The Megalomaniac (Mwhaha): Dark Ages

Showing posts with label Dark Ages. Show all posts

Friday, 24 July 2020

Battle of Hastings - Caldbec Hill 1066

This is my 3rd refight on Caldbec hill, rather than Senlac hill. The terrain in my opinion fits the descriptions of the battle better from the books I've read. The 1st battle didn't come to a conclusion due to time. The 2nd battle resulted in a Norman defeat, but I realised that I had read the army lists wrongs and given the Anglo Saxons too many archers. So the opposite occurred to what I expected, with the Anglo Saxons wearing done the Normans before the assault went in. I'd also made the Flemish division too weak.

The 3rd battle was to be a solo game to keep my sanity during the COVID19 lock down. The forces were balanced and my earlier errors corrected,

The battle field:

Normans to the left and Anglo Saxons to the rights on the hill defending the London road.

Gyrths' skirmishers

Gyrths' wing with Danish mercenaries in the second line on the right, supporting Gebir light infantry.

Gyrth and Leofwine's wings were made up of 1x Thegn, 3 x Ceorls, 1 x Gebir and 2 small javelin skirmishers. Harold was the same with the addition of Huscarls and a small unit of archers. The Thegns had the phalanx rule, and I used the rule to uplift a Ceorl unit to Thegn until shaken.

Harold's centre division, with himself under the hoar apple tree.

Leofwines' wing

The Franco Flemish, made up of 2 x Heavy infantry, 2 x small Knights and 1 unit of archers. They are supported here by another unit of archers from Williams battle.

Williams' centre, made up of 4 x heavy infantry and 2 x small heavy infantry, plus 3 x mounted knights.

Another view of Leofwines' troops

The Bretons were made up of 2 x heavy infantry and 1 x small heavy infantry, plus archers and 1 x mounted knights and 1 x small mounted knights.

Bretons on the right and view down Williams' 3 lines. In front of the Bretons is a unit of medium archers from Williams' battle.

Leofwine

Harold

William and Odo

Gyrth above, and below Harold wins the initiative!

Saturday, 1 December 2018

28mm Hail Caesar Battle of Hastings Game

My friends kids wanted to try playing a 'proper' wargame and from a choice of X Wing, 20mm WW", or a skirmish game they settled on the Battle of Hastings option.

I opted to try and recreate the battle ground around Caldec hill and the Hoar apple tree rather than the traditional site. I used the Osprey Hastings book for the numbers with roughly 400 men being a standard unit, and the Hail Caesar Dark Age army list to make each division proportional, and the points to make the armies even.

The book that got me inspired to create this version of the battle. Having visited Battles this battle location makes more sense to me.

What I'm trying to recreate

The armies lined up. Ideally I'd have 2.5 ft more either side which would make the board size 8x6

The Franco Flemish right wing and Williams smallest division

The Dukes Normans in the centre

The Bretons on the left wing

Earl Leofwine's wing

King Harolds' centre and his left wing commanded by Earl Gyrth

Earl Leofwine's men

King Harold's men, with himself under the tree

Gyrth's men and Danish mercenarines. The mercenaries were their own division but didn't count to the army break points.

The kids set off cautiously not knowing the rules

Lots of arrows and eventually javelins flying between the lines. I made the ground off the hills rough so it was slow going for the Norman main line but ok for lights

Harold blundered with his skirmishers who all veered to the right inadvertently allowing him to concentrate his shooting on the Franco Flemish

The Dukes cautious advance begins to tempt Lefowine off the hill

The Saxon skirmishers get bolder

Earl Gyrth senses an opportunity an tries to move his Gebur up to support the skirmishers against the Franco Flemish

The Danes being bolder achieve their move straightening the line but not coming off Caldec hill

King Harold in the shade

Time ran out and nibbles called leaving the battle on the cusp of a mighty clash.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Conwy Wargames Club Feb Saga game

Dave commanding Viking and Pete with Strathclyde Welsh fought it out last Sunday. The Welsh trashed the Vikings.

Pete's warlord

Dave's warlord

All the figures were Petes'.

I caught up with Dave later and he commented that both he and Pete agree that the rules favoured the Strathclyde Welsh. Specifically Pete had the majority of his units off board that allowed him to earn more fatigue tokens to place on the Viking units which they themselves had no real counter. These 2 sides will be fighting again.

Sunday, 17 May 2015

2015-05-16 Sheffield Triples

I picked up Dave and drove over to Mel's and swapped cars and Mel kindly drove us all to Sheffield. I managed to get some great bargains which I'll post about later, and all in all we enjoyed ourselves. I thought the show was a lot quieter than I'd seen it for a while. I was surprised how easy it was to park, normally I am on the grass but we managed to park in the carpark across the way. The bring an buy was poor but there were lots of traders and the standard of games was very good this year in my opinion.

So what inspirational delights did I get to see...

Wargames Development Coastal Command participation game

28mm Rorkes Drift participation game by Rotherham Wargames Society

British Legion Charity participation game 28mm Rorkes Drift

28mm Hougoumont game by L'ordre Mixte club. I loved this as I have the same Hovels Hougoumont models and have yet to use it as Hougoumont! Plus I have an ancestor who was with the 2nd Guards in the Great Orchard.

28mm Hougoumont game by L'ordre Mixte club

15mm D-Day, one of the British beaches

ABW Irregulars presented a 28mm Dalek Invasion game using Battle Systems card terrain for the interior and old Citadel Daleks and Ainsty Mechanoids plus some figures I wasn't sure of. It looked great. I liked the use of kitchen cabinet legs as base legs.

ABW Irregulars presented a 28mm Dalek Invasion game

28mm Amazon's assault on Athens

28mm Paranormal investigators battle it out with ghosts on a beautiful board by Crooked Dice using 7TV or perhaps 7ombieTV rules

28mm Paranormal investigators battle it out with ghosts on a beautiful board by Crooked Dice. Yes the transit van does have the skyscrapers painted on it's windscreen

28mm Paranormal investigators battle it out with ghosts on a beautiful board by Crooked Dice

28mm Sudan game

Ilkley Old School presented a 28mm Plancenoit games

Ilkley Old School presented a 28mm Plancenoit games. On this photo you can see that the road is made from sand. The whole game was actually on a sand table shaped to form hills and roads then green added with scatter.

Ilkley Old School presented a 28mm Plancenoit games

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal. Great looking terrain. Loved the dog in the kennel.

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal. Canadians advance led by a member of the Dutch resistance

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal. Spot the duck.

28mm Bolt Action game WW2 Scheldt Offensive 1944 by Barely Legal

Assault on IBIS a 20mm riot in Britain by the Doncaster club

Mad Max game

Sailors vs Zombies a 28mm participation game by Sheffield and Rotherham Wargamers

Adrian Walls 28mm WW1 game of the charge of the Australian Light Horse

40mm AWI Battle of Long Island 1776 by the Penarth & District Wargamers. Figures Sash & Sabre and Trident Designs

40mm AWI Battle of Long Island 1776 by the Penarth & District Wargamers

28mm Dark Ages game

Guild ball game

28mm Zombietown game by Dave Parsons

Not a game but the new photo realistic buildings by Sally 4th.

Sally 4th photo realistic insides

Sally 4th photo realistic insides.

Ainsty Castings' 28mm football hooligan game

Dave Thomas's figure cabinet - luckily they didn't spot me drooling

Dave Thomas's figure cabinet

Dave Thomas's figure cabinet - I probably should have mentioned that it is a revolving cabinet. You can ask nicely to have it stopped for photos but they were busy so I didn't disturb them!