Stackton Trestle a town through time and rules

 

 I had this idea.  I wanted to redo this game, which has been well up in my favorites.  Prompted by Alternative Armies bringing out a bigger version.

https://unitrecon.blogspot.com/2021/02/flying-lead-clacking-contraptions-of.html

I want to do it VSF again.  Then I thought "hang on, what if I do a later rerun version?"

One thing about the UK, I'm not sure if it's the same elsewhere, but building plots tend to remain intact.  Even if burnt or bombed they keep going.  Many of our roads follow the Roman road network.

Uses might change.  A Medieval common pasture might become an estate or public park.  This might be developed as a housing estate, military camp or business park.

Old cloth.  Mark out roads and river.  Sorted.

Now I had a further senior mercurial moment.  Why stop there?  Got the cloth, got other stuff.  I have churches and a large barn from my Pool In Flames.  These stay.  

The barn featured  has just had an internal makeover but didn't need any structural work.  It's over a thousand years old.  Still in daily use.  

https://unitrecon.blogspot.com/2022/02/poole-in-flames-first-playthrough.html.  

This is my itial list, it will change.

Lion Rampant. 1066.  During the Viking invasion, Odbad the Bad leaves the camp with his warband, claiming to "pop into town to visit the bakers".  He takes orders.  He has heard that the church of St Englefart has a holy relic that he believes is a relic of Odins spear Gungnir.

Lion Rampant. 1069.  The Harrying of the North.  Newly appointed Bishop Dido decides if anyone's going to do some harrowing, its going to be him.  He is rather partial to lamb chops and getting a load of stuff he can sell to the army going north should be a nice little earner.

Dragon Rampant.  In the time of (an) King Edward.  Scottish lord McFume hastily marries the widow Karen of Stackton.  He mistakenly believed that the coloquial "Me Duc" means that she is a duchess.  She isn't.  He raises a large group of clan followers and colonists from the Scottish midlands who flee perceived oppression  and settle in the town.  They bring the chiltron and the sheddes of war to a town that has already by charter been excused longbow, as the locals prefer the sling and ever-present rocks.

Xenos Rampant 1899.  The evil Baron Von Alone seizes the town in the belief that the fabled artifact is an ancient or alien device that will allow world domination of all custard related products.  The Royal Engineers respond, supported by the Lummoxshire light infantry respond!

Xenos Rampant 1979.  What! the contraptions are back!  They were supposed to be scrapped, bar one in a local museum!  Baron Silas Greenback has recovered or built a new force!  Now he is trying to find the artefact, believed stored in the local museum vault or in the church of St Englefart.  Now it's the turn of UNIT to stop him, again supported by the home service (Territorial Army) Company of the Lummoxshire light infantry.

Xenos Rampant 2369  Daleks (or other- I could use the Ixx to go WAY back!) have invaded.  The town has no military significance.  Units of the Anglican Company of the Lummoxshire light infantry supported by UNIT fight in the ruins.   https://unitrecon.blogspot.com/2013/08/troublet-mill-beingadventures-in.html

That's my list.  Sort of a campaign by other means.  Please take this concept and run!

Of Gods And Mortals Amazon seige of Athens part 2.

Part 2 - and I have to admit to error in mathematics. BUT I've also finished a hell of a lot of figures, so I hope you enjoy! Full lists in the previous post.

Temple Under Siege (p44) Raid on the Amazon  camp

Amazon defends. Got this one right! God 376 Legends 278 Mortals 344 Total  998

Athenian Attack God 248 Legends 368 Mortals 584 Total 1,200

Game 1. How to lose in a spectacular fashion. Here is the temple. Marsh at the top.

Drunk centaurs.  These are hard, northern Thracian bastards, not the soft, southern variety.  Never, ever invite to a social function.  Start of a new army for a certain god---.

Athens surrounds, and first turn one unit goes 1 move.  Move 2, one unit goes 1 move.  Spotting a trend?

The sides are marked 1-4 and a D4 + a D6 to determine position on the edge.  Ares turns up next to Athena, and promptly slaughters.  Oh good.  Morale roll.  Now the set up means I'm on the edge of the table.  I lose every single mortal unit.  Every one.  All.  Game over.  

Deep breath.

Game 2 went a bit different! I managed to get most forward before the rest turned up.

Here they come-  

Unable to reach Ares, Athena goes for the objective.  Blue dice = praying.

Ares kills Athena, I lose a few mortals.

Quick return.

Crash!  I forgot smoke--- all chariots burst into flame when crashed.  Well known historical fact.

Bully!

Athena attacks the centaurs and suffers a knock down result.

Alas Athena dies again and the game ends.

2 Temple Under Siege (p44) Athenian stand at the temple of Eumenides.  Amazons Attack 

Ares Q2 C5 Group fighter, Combat master, Hammering blow.

Shapeshift Boar Q2 C4 Forester, Long move, Dashing, Poison. 376.

Legends

Hypolyte (Queen) Q3 C3 Armoured, group fighter, mounted 95
2 Amazon Chariot Heroes Q3 C3 Armoured, mounted 174
Amazon Mounted Hero Javelin Q3 C3.  Mounted Long move shooter short 96

Mortals
2 Amazon Cavalry Q4 C2 jav Mounted long move shooter short @   25 = 50
16 Amazon spear Q4 C2 Armoured @ 20 = 320
8 Amazon maiden javelin Q4 C1 Greedy, shoot short @ 8 rare= 64
4 Centaur Q4 C3 Drunkard. Long move @ 31 124

God 376

Legends 278

Mortals 365

Total  558

1201

2 Temple Under Siege (p44) Athenian stand at the temple of Eumenides. Athens defends.

Athena  Q2 C4 

Prophecy Roll 3 dice BEFORE game, can swap for C or Q dice any unit.

