100K Prize Draw - The Day 3 Winner

OK folks, you can stop sending Seb bribing, blackmailing, threatening, begging and bugging messages. He decided to do a random selection from among the many entrants for the Baccus gift voucher, so the lucky winner is:


Hetairoi Wargames

Please email me via the Kontactr link and I will get the electronic voucher sent to you.



And now for the Day 3 Prize, this lovely pack of 28mm plastic Royalist Foot from Warlord Games:

Again, lots of interest in this prize with 198 entries from 36 individuals (one entrant even went so far as to build up 39 entries!)

And the winner is:

Alastair

Congrats to both of you and I hope you enjoy your prizes.

100k Prize Draw - Day 3

Prize Draw Day 1

Prize Draw Day 2


The response so far has been amazing. For the Day 1 draw there are 191 entries when bonuses for pimpage and poetry are taken into account.


So, onto Day 3 and I have another fabulous prize for someone.

Yes, some more Warlord Games plastics, this time from their Pike & Shotte range.




OK, the rulesy-stuff:

1. You must be a public follower of this blog
2. Each draw will be open for 7 days and then the winner will be chosen at random from all entries
3. Every comment on the post will count as 1 entry in the draw (eg 5 comments = 5 entries)
4. Linking to the draw on your own blog will earn you an extra 5 entries for the prize in question
5. You can transfer your prize to someone else if you wish

Update

A week since my last post, so about time I posted an update, if only to let you know I'm still alive!


Analogue Painting Challenge

Curt has asked all 47 participants to set themselves a target for how many points they want to get painted. This was quite tough for me to determine - having increased my hours at work (finally back to full time), I obviously don't have as much time for painting as I did earlier in the year and on workday evenings I'm usually too tired to want to paint - hopefully this will improve once my body (and brain) have had a chance to get used to working full time again.

So, what painting do I think is manageable? I reckon that I should be able to paint (in 15mm) 24 foot or 12 mounted a week if I apply myself to the job. So, that's 48 points per week. Over 13 weeks that would be 624 points. As I want my target to be a bit of a stretch, adding 25% would give 780 points, which rounds up nicely to 800 points.


My FoG:R Game on Thursday

My New Model Army was matched  against Brian's Confederate Irish army. Unfortunately due to a combination of really bad terrain placement (I'd lost the initiative and Brian had chosen "Hilly" as the terrain type) with two steep hills in my centre, really bad dice at crucial moments and me bottling it when I should have charged my horse into his right flank I ended up losing 25-0.

I did start taking photos but then got so caught up in trying to work out how to extricate my cavalry from the noose that was closing in on them and how to get my foot through the gaps between the hills that I forgot to take any more. I'll post a few on Tuesday if I remember.

I'm now hoping to redeem myself with a massive win against Simon's 1642 Royalists tomorrow night.


Painting

30YW Cuirassiers - I've finished the paining, done the Klear/ink coat, based them and dry-brushed the basing gunk. I'm hoping to do the matt varnish spray tomorrow morning (otherwise I'll do it on Tuesday) then I'll be able to do the tufting and flocking one evening this week.

30YW artillery - I started painting the guns a few weeks ago, then put them to one side. I've now finished the guns and have nearly finished painting the crews and bits.

30YW Foot - I've also got quite a bit of the painting done on the extra pikemen and musketeers for my foot regiments to upgrade all of them to 9-base late tercios.

If I'm lucky, the artillery and foot should be finished next weekend and then I can start on my "Croats" which will be my first entry in the Challenge.

I'm not sure what I'll paint after the Croats. I'll probably do the remaining 30YW figures that are in my leadpile.


50,000 Page Views!!

Last but not least, last weekend I reached the 50k milestone. If I'd reached that number a few weeks earlier I might have done a prize draw to celebrate but as my blog's first birthday is only a couple of weeks away, I decided to wait for that.

3rd Analogue Painting Challenge; A (Brief) Game Report; Painting Update

Last year, I followed the progress of some of the painters in Curt's 2nd Analogue Painting Challenge and was impressed by the legend....wait for it....ary output of certain people who were taking part. Anyway, Curt has announced the 3rd Analogue Painting Challenge and I have opted in. I have no hopes of getting anywhere near the output levels of Kent and Ray, even if my fatigue levels improve but the challenge will (I hope) provide a spur to getting some painting done.

