A Medieval Day

Now that this season is over, I've been suffering from Game of Thrones withdrawal. It's so bad that I actually started to read the books (the horror!). Anyway, I was searching for the book series on my nook, I found an interesting Game of Thrones cookbook, which I promptly downloaded. The recipes look tempting so I decided to try my hand at some. Elizabeth and I designated Saturday as "Medieval Day."

This was not in the cookbook, but this is my favorite medieval style lunch. I typically bring this to Dagorhir events.

 A simple lunch of bread, cheese, and sausage with mustard on the side.

I also prepared a medieval dinner. The menu included a salat (salad), beef and bacon pie, and sweetcorn fritters. We washed the meal down with a strawberry champagne punch and then finished with Sansa's favorite - lemon cakes.

The table setting: red tablecloth, wood or "gold" plates and bowls, no forks.

We went for a medieval look as much as possible. I have some wood plates and bowls, but not enough. We picked up some nice gold plastic plates (left) from Party City. The don't look conspicuously modern in this picture. We did not use forks, because they weren't really used in medieval times.

The meal: Pie on the left, fritters on the right, salad in the background (far right), and punch behind the fritters.

I couldn't find all the ingredients called for by the "Sansa Salad" so I just whipped something together. The pie and fritters recipes came from the book. I know - corn was not known in medieval Europe. George Martin does mention sweetcorn fritters in one of his books, though.

A prepared plate

The beef and bacon pie was very interesting. In addition to the meats, it included raisins, dates, and prunes. The dried fruits added a note of sweetness that nicely counterbalanced the heaviness of the meat. The fritters were awesome (even if I got a minor burn from splattering oil). The punch did not come from the cookbook. Most of its drinks were like hot mulled wine. We wanted something cooler for a hot summer day. Elizabeth found online the recipe for a punch made with champagne, ginger ale, and strawberries. Refreshing.

Dessert: lemon cakes - Sansa's favorite

We ended with the lemon cakes. This is a medieval recipe that is more like a cookie than a cake. Nevertheless it was very tasty!

All in all, a very good meal. It certainly attracted some attention.

Who could that be?

It's Cooper!

Catan is Mine!

We followed up our medieval day with a game of Settlers of Catan. This time, we did random set-up. There were some really interesting dynamics in this game. Because of luck of the dice, we kept generating a lot of sheep and wood, but precious few bricks or ore. At trading time, we kept going around asking if anyone had any brick, but to little avail.

The board at game end. I own the white settlements

I ended up trading in bunches of sheep for materials I needed. Although I never built a city, I had a thriving little realm with the longest road, the largest army, 5 settlements, and a palace. Thus, I took the victory.

1:1 Scale Wargaming

I have been remiss in posting lately, primarily because I haven't played many games this month. However, last week I engaged in an activity that one could call wargaming at 1:1 scale.

Pictured above is a shot of one of the battles at last week's event of the local chapter of Dagorhir Battle Games. In Dagorhir, participants engage in mock combat using medieval-style weapons made of fiberglass and foam.

Most Dagorhir events simply feature a series of unconnected battles, which are simply an excuse to hack and slash each other. I ran last week's event, however, an introduced a storyline to give some purpose and plot to the battles. Two battling warlords learned of a dragon's egg which had been imbued with dark magic. Whoever could claim the egg would claim great power and become the Dragon Lord.

First, we held a tournament to see who would be the warlords. Agnar and Barnabis were the tournament finalists; they chose their teams and the battles began. After a few field battles, the warlords found the egg. They fought to see who could first claim the egg and return it to their castle. Barnabis ultimately prevailed and became Dragon Lord.

I tried to put an end to the Dragon Lord's reign, but I was defeated.

Here I am (in the white armor) taking on Barnabis

I had some other scenarios planned. Agnar was to attack Barnabis's stronghold (we string rope between trees to create a "castle") in an effort to take the egg. Then there was to be a final showdown between the warlords. Due to the extreme heat of the day, however, we had to cut our battles short. I will include these scenarios the next time I run a "1:1 scale wargame."

Quick Synopsis

Played 2 games of Castle Panic tonight. Although I did not take pictures or a detailed game report, I can give a quick summary.

• Ignominious defeat! Monsters get into the castle and destroy all our towers. One lesson we learned - save your Barbarian (which slays one monster anywhere on the board, even in the castle). We used him too early, a monster later got inside the walls, and we had no way to counter.

