Colours 2025

well we did it again and what a great day it was too. The armies of good and evil faced off against eachother under the shadow of the Lonely mountain. It was a very close run thing again, but like the book, the forces of the Free peoples triamphed...just.

There were less people to help run the game this time, but the decision was made to shorten it slightly and run it at a more leisurely pace. This suited me as was still learning the rules.

Where is Bilbo?

The battle in full swing. It was so nice to meet and chat to people about the game and figures. Lots of people asked what make the orcs were, but of course there was no short answer to that one. It was also nice to meet and chat to gamers that had seen this blog and come along to see me. That was a real treat for me and made all this hard work worthwhile, thankyou.

Bard and the Men of Lake town hold the left spur of the mountain.

The wolves and Wargs pour onto the plains and surge up the mountain. The Men of Lake town brace themselves for the baying waves of razor sharp teeth.

Bard and his banner men.

 

Picture by James Morris.

 I had the last minute idea of taking my hood along for a laugh. I made this thing back in 1994 from an old blanket. It is crude but did remind me of Lake town. In fact, I'm sure it helped to influence some of my hood colours for the units when I was painting them. It was quite hot work by the end of the day, but it was nice to dig it out again after all these years.

Picture by James Morris.

Beorn tearing into a host of goblin Warfare riders.

It was interesting to see the different outcomes of the two games. Bard managed to survive this second battle, but the greatest warrior of the age, Dain, was cut down fighting Bolg in single combat.

Thorin Oakenshield managed to reach an exhausted formation of Dwarves and bring them back into the fight. Now that the Dwarves were steady again, Thorin threw himself at the huge goblin and finally brought him down. Dain had been avenged at last.

It was a great ending to a great day. By the end of the day I actually felt like I had fought in the battle myself. I was knackered, who knew a woollen hood could weigh so much after five hours.

Warfare 2024 Game

Just recovering from a long weekend spent at Warfare 2024 playing 'A Rum Do'. This was Prince Rupert's Gaming club's participation game and was this time set at sea.

It involved Prince Rupert's ship trying to pick up a spy from the isle of White. To do this the captain had to work out passwords so as not to alert the two parliamentarian ships in harbour. If he failed, the guard ships would stand to, if he failed again they would open fire.

The really clever bit I thought were the ship templates where the captains of the ships could allocate resources. This took the form of moving guns from port to starboard etc, controlling speed, manning fires and keeping a record of the ships hit points. These game elements were done by the use of pegs in a silhouette of the ship.

I had missed a lot of the games play testing so was none the wiser on the first day of the event. I soon picked it up though as it was nice and simple. It was really interesting to see the different tactics used by players in the game. I think the best games are when children play it as you can see just how much fun they are having.

The spy makes her way to the dock with valuable information of the location of the king. It's not good news for Rupert as it reveals the castle is too heavily protected for a rescue attempt.

A Parliamentarian captain runs to his ship.

The club also sported it's new shirts for the first time. It was nice to look more professional and tied us together more as a group.

A clever cribbage style system was used for keeping tabs of the state of the vessels.

It wasn't just the enemy ships Rupert had to worry about, a shore battery too stood guard over the bay.

The game played really well and the ship template idea was pure genius I thought. Unfortunately we didn't win any prizes this year as there were some truly amazing games in the competition. I think the first prize went to a mega Starlingrad game. As most of the other games were on the other side of the hall, we missed the giving out of prizes. They had been given out long before we realised we had missed it all. 

Regardless of this disappointing oversight, we all had a great couple of days laughing together and spending way too much.

Logo designed by Richard Brown. I was telling him how clever it was to use dice in the Rupert's standard. That's when he pointed out their numbering...1,6,4,5. Very nice.
 

Warfare 2022 It's a Funny Old Game!

 

Well, here's a little something I can finally talk about after a year of secret planning. It's a Funny Old Game was Rupert's Blew coat's game this year after last year's success with 'A Bridge to Farnham'.

Keeping it squarely in the 17th Century again, this game focused on the fun that can be had with an early football game. A large heavy ball has to be carried and placed in the opposing village to score a win. Various mishaps might occur along the way, some natural, others not so much.

Both teams are made out of mobs of heavy hitters with a couple of fast moving, sly 'weasels', that can snatch the ball. The captain of the team is also a formidable opponent, with the ability to weasel and the strength to hurt a mob in combat.

After the game was created and fleshed out by Simon George, the group's rule creating machine. The next stage was to find some suitable 17th Century footballers, easier said than done!

I found a good solution was to create my own using various Dark Age plastic kits with some green stuff added to give a team vibe.

It's wasn't lost on me that wearing a big sash in a mob brawl would be a huge disadvantage, but it did give the team a colour and a way to be easily recognised on the field.

The shirtless team captain turned out to be a success, as his bare chest made him very distinctive and easy to keep track of in the game. Also, he looks like a complete animal...

I gave the 'weasels' arm bands to make them different from the mob. These were made from ECW artillerymen.

The team was created mostly from Fire Forge's medieval infantry, with a few Gripping Beast plastics in there too. A few ECW metal heads were added to give them the period look.

The day was great fun and the game proved to be a success with the members of public. It was quite a tiring weekend, as there was a que to play and the games were back to back. However, all this effort was rewarded with winning 2nd prize in the event's awards. Quite a feat considering the other amazing looking games being played around the hall.

The motley band of brothers.

The game play featured mythology as well as mobs of brutes brawling. The teams were given two cards which featured various spells and events, these could be played at any time to nobble the opponent. There's no such thing as playing fair in these rules!

The feary rings could be used to randomly transport players to another ring across the field. Only it wasn't guaranteed that you would come out as you went in. These proved to be very funny with mobs being changed into uncontrollable changelings and causing chaos.

It was nice to actually use my houses I've had for years, the first game they have ever been in.

This was our first member of the public player, after this things didn't really slow down for the whole weekend. I'll take that as a sign of a good game.

There was a lot of interest in the rules and there is a sight being set up so people can copy the rules. More on this later when I know the details.