A light-hearted personal report of the WAB campaign weekend, 19-20th July, 2008, written, quite naturally, by the victorious, as all good history should be!
So, Chris Stone and Tim Dagnell’s inaugural campaign weekend north of the border; only a short 20-30 minute drive from the two main metropolis; four games of WAB with like-minded gamers, where the emphasis would be squarely on having a good game, and free tea and coffee ALL day, surely a no brainer then? And so thought the other players that gathered in the West Calder Community Centre for the event, each leading a 2k army from either Shieldwall or Byzantium: Beyond the Golden Gate WAB supplements.
Help Us! These Monks seek a higher assistance.
Rather than have a weekend of straight pitched battles, Chris and Tim employed the more common faction based/scenario driven campaign system, where the odd defeat was not necessarily a disaster. After the traditional introductions, hellos and how-do-you-dos, coffee (x2 pour moi), Factions were announced:
Britons, with Continental allies:
John Glass (Saxons)
Tim Dagnell (Scots)
David 'Bubba' Glass (Normans, sans lance, naturellement)
Haken Ericsson (Bretons)
Byzantine, with Viking/Rus allies:
Dave Imrie (Justinians)
Darrell Hindley (Heraclians)
Chris Patterson (Vikings)
Jim Sweeney (Rus)
Sassanids, with Arab/Avar allies:
Brian Phillips (Sassanid Persians)
John Perkin (Sassanid Persians)
Jack Glanville (Abbasids)
Ken Pearce (Avars)
[Chris Stone (Saxons) was to play alternate games with Tim, but more later!]
At the start of each game, there would be a personal challenge between the two opposing Generals, with the defeated losing one wound for the duration of that battle, or, if the challenge was declined, -1 Ld, and the howling derision of the entire hall!! So, a prize for the most character kills, I’d keep that in mind over the weekend!
Massed Northumbrians surging forward.
Of course no campaign weekend would be the same without a series of ‘Random events’, these were also rolled for before each battle commenced, and the results duly adhered to. Again, more drama later!
Game 1 was a straight forward internal Faction-based slugfest for overall Faction control: highest points total takes all! I was paired to fight Tim and his three units of Scots and 17 skirmishing Viking pirates. No ‘Randoms’ showed up. After the initial challenge saw the Scots General cleaved neatly in two by my Cynning’s superbly sharp and very large chopper, the writing was well and truly on the wall: a 2k+ points victory for the Saxons, netting 5 character kills to boot! Well, what do you expect with only three formed units!! Time for yet more coffee (again, x2), a chance for some photos and a natter with other players.
Game 2 saw me up against fellow SESWC club member John Perkin and his lovely painted Sassanid Persians. As in game 1, no ‘Randoms’, and another enemy General was cleaved in two at the start! This was a ‘Take the hill’ scenario, and with JP having a predominantly cavalry army with a few skirmishing fellows and an elephant, I was well on top (quite literally) until the very last turn. I was a bit too impatient, and got a couple of warbands onto the hill a turn too early, and then managed to successfully snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yup, you guessed it, I sought solace in yet more coffee!
Sassanid Persian battlelines, complete with elephants on the rampage.
DAY 2
Sunday dawned nice and bright, but heralded disaster for the Byzantines: their Faction leader, Darrell Hindley, failed to appear with his Heraclians (sick note still pending, and some serious ribbing on the SESWC club Forum!!) A bit of judicious reshuffling of Factions saw Tim defect to the Bizzies (boo, hiss!), with his place more than adequately filled by Chris, keeping the Shieldwall alliance undiluted.
Tim, in his own inimitable style, ran through the state of affairs after the first set of games: the Sassanids were in danger of being overshadowed by their Arab/Avar allies; the Byzantine Empire was being seriously assaulted from all sides, and the Britons were rampaging through Europe, and last seen heading for Byzantium.
Do I have time for some coffee?
