Midgard : Britannia (Mounted Warriors 3)

And this post brings me to the last of the "odds and sods"; a couple of Mounted Warriors. These can be used as part of the skirmish style cavalry bases for Midgard if I swap out the heavily armoured riders, or just to add into a unit of ten cavalry for any other game systems.

I only tried out one newish trick with these figures - I had a go at a skewbald horse colouration scheme. I think it turned out OK, but the horse image I copied meant that most of the darker hide ended up hidden by the saddle and rider. I will look at variants on this theme when I get around to painting more cavalry - unfortunately due to the gluing incident, I won't be trying anything more than a single colour scheme on the chariot horses.

Two New Mounted Warriors

All of the Mounted Warriors Together

I think it is nice that I have more figures than are required for the unit bases I made (see the slingers from the last post for another example). It means I can randomise the Midgard bases each time I play with them or use the whole ten riders to choose from to create a lovely Dragon Rampant unit.

Celtic figures progress (120 of 135 completed)...

• 106 figures based and ready for use with the Midgard rules set
• Druids (4 metal figures)
• Chieftains and Champions (6 metal figures)
• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)
• Chariots and crew (15 metal figures)

And the remainder...

• 40 Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (plastic figures)
• 8 Javelinmen (metal figures)

Next up is the unit I have been waiting for - the chariots. I have three of them ready to go, but they will only make up one full Midgard unit base unfortunately. I guess the other could be used as a unit chieftain/champion? I will need to purchase one or two more to allow me to expand to two units. I am toying with the idea, as well as buying one or two for use as goblin chariots or whatever, but they are very expensive. We shall see what pans out when I get around to painting my fantasy figures.

The Cousins' War - Game 2

Following up on our initial attempt at playing the game a couple of days ago, we found the time yesterday to have a rematch. This time it took us about 30 minutes to play through as we were now becoming familiar with the rules.

Again it only took three turns to complete out of the five due to some good decisions and great dice rolling by my son and some poor tactics and a bad decision on my part. I played York again and my son played Lancaster...

Turn 1 - The Battle of St. Albans

It all started off well for the Yorkists (me) what with them winning the Battle of St. Albans and gaining influence in the midlands region.

Turn 2 - The Battle of Wakefield

Again, the House of York won at the Battle of Wakefield and gained influence over the south, but the House of Lancaster managed to secure influence over the north.

Turn 3 - The Battle of Mortimer's Cross

York had seven units in the Battle of Mortimer's Cross and Lancaster only two, but Lancaster whittled down the Yorkist armies and snatched a well-earned victory. My dice rolls were very poor, as were my attempts to bluff it out -  I lost every round of the battle. The result was that Lancaster expanded their influence over the Midlands and the south and gained victory in the war.

After action report - we had the game down pat by now so we were able to jump straight in and play. I thought that it would take the full five turns to play but I was outsmarted and lost in the third turn. I was too confident going into the final battle with a 7:2 advantage but my forces were whittled down and eventually lost. A quick moving around of forces meant that the Lancastrians not only held the field at Mortimer's Cross but also won the war.

We are both enjoying this game as it swings back and forth within each turn and the end battles are great fun what with all the bluffing and counter-bluffing involved. Hopefully we can get another one or to games in before the end of the week.

Midgard : Britannia (Slingers 3)

I decided on a very quick win this time round. These slingers only took me a couple of sessions to complete. These very basic paint jobs brings the total number of slingers up to ten - enough for two skirmish bases or a full ten man base if required.

The Two New Slingers

Here they all are together...

All the Slingers Together

These figures are literally just three or four colours and a wash, but the sculpts make them what they are. I actually do really like these despite their basic look. As mentioned in a previous post, I am tempted to do a Five Leagues from the Borderlands warband/party with figures from my Celtic collection, and some missile troops are always handy to have in a tight spot.

And now onto the Celtic figures progress (118 of 135 completed)...

• 106 figures based and ready for use with the Midgard rules set
• Druids (4 metal figures)
• Chieftains and Champions (6 metal figures)
• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)
• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Chariots and crew (15 metal figures)

And the remainder...

• 40 Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (plastic figures)
• 8 Javelinmen (metal figures)

Next up will be the last two cavalrymen and then the chariots thereafter. I don't think I have ever fully completed an army that I set out to paint. I am very close with this one. Let's hope I can keep up the discipline and see it all through.

Midgard : Britannia (Chieftains & Champions)

I was able to paint these fellas relatively quickly. I put in some extra time this weekend and had no interruptions, so the standard block painting went on by the numbers. Again, nothing spectacular. I am staying resolute to just block painting and washes for this army. I will push my skills a little more with the next project.

