End of an era!

Well the back end of 2014 has seen a bit of a shake up for our happy little band, Tom has moved to Durham chasing work and left us 25% down on membership. It's not the other end of the world but too far to travel for weekly games. Tom always got a handle on new rules before the rest of us and was always keen to try something new, we'll miss him. However with Christmas coming round he came down for a big game at the weekend, four players Italian wars at 3000poits per army with free general and ASB each, over 12000 points on the table saw a nice spectacle and plenty of laughs. We rolled for sides and it came up Tom and me versus Craig and Pete.



                             Tom's Milanese line up, pikes covered by clouds of skirmishers.

Down the line with Toms Milanese in the front and my Borgia Papal army at the far end.

 Craigs' Florentine pike blocks backed by two units of heavy cavalry with Petes' Venetians in the back ground, pike blocks, heavy cavalry and clouds of light cavalry.

                         The might of Florence, forcing the obligatory shouts of "Where's Zebedee?"
                              Note the sneaky unit of dismounted knights with the Lion banner!

                                          Pete's DayGlo landsknechtes.

                                                  Borgia Papal pikes and crossbows.

                The battle started with a general advance by the Florentine/Venetian alliance.

 The Milanese/Papal army creep forward, apart from Toms' skirmishers who rush to engage, Tom never holds back with skirmishers, all or nothing!

                                   The Floentines push forward into the Milanese pike blocks.

 Papal knights having charged and wiped out a unit of hangunners end up facing a wood, they were charged in the flank by the swordsmen in the distance, evaded but were caught and wiped out- a big loss of points for Mr Borgia.

                                           Petes' Landsknechtes take the centre of the field.

 Pike on Pike action, epitomises this period and is often the deciding factor for one side or the other.

 The sneaky Florentine knights hit Milanese mercenary landsknechtes in the flank and roll them up-

                 they carry on straight into the next block- not a pretty sight for Toms Milanese.

 The Papal army moves forward to engage Petes Venetian mercenary Landsknechtes in the centre.

 Eventually Toms command was broken and Craigs Venetians came across to help Petes Venetians, however they were just too late as the Landsknechtes had been routed by concentrated attacks back and front by the Papal forces, the Venetians held on for three or four turns burning their Stubborn markers and pulling out a roll of 'snake eyes' to stand despite being 8 down on combat resolution- Petes' blue dice are 'dodgy' to say the least!!

                                                Push of pike up close and personal!

A great game to finish the year off, the result hung in the balance right 'til the end. I still think this is the best period to game in, there's plenty of troop types and colour and the WAB system gives a good game so as the old adage goes, 'If it ain't bust don't fix it!' I think there'll be more Renaissance games in the coming year.

I hope you all have a great New Year.

AWI British Infantry

Well this post took it's time in coming! I don't know if it's just me but the summer seems to slow down the painting out put to a trickle. There always seems to be other things to do that are more important- sitting in the back garden with a beer is always tempting when the sun's out. Anyhoo I still managed to complete the first unit of what I hope will be a good sized army. These are Perry Miniatures representing the 62nd Regiment of Foot in the Sarratoga campaign.

I've based them on 20mm round bases from Warbases that fit into a movement tray. This will enable me to use them for Muskets and Tomahawks.

Drummers with reversed colours.

The flags are from GMB Designs, these are top quality and cover a whole raft of periods.

We'll be using Black Powder rules for the games when we've amassed enough troops. Windy is going with the Americans as is Tom. Fingers has thrown in the towel already and given me his unpainted figures- some people have no staying power!! We'll see how it goes in the next few months, hopefully we'll get enough figures painted to have a game before Christmas.

Next show on the agenda is Derby, Fingers, Tom and myself are entering the WAB tournament so if anyone's around please say hello.

Papal Guard

This post is long overdue, when I started this blog my intention was to post about once a week or so, but this weather we're having in the UK is brilliant- we've actually got a summer!! We can sit out at night on the patio chatting with a beer until late (drinking the beer not talking to it, chatting to the missus) and weekends are spent out and about while the weather lasts. We also had the Tour de France pass by the end of our road which we had to see.

