From AndrewS: 20mm Sea Monkeys (er, People) & 28mm Farm Animals (424 points)

From LOKI:

It’s me again, I am still not hearing the fat lass singing so I am still applying paint with gusto. At this time of year we have to watch for those low flying sandbags and odd fellows in budgie smugglers .

This little lot is the first of the Sea peoples army, these are all Hat 20mm figures making up 3 warbands of 24 figures each for a total of 72 figures.

The first two units have similar colour schemes to denote they will be part of the same division, may not be a completely historical way of identifying the units but it works on the table top for me. The unit leaders are distinguished by a white reed in the front of the headgear.

The third unit is done with a different mix of colours and will form part of the 2nd division.

Also here is the first unit of Lukka Pirates to join my Sea Peoples force, 24 figures from Caesar’s 20mm range I wanted to give these fellows a similar look and make them distinct from the other units, So I went with Black kilts and bright banding on those. To set them off from the rest I decided to put freehand designs on the shields, as my research shows they are likely to have come from Anatolia or outlying Greek states so drew some inspiration from there and set about giving them a unified look. This unit has blue and red grounds for the designs and in total 20 of the group have been done this way.

 

This army should end up being a veritable riot of colour when finished, with all the bright banding and the bronze. All have been based as the Nubians were but without rocks as there literally is not space on a base for that its surprising the room one extra figure on a base takes up.

Finally, here are the first figures that I have completed as display pieces for the new range of figures from Warbases, I have a fair amount more to get completed yet.

These are all 28mm scale miniatures and consists of 2 Shire horses, 3 Highland cows, 2 Soay sheep and 2 lambs, A bloodhound, 3 Nubian Goats and A Bulldog for a total of 14 miniatures.

Ooh! New project, wonderful! These really look excellent Andrew. I've always liked Sea People figures with their whacky head-dress and kilts - a great excuse to go nuts with fun colours, which I see you've taken full advantage of. Excellent.

Love the farm animals as well, especially the long-horned cows. 

These Sea People and the charming animals will give Andrew a very impressive 424 points as he closes in on the 4000 point mark. Amazing.

From RayR: 15mm 9YW French Cavalry (70 points)

Ray staggers us all by submitting something completely new: 15mm Nine Year War French cavalry... in light blue (GASP).

From Ray:

For my next entry of stuck with my French NYW army and I've stuck to the Cavalry but this time a Dragoon regt. They are once again Essex Minis with a great flag from Maverick Models. They're based up for Beneath the Lily Banners, using Warbases MDF bases. 

The unit represented is the Dauphin Dragoons mounted and dismounted. They wore an all blue uniform which again was a nice change from all that boring grey. I used a lighter brighter shade of blue than my previous Anjou regt, just to make a change.

Ray, you are like a dog with a bone when it come to the Nine Years War. Three Challenges and you've hardly ever wavered from The Cause.  I salute you! Seriously, these look great Ray (wonderful job in picking out the cording on the drummers) and that backdrop does a great job in setting the scene. 

The Dauphin Dragoons (with and without horses) will give Ray 70 points. Great job!

Product Review: Custom-Cut Movement Trays from Warbases

I needed some movement trays that could both accomodate single-based figures and also provide a visual cue to the skirmish capability of a particular infantry formation. (From 1 to 3 figures per skirmishing detachment, as determined by their training, doctrine, blah, blah, blah.)

95th Rifles providing a skirmish screen for a British battalion (Perry and Wargames Foundry).

Years ago a friend had given me a large amount of fender washers which I've been using to base the majority my skirmish figures to date. The only trouble with this is that the washers are an odd size and so I can't make use of standard movement trays which are designed for figures mounted on common coins or standard 20/25mm bases. (Yes, serves me right for being such a cheap sod and not using 'proper' bases...)

An example of the 2-socket trays (Victrix figures)

After hearing such great feedback about Warbases in the UK I thought I'd contact them to see if they could custom-cut some simple 2 and 3 socket trays for my Napoleonic skirmishers. Diane from Warbases said it would be no problem and asked that I just send along a sample of the washer so they could lasercut the sockets for a snug fit. 

