Sunday, May 26, 2013

Burgundian Ordonnance Army


This is a blast from the past.
 
The full report on the 2nd ACT-NSW DBA Championships can be found here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3O3fJlp-yozTDM1OWZaOHI1NEk/edit?usp=sharing
 
My Burgundian Army is currently having two extra units raised so that it can be used for Field of Glory. 

After playing Later Hoplite Greek and variations with WRG 6th and doing the big conversion to WRG 7th I started to collect a medieval army for something diferent.  I settled on Burgundian Ordonnance as, with the high point values of the super heavy knights, not that many figures were required.
 
For my FOG army all I need is another four bases of knights, same of pike and three generals plua a camp.  I have the figures, just need to finish some conversion work and then paint.  It is one of my projects for 2013.

 

Hannibal versus the Ghaznavids


Ever since reading Hannibal: Enemy of Rome by Leonard Cottrell when I was a teenager I have wanted to run a Carthaginian army.  I recall experimenting with a few conversions from various Airfix figures to see what I could build back in the 70s, but didn’t take it too far.  Many decades passed until last Friday when I had the chance to run them against a Ghaznavid army courtesy of Mark W.

My 800 points Field Of Glory Carthaginian army had all the usual suspects including four elephants.



The Ghaznavids commenced aggressively advancing on Hannibal’s right.  Excellent as the limited plan I had was to mass my cavalry on my right and attack in echelon leading with that flank. 

Eagles view of Hannibal’s army from the left showing the Numidian light troops, Gauls, African spearman and the elephants in the distance before the massed cavalry with Hannibal.

The Spanish cavalry aided by the Gallic cavalry on their left and Numidians on their right engage the Nomad horse archers who had perhaps rashly stood to fight.

The Spanish are triumphant!  The Gauls are ready to charge while the Numidians fight on.

No!  The Arab cavalry with their lances prove too good for the Gauls and they are broken; Hannibal makes a lucky escape with only some dents to his helmet.

The Spanish foot get into trouble fighting a unit of Ghilman heavy cavalry, but it is elephants to the rescue!

Hannibal is triumphant again and is aided by the Spanish cavalry having the Arab lancers pinned.

Around this time on the left flank, the other unit of Ghilman cavalry comes to grips with the lone Numidian light horse brigade who got caught evading ... it ended badly.  The Ghilman cavalry went on to loot the Carthaginian camp.

Getting into more trouble, Hannibal is having a problem keeping his forces together to fight the Dailami armoured spearmen.  Some Ghaznavid horse archers have returned after defeating the Numidian cavalary that was on Hannibal’s right and are chasing the Numidian foot.  In the distance the Balearic slingers have engaged the Naffatun incendiary throwers.  Off to the right of the picture the Arab lancers charged the Spanish cavalry who failed to repeat their previous success against a more formidable foe and broke. 

Disaster!  Hannibal is killed and the Spanish foot and supporting elephants break.  The remaining elephants are distinctly unhappy.

The Gallic foot on the Carthaginian left finally get engaged, but right from the start things start to go against them.

While the Balearic slingers prevailed, it was not enough to save the inevitable destruction of the remaining Carthaginian elephants and with their demise so went the game.

An excellent game with lots of to and fro action and only one recourse to the rule book to deal with a tricky situation.

All figures and terrain is from Mark W’s collection.  A real delight to play with.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Barbarossa: Kiev to Rostov


Started to play the boardgame Barbarossa: Kiev to Rostov by GMT Games with Richard today.  More information on the game which is part of their Eastern Front Series can be found here: http://www.gmtgames.com/p-137-barbarossa-kiev-to-rostov.aspx.  While it is certainly complex, it plays well.  The introductory material on this website, http://www.wargalley.com/efs/index.php, was very helpful and a good way to introduce a game to new players.

I had grown up with SPI’s War in the East and Panzer Group Guderian, so while this was familiar territory, the game mechanics and detail was refreshing and interesting.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Miscellaneous

Finally finished these that can be either supply markers or hasty barricades.  The amazing things is some of these items are really old and are from Airfix sets or even those toys that used to come in Cornflacks packets.

Revell’s Deutsche Artillerie WWII – finished

Well, the gun is now finished; still have the limber to go. This gun was one of my identified 2013 projects so it is good to get some further closure on completing the various things I have underway, but never seem to get done.

It can be the divisional artillery regiment if I play MegaBlitz, a battery if I play BlitzKrieg Commander or a single gun for Crossfire.

Given I first posted about this model in January 2011, it has taken well over two years to get it to a playable state.  I had fun researching it and deciding on the basing, going more for the diorama than functional as the 9cm square base will take up a good amount of space on the table top.






Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Blucher in Command


For my Napoleon’s Battles 15mm Prussian army I needed to expanded the higher level command and employed some figures by Old Glory to do just that.  This project provided my a second corps commander:

 

And the Blucher army commander stand including a detachable Blucher. Yet to be used in anger, but should be interesting to see how the extra +3 Excellent general handles things.


The picture above was my first attempt and I realised that Blucher had his hand raised obscuring the anxious artillery man’s face.  In my second attempt the horse got in the way – I guess some figures and not destined for stardom.


With Blucher detached the figure is clear, but now in soft focus.  So it goes.


 
The space for Blucher is lightly flocked, but is metal and just holds the magnetised enough when he is back with his HQ staff.