Buying stuff (and thinking of getting more)

I’ve made use of my visit to Britain to get some figures without paying for postage. So far I’ve been pretty modest, and only got some Goblins (though quite a few!). These are from Magister Militum and will allow me to use my Goblins as just about any DBA army.

Inspired by Craig’s comment that he liked my ‘Classical Goblins’, I decided to get them some real chariots. The ‘Platform Carts’ of  the Chariot range aren’t that good, but I’ve managed to get them to provide solid wheels from their Sumerian range, which will make them look cruder.

I’ve also got some rhinosauruses that should be able to be used as knights, and more goblins that can be based as 4Sp/4Pk. To make the ‘elephants’ (behemoths in HOTT) more regular, I got some more of their ogres (armoured ones for variety). I’ll mix these in and make one of them a command element with a goblin standard bearer and drummer. Then I’ll have three ‘elephants’ with a clear commander for them. I can also create pike armies with the spearmen (stand-in successor armies until I paint one!). In time, I should have some endlessly morphable Goblins for practice fights.

I’ve also bought a second-hand boardgame for nostalgia value. It’s WRG’s Decline and Fall. I had a lot of fun playing this years ago, not that it’s terribly well balanced, but it was going cheaply enough and again I could save on postage.

Otherwise, I’m considering making my post AD 450 Early Muslim North Africa and Sicily (III/33). It occurred to me that these were a loose form of Carthaginians: same geographical place and some similarities in the army; they don’t have elephants or warbands, but they have similar amounts of cavalry (one more 2LH than the Carthos), spear and psiloi. they have the option of ditching the spear and going for lots of auxilia, which would make them very mobile, and potentially a headache for elephant armies.

I’ll need to research the history of this army a little more. Are there any colourful personalities that led it? But it has the potential to satisfy my requirements for an army. It has an interesting mix of troops and they’d fight in a similar fashion to the Carthaginians (not that I’ve mastered them with the Carthaginians). It has potential to hold my interest, especially as I’m thinking of getting some of their enemies for a campaign: Andalusians (III/34b), Fanatic Berbers (III/74), Feudal Spanish (III35b) and Sicilians (IV/5a). The figures for these have a degree of internal morphability, so wouldn’t need to be done all at once. They’ve also got a lot of psiloi, which would make them cheaper and quicker to paint.

Another HOTT Friday (Goblins v. Lancastrians)

Last night I got over to John’s for some more HOTT action. John had created two HOTT armies from his Lancastrians:

3xKn (1=cmd), 2xRd, 3xBd, 4xSh.

4xKn (1=cmd), 1xRd, 3xBd, 4xSh.

Lancastrians arrayed to attack Goblins.

Keith was going to lead one of these, but he didn’t make it, so John commanded both of them in a Big Battle HOTT encounter against my Goblins.  Goblins against Lancastrians! Lucky that Shakespeare chap never heard of it; think what he’d do with that! His defamation of the fair name of Richard III would be nothing compared to claiming he had Goblin allies! The good guys were:

3xRd (wolf riders, 1=cmd),  2xBs (wolves),  1xDr, 1xFl (bats),  8xHd.

2xWb (1=cmd), 2xBh, 1xMg, 3xSh, 2xLu (spiders).

The Goblin armies preparing to defend themselves against unjustified Lancastrian aggression (although that camp looks suspiciously like the'd actually captured it some time earlier, but let's not got there!). Wolves and bats are to the left of the wolf riders.

We deployed on a 4×3 table that John had already prepared. I realized after the game that I’d not really done myself any favours by deploying the mobile command on the roughest wing, and lumbering it with the hordes. I would have been better to swap them for the behemoths. Anyway, things got off to a good start as Old Greenie continued to show the same ferocity as last week, arriving on the second turn. As the table was a little deeper than normal, the foot took a while to get in range, particularly as we both had some shabby PIP dice.

