A day of two halves

 Morning- off for a battle between the forces of the Duke of Albion and those of the Duke of Tradgardland using “Charge” wargame rules-

Late afternoon whilst reading in the garden l looked at the shed and thought it looked a tad odd-

The pile of figure containing boxes had collapsed with some figures scattered everywhere and other boxes on their side or upside down. Couldn’t bear to look but will have to tomorrow…

New recruits in the Duchy of Tradgardland

 

Latest recruits for the Duchy of Tradgardland gather today .

They are vivandieres for the  regiments.

Here is one of the vivandieres on parade with her regiment.

Another view of the same regiment.

Final view of the parading regiment with Colours to the fore and vivandiere, pioneer and Colonel to the rear.

Friday

 

Finally getting round to trimming the hedge .

Unpacking the garden bit by bit . A curious figure looks on.

Some strawberries saved from the slugs , far less luck with the bean plants.

The end of the game today My Viking general attacks his Norman counterpart to no avail. My next action was to concede.

Norman cavalry ride down my Vikings with ease.

Stolid Norman foot advancing…

Watch out cavalry about!

My Vikings at the start of the game.

A helpful guide to planting.

Raabbiitt Hoooooooooole…..

 I have fallen down this rabbit hole-

"Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”

 I recently was searching for this on eBay- 

I bought it and paid my money. I got a message from the seller saying he had looked at the item and it was in worse condition than he recalled. He therefore offered to refund me what I had paid and cancel the sale or if I wanted ,send it to me for the postage cost alone.

I decided to take up his free but pay postage offer. It arrived yesterday and is perfectly usable. Many thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

New arrivals for Charge

 A packet arrived today-

I had sent off for them the other week and they arrived quickly. They are for the forthcoming battle against the forces of the Duke of Albion.

Just enough vivanderie for six Duchy of Tradgardland regiments.

They are all in different uniforms and fine sculpts, quite tall and elegant.

I am looking forward to painting them up over the coming days…

Currently reading

 Here’s my current reading-

Haven’t read fiction for ages but was caught up in this. I saw it in a local bookshop and picked it up and was drawn in. Great read, easy read but terrific fun. The other book was a birthday present from one of my daughters. Just started it and am really enjoying its insights into urban wildlife.

Finally couldn’t resist the book below at 80% off. Had a wee look as it arrived yesterday and l am pleased to have bought it.

What are you reading that you would recommend?

Follow you , follow me with apologies to Genesis

 One really handy blogger thingy is my feed of blogs l follow. It lets me know when folk have posted and it is my custom to read this and the aforementioned mentioned blogs over breakfast each day. It is a routine I have got into and one l enjoy and have done so for years. I admit not every blog gets the same amount of attention, my interest comes and goes and comes around again but it is good to see what others are up to. My fellow bloggers are often generous in their comments , time and otherwise including advice information and where to find it. 

This morning l noticed that one of my followers had unfollowed me. It did lead to me wondering why. I don’t thing l have unfollowed anyone over the years. I might not read as attentively at times or have a wee break from certain blogs but l have never unfollowed. I therefore wonder why l am a follower down, 

P.s It is not vanity that prompts this post but a niggling sense of why…

Berserkers and Battlefields

 Earlier in the week I sent this email to my regular opponents who l was due to have a game with today. We had been talking last week about changes needed-

Subject: DBV thoughts

Afternoon all,
I’ve been pondering aspects of DBV this week.
I think the loss of a unit leader is too drastic. The unit that has lost a leader might as well be removed as its ability to fight is so utterly diminished. One way of dealing with this might be to lessen its negative in combat . Another might allow it to rally ( effectively sort itself out ) if it throws a six, after which its demoralised negative no longer counts.
Another idea I had was to have one figure as a separate unit who is the general/ leader/Count etc. He gets another dice added to the bag. On activation the leader can move to join a unit, fight with a unit he is with or rally a unit he is in contact with. He will get a +2 in combat ( making him far less easy to kill, as he is a hero) and can leave or join units as the player wishes.
Finally berserkers- +1 in combat, never get demoralised and each time their unit is activated needs a 5,6 on a d6 not to charge nearest enemy. Sort of like dbm and impetuous. 
Thoughts and questions…
Cheers
Alan

