Saudakar idea...

February is approaching faster than I realize and one of the things that happens in February is the Pendraken painting competition. I typically throw my hat in the ring but only the historical categories...with Pendraken's recently released sci-fi range, I saw a pack of miniatures that sparked an idea. 

These little fellas (FWC-COL2 Human Collective Power Infantry) made me think of the Saudakar soldiers from the 1984 version of Dune. Ever since I first saw the movie, I was intrigued by these elite "terror troops". 

The 1984 movie depicted the Saudakar in what appeared to be black rubber uniforms with a head covering that had a clear green face shield. 

I'm thinking of painting the Pendraken sculpts up using a light primer with some type of black contrast paint that will show the depth of the sculpting and a neon green face shield to make them visually pop. The basing will be some kind of desert look that is evocative of the planet Dune. It should be a simple project but heaps of fun. 

Some Scenery Additions

While miniatures purchases always make my heart flutter, I am sometimes guilty of neglecting terrain and scenery. No matter how much time you invest in painting up your toy soldiers, how good will they look on a barren game mat devoid of scenery?

As previously mentioned, I managed to make it to the Claymore and Fall In wargaming conventions and I managed to make some purchases of scenery to enhance my wargaming tables. In between painting up batches of 10mm Saxon fyrd, I decided to tackle these scenery pieces I purchased at my last two conventions. 

At Fall In, I picked up some 28mm rocky outcrops and shrubs from Monster Fight Club. Since I typically game in 15mm, 10mm and 6mm they will be used as mountains and wooded areas. Here you can see examples of these pieces with a base of 10mm Saxon fyrd so you have an idea of scale. 

Next up are some islands and castles from Iron Gate Scenery. These were picked up at Claymore and carefully packaged up in my checked luggage. I anticipate using these for Man O' War which is what imagine they were designed for. They will probably be used for other naval games to include my renaissance galleys and maybe even my 1/3000 pre-dreadnought fleets. In this picture, a 1/3000 French ship of the line sails past to give you an idea of their size. 

Big Battle Ravenfeast Vikings Finished

After Fall In, I opted to try to finish my Big Battle Ravenfeast armies for the 1066 campaign. For a while (over a year), my Viking host had been languishing unfinished. I am proud to report that is no longer the case. 

Here is the entire army of Harald Hadrada. There are 13 bases of bondi, 4 bases of hirdmen, 4 bases of scouts, 3 bases of archers, 3 of Scottish spearmen, 3 bases of defector Saxons (followers of Tostig), one berserker stand and 3 command bases (Harald, Tostig and Eystein Orri). 

First up are the bondi (or raiders in the rules), there are lots of brightly colored bases. In order to fight either Fulford Gate or Stamford Bridge, I will need 13 bases of bondi, I ended up painting two extra. These are all Old Glory and these were my least favorite sculpts to paint.

Here are the Scottish spear, mercenary spears for hire. Painted in drab, cool earth tones. All the figures are Magister Militum. I've painted these guys before to represent dark ages Irish.

Next are some elite hirdmen. I will have to go back into the scenarios and make sure I only need four bases of these fellas (EDIT: I just checked and it's only four, thank goodness). All Old Glory sculpts. 

The commander bases (L-R: Tostig, Eystein, Harald). There are two Viking commanders and one Saxon. The Viking commanders have banners and I attempted to draw some fancy horse and raven glyphs on these but the ink ran a bit. The Saxon commander (Tostig) has a red draco standard. Also Old Glory sculpts. 

The Saxon scouts for the Fulford Gate scenario. I used a mix of random sculpts from Magister Militum and Pendraken. I tried to go with as many unarmored figures, many of them not Viking sculpts. 

The Viking archers bases, all three of them. Mostly Old Glory, maybe all actually. 

Here are my three bases of Saxon defectors. These are Old Glory Saxon fyrd. These are fairly easy figures to paint. 

Lastly my singular base of Vikings Berserkers. These little fellas feature in the Stamford Bridge scenario and are all Old Glory.

And that's the full army, I've already begun my Saxon army.. hopefully I can get this army done before Christmas and start working on the tried and final army...William's Norman conquerors. 

New Purchases and Norse Progess

Since Fall In, I've managed to keep the pedal to the metal and make good painting progress. I finished the painting on my Big Battle Ravenfeast Viking army, with the archers, scouts and Tostig's rebels finished this week. I still need to ink and base the recently painted figures, but once complete will be showcased in blog post of their own. I started working on the Saxon fyrd...my hope is that Rob and I can game these battles at Cold Wars (if there is a Cold Wars).

