The Battle of the Blood Orange

 

 

Prize Haul: Wooden Spoon and "Best Blood Orange" trophy. I'm sure you will agree that my interpretation perfectly matches the brief.

Just in time for Christmas, here's a heartwarming account of Wargaming Seasonal Cheer from, erm, October. I had the fortune to visit distant Nottingham to take part in Andy2D6's 2nd Battle of the Blood Orange 1-day tournament.

Steiner Recon Action

 

The assembled forces: 24th Lyran Guards (left) and assorted Word of Blake militia (right)

Months after the last instalment and months after I actually played the battle, I bring you the next episode in my Tharkad Battletech campaign. As the name suggests, for a "recon" mission I chose to deploy forces more suited to a frontal assault.

Running the Gauntlet

 

Today we return to my Tharkad campaign, where my first unit (a mercenary company, the "Acing Blazes") has been rendered combat ineffective and we've switched focus to "Zebra" Company of the 24th Lyran Guards (plus stragglers from the Blazes, such as Gabriel Zabinski and their Phoenix Hawk). The Word of Blake has launched a counter-insurgency campaign against loyalist forces on Tharkad around the Tatyana Islands with the elite 40th Shadow Division and mercenary backup. Fortunately for the resistance, the counter-insurgency forces have already been infiltrated and the planned kettling has turned into a confused brawl, with our particular merry band looking to slip the net while giving the "Wobblies" a bloody nose.

Group shot of the deployed force. L-R: Phoenix Hawk, Commando, Griffin, Thunderbolt and "Super-Sub" Phoenix Hawk from the Lyran Royal Gaurds.

Do-or-Die

Mercenaries cautiously pick their way through the woods before the shoot-out begins.

So, two defeats on the trot, down one commanding officer and with nothing left in the kitty to pay for repair bills, the Mercenaries are on their last legs and know another heavy defeat would render them completely combat ineffective. Rather than retreat to lick their wounds though, they decide to stake it all on one last roll of the dice, hurling their full strength at the local Word of Blake garrison (Camp Satanic Mills) despite failing to obtain any useful intel in the last game.

The Tharkhad Campaign Hots Up

 

(The joke is that Tharkhad is actually a cold, icy planet)

Well, after a poor first showing, our Mercenary outfit (the Acein' Blazes for those curious) commences guerilla activities with a recon-in-force against the Word-of-Blake (not that one) occupation around a river delta. According to the rolls made on the  random scenario table, the WoB would be materially inferior but much better skilled, with the local commander something of a dead-eye shot in their long-range sniping mech (Jaegermech for those with Technical Readout 3025 handy).

A lovely day for a walk in the woods

BattleTech Battle Report

Generic Mercenary Force gets ready to intercept half of today's contractual opposition.

Something a little unusual today, a solo BattleTech battle report: just the thing for total lockdown. Playing with myself is so much easier to organise! I even managed to fit in a second game within a week which otherwise NEVER happens with other humans.

It's the Taking Part that Counts

Once again, it's almost a month since the tournament and I've only just finished the write-up. In January I went to Stockport again for Northern King's Kings of War tournament, four games and a very substantial lunch. Once again I set off without my phone charger, so sadly pictures are only available for the first two games.

Buon Natale!

5 minutes research online informs me that this is the Italian version of "Merry Christmas" and thus a fitting opener for the following battle report. Apologies for the appalling photo quality.

Billy surveys his Jump-off Points (in a triangle on the left) and plans how best to approach mine (spread along the opposite table edge). 

In Which Suzanne is Over-Agressive

I absolutely promise that this battle report will not contain any crowing about my tactical genius, charismatic leadership, coolness under fire etc. Nor will it include any cheap shots at Suzanne's gaming skills.

Well, maybe just a few....

Cretan Holiday

I recently received a fan-mail from mrs_trellis@northwales.com asking me when my coverage of the Four Foot Snake Thing will be uploaded here. This post is something of a reply.

I've been  getting very CoC-ky with my posts lately.

Clash of Kings 2018: The Other End of the Score Table

Very late to the party on this one, but I've finally collected my pictures and consulted my notes on Mantic's Clash of Kings 2018 (held on the 13th & 14th of October). I think my perspective offers an excellent contrast to the (comprehensive and informative) account from Andy Ransome, mostly because he finished 6th and I finished 79th. Oh yeah, spoiler warning for poor performance.

I call this picture 'oh dear'. Other names removed for privacy.

