Two more vampires

I had a quiet lazy day yesterday, what with my partner being off out all day so I got on with some more painting and did two more vampires.

These have a much more Carpathian or Eastern European feel than the previous two. They are Noble Vampires from the North Star Frostgrave Blood Legacy range of figures and I really like them a lot. I probably won't ever play Blood Legacy, but these two have so much potential for all manner of things.

I think that the forested mountains of Transylvania are likely to be their original home, because they really do have that Balkan nobility vibe about them. There is a Gothic supplement for In Her Majesty's Name which has been brought up to date for the second edition of the rules. You can download it here. These figures seem to be pretty much perfect for IHMN, but are also going to work with all manner of horror or Pulp rules, and even with The Silver Bayonet, especially if you want to play in a Russian setting.

One of the nice things about a warm day is that things dry quickly and your varnish won't go cloudy. I got up before 7:30 this morning and varnished and photographed the pair of toothy horrors. I think that they have turned out really well.

Ancien Régime Vampires

I am currently getting a few nice odds and ends out of the way before embarking on a new (as in, not one I was planning to do at all last year) big project.

First up are two vampires, both from the North Star Silver Bayonet range of figures.

I am really taken with the poses of these two, they are full of cunning and menace, as though they are waiting in some lonely place for passing victims.

I have called them Monsieur le Marquis and Madame la Marquise and I see them living in an ancient château somewhere quite remote in south-western France, maybe close to a village that is entirely under their control. Although they are dressed in the fashion of the 18th century, they are clearly far older beings, perhaps with lives that stretch back to the Middle Ages, if not before that.

Although designed for The Silver Bayonet, these figures clearly have a lot of potential for all manner of rules and scenarios. I think that they are terrific figures and they were a lot of fun to paint. as an aside, I gave Madame a green dress trimmed with yellow to echo the uniform (green with yellow facings) of the 17th century Régiment de Fimarcon dragoons, who by the Seven Years' War had been renamed the Aubigné Dragoons and were uniformed in red with (probably) green facings.

 

Where The Leaf Falls - A BIG Sharp Practice weekend

Last weekend was the latest instalment of David Hunter's ongoing Saindoux Campaign, set in the British and French colonies in 18th century North America and using the Sharp Practice rules by TooFatLardies. (It is probably worth pointing out here that Saindoux is the French translation of the word Lard.)

Anyway, all the usual suspects gathered once more at BIG in sunny (not so sunny, actually) South Bristol for two days of French and Indian Wars gaming.

I'm not going to say too much here, except that the tables were, once again beautiful to look at and the scenarios gave all of us much thought, and more than a small amount of grief. I took a lot of pictures, but the low light levels meant that the ISO level on my DSLR ( a Pentax K70, in case anyone is interested) was pushed out to 128000 and therefore shooting without flash ended up producing grainy pictures, so apologies for that.

Anyway, the first few pictures are from my first game. My co-player had a force of Huron Indians and their behaviour was decidedly odd. First, they spurned an obvious opportunity to advance on the far bank of the river to outflank the British via a ford, instead deploying close to a pair of deserted Mohawk lodges. Then, after a couple of rounds of musketry, they entered the lodges and looted them. I was somewhat nonplussed, but what could I do? They were immune to reason. Things only got worse when the Huron warriors then set fire to the lodges and proceeded to escape with their loot, leaving my French to face the combined British forces alone. Luckily, I managed to kill an escaping British commander, so the French objective was achieved without actually defeating the British. It was only afterwards that I discovered that plunder and destruction was the Huron objective.

So, after Day 1, the French had a strong advantage, but the British hoped to come back strongly on Sunday.

 

This was another WHAT???? moment. The French had to destroy the fort that they had captured from the British the previous day. After accumulating 50 task points, the fuse would be lit and the fort would explode at the next Chapter end, ideally giving the occupants of the fort time to get away. Unhappily, the Tiffin chip came out too early to see any Command chips emerge from the bag. OK, never mind, we'll have another try in the next phase. Inevitably, the very first chip of the new phase was Tiffin. End of Chapter. Ka-Boom! the fort went up, killing everyone inside the building and causing many casualties and monumental levels of shock on those inside the pallisade. The game limped on for one more phase after that, but having achieved the objective, the French withdrew, somewhat shell-shocked and battered.

 

In gaming terms, my high-spot was the way my fusiliers from the Régiment de Guyenne performed. With the close terrain, getting a formation into action was a slow process, but when they arrived, the dice pixies were generally kind to me, and firing Controlled Volleys paid off handsomely, giving Les Rosbifs a series of bloody noses.

In the end, the two days ended with a French victory,  so Hurrah! Mon Dieu! Vive le Roi! etc.

It was another terrific weekend of gaming and I enjoyed every minute of it. Ultimately, though, it isn't about winning or losing, it is about enjoying some excellent gaming with a bunch of friendly and like-minded gamers. 

Back from holiday and another Big SP playtest battle

OK, so the holidays are over now and it is back to reality. 

This game was planned before I went on holiday at the beginning of July. It is another playtest of my modifications for Sharp Practice so I can play big battles using my Lurkio 15mm late 17th century armies. This time, I was playing against another club member, Dick, who has an interest in finding some good Pike & Shot rules. We played out a simple encounter battle with Dick commanding the French and me in charge of the Anglo-Dutch and Danish army.

The battle was, as often seem the case a relatively inconclusive one, but the French definitely came out with the upper hand, with Anglo-Dutch morale plummeting due to losing a pretty monumental cavalry encounter near the centre of the table. I  am not going to give a blow by blow account, but there were some interesting points that emerged.

Anyway, the French arrived first, but the Anglo-Dutch managed to get most of their army on the table before any more French arrived.

The Anglo-Dutch centre-right seemed perfect for Horse.

Elsewhere the two Danish regiments of Foot slowly advanced. These troops do not have pikes, so need to rely on their plug bayonets to defend in melee.

The Anglo-Dutch cavalry began to advance strongly.

An English Dragoon regiment used their moveable deployment point to ambush a French Horse regiment. Rules for moveable deployment points are one of the things I want to change in the next iteration of these rule mods. I am thinking that only the unit that has the characteristic should be able to use them.

This Dutch Horse regiment braced itself for a volley that never came.

Elsewhere, the inevitable bottlenecks caused by moving past buildings hit the Anglo-Dutch.

The scene was set for the big cavalry battle that would decide the outcome of the game. Fisticuffs is the main area where I have issues with my modifications, particularly involving cavalry (including the use of pistols when charging or receiving a charge and the inability of Horse to counter charge).

The cavalry action initially favoured the Anglo-Dutch.

However, before long, the elite Régiment du Roi imposed itself upon proceedings.

The Anglo-Dutch left became a stalemate.

This was the crunch! The elite French Horse charged at the gallop, giving them a big advantage and defeated Woods' Horse (green facings) in a flank charge, causing them to withdraw with heavy losses and then took on Lumley's Horse (yellow facings) who were forced to withdraw, which put them within close range of concentrated French musketry. 

So, what did Dick think? Overall, he had positive words but also raised some valid questions about cavalry close combat. I have much thinking to do in this area, mainly to reflect on how mounted units can respond to being the subject of of a charge which doesn't totally disadvantage them but which still gives the attacker the bonus one would expect from the impetus of the charge.