Roman Seas, Quick Pics Post

A big ole game of Roman Seas

One of the ships, made from paper with lead figs riding on top

About as quick pic as it gets with just two photos, which doesn't do this great game with fantastic models any justice at all.  This naval scenario had one fleet trying to run a blockade while also avoiding shallow areas that could ground the larger ships.  This was a hard fought battle and once contact was made it got to be quite a frenzy of ballista, boarding, and ramming.  Enjoy!

I Ain't Been Shot Mum, Bonus Pics Post

A quick little preface, since coming back to the bloglands I started paying a little more attention to the behind-the-scenes stats of Mik's Minis.  In the traffic section of the posts I saw the first IABSM pics post grabbed about five times the usual traffic.  Ever a one to listen, I pulled the rest of the pics of the battle to stick up here.  To keep things a bit trim and tidy I broke them down into this post and a second one to pop up in a day or two.  I can't say enough good things about the table, the chaps I game with, or the rules themselves.  As always, enjoy!

German armor getting chewed up as they roared down the main road to town

The reason for the aforementioned chewing; hidden allied guns with the perfect vantage point

Just a nice, little view of the contested town

Allied forces perspective of the table

Another good terrain pic, we're talking beyond 'con' quality with this thing man!

As you can see from these pics, there's a lot of backstory, setup, and more built into the game itself.  What always makes for a fun game is the mechanic of hidden deployment.  As you can see from the map of the town and its surroundings, we marked what units were where, but the enemy had no clue until they were within spotting range, recon range, or the like.  The approaching enemy wasn't without its own 'phantom' markers either, and unless directly engaged we didn't know what was where until the bullets were flying.  Made for a fun and tense rising action of the game's first half.

Saga, Quick Pics Post

Vikings skirmish past the farm hoping to flank the enemy

First contact with the enemy!

Another quick pics post during a Dark Ages game with the excellent Saga rules.  This was quite the epic game as we had six full warbands on the table with loads of fun and scenario specific rules in place.  Three of the warbands were led by rival brothers, with a fourth warband belonging to the dying father.  The remaining two warbands belonged to 'outsiders' hoping to capitalize on the internal strife and chaos of the situation.  Enjoy!

I Ain't Been Shot Mum, Quick Pics Post

A quaint little town...in the middle of a warzone!

Troopers run down the street hoping to take cover before enemy tanks arrive!

Anti-armor gun emplacement set up near the brush line.

This is the first of a handful of posts I had queued up some time back, fully intending to write up properly and what-not.  Alas, that wasn't the case, but instead of deleting these posts they'll live on to an extent, at least as photos and captions if nothing else.  The WWII rules were I Ain't Been Shot Mum, and I found them to be excellent and with terrain like this, hard not to enjoy.

Resistance is Futile

I couldn't resist the title (see what I did there...twice even!)  This stack of figure sprues has been haunting me like the hive-minded Borg on the desk since The Gonk gifted them to me.  Of course they came wiht the disclaimer that I had to paint them, I had to.

These are historical Dark Age figs suitable (most likely) for Saga but there's a myriad of other fantastic rules sets out there calling out to these guys.  It's a good mix of armored and unarmored dudes and a good number overall to boot.

Well, time to make the doughnuts.

Another Round of SAGA

The dark ages skirmish game SAGA made its second appearance in as many weeks. Once again we had two players per side and beefed up the forces to six points each, or twelve points per side. We followed the rules a little more closely in how to set up armies, and how to set up the game from laying out terrain as well as putting down units and the like. Andy's also blogged about our second game, just today actually.

My warlord, leading from the front...again

All four of the basic armies were represented with me playing the Normans, allied with Tom's Vikings against Andy's Welsh and Ken's Anglo-Danes. After setting up and rolling for initiative it became pretty clear that my ally was on the extreme left flank and both opposing armies were pretty much on my half of the table. I wanted to play the Normans because they're a mounted force and there was a brand new battle-board I had to familiarize myself with. Next game I'm going to try and play either Welsh or Anglo-Dane to get a feel for those as well.


It was a dense, target-rich environment as my heavy cavalry charged in, warlord leading the way. The game itself took a bit longer than last time, but we had more points on the table too. We could've shaved some of that time off fairly easily as well, so next time I expect some smooth sailing.

This was my most devastating charge of the game...looking for 3+


The middle of the table just devolved into brutal chaos, it was quite the quagmire actually. Characteristically I had my warlord in the thickest center of it. Not surprisingly, he died about halfway through the game. Maybe I should re-think the whole "lead from the front" strategy?

The late Duke Yuengling of Yorvic


Although my force was wiped out, almost to a man my ally was barely even scratched. Here his forces, which have been maneuvering and wheeling for most of the game prepare to mop up the survivors from my own efforts. Sadly, we did not see the game to completion. It was getting late and everyone was pretty amiable about what the outcome would've been. The Vikings were strong however, and fresh troops to boot; it could have gotten interesting.


