Painting Challenge: Post-Holiday Round Up

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As some of you may have gathered from the recent lack of posts, I have been on holiday for a week. Surfing in Cornwall, in Polzeath to be exact.

A very pleasant week: although the waves were only good on two days, it was glorious weather throughout, so plenty of fresh air and sea, with some fantastic meals in the evenings.

I like Polzeath: very poor ‘phone signal so unlikely to get bothered by work in the few hours that I’m not in a wetsuit, small enough to lack any sort of night life (except for a couple of restaurants) and we’re lucky enough to stay somewhere that’s only a five minute walk from the beach.

And lovely to get back to a Painting Challenge inbox packed full of entries. I highly recommend everyone visits the individual galleries, and here’s a selection of work from this week’s entrants to encourage you to do so:

Painting Challenge: Post Weekend Update

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Rather than get overwhelmed by the backlog of entries that always seem to mount up against me, I’ve had a chance to process this weekend’s latest batch of entries to the Painting Challenge.

Please do visit each person’s individual gallery, but here’s a selection:

FK&P AAR: The Battle for Pinkney's Court

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With Sir John Boulters seriously wounded as he led his Cuirassier bodyguard in a desperate, but ultimately futile, attempt to shore up his left flank at the battle of Widbrooke Common, his son, “Little John” Boulters, has taken command of Royalist forces around Maidenhythe.

This is not a moment too soon, as the Parliamentarians seek to take advantage of Sir John’s injury by striking for Pinkney’s Court, the manor house that sits on the edge of Pinkney’s Green, north-east of the town itself. Taking the manor will give them a fitting place from which to plan and direct the rest of their campaign.

The two sides will therefore fight it out at the Battle for Pinkney’s Court.

The Royalists (on the far side of the field, above) have positioned themselves around the court: infantry and gun in the centre and on the left, and most of their cavalry on the right.

The Roundheads have placed their strong Dutch horse contingent on the left, aiming to sweep across the open ground of the Green. Their infantry are on the right, and will need to cross fields in order to get at the opposition.

Both sides must defend their building. The Royalists lose three victory coins if the Court falls; the Parliamentarians have their train in the yards of the Golden Ball tavern, so will also lose three victory coins if the building top right is taken by the enemy.

Opening Moves

The action began with the cavalry on the Parliamentarian left wing. As the Roundhead Horse swept forward, one Squadron of Royalist horse headed left thinking to move up the road and take the enemy guns.

The Royalist commander (me!) had, however, misjudged things, and the right-hand unit of enemy Horse managed to get forward and charge them in the rear, smashing the Cavaliers from the field.

This success drove the Roundhead cavalry into a frenzy and, without thinking, they charged after the retreating Royalists, heading straight for the hedge behind which one of the Cookham Militia battalia waited.

This proved a foolish thing to do, and they were sent crashing backwards, and would spend the rest of the game lurking in the woods trying desperately to rally.

In the meantime, the rest of the Royalist horse would take advantage of their superior number of units and defeat the rest of the Parliamentarian cavalry. This wasn’t enough to break the whole Roundhead army so, as the Royalist horse promptly disappeared off table in pursuit, the game would be decided by the infantry.

The Other Side of the Field

The Roundheads advanced smartly up the field, but let one of their battalia get too far forward and become an isolated target for what little Royalist cavalry had been put on this flank.

I was sure that my two units of horse could take the Parliamentarian battalia: one to pin from the front, the other to hit if from the side.

Unfortunately, the rebels were made of stronger stuff than I had expected, and I ended up losing both units of horse to fire and melee. In particular, the Roundhead Gallant Gentleman (in blue on the front of the pike unit’s base) intervened at a crucial moment: the extra hit being just enough to finish me off.

Not a good start!

The main lines then clashed, but it was going to take something fairly miraculous to save the day now: I was outnumbered five battalia to two!

Miracles were in short supply on the Royalist side, so although my lone pike block lasted far longer than anyone expected, the Oxfordshire commanded shot were soon sent flying backwards, which was enough to finish the game in the Roundhead’s favour.

Aftermath

This was the narrowest of defeats. For about two turns, whoever lost the next unit would lose the game: my outnumbered infantry balanced by the lost Roundhead cavalry.