Unfortunately, as only historical minis are counted towards the challenge it does mean that my massive leadpile of 15mm SciFi figures will have to wait until after the challenge. I do have plenty of historical figures to paint though:

15mm
Medieval Swiss pikemen, halberdiers and command groups (depending on how things go, I may add more figures to complete the army)
30YW - 24 "Croat" light horse, 24 late war horse (Swedes?), casualty markers, 6 artillery limbers. I might add some more figures later on, eg Scottish mercenary foot

28mm
I've got plenty of 28mm plastics to assemble and paint up as well
Saxons (Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory)
Vikings (Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory)
Normans - foot and cavalry (Conquest)
Late medieval mercenary foot (Perry)

6mm
I've still got the bulk of the Baccus ACW start box to paint up. Given that next year is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg campaign, maybe it would be a good use of the time I spend on the Challenge to get enough units painted up to game some of the battles? Not to mention that the scoring system looks very skewed in favour of 6mm  with each foot figure scoring 1 point (for comparison, foot figures for 15 and 28mm score 2 and 5 points). Maybe it's to compensate for the risk of eye strain?

The entry fee for the challenge is to paint up a "47 Ronin" figure for Curt. Luckily I have some mid/late 1980s Citadel Samurai figures kicking around, so I just need to choose which one to paint up for him.



Game Report

On Monday I had my 2nd game in the club's ECW tournament, my New Model Army against Mike's Parliamentarian Northern Association. I used the same list as I used against Gordon a couple of weeks ago. Unluckily I'd forgotten to check my camera's battery and it ran out after just 1 shot:

I guessed correctly that Mike would have opted for the very shooty version of his army, so I was glad to win the initiative as it would let me see his deployment and deploy my own troops accordingly. As expected, his right wing and centre were a long line of foot, with a couple of units in reserve and dragoons covering the right flank. His left wing had his artillery, a pike and shot unit and his cavalry - 2 units of average horse and 1 unit of average cuirassiers.

I opted for what could be a risky strategy and split my forces with a left wing of infantry (left flank covered by dragoons) and a cavalry right wing with the artillery covered by "firelocks". The main reason for putting my artillery on the right was to make use of the hill down there which would allow me to fire over my own troops.

The photo was taken at the end of the 2nd turn. My battle plan was to engage and hold Mike's right wing with my foot, whilst my cavalry would engage his cavalry and then turn in on his left flank and rear.

My artillery did quite well at first and managed to break Mike's cuirassiers through base losses. My superior determined horse were then able to get into position to engage his average horse. However, Mike had moved one of them up into a position that forced me to charge his pike and shot at the same time, which would put me at a disadvantage. The impact and first melee were tied, and dragged out to the end of the game. My other superior determined horse weren't quite in range to charge at the same time, so I had to wait  2 turns before I could destroy his other horse unit, leaving me free to engage in the other melee.

Meanwhile over on my left flank, the two opposing dragoons engaged in a phoney war of threatening each other while my foot advanced to engage Mike's right wing. My superior foot succeeded in fragmenting their opponents through shooting and declared a charge - Mike failed the cohesion test to stand and the unit broke, upsetting a couple of units around them. The next unit down the line was charge by my foot and rapidly broke as well and I managed to kill one of his generals - revenge for me as on the other flank Mike had fluked a kill on my cavalry general. This disturbed Mike's right wing even more. In the pursuit phase the foot who had won their melee managed to charge into another foot unit. This was to prove disastrous for them as it left them open to a flank charge which I couldn't prevent.

Back on my right wing, my artillery couldn't engage any targets within arc as my cavalry were in the way. Stupidly I forgot for a couple of turns that I could pivot them onto a new arc. When I eventually did remember, I got in one shot against the unengaged end of Mike's foot in the melee but Mike decided to use his artillery for counter-battery fire and managed to hit with both dice (a 1 in 9 chance). If I rolled a 1 on my death dice my artillery would autobreak. Guess what I rolled - yup, a 1. Artillery gone, my first losses (apart from a general and a couple of bases) of the game.

In the cavalry fight, the SDH who had only charge cavalry won their fight and made a token effort at pursuing the routers. That was good for me as it allowed me to turn them and move them to a position where they could join in on the other melee. Things got even better as my other SDH unit broke their cavalry opponents, allowing them to spill round and concentrate their dice on the pike and shot unit, now disrupted from seeing the cavalry break.

Back on my left, Mike had managed to manoeuvre a few of his shot-only units into position to fire en masse against one of my foot units, which had already lost 2 bases from shooting. He managed to score 6 hits which meant an automatic base loss and my foot broke.

