First of the Condotta

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Regular visitors will know that this year for the first time in a long time (35 years plus!) I decided to go back to competitive wargaming: entering as many To The Strongest tournaments as I could.

Apart from the Europeans at Ewelme, I have exclusively used the Early Imperial Romans: mainly because it was the only 28mm Ancients army that I had, and that only because a friend left it at my mother’s house some 40 years ago!

The Romans have proved a very good army to use, but after almost thirty games with them I fancied a change…so when I won a box of Perry Medievals at the ‘Two the Strongest’ doubles tournament in November I thought that I’d use it as a basis for a new army: settling on some kind of Later Italian Condotta force (each city state is slightly different) as that list provides a wide variety of troop types.

Father Christmas was good to me this year, bringing me more boxes of Perry’s to complete what I need, and time off work has given me the chance to paint some of the units up.

First off the production line were two units of balestrieri montati or mounted crossbowmen:

I’m using a combination of Contrast and standard acrylic paints, and have chosen a black and red colour scheme. As the way you build the figures means that each figure is unique, I will therefore get an army that is ‘uniformed but not uniform’: very suitable for a force from that period.

Next up are some stradiotti: veteran light cavalry with lances and perhaps crossbows. Very useful for annoying the opposition!

And the final unit of light horse, for the moment, are some more balestrieri montati but this time armed with handguns rather than crossbows:

The above are all from one box of WR 60 Light Cavalry 1450-1500 which retails at £22 or £1.83 per figure. To quote the blurb: The box contains 12 lightly armoured horsemen which can be assembled with light lances, crossbows or as mounted archers. command options are included as are banners and historical information.

So how did I get on with Perry plastics?

Yes, I quite like them. Glueing the horses together was easy. The men were slightly more difficult in that, even using Superglue, the heads take a bit of time to set in place, and the individual arms can be tricky in that the you’re glueing two completely flat, angled surfaces together so that it’s tough to exert pressure in the right direction…but it’s generally a painless process.

For those interested, I built the horse first, then built the figure by glueing the head on first then each arm. As this is a competition army that is going to get a lot of use, I didn’t bother with a lot of extra equipment (and there’s a ton of it on the sprues) but just focussed on the main weapon that shows the function of the unit…so that the mounted crossbowmen have only their crossbows, not a quiver, winding machine, sword, dagger, buckler etc, all of which are provided if you want to use them.

Painting the figures is easy. I let the Contrast paints do the work, but used two different reds to get a bit of variety and, here’s the top tip of this post, highlighted the black on the upper body clothing with a very dark blue standard acrylic paint, leaving the black hose as is.

Now it’s on to the first of the two infantry boxes…

Two the Strongest Tournament: Game Three

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I’m still working my way through a backlog of battle reports that seems to have built up over the last couple of months.

Today features the third and final game at the Two the Strongest doubles tournament organised by the London Wargaming Guild back in November. My partner, Peter, and I had won our first two games and woulkd now face Tim and Matt playing Normans and 100YW French respectively.

The game would be fought across quite an unusual set-up representing a famous battle from history. Apologies, but I can’t remeber which one…but there were a lot of hills on the flanks!

The Romans

The French

For this battle, Peter and I reversed our roles: I would go forward against the Normans whilst Peter hung back against the 100YW French.

My cavalry (Equites Alares and Equites Contarium) duly swung out to the right and advanced forward at speed. They soon met the enemy coming the other way and, much to my delight, almost immediately knocked one Norman unit off the table and sent another to the retreat.

My Roman cavalry have tken some stick this year for their performance on the tabletop, but I must confess that they didn’t put a foot (hoof?) wrong this game: a fitting redemption in the last tournament game of the season.

Meanwhile, my legionaries had also advanced towards the enemy line and pinned them in place as planned. I needed to get a move on, however, as I could see that Peter’s troops were under some pressure from a horde of Late Knights!

My troops began to wheel to their left, ready to roll up the enemy line but, before they could do any significant damage, my cavalry inflicted another loss on the Normans, including killing their commander in chief. This was too much for these early Frenchies to take, and they fled the field, leaving their later compatriots to fight on alone.

The game was a bit of a foregone conclusion from then on, as Peter’s troops were still resisting, leading to an eventual 15-6 victory for the Romans.

Points were totted up and it turned out the Peter and I had actually won the day!

A very good way to end the season, with my first tournament win, and huge thanks to all the Guilders for organising an excellent competition that I shall certainly enter again next year.

