No game last Sunday, so here is something from a previous gaming day

I was due to play a game of Alien Squad Leader on Sunday but my opponent didn't turn up. Anyway, this at least gives me an opportunity to post about a game I played on a previous Sunday.

I've posted about my modifications to Sharp Practice before, and this game was another outing for those rules, with one or two small tweaks. 

The action took place in the fictional town of Dassendorp, somewhere in Flanders. The Anglo-Dutch army was marching south, aware of the threat of French forces marching north to capture the town. 

The Anglo-Dutch army arrived on the field of battle with a strong force of Horse and Dragoons, led by General Sir Edmund Melchett deployed on the left, the aim being to sweep round and prevent the French from outflanking the main body of the army, led by General Sir Rodney Watney-Mann.

However, the wily French commander, the Marquis de Saint-Sylvestre had stolen a march on Watney-Mann and his leading regiments were already inside Dassendorp.

Undeterred, the Anglo-Dutch Horse began to advance, as the woods opposite appeared to be free from French troops.

As the Horse walked across the open fields, their enemies emerged in strength. Foiled! This looked like a stalemate. Melchett halted his squadrons.

Sir Rodney led his main strength into the town, led by the Dutch Garde Te Voet. 

Realising that his left flank required reinforcing. he sent the Earl of Oxford's Horse and the Danish Fynske Regiment to support Melchett's now outnumbered brigade of Horse.

Saint-Sylvestre began to organise his regiments into a defensive posture on the southern edge of Dassendorp, holding the Gardes Françaises back as a reserve.

The Anglo-Dutch centre emerged from the streets of Dassendorp and deployed into line, supported by Fusiliers and artillery.

On the right, the 1st Foot Guards and the Queen Dowager's Regiment opened fire at long range against the French Horse and Dragoons arrayed against them, to little effect.

In the centre, both sides opened fire with artillery.

Things were hotting up on the right, the French Horse, led by the dashing Vicomte du Buisson-de-Cadouin seemed intent on pushing back the English Foot, regardless of the casualties they were receiving from musket fire.

Buisson-de-Cadouin charged in with the elite Régiment du Roi and, in the ensuing melée pushed the Queen Dowager's regiment back, causing many casualties and shock. 

It was beginning to look as though the battle would be decided on the Anglo-Dutch right, where the inexperienced General Willem de Rijsttafel was struggling to deal with the fearsome French Horse.

The 1st Foot Guards were the next to feel the effects of cold French steel, being forced to withdraw when charged while unloaded. 

De Rijsttafel was forced to gallop to safety with his staff as his infantry melted away.

The final act was a gallant but pointless charge by Melchett's brigade against the French right flank. They were repulsed by the Régiments de Lyonnais and Champagne, supported by the Régiment de Rohan Horse.

Interestingly, this was the first time one of these battles has given a decisive result, with the French army repulsing the Anglo-Dutch while suffering few losses themselves.

I think that the significant thing was the power of elite Horse against Foot, when the Foot unloaded in Fisticuffs. The way I have adapted the SP rules clearly gives the Horse an advantage in melée, possibly too much of an advantage, so perhaps there needs to be some further thought involved. As things stand, the Aggressive characteristic given to Foot regiments with pikes is negated if the regiment is charged while unloaded.

Anyway, it was a pretty enjoyable game, even though the layout of the table made things difficult for both sides.

Mercenary mounted crossbowmen

My band of Papal Condottieri now has a ranged attack, in the shape of six mounted crossbowmen, again from Perry plastic 28mm 1450-1500 Light Cavalry box.

Note that I have again used the red/white motif for the majority of these figures, although one of them is a nonconformist, in dress if not religion, seeing as there were no Protestants at the end of the 15th century. I have also given one rider a trumpet, but he does have a crossbow too. It is slung on the other side of his saddle. These will join the coustiliers as members of a lance, but will end up being fielded as a separate unit for Lion Rampant.

To break things up a bit, and to give me a break from painting horses, I am going to take a small diversion away from Renaissance Italy and work on some Peninsular War British line infantry next, but I am also making up a lot of Renaissance foot troops, which I will undercoat this weekend. There will be pikemen, crossbowmen, a few characters and some handgunners. All of these will be in some form of Papal red and white. After that, I intend to add some halberdiers and more crossbows, and possibly some more pikemen.  I am thinking that at least some of these will be wearing a different livery, to indicate that they represent troops hired by the Condottiero as additional muscle, but not as full-time members of the band. I am thinking that these will probably hail from Switzerland, and I am thinking about a black/yellow/red colour palette for these. I may yet change my mind, though.

Reinforcements for my 18th century imagi-nations

When I first started this blog, my original aim was to write about the imaginary countries of Syldavia and Borduria, well-known to all fans of the Tintin books, their history and their armies and personalities of the 18th century.

