Norman Archers

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Had a real push on finishing the Normans last weekend:

There are two units of Archers and two units of Light Crossbowmen. These are 15mm figures from Museum Miniatures lovely “Z” range of CAD designed minis. Highly recommended for anyone looking for Normans in that scale.

With these figures finished, I can now field Anglo-Normans if I add my Vikings to the roster as quasi-Anglo-Saxon types. I could also field a Norman-Norman army, but it would be a very infantry-heavy one: I’m going to need to paint up some more milites before I can field mostly-mounted Normans.

Salute 2023

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It’s April, so it must be time for the annual pilgrimage to Excel and Salute.

This year, rather than drive, I thought I’d try taking the new Elizabeth line. Going by train would previously have involved a change at Paddington onto the tube, another change at Aldgate onto the DLR and, all in all, be a right pain…but now I got on a train at Maidenhead and got off at Custom House only about an hour later. Extraordinary! And the return trip cost me less than it does to park at Excel all day, so money saved too.

Anyhow, on to the show: the hall in Excel was its usual gloomy self; no real queue to get in; pretty packed in the morning but emptied out after lunch. The best bit of the show, obviously was the Lard Zone, with some spectacular-looking demo games of What A Cowboy; IABSM; Chain of Command; Strength & Honour; and General d’Armee.

There were some great looking non-Lard demo games elsewhere as well, some of which I’ve photographed below. Forgive the variable quality: I was having camera troubles, so some are from my camera and some are from my mobile phone.

I wasn’t shopping for very much, so only bought a few odds and ends, but one thing that did strike me was how little there was on offer for a 15mm gamer such as myself. Essex were there, Forged in Battle were there, Battlefront/FoW “we now only do late war” kit was everywhere, but apart from those three, I don’t think there were any other 15mm manufacturers present. Certainly nothing spectacular and new to spend my money on, and I was ready, willing and able!

So a bit disappointing really, especially as this was supposed to be the 50th Anniversary Salute. Worth going, but very run of the mill :(

TFL Painting Challenge: St George's Day Update

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Or Shakespeare’s birthday update: take your pic!

Lots of entries added this time round, including the return of Steve Burt with some nice Napoleonic British Dragoons and a cornucopia of entries from Matt Slade that are either 10mm or 32mm: switching between the two must be fun for the eyes!

Anyway, please do check out the individual galleries, reachable through the NavBar at the top, but here’s a taster to wet the whistle!

IABSM AAR: Spanish Civil War Action!

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Lee Young and friends recently played out a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum set in the Spanish Civil War. I missed this on the IABSM Facebook Group, so it’s a pleasure to feature it now. Lee says:

Another great game of IABSM, this time our Wednesday night game takes us back to the Spanish Civil War.

The Nationalist had to break through the Communist line and reach the top of the road to Madrid. Had to do some tweaks to the FT-17s and placed some extra cards in for ammo shortages. Played better than I expected.

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common

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Played a second game of For King & Parliament with friend Fred, this time using scenario #02 from the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack: Widbrooke Common.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so not many photos, and those that there are are from my mobile, but one thing that did stand out about the game was the power of a well placed unit of Forlorn Hope.

For those of you who know the game, Forlorn Hope are the weakest possible units: usually acting as no more than speed bump as they get overrun by better quality battalia. Not in this game however!

Placed occupying a farm house in the centre of the table, Fred’s Forlorn Hope held up two of my full strength standard battalia for the whole game, constantly rendering them Disordered when I got too close, meaning I never really got a chance to properly assault them.

I still won the game, I hasten to add, but would have won it a lot more quickly and effectively if it hadn’t been for the Forlorn Hope.

Here are the other shots of the game that I took:

FK&P AAR: The Attack on Marlowe

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A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was at school with a chap that everyone called Fred. Not sure quite why, as that wasn’t his name, but I’m thinking it might have been because he just looked like a “Fred” in that he was very large and very strong and had a difficult to spell surname. Or it might have been because he bore more than a slight resemblance to the Scooby Doo character, assuming that Fred Jones lifts, that is!

Fred and I used to wargame at school - mostly Ancients using WRG 6th - but lost touch after he swapped to doing the real thing and joined the army. Flash forward many years and he was now out, had seen me on Linked In, and made contact again. We met up shortly afterwards for a drink or three, and from there it was a very easy transition to arranging a game.

Gaming is very different now to what it was then. In those days, the early to mid-eighties, nothing was quick and nothing was small: a battle was a whole day or weekend affair, minimum, with thousands of 25mm figures on the tabletop and an allowance built into the session’s timetable for colossal, life-threatening rules disputes involving such matters of importance as fractions of inches or degrees; the definition of charging in a straight line; or line of sight arguments that could only be settled by the hiring of a theodolite! Fred used to paint 25mm Minifigs’ Napoleonics with a syringe needle, for God’s Sake, in order to make sure the regimental numbers on the cuffs were legible!

