New acquisitions and update

Some new acquisitions for Ronin and a picture of the village elders house in construction.
I was excited to, at last, find some bamboo for Ronin. This is great news! 100 pc's for a £6.41. There are 3 sizes in total; 7, 9 and 13 cm. Around 2/3 rd's are the larger size and an equal division between the other two. I got these from STK e-shop on Amazon. They are based in Hong Kong. I'll look forward to planting these when I next buy bases.

To give an idea of the scale, this is a Dixon miniature 25 mm figure. Wonderful!

Next up are two purchases from Colonel Bill's Wargames Depot (Colonle Bill's Wargames Depot). I bought them at Campaign in Milton Keynes last Saturday (mkws). This is an annual wargames and competition show and, usually, I go for both days and stay hours. I could only stay a short while which is why I didn't actually buy much this time. I think I'm making up for it with online purchases.

The first is a pack of more civilians. This time to go with the handcarts that I bought with the village elders house.

Next are some bales and sacks to go on the carts or as scenery in the games. I have a specific reason for this as I want to wargame a raid on the rice barn at some stage.

I found this beauty on I don't know where!

This stage will look great as a stage for a town fight. The name of the company is ttcombat ( ttcombat.com) There are also other Japanese buildings to view on their site. I will let you look for yourselves or you may like to wait until I buy some and build them before deciding .

This is where I am with the village elders house I am currently building as a relief from the Napoleonic's.

And these are the two carts I bought along with the above. I don't know whether to paint these. I think I might buy some and paint them for the town and leave these for the games set in the rustic wilderness.

Lastly, these cherry blossom trees from the Model Tree Shop (themodeltreeshop). Not exactly enthused by the models though they are adequate. I was hoping for a little more realism, I suppose. I may look at some means of improving them. Any ideas welcome.

At the end of the month I expect to buy some bases for the Napoleonic's.
Now, what can I ask for Fathers day?

Poems for wargamers

There are many poems about war and I thought I would like to share those that I know and those I find along the way.
First up is a poem I found in an anthology of poetry years ago:-

The Blue and the Gray
Francis Miles Finch

By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other the Gray.

These are robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers,
Alike for the friend and the foe:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Under the rose, the Blue
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So, with an equal splendour,
The morning sun rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Broidered with gold, the Blue
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So when the summer calleth.
On forest, and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth,
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Wet with the rain, the Blue,
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading,
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red,
They banish our anger forever,
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting for judgement day:
Love and tears for the Blue
Tears and love for the Gray

I will post occasional poems. There are some nice, translated, poems from ancient China that I like. I hope you will too.

The aquisitions

Hello again!
Coming back from my trip I feel exhausted. This is not how these things are supposed to work.
So I had a rest by going back to work.
Because of space and weight reasons I couldn't take the figures and paints I wanted. So no painting done, though I had some time to do some.
Coming back I restarted the programme but couldn't get into it like I was before. Sometimes it's like that.
Now, I am taking it more slowly. It's going better this way. I expect to finish the Austrians and Prussians in the first 6 months, That leaves 6 months for the French of which I haven't painted any before.
The basing I have chosen will be by Sally 4th (Sally 4th). 80 mm would seem ideal.

So what do we have?
The rule book for Blucher

I'm liking what I read in Blucher. Elan seems to work and is readily observable. I'm not sure if I want the stats on the bases though. I have time to think that through.

and Frostgrave

Do I want to start Frostgrave so soon after starting Ronin and the unfinished Napoleonics? Yes!

But it will have to wait. There is so much to do on the other two projects (the Napoleonics especially) that I wouldn't be able to complete any. A wargamers curse to be sure. You read of many unfinished projects. I have one that I started years ago though it wasn't a project in name. I bought the Airfix Zulu wars British and Zulus boxes. They are in the garage with books and other things. Perhaps I should buy 'The men who would be King' or some other colonial game rules. Then perhaps not. There may be other rules that come out before I finish all the planned painting.

Frostgrave. I have seen all the YouTube games by Guerilla Miniature Games, and some others. Of mixed viewing to be sure!. I've devoured many a game on the blogs also. So I won't buy anything yet. But what if I used the Heroquest figures for a game?
That is a possibility. Wizard, barbarian, skeletons, zombies. A few, very few, D&D figures and hey presto! I would have to check exactly what I have to see if it makes it possible. I could use the Heroquest board for some of the scenarios in the Frostgrave Folio. Or any scenario set within a building.

But for now, back to the painting. Which, by the way, isn't going to badly!

