WAB Almohad Civil War

My Moors

Yesterday evening Tom and I played a great game of WAB. I'd been keen to try out my new El Cid Almohads so Tom came down to the Polly for a game.

Tom also used his Almohads, my force was:

• Venerable Emir
• Army Standard Bearer
• 3 units of 21 Spearmen with large shield + 7 Archers, full command
• 2 units of 21 Spearmen with shield + 7 Archers, full command
• 1 unit of 9 Berber Horse with throwing spear and shields, full command

More Moors (and friends)

Toms rebel Almohads were

• Emir
• Army Standard Bearer
• Imam
• Sheik
• 1 unit of 22 Spearmen with large shield + 8 Archers, full command (Emir and ASB in here)
• 1 unit of 23 Spearmen with large shield + 8 Archers, full command (Imam in here)
• 1 unit of 9 Berber Horse with throwing spear and shields, full command (Sheik in here)
• 1 unit of 9 Tribal Skirmishers
• 1 unit of 9 Andalusian Archers
• 1 unit of 12 Christian Knights, full command 

Both of us weighed in at about the 1600pt mark.

The game started cagey, both of us were armed with Thrusting spear so neither was really prepared to get that first charge in so we peppered each other with arrows and javelins. My Berber horse were soon shot down to three models and ran away. We eventually got stuck in in the middle, Tom electing to get the charge in, but it went pretty badly for him, his Christian Knights broke and ran, taking the Emirs unit with them. 

I was soon stuck into the remaining spear unit, but launched a charge against the now rallied Emirs unit and lost badly, the pursuit taking Toms Emirs bodyguard into the flank of one of my units while his Berber horse charged the rear. I was soon in disarray, but the Ld 10 Venerable Emir soon pulled it back together and I got a last desperate charge in eventually scattering the pretenders forces to the four winds.

A great game that swung back and forth over about ten turns.

It's good to see Tom at the club, and no doubt his blog will soon be updated with some wildly exaggerated version of events :)

 

Another half-box of Desert Rats

This weekend I did the highlights and bases on another 20 Perry Miniatures Desert Rats for my continued 5th Indian Division in East Africa project.

This time I made a few up carrying picks and shovels, the intention being to eventually have a section or two of Bombay Sappers, not to be confused with Bombay Sapphire which is also very nice.

Not a Bombay Saaphire. Confusing isn't it

Not a Bombay Sapper

Shows the way

BREN team

Grenade! with a suave scarf

BREN team at rest

Double bonus rules day!

This evening at the White Hart I picked up my copy of Longstreet from the great chaps at Northstar, I arrive home to find that the postie has been and my copy of Chain of Command has arrived.

Now the dilemma is which to read first!

Longstreet is smaller format so may get read in bed tonight.

El Cid Campaign Day - 10th November 2013 - Full Again!

El Cid Campaign Day

I am pleased to invite you to a one day WAB 2.0 Campaign day at the Polly Bowls Club in Sutton in Ashfield on Sunday 10th November 2013. The cost of the day is £12.00 and includes a buffet lunch and teas and coffees throughout the day.

We currently have space for 16 players.
Arriving in the morning you will be split into (hopefully) equal sized factions and over the course of the day you will play three games of Warhammer Ancient Battles. Dependent on the results of the game you will either gain or lose territories and gold. The winners of the campaign will be the team of players who control the most territories, and the team that has amassed the most lucre.
If you are planning on staying over on the Saturday night, please let me know and we can arrange to go out for a curry.

Your Army

Players will pick a 1600 point list from the El Cid supplement. Chosen from one of the following lists:
• The Age of El Cid
• The Taifa Kings
• The Almoravids
Your army must be made of representative models and be fully painted and based to a least a gaming standard. There will be a prize for the best painted army at the event.

Army List Submission

Please submit your lists by Sunday 27th October  to smith.paul18@sky.com 

Games
During the day you will play in a mixture of singles and doubles games with different scenarios. If you would like to forge an alliance with any specific player or group of players for the event, please let me know and I’ll accommodate you. Else, you will be associated with an ally commensurate with your army and situation on the campaign map.

