Author: Jeremey Claridge

Yorkist Rampant! – Wars of the Roses Battle Report

After a gap of 17 months (for the obvious reasons)  Jeremey and Stephen finally got to field their Wars of the Roses armies again. Here Jeremey takes us through what happened.

Both Stephen and I agreed on making this a 700 points per side battle using the Sword and Spear rules. We invited other members to take part and ended up with the Lancastrian forces commanded by Stephen and Tony, with the Yorkist side commanded by myself and Andy.

Here we have the main bulk of the Yorkist forces, with the usual number of archers and billmen. The Yorkists didn’t bother to bring any unusual units like artilery, but did have welsh spearmen and archers to swell the ranks. I took the Yorkist Left flank facing the Lancastrians commanded by Tony, which left Andy facing Stephen’s lancastrians on the right.

The Lancastrian forces had a similar make up but went for some artillery and handgunners. Both sides drew up their forces in typical formations. Tony on the Lancastrian right had command of all the Lancastrian cavalry units.

To add a bit of flavour to the game I created a number of event cards, these were sort of successful but on drawing the cards the lancastrians came off worse with both the artillery and handgunner units being forced to join the battle after a set number of turns. This was due to having event cards designed to show the chaotic nature of forces during this time getting lost on the way or being hesitant to join the battle.

The initial activation of the armies saw both sides move up to longbow range and engage in an archery duel. It was at this point that a general theme of the Lancastrians (specifically Tony) having the most appalling dice rolls ever  began.

The archery duel didn’t last long and saw the majority of the Lancastrian archers wiped out for no loses on the Yorkist side.

Faced with the archery disaster the Lancastrians under Tony started an outflanking move with their cavalry, a mixture of mounted men at arms and currours.

This caused a bit of panic in the Yorkist ranks (well me really) who quickly brought up more of their billmen and cavalry to counter the move.

Having riden within range the Yorkist horse charged against the lancastrians attempting the outflanking move, the first charge nearly destroyed the Lancastrian cavalry. They were soon dispatched in the following turn.

However this didn’t discourage the Lancastrian who then charged with their mounted men at arms straight at a unit of billmen. Again Tony’s dice rolling saw the Lancastrian cavalry completely destroyed for just a single point of damage to the billmen.

Meanwhile on the Yorkist right flank the Lancastrians commanded by Stephen managed to buck the trend and shot Andy’s welsh spearmen to pieces. This put the right flank in danger as the Yorkists had fewer archers to try and even the score.

The alarming gap in the Yorkist forces where the welsh spearmen used to be. Facing the potential of another arrow storm Andy decided drastic measures were needed.

Much to my surprise this saw Andy charge the archers with his Northern Boarder horse. It didn’t go well with the cavalry being wiped out.

Having so far suffered only two points of damage to my units I felt emboldened and charged my billmen into the remnants of Tony’s archers scoring a number of hits and pushing the Lancastrian loses towards breaking point.

With the Lancastrians on the brink of breaking I charged the final unit of Lancastrian currours with my mounted men at arms. As was typical for the game so far the Lancastrian cavalry were wipped out handing victory to the Yorkists.

It’s always nice to win a battle but this game was one of the most one sided I’ve ever played. My Yorkist forces on the left flank had managed to almost wipe out the Lancastrians for the loss of no units and only suffering two points of damage. I must say the victory felt somewhat hollow and we were all left amazed at just how badly the dice can sometime go against a player.

I promised Tony a rematch just to throw off the dice rolling curse he was clearly suffering from.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and another offering of what members are working on.

I’ll start with me for a change, above I’ve almost finished my Vikings. These are the quickest I’ve painted a group of miniatures for many a year. I need these for a game of Saga and so have put in the time to get them done.

Next up Mark has been painting an assortment of miniatures. The first being a bunch of mutants for judge Dredd.

Next we have an Elf Mage complete with fire spell effect. Apparently the spell effect comes as transparent plastic which Mark has painted with a suitable ink wash to look like fire.

Felix has also been doing a bit of painting with a Halfling Thief.

And lastly for this week Stephen has started a dungeon project. Stephen hasn’t decided what to do with the dungeon but promises there is more of this to come.

That’s it for this Wednesday, see you all next week.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s the first Work in Progress Wednesday of 2022 and we start the year with a bumper crop.

Eric has found his painting mojo again, above we have some Games Workshop Chaos Cultists.

Next up from Eric we have a rather snazzy looking dino warrior (apparently a Blacktooth Suppressor from Reaper Miniatures) and Theddra Skullscryer from Games Workshop.

Followed by some Games Workshop Chaos Marauders.

And lastly from Eric another Games Workshop miniature Custodian Guard Shield Captain. Never dared paint a miniature gold myself so kudos to Eric for this one.

Next up are a whole bunch of Vikings from me. These are 16 Viking archers and 16 Bondi warriors from Crusader Miniatures. I’m painting these up for SAGA.

Now we move on to Andy who has made progress on his Poles, in his own words “A little more work on the Poles, muskets, packs and greatcoats and fusilier company pom-poms done”.

Tony managed a last ditch effort to reach his target of 50 Lord of the Rings miniatures painted in a year. Here we have three more dwarves from The Hobbit (Dwalin, Dori and Gloin).

Then 3 orc berserkers, clearly in the middle of a workout down the gym.

And lastly from Tony a great looking Arathorn and a dwarf king.