If you look at the picture to the right, you will see I am clutching a box of Perry Plastics as a prize (along with the rather marvellous “playing card” trophy). This box turned out to be the naissance of my new 28mm army for 2024, although which later medieval army I will actually paint up is still in doubt at time of writing, along with whether I can actually get it finished in time for the Welsh Open at the end of January!

Merry Christmas...and a Painting Challenge Update!

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my wargaming chums!

I’ve borrowed this image from Bovingdon Tank Museum (a must visit for any wargamer) which, incidentally, was also where I got my Christmas jumper from!

It’s also time for a quick Painting Challenge update: lots of entries coming in at the last minute…although you do actually have another six days to get them in.

Today’s entries take two of our most prolific painters to heights never before achieved: Matt Slade hits the 6,000 points mark, with Andrew Helliwell going past 5,000 points! Although no entry today, Sapper has also achieved a new personal best this year with a scoreline that’s currently well over 3,000.

Do visit the individual galleries (accessed via the NavBar, above) but here’s a selection of today’s entries:

There’s still plenty of time to get more entries in this year: the Challenge is opne right up to midnight on the 31st.

Consider any late painting this year as a warm up to next year’s ten year anniversary challenge!

Two the Strongest Tournament: Game Two

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Peter and I’s second game at the inaugural Two the Strongest Doubles tournament organised by the London Guild of Wargames was against Tom and Nathanial, each fielding a Wars of the Roses army: lots of longbows, billmen and knights!

Our plan was very much the same as in the first game of the tournament. My solid legionaries would hold the bulk of the enemy in place whilst Peter’s lighter cavalry got around the enemy flank and rolled them up. As our opponents wavered at the sight of their flank collapsing, in would go my Roman mincing machine to finish them off.

Much to our surprise, the first stages of the game saw everything going to the plan: Peter’s men got around the right flank of Tom’s troops and started knocking units off the table, then turning to head into the centre. Meanwhile, I advanced cautiously forward, wary of a storm of longbow fire.

Nathaniel also took a cautious approach so, for a time, all the action was on one side. Here’s a montage of these first evolutions:

Then I’m afarid our opponents made what must be considered a fateful mistake.

Concerned about their right flank, they turned some of their units in the centre to the right, intending to take Peter’s legionaries, now heavily engaged with the right side of the enemy line, in the flank. This, of course, left them open to a rapid advance from my troops into their now-exposed left sides, knocking a couple off the table and certainly preventing them intervening to the right as Tom had planned.

At this point Tom’s half of their army collapsed, leading to all his remaining troops being removed from the board and leaving Nathaniel to face the might of the Empire alone!

Now severely outnumbered and already in a poor tactical situation, it was only a matter of time before Nathaniel’s troops were overwhelmed. It also didn’t help that his artillery now showed an alarming propensity to draw Aces!

So in all a fairly convincing 16-0 victory for the Romans, leaving us in a good position overall as we faced the final game of the day.

Lard Magazine 2023

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This year’s Lard Magazine has just hit the streets!

Packed with articles supporting a wide range of Lardy rules, there’s literally hours of reading to be had with each issue.

You can order yours here, and below you’ll find what this year’s festive conrucopia has to offer!

MALTESE FALCONE
Chain of Command set during a ‘what if ’ invasion of Malta

CANADIANS AT COURCELETTE
Great War action, for both Through the Mud and the Blood and CoCing Up

THE LIBERATION OF NARVIK
A Pint Sized Campaigns for Norway 1940.

IN GOTH WE TRUST
Goths for Infamy Infamy!

FIRE AND MANOEUVRE!
Tactical insights for Chain of Command.

BECAUSE WE’RE HERE, LAD!
Rorke’s Drift using Sharp Practice.

EUREKA! GOING GREEK WITH STRENGTH AND HONOUR
Ancient Greeks using Strength & Honour.

THE BATTLE OF THE MEDWAY
A scenario for Strength & Honour.

BLACK AND WHITE WARGAMES:
Night and Winter fighting in Chain of Command.`

THE PUNIC WARS WITH MIDGARD`
Using Midgard Heroic Battles in the ancient world.

THE BATTLE OF VERCELLAE
The Romans take on the Cimbri in this scenario for Strength & Honour

THE POLES DROP IN
A Half Pint Sized Campaign for Chain of Command

ACROSS THE AURE
Normandy scenario for O Group as the US 115th Infantry attempt to liberate Briqueville.

THE BATTLE OF PHARSALUS
Caesar goes head to head with Pompey in Strength & Honour scenario

RAIDING THE WILDERNESS
1777 AWI scenario for Sharp Practice.

