A Couple More Perry WotR Artillery

These are the two cannon which my buddy Ron sold me dirt cheap a few weeks ago at the Lion Rampant game day. He only had 4 crewmen, so I ended up converting a couple of plastic left-over figures from the Mercenary box. Instead of 4 crew per gun, only 3 are used.

Painted up one crew as Burgundians and the other one in generic red livery.

You may note that the single arc cannon crew has a guy holding the breech, and the cannon itself already has one in place. I messed up which crew was going to which gun, but didn't want to repaint the figure. Maybe he's got a spare...but, then the double-arc cannon doesn't have one at all!

The Burgundian livery sort of sets off the red painted cannon.

 

There are now 4 cannon which could be used in a Bosworth scenario - all sitting atop Ambion Hill facing Henry Tudor's army. Still need to come up with a way to use them in Lion Rampant. Possibly, they'll only be allowed to fired once every other turn - if successfully activated on 6+.

Now that all of the figures and models are painted, it'll be time to set up a table to see how they'll look for a Bosworth game. Thanks for stopping by and hope you're having a nice hobby day!

Perry European Mercenaries - Talabheim, er...I mean Lübeck Pikes

This is the last of the three units to be built from the Perry European Infantry 1450-1500 'Mercenaries' box. These are again painted up in simple livery - red and white, which appears to have been a somewhat popular color combination, as not only the Holy Roman Empire city state of Lübeck wore them, but some Italian cities also.

The pikes are angled back so that they will clear the low profile drawer that they'll be stored and transported in.

Just 12 figures, enough for one more unit for Lion Rampant games, but they should add some color and flavor to the table. It would be neat if this set came with enough pikes for all 40 figures.

As these are pikemen, they all wear some type of body armor - plate, brigandine and padded jackets.

They pikes would be part of Edward IV's army for Barnet or Tewkesbury, and possibly in Henry Tudor's force as Frenchmen in a Bosworth scenario.

There are 4 leftover figures which I may use to flesh out artillery crews for a pair of cannon that I picked up at the Lion Rampant game day. My buddy Ron sold me, dirt cheap, two WotR cannon, but they only had a couple of crew each. He also threw in mounted WotR characters - less horses. Perry sells separate plastic WotR horses, so this will not be a problem if I get around to painting them.

The same livery being worn by kids at a local carnival.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you all are enjoying the hobby!

Perry European Mercenaries - Averland, er...Uri Crossbowmen

These are the crossbowmen from the box of European Infantry 1450-1500 'Mercenaries.' Wanted them in fairly simple, but also eye-catching livery, and settled on the yellow and black scheme of the Swiss canton of Uri. Troops from Uri participated in many battles, including the Battle of Sempach in 1386 to the Battle of Marignano in 1515. They also were on the winning side at the Battle of Kappel in 1531 during the Reformation in Switzerland. Oh, and the livery is also that of Averland...

The figures were block painted, then given a Minwax stain, followed by Testors Dullcote, and finally a bit of highlighting.

Not sure if they participated in any Wars of the Roses battles, but wanted the livery to stand out against the usual English colors of reds and blues.

They can also be part of a Dragon Rampant warband, since there was interest after the Lion Rampant game day last week.

A mixture of white, black and blue was used to highlight the black. Adding a bit of blue gives it a nicer tone, in my opinion, than a gray if only black and white is used.

So far, I've had good results using 3 figures per 40mm squares. They speed up movement and only need 2 casualty markers before removing the entire base.

The last unit from the box are the 12 pikemen. Not sure what livery colors to paint them as, but only a little will be showing as they are more heavily armored.

Perry Mercenaries - Burgundian Handgunners

Finally decided to order a box of Perry "'Mercenaries' - European Infantry 1450-1500." These have been out for some years, so most will know it comes with 40 figures which can be made up into pikemen, crossbowmen and handgunners. You can also convert most of the pikes into halberd/polearms. Here are the handgunners painted up as Burgundians. Figured they could be used in a few scenarios, not the least being the Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, when Edward returned with a group of these guys on loan from his brother in law the Duke of Burgundy.

Most of the bodies of this set are the same ones from the Wars of the Roses Infantry box. There are different heads, and arms, of course. There are a couple of nice fluted Kettle Helms - sometimes called a Burgundian Kettle Helm.

I plan to use them in units of 6 figures as a blend of Crossbowmen (normally 12 figures in Lion Rampant) and Bidower skirmishers (normally 6 figures). This should make them fairly effective in Shooting, but otherwise brittle.

Charles the Bold's death at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, would make the presence of these guys at Bosworth (1485) unlikely, however, they'll be used nonetheless. Maybe a few hardcore mercenary types kept their livery.

Here's what they looked like before staining with Minwax. Actually, the can of Minwax must've not been sealed tight as the stain had a 1/8" thick film covering it when the can was opened. I added some thinner to the thickened remainder of the stain, but it isn't as good as it was before. I ended up adding some ink/stain wash over the faces and the red and orange clothing. Highlighting helped out a bit too.

Next up are the Crossbowmen. Thinking of painting them up as Swiss Mercenaries in yellow and black.

