End of a year and time to start a new one

It's nearly time to say goodbye to 2012 ans I, for one, won't miss it.  Many more lows than highs and here's hoping that 2013 is better.  2012 was marred by illnesses, accidents and problems, so 2013 needs to improve on that, which shouldn't be difficult.  One high is the rapidly approaching birth of another granddaughter, due on January 8th, so that will be a good start.

Wargames wise, 2012 wasn't all bad.  I found 2 sets of rules that I really like in Maurice and Dux Britannarium.  I bought figures for both and my first purchase of 2013 will be an order for the rest of my AWI British from Peter Pig.  I also played more than a few fun games with lots of good people.  Periods played and rulesets used were too varied to list here, but I enjoyed most of them, which was nice.

Commie tanks on the hill with their infantry in the village

Tanks and APCs skirt a religious stronghold

 The last meet of the Monday night group was an almost all day game of AK-47.  Almost all day is because one member had to leave at 4.30 to get ready to go out at 7!  I take 15-30 minutes to get ready to go out, leaving the 1+ hour time frame to my wife/daughter, but each to his own.  The game itself was a laugh, as AK47 games usually are.  You cannot expect anything to go as hoped and levy troops are usually more durable than they have any right to be.  This game was no exception, with Zob's levy holding until the last turn and my professional tanks blowing up very quickly.  Andy's dictatorship and my colonial settlers lost a tight game to Colin's communists and Zob's religious loons. 

Oops, burning professional tanks is never a good plan

The attack on the village, which went on and on and on

High points were my first shot of the game (double 6), while after that my aim was off.  Andy's was even worse, with one of his units rolling double 1 every turn, which hindered his shooting for the whole game.  After the game finished Colin and Andy left and were replaced by Nathan, who brought along a new boardgame called Pandemic.  A quick game, it does make you work as a team and try to save the world.  We lost, twice, but were really close to winning the second time and the three of us enjoyed it, so that's a good thing.

I am now in the process of painting and roofing the Warbases buildings I got for Christmas from my wife.  After that I have to paint some WW2 figures for a customer, then some 15mm Napoleonics (part of a massive load I have to paint) and then I may, finally, get to paint some of my AWI figures.  That's the plan anyway.  

Well, its time to go and eat some tea so I can feel sick again later.  Last night was really bad, so bad that I ended up at the doctors again today.  Ah well, **** happens.  I hope you all have a good New Year and may the god of wargaming allow your dice to be favourable.  Take care and keep rolling those 6's.

Dux Britannarium and presents

The Monday group have started a new Dux Britannarium campaign.  These rules by the Too Fat Lardies have caught on with all of us and there are plenty of figures being painted up.  With 6 members now, since Gus legged it to live in the sun, we have an even 3 on 3 split.  Colin, Nathan and Zob have picked the smelly, uncouth Saxons while myself, Panjo and Andy control the well mannered, polite and literate Romano-British.

The first battles saw Colin raiding Panjo's village, Zob attempting to steal Andy's wagons and Nathan trying to kidnap one of my leaders.  Colin slaughtered Panjo, winning by 9 points.  He got all his troops back and gained a unit of skirmishers.  Panjo will take 3 months to regain his men, leaving him with few defenders against any further attacks.  Andy scrapped a win by 1 point against Zob, but lost too many men doing it.  He gained a bit of money, but will take 3 months to refill his ranks, while Zob gained nothing but gets his men back in 2 months.  I managed a 1 point win against Nathan, mostly by rolling four 6's in one fight against his elite troops, who then routed.  I should have pursued him off table, but had lost 11 men, one more would have cost me victory!  As it is I gained a bit of cash and will get my men back in 2 months, as does Nathan.  Stupidly, I forgot to take any pictures, but will attempt to show what happened using Battle Chronicler later on.

For Christmas this year I will mostly be getting stuff I have ordered myself.  My family have finally accepted that I like playing with toy soldiers, so got me to order what I wanted and then wrapped it up so I couldn't have it already.  My Mum has got me a load of Peter Pig AWI figures.  I will now be able to finish off the rebellious Americans, plus have the initial units for the British force.  My darling wife has got me several Dark Ages buildings from Warbases.  I have a watch tower and 4 assorted huts waiting my attention so will soon have plenty of objectives for those damned Saxon raiders.  My daughter, who always used to get me a bottle of good scotch, is giving me money to get what I want as I can't drink anymore.  It's going to be a pretty good year in terms of presents for wargaming.  Better than socks anyway.  :)

Anyway, need to finish some bits off.  Catch you later.