And then it was the last turn of the game. My unengaged SDH charged in on the flank of Mike's pike and shot, dropping them to fragmented. unfortunately the impact was a draw so it would all come down to the melee phase - if I could break the foot, my pursuit would take my SDH into his (undefended) artillery and I would have achieved a rout. So, the melee phase was on - Mike rolled his 3 dice, scoring no hits even with a re-roll. I rolled my 8 dice, scoring 5 hits and 3 re-rolls. The re-rolls were all hits. Automatic base loss (taking him to 4 bases) and with Mike needing to roll a 3 or more to avoid losing a 2nd base which would cause him to auto-break. He rolled a 4. Damn! Still, there was only a 1 in 6 chance of him passing his cohesion test (needing a 10, 11 or 12) - he rolled a 10! Damn and curse and damn and curse!

Oh well, it was still a convincing (13:7) win for me:
Mike's losses - 11 APs from 13 BGs
My losses - 6 APs from 11 BGs

I've got my 3rd game lined up for this Thursday against Brian's Confederate Irish. Having taken a look at his list I will probably need to revise my own army list for this game.



Painting Update

FSE Ships - no progress
Norman knight - horse finished and some work done on the rider. The technique I use for 15mm horses does seem to work for 28mm as well.
30YW cuirassiers - almost finished, just gloves and sashes to do, then Klear/ink coat, basing, matt varnish and flocking/tufting.

I should be able to get the cuirassiers done to at least the Klear/ink stage today and might do a bit of work on the Norman knight. Once they are done I'll finish the FSE ships and then it will be a case of finishing as many of the started-painting-bit-got-sidetracked figures as I can before the Analogue Painting Challenge starts on the 20th.

AAR: 1646 New Model Army vs 1650 Scots Covenanters

OK folks, a report of my first game in the club's ECW FoG:R tournament. On Thursday my 1646 New Model army were matched up against Gordon's 1650 Scots Covenanters. I'd modified my list since Monday's practice game to increase the number of units I was fielding (albeit with a reduction in the overall quality).

My force consisted of:
3 x TC
2 x 4 Superior Determined Horse
1 x 4 Average Determined Horse
1 x 6 Superior foot
3 x 6 Average foot
1 x 6 Poor foot
1 x 4 Average dragoons
1 x 4 average firelocks
1 x 2 field guns

Facing me Gordon had 2 bases of light artillery, four of heavy artillery (as 2 BGs), 2 BGs of lancers and 8 units of foot.

Having looked at the deployment and Gordon having done minimal movement told me that he was just going to sit back and play a defensive game. At first the battle was going pretty badly for me - one of the superior horse units and the average one got broken by shooting over on my left wing. However, things started to go a bit better for me after that and I had some brilliant results later on and the outcome was looking very close. In what turned out to be the final turn of the game there was a chance that we could have simultaneously routed each other. Unfortunately the dice were fickle for me and I didn't quite manage to break Gordon's army whilst one of my foot units failed it's cohesion test from shooting hits and dropped to fragmented which was enough to break me.

My deployment was somewhat better than on Monday but I really do need to work on how I bring my forces to bear as they were attacking in a somewhat piecemeal manner which allowed Gordon to get several of his battle groups shooting at isolated ones of mine.

Anyway, that's enough rhubarb from me, here are the pics:

Positions at the end of Turn 2. the long wooden sticks are "linear obstacles" (walls, hedges) - not in the most useful positions. the blank MDF square in the bottom left field is an ambush marker for my dragoons. I probably should have brought them out at the start of the battle so that I could actually get them doing something useful.

Gordon's lancers securing the hill on his left flank - watch out for these later on

Gordon measures the range and arc from his light artillery to my superior foot. Just out!

My right wing determined horse advance towards his lancers. At the bottom of the picture you can see one of my average foot units has lost a base from the heavy artillery.

A wider view - a unit of foot has gone into column to move past the artillery - they could have moved through the guns, but by doing so would have blocked them from shooting for a couple of turns.

The red superior determined horse aren't liking being shot at - 1 base down and disrupted.

My superior foot are finally in arc and range of Gordon's light artillery. They didn't like being shot at either. My red horse have charged in and succeeded in losing another base - I was having crappy dice for death rolls at this point in the game.

The blue horse charge uphill into the lancers. The impact and first melee were both draws.

The column failed it's CMT to expand and so just moved forward. My poor foot have taken up residence behind the linear obstacle.

