Hastings 1066 refight using War & Conquest rules

[James Morris]

In a break from Midgard and everything else, I took a trip down to Bristol to celebrate my old chum Rob’s birthday. As part of the festivities, Rob had laid on a day of gaming at his club venue (Bristol Big ‘Uns at Iron Acton Village Hall) where I was due to participate in a large Battle of Hastings game using his own War and Conquest rules.

Now, two confessions: despite being a huge fan of the Early Medieval period, I’d never refought Hastings; and, despite having owned a copy since its release, I’d never actually played War and Conquest! I was hopeful that my knowledge of Warhammer Ancient Battles and a quick flick through the rule book would see me through.  Fortunately, all my companions for the game had all played before – and the author of the rules was on hand. As it was, it was a pretty straightforward task and great fun.

The battle went on all day - as was appropriate!  Although we built in a lunch break that I'm not sure Harold and his boys got.  The day ended with victory for the Saxons; the full after action report can be read on my blog along with hordes more pics: https://mogsymakes.net/2022/06/13/the-battle-of-hastings-1066-replayed-with-war-conquest/

It was a brilliant day out and I cannot speak highly enough of the friendliness of the chaps playing our game; if that’s any indicator of the club, it may well be worth an occasional two-and-a-half hour drive to visit the Bristol Big ‘Uns. I also enjoyed War & Conquest – enough of a WAB vibe but with many neat features and modifications that made for an enjoyable game. Some of the fiddliness of WAB is still there (individual figure removal leading to a large ‘dead pile’ to sort out at the end of the game, counting up exact figures in combat and calculating casualties from mixed units), but if you can cope with that, I can thoroughly recommend WAC.

Figures shown below were from all the players' collections - Jordan, Simon, Dave and mine - along with some from Rob B.

[Atheling]

Excellent stuff and right up my street!

I hadn't realised it was Rob's Birthday (Happy Birthday Rob!) which explains partially the quick hop and a skip over to War And Conquest.

I'm going to leave any more commentary for your blog as I haven't read the full write up yet! 

[Norm]

Lovely thanks for showing and I have taken some inspiration how to base my own commanders ….. once they are painted! :-)