2mm Hundred Years War Base Painting Technique

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I was asked to explain how I go about painting my 2mm Hundred Years War bases, so here is the sequence of paint steps starting with the bases undercoated in Halfords Ultra Matt Camo Brown and finishing with a dry brush of very old Humbrol Lime Green. The first two or three steps are wet brushed, the rest either dry brushed or washed, followed by a coat of spray matt varnish to seal it all in. After painting the figures, over a matt black undercoat, I also then add a brush coat of gloss varnish if they are wearing armour, otherwise they lose a bit of shine.

Wargaming Campaigns

A long ferry crossing today so a cheeky download for 99p to pass the time on the journey over to France. I'm a big fan of campaigns and have run several at the local club over the years. I've never run a map based campaign, however, and really fancy having a go at a solo effort, perhaps for the One Hour Wargames Hundred Years War project or perhaps the dormant 2mm English Civil War project that I fiddled about with a couple of years ago?

2mm HYW English Men at Arms

A bit rushed today but here's the second base for the 2mm Anglo-Breton army, consisting of Men at Arms on foot. I went for a quick splash and dash approach with these but they still came out looking okay I think. Nothing flashy, but they'll do the job. I only have a few days left before I'm away on holiday but I'll aim to get another two or three if these bases finished if I can before we head off to France. 

2mm HYW French for One Hour Wargames

With the Anglo-Breton army for the early Hundred Years War well underway, it's now time to think about basing up the opposition, which will be a Franco-Breton army for the Breton War of Succession. I already have a base of mounted men at arms and will add a second base to fill out the ranks of the French nobility, although they are more likely to be on foot after the disaster at Crecy.

This leaves me with the foot men at arms, which will be the bulk of the army and so will take up three or four bases, which I'll need for some of the early battles. As well as this, I'll put together a couple of bases of crossbowmen for missile support and two or three bases of spearmen to bulk out the army. I was also thinking of a base of 'skirmishers' representing bidowers, bidets or similar but I think I'll save those for later.

2mm HYW Anglo-Breton Army Base Painting Progress

The bases have now been completed on the 2mm Hundred Years War Anglo-Breton army, so that they match the test base of longbowmen that I painted last week. I now have to block in the figures with matt black before I can start painting them. The plan is to do them all in one go rather than one base at a time, which will be quite laborious but much more efficient. I'm quite looking forward to painting the men at arms, both mounted and on foot, as they'll add a splash of colour to the force.

2mm HYW Anglo Breton Army Base Painting

It's been a busy start. to the week but I've made a start on the bases of the 2mm Anglo Breton army for my One Hour Wargame HYW project. These turned out better than the test base I painted last week, mainly due to a bit more PVA when I was adding the basing sand, as well as letting them dry out properly after the undercoat and basecoat were applied. Next up will be the grass shades, with  a bit of stippling, dry brushing and ink washing to complete the base painting. I might also start on basing up the Franco-Breton army now that the extra Antonine Miniatures bits have arrived from Warbases.

Pointy Sticks and Shifty Shields

In the One Hour Wargames medieval rules, archers get a +2 bonus for shooting but a -2 penalty in combat, reflecting their firepower but also their vulnerability. In order to factor in the use of defensive stakes and pavises in the Hundred Years War, I've decided to add a couple of rule tweaks.

Longbows

Longbow units may deploy defensive stakes but must be stationary and not shoot for one turn to do so. This will cancel out the -2 penalty in combat but only against mounted opponents. After they are deployed, the unit may not 'up sticks' and carry them off to redeploy somewhere else 

Crossbows

Crossbow units may deploy pavises but will also have to be stationary to do so and may not shoot in the process of deployment. This will count as cover, having any hits, but only against missile fire. Unlike longbow units, the pavises may be 'unstuck' and carried away but the unit will have to be stationary and not shoot for an entire turn to do so.

I think this will work without unbalancing the system but also accurately reflect how things were done in the Hundred Years War. I'm also going to modify the range of missile weapons, with longbows shooting out to 12 inches and crossbow range reduced to 9 inches, which seems a bit more realistic.

The Battle of Mauron in 2mm

I've been looking for a suitable historical scenario to try out the One Hour Wargame medieval rules using my 2mm Hundred Years War armies. This small battle was fought very near to my French in laws, who live ten minutes down the road, so it's an obvious choice. In fact, I've actually driven right through it, inbetween the lines of the French and English armies, without actually realising it was there!

