Progress: Paint on Lead (and Plastic)

I've been trying to stay productive with my hobby, starting to tackle a 6mm Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth army to fight my Swedes and Russians. First up are enough pancerni for two regiments of cavalry. 

Only ones left to paint are the command. I will probably add a third pancerni unit and one or two winged hussars and some light horse detachments. 

There's nothing that I love more than a diversion to keep me motivated (and distract me from the primary task).  When I was over at my local hobby shop, I noticed they had some of Wargames Atlantic's 10mm plastic orcs in stock. I had planned to order some of these whenever Wargames Atlantic decides to release their 10mm plastic Azincourt armies. Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and support my local hobby shop. 

The box set includes three sprues of figures and 40x20mm bases. I plan to base mine on 40mm bases for either Chipco's Fantasy Rules! or Nic Wright's Fantastic Battles. I rinsed the sprues in soapy water and primed them black the following day. The image above shows my first go at these figures. Overall I am pretty pleased. The faces were les successful nut I am hoping to go back in and paint tusks, and perhaps a light ink wash will help with some facial details. These fellas will definitely be a speed-paint project so I'm not too concerned.

Game On....

Today, Alex and I got together for our game. It had been a while since I had seen my old friend and it was really good to catch up, share a few jokes, roll some dice and push some lead. 

Alex opted to take control of the Russian horde as they marched on towards Narva. His force was tasked with securing a village near a stream and driving the Swedes from their defensive positions. 

As the Swedes, I started with only half my force under Governor-General De la Gardie. A relief force commanded by Colonel Burmeister would arrive on Turn 3. The village was capable of holding one battalion in a fortified position. I opted to place the blue coated infantry battalion in the village with a green-coated dragoon regiment to their left and a yellow-coated infantry battalion and an artillery battery to the right of the village. 

I accidentally deleted the initial setup pictures so here we are after Turn 1(above). A unit of Streltsy on the right advanced too close to the village and received a volley from the blue coats for their trouble, inflicting a wear point. The Russian artillery bombarded the yellow coats from a distance, inflicting a wear and disordering the infantry regiment. Alex brought the rest of the Russians into position with some detachments of dragoons and Cossacks managing to cross the stream on the far flanks. 

At the end of Turn 2 (above), things looked good for the Swedes. Their dragoons chased off a Russian dragoon detachment on their far left ((top center of the photo barely in view). In the center, a streltsy battalion attempted an assault on the village and was repulsed with heavy loss. Another streltsy unit was unsuccessful in reaching the yellow-coat Swedish infantry and received a cannon blast into them causing some wear and disorder. The yellow-coats unloaded a volley into some roaming cossacks on their far right causing wear and disorder. The Swedes also saw their reserves arrive at the table edge.

The end of end of Turn 3 and beginning of Turn 4 (above) was probably the high-mark for the Swedes. In the third, the Russian reiters attempted an assault on the village and were repulsed with two wear inflicted for their troubles. The Russian westernized infantry filled gaps between the center and both flanks but had yet to make any meaningful action. The Swedish reserves were approaching the lines and their horse were primed to make a counter attack on a damaged streltsy battalion on the center left. Things went bad for the Swedes from here out.

At the end of Turn 4 (above), and the Swedish cavalry comprising their left flank is in trouble. The Swedish horse charged the injured streltsy and lost badly. Despite rolling 7 melee dice to the Russians 4 (their bardische allowing them to ignore wear markers in melee), the Swedes were repulsed after inflicting only one wear and suffering three. The green-coated dragoons were charged by a Russian westernized battalion and suffered two wear. The Swedish infantry failed to attrite the Russian units facing them.

Close-up of the situation at the end of Turn 4 (above).

The situation after Turn 5 (above). The Swedish lost their dragoon regiment on their left and the thier horse regiment were at their breaking point. The Russians lost one of their streltsy battalions and another was heavily damaged with three wear and also disordered. On the far right, the grey-coated Swedish infantry were disordered and suffering two wear after being shot up by cossacks and charged by streltsy.

In turn 6, the Russian reiters slammed into the injured Swedish horse destroying them and killing Colonel Burmeister in the process. A second streltsy battalion was destroyed on the Russian side. At the end of the turn the Russians led in victory points 9-8 but would need an advantage of 3 points for a clear victory at this point. Alex and I decided to play one more turn to decide things.

The end of Turn 7 (above). The Russians managed inflict wear and cause disorder by bombarding the yellow-coat Swedish infantry. In a desperate gamble, the yellow-coats attempted to charge and kill a vulnerable Potyomkin but failed their order check. Both the grey and yellow coat Swedish infantry were destroyed including Governor-General De la Gardie. The Swedes were left with a lone artillery battery and the blue-coated Swedish infantry entrenched in the village. 

