A blog about my wargaming projects, armies and battles. The ups and downs of my imagi-nation, Medetia, is one focus, but like most gamers my interests extend into lots of other areas too.
All finished in good time for once. The last figures were painted on Monday and based on Wednesday, which is 2 days earlier than normal!
Here they are then, the retinue of Count Tankard of Medetia, a Norman adventurer and the founder of my imagi-nation.
Knights:
Mounted Serjeants:
Foot Serjeants:
Fierce Foot (or Yeomen, depending):
Archers:
Bidowers:
They’re ready for action and, let’s face it, they’re probably all going to fail, flee or fall. But it’ll be fun!!
With the Gripping Beast Arab infantry painted for the Ayton weekend I decided to use a few of the remaining figures for something else.
Plastic figures are fairly easy to convert (the drilling is easier for a start!) so I have produced 4 artillery crew for my planned foray into 19th century imagi-nations colonial gaming. I’ve equipped them with items from Minden/Crann Tara artillery packs, plus a powder keg and some cannon balls.
They’ll be painted to match the rest, nice and simple in black with white turbans.
The final 6 figures have been assembled as more bow/spear guys, which I’ll paint at the same time.
The gaming and drinking extravaganza that is Ayton 2017 is fast approaching, and I’m actually on track to have everything finished in time without a last minute panic. There’s a first for everything it seems!
My Lion Rampant retinue represents an Italo-Norman and Saracen alliance, for a bit of variety.
The Saracens make up the the bulk of my force, in terms of quantity if not quality. I’ve used a box of Gripping Beast Arab infantry to produce 3 units; 12 spearmen (to be yeomen or fierce foot), 12 archers, and 6 bidowers. To help speed things up I’ve kept the pallet very small, with black robes all-round and no fancy shield designs. I think this looks OK and it’s simple enough to not put me off adding more in the future.
I am most of the way through the Normans, which should be finished off this weekend.
I’ll be digging out a few buildings and bits of scenery to contribute to the collective efforts of the group, and am really looking forward to catching up with the guys and rolling a few dice in just over a week’s time.
Although there’s been no blog activity for a while, there have at least been some hobby goings on.
Not much was actually getting finished so I wasn’t taking many pics, but there has been some gaming, and progress on a number of projects
The best of the gaming was a weekend in Newcastle with Andy hosting an excellent ACW game using his newly re-based collection and Fire & Fury rules. He’d devised a scenario and set up the terrain too. The game took place in meeting room upstairs at a commercial stables, which added to ambience!
It was an encounter battle which 5 of us played to an entertaining draw. Plenty of flank attacks, charges and counter-charges as the advantage swung back and forth. Plenty of beer was had on the 2 evenings as well, which with the excellent company made it a very good time all-round.
I’ve spent some more time evolving my 15mm fantasy dungeon game, which is pretty much sorted and has seen some solo and 2-player games recently. Now I’m just having fun adding the odd monster, character or dungeon feature, plus some background fluff and additional rules that come to mind.
This year’s Ayton weekend (coming up very soon) calls for Lion Rampant forces from anywhere between 1100-1500, so I’m taking a very early Medetian force from their Normans-in-Italy era. It will be supplemented by Saracen auxiliaries, together making a standard 24 point retinue.
I’ve painted 6 knights (Conquest plastics) and 30 Gripping Beast Arab foot, leaving 2 units left to finish before the end of the month. I’ll try to get the whole force together for a pic soon.
I’ve tried yet another method for making islands for my scratchbuilt naval games, this time it was 6mm blue foam (painted green and gridded to match the sea boards) on thin card (painted sandy for beaches). With the odd building, tree or airfield they should look OK.
Two prototypes:
Maybe they’ll be the start of an overhaul of my islands in general, or I’ll just add them to the pile!
I just need to get back into the routine of updating the blog now, so more soon hopefully!
Another couple of bits of MDF scenery completed. These kits are from TT Combat, good value and easy to assemble. I decided to base them on 5mm styrofoam so that I could easily etch some paving slabs into them, and carve a slope to the edges.
I left the bases reasonably plain instead of covering them in lots of rubble, etc, as they’re just intended as gaming scenery for figures to be placed on, not an exercise in modelling!
Although I may not ever go the whole hog and collect enough winter-look ruins for Frostgrave, I fancied doing these in that style. I’m going to be expanding my winter terrain this year and am intending to build up some more generic scenery. The nice thing about these arches is that they’re not so big that they won’t work for 15mm as well as 28mm.
In December my friend and I played the first of a 2-part scenario – see the write-up here
A week or so ago we played the remaining part, which saw the Medetian rearguard holding the bridge that the village raiding force would need to use in order to return to the ship. The bridge defence force had been determined by Jase at the start of the first game and contained a bit of a mix of army and naval types.
Jase deployed with a perimeter of 2 groups of line infantry on one side of the river, and a group of Bersaglieri plus the gun (in a central position, on a rise giving a good view in most directions) on the other. He kept a reserve of 2 groups of sailors – at the pub, naturally. He had supporting assets in the form of a Holy Man and a handy additional Level 1 leader.
As dawn broke my Fleurian patrols converged on the bridge. I would be rolling for their arrival points, and had decided to split my force into a cavalry command (2 groups) and an infantry one (1 group of Grenadiers, 2 of Line infantry and 1 of skirmishers). As it happened these 2 commands came on from opposite sides of the table, but due to some freakish card drawing (early Tiffin cards after 3 re-shuffles) no-one actually appeared until the 4th turn. I should have ruled that the sailors would by now be too pissed to fight, but it didn’t occur to me at the time!
