1066 and All That - Song of Battle AAR

My first game of the new year was one of Rocky's offerings, "Song of Battle", which is meant for larger battles in the Dark Ages.

The scenario for the game was a "What if" Battle of Ouse Bridge in 1066 between Harold Godwinson and Harald Hardrada/Sigurdson. Historically, the Battle of Stamford Bridge was decided when the Anglo-Saxons surprised the invading Norwegians, who rushed to battle without their armor. In Rocky's version, the Norse were aware of the Saxon approach and had time to gear up.

Both armies sought to break the other side through unit losses; additionally, the town and road exits would contribute to losses if held by enemy units.

The Anglo-Saxons were commanded by Harold and his brothers Leofwine and Gyrth, with an army consisting of huscarls, dismounted mounted fyrd, and regular fyrd. The Norwegians were commanded by Sigurdson, Harold's traitorous brother Tostig, and the Norwegian noble Eystein Orre, and commanded an army of huskarls, bondi, and mercenaries from Scotland and Flanders.

As the town was fairly open and didn't impede combat, Harold took his command up the center, facing off against Orre's smaller force. 

Sigurdson's larger force held the Norwegian left flank, protecting the army's road exit from Leofwine's command. 

On the Saxon left, Gyrth's fyrd faced off against Orre's bondi and mercenaries who held the riverbank.

Harold's glorious charge into combat was hampered somewhat by his huscarls panicked by some arrows fire by the bondi. 

He was joined by another unit of huscarls who suffered the same lack of nerve!

Harold's other warriors had a better time of it, forcing back their opponents. 

The Norwegians did attempt a rear charge into the retreating huscarls, but my dice luck swung the other way and they managed to hold. That allowed Harold to rally one unit of huscarls to a better morale state, while the rest of the troops reformed. 

Sigurdson's troops crossed the water to engage with Leofwine's fyrd units. 

Orre's troops were holding against Harold's huscarls, but the grind was beginning to go the Anglo-Saxons' way.

Outside of the town, Sigurdson's warrior punched a hole through Leofwine's line, threatening to collapse the flank. 

Harold's troops were chased out of the town again! 

Having spent the entire battle shuffling forward, Gyrth's command finally made their way to the river, somewhat outflanked by Tostig's bondi. 

With his troops spent, Orre commanded them to go into shieldwall to block Harold's advance on the Norwegian's line of retreat. 

Leofwine's troops were still fighting, but his line was collapsing in the face of Sigurdson's warriors.

We had to call the game due to time, with an inconclusive result. Post game discussion was that it could have gone either way. Harold was likely to win in the center, but would have to then turn to face Sigurdson's troop. 

I did enjoy Rocky's rules, as they gave what could have basically been a shoving match some tactical flair. Units could decided when to go into shieldwall, trading offensive capabilities and movement for better protection and steadiness. Leaders could use limited resources to intervene at critical moments. 

I'm looking forward to trying this again; I suggested another "What if" of Harald Hardrada against William's invading Normans.

6x6 Challenge for 2026

 Happy New Year, everyone!

A little less than a decade ago, Alan over at The Stronghold Rebuilt blog ran a "6x6 Challenge" in which participants would aim to play six games six times over the course of a year and record them in some way (blog posts, social media posts, etc.). The chosen games could be miniature wargames, board games, card games, or role playing games. They could be games that see regular play or games that you'd like to get a chance to play more of.

I thought I would resurrect that challenge for myself this year, with a mix of historical and fantasy/sci-fi miniature wargames. This should reduce my "hobby butterfly" tendency to flit between projects. Six games that I can focus in on should provide plenty of hobby engagement over the year. 

I will allow myself a mulligan in case it looks like a certain game just won't see the table, or if something comes up that really catches my attention.

So, here's the six games for my 6x6 Challenge in 2026:

Fire in the Sky

Fire in the Sky is a set of WWII aerial rules for engagements larger than dogfights. Rather than individual planes, players control squadrons and flights. I spent a bunch of time last year painting a bunch of 1/600 planes, and I intend to see them used on the table. What I'd really like is to take them to the annual "Wings & Things Arts & Crafts Festival" in Cape May. As the game can be played fairly quickly, I will count each instance of the models hitting the table as an entry for the challenge.

