Heraclea Update - Phalangites and Cavalry

I've still been managing to find some time after work each day to chip away at the Heraclea project. I've been working on the Phalanx (closing in on halfway) and some Cavalry this week. All figures are from Victrix and are great to work with. I find Victrix to be so far ahead of the rest when it comes to plastics. From sculpt detail, size, to ease of assembly, these guys pump out great quality figures and I'd genuinely recommend them to anyone who asks.

Still unsure of how I'll base these up and have decided to leave shields out moving forward for the rest of the project and just sort them out at the end. I'll end up using LBM decals for most of em I'd say. Happy with how the project is ticking along.

Cheers, have a great weekend.

Heraclea Update - Successor Elephant

My Uncle gave me this wonderful Elephant from Gripping Beast earlier this year and I finally found the time to assemble and paint it. We are slowly working away at a Battle of Heraclea project at the moment, and with Pyrrhus being pretty damn close to my favorite historical figure, I've gladly taken on that side of things while Gavin cracks on with the Romans.

The Elephant came with a few different tusk and trunk options and arrived in pretty good condition. A small amount of work with Milliput was needed to fix some honeycombing in the resin, but that wasn't really a problem. Overall I'm very happy with it and am in the market for another!

A few finishing touches with the paint remain, and basing... when I finally settle on a plan for that! 

Cheers all, happy gaming.

SAGA v2: Irish vs Welsh

I had my niece up for the day today and she brought her Irish warband with her for a game against my Welsh. After flicking through the new Book of Battles, we settled on the Tale of Challenges scenario.

Pretty cool scenario in my opinion. After set-up but before deployment each player gets to issue challenges to their opponent from the table provided in the book. There are 12 challenges all up and each has a x/x point system (ranging from 3's to 8's) where if you fulfil the challenge you get to add x to your total, but if you fail to fulfil the challenge you deduct x from your total. So you need to think very carefully about which challenges you issue because if you fail them, it can swing the game out of reach, even if you were ahead on massacre points.

A 6 point game with the lists as follows:

Welsh

1x Warlord

1x Priest

3x Mounted Hearthguard

1x Warriors

1x Levy w/bows

Irish

1 Warlord

2x Hearthguard

1x Irish Wolfhounds

3x Warriors

crows eye view

 Irish battle line

 Welsh centre

 gotta have faith...

 CHARGE!  ..after peppering with javelins of course..

yelp!

A fun game finishing up on turn 5 with a decisive victory to my Welsh. Arwen wasn't able to fulfil any of her challenges and I was able to fulfil both of mine adding to an already hefty massacre point score.

I was really impressed with how she went about the game tactically and was even more impressed with how neat her painting has become. A formidable Warlord in the making that will only get even more fierce with more games under the belt. My brother's Vikings better watch out!

Australian SAGA Grand Melee 2018

After frantically painting a few extra Hearthguard models and a Christian Priest, I made the hour long drive down the motorway to take part in the first Australian SAGA Grand Melee using v2 rules, held in Brisbane, Queensland.  A solid day of gaming organised by one of the nicest blokes you'll come across here in the Aussie community, Thomas Hitchen. It was a smoothly run event supported by both War and Peace Games and Gripping Beast.

The day consisted of 4 rounds using 6pt warbands, with a further 2pts in reserve that you could sub in before each round. I've got to say that the new edition is pretty damn awesome!

I took a mainly mounted Welsh warband led by Owain of Strathclyde as follows

1x Owen of Strathclyde

1x Mounted Priest

2x Mounted Hearthguard

1x Warriors

1x Levy w/ bows

reserves

1x Mounted Warriors

1x Warriors

A quick recap of the rounds I played;
Round 1 Battle around the Camp Fire: vs Norse Gaels played by Owen. It was a very close game which I lost in the last turn after he managed to take down Owain of Strathclyde.   -loss

Roud 2 The Frozen River: vs Michael and his Vikings led by Ragnar. I managed to get all my warband onto the other side of the river taking minimal loses.   -win

Round 3 Retreat!: vs Dave and his Vikings, again led by Ragnar. The Welsh manoeuvrability proved too much here and came away with the victory and a spot prize for quickest win of the round.   -win

Round 4 Clash of Warlords: vs Greg using Pagan Rus. On the top table and currently second overall. A bit of a bloody affair this one but notched the victory after a well played battle.  - win

So after going 3-1 across the day and accumulating 19 Tournament points and 91 Victory points, I was dubbed "the Northern Raider" and was crowned 2018's Australian Grand Melee Champion!

 Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!

Australian Grand Champion!

After a fantastic day of gaming I was also extremely proud to accumulate the most points and win the Sportsmanship Award as well. This award is the Henry Parsons Memorial,  which was voted 1-5 after each round by the players to promote fun, gamesmanship and gentlemanly behaviour . It really was a great way to cap off an excellent event with a great bunch of blokes.

Thanks to Tom for sending the photos as I didn't take any on the day.

I look forward to defending the crown next year!

Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar - El Cid

A few extra shots I took of my El Cid model this morning.

Again, as mentioned in my previous post today, this sculpt is the Bee's knees. Can't wait to storm the tabletop and roll horribly with this guy leading the charge..

Pretty sure Im done painting and sporadically posting for the year so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Cheers to all who've stopped by to check things out this year and all the best for 2017.

Saga Spanish Update #3 - 4 Points Complete!

Done! 4 Points Spanish Warband ready for SAGA: Crescent and Cross

I've hit my amended target to get these guys ready for the tabletop before Christmas. As a little bonus I added in the amazing El Cid figure from Gripping Beast. Its an amazing sculpt by Angel Terol, and is easily one of the best historical miniatures I've had the pleasure of throwing paint at.