Last but by no means least for this week, Stephen has added to his Sci-Fi collection with a couple of droids, another space dinosaur (must be all the rage) and a converted dog miniature as a sabre toothed pug.

See you next week …

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to the last work in progress post of 2021.

We start this week with Eric’s progress on his space marines. Above we have Ahriman the Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, Gregor Felhand of the Space Wolves, and below a whole host of Thousand Sons legionnaires.

Next up Andy has made progress on his Polish troops, the yellow is looking good.

Now we have Mark with some more Dwarves (has he got any left?).

And last but not least Phil has started making progress on a future show game for the society with some new Romans.

That’s it for 2021, we will no doubt have lots more projects for 2022, so see you then.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another selection of what some of the society members are working on.

First up Tony has finished painting his Rebels and a few other  characters. In contrast Phil has only managed the undercoat on some Storm Troopers, although you could probably argue they are nearly finished.

Next up Mark and his son have been busy once more.

We start with some more Orcs, trackers this time.

And a better picture of some hated dwarves.

There’s also been some progress from Mark on the Judge Dredd civies.

And last but not least Andy has made progress on his 10mm Polish Napoleonic. Andy is working out the best way to paint the yellow aspects of the uniform.

That’s it for this week, see you next week for the last WIP Wednesday of 2021.

 

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s another Wednesday and I think the club are gearing up for all the painting they are going to be doing over the Christmas break 🙂

First up Tony has another addition to his Starwars forces with another toy conversion of a U-Wing from Rogue One.

Next up, probably the most productive club member over the last few months, Mark has some Khazad guards.

And has made a start on some civilians for Judge Dredd.

And lastly this week Andy has something new with some 10mm Polish Napoleonic troops.

See you all next Wednesday.

The Concremental Comes

Club member Jeremey takes us through building and painting his modern take on the classic earth Elemental.

While I certainly wouldn’t consider myself to be a professional sculptor, I have made a number of miniatures over the years. This miniature, the Concremental came out of an idea to create a modern version of the very familiar Earth Elemental. I was lucky enough for this miniature to be cast and so here is my attempt to paint it.

The miniature is currently being sold by Fenris Games and comes in several parts as shown. Therefore the first thing to do was to glue the parts together. The miniature is made of resin but I found superglue worked very well in sticking it together.

The miniature fit quite well on a 50mm round base and I stuck the spare bits of concrete that came with the miniature to the base.

I then added some milliput to the base to provide a texture to match the miniature.

Once the milliput was dry I sprayed the whole thing with Halfords grey primer. It was at this point that I first thought how on earth I was going to paint it. After all, concrete is grey so do I just put a black wash over the miniature and leave it at that or do something else.

I decided to try something different and painted the various concrete blocks in different shades of grey. I then dry brushed the miniature with lighter shades, before finally adding a very watered down black wash.

I then painted the traffic light pole silver and the steel reinforced bars as rusted metal. The traffic lights I did in yellow, I didn’t actually sculpt the traffic lights and they are clearly in the American style that I’ve seen in yellow.

Once all that was done I felt the miniature needed something else, so thinking the miniature would be made of modern street materials I painted road markings on the flat parts of the miniature.

The miniature started to look much better with the markings but they were too clean and bright, to remedy this I actually took a file to the whole miniature to distress the markings. This worked really well and gave the whole model a nice worn look.

Now all I need to do is find a game to put the Concremental in.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday again and we have another offering from members on their current projects.

First up Tony has been putting together another unit for Hammers Slammers. These are apparently the Sincanmo, a sub-saharan Islamic inspired unit equipped with fast attack buggies, heavy armoured cars and mounted infantry on giant lizards. The miniatures and vehicles are all from Brigade Models.

Some of the vehicles still need crews to be added.
The vehicles are a mix of wheeled and half tracks
And some cool looking Lizard riders

Stephen has added yet more characters to his Sci-Fi collection and a drone.

More space bums and ne’er do wells…

And lastly this week, Mark and his son have been painting up more Lord of the Rings miniatures. First up some Mordor Orcs and a Ring Wraith.

And their hated enemy the Dwarves.

We’ll be back next Wednesday with more from the club.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another Work in progress Wednesday.

This week we start with the giant Zombie Stephen was working on. He’s kindly added a Zombie from the Celtos range for size comparison.

Next up I’ve made a small amount of progress on my trees. These were bought from the shop ‘The Works’. Nice and cheap but a little threadbare compared to the ones I bought from them last year.

I’ve also managed to undercoat some 15mm Sci-Fi troopers to go with my Dropship conversion. The infantry are Brigade Models PacFed.

Now we have some more Dredd stuff from mark. This time a Judge Cadet and bike. These are from Warlord Games.

And last this week Mark’s son continues to produce some good work. This time some Uruk-Hai soldiers.

I do like those armour tones. Well that’s it for this Wednesday, see you next week!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Welcome to another Work in Progress Wednesday, above we have club member Marks’ son working on a building for Judge Dredd, currently displayed with the City Defence miniatures.

Below is another Judge Dredd building Mark is working on himself.

Next up Stephen has decided his undead army needs something big. This time he has gone for a Giant Zombie. Will be interesting to see how this turns out.

And last up this week Marcus has put some last minute touches to his Biggles show game. First up some yeti monsters.

and some treasure tokens for the game.

See you next week for some more club offerings.