A year’s worth of gaming (Part 2)

Club member Stephen reviews the games he has played at Maidstone Wargames Society this year. This is part 2 of the article covering July to December. If you missed part 1 it can be found here.

The first meeting after the Open Day can be an important one because it would be the first ‘true’ impression of a club day for anyone returning after the Open Day. We do try to have a few games going and it’s important that games are open to any new member to help them feel included and part of the club. I had a game of Dragon Rampant with Andy.

July – Dragon Rampant

We got in two games. Andy was using his goblins, and I used two new armies – elves in the first game and dwarves in the second. And Andy won both games. Not just won, but won quite convincingly. That’s the thing with new armies – it takes time. You have to get to know each other, trust each other, respect each other. Just like any relationship.

At the end of July came more sci-fi. Another game of Stargrave – Jurassic Moon! I’m sure you can work out the inspiration for that one. Films, TV, and books all provide an endless resource for Stargrave games. Yet again, another sci fi game in my decision to do more sci fi during the year.

In this game Tony’s captain would get killed by a pack of velociraptors, meaning Tony lost his crew and will have to start all over again. Meanwhile, Eric kept throwing grenades at everything. We also used the Side Hustle cards, which provided a great new element to the game.

July – Stargrave – Jurassic Moon

We are now two-thirds of the way through this gaming year, and another sci fi game for me – Battlestar Galactica by Ares Games. This uses the same game engine as other games such as X-Wing. The game was run by Alan, so fulfilled two briefs for the year’s gaming – play more sci fi, and play more games run by other people. Best of all, though, was the chance to game with club members I seldom game with. Alan umpired with Dave and myself taking the Cylons and Pete S and Chris taking the humans. I don’t wish to gloat, but suffice to say that Dave and myself had a very rewarding day!

August – Battle Star Galactica

And then on to a bit of fantasy – Elf King Red. This is a free download set of rules by Rick Priestly. In brief, the game is based around an elf civil war, with each player taking control of a different ‘Circle’ of elves. It’s one of those games with just a few miniatures per player – a leader (or Thane in the rules) accompanied by six companions. Just seven figures per side!

We had a four player game – Andy, Tony F, Phil, and myself. We played two different scenarios (we agreed that each player must devise a scenario, but obviously never played them all). Andy’s scenario involved hunting down a rampant werewolf whilst mine was all about taking control of a temple in the wilderness.

August – Elf King Red

It proved to be a nice fun game. These sort of things always work best with some kind of scenario driven game. There’s a few holes in the rules, which is OK (they’re free, after all), especially if you’re a group of friends and playing the game in the spirit of fun. We certainly coped with any hiccups and any uncertainties were easily resolved. EKR will make a great one-day session of linked scenarios.

It had been a little while, but the first meeting in September was back to our Wars of the Roses campaign – Battle of Hedgeley Moor. This was an encounter I was unfamiliar with, with newly crowned King Edward sending an embassy to the Scots only to be ambushed by the Lancastrians.

September – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hedgeley Moor

You know what, it’s just not fair! I really thought I was going to win this one, it was looking good at one point. But did I? No. You can read the full report here: Wars of the Roses – Battle of Hedgeley Moor – Battle Report – Maidstone Wargames Society (brigademodels.co.uk)

A closer game this time, so I suppose some things are improving.

The second meeting in September was supposed to be Rebels & Patriots but Andy had to pull out at the last minute, so I grabbed some spaceships and we had a game of Starmada instead. Like Full Thrust this is a space fleet game, but it’s quicker and dirtier than Full Thrust and can handle large fleet battles better. We played three games. The first was a simple meeting encounter so we could all remind ourselves of the rules. The grey fleet won this so we decided the next battle would be an attempt to take control of a mining facility. The green fleet repelled them this time and so we moved on to the last game – a chance for the greens to consolidate their position. But the greys won again. We decided this represented a minor victory for the greys. They hadn’t managed to take control of the mining facilities but had done enough to press the greens for trading benefits.