On the left flank I lost a rider, but soon had the Lancastrian counterparts in trouble with a combination of wolves and bats. Old Greenie flew to the rear and waited cautiously for something to appear that was not too close to BGo or nasty shooters. On the right flank, my spiders had some lucky success against a shooter in the wood. In the centre, the commander flanked by the behemoths went for the hill and waited for some support to reach him—not his brighest command decision. In short order the Ogres were shot up and he was in retreat.

Part way through: Old Greenie waits in the rear; to the left the wolves have chased some riders into the water (they really never got away from there—what with feasting on the remains and all the other things that dogs do). On the right wing shooters rashly line up to face alternating blades and shooters, with only a wizard for support.

Not long later, I demoralized the Lancastrian right wing on the same turn that he did the same to mine. My wizard was a stand-out. On his first attempt at magic he rolled a 1; confident that lightning never strikes the same place twice, he tried again, and on his second attempt got another 1. The warband general had his rear support removed by a rider and discovered that facing knights is not too bright. Apart from the spiders, this command had been totally ineffectual. On the other wing, Old Greenie had been nibbling at stray Lancastrians, with the bats preventing recoils. The Lancastrians had managed to charge the hordes with their knights, only to see one of them get routed by the goblins, much to my surprise.

The situation when each of our right wings are demoralized: note the piece of felt marking where the wizard had been, and the frogs on top of it. Old Greenie with the bats in support has just chomped something.

At this point I discovered some differences between BBDBA and BBHOTT. Demoralized elements are at -1, not -2 and they can actually advance if you have the PIPs. For a while the Lancastrian right flank stuck around, while the pair of shooters on the Goblins’ right flank went for the woods, where they should have been all along! My last spider got to reappear on one turn when some shooters recoiled into the woods, but they were quickly destroyed.

The victorious Lancastrian left flank started to advance on my camp, while the Goblin left flank mopped up the remaining knights of the defeated flank. Old Greenie was rudely interrupted in his snack on some of the Lancastrian horse, when a fleeing element of shooters got brave and turned and shot him in the rear. He promptly decided how much he disliked missile weapons and feeling he’d done his share took off home.

At this point things were pretty even. The Lancastrian knights had the combat edge over everything in the Goblin army; however, the Goblins had the superior mobility. I wasn’t hurt at this point by continued PIP rolls of 5 for each of the commands. The game finally came to an end when my demoralized shooters gave some payback for scaring Old Greenie; they moved themselves to the edge of the woods and shot at the Lancastrian commander, who alarmed by this, presuming the right flank put to flight, recoiled into a swarm of bats.

The final scene: the Lancastrian general, shadowed by a swarm of bats, is about to be shot at by the (not sufficiently!) demoralized Goblins.

It was a great game and a whole lot of fun. It was also very close, with air power, I think, giving me the edge (and helping me recover from some bad deployment). There were a number of fun incidents, two that I was victim to were the wizard’s ineptitude (I finally got to use my frogs) and the parting shot on the dragon.

I’m really starting to enjoy HOTT; the Goblins are starting to have some success, and it’s so much more satisfying when they’re fighting an army that’s not just a hodge-podge collection of miscellaneous elements, which has tended to be the case with their opponents to date. I’m also starting to appreciate how different some of the HOTT mechanics are to DBA.

All this has made me keen to get another HOTT army finished, probably the dwarves with their halfling and boar allies. I hope it can be my next project after finishing the Carthaginian elephants. John’s also working on some Aztecs for HOTT, which very properly have a good number of hordes.

A HOTT Friday (Goblins v. Elves)

Last Friday I caught up with a friend for a spot of HOTT. There’s a group of guys playing HOTT with GW figures on 80mm wide bases. I took my figures anyway for a bit of show-and-tell. As it turned out there were only three of us and my figures were the most finished (the other two had 28mm armies still being painted, so we got out my Goblins and had a 36 point HOTT game with them. I was the Goblin chief with: 2xWb (1=cmd), 8xHd, 2xBh (Trolls and Ogres), 1xDr (the new Green one), 1xFl (Bats), 2xRd (wolf riders), 2xLu (Spiders), 1xSh, 1xBs (Wolves). Facing them were a coalition of all that is good and decent led by Keith and John. They had: 1xAHr (=cmd) (Hippogriff rider), 2xBh (Walking Tree and Giant), 2xHd (Human peasants), 1xSp (Wood Elves), 2xSh (Rangers and Wood Elves), 2xRd (Centaurs), 1xSh (Dwarves), 2xBd (Dwarves), 2xBs (Bears).

