Hordes of the Things: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 

 Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released in 1975, co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and was later adapted into the musical Spamalot.

I have seen a HotT army for Monty Python's Life of Bryan in 15mm and I have long planned to do this one. Along the way some film specific miniature became available again and someone else beat me to it with their own 28mm HotT army. Still this is one of my favorite projects and has taken a lot of searching and converting to make.

Some of the figures are are from Studio Miniatures Medieval Mayhem range and are no longer available. They also did some shield transfers which I haven’t used.

Arthur, King of the Britons (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Knight General                King Arthur, Sir Bedivere                               @ 2 AP                 1

Hero                                Sir Lancelot                                                      @ 4 AP                 1

Paladin                            Sir Galahad                                                       @ 4 AP                 1

Lurker                             Sir Robin and Minstrels                                    @ 1 AP                 1

Cleric                              Brother Maynard and Monks                            @ 3 AP                 1

Knights                           Sir Bors, Sir Ector and Sir Gawain                   @ 2 AP                 1

Blades                             Knights of Camalot                                           @ 2 AP                 2

Hordes                            Army of the Britons                                          @ 1 AP                 4

 

Alternatives:     Magician (Tim the Enchanter) @ 4 AP

Stronghold:        Camalot

 

King Arthur and Sir Bedivere, with their squires are a Knight General (Arthur is not very heroic in this version “run away, run away”). 

 

 Lancelot is a resin miniature, probably 3d printed and turned out to be very fragile. His squire, Concorde, may be familiar to any old Bretonian Warhammer players. He's having a lie down now, I've given him a beard, a big pack,and an arrow which refuses to show up in photos.

Galahad is a plastic Teutonic knight and the squire (not his own squire if you want to get pedantic) is under a dead cow.

Sir Robin (see above) and his squire are from Studio Miniatures, the minstrel is an old Citadel model.

The (singing and dancing) knights of Camalot are Blades. Some of these are old Citadel medieval that are now sold by Foundry.

On the left are the remaining Grail Knights, Ector, Gawain and Bors. Much freeze-framing reveals that one knight’s arms are never seen, while various sources including a licensed card game assign the Fish to both Gawain and Ector. Two of these are resin figures and both had needed their swords replaced before the first game.

 

Tim the Enchanger is from Studio Miniatures. Brother Maynard and co with the holy hand grenade are from various sources. The monk with the Book of Armaments was actually a nun before I got to work with the green stuff. 

The Hordes include some more old Citadel knights and a mixture of metal and plastic figures from different sources. The shield transfers are from Little Big Men, and there are some more I mislaid to attach later.

 

Enemies of King Arthur (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Horde General                 King of Swamp Castle and Useless Guards       @1 AP                   1

Horde                               Maidens of Castle Anthrax                                @ 1 AP                  1

Blades                              Knights who say ‘Ni’                                         @ 2 AP                  1

Blades                              The French                                                          @ 2 AP                 1

Beast                                Beast of Caerbannog                                           @ 2 AP                 1

Flyer                                Catapulted and thrown livestock                         @ 2 AP                 1

Magician                          Old man from Scene 24                                      @ 4 AP                 1

Behemoth                         Black Beast of Arghh                                          @ 4 AP                1

Behemoth                         Three Headed Giant                                            @ 4 AP                1

Lurker                              Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasants                             @ 1 AP                 1

Water Lurker                   The Black Knight                                                @ 1 AP                 1

 

Alternatives: Horde (the Police) @ 1 AP

Stonghold: Stone Tower

 

The Enemies of Arthur are led by the King of Swamp Castle, along with his useless guards as a Horde General. The King is converted from the Citadel Grima Wormtounge model for Lord of the Rings. The police are can either be substituted for a Lurker, or could be saved as a replacement if the General is killed and resurrected as an ordinary Horde. The Maidens of Castle Anthrax are from various sources but include two Galadriels.

 

The French and the Knights who say Ni are all form Studio Miniatures.

The airborne livestock include a metal dead cow and  some plastic farmyard animals set from Warlord Games.

The Giant and the Black Beast of Arghh my biggest modelling challenge and I will post a short article on how I made them later.

The Beast of Caerbannog is surrounded by bones from a skeleton warriors set  that were too fragile to actually build as intended but are a useful source of bones.

The Old Man from Scene 24 (also known as the keeper of the bridge of death) is another Studio Miniatures model.

 The Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasants are dark age figures covered in green stuff and featuring a hand cart from Warbases.