In other news, I made a few purchases this week. While surfing Tumbling Dice's website, I noticed Jim Jackaman's Corsairs and Cavaliers ruleset for Wings at War range was released. I had to get my hands on these as Jim has been such an inspiration for me. I added some ironclads for the 1879 War of the Pacific to my shopping cart (yest another project I really should tackle and complete).
I also placed a decent sized order from Pendraken, some Boers and Afghans to fight my 19th century colonial British. That reminds me that the Pendraken painting competition is around the 
corner in February although I'm not sure I will participate. 

 

Last but not least, here are some of the scenery pieces I purchased from Monster Fight Club, I plan to use those bushes for trees in smaller scale games like To The Strongest...which reminds me that I really need to start those 10mm Persian, Indian and Macedonian armies for To The Strongest once I finish the Normans and Saxons for Big Battle Ravenfeast.

On the topic of purchases, it seems that Magister Militum's 10mm historical ranges have been sold to a new (and unknown) owner. It was about 14 months ago that Magister Militum stopped taking orders (of things not in stock). I made several very large purchases before the deadline trying to get everything I could possibly need. It didn't take long for me to realize there were things that I wished I had ordered. And of course I recently acquired a large bundle of MM Mid/Late War WW1 Germans and British that I'd like eventually expand upon with some artillery and French ...

Run for the Hills Redux

For the Saturday evening game at Fall In with Rob, I brought out my 10mm Anglo Zulu War stuff for a game using Dan Mersey's The Men Who Would Be Kings rules (TMWWBK). It would be a refight of the same scenario I games with Alex earlier this year. Essentially a British force gets points for crossing the length of the table and editing off the board. The Zulus are deployed on either flank and will try to stop them. The British have 3 infantry companies (A, B and C) and a unit of Natal Native Horse. The Zulus have 6 regiments, half are married veterans (better leadership) and half are unmarried (better at stabbing). 

The table layout with the British on the left. The gaming mat is from Cigar Box and the mountains are from Monster Fight Club. I purchased more of the mountains at the convention and you will see them in more battle reports (most likely TMWWBK and Krapistan).

My rather spiffy artistic rendering of the tabletop above, I've been making these for scenario printouts which contain units, game-specific special rules, etc. It helps me remember.

 

Some of the Zulu regiments (above and below) on display at full strength before the British Martini-Henry rifles punched holes in their masses. 

Of course when the Zulus did manage to make contact, they out their spears to good work. Early on, one of the infantry companies took massive casualties (above).

 

The NNH raced across the table and nearly made it across but we're caught by the Dust Raisers and wiped out (above).

The game played out very similar to the game with Alex, the British got bogged down in the first third of the table as the initial Zulu regiments forced them to stop moving and start shooting. Shaking off pinned markers, the Zulus ultimately overwhelmed the plucky Redcoats. No units made it across the table this time. 

We had a blast with TMWWBK, it was fun rolling buckets of dice and seeing mass casualties. It's a good ruleset if you want to push lead, roll dice and have a good time without thinking too hard (excellent for a Saturday night convention game). Rob and I both agreed it's a tough scenario for the British. Unless they blast away most of the Zulus, they won't be able to cross the table. 

I need to get more scenery (farmsteads, kraal, baggage) to play other scenarios. I also want to pick up some Boers and Pathans to allow me to game other conflicts like the First Anglo Boer War and 2nd Anglo Afghan War. 

Killiecrankie (sort of)

I have been working on the Killiecrankie project since my trip to Scotland in late July and I was able to get enough figures done for a gameable matchup with Rob during Fall In. The Williamites had 5 pike and shot battalions to the Jacobites 6 highlander units and one pike and shot unit (Purcell's Irish). Despite being outnumbered in the scenario (which they were not in the actual battle), they had more army points than the Jacobites. I downgraded Kenmure's two battalions to "raw" and made every Williamite unit roll before the start of the game. On a 5 or 6 they would start off disordered and require an orders check roll to remove the disorder. Rob rolled poorly and every infantry unit except one of Kenmure's battalions was disordered. Luckily for Rob, he was able to shake all of the disorder in the first two turns prior to any action.

A map of the deployment (above) and the actual tabletop deployment from the Jacobite side below.

I made the large hill and small knoll myself in the weeks leading up to Fall In, I'm pleased with the results, it didn't stick out as a different colored terrain piece.

