Work in Progress Wednesday

Just a few things for this week, I wonder if the improved weather is having an impact on production …

First up Stephen has finished a unit of Romano-British cavalry they are calling King Arthur’s knights.

Next up Phil has decided to paint more orcs  for the upcoming battle in the first age Lord of the Rings game for the Open Day.

Let’s hope we also see the big beast in the game as well.

Now we move onto Paul L who’s been putting together some 3mm paper buildings.

Hat’s off to Paul here, 3mm paper models can be quite the fiddly challenge.

And last for this week, I’ve been painting up the supporting rods for my Balloon game for the Open Day.

I’m trying to get them to blend in a bit by dry brushing a sky blue colour with white. Might need some more work.

See you next Wedneday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We star this week with Tony F and more Elves for the coming Lord of the Rings battle of the first age at this years society Open Day.

Next up and Andy has continued work on the pilgrims and Salute 50 miniature.

Good to see Andy also uses a grey primer the same as me. I never mastered painting with a black primer.

Next up and I’ve made some progress with my Napoleonic Balloon game, also for this years Open Day.

The French balloon crews are all done and I’ve added flags and a name to all of the balloons. I also decided to sculpt some sand bags to hang on the baskets.

And lastly for this week, Marcus has done another miniature for the growing Frostgrave collection.

That’s it for this week, see you at the next one.

Five Parsecs: The First Mission

Marcus begins his solo adventures across the Five Parsecs from Home universe…

Having rolled up a world, Palacco, which wasn’t entirely conducive to operations, there wasn’t much I could do in the campaign turn or ”world” phase. Palacco is tightly restricted, which means only one crew member can explore each turn. I may have misunderstood this as I thought this term limited other options too, but perhaps I was wrong. And in the end, I didn’t bother, which was probably an error as I might have gained something out of this phase. In addition, crew subsistence costs are doubled due to the high cost of living. The crew also had to pay four credits (Cr) for an operating licence.

Wellington had initially rolled up a corporate contact although the danger pay amounted to only an additional credit. It was also urgent; must be completed this turn or lost. I rolled up a sweep mission; move across and exit the table (right to left in the photos). The corporation want to clear out some rival group from the area. Maybe there has been a mineral find in the area. Who cares? A jobs a job. I rolled up a randomized layout having set out a table for this myself. Possibly there wasn’t enough cover…

The opposition looked quite tough but limited: Three “unknown mercs” whose characteristics made them faster, tougher and better in combat (+1) than any of the crew of the Pi. However, being mercs, they were more likely to bug out in good order if things got tough. One was a mysterious hooded specialist armed with a sniper rifle. The two grunts, the rotund (or perhaps muscled) Dinohed and Redd, who looked to have a more military bearing, were armed with colony rifles. These are simple, robust weapons favoured on the frontier.

The deployment conditions specified that it would be a surprise encounter in which the enemy could not move in the first round. In addition, there was a “peculiar item” located on the table which would give 2 XP if collected.

Turn 1:
During turn one the crew moved in from the right edge but observed no targets. Kel took up an initial sniping position in cover. Their opponents, caught by surprise, didn’t move.

Turn 2:
A terrible roll meant that only one of the crew would get to act before their opponents. I say terrible; in Five Parsecs, I roll a D6 for each character in the crew at the start of each turn. For each character, if I can allocate them a dice equal to or under their reaction stat., they act in the “quick action” phase. Or they can defer. Their opponents act after this in the “enemy action” phase. Finally, any character that did not act earlier may act in the “slow action” phase. Given their reaction stats are even split between 1 and 2, few if any were ever going to move in the quick action phase. In fact only Kel did, and got in a shot at long range and hit. However, this caused no damage only a stun which pushed back Dinohed 1”. After the mercs moved up to the cover of the ruin, Veyon got a shot off and hit. Rolling a 6 on damage she immediately killed Redd outright! Wellington moved in cover on the nearside/bottom of the board in an attempt to make an outflanking movement.

At the end of turn 2 the rules provide for a random battle event. My experience previously has been that these could be quite nasty for all. Let’s just say I have seen some nasty indigenous wildlife…However, what I got this time was “A desperate plan”. One random figure doesn’t move but one other character of the players choice gets two actions; one in quick time and one in slow. In the event, Pascal and Veyon both moved in the quick round. Pascal advanced and got in close for a quick shot at the already stunned Dinohed.

