Shieldwall Campaign 1/24/09

Report on a mini-campaign held at the Edgewood Bunker today (1/24/09). This was GM'd by Adrian using rules from Age of Arthur; although the armies played are from Shieldwall lists. Briefly, there were two successive games with armies of 2,000 points each. Within the two armies, there were 1,000 points each of Normans and Welsh. The armies were pretty close in composition thanks to Dan splitting his Welsh evenly in two. The scenario pitted an invading army of Normans with Welsh allies against a defending army of Normans and Welsh allies. The first game started with a Comes from the invading army issuing a challenge of single combat. Both he and the defender's Comes ended up killing each other; but the battle started nevertheless. The invader's objective in the first game was to get three units across in good order and not be locked in combat. This, however, was not achieved and the defenders were declared victors. The second game's scenario had the invaders regouping after licking their wounds, and finding another area of the river to cross. The objective for this game was to have control of the bridge and fordable crossing area of the river. The invader's plan was to concentrate their forces on the fordable area and initially disregarding the bridge entirely. This almost worked, but the defender's Comes audaciously challenged the invader's Comes to single-combat. The defending Comes' audacity paid off; the invading Comes (aka army general) was slain and the greater part of the invading army failed their subsequent panic tests. The invaders wisely accepted the GM's offer to end the game then and there. I should mention that I played the invaders for both games (Adrian played the first game with me and Wes showed up for the second game). Dan and Bruce D. played the defenders both games. If anything, I hope I learned what not to do next time. Some pictures from the game follow:

Drumbeat - 2009

Here's a quick report on WAB games played at this year's Drumbeat up in Seattle. Apologies for not having enough info to report on other games played there - which included DBA/DBM, I believe a Tactica game, Fields of Glory, Patrol (WW2 skirmish), & Wes R.'s Napoleonics with his own ruleset. Drumbeat is a smaller type of gathering run by Dick Larsen - anyone can host or play; the only criteria (besides having a good time) is the game needs to be historical in content. There should be more info of these games on either the Puyallup gamers or the NHMGS Yahoo groups. Anyway, I only took a few pictures of the three games played. In the first (morning) session, Dan's Carthaginians v. Adrian's Republican Romans & Bruce D.'s Teutonic Order v. my French HYW were played. After a quick "calorie-identified" lunch at Wendy's, the afternoon session had James' Hussites v. Bruce's victorious Teutonic Order, as well as another Punic Wars game. I was allowed to play part of the Roman army to take my mind off of the horrendous defeat of my French. I'm not sure of the result of the first Punic Wars game, but besides my French defeat, I believe it was a draw between the Hussites & Teutonic Order; the second Punic Wars game was definitely a Carthaginian victory. This game was played by a newcomer to WAB we met at the convention; I think his name is Paul? Anyway, Dan has his info & we may be playing with him in the future. That's what this was all about anyway - trying to see if more folks want to play WAB. Anyway - here's some pics from the games:

My WAB Armies

Choson Korean - for Imjin War.

Campanian army with Pyrrhic allies.

Late-Samurai with all options.

Seleucid led by Antiochus the Great.

Late-HYW French - led by Joan of Arc.
Mycenaean - My first WAB army. Next time this army is used, it will employ more archers - not just the guys in the spear formation.
Norman. A small detachment of shortbow archers has been added, and should help missle fire on the move.Early Samurai. This army is suitable for individual skirmish type of games - maybe something out of Siege and Conquest.Macedonian/Successor. This is a core army that can swap out/add various options - anything from Imperial Macedonian to late-Successors. Early-Holy Roman Empire Clerical army led by the Archbishop of Cologne.

The Re-Taking of Tilltam

Here's a quick battle report w/captioned photos from a game which is part of a larger, running scenario hosted & GM'd by Wes R. Today's game (12/6/08) was fought between the forces of Marchester & Murchia - fictional entities among several others in their third year of hard campaigning. My Murchians had captured Tilltam from the Marchestrians in the previous campaign year. The Marchester forces decided to retake the village. The first relief force arrived from Sudley & a second force arrived from Marchester itself at turn 4. All the figures & scenery from today's game are from Wes' extensive collection. The game ended when Adrian's Marchestrian foot Milites defeated the Murchian Comes & his mounted Milites in combat - who fled off the table. As it is said, "He who fights & runs away, lives to fight another day!"

Some WAB Games from the Not-So Distant Past

These pictures, in no particular order, are from a series of games played at Adrian's "Edgewood Bunker" using the Shieldwall supplement. All the images can be enlarged for better viewing by clicking on them.


These pictures are from the first game we used the Hannibal & the Punic Wars supplement. As the text alludes to, we didn't have all the rules properly down - particularly the use of elephants.

These pictures are from two WAB games played at "Drumbeat" - a historical gamers convention in Seattle, WA, January 2008 .

Mycenaeans v. New Kingdom Egyptians (NKE) using the Chariot Wars supplement. The cool-looking Egyptian terrain belongs to Bruce.

The Samurai game used the basic rules as the specific WAB supplement, "Divine Wind," is yet to be released. That marvelous Japanese castle/fortress belongs to Bruce D. The big Buddha is Adrian's.