28 mm Macedonian Generals

This week has seen a continuing flurry of getting stuff which was half done, finished off. One because I am going to the York show this weekend and it is harder to buy new stuff when you know there is stuff at home and secondly the tray I have for half finished things was getting too heavy. Anyway a couple of  Macedonian Generals for Clash of Empires. I have decided to base double figures as the army general so they can easily be distinguished. Oh and tufts as well ! The servant in the background is a spartan who will designate the Spartan General in a similar way. These are all foundry figures and lovely.

Saxon 'ladies'

These ladies were finished off last night as well, fairly quick and dirty they were bought back at salute 2014. These four were half done and just needed finishing, the castings to be honest aren't great but they make a nice addition to our dark age battles. I guess they will also work as settlers for muskets and tomahawks and at a real push even later Victorian washerwomen ?

Ranulf de Gernon rides forth

Finishing off a few bits on the painting table last night and here is my new retinue Lord Ranulf de Gernon. Conquest norman knight figure with a spare warhammer bretonnian head swopped in and a cut down shield. The idea was to place him in slightly more modern equipment than his retinue. He is also on a slightly larger cavalry base and he gets tufts as well as grass.

28 mm Norman Knights

Been working on my second Lion Rampant unit and have them painted to the playable stage. Six Norman knights for Lion Rampant but will also play in a SAGA Warband and eventually Crecent and Cross. Pretty happy overall but my ability to paint shields isn't great. Given time I might redo the shields with transfers. In fact I am planning to go to Vapnartak at the weekend so will looks out for some.

Final Battle of Debneitz

Saturday saw the final battle in our Battle for Debneitz - Dark Elves vs Empire mini- campaign. With two victories under their belt the Empire felt they should try something new. We had loosely based the series of battles on some fluff in the Empire Army book. This mean't the final battle would see the Empire under Elector Count Gausser seek to push the Dark Elves back into the sea.

Dark Elf Hydra scared to get its feet wet !

 

We chose to represent this by playing the River of Death scenario from the rule book with the river effectively representing part of the Estuary. The challenge for the Empire was the tank had been massively overpowered in the previous battles, and it seemed a great opportunity to try something new. So Gausser rolled out a War Alter of Sigmar with Golden Griffin. (this is a multi purpose model which I can use as any of the Empire Chariot units as I have magentized the relevant parts). This would be it first run out in battled and it would be fun to see if it was any good.

 

Things started well when the Dark elves took the first turn but the Hydra failed to roll the necessary 3 to charge home. The scenario requires both sides to capture the two designated river crossings. I have placed a small objective marked on the crossing.

 

Face off across the Estuary

The Empire troops pushed forward on the left whilst the Elves on the right. The Elector Count can be seen in the centre with his household Knights looking to get across the river and behind the Elf Lines. But the Elves were to prove a very hard foe. The usually hardy Demi-gryphs charged across the river into a unit of Cold One knights only to be turned back and chased down. Panic set in and the Empire right flank suddenly looked very precarious.

Empire pushing forward on the right flank

Not ready to give in, our left flank pushed forward to take one of the crossings but the Greatswords in their haste pushed too far forward and were cut down by crossbow fire, although they had the crossing they were effectively a spent fighting force.


Great swords and spearmen secure the crossing

Whilst the battle raged on both flanks the cannons and bolt throwers on both sides traded shots with the cannons coming out on top only being silenced when the Elves had pushed a unit of executioner across the river slaughtering the crews. With the colds ones now across the river the Sacred band of Flagellants howled for Sigmar and charged in pulling down the evil dark elf sorceress. But they had thrown away their lives and were soon cut down themselves.

Things were getting desperate so Gausser tried to charge the Alter of Sigmar into the Hydra. Somehow the Warhorses were simply too terrified to charge home and they froze to the spot, only to be charged back in return in the next turn.


Altar of Sigmar trapped

Hard to see how this battle was going to be pulled out of the hat. With a final heroic effort Gausser himself sought to push forward to secure the left crossing. Urging his troops on they were swooped on by a Dark Pegasus Rider and although he managed to fight this off in one to one combat, the unit he had joined were lowly hand gunners and they were never going to be fast enough to catch a Pegasus when it fled the combat.

At this point with one crossing each but the Empire Army in tatters Gausser chose to concede the battle. (Officially the scenario falls to victory points if both sides have a crossing).


The last few hold on !

An excellent concluding battle to the series and it was only fair the Dark Elves got some revenge for their previous humiliation.

Empire 2 Dark Elves 1

Could I collect Romans ?