Another great game of For King & Parliament

Robert Avery

More Marian Romans

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After leaving the painting table alone for a week, it was back to work on my 15mm Marian Romans. This army needs seven units each comprising 24 legionaries i.e. 168 legionaries in all. That’s a lot of quite repetitious painting!

Four of seven now done

I’m using Baueda figures, sourced through Magister Militum in the UK. They each come as one piece, so no hassle attaching shields or spears and, as you can hopefully see, have plenty of character and some variety.

These are painted using GW Contrast Paints. I began by undercoating in the Grey Seer undercoat rather than the Wraithbone White that I usually use. Running out of Wraithbone on another project made me try the single can of Grey Seer that I’d bought intending to experiment, and I was glad it did: I find the grey undercoat very much more forgiving than Wraithbone, and I don’t feel there’s really any difference in the colour you end up with. I will go grey (oh, in so many ways!) from now on, I think.

The shield transfers are from Little Big Man Studios: excellent but a session or two on its own to do them. As the shield has a heavy metal boss down its middle, the transfers come in two halves, each of which have to be carefully cut out. That’s 44 transfer halves to cut out (two figures don’t carry a scutum) and mount.

As usual, I need to remember to clean the excess flock off the figures before I photograph them. Just a question of brushing them down with a soft brush, but somehow I never remember. It all comes off anyway when you start using them!

So four down, three to go…and only one more unit with red shields and plumes. Onwards!

Painting Challenge Special: Matt Slade Catch Up

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Those of you who follow the Painting Challenge regularly will know that this year super-painter Matt Slade has so far been conspicuous in his absence: Real Life interfering with Wargaming Life.

Well now he’s back with a bang, with a catch up of his work over the last six months. Visit his gallery to see the full extent of his work, but Matt has knocked up just over 2,200 points already. Here’s a selection of what you’ll see there:

Crusaders by Dan Jones

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The good news about lockdown easing is that our local bookshop has re-opened. Yes, I know that you can buy any book you want online, and probably cheaper, but there is nothing better than a good browse amongst real books on real shelves.

I popped in last week for nothing more than a quick browse and, whilst idly wandering around, noticed the book Crusaders by Dan Jones. As I’m thinking about adding a Crusader army to my TTS collection, I thought I’d buy it and give it a try. It’s been a long time since I studied anything to do with the Crusades, and even then it was a very cursory affair.

This book is excellent. Firstly, it’s written in a very accessible way. The action (the 1060’s through to the end of the 15th century) is detailed chronologically, with each set of Crusades detailed one by one. Everything is explained very clearly, so you quickly absorb the main timeline: 1st Crusade, huge success; 2nd Crusade, huge failure; 3rd Crusade, the one with Richard 1st etc.

On top of that basic information, the book is full of the sort of detail and quotes that brings the story to life: The twelfth Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Zafir, was murdered by his lover in a house near the sword-makers market in Cairo when he was twenty-five years old.”

Finally, I also liked the way it is written. When you start a chapter with the line When Najm al-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq, co-ruler of Jerusalem, was sober he was a force to be reckoned with you really have to read on to find out what he was like when he was drunk! There are also plenty of maps, and some good lists in the appendices that allow you to easily check who a historical personage is in the unlikely event that you get a bit lost.

As a paperback, the book is about an inch and half thick: I read it in under a week.

Highly recommended.

TTS AAR: Assyrians and Egyptians Clash Twice

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With lockdown restrictions easing, I was able to get in a couple of games of To The Strongest, with the width of the wargames table operating as an automatic social distancing device.

Friend Bevan and I decided to use the Egyptians and Assyrians: we’d have two games, keeping the terrain constant, swapping sides for the second game.

We opened with me commanding the Assyrians.

The Assyrian cavalry was massed on the right wing

I deployed in very much a traditional way: infantry in the centre, mounted troops on the wings. Wary of all the Egyptian light chariot units, my plan was to keep my line very much together and advance just into bowshot as one entity, aiming to concentrate fire from several units on any Egyptian lights that came into range and relying on the fact that one kill would knock one out.

The Egyptians massed all their chariots on their left wing, spreading their infantry across the battlefield from there. One thing I did immediately notice was that there were an awful lot of Egyptians on the table: a consequence of my smaller numbers of heavier, more veteran troops.

As the game began, the Egyptian chariots in front of my left wing faltered: apparently refusing to move until some bizarre religious rite had been fulfilled. This allowed me to advance forward so the flank of my line was protected by a piece of impassable ground.