September – Starmada

The first meeting in October was on the 14th, which meant only one thing: HASTINGS! A few years ago we’d re-fought the battle so what we did was have a special Saga day based on the Norman Invasion. Norman and Anglo-Dane armies only.

October – SAGA – Battle of Hastings

The four of us decided to play multi-player games. Each player would keep track of victory points throughout the day and the player with the highest total would be declared winner. The day went to Tim with his Anglo-Danes with Jeremey, also using Anglo-Danes, in a very close second. It seems English resistance to the Normans is alive and well.

Since we meet in such a large hall I often wonder why we don’t do more one-on-one games. There’s enough room. So at the second meeting in October Tony G and myself had a few games of Barons War. This was Tony’s first time, so we kept it small. As such, we got in three games. Barons War provides a really good section on scenarios, which always benefits skirmish games. I won the first, then Tony won the second, which left a third deciding game. It went to Tony! The more I play Barons War the more I enjoy it. Like many rules it’s not always as clear as it could be – though not as bad as some rules out there. But as you play it the more sense it makes. A very enjoyable session.

October – Baron’s War

Right then. So, November. And another ding-dong in our Wars of the Rose campaign.

This was the Battle of Hexham and marked a turning point in the war. Not only was it a turning point in the actual war but it was also a turning point (hopefully) in our campaign. Rather than give details here you can instead read about the remarkable events here.

November – Sword and Spear – Battle of Hexham

The penultimate game of the year was a bit of a 90s throwback – Battletech! This game ticked two boxes for my year’s gaming: more sci fi AND play other’s games as well. Back in the day I used to play a lot of Battletech (and Silent Death). This was Eric’s game and we played a version of Battletech called Alpha Strike which, to be honest with you, bears no resemblance to the original game at all. Which is not a bad thing. Battletech was a very 90s set of rules and I’m not sure I have the stomach for it any more. But Eric had done the right thing by introducing us to Alpha Strike because it is a much more streamlined, playable, and therefore enjoyable game. Splendid fun. And check out Eric’s fantastically painted mechs. When I used to play I would go for lurid colours (I remember doing one in purple and yellow). I much prefer Eric’s muted colours.

November – Battletech Alpha Strike

And so on to my final game of the year. And yet more sci fi. Another game of Stargrave, but this time with a festive feel – I called the game ‘There Ain’t No Sanity Clause’ (full credit goes to The Damned for that). Santa Claus has been kidnapped by hordes of psycho-penguins and the players must spread festive goodwill to release him.

December – Stargrave – There Ain’t No Sanity Clause

Five players took part. They had two goals – as well as collecting loot tokens they also had to collect clues that tell them what they have to do to release Santa. The culmination of the game was a group rendition of We Wish You A Happy Christmas. In addition, if the players give back captured loot tokens to Santa (the loot were presents for all the good boys and girls) then they would receive double experience for those tokens.

A suitably festive ending to the year!

So those were the games I played at the club during 2023. I did well on my pledge to play more sci fi, but not so well when it came to playing other’s games (though I did do that more than usual – so not too bad). You know what, I don’t think I played a duff game all year. I thoroughly enjoyed every game. This is the advantage with being a club member – the variety of games and the quality. I’m going to continue with my determination to join in other games during 2024.

 

RAVENFEAST – A review and playtest

Stephen offers a review and playtest of a free ruleset…

Ravenfeast is a free set of  skirmish rules for the Viking Age. I’ve had it some time and finally got around to having a test game over the weekend.

The rules and all its components can be downloaded for free from here:

Free Downloads – Ravenfeast

Mopping Up Stragglers

The game is designed for warbands of between 12 to 20 models, though claims to be scaleable and even has rules for Big Battle Ravenfeast inside. I’m not sure you’d want to go much over 30 models a side (depending on number of players), nor so convinced by the Big Battle rules (you replace individual models with multi-bases that just use the same stats and rules as is!).