I was the attacker and faced the enemy across an open plain flanked by craggy hills and towering trees (28mm scale!); unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. On their left flank they had the peasants next to the Elven spear and the walking tree with the rangers and Elven archers in the woods guarding the flank. The General was in reserve. On the other flank they had the bears guarding the flank on the hill and the dwarves and giant in a line in the open. To face this I arrayed the general facing the Elves, flanked by his hordes and with the archers and wolves on the far flank. On the other flank I had the Troll and Ogres flanked by wolf riders. The bats were in reserve.

I got off to a great start, rolling a 6 and having the dragon arrive straight away (actually I think the spiders must have arrived on the first turn against the bears, but were chased off). Old Greeny pinned the bears while my mounted went against the Dwarves and destroyed the Giant ally. I had very much the better of the PIPs, but the battle was in the balance when the Aerial Hero started to turn the flank of my mounted. At this point my hordes had already started to get into action, without being impressive (no surprises there!). I had the option of pouring my PIPs into the combat with the hordes, with little chance of anything decisive, or gambling on the dragon attacking the aerial hero with the bats flanking it to prevent recoil. This brought the game down to, in effect, a coin toss, as the odds were 6-6. However, if I won the enemy broke; if I lost the dragon fled and I could carry on, though very exposed to their general. As it turned out, that dragon was a mean old bugger, and he minced the aerial hero and gave me the game. He’s showing real promise (unlike the red dragon that notoriously refused to show up in his early games). He’s given the Goblins their first victory ever!

HOTT Fridays may become a regular event for me, though I’m reluctant to commit to a 28mm army. Keith was very interested in the 15mm fantasy I had, though I doubt I’ll convince them all to go 15mm.

Another dragon

Sinister Green Dragon.

Well, inspired by a game of HOTT the other day and a chance comment on Fanaticus about my present dragon, I decided to paint the Splintered Light dragon that I got last year. I’m pleased with how it’s come out. It was a bit of a hassle gluing on the wings, as I soon found that superglue was not strong enough. I drilled out the wings and the shoulders and joined them with wire and Araldite two-part epoxy. They weren’t totally correctly lined up, but after I undercoated them you’d hardly know, and I was likely to make a bigger mess with green stuff trying to fix it.

I decided to make it green to fit in with his goblin buddies. I used a base coat of ‘Snot Green’ mixed with Silver and then did the scales ‘Scaly Green’ (what else!) mixed with ‘Boltgun Metal’ and the spine and wing bones ‘Dark Angel Green’ mixed with Gold. I finished it with a black Klear wash.

The other side.

It could possibly do with a deeper base, as its head extends out from the front somewhat. However, attacks from the sides and behind could also get problematic with the tail sticking out and the wings being very wide. You can see how big it is when it’s next to my other dragon (who looks very cuddly by comparison!).

The Green Dragon meets the cute Red one (oops, lost his tail!).

I’m planning to do some more HOTT figures. I’m going to paint two elements of beasts (giant boars). These will be part of a Dwarven army that I’ll aim to finish next: I need to do a hero and two more elements of blades; otherwise I’m planning some halfling allies (one element each of shooters and lurkers) and some artillery. The final army will be:

4xBd (1=cmd)
1xHr
2xSh
1xArt
1xLu
0-2xFl (eagles)
0-2xBs (boars)

I’ve got more blades and shooters I could paint, but this would be enough for a bare minimum, and it wouldn’t take too much work. I quite like the idea of having one element of boars and the halfling lurkers to anchor one flank in bad going and having one element of eagles as a mobile reserve. It’d be good to have an army to face the goblins that wasn’t a composite of various humans (part of the problem is that I’m light on mounted to make most of my human armies interesting).

