A new SAGA begins........

Again this was played a week or so ago. Paul had picked up a copy of the new SAGA rules. You can see a more detailed review of the changes on his Hobby Horse Blog. I am not planning on rushing out to get the new rules as this seems an unwarranted expenditure. The changes are for the most part fairly sensible and simplify some aspects of the game. What became apparent as we played through the game with Vikings and Saxons is the board had been tweaked and the Saxons boosted quite a bit. Now this can been seen as a good thing or not depending on your approach to gaming. The SAGA game as a whole remains one of our favourites although the system in a true oxymoron doesn’t in my view lend itself to campaigns.

Anyway here are a few shots of the game we played 🙂

Saxons on the right the rules encourage the Saxons to have larger units to get various bonuses

The Vikings use their first turn to rush forward, they proved to be over eager and with a slightly more aggressive Saxon board they paid an early price

A unit of the Saxon warriors has rushed across the open ground decimated a unit of Vikings and run through to attack the lightly armed Viking bowmen

Eventually around the cross the Viking elite troops charged knocking the Saxons back and almost killing the Saxon Warlord but he clung on just

A lone Viking awaits his fate !

He is duly despatched to Valhalla 

And in true saga style the two warlords clash on the open ground

Take that Viking scum......😀

So we had a good game and it was interesting to see how the new boards had altered the balance of the game. There was nothing wrong with the original rules. Some of the changes are sensible for example a slight simplification of fatigue, I suspect the majority of changes have been driven by competition play which is not always good. But we’ll keep playing 😀

Konflikt 47 moves to North Africa

We played this game a few weeks ago. As an occasional series of Konflikt 47 Battle we moved the theatre to a North African village. The objective was to claim the three objective held by the he Germans. Balance in the sepcenario was a challange as the Germans could simply sit back but we had  some fun. The game was before the walker thingy I picked up at York so next time that will hopefully appear 😀 the pictures are not great as the contrast with the cloth and the figures is too great ☹️

British infantry move up into the village

Supported by heavy Churchill tank

More infantry run forward, they only have a few turns to capture the objectives

Whilst the Churchill is almost indestructible it proves very ineffective as a weapon !

The Germans have Russian corpses fighting for them !

And the spider walker is back

The Germans are able to sit back and pin the British advance down

They nearly manage to break through in the centre 

But even with the support of the British walkers they can’t advance on the left

A Panzer hunts for prey whilst the British heavily armoured infantry attempt to out flank it

Germans take up a position on top of one of the buildings

Although the Churchill breaks through it can’t claim the objective

The British do get one objective but don’t have enough infantry to claim the other two.

A win for the Germans .........😀

The real Dad’s Army : Operation Sealion

Bit behind on blogs due to half term, work and progress on other activity. So loyal followers may notice a flurry of posts unless I get sidetracked.

Anyway first up I picked this nice little book up in a charity shop yesterday. There are lots of ‘Home Guard’ books out there but what is nice about this one is Rodney Foster lived and wrote his diary in Hythe which loyal readers will know is the current scene of operation for my Sealion campaign. This is timely as I picked up some more Home guard at York .

The book as a day by diary has some interest but there are a smattering of nice photos specific to the location and it was worth the £1:49 just for these.here are a couple 😀

Cavalry at Shorncliffe Camp

8th Battalion Home guard drilling outside pub on the road to Dover

More drilling on the Folkestone Cricket ground

German Cavalry : Operation Sealion/Eastern Front

I had wanted a unit of these for ages ! Giving the Germans even more mobility as they ride across Kent or the Eastern front.

They are Crusader Miniatures and I stuck with helmets rather than forage caps which they also do....what next I wonder 😀

Next stage of Preparation.........😀

Next off the preparation conveyor belt are some more rustic buildings. Which had been waiting for ages. For the show these will form a Lithuanian farm, but obviously they can be used in many locations.

 Secondly a collapsed, bombed or demolished building. This one has been painted to broadly fit with the other Russian buildings but I have kept it plain so it can be used in a range of battlefield set ups.

Albanich 2018 the preparation begins

We are putting on another game this year at Albanich 2018. A small and friendly show held in Dumfries on Saturday 10th March. Joining up with Steve we are putting on a Barbarossa game with plenty of iconic Russian and German forces on the battlefield. I have pretty much worked up the scenario and now have a list of things I need to finish off for the game. What that means is I have a bit of motivation to get some stuff done.

First up then.....the second part of my German transport.

Two Opel Blitz

As usual I have kept them simple for gaming and storage, they are Rubicon models easy to put together when I realised I wasn’t using enough glue ! And very easy to paint.

Vapnartak 2018

Back home from our annual pilgrimage to Vapnartak. This remains one of the biggest shows in the true North of England, a fantastic venue (despite the fire alarms this year!). For us it is very much a shopping trip picking stuff up with show discounts or grabbing something you didn’t expect from the bring and buy. There are some great games on show but it is actually hard to get around everything. It felt as busy as usual and shows have become increasingly pleasant as I meet people who I know or who recognise me from games I have put on 😀

Despite admiring the games on show I didn’t take many photos (sorry) these were the pick for me.

And then of course I did loads of shopping..........

Nearly everything was in some way cheap or reduced, and nearly everything was on the list I had taken. There are even a few more bits which were available but which traders offered free postage etc....

I’m not even gogin to list this ridiculous pile of stuff.....the bargain for me was the brown desert terrain cloth sat underneath. I actually bought two for £3 for those interested I am happy as always to answer questions 😀 the rest of the stuff you will see with me as it gets built, painted and onto the table 😀

A fun day.......