Brunanburh Playtest Part 2

I did a couple of turns to get the hang of things. I will probably make a few tweaks to the Warmaster system as I go.

1. The West Saxons advance but the Mercians fail their command roll and stay put.


The Scots also advance while the Dubliners stay put! Command and control? What command and control?


The West Saxons and Scots clash in the centre. The Scots lose a stand and are driven back. First blood to Wessex.


In the Irish/Scots turn there are two clashes.The West Saxons lose a stand in the centre and fall back while the Scottish berserkers (highlanders) clash with the Mercians but the result is a draw and both sides retreat to regroup.



Rules Changes
1. Hits carry over against a stand from turn to turn.
2. For each hit a stand takes it has one less dice in subsequent combats (minimum of one die though).
3. I am toying with the idea of stands supporting a combat getting one die on combat as well- with only 1/3 the stands there is a lot less dice so combats are potentially less decisive.

Craig

Brunanburh Playtest

I have set out the forces for a solo game to playtest single stand 28mm Warmaster- each stand will be the equivalent of a Warmaster unit.

Here are the deployments.



Another view of the battlelines.


The West Saxon shield wall.


Looking along the line from West Saxons towards the Mercians.



The Dubliners.


Anotehr shot of the Dubliners with skirmishers to the fore.


And the Scots.


So for the game each stand will represent a Warmaster unit and only have the standard number of dice.

This Weeks New Additions

Well its been another busy week.

This week I've managed to paint up a horse artillery battery for Lasalle (3x medium guns, 2x licorne).






I've finished off my last battalion of Poles and 1 1/2 battalions of French Line (I ran out of regular infantry so need to order more), as well as making 4 skirmisher stands for the Poles.




I painted the 15mm DBA Numidian force.


Last night based up the Poles and French and painted up 2 x 28mm command stands for the Warmaster version of Brunanburh using some OG Scots, a Crusader mini and a Gripping Beast Viking that I had lying round.

Next Projects

The new Wargames Illustrated arrived on Thursday and the Dark Ages Irish theme from last issue continues with the Battle of Brunanburh (937AD) which pits the forces of Wessex and Mercia vs the Norse Irish and Pre-Feudal Scots. This has inspired me to refight this battle in both DBA and Warmaster Ancients in the next few weeks.

So I’ve had a tally up of my 28mm troops and have discovered that my DBA Welsh force (they will be pressed ganged into service to represent Mercia) is still lacking a general and 2x warband/spear units. Crusader Miniatures has just released a very nice looking range of 28mm Scots so I think I’ll get a couple of blisters to finish off the welsh and add even more variety to the rag-tag bunch.

Not only that but Gripping Beast have released their plastic Vikings and they look very, very sweet! It is hard to resist such beautiful (and affordable) plastics. I still need Viking and Norman forces for my Dark Ages armies so may have to put them on the shopping list for the future- my only issue is having use Vikings in 15mm they are a pretty boring army to use, fun to paint though!

The Numibians vs Romans game the other night has also inspired me to do a 28mm Numibian army and Imperial Romans in 28mm. Looking at the WI Warlord Games has a good Roman starter Army at present (60 Imperial Roman Legionaries, 20 Praetorian Guard, 20 Veterans and 24 Auxiliaries) for only 50pds. With the exchange rate being the best it has been in years and free shipping on orders over 75pd if I add a warmachine, some Celt chariots (to finish off my Celts) and warhounds (for my HoTT army) I will have the start of another force and should have enough minis left for a mate to start an army too.

So the question is where to start! Well obviously the Romans! I will also look at getting the Numibians and Welsh (Scots) from Warweb.

DBA 15mm Numidians

Last night the Numidians got their first taste of action in a battle where I was extremely indecisive and paid the price. Tony, as usual, kept his flanks protected and awaited the opportunity.

I has intended to get round a flank early and see what happens- and in hindsight I should have!

Tony took Mid Imperial Romans- lots of blades, auxillia, Cav and artillery


The Numibians advance while the Romans simply reorganise slightly- and send the Cav to bolster their left flank.


