Bedford Gladiators

Here’s one of the first pictures from our game last weekend at Campaign MK.

This is a shot from one end of the table showing the Air Landing company seizing Pegasus Bridge.

More pictures to follow, when I have them.

Just a short reminder that this coming weekend is the MKWS show Campaign.

The Gladiators will be putting on a large Flames of War game, set in Normandy on D-Day. Come along and join in.

More information can be found here.

Recently Rackham have released some information about upcoming releases for AT43 first off they have announced the next race will be the Cogs.

Rackham have some initial art work and the describe the Cogs as.

The civilization designated by this name has not developed as a coherent whole. It is not held together by an sense of belonging. The Cogs do not feel they belong to the same species, race or any other word used by more primative life forms. The Cogs are a relatively loose alliance of four genetic bloodlines. The best and more advanced lineages their original species ever gave birth to. Each bloodline is considered a civilization of its own. They are the closest to what non-cogs generally qualify as a species.”

Slightly reminds me of the Covenant from the Halo Universe where you had multiple races (Grunts Elites etc) forming the Covenant.

AT 43 Cog Concept Art

 
They have also said that Operation Frostbite will have rules for support units which where mentioned in the initial releases untill now we had no idea when support unit rules would be out.

There is a longer run down at Samurai Gunslinger

The new web forum is now live and the current noticeboards will disappear shortly.

You can access the forum via the link at the top of every page, via the link at side of each page, by clicking here, or by typing http://bedfordgladiators.proboards81.com/index.cgi into your browser window.

Come on over and start posting. It takes only two or three minutes to register, which you will need to do to post, but not to read the posts.

Update: there is a link on the right hand sidebar - Its just under the Terchnorati Link

Here are some pictures from the giant Warhammer game we put on in the GW Bedford store to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of WHFB.

The game saw the Orcs & Goblins from Dave and Marks’ collections taking on the Empire & Dwarves from Dave, Terry and Stephens’ collections. We didn’t keep a close track on points, but I’ll try and add further details of the armies at a later date.

The Empire & Dwarves were deployed defending a large castle and small town. The castle can be seen in the picture below. The horde of greenskins can be seem curving around the castle and off into the distance.

The Orcs attacking the main gate had brought a siege tower. Unfortunately the Orcs pushing it spent much of the game squabbling and being targeted by numerous “Conflagrations of Doom” before finally being annihilated by a unit of Knights Panther.

The far right of the Empire defensive line was anchored on a small number of building. Note one of the two fire wizards atop the building. His first spell killed no less than 14 Orcs.

Below we can see some of the Empire defenders of the Castles main round tower. Down below to the right we can see the Dwarf army deployed to delay the Goblin siege engines reaching the castles weaker walls. You might also be to make out the Ice Queen of Kislev in the main castle courtyard.

Next we see one of the two Empire Steam tanks breaching the Goblin lines. They’ve just routed a unit of Black Orcs and panicked two units of Goblins off the table. The Giant considered tacking the tank, but thought better of it in the end. The two wounds that can be seen on the Steam Tank were caused by a combination of Goblin Fanatics and very wayward shot from a Doom Diver. During the course of the battle the Steam Tank was hit by no fewer than 5 Doom Divers and 6 Fanatics.

Terry, Mark and Stephen check the Empire defenses.

The writing is on the wall for the Ice Queen as the Giant, which was pursuing a unit of Great Swords at the time, enters the castle

And finally, here’s a shot taken at the very end of the battle. Mark is noting down the final casualties with Dave and Terry looking on. Note the Dwarf army has been completely destroyed, but casualties on the Goblins have been high.

The final casualty list was as follows, give or take the odd Goblin or twenty.

Orcs & Goblins

Skullmuncha
1 Orc Shaman
2 Night Goblin Shamen
8 Orc Boar Boyz
72 Orc Boyz
25 Orc Arrer Boyz
10 Goblin Wolf Riders
10 Goblin Spider Riders
50 Squig herds (30/20)
4 Stone Trorlls
96 Night Goblin Bow
56 Night Goblins
Giant

Empire
Emperor Karl Franz & Deathclaw
Ludwig Swartzenhelm
Ice Queen of Kislev
Fire Wizard
Steam Tank
20 Greatswords
40 Halberds
40 Spearmen
20 Free Company
20 Handgunners
Great Cannon
Hellblaster Volley Gun

Dwarves

All of them . . .
Lord
Runesmith
Thane
20 Ironbreakers
20 Longbreads
40 Warriors

It was a memorable battle full of memorable moments. Some of the best for me were:

The first Doom Diver shot which was targeted on a Wizard sitting atop the castle. The guess was a good 15 inches short. The shot then drifted a further 10, followed by a 3 inch glide onto the Steam Tank (it wounded it too) - which was a good 27 inches from the initial aim point.

