Posts by Pete H

    The Saxons, Romans, Franks and Irish formed up their warbands and headed into the dilapidated abandoned city to search for trinkets to build up their treasure horde with a view to recruiting additional mercenaries to help them in their coming bid for domination of their respective homelands ( they are all at the moment minor nobles or exiles).

    The Franks faced the Irish and the Saxons squared up against the Romans in the crumbling ruins of the once great city.

    I'm not so sure what happened between the Romans and Saxons except that despite getting the better of things Del Montes boys seemed to walk away with most of the loot taunting the Saxon Wiglea (priest) for his ineffectual efforts in summoning his God's to help his warband.

    The Irish advanced boldly against the Franks. They were in such a hurry that they stumbled upon a sleeping bear. The Irish were obviously too frightening for the bear though as it ran off looking for somewhere else to hide.

    First to hit the Franks were the dogs. Unfortunately they seemed to get the worst of it and were soon laid low after a couple of rounds of fighting. The remaining Irish warband cam up and some hard fighting ensued but though suffering casualties the Franks were giving out more than they received and eventually the Irish leader was left alone on the battlefield. I should point out that the Irish had by this point faced and passed half a dozen rout tests.

    With their own casualties mounting it was the Franks turn to take rout tests and the Irish leader twice came close to winning the fight singlehandedly. That would have been sn epic saga indeed.

    Unfortunately the Franks were made of stern stuff and striking down the Irish heroine on the fourth attempt claimed victory.

    did we clear up if only marksman can have missile weapons?

    The lists give some ranged weapon options that can be bought for anyone (all characters except dogs and zombies have a BS) and the Marksmen have a few additional shooting weapon options. Again we are adapting the rules as there's no black powder weapons in ours and we added javelins but I'd say that any can have a javelin or sling but only Marksmen can have jav, sling, bow or crossbow? See what everyone thinks.

    Hey Peter only thing that stood out to me was the Roman characters having 1 less Str, maybe keep them all the same points but the Roman Leader/Heroes lose the Str but gain one LD, as disciplined Career soldiers they might be better at keeping "in the game" than the Tribal Warrior types?

    Thanks Craig, those are good suggestions. I took the variations straight out of the book. They suggest Middenheim as S4 because they were larger, stronger and a bit more savage. Marienburg was a richer trading city so 100 more points to spend on warband (and a +1 when trading for rare items). It seemed like a natural Barbarian v Rome demarcation. The one I didn't put in was Reikland which had a Leader with a 12" command radius and all Marksmen at BS 4 as that did seem a bit over powered from the get go.

    We'll discuss it and go with what everyone thinks.

    I've put the more Human based historical type options in the file base in summary. Have a look through to see if you agree. If so you can draw up your own warband. There's enough options for some differences in warbands.

    I'll put a random Animal set of options in next so these can be incorporated into games.

    We agreed to fight Active V Active games.

    Following their previous victories over the Irish the Franks were keen to add to their points haul with yet more easy pickings against their celtic rivals. The Irish for their part had gone away to lick their wounds and change their plans so they'd come out victorious this time.

    There was a hill by a river and sure enough the hill proved a fixation as each side tried to occupy the high ground. This time though the tide had turned and the Irish new tactics or at least new dice rolling efforts proved sufficient to give them victory.

    We tried another game of Londiniumheim this time incorporating magic - sorry prayers. Del Monte led his band of Mithraic following Romans against a band of outlaws who followed the White Christ. Who's magic - sorry prayers would be stronger. Well it must be the Christian outlaws as the Romans didn't have a priest who could pray in their list. Wrong. It turns out the dice gods favoured the Mithraics to tip the scales in the Romans favour - kind of.

    The scenario was an encounter battle with each side trying to break other warband and cause the enemy to lose theirwyrdstone- sorry trinkets while gaining extra to add to their own.

    We added in rules for finding animals in the ruins . The lairs might be empty or have docile creatures in - or not!

