Bannerlord

 Well, February came and went, I'm another year older and I attended four hospital and clinic appointments rather than the three I had anticipated, but all went well.
So I hear you ask, what have I been doing with the rest of my time since my last post ?

Well, I've been almost continually playing 'wargames' on my game console, namely "Bannerlord" or to give it its proper name "Mount and Blade II, Bannerlord", a fantasy medieval-type fictional world.

As I have a games console, rather than a PC, I've had to wait two years for it to appear, but it was, imho, well worth the wait, 

Like any cross-over from PC to any games console there are still minor bugs to be sorted, all of which have taken hours of downloading 'patches',    

So what exactly is "Bannerlord" ?

Here's a look at the world and bit of what goes on in it.

The huge world map on which your character will interact

A zoomed-in image on the map above, beautiful terrain imo,...

...and zoomed in even more. The single horsemen are 'armies', the chap across the river has 263 men

The action leaves the main map to fight on a large version of the terrain your force is in

Infantry, cavalry and your character fight as individuals, man to man (and it's brutal)

It's not all open field battles either...

..and all the towns and castles aren't all made from wood.

It's not all fighting and sieges, you can take a stroll around the streets too...

...or maybe take your chances in the arena.

There is so mych more to the game than just fighting, there are bandits camps to attack, looters to ride down and a whole economy you can interact with and of course any castleor towns you own , have to be run too. The whole world is alive with activity and there are a lot of villages that feature on the map along with all the activty of the villagers, the trader caravans etc - it just goes on,

 

Battles take on average about about 3 to 5 minutes, but are generally very bloody and over fairly quick, so much so that you can fight many of them in single hour long session. (or you can just sned your troops in without your character and watch the casualty count come in, in table form.

 

And this is what has been occupying my time over the last month or so (and probably much of the next month too). 

That's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to visit  and of course your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Holiday Games

Once more I was in the wilds of Cumberland with several friends and relatives to have a leisurely soujourn with good food, drink and playing games sat the top of the agenda.
The photograph on the right shows someof the games we took with us though there were more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Planet

 Red planet, is a great game  the objective being to get your astronauts to the richest areas of the Red Planet, though I didn't win any of the games we played !

Seven Wonders

Another great game, but one I didn't play this time around.

Sheriff of Nottingham

This is basically a game of bluff, trying to smuggle illicit goods past customs (the Sheriff); the theme has been slapped on and could apply to any period of history.

A GM's screen for DnD

The new addition of a 'white board'

DnD has become almost mandatory in our gaming, this being our third venture with my Paladin being the same pain in the backside to all the other characters as usual.

My 1974 version of Kingmaker

Our kingmaker game had eight players, which was too much and the king being killed in the first round without anyone able to crown another until very late i the game meant it went on forever. It may not have been a success but many said they'd play again.

A world-wide game of beat the disease

Reverse of Box (padding -Ed.)

Pandemic is a cooperative game of curing diseases across the world. I normally don't like this type of game normally, but this was highly entertaining,

Blood on the Clocktower

Blood on the Clocktower is a very innovative take on the "Werewolf/Mafia" genre. We had 15 or 16   on our first game and it did go very smoothly. (and we the villagers wone against the demon)

Witches

Witches, based on Terry Pratchet's Discworld iirc is a very good game of beating the baddies for points and though I didn't play in this one there was a lot cackling and jollity from those that did play. 

Escape from Colditz (newer version)

My 1973 version of this newer version of the game seems very similar as far as I could tell, but it still made for a great game.

There were probably a couple of other games that we played, but I didn't take photographs of them, one of them, 'Masquerade' being amongst my favourites.

That's it then for this month, goodness knows what I'll be writing about next onth, maybe my three hospital appointments? There has howver been somemovement on the gladiator front, so it may be that I'll have something to report there.

Happy New Year

Hi all, just a quick post to wish you all out there a Happy New Year and hoping this ine is better than last year.

On a personal note, I've been unwell since Christmas Eve, I suspect, with another bout of bronchitis and haven't managed to look at any posts on other blogs, a situation I'll try and remedy as I'm fit enough.

in other news, as I cannot see myself playing any games in the near future, save for those I'll be playing at thn end of January when I'm on holiday, nor will I be making any scenery etc. My aid in the  playtesting of the Gladiator rules "Blood on the Sands", has also seemed to have run its course, as I haven't had replies to my latest emails, many weeks ago. With all this in mind, my blog is going monthly as of this year, and I'll be endeavouring to post something on the first Monday of each Month.

So that's it from me, I hope you all have a Happy New Year.