For my test game I put together two identical warbands, each comprising a Jarl, two Huskarls, a Berserker, six Bondi with hand weapons, and three Bondi with bows. A total of 12 models per side.

The game designers say that Ravenfeast is meant to be an introductory wargame, and so included in the rules are hints and tips on how to paint models and build terrain. This did make me wonder if the game would be too simplistic and therefore a bit frustrating.

So was it?

In brief, no. It wasn’t. Well, yes, it was simple but that doesn’t mean simplistic nor does it mean the game didn’t provide a good experience.

Battle Commences

Game starts by making an Initiative roll (a D6). Low rolls are good in this game. The player scoring lowest wins the initiative and decides whether to go first or second in each phase. Then players take it in turns to complete each phase before moving on to the next – these are Rally, Movement, Missile, Melee, End of Turn.

Any models that failed a morale roll in the previous turn were marked with a Cowardly marker and may attempt to rally in the Rally phase. All tests are a single D6 roll, with one or two (really, that’s all) modifiers. If the result is equal or less than their Morale stat then they recover, otherwise they are removed from the game and counted as killed.

Movement is also straightforward. Each model has a move stat (in inches) with movement costing double across rough terrain. And the simple approach continues with Missile fire – roll a D6 equal to or less than Missile rating to score a hit. If there are any obstacles between the shooter and target then the target gets a D6 roll for each intervening item – a roll of 4+ means the missile hits an obstacle and the target is saved. But if it gets through then an Armour roll is made which is, again, a D6 roll equal to or less than the model’s armour rating. If hit and wounded then a Blood marker is put down. Wounded models are not removed until the End Phase (nice little tactical touch that).

A Lot Of Wounds Taken

Melee is simultaneous, with each combatant rolling a D6 equal to or less than melee stat. When hit a model makes an Armour roll like Missile firing and, if wounded, a Blood marker is put down. In melee there’s something called A Death Worthy Of A Song. This represents a particularly gruesome and bloody killing and models struck by such a blow receive a Raven token, which could adversely affect the morale of nearby friends.

What I liked about the game was that attempt to put a bit of flavour into it. It can make a lot of difference with simple games because it gives flavour and flair, and becomes something that creates stories and fun. Another such thing is the ability to put your troops into Shieldwall, this improves Armour, but impedes movement. Again, period flavour and tactics.

Form Into Shieldwall

In the End phase you remove any model with a Blood token. You also make Morale rolls for things such as death of a Leader or Hero, if you’ve lost half or more models, or for witnessing A Death Worthy Of A Song. Models that fail are given a Cowardly token and must make a flee move. This is also the time you check to see if there’s a winner (e.g. time limit, scenario objectives, etc).

Included in the game are stats for your Vikings, plus alternatives for Saxons. There’s also a points generator if you want to create your own Vikings or any other troops (for example, Normans). To round it off are three scenarios.

Shieldwalls Clash

From the website you can also download more scenarios as well as fantasy Norse additions. What I also got were a set of Rune Cards. These are a great idea. Each player is dealt one or two cards. Each has a special effect – it could affect one of your models, or it could give you an option to either affect your model or your opponent’s. Play it when you want to and once used it’s gone. There’s also something in there called Geld, which is money you gain from a scenario that you can spend on things like re-rolls or extra Rune Cards, or more berserkers or…well, whatever you agree between you. This could also be used as a scenario objective – grab the loot.

Rune Cards

In summary, I found Ravenfeast to be a cracking effort. They got a lot in there and it all adds something. Yes, it’s simple, but it still has flavour. Naturally, not everything is covered, but it’s not something that a group of friends couldn’t easily house-rule. It’s the kind of game where you could easily get in three or four games in a day and create a one-day mini-campaign. And since it’s free…well, what’s to argue with?