Protection  

Shapeshift Owl Q2 C3 Long, Flying.   248

Legends

Perseus Q3 C3 Armoured, combat master, mounted 99

Queen Q3 C3 Armoured, group fighter, mounted 95

Achaean Chariot Hero Q3 C3 Armoured, mounted 87

Mortals
4 Picked Warriors Q4 C2 Armoured @ 20 = 80
8 Citizen Spear Q4 C2 @15 = 120
6 Dregs  Q4 C1 @ 8 rare = 48
8 Javelin Q4 C1 shoot short @ 11 rare.  88
4 Slingers or archers Q4 C1 shoot Medium @ 13 = 52

God 248

Legends 368

Mortals 388

1,004

Prophecy dice.  Confidence is high!

The centaurs were, for once, sober!

One for Athena, go for a Hero.

The red dice denote table edge, not score.

Starting to look busy. 

Doh!One for a legend or god, then turnover.

Ares gets to my infantry.

Javelins join in.

Looking a bit busy!

They're running away!

Heroic defenders pushed off!

That's just being a bully!

Being dominant--

My last 4 mortals no more!  Game over!  Better prophecy dice would have helped!

Hide Stone and Bone. Painting, basing recipe. Prep work -

 

First off the wee participants.  All from North Star.  I have figures from Irregular, these are smaller so will make juveniles.

I've divided them up into 4 groupings, each with their own letter bead colour.

Neanderthals.  Fortunately I'd already started these, a pack of command and a few ladies filled them out.

Human tribal, a good mix.

Human bog people.  More gatherers than the tribal.

Human war party.  Big weapons and shields.

Bears & bits!

Step 1.  Base the figure using Hard As Nails (I use this for all scenics) on 1p coins*.  No need for superglue.  Press in the stuff, cover base.  Sorted.

Step 2.  I use white or black gesso as undercoat.  No problems with damp weather, an awful lot cheaper than spraying.  Needs to dry overnight.  Humanoids get white, some lizards (see below) and bears black.  I did some trolls 'cos they came with same order.

Step 3.  Ink the lot in either Daler Rowney.  Let It Dry!:

Antelope Brown, perfect for animals as it has a slight green tinge, should be called antelope shit.  Many animals just need a top up coat and they're done.

Burnt Umber. covers darker, usually one good coat does a lot of the painting!

Raw Sienna as used below.  Excellent base for all browns and flesh.

Step 4. Paint base.  Main reason for this is that you can now use, your figures being above the grey primered plastic so abundant in clubs---.

Step 5.  Paint.  Every Brown Imaginable.  I keep splitting into groups to avoid getting anything like uniformity.  Skin and hair colour. Once you're getting the dark colours done, I gave a slightly watered down flesh wash over everything.  This is leather.

Bears got burnt brown then burnt umber wash.  Black eyes and terracotta for mouth, yellow teeth.  Done.  One has a wounded paw for the wounded beast scenario.

Let it dry.  OK, got that? now lighter colours, such as they are, mostly rawhide and some grey wolf fur etc. Flint and obsidian I painted rough iron, as both look metallic.  Gold jewellery, nice necklaces.

Step 6.  Flock.  We are spoilt for decent mixes, and I make my own.  Don't stint.  If you do in batches use a slightly different mix.  As most are designed for larger scales I often "cut" with cork dust, or even a wee bit of sand.  Tufts are good, but I've resisted that so far except on shrubbery.  I did add a few small rocks.

Step 7.  Spray.  I go old skool and use extra firm hold hair spray.  A can lasts me about 6 months and, considering my stuff gets rough handling, lasts about 2-3 years.  You are now ready to rock n roll.  There is 1 more addition I missed due to time.  A very light cream dry brush.  Go very, very light as there simply isn't the reflective materials.

Once finished a good quality flock.  Mixing flock between batches works.  Anything to break up uniformity!  

There is no contact betwix the extended and the unextended.  Or in other words I'll finished the rest when I can be arsed to paint brown again.

Gor bless Temu - Shein, whatever.  They have tons of um, top quality merchandise (including the storage boxes above) often at stupid prices.

I mount a lot of scenery stuff on 2p coins* as I use movement bases for terrain features in some games.  Plus it stops the damn things falling over like those gawdawful plastic figures.

I got a bag of nice pebbles from Wilco.  Mounting with a touch of veg and flock does wonders.

*  Same size as a Wampum Frugal washer for our colonial cousins.

These lumps are cheap packing foam, saves me a ton of work & they don't look bad.

More packing case "hills".  They come already nicely flocked.  Add an MDF base - they're very light, and flocked.  Sorted.  And they can be carved.  I missed painting the base.

I made this random direction marker ages ago, it's light enough to sit on anything without damage.

This is supposed to be a garden ornament - guess for a small garden!  And the cards.  Nice small cards.  I thought I was buying 1 pack, ended up with 12 small--.

I needed swamp/marsh terrain.  I mase 6 bits and they all got used!  Need a bit of tidying up, but works.  Hobby foam, clear Hard As Nails as the water, then flock.  Edges need doing and some time under a heavy weight.  You can get the latex ones, maybe later.  I've spent enough for now!  https://www.timecastmodels.com/marshes

At the last minute I made tall grass using this awful mock grass offcut.  Again, can be better with a wee bit of TLC.