Saxon Surprise

This was a battle fought by the Southern Strategists a while ago using the Stradhogg rules.
The Vikings had carried out a dawn raid on this little coastal village somewhere along the Saxon coast. After defeating any resistance the victorious Vikings set about collecting up the spoils of war. These included  monks, women and children,farm animals and a few other odds and sods. As the mopping up operation got under way over the hills came more Saxons intent on preventing the Vikings from taking anything away, even their lives!
So, the game began with the Saxons arriving on the table edge and the Vikings in and around the village. While some of the Viking warbands tried to slow the Saxon advance the rest of the Vikings were herding their captives toward the waiting ships, well, ship in this case.

Vikings prepare to face the oncoming Saxons.

Vikings herding cattle and pigs toward the longboat.

Farm animals and peasents being incourged to join the Viking way of life.

Viking ship waiting for the plunder to arrive

Some of the women didn't seem very keen to leave.

A Saxon warband charging down the hill into the Vikings.

A mounted Saxon warband reaches the village. Are they in time?

More mounted Saxons arriving on the hill top.

A controlled retreat toward the waiting ship.

Saxons begin to over power the Vikings still in the village.

The Vikings are struggling to get their captives to the ship with the Saxons about to recapture the towns folk and animals.

By the end of the night the Vikings had managed a very narrow victory. Having herded just over half of the available victory points worth of plunder to the ship.

A special thanks to Tim from Comics Compulsion (our local wargaming store) for coming along and joining in the game.

Conquest 2011

Conquest is an annual gaming event being held in conjunction with Comics Compulsion and the Christchurch Cavaliers Wargames Club. Every year, apart from a couple of times, the Southern Strategists put on a demo game and this year it was a Napoleonic naval game.

Here are a few photos from our game and some of the other games going on around the place.

Kings of War demo game.

Beautiful Dark Age troops from the Kings of War game.

  

  

There are some more photos from our game on Wayne's blog
http://dispatchesfromthemess.blogspot.com/.

Our naval demo game.

 

A few photos from the competition rooms.

Some very good building skills here.

Flames of War and Ancients competitions

 Some photos of an excellent Casino layout for FoW made by Craig from
http://craigswargamingblog.blogspot.com/. Lots more info and photos on Craig's blog, well worth a look.

Some of the other FoW tables.

I thought this layout looked really nice too.

The road to Independence.

Last weeks game at The Rewood Redoubt was an encounter battle set during the American Revolution using the troops that we had on hand on the night. The rules we used were Regimental Fire and Fury. Most of the figures are Front Rank with a couple of units from Eureka Miniatures.
All the British and Loyalist troops were painted by Wayne from,
http://dispatchesfromthemess.blogspot.com/
 The Americans belong to other members collections.

British Command.

British centre.

Americans move up to meet the advancing British.

British left flank.

The British cavalry moving to out flank the American lines.

American centre and left flank.

American right flank moving past the farm.

British and Americans clash

British have forced back the first wave of American troops.

British cavalry have been forced back

British lights outflank the American left and charge into the militia.

More British charge the American lines.

British cavalry re group and have another go.

Flank attack on the militia.

The British cavalry are repulsed yet again.

42nd Highlanders advancing to secure the British left flank.

The militia stand and fight back against the flank attack.

The end with the Americans holding on and the British not really having the strength left to force the issue.