Dragon Rampant

We dusted off our Lord of the Rings figures and a few other dark age figures to try the Dragon Rampant rules last night. Our first trial went well and had a blast!  We fielded an Orc warband vs. a barbarous horde from the north. We kept it basic and didn't get into magic or special abilities (which are pretty basic anyways). 

One aspect we loved was the activation phase. When it's your turn you really don't know if you'll get all your units to activate! This forces one to prioritize which units need to be concentrated on first.  I played on the Barbarian's side. As it turned out our entire left flank refused to do much for most of the game! And of course those were my units😁

The Orcish leaders plot to concentrate on our right flank. 

The orcs surge forward. Oh, yes they have a troll! 

The wild men from the North threaten the empty Orc right side. Unfortunately that's all they did!!

A unit of light infantry dwarves try to stabilize the center. 

A unit of heavy archers loose a volley into the oncoming Urik-Hais. 

An elite foot unit moves up in support of the archers. 

A unit of light mounted (wargs) moves into the woods on the Barbarian's left flank. 

The troll charged the elite foot unit. Heads will roll!

The foot unit took two strength points of damage while the troll only suffered one. 

On the Barbarian's turn the archers pincushion the troll with three more hits. 

Dragon Rampant uses strength points. Most units have either 6 or 12. The large troll has 12. 

The Barbarian's right starts to crumble from the combination of arrows from the wargs, the elite Orc unit (on top the hill now) and the Uruk-Hai in the center. 

In the few turns that passed (before this photo) one of the Uruk units and the troll broke and called it a day.  But the pressure is being felt as all the Barbarian's right side units are wearing down. 

The Uruk-Hai hit what is left of the elite foot. 

Meanwhile back on the left side.... Not much to report here. Do you folks need help over there?

The archers are well battered and therefore keep retiring backwards!

The wargs smell victory and rush out of the woods. 

The dwarves finally join the party against their sworn enemy. Not much happens though as they both take a few hits and fall back to regroup. 

With half the Barbarian's force gone the remaining units call it a day and swear to avenge the fallen on another day. 

Fast moving and dangerous. Wargs!

Orcish scouts celebrate their victory!!

Picts

Getting ready for my next Dux Britainiarum force. My son Ty wants to do a campaign using a Pictish army. He likes the Scots as well for SAGA so we'll use them for both.  These figures that I'm getting ready are made by Black Tree. 

More photos to follow. 

Romano-British

Painted a small unit of What is to be my Romano-British army for Dux Britanniarum. The figures are from Cusader. I am experimenting with the white prime method by using washes. 

Just need to base them now. My backlog of figures that need basing is getting pretty large. 

Saint Marys Georgia

Some photos of St. Marys, GA. 

I'd like to model some of the Pirate terrain after these. 

A lot of history down here in southern GA and northern FL. 

And my son caught a sting ray!! Imagine that. We released it of course. What a wonderful creature!

Skull Markers

I am in need of an organized system for tracking fatigue, shock or hits on units.  Chain of Command rules utilizes a system of "shock" points while Saga refers to fatigue which is basically the same thing. Black Powder rules tracks hits on a unit. So.... I need something that is universal and inexpensive for tracking wear on a unit. I purchased a couple bags of plastic skull beads off of eBay. They can also be found in craft stores during Holloween. 

So, here's the idea. 5 skulls per stick!

I stuck a bunch of toothpicks into some cardboard which was covered with paper. You'll want to do this so removal is easier. You could try sticking them into foam board but some glues will heat up and melt the foam. So I used cardboard from a box I had laying around. 

Next I placed 1" washers over them and 

(Actually, place the washers first if your layout area is cramped!) double checked the height with 5 skulls. 

I used a good PVA glue to fill in the washer holes. If I do this again I will space out the rows so my hand can get in between easier.  Maybe just do a long strip of markers instead of a block pattern.  Anyways, over fill the void a bit since most glues shrink. 

Glue is done. Let it dry over night. Remove them from the cardboard (you'll see why the top paper is used). Next trim the stubs that stick out from the bottom. The piece of toothpick that was stuck in the cardboard. I used my trusty figure trimmer that cuts figures from the sprue.  Then spray prime whatever color you like. I used black since I didn't want to paint the toothpicks. 

Let the primer dry. You can see the little holes in the cardboard where the point was stuck in the cardboard in this photo. 

Next just finish the base as you want. I didn't want to spend a bunch of time so I just flocked the base and called it good. 

These will work good I think. 

Here they are in use during a 15mm game of Black Powder. 

Black Powder Napoleonic

Thought I'd post some pics of the game that my son and I started playing. It's a 15mm version of Black Powder rules. French vs. Prussians. We both enjoy the rules. 

The Prussians are on the right lined up for action. 

A pic showing my WW1 map of Europe on the wall in the background. 

Hey John Patrick what are you doing over on the French side?😄. He joined in for about 3 full turns. 

The Prussians surge up the center. 

The French open fire and disorder a few units. 

The center is starting to get real hot. 

Prussian right pressures the French. A unit of lancers route a French hussar unit and one infantry unit! Wow! It happened fast and that is one reason we really like these rules. 

The French occupy two of the center building complexes. 

A Prussian reserve division sits and waits for an opportunity. Btw we consider each unit a brigade so 3 to 4 brigades make up a division. It seems to work well. 

Prussian cavalry reserve waiting...

The Prussians deploy their artillery reserve to blast the French out of the structures! 

To be continued....