Lion Rampant Game Day

Just got back from a nice Lion Rampant game day hosted by Pat L. (aka SocalWarhammer). It was held in a quaint library in Gig Harbor, WA. A nice turn out with about 10 or 12 players. I managed to get my Hundred Years War English retinue killed off in two games. I tried to be slick and have a "heavy-hitting" retinue of one Mounted MAA and two Foot MAA units and only one missile firing unit of Mounted Yeomen. Well, that was a recipe for disaster against my first opponent's crossbow and bow heavy Early French retinue. My second game pitted me against bow-armed mounted Mongols. One of my Foot MAA units did kill off a couple of the French in combat - well, if I recall it correctly, I think it was mostly due to his units failing their Courage tests repeatedly. Oh, well I'll take 'em as I can get 'em. Here are a few images of the games. Sorry for the lack of clarity using my cell phone.

My Mounted MAA making the second greatest error in warfare - getting too close and Wild Charging enemy in Rough Terrain; the greatest error being starting a land war in Asia, of course.

My retinue intact at the start of the game. It didn't last long against missile heavy opponents.

My buddy Ron's crossbow blocks.

A nice Middle Eastern set up.

Dark Age scenario

Another Dark Age - Medieval set up.

A Steppe Russian vs. Mongols game.

My buddy Mikey G's awesomely painted Mongols - he also painted the Russians.

My second game had me teaming up with my earlier opponent with his potent crossbow French retinue against a combined Mongol-Russian army.

My Foot MAA waiting to come to close combat with the Mounted Mongol archers - it never happened as the enemy wore them down with bow fire

My buddy Mikey G.'s Russians advancing headlong into the French Crossbowmen. They'll pay a heavy price for their audacity; as did my English!

We're planning to host a, hopefully, larger Lion Rampant game day next March. If I use my HYW English again, they will drop the mounted troops and be replaced with two units of Expert Archers. Not only making the retinue better performing (I hope), but actually more historically correct in composition. On the painting front, I went ahead and ordered a box of Perry European Mercenaries, and just started on them.

Fix Bayonets! Game Day

Spent the day at historic Fort Steilacoom near Puget Sound at the annual game day. Although games and attendance were a bit lighter than previous years a good time was had by all. I ran the First Battle of St Albans game using Lion Rampant in the morning session. The six players were great and enjoyed themselves. However, the object to capture King Henry VI was not achieved even though we played for about 3 hours. What I plan to do when I run it again at Enfilade! next year is to start the attackers a bit closer, as well as having less rough terrain for movement.

The Duke of York moving up along Sopwell Lane.

The Earl of Warwick leading a somewhat overly cautious advance between Sopwell and Shropshire Lanes.

View looking towards St Albans

The venue is the building on the left of the sign.

The building is Quarters 2, which is was Lieutenant Colonel Silas Casey's.

The historical marker for the fort.

Napoleon Cannon at the fort, which according to the placards were used in the American Civil War.

American Rampant using Men Who Would Be Kings by Kevin S.

A cool game run by the host of the event, Lawrence B. The game was based on
Puget Sound Indian War 1855-56 using Brother Against Brother rules. I ran a "squad" of Natives - twice - once before and once after I got them killed off.

First Nation guys lurking in the woods with US troops in skirmish line.

Canadian reinforcements.

Scott P's ACW game using Regimental Fire and Fury.

A WW1 Naval game run in the two periods - I think my buddy Damond ran it.

There were several other games going on in the two (morning and afternoon period), but I failed to get pictures of them, as I was busy running a game in the first period, and played in the Puget Sound game in the afternoon. Finally, there was a Bring & Buy, and I managed to pick up a book for a $5 donation to the preservation of the fort  - see below :)

Amazing what you can find in someone else's "trash."

Perry WotR Double Arc Field Piece

Figuring it would look more balanced to have two cannon for the Bosworth game - one on each side of Richard III on top of Albion Hill - here is the second one.

Although the two cannon won't be a big part of the Bosworth game, artillery was present at the actual battle - at least in the opening stages. In fact, there aren't any "official" rules for artillery (or handguns, for that matter) in the main Lion Rampant rule book. The plan is to have the two Yorkists cannon to have a chance to make one shot each during the entire game. Thinking of them needing a 3+ for Firing, and hitting on 4+ with 12 dice each, with a max range of 36". After firing, they are basically done with the game, other than blocking movement - which can be fairly significant with the 3" between units rule for Lion Rampant.

The crew were painted using the usual method of starting with block painting, then brushed on Minwax Tudor (how inappropriately named!) Satin stain, and finally highlighting after spraying with Testers Dullcote. The artillery piece itself was given a wash of Vallejo Black and Flesh Ink - which allowed more control of getting the ink to settle in the grains of the "wood."

The artillery piece itself looks just like the one pictured in the Medieval Soldier book - the one with the Perry's in it.

Here's a shot of the pieces prior to staining/washing.

I'm "this close" to ordering a box of European Mercenaries as they were a good part of Henry Tudor's "invasion" force which participated at Bosworth.