The Egyptian chariots say “no”!

Eventually they did start to move forward. Well, some of them did. Bevan’s Guard Chariots turned smartly to their left and attempted the old switcheroo: heading for the other side of the battlefield. Although sometimes a successful ploy, this time it wasn’t. All that happened was that his elite troops spent the entire game shifting from right to left and never saw any action at all!

“Why not?” I hear you cry, “It can’t have taken that long to traverse the field!”. Correct, but in the meantime his other chariots had moved forward piecemeal and, as I had hoped, I was able to wipe them out with bowfire one by one. This left the Egyptian right wing hanging, with my veteran heavy chariots ready to pounce like the wolf upon the fold, to use an apt analogy. Bevan ordered a general retreat before this could happen!

The situation just before the end. Imagine the Egyptian chariots you can see at the top of the picture are no more, and my heavy chariots have swung round to flank the Egyptian line. The other Egyptian chariots are out of shot off to the right somewhere.

Game Two

For game two, I took the Egyptians. I deployed my chariots in a long line across the centre of the battlefield with my infantry in columns on either side. My plan was to advance together, shoot the enemy with my bows, and then have the infantry curl in from either side as he chased my evading light chariots.

Lure them into the centre, curl in from the sides.

What can I say except for the fact that it almost worked!

This was a terrific game that went on right to the point where both sides had only three victory coins left each. Both sides lost their camps, and both sides had many chances to finally polish the enemy off. In the end, Bevan gained the advantage, finishing me off by killing my last chariot unit with general attached.

My deployment was good, but I didn’t quite manage the infantry-curl-rounds correctly, being a little late on both sides i.e. I’d use this tactic again, but get the infantry into action a bit sooner.

Brilliant game, though!

Pharoah and the Shardana Royal Guard go into action

Robert Avery

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common Replayed

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I had a chance to re-play the Widbrooke Common ECW scenario using For King & Parliament. I posted a long AAR from the first game so will limit myself to describing a couple of highlights this time.

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For those who haven’t read the first report, the battle involves a Parliamentarian force emerging from a road through hedges to engage a Royalist force waiting for them on the other side of the eponymous common.

The game played in quite a similar way to last time, with both sides’ cavalry on the Parliamentarian right flank (i.e. right side in the picture above) coming together a few turns before the infantry met in the centre.

Once again, the Parliamentarian Dutch horse won the encounter overall, but lost a unit to pursuit. The other, however, crashed in to the left side of the Royalist infantry line in what turned out to be the coup de grace.

One unit of Royalist cavalry did break through, and went on to wipe out the Parliamentarian dragoons despite the fact that the latter were in cover behind a sizeable hedge. The Cavaliers then also disappeared off the battlefield: again showing how effective cavalry are in FK&P…but only once!

Another interesting incident was the way that the Royalist cavalry managed to bottle up the Parliamentarian reinforcements in a field. Ultimately, it didn’t have any effect on the result of the battle, but interesting anyway.

So another Parliamentarian victory, and it’s on to the battle for Pinkney’s Court next time.

More for the Painting Challenge

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Morning all!

Almost a week since my last post: my apologies but the real world got in the way of wargaming! Trying to keep a company going during lockdown is a tough business and sometimes I just can’t face another session on the PC.

Anyhow, enough of my griping: time for another update to this year’s Painting Challenge. A bumper crop of entries this week, including the return of Ashley Pollard: someone who, after a good start back when the Challenge first began, hasn’t taken part for the last couple of years. Welcome back,and I love the colour scheme on the spaceships.

Make sure you visit everyone’s gallery, and here’s a sample of this week’s entries, one from each person submitting something.

IABSM AAR: Ost Front 1944

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Another great little game from Julian Whippy and friends, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.

Its the Eastern Front in 1944. The Bagramyans drive to the coast of Lithuania with 5th Guards Tank Army, colliding with Gross Deutschland and 551 Volksgrenadiers. The Russians had to clear the railway station and blow up the railway line with engineers before a train arrived in Turn 10.

Click on the pic below to see all.

Last of the 100YW Figures (for the moment)

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One unit of billmen and a couple of command figures.

That’s all I’ve been needing to bring my English 100YW army for To The Strongest up to 130 points without having to use any proxies for a couple of months now…and I’ve finally got round to painting them.

