Review of 2021 wargames painting and modelling progress.

 This time last year I posted the chart below, a rather ambitious painting and modelling plan for 2021. How did I do? Quite well I think; progress is noted in the right hand column in italics. For next year I think I need to narrow the range of periods and scales covered. I will do a blog about my 2022 plans soon. 

PROJECT	AIM FOR 2021
28MM Wars of the Roses Never Mind the Billhooks, TTS, Hail Caesar and Impetus	Retinue bowmen for Trollope, Somerset Retinue (both bill and bow) and command stand. Men at Arms both mounted and on foot. 1x artillery Build at least one more house/more scenery. All painted plus a couple more units and a couple of scratch built houses.
15mm Ancients Impetus, TTS, Sword and Spear	1x Mercenary Hoplites, 2x Spartan Hoplites, 1x Peltasts, 1x Thracian Hoplites. 2x Sparabara, 1x Scythed Chariot, 2x Assyrian levy Add more buildings. All painted plus a few extra units and all buildings completed.
28mm Fantasy Oathmark, FFoL, Dragon Rampant	4x goblin wolf riders, 10x dwarf Heavy Infantry, 10x dwarf Spearmen, start on the elves? Paint small groups of fantasy for skirmish. Make/paint more buildings/scenery. Didn't really touch the Oathmark figures, did make a 28mm A frame dwarf house.
10mm Romans and Britons Impetus, TTS, Sword and Spear	1x veteran legion, 1x auxiliary Infantry, 1x auxiliary cavalry 2x warband All painted plus a few extra units added.
15mm WW2 Normandy Rapid Fire, Battlegroup, Iron Cross	Paint more British infantry and vehicles. Add more scenery Added several vehicles/AT guns to both sides plus more buildings and infantry.
28mm Western Fistful of Lead, Rules with no Name	Add more buildings/scenery Added 1x cowboy plus a jailhouse.
28mm Arthurian and Dark Ages TTS, Impetus, Fantastic Battles, Lion Rampant, Saga and Hail Caesar.	At least 2 bases of Saxon warband, 2 bases of Pictish warband, Pictish cavalry plus various command stands. Norman Spearmen, more Anglo-Danes and Vikings. Added a Viking command base plus a few extra vikings.
10mm Fantasy Fantastic Battles, War of the Ring	2x companies of High Elf Cavalry and 2x High Elf spearmen. Need to buy and paint more Barbarian Fanatics and Bison Riders. Completed both the Elf and the Barbarian armies, also painted a full 15mm Ice Elf Army, decided on Fantastic battles as the rules to play.
28mm Sci-Fi FFoL	Human and Alien troops and scenery to suit. Painted a whole batch of 20mm Star Wars figures and made 6 buildings. Also painted two gangs of 28mm sci fi troopers.
15mm Crusades Soldiers of God, Lion Rampant	Crusader spearmen and knights, lots of Saracens. Make/paint more scenery/buildings. Didn't really touch this project this year, shame really.
15mm Biblical Impetus, TTS and Sword and Spear	15mm Hittites purchased and ready to paint (a project for later in the year). So, just for fun, ignored the 15mm Hittites and bought a 6mm Hittite army instead, now all painted.
*	15mm Napoleonic's (2 units), 15mm Vikings (4 units)

I have really enjoyed my gaming this year as once we were out of lockdown, having moved house back down to the Settle area I was able to get in touch with some of my old mates and re-start gaming with them. We, as a small group of gamers have enjoyed Blackpowder Pike and Shotte (6mm), General D'Armee (15mm), Never Mind the Billhooks (28mm), Fantastic Battles (10mm and 15mm),Hail Caesar (10mm and 15mm) and Polemos (6mm) and a few other games as well. All were great fun and we have many games to look forward too in 2022. 

A few examples of stuff painted this year. 

Star Wars in 20mm

15mm Delvians/Ice Elves

28mm Wars of the Roses/Never Mind the Billhooks.

28mm Viking Chieftain. 

