By fire and sword - Minitournament in Gothenburg

To get things going in the Gothenburg area a friend of mine, Steffo, held a By fire and sword tournament last weekend. Eager to get some more players into the game Andreas and I went north over the day to play! Robin was supposed to go to but was mysteriously lost...

I played my full Zasieczna guard, four Border dragoon companies, three field dragoons companies, two servant cossacks sotnias and two cannons. With two commanders its nice FSP and 22 reconnaissance points.

As most of the players was really new to the game, most had never played, Steffo decided to try but a "veteran" against in a new player in most games. This to help the newer players learn the game quicker.

Vecka femton

I veckan har jag börjat fixa med Bushido lista som jag tänkte att använda på Expo i Birmingham senare i vår. Det första jag börjat med är två 'Buto' till Silvermoon.

By fire and sword Championship 2015 - the report

I started my Warsaw trip by going by train to Kastrup airport in the morning on Friday, on the train I meet up with Robin and his friend Martin. Without any problems we arrived at Warsaw airport where we got picked up by Jakub (Kuba), a Wargamer employee that were kind enough to meet up with all of the foreign players and give them a ride to their hotels. On the way to our hotel we picked up Anders that arrived the day before. After check-in at the hotel we went and spend some hours at the Polish war museum looking at weapons and armor through the ages.

By fire and sword championship 2015 - day three and four

...what happened? I started to fell rather sick on Saturday evening and I woke in the middle of the
night with fever, thinking "there is no way I can play felling like this. But with help of medicine I got up in the morning and managed to play my two games, and with better results than the day before.

First I meet polish player that played swedes, and this was probably my best game of the weekend and we didn't get past turn three. But we really had fun, talked, discussed the rules the thing I hoped I would be able to do in all my battles, but its hard in two hours, especially with all new effects in 'the Deluge'.

The last game was against the slowest person I have ever meet in an tournament, but as neither of us did anything except the last turn we did play all six turns in under two hours.

After the price ceremony we went back into town and the hotel. I said goodbye to the other swedes as they were leaving in the morning next day and I was flying home in the evening. I went to my room and crashed, I think I slept for 11 hours.

My original plan was to do some sightseeing on Monday, but I was not in shape for that so I stayed at the hotel until I had to check out and then went for a short walk around old town and to the Warsaw Uprising monument.

So next time I´ll go into a little more detail about my battles and experiences, and some more pictures.

By fire and sword championship 2015 - day two

We arrived at the museum where the tournament was going to take place. The event was in a large long room which was obviously going to be very noicy. And the gaming tables was squeezed together that didnt leave any room to but your armies while deploying.

I'll go in to detail about my battles in a later post, but so far I have lost al of my three games. I dont do well when you have to play quickly, only two hours on each game. So there is now time to think things through.

Its going quite well for Robin who won his first games. Anders missed his first game (and lost his belt...), his stand in won his game so his doing ok. Alexander and I are competing at the bottom.

By fire and sword championship 2015 - day one

Soon the first day in Warsaw is over, we arrived earlier todayand was picked up by Jakub

from Wargamer. On our way to the hotel we picked up Anders who arrived yesterday. After checkin in at the hotel we went to the museum of Polish army. Some parts where better than others (the parts that had any information in english), the collection of weapons from 1500-1600 the most intresting and well preserved. Outside there where some military vehicles in a sad state of decay as they were left standing outside. The highlights was a sturmovik and a Hind helicopter which made Anders excitedmlike a child and mumbling sometjing about "soon you will be mine".

At the afternoon we meet up with Alexander and his girlfriend for some supper. Alex brought to my attention that Wargamer hadnt recived my armylists so I would only be allowd to play with one list, I resend my mail, so hopefuly it will all be sorted out until tomorrow. So now it is of to the bed and some much needed sleep, while Anders and the kids do Warsaw by night.

Vecka tolv

I veckan började jag måla fyra kompanier 'Field dragoons' till eld och svärd turneringen i Polen nästa vecka. Dragoner betyder ju att man blir tvungen att måla både avsuttet och uppsuttet. Suck...

Vecka elva

Showdown at Freewater

Denna vecka har mest involverat små fix inför Gothcon. Till Bushido har de sista terrängbitarna målats klar, så nu har jag bara spelbordet att måla klart, vilket förhoppningsvis hinns med i nästa vecka.

Vecka fem

Tänkte testa något lite nytt, mest för att se vad man verkligen kan hinna med på en vecka. Förhoppningsvis kommer jag orka med och göra en sådan här uppdatering i veckan. Tanken är att skriva om lite grejer som jag håller på med.

The Invincibles

During the Christmas holidays I meet up with "the wonder from Nottingham" Anders to fight our by now annual battle in Halmstad. This year we played "By fire and sword" at HFF,

It seems that all I get to play is PDF lists, this time was no exception, as Anders played the Swedish force the Invincibles. Its the same list as he played last summer but he had a bigger force, he had 11 points. I played the same list as I played last time against Andreas and Alexander, so I had 12 points.

The tournament that became a nice gamingday

So we tried to get together a second By fire and sword tournament. We had grand planes with five games over two days, but it all whittled down to 3½ players so we decided just to play some games. In hindsight I think the date were the biggest reason to why people didn't commit to this event, this close to Christmas I  guess people has other things to do!