The Emperor and Deathclaw failing to kill Azhag the Slaughterer on the charge - then Azag living up to his name.

The Empire Spear unit charged by 3 Trolls. The killed them, pursued 12 into a unit of Goblins, which they promptly destroyed, panicking two more units of goblins in the process. 72 Goblins and 3 Trolls killed for the loss of 1 model - and that was killed by a fanatic.

But I think the winner was the Goblin Bolt thrower shot at the lone Wizard stood atop a tower. The range was 48 (+1), the target was a single model (+1) and in hard cover (+2). Nailed him first time Awesome dice from one of the lads in the shop.

Saturday sees Games Workshop celebrate the 25th birthday of Warhammer. To mark the occasion, and in our capacity as local GCN club, we will be putting on a large demonstration game at the Bedford GW store. In true historical Warhammer style this will be a Goodies (Empire, Bretts, Elves, Dwarves) vs Baddies (Orcs & Goblins) battle.

Everybody is welcome to come on down and join the celebrations. If you are a member of the Gladiators then please try to remember to wear your club t-shirt if you do come down. I know I’m one of the worst at remembering to do this, but it does help promote the club.

Link to the official GW site with news of other events etc can be found here

I’m going to be organisng a FOW comp to start in a month or so. More details to follow once I’ve had a chance to work things out, but at the moment I’m thinking along the lines of 1500 LW, players split into two: Axis / Allies. All Axis players would then play all the Allied players twice, once as the attacker and once as the defender. Scenarios from the ones in the main book.

Could people please give me an indication if they’d join this competition and which side they’d prefer to play. It would also be useful if they would also indicate that they could play either side (please still state a preference though).

For example:

Mark Wightman: prefer Allies, can play Axis.

No need to specify which army you would use.

Confirmed so far (15/04/08):

Mark Wightman: prefer Allies, can play Axis
Terry Warden: prefer Axis, can play Allies
Martyn Brawn: prefer Axis, can play Allies
Stephen Mawson: Allies only
Dave Wilkin: prefer Allies, can play Axis
Graham Francis: Allies only
Steve Wilson: prefer Allies, may need to borrow army if Axis

Guys, once again the number of posts to the Noticeboard is getting out of hand. Basically it’s not really working as scrolling down 260+ posts is a chore and it’s almost impossible to follow the various discussions taking place. I think we’d be far better off using a web forum for the sort of chat that is currently cluttering up the Noticeboard.

We already have one [dead link removed].

[Update:01/05/08: The we forum has moved to here http://bedfordgladiators.proboards81.com/index.cgi

I can’t remember who set it up, but it’s easy to use and I think it will be much more useful for people trying to arrange games, trips or whatever.

Maurice, as committee member in charge of the Gladiators web presence, should be the main admin for the any forum we use, so he may wish to set up a different one, but that’s his decision.

Of course, I suspect nobody will use the forum whilst posting to the Noticeboard remains an option, so I’d also like to suggest we get rid of the Noticeboards - perhaps bringing them back once the forum takes off.

What do people think?

WWII was the unofficial theme of last weekend’s all day Sunday, with a couple of giant games taking place. Steve and Pete put on a lovely East Front 20mm game using their version of the Peter Guilder rules (see pictures below).

The expanse of the Russian wilderness in all it’s glory.

The Russians approach.

Resistance is met!

The Nashorns arrive. They are brand new for this game. (Combat debuts rarely go well at the Gladiators).

The Nashorns form up for attack.

The Nashorns open fire on the lead T34’s.

The T34’s advance regardless.

A KV8 approaches through a smoke screen. It was knocked out shortly afterwards, adding it’s own smoke to the screen.

T34 pick their way past the ruined KV8.

A PE2 overflies the German position in search of a target. The Pz IV seen below won’t do as it already knocked out.

The second giant game was a FoW 15mm game (5000pts per side) set in Tunisia. With the US and British 8th Armies attempting to join up. I’ve no pictures of this game yet, but lots were taken, so hopefully I can add some later.

Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away.

A lot of gamers will have been introduced to gaming in the widest sense as DND was descended from a set of medieval rules (chainmail) that he and Jeff Perren wrote back in the day.

The announcement is here