28mm Cossacks!

Here is an army I bought for myself pre-painted on Ebay and recently re-based. It's a late Renaissance / 30 Years War force of Cossacks. I have them here on movement trays set up for Pikeman's Lament, but they're also fine for many other rule sets. Pikeman's Lament has been gaining traction in the club this past year so I thought movement trays set up for it seemed prudent.

The commander and a unit of light cavalry with bows.

'Battle Cavalry'. Two with swords, one with pistols and swords, and one with lances.

A 'pike block' consisting of twelve pike, 24 musketeers that can either be four 'commanded shot' units or two 'musketeer' units and a forward unit that could be a 'forlorn hope' unit.

Two 'dragoon' units of mounted infantry.

The balance of the musket-armed infantry.

Another Shameless Plug

I'm selling off a Field of Glory Renaissance rule book and 3 army list books on Ebay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321229601823?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I just won't get to painting the armies for a long time considering my current progress and plans for ancient armies.

Thanks for looking,
AJ

July Game Night 2012

Last night I attend our club's July game night. We had three great games hosted. I played in a French Wars of Religion Renaissance game using a set of home-brew rules written by my uncle called 'Nexus'. More information about Nexus can be found on his website here.

The game was a French attack on an Imperialist defended bridge. The game had the French advancing through three defiles lengthwise on the table. The Imperialsts played well including good use of their forlorn hope in one of the woods separating the approaches and an aggressive pike charge as the French closed. Wonderful figures, beautiful teddy bear fur terrain and a set of good fast play rules. Can't ask for much more in a wargaming evening.

The second game was a 28mm Seven Years War game using the rules "Ancien Regime".

The third game was a 15mm American Civil War game using Fire & Fury rules.

Renaissance Game (2)

Last  Friday night we got together at my Uncle's house to play test a Renaissance game that he'll be running at this month's club game night. The game uses Ralph's own rules 'Nexus' which can be downloaded from his website, Cruel Old Campaigners (look in the "War Game Rules" section). The game is set in the wars of religion period and pits a larger French/Spanish force against a smaller, but higher quality defending Imperialist force using Ralph's beautiful figures and terrain. We got several fun turns in and this will be a fun game to play at game night. I'm looking forward to it!

February Game Night 2012

Last night I attend our monthly game night. I played in my friend Ed's late renaissance skirmish game which used his homemade rule set that he's been continuously improving. This game featured Polish with German mercenaries played by my friends Earl (just off camera), Ralph and Byron (shown below right photo). Onlooker Charlie observes the table from behind. I played on the Cossack side with Mike (pictured below left photo) and Dave (not shown).

This was a tough game for the Cossacks. The Poles had a good plan and swift cavalry advances gobbled up many extra 'opportunity points' giving them some extra advantage cards early. When the Polish musketeers and dragoons came within range they surgically picked off our officers with uncanny precision leaving the Cossack units to fight under lesser leadership across the board. Our biggest problem was a solid musketeer line in the center which we never did answer. When the game was called the terrain victory points were evenly split, but it was only a matter of a turn or two before the Cossack army would have been swept from the field.

This game featured beautiful figures, nice terrain and Ed's rule set which is easy to understand. If Ed will forgive my comparing it to other rules, it has a similar 'feel' to the Brother against Brother ACW skirmish rules that many of us in the club like very much. Of course Ed's rules use different mechanics and have Renaissance-specific rules and mechanisms.

There were two other great games run. Phil ran a 15mm Fire & Fury ACW game using the original Fire & Fury rules.

Andre ran his computer-moderated age of sail game using Clear for Action rules.

Renaissance Game

At our club game day today we played a very large Renaissance game over three gaming tables. The game was played using a set of rules created locally with figures provided by three of the club's members. I commanded a German mercenary command supporting the Spanish who were attempting to oust invading French forces from their land. My command is shown below on the left.

This was a fun day and although this was my first time playing the rules they seemed easy enough to pick up and fun to play. Makes me want to dig out some of my dead Renaissance lead and get painting! More photos can be seen on our club's photo gallery.