Over time, the blog had expanded to cover all things wargaming, but I still love my imagi-nations, and often think about what I could write about next. I am always also thinking about new units I could create for my armies (used for Sharp Practice), including some Ottoman enemies who threaten both Syldavia and Borduria from the south.

Anyway, one nagging annoyance was that I created a couple of units which were understrength and I've recently addressed that issue. Here are four groups of eight figures who all provide reinforcements for their respective units.

First, the Syldavian Douma Regiment of Pandurs. These now have two line groups, a group of skirmishers, an officer and two NCOs.

Now, the pride of the Syldavian Light Infantry, the Strelec Jäger Regiment. I am thinking that I might upgrade the Schützen group roster so that they will be equipped with rifles. 

Next, the Bordurians. First the Smederevka Hajduk Regiment, volunteers and conscripts equivalent to the Syldavian Pandurs.

And finally, the feared Moznik Jäger Regiment, equipped and uniformed in the Prussian style beloved of the Bordurian Autokrat, Constantine II. Again, I am wondering whether the Schützen group for these troops should have rifles rather than muskets too.

Mercenary light lancers

My Condottieri band grows apace! 

The latest recruits are also mounted lancers, but less lavishly equipped than the gendarmes. These are the lighter riders that each lance (i.e a gendarme and his small retinue) contained. Variously known as sergeants, chevau-légers, coutiliers, "archers" (betraying their originals as mounted bowmen) and other names, these riders were less heavily equipped than the gendarmes (also known as Elmeti and  occasionally as Armigeri Veri in Italy) and were, in part, the originals of the later Reiters, Demi-lances and Argoulets of the 16th century.

Once again, red and white are the unifying colours of these troops, although I was keen to have a couple of the riders looking different, with the red.white component being minimal. Although not as heavily armoured as the gendarmes, these troops do have mail shirts and/or breastplates under their livery tunics and wear items of armour on their arms and legs.

I am rather pleased with how they have turned out. I was a bit worried while I was painting them, but once I'd given them a bit of a dry-brushing and inked them, they began to come together nicely.

Next, there will be mounted crossbowmen, and then I will resist painting any more mounted troops for as long as possible, because I really do not like painting horses at all. Having said that, though, I really do want to paint up a fully-armoured mounted leader with a standard bearer at some point.

Bad Squiddo female Soviet soldiers

First, a confession. I've had these figures for ages, I started painting them at least a year ago and then left them, mainly because other things took over, but also because I didn't really have any urgent reason to finish them off.

However, after paining up a dozen Renaissance gendarmes, I wanted a change before getting stuck into more Renaissance mounted figures, so, I dug them out and finished them off.

First, there is a Rifle section, with a Degtyaryov DP-27 LMG team, six soldiers with Mosin-Nagant rifles, two with PPSh-41 SMGs, an officer and a Commissar wearing a blue skirt), both equipped with pistols.

I deliberately chose to paint the figures in a mixture of uniforms. From what I have read, there was a fair amount of variation in the uniforms of the Red army, due to the use of different factories, different dyes and different fabrics, so it seemed to me that it was worth reflecting those variations in my Soviet women soldiers.

My next section is a scout unit, wearing camouflage.

There is another Degtyaryov DP-27 LMG team, a sniper and spotter team, a radio operator and map reader, and the section leader, equipped with a PPSh-41 SMG.

So, they are finally finished. I am still wondering what I will use them for, but perhaps they could be deployed to fight the Fascist menace in a game of VBCW, supporting my Women's Militia?

Condottieri gendarmes on unarmoured horses

Following on from the heaviest gendarmes  riding armoured horses, here are six more Perry Plastic gendarmes mounted on unarmoured horses.

Although you always see a lot of gendarmes with armoured horses, I suspect that, in reality horse armour was kept to a minimum when actually engaged in combat, with the full horse barding probably seeing more service in parades than on battlefields.

The flag with these guys looks like it is plain red from the angle it is in the photo, but it is actually a white cross on a red ground, keeping the red/white theme of the overall band.

Anyway, I now have a couple of powerful cavalry units ready for Lion Rampant, and my next part of the project revolves around the Perry Plastic 1450-1500 Light Cavalry box. It is my plan to make up six of these as mounted crossbowmen and the other six as light lancers, mounted sergeants in Lion Rampant parlance.

Once those are done, it will be over to the foot soldiers.

A few support options for CoC

I actually finished these off a while ago, just after New Year, in fact, but forgot to put a post on here. These are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, of which I am very fond. The tiny sculpts have lots of animation and whatever passes for personality inside a small metal soldier.

There is a mixed bag here, both British and German support options. First off a British rifle section, consisting of a three man Bren team, a sis man rifle team and a Junior Leader.

Next the equivalent for the Germans, a standard Heer section, with the same kind of structure.

Next, a couple of PIAT teams with a Senior Leader. Not sure now much use these will be, or if I'll ever need two of them at the same time, but the figures were, ahem, just lying around, so here they are.

