Hail Caesar Dark Ages Guide

 Herein is my guide for using Hail Caesar for Dark Ages battles, focusing on Vikings versus Saxons.  Thugs versus Saints.  Just in time for the 2nd edition to come out and make it all invalid (maybe, I actually here it's like 95% the same) (yes I ordered a copy). 

but first...

Unexpected Hiatus

I took about 3 months off from blogging.  I'm sure I was missed by 0-6 people.  In the past, when the blog has gone silent it's been due to the birth of children; and this time is no different.  Please welcome child #5 into the world NOOOOOOOO (wakes up in cold sweat).   That was a fever nightmare brought on by too much absinthe and not enough greasy food.  There are no new children.  

Nah, the real reason is I just got busy, blogging became a chore, and I'm intrinsically lazy.  Thanks to those that emailed your concern just to make sure I wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere.  It was nothing dramatic, because I have a boring life, just lack of time with the usual culprits; family, work, and holidays.  

You didn't really miss my stupid attempts at hilarious blog posts and relevant comments did you?

You did?  

That's nice; I missed you too.  

Plus I did this strange thing where I painted miniatures and played  games and did NOT take pictures of to post online later. Felt weird, but also liberating. 

I did get a fun shout out from Jay over on Jays Wargaming Madness because we attended the same convention.  Now I am famous.

To make up for my absence; I have this super long post that will be of use to only a few.  

To the Dark Ages!

I love battles in the Dark Ages and I hope you to do.  This stuff will focus on the time that the Great Heathen Army was knocking it's way around the British Isle.  I've have tried MANY rule sets for this time period and Hail Caesar is the best fit (so far...).  Ask me in the comments if you wanna know about other rule sets that have FAILED and feel free to suggest one for Dark Ages battles because I am on the look out; because Hail Caesar is Good but not Great and can be dropped for something younger, hotter, and more kinky.  Like your first wife.

Overall HC does a good job of having lines of battle smash into each other and push/shove/grind it out until one side breaks.  And you must like that sort of battle because here you are...

The other aspect of Dark Ages combat that HC does well is the concept that the better armed and armored troops would be in the front of the shieldwall and the poor shlups with a secondhand shield and crooked spear would be in the back.  You can use the Combined Units rule in the main rule book (as they do in the Dark ages battle report) but I think the normal support rules are just fine; with the way supporting units add dice to the combat and hits bleed back into supports after the lead unit is shaken.

HC is best described as a tool kit rule set and begs to be tinkered with; in fact tinkering is encouraged.  What follows now are some of my observations and tweaks, then some army lists, and then some scenarios.  Here we go:

Set the Dials

UNITS: HC has some dials to set when it comes to unit and table sizes being a generic set stating that a standard unit is any size you want it to be.  I make the standard unit 1 base with 10 figures on it that measures about 4.5" by 3.5", that looks like this:

From Charlie foxtrot; 10- man loose order trays, I call these Big Battle Bases but it's just a fancy movement tray

Having a unit be 1 base is super convenient for working out fights and other things in the rules, plus it looks cool.  It does mean that a unit can't be displayed in a square or column formation by rearranging the bases to form a square or a column, but who cares?  You'll never need square (and it's the dark ages! They hardly knew what a square was) and units are in column so rarely and for so short a time that it's easy to handwave away.  

I also put a little label sticking out the back that identifies what the unit is; because one group of men with beards and spears looks like another.  A black label with white writing tends to fade into the background unless you're looking for it.  

TABLE SIZE: With my unit size as above a 6'x10' is the best.  It'll kinda depend on how many units one is fielding but in HC the answer is always "a lot" and so you want some room on the flanks unless your gonna just line up troops on both sides and advance toward each other.  Which is of course what all Dark Age battles kinda were; not deep strategic thinkers those Dark Ages people.  I'll discuss this more in the scenario section.  

LEADERS: A command of 8 works well in all cases.  With 2 dice to add to the combat.  Leaders always throw in their full combat dice (there's no half-assing it while in combat) so are hit on a 11+.  If hit a leader rolls on this wounded table instead of the lame 4 up roll in the main rulebook.  1-2 DEAD, 3-5 WOUNDED (loose 1 attack, if reaches 0 attacks then is dead), 6 I'M FINE (nana-nana poop poop).  This is more fun in general and fits better into any scenario that might need an affect on a leader. Usually loosing a leader in HC is not too terrible and the next turn they get a replacement leader with command 7 and 1 attack.  I sometimes do the thing that if leader gets killed then every unit in the division needs a moral test from their favorite lord getting his head caved in.  Since there's no moral phase in HC just  have units take a break test at the end of the turn in which the leader is killed; from the hand to hand table if the unit is engaged in combat and from the ranged table if not.  I don't always do this. I do often stipulate that if the king / general is killed then that side looses.  In all my games, players have never not thrown their leaders into combat....

here are some optional leader characteristics:

Famous War leader Bad Ass: Has 3 attacks, gets wounded on a 10+, but may reroll the leader wounded chart. (this is for if you wanna include Utred or Beobrand in your forces)

Brilliant or Mad?: -1 to all rolls for orders but will blunder on a 10+.  (this one is kinda crazy, it basically means the leader will either have a successful order OR a blunder.) 

