The Build Off Challenge completed...almost

 The Build Off Challenge between Chris/MisterC, Merjin and myself is not too serious; rather it is a gentle prod to us all to get some more quality scenery made. For me, 28mm buildings of the medieval style will be useful not only for my Medieval gaming but also many fantasy battle, skirmish and rpg games. Happily for me I have completed my latest building, a two storey bakery.

With the building complete I could not resist setting up a village scene with more of my buildings and other bits of scratch built scenery such as my rivers, roads, hedges etc...I also placed a few of my Lancastrian Wars of the Roses figures from my 'Never Mind the Billhooks' force to help bring the scene to life.

I do seem to have go ahead of my fellow builders. Here is where Chris is up to ( he is creating a far more ambitious build than mine it should be noted but looks great so far). 

Merjin has already completed all of the buildings from the Warhammer Townscape plans apart from one so it makes sense that he is creating that last building, a tower which he has decided to make into a ruin. Excellent progress so far. 

I shall do another blog once the other two have completed their builds as well. 

 

 

Build Off update part 2.

 A quick update on the progress made with my build from the Warhammer Townscape series of buildings. The basic shape of the two storey house is now made and the various pieces I ordered from ebay to help 'decorate' the base are here. The house was created from foamboard, cardboard and the windows from modelling mesh.  

You may be able to tell that the ebay bits n bobs were actually a small bakehouse oven and a couple of tables with dough and loaves on. They turned out a bit different than I imagined and didn't really fit my initial idea of an open fronted shed with the oven in. So it will be an outside bakery with the oven painted in the same colors as the house to tie the two together. 

These will be painted separately and then glued to the base. This will hopefully create a house with outside bakery. 

Time to slap some paint on the house first...note the fencing that will connect the house to the bakery oven. 

  

A Day of 'To the Strongest'.

 It was good to get back up to Scruton today to meet up with all my friends at the Old Guard Wargames Club. John, Pete, Stig and myself had decided to have a 4 way mini 'To the Strongest' tournament where we all played each other once. This would also give Pete good practise for the 'World Championships' for TTS in a few weeks. 

We ran an open ended series of games with no fixed historical era so we had a few peculiar matchups. John was using a Frank army, Pete his Persians, Stig was Late Roman whilst I used my recently completed Wars of the Roses Lancastrians.

 In the first battles John and I had a close game but his Franks grabbed the victory and on the other table Pete Persians defeated Stig's Late Romans.

Franks take on the Lancastrians. 

In the second round of games The Lancastrians gave Pete's Persians a sound thrashing whilst Stig grabbed a victory against John's Franks

The Franks take on Late Romans.

Some of Pete's Persians

In the third round of games My Lancastrians took on Stig's Late Romans and after a close start to the game Stig graciously conceded the game as my Lancastrians seemed to be edging towards victory. Weirdly, on the other table Pete soundly thrashed John's Franks, our second resounding win of the day: I don't recall any of us ever having wins where the other side did not score any victory points, then today we had two! 

Lancastrian Knights rampage through the Late Roman camp-a very nice scratch built model by Stig.  

On the third table, Martin, Chris and Ian played a 3-way large game of Dragon Rampant, won by Ian I think? 

All in all, a very enjoyable day of gaming. 

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Spartans defeat Persians, 15mm Hail Caesar

 We had a fantastic game of Hail Caesar today with fortunes swinging one way then the other.  Using my collection of 15mm figures the dice decided that Ian and Phil would command the Persians with myself taking command of one of my favourite armies, the Spartans. We had about 340 points per side to battle it out over fairly open terrain across the centre of the table. 

Deployment was as in the photo below...Persians on the left, Spartans on the right. 

With most of the Persians having some form of missile weapon and my Spartans very few missile units my only aim was to get across the table as quickly as possible. The Persians on my left wing were also looking a little weak, compared to over on my right where they had put all their cavalry-this had me worried but I aimed my first attack at their weak side. At this early point in the game I had mostly good command rolls allowing me my rapid advance whereas the poor Persians were failing command throws across the board, especially with their cavalry who seemed to tie themselves in knots. 

My left division crashed into the Persian levy infantry and Mercenary Hoplites and crushed them in melee (thanks again to some awful dice throws in the Persians Break tests). Meanwhile on the right flank the Persian Guard Cavalry were dancing around causing me all sorts of problems  but the other cavalry units in their division at the back right side of the photo below could not pass a Command throw. At this point I thought the game was definitely going my way as my phalanx's crashed into even more Persian units and broke them.  

