Monday, 30 January 2012

I Are Fanboy

The Litany of Lead, procured from David at Splintered Light Miniatures has grown, again, as I felt the need to bolster my warbands in preparation for... well, in preparation for nothing - I just hadn't bought any toy soldiers recently, so made amends.

David always looks after me as a customer, doubtless because I have spent rather a lot with him over the last couple of years. Working from memory, here's what I have; (asterix denotes just ordered)

Faithful Warband
Mouse Spears
Mouse Command
Otter Rogues
Badger Lords
Badger in Plate
Heroes
Heroes 2
Villagers
Squirrel Command*

Rebel Warband
Heroes
Fox Archers
Heroes 2*
Fox Command*

Beastlands Warband
Minotaur Guard

Dwarf Warband
Dwarf High Command
Dwarf Heavy Cavalry on Bears

Goblin Bat Clan Warband*
Goblin Bat Clan light cavalry on bats*

Giant Eagles*

Romano-British Army - approx 70 figures
Saxon Army - 50 figures

Plus there's a Faithful warband I bought for Mike, and a Kobold warband I bought for Pete, plus some odds and ends like an Ice Dragon.

It's rather obvious which faction is my favourite, but looking forward to getting the Goblins in the next week or so, and getting them ready for a game against Mike's Faithful when he's down next.

Some SLM Otters, yesterday.
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Saturday, 28 January 2012

Today's Songs of...

As threatened, Mike materialised at the gatehouse around lunchtime, demanding to be let in, amused, and refreshed.

Songs was the order of the afternoon, kicking off with a double header of Song of Arthur & Merlin; Welsh Legend variant. We played 400pts each and chose a scenario where one player must exit on the opposite board edge, whilst the other attempts to stop him from the adjoining edges.

Game one, my Saxons were attempting to stop Mike's Romano-British. Saxons consisted of Hengist the leader, a Monk, a Champion, four Horsemen, and three warriors on foot. Mike's British had Ambrosius leading, a pagan Magician, another horseman, an archer, five chaps on foot, and a dog.

All started reasonably well, but I suffered some activation issues, then lost Hengist on the second turn as Ambrosius was Lethal against Evil characters. In fact, the whole left flank - the three foot soldiers, two horsemen, and Hengist, got mauled. On the right, the Champion, monk, and remaining two horse fared a bit better, but suffered from transfix at the hands of the wizard

Ultimately though, the British failed to protect the Wizard, and he got rather battered by the Savage champion and their morale evaporated like the morning mist.

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Just before the critical moment - a barbarian horseman charges the wizard. He ended up transfixed, but it gave the champion enough time to get in.
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First blood to the Saxons.

We turned it around, and played the same scenario; this time with the Saxons attempting to cross the field. I remembered to take some photos.

Set up, with my Saxons nearest the camera.
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On my left, the British advance stumbled as the Wizard failed his activation three times in a row forcing turnover. Didn't do much good however, as my activations were equally prone to failure; only managing to bring my flanking horsemen forward to the road. This gave rise to an almighty punch-up on turn 4

First the Champion charged in, and got swamped by everyone, including the dog.
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The Champion managed to survive the odds, and his companions charged in. The British dog killed a fallen horseman, but Hengist himself slew Ambrosius, in a rather hideous fashion too it must be said, forcing a double morale check. In amongst all that, the Saxon champion was finally overwhelmed and brought down
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The Saxons spurred onwards to press home the advantage against the leaderless Brits, and killed a few more. However, the ever plucky British didn't quit the field, and the Wizard threatened to spoil proceedings. So, with Hengist covering the flank, the monk, a spearman, and a horseman made for the exit zone.

Perhaps sensing glory, or perhaps embittered by the loss of his comrades, a horseman made for the Wizard. But it was not to be; outnumbered and then transfixed, he fell and forced a 50% morale check for the Saxons. Who then promptly all routed. Idiots.

The British claimed one back!

We then retired from the garage to the dining room, and had a quick game of Splintered Lands. Mike chose the Dwarf warband as seen in yesterday's post, and my five year daughter selected a warband of Faithful based on them being 'Skirrels and Bunnies' - thus, two hares and five squirrels lined up at the fearsome Dwarf warband. Rather surprisingly, I won - some epic activation rolls, combined with Hare spearman being on cracking form. But by crikey the Dwarf champion on bear takes some killing.

Then dinner, and discussion of old D&D. I sent Mike on his way with a memory stick of some selected Basic D&D modules; Isle of Dread, etc. Another good afternoon of wargaming completed. I think that I'll make a concerted effort to finish the hex mat for Bag The Hun, just to break up the Songs a bit next time.

Friday, 27 January 2012

Let there be war!

The morrow brings conflict to the House of Tangent, for the morrow brings good chum Odo and his effeminate nancy-boy post Roman British... 400pts of the oval-shielded weirdos for Song of Arthur & Merlin (Welsh Legend variant) conflict to be precise.

Rather looking forward to it; Mike is excellent company, and plays a good game (which is very important to me). He also rolls an unfeasible number of sixes with my dice.

Nonetheless, a Saxon warlord has been painted in preparation, and I finished off some more of the Dwarfs. Well, I say 'some more', what I actually mean is I finished the ones I'd already started.

More news tomorrow, with photos and everything.

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Saturday, 24 December 2011

Dear Santa...

This year I want;

A Bren Gun
A Million Quid
Bettany Hughes
Peace and Quiet

I think the first three are pretty certain... got no hope on number four though.

In miniatures news, I've not painted anything still - simply no time with work. However I have hatched a plan to make a Dwarf airship for Splintered Lands using a Gripping Beast 28mm Dark Ages Sailing Boat, and a table lamp shade frame.