There are probably some characteristics from Black Powder 2 that would fit nicely into HC.  I dunno, I've never played Black Powder.  

UNIT COMBAT STAT: Units in HC have a Clash and a Sustained value and while I like that idea overall  it's cumbersome to explain and in 95% of the cases these values are the SAME anyway.  Probably 98% if just talking infantry and the Dark Ages is mostly infantry (don't check my math).  To streamline this I just combine the values into a COMBAT stat as in "roll this many dice in combat" and only mention the Clash/sustained concept in units where the value is different.  You will see this in the army lists below.  If in the standard unit profile list from the rule book; if a unit has a Clash and Sustained value being different by 1; I'll make the combat stat whichever number seems to work better.  It really only matters if the difference is large like 9 to 6 and/or in units that you want to emphasize the 'initially hit REAL HARD and then fade off' behavior."  Hitting hard and fading away is probably how my wife would describe my sexual advances.  I come on strong but get discouraged easily.  

Having one combat stat efficiently plugs into use of the Shieldwall formation; arguably the only formation that you need, and is a nice segue into

SHIELDWALL: While ya don't need square or column formations, you WILL need the Shieldwall.  As my units are one base I devised an extremely clever way to mark which units are in Shieldwall by placing a marker made of shields....

Fine, it's not that clever.

The Shieldwall rules from the mediocre HC supplement called Shieldwall (go figure) are good but need some flushing out in my opinion.  of course it's my opinion, it's a blog, it's ALL my opinion.

Here is the actual rule I use:

Takes 1 move to form a SW (unit stays stationary and is marked with SW marker).  While in SW a unit only moves half which is 3".  While in combat a unit subtracts 1 from it's combat stat (this is the only time a Stat is modified), and gets +1 to morale saves and +1 to break tests.  

All units of heavy foot and medium foot can form shieldwalls (this is like 90% of an army).   

It costs nothing to drop shieldwall, just make a normal move.

Remember that if a unit takes a break test and gets a "retreat" result (usually from ranged combat) it will make a move backward which in this case is 3".  If a unit gets a 'give ground' result (from hand to hand) it still moves back 6" because give ground is always 6".  

Units cannot form shieldwall once in combat (because you can't do a formation change in combat), so your either prepared or not! It's the Dark Ages so everyone is already in something of a Shieldwall, so I think of the shieldwall formation as like a 'super duper Shieldwall' where the men are being very careful and focused on keeping together with the shields overlapping. 

If a unit in SW elects to take a 'sweeping advance' it will drop it's SW formation automatically as they are over excited with success.  

DIVISIONS and HURT FEELINGS:  Because of the way that Orders work in HC (basically skewed for All or Nothing) it's usually better that each player control at least 2 divisions; so that if a division fails it's first order and does nothing the player isn't just sitting on his or her hands the entire turn.  But there are times when it's 1 player - 1 division and this is when I introduce the 'hurt feelings token.'  Especially during a convention; When a player fails their first order (rolls a 9, 10, or 11) or when the general fails the order and the reroll I'll launch into a little spiel for all the players "man it sucks to come to a convention and fail activation rolls.  In order to salve your hurt feelings I'm gonna give you this hurt feelings token (my tokens are just extra bases with texture / grass on them so they look like the table top).  Now it's designed to look like the table so that you'll forget about it, but this token is good for a plus OR minus 1 to any die later in the game.  Just hand me the token and change a die up or down one; so a 3 can become a 4 or a 2 depending on your needs.  There now.  Now you feel better. 

Tokens are also available through bribes, especially alcoholic drinks." 

This makes the player feel like his turn wasn't a complete waste, it becomes a fun time when others fail and bemoan outload how they have hurt feelings.  Half the time players forget they even have the tokens in the first place, and the plus or minus 1 is really only good for an extra save /hit or making an order roll better.  

Army Lists

Here are the army lists that I use in my Dark Ages games.  It's nothing all that special; it's really just taking ordinary units and applying special rules to suit your tastes so one version is not better than the other.  Though mine are the best.  Presented as what the unit is called in BOLD, it's stat line, and then any special rules underneath.   Let's begin with the villains:

VIKINGS:

These guys are the most bad assed unit in my games and I only give the Vikings 1 unit of them in the general's division.

