My Sven Forkbeard, shield or not? You decide!

Several people have commented on the Sven Forkbeard model that I painted for Tony last week. While painting the Shieldwall Vikings I also painted my own Sven that Tony was kind enough to send me for doing his. Today, having finished the base, I thought I would show off my own Sven.

I have blu-tacked on the shield and I'm going to let my blog followers decide shield or not. Now the Duchy of Scrivsland is not a democracy so take maximum advantage of this rare bit of people power.

More lovely Shieldwall Vikings

Johnny sent me some more of the new Shieldwall Miniatures Vikings, four aggressive Hirdmen attacking with axes and a very enthusiastic looking Hirdman with sword and shield.

As with all the other Shieldwall Miniatures Vikings these are lovely looking models and an absolute doddle to paint.

I used my standard basecoat, sepia wash and then highlight method with the bases finished off with pumice gel.

I have had a few folks ask how they can get hold of these, so talking to Jonny, the Shieldwall Miniatures are not yet available in the Gripping Beast web-store, but if you email grippingbeast@btconnect.com or call Gripping Beast on  +44 1386 761511 (01386 761511 in the UK) then they will be happy to sort you out.

Anyway on to the images.

Christian Spanish Caballeros and Casuaties

Top blogger buddy Andy was kind enough to send me a couple of Perry Miniatures First Crusade Knights left over from his El Cid project to pad out my own Christian Spanish. They were already primed in black and stuck on the horses, which is something I don't usually do but I did a bit of swift brush work using my base-coat, sepia wash then highlights method and I think they turned out quite well.

As I like to paint in batches of six to ten figures at a time, I also did a couple of Gripping Beast Norman casualties that Tony had sent me at the same time. These will be used as either battlefield litter when playing WAB or Saga or as casualty markers when playing Hail Caesar.

Black Powder - 1815 French vs Prussians

Action in the centre

This evening I was due to play a game of Black Powder against Mog with his Prussians, unfortunately he is struck down with Man Flu so Paul stepped up to the plate with his Prussians. We both picked 750pt lists from Albion Triumphant II, I used:

Divisional Commander SR8
Brigade Commander SR8, 2 Legere, 1 Veteran Ligne
Brigade Commander SR8, 4 Ligne, 1 Foot Artillery
Brigade Commander SR7, 4 Ligne, 1 Foot Artillery
Brigade Commander SR8, 1 Veteran Dragoons
Brigade Commander SR8, 2 Cuirassiers

I'm not really sure what Paul used, because I'm not familiar with the Prussians, but he certainly had three units of cavalry (one each of Dragoons, Hussars and Lancers), three Foot Batteries and a Horse Battery and about eight battalions of infantry.

The right hand side of the centre

We rolled for the Generals characteristics and I rolled pretty poorly and Paul rolled excellently, most of his were highly Independent and/or Decisive - bugger.

We set too and very soon my small infantry Brigade and my Dragoons were shaken, not a good start, although I was giving the Prussians as good as they got. Paul ensconced a unit of Fusiliers in a building but rather than being suckered into trying to take the building I just wheeled up a battery and gave them a pounding.

In one ridiculous round of combat, a unit of my Cuirassier unit charged a unit of Prussian Hussars, Paul told me that 'this is a luck unit', too bloody right, out of my ten attacks on a 3+ I hit three times and Paul saved them all, and then with his six attacks back caused three casualties on the Cuirassiers who only won the combat by rolling a 3 on the Heavy Cavalry +D3 roll!

Bloody Hussars that refuse to die.

I was pushing hard at the Prussians and were were both taking heavy casualties, but I made a stupid mistake, having shattered his cavalry Brigade, a unit of Cuirassier with  two casualties on them pursued into a broken cavalry unit and despite winning the combat took a completely unnecessary  casualty and resulted in the breaking of my third brigade and hence the army.

The game was really quite close though, both of us had only lost a couple of units actually destroyed and were were both only a casualty or two from having a large infantry brigade shattered which would have been the end of things.