Which will necessitate me buying a Goblin Bat Clan warband to indulge in some aerial combat. In fact, I think I might knock up some rules for SSL specifically for the airship and have some skirmishes fought entirely above the Wyldewood as the Dwarfs fight off Goblin boarders.

And if I'm going to buy a Goblin warband, I may as well get the Bugbear one to round out the collection.

Sunday, 11 December 2011

Motion To War!

"The beacons are lit! The beacons of Ashdown Forest! The great army of Kent is marching to war!"

In his coastal stronghold deep in the kingdom of the Seaxe, the Lord Tangent pensively rubbed his chin and lit yet another cigarette. He studied the spy's report again; his nemesis Odo of Kent had indeed mustered a mighty horde, and was now planning on another raid Southwards... as early as the end of January.

This news was troubling indeed.

He studied the roster... the Fyrd was insufficient...

It meant an event would now have to occur which had not happened in age...

He would have to paint something.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

2011 review, and plans for 2012

As 2011 fizzles out, I'm starting to look at next year, and what I'm planning to get painted/played, and also look back on this year and review how it went.

As it turned out, this year has been pretty good, all in all. I painted a 15mm Romano-British warband, sort of started a Saxon warband to fight against them. Got plenty of Splintered Lands painted, and bought - Dwarfs and Beastlands. Also invested in a fair amount of scenery.

Gaming-wise played Brytenwalda a few times, but then got diverted back to my favourite of Song of Splintered Lands. Played a bit of Song of Arthur & Merlin, and a couple of other randoms such as Sturmovik Commander.

Next year I'm planning on the following;

Saga; already got a load of Musketeer early Saxons unpainted. Think I'll get some bigger shields for them to make them later, then painting them up for Saga and Song of Arthur & Merlin

Splintered Lands: lots of painting to do here, and hopefully lots of games.

Bag The Hun; Already have enough 1/600 to replay the Battle of Britain in 1:1, so just need a hex mat/map. Discovered a website with aerial reconnaissance photos of Blighty taken by the RAF in 1946. So, stitched together a load of them from Woodmancote - a village about 5 miles North of here. Slowly colouring them in, and will get that to a Graphic/Printers to be printed on a 4 x 6 vinyl mat with hexes over the top
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The actual image I'm working on is currently 13mb and enormous - haven't worked out what scale it'll be in when printed at that size, so may need to add bits later on. Strangely therapeutic process, and enjoying mucking about with Gimp trying to recreate fields to the human eye.

So what's in the pipeline for you next year?

Sunday, 27 November 2011

The Tangent goes to War!

Myself and the rather smashing chap Mike of Little Odo's Miniature Wargaming Blog have been threatening to actually push some of the collective lead mountains around some green fuzzy polystyrene for a while now, and it finally happened this afternoon.

Mike made the perilous journey down from farthest Bromley in the dark wilds of Kent, bringing some Gripping Beast 28mm Romano-British, and some warband lists for Song of Splintered Lands.

You'll have to excuse the photos - using my Blackberry Curve, and the camera on it is utterly useless. Mike took a handful more using his Blackberry, so between us we might be able to find one that's in focus.

Anyway - first out of the block was SSL. Mike's first outing with the SBH engine, and he played the baddies (the Flowering/Rebels), and promptly handed my goodies (the Faithful) their collective furry backsides on plates.

Can't remember much of the game - seemed to involve a gruesome kill from both sides, but morale held. My decision to use the brilliantly hopeless Tassletail Brothers again but paid to any hope of winning things... that and Mike's uncanny ability to roll six after six after six... with my bloody dice!

We then swapped it around, and Mike picked up the Faithful whilst I elected to give my sort-of-painted Dwarf warband its first outing.

So, how did the Stunty Debut go? Erm, well - the Champion on Bear charged off on his own, fully expecting to make short work of the clump of mice, but he ended up transfixed, then suffered a sudden bout of being dead. The battle in the middle see-sawed, and eventually the Faithful prevailed. It was a close run thing though. Mike rolled a lot of sixes.

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So, how does the Dwarf faction in SSL shape up? Rather well, I must say - they've all got long ranged attack, which didn't dawn on me at first. This potentially has huge benefit when using the SBH tactic of stopping short of an opponent to force him to charge (thereby increasing his chance of failing activation when he has to roll at least 2 activations, or preferably three).

The Bear could have been good I suspect, but I went a bit mental with him. The Bondi are better than their stat line would have you believe; shieldwall is hugely powerful. Huscarls are so-so, but the good overall quality makes them a dependable lot. The Crossbow Specialists are very strong indeed - Shooter Long, sharpshooter, and C3 means they're rocking with +5 within 5", which is very respectable indeed.

After that, we played the new version of Song of Arthur & Merlin. The first game took about 5 minutes with my Saxons getting pummeled by Mike's numerically superior Romano British. Mike rolled a lot of sixes.

Second game, we doubled the size of the table, and added a couple of cavalry each to run about 370 points. (I think SAM in historical mode is too small at 300pts). This gave us more tactical scope, and I finally won something. Mike didn't roll a lot of sixes.

Set up on 4x4 board.

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Saxon horse pile into the back of the Romano-British shieldwall.

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Then it was dinner time, so we called it after four games and a rousing afternoon's toy soldier action.

Think Mike enjoyed himself - he certainly didn't run away screaming, which most people usually do from the house of Tangent, and looking forward to another outing soon.

I think I'll actually find some time to finish the Dwarf band - great fun to play with, and a nice change from the Druid's Children. I'll also get the Beastlands warband underway properly, just because I'm all inspired again.

Nothing else to report, except Splintered Light having a 25% sale until the end of the year. Get over there, say hi to David, and get your lead mountain up.