The basic heavy infantry.

The basic medium infantry.

2 units of Berserkers

You gotta have berserkers in a Viking army; it's just fun. I use the medium warband stats.  I use them 2 ways. The first is as a unit onto themselves like above.  I'll expound a little more on Expected Losses:

If a Division is made of purely berserker units then when that division breaks it does NOT count as a broken div for the sake of army morale.  This is to reflect that while Berserkers aren't exactly suicidal, they are in a rush to get to Valhalla and are reckless in combat because if they died in combat they really wouldn't mind.  I like to have a small division of 2 berserker units and tell the Viking player to 'fire these guys at someone you don't like.  No one minds if they die.  They don't mind much either. It's like a missile filled with stinky men and axes."  

If the 2 units are part of a larger division, then both have to be destroyed to count as 1 unit loss toward the division breaking.  If you get the idea that I only have 2 berserker units then you are right.  2 are enough trust me.  

If playing for victory points then berserker units count as half points.  

The second method that I use Beserkers is as an attachment to some other unit (usually Hirdmen); just place a mean looking Berserker next to a unit to signify that the unit has an extra 3 attacks very first round of combat.  Afterwards remove the figure and the unit fights as normal.  If using points I suggest 3 points per Berserker buddy.  

I have a bunch of miniatures that are obviously archers, obviously armored, and obviously Vikings (it's the beards).  So I give them a unit of armored archers.  This is a medium warband with long range.  After reading the Strongbow series by Judson Roberts I like to include archers in Viking armies.

Open order Skirmishers.  

And now for the heroes of our story:

SAXONS

These are supposed to be the dudes that are the leader's 'Oath Sworn Men' and will stand with their lord till the end (Battle of Maldon style). 'No Retreat' is just the Phalanx special rule renamed because phalanx sounds funny in a Dark Ages Army.  

Standard heavy infantry.

Standard Medium Infantry. These are the same as Viking Bondi

Open Order skirmishers, but with spears this time.

Priests: A Saxon army can have number of priests accompanying it.  Any good Lord would have some religious advisor hanging out.  A priest can attach to a unit to give a spiritual boost; while attached the unit can reroll 1 miss in any "to hit" rolls and 1 fail in any morale saves (basically gives the unit 'Tough Fighters' and 'Stubborn' special rules).  However an attached priest must test for being hit like a leader does, is hit on a 11+.  There is no save, the priest just dies / is removed.  When this happens I like to sing like a church choir and raise the miniature slowly upward.  A priest is worth 3 points.  Until he attaches to a unit have the priest just hang out behind the division or with the leader.  Multiple priests can be assigned to a unit for multiple rerolls and each one must test to be killed during combat. 

General Thoughts on Army lists: 

So those are the basic army lists for the good guys and the bad guys.  if doing a point based battle I have found that these lists kinda favor the Vikings (probably because they have more aggressive special rules that are better at winning fights and the way to win in HC is to win fights and make the other guy take as many break tests as possible).  HC is also a bucket of dice game and with buckets of dice cra-za things can happen.  But if super concerned about balance then give the Saxons some more troops or buff them with additional rules.  

The profile for Viking Bondi and Saxon Ceorl are the same, the Saxon Thegns and Vikings Hirdman are basically the same but with the Hirdman getting tough fighters (and don't under estimate one reroll). 

Skirmishers in open order:  I put the version with bows in the Viking list and the version with spears in the Saxon list but really these are inter-changeable.  For a standard sized skirmish unit I use 8 miniatures as that takes about as much space as the standard sized unit on the movement tray with 10 figures.

I use standard sized units in all the scenarios, as it's just easier to know that every unit has 6 stamina.  

DARK AGES SCENARIOS

Here are some Dark Ages scenarios that I have used at conventions and club days.  I think they are good scenarios but why wouldn't I? These are not actual historical scenarios but stuff I made up.  And honestly we know so little about Dark Ages combat and history that we have to make most of it up anyway.  Even well known battles like Hastings, Ashdown, and Maldon have little actual information about them.  I think the key to a good Dark Ages scenario is to design it so that troops just don't line up and fight each other because that is expected and boring; but allow players to line up and fight each other because that is expected and exciting.  I also think HC scenarios benefit from a  turn or two of moving / shuffling before everyone get locked in with priority.   

Now I don't claim to be any great graphic artist, so the maps are pretty basic.  And of course these are all just suggestions and can and should be changed according to taste.  One can also switch the sides pretty easily...

Key: Red units are Vikings, 

Hc= Huscarls, H = Hirdmen, Bz = Berserkers, Ar = armored archers, B = bondi.

