Post Industrial Decay & Fruit Based Drinks – Madaxeman.com plays ADLG at The 2016 Worlds

“The Worlds” – not the one in Derby, but the global historical multi-ruleset gaming tournament that traces its’ lineage back over a decade and which now was occurring up in its’ most glamorous location ever – Charleroi in Belgium.

This year an intrepid team of Central Londoners made the hazardous journey into post-Brexit Europe by trains, planes and automobiles to take on the world in the biggest and most multi-national competition at this year’s event – L’Art de la Guerre, featuring almost 50 players drawn from France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the USA (and us...).

In 6 lavishly (or should that be laddishly?) illustrated match reports you can be astounded by the local architecture, amazed by the quality of painting of the opposition’s troops, puzzled by the near-complete absence of success for the 15mm Condotta army list that did do well in their previous 25mm outing at Devizes, and enlightened by the usual flurry of ADLG hints, rules explanations and insights.

With over 10,000 words, and opponents ranging from as far afield as Han China to as close as a Condotta civil war, these 6 perfectly formed match reports make compelling and convincing reading for anyone considering ADLG, especially those looking for evidence that a game with around 35 DBx bases per side has enough variety in list composition, tactics and general play style to offer repeated playability.

At the end of each report Hannibal is quite rude about my tactics (as usual), a few of the speech bubbles have swearing in them as well (which always goes down well on Frothers), and there is even multimedia accompaniment in the form of a post-event Madaxeman.com Podcast for you to download and listen to whilst painting your next army!

Read on to see how the Condotta did in teeny tiny 15mm scale playing The Worlds Most Popular Competition-grade Ancients Ruleset - ADLG at The Worlds 2016.

A West Country Monster! 25mm ADLG from Devizes

With the purchase and painting of far too many Perry 25/8mm medieval figures having been successfully concluded in less than a year - racing ahead of many other odds and sods on my painting table in the process - the time came to let the rabbit see the carrot and head down to the glorious West of England to take part in a hastily arranged but still over-subscribed 25mm ADLG competition at Devizes Attack! 2016.

The Perry figures were duly packed into the box and the car, and soon the 6x4 table was graced with the first ever Madaxeman.com 25mm ADLG competition army - an "all the toys" Condottieri affair.

The results were a visual feast as the 60mm x 60mm multiple-rank basing format (or 60mm x 40mm for some stuff) of L'Art de la Guerre appeared to work really well in giving a sensible balance between having enough moving pieces on table (around 20-odd), with enough figure density (2-4 ranks for everyone) but still leaving space for a degree of maneuver which prevented the games descending into the sort of head-on table-edge-to-table-edge slow motion crash that has bedevilled unit-based 25mm games in the past.

Glory at the eye candy, be mildly entertained by the usual crap captions and inane post-match analysis, and educate yourself with a host of rules hints, tips and explanations for the Most Popular Ancients Competition Ruleset In the World Right Now.... in full-on plastico-vision Big Toys widescreen !!

The Covenanter's make it to the Kings Capital!

In three fleetingly (thankfully?) brief battle reports, enlivened by some tremendous 15mm eye candy and the usual videos, the Scots Covenanter's  appear in FoGR and take on three Royalist armies in a one-day competition with pre-set terrain.

See how the forces of anti-papery did in these highly accurate historical rematches, including far more Poor quality troops than have been seen on a Renaissance battlefield for quite some time.

Burton Doubles 2016 - the Multimedia Extravaganza!

Burton, a classic and historic venue ... the ideal setting for a video and audio online multi-platform interactive assault on common sense and common decency as Madaxeman.com launches a PODCAST... and a VIDEO PODCAST to supplement the match reports!!

See (and hear) how the Triumverate Roman & Jewish army fared against the Romano-British & Patricians, 3K Chinese & Hsiung Nu, Armenians & Romans and Parthians (Elemayan) & Hatrenes in 4 separate fully detailed ADLG match reports!

Or, you can just read the damned things on the web just like in the olden days ...

Hairy Beasts in Deepest Bristol ...

Gertfaux, on the industrial outskirts of Bristol at Bristol Independent Gaming has seen my first ever Malifaux tournament just one year ago... and now I was back with Marcus, the King of the Jungle for a second year of Malifaux.

See how Marcus and the Beasts do against all comers in 4 short but sweet(corn) battle reports followed by Steampunk Hannibal in the analysis chair...

Rebels & Rioters - a short Malifaux report

A three-game event at Dark Sphere, with all of the supposedly good players off at the Nationals in (un-flooded) York saw me yet again take the only faction I owned, Arcanists, out of the box and onto the table.

Much time has now passed since these games took place, and added to that the difficulty of taking sufficient photos during a game to make a proper narrative without wasting too much time means that the following report may owe much more to creative analysis of the pictures rather than what really happened…

The Great British Bacon-Off

We're back to FoGR and some more Renaissance action as the Early Danish Army sizzles its way in several extremely bold, and a number of even rasher (see what I did there?) battles at Warfare 2015.

