 |
| Morthrond Vale Rangers |
 |
| Citadel Guard |
 |
| Aragorn, Faramir, Imrahil and warriors |
 |
| Archers |
 |
| Boromir and Denethor with Spearmen in support |
 |
| View of the Battle line |
 |
| Battleline from the other side |
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Lord of the Rings - Gondor
I've found lately that I am struggling to keep to one particular project. I've still got to finish my ACW, started the Franco Prussian War, Some undead for my role playing games. I've also been eyeing up the unpainted stockpile of Greek Hoplites and more Vikings. Then I dug out my Gondor army. I started this project a couple of years ago and it never really got off the ground, about half completed. So sticking with a basic but effective colour scheme for the army I set about completing as much as I could before I changed my mind. So far this has been a success as I only have a unit of 8 cavalry and some more rangers to complete my force. Not the best photos as had to take them indoors.
Friday, 18 November 2011
First games of SAGA
Last night at the club, me and Robbo did our first game of SAGA. We set up with a 4 points aside game and limited the terrain to a couple of buildings and some fields. Robbo took on the ole of the Viking Warlord Ragnar Redmane supported by 2 units of Hirdmen, a unit of Beserkers and a single unit of Bondi. I took on the role of the Anglo Danish warlord Waltheof the Bald, supported by 2 units of huscarles, 1 with dane axes and 2 units of Ceorls.
We kept the scenario simple as a stand up fight just so we could get used to the rules and the SAGA boards. The game opened with a general viking advance into the village, I sent one of my units of Ceorls to the left to face off against the bondi, who set amongst their foes with gusto, both sides increased their attack dice (no shrinking violets these as defence was not thought of), the result was 5 dead bondi and 4 dead ceorls. Waltheof and both units of huscarles rapidly moved towards the village.
Ragnar and his hirdmen quickly moved to support the bondi but fell just short. The beserkers on his left failed to move for a second time due my using the ability 'intimidation' . My Ceorls flushed with success launched themselves again at the bondi, only for honours even with 2 casualties apiece and my attack checked. Next my huscarles with dane axes launched themselves into a unit of hirdmen and promptly cut all 4 down for the loss of 3. On my right Waltheof and the other huscarles moved to intercept the Beserkers, supported by my second unit of Ceorls.
Ragnar then launched his remaining hirdmen unit at the remaining huscarl. Using the saga abailities I manged to provide him with 2 extra attack dice. To say the combat when badly for the hirdmen would be an understatement. Despite felling the remaining huscarl, he took 3 of them with him. Robbo had kept back his bonus attack dice for the Beserkers who finally launched themselves at Waltheof and my second unit of huscarles, but once again fate was against him as Waltheof himself fell all 4 opponents (stuff of legends). It was at this point that Ragnar and his single remaining hirdman decided to depart the field.
For our second game we shuffled the terrain around and got straight down to it. Ragnar had returned with a new force and once again was met by Waltheof and his men. To say this battle was swift is and understatement. Both warlords supported by their retainers rushed straight towards each other. We both stacked up the SAGA dice to boost attacks and fell to it. The result, Waltheof threw down his enemy and danced on his remains....lol. The hirdmen perished to a man and my huscarls were reduced to a single figure...game over.
Views on the game. Very quick to pick up which is a good thing. The use of the battle boards gives the game its extra depth and mastery of its use is important. Trying to understand when to use abilities or not. We also found the combat very devastating, but that is probably down to us using abilities to boost attack dice and ignoring defence. Overall a very enjoyable game, we got 2 games completed in under 3 hours.
Sorry for no pictures as I was just concentrating on the games.
We kept the scenario simple as a stand up fight just so we could get used to the rules and the SAGA boards. The game opened with a general viking advance into the village, I sent one of my units of Ceorls to the left to face off against the bondi, who set amongst their foes with gusto, both sides increased their attack dice (no shrinking violets these as defence was not thought of), the result was 5 dead bondi and 4 dead ceorls. Waltheof and both units of huscarles rapidly moved towards the village.
