Wars of the Roses...the final straight.

Back at the beginning of the year, after a rather epic all day re-fight of 1st Newbury (details HERE) we'd discussed what the next large scale project should be and quickly settled on the Wars of the Roses.  This seemed ideal for a multiplayer game as each player could put together a few (or many) units based around a particular Noble.

Fast forward 7 months and I've just about finished my retinue.  I say 'finished' but of course there's always the temptation to add 'just one more' unit!  The figure tally now stands at over 240 figures which, while it might be small compared with some of my fellow gamers, is a huge amount for me.  It's been a long time since I've rattled so quickly through a project like this... I guess there is a small benefit to Lockdown and Furlough!

The retinue mostly comprises infantry figures with a couple of units of horse: we decided early on to work in multiples of 6 which makes it easy to use these for either Lion Rampant with 12 man units or Hail Caesar with 18s

So the final unit (for now) has been completed...a unit of Lord Clifford's mounted Men at Arms and some mounted commanders

I've also spent some time prepping a lot of movement trays which is strangely therapeutic...

The exciting news is that the Percy/Clifford Northern Powerhouse gets it's first proper outing this evening so hopefully lots more photos of their stunning victory to follow...

The Little Wars Revisited 54mm Day in Woking

So yesterday saw the first Little Wars Revisited 54mm wargaming day, organised by Mike Lewis of Black Hat Miniatures. via the Little Wars Revisited forum.

As it was the first gathering numbers were a little low (including a couple of people who we'd expected but who didn't make it) but hopefully this will grow into something a bit bigger.  The idea of the day was to hold a number of games, and crucially, to make sure everyone's game got played: there's nothing worse than going to lots of effort to lay on a game only to find everyone is busy at the next table!

The venue was Christchurch in central Woking... a great venue with a really pleasant room at the top of the building and an excellent café.  The only downside for me was the extortionate parking charges in the car park down the road!

 There were 5 games staged in total:

 Mike put on his version of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame.  Mike has designed this to complement his range of 54mm soldiers and it looks great...

More about the day on Mike's blog... http://mikelewis.info/littlewars

 There was a very impressive Napoleonic game staged by Eric Kemp which featured a model of La Haye Sainte featuring 10 000 individual roof tiles!!  Eric also fielded a huge number of individually based figures...

 Here's a link to Eric's blog with more info... mywaterloologaddress.blogspot.co.uk/

Brian Carrick put on a lovely looking Lion Rampant game featuring medieval armies slugging it out...

 ...and a link to Brian's blog... http://toysoldiercollecting.blogspot.co.uk

Anthony Morton put on a lovely looking ECW game which I played in the afternoon.  We used The Pikeman's Lament rules which I don't think I've played before...it was only when I got home that I realised I do actually have a copy on the bookshelf!

This was very much a game of 2 halves for me... on the right flank I successfully drove off the Parliamentarian commander and his cavalry unit and weakened the rest of his horse but sadly my infantry were shot to pieces by some well-coordinated enemy musketeers who proved very effective.

The Royalist cavalry enjoy their moment of victory, unaware that the rest of the army has run away!

 My pikemen march to their doom...

 These are 28mm scaled buildings but they work really well with 54mm figures...

Lastly my game was a North West Frontier skirmish using The Sword and the Flame rules.  It gave me a chance to finally field the figures I've been working on, with some help from Mike and Anthony lending some extra figures and Mike's terrain.  Brian was the victim...erm...willing volunteer to try the game out and as I've only played TSATF once before he was subjected to quite a bit of page flicking while I checked out particular rules.  Luckily TSATF is a pretty intuitive ruleset once you get going.

The scenario had a force of British troops attempting to relieve a unit holed up in a building at the other end of the table.  As expected the intervening ground was hoaching with hidden, angry Pathans waiting for a chance to drive off the infidel.

The Indian Cavalry advance...

It didn't take long to flush out some of the ambushers...

The British bravely charge the Pathans...

While a sneakily hidden gun surprises them...

...and after a very bloody fight one British soldier single-handedly wiped out half the Pathan unit and won the combat.  A VC for that chap I think!

 The Indian and Afghan cavalry clashed several times before the Pathans eventually gained the upper hand...

Unfortunately they then got a bit overconfident and attempted to ride down the British Artillery.  This was the result...

 The defenders of the outpost eventually sallied out to meet their rescuers and although the Afghans were able to capture the building the defenders were able to cut their way to freedom...

I'm still in 2 minds about TSATF...it's a nice simple system and quick to pick up (although I suspect I made a few errors) but it feels a bit dated and unsophisticated.  I think my choice for this kind of game would be The Men Who Would be Kings, which coincidentally (or not) Anthony and I will be playing in a couple of weeks.

So all in all a really great day and a brilliant chance to see some excellent examples of 54mm wargaming (and mine...) and to meet some really nice folk and make new friends.  Here's to the next one!

Quetzalcoatl Rampant

A couple of months ago I finished rebasing and touching up my 1/72 scale Aztecs and Conquistadors but hasn't actually played a game with them.  If come across the Lion Rampant variant "Quetzalcoatl Rampant" which can be found on the excellent I Live With Cats blog (Link) and decided these looked perfect for a test game.

