Perusing the Portuguese

 Monday 25th April 2016

Wakefield & District Wargamers AGM - it took a while - 18.50 to 20.20 hrs.   It was 4 degrees C outside.

Two tables were running before the meeting and continued afterwards:
(1)  Impetus Medieval - Lancastrians v Burgundians &
(2)  Black Powder (Sikh Wars).

Al & I managed a DBA game pitting New Kingdom Egyptians v Early Sassanid (it's the figures we had available).  I lost 3 elements in short order and looked doomed.  Whilst trying to hold on grimly and not loosing that one fatal element I scored 4 successes.  The dice gods are capricious handing me an unlikely victory.


Tuesday 26th April 2016

I finished another book - not wargaming related:

It's the fifth book written by a friend of mine.  The previous tomes have been light-hearted amusing stories about life in the Calder valley (Yorkshire).  This one covers her childhood in Devon during the 1950s and 60s.

I well remember the class-apartheid inflicted upon the poorer parts of Croydon (Greater London) during that time - especially in the field of education.  Jill was discriminated against in another manner - because of her gender - social attitudes, parental control  and legal constraints.

The book is well worth a read if you have any interest in social history - http://www.berringdenbrow.co.uk/


Wednesday  27th April 2016  (snowing)

After my stock-taking exercise with the Spanish I dug out the DBA-RRR Portuguese box.  According to the army slip I had gone for option (k) 1551-1700 with 13 elements consisting of:  2 x Kn(g) [1 Round & 1 Square]; 1 x Can; 6 x Sh; 2 x 3 Bd (Arabs) & 2 x Sk (Arabs).  This seems OK but it lacks the Lh (Ginetes) available in other sub-lists.

Four additional elements are marked as "Early" - 2 x Bw (Civilisados Xbow) & 2 x Bd (Civilisados Foot - sword & buckler men).

So how to squeeze in the Lh and re-align the army?  Choosing option (b):

 Morocco - 2 x Kn(g); 1 x 3Bd (civ); 1 x 3Bd (Arab); 1 x Bw [compulsory]
                 - 1 x 3Bd (civ); 1 x Bw; 1 x Can; 2 x Sk (Arab) [optional]
                 - 1 x Lh; 1 x 3Bd (civ); 1 x Bw [build]

This leaves 6 x Sh plus 1 x 3Bd (Arab) floating.

The 6 x Sh can be used as a basis for List 1.40: English or Dutch Colonial 1607-1700.

(b) or (c) - 2 x Sh(g); 4 x Sh  [compulsory]
               - 1 x Cv; 1 x Drg; 2 x Sh; 2 x Sk; 1 x Gun  [optional]

The 'leftover' Arab Bd will, therefore, stay in the box (until I build another 'Arab' army).  More to ponder I think!


Thursday 28th April 2016

I came across an interesting discussion on a forum about the Fog Army List:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=23294&hilit=portuguese&sid=a69ecbd248c18b46219eaa8ef4144d8a&start=200

Seems that my caution was warranted.  Watch this space!



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A Week in the Life.....

Friday 15th April 2016

Finished another Dr Who book:

The setting is predictable (pseudo-medieval cyberpunk) but the twists and turns make it more enjoyable than might be expected.  Justin Richards manages to spin a decent yarn in spite of his choice of Dr Who incarnation.  I never found Matt Smith particularly inspiring in this role and his 'companions' ranged from drips to spoiled brats.  Luckily the doctor's aid in this book is a 'guest' local.


Saturday 16th April 2016

Zulus versus British Imperialists using "Battles for Empire" v2.  Bob had devised a scenario whereby the Brits had to cross the board and raid the enemy Kraal.  Random reinforcements would arrive on the Zulu horns or loins.  In order to get 'horn' troops the C-in-C had to throw either very high or very low. After 12 turns nothing had turned up on the right and precious little on the left. 

Fortunately I was allocated some units from the loins else I would have had nothing to do.  To cries of "Usuthu" we bore down upon the enemy.  In spite of acoustic warfare from the opposition (terrible renditions of "Men of Harlech") we scattered horsemen to the four winds.  Unfortunately bullets have no respect for Zulu manhood so by close of play we no longer had the numbers to break the Imperialists - but we had given them a bloody nose!

