2010 Winter Wargaming Weekend Part 1 – Friday Night

For the last… I don’t know… five or six years (or so?) I have had a wargaming birthday bash in February. I’ve tried to extend that over a weekend at least once before. Last year I hosted two campaign weekends, and this year I had hoped to host a Wargame Birthday Bash Campaign Weekend! Due to some scheduling issues and the fact that originally CVT and Amanda thought they might run in the Brain Freeze half-marathon this weekend I put it off a week into March.

This weekend was originally supposed to be the “Second Annual HOTT Campaign Weekend”, but for a variety of reasons I decided at the last minute to drop the campaign idea and just host a series of one-off games over the weekend.

Friday night we kicked off with the traditional homemade Pizza dinner, followed by a Hordes of the Things MEGA-BATTLE!

CVT, Terry, and Cory all came out from Edmonton and some how ended up playing on the same side against Amanda, Rick and Jackson. Given the armies selected it was hard to decide what to call the sides in the report… “Good”…? “Bad”…? I think I’ll stick with invader and defender…

THE FORCES

Invaders

Normans – Cory
1x Hero General Count Cory de Moutard
4x Knights – Knoble Knights in shining armour
2x Spear – Foot Soldiers
2x Shooters - Archers
1x Cleric – The Arch bishop of Moutard and his entourage
1x Horde – Religious Rabble whipped into a frenzy by the Archbishop

Irish Picts – CVT
1x Hero General (Bran Mac Tighem)
6x Warband – Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warriors
3x Riders - Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warriors on horses
1x Beast –Irish Wolfhounds

Vikings – Terry
1x Blade General – Haggis Hammerhand
9x Blade – Viking Hirdsmen
2x Warband - Berserkers


Defenders

Warrior Wymins – Amanda
1x Hero General – General Libby
1x Magician – Elvish Sorceress
3x Blades – Dwarven Shieldmaidens
1x Riders - Centaur Mares
3x Warbands – Two Witch elves and one Wild-ass Irish/Pictish Warrior Wymin
1x Shooters – Elvish Archers

Samurai – Jackson
1x Rider General - General Katsumoto
1x Rider – Mounted Samurai
2x Spear – Ashigaru
3x Shooters – Archers
1x Blade – Earth Elementals
2x Beasts – Lions

Orcs – Rick
1x Hero General - Oberherr Biestreiter
1x Hero
5x Riders – Wolf Riders
3x Beasts – Wolves sans Riders


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The battle lines… The picture is taken from the North end of the table on the left (east end of the table) from North to South were; The Irish-Picts (with their commander CVT smiling behind them!), The Normans, and the Vikings. On the right (West side of the table), form North to South: The Samurai, The Warrior Wymin, and the Orcs (with their commander Rick eying up his opponents dispositions and plotting his demise…).


The Irish Pict Army of Bran Mac Tighem


The Samurai Army of General Katsumoto


The Warrior Wymin Army of General Libby


The Orcish Horde of Oberherr Biestreiter


The Norman Army of Count Cory de Moutard

Somehow I didn’t get a shot of the Vikings…?


The action started off fast and furious (well at least at the North end of the table)! Within two turns Irish Pict Riders were galloping towards a gap between the marsh and the end of the Warrior Wymins lines – heading, presumably, for the stronghold!


Some Lions from the Samurai Army tried to head them off – attacking out of the marsh… It seemed like a good idea at the time Beasts vs. mounted being +4 and the mounted, fighting against an opponent in bad-going was an effective +1…


Unfortunately when they DIDN’T knock them out the pursued into a rather awkward position…


Didn’t seem to matter in the end, because despite even odds the lions doubled the Riders score the next time around and poof - they were gone!!


Rick and Amanda

The Forces to the South were a little slower to get going


General mayhem ensued in the North as the Irish Picts and Samurai went at it hamer and tongs… and Bran Mac Tighem looking like he might be in a bad way… Archers to the front, Lions flanking…


Nope Bran Mac Tighem rode down those archers and sent the Lions back into the swamp in confusion – they were disrupted by the presence of the other pride and slinked off the field of battle


Once again Lions attacking Irish Pict Riders out of the Swamp and Bran Mac Tighem charging archers!


The mounted Irish Picts were driven back…


… and the Ashigaru archers were driven into the dirt!


Shortly after that the rest of the Irish Pict and Samurai armies clashed!


