Barbarian warband

I haven't painted anything for my Song of Broken Legions game so far this year. Nor have I played any battles. But I've had these beautiful Celtos figures sitting around for ages now, and before I finish Craig's next wave of stormtroopers I thought I'd get them finished.

The full warband

The hero (reminds of Slaine), and a battlemaiden wearing next to nothing.

Druid and chap with a magic spear.

A couple of champions.

Some expendables with spears.

Some more expendables, but this time with a bit of armour and shields.

These are perfect to face a Roman expedition into the heart of druid territory in order to recover some mystical object or other. I'll try and get a game with them soon.

In other news, The Perry Zulu Wars figures have proved too tempting for me to resist. I'm putting together a couple of forces for the Men Who Would Be Kings rules, and here are a couple of test elements that I've done so far.

All the black on the figures are actually German grey washed with a black wash.

The skin colour is chocolate brown with army painter dark tone ink wash and then highlighted with chocolate brown.

I went with the blue facings of the 13th Light Infantry, rather than the usual green of the 24th. I'm looking more at Woods' column to base my forces on.

I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out to far.

I'm going to add some Natal Naval Contingent and the Natal Carbineers (because of their cool spikey helmets) to the Brits. I still need to get one more box of Zulus so I've got 6 units.

We played a game at John's a couple of weeks back as well. The first Team Yankee game since our little tournament in April. My Soviets went up against the Brits and John's yanks took on my West Germans commanded by Paul. Both of my armies lost, which just shows how crap I am when it comes to the meta of any game. I hate list building and just tend to take what I like. Mike has a habit of hiding for most of the game, and I need to learn to be a bit more patient. My natural inclination is always to move forward, but in the open the Russian tanks don't last long.

The only picture I took shows my hinds doing damage, but not fast enough for my army to survive.

I've currently got some stormtroopers and ACW heavy artillery on the painting tray. There's 2 weeks of holiday coming up and I'd like to try and use it to get all of Craig's Star Wars legion and my 15mm ACW completed.

Nate

Star Wars Legion, Games night and other sundry items

Craig is playing Star Wars Legion at NICon as I type, using an Imperial army that I finished painting on Monday for him.

The AT-ST is so big he doesn't fit my backdrop...

The full Imperial force, consisting of two starter sets and and AT-ST

Craig was finishing the basing off on these. In this photo it is masked for the airbrush.

I still have the rebels to paint for him, which I'll get to relatively soon. In the meantime I have a parcel of goodies to paint for Geoff - just a couple of dozen figures which I've already undercoated and done some prep on. They should appear on here over the next couple of weeks. In return he sent me a spare copy of the Trafalgar Warhammer rules.

A blast from the past. I got rid of my old copy a couple of years ago when Dan and shifted and plans to do a few ships evaporated.

Because I've just invested in these:

1:2400 Napoleonic ships from Tumbling Dice. This is the Victory, and it is tiny. There's another 15 ships where this came from, but Napoleonics is next year's project.

I also found time to finish off a unit of the British 43rd Foot for Muskets and Tomahawks.

My shiny toy soldiers

The French Indian War project is all going to be painted in glossy toy soldier style. I love the aesthetic, and there is something very pleasing about handling gloss varnished figures that I can't really explain.

I was sick for a couple of days this week, and couldn't get any painting done, but when I came out of my malaise I was able to finish off a few bits and pieces, including the ACW naval elements.

The Union fleet of the Chickatachee river campaign (yes, that is made up).

The two timberclads

The USS Choctaw repurposed for this campaign. Big and ugly. I love these boats!

Adding to the preparations for the Chickatachee campaign, I finished a few artillery pieces and some cavalry (mounted and dismounted). At the same time my order turned up from Hovels.

A farm set, two buildings which will be able to represent a town, and a timber mill. Yes, I intend that there will be trouble at t'mill... (full marks if you get the reference).

 And Geoff also supplied me with this Spartan Games Uncharted Seas fortress. It's a bit over the top, and in smaller scale than the other buildings, but I still plan to use it on the same table - just like I'm using 1/600 boats with 15mm figures. It's all represnetative.

This'll be a hard nut to crack.

So last night was Games night, and saw Mike and I have our first game of Burrows and Badgers. It took  along time to play, not because the rules are difficult, but because, as always, it was very easy to get distracted with food, drink and conversation. But we did get there in the end.
Mike was rather underprepared, but his Rogues warband was drawn up and put in the field against my Wildbeasts in an Open Battle scenario.

