Holiday Gaming 2 - Trouble in Vani

On Sunday I organised the main game over the holiday period.  It was a multi-player game of civil disorder set in Vani, the provisional capital of the breakaway Andreivian Armenian Republic.

Following the capture by NATO of Serj Benkian, there is a power vacuum in the Andreivian Armenian leadership.  Our game showed resulting rioting and fighting on the streets of Vani.

Richard Phillips has provided a fine write-up of the game so I'll content myself here with posting a few of my photos.

A lovely surprise at the start of the day was to receive this piece of municipal art as a Christmas present from Richard Phillips.  It provided a fine centre-piece for the small square to next to the old mayoral house (now the residence of the President of the Republic).

I always try to have a new terrain piece for every game I run and in this case I also had a suitably urban pavement area with a tree.  They aren't really visible in this shot but the central planting area with the tree is surrounded by stones made from red lentils!

The game was deliberately confused with eight players representing multiple elements from four factions and some neutrals.  Each player took control of units more than one faction.

In the end, Andy (in the green sweater above) was the winner among the players, having acquired the most victory tokens associated with the winning faction.  The Democratic Union of Armenia are now the dominant faction in Andreivian Armenian politics.  Or at least they are in Vani.  Who knows what might apply in other areas?

The rules used were Arc of Fire.  This continues to be my preferred set for twentieth century skirmish action.

Holiday Gaming 1 - Lion Rampant

Long-time followers of this blog will know that I generally try to get some gaming in over the Christmas and New Year holiday period and this year has been no exception.

I'd asked for a copy of Dan Mersey's Lion Rampant for Christmas and in the hope and expectation that Santa would deliver, I printed off some Teutonic Knights and Baltic pagans from junior general.org.  So the evening of Boxing Day saw what is surely the most old school game ever to appear here.

The Christmas tablecloth and a couple of off-cuts of astroturf formed the battlefield.  Over this snowy expanse fought two units of mounted men at arms and one of foot sergeants for the Teutonic Order against one unit each of foot men at arms, fierce foot, and bidowers for the Lithuanians.

The field of battle.  The Lithuanian knights are off-camera to the right.

 The Teutonic serjeants started with 11 men as one of their number had been eaten by the puppy.

The fierce Lithuanian tribesmen charge the Teutonic Serjeants, attempting
to catch them before they can finish crossing the bad going.

Meanwhile the Lithuanian bidowers enter the other area of bad going.

As the first unit of men at arms approaches.

The foot serjeants roll spectacularly...

... and throw back the fierce Lithuanian warriors...

... with three casualties.

The warriors' Courage Test is disastrous and they rout.

Somewhere hereabouts I lose track of one of the units of mounted knights.  I think they rolled badly after taking casualties from Lithuanian shooting.

Meanwhile the Wild Charge special rule sees the Teutonic Knights charge
the enemy Bidowers.  Not a great idea what with them being
in bad going and all.

Despite the disadvantageous terrain, the Knights drive off the Bidowers
but are then hit in the flank by the late-arriving Lithuanian nobles.

Whilst over the other side of the field, the foot serjeants roll badly when
attempting to rally.  They must rout off the table.

The Bidowers return to the fray and cause some casualties as the Knights
continue to wallow in the poor going.  Alas, though, this is not enough
and the gallant skirmishers rout...

... leaving the Lithuanian and Teutonic knights to fight a final combat.

I'm not going to dignify this little action by giving winners or losers - it was a trivial exercise in getting to know the rules.  

There was more back-and-forth than the above account captures.  I think playing properly designed scenarios on nice terrain, these will be great fun to play.  

I plan to follow David Sullivan's lead and use the rules to play some Late Roman actions when I've recruited the appropriate toys.

Christmas Pressies

I must have been a good boy this year.   Stella bought me Lion Rampant, which I've been itching to try and of which more later.  I also got some fine pointed tweezers and a pack of Pulp Figures.

Finally, Jamie bought me two packs of Baccus 6mm Hun horse archers.

God Jul!

It's Christmas morning and I'm experimenting with annotating JPEGs using the Mac's Preview programme.

Best Wishes of the Season to all of you from the Goths, Huns, and Franks, from the giant hand of the gods, and from me!

Richard

Civil Unrest

Last week I ordered some 20mm figures from Irregular's Riot range.  The following, rather hurriedly painted, are the first results.

They'll see action in a forthcoming Andreivia game along with this Irregular TV crew and interested riot policeman.

Finally, this pair of plastic figures will see action as MI6 agents in another game.

On the workbench - Saxon Dragoons

In the early 18th century the thrones of Saxony and Poland were united in the person of Augustus the Strong.  That's my excuse for adding a unit of Saxon Leibregiment Dragoons to my 6mm scale Polish army.  That and the fact that again had a few figures that needed using up.

Again I've had to sculpt a couple of casualty figures to bring the unit up to strength with the Dragoons in my Russian army.

As usual, the four 30x30mm bases will form a unit for Maurice or Black Powder.  More pics when I get the groundwork done.

Mysterious Stranger

Purchased on Saturday, painted, varnished and based by Thursday evening.  That's pretty good going for me when it comes to 28mm figures.

I needed a figure for the Christmas Pulp Alley game to represent Gerald Faulkner, a shell-shocked former Grenadier Guards officer now wandering lonely Denley Moor in Yorkshire.  This Artisan figure looked OK for the job.

He's from their Dead Man's Hand range and is meant to represent Wyatt Earp.  I carefully removed his tin star and spurs before I painted him.

Gerald will form the Main Plot Point in the game I'm intending to run on New Year's Eve.

Next job is to source and paint a dog to accompany Gerald.