Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 3

Britons-308 English Warleader - Banner

I have some newly painted dark age heroes along with tons of new armoured infantry, plus an update to the rules, so it was time to play Twilight of the Britons again. Chris and Adam were willing to give it a go.

Summary: Good game and very dark age in flavour. Chris overestimated the ability of his dark age warriors to manoeuvre and got into a bit of a tangle. Adam’s Briton cavalry crushed the English flank guard and hit the Great Fyrd at the rear of English line causing the English shield wall to collapse.

Read more

Twilight of the Britons – Update to Version 1.1

Twilight of the Britons - Banner

I have updated Twilight of the Britons – Fast play rules for the English Invasion of Britain to version 1.1. As a reminder this is Vincent Tsao and my version of Twilight of the Sun King for the dark ages in Britain. I have a hankering to play another Arthurian game so thought I’d get the rules into shape for that. Some of the changes are to make it easier for Vincent to use the rules for the Fall of Rome but this is still not my focus.

Read more

Mika’s Year 7 Castle Assignment – Berkhamsted Castle in 1:550th scale

Year 7 Castle 7155 Happy student - Banner

Every Year 7 (age 11-12) student in the UK builds a motte and bailey castle. Dana did it five years ago with her Year 7 Castle Assignment – Lütjenburg Castle in 1:150th scale. This year it was Mika’s turn at a motte and bailey. As with the earlier project, Daddy was going to be involved. In fact, because Mika remembered watching Dana’s project unfold, she insisted on my involvement because she was determined to get the same recognition from the school as her sister had received. Luckily, I’d been thinking about this for five long years!

Read more

2024 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian

Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian - Banner

2023 went pretty well although there were a few bumps and I still didn’t complete nearly enough of my plans. So what is on the megalomaniac agenda for 2024? Well, you’ll see below. As usual I present this as a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. The list is then split into three parts: likely in 2024, unlikely, and background activity.

Read more

Musing on Units and their attributes in Tillys Very Bad Day

Musing on Units and their Attributes in Tillys Very Bad Day - Banner

Although Tilly’s Very Bad Day is for the Thirty Years War, I’m thinking of expanding the system into other periods. The Ancients, Medieval, and Gunpowder settings all look suitable. I’ve already experimented in the South American Wars of Independence with Bolivar’s Very Bad Day. I’m looking for inspiration so in this post I explore the attributes assigned to units in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

Read more

2023 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian

Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian - Banner

So 2022 went okay. And now it is time to lay out my megalomaniac plans for 2023. I will try to tone them back a bit as, despite a lot of activity, I achieved depressingly few of my goals last year.

As usual I present this as a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. The list is then split into three parts: likely in 2023, unlikely, and background activity.

Read more

Books – Reorganising my history bookcase made me think about my interests

Steven's History Bookcase - Banner

My big history book case is in the living area and not surprisingly my wife gets annoyed when the books get messy. Recently I tidied it up. Aside from the fact it took hours – which I didn’t enjoy – I found it interesting what this filing task highlighted about my interests. Aside from my enduring interest in all things Spanish and Portuguese, it turns out I have quite a big interest in World War II (okay, not so surprising), and a huge interest in Colonial Empires with a side order of Cold War.

Read more

Gothic Shield Shapes – There is no such thing as a Gothic ‘Coffin’ Shield

Gothic Shield Shapes - Banner

The wargaming community is full of myths that seem to perpetuate through the generations. Previously I poked at the the unconvincing myth about Visigothic Gardingi being unarmoured skirmishing cavalry, today I look at the ‘coffin’ shaped shield of the Goths. Early Gothic, specifically Visigothic, warriors are believed by some to have carried an odd ‘coffin’ shaped shield. It isn’t true. Germanic warriors only carried round, oval and hexagonal shields. Shapes that were used from the 1st century through the Fall of Rome. Round and oval shields continued in use into the dark ages.

Read more

Download Twilight of the Britons – Fast play rules for the English Invasion of Britain

Twilight of the Britons - Banner

For a long time I’ve been looking for a set of wargaming rules for the Arthurian age i.e. the Dark Age in Britain. Having tried lots of commercial rules, Vincent Tsao and I have written our own. Called Twilight of the Britons – Fast play rules for the English Invasion of Britain it is a variant of Twilight of the Sun-King (2001 version) . It covers the warfare in Britain from Roman departure (410 AD) until the English installed a Briton of Strathclyde as King of Scotland (1054 AD). The six page booklet contains only two pages of rules and four pages of army lists.

Read more

Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 1

Britons-103 Army A - Warlord's Shieldwall - Banner

Vincent Tsao and I have been playing around with a version of Twilight of the Sun King for the early medieval period in Britain. I started with a rewrite of my original 2001 version of Twilight of the Sun King and incorporated ideas from Vincent’s Battle of Hastings variant. The result is called “Twilight of the Britons: Fast play rules for the English invasion of Britain”. I got Adam and Chris to give an early draft a go. So early I’d only written the rules that day, so isn’t wasn’t so good.

Summary: Too much dark age shield wall stodge. Not enough heroics. But a glimmer of hope for the rules.

Read more

2022 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian

Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian - Banner

I am pretty happy with my efforts in 2021 and now it is time to lay out my plans for 2022. As always they are crazy megalomaniac plans. 2021 proved that even pumped I can’t achieve all my annual goals. But I’ll try.

I start with a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. The list is split into three parts: likely in 2022, unlikely, and background activity.

Read more