Chain of Command

A third set of WWII rules! Chain of Command received a long awaited update last year, and I really enjoyed playing the "29 Let's Go" campaign with Ted a few years back. Since that campaign doesn't require much in terms of extra support options for two basic platoons, and only one side really needs to worry about tracking casualties, I'm going to be playing out the campaign in 15mm this year.

Atomic Tank

I reviewed the rules for Atomic Tank last month and I'm genuinely excited to try out these rules. Hydra Miniatures plans for more releases supporting the Galacteers and Robot Legion, so my starter set can expand as I play. Maybe we'll get to add new armies!

Clash of Rhyfles

Ever since discovering the world of Alwyd and the delightful Quar, I really wanted to play more with them. Wargames Atlantic has been busy releasing plastic boxes full of Quar, and I want to get them to the table. While I do have miniatures for the setting's go-to factions with some Coftyrans and Crusaders, the new box set featuring Western Arnyaran and Creevish troops is great place to start. 

Starship Troopers

This is an set of rules still in development from the Little Wars TV crew. It's intended to recreate the battles from the Starship Troopers movies, with platoons of rifle-armed, footslogging Mobile Infantry facing off against hordes of arachnids. As it's designed for solo-play, I could complete this relatively quickly, but I do have a second platoon painted and ready to use with another player. 

Space Gits

Last year the creator of Gaslands, Mike Hutchinson, released a new game called Space Gits; effectively, an updated version of Gorkamorka with dexterity based gameplay. A single box of Ork Boyz (the older, better version) gives two warbands, so I'd like to give it a go. 

And I have two extra games that will act as mulligans or bonuses:

'O' Group

Yes, a third set of WWII rules! I spent a large part of 2025 painting French and German battalions for use with the 1940 supplement. I determined to get them used this year! It's helpful that this is coinciding with Battlefront's return to Early War, so I'm hoping that I can get some useful kits in plastic. 

Battletech

I have a decent collection of Battletech mechs and vehicles that have been collecting dust for some time. Rocky's interested in playing the Alpha Strike version of the game, so that may be a focus for this year.

That's it! Let's see how it goes. And if you're interested, try your own 6x6 Challenge!

A Year in Gaming - 2025

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season so far!

As it's become a yearly fixture of my blog, let's take a look back at my hobbying done in 2025.

Here what I played: 

• Bingfa - 3
• Clash of Rhyfles - 3
• Fire in the Sky - 1
• General d'Armee - 2
• Lionheart - 1
• Live Free or Die - 1
• Men of Company B - 1
• 'O' Group - 1
• Pike & Shotte - 1
• Right Cruel and Fell - 1
• Saga - 3
• Starship Troopers: Sector Sweep - 2
• Tercios - 2
• To the Strongest! - 1
• Tricorn and Bonnet - 1
• Wars of Eagles and Empires - 1

25 games isn't a bad tally. It's a better number than last year's 9 games, and closer to what I was averaging prior. I think the heady days of 100 games in 2018, or even 61 games in 2019, may not be achievable anymore. Had I been able to attend Cold Wars and the entirety of Fall In this year, I would have been able to add a few more game to the list. Hopefully I can make it to all three conventions next year.

And my painting list for the year:

• 3mm Aircraft - 181
• 6mm Infantry - 11
• 6mm Monsters - 8
• 10mm Infantry - 34
• 10mm Vehicles - 6
• 15mm Artillery - 7
• 15mm Cavalry - 1
• 15mm Equipment - 6
• 15mm Infantry - 167
• 28mm Infantry - 28

Finishing all the miniatures for my Fire in the Sky project took a large part of the year, but I also managed to complete the Germans for my 1940 'O' Group project. I do have some more to add the Germans and French to complete what's needed for the campaign, so that's another goal for next year. 

