Stand To; Wargames Show Shildon, County Durham.

Sunday came around and Jim and I headed off towards the Shildon Wargames Show held near Darlington in the Railway Museum there. To be honest it was more on spec and out of interest as it was free entry! I'm going to be honest about the experience. I don't mean to say anything disparaging about the organisers; I've never had to organise a wargames show and I really don't know all the ins and outs.  I do however feel that there is room for some constructive criticism here. The show was not well attended and this was without doubt largely down to the lack of advertising. This is perfectly exemplified by the fact that I only heard of the show by chance by a mate who mentioned it on the net. A lot more could be done to advertise this show. It's got good lighting a clean cafe (I never got around to going to the loo!) and is quite a good venue. OK, there are trains interspersed here and there but they would kind of add to the ambiance of the place if only there had been much more of a crowd in. Advertising is essential to any show and it's not that difficult to get a flyer and the relevant details out on the net these days. 

As far as Traders were concerned, again, much could be done to get more folk along. Even if a trader wasn't interested in actually turning up with their wares they may well be happy to put on some sort of demo with some of their their ranges on display.

There were not many demo nor participation games; I think I counted three which given the space in the place really let the show down too. I would have been happy to put on a game and might well put myself forward as doing so (Hastings) for next year if I see that there has been an effort made to advertise the show.

As I said earlier, it's easy to be critical but hopefully the organisers, if they read this, will take on board a few of the comments I have made. It's easy to be critical, much harder to put things into practice.

Mike from our Club Selling His Painted Wares:

Robbie Roddis' Beautiful Renaissance Game:

(Easily the best game of the show IMHO)

And a bit of goodly kit:

Bye for now

Haggis Rampant Campaign Notes

I received a copy of the Haggis Rampant Campaign notes yesterday from Dave and already things are looking like they might be a lot of fun for the Islemen who, granted, with my list may not be able to control themselves and may well be getting stuck into melee with extreme prejudice!! It should be a great laugh! :>)

Haggis Rampant A Lion Rampant campaign set in the Border Marches during the 14th century(ish). This is a light-hearted campaign in line with the published definition of the rules; Lion Rampant is ‘a set of simple miniature wargaming rules designed for fighting historical or Hollywood battles in the medieval period’ and is ‘a medieval-themed battle game rather than a detailed and scholarly simulation of combat in a specific century.’ Players will be in 2 teams representing the national sides – the Scots (at the time of an unspecified king – possibly but not necessarily a Bruce) and the English (also at the time of an unspecified king – possibly but not necessarily an Edward). Players start with 6 Men-at-Arms, representing themselves plus their immediate retinue; they can choose whether to depict these as mounted or on foot, as the scenario dictates. A further 18 points of arrayed and / or indentured troops are added to bring each force (termed a Company) up to 24 points total. Troops will be chosen from the lists shown below. (Although originally designed for Scots versus English, French allies fighting for the Scots will find appropriate troop types in the ‘English’ list). The Lion Rampant rulebook restrictions apply: • A maximum of 4 units or 12 pts of any unit type (whichever is lower), inclusive of upgrades. e.g. a retinue may only include 2 Foot Men-at-Arms, three Foot Serjeants (2 if Expert), or 4 Bidowers. Mounted and Foot units count separately. The campaign is split into campaign seasons, each of 40 days; this being the length of service for troops levied by either an English Commission of Array or Scots Common Army. (Indentured troops could serve for longer but 40 days is known from Edward III’s indentures.) At the end of the season all Company troops, except the leader’s immediate retinue (Men-atArms), are disbanded. There is an indeterminate and abstract length of time between campaign seasons; this could be months or even years. During this time the player’s Companies are rebuilt back up to 24 points; note that this need not be the same composition as the previous Company. There is also some scope for adjusting the composition of your force in that the attacker may replace up to 6 points of his army with different units/upgrades to suit the scenario. 