Jarl versus Jarl

Society Meeting 23rd July 2022

A short roundup of the games at our last meeting.

Four periods/genres were staged at the last meeting.

First up, a couple of games of Field of Glory, using 6mm figures, Early Alans vs Selucids.

Stephen, Tony & Andy played three, three sided SAGA Age of Vikings games, using the Battle Royale scenario from the Book of Battles. Victory is normally decided by Survival points in this scenario, and that’s how we played the first game. In the second game we decided to use Slaughter points, and in the third reverted to Survival Points, but with 5 points for controlling the central objective (the building) and for each charge made.

The first three sided battle.
Stephen’s Hearthguard
Tony’s Vikings
Vikings and Scots clash
Tony’s Viking Warriors vs Andy’s Anglo Danish Hearthguard – battle joined!
Tony’s Viking Warriors – the aftermath, where did the Hearthguard go?
More Scots and Vikings

The first two games finished with the same result, Stephen won, Andy came second and Tony came third. The third game was a tie between Stephen and Andy, with Tony bringing up the rear.

Alan staged an Early WWII game using the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! rules.

Germans advance through the woods
British Anti Tank Gun
German combined arms
German advance

Finally, Peter ran a 75mm Lord of the Rings skirmish game. This is a participation game set in the Mines of Moria, with players controlling one main character and one Hobbit each. They must buy time for the NPC Gandalf to cast a delaying/blocking spell on the escape route – before the Balrog turns-up! There will be a more in depth report on this game in the near future.

The initial onslaught, “They have a Cave Troll”
They had a Cave Troll!
Gandalf concentrating on his spell.
The Balrog arrives.

Society Meeting 28/05/2022

A brief photo round up of the games at our last meeting.

Tony & Phil staged a Lord of the Rings game…

Stephen, Eric, Justin and Andy ran some SAGA games, first of two 1 vs 1 games, followed by a 4 player free for all.

Alan staged a refight of the  skirmish at Top Malo House during the Falkland’s war.

Finally, Paul ran a solo test game of his 3mm WW2 rules.

     

 

Hail To The Chief (and other photos from the 26th February meeting)

A short roundup of games at our last meeting…

Stephen organised a SAGA Age of Vikings Battle day, several games through the day across a couple of tables. In Stephen’s words:

Hail! Hail!
Bleddyn ap Owain, Lord of Bangor, rides victorious!
Hail! Hail!
Lord Bleddyn has met the Normans and Scots in battle and comes home victor.
Glory to his name! Honour to his household!
From this day forth let him be known as Bleddyn The Dragon!
Hail! Hail!

The header photo shows Bleddyn and his warriors off raiding. Here are a few more from the various SAGA battles.

Norman cavalry about to have a bad day
Welsh mounted

Scots advance
More Scots
Anglo-Danes
Norman Archers

Marcus ran another rules development game for his Spy Fi underwater combat rules, based on Galactic Heroes. Bond and friends vs Largo. It didn’t end well for either of them!

Layout for game 1, blue markers are points of interest, die rolls would determine what is found.
Largo’s henchmen gang up on Felix Leiter
Largo’s shark drone attacks a Royal Navy diver.
Largo’s henchmen advance

Dave ran a Gaslands race day

Gaslands race track
Rear ended
Oil slicks make life harder

And, finally, Paul ran a 3mm Ancients game using his own rules.

3mm Ancient armies clash
Battle in the woods

 

Society Meeting 08/01/2022

A tad delayed, but here’s a photo round up of our first meeting of 2022. In addition to our AGM, we had a SAGA battle day, involving 8 players, a FOG Renaissance ECW game, a Lords of the Rings Game and some Spy-Fi action.

First up a SAGA-fest with Scots, Bretons, Welsh, Vikings and Anglo-Danes. In addition to some experienced SAGA players we had a couple of prospective members join in for their first games.