Depending on your game result you will lose or gain up to two of your territories and gain or lose gold.

Special Rules for the Campaign Day

• With the release of WAB 2.0, units that are fleeing may not use the leadership of any character in the unit. Having spoken with James Morris, the author of the El Cid and Age of Arthur supplements, this is not intended and the leadership of any character in the unit may be used.
• Light infantry who start the game deployed in skirmish formation may elect not to field a standard bearer, replace the model with a normal trooper.

Payment Details

Please may a Paypal payment to smith.paul18@sky.com your place will not be confirmed until Payment is received.
Cancellations after Sunday 27th October will not be refunded.
If you have any special needs please contact me before the event and I will try to make any reasonable adjustments.

Venue

The event will be held at the Polly Bowls Club, Sports Ground, 10 Unwin Road, Sutton in Ashfield, Notts, NG17 4HN.
From the South exit junction 28 of the M1 and follow the A38 Mansfield signs. Stay with this dual carriageway through all sets of traffic lights (this is a long stretch, easily five of six miles) until you come to a set of lights with a pub called the King and Miller and a Macdonald’s on your left. Filter left and go past McDonalds, turn left at the next set of lights and you are on Unwin Road, the entrance to the sports grounds are on your left, if you get as far as the Unwin Social Club you have gone too far.
The venue can be quite difficult to find as it is behind some buildings off of Unwin Road, however if you look out for the Rugby Club banner, go down the right hand side of the green-panelled building and drive around the rugby pitch the car park and bowls club building are at the bottom.

This is the entrance you are looking for, drive down the right hand side of that green-panelled building and around the sports pitches

'Satellite' image showing the location of the venue

Local Accommodation

TRAVELODGE MANSFIELD

Travelodge have an excellent hotel with plenty of rooms within five minutes’ drive of the venue, and you could walk it in five minutes. They’ve a lot of space and ample parking!
Telephone: 0871 984 6140
Website: http://www.travelodge.co.uk
Address: Lakeside Point, Mansfield Road, Sutton in Ashfield,
Nottinghamshire. NG17 4NP

PINE LODGE HOTEL

A lovely hotel is the Pine Lodge, situated on the A60 Nottingham Road and thus (quite literally) two minutes from us by car or five minutes on foot. It has twenty bedrooms and various prices. Telephone: (01623) 622 308
Address: 281-283 Nottingham Road, Mansfield. NG18 4SE
Website: http://www.pinelodge-hotel.co.uk

PORTLAND HALL HOTEL

A lovely Georgian mansion of a hotel set in fifteen acres of parkland, the Portland Hall is relatively difficult to find but worth it if you're not bothered how much you spend. It's about fifteen minutes from the venue by car.
Telephone: (0871) 716 1883
Address: Carr Bank Park, Windmill Lane, Mansfield. NG18 2AL

PARKHURST GUEST HOUSE

The Parkhurst Guest House, situated fifteen minutes from the venue by car, is really a bed-and-breakfast so it should suit those on a tight budget.
Telephone: 01623 627 324
Address: 28 Woodhouse Road, Mansfield. NG18 2AF

MANSFIELD GUEST HOUSE

Next door to the Parkhurst is the Mansfield Guest House, and again if you prefer bed and breakfasts to hotels you can find none better in Mansfield.
Telephone: 01623 629 352
Address: 27 Woodhouse Road, Mansfield. NG18 2AF

Confirmed Entrants:

1. Geraint Osborn - Age of El Cid
2. Darrell Hindley - Age of El Cid
3. Carl Fisher - Age of El Cid
4. Tom Webster-Deakin - Almoravid
5. Steve Marshall - Age of El Cid
6. Keith Tait - Almoravid
7. Neil Dee - Age of El Cid
8. Martin Gibbins - Almoravids
9. Peter Plinston - Age of El Cid
10. Philip Morgan - Age of El Cid
11. John Carter - Taifa Kingdoms
12. Jim Sweeny - Taifa Kingdoms
13. Craig Green - Age of El Cid
14. Tom Greenwood - Almoravid
15. Pete Johnson - Taifa Kingdoms
16. Alex Barnes - Almoravid
17. Peter Howarth - Almoravid
18. Bryan Bowdell - Almoravid
19. Simon Pope - Almoravid
20. Lee McColl - Age of El Cid

Unconfirmed Entrants:

1. 
   