The Numibian infantry advance, while the light horse prepare to scoot round the flank. Someone once told me in DBA you don't split your forces- oops too late. Note the Romans haven't :)


On the left A skirmish in the forest between Auxillia but the Roman Aux simply retreated. My light horse on the other flank got overrun by the advancing Roman Cav (after the other one fled).


My general then flanksed a Roman LH, forcing it to recoil into the Roman general- who then retreated in his turn.


The end is nigh! The fight between Aux in the woods ended when a Roman blade got involved and started hacking to pieces my Auxillia. The artillery took a potshot at another auxllia and it simply blew up,. Sensing the game slipping away the foolhardy Numidian general threw "Lucky" the elephant into a blade...which turned out to be a auxillia. The elephant forced it to retreat andw as mobbed in the Roman turn and the game ended with the Romans feasting on elephant steaks! The Numidian cameraman was crushed under the elephant on so no photos of the embarrassing debacle have surfaced!


Tony kept his lines intact and prevented my from utilising my LH (or did I do that myself?), but was an interesting army to try and I look forward to mastering it (one day!) and is a fun, if challenging force to use. My lack of tactics and wait and see approach didn't work (surprise, surprise!).

I do have plans to do a 28mm Numidian force form my 28mm Big Base games.

Multiplayer
The results of the game were to count for a multiplayer that happened afterwards- any surviving elements of the 3 games being played got to take part in the multiplayer. Of the 5 elephants that started the one vs ones, only 2 made it to the multiplayer.

This game too went against the Numidians whose woeful dice rolling was monumental- needing a 2 to destroy (va recoil) some enemy Cav was just one of example. I a managed to lose every combat I entered and got crushed by some angry Indians. As there were some very strange combos (Patrician Romans, Viking and Classical Indians on one side, Numbians, Mid Imperial Romans and some sort of Pike heavy Greek types- with elephant) the less said the better

Craig

DBA 15mm Numidians

A few of us have decided to go to a DBA comp in Christchurch in July. My only problem is I've gotten rid of most of my armies. I have some Numidian Light Horse and Libyan Spear ( both Old Glory) which were the start of my 15mm FOG Carthaginian Army but that went on the back burner some time last year (shortly after playing my first game of FoG). I did at the time order some Corvus Belli Carthaginians which have sat round ever since, so thought I'd use them to make a Numidian army as there are already several 15mm Carthaginian forces at TAG.

So last night I rebased the light Cav and elephant, and painted up the Auxillia and command Cavalry.

I hope to test it out tomorrow night all going well. There is something to be said for an army that can be taken as 6x psiloi and 6x light cavalry. I enjoyed using my 28mm Irish Auxillia so hope that the Numidian auxillia option will work okay for me.

Here are a few shots- the bases are using sand from a beach where we go every summer as its the best surf beach in this part of the country. I sue the sand for all my bases, this time though It is simply glued on and some silfour grasses added for contrast.

I really hate painting shields and will look at getting some transfers to finish them off.


The initial version will be:

• 1x Cav General
• 4x Light Horse
• 1x Elephant
• 5x Auxillia
• 1x Blade

Light Horse, Elephant and Blade


Auxillia


Light Horse

18mm AB Russians

My AB Russian force for Lasalle continues to grow. Last night I painted up the last 3 stands for each of my Uhlan and Hussar regiments to support my Grenadier brigade.

My core force is based on the 1st Division, 3rd Army Corps at Borodino (so I can include the Pavlovksi Grenadiers). I have decided to have my light cavalry drawn from the 1st Cavalry Reserve Corps- to get some more colourful uniforms.

Uhlans of the Guard


Hussars of the Guard


Both regiments.


So I now have the infantry and light cavalry finished, only 7 guns to make up and paint and the force will be complete.

Once the guns are done I will probably look at expanding my Jagers (currently one stand short for 2 battalions) up to 4 battalions so that I'll be able to use 2 support choices (of course that will also mean adding another artillery battery!). I also have a few dragoons so in future will expand those to another support choice (which means I'll need 12 stands of Dragoons too).

I like the way forces can be increased in manageable bites in Lasalle,and foresee us using 2-3 supports for Saturday afternoon games before too much longer.

Hourtoulle's Borodino, the Moskova, has been an invaluable resource for the uniforms.

Craig