Next, a tripod-mounted MG42 team and a Senior Leader for the Germans. I've already painted up one of these teams, but I had a second one, so here it is. The SL will be a useful cheap support option for the Germans, whose basic platoons lack leaders.

And finally, to quote newsreaders everywhere, here are two Vickers teams for the British, providing some much-needed additional firepower.

There are still quite a few other support options that I might need at some point, so this will rumble on in the background for some time, I think.

More Condottieri

After my first efforts on the project; I started work on the Perry plastic Mounted Men-at-Arms, because every self-respecting Condottieri band needs some armoured men mounted on big horses. There are 12 figures in the Perry box, and I've made them all up; six on unarmoured horses, and the remainder on barded ones. So far, I have completed the latter group, but the rest will be finished soon.

These heavily armoured riders were given a range of names across Renaissance Europe; Elmeti, Gens d'Armes, Gendarmes and so on. Their role was a continuation of that of the mediaeval mounted knight, forming the armoured fist that could decide a battle at the charge. Until the rise of gunpowder weapons and pike-armed infantry, the gendarme was the most powerful tool available to generals across western Europe. The concept of the gendarmes d'ordonnance company originated in France, but throughout the 15th century became commonly used throughout Europe. The companies were made up of lances, i.e. a group of mounted troops and retainers, led by a noble (the actual gendarme) and supported by lighter-equipped troops, a second, slightly lighter lancer, one or two mounted missile troops (equipped with crossbows or bows), a page and one or two servants, usually totalling six or seven men in total.

Over time, the lance concept changed as warfare changed, until the plate-armoured lancer began to be replaced during the 16th century by mounted troops in lighter armour, more reliant on firearms, but the heavy lancer lasted almost until the start of the Thirty Years' War in western Europe, and even longer in the East, where the Polish Winged Hussar continued to serve right until the end of the 17th century.

Anyway, my six gendarmes have been painted with red and white as the common theme, and the banner being carried is a common device in Renaissance Italy. In this case I see it as the banner of Bologna, the idea being that these mercenary gendarmes were recruited in the city. The red and white also ties into the Papal theme of the overall band.

My latest big project - A Condottieri band in Papal service

I have long had a desire to do something with the lovely Perry plastic late mediaeval/renaissance box sets. I mentioned this at Christmas and now I have actually embarked upon the project.

My plan is to create a condottieri band which I can use for Lion Rampant games, but which can also be used for other sets of rules. I know that creating a force for the latter part of the 15th century stretches the Lion Rampant period right to the end of the 15th century and into the early part of the 16th, but I think that it will be fine. I've decided on a force in Papal service because that means that I can use a fairly unified colour scheme, predominantly red and white, but which will also allow me the flexibility to use other colours too. We should remember that there were no real uniforms in this period, certainly not among mercenaries, but that there were specific combinations of colours associated with retinues belonging to city states, powerful nobles and others.

I have plans for a number of troop types; pikemen, troops with polearms, crossbowmen, arquebusiers (which I will probably deploy as bidowers), armoured men-at-arms (both mounted and on foot), lighter cavalry, mounted crossbows etc. 

Looking at the number of sprues I have, I will admit that this looks like a pretty daunting task, but one has to make a start and here is where I am so far.

I like to start off with a leader or character, because that gives me a nice thing to do before I plunge into the rank and file. So, here is a commander on foot with his standard bearer, a herald (using the English king body and a head and trumpet from the Light Cavalry box and six heavily-armoured men-at arms on foot with polearms and a two-handed longsword. I know that Lion Rampant doesn't really need leaders looking like this, but I intend to ignore the standard bearer and treat the base as a single figure. The Herald was just a nice extra to paint up. I'm sure that he'll get used somewhere along the line.

I will paint more of these armoured foot later on, but I am currently working on some mounted troops, which should be finished by the end of the week.

Of course, these guys will also be ideal for Dragon Rampant too, and also probably Sword and Spear, so this is a win-win project. I am also thinking about how I might use Pikeman's Lament and Lion Rampant concepts together to take this force into the Italian Wars.

Saga Sunday; Shieldmaidens v Saxons

Well, Vikings v Saxons really, but using my Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens as the Vikings.

Owen and I played a few games at the club on Sunday afternoon. He hadn't played Saga 2 before, but it didn't stop him using his battleboard to the full, with his army being made up entirely of Warriors, grouped into four 12-man units, giving them access to some annoyingly useful abilities.

I started off with an army containing Thrall archers, as well as the usual Hirdmen and Bondi units, switching things around to give me an actual Shieldmaiden unit (led by a Valkyrie) after the first game. This is a useful addition, with eight attacks, plus a War Banner which allows the unit to remove a point of fatigue for free.

We ended up playing three games, all of them incredibly bloody encounters. We pretty much fought ourselves to a standstill in the first, I lost the second and Owen lost the third one, losing his Warlord in the process.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and here are some pictures of the action;