Christmas is almost here, so we played our big game

Hello again.  Sorry its been so long since I have posted, but I have been sick and busy.  Anyway, here I am again.

What have I been doing?  Well, painting some more Napoleonic Dutch-Belgians, plus finishing off those pesky 88's with American crews.  They are all done and sent now, so its back to the Napoleonic grindstone again.  After my problems getting them, I have to give top marks to the customer service people who deal with replacement parts.  Two days after notifying them of the miscast gun I had a replacement in my hand.  Thank you kindly.

Nathan and Ian, before it all went wrong.

 Game wise, we played our big Christmas Wars of the Roses game.  The dastardly Yorkist won by having more troops, rolling more hits and generally defeating the Lancastrians all over the place.  High point was the Lancastrian Generals household troops being thrashed and routed by Yorkist militia types.  Well done Nathan. 

A view down the hall.  York is to the left.

 The Lancastrian right and center were hard pressed and eventually were defeated by weight of numbers.  The left flank was facing off against more troops, but both commanders had orders to hold their ground.  Guess which flank I was on!

 I think it went well, there were about 12 players I think and the other two tables seemed to have plenty of action.  The left flank did eventually get into action, just before two of its commanders  suddenly felt like having a Yorkie becoming a Yorkist and joined the winning side. 

Thanks to Nathan for organising it and to everybody for a fun day.  Next year I want to be in the center so I can get all my men killed!

The Lancastrian right flank combined age and ability.  JJ has the age........

Another post will be along shortly, with details of an ongoing Dux Britanniarum campaign I am involved in. 


Catch you later.

Wars of the Roses

Red Shirts, ready to fire blunt arrows and miss everything

Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of the Devon Wargames Group in Exeter.  Our December meeting is always a big, multi-player battle with all the attending players taking part.  This year its a big Wars of the Roses game, with many players providing units and much chaos ensuing.

Mercenary types, with those crossbow things

To be ready for this, I have painted the last 36 of my Perrys plastic figures.   I now have a modest force of four foot units.  Two are nine bases strong, each with a Captain(with the flag), a bodyguard, three Billmen and four archer bases.  The third is some mercenaries, with a Captain, three Billmen and four crossbowmen bases.  The final unit has a Captain, a bodyguard and eight archer bases.                 

The whole force, although I may well get some more.....eventually

The idea is to shoot anything that comes near, especially those donkey-walloper types with all the shiny armour and pointy sticks. 

I also made up some markers using the arrows in the ground from the plastics boxes.  These can be used for disorder, extra arrows etc.


In other news, JJ has now set himself up a blog to showcase all his stuff.  He is a painting machine, with way too much spare time and too much nicely painted stuff not too have sold his soul!  Nice bloke though so please pop over there and have a look.

Oh, and Battlefront have finally delivered the Pak 43s I have been waiting for.  It only took 7 weeks.  The only fly in the ointment is the miscast muzzlebrake on one of the barrels.  :(

Keep rolling those dice, they supposedly average out eventually. 

Peter Pig do it again!

Its nice to receive things you order.  It's nicer to receive them quickly.  It's more than annoying when you have to wait for weeks on end, with no news from the people you order from.

Case 1.  Order to Battlefront.  Big company with offices in several countries.  Placed on 17th October.  Order for £10 worth of guns, but the size of the order shouldn't matter.  I have emailed them twice and both times received the same reply.  "Sorry, its out of stock.  They will be back in stock in 1-2 weeks".   Which is fine, except the 2 emails I sent were more than 2 weeks apart.  It has now been 46 days since I placed the order and I am, to say the least, unimpressed.  I am close to cancelling the order and buying something else.

Case 2.  Order to Peter Pig.  Small company, run primarily by a husband and wife team with a few employees.  Placed on evening of 28th November.  Order for over £120 worth of various packs from 4 ranges (AWI, WW2, AK47 and buildings).  Order arrived on 1st December, all correct and everything is lovely. 

So, big company fails where small company delivers.  Well done Peter Pig and thank you.  Another order will be placed in January/February to complete my British AWI force, after which there will be more ordered.  Battlefront.....meh!  I will stick to Peter Pig and Plastic Soldier Company I think.