On the Workbench - Andreivian Air and Naval Assets

I've got a bit fed up painting Welsh spearmen so I thought I'd have a go at some 6mm modern stuff for a change.

First up, a couple of MiG-21s and a couple of Mil-24s that came as part of last year's eBay purchase and a homemade (plastic card and balsa wood) A-4 Skyhawk.  They'll all get painted in the colours of various factions in the Andreivian Civil War.

Next are a couple of patrol boats - plastic toys from long ago packets of breakfast cereal.  Probably destined for the Andreivian Navy.

Now, it's not widely known that the Soviet Union exported Su-15 Flagons to Andreivia.  Here's one in the distinctive Andreivian roundels.  Even less well-known is that the Andreivians managed to convert them to the ground attack role.

And finally, here's one of those MiG-21s sporting Andreivian colours.

Wars of the Roses Impetus - part four

Just a couple more units this time and strictly speaking they aren't available under the Basic Impetus WOTR lists.

I had a few of the RAFM miniatures crossbowmen left over from building my French mercenary cross-bowmen unit (T-type troops under Basic Impetus) so I decided to make up a couple of skirmisher (S) bases for possible future use.

On the Workbench - sort of Welsh?

The programme of resurrecting old Wars of the Roses figures for Basic Impetus continues.  These are old RAFM billmen.  The figure on the left is how they've been, largely unused, for years.  Note the somewhat peculiar bill.  He'll get repainted shortly.

The middle and right-hand figures are repainted and have the lovely Xyston spears.  I'll probably call them Welshmen and might try to find a Welsh knight who can lead them into battle.

A Song of Blades, Heroes and Slow Goblins

No Saturday Afternoon Wargame this month because I was invited to Tom's to play Song of Blades and Heroes.  However, Tom had the decorators in (not a euphemism) so we ended up playing at Stately Crawley Manor anyway!

We were four: Jamie, Tom, Tom's grandson Kieran and me.

The board was 90cm square with each of the four forces entering from a different inter-dimensional gateway (they looked a lot like differently coloured d10s) at the centre of each board edge.  The mission was to get a magical item from the centre of the board and get back to your gateway with it.  Gateways could move though!

I played my Ronin warband – Ronin Leader, five Ronin and a Ninja.

Jamie took our Goblins – thirteen Ral Partha goblins and an Ogre.  These turned out to be a poorly designed warband.  They generally refused to do anything but when they did get into combat were fairly tough: most un-goblin-like behaviour.

Tom had his Sea Devils – three of them with electric spear missile weapons accompanied by a magician and a Firbolg (an amphibious creature that moved slowly but fought powerfully).

Finally, Kieran had a medieval European-looking force with a leader, three longbowmen and a few guardsmen with poleaxes.    

We gave the youngest player choice of whether to go first or last and Kieran chose to put me in to bat.  SOBH units can really motor if you get lucky with the activation rolls and after one move I was in contact with the first potential magical item.  Unfortunately it would turn out to be a dummy.

Jamie discovered that quality 5 figures are a pain, especially if you haven’t got a Leader to motivate them.  Many of his goblins would sit inactive on his baseline for most of he game.  Sorry, Jamie!

Goblins aside, the skirmish moved pretty quickly. No sooner had my Ninja moved forward to sneak around some ruins that he was dead; killed by one of Tom’s Sea Devils. Tom and Kieran both moved towards the treasure markers nearest to their gateways.  Tom identified one marker as a magic belt and one as a dummy whilst one of Kieran’s archers picked up a magic ring. 

I was in no position to stop Tom escaping with the magic belt but I might be able to catch Kieran.  Leaving one Ronin engaged in close combat with Jamie’s Ogre, I headed off to intercept the ring-bearer. 

Kieran assumed I’d try to reach the archer and started to put together a screen behind which he could retire. 

I lost one Ronin to archery and killed a few guardsmen but surprised Kieran by making an end-run around his screen.  After all I know where the ring-bearer was going!  Thanks to a few lucky activation rolls I ended up with four figures surrounding Kieran’s gateway.

Kieran threw his leader in to try and force me away from the gateway.  I could have fought him one to one in an honourable duel.  I didn’t.  The Ronin ganged up on him and chopped him into little pieces.  Literally. I scored three times Kieran’s total in combat and that constitutes a gruesome kill and requires any nearby friends of the deceased to make a morale roll.  Losing you leader also requires a morale roll as does losing half of your force.  With the casualties he’d already suffered Kieran managed to take three morale rolls and fail enough of them to run as far away as he could from me.   

We called a halt at that point as it would have taken forever for any of us to get the remaining magic item to our respective gate.  We totalled up the victory points to find that Tom was a narrow but well deserved winner. 

Wars of the Roses Impetus - part three

Yet more in the way of rebased fifteenth century troops have found their way beneath the camera lens.  This time all units of generic English longbowmen.  

First up are some are QT Models figures that I picked up on a bring and buy somewhere.  Without livery jackets they'll do as either side in the Wars of the Roses or even as part of a late 100 Years War English army.  Im not keen on the baggy hose and the thick, undetailed longbows but otherwise they're OK.

Next there's another generic longbow unit.  The front rank are from the same batch of bring and buy QTs.  The second rank has three QT figures I painted one of whom had lost his original head and gained a replacement made from Milliput.  The final figure is a more 14th century type of unknown provenance.

The last unit, this time, is another generic archer bought from a bring and buy.  No idea of the manufacturer.