Here's the force I played for the battle. Beforehand I put two of my hearthguard-level units together to form a large, elite hitting hammer. Having some foot crossbowmen in there was kind of a bonus as well. I liked the Normans quite a bit, being all mounted took some getting used to but overall, even if my warlord did die, the game was a blast. I'm rather taken with the rules so I'll be buying a copy by the end of the week. Until then, enjoy!

SAGA: Last Warlord Standing

Before I even begin to get into the newest game we added to the ranks, Gripping Beast's Saga, let me just say I am not going to be winning a lot of these games. Or at the very least my warband leader, known as the Warlord, won't be surviving too many battles. Case in point, the opening photo of this post.

Saga is the Dark Ages skirmish game that is making its rounds. The name of the game says it all, "Saga". It straddles the two worlds of semi-historical and the epic battles of legend. If you're looking for a historically correct game, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fast, fun Dark Ages game with great rules, you've found it. If you're looking for another point of view of the same night, look here at Little Lead Heroes. Way back when a gaming buddy of ours, Brian, who has since moved away started looking into Saga as well, it's just taken me this long to get a game in!


Saga is about the heroes and the warriors they lead, so that's why my Warlord is going to be leading the charge time and time again. The gates of Valhalla only open to the bold. The rest of my warband will be tasked with two things in a battle, defeating the enemy of course and just trying to keep up with their leader. To me this is the only way to play the game!


Shown here are the Normans, who were allied with two Viking warbands for this battle. On the other side of the table were an allied group of Anglo-Danes and Welsh. Being our first intro and test game, there were some initial set up rules we overlooked but overall I don't thing they messed things up. Warbands are generated simply enough with four or six point warbands being the norm. A leader is free, each unit after that costs a point. Your units can be from small, elite groups, up to large peasant-class levy troops.

Welsh javelin-armed troops about to get trampled by Norman cavlary

Viking levy archers

The base game, $40 bucks by the way, has army info on four separate forces, plus the rules themselves. You also need some game-specific dice to go along with it, which can be pricey but there's all kinds of inventive work-arounds to that. This is where the game takes a fairly serious detour from other skirmish games.


Each force has a battle board, each of the four boards wholly different and unique to that specific army. This is where the game gets even more cool. You roll a number of dice each turn based on how many units you have on the table. Then you allocate those die rolls to your battle board. If you look at the top left of my Viking board you see "Hirdmen". If I want to activate my Hirdmen at all this turn, I need to allocate one of my die rolls and place it there.

That's the normal stuff, each force has its own flavor in the form of special abilities, like "Odin" that needs two dice to work and changes and enemy's shooting turn into a move turn instead. The other trick is you're not guaranteed these very time, obviously. So if you get two sixes and are able to charge up "Ragnarok" you may have to leave the dice there for a turn or two, which you can, but that's going to be two less dice you're able to roll the next turn.

Two warlords clash...and kill one another simultaneously


I mentioned Repple Depple's Brian in the beginning of this post and it was because of him and all of the Pig Wars enthusiasm before he moved that I painted up my Viking horde. We have played a Dark Ages game or two since he's moved off, but the Viking wargaming potential that was about to explode died with his egress. I am hopeful however that these rules, which I enjoyed immensely, will turn that ship, err, longboat around.

Boston Tea Party, 1942-Style

Date: July 4th, 1942
Location: Over El Alamein, Egypt
History: On a morning patrol over the battlefield with a force of twelve fighters (Macchi C.202s) Capitano Lucchnini intercepted a formation of twenty A-20 Boston Bombers escorted by a large number of P-40s and Spitfires; below them was a second formation made up of Hurribombers. Italian fighters pounced on the British planes, and our battle commenced.


Check Your Six! is fast becoming our historical minis "go-to" game, and I am absolutely fine with that. I gotta say, aside from the people you game with it's the stuff you game with that makes it enjoyable and I am lucky to play with the best CY6! stuff on the planet. From the handmade, ten-foot hex map to the excellently painted planes, to the adjustable height combat stands there's nothing about this game I don't like. The rules are solid, the games fun, the mechanics easy to learn, and an absolute horde of historically-based scenarios make every game unique and grounded in reality from the barnstorming biplanes of WWI to the jets of the 1980's.


Unlike the past handful of games, this time around I was saddled with a coupe of green pilots. No skilled pilots, no veterans, and certainly no aces, just me and a couple of rookie Spitfires. I was expecting much, but I did surprisingly well actually.


This is a tough scenario for the Italians to win. The British forces have a ton of heavy bombers flying by, plus a bunch of lighter bombers, then all of their fighter escorts. All my side had to do was get off the other end of the table, while avoiding getting shot down of course. My little greens got in there scoring a couple of hits and even taking down an enemy fighter. Of course this enemy fighter was Andy's plane, and I always like to point out when I shoot him down, it's becoming quite the Mik's Minis tradition!


Here's my wounded Spitfire shooting down Andy's plane


When the battle was done, and the smoke not yet clear, the British forces had pulled out a decisive victory. We weren't able to meet out secondary objectives, but we did pretty well. I like these scenarios since they're based on actual events, and in the case the real-world counterpart battles was a completely different affair with the Italian forces demolishing the Brits.

