DBA Special: infernal machines (Leonardo)

 

So this is an alternative baggage element for my Condotta Italians (specifically, it would be Milanese) and represents one of Leonardo's military devices.  There is, of course, no evidence that the machine was ever built*.

The plans show what look like cranks driving gears which directly turn the wheels.  Clearly it would have needed an engine of some sort to be viable.  I have shown a prototype machine being towed to the battlefield by horsepower.

 

(Leonardo warmachines ... a scythed chariot and a mobile gun battery complete with drive arrangement)

The model itself is resin, by Alternative Armies - and I got one for Christmas.  You could argue that it is 'Artillery' although it is a bit big for a DB Art base (it is 50mm across, so overhangs the standard base used with 15mm figures) ... so I have magnabased it, and provided alternative bases: a camp, which I would imagine would be its normal use; and a square sabot, which could see it as Art or, conceivably, WWg (as Leonardo clearly meant it to 'move and shoot').

 

(the warmachine's options: camp base or Art/WWg base)

 

Clearly, the idea is that the camp shows part of the army rear area - injured soldiers are retreating from the battle, the great inventor is bringing up his wonder weapon to save the day.  Perhaps.  Or maybe this is all just made up.

 

The model also incorporates trial #2 of using flats scenery (in this case the fir trees) to create a bit of extra background without using up much in the way of depth.  The trees are from Berliner Zinnfiguren.

 

Detail

 

 

(Milanese DBA camp: in the rear, with the gear!)

 

Although it overhangs more than a little, crammed in with some contemporary soldiers (from my Yorksts) it does almost fit ...

 

(15mm DBA: featuring Leonardo's warmachine by Alternative Armies)

 

Flat scenery experiment #1 was, of course, the 'Hunting in the Delta' Egyptian baggage. 

 

(Hunting in the Delta: mixed flats and 15mm 3D figures)

I recently added the 2D swan to the mix of birds, populating the scene.

 

(with the Camp Follower removed: a view of the flora and fauna)

 

Also receiving its finishing touches, the Sea People's Ship has been tidied up and photographed for the Camps and Baggage page.

 

 

(Shows North's 15mm Sea Peoples Ship camp for DBA: ship (adapted) by Essex, figures Essex and Chariot) 

 

(details of the Sea Peoples Ship DBA camp)

 

(Unloading: figures by Essex and Falcon)

 

 

(Wading ashore)

All three camps are newly added to the Camps and Baggage page.  There are now over 30 camp vignettes featured, with some 70 photos - hopefully to both entertain and inspire.  Feedback always appreciated!

 

 

 

* of course, that is us being sensible: in some earlier periods or sphere's, evidence in this sort of detail would seem quite compelling (and things have ended up on army lists with much less to support them!)

DBA Special: IV/61 Italian Condotta 1320 - 1515

 

This an extract from my later Florentine army that has seen service in a number of formats including DBA ... There are a number of manufacturers represented but it wouldn't be quite what it is without a wonderul selection of Mirliton knights and personalities.

 

The army is led by English knight and celebrated condottiere, Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni L'Acuto), who was employed by a number of cities in his illustrious Italian career - this army is Florentine, where he ended his career (and where he is celebrated in a frescoed monument on the walls of the duomo) ...

 

(Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello and by Mirliton and me)

The core of the army are the contracted men-at-arms:

 

(15mm figures by Essex, Mirliton and Donnington New Era)

The infantry is quite traditional - here arrayed beside the Florentine carroccio (which would have been rarely seen by this period but which makes a decorative centrepiece) ...

 

 

(Mirliton, Essex, Peter Pig, Minifig and Roundway figures behind Essex pavises)

 

 

 

The camp:

 

(the Florentine carroccio ... inset ... the wagon as it appeared in 1260 at Montaperti)

20th October, Portsmouth

2013 English DBA Open

The October English Open is both the National event and the end of the UK DBA League season.  Both events are sponsored by the Society of Ancients, and I was invited to go down and present trophies.

(Trophy haul: the mock reliefs are for the English Open; the bespoke Roman shield awards are for the UK League)

As usual, I was tempted to get a few games myself ... and with Montaperti coming up for the BattleDay next year, I chose to take some Italian Condottiere ... OK, yes, dated to a period after the famous battle but my soldiers are Florentine and a dressed in regalia appropriate to the battle.

(Medieval Florentines mixing Mirliton, Gladiator, Essex, Peter Pig - to name but a few in the mix)

There were quite a few elephants around so I probably was fortunate to bookend my day with outings against Lindon P's Hittites (opening pool game and Plate final) - out of period, but a knight army vs a knight army.

So I didn't manage the knock-out phase of the Open but did take the final of the Plate competition to 4:4 (just failed to kill the all important next element despite having a 3:1 shot at a 'quick kill' combat.  But given my many lucky episodes during the day, that was nothing to  moan about!).

