This week Eric has been busy making some more scenery for Gaslands. Above we have a good looking Gas Station while below are some rocks.
Stephen has started work on building a 15mm medieval castle. This is intended as a nice backdrop to a Wars of the Roses game to re fight the battle of Wakefield.
And lastly this week Marcus is at it again with yet more aircraft. Firstly a Condor german bomber.
And something a bit more modern with a pair of Tu22M3’s.
This is the third battle report in our long standing campaign to re-fight the Wars of the Roses. Details can be found on the campaign page. Three battles into the campaign it’s become a tradition for the winner to write up the battle report. Which is why Jeremey takes us through the battle of Northampton (spoiler!)
Battle of Northampton
History tells us this was clearly a defensive battle for the Lancastrians, however history also tells us that due to the treachery of Lord Grey the battle apparently only lasted about half an hour. So we dispensed with that aspect and went for the Lancastrians taking up a defensive position. The Lancastrians were allowed enough stakes to cover their front line at no extra costs, but to provide the attackers with a chance this battle was our first game of unequal sides.
Given the Lancastrians static defence Stephen decided to take on full responsibility of command. I as the Yorkists had originally divided up my force to accommodate a guest commander but ended up dividing the army in to three battles to accommodate an additional commander!
Therefore for this battle both Andy and Tim joined my Yorkist forces. For this battle the Lancastrians had 520 points to the Yorkist 700 and we played using the Sword and Spear 2nd edition rules.
The start of the battle saw the Lancastrians in their defensive position with a front line of archers and two artillery units. Andy took command of the Yorkist left with Tim in the centre, I took the Yorkist right near the abbey.
The first couple of turns were all about the Yorkists getting their units moving. The initiative system in Sword and Spear makes it tricky to get everyone moving at a steady pace. You can do a group move of units but that is still dependent on drawning activation dice from the bag and rolling enough to start the group move. It was soon clear some units were being left behind.
Meanwhile the Lancastrians had little to do but wait for the enemy to come within range of their guns and archers. The Lancastrians also had a camp which would allow them to increase the reach and potency of their missile fire through the Resupply strategy.
I advanced my force at a break neck speed outdistancing my subordinate commanders and setting a fine example of how a real commander should lead. Although a pause was required to allow some of my units to catch up. While I did this Tim also managed to advance in the centre, but Andy had the furthest to travel so was somewhat behind.
Realising you can’t make an omelette without breaking any eggs I advanced my archers within range of the Lancastrians taking the chance that they could withstand a volley (or two!) and return the complement, to try and create some holes in the Lancastrian line.
However it was not to be. Some good dice from Stephen and poor dice from me saw both my archer units wiped out before they could even loose an arrow! This made me pause in my advance fearing that I’d have no chance of reaching the Lancastrians with my slow moving billmen and men at arms.
In the centre Tim decided to just go for it and continued his advance. Stephen thought it was worth trying a few ranging shots, but didn’t quite have the distance.
A turn later and Tim and Stephen were able to exchange fire. Tim’s forward units of billmen and spearmen took a bit of damage from the Lancastrians but in return they managed to destroy some of the Lancastrian guns and open up a hole in their defensive line.
Spurred on by this Tim adavanced his units even further. Unfortunately this proved costly with the spearmen succumbing to more artillery fire. Luckily Tim’s captain attached to the unit survived to be able to support the remaining units in the continued attack.
Tim’s bold advance saw the first of the Yorkists units reach the Lancastrian defences. For Tim this was his dismounted men at arms. Unfortunately Stephen had plugged the gap left by the loss of his artillery with some dismounted men at arms of his own. With a supporting unit for the Lancastrians and their sharp stakes taking away the Yorkist impetus, this turned out to be a tough fight that would last for a few turns.
Being slightly embarrassed by one of my subordinate commanders getting into melee first, I decided I’d spent enough time regrouping and launched an attack with my billmen. I had some rather useless cavalry and so I put them out front as cannon fodder to at least take some of the incoming missile fire away from my heavy infantry.
On the Yorkist left flank Andy had finally got his forces in range and was able to start making holes in the Lancastrian defence thanks to some good archery. This forced Stephen to think about plugging more gaps, but he held off this time fearing Andy could just stand off and continue firing on the defensive line.
Meanwhile in the centre Tim had managed to get a unit of billmen into melee to continue the assault. This added much needed support to his hard pressed men at arms.