It went badly for the Irish Picts…


But the next run the Irish Picts gave back as good as they got...


…. taking out another unit of archers and the second pride of lions… The Samurai Army was now teetering on the brink of collapse!


That’s about the time when the forces far to the south FINALLY came to blows! The majority of the Vikings for some reason refused to charge up the hill to attack the Wolf Riders defending it instead they sent in units on the flanks to see if they could get some advantage there.


At the North end of the line the Vikings managed to drive off a mob of Wolf Riders.


Those at the south end of the line weren’t so lucky – a unit of Vikings was surrounded and annihilated.


The Samurai’s Giant turned and started rolling up the line…


… helping to destroy another TWO warbands of Wild-ass Irish Pict Warriors


General Katsumoto looked like he might be in a bad way for a moment. But his bodyguard of hand picked Samurai held off the assaults on all sides and all involved remained locked in bitter combat!


All the while the Norman Army was slowly (as a result of poor communication along the lines) trying to deploy their line opposite the Warrior Wimyn who steadfastly defended the gates of their Stronghold!


The Samurai’s Giant moved up again while General Katsumoto remained locked in combat!


General Katsumoto and his personal Yojimbo put up a fight that would ensure their honor, but they were no match for the overwhelming odds stacked against them…


Unfortunately the last of the Irish Pict Warbands were also wiped out…

This meant BOTH the Irish Pict AND the Samurai commands were demoralized and would soon begin to disintegrate – especially the Samurai, lacking a general!

This all before the other two commands were even seriously engaged!?


The Orcs and the Vikings picked up their tit for tat exchange…


The Orcs riding down another unit of Hirdsmen…


On his next turn Bran Mac Tighem was able to rally all of his remaining forces into a single group and keep them on the table…

The Samurai weren’t so lucky… The next turn the Giant, Mounted Samurai and Earth Elementals all left the field of battle leaving only the two stands of Ashigaru Spearmen!


Dum-de-dum…. Normans still maneuvering into position…


Down South the Berserks took out a pack of Wolves.


Finally the wolves got a bit bored and came down off the hill and the two lines met!


Another unit of Hirdsmen were wiped out tipping the balance back in the Orcs favour.


Then the Wolves and one of the Heroes took out another pair…


Enraged, the Berserks destroyed another pack of wolves!


Bran Mac Tighem rallied his remaining riders and galloped off towards the Defenders stronghold…


The remaining players consider the mess in the south. I think both of those commands were perilously close to being demoralized as well and losing two or three more stands would have lost the game for the defenders at this point!


Amanda.


The Normans line finally arrayed for battle


An errant band of Norman Knights charge a pack of Orc Wolf Riders!


The Wolf Riders are ridden down!


The Warrior Wimyn charge forward to meet the Norman line!


There was a lot of shoving back and forth. The Elvish Sorceress, however, enscorcelled Count Cory de Moutard! On their next turn the Normans rolled a one, the entire command was demoralized and left the field of battle.

Game Over.

The defenders really pulled it out of the fire! Things looked pretty bad when most of Jackson’s army left the table… and looked even worse as the Orcs slowly got chipped away at and Bran mac Tighem started galloping towards the Stronghold!

It was a fun game to watch. Thanks to everyone that came out – Especially CVT, Terry, and Cory!

The rest of the weekend’s games were all Savage Worlds Skirmish games played on Saturday. To follow the action you’ll have to mosey on over to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

There’s a lot of sci-fi stuff working it’s way on to my workbench these days… There’s the last of the Viridian Strike Commandos (which I may to a How-To paint guide for…) and some other fun stuff… Space ships, 40K Catachans (including a sentinel…). I’d also like to work on some new terrain and some scratch built vehicles.

Of course Friday Night’s HOTT game has got me thinking about getting back to work on Fantasy and Dark Ages stuff…. and the DBAX Seven Years War games of the last couple weeks have got me thinking about painting more of that!?

I’ve decided to make no promises about the format or theme of the Wargames Weekend originally planned for May. Indeed I’m starting to think I may not even HAVE the Wargame Weekend in May. We’ll see… Either way I’m not making any grand plans for any big events and just going to work on whatever suits my fancy for the next little bit… try and finish up a few projects that have been “on the go” for a while but repeatedly shoved to the side because there was other more pressing “MUST DO” things coming up.