15mm Armies Progress

 15mm seems to be my favoured scale at the moment and i have recently added to both my Ice Elf and Viking armies. The core of the Ice Elves are the Battle Valour miniatures I won through Nick at Fantastic Battles and Jeffery Gattlin at Shieldwolf Games in America. To them I have added figures from Copplestone, Alternative Armies and Demonworld. All for use with the 'Fantastic Battles' rules of course. 

The 15mm Vikings are the start of what I hope will be a large collection of Dark Age armies. I know we are supposed to call this era 'Early Medieval' now but they will always be the 'Dark Ages' to me.  Whilst aimed mainly at historical games it has been very easy to add a few fantasy companies and characters so I can also use them in Fantastic Battles.

I am currently painting some WW2 German troops (for Rapid Fire) and guess what? they are in 15mm too!

 

 

15mm General D'Armee

 Today Howard very kindly hosted a 15mm game of General D'Armee. The scenario was designed deliberately small with just two brigades a-side in the hope that we might actually finish the game. A quick dice throw decided that Ian took charge of the British and Phil took control of their allies, (Howard's newly painted Nassau troops-and very nice they are too). That left Howard and myself in charge of the French in a simple encounter battle with just a few pieces of terrain scattered about the table and Phil's Nassau deployed behind a river. 

Whilst Ian and Phil went off to decide their tactics Howard and I quickly decided that I would try to advance rapidly in the hope that I could either stop or delay the Nassau from crossing the river, leaving Howard to deal with the British on our right flank. 

The first two turns went well for the French, winning the initiative we were able to advance quickly and our support shooting was quite effective too. From turn 3 onwards the British and their allies won the initiative for about the next 6 or 7 turns. Their defensive fire was very effective whilst our luck with the dice seemed to desert us. 

Not sure why this photo came out so dark? But it shows the extreme right of the British line. 

Late in the game with the two side vying for position. 

The British and Nassau firing was starting to wear the French units down. On the left flank Howard and Ian attempted a few charges but most units were held back by more good firing. 

With French morale crumbling the Nassau finally started to advance. 

Another poor dice throw (this time on the 'Faltering' Table) and my Brigade had to withdraw and with Howard in trouble on the other flank the game was awarded to the British and the Nassau. 

This was our last game before Christmas but it was a most enjoyable afternoon helped along with tea and mince pies (thanks Howard). We perhaps need to play a few games of General D'Armee in quick succession to imprint the rules on our brains a bit better but we all really like the feel of these rules and all agree that they give a great Napoleonic game.   

 

 

A Fistful of Lead Reloaded

 Yeeee Ha!, we SaD lads rode out west today for a 3 player game of the Western themed 'A Fistful of Lead-Reloaded'. This is a skirmish game where each player has a 'gang' of 5 or 6 figures and these can be developed at the end of a game if you use their simple campaign rules. The rules are quick and easy to learn with a special themed pack of cards helping decide the order in which figures move and shoot to give a really fast moving game where everyone is involved at all times. 

We ran a three player game having adapted one of the scenario's out of the book we went in search of some buried loot.  We placed 5 tokens spread around the table which represented the buried treasure (which took 2 actions to dig up). Fate decided that Phil took a cowboy gang, Ian was the US Cavalry and I was a Sioux Indian gang. 

Ian was quick to move in search of loot but it was Phil who was able to grab the first two tokens whilst Ian and I got involved in a firefight which his better armed cavalry won. I managed to grab one lot of loot whilst Ian with some shifty manoeuvring grabbed the remaining 2 tokens. Ian's gang leader was particularly deadly both in melee and in shooting.

After a vicious few turns of a shootout Phil wisely decided to withdraw his cowboys from the table taking his loot with him whilst Ian really went for the kill on my Indians. I finished the game with just two (out of 6) figures still alive, Ian had no figures killed and Phil had lost just a couple. At the end of the game a quick dice throw decides the fate of your wounded or 'killed' figures. Two of my figures did indeed die whilst two of them have to miss the next game. 

The loot converts into 'Renown' points which you can use to build your gang back up, add extra weapons and traits. Having scored 4 points of renown my points were spent on building my gang back up to near normal numbers. Ian and Phil were able to boost their gangs with an extra figure, more rifles and new traits. 

