Miniature Wargames

SAGA Dark Age AAR Vikings, Normans, Saxons

On Saturday the local HMGS-South group played a dark age skirmish game using SAGA rules at the Dogs of War shop. This four-way game pitted the Normans defending a village against two Viking and one Saxon warbands intent on loot. There were also individual objectives (or grudges) for the warbands and a few strange characters in the village who could influence play.

The Norman warlord rushes into the village to rescue his lady. The two Viking bands, wary of each other, approach the village. The Saxons hide in the trees.

The Normans are forced to waste time by the lady they ‘rescued’. The Saxons form up and advance on the village.

The Vikings go at each other, with one side losing two units.

A Viking warlord is killed and his sister captured by the other Viking (a secret objective).

The surviving Viking warlord retreats off the table with his captive, avoiding the oncoming Normans. We called the game at this point due to time constraints. The intact Saxon and almost intact Norman bands could still dispute the village.

WWI Naval – Grand Fleet Deployment

Theoretical deployment of the Grand Fleet in accordance with the Grand Fleet Battle Orders, page 41, Dec 1915 (Volume III Jutland, from Clash of Arms). Page 40 states that “the order of the High Seas Fleet is that shewn in the O.X.O. papers.” What the ‘O.X.O. papers’ were is unknown.

There are fewer German flotillas than the diagram, but Jellicoe overstated the number of boats that might be present. He expected that his destroyers would be outnumbered by as much as 2 to 1 (GFBO Destroyer Addendum page 1, 1/10/15). Also left out are the German “4th and 5th Battle Squadrons” which are on the diagram on the disengaged side of the HSF. These were older pre-dreadnoughts that probably never sortied with the HSF in the North Sea.

The ground scale is 1 inch = 500 yards or 1/18000. The ships are 1/6000 scale Figurehead miniatures and as a result the spacing of the ships is about 1/3 of what it should be.

British at the top, German at the bottom

Annotations roughly similar to GFBO diagram

WWI Naval – 1/6000 Scale Aircraft Carriers and Wrecks

1/6000 scale WWI ships. The SMS Santa Elena is a modified tramp steamer by Figurehead miniatures. The HMS Campania is scratch-built from styrene. Also some wreck markers.

Russian Black Sea Fleet seaplane carriers

Medieval Hail Caesar AAR

Saturday the local HMGS-South group played a game of Hail Caesar at the Dogs of War shop.

The fictitious Battle of Schwetz, June 1309, takes place in what is now northern Poland and is between the Teutonic Order and the forces of the Polish King Władysław I. Following the ‘takeover’ of Danzig, the Teutonic Order is on the march to take the nearby city of Schwetz. The Teutonic Order is intercepted by Polish forces outside the city.