Napoleonic update

The new year started and I opened my last two presents of Christmas
A very welcome 2017 Wargames Annual, one actually on the list which was two items long, Vikings being the other.
The second, an unexpected new version of DBMM Vol 2 The Classical Period.
My cup runneth over this year with wargames items if you include the shogunate buildings.

I have been having a tidy up and sorting through my Napoleonics ready for the big challenge. I find I have the following Austrians:-
AN1 x 36 @5 =180 Musketeers in shako
AN2 x 18 @5 =90 Grenadiers
AN3 x 20 @5 =100 Jaegers
AN4 x 14 @3 =42 Currassiers
AN5 x 12 @5 =60 Artillery
AN7 x 14 @3 =42 Hussars
AN9 x 14 @3 =42 Lancers
A total of 556 figures excluding the cannons and flag bearers.
The figures I bought were for the early war years. I wanted distinction between the nationalities, L'ordre mixte, column and other formations for the French. Line for everyone else. I think this offers more visual enjoyment than all the continentals using the column attack. And some variation in tactics.
The painting is coming along nicely. Most of the work on the Austrians is done. Not looking too bad, just not quite as good as the ancients I have been painting.

Having looked at various blogs and reviews I may go with battalions of 18 figures, but I am getting a little ahead of myself. My current units were set up with varying unit sizes, as was the case with nations choosing their own battalion complement.. The basing was also irregular as in cavalry, artillery and infantry were not on equal size bases. I will wait until I have the rules before I decide which way to go.
I was going to wait until most of the painting was done before buying the rules. A trip to London to get my visa took me close to the Ork's Nest, a wargames shop near Covent Garden, China Town and Tottenham Court Road.. Temptation was too much!
I now have the rules bought at the Ork's Nest (Ork'sNest) in London. Also, Polemos Napoleonic rules (Napoleonic Rules) and companion from eBay UK for under £10!. These rules are actually 2 in one. One for divisional games General de Division and another section, at the back, Marechal de L'Empire for larger battles. I can use both rules for the bases I am considering. Whether it is 60mm as advised or 80mm I will look at when I come back from Cuba.

I have decided that I will take the Asiatics to Cuba as the Napoleonics are going so well. I have undercoated them ready. I will take a limited pallet of colours and add more colour when I come back. I don't want to be over burdened with paint pots!

Only time will tell.

Wargaming presents, New Year objectives

Hi!
Another first!
My son bought me some wargaming presents this Christmas. He hasn't actually done that before! Birthday and fathers day yes, infrequently. I am rather pleased.
He bought me a Blackhat (blackhat.co.uk) 15mm Asiatic Horde, one of the army deals. This consists of mainly light horse, either bow or javelin armed, with command and a heavy and medium cavalry pack.
I guess I will have to fit it into the painting rosta, which I haven't made yet! I was rather hoping to restart the Napoleonics or ECW figures I have yet to complete. There are rather a lot of them.

My younger sons bought me the Vikings TV series I asked for. It had good reviews so I'm hoping for some quality TV for a change. It tempts me to look at Saga or Glut of Ravens or some such. Yes, another 40 figure skirmish small project! The Ronin are currently at 45 with more armed peasants, villagers ashigaru and sundry other figures needed. Like a lord, traders and a small number of samurai. That should take it close to 100 figures. An army worth of skirmish figures. Not including more buildings.

So. A plan for the new year.
Primary aim:-
1 division each of French, Prussian, Austrian and  Bavarian.
That is a lot of painting. A division every three months so it will be hard work to keep going. As I'm going to Cuba for a month in February I will take some to keep me occupied when not out and about. I don't usually take figures when going to Cuba but having such a large number to paint I can't afford to miss so much time. Having said that, I don't know which rules I will be using and what size bases to use. I was thinking Blucher. My old units are of my own size and I don't know if they conform to any rules. I was using 'To the sound of the guns' and happily so. But a new dawn rises and it's time to move on. I just paint until I run out of figures and worry about the basing later!
Luckily, for reference, I have the collection of Delprado figures and booklets that were on sale weekly around 10 years ago. Also, other various Napoleonic reference books such as:-
Napoleonic Armies by Ray Johnson. Invaluable.
Armies of the Napoleonic Era by Otto von Pivka
as well as Men at Arms by Osprey (osprey) for various army branch and unit types

Secondary aim:-
Paint some ECW (English Civil War) units to match the armies of the Polish and Turks I have.
I actually have enough for two ECW armies as that was my original aim. But one will be enough for this year unless I have time.

Third aim:-
To paint the Asiatic Horde.
These may be easier to paint as they are the great unwashed so I feel muted browns and earthy colours. I will research before painting.

