Silver Bayonet - Japanese Faction

A dip into the lead pile and next up a couple of extra's from Northstar and Empress to create a Japanese faction for the Silver Bayonet. The Russo-Japanese forces proper have not been out of the box for a while so this will be a tentative step back into Manchuria.

Not the best photo but left to right - Infantryman, Officer, Occultist, 2 Swordsmen and 3 more Infantrymen.

Two Swordsmen/Officers from Empress Miniatures these are1904 officers wearing tradition Samurai armour perfect for adventuring in Manchuria and confronting evil.

I spotted these on the Northstar site and these looked just the part for the Japanese faction as a Soothsayer and his apprentice.

Silver Bayonet - Chinese Honghuzi or Cultists

With Covid stalking the household and Easter plans cancelled, an opportunity for guilt free painting and another bunch of extra's for The Silver Bayonet. 

A number of scenario's call for cultists or bandits so I went with Chinese Honghuzi as part of the Russo-Japanese narrative I thought I would paint up these Foundry Boxers as members of a cult intent on protecting the the Fangshi or other evil forces.

I went for a simple black and red colour uniform to compliment the 'Devils'. Lots of swords and big choppers, as I am writing this it dawned on me that there is a little more than a touch of Karl Douglas about them for those of you of a certain age :-)

These should be fun and something a little different to keep the Russians and Japanese on their toes.

Next up... A return to the Bronze Age.

Silver Bayonet - Manchurian Monster Pool.

As mentioned in an early post some of the creatures can be a little challenging for some of the Joe McCullough's rule books, add to that the complication of going off piste and picking Manchuria as a setting.

Having decided on a change in theatre, I had a quick google on suitable 'monsters' for East Asia and these seemed to fit the bill. Thanks to Northstar and Reaper cracking service.

These were a fun distraction and something a little different to pass through the paint table.

Fangshi - Chinese Necromancer

Possessed - Human's who are willing to invite Demons into their own bodies.

Goblins or Gremlin's - Tiny little buggers but they had a Oriental feel to them.

Hopping Vampire - Why not.

No idea what this is - let's call him a Troll for now.

With a lengthy list of other potential monsters within the rule book, I figured I would match them to what's tucked away in the cupboard. so here goes.....

Vampire Bat - Crows, Demon - Chinese Dragon, Living Armour - Terracotta  Warrior, Hobgoblin - Temple Guard, Black Dog = Fu Dog.

Until next time.......

Silver Bayonet Solo - Scenario 1 Wolf Pack - 1st Impressions.

Nice to get the freshly painted figures on the table so quickly.

I have been itching to give the rules a run out for a number of weeks, Joe's previous offerings always make for a fun evenings gaming and Silver Bayonet is no different.

One with the game.

The scouting party in the clearing spotted movement in the tree line, they had to move swiftly if they were to the find the missing orders before the local wildlife payed them a visit. 

The two privates unearth the first clue marker and instead of finding a clue they find themselves a Werewolf - Gulp.

Meanwhile on the other side of the clearing as the full moon rose a wolf turned into another Werewolf, things were starting to look bad already for the patrol.

The Russians fell backwards as the wolves rushed from the forest, a number of the men had been wounded and they had burned all of their Fate dice reducing the damage from the attackers. Father Gregor had been busy healing this comrades.

On the far side of the clearing the Captain lead a counter attack into the charging Werewolf. One of his men had already fallen to the wolves who sensed more blood. Egor squared up and swung his axes.

Just as things were beginning to look bleak the wounded troopers who had finally beaten the original Werewolf unearthed the missing orders and were beating a hasty retreat.

The valiant Captain was struck down but not before he killed the Werewolf. Egor swung his mighty axes, hacking at the snarling beasts. 

For a first encounter it seemed a mighty hard, or was it the curse of freshly painted figures?

Silver Bayonet seems a little more balanced than Stargrave/Frostgrave. There are less wandering monsters but they are that little bit tougher than previous games and I suspect players will be less tempted to fight each other but rather deal with the monsters first.

The rules are easy to pick up rolling 2 dice against a target number, with the option to counter attack or duck back. There is a fast pace to the game and you are certainly to encouraged to get stuck in rather than sitting back and firing at distance.

A great new feature is the Fate Pool, a number of dice allowing you to re-roll, lessen damage to yourself or make monsters more potent, quickly reload or point the creatures towards another unfortunate soul.

