My wargames weekend

My weekend has actually passed with a rarity for me, when a friend of mine bought a copy of Memoir '44 and (despairing of his girlfriend) asked me to join him for a few games. I went round for a "boys' night in" featuring pizza, beer plus about 7 or 8 games of Memoir '44. Excellent fun, and so much so that we have agreed to do it again! I had not played Memoir '44 before, and had low expectations of what it would be like. Certainly t was not what you would call 'historically realistic' in the detailed sense, but the game was a great deal of fun and gave a great flavour of things - I finally 'got' the game, after a year or two of thinking it sounded bad. What a turnaround! I may even be tempted to try it myself for different periods, so I shall be following the blog 'A Wargaming Odyssey' closely, as he has recently decided to try a Vietnam version of it (sadly I must wait as it's only one project among his many, just like any self-respecting wargamer!)

Back home in my own GHQ bunker, I've been doing a great deal of the 'donkey work' for my WOTR armies. I have worked my way through half of the boxes, clipping, glueing, and assembling eighty figures. I then glues eighty 1p coins to their bases, sat them all in a cardboard box in the loft (no small achievement in the freezing snow-bound cold) and spray-painted them a base-coat of black. I even took advantage of a trip to Ikea to get some storage boxes on the cheap.

I have now only just started out on the tricksy task of painting retinue colours on them, and my research largely consists of looking up other peoples' models on the internet plus a bit of Wikipedia. Here are my first set of liveried Retinue men, in a fetching blue and white. This should apparently make them lancastrians as these were (again apparently) the colours for Henry VI and/or the Duke of Somerset.

It's base-coat only, and I intend to dip them to get the finished result much improved. I'll paint up a lot more before I do that, however. For now though it's 12 down, 148 to go!

Wars of the Roses in 28mm

It's a red-letter day! A brand-new project has been started, and I thought I should blog it from the very earliest stages. First came the growing Medieval interest, with my 6mm armies, which was meant to be all about the Hundred Years' War. Then, I noticed my attention was slanting towards the end of the period, and the Wars of the Roses (WotR.) Next, came the Perry Miniatures' box of plastic 28mm figures, which looked marvellous - but I stayed strong, and held off(or went into denial, depending on your take.)

Next, there was The Perfect Captain, who brought out a Campaign game calles 'A Crown of Paper' and then followed it up with a tabletop battle set of rules called 'A Coat of Steel.' This set actually looked increasingly interesting as I read through it, and seemed much more suitable to do in 28mm.

Final straw - Warlord Games did a special offer for a 'Retinue Set' of four Perry Miniatures boxes bundled together, plus free P&P. So, I caved in at long last. They arrived last night, and here's a few snapshots to commemorate the starting project 'acorn' I hope will grow up nice and large - mind you, with 160 figures to keep me busy, I think I can relax on that score!

This fellow shows my planned basing system - figures individually glued to a penny! They are nearly/exactly 20mm in diameter, add a pleasing weight to stabilise the base, plus I can combine them as I wish on a movement tray 'base' of 40mm by 40mm.

A lord with his mini-retinue! By the scaling system of ACOS, this is a relatively minor noble with a group of 240 retainers (or potentially figures enough for 600 levies from Commissions of Array - scales and figures per base vary according to type.)

The working tabletop - assembling takes longer than I expected, but is actually also more enjoyable than I expected too!

The Retinue boxed set from Warlord Games - works out in total to about 34p a figure! Now there's just the minor matter of painting them...

A Coat of Steel

Not really a full post here, but a public service-style notice to any people with an interest in the Wars of the Roses. The Free resource site 'The Perfect Captain' has released a free set of battle rules for Wars of the Roses combats, as part of it's WOTR Campaign game. I'm currently having a look at them, and they seem very interesting - full of period-detail and colour. They're certainly a bit different from the normal run of things, but they've got my interest and I thought I should direct others to them. After all - when they're free, how wrong can you go?