I had no wish to return to those days, especially the “life-threatening rules disputes” as he was still a very large person and now presumably trained to kill, so decided upon a game of For King and Parliament, the English Civil War version of To The Strongest. FK&P is a cracking game that, to my mind, really captures the look and feel of the period to give reasonably realistic results with fast-play mechanics. It’s grid based, obviating a lot of the disputes about measuring, and driven by drawing playing cards.

We used the first scenario from my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack, with both sides acknowledging that this first game would be a training session more than anything else. Fred took the Royalists, on the attack versus my Parliamentarians.

Fred’s first question: where was the grid? It is there, but indicated in a way that doesn’t interfere with the look of the game.

I won’t describe the battle in detail, but suffice to say that it was a grinding win for the Royalists.

What was interesting, however, was seeing Fred reacting to the different challenges he faced, drawing on military rather than wargaming experience. My battalia were to be “located and fixed in place” before being destroyed by an attack from the flank, so Fred immediately understood the concept of a Zone of Control or ZoC, and proved very good at the fixing and destroying bit.

An advantage was to be “immediately followed up” with the emphasis being on a series of consecutive hammer blows rather than necessarily conserving damaged units. It was all very interesting, and we both enjoyed the game immensely.

Here are some more shots of the battle:

TFL Painting Challenge: First April Update

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A large number of entries from a small number of people this week.

We have Matt Slade with more Star Wars figures; Sapper and Mr Helliwell with their WOTR collections; the usual assortment from Nick Cooper; and some Cuban militia from Mark Luther.

Do visit the individual galleries, accessible via the Nav bar above, but here’s a taster for you in the meantime:

IABSM AAR: Action at Galmanche

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I hope that everyone can be lucky enough to play in one of Phil Turner’s excellently presented and run games of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. I did so at one of the Operation Market Larden events, and enjoyed myself immensely.

Here’s another game from Phil that uses one of the scenarios from the rulebook. Click on the picture below to see all…

Romans and Normans

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Here’s a couple of bits of painting I’ve managed to complete.

First up, a unit of unarmoured milites for the Normans. Very much a question of one down and two to go on these: I’m writing this post instead of working on the next unit!

These are more from the Museum Miniatures CAD designed 15mm ‘Z’ Range, and very nice they are too. I went for the bright colours because these are wealthy individuals looking to look their best on the battlefield.

Next up was unit of Roman legionary engineers, which I will use as the Camp Servants that appear in the Marian Roman army list for To The Strongest that I work from.

These are 15mm Baueda figures ordered from Magister Militum. What I particularly like is that no two figures in a pack of eight are the same: that’s a decent variety for such a niche sculpt. I think I could have done a better job on the faces, though, and, for some reason, the Army Painter matt varnish has come up a bit glossy…but that will fade with time.

Right, better get back to those Normans…

TTS AAR: Sicilians versus the Tang!

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Yes, I know it’s not any sort of historical or even geographical match up, but this is Ancients/Medieval gaming so that’s convenionally allowed!

Nice

Anyhow, it was off to friend Peter’s house for a quick game of To The Strongest using his big figures. I would play the Italo-Normans as a try out for expanding the 15mm ‘pure’ Normans that I’m currently painting up into a Sicilian army; and Peter would play a nicely painted, bring-and-buy Tang Chinese army he’d had hidden away for years.

The armies were actually quite evenly matched. The Sicilians consisted of a core of Knights, some veteran, supported by spearmen, some with bows, and some lights. The Tang had a core of cavalry and cataphracts supported by, you guessed it, some spearmen and some lights, with his troops having extra crossbows rather than bows.

The Sicilians were outscouted and, I must confess, out deployed. On my left flank, all my cavalry faced all the Tang cavalry. In the centre, three quarters of my infantry faced his. But on the right flank, a good 25% of my infantry were facing empty space. Doh!

Time to make the Tang an offer they couldn’t refuse!

Comparing notes after the game, both Peter and I were convinced that we would win the cavalry clash that was almost certainly coming on my left wing: Peter because he had more lights supporting his heavies than I had, me because my cavalry were a bit better quality than his. We both duly advanced our horse forward as fast as possible.

It was in this first cavalry clash that it rapidly became apparent what sort of day I was going to have: I lost both my cavalry generals in rapid succession, drawing so many Aces that Peter actually asked me whether I wanted to check I had the right number in the deck!

I had disordered two of his units in the first clash, so was posed to sweep all before me, but have just lost both my cavalry generals: they should be behind the knights on the hill and those toi their left!

