The Peasants are revolting.....

Somewhat later than planned - a theme for the month.

Play a game and paint something to compliment it :-)

After the Excalibur outing I dug out half a box of peasants that were left over from one of the Crusader units and thought they would be useful to compliment the Knights of the Round Table and defend their homesteads against the invaders.

First up 5 missilemen and a cluster of arrows just because they were left on the sprue. A mix of greens and browns with some pretty flowers to show they are the good guys...

A bunch of spearmen ready with their wall of spears ok maybe more like a hedge of spears.

Finally a cluster of villagers with hand held weapons, the one eyed leader suggests is bark may be worse than is bite.

Nice to get these off the paint queue and table ready.

Excalibur - The Battle of Caerwyn Bridge.

Not had these out for a while. - Lion Rampant, with a little bit of Dragon Rampant thrown in.

The Battle of Caerwyn Bridge — Arthur’s knights must hold a fragile rope bridge while Mordred’s armoured knights, footmen, and missile troops advance in overwhelming numbers.

The River Taranis flows through Arthur’s western borderlands. The only crossing for leagues is the Caerwyn Rope Bridge, a narrow, swaying span of hemp rope and timber planks. 

Mordred’s host approaches from the north, intent on seizing the crossing.

A small but elite force stands ready to defend the bridge against Modred's dark human host. The Alarm bell rings and Arthur rallies his knights who rush to defend the bridge.

Mordred’s forces are grim, disciplined, and numerous — not monsters, but men hardened by war and driven by ambition.

The bridge sways under the weight of the black‑armoured knights as the advance across the bridge, the warriors are thrown backwards.

Sir Kay pushes forwards taking the fight to Mordred's forces striking down numerous warriors as they reached the far side of the bridge before the weight of numbers told.

Sir Bedivere falls backwards as Mordred and his Banner moves on to the bridge — the usurper directing the assault personally.

As Mordred advances he is met by Sir Lancelot, many years in the wilderness back to aid in Camelot's defence.

Both knights were wounded but Mordred was forced to fall back and regroup for a further assault. The Knights of the Round Table having brought valuable time for the local civilians to escape and over half their number carrying wounds, decided to retreat from the bridge, they had won a valuable victory in the opening round. 

Great fun and who knows maybe a small campaign.

Borrowing from another rule set, I rolled for the casualties on the 'Good' side.

• Sir Gawain — Recovered no ill effects
• Sir Bedivere — Recovered no ill effects
• Sir Kay — Whilst the wound is not deep - He has the Jitters for future games and tests on a -1 Courage roll.

It spurred me on to prep a bunch of Wargames Atlantic/Baron's war peasant levy which have been hanging around for a couple of years. Games like this are always a tonic to keep the paint queue moving.

Oathmark Orc Archers - Scum of the Earth.

Another quick painting session to clear some of the smaller projects sitting on the paint table.

Paul over at movealongnownothingtoseehere has issued the Wyre Forest Club a monthly painting challenge. This month it's Scum of the Earth and these felt perfect.

Having built up Modred's forces back in the Summer for the Excalibur project, I was missing some missile troops for the evil side.

These are Oathmark Orc's but a flesh tone gives them a disfigured human feel perfect for terrorising villagers before the Knights of the Round Table appear to save the day.

Dragon Rampant 2 - Homage to Blood Bath at Orc's Drift.

Every so often you stumble across something that takes you straight back to the hobby tables of the 80’s was gaming better then or did we simply have less gaming choice. I was never much of a Warhammer player but Bloodbath at Orc’s Drift was exactly that sort of thing that got the creative juices flowing.

Released back in 1985 for Warhammer 2nd Edition, the boxed set was the work of Gary Chalk, Joe Dever and Ian Page, with its roots firmly planted in the film Zulu — just swap the redcoats for Elves, Dwarves and villagers, and let the Orcs do their worst.

The box contained the scenario book, command sheets, a poster map, and those wonderful Dave Andrews cardstock buildings, which for many of us were the first “terrain” we ever owned.

The campaign itself unfolded over four linked scenarios — Kachas Pass, Ashak Rise, Linden Way, and finally Orc’s Drift — each loss or victory feeding into the next. Whilst I never played them they have always been on my long list of games I need to play.

Inspiration for tonight's game and the first outing for Dragon Rampant 2.

My good friend Paul had brought his Goblin horde out to play the savage band of green skins were laying waste to Albion. King Arthur summoned the Knights of the Round table to turn them back.

The Knights readied themselves as Goblin riders rushed forwards supported by Ogre's - nasty looking things.

The Goblin horde were many in number but King Arthur and Sir Lancelot stood firm - truly the stuff of legend.

The curse of newly painted figures plagued both sides - The Ogres fell back under the blows of Excalibur. Goblins jumped the mercenary band as they neared the wood. 

In the end the Knights beat the Goblins sending them scuttling back to their dark lands.

A cracking game of 30 points aside, Dragon Rampant really has that feel of the original Warhammer games now the conversation turns to returning to Orc’s Drift proper and converting the original game and points to Dragon Rampant. What have we done....

The buildings and the PVA glue that held them together may be long gone, but the thought of playing the linked scenario's scratches an itch that has been there for 40 years..... :-)

Happy gaming.

Excalibur - Oathmark Orcs.

I need to seriously increase my pace - time seems to be running away on projects. Another one where the last post on the blog was over 3 years ago.

