Bolsover Legendary Joust 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYI5LIjSbkwA bit of a diversion today, but still sort of related to gaming and miniatures, if you think about it as inspiration.

This weekend saw the annual Legendary Joust at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire, which we always try to attend.  A great day out but also, in one respect, a victim of its own success - the crowds are getting so big it is increasingly difficult to actually see (let alone photograph) the jousting.  Not helped by families who decide to bring folding chairs, extensive picnics, and other paraphernalia that gets in everyone else's way.

Anyway, here are the shots I got, in case they are inspiring for anyone out there painting (or planning to paint) any knights.  If these are of interest to anyone, let me know in the comments and I will do a few posts of other photos from previous years of different armours and equipment.

 

 

Particularly noteworthy was "The Wild Man", who was jousting in a highly decorated bridgandine, rather than a breastplate.  It looked fantastic!

For more on why, there is an excellent video by Zac Evans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYI5LIjSbkw

Halfling Militia

 Assembled from one Halfling Militia sprue from Wargames Atlantic.  Assembly was pretty easy, with a nice range of options, and the look pretty good painted. I don’t hold out hope for those bill shafts lasting long though.

Basing is having to wait until I can acquire some mor 20mm mdf ones.

The Battle of Troll Bridge - Fantasy Warriors

The stone bridge over the Scir Burn, the first good river crossing encountered out of the High Passes through the mountains, once had an older name.  But to the locals it is now only known as the Troll Bridge, after the battle fought there during the second Great Orc and Goblin War. 

While the missus and the miniature were away, and I was able to set up the front room with the gaming table, I snuck in another game of Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors, between my growing Orc Hordes and Dwarven Muster.  I didn't want the Dwarves to be able to just sit tight and wait for the Orcs to come to them (which plays to their strengths), so the scenario was that the Orcs were attempting to seize a bridge, which would allow them quick access to the rich lowlands.  The Dwarves had to stop them.  If one side gained an advantage in scouting, I would place the bridge nearer to their lines.

I didn't bother with points values, just chucked everything I could onto the table.

Both sides were split into three commands, each assigning one to scouting:

Orcs

Command 1: Warchief(3), 2 units of 12 Orcs, three trolls

Command 2: Battle Leader(1), 10 Archers, one ballista, 10 Orcs

Command 3 (scouting) Battle Leader(2), 6 Wolf Riders

Sooth Sayer and Mage (15 magic points)

Dwarves:

Warchief, Messenger, Mage (15 magic points)

Command 1: Battle Leader, 14 Great Axes, two units of 12 infantry

Command 2: Battle Leader, 10 crossbows, 1 giant crossbow

Command 3 (Scouting): Battle Leader, 5 archers

 

Both sides sent a command out to scout, but neither could gain the advantage, so the bridge was placed squarely in the middle of the table, on the Dwarves right flank (I'll give all directions from the Dwaves perspective for clarity) and both scouting commands started the game disordered, on hold orders, and at the back of the table.

 With the clock showing only one turn until sunset, the Orcs were not too concerned about bad light.  The Sooth Sayer predicted good omens for the Greenskins, as the Brukk Bitter Brand, the Warchief, boasted to his followers that they would find him in the thick of the fighting, then gave orders to his command to attack, and to the archers to Oppose.  Lacking a messenger, Brukk got his Mage, Crooked Shal, to send new orders to the Wolf rider by Eldritch Command, which succeeded.

The Dwarf Warchief, Lorgear Granitehelm, eschewed the reading of the Omens as too great a risk, and made no boasts, instead remaining just behind the battle line, where he could best control his forces and send new orders if needed.  Knowing that the lighter armoured orcs were likely to reach the bridge first, he sent order to his infantry to attack as quickly as they could, while his missile troops would try to inflict as much damage as possible on the advancing Orc horde.  His messenger successfully carried new orders to the archers to advance within bow-shot and support the left flank.

 

The Orc line surged forwards, the Trolls rapidly outpacing their smaller brethren.  As both sides exchanged largely ineffective arrow storms, the Dwarven Mage attempted to Blast the opposition, only to fail and use up all of his magical energy!

 

The foul smelling trolls smashed into the Dwarven Great axes.  Both sides took casualties despite the dwarves' armour and the Trolls resilience but, while the Dwarves stood firm, the Trolls were shaken by the stubborn refusal of the small things in front of them to just lay down and die, that they first became shaken, and then routed!