I hadn't played Lion Rampant for ages but luckily Eric the Shed had arranged a Crusades themed game the week before and my son and I took part, fielding the Crusader forces.  There's a report here on Eric's blog.  Let's just say it didn't go well with the Crusaders failing practically every morale roll we made (and admittedly a flawed plan which the Saracens exploited fully).  At least it meant that for the Aztec game I was fully up to date and familiar with the rules.  Quetzalcoatl Rampant has a few variations.  The Conquistadors have half strength units to reflect their low numbers but are significantly more powerful with better strength and defence and of course they have the benefit of  horses and black powder weapons which can have a devastating effect on the Aztecs.  The natives considerably outnumber the Spanish and have the option to capture rather than kill which also saps morale (presumably as the captives still-beating hearts are plucked out etc) although no one did this in our game.

We allocated sides randomly and my opponent, Anthony, took the Aztecs.  We played a scenario where the Aztecs had to defend a sacred pyramid in the centre of the table with part of their force and hope remainder of their warriors arrived in time to repel the plundering Spanish.  This was a  large Lion Rampant game with 35 points per side.  I find the activation rules for Lion rampant a bit disjointed...normally if a unit fails it's command roll then the whole side stops.  At the games at Eric the Sheds the house rule is that even if an individual unit fails we continue for each one in a side.  As a compromise I stuck with the normal LR rule but each of us had 2 commands...the Aztecs had the defenders and the relief force and the Spanish had the Conquistadors and some Tlaxcalan allies.

Initially things looked pretty difficult for the Aztecs.  The Spanish steamed forward although their allies proved a lot less enthusiastic.  The pyramid was defended by the elite Aztec Eagle and Jaguar knights but the relief force was also reluctant to hurry to their rescue.

The Spanish chased off some Aztec skirmishers with a  pack of War Dogs but these in turn took heavy casualties as the key did so and being only 6 strong instead of the usual 12 this meant they couldn't take much punishment.

The Tlaxcalans fielded a unit of archers who proved pretty effective in weakening the Eagle Knights before being driven off the table as the Knights charged forward uncontrollably.  They eventually came to grief themselves when the Spanish cavalry hit them.  By this point the Aztecs relief force was beginning to but crucially most of Anthony's skirmish troops had lagged behind.  Missile troops always seem powerful in LR and these may have made an impact if they'd got there in time.  As it was the Spanish horse and Swordsmen  were able to punch through the centre and seize the Pyramid, winning the game.  What I hadn't realised (but Anthony had) was that I was only a unit away from my army morale breaking so the result was a very close run thing indeed.

The rule variants worked really well and although I'd initially been worried that the Spanish were overpowered the game was well balanced in the end.  Many thanks to the I Live with Cats blog for a great adaptation.

The Spanish arrive

Aztec skirmishers

Woof!!..the Spanish War Dogs

Aztec Knights defend the temple

Aztec reinforcements arrive slowly

Ouch!...and Lion Rampant

I haven't done a great deal of painting lately but had been building up the enthusiasm to pick up on a few dormant projects...especially the Wars of the Roses/Lion Rampant one.  I had a brilliant first game of LR at Eric's Shed on Monday which was a really enjoyable and very close Crusader game.  There is an excellent write up at the Shed Wars blog here. and on my other opponent Legatus' blog here.

I got the rules at Xmas but apart from a quick read through then, haven't really studied them but I found the mechanics really easy to grasp and they make for a quick, fun game which has lots of potential for other periods as well.  Units come in predetermined sizes and roll either 12 dice to hit, or 6 once they reach half strength.  Units also have an armour value which determines how received hits affect them.  As the casualties mount units can become 'battered' and less effective before finally running away.

Each unit needs to roll a determined score to move, attack or shoot...normally a unit failing a roll would mean that play passes to the other side but a house rule at the Shed meant that the active side retained the turn and only that unit couldn't activate.  This seemed to speed things up and make it less 'bitty'.


Eric's write up will give you a feel for the scenario and photos of the fantastic terrain and figures...the game swung either way and really did come down to the wire at the end...great fun!

The 'Ouch' in the title refers the reason I won't be painting for a while.  One of my dogs got in a bundle with another dog a couple of days ago and I made the mistake of instinctively trying to grab his collar... unfortunately the 2 dogs moved their heads and I discovered they both had 'nasty big pointy teeth' just like the Rabbit of Caerbannog!  The end result was 2 nights in hospital as I had a chipped bone and damaged tendon in my thumb and a trip to the vets for my dog...the other dog was unhurt.  To be honest lying in a hospital bed with someone opposite me with their leg in a cage and someone in the bed next to me who had nearly sliced his hand off with a circular saw, I did feel a bit of a wuss!  Even the producers of '24 Hours in A&E' who were filming in the hospital weren't interested in talking to me...

 

I'm going to have the thumb in a splint for 4-6 weeks so definitely no painting for a while.