Sunday 25 November 2012

WOTR - Battle Report (Part 1)


"It had been a miserable week.  The raising of a force to oppose Edward across the heartland had taken its time and the incessant rain had made travelling a miserable task.  Gloucester and Hastings were reported moving up to join Edward addressing the numerical advantage held by the Lancastrians.  Gloucester was close with Hastings still a day away.
Somerset, Wenlock and Courtenay had agreed to strike as early as possible before Edward had time to integrate his forces.  Scouts and Agents in the area had forewarned them as to the approach of the elements of the Yorkist host; Edward and Gloucester had already joined forces and Hastings moving south to join them.  Hoping to gain an advantage Somerset’s plan was to set out once their forces had assembled and strike the Yorkist forces before they could be joined by Hastings.

However, as the early morning mist cleared the alarm was raised by the picquets.  It was now apparent that Hastings forces had marched through the night and joined with the main Yorkist Army.  With the banners of Gloucester, Hastings and Edward advancing to the fore, the order to stand-to was rapidly issued through the Lancastrian force.
Wenlock, in the centre, took a deep breath as he observed Edward’s Royal standard; fighting for ones affinity against a rival was one thing but to take arms against the King.....Looking rearward he could see the units at the far side of the encampment would take some time to reach the battleline  His plan, observing the difficulty of the heavily armoured York household crossing the minor stream in front of the Lancastrian position, was that he could engage and defeat the discomfited Mainward before they had reorganised. 

Somerset on the Left flank looked across at Wenlock’s standard on the hill.  "I hope he knows his duty", he muttered under his breath. He knew of the reservations expressed at the Council they held at the Inn last night but hoped that the oath they had undertaken would steel the minds against the task they faced.  Defeat Edward, march to London and retrieve Henry from the tower.

Courtenay looked on as his forces arrayed themselves for battle.  He had been fortunate to lead the vanward battle, the early reveille to start them on their  advance had meant that they were more prepared that the Main and Rearward battles when Edward's troops appeared. Now, his troops were trading ribald comments with the levy that had come up to support them.  That spoke volumes, they were in a good position with the attackers having to come up the hill to them and his men could shoot as well as any in England."

The narrative above was generated using the Bloody Barons "Events" system. This generates unique engagements and a large element of unknown in any engagement in this period.  My opponent had pressed for the attack committing 21 dice out of 25 to attack.  I had opted for an even handed 14.  Poor rolling on his part meant I was the attacker but with a poor advantage.  Only two Lancastrian units were going to be late, one opposing my right flank, and one in the Centre.  My left flank would be evenly matched.

The rest of the events produced a range of results.
His Bribery and Subterfuge meant that his spies were very effective and my right flank general (3) was swapped with the left (1) to offset the advantage of only facing one unit to start with.

Scouting and Supplies were both inconclusive

Loyalty went my way with one general receiving -1 on his motivation rolls until motivated by another general.  Looking for a bit of "Somerset persuasion" with a battle axe.

Order of March went the lancastrian way and my opponent nominated my Household unit in the centre to be pushed back two widths.  Again hoping to offset his late arriving retinue unit.

Royalty went my way with a re-roll of one generals rating, so as I couldn't do worse than a 3 anyway I rolled for the new right flank general coming up with a 1 so the advantage on the right swinging back my way.

In summary I am the attacker with 7 units facing 5 on table with 2 defender reinforcements.  My left flank is evenly matched with the opposition,  The centre is slightly out of line with the Household being behind the rest.  Hopefully I can get the alignment sorted out before his Household can do too much damage.  My main hope is the right flank where I outnumber him 2:1 to start with.  His reinforcements match my attacking disposition so this will be an evenly matched engagement.

More to follow....

WOTR - The Collection

My 20% discounted order from the nice people at Peter Pig has now arrived.  This takes my WOTR collection to 641 Foot and 44 Mounted figures.Over 400 of these are painted to a standard that I am not embarrassed to put on the table and game with.

