A good week of gaming

Delighted to report that this has been a good week or so of hobby time for me. It started with a Dragon Rampart game between Slowpainter John's fantastic Chronopia Orcs and Dux's Saracens, now sporting a beautiful set of flying carpets and a kickass Djinn throwing spells everywhere.

I hadn't seen this game in action but quite liked the tweaks made to Lion Rampant to give it the fantasy twist without overdoing it.  If you aren'tt aware of it, there is a good online review here.

I oohed and ached over John's Saracen orcs sufficiently frequently that Dux invited me and the Orcs to go get a room.  The visuals that brought forth means that I will be taking out a civil action against that miscreant for gameplace bullying.

John's Orcs ganging up on Dux's Djinn

Then on Wed night at the Club we started our SAGA campaign.  Slow painter John's Anglo Saxons held off his Anglo-Dane enemy for a draw while taking quite a chunk out of the enemy retinue.

John again rolling a statistically unfeasible number of sixes to slay more hearth guard with...the supply cart!

Dux and I were both defending this turn and avoided any undue attention, so we took the opportunity to play Match 3 of our Jugula campaign.  Having only been in illegal arenas thus far, it was good this time to make an appearance in a Provincial arena and have a good purse up for grabs.  With my prized Provocator out with an injury from the last match, I took on a rookies Scissor into my Ludus Caeruleus to boost numbers.  Dux's Lupi Invicti sported his usual retinue, including the juggernaught Crupellarius.

The fight is on! The crowd go wild!

I managed to wound Dux's Murmillo and Secutor quickly but he rapidly struck back equally hard against my Thraex and Murmillo.  Shortly thereafter we finished off a wounded opponent each - the next gladiator to drop an opponent would claim victory.

This pic of my Thraex falling to Dux's Crupillarious is blurry because I was crying

I was then fortunate to pull a series of attacks which battered through the defences of Dux's wounded Secutor and thus I claimed the win and a very decent amount of coin.  As an interesting sidetone, it appears rather rare to have a combatant die in Jugula - the emphasis is on entertainment, not killing.  After 3 games we have yet to see a death.

A fun game and much quicker than our last bout too - we set ourselves a 1 hr time limit and finished with about a minute to go, so it worked well.

Dux's secutor falls to my Murmillo's blade - Victory to Ludus Caeruleus!

Last weekend also I finally got some pigment onto my FIW Ranger units (I bought the Northstar British Wilderness Force at Fall In last year).  I am happy with how they are coming along and hope to have them finished soon - pics to follow

Parlimentarian Horse and Command bases

Look like I neglected to publish pics of these earlier this year when they were done by Alan.  Kindly permit me to correct that omission now:

Meanwhile, I am searching for something to use as a 6mm poodle so I can make my Prince Rupert stand with Boye at his side!



 

Introducing callsign JUMPER

The lesser known but no less enthusiastic Tartan Squadron took to the skies again this week, this time in Canberra on a flying visit.  The highlight was Comrade James earning the callsign JUMPER after he bravely took his Y-Wing immediately to hyperspace after escorting the freighter off the board, leaving his wingman to be destroyed by the raft of TIE fighters closing in...

Nice one Comrade!

Day Bolt Action Tourney

Miserable weekend weather cancelled the kids' sporting events and provided the perfect opportunity to visit a local games club with Slowp8nter John instead!

The games club "Company of Dice" was playing a mega Bolt Action campaign to commemorate this week being 6 June.

13 Missions were played over two sessions, with an overall Commander on both sides, allocating players to tasks.

Morning games being beach landing/areo drop focused, and the afternoon ones being focused in the bocage and approaches to Caen.  To be honest we dropped in for socials not gaming so here is some of the eye candy that was on display, including a lot of lovely scratch built terrain:

I really liked this lovely scratchbuilt entrenchment position terrain

And I loved the use of .22 rim fire casings as shock markers too! Might have to steal that idea...

This was a really beautifully painted late war German platoon I spied (the painter said he used a toothpick to do the camo dots)

A wonderful scenario set around a large bridge feature in the centre of the table:

This lovely table was painstakingly put together with many, many Hirst arts blocks and topped off with a range of 4 Ground buildings

And made a great spot for some mechanised 'cat and mouse' games with big cats:

And these just took my fancy!

This is the best paper printed buildings I've seen: printed and stuck onto a plasticard frame