Good King Wenceslaus I : A Christmas Adventure

For our last battle before Christmas I chose something with a festive theme. It is the year 934 AD Wenceslaus the Good (also known as Vaclav in his day) has headed out on Christmas Eve to distribute presents and gifts to the local population. Unbeknownst to him his brothers have hatched a plot to depose him. The main protagonist in this evil plot is his brother Boleshaw (Boleslav) who would go down in history as Boleshaw the Cruel !

Returning to his castle keep Wenceslaus and his retinue are ambushed by Boleshaw who has hired a ragtag force of bohemian tribesmen and mercenaries. Wenceslaus must get back to his keep avoiding any distractions on the way !

A view of the village of Stara with the Keep in the foreground

Boleslav, ambushing from the woods

Full of Christmas cheer some of Wenceslaus’ armoured infantry

The Duke himself Wenceslaus, the alarm has been raised and he sends his retinue in all directions

Mercenary tribesmen rush forward intent on mischief even though it is Christmas Eve !

Bohemian light cavalry harry the flanks

Boleslav the Cruel has hired a local lass to distract anybody coming through the village (we had some special rules for her where she would reduce leadership or cause units to be pinned)

The light cavalry have been sent to cut off the route to the Keep

Would you believe Wenceslaus has been waylaid in the village, his wife looking on from the keep doesn’t look very happy !

Boleslav charges in to kill the Duke’s bodyguard

He then gallops towards the Duke to minister the killing blow

But the rebels are too late to stop the first unit of heavy cavalry make it back to safety

and then a second unit makes it home......Wenceslaus is now making a dash for safety

In the end Boleslav earned a minor victory, killing one more unit than escaped, but Wenceslaus made it home safe, unfortunately meeting his wife under the Christmas tree she doesn’t seem to happy and has a few questions about why he is late home !

Also managed to finish off a couple more bits

Another unit of Austrian infantry 

Diminutive 10mm from Pendraken

And some Gondorian  knights who had languished half painted almost since the third age ! But now they are done

If you have made it this far thanks for taking the time to read. I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, hopefully Santa will be kind and you get a few more figures. Roll on 2020 😀

Some more painting before🎄

Managing to keep up some productivity on the painting front.

Some dark age Celtic types, but I have left them as generic as possible so they could double up as any Celtic/Galatian Hill tribes I am sure some Greek hill tribes would have looked like this as well ?

Another Persian general (Foundry figure)

A solitary Greek/Macedonian Officer ( and I have noticed I haven’t put any tufts on the last two bases so I will sort that this evening)

A week to go so a couple more bits to get done before Christmas 🎅🏽

Battle for the Thymbris Plain : Blood in the Sand

Once more into the depths of history and a border conflict to the East of the known world. A time when land and expansion are on the minds of many of the ancient kingdoms rulers and tyrants. Reports have found there way back to King Nannacus II of Phrygia that his western borders have been raided by a force from Mysia. The enmity between the two kingdoms has existed for some time when the offer of marriage between the Kings sister had been rejected. Moving through the mountains this invasion is clearly intent on reaching the productive heartland of Phrygia so a sizeable force has been sent to meet the Mysians. Having manoeuvred for two days the armies have now faced off across the flat valley of the Thymbris River. There will be no subtly today both forces are intent on destroying the enemy and holding the ground for themselves.

The battlefield at dawn, although cut by the River Thymbris this will only slow any movement and is crossable it’s entire length

The Phrygian right flank a strong contingency of calm and horse archers

In their centre units of bowmen with large wicker shields two forest elephants and a single chariot

The Mysian left wing is predominantly infantry

The Phrygian line advances

....using its superiority in ranged weapons to weaken the Mysians

The Mysians are also advancing to try and get into combat

Inevitably the elephants from both sides start to push ahead

and are no close to clashing between the two armies

No one is sure if the blocks of infantry will be able to withstand the charge

Over the river Median spearmen are charging down the small incline

The chariot crashes home as well...

some time has elapsed here and the Phrygians are turning the Mysian left flank

The last elephant of the battlefield attempt to crush another unit

Mysian heavy cavalry has started to turn the Phrygian left flank and suddenly a lot of space has opened up

At this point the battle was drawing to a close the Phrygians have clearly dominated the right flank but have lost the left.

Our victory conditions were based on unit s which managed to get beyond half way, this proved to be the Mysians who when we added up had also lost slightly fewer units so a minor victory was awarded to the invading Mysians.

A trophy was duly set up on the battlefield by the Mysian General who also captured the two Royal princesses as part of the Phrygian camp. Clearly a rescue will be required and it is a long way home.

A fun game played over about 5 hours, we used slightly modified kings of war but added some complexity using bolt action dice for command, but not giving either side enough so difficult decisions needed to be made through out on where to focus effort. It worked pretty well but needed a little modification.

As I had them out I to9 a few photos 

The recently painted Phrygian/ Persian royal family

My current Persian army

A side shot of the Persians, I have plenty more to paint some skirmishers and immortals to start with

and a chance to put all my elephants in a line 😀 if nothing else it shows the size variations isn’t to bad all five were fighting in the battle.

Al Andalus archers and more !

Another busy week including my wife’s birthday, Battleground Wargame Show and a recreational trip to London.

First up the next unit of Al Andalus Archers, these are a mixture of Conquest Games Norman archers and some Gripping Beast archers, lots of head swops to give them a strong Arabic feel but they are better equipped than just a group of local levy 

We managed to get across to battleground show last Saturday, sadly I didn’t take many photos chatting and shopping too much, two games which caught my eye was this El Cid game

And this WW2 game with a live cinema in play (good effort)

I had a small list of things to buy ! But when I landed at the Bring and buy the guy putting on the El Cid game was selling off a stack off Al Andalus figures so i didn’t have an option than to buy them all, in essence a whole army ! Mainly Artizan and Gripping Beast figures a big smile on my face 😀😀😀

Also picked up this building second hand slight damage to the paving stones

and a mausoleum type building which I also hope to slip into an Iberian village or town.

In London this week, as well as catching some culture we visited the British museum, plenty of inspiration 

I have a unit of immortals to paint

Al Andalus

and the main reason for the BM to visit the current Troy exhibition which brings together a whole raft of antiquities based around the Troy myth and how it has been represented through to modern times.

A game planned this weekend so hopefully more soon 🙂