Monday, 8 November 2021

IR Van Birkenfeld (I-59)

 

This is my second 1670's/80's era unit - Dutch IR Van Birkenfeld (I-59). The musketeers were painted by chum Shaun McTague, but I painted (!) the pike and command and highlighted everything. The bases are my FK&P06's, with integral magnets for storage and transit. I'll take a proper photo later- I'm going to have to make a flag up for them, unless anyone has any ideas what it looked like?

Postscript- I've found a partial flag in Hall from Triomphe 1693, against NLI38- I'll need to get chum Ian onto that!

I'm developing the impression that the majority of Dutch units started the 1670's in really bold colours (typically blues, but also reds), but by the late 1670's most had changed to shades of grey with coloured facings, possibly based on their original uniform colour or facing colours. This unit is in light grey as we know they were wearing by 1678- the socks should really be red, but I won't tell if you won't. ;-) I chose to put the officers in reversed colours. 

I'm going to concentrate on collecting units that were present at the battle of Seneffe in 1674, because it was the main field battle of the war and because we have images of some of the standards that the French captured. For this reason most of my units will be in the early, bold colours. I'd like to think I'll eventually end up with perhaps 16 battalions of Dutch foot, and nearly as many units of horse, and as many French, which would be enough for a 12-15' wide table at a show.

In other news, I'm doing The Plastic Crack Podcast from 8pm tonight. I'll be wittering on about writing rules and what I'm up to, in general, ie Renaissance, why it's been so slow coming and why its going to be so good.

Finally I've received the PDF version of The Siege of Norchester scenario book for For King and Parlaiment from Robert Avery (who also wrote the popular Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario book). It represents a series of small battles fought around the fictional city of Norchester. It looks very entertaining and I intend to publish it on Friday.

Friday, 5 November 2021

1st Foot Guards


Here's a WIP shot of my first battalion, the 1st Foot Guards ca. 1683 (slightly after the 1670 period that most interests me) armed with new-fangled snaphances.

This is my intended standard for the period - 28 foot on three stands - a smaller battalion than my ECW ones but they will work on a 20cm grid, a practical size for gaming. The third rank is somewhat superfluous, although it helps give an impression of mass, and make the unit look a little more like the period engravings than they would in two ranks.

The minis are North Star 1672. I don't know who the original painter was (he was good!) but chum Dave Millett very painted up a few more minis to match and I added some details to the minis, and Flags of War flags. I'll get these off to chum Ian next week, and we'll see how it looks, flocked!

Monday, 1 November 2021

Franco-Dutch Interlude

 

Sorry for the lack of recent posts- I was busy with Partizan and then publishing the updated Ancient and Medieval army list books, which went out last Friday (if you've previously bought a copy, you should have received a copy or download link, if you haven't, please email me).

I've been on a brief vacation in the 1670s, painting British, French and Dutch for a new project. The above aren't yet finished but look great in the flesh as opposed to the unflattering photo. I'll take a better one when they are on bases in around a week's time. They are from the North Star 1672 range- absolutely lovely minis although the range is unfortunately not complete. I seem to have enough minis for 30 battalions, like this, and 20-odd squadrons, but they are by no means easy to paint- the innumerable buttons, and the hat bands, sashes and feathers take an eternity. Waagh!  At this stage I'm not looking to finish the armies but want to get three or four units on bases as a proof of concept, then I plan to get back to the Swiss that have been on hold over the summer.


Tuesday, 12 October 2021

T'other Partizan 2021

Here are some images of Dave Lycett's wonderful 90mm Macedonians and Persians from our game at the recent Partizan show. All of the miniatures are from Expeditionary Force and painted by David. I wrote a scenario called "Gaugamesque" because of its similarity to Gaugamela, and we fought it out on a very austere table with no terrain. I posted some pics on Facebook on Sunday, but there are more here.


Scythed chariot, above and Persian foot, below- hand painted shields! All of the minis are of this quality.



Above, Dave converted some Schleich camels by adding a howdah and crew- Queen Semiramis would have loved these! Below, Darius' command chariot.



