Greeks, Romans and Blood Rage !

So between my last post and this one Our darling daughter Eleanor was born!  It has been a very full on two weeks with hospital and then sleepless nights but she is just amazing and in allot of ways life will never be the same..... however she does have this in her collection of bibs:

So maybe some things will stay the same :) 


In between the excitement of newborn and nappies I have been able to sneak in some painting and also a few items have arrived in the post which are very cool as well! 

Absense makes the heart....something something something .... yeah I have been away for a bit!

Its been a while since last drinks and the reality is that with work study hobby and family..... and no those are not the order they operate in, I have had to cut back on blog posts.  Its been annoying as I was on a role there for a few months.  However life is what it is and I'm back for a bit to keep up the posting duties!

That being said, it does not mean that I have not been working away on models. This has mainly been to keep my sanity as I tackled study and work.  Lets just say that was a wake up call.  What I remembered to be the even and measured balance that was kept back in the day, well lets just say I remembered it differently. Either way I have come out the back end of first semester alive and my faculties  are intact.

The final stand ! Final battle of our 1088 Campaign

 And so It came down to the final confrontation.  The North had risen up and was now marching south to expel the Normans from the land -  The Vikings had been given a deal - side with us and be paid gold for securing the Saxon crown so they had tuned mercenary and now march with the Anglo Saxons, and finally a Norman lord and his men had seen an opportunity to gain more land.

Confronting this was the strongest contingent of Normans yet and surprisingly also two southern  Saxon lords who had benefited from Norman rule (basically really bad blokes who where in on the gang of crooks running the country!)

5 commands a side this was the largest battle of the campaign and would settle who was victors!.... well till the War of the Roses where all the dodgy stuff would be bound to come up again :P

A Saga Worth Telling ! The final stand of the Danes

So it came down to this - The Danes had fallen back to their ships and on a cold morning on the coast of England either way a great tale would be told and great deeds would be achieved.

The Vikings having lost men on the retreat formed up on the hill - depleted but not at this stage undefeated - Greg the Mad, Peter Ironside and Jon The Devil stood together watching as the Saxons and Normans moved onto the field.

This battle would be hard to win but there was still honor to be had and legends to be made.

Across from the assembled Danes , Wal the Silent, Jon the Avenger ( Son of Ian the Bold) and Niel Righteous, had formed up and where deep in council as Jon the Avenger laid out the plan of attack.

Spears and Shield would be shattered this day and blood spilled and the ravens will have allot to feast on this day!

The Viking Camp - Having wintered it has been set up as an established point.

The Armies deploy the Vikings taking the hill and preparing for a hard fight.

The Battle for the Gates - Rebellion in 1088

So this past Saturday saw the third battle in our series of linked games, the Danes seeing the mess the kingdom had fallen into and with the Anglo-Saxon's rising up and the Normans in all sorts of trouble, decided to prosecute their claims to the crown.

The Vikings then brought their full force to the fore in attempt to prosecute their claims and where confronted with the Anglo-Norman army before the gates of a local Burgh seeking to achieve a quick victory the Danes launched into attack - but it was not to be and the Saxon shield-wall and Norman cavalry reversed the drama of the previous battles- with some very smug Saxon Lords grinning as the Vikings fell short...... (only battle they have won so far so I think they are a bit too optimistic:P )

I have decided to add a little bit more character to this unfolding saga as well :)

Dramatis Personae: 
 I used the random system in Dux Britanniarum to come up with the reputations and simple backgrounds.

Some times you are the Insect and then other times you are the Magnifying Glass...... A Hail Ceaser AAR

This Saturday past was the rematch on last weekends dark ages game and what now looks like expanding out to a few more linked games depending on the groups views.

In the time between the last game and this one I had also begun the work to improve the movement trays my lads are on and I will look to have a post about that up in the coming days.  I've slowed down the work a bit as I start to really dive into the study and keep the balance between that and work and a happy wife and hobby.

That being said I continue to move closer to completion to the viking project with two commands of 6 units each done, and planning for the final command in place (ie sourcing of figures and styles etc)

So Saturdays game saw me again face Wal with his Norman cavalry but this time I was on the left of our line and Peter was C-in-C again holding the right and Niel was in the center.  As it would have it we faced off against our usual suspects, Wal vs me, Greg vs Niel, and Ian vs Peter.

And lets just say Wal had another bad day of it with the cavalry facing the vikings with thier heat seeking axe's.

Anyway here are the pictures and comments from this last battle.

The Raid - A Dux Brittaniarum AAR

On Saturday Darren invited me over to his new home for a game of Dux and as we are about to embark on a campaign down at Berwick over the coming Wednesdays we thought we should get another practice game in before the kick off.

We played a raid on a settlement and used played saxon's v saxons as a test for some of the potential battles that may come up - in this case one side was activiating on the british cards (of course) and then bonuses where only applied when Boar Sutied cards where played etc.

