....lots of unnessary messing about...oh well. i changed the composition of the army as well.

Just to keep it as simple as i can, i didnt include any artillery, and the Hero general has gone too.

The army looks like this:

• Spear - 4 (8 AP)
  Shooters - 4 (8 AP)
  Knights - 4 (1 base includes the general). (8 AP).

Total of 24 AP

I have sorted out a base of artillery for later, after we have a game or two.

The Chaos Dwarfs.

Now these figures are some of the oldest in my collection. Many are late 80,s vintage. My wife painted most of these when we were just teenagers. Many moons ago........

i think they have stood the test of time and are still pretty cool looking minis.

Crossbows (shooters)

Blades

The army looks like this:

• Blades - 6 (1 base includes the general) 12 AP
• Shooters - 6 - 12 AP
• Total 24 AP

I have sorted out a few options for them as well.

A base of artillery, and one of sneakers.......mutants..........

Hopefully we will have a game this week.

Cheers

Steve

High Elves - HOTT

Now then,

I had a read through the Hordes of the things (Hott) rules the other day. They are very simple, although the wording used makes it seem complicated. Maybe someone should translate the book into plain English.......

Anyway, i decided to base up a couple of my old Warhammer figures for the game. My boys seem very enthusiastic about it, and to be honest if it gets them off the xbox for an hour then it cant be bad.

High Elf warhost

I based them up differently than what it says in the rules, mainly because the GW figures, especially the Cavalry are very large. So, instead of the recommended 60mm frontage i have gone for 80mm. Depth isnt that important but i went for 70mm for the cav and artillery, and 50mm for the foot troops.

Both the armies will be based the same, so no dramas. The miniatures arnt permanently fixed to these bases, just a blob of pva, so they van be easilly removed.

For those who have never encountered DBA or Hott, the game is pretty straight forward, each bound (turn) the active player rolls a d6, thats how many pips (commands) he can use during his turn. You expend pips to move your troops etc. So your not guarenteed to move all your stuff all the time. Sounds good to me.

Combat and long range shooting is simple too, every element(base of figures) has a strength value that is added to a combat dice roll, add some tactical modifiers (ie- uphill, defending a riverbank etc) then look up results on a table, find the results and action them, either destroyed, flee or recoil (push back).

Armies are made up of elements, (bases of figures), they each have an army point value, AP. You are allowed to select an army upto a maximum of 24AP, so the armies are typically around 12 bases strong, depending on what sort of bases they are. My High Elves pictured above are organised like so:

• Hero General - 4AP
• Knights - 2AP (x2) - 4AP
• Spears - 2AP (x2) - 4AP
• Shooters - 2AP (x3) - 6AP
• Artillery - 3AP (x2) - 6AP
• Total 24AP.

I havent played it yet, but as soon as the evil enemies of the Elves are sorted then we will have a game. Ill let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Steve.

Sir Reginald Grey of Wilton, The Towton Project.

Now then,

Ive finally finished the next contingent for the Towton Project, Sir Reginald Grey of Wilton.

So, thats the whole lot done and in the post this morning. Hopefully next time ill be able to get them done alot quicker.

Cheers for now.

Steve.

Rules and stuff.

Now then,

Well, what have i been up too?

Ive nearly finished the WOTR minis for Ruriah for his Towton project, i would/should have finished them a while ago but well, i keep getting distracted. Work, family- real life stuff.

So, in between chipping away at the WOTR stuff ive been looking at various sets of rules on the internet. I have ordered a fantasy set, Age of might and steel:

http://www.15mm.co.uk/Age_of_Might_and_Steel.htm

It was an impulse buy to be quite honest, im looking for something i can play with my two boys, its advertised as being very simple so i thought id have a look, at only £6 it wont break the bank. Oh and i got a free 15mm Orc command pack so jobs a good un. Ill let you know what its like when i get it.

I am also looking at DBA. The well known Ancients set. I have seen it advertised many times over the years but it never grabbed my attention before. With Impetus being a disapointment i am looking for a decent set of ancient rules, i am very seriously looking at FOG (field of Glory) but to play some games with my two boys i think DBA might be what im after. Have a look at this Blog: http://mrfarrow2udba.blogspot.com/

Miniatures wise im looking into buying from Xyston: http://www.xyston.com/ Some excellent miniatures, although they are 15mm, not my normal scale i think they will appeal more to the kids. Especially these guys:

Spartan Army for DBA, not bad for 17 quid......

Im Very tempted to order them........ I need to get the rulebook too, but its only 6 quid.........

To change the subject ive had some sucess on the gaming front in Munster! Well sort of, ive had a chat with a fellow Brit and hopefully ill be having a game of FOG in the near future, regimental duties etc permitting.

Theres even a Games shop in town, literally on my doorstep that i didnt know about.....things are looking up. Theres actually quite a few gamers in and around Munster so hopefully i can get involved.

Thats about it for now, cheers for reading

Steve.

Pax Reinforcements

Now then,

A few reinforcements for the Pax arcadian army. The commanders have been painted for a while now as have the buggies.


The supreme commander, the flags are 100 years war flags.

