Anglo-Danes vs Normans, Saga style

Been too long since we played this fine game. (1st Edition, of course.) Chris has been working on his historicals and we wanted to get them out on the table. Chris chose his beautiful Anglo-Danes, so I went with an historical opponent; the Normans. I wanted to run a more mounted force but I was hampered by my lack of models. I had been meaning (for several years) to order  more and I finally did but they did not arrive from England in time. However, they were in my mailbox when I got home, so I am looking forward to assembling and painting them for next time. Plus, that gives me a whole lot more mounted dudes to play an Crusader force.

We played two quick games and the pictures are jumbled. This blog is more for pictures than AAR or strategy discussion. It's a fun game with cool models. Look at the pics in my attempt at gamer porn.

Set up for the second game. Chris whipped me easily the first go round, so I changed a few things up, in terms of set up.

Here's the set up for the first game. The terrain is a little different too. We're not power gamers, so we just changed up a few things and had at it again.

Looking from behind the Anglo-Dane's line. Chris proxied Picts in for his levies. Works well enough for me; there were enough rebellions in the north against the Normans that some Picts would have showed up, right? They probably had clothes on, but, what the hell?

Second game. Little different terrain layout and set up.

Norman crossbows move up and prepare to do two things: jack *and* squat.

Get 'em! Cool pic of mounted Normans heading into the fray. The models are from Conquest Games. Very nice but infuriating as they come in boxes of 15(?). Technically, there are 16 dudes, but one is dead. WTF? But, I love them and am looking forward to assembling and painting the new box. These shields are Little Big Man Studios transfers but the new ones will be hand painted.

It's a sausage fest!

Chris's 'non metallic metals' skill on display.

Mounted Hearth Guard lead the way. Nice pic.

Should have brought our horses, Gilbert!

Mounted Warriors.

Chris' superb Danish axe men. They've come to axe the Normans a few things.

The Norman boss. He's the one that doesn't have shit all over him.

There goes the neighborhood.

I placed the leader and mounted Warriors in a place where they could react to either side of the house. My Hearth Guard and cross bows are deployed to intimidate the center.

That's an old Warhammer building made from pizza boxes and scrubby pads.

Looks like they're handling things over there; we'll just wait in cases they need us.

Unless naked dudes come running at us!!!!!

Second game, Warriors go left and nerf a charge against the levies, but make up for it when they do mean things to Chris' Hearth Guard.

You know, if we stand here and look tough, no one will know we are just shooting hot dogs at them.

Levies move into position. They were actually pretty dependable both games.

The Warriors prepare to charge again while my Hearth Guard clashes with Chris' Hearth Guard and War Boss.

A close-up of the deciding battle.

The levies have positioned themselves to shoot at Chris' retreating War Lord should it come to that but he eventually was cut down like the rebellious punk that he was.

Pizza boxes, teddy bear fur and welcome mats make great terrain with little effort.

First game: my Warlord on the left is thinking 'merde'. And then he did it in his hose.

This is my favorite shot of the day. I'll finally shut up so you can just look at it.

Chris' unit of 8 Hearth Guard armed with Danish axes truly struck fear in the hearts of  men.

It was in the woods in the right center where Chris' Warlord met his end.

Great time, great game. Can't wait until next time. In fact, that'd part of the trouble with this fine game: the factions are all so cool, I just want to jump from one to the next but it really takes multiple playings to get to know a force and use it well. Unfortunately we just can't get together that often and there's always other great games to play. Well, we always know when we pull out Saga, it's going to be a great time.

 

Black Seas

Got together to try our hand at Black Seas after spending months assembling and painting ships. All a labor of love, but it was nice to finally see the models on the tabletop. Chris is an old hand at Armada so the rules were more or less second nature to him while we worked out the idiosyncrasies particular tot he Age of Sail. 

We played a scenario wherein my Spanish were escorting a fat French merchant vessel through a British blockade. I had two 5th rate frigates and 4 brigs while Chris had 3 frigates and 3 brigs. The merchant had been stripped of all it's guns to maximize speed. It was 1000 points each.

We did not entirely finish as we were both pretty brain dead (having already played 2 other games prior), but we played enough to really get a feel for the rules and enough to leave us wanting more. A good sign for a game. The aforementioned merchant was about half way across the board but there were some mean looking British ships about to intercept her, if the wind held.

Unfortunately, the pics are in a jumbled order, so I will try to piece together at what point any given photo took place.

There's the merchant in the center flying the French colors. The wind had shifted that turn, allowing the frigate to fire before she could speed away. Another British brig closes in.

Artsy shot showing Chris' ridiculously nice fleet. He hand rigged all the rat lines. (My ships have none.)

Set up. Chris' ships are coming from both sides.

Notice the difference in my ships. No rat lines. Also, no bases. Chris hand sculpted and painted all the bases on his ships.