The dragon against his goblin allies for comparison of scale.

Anyway, I’ve finally finished an element this year (I should get those Ancient Britons done any time soon!).

Army Rankings and a HOTT game

• Painting Progress

I’ve not managed much painting for a while now, and that’s likely to continue for another month. I’ve managed to get a ‘head mounted magnifying glass’ on TradeMe for $1 (+ $9 postage!). The light on it was broken and hanging loose, so they sent me another one, which had the same problem. I didn’t want to point this out (and get yet another one!), as it works fine with a bit of glue and now I have two of them for all of $10. The light is actually quite useful, removing any shadows on what I’m working on. I’ve been using the 1.8 times magnification, as any more has too close a focal length, but I do have 3.5 times for special jobs (drilling hands, perhaps). I’d tried out something similar while Stephen was here before Christmas. His were lighter and didn’t have a visor, so I used them like reading glasses, looking down into them and looking over them the rest of the time. I have to do the reverse of this now. It may take a little getting used to, as I seem to crick my neck to look into the lens.

• Army Ranking

A while ago I devised a spreadsheet that allows me to record each battle I play and keep a tally of wins and losses. It’ll become more interesting as the King Magnus Campaign develops. Currently the only victory for the Anglo-Normans, was as part of a BBDBA game in Christchurch; somewhat surprising, as they’re probably the strongest army! The weakest, the Norse Irish, are yet to lose!

Army	Played	Won	Lost	Drew
Normans	2	1	1	0
Anglo-Normans	6	1	5	0
Anglo-Danes	3	1	2	0
Anglo-Norse	3	3	0	0
North Welsh	4	3	1	0
South Welsh	2	1	1	0
Norse Irish	4	4	0	0
Scots Isles and Highlands	3	0	3	0
Pre-feudal Scots	4	2	2	0
Vikings	1	0	1	0
Picts	10	4	3	3

• A little bit of HOTT

My nephews, visiting from France, were keen to see my figures in action, so I got two of them fighting a HOTT battle. The Goblins had 2x3Wb (1=cmd), 6x7Hd, 2xLu (spiders), 2x3Rd (wolf riders), 1xBh (Trolls), 1xDr. They faced an army of 4x4Bd (1=cmd) (Islemen), 2xFl (hippogriff riders), 2x2Rd (centaurs), 1xHr (centaur), 1xMg.

The Goblins were defending and formed up the hordes in depth in the centre around their commander, and the trolls flanked by wolf riders on a hill to their left in front of the stronghold. The spiders held the right flank, as there was a wood there, which the humans would not want to enter.

The humans formed up with the centaurs facing the Goblin infantry, the Islemen facing the hill with the magician behind them and the hippogriff riders in reserve.

Luke, leading the Goblins had to wait a long time for the dragon to arrive, during this time his brother Richard taunted him by rolling a succession of sixes for PIPs! With these PIPs Richard decided to block the goblin infantry with his fliers and move the centaurs around to support the right flank of the Islemen against the troops on the hill.

Eventually, tiring of having nothing to fight, the Goblin leader broke out and attacked an element of Islemen, destroying them. The fight on the hill started just as the dragon arrived. It resulted in the trolls being destroyed (they had hippogriff riders to their rear), but the wolf riders either only recoiled, or fought off a flank attack.

The dragon quickly destroyed one of the hippogriff riders, but in Richard’s turn he was able to attack the Goblin chief with his wizard while they were flanked by the other hippogriff riders.

With hindsight, I realized that the goblins were not pinned by the fliers; they could pass underneath them, which might have changed how the battle played out. It was never wise for their commander to leave his flanks exposed when facing fliers, but he was somewhat running out of options. It might have been better had he put his hordes and general on the hill and the mounted elements in the centre.