Suddenly my right flank was in trouble suffering lots of missile fire and those darned Guard Cavalry charging a phalanx in the flank. Every time I rallied damage off my phalanx units the Persians put it back on again but then fate played a cruel part in the outcome of the battle. Just as I was trying to get into a position to deal with the Guard Cavalry, the Persian Command blundered causing their other cavalry to withdraw from the table. With 3 out of 4 division now broken the Persians withdrew leaving the Spartans battered but victorious. The final photo shows the remaining Spartans and the damage they had suffered. 

We all agreed that this was a fantastic battle and that the Persian Guard cavalry win the 'Men of the Match' award!

  

The Battle of Keasdon Lane...28mm Never Mind the Billhooks

 Friday night saw me introduce a new player, Nigel to the delights of Never Mind the Billhooks. He already has the rules, cards and tokens and now I reckon it will not be too long before some boxes of Perry plastics will be arriving at his house. 

The set up was a simple encounter battle, continuing the theme of using local place names I present the battle of Keasdon Lane (I had cycled up the Keasdon Road earlier in the week so used that name). The main aim was for Nigel to learn the rules so I chose two 97 point armies with slight differences in the troop types and we just face off against each other playing across Keasdon Lane. We were playing in my dining room which is a bit dark so the photo's are not too good. The disposition of my troops is in the photo below. 

A cautious manoeuvre phase was ended when my artillery opened fire on the far left and actually killed something. On the right we both sent our skirmish troops through the rough ground, mine lining the woods and Nigel's taking cover behind the fields fence. Those two units then remained there all game  sniping at each other with little effect. See photo below...

In the centre I grouped my archers close together to maximise my archery against the slowly advancing Yorkists whilst taking great care to steer clear of Nigel's dismounted Men at Arms.

In this photo you can see my light cavalry setting off to charge down the Yorkist gun before then being chased away themselves by the Men at Arms.  Back in the centre I was getting the better of the archery exchange but with both sides running short on arrows and several units in quite a sorry state. As we jostled for position it seemed that the Lancastrians had the upper hand and with time getting on we called the end to a really fun game. 

I really like this rules system, the games flow quickly and most of the rules are intuitive. I know Nigel enjoyed the game as well and I look forward to more games against him. 

The only thing we have changed is we don't like the idea of rock, paper scissors to decide duels between leaders so we now use dice. Each Leader in the duel throws a number of D6 equal to their value, so a Hero gets 3 dice and Dolt only 1. The highest single dice thrown is the winning score and causes a wound on the opponent. If it is a draw, then no wounds caused. I would be interested to hear what other players think of this?

 

The Battle of Charleroi, 15mm General D'Armee.

 This weeks game, 'Charleroi, the Battle of Gilly' was taken from the '100 Days' scenario booklet for General D'Armee. Howard and Phil cobbled together the forces needed from their collections although a few units had to be drafted in to play in disguise as others. The basic scenario is that the Prussians had to play a delaying action whilst the numerically superior French had to try advance and demoralise the Prussians. Ian and Phil took on the role of the Prussians who had to deploy first and then were allowed to place two areas of (impassable) marsh which they did so next to each other on the left flank. Howard and I commanded the French and we placed a ford across the river on our right to hopefully allow Howard's cavalry to do a rapid advance. 

The top photo shows the Prussian deployment, note the two areas of marsh towards the bottom left. The photo below depicts the French positions and also shows the central Built-up Area (BUA), something we had not really used in our two previous games. 

So with Howard on our left under orders to do a rapid advance and myself a more measured advance the game began with some awful dice throwing from Howard. for the first 4 turns his cavalry failed their Command throws (even with the help of an extra ADC each turn). By this time my troops had captured the BUA (quite fast rules to play through that) and were advancing across the stream well in advance of Howards troops. Ian and Phil largely either did not move too much or slowly withdrew in the face of our advance. Then happily for the Prussians they probed forward in the middle and were able to push my French Battalion back out of the BUA. 

This photo shows Ian trying to redirect the Prussian cavalry to help the Prussian left. 

Here we can see the French infantry under Corsin and Berthezene advancing over the river slowly pushing the Prussians back. 

My skirmishers were able to get around the side of the marshy area and cause all sorts of problems for the Prussians. 