WHAT A GANGSTER!
What a Cowboy in the world of 1920s Gangsters

A GREEN AND BROWN HELL
A Hurtgen Forest Pint Sized Campaigns for Chain of Command

SOLO COC ATTACK SID FOR PSC’s
further developments on the SID Solo CoC system in Lard Magazine 2020.

BAG THE BOK!
Eight scenarios for Bag the Hun as the South African Air Force battle the Italians for air supremacy over Eastern Africa.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BASE
Some tools and tips on making bases that will give your figures that extra wow factor!

BLIMUS! CANNAE BUILD A GAME FOR SALUTE?
Creating a landscape for the battle of Cannae

WHAT A TANKER – WITH BLOKES!
Not all games of What a Tanker are about tanks.

THE DEFENCE OF HAZEBROUCK
1940 Chain of Command scenario

DOWN IN THE VALLEY
Quế Sơn Valley in 1967 scenario for Charlie Don’t Surf!

GENERAL D’ARMEE II
What to expect in the forthcoming new edition of these popular Napoleonic rules.

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL
A classic shoot out scenario for What a Cowboy.

LA PETITE GUERRE
Large skirmishes in the Champlain-Hudson Corridor 1756-1759 or Sharp Practice

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Another classic scenario for What a Cowboy.

A BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER
Inspiration from role playing games to enhance your narrative wargaming.

PORTENTS OF VICTORY
Using omens in Strength & Honour

THE ROAD FROM MANDALAY
The Indian Army taking on the Japanese in Burma with Chain of Command

Two the Strongest Tournament: Game One

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This November just gone, those stalwart men of the London Wargaming Guild put on the first To The Strongest Doubles tournament at the 7 Dials Club in Covent Garden.

The concept was simple: teams of two players, with each player fielding 100 points of army. The armies did not have to be connected but it would obviously be better if they were.

Originally the idea had been for each team to be one experienced player and one less experienced if not novice player, but this requirement was softened in the run-up to the tournament…although personally and, as it turned out somewhat hypocritically, I think enforcing this would actually be an excellent idea for the future.

I say “somewhat hypocritically” because my partner was none other than Peter R., many times champion of many tournaments, which would presumably have made me the novice player!

Our first game was against Sid and Rob: the former also fielding Early Imperial Romans, the latter fielding Polybian Romans.

Our plan was simple: I would pin Sid’s EIR’s in place, whilst Peter lapped around the Polybian left flank. As it happens, our strategy was the same-but-opposite from that adopted by Sid and Rob: Rob would pin Peter’s troops whilst Sid wrapped around my right flank!

The two lines quickly came together, and immediately the flanking generals on each side began to do their thing.

Below left you can see my legionaries holding Sid’s in place whilst below right you can see Sid’s horse and lights attempting to turn my flank:

Fortunately I was able to turn my cavalry to face this threat and, with the Auxilia in Orbis (i.e. fighting to all sides) was able to keep Sid at bay.

Unfortunately for other Rob, Peter is a past master at outflanking, and Rob’s Polybian Romans were soon in a great deal of trouble: their cavalry driven from the field by an endless series of flank attacks from our light troop, leaving his infantry to fall in turn as our cavalry turned on them as Peter’s legions moved into contact.

With his camp falling to some Numidian light horse, Rob was soon forced to remove all his troops from the table, leaving Peter’s men free to come to my aid.

Fighting two opponents at once is never much fun and, despite valiant efforts, Sid’s men were soon reeling from the field as well, leaving us victors 18 points to 9.

Another December Painting Challenge Update

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Lots of submissions coming through as people try and get their last entries of the year in before the 31st December deadline.

Today we have updates from Carole, Matt, Ralph, Chris, Mr Luther, Mervyn and Sapper. Do visit their individual galleries, accessed via the NavBar, above, but here’s a taster of what you can see:

There’s still plenty of time to get your entries in for this year, and even if you don’t, the Challenge will be back next year for its Ten Year Anniversary edition!

Here’s wishing you good painting in the run up to Christmas!

Epic Scots Painted Up

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I stopped buying Wargames Illustrated shortly after it turned into the Battlefront catalogue (a pity, as I have every issue of the old style magazine and still dip in and dip out of them on a regular basis) but, when I saw they had a free Warlord Epic ECW Scots sprue as part of the package, thought I’d take the opportunity to (a) give the new-look WI another chance and (b) try out the Warlord Epic Scots.