Hit and a damage roll of 6! Another quick kill. At this point the leader would probably have tried to withdraw and fight another day, but this might have prejudiced the crew’s post battle circumstances. Veyon immediately went for a shot at the leader. Hit with one shot from her Blast-rifle. And a damage roll of…another 6!

Given that I have previously alluded to my earlier crew’s travails, the result of this mission was a surprise. I’ve got into all sorts of scrapes and suffered various wounds previously resulting in turns spent in med bay and out of action. Treatment has also caused me to literally bleed credits. So, this very short game was unexpectedly smooth. Subsequent conversations have suggested to me that you should expect the occasional “easier” experience. To take a phrase completely out of context; “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.” You can have hard days (which I most certainly had) but some days are just easier. However, it also turned out to lack in fringe benefits. While Pascal picked up the item of interest for 2 XP, we got no battlefield finds. Very disappointing. Post-game we did pick up some loot, a “shock attachment” which imparts the “impact” trait to a firearm. Everyone picked up XP, especially Pascal (7 – including one in the after the battle phase because the local food was so good!) and Veyon as a result of her two kills. We also picked up a new patron.

But otherwise, I really think it is time to get off this unpromising rock. The crew took a gamble, paid 5 Cr for fuel and the Pi blasted out of Palacco spaceport looking for opportunities elsewhere…

Open Day of the Maidstone Wargames Society 2023

Our Open Day will be on the 24th June this year. We’re open to the public from 11am – 4pm on the day.

This is a great day to come and see the society in action and maybe throw some dice at one of the various games we will have on the day.

This year we have a nice selection of periods and scales on offer, which might just be the incentive you need to either get back into the hobby or to find a new home for your own armies and games.

Name Scale Period
Strength & Honour 2mm Ancients
Field of Glory 15mm ECW
Lord of the Rings First Age 28mm Fantasy
Road to Damascus 28mm Medieval/Crusades
Napoleonic Balloons 10mm Napoleonic – Alternative History
The Battle of Spicheren 6mm Franco-Prussian

Pictures of the games will be appearing on our blog as we get them.

Details of where the club meets and location of the Open Day can be found here:
https://www.brigademodels.co.uk/mws/directions.html

 

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s another Wednesday and despite the bank holiday the membership have made some progress on their various projects.

First up Mark J has some more Vietnam era US soldiers.

I’m not entirely sure how many squads are in the pipeline on this project.

Next up and Stephen has created a spaceship from a toy on a magazine. Getting Stingray vibes from this one.

Now we have Eric turning from the usual chaos thugs of some kind to a bit of terrain. This time with some rocky outcrops.

And last for this week, Andy picked up some medieval pilgrims from Salute so these are next in line for some paint along with the Salute freebie Viking Warlord figure.

See you next Wednesday.

MWS at Salute 50

A small contingent from the society braved the roads (and rails) to Excel last weekend to stage Peter’s Fallujah 2004 game at Salute 50.

A view from one end of the Salute 50 hall to the other, MWS were at the far right end in this photo.

The premise of the game is that a USMC platoon have been tasked with clearing an area of Fallujah, sweeping through buildings to clear them of insurgents. The three participants each control one of the platoon’s squads, and depending on the draw of Fog of War cards may have additional assets to aid them in their mission, for example, helicopters, an M1 Abrams tank, a LAV-25 APC, a sniper team or a Navy Corpsman.

Games are intended to last an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, and use a simplified version of Ambush Alley’s Force on Force rules. Figures are from Elhiem Figures Modern range, civilian vehicles from Matchbox or similar and buildings and terrain scratch-built by Society member Peter.

Peter and John explaining the finer points of the rules to the three volunteers.

Here are a few more photos of the game in action:

We were very pleased to be awarded a prize by the South London Warlords: “Best 10 – 18mm game”.

The game’s mastermind, Peter, receiving the award.

The trophy

Congratulations to Peter for creating an award winning game, and thanks to all members who have helped run the game at shows this year.

The game’s next appearance is at Broadside on June 10th.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and we have a couple of things this week. Above is the progress I’ve made on the Napoleonic French crews for my balloon game.

Next up Marcus has been painting up some terrain for a game of Frostgrave.

And some miniatures for the game as well.

And last but not least for this week, David P has made more progress on some 1806 Saxons.