I have designs to build a Late Roman -Romano British Army for Dux and Beyond but for now ill use my vikings as stand in raiders - because I can.

I really really like the Musketeer Miniatures range so watch this space when it comes to late romans! 

The quiet Village that has recently been taken over by a Saxon lord and his men.

1088 and all that

 

So after much work and waiting and work and waiting I finally got to deploy my Vikings and boy was it fun!  

Peter had set up a simple scenario of the basis of the rebellion in 1088 and a battle actually happening with some Anglo-saxons rising up and some danish forces coming along to help.

So it came down to Greg, Ian, Peter, Wal, Niel and Myself to duke it out,  Niel, Peter and Myself took to role of the rebels with me proudly deploying my vikings and Greg, Wal and Ian taking on the role of the Normans and the loyal Saxons.

The Forces Muster for the field of Slaughter - Anlgo-Saxon and Danish Allies on the left and the Normans and Anglo Saxon on the right

Resources for Understanding the Vikings and the Anglo Saxons and maybe even gaming the period !

One day Ill have room like this for war-gaming in just you watch !

I had allot of great feedback from the blog post I put up about English civil war resources so  I have sat down and put together a list of books that I have read so far on the topic as well as few documentaries I would suggest you watch.

As in all of these things when you put a list together you may find that not everyone agrees with the books your choose and since history can and has been influenced by the socioeconomic and political climate in which the author wrote the book, it is always worthwhile cultivating a range of sources.

Also this is no means an exhaustive list and I find myself always finding new books to look over and read and I find myself extending the library - even now I'm looking at two new books to get and read through......

Dux Britanniarum conversion to larger battles ...... well my attempt anyway

So an I mentioned a few posts back I have been thinking about how I would like to change some of the elements of Dux and working in the elements of Chain of Command I really like to make a game that is allot more interesting than Warhammer Historical but also has allot of tactical challenges.

I admit from the beginning there is not real originality here - I am just taking elements from two games I like to make a game I would like to play -  I like Hail Ceaser still but this is also about having a game that does not require allot of space - Ive been playing this on the dining table so far but that also has a little more texture to the game.

Some Darks Action on the table and some playtesting of Dux

I got home this evening from work and put some models on the table and worked through a game of Dux and then a game with Dux and some amendments im working on for a larger battle.

Vikings Part 7 - WIP units, Tree's and Dux Britannium thoughts

This update we have some more Vikings painted as starter. 

Bondi which means I continue to move closer to completing the viking army - which in a way is good as I begin my masters degree next week and thus painting will slow down as it begins to compete with work family and study.  It also means that the Saxon army is looming in the distance and I have begun to think about the approach I will take but I now envisage that by the end of the year I will have something tangible to fight the vikings.

Vikings WIP and Painting models in smaller batch's ! And Cancon test Game

Recently rather than batch painting and destroying my soul in the process by painting 100 bits of leather etc- Ive taken to working on two models at a time and found I get them done in an evening or two at a stretch.

I have to say its been allot more enjoyable and I feel a greater sense of accomplishment as I look at the completed models as i paint the next two lad.

In  nights Ive got 6 figures done and defiantly feel baring to many interruptions could punch out 24 figures each 2-3 weeks.

There are times when painting feels like this.

Hail Caesar Basing and how awesome Warbases is :)

Today the postman dropped off a package from Warbases- about a fortnight ago I had placed this order so a 10 day turnaround is awesome from the UK!

Anyway I had recently been thinking about some comments people had made about the need for allot of figure for Hail Caesar.  Talking with a few mates it was made clear to me that in essence it is the frontage of the unit not so much the number of figures that is principally important in the game.

Vikings Part 6

Bit of a short collection update here -  added some skirmishers and I do have another 12 on the painting table to complete as well.

Viking King! Vikings Part 5

A weekends worth of work and I have a Viking King to lead my growing hoard.

Vikings Part 4

So its been a while in the updates and I say that allot ! but there it is-  I usually go into a bit of focus and work at getting units painted and i stop posting.

Vikings Part 3

Shield-frame will be smashed,

the maid’s eyes flash across this district at the thanes’ maimer, sword-lord. 
There’ll be for all soldiers,

for each man here many a spear, before the great storm

of steel appears.

  

"The Saga of

Half & his Heroes" 

Photo's Photo's and more photo's

 Today is just a massive host of photo's - all of it is previous work but this time my brother in law Micheal a budding photographer brought his heavy duty camera equipment over and took what I can honestly say is some awesome shots of some of my favorite models.

Then there where 2 units ! Vikings I mean

So not resting Ive kicked into getting a 2nd units done and as I took photo's of this formation I begun cleaning up a 3rd unit.  I figure while motivation is high keep on rolling :)