Friday, 7 February 2020

Venetians to Godendag!


Here's my slightly revised Condottieri army for Godendag in Cardiff, tomorrow, and, later, for Chalgrove. I'll take proper pictures next week. It's a lethal 50/50 blend of extra heavy knights and light troops. The similar army I took around the tournaments, last year, did very well and I have a lot of confidence in this one! It's 90% plastic, so mercifully light, which is just as well as I'm getting the train.

If you are in South Wales and at a loose end tomorrow, pop in to Firestorm and say hello!

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

Reinforcements, Temporal and Spiritual


A quick work-in-progress shot of some new Venetian elements for my Condottieri army. I'll take proper photos later, when complete.

The knights in the front are partial repaints of an old unit, with new minis mixed in. To the rear are new stradiotti, beautifully painted by Shaun Watson, and likewise some super cardinals, on the left.

These are on a crash basing programme, as I need to finish them tomorrow, to take to the To the Strongest!  tournament on Saturday as part of the Godendag event at Firestorm games in Cardiff. If you are local, please drop by and say hello!

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

Stow-on-the-Wold Scenario published

Cover

The For King and Parliament Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold Scenario is a digital file, designed for use with the TtS! For King and Parliament English Civil War rules, but which could be adapted to work with other rule systems, too.

A sample page from the scenario booklet

Stow-on-the-Wold is a modest scenario depicting the last major battle of the First English Civil War, which occurred when the last Royalist field army, led by the valiant Jacob, Lord Astley, was brought to ground by a superior Parliamentarian force. It is a modest-sized battle with only 21 units. It will suit two to four players, or solo play.

The Royalist OOB
The eight-page scenario PDF includes a brief account of the campaign and the battle, reconstructed orders of battle for both sides, and a deployment diagram. It can be viewed on a tablet, or printed out and bound.

Sample page of unit cards
Also included are the For King and Parliament Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold unit cards, designed by Ian Notter. There are cards for the general officers, some of the colonels, and all the units that we have been able to identify as being present at the battle, or surmise were there. These can be printed out on card, and used, in conjunction with the scenario and rules, to re-fight the battle.

The scenario and unit cards can be purchased here.

If you are planning to re-fight the battle using For King and Parliament, you might also want to buy a 3' x 4' 10cm cross-grid plains mat.

Finally, the For King and Parliament ECW rules can be purchased here.

Thursday, 23 January 2020

Send us some more!


Here's another part of the Salute project. I have owned two old Vendel scythed chariots for some years but recently decided that I need a few more, and so here's a picture of the BigRedBat coach works. I have assembled cabs for two more Vendels and four newer Polemarchs (super models, festooned with blades!). Shaun McTague has painted all the horses for me, I just need to do a little snagging and assembly, and he can then paint the cabs for me, too. I've also prepared some Batbases with magnets and top-notch chamfering.

The title of this post comes from an incident at the second battle of Chaeronea in 86 BC, when the Romans"after repulsing (the chariots), clapped their hands and laughed and called for more, as they are wont to do at the races in the circus" (Plutarch, Sulla, XVIII.2-3). 

Friday, 17 January 2020

Florentine knights


As well as the new guns, I've also been putting some more knights together for the Italian Wars. Above are some Florentines; I put them on unarmoured horses, like to ones depicted in the "Rout of San Romano". The excellent Florentine flag is one of Pete's flags, from eBay.

Below are more plastic Perry knights, this time in charging poses. Most of these were painted by chum Lionel in France, who paints a mean barber's shop lance. :-)


The extra knights give me more options for fielding either more units for the 15cm grid, or larger units for the 20cm To the Strongest! grid. I'm also currently putting a second Renaissance army together for eventual play-testing purposes.

Thursday, 16 January 2020

Gonnes


Here are my first medieval artillery pieces, two Perry breech-loading field pieces. The one on the left is in Burgundian livery, and on the right in Italian style. I bought these minis part-painted, finished them off and based.

I have been plugging away at the TtS! Renaissance draft, again, recently. Guns become quite useful in the Renaissance where there can be some very promising targets! :-) I plan to build a fair old artillery park, including bombards, organ guns and some big French field guns.

Tuesday, 31 December 2019

New Year, New Herds!


Over Christmas I've been working on three new herds of elephants, two of which are for the new Salute game (Battle of Ipsus)  and the third for the previous-planned Salute game (Thapsus, which I've pushed back a year). The new game, Ipsus, should enable me to get the better part of thirty howdah-less nellies on the table. There may have been as many as 575 elephants at Ipsus.

All of the Indians at the front (mostly superb Aventine resins, with some nice old Vendels, painted by Dan Toone and Shaun McTague) need to be finished and based or re-based. The six Aventine nellies at back left, and eight more not shown, need to be painted- they will be Macedonian ride-ons. The ten nellies back right (and below) are Aventine resin Africans, painted by Kevin Lucas). 


Below are some of the Indians. The riders are magnetised and can be removed; I'm not entirely sure whether that is necessary, but it is kind of cool. It might help with storage, and gives me the option of replacing Indian riders with Macedonians. They are all on my crinkly-edged batbases.


A very Happy New Year to all! I hope this finds you and yours well. A couple of chums are going through challenging times at the moment, and I'll be thinking of them at midnight. I hope we all have a rip-roaring Twenty-Twenty!