Time to sit back, have a beer, and invade England.

Or more accurately, Wessex.
It being the end of the week I felt another solo DBA game was in order, and this time I rolled out the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, the vast majority of which landed on my doorstep as a fantastic gift from young Geoff down in Christchurch.

The dice off for aggression was initially even, but a reroll confirmed that the Vikings would be attacking, so the terrain set-up was arable. I decided the Anglo-Saxons would take a hamlet, a woods, a road and river - as I have not yet used rivers in DBA 3.0 and wanted to test them out. As this is a solo game, all terrain is randomised, and it turned out that the wood ended up in the same quarter as my BUA, which meant it didn't fit and had to be discarded.

I was looking forward to this match-up, because with the +1 flank bonus for spear supported by either spear or blades, it made the Anglo-Saxon line an even match to the Viking Blades. They just had to hold that line.

The Vikings deployed along the river in columns, just in case I rolled a 5 or 6 for the nature of the river, and planned to cross it quickly and get to grips with the enemy. The Anglo-Saxons deployed in a solid line with a couple of spear and two hordes in reserve.

Initial deployment with the Vikings in column.

It turned out that the river was paltry, and the Vikings surged ahead - those on the road getting a free turn which enabled them to deploy immediately.

The Saxons advanced and dispatched their spear reserves to extend their line prior to contact. The Vikings also moved into a solid line. This was shaping up to be a hard fought slog.

The Viking skirmishers moved to prevent the Saxon right-hand spear from joining the line, and surprisingly also forced a recoil on them.

The battlelines crashed into each other, and an Anglo-Saxon spear element was destroyed in the first round of combat.

Now the battle ebbed to and fro, all order disintegrating on the Anglo-Saxon left (to the right in this picture)

The Vikings lapped around the Anglo-Saxon flank and another element of blades was destroyed. The Anglo-Saxon and Viking generals continued to slog it out in the centre.

The Vikings also began to press forward on their left.

A horde was detached to mount a last minute delaying action on the Anglo-Saxon left.

The Vikings now managed to wrap around the Anglo-Saxon right flank and killed their fourth Anglo-Saxon element.

In the centre the Anglo-Saxon general realises he must retreat now or never.

 This was a good game, and enabled me to get used to some of the new aspects of DBA 3.0 compared to what I was used to in 2.2. The most important one was the pursuit by blade elements. This effectively means that once you have committed a blade element to battle against an infantry opponent it will remain committed until it is either victorious or destroyed. I'd sort of noticed this with the Polybian Romans, but as I've only taken 4 blade elements in that list, and they were faced with more cavalry, it had not really sunk in for me. In this case, with two all-infantry forces and a Viking army which is virtually all blade, the lesson was clear.
I was also pleased with the shape of the battle, which ended up being a Dark Ages version of Cannae. The Viking plan to distract the right of the Anglo-Saxon line with the psiloi was a good one.
I'm a bit gutted that the hordes didn't get into the fight - I've never used hordes before. I might put them in the front-line next time.
Way back in issue 2 (I think it was) of Battlegames, Dan Mersey wrote an article which was a campaign system for invading Scotland in a day. I think I might play it out with a Viking theme and see how it goes.

And now, just some pictures of the camp elements, which I received for my birthday last month:

Viking Longboat settled on a very long and very narrow inlet... 

Saxon camp with drunken priest

The Anglo-Saxon hamlet which counts only as rough going. Buildings are from the Usborne 'Make this Medieval Village' book.

Alongside the camps I have started getting into my painting for Craig, which has been delayed while I went through a painting slump. I'm halfway through some Battlefront Germans which I hope to have finished by next week. Then it is prelim exams, so once again my attention will be caught by real life. I do hope to have a few more posts in September than I did last month though!

