February Gaming Weekend.

 I've started thinking about a February Gaming Weekend. For the past 17 years, i've organized some sort of gaming event around my birthday at the end of February - the Annual Wargaming Birthday BasH! Sometimes its been a single afternoon or evening - usually a multiplayer miniature game of some sort with a few friends. Other times it's been and entire weekend of gaming - either a campaign or a mini, invitational con. Other times, just a few games with the family... 

I’m really trying to stay positive and plan as though we WON’T be in a FIFTH Wave of Covid… or STILL Be riding out an extended (never-ending) fourth wave!?   (Not that there are going to be any more restrictions of movements or visitations, regardless of how many die, this government had made clear!). But, these things often work out better if there has been some planning beforehand…. So I am thinking about it and trying to make plans… 

To get started, I recently catalogued all of the previous events on a separate page, recently...

Wargaming Birthday Bashes

A couple predate this blog - I was lucky to find a couple pictures of one of the pre-blog games (going through back-up CDs from previous computers, sifting through piles of old pictures)... but could find nothing for the first one... 

Putting this together and reviewing all these events, brought up a rollercoaster of memories ranging from pure joy to total despair. These constitute some of my favourite gaming memories, ever. Simultaneously many bring up feelings of soul-crushing misery and utter  despondency… 

Every year there was that one person (or two, or three) that insisted on RUINING ALL THE FUN (for ME, at least, They probably still had a great time!).  Whether it was the constant complaints about the system (the tabletop game itself and/or campaign rules), or their constant demanding for rulings about stupid bullshit they should have known the answer for if they read the rules and weren’t trying to seek advantage through rules lawyery, or just finding loopholes in either the game rules or the campaign rules and totally exploiting them…. 

There are more than a few of these people that have also showed up at many of these events that ALWAYS caused trouble and made me never want to run one again…  I've tried to stay positive in game reports and not mention these things plainly... Ignore it… "Let it go"... But it happened and, looking back at them, even now, I wonder, is the stress they cause worth it?!

Some I can simply NEVER invite again (finally got that solution through my thick head). A big problem is a few of them still live here in Saskatoon and THESE are the people that are almost ALWAYS available… and worst part is... some of them are truly generous, fantastic human beings… Y’know, OUTSIDE of gaming… 

On the flip side, there ARE about a dozen people that have come to multiple games over the years that totally make it worthwhile and never cause any sort of trouble or headaches. They are the reason I have carried on. They would be my DREAM TEAM of players for a game weekend… Unfortunately, over half of them don’t even live in Saskatoon and it is a big deal for them to get here… especially in February… especially in the middle of a pandemic… 

How does one get a Dream Team of players to show up, while not hurting good friends (who are terrible people to play games with)? 

That being said…. Problem Person(s) played in the Necromunda game (the last big one I ran in 2020, both at my Birthday Bash and again at ToonCon… I won’t say which it was the Problem Person(s) showed up at…) and didn’t cause much trouble… I think this was largely due to scenario design. There was a need to work together, to a certain extent (if the common enemy, played by me, was not stopped, EVERYONE LOST!! And Karloth Valois and his horde of Scavvies and Plague Zombies were NO PUSH-OVERs!), and there was no great benefit to being a dink (each had secret, individualized objectives and victory points - mostly points were awarded for dealing damage to Valois and his crew... but each gang had ONE other gang or gang memeber that they had some sort of vendetta against and could gain points by taking ONE specific character out.).… so… no one was really THAT much of a dink… 

I also find it hard to make plans and get things prepared when I get a luke-warm commitment from many people… Which I've gotten a lot of over the years, and especially the last few. “Well, I’d LOVE to… but we’ll have to see… I can’t plan that far in advance…” when it’s, y’know, just two months away…. Somehow people can make plans to go on holidays, or go to weddings, or go to (AND/OR ORGANIZE) larger conventions up to (and sometimes more than) a YEAR in advance on a specific day/weekend/week… but can’t say if they can make it to my thing until the week before…?! WTF!? 

