The Seventh Marca

Today I managed to finish the last of the seven Gripping Beast Arthurian cavalrymen I bought a few years back. He wasn't used in our battle this evening, but makes a welcome addition to our forces.

We now have 8 cavalry, 20-odd unarmoured infantry and half a dozen veteran and hero types painted up between us. We still have maybe 20 or so armoured infantry and that pack of 8 archers I bought at Salute to start on. We should have a decent sized Romano-British army when these are completed. We also did a bit of surfing to look for some enemies for them and came across some Pict minis that would go down well. I can't remember the manufacturer, but I am sure we will be able to find them again easily enough.

I was also able to put a bit more paint on the remaining Broo minis, as well as three adventurers, some Dragonewts and my first ever shop-bought figure - a 1976 Ral Partha centaur. He was my first ever Runequest character a few years later.

First Brytenwalda Battle Report

Alex and I decided to try out our first Brytenwalda game this evening. It was only to be a run through to familiarise ourselves with the rules a little. We pulled together the minis needed for the 600 Solidus armies and rolled for Defender and Attacker. We agreed on a 25% Solidus loss level to mark the end of the game.

Alex rolled higher and decided he wanted to be the Attacker. I set up a small 2' by 2' board with each player having a hill to their left flank and a small wood to their right. As Alex was Attacker he could swap two items of scenery and he decided he wanted the hills on his side and the woods on mine.

Here's Alex's army set up from my point of view.

Here's my army set up from Alex's point of view.

Turn 0

As Defender I set up first, with my cavalry on the right flank and the infantry holding the centre. Alex set up exactly the same way. We set up within 10 centimetres of our respective board edges.

Turn 1

I won Initiative so moved my cavalry through the woods towards Alex's infantry. I then moved my infantry directly forward in one large group. Alex basically copied my move, advancing his infantry towards my cavalry to cut them off and his cavalry to attack my infantry.

Turn 2

I won Initiative again, but failed my order roll. Luckily my infantry unit had a hero with them so could re-roll and luckily they passed second time round. So, both units moved forward a little more. Alex did the same. It looked like it would become two infantry versus cavalry battles in this skirmish.

Turn 3

Alex won initiative. With a roar his pendragon and marca hurtled into my infantry. Combat resolution was swift and bloody. I lost 5 aulue and Alex lost his marca. I lost the battle, so my unit was pushed back 1 inch. Both sides passed their Morale checks.

My part of the turn saw my cavalry return the compliment. Alex lost 3 aulue but I didn't lose any troops in the melee. As Alex lost the combat, his unit retreated 1 inch. Both sides passed their Morale checks.

We totted up the losses and found we had both lost more than 25% of our forces, so each side retreated (plus it was past Alex's bed time, so this worked out fortuitously). I lost 170 solidus and Alex lost 164, so we decided it was as near as dammit a draw, even though Alex edged it points wise.

Conclusions and observations...

The board we used was rather small, but this was a run through battle to just see how things played. Next time we'll have to at least double the size of the board to allow for 28mm scale movement as opposed to using the 15mm scale measurements.

Neither of us used the missile weapons of our marca - they had throwing spears.

I think we totted up the Combat rolls incorrectly, so 1 cavalryman would have had the same effect as 11 as against the 12 man infantry units in our game. Results would have been quite different otherwise.

It seems the whole unit is affected by combat as opposed to just those in base-to-base combat. We may look at changing this methodology for combat resolution in future games. That said, if we had smaller units then the effects would have made more sense.

This was a very quick game that took longer to read the relevant rules and set up than to run. That said, it was quite good fun despite our mistakes. Next time we will make a few amendments to our interpretation of the rules and maybe I will pit my daughters against Alex for a bit of sibling rivalry, as the two girls were asking why they couldn't play.

The Battle of Darkwood village

Alex and I went down to the local GW this afternoon; he had an invite to game by bringing a leader, a unit and one other thing. He was to pair up with another player against two adversaries who did the same.

Darkwood village had been suffering from night-time raids for the last few weeks. Each night one or two villagers would go missing and never return. Eventually, the nerve of the raiders grew and the raids became more daring, with attacks happening in broad daylight. The villagers saw that their enemy was an unholy alliance between skaven and ogres. The local lord, Duke Behemond, called upon his fiefdom to turn out to counter the threat, and through the magic of the local woods, the Darkwood of the village's name, the elves of the local area joined them. Battle would commence the next time the ogres and rat-men tried to raid the village.