The forces on both sides were limited to a few thousand, with dismounted men at arms and longbows for the Anglo-Breton defenders, while the Franco-Breton force consisted of men at arms on foot, backed up by mounted men at arms on the left flank. Its likely that the French also fielded spearmen to back up the men at arms, as the army outnumbered the defenders three to one. 

I'm considering a four unit army for the Anglo-Breton contingent, consisting of two men at arms and two longbow units, with a six unit army for the Franco-Bretons, probably consisting of three men at arms on foot, two spear units and one mounted men at arms. This may change but I think will reflect the disparity in numbers on the two sides and still give the Anglo-Bretons a fighting chance. 

The English are currently on the workbench and I have already glued together three units for the French, so I'm just waiting for a resupply of Antonine Miniatures to get that sorted. The terrain will be a quick fix using my Hexon tiles but I'll leave the town of Mauron itself off the set up to avoid having to model it, especially as it didn't actually play a role in the battle.

You can read about the background to this clash and the battle itself here:

https://www.britishbattles.com/one-hundred-years-war/battle-of-mauron/

2mm HYW Longbows Test Base Finished

It's not going to win any prizes but the test base of longbowmen is finished, taking less time than I thought and looking good enough for wargaming purposes. These are the core of the Anglo Breton army but fairly dull to look at, given their utilitarian clothing and equipment, with no colourful liveries or banners to brighten them up. I have three more bases of these to paint, as well as two men at arms on foot, so will get started as soon as I've textured the bases.

2mm HYW Test Base Painting

A bit of trial and error base painting this evening, using a range of paint shades and washes that I've used before on my 2mm ECW units. I'm not completely happy with the end result but it's not too bad and will do the trick, at least for this project. The next step is to block in the figures in matt black as a basecoat for painting at the weekend.

2mm HYW Longbowmen Test Base

Fiddling about with a test base for the 2mm early HYW Anglo-Breton Army to see how I can achieve a realistic yet straightforward result. The base was given a coat of fine sand then spray undercoated with Halfords Ultra Matt Camo Brown. After this I wet brushed some very cheap and very old Earth Brown acrylic artist paint, as a basecoat, followed by a heavy dry brush in Vallejo USA Tan Earth. 

The question now is do I use fine flock to cover the whole base, leaving a few earthy patches, or do I use another wet brush / dry brush approach for the grass? In the past I've just used flock patches for my Strength and Honour bases but they were for Parthia and similar arid locations, so probably not a good option, considering the HYW project will focus on an often soggy Brittany.

I'm going to try a three stage wet brush and dry brush in Vallejo green colours, which I've tried out on my 2mm ECW units before, with a final wash of Citadel Athonian Camo Shade for definition. If this looks okay, I will then add a few patches of light grass flock to represent bushes, brambles and other foliage, just to give the whole thing a more organic look. 

If it looks rubbish...I'll have to try Plan B!

2mm HYW English / Anglo-Breton Army c1350

A slight change of plan for the next couple of weeks, as I put the Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs army to one side and paint up this lot. Here we have an early Hundred Years War or War of Breton Succession army, using the Antonine Miniatures Strength and Honour 2mm range. 

At the front there's a single unit of mounted men at arms, with two dismounted men at arms units to the immediate left. At the back left are two units of spearmen, Welsh or otherwise, while on the right are four units of longbowmen in wedge formation. 

I'd add another unit of dismounted men at arms but I've run out of the bits I need for that, with an order placed today for some additional pieces to use for the French - Breton side. I've already put together a base of mounted knights for them but need more pieces to do the crossbows, spearmen and so on.

The rules for this are a bit sketchy to say the least, but I'll start off with Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, albeit tweaked to add a bit more detail or even mashed together with his Ancient and Medieval rules? I might even write my own rules, who knows? The plan is to use my neglected collection of Hexon terrain as a quick fix, so that I can try out the rules for some solo wargaming as soon as possible.

Lion Rampant Longbows Blocking In

I've completed most of the blocking in on the Perry Miniatures longbowmen, with just the leather bits, arrow sheafs and longbows to do. They look a bit odd in terms of colours but this is the basecoat and will be followed by one or two lighter shades, using my very old but still serviceable Foundry triad pots. I'm hoping things will speed up a bit after the blocking in is completed, but I'm a very slow painter, especially in 28mm having not painted anything this big for years!

