Weekend Update

Last night was a trek up to see the PaWM at Mike S.'s house. Another game of Ancients, this time Romans versus Barbarians. After some discussion, we decided they were "Germanic" barbarians, for no better reason than nobody thought to say "Gallic" or "British" or something like that. 

Either way, the Hairy Buggers were in a palisaded town on a small hill which was the Roman objective. 

Hairy Barbarians....well, some with hair...Young James, anyway...

Hairy Barbarian Village in the middle of the picture

I played Romans, for a change. Usually, I prefer to embrace my inner Hairy Barbarian Self and run amok starkers with a pointy stick and sometimes a shield. But not this time. I embraced a desire for stabby-stabby and slow, methodical grinding power. 

John the OFM embracing his inner Hairy Self and moves forward in a shambling mass

Mark C. making a point (he served as Assistant GM to Mike) as John the OFM and Bernie look on...

It was a slow, plodding, grinding series of Roman legions steadily doing their Roman thing against thems who wear not the trousers...or much of anything, really... 

Bernie had exceptionally hot dice. I'd hit his warbands with ten hits and he'd save seven or eight of them. And then he'd schwack my cohorts with bow fire or pointy sticks and a Full Monty Dance and I'd save maybe half or so. 

But in the end, the Centurion Herpes Simplex Maximus rallied the twoops, and we finally managed to wear down Bernie and his Magic Dice. I broke two charges of his, and then Jim B did the same on my right, and pretty soon, the proto-Krauts were on their way back over the Rhine..

Even John the OFM cheering him on can't save Bernie's German Zulu Hordes! 

We used Neil Thomas's rules for Ancients and Medieval, modified for the 10 of us playing. Mike, ably assisted by Mark, herded cats and kept us somewhat in line. Another great time and Mike's wife Kathy made an amazing pot of chili of us for dinner, along with cornbread... yummmmmm....

But it wasn't all just about rolling dice and pushing lead. I also picked up some things from John the OFM for my 18th century collection. 

Now with siege guns, positions, and extra gabions, my French might just be able to knock Les Anglais about the continent...or maybe the other way around and my Provincials can finally take New France... 

More anon. 

Weekend Update

The post COLD BARRAGE post as it were... 

Well, Friday and Saturday it was "The Big Game", an ADLG Team Tournament at COLD BARRAGE in Harve de Grace, Maryland. Four of us comprising Team Full Monty (all of us residing in Montgomery County, PA) took on The Peach State Platoon, The Birmingham Bunnies, The Balrogs (another Pennsylvania based team), The Cellar Rats (some Allentown-Scranton area folk), and finally, The Jersey Boys. 

My band of time was the Medieval Period, with my Golden Horde Mongols, and I can say that I managed a perfect record in this competition.....a record of 0 - 5! 

That's right. Not a single win. The Golden Horde was more like the Iron Pyrite Mob. But we did slap a few elephants around and we did sack one camp. I learned a lot about playing ADLG and I had a tremendous amount of fun. 

Paul came all the way from Gee-orgee-ah with his Medieval Spanish and an auto de fe, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition though... 

Bill from Birmingham (the one in Alabamia, not the one in the UK) and his Siamese, if you please. A close-run match that made me hopeful, only to be trampled underneath and turned into elephant poop. 

Kornell and his Medieval Hungarians. I really enjoyed playing against this gentleman, we had a great conversation and he was very helpful in showing me some aspects of the rules...not that it stopped him from schwacking my pony boys like a bad, bad bunch of donkey riders. 

Thomas and his Medieval Teutonic army was another up armored collection of Knights and Crossbowmen that defied my ability to find a flank and were impossible to play bowfire games against. My loss against him was the worst one, points wise, that I suffered. 

Kevin from Joisy, wid his Tech Support Army of Ellies and Ellie poop scoopers. Unfortunately, he was able to outlast my (sort of) brilliant tactical maneuvers... And that's my story...It was a close game, though. The flipping pooper scoopers were all "Impact" or "Bow-somethings" which made it annoying.

I did NOT need to rent a van to carry all this stuff. Includes the official Team Full Monty uniform shirt...

Bill's camp that I sacked and looted the fruit. I love this camp marker... 

Overall, this was a great show. Made some new friends. Saw some old ones. And I played five games! I almost never get to play that many games in a show. 