The figures come from Gladiator Games, and were delivered promptly with their usual excellent service.

I must confess that I don’t much like these particular figures from the range (the bills are all bendy, and all held in the same slightly weird way) but they are done! The longbowmen and knights are much better.

The command figures came out a bit better:

So that army is now temporarily “done”.

On to finishing the Romans and more ECW.

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common

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With lockdown easing, K. (daughter #1’s boyfriend, trapped with us for the duration, now a keen wargamer) was able to travel back to his native Ireland, so it was with a heavy heart that I took the news that he was going to visit his mother for three weeks. This was serious stuff: who was going to do the cooking and, obviously more importantly, who was I going to wargame with?

We decided to see him off with the next For King & Parliament English Civil War scenario in my North Wessex campaign.

For this encounter, the Parliamentarians under Sir Christopher Grey have discovered that the well-drilled and armed Royalist foot that did them so much damage last battle have been requisitioned by the King and sent to fight further west. This leaves Sir John Boulters, Royalist commander around Maidenhythe, very short of infantry: he must now rely on hastily recruited farmworkers from the Cookham area. Sir Christopher now leads his men towards Maidenhythe, seeking to take advantage of his erstwhile friend’s shortage of good quality foot. Grey’s men are strengthened both by reinforcements and a supply of arms and ammunition, including a couple of cannon. The two forces will meet half way between Cookham and Maidenhythe, at Widbrooke Common.

The set-up from the Parliamentarian side

And from the Royalist side

The Royalists have their back to a small splash-across stream. They have brigades of seasoned horse on either flank, and their untried, pike-heavv foot in the centre. Finally, they have a Forlorn Hope in the farmhouse on the right hand side of the field.

The Royalist infantry (the smoke markers represent an Untried unit yet to test for first-time nerves)

The Parliamentarians are just coming on to the common from the farmland immediately south of Cookham. Their Dutch horse has secured their right flank, half their foot is busy deploying in the centre, with the other half still in the process of arriving on the left flank. Their cannon have set up on or near the road: the common looks a bit soft for the guns!

The Parliamentarian Horse

The Parliamentarian Centre

The Battle Begins

One unit of Parliamentarian horse advanced forward quickly, the other two inexplicably lagging behind. This advanced unit was met by the three squadrons of Cavalier cavalry, also advancing strongly. In the resultant clash, the Parliamentarian horse was swept from the field, but one unit of Royalist horse had been lost, and another had set off in hot pursuit of their fleeing foe.

Note that the lost Parliamentarian cavalry squadron was my newly painted Dutch Horse unit, thus proving the adage that a unit never performs well on its first outing on the tabletop!

Meanwhile, the Royalist infantry advanced forward strongly, and the Parliamentarian foot on the left flank joined battle with the Royalist Forlorn Hope in the farmhouse.

Opening Stages

The main action continued with the cavalry. The pursuing Royalists ran over the Parliamentarian Dragoons, who had inexplicably pushed their way through the hedge in front of them rather than hiding behind it. This left the Royalists still in pursuit, jumping the hedge themselves as they headed off table to the Roundhead rear.

“That Be a big hedge, Jethro!”

Meanwhile, the other Parliamentarian horse had finally worked out how to get their steeds to go forward, and crashed in to the other remaining Royalist squadron. Honours were even in this fight, with each side losing a squadron, but that left one unit of Roundhead cavalry in a superb position behind the main Royalist infantry line.

Big problem for the Royalists!

Fortunately the Royalists had a reserve in the form of Sir John himself at the head of his Cuirassier Bodyguard. As the two infantry lines came together, Sir John led his loyal lobsters forward: outnumbered two-to-one.

This was actually an epic encounter, as Sir Christopher Grey was also at the head of his Cavalerie. The two commanders were therefore leading their horse directly against each other!

This proved a good move tactically, but a disaster for Sir John himself: seriously wounded in the clash that followed, he was carried from field, close to death, his Cuirassiers fleeing around him pursued by the Roundhead cavalry. History, unfortunately, does not record whether the two former friends actually met each other in the melee.

Worse was to follow. Although on the other side of the field the other Royalist horse had managed to flank charge a battalia of Untried Parliamentarian militia, the boys from Medmenham proved a tough nut to crack: quite frankly refusing to break no matter what the Royalists did.

