Stevo's Age of Arthur competition!

Hi All,

The frenzy that is the painting challenge, combined with the realization that Christmas is almost upon us, has consumed much of my consciousness. I therefore have had even more than usual flooding my brain to the point that it has been difficult to form a coherent post on a single topic. Let's see how I do here.

Stevo, of Stevo's mini Soldiers, is having a giveaway here. It is for a copy of the Warhammer Historical title "Age of Arthur". He has the usual requirements for a giveaway, follow the blog, leave a comment with the addition of showing some of your Dark Age figures. This is where I put it off, because I'm embarrassed at how my Dark Age project has stalled. So, without further ado, here are my Saxon and Viking warbands, armies, what have you.

The Dark Ages, ages darker than anyone ever imagined:

Saxons from Imex and Revell with two MiniArt Germans.

A mix of Imex and Zvezda Vikings.

So, as you can see, they need some work. You may have noticed that I used the gamey convention of color coding.  I was painting these for the Talomir Tales Rally Round the King (RRtK) project for the forces of Tereken (Anglo-Saxon) and Mirholme (Viking). Initially I was the Viking player, but I defeated myself in a series of battles with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. So now I am them. Bother.

The Anglo-Saxons (Tereken) are ostensibly Green and Yellow, the peasants more subdued. The vikings are supposed to be Red and Blue, I can only make out Red. I just found that, looking at multiple Saga battle reports, it became increasingly difficult to tell who was who with realistically painted figures.

And to prove that you can actually win stuff from Stevo, here's a picture of the Zombies I won that arrived yesterday.

The box was a little worse for wear, but everything inside was intact. These guys look like good, campy, fun. They might even make it into the challenge. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Two more items.

I set foot in a Games Workshop store for the first time ever yesterday and it was a pleasant experience. The guy on duty was nice and helpful and the two gentlemen seemed normal, aside from being there in the middle of the afternoon. Perhaps they were on their lunch break. (I do note the irony in my judging people for being there at the exact time that I am.) I bought some basing materials and listened to detailed space marine list recounting in the background. Although I still get some sticker shock at the cost of models I do like some of them. The lure of free shipping on orders I place through the store is a good one too. I'll go back, with my son in tow, in the new year.

Lastly, I'd like to welcome Baconfat of Baconfat Log. He is a fellow challenger and has painted some really nice Riders of Rohan.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's in the cards

Just a little shameless promotion of self and others. First, I enjoyed reading that captain arjun over at cor blog me used the Age of Blood Fate Cards I made for his latest game of Strandhogg here.

Cards seem an elegant way to introduce random elements into a game. For instance Kobayachimaru of Chroniques du Fort Bastiani did something like this with his PEF's (Possible Enemy Forces) in this game here. He took the concept of using a marker and just put the force composition underneath. You could roll and consult a table, or you could just have it on the counter/ card.

And lastly I thought that this resource link from That's what you get for living in a cul de sac's post here was pretty interesting. I may start following ResourceFULL

Age Of Blood Fate Cards V.2

Just an update on the fate cards. Following Dan's suggestion, and my own leanings, I added the background to the face of all cards. I then also separated and emboldened the effects of the card from the introductory text.

I decided to leave the full, verbatim, text on all the cards for now. Let me know if it is too hard to read. The only editing I did was to fix my mistyping of some of the game conventions (ie Hand-to-Hand instead of hand to hand) and the spelling Valkaries to Valkyries. Otherwise I have left the non US spellings as is.

You can find the file here.

Still working on a cheat sheet and actually playing the game.

A Viking we shall go

I'm getting closer to some actual gaming. This weekend I downloaded some paper figs and terrain from RPG Now in a hope to jump start the gaming process. I'll give a review of the products when I have more time. Weekend Flag Football and landscaping (it's finally below 100F in Phoenix) took up all of my time this weekend, so I'll just have to push to get in a game this week. I may go with unpainted plastics and paper terrain, just to get the ball rolling.

Paul of the mancave has inspired me to make an Age of Blood cheat sheet and deck of fate cards. So Paul I may require a thumbs up or down on the design. Hopefully you will be able to use them for your games.

Welcome to Col Shofer of Colonel Schofer's Mild OCD Model Blog. Mild is putting it mildly. But all kidding aside it is a useful if not overwhelming repository of gaming goodness. I particularly liked the recent viking post here.

And lastly, although it has nothing to do with vikings I thought that Dale's post here required a plug. An interesting adaptation of Command and Colors (or colours) to miniature gaming.

Ordnance Maps of Roman Britain

Awhile back Paul (of the mancave) posted this link to a campaign for wargaming in Arthurian Dark Age Britian http://darkagewargaming.wordpress.com/category/age-of-arthur/

In reading through one of the posts, which are extremely interesting, the author made mention of using ordnance maps if you chose to do a map based campaign. So I thought I'd do a little search and found this site http://www.bibliographics.com/MAPS/BRITAIN/BRIT-MAP-FRAME-LOOK.htm

I'm trying not to let this lead me too far astray for now, but for me the tug of maps is almost irresistable. At some point I may take these and grid them further.

Enjoy.

Sean

PS- I was away on vacation for the last few weeks and found no time for posting. I hope to be posting again more regularly once my kids are in school.

The Hamlet of Eadagbrycg

As I flail about, trying to play my first raid, I made this map. As usual I am trying to learn several things at once and not fully accomplishing any.