All in all, a fun game. I should try to play HOTT more often, as I’m not really up on the rules, especially for fliers, and young players are not very patient if I stop to consult the rules too much.

Creating backgrounds for DBA battles

This post grew out a response to Neldoreth’s comment on the Battle of Navenby.

One of the things I’m finding I enjoy most about DBA is creating scenarios with some background. I think the game is well suited to this for a number of reasons. For one the armies are small, so it’s easier to build historically matched armies; then the games are quite quick to play so it doesn’t take too long to play a game and then write it up. But perhaps one of the main reasons is that the system is quite abstract, so you’re encouraged to imagine reasons for the different outcomes. I use the dice rolls as a measure of the combatants’ commitment. You could imagine a situation where both sides rolled 1s (5+1 v 2+1) and start to think that they’d actually amicably agreed, given the situation, that the loser should take off without bothering to fight!

This fairly high level of abstraction extends into the campaign system. A less abstract system would have to deal with the most regular military activities of the age I’m interested in, raiding and guerrilla responses to invasions. Neither make for satisfying wargames, and are therefore ignored, though in writing up a campaign you could describe them as part of the background to any of the battles.

I noticed when I played HOTT that I didn’t enjoy it as much as DBA, and I think the reason was the HOTT armies I used were ad hoc ones put together to try out the rules. DBA battles are between opponents with their own history which you’re able to bring to any battle. I’ll be interested to see if HOTT is more interesting when I finally have a few armies finished that can fit into the Hesperia campaign background.

Old Battle Reports

I’m giving this blog a little more history quickly by posting battle reports originally sent as emails to my friend Steve in Melbourne. Steve and I have known each other since secondary school, where we shared a common interest in gaming. His decision to get some DBA armies a few years back was one of the catalysts for me to get into figure gaming myself.

A photo taken by Steve around Christmas 2007; a battle of Pre-feudal Scots (using Anglo-Danes and Normans) led by Steve against Anglo-Normans, led by me with Ieuan looking on from my side. The Thegns and Galwegians have almost made contact on the right flank.

Furthermore, a game of DBA at his place when I visited in 2007 was instrumental in getting me remotivated to get my own armies. Since then, his visits to NZ have been the occasion of many of the games of DBA and HOTT that I’ve played. The visits have also been a spur to get armies finished in time for them.

Another photo from the same time. I'd just finished the second Anglo-Norman command, so this was a chance to play two Anglo-Norman armies—naturally, given my opponent's name, a battle from the civil war of Stephen and Matilda.

Although I’ve kept no record of the games we’ve played, I’ve used email to keep myself motivated, reporting on progress with painting and with reports of games I’ve played, either solo or against others. Hopefully, I’ve also reciprocated by giving him some motivation for his painting, though I’ve not been able to get back there since 2007.

Actually, it was a particularly long report that was the spark for this blog, as it provoked the suggestion from Steve that I should start a blogging such stuff.

I’m giving this blog a little more history quickly by posting battle reports originally sent as emails to my friend Steve in Melbourne. Steve and I have known each other since secondary school, where we shared a common interest in gaming. His decision to get some DBA armies a few years back was one of the catalysts for me to get into figure gaming myself.

Furthermore, a game of DBA at his place when I visited in 2007 was instrumental in getting me remotivated to get my own armies. Since then, his visits to NZ have been the occasion of many of the games of DBA and HOTT that I’ve played. These visits have also been a spur to get armies finished in time.

Although I’ve kept no record of the games we’ve played, I’ve used email to keep myself motivated, reporting on progress with painting and with reports of games I’ve played, either solo or against others. Hopefully, I’ve also provided him with some motivation for his painting, though I’ve not been able to get back there since 2007.

Actually, it was a particularly long report that was the spark for this blog, as it provoked the suggestion from Steve that I should start a blogging such stuff.

