Old School Fantasy Figure Recruits

 May has and will be so busy that I have no chance for any gaming this month. However, the painting goes on and I have added some new recruits to my Old School Fantasy collection. First up, good friend Mister C kindly gave some unpainted 25mm Irregular Miniatures Dwarves on Ponies. Irregular Miniatures have a charm all of their own, seemingly crude perhaps at first glance but full of detail when you actually paint them. 

I have painted up 6 of these fine models making a good unit for both 'Dragon Rampant (DR)' and 'Warlords of Erehwon (WOE)'. Mister C may regret giving me these when we play the next game in our Dark Shadows campaign (using WOE rather than Warhammer). 

Rear view of the dwarves whilst they practise their 'about turn' orders. 

I recently spotted this elf model on ebay (a Ral Partha elf I believe?). The figure looks so close in style to some old Dixon miniature Elves I painted a few months back that I decided to get the model and paint it in the same colours. 

(I have to confess that I am not sure if this elf is male or female?)

Here is the whole unit. Enough for a unit in WOE but I need a few more for a DR unit. 

Note the 'leader' which I created by adding a plastic feather from a more modern plastic sprue of Oathmark Elves.  I am wondering though if the newly added model may make a better leader

Dark Shadows: The Mists Recoil

 Today Chris and I enjoyed our second game in our slow grow 'Dark Shadows' campaign. The first game was a scenario of our own design that was fight for possession of a map teling of the whereabouts of Albion. Today my 'old school' dwarves took to their ships to try and force a landing against Chris's 'old school' undead. 

The original campaign booklet was for Warhammer Fantasy but we have opted to use the 'Warlords of Erehwon' (WoE) rules. We had to convert the points values from Warhammer army lists to WoE ones and try to make sure it was a balanced game. Our discussions resulted in Chris have 200pts of undead plus 3 war machines. I had 750pts of dwarves placed in ships advancing upon Albion's shore. . 

Here the dwarves can be seen advancing in their assorted boats. We had devised a simplified version of the weather chart more balanced to clear weather. I asked Chris to make the throw for weather and of course he threw very low resulting in the table being covered in mist. This completely took out his main advantage in that his artillery could not see the dwarf ships approaching. Also, the dwarf ships had to throw 2xd6 for movement in inches. However, if they threw a double they would make the move but end up stranded on a sandbank. 

The undead cower behind the hedges and wait for the mist to clear. One stone thrower and two bolt throwers plus a unit of arches and an Undead Champion. The cliff was classed as a hill rather than anything tougher for the dwarves to get up onto.

Happily for me all my ships got to land their troops safely. 

Brokkir and his dwarf guard were the first to land. 

Dwarf Ranger, Gunnar Fundinnson and his fellow rangers disembark. 

As the dwarves advance on the hill the mist cleared enough for the undead artillery to open fire but the dwarf rangers and archers returned fire. 

Undead skull crusher with their champion just behind. With a great shot the artillery kill 4 of Ulf's dwarf rangers. 

The dwarves slowly surround the hill and start to target the crew of the war machines and also the undead archers. The stone thrower lost all it's crew and one of the bolt throwers suffer casualties too. The mist rolled back in but we were all just within visual range of each other. The skeleton archers were talso destroyed.

Over on the dwarf right flank, Dwarf Lord Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill with his bodyguard and kill the crew around the second bolt thrower. This led to a prolonged fight with the Undead Champion who proved to be a very tough opponent.

By now there was just the undead champion left but even when a unit of dwarf rangers came to help we found him difficult to kill(destroy?). Sadly, at this point we ran out of time. With the undead champion down to his last wound but  being surrounded by dwarves so Chris graciously conceded the game. 

This was a fun game and certainly did not run as I expected. The mist played a huge part in the game as the undead could not harm the dwarves whilst still in their boats. Once the dwarves landed their superior numbers helped secure the victory. 

Our next encounter will be 'the Fens' scenario with a smaller dwarven force attacking the undead and trying to break through their ranks.  We have also created an 'After game progression' chart. The dwarves got one throw of the dice on the chart resulting in them being able to cause 'confusion' on one enemy unit next game. 

 

28mm Thebes v Macedon.

 For our final ancients battle (using Hail Caesar) for a while it was Ian and his Thebans against me and my Macedonians, 300pts per side in 2 divisions. It was a straight forward encounter battle with the scenery generated using the random chart in the Black Powder Pike and Shotte book. Ian won the dice off to make me deploy first and he also won first turn and took the initiative. 

Theban deployment. 

Macedonian deployment. 

Ian took his Thebans slowly forward. I tried to be more aggressive but my left flank refused their orders and stayed put. 

With my right flank division out on their own Ian Ian and his Thebans charged. 

A whopper of a melee at the start of turn 2. 

Both sides made use of the phalanx rule to help not to have to take a break test but my Companion Cavalry came in on the right flank to help out. 

Over on my left my troops their were still refusing to obey orders. 

Then after 3 rounds of melee some of the Thebans broke, leaving the Sacred Band fighting on their own. 

Totally surrounded now it was finally the death of the Sacred Band. and that whole Theban division defeated or in flight.  

Overhead shot of the game, Ian's remaining Theban Hoplites (top of photo) look a bit out numbered. 

Slowly the Macedonians encircle the Thebans. I had sent in all my skirmishers in the hope of whittling his phalanx's down a little or cause a bit of disorder.  

Ian tried to charge my Companion Cavalry who counter charged but it was cavlary that were destroyed in the ensuing melee. 

