WiP Basing and Some Away Games

While I've finished the basing fix for my SSM figures (last post) basing is still dominating my painting desk.  This time it's painting, texturing and dry-brushing the bases for some Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figures to allow my skirmish game to expand so I can play Dragon Rampant or similar.  Doubting I'd ever get the figures painted myself (too much else in the queue) I sent them[1] off to Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka.  

They took longer than I was expecting (c. 6 months) and there was a lot of to and froing as they sent pictures and I requested improvements but eventually they arrived.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the figures look much better in the hand than in the photos they sent for approval; the images they send are very small.  Now I just had some minor repairs and touching up to do, plus a lot of base work - I had decided to not let them finish the bases as I knew the painting style would be very different to mine and I wanted to make the bases the same as my other figures to help them blend in.

So, first, some of the 'bad guys', goblins ...

... and Warg riders (I don't like Peter Jackson's take on Wargs).

And, ready to ride down everything in their path, THE ROHIRRIM!

I still have some touching up to do on the Uruks, which seem less well-painted than the rest (different painter?) but that shouldn't take long now.  So with all these 'armies' gathering war is imminent; no doubt my giant eagles will keeping an eye on things.

As a pleasant interlude during all this, fairly tedious, basing work, I went down to Steve's place for a weekend's gaming get together with some others.

The first game was a 'chit game' of the Battle of Liegnitz (1241) which, true to history, was won by the Mongols.  I came seventh out of seven once the VPs were totalled but comforted by the prettiness of my troops (Martin's vintage 15mm Minifig Knights - I had more than this but I liked this close up).

Other games included chariot racing with a modified version of Circus Maximus using Martin's Essex Miniatures chariots ...

 

... and 6mil Napoleonic game on Steve's sculpted Waterloo terrain (really need to get the backdrop sorted).

This was a fictional Austrian-Bavarian clash (not sure how they ended up in Belgium) and really a play-test for my modified version of Jeffrey's Napoleonic rules as I very much like the command and control system.  The game showed promise but there's still work to do.  This was not too surprising as I had been adapting it to play on a hex-grid and had to rapidly adjust it for a free-form game on the sculpted terrain, but it is so pretty I'll add a few more photos.

That's all for now.

Notes:

[1.] The lot consisted of: 57 Goblins; 14 Uruk Hai;  7 Goblin Warg riders; 14 mounted Rohirrim and 12 on foot plus a mounted Eomer figure; and, 12 Ithilien Rangers plus Faramir (on foot). 

Covert Sabots - Old-School Basing

With my painting desk taken up with figures waiting for their gloss varnish to dry, and no game coming up that needs any prep, I was at a bit of a loose end.  As the figures had been varnished because I had shaved down their bases to better fit my storage trays, I thought why not a quick post on my basing system.

Inspired by CS Grant's 'The Wargame' and Brig Peter Young's rules 'Charge!' I wanted to keep my troops based as single figures.  Needless to say, this makes moving the troops a laborious exercise.  Nowadays, sabots would be the obvious answer to this dilemma, but they were less common 20+ years ago.  Also, I wanted it to look like the figures were single based.

The answer was steel bases exactly the same shape as 8 infantry figures bases and magnets mounted in the base of the figures - see below.

The custom-made steel trays were commissioned from Essex Laser Job Shop Ltd., an expensive indulgence but worth it IMO.  They were sprayed the same colour I use for my toy soldier bases.  I hope you agree they are pretty unobtrusive, or covert, as per the title of this post.

I did get some sample magnets made up, the same size and shape as the figure bases, but if I'd opted to go with these it would have been more an order of magnitude more expensive than the trays.  Also, it turned out that the magnets didn't like sitting adjacent to each other on the trays - just getting samples was a lucky escape.

In the end, the magnets I used were just readily available rear-earth disk-shaped magnets source on Amazon.  To make their fitting easier, I bought Litko ferro-sheet, pill-shaped bases with a pre-cut hole into which the magnets would fit.  The bases were then finished by using Milliput to create a nice rounded shape to the base.  

The infantry bases are 15mm wide and 25mm long, each end being a semi-circle 15mm in diameter.  My cavalry bases are the same width but twice as long.

This means that one cavalry figure has the same footprint as two infantry figures, well almost if you ignore the bit where the two infantry bases touch.  This can be seen here with cavalry figures on some half-sized bases (4 infantry or 2 cavalry as opposed to the standard 8 infantry or 4 cavalry) which used for flexibility and casualty removal.

As can be seen I use two magnets for cavalry figures as they are much heavier.  While the magnets hold the figures well, they are not as secure as glued figures.  Nonetheless it makes moving figures so much easier.

Having solved the movement problem I found that taking them in and out of my display cabinet was a bit of a chore, but I like having them on display.  So, another solution was required, and again the answer was an old favourite, movement trays!

These trays were custom ordered from Warbases with a shallow lip around the edge to keep the figures in place, as modelled here by the Hohenzollern Dragoons.

There is no lip at the back, which makes it easy to slide the figures on and off the tray, here modelled by the Hessian Erbprinz Infantry Regiment.

These trays have made it so much easier to get my armies on, and off the table.  the only fly in the ointment was one regiment that didn't quite fit on the trays.  On investigation it seems that my first trial based unit had had the Milliput applied a little more generously such that it slightly overhung the sides of the Litko base. This made them all a tiny bit wider so they wouldn't fit as planned between the tray lips.  So, having finally decided to do something about I shaved the bases down a bit with a Stanley knife and then re-painted the base where they'd been shaved back, and then varnished them.  