So there's another CY6! battle in the bag. That makes five total for the year, and I have feeling we've got at least that many more in store before 2012 is up. Until then, enjoy!

Friday Rucht Hour: Pathfinder Crew 2

All right, here's the second half of our Pathfinder party. We have three more for our total of six. All of these were painted by Nick. 

First up is our Paladin. In the Irish setting, this character is a knight for one of the local monasteries. Technically speaking, this character is a bit anachronistic. Such knights wouldn't have existed until later, but we included it to make the setting as inclusive as possible. Plus, my players aren't taking historical notes from me. This mini is actually the Pathfinder cavalier figure, but it works for our purposes just fine. 

Here he is from the back. The cross is actually a nice touch, breaking up the monotony of the big, black field on the shield. What's best is that it can easily painted over for another setting if needed. 

Here's our Pathfinder Witch character. The male witch in the party has been the black sheep. In medieval society, there was a fine line between being a wise healer and "OMG! He's a witch!" So, the witch character must tread lightly wherever he treads. 

Now, for the piece de resistance. This is Nick's personal mini - a Pathfinder Oracle. Not what most would picture for an oracle, right? This character has the blood of giants in him, accounting for his great size and strength. As an oracle, his is mostly blind, however, accounting for his white eyes. His great size and ability for foresight makes this character an excellent parallel to the Irish hero Finn MacCool. 

Nick heavily modded this figure.   The sword is a warjack sword from the Warmachine minis game. I love the holes in the sword - to make it little lighter, you know? It's colored a little differently because it's supposed to be made from goblyn metal. Nick also added the shoulder pads (from a warjack again) and the buckler to his wrist. 

All right, next time, we'll look at some of the baddies of Pathfinder.

Thor's Day Hero: Toshirô Mifune

There is a distinction made between actors and the characters they play. Earlier we saw the induction of Steve Zissou into the ranks. The actor, Bill Murray, who portrayed him is an excellent actor mind you, but for Thor's Day it was Zissou that got the nod, not Murray.

Today's hero is the opposite. Although just about any character Toshiro Mifune has ever portrayed would be a likely candidate, it is the strength that Mifune himself brings to those characters that makes them truly stand out. From High and Low to the iconic Seven Samurai, Mifune brings a quality to the screen that is hard to ignore. For that reason I have included him here with the rest of the Thor's Day Heroes.

Top Cover near the Dutch Border

Date: March 6th, 1944, 1203 hours
Location: Near Haseluenne, Germany
History: As Hauptmann Rolf Hermichen led I/JG.11 to attack the main bomber stream, P-47's of the 78th Fighter Group moved to protect the bombers. Flying top cover for Stab./JG.11 and I/JG.11 was Günther Specht's II/JG.11 Heinz Knoke and his squadron were the first to dive down on the Americans in an effort to keep them away from the bombers.


I'm somewhat behind...on pretty much every thing in my hobby life it seems, and this Check Your Six! batrep is no exception. I think it's mandatory to state every time I do a CY6 writeup how great this game is and is perfect for long-term play, pick-up games, or anything in between. It's also, speaking strictly from my own non-historical gaming background, a nice entry to the world of minis and historicals. The scenarios in the rulebooks are drawn directly from real life air engagements, such as this one that found me playing a real life German fighter ace. But, as with all games of CY6, it gave me an opportunity to clip the wings of my fellow gaming buddies in a grievous, flurry of machine-gun fire and breakneck maneuvering.


I also need to state once again that I probably wouldn't even bother with CY6 if it weren't for all the homemade "extras" that make the game so enjoyable. Seen here is the homemade flight stand, with plane designator arrow, and the posts are removable by section so you can instantly see on a table full of fighter who is at what altitude. Also you can see the smoke marker, just a clever magnet design easily implemented but adds immensely to the overall atmosphere of the game. White smoke is airframe damage (I believe) and black smoke is engine damage.


When playing historical scenarios such as these it's always interesting to see how the game stacks up to what happened in reality. Fortunately the rules play fast enough where you can just switch sides once the battle is over and try it again from the other side of the table's perspective. In the actual battle the Germans only lost one plane to the Americans two. We already had those numbers by the end of turn two.

Check your six! An American P-47 can't seem to shake his "friend"...



Here's a shot of ace Knoke's Bf-109 squadron. It's when you're playing a squad like this on the table you're like, "Yup, I'm playing a wargame." I don't know the costs of getting into the game, spoiled by all of my friends' great stuff, but I can't imagine it being too terribly much. The stands are homemade and the planes are pretty small, so they should be cheap and easy to paint.

Overall the Germans won the day, just with more casualties inflicted on both sides of the ball. Playing an ace on the tabletop is a lot of fun and I keep getting lucky when we roll off for them too. You're able to out-maneuver pretty much at will, you get to go last in the turn which is a big deal, and your fighter skill is always going to give you a leg up in firefights. Having said that however, I've seen plenty of green pilots get in there and clean house too.

I've got another batrep I need to write up for CY6!, but Andy's has beat me to it here. I'll still get to it eventually because mainly seeing all of those bombers en masse on the table is just too of a sight on the tabletop to mothball.