Work In Progress....

Yes, another one.  Firstly the update to the painted/purchased numbers which I failed to do last time.


From 1/10/2012:
Painted: 0
Purchased: 40

And even worse for the purchased figures I have bought some models online from Redoubt Enterprises.  Only a few this time; some sheep and a couple of character figures to add some life to our 17th century battlefields.  If they are good enough quality then I might get a few more, there is a particularly good looking coach, some pack horses and a giblet!  In terms of funds to buy all these bits I had previously made £43 from selling bits at the club (an underwhelming total), but have my Battlefleet Gothic online on eBay, and remain hopeful that it will go for a few £'s.  So far I have spent £48, so I need the income to balance the books!

On the actual painting and modelling front I have finished the painting part of the 16 pikemen that make up Hopton's pike block, as well as the figure on horseback that represents Lord Flasheart himself, and I'm holding them back while I finish some more troops so I can do an en-mass Dip process.  I have also rebased/made an additional 40 musketeers, 24 of which are based in 4's so they can make up the numbers for my foote regiments musket sleeves from the current 8 men to the needed 12.  The rest are based individually to be broken into two lots of 8 men to represent two small dragoon units on foot.  They await sand on their bases, and spray painting.

Work In Progress........

The non-existent painted vs purchased ratio hasn't lasted long - I've gone and bought something.  I took a trip up to Brimstage with the aim of getting a few painted and some flock to make my Wars Of The Roses bits stand out, and by the time I had arrived I was pretty much decided to buy a Royalist infantry boxed set to enable me to finish off my Royalist shotte sleeves which needed some boosting to reach the new size of 12 men per sleeve.

There are 24 musketeers in the box, and I'm going to combine them with my renegade spares (who up to this point have been shamming around pretending to be a Forlorn Hope) to create 6 new bases of 4 men apiece. There is also 16 pikemen in the box, although what (if anything) I'm going to do with them I'm not sure.  Overall the price vs. getting more musketeers from elsewhere came out well so I went for them.

On a negative note I was disappointed at Brimstage.  I've been a number of times before and enjoyed having a look round and the atmosphere - indeed I could have bought what I picked up online and saved the petrol but took a run out with my wife and bio-titan/son for the enjoyment of shopping there.  Having been in a few seconds my wife was asked to not let my son touch the models in a not particularly subtle or pleasant way, and felt so uncomfortable that they left almost immediately to look elsewhere.  I stayed, found the bits I was after and went to pay for them, only to feel that I was actually a hassle for wanting to buy something when they were busy.  I was the only customer the whole time, wasn't spoken too while in the shop, and a 'goodbye' just about followed me as I was exiting.

Conclusion; having been there before I can only assume that the proprietor was having a stressful off-day, and wasn't their usual self, and they were busy unpacking deliveries.  However, having made the trip up (a fair distance from home) to leave feeling like that means I'll probably stick to online and elsewhere rather than travel up again.  This won't stop me buying stuff at wargamestore online if the price is right, and their variety of stock is brilliant.  But as a walk-in customer I'm staying away.

Work In Progress.....

Bit of a work in progress report; I've not actually finished anything, so we'll start with the total for the year:

From 1/10/2012:
Painted: 0
Purchased: 0

Instead the focus has been on several projects.
Firstly the Wars of the Roses troops, which I have made, based and spray painted three units of (two lots of 12 archers and one lot of 12 billmen).  I have some more troops for this period, but they are waiting for me to acquire more men to enable me to make full units.  I have also got to finalise my colour scheme for the army.
The second project is the continuation of my Royalists, and I am currently working on the paint job of the 16 pikemen in Hopton's regiment, and Lord Flasheart himself.  It will be a while until anything can be declared finished because I want to do a fair number of troops before going to the trouble of getting the Dip out for them.  There is also the prospect of another English Civil War campaign at the RGMB, and I have dropped far behind Red, Aidan and Michael in terms of troop numbers and paint job!
Thirdly and finally I have decided to sell a fair few models to fund further purchases, including two Epic 40k armies, my Battlefleet Gothic and some 40k pieces.  Having taken the lot down to the club last night I only managed to make a paltry £43, not enough to even fund the WOTR at the moment.  eBay beckons!

Ancients Battle - Romans Vs. Greeks

With the Greeks numbers seemingly depleted by the reduction of their hoplites from eight 16 man units to four 32 man units - to match the width of their opponents, and to give the proper depth of the phalanx formation they 8 men wide by 4 deep – the Romans appeared to have an advantage in numbers of units and fighting power, even with (my) suggestion that the Hoplite Taxis be considered as ‘large’.

