A Backlog of Battles

The hobby emphasis has shifted... September has seen a fair number of games played, and only a little painting.

It's a shift I am rather enjoying... However, I've fallen behind with battle reports on the blog, so thought it about time I rectified that.

Mind you, I'm not one for writing (or reading) over long game AARs, so I'll keep it brief, allowing a few pictures to tell the story.

First up - Billhooks with the NOBs...

With two of our normal Old Berks foursome unable to attend, Andy and I were able to introduce two newcomers to the throng - Pete and Rich. Hence the New Old Berks, a group name that looks better when written in full than when abbreviated!

We played a game of Never Mind The Billhooks on a 9x4 table, each of us commanding a standard 120 point army, playing in pairs. Andy and Rich played the part of the Lancastrians, whilst my Warwick contingent allied with Pete's Yorkists to face them.

I have to say, all the armies looked glorious on the table, really showing off the colour and splendour of the period.

And the game didn't disappoint. My dice rolling continued to be outrageously good (and very lucky), and my dolt cavalry commander (Sir Gregory Carrodus) was anything but a dolt on the day, leading his men on a very successful charge to destroy Rich's light cavalry, and causing panic on the enemy right flank. In total, I think my light horsemen were responsible for taking 6 of the enemy's tokens on the day, so bravo to Sir Gregory! 

Mortimer of Arden also continued his run of form, and with Warwick adding his weigth to the attack, i managed to make the breakthrough. My allies, under Pete's command, were starting to come under pressure on my right, but I had faith in Pete's generalship, despite the nasty little Kern of Andy's again making an appearance and causing trouble. Pete held on,and we were victorious, just.

It was a game of firsts:

The first time the four of us had played together.

The first game in which we hadn't had an artillery piece blow itself up.

The first game in which Andy's latest trophy was introduced (The Billfookery Award, for the general who makes the most ridiculous and obvious error, tactically) - no one made any foolish errors on this occasion, so the trophy remains unassigned, for now.

And so to the pictures:

Next up - Billhooks in Salford

A business trip to Manchester allowed me to enjoy a trip to Salford to stay with Steve and Gwen Ayers and get a game with David "Low Roller" (aka Wargames amateur blogger).

First night, Steve and I had a quick game of Billhooks, using Steve's medieval forces. Again, a fun game. And again, my dice were embarassingly lucky.

I took only a couple of photos of this...

Another victory!

Finally - Eastern Renaissance

Next day, David arrived and we played a fantastic Eastern Renaissance game, using the Pike & Shotte rules (with their local Salford amendments!).

I took the role of Ottoman commander, advancing to take a small village defended by David's Poles and Steve's Muscovites.

The flanks were packed with cavalry of all types, charging hither and thither, and the swirling melees could have gone either way.

My lucky dice continued for about two-thirds of the game... but eventually the tide turned. David "Low Roller seemed to have been taken over by his evil twin doppelganger "high roller" on my left flank and I reached a high water mark before being repulsed all across the table.

Eventually, David had to depart for a family gathering, just as my infantry in the centre had started to break over the defences and attack the village, the Tufeckis leading the way, closely followed by units of Janissaries. This was, however, the high water-mark, and I was soon repulsed by the valiant defenders. It was a close run thing.

My brigade of Sipahis of the Porte had remained on a hill on my baseline for the whole game as I was unsure where to commit them, and held them back to hopefully make a decisive impact, or shore up a breach in my lines. An opportune moment never came really, and I chose to save them to fight another day.

A great game, really great. It made me want to recharge my own Eastern Renaissance project, that's for sure. Added to the list for 2027.

Anyway, David has done a couple of updates on his Wargames Amateur blog with lots of nice pictures, which you might like to enjoy.

Meanwhile, here's a few more pictures of the action...

It was a great weekend, and thanks to Steve and Gwen for their hospitality. Thanks also to David for the use of his vast (and still growing) Eastern Renaissance collection. All that cavalry certainly makes for a very different game. Inspiring!

This coming weekend my gaming adventures continue: Steve Gill is heading over for a bit of Horse & Musketry, so the 1704 (Wars of The Vaubarian Succession) collection will get a run out.

