Game One; The Forest Road

 The Forest Road: 

The town and Minster at Cestria consume a fair amount of supplies. A supply wagon loaded down with provisions is

ambushed while travelling through the Dene up the Great North Road.

(500pts)

A burned out village on the Great North Road.

The Outlaws block the way.

And the Hood gives his usual two fingered salutation

But the High Sheriff has come in force

Still... That looks like an arrow storm will be in the mix.

The outlaws take a defensive position.  They intend to use their bows.

The shooting... Not that great.

The Serjeants prepare to charge.

The shooting is still terrible!

But the Sergeants fail, only to be replaced by a charge of the Knights.

Out on the flank a battle of skirmisher shooting rages.

The Knights charge is one of mutual destruction.

But the Knights rout back, and the outlaws nab couple of horses.

The outlaws leave the field with great loot.

The next scenario will be:

Rats in a Trap: 

Despite the partisan’s attempts to cover their tracks, 

the High Sheriff is able to track them back to their 

hideout in the Thicks. With dawn breaking over the 

hills, he launches his assault. 

(750pts)

The Meshwesh raid

Still testing the Pillage Dark Age rules I dug out the Ancient Libyans to give them a go at the loot.  A little reading to get the single figures I needed, but I was soon good to go.

Usilkānu (Usoranus) of the Meshwesh has lead his warband into the Egyptian frontier outposts.  Slaves, loot and goats are the priority.

His brother Tak(i)lāta/i (Takesalot) leads the group of archers.

The Egyptians are going about their Egyptian business around the settlement.  They move at 4".  The Libyans archers move 8" the sword and javelin men 7".

Many of the Egyptians wear banded linen armour and carry a shield counting as armoured.  The Libyans wearing long hide cloaks count as partially armoured.  The bronze armoured Maryannu (Anpoo - common Egyptian name, also the god of the dead) in his chariot counts as armoured but his driver does not.

As the attackers the Libyans move with the first initiative.

The Egyptian outpost.

And my Egyptian Garrison force for Pillage

The Libyan Meshwesh

The Garrison posted for defence

And the Libyan Meshwesh charge on table at a run.

The civilians flee and the Garrison Sally out lead by the chariot.

Anpoo the Maryannu trundles onto the street, flanked by his chariot runners.

The Libyans shot hits the chariot.  

First blood to the chariot as the Maryannu return shot skewers the Libyan

The Egyptian foot hold at the gate, their archers on the rooftops above.

The chariot hunts down a couple of stray Meswesh

And the Libyans are catching civilians. They are already at eight loot points.

Meshwesh archers flank the gate.

The Meshwesh charge the gate, throwing javelins.

The Egyptian archers manage to kill one of their own civilians

More javelins hurled before charging in.

And the Egyptian archers kill yet another one of their own people.  I do the calculation and realize the Meshwesh are at ten loot points.  It's a win!

Another couple of turns and the Egyptians would have had a chance, but their defensive play didn't allow it.  I'll give it another go and see how it works.

The Worthy Hood of Lumley

I'm using the Barons War campaign "Oh worthy Man of English Blood," transferred into my fictional setting of Cestria and North Dyrham.  Three scenarios.  It's real value at £3 for the supplement.

Cestria, A Medieval history of the North by Sir Augustus Farthingale, University of North Dyrham, 1923

 King John pressed the Bishopric of Cestria for taxes, and sent a High Sheriff to the Wear, his troops did great harm to the local people and their possessions.   Robert of Lumley "Hoody Bob" to his band of ner'-do-well locals repaid the French in kind.

Patrols set off into the woods of the Dene, and the Lumley thicks, never to be seen again. Supply convoys were ambushed, and sentries shot at their posts. When the King heard of this partisan raising hell in “his”
country, he dispatched one of his most able servants, the Sieur de Quincy to put an end to the English menace.

An excerpt from the (fictional)

Roger of Finchale's chronicle 

1209 AD, describing the exploits 

of the Hooded Robber of Cestria.

Roger of Finchale's chronicle describes "the Hode" as a

country squire who was so incensed by King John's actions

 in the summer of 1209 that he raised a band of partisans to oppose the occupation.

The truth however is that Robert of Lumley was a poacher and sometimes road robber preying on Pilgrims come to view the shrine to the body of Cuthbert at the great Minster in Cestria.

Operating out of the forests and wastelands of the Dene and the Thicks the robbers used their fieldcraft and knowledge of the local countryside to make life incredibly difficult for the King's men.

Armed with bows, slings and other improvised weapons, they couldn’t hope to match the nobles in open battle, instead using ambushes and hit- and-run raids to sap the enemy’s strength and break their morale.

This campaign pits "the Hode" and his band against

the hot-headed Nils, Sieur de Quincy. Nils fought beside William Longsword in the right wing at Bouvines, where he was ignominiously routed and lost the banner of the Earl of Chester. King John has dispatched this experienced, if impetuous knight as High Sheriff to run down the Cestria rebels. 