I hadn’t really interacted with any Warlord Epic figures up to this point: my collection is nearly all 15mm and thought of buying Napoleonics that were slightly but significantly smaller that what I have (the admittedly larger, more like 18mm AB range) didn’t appeal.

In fact, I’d always wondered what on earth Warlord were thinking when they introduced another unique scale into the wargaming world. Why not go 10mm or 15mm rather than something in between? Or were they trying to create a Hobby like GW?

Anyway, reading around, the Epic ECW ranges were supposed to be larger than the Epic Napoleonics, more like 13.5mm, so I was happy to give them a go. I duly bought my copy of WI and settled down to have a read and a look at the free sprue.

First impressions were good. A nice lot of detail on the figures and they certainly seemed a good size. They also looked like they would be quick to paint: no picking up lolly sticks with 3-4 figures on them, just bases of 10 figures a time…plus the fact that a percentage of each figure wouldn’t need to be painted as it was hidden by their neighbour next door.

The 10-figure blocks were a pain in one way, in that they don’t fit with my existing basing system, but I don’t have any Commanded Shot bases for my Scots yet (in fact, the army is positively short of muskets having several Pike Only battalia) so I thought I’d give four “shooter” blocks a go as an oversize Commanded Shot unit.

So, what do I think?

Yes, very nice really.

They were easy to paint: really detailed relief takes Contrast Paint beautifully, and they were as quick to paint as I thought they would be.

I added a command figure from Blue Moon’s 18mm range that towers over them a bit, and a standard bearer from Alternative’s Furiosa range who fits nicely. And a dog just for laughs.

The $64m question, of course, is how they would fit in with my other figures: mostly Peter Pig and Hallmark 15’s.

Well, the photo below shows the Scots and a battalia of English pike and shot side by side for comparison:

The height difference isn’t noticeable at all. In fact I think the Epic figures are 15mm from top of bonnet to foot and that the 13.5mm measurement is to their eyes.

They are obviously a little more densely packed than my usual basing system, but that won’t be a problem providing I’m consistent with deploying any Scottish Commanded Shot like this.

One thing: they are a bit slimmer front-to-back then their metal equivalents, almost on their way to being flats, but I’m going to put this down to a diet of good Scots’ porridge rather than anything else!

The price is also good. The sprue also contains four pike 10-man blocks and a smattering of singles, horsemen, artillerymen etc. Would certainly work out much cheaper than buying everything in metal.

Will I buy more?

Probably not…but only because I have loads of Scots already.

I do need some more Commanded Shot, however, so if anyone would like to donate a sprue they received with WI but don’t want, Comment or PM me at the usual address and I’ll quite happily take it off your hands!

Would I buy Epic if I didn’t have any ECW figures and wanted to get into the period?

Yes, I would.

I’d have a basing system that suited the 10-man blocks (FK&P is a very forgiving rule system basing-wise) and would quite happily have built a large collection of Royalist, Parliamentarian and Scots figures up.

So a big recommended from me, and I will certainly look at the other Epic ranges provided they are also 15mm equivalents.

They look even better from behind: the only direction I will ever see them from of course!

TTS @ Warfare: Game Four: EIR versus Tang Chinese

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My fourth and final game at this year’s To The Strongest competition at Warfare was my Early Imperial Romans against Peter Ryding’s Tang Chinese.

Peter is a wily opponent and an expert of using a force that is a mixture of light cavalry, heavy cavalry and solid infantry…and the one thing I didn’t want to happen was him to get his Chinese around the end of my line and outflank my Romans.

As the battle began, Peter immediately went for my flanks with his light cavalry. I didn’t think I’d have a problem on the right: I’d kept that flank strong, intending to deal with the lights then use my superior drilled mobility to curl in and attack his infantry in the centre.

Likewise, on the left, all I would have to do is to move the rear left hand unit of cavalry (with the red cloaks) out to the side and I was sorted.

Unfortunately the poor cards that had been dogging me all day reared their ugly head again, and things did not go according to plan.

On the right, I shot down one of his light horse units almost immediately, and closed with the other to drive it back.

All well and good…but then my central infantry, which I had been intending to get back to the left to engage his main force, just refused to move. Where was my superior drilled mobility? It was buried in Aces!

Oh, and if you look, Peter is making it even more difficult to close with his troops by refusing that flank and presenting me with an oblique line to attack…meaning my men would have even further to go before being able to get stuck in. Clever, very clever!

Worse, the aforementioned red cloaked cavalry on my left had also refused to move as planned, leaving that flank horribly exposed. Peter, never one to miss an opportunity, took full advantage, and soon that flank was completely buggered!