Like so many I find much of my inspiration for new gaming ideas, periods and genres from books. A couple of Wargames Illustrated magazines ago they did an article about Romans and mentioned the Simon Scarrow series about Cato and Macro. Since then I have picked up some copies in charity shops and have been really enjoying them. But not sure I need another army to collect just at the moment. Perhaps one day I can get some of those lovely new Victrix Romans.

Eadwulf the 'Good'

Our latest instalment of Dux Britannium saw us finish off our first year, roll for any special events, luckily none of our Lords or Nobles died ! In the New Year Ivar decided to bring it on in a very Viking way choosing to play our first full on battle rather than raid. The set up saw Ivar rushing across the battle field with Lord Eadwulf apparently holding back close to the settlement. Luckily he had his better trained Warriors with him and he had the sense to form up in to a shield wall but would they hold........or be overwhelmed

In his haste what Ivar hadn't noticed was Eadwulf's hidden levy ! (Eadwulf had chosen to pray for a miracle and this had allowed him to hide a unit with a noble somewhere on the battlefield - causing shock to the Vikings if they arrived at the right time a gamble, but a miracle is what they needed)



The trap was sprung and the photo above shows Eadwulf's levy under the command of Noble Godwald literally leaping out of the ground, well actually they were probably lying down in amongst the long grass. Caught completely by surprise the Vikings were immediately shocked, but they kept their focus on the main British shield wall.  Godwald formed up his lightly armoured levy calling on them to lock shields and they plunged into the flank of the Vikings.

Some lucky dice (not my blue dice !) saw the levy hacking chunks out of the Viking left flank. They were immediately shocked and ran for their lives. Despite then bringing reserves up as quickly as possible the situation suddenly looked dire for Ivar if he couldn't hold back the levy his force would be surrounded and slaughtered.

A couple more turns of desparate fighting, with the Eadwulf pushing forward with all his units and having the advantage of being in shield wall formation with locked shields, saw the Vikings pushed back or running for their lives. Reputations are hard to gain and even harder to lose and sadly Ivar had no choice but to flee, he can be seen above running for his ship leading the remnants of his bodyguard. (we are still using white dice as shock markers and yes 9 is very shocked)



When we tallied up the points it had been an unbelievable victory for Lord Eadwulf. In recognition of this he is seen here receiving the blessing of Abbot Cuthbert. From hence forth he would be known as Eadwulf the Good for the service he had done for the church. He would also be able to hire two new warriors and found enough coin on the dead Vikings to make a sizeable donation to the Abbot for the construction of a new church. After all it was only by the grace of god that they had won the day. It would be sometime before Ivar the Coward would return.

Dark age palisade

So here are the next few stages in the palisade, happy with the way it is/has gone. The posts themselves are from some very old place mats I had. I have then stuck them using no more nails on the bases supported by card. The hard bit was cutting the sticks which seemed to take ages. The embankment bit is simple quick drying plaster from a tube.  I have then painted a couple of coats in plain burnt umber and dry brushed with some lighter shades. I only have some grass to blend to the bases and of course a gate to make.

Eadwulf the Lustful digs in

As the Dux B campaign continues Eadwulf has become increasing frustrated by the regular viking raids to his lands on the west coast, and as the last scenario saw us using a slightly out of period watch tower I saw the opportunity for some new terrain. This is always how it starts for me, good idea, distraction from the painting pile and then lots of activity. I tend to plan in the real environment just because it is more fun.

As I already have a suitable hill on my terrain boards I thought I would build a palisade fence around this. I am also always looking to make terrain as flexible as possible and easy to store. So rather than be a massive ditch and palisade I wanted it to be modest so it could also work as a fence in other 28 mm games. The photo shows the first stage.

28 mm Carthaginian Spearmen

Have been working on these for a while. Carthaginian spearmen who I picked up at salute last year, I was looking for a fairly general unit who can play as Carthaginians when necessary or as more generic spearmen in other peloponnesian armies. Although they are hard to see I have left some with plain bronze shields for this purpose.

The Revenge of Eadwulf the Lustful

Last night saw the next instalment of our Dux B campaign set in around 800 AD on the west coast of Cumberland. Having been soundly beaten in the last battle Eadwulf was hoping for better. Ivar the Coward has already told his story over on the Hobby Horse. Our first scenario saw my noble Bermulf Tabor attempting to get back to the safety of our garrison tower at Maryport.

