Viking 878 and the Invasion of Little Queensland Beach

View from the deck of Little Queensland Beach. Sea was rough, and sky overcast most of the visit.

I just returned from my annual vacation trip home to Nova Scotia, Canada's Ocean Playground. After spending time in the city with friends and family, and thanks to the generosity of a long time friend, I am able to spend the better part of a week in a cottage on the coast.

Mornings for me, was time spend assembling three boxes of Warlord Factory Persian Cavalry.

Four days were devoted to some form of gaming. The first was a Junta Game, held at the home of Marc and Krista on Wednesday afternoon. Seven player mayhem ensued. Last year's winner, moi, was forced to settle for 2nd place.

Junta - Paul- Krista - Louisa - Mike - Myself- Peter - Photo by Marc

Mike H, as the most corrupt player won. In his own words, "depositing ill gotten gains while stepping over the still warm bodies of his victims." Louisa, playing the game for the first time, got into the spirit of the game, by trying to take Mike out with four unsuccessful hits in three turns.

Thursday was turned over to two four player games of Viking 878. The first was an introductory game for Paul and Mike. Paul (Norsemen) and Mike (Berserkers) won the first game of the day with 11 points after peace was declared at the end of the fifth turn. I played the Housecarls and Anthony ran the Thegns.

For the 2nd game, Paul had to go home and prepare our dinner and was replaced by Ross Mac, who was taking a course at a nearby museum, and would stay a couple of nights.

"It takes a pillage to raze a church"

We used a couple of the available expansions, including churches, and Viking Settlements for the our second go. Mike (Berserkers) came up with bad pun of the evening with the quip, "It takes a pillage to raze a church".  We were able to raze most of the churches. I believed only two were left standing, just beyond reach. The Viking Players would have won by destroying all 14.

Ross (Thegns) and Anthony (Housecarls) had the third and final moves in the fifth turn and the English nobles and lords were able to clear out our incursion with little danger to themselves. Once again peace was enforced by the Treaty of Wedmore. The winners of this game were determined by the order of play. With the treaty in play, the side that went last would have been able to gather enough shires to obtain victory. In this case the English held on to fourteen. Nine is the magic number.

Overall a fun evening. Catherine and Paul prepared a feast for us all and we wondered up the road to their place for dinner before finishing the game.

Soldiers of the Queen: More Artillery

Finally got around to completely these 4 guns with crew. Most of the troops are colonial Egyptian, and I too have posted crew with rammers for my Gatling guns.

I toyed with the idea of 4 figures on each base, as well as 4 individual figures for each gun. I'm not certain if my compromise of two crew per gun base, with two addition men on a separate element works. But it does allow to remove troops as the casualties mount.

I also added an ammo marker. As long as it's there you are OK to fire.

There Be Dragons III

Another dragon mounted for 15mm HOTT. Simple presentation. I love the use of glitter to represent its hoard.

Bridging Troubled Waters

I picked up a 15mm Pontoon Bridge (15BRA) by Baueda Wargames last winter during their annual sale. It consists of 5 separate resin pieces which I found to be very clean with little work required for preparation. I spent a couple of evenings last week completing a very basic paint job.

15BRA Baueda Pontoon Bridge

The pontoon boats were painted with the thought they would serve in my 15mm Napoleonic Russian Army, hence the green colour.

15mm Napoleonic Russians crossing the Bridge 

I also found that the bridge  would work with my 20 mm WW2 Japanese project.

Imperial Army on the move.

 Baueda Wargames offers additional pieces for purchase on their website.

A final photo showing the separate pieces.

 

The Anatomy of a Small War Part 8

Once again I return to Northern China, with reinforcements for the cause of The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. This heading has become the catch phrase for my 20mm (1/72nd) scale WW2 Imperial Japanese forces.

First addition are three Type 97 medium tank Chi-Ha by Dragon Models. The models themselves come pre-painted, with a plastic base and display case. I only had to open them up and rebase the tanks to my liking.

