No No, Normans

Recently I actually had a little time to play a game. I decided to pull out Battles of Medieval Britain.

The Campaign

I'm in the midst of a campaign to play all the scenarios from start to finish. So far I am 0-3.

Today's Battle

Today's battle is Hastings. It's ironic because I just posted a Hastings-inspired LARP scenario on my LARP blog.

Set Up

The first picture shows the initial set up.

• Normans (red) - 1 unit of knights, 1 of archers, and 4 warriors
• Saxons (blue) - 4 units of spears, 4 of warriors, and King Harold in the red hex (top right)

I play the Normans. My objective is to kill Harold.

The Battle

On the very first turn the Normans lose their knights.

The archers take out a unit of Saxon spears.

Then disaster strikes. The Normans eliminate a unit of Saxon warriors but they lose THREE units.

Shortly followed by another unit.

The last remaining Norman unit piddles around for a few turns before a failed attack.

The day ends. Harold was never even threatened. A decisive Norman defeat!

Fiddling Around

I don't have any game reports but I've been busy.

LARP

LARP has taken most of my time lately. Last weekend, I organized a small event, complete with feast. I made a delicious potato and leek soup from the D&D cookbook. 

This weekend I am heading to central Florida for a full immersion LARP called Mythic Adventures. I've been busy prepping for the trip.

Napoleonic Project

I made some progress with my 2mm Irregular miniatures. I nearly finished the first batch of Austrian and French infantry. I just need to do the flags.

The Austrian infantry

My first batch will give me enough troops for One Hour Wargame armies - 4 line infantry, 2 skirmishers, 2 cavalry, and 2 infantry for each army. I intend to expand the armies, perhaps to double size.

I'm still considering counters, however. I put together some new counters, adding more files per base.

I like how these turned out and will likely proceed with putting them together. I'm thinking of getting Litko plastic bases in each army's primary color, such as white for Austrians. It should help in identifying troops on the board.

Battles of Medieval Britain

I did play some games; I just did not photograph them. I pulled out Battles of Medieval Britain for a couple quick games.

Previously, I kept playing a scenario until I won. However, I have been stuck on one scenario for some time and was bored with it. I decided to take a new approach. I am now playing each scenario once, starting back with the first one. I am recording the results and we'll see how I do. With this new approach, I am 0-3. :(

The Purge

I am preparing to purge some of my unwanted miniatures from my collection. There is a large batch of unpainted Magister Militum 3mm ancients, some incomplete galleys from Outpost, and a collection of miscellaneous 15mm sci fi. I plan to post the listing after I return from Mythic Adventures.

More Battles

A trifecta of quick battle reports.

BATTLE OF CHOBANI

A battle in my Byzantine campaign.

Following their victory at Oikos, the Persians send a force deeper into Byzantine territory to seize more ground.

They clash with Byzantine forces blocking the road north (bottom).

The archery of the Persian light horse destroys Byzantine heavies.

The Persian cataphracts charge the road, but the Byzantine skutatoi drive them off.

And another unit of Persian cataphracts get skewered on the skutatoi spears.

The remaining Persians retreat. Byzantine victory!

Notes

• With the victory, the Byzantines stave off defeat. They still trail 1-2.
• The scenario is #25 - Infiltration from One Hour Wargames. To win, the Persians need to get 2 of their 4 units off the north edge of the map along the road (where the skutatoi are located).
• I used the One Hour Wargame tables to randomly determine the army compositions, with heavy cavalry as the primary troop type.
• Somehow I lost some pictures so I don't have one of the initial set-up. The first picture is around turn 4.

BATTLE OF FULFORD GATE (1066)

The second scenario from Battles of Medieval Britain.

English earls Morcar and Edwin (red) intercept a Viking invasion force (blue).

The English aggressively attack the Vikings and eliminate one warband.

Massive slaughter!

Despite losses, the English keep up the pressure.

The Vikings try to hold on. It comes down to one final melee. The English win!

Another fortuitous die roll on the last combat of the final turn.

BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE (1066)

Another scenario from Battles of Medieval Britain.

King Harold's army (red) advance against the Vikings.

After a slow start, Harold makes inroads against the invaders.

King Hairy-old (played by Onyx) surveys the battle.

The end of the battle. The English overwhelm the last of the Vikings.

Battle of Brunanburh

I made some custom counters for Battles of Medieval Britain and decided to give them a test run.

This is an account of my playthrough of the first scenario.

Background

In 937, a coalition of the kings of Dublin, Scotland, and Strathclyde invade England. King Aethelstan meets the invaders at Brunanburh.

Set Up

The invaders (blue) are spread out over a wide front. Aethelstan follows suit and spreads out his forces.

All units are classified as warriors armed with axes.

The Battle

Aethelstan must destroy the invaders quickly so he rushes his warriors forward.

The scenario objective is to clear the map of enemy units within 7 turns.

But things start off poorly. In the first attacks, Aethelstan loses nearly half his army!

The English missed with their first attacks. You can see the invaders' rolls below. In an instant, two units are gone.

But fortunes can turn quickly in battle. One warband, which Aethelstan dubbed "the Boars" (middle red unit) charge and wipe out two enemy warbands.

The Boars got two kills in one turn. And they eliminated another unit the turn before!

By the way, you can see my shield wall marker on this red unit.

As night approaches, one enemy unit still remains. The Ravens (unit on the right) attack and wipe them out. Victory!

This was the last attack of the last turn. I needed a hit to win. You can see my roll below.

Postscript

It looked bleak at first, but the Boars made an amazing run to make it close. The Ravens, who had been pretty useless for the first 6 turns, finally pulled through to win the game.

I am pleased with how my counters came out. I tried a different method with these. Instead of gluing cardstock onto Litko bases, I printed the designs onto a full page shipping label. Then I cut out each counter and just stuck it to the base. By the way, I used custom-sized bases (1/2" x 3/4" if I recall correctly). I realized, however, that I need a turn counter.

I also turned the game into a boxed set. I took a blank board game box that I bought from GMT Games and filled it with the book and the game components.