The Plan:

The Greeks split into two halves, with Red and Chris Fazey each taking two Taxis, a peltast light infantry unit, and a few light skirmishing units.  Opposing them I took command of the legionaries – 8 cohorts, the light artillery and some slingers – while Rob controlled the auxiliaries and the general.  Our plan, knowing the power of the Hoplites when attacked from the front, was to suck them into the legionary line, which would hold them while the auxiliaries flanked them and then caused them to collapse. 

The Battle:

The auxiliaries did well, eventually driving a Hoplite taxi from the table, as well as a peltast unit and a unit of skirmishers for the loss of a slinger unit and a squadron of cavalry.  However, the legionaries (my lot) forgot what it was they were supposed to be doing, and spent rather a long time standing in the middle of the battlefield looking pretty.  It got silly so the Greeks came and attacked them.  Chris Fazey, having firstly outflanked the legionary formation with his skirmishers, then drove in their line with his hoplites, wiping out the first cohort, then moving on to driving a second from the field (by literally pushing it off our own board edge.  His peltasts got in on the act with firstly their fearsome (?) combat ability seeing them survive a legionary cohort charge, then their javelins broke the cohort in return. 

The Roman general (Rob), busy having success with his auxiliaries, turned to find the legionary division was broken and rapidly retreating, leaving him alone, and he sensibly joined the strategic withdrawal – victory to the Greeks!

Initial setup - Ghostly Greeks to the right.

The legionary centre.

The legionary centre being driven in.

The remains of the legionaries abandon the auxiliaries at their finest moment.

Post game analysis:

The sides were fairly even, with the Greeks fielding more skirmishers, but fewer formed up units.  However, their hoplites were large enough to counter-balance the numbers, and the legionaries – the toughest Roman troops – were caught spread out and pushed apart too quickly to reform and support each other.  The Roman plan of outflanking the hoplite line eventually worked, but the Greeks had done the same to the legionaries.

Ricks Big(ish) Sale!

I’ve come to the conclusion that firstly I need to sell to be able to buy more models, and secondly that I’m simply not using a lot of my collection, and haven’t used much of it in over 3 years!  As such I’m selling a fair bit, including Chaos Space Marines and Imperial Guard for 40k, and Battlefleet Gothic and Epic 40k for smaller scales.  I might get onto the warhammer bits another time.  I’ve included a list of the its below, email me if you’ve questions/offers, I’ve stuck a few pictures of some of the bits towards the bottom, but can take closer shots or bring them to the club on a Tuesday.  I’m hoping someone can find a good use for them before I have to resort to Ebay.

The List:

Chaos Space Marines (classic models - painted):

Abaddon the despoiler

Sorcerer

Chaos marine with heavy bolter

Chaos marine with meltagun

Chaos marine with flamer

10 chaos marines with bolters

1 chaos marine with power claw and bolter

1 chaos marine with powerfist and chainsword

8 chaos marines with allsorted close combat weaponry, primarily boltpistols and chainswords

8 terminators (various weaponry including one reaper autocannon and a heavy flamer

Chaos lord in terminator armour with poweraxe and meltagun 

Imperial Guard:

Valkyrie – new in box!

2 x Baslisk, one painted, one undercoated

2 Leman Russ

1 Hellhound

5 Ogryns (converted by a better hand than I from Ogres)

10 ratling snipers

3 mordian iron guard lascannon teams (classics)

2 Classic metal Cadian squads – painted, flamer and sergeant in each

2 plastic catachan squads – one painted, flamer and sergeant in each

Classic metal cadian mortar team

Epic 40k:

Imperator Titan

2 x Reaver Titans

2 x warhound scout titans

6 x Baslisks

2 x manticores

3 x hydra AA guns

12 x Leman Russ battle tanks

3 x baneblades

1 x Leviathan

3 x Thunderbolt fighters

Infantry:

3 Ratling bases

3 Ogryn bases

6 Rough rider bases

13 cadian bases

12 heavy weapon bases

8 other assorted infantry bases

Load of scenery

Rules set – original Epic 40k including markers etc

Orks:

Bag of classic goffs and gretchin.

Battlefleet Gothic (Imperial bits painted):

Book & markers (the game essentially, but without the shiny box)

4 Imperial battlecruisers

1 Dauntless light cruiser

4 Sword frigates

4 Cobra destroyers

Assorted ork ships

Pike & Shotte Battle Report

A short battle report on a pitched battle between the forces of Parliament (Aidan and a new recruit Pav presiding), against a combination of Swedish and Royalist troops (Michael and myself).  In terms of forces Michaels army has certainly grown since last years campaign, and is surely now the biggest and most powerful, with the Swedish troops the best equipped and trained.  They balanced Aidans numbers, and I split my army between the 2 sides to even it up.  I took Michaels side and the right flank with two brigades; one foote and one horse, facing Pav in his first game who had two foote brigades.  Aidan and Michael, or Essex and Gustavus respectively, controlled the centre and other flank. 