 

The first moves of the game saw my animals move forward to try and secure the centre of the board.

Mike deployed his leader, Arnold von Schwartzenotter and his Weasel (unnamed), in the centre of the board. The rest of the rogues had to make their way up from their deployment area.

The view from the position of Angry McAngus, the Shrew-zerker. He was chomping at his axe (literally) to get over that hedge and into combat.

Otter and Weasel move into combat with wildcat and sparrow. The combat in the centre heats up. Hunny Bunny the archeress slips around the side and puts an arrow into Hamish McFeatherface's (the sparrow if you hadn't worked that out) behind. Wee Wullie the dormouse takes aim at her with his sling, but fails to gain vengeance.

The Rogues are not rolling the greatest and being held up by terrain.

In one turn things begin to turn. Fiona McAcorn, the Squirrel Witch, casts a curse on von Schwartzenotter, rolling a perfect dice to do so. Then Hamish attacks the otter with another perfect roll. The Rogue leader is struck down! In his place the Fennec fox charges forward.

At the same time Hunny Bunny is attacked and removed by Tam the mole and Angus the shrew.

Despite a small victory over Hamish by the Mouse knight, Gordon McWhiskas the Wildcat seals the game with a devastating blow on his Weasel opponent.

Burrows and Badgers is a cool game, and led to much mirth as we played. It is unpredictable, and the lowliest shrew can take out a large character with luck and good use of combinations. Mike is off to revamp his rogues warband - he didn't get a chance to read the magic rules before making decisions last night, and this wasn't a campaign game as a result, just a chance to try out the rules. Everyone loved the figures, which are beautifully sculpted, and a joy to paint. There is more that we need to learn to use properly - like hiding for one - but by and large I'd recommend anyone to invest in Badgers and Burrows if you are the remotest bit keen.

Next to us on the table Paul, Terry, and John were playing a 28mm Napoleonic game with Black Powder. The distances were shortened to accommodate the fact that we use a normal 4' wide table. John started by charging with his cavalry - just for a change. They had a lot of fun, although at times they found the Black Powder rules (which we haven't played in years) more than a little counter-intuitive. Below are random pictures of the battle.

There was time at the end of the evening to have a game of Shadespire which Adam had brought along. unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of his nicely painted figures because I was too busy trying to climb the steep learning curve, but by the end of the game I had the hang of it (I think). It was a cool little game, and well worth playing if you get the chance.
Shane and Jeremy had a small 500 point 40K skirmish, that was pretty much completed before we got Burrows and Badgers set up, so I didn't get any photos of that either.
Overall it was a great night, with lots of laughter, food, banter, drink and a lovely single malt that I couldn't partake of because I was driving.

Nate

Kolin

This is the last day of the school holidays and I am gutted to say that I am still getting over a flu that started on the first day! At least now I am only hacking my lungs out, not like the first week where I couldn't get off the couch. Needless to say, all of my holiday hobby plans went right out the window. No games and a very limited amount of painting. But today was Mike's birthday, so I set up a Seven Years War game so he could come around and play. Then it turned out that he had a client who could only make it today, and so had to be at work. The fates hate me. Luckily, John finished work early and this afternoon we got five turns of the game played.

Kolin has been fought out by Jonathan Freitag several times, and can be found on his blog here. I used the exact same set up that he did, in an effort to see whether the Prussians had any chance at all. My plan was to fulfill Frederick's original intention of an oblique attack to the best of my ability - attack on the left and take Krezcor town and hill. From there, hopefully I could move onto the defensive and ride out the arrival of the Austrian reserves. Good plan, eh? Well, not so much...

The view from Frederick's position

The initial deployment. The Austrian reserves will come on from the top right of the picture. What you see is what you get for the Prussians.

The Prussians initially gain the upper hand on their left.

The lines close up.

In the end the Prussians decide to launch their right hand cavalry into the fray as well, hoping to win a knock-out blow before the Austrian reserves arrive.

The Prussians struggle to make any progress in the face of the Austrian artillery

The situation at the end of the game. The Prussian cavalry on the right have forced the Austrians into an awkward defensive position. In the centre Bevern is frustrated by the Austrian artillery battery.