Type 97 medium tank Chi-Ha

I found the following listing for HO WW2 JAPANESE SOLDIERS and HO 14 PAINTED TRACKS on eBay. It sounded like a fantastic deal. I really wanted 14 trucks. The soldiers were Airfix LMG teams. The vehicles were repainted die cast models, to which decals of Japanese flags had been applied to the cab doors. I was unable to read the company details on the bottom of the vehicles. Another reason to have my eyes checked. Note: I have since replaced my glasses.

The batch included six cargo trucks, to which I added loads to the back of five. The other eight I have designated as transport, since they have visible benches on the sides for seating.

Cargo Trucks

Transport Trucks

Vehicle Park Storage

Cangames Aftermath Report - by Paul K Smith

Intro: Paul asked me to post his report to my blog and it seems like a win-win situation. I get to add some content and Paul writes a post for me. Please enjoy.

Rob and I made our annual pilgrimage to the 41^st. Cangames in Ottawa over the Victoria Day weekend participating in four miniatures events.

We acquitted ourselves quite well coming away with four certificates, a 1^st and a 2^nd  for Rob and two 2^nd  places for me. 

Had Rob had taken a dive I would have won the prestigious DBA tourney. As it stands the miserable wretch decided to play “honestly” and he is scheduled for a Q&A session with the Grand Inquisitor of the Society to account for his despicable, traitorous actions.

Saturday morning and it was “Grey Wolves at Dusk” run by David Redpath. It was a North Atlantic convoy being attacked by a pack of U-Boats. Rob was an escort commander while I was a U-Boat captain. I managed to sink 2 merchantmen (one by accident as I missed my original target and hit another ship). Rob sank one U-Boat and as the game was ending got brownie points for rescuing survivors. Meanwhile I was lining up a stern shot on an oiler and as the game ended I was asking if there were bonus points for machine gunning survivors.

Some notes- That’s Dave running the game. The second picture you see three U-Boats…two of them are dummies for the “fog of war”. The two burning merchantmen are both my doing. Dave’s rules will be available on Wargame Vault for purchase.

Saturday afternoon was taken up with the Battle of Wihlemstahl, a Seven Years War battle, involving Archduke Ferdinand’s attempt to surround and wipe out a French army in the latter stages of the war. Rob commanded a large French cavalry force and I had a brigade of allied infantry and cavalry. I was quickly wiped out being unable to deploy properly while Rob’s misery extended some time longer.

Saturday evening was Operation Market Garden Bolt Action Game where the Germans were scrambling to prevent British Paras from advancing towards Arnhem. I had command of a Stug III and several sections of infantry while Dave had several half-tracks. Rob had several sections of infantry as well as some infantry support weapons and a six pounder AT gun. David Redpath commanded our side and Rob (more or less the Brits).  By the time game ended we had our asses handed to us on a platter. We did have the satisfaction of taking out the AT gun.

Sunday evening found us in the DBA tourney. Rob had a Seljuik Turk army and while he had promised me a Byzantine army (my favorite) somehow a couple of units had been conveniently forgotten in Montreal. I ended up with a loaner army consisting of a Classical Indian army. I blame Rob. Four rounds of 45 minutes comprise the competition with a maximum of 10 points per round being a maximum score.

I can not comment on Rob’s rounds but I can brag up my own. Now you must note that I play this game once a year and faced off against three of the best DBA players in the OMG club. By the time the dust settled and having read numerous accounts of ancient battles I had triumphed. The numerous series of die rolls of fives and sixes had absolutely nothing to do with  my wins.

The final round was against Rob….the fix was obviously in. It was the worst army that an elephant and chariot army could face….a cavalry army. Needless to say Rob pumped up his cavalry and then proceeded to clean my clock. He needed a win with no losses and I just needed a win to go first. Well I thwarted Rob by taking out two stands before going down to defeat. As the points were tallied Rob and I had tied for second.

This Rob’s 15^th. Year at Cangames and has placed 2^nd five times in DBA. This is my fifth year and I managed a second in a competition where I should just be a filler (cannon fodder). I was totally amazed that I placed second. That will never happen again I’m sure.

A good time was had by all and I still blame “Hingley the Hun” for all of this. Thanks Rob for having introduced me to Cangames. Next year in Damascus!