Nate

I guess Rome reigns down in Africa

I had an hour or so to myself today and thought about doing some painting, but I've lost my painting mojo at the moment. So instead I broke out the DBA Polybian Romans and Later Carthaginians and decided to invade Africa.
The first game went according to script (if you are Roman). The Waterway went down and the two pieces of terrain that were chosen were rolled for the same table quarter so things looked a bit bare. The Romans (via random dice roll) chose the side of the board with the difficult hill in it. The Carthaginians decided to line up their whole army and forego a littoral landing.

The Carthaginian line-up.

The Romans squeeze into their deployment area.

The two lines plough into each other, with a bad first round for the Carthaginians - 2 elements down in the first clash.

The velites engage the Carthaginian light horse trying to outflank the Roman line.

The Romans realign.

The Carthaginian General takes out an element of hastati. Things are beginning to even up.

Numidians decide that they would rather go home than face the velites. 3 elements down for the Carthaginians.

The Punic line is looking rather ragged.

BANG! A Libyan spear element is destroyed and the battle is over. 

A relatively decisive defeat for the Punic cause.

There was time for a second battle, to give the Carthaginians a chance for revenge!
In case of deja vu the marsh and woods rolled to be in the same terrain quarter and didn't fit. Once again the Romans chose to deploy on the edge with the difficult going.

The armies after the first turn. In the background the Carthaginians have made a littoral landing!

The first few turns see the Romans lose an element of cavaly and the general being recoiled. The Gallic warband is destroyed in the centre, losing 2 elements for the Punic cause.

Back into battle, the Carthaginian cavalry try to turn the Roman right flank.

On the right the Roman velites are destroyed by the Carthaginian light troops - revenge for their humiliation in the last game!

The Balaeric slingers close the door on an element of Principes who end up caught between the toes of a Punic pachyderm.

With the battle won on the main front it turned out to be a good idea to distract the Triarii with a littoral landing.

So a win a piece!
You can see in these shots my completed camp elements which are the maximum size possible (4 base widths). They were finished at the end of the holidays, three weeks ago, but I just haven't had time to post much (or paint much) since then. However, I've started to get back into it, and Craig's next lot of figures are currently on the painting tray.

I got a fantastic surprise this morning too. It is a few days early, but Dan sent me a birthday present all the way from Australia:

Ancient Spanish! Perfect.

Looking forward to getting these guys on the table... eventually.

Nate

Pacifying Palestine

It has been almost a month since I last posted, and that is largely because work and life got hectic. But I have not been idle on the wargaming front. I've taken the opportunity to use these middle school holidays of the year to take a break from painting for others and do a bit of painting for myself. The result has been this Later Hebrew DBA army to match my recently reacquired Philistines:

Doing Yahweh's work...

I wanted the army to represent the Israelites at the time of King David - hence the magen David on many of the shields. I also went with quite dull colours on the chariots after my initial paint jobs made them look like refugees from a Culture Club concert.

Of course, one cannot finish an army without putting it through its paces, and a showdown with the Philistines was on the cards. Thanks to some spectacularly poor dice rolling on behalf of the Philistines (a trend that would continue throughout the evening), the Hebrews packed up their tents and marched down to the coast for their summer holiday.

The field of battle - Philistines at the top, Hebrews at the bottom.

 The Phillies set up their compulsory Waterway and put down two pieces of Rough Going - a woods and a marsh. They didn't really want to have too much difficult terrain because they have a lot of spear which like good going and were facing Auxilia who thrive in the rough. The Hebrews chose the edge with the most difficult going. The Phillies deployed in a long line with a second line of reserves. They eschewed the prospect of a littoral landing because they wanted to try and present a solid line across the board. Possibly a mistake.

The Hebrews also deployed in 2 lines. This was going to be a big knock down battle of attrition - nothing fancy at all.

The lines move towards each other

 The first pips saw both armies grind towards each other.

The first rounds of combat.

 The initial clash delivered some shock results. The Philistines lost a chariot, an Auxilia and a Psiloi element. In return the Hebrews lost a single element of Auxilia to the spears in the centre of the line.