The Warband consists of;

Warlord 

8 Caballeros

8 Mounted Jinetes

12 Levies w/ bow.

So here we are, the full 4 points following the mighty Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar into battle!

El Cid.

Jinetes

Keen as a bean to get some games in with these guys while I'm on holidays.

Cheers.

Saga Spanish Project Update #2

Here we are! Back with another update on my Spanish Saga Warband project. Well, things didnt exactly go to plan. I was hoping to smash out atleast a unit every week or so but as usual, life does life and wargaming went to the back of the line. Anyway, I'm on holidays now and have managed to finish off 8 Mounted Caballeros (hearthguard). I had started these sometime in November so they didnt take too much more to get over the line.

 As usual with Gripping Beast, nice clean sculpts make for easy work.

I've now just got 8 Mounted Jinetes (warriors) and the Warlord to go. I've already started the horses so will hopefully have the whole 4 points tabletop ready by Christmas!

SAGA Pagan Priest!

My Spanish project went on hold yesterday as I really wanted to get this awesome model finished up in time for my games this weekend.  The figure is sculpted by Bob Naismith and is one helluva model! 

I really dig this figure. It's full of character and I've been looking forward to getting it tabletop ready since I purchased it a few weeks ago from War and Peace Games. A sweet addition to my Dark Age collection! Cheers.

INFINITY: OPERATION FLAMESTRIKE - Sagres Orbital Tracking Station; Caledonian Highlanders vs Combined Army 300pts

I played my first full game of Infinity yesterday against my Brothers Combined Army force. It was part of the current online worldwide campaign; Operation Flamestrike. We played the Seize the Antennas mission at 300pts.

 The Cameronian lays down some smoke and cover fire as the 45th Highlanders surge forward!

 My Brothers Combined Army taking up position. I would manage to render this flank useless with some great shooting from my Sniper and Wulver.

 Again on the East, his forces took up position against the Highlanders.

 The full link team of Scots Guard proved too much for the Alien menace as they mowed down another victim, fire squad style!

 A desperate Umbra charges forward into the link team in a last ditch effort to swing the battle into his favor. While he did take out the Missile Launcher Scot it was too little too late as the rest of the link team took him down with swift vengeance.

An overview of our deployment. Ariadna up top and Combined Army down below.

In the end the Caledonian Highlanders would pull through Victorious! 

The final tally of points remaining being;

Caledonian Highlanders - 243

Combined Army - 85

With th Highlanders taking 6 Objective points to the Combined Armies 1.

Fantastic game that ran pretty smoothly. Cant wait for the next one!

(Cheers to the Bro for the pics. I got too into the game and forgot!)

Thanks for looking, happy gaming.

4pts Saga: Anglo Saxons vs Anglo-Danish

We managed to squeeze in another closely run 4 point game of Saga yesterday. Good action and some hate from the Dice Gods!

I played my newly finished Saxons with my son Phoenix once again taking control of the Anglo-Danes. 

We rolled up for a scenario and got; Sacred Ground!

Victory Points accumulate at the end of each turn for each of your figures inside any of the three terrain pieces.

I won the roll and deployed first with the warband configurations as follows

Anglo-Danish

Warlord

2x4 Hearthguard

2x8 Warriors

Anglo Saxons

Warlord

2x10 Warriors

1x8 Warriors

1x4 Warriors

 Ravens eye view of the Battlefield. The terrain placer in the middle is not counted as a wood, we had to use a tree to hold it in it's place as the wind was blowing viciously this day.. A good omen for the Danes according to the lad.

 In the first two turns the Saxon Thegns used a combination of double move activations coupled with No Surrender to march into the centre terrain area.

 The Anglo-Danes on the East table edge manage to get into the woods before their Saxon enemies.

 As The Anglo-Dane Warlord and his Hearthguard reach the edge of the Centre terrain piece the Saxon Thegns charge forward while maintaining ranks!

 Being devout Defenders of the Realm and standing Shoulder to Shoulder, the Thegns manage to eliminate a whole unit of Hearthguard sending the Dane Warlord himself into a swift retreat the next turn!

 Along the East edge the 8 man unit of Saxon Thegns slowly advance towards the woods ahead.

 The Anglo-Danish Warlord barks orders from behind the ranks and his Warriors swiftly charge into battle. They run head on into the Saxon Thegns Shieldwall. The Saxon unit count after the initial fight with the Hearthguard had left them depleted and under strength however the men rallied with their Stout Hearts and the unit fought as though they were at full strength of 10+.

 The Anglo-Danes were once again repelled from the centre terrain piece but managed to take out 2 more Thegns for their troubles. 

As the turns rolled on the Saxon Warlord along with his 4 warriors managed to sit unopposed in the Western Woods. Phoenix realised he needed to eliminate them or at the very least get into one of the terrain areas to keep up with victory points.

 The battle for the Eastern Woods continued with both units going toe to toe each turn and both contributing nicely to their VP tallies. 

 On the 6th turn the Anglo-Danish Hearthguard pressed into the Western Woods to eradicate the Warriors and hopefully the cowardly Warlord with them!

In a fierce melee both units suffered two casualties, the Danish Hearthguard were pushed back but gathered themselves and charge in again! 

Defeat! Two pairs of Snake-Eyes vs double 6! The Anglo-Danish Hearthguard were miraculously slaughtered by the much inferior Saxon Warriors with what is easily the wildest dice rolling I've seen in some time!

That last melee took the (not so vicious anymore) wind out of the Anglo-Danish sails and there was no hope now to catch up on Victory Points...

VICTORY TO THE ANGLO SAXONS!

Cheers for looking, Happy gaming.