The writing was fairly much on the wall from that point onwards. My cavalry, all now out of command, were gradually beaten backwards, and although a bit of good luck could have given me an advantage, those Aces kept on coming.

The photo below shows one of the moments that could have turned the game: I have lights on the flank of some disordered cataphracts, they’ve drawn a ‘2’ to get into charge position (meaning that they have an 80% chance of going in) and what do I draw? Yes, you guessed it, another Ace!

Meanwhile, in the centre, my infantry weren’t doing much better. Although both my generals were currently still breathing (that would change: I lost one of them later on in the game), I hadn’t had any success in either getting my right wing into play or even getting my centre into any sort of effective action.

With my victory medal count rapidly diminishing as my cavalry gradually gave way, the only way for me to win was to defeat his infantry quickly, but Peter cannily kept pulling back so that I just couldn’t get to grips with them. Add in losing another general to the mix to effect my ability to spur my men forwards, and you can see that it just wasn’t going to happen.

Seeing I had only a couple of victory medals left, Peter now changed tactics: coming forward and targeting my light units with everything he had. Their departure proved the final straw for the Sicilians, and they fled the field!

A most enjoyable game despite my defeat and frustrating habit of drawing Aces, and I could console myself with the fact that this must mean that next game I won’t be drawing any Aces at all…as the laws of probability work like that, don’t they?

Don’t they?

Well, they will in my decks!

A Few More Assyrians

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I needed a rest from painting Normans, so I thought I’d fill out my Assyrian army a little bit more.

When I started playing To The Strongest, I resurrected all the Ancients armies that I used to use for Vis Bellica, the only problem being that a VB element was approximately half the size of the elements I use for TTS. Not a problem for most of my armies, as I always over-collected on what I’d actually need to play a game, but it was for the Assyrians: the trouble being that as it was a small, expensive (in points terms) army, I didn’t have multiple identical VB elements that I could combine into a smaller number of TTS elements.

So here’s one TTS element (or, I suppose, two VB elements) of Assyrian heavy infantry, spearmen with big shields in front, archers behind. The figures are from Essex: always dependable figures that do exactly what it says on the tin!

The other issue with matching older figures is, of course, that one’s painting style changes over the years. These days I almost exclusively use Contrast paints, my Assyrians are painted using a black undercoat with acrylics on top , so I had to effectively re-learn how to paint that way. Annoyingly, I couldn’t get the cuirass to look as good as the figures I painted some fifteen years ago. I suppose I’ll just have to buy some more to get more practice in!

TFL Painting Challenge: Late March Update

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I haven’t had a chance to updater things since 4th March, so quite a few entries to process.

Do visit the individual galleries via the NavBar, above, but here’s a selection to wet the whistle:

More Norman Milites

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The Normans are coming along nicely now: the last two bases of Milites rolled off the production line this weekend, along with the brigade leader, Bishop Odo in on-foot pose.

Again, the shields were the real pain to do, but do look good at tabletop distance.

That’s about half the Normans done now: just a brigade of knights not in chainmail, the archers and the lights.

IABSM AAR: North of Caen

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Here are some pictures of game Alex Sotheran has been playing using the first scenario from the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum rulebook: North of Caen. These were posted in the IABSM Facebook group.

AAR: TTS European Championships

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Friend Peter had organised a new competition for To The Strongest - the European Championships - and wanted to know if I was interested in taking part. Now I don’t really do competition battles any more: ghastly memories of arguing over minutiae in WRG 6th or similar and ultra-competitive behaviour (usually from me!) souring the experience…and the TTS tournaments are all played in 28mm and my collection, as you all probably know, is exclusively 15mm.

I checked the diary, however, and it turned out that, unusually, I had a completely free day that Saturday, so I said to Peter that I would come along and help and, if needed, make up the numbers as a super-sub should an odd number of players turn up (assume the joke about expecting an even number of odd players to turn up!).

I duly arrived at Ewelme (you-elm apparently) Primary School early yesterday morning and enjoyed half an hour of peaceful reflection eating my breakfast sandwich in an idyllic rural setting until everyone else arrived. To be honest, it was worth the half hour travel time for that alone!

Peter was lending me a Burgundian Ordnance army, so handed me a box full of troops and then it was fingers crossed to see if I would get any games…but as it happened, even numbers were present. No matter: I was happy to time keep and generally help out, and there were some spectacular looking armies to admire, even if they all looked very big to me!

About 15 minutes in, however, one of the players was forced to up-sticks and head home to sort a family matter, so I quickly grabbed the Burg’s and settled down to fulfil my super-substitute role.

My opponent, Andy, was using Almoravids: a very nice looking set of Spanish Berber types, all of whom were already deployed and ready to rock. We agreed that keeping to the tournament schedule meant we couldn’t go through the usual scouting, terrain and deployment process, so I just slammed the Burgs onto the table in a long line and off we went.