Here you can see Eadwulf, his wife and bodyguard Athelgard looking out from the top of the tower urging Bermulf to make all haste as they have seen the viking raiders seeking to cut him off. Although he ran as fast as he could leaving many of Eadwulf's best warriors to hold back the raiders it was a lost cause and he was quickly overrun and hauled back to the viking camp. Luckily the viking lord hadn't realised the close family links to Eadwulf, and Bermulf was ransomed back for very little gold. A terrible scenario for my Anglo-Cumbrians with almost nothing to show it was obvious the Vikings would be back to raid again stronger than ever.

In only a month they were back to raid one of Eadwulf's outlying farms he would have to be quick and more decisive if he was to turn around his fortunes.

 

 

Here you can see the Vikings already have a head start and are rushing towards the farm, where unsuspecting women's folk are going about their daily chores. A change then of tack for Eadwulf splitting his forces into three larger units to maximise early movement. This enabled most of his forces to get into the farm area before the vikings had had a chance to seek out any valuables.

Decisive action was needed and after sending his second in command Godswold to secure one of the out buildings. Eadwulf called forward his very best warriors and charged headlong into the centre of the farm complex. In a scene very reminiscent of one of the village battle scenes in the second series of Vikings (which I have been re-watching recently) Eadwulf formed his men into a shield wall and pushed forward, cutting down the northmen at every turn and ultimately forcing them out of the farm althogether. (we are using white dice as shock markers).

 

This final shot shows Eadwulf shouting derision and some quite nasty  words at the backs of the fleeing Vikings. Revenge indeed and they will think again before landing in this part of Cumberland.

 

 

Thought it was easy ?

Well I thought I had fixed the problem with the follow gadget. Having roamed through loads of links forums etc...... I can't solve the problem . It is there and is loaded but it appears only some people will be able to see it ? If you can see it it should work, if you can't try google plus or follow on email or you can paste the URL wargamesinthedungeon.blogspot into the add section in your follow account. Oh dear I thought it would be easy.....perhaps I should start again.

What no friends !

Have discovered that there were some techy problems with the join gadget which I had loaded I think I have fixed it now here's hoping.

Ranulf de Gernon

Ranulf de Gernon is my nominal retinue leader, if you wiki him you'll get lots more detail but in summary he was the dispossessed son of Ranulf le Meschin 3rd Earl of Chester. Amongst the lands the 3rd controlled where much of northern England including modern Cumbria and links can still be found. However when the scots invaded and caused trouble the land went to Henry and the 4th Earl lost out. This allows me to fix my retinue somewhere around 1150 a time of much turmoil. The first part of his retinue consists of 6 elite and well armoured retainers. Probably his best foot troops or representing his household knights on foot.

As I am looking to use the troops fairly flexibly I am trying to have a range of shields from those that are more specifically early Norman to some which allow me to stretch the army into the crusades and right up to 1250 beyond which I can really get away without plate armour. The figures are conquest with some additional variation from wargames factory parts I had spare allowing a range of different axes and poses. Not sure if it is correct but I am sure if you had a double handed axe you would carry or shield on your back ?

 

Empire General

Well been feeling under the weather over the weekend. Getting on with lots of projects between coughing ! Whilst sticking and basing Norman knights I found a half finished empire general. And he provided a really pleasant interlude. I think he can play as Elector Count Gausser in the third battle against the Dark Elves.

Athenians vs Spartans

This week saw another Greek on Greek battle in the dungeon. I would class this as a test run for future Peloponnesian battles in the future as we are still trying to get a bit slicker with the rules. Whilst the basics are great and give a good representation of the period it takes a bit of time to pick up the special rules.

Anyway somewhere around 2000 points of Athenians, mainly citizen hoplites with supporting cavalry and skirmishers were up against a slightly smaller forces of Spartans. In a pitched battle the Athenians took the initiative and brought two units of peltasts in on the flank hoping to split the Spartans and get the all important flank.

The picture shows the position where the peltasts have come on down the far track and are harassing the spartan left flank. The hoplites in the centre are just about to clash. The skirmish lines are fighting it out in the wooded area in the foreground.

This is where I sadly didn't get any decent photos ! And I'll try and do better next time. When the skirmishers had been pushed out the way and the hoplites clashed the battle drifted to the spartan right. With each phalanx overlapping. Ultimately this allowed the Athenian cavalry to get the flank of the state hoplites supporting the Spartans taking the centre.

A great test of the rules and probably a fair draw in the end although we ran out of time to complete. Can't wait to play more ancients.....

Norman 28 mm scale compare

Never sure why you can't find more comparisons of figures I am always looking. So I should put some on my blog. Here they are.