The Black Knight is a Water Lurker. As he can be deployed on the table up to three times I have a different model for each time, with fewer limbs.

 

Alien Squad Leader

Alien Predatory Warhost vs Outlaw Gangs, 200 points.

 

My army consists of beasts with guns, while they can shoot like infantry they react as primitives, fleeing rather than falling back to cover. They are also subject to a blood lust rule that forces them to chase after wounded prey while ignoring a better target that may be available.

Alex's Outlaws are split into distinct gangs each with their own leader, under a supreme leader. Unlike most armies they total number of units destroyed doesn't matter, only the leaders count towards their break point and I need to get half of them.

The scenario gives the defender (Alex) an objective area near the centre to defend, his army won't break unless I contest the objective.

The defender sets up the terrain and the attacker gets to move one piece. The table only left one practical line of attack,on the right side. I deployed most of my troops hidden in the corner ready to move up through the cover.

 On the left I deployed heavy droids with their heavy weapons, hoping to tie up a portion of the enemy. Some of my troops were off table due to the scenario and could come on at entry points defined during the game. Some of my troops were stealthy and were able to occupy some cover close to the objective.

Alex deployed a gang with heavy weapon armed vehicles to face off against my robots, infantry in the objective and motorised units in the rear.

My stealthy units couldn't be seen unless they fired or the enemy were within 10cm. I knew most of my army were going to move through this terrain piece so I grabbed the opportunity to charge the objective in the first term before Alex could put them on overwatch.

After doing a little damage were pushed out into the open and shot up. A light vehicle gang came round the side of the objective to try to finish them off, pushing one to the table edge.

I brought my units on from off table into cover and moved my other troops up as room allowed but the layout only allowed me a small area of cover to fight from. Outlaws made several forays into the cover and were driven out each time.

 

 But I was making no progress moving into the objective. I had a character who attached himself to a squad and did well, but blood lust made difficult to fight effectively.

On the other side a long range duel ensued the robots and heavy weapon trucks. When bikers came out to chase down my fleeing beasts I moved some robots around to shoot at them and ended up on a ridge where I could cover the objective and the trucks. Some vehicles came over to attack my reduced flank but I shot them up, driving one of the table.

With time running out I had killed none of the gang leaders and had only contested the objective for the first two turns, I wasn't close to breaking at that point but there was no prospect of meeting the victory conditions and I would have lost eventually. The game went to points and with a 14 point difference in losses in Alex's favour it was (just) a draw.

Reveille 2023

Today Lincombe Barn Wargames Society held our annual show at our regular gaming venue, Lincombe Barn in Downed, Bristol. One of the region's smaller events but possibly the friendliest.

We had 15 traders, 8 games, a display by the International Plastic Modellers Society and a stand selling items from an estate for St Peter's Hospice.

The Skirmish Group - 54mm French and Indian Wars

 28mm Never Mind The Ruckus

The Major Brothers - 28mm 1930s Gangsters

 

The Warre Game - 28mm Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Lutzen

 Quickfire games - 6mm WW2

 

We no longer run a bring and buy but we had a table for club members which did a lively trade.

 

Another successful show, in the club's 50th anniversary year (at the current location.)

 

Call of Cthulu

In this game four adventurers visited a Scottish island to investigate reports of lost ships and wild rumours of sea monsters. Before departing we were able to recruit two assistants (being a small party for the task ahead). A little research and a few calls later the party got permission to use the facilities set up by a university expedition to investigate a prehistoric temple on the island which was currently empty.

Taking the weekly supply ship the weather was bad and most of our characters were being seasick below decks when a giant squid struck.

Craig's character was on deck and was attacked with tentacles, he fell back and tried to avoid the cargo now rolling around the deck.

Andy was on the bridge and a tentacle crashed through the windows to drag him out. The ship's captain hacked at it with a fire axe and Andy broke free, injured. The rest of us armed ourselves and shot at the creature. I had my assistant try to take a photograph with camera I had brought.

Graham who had been putting up our new shelves in the storeroom (in real life that is) joined for a bit taking control of a member of the ship's crew. He pushed over a drum of fuel and ignited it. The captain
called for us to abandon ship. The squid dettatched itself from the ship but did not disappear immediately.

 

I sent my assistant to the lifeboat and made two more attempts to capture the photo of the century without success. We all moved to the lifeboat, the captain was nowhere to be seen. We cast off with the intention of going round the starboard side to rescue the crew. But our  strength rolls were inadequate and we fell behind the ship which was still moving. The fate of the burning ship was unknown at this point. We had lost all our equipment except what we carried on us.

