Fellow P.I.G. Dave K sent in this blog of his Denisovan “army” that he has been madly painting.

I picked up these 28mm Denisovan miniatures at little wars from Eureka Miniatures. The intent was to use them in “Strong Sword”, “Dead Man’s Hand Downunder”, and any other rules systems that I could get away with.

My objective was to achieve a quick paint job that looked good on the table top.

I used games workshop paints. picking a limited palette of earthy based colours and using red as a spot colour to make the browns and tan colours “pop”.

The skin was painted brown with a black wash over the top. I then just dry brushed the base brown over the top of this.

The rest of the model loincloth, head bands, weapons, shields and hair was a base colour with a wash over the top.

For the dingos I painted them orange, then painted a wash over the top and then picked out the ears, eyes, and mouth with a wash.

For the bases, I picked out a colour for the rocks and sand and just dry brushed it on. With a brown around the edge of the base.

All up these took me about 3 weeks to paint, just working on them a couple of nights a week for about 3 to 4 hours at a time.

As a group we have liked the “Too Fat Lardies” games systems especially Chain of Command. With the release of “What a Tanker” we decided to give this a try for the first time last night.

Although there are familiar elements to Chain of Command the system works quite differently.

Despite the large 72 page rule book we found the game went smoothly, was easy to understand, fun to play, and very intuitive.

Even our lack of knowledge of the rules did not slow down the game as what was required during each turn phase was well laid out and easy to understand. We liked it a lot and it will probably form part of our standard menu of games systems.

We decided to start small with just one early war tank each. As I concentrate solely on the early war in North Africa we used a British A13 Cruiser tank commanded by Algernon Abercrombie (AA) the Third.

AA and his A13

His Italian rival was Giuseppe Gianerelli (GG)the 4th in a Fiat M11/39

Giuseppe and his metal steed suffering a near miss.

(For the purists I know this is not a Fiat M11/39!!!)

The irony for these two aristocratic warriors was that a thousand years earlier they would have been charging into battle side by side in the defence of Christendom against the infidel. Now the considered each other the infidel.

After a short while jockeying for positions the GG was able to unleash the opening shot which hit but only forced AA and his metal stallion backwards.

The return fire from AA also hit with a similar no result.

AA refusing to go “hull down” tried to maneuver for a better shot.

GG was able to counter this placing himself ready to fire as soon as AA pocked his head around the field.

Getting sick of this game of maneuver AA charged forward and was lucky to win the initiative for the next turn and fire first.

There could only be one winner in this close range firefight and this time Algernon was victorious, blowing the turret clean of the tank.

Alas Mussolini lost one of his finest warriors as no one survived the carnage.

Revenge was swift as in the next game Giuseppe Gianerelli (GG)the 5th was able to revenge his father’s untimely demise and captured the stunned Algernon has he emerged from his destroyed tank.

As I said in the opening a quick, fun-filled fast play game. A subsequent re-read of the rules with the experience of a couple of games showed that we played a few of the rules incorrectly but these did not effect our enjoyment at all.

Looking forward to commanding a troop of tanks next time.

Gaming was at my place this Friday night with us playing Dan Mersey’s “The Men Who Would Be Kings” rules.

It ended up being a “two on two” fight, with the French Foreign Legion trying to keep the high-ground against a combined group of Tribesmen and Egyptians. The armies were all pre-set with leadership values and leader traits already determined to save set-up time.

The first French force consisted of two 12 man infantry squads and a Regular 8 man cavalry squadron, with the other consisting of a machine gun and two 12 man infantry squads.

The Egyptian army that would be just at home fighting for the French as against them consisted of three 12 man Irregular Infantry units that were all poor shots, 2 Irregular 8 man camel units and a 12 man Sudanese Regular Infantry unit.

The contingent of tribesman consisted of a single 16 man Elite Fierce infantry unit and six 16 man tribal infantry units.

The terrain was a flat plain commanded by some low hills where the French were camped. A hastily built emplacement was in the gap between the hill line and a small village. Some scattered “prickly pear” hedges blocked line of sight and prevented movement. The hills were not considered high enough to see over the hedges.

The game began with the French deploying their forces on the line of the hills, and the Arab coalition forces deploying second anywhere along their base edge but could not intermingle their contingents.

The Arabs moved first with the tribesmen rushing forward as quickly as they could to avoid the French Rifle fire. The Egyptians moved more cautiously with their camels trying t outflank the French.

The French cavalry led by a “hero of the empire” had other ideas and quickly dealt with the first unit with the second camel unit who was lead by an “idiot” decided to retire to the rear on not once but twice.

The tribesmen were easily able to outflank the French left and charged home and easily destroyed the first French unit.

meanwhile the Egyptians continued to fail to move so decided to “pick -off” some French at long range. Despite needing two sixes to cause a casualty the unit was gradually being worn done. The French cavalry decided to retire to avoid the same fate, an horrific act for “a hero of the French Empire”!!

