Weekend Update

Last night I trekked up to the wilds of Luzerne County to play in another game using Neil Thomas' Ancients Rules with the PAWM crew. Mike S. was our host and he and his wife Cathy not only provided a great place to play, but fed us Swedish meatballs, noodles, and vegetables for supper. 

Our game was Vikings versus Saxons AND Normans...and some Generic Rabble milling about smartly around and about the church. 

The Church of St. Joseph of Cupertino...the Viking objective

In this episode, the Vikings were played by myself, Bernie, Jim B., James, and John the OFM starring as Ulf The OFM. Darrell and Mark took the roles of Saxon and Norman. Mike was our GM, as well as our host, and perpetrated numerous shabby GM tricks on us poor Vikings. Harrumph! 

We were supposed to take the church and capture the treasure inside and then head back to the boats. However there were a LOT of guys named Norman there and an equal large number of hairy, smelly Saxon Fyrd blocking our way. The uncouth buggers even refused to take a bribe... we even said we share halfsies with them. Harrumph! 

My "band" of Vikings. No woodwinds, but a pretty good "heavy metal" section....

Not a Shieldwall....thankfully. But still not an easy target for my Bondi

Typically shabby GM trick, allowing a bunch of mounted Normans attacking Jim's Vikings

That big open space was where my Bondi Boys were a moment ago... Turn 2, and I'm out of Vikings...

James and Mark play Crunch and Munch

And then I was "reinforced" by Ulric the Uf Da and I went right back at them!

And then ANOTHER shabby GM trick had Norman cavalry come in behind us...

well, specifically, John...

Darrell (on the right) wondering why we didn't bring more Vikings...

Suffice to say that despite our best attempts to surge forward and close with the guys named Norman and their Saxon buddies, there were just WAAAAAYYYYYY to many of the up-armoured buggers for us to kill. 

But Mike has a such lovely collection of plastic Vikings, so I enjoyed being a Viking even if I did come out on the short end of the stabby-stabby contest. And being a pin cushion for the Norman crossbows, to boot. 

No matter what the result, it was a wonderful game and a great time with friends. 

Hearts Of Oak

Yesterday being the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, six of us gathered at the Sloan Club House for the standard Wednesday meeting of the RAP Gamers to play out Bruce P.'s interpretation of the battle. 

(L to R: Phil, Steve, Garth, Bruce, and Mike)

Bruce, Phil and Steve chose the Franco-Spanish side, whilst Garth, Mike and myself took up the mantle of the mighty Royal Navy. Determined to give the Frogs and Dons a good thrashing, we split up our ships and came up with our clever plan...."shoot and sink 'em."

The RN doesn't waste time getting stuck in!

I had several frigates and unrated vessels that were on the left flank of the fleet and I chose to charge directly at the nearest Spanish enemy, which happened to be Bruce. Not expecting the Light Brigade of the Seas to charge, Bruce was a bit non-plussed, which turned into stunned silence as my Little Fellas started schwacking his Sail of the Line. 

Combat is resolved by D6s, the Franco-Spanish moving first, then the British, then the British fire first, and the Franco-Spanish firing second. Damage is applied immediately and at range of 0-4 hexes, combat is quick and bloody. 

Another Spanish ship strikes! 

(shown by the coloured smoke)

Ships could fire both sides at the same time and my two little sloops, which threw 2D6 each, were magnificent at annoying the Dons. My frigates managed to cause a number of Bruce's squadron to strike and his dice rolling was not nearly as effective as mine was last night. 

Mike (and HMS Victory) dealing death dealing dice rolls to the dastardly Spanish and French

While Garth slowed up the rear end of the Allied Fleet and stopped Phil dead in the water, Mike served up hot dice to Steve and Bruce in the middle of the table. He split the Franco-Spanish line and shredded their fleet whilst taking minimal losses himself. 

"Thae THAT, you Spanish Ladies!" 

Another fun game and a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening. I really enjoy these very simple rules. John Aramtys has some grid/hex based rules I like from TPW, but these ones work really well for large fleet actions and Bruce's 1/2400th scale ships. He's got a lovely collection of ships and we really need to get them out more often. 

Being Dragooned

It's a rainy, gloomy, rubbish day here in the Duchy. 

Blech. 

Double blech. 

Having had to work yesterday, (on a SATURDAY? Really?) the remainder of what was left of my weekend was spent being "generally employed", as the Ship's Log might say, about the Ship of State. 

I did find some time to get some work done on my first unit of Spanish cavalry for the WPS/WAS/SYW project, the Pavia Dragoon Regiment. 

Santiago!!!

A closer view

The figures are 25mm RSM castings formerly produced (in the last century, I think) by The London War Room. They are detailed just enough for my liking. I used Rustoleum red brown rattle can primer instead of my usual white or grey Gesso. It did dull down the yellow coat quite a bit, even with a base coat of Vallejo yellow ochre followed with a coat of Vallejo flat yellow. I used a craft paint red colour called "Tomato" for the red. It's not bad, but I wish it were....redderer...

And I erred badly when I started painting the figures. In my rush to get cracking on these pony boys, I forgot I was going to paint them as the Sagunto Dragoon Regiment, which has black, instead of red, as the other main colour. This is because I have a flag for the Saguntos (from David of Not By Appointment blog, the BEST source for flags), but not for the Pavias. 

Insert embarrassed emoji here. 

The OTHER batch of Spanish dragoons doesn't have a standard bearer...

Coming along nicely, I think

A closer view...

After three units of Hussars, a nice simple dragoon unit is a bit of a palate cleanser. I do have more Spanish dragoons and some Fusilieros Monteros ready to get their paint jobs. 

Tomorrow will be a day of chaos at work, but I hope to get these hombres close to finished tomorrow night. 

More anon. 

Weekend Update

The weather has turned and summer has definitely turned into autumn. Herself is sick because of it, which has changed plans and such here in the Duchy. Last week at work was mental, so some hobby time was just the thing with Sandy trying to rest and me trying to get a lot of things sorted.  

I have been slogging away at three unit of Austrian Hussars for my WPS/WAS/SYW and Soldier-King Projects. The figures are RSM and will represent the Splenyi, Baranyay, and Desswffy Regiments.

I think my interpretation of the Splenyi Hussars is rather...splendid...

Baranyay Hussars in their "apple green" dolmans and pelisses

Desswffy Hussars in their light blue in the foreground, almost complete. 

I am mounting my figures for Honours of War, but my light cavalry will be mounted on 40mm wide by 60mm bases to distinguish them from their heavier brothers. For my Soldier-King project, two stands will make a unit. If I want to play with ATKM, then I'll use three stands for one "unit". 

Either way, painting these fellas has been a bit daunting and a pain in the arse. But one cannot have an Austrian Army without them. Now, back to finish those bits on the Desswffy figures.