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Saturday 25 May 2019

Fantasy Dark ages

Today, we introduced Rhys to my Medieval skirmish rules (Sword and Dagger)
He wanted to use his Rohirrim (LOTR) figures, so we added them into my Saxon army, to face Lawrence's Vikings.

The village with Lord Faramir organising the Rohirrim and Anglo-Saxon defenders.
 Old Ned was still grazing his sheep, unperturbed!
Where would the Vikings arrive? 
 Ned moved his flock as the evil horde advanced onto the village common!
 Lawrence sent some archers and slingers round the right of the village.
His Lord and bodyguard advanced behind his Shield-wall. 
His left was protected by a Berserk! 
The Rohan archers and some light swordsmen moved to counter the enemy archers, 
They began nocking their bows 
The Viking spearmen moved into the village. 
 The viking light troops took cover in a wood.
 The Rohirrim centre was supported by my Fyrd.
A large rock made a small gap for my large spear unit to fight through. 
The archers of Rohan were now trading arrows with... 
...the Northmen. 
 The Vikings drew first blood, lightly wounding an archer.
 The light swordsmen moved round the flank of the archers.
They advanced resolutely on the Viking bowmen, shields raised against their shooting. 
Faramir placed his men on the road. 
 My large Fyrd unit charged a Viking band.
Initially, things went well for the Fyrdsmen, who forced the Vikings back. 
 A Rohan archer light-wounded a Viking slinger...
 ...then wounded a bowman, though a Viking arrow scratched a Rohan swordsman in return.
 The brave Rohirrim charged the Viking bowmen...
...swiftly putting them to flight! 
 The Vikings my Fyrd were engaged with counter attacked, breaking up my formation and wounding several Fyrdir.
I pushed back, using my numbers to expand against the Berserk - who promptly wounded one of the Fyrd. 
In the centre, Faramir was content to shoot arrows at the stationary Vikings opposite. 
 The Rohan archers now tried to envelop the Viking flank.
Lawrence's Hearth troops moved to counter them. 
 My Fyrdir, exhausted by the melee, reformed. The Berserk killed one of my men, and I had to detach more to keep him occupied!
Faramir managed to wound a mailed Viking. 
The Rohan bowmen lightly wounded a Huscarl. 
Faramir got another! 
 Back on my side, the Berserk had dispatched another Fyrdsman.
Lawrence's Lord chased off the Rohan archers, who evaded. 
In the centre, the main battle lines clashed at last, my elite Fyrdsmen killing one of the Vikings in the first charge.
 The battle was fierce, neither side giving way, though the Vikings were losing men at a faster rate.
The Viking Lord now, ignoring the insignificant archery directed against him, moved to attack the rear of the Rohirrim spearmen. 
Finally, my Fyrd were victorious, and the Viking left wing collapsed! 
The battle, though, was very much still in the balance, as the Viking Huscarls attacked Faramir's men from behind. 
As a decision was still far from certain, Faramir challenged the Viking Jarl to single combat. Both combatants fought hard... 
...but Faramir finally prevailed! 
The Vikings retreated. A hard won victory if ever there was one!

Saturday 18 May 2019

He's Crazy!

Today, we introduced Rhys to Star Wars Skirmishing.

I kept the scenario simple: We would run a Jedi led strike force to rescue an ambassador captured by the Separatist alliance.

Phil chose a character, to my mind, completely in tune with him--Quinlan Vos!
 Rhys chose Plo Koon, Lawrence took Commander Cody with some Clones, and I had Gregor, a Clone Commando.
 We assumed Gregor had reconnoitered the town and determined the prisoner(s) were in the tower at the far end.  
We started in cover, I, with Gregor, was to go with Vos, down a flank, Plo and Cody would go down the centre. 
 Vos was soon out in front, I was having trouble keeping up!
The Clones, and Master Plo were cautiously approaching the town. 
The Clones saw movement, and opened fire... 
A small group of Battle Droids began firing back! 
 Meanwhile, I had caught up with Vos. 
 We drove the Portal (these determine how many and what opposition arrives) off the hill, and into some cargo crates. 
The Clones, meantime, were suffering in the open, several being pinned by the Droids' fire.
The Clones, though, managed to drop another Battle Droid. 
'Hey, did you call for help?' 
Yes!...shoot at those Republic dogs! 
The Clones still had no injuries, but half of them were pinned! 
Vos and I attacked the crates... 
...driving the Portal marker back into a building. 
Still able to see us, it contributed to the appearance of some Super Battle Droids, fortunately, quite far back. 
The Clones, afraid of getting caught in a crossfire, assaulted the Battle Droids position. 
The last one retreated to a safer position! 
 Under fire from the Super Battle Droids, Master Plo ordered the clones into cover behind a building, Commander Cody had fallen behind, trying to cover a pinned trooper.
 Unfortunately, this led to him being pinned! Master Plo...
...force lifted Cody to safety!
Cody: 'You should have left me Master Plo, we are only expendable clones!' 
Plo Coon: 'Not to me!'
3 more Battle Droids had appeared, close to the Clone's position.
The Super Battle Droids advanced to support them. 
'Advance and destroy those Clones!'
'Roger, Roger!'
 Master Plo, however, Force Jumped into them! 
TD342: 'Come on, there are 3 of us and only one of him!'
TD421: ....'It won't matter!' ....
My Commando rushed towards the tower, and the prisoners...he noticed the doors were ray shielded.
 Vos had chased the portal marker, and several others, behind the tower.
Gregor threw a mine to overload the shield. 
Vos and Gregor gave the Portals nowhere to go, so they were removed! 
Vos released the prisoners, several Gungans and Padme Amidala!
Together with Gregor, the prisoners were shepherded to safety.

Jar Jar Binks: 'We is a FREEEE!' 
Quinlan Vos: .....'Whatever!'....
Seeing the prisoners had been freed, Master Plo covered the retreat of the Clones. 
Pushing the Super Battle Droids over with a swipe!

As planned, the low number of Portal Markers and the quality of the strike force, made this an easy game. I think we all enjoyed it though!