I'm obviously a bit  rusty at Black Powder but still had an excellent time.

The terrain is all from the collection of Paul, who painted all the Prussians, the French are all mine. I forgot to take many photos during the game, but these three are a few I snapped towards the end.

First game of WAB in many a month

Samurai battle line

I'm currently working in Surrey so that gives me a great opportunity to meet up with Wayne to play a game of WAB.

Yesterday evening I popped over to Waynes and we tried out a couple of Medieval lists (1200 CE+) at 3500pts. The only army I have that meets these criteria is my Christian Spanish so I used:

  
King - 179pts
Warhorse, Hand Weapon, Throwing Spear, Heavy Armour, Shield

Captain - 108pts
Warhorse, Hand Weapon, Throwing Spear, Light Armour, Shield

Spanish battle line

Standard Bearer - 124pts
Warhorse, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield

10 Military Order Knights - 395pts
Hand Weapon, Lance, Heavy Armour, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. First Charge

12 Military Order Knights - 471pts
Hand Weapon, Lance, Heavy Armour, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. First Charge

11 Cavalry - 389pts
Hand Weapon, Throwing Spear, Javelin, Light Armour, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight

9  Jinetes - 239pts
Hand Weapon, Throwing Spear, Javelin, Shield
Leader. Light Cavalry, Feigned Flight

21 Guards - 435pts

Monks and Samurais

Hand Weapon, Thrusting Spear, Javelins, Light Armour, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard.

21 Spearmen - 337pts
Hand Weapon, Thrusting Spear, Javelins, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. Combined Formations
7 Archers
Hand Weapon, Bow. Combined Formations

21 Spearmen - 337pts
Hand Weapon, Thrusting Spear, Javelins, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. Combined Formations
7 Archers
Hand Weapon, Bow. Combined Formations

Spanish left flank

21 Spearmen - 288pts
Hand Weapon, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Shield
Leader, Musician, Standard. Light Infantry

9 Crossbowmen - 126pts
Hand Weapon, Crossbow, Light Armour

6 Skirmishers - 36pts
Hand Weapon, Sling

6 Skirmishers - 36pts
Hand Weapon, Sling

Wayne used his Japanese which if I recall correctly was:

Ashigaru archers

Lord with bow, two units of Hero plus 20 Samurai with heavy armour and bows, two units of Hero plus 23 infantry with bows, two units of Leader plus 11 monks with halberds, two units of 12 Samurai cavalry with heavy armour and bows.

Wayne drew a map and I deployed my force, I deployed heavy on the right flank with my Cavalry and Military Order Knights backed up with the crossbow, the centre was a solid wall of infantry and my left lightly held with the light infantry, slingers and Jinetes.

Wayne had a unit of cavalry and monks on each flank and his centre made up of the Samurai foot and Ashigaru.

First charge of the game

I took the first turn and made a general advance towards the Japanese line, Wayne replied with some pretty poor shooting but my armour was also pretty poor and a couple of Military Order knights Knights were dispatched along with several spearmen. I launched my first charge, the larger unit of Military Order Knights crashed into a unit of Samurai cavalry, scattering them to the wind and pursuing them off table. On my left I was harassing the other unit of Samurai cavalry with the Jinetes and slingers.

Where did they go?

Wayne continued to concentrate bow fire on my poorly armoured spearmen and they were soon whittled down and eventually scattered by a charge from the Samurai warriors. My pursuing cavalry returned to the fray and were soon engaged with a unit of the Ashigaru, having spent their first charge they made heavy weather of the ensuing combat but eventually beat the foot. My other Knights with the General and Army Standard charged a unit of Samurai foot, but suffered a couple of casualties from the closing fire and then badly lost the combat and were forced to disengage with only five figures remaining!

