At last, a return to the Condottieri

Having to quickly paint up all those Peninsular War British Foot took me away from my current big project, my Italian Renaissance Condottieri band for Lion Rampant.

However, having finished off the 61st Foot, I am now back on track with some armoured guys with big choppers, and here they are;

I've also been doing some drummers and standard bearers for when I get my pikemen and other lighter troops finished. My current plan is for two groups of pikes; one in the red/white colour scheme and another in a black/yellow scheme representing some Swiss pikemen from the Canton of Uri, hence the yellow flag with the black bull's head. I want a standard bearer for each pike group, and a musician for each group too.

I've also completed a few more armoured foot wearing the red/white livery, here with some yellow to add variety.

My next task it going to be a unit of crossbowmen. I have a dozen glued together and primed, ready to begin work next week. These will also be in the predominant red/white colour scheme, but I also would like another unit in a different livery, again probably the yellow and black of Uri. I like yellow and black for this period.

I also want a unit of troops equipped with polearms. This is an option in the Perry plastic box set, but unhappily this means cutting pikes down to size and glueing on a new top piece with a polearm blade . I foresee much swearing.

I know that I am going to have too many units for a simple 24 point Lion Rampant force, but I am hoping that I can persuade an opponent to play a larger game, with 36 or even 48 points a side. Also, having lots of units to choose from will give me the chance to put together a variety of different 24 point forces.

A Peninsular War Sharp Practice AAR

Yesterday at the club was a chance to have a practice game for next weekend's big Sharp Practice event at BIG. Both Brian and I will be playing, so we decided to play with a limited size force of roughly 55pts a side.

Obviously, I took my newly-finished 61st Foot, led by Captain Nigel Molesworth and Sgt Timothy Peason, and a single group of 95th Rifiles, led by Captain Barnaby Thorne and Sgt Jasper Hyde. With a Marksman, that took me to 53pts.

Brian had a much larger French force, French troops being a lot cheaper than British ones.

We played a modified version of Scenario Two: Sweep The Table, with six McGuffins placed around the table for Brian, the attacker to capture. We marked these with green jewels.

The table was like this;

The British would be defending from the end with these walled orchards, while the French would sweep in from the wooded end of the table;

The French appeared first, quickly claiming one or two McGuffins, but eventually the Rifles got into the larger orchard.

The 61st marched in open column towards the lane between the two orchards.

The French Voltigeurs, supported by a single Line group began to advance across the cornfields.

Elsewhere. more Voltigeurs emerged from the woods as the rest of the Line troops sought out more McGuffins.

British progress was slower, but Thorne's Rifles were in a strong position behind a sturdy wall.

Another McGuffin is captured.

The Voltigeurs open fire on the Rifles, to no effect.

Returning fire, the Rifles inflict shock and a single casualty.

The 95th use Sharp Practice to reload (those two reload actions are a real downside for troops with rifles, as opposed to muskets, and soon get into the woods, while the 61st begin to deploy into line.

The French begin to pull back, having grabbed for of the six McGuffins and take up a defensive position.

Captain Molesworth leads his men across the open ground to get to grips with the French.

With the 95th protecting their right flank, the 61st get within firing range.

Taking advantage of their first fire superiority, Molesworth orders them to Present and Fire. Despite scoring a lot of hits, the volley causes only two casualties and a bit of shock. While the 61st are unloaded, skirmisher fire begins to have some effect.

French Voltigeurs in the woods to the British left mount a sneaky flank attack. They force one group to leave the formation and cause some dead and shock. However, Sgt Peason is equal to the task and in a subsequent round of Fisticuffs, the Voltigeurs are wiped out.

Unhappily, Peason's group is forced to flee within a few turns, due to the arrival of French line troops, who begin to make life difficult for the rest of the 61st.

Things get worse as they are compelled to fall back, and Thorne's Rifles suffer from surprisingly effective Voltigeur fire.  Their Marksman is notably ineffective, so I doubt that I'll have one on the roster for next weekend.

We call a halt at this point. The British are too weak to continue and the 61st are carrying too much shock to do anything.

I think that I've learnt a bit about the weaknesses of the British when limited to such a small force., especially when the Line is out in the open.