Blue units are Saxon.

Cm = Comitatus, T = Thegns, C = Ceorls,

In both armies: large circles equal leaders, bunch of smaller circles are open order skirmishers.

for simplicity; I'm gonna show each army deployed in 3 divisions.  Remember that all tables are 6x10.  

 

Scenario 1: Negotiations Break Down

Here the Vikings have landed their ships close to a Saxon Village only to find it defended.  The leaders of both sides agree to meet in the middle of the field and discuss things; each bringing one unit.  Vikings are asking / extorting for Danegeld and the Saxons are haggling.  Something goes awry during the talks (use your imagination; maybe a Saxon says "Your Mama is SO fat that the Midgard Serpent encircles her!") and a fight commences. 

Deployment: the Viking general and the unit of Huscarls  are in the center of the table in contact with the Saxon general and a unit of Comitatus.  the rest of the troops are farther back.  The divisions of the generals should be about 2 or 3 feet away from their leader. (incurring the command penalty for distance).  

Roll off, the higher side is the one that counts as charging the other in the middle of the table and that side has first turn.  Players can decide to attach the general to the combat or not.     It's a choice between getting more dice in combat or being able to send the general back to get closer to his troops.   The units in the middle are not in shieldwall. The side that won the roll off does their turn normally.  On the first turn of the side that lost the roll off, all units count as being 'Drilled' as they react with rage at the others side treachery at breaking the truce.

The Vikings can have 5 berserkers to attach to any unit they wish as the start of the game, EXCEPT the huscarls in the center (the Viking Jarl is not gonna bring a berserk to a negotiation).  The Saxons can have 6 priests to attach to any units they want.  The Saxon general can (and probably should) have a priest with him during the negotiation.  

Victory: Break the other sides army. 

This is basically just a pitched battle with a small variation of having the fight in the middle.  it's good for new players as they'll get a walk through in the combat sequence right away.  You could give some extra victory points for the Vikings if they get units into the village and he Saxons if the get to the longships, but it's more fun to just kill each other.  

Scenario II: Surprise Attack

Here we have Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, reconquering the Danelaw.  He has brought his army and has launched a surprise dawn attack against a Viking lord who has refused to bend the knee.

Deployment:

2 Saxon divisions start at the edge of the game table, around 9 inches in, with any skirmishers starting around the 12" mark.  Saxons have the first turn.  The third Saxon division can enter either behind the other 2 OR at the blue arrow on turn 2.  I do a little one man drama and explain how a local farm worker who never liked those pagans but who was always a good Christian will lead them on secret path through the forest.   

There are no Viking units on the table, but are all in the beds responding to the surprise attack.  At the end of a Viking command phase each division rolls a die, and that is the number of units from that division that are ready and can deploy to the Xs on the map (about 6" from the village edge).  However units must be deployed from least armored first to most armored last (as it take more time for men with chain mail to get them on and such).  So basically each division must deploy units in this order: Skirmishers, Berserkers, Bondi, and then Hirdmen/Huscarls.  

Since this roll happens at the END of the command phase, it means that the first Viking turn is just spent rolling to see who shows up.  On the second turn any units that arrived last time can be given orders as usual and when that is all finished then roll to see which new units deploy.  

Victory: For the vikings to win they have to break the Saxon army.  it's the only way.

For the Saxons to win they have to break the Viking army OR if you have suitable building to act as a giant target for the Saxons to burn, say like the Great Hall from 4ground that's like 2 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and 1 foot tall (I have one naturally), then they can win that way.  A unit must be in contact and spend 2 moves to burn the hall.  This can be done over multiple turns.  

This is a fun scenario but it does have a lot of randomness.  If the Saxons roll really well they can can be on the Vikings really fast before they are ready, but then Vikings units keep showing up to the fight.  But if they move slow...

Even if the Vikings get great rolls for units showing up, they have the problem that it's ass backwards; with the units you want in the front of the shield wall (the best armored ones) in the rear.  it can take mutiple orders to move things into position and remember that units that move through each other have to test for disorder.  I usually have around 8-9 units in a Viking div (some skirmish, 4 bondi and 4 hird) so it takes around 3 turns to get everyone out. 

Alternatively, two of Viking divisions are as I jsut described but the player in the center controls two divisions (so the total force is 4 divisions); one is the general's div with Skirmish, 3 bondi, 1 armored archer, 2 hirdmen, and 1 huscarls and the other div is simply 2 berserker units.  The berserker div. is usually ready on the first turn (it's a 2+ roll) and on the second turn can just be launched at the Saxons to stall them...by dyeing but taking as many Saxons with them as they can.  

The Saxons get 6 priests to attach as they see fit.

