Godendag the return

I was looking to test some new video software and decided to use some of the photos I took at Godendag.

Godendag 2018 - Veni, Vedi...er, um...

Godendag 2018 was another exceptional weekend at Firestorm Games. There were several competitions running - l'Arte de la Guerre, DBM, Mortum et Glorium and FoG Renaissance.

My partner in crime for l'Arte de la Guerre doubles competitions is Ralph Ashdown and once again we (OK mostly me) decided that a new army to be finished the day before the competition was just what was needed.

Palmyrans, as mentioned in an earlier post, would be the army of choice for the weekend. Not having anything to fit in with the designated competition period a new army would be required. After all, why use Ralph's Macedonians that are already painted and ready to go when you can buy a paint a completely new army in under a month? Practice games - that's almost cheating!

So I turned up (complete with a speeding fine on the six lane wide Newport Road into Cardiff  - that is allegedly 30mph limit - I must have missed that change due to the high degree of concentration needed to navigate due to most of the road signs not having many vowels in them), and proceeded to put the troops on the table and play.

Palmyran cataphracts and light cavalry advance on the enemy

The first game was against Warring States Chinese. We came second but did a reasonable amount of damage to our opponents before they broke our army. Unfortunately I neglected to take many photos.

Palmyrans against Warring States Chinese - the eventual winners of the competition.

Our second game was against a Late Imperial Roman - we knew something strange was happening when we actually won. Huzzah our first win in our second year of the competition. Next year we are going for two wins.

Cataphracts face off the Late Roman Cavalry

My Saturday evening was spent in the company of the Midlands contingent celebrating Mark Clarke's half century that was looming on the next day. The l'AdlG umpire had arranged a surprise presentation of gifts and cake and a less than tuneful rendition of 'Happy Birthday' by the competitors.

Even a cake was provided on Sunday after the first game with gifts and a song

A birthday gift from Tercio Desperrates

Game 3 on Sunday morning found us facing Southern States Chinese. Heavy chariots and lots of infantry with 2HCW. The whole game hinged around the field in the centre of the table neatly positioned by our opponent. We diced to move/remove it got a 5 so moved it into our deployment area. Just right. They then diced also got a 5 and put it back where they originally had it - right in our way. Even our attempt to narrow the table with a waterway didn't help as the Chinese were boxed up tight on their left flank.

That wretched field

Game 4 saw us facing a Patrician Roman (the army of choice for  a lots of players over the weekend) and the inimitable Tim Porter. Tim and his partner had not been having a good weekend with three losses and all to play for in the last game. Lack of terrain and poor positioning of our troops led to our rapid downfall.

Tim Porter prays to the dice gods for anything but a one

Tim Porter's detailed account of our last game. Opinions are his own!

We had some outstanding die rolls on our right flank and were wearing the Romans down but they outnumbered us and the rest of the battle was already lost.

Overall it was a really good weekend with four interesting games and friendly opponents. We are already planning for next year.

Another New Year and painting resolutions

There is nothing quite like a deadline to focus the mind when it comes to painting a new army. The trouble is I seem to have four on the go at once. Nevertheless, Godendag is looming at the end of January so a new 300 point 15mm army for l'Arte de la Guerre in needed at the double.

Over the Christmas break I have managed to paint six stands of cataphracts and two of light cavalry towards a new Palmyran army. All figures are from Irregular Miniatures.

Hopefully the rest of the army will arrive in the post this week, leaving me around three weeks to paint the other 24 stands plus generals needed.

One interesting thing I uncovered at my parent's home today was an old press cutting from the Evening Echo (Bournemouth) dated 29 June 1974. Hard to believe that after 44+ years I'm still painting figures.

I hope I am still painting figures for another 44!
Happy New Year

Exploring l'Arte de la Guerre

Last Sunday I played a new(ish) set of rules called l'Arte de la Guerre for ancient and medieval games. Figures are based as per FOG/DBM so I could also use my 10mm Warmaster Armies to play these rules.

However, for this first game I played using my 15mm Khwarizmian (some are over 20 years old!) against Paul's Sassanids.

The terrain system is quite straightforward and as I was to be the attacker  I had the chance of moving some pieces or removing them totally depending on a die roll. We drew deployment maps before setting out our troops. This is done by placing one corps (you split your army between three corps) at a time with the defender placing the first and then the attacker and so on.