 

We could see the shore in the distance and rowed to the island, landing near a castle.  First aid was given to the injured and the party separated. My character, Prof. Shortman and his assistant followed the path to the village several miles off while the others went to the castle.

 

I encountered a large group of unruly villagers who seemed to be armed.  I told them about the ship wreck and the need to organise a rescue. The mob began to surround me knowing I couldn't outrun or outfight them I continued to insist they help. My assistant ran back down the road to get help while the professor was roughly carried off.

 

At the castle the door was answered by an enormous servant and the party met the owner, an eccentric Scottish lord and astronomer who invited them to dinner. He informed them that the villagers were a strange lot, very hostile to outsiders, who only tolerated his presence because he employed some of them.

 

When my assistant arrived the servant was sent looking for the missing professor but there was no sign of him and no-one admitted to seeing him. I was left with the assistant to play for the time being. In the morning the party set out for the archaeological site, staying well clear of the village.

I rejoined the game with a new character, a mercenary who had been hired to protect the university's supplies from looting by the villagers. There was a well stocked building providing supplies and shelter. Nearby was a burial mound and a small ruined monastery. Further away was a stone circle. the party investigated the  the stone circle. My character was mysteriously drawn to the alter stone. It was decided to do some digging so two of us went back to collect shovels, observing a couple of shifty looking villagers with pick axes. After raising the alter stone a few inches we discovered an ancient dagger underneath it. Surprisingly it seemed to be clean and sharp as though still in use.

A small lake was also of interest but it was getting late and there was no time to look further. As the others prepared food my character looked around to check for crazed locals. He discovered a shambling creature armed with a meat cleaver approaching. He shot it and when it didn't go down retreated to the barn where the others came out to shoot further. Most of us failed sanity checks and lost sanity points. One character identified it as a zombie and determined that bullets were not very effective. He attacked it with a shovel and was wounded, the rest of us then piled in and battered it to a permanent state of death.

In the morning we discovered tracks that suggested something with a lot of legs had approached and then withdrawn. The burial mound seemed to have been opened, probably with pick axes and we deduced the villagers had released the zombie to kill us. The party investigated the nearby monastery while I dug pit traps. We lay in wait the following night expecting another attack. My mercenary who had good stealth and was an excellent shot with a rifle hid a little distance away and the others hid in the monastery. 

The thing that approached was neither villager nor zombie but had multiple heads and limbs and caused us to fail further sanity checks. I held my fire as it went by without falling into any of the pit traps. The others, seeing this thing, attempted to withdraw but saw movement in the darkness behind them. Shooting then ensued and the creature fell back into the night. A good role on Cthulu mythos identified the monster as one of the great race of Yith and something far beyond our ability to kill.

 

We withdrew to the safety of the castle, again avoiding the village,and from there went to the lighthouse.The lighthouse keepers who were not deranged villagers informed us one of their number had disappeared a few days before. We waited a few days for the supply boat, discovering that the crew had put out the fire and the ship was back in action, although one of the crew was missing. We returned to the mainland to contemplate further action.

Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame

Today we had a 14 player naval game taking up the whole hall.

Fletcher Pratt first published his naval wargames rules before WWII, covering naval combat from WWI. He later created rules for WWII. These are included in John Curry's book, who is club member and ran the game.

The scenario is that WWII breaks out in 1941, the German fleet is on it's way to shell British shipbuilding facilities when it is intercepted by the British fleet at Dogger Bank.

German Fleet

The sandbanks are between the fleets and the bigger ships have to keep their distance from them to avoid running aground.

 

The Royal Navy squadron included Hood (the model was actually Vanguard), The Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, Rodney and Prince of Wales.    

The big German ships massively out-ranged the British but had smaller shells. The Bismark, Tirpiz, Prinz Eugan and Sharnhorst kept well back and were able to fire without any danger until the end of the game.

HMS Hood was their prime target and survived multiple hits.

Players estimate range and then shots fall in a line from that point. Red is a hit, blues are misses.

The British past between the sandbanks engaging the enemy as they came into range, first destroyers then cruisers.

Several German destroyers were sunk and a cruiser. Some of the smaller British ships were also lost. The Hood here was struck by one torpedo.

 

As the British battleships and heavy cruisers finally got close enough to hit the Germans principal ships the Germans elected to make smoke and withdraw.