 

Scenario III:  The Escort

Here we have a rather large Saxon escort for some VIP (in purple above).  maybe it's a noble lady? maybe it's a noble's mistress? I sue some priests with an ale wagon.  The Saxons sent some skirmishers up to the ridge to scout (solid security minded thinking that) and OH NOES!  Vikings.  bent on kidnap and ransom.  Told ya they were thugs.

Deployment: The VIP starts on one edge of the table on the road.  Two Saxons divisions are lined up on the road in front in a string.  The third Saxon div is off the table and can enter on turn 2.  The Vikings start on the table scrunched into the first 2/3rds of the table.  

The stream is a liner obstacle and takes 1 move to cross.  Units can charge across the stream but will lose the +1 charging bonus.  

The VIP will take it's own orders test like it's a div of 1.  All movement must be on the road.  The VIP can move through other units testing for disorder like usual.  A move is 6".  If a blunder is rolled then it moves backward the required number of moves.  The VIP will NOT move closer to a Viking unit than the closest friendly unit.  Saxons get the first turn; all units on the table count as 'drilled' for the first turn.  Told ya you didn't need columns.  

Vikings get to use berserkers as attachments, 9 of them.  the Saxons get 6 priests.  

Victory:  Vikings win by breaking the Saxon army BEFORE the VIP gets off the table via the road or by kidnapping the VIP.  To kidnap the VIP  a Viking unit must charge the VIP to capture it, and then escort it off the Viking table edge (but really it the end of a turn if the VIP is more than 2 feet from a Saxon unit you can count it as kidnapped).  

Saxons win by breaking the Viking army OR getting the VIP off the edge of the table.  

The Saxons need to get themselves into some sort of shieldwall, and who can resist forming a shieldwall on a hill?  Nobody.  Shieldwalls like hills like college girls like sugary alcoholic drinks.

At Last...the End

Man, that was A- LOT of typing for probably not that much information.  Hopefully there was something in there for someone.  This post is meant to a resource for anyone, and more just showing how I do the dark ages so that you can do it better than me.  If you like any of this feel free to use it, and improve upon it, and then get back to me so I can steal it, and together we each can polish each others....ideas.  that almost sounded dirty.

This post also marks my (yet to be proven) TRIUMPHANT return to blogging in general.  Let the fun begin again.  

Another Hail Caesar Dark Ages game

 What? more Dark Ages mass battles with Hail Caesar? whodathunk.

On The Road This Time

Have swords, will travel.  I took my Hail Caesar game on the road to host for one of the clubs that I belong to; off to a library community room.  I was hoping to get around 4 or 6 players but only got 2; which was fine as then I got to play along in a 2 versus 1 battle.  Why the poor turnout?  Some regulars where busy that day, others had no interest, and I think word has gotten out that I haven't brushed my teeth in over 2 weeks and my breath is killer.  Especially since I started to flavor my coffee with garlic.

Even if only 1 person was going to show up I would of hosted; anything to get out of the house and away from my cloying I mean loving family for most of the day.

Funny story: being in a community room means the public could wander in and some children and parents did wander in to see what was the happenings.  People were suitably impressed.  Moms told their young children to look and not touch and I immediately chimed in with "Don't listen to your dumb mother, of course you can touch.  You just have to be careful."  Then selecting a base that had mostly plastic figures on it (because it was lighter) I handed it to the kid and said "here, look at this one."  Kid looks at it for a minute or two and hands it back to me.  It's in my hand for 10 seconds when I drop it to the floor.  Kid laughs and laughs... "you told ME to be careful and then YOU dropped it!"  He did help me pick up the pieces though.  Only minor damage was done.

On with the Game

Setting up on a 5x10 table with the Vikings deployed in 3 division and the Saxons in 4.  

Saxons on right, Vikings on the left.

No longships today; I forgot them at home.
Too bad; everyone likes a Longship.

From the other side of the table.

Saxons be like...

"Hey Saxon King, how should we feel about Vikings on our borders?"

"We shall disDANE it."
(get it?  like disdain? You have to laugh because he is the king)

In this scenario: The Viking and Saxon leaders start out in the center
accompanied by 1 unit of their best troops.
They're having a prebattle meeting.
You can see the 2 units and leaders in the center of the board.

Vikings be like:

"Danegeld please!  And then we'll go away!"

Saxons be like:

And while the two leaders are arguing back and forth something goes amiss and the fight breaks out and the battle is ON! 

Battle Report

You know me: I don't do battle reports.  It's too much work for too little reward.  It's like trying to make your wife happy.

So instead here are some groovy pics of some dark ages action that make my collection look good.  Like taking a selfie at the proper angle..