Looking forward to it.

Mortimer's NOT Cross; he's delighted...

After a run of Hail Caesar ancient games, we recently had a Wars of the Roses (Never Mind the Billhooks) game between my Warwick contingent and Andy's Lancastrians.

As always it was fun and full of incident. 

On my left flank, the usual Light Horse melee had gone in my favour, with the rout of the Lancastrian riders, but one of the two units of Irish kern that Andy was using for the first time had managed to then come in behind and it was over for my horse who soon followed Andy's off table.

The kern were a nuisance, I can tell you. But eventually ran out of steam and got filled with arrows.

In the centre, after some small successes, the Lancastrian artillery blew up amongst a modest amount of cursing from the Lancastrian command! The dice gods were certainly on my side (not just in this incident, but throughout most of the day)

The big breakthrough moment came when one of my sub-commanders, Mortimer of Arden (fictional name), charged home against a Lancastrian 'bill and bow' block. Again, I threw good dice, Andy's were unusually below par. Simple as that! The intrepid Mortimer led his men to victory, destroying their melee opponents and setting in motion a collapse of several other companies in the vicinity who decided it was time for a sharp exit.

Just a few pictures of the vital moment... well, just after the vital moment as by the time I'd got my phone ready to take some snaps, the enemy units facing Mortimer had dissolved, and left the table!

Mortimer's gang are in the deep red and light blue livery with the gold lion rampant on the flag - any UK football fans will probably gather where my allegiance lies... hence 'Mortimer' whose namesake lifted the European Cup back in 1982. I digress.

Andy has produced some lovely army tokens, like coins, and it was a joy to have him hand them over and to be able to place them in the latrines at the back of my camp!

It was nice to get back to a game of Billhooks and we've got more lined up in the coming months. The day was rounded off with a meal and a glass or two at my local hostelry, followed by cigars and a good hobby chat on the patio. This is becoming our tradition now, and we're rather fond of it!
Cheers to Andy for a great day!

Facebook...

Andy has a very good FB page (search for "Flamin' Pig") which he puts lots of our games on as well as updates on some of his fantastic ancient armies.

And... On the grounds that it appears it's where thousands of wargamers are now getting their online fix, I'm considering setting up a "Phil's War Cabinet" FB page, and will announce such a bold move here for those who do the FB thing...

Cheers for now.

The Full Capriccio

Quite some time ago, I posted the first few pictures of my Never Mind The Billhooks (NMTB) Italian Wars force from the fictional Grand Duchy of Capriccio, proclaiming at the time that I just needed to do one more Swiss pike unit to complete the 'army' at around 120 points.

Well, at last, I recently completed that second Swiss unit:

They carry the flags of Uri and Solothurn, along with the regular Swiss flag.

Here they are alongside their compatriots whose pike block carries the flags of Berne and Fribourg.

These are Warlord Games plastic landsknechts that I felt could easily be used as Swiss of the period, bearing in mind that by this stage they were no longer in the clothing and cantonal liveries so familiar from the earlier Burgundian Wars.

Having said that, for these units I did keep some sort of cantonal colour theme going with yellows and blacks, along with the all pervading Swiss red.

Of course, Warlord have now produced a specific set of plastic figures for the Swiss, but I am happy with my choice here.

And so, the basic NMTB Capriccio army is complete... for now...

A brief background to Capriccio is included on the roster sheet.

Their opponents from the Duchy of Bruschetta are currently 'in progress'.

Penitenziagite! Penitenziagite!

One little accompaniment to the array is Cardinal Leo, Bishop of Capriccio, with his faithful companion, Adso. These are Perry Miniatures.

You'll note that the mounted Cardinal is pointing... presumably, that's a Cardinal Point. Groan...

That's all for now folks... Thanks to all who support the madness with your comments and visits.

"Romanes eunt domus"

"Romanes eunt domus" as the Monty Python boys daubed on the city walls in The Life of Brian, all those years ago, being subsequently corrected by a passing Centurion, promptly giving us a lesson in Latin declension.

Thanks to all who commented on the previous post, and as promised, here are some better pictures of my Roman contingent.