Here you can see the strength in numbers of the French Infantry pushing back the Prussians. We only got to play 6 turns out of the planned 10. Howard had finally managed to get his cavlary moving but Ian had battered Howards Infantry causing them to Falter. Happily My French Infantry had caused Phil's Prussians to Falter also. We called it a game here but with a quick look at how the battle seemed to be going the French perhaps edged a close fought victory?   

The last action of the game saw Howard give his useless cavalry a well deserved two fingered salute!

We are really enjoying these rules even if we don't get through the turns fast enough (too much chatting, tea drinking and eating of cake!). I think we have all agreed they are probably the best rules we have played for Napoleonic warfare and are looking forward to many more battles. 

I have made some progress on my small force of British, Kempt's Brigade. Here we have the 28th with Kempt himself and his ADC plus a couple of skirmish bases. As you can see we are going for big units, 48 figures to a standard Battalion. 

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A Build Off Update

 So far so good, basic shape assembled. Note the upper door as it has sparked some imaginative ideas. 

This time I glued the paper template directly onto the foamboard and modelled windows and doors where indicated. The mesh in the windows is something I have had for years but is ideal for old fashioned windows. The wooden beams are all coffee stirrers as usual and I have changed the placement to suit my own design ideas. The upper door now has a small balcony on which Merjin reckons there should be a wizard or necromancer stood casting his spells. I thought less colourfully that it suits some sort of industrial building, a blacksmith, a butcher, a baker or even a candlestick maker? I have actually decided but will keep you all guessing for now. 

The next photo shows the building with a few bits of added detail and on it's base...but not glued down just yet. The base is 15cm square and I have rounded the corners and edges. 

Just the roof tiles to go on this part of the build, and the texture on the walls. Hopefully the base is wide enough to now add a small workshop to the side. Ebay has been very useful here and I now await some useful bits and pieces to help create the right .'atmosphere' in the workshop. I also can't really build the workshop until I have those various bits and pieces so I can scale the workshop appropriately. 

With Ian (Humans) and Phil (Orcs) now creating 15mm fantasy armies for use with the 'Fantastic Battles' rules I thought I would add some BANG! to my Ice Drow army. I also have some mounted crossbow skirmishers ready to paint now too. The cannon and figures below are from Demonworld.

I have also finished my first battalion of 15mm Napoleonic British for the Hundred Days campaign. We have been using the rather excellent 'General D'Armee' rules with Howard's wonderful Battle Honours and AB figures and also Phil's Prussians from Old Glory. Phil also has a large number of 15mm French he is up ready for play. I could not resist joining in and so ordered lots of British figures from Essex Miniatures. I went with Essex as they have a very complete range, decent price and are lovely chunky little figures that should hopefully suffer little battle damage? This is the 28th from Kempt's Brigade with Kempt himself and his ADC. 

Plenty more to come. 

  

A Great International Build Off

 I really enjoyed mine and Chris's (Mister C) 'Great British Build Off' last year which resulted in us both creating a great piece of scenery (a cottage) for our wargames tables; created from the same template. The top photo shows Chris's house, the second photo is my little house. 

 So we have decided  to have another build off but this year with an international theme as we have invited Merjin Gelens-Voermans to take part this year. Merjin has built all but one of the Warhammer Townscape buildings and his work on this can be found on his blog here...

https://another-wargaming-blog.blogspot.com/

...and Chris's blog can be found here...  The Periodic Painting Table

For this years challenge I have opted to build building no.13 and Chris has created some very simple guidelines. 

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL TOWNSCAPE CHALLENGE

AIM

To build a Warhammer Townscape model.

RULES (more sort of guidelines really)

The building must be based on one of the Warhammer Townscape models.

You can alter it, e.g. extend the model, choose a different finish (timber, stone etc.)

You have until the end of August to complete the model.

Blog your progress however often you feel appropriate and link to each other’s blogs.

The challenge is designed to inspire and encourage. There is no prize apart from the congratulations of your peers, both in the challenge and on our blogs.

With those simple rules in place, I have opted to build house no13. I have printed off the basic plan and created a base board (15cmm x 15cm) which should allow me to add extra detail to the building. Next stage is to glue the plan to the foamboard and then when dry, cut out the sides and start adding detail. 

I will be building this house alongside my current Napoleonic and Ancient projects. This house when completed will be seeing service in Medieval and Fantasy battles at least. I will post a blog every week or so to chart my/our progress.