Painted, Based and ready for gaming (286 Figures)
12 Captains (30 Figures)
36 Bases of Foot troops (108 Figures)
48 Bases of Archers (144 Figures)

Painted, Based and to be added to the core units above (164 Foot Figures, 34 Mounted)
9 Bases of Bodyguard (27 Figures)
2 Bases of Archers (6 Figures)
4 Bases of Foot troops (12 Figures)
5 Bases of Crossbowmen (15 Figures)
16 Bases of Household (48 Figures)
6 Bases of Household Captains (18 Figures)
10 Generals (30 Figures)
6 Bases of Retinue Cavalry (12 Mounted Figures)
8 Bases of Household Cavalry (16 Mounted Figures)
3 Bases of Mounted Captains (6 Mounted Figures)
2 Bases of Light Guns (8 Figures)

Unpainted sat in the box (191 Foot Figures, 10 Mounted)
1 Mounted Royal (2 Mounted Figures)
2 General Casualties (4 Figures)
5 "Amusing" Figures
4 Mounted Standard Bearers
4 Mounted Captains
26 Retinue Foot
41 Archers
14 Standard Bearers
3 Household troops
42 Command Figures (Captains)
3 Trumpeters
4 Drummers
9 Crossbowmen
24 Levy foot troops
16 Handgunners

WOTR - More Generals (Part 8)

Without doing every single general from the scenario book it will be hard to pick on a staple set for my BB forces.  I can either use generics such as Gillan, Gilmore and Osborne (my first couple) or pick a couple of more common real ones.

I have updated Beaufort to use a smaller heraldic standard plus Richard Plantagenet (Duke of York and Duke of Gloucester) and William Hastings.  This gives me three Yorkist Generals and will work up the Lancastrians once I decide on the new standards


I have also changed the font and layout of the base labels to add some more detail.

Thursday 22 November 2012

WOTR - New Generals (Part 7)

Following some useful advice over on TMP this is the first of the "new" generals using Historical Heraldic and Livery colours.  This one should be from the Beaufort Family in his guise as "Somerset" supporting the House of Lancaster



Not decided yet on the orientation of the flags and unfortunately my brushwork isn't good enough to paint the heraldic detail on the tabard of the figure.  I had a go but not happy with the result.

Also not completely happy on the size of the Heraldic flags that I downloaded from Vexillia.  As they are a PDF file you can resize them but not too sure whether my old ones are too small and these are right or the these are too big and the old ones are correct.  I have a set on order from Freezywater so will reserve judgement until then.

WOTR - Progess (Part 6)

Part 6 of my WOTR update.  The second army's core elements have been completed as a result of an overnight hotel stay.  The last 30 Figures finished and then the whole army based.

School boy error on my part, as I didn't know any better when I started this 4 years ago is that the livery colours are the wrong way round for a historical force based on the major leaders from the House of York.  Working on the premise of "lower left" for interpreting Standards I could just cheat and say these were Lord Hastings forces.

Livery Flags or Heraldic Flags not yet decided upon.  The two flags on these are from my orginal forces and are "generic" flags.  The new captains haven't been decided on. I have a choice for adding either the main Livery flags which means that It would be easier to then add units to either side by the simple mechanism of swapping the correct flag or adding the captains Heraldic flag to the unit.  I could go a step both ways and actually have both flags on a captain base.  Something to consider in the future but these are good enough to game with.
Detailing still needed, Scabbards need colour and the flights on the arrows need to be done as well, but from the 2 foot playing distance good enough to get the toys out and on the table and not be ashamed.

In terms of points/composition each army weighs in at 650 pts.  2 Units of Levy, 4 Retinue, 1 Household unit of H2H troops, Light Gun, 3 Generals.

Unallocated box/spares will be worked on after I take a break from paining these and put some WW2 tanks together.

Monday 19 November 2012

WOTR - Forces for Historical Scenarios (Part 5)

The Bloody Barons rule book also includes the details necessary to refight the historical engagements of the War of the Roses.

My quick count up means that if I wanted to be able to provide enough forces for each side the maximum I would need would be somewhere between 11 and 23 units (8 bases on average) and upto 7 units of Cavalry.

Now that is a lot of troops and I am not going down that route, just yet.  It does mean however that my modest forces can only be used for everything except Towton and Tewkesbury or where there is a large contingent of Cavalry.

What it does mean however is that I have decided on at least one of the Generals (or his family at least).  The Beaufort family will be one of my staple generals and two units will bear his livery which is simple Blue and White.

A spare Archer and Retinue Foot base from the spares pile have been added and it means that I can now look at a lesser lord for the Captain.  More to follow as usual

Saturday 17 November 2012

WOTR - Best Laid Plans (Part 4)

So...I picked up my order from the nice people at PP and went looking around the rest of Warfare at Reading.  Discussion with the nice people at the Lance and Longbow Society and another 14 packs of figures have just been added to the unpainted pile adding somewhere between 52 and 112 figures making 130+ figures to do.  Luckily, however, most these are for new commanders and Captains and can gradually be added over time and wont stop us actually getting some games in.