Following this change in momentum, and thankfully because I rolled some good activaton dice. I managed to get my men at arms and billmen into melee against the Lancastrian archers. Even with the stakes taking way my impetus, the archers were no match for my heavy infantry. These Lancastrian loses pushed them over their Morale threshold forcing Stephen to make tests for each unit. Unfortunately for the Lancastrians this resulted in the loss of a few more units.
Andy was still causing trouble on the Lancastrian right flank, forcing Stephen to move up his billmen to prepare for an assault from Andy’s infantry.
With the Lancastrian line crumbling and more Yorkists arriving the battle reached a final stage. Although the Yorkists were at this point only one unit away from their own morale test point.
But there was to be no last minute Lancastrian revival, Tim’s billmen broke through the Lancastrian defensive line and engaged a unit of militia archers. The blue dice shown are Tim’s Yorkist scores against Stephens black Lancastrian ones. This lost unit pushed the Lancastrians over their break point with the remainder of the turn seeing enough other Lancatrian loses to make the battlefield look like a resounding Yorkist victory. Truth be told there was a moment it was clearly in the balance.
That leaves the campaign at 2-1 to the Yorkists, but Wakefield is up next.
Yorkist Loses
3 Units of Longbows (9 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (4 points)
2 Units of Billmen (8 points) Total loses 21 points (Army break point 35)
Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Dismounted Men at Arms (8 points)
1 Unit of Billmen (4 points)
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
4 Units Militia Longbows (12 points)
2 Units of Artillery (4 points) Total loses 43 points (Army break point 31)
We start this weeks work in progress Wednesday with some Mech for Battletech. It’s been a very long time since Battletech has been played by members so we are hoping to get a game in soon. Eric has painted up two mechs.
Next up Marcus has been busy painting some more aircraft.
Above we have some HE111’s and below some HE115’s (which I’ve never heard of).
Now we have some adventurers from Stephen, this is apparently Aleecia One-Eye and Bill Mulligan.
Lastly this week Mark J has been painting up some more terrain for an up coming Judge Dredd game.
And some Swiss infantry from Felix for a Lion Rampant army.
Oops, a bit of a scheduling snafu today, but, better late than never, Stephen describes his latest project:
Like a lot of projects, this one started off small and just grew.
Originally, all I wanted was half a dozen elves for games like Song of Blades and Heroes. I looked around at the different options and I saw that buying half dozen metal miniatures was more or less the same cost as buying a box of 30 placcy Oathmark elves, and the extra numbers may give me a few options.
So inevitably this grew and I made them into a Dragon Rampant force.
Because you do, eh?
I like my fantasy to have that ‘alternate history’ vibe to it. You know, what if the ancient Greek heroes really had existed, what if elves and dwarves had existed.
That just sits better with me.
And given that my historical interests lie in the early medieval period (13th century is where my real interest lies) then I thought to myself, ‘let’s imagine the elves as if they were present in 11th century Britain’.
So that’s the aesthetic I’ve gone for, rather than Tolkien or (horror of horrors) the GW look.
The host of Dean
In the Hexham Chronicle, under the year 1138, it is recorded, ‘…after payment then did the aelfson unwrap their bows and they stood with the king’s men and brought upon the Scots a deadly rain of arrows’. This early reference to elves suggests it was they who brought to the English armies the battle tactic of a large body of formed archers that was to prove so popular in later centuries. However, the earliest reference to elves can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In the year 855 we find this cryptic reference: ‘And so did Milean, lord of the elves, bring to the king a white horse for his journey to Rome, as was the custom of old for the elves to pay honour to their lord.’ What this suggests is that elves had been known in the country for a long time. A later ASC reference says, ‘King Henry was reminded that Epping had been held by the elves since time immemorial and so the king rendered unto the elves that which he owed’. We also know that in 1322 the elves were no longer present in Britain since Chaucer, writing in 1381 says, ‘he was named Robyn of the Hode / and of Epping aelf he was sired / and with Thomas of Lancaster / he fled with kin and off they all rode.’ – interesting that he has Robin Hood as an elf!
We know that in Britain there were two main elven settlements – one in the forest of Dean, and another in Epping. Both of these were royal forests so it is unknown exactly what the relationship between the elven communities and the crown was. Undoubtedly the elves would have sworn fealty to the English crown as sovereign, and it is known they generally supported the English throne on matters (the exception being in 1171 when the elven court were signatories to a papal letter for Henry II’s involvement with the Thomas Beckett affair).