The battlefield unfortunately was quite boxed in, with a village on one flank and a farm with plenty of hedgerows on the other.  This meant that the bulk of the cavalry forces were deployed centrally, with infantry slogging through the buildings/hedgerows on the flanks.  The Swedish left flank, crushed inwards by the village, saw some light fighting as the buildings were contested by musketeers, while Parlimentarian foote managed to outflank the village to the far left before the end, although the Swedes had pulled back.  The right flank saw bitter fighting between groups of musketeers amongst the hedgerows and around the farm buildings.  My troops, the Royalists, were first into the farm, but consistent command failings meant that they were unsupported while Pav’s troops were more numerous.  They took surprisingly little time to oust the Royalists from the buildings (lessons learned in house-to-house fighting for sure!) and lined the hedgerows, catching a number of the Royalist musketeer groups in a nasty crossfire.  It wasn’t until the final turn when my command rolls came good that I was able to throw more troops in to balance the situation and it ended very even.

In the centre the battle was decided as Aidan (or Essex and Cromwell!) lead their horse brigades, and in Essex’s case his personal bodyguard of cuirassiers, into the attack on the Swedish foote.  This proved, however, foolish, and first one brigade, and then a bigger second bounced off the Swedes, in the second case almost an entire brigade vanished in a rash of breaktests as the power of the Swedes hedgehog formation came to the fore!  Some infantry clashes to the right of this main fight couldn’t disguise the loss of two cavalry brigades, and with time up a Swedish/Royalist victory was declared on the basis of these losses.

Initial setup

Early clashes on the right.

Royalist re-enforcements on the right.

The great Parlimentarian charge in the centre. 

Blurred fighting by the village.

Analysis:

This time round we learnt that buildings are not impossible to assault, far from it.  That horsemen cannot reliable break a hedgehog, regardless of their numbers.  That neither me or Pav can pass command rolls.  That Aidan, having committed the same shocking error of putting a village/massive obstacle on each flank AGAIN should not be allowed to define where the scenery should be.  Finally the suggestion that in pitched battles we have a gentlemans agreement to deploy foote and artillery in the centre, and horse on the flanks, because horse vs foote is no contest!

Average Joes - The Rats Rise Again - Part 6

Average Joes Vs. Lakhti Longships

Quarter final time, and once again Average Joes have fallen foul of the knockout stages.  With ‘Joes starting the game by kicking to Lakhti Longships the first half was characterised by two touchdowns and two injuries.  Firstly a linerat was able to breach the Norse defence and knock the ball from their player into the skaven section of the crowd, who promptly threw it over the head of The Rat for it to run onto and open the scoring.  Then storm vermin and ‘Joes team captain La Fleur was injured by a furry thing with legs and claws, before Benedict; the skaven rat ogre, took revenge on the furry thing to leave the injury box score at 1-1.  There was time for the Norse to wriggle free and score an equalising touchdown, and this triggered an unhelpful riot in the stands which ended the half to the disadvantage of the skaven.  Overall, however, the first half, in front of 10,000 ratty fans and 9,000 bearded norse men and women, had gone mostly to plan.

The second half was unremarkable for the first third, with ‘Joes thrower Murdock holding onto the ball in the hope of finding enough space for a pass to set a gutter runner away.  However, the pass never came, as Murdock tripped while dodging a tackle, releasing the ball which fortuitously bounced into the arms of the Norse’s top scorer.  At that moment the whole game turned as ‘Joes lost two more players to serious injuries (both gutter runners, including The Rat, leaving none on the pitch), and 3 to the knockout box including Benedict who fell foul of a lucky hit from the snow beast.  With just six players on the pitch, and not many skills between them, the remaining skaven worked hard to try and force the ball either out, or at worst case over their own line so they could try and keep in the game.  However, it wasn’t too be, luck had truly deserted them, and the opposition played a cunning game of holding the ball up until the last moment before making it 2-1 with seconds remaining.  Average Joes were out.

In the post match interview Lord Flasheart admitted he might have approached the game with too much confidence, and felt he had made a number of poor tactic decisions.  The Norse now go on to play Paddy’s Norse in the semi-finals, while Average Joes go back into semi-retirement once more.