Game 3 was a 4k doubles match. Faction leaders chose their two pairs and then found out who they were fighting. I paired Chris and his Saxons with Haken and his Bretons, a nice mix of warband and cavalry: and myself with Bubba and his Normans for similar reasons. We were matched against Jack’s Abbasids and Ken’s Avars. Both Bubba and I managed to impale and/or cleave our opposing Generals before ‘Hatred’ was rolled up on the ‘Random events’ table. Jack managed to infuse a unit of lowly skirmishers with ‘Hatred’, Bubba faired slightly better with a unit of his Norman knights gaining said trait!
Massed Abbasid infantry.
Outflanking Normans take the village.
Before we got much further there was furious wailing and the gnashing of teeth emanating from the Sassanid Spahbed and Shahanshah pairing on an adjacent table. Once they had set up, poor old Brian rolled up an ‘Earthquake’ on the ‘Random events’ table. The Sassanids, in their infinite wisdom, had deployed too close to a major fault line, and lost well over 1000 points worth of troops, including three Royal Clib units, ASB and Army General. Oh yes, I like it!!
After much ribbing for all in the hall, it was back to face Jack and Ken. As is the way of doubles games (certainly in my experience!), this developed into two distinctly separate games, with Bubba taking on Jack and myself facing off against Ken. For the sake of brevity, we lost! Suffice it to say, my Saxons held their own, losing some lowly skirmishers; Bubba, however, had the proverbial stuffing shot out of him!
Before Game 4 kicked off, players could challenge their Faction leader for overall control. Needless to say, no one come near my Saxon Cynning’s lethal chopper!
The final game saw me facing the new Byzantine Faction leader, one Dave Imrie: him of the ‘I painted this army in a week’ fame (b*st*rd!) To be fair though, Dave is a supremely talented painter, and was trying out Army Painter©, the results are simply stunning! Down to business, and yet another Army General fell to my chopper in the challenge! I thought that this would have been a tougher affair than it turned out to be. It’s never/always* (delete as appropriate!) nice to give somebody a complete shoeing, but by turn 3 it was curtains for Dave’s Justinians: cavalry on either flank were seen off by my Vikings and by a large Huscarl-led Ceorl unit; his solid infantry centre was soon flinging themselves onto the spear points of my three Thegn-led warbands. Oh, and yet another character was neatly diced. Cue yet another celebratory coffee!
Huge Bondir block on the move.
After everything was cleared away, results handed over and collated, Chris and Tim revealed the final Faction standings: the Sassanids were a well and truly spent force, losing their entire empire and now under Arab/Avar control; the Byzantine and Rus/Viking alliance were similarly crushed, and were last seen cowering meekly behind the crumbling walls of Byzantium; and the victorious Britons, we were left as Lords of all we surveyed!
THE RESULTS
Overall Winner (with a record of played 4 won 4): Ken Pearce.
Winning Faction: Britons (ably led by yours truly!)
Most sporting player: Dave Imrie.
Most characters killed (9): Need you ask!!
Army most in need of new general: Chris Paterson and his Vikings.
Most cups of coffee drunk on the day: Mmm … I wonder?
Finally (who said ‘at last’?), thanks must go primarily to Chris Stone and Tim Dagnell for organising a great weekend of gaming, cheers chaps. Personal thanks to my 4 opponents over the weekend, great games all played in the right spirit, full of humour, and against genuinely nice people, and that’s what taking part in these campaign weekends is all about – having fun with toy soldiers! Thanks must also go to the following companies and individuals who sponsored the event by donating some truly great prizes (where would we be without them?): Darrell Hindley; Figures in Comfort, Gripping Beast, Musketeer Miniatures, SESWC, and of course Warhammer Historical Wargames.
The next Saltire WAB weekend is scheduled for November, and will have a Classical theme (I’m already preparing that 4th Indian elephant!)
Text and photographs by John Glass.
Ken: overall best General.
Young Chris: most in need of new General.
Bubba and Haken: stout Saxon allies.
Dave: most sporting player.
