TtS Late Romans vs Scots-Irish AAR Intro The Set Up

 Last week we got my Barbarian Conspiracy Armies c367 CE on table for a battle using To The Strongest.

Curt hosted at the Clubhouse but it was my toys in use.  The Romans and some of the Irish darted from the most recent Painting Challenge, but more from a spurt of painting in late June when my wife was away and the temperatures were above 30C.  The rest of the Scots Irish were rebased from a WAB Viking Age project dating back 15 years ago.

I field two armies of equal points for a simple head to head as it was our first time with the rules, although we'd played the ECW development For King and Parliament several times.   Curt and I had a series of texts the day before that went like this.

• If you have a rough sketch of your battlefield I can prep the table.
• How's this

• 

  Sketched in less than 5 minutes over lunch.

  
  

• That’s a good example of ‘rough’. 😊
• Here's what he did with it

A skilled digital archivist can extract valuable info from the worst digital crap.

I assigned Stacy (or resident Mediterranean) as the Romans and Curt and Jeremy took the northern barbarians.

Barbarians at the gates

Stacy points to squirrels in the woods while I check rules.

I Have been to the Royal Chelsea Hospital!

 

Blogging and gaming have been on hold due to a sudden influx of real life events, most of which were really good. But it did include a detour into an unexpected location in the form of the A&E at Royal Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

My wife and I were in the southern UK for 3 1/2 weeks until very recently.  It was very much a family based vacation, seeing relatives, going through my dad's effects and catching up with our daughter.  All good stuff until the very last moment.  We started and ended with stops in London for a few days after arriving and departing via Heathrow.  On our very last day we were out on a walk through Kensington Gardens en route to Notting Hill Gate.  We made it to the history section of the Waterstones before my wheels fell off.  

I suddenly came on very dizzy and week, but it was a heatwave and we'd been out walking so I did the standard grab a chair and a drink of water and let things settle.  Only they didn't and I got a very nasty bit of Vertigo - room spinning, unable to walk and then was violently sick.  If you are in that particular book shop and it smells a bit off then blame me.

The bookstore staff were very helpful, ushering me not their staff washroom, calling an ambulance and staying onsite late until they got there.  The ambulance crew were incredible (as were all of the NHS folks I met) but gave me a real scare.  I was thinking heat stroke or food reactions, but they quickly went to stroke.  Nothing like that particular S word to shake you up, even if you are clinging to the floor and toilet unable to move a muscle without throwing up.

A night in hospital, a couple of CT scans, multiple IV drips and multiple visits with docs later I got a visit from the neurologist.  He did some checks and threw me around a bit (literally) and decided that it was most likely benign paroxysmal positional vertigo or BPPV and not a stroke (although he didn't absolutely rule that out).  By the time I was done, we'd missed our flight time.  But my wonderful wife had managed to cancel the flights in time to get a credit (we think), book a new room at our hotel and move our kit and caboodles between hotel rooms without a minutes sleep while I was incapacitation by vertigo or sleeping.

Flights were rebooked at considerably higher prices than we originally paid and we made it home two days late and thoroughly exhausted.  My wife tells me we're on a diet of rice and beans once we've eaten down the freezer and any new hobby projects are on hold for now.  But we are home, mostly healthy and had a mostly wonderful trip.  I post about some of the non-HNS related stuff in a while.

AAR on an El Cid Game

 I’m reallly behind in posting this, but here are some photos of a test game using El Cid figures and terrain and the upcoming Midgard rules. 

Details are fuzzy after three months but the key features that my aged brain remembers are as follow.

• It was a Valencian attack on a Zaragozan defended hill.  Rodrigo El Cid was off table with Zaragozan reinforcements.
• I made archers waaaaay too powerful.
• Curt’s Valencia’s caballeros had atrocious activation roles and reactions.  See the markers noting Curt’s personal reactions.
• Under the rules, heavy cavalry is very strong but brittle, and the two prior points meant that the attackers main attack force was neutered early on.
• Infantry scrums worked well and a counterattack was dealt with well.
• The attackers were toast before the Cid came on table.

