Raid on the Village ~ Part one

Ebba felt confident as his warriors advanced on the village. Then the early morning mist burned away, showing the British on a hilltop overlooking the target. Their watchtowers must've sighted him and gave warning. Still, with judicious deployment of his hearth guard he could face-off against his enemy whilst the warriors got down to looting.

Britons to the left, Saxons to the right.

The warriors enter the village while Ebba takes the hearth guard to face down the Britons.

Things aren't going well for the British - but the Companions are lurking close by...

Saxon warriors get down to good dishonest looting, but come up dry, even in the church.

Both sides take and give shrewd blows. The British milites retire, allowing the Companions to surge forward to deadly effect. The Saxon group has found loot in the next house!

The Companions make short work of their opponents.

Although his warriors are now heading off with the loot, the British milites have re-entered the fray, his hearth guard are decimated, and Ebba's now seriously worried...

The Dolmen Done

Work on the dolmen progressed this week, actually helped by the sweltering heat plaguing NW Ohio for the past two weeks. Paint dried quickly, glue set in record time, flock stuck first go. Marvelous!

First off, after the black undercoat had dried I painted the stones successively lighter shades of grey then applied a layer of vinyl adhesive followed up with flock.

Once the flock was stuck firmly I dripped green ink onto it using an eye-dropper, following up by wet brushing it in successively lighter shades of green. The stones also got some green ink treatment in areas which, in real life would be shaded by the rocks to represent moss.

So here it is, the Dolmen is complete and ready to take its place on the wargames table.

Romano-British war leader Gaius Menusius and his entourage contemplate the ancient stones.

Perhaps appealing the ancestors would help rid the land of the Saxon invaders?

Down Among the Dolmen

Dolmen are found all across Northwestern Europe. Composed of a flat slab of stone set tabletop-fashion on two or more upright stones or megaliths, they're what's left of late Mezolithic/Early Neolithic burials. Once, earth covered the stones to a considerable height to form tumuli, or burial mounds. Time, erosion and ploughing wore down the earth until the stones were exposed once more. They stand as spooky reminders of our prehistoric past.

Like the stone circle/henge I made earlier, I thought a dolmen would liven up the wargaming landscape and be suitable for any period.

First step - the base. One metal cap from an orange juice carton, glued to a roughly-cut card circle. The basic shape of the dolmen rests alongside. The capstone is a flat oval-shaped wood chip glued to three other round pieces cut to length. Top left is an isolated megalith made of another piece of wood chip glued to a fender washer.

Some flocking, again of the trusty dried tea leaves. The dolmen shows another side.

More flocking, this time after the dolmen was glued to the centre of the base using vinyl tile adhesive. I began to apply flocking to the megalith base.

The next step once the adhesive's dry will be a black undercoat.

Henge and Bracken

I finished this henge model a couple of days ago, but due to technical issues have only been able to post the results now. So, with the vegetation in place, here it is...

The vegetation is made up of pieces of Spanish moss, mostly painted a dark green-brown, along with a couple of clumps of foam and coffee grounds painted a lighter green and dotted with magenta to represent flowering bushes. A little wet brush stipple work created the dandelion patches.

As Fitz-Badger commented, you have to get the scale right. This model works for 10mm and 15mm figures. Anything larger would find it a bit of a squeeze.

Hadafix the Druid gets down and funky in a private ceremony accompanied by his pet adder, Abernathy, a monstrous snake with a sweet disposition.

Watched admiringly by his wife, Sharon, Hadafix's descendant Father Unctuus blesses the pagan sacrificial stone to remove all that primitive ancestral magic rubbish.

Next up will be another scenery project from the Neolithic Era. Stay tuned...

Flocking on the Henge

More progress on the henge terrain piece...

I currently use a carpet and sheet vinyl adhesive to fix flock to models. PVA would work just as well, but since the adhesive's a leftover pot from another job it's what I'm using. I began at the middle of the terrain piece around the sacrificial slab and spread the gunk outwards using a coffee stirrer, making sure the stuff lapped up to the base of the stones and not on to them.

Once the whole base was covered I gave it a good deep dosing of dried used tea leaves. The adhesive is really tacky, but it pays to press the flocking/tea leaves gently down into it to ensure it all sticks. I left it overnight then shook off the excess material. Here's what it looked like at this stage. The tea leaf brown will add depth and the impression of soil beneath the grass. 

The next step is to get some greenery down.

A light wet brush of 'parakeet green' applied whilst the flock is still damp picks out the grass.

The next step will be to apply a little dark green to the stones and dot some larger vegetation about.

I see a Wood Henge and I wanna paint it...

...grey.

(With apologies to the Rolling Stones)

The undercoat is all dry, so now it's on to the next stage - dry brushing in successively lighter shades of grey.

I'm concentrating on the 'stones' since the ground around them will be covered by flock. You can see how the brushwork brings out the grain in the wood, making it look like weathered stone. I think at this point I'll stop dry brushing since the stones are light enough. The next step will be the ground work, specifically the grass and vegetation growing up in and around the stones.I'll probably add splotches of green in various shades to the stones to represent lichen, moss, etc.

Zen and the Art of Henge Building

One thing I discovered from my terrain making projects for the tabletop is how wood chip looks very much like stone in the smaller scales. My wife and I recently had a ton of wood chip delivered to use in our garden, so I selected a few likely small pieces from the heap for my next modelling project - a henge for the Dux Britanniarum tabletop.

Henges date from the Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, and are dotted throughout the British Isles. Technically from the archaeological point of view a henge is a space located within a ditch which is itself enclosed by an earthen bank. Stone circles - even mighty Stonehenge - are a different beast, but the term has stuck, so...

As a gaming terrain piece they can therefore appear on any tabletop battlefield set in Britain during any era from the Neolithic on. My aim is to make a small-ish site like those of Arbor Low Henge in Derbyshire or Scorhill on Dartmoor in Devon. I'm in two minds whether to make the outer ditch and bank as the piece will then have a larger footprint on the tabletop. We'll see.

I started with this handful of suspicious-looking brown objects...

Using a mitre box and razor saw I cut them in half, before making the base for the henge. The core of the base is an old CD which I sandwiched between two layers of cereal card, bending the card down around the edges to make a low mound. The cut pieces of wood stand in the background.

Once the card was glued tight on the CD I arranged the wood pieces in a suitable henge configuration and fixed them in place. I decided not to make any trilithon ('table') pieces for the sake of simplicity and robustness. They tend not to feature in the smaller henge sites anyway. The shadows the pieces cast already make them look like the upright stones and sacrificial slab of a small stone henge. I'm on the right track...

The next step was to spread a little spackle around the base and 'stones,' leaving some patches bare. These will be areas of lower ground within the circle when the top layer is done.

Suitably spackled, the piece awaits the undercoat. More to follow...

A Romano-British villa

All done! It took a while since I'm busy with real life stuff, but it turned out okay, I think.

The building is of its age. The Roman twilight is well advanced. On the ground floor windows the decorative blue louvred shutters have been replaced by utilitarian heavy versions which can be barred from the inside. The rear door has also been replaced by heavy boards. The inhabitants are sticking to their home - for now. They're worried because they hear of the Saxon raiders striking ever deeper into their homeland and fear they will be next. The local priest, Father Superfluous, visits to persuade them to stand their ground.

I made the ground effect using vinyl tile adhesive with dried baked tea leaves pressed into it, working in small sections at a time to prevent warping. Once the stuff had dried I gave it a light going over with a spray bottle filled with diluted green ink. Some of it got on the walls of the building, but it looked like the type of natural slime-mold that grows on such old plastered surfaces so I left it. Whilst it was all wet I used an eye dropper to drip green paint on the ground surface, which spread to cover most of it. once the whole base coat dried I gave it a going over with a wet brush of light green. 