Longbows in One Hour Medieval Wargames

In the One Hour Wargames rules, there are four unit types including Knights, Men at Arms, Archers and Levy. The Archers are actually crossbow equipped, gaining a +2 for missile fire but a -2 modifier for hand to hand combat. I could use this profile for English longbows, which would be a simple way to incorporate them in the system, but it doesn't seem quite right to treat crossbows and longbows as exactly the same weapon type?

Instead, I'm thinking of using the same profile but giving the longbow units an additional casualty modifier against mounted opponents, representing the use of defensive stakes - this would half the number of hits inflicted by cavalry against the longbow unit. The unit would have to be stationary to benefit from this bonus and so could not have moved in the previous turn to be eligible.

The other option is to extend the range of longbows to 18" but then remove the +2 modifier for missile fire, reflecting the lesser stopping power of longbows compared to crossbows and their greater effective range. I would also incorporate the casualty modifier for defensive stakes with this to create a bespoke option, the two things giving longbows a distinctive tactical profile.

Thoughts? 

Incidentally, I'm also thinking of ways to represent bills and bows as unit types for the Wars of the Roses period, but that's another story....

2mm One Hour Wargames Early Hundred Years War

Crecy, Poitiers...

Longbowmen 

Knights / Mounted Men at Arms

Welsh Spearmen or French Levy

Genoese Crossbowmen with Pavises

 Men at Arms

The usual Sunday morning diversions, this time playing around with some Antonine Miniatures 2mm blocks in an attempt to create units for the early Hundred Years War, mid to late Fourteenth Century or so. I've been thinking about this for quite a while and I think it would work well with the One Hour Wargames rules, with some tweaks to the unit profiles to incorporate longbows alongside the existing crossbow armed archers. 

So, here we have a selection of units including the aforementioned longbows, crossbows, men at arms, mounted men at arms / knights and a spearman unit in case the Welsh are involved. The bases are 120mm x 40mm x 3mm, which just happened to be in the spare bases box, for some long forgotten purpose that now eludes me. I'd be interested to know what you think about this idea, as it's not really realistic in historical terms but fits the rules quite well, give or take the tweaks I've mentioned.

Parabellum Miniatures Trebuchet

This rather impressive 28mm 3D printed trebuchet arrived in the post today from Parabellum Miniatures, a company that I haven't ordered from before but will be doing so again, based on the quality of their models. I've dry fitted it together to show what it looks like in comparison with a Perry Miniatures figure, and I think it looks very good indeed. You can also assemble it as a launching model, with parts supplied in he kit for the sling and trough, but I'm going to build mine loaded and ready to go. The range also includes bombards and siege equipment, which allows you to assemble a full on siege line, if you wanted to have that as a theme for your scenarios. Excellent!

Mounted Longbowmen for Lion Rampant

I'm thinking about adding another unit to the plastic traffic jam of Lion Rampant figures that is currently sitting on my painting table. This would either be a second unit of twelve longbowmen or a unit of six mounted archers, rated as heavy cavalry in the rule book. I have a Perry Miniatures boxed set of mounted knights which includes two figures in gambeson per sprue, which will give me enough for a unit of six, especially if I use spare arms from the English and French infantry sets for added variety. I'll have a look at gluing something together at the weekend, while cracking on with painting the pedestrian equivalents.

One Hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargaming

I was having a chat about medieval wargaming projects at the club last night, primarily Lion Rampant and The Barons' War, when this set of simple, diceless skirmish rules popped up in the conversation. When I got back home for my curry and glass of plonk, I dug out my own copy and had another read through. As a fall back option for small skirmishes, patrols and raids in the Hundred Years War, or even in the Anglo Saxon era, these look really promising. I particularly like the diceless, card based activation and combat system, which is a bit different and offers a lot of player interaction. In the meantime, it's back to the work bench and on to the blocking in on the first unit of longbowmen!

Never Mind the Billhooks Delux

Fairly early on, when planning the medieval projects for this year, I dismissed Never Mind the Billhooks as being way too much work, requiring upwards of about 100 figures for each army. I was reading the rules for painting advice today and thought it might actually be a long term goal to assemble an English army for the Hundred Years War, after building a core from my Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs! retinue. It's something to aspire to at least but I doubt I'll get there until much later in the process, if at all?!