It was a bloody affair that went very bad for the Swedes late in the game. Both Alex and I had a blast. I really can't say enough positive about Tercios. We finished 7 turns in about two and a half hours and I also managed to remember to do the various things I typically forget: orders checks for weary units, adjusting dice for weary and disorganized units, etc.

I may have to adjust some ratings for detachments. I lowered their melee and stamina but often kept their shooting value the same. We agreed to play again in the future. I really need to paint up my Poles and Ottomans now!

Nevermind the Bardiche...

Just a quick post because I ran through a few turns of Liber Militum Tercios the other night and followed that up with a reading of the reviews this evening. Perhaps I should have done those in the reverse order but no matter. 

For my practice solo game, I placed a small Swedish force on the table consisting of a commander, infantry battalion, dragoon regiment and light artillery battery. The Swedes were tasked with defending a stream edge. 

Opposing them was a slightly larger Russian force with a westernized infantry battalion, a streltsy battalion and dragoon detachment. 

To start the game, the Russians advanced. Streltsy are given slightly faster movement so they are a bit further out. The dragoon detachment hadn't moved yet at the time of this picture. The Swedes moved forward to the stream edge and their artillery bombarded ineffectively. 

The Russian infantry are given assault orders while the the Swedish loose off a volley. The Swedish infantry manage to inflict some wear on the streltsy but the 

Russians slammed into the Swedish pike and shot. The bardishe axes allow the streltsy to ignore the wear marker in melee, they roll 6 dice and inflict 3 wear markers on the Swedes. 

The Swedish dragoon regiment probably should have charged the Russian dragoon detachment but they opted to engage in a firefight instead. Soon the Russian pike and shot battalion started pouring fire into the dragoons as well and they were on the brink of breaking. 

At this point, after 3 quick turns, I opted to conclude the practice run. I keep forgetting to conduct orders check rolls for reactions and when worn units are tying to act on orders. I learned that those streltsy are pretty nasty in melee against other infantry. Tercios is a great ruleset. I really need to play it more. 

On a side note, I really like using the plastic bushes from Monster Fight Club as clumps of trees for my 6mm and 10mm games. They don't take up much storage space because they are stackable, they are pretty much impervious to damage in storage and I think they look really nice on the tabletop. They aren't cheap but I think I may have to get a bunch more. I think they used to have a convention sale when I would see them at various HMGS shows.

The Road to Narva 1656

So it appears that I will be getting together with my friend Alex to roll some dice and push some (tiny) lead soldiers. Next week we will play a hypothetical battle from the Russo-Swedish War during the Deluge. The rules will be Liber Militum: Tercios and the figures will be from my freshly painted 6mm Baccus collection. 

I generated the scenario using ChatGPT and tweaked the OOBs to what I had and wanted to use. ChatGPT provided the following scenario background (I designed the crude map in MS Paint):

"In late 1656, the Tsardom of Russia launched an offensive into Swedish Livonia. After the capture of Dorpat, a Russian detachment under Prince Ivan Khovansky advanced towards Narva to secure the approaches to Ingria. A Swedish relief force under Governor-General Magnus De la Gardie marched south to cut off the Russian column before it could consolidate its gains.

The battle takes place on open ground near a small Livonian village, where the Swedes attempt to block the Russian advance while the Russians push aggressively to drive them back."

I swapped out Prince Ivan Khovansky for my Pyotr Potyomkin which is historically plausible. I gave De la Gardie and Potyomkin Colonel Burmeister and Ivan Poltev (respectively) as their assistant commanders and I will provide all of them with some traits for added flavor. Poltev was, in fact, Pyotr's assistant commander. Burmeister was a cavalry colonel who was involved in the Livonian campaign and seems to have been fairly aggressive and fairly successful.

The Russian forces have Potyomkin (on the left) commanding two streltsy battalions, a detachments of dragoon, one detachment of cossacks and both artillery batteries. Ivan Poltev has command of two westernized battalions and a reiter regiment. I bungled the picture and left both dragoon detachments with ol' Pyotr. 

The Swedes will begin the game with two pike and shot units, a green coated dragoon regiment, an artillery battery all commander by De la Gardie (on the right). On turn 3, a Swedish relief force will arrive commanded by Colonel Christopher Burmeister which is comprised of a pike and shot unit and a cavalry regiment. If you look closely, the dragoons and horse are in the wrong positions and I have yet to add static grass to Colonel Burmeister's base. I should have this rectified by game time. 

The scenario will task the Russians with seizing a small village and attempting to drive the Swedes from the table. They will have a slight points advantage and the benefit of having all their units on the table to begin the battle.