As you can see the trays turned out great. These 2-socket and 3-socket MDF trays cost 50p and 70p respectively - a bargain when compared to popular suppliers here in North America. The cost along with shipping was very reasonable and the turnaround time was surprisingly fast. All-in-all I'd highly recommended Warbases, even for those hobbyists not located in the UK.

Somewhere on the Road to Corunna: A Small Napoleonic Game Using 'Food for Powder'

Lately I've been working on our household set of Napoleonic rules, 'Food for Powder', toying with a couple mechanics and playing around with a few new ideas. So this past weekend I wanted to get in a playtest of the edits to see if we could bust them in actual game play. To keep things simple we played a small game based on a scenario that I've put on several times in the past which seems to give a consistently quick yet decent game.

The scenario is an old chestnut set during the Peninsular War - a holding action at a bridge during Moore's retreat to Corunna. The scene features a weak British brigade of three battalions striving to buy enough time for their engineers to rig the bridge for demolition before the French vanguard can force its way through. A more detailed description of the smaller-scaled scenario can be found here.

The French push back a British battalion towards the river. The 'socket-trays' for the skirmishers are from Warbases.

All of these photos shown are from the last turn of the game.

As a short summary of the highlights, the French, commanded by Peter and Sylvain, advanced towards the British position (run by Stacy) along two lines of approach.  Sylvain's brigade, not being as obstructed by intervening terrain, went into action first. His lead battalion took a good deal of punishment on it's advance from two sections of Royal Horse Artillery along with musket volleys from a blocking British battalion, but they weathered the fire to go into close assault. The resulting melee battered the English infantry, but ultimately the French were spent and had to withdraw from the action.

The French press the British left flank. The 'Advance' marker denotes the path of march which was ordered for this French brigade.

Not to be deterred, Sylvain pushed his second battalion through the remnants of the first, shrugged off the resulting disorder it caused, and closed in for another assault. (At this point Stacy and I looked at each other in amazement as Sylvain typically has all the aggression of a slightly piqued French professor; which, well, he is.)  

So, while being disordered by crashing through their sister battalion, and being mauled by shot and shell, the second French battalion managed to beat all odds, stagger ahead and throw back the British line towards the bridge (the appalling rolls by Stacy at this point were truly epic). By this point two of the three French battalions were broken or spent, but the British opposing the remainder were ground down and falling back.

Peter's French force advancing on the British position. Dragoons at the top pausing while the infantry goes  into the assault.

On the other flank, Peter's French force included a small regiment of Dragoons to which he made good use of by placing them in the vanguard. As the green-clad cavalrymen approached the bridge they induced one of the British battalions to form square. Peter played it cool by not committing his cavalry to the charge, using them instead as a pinning force while his infantry came up for the assault. The British were again pushed back and they began to look nervously to the bridge to see what was holding the Engineers up.

A few squadrons of French Dragoons threatening the British right flank.

The last of the French infantry working its way through rough terrain.

As if on cue, the Engineers signaled that the bridge would be blown in two turns - intoning that it would be best if the brigade extricate themselves and get back over the river before they were cut off. Before we called it for the night we decided to see which side would have initiative for the next turn. The dice were cast and it was determined it would be the French who would react first. We reasoned that it will be a little touch and go for the British as the bridge could quite easily become swamped with men trying to escape to the other side. The French would probably be stopped at the river, but at the cost of a mauled British brigade and perhaps a few guns.

A photo taking in most of the action. The British are being forced into a thumb-shaped perimeter around the foot of the bridge (a precursor to another bridge action in 1944...)

It was great fun to break out the Napoleonics again and the rules seemed to hang together under the strain. Peter had not played the rules before but he picked up the essentials in a couple turns - which is an encouraging sign. There is still some work to be done on them but I think we're getting very close to having a solid beta playtest version soon.