Anyway, I have more ideas about what I might need to do next weekend, and one thing is to include a Musician for 1pt, and here he is (I finished him off this morning);

He's OK, not great, but he looks better from a distance, and I am annoyed that I didn't notice that the join between the two halves of the drum was so prominent until I'd inked the model. Anyway, the force I used here, without the Marksman but with the Musician, comes to 52pts, so I am seriously considering taking another 61st Foot Status I leader for 3pts. It might be time for Sgt Jack Spratt to get called to the colours.

I'm back ............. and I've been busy

I've not posted anything for a couple of weeks because we decided to make a last-minute trip around France before the chaos of Brexit descends upon us.

My partner and I, plus Maisie and Daisy, our two Westies, booked a return crossing via Le Tunnel  sous La Manche and booked up a few hotels around France, in places that we have visited before and which we both love. Naturally, these included stops in wine producing regions, as well as that gastronomic heaven, Lyon. We were away for around 10 days, which left me just this week to finish off my latest rush project.

At the end of March, I am involved in a two-day event at BIG, playing Napoleonic Sharp Practice in 28mm. Although I have a few groups of 95th Rifles and Portuguese Atiradores I wanted to field some line troops, as well as fitting into the event's points limits of 55pts per player.

Anyway, I'd previously started off some Victrix Peninsular War British, getting them undercoated and partly blocked in with base colours, but now the pressure was on, not least because I wanted to have a practice session this coming Sunday in a club game against Brian's French. I have decided that these will represent the 61st Foot, a.k.a. The South Gloucestershire Regiment, which seems appropriate because of the Bristol connection.

Well, this morning I got them finished, and here they are. First, some leaders;

I only need two Leaders for the BIG event, but I wanted to paint up more, so that I can expand the force later.

Now, the actual troops, three groups of eight;

I wanted to give these a battle-worn, grubby look, with some troops in non-standard trousers, hence the chap in the third group in blue trews, which he's clearly taken from a French or Portuguese soldier who had no further use for them. Others have grey or brown trousers, and all of them are wearing uniforms that wouldn't pass muster on parade, in terms of cleanliness.

I have enough parts left on the sprues to make up another 16 figures, so that is two more groups. I will also finish off a drummer and an Ensign with the colours at some point, but I don't need these at the moment.

I always worry when I am painting figures, especially plastic ones, because I never think that they are going to look any good when I've finished, but I think that these are OK. Once they were dry-brushed and inked, they really began to come alive, and once flocked and varnished, I am relatively happy with my work.

Now, I need to come up with some names for the Leaders. I am definitely going to have Captain Nigel Molesworth leading them, but I am still thinking about the other three.

Another Sword and Spear Fantasy Sunday

Yesterday (3rd March) we had an all-dayer at the club and five of us played a kind of Round Robin friendly tournament of Sword and Spear Fantasy using 1000pt 15mm armies. Each battle was to last six turns. The forces involved were;

Clive:  Undead

Owen: High Elves

Brian:  Orcs

Nick:   Desert-themed Meerkats

Me:     Hyborian Barbarian Horde

Some games were tougher than others, in the sense that some were incredibly violent and lots of units were eliminated, but all the games were good fun.

The scoring was a bit haphazard, such things as killing off generals and captains didn't score any points so winners and losers were judged solely on the army points value of the units they eliminated. 

As things turned out, Clive topped the table and I was second, but that didn't really matter. The most destructive encounter was the battle between Clive's Undead and my Hyborian Horde. I almost ended up with a crushing victory as my cavalry crushed Clive's right wing and proceeded to roll up his line, but the resilience of the Undead meant that I snatched a narrow 27-25 win. I'd like to have a rematch, because they are a tough opponent.

The important thing I learnt was that you really cannot afford to let your cavalry get charged by other  Impact cavalry, because you will end up with a big gap where your impressive strike force used to be.

I am also thinking that I might have to add my archers to my Heavy and Medium Foot units, to give them a Reduced Shooting capability, rather than using separate bow-armed units (except for Skirmishers). It could help in Melee.

Anyway, here are the pics.