The last wargaming weekend I'd planned (a Necromunda campaign in the fall of 2019) which I had done SO MUCH WORK FOR (painting multiple gangs for people to use if they didn't have one and a bunch of terrain)... got cancelled because I got a bunch of "maybes", which turned into "NOPEs" in the last week or so coming up to the planned weekend for the event. (Luckily I was able to make use of it all in the following Birthday Bash/ToonCon event) 

(Except for the problem people… they can ALWAYS commit and will definitely make it…) 

Anyway…. 

I digress... 

Back to THE PLAN…

This also happens to be a BIG ONE - as this will be my FIRST HALF-CENTURY celebration! 

(Seriously, how the fuck did I actually make it this far!?) 

(Ooh! Maybe I should start the day with a half-century ride!) 

(but, like, a metric half-century... and only if its NOT -40°C!?) 

AND, my Birthday IS on a Friday, so it seems like it would be fun to use that to kick off a whole WEEKEND of festivities! 

But what format to take…? A weekend long campaign of some sorts - either tabletop miniatures (which could be competitive or co-op/semi-co-op) or a role-playing game? Or something more like a mini-con with a number of different events/games over the weekend. 

I think my favourite option is a co-operative, tabletop miniature adventure campaign - where the “players” are all on the same side and have one character/hero and/or a small unit of some sort, that fight against antagonists controlled by a GM (i.e. ME!) - and play through a series of linked adventures - possibly requiring collection artifacts or clues or completing objectives before they can move on, and culminating in a BIG BOSS BATTLE at the end of the weekend…?

But a lot of that depends on who is available that weekend, how much of that weekend they are available, and what they are interested or willing to commit to playing.  

Over a weekend I generally, mentally break it down into 5-7 game "slots":

1. Friday Night
2. Saturday Morning
3. Saturday Afternoon
4. Saturday Evening
5. Sunday Morning?
6. Sunday Afternoon
7. Sunday Evening ?

So... Campaign or Mini-con?

CAMPAIGN

Role-Playing Game or Miniatures?

ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Advantage to role-playing games - if things do go sideways, Pandemic-wise, I could always switch to Online… like I did for my birthday this past year. 

• Fate? 
• Wrath & Glory? 
• Something Else!? (unlikely) 

MINIATURES

Competitive campaign/mini-tournament OR a co-op/semi-co-op tabletop adventure (like RPG - but miniature combat focused where all the Players are on the same side fighting enemies controlled by a game master - i.e ME!) 

Competative Campaign/Tournement

Competitive campaigns/tournaments I could potentially run... 

• Hordes of the Things
• DBA
• Necromunda
• Kill Team
• 40K Combat Patrol
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• Warcry

• The Silver Bayonet

While a LOT of fun... there are almost always a LOT of problems with these... 

Co-op/Semi-Coop

As mentioned before, this is probably more most favourite option. Running a series of tabletop miniature adventures where all the of the players are (more or less) on teh same side, battling against foes controlled by ME - ultimately culminating in some kind of "Epic Boss Battle"!  Some of the games I have and could again run as a cooperative or semi-cooperative :

• Savage Worlds
• Age of Sigmar
• Warcry
• Kill Team
• 40K
• Necromunda 
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• The Silver Bayonet
• Warhammer Quest (like Blackstone Fortress or any of the Age of Sigmar ones...) 

Team Option (Semi-Coop/Competitive)

The "All Quiet Campaign" - two teams with multiple players- each player commanding a squad or Kill Team within a platoon or similar larger formation... it uses set terrain representing a stagnant part of the front where the fighting has more or less ground to a halt. The teams are holding that section of the line for a period of three days and three nights. A series of six scenarios are played over that time period. Not all troops are used for each mission. Some are active (on the mission out in No Mans' Land), some can be on stand-by (sentries, holding the trenches or whatever), some are out-of-the-line and resting... Quality of troops degrades if they are used twice in a row (i.e. without resting)...?

MINI-CON

There are definitely some advantages to running a "Mini-Con". I can mix it up and play some different things. There could be somewhat less prep involved - especially if a few of them are board games and I dont have to worry about an airtight campaign system. Also, no one has to commit to WHOLE weekend - people could “sign up” for just ONE slot. 

The weekend could look something like:

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Board Game 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

OR

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Board Game 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

Just to mix it up a little... 

OR... have the one-shot RPG on the Saturday evening, half-way through...

OR... it could be ONE board game on Sunday... but, like, a bigger one with many players taking all day to play... 