The rest of the Orc line briefly halted to hurl insults and threats at the stoic dwarves before plunging into battle.  The vile taunts left the dwarven crossbows shaken but did not stop them expending the last of their bolts into the nearest unit of Orc Warriors.  Sadly, rather than breaking them, the casualties just worked the greenskins up into a state of bloodlust!  But the Orcs did not have it all their way, as one of the units of Dwarf warriors also decided that the best answer to being insulted was to bury their axes in the Orcs directly to their front!

Battle was now well and truly joined as Orc and Dwarf fought in close quarters.  Brukk killed one of the Dwarf Battle Leaders but the disciplined Dwarf commend held form despite the loss, and in fact left Brukk's own unit shaken.  Slightly battered by their rout of the trolls, the great axes had no time to rest as they found themselves facing a line of fresh orcs warriors.

One the left, Warchief Granitehelm tried to send new order to his missile troops to attack the orcs to their front, but the message was garbled, disorganising the crossbows further.

By this point, both sides had taken casualties and had shaken units.  The Orc Warchief's boast has paid of in one respect, slaying one of the dwarf battle leaders (without him, shaken or disorganised units in his command could not recover), but the trade off was that he could no longer send out new orders to his troops, leaving his archers and ballista out of volleys and unsure what to do.  An attempt those same archers to threaten the dwarf warriors to their front backfired, as the Dwarves responded in kind so effectively that the Orcs ended up Shaken, only to then be charged and routed in one swift move!

But the Dwarves were not having it all their own way.  The Wolf Riders had now got back into position, and routed the shaken dwarf crossbows with threat alone, taking with them the Battle Leader that had joined them to try and get them back into order.

With the crossbows gone, the Wolf Riders now had an open door into the Dwarve's rear, and a possible chance to take out the Dwarf General, with only a small lightly armed unit of dwarven archers in any position to stop them.  A volley of arrows from the archers caused casualties before they were charged - miraculously they held and inflicted further casualties but, once again, the Orcs responded by going into a state of bllodlust.  

In a single moment, the Dwarf situation on the left suddenly looked vulnerable, with marauding wolf riders and two of their three battle leaders already fallen.

However, just as suddenly, the fickle gods of battle turned their eyes the other way: first, despite being charged by a unit of Orcs in a state of bloodlust, the Giant Crossbow team held their ground and even forced a casualty test on the enemy (which they passed). But more importantly, right in the thick of the hardest fighting, the dwarves slew Brukk Bitter Brand.  Word of the fall of their leader (who had promised he would be found in the heart of battle, but presumably alive) spread quickly amongst the Orc ranks - resulting in every single one routing off the table!

So, at the last, a clear victory for the Dwarves, who held the bridge having lost only one unit in its entirety.  The Orcs would need to find longer, harder routes down to the fertile lands beyond.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game.  I still think one of the things Fantasy Warriors Excels at is creating a sense of narrative - with the Orcs reading the omens, boasting warchiefs, and units hurling threats at each other before combat.

The way that units become degraded over the course of a game, becoming shaken, disorganised (or even bloodthirsty) is also something that I like a lot, in comparison ot Warhammer's very binary approach (you are either fleeing or completely rallied) .  I also like how characters are not single handed machines of carnage but have a genuine role to play in leading and commanding, which can lead to some difficult choices - both of the Dwarf Battle Leaders that were lost had only joined those units to try to overcome the effects of being shaken and disorganised; while the Orc Warchief may have added a fair bit of combat power to the unit he was in, but once engaged in combat, could do little to influence the wider battle.

It is a less dynamic game than Warhammer, which can see some units nipping around the battlefield like they have had too much caffeine.  The relative immaturity compared to WFB (which was in its third edition by this point) is also there in what WFB covered and FW did not - such as skirmishers, what happens with unusual situations like being attacked in the flank, and various other matters of detail.  But I think these are easily resolved with some common sense.

I would like to have a think about Scouting though.  I'm not keen on the idea of scouting with whole commands, which leaves them out of the main battle for a whole.  I need to come up with something that allows for smaller detachments to be made for the purpose of Scouting.

TTFN

The Fluffy Kittens of War

With a free weekend, my friend Matt came up for a game of good 'ol Warhammer 6th Edition.  His High Elves versus, for a change, my Dogs of War (which I had just rescued from the attic).  Unfortunately it seemed my whole army suffered from 'newly painted' syndrome (they're not newly painted, but this is only about their second outing on the table).  A combination of stupid mistakes on my part, good tactics on Matt's, and some truly awful dice rolls resulted in disaster!

