28mm Chaos warriors

Had a bit of a break from painting while working three jobs to get a new (old) bike. Now I have transport, I'm able to finish some unfinished projects and start some new ones, one of which is a chaos army, for HoTT or my own GRASP system which is currently being revised.

Anyhow, I have a somewhat disparate collection, from true 25mm to modern 32mm, and I'm trying to combine them so the  larger figures act as champions and the smaller troops are rank and file. My first base of chaos blade are a mixture of Citadel / Games Workshop pre-slotta and  later figures. All are hunched over in some way, the later figure having a very different style to the others.  At the back is a fighter with  some sort of seahorse themed helmet(!?). 'Whatever floats your boat' I guess for the troops of chaos. He has an integrally  cast shield so is probably the earlier of the three. The second figure has a Thulsa Doom  style fascination with snakes and a separate shield so I guess he's early nineties. The third and last figure is one of the  most boring figures, really lacking in animation. whatever he lacks in style, he makes up for with a curious fascination for decay. His armour is covered in verdigris. Whilst I suspect his helmet is a relic from his days with the Khorne clan, I'm not fussy about my troops allegiances, as long as they roll lots of sixes.

Normally, I'm pretty stingy with  the grass tufts, only issuing base decorations to  successful units, but this time I went overboard and covered the base. Actually , I had a bit of a grass tuft fest decorating some home-made shell craters and some Napoleonics which were within easy reach, much easier than dipping bases in static grass and getting the fibres everywhere.

Big Battle Mediaeval Germans v Hungarians

Been a long time since I posted anything for DBA, yet I have played a few games, just forgot to photograph them. My main beef with DBA (apart from the godlike, tactical shenanigans and the bizarrely stunted and stretched armies to get equal sides, and the games dependency on a d6  which leads it to having more importance than your tactics, and...) .... Actually, I stopped playing for a few years. I could not get around the importance of  rolling the right dice at the right time. Is that how an army commander thinks? Nah!

Still, sometimes, if I want to play with other people I have to be willing to shuffle my army on to the table and subject myself to DBA. Now there's a lot of very smart and knowledgeable people out there in DBA land, so the problem must be me. But my whizz of a bff suggested using cards - 24 cards / 4 sets  of 1 to 6 for each player, shuffled and drawn blind into a hand of three. Use a card -  draw another straight away. And what do you know, it seems to work. Lose a card when you lose a third of your army, lose a card when you lose a commander.

Does it sound strange? It did to me at first, but after a couple of games I noticed something - the game was so much more  fun - you can plan! And sometimes you can carry out a plan! Instead of thinking about the tricksie moves,  you can think tactically about your army, conserving your better cards for a critical phase instead of leaving it to the die. And did it slow us down. No. Movement was as it should be, there were plenty of 'bang... you're dead!' moments and well... damn , I just had a great time. 

So,  here's the battle report for the double trouble, Hungary v Germany grudge-match.

Anthony's Hungarians

Sadly, my photos do not do justice to the immaculately painted Hungarians. There's some lovely heraldry in there, shame liveries can't stop arrows :)

Deon's Germans

I've always been a sucker for arty, so this is Mediaeval Germans  (C) I think.  A full allowance of war wagons, mercenary crossbows and pike make for a stodgy but painfully pointy opponent.

 

Here's the set up above -  Germans with a river to their back; no retreat and none needed with the war-wagons. The Hungarians had the high ground and they were welcome to it.

 

Above - Hungarian light troops  come out to play. I give them little chance of upsetting the German plans. (There was no plan!)

Below - The German light troops  stepped aside to reveal the artillery and  the Hungarians having misjudged the  distance found themselves blasted into submission in short order. With the German light troops now front and foremost the Hungarian light horse and knights are quick to pounce, crashing through the  unfortunate hand-gunners and then the knight follow up,  ploughing through an unlucky unit of crossbows.

Above - On the right - Hungarian knights (the C in C's  I think) crash into German pikes and in the centre the combined fire of the war wagons and artillery frustrate the  rest of the Hungarian knights.

 Germans seen from the Hungarian side of the field -  notice the German handgunners sneaking around the back of the enemy C in C on the left ?

Below -  The Hungarian knights continue their relentless (unsupported!) charge, wiping out more hapless crossbow and  thoroughly trashing the arty party.

Now severely over lapped, the Hungarian days are surely numbered?

The melee seen from the German perspective.

Above  -  The Hungarian knights are repulsed and their CinC is badly shot up, causing him to back up into the cruel arms of the waiting enemy hand-gunners. Boom! and  the Hungarians are down. The Germans can't believe their luck - much of the enemy failed to engage and whilst it was scary to see the Hungarian knights ploughing through the ranks, nothing lasts forever and the Hungarians finally  ran out of luck   high cards. 


Thanks for stopping by ;)

English v French hundred Years War

Hello, long time since I had the chance to play DBA and even longer since I had the time to sit and witter on about it.

I guess as a refresher for the upcoming PAWS on June 24th, Anthony and I  were able to  shuffle some of his lovely new figures around the table. And I do mean shuffle; even with the new movement rates, caution and cohesion was the order of the day ( at least for me!).

Anthony chose the terrain and I chose the board edge, wedging my English troops between bad going and rough going to cover my flanks.

And here's our English.. We're so confident we are not even watching the enemy behind us!





Starting positions. The French commander realised we are not coming out. If they want us out of France then they'll have to move us ! 




The first few turns see the French advance..

 

As the French knights  move towards the woods, (I presumed to flank us,) bows are sent  to keep them busy whilst we seat our flank on the wood edge and set out our  line at an angle to  make use of the hamlet on our right. Alas, for the French, they realise that for some strange reason they are not permitted to dismount and storm the woods as they had intended and thus withdraw.



Merde! I heard them cry as they withdrew. So they sent in  a  formation of  what looked like halberdiers backed up by light troops. Alas! The light troops were not able to support them against the English bows..



Having sharp steel besides their yew, the English archers were quick to assault the foolhardy french and deal them, a rough blow.

In the centre, the French suffered at the hands of the  English knights on foot and the battle was soon over 4:0. 

So we switched sides  to give my opponent a fair chance..

Setting up,  my opponent decided to  more or less copy the English's previous tactic. Naturally , I dismounted my French knights.. The french are to the right and the English on the left

Throwing my french knights into the woods against the english bows, I hoped to have a slight advantage and turn their flank. Meanwhile, back in the centre a confusing melee developed with neither side managing to break through.

It was at this point, seeing some 'english-like' shields facing him, my opponent declared his shooting against the rear of his own infantry, who had their shields slung over their backs. Never wanting to interrupt an enemy while he's making a mistake I rolled for the hapless knights. Fortunately, for my opponent I threw a '5' saving the poor chaps from an ignominious end. From now own my opponent  (having justly earned the title)  shall be known as Anthony 'Friendly Fire' H. !

With the flank slowly turning, at 1-0 and the shock of friendly fire, my opponent conceded the battle. Hurrah!

Sassanids v Byzantines 2

In a second game of Sassanids v Byzantines, the same terrain pieces were used and did not play a significant part in the battle.

The battle opened with some strong pip die.  As the Byzantines have the greater power the Sassanids were  pushed forwards to cut down their maneuver time, with the light foot screened by a cavalry element in the centre. As the Byzantine had moved a mixed force over to the east with his C in C, it was felt that the Sassanid Cavalry could engage the blades on equal terms.  A Sassanid cavalry element was sacrificed drawing out two Byzantines and exposing their flanks. This gave the Sassanids a chnce to pin and kill the Byzantines in the centre and then flank the  Byzantine C in C's force, which was the main objective. By the end of turn 3 the situation looked thus:

 Turn 4 - As planned the Elephants and Auxilia make quick work of the Byzantine cavalry...

To give the Sassanid centre a chance to finish off the remaining Byzantine cavalry in the centre, the flanks move forward to engage their opponents. The Sassanid left flank is unlucky and loses a couple of elements. The Byzantines saw their opportunity and reinforced  their C in C's force by moving a cavalry element across from the opposite flank. The Sassanids are two units down to 1 Byzantine and so use the El and Aux in the centre to flank and hopefully pin the  Byzantine forces.

The Byzantine cavalry take advantage of the isolated cavalry on the left flank of the Sassanid Army, killing it and pushing fowards after the Sassanid's left flank light horse. In the centre, the Sassanid elephant flanks and hopes to destroy the Byzantine psiloi, whilst the  Sassanid Ax pin the now reduced  block of Byzantine cavalry on the Sassanid  right flank. The elephants are unexpectedly repulsed and attack again - the Sassanids are down 3 to 1 and things are looking desperate.

The Sassanids finally sweep away the Byzantine psiloi in the centre. Bizarrely, the Byzantine psiloi, on the Sassanid right, survive the both the pinning and head on fight with the Sassanid C in C, whilst equally unexpected was a 6 v1 kill in the adjacent cavalry fight. Now it's 3-all and getting tense!

End Game - The Byzantines fail to make a kill on the  following move and the Sassanids quickly destroy the pinned Byzantine Psilio in order to snatch a win. By dividing his forces the Byzantine allowed the Sassanids to turn the flanks in the centre and failed to commit his Blade reserves to holding the centre. Lucky win for the Sassanids. :)

DBA 3.0 Battle Report. Sassanids v Byzantines

My first chance to play the new DBA rules and although there are many changes the game flowed well and the most visible change was the movement. Light troops were  fluid and were critical in the first game as the ploughed fields became rough going when i threw a 1 for my first pip.

 With the first pip - 1, the Ax advance into the  west field to stall the Byzantine Light Horse on the Sassanid left flank. The Byzantine advance their  infantry line and send a mixed mounted force of Cav, Lh and Gothic Kn down the right flank.

With the Sassanid Second pip 1 :( , the ax moved across into the east field to stall the Byzantine  cavalry centre. In following turns the Sassanids send a weaker force of Lh up the right flank to hold off the Byzantine force and reinforced with cavalry from the reserve. In the centre the Sassanid Cin C and some cavalry engaged the  main force of the Byzantines whilst the Aux turned and killed the cavalry from the safety of the field.

The Byzantines forced  some Sassanid cavalry in the centre to retreat, replaced with the elephant. The Ax in the field continued to create problems as two more Byzantine cavalry units tried to  keep them busy and make progress on the right flank. The byzantines on the right flank were gradually pinned and killed, one of the Sassanid Lh breaking through and pinning the Byzantine C in C as the Ax killed them with the advantage of the poor terrain. 4 v1  win to the Sassanids.

The  ploughed fields and the control of the centre by the Auxilia was the critical aspect of this battle.

28mm Oni for Mythic Asia

These are a couple of old Grenadier Oni which I remember painting when I lived in Edinburgh, around the time of the birth of my son who is now a  father himself. Time flies, and the Oni are based at last ready for  the clash of magical steel under the auspices of the Imperial Heavenly Court. Will they carve a red valley through ranks of ronin or be snaffled up by  capricious dragons? Who knows? Who cares?

They are based on 30mm wide bases for skirmish games, but can be combined to make one HoTT base of 60mm.

Dragons for Mythic Asian HoTT

Just a couple of old dragons for my Japanese HoTT forces. Both are elemental dragons for water and wind. The water dragon needs re-basing ( they both do) and is an old Grenadier model I suspect.

The other is an old Ral Partha? celestial dragon, which really needs to be on a flying base of clouds. I've just found another in  the lead box which i may be able to paint up as an earth dragon. I also have a massive Imperial dragon from about twenty five years ago, again by Grenadier, but way beyond my financial means today (100 US dollars on Evilbay!! ).

I also have a massive Imperial dragon from about twenty five years ago, again by Grenadier, but way beyond my financial means today (100 US dollars on Evilbay!! ).