ENGLISH:

Men at Arms: 6pts Upgrade: Drilled @ 1pt *Dismount as Foot Men-atArms Wild Charge (mounted) Counter-charge (mounted) Ferocious (Foot)

Hobilars: Mounted Sergeants 4pts Upgrade: none *Dismount as Foot Sergeants Counter-charge (mounted) Schiltron (Foot) Armoured Infantry Foot Sergeants 4pts Upgrade: Expert @ 2pts Schiltron

Billmen: Expert Foot Sergeants 6pts Upgrade: none Bills, halberds and axes

Unarmoured Infantry: Foot Yeomen 3pts Upgrade: Expert @ 2pts Javelins @ 1pt Mixed Weapons @ 2pts Schiltron Unarmoured

Mixed Infantry Foot Yeomen: 5pts Upgrade: none Mixed spear and bow

Welsh Infantry Foot Yeomen: 4pts Upgrade: none Javelins, Schiltron

Unarmoured Billmen Expert Foot Yeomen: 5pts Upgrade: none Bills, halberds and axes

Archers: 4pts Upgrade: Expert @ 2pts ‘Trained Longbowmen’

Expert Archers: 6pts Upgrade: none

Mercenary Crossbowmen Crossbowmen: 4pts Upgrade: Pavise @ 2pts

Welsh Bidowers Bidowers: 2pts Upgrade: none Hard to target Skirmish Evade Fleet Footed

Characters (Hero, Holy Man, banner etc.): 1pt Any unit except Leader’s unit, Bidowers or Serfs. +1 to all Courage tests

*Dismounts: Men-at-Arms or Hobilars may dismount as a foot unit of equivalent points (i.e. 6 Ft MAA or 12 Ft Sergeants). This option must be chosen before the game begins. Units may not remount during the game.

SCOTS:

Men-at-Arms: 6pts Upgrade: Drilled @ 1pt *Dismount as Foot Men-atArms Wild Charge (mounted) Counter-charge (mounted) Ferocious (Foot)

Hobilars Mounted Sergeants: 4pts Upgrade: none *Dismount as Foot Sergeants Counter-charge (mounted) Schiltron (Foot)

Spearmen Foot Sergeants: 4pts Upgrade: Expert @ 2pts Schiltron

Axemen Expert Foot Sergeants: 6pts Upgrade: none Bills, halberds and axes

Unarmoured Spearmen Foot Yeomen: 3pts Upgrade: Expert @ 2pts Schiltron

Unarmoured Axemen Expert Foot Yeomen: 5pts Upgrade: none Bills, halberds and axes

Highland Archers Archers: 4pts Upgrade: none Lowland Archers

Bidowers: 2pts Upgrade: none Hard to target Skirmish Evade Fleet Footed ‘Wild Scots’ (Highland / Isles)

Fierce Foot: 4pts Upgrade: none Ferocious Wild Charge Counter-charge vs infantry Fleet Footed Characters (Hero, Holy Man, banner etc.): 1pt Any unit except Leader’s unit, Bidowers or Serfs. +1 to all Courage tests

*Dismounts: Men-at-Arms or Hobilars may dismount as a foot unit of equivalent points (i.e. 6 Ft MAA or 12 Ft Sergeants). This option must be chosen before the game begins. Units may not remount during the game.

Bye for now.

Lion Rampant; Landwasters and Raven Feeders Part II

Hi,

Here's Part II of the Lanwasters and Raven Feeders variation of Lion Rampant. As mike has to go home a little early I was able to step in his place defending the last corner. Unfortunately, despite accidentally moving 8' with my Yoemen Foot [Posh(ish) lads with spears] until it was pointed out to me that I was moving too quickly! Anyway I had one chance to charge the enemy and knock them back off the table, thus winning the game pre-Glory Point count, but, you guessed it; my unit bounced allowing said enemy unit with priest to walk to safety in a fairly comfortable manner! Oops!! :>)

Gloriously flippant view of one of the Tanks Mike painted up!

Here's the pics of the real action!:

Bye for now.

Haggis Rampant English and Scots Campaign

The campaign is roughly penciled in at the club for about a months time so I put in my order to Calymore Castings and ordered the following Isleman packs to start off with:

One of these:

One of these:

One of these:

One of these:

One of these:

And Two of these::

Bye for now.