Campanians vs. Seleucids WAB Game

Several of the local crew showed up today at the Game Matrix to play some WAB. Although I like Hail Caesar, or at least a simplified version better, I don't mind playing WAB once in a while. This especially so as many of my gaming buddies still like to play it. I cobbled together existing figures for a Campanian army with Pyrrhic allies. There are two Hoplite units, two Oscan cavalry unit - one each with javelins and thrusting spears, one Oscan Warrior unit with throwing spears, a Pyrrhic Guards unit with thrusting spears and javelins, and finally a unit of Cretan bowmen. Pat let our buddy Garry G. run his Seleucid army with several pike units, Argyraspids, an armored Indian elephant and several skirmish units. Gary doesn't play WAB, so we wanted to give him a chance to get in on it. We both had 2,500 point armies.

The Campanian right flank and center facing Seleucid pikes and an Indian elephant

The Campanian left - Oscan cavalry and Warriors - after scaring off the Seleucid light cavalry and Argyraspids.

Seleucid Indian war elephant in combat with two Oscan Hoplite units. Earlier, the Pyrrhic Guards had forgotten they were Stubborn and broke after failing their first Break test.

The poor elie fleeing after losing combat to the two Hoplite units.

The Campanian army arrayed prior to the battle. From left to right, Pyrrhic Guards, Oscan cavalry, two units of Hoplites, Cretan archers, Oscan Warriors and another unit of Oscan cavalry.

I will likely add a few more missile skirmishers as my initial list had the Army General, Army Standard and a Leader (sub-general) on warhorses in the cavalry units. I took Pat's sound advice prior to this game and put them in the hoplite units.

Bosworth Field Project - Based

So the majority of figures for this project have been based onto Litko plywood bases. The infantry are based 3-figures per 40mm squares, and the mounted 3-figures per 50X80mm rectangles. Most of figures are Old Glory from their Agincourt and War of the Roses ranges - the so-called Revenge line. The longbowmen and billmen are plastic Perry Miniatures.

I'll likely get box of Perry Medieval Mercenaries and another box of WotR Infantry for this project.

I don't plan on having too many missile troops as the scenario I envision will be more of the close-combat portion of this battle. I'm debating how to include the Stanley faction which turned the tide of the battle - "Treason!"

Battle of Bosworth Field Project - WIP

Just a quick update of what I've been working on. While waiting for an order of Litko plywood bases to arrive, I've sorted out some existing figures after removing them from individual bases. Besides the Perry plastics, metal Old Glory figures that were based for a French HYW WAB army will be used for this project. Some of the figures are in older armor - Agincourt period - but will represent French mercenaries in Henry Tudor's "invasion" force. All of the mounted knights/MAA previously had flags on their lances. They'll be based 3-figures per 80X50mm bases - and will be generic enough to use in various armies.

I'll probably get another box of Perry infantry for a few more billmen. I may also have to get the Mercenaries box too, as the crossbowmen and handgunners I have are from the Agincourt and earlier period. Too bad puffy sleeves came in a bit later, or I could use the WHFB Empire guys :)! Actually, the scenario will not need too many missile troops. The majority of shooting will occur in the opening turn(s). The bowmen will be allowed "Arrow Storm" - i.e. double the shooting dice the first time they fire. After that it would behoove them to retire behind the heavy infantry as the bowmen's hand-to-hand and survival qualities will be much lower than the billmen and knights/MAA. This I think was historical in the War of the Roses. That is, both sides pretty much cancelled any advantage of longbow fire as they both sides used them.

Battle of Worringen (sort of) - WAB Game

Stopped by the Game Matrix in Tacoma for my first Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB) game in over a year. My buddy Scott A. and I had wanted to play a game using our late-13th/Early 14th C. Medieval WAB armies for quite some time. Today, we finally got around to actually getting a game in. My army is based (loosely) on the army led by Siegfried, the Archbishop of Cologne at the Battle of Worringen in 1288. Scott's was going to be a similar one, but ended up changing it to an Ordenstadt (Teutonic) army after WAB 2.0's Armies of Antiquity came out. I kept my army pretty much the way it was listed in the old Armies of Chivalry supplement as an Early-Holy Roman Empire army. Here it is with a carrocio - which is basically an Army Standard wagon in the rules.

On the far right flank is a unit of Szekler Hungarian light cavalry. Below is a close-up of the unit of knights led by the Archbishop.The heraldry is taken from the Codex Manesse.

Early on, I recalled how much I disliked not only individual casualty removal, but also the tedious (to me) shooting and combat resolution - not to mention the multiple attacks of his Army General and those of the Warhorses. Scott ended up charging his Order Knights into my center unit of mixed order infantry - crossbows and spearmen. Although I managed to take out a few of his knights by mainly crossbow fire, the knights ended up defeating and breaking the infantry.