(Florentines vs Hittites on a bare Italian heath ... )

A full day of DBA wargaming (once I'd got going), and some entertaining moments as ever.   I was sufficiently engaged that I have to rely on Martin Smith to help with the eye-candy ...

(a selection of pictures from Martin's collection: gets bigger if you click it)

(Graeco-Indians)

(Vedic Indian archers close up)

A great selection ... if you are members of the DBA Yahoo Group, you can see the Smith collection in the photos section there.

I will post up the full results, both for the Open and the UK League  ... but after the pool games and semis, the Open final was played between Myers and Smith, leader and second place in the League standings.  

By this time Martyn M was too far ahead in the League but Martin S was able to ensure the 'Winners' trophies would be shared out by winning the last game.

(English DBA Open sponsored by the Society of Ancients: final)

So, congratulations ... English DBA Open Champion Martin Smith; SoA UK DBA League Champion Martyn Myers.

                           

(some of the happy winners at the English DBA Open)

You can check the League standings on the UK DBA League page.  I will publicise the full results when I have them avaiable.

Thanks to PAWS for hosting the event with their customary efficiency and enthusiasm.

Thanks to everyone who played in the League events in the 2012/13 Season.

Thanks to Martin Smith for the additional photos.

(bespoke trophies awarded for the Society of Ancients UK DBA League)

18th and 19th May, Sheffield

TRIPLES 2013

I seemed to be busy the whole time at Triples this year.   We had played both days last year, and had supporting manpower this year as well.   Tag-teaming the DBA meant I only played two games on Saturday (although FoG V2 did wipe out most of Sunday I suppose)

As well as great wargames show with every sort of game and all the big historical wargames traders, Triples, these days, is positively bursting with opportunities to play ancient and medieval wargames in low impact friendly competition. 

The Society of Ancients Northern DBA Cup

The Northern Cup is sponsored by the Society of Ancients and is part of the SoA UK DBA League.

Tony and Paul from Lincoln organise it all and provide armies and terrain boards for a series of loosely historical scenarios.   This year had a Chinese theme.   Something I know nothing about.

(Game one: Early Northern Barbarian - me, near us - vs Shang Chinese)

Some of the match-ups left me scratching my head, and I confess I struggled with the military challenges of unfamiliar troops fighting across terrain not usually found in the middle of my battlefields.  

That is good in a number of ways ... but I didn't win any games for the SoA team (sorry, Chris)

The scenarios were  I/10 Melukhkhan vs I/23a Vedic Indian; I/13b Shang Chinese vs I/14a Early Northern Barbarian; I/32c Western Chou vs I/43a Early Hu; III/9 Burmese vs I/49d Early Vietnamese; II/4b Yeuh Chinese vs II/4a Ch'in Chinese; III/20a Sui Chinese vs III/20b Early Tang Chinese; III/61 Sung Chinese vs III/54 Early Samurai; IV/15 Qara Khitan vs IV/35 Mongol Conquest ...

 

(a very popular Chinese scenario)

The battlefields are all preset, the attacker and defender are specified and the nature of the river is already defined (that river is a 'delaying river', so chops the battlefield in two) ...

I would normally have taken more photographs to add to the SoA/DBA gallery, but although I did like the look of the Samurai (and have bought a book by Stephen Turnbull), in general I have no affinity for this history and can't really tell which army is which :(

(typically smart presentation: III/54 Early Samurai)

(five games produced yet another new winner)

Congratulations to Mark Johnson (1st), Sandy Carruthers (2nd), and Tom Whitehead and Graham Fordham (tied in 3rd).

The gathered players expressed their thanks to the Society for its support, to the hosting show, and to Paul and Tony for putting it all together.

Impetus

My 'out and about' sequence this week is just some shots of the Impetus tables ...

Unfortunately I was unable to photograph more of the Impetus event as due to some oversight somewhere, most of the games were being played on bare tabletops.  That was a pity as this is an interesting game, and some of the armies were appealingly presented.

There was also a WRG 6th edition event, but they kept themselves very much to themselves for some reason.   A testimony to durability, however.  What a lot of choices we have these days.

Sunday: the Northern Doubles League

(the well-supported Sheffield round of this evergreen competition)

This is Colin and Geoff's last year running the series so I had hoped to play more often. 

  

There is a round at the Royal Armouries in Leeds which would be great were it not for COW being the same weekend (but those of you not going to Knuston Hall ought to make a note in your diaries).

I was very pleased Chris agreed to using my Hawkwood Condotta Italian - it is a favourite army and needs to come out every year.  

I had hoped that it might fair better under FoG V2 with the marginal boost to rear rank shooting at impact (no minus poa now for the rear rank archers/crossbowmen) - actually, I think the army loses much more from the neutering of skirmish troops than it gains from the impact bonus ... so it remains more a decorative than a competitive army.

On this occasion we got no historical match ups so our knights fought gamely against Palestinian Insurgents - and some Greeks from the Middle East who predominantly fought with what, for us, would have been thought Swiss equipment.  Seleucid and Jewish Revolt, to be specific.