All the figures, except the Blackhat ones, are H&R (heroicsandros.co.uk). A few cannon are Irregular Miniatures (irregularminiatures.co.uk), I feel they look better than the H&R cannon for the ECW.

So, A plan for painting. Let's hope I find time to wargame also!

Wargames Christmas list

Hi! everyone.
It's that time of year when we give our families a list of all the juicy wargames items we would like to have for Christmas. Usually my boys totally ignore my list and give me none wargames items. Occasionally I ask for money to put towards my preferred presents as at least it defers the cost of the hobby. I did that this year for fathers day and my birthday. I used it to offset the costs of the Ronin project. The last purchase for Ronin has been the village elders house by 4Ground (4Ground). As I've stated before, these are really excellent buildings. I also bought the carts to add to the village life scenes. I also want some other village scenics to add visually to the games.

On the list this year are:-
The Wargames Annual 2017
Frostgrave rules and figures.
Trust me, that's plenty!
The Frostgrave game has been something of a fascination for me. It reminds me of the games of Heroquest I played with my eldest son some years ago. Indeed, they were the years of Titan Legions and Space Crusade. Space Crusade was also liked by my younger sons with whom I painted their names on the sergeants banners.

Will my young Santa's heed my wishes? Only time will tell.

6mm ancients - a few more

Hi!
These are the promised ancient British.
These are all Heroics and Ros (Heroics and Ros) British infantry, no Gauls here!  The infantry are based on 80 by 40mm bases , some rules now call them elements. This, I feel , gives an impression of a warband of some size better than 4 of the 40 by 20mm bases.

The current army.

One tribal warband

A second tribal warband

 

A third tribal warband

This warband requires more figures which I will look at purchasing soon. 

The few chariots

The chariots also require a few more to make them seem threatening.

In DBMM, rules from 'the wargames research group' (www.wargamesresearchgroup.net), I would require 40 elements (bases) of infantry, equivalent of 10 tribal warbands in my army.

I have tried to differentiate the warbands by giving them varying colour schemes for their shields, and sometimes in the colour of their clothing. Not easily seen the pictures.

Not shown in their own picture, are 4 bases of light cavalry.

More in the near future.

Thank you for viewing

6mm ancients

Hello!
More small painting tasks that I assigned myself to complete. They are rounding off bits and pieces just to clear the pile and reinforce existing armies.
All the following are Heroics and Ros (Heroics and Ros) ancients range.
Roman artillery

Sassanid skirmishing bowmen

Ancient British warriors and slings

This last picture is woad painted warriors. Naked, mostly, of course! Not in the rules but I've based these as warband fast. A kind of fanatical unit who want to show how brave they are.

Most of the figures are actually from the Gaulish range. Not that they look a lot different. Even less so at this scale.
These will go with my larger warbands, cavalry and chariots which I have yet to photograph. Next time, with some of the Romans I have painted, Legio XV1, Flamia Firma. This legion was based at Sura on the Euphrates. An ideal unit to defend the empire against the Sassanids and Parthians.

More next time.

A little painting done for Ronin

I haven't been idle in the last few weeks. I managed to paint some more figures for Ronin.
These were Perry Miniatures, Japanese armed peasants advancing (Perry Miniatures) SAM 31. They paint up very well, and, whilst not yet based, will be a very good addition to my villagers collection. I could also use them for the Ronin bands.
Dixons have similar and I will be buying more of them I'm sure. The aim is to have as much individuality as possible in the games. Using the same figures over and over will get a bit repetitious I feel.

3 armed peasants

3 more

I also painted some Dixon samurai (dixon samurai-25mm) I bought off eBay early in the project. I was not going to paint these until I had a some ashigaru, but decided to get them done and out of the way. Another small part of the lead mountain gone.

I will use all the figures except the one with the arquebus. It isn't something I want to have. Yumi yes.

Probably, it will end up on eBay in the near future.

One Hour Wargame, Polish vs Turkish. A Renaissance 6mm wargame

As promised some months ago, a renaissance battle.
A small Polish force rushing to stop a slightly larger Turkish force from crossing the river in numbers.
This is scenario 5 in the OHW (One Hour Wargames) book.

Bridgehead
Situation
The Turkish force has discovered a crossing into Polish territory and is aiming to secure it.
The Polish general is frantically attempting to mobilise every available unit to stop them.

