With another busy Bank Holiday weekend, like buses we feel, we decided to play another small Dark Ages set too. This time we would use Kings Of War Historical, although intended for large mass battles I thought that they would do just as well for smaller engagements, though not lasting as long. There is no figure removal so I classed each base of figures as a 20 man unit in the rules, with the exception of the skirmishers who would be 10 man units. The first game was over rather quickly as I expected, so after lunch we played another game, the pictures below with captions will provide a brief narrative.
We really enjoyed the games, both flowed very smoothly in what was our first run out with the rules. We thought the dual morale levels was a rather neat mechanic, we will certainly use them again.
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| The Saxons Approach Ednas Ford |
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| Penda Fudd Deploys His Troops |
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| Saxon Archers Deploy On The Hill |
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| To Fire On Their Counterparts And Will Annihilate Them In Two Turns! |
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| Briton Archers Remain Food For The Ravens |
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| Meanwhile Baldinus And Baldrick Stand Firm At The Ford, In Hindsight They Should Have Taken the Fight To The Enemy. Instead Wily Old Penda Was Able To Fulfil His Cunning Plan |
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| Penda's Gedricht Taunt Baldinus's Commanipulares, Distracting Them |
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| From The Flanking Saxon Duguth |
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With Another Advancing Through The Copse The Force Of Baldinus Is Surrounded. The Saxon Archers Put A Unit Of Milities To Flight Sealing The Saxon Victory.
Battle two, Arthur has arrived with a relief force, they have force marched so really should rest, but this will also enable Penda's force to rest and prepare also. Having got a grasp of the rules I got engrossed in the game and did not take any coherent photos of this game, below is a random selection.
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Arthur's attack started off well, but Penda, not making Baldinus's mistake earlier surged forth to engage the British force, hand to hand combat threw back and forth, but the British were tired and even the intervention of Arthur himself could not stem the Saxon attack, Arthur himself being severely wounded was carried away by his horse. The British lost heart after that the game was over, another emphatic victory for Penda Fudd.
TTFN
Cracking looking game! I have some friends who are big fans of KOW fantasy so I'm curious if they will be interested in KOW historical.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Thank you Christopher. They should do, the rules are the same, sans the fantasy bits. There is a mythical units section in there as well, so you could add fantastical bits if desired.
DeleteWonderful company, excellent figures and terrain, two interesting games, a new rule set, what's not to like?
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the day and the rules, and we got most things correct ;~)
DeleteGreat looking games. Obviously not tried KOW with dark ages but might have a go. We have made a few mods / house rules for our ancients. Things that just feel right mainly about skirmishers and light cavalry to give them some tactical options. I think the beauty of the rules is they are a pretty solid mechanism which you can then adapt to your own liking. I might just paint up some more dark age warriors 😀
ReplyDeleteThank you Matt. The rules appear highly tinkerable and you can tailor the troop categories pretty well to fit your own ideas of how they should fight. Nothing for evading, but then I tend to think along lines of Neil Thomas, you should not get so close. Next time if we use my Romans and Goths for a game we will let skirmishers with javelins split move, like in Neil's rules
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