From left to right, a conquest plastic, black tree crusader, gripping beast crossbow man, another plastic conquest but this time armoured with an axe and finally another gripping beast crossbow man. Metals are definitely chunky in comparison but I think the heights work pretty well, and for a skirmish game they will do for me. I have to say the conquest figures were excellent although a few shields were hard to align. The gripping beast figures had a bit too many mould lines. So the file saw some work last night.

Lion Rampant

After much discussion our small gaming group have decided to embark on our first 'joint' project very loosely based on the tale of 4 gamers. With some frantic ebay purchases before Christmas a copy of the rule book and some new figures arrived to be put under the tree. As I already have quite a few dark age figures used for saga, Dux Brit and briefly Dux Bellorium I plumbed for Normans who have the added benefit of being able to be used in a range of rule sets. I also fancy some larger dark age battles in the future.

The picture shows what Father Christmas brought me. Together with a warbases bank which I made up during the afternoon (with the help of a glass of red wine) but this is an entirely different project. We have agreed in the first instance to aim for 24 point retinues, painting one unit a month. More to come.....

Eadwulf the Lustful

One of our other campaign projects which is currently under way is a Dux Britanniarum campaign. We are playing a slightly modified version with Vikings vs Saxons. My gaming buddy has already covered the background on his Hobby Horse blog. However as this is meant to be a record for this year I just wanted to log one photo of the second battle.

It wasn't a good outcome for the saxon Earl Eadwulf who can be seen here on the left holding the line against the rather angry looking Vikings. Things went from bad to worse in the scenario as the vikings located and escaped with the treasure we had hidden in the village. As if that wasn't enough far too many saxons gave their lives to protect the village, which meant the Vikings were able to raid again a month later unopposed. For reference my saxons are mainly Gripping Beast mounted on the big 25mm slotta bases. I will show some better pictures at a later date.

Battle for Debneitz

Spanning from last year I have been playing a short mini-campaign between Dark Elves and Empire.  Mini-campaigns are one my favourite approaches enough interest to paint new stuff and get motivated but they don't drag on beyond the enthusiasm. I have many in the archive but this one is based on the small invasion by Dark Elf corsairs c1988 listed in the Empire army book. The photos below are from the second battle in the trio. At 3000 points it saw the Dark Elves who landed during the last battle move into the town itself.

 The scenario was set up with both sides coming on diagonally hence the Empire huddled in the near corner. The dice gods were unkind to both sides and by the time I took the second photo both Empire cannons had already blown up.

As lots of Empire troops began to run away things were looking bad. But the Empire tank performed way above its points value (even though we had forgotten some of the fine rules) knocking out at least two units before finishing off the hydra in a single turn. A surprising and lucky victory to the Empire. The next battle will see Elector Count Gausser bringing up reserves to push the Dark Elves back in to the sea.

28 mm Greek Archers

Last post in this first test stage of the new blog some pictures of newly completed 28mm Greeks, 8 Victrix Archers on warbase skirmish bases. These are part of my growing collection of Greeks and no doubt more pictures will follow in the future.

War of the Rings

 So I am still trying some things out so by way of a test here is a photo from the archive of a major project from last year. War of the Ring played between four of us. Somewhere in the region of 7000 points on each side. Epic by most standards. The photos also give the first sense of the dungeon in action. So my plan is to try and keep a regular update on ongoing battle s and projects and then when I get a chance to share some stuff  from my archive.

So why a blog

So what sort of things am I going to cover in the blog and in essence what am I interested in terms of wargaming. In no particular order and again for my own benefit here is a list of games currently being played or at least collected in the Dungeon :

Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer 40K
Napoleonic 20mm
Flames of War (late war mainly Normandy and Italy)
6mm WW2 mainly on the Eastern Front
6mm Air combat
Saga
Muskets and Tomahawks
Clash of Empires 28mm focussing on Peloponnesian wars but developing into the Rise of Macedonia
Aeronautica 40K aircombat
Lord of the Rings
Operation Sealion 28mm
and VBCW 28mm
there are a few other bits but I may list those separately under a things for the future.

One of my aims is to document some of my collections and the cover the battles which take place in the Dungeon. Together of course with the many projects I undertake. I am particularly keen of terrain and making sure my battles look the part and when I have worked out how the blog works I will start uploading photos.

Something new

A new year and they say you should try something new. So here is the start of my wargame Blog. Why am I doing it ? well mainly for me so I can keep a record of the many adventures, wargames, inspirations battles etc which take place in my Dungeon. Of course it isn't really a dungeon more a converted cellar but more of that later.