    There were three lairs. One was empty the Romans found a cow in one and it ran away and the Christian outlaws found - a bear. Not only a bear but a really big bear. And it was an angry bear. Del Montes boys cheered their Mithraic totems appearence. A surely enough the bear passed its leadership and emerged from the hut it was in to chase down an outlaw young blood. Remarkably he survived only getting knocked down.

    Lying prone is a good defence against a bear. It might lose interest. Unfortunately for the young blood the Christian priest used his healing hands to stand him up.

    The bear was understandably worried by the priests use of his hands and tore the head off the young blood and then attacked the priest. It should be noted that the priest had failed all other attempts at magic so no magical armouror, no flaming cross to fight with. Just some wandering hands and now facing a bear but only wearing a sack cloth and carrying some bits of wood. The combat went as well for the priest as you'd expect and he soon departed the field as a casualty. 2 - 0 to the bear.

    Unfortunately Del Montes actual warband was faring less well causing no casualties and suffering three themselves whilst the bear did its thing.

    A rout test was prompted and Del Montesboys fled the field leaving the outlaws victorious- so long as they didn't go anywhere near the bear.


    The rules work really well and give a fast play game. The toned down magic/prayers also work well and if everyone agrees all the factions can take their turn in the ruined city facing bandits, animals and the like as an addition to the campaign.


    Anyway here's the photo evidence of the power of Mithras that makes even a loss seem like a victory.

    The Franks were taking on a band of itinerant Irish in their WAB game. Things started cautiously on the part of the Franks and the Irsh surged across the field to meet them. Maybe surged is a bit too strong a term but most of the fighting seemed to be on the Frank part of the field.

    The Frank cavalry fought Ceithern and unusually for cavalry overcome the disadvantages of prolonged combat versus close order infantry and broke the ceithern. They then pursued and broke some skirmishers who had bravely/ foolishly stood to fight.

    While this was going on the Pueri had fought the formidable Fianna to a standstill initially drawing several rounds of combat before losing but hanging in there by passing break tests ( the last time on an ASB re-roll.

    Their heroics allowed the other Franks to clear the Irish from the battlefield and at the end of the day claim a mighty victory for the Franks.

    With an eye to future games and campaigns we tried out Mordheim but in a less fantasy more historical version. We had two human gangs. One a more numerous but lower quality bandit gang and the other a Roman gang based on the Middelheim variation of the merc list. The game played well as the Gangs tried to take possession of houses that had wyrdstone sorry stuff worth looting in them (scenario 8 in the book). At first neither gang proved very adapt at shooting or fighting for that matter but the minis seemed to warm up to the new gaming system as the game progressed and the critical hits started to flow thick and fast.

    Both gangs hit their 25% loss moralecheck and both passed to fight on to turn 8 (game end) where the Romans had two wyrdstone - sorry stuff worth looting and the bandits had one.

    The Romans were commanded by the infamous Del Monte. He fought ( hopelessly). The only time he didn't roll a 1 to hit he rolled a 2. He got flattened by a lowly bandit archer. His gang only got the better of the bandits because of the efforts of his pedyts. All typical for Del Monte.

    At the game end there's a mechanism to see what happens to the 'hero' gang members ( leaders and champions). The henchman who are down and out are lost permanently.

    The bandit characters all picked up injuries as a consequence of being down and out. Then it was Del Monte turn. He emerged without a scratch!

    It seems whatever the game system Del Monte always leaves all the work to his minions, picks up the glory and never gets a scratch on him.

    It was an enjoyable game. I think we could reduce the magic and have it as prayers so the various factions 'priests' could do their thing but it wouldn't ve as powerful as the magic.

    The experience and looted stuff is a mechanism in the game that would work well in a campaign. A limitation maybe that it is a 1 v 1 game - compared to Pulp but definitely worth looking at further and having more games.

    All that said here's the pix note the last one

    with Del Monte at the games end atop an old tower surveying the city and saluting Jupiter Best and Greatest. Perhaps that's were he get his lucky shtick from!