To find out what would happen within this rule set my tactics were basic and simple: advance, shoot and charge. That was about it other than the rout after the first three! Well not with all troops. Charging the Sasssanid elephant is not really the sensible option in most rules but I managed a shot before I closed to attack and I managed to pin it for a second round of melee when I managed to kill it. Fortunately the elephant randomly rampaged through adjacent Sassanids rather than my cavalry.

It was a bloody and relatively quick game all to be lost or won hanging on one melee - the victor would win as we were both within two points of breaking our opponent. I came second! The game was great fun and can be played on a relatively small table so contact is quick. A second game is planned for a few weeks time but using 28mm figures.

Unfortunately I did not take any photos but the official web page is here  http://www.artdelaguerre.fr/en/index.php

There are some video guides on YouTube that give a good insight to the game  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZGlPFIv4g8

Advance of the Austrian cavalry

It has been a busy work week - four evening meetings and Friday night out with friends for dinner, so painting has been slow.
I've caught up a bit this weekend and finished off a couple of units of cuirassier that I had started and finished two units of hussars from scratch.

The foremost unit CR2 is from Adler Miniature and everything else from Baccus

I have been working my way though the Baccus Miniatures Austrian Napoleonic starter army but found I had an old unit of Adler Miniatures cuirassier that I had never finished. Not sure why I had these as my Adler armies are Napoleonic French and Bavarian.

As you can see from the picture above the Adler figures are quite a lot larger than the Baccus. I like both makes but don't think they sit well together in the same army.

Austrian hussar regiment no7 to the front

I have another two units of hussars to paint but need to buy more dragoons and cuirassier at some stage. So next will be more hussars before returning to the infantry.

One for the woad...

Not Napoleonic but I umpired a great game of Warmaster Ancients at the Devizes club yesterday. It was an Ancient British civil war using 10mm Pendraken and Magister Millitum figures.

Byzantine resurrection

Well they may be 40 years old but they are making a comeback! Bill Lamming Late Byzantines painted with Humbrol enamel paints back in the 1970s. I'm re-basing them for War & Conquest rules.

Here are the infantry so far.

 Byzantine cavalry.

 

And here are the first Viking unit for SAGA. There are some Conquest Games cavalry behind them and right at the back are some Gripping Beast Saxons.

Time to paint

Having awoken before 6am yesterday and not being able to go back to sleep, I did something I've not done in ages. I went into the Bunker and did some painting. In fact I did a fair amount of painting; trying to finish off some if those figures and units that have been gathering dust whilst waiting for a few finishing touches.

You know how it is. A new book, film, podcast, rule set or enthusiast at the club means a new project. Current projects are pushed aside; older projects get put so far aside that they are offside and abandoned projects get relegated back to storage boxes. This 6mm AH-1 helicopter for Vietnam is for one of the latest projects. It is from Heroics & Ros.

Iain Dickie visited last weekend and commented that I seem to have three painting tables. Not so. One is for painting, one is for preparation and the other is for basing and finishing. You'd think that the former editor of Miniature Wargames would have cast his experienced eye over this and known immediately what the set up was. But no! All he did was spot the 'secret army' figures I'd carelessly left out half painted.

For several years thee of us at DDWG (Devizes & District Wargames Group) have been painting 10mm Qin Chinese for a Warmaster Ancients game against the Bournemouth-based Purbeck Brotherhood of Ancients (my old club from when I was first starting Wargaming). A 'secret army' as we wanted it to come a complete surprise to our would be opponents who have a huge collection of armies to choose from.

Then, about 18 months back, Iain announced at a competition that he was starting his next army - The Qin! He said that he just had to build an army that included cavalry called the Wo Hoo. The three slow working painters of Qin rolled their eyes and gave an inscrutable smile.

Our intentions of putting a spurt on lasted briefly. Iain finished his Qin and was losing battles before the paint had dried on our little men. I still have at least a dozen units to paint - about 360 infantry figures. Will has his 4 horse chariot units and generals to paint and Steve...well he took a diversion and painted a whole Korean army from the Warmaster Medieval book before finishing more than three units if Qin.

It's amazing how complicated painting can get when you simply need to make the time.

Attack! 2013

Planning for Attack! 2013 is well underway and detail are on the club web site:  www.ddwg.org.uk

The dates are 20-21 July, open 10am - 5pm, at: Devizes School, The Green, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 3AG.

Trade stands, participation games, bring and buy, real ale bar and light refreshments will all be available for your Wargaming pleasure plus the following Competitions:
40k (Sat),
Dystopian Wars (Sun),
Warmaster Ancients,
Field of Glory Ancients,
DBM 3.1,
Field of Glory Renaissance and;
Flames of War.