• Victory! This time, we almost waited too late to use the Barbarian. We had 2 trolls and an orc at our very gates. We probably should have used the Barbarian to kill one of the trolls but decided to wait. Then, the orc got into the castle and the trolls smashed down a wall. Fortunately, Elizabeth came through with a strong turn. She re-built the wall, killed a troll, and tarred the orc. Jimmy followed by killing the troll with the Barbarian, then playing a card that let him pick a card from the discard pile. He  picked the Barbarian and slew the remaining orc. Nevertheless, I earned the title of Master Slayer by killing the most points of monsters.

Mail Call

Last week, I mentioned that I was re-thinking my medieval project and now I want to do it in 2mm. Well, guess what I just got in the mail?

My order of 15mm medieval figures.

Pictured above is a sample. They are 10 of the 12 Viking bondi (2 didn't want to stand up). These will be rated as "Warriors," the average class of fighter in the Dux Brit campaign rules. Note that I will be doing an Imagi-nation spin - with the Viking figures being Redgrave raiders attacking the Empire in a medieval version of Francesia.

Here is a closer view of some of the figures. Pity that my photography is so crappy.

One more picture, this time of the back. The picture is dark, but hopefully you can see there are 3 different scuplts. Most of the figures (pictured in center) are wearing what looks like lammelar armor. The one on the left wears a wool cloak while the one on the right has a bearskin cloak.

I cleaned up the figures and primed them tonight. I'll post my progress as I paint them. I am a VERY slow painter, so don't expect to see these guys on the table soon.

Rethinking My Medieval Project

This morning I had some rules ideas and thought about trying them out, but I did not want to pull out my plastic figures. It dawned on me that I have some 2mm figures lying around. They should allow easy set-up for a quick solo experiment.

Well, my game did not materialize because I could not find the figures, but it has me thinking of ordering some new miniatures for a 2mm medieval project.

Why would I go back to the 2mm route? Well, there are two major reasons.

• Quick and easy to paint - I am a very indifferent painter so my projects seem to lag indefinitely. I started painting my 15mm figures for my Francesia campaign in February. I have 0 figures done. I can knock out some basic 2mm blocks in a day. Being able to get miniatures painted in a reasonable time frame is a big factor for me.
• Easy set-up - I have found that I won't play a solo game if it is a pain to set up. I've used 2mm for games before and set up is a breeze. With a 2mm board, I think I will play more.

In addition, the price is not bad. I can get enough blocks for 2 medieval armies for under $20.

I decided to move to 15mm because of the looks, but 2mm can be very attractive en masse. For example, check out this Alamo game done in 2mm - link. I know my stuff won't look like that, but it still can look decent.

I am definitely thinking of placing an order; the long shipping time from the UK is the only thing deterring me at this moment.

Queen of Catan

We finally staged another game night. This time, I pulled out the classic Settlers of Catan. 

I've owned a copy for a few years (it was a gift from my brother) but never played it (at the time I was predominantly playing 2-player games with my wife). Last night, my wife, brother-in-law, and I gave it a go.

Settlers of Catan (SoC) is a building game. Players randomly gain resources (depending on where their settlements are located) and then use those resources to build more settlements or to expand a settlement into a city. Settlements and cities accrue victory points (VPs). You may also purchase Development Cards, which may provide additional VPs.

I'm not a big fan of building games - I prefer combat-oriented games - but this was enjoyable. In line with my preference, I kept trying to buy Development cards, some of which provide "knights." The person with the largest army of knights gets extra VPs. Elizabeth outdid me, however, ending up with the biggest army and the accompanying 2 VPs.

Although there is no direct combat, a player can steal from another player by using the thief. If you roll a 7 or play a knight card, you can move the thief piece next to another player's settlement. This prevents that player from receiving resources from that space. In addition, you can take a card from that player. I did this to Elizabeth early in the game, much to my regret. Throughout the game, she kept getting the opportunity to move the thief, so she targeted me. As a result, I tended to suffer from a lack of resources.

While I foundered, Elizabeth and Jimmy quickly built up their little realms and were tied at 7 VPs each (a player needs 10 VPs to win). Then Elizabeth pulled off a stunning turn. She built 2 segments of roads, giving her the longest road in Catan (worth 2 VPs, which she gained at Jimmy's expense). She then used the bricks to build a settlement, worth 1 VP. Total = 10. She was victorious so I declare her the Queen of Catan.