Just spent the last hour or so going through the Heraldic Flags I found in the box. I have 85 flags for Peers and a set of 11 which are all annotated KG (assumed to be Knights Companion).

As I am new to this from a historical perpective I haven't sorted out factions or anything yet but the twin flags and new Command bases mean I have some scope for painting livery and heraldic schemes on a couple of figures to liven things up.

The ten (reduced the number by swopping out a spare base that needed touching up) new bases are prepared and undercoated. I will see what I can get upto on Sunday.

Which was a grand result of nothing all I managed was to get them all the remaining figures based and undercoated.





 So 130 figures in the airing cupboard drying out after having the bases base colour applied.  Unlikely to get any painting done tonight (apart from two bases which I found partially completed which "just" need livery and a wash and then they can join the extra pool.

Friday 16 November 2012

WOTR - Re-Org (Part 3)

The impetus to finish off the odd units etc has continued and I have now completed all of the core units (that I had).  This has meant that I have continued to develop the themes from Part 1 and 2.  Come up with a standard, document it and then follow it.

From the list below

Current WOTR Collection
ModelRemarks
2 "Royal" Generals (one on foot, one mounted)Mounted unpainted
3 Foot Generals
2 Mounted Generals 2 Unpainted
9 Bases of Bodyguards 5 Old Pattern
2 Mounted Retinue Captains 1 unpainted
6 Bases of Mounted Retinue 4 unpainted
2 Household Captains
6 Retinue Captains
6 Levy Captains
45 Bases of Longbowmen 3 unpainted
35 Bases of Foot Troops 4 unpainted
12 Bases of Household Troops 10 Old Pattern
 5 Bases of Crossbowmen
 2 Guns2 Unpainted
 17 Casualty Markers4 Unpainted
8 Disordered Markers
7 Extra Arrow Markers

I have now organised the following completely painted and based units:

Army A - Core 6 Units
3 Bases of Retinue Captains
3 Bases of Levy Captains
24 Bases of Archers
18 Bases of Foot Troops


Army B - Core 6 Units
3 Bases of Retinue Captains
3 Bases of Levy Captains
18 Bases of Archers (6 more on order - 18 Figs)
13 Bases of Foot Troops (5 more on order - 15 Figs)



Which leaves as a central pool:
12 Bases of Household foot troops
3 Bases of Archers
4 Bases of Foot Troops
5 Bases of Crossbowmen
9 Bases of Bodyguards
6 Bases of Retinue Cavalry
2 Bases of Retinue Captains
7 Bases of Generals both mounted and on foot.

And on order to go into the pool
5 Bases of Household foot troops
2 Bases of Household Captains
4 Bases of Generals on Foot

Thursday 15 November 2012

Great War - German 1st Cavalry Division


ORDER OF BATTLE

· 1st Cavalry Brigade

o3rd (East Prussian) Cuirassiers "Count Wrangel"

o1st (Lithuanian) Dragoons "Prince Albrecht of Prussia"

· 2nd Cavalry Brigade (from I Corps District)

o12th (Lithuanian) Uhlans

o9th Jäger zu Pferde

· 41st Cavalry Brigade (from XX Corps District)

o5th (West Prussian) Cuirassiers "Duke Frederick Eugene of Württemberg"

o4th (1st Pomeranian) Uhlans "von Schmidt"

· 5th Machine Gun Detachment

· Horse Artillery Abteilung 1st (Prince August of Prussia) (1st Lithuanian) Field Artillery Regiment

· 1st Jager Battalion

· 2nd Jager Battalion
For gaming purposes this is quite a small formation of some 8 battalion equivalents, 6 mounted and 2 Infantry.

2 Cuirassier Regiments

2 Uhlan Regiments (Already completed)

1 Jager Zu Pferde Regiment

1 Dragoon Regiment

3 Cavalry MG Stands (representing 2 Guns each)
Jager Battalions each comprising
    4 Jager Stands
   1 MG Stands
   1 Cyclist Stands

· 24 Dismounted Cavalry Stands (needed for SB as well)


Friday 9 November 2012

WOTR - Clucking Bell (or Quick Painting Part 2)

So......On looking inside you find....

Not a completely painted and based unit for either side; the requirement for 21 additional archers, 27 foot troops and 6 command figures just to complete seven "normal" units for each side. 

Second order problems are there are only enough household troops for a 7 base unit per side and the Cavalry are similar with enough for a single unit.