Villa build - almost done

Yikes! It's been a while since I posted last. Isolation has proven beneficial in some respects since I was able to sit, put fingers on keyboard, and write a new novel manuscript while waiting for edits from my publishers. In between times, while musing on plot points and having to take wife-induced daily walks for exercise (mutter grumble waste of time only not really preventative maintenance blah blah blah) I got more work done to the late Romano-British villa.

Like a lot of Roman buildings at the tail end of the Empire's life, the place has been patched up from time to time. The roof on one wing was damaged and needed repair. With most of the major British tile works no longer operational or lost to invading Saxons the villa's inhabitants resorted to thatch, using salvaged tiles for other repair jobs on the remaining tiled roofs.

Heavy shutters are the next stage of the project, followed by the ground work. I'll used tile/carpet adhesive for this since it tends not to shrink too much which causes warping to the base. Paints - I use craft paints throughout. The classic Roman pantiles were made using thin strips of card washed with a thin coat of spackle. The colour is a basic terracotta, followed by increasingly lighter shades of terracotta mixed with yellow, a wash of dark brown then highlights of yellow-orange. The thatch is a hideous mix of tissue paper, spackle and PVA mixed with a bit of brown craft paint, highlighted with magnolia shade then given a light sponging over with dark brown wash on the lower parts of the roof. Oddly enough, I thought this thatched section would give more trouble, but it was the easiest part of the roof to paint. Ho hum.

Villa build update

More work on the Romano-British villa for Dux Britanniarum. The covered porch and most of the wooden beams (cartridge paper) are in place. 

The space between the two wings is wide enough for a figure sabot to stand in.

 

I'll probably make the classic pantile roofs from thin strips of card overlaid with tissue paper.

Distractions and Diversions

This lock-down malarkey isn't quite what it was cracked up to be. I find myself busier than ever, due to working on a manuscript, and the beginning of gardening season, plus my wife insists we take a walk every day. I see the point of walking and regard it as 'essential maintenance,' but it's a bit of a chore...

With my wargamer's butterfly attention span I'm also easily distracted. A case in point, I began work on a late Roman villa for Dux Britanniarum.

This won't be anything on the scale of the villa complexes at Cirencester or Turkdean. It's more along the lines of the small villa at Abermagwr in Wales, which was occupied until at least the late Roman period. It's the home of a Romanised British family of some means who've had to repair and rebuild their abode to a lesser standard than their forebears. Perhaps they've also taken some defensive measures against the Saxon raiders roaming the land. The Abermagwr villa is thought to have had an interesting half-timbered construction so I'll go with that.

Much like my previous model of an early church, the building's carcass is made of trusty pizza box card, hot-glued into place with interior cross-bracing of more card to stiffen it. 

Aside from this, I will try out the Quickfire rules using battleship vs. battleship to see how they work. 

Majestics vs Kaiser Freidrichs. It'll all end in tears for somebody.

Bracken Hill ~ post game

Bracken Hill had more than a degree of friction in the game; perhaps a bit too much to be quite enjoyable. Even so, the game added to the campaign narrative.

The fighting bogged down to a slogging match in a confined space as Ebba uncharacteristically forewent maneuvers and tried to bull his way through the Romano-British. The home team proved to be too stubborn for that, however, having had enough of the Saxons' deprivations. Gaius Menusius had also found some tactical nous in the down time since the last raid and deployed his levy to good effect. Result - Ebba withdrew unpursued to lick his wounds, leaving the field to the Romano-British along with a Beggar's Bowl of loot - the first time they've picked up any kind of wealth.

The Romano-British win meant the Saxon siege of Durobrivae was lifted, rendering the province safe at least for the rest of the year 472AD.* Ebba won't be able to contest for the province again since there won't be sufficient time before winter to try again.  