Opening moves with the mandatory inclusion of someone crotch.

In the last battle players gave me feedback that it could be difficult
to tell what a unit was.  So in this battle I attached a label to the back of each unit.
I think black labels fade away when not looking for it.

above: 2 angles of same moment in time.

Above: 2 actual good battlefield pics that DONT have gamer junk in them.

I'm pleased that the Shieldwall markers (shields on the ground), the small dice tracking hits,
and the casualty figures (that track who is winning/losing a fight)
all work together well and look good.

The Saxons I was playing got paste-ted but the fellow Saxon player on the other side of the battle were doing OK.  In the end we ran out of time / interest and called it a Viking victory.  

Saxons on the other side of the table to my Saxons be like:

So not a good battle report but maybe an entertaining read all the same.

This Post Grows long and the Content Short

Very true.  Now that I'm home all comfy and cozy I gotta find that base I dropped and fix the damage. 

I'm hoping to get in one more practice game of Hail Caesar before my big convention weekend in Nov.  Though October is gonna be a busy month.  But practice will help me appear like I know what I am doing when all eyes are looking at me with hope and expectation of a good game. 

Till next time.

Thanks for reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

reflections on the 100 effort

 And here we are again.  Prepare thyself for text.  Lots of text.  

I've been absent form the internets for the last couple weeks or so due to working my ass off.  Having grown frustrated at being broke all the time I went to that place that broke people should go: to work. 
I've been doing a lot of on call shifts which is basically the way someone in my job does over time.  It can be nice because you get paid just for being on call and then if they call you in then you get more extra monies.  The plan has worked too well as I've been called in a LOT in the past weeks.  On the positive side the extra money is welcomed (and kinda the whole point)  and I've barely seen my family.  My children become adorable when you don't see them for very long.   On the negative side I've had little-to-no time for miniatures.   

I've Been Thinking (a Dangerous Pastime)

I've been thinking about painting, mostly while driving.  My dislike for painting is well documented on the internet, which I of course ham up for entertainment purposes.  My own entertainment really, not sure about anyone else. 

I found that focusing on the dark ages miniatures exclusively until the goal of 100 miniatures was reached to be a real boon in getting that collection to the playable state that I wanted it to be.  But it did take a long time to do (8 months).  Out of curiosity I did a post on TMP asking how long it would take those unwashed masses to paint a 100 figures.  You can see the post here: Linkity if inclined.

To invite comparison is to invite misery.  Most people responded that it would take them just 2ish months to paint 100 miniatures.  Man that makes me look slow.  Course, Who knows how representative that sample actually is.  Whenever you post on the internet that you did something cool in X amount of time, I think it naturally selects responses from folks who did it in X-n.  I'm a little suspect though, because one doesn't see a ton of folks out there with huge armies in enormous mass battles.  It's out there, but it's not the norm.  What I do see are people playing medium sized games and talking about how they got a lot of unpainted lead and too many projects on the go.  

Obviously there's no right or wrong way to do anything in this silly hobby, it's a HOBBY after all and supposed to be fun.   And it's a stupid thing to try to tell someone else how to do a hobby.  But it's a smart thing to think about my own hobby and what I really want from it.  Self reflection is very interesting to read (NOT!).   But maybe if someone is in the same situation they might find some pearls of wisdom.  

My goal of painting anything is to have it painted.  I like playing with painted armies; it's the end result that matters and not the process.  Just like going to the gym; I like having the sculpted abs and not doing the crunches.  If I ever went to the gym that is.  A better analogy for myself is that I like to eat my bacon and melted cheese sandwich but not make it.  I balance the plate on my tummy while I watch TV. 

I've described my painting / hobby time before; in that I'm basically only able to get any painting done late at night after the kids and wife have gone to bed and some chores are done.  The wife might not be asleep but she's 'retired for the evening.'  It's a big affair when she retires, we have to light candles and dim the lights while she ascends the stairs in a night gown and I play an organ solemnly. 

So painting time is limited till between the hours of 9:00ish till around 10:30ish PM.  I like to hit the hay around 1100 since most days I'm up at early.  Either due to work or the children because kids never sleep in.  Damn youth and their zest for life. 

How to put that time to best use is the question of the day.  Because I actually want to get things done. Most gamers that I know have several projects on the go at once, and while they do a lot (or not) no one project/genre moves forward very much.  Everything is starts and stops.  I've always limited my number of projects being worked on at once to 2.  Called the rule of 2.  What a project is can be anything, 1 project could be a regiment of ACW infantry and the other 2 Ships of the line.  The idea that when I say down at the hobby desk I could do either of those projects but wouldn't start another till one was done.  This works fine.  Yet the projects are often disconnected from one another.  The ACW regiment when done would be swapped out for some LOTR Orcs; when the ships were done it was swapped out for terrain piece, and when the next project in would be AWI and so on.  