On the other table a Franco-Prussian 6mm game was played to the "1870" rules.


Sunday 17th April 2016

I spent all afternoon freezing my socks off outside Mytholmroyd Community Centre.  That wouldn't have been so bad if I had managed to buy anything at the Halifax model shop.  It was just one of those days that I should have stayed in bed.

Sorting Out the Spanish

Sunday 10th April 2016

Sorting Out the Spanish:

Looking through my boxes of figures for "Irregular Wars" I came across some 'strays'- painted, but unmarked, Spanish and/or Portuguese elements.  Of course the loose labels didn't match up in numbers or types.  I was forced to ferret out the relevant DBA-RRR box files - sigh!  With v1.21 lists in hand I sat down to try to figure out what was what. 

Turns out that I had built 13 elements of Spanish Colonial 1.41b (1535-1700) and 8 of 1.41a (1524-1534). In addition there were 2 elements of Neapolitan Spanish (list 1.4). Clearly these last had been created to use up 6 of the copious sword-and-buckler men supplied in the Conquistadores box.

First thing to be done - sort out any errors.  Well the most glaring one was that I had mounted the general on a horse (round base) instead of on foot (Bd or Sh). Carefully prying off the Kn, substituting a Bd and repairing the base solved that problem

A more subtle error was the use of Currours as Escopeteros.  Recent research shows they had firearms not spear.  In appearance they were also more like carabins or harquebusiers.  I feel some future arm swapping might be appropriate.  For the time being I will let them be.

List 1.41a needs extra elements: 2 x generals as Bd or Sh (one round base & one standard), 2 x Kn plus one other.  If I can lay my hands on the recent Jinetes boxes (RedBox) I can make up the Kn.  In spite of the famous picture of a Spanish colonial general sitting proudly in full, blackened, armour it is clear that the rest of the horsmen soon abandoned such a panoply in response to the South American climate.

The 2 Neapolitan elements have been split up to provide figures for the various generals - I have also drafted in some flag bearers from the stock tin.

This now leaves a considerable number of figures on a my painting board.  The trouble is that I will likely visit the Halifax model shop next Sunday!!!!!


Monday 11th April 2016

DBM - New Kingdom Egyptian v Makkan.  True to form Andy produced an army of Wb(F), Bw(I) and Cm.  Chris and I faced off these hordes with the usual NKE mixture.  My, left, flank held on pretty well with my bows damaging Andy's right flank Wb.  Unfortunately our centre Bd(F) were run over by the enemy Wb(F) - it didn't help that we set up in bad terrain.  The last throw of the dice saw me killing 2 x Wb elements to make honours even with one broken command per side.  Had the game continued the Makkan would have taken the field.

On the other table - Impetus - two squabbling factions in the Crusades fought each other (rather than the real enemy) in typical fashion.

Yes It's Thursday

 (02:19 hrs Thursday 7th April 2016)

 Another slow week with too much going on outside the wargaming 'arena'.


Saturday 2nd April - completely forgot that we had an 'extra' Saturday at the club.  Only one game was on - "Age of Eagles" Napoleonic scrap - Aspern-Essling


Sunday 3rd April - posted on the 'dbmlist' Yahoo group - re DBM tech levels - got 11 replies.
             

Monday 4th April:

DBM 'friendly' - Malay v Vietnamese - I expected to face Medieval Vietnamese (Book 3) but the 'Earlies' (Book 1) decided to turn up instead.  Jim had the centre with the Wb(S) and, in spite of some impressive dicing, went down to the opposition. 

It didn't help that his right flank (my Ming Chinese) were 'frozen' at the start.  Even after a 6 had been thrown I could do little to help.  Chris managed to hold onto the (Malay) left flank damaging the opposition in the process..

As Al's (Vietnamese) command was very close to breaking we called a halt at 2100 hrs.  Chris & I had lost nothing and Andy very little.   The 5 of us agreed that it was a 6:4 win for the Vietnamese.  Bearing in mind that setting up these big armies took until 1945 this was probably one of our shortest games ever.

As far as I'm concerned that was the last outing for the Malay - now what can I morph them into?

On the other tables - Fubar Medieval - it looked like a Saga game - with 25mm figures.
                               - Impetus Wars of the Roses v Burgundian.