Ragnar and his hirdmen quickly moved to support the bondi but fell just short. The beserkers on his left failed to move for a second time due my using the ability 'intimidation' . My Ceorls flushed with success launched themselves again at the bondi, only for honours even with 2 casualties apiece and my attack checked. Next my huscarles with dane axes launched themselves into a unit of hirdmen and promptly cut all 4 down for the loss of 3. On my right Waltheof and the other huscarles moved to intercept the Beserkers, supported by my second unit of Ceorls.
Ragnar then launched his remaining hirdmen unit at the remaining huscarl. Using the saga abailities I manged to provide him with 2 extra attack dice. To say the combat when badly for the hirdmen would be an understatement. Despite felling the remaining huscarl, he took 3 of them with him. Robbo had kept back his bonus attack dice for the Beserkers who finally launched themselves at Waltheof and my second unit of huscarles, but once again fate was against him as Waltheof himself fell all 4 opponents (stuff of legends). It was at this point that Ragnar and his single remaining hirdman decided to depart the field.
For our second game we shuffled the terrain around and got straight down to it. Ragnar had returned with a new force and once again was met by Waltheof and his men. To say this battle was swift is and understatement. Both warlords supported by their retainers rushed straight towards each other. We both stacked up the SAGA dice to boost attacks and fell to it. The result, Waltheof threw down his enemy and danced on his remains....lol. The hirdmen perished to a man and my huscarls were reduced to a single figure...game over.
Views on the game. Very quick to pick up which is a good thing. The use of the battle boards gives the game its extra depth and mastery of its use is important. Trying to understand when to use abilities or not. We also found the combat very devastating, but that is probably down to us using abilities to boost attack dice and ignoring defence. Overall a very enjoyable game, we got 2 games completed in under 3 hours.
Sorry for no pictures as I was just concentrating on the games.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
SAGA warbands
I was due to play my first game of SAGA on Thursday but due to the wife being unwell I was unable to make it. Still I did manage to put together a couple of warbands for the game, mainly from my existing collection, though I did paint up the huscarls with the 2H axes. First up my Anglo Danes.
Next up my Viking warband. I've got too many hirdmen, mainly due to the majority of my collection being armoured.
Next up my Viking warband. I've got too many hirdmen, mainly due to the majority of my collection being armoured.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
more SAGA dice
Well one of the lads at the club has agreed to give the SAGA rules a run out on Thursday. We'll probably start with just a 4 point game as we'll probably spend plenty time thumbing through the rules. For a layout I'm going to use four of the boards from our viking layout that we used at the border reiver show 2 years ago http://scottyswargaming.blogspot.com/2010/09/border-reiver-show-pictures.html. Now this has prompted me to finish off making up some SAGA dice. I've already done some for the welsh (typically my opponent wants to use vikings) so I done 8 for the Anglo-Danes and 4 for the Normans.
A comparison shot between my home made dice and the official ones. Obviously the real things are superior, but you have to pay your money for them at £12.00 for 8. (Obviously I'll be using my viking dice and the others at the club can use the homemade dice until they get their own).
Saxon Dice
Norman dice
More Undead
I finally managed to finish my undead cavalry including a mounted Vampire blood knight to lead them. it's only a small unit so not sure how effective it will be. I also managed to add a standard to one of the figures.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Hail Caesar
Well, decided to take a plunge and bought myself another rule set, this time Hail Caesar (HC). It only cost £19.00 from amazon. So far had a quick read, rules seem pretty straight forward. I'll try and give them a run out in the next couple of weeks. Now for ancients I usually played WAB, but recently found that I had stopped gaming it, firstly due to my regular opponent no longer being at the club and secondly I felt the rules just no longer did it for me. The advantage of using HC is that I don't need to re-base my current armies. Now I've just got to convince some one at the club to give them a go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)