Dave’s set himself a big task, this is just a selection of the miniatures on the work desk.

See you next weekend for some more progress.

Wars of the Roses – 2nd Battle of St Albans – Battle Report

We went for something different for the sixth battle of our Wars of the Roses campaign. Stephen was a bit more clued up on how the 2nd Battle of St Albans was fought and suggested a true representation of the battle would be to have both sides slowly making their way to the battlefield, in a piece meal fashion. You can see the depolyment rules we used for this game on the campaign page.  For the battle I took command of the Yorkist Left under the Duke of York with Andy once again acting as Lord Ferrers my second in command. On the Lancastrian side Stephen had the Duke of Somerset with Lord Roos and Lord Codnor as captains. Tony F joined the Lancastrians in an attempt to salvage his reputation from Mortimers Cross by taking charge of the Duke of Exeter with Lord Clifford as captain. Both sides had 750 points for the Battle and as throughout the campaign we used  Sword & Spear 2nd edition.

2nd Battle of St Albans
I wasn’t sure if our depolyments rules would work for this game, some foot units are very slow in Sword & Spear so there was a danger it would take ages to get an entire army onto the battlefield. At the start I had deployed my guns (facing the wrong way as per the deployment!), a camp, a unit of Currours and Mounted Men at Arms. The Lancastrians under Stephen deployed two units of longbows and two of hand gunners.

I didn’t want to just go charging in with my cavalry, I needed the activation dice to get more units on the battlefield and so just concentrated on turning the guns round and using those to hassle the Lancastrian longbows. From this very early stage I was very concerned at how vulnerable the Yorkist camp was.

I managed to turn my guns round as the Lancastrian longbows moved into range. The guns fired but caused no damage. With the help of some activation dice Andy managed to get some longbows marching down the road in support.

The Lancastrian longbows managed to take out the Yorkist guns with their first volley and I once again started to fear for the camp. I thought given the lost of the camp causing a discipline test for all units would be a prize worth pursuing, but as would become evident throughout the battle, the Lancastrians just didn’t seem that interested in taking it.

With the Lancastrians being cautious the Yorkists decided to ignore their cavalry and concentrate on getting as many units on the battlefield as possible. Using the extra movement gained from the road we risked creating a jam and advanced in column down the road as fast as we could.

The Lancastrians followed suit and had most of their units on the battlefield by the end of the third turn. Tony’s forces out on the Lancastrians right front advanced their longbows well ahead of the rest of their forces but without the advantage of the road.

As the Lancastrians continued to advance, Andy quickened his pace and got a unit of Longbows up to the camp. Again the Lancastrian longbows did not advance but instead waited for their men at arms and pikemen to catch up.

Andy was all for engaging in an archery duel with the Lancastrians but I insisted he push passed the camp to block the enemy. Andy took the best of both worlds by advancing and taking a hasty shot which managed to damage the Lancastrian archers. Return fire from the Lancastrians caused some damage but the way to the camp was blocked.

Things were starting to heat up in the centre, the Yorkist longbows managed to destroy their Lancastrian counterparts. With this success I decided to charge the Currours against the other unit of longbows in the centre. To my great surprise this proved decisive and destroyed the longbows.

Letting the success go to my head I gave the Currours a bouns dice and charged the men at arms. The Lancastrian heavy infantry withstood the charge and both sides took casualties, but neither side gained the upper hand. I was willing to sacrifice the Currours to delay the Lancastrian advance so the damaged caused was a welcome bonus.

While the fighting in the centre continued both sides looked towards the rest of their armies to continue the advance. I gathered up my longbows and with the generals help marched them towards the Lancastrian archers being formed up opposite by Tony. At this point I also moved my as yet uncommitted mounted men at arms out on the Yorkist flank. This was to threaten the Lancastrian left. Stephen reacted as I hoped he would by moving some longbows to hassle the cavalry.

The centre then took an odd turn with the damaged Lancastrian men at arms losing to the Yorkist archers. With the Yorkist’s having managed to get some billmen and their own men at arms up in support, the centre would now be decided by the Lancastrian pikemen.

Out on the Lancastrian right flank Tony’s archers began engaing the Yorkist longbows. Making up for the poor showing at Mortimers Cross Tony’s archers started to inflict more wounds than they suffered. Given this poor showing from the Yorkist archers I decided to move my spearmen and other infantry units in support in case the archers were wiped out.