I played a newly painted mounted muscovite force with 12 points.
It had:

• Golova and lieutenant colonel
• 2 Servant cossacks with 4 bases each.
• 5 Boyar sons sotnias of different sizes, a total of 16 bases.
• 3 Reiter rotas, 6 bases.
• 1 Skirmish sotnia, 4 bases.

One week, one army

This weekend I was going to the second tournament of By fire and sword this year, but there wasn't that many that could come this time so we decided to just make this Saturday a By fire and sword playing bonanza. Last time I played I decided to try the more cavalry oriented Muscovite skirmish forces as I bought some of the models for it at Gothcon earlier this year. 

Division!

A couple of weeks ago some of the local By fire and sword players meet up under the initiative of Alexander to play a divison sized battle 'By fire and sword'. As only Alexander has enough to play at that level, Robin, David and myself gathered our forces in an alliance between Muscovite and and the Ottomans (not 100% legal gamewise). I am currently painting boyar sons to be able to play the muscovites cavalry skirmish force, and when my models from the Deluge kickstarter arrive I will have enough to muster my own Division force. With a bit off effort it will be done early 2015!

By Fire and sword tournament

This weekend there was a 'By fire and sword tournament' at SF in Lund. To my knowledge its the first of its kind in Sweden. We had managed to gather ten players, which is quite good as BF&S is still new outside Poland. I was taking my 'Muscovites' and I had struggled the week before to get everything painted of the 'Zasieczna guard' skirmish force.
My list was:

• Golova and lieutenant colonel
• 6 border dragoon companies
• 4 Servant cossacks sotnia
• 2 falconet 1,5 pdr
• + 3 servant cossacks bases because of the 'Ludiej unas mnoga' rule.

Svenskarna dominerar

Vi samlades ett litet gäng spelare för att förbättra våra kunskaper i By Fire and Sword. Andreas (svenskar) spelade ett 'Patrol mission' mot Robin (ottomaner) där Andreas vann.

Jag spelade med mina Muscovites som var hela innehållet i skirmishboxen och Anders körde med sina svenskar. Trots att jag utnumrerade svenskarna med 3:1 så hade vi lika mycket poäng (4), så vi spelade ett 'Patrol mission'. Så inga nackdelar/fördelar till någon av oss, inte ens de obligatoriska för de glömde vi. Jag missuppfattade uppdraget lite och trodde man var tvungen att hålla objektiven hela tiden, medans Anders hade fuskat och testspelat scenariot på Gothcon och med sin lilla beridna elitstyrka så tog han snabbt objektiven och fortsatte sedan mot mina linjer för att ge sig på lite lätta enheter och poäng. I slutändan så hade vi båda tagit objektiven så det stod 6-6, Anders hade neutraliserat en hel enhet utan att få några förluster så ytterligare 9 poäng till honom. Jag hade ju dock förlorat en del utan att göra någon påverkande skada på hans enheter så 1 poäng till mig. Så 15 - 7 till Anders Strategisk vinst!

Dagens lärdom är att man måste läsa på mer om 'special maneuvers' och övriga manövrering. Samt att jag nog faller dit på den nye kickstatern med.

Första "riktiga" slaget

Nu har jag spelat mitt första riktiga 'By fire and sword' slag, i alla fall med eget uppmålade figurer. Andreas var vänlig att ta med sina "danskar" till mig. Jag hade det som var i skirmishboxen som jag köpt genom kickstartern. Det ända som inte riktigt var klart var mina 'Servant cossacks' till fots, som är färdigmålade, men blev klistrade på sina baser minuter innan Andreas kom. De behövde dock aldrig gå av sina hästar.

Mer 1600-tal

Den siste tiden har det var lite mindre spel och hobby för min del. På målarbordet har jag haft en enhet med Border dragoons, en blandad skytte och närstrids enhet.
Förhoppningsvis så kommer när som helst från Wargamer, då den skirmish box jag beställt nu ska vara klar. I brist på annat måla så började jag måla markörerna, som i mitt tycke är lite tråkiga och svåra att se skillnad på. De är "mynt" gjutna i ett mjukt material, tenn? Ena sidan har nations vapnet och andra status symbol. När man lägger ut dem är det svårt att se skillnaden på dem, så jag målade upp dem. Risken är rätt stor för slitage så har lackat dem rätt noga.

A new beginning

Var ju med i en kickstarter för "By fire and sword " i våras och för någon vecka fick jag en delleverans. Jag la till en grej som det visade sig låg rätt sent i produktionslinjen, så får nog vänta ett tag till på de andra grejerna. Men fick lite generiska ryttare som jag tänkte ha som order markörer och som ett bra test på att måla 15 mm figurer som inte är FoW. Här är resultatet.

By fire and sword!

Äntligen ett nytt spel!!!
I söndags testade jag för första gången By fire and sword, spelet har funnits i ca tre år på polska men har under året översatts till engelska. Första omgången fanns att köpa på Salute i april. Wargamer som tillverkaren heter har också haft en Kickstarterkampanj under våren. Sporrad av att en hel del spelare finns redan på SF i Lund så kickade jag in lite pengar och hoppas snart vara stolt ägare av regelbok och en start skirmishstyrka av Muskoviter.