Lots of possibilities here... 

COME-AND-GO CAMPAIGN

A third option I've been considering since I started this planning and writing this a week or so ago is a "Come-And-Go Campaign. This would be a semi-co-op miniature campaign - involving a number of linked scenarios played over the weekend that create a bit of a narrative... BUT... it could involve DIFFERENT characters/groups - played by different participants that could show up for just one session, or ALL of them. Ideally, there would be one or two that would play the entire weekend and would be the "Lead Heroes" that assemble the varied groups of allies to fight... whatever it is that they are fighting...? 

OR... 

...maybe I'll just play some games with my family again, like I did last year... 

Kind of still leaning towards co-op tabletop miniature adventure... possibly with come-and-go option... 

RPGaDay 2017 #6

Question #6

You can game every day for a week. Describe what you’d do!

Well… it depends…

This seems like a question that’s meant to inspire you to dream a little – like wow wouldn’t this be cool if we could game every day for a week?! But I’m in a position that I potentially COULD game every day for a week. Heck for the last few years we’ve played a game every day for the month of September!? Often when there are school breaks and the kids don’t have activities we DO play games all week long…

So… How do I answer this question? What would I do different? What am I going to do NEXT time we have a week off and want to do some gaming? It really would depend on who is going to be available for this week. Would I have one group of people that will be available EVERY DAY for that week? Are we talking gaming ALL DAY for every day of the week? How much preparation time do I have…?

I guess if I could get the right people together, and they could play all day, every day for a whole week I’d love to run an entire complete, marathon-session, RPG campaign from character creation to ultimate epic conclusion. Or possibly an extended miniature campaign – like the ones I’ve done over a weekend, but extend it to an entire week!

Which campaign? Well, that would really depend on what people could make it!

I guess if we were dreaming and assuming if there was anything I organized the right people would be available to play... well I always thought the idea of a D&D Birthright campaign sounded interesting. I wouldn't use any of the actual D&D Birthright stuff, but just the idea that the players take on the roles of nobility with land and armies at their disposal... and have to defend their lands against neighbouring nobles that desire to take it by guile or force... or bring disparate, feuding nobles together to fight against a greater enemy...? It'd be fun to incorporate some miniature battles into it either Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant or DBA/Hordes of the Things (depending on the scale of action). 

Another campaign I'd LOVE to run over an extended weekend (or a week) would be a HUGE Song of Shadows and Dust campaign -with, like, 12 players. Each would have their own faction and their own home turf - I would have a huge map of their city and the different neighbourhoods and districts. Each district would have a different benefit to the controlling player. There would be more neighbourhoods than players, so to start they could fight over new neighbourhoods and once they were all snapped up they would have to try and expand into other's turf while simultaneously trying to defend their own. I'd also like to works some chariot racing into it using Faustus Furius.

Another idea I had was to have a campaign on two different levels (this wouldn't be a one week sort of thing, but rather run over a number of months). On one level I would have a group of players locally that would be playing a medieval-ish fantasy campaign as a minor noble and their retinue that has just come into power, surrounded by potentially hostile neighbours. On the other level I could have other players - playing by email, perhaps, that represent the aforementioned hostile neighbours. So on one level it would run like some of the other play-by-email miniature campaigns I've ran in the past (like the one I ran... oh... eight years ago!?) except in the midst of this war there would be an actual role-playing group of adventurers trying to do... well... whatever it is they are trying to do. Oooh - maybe if they players actually decided to travel to the lands to negotiate with the leaders of the other factions I could organize Skype session with them! 

Irish Shot – for DBA-x

More English Civil Warriors – but this time and element of Irish for my Scots Royalist DBA-x army!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

These guys are all from Warlord Games.

I’ve got enough for four more elements like these. I have some Irish Pike for the force as well, although I messed up with the math – originally I’d intended to have two elements of 8 figures each (like I’ve done for all the other pike for the ECW) but I had a bit of a brain-fart and the packs I thought would cleverly add up to 28 (12 for a unit for The Pikeman’s Lament and 16 for two 8-figure elements for DBA) turned out to only have 24…. Dagnabbit! So I’m short four… Ah well, it’ll probably be a while before I get to all of these anyway.