The centre battle saw the poor Yorkist archers easily overcome by the Lancastrian pikemen, but with the number of Yorkist heavy infantry now present I felt confident of stopping the pikemen. Having lost the archers in the centre Stephen brought up some billmen to try and dislodge Andy’s longbows who had taken up a commanding firing position.

Seeing the danger I moved some men at arms to support the archers. The Lancastrian billmen almost destroyed the Yorkist archers despite Andy giving them a bonus dice for the melee. The retaliation from my men at arms managed to destroy the billmen. At the same time the Lancastrian pikemen in the centre succumbed to an onslaught of men at arms and billmen effectively winning the centre for the Yorkists.

Meanwhile out on the Lancastrian right, Tony’s longbows proved themselves superior, and as feared he had also managed to advance his infantry through the gap. Tony’s men at arms charged my spearmen making short work of them. But with a unit of billmen in support I was able to counter charge them in the flank and destroy them. That last act managed to break the Lancastrians and give the field once again to the Yorskists.

This was a very interesting battle, the staggered deployment meant players had to decide on the type of battle they would fight. With the Yorkist camp in the centre of the battlefield I decided to concentrate my units there. And to get them moving as quickly as possible. I thought the battle would be a race to the camp, but it never turned out that way. Stephen and Tony deployed as if it was a normal battle with both sides facing off against eachother. This was the second battle in this campaign where I thought the objective was obvious but where my opponent didn’t capitalise on it. Although things could have gone differently had the Lancastrians held out longer in the centre. Tony won the better part of the right flank and could have been a real threat had he been able to turn towards the centre in support.

Although the casualty lists seem to show an overwhelming Yorkist victory. The last turn of the battle did have the Yorkists reach their first morale point, but this was too late for the Lancastrians. With the campaign six battles in the score stands at 4 wins to 1 for the Yorkists. The bloodbath of Towton is next, will the Lancastrians finally be able to turn the tide?

Yorkist Loses
5 Units of Longbows (15 points)
2 Units of Militia Longbows (6 points)
1 Unit of Spearmen (3 points)
1 Unit of Currours (4 points)
1 Unit of Guns (2 points)
Total loses 30 points (Army break point 44)

Lancastrian Loses
2 Units of Men at Arms (8 points)
2 Units of Hand Gunners (4 points)
2 Units of Billmen (8 points)
7 Units of Longbows (21 points)
1 Unit of Pikemen (6 points)
Total loses 47 points (Army break point 40)

Yorkist Victory

Work in Progress Wednesday

Just a few items for this week, I’ll start with my efforts for a change. Somewhat appropriately, above I have made progress on my Napoleonic balloon game. The British crews are done, just need to do the French next.

I’ve also managed to finish my Wars of the Roses pikemen unit.

Next up Tony F continues to be busy adding more elves. This time some Elvish Knights.

And lastly for this week Stephen has based and repainted some plastic toy dinosuars for an up coming game of Stargrave.

I think the crews could be in trouble for that one. See you next Wednesday.

Ill met by moonlight

A fresh look at Border Reivers by society member John.

Above – The Dead Pool – Curst Eckie comes a cropper

Introduction

As many of you know this subject is dear to my heart since reading “Steel Bonnets” by George MacDonald Fraser, the Flashman novelist – a cracking read. It stimulated me to wargame this period when I first joined the club and the game featured as a club game shortly after. Here’s a brief historical introduction for those who are unfamiliar with the period.

The Border Reiver is a unique figure in British history. Starting in the late Middle Ages incursions from both sides of the England/ Scotland border and the method of inheritance where the land was shared between all the sons led to a situation where it was difficult to maintain a living in the area. Livestock breeding became the mainstay of life and through it, cattle rustling and the attendant protection racket (Blackmail) became widespread. It should be noted that these activities were not exclusively English/ Scottish affairs and there was much inter marriage across the border making policing more difficult. These activities reached a peak in the 16th century and were brought to an abrupt end when James I and VI came to the English throne.

I had been unhappy with all the rulesets I’d tried as I didn’t think they captured the small-scale skirmishes I was keen to game. Spurred on by finding I have probable genetic links to two Reiver families through my Mother’s Ulster roots, I decided to write my own rules. Reiving reached a peak in the mid to late sixteenth century and it is this period that is the subject of these rules.

