Final Objective in Sight

Our Maltot Chain of Command (CoC) campaign has reached the 6th game and the 5th and final map / scenario on the ladder.  A win here for British, and they will get three attempts to do so, will win the campaign for them.  To escape the jaws of defeat, the Germans must prevent the British from taking their final objective, the church.

The terrain is now all set up and ready for the games to begin on Monday morning.

The view from the east, the British enter from the right and must take the church on the left.

 

The view from the west, the British enter from the left and must take the church on the right.

The Germans have finally decided to call up reinforcements in the shape of SS panzergrenadiers, and the British have withdrawn the remnants of 12 platoon and will field the fresh, and full strength, 16 platoon, both from the 5th Wiltshires.

Robin Hood vs Little John

This was a small diversion from my next job, repairing, magnetic basing and tidying up some figures I had painted professionally (probably a future post).  So, before diving into what is a less than satisfying task, I indulged my nostalgia demon and tried to reproduce the painting style of Gilder et al on some figures from the Hinchliffe / Calder Craft Robin Hood range.

As this was a painting trial, I just did three personality figures, namely Robin, Little John and Marian.  These were cleaned up and Little John had his quarterstaff shortened to a more reasonable length; other than this the figures were not messed about with.

Marion is the weakest figure, suffering from overly short legs and overlong arms, the latter a classic Hinchliffe failing, that make her anatomy a look off.  

However, I think her face is well sculpted managing to look more feminine than many female castings.

This Robin is one of three Robin figures in the range, this one obviously intended for the river crossing contest with Little John.

The other Robin figures have him either blowing his own trumpet or 'disguised' as a 'hooded man', presumably to compete for the silver arrow.

Little John also looks like he's intended to scrap with Robin, the other John in the range is simply standing with quarterstaff and pointing.  This figure has an overly long quarterstaff; so long it would be both hard to wield and give him an unfair advantage over Robin so I trimmed it back.

Painting these figures was fun, but I was constantly surprised how big a contrast was needed for the 'Gilderesque' style shading.  Several times I toned down the contrast only to find that once the enamel paint dried the contrast was not strong enough.

These Figures Mean Trouble

My 25mm Hinchliffe collection usually fights using my rule set, a mash-up of bits from Victory Without Quarter (VWQ) and Command and Colours (C&C).

One of the VWQ elements I've shamelessly copied is the addition of random events which can affect how units and commanders behave.  Because it can be hard remembering which units have been affected and how, I decided to make up some markers.

Firstly, my preacher who fires up a unit's morale.  He's clearly a puritan but has to serve both sides as I haven't made a high church Anglican for my royalists yet.

He was a fairly simple modification from Hinchliffe's rather dodgy[1] royalist pikeman   as can be seen here with the unpainted preacher alongside an unmodified casting.

Another event sees a unit's powder supplies affected through incompetence, in this case standing the powder barrel in a puddle with obvious consequences for the unit's firepower.

When all these random effects get too much, there's always another which sees a unit weakened as some decide they have a pressing appointment elsewhere.

Notes.

[1.]  By 'dodgy' I'm referring to his appearance; a common pikeman sporting long hair; a Van Dyke beard; wearing a sash (scarf); and, a broad-brimmed hat decorated with ostrich feathers is a rather outdated (Victorian?) idea of how the armies looked.