    We'd been talking about running a kind of cross historical fantasy campaign. I was watching some you tube videos fall of civilizations. The one on Roman Britain was good and included a bit where the new settlers to Britain avoided the abandoned Roman cities for settlement as they considered them ' haunted' but did go into them looking for loot - a bit like a historical version of Mordheim.

    I think we could include a round of this in this campaign and if it worked we could then

    increase the fantasy element a bit and use it for the next campaign. It is essentially small scale WHFB which is very similar to WAB.

    Horstwolf and his Saxon horde were facing up against a band of marauding Irish on the banks of a great river. I didn't witness much of this one but the Saxons used their saxon buckler rerolls affectively and Horstwulfs gedricht proved themselves against the flimsy armoured Irish however the geoguth were more fragile and it was a bloody day before the Saxons won a minor victory.

    I didn't witness much of this one but the Irish under the vigorous leadership of Findabair met a force of Romans on the banks of a great river. Much blood was spilt , nearly all of it Roman, as the Commitatus proved as inept as usual and fled the fighting despite the enhanced leadership of a Tribune.

    So, putting in in terms Gildas would approve ie never saw anything and wrote with a 5th century version of clickbait:-

    Findabair gained glory as the dead fell around him. The great river filled with the corpses of his enemies so that it ran red from source to mouth. He spread terror as he moved through their lands, his actions as if to remove the Roman race itself from the land of Brittania.


    No this isn't a post about a P Diddy White Party and baby oil - it's even stranger than that. In the face of a barbarian invasion, a rather grand title for a few bands of marauding Irish and Picts incursions on to Roman and British territory, Cynfarchwyn and Del Monte decided to band together to fight the celtic troublemakers.

    At this point I think we should just mention the shocking attitude of Cynfarchwyn to his celtic cousins. Refering to them as 'that lot in brown over there' he was clearly in need of a DEI refresher course.

    The battle started with a lot of Pict skirmishers shooting which caused enough Welsh casualties ( 2 x Teliu) for Cynfarchwyn to charge forward and see them off only for the Welsh cavalry to be javelined and in turn flee.

    A general melee then broke out and despite the Teliu winning they fled as the Combrogi had broken and joined the fleeing cavalry each setting the other off in panic. It was only after a couple of turns that they looked around and realised the Picts had done likewise ( literally everyone fled) that they rallied.

    On the Roman side Del Monte took on the Irish. For once his cavalry didn't flee and actually did their job seeing off skirmishers. The Irish were very rash and warbanded at inopportune moments putting them at a disadvantage in the melees that broke out.

    As usual the Roman Pedyts performed better than the Commitatus but by the end of the day the Irish rashness had handed Del Monte victory.

    So with both the Welsh and Romans seeing off ' that lot in brown over there' it was left to the two respective commanders to claim who the day really belonged to.

    As a side note to Ian ( the regular Irish commander) note the chariots on display!

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    I was going to do a large (three a side) WAB game if everyone was down. We can still do a larger WAB game if people would like?

    Following the last pulp game where theprincess was left on the body strewn site unclaimed some wandering Bacaudae had happened on the battlefield and taken her prisoner back to their base at the aforementioned Drizzly Bottom. A small mean village with a lot of broken down homes and dilapidated Roman structures this wasn't the place for a princess to be. Well she wasn't really a princess but her father was a wealthy merchant and would pay a hefty ransom to get her back. That prompted the Franks, Romans, Welsh, Saxons and Picts to converge on Drizzly Bottom to 'rescue ' the Princess. If there was a big reward in it for them well so much the better, that wasn't their motivation at all!

    The population of Drizzly Bottom knew better than to interfere when bands of viscous armed men arrived in town and would offer no resistance. Their live stock however was a different matter. A lifetime of abuse from the human inhabitants had left them viscous and intepemerate and ready to attack as the leagues would find out.

