Thursday, 11 September 2014

Polish Presence

Finished the last bases for Polish-Lithuanian 'Commonwealth'. 

Commander & 2 x Lh

Armoured cossacks & 'winged' hussars

As an experiment I used a mid-green background.  As you can see the lights appear to have turned it turquoise!  The 'light-bounce' is also strong.  Guess I will go back to the white sheet (even if it does go a bit pinkish).

Anyway that's the Polish-Lithuanian army completed - by substituting another Lh for the WWg.  I will get around to building that wagon then the Lh can go to the Transylvanian army.

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Est Arrive

No not the Beaujolais (that's in November) but the 60mm bases.  At the first opportunity I put painted figures on bare bases and got on with the flocking.  So here are the additions:

On the left - 4 elements of Portuguese colonial musketeers (with very bright feathers courtesy of South American birds of paradise).
On the right - 1 element of Russian Blades plus 3 Dutch shot.

On the left - Spanish colonial soldiers - Escopeteros (ex WoR Courers), 4-to-a-base Blades & 1 shot.
On the right - 3 Lh (haven't decided exactly where each is going).

This means that I now have 11 x DBA-RRR armies ready to fight - Free Cossacks, Danish 30YW, French 30YW, German Catholic, German Protestant, Ottoman Turks, Portuguese Colonial, Russians, Safavid Persians, Spanish Colonial & Early Gustavian Swedish.

Yesterday was another DBM scrap - Ancient British (with Roman ally) v Syracusans.  The dice gods were capricious granting large movement scores only to wait until you were over-extended then serve up a '1'.  Combat dice were no better with me losing 3 cavalry in one round even though I was on even or better odds. 

Come the final round the first combat dice-off killed 3 of our hoplites and the central command collapsed.  Two of the enemy warband fell leaving only two more needed to break the enemy centre.  The remaining dice-offs did nothing until there was only my lone cavalryman to try his luck.  I rolled the bones and turned away to get the tin ready.  6-2 was enough to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat. 




Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Just Some Notes

No progress on the DBA-RRR front because of very poor service from wargamestournaments.com.  I ordered (and paid for) £22 worth of  60mm mdf bases on the 8th August - and am still waiting for delivery.  Subsequent emails have gone un-answered.  Now I have to try to reclaim my money via PayPal.

On the DBM front I took Former Ch'in (List 2.21) to face Andy's Early Vietnamese.  I ended up fighting against 3 commands with the inevitable result.  Two of the enemy commands were near breakpoint but that was little compensation for a birthday defeat.

When John Smith returns from Partizan (at Newark) he will, hopefully, bring me some alternative bases - so normal service can be resumed!


Thursday, 14 August 2014

Commanding Figures

Four new commanders off the paint table plus some horse.....

Colonial Portuguese and German Catholic

The stripes on the commander's legs are more Spanish than Portuguese - oh well!  The figure is a War of the Roses Courer.  The German commander is from the Waterloo 1815 Cromwell's Cavalry set.

Danish & Safavid Persian

The Danish horseman is another Cromwell cavalryman.  The Safavids are a mix of Saracens & Mongols.


French Bernadine cavalry & Danish harquebusiers

Now I have to admit that I couldn't find any pictures of Bernadine cavalry but the French Kn were still very old-fashioned at this time so I took a risk.  The harquebusiers are yet more Cromwellian cavalry.

So that's the majority of the commanders done.  Once my new order of bases arrives I can finish off some horse and foot.  Just the Polish, Dutch & Transylvanians to go then!

Saturday, 9 August 2014

A Bit More Progress

Well here we are one week after my last post - with a bit more progress on the Renaissance front:

Two elements for my Cossack army - the pikemen have been modified to turn them into 'drilled cossacks'
                                                       - the skirmishers are new

6 elements for my new Polish army - 2 x Regular Sh, 2 x Irreg Sh, 1 x Gun (it should be smaller) and 1 x 'Polish cossacks'.   

On the DBM front Monday's game was Andy's Tamil Indian versus Al's Later Crusader.  I seconded Andy and was in charge of the main attack in the centre.  Now the last time I was put in charge of a mass of Wb(F) it wasn't long before they disintegrated.  This time......at first impact out of 7 dice I threw 5 sixes.  I killed 10 elements in one round (Andy killed 2 more).  The game was decided by 8.30 pm.  I think that I have used up all my luck for at least a year!




Sunday, 3 August 2014

Progress Report

Still revising my DBA-RRR 30YW armies.  Plenty of painting done but little actually finished.


Modified dragoons base for German Catholics - thought I would show the rear view this time!

On my painting tray are:

1 x 3 Cv   harquebusiers (Danish)
2 x 3 Kn   Bernadine cavalry (French)
1 x 2 Sk   snipers (Free Cossacks)
1 x 2 Lh   Croats (German Catholic)
1 x 3 Cv   Feudal horse (German Protestant)
1 x 3 Cv   German mercenary reiters (Swedish)
1 x 2 Lh   German mercenary harquebusiers (Swedish)

This gives you some idea of just how many changes I have had to make.

Hopefully I can get these oddments painted up for the September game but it is not looking good - time will tell.
 
On the club front I played another game of Saga - this time a 3-hander - Bretons, Welsh & Jomsviking.  It struck me that it was far too easy for the Jomsvikings to get their Wrath up to 6 (and keep it there)!

There was a DBM game going on between Lysimachids & Seleukids.  As expected the pikes never got into contact.  Lysimachus lost one wing to enemy horse but had bottled up the enemy right so tightly that a draw was offered and accepted.  All par for the course.






Friday, 25 July 2014

ECW Cavalry & War Wagons

When did we loose control of deliveries?  How has the balance of power tipped in favour of the workmen, delivery companies et al?  I seem to have spent a lot of time this week just waiting around for people to turn up!  [OK rant over].

Three items from Hannants (can't complain about their service at all) - one repeat and two new:


ECW CAVALRY

 New release from Waterloo 1815 - Cromwell's Cavalry (ECW)

Only 4 poses is a bit limited - even though one of them has an alternative arm.  
The figures are on the small side but fit in well with Revell.
Let's hope that more cavalry are forthcoming!


WAR WAGONS

So far I have collected:

 1 x Orion 72039 Hussite War Wagon and Command - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1920

2 x Zxezda 8064 Zaporozhian Cossacks - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1640

1 x Mini Art 72010 Housits / Hussites - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1178

Included in the Mini Art box was an exploded diagram - Well Done Mini Art!
It's a great pity that Orion didn't think to do the same.

It remains to be seen which bits I take from each set to construct my Polish War Wagon.  
Watch this space.....