Commander

The other commander

Recon Buggies

I have a few old Epic models knocking about, and thought i could use this old shadowsword as a Castillian for the Pax. This model is one of three that are 20 years old. I bought them many moons ago for the origional Space marine game way back in 89 or 90. They are the only ones i kept after all the others were sold/given away or lost.

I think the new paintjob is a big improvement over my origional efforts as a 16 year old.


The "Castillian" in desert Pax colours.




The Beast next to a Tiger light tank.


I hope to get the next monster tank painted shortly. Work continues on the Towton project, and they are nearing completion too, more to follow.


Cheers
Steve.

Army camps.

Now then,

The camp of Richard the III

Henry Tudors Camp.

I finished these off a few weeks ago and forgot about them, i thought i might as well put them on here. My WOTR armiers are now finished............. Except for all the ones i havent painted yet................

Work continues on Ruriagh's Towton project minis, not as fast as i would like but im getting there in between days out with my son's school to Amsterdam, (Anne Franks house), and some local Castles and stuff. Its Great living in the middle of Europe, were surrounded by History.

Anyway, finished pics of WOTR stuff soon.

Cheers

Steve.

The Towton Project (Sir John Conyers).

Now then,

Ive had these painted for a while now but unfortunately ive just been through probably the busiest training period i can remember. Ive spent 5 nights in my own bed in the last 4 weeks......


As mentioned my computer broke as well..........


Then my Internet connection wouldent work.......

Oh well. Im on leave now and ive started painting again, Rurigh's next contingent for the Towton project is next on the painting table. hopefully the whole lot will be done by the weekend and in the post to Yorkshire.


Sir John Conyers contingent (- base's)

Closer look at the archers and billmen in the background.

Thanks for looking

Steve.

Back online!

As the title says, im finally back online, having spent in excess of £300.00 getting my computer rebuilt and internet connection fixed.

Updates on what ive been up to to follow.

Steve.

Ancient and medieval Wargaming

Now then,

My main interest in wargaming, and military history has always been the ancient/medieval period. The problem is that Ive never found a set of rules that i like 100%. I like certain parts of various rule sets but never the whole "package".
I have narrowed it down to 4 sets of rules. Warmaster Ancients, Warhammer Ancient Battles, Impetus and Field of Glory.

Warmaster Ancients.

I have had quite a few games using this rule set, i really like the command and control part of the game, however the combat mechanism can become a bit of a monster, loads of dice are involved and it can become complicated.

The drive backs for shooting are also annoying as it can disrupt whole brigades of troops because 1 unit in the brigade has been driven back 1 cm.....its time consuming.

Overall though it isn't a bad game by any means, but the restrictive sizes on units and stuff is very gamey i think. 3 bases per unit is the norm, regardless of army or nationality.

I will play it until something better comes along.

Impetus

I had high hopes for this game , but it just isn't what i expected. the units look great on the big bases and the combat and shooting rules are very simple and easy.

However, it is the combat rules that i don't like. basically if there is a multiple melee, as there always is, only one unit on each side takes casualties while the rest are supports....even though they are all in combat...it doesn't feel right. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind it. i think its strange.

shooting is also done by the base, so there is usually no chance of hitting anything , even if multiple bases are shooting at a single enemy, it is calculated individually......again i think its strange.

My biggest problem is that it doesn't look right. Once battle is joined there are no battle lines, there are units everywhere, it looks messy, like a skirmish i suppose. Not for me.

Warhammer Ancients

I have had this rules set for years now, in fact i pre-ordered it when it was first released! never played it though. It is designed to be played with 28mm figures. Not a bad thing but I'm a fan of the smaller scales and the mass effect of 10mm and 6mm.

You could play the game with smaller scale figures. But with the recent releases from Warlord games and wargames Factory with the plastics, its very tempting.

I'm not sure how the game plays but Warhammer Fantasy is a good game, alot of fun, and easy to play. I may look into it.

Field of Glory

Finally we have FOG. I have read some very good reports of this game, but Ive read some very bad ones as well. It was advertised as the answer to ancient wargaming, it was supposed to do for ancients what flames of war had done for WW2 gaming. I hasn't by all accounts.

I have had the rulebook and 3 of the supplements for a while now. The rulebook, despite being excellently presented was a chore to read. I finally finished reading it this morning.

Despite what many people have said on various forums, I'm going to give Fog a go. having read through the rules i think they may be what I'm after in a game. Fairly detailed but designed to give historical results.
A review - http://www.madaxeman.com/wgblog/2008/02/field-fo-glory-review.html

The real test will be when i actually have a game. Impetus didn't go down well with my brother and my mate Darren especially hated it. Ruarigh on the other hand liked it. I think FOG will be better.

Any thoughts?

Cheers for reading,
Steve.

Edit - i had a test game of FOG, obviously solo.....i know in a geek.

I like it, when reading the rulebook it seems kind of dull. When playing the game its pretty good, i managed to finish a 300pt game in 2 hours, with lots of rule reading and stuff in between.

It was Romans vs Britons, the Brits made a good start, smashing the Roman Right flank with Chariots but the Roman war machine made mincemeat out of the Brit warbands in the centre. Most of the Brit army fled the field and the army collapsed.

I enjoyed the game.