Field defences at Lansdown, 1643

A while back I walked the battlefield site at Lansdown just to the north of Bath (Laura has gone to uni at Bath so I stopped off there after one of my trips to deliver forgotten clothes to her halls of residence).  Its not a particularly large site so it makes a good walk for an hour or so. Naturally I got to thinking about sprucing up my 15mm ECW collection that I'd started for one of Peter Colbeck's campaigns and expanded slowly over the years. I decided I needed some additions to my ECW scenery and "Waller's Wall" was a natural thing to start with, so I knocked up various dry stone wall sections using budgie grit, PVA glue and lolly sticks, with molds made from Lego. 

There were also some field defences built along the ridge line at Lansdown and I decided to collect some suitable twigs which would make decent tree trunks in 15mm. I finally got around to working on these this weekend, and they've just finished drying out. They were very simple to make - 40mm or 80mm lengths of thick card smeared with flexible fill Polyfilla (the same stuff I use for making sculpted sea bases), then the twigs broken to suitable lengths and pressed into the filler. Scatter over with budgie grit, then leave overnight to dry. Next day, paint over the polyfilla and grit with a mix of PVA, water and earthy brown paint, again leave overnight and the next day they are all done. And very nice I think they are too. Shown below with some of my 15mm Peter Pig ECW collection.

Now all I need to do is find some time to refight the battle :)

The Red Lion

About 25 years ago Liz and I went to a model railway show where my brother was exhibiting one of his wonderful layouts with his model railway club friends. Liz liked some of the buildings he'd made, especially brick building made using thin card "bricks" from punched computer cards, and half timbered walls mad by gluing the "timber" over a card wall and then infilling with plaster to get an authentic plastered wall effect. She liked them so much that she decided we would have a go at making something like that ourselves, and so she set about building a model of an old English country pub, half timbered, half brick (obviously extended sometime in the 1700s). We'd work in 15mm so that I could use it for wargaming when it was finished. We used clear plastic from easter egg packaging and coarse brass mesh to give the windows a leaded window look. 

After a cracking start the project languished once we'd finished and assembled the walls. It sat like a half finished Greek house for ages, and successive house moves saw it put away in a box and then forgotten about. Occasionally it would be found again, I'd thin about finishing it, and then it would be back in its box as other "priority" jobs came a long. 

As 2016 ended I found it again, and this time decided that 2017 would be the year that I would finally complete the project. A liberal application of Das modelling clay over a card roof saw the structure completed, and a new base was made from mounting board, painted, sanded and flocked, and hen a low fence and pub sign post made from cut down match sticks. The pub was christened "The Red Lion" with a sign made from a scaled down photograph. After 25 years the project was complete! I may do some more work on the base sometime, but for now the pub is ready to form the centrepiece of my 15mm ECW terrain collection. 

I think it was worth the wait.

One Hour Wargames - Pike and Shot Additions

A few people have asked me here through comments or via email what additions I've made to the Pike and Shot rules in "One Hour Wargames". Here's a summary:

Added Artillery, Shock Cavalry and Dragoon troop types

Artillery - move 4" (or optionally, position at start of game and they remain immobile). Range 18", unit rolls 2 dice for casualties, roll for out of ammo as normal. May not enter any terrain features, may not move into contact with enemy, only causes half number of casualties in hand to hand (round down)

Dragoons - move 10" , may shoot at end of move, may only charge into combat if out of ammo, shooting range 10", half casualties when engaging Cavalry, Reiters or Lobsters (round in favour of attacker)

Shock Cavalry (inspired by Haselrigg's Lobsters) - move 10", may not end move in a town, roll 2d6 for casualties on first turn of hand to hand combat. Swordsmen only inflict half casualties on Shock cavalry in hand to hand

Withdraw from Melee -Cavalry, Reiters, Dragoons  or Shock Cavalry can withdraw up to 12" but end their movement  facing away from the enemy when doing so. Enemy Reiters, Dragoons and Infantry who are not out of ammunition may also get a free shot as they withdraw.

One Hour Wargames

Like a few others in the wargaming blogosphere I've got a copy of Neil Thomas' "One Hour Wargames". At first glance there's not much here for the established wargamer. That first glance would be wrong. Some delightfully simple yet effective sets of rules covering ancients to WW2 which deliver enjoyable games of an hour or less that are actually very satisfying. As a wargamer of long standing I have inevitably tinkered with them and added a few bells and whistles to some of the sets presented here, but they all play just fine "out of the box". And of course this book makes the perfect introduction to ab initio wargamers. In true Bruce Quarrie or Donald Featherstone style a copy of the book, a few boxes of Airfix soldiers and you are away!

Anyway, I have been mostly trying these out with my 15mm English Civil War collection, all based up in a semi-WRG sense (as I got into 15mm ECW via one of Peter Colbeck's campaign weekends where we were using a DBA variant). A few fun games led to some "enhancements" so I now have some additional troop types in shock cavalry (Lobsters) and artillery, allowances for fortifications and options to withdraw from melee (which is a risky thing to try), minimal changes written in the style and level of complexity of the standard rules so they add (IMHO) to the experience without slowing the game down or making it too complex. Alas no piccies as yet since I can't find my green cloth and so the battles are being fought out over a dramatic sea scape adorned with terrain features (looks a bit like Somerset during the floods!) 

6mm ECW

Just at the moment I'm away on a rather interesting training course at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham. ne of the people I've met here in John Salt, a name that will be familiar to many wargamers. John advised me of the existence of the DA Wargames Club so after  hard day's lectures earlier this week I wandered down to the old Theatre and met up with the gamers there. And what a nice bunch of chaps! I ended up playing in a 6mm English Civil War game that is part of the club's continuing campaign.

My relief column on the road....

As my compatriot's force stands firm in the next village

As it happened my command (a Parliamentarian relief column seeking to rescue the baggage train of a friendly force) didn't quite make it into contact by the end of the game and the baggage escort managed to fight off their assailants anyway, but it was a fun game and the home-grown rules that the club is developing worked very well and "felt right". They would also work fine with 15mm figures on 40mm frontage bases, as all my ECW stuff just happens to be. I came away with a copy of the rules and 'm now on their mailing list. So I might well be giving these a spin with my PP figures when I get home.

Melee around the baggage train. 

The Plan (2013)

2013 – The Plan

Yes, like the Cylons, I have a plan. Unfortunately I don’t have Lucy Lawless or Tricia Helfer to make it happen, but apart from that ‘m sure it will be a great success. This is what I’m planning to do this time around:

1)      More games – I didn’t do too badly as far as actual games were concerned last year, and moving to Berkeley Vale whilst also having the local Wings of War group running games won’t hurt prospects for this year too. I’d like to run some sort of Sudan, age-of-sail (thanks for the excellent material, Dave Schueler) and/or DBA campaign at home during the year, but these are “stretch” targets as far as the plan is concerned.

2)      Medieval Naval – yes, I will get the last of the cogs finished, and spruce up the rules.

3)      Wings of War – a “standing item” now. As well as playing at home and with the Avon group I’m hoping to get  afew demo/parti games at shows sorted this year too.

4)      X wing – get my collection of ships sorted out, make up all requisite play aides for the various Micro Machines and other proxies.

5)      The Sudan – yes, get back to the purpose of this blog and play some more Sudan games. Also finish off the Bashi Basouks, a few outstanding terrain pieces and build at least one new gunboat

6)      WW2 Coastal – one of my original wargaming loves, I need to sort out my WW2 collection, fix a load of models that were broken in the move and generally get back in to playing this.

I have a few ideas for other things that will, no doubt, displace some of the above. Oh, and Project X is still on the back burner but may come roaring into life (dependent on outside influences though).

Finally I’ll be organising and gaming at the Naval Wargames Show in Gosport on June 22/23^rd. Hope to see some of you there. Its months away, but I suspect those months will fly by VERY quickly!!!

"Low Hanging Fruit" - Scots Covenanters (part 2)

January 8th and one of the elements of my plan for the year is complete. I decided to take the plunge on January 2nd and launched into what was left of my 15mm Scots Covenanters. This comprised a unit of lancers, a unit of cavalry, some frame guns and crews and a couple of stands of generals. The last of them (plus some retouching of the original units finished last year) was completed this morning.

Whilst sorting out these guys I also came across a generic set of resin fortifications - earth ditches with wooden pallisades, designed for use with WRG frontage units, so I splurged some paint on these as well since they look like they'll work well for ECW improvised fortifications. I might think about building some gun emplacements that  will fit in with these later.

The other part of this task was to find the DBA variant rules and army lists that I picked up from peter Colbeck when he did his ECW campaign a few years back. This I have also done. Of course, reading army lists AFTER the army is complete is never a good idea, as I've realised I could really do with some light cavalry as well as the regulars and lancers. Of course i sold off a load of medieval Scots at Reveille and I recall there were some fugures in there that would have been ideal, so a double whammy! Anyway, at least the figures I do have are finished, the rules are located and ready to go and the army lists show that what I do have is OK to make  a couple of Scots DBA armies, or a single BBDBA army. I don't have a campaign set up ready to go, but perhaps a peruse of the Warhammer Historical ECW book will give me some ideas.

Covenanters

Regular readers will recall that one of my objectives for this year has been to finish the Peter Pig ECW Scots that I bought several years ago. These poor sods have languished on the painting table for many months, always losing out to the latest 1/144 arrivals from Shapeways, ACW ships or SCW 15mm stuff and I was sure they'd be No. 1 on the "to do list" for 2012. However, a sudden burst of enthusiasm changed that this week. I'd started the foot troops some time ago, so its these that I've finished. I still have the cavalry and command stands to sort out, but for now getting the foot sloggers sorted is a major victory :)

This (apart from the cavalry and command) just about finishes off my ECW project that was born out of a weekend campaign run by Peter Colbeck some years ago. Rules are based on DBA with the Humberside extension, and a few local "tweaks" (although I must admit, the file with those tweaks has gone missing). I quite like the idea of resurrecting this campaign sometime in the near future.