Wars of the Roses Impetus - part two

Next in the collection of old Wars of the roses figures rebased for Impetus are these mounted nobles.

The riders are all Foundry but many of the horses are from an unidentified manufacturer.  I bought a load of them cheap from Games of Liverpool a hundred years ago.

Next up some dismounted nobles or men at arms. Again, a tremendous mixture featuring models from Foundry, Citadel, RAFM and (I think) Warrior.

And finally for now, some French mercenary crossbow-men.  Mostly by RAFM.  The leftmost figure in the rear rank is converted from an RAFM handgunner and the wounded figure, rear right, is Citadel with an RAFM crossbow.

Wars of the Roses Impetus - part one

As I've mentioned here before, I recently discovered Basic Impetus and decided to rebase my old 25mm Wars of the Roses figures from their previous skirmish bases.  These are the first elements - three units of billmen.

First we have the Duke of Buckingham's men.

These are a mixture of Perry twins' figures, many of them slotta-base figures from the Citadel Miniatures, others from Wargames Foundry.  In front of the unit is one of the markers I've made to show "disordered" status in Basic Impetus.

Next we have Lord Howard's men.  This is the unit I was formerly involved in reenacting.  Again there are some Citadel and Foundry but also a converted RAFM figure and some from a manufacturer I don't recall.

And finally, some billmen from the retinue of James Butler, earl of Ormond and Wiltshire.

Again, some Citadel, some Foundry, some unidentified.  As usual, click to enlarge.

The Ronin

Fresh off the workbench is my first warband for the fantasy skirmish system Song of Blades and Heroes.

The figures from the collection of Alan Slater from whom I inherited them recently.  Alan's decided he no longer wants the stuff I've been storing for him since he went to Japan about twenty years ago!  Alan did all the painting; I just based then to a consistent standard.  As usual, click to enlarge.

In SoBH terms the unit has a Ronin leader, which given that Ronin are "masterless warriors" may be a contradiction in terms, with a Quality of 3 and a combat value of 4 and the special abilities "Fearless" and "Leader".  There's also a Ninja (Q=3, Cbt=3, "Stealth" and "Shooter - short range"), and five Ronin (Q=3, Cbt=3, "Fearless"). 

I get to try out the rules next weekend at Tom Zunder's and may decide to change some of the scores after that. 

GNW Cossacks

A number of elements have just come off the final (static grassing) phase of the basing production line.  First up a unit of Cossacks for the Great Northern War.

They are the usual Baccus 6mm scale figures.  Click to enlarge.

The Cossacks are classified as Light Horse in the Polemos GNW rules.  I tend to base them in swarms or loose lines to help distinguish them from more regular types.

On the Workbench - Resurrected Romans

Sometime deep in the last millennium there was a games shop in Liverpool.  With a certain mundane disregard for convention it was called Games of Liverpool.  I've spoken before of the cellar at Games of Liverpool with its evocative smell of slightly damp cardboard and its glass cabinets of microtanks and 25mm figures.

The 25mm figures were mostly by Lamming and as all the books seemed to suggest that you just had to do ancient wargaming I bought some Lamming Romans.  They were sort of Middle Imperial types, I think but I had this idea that I could convert them to later Romans by cutting down the lorica segmentata and painting them as it they were wearing uncured leather armour.

Eventually I realised that (a) my school-boy budget wouldn't run to sufficient figures and that (b) I was really interested in ancients anyway.  The Romans, initially based for WRG 5th Edition would later be rebased for DBA, repainted as Lunars for Hordes of the Things, and finally consigned to the box of old figures to be melted down and recast.  In fact I think a couple of them ended up weighting down my "flying stand" for 20mm aircraft.

However, Basic Impetus has resurrected my interest in ancients and I've dusted off and repainted those long-abandoned Legionarii.  And here they are on the workbench, glued to their element base but awaiting the final terrain treatment.

No Longer a Traveller

Well, I've finally decided to sell off my old Traveller RPG collection.  I bought a lot of Traveller material in the 1980s and early 90s and held onto it with the vague idea that I might run a Traveller campaign at some point in the future.

I've now come to the conclusion that I never will and that I'm better off clearing some space on the shelves and maybe acquiring a little cash that might just buy me a few more useful figures.

Of course the stuff I have might turn out to be worthless.  I don't know how much of it is already available in pdf form somewhere on the interweb.

Anyway, item number one is Knightfall - a campaign set in the Massilia Sector.

On the Workbench - Men at Arms

These two are ancient RAFM miniatures.  The one on the right has been converted to change the position of his head.  The one on the left illustrates the original casting.

The newly painted figure (the one on the right) is painted as John Radclyff, Lord Fitzwalter who was with Edward IV after (and probably at) Towton.

The older figure on the left was an attempt to capture the heraldry of Lord Wenlock (argent, a chevron between three Moor's heads sable).

Wenlock may find himself attached to a bill unit made equally old (1980s) RAFM figures whilst Fitzwalter will join a unit of dismounted men at arms - both for Basic Impetus.

New Rules

I've just downloaded Songs of Blades and Heroes:

It's a simple, fast-play set of fantasy skirmish rules.  A quick glance through suggests that the rules are very easy to pick up.  The command and control mechanism looks interesting with some tricky decisions - do I activate each figure once and make sure I continue to move all my figures or do I try multiple activations that'll enable me to really hurt the enemy but risk losing the initiative altogether?

Should be fun to start defining Gloranthan types for these rules and perhaps I may find a use for my fairly large number of singly based fantasy figures.