On the Prussian left a space has been cleared for the Prussian Cuirassiers directly under Frederick, but the Austrians are rallying and are unlikely to be an easy nut to crack.

So, although we could have played on, it was unlikely that the Prussians were going to change history.
Honours of War are a very good ruleset, but it has been a while since I last played them. There is also quite a difference between playing solo where you can make mistakes and playing an opponent who wants everything to be how the rules say. Considering John had never played them before, he adapted very quickly, but two of us playing such a big battle with the rules the second time out was probably a  bit ambitious. I'm going to play a few smaller solo scenarios and make sure that I have the rules down-pat for the next time I play an opponent.
In terms of the Kolin scenario, I think the design has too much artillery. I've seen it mentioned before that artillery is powerful in these rules, and batteries even more so. The Austrians effectively held the centre with their two gun battery as the supporting infantry fell back around them. Charging artillery frontally can be suicidal, but is doable, but not when two guns are firing together. The same for the poor Grenz defending the foremost village. They were kicked out in the first turn by the Prussian battery. I wouldn't mind trying the scenario again with less artillery.

Nate

Commands and Colours Napoleonics, first game

Last night was games night and Mike and I headed out to John's place with C & C Napoleonics. We chose the first scenario, Rolica, with Mike taking the Anglo-Portuguese and me with the French.

 The initial deployment made me a bit jittery. I had to curb my instinct to attack, as I didn't want to give up the advantage of holding the high ground. I decided to occupy the town at the end of the ridge and send the cavalry guard the hill on the right, which was a British objective. I also drew a hand of cards that didn't allow me much control over my centre.

 Mike, on the other hand, was all about the centre, and his cards seemed to push him towards an attack up the guts. What he didn't count on was the superior French melee and advantage of being uphill would make mincemeat of his forces. He soon realised this and withdrew to bombard the hill while moving around the flanks.

 Things really started to get fiery on the French left, seeing both sides lose their cavalry (you can see in the top left of the picture above that a Portuguese unit was forced into square). Meanwhile the British moved up their left and bombarded the French holding that area. I moved my remaining central forces behind the ridgeline and started inching them to my left.

Things were tense at the end of the game. Mike had killed 4 of my units, and 5 victory banners was the wining of the scenario. I had three. I moved my infantry back onto the ridgeline and engaged the Portuguese on the left. I have to admit that there were a couple of lucky dice rolls involved, but I successfully knocked out the last couple of units I needed to take my total to 5 victory banners and the winning of the scenario. General Delaborde made a good fist of keeping the British at bay!

Mike and I both enjoyed the game, and agreed that the extra detail that you don't find in the Ancients version (such as decreasing combat power for reduced units), and the presence of more terrain than what is found on most ancient battlefields, led to a superior game. Discussion moved to the possibility of using miniatures - 2mm micro-blobs or possibly 6mm. I've already built a 3D Hex board for use with the Samurai Battles game, and I have 15mm figures for that, using micro-dice to track losses. All food for thought.

Nate

Last Irregulars games night of the year

The Irregulars had their last games night for 2015 around at John's house, where we ate ham, drank beer and payed games. The games were a 600 point Flames of War tournament. which was won by the Allies in general, and John in particular. My little tank force got beaten up pretty badly in almost every game, but I did do some silly things (you shouldn't charge Panzer IIIs into 6 pounders? Who'd have thought?), so no complaints there.

Adam and John fight across a heavily built up area.

I face off against Chris in a less crowded arena.

The food was great - John and his wife Rose are both chefs and they provided a fantastic meal and beverages. It was a fun night and a good way to catch up with everyone just before Christmas. Apologies that there aren't any battle reports or many photos - I was too busy getting my butt whipped (figuratively speaking of course) to take photos.

Nate

Battle at Valk 24th August 1701 - One Hour Wargames Scenario

General Shumasshedshiy deployed in a bottleneck where the road between Riga and Dorpat passes between a lake and a woods. In the woods he placed the Moskowski Dragoons while he marched up two regiments of infantry and a gun. Meanwhile General Vakt advanced with his cavalry deployed to the right to flank around the lake, his Dragoons screening the woods and his infantry poised to act as a battering ram to force the road.

The battlefield seen from above. The weather has been freezing so I came inside and played on the floor rather than on the wargames table in the shed. As a result the lighting isn't the best in these photos.