In the centre Ian continued his desperate 'attack is the best form of defence'. But his hoplite unit was well beaten here. 

Over on his base line Ian charged my disordered Hypastpists but the dice went my way and it was game over for the Thebans. All now destroyed or withdrawing. Victory and glory to the Macedonians. 

Another cracking game of Hail Caesar, delivers every time. 

New hoplites and another elephant.

 Just finished a couple of things for my Macedonian army. 

First up my third unit of mercenary hoplites. Mainly plastic figures from Warlord Games. All shields hand painted as usual. At some point I will expand the Greeks into their own army. 

Next we have my second elephant. I got both elephants in a bargain box full of old and newer ancients at the Phalanx Wargame show. for just £20.  These are old Hinchliffe elephants but with newer 28mm crew squeezed in. I also glued a shield to each side of the howdah to add more colour. 

Here is a photo of both elephants.

 The rear one had his head replaced with a head from a plastic elephant. 

I need to get them on the gaming table soon. 

Next up is a unit of 'Silver Shields', 32 pikemen will take me some time but the shields should be easy; then another unit of peltasts.    

The Spartans arrive!

 For this week's game we adapted another scenario from the Pyrrhic Wars book to fight it out between my Macedonians and Ian and Charlies Greeks. The scenario is based along the coastline, any troops forced back into the sea that runs alongside one flank will be destroyed as it is a rocky coastline, otherwise, for us it was a typical encounter battle. Charlie bought along his new unit of Spartiates, I could only hope they suffered the fate of all newly painted troops. 

Deployment: Greeks to the left, Macedonians to the right. The coastline is just below the lower photo edge (looks like a river as that is what we used!). We are all very pleased with how good our ancient games are starting to look. More new troops will appear soon. 

Ooo look, some freshly painted Spartans. Charlie had done a great job with these. 

On my 6ft wide table it was an almost wall to wall line of phalanx, broken only by the woods on the Macedonian right. I wasn't quite sure where to point my Companion cavalry so I placed them in the centre hoping to wait for a break in the Greek line. 

Ian's light troops try to dominate the wooded area. over on my right. 

Back on the left, failed orders from Charlie's Greeks gave me an opportunity to charge one end of their broken line so the pike phalanx came crashing in. Charlie's peltasts got squished and destroyed by the Macedonian pike. You can also see my Hypaspists charging the Spartiates.

Over on the left my peltasts had already charged and cleared greek skirmishers from the top right wood. Now my light cavalry rode up in support tying two Greek phalanx's in knots and keeping them busy all game. 

My Hypaspists broke Charlie's Spartiates (he has already removed them); the curse of the newly painted troops strikes again! Charlie's division were now close to breakpoint.

My light cavalry cleared away some Greek skirmishers but then Ian's hoplites got involved so my light cavalry fled. 

At long last, my Companion Cavalry, which I had positioned in the centre patiently waited until the flank of a hoplite unit offered itself. These were the Theban Sacred Band. They all got wiped out to my huge delight. 

Finally my Greek Mercenary Hoplites helped by the Companion Cavalry made a greek sandwich of Ian's last unit in the centre and with Charlie's division now broken Ian withdrew his few remaining troops and victory went to the Macedonians. I often complain about my poor luck on the dice, not today, overall I threw well unlike Charlie whose dice throwing was truly awful in the first half of the game. All troops had managed to avoid being forced into the sea so no-one lost troops that way. 

Another great fun game and it was particularly pleasing for me to see my troops finally do well. 

15mm General D'Armee

 With 5 players today we decided to run a game of General D'Armee as it has been some time since we played. Nigel was hosting and had done quite a bit of work to set up a scenario based on one from an old General d'Brigade scenario book. He mixed the forces up a bit and we ended up with the French against the 'Allies'. Ian and Charlie were the French with Howard and myself as the Allies and Nigel umpiring. 

French on the left, Allies on the right. With the Allies holding 3 of the villages, the French just one, the French had to try and beat the Allies back and claim at least 2 more villages. In number the French had the edge but it was going to be a difficult game with probably over 30 units per side. The game looked great and we set too with relish.  

The view from behind one of the Allied villages. 

The French start their advance. 

Ian and Charlie commanding and moving the French forwards. 

A close up of a village that was soon to see plenty of fighting. 

Nigel is gradually building up a great collection of Napoleonic terrain. 

The Allied cav advance slowly, looking for French skirmishers to chase off. 

Note the unit markers Nigel created to help us know which unit is which. 

The village that the French owned. 

Napoleon watches his troops advance. 

His artillery had already taken out two batteries of Allied artillery. 

Ian and Charlie's dice throwing was amazing with their artillery, ours was dreadful.  

Waiting for the French.

One quick assault and the French were in. That meant both sides held two villages. 

The allies strike back. With four dice each, Ian scored 4 hits for the French and I threw four 1's, no hits. Typical of my luck so far. 

Next turn I re-enforced my assault. I had nine dice and score 1 hit, Ian had four dice and scored 3 hits. It was just not my day. The French hold onto the village. 

Then Charlie advanced the French cavalry. 

One quick charge and another Allied artillery battery had gone although Howards artillery did inflict 6 casualties on the French Lancer unit. 

Some of our cavalry posed to defend our centre. 

At this point we ran out of time with the French definitely gaining the upper hand. It was decided to continue the game next week. Sadly neither Howard or I can make it so Nigl will take command of all the allied forces, surely he must have better luck with the dice than we did!

Thanks to Nigel for organising a great game.