Above the Macedonian army (lovely Prodromoi in the foreground), and below the Persians.



Above, mid battle. We used To the Strongest!, of course. The Persians crushed the Macedonian left, and the Macedonians, the Persian left. 

Below Phil Garton, David and Matthew Hotston who helped us to play the game and as the Persians, eventually crushed Alexander (but not before we gave them a few scary moments!).



The obligatory picture of wargamer, pointing. ;-)


Myself, above and Dave, below!



These figures really are terrific. There's a surprising amount of variety in the poses, more than some 28mm ranges!



The elephants are also converted from Schleich models, they are huge and quite stunning. 

A huge thank you to Dave for bringing all his wonderful toys! Alas time was so short that I took no photos of any of the other games, and there certainly were some splendid ones at the show! It was a great show, kudos to the Newark Irregulars for scoffing in the face of Covid. It was great to see so many chums, after such a long interval, and oh so many miniatures!

Friday, 1 October 2021

Cheesy Indians at the London GT!

      

Last Sunday I took my Classical Indians to the London GT tournament. This is a massive event, mostly attended by Warhammer players, but also the largest tournament gathering of historical players. Above at the Warhammer players. The historical players were amongst those in the mezzanine (below), our players are in the second photo.


We had an odd number of players so I stood down for the first round which meant I had time to take a few mediocre photos, which I present in no particular order. I took other photos later in the event.


Above Gary Stark, and below his Seleucids. The latter were an interesting blend of Foundry and Aventine- these worked together very well- something I shall have to try! A superb looking army. 


Below, there are a lot of elephants in my army, eight units for a total of sixteen models. Half of them are shown here. In one game I lost ten elephant models.



Above Steve Dover popped over for a chat. In the game I shot the Seleucids up with my Indians, killing their great leader (Antiochus Megas?) and generally gaining the upper hand (whilst losing a few elephants), although not winning outright. Below, the view from behind my lines.



Above, weedy Indian archers desperately try to pincushion the Seleucid pike before they get skewered in melee. Below Gary vs Dene Green (Lusitanians)



Above John Lavender (Principate Romans) vs. Colin Bright.


Above Steve Dover (I'm Spartacus!) vs. Andy Lyon (Gallic). Steve's army was composed of hordes of terrible-quality troops, but was very effective in his capable hands- he did some clever things with his generals.

Below Martin Sharp (Classical Indian) vs. Simon Purchon (Principate Roman).



Above Derek Pearson (Batavian Revolt Germans)- at the end of my final game. This was the only game of the six that I've played with the army where my plan (an arrow storm followed up by a big attack up the middle) actually payed off- in large part due to playing some fantastic lucky cards. An elephant trotted into the Batavian camp with minutes to spare.


Tim vs. Simon Purchon. Tim had a very interesting Galatian army, including lots of naked fanatics. Simon was using Principate Romans.


Above Martin Sharp (the other Classical Indian army) vs. Colin Bright (Middle Imperial Roman).


Above Andy Lyons (Gallic) and Dean Green (Lusitanian), and below Derek Pearson's Batavian Revolt vs. Gary Stark.


Tim has taken some photos which you can see on the forum  Tim's photos

Here are the final scores.

1TimThompson528Galatian
2Steve Dover525Third Servile War
3SimonMiller465Classical Indian
4MartinSharp450Classical Indian
5AndyLyon445Gallic
6SimonPurchon438Principate Roman
7GaryStark297Selucid Imperial
8DerekPearson279Batavian Revolt German
9ColinBright259Middle Imperial Roman
10Dene Green255Lusitanian
11JohnLavender249Principate Roman

Congratulations to Tim Thompson and Steve for runner up! A huge thank you to the organisers of the event and Dave Ruddock from the BHGS, and to Tim who did the scoring. Above all, thanks to everyone who scoffed in the face of Covid, the fuel crisis and the Insulate Britain fanatics in order to participate!

Tuesday, 14 September 2021

Chalgrove 2021 - The Cheesy Indians in action!


