Dark Ages Game

Yesterday I played another solo game and again I wanted to use armies that had not seen the table for a while. In this instance I chose to use troops that have never been on the table, the Dark Ages Saxons and Vikings that I had painted some years ago. I had even written a simplified set of rules, based around my standard rules concepts.

I decided to play a small game with the Vikings attacking a Saxon village. I set up a small 1200mm x 1200mm table with a village in the centre of table. 

The Saxons could have up to three units in the village at the start of the game. First they roll 1xD6 and if the score is “6” then there will be three units, otherwise there will be just two. Once the number of units is determined they will roll 1xD6 for each unit and a 1,2 or 3 will mean the unit is spearmen, while a 4,5 or 6 will mean it is bowmen (only two units can be of the same type). All other troops arrive by dice roll to arrive on the table.

The Vikings will arrive at positions V1-6 and each turn will require a score of 4+ to bring on each of the following: 2 leaders, 2 musicians, 4 units of Hirdsmen, 2 of spearmen and one of bowmen. Once arrival is determined the units will roll again to determine which of the arrival points they appear at. 

The Saxons will arrive at positions S1-6 and each turn will require a score of 4+ to bring on each of the following: 2 leaders, 2 musicians, 4 units of Thegns,  1 or 2 of spearmen and one of bowmen. Once arrival is determined the units will roll again to determine which of the arrival points they appear at. 

The Vikings win if they push the defending units out of the village and then hold it for two turns or if they destroy half of the Saxon force.

So how did the game run? Well a bit chaotically is the simple answer. In their initial set up the Saxons managed to get a unit of spearmen and one of bows to occupy the village. The Vikings got the most figures on the table first, but both sides struggled with motivation and neither were keen to engage. 

Action started on the eastern side of the table with a unit of Hirdsmen boldly crossing the river. They were promptly attacked by a unit of Thegns and the Vikings were pushed back but not broken. The Hirdsmen came back and supported by a unit of spearmen pushed back disrupting two units of Thegns.

Meanwhile the bulk of the Vikings arrived on the southwestern quadrant (except for the unit of spearmen that moved to support the western Hirdsmen), but they struggled with motivation and the spearmen from the village, seeking to catch the Vikings before they could get organised, advanced to meet them, while the bowmen from the village came forward and rained arrows on the Vikings near the ford.

East of the village, the situation for the Saxons worsened and one of the units of Thegns was destroyed and other pushed back and disrupted.

Then suddenly the Vikings in the west moved rapidly and attacked the Saxon spearmen from the village. The spearmen fought bravely and threw back the first attack, but when a unit of Hirdsmen hit them in the front and a spear unit struck their flank, the Saxons were destroyed and the victorious Vikings fell on the rear of a unit of Saxon Thegns who promptly routed into the spears of another unit of Hirdsmen and were destroyed.

At last the much delayed northeastern Saxon wing, consisting of two units of Thegns and some bowmen, came forward. At first they pushed some Vikings back, but when the Vikings counterattacked, the Saxons came off the worst.

By now the village was vacant and more than half of the Saxon units had broken. The battle was ended and the Vikings looted the village.

The simplified rules worked OK, but needs a few tweaks.

Winter Village - Part 4 ... and more

SeIt has been a sort of bitty week this one. I started off working on the final strucure of my winter village. This time it is a Russian church, much smaller than the one I made at the beginning of last year, but an interesting model all the same.

I chose a log and finished timber exterior for this model. The logs were made from bamboo skewers, cut to length and then glued to a cardboard form. The finished timber is largely matchsticks with some pieces of balsa where larger boards were required.

The roof is sculpted foam board, covered with fine sand. I opted not to have a dome on this model, but did put a cross on top of a stack of spheres.

I have yet to instruct the base. This will  be completed in the next couple of weeks.

Another item worked on during the week is a batch of nine Indian troops for East Africa required to complete a battalion for use in a game in October. These are Brigade Games figures. They don't match the Woodbine Figures that make up the rest of the battalion, but they are such lovely figures that I am happy to live with this. 

Also included in the parcel from Brigade Games is a set of War of 1812 American generals - a mounted and dismounted officer. This is the advanced guard of a new project that will kick off properly in late-October. These are great little figures designed by the talented Paul Hicks, my only complaint is that the horse in way too skinny - it looks to me as though the person operating the casting machine has applied too much pressure on the moulds.

Then on Friday night we played a Dark Ages-Early Medieval game based around the Battle of the Standard, or the Battle of Northallerton, between English and Scottish armies on 22 August 1138. The rules used were To The Strongest.

Starting at around 5:30 we played until about 9:30 with a break for dinner. 

It was a hard fought action that at the dinner break saw the English army with the upper hand. But fortunes changed after dinner and the Scots rallied and came forward again.

But the English, led by Ralph of Durham, held and drove off several of the best Scottish units.

Then in one devastating move the English fortunes changed and the Scots reversed history.

Dark Ages Project Complete!

With the completion of these two units of Dark Age archers, my pocket Dark Ages project has come to a close.

Inspired by the TV programme "Vikings",  from the outset this project had quite finite bounds and was intended as a simple beer and skittles type of game of short duration on a small table. It also had to fit into a tight budget and for that reason I decided to use the Gripping Beast Plastics.

So what is the extent of the project?

4 units of Viking Hirdsmen

2 Viking leaders

2 Viking musicians

4 units Saxon Thegns

2 Saxon leaders

2 Saxon musicians

4 units of warriors (usable as either Vikings or Saxons)

3 units of archers (usable as either Vikings or Saxons)

6 Dark Age buildings.

Each unit consists of two stands each of five figures, while the leaders and hornblowers are single figures.

While the project is complete, the armies will not see action until October. 

Dark Ages Warriors

I finished these last Friday, but only completed the bases yesterday and took advantage of the brief amount of daylight left after I got home from work to take these images.

Presented here are four units of Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors and one unit of archers.

I was a bit doubtful about these when I started on them because there weren't as many variants as there were in the Viking and Saxon sets. But now that they are based, I like them. They are a mix of spearmen, slingers, javelinmen plus a couple of swordmen and axemen.

They have been deliberately painted in a neutral manner so that they can be used as either Viking or Saxon "arrow fodder".

The archer sets was quite limited because, although the box contains 30 figures, there are only three on the sprue, so the selction of poses is very limited. However, by using some of the spare Viking and Saxon heads, and some of those from the Dark Age Warriors set, it is possible to gain a little more variety.

I still have two more units of archers to go to finish this project. There is no rush with these though since they aren't required now until October.

Saxon Village Houses

With the lead (and plastic) pile temporarily levelled, I have turned to my old fall back - buildings.

This weekend I have finished the last of the Dark Ages buildings, two Saxon dwellings.

The first is a simple A frame structure with a low door and thatched roof.

Second is another thatched building, with a timber and daub base.

Then to put all three Saxon buildings together...

There is still a little work to finish here, such as constructing the animal pens and similar, but I shall use the Renedra plastic fencing for this and they will wait for a while.

Next up, while I wait for the next batch of lead and plastic to arrive, will be a Russian village in winter that I shall document in due course.

The Latest Painting Activity

There has been quite a bit of activity on the painting table in the last week.

First up is a group of German Askari that I have painted for a friend. They are Brigade Games figures and are great little figures to work with. There are ten figures in this batch, but only seven would fit in the frame.

Next up is the third and final building of the Viking village. Two more Saxon buildings will follow to complete that village.

And finally, the last unit of the Retreat From Moscow collection, a small unit of Chasseurs of the Guard to accompany the Emperor's sleigh.