In terms of casualties it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Romano-British. They came off worse by suffering heavy casualties to the Saxons' moderate losses. Ebba can recover sooner than they, and stage another raid come October - the last month in the campaigning season. The Romano-British will still be down a significant number of men. They lack the wealth to raise mercenaries and Gaius Menusius lacks the status to build watchtowers to warn against Saxon incursions.

So, what happens next? Ebba's taken care of the annual tribute he has to pay his king back home, so that's out of the way. He will raid again in October in search of more loot confident the Romano-British lack the strength to put up much of a fight. With more wealth he'll be in a good position to contest for Durobrivae next year, when the new campaigning season opens in March 473AD. On the other side of the hill, the Romano-British can attempt to stop the raid, even at the risk of taking more casualties, because they'll have the winter months to recoup their losses.

A roll of the die turns up Raid Scenario #1 ~ Raid on a Church. Ebba has his eye on a potentially lucrative target. The Romano-British will attempt to stop him cold before he can perpetrate such sacrilege on a holy site.

*According to the Dux Britanniarum rule book the Saxons should attack the province of Caer Lind Colun first, in 472AD. I feel given the extensive waterways that radiated off the Wash at that time, seaborne raiders like the Saxons and later Vikings would've used them to penetrate deep into Durobrivae.

The Battle of Bracken Hill ~ Dux Brit game report.

The two armies met close by a hill covered in bracken, a landmark for miles around. Ebba thought he had the whole province sewed up, but Gaius Menusius stole a march on him. As the early morning mists cleared, Ebba saw his opponent was closer than expected.

A cattle pen, a shallow, swampy pond and rocky outcrops restrict the field of battle

Gaius Menusius appealed to God for favour, and his piety had an immediate effect on his men. Determined to oppose these Saxon dogs who’d come to despoil their land, the blessing added stiffness to their backbones. They gripped sword, spear and shield and moved into position directed by their leaders.

Ebba found it difficult to maneuver well in the confined space. Although he had some idea of sending a group of warriors around through the woods to hit his enemy’s right flank, in the event he lost patience and took his hearth guard to the fore. On the Romano-British side, Gaius Menusius anchors his force on the wood and the pond. Levy commander Lord Barriventus has a rush of blood to his head and decides to attempt a fancy outflanking maneuver. Leading his levy into the rocky area he soon finds the going tougher than expected.

Ebba's not unduly concerned with the antics of the levy, but he's uncharacteristically impatient. Forming up his hearth guard he charges straight into the Romano-British warriors.

Faced with difficult terrain on each left flank the Saxons and Romano-British find their plans stymied.

At first the fight went well. Romano-British warriors fell under Ebba's attack, but their accursed shield wall held firm and he was repelled. The movement of the enemy’s levy to his right flank caused him increasing concern since they appeared to be finding a path through the rocks, but he felt one more good push would break the shield wall and render the levy's attempt irrelevant.

As his men charged in for another attempt Ebba recognised a familiar face moving to the front rank of the Romano-British warriors. Cynbel the Magnificent! He’d been a sorry if defiant sight when Ebba had captured and ransomed him two months earlier. Now it seemed he was out for revenge.

Petrified by the closeness of the nasty Saxons, the Romano-British archers fail to hit anything.

And Cynbel got it. Fighting hard in the front rank he held back the Saxon hearth guard then repulsed them.

Shock and casualties accumulate, especially on the Romano-British side, but they hold firm-for now.

 

Again Ebba sent his men into the attack, determined to break them once and for all. More Romano-British warriors fell, but again they held firm. The despised levy charged in on Ebba's flank, and this time Ebba felt the battle beginning to slip away from him. So apparently did Oeric the Insane. Living up to his nickname the young lord frothed at the mouth and hurled himself into the fray. He met Cynbel the Magnificent head-on—and died beneath his sword. Oeglath, Ebba’s Champion stepped into the way of an attacker and he too met his death by a spear thrust under his ribs.The mighty man fell like a stricken oak.

