There was a gathering in the "Shed of war" on Saturday the culprits from left to right were Big Lee
Alternative report click here. , Surgit, Ian, Postie and David or Izzy as he is sometimes called. We all randomly selected our place in the game and I was the Roman Legate, Izzy was my Tribune. The other three were some Pictish barbarian rabble unfit to wash a Romans feet! Ok Big Lee was supposedly incharge of them, and it was his "Daughter" we had captured.... only in the game.... but he did say she was rubbish around the house so I don't think we would have much use for her in reality, maybe some amusement for the lions in the arena.
The situation was that Tribune David Had to escort the prisoner and the loot erhm I mean Taxes back to the fort which was mine to command. The Three oiks you can see on the left where given 2 objectives, to rescue the hostage and to capture the fort. And this is what Happened.
Thousands of 'em... No but about 300 in all
The Thin Red Line. Izzy's column of about 50 men.
The Mile Fort I was in command of. Which the Picts were to attack as well as rescue the hostages.
The Original Roman Plan was to leave 1 Unit to slow the pict advance. But we soon realised that these Picts could move fast and one unit would be little more than a speed bump!
Adapting the plan We sent the Prisoners on alone with 4 guards and Tribune Izzy would use all 3 units to attack the Picts.
So Izzy left the road and took the battle to the barbarian horde.
I lit the distress beacons to notify the nearby forts that we were being attacked. I set the 6 cavalry figures and the Fort standard bearer to assist.
Chieftain Big Lee Started to move his troops up allowing Ian and Surgit to Battle away at Tribune Izzy's PBI.
Cheftain Lee kept his troops out of range of my 3 Scorpions but my Oranger crew had obviously had a heavy night and Missed by about an inch on every single occasion. The Oranger killed only 1 barbarian in all the game. Such a disappointment!
Tribune Izzy did a fine job in fighting off the Picts. Such a good job that the one battering ram that the Picts had was diverted from it's job of moving to attack the gate and instead attacked Davids Legionaries. This was clearly not part of their original plan so they adapted it and instead settled on only rescuing Big Lee's daughter.
The Cavalry I sent out to assist were mown down by arrows and wiped out in 2 turns. And the battering ram moved a further 6 inches away. All the while the hostages and loot were getting closer.
I receiver 6 more cavalry as reinforcements from the lighting of the beacons. At this stage I wish I had nor sent out the first cavalry unit oh well too late to worry about that.
The Pict skirmish line captures the wagon of Taxes. And is closing ground on the hostages.
My pitiful Oranger so little damage, but at least it was deterring the Picts fanatics from getting unhealthily close.
I sent My last Cavalry out to act as a screen to get the Hostages into the fort.
They charged, now just down to 3 men. And Died very quickly!
I Moved my archers onto the walls closer to the gate and fired like Billy-o at the skirmishers.
And Managed to do just enough damage to stop them for a turn
while I got the Prisoners/hostages inside the gate.
And That's where we stopped the game. The Gods favoured the Romans and we shall all say a prayer to "Postius" God of Wargames shed.
Final thoughts: I think the rules really did favour the Romans and make them too hard to kill. When 50 troops can hold off 300 it does seem one sided. Having said that it did come down to a single dice roll in the end when my archers did enough damage to force a morale check on Lees skirmishers. So It really could have gone either way. It was in the end a Roman minor victory mostly thanks to Izzy. But it could have been a Roman disaster if the Picts had got the hostages back (-12 Victory points, or lost the fort -20 Victory points). Which would have made the 2 victory point difference completely insignificant.
And a big thank you to Postie for hosting and Umpiring the game. All the figures and Terrain is his and it really was a joy to be part of it.
Thanks for reading and with luck more again on Wednesday.
All the best Clint
And Finally. I hope to meet some of you tomorrow at Salute and I will be cutting the Fudge today ready for tomorrow. Noticed that I have got a minor mention (indirectly at least I assume it's me) in this months Miniature Wargames. Well that is to say my fudge got a mention by Helena Gnash. Anyway here is what it looks like before cutting!