Civil War Battles

Just to keep you updated, there have been some developments over the xmas/new year/january period in my Scotland-set ACW Campaign, and I thought I'd post an update. Under McClellan, the main Union army has finally made it's great advance, seeking to destroy it's Rebel counterpart. The scene for this fighting was Stirling and it's environs which - if the Union captured it - would lead to the Rebel heartlands of the Fife peninsula and the highlands being exposed!

Launching this attack were two 'Regular' corps (under Porter and Sedgwick) and a more inexperienced corps (Pope.) Also nearby, there was potential reinforcement from another untried corps (under BUrnside) down the Kilsyth road. Facing them were the rebel veterans under Beauregard now in the entrenchments around Stirling, plus an untried corps under Johnstone. A third, well-drilled corps under the eccentric Jackson was to the west, and would no doubt be recalled at speed once the attack began.

McClellan stayed true to historical type, advancing slowly up to the rebel defences and digging in himself. The Union couldn't turn the eastern end of the lines where they were anchored on the River Forth, and the western end had been secured with a small redoubt called Fort Burke. The rebels under Johnstone were concealed in the woods and hills to the west, to fall on the Union flank as they tried to encircle and destroy Fort Burke.

The attack was duly launched, and Porter's Union corps found itself being struck by the eager if inexperienced graybacks under Johnstone. The scattered woodland around Bear Mill became a battleground as the Union rapidly formed a line to repel the onrushing horde.

The attacks by Johnstone proved inadequate however, and the steadier Federals ultimately repelled the onslaught with heavy losses (I diced for destroyed units being recovered, and through bad/lucky rolls the Union units were able to largely reform while the Rebels seemed permanently lost!) However, although tactical disaster the battle did leave Porter facing west and turned the Union line into a salient, so strategically it had good results!

Next came the battle at Fort Burke itself, where Sedgwick's men had a crack at it.

No doubt the Rebs were shaken by the defeat nearby, because with a great display of enthusiasm, the Federals managed to storm the fort. The Rebel position was turned, and their centre threatened with collapse as their two wings were driven apart! To make matters worse, even the eastern flank began to look tricky as Pope's corps managed to ford a division over the river and threaten to take the overlooking high ground. Only Jackson's instant deployment could save the day!

Thankfully he made it in the nick of time, marching down the Stirling Road and hurling his compact little corps into the tip of the Federal breakthrough. Thanks to his sweeping advance and the Rebel cavalry raiding into the rear, the fleeing Federals were quickly routed and fled the field, abandoning Fort Burke and losing the battle of Kerse Farm!

Both sides paused to regroup, and the arrival (or non-arrival) of Burnside's fourth Federal Corps became crucial. The incompetent general seemed incapable of getting himself on the field however, while the Federals waited and the Rebels swapped Johnstone's battered corps with Beauregard's, giving the tired militia the benefit of fortifications while the two good rebel corps were freed up to become mobile.

They duly did so, racing south to cut the road link between Burnside's arrival point and the Union corps already present. With them in the way, Burnside could be crushed 2:1 when he arrived, so the two good Union corps moved southwest to keep the route open. The result was yet another battle at Cross Lines, where the Union and Rebel corps hit each other on the move, each flanking the other. However, while the Rebels couldn't rout the union they ended up in posession of a wood on the north of the battlefield, which blocked the Union army's return back to it's lines. Forced to withdraw east and back over the Bannockburn stream, the Union had lost it's chance of getting Burnside onto the field for a joint effort. McClellan withdrew, leaving the Rebels still in control of the Stirling area and victorious.

Overall, this was an enjoyable little mini-campaign, with lots of map maneuvering plus a good couple of colourful battles. Looks like the onset of the 1861 winter means both the Federals and Secessionists will need to start planning on an 1862 campaign!

Medieval Army in 6mm

Happy New Year!

