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.

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.