Mordheim: City of the Damp

I am very fortunate that the Wolverhampton housemate crew, including Merlin and Matt, have started up a Mordheim campaign and I was only too pleased to stick my oar in. One fateful day in August we managed two battles AND stayed up until 4 am doing the post-battle admin. Now why can't I give that sort of passion to my real job?

The set-up for game one. Didn't get any pics of the second one, sorry.

Chain of Command Part 2: The Best of Times, The Wurst of Times

Again, no apologies will be made for the pun.

Game 1 ends, for details read below!

I started my summer hols on Saturday with a CoC wargaming weekend with Suzanne, where we finished our last game and had time for another, both of which are recorded here. I never take that many photos when playing, I get too caught up in the excitement.

We left off last time at an exciting juncture,with my platoon sergeant holed up in the woods on his last command initiative accompanied by the remains of first section and the rest of the men sitting tight in a field after a very successful round of hand-to-hand combat. The Germans were down to two effective squads, with one boldly leaving cover to get into a close range firefight and the other working their way around the hill near the British Jump Off Point.

Chain of Command Pt. I (It's better than sausages)

As I might have mentioned, I not only dug out some old Airfix Desert Rats from my Uncle's and my collections, I also found a victim opponent who had no previous experience in wargmaing. I'm not sure if Chain of Command is the ideal introduction to the hobby, as it is markedly different to other games I've played, but there we go.

The battlefield at the game start, complete with 'jump-off points', from which troops are deployed. You can only see one of mine, the others are in the nearest ploughed field and  wood next to the junction.

... and let slip the dogs of war!

Image description: a scoreboard. Your blogging hero is placed 24th out of 26.

It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Initiate Enhanced Imaging!

After three days in my basement/dungeon being forced to listen to the Archers at uncomfortably loud volume, some mates were persuaded to play Battletech. Unfortunately I was too busy explaining the rules to take photos, but fun was had, even if it did peter out at the end.

What I've got for you today is a solo scenario I invented as part of a narrative campaign.

"Stormhammers" (a paramilitary force aligned with House Steiner) with a bunch of big scary Assault 'Mechs 

The Battle of Samsung Bridge

A soon-to-be married friend of mine (JoeySpike, if you remember him and his Lord of the Rings chaps) had his non-gender-specific do recently. As the best man, I was planning the culturally acceptable drunken public humiliation, but Joey's alternative plan of having a quiet affair at his place won out, because a) very few people actually enjoy being publicly humiliated and b) it would mean me spending less money.

Then for some inexplicable reason we broke out Joey's models and got gaming...

The setup: Jake (left), Josh (top),  JpeySpike (right), self (bottom)

The Saga of Brynhild Wolf-Daughter

Had a game of Warhammer Fantasy with a friend, Yung Payne, last month and I've finally got round to writing up the report! The title comes from my (Wo)man of the Match, who performed far better than my actual General...

The armies line up for Battle as Yung Payne makes some last minute adjustments to his list.

Big Stompy Battle Reports

My housemate Merlin recently rekindled my interest in BattleTech: big stompy battle robots from the 31st Century. After a few practice games (I won two out of three!) I suggested a full-blown fight between two Lances (4-strong 'Mech units) worth 4,000 points (called 'Battle Value') each. I'm afraid this report might be a bit heavy on the Jargon, for which I apologise in advance.

Team George: (L to R) Hermes-II, Phoenix Hawk, Warhammer (with hastily repaired right arm) and Cicada standing in for a Jenner.

The First of Many Hastings Battle Reports

As some of you may have noticed, this year it's the 950th anniversary of the Most Memorable Date In English History. Aside from a thread or two on Lead Adventure posting progress for mega-games at shows, I haven't really seen as many refights as I would have expected. So, needing an excuse to try out Basic Impetvs, I asked Derek to rustle up his Early Medieval legions and we gave it a go...

Harold's troops line Senlac Ridge, Huscarls (household troops) in the centre, Great Fyrd (Home Guard) covering the flanks and his main force of Fyrd (Territorial Army).

Duke William drew his practiced eye over Senlac ridge, where the usurper King Harold's troops stood between him and his rightful crown. Harold himself was in the centre, surrounded by his Huscarls, with weaker troops on the wings. The germ of a plan grew in William's mind: if he could overwhelm one flank, his knights stood an excellent chance of rolling up the Saxon battle line. He gave himself a quiet nod  before turning to bark orders to his men.