Painting the 100 dark ages miniatures was started on a lark, just a goal I set to get out of some hobby slows.  It's probably the first time where I worked on a specific genre for months on end.  It's also the first time I ever kept track of how many miniatures I was painting.  

The more I think about it, the more I like that process.  Setting a large goal (naturally being broken down into smaller ones) and keep at it until it's done.  It provided a real sense of progress and completion for me; which is important for my own mental health as I've really just plateaued in life.   

So I'm gonna try it out for awhile.  Pic a genre, set a goal that gets it to the next game-able state, and focus on that.  Not  focusing so much on the number of figures but what the state of play is: A small skirmish can be moved to large skirmish; a large skirmish to a mass battle, a genre not playable at all because not enough has been painted moved to a playable state.  

It'll be an experiment with very low stakes because nothing important will be affected and who cares.  You all will get the watch / read about it and I'll get back to you.  Gotta blog about something after all. 

 What's Next? Same Ol' Same Ol'

"What do I want to paint next?" is the wrong question.  The answer is nothing, I hate painting.**  Why can't I just have a bunch of wargaming buddies with big armies and terrain of their own that host games whenever I want in whatever genre I want so I can just show up play?  And While I'm imagining things why not also have strippers and strobe lights; but the stripper costumes would have a matching theme to the game being played.  

A better question would be "what to game next?"  Dark Ages will dominate games for the rest of the year with the big finale in November when I host several convention games.  he Dark Ages have  gotten a lot of love lately; but I had still had 4 of the big battle bases left over so I thought... what the hell?  Finish the job. 

Mass production mode.
4 Bases and the miniatures to go on them.

the last 4 big battle bases will make each army of Vikings and Saxons 24 bases strong.  These don't have to be done till November so I'm just doing everything at once.  

Edit: forgot to add teh actual paint goal.  which is 10 Thegns, 10 ceorls, 10 bondi and 8 skirmishersand 4 movement trays by Veterans day weekend in November.  Crunch time!

Some other odds and ends:

2 more priests to help out Saxon morale.
The one on the left is super fancy.

Shieldwall markers

Its helpful to mark which units are in shieldwall.  The 10 on the left I made YEARS ago and used LMBS transfers.  The 18 on the right (with 2 shields) I made recently but was out of shield transfers so I painted those by hand.  I think 3 of the 36 came out alright.  I ordered more transfers.  No one looks too hard at markers anyway.

Painted up a mess of casualty figures to use as markers
to help remember which side is winning or losing a fight.

These painted up pretty quick as I only had to paint half the miniature.

Deep Thoughts and Leaving

Thanks for taking the time to read these deep and useless thoughts about painting miniatures.  Hopefully not a complete waste of time for you.  It's in no way to try and convince anyone that what they are doing is wrong; I'm not convinced myself one way or ta other; its just some hobby talk about the painting side of our silly hobby.  Here are some other deep and useless thoughts:

Sand is called Sand because it's in-between the sea and the land.

We have fingers and toes; Our fingers have fingertips but our toes don't have toetips but people can walk tiptoe.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

**for the record; I do like painting.  I like the sense of free time, of doing what I want to do over what I should do.  I like that I'm not just wasting time watching TV.   I like the creativity, I like the process, the time spent by myself, and the relaxation.  But what I really like is when a genre that I've painted hits the table, and everyone oohhs and awwws and applauds.  OK, no one applauds.  

Hail Caesar Dark Ages Game

 

...because after all, I didn't paint all these Vikings and Saxons for nothing.

"Hi!  We're Vikings.  We're here to take your stuff."

Hail Caesar Dark Ages

Over the Labor Day weekend (first weekend in Sept here in Ah-merica) there was a game convention called Pacificon.  Which I didn't go to because I am big loser and too poor right now.  I hate being poor, but it's kinda my own fault because I blew all my hobby money on limited  edition DVDs  of all 5 seasons of "I dream of Jeanie."  

Too sexy because she always calls him master...

So instead I invited some other losers who weren't going to the convention either, to my place so we can suck less together.  And for a chance to get all these Dark Ages troops of mine on the table. 

I have a couple of rules for Dark Ages mass battles that I like but am not really in love with any of them.  Just haven't found my 'Go-to" rule set yet.  They're like women you date in college but you know that you're not gonna marry.  These being Sword and Spear and Hail Caesar.  Other contenders are Impetus (which I found hard to read/understand and haven't tried) and Triumph (liked what I read but haven't tried).  I selected Hail Caesar for a game that's really good at moving blocks of infantry and rolling lots of dice.  Mr. CG and Mr. AS took the roles of the dastardly Vikings while I took the noble Saxons.  