I’ve been having a hankering to play some DBA or HotT lately – maybe even a CAMPAIGN of sorts?! I have enough figures for FOUR English Civil War armies – Scots Royalists, Scots Covenanters, English Parliamentarians, and English Royalists. Only the Scots Covenanters are done - and I could cobble together enough English for one army. They saw action against each other a couple years back at the Battle of Black Adder Moor.

I have an entire English army to paint up, and there’s almost as much to do with the Scots Royalists. In addition to this element, I have the aforementioned three other elements of Shot, two elements of Pike (whether I do them with eight, as originally intended, or just go with the six per stand that I have remains to be seen), and three or four elements of Highland clansmen (I think they are listed a Warband), a Knight element, and Artillery element and an element of Psiloi. I do have ONE element of Highlanders done, and and element of Light Horse…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably not another DBA element for a while… I’m trying to focus on the forces for The Pikeman’s Lament!

Very likely the next post will be a battle report. My friend Aaron is dropping his boys off for the day tomorrow (as they seem to have the day off from school…?) and I thought I might try to set up a game for them… Maybe Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant…? I think those would be the easiest to run… though I could possibly have a go at The Men Who Would Be Kings with my Zulu War stuff… Or I could cobble together a couple of smaller forces for The Pikeman’s Lament. They have 40K armies - which I’ve played with them - a few times… and I have to admit, I just don’t love it… so I think it’s time to introduce them to some BETTER games… (Of course I'm not sure Aaron’s going to like me anymore if they come home and tell him “DAD! WE NEED ZULUS – THOUSANDS OF THEM!”)

Greek Light Horse, WW2 GIs, and a Modern Operative

I’ve had a pretty busy week or so… here’s a few more…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Modern Operative from The Assault Group

A WW2 American GI command team from Black Tree Design.

Greek Light Horse from RAFM.

The Rafm figures are kind of smallish compare to more modern manufacturers…

Rafm vs BTD

Maybe as long as I don’t mix BTD mounted and Rafm mounted in the same army I’m hoping I could probably get away with using these with some of my Greek Hoplite armies… Besides the light horse will usually be operating on their own off on the flanks of the enemy…

Rafm mounted with Crusader foot

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Did I say something about some Great War French Cavalry… we’ll see… my workbench has become clogged with an overwhelming amount of stuff and I need to clear it off and start afresh. Hopefully the Frenchwill make the cut… and probably some more modern stuff and some WW2 Soviets… and maybe the Paras… 

Spartans and Soviet Zombies

An odd mix I finished this weekend…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Spartan Psiloi from Black Tree Design. (I know, I know… Early Spartans don’t HAVE a psiloi option…)

More of the same, but for skirmish gamin’.

Soviet Zombies from West Wind Productions

One of them is another of the Zombie bombs…

A dead Canuck – also from Black Tree Design.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some more Soviets on the workbench; some not-so-dead Naval Infantry and NKVD. I also still have some British/Canadian Paras lurking in the back along with assorted Greeks and Amazons, some mounted Boers, and the last of the Hellboy Heroes and Villains (Liz, Abe, Johann, Baba Yaga and the Frog-like-creature)…. Which I’ll finish first is anybody’s guess….

I need to play some GAMES! 

All Over the Place Again: Zulu War, WW2, Assorted Ancients, etc…

I had a fairly productive long weekend… Here’s some of the stuff I managed to finish up.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Nubians from Black Tree Design. The multi-figure base is a Psiloi element for a Nubian DBA army, the other fellow is just a sapre I based up single for skirmishy gamin’ and to try out some different leopard print pattern… Still not totally happy with it.

As above; a Early Greek Hoplite DBA Psiloi Element and ancient Greek skirmish figure, also from Black Tree Design.

A WW2 Soviet NKVD Maxim team (also from Black Tree Design) – for those “There Shall Be NO Retreating” scenarios…

Dead Paras and a German (also from Black Tree Design).

More British/Canadian Paras. These are a mix of Black Tree Design, Artizan Designs, West Wind Productions, and Warlord Games Bolt Action Miniatures. I should do a Para Figure Comparison post… as I have Paras from five different manufacturers…

Still more British/Canadian Paras – a 6lb AT Gun and Crew from Artizan Designs. The crew I painted years ago, and only just finished up the gun!?