At Chalgrove I completely failed to take any photos of my Indians from the front. Howard Litton has very kindly sent me some images from the game we played. Howard has a lovely Aventine Miniatures Polybian Roman army (once mine, some minis painted by David Imrie IIRC). That's me, by the way.


Here's a side-on view. I massed my elephants mostly in the middle of the line, Howard had to veteran quincunx on the left of his line with veteran velites in support,  and lots of scruffy filler on the right, including an African elephant who (below) looked somewhat lonely as he was facing 8 much superior units of Indian elephants totalling 16 models



Above, Howard had lots of javelinmen- both massed light infantry and formed ones. The Aventine Oscans looked particularly effective. Below, both armies began a steady advance in line. Below, frustratingly, my left stubbornly refused to advance. 


Below, frustratingly, my left stubbornly refused to advance. This was a pity as I'd spotted an opportunity to cut off and potentially kill Howard's Numidians, but they got away. :-(


After this, alas, the photos peter out. What happened in the game was that Howard advanced with the veterans on his left, and fell back with his right, so fast that I couldn't catch up by the end of the game. This did, however, give me an opportunity to get onto the wing of one of his quincunxes with my elephants. Unfortunately time ran out before we could see whether I could kill his quincunx before his other quincunx killed my longbowmen. 


Above- an uncomfortable tactical position for this quincunx. 

Thanks so much to Howard for the game and for the photos!

PS the last photo demonstrates why I developed my wobbly-edged bases- they blend into the cloth rather better than do the straight lines of traditional bases.

Sunday, 5 September 2021

Chalgrove 2021 - Cheesy Indians

Here's a quick pic of the army I took to the To the Strongest! Worlds at Chalgrove, yesterday. It's an Indian army, with most of the minis painted by Dan Toone, Shaun McTague and myself, with basing help from Ian Notter. It's not quite finished but you get the drift- later I'll take some closeups.

It's a most unusual army which I built to maximise the number of elephants I could put on the table (16), just for the fun of seeing what it looked like and experiencing how it might work. To achieve this I represented eight small units of elephants each with two elephant models. I think I probably had more elephant models in this one army than have been used in all of the previous Chalgrove tournaments, added together. Tim described it was a cheesy army, on account of all the one hit elephants, so I've named the senior general King Mutar Paneer and the various princely subordinates after other spicy cheese and vegetable dishes.

Due to nightmare travel problems I missed the first game but arrived shortly after the start of the second, and Steve Dover very kindly agreed to play me. He had a Spartacus army with masses of mobs and skirmishers- it was huge. At the start I shot his army up but I had trouble breaking the three hit units- my elephants "bounced" and then one rampaged, carrying off a second one and a general. It ended in a draw with Steve slightly ahead on points. Alas I took no photos!

My second game was against Howard Litton with his (formerly my) Polybian Romans, it was super to see both him and them again. We just weren't fast enough to reach a conclusion- I squeaked narrowly ahead on points in the final round. 

I had a sense that I might have won in another few turns - but with this army there's no degree of certainty, it's almost as dangerous to itself as it is to the enemy.

My third and final game was against old chum Tony Horobin. He had Pechenegs- they rode up and shot at me, I shot back at them and before the archers duel was complete we ran out of time. This was an odd game as I kept my elephants in reserve because they were vulnerable to shooting and not fast enough to catch his light horse- they barely moved. Tony almost took my camp, though, attacking uphill, over fortifications, from a wood with cavalry! Again, it was a draw but I was a little ahead on points.

I found the Cheesy Indians to be a really interesting army to use- powerful but extremely fragile- a single failed save can lead to a casade of rampaging nellies. I don't think it's a tournament winner but it stood up well enough, and I'll have another outing at the London GT tournament on September 25th- the tickets have sold out but if you email me I might be able to fit you in, especially if we have a cancellation.

Congratulations to Peter Ryding who won with a Marian Roman army. Huge thanks to Steve Dover and the South Oxfordshire Generals for running the event and keeping the teas coming, it was, as ever, a great deal of fun and so good to catch up with so many friends after such a long Covid-related interval. I know Steve's already looking at ideas for 2022...