And here's a quick visual recap of the games I played:

Bingfa 

Clash of Rhyfles 

General d'Armee

Lionheart 

Live Free or Die 

Men of Company B

'O' Group 

Pike & Shotte

Right Cruel and Fell

Saga

Tercios

To the Strongest!

Tricorn and Bonnet

Wars of Eagles and Empires

So that's 2025 done and dusted. Have a Happy New Year, and let's look forward to more hobbying in 2026. 

Painting Update - Quar, Atomic Tank

Here's an update on what I've been painting in the last few weeks before the end of the year.

With the release of the "final" version of Clash of Rhyfles, I focused on finishing a couple of squads of Quar. Above is a basic squad of Crusaders.

And here's a basic Coftyran squad. Next year I'll work on adding specialists and a light tractor to each group.

I've also been working in the Atomic Tank miniatures that came in the starter set. Above are Robot Legion models: a pair of Heroes, a Brainbot and a trio of Warbots.

And to round out the starter army, a unit each of regular and heavy Legionnaires and a pair of Doombots.

Eviction Notice - 'O' Group AAR

I recently paid a visit to my old South Jersey Gaming Association group in New Jersey, both to see how they're doing and to potentially run some games of Fire in the Sky. The hope was that I could convince the group to let me also run games at 2026's Wings & Things event at the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum. 

Unfortunately, a number of illnesses meant that there weren't enough folks to make a third game worth it, so I decided to jump into Ted's O Group offering instead!

The scenario was a 1942 attack by the Germans in Russia. The Russians had 5 BUAs to defend; the Germans either needed to cause 3 FUBARs or control 3 of the 5 BUAs by the end of 14 turns. 

The Germans started their attack strong, forcing the Russians out of the farmstead on the right flank. 

A lucky shot from the Russian infantry gun knocked out an advancing Panzer II. Combat Patrols were placed to occupy terrain (and I think this was a mistake on our part, deploying infantry into the woods instead of the town. I forget why we didn't deploy a unit to the town directly with no enemy units within 8". Fog of war, I suppose!

The left flank was relatively quiet. 

The center saw most the action during the game, with both sides devoting infantry platoons to attacking the center town and nearby farmstead. 

The Russian infantry gun redeployed to assist with adding fire to the beleaguered infantry platoon that was caught in the open. 

Wanting to keep the Germans out of the center town, I moved a Russian infantry platoon in to occupy it. 

In what was my best move of the game, I managed to guess that the Germans would try to deploy their armor to the most open part of the battlefield, and prepared an ambushing anti-tank gun. When the panzer platoon moved into the open, the gun opened fire. Between some incredibly hot dice rolling and being able to both react fire and fire in our phase, one tank section was knocked out and the other was damaged. 

The Germans attempted to deploy an infantry gun to the woods behind the village they occupied, but concentrated Russian fire and mortars managed to rout it. 

The remaining German tank section moved to support the attack on the center village. A German platoon, with a machine gun section attached, held down the flank and halted any Russian counterattacks. 

Both sides exchanged close ranged fire, hoping to cause casualties.

Seeking to put some pressure on the German right, I threw out a Combat Patrol deep on their side, hoping to deploy a platoon and flank the Germans with their attached machinegun. 

The Germans, after softening up their Russian targets, launched an assault into the center village and captured it! The Russian platoon holding the village retreated. 

As we approached the end of the game, the Germans seemed to hold the upper hand with three BUAs captured. 

However, capturing the village placed the Germans out in a salient. The Russians focused their firepower and, combined with a successful result, successfully recapturing the village. 

Down to the wire, the Germans attempted to once again take the BUA. Orders were spent, dice were rolled, and when the dust cleared the Russians had held the line. 

I appreciated getting the chance to play O Group with the SJGA group. As I often say, I need to play these rules more often, as I was wrong on several points (Dave Brown's QRS sheets are often extensive but not comprehensive). It was a shame I didn't get a chance to run Fire in the Sky, but there's always next year!