Shiny Napoleonics... Prussian Freiwillinger Jäger

 Greetings...

It has been a little bit longer than normal between posts... I’ve been a little bit busy with work and life...

Yeh!... Once again I’ve had to make lots of toy soldiers... boo hoo my life is so bad 😂.

I have however now cleared the wargames table and set up my photo booth to taken a few pictures of toy soldiers...

I have added a small unit of Freiwillinger Jäger to the 1st West Prussian Infantry Regiment Nr.6.

It seemed rude not to add these to the Regiment...

They have been painted exactly the same as the previous Battalions except...

Instead of blue for the tunics I have used Wargames  Foundry Forest Green 26B.

I am pleased with these and I am positive that although small in number they will perform magnificently...

That is of course... unless I am using them.

The figures are Minifigs Intermediate range with the bayonets removed and shako covers added by me..

And the bases are as always Warbases...

https://warbases.co.uk/

All the best.   Aly

Lion Rampant 3rd Century... First try

 Greetings...

As I have now painted up enough figures for two small forces, I thought that I would have a little solo game to see how they perform...

It’s been a while since I have played Lion Rampant or any of its variants, so this was a nice opportunity to refresh myself of the rules...

I got the Roman and Sassanid stats from the I live With Cats blog...

http://ilivewithcats.blogspot.com/search/label/romans

So each force was six units strong and I played them pretty much as basic stats...

I used playing cards to decide whose move it was to add a little uncertainty... Red cards for Rome and Black cards for the Sassanids.

When a unit failed an activation roll ... Instead of the turn going to the other side... I turned another card over.

This is the initial set up after the first move... no subtle tactics...
More a case of “let’s get in these and see what happens.”

The Sassanids 

The Romans

The Sassanid light cavalry make a move towards the Roman Temple.
Due to... predictable activation roll fails... this is where they stay for a bit.

Sassanid heavies moving forwards slowly.
It does make a nice picture though.

The Romans start a steady advance.

Sassanid skirmishers in the woods.

The Sassanid Levy Infantry... loiter.

The Roman Noble Horse charge the Sassanid Cataphracts.
And bounce off.

Encouraged by this the Cataphracts decide they want to move forward 

The Roman and Sassanid Light Horse skirmish with little effect.

The Roman Infantry look tough.

The Sassanid Levy... loiter...sigh!

Having gotten the worst of the skirmishing.
The Sassanid Light Horse fall back

My Leader eyes up some Romans as a possible target.

The Sassanid Levy decide to have ago at the Roman Auxilia.
What could possibly go wrong?

A Raven’s eye view of the battlefield.

Having managed to charge the Romans...
The Levy decide they may have bitten of more than they could chew.

Sadly no before picture...
But here is the after.
The Sassanid leader has disappeared in a puff of...
Death!

At this point I decided that this was a good point to call a halt to the action.

I thought that the cards work well for the turn sequence, but by the way my dice were rolling the basic Lion Rampant none activation result felt a bit brutal... next time I will lift the Double One/Double Six rule from Pikeman’s Lament and see how that works... I also think that the Cataphracts could be a bit more aggressive/easier to move.

I also need more Light Horse for the Sassanids.

I really enjoyed this it was nice to see the toys on the table... I already feel like painting more up.

I shall set up a new table and have another game...

All the best.   Aly

 

Butterfly Moments... Henry VIII’s Wars.

 Greetings...

I thought that I would start doing the occasional post about my occasional fluttering...

So... Henry VIII’s Wars...

I was looking around for something that would have a similar size and scale as my Lion Rampant Roman project... its been so much fun and has definitely left me with a desire to play games and add more toys.

Now... I have always had a bit of a problem with Pike and Shot armies... I love the various period histories... I love the flags... I love the clothes... and I love the arms and armour... but when I start to paint the toys... I just grind to a halt and my enthusiasm evaporates.

Maybe it’s the long pointy sticks ( It is a thing... the fear of pointy objects... Aichmophobia) or maybe it’s the flashbacks to when I was in the Sealed Knot.

I had been reading about Henry’s 1544 invasion of France and I quite liked the look of the Assault Groups English Tudor range...

https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product-category/renaissance/english-tudor/

Then I looked at the Landsknechts and French... I am afraid these are the kind of troops I like to see other people painting... The wars against Scotland looked a bit more doable...

Alas... No one appears to do any accurate mid 16th century Scots...(That I liked anyway).