British Infantry from the Zulu War (also from Black Tree Design). The chap on the larger stand is a casualty marker – I like to do them on larger bases so that it is clear that it is a marker and not just another infantrymen (especially ones, like this that aren’t prone!)

I suppose the fellow with the amputated leg could also be a casualty/morale failture marker… but it doesn’t look like it was “on the spot”. He looks like he was cleaned up and bandaged up nice and neat some time after the damage to his leg… Actually the more I look at that figure the more odd I think it… Why is someone with a fresh leg amputation hobbling about in full uniform – with his uniform trousers tucked into the bandages!? Makes no sense to me…

A modern(-ish) African Warlord/General from The Assault Group.

Defenders of the Galaxy. The Yoda figure is an official Grenadier Miniatures/West End Games Star Wars figure, the others are from Hasslefree Miniatures.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have an odd assortment of items populating the painting space: More WW2 (Germans, British/Canadian Paras, and Soviets, mostly – some alive, some not-so-alive…), Mounted Boers, Greek Cavalry, Greek Hoplites and Psiloi, More Nubians, assorted Star Wars characters, Those Greek Ships, Ashigaru Spearmen, Vietnam ANZACs, Amazons,  more Hellboy charactrers, … oh , the list goes on… Which I will finish up next…? Who knows!? Probably time to clean off the workbench and put some of those back into storage so I can FOCUS… although, NOT FOCUSING this past weekend has turned out to be fairly productive!? 

Egyptians

Just to switch gears for a bit, I painted up a few New Kindgom Egyptians yesterday…

Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

This is an element of Spearmen from Wargames Foundry for my NKE DBA army (though I think they’re classified as “Blade” in DBA).

A couple of civilians for role-playing/skirmishing/occupying camps…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More paintin’… Not sure what…? Some Hellboy Miniatures arrived today so I’m sure they’ll work their way onto the workbench very shortly… 

Centaurs!

While this might look like a sudden burst of productivity, I have to admit these were mostly painted over a month ago… I’ve only just finished them off…

I have for a long time dreamt about having a Centaur army for HOTT/DBA – modeled on Skythians (all Light Horse or Riders – galloping to and fro…). I think even before I was aware HOTT existed I thought of doing a DBA army of all “Cavalry” and/or “Light Horse” – based on Mongols or Skythians or something similar. Now, finally I have enough to field an army of them…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

This batch is all figures from Wargames Foundry.

This batch is all figures from Mega Miniatures.

Here they are with the rest of the elements I currently have…

The army consists of :

1x Knight or Rider General (or Cavalry General in DBA)

1x Magician

7-8x Riders (Light Horse in DBA)

1-2x Shooters (Allied Satyr Archers – to give the army something to deal with stuff in bad-going)

I’ve also thought of adding some wolves (Beasts) as an optional element to give them some ability to deal with things in bad-going that are also FAST!

I have another six or seven stands worth of Centaurs yet to paint – but I was trying to go for a distinctly Ancient Greek look for these – and the other dozen or so Centaurs I have are in a mix of plate and chain mail with weapons and shields the definitely do not look Ancient Greek-ish. Perhaps they’ll show up in a Narnian army… or eventually a second entire Centaur army…?

There are actually a few other Centaurs I’d like to pick up to add to this army… I like the look of the ones from Eureka Miniatures and Black Hat Miniatures. It’d be nice to have a stand or two of each… Just to have some more variety and fill out the twelve complete stands of Riders/Light Horse.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmm… Probably WW2-ish stuff… or Amazons… or Greek Hoplites…

I have to say I’m pretty stoked about the immanent release of the Savage Worlds version of  Three Kings (The link is for the CoC version) - the first adventure for the   ACHTUNG! CTHULHU! setting. So expect a few more WW2 and unspeakable horror minis in the not-too-distant future… 

Vikings Invade England and… NORMANDY!?

John was over again to play some more DBA. There was 100% less cheating than last time.