With all the chatter around Dragon Rampant 2 and keeping with the theme of getting s**t done this month the focus continues to be on random stuff. 

These Oathmark Orcs, they were a Christmas present and were put together in the summer so have been on the to do list for almost a year. 

The box art was lovely and I thought they would make useful additions to the forces of Mordred and the Excalibur project. They are slightly larger than the Knights but don't look to bad and will largely be in their own units on the table. A rich variety of head gear and weapons many fit that old school style which mirror that of the original Chaos Knights.

I was thinking about the origins of the Excalibur legend and lost several hours in reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory and thinking about the final battle at Camlann and what the foot troops might look like and these most certainly fit the bill.

I opted for a flesh tone rather than the common held green variant - They look better to my eye.

Using the mechanics of Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant each knight from the Round Table could be a unit on there own against the mass ranks of Mordred's rebellious forces. So it should playout that heroic feel. - Let's see....

Lancelot and King Arthur find themselves in a spot of bother.

Chatting about scenario's with a buddy over a coffee he mentioned that they had a feel of the Blood Bath at Orcs Drift from the early the 80's.... it might be fun to dig out the scenario's even though the figures, booklet and buildings are long gone.

Strange how some projects just don't go away.

LOTR Campaign Game - The fall of Fangorn.

The Lord of the Rings Campaign is back.... my wargaming buddy has been investing heavily in bad guys so to accommodate the larger forces we have switched to Dragon Rampant, amending the point values and reinforcements to keep the balance of the game.

In the south of Middle Earth, the Forces of Men have been looking to dodge the evil Orcs' but have finally ran out of room, chased by 4 armies the battered force moved into Fangorn only to be blocked by a far larger enemy force, pinned in on all sides They need to win the day or be wiped from the map.

The plan is a simple one, await the evil horde and hope to batter them as they crest the hill. I picked a largely archer force, paying for the sharp shooter skill to try hold them back and break their morale.

With approx. 100 points to field Sauron's forces were not short of impressive units chase down human forces, Trolls, Heavy Pike and lots of cavalry....

The heavy cavalry swept forward facing off against the Riders of Rohan who fired their bow and evaded the initial charge, some of the cavalry were felled as they charged into the skirmishers in the tree line losing their advantage... the evil guys would only fall for that once. The Trolls and skirmishers rushed forwards to clear the wood.

The men of Gondor refused their flanks as the enemy cavalry regrouped as their infantry pushed around the left flank.

On the right the enemy infantry advanced, throwing their crossbows forward to be greeted by a hail of arrows.

On the left the Infantry braced themselves for the heavy cavalry charge, they could perhaps stop one unit, but four might be a challenge. 

The hammer blow fell. Holding off the horns left nothing to hold off the charging Trolls who swept through the rough terrain and smashed into the formed ranks, pushing them backwards.

The Human General was killed in the melee, Victory was complete for the evil army.

With nowhere to retreat the good army was removed from the board. Things were going to get harder before they got better in this campaign. Nice to know switching rules made no difference to the outcome of the game :-)

One more battle to fight this turn..... hopefully not a year before the next outing...

Dispatches from the front XXXVI - A rare double header.

A little bit behind on posts of late, hopefully things should calm down in a couple of weeks once year end is out of the way, this real life stuff can seriously hinder hobby time.

Last weekend saw a rarity on the hobby front, a show and an all day game..... I suspect I will have to make up for that in the coming weeks, lets kick of with Hammerhead. A great show as always from Paul and Sally at Kallistra the hall was packed with plenty of games to chose from and most traders 2-3 people deep. I was reflecting on traders that were missing and the number that now concentrate their efforts on perhaps 3-4 shows a year, you can't blame traders given the cost of overnight accommodation and travel costs. That's a lot of margin to make up before you have even sold a pack of figures.

I did my bit with a nice haul from the show. I am trying to be more proactive so on the evening started to prep them before they disappeared into the draw of things I really must get round to finishing, it might allow me to get a little bit of prep across the week.

The haul Pendragon for the AWI Project with a number of additional buildings and phase three of the project, with more Militia, British Cavalry, Indians and more casualty markers. The under cloth hills from Kallistra will give me more options on the tabletop.

Finally a a couple of packs from Perry to bulk out the Christian forces for the Crusades, separating the Footsore Mini's from their larger cousins. The next game is scheduled for early April so no pressure to get them complete.

With barely time to recover Sunday saw a Wyre Forest all dayer with a dry run for the Alumwell show at the end of the month, I won't give the scenario away but it sees German mechanised forces take on Russian defenders.

Having a dry run gave us the opportunity to tweak the forces and ensure that the scenario moves at pace and gives a balance of troops for each side.

A big shout out to Howard from the club, knowing my Crusades project is underway he very kindly gifted me his "to do" pile... Very generous.... but wow the list of things to do is growing day by day....

Meanwhile back from hibernation the LOTR's campaign is back, over a year has passed since the last posting - Dust, Tears & Dice: LOTR Campaign - Back from the annuals of time. New purchases from my wargaming buddy has perhaps pushed Infamy to it's limits so we discussed switching to Lion/Dragon Rampant it will certainly give a faster play and both rule sets have enough characteristics for the various troops types. We will need to tweak the points for each campaign force but it should not take long to convert.

A greater tester game saw a win for the good guys.... shame it did not count. It was great to be able bring the campaign back to life, as always so many games, so little time.