Order cards being assigned to the units (above), the opening turns saw each side advance towards their enemy. A few units were outside command range and require orders check (below), the results were unsuccessful as they became less than willing to move. The Jacobite cavalry raced toward the center of the Williamite line to face their mounted couunterparts. Meanwhile the Scottish leather gun fired without any results.

The Jacobites enjoyed some initial success as the Jacobite cavalry drove off the Williamite horse with heavy casualties and rode down the crews of the leather gun battery (above), knocking the artillery out of action. On the Jacobite left, clan Macdonald faced off against Weem's government highland company (below). The Williamite highlanders suffered badly but managed to stay on the battlefield despite reach the breaking point of their stamina.

Clan MacLean getting charged by one of Kenmure's battalions (above) after being savaged by musket fire during a failed charge. Things went poorly on the Jacobite left flank. Ewan Cameron and his Cameronians shrugged off volleys and had several successful charges, ultimately breaking a unit of Kenmure's Regiment and then successfully removing a wear point but couldn't push any other Williamite infantry past their breaking points. Their other clans on the left had much less success and soon it was only the Cameronians holding their side of the battlefield.

In the center, the Jacobite cavalry was having more success, driving off their mounted opponents and causing some havoc with flank charges on pike and shot units in the Williamite center. Ultimately the Gentleman Highlanders were overly aggressive and got ridden down by Annandale's horse after the latter rallied and charged back into the mix. 

On the Jacobite right, things were a slow grind. They were piling up wear points on Balfour and Ramsay's Regiments but not able to break them. MacLean was driven after an unsuccessful charge against Lauder's grenadier detachment on the knoll. Finally, the Highlanders began to waver after Purcell's Irish were driven off the field by Balfour's Redcoats. By turn 7, the Williamites were able to claim a "fair" victory. 

Both Rob and I really liked the game and how the rules played. This was my third game of Tercios! but my first attempt with Highlanders. I like how the rules treated them, you don't want to get in a firefight using them, their only choice is to get stuck in but if they don't break their opponent quickly, a grinding melee will most likely be a failing endeavor. I think that is consistent with historical accounts. 

I played this scenario without the full Williamite force since I hadn't painted up Mackay's and Leven's regiments, which would give the government army 9 total infantry units to the Jacobites 6 infantry units. If I replay the scenario with the full forces, I will probably make the initial die-roll for disorder among the Williamite forces a permanent status. 

This was also my first use of commanders leadership traits and virtues. I limited each commander to one of these traits (Dundee had two) and they could only use them when attached to a unit. I think I will continue to apply them in this limited manner because it didn't make their presence too fiddly. 

I can't wait to play more Tercios. It's a fun game and I look forward to getting exotic armies like Muscovites and Ottomans on the tabletop. 

 

2024 Fall In Recap

 Sunday evening is here and another convention has come and gone, this weekend it was 2024 Fall In held in Lancaster, PA. 

I got to the convention early Friday afternoon and met up with my old friend and gaming buddy Rob. We walked around the vendor area and I managed to quickly unload some cash with scenery purchases from Monster Fight Club and a miniatures case from Dave's Baggage Train. 

A few hours later, Rob and I indulged in a tradition established many years ago, a Friday evening naval game hosted by our favorite GM Brian. Occasionally it's an ancient or renaissance galley action but our favorites are games of Brian's age of sail rules Form on the Admiral's Wake. 

The battle was a refight from the Four Days Battle during the Anglo Dutch Wars. I commanded the English center and managed to contribute to the smashing English victory. Rob was on the losing side with the Dutch van.

Lots of really nice looking games and I kick myself that I didn't take as many photos as I intended. The photos above are from a Mad Max game, a Viking raid and Munchkin Wars. 

Saturday I found some good deals in the flea market. I picked up a bag of 10mm WW1 figures from Magister Militum and Pendraken. I look forward to tackling these little fellas some time..I also picked up some decks of Aircraft and Aces cards for Aeronautica Imperialis (a game I own and have never played). 

I hosted two games for Rob, a refight of Killiecrankie and and Anglo Zulu War battle (which I had previously gamed with my friend Alex). 

I won't go into too much detail of the two games since they will be their own separate posts but suffice to say we had a blast. 

The only blemish on the weekend was me not seeing the raffle that was going on during the convention until it was too late to purchase tickets. I normally participate and have had some good luck winning prizes so I was but gutted to realize they just moved it from the normal location. 

As I unpack my things, I'm energized to hobby more and looking forward to the next convention in a few months time.