More 15mm Vikings

These guys have been on the painting table for a week or two, I undercoated and applied the base flesh colour, then just got distracted with the arrival of new figures from the 1745 Flags of War Kickstarter.

So the last two days, in between some plumbing, some paint stripping etc... I managed to get some additional colour down. Now the army is 86 elements in size, and when I counted, I was surprised to find I have painted up 43 so far! Halfway exactly. I reckon I should now split them up into maybe another 4 batches and charge through, and kick off the basing.

So should I start them now or maybe take a break from the Vikings, and do some Hanoverians? 

Anyway, here's the boys. It's interesting, but the camera (Samsung S10) seems to really flatten out the colours. When you look closely; for example at the red cloaks on the generals, you can see there are shadows and highlights there, but the camera has made them almost disappear.

Bondi

General

Huscarles

Viking Mounted

Lockdown Procrastination

So over three weeks of lockdown. For me it's not much of a difference. The only thing I miss is the monthly club meeting. But following blogs and forums keeps me amused, and engaged with the hobby.

There are some very cool things, like Osprey Publishing's free eBooks...  thanks Osprey. Essentially, each week they add 5 free eBooks to a list you can download for free.

Somehow I haven't found much time for reading though. I have my partner, dogs, a garden, and the former has a list of home improvements a mile long. So I've stripped varnish off the staircase, an ongoing and horrible job, still incomplete, transplanted 8 rosebushes, stripped back and varnished a table, cleared out the shed, cleared out the boiler room/cupboard, moved rubble, demolished a cubby house etc. etc.

So in amongst all this, what of wargames?  I have three main projects on the go at the moment. Vikings in 15mm, for DBMM, as they fit into the Warfare 2020 Theme, scheduled for Ascot in November. (Assuming we aren't still in lockdown!) These have been progressing slowly in small batches, and I am in no real hurry. I just usually have 6-8 elements worth beside me on the painting table. Sometimes I knock over the batch in two evenings, but the latest batch has been there for a few days with not much appreciable progress.

The second project is 28mm Jacobites and Hanoverians, for Sharp Practice 2, (Currently hugely discounted!) using the 1745 article in the 2017 Too Fat Lardies Summer Special.

I bought into the Flags of War Kickstarter in two batches, which arrived much to my delight, as they are truly lovely figures. So far though, I have just been prepping the figures and bases. I made a final order of some Hanoverian dragoons, just before Iain shut down the Flags of War sales, but they haven't arrived yet, so I have been deferring actual painting.

Once the dragoons arrive and are prepped, I won't have any further excuse, but I am wondering how to base my mounted. I have some 60 x 30mm pill bases in the base stash, but these are too big for regular troopers, so I am now going to have to hunt down some smaller pill bases and sabots, with the problem that my usual supplier 'Warbases' is closed for the duration. I would rather stick with one supplier, but that might not be an option, so I shall see what Charlie Foxtrot or Supreme Littleness have, assuming they are still operating.

The final project is my ongoing Chain of Command forces and terrain. I have a weakness, as do many wargamers, for focusing on pretty figures and not spending enough time on the table. So one of my resolutions was to spend more hobby time on terrain.

So what have I been doing? Well.. I needed some more dirt roads, and a railway track:

I added in a level crossing.. not sure whether there should be fencing or warnings/barriers, so I left those off. And a set of buffers so the line can end neatly. I have some rail offcuts to add to this too.

And I was rummaging in the shed, (as you do) and realised that while I had painted up command markers (flags) for yellow and green for my 'Le Cedres' Sharp Practice AWI scenario, I hadn't painted the numbered chits, and that the original blue and red chits had seen some bleeding of colour and needed touching up. So now I have a decent set of markers painted and sealed in four colours.

So that's it. Hopefully will see those dragoons, sometime soon, and kick off the 1745 painting, in the meantime, there's some Vikings needing attention.

Stay safe and well out there.

  

Vikings in 15mm

And another few elements get added to the Viking army for DBMM:

Knorr - Viking supply boats

Archers

Archers (rear)

Baggage1

Baggage 2

Bondi

Bondi (Rear)

Viking Raiders

Viking Raiders

Viking Raiders (Rear)

And again...

More Tiny Vikings!

Ragnar Lothbrok lives on, or at least, some miniature cousins do.. some more 15mm Vikings joined the forces arrayed for an invasion of Ascot in November, assuming we (and Ascot), are still there.

So here they are.. the big guy with his axe across his shoulders is one of my favourites.

Bondi

Huscarles

These drunken and injured Vikings will be Hordes

Vikings? On Horseback? Whatever next?

Another of my favourite figures.

More Vikings

Gradually working my way through the War & Empire Vikings.. another small batch of Bondi to add to the tally.

