Battleground and the death of Aragorn (twice)

Today was the Battleground show in Stockton on Tees. Most of my family leave within 10 minutes drive so I spent the night with them and watched Barnsley get hammered by Notts Forest - my Brother in Law (a Barnsley boy) was mortified.
Up bright and early I blew up my Sister's electricity and scared the cat.
The show is one of my favourites, it's a nice size and usually has lots of good games. This year the games were OK with a few standouts, most looked a bit too much like a club night. I took some dodgy photos of the ones I liked. Dave Docherty was missing this year,unwell but on the mend I hear. This was a shame cos I was looking forward to fighting his 1:1 recreation of the Sudan war in 28mm😊

Wilsons Creek ACW

Sudan participation game

DedMan's hand - participation game

WW1

WW2 (can't you tell I didn't take club names)

Cannae - this was huge and a bit mental - see later)

1866 Prussian - Austrian. This looked fun

WW2 Participation game

Roman Civil War - To The Strongest

Frostgrave Participation - one of the nicest tables

Cannae later in the day. This was going to be a disaster

I like the fact there are lots of participation games, I often find demonstration games a little uninspiring. I only played one game, although I did play it twice.. Matt Crump brought his Save the Halfling game, the final scene from the 1st Lord of the Rings Film. It's a great 30 minute game.

Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pipin, along with Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli are spread out on the table and are surrounded by 4 Orc scout units. The aim, using Dragon Rampant Rules, is to get the Halflings to the canoes. The Halflings can't fight and are captured when attacked by the Orcs. Par is 2 halflings and Aragorn has never died in the scenario

I played twice, the shots are from Roy Williamson's game not mine (he did better than me). In both games I saved 2 halflings but I did manage to get Aragorn killed both times ( I am the king of double one), an Boromir once. It was great fun and a proper challenge.

And now the Swag

The books

As a geologist this is intriguing 

My current interest

My Dad will like this

The toys

Marilyn Monroe with a chainsaw - Studio Miniatures

Steam Tank from ironclad - for VBCW miners

It's supposed to look like this

2lb AT gun - think it's only 20mm scale but looks OK

VBCW female militia - Ironclad - these are great.

I also bought a large bag of samurai from the bring and buy (35 inf, 8 cav for £25) but they have been confiscated as a Christmas present for me), and I ordered some 10mm Prussians to  complete the divisions. There is also paint and bases but you know what they look like.

Finally the post man has been

This was £2.83 with free postage (weird price)

I also got this package which I wasn't expecting. After checking that I hadn't bought it while drunk I realised it's from my Secret Santa. May thanks whoever you are, it's perfect

All in all a great day. Off to prep figures now

Sorry Curt, wrong blog.

The Analogue Hobbies 7th Painting challenge has arrived. If there are any of you out there who haven't signed up then do so it's a great laugh and full of inspiration. Paint as much or as little as you want between 20th Dec and 20th March, no pressure.
In the mean time I've painted some more Prussians, a regiment of dragoons,  3 artillery batteries and a General

I hate painting limbers, but they are done now. Only 2 more Prussian regiments to go and I have a couple of divisions ready t fight each other. I've also found some rules on the web - Days of Iron by Adam Stone. They look very simple with some minor tweaks.

This will do to celebrate the Challenge Launch

More Tiny Prussians

I'm continuing with the 10mm 1864 Prussians. These are the 13th Infantry Regiment. They are made up of 3 battalions of 1000 men each, although only 2 would have gone on campaign. The opposing Danes fielded 2 battalions of 800 men each. So at 1:50 scale the Prussians have 5 bases of 4 men, this doesn't quite tally with 4 companies of 250 men but it will do.
I enjoyed painting these, even the red trim on the trousers, although the moustaches were beyond me. The tiny scale is beyond the scope of my camera focus.

General

Hand painted flag

My order from Newline came today

Ancient slaves and merchants

10mm ACW regiment - ideal for the Danes

Artillery, little large and out of date but can convert into suitable field pieces

Have fun 

Prussian Jaeger Regiment - all other titles were just as witty

Fun afternoon chatting with Dave and Tamsin on the video chat.  Tamsin making terrain, Dave continuing with his 1:1 recreation of the Mahdist uprising and me painting this 10mm Prussian Jaeger regiment by Pendraken.

