Pavia Refight

Today I went up north to my mate Robbie's for a game of Pike and Shotte. We'd arranged the game at the York show and today was the day. Tom came over as he's moved up that way, along with John and Colin. Robbie had arranged to fight Pavia, a straight refight using the set up from the book. Rob would provide the French, I'd bring along the Imperialists.

On arrival we diced for sides, John and Colin would be on my side, Tom would partner Rob.

 

This is the site the slumbering French awoke to on the morning of Pavia, Imperialists emerging from the dawn.

 

A view up the table, the French and Swiss are trying to pass their command rolls, and failing miserably, much to the Imperialist amusement!

Johns' Italian and Spanish can be seen advancing on the right, my Landsknechtes advance (slowly) in the centre.

 

Colins' cavalry and light infantry command set off around the woods on the left flank-

 

 

Only to be met by the cream of the French Nobility screened by Stradiots.

This was going to be a see saw engagement all day.



 

 

 

Rob being embarrassed after ANOTHER lucky dice roll.

The Landsknechtes get stuck in to Toms Swiss in the centre.

 



 Push of pike.

 

 The Swiss arquebusiers first hold up Frundsbergs pike block then push them back, eventually breaking the command, they didn't even need the Swiss pikes!!!

 Frundsbergs command falling back after losing two pike blocks and having three Shaken units are finished as an effective fighting force.

 

 

During the game Robs C-in-C had been killed along with his Gendarmes, Colin had taken the wood and secured the left flank, John had broken the Black Bande and taken the French Command post, this gave us enough victory points to win even though Tom had held up and pushed back my Landsknechtes in the centre.
I'm still not sure about Pike and Shotte but it gives the opportunity to have a big game with minimum fuss. I'll give them another couple of goes to see if I can get my head round them, otherwise they'll be Ebay bound.
Rob, John and Colin have very good blogs, which can be found here-
http://slimreidy1.blogspot.co.uk/
 http://independentwargamesgroup.blogspot.co.uk/
http://carryingsonupthedale.blogspot.co.uk/

I know Rob and Colin do a lot better write ups than me so treat yourselves and have a gander.



AWI British Army to date

Well no posts for a loooong time, ordinary life keeps plodding on, I've become a Great Uncle yet again and work is busy, very profitable so I can't complain, but I've been busy painting so the hobby front has been ticking over nicely. I've put together a small expeditionary force and that's how it's going to stay for a while as I've been bitten by another wargaming bug- more of that later.

The first Regiment finished is the 21st Foot, these are Old Glory figures, not everyone's first choice as some of the poses in the bags are, well- just odd!! However I like the look of them and that's good enough for me. These are intended to be used with the Black Powder supplement Revolution, written by my mate Steve Jones.

 

 

 Next up is a howitzer, can be used as a cannon if required. Perry miniatures.

 

 More Perry goodness, a combined Grenadier Battalion, I've put a mounted commander in the ranks for no better reason than I like the look, no historical precedence whatever.

 The native Americans will eventually be added to as I really enjoyed painting these, I think the next batch might get a further wash of 'redness' to emphasise their origins.

I based the Indians on Warbases sabot bases, I can use these for Muskets and Tomahawks too.

 

 These are Perrys in Roundabouts, a shortened plain coat and the trident hat has been flattened out to protect the eyes and neck from the sun. I liked painting these, they were easy with the lack of lace, and look different on the table.

 Again a mounted officer leads the lads into combat.

 

 The main men, a General with his dog and gofer.

 

 A couple of command stands, all these mounted Generals are Old Glory riders on various horses. My favourite horses are by Essex, I've a big box full of 'em, on which I mount as many Generals as will fit them.

 No army- or expeditionary force, would be complete without a mounted arm. I've chose to base these on Tarletons' Dragoons. They've got a good/bad reputation depending on which side you're on. Perrys again and a pleasure to paint.

 This is the full force for now, it will increase in size but not this year I don't think.

After painting uniforms for the last few months, crossbelts, collars and cuffs, lace et al, I've been bitten by the Napoleonic bug again. Napoleonics was my first love for many years, I remember my first Hinchliffe figures with fondness- British Line, unfortunately sold years ago but never forgotten. I've decided to complete a British Peninsular army that I started a couple of years ago, more on this to follow soon-ish.

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.