The scenario's are well balanced but do suffer from a couple of minor niggles mostly around the scale of terrain or monsters encountered, I have some odd stuff but Pixie's or Living Scarecrows? I certainly don't have galleon for the 10th scenario.

Let's see what a two player game brings.....

Silver Bayonet - Russo - Japanese War.

Despite having the rules for a number of months, it's taken a while to get figures to the paint table. How things have changed as I picked bloody Russians.... :-(

I had an idea to shift Silver Bayonet to Manchuria and the Russo-Japanese War, which allows me to tap in to much of Chinese collection and other weird models from the Water Margin. 

The Northstar Russian faction are great sculpts, many of them are generic in overcoats and soft caps, or civilian types so swapping out a couple of figures for the Tsuba castings and the we jump forwards 80 years.

They should be fun to play, Yori who can turn into a Werebear, an old woman who is an supernatural investigator and a priest as a champion of the faith, together with a couple of squaddies the equivalent of red skirts in Star Trek.

 

The idea for Manchuria allows me to field this Russian faction, but also a Japanese faction including monks or Chinese Honghuzi who fought a guerrilla war against the Russian occupation and regularly attacked the Chinese Railway line between Harbin and Vladivostok acting in support of the Japanese.

All set for the first solo outing.

A Russian patrol goes out in search of an earlier party who has gone missing with valuable orders for the front line. As night falls and the full moon rises they hear a blood curdling howl. 

The team stumble into a clearing where they find human remains but their investigation is interrupted by movement on all sides.

This should be fun......

Second Schleswig War 1864 - A cold front opens up

Wow these look huge compared to the 6mm from Baccus over the past 3 months.

A good friend of mine has been quietly building up his forces for the Dano-Prussian War of 1864, an interesting affair which takes place as the Prussians start to flex their muscle and a precursor to what was to occur in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870

The Danes had it tough fighting a largely defensive war against the armies of Prussia and Austrian. Let's see if history can be changed...

Cracking castings from Northstar and a great paint job which really captures the period and the fighting which took place in February in the frozen conditions.

We gave Eagles of Empire Miniatures rules a run through, designed for the Franco Prussian War, they had some interesting mechanisms where you receive points for capturing objectives, these points can be spent on reinforcements, unit characteristics or victory points. (It's the first to 18 points in the game).

Some nice ideas, but some tweaks maybe to balance the stoic Danes and the nibble Prussians and their new military doctrine.

Sherden Guards - Northstar - Infamy Infamy - Kings of Bronze.

The last of the North Star Order is complete. I had a loose blister pack of Sherden Guards hanging around from last year and the latest order brings the unit up to 10 Elite fighters ready to enter the fray.

Notorious pirates who raided the Nile Delta, their warriors wore horned helmets with boar tusks and carried long slashing swords and bucklers covered in bosses. Ramesses II captured some of these raiders and was so impressed by their ferocity recruited them as a royal bodyguard and let them keep their traditional equipment, but with the addition of Egyptian armour.

Great figures and have a far more imposing feel to them than the Warlord or Foundry offerings. Within Infamy Infamy, I will be classing them as Barbarians so the ability to amass fervour, something new for the Hittites to think about.

Next up the Pony Wars 6mm project finally makes it to the paint table. It might need a few sessions to get my eye in so will probably start with something simple rather than some of the Indians with there warpaint and bonnets.

New Kingdom Egyptian Infantry and yet more Shock Markers

Projects are coming in think and fast lately.... with a wish list of games stretching into several weeks.

Anyhow before I get too distracted, a couple of extra's for the Kings of Bronze Project and some North Star Egyptians who are now back in stock... The excuse was to make up the postage for the recent Stargrave purchase.

Lovely figures rather more muscular than their Warlord counterparts. The Officer and Command group are great with some real dynamic poses.

Meanwhile I had a bunch of loose rocks which were not getting used so decided to add them on to circular bases and create some additional shock markers, they also use up some of the spare shields that were left in the original blister packs. 

Twelve of these should be enough for a standard game, recording shock and kills for both sides.

Next up the Sherden Guard finally make an appearance.

Sea People - Lucid Eye & North Star.

Another unit rolls off the paint table this team a slight distraction in the form of Sea People, I originally was given a pack of Northstar's castings as a Christmas present, only being 4 figures that lay in the draw of shame until now. Having seen Lucid Eye's latest release I thought I could round them up as a unit and have them as mercenaries on either side of Hittites or New Kingdom Egyptian forces. Besides they add a flash of colour to the table.