The armies lined up as follows (bear in mind I am unfamiliar with the unit names, so only approximate labels will be given):

The Forces of Light

Bretonnia

Duke Behemond

9 Knights of the Realm (including leader, banner and musician)

16 Archers

The Elves of Darkwood

Elf mage (Level 3)

5 High Elf cavalry

12 High Elf infantry

The Forces of Darkness

The Clan Rats

Skaven mage (level 3)

2 Rat Ogres and master

20 Clan Rats

20 Clan Rats (reinforcements at Turn 4)

The Gutbuckets

Ogre Mage with large cauldron (level 3)

2 Gorgers

12 Ogres

Turn 1

Everbody advanced towards the enemy their maximum moves. Nobody was in range for Magic, Archery or combat.

The Ogres advance into the village looking for man-flesh to satiate their hunger. The Clan rats did the same but the Gorgers were hidden in the forest but never emerged.

Turn 2

Magic was quite uneventful except the elf mage was able to cast Shield of Thorns (or something similar sounding) onto the Bretonnian Knights to bolster them for extra attacks at the end of their combat. The Elf riders were able to charge into combat. They hit the Rat Ogres and destroyed one of them. On retaliation, the Rat Ogres were able to kill two Elf riders. The Rat Ogres lost the combat and fled through the Clan Rats that were following them up, but caused no problems for them. The Elf Riders careered into the Clan Rats instead. Elsewhere, the Bretonnian Knights charged into the Ogres on their right flank. They were able to kill one Ogre and the Ogres returned the favour, but the Knights won the combat. They caused the Ogres to flee but were unable to follow up and finish them off with the Shield of Thorns extra attacks - they also stopped an inch short of the Ogres.

Turn 3

The Bretonnian archers managed to make it up the hill but realised the fight was moving away from them, so moved to the other side of the hill in order to be able to take pot-shots at any who came within range. Magic was uneventful on both sides again. The Gorgers were still stuck inside the forest. The Bretonnian Knights charged into the Ogres again, causing two to be killed, and lost two knights again in return. The Ogres turned and fled again after losing the combat but this time the Knights followed up successfully and destroyed them to an Ogre. The Clan rats duked it out with the Elf cavalry and for the loss of three rats managed to kill two elves. The Clan Rats lost the combat and fled, with the solitary Elf rider catching them and annihilating them. It was quite amazing that both the remaining Elf Rider and Bretonnian Knights rolls left them barely an inch short of following off the table and being lost to the battle!

Turn 4

Magic was still relatively uneventful for the Good side, but the Elf Mage managed to resurrect a couple of the Elf Riders. A Clan Rat reinforcement unit emerged from the left flank and engaged the Elf Spearmen. The Bretonnian Knights saw the Ogre Mage may hit them in the rear, so did a 180 and fled back up the hill, just outside of his field of combat. The three Elf Riders were able to hit the Ogre, but he also managed to turn and face them. Unfortunately the combat was short and bloody - all three Elf Riders were destroyed. The newly arrived Clan Rats were shot at by the Bretonnian archers with one arrow clinking off the leader's armour before being engaged by the Elf spearmen and mage. The Elves managed to cause 4 casualties before being wiped off the table by being beaten in the combat and fleeing whilst being pursued. The Clan Rat mage launched some sort of Fireball at the Bretonnian archers, killing 5 in the process. They held their nerve as they were within the leadership range of the Bretonnian Lord. The gorgers, at long last, managed to leave the woods, but failed their charge rolls and barely managed to move, which was very lucky for the Bretonnian knights as they'd have almost certainly have been destroyed as it would have been a rear attack.



It as at this point we had to leave the game as time had run out. The Games Workshop staff decided it was a draw as both sides had lost units; on reflection, I think the Baddies lost three units to the Goddies' two. Anyway, it doesn't really matter as it was a close game and anything could have happened. The main thing was that Alex enjoyed himself playing his first Warhammer game.

King John

Alex picked this figure up at Salute a couple of years ago. I think it only cost him about £1 from the Miniature Wargames stall. He was never really sure what to do with it but just liked the look of it. Anyway, he managed to get it painted up over the last couple of weeks, and here's the results...

The heraldry on the shield was hand painted by Alex. I think he has done a sterling job on this.

We are now both off to Games Workshop for an afternoon of him playing some Warhammer. He will be taking some of his Bretonnians. He needs to take: a leader, a unit, plus one other thing. Alex is taking a Duke, some archers and some knights. We don't know who his opponent is yet, so he could be up against any other army.

Broo

Well, here they are at long last, my first set of Runequest minis. They are a warband of Broo for use with HotT. I was also able to base up and put more paint onto some more Runequest stuff ready for skirmish gaming. Anyway, these chaps (billies?) were from a boxed set of 9 Runequest Broo I bought way back in the eighties out of my Saturday morning job money. I used to get £5 per morning and I usually popped straight over the road after work to the hobby shop and bought either the latest vinyl LP of whoever was my fave band at the time or a bunch of gaming minis. These cost me a week's wages back then!

They will be used as a mercenary warband for one of my armies I am building; most likely the orcs/goblins army or the barbarians.