This is a great little game and we are all looking forward to a second game where our gangs are going to hit a nearby town in search of an escaped outlaw.   

Fantastic Battle: The Myrin Tree

 I was really looking forward to Chris visiting today as we haven't had chance of a game for some time now. The scenario for todays game of Fantastic battles with Chris was as follows...(with myself being the Elves and Chris his LOTR themed Orcs: 800 points per side). 

The Myrin Tree

Once every thousand years, during the winter festive season a mysterious large tree, known as the Myrin Tree appears somewhere in the Elvish border lands. No-one is ever sure where the Myrin Tree will appear but it only ever appears for a single day. It is due to appear this winter so large elf patrols are scouring the Border Lands to seek the tree and collect the bright red fruit it bears. This fruit is highly valued for it's healing properties and it takes a unit 2 turns stationary next to the tree to collect it's fruit.

Having heard that the Myrin Tree may have appeared a force of Orcs is also searching the Border Lands for it. Legend tells that if the Myrin Tree ever falls a foul evil will be released upon the land. By chance, an elf force finds the tree just as the orcs also locate it.

Place a large wintery conifer tree in the centre of the table and the two forces will deploy either side of the Myrin Tree, 5BW away from it (per the usual deployment rules).

If the orcs wish to attack and destroy the Myrin Tree they must attack it using the following stats: Res: 8, Def: 5+. Once it's Resolution has been reduced to 0 it will fall causing damage in the same way as a falling Giant (page 12) but effecting units within 3BW. It will also cause a 'Ripple Effect' of Resolve loss in all elf units within 3BW of the tree's stump, with all elf units inside 3BW losing 1 point of Resolve. . 

The elves must try to prevent this from happening and also collect the red fruit. The orcs may also try to collect the red fruit once they have 'captured' or felled the tree.

If the Myrin Tree is felled a great evil will blight the land...(cue a possible second scenario!)

This was Chris's first game of Fantastic Battles and I was really hoping he was going to enjoy the game as we are both collecting some 10mm Lord of the Rings themed armies. The scenario was inspired by a sparkly Christmas tree model that my daughter has bought recently and was next to the table as I set the game up.

Here is the table after the armies have deployed but before mishaps. 

My elf army is deployed along the bottom of the photo, Chris's orcs across the top. 

The Myrin Tree is the large central snowy tree.

You can see a bit of movement caused by 'Mishaps'.

The orcs were perhaps more effected by 'Mishaps' than the elves but nothing too drastic. My elf scouts which had rushed forward foolishly entered the woods to my left only to be charged and devoured by an evil pack of wolves. (I hadn't realised the wolves also had the 'forester' trait). 

You can see my elf scouts fleeing the wolves, first two companies lost. 

As early as turn 2 disaster struck as the evil trolls charged the Mryin Tree and felled it in one go, squashing some of my elf spearmen as it fell. I must make a note to watch more carefully what my opponent's elite nasty trolls with heavy weapons are doing.!

So, objective achieved for the orcs but the valiant elves battled on, determined to clear the orcs from the Border Lands. 

And so we had a right good scrap with unit after unit piling in to the enemy and a fair few spells began to fly. The Blink spell was very useful to blink my elf knights into position for a charge the next turn and also good at pulling the heavily wounded spearman back a few BW. It didn't help that my spearmen had been cursed by the orcs resulting in a -3 modifier per company in combat!  

My elf knights charged bravely into the trolls but lose and are scattered.

My brave and noble treeman got chopped to pieces by the wolves supported by hordes of nasty orcs. As luck would have it, both forces were reduced to over half their units destroyed so both withdrew at the end of turn 4. That was a short but bloody battle and as the Myrin Tree was felled a great evil is about to plague the land!. 

We really had fun playing this game and we also learnt a bit more about the rules and how they play. We also tried a variety of combination of 'Traits' some worked, some were not so good but all can be tweaked before the next game. 

I have also finished my third unit of 15mm Vikings, some Huscarl's, see photo's below. These brave chaps will be used in games of Fantastic Battles and also historical games such as Hail Caesar.  

