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.