The elves that I have collected represent those from the Enclave of Dean (as the elves referred to the forest). This can be seen by their preference for red trimmings – those from Epping preferring blue. It’s not known if this was a fixed coloration (because there are many exceptions) or if it was just a general trend.
The Lord and Lady of Dean
The Lady and Lord of Dean
These two form the main leaders of the elven force.
The Lady is a single-model hero and I have her as Light Foot with the short-range missiles upgrade (to represent magical flurries of thorns and brambles) and also the full spellcaster upgrade. She is a Ral Partha model.
The Lord is also a single-model hero and I have marked him up as Elite Foot with the missiles upgrade.
Forest Guardians
Forest Guardians
These are the minor nobles – well-equipped and armoured. I have John Lambert to thank for these because he kindly donated some chainmail clad torsos from one of the Gripping Beast sets, which I then kept themed using the spare heads and arms from the Oathmark box. The shields came from the spares box and I went with 11th century Byzantine shield designs because that way they would both be period specific but also different.
They are Heavy Foot – with no other upgrades. I was desperate to avoid the elves as ‘super humans’ because it’s not a trope I like, so I resisted giving them the offensive upgrade.
The Company of the Glade and The Company of the Gloom
The Company of the GladeThe Company of the Gloom
These are two archer units made from the Oathmark box. This is pretty much as they come. I decided not to put them in a uniform, because I don’t like that look. So they got random colours but I worked from a limited palette to help tie them together.
In deciding what these are I was again in a dilemma. They’re elves, so they must be expert archers, right? Well, yes, I suppose so. But I decided the elven reputation for archery would come from their preference for large numbers of archers rather than being a horde of Robin Hoods. So I have them as Light Missiles, and bravely fought off the temptation to give them the sharpshooter upgrade. However, that remains an option if I need to up the points cost.
Oak, Ash and Thorn
Oak, Ash and Thorn; the Treekin
These represent the elves’ main allies – the forest itself. I have called these Treekin and they represent the spirit of the forest. The phrase ‘oak, ash, and thorn’ is a description that was given to ancient woodlands, so it seems right. These are also from Ral Partha.
I have these as a reduced model unit of Elite Foot. I decided against Lesser Warbeasts because I felt that troop type was too brittle and didn’t reflect the nature of the troops. I almost nearly made them a Greater Warbeast unit, but the Elite Foot stats seemed right.
Lightfoot and Kin
Lightfoot and Kin
Forgive me, a moment’s whimsy. There’s not much to say here. They are faeries, pixies, sprites – call them what you will. Again, sourced from Ral Partha.
What they are is a unit of Scouts with the invisibility upgrade.
So that’s my new elven force.
The problem is that there’s still room in the box for more. And we all know what that means…
For our recent Stargrave jaunt to the planet of Aqua Sulis, the five players were required to bring a boat. It could be anything that floated in, on or above the water, there were no design rules. Here we run over the various tubs, buckets and hulks that were served up.
Eric
Eric went for a laser-cut survey shuttle from Blotz that could obviously float on the surface of the sea. He should have done a little better with the security features, since it turned out to be very easy to break down the back door, shoot the pilot and steal the boat.
Andy
A few months ago, Stephen said he would run a Stargrave scenario based on a Waterworld location, and asked us to build some form of maritime transport.
I did a web search for 28mm boats, and amongst the hits was a Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R) from AnyScaleModels.
The main hull is around 7” long and 2.25” wide. Plenty of room for my crew I thought.
I needed to make it look a bit more Sci Fi than modern, so I asked Tony at Brigade if he had some suitable engine nacelles I could scrounge, he came up with some from their 15mm Perseus VTOL. I also had a few other bits and pieces from Brigade in the bits box: some Sensor turrets and some Heavy Laser guns from their Mercenary range.
Both the boat and engine nacelles had a few air bubbles that needed to be filled, I used some Humbrol Model filler for this. After drying and sanding down, the boat components and nacelles were washed in soapy water and allowed to dry.
The wings attached to the nacelles were quite thin, 2-3mm at most, this required that I drill and pin the short wings to the boat hull, as a glue only joint wouldn’t be sufficient.
I decided to mount the engine nacelles roughly amidships, in line with the pilot’s seat and control panel. I drilled a hole for the sensor turret in the front deck. On reflection I might have offset the pilot’s seat to one side rather than have it central.
Once the superglue had dried, I primed the boat with Halford’s grey primer, and then gave the boat a coat of Warpaint Soviet Green.