Design Goals

Before starting out, I set some design goals

Scale – These rules are not about large private armies but focus on the family units where the head of the house could be served a dish of spurs when the larder was empty and there were mouths to feed. I thought about 20 figures in total on a 3ft playing surface which fitted my collection of old 28mm figures and accurate scratch built fortified farm houses known as Bastles.

Table set up, the quiet before the storm at Gatehouse North Bastle

Style – I felt strongly that the games had to be scenario led. It wasn’t about eliminating the Opponent’s force but achieving the scenario objective. In fact, in the Reiver world eliminating the Opponent’s force could lead to a noose or provoke a feud (scenarios and rules for feuds are included). To this end I have outlines for nearly twenty different scenarios and there is scope to link scenarios for a club day. I hope at some stage to add a campaign system.

Mechanics

Characters – I gave individual Reivers a status Elite, Veteran, Borderer and Farmer/Levy. According to status, reivers would have a number of skills. For each mission a Leader would pick a gang with skills specific for that mission. Combat skills are included so a player has to choose between a mixture of combat skills and mission specific skills before starting. Leaders get a Leader skill automatically; they can issue orders to other members of the gang and rally them. Leaders can allocate one of their skill points to be Inspired. They have a larger command radius and rally models more easily. I am also working on a series of traits to flesh out the characters further. In a small-scale skirmish, this character development seems important.

Activation – I did not believe an I go/you go approach was the right so went for a card driven method with an End of Turn card. Reivers were known by nicknames so individually named cards was just right and I decided the End of Turn card should be denoted by a weather condition – Torrential downpour for day actions and Full Moon for night actions. This would mean that some characters do not get to activate.  Other cards would cover changes in weather (affecting visibility movement and ranged combat), a key feature of Reiver actions was stealth and forces would mainly start on hidden markers reflecting their sneaky activities.

Hidden counters
A selection of cards.

Sleet shows the adverse effects when drawn. Scumfished (smoking out a building’s occupants) has a turn counter until the effect is triggered

Forces of law and order, weather and End of Turn cards
Character cards

Actions – an activated model has up to three actions, this will be reduced depending on weather, wounds or if carrying out a specific action. Some actions require a success roll on two D6, if the model has the relevant skill, it rolls an extra D6 and takes the best two results.

Combat – I reasoned that close combat between two opponents with similar capabilities and well armoured would favour the defender and their armour. Those models with close combat skills get to roll additional dice and pick the best roll. For ranged combat, models get to roll additional dice and select the best roll too, following the same principle. Those models which are severely wounded reroll to see if the model is killed. The method ensures that models stick around for longer, so the game does not come to a premature conclusion.

Morale – This is tested at two levels, each model receives a morale marker each time something bad happens such as failing a skill check when climbing a ladder and hence falling off, when a model stumbles during movement or after combat and when wounded. It’s the Leader’s role to get the figures to “snap to it” . If the morale markers are not removed, the individual model has to check and may quit the field. If the model is involved in close combat, these morale markers negatively affect the modified dice roll and the model is more likely to receive a severe wound.

I have put in a force morale check as well. A point can be reached where the number of casualties or the amount of bad luck suffered causes the whole gang to retreat or quit the field.

Encounters at Night – it’s more than just the reduced visibility, I’ve added getting lost as a risk for those models which move out of command radius and a risk of attacking models on the same side by use of a “Scotch Mist” card.

More cards – Red Mist puts models in Feud mode

Forces of Law and Order – These are represented by two leaders, an area Lawman and his Deputy. They command a group of Garrison Levy who can only act under command and a Houndsman with dangerous dogs.

Play Testing

I’d like to thank Tony G, Tim, Bob, Jon and Alex for their helping in trying out the rules. So far the games appear to have gone well though there is quite a bit to do still and Alex gave some good ideas to help streamline game play and some suggestions to use for the campaign section as these are developed. Thanks to Tony G for helping with the garrison activation (yes, you were right about ranged combat so I have toned this down) There is still a lot to do so I’ll be carrying out more play testing so if you fancy trying something very different, please let me know.

Below are a selection of photos from play testing so far.

Dastardly Halls make off with the cattle.
Fire to the Door! A pre requisite of Scumfishing- smoking inhabitants out of a Bastle
Stowlugs apprehended
Bull is ironically gored