Fortunately they were just re-deploying to protect the failing French left flank, where the charge up-hill into some tribesman where they received a very bloody nose.

With the Egyptian infantry still not moving the end was in sight as the Arab attack was beginning to peter out.

In the end the French continued to hold the objective with an 11 point to 4 point victory.

Thanks to Andrew W for this P.I.G.S. game report.

For this game we tried to “re do” the battle of Hastings.

We used the rules and army lists from Big DBA. But we set up the terrain based on our perception from reading about the battle.

The hills were Good going. Both flanks end in Forest on the hills.

The Saxon (Harold) army was set up by the umpire, again being based on what has been read. It consists of mainly Spearmen with Swordsmen generals and nobles.

The Norman (William the Bastard) player was able to set up the army as he wished within the rules. The army consists of mounted Knights, Spearmen (dismounted Knights) and some Light troops.

Most of the pictures that follow were taken from The Bastards side.

PICTURES.

These show the starting position of both armies. All from Williams side. The three Saxon commands consist of Harold in the middle and two even sized commands, one a hill on each flank.

04 William centre and left 2 and 05William right flank 2

These show more detail on William’s start position taken from Harold’s side of the table.

07 William right 4 and 08 William centre and left 4

The Normans advance.

The Saxons decide to stay where they are with some minor adjustments. They move some of their Swordsman into different positions and Light Foot into position in the forest.

09 William left 5

William’s left command moves up and combat begins between the Light Foot of both armies in the forest.

10 William left 6

The Saxons move some Spearmen into the help the Light Foot and the rest move down the slope and engage William’s Knights.

11 William left 7

The Normans recoil. They re-engage moving in Spear to assist. But the Saxons still have the up-hill advantage.

12 William right 7

Meanwhile on the right flank the Norman Knights have moved in also. The Knights engage the Light Foot in the Forest. True. These Normans are prepared to try something different.

13 William right 8

The other Knights in the command charge up the hill along with some of their spearmen and engage the Saxon spear wall.

14 William left 8 and 15 William left 9

Back on the left flank the fighting has moved off the hill for some units. On the far left near the forest the Saxons have destroyed a couple of units and broken through.

16 William right 9

Meanwhile on the right flank the Saxons have prevailed. Three Norman units have been killed.

17 William left 10, 18 William right 10 and 19 End 1

Following up from their breakthrough the Saxons on the left have out flanked and destroyed another unit thus breaking the Norman left command.

The fighting continues on the right flank and the outnumbered Normans lose another stand thus breaking the Right Command.

Two broken commands means army break. The Normans loose. Harold survives and History has changed.

Huh?

What happened?

The Normans decided to try a few things and attacked on the flanks not the centre.

Spearmen on a hill, with the up-hill advantage, ably defeated the mounted Knights and then the enemy spearmen.

Some of the Norman Knights were dismounted as spearmen.

Throughout the game the Bowmen were not very effective.

Nevertheless it was an interesting game and we may try it again with a few changes.

After the game we tested running the Knights against Harold’s centre command which was on level ground. Again the Spearmen easily repelled the Knights.

Harold safely back at his court after the battle.

END

We decided to continue our learning of the Strong sword rules for our Viking skirmish games. Andrew and David K were the protagonists with David S acting as umpire and all round good guy (at least the round is right).

The war bands were similar with Andrew having a Hero, Hearthguard, a Berserker, 3 Bondi spearmen and 2 Bondi archers.

David K’s had a slight twist with a hero, Berserker, Valkyrie and 5 Bondi spearmen. It was agreed that the Bondi spearmen used their weapon as a thrusting spear rather than a javelin and so not be used for missile attacks.

Andrew’s army advancing

David K’s war band advancing behind the Valkyrie ( such wooses) .

P.I.G. Andrew deciding  to lead his war band personally.

Not to be out done David K also joined the fray.

The Valkyrie was proving her worth by rejecting the first four of David K’s downed warriors from entering the halls of Valhalla (only stunned and not actually slain). Despite this the stunned markers were building up.

With slain figures on both sides the combat was heating up (which is why Andrew and David K have piked it and are no longer personally leading their war bands – not the stuff of heroes).

The heroes faced-off with Andrew’s the clear victor.

With all of his figures down or running of the board Andrew was left the victor.

The game ran smoothly with the Valkyrie rules working really well but still needing some tweeking. A few more games are required before we fully understand how to use the various Stances to the full potential.

Hi All,

Had a great time at little wars. The P.IG.S. and G.R.O.G.S. (Greensborough Royal Order of Gaming Simulators) had a great time entertaining participants with our 54mm DBA game of Zama.

What could be better than big dice, big figures and even bigger egos!!!

We ran about eight games throughout the day which everyone enjoyed immensely.

Imperial Rebel Ork sorry I missed you as it would have been good to catch up.

A great time to buy lots of goodies, catch up with old mates, talk ship and push some figures around.

Nic – really well done and looking forward to next year.

Photos courtesy of fellow G.R.O.G.S. member Blake M.