I use one element to represent a unit instead of the two recommended by the book. The book has even forces but I thought that the attacking enemy would put more resources into securing the crossing. I have allowed 10 light cavalry to cross the river unopposed, in the book it is 1 unit. I justify this by the fact large scouting forces were employed by the Turks. The Polish will have heavier units to deal with these, as and when they appear.
Only one unit can cross the bridge each turn, nothing stipulated in the book. Again, I think there would be a delay in units crossing. This, I suspect, will help the Polish force to block the bridge before too many Turkish units can cross. Only time will tell.

Polish force                                                     

1 x General Cavalry unit                                              
1 x Hussari                                                      
2 x Pancerni                                                    
2 x Drab Infantry                                        
1 x Cossack Infantry (axe)                            
6 x Cossack Light Cavalry

Turkish force
1 x General (Feudal Sipahi)
2 x Fuedal Sipahi
12 x Light Cavalry
3 x Jannisaries
2 x Light Infantry (Azabs & similar)

The view from behind the Turkish lines

 The Polish forces will come on as set out in the book. I have paired up units and two will enter each period as the die roll dictates. There are 3 locations of entry; 2 directly opposite the Turkish start point and 1 to the left which gives a flanking option

The Polish went first as response to incursion of light cavalry

Cossack units flanking the Turkish light cavalry

 Two Cossack units  appear in the rear, left flank of the Turkish light horse. The Turks turn and charge the flanking unit causing a few casualties.

4 Turkish vs 2 Cossack units

The Turkish column advances 1 light cavalry unit over the bridge. I had thought about the deployment and considered it right the light cavalry followed by the Sipahi; Jannisaries and light infantry was an appropriate order of march. I am not sure the Jannisaries would see it that way.

The Pancerni arrive, advancing through the village.

Polish village with orchard

 Two units of Turkish light horse charge the congested Pancerni causing them casualties and preventing them from exiting the village. Another 2 units turn and move to flank the village.

Another Turkish unit crossed the bridge and turns to flank the Cossacks.
The cossacks are not causing many casualties on the Turkish light horse. The Turks are only slowly whittling the Cossacks down.

The General and Hussari arrive to bolster the Cossack unit on the Turkish flank.

General and Hussari arrive
Turkish light horse in the distance turn to flank the cossacks

 The Pancerni, blocked in the village, are too compressed to cause casualties on the light horse and suffer nothing in return.The left flank Turkish light horse move around the village hoping to catch the Pancerni in the rear.
The Turkish light horse flank charges the Cossacks in combat but fail to achieve anything, as the Sipahi start to cross and move north. I gambled here on the oncoming infantry to be enough to hold the bridge if the cavalry lost the action. I only had light cavalry in advance so thought to support these.

The General and Hussari flank charge the Turkish light horse and are equally ineffective. (A huge surprise given their weight and armament advantage on top of flanking)
Another Turkish light horse joins the fray as the column grinds its way across the river.

Cossack units arrive to the right of the village in support of the Pancerni.

The first Cossack units are near to breaking having suffered many casualties but not inflicting many themselves. The Hussari are making little headway.

The Drab infantry arrive with a Cossack unit and some Cossack axe men on the Polish left flank as the Turkish and other Cossack units prepare to contest the rear of the village.Almost no casualties suffered by any unit this turn

Turkish horse moving north to counter the newly arrived infantry and cossacks.

The newly arrived cossacks advance to stall the Sipahi while the infantry try to support the Cossack cavalry, who, are in combat with the Turkish light horse.

Cossack unit is finally eliminated leaving the General and Hussari under great pressure of numbers.

Turkish cavalry flank charge the Hussari causing huge casualties and they are gone!

With the infantry crossing the bridge and the general almost eliminated I credited it to a Turkish win. It was nine periods/bounds in the game with 6 left to go. I felt the Polish would have to be extremely lucky to pull this back.

Summary
It was an interesting game with lots of points where it could have given a different outcome.
The Turkish steady progress over the bridge seemed to be a disadvantage early on but proved to be better than the Polish hotch, potch arrival. It could so easily have been disadvantageous though!

I had thought to give the Hussari a bonus in the first charge but played the rules as written.
I could have used the Polish infantry a little differently. Perhaps creating a 'front' line or more in support of the struggling Pancerni, who never made it out of the village.
If the Sipahi had not advanced the Polish would have had a free hand with the reinforcing units which could have changed everything.
All in all, a very good game with problems and surprises coming steadily.
I fought the game over two weeks so not much of the 1 hour wargame!
Never mind, there was no rush.
I think I will refight this sometime in the future with similar forces but with a charge bonus for the Hussari. Maybe other tweaks also.

I hope you enjoyed the AAR as much as I enjoyed the game.