Painting Challenge Wrap Up

  End of the 12th challenge and time to sum up.  And unlike prior years' I've actually got my stuff together to post my wrap up before the next Challenge starts!  Here goes.

Wot I did this Challenge

I enjoyed putting this final shot together, as it's easy to forget what you got done over the quarter.  In the end I got a reasonable amount of stuff built, remained mostly focused, got most of what I bought for the challenge completed and found a new project.  Not a bad result at all.  I worked through COVID and the annual getting older grumpiness (I turned 60 on the Ides of March).  

This all included:

• A dark age/early medieval ring fort
• A ruin for dark age/early medieval historicals or RPGs
• A bunch of dark age/early medieval characters and baddies
• A bunch of forest fauna suitable for most eras
• The last (I think) of the lovely Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 kickstarter
• A couple of SYW civilians

Goofball in chief.  I never take good photos.

Final AHPC Post - The Shelf Soup Post

 Last weekend of the Challenge and time to clear off anything on the workbench that is close to done. It's kinda like shelf soup or leftover day, a mix of everything.

First up a trip of nominally 28mm Wizkids monsters for my Beowulf RPG.  These have been sitting around finished or nearly so in some cases since January, but weren't as satisfactory as some of my other beowulf baddies.  We have a troll, an earth elemental and a Sea Hag,

I tried to get a different green effect on this troll from his skinnier compadre posted earlier. I'm not quite happy with the results but he's big green and ugly, and I'm pretty sure I've seen him pushing Chaos Space Marines around a 40K battlefield.  The earth elemental is a nice figure but I kinda whiffed on my attempted morph into a elemental from the sea bed for a Beowulf adventure.  I had ambitions of sculpting the base with modelling gel so that the broken rocks looked more wave like but in the end went for a paint conversion.  I gave him a green wash to represent marine growths and overdid the gloss medium applied over top.  The Se Hag came in the same pack as the Bheur Hag posted earlier.  Unlike her sister (which has a Disney villainous vibe) the Sea Hag lacks character and has more of a Zombie Luau dancer vibe. 

Next up a set of 28mm Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 ATA members with rifles, and an NCO from attached to a Highland regiment.  They are great figures, but not as colourful as the other packs in the Kickstarter I back (i.e Lumberjills and Pig ladies).  I am not sure of the uniform colours but am unlikely to ever field them on table and they look ok.

And finally a Wizkids 28mm well and Bad Suiddo Land Girls Rat catcher.  Yes she is proudly showing off her collection of dead rats which have been strung together and are draped over her shoulders.  I am not sure what to make of a woman who smiles so broadly while wearing a lei of dead rodents, but this sculpt is based on a period photo.  Lots of character but kind of disturbing, particularly as in the Miss Marple rural England universe she might be your Great Aunt Sally or Mrs Jones from down the lane.

So that's 7 regular 28mm figures (the 6 Bad Squiddo ladies and the Hag) for 35 points plus the well (5 points as being about the size of a 28mm figure or maybe 1-2 points as terrain.) and 2 two bigger figures.  My previous troll was counted as a 54mm figure so I suggest the same for these two.   The hag, troll and elemental would count towards the fantasy duel.

AHPC An Irish Tide for Luna

 The themes for Luna include tides and I present a boatload of Irish Sea Raiders who arrive with the tides on the western coasts of Dark age Britain.  Other than the curragh they sail in, the figures are all Gripping Beas and mostly from their plastic Irish set (or the Paddy O'Furniture set as it's known in our household).

Landlubbers and most North American sailors don't often realize but the tides along the coasts of the British isles are something to be reckoned with, with big tidal height and strong currents resulting from a lot of water sloshing through some narrow openings.  Tides determine when you can sail, which direction you sail in and when you can enter port.