Andy’s Anglo Danish face off against Stephen’s Welsh
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
Tony’s Bretons vs John’s Scots
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
Close up of John’s Scots
Tony’s Bretons

Moving on the the English Civil War, 15mm figures using Field of Gory rules.

ECW Armies line up
Cuirassiers charge
Colonel John Lamplugh’s Regiment of Foot
Royalist Regiments

Moving from history to fiction, Marcus had a try out of his underwater Spy-Fi rules.

Marcus’ seascape
Divers and mini-sub
More divers hiding behind a shoal of fish
The two sides fight over the lost missile.

And finally to Fantasy, a Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

The scene is set.
Dwarves advance across the bridge
Uruk Hai advance with a Troll in support
Dwarf Heavy Metal
Dwarves holding the Bridge against the Uruk Hai

Dirge – Owain’s Lament

Following on from Stephen’s post Mae’n Rhyfel!

Woe!

Woe!

Lamentable Woe!

He is dead!

He is dead!

Go tell them in the north – he is dead.

Go tell them in the south – he is dead.

Let them know in the east – he is dead.

And all those in the west – he is dead.

The Wolf Tamer is no more. Owain of Bangor is dead!. Ambushed and killed by English bandits, Owain the Benevolent, Owain the Peaceful, Owain the Thrice-Blessed, now lies in Heaven.

The Death of Owain

Though his body now lies in the earth his soul and spirit still lives. Bleddyn ab Owain, his beloved son, has made his way back to Bangor. He has left his studies at the abbey of Llanbadarn Fawr to take up his rightful place as heir of his father’s demesne. With him he has brought the ways of the men of Deheubarth – pony riders skilled in making war from their mounts.

Let the English know this and tremble in fear!

Bleddyn Leads the Funeral

Mae’n Rhyfel!

Owain, Lord of Bangor, has unfurled his warbanner – the famous Banner of the White Wolves.

Rumour has it that those two English rogues, Andraes Willhelmson and Erik Uhtredson, are taking up arms to go raiding again.

Let it be known that Owain of Bangor will take up his war spear, his shield, and his warbanner, and intends on teaching these two scoundrels another lesson.

The anger of the Red Dragon is not to be trifled with!

The Temple Of The (Festive) Wilds

Merry Christmas to all our members and readers. 

Master builder Stephen takes us through the construction of his latest masterpiece.

I recently ordered a few bits from Scotia Grendel and one of the things I ordered was some standing stones.

 

It was a nice quick delivery.

I have a soft spot for these old resin scenics – reminds me of back in the early 90s when I started getting into gaming and our local shop stocked them.

Anyway.

What I liked about these pieces were the Saxon style carvings. You see, I like my fantasy couched a bit in history. Problem was that the Saxon carvings only appeared on one side of the top pieces. On the other side was a more literal, typical fantasy, depiction of a dragon.

The dragon designs

 And on one side of each of the uprights was an equally typical fantasy style arrow thingy.

The uprights

I didn’t like that.

So what I decided to do was make a mould of the Saxon style dragon, cast it, and use it to replace the dragon I didn’t like.

I used some Oyumaru modelling compound (Ed: other suppliers are available) to make a mould of the Saxon dragon. I then used some of Wilko’s own-brand epoxy resin with a tiny blob of brown paint to cast it.

Casting the new panels

Once this had set I sanded the reverse side down and also sanded down the fantasy dragon on the actual resin piece. I then glued it in place and used some Miliput to blend it in.

With the arrows on the uprights I simply sanded them down and then skinned the surface with Miliput and stippled it to look like the stone effect.

The updated stones

I then turned my head to the base. I wanted it mounted on a rocky outcrop to make it look more dramatic. To keep it light I was going to use expanded polystyrene. However, that’s not the strongest material. So I made a sandwich of it, with a wooden base and a wooden top to which I could glue the resin so it would be more firmly attached to the wood rather than expanded polystyrene.