Chieftains and Champions by Warlord Games

Chieftains and Champions by Foundry

All the Chieftains and Champions together

With the completion of these, all of the leader-types are done, so I can field a Celtic/Briton army with a great choice of champions. If I have need of more I can always grab a figure or two from the Elite or Mounted Warrior units already completed, plus there are the chariots in the wings waiting for a dab of paint.

I am still painting most days for 30-40 minutes per session, so I am hoping to see the completion of the remainder of the figures in a couple of weeks' time. If I am able to keep the discipline and avoid any new bouts of painter's block, this should be achievable.

Celtic figures progress (116 of 135 completed)...

• 106 figures based and ready for use with the Midgard rules set
• Druids (4 metal figures)
• Chieftains and Champions (6 metal figures)
• Mounted warriors (2 metal/plastic figures)
• Slingers (2 metal figures)
• Chariots and crew (15 metal figures)

And the remainder...

• 40 Standard and elite warriors still on their sprues (plastic figures)
• 8 Javelinmen (metal figures)

Either the mounted warriors or the slingers will be up next before trying to tackle the too-hastily constructed chariots. The chariots will take a bit of time, due to a few of the very awkward places to get the paintbrush into, but they should be do-able.

Whilst doing all this painting, I have noticed that a few of my very old paint pots are beginning to dry up; some of the pots are 30 years old or more! I have been adding a few drops of water each time I use them to keep them flowing, but some are gradually moving beyond repair and are totally drying out in the pots. I am just hoping that the main colours I am using can hold out until the last of the miniatures above are completed. Several pots have been discarded over the last few weeks where they have just dried solid, so I will take a look to see if I can replace them from the original vendors. If I cannot I will need to source alternatives.

The Cousins' War - a boardgame

My youngest son is over for a week of the summer holidays at the moment so, as is usual with us when we get together, we got to talking about all things gaming related. After showing him the newly painted Celts that he subsequently declared that he wanted to defeat in a Midgard game, I mentioned to him that I had a couple of things that he hadn't played before, one of them quite new, that he might want to try first.

The Cousins' War mini boardgame

A few months back I attended a games show in Gillingham, Kent and bought the first game in a series by Surprised Stare Games Ltd that looked interesting. The range consists of a few small games in a series titled Pocket Campaigns that can be played in half an hour or so on a small table pretty much anywhere. I bought one of their games based on The Cousins' War, or the Wars of the Roses, along with the solo gaming supplement.

The solo expansion pack

In the main game box you get a small gaming board, a rule book, a couple of small decks of cards and a number of dice and counters made of wood. It takes seconds to set up.

The solo expansion contains a few extra cards for creating the solo gaming experience.

The Cousins' War and solo supplement

This afternoon, we laid out the board and worked our way through the rulebook. I had to take on the Yorkist (White) faction as my son prefers the Lancastrians (Red). We gave the rules a quick once through and decided to play and see how we got on. The rules, when initially read, are quite involved but if they are read as you play along they very quickly fall into place - learn by doing.

We only had a limited amount of time so we only got three turns in whilst we played and learned the rules. My son started off strongly, almost wiping me off the board in the first turn! The turning point in this turn was that I hired the French mercenaries expecting a quick win but he played a card that turned them to his cause. I lost the battle and a lot of ground - he controlled two regions and the third was tied.

The second turn went almost exactly the same way but I managed to bolster my southern region despite losing the next battle again.

The third turn saw my son gamble everything on controlling the regions, so he didn't have enough troops to fight in the third battle. I therefore won it by a mile and was able to support my factions on the board so that we both controlled one region (he the north, me the south) with the central region in deadlock. I had more troops in my Reserves but he had more on the board. We decided to call it a draw.

It was a fun game; it took us about an hour and a half to set up, learn and play three complete turns. We could have played the last two turns in about 5-10 minutes each but we ran out of time. We will hopefully play a few more games throughout the week, adding in the third small set of cards for advanced play as we go. 

This is a game that we will probably take with us when we go away on holidays, and I will most likely add to this first one of the series with one or two of the others. There are currently about three more games in the series (extra rules are added in each subsequent game to make them more of a challenge), with one or two new ones being added next year - one of which is based on The Anarchy, one of my favourite periods of British history, called The Castle War. As an aside, I had a good chat with the company owner at the show, and found out he also wrote the rules for Siege - a hex based boardgame supplement based on the Cry Havoc rules back in the 80s, which I also own. I will need to dig that out soon too, but if I cannot find it, the rumour mill suggests that Cry Havoc has been re-released recently via a Kickstarter with a bit of modernisation and more Gary Chalk artwork.