10mm Dark Ages

I love all things 10mm and for many years I've been tempted by the Old Glory Dark Ages range. I had purchased a few packs many years ago but I never painted them and they ended up being sold off in one of my many lead purges. 

Recently the amazing Little Wars TV crew posted videos of their refights of the 1066 campaign involving Harald Hadrada's Vikings, Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxons and William's Normans. They used a big battle version of their Ravenfeast rules. In their games, they used 6mm Baccus figures and the masses of small figures really gave a big battle feel on a small table. 

All of this motivated me to copy their Ravenfeast big battle project but using 10mm Old Glory figures. Below are my first few bases of Viking bondi. Many of the Old Glory 10mm come in strips and the bondi are no different; I ended up clipping some of the strips and staggering them. Since there is only one type of strip in the bondi bag (the Old Glory 10mm ancient celts have different strips for their infantry allowing for more pose diversity), I could reposition the poses so its not always a helmetless viking on the end of the base.

Here are my first three bases. I went with 30mm square bases (Litko) 3mm thick  with rounded edges. I am pleased with the end result, and look forward to tackling the rest of the Vikings and Anglo Saxons. I will have to order up the Normans at some point.

 

Palo Alto Test Run

Went over to Huzzah Hobbies to run through a solo play thru of Palo Alto with Piquet Field of Battle 3. All figures are from the exquisite range from Cracker Line. I plan on gaming this scenario with my friend Alex but wanted to do a walk through of the rules to gain familiarity with everything beforehand.

Here are the opening battle lines with the Mexicans in the foreground. The center is a swampy area which would play a major factor in how the battle developed (and didn't).

The Mexican left, a cavalry brigade under Torrejon. Two line cavalry regiments (7th and 8th), some Presidials and a bunch of rancheros in reserve.

The Mexican center. These guys didn't really get as involved as they should have, my brain treated the swampy areas in the middle of the table and treated them like they were a landmine. As a result, this was essentially a battle of the flanks.

The US right flank. If you are a student of history, you may be wondering where Taylor's baggage train is.The simple answer if I don't own one yet. If you zoom in you can see Ringold's Flying Artillery in thier pretty uniforms up on the front line.

A rather dramatic photo showing the (second) Mexican charge on the US 5th infantry. This time it was led by the Presidials; They fared no better than the line cavalry.

The final disposition of the battle when I called it. To summarize what occurred, General Taylor (D12) won big against General Arista (D8) in the leadership rolls. The first turn yielded 6 card draws per side and the second turn yielded 5 card draws per side. The Mexicans lurched forward with their flanks as the center brigades ponderously navigated around the swamp area (they should have just pushed through).The Mexicans never really got the center brigades or their artillery into action.

On the Mexican right, the Zappadores and Light Cavalry took some horrendous casualties and routed. The Mexicans nearly won the battle when the 2nd Light Infantry and the Tampico Coast Guard unloaded a withering volley into the 1st Artillery (dismounted as red-leg infantry) causing them to rout.

On the Mexican left, I decided to re-enact an east Texas version of the charge of the light brigade with even less successful results. The 7th routed, the 8th was driven back, both with heavy casualties. The Presidials and Rancheros surged through with another charge only to be turned back with grapeshot and musket balls by Ringold's battery and the 5th infantry.

At this point the Mexicans had lost all of their Army Morale Points (and then some). I knew the loss was inevitable for Arista's army so I called it. 

Lots of fun. There are some rules I need to go back and master (do routing units continue to rout away?) and some things I need to remember (read thru all modifiers and don't pick up the die results before I look to see if I rolled an even). I really enjoyed FoB3, very easy rules and the card decks and different dice really seemed to capture the variance in command, morale and combat effectiveness well. The Mexicans were many but they were very brittle; Once they routed it was difficult to get them back in the game.

 

2023 Begins...

 Its been a few months since my last post. Sometimes real life gets in the way, been trying to keep up progress with painting. I've painted some more 15mm stuff for Krapistan (mortar teams, tanks and carriers) and am nearing completion of that project where I can game it (I imagine I will continue to add to the armies). I painted some 10mm WW1 Belgians, some Blitz Bowl Skaven and continuing to make progress on my 10mm French Revolution project. Here are a few photos of them:

My first Austrian unit. These guys are from the same range as the French but are a bit more static. I like them, they look like they are fighting for the Ancien Regime. I used a combination of GW contrast paint and drybrushing to paint the white uniforms. I like how they turned out and look forward to painting more.

These are French dragoons, likely the only cavalry regiment I will paint up for the French. I used American AWI dragoons in French helmets to depict the French cavalry. I love the green and pink combination.

Lastly is a French mounted officer. I painted this fellow up as an homage to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. 

I have painted up more that I didn't snap pictures for (more Les Bleus, Les Blancs and some artillery). I am gearing up for a game with one of my friends at the end of January. A refight of the Battle of Palo Alto using Field of Battle 3 rules...look out for more updates on that!