The first flank charge goes in!

And worse! In the centre, the Untried Royalist foot wavered at the sight of the Roundhead foot in front of them, doubtless also unnerved by the fall of Sir John. Gradually the Royalist line began to bow backwards, and then suddenly broke: all victory coins gone. The Roundheads had won the day!

Just before the Royalist line broke

Aftermath

A great battle, and a suitable victory for K. as he heads off home.

The Untried Royalist foot proved no match for the seasoned Parliamentarian battalia, but it was really the two cavalry actions that decided the day. On the Royalist left, honours proved even with both sides losing the same number of units, but the Royalist horse left the field in pursuit whereas the Roundheads managed to rally and found themselves nicely behind the Cavalier line. On the Royalist right, the cavalry should have KO’d at least one of the infantry battalia they hit in the flank, but just couldn’t quite break them: they breed them tough in Medmenham.

But it was the wounding of Sir John and the dispatch of his Bodyguard that really did for the Royalists. It was an encounter that could have gone either way - a small but veteran Cuirassier unit versus a much larger but less protected Dutch horse squadron - but, as it was, the clash, and therefore the battle as a whole, went to Parliament.

Robert Avery

TFL Painting Challenge: Another Bumper Crop!

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Here’s another cracking set of entries into the 2020 TooFatLardies Painting Challenge.

Make sure you look at the individual galleries, but here’s a selection from this week’s entries:

Two More Games of TTS

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It’s back to the living room for another couple of games of To The Strongest against K.: daughter #1’s boyfriend, trapped with us for the duration of lockdown. K. is becoming a seasoned wargamer now: into double figures with battles over the lockdown period and, as we began our games, victor in three out of our last four encounters.

“How is your Sarmatian coming along?”

In fact, so veteran is he that for this game, rather than just saying that he didn’t mind which army he played, K. very emphatically said that he’s like to play the Sarmatians again: the army he’d had so much success with last time. That was fine by me: I proxie my Sassanid Persians as Sarmatians, with the cataphracts representing veteran Sarmations and the Clibinarii standing in for the regular chaps.

A solid wall of lancers!

I, on the other hand, would take my beloved Ancient Britons, now quite a different army since the list changed the chariot force from being lights to being normal troops…it was time for the Ancient British Panzer Division to take to the field once more!

Four of my six warbands

I did still have some lights, javelin-armed horsemen and slingers, and was determined to try and use them as well as some of my other opponents i.e. manoeuvring around the battlefield like Billy Whiz, constantly nipping at flanks and rear.

“Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!”

Our first game was the sort of grinding encounter that typicalises battles where one or both sides are full of deep units. I couldn’t kill his veteran lancers, he was having difficulty breaking my deep warbands. I did manage to get my light horse attacking the flanks and rear of various Sarmatian units, but to no effect whatsoever!

The Ancient Britons head for the rough ground

Chariots kept back as a mobile reserve/exploitation force

In the end, however, it was lights that won the day for me. A unit of light infantry slingers found themselves out of ammunition and in the middle of the battlefield. They spent a bit of time desperately trying not to be noticed by the Sarmatians, a tactic that succeeded to the extent that one lancer unit, already disordered, strayed within flank charge range. In went the slingers and KO’d the Sarmatian cavalry. This left them a few squares from the rear of another Sarmatian cavalry unit. Their blood was obviously up, as a couple of high activation cards allowed me to charge them as well…and then take them out, relieving K. of the last of his victory coins. The slingers had won the day!

Game 2

As the distaff side of things had taken the evil pooch (squatter in my wargames room!) out for a walk, we swapped sides for a second battle.

One thing I noticed immediately was what a lot of Ancient Britons there were: ‘fousands of them to be inexact!

From the other side: there are an awful lot of hairy-arsed barbarians to kill!

This turned out, however, not to matter at all, as the game ended up being very much a walkover in my favour. The Ancient Brits came on in a slightly crooked line, which allowed me to target individual units with my bow fire. This was, as usual, quite ineffectual, but the odd Disorders I did achieve gave me an extra advantage in the melees that followed.

I did have a scare early on when one of my non-Veteran brigade generals was killed by a slingshot, but, once battle was joined in the centre, my veteran units killed the warbands in front of them, punching a huge hole in the British line.

