Angry Scots

Here we have a horde of angry Scottish medieval spearmen. 36 in fact, enough for 3 yeoman spear units for Lion Rampant to face Eddie Longshanks. Figs are mostly Old Glory 25/28s. I like them - lots of character. Even tried my hand at a few bits of tartan.

A couple of characters

Sometimes it's nice to spend a few hours on a couple of specisl figures instead of a whole unit on the assembly line. Since it has been snowing in Edmonton for like the last 36h, gotta find something to keep busy with. Here I have finished a highlander (Wee Wullie, the one that comes with the Black Powder expansion, thank you Bruce!) who I plan to use as the chieftain Hector Maclean of Duart for my MayDay Inverkeithing scenario.

I also did this dark age Scottish chief who came with the Saga supplement from Gripping Beast. This is a really nice figure, I may use him to lead my Vikings at MayDay.

Alford 1645

I completed a few bits and bobs last week including this very nice Celtic cart from Warlord that will come in handy for baggage or an objective in Saga:

I also converted a cavlalry trooper to be Montrose's Royal Standard bearer, here alone and beside an ensign from the Irish Brigade. The flags are from Battle-Flag and I highly recommend them (http://www.battle-flag.com/).

And a Lord Leven, also from Warlord, who stood in for Lord Balcarres in a refight of the Battle of Alford between the Royalists and Covenanters.

I used an order of battle for Warhammer English Civil that I found on their Yahoo which is a really good resource (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/WECW/). There are a series of excellent Scottish scenarios for the ECW by David Whitfield. I played Alford with Mark on Saturday. We really enjoyed it.

The Covenanter artillery battery misfied 3 times and only hit 2 models the whole game before being overrun by Highlanders.

Montrose was instrumental in leading a counterattack with Highlanders against Balcarres horse which broke the Covenanter left flank.

Other highlights include disastrous advice from a pushy Presbyterian minister attached to one of the Covenanter regiments (run away!) at the worst possible moment which left the Covenanter right flank open. The Irish rolled them up.

Most of the Covenanter army fled into the marshes and were cut down. Strangely historical outcome....

Up next: Currently working on another Parliament regiment of foot for the battle of Dunbar.

Irish Brigade for Auldearn

This week I completed a bunch of Irish shot figures for my Auldearn project, which is close enough to completion that I should start thinking about how to construct the scenario and which rules to use. I could go with WECW, modified Black Powder or Impetus Baroque. They all have merits. The scenario is a surprise attack on Montrose's advance guard (MacColla and his Highlander & Irish bodyguard) in the village with random Royalist reinforcements each turn. The Royalists have better troops but random entry reinforcement, with Montrose, their gifted commander, occupied with haring about the countryside rousing his scattered bivouac. The covenanters must press the attack before Montrose arrives. Historically, MacColla held on long enough for Montrose to double-envelope Sir John Hurry's Covenanters for a total victory.

These figures are a mix of Dixon and Old Glory. The Dixon figs were great, I really liked them. Tons of character and very clean sculpts. The Old Glory are good too, but are a bit less refined.







The other highlight of the week was a kindergarten field trip to feed the dinosaurs at Jurassic Gardens:

Two more Covenanter regiments done

Over the last 10 days I finished a box of Warlord ECW infantry which I managed to stretch into two Covenanter regiments using some leftover command and pike bits. I am planning to use a modest figure density and either Black Powder or Impetus to do some ECW- Scotland theatre this year. Here are the units- 9 pike and two sleeves of 6 shot representing each regiment:






I also managed to witness what looked like a High Elf inaugural victory on turn 2 fizzle away to defeat by turn 5 after the gods of dice abandoned me. Key failures? Two consecutive leadership 9 test failures, followed by an improbable 18" charge that crushed my Dragon Princes, topped off by the failure of Eltharion to dispatch a measly Herald of Khorne when I was buffed by Beast of Horros and had the charge. Mathhammer gives me the clear nod on that one, with 7 S9 attacks, re-rolling misses, and no armour save he shouldn't have lived to strike, but I only netted one- on the reposte he hits with 2 killing blow 6s and I'm dead. Sigh.

