The Road to the Barons’ War Grand Melee at Firestorm Games

By Sid

In about June, during one of the Cardiff Dice Studz Friday afternoon meetings the subject of the Barons War 2 came up. The new boxed set had been released including many figures, barricades, rules, counters and dice. It was being sold at a discount at Firestorm, so I suggested we could all enter and use the deadline of the actual event (Sunday 5th October) to encourage us to get our collective acts together. The idea was greeted with approval and some of us agreed to go for it. 

However as is often the case, ennui and vacillation were the order of the day. Apart from myself, no one had purchased the starter set and when I asked if anyone had entered the event, it was only me. Another person – who shall be nameless to hide their shame -said they would get a ticket, but alas the event was sold out in quick time. Bloody wargamers, getting anything sorted is like herding cats.

However, I was determined to get my act together and started painting. The box set doesn’t include any mounted figures, so I purchased a unit of Wargames Atlantic mounted knights to bolster the many infantry (54) included in the starter set. 

Having never played the game, I viewed many YouTube videos on the game for my research. I also joined the Facebook page for Barons War, the members of whom were very supportive. The points system was also a little confusing but I was lucky enough to find the New recruit Army Builder web site New Recruit which is free and very useful, including all the rules and structure needed. 

The Firestorm Events page also included the event rules, which I didn’t really understand as I had never played the rules. So I went with something fluffy, I also listened to the Wargames Soldiers and Strategy podcast on their experiences last year Competitive Gaming – Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy – Apple Podcasts This explained that although they were neophytes, they did well by concentrating on the scenario conditions and not being too concerned about killing the enemy. They were also very complementary about the tournament set up and the friendly nature of it. Therefore I went with a reasonably large number of units including green levy peasants. This meant I could pick on figures I liked the look of, including peasant slingers, I have a thing about slingers and even do a bit of slinging in the real world. 

My initial thoughts were to have a force based around Barons loyal to King John – I’ve always liked a bad boy. So I did a lot of research and found a baron I liked but subsequently found a baron who was in charge of the village I was brought up in as a child and he is even laid up in the church there. Unfortunately, he turned against King John, so I had to go the other way. So there we go, I was building the retinue of Baron William St John of Basing, Sheriff of Hampshire and Constable of Porchester Castle. Known in his time as Willelmus De Sancto Johanne filiuset heures Ad De Port. After accompanying King John in his disastrous camp[aigns in Poitou and Anjou, he became disillusioned, this was made worse when John lost Normandy where St john had lands. Therefore when Louis the Dauphin of France landed in England with the support of the Barons, St John joined him at the siege of Winchester in 1216. Unfortunately, his livery is not sold by Victrix or Wargames Atlantic so had to hand paint the shields. 

Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or

The list consisted of a dismounted Baron with escort of 5 foot knights and banner (gives bonuses and extends command range). A friend who had played said that he made his Baron part of the mounted contingent but he went off into the blue yonder as knights do, so the rest of the army lost the benefit of his command abilities, so on shanks’ pony he was. 

A small group of 4 veteran mounted knights with all the bells and whistles, my main strike force, I have no idea how points effective they are, but they look pretty. The banner is purely cosmetic.

6 regular crossbowmen, with padded armour. Hopefully these would be my ‘killer unit’.

A large group of 10 Irregular spearmen, no armour and medium shield. The blogs all rave how effective large groups of spear can be, so my only concession to being effective. 

A group of 6 Green bowmen, to pad out the numbers and throw some arrows out. Cheap and nasty.

As I said, I like slingers and the figures in the pack are really nice, so 6 Green levy with sling.

Finally, a group of 6 green levy with improvised two handed weapon. The idea was that these bad boys, (well actually bad very old and decrepit men) could be used to go off and grab objectives, plus if I lost them, it wouldn’t matter. 

So there we go, the journey so far 40 infantry and 4 mounted knights. Enthusiasm followed by reality, but the fugures are really nice with a lot of character and varierty. I also finished off the rest of the box set which yielded 5 more dismounted knights, 6 billmen and a couple of archers. That’s a lot of figures plus the rules, tokens, dice and barricades. Which cost me £85, really impressed. 

Now to quote Vernon L Pinkley in the Dirty Dozen”

 Stay tuned for battle reports and details of the unfolding project!