First Outing of Fliers

Although I’d painted quite a lot in the last few months, I’d not actually played any games in ages. Early last month I decided to try out my freshly painted flier elements. Ieuan decided he’d join in so we had two armies:

Baddies:

3 x Rd (Wolf Riders, 1 = cmd)
2 x Bs (Wolves)
2 x Bh (Trolls and Ogres)
1 x Dr
2 x Lk (Spiders)

3 x Fl (Bats = allies)

Goodies:

2 x Wb (Galwegians, 1 = cmd)
2 x Sh (Highland Archers)
4 x Fl (Valkyries and Hippogriff Riders)
2 x Rd (Centaurs)
1 x Bh (Walking Tree)

3 x Fl (Eagles)

It was a really topsy-turvy battle. Ieuan as the baddies had the edge. All those fliers were very hard to manoeuvre, and quite fragile. My shooters and warbands sat on the flanks doing nothing for a lack of PIPs. The dragon showed up and ate a flier and then torched the walking tree, which was flanked by the trolls, winning the battle. It was still quite close and I almost knocked out his general, which had started flanked by the two behemoths—not good as they pursued out of support!

The fliers proved pretty fragile, yet better dice could have seen them being much more dangerous. All the same, I reckon 2 fliers is all an army needs!

Ieuan was the defender and I talked him out of slapping a forest in the centre of the board, but the forests around the edge proved irrelevant to the battle between riders and behemoths in the centre of the board, so his wolves and spiders were largely spectators, though one element almost drove the eagle commander off the board. His bats attacked my commander, but weren’t able to do anything spectacular (I played a variant that halved the PIPs of allies—that hurt them a lot).

Fun finally to use all the figures I’ve painted over the last while.

Custard the Cowardly Dragon II

Later in March this year I had a game of HOTT with Ieuan. He had 1 Dr, 1 Cl, 1 Hr, a Bs (Bears), a Wb (Berserkers), 1 Lu, 1 Bd (cmd), 2 Bd (Vikings). He beat 2 Mg, 1 Bh (Trolls), 1 Bs (wolves), 2 Lu (Irish Ps), 1 Wb (cmd), 3 Wb (Irish).

The Cl makes the Mgs useless (as did low PIPs!). But heartbreakingly for Ieuan the Dr never showed. Clearly he’s a coward. Winning was no consolation for Ieuan!

Custard the Cowardly Dragon I

Early in March this year I had a game of HOTT with Craig. He had a Cl, an Art, a Hr, 3 Bw and 4 Sp. I had 2 Mg, 1 Dr, 3 Wb and 3 Bl. His general was the Hr, mine was a Bl.

Craig was defender and went for a lot of terrain—a river to irritate my Mgs and woods to inconvenience my Dr. I got the edge I wanted, with the river running from my edge to his . This put a series of woods in the middle of the widest part of the board. I ignored the opposite side of the river and Craig spent some time getting his 2 Sp and 1 Bw over there across. I had to put my Wb in the woods, opposite his Bw and my Bl opposite his Art and Sp. My Mgs set up behind the Bl.

Not much happened in the woods—the Bw neutralized the Wb. The Cl made the Mg ineffective, and I couldn’t for the life of me roll a 6 for PIPs! I destroyed his Art with my general, who had a Mg as flank support against the Sp. The Mg lost and had to recoil. It’s base is so deep that it encountered another Bl behind it by about 5mm (or less). It passed through behind this Bl, which was crucial to what happened next—Craig could flank my Cmd with his Sp (the Mg’s ZOC had vanished!) and attack my Cmd with his Hr. He killed my general, but as I had killed more APs (3 for the Art!) I was still hanging on hoping for a 6 PIP. Eventually he killed a Wb and it was all over—bloody Dragon! After losing I tried the Dr out, as a what-if. In its turn after arriving it could have attacked the Cl, which was staying out of the woods providing anti-Mg support to the army. It would have been 6 v. 4. I won this hypothetical combat, after which the Mgs would have become effective.

All in all very interesting. The deep base of the Mg was very significant, something I’d not thought about. It was an odd game, as there were few mounted troops, and a lot of terrain. The dragon was very remiss!