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.
More delights from the brush of James Roach – a group of Perry Miniatures Bashi Bazouks. Great figures painted superbly.
For me these guys will see service from the 17th to the 19th century, from skirmishes to big battles, and under several sets of rules. I believe it’s called ‘sweating your assets’!
I’m sure it won’t be long before I post some pics of them in action.
I decided to add something a bit different to my post-Napoleonic Fleurians – a mountain gun to accompany the light infantry on their raids and missions through rough terrain.
This is a Perry Miniatures set from their Carlist Wars range. There is also one more crewman with a telescope, who I’ll do later as a Big Man for Sharp Practice. I wouldn’t normally base a gun (and this one is only sitting on the base, not fixed to it) but it’s so small that it needed a bit of extra height once the crew were based. Even so, I still think it’ll be christened the ‘ankle biter’!
For Sharp Practice I’ll add a couple of light infantry to the crew to make it up to the normal 5 figure group. Clearly it won’t provide a lot of firepower but hopefully it will be an interesting piece to use in some scenarios.
Quite a few sailors actually.
I’ve recently painted these Foundry Miniatures crewmen for the general manning of cannon and boats in my post-Napoleonic Sharp Practice games. I like the figures a lot, although they are definitely 25mm rather than 28-30mm so look a bit like children next to more modern offerings from other companies! That said, they won’t generally need to mix with others that much, so it doesn’t really matter. I added a piece of card under each figure to add a little height. Think of them as 19th century Tom Cruises or Rod Stewarts with platform heels! 😉
Now to the serious stuff – two dozen superb Mutineer Miniatures figures, tooled up for landing party operations, and painted very very nicely for me by James Roach (Olicanalad). These have just arrived here at Medetian Naval HQ and I started on the basing straight away so that they can join the fleet as soon as possible.
With my river/coastal terrain sections and a variety of boats, I see some fun games coming this year!
I’ve recently managed to finish some artillery crews for my early 19th century forces. These chaps will be coming to Ayton in May, and will mainly see service after that in Sharp Practice games.
Firstly, Fleurian field artillery (Victrix British Napoleonic plastics). Guns to follow, with yellow carriages as per their 18th century predecessors.
Secondly, Fleurian colonial artillery (Foundry Crimean Turks). They’ll be getting guns with red carriages. The officer at the front will be based as a Big Man and I’ll come up with a name and some personality traits for him. Well, he’s got real character hasn’t he?
Next up, probably the Medetian marines to go with the 2 samples I painted a while back.
The Medetian Grenadier Guard, that is.
Following on from an earlier post where I mentioned the figures making up this unit, I have now finished the regimental standard and the bases, so they’re ready for the parade ground. This is a ’30’ figure regiment, although there are actually only 29 of them. For Sharp Practice it will provide 2 groups of 12 elite infantry. At Ayton they’ll probably be brigaded with the 1st Grenadiers, who look pretty much the same except for black equipment straps/crossbelts.
These are Victrix Old Guard Chasseurs (which my existing Medetian infantry are based on – albeit most of those have Tyrolean hat head conversions). I bought them on ebay, already painted by a talented chap who turned out to be quite local. I then altered some of the colours; trousers, epaulettes, tassels and some equipment. The flag template was designed in MS Excel, printed out and highlighted.
They’re based singly on washers for Sharp Practice, but for Ayton they’ll be on magnetised group bases for convenience and to fit in with the rules, as shown here. The separate officers and NCOs are Big Men for Sharp Practice but add a bit of style to the main unit.
Basing your otherwise finished figures can take an age, can’t it? Even so, I finally got round to completing this merry bunch of Medetian naval types.
They’re a pretty eclectic lot – a mixture of Perry, Mutineer and Victrix figures. Although they’re from a variety of actual historical periods they’ll all be taking part in the Medetian expedition into the back of beyond at the Ayton gathering in May. Let’s just hope there’s a river! I’m trusting you Iain!!
While the gatling gun and anyone in a pith/pipe helmet is clearly going to have limited future use, the others will be able to take part in my post-Napoleonic setting using the Sharp Practice rules. Now I just need to finish the small marine contingent, and I have a plan in motion for some stout sailors to go ashore with them. Oh, and the previously tried, tested and calamitous rocket battery is being handed over to the navy to operate, so there are some crew to paint for that.
It occurred to me that my rocket launchers are painted in two shades of blue, which is appropriate considering that ‘blue on blue’ is their likely contribution to the battles at Ayton. I’d just like to apologise in advance to any allies who’re on the receiving end…
Steaming (slowly, no doubt) into view below is the most recent addition to the Grand Duke of Medetia’s glorious navy, the colonial steam boat Byzarbian Queen.
This is a very nice and simple to put together MDF model from Sarissa Precision, which I ordered via ebay for a tenner; great value in my opinion. It all came laser cut on two A4 sheets of MDF. Everything went together very easily and even the thinnest parts like the awning supports seem robust enough to survive regular handling.
I gave the hull a coat of white, the boiler is in gunmetal and the awning received white and Medetian-blue stripes for a bit of colour. It was a very quick paint job as you can appreciate! I’ll add a flag at some point too.
I decided to leave the awning structure and the mast removable, for ease storage and to allow easier access to deck space for figures. It’ll hold about a dozen of my 19th century guys on their 20mm round bases, but will normally just be crewed by the three naval types you see in the pictures. These are a mix – Perry officer conning the vessel from the foredeck, Mutineer Miniatures Bosun’s mate (with shouldered monkey) at the tiller and another Mutineer figure taking the roll of flustered engineer.