Finally once we had completed our battle we got out our town buildings that we have been making (28mm scale) and set them out on the table to see how they looked, It was great to see them as on village although we do need to add a few bits of random scatter such as walls, fields,  wagons, crates etc.. and a few villagers to add 'life' but we do feel we are getting there. This will be used in a variety of skirmish games both fantasy and historical. 

More Polemos Napoleonics in 6mm

 Today's game was hosted by Phil and we gave the Polemos Napoleonic 6mm rules another try. A thorough re-read had indicated that there is a good rule system there waiting to be played and now with a greater understanding of the authors intent. We were using Phil's Austrian and French armies with Ian and Howard controlling the French and Phil and myself in charge of the Austrians. 

Although the first turn or two were a little slow as we still needed to look a few things up, turns 3-5 went much more quickly despite involving the extra complication of shooting and melee. In the photo below you can see the Austrians advance.

In the photo below my Austrian Cuirassiers are having a well earned rest having chased some of the opposing French cavalry off the board and the rest of the French cavalry Brigade broke and went with them. The left flank was ours! 

A photo of the Austrian infantry advancing in the centre with some French about to enter the woods against Phil's Austrian units also going into the wood. Phil was also make good progress on our right flank holding off the massed ranks of French infantry.

With time getting on and our cavalry breaking through on the left flank and threatening the whole French line the game was awarded to the Austrians. Another read through of the rules before we next play and I reckon we will have this game cracked. Another fun afternoon of wargaming.  

My 28mm Dwarf building for the SITC challenge is nearing completion. The three photo's below show how I have ringed the house with boulders made from xps then covered in my usual pva/filler mix to texture them. In the first photo everything has been painted in it's base colours and has just had an artists acrylic burnt umber wash prior to highlighting. The bottom two pictures are when the main highlighting has been done. I just need to texture the base now and then it will be complete. The question is do I create another dwarven building to create a sort of 'dwarven corner' to my medieval settlement? 

IRON CROSS in 15mm

 Today we started to experiment with WW2 rules to decide which ones will suit us best. We have Rapid Fire, Bolt Action, Battlegroup and for today's game Iron Cross. We may even try Flames of War at some point. At aprox 460 points a side this is a small game with a simple aim of capturing the cross roads in the small town mid table. Dice decided that Phil and I took the role of the British against Ian as the Germans, somewhere in Normandy.

The rules were a little confusing to begin with as there seems to be no rules covering indirect fire (unless we missed them), no Forward Observation officers. Bit by bit the game speeded up as we got used to the implied simplification and started to understand the abstracted bits.

Here is the table set up for turn 1. 

First major 'kill' of the game, my Sherman destroys Ian PzIV

But it was Phil who proved to be on deadly form destroying two PzIV's, a Puma armoured car, a Pak38, a SDKFZ 251 half track and a Stug 111. 

The orange explosion markers denote some of Phil's kills. The nearest PzIV took Ian's force over their breakpoint giving the British victory. 

Man of the Match was Phil's 25pdr which did much of the damage with some very impressive dice throwing. 

(We used green markers to denote British activations, blue for the Germans). 

Overall we enjoyed our game and are quite pleased with the rules. When we return to WW2 we will give Rapid Fire a go and see how we feel about them. The Iron Cross rules are intentionally quite simple in their approach to WW2 gaming; we felt that we may need a little more depth, but certainly no more complexity. 

Finally, my 28mm dwarf building is coming along quite nicely... 

Here the flannel/towelling has been added to the roof to hopefully create a thatched effect.

I also added a dragon head design from the bits box to the roof to help create a Norse Dwarf feel. 

Brown undercoat applied all over.  

Here the house has been painted in it's base colours, ready for a wash then dry-brushing. You can also see me starting to play with idea's for the base. I am not too sure about my thatching just yet? Doesn't seem rough enough? 

On the Vikings TV series when Bjorn Iron-side dies he is buried in a tomb surrounded by a ring of stones. I have made a couple of stones from xps to see how it looks. The idea being to place stones of roughly this size all around the house, maybe even paint runes on some of them. I will also add a spare barrel, sack of flour and wheel etc... as extra detail.