This was the shot of the game. My big kitted out battle boat bow rakes a frigate with her first broadside. The damage was so extensive, the British ship struck her colors and surrendered.

The merchant takes one in the teeth.

Look at those beautiful models.

Warlord Games would do well to use his stuff in their adverts.

Another cool shot of the action.

Not only did the British frigate surrender, but it also shrank. (I don't have any burning frigates, only brigs.)

Wide angle look.

The man himself. Chris begins the British hunt.

From the other side.

Couple aerial views.

The models really lend themselves to great pictures.

My brigs narrowly avoid ramming into each other but both manage to get off a broadside at the enemy.

And they're off!

Scratch one frigate. While this was the only 'casualty', it must be noted that more than one of my ships had been heavily damaged. I had two brigs on the brink of striking and both the others had taken some hits. The merchant also took some damage but I had reinforced her hull to make her more sturdy.

Cool aerial shot.

Very enjoyable and worth ever minute at the painting (and rigging) table. I still have 2 frigates and 6 brigs to do, but this experience will make it a lot less painful to actually sit down to do it. It's a good game.

 

Dragon Rampant April 2023

Played our first game of Dragon Rampant. I like the series of rules for the most part and was really looking for some rules other than GW's LotR rules to use our old Ral Partha figs. This game is really just an excuse to use these beautiful old figs; the first ones we ever owned. Most were bought from 1976 to 1978 or so, painted when we were kids and refurbished a few years ago with washes and touch ups.

This game featured Goblins of the North vs North Mirkwood Elves somewhere in the great forest. This isn't too much of an AAR but rather an exhibition of the great models. I'll be throwing in game terminology but it has no bearing on the purpose of this post.

The set-up. I wanted the stream as it represents a 'linear obstruction' per the rules. The actual streams are J&R Miniatures. I've had them forever and really like them. The woods are 'dense' terrain and slow movements for most units.

Bellicose foot. These models are too cool! They are from the old Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques line of miniatures. I'm not positive but think that line was eventually sold to Heritage Models. Their drivers are old Heritage. I think they are 'stone trolls'.

Heavy foot. Ral Parths goblins with skull helmets! It's kind of unnatural how much I love these guys.

 Back in the day, they were $4 for a box of 12. No blisters, they all came in little black and white boxes. Bully for you if you remember those too.

Light riders. Unfortunately I only have 4 rides left, though I have about 8 or more wolves. The rest were sadly lost through time. I still look in boxes just because you never know...

Great Warbeasts. Ents make their way through the forest. Anyone still have any of these?

Light foot and light missiles in the background. I changed the skin tone on these when I re-did them. They were all like elf flesh white. I've painted some with purple skin, some with light blue, others with orange. It just makes it all more 'fantastic' to me.

Scouts. Great figures; I still have about 30 of these.

Light foot. Same with these. I have a lot of 'wood elves', as they were called once upon a time.

Elite foot, or 'sea elves' as Ral Partha labeled them. As my brother pointed out, they can be used as anything, like Numenorians, for example.

Greater warbeasts vs Lesser warbeasts. These spiders may be GW or Warlord, I'm not sure but they are the only figs not from the 70's.

Light missiles. Elven archers take the high ground. Unfortunately for Chris, they failed to activate three turns in a row and essentially doomed the rest of their force to ignominy.

Cool. Got a bunch of these in different poses. I can't believe these still have their original spears.

Yeah, their eyes bulge but I couldn't resist painting the models as sculpted. I find them charming.

One of the few shots of the actual action. You can see the ents in the upper left moving toward the goblin archers. However a few Wild Charges later by the venom packing spiders knocked the ents out of the game. The elves were butt hurt as it was too much like Ungoliant and the Two Trees.

'Branch out!' 'Leaf me alone!'

Elvish scouts are yummy! "Looks like meat is back on the menu boys!'

Great models. Four freaking dollars for 12!

The Elven leader and Heavy Foot bodyguard. I'm not sure of the maker of the leader model; there was no markings on the base. If anyone knows, let me know. The other guys are part of the Ral Partha Sea Elves line; note the same shields as the spear men, er, spear elves?

Battered light foot. The leader is in the background, if you want another look at him.

Shoulda brought arrows I guess,

We're scouting a retreat path home.

Warg riders, not hyena riders. Effing love these models.

Well, there's a few good looks at some models that will be turning 50 in three years!!!!! Dragon Rampant is a good system to get these old favorites on the table. And we have so many!!!! We originally bought these to play the old Chainmail rules Gary Gygax wrote, so we bought armies! We have everything from Haradrim to Rohirrim, Gondor, Isengard. We even have scattered Dunlandings,, axe men of Lossarnach, fishermen of Belfalas and even the odd Knight of Dol Amroth and Ranger of Ithilien. I'm not sure how I hung on to these through all the years and moves and mileage, I'm just glad we still have them!