Setting Up

My morning set up was super rushed and chaotic as my wife was busy cleaning because her parents were coming over, and all of them were going out with the kids while I stayed home and played miniatures.  Which is of course super nice all around but it did mean I had to set up the game with added 'assistance' of little helping hands....

Actually daughter #1 and Son #2 were quite content to sit on a coach and watch TV.
Son #3 however was quite ...helpful...

I set up a 6x10 foot table; figuring that was big enough to hold all the troops and still allow for some room to move around.  There are two important tricks to setting up a good Dark Ages mass battle.  ONE: resist the tempting temptation of just lining all the units end to end on each side and have at it.  While it is historical (almost all Dark Ages battles are just that) it's not very exciting to play.  TWO: Allow enough room for the players to line their troops end to end and have at it because it's exciting and it's what everyone expects and what else you gonna do where the primary formation is the shieldwall....  it's a paradox.

Game On

The game had 3 players so I split the Vikings into 4 divisions; 2 for each player.  The Saxons are in 3 divisions controlled by me. 

In this scenario:  The Vikings are in the process of leading a loot train from a village back to their longships.  There is 1 Viking division on the table to start and must keep 1 unit with the loot train in order keep the 4 units; livestock, slaves, ale cart, and food.  The train needs to be ordered to move toward the boats and will move 6" each turn if successful.  The train only ever gets 1 move and if a blunder is rolled the would-be slaves will fight the guards.  The other Viking divisions are off exploring the countryside..

The Saxons have shown up to put a stop to this.  1 division starts on the table edge.  Vikings have the first turn...  

Every turn after the first each side gets a division entering the table...

With my friends arriving and family leaving all at the same time I did NOT have my usual quiet before the storm to take pictures of the table right after set up.  So we join the game in progress...

Saxons at the bottom of the picture.
Viking to the right and ahead.
Off in the distance the loot train is moving toward the longships.

Same scene; different angle.

Another Saxon division enters from the long table edge.

.

Whole table so far.

Get into Shieldwall!
Vikings in lower left and right side (Viking archers on the hill)

ANYWAYS; I'm playing, running the game, as well eating pizza and drinking to much coffee so there is no blow by blow of the game.  Divisions enter and fights break out and the soon..

.. the whole table table looks like this.

Same scene, from the other side of the table.

Saxons and Vikings on a Collision course.

Same scene but just behind the Vikings.

If you got the idea that during the game I would suddenly think "hey, I haven't taken any pictures in awhile..." *Click-click-click-click* Ok, back to the game."        You would be correct. 

Yay!  Dark Ages

Time for some random pictures:

Can you tell who is who?
No you can't.  Because everyone is harry and smelly in the Dark Ages.

Enough pics though.  Lookit, I played a game.  You get the idea.  On a side note: I think every picture has some gamer junk in it (dice, tape measure, paper or some such) making me the lamest wargaming blogger ever.

Things Learned, Things Remembered

I haven't played Hail Caesar in at least 5 years and the rules came out in 2014 (what?  really?  Daaaamnnn time flies.)  and I liked the rules way more than I remembered.  Some memories are still accurate in that I don't love the orders system and I think the best experience is to have more than 1 division to command as we did here; so than when a division blows it's first roll and does NOTHING you're just not sitting there watching but move onto the next division.  There is a fun risk versus reward aspect in the orders phase and combat is a fun bucket of dice fest. Here's an example of a sentence you say in combat: "My Thegns have 7 dice in combat that hit on a  3+ because I charged, add in 2 dice for the attached leader for 9 dice at 3+ (rolls), that's 6 hits so far; these two supporting Ceorls have 3 dice each that hit on a 4+ (rolls); that's 3 more hits for a total of 9, so you need 9 saves of..."

I did really like the shieldwall rule from the dark ages supplement which helped make the lines crashing into each other a more grinding pushing shoving affair.  

One big thing I learned from feedback is that I should label the units in some way.  It's my collection so I can instantly recognize a Saxon Thegn unit from a Viking Hirdmen from a Ceorl from a Bondi but CG and AS said they couldn't.  I'm assuming this is because all the painted miniatures just looked too awesome.  

The scenario also needs some tweaking here and there but I'll leave that to another time.  Overall a successful day and a good dusting off of the rules.  And it felt good to get this collection on the table after a long time.  I'd almost forgotten how much I like the Dark Ages. 

Another game of Hail Caesar is scheduled for later in the month.  WHAAAT???  2 games in one month??!!  That's crazy!  Who am I?  The King of Wargaming? 

Thanks for Reading

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.