Eventually, at the cost of my Jinetes the other Samurai cavalry were whittled down to a couple of figures and were then hiding from the slingers for the remainder of the game. The monks charged my light infantry and the combat initially went my way, but the monks eventually got the upper hand and broke them, but were unable to pursue because the monks also panicked due to the Ashigaru breaking.

Going for it in the centre

By the end of the game both sides had suffered heavy losses, but the Christian Spanish had a slight upper hand. I think Wayne initially thought that the Japanese did not have a chance, but they performed a lot better than he had expected.

I really enjoyed this and would certainly be up for some more games of WAB.

Monks and light infantry

Saga Sven Forkbeard

Alongside the recent Saxon Casualties, Tony also asked if I would paint him the Gripping Beast Sven character that was given away as part of the Saga release to the initial pre-orders.

I have painted a shield for the figure, but have not attached as I think it looks better without it. Tony can have the choice to attach or not.

Saxon Casualties

Tony asked me to paint him a few casualties for his Early Saxons, six of these figures are Gripping Beast, I'm not sure of the other but I think it may be an Old Glory one.

El Cid Characters

It's been a week of painting catch-up. I have had this Crusader Miniatures pack of Pedro Bermudez and King Alfonso for at least a couple of years, they had been cleaned up and base-coated and stuck at the corner of my painting table all this time.

I finally got around to doing something with them over the past week, a quick base-coat, wash of Vallejo Sepia and then a couple of highlights and I think they look quite presentable.

The standard and shield designs are not based upon any historical source.

Here are a few more images:

I've also painted a trio of Berber characters to go with the new painting project to fight against the Christian Spanish. A Sheik, Imam and Standard Bearer. Again these were done with a quick base-coat, sepia was and couple of highlights. The standard is done by doing a Google image search for Arabic Poetry to get the flow of the text.

Dark age ponies

I have had this pair of Gripping Beast ponies base-coated and washed sitting in a corner of my painting table for longer than I care to remember. It's at least two years since I painted the sheep and pigs I picked up at the same time.

It was only the matter of a few minutes to do a quick highlight and sort out the bases.

Bolt Action - Cameron Ridge - Feb 1941

The Italian held ridge on the left

Following on from last weeks game, this time, James, Steve, Laurence and myself had another go at the Cameron Highlanders clearing the Savoia Grenadiers from the ridge, this time using Bolt Action.

The forces were very similar, the British were:

• Officer (+1 Motivation): Pistol
• Platoon Sergeant (+2 Motivation) SMG
• Five sections each NCO and six rifles, LMG gunner
• Two light mortars
• Vickers MMG

The Italians were:

• Officer (+1 Motivation): Pistol
• Four sections each NCO and six rifles, LMG gunner
• Medium Machine Gun
• Sniper

British press onto the ridge

All troops were regular, but the British sections containing an NCO were made Motivation 10 while ever the NCO remained in the section.

Steve would play the Italians, James and Laurence the British, I would umpire the game and push things along.

The Italians had one section, the MMG and the sniper defending the ridge from the start, all other squads were in Reserve. The entire British force was deployed as First Wave.

British section provide fire support from a rocky outcrop

The British put a large push up their left flank and despite the loss of one of the NCOs to the sniper were soon pressurising the Italians at that end of the ridge and a bayonet charge saw off all the Italians at that end of the table. On the other flank the British fared less well, soon pinned down by the Machine Gun and the commitment of most of the Italian reserves on this flank that attack soon faltered. However, as soon as a pin was placed on the Italian MMG it failed three consecutive motivation checks allowing the British to push forwards, especially as the Italian reserves committed to that flank were being drawn off to counter the British successes on their right flank.

The attack on the left makes great games.

By the end of the game the Italians were pretty much surrounded in the centre of the ridge but were proving very difficult to dislodge from the rocky outcrops. The British had lost two sections and a light mortar, the Italians one section and the sniper. A small victory to the British forces.

Here are some more images from the game, I provided a couple of sections of British, the remainder of the British, all the Italians and the terrain was made an painted by James.