Ireland in the Dark Ages was like most of its history rich in people and culture and poor in just about everything else.  So they exported their people to Scotland and Wales and used some forced acquisition import trade.  The leader here is a metal fig from the Arthurian range meant to represent a former mercenary who acquired better gear fighting foreign wars and has come back home.  Otherwise these are the Plastic Irish done straight up from the box.  I have had lots of metal GB figures but these were my first plastics from them and I was quite pleased with the box.  Nice poses, clean sculpt and good variety of heads, arms, shields and cloaks.  

Here's a back view of the cloaks showing the natural wool tufts that were used as decoration.  I've based them individually so that they can serve in Beowulf RPG skirmishes where they will serve perfectly as Sea Raider.  I also plan to have them serve as a unit of 12 for mass battle games (once I work out magnets and basing etc).

Close up of the second half of the bunch. You may notice that some look a little grainy which is down to my own impatience. The box arrived mid challenge in a cold snap and I was so keen to get them primed that I took them outside before the weather had warmed up enough.  However, they look ok and work well from my standard 2 foot range.  

Back view of this lot again with a cloak or two (these are separate pieces and can go on any torso before the head is attached).    I tried for a unit feel by using a limited colour palette and a common shield theme. Shields are all free handed in basic Celtic spirals.  I gave some figures basic plaids (the modern usage as a pattern, not the traditional item of clothing).  The flag was bodged together quickly in MS Word using Celtic clip art.

Two other metal figures.  The priest originally came with a sword and spear, but I wanedt a less violent Irish cleric.  I tried to bodge a cross by cutting down the sword, and may have to revisit that later.  The horn blower is from the GB Sub Roman British range and will end up with those forces.  Both are venerable but fine figures.  The Currragh is from the Freebooter's Fate range and is a resin cast.  Back in early December I was in Toronto on business and the trip armed with a shopping list.  A search on Meeplemart website of "boats" had unearthed this as a potential stand in for an Irish curragh, but I had no idea where to find it in store.  Turned out neither had their staff, but they assured me that if it was listed as in stock on the webstore, then it was in the brick and mortar store.  Kudos to the lovely young lady who searched all over the store to find it for me.

A curragh is a traditional Irish boat made of leather over a wooden frame.  According to Irish legend, St Brendan the Navigator and companions sailed to the New World in one in the 6th century.  Tim Severin's book The Brendan Voyage (a very good read) has great material on their construction and history.  I don't suggest following Severin's lead by sailing one to Newfoundland via The Faroes, Iceland and Greenland to prove that the legendary voyage was possible if you are determined and crazy enough.

Points wise I make it 14x28mm foot figures, plus I suggest counting the boat as a vehicle for 20, and 20 for Luna for a total of 110 points.  This could be my last post, but I am hoping for the traditional Shelf Soup last week end post of odds and ends. 

AHPC Dark Age Buildings

 Last post of the day as I clear off my workbench.  I've been to my requite four planets on the middle Ring so can move one.  First stop on the Inner Ring will be Terra and a home theme.

I have an 'humble Dark Age house and barn plus a rather more substantial church.  All are 28mm pdf kits from Sarissa (but you knew that I was going to say that).

First up is the 'humble abode itself.  I need to trim my thatching a bit.

Works for my Arthurian, El Cid and SYW tables.

Next up is a timber barn or workshop.

Every time I use teddy bear fur, my wife threatens to glue big google eyes on it.

Last up is this Saxon/Norman church.  It was intended for the later Saxon era, but does look a lot like the early Saxon churches dating from the 6th century.

It should do fine for El Cid games and for SYW games set in the Saxon duchies too.

I didn't do the interior, but there was a set of inner doors entering into the main church.  These became the gates of my ring fort.

Not much to say here and I've blathered on too much today.  Great kits, they were fast easy and fun to assemble and put together.  My terrain cube-calculator puts the church at just over a cube and the two smaller buildings together at just over a half cube.  Let's say 1.5 cubes for 30 points and hopefully 20 for Terra for a home for the peasants, a home for their animals, and a house of God.