Still Plodding on

Well, we're still trying to get things sorted out with broadband and still having almost no luck. Which is a pity, because I've written a battle report featuring my now fairly regular opponent Julian and his Almarovid/Almohad. We've played three games now (and we would be playing a forth tonight had he not fallen in will the man flu). Alas, we've no disk or disc drives in opur PC's at work, so I cant just take it in and post it! I'll figure out a way soon, I promise.

Its unfortunate that Ive not been able to keep this bog up better as a lots been happening in the last few weeks which Ive been wanting to tell you about. My Army has evolved quite considerably in recent weeks following table top experiences. For example, I'm now up to 40 cavalry miniatures. 10 of these are standard unarmoured lance-armed mounted serjents (usable either as mounted serjent with shieldwall normans and crusader or as Cabelleros Villainos with the Christian list from El Cid). The others are 7 armoured knights with spears carried overarm (Briton's for Normans, Cabelleros for El Cid) and 7 unarmoured peasant types on horseback usable as Jeneites for El Cid and Sejents with throwing spears for the Normans.

Anyway, the Villanos are 6 Perry unarmoured crusader knights with three Artisan Almohad lancers (including a converted drummer) to add some flavour to the army. The Cabelleros were Perry mounted knights with spear over-arm (which curiously came with lances rather than spears - just as well I had a few spares) and the Jenites were Artizan Carovingian french ligth cavalry with spears held overarm. Oh yes, I also purchased an additional pack of 3 Perry knights charging with lances. Two of these will be swapped out for sword armed knights in the main cavalry unit (the one led by the general) and one will become the Army Standard Bearer. The two sword armed knights will command two of my new cavalry units and a miniature from the Perry Crusader Character pack will act as leader for a third (he'll be a character such as a Prince or Bishop). The final character from the pack is going to be converted into a Cantador (knightly Bard) for the Spanish list, just as soon as I can find a suitable lute (Reaper catalogue here we come).

I also bought myself eight Artisan Carovingian archers. Also very nice, but not very Norman looking. The Norman archers I've bought from Crusader, on the other hand, are very Norman in appearance, complete with trademark haircuts and baggy shorts. They should balance out the obviously not-Norman Carovingians when Im using the Norman list from Shieldwall. Likewise, the Norman archers from Crusdaer Miniatures will do as mercenrary archers for the El Cid lists. I`m already contemplating making them a permanent addition to my Crusader miniatures Spearman unit (the El Cid lists allows mixed units) for El Cid games. Wel, at least on those occasions where I need some vital ground to be held anyway.



This proponderance of cavalry might seem a curious evolution given that it has come about as a result of facing armies of spearmen, but I like the idea of using my mounted troops to draw the spearmen out of position. Alas, I just have figured out how best to do it yet.

I hate African Drums. Random? Yes. Unfair? No. They do deserve to be hated. Read the El Cid list if you don't belive me.

I've also procured my final bunch of archers (the aforementioend Crusader Minatures figs- I now have 29 archers in total) and that second unit of spearmen courtesy of Crusader miniatures. I ordered them before New Year, but just got them yesterday. There's a damn good reason for that. Hope you get a kick out of this email I sent -and the very nice reply from the boys at Crusader. *sigh* Even when I complaining about something I can still have a laugh. Especially when its at my own expense.

The LETTER.

"Hello guys and Happy New year.

Get yourselves a cup of tea and a nice comfy chair. This is going to be a long one :).

I placed an order on the Friday before New Year for some of your Norman Miniatures (1 pack each of the spearmen in the padded doublet, attacking spearmen and dismounted knights attacking with axes) but it hasn't arrived yet.

At least, I dont think it has. You see, the problem is that I placed the order using my hotmail account rather than the work account ( edited) .I can't actually access this account to see if you've sent me any messages at the moment. I haven't had access to the account since moving from my previous address (the billing address on the order) to my new one (the delivery address) because my old service provider told me a week AFTER they were supposed finsih transfering my account that they didn't operate in my area.

Muppets.

The new property also has pretty substantial storm doors and a dodgy door bell, so it's possible I just didn't hear the postman. I was at home on holiday all last week though. I made sure the storm doors were open while I was awake and in the house. Course, I could have been knocking the house down with my snoring when he came by with my order, but hey, thats life).

That being said , I haven't had one of those cards from the postman telling me to collect the package from a depot. My local office dont seem to have had any parcels addressed to me handed in by the postman either (its just thirty or forty metres from my house and is the local depot for undelivered mail). Can you please let me know if there has been a problem with my order? You can email me using my work address (thats this one by the way, not that you neededme to tell you that).

(In case your wondering, the IT section has blocked our access to hotmail and google accounts. The wretches! have they no shame?)

Anyway guys, I`m sorry to be such a pain in the backside, especially since I`m the idiot who asked you to deliver to a house with storm doors and a dodgy door bell in the first place.
I`d really appreciate any info you can pass on to me. I had thought it was just the Xmas backlog, but then one of the guys from the local gaming group told me his stuff arrived a few days after new year - and he'd ordered on the Saturday

Hope you've had a good laugh at my expense (everybody else has) and enjoy the new year.

Many thanks,
Brian Rae
Dedicated gamer and semi-official office idiot.

END OF LETTER

In response, I got a very nice email from a guy called Mark, Mark was very glad that I'd written in on account of the fact I`d very geneously given them the flat number, but forgot to give them the house number lol. Cheers for replying in a way that didn't make me seem like a fool Mark, but I am one anyway :D

Thanks to the lads over at Crusader for keeping hold of my order for me despite my seeming silence. I got their reply on the Friday and the figs came in the post on Monday (yesterday) - giving me plenty of time to base and prep the figs for my next game against Julian. Oh...... um. Yeah. Thanks again anyway guys :D

Bloody nice miniatures too, I have to add. Hardly a mould line or a hint of flash on them. And they match up nicely with my Perry figures too. So, all in all, a good week or two for me as far as gaming is concerned.

More tomorrow.