I went ahead and bought a few samples with the idea that I might be able to modify some of the English to Scots... the miniatures are indeed very nice but the Bill/Pikemen are a bit to over armoured for what the Scottish troops would have worn at the likes of Pinkie Cleugh...

I decided to go ahead and paint up a couple of English and convert and paint a Scot based on the Uniformed Billman...

Here’s an Archer painted up as a man from Thomas Caverden’s contingent...

And here we have an English Billman in Tudor livery and the converted Scots Pikeman...

They have indeed come our rather well and I did enjoy painting them... but here is the rub... Quilted Jacks and possibly chains sewn onto the arms don’t make for a quick and easy project... I am not sure how many of these I could alter before I started looking at Landsknechts with kinder eyes...

I have decided to leave this one for a while (Hopefully The Assault Group will make some Tudor Scots) and flutter off to pastures new... 

I expect there will be more Butterfly Moments as I’ve been fluttering about quite a bit this month...

All the best...Flutter Flutter.   Aly

From my side of the table... La colline de la mort presque certaine.

 Greetings....

This is an account of a virtual game that Mharaid and I had before Xmas...

The objective of the game... apart from an excuse to use my Brunswickers... was to take control of a hill that dominated a number of roads through the woods.

As usual we used A Song of Drums and Shakos...

The game was played out over a few days and we used FaceTime and email for the game... Coloured counters and name tags also helped Mharaid to see what was happening... as well as being fun.

A black button means your gun is unloaded.

A red button means you are seriously wounded/dead.

A yellow button means running away.

The area around La colline de la mort presque certaine... showing the possible entry points for each side.

The two sides assemble... I have shamelessly used many of my friends names here... mostly because it was funny...

Mharaid (Von Rust) and I (Malchanceux) both went for similar plans...

Moving round either side of the hill in an effort to pin or eliminate the enemy and then make a move on the hill itself...

Von Rust’s men move off in and orderly and organised manner...

My men... not so much...

Von Rust’s men start to move round the base of the hill and even make a move onto the hill.

I also make a move on the hill... with unfortunate and possibly predictable results... sigh!

Fortunately Malchanceux was only knocked over...

The Brunswickers however don’t get it all their own way...

Had they been loaded... this would have been a perfect opportunity for a volley...

Just in case Malchanceux decides to move his command and control centre to a more suitable position.

As Von Rust orders his men to move on the hill Sergeant Baptiste and his men take advantage of some relatively easy targets... sadly Hugo takes one for the team.

This more or less gives an idea of where the game was at this point... the buttons and names start to make sense from this point of view... Mharaid had an overview of the table and could add her own notes etc.  between our sessions.

Here we see David and his friends moving steadily along the road (going for a very slow quiet stroll...possibly with breaks for bread, wine and a nice soft cheese)

The button letting continues as both sides try to gain a foothold on the hill... Malchanceux’s brave men may be getting the upper hand... I can’t imagine that lasting for long... It would be very out of character.

The crazed killer known as Oli reaches the top of the hill...

David... Friends... Stroll...Possibly a nap....sigh!

Another aerial view... The Brunswickers are definitely getting a bit buttoned...

Oli the crazed killer takes out Edgar and Dorian single handed... eeek!... the horror!

David eventually moves off the road to attack the enemy... but... doesn’t get very far... sigh!

Oli bowl’s over Antoine next... He can shoot as well as he can stab... 

Fortunately Louis steps forward and with a single shot solves the problem that was ‘Oli’.

Taking an example from Oli, Johannes charges forward to attack Malchanceux’s headquarters.

Only to be shot down by Xavier and then stabbed by ‘Brave Malchanceux’... Hurrah!.. He says.

Much to my surprise these acts bring the Brunswickers down to below their breaking point and they now have to take moral throws...

Shockingly the men vote to go... Leaving Von Rust and Feldwebel Herman on their own...

After careful consideration they too decide to head to that nice little bar with the pretty girls back in Brussels...

Well would you believe it... a victory...

Tactically speaking we did nothing special and it all came down to hard fighting (and good dice).

When Oli started his slaughter fest I honestly thought Mharaid was going to win the game so it came as a bit of a surprise when it all ended my way... for a change.

It of course still feels weird... I even had to check to see if I was somehow cheating.

It was Indeed a hard fought fight and a very enjoyable game...

All the best.  Aly...

To the best of my knowledge none of my actual friends were knocked over or covered in red buttons during the making of this game... And Oli is a very nice man.