RSS FeedAngus Konstam is an author and historian - visit his website at
www.anguskonstam.com or e-mail him at anguskonstam@aol.com
He's a member of the Orkney Wargames Club, which meets in Kirkwall on Thursday evenings.
See their Facebook page for more info.
I wasn’t sure what to call this period. Ideas were “Medieval”, “Early Medieval”, “Late Viking” or “The Norse Age”, but not of these really fitted the bill. In the end I opted for the catch-all of “The Dark Ages”. I know it’s academically out of date, but for wargamers its got more resonance than any
The Dark Ages, Saga, 28mm I found myself in Orkney this week, and so I played a game there, rather than in Edinburgh. The Orkney Wargames Club is a broad church, and hisotircal gaming is only a small part of it. In fact there are only four proper historical wargamers there, plus a few occasional
The Dark Ages, Saga, 28mm This week my Late Viking warband had an outing, and a scrap against Michael Schneider’s lovely-looking Ottonians. Yes, I didn’t really know who they were either. It turns out the Ottonians were a German dynasty of the 10th and early 11th century, whose span culminated in the reign of Henry
The Dark Ages, Saga, 28mm First of all, my apologies for the poor photo quality. What sort of idiot goes on holiday and forgets to bring their camera. Er, that would be me. I went up to Orkney for two weeks, staying in a cottage by the beach, and forgot my camera. This trip also
The Dark Ages, Hail Caesar, 28mm I don’t often get over to Hugh Wilson’s house for his fortnightly Wednesday night games. I made it this time though, and was impressed by the table he’d layed out. It turns out the game was based on a Viking raid on Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth
The Dark Ages, Dux Britanniarum, 28mm This week we visited the north-eastern suburbs of Glasgow, some 1200 years before the area became a commuter suburb to the big brash city. No, our Muileann Dhaidh (now Milngavie) was just a small hamlet, in a pleasant-looking fertile valley near a small river – now called the Kelvin.
The Dark Ages, Dux Britanniarum, 28mm This small game was the first in a mini campaign, involving Saxon raids on what is now Essex. In the 6th century AD it was Caer Colun, and the Saxons were raiding by boat across the Thames Estuary, from the “Lost Lands” of Ceint (now Kent), the main Saxon
The Dark Ages, Dux Britanniarum, 28mm As a change from Napoleonics we ran an Arthurian game this week, a Saxon raid on a Post-Roman British church in what is now Corehampton in Hampshire. Back in the darkest Dark Ages it was part of the British Kingdom of Rhegin, which was under attack from sea-borne Saxon
The Dark Ages, Dux Britanniarum, 28mm I hadn’t played Dux Britanniarum for a while, so we decided to give the Saxons and Britons another outing. I’m glad we did – it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year! Although the rules contain a very tempting campaign system we’ve
The Dark Ages, Saga, 28mm Lately we seem to have been playing games in batches, with two games using the same rules a week apart. That’s so we can get a better handle on the rules. Thus we played another Saga game this week, a clash set in England between Norman and Norse invaders, a
The Dark Ages, Saga, 28mm Last week we played a Second World War skirmish using Bolt Action rules, but like an idiot I forgot my camera. Sorry – I was obviously having a “senior moment”. It was a nice little skirmish set in Normandy – a chance for Alan Bruce to try out the rules.
