BOYL 2014 - The Siege of Avalone - the Aftermath

The dawn was heralded by a watery grey light that struggled to penetrate the louring clouds and already the Carrion Crows were breaking their fast. Bleary eyed troops staggered back to the field of battle and prepared themselves as best they could.

Well that was the scene that I saw in the marquee as we arrived back for the final day's gaming anyway!

So on to the last post for the Siege game - it's been a pretty epic task just editing the photographs and writing the game up I must say!

Sunday saw a few hardy souls drag their hung over corpses back to the table to continue Round 3 of the Siege. The ranks of Generals had thinned somewhat from the crowds round the table on Saturday due to commitments to other games or having to return home. I was involved in a big Epic Game with Chico and others (more of which in the next post) but managed to pop over now and again to take some pics.

I must confess however, that I don't have as good a handle on what went on as I did for the Saturday. So I propose a bit of creative writing based on the pics I took and the main events that I can remember...

Smoke still issued forth from the smouldering remains of the great Ent gathering that had sacrificed itself in blunting the advance of the Horde. The cries of the dead and dying intermingled with the more purposeful shouts of battle-sergeants and discipline-masters as the horde carried on its inexorable advance. Many a foul, and many a noble deed was performed that day.

A second Siege Tower was brought up to the walls by the Orcs whilst the sea of Chaotics continued to surge forward behind them.

BOYL 2014 The Siege of Avalone - the Assault!

And they're off!

Gobbo's pour over the walls into the teeth of massed Elf archery.

BOYL 2014 - The Siege of Avalone - The Set Up...

So folks here we have the preliminary post to the my version of the narrative of the Siege of Avalone.

Preliminary because I'm struggling selecting a sensible number of pictures from the 109 I took!

My version of the narrative because I really couldn't say with any confidence what was going on on the other side of the table - it was that big!

The following pics were just from me walking round the table and trying to get everything in before it all kicked off...

Wave 1 of the Bad Guys - there were more late-comers who had to pile in behind!

We can't have been far off from representing most Evil and Chaotic Races on the table.

Thanks to Golgfag for his excellent scratch-built Siege towers - I cheated and bought a laser cut Siege tower and Covered ram from Sally 4th.

The stalwart defenders and their dual line of defence.

The Evil army's secret weapon - Giant Gonads!

I think the walls were pretty adequately manned...

... and the town well garrisoned.

Nearly got it all in!

A daunting prospect - the heavily defended double gate house.

The town planners had a lot to answer for - there was consideration given to conserving the character of the town when planning permission was given to those elves!

A defender's eye view.

We decided that the attackers had secured the area up to the road as a result of Friday's game - perhaps in hindsight we could have set up a little further into the table.

A panoramic view - hence the strange chaos mutation!

My favourite unit on the defender's side - the Narnian host!

As you can imagine this lot took a while to set up - but it was great fun and took me back to the days when i would spend hours setting up the hundreds of plastic soldiers I owned into a battle scene. Back then it was customary for Sally, our old Golden Retriever, to enter the scene with tail wagging to wreak the sort of destruction that a tactical nuclear device might!

Luckily we were free from the tender mercies of rampaging family pets and had bucket loads of D6 to determine our little soldiers' fates...

BOYL 2014 - The Engines of Avalone: A Hasty Retreat!

The dust has settled, the internets are awash with pictures and the sacrifice of countless miniature heroes are but a memory. 

Yes BOYL 2014 has come and sadly gone.

Once more we are faced with the drab grey of reality. Our battles now are more concerned with staying sane in the real world rather than living vicariously through our miniature armies. Initiative no longer decides who strikes first in combat - only better chances of promotion if we choose to show we have some in the work place. The outcome to the many, varied and entirely dull encounters in life can no longer be decided by the roll of a D6.

Yes, dear reader, I am struggling to come to terms with life after BOYL. Not surprising really considering I have just immersed myself in three (three count 'em!) days of amazing gaming with an amazing, gentlemanly and thoroughly bloody good bunch of chaps.

Actually this is a little disingenuous of me as I am currently typing from the beautiful Lake District and have a few more weeks of School holidays to enjoy!

An Englishman's home is his...

Mighty Fortress!!

Yes, I am the proud owner of the original Mighty Fortress having failed woefully to exercise any willpower whatsoever, after I'd seen it advertised on the LAF - thanks again to Notts Gamer. This is one of those classic pieces of Oldhammer loveliness that I've hankered after ever since seeing it in the 3rd ed. rule book.

There is a downside to all this though - I think I need a new gaming table...

... as there's not much room left!

I should really have taken a pic of the original box it came in as well but I was in too much of a hurry to recreate some of those lovely shots from the Warhammer Siege book.

Enjoy!

So I'll have to add playing a siege game to my long To Do list...

Best get on with painting up all that Orc artillery I've been amassing!