The rest of Cold Wars

I didn't take many photos this year, even though there were some great looking games. I did take a few shots of some large games as inspiration for what a real game of toy soldiers should look like.

More toys = better. ;)

The first is an ACW game I walked past the first evening. The remaining three are what I believe is a large Seven Years War game. In addition to simply looking impressive, it's a period I can only dream of playing.











As far as loot I brought home, a rough list...

• Another box of WF Romans.
• Roman allies from Crusader minis: Numidian cav, Spanish caetrati, Spanish Scutari command, Spanish slingers (which I discovered were mispackaged but Crusader/OG is shipping me the right figures.)
• One bag each of OG Spanish Scutari and Numidian infantry that I spotted in the flea market for the cheap.
• Two boxes of the previously mentioned & photographed Zvezda medievals.
• I joined the Old Glory Army since I spent enough at the Crusader booth to make it worth while, and so I got a bag of 10+/- nice looking 18th c. figures (a duel diorama?) from Blue Moon.
  
• Some deciduous trees in kit form.
  
• Various dogs (from Mega Minis and IWM). I think I got an odd badger or two mixed in as well.
  

Rough estimate, not including the dogs & trees, is about 178 infantry and 9 cavalry. Combine that with recent mail order deliveries of 18 more cavalry and 97+ more infantry, and the barely started 32 Romans from the remainder of the first WF box and I'm feeling buried. That doesn't include the large amount of commission work that I've suddenly started on.

I may try painting a few of the Blue Moon figures as well as I can for the painting contest at Historicon if I have time. I was looking for something really eye catching on which to test my ability. I normally paint in quantity (for armies), so I haven't really pushed my skills lately. I was browsing the 40mm stuff for this reason, but abandoned that idea after I got these "bonus" figures.

Cold Wars WAB tournament, pt. 3

Game 3
vs. Early Crusaders using El Cid list (Phil)



This was a blind set up and I didn't notice the location of the woods opposite me before deployment.




From (photo) left to right, the Crusaders had Knights, three units of archers with spear in the front rank, screened with two units of skirmishers, skirmishing elite cavalry of some sort, skirmishing crossbows on the hill, and more knights on the right.

The Burdundians had, from left to right, coustilliers, mounted gendarmes, crossbow with pavise, archers, pike, archers, dismounted gendarmes, and handgunners in the woods.


This first shot is taken early in the game. The opposing skirmish cavalry jumped right into a small gap in my line, and I've shot down some of the skrimishers screening his infantry. My cavalry are in the middle of a slight shift in deployment.



Most of the center and left were pretty static. I shot at his infantry, they backed off. After that it was at a point where even if I ran for the remainder of the game (4 turns), I would possibly get one turn of combat with them, but my dismounted gendarmes wouldn't be able to keep up. And I would have to run through his massed archery. I can understand his reluctance to run into my archery as well, however.

I did get lucky when his knights charged the handgunners, the handgunners managed to kill half the unit on the stand-and-shoot and the knights spent a couple panicked turns reconsidering. ;) The skirmish cav then chased off the handgunners, though I at least tied things up on that flank with a single unit.

On my left it was stand off. If I committed my cav to one side of the woods, all he had to do was run around the other. So I waited for him. And he waited for me. And I waited for him. And so on. Until the end.

I wasn't able to finish off the knights on the right or the skirmish cavalry, so once again, all I lost were my handgunners and all I managed to do was chase off his skirmishers and kill a bunch of archers/spear without effect (or points.) Another draw. I think if we hadn't done the hidden deployment, this might have turned out differently as I probably would have reversed my mounted units and my dismounted gendarmes.

---

I'm rethinking the dismounted gendarmes in the first place. They're nice as a small but solid anchor to a flank. It makes the archers and pike a little more secure. But in games where I'm on the offensive more than the games at Cold Wars (against English or Flemish, for example) their slower rate of move is a liability. Similarly, when the opportunity does come to take advantage of some unknown, they're once again, too slow. For example, after the knights on the right in this game panicked, I couldn't press that advantage and chase after them.

I think this is partially my own indecision in using a "combined arms" army, partially my feeling cramped in army selection at 2000 points. I may consider dropping them, though.

I'm having this strange "guilt complex" about playing three fairly static games. Part of the reason I play the BurgOrd is their flexibility in being able to play static or mobile (commends about the heavy foot aside.) At Historicon I was totally on the move in 2 of 3 games, and I've had a mix against other medievals as well. But playing 3 games in which I didn't move seems like I missed out on the "pushing toy soldiers around" part of the game. On the surface, I realize that sometimes it comes down to this, and certain other armies are entirely based around not moving. But I like to be a bit more mobile. (See also: previous army choices.) I'm going to write this off as a fluke due to playing out of period, but I can't help thinking I did something wrong. (The two draws doesn't help...)