Were there cons to this, er, con? Sure. The short time between games meant that it was a speed trip through the folks selling stuff and seeing other games that were not in the tournament area. With COLD BARRAGE there are not a lot of options for food, so I usually bring my own. 

And I really, really, really got tired of fighting Up Armored Pony Boys. I'd rather see the elephants. 

But the pros well outweigh those cons. 

Can't wait for the next chance to run my Mongols. For now, there are some other things to paint. I will probably download some top down paper miniatures to make some training aids and refine my game. 

And I see I have completely forgotten to take pictures of the loot I brought home as well... ah, well. 

Next time.

More Mongol Madness!

As a break from the last couple of weeks of work and military duty, I went down to the RAP Gamers this past Wednesday for a game of ADLG and some much needed mental floss.

With the upcoming tournament at COLD BARRAGE, we decided to run another night of games. I was paired up with Steve T. who brought an Italian Condotta army to face my Golden Horde Mongols. 

His Milanese, or maybe Florentines, possibly Genovese were commanded by Fredo Sforza, with brothers Michael and Sonny as sub commanders. There were a bunch of Heavy Knight Impact and some naughty LMI Crossbows, and some other bits and bobs. Most importantly, he had a fortified camp, which meant my Light Horse Bow couldn't raid the bugger. I needed my Medium Cavalry at a minimum to sack the thing. 

I brought the army I'm using for the tourney, Chaka Khan as my general in chief with four Heavy Cavalry Bow, two Light Horse Bow, and one unit of Levy set in ambush. His brother, Jenga Khan, with two Heavy Cavalry Bow Impact, two Heavy Cavalry Bow, and two Light Horse Bow. And his other brother, Iffya Khan, with four Medium Cavalry Bow and three Light Horse Bow. All the Heavy Cavalry are rated "Elite"... 

At the start of the game, when all hope burned bright...

Steve surging bodily across the board pushing me back

Almost at the end...little clusters of Italians and Mongols beating each other senseless...

We played to the end, almost 10PM, and it was a nearer run thing than I figured it would be. I lost...again...18 to 14, but had there been enough time to play another turn, I might have managed to even things up. I did manage to kill Fredo in melee, he fumbled drawing his sword, so I hear Michael Sforza is now head of the family... 

I still need to get comfortable with playing Mongols in a more chaotic manner than I have been. The water feature on my left flank didn't help me spread out to flank Steve. I almost, ALMOST, managed to get a couple of flank attacks in this time. 

Still, another good time and a great evening out. On to COLD BARRAGE! 

Weekend Update

A quiet Sunday here in the Duchy with some time to play at my hobby before getting back to work om my thesis. Hard to believe a first draft is due in two weeks. 

Yesterday, I drove out to Carlisle, PA, to the Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) for a Re-enactor Recruitment Day. There were quite a few units and periods represented. I went at the behest of my American Civil War group, the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. 

Free piece of hardtack with every enlistment...

There were some Green Jackets and some Crapauds there are well looking for new recruits

The "great" Lynn Otto, and his Pennsylvania Regiment from the FIW was there. With some lovely John Jenkins Design figures holding down a map... 

Veteran re-enactor and wargamer Tom Flynn on the left and a buddy from Lee's Company of Rangers, also an FIW unit. The drum belongs to a Highland Grenadier company that does FIW and AWI

Various other ACW units, in this case, the 93rd Pennsylvania and the 1st Minnesota

Some of the ladies from the 39th New York (Garibaldi Guard) and their presentation

Finally, some young folks doing "Modern" impressions...pretty depressing to think I was issued and wore some of the kit they were displaying and wearing... 

There was quite a diverse collection of periods. And this was the first time since COVID they have held this event. I enjoyed it immensely, even if I did not manage to convince anyone to sign up and enjoy a piece of hardtack. 

On the wargame front, things are slowly moving along with my Mongols for ADLG. I managed a game two weeks ago against Bruce P. and his Order of St. John Army. That was a close game he managed to squeak out a very narrow victory on points alone. But I'll leave off pictures for another time. 

Finally, Happy St. David's Day to all the Taffys out there in Blog-Land! Have a leek for me. My last batch of potato and leek soup was quite good actually...time to get some chowder on for lunch.