Once the Soviet Green had dried, I painted the sensor lens, engine intakes and exhaust matt black, I painted some of the boat’s hatches Gunmetal Grey.
I then painted the detail on the control panel, matt Black dials and Crystal Blue screens. The pilot’s seat was painted Khaki Grey. The final touch was silver on the wing leading edge lights and red and green navigation lights, touching up any errors with Russian Uniform WWII, which I found to be almost an exact match for the Warpaint Soviet Green spray paint
Once the model was dry, I gave it washes, Military shader on the green areas, Dark Tone on the metal hatches and engine nacelle grills and Strong Tone Wash on the seat.
I then had a hunt through my transfer box and found some very old decals from a couple of Airfix kits; some registration numbers from a Swedish Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight and name plates “Apollo” from a Churchill Tank kit. I also found a couple of DANGER decals from another helicopter kit.
I painted a layer of gloss varnish over the areas to which I intended to apply the transfers, which, considering their age, went on easily without breaking up.
Once the decals had dried, I gave the boat a couple of coats of matt varnish, and here she is, the Apollo, ready to venture forth in Waterworld.
Phil
When Stephen suggested the Waterworld game I thought that I would pass just because it involved building a boat and I really wasn’t sure I could be bothered. Then with a couple of weeks to go he asked me I was up for the game and I agreed.
Bum, now I needed to come up with a boat.
Fortunately this proved to be a fairly simple affair. Hidden away in a corner of my cellar were a few Games Workshop kits that I had been bought as presents many years ago. Combining bits from a couple of these gave a simple boat / skimmer that could fit my entire ship’s company.
The main part of the hull came from a 40K Tau Tidewall floaty thing. The exact model doesn’t seem to be available anymore but a couple of similar ones are still on the GW website. The dome at the back game from an Age of Sigmar Grundstock Gunhauler – another floaty thing. By chance the dome piece fitted precisely on a flat part at the back of the Tau model. Nice and easy.
Painting was also straight forward. A spray of GW Zandri dust and some complementary reds and browns from Wargames Foundry. And of course the obligatory GW washes to finish. It only took a day to make which was better than I expected.
Tim
Tim was the only one to go fully scratchbuilt, with a cross between a canal barge and a WW2 landing craft made from foam card. The cogs and wheels were ‘liberated’ from his wife’s craft supplies (we wonder if she knew ?). Looks like a bit of a pig to steer, but it was a cunning move to make it this long since the prow of Tim’s boat started 6″ further into the table than anyone else !
Tony
Finally, Tony went down the Don Johnson/Miami Vice route with a full-on speedboat. It started out as an accessory for a 6″ action figure – origin unknown. It was purchased from a bootfair for 50p, so who’s complaining ? I ripped out the existing cockpit, fitted a new plasticard floor, jump seats, engine and other bits and pieces from my spares box and gave it a quick respray complete with go-faster stripes. Only it didn’t go any faster since it spent most of the game being boarded by giant frogs or dragged down by a sea kraken.
For our next instalment in this series Tony starts with a couple of submissions:
Our title image is a scene from the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, the Charge of the Rohirrim, with Théoden at the fore during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Figures from Tony’s extensive collection.
Returning to history, Tony says: “I thought I’d have a go at recreating some WW2 historical photos for this. I dug out my copy of “Blitzkreig in the West” from After The Battle publishing, which specialises in showing contemporary photos and then retaking the scene as it was in the 70s (when the book was published…)”.
We can’t reproduce the photos from the book for copyright reasons, but here are Tony’s reconstructions.
On May 10th, 2nd Panzer Division was moving through the Ardennes – the original photo shows a PzIII passing a Protze truck. I used a Pz.III and a Horch field car – I didn’t have a Protze with crew figures, the Horch just looked better. In hindsight it needed a backdrop of some sort to hide the garden fence.
Horch field car and Pz.III
In the early hours of May 15th 1940, the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion) encountered units of the 7th Panzer Division near Flavion in Belgium. After heavy fighting the Char B1s were stopped by German artillery. I found a fully painted B1 in my collection that was still awaiting its tracks, so I thought it would make an ideal stand-in for the disabled vehicle on the road.
Char B1s of the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion)
Moving from WW2 to the Hundred Years War, Stephen gives us the Battle of Crécy
The battle of Crecy, 1346
And finally for this submission, a couple of scenes from the Original Top Gun film (1986!) provided by Marcus.
Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 and “Mig-28”, Watch the Birdie!Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 vs 2 “Mig-28s”
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