How to recover.  The plan needs to be tested and adjusted as obviously the last time I did any work on these I had some sort of plan which is why units don't seem to have been finished off.  So the undercoated figures need to be allocated to the correct slot in each unit and then painted in the correct livery.  I am also down to 8 base units and not ten as well which is probably where the problem stemmed from.

A quick move around means that I have all the figures for 6 units of one side and that is the plan for tonight and tomorrow day time.  Get one side "mostly" finished.  Aim is for what is in the box to be completely painted and based including flock.

This will mean 13 bases to be painted and 45 (including the 13) needing to be based and flocked

Photos to follow later...if I get time

Okay, finished (at a gaming standard) 6 units this morning while degunking the dining table.  The new figures do stand out; while talking to my other half last night I found out that the last time I did any painting on these was during the Beijing Olympics.  Oh well doesn't time fly.

First block of 3 Units

Second block of 3 Units

Oblique shot from the right

and from the left

By my reckoning I need two packs of household troops to swap in and that is the First St Albans Yorkist done.

The other army needs 30 figures (15 archers and 15 foot troops) to complete 6 units.  That is my current plan and hopefully pick up the necessary figures at Warfare at Reading next saturday

Thursday 8 November 2012

WOTR - Quick Painting

While I know that my War Of The Roses forces have sat in a box unloved for too long, the act of redecorating meant that my storage trays were downstairs.  As a result of "just" looking I decided, with some gentle prodding I may add, that they could do with getting a few more units completed.

With some 120+ figures still needing to be completed I looked for a cheating method.  Lets see how this goes.

The "unpainted" figures actually have a white undercoat on already so at least I am not starting from bare metal.  They are also stuck on bases but in the vast majority of cases that is as far as I have travelled.

First up are 5 bases of Crossbowmen.  I gave them a quick coating, all over, of German Orange Ochre.  May be a strange colour but some of the completed figures have the old GW Foundation Tau Sept Ochre on them so this might not be too far off the mark.


Next step will be to add all the metal armour
Then the flesh

Then add some the livery colours and the odd piece of clothing to break them up.

So 2032Z and the figures are in the airing cupboard drying.

Now 2050Z and the metal and flesh done. This includes helmets, breast plates on a couple and the Crossbow bolts and the "end" piece

In terms of livery I have no idea what to do on these as there are only five bases.  Probably keep in simple and a straight white and red split.




So here we are at 2130Z with the unit 75% finished and certainly good enough to go on a table.  Need to do the wood on the Crossbows in a lighter colour, and add some variety to the trouser legs.

I think I have found the solution to the white pile of these.  Let see how we get on in part 2 over the weekend with the Longbows and the Retinues


Tuesday 6 November 2012

BG Kursk - Soviet Artillery Units

So looking at my Russians which I started collecting back in 1993 (so some of them are nearly 20 years old!) I thought they needed some new additions in time for BG Kursk. 

First up are some new artillery pieces. Three of these are the 57mm Zis-2 guns, from PSC, which have really, really, long barrels.

Zvezda had recently released a Katyusha and Peter Pig now made a loading set for them which I had to add (only then to find out that Katyusha's don't make it onto the table, oh well).

Digging around in the spares box found a pair of Zis-3 guns from Battlefront (Horrible) and Peter Pig (showing its age). Using the spare PSC crew men from the set with a couple of PP crewmen add a pair until Father Christmas arrives with a new box from PSC.

I still have a spare 57mm gun and some crew in a box waiting to be added at some time in the future.



L - R.  Battlefront, PSC, Peter Pig












Crew painted in the quick (for me) fashion I have now adopted for most of my figures:

Stick figures on base.
Add basing material
Undercoat the whole thing with a white spray can
Paint the base and highlight it.
Give the figures a watered down coat of the base uniform colour (Khaki Grey for these)
Paint the boots
Paint the metal items on the weapons
Paint the wood items on the weapons
Flesh
Add leather/cloth items
Helmets
Wash the figure with the GW Earthshade wash
Hightlight the helmet
Paint the edge of the base.
Flock the base once everything is dry
Dullcote to finish

For those who wanted to see a close up of the Katyusha Crew here are a couple more shots





Friday 2 November 2012

BG Kursk - Armoured Supply Vehicle

Not too sure how historically accurate this is.  I took a Zvezda Pz II, cut out the turret circle, Painted a Peter Pig vehicle crewman and some stowage and stuck them in the hole.  Added a small piece of baggage, again from Peter Pig.