The Goodbye Gauls

I've painted and played 3 Gallic armies in the last 4 years. They were the first army I ran in our local Field of Glory group and they were an exceedingly poor choice for these rules. Average, undrilled and outclassed by nearly everyone in their era, my Gauls were like Milk-Bones in a dog pound. Everyone wanted to play my Gauls and why not?  I lost over and over again.  When the beat-downs became too painful, I sold the army off to a good fellow in Australia.

Within a year, I painted Gauls for Impetus and that was a great change-up.  They were fun to play under Impetus and the extra "impetus" dice in impact gave them a fair shot every time out. Unfortunately, Impetus didn't catch on with our club so I sold these off as well.

The FoG v2 update made Gauls slightly less rubbish and that was enough incentive for me to paint them once again, this time sans pants. At the time, I was getting army lists and tips from a father and son FoG tournament team and I'd hoped to leverage their knowledge into success on the battlefield. I also read the rules repeatedly and kept a folder with ideas for running my Gauls.  I had some success initially but then my opponents started neutralizing my large units of heavy foot with loads of terrain. In our 2014 campaign, I managed a single win and it was a lucky one at that. Updated rules + new Gauls  =  the same sorry results. Once again, off to market!

My FoG customers all passed on the Gauls when I posted them for sale, confirming how poorly they're thought of.  Oh, the shame of being unwanted.  Luckily, I found a buyer who wanted this army and a lot more. Mustering off the table are 32 bases of medium foot, 16 bases of light horse and archers to buff out the Gallic army. They'll face off with a large West Wind Roman army I'll be painting in January. The Gauls will run under a tabletop adaptation of Command and Colors Ancients, meaning they have a fighting chance!

To close out the third and final chapter of my Book of Gauls, here are pics from their sole victory this summer. A heavy foot army has slim chances against a shooty, mounted foe. Here, I managed to steal a victory when my Gallic cavalry decisively beat armored Steppe cavalry in impact and melee too. The Steppe cavalry wing broke and ran after their General died in combat. Meanwhile, my Galatian foot spent the game slogging across the table and soaking up arrows.

Reading about the Gauls, planning a Gallic army and and painting them up was great fun. Playing them in FoG is painful so I won't miss that a bit. Goodbye Gauls and good luck on the West Coast. Before stepping out in the California sun, do put on some sunscreen, or pants!

US SAGA Grand Melee-I'm in!

Eric Hagen is co-running the US SAGA Grand Melee next March.  Eric organized the stellar SAGA Storm last fall, so the Grand Melee is guaranteed to be amazing. Two days of gaming, six scenarios, forty players and prizes galore...I've heard the call and I'm in!

I can't wait to see 40 warbands out on the tabletop.  I was planning to paint up a new warband to throw in for the "Best Painted" competition but I just picked up a huge 15mm painting contract. No worries as I have 5 warbands to choose from.

I've been playing Norse-Gael lately so I'm taking them. Personal challenges make up half of their battleboard and that means you have to win a pre-melee dice-off to unlock these abilities.  This makes them a bit of a gamble as losing a challenge costs you all the dice you parked on that ability!

A number of our local players have registered for the Melee and we've started weekly games to tune up.  As much as I enjoy painting and playing SAGA, I'm an average player.  I lose focus during the game, I fail to see the "long game" and if I have a beer on an empty stomach, victory is lost!  My chances of winning the Melee are equal to my chances of winning the Triple Crown. I do want to make a good show of it and practice games are perfect to that achieving that end.

With batttleboard abilities like Howling Axes and Slaughter, I'm buffing up my warband.  I've got some Footsore Miniatures axemen on the table and wow, they're lovely sculpts! I should also put in a plug for my new Nordic dice bag from Broake and Thumb Studios on eBay.  Here's hoping the raven rune brings me the lucky dice I'll need on game days!

I love a man in a uniform #2

Round 2 of the British project is officers, specialists and HQ. Figures are a mix of Bolt Action and Artizan.

PIAT team,  2" mortar and and medic.

Forward Observer, Platoon and section leaders. Last week, I posted up pictures of the British sections but I forgot to include the section leaders. They were a bit shy but I managed to get them in front of the camera today.  Leaders are mounted on larger bases.

PIATs, mortars, minesweepers, engineers, Brens and flamethrowers. I think I'm required to add an "...oh my!" 

The Brits are all block painted and washed with Army Painter Soft Tone. Selective highlights were applied.  Painting neat, I kept black intact for shadows on backpacks, straps and other gear. Flesh was done with Vallejo hull red as the base followed by Foundry Flesh 5A, B and C.  

I got in the second game in our Arnhem campaign game.  I muffed the patrol phase so badly that Hugh advanced his Paras through the woods unopposed. In game 3, I have the option to call on reinforcements (including armor) for a German counterattack.  My force morale is pretty brittle compared to the Paras but I'm going all in.  I hope to make a game of it and include a full report!

Below are pictures from our reset.  The area south of the road is woods.  The area north of the houses is wooded also. The Brits didn't want to go house to house so they concentrated on a thrust through the woods south of the road.  It was a very short and sharp engagement!