The picture I had in my mind.

Not everywhere you go is as you expect but Oslo met my preconceived expectations. Snow,sun,clouds, water and tall people. First stop the Viking ship museum. Though not large it has three grave ships that were dug up and reassembled in the museum plenty of artifacts giving a glimpse into Viking life.

A small cart.

                                        

                                                        The longest of the ships.

A sled.

Next door was the Norwegian Folk Museum. Inside were exhibits of Folk Art, Sami culture and Norwegian farmers and craftsman which also covered a bit of 17th and 18th century military history. Outside was the larger part of the museum a display of buildings from various periods and sections of Oslo's history. 

Boardgame from a toy exhibit.

Stave Church.

House used to entertain.

Fencing so I get the right look on the wargames table.

The plan for the next day was sledding for an hour or so and then off to the history museum. We never made the museum sledding was too much fun. Toboggan-run-Korketrekkeren.

Preparing for the 2Km ride down the hill. The public transit brings you back to the top.

At sunset we took a quick ride on the ferry around the harbour and then a stroll around the Akershus Fortress.

Defending the city.

The grounds were open but the buildings closed.

View through the gate.

Another successful trip. Then to top it off back in Stockholm wandering the old town we came upon the Royals.

Princess Kate

Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Kate.

No painting, no gaming. I'll call it research.

As we come towards the end of the month I've missed several chances for gaming and haven't lifted a paint brush, before you fell sorry for me I have been able to get some research in. It's taken the form a trip to visit a daughter in Stockholm.

First stop Valhalla Bageriet for a cardamon bun and the seasonal Semla. Next was off to the History Museum We didn't plan enough time for this it certainly needs more than the hour or so that we were there. A nice display of early Swedish inhabitants with a collection of Roman weapons, the Viking exhibit with it's many artifacts from the dig at Birka, the history of Sweden timeline and the Gold room took most of our time.

Model of ship.

Model of town.

Ships at dock.

Giant cat of the Vikings or perhaps Loki in disguise.

We pretty much ran through what was left the Medieval Art and Medieval Massacre sections but will go back another day. 

Uniform from GNW.

Mans clothing.

Women's dress.

Women's Dress.

The next day we went over to the Army Museum  as I had been here before I didn't take but one picture. Now I need to find a figure for the Shiny Toy Soldier project in that tricorne hat.

Officer and cadet early 20th century.

The Wargame exhibit was closed but I had missed most of the rest of the exhibits we went trough those. My normal scheduling challenges arose when we found out that the tour on Military uniforms in pop culture was starting and we were off to a dinner reservation. We left with the music of Jimi Hendrix blasting away.

May I dance with your date?

After a three week hiatus last night saw us at Matt's for a game of  BattleTroll . Time was short so we came up with a scenario that was quick but not too bloody.

Howard's group had taken a young maiden from a near by village as a wife for one of his men. Tying her up lead others to believe she wasn't totally on board with this this so Matt's and my groups went off to rescue/ get her for ourselves.

I moved in quickly and engaged Howard's men.

Matt moved up a bit more cautiously but then engaged as the fight was going well for me. 

Amidst all the fighting the Maid was able to escape her bonds and run off. I managed to disengage and help her as she had chosen to run towards my side of the table.

Matt quickly responded and raced into a blocking position with his band. A violent fight ensued with me losing two karls.

I was able to open a gap in Matt's line and rush my men and the girl trough to safety. 

A quick game and all the better as I won:-) I'm suggesting a campaign be set up for this next year so we can add in the reputation aspects of the rules and develop a story line.

Here's a report from Matt's blog.

Gentlemen callers

End of August

I just realized that I hadn't posted an AAR of my most recent game of Saga. A small 4 point game mainly played to give Nate an idea of the rules. We chose a Warlord fight and with my warlord leading the way Nate killed him on the second turn. with a few hours of gaming left we continued the game from there and pretty much had slug fest until the end.