Reserves

1. 
   

Martin Schwartz - Battle of Stoke Field 1487

The last one in my series of painting oddments this week, the 'Martin Schwartz - Battle of Stoke Field 1487' figure given away at the recent Partizan show.

I think it's the first 28mm War of the Roses figure that I've ever painted. A very nice sculpt, rather slender. The hands holding the weapons are supplied separately, but that did not stop me breaking the sword off at the hilt!

Like the Joshua Chamberlain, this figure does not match any of the others in my collection so is destined for the display cabinet.

Joshua Chamberlain "Hero of Little Round Top"

While at Partizan earlier this year I picked up a freebie Joshua Chamberlain "Hero of Little Round Top" model from the Wargames Illustrated stand. It's quite a nice little figure, sculpted by Mark Owen and as this week has been 'finish off bits and bobs week' I decided to paint this chap up. As he is almost entirely in very dark blue this was not a time consuming job, probably a matter of 30 minutes.

I don't have any other 28mm ACW figures so he'll likely end up in a display cabinet.

Here are a couple more views. I've already plucked off the stray tufts from the front of the base.

Jarl Sigvaldi the Jomsviking Raider

I've had the Jarl Sigvaldi the Jomsviking Raider figure from Musketeer Miniatures for quite a long time now. He's been sat on the shelf, primed white with the metals picked out in black for at least 18 months. I had broken the axe handle so had to replace with a bit of brass rod, so it's held quite differently to the original.

This week I've had a go at clearing some of these figures up and getting them painted, I already posted my Gladiator and Svenn updates, so here is Jarl Sigvaldi:

He'll now join my ever growing Saga Viking warband.

Bolt Action intro for Ian

Earlier in the week Ian asked me if I could give him a trial game of Bolt Action, as usual I was happy to oblige so turned up at 'the Polly' with a few boxes of terrain and couple of boxes of figures.

We decided that we would use 500pt forces and play a random mission. We rolled off and I would be playing the British, so used:

• 2nd Lieutenant plus a Burmese scout
• Artillery observer plus assistant
• Two sections each of 10 regulars including a Bren Gun and NCO with SMG
• One section of 9 Gurkhas including a Bren Gun, NCO with SMG and another SMG
• 2" Mortar

Ian chose to use

• 1st Lieutenant
• Medic
• One squad of 15 regulars including NCO with SMG
• One squad of 14 regulars including a LMG and NCO with SMG
• 50mm Mortar
• MMG 

Everything was regulars apart from the Gurkhas.

A mission was rolled up and we would be playing Envelopment, Ian won the attacker/defender roll so I explained to him that as I had the Preliminary Bombardment rule, it was probably in his interest to chose to be the attacker.

The game progressed quite well, Ian learned the vagaries of the movement sequence when a good run of order dice for him resulted in him being able to shoot up one of my infantry sections with a combination of his infantry, light mortar and MMG before I drew a die that section was down to just a single man.

Ian also had a good start on ordering units with Pin makers on them, his first two command rolls were blunders.

It did not all go Ian's way though, when my artillery arrived it did for his Lieutenant and the three units around him were all on 3 pin markers.

By then end of the game, Ian had killed my light mortar and I had killed his Lieutenant. The judicious application of pin markers on his troops just outside my deployment zone and the failure to roll for a seventh turn meant that I just bagged a draw!

Look, I said I'm not buying any figures for any new projects

And I'm sticking to it!

Honest!

But my friends keep under-mining me.

James - the ginger one on the right in the Waterloo photo above - has decided that he wants to play Gladiators. It all sounds very good, but I'm sticking to my guns. So to undermine me, he goes and buys some Crusader Miniatures Gladiators, and then gives me one, just as a taster, you know.

Of course I have to go and paint it, and I've started making an arena, but I draw the line at buying figures.

Here's my Murmillo, hopefully he'll stay very lonely.

The base is quite plain, as the arena floor will just be sanded.

Svenn Update!

