Some Recent Games

Recently I've been posting about what I've been making and painting and I haven't posted anything to do with actual games. It might surprise you but I have actually played a few games in the past couple of months. It's just that I just haven't posted anything. So here we go: here's a few games from the most recent (last week) back to somewhere around early/mid October.

Okay, the most recent game I played was General D'Armee. I didn't take a command role in this game (but I did give advice to both sides) as I was introducing some other players and decided to umpire. This was the second game of GdA that I umpired recently but I forgot to take pics of the first one.

I like GdA. It has a nice feel to it. We played it pre-plague and had about half a dozen games and we were getting to know the rules quite well. So now that we're starting again we're not right back to square one but it is taking time to get to know the rules again and getting the game to flow quickly.

The troops below are Mike's Minifig Polish that he painted many, many years ago. They haven't been on a tabe for quite some time. Myself and most of the guys playing GdA use to play a home-brew set of club rules: Cold Steel, but we fell out of love with them (although they still have a good following at our club). Mike troops are still based for Cold Steel in little 12 figure battalions but I think he might rebase for GdA as I did.

Another club member, John, put on a game of Zulu Wars using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules. This was a great little game to play and has proved very popular at the club where John has set it up several times in recent weeks. Our game had 2 British players and 4 Zulu players (I was a Zulu and the pics are taken from the perspective of my troops).

John always puts on great looking games with really well painted figures and beautiful terrain. When I first joined the club (Nunawading Wargames Association or NWA) he was playing Lord of the Rings and made the most impressing Isengard and Orthanc that you'd ever likely to see. I have pics somewhere but I can't find them.

Oh, by the way... The British got hammered!

I put on two of games of O Group. The pics are from the second game which I umpired to introduce club members Veteran Neil and Young Harry.  As you can see this one was set somewhere in Europe. It was a pretty simple set up for the sake on an introduction. The first game (that I actually played) was set in the desert between the DAK and the 8th Army.

It seems a lot of my recent gaming involves playing the rules of Dave Brown. I do like the way that his rules work. His rules have a very clear emphasis on command and control and his combat mechanisms are simple and effective. I'm hoping to play more of both GdA and O Group this year. I've even ordered some 6mm WWII Germans to test how they might work for O Group. 

And last but not least, another game by the aforementioned John. This time a WWI game set in Gallipoli using Through the Mud and the Blood rules from the Too Fat Lardies. Again, this was a great little game with beautiful figures and terrain (3D printed I believe). This was a trench raid scenario and I played the Aussies. Maybe I should have dusted off my old slouch hat for the evening. 

So that's it. A quick post to show that I do play actual wargames and don't just collect figures. I'm currently taking a short rest from the Wars of the Roses and building up my Napoleonic French for GdA. I just need a couple more infantry battalions and another regiment or two of cavalry.

Cheers.

P.S. My old slouch hat on the left:

A Bunch of Percy's

There has been a bit of a slowdown in my Wars of the Roses output due to indecision and delving into Napoleonic's again. But I haven't been idle and I've finished a retinue for Sir Henry Percy the Earl of Northumberland. 

I've only done finished one band of retinue bill and bow and one of men-at-arms. However, because the Percy's were very active on the northern boarders I've decided to make some prickers (light cavalry lancers) for him too but they're still on the paint bench at the moment.

Included in this retinue are a couple of Empress Miniatures that I picked up from Eureka Miniatures. These are nice, well sculpted figures and they've been re-issued due to popular demand. I added this guy in the classic "rude archer" pose and there is another hidden elsewhere. These figures match very well with the Perry plastics.

I decided to make the Earl on a mounted command base. The figure on the right (as in the pic below) is the Perry's metal Somerset figure. I demoted him and made him a standard bearer because I already have a Somerset on foot. The Earl and the other standard bearer are Perry plastics.

I wasn't keen on attempting his tabard but the base would have looked a bit blasé if I just did him in red and black so I summoned up the courage and did it. It's not the best but it looks reasonable and recognisable at arms length. I wasn't sure about the flags either and thought about putting the coat of arms on the men-at-arms base. I painted an extra standard bearer figure for it but left him off in the end.

So there you go. I now have a Percy to add to my Lancastrian array. And speaking of my array, I decided to lay it all out to see what it looks like on the table. As far as I'm concerned they now look like an army. I don't know how many figures there are but there must close to about two hundred and fifty.

I like that there are plenty of banners flying because I thought I was lacking a bit in the banner department but it's not as empty as I thought.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers for now.