I'm still learning some of the rules and haven't quite mastered the battle board but still have a good feeling about Saga and hope to play a few more games. 

This month I was also able to get some paint on a few. Kings Mountain Miniatures that had been gifted to me. These are very nice well sculpted minis similar in size the the Perry  figures. this has reminded me of a review I did for MWAN on the available AWI figures in 28mm some years ago. Since then Perry, KMM and Fife & Drum have come out so I may need to update this. I also don't think it is available on line anymore. I'll have to find the disc first. 

Pork the other white meat.

This week it was off to Iceland for a game of BattleTroll .

Howard and Nate decided they were hungry for nice roast pork dinner and having heard Matt's pigs were particularly well fed got in their longship and headed over to pick some up.

Matt was having none of this and sent word for me to join him. Always looking for a chance to hone my fighting skills and knowing my men and I would be well fed afterwords we headed out.

Howard wasted little time upon landing as he moved into combat with Matt.

Nate's band moved in just as I arrived and the fight spread across the village.

I was no match for Nate as he laid me out with a blow to the head. My Huscarle stepped in to finish Nate off and force his band back.

The invaders fled back to their ship with little to show for the raid but their wounds.

Battle Troll is a great game for fighting the skirmishes of the Sagas. Activation is by card with the player getting  all move or hero move and civilian move cards. A single end of turn card is used. movement is 2/3 dice inches. Missile combat is a die roll based on weapon and distance. Melee combat is card based with heroes choosing their card and regular troops drawing randomly. Results are the cross referenced on the combat table.

It had been a while since we had played perhaps a year or more but the mechanics came back quickly.  Nate and Matt hadn't played before and picked it right up. 

Here's Matt's report battle-troll-pig-hunting-in-fjords

Here's the rules at  Wargame Vault

April recap

So April ends with a slow down in gaming. Only two games this month one AGW with 28mm AWI figures and one F&F. Both fun games with lots of action. AARs are the two previous blog posts.

On the painting front I finish off the last unit of cavalry for my Shiny Toy Soldier project. I'll need to take some photos of the completed troops. I also painted some Vikings for SAGA and more Gangsters. I still need more levy troops for Saga and would like a few more policemen for the gangster project. I only took photos of the Vikings

I've managed to keep my buying down so only seven figures were bought this month and I was able to paint thirty one giving me a plus forty figures painted to bought for The Pledge on The Miniatures Page. Over all a successful month on the hobby front. 

Saga; The Warlord dies again.

The second game of Saga was played last Wednesday. Even though my Warlord Halvar Skullsplitter had been killed in the last game time was short so we went with his stats rather than rolling up a new one.

The scenario was an ambush with Tostig Bloodaxe being the Ambushers and Halvar hoping to get off the board. Alive would be good.

Seven turns to move thirty inches. Seems easy enough. The Vikings move first and the Vanguard is one move closer to the edge. Halvar uses an attribute to move two units at once and the Hearth guard in rear activates twice to tighten up the column. A unit of Anglo-Dane warriors comes out of the woods just behind the Viking Vanguard. Hoping to punch through this blocking unit Halvar orders the forward Hearth guard unit to attack. Not quite prepared for battle the Vikings take extra fatigue but the Anglo-Danes are pushed back.

More Anglo-Danes are attacking on either side of the Vikings.

The Vikings rush to escape the ambush. Halvar takes his Heartguard and attempts to run off through the woods on his left. Unfortunately Tostig has arrived with his Heartguard and Halvar is forced into combat. He fends off several attacks from Tostig but can't get out of his reach. Eventually Halvar succumbs to fatigue and an overwhelming number of hits.

The other Vikings have fended for themselves and are off the board or close to the edge.

With the death of their Warlord the Vikings are searching for a new leader. Still the memory of their fallen leader is etched in the lore of his people.

Another good game. I think we missed a few things, like me losing Saga dice as units moved off the table, but most of the main mechanics were done right. I'll need to study my battle board a little more and search the web for advice on running the Vikings.