The army attempts to contest the leaderboard and emulate last years victory with a series of unfashionable Reiter units and some well-stuffed pikemen. Is the bacon worth the slicing - time for you to decide in these 4 battle reports

ADLG in London - 3 Reports with Hannibal in command

The inaugural Central London ADLG 1-dayer saw Hannibal commanding the Carthaginians in 3 games of L'Art de la Guerre, against the forces of India, Rome and Macedonia.

See how Hannibal fared in three fully-photographed match reports, including the usual mix of rules hints and explanations, dubious captions and withering post-game analysis from Monty Hannibal, Pirate Hannibal and Viking Hannibal

Welcome to Croydon

In yet another impressive addition to my globetrotting gaming career, Croydon is added to the roll call of infamy in a 4-round fixed master Malifaux tournament.

Being in too much of a hurry to try and play the game to manage to remember to take a full set of photos, there are nevertheless some vaguely amusing captions here, and the beginnings of some analysis as well. A first for everything...

See how the Spider Man did in the reports

Darkfaux - another Malifaux event, this time with added Monkey's Ass!

Darkfaux, a one day 4 game Fixed Master event held in the heart of glamorous London town.

In a scruffy side street under a railway arch next to a car wash.

See Jungle King Marcus wobble, see monkeys wave their arms around ineffectually, see Pigs in armour, see dead dogs eating metal worms and understand how a big tree can be used as an offensive game piece!

Read the reports here 

(there is more analysis from Steampunk Hannibal too..  )

The English Civil War - 3 FoGR Match Reports

The plain-as-bread Parliamentarian army take on three opponents in a 1-day competition in the heart of the Kings Country - Oxford.

See how Renaissance Hannibal and Oliver Cromwell square up in the post-match reviews, and scratch your head as to how many Youtube videos that do not feature members of the Sealed Knot can be shoehorned into the three reports of some of the most vanilla armies every to take the field.

And, potatoes on bases... Say no more!

Gertfaux - a Malifaux Competition!

After almost 5 games ever, Mei Feng and her Rail Crew take to the competitive table at Gertfaux in Bristol!

It's all on the turn of a card as Giant Robots take on resurrected Irish Labourers, Little Green Men try to avoid falling into an industrial threshing machine, and a 4-legged man wearing a dress tries to avoid being run down by a big a metal horse with it's own colony of self-detaching sub-zero temperature haemorrhoids with bad attitudes.

There is also Steampunk Hannibal, and some silly captions. As if they were needed...

The Danes at Warfare 2014 - top table action!

The last event of 2014, and the Early Danes get yet another outing at FoGR down by the banks of the Thames in sunny (cold and dark) Reading.

In four thrilling match reports they take on everyone in the world, from the Indians to the English, all whilst doing their very best to shoehorn references to bacon and Carlsberg into the narrative at every opportunity....and end up doing surprisingly well !

Lots of pictures, some barely-relevant YouTube videos and some very odd things to buy from Amazon as well all grace the reports - so, grab yourself some pancakes and maple syrup, pull up a chair and dig in!

My first ever game of Malifaux

There's a vague possibility that there are lots of DBx-based historical miniatures/Malifaux crossover gamers out there, but for those of you who aren't in that (probably small) demographic, I've posted a match report from my first ever game of Malifaux on this website.

Malifaux is a Steampunk Gothic Horror skirmish game with card-driven mechanics and some rather nice models. It appears to be a lot of fun, which is a great relief after having bough the rules and the figures and then spent plenty of time painting and basing them up.

For my (and my opponents) first game we set up an over-ambitious Mei Feng vs Sonnia Criid 50 SS matchup that we managed to get through in about 5 hours, which is not too bad given neither of us had ever played before - some of the combos were rather complex.

A brand new "Steampunk Hannibal" makes an appearance as well as the usual poor jokes and irrelevant video interludes.

But this time there's also a clunking great robot who's almost a train and who hits people with an enormous metal bar as well.

What's not to like?!

The Madaxeman of Koblenz

Well, actually it's the Augenroller (Eye Roller) which can be found on the clock tower in the AltStadt in Koblenz. Its eyes move back and forth ticking off the seconds, and every hour and half hour its tongue will protrude from its mouth.

The Augenroller is Johann Lutter of Koburn who was a bandit. He was captured and after prolonged torture he confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to be beheaded on October 14, 1536. As he was led to the site of his execution he proclaimed 'Establish a monument to me and it will bring you luck!'.

While on the platform he is said to have rolled his eyes and stretched out his tongue for the spectators and once his head lay severed it continued to roll its eyes and flap its tongue. This was taken as a sign from god so the citizens established the Augenroller monument!

Match reports from The Worlds in Koblenz are on their way soon..