 

Every Pope needs a guard, the Borgias probably more than all of the rest put together, I don't think they were very popular, apart from re runs on Sky!

I had a few character models left over from various packs so I put them all in this unit, the rank and file are TAG and Foundry figures.

I picked yellow and black as a base colour and added red the contrast, I think they turned out ok. I also put in three flags, for such a small unit it's a bit overkill but makes it stand out on the tabletop, just what you want your elites to do- present themselves to the enemy cannon!

 

 

 

When the Papal guard was founded it didn't have a uniform, just basis Swiss infantry, but as they're a very expensive unit I thought I'd make them look a bit special.

 

The Papal envoy is there just to keep an eye on boys.

 

I like this mounted general, from Perrys', but had nowhere to put him and as I have a bag load of command stands I thought I'd put him with the guard.

 

 

The last picture is a couple of mounted clergy, one on a donkey- pure class from Perry Miniatures.

 

 We've been looking at the American War of Independence lately, which inevitably meant buying and painting a unit- or two. The next post will show my efforts in a new period- watch this space.

Landsknechte pikemen

Every now and again, just like most gamers, I hit the proverbial 'painting wall' where I can't get going and spend more and more time away from the painting table. I used these little fellers as a way to overcome this and get my enthusiasm running again. I loved painting these and at some time in the not too distant future I can see me painting another block, or two.

 

 

 I've two pike blocks of 40 men each, based so I can split them down to 20's,  24's or 36's as the game dictates. Within the two blocks there's a mixture of manufacturers but mainly I have one block of Wargames Foundry figures and the other of Pro Gloria figures with a smattering of Peter Gilder figures. On the matter of mixing manufacturers figures I've always done this, an extra mm here and there adds variation.

A good friend of mine, John Reidy of the Independent Wargames Group  ( Robbies' Blog link- http://independentwargamesgroup.blogspot.co.uk/  ) always put a mounted commander in his pike blocks and I really liked the effect so, as any self respecting wargamer would do - I pinched the idea, hence the Gendarme with the standard in the front rank.

 

All the standards are printed on cloth from Petes' flags, link-   http://thegreatitalianwars.blogspot.com/

When I game with these I like to advance in echelon covered by a cloud of skirmishers, they don't manoeuvre very well so I use a straightforward 'advance to contact' policy. Sometimes they steamroller the opposition, other times they get caught in the flanks and bog off back home pretty sharpish but I love 'em an will keep employing 'em.

 

The Pro Gloria lads.

 

The Foundry boys.



 

Close up of the Gendarme standard bearer.

I hope you like the Landsknechtes, I don't as yet have any Swiss, no doubt this will change when I expand my French army- so much to do and enjoy!

Polish Winged Lancers

I've been waiting to photograph these polish winged lancers for a while but as I don't have proper lighting facilities I've been waiting for a sunny day, with it being Britain I've been waiting a while!! Today was somewhere near so I took these, not brilliant quality pictures, hope you like them.

 

I Got these at Warlord miniatures at Salute, first impression was they would be a pain to fit together and would fall apart at the first knock. As it happens I rather enjoyed building them and, as yet nothing has fallen off. Despite Windys' best attentions.

 

The flag is the paper one from the box, the pennons are from Curteys, miniatures.

 

 

 The usual view of your own troops- from behind as they charge forward.

 

Close up of the unit commander, resplendent with flowing white beard.

They look impressive on the table, better than in the photos, so I might get some more. Both Foundry and TAG do decent figures so I might find myself with three units.



 



 I've had these in the lead pile for a while, bought in a job lot from ebay. I'll need more troops than Winged lancers so I'll use these Old Glory figures as Wallachian allies, either skirmishing or as a formed unit. Armed with light lance and bows they should be quite useful.

 

I received my Pancerni from Redoubt miniatures this week, they looked great at Salute but on opening the package I was disappointed. Too many mould lines, misaligned mouldings and broken bits on 8 out of 12 figures. I've built three but can't get any enthusiasm up to paint them so I think they'll go to the back of the painting queue and I'll do something else. As we've started playing Muskets and Tomahawks it may be a British force- watch this space.