Eorund had decided that in order to test the mettle of his band he would perform a raid along the coast of England.

So the trip is successful on a roll of 3+ and I rolled 3 (+1for Norse sailing, +1 for Gautar's Navigating skill. The trip thus costs 25, 1 for each man and so the band has 44 left in it's coffers.

They will attack the sleepy Saxon hamlet of Eadagbrycg (to me sounds like Eat a Brick).

The idea is to be representing a 3' x 3' table (bounded by cobblestones). The rough patch at top right is a hill and the river is fordable at the road. I used THW (Two Hour Wargames) terrain table to roll it up and then added the two buildings. Each square in the grid represents an inch of table top.

Generic Age of Blood Campaign Map

As requested by Paul from the mancave, here is a generic version of my Age of Blood Campaign map. Feel free to use it for your own campaigns. It is still a little rough but not too bad if you don't look too carefully.

Skal!

Must have!!!!

Seeing Paul from the Mancave's post about GB resin ships got me thinking I should do a search. This came up and I must have it.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=1/72+ship+models&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10441054807715254359&sa=X&ei=FooMTuiCIaTs0gGQ6ZS5Dg&ved=0CIABEPICMAY

Eorund's map

Here is a map I whipped up (actually a couple of hours) to give a rough lay of the land for my campaign.

Eorund, Hersir from Odolfrlundr

Eorund¹, Hersir from Odolfrlundr²

Now a discussion of the warband I created for my Age of Blood Campaign.

Hersir: Eorund (Sword, Axe, Shield, Chain Hauberk, Helm) Cost: 79 Upkeep: 8

Champion: Gautar (Axe, Spear, Shield, Chain Hauberk, Helm) Cost: 150 Upkeep: 6

Champion: Canute (Broad Axe, Bow, Chain Hauberk, Helm) Cost: 154 Upkeep: 6

Berserk: Ottar (Broad Axe, Axe, Sax) Cost: 69 Upkeep: 8

Berserk: Haddings (Sword, Axe, Shield) Cost:74 Upkeep: 8

5 Huscarls: Jorund Hothbrodsson³, Kyi, Stakard Haraldson, Randver Sigarson, Haakon

(Axe, Bow, L. Jerkin, Shield) Cost: 190 Upkeep: 10

5 Huscarls: Jorund Hognason, Hysing, Haki, Rorek, Khoriv

(Axe, Spear, L. Jerkin, Shield) Cost: 175 Upkeep: 10

5 Carls: Hogni, Stakard Svendson, Askold, Edda, Thrand

(Axe, Shield) Cost: 20 Upkeep: 0

5 Carls: Olof, Kjotve, Magnus, Gautrek, Randver Hvitserkson

(Axe, Shield) Cost: 20 Upkeep: 0

Totals: Men 25 Cost 931 Upkeep 56

Remaining Funds: 69

Vessel: Lt Drakkar.

Since the group is from Norway they have Sailing as their special trait, and Carls cost 20 instead of 25. For Eorund himself I rolled a 5-Renowned, so he started with a Renown of 11 instead of 10.

Notes:

1. Although I did not like the name Eorund, it is apparently a variant of Jorund. I found a link here (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://web.comhem.se/jh_genealogy/p7d24147b.html&ei=e-wJTtK2E6mp0AHf9vFq&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEUQ7gEwCA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEorund%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel%3Dnp%26nfpr%3D1%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D933%26prmd%3Divnsb)
2. I felt like the characters needed to be from somewhere, besides just Norway, so I generated 10 names of Norse towns on (http://donjon.bin.sh/name/#norse_town) and then rolled a die to select. (1) Beinilundr, (2) Kinnbholm, (3) Olfrvik, (4) Odolfrlundr, (5) Arunlundr, (6) Arnlavklif, (7) Tirrbekkr, (8) Horgudrsetr, (9) Frostitoft, (10) Molfnbyr.
3. Because I was ending up with several repeats I decided to add some Patronymic surnames. For help with form I used (http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONNames.shtml) as a guide.

Eorund's Saga

For my first foray back into gaming I thought a good old Dark Age skirmish campaign would be in order. I was inspired mainly by the posts over at the Man Cave (http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/) and totally sold when The Command Tent (http://thecommandtent.blogspot.com/) talked about making the plunge.

As per the suggestions on the Man Cave I look up the Age of Blood rules. You can find a link to Versions 1 and two at (http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/medieval.html). You need V1 for the fate cards.

Now there are two immediate problems. I don't have any figs painted up, and I am intending to play solo. I purchased the IMEX Vikings and Saxons, Pegasus farm animals and Russian farm houses for starters. I need to get started painting and figure out if my old 28mm terrain will work for 1/72 scale. To get started sooner I thought I might use a Virtual Table Top (VTT) like maptool (http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=downloads#MapTool). Of course I need to figure out how to set that up as well. For the solo aspect I am thinking of incorporating Warrior Heroes Armies & Adventures (WHAA) from Two Hour Wargames to help with the NPC (Saxon) mechanics. My thought was to stick with the d10 and use what ever stat seems applicable for “passing dice” in lieu of REP.

I have prepared a 25 man raiding party lead by the Hersar Eorund. I'll detail that, and my thoughts on naming people and places in a later post.

Sean