Well I am not going to make a big thing of it but the illness persists in the family. One person gets better and another gets worse. 
I have pre-ordered some more Samurai from Pendraken ready to pick up on Saturday at Salute but only an additional 2 packs so not as many as I could possibly get. Just enough to keep the project rolling along. 
So today we have another 12 Samurai with Naginata mounted and ready for battle. These will bolster my Red Samurai army and bring them to a similar level to my grey Army. I am not far of having sufficient for a battle now, no wargames army is ever really finished but this is now approaching critical mass. And I will anticipate getting a game in quite soon. In fact I am planning one in about a month, give or take. 
I was going to paint some 28mm German WW1 figures this afternoon, alas I have run out of superglue so may not attaché them to bases for handling and painting. Darn. So until Monday I am at a loss as to what to paint. 
Anyway you should know by now these will be for my red army which is slowly growing. I expect a game or two in the coming months, unless I get distracted.... ooh look shinies! Yeah I know It's likely to happen. But until it does I will continue as I am just preparing for Salute.
There has been some illness in the house of late so painting is on the down low. Everyone is fine and will recover so don't worry about that. But thank you for your concern anyway. As such the only thing ready to share is a single type 27 pill box in 10mm (1/200th scale). 
I only bought one of these having met the guy at a show and asking if he would sell a single item. He agreed and gave a price and the money changed hands. It is a single piece casting and is very clean and clear by wargaming standards. No flash or Air bubbles and finished to a very high standard. From what I have seen of their products I would recommend them. They do (at the moment) a little bit in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, and 28nn so perhaps they might be worth a look for you as well.
The Type 27 really is a basic pill bow. One door and a firing slit at each face. Because it is so basic I will use it for the Spanish Civil War game I have planned. I have seen no actual evidence of the type 27 being used in the SCW but the bunkers and pill boxes that were used do not seem to be as sophisticated as those in late WW2. So while this may not be totally correct, it will be close enough for me!
It is important to remember that while cavalry was used in the Spanish Civil War lessons had been learnt from WW1. As such they were not used so much for cavalry charges but more for scouting and recon. Most often when cavalry were used in Battles they dismounted and fought on foot. So here are a group of 5 bases to be used as scouts and no doubt how we would use paratroops! By that I mean travel fast to the objective and dismount and wait for a relieving force. While that was not exactly how they were used in the SCW it is how I can see players using them in game terms. I want to make it clear I have no issue with this approach, I am sure I would do the same. It is after all how I use Cavalry in ACW games.
Yes Dead counters for my planned Spanish Civil War game. 21 in all from 2 Pendraken packs. There is supposed to be 10 in each pack, but I got an extra one yippee! Got to love a free figure. 
Not a huge amount to say about these. It is perhaps more interesting to talk about their transport. 
So with these light guns I have also 2 French 155mm field guns. I have given these regular army crew as being Bigger I would imagine larger political factions would insist on having these. It is still quite possible that they could be on Nationalist or Republican sides as the uniforms don't really give a true indication of loyalty. As with all the figures I could paint Armbands on them, but this keeps it more versatile. I have Two trucks to tow these guns about. And I probably should apologise for the backgrounds being skewiff but I am not going to. Just take the colours from the backgrounds to indicate why I have selected those camouflage patterns. 
Firstly this is a "Bilbao" armoured car it has a crew of 4 and is able to carry 5 additional troops. It is armed with a 7mm Hotchkiss machine gun. It was the only pre war armoured car built by Spain. I went for a simple very dark grey colour scheme and applied a black wash. Job Done. 
The Uniform of the Guardia de Assalto was black shirt and trousers with a black peaked cap. If you have seen the film "Land and freedom" these are seen at one point not as front line troops but in Barcelona entering a mans house and arresting him. They did also fight as frontline troops and were some of the most mobile troops of the war usually going by truck, but there was also a motorcycle detachment. 