I used PVA glue to fix it all together and then put a couple of heavy books on it to keep it flat whilst the glue set. I left it a good 24 hours, because the glue takes longer to set on polystyrene.

The polystyrene sandwich

When that had set it was time to glue the standing stones to it. A good dollop of superglue and the basic model was done. I then broke away the surplus expanded polystyrene in the shape of how I wanted the outcrop.

All the bits glued into place

To make the model stronger and more resilient to knocks I decided I would skin the model in Miliput. I used the Standard grade, because that’s what I had to hand.

To create a stone-effect I used…a stone! Yup, went out into the garden, found a small stone with a suitable texture and after the Miliput had been smeared all over I pressed and smudged the stone into the putty.

Layer of Miliput added

The altar stone with sacrificial goat was a piece from…well, I honestly can’t remember. It’s been sitting in the bits bag for a long time waiting for a use. And now its time had come. I also thought about adding a couple of poles with skulls on them. Had a few ideas about that, but it wasn’t the time to add that just yet, so I could keep mulling on it.

Right then, the painting.

Look, stone is rarely grey. That’s not to say there’s no grey stones, but stones have a lot more to them than just grey. Stone painted grey with a black undercoat just looks too stark and is not what stone looks like. It’s as wrong as painting tree trunks brown – have a look at them, they are not the colour of chocolate!

My usual approach with painting stone is to start with a dark brown undercoat. This was no different. I used Humbrol Model Spray dark brown. There then followed a series of dry-brushings using browns and, yes, some grey as well!

Dark brown undercoat

Heavy drybrush with khaki
Lighter drybrush with khaki and grey mix
Lighter still with a bit of white added to the mix
Another light drybrush with even more white added
Last very light dry brush with an off-white

With the painting done all that was left were the final touches. I revisited my skull-on-stick idea, but I toned it down. Instead of several I decided to keep it simple with just the one – made from a cocktail stick and skull from GW’s Box Of Skulls.

 

Weathering and shading done, and skull added.

I used static grass in patches around the base. I kept it sparse on top of the rock because there wouldn’t be so much earth for the grass to grow in. I then added some clump foliage to represent weeds and things, paying attention to add it to nooks and crannies and also the area that may not be trodden on so much.

With that done, the Temple Of The Wilds is complete.

The final model with static grass and clump foliage
The finished article, without festive adornments.

 

Club Meeting 9th October 2021

A short pictorial round up of the games at the latest meeting.

First up a couple of FOG Ancients games.

6mm FOG Roman Civil War
6mm FOG Ancient British Chariots
6mm FOG Ancient British Warband

Next, on a planet far, far away, Alan ran a couple of games using Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes rules.

Star Wars Imperials
Star Wars Battlefield
Star Wars Imperial All Terrain Scout Transport
Star Wars Rebels annoy the native fauna

Lastly Several SAGA Games. Stephen and Andy in the Age of Crusades, Templars vs Saracens.

SAGA Age of Crusades deployment
SAGA Age of Crusades. Salim al-Katid’s Warband on parade

There will be a full write up of this game in a couple of week’s time.

Jeremey and Tony were playing SAGA Age of Vikings, Norse-Gaels vs Anglo Saxons.

SAGA Age of Vikings, Jeremey’s Anglo Saxon Warband
SAGA Age of Vikings, Tony’s Norse-Gaels
SAGA Age of Vikings Warbands Clash

Later in the afternoon Tony (Norse-Gaels) and Jeremey and Andy (both Vikings) had a couple of three handed games fighting to control a Bard, after all, he who controls the bard writes the saga.

SAGA Age of Vikings, Three way fight for the Bard. Tony’s Norse Gaels top left, Jeremey’s Vikings top right and Andy’s Vikings at the bottom
SAGA Age of Vikings, second battle for the Bard. Andy’s warband eliminated, the Bard in Jeremey’s protective custody while Tony’s Norse-Gaels look on.