The broken infantry unit being within 12" of most friendlies, required multiple Panic tests. Siegfried himself failed his Leadership test of 9 - even with a re-roll using the Army Standard. The first roll was an 11, and the re-roll 12! In fact, I rolled very high for most of the Leadership tests during the entire game. We called the game after the 5th turn, after Scott had captured my Army Standard wagon which was one of the Victory Conditions.

Meanwhile on the table behind us, Pat L. (aka Socalwarhammer) and Old Bob from Gresham, Oregon were playing out their Successor Campaign, also using WAB. Their 6 turn game ended in a tie.

Scott M. was playing a nice looking Fields of Glory game - a ruleset I have yet to try. I think it was the Battle of Dara.

Perry War of the Roses Bowmen and Billmen - WIP+1

Here they are after being sprayed with Testors Dullcote, and given a bit of highlighting and inking.

Vallejo Black Ink/Stain was applied over certain areas like the studs on the brigandine coats.

They'll be based three figures per 40mm bases. Still waiting for another order of Litko plywood bases to arrive.

Perry War of the Roses Bowmen & Billmen - WIP

These are the very nice Perry plastics. I had always wanted to do War of the Roses, but hesitated due to the thought of painting up a bunch of longbowmen. I'm glad I broke down and picked up the box of 40 infantry which can build 30 bowmen and a balance of billmen and command. Here they are with a fresh Minwax stain over a basic block paint job.

Wanting a fairly uniform look for both forces, they are painted up using blues, reds, greens, yellows and white.

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I'm planning to use them for a Bosworth game, so have a bit more bowmen painted up as Plantagenets. Also, the six billmen are painted up in Lancastrian colors. As Henry VII had a smaller force of French and Welsh included, I plan to use existing figures from a Hundred Years War French army.

Boshin War Command - Bac Ninh Miniatures Painted

Painted these guys up today - and thanks to good weather, the Minwax Tudor Satin stain dried in record time. Testors Dullcote was sprayed over the finish. The research by Jose A. and sculpting by Mr. Hicks are commendable.

These are identifiable as Imperial troops by the red strips of cloth on their upper left arms. The two on the left represent officers of the Choshu and Tosa clans.

The excellent sculpting by Mr. Paul Hicks facilitated painting. Over a black basecoat, successive layers of blues (dark to light) were dry-brushed for the Western-styled uniforms.

Here they are stained, prior to the Dullcote finish.

Some images of Boshin War and Early-Meiji era troops:

Below - elite Denshutai troops of the Shogunate - including lancers!

Boshin War Figures - Bac Ninh Miniatures

These excellent Paul Hicks sculpts arrived today - only a week after ordering them from Bac Ninh Miniatures located in Spain. The owner/proprietor, Jose A., had them on sale for a discount and I just had to try them out. I am pleased not only with the figures themselves, but the ease of ordering as well as the speed of delivery. Thanks Jose!

This is the command set of officers in "bearskin" headress and NCO's in jingasa. Jose's website dedicated to the Boshin War has some very valuable resources and information to help paint these guys up. I plan to add more from his wonderfully researched line in the future - I'd like to see some in the bearskins in sword fighting poses like this image of the Battle of Ueno Temple during the Boshin War

I hope to have one of the officers painted up like Toshiro Mifune below:

Sonnō jōi! 

Celts/Gauls Rebase and Harold Godwinson

Decided to rebase some Celt/Gaul figures onto Litko bases; infantry three figures per 40mm square, and two cav per 50mm square. They were previously based for WAB - and used in games as Seleucid mercenaries. They are mostly Old Glory figures with a few Gripping Beast command figures. Most of the shields have LBMS transfers; a few of the Gripping Beast shields were hand-painted as the transfers wouldn't fit onto them.

Encouraged by the way the modified Hail Caesar rules played out with the Siege of Haengju game, I plan to use these against the Warlord Games EIR troops that have never seen action as of yet.

To round out the units, I painted up a few more Gripping Beast figures using the method of block painting and Minwax staining - I am still using the remnants of a can that is practically gone save a few drops.

The Harold figure in front is a Crusader Miniatures figure that was used to round out another base of Saxons.

Here is Harold in front of some Old Glory light armored Norman that were also rebased two per on 50mm squares.

I've just about had it with single-based figures and casualty removal for most games, so eventually all my figures will be multi-based. I'm thinking of rebasing my Norman and HYW French knights three-per 80X50mm bases. Another Litko order may be placed soon.

Enfildade! 2014

Just got back from attending my eighth Enfilade! - the local historical gaming convention touted as the largest of such conventions west of the Mississippi. The three-day convention hosted by members of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society, and  held over the Memorial Day weekend is in it's twentieth-plus year, and a major attraction for the historical gamers in Washington State, surrounding states and loyal attendees from the Great White North - mainly the Vancouver, B.C. area.