Steady progress, but I will need some more bases or production will grind to a halt. I just have to remember who I ordered this batch from.

**Update** it was Tony at Tiny Tin Troops..  very prompt. Recommended.

A Viking we will go!

I bought into the War and Empire III (Dark Ages) Kickstarter some time back, and ummed, and ahhed about what to get. I originally wanted to get Byzantines, but on looking into the various lists available for DBMM, I thought they were a bit too much like some of my other armies, such as the Sui Chinese.

I eventually settled on Viking and Later Roman, and they arrived last week. I have been tentatively planning a trip to Warfare in Reading in November, and so the Vikings would fit into the theme.

I finally picked up a paintbrush today, and my goodness, these are tiny figures, I have not painted any 15mm in several years, so slapping paint on these little guys was a real change.

Normally, my painting pattern is to do a whole swathe of figures at once. So for example for a Viking army, I might do all the Huscarles as a batch, all the Bondi as a batch, and so on. This is efficient, but it can also be very tedious as you spend a long time with a single colour. Applying it to pants here, tunics there, cloaks etc. This time I thought I would just grab up a few elements worth and tackle them together.

So here they are:

From L-R, Bondi, Archers & Huscarles.

I really like these figures, and they have a heap of variety. Looking forward to polishing off a few more batches over the next couple of weeks.

And some more..

Raiders, Berserks, Huscarles, General

Longships, 6mm models from Irregular.

Non-Competition Gamers please ignore

Time for a bit of a whinge here...  for many years I was heavily involved in organising and umpiring competition games in Canberra, Australia. Specifically, the DBA and latterly the DBMM competitions at Cancon in January and Wintercon in July.

Now that I am no longer in Oz, I like to keep in touch, and to try to help out, so I offer to list-check for these competitions. The lists are sent to an official list-checker address, and I go through them,  and compare them to the DBMM list books to make sure they comply. It can be a lengthy process, depending on format, the complexity of the list, regional or date variations, minimums for allies, and so on.

Anyway, for the last few years we have had fairly small competitions, so the task isn't too onerous. I can check most lists in about 10-15 minutes each. Often I will have to reproduce them on a spreadsheet to check points totals and break-points and so on.. but not so bad. 

So here's the whinge..   so far, I have checked 9 lists for Cancon, and out of those, only 4 were correct. That's a whopping error rate..   Guys. You have 1 list to check.. just 1.

If you are going to enter a competition, here's a couple of hints:

1. Put the list number, the date and any regional variation or named general on it.. please.
2. Check your points totals.. not once, but twice. Manually add it up if necessary.. so far it's been up to 23 points over the agreed total.
3. Check the troop types you have included have the correct points set against them.
4. Check the troop types you have included, actually exist in the list you have selected.

Here endeth the whinge.

Warfare 2017 - One-Day..

Well, after the excitement of Targe, I took the Sasanians to Warfare in Reading, and enjoyed a terrific day out with them, winning my first two games against Peter Kershaw's Parthians. (another stunning army, although the lighting didn't do it justice), then Ray Briggs also very attractive Marian Romans.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play the second day. Which saved me money - as my purchases were limited to just the Dux Britanniarum rules and cards. I had intended to do some serious shopping on Day 2, but found myself doing the drive home instead.

Anyway, here are some pics:

Game 1 - The Sasanians charge forward, with the Daylami (in red) pressing hard.

And getting into it.. a column of cataphracts under Shapur is coming up in support.

The other wing. I am hoping my elephants clean him up rapidly to allow the Asavaran to exploit.

The view from over the hill. Some of those Parthian LH are actually disguised cataphracts. Oops

Swapping casualties, the Persian right is doing ok.

Peter's disguised cataphracts did a lot of damage, but ultimately, historical verisimilitude prevailed and the Sasanians ground the Parthians under their hooves. Or more historically, absorbed the great Parthian clans into the new Eran.

Game 2. Deploying vs the Marians

I must confess, I had th ebest run of dice ever in this game. I seemed to roll nothing less than a 5 or a 6 in combat, and very soon had picked off the warband facing my elephants as Ray hadn't had time to bring his Psiloi up till I was in combat. The elephant corps swept up handfuls of warband, although my Asavaran struggled horribly against his legionaries. Eventually though I managed to break through in a couple of places, and roll up his lines.

A respectable 37 points from 2 games. And great opponents, as always. I do feel sorry for Ray, as it felt like every single time I had bemoaned past combat dice was redressed in a single game.

Chinggis rides out in Derby

So a quick update about the 'Worlds' at Derby, I played in the DBMM Teams competition, which thankfully had a nice round 8 teams, each team having three players, playing in each of three periods aligned with the DBMM List Books 2, 3, and 4. Teams were paired based on their progressive total score, i.e a Swiss Chess for teams.