And, these are the figures who are currently occupying my painting desk while drying.  How can it take that long to dry you ask?  It's enamel varnish and applied fairly thickly for robustness.

CHARGE the Rearguard

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.2009!  Hence the poor photos.]

Following my last, bang up-to-fate, post based on a classic Table-top Teaser by CS Grant I thought I'd post a rather dated one of mine own.

This was my first attempt at a Table-top Teaser for my ‘toy soldier’ armies using Brigadier Young’s CHARGE rules.  Not being blessed with a 9x7 foot table like Charles Grant I needed something that would draw out the action or it would all be over in few turns.  To achieve this, I went a bit overboard, with the ‘armies’, separated by a river and entering over several turns; all in a rearguard scenario where one side would be seeking flight rather than fight.  This was crammed on to my 8x5 foot table as shown below with the game in progress a few turns in.

The Scenario: revolves around an Austrian force seeking to evade a much larger, off-table, French force which is attempting to pin them against the river while a smaller Bavarian force tries to block their escape.  The Austrians enter the table at point A (see map) and must exit at point D by move 15; anything failing to do so is deemed captured by the pursuing French.  The Austrians start with a light infantry regiment of 2 coy.s of Pandours holding the house and wood on the northern side of the western bridge and a company of Croats on the road 12” from point A.  

The rest of the Austrians enter one unit per turn along the road at point A; which unit arrives being determined by a D6 as follows:

               1 = Hussar sqn.
               2 = Cuirassier regt.
               3 = Hungarian Inf. regt.
               4 = Austrian Inf. regt.
               5 = Artillery battery #1
               6 = Artillery battery #2

Unit arrival is diced for at the start of the turn, after order writing, and the unit will march on in column along the road.  If the entry roll indicates a unit that is already on the table, the unit with the lowest arrival score that has yet to arrive is substituted.  This mechanism should ensure that the lower numbered units arrive sooner.

The Bavarians mostly enter at Point B with some appearing at C or D; they dice for order of arrival in the same way (entry point in parentheses) as follows:

               1 = Hussar sqn. (C)
               2 = Militia regt. (D)
               3 = Dragoon regt. (B)
               4 = Bavarian Inf. regt. (B)
               5 = Swiss Inf. regt. (B)
               6 = Artillery battery #1 (B)

Before the game begins the Bavarian player rolls a D6 for each river section to determine which are fordable (4-6 on a D6).  A sketch is drawn to record the results but is not shown to his opponent; the ticks and crosses on the map indicate which sections were fordable in the game as played and described below.

The Game: opened with few surprises; the Austrian hussars being the first to arrive to lead the army to safety while the Pandours pushed forward in skirmish order towards point B to delay the approaching Bavarian infantry.  

The action developed rapidly over the next few moves as, spotting Bavarian militia approaching from the east (point D), ...

... the Austrians sent their hussars and Croats to seize the eastern bridge while still clear.  The hussars overthrew the first militia company (see photo) their success underlining the value of cavalry and the frustrating absence of the Austrian cuirassiers.  

While the hussars crashed into the militia across the bridge the arrival of the Bavarian hussars (at point C) convinced the Pandours that discretion was the better part of valour and they fell back to more defensible terrain covering the western bridge.  

As more troops poured onto the table the Pandours effectively shielded their army’s flank as it marched at best speed to the eastern bridge.  

The Pandours were reinforced by a company of Hungarian infantry to prevent any attempt to rush the bridge by the growing number of Bavarian units marshalled against them, while in the backround the rest of the Austrians can be seen making haste to reach the other bridge and safety.  

The Bavarian superior numbers were brought to bear and the Pandours, and to a greater extent the more exposed Hungarians, started to take heavy losses from both musketry and artillery.

Finally, the much-anticipated Austrian cuirassiers arrived bringing up the rear of the column!  The lackadaisical attitude of this unit of dawdlers continued as they marched along the road unconcerned by the sight of two squadrons of Bavarian dragoons eyeing them from the ridge across the river (north of point A).  The cuirassiers’ composure was rudely shattered as the dragoons declared a charge on them – the possibility that the river might be fordable had been overlooked!  

Somewhat unfairly these haughty cavaliers did not pay the price for their hubris, a scandalous sequence of lucky die rolls seeing them win the resulting melee.  It now dawned on the Austrians that the river was not the reliable barrier they had assumed it to be and henceforth more caution was exercised.

As the casualties mounted in the firefight at the western bridge, the Austrian column reached the eastern bridge, now cleared of the militia by the hussars and Croats.  On crossing, the Austrian infantry wheeled to their left to form a defensive line to shield the following units (see photo).  This line was soon put under pressure as the Bavarians shifted their weight of effort from the western bridge to the eastern crossing.  

Initially the infantry firefight was fairly ineffective and all seemed to be going well for the Austrians but then the Bavarian artillery evened things up with several turns of devastating fire.  No doubt this was Lady Luck offsetting the outrageous luck enjoyed by the Austrian cuirassiers in their earlier fracas with the dragoons.  With the Austrian artillery mostly staying limbered to keep pace with the Austrian column were unable to reply effectively.  As a result, the balance of the game started to shift until in the twelfth move both armies reached their break points!  The Bavarians claimed a draw with honours even, while the Austrian argued for a technical victory, as with the Bavarians withdrawing the Austrian line of retreat was left open…   With such an unsatisfactory outcome, further conflict is inevitable, perhaps you can achieve a more decisive result?