I mean, look at them just sitting there! They obviously haven’t moved since their original deployment when only the smallest movement of one square would have stopped the Tang lights in their tracks.

Now there are those of you who are reading this who are saying “oh look, there’s Rob again complaining about his luck as opposed to admitting he’s playing badly”.

Yes, point taken: you play the cards you’re dealt and all that, and Peter has made no mistakes in executing a very cunning plan…but take a look at the photo below to show what happened as I moved in on his camp: something that could potentially have gained me enough coins to turn the battle my way.

Three Aces are showing…and what’s even more amusing is that for this game that wasn’t even the worst cards that I drew!

Anyway, suffice to say that I didn’t get into the enemy camp or in amongst his infantry before the flank attacks on my left took their toll and the Romans gave way and fled the field, giving Peter a colossal and well-deserved victory.

Results

One colossal loss, one massive victory, and two losing draws gave me a seventh place in the overall competition: a bit of a disappointment to say the least!

But no matter: there was still the Doubles competition at the Seven Dials Club in Covent Garden to come.

My partner?

Peter, of course!

The reports on that tournament will follow in due course…

TTS @ Warfare: Game Three: EIR versus New Kingdom Egyptian

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My third game at this year’s To The Strongest tournament at Warfare was my Early Imperial Romans against Nathaniel’s New Kingdom Egyptians.

Don’t be fooled by the compact look of Nat’s army: there were a lot of light chariot units clumped together, all with bows, so I could expect a hail of bowfire as I closed with the enemy.

I have an NKE army myself (in 15mm) and so was also expecting the Egyptians to rapidly expand their position and attempt to lap around my flanks, always a danger for an infantry army like the Romans. This didn’t happen, however, and Nat kept his troops closed together as he advanced towards me, doubtless determined to just shoot me down head on.

Unfortunately for Nat, this played directly into my strengths.

My Romans can usually soak up arrows or rally off any disorders that they do take on the way in, and love to melee with lesser quality infantry or, even better, light troops. Likewise, my cavalry would be happy to just keep charging his light chariots until they evaded off the table.

And that’s what happened for the rest of the game, as you’ll see from the photos below:

As you can see, enough of my infantry units won their initial clash quickly enough to help out those who hadn’t (the superior manouevrability of the Romans really helping those flank charges go in) and my cavalry did indeed chase his light chariots off the table.

So a workmanlike 13-2 victory for the Romans, with my only loss coming from a General who got in the way of one arrow too many!

TTS @ Warfare: Game Two: EIR versus Polybian Romans

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Game two of the To The Strongest tournament at Warfare, using my Early Imperial Romans, was an interesting match against the Polybian Romans: an earlier-period Roman army that presented in a quincunx formation i.e. deployed in three lines in a chequerboard formation, with the younger hastati in front, followed by the more seasoned principes and the veteran triarii behind. This would allow Nigel’s units to rotate his lines on the spot: meaning that he could rally and bring more pila into action even when in a “zone of control”.

Romans in Quincunx

My plan was not a subtle one: it was to get stuck in with my legionaries whilst trying to lap my cavalry round his flanks. Accordingly, as the game began, I marched my troops forward smartly.

Things started well, with me managing to get a two-on-one advantage on two of his quincunx, one of which I managed to destroy. The picture below shows two legionary units perpendicular to each other as one has just moved into the square where the quincunx was:

Unfortunately this turned out to be the high point of the game for my Romans!

The two battle lines came together and a grinding melee developed with fortunes swaying backwards and forwards between the two sides. Here’s a pic taken just before the lines clashed:

At tbis point my flank forces should have finished with his and come back in to hit the sides of the enemy line, giving me victory.

What actually happened was that my flank forces got bogged down and couldn’t get the local victories I needed to break themselves free to intervene elsewhere. As an example, here’s a unit of enemy horse sandwiched between two of my units: it should have died very quickly, but just kept surviving everything I could throw at it!

All this grinding melee was using up the clock and, before I knew it, time was called.

We totted up the points and I had lost the game by the narrowest of margins: 6 points to 7!

Really interesting to face the Polybian Roman quincunx, well played by my opponent, but a frustrating result.

Two games in to the tournament and two losing draws racked up: not good!

TFL Painting Challenge: First December Update

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As we enter the final month of this year’s Challenge, a whole host of entries sent in during the last two weeks of November.

Do visit the individual galleries, available via the NavBar above, and here’s a taster:

There’s still plenty of time to get your entries in for this year, so don’t put those brushes aside yet!