I took the only army I had in 15mm, which I had finished the week before; Mongols, to discover I had one of three Mongol armies in the Book 4 pool.

Game 1 - Phil Hosker, Later Hungarian..  wedges, a mix of Light Horse and not much else.

I used exaggerated enemy strength and flank attack stratagems to try and get him to focus on my left, while sending a flank march on my right.  I basically misjudged the distance, and the small LH command was hit by an overlapped wedge vs my General, plus two other Kn marched into the LH at the other end of the command... I had of course forgotten that Kn wedges weren't overlapped, and a series of 1s and 2s on the dice against his 5s and 6s.. and I had lost the general, plus two LH to break the command ...   Not great.

Oops. my left hand command is monstered, as the flank march arrives.

My flank march came on and very quickly caught and eventually broke the LH opposing, but in the meantime, I was having to dance to try and line up attacks on the numerous Kn wedges. Phil did a brilliant job of minimising chances for a successful attack with really strong local tactical and PIP ise skill. I had 3 or 4 opportunities with the wedges hard flanked at even or better odds, including one with a flank, and my CinC using a brilliant stroke at 4(S) to 2..   not a single one came off and Phil's dice continued to be exceptional. I managed to knock over 20% of his army with his broken LH command, and I had my chances.. but eventually the Kn(S) wedges were simply unstoppable.  21-4 to Phil.

Game 2 - Peter Kershaw, French Ordonnance

Game start

Peter saw what he thought was an exposed space, and perhaps assumed he should push forward as fast as possible before a possible flank march arrived. Except that I had a concealed command behind the central hill, which rushed forward and charged downhill into his column.

Downhill attack and Mongols redeploying

Peter took heavy casualties from the initial Mongol charge, and proceeded to put on a master class in using PIPS to fall back, get exposed elements out of the way, and hold off the Mongols to the end of the game. A draw with Chinggis unable to convert a winning position into an outright win. 15-10 to me.

Unfortunately, none of the team had been very lucky on day 1, and as day 2 started we had drifted inexorably to the bottom tables.

Game 3 - Javan Brierley, Teutonic Knights

You had to feel for Javan, this was his third Mongol opponent in three games, and I benefited from his frustration after spending the first two games swinging at air. I must confess to doing the same. I deployed a massive total of 14 fighting elements at the game start...   with one Concealed Command and another on a Flank Attack. Javan decided to come out fighting, and just got caught front, flank and rear all over the place. Not much else he could do except try to kill a few.

The Mongols dance

And that was that.. 25-0. Somewhat undeserved; as Javan had been softened up by the previous Mongols, and had no combat dice luck at all.

Game 4 - Steve Scott, Mongol

Another Mongol, this one larger, but with fewer elite cavalry, and with allied generals. Steve wasn't having his best day, and I made it worse. We literally finished before the neighbouring game had rolled their first movement PIP dice.

Mongols Charge!!

After my first move! His ally general on my left was unreliable, so I decided just to go hard..   having Cavalry versus Light Horse in several spots. I rolled good PIPS and was within 15mm of him after my move. He had nowhere to go...  so charged me, and did some damage, but my second move was also good for movement, and I was able to exploit where overlaps had been created to blow several holes in his line. I had three Cavalry generals in combat, and was able to get the bonus for their wing men (in DBMM a General who destroys his opponent, inspires his neighbouring troops).  His ally became reliable, but was simply too late to do any damage to my flank guards before I broke his army. 25-0 to Chinggis.

So at the end of the day, a couple of lucky wins, and with maximum points from Games 3 & 4 against unlucky opponents, I somehow managed to sneak into 3rd place in the individual standings. I will draw a veil over the overall team results, where we managed to manfully hold up everyone else. Oops.

Pretty happy for my first DBMM competition outing in the UK, and fantastic hospitality from John Saunders, but I can see from the games against Peter and Phil that I will have to really up my game.

Mongols

I have been holding off on this post for a while, because I intended to play at the Derby World Team Championships..  (Wargames seems to be like wrestling, there's IWF, WWF, XWF, and WTF.. ok, the last one was made up..)

Anyway, Jeff Caruso announced some time ago on Fanaticus that he was stopping casting his figures, and having seen pictures, I contacted him, and asked what he had left.. almost enough to make a DBMM 400 point army, (assuming I took a Brilliant General and some 'stratagems') - I was still four figures short, and Greg found some in the pile and very kindly posted them to me. So with a month to go, figures available..   it's painting time!

The whole army...  one of the smallest I have ever used

Mongol Light Horse

More Light Horse, Pack Camels in the background

And yet more..

Light Horse and the Khitan Liao Sub-General with his escort cavalry