Cold Wars WAB tournament, pt. 2

Game 2
vs. "Sassy" Persians (Duncan)


I'm not familiar with BtGG nor have I really played Burgundians out of period before, so this would be a bit of a learning experience for me. Since I haven't played anything but medievals for quite a few years, I was a bit rusty on the elephant rules, which almost turned disastrous.




First pic is in the second half of the first turn. My opponent's deployment from left to right in the photo... On the left, Uber Klibinari of Doom (henceforth UKD), a unit of bow armed militia flanked by two mounted heroes, two elephants, more Kilbinari but not the ones that get to reroll missed attacks, the general and standard bearer (both mounted), more archer militia, and more UKD.

My deployment, starting on the left... Skirmishing handgunners in the woods, dismounted gendarmes, ordonnance archers, pike with cannon & general behind, more archers, mounted gendarmes, crossbow with pavise on the hill, and coustilliers making their way around the back of the hill.

No problem, I thought. I'll blast the elephants with my cannon. Many misfires (and a 1 to wound when I finally got a hit) later, I managed to do absolutely nothing to them. Same for the piles of bow and handgun shots I unloaded into them. Waste-of-time.






So for most of the middle of the game it was a bit of a shooting match. The threat of the elephants and a rolled flank on the left kept me from advancing beyond the woods in the center & left. The Persians seemed just as content to sit back and shoot at me anyway. In hindsight, I may have done better to try playing more aggressively, since his 2+ save on the UKD, difficulty to hit his characters & skirmishers, and toughness of the elephants meant that my shooting would do little. On the other hand, his shooting wasn't terribly effective either.

On my right I chased back the UKD with my two units of cavalry before they could slip around my flank. I pressed this area of the battle quickly so that I could try to keep them from slipping away from my less maneuverable (than Klibinari??) cavalry. So eventually I sent them running and chased them down. One unit of militia also panicked, but managed to rally before getting off the battlefield.




Towards the end of the game, the elephants came forward and I hit them in the flanks, not realizing that: a) I would get no rank bonus while fighting them, and; b) if I broke them they would trample into my unit on the opposite elephant's flank.

In the end it was a draw. I lost my handgunners (his two mounted characters charged them in the woods and cut them to pieces), he lost one unit of UKD. Those were about the only casualties of the game.

Cold Wars WAB tournament, pt. 1

Cold Wars 2009, WAB tournament.

Technically I was in the medieval division, but the only other player signed up was my first opponent, Chris. So our subsequent games were a bit out of period.




Game 1
vs. Teutonic Order (Chris)




Teutonic deployment, from (photograph) left to right, plate armour & pavise crossbow on hill, spear, more heavy crossbow, two units of knights screened by skirmishing crossbow cavalry. This is one turn into the game, and we've both lost some cavalry. I believe there was a unit of Teutonic cavalry on the left, in front of the crossbow that took some missile casualties and fled.

Burgundian deployment, from left to right, crossbow with heavy armour & pavise, skirmish handgunners in the woods, light gun, ordonnance archers, ordonnance pike, ordonnance archers, dismounted gendarmes, mounted gendarmes. At this point, I had lost my coustilliers, which were also on the right (the two units of gendarmes closed the gap.)






The second photo is a few turns in. My light gun was shot to destruction by the Teutonic crossbow. After that our crossbow spent the entire game wasting shots on each other. My handguns and leftmost archer units whittled down the spearmen until the archers were able to take them in combat.

The central Teutonic crossbow did a decent job shrinking the archers on the right.

At this point my mounted gendarmes chased away the skirmishers, crashed into the knights, ran them down and ended up in the woods. The skrimishers later rallied, but were again chased away by the gendarmes.

My dismounted gendarmes waited to recieve the charge from the other unit of Teutonic knights (including general and army standard). All I needed was to make the stuborn roll on the initial charge so that I could swing my pikemen in on their flank. No such luck. The Burgundians were run down, the Teutonics pursued them off the table. Not the best result for me, but the knights were effectively distracted from any further damage. Further proof that the flower of Burgundian chivalry belongs on horseback, not on the ground.


In the end it was a victory for the Burgundians.

Zvezda Royal Infantry

As mentioned, I picked up two boxes of the Zvezda Royal Infantry, from their line of humans for the "Ring of Rule" game. They're basically 28mm generic late 15th century figures. My new scanner doesn't seem to work well for scanning sprues, so I tried to get some half-decent photos with the digital camera.

Click the pics below to enlarge.

Front & back of the main sprue:






Command sprue:




I've got a lot on my painting table right now, but when I get some assembled & painted, I'll post some photos compared to other fantasy & historical figures.

At first glance, they remind me a little of the old Copplestone figures sold by Mirliton (formerly by Grenadier). The detail is a little more exaggerated & rounded than GW or most metal figures. I'm curious to see how they paint up.

Home Again, Home Again

Back from Cold Wars, settled in and relaxing a bit.

As usual I had a good time, and enjoyed catching up with old friends as much as playing games.