These are much better sculpts than the Danes and were enjoyable to paint. I'm pretty chuffed with them.

Roy Williamson, the king of getting me to buy stuff, well him and Gordon Richards (I'm sure they are on commission), pointed me to the Newline Designs site where they have a sale. I bought some 10mm ACW infantry a they are almost identical to the Danes which will give me another full brigade..

TTFN

1864 and all that

About 18 months ago I purchased some 10mm Danes and Prussians from Pendraken with the aim of trying out something new. I found the painting a pain and not much fun. I also didn't really like the rule set I'd picked (they Couldn't hit an Elephant from 2 Fat Lardies). So the idea petered out. You can see some of my work here.
Any way I was trawling through the blog of my Secret Santa recipient and he (or she) has a lot of 10mm stuff and it repeaked (is that a word?) my interest. So I dug them out and have spent a couple of days finishing of the Danes. I now have just over a completed division at 1:50 figure ratio.

 I have almost 7 infantry regiments, 2 half regiments of dragoons and 3 field guns with limbers. Not the biggest army in the world but should work well on my small table.
I have the same number of Prussians to paint and they have the challenge written all over them. The overall plan was to fight the beta version of WW1 set in the 1860s - and 1870s with the various powers resisting or supporting the the unification of Germany. Pendraken have lots of these forces.
I'm off today, had to fix the guttering whilst the weather was nice. That is hopefully done so I'm going to write some rules this afternoon, I find bought rules somewhat underwhelming and tend to nick the best ideas and incorporate them into my own.

The God of the Red Skulls

Le Clerc and Jeune were dragged to the Red Skull village where King Mfalme looked at them with leering disgust. The witch doctor Mchawi cackled and danced from foot to foot. "Buibui! Buibui! Buibui!" he screamed. The chant was taken up by the warriors and the 2 Legionaires were pushed to a large arena surrounded by a thick wooden fence

The chant started again "Buibui! Buibui! Buibui!" Mfalme raised his spear and the mob fell silent. The ground started to shake and the sand started to move

"Putain Merde" A huge spider rose up from the sand. Jeune looked at Le Clerc and said "Sir, I assume that is Buibui". Le Clerc looked at Jeune and smiled nervously. "Grab that spear and go left". I'll go right and lets kill this insect". "Sir. it's not an insect...". "Pedantry later, now we fight like Legionaires"

The spider shook the dirt from its body

Jeune grabbed a spear from the base of the rock and ran round the rock

Le Clerc grabbed another discarded spear and ran to the left. The arena was covered in huge, stickly webs.

The spider moved towards Jeune and he panicked and ran around the rock, becoming trapped in a web. 

Jeune turned and stared into the mouth of the spider, its fangs dripping venom. The spider lunged and Jeune knocked the blow aside and stabbed the spear into the face of the spider.

The spider lunged again and Jeune stabbed again inflicting another severe wound to the spider. Le Clerc was racing to Jeune's aid as the spider struck again

The spider attacked and sunk 2 fangs into Jeune's chest, pumping venom into his veins. Jeune collapsed, 

The spider turned to face Le Clerc who charged him in a rage, thrusting his spear into the spider's face and cutting through a fang and spraying venom over the arena. The spider staggered. The crowd fell silent.

Le Clerc stepped forward and stabbed the spider through the eye killing it.

He rushed over to Jeune and found a faint pulse. Heroic Jeune was still alive.

Le Clerc climbed on top of the large rock, raised his spear and shouted "Buibui is dead. Anyone else want to fight me"

The crowd started to chant "Buibui Muuaji" 

The chief walked into the arena, looked over at Buibui and then clasped the hand of Le Clerc. "Friends, Buibui Muuaji".

Jeune spent 2 weeks in a fever but recovered and 1 month later he and Le Clerc emerged from the jungle having pacified the Red Skulls, for now.

Played using IHMN and with a little poetic licence at the end, Le Clerc and the spider couldn't kill each other so I allowed the spider to bleed to death. The rolls for Jeune were truly epic and couldn't be wasted. The French now have their heros