Although I don't really see the point of mismatched games like these, they were very amiable and tense, and at time I almost forgot it wasn't history!  

Unfortunately neither game got to a conclusion.

More thoughts on V2 FoG

Our first 8 Doubles games produced just 1 decisive outcome and sadly a whole day's wargaming did not add to that total.   Despite rattling through as many turns as we could in a losing second game, it still did not reach a natural result within the 3.5 hours.  The earlier game was a 10:10 draw with only 2 units broken on each side (of the 30 or so on the table).  V2 continues to disappoint in this respect and I am losing interest I think.

NDBML page

******

With the two full length games of FoG on Sunday, I was not able to get back into the main show and only had lunchtime with the Bosworth game.   Overall, I felt I missed out a bit (as the slideshow demonstrates).  Fortunately there are many good blogs with pictures of the main areas.  However, I'm not sure I would do Triples this way again.

After a weekend off, it is Partizan and we can devote ourselves fully to the show, the visitors and to the Bosworth project.  

24th - 25th March, Ascot

The BHGS Challenge

The BHGS Challenge is an event not often found on my blog - it usually clashes with Salute, and anyway, it is one of those competitions I'd decided to give a miss.

It is singles ... it doesn't offer lighter games like Armati, Impetus or DBA ... it has the nightmare 3 back-to-back games on the Saturday ... it is a touch rough and ready ... and the catering is not what it could be.

Still, never say never - and some of the locals were all for going.

As a spur to tidying up the last of the groundwork (all the bases now have their flowers and shrubs ...) I rejigged the good looking if underpowered Italian Condotta.

(Hawkwood's Florentines arrayed before the earlier English)

And splendid they looked.

And I got 5 very pleasant games - and despite being an open competition, the c.1400 AD Florentines drew a pretty reasonable series of opponents - 3 virtually contemporary, the other 2 western medieval at least.
(packed in, shoulder-to-shoulder, to fend off the wily Ottomans)

Florence is a city of fashion and culture - and the name means city of flowers.

After the Peace of Bretigny in 1360, the English Captain, Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni L'Acuto) plied his trade in Italy, ending his career as Captain General of the city of Florence. The football team is known as the vilolets.

Hawkwood is celebrated in mural tomb by Paolo Uccello in Florence Cathederal, an icon of the Italian Renaissance.

(a collage of pictures from the Italians' weekend at the BHGS Challenge)

And, aside from the last game (in which I got 'Sunday afternoon-ish' against a small but tough Free Company), the army performed well enough - pushing, even, towards ultimate victory.

Plantagenet English, Ottoman Turk, Later Sicilian, Santa Hermandad Nuevo Castilian and Free Company. Not a bad mix. A couple of 'tigers', a couple of my favourites and an oddball.

(Chinese, Britons, Middle Plantagenets and Ghaznevids against more Chinese)

The biggest event was, as ever, the 15mm Field of Glory (Ancient and Medieval) ... FoG-AM.* I was very impressed by the variety of armies ... Ancient British and Waring States Chinese in there - mixed up with the Dominates, Turks and Hungarians.

There was also Flames of War, DBMM, FoG-R and FoG-AM 25mm.

In the end, I still don't really like the formula. FoG 800 point games take too long - as a rarity, even all 5 (yes, all 5) of my games were drawn.

Appropriate, you might think, for Hawkwood's mercenaries at work you might think ... but I like to finish my games off within the time limit, and then chat and put away over a leisurely drink.

(DBMM)

Doubles and bigger armies seems to cure a lot of the problem - and I'm happy enough with two long games per day. Or three shorter ones (like Armati, say) ...

(FoG-AM 25mm)

The top places were ...

FOG: AM 15mm ... 1. Graham Evans 94 points; 2. Ian Stewart 81 points; 3. Dave Handley 76 points;

FOG: AM 25mm ... 1. Richard Collins 95 points; 2. Richard Jeffrey-Cook 83 points; 3. Simon Elliot 79 points;

DBMM ... 1. Greg Mann 91 points; 2. Mike Bennett 89 points; 3. Jer Morgan 84 points;

Top Junior ... Byron Emsen 71 points

(RJ-C presents Society awards. Everyone got a complimentary packet from Fluttering Flags too: nice one, Graham)

Honorary Treasurer Richard Jeffrey-Cook presented prizes on behalf of the Society of Ancients.

FOG: AM SoA Annual Champion 2011 ... Dave Handley;

DBMM SoA Annual Champion 2011 ... Tim Child

FOG Rennaissance SoA Annual Champion 2011 ... Alisdair Harley

See the BHGS website (and click the e.g. 'Challenge' ... and 'past results' navigations) for full details.

Back next year? Well, stranger things have happened. But these studious and indecisive tournament singles games are not really what I am looking for in a weekend of wargaming.

* 32 FoG-AM 15mm (+ 12 in 25mm); 28 Flames of War; 25 DBMM; 16 FoG-R. Everything 15mm except the FoG 25s of course.