I have a few more nautical coves to finish, along with the rest of my marines. Then they’ll need a mission somewhere!
Although posts have been a bit thin on the ground so far in 2015, I have managed to get back to the painting table.
These are the last of a unit of 30 Medetian Grenadiers, that I’ve been converting a few at a time with a partial re-paint over the last few months. I bought them on eBay as French Imperial Guard Chasseurs (which is of course what the figures are – by Victrix) and have modified things like their trousers, epaulettes and drums, plus some equipment and tassels, etc. A fair bit of work in reality, but I was starting with nicely painted figures and it was a lot quicker than doing them myself from scratch.
They will muster as the Ducal Guard Grenadier regiment, differing from my other Grenadier regiment by having white cross belts (well, there was no way I was going to re-paint that lot!)
The worst bit was getting them off their plastic bases, to which they’d been stuck with full-on bonding cement. No breakages, but lots of cutting and cursing! Never again..
The mounted officer is a Perry figure, who’s going to double up as a Big Man in Sharp Practice games and as a Brigadier in big battles like the one coming up in Ayton in May. The nearest drummer is also actually a Perry, as I needed one more figure to bring the unit up to strength.
I’ve also got a number of other items and batches on the go, one being some carbine-armed Sipahis to go with my existing lance-armed unit, as a second rank or as a separate detachment. These are RSM figures, based as light cavalry for use with both my 18th and 19th century Medetian/Fleurian armies. As they’re fairly simple figures and widely spaced on the bases, I’ll be painting them assembled and in situ. It should work – I did the lancers this way and they’re in 3s!
More soon, thanks for popping in.
Recently finished: two leader figures for my post-Napoleonic Medetian light infantry – the Bersaglieri. These troops effectively count the same as British Riflemen in Sharp Practice games, and very effective they are too.
I use Front Rank Austrian Jager figures, as they have the appropriate headgear for my early 19th century Medetians. These two are an officer (Lieutenant Verdicchio) and a sergeant (Rigato), based as Big Men for the rules. The sergeant does actually have a face, I just struggled to get any decent light onto the front of the figure for this quick photo shoot!
This leaves just 20 more rank and file to do next year sometime…
Before everything got tidied away it would have been rude not to have had a final Sharp Practice bash, so I did.
I decided to try more of a stand up fight so this time the scenario was straightforward – the Medetians were launching a campaign into Fleurian territory and their vanguard needed to clear the way by exiting at least 2 groups and a big man off the Fleurian table edge within 12 turns. The Fleurians needed to stop them of course. It was a deliberate attempt to get a few more figures on the table and see how the rules dealt with it.
The defending Fleurians were partly in place (occupying a roadside farm in the middle of the table) but mostly advancing from their own baseline. They had a force under the newly painted Major Mauzac, made up of:
32 light infantry in 3 groups
20 line infantry in 2 groups
1 light gun and 5 crew
12 militia cavalry in 2 groups
3 additional Big Men
The Medetians were under the fit-again Major Nebbiolo, assisted by a command group of 4 other Big Men. Between them they commanded:
10 bersaglieri riflemen in 1 group
50 line infantry in 5 groups
24 grenadiers in 2 groups
1 light gun and 5 crew
10 hussars in 1 group
I’ve decided to go with fixed group sizes depending on troop quality; elite, average and poor. Infantry are in groups of 12, 10 and 8 respectively and cavalry are in groups of 10, 8 and 6. Some of the Medetian infantry were on group bases to assist with the early moves in particular, and I was trying out some new markers I’d made up for various things (such as for groups who’ve lost their Bottle and to keep track of some of the random events).
With a game limit of only 12 turns, and a card-driven turn sequence that ends on the turning of a certain card, the Medetians had to attack from the start to have a chance of beating the clock. They were in pre-determined groupings that would be allocated at random once the blinds were successfully spotted by the enemy. With more troops involved I managed to use formations for the first time, each side forming a line during the battle to ease command and control and increase firepower.
The fighting built up slowly but became pretty intense once the Medetian infantry advanced into the open. The Fleurian elite voltigeurs were particularly unfortunate, being targeted by the bersaglieri rifles and eventually being run down by the hussars. Equally, the Medetian grenadiers were badly shot up in front of the farm, and the right flank was very slow in coming forward to support them (held up by poor luck with the cards and the fire from the Fleurian light gun). These right flank troops seemed to suffer from a general lack of discipline on the day, with a man passing out drunk and careless musketry causing the adjacent barn to catch fire and burn down!
Despite the grenadiers’ woes a Medetian success looked likely, however, with numbers beginning to tell on the left. However, a few unexpected reverses and a surprisingly tough stand by the Fleurian militia cavalry put everything in doubt. Two groups of infantry were therefore ordered to form up in line and marched forward to try to break through. Things then descended into a series of violent melees that saw victory within the Medetians’ reach.
At the start of the 12th turn Major Nebbiolo (sporting a sprained ankle) had to try to get into line of sight to order the hussars to join the rifles in moving off the Fleurian table edge. He had to use all the available Grasp the Nettle cards and roll a big enough move to do it – he rolled an 11 and even with the penalties for his injury he made it and ordered the 2 groups to move, winning the battle and forcing a Fleurian retreat. A close run thing, but very entertaining to play.
The final turn, with Nebbiolo (between the flag and drummer) finding the hussars frustratingly out of sight behind the trees:
Once again there were casualties among the leaders, although still nothing terminal. Notably Ensign Lambrusco again did well but this time succumbed to a bad wound and was carried off the field by his men. I’m sure he’ll be back when I play again. For now, though, I’d better get back to the painting table!