Suddenly Ebba found himself in the front line and fighting for his life. He held off one opponent but the other found a gap in Ebba’s armour and slashed open his forearm. Ebba gritted his teeth and fell back into the safe mass of his hearth guard. Bested by a poxed levy-man, by Thunir! The embarrassment of it.

The stuffing went out of the hearth guard then. With his warriors unable to deploy effectively because of the cramped area, Ebba withdrew from the field. He calculated that his enemy had lost more men, meaning he’d be vulnerable to raiding before Autumn and the close of the campaigning season in October. Saving what men he had left became vital. He’d have time to recoup his losses, probably before his opponent could do so, which made another raid in September a possibility. At least he had a beggar’s bowl worth of loot stashed safe in his hall, so tribute to his King was taken care of. Ebba thought he might even find a lord to replace the late demented Oeric. Ebba saluted his foe then walked away. He’d return when he was good and ready.

Raid on the Border Tower

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! My wife and I had a great time with friends, and I managed not to eat too much for a change. With the holiday season upon us, I also found time for a wargame. My gaming table is back in commission, so I played the next game in my Dux Britanniarum campaign - and what a game it was!

Ebba the Saxon gained a measure of wealth from the March cattle raid, his first foray onto Romano-British soil. It had cost him some men dead, but two months were enough to see his force replenished by new recruits. Ever ambitious, Ebba has cooked up a scheme to raid once more into enemy territory, this time in search of a high-value prisoner to ransom. He got lucky. In May, word reached him that the Romano-British were patrolling the area along the border, their force led by Lord Cynbel the Magnificent. Such a sobriquet deserved to be measured against reality, so Ebba gathered his men and marched against the enemy.

Signals from the border tower alerted Cynbel to the presence of the Saxons. He gathered his two groups of warriors and marched for the tower. On the other side of the wood, Saxons gathered with grim purpose.

Up on tower hill the Romano-British Tribune, Gaius Menusius, had gathered the remainder of his force. He watched developments unfolding on the plain below. His Companions stood by close to hand. To his left the local levy had deployed with archers out front. The folks of the nearby farmhouse also gathered to watch the mass of warriors gathered on their doorstep.

The Saxon's movements had Gaius concerned for Cynbel. As the Lord appeared in the distance Gaius sent his Companions forward to reinforce him, convinced that the combined groups of warriors and Companions would suffice to see off the Saxon dog. 

The levy he ordered forward under the command of Lord Barriventus. With the archers leading the way, Barriventus made to block the gap between the farmhouse and the fishpond.

Ebba's men weren't slacking. The second group of hearthguard under Oeric caught up with their comrades as they reached the northern edge of the wood. There they paused a few moments to take stock. Ebba rubbed his beard and eyed the Romano-British warriors, noting they'd formed shieldwall. The Saxons in turn watched their short and wiry leader, wondering what passed through his mind.

The sounds of movement behind him told Ebba the rest of his force had caught up. Their leader, Wigmund Wodenborn waved to show he was ready for whatever mischief Ebba would unleash. Ebba waved back, his mind made up.

Ebba tapped his helmet more securely on his head, hefted his shield and looked at his men, his familiar cracked grin crossing his face. "We came to snatch a plump Roman lordling for ransom, and by Thunir's beard, that's what we'll do. Forward!"

The Saxons surged forward, bearing down on the Romano-British shieldwall. Oeric's unnerving cackle split the air as he leaped along at the head of his group. The enemy braced themselves for impact and Ebba saw Cynbel to their right, directing his men. Ebba's grin grew fierce as he ran. You're ours for the taking! With a mighty shout the Saxon force hurled missiles and struck the shieldwall. The sound of impact came like the death knell of mountains. Savage combat broke out all along the line as Ebba and his champion Oglaf made for the enemy's leader.