I had long admired the 3rd Century, Middle Imperial Romans produced by A and A Miniatures, particularly when Phil Hendry produced such inspiring results with them a number of years ago, in his beautiful painting style.

And so, when Andy M and JK introduced Hail Caesar rules into our little group, I decided to take the opportunity of producing a Roman/Palmyran force for that rather neat little window of time in the mid-late 3rd century.

I ordered the figures, service was good, and the castings arrived.

That's when the problems started. So poor was the casting quality of these figures that cleaning them up was a forever task, and much of the flash and metal 'crud' on the figures was simply impossible to remove. I sighed, and simply turned the project into one of speed painting, just to get them onto the table.

The process was onerous, to say the least, and I just had to battle through doing what I could. The LBMS transfers do a lot of 'heavy lifting' in terms of the overall look of the units.

Above: the command figure is from a Gripping Beast Late Roman command pack, on a Wargames Atlantic plastic horse.

Not sure what will be next for this project. I am supplementing with a few Late Roman figures from other manufacturers, for things like the Scorpions and probably some cavalry as I couldn't face having to spend half my painting time cleaning up poor castings.

It's so sad, as the figures were a very attractive offering in years gone by, and whether it's the moulds that have been let go, the quality of the metal, or what, I don't really know.

I do know that the sculptor for the range is now bringing out a fresh and updated range to be marketed by a different company, so worth having a look at I guess, although from what I have seen they are quite different in appearance.

And before people start to pile on about how difficult it is for small manufacturers to keep head above water in making a living from a hobby such as ours, I know, and I don't mean anything personal. This is not an attack on A and A Miniatures. i am just reporting my experience with this particular range of figures.

I noticed Darryl H on his "Just Add Water" blog had a similar experience a few weeks back as well. So it's not just me...

Another Game - Blooding a new army

Last weekend it was a gathering of The Old Berks again, unfortunately without Steve this time, but we're very relaxed about attendance! As host, I'm the lucky one, and am always mindful that the others have to travel, a considerable distance (particularly in Steve's case), to come for a game. 

So, with Andy eager to try out a new army he's working on, and myself also having a new contingent to field, we settled on a 3rd Century action, stretching the bounds of possibility as my newly painted Middle Imperial Romans, allied with Andy's new Sassanids, to face John's Palmyrans.

Andy has been documenting progress of the ancients projects on his Flaming Pig Facebook Page, and just before he arrived, I put some flames onto the back of a couple of mini-pigs and placed them on the table...

And so to battle...

Above: my Romans deployed on the right.
Below: Andy's Sassanids on my left.

Below: JK's Palmyrans.

Below: Running repairs. The master craftsman at work (aka Andy almost managing to glue himself to a kontos!)

Note: Hydration Break!

Above and below: The Sassanids crunch into the Palmyrans

Now, the eagle-eyed will have spotted a slight anomaly, for which I beg forgiveness. Because my Middle Imperial Romans are only just beginning, I roped in some other troops to complete the force... Macedonian skirmishing javelinmen wouldn't look that different to Roman skirmishers from a few centuries later, i'm sure. After all, it's just blokes with pointy sticks, isn't it?!

And, following on from recent posts, I also fielded the Skythians, as just some generic ancient horse archers (remember, No Skythians, no Party!). Their recent run of form was continuing, and they held a lot of Palmyran heavies at bay for quite some time. 

Above: Good dice roll for shooting. Well done, lads!

But... then, they forgot they shouldn't always be throwing high dice ... so, rolling double 6, they managed a Hail Caesar Blunder and did a Skythian Skidaddle off to their right flank, departing the table to much derision. They later claimed they just wanted to have the Old Berks Wooden Spoon trophy in their hands, just one time.

As it happened, that particular episode didn't matter as the Sassanid-Roman unholy alliance managed, in the end, to narrowly defeat Zenobia's Palmyrans. They will be back for more, no doubt...

Then it was off out for a steak and a glass down at The Bear in Berkswell, followed by cigars on the patio. A fine end to the day.

Before I close this post, a quick pic of the Middle Imperial Roman force, about which I will do a post with further photos in a couple of days.

The miniatures are A & A Miniatures. Transfers LBMS.

Meantime, all the very best.