Crusades Campaign - The Isle of Fob

Peter J and I are about to start a fictional Crusades Campaign. We will be using Ager Sanguinis Rules to fight the table-top encounters, and an Ager Sanguinis / Theatre of War (Piquet) hybrid set of rules for the map moves etc. The hybrid campaign rules are currently available from the files section of the following Yahoo Groups under the title 'Isle of Fob Campaign'; as are Ager Sanguinis Rules for early Crusader warfare:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Piquet/

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/shatteredlances/

The photos are from a recent (not campaign related) game, hurriedly thrown together, that Peter and I fought out (Crusader victory) a week or two ago.

Background:
From the Chronicles of Kermit the Hermit........

….In the summer, in the year of our Lord 1110, sore pressed by incursions on his northern borders by Asiatic hordes, the Emperor [Byzantine] withdrew armies and garrisons from quieter parts of the Empire to meet the threat. This was folly for, in leaving the Isle of Fob unprotected, he invited the attention of divers Seljuk princes.

The Isle of Fob is not, in truth, an isle. It is a large tract of land connected to the mainland by an isthmus that borders the lands of the Hashishmendid Seljuks. No sooner had the garrisons left the Isle the Seljuks, led by a certain Emir called Gudrupee, crossed the isthmus and occupied Chiosus. It was late in the year and here Gudrupee encamped for the winter and declared himself Malik of Fob. On promises of land, wealth and the Glory of Allah his army was swollen by reinforcements in readiness for the campaigning season.

Fearing for his cherished Isle the Emperor was at a loss, for in sending troops there he must give up another cherished part. Then fortuitous help came to him. A Crusade, led by Louis of Chernobil, was on its way to Jerusalem and was at that very moment passing through the western borders of his lands.

It has long been known that the Isle of Fob is a blessed place; for it was to here that our Lord’s Cup was taken and hid in one of the many monasteries. The Emperor, being both wise and cunning, let it be known throughout Christendom that this Blessed Relic would surely fall into the hands of the heathen if left unchecked.

At once, the Patriarch of Jerusalem hurried to intercept the Crusade and, with the aid of the Emperor’s fleet, diverted Chernobil and his followers to the Isle of Fob. Chernobil and his followers landed at Lampron and, on Christmas Day, entered the town.

But now the Emperor’s plans became untied. Betraying the Emperor, the Crusaders crowned Chernobil King of Fob and set to plan conquest of the Isle for themselves.

Thus the scene was set for the bloody War of Fob………

Campaign start: Campaign turn 3, Spring.

The campaign Map

The Ilkley Lads and I will also be at the York show on 7th Feb 2010 - doing a Crusades game. Drop by and say hello.

James

More Punic Wars stuff painted

It has been some time since my last post. This isbecause I've been snowed under with painting commissions and Christmas. But I have found time to keep my Punic Wars project more or less on schedule.

Here are the latest additions.

First up Roman leader stands.

4 units of Roman and Allied cavalry. This completes a very small fraction over half of the Roman army.

Now the schedule is getting interesting. Elephants - the first 2 of 8.

The first units of Gauls. Two units of cavalry. (2 of 10). I don't like these figures much (I've removed a lot of swords and replaced them with spears - I've removed even more from the batch in progress) but they paint up well.

Lastly, 4 Celtic war bands. These castings make up for the cavalry and some. They are fantastically easy to paint. The 'square' nature of the torsos on clothed figures makes check patterns a doddle! This makes me very happy as I've got another 14 to do. I also decided to cheat on the basing. Instead of 24 figs per unit, I'm going to do them at 22 because it actually makes them look more 'irregular'; it also makes 2 extra 'free' units.

Next up, some more Gallic cavalry and Spanish infantry.

Some weapon options

It's been a while since I posted items for my Leviathan kits; Here are some weapon options that will be available.

L-HAC for Khurasan Miniatures

Jon just posted this up on his Blog http://khurasanminiatures.blogspot.com/2010/01/sir-yes-sir.html
So I thought I would throw up a few renders of the CAD model. These renders have the longer toes, the toes on the printed model have been shortened a great deal.

And a view of the print from Moddler....

Cars and Karting - Forces and Friction

This is our cross curricular topic for Year 6 this term, we are using Mario kart and a piece of software called Race to Learn. This will be available soom through the Lgfl for all London schools.

We used Mario Kart for our persuasive writing week and the children created a new advertising scheme for Mario kart on the Wii both paper based and radio based. Via Twitter @primarypete_ has made an excellent presentation on how he used Mario kart in his classroom:

"Wii Love Learning" Mario Kart from Peter Richardson on Vimeo.

This is a great little video and we are going to be using some of his ideas soon.

As well as these ideas, we are also using Mario kart each week to race! Each week we choose one track, one car and one driver and all the children race using the time trials - recording overall times. They then have to work out their average lap time. There is also a small competition with the fastest being awarded a certificate each week. We are also looking at track design and which cars are better -if any. As in a few weeks we will be using the race to learn software to design our own racing cars and circuits.

We have also linked it to our DT topic with the children making their own moveable vehicles - these will also be 'raced'. The children are really enjoying the topic so far and more examples of their work and what we are doing can be found here: http://hallyd.edublogs.org/

Fun Inc

Fun Inc: Why Games are the 21st Century's most serious business by Tom Chatfield was published this week.

Chatfield suggests, our hunger for playfulness is actually a positive sign: in these imaginary worlds we can both escape and strengthen ourselves. The games we create can be both "a critique of what is lacking in many lives", and "a channel through which those lives might be changed". (The Guardian 17/1/10)

I am currently working my way through this book and it is a great read, and has been reviewd lots in the press this week.

Last year we welcomed Tom into Oakdale to see the work we were doing with Brain Training at the time - this was mentioned along with a great overview of the book by Tom himself writing in this weeks Independent - the article can be found here.

Links for Teachmeet

http://npsyear6.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-something-different-children-in-need.html
Mario and Sonic

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/12/cleveland-junior-at-olympic-games.html

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/11/wii-and-pe.html

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/11/mario-kart-in-classroom-day-2.html

http://redbridgegamesnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/12/wii-and-pe-part-3-power-up-to-year-6.html

Extinction

File Size: 5.53 Mb(zip), 6.5 Mb(uncompressed)
GM Version: GM8
Screen Resolution: 480x272
Allow Fullscreen: Yes

Here is my second entry for the YoYogames Competition 05.

Extinction is a top-down 3d zombie shooter game with destructible environment, lots of weapons, vehicles and a lot of bloody fun.

Story:
-25 March 2012-
Six months ago in a small city near Russia, people have made street protests for a nuclear power plant located a few miles outside the city.
But nobody showed interest to fix this problem.
For some unknown reason a week after the street protests, a huge explosion at the nuclear power plant#was the cause for a big disaster. Toxic gases from the plant polluted the air and water in the region#and within a few days the whole town was infected. A new virus has emerged and everyone in town had been lost. The virus has turned people into zombies. Very few people survived in this cursed city and they hide in the shadows until someone comes to save them.

Trailer:


Screenshots:




Enjoy this game and please leave your comments below.

Downloads: