Wagon raid

Continuing my Franco-Burgundian campaign, Steffan decided to conduct a raid into the French lands for some loot before winter. The month is September and with only one month of the campaign year left, the siege would be over winter.

Rolled for a wagon raid, so Alain has the task of getting his column of winter supplies into a small castle. Here the French come onto the table over the hill.

The first Burgundians to arrive are actually the English archers. Using a fate card, the English find one of their groups is composed of untried youths (one group was lowered to 'levy' status). They dash forward and let loose some arrows at the soldiers, who form up on the hill.

Steffan arrives with a group of men at arms and soldiers, and they make their way up the hill, aiming on taking the supplies by force.

Some archers (harassing troops) take cover behind a fence to watch for any reinforcements coming from the castle.

Just afterwards, Perrin Ledoux leads some handgunners, crossbowmen and militia to aid the supply column. They enthusiastically run at the archers.

Steffan aims for the French soldiers, who form ranks and wait for help.

Almost there...

Both sides clash, pole arms swing and despite the uphill advantage, the men at arms manage to push the soldiers back.

(note the 'supply column', made of spare horses until i get some wagons)

Pressing home the advantage, the men at arms charge again next turn, causing casualties. 

View of the table. Alain, the French lord has rode ahead as some Burgundian mounted men at arms appeared to threaten the militia. The crossbowmen on the hill fire at the English, killing one man and suffering two dead in return.

As the soldiers are pushed further back, the supplies are moved down the hill in an attempt to get away from the grasping raiders.

Horse race across the table. The French just miss their target (by an inch or two).

On the hill, the French soldiers under Robin either run or die, leaving only three left who back off with no chance of recovery. Steffan leaves them and turns his attention to the supplies...

Sneakingly, the Burgundian men at arms slip away again from the French with the Evade card, and are ready to charge some militia crossbowmen caught in the open. In the background, the English have advanced on the supplies, defended by only four crossbowmen.

Perrin and his militia watch the horsemen pass by from the safety of a fence.

The situation on the hill. The French feel slightly outnumbered...

'Screw this!' (or 'Merde!') The militia try to panic the horses then leg it, deciding discretion is the best part of valour here.

The Anglo-Burgundians get away with the loot, but are harassed on their way home, seeing their victory being reduced from +4 to +2.

I played this out the other week but only how have loaded up the pictures. I'm getting the hang of Sharp Practice now too, so i'll probably be playing more of that. I may continue the campaign with Sharp Practice, maybe i'll even finish it (don't hold your breathe though)!

First Sharp Practice and some pikemen (two in one!)

First try of Sharp Practice with the 'ol medievals.

As a first go, i can't give you a proper idea, as i forgot several things; reloading times, the bonus cards (might do Silver Whistle's idea) and some other things. I played it a little like Dux Britanniarum at one point! In a way it's similar, but very different. Also i need to revise my force organisation next time. Anyway...

Just a small bash up. Two lords meet in the peaceful English countryside and their aim is to kill or capture their rival. Easy.

Team one, some archers, crossbowmen, billmen and men at arms.

Team 2, men at arms and archers.

Meeting in a little village.

Team 1 (for want of a better name) advances faster and charges first, but the first engagements don't go according to plan...

After a counter attack by the red and black men at arms, Team 1 looses their lord, who is badly injured. I rolled for popularity (to see if his men like him and try to save him) and it turned out he was hated!

So they abandoned the poor devil!

With this i ended the game.

So, next time i will be upping the side (the rules recommends minimum of 30) and adding more Big Men. I guess practice makes perfect, so the more i play the better i'll know.

I also need to think of formations. I might think of creating a knew formation, like a block perhaps, deeper than a line but wider than a column. Not sure though, so i shall play some more and see.

I also decided to make some more pikemen to expand the militia, who shall not re-become Lowlanders. I didn't fancy having shoudlered pikes though, as the pole arm armed chaps are rather more agressive looking. So, i converted them...

That's better! Now they look like they're in a fight, not just wandernig to battle.

They need some militput to cover some gaps, at shoulders and hands.

Most are armoured in jacks and helmets, with a smattering of brigandines, pieces of plate or mail shirts. I will do a couple of heavily armoured men with pikes or poleaxes as Poorters, the richer citizens. I will also do a harnessed leader, with the flag on his helmet to show his rank.

A little WIP to show how i did them. I used the pike arms from the mercenary set.

Cut, trim, slice, glue, curse because it won't hold, then glue again.

Add head of choice:

Sharp Practice purchase

After seeing Silver Whistle's Wars of the Roses game using the Sharp Practice rules, i was tempted and decided to get them to see.

Sharp Practice is a Toofatlardies game, based on large skirmishes in the Black Powder era, but Silver Whistle proposed some changes to bring it back to the 15th century. It is therefore bigger than Dux, and after a read through some of the rules are very similar in both games (in a good way).

Armed with a host of rule mods for Dux Britanniarum, i can apply these for these rules (including the campaign system, which is not dependent on what battle rules used) and soon i'll run a game to learn the rules, posting the photos here of course :)

I also have some 15mm and 10mm Napoleonic Austrians, and my brother has some 10mm Russians that might be found, painted and based if i feel like a change of pace.

The New Ordannance

Back at home with my figures now! I'llbe back at lycée Monday so life will return to its normal rythem.

While thinking, i decided i didn't want small, bitty retinues, so i decided to expand my French one. So far i have the figures below:

I plan to turn the crossbowmen and cavalry into Lances and make the infantry into a dizenier, ten men plus the leader. So, i need one archer (to go with the bow armed man), three lesser men at arms (one with a banner) and two gendarmes.

The leader of the French will therefor be a chef de chambre.

I did a few builds since i came back, the two men at arms are slightly converted.

The left hand one has a sort of Iberian helmet, with a wide brimmed helmet and bevor. I thought he might be the Spanish of the band.

The right hand man is in Gothic plate and i cut and turned the arm and hand to make a sort of crouched lance pose.

The lesser man at arms and the foot man are pretty much simple builds, except the arms on the foot man are a mix of padded sleeves and plated lower arms from the mounted men at arms set.

Tetlys tea and custard creams

Hello all.

A while no blogging, and even longer that I've not been around my little men. I'm still in England, enjoying tea, sliced bread, fish and chips and biscuits. I also went to a gameswork shop yesterday and was horrified to see the new lord of the rings rule book was £50! No thank you, I'm sticking with the old school first edition I got for £2!

Anyway, I've been sans figures but not without my ideas and musings, mostly on Runissia and possible armies for the setting. I might be getting some figures soon-ish, even thought I have loads of perry plastics still. Ah well, that's what it's like to be a wargamer!

As you might know, I'm planning on doing my Runissia in 15mm for a change of scale and also so I can make full scale castles, forts and towns. This is really hard in 28mm for space reasons so I really want to go smaller to go bigger.

So, I've been drawing building plans, taking inspiration from many sources. I bought a book on British castles the other day for 2.99 (instead of 14.99!) and saw Eilean Donan Castle (above, image from Wikipedia). This is the sort of look I want for Runissian castles. Kaliad places might be similar, but more round and smaller.

I could also do this in 6mm, meaning even more space, so it is a possibility and means I could have even more castles for less space. And it's cheaper and easier to hide...

Right, time to go raid some blogs for links!

Going away

Just a quick post to ask if anyone knows of any wargames clubs/shops in the Southampton area. I'm going over there next weekend to see my brother and, although i know that there is a Gameswork Shop there, it doesn't sell historical figures :(

Any help would be appreciated!

Militia done and dusted

100th post and the white coated militia are finished!

All is finished, bases and all. I like how they came out.

In total, they number 12 pole armed men and 4 archers.

The fully harnessed man is not part of the militia, but is a test for my next retinue (Walkers).

Pictures aren't great as it's a bit dull here :(

And look what came in the post for me today!