This time I wanted to try out Vikings vs Anglo-Saxons – to see how the flank support for spears works against the Vikings – which normally walk over them. I also wanted to try out the Normans again either against the Anglo-Saxons (with a little less cheating this time) or against Vikings to see if the ties = dead knights comes up often…

GAME ONE

FORCES

Middle Anglo-Saxon

1x Spear General

10x Spear

1x Psiloi

Vikings

1x Blade General

11x Blade

THE GAME

John took the Vikings, I took the Angl-Saxons.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

A pretty stretch of the English countryside with my Anglo-Saxons all lined up and ready to defend their home from the evil Viking invaders… with their new-found flank support rule they are so confident in their ability to do so they haven’t even set up on the hill…

The lines meet with a thunderous clamour of metal on metal and wood and flesh and the cries of dying men…

The first bounds outcome. Much shoving back and forth – no elements broken. John’s Vikings have started pushing back the left of my line towards the hill, determined to give me the uphill advantage.

One my follow-up bound I shove a few Vikings back to make a bit more of a mess.

But at the far right end of the English line we see the first significant losses – An element English Spear is lost!

The next bound more or less straightens out the line – John “closed the door” at the right of my line, but a desperate defense threw back the Viking attackers. AT the other end of the line the Vikings continued to push the spear up the hill to the point where next turn I’ll have a +1 up hill advantage… that’s when I figured it would all come apart for the Vikings…

Um… Okay… NEXT turn it’ll all come apart for the Vikings – we just wanted to retire a little further up that hill to ensure we were all well and truly on the hill and deserving of that uphill advantage factor…

Well it did not all come apart for the Vikings… despite my uphill advantage and flank support…. Not only did John not get pushed back down the hill – he doubled and DESTROYED me element of spear!? I can’t think of how… Oh I know, the other spear element went FIRST and was recoiled back up the hill losing me the flank support and gaining me a negative overlap factor +5 to my +3…

At the other end of the line things were not looking so good either – the Vikings had turned the flank of the English line and, despite a desperate defence the sturdy Saxons were eventually overcome.

I think John was determined to shove my spear OVER the hill to get an uphill advantage of his own… just to show off, or something… As it turned out he didn’t get the opportunity.

At the other end of the line an isolated element of spear was over run by the Vikings and that was the end of the game.

I like the flank support rule. When the Spear are in a nice solid line it lets them fight at even odds against blade… Once that line gets broken up a bit they become a bit more brittle – and if the Vikings can get elements of blade surrounded – by pushing into their line on either side of an element, losing them the flank support and giving them an overlap factor or two it’s suddenly +5 to +3 or +2 and that is how I lost most, in not all, of the elements I lost in the game.

GAME  TWO

FORCES

Vikings

1x Blade General

10x Blade

1x Bow

Normans

1x Knight General

7x Knights

2x Spear

2x Bow

THE GAME

John decided to stick with the Vikings, though I convinced him to swap out one Blade for the Bow option… I took the dreaded NORMANS… The Normans didn’t take kindly to this visit from their back-water, hillbilly, fjord-swelling cousins…

Not a piece of terrain on the Normans side… well… not a piece of bad-going…

It occurred to me that it could be possible for there to be a table with no bad-going at all… you are only required to select ONE piece of bad-going (I took the woods) and if it were diced for last and ended up in a quarter where there was already two pieces of terrain and couldn’t fit I would have to be discarded. Perhaps there needs to be a rule whereby bad-going must be diced for first! (maybe there is and I missed it!?)

All lined up and ready to rumble.

The bow did successfully break up my line on the approach and on this bound I rolled a one for PIPs… so I didn’t even get to send in my whole line…

Not that it mattered… One bound. Four dead. Including the General!?

Now I have to mention that all through the previous game with the English and the Vikings John and I were rolling a staggering number of ties – which I thought spelt certain DOOM for the Normans if that kept up – the whole point of this engagement was to check out the blade quick-kill of knights on ties… (should happen one in six times…?) I guess we got all the ties out of our dice in the previous game, because we didn’t roll a single tie anywhere along here…

Anyway. Fun games. I’d like to get in some more. I’d REALLY like to finish up some hoplites and try some spear on spear; +5 on +5 is going to be a huge shoving match… It’ll be all about the terrain and where that odd element of psiloi gets to…

Unfortunately production seems to be slowing around here as I’m trying to get to bed a bit earlier these days so I can get up and start going for early morning bike rides now that the suns coming up earlier and the weather’s getting nicer… well… maybe not THIS WEEK – it’s been pissing rain the last couple days… but soon enough..