 Both sides then paused for a moment to reform their lines, feeding in reserves to fill in any gaps. The next round of combat saw the power of the spear elements in action. The Hebrew auxilia had no answer, their whole line bouncing back, despite having an initial overlap on the left flank. Only the general's chariot and the right hand psiloi saved the day for the Hebrews. a '6 to 1' roll gave the Hebrew skirmishers victory over their opponents, and all thanks were given to Yahweh.

The death toll.

The Hebrews triumphed with some lucky rolling around the fringes, but the centre of the Philstine line was solid. I am very impressed with spears in DBA 3.0. I always found them a bit underwhelming in 2.2, but the +1 flank modifier makes them a rock now. It will be interesting to see how the Anglo-Danish army goes against the Normans when I have them all up and running.

Nate

DBA - only took a year...

So I finally put some figures on the board and had my first DBA v3.0 game last night, having purchased the rules a year and a half ago. This saw the Carthaginians invading Italy (for a change).

The two armies deployed

 The Romans had a Built Up Area (BUA), and garrisoned this with some Italian allies. Some rough woods were on their right flank. They deployed with the blades in depth on the right, the cavalry in the centre and the spears and auxilia close up to the BUA. The BUA anchored the flank nicely and gave the Romans a nice compact line.
On reflection I probably deployed the Carthaginians poorly. I loved using Light Horse around open flanks in DBA 2.1 and I wanted to see if the cavalry could do the same in 3.0. Given the Roman deployment I didn't really get the chance to find out.
I drew up the warband opposite the blades looking for an autokill, and the elephant opposite the Roman cavalry to hopefully squash the general.

Almost time to crash... errr... clash

 The two sides closed very quickly. It wasn't long before the battlelines were pinning each other.

The Carthaginian line breaks

 First blood went to the Cathaginians, who killed a Legionary blade with their Warband. I looked to see if that auto-killed the element behind it, but couldn't find anything that said that it does, which validated the idea of having the blades deployed in depth. The Warband pursued into combat with the survivors, but didn't break through. In return, the Legionaries to the side of the Warband scythed through some hapless Spanish Psiloi. The Roman general kept bouncing the elephant back.

The end

The breaking of the Psiloi turned out to be the decisive move. After a bit more back and forth the blades that had broken through were able to 'close the door' on the Warband and killed both elements. On the Roman left the Triarii took out an African spear unit and that was game over. 
As you can see in the last photo, the Numidian Light Horse did manage to turn the Italian allies, but by and large the Carthaginian cavalry had very little impact on this battle.

I'm still not 100% about what I'm doing - I can't believe it has been about 5 years since I last played DBA and I'm not sure I've quite picked up the nuances of the new rules. For instance, I know that the rear corner of an element can 'interpenetrate' another element when it is wheeling. As far as I can see, this does not have to be only friendly elements, but I wasn't sure. So I didn't let my Romans close the door on the Warband until the Spanish Auxilia had pursued their opposing Psiloi and cleared a space. I'd be interested to know, if anybody can tell me, if the blades could have made the wheel even though they were starting in side edge contact with the Spanish. (Edit: I found a thread on Fanaticus today that confirmed that yes, the move was legal if starting in side edge contact.)
I'll have to have another game soon and see if I can get back into the flow of things again.

Nate

Woodland Indians, Vikings, a geriatric hillbilly woman and Oliver Cromwell walk into a bar...

And they all say ouch.
Seriously, how was I supposed to end that title? It refers of course, to the latest batch of painting for Geoff. Without further ado, here is the parade:

These are some of the Blue Moon Woodland Indians.

And their three friends.

Gripping Beast berserkers. I'd be crazy too, if I lived that close to the North pole and wandered around shirtless.

'So ya'll want my guns sonny? Come and get 'em!'

The Seventeenth Century's answer to the Cromwell tank...