    Del Montes Romans came in from the north and were making good progress. They didn't find the Princess but did come across the pooches ruby and garnet encrusted collar which was a prize in itself. However thetly then saw a roaming preacher spreading God's Word to anyone who would listen. Del Monte was soon embroiled in an argument with him and this held the Romans up to the extent that they found their path into the centre of the town blocked by a gang of Franks who were barrelling mob handed down what passed for the main street.

    The Picts had come in from the east and found some coins that the bandits had stashed. Again not the Princess but a prize worth having. They then spied a huddled figure near a dilapidated villa on the main street and Dunghail sent his men forward in the hope this was the Princess.

    The Saxons had found a silver platter stashed by the bandits and Horstwulf made sure he was keeping that for himself sending his minions forward towards the town centre.

    Cynfarchwyn and his brother and GF had all elected to ride into the town on their fine white and grey steeds. Nice and inconspicuous that. They eventually came across the Princess' abandoned cloak. A sure sign she was in the town and they began an attempted dressage through the muddy lanes of Drizzly Bottom.

    Now about those livestock. The donkeys proved particularly nasty lashing out at anyone rushing past them and laying out some Franks and Saxons and generally proving a hindrance.

    Some geese and pigs proved to be fascinated by the Welsh horses and pursued Cynfarchwyn's band down the muddy lanes.

    With the town providing rich pickings for everyone but no Princess yet the leagues made their way into the town centre.

    The Picts reached the huddled figure first but a single Roman had made it there as well and a fight ensued.

    The Franks then turned up in force and a mass brawl broke out. A bit like what normally happened in Drizzly Bottom but at throwing out time.

    Unfortunately for all parties there sas a donkey tethered near the scrimmage and it soon joined in the melee dealing several blows to the participants. With swords, knives, arrows, fists and hooves flying the town centre was filling with bodies of the fallen henchmen. It got so bad that the Saxons decided that was not the place to be and Cynfarchwyn caught sight of Horstwulf's silver platter and decided that was more promising than a town centre scrum that may reveal the Princess.

    A second fight broke out between the Welsh and Saxons down a back alley where Horstwulf managed to hold on to his prize and a Saxon despicably dealt a Welsh follower an incapacitating blow as he lay defenceless on the floor.

    That was pretty much it as night fell and the leagues withdrew bloodied but enriched but unfortunately without the Princess.


    Not sure who is around tomorrow but I wondered if you wanted another Pulp game? Can do a WAB game if that's the consensus.

    The Romans took on the Picts and the Welsh were up against a Romano British faction in the latest games which saw the active leagues take on an enemy who were on the defence. The Picts and Romano Brits each traded off some points to put some terrain in place to help with their defence, it proved a bit of a mixed blessing.

    The Picts had an improvised wall defence and placed a unit behind it and some broken ground on the other flank knowing that Del Montes Romans would struggle in the terrain. The heavily armoured Romans struggled to maneuver and get into action in a coherent manner and found the Picts very difficult to root out from behind the defences and their skirmishers as stubborn as ever.

    By the end of the game the Picts held a minor victory.

    The Welsh were not so obliging as to attack their opponents who were ensconced behind their defences. Instead they avoided the Sagittari forcing them to come out into the open where the Welsh one trick horses could do their one trick but effective Fire and Flee. The Romano British proved good at soaking up loses and hanging in there but hopeless at their own limited shooting. .

    The amount of javelins thrown by the Welsh was in fact so prodigious that they must have felled a large wood to make them all.

    Apart from their archers and a few skirmishers the Romano British enemies had no javelins to throw back and only table top shields and armour to avoid injury. In the end with the Welsh getting in the flanks and firing and fleeing it proved too much and a major Welsh victory ensued.

    Once again Del Montes Romans found that moving and fighting was a bit much to do at the same time and the Welsh continued on their victory streak. They are becoming the Dark Ages version of the Ever Victorious Army (and they've added terraforming to their character traits !)