My army was heavy on the infantry, with quite a few Regiments of Renown.  Matt's had quite a few small blocks of spear elves but, more worryingly, a lot of chariots (I hate chariots, as will become clear!).

 

Pikemen, Heavy Cavalry, Ricco's Republican Guard

  

The full battle line, light cavalry at the rear

 

Braganza's Besiegers and Halfling Hotpot! (Ogres just out of sight beyond) 

 

Marksman of Miragliano. Paymaster and bodyguard to rear

 

 Opening moves from Matt

 

 

 Elves at the pub!

 

We rolled up the 'meeting enagement' scenario.  This is where my first mistake came in.  Because of where I had put them in the list, my General (in the pike block) and Paymaster weren't close enough to provide mutual support, particularly re-rolls for break tests (as the paymaster acts like an army standard). 

 

My second big mistake came when I moved my duellists, armed with pistols, out of the woods to attack an advancing unit of spear elves.  I forgot that you can't move a full 8" and still shoot (in my defence, my Empire Pistoliers can, so that was a bad bit of 'muscle memory' at work).  Left stranded, they were then charged by the elves, fled, but rolled utterly appallingly on their flee roll.  This was to become a theme... 

 

My centre totally collapsed shortly after, largely a result of chariot strikes, resulting in the loss of my general, heavy cavalry and pike block.  With the Paymaster too far away, I didn't benefit from any re-rolls.  Ricco's Republican Guard lasted longer, but only slightly longer - despite rolling 20 dice for the pikes, plus 3 attacks for Ricco, I just could not land enough hits.  Matt had no such problem, and my rolling for break tests was terrible!

 

Matt also passed two fear tests to charge the ogres, who also couldn't hit anything and also failed their break test and ran! 

Things were now looking very dodgy.  All I had left were Braganza's Besiegers, a hotpot, and the light cavalry on the left; and the Marksmen of Miragliano and Paymaster's bodyguard on the right.

In the circumstances, they didn't do too bad.  Two units of spear elves were routed, a cauldron landed square on a chariot, Braganza's Besiegers managed to win a combat, and the Marksmen of Miragliano came off best in an archery duel with Elf bowmen (having already destroyed a unit of spears).  The light cavalry however lost a combat they shouldn't have lost and (guess what?) failed a break test and then got run down due to a terrible flee roll...

 

Shockingly, I won a round of combat here!

 

But the writing was not only on the wall by this point, it was also on the ceiling, floor, and every door and window.  The left wing inevitably crumbled - although war machine crews can't normally charge, we decided to let the halflings go out in a blaze of glory, charging a chariot in the flank with cleavers and spoons.  The result was inevitable...

 

  

All they needed was to cause one wound!  They didn't...

 

But some measure of glory was retained on the right, by the Paymaster's Bodyguard, who fought on for round after round, seeing off a chariot, and holding back two units of spears, until finally the Paymaster fell and, losing their 'Stubborn' attribute, the survivors decided to hotfoot it off the battlefield.

 

 

Feeling surrounded

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look!  The Chariot's gone!  

 

Moments later, the Paymaster bit the dust and it was all over

 

Well, that didn't go too well did it!  Would I take the DoW again after that?  Yes, I would.  Some of the problems were entirely down to me, like getting my duellists killed, and separating the general and paymaster.  But even with my terrible dice rolling, the Regiments of Renown were good - the fact they have a pretty tough character in each unit makes them pretty survivable compared to normal units in combat.  I think Matt was a bit shocked to be on the receiving end of BS4 crossbow bolts, and I like the 3+  save with the besiegers.  I think I would either drop the heavy cavalry though, or take a smaller unit of Vollands Venators, to get the character.

 

It did also remind me I hate High Elf chariots.  I don't think it's just sour grapes, and I have to give credit to Matt for how well he uses them (combining them with a spear unit that charges shortly after), but they're tough (T5), dominate the table with a 10" charge, their impact hits occur before the pikes can strike (which seems...odd), and they're quite cheap for all that.  OK, their impact hits can be very variable (D6), but if they roll high they are devastating to infantry.

 

It also got me thinking about one of the changes that has been suggested for the Old World.  The possible return of pushbacks from 2nd/3rd edition.   The current rules are tough on Ld 7 armies, as any break test will always be at 6 or less.  That one point shift down from the average on 2D6 of a '7', immediately pushes you immediately from 'slightly more likely to pass than not' to 'more than likely to fail'.  Interested to see how that might change.