The scenarios 

These grow in complexity as the campaign continues,

representing the increasing scale of the Sheriff's attempt to catch " the Hode" and his lads.

I'll be using the Barons War sample forces provided.

The three scenarios are:

The Forest Road: 

The town and Minster at Cestria consume a fair amount of supplies. A supply wagon loaded down with provisions is

ambushed while travelling through the Dene up the Great North Road.

(500pts)

Rats in a Trap: 

Despite the partisan’s attempts to cover their tracks, 

the High Sheriff is able to track them back to their 

hideout in the Thicks. With dawn breaking over the 

hills, he launches his assault. 

(750pts)

La Grace Dieu: 

With the Sheriff's  forces closing in, the Hooded 

Robber launches a daring assault on the High

Sheriff's supply chain. Moored in an estuary, a

fat-bottomed merchant ship is an incredibly

tempting target. 

(1000pts)

The Muster

Retinue 1 - Robert of Lumley - 499pts

Robert of Lumley

(Commander) - 53pts. Poacher

3x Outlaws (Veteran, Command Group) - 66pts

Leather/Padded, Bows, Hand Weapons Loyal Retainers

5x Outlaws (Regular) - 80pts

Leather/Padded, Bows, Hand Weapons

5x levy speamen. (Regular) -100pts

Small Shields

7 x Cutthroats (Regular) - 140pts

Fast

5x Petty Criminals (Green) - 60pts

Spears. Small Shields

Retinue 2 - Nils, de Quincy - 499pts

High Sheriff (Commander) - 47pts

Barded Horse. Medium Shield. Musician

3x Mounted Knights (Regular, Command Group) - 81pts

Medium Shields

4x Mounted Sergeants (Irregular) - 92pts

Medium Shields

Hunters

Fat Henry (Commander, Irregular Veteran Sergeant) - 39pts

Sword Medium Shield Mail Formidable Reassuring

5x Foot Sergeants (Irregular, Command Group) - 100pts

Swords Medium Shields Mail

5x Crossbowmen (Irregular) - 80pts

Leather/Padded Nimble

5x Crossbowmen (Green) - 60pts

A burned out village on the Great North Road.

The Outlaws block the way.

And the Hood gives his usual two fingered salutation

But the High Sheriff has come in force

Still... That looks like an arrow storm will be in the mix.

The game continues next week!

Gonad Sea King of Gath

I bought the Lucid Eye Goliath, Sea People's King to replace my fallen hero general from a campaign presently running at Durham Wargames.  

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.  He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

1 Samuel 17:4

Goliath is described as being six cubits and a span tall. This translates to roughly 9 feet 9 inches (2.97 meters), 

The mighty Gonad, Sea King of Gath.  I suspect he will be a huge target!  Super detailed figure.  50mm.

Holmes and Watson and the mysterious case of the Giant Philistine.

I have him a base coat of sand colour, and used bronze, gold and silver metallics.  The kilt below the bronze chest armour is typically Sea People's, but Canaanite too, so I multi colored it, using the Osprey elite on the Sea People's as a template.

The shield bearer I translate to a chariot driver.

The big boy dwarfs that chariot though.

Just the basing and shading to go.

Level three Hero for the Midgard rules.

Foxy Brown Game three

Game Three.  Capture the Young Master

Luxury Residence - Capture Someone

Fire - Roll a die at the end of every turn. On a 6, a randomly chosen scenic item (preferably a building or car) will catch fire. Any model in contact with it takes a C3 attack. Any vehicle in contact with the fire is destroyed, with a 1-in-6 chance of blowing up as per a Fireball. 

Factions
The Jingbai City Police Department
The City Police Force, Street Cops, Swat team and Detectives.
Protagonist Detective Sergeant Arakai 
Bruiser Detective Ito
Team of 4 SWAT
2 street cops

The Crime Gang

Oyabun  "the Ghoul"
Bruiser

Group of Street thugs
A Ninja assassin

And a Taoist sorcerer
  
Corporate

Cyborg and High Tech
The Hua Group, run by a reclusive billionaire, uses high tech far beyond what should actually exist, such as illegal replicants.  Mercenaries, bodyguards.   One Protagonist, One Brusier,

 Several Extras.

The mansion

The Oyabun with his retainers and lawyer

And the cops arrive taking down the street punk guards in the garden

And one of those punks gets a hit on Foxy herself.

The Jingbai Policeburst into the foyer.

And the SWAT team follow up, it's a bloodbath.

The cops make it into the inner mansion.

And it's a stand off.

Broken by the Sumo guy, who goes berserk.  

The Oyabun's men begin to fail morale.

And after a devastating round the firepower of the cops wins.

The Oyabun goes down and the plot points are gathered.  A decisive win for the cops.