It's quite a while since all the votes were cast, and the majority decided that Svenn should carry a shield.

So, I finally got my act together yesterday evening, added some highlights to the back of the shield and glued it on.

Here are a few shots of the shielded Svenn:

Welcome to the Dark Side

Martin and I had a session of the X-Wing Miniatures Game at the club this evening. I only have the basic set so we rattled through a few games:

He's a rebel at heart

Game 1

Introductory game of Rookie Rebel Pilot against Academy Pilot and Obsidian Squadron Pilot. Martin took the Rebels. We ran through the rules and had the first game, victory to the Imperium. Although after the game I re-read the shield rules and we were doing them wrong.

Game 2

Another introductory game of Rookie Rebel Pilot against Academy Pilot and Obsidian Squadron Pilot. Martin again took the Rebels. Another victory to the Imperium, but closer this time.

Game 3

Political Escort, Rookie Rebel Pilot against two Academy Pilots. Martin took the Imperium (for a change). Victory to the Rebel Alliance, the Senators shuttle left the table with 5 points of damage! After we re-read the rules and realised that you cannot inflict criticals on the shuttle, else it would have been curtains for the senator.

Game 4

Political Escort, Rookie Rebel Pilot against two Academy Pilots. I took the Imperium. Victory to the Imperium, the Senators shuttle only just cleared the half-way mark but I did lose a Tie-Fighter.

Game 5 

Asteroid Run, Martin had Luke Skywalker, I had Night Beast and Mauler Mithel. A close run game, but a Rebel victory as the X-wing with only a single point of damage remaining zipped off the table in turn 5.

So four games to one in favour of the Imperium, this force thing ain't all it's cracked up to be.

DIY mat for X-Wing Miniatures Game

Last week I need a tin of Army Painter Desert Yellow spray in order to start on another box of Perry Miniatures Desert Rats. It seems to be like rocking-horse shit at the moment and the only place that seemd to have any was the chaps at Firestorm Games. It seemed rather a small order with just one aerosol so I also purchased a copy of the X-Wing miniatures game from them.

The game arrived last Thursday and very good it seems too, however, there is no playing area and a plain table top is not going to cut it. I looked around and you can buy some very expensive mats, but I've not played the game yet so I went for the cheaper option.

A piece of black felt 1m x 1.5m cost me £4.94 from eBay. It arrived today and I pegged it out on the washing line. I then grabbed a handful of Vallejo paints, the lid off of an old tub and an old toothbrush (old in that I was still using it this morning).

Squirt some paint onto the lid, pick up with toothbrush and 'flick' the bristles at the felt. I predominately used white, but also did a few 'blasts' of red, blue and yellow.

It seems to have turned out ok and was a bargain at under a fiver!

Peg out the cloth

Put some paint on the pallet

Pick up paint with toothbrush and flick at the felt

Action shot!

Victoria and I have had a couple of games of X-Wing, Victoria demanding to be the Rebels in both games and we are currently at one-all! It's a neat little system.

Perry Miniatures / Blitzkreig Miniatures Universal Carrier

Over the weekend I finished off the Universal Carrier that I purchased at Salute along with a box of the Desert Rats.

A really nice model produced by Perry Miniatures in conjunction with BlitzKreig Miniatures, cast in one piece resin with additional resin stowage and with the crew and guns are cast in white metal.

This was really easy to paint. The crews were done in the usual method, the vehicle was painted as follows:

• Base-coat of 1/3 Vallejo US Tan Earth, 2/3 Vallejo Dark Sand
• Guns picked out in Vallejo Black
• Shovel handles in Vallejo Vallejo Saddle Brown
• Tracks painted in 1/3 Vallejo Black, 1/3 Vallejo Saddle Brown, 1/3 Vallejo Gunmetal Grey
• Stowage painted in a mixture of colours
• I then washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash
• The vehicle was highlighted first with the original base-coat and then with successive Dark Sand added.
• The other bits were highlighted accordingly (usually by adding Vallejo Pale Sand to the base-coat colour)
• I then painted in the headlamps, tactical markings and 5th Indian Division (Ball of Fire) insignia.

It painted up really easily and very quickly and I'm pretty happy with the results.