I played in the WAB tournament, had three great opponents including Duncan MacFarlan who ended up winning the sportsman award. I won "first place" in the Medieval division -- a division in which I was one of two players. ;) My first game was against Teutonics, but then I was out of period with Sassanids and Early Crusader (El Cid). I had a win and two draws. More on that later.

I learned to play Field of Glory (FoG) later that night, in a Rome vs. Rome game put on by a friend. I've got mixed feelings on it so far. I think I picked up the game pretty quick, but it seems needlessly complex in places, and has a few wonky spots in which the mechanics seem a bit out of focus from common sense. I'm willing to give it a few more tries, though, and I do have to admit that seeing all those figures in a 15mm army, even in a "small" game looked more like a real wargame and/or battle than WAB.

I met Tony Reidy of Wargames Factory & chatted a bit, and got another box of Romans, so I can field a WAB army of at least 2000 points. To that end, I also picked up a few support troops (mainly Spanish skirmishers & some Numidian Cav) at Crusader. My ever-shifting Classical era plan is this... get Romans (with allies) done for doubles tournament at Historicon. If enough people sign up for the medieval division, then I will most likely play Burgundians. If not, I play Romans again. But who knows, I'll probably change my mind twenty three more times before then. A longer term goal would be to have enough to field two Roman armies (or one large one, obviously.) I'm not certain I can get the painting done in time, but I would love to run a WAB demo type game at Historicon, either Rome vs. Rome (which would require more Romans) or Rome vs. "Barbarians" (most likely Celts with a few Germans) which would possibly require a few more more Celts/Germans.

In any case, I've got a pile of painting to do. Romans, Celts, Gauls, Spanish, Numidians.... plus GW High Elves, Swiss, Undead, and more Spanish for other people.

But wait, that's not all... I was shopping around at the booths of a couple of dealers who sell a lot of 1/72 figures, looking for the Zvezda human knights for their "Ring of Rule" fantasy 28mm line. I struck out. BUT, I did find two boxes of the "Royal Infantry" from the same line, which are essentially 15th century European infantry. They are multi-piece plastics. I'm not sure if they are still producing them or how easy they are to get in the US or elsewhere. So I asked about them and was offered a price I couldn't pass up. ;) Actually, I told him I would definietly buy one box, but would like to open it up immediately to see if I wanted the second box. I ended up buying both boxes. Initial reaction is that they're not as crisp as some of the other plastics, and a few of the weapons are a bit oversized for historicals (which is what I plan on using them for) but I think they will still make decent Burgundians or Swiss (or Germans, maybe French... etc...)

I'll have some more comments, pics and maybe some WAB battle reports coming soon. But now, back to my relaxation.

Away to Cold Wars

(take two)

I'll be leaving for Cold Wars, so it looks like I'm not going to get any reviews or new pics up until after I get back.

It's been a looooooooonnnnnnnnnng and crazy week, I'm looking forward to getting away for a while. I'm just hoping I actually get to play in some games. :/

Stuff! in the Mail pt. 2!

My Renegade Regiments came in. So that would be almost everything I've mail ordered in the past few months suddenly showing up within several days, all during the week I've had the least amount of free time in ages. Oh, the mixed blessing. ;)

First shots

I still won't have a lot of time to do much painting or anything for a few days, but I threw together a couple of the plastic figures for comparison.


First, a plastic Celt match-up. Unfortunately, I have no more Warlord Games Celts unpainted, but I do have some that are only primed, so here they are next to a few unpainted Wargames Factory Celts...



...I'm still going to hold off on a full review until I've painted at least a few of the WF Celts. The only comment I'd like to make for now is that the scale looks pretty close on both.


The Wargames Factory zombies compared to the Games Workshop plastic zombies, on the other hand...


Not so similar in scale. Different, uh, "historical" zombie periods, I suppose, but still, not really close.

Stuff! in the Mail

I received several long awaited deliveries today.

One is the group of Black Tree Design Early Germans I've been waiting on. I'll wait for a full review until I've painted some of them (and have the pics to show for it), but from taking a bit of a look at the raw lead, I really like them. Just shy of my infatuation with the Foundry Germans (but at 1/4 the price.) Better sculpts than the BTD Celts I recently posted. It's a shame I had to chase after them to deliver the figures. Not certain I want to have to go through that for a full army. Still, it's tempting.

I also received a box of Wargames Factory's Celts. Again, full review after I've painted some, but once more, from an initial examination, they look good. The details look like they've improved since the first releases and there's a nice mix of "bits" for variety.

Along with the Celts, I got a couple sprues of the Zombies they've just released. More to come on those as well.

Now if my Renegade regiments would just show up, I'd be all set and nearly* overwhelmed with stuff to paint. Good time to start a big painting commission, eh?

Pics in the next day or three. It's a busy week with non-tiny-toy-soldier stuff for me.


* Nearly in the sense that I will still be picking up more in a few weeks at Cold Wars.