I am about to sub in for John, on the right

It was a great battle. The very first javelin thrown by the Almoravids went straight through my CinC, Charles the Bold’s, visor and killed him instantly! I followed that up by managing to draw five Aces in seven cards and it looked as if a hideous defeat was about to follow…but the Burg’s are a resilient lot, and somehow managed to fight their way back to a 100:73 point victory. I do remember one set of Knights smashing the Black Guard from the table in one charge, and killing a couple of enemy generals, but not much more than that!

Then it was onto game two: fighting Michael and his Later Italian Condotta with Swiss Allies, or Venetians for short. This was another cracking game, involving my Knights coming up against some very menacing looking pike blocks. Star of the show was my little Organ Gun artillery unit, which held up the Swiss pike block for two or perhaps three turns as it marched relentlessly towards my camp. The crew of said gun even managed to do the Swiss some damage in the melee! This stout and quite frankly incredible defence allowed me to get some Knights onto the Swiss flank and, much to the shock of all concerned, send them fleeing for the rear. Much to my surprise, another win at 108:58 points.

At this point we broke for lunch and a tour of the school-church-alms house complex, all built by Alice Chaucer, thrice-married grand-daughter of Geoffrey, and the first female Knight of the Garter. Fascinating stuff that included a secret stair and the minstrels’ gallery where Henry VIII allegedly first, er, succeeded, shall we say, with Anne Boleyn.

Onto the afternoon session, and bad news for the super-sub. Another player had withdrawn from the tournament meaning that numbers were uneven again. I was all prepared to return to the bench when someone else, Mark to be exact, said that they would be happy to sit this game out to give me another go. This was gentlemanly behaviour in the extreme, so it was time to face Chris and his Later Swiss. More pikes!

This, third game was also excellent. The Burg’s were caught napping, out-scouted and then pinned back against the edge of the table by some extraordinarily fast marching from the Swiss (I still don’t know what they do with their pikes when acting as mounted infantry LOL). I was sure I was doomed, and told Chris the same, but he assured me that all was not lost…a bad mistake on his part as his prophesy began to come true. Still pinned against the edge of the table, a camp lost to the enemy, the Burg’s stuck their heels in and began to push back. A couple of enemy generals were dispatched (it was a bit of a theme for the day) and some non-pike units broken, but it was a combination of missile-fire to disorder then send in the Knights to punish, which finally broke a Swiss pike block sending loads of victory medals my way. If we’d played on, the game could still have gone either way, but I ended the winner with a score of 102:79 points.

At that point I returned to the substitutes’ bench and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the games, admiring both the action and all the very lovely figures on display.

Time for the results and I was amazed to find that I had come fourth. This was obviously partly due to the bye I had received in the fourth round, but was very welcome news indeed. Even more surprising (doubtless particularly so to those who have gamed against me!) was that I was also voted Most Chivalrous Player of the day. Even my family were gob-smacked by that one!

So many thanks to Peter for organising a great day, and for everyone else there, particularly my three opponents Andy, Michael and Chris. I had a whale of a time and am now wondering from whom I can borrow an army for the next one!

IABSM AAR: Russian Civil War Action

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The core I Ain’t Been Shot Mum system is really very flexible indeed, and here’s an example to prove my point.

Taken from the IABSM Facebook Group, here are some pictures of a Russian Civil War game played by Lee and friends. Technically 20-odd years prior to the period, and ran very smoothly:

I love the sabot bases: they work really well.

Overlord 2023/Valour & Fortitude

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I went to Abingdon Wargames Club’s Overlord 2023 show at the weekend. This was the first one back after lockdown and COVID, and a very pleasant little show it is too.

Whilst it’s not the biggest show in the world, it had all the important elements needed: demo games, trade stands, car-parking, reasonable food and drink, and only a £4 entrance fee.

I didn’t buy anything, for a change, I’m still painting Normans and working on the lead mountain, but I did get to play in a very nice 6mm game of Valour & Fortitude: the fast-play, skeleton Napoleonic/19th Century rules from the Perry twins.

It’s quite a brutal game, in the same style as the Neil Thomas rules I have been using for the post-Napoleonic 19th Century period, in that battalia take a few hits then go shaken then are removed from the table, all of which can happen in one round of melee…but it was a fun encounter where myself and a chap who’s name I didn’t catch, as the French, successfully defended a river/bridge against large numbers of Prussians.

My thanks to Si, Mark and John for running the scenario, and to my opponent and fellow player for making it an enjoyable game. As I said, above, the French hung on, just, for long enough to win…but it was the very narrowest of narrow victories!

If you can get to Abingdon without too much trouble, put Overlord into your diaries for next year: definitely worth going to.