The peoples of the Mediterranean Islands were known to the Egyptians as the Sea Peoples. They included the Lukka, Teresh and Sherden.

They were armed with long bronze slashing swords and wore various kinds of helmets, sometimes decorated with boar horns. Some of the tribes even wore bronze body armour. A huge horde migrated by land and sea attacking Hittite and Egyptian settlements. The Egyptians defeated them and captured many prisoners many serving in the Pharaoh's army.

The two ranges combine well in style and size, the Lucid Eye range contain a number of female fighters, I have no idea if they genuinely fought in battle but they are hardly noticeable within the unit.

The leader is a serious piece of metal a true Big Man.... Probably more like 32mm but looks great on the table.

Next up something a little more modern.

Dispatches from the front X

This week seems to have dragged a little.

Is it the weather, the end of the Diplomacy Campaign or the need to kick off a new project.

The Wyvern Diplomacy Campaign has come to and end, we called it a day when, it came down to myself as Turkey and the Germans. No one wanted to watch two of us battle it out for another couple of years.

A great way to spend the lock down evenings pondering moves and alliances. Well played by everybody and we still left as friends. Such a fun game that has stood the test of time.

Coming soon is the latest release from the Too Fat Lardies and Infamy Infamy.

Designed for gaming warfare in Gaul and Ancient Britain. 

Like many of my projects I wanted to do something slightly different, whilst Roman legions would be good others in the club already have them covered and I would need extra terrain, so with plenty of desert terrain time to roll out the Hittites and Egyptians.

For several months I have been building up the forces storing them up for the launch.

I have started the prep but have a couple more projects to finish before I start them in earnest perfect timing as the rules are due to land at the end of June.

In preparation for the Kings of Bronze Project I took the opportunity to replenish some of the paints, despite having many of these already I still get strangely excited by new paints.

The Foundry paints do last over the years where as the likes of Games Workshop tend to harden as air gets into the newer designed pots.

I have long been a fan of Army Painter's soft tone it gives depth to my painting efforts and covers up some of those minor mistakes but with much of the New Kingdom Egyptians being in white I thought I would give their Flesh wash a try, it looks a little softer and paler and will be perhaps better suited to the whites and lighted colours more prevalent in the Egyptian army.

It looks like the Wyvern Club House will be open in September subject of course to social distancing, bring your own dice and figures and make your own tea :-)

It would be great to have these ready for the club relaunch.

A couple of months to finish a couple of projects and get these under way.

Haitian Shock Markers and other ramblings....

A couple of items that have been in the queue for quite a while.

First up Haitian Regular shock markers, as the games have got slightly larger the need for more shock makers has reared it's head, these started out as British Militia from Trent Miniatures, but paint up reasonably well for the Haitian loyalists.

I have opted for two dice spaces to try and reduce the number of counters on the table.

They still need some static grass, something for Warfare tomorrow.

Next up a Warning Beacon from the Too Fat Lardies it fits nicely into the campaign and can serve as a jump off point or simply table clutter. 

The cage needed a repaint as in a moment of madness I painted it as if made of wood, that would not have lasted long once it was alight.

I used real twigs which did not look right so resorted to painting them, how mad is that.

The Insurgents below show the size comparison.

It's the annual trip to Warfare tomorrow as the Wyvern's lend a hand to Paul at Kallista with the Battle of Mohi. Another Hungarian adventure as the Mongols look to take on the might of King Bela IV and his heavy cavalry... More on this in future posts.

Reading is always a very relaxed affair, plenty of room to get around the table and the ability to wander off and make those purchases that you convinced yourself you did not need in the morning but felt the need to buy at 3.00pm

Meanwhile I have decided to have a clear out in the man cave and off load some of the periods that have had little game time over the past couple of years. I have been reasonably focused of late trying to expand existing projects or merging games e.g. V in Africa or Modern Russian - Sci-Fi.

The Spanish Civil War Collection is one of those that has lacked game time and the urge to expand the numbers to a second faction. A shame really as they are probably one of the best paint jobs and include a mix of Empress, Rif Raf and NorthStar, with unique head swaps.

If you can give them a home they are on E-bay now see the link below.

Spanish Civil War - Chain of Command