The British line begins to crumble

Not only did this cost K. a lot of victory coins, but it also left the way open to his camp: worth another three coins. In the end, however, I didn’t even need that: I had kept my left and right flanks back whilst my centre went in, now I sent them forward as well, aiming all the time at his weaker units. This tactic proved successful, and suddenly K. had no coins left. Looking at the tabletop, we both realised that I hadn’t actually lost a unit: just one very unfortunate general. Total victory was mine.

Big Hole in the middle of the Ancient British line

Aftermath

A great afternoon’s gaming, and a chance for me to pull two games back against K. Tomorrow is Father’s Day, so I’ve booked another couple of games for then, but more on that in a future post…

Robert Avery

More ECW Dutch Horse

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Having painted up three units of Republican Romans, I needed a break from things Latin, so dipped into one of the more recent outcrops from the lead mountain: another unit of Dutch horse for my English Civil War collection.

These are more from the excellent 15mm Hallmark range, available from Magister Militum. They are painted with GW Contrast Paints, with the flag from Maverick. The base is a large vehicle base from Warbases.

Infamy, Infamy! Advanced Order Now Available

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Although my main interests are the company-sized games from the TooFatLardies, I like to play and support everything Lard…so here’s the news on their latest release:

Infamy, Infamy!

Great News and much excitement on Lard Island as we are able to announce that Infamy, Infamy! will be released in just two weeks time on Monday the 29th of June. That’s great news for everyone who has been following the development of these groundbreaking large skirmish rules, but especially so for our customers in the United States where the prompt release means that we will. just beat the new considerable rise in postal charges to the USA for all advanced order.

So, what is available?

Infamy, Infamy! has four component options, as follows:

The main rules:

Infamy, Infamy! is a game that will, ultimately, be divided into three parts. This is the first rule book which covers Rome’s conflicts with the western barbarian between 60 BC and AD 100. Covered in the rules are lists for Late Republican forces that can be used for Caesar and his campaigns in Gaul and Britannia and against the German tribes raiding across the Rhine.

The Early Imperial Roman lists are perfect for the conquest of Britannia under Claudius and the continuing campaigns through to Agricola’s conquest of the North and beyond. The British lists cover the period from Caesar’s invasions through to Mons Graupius, including lists for Boudicca’s revolt. Gallic lists cover the classic period of conquest of the Gallic Wars with the Belgea and Aquitani represented and make every effort to reflect the more advanced culture of the Gauls. The Germans, on the other hand, are the ultimate Barbarians, with lists for the tribes of the Rhineland and those of the dark forests of Germania Magna and for the Batavian Revolt.

The Infamy Cards:

The Infamy Cards are actually two card decks in one. Firstly the Game Deck which is used t determine the run of play in each turn. It includes Leader Cards to indicate which of your forces main characters is activated and also the Signa Cards which determine what reservoir of command is available. Then we have the Infamy Deck. These are the cards that control the political machinations of the period. How will your cause be affected by treachery or by unexpected friends? The Infamy Deck adds much of the period character that makes Infamy, Infamy! feel like an account from the ancient histories.

The Poker Chips:

Some (heretical?) players prefer poker chips to Cards, so we have produced a set of MDF poker chips that replace the Game Deck. These are provided in two ‘sprues’ for easy painting. Spray one set red and the other blue and you’re ready to go, or take a bit more time and turn these into a piece of art in their own right. Either way they come shrink wrapped. Please note, these DO NOT replace the Infamy Deck.

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Infamy Token Set:

The perfect token set to accompany the rules. This provides tokens to show when your Romans are in close order, when they have shields braced or when they are defending against missiles or in Testudo. It shows when the Barbarians are in shieldwall and tracks ammunition usage for those troops who don’t have an unlimited supply. Essentially, it’s the complete kit for tracking what your troops are doing.

For Advanced Order we are offering three bundles. These are as follows:

The ‘They’ve Got it ALL Infamy’ Bundle! This is the Rule Book, free PDF of the rules, Infamy Cards, Poker Chips and Token Set. This is available for £42.00

The ‘The Big Infamy’ Bundle. This is the Rule Book, free PDF of the rules, Infamy Cards and Token Set. This set is available for £38.50

The ‘The Basic Infamy’ Bundle. This is the Rule Book, free PDF of the rules and Infamy Cards. This set is available for £34.00

PLEASE BE AWARE. The PDF will be emailed to you on the day the rules are released.