After a prolonged silence and related xmas/new-year shenanigans, I have been busy working away in my spare hours to paint and plan. I have been painting quite a volume of 15mm SYW figures over the last few months, so now I have been indulging in some various periods, what with a change being as good as a rest, and all that! So, here are the results of my labours: primarily, my Baccus 6mm Wars of the Roses armies are done up, providing me with DBA/Impetus forces for many late-medieval battles of a historical and fictional nature!

The full host: 27 bases all told!

Mounted knights - the flower of chivalry, plus some ludicrously over-bannered generals!

The mass of the footsloggers - Longbowmen, all in retainer livery (fictional, but as records are so vague, who cares?)

A little close-up of some of them (a black undercoat hides a multitude of sins!)

Billmen to back up the Longbowmen, who outnumber them about 2:1. A little forest of bills, halberds, poleaxes and all manner of terrifyingly pointy bits of metal!

A further close-up. As a lot of other people on the web seem to have done, I have clipped the six 4-long strips of troops into eight 3-long, to fit the 60mm x 30mm base.

The nobility on foot - a mass of men at arms in 'white' armour. Far too many for WotR forces, but they'll be handy for dismounted knights in the HYW French army.

Disgraceful common villeins! City militia in Spear-wielding masses, plus some contemptible mercenary crossbowmen.

The Full Crowd - A fine spectcle en masse, although this lot will spend more time fighting each other. I have no decent campaign rules at hand, plus I have only just had my first experimental try-out games with Basic Impetus, to get a feel for it. Marvellous!

(Oh, and stand by for my attempts to sell various old miniatures in the new year, as part of a big cleanup! I will post links and details, if anybody feels like picking up a clutch of troops to strengthen their own forces!)

New Arrivals

Ah, the arrival of much-anticipated figures! I won't post pics of the new lead mountail I have waiting for me, but I have pressed on and painted a few bases of 6mm Wars of the Roses figures. So, here's a little eye-candy for you!

Here's the full crowd so far of ten bases plus a commander. (There's no overall scheme, I'm just painting them as the mood comes to me!)

The rank-and-file, Retainer Longbowmen. I've painted one set plain red, and another blue-and-white. I'm not basing it strictly historically, just on what looks decent and plausible!

The General, plus bodyguard and herald, mounted on a 2p coin. Retinue Billmen in the background.

Men At Arms - possibly the fastest to paint, thanks to the 'white' armour with no heraldic colours on them! Makes them look far more scarily business-like, I think. No banners are made yet, but that's my next task.

Mounted knights. I bought these mainly to give me the option of later-HYW battles, plus in my fictional Lavancia campaign things will have a HYW-WOTR flavour, and there's always space for some hard-charging cavalry in any army of mine!

Finally, a close-up of the billmen. Second-most numerous troops on the field, being outnumbered by Longbowmen roughly 2:1.

Painting continues, so updates - and ultimately a battle will follow, as soon as I have the time!

Waiting and Waiting...

AAAaaaarrrgghh! Is there any annoyance in a wargamer's life to compare with a much-anticipated delivery not arriving? (Probably not, beyond the time when I accidentally misjudged picking up some marching Musket-troops and got a line of bayonet-wounds in my hand.) As of the time of writing, no sign of the delivery of the Wars of the Roses Army.

I sent the order on tuesday, thinking 'wednesday if I'm lucky, but count on thursday.' Nothing on Wednesday, so fair enough. Thursday - nothing. Hm. Still, no cause for alarm. There's still friday, and then even if that fails there's saturday morning, so I'll still be able to do something over the weekend. Friday - nothing. Then, damningly, Saturday - nothing! Can Royal Mail really be playing mind-games with me? Does the postman secretly hate me? Is there somebody down at the sorting office with a hankering for late-medieval 6mm figures?

So, the weekend has been spent in something of a wasted-time zone, with me reading up about livery colours and banners to fill the gap. Come on Monday - all my hopes lie with you!