Wild Welshmen vs. Vicious Vikings

"Dewch i roi cynnig arni os ydych yn credu eich bod yn ddigon caled!"*

As May 8th was International Viking Day (yes, it's a real thing), it was decreed that the club meeting that day should be given over to all things Viking!** RAAAHHHHRRRRR!!!! So in the spirit of the day I selflessly put myself at the disposal of Viking types to have a go at with my longtime Welsh SAGA project which had finally come to fruition after a sluggish mojo-less period of little to no painting (Refer to a previous post for more detail!). 

Anyway, after issuing the challenge, Ian KH (of This 28mm Life) accepted and agreed to meet me on the field of battle. This turned out to be a lovely little 3' x 3' battle-board which was more like a mini-diorama, made from mdf and polystyrene, covered in plaster and a generous coating of flock. It even featured a little pond at the foot of a cliff.

We were both very rusty on the game mechanics and not familiar with our battleboards, so our first game was a little hit and miss. Still, I can't complain, as my new Welsh warband turned out victorious after my Warlord killed his! I found the benefit of the Welsh Holy Ground ability, which reduces the enemy's move to the next lowest distance ie. L to M, M to S, etc. When the Vikings bowled up expecting to contact one of my units, a judicious use of Holy Ground stops them short and allows my unit to piff pointy sticks at them and bugger off next turn!

The second game didn't go quite as well, with Ian wise to my tricks, though I did manage to destroy one of his Bondi units. When it came to the crunch, this time he dealt the killing blow to my warlord, though it was touch and go for a while.

Melee weapon armed warriors

Bow armed levy

Game #1: Ian's Vikings start on the hill over the pool

My Welsh start from the opposite corner

Welsh warriors and levy advance

Levy in action. They did quite well: they remained on the board throughout both games and inflicted more casualties than they took.

One unit of Warriors advances in the open, while the other lurks in the woods. Warlord and Hearthguard standby.

Overenthusiastic Warriors get charged by Viking Warlord and his Hearthguard...

...but find themselves caught short by the judicious use of Holy Ground!

Vikings regroup after their nasty surprise.

With Hearthguards taking each other out, it's down to a mano-a-mano clash between Warloards with the Welsh victorious!

Game #2 started with a straight out advance up the board.

Warlord, Hearthguard and one warrior unit strike at the Vikings' Levy and Warriors...

...while the other Welsh Warrior unit goes on a flanking march through the woods using Children of the Land, which allows me to ignore terrain restrictions.

My Warlord and chums take out the Viking Hearthgurd

Now to repeat last game's ending!

The Warriors in the woods take out some Vikings with javelins...

...before going on into melee and making short work of the Vikings!

The Viking Levy's flank now lies directly in their path!

The Vikings look like they're in trouble.

Warlord vs. Warlord again!

Whoops!

*"Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" in Welsh according to Google Translate!

**(Rather disappointingly, we were the only SAGA game that night, with only one other table joining in the Viking-ness of the night playing a FoG game. Everyone else seemed to have missed the memo...)

Holiday Update

Here's another Waterloo teaser!

Sorry for leaving you on a cliff-hanger with my Waterloo appetiser! I've been a bit lax in following up as we've just been on a week's break up in Yackandandah. 

"Yackin'-where?" I here you ask. Well, it's just to the west of Tangambalanga, south of Baranduda and north of Mt.Tawonga! Actually, it's up in the North-East of Victoria in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, in the old Ovens Valley goldfields. Very picture-skew (or picturesque) and relaxing with the rolling hills, vineyards and orchards all around and so many historical gold-rush townships and buildings (mid-19th C = historical in Australia!) to visit.

Anyway, back to Waterloo 2015; I shall write up a proper batrep with a LOT more pictures and description, but let me share with you an anecdote and a couple of pictures which really summed up my weekend.

Amongst my command were the infamous Cumberland Hussars, a Hanoverian cavalry unit comprising of wealthy dandies who really felt that this war business cut into their time better spent chatting up the ladies. In the real battle they were kept in the rear, but bottled it once the French started lobbing artillery projectiles over the Mont St. Jean ridge, and high-tailed it to Brussels and beyond screaming "The French are coming!". 

In our game they had special rules. To whit, if they were given an order a roll of the d10 determined their action; on an even roll they obeyed, an odd they stood still and on a 0 they fled screaming for the rear. After the Duke waved his hat for the general advance, I tempted fate by ordering them forward along with all the other cavalry. With baited breath, I rolled the die...

...and this was the result

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Run away!!!!!"

So you can see that this was not my finest hour and that as an indication of my success, it was lucky that the Anglo-Allies were as successful as they were. Indeed, you could say they succeeded in spite of me!

My Analogue Hobbies Challenge progress has suffered, too. My last entry was a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't posted them on my blog! So here they are; The Württemberg Jäger-Regiment zu Pferd Nr. 3 Herzog Louis, using my favoured 1/72nd HaT figures, and a 28mm Gripping Beast Welsh Warlord from my Christmas haul of a 4 point Welsh Warband for SAGA.

The cavalry officer has a plume made from tissue paper and white glue, just to make him a little more obvious from the other ranks.

I'm not overly happy with the results after varnishing the Welsh Warlord. The varnish is getting a little thick and I feel I ruined the cape, even though I tried to salvage it with a bit of dry brushing. Still, not the result I was hoping for.

I'm happy with the free hand shield, though. Sticking with his Romanesque leather muscled cuirass, officer's belt and Spangenhelm, I gave him a Roman style Christian motif for the shield. Also, as the Welsh warlord is allowed thrown missile weapons, I gave him a javelin and a hand axe. The pose is a curious one, but I felt he was winding up to throw his javelin under-arm like a plumbata. He had no sword or scabbard, so I glued on a spare plastic one from my Anglo-Saxons.