TTS @ Warfare: Game One: EIR versus Eastern Franks

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One of the main reasons for me going to the Warfare show this year was that I was competing in the To The Strongest tournament there. Four games in one day, 135 points, my Early Imperial Romans ready for action.

I was expecting my first game to be against Andy’s Dacians-with-Sarmatian-allies, as I nearly always face Andy’s Dacians in round one of a tournament as they and the Romans are usually the closest together historically, but Andy wasn’t there so I would instead face Tim’s Eastern Franks. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire…just what my Romans hate: an all cavalry army.

The photo above shows the position just after the start of the battle: you can see Tim is looking to sneak around my flanks. I’m not too worried, at this stage, about my right flank (my legionaries can oblique right) but I do need to pull my cavalry back on the left to protect against the enemy horse on the other side of the wood advancing forward and getting behind my line.

This should have been a fairly easy move to make, but unfortunately Fortuna obviously had it in for me that day and both my cavalry brigade and the left hand legionary brigade froze in place, presumably bamboozled by the fact that there were no Dacians to be seen!

Although not a good situation, all was not lost: all I needed to do was to turn my cavalry to face the outflankers and get the legionaries into action.

Aaargh!

Another turn where my troops would do nothing…unlike Tim’s Franks!

I was now down a cavalry unit, but managed to stabilise the far left by sheer good luck as my other unit of Equites Cohortales survived being hit in the flank, turned, and drove off their attackers. They then advanced forward themselves to threaten Tim’s camp.

The left-centre, however, was a mess. Tim had brilliantly taken advantage of my stagnation by concentrating his heavy horse: knocking out two of my legionary units there and effectively bursting through my line.

With me threatening his camp, and him threatening to surround and wipe out the rest of my cavalry, it looked as if we’d end up about honours even overall, so the game would be decided on the right.

Here things had not gone badly, just not well. I’d lost the Auxilia to another nicely executed outflanking manoeuvre, but killed one of Tim’s generals in return.

All this to-ing and fro-ing had, however, drained the clock and we were now out of time. Totting up the points, a winning draw to Tim 8-5.

Here’s the position at the end of the battle:

So a tight first game with a disappointing result. Excellent play from Tim: using his superior mobility on the flanks and then taking full advantage of the opportunity in the left centre.

Three games still to go: so plenty of time to rescue the situation!

FK&P AAR: Munce's Wood

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Friend Rob and I are playing through the Siege of Norchester scenario pack. After narrowly losing the first game, Tounton Bridge, my Parliamentarians would face the Royalists at Munce’s Wood.

A pack of Royalist-sympathising Clubmen have been caught by a much larger Roundhead force. Fortunately for the Clubmen, there’s also a Cavalier army in the vicinity. The scene is set for a clash at Munce’s Wood.

Royalists on the left, Parliamentarians on the right (Clubmen in the middle!)

With the opposition a bit fragmented, and with superior quality cavalry on my left, my plan was to advance strongly on my left and centre, holding back my weaker right flank. Hopefully the Roundhead cavalry would quickly beat the fewer Cavaliers in front of them and then be able to surl around to take the enemy centre, by then presumably locked in place by my central advance, in the flank.

That was the plan, but unfortunately my cavalry just couldn’t beat their Royalist foes back. The enemy was defending a hedge line, and a particularly sticky unit of Swedish horse just plain refused to give way despite overwhelming pressure from my Dutch troopers.

Not only that, but my troops in the centre fought so badly that I was forced to pull some cavalry from the left to reinforce my centre. Things were not going well!

Meanwhile, much to my surprise, my commanded shot and artillery on the right flank were holding their own against the Royalist horse.

My three weak units held up Rob’s stronger three units for the whole of the battle and, although I would eventually lose all three, that sacrifice was worth it to keep his horse off my right flank.

On the left, my Dutch horse were still trying to get over the hedge, but just couldn’t do so in the face of continued opposition from the Royalists.

With that flank stalled as well, the game would be decided in the centre.

Things were beginning to thin out now as various units on both sides had broken and fled the field. In the end it came down to who could keep fighting for longer, and unfortunately it wasn’t my troops!

The final act was for one of my few surviving battalia of Border Foot to smash through the enmy opposite them, but then be hit from all sides by other Parliamentarians. As a final act of humiliation, it was actually a unit of Clubemn - the very people we were trying to surpress - that dealt the coup de grace, and my command generally collapsed and routed.

So a second defeat for the Parliamentarians in the campaign to take Norchester. Let’s hope I have more success at Cadmore Hill, the site of the third clash!