In the midst of it all Ebba recalled his previous time encounter with the famous shieldwall. Then things hadn't gone his way. Some quality about the fighting now told him circumstances would be different this time. Sure enough the shieldwall began to buckle as Britons fell. Ebba roared encouragement as he hacked men down to get at Cynbel. Redoubling their efforts his men pressed the enemy hard until they suddenly gave way, running for their lives and taking their lord with them.

The Romano-British warriors never stood a chance. Ebba had sensed the moment and urged his men onward. They caught the enemy as they ran and slew them to a man-and that man was Cynbel. The enemy lord earned his name that day, for he fought hard before Ebba overcame him in single combat.

Ebba stood, catching his breath as Oglaf secured the prisoner. Not far away the enemy Companions had slowed their approach as if appalled by the sudden destruction of their comrades. Alert for a possible rush on them Wigmund pushed and shoved the hearthguard away from looting the enemy and back into formation. The two sides snapped and snarled at each other across the open ground.

Ebba glanced at the dejected and beaten Roman lord and nodded his satisfaction. "We've got what we came for. Let's head home." His men looked askance, every line in their bearing showing their reluctance to move away from glorious combat and all potential spoils that might ensue. Ebba glared around at them. "We move. Now."
 

The other side of the wood saw little activity on the Saxon's part. Wigmund watched the enemy's movements even as the sounds of combat beyond the wood filled the air. The Romano-British had sent their levy against him. Wigmund spat and grinned. Levy didn't frighten him. He watched one of the enemy fall to an arrow loosed by his archers. "That'll take some of the sting out of them."

The Saxon archers grew too bold, and got too near the enemy. The levy suddenly surged forward and the archers yelled and dispersed, but not before slaying another levy man. The sound of fighting beyond the wood died down and Wigmund grinned as he recognised Saxon yells of victory. His men faced off against the levy, daring them to come on. Each moment they wait will be another moment Ebba'll have to win clear, he thought.

And so it came to pass. The Romano-British Companions followed at a safe distance as Ebba and his men carried the wounded Cynbel away, Oglaf towering over the prisoner as if daring him to try to escape.

Within minutes the pursuit - such as it was - proved useless. Ebba made for the safety of the land beyond the Romano-British border and his horn blower sounded a jubilant note to summon the rest of his force to his side. Ebba eyed the crestfallen Roman and grinned. "We'll trade you for a pretty sum, old cock, see if we don't."

* * * *

Well, that unfolded in a way I didn't expect. Ebba seized his moment, grabbed a ripe hostage and made good his escape. When all was tallied up he'd scored a major victory over the Romano-British. Three Retreat cards to zero enemy Pursuit cards, plus his wiping out two groups of warriors saw Ebba with a handsome +4 on the campaign winner results table. It means he replaces all his slight losses within a month and gains two extra volunteer warriors for his force the next time he takes the field. Ebba ransomed the unfortunate Cynbel for a Theif's Hoard, and gained another matching hoard when he raided unopposed in the following month of June. Come July, the Romano-British recover enough to contest the Saxons - but what will Ebba do next?

Ebba began the campaign with a Tribune's Tribute of wealth, so he was already quite wealthy. After two opposed raids and a free month to pillage due to enemy weakness he has now amassed a King's Treasury. At the end of the year he'll owe his King back home a Beggar's Bowl in tribute, but Ebba can already disburse a shower of loot amongst his hearth guard who'll proclaim him a mighty warlord, and he'll still have enough left over for contingencies. In campaign terms when a Saxon leader is declared a warlord it gives him the power to contest with the Romano-British for ownership of a province.

On the other side of the hill poor old Gaius Menusius is proving to be more Gauis Uselessness. He possesses a Tribune's Tribute of wealth, but has been unable to win enough prestige to gain his King's favour and the wealth needed to expand the defences of the realm. It might prove the ideal time for a newly-minted Warlord Ebba to strike...