I have marking to do and reports to write, so it is unlikely that I'll be posting anything much in the coming fortnight - but you never know! The next item on the painting tray will be Japanese tanks for Craig.

Nate

Samurais and Supers

I finished off another ten figures for Geoff today - some North Star Ronin figures. This was a mix of figures from the Bandit Buntai and Koryu Buntai sets. They are really very nice figures to paint.

Four Koryu Buntai figures

And from the back where the patterning is a bit more obvious. Not sure if the holes in their butt-cheeks are meant to be for sword scabbards?

Some bandits runing amok

The other three bandits from the group

I think I have my recipe for Japanese flesh down pat now. Base coat of Chocolate brown, mid coat of US tan earth, followed by a mix of tanned earth and flat flesh. Then a wash with a fleshtone wash. What do you think?

I also finished off the Protectorate - my second Superhero team.

The gang all together - Aura, Nuclein, Hoplite and Stormchild

Here's the three members who haven't been featured yet, along with their super powers.

Hoplite. He needs a shield design, but not too sure what it will be yet. Power armour.

Aura. She is a conversion of the DC Ice Heroclix figure. Force fields.

Stormchild. A straight-forward repaint of Mary Marvel. Lightning and stuff.

I haven't really thought much about their origin etc. They must be a fairly tight-knit group to go in for the whole uniform colour look. I've toyed with the idea of them being employed by the European Union - would explain the colours and uniform - and having them be from France, Austria, Greece and Germany (a blond with blitz powers - why not make her German?). This would leave the door open for expansion to include some other nationalities. I'm not even sure who the leader is. Maybe Stormchild - it would be nice to have a woman in charge. Powers are also ill-defined at the moment. I'll come up with something for Clobberin' Time, run them against some villains and see where we go from there.

The next Super gang will definitely have to be some bad guys and gals!

I have a ton of marking to do this weekend and it looks like it will run into next week (why do Year 13s feel the need to use every page in their exam booklets... sigh), but I'm determined to finish the last dozen figures for Geoff this week. They should be complete by next weekend.

Nate

My Wargaming Week 11

Managed to get a dozen figures painted for Geoff this week. These are Mutton Chop Early War British. Really nice figures, with quite fine detail:

 Geoff bought the AK Interactive British WWI Uniform triad and sent it through for me to try. I have to say that I'm really pleased with the resulting colour. I felt that the final highlight colour was too stark a contrast with the other shads, being too tan for my liking, so I ended up mixing it with the base shade. It has neat that some of the definition is lost, but I think it looks more realistic.

I e-mailed Geoff and admitted that I was too scared to try and paint eyes on these figures, but then I plucked up the courage and did so this morning. They are barely noticeable, but they are there!

I also managed to get a couple of Heroclix repaints in. Below are Nuclein and Compost:

Wham! Take that Compost!

And here's are the 20+ year old design sketch of Compost:

He's built out of a combo of Man-Thing and Swamp-Thing:

Man-Thing with Swamp-Thing's head - incredibly easy conversion for one of my favourite baddies! The Prince of Putrescence was actually born at about the same time as Nuclein, who has here been made out of Ace from the Royal Flush Gang:

I knew what he would be as soon as I spotted the model!

My first ever drawing of Nuclein. If the pose looks vaguely familiar it is because it was copied off Todd MacFarlane's picture of the Hulk from the Handbook to the Marvel Universe update '88. No-one drew the Hulk as good as MacFarlane, before or since. You may disagree, but I'm entitled to my opinion because it's right.

This week I have some Samurai to paint for Geoff, and then I think I'll do the last dozen figures that he sent through. Then Craig's Japanese tanks. At the same time I am going to try and squeeze in a few more heroes and villains. Although Nuclein was originally designed a s a member of Delta Wave, he is actually going to be part of the Protectorate with Hoplite, Stormchild and, yes, a new Aura!

Nate