15mm "Heroic Scale" Pilgrims from Khurasan

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As I’d also like to be able to field my Normans as Early Crusaders, I decided to add a couple of units of pilgrims to the mix.

The best I could see on offer were those from Khurasan. They do a pack of ten ‘standard’ pilgrims along with another pack of three unique extras: a monk with crucifix held high, a woman brandishing a frying pan, and an urchin throwing a rock.

I needed sixteen figures for each “mobs” base, so a pack of each plus half a pack of unarmoured Norman infantry nicely fitted the bill.

Plus points first: great figures with loads of character that paint up easily.

The only negative is that they are heroic scale i.e. a little larger than even a large 15mm figure.

So how noticeable is the difference?

Well, it’s a little noticeable: in that if you are looking for it, it’s obviously there, but under game conditions I don’t think it will be noticeable at all. Here’s a couple of comparison phots with some Museum Miniatures’ Norman foot infantry from their CAD-designed Z range of Normans:

You’ll have to make your own minds up, but I’m not sure the difference is significant enough to matter.

It would matter less, of course, if your whole Norman army was taken from Khuarsan’s Heroic 15mm MILLENNIUM -- 1000AD to 1150AD range…something I might have done if I hadn’t already got Museum’s Normans: they are both lovely ranges of figures.

FK&P AAR: Transylvanians vs Swedes - The Re-Match

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As we still had plenty of time left after our last game (Transylvanians vs Swedish, a narrow victory for me) Si and I decided to play again.

I offered a change of sides, but Si said that now that he’d taken the Swedes for a test run, he’d like to use them again “for real” this time. That was fine by me, so we re-set the table and both re-deployed.

Both sides placed their infantry facing the small village on the far side of the picture, above. I faced my Elite National Cavalry off against the Swedish Cuirassiers and cavalry in the centre, with my light horse on the left wing hopefully enough to slow down or stop more Swedish cavalry facing them.

An advance by both sides rapidly saw the two battle lines come together in the centre and on my left in a series of cavalry melees that swung backwards and forwards in terms of advantage for both sides.

Although I managed to hold the left flank, my center had to give ground and soon all I could see was my own horse thundering back towards me!

Fortunately I had troops available on my left to bring into the centre as reinforcements, and the battle broke up into a series of individual melees as units that had disposed of one enemy looked for another opponent to engage. In the confusion, one of my light horse units also managed to sneak through and take the Swedish camp, a much needed boost to my fortunes at that point!

Meanwhile the two infantry lines had slowly advanced towards each other and begun exchanging long range fire, with the Transylvanian militia troops getting the worst of the deal.

At this point I stopped taking photographs as it was neck and neck as to who would run out of victory medals first. In the event, it was me: giving Si and the Swedish a narrow victory.

A cracking couple of games decided by very narrow margins.

FK&P AAR: Transylvanians vs Swedes

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Friend Si coming round for a gaming session provided the perfect excuse to get my new 17th century Cuirassiers onto the table.

Si would field the Swedes (with said Cuirassiers) and I would play the Transylvanians:

The Swedes

The Transylvanians

My plan was to hold his superior infantry on my right whilst my better cavalry rolled over his centre and his right.

Originally I had planned to sweep my light cavalry around the left, but realising that he could block that move with his horse, my first action was to try and reposition my lights so that I could use them either as general reinforcements or to bolster up my right. You can see them moving across the rear of the battlefield in the pictures above, and here’s an even better shot:

Grand tactics!

The two main battle lines then came together with a crash, with the Transylvanians definitely getting the advantage as their elite cavalry went in. The Swedes reeled backwards, apart from one unit of Cuirassiers that stubbornly refused to give way, and a period of jostling backwards and forwards ensued.

This continued until the relentless pressure from the Transylvanian horse finally proved too much for the Swedes to bear, and their centre began to crumple (their right had given way much earlier).

Meanwhile, there had not been a lot of activity on my right flank: my infantry had indeed advanced forward and then stopped to hold the ground, but the Swedes had been too busy elsewhere to worry about them.

Just as the Swedes thought they might have to do something on their left, their centre finally gave way and the game was mine.

My New Secret Weapon for Competitions

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Those of you who were in the To The Strongest competition at Warfare this year will have heard me loudly decrying the number of Aces I was pulling: not for melee or shooting but for activation.

Time and time again my master strategies were defeated as my troops just refused to move at all as a result of an Ace (or usually Aces!) appearing as the first card drawn in a command’s turn.