Why can’t you buy the rule book on its own or additional token sets? The rule book on its own is not the complete game. You do need the minimum of the Infamy Cards to play, so whilst we will be selling the rules separately after the 1st of July, we are focusing at this stage on the advanced order bundles. The processing of thousands of orders is a laborious one that is much simplified if we keep it to the key bundles that are available. What’s more, these bundles offer superb value for money and are prices that we cannot maintain after the release day.

As for additional token sets and Poker Chips, we honestly don’t think you need them. The number of tokens in the set is pretty much double what we used in ANY game at playtest stage, and we played plenty of them. Again with Poker Chips. We never used anywhere near all of the Chips in the set. So the bundles have been designed to provide all that we think is required.

Breaking the Line

But these great deals aren’t all. We will be entering everyone who places an order for the Advanced Order Bundles into a raffle for a high quality print of the original cover artwork, a superb oil painting entitled “Breaking the Line AD 73” by internationally renowned military artist Chris Collingwood. It represents a battle as Pettilius Cerialis campaigned in northern Britain against the Brigantes, Parisi or Carveti and was spotted by one of our playtesters who instantly said that it summed up the game completely. We agreed and talks with Chris secured us the image for the rule cover. Valued at over £100, this print is one of a series of TEN commissioned by the artist and signed by him. A truly superb prize to be won. But that’s not all. We will be announcing some more great prizes in the run up to to launch, so keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter as well as here for announcements.

Two Games of TTS...

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…which almost never happened?

Why? I hear you ask. What could keep the man from his beloved wargaming?

An intruder, that’s what: an alien beast that has taken up residence in my wargaming room.

When I agreed that the family could get a dog, I made it clear that I wanted a good-sized, rough ‘n’ ready working dog. As you can see, I got exactly what I wanted. She’s a pedigree too, and one who delights in the name Irma Daydream Belle-ever, or Bella for short.

But back to wargaming…and with the space where my tables go filled with all sorts of doggy paraphernalia, I had to de-camp to the sitting room and go To The Strongest rather than my intended I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

With everything having to be shipped into the room as opposed to being immediately available , I decided to try my reconstructed 100YW English army: mounted knights, dismounted knights, longbows and billmen. K. would take the Sarmatians: neatly proxied by the Sassanid Persians.

For the first game, I made the classic “new army” mistake and forgot to consider how the army acted historically. As I’d rather foolishly put my cannon into the same brigade as the mounted knights, I placed them in the centre of the table, with battles consisting of a mix of dismounted knights, longbows and billmen on the flanks.

The Sarmatians took the initiative, swept forward, and basically defeated each battle as three separate encounters. Yes, I had plenty of missile-armed troops, but I just couldn’t get the concentration of fire I needed to halt the enemy heavy cavalry, who then swept in and lance-d my troops to death.

A foolish deployment!

I had learnt my lesson for game two, and set up in the traditional “Agincourt” fashion: archers in the middle, with the two battles next to each other for mutual support, with the melee troops on the flanks, and my mounted knights grouped on one side for a decisive flank attack.

This worked much better. As the Sarmatians advanced somewhat unevenly, I was able to target each unit in turn, hammering them with bow and cannon fire. By the time they had reached my line, they were already down three units, and natural attrition in melee, even on a one-for-one basis, gave me the victory, especially as the cannon had neatly taken the head off one of his generals!

A couple of good games (despite the change of location!) and a valuable lesson re-learnt: go historical with your tactics!

IABSM AAR: The Defence of Wulkow

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Another brilliant 6mm I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum battle report from Mark Luther, this time featuring action in 1945.

On the 16th of April 1945 the Soviet army unleashed its last offensive against the German Reich. The bridgeheads over the Oder River split asunder and spewed forth red infantry and armor which forged forward to take Berlin. Although by this late stage in the war the German army was on its knees, it had a strong defensive position on the Seelow heights and gave a good account of itself, selling each meter of the Reich dearly.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TFL Painting Challenge: First Update in June

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And don’t I wish I hadn’t left it so long: vast numbers of entries coming in!

Excellent work, everybody: some really good lock down painting going on. Make sure you check out everyone’s galleries, but here’s one entry from everyone who submitted this time round: