Picoarmour desert rats

Over the weekend I completed a couple of regiments of British picoarmour for the Beda Fomm scenarios I have planned. This first batch is mostly tanks

There are some transport for the 25lber guns (not received yet)

This is an FAO:

An HQ

2lber portees:

A10s

Vickers MKVI and A13s

 A13s

business end of some portees:

A9s

A10s

More of the wee Vickers:

Pretty close to having the first scenario ready to go, waiting for the artillery guns (required for the Brits who used 25lbers firing over open sights) and some additional terrain pieces.

ECW firelock party and the man himself

I completed another unit for my late Parliament ECW army, this is a company of firelocks (musketeers) ready to storm, well, .... something. Warlord figs, with command and a couple of conversions. These guys all have the same body with 2 arm variants, plus of course the obligatory selection of hats. There is also Ollie himself cheering the lads on.

Yes, I know the lighting is shite. However I don't have photo blind and no sunshine in Edmonton today.

Next up: should be those picoarmour Brits based and ready to be painted....

Picoarmour Italians for Beda Fomm

I just finished the first batch of picoarmour (3mm) Italians for the western desert. I have worked out an Operation Compass Beda Fomm scenario. Here are the ill-fated Italians starting with the CO, 3 HQs and an FAO stand. There are a variety of vehicle types. I used vallejo Desert Sand with Vallejo black wash. The Vallejo washes are superb, they settle well and dry flat, unlike Future. Vastly superior, and worth $12 for the large bottles.

Next there are 2 battalions of medium tanks M13-40s. The tanks are very nice, the height is exagerrated but it works. Lots of depth and detail in the sculpts:

a company of light tanks (L3-35s):

A couple of battalions of bersaglieri, I decide to base them 5 foot and 1 support weapon per stand since more than that looked a bit crowded. These guys are in Vallejo Game Colour desert yellow (more of a dun yellow than their Model Colour desert yellow, which is quite orange) with Vallejo sepia wash, plus the capercaillie feathers picked out in black, guns in metal.

Support weapons: 2 artillery stands and 4 MG stands:

All this for about $25 cost. A blister is either 15 vehicles (5 stands) or 60 foot castings (5-10 stands depending on basing) for the cost of $4. This stuff is awesome!!!

BTW- here are the products I have been using for basing and washes:


Next up: Brits.

1/72 Carthaginian DBA army

This weekend I finished a 1/72 Carthaginian army. The highlight is the elephant, of course, he one of the Zvezda models and is he ever a big bugger! This is the kind of army I like to play, lots of troop variety and combined arms. It matches up well with most opponents, but is also challenging to command because the troop types are so varied. The other figs are by Hat:

1/72 Macedonian DBA army

I rebased a bunch of 1/72 Macedonians for DBA (II/12), it is a mixture of Hat and Zvezda who both do some good figures for this period. Alexander himself leads on the right wing with some Thracians, Greeks are on the left, Macedonian pike form the core of the foot with some very useful light troops for support. With a catapult and an elephant it could easily morph into the Imperial version (II/15).
 

I also dug out enough plastics to put together a late Carthaginian army that I might do next (II/32).

First game of SAGA

Awesome, what a great game! I'm still buzzing about it!

Kevin and I played our first game of Saga today, and it was a blast. Lots of tough decisions to make, very colourful, and fun. Everything I had hoped for, to be honest. I think this game has some real legs. What impresses me most is that it is actually innovative, it is not often that new ideas come up in games, but the board and custom dice activation mechanic here is new and really great. Adds both depth and colour to the gameplay in a way I have never seen before.

Our scenario was a Viking attack on an Anglo Danish settlement. I was the Anglo Danes, and to make a long sob story short, we got hammered. I rarely rolled above a 3, and the Vikings rolled over us like the horde of foul smelling, ruthless beasts they were. However, I think that technically speaking, I actually won the game because my Warlord (who was the last Anglo standing) would have been able to re-occupy one of the buildings at game end since the Viking forgot to track him down. But really, Kevin's vikings handed my ass to me.

Some pics, it really was superb. Kevin's awesome scenery didn't hurt much either. I am looking forward to a LOT of dark age gaming. This was the best game I have played in ages, no kidding.

 

And the newest addition to my home is a 4-foot high cat recreation center, must be nice...

Victory without Quarter playtest

I ran out my ECW Auldearn game at the club this week. I gave the "Victory without Quarter" ruleset (http://www.quindia.com/studioart12.htm) a run-through with some modifications after a dry run at home. The scenario pits a force of Covenanters under the command of Hurry versus Montrose's loyalists. Montrose must delay while reinforcements arrive from the rear, Hurry must advance as quickly as possible. There is no artillery and I didn't use any special/optional rules to keep things simple.

The battlefield looks something like this, with Auldearn at the left in this photo flanked by Castle Hill and with Garlic hill dominating the field to the right. Hurry advances from the right in this picture.

I made the following modifications.
- I allowed infantry and horse units to move at a double rate if they stayed outside of 12" of enemy units. I did this to speed up the movement to contact phases of the game, noting the the battlefield for this scenario is long (6').
- I allowed the general to issue a group order to units within 12", as long as all units did the same simple action (e.g. advance, fire) this enabled them to activate simulaneously. This speeded up things, but also allowed for some powerful combined actions.
- I removed all restrictions from charging. This however made no difference, since both sides chose to shoot  with their foot over melee throughout the game anyway!

Here we have Bob (Montrose) before the first card draw. MacColla's lifeguard sit on Garlic Hill.

The Covenanters clearly had the run of the early card draws, mainly since most of the Montrose units were still off board. Hurry was able to quicky take Garlic Hill and destroy the lifeguard with musketry, while the Monymore regiment tried to fall back to Castle Hill under pressure from the Covenanters:

The situation stabilized when Aboyne's dragoons moved onto Castle Hill and the powerful Irish Brigade took up position in Auldearn. The Gordon and Aboyne Horse slipped around the south flank with the Strathbogie and crossed the road to engage the Covenanters.

The Lord Chancellor and Findlater regiments push Monymore back to the treeline and eventually force them to route off the board edge through musket fire:

 

Then the tide turns when the dragoons held onto Castle Hill, followed by the Irish and Strathbogie counterattack on the regiments before Garlic Hill. The presence of Montrose gave this attack extra impetus by allowing for increased actions. Hurry was stretched too thin to manage both his attack on the dragoons and defend from the powerful Irish musketry:

The game ended with a very narrow victory for Montrose as the Covenanters reached their breakpoint first.

I think the guys enjoyed the flow of the game, there were a couple of wiggles to iron out however. I was unsure how to handle drawn melees, for example, and the group order mechanic was great for moving the game along (especially since this scenario features an important attacker traffic-jam) but was potentially too powerful in allowing units to combine fire on a single target. Neither side saw any point in engaging in melee since firing was less risky, so melee needs to perhaps be more decisive.