I forgot to take photos for a couple of turns. By this time my red horse had broken, as had the green "average" determined horse, leaving my superior foot slightly isolated. They'd lost a base to shooting, but I decided the best thing to do was to charge them in. As you can see, they did a pretty good job of tearing a hole in Gordon's centre and of disturbing his surrounding units. I think this pic was taken before the pursuit - the unit ahead of them is fragmented and failed its test to stand, so broke and ran. This then dropped the light guns to fragmented.

Back to the cavalry fight on my left wing. In the previous melee phase I'd disrupted the lancers in front. Gordon's 2nd lot did a flank charge (which disrupted me) but lost at impact. Then in the melee phase I won both fights, dropping the lancers ahead to fragmented and the flank-charging lancers to disrupted. Looking good!

Foot and light guns? What foot and light guns? the foot broke and ran, disrupting the foot behind them. The light guns took several hits from shooting and broke as well.

Lancers? What lancers? The lancers in front have broken and I've now dropped the flank-chargers to fragmented. 

Gordon's death pile at this point - 4 BGs down

My death pile at this point - 3 BGs down

So, these average lancers, fighting uphill against superior determined horse have lost a base, are fragmented and I can still expand into overlap onto both flanks? I think this looks pretty good.

My dragoons have finally stopped hiding in an enclosed field and moved forward to, errmm, hide in another enclosed field.

Back to Gordon's death pile - 5 BGs broken. I just need to break 1 more and fragment another

The blue horse try to come around Gordon's rear for a target-rich environment. Unfortunately my superior foot have lost another base to shooting and been disrupted again.

Remember the foot in column that failed its CMT to expand? It did that a couple more times before I realised that I could simply turn 90 and then advance (with a general attached for the 2nd move). If I'd thought about it earlier they could have been more use. Here you see them advancing to my left wing to provide support to the average foot who were originally supporting the superior foot but have become somewhat left behind and isolated.

the blue horse couldn't quite get into charge range at the rear, so have come back over the hill to taunt the heavy artillery. One more turn and they should be able to capture one of them which might be enough for a win. 

Unfortunately my superior foot got broken by shooting and the threat of a charge and can be seen routing towards my baseline in the bottom right. The column unit didn't quite make it in time to support the other foot unit on my left which broke in the previous turn.

Here you see the shooting phase of what became the final turn. My foot and Gordon's foot have simultaneously fragmented each other. This was the last point Gordon needed to take to rout me - I need to take 2 more to rout him.

So I'd done something either brave or foolish - charged his guns with my firelocks. As they were protected by his foot we ad to fight for them - both the impact and melee ended up as draws. Damn! If the foot on my left hadn't fragmented I might have been able to rout Gordon in the melee phase.

My unit of the match. They've only received a brief mention up until now, but these are the Poor foot. Why are they the unit of the match? Well, Gordon's heavy guns seemed to focus all their fire on them in the last few turns, every time forcing a death roll (and a number of cohesion tests). They passed every one.

The result:
Gordon lost 11 APs from 13 BGs - score = 16.5
I lost 11 APs from 11 BGs (routed) - score = 8.5

What I probably should have done:
Massed my foot on my left flank and advanced so that several battle groups would simultaneously engage his outermost units whilst receiving rear support from other units.
Brought my dragoons out straight away to support the infantry attack
Massed my cavalry on the right wing and advanced rapidly to take the lancers and get into his rear.
Brought forward my firelocks earlier in support of the cavalry attack.

It was a useful game and at least I now have a better idea of how to handle the army. Hopefully I'll remember these lessons for my next 2 games.

Painting etc update:
I haven't done any painting since Wednesday - I'll start work on the artillery first.
The Croats' horses have been glued into painting sticks - I'll glue the riders on tomorrow and might also be able to get them primed.
The camp/ambush markers are still waiting for their matt spray - I hope to do that tomorrow morning (I was just too cold this morning to want to open the windows up). then I'll be able to do the tufting and flocking to finish them.
I've started assembling the two 4Ground dark ages buildings I bought at SELWG this evening. I just need to add the detailing (windows, doors etc) and coat the fake-fur thatch with 50% PVA and they'll be good to go.

Pics from Monday's game (and brief report)

Well, I had plenty of superior units who got stuck in to my opponent's forces. Unfortunately they were supported by my usual crappy generalship and decidedly inferior dice rolls. Yup, another loss, but I did learn some useful lessons. Oh, and the loss was bigger than normal as Andy broke enough of my units to cause a "rout", although I had broken one or two of his along the way.

