A game... at last

I've been a bit slack lately, I haven't done any gaming (apart from a game of Twilight Struggle board game- one of my favorites, it is extremely well done and is a great cold war game) last week. I have been doing some work on the gaming room- putting down carpet and picking up a pool table from Christchurch. Hopefully next week the power will be on and then I can start lining the walls.

Tonight though, Dave and Stephen popped round for a 500 pt per side game of Impetvs. Stephen's Militant rabble vs my stalwart defenders of Armenians and some rather smelly and dodgy Frankish allies.

The game started well for Dave and I and on turn 2 we were full of confidence but by turn 3 things had taken a turn for the worse- Stephen's Crusader knights had got the drop on Dave's troops and were smashing units of knights left, right, and centre. I tried to support him but alas rolled double ones and my general was found wanting at the critical moment and the Hospitaller knights charged home and routed our armies- not a good start in the new room!

Full of confidence the Armenians/Franks alliance deploys for battle. 

 The Hospitaller host, keen to claim new lands in Armenia, deploys.

 

 Dave's Franks, formerly Kent's troops, are arrayed and briming with (over) confidence.

 Dave throws his knights forward but Stephen's own Crusades manage to hold (VBU 7 vs Dave's VBU 6 being the deciding factor in the longer term)

 

  Both sides throw extra troops into the developing melee.

 The Hospitallers are still waiting the order to advance- it looks like the battle will be over before they can get involved as the regular Crusaders are crushing Dave's forces.

 A typically chaotic scene mid battle as the battle devolves into several skirmishes.

 Stephen's VBU 7 knights smash through everything in their path and are nigh on unstoppable.

 Dave's general tries to stop the rot but too little too late, his army is broken and routs off the table.

 My own troops are paralysed by the indecisiveness of their commander and fail to act to support Dave's Franks at the critical moment. 

 Leaving them wide open to the hospitallers final charge for glory.

 Run away. The words "hot knife" and "butter" spring to mind.

A good fun game even if we ended up being thrashed.


Craig

Games Room Update

The windows went in yesterday and so now the space is really starting to take shape. Still lots to do but it is now weather proof (and considering our rain in the past week, that's a good thing!)

A few before and after shots. 

 Craig

Gnolls

Another week with little progress, except for a few more Reaper Bones, this time some gnolls.

I've swapped a few weapons.

Craig

More Bugbears- and Finn's first ever figures.

More bugbears- the spear is made from a GW goblin's spear and a toothpick. The other weapons are from another GW skeleton while the morning stars swapped from the Reaper Bone Gnolls.

 

And here are some of the first the ever miniatures Finn has painted. Tonight he added highlights and painted another 4 figures- I am very impressed with the way they have turned out. If only I had washes when I started out on HO scale Airfix WWII figures back  in the late 70s. 

 

I think now he is going to loot my old boxes of miniatures for suitable subjects.

Craig

Reaper Bones

Painted up 4x bugbears and 2  trolls tonight. Nice figures even though they have the typical oversized fantasy weapons. I was surprised at how tall the minis are compared to the other D&D style miniatures we use. Trolls in AD&D were about 9 ft and bugbears about 7ft (according to the AD&D monster manual) and so these figures certainly give a decent size compared to humans. I intend to convert the weapons on the next couple but don't really have any large weapons that would be suitable so will probably swap a couple of the gnoll morning stars and bugbear weapons.

Also tonight Finn decided to take up painting. He's never shown any interest but asked if he could give it a go. He then went and chose 4 goblins and orc models and painted them up. They kept him occupied for a good couple of hours and  turned out pretty good. I'm not sure where they are now, I think he put them on his shelf by his bed when he went to bed.

Craig

Painting Apathy

My apathy towards painting continues and I haven't painted anything in the past two weeks or so- yikes. Yesterday a shipment of Reaper Bones arrived- a few gnolls, bugbears, trolls, ogres and minotaurs for our RPG games so tonight I hope to paint up some bugbears.

On the games room front some movement at last. The windows arrived this afternoon but now my builder is up in Twizel for the rest of the week so it will be next week before I can get them put in. Oh well, we are still making headway, if somewhat slowly.

Each window is about 3m wide x 1.5 m high- so will let in plenty of light. 

 The doors.

 Had a couple of days off last week so put in the pink bats (insulation) and am now just waiting for the windows so I can get the walls lined.

Other gaming news
Kent and I were planning a game of Impetus tonight but he had to cancel so not sure when we ill get another game in, he's a bit busy at present. However, Simon popped round for a few games of DBA using the V3 rules. He ran Maygars and Mongols vs my own 15mm Mongols (or what is left of them I'm nearly out of 15mm armies these days). We both enjoyed the game on a larger (3ft square) board as it allowed the horse armies to do what they do best- whip around the flanks and avoid head to head combat. Very enjoyable and the v rules (or the version of them we had) seemed to have removed many o the gamer issues of earlier editions.

Craig

Off Topic- Football

One of my other hobbies is football- or soccer as it tends to be called down here. Football is football but in NZ rugby is known as football which confuses the hell out of ex-pat poms.

I’ve been playing since I was 5 or 6 and had one year off when I was about 12 or 13 but have played every season since then- so coming up to 40 years all told!

As well as playing I coach my son’s team (12^th grade this year) and also look after our clubs C  team, playing and doing the ring round to get players each week (since nobody else would put their hand up to do it). For me the main aim is a bit of fitness on a Saturday afternoon and afterwards have a quiet beer or two with guys I’ve played footy for and against over the past decade or so. C division suits me these days, the fitness doesn’t need to be the same (rolling subs is a bonus)  and you get a bit more time on the ball than in the higher divisions.. The majority of players in our division are over 40, so it is a semi-masters grade, but most teams have a smattering of younger guys as well so there is a good mix of ages and abilities in the teams. We’ve a couple of guys in our team in their fifties and in their day were pretty accomplished footballers and can often still show us younger guys a thing or two. Being over 45 now I reckon each week I can get my boots and run round the park for 90 minutes is a bonus and so no longer take it for granted like I used to.

Anyhow, barring injuries I am playing most weeks and still enjoying it. One of the main reasons I am continuing is because I would like to have one year of having my son play in the same team before I retire. He’s 11 now so if I can keep playing for another 4 seasons or so (assuming my knees continue to hold up) then I may be able to make it and get him join us in the afternooons (high school footy is in the mornings). This year he has started training with us to help improve his skills and he is really enjoying practising with the adults (or B and C teams train together) and it’s helping his skills no end. On Saturday we had the bare minimum of players so I told my son to grab his gear just in case. Sure enough, 15-20 minutes into the game one of our players did his calf and left us with 10 players on the field so my son was on- a bit younger than intended. Our opposition were good about it and gave him plenty of time on the ball and didn’t tackle him too hard. The game ended up in a draw. My son had a couple of cracks at goal and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I was a bit worried at first but he played well, dribbled, passed, and tackled as needed and came off beaming. It won’t be a regular occurrence but that was the first time I’ve been in the same team and I hope in the next few years it won’t be the last.

 Craig