I hosted the Imjin War Siege of Haengju game in the first two periods of the convention - the afternoon and evening of Friday. I was preoccupied during the first game and forgot to take pictures. As I've posted pictures of this game from play tests before, I've only added a few pictures below as they depict actions which hadn't occurred before. First, Samurai cavalry attacking the outer wooden barricades - which the rules don't allow them to cross, but can fight defenders at. The second image is of Koreans having left their defensive positions and fighting Ashigaru outside of their defense works. Something which rewarded the Korean player with having his units destroyed in the first round of combat. And from the first game, Samurai cavalry entering the first tier after successful hits on the outer barricade by the lone Japanese cannon. The rules allowed a section of wall a unit base width to be destroyed (removed) if two successful cannon hits were made in the same round of firing. The cannon only had two shooting dice per turn. Incidentally, cavalry could fight at the wall, but not cross it mounted.

Samurai cavalry impetuously attacking the outer wooden barricades.

Over confident Koreans leaving the safety of their defensive position to take on Ashigaru - ending in their demise.

photo from Dave's Naval Gazing blog

I should add that both games had the Koreans victorious by destroying 50 percent of the Japanese forces. The first game in the the 6th and last turn, and in the second game during the bottom of the 5th turn (the Korean's turn). The first game had a Samurai unit in the top tier of the Korean defensive position, but later destroyed by point blank Hwa Cha fire.

Hosting the two games, I failed to take pictures of the numerous others games going on at the time. I did manage to take a few photos of some of the games on Saturday - including a War of the Roses game using Armati rules which I participated in. Here are the pictures - hopefully captioned correctly.

Battle of Sambre , 57 BC Rome against the Gauls
Presented by White Rock Gamers - Armati 2

Lancastrian Vs Burgundians!
Presented by White Rock Gamers - Armati 2

Waltzing Matilda
Presented by David Sullivan and Bruce Meyer - Bolt Action

LZ XRay
Presented by Lawrence Bateman and Damond Crump - homegrown rules

Get the message through!
Presented by Gary Williams - homegrown rules

Gzombies!
Presented by Daryl L. Nichols - Gnome Wars

The Battle of Nome
Presented by James. McEwan - Starguard

Battle of Riga
Presented by Doug Nolan and Aaron Peterson - Wings of Glory

These are only a fraction of the over 100 games at the three day convention - I actually left the evening of the second day; missing the last three periods. If you're ever in Washington State during Memorial Day weekend and looking for some great historical games (as well as a smidgen of other types), be sure to drop by.

West Wind Samurai

I managed to pick these up off of ebay for a great deal. I had wanted to sample some these figures as the lower ranking foot samurai look just like the Minamoto samurai on the period scroll depicting the raid on Sanjo Palace. These are bare-legged and without armor for their arms as in the scroll. I painted them up today using the block painting technique followed by Minwax Tudor Satin Stain. These are the first figures I've painted in some time, as I've been in a sort of painting slump.

The two on the left in the photo above appear to be in armor from a period a bit later than Heian, but not too far off. The three on the right are carrying naginata which many of the foot samurai in the scroll are armed with.

The image below shows them block painted over a black undercoat.

Next, reshly stained with Minwax. The can of stain is several years old and only a few drops are left and had to be refreshed with thinner.

Here are a couple of images from the scroll - note the bare legs and lack of sode (upper arm protection) on some.

The samurai in the scroll are from the Minamoto clan and were considered uncouth by the opposing Taira clan. In fact, the scroll shows many of the Minamoto whiskered and bare legged - as well as doing very vulgar things like decapitating unarmed individuals, and parading the heads on the blades of their naginata.

Here's a comparison shot of various 28mm miniatures for the Heian period.

For the record, I like the less-armored West Wind samurai over their more armored ones. The more armored ones (with sode, etc.) seem to be wearing later period armor which would work fine in Sengoku era, but look a bit advanced for Heian. All of them come with separate heads, which allows for slight variations of poses. Overall, the West Wind figures aren't bad figures and painted up quite quickly.

Meiji Army Re-Based

These are all Old Glory figures from their Boxer Rebellion range, except for the cannon which are from the Spanish American War range, IIRC. They're painted up in early Meiji era uniforms, which were worn up until the middle of the Russo-Japanese War. They are also similar to what was worn by Imperial troops in "Dances With Samurai", er...I mean "The Last Samurai".

The figures have been re-based on Litko plywood bases for either Hail Caesar or Black Powder. They were previously based as singles and used in a couple of The Sword and the Flame games in the past. As I'm not much of a TSATF player, I wanted them multi-based for the types of games I play.

I suppose they could still be used in games like Bolt Action with casualty counters too.

I might try them out against Samurai like the movie mentioned above.