My cavalry came on at a canter and presented the defenders with quite a shock. I should probably have held back and kept the horsemen as a threat but, being a typical wargamer, I decided to seize the moment and move to charge the infantry guarding the bridge. Unfortunately one group was seen off completely by a volley from their intended target, aided by accurate rifle fire from the Bersaglieri hidden in the trees on the other side of the river. Scratch one flank then (although I did get the other group to charge late in the game, to their doom!)
On the other side of the table, my pretty 2-group formation was hammered on its approach by canister from the gun, despite my other groups trying to pin down the artillerymen with musketry. By the time I got the line close enough to do some damage it was being hit from all angles, as the nearest sailors joined in the fun from the pub garden. I did see off the gun crew in the end, but losses and shock meant the game was up for the Fleurians and they skulked away, leaving the Medetian raiders free to return via the bridge and make a successful withdrawal back to their ship – and home for tea and medals. Well done Jase, 2 out of 2!
This was another good fun game of Sharp Practice, and we are becoming more confident we’re playing the rules properly (at least most of the time). Hopefully we’ll return to the fray in a few weeks.
I thought I’d post a general round-up of progress with this project.
I’m still working on these armies, but have made it to the point where I can play modest-sized games, which was always the first objective. I’m coming up to the half-way point with both the Prussians and the Austrians, and intend to keep chipping away at the remaining units.
So far I have completed 20 Austrian battalions and 12 cavalry units, plus some batteries and Grenzers. The Prussians are a little behind these numbers, but I will switch back to them soon to get them caught up. The flags keep slowing me down so I’m going to reward myself by doing more Grenadiers next, who of course generally don’t have them 🙂
A few pics of a recent tabletop outing, using the new under-scale buildings from Supreme Littleness:
I bought this kit at last year’s Derby show, having been impressed by pics I’d seen of the model (and the price – £15). It’s the smallest of their age of sail ships, and I intend to use it with my 17th century skirmish games, mostly as a piece of scenery but potentially for boarding, raiding and cutting-out actions too.
It was quick to assemble (once I’d looked at a pic online and understood how the mast/yard connection went together anyway). The detailing is very good, especially the decks, which I decided not to bother painting, and the intricate stern decoration.
I did make a couple of modifications though. I added a removable bowsprit and some supporting pieces for it, as I felt the model was lacking in this regard. I also added some height to the whole model, with a piece of 10mm styrofoam cut to fit underneath. I think together these changes enhance the model and give me something closer to what I’m after.
I will probably pick up a few guns, which will look good on deck, and may even get fired in the odd game 🙂
Now, back to the wood glue for more MDF delights…
Hopefully this is the first of a few posts about some completed construction and painting projects. At the weekend I gathered together all my MDF kit purchases from the last year or two and realised that I had a built up a bit of a backlog – as you do.
So.. I’ve assembled a few, and finished the first small items.
This is the village fountain from Sarissa Precision. It’s a nice model that will make a good centre-piece in the village square for skirmish games. I’ve given the bottom of the pool a coat of gloss varnish for now, but will get some modelling ‘water’ to give it a bit of depth.
My second order from Supreme Littleness arrived very quickly, allowing me to try one of their small bridge kits. Because of the nature of my terrain I didn’t use the end-pieces, and extended the 2 central supports a fraction, allowing the bridge to sit in place. A very nice model, it only takes seconds to assemble and a few minutes to paint.
More to follow!
Last weekend four of us from the LAW forum, who all live reasonably close to Newark, got together for an eclectic 18th century bash. John (LT) very kindly offered to host us when our plans to play at Wargames Foundry fell through, and his custom-built gaming conservatory (with 12’x4′ table) was an excellent place to play a game. He kept us going with endless tea and coffee too!
As it was Purps’s idea in the first place, he did the planning. He collated a list of what units people could contribute and prepared an interesting scenario based on Minden, but suitably re-named. It was to be a first run out for all of us with the Honours of War rules from Osprey. They proved to be relatively simple to pick up and gave a good, fast-moving game that produced believable outcomes and events.
When the armies were placed on John’s teddy bear fur table covering, along with some suitable scenery, I think the overall effect was very good.
My troops, moving forward to take up defensive positions before the enemy got too close:
The overall table, defenders on the left:
Purps’ Prussians heading to defend the wall. They were to deliver a very un-Purps-like ‘none shall pass’ performance:
No detailed battle account, but in brief – Simon and John attacked with a variety of dodgy invading foreign-types, while Purps and I tried to hold on to the two villages. Somehow we managed this, although it was a very close run thing. We had cavalry charges (one of which was successful – unfortunately against me), heroic musketry, some BUA fighting, and some artillery barrages that did a bit of damage (well lots – to Purps).
Below, Purps’ Frei Korps looking good coming up the road, until all the enemy artillery targeted them and sent them packing on the first turn. Another new unit consigned back to the box before they’d got stuck in.
Something no commander ever wants to see. I underestimated how far Simon’s cavalry could move (damn those Dashing Generals, with their chance to roll those hoity toity double moves!) and was caught in column of march. Scratch one battalion:
At the same time Purps was about to be hit by this lot:
But he saw all the horsemen off in brave style, and was then hit by this lot who had benefited from a couple of double-moves to get round the flank:
Which he also, just about, held off to help us win the battle. 🙂
Medetians and allies, standing their ground:
And dithering back and forth:
I was sending them to support Purps’s left flank, which failed to move for the first 5 turns (he rolled a 1 each time!). When he finally got going he flung his newly-painted hussars into range of 4 artillery batteries, and back in the box they went. Two months’ work followed by one blunder. Very funny, so I abandoned him and marched this battalion back to the ranks again.
The game, and the whole day, was great fun all-round, in excellent company.
We’ve got some other ideas for games we can play as an occasional local group, so hopefully there’ll be more to post soon.