I thought about changing my packs of cards (especially the red pack: you b*st*rds are due on the bonfire soon, I tell you!) but have realised that such a petty attempt to change my luck probably won’t work: I mean, probability is probability and play a lot of games and the monkey’s typing up Shakespeare are bound to appear sooner or later. I needed a more radical approach…

Yes, I have joined the shuffling machine club!

First encountered at the World Championships earlier this year, I have been enviously observing my fellow players who own them effortlessly producing perfectly shuffled decks without the need to do more than load up the wings and press the button. Now I, too, can avoid any of the bad luck that characterised my Warfare performance…and all for only about £10. Bargain!

This will also neatly prevent a certain friend of mine from banana-ring my decks of cards with his (admittedly nicely executed) riffle shuffles. He will doubtless be interested to hear that, according to Wikipedia: The Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model provides a mathematical model of the random outcomes of riffling that has been shown experimentally to be a good fit to human shuffling and that forms the basis for a recommendation that card decks be riffled seven times in order to randomize them thoroughly. Later, mathematicians Lloyd M. Trefethen and Lloyd N. Trefethen authored a paper using a tweaked version of the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model showing that the minimum number of riffles for total randomization could also be six, if the method of defining randomness is changed.

I’m not sure when my new shuffling machine will have it’s debut, but be warned that I am already clearing shelf space for all the trophies that I an now going to win as, according to me at any rate, all that has been holding me back is my appalling luck and nothing to do with the fact that I am facing very skilled opponents who have actually taken the trouble to learn the rules!

For those interested:

ZONJIE Automatic Card Shuffler Machine 2 Deck, Electronic Casino Poker Card Shuffling, Battery Operated -One/Two Deck Card Shuffle Sorter, Cards Playing Tool Accessories


FK&P AAR: Muscovites vs Transylvanians

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With my Transylvanians having lost the first game by only one Victory Medal, it was time to swap sides for a re-match: this time I would take the Muscovites, with Bevan playing the Transylvanians.

As you can see in the picture, above, both sides have deployed very traditionally: infantry in the centre, cavalry on each wing. You’ll also see that my horse on my left flank considerably outnumber their mounted opponents, so my plan was very much to punch through there and then roll the Transylvanian line up.

With that in mind, I opened the game by advancing forward on the left as hard and fast as I could.

As you can see in the bottom two pictures above, on the far left, left of the woods, I didn’t manage to punch through the enemy lights quite how I had hoped, but did manage to open up a bit of space just to the right of the woods. The question now became whether I could exploit this advantage!

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the field, the two battle lines had generally come together, with a series of fierce melees taking place:

Now was the time for my troops on the left to curl inwards and roll up the Transylvanian line: something I really needed them to do as they represented a good proportion of my fighting strength, and my lesser-quality centre wouldn’t hold for ever!

Above you can see a couple of pictures showing how I was trying to get my horse back into the action: but they do seem to have an awful lot of ground to cover!

And all that ground proved my downfall, with my centre and right flank giving way before I could get the cavalry back into the game.

Regular readers will know that I lost the first game in this two-battle series by one Victory Medal…and so it was again in this game! If I had survived one more turn in the centre/on the right then my cavalry would have made it back into the action in time to win the game for me, but victory evaded me by the smallest of margins as one unit too many fled the field.

So that was four games with Bevan in two days…and four defeats. Ouch! But, as Michael Jordan once said:

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

Good to know that I’m secretly a success at this wargaming thing!

Very secretly!

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TFL Painting Challenge: Mid-November Update

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Only a smidge over six weeks to go in this year’s Challenge, and the entries are coming in fast.

Do please visit the individual galleries, accessible via the black navbar above, but here’s a taster of the entries so far this month:

Congratulations to Matt who has surpassed his previous record score of 5,522 (set in 2015) to now be on 5,591. Surely the magic 6,000 beckons…and painting loads of Ottoman cavalry really well would really help hit that target!

Andrew is also on a new record score of 4,636, beating his previous high of 3,908 set last year. I think we need 5,000 out of you this year please.

Finally Sapper is also on a new high: 3,030 versus the 2,638 set last year: perhaps 3,250 or even 3,500 to come?

There’s still plenty of time to get your entries in - I’m often adding the last few early on New Year’s Day - so let’s make a final push to get those scores up.

I’ll also take mass submissions of work completed over the last 11 months or so, so don’t worry about not having submitted something so far. If I could just ask that everything is clearly labelled, as although I can usually tell a Jaeger from a Janissary, counting the number of 6mm figures you’ve submitted in a mass-army photo is not much fun!