Shumasshedsiy advances his troops. He will join them in a moment, just a quick nip of vodka first.

The Moskowski Dragoons occupy the edge of the woods.

Vakt and his Swedes arrive on the table. The Schlusselburg Dragoons on the left will screen that flank while the infantry mass in the centre.

The cavalry are sent around the edge of the lake.

Swedes take first blood as the Russians get into position.

The Swedish cavalry continues its flanking movement.

A view over the battlefield to get the idea of the Swedish outflanking movement.

The Russians fire back to good effect, but in the crossfire Shumasshedshiy is hit.

This as good a point as any to note that unlike the One Hour rules, my modifications do remove bases. A single base of cavalry or infantry can take four hits before it is removed. A general rolls a dice to rally off any surplus hits equivalent to his die roll, but once an element is gone it is gone. When a unit gets down to half strength it shoots and fights at a -1 disadvantage to its die rolling. Still relatively simple, but a bit more complex than the rules as written. Artillery bases have 16 hits.

If the general rolls a '1' when it tries to rally a unit it becomes a casualty. Such is the fate of the Russian commander above.

The Dragoons exchange fire. The Swedes are on a hiding to nothing here, but they are are doing their job of diverting the attention of the Dragoons from the combat on the road.

The Swedes push forward as the Ingermanlandski regiment prepares to receive cavalry. Note that Vakt has rallied the hits off the Ostgota regiment that can be seen in the earlier picture.

The Ingermanlandski Regiment hold in the face of the Smaland cavalry, while the Uppland regiment charge the Rostovski regiment on the road.

A couple of notes about the above scene. Infantry facing to their front use their pikes in combat against cavalry. As a result, cavalry only strikes at half effect. This has allowed the Russian infantry to hold fast.
Infantry cannot charge other infantry in the One Hour Wargames Horse and Musket rules, which I've kept to - unless they are Swedish. Without Ga Pa tactics we wouldn't be playing the Great Northern War, it would just be any old horse and musket battle. The Swedes also get a +1 combat bonus to their die roll to encourage them to close and hopefully help mimic the results the infantry often had on the battlefield.

The Karelian cavalry charge the flank of the Ingermanlandski regiment.

Flanking units get double the hits, but the rules as they are written say that any hits against Swedish or Russian infantry are halved due to the pikes. I have since gone back and amended this to infantry fighting cavalry to the front. The Karelians should have swept through the flank of these guys like a hot knife through butter. As it was, the combat lasted several agonising turns.

The Uppland and Rostovski regiments continue to whittle each other down as the Vasterbotten and Ostgota regiments use musketry to wear out the Russian artillery.

The artillery breaks, but General Vakt is wounded in the melee trying to rally the Uppland regiment!

Not much left of the Ingermanlandski regiment now.

A bird's-eye view of the battlefield on turn 13. The Moscowski dragoons have broken the last of the Ostgota regiment and Uppland have triumphed in a hard-fought battle over Rostovski. The bottleneck has been cleared and the Swedes control the road!

The cavalry took a bit of a battering, but it will still be able to mount a pursuit.

The remnant of the Uppland regiment, now at 12.5% effectiveness, but victorious!

So The Battle of Valk is a Swedish victory. The Russians only needed to hold out two more turns and they would have won, which says to me that the scenario is pretty well designed to be that close with uneven forces. In campaign terms the Russians now fall back 2 Movement Points towards their supply lines.

The situation at the end of August 1701.

The Russians took some pretty harsh losses. For every 25% of a unit lost the same unit takes one hit when it reconstitutes at the start of the next battle. As Rostovski, Ingermanlandksi and the artillery lost 100% of their strength, they begin with 4 hits in the next game, as does the Swedish Ostgota regiment. Upland starts with 3 hits, the Schlusselburg Dragoons and the Smaland cavalry with 2 hits each. Every month that there is no battle recruits arrive to make up one hit. So If the Rostovski regiment can avoid battle until January 1702 they will be back to full strength.
Both generals went down in the fight. On a 1 or 2 they are dead and a new commander is appointed. On a 3-6 they will be back in command for the following month. Vakt rolled a 6 - just a flesh wound! Shumasshedshiy rolled a 2. Oh dear. Will the new Russian general be as aggressive? We'll have to find out at the end of the week with September's turn.

Nate