The game could have been over much quicker if my dice rolls to rally one broken unit had followed the pattern of the rest of them - I managed to rally it up from broken to steady in 3 turns. However, having lost 2 bases (from 4) there wasn't really much that they could do.

The only unit that the dice seemed to like (for a while at any rate) was one of my veteran (=superior) foot units which did a marvelous job of smacking a hole through Andy's infantry centre.

30YW Danes-Masquerading-As-New Model Army (1646) vs 1643 English Parliamentarian (Eastern Association)

See what I mean about crappy generalship? Yup, I spread myself out much too thinly.

Yay! The dragoons I painted up for Andy as his prize (plus a few he'd painted up to match them).

Bunfight on my left wing - 4 bases of Superior determined horse vs 8 bases of average horse (ie, equal dice at impact and in melee). Even though I've gone disrupted it should be a sure win for me here, shouldn't it?

Not looking good for these determined horse from my right wing

...errrrmmm, that should have been a sure win for me, shouldn't it?

Meanwhile in my centre, one unit of veteran foot are trashing Andy's mere average foot. Unfortunately their neighbours aren't particularly liking being shot at having lost 2 bases and dropped to fragged.

My other lot of determined horse on the right wing have now auto-broken from base losses. Well, that's what comes from fighting an equal opponent with your hands tied behind your back by crappy dice. The "red" determined horse are getting very close to the baseline - can they be recovered in time?

They could - this must be two turns later as they now have a green "disrupted" marker. In my centre, you can probably see one of my superior veteran foot units running down the hill away from the enemy.

Quick question - if it is your own army (possibly including younger versions of yourself) from 3 years before, can they be called the enemy?

And the other unit of superior veteran foot breaks, the last one Andy needed to rout me.

Hopefully my NMA will do better tomorrow night against Gordon - their first game of our club's ECW tournament.

Painting Progress

I spent last night and the start of this evening prepping the 24 "Croats". They're soaking in soapy water now and will be put out to dry in the morning. Tomorrow evening I'll stick the horses onto painting sticks then glue the riders onto the horses.

After I'd finished the prep I dry-brushed the metalwork of the cuirassiers, pikes, musketeers and artillery I had done basecoats on the other day.

WIP: Painting Helga #3; WIP: Andy's Prize Painting - ECW Cuirassiers #2; On The Workbench

Well, as promised, here are some pics of Helga in her finished state:

Andy's ECW Cuirassiers

Metallic bits painted, Klear/ink coat done, matt spray varnishing still to do. There's not much visible difference since the previous post, so I haven't taken pics of them but will once the matt spray is done.


On The Workbench

I've finally got back to doing my 30YW stuff. On the workbench at the moment are some dragoons to make up my existing units to 4 bases each; 2 draft horses for one of the wagons I painted up a few weeks back; some artillery supplies for a camp base; a farrier grouping (horse, farrier, horseholder) for another camp base; and an officer who will be the "(very) Camp Marshall).

I won't be doing any painting today as I have to head down to Sussex for my big sister's 50th birthday gathering. Depending on what time I get back to London tomorrow I may or may not get any painting done then.

WIP: Andy's Painting Prize - ECW Cuirassiers #1

I didn't do any painting last night, although I did go over the armour and glossy bits for Helga with brush-on stain varnish. I guess I ought to take some finished pics - I'll do that tomorrow.

Anyway, this evening I have almost finished painting Andy's cuirassiers. I just need to do metal details, give the armour a wash of black ink, Klear/ink coat the figures then spray with matt varnish.

So, here are some pics of them in their current state:

Dux - in case you see this post before you check your email, your Paras got posted this afternoon so should be with you shortly!

WIP: Painting Helga #2

And she's done, apart from matt spray then brush-on satin varnish on the armour and other bits which should be slightly shiny.

I think she's come out really well. She certainly looks as though she's seen some hard campaigning, all the while maintaining her lovely pale complexion *lol*

These pics were taken before I gave her a coat of neat Klear, then a black wash over the non-flesh/hair areas and brown wash over the flesh and hair.

Sean's comment on my last post got me thinking. A few months back I was planning a SciFi merc unit "Barbera's Bunnies" and this figure would be great for Colonel Barbera. I must have been subconsciously thinking of that when I was doing the colour scheme for her as it's pretty close to the uniform colours for the Bunnies. It's just missing a bit of pink *grin*

Andy's Prize Painting - ECW Cuirassiers

I've also done a bit of work on these this evening - saddle cloths, horse shading washes and markings. I should be able to finish these quite quickly now that Helga is finished.