Next up? Elven reinforcements for the rematch, not sure if I need to call on Teclis or chalk this one up to some bad dice....

Bonus Pic: working out the Mathhammer with my lovely assistant, Charley:

Hordes and Highlanders

Montrose marched off to meet the undead horde at Bob's house today. In game 1 I was the defender, and here you see the view from the right flank with the Strathbogie regiment of pike and shot in the foreground:


My plan was to push shooters and warband into the forest on my left as a holding action and use my right wing of the Strathbogie with mounted as the hammer. Here Bob advances his bony boys into the mill:


And I try to get warband and shooters into the woods on my left, I started with lousy pips so the development was slow:


Once I reached the woods, I could not resist the opportunity to jump forward with Highland warbands into the hordes (nice matchup with quick-kill in my favour) and blow a hole:


And behind this skirmish I tried to develop the right. All the while, I was mostly concerned with his flyer (still not active):


Eventually I was able to start forcing the right flank more and more, I don't remember why it took so long for Bob to take flight, but I think he was busy working my left with his bow elements and I was losing ground there. But the right flank matchup with my pike and shot versus his knights was what I was after:


Bob popped the flier who helped to outflank my left, but I was able to shoot him down from the woods with my last stand of Irish shot. Here we see my left has collapsed but the right has developed nicely and I have position to turn his general:


And eventually this is what happened, fortunately the dice were kind too (my 4 to his 1):


Game 1 was very close (11G:10). They don't come much closer.

Game 2 saw the positions reversed with Bob as defender. I looked at his deployment and decided to refuse my right and infiltrate and overlap his left by forcing warband and shooters through the woods, perhaps with a Stronghold assault to decide the outcome:


I had lots of pips to start and developed as planned. But my refused right was a concern, and the flier worried me. I kept my general back as a reserve and ZOC to limit his ability to outflank me. In hindsight, I should have used MacColla for this. As a hero he is better able to counter fliers and has lots of mobility. This tactical error would be my undoing.


The left flank attack worked well despite Bob's knight reinforcements, I had enough pips to engineer the match-ups I wanted:



And eventually I killed the entire left, but I was left in disarray with all of my shooters unable to support my right and the threat of the flier. Then it happened, the flyer jumped my right with a supporting knight and I foolishly allowed my general to be taken in a flanked position.


At that time, I was just ahead or even on AP killed so the game did not end immediately, but the next turn Bob regenerated some dead hordes and killed off another highlander warband, so we were defeated. This ended up something like 8G:6. My downfall was my poor aerial defence on the right. My army composition and game strategy were fine, just tactically I goofed and let the flyer grizzly-rape me. Bah! Bloody good fun though. Bob and I agree, if I could only ever play one game for the rest of my life, shipwrecked on an island with one rulebook, it would have to be HOTT.

Montrose's undead hunters from the highlands

Tomorrow I go over to Bob's for a playdate with the kids and should be able to squeeze in a couple of games of HOTT (Hordes of the Things for the uninitiated, perhaps the most flexible rules system ever created, definitely a consideration for a desert island ruleset if you were only allowed one). Bob has a skeleton 28mm army, so I am going to face him with my Montrose Scots since they have nothing else to do (until Dave Parker bases up the 100s of Parliamentarians I painted for him). I am imagining that Montrose's army has responded to an upsurge of undead activity in the highlands in 1644 or so. Our army will comprise something like Montrose's force:

The Marquis of Montrose himself with mounted highland entourage (Rider General +4/+4, 2AP)


His right-hand man MacColla "the devastator" (Hero: +5/+5, 4AP)


Border Horse (riders +3/+3, 2AP)


The Irish Brigade of shot (Shooters +3/+4: 2+2AP)


The Strathbogie Regiment of pike and shot (2 shooters +3/+4, 2 spear +4/+4: 2+2+2+2 AP):


Ferocious Highlanders (2 warbands +3/+3, 2+2 AP)


For a total of 24AP:


Now, let's kick some bones!