One replied-

Hi guys,

Some interesting points, Alan, and I have gone back to the original WRG document to see if any of these were addressed then, and subsequently edited out in our amendments:

On the question of leader figures, the document states "One figure of the most expensive mounted type or most expensive foot type present is nominated as the force's commander and one figure of each group is nominated as its leader". It doesn't then mention said figure again, nor define what there is, except for the effect on morale if they are lost: "A sub-unit reduced to or deprived of its leader or force commander by members being slain, disabled or leaving the table is demoralised", where demoralised means -4 on morale and no defined mechanism for recovery. There is no mention of Fanatics.

I think that the solutions that you propose nicely address the issues that we have encountered with the rules, with perhaps a further suggestion for the role of the force commander, whereby a unit which has lost its leader retains the -4 combat factor until it has been joined by the force commander, removing the -4, and who can then promote one of the remaining figure to the leadership role and restore the moral for subsequent bounds, even after the force commander has move on.

We can discuss these in more detail tomorrow, and perhaps play-test some of them.

Cheers

He also looked at WRG 3rd and 4th edition ancient rules for parallels and idea.

So we play tested this afternoon. Some photos-

Animated berserker figure in action…

Start postions, I was the Viking commander today.

My Saxon opponents…

My second berserker in action…

All in all the berserker rules and general rules worked well. Play testing and tweaking continues next week.

Memo to self need to read up further on berserkers and their battlefield role…

Further to Charge

 I am interested to know if anyone knows of  Charge ! playsheets available. The Duke of Stollen produced one if l am not mistaken. I am looking for a playsheet for the advanced rules.

Charge again

 My first copy of Charge! arrived 18th July 1987 and my second arrived today. 

I bought the new copy partly because the front cover was a coloured photograph, secondly l thought that the b&w photos in the text would be bigger too and the text as well.

Well l was wrong. The photos in the new hardback are blurry compared to my older copy and the text is less sharp or maybe greyer not black and shows up less well on the white page. All in all l am a tad disappointed.

Slow train (layout) coming ( along a bit…)

 Things are moving forward a little for the garden railway-

Firstly some splendid rolling stock kindly given to me by Brian C.

I couldn’t resist buying the boat fronted , sail powered inspection wagon last year.

Here is a box , an eBay box, sealed up and ready to open…

The crew unwrap the contents carefully…

There is the eBay purchase - radio controller and train. Batteries to be added…

Got at a very reasonable price. The Penedredfel Light Railway has moving power at last. Hurrah!

I was finding the railcar and rail bus kits difficult but l do intend to complete them.

I am looking forward to trying it out and also doing some track work ( weather, gardening and time permitting) soon…

Unstuck, in some matters-

 Friday saw rebasing and gaming-

Removing figures from six on 60mm square to six on 40mm square, from mdf and felt to see through acrylic.

Reasons the bigger bases were far too dispersed imho and forty mil looks better for line infantry in this period.

See thru acrylic allows winter games and non winter ones.

I haven’t the patience of Tidders so I retained their metal bases rather than the more aesthetically pleasing method of cutting off the bases retaining just the feet.

Work in progress, in the new and out with the old!

Friday’s game of DBV. Normans v Saxons, my friend’s figures, large but lovely 28s.

I was umpiring this week. Bolt action dice for order of activation worked well again.

“ what’s that coming over the hill is it a Norman?”

Saxons wait the onslaught…

Norman cavalry causing chaos and carnage! Even by our standards an unbelievable number of ones were thrown by the Saxons not to mention an inordinate number of six versus one opposed dice rolls. Good fun indeed.

Tried the backdrops again-

A little better l think…