Hundred Years War: French (21)

Even though February has not been as productive as January I'm still cracking on nicely at a fair rate, mainly with the inspiration from being a part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

More work on the Hundred Years War French this time with a half dozen mounted men at arms from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt Mounted Knights 1415-29 box.

The figures are a delight to assemble and paint, plus the frame comes with loads of useful extras, so much that you can get an extra six figures out of the set if you order a couple of these.

The movement trays were a custom order from Warbases and have three 20mm x 45mm cutouts for the bases.

A few close ups of the six individual knights showing some of the poses that can be made from the set, if they seem a bit samey it's because I paint them two riders and two horses at the same time using the same palette, when they mix into the larger units it looks more random.

I'm off on vacation now for a few days but will be back at the weekend with more progress on the collection.

Longstreet Campaign - The Battle in the Wilderness 27th of August 1863

After a couple of missed weeks Drew and I resumed our Longstreet campaign on Thursday evening with the last campaign game of 1863.

Rolling for the scenario we would again be playing the The Hilltop, despite the Union forces having Broken Codes for this game the Confederate Scout came good for a rare occasion and Whippa would be defending.

The terrain rolls came up woodland after woodland and soon the bare heights were edge to edge in trees.

Confederate forces

Major General Gerald P. Whippam (EP:25) is a 31 year old Floridian and is already a Veteran of the Indian Wars and is accompanied by his personal Scout who's reliably provided the best ground to make a stand in earlier engagements. At the Battle of Battle of Keller's Heights Doctor Thaddeus Marle joined the force as Whippam's Personal Physician. His cool handling of the artillery at the Battle of New Glarus Turnpike in 1863 gavee Gerald useful insight as an Artillery Officer

Unit	Type	Elan	Experience	Strength	Notes
21st Virginia	CAV	Seasoned	Veterans	6
8th Tennessee	CAV	Eager	Veterans	8
4th South Carolina	INF	Seasoned	Veterans	6	Hero: Sgt. Jones
2nd/8th South Carolina	INF	Cautious	Veterans	5	Sharpshooters, Hero: Lt. Smith Amalgamated with 2nd FL
18th North Carolina	INF	Seasoned	Veterans	6
5th Georgia	INF	Seasoned	Recruits	7
Battery D Georgia Light Artillery	ART	-	-	2	Two 12lb smoothbore
Battery A 3rd Virginia Artillery	ART	-	-	2	One 12lb smoothbore, one howitzer

Union forces

Brigadier General Elias Rogers (EP:13) is a 31 year old graduate of West Point and had made a career as an Artillery Officer in the United States army. He is a Leading Abolitionist and is steadfast in the cause. The Irish Catholic Fire and Brimstone Preacher Father Seamus O'Riordan has seen fit to attach himself to Colonel Rogers staff.

Unit	Type	Elan	Experience	Strength	Notes
20th Maine	INF	Cautious	Veterans	2	Hero: Lt. Chamberlain
39th Ohio	INF	Cautious	Veterans	2
10th Iowa	INF	Cautious	Veterans	4
2nd Wisconsin	INF	Seasoned	Veterans	5	Amalgamated with 15th VT
27th New Jersey	INF	Eager	Veterans	8	Old Reliables
55th Massachusetts	INF	Seasoned	Recruits	6	Colored troops, Old Reliables
103rd Pennsylvania	INF	Seasoned	Recruits	10	Zouaves
Battery B 6th US Artillery	ART	-	-	3	One Napoleon, Two light rifles
Battery E 10th Pennsylvania Artillery	ART	-	-	3	One 12lb Napoleon, two heavy rifles
Battery F Michigan Artillery	ART	-	-	3	One 12lb Napoleon, two heavy rifles

The Union forces start this battle with a Broken Code

I was particularly happy to be the defender and to have the objectives so masked by woodland, I could at least try to shield myself from the massive Union artillery park that was arrayed against me.

The forces were deployed and we poured beers, grabbed some gaming snacks and had at it.

The Union had gone strong on my right where I only had one infantry regiment supported by the horse defending, so I started to push more troops towards that flank. On my left I advanced through the woodland, but, staying clear of the edge.

I did rather get to close though and a "Confusion" card pulled the 5GA to the edge of the wood where they were pounded with a "Point Blank" fortunately Drew threw some terrible dice and they only lost a couple of bases.

On my left things were going better for the 2/8SC whose Sharpshooters were tearing ragged holes in the recruits of the 103PA, they marched on the field with 600 men and at the end of the day only 120 were left holding the line.

The hammer blow was about to fall on my right, beyond the judicious playing of "Trackless", "Confusion" and "Poor Surveying" there was little I could do to hold up the mass of Union troops heading towards my line.

The first charge, led by the 55MA struck home, but some most excellent dice rolling saw that beaten off and followed up with a Confederate counter-charge that in most places caused the Union line to fall back in some disarray.

Both sides were perilously close to breaking and the first test by the Confederates saw the Union stay in the game and launch another charge of their own, throwing well over half their troops into a vicious hand to hand melee.

This time the outcomes were about even, with both sides having units retire from the scrap, by this stage the Union force had lost 18 bases and the Confederates 17. But as it was the Union turn it was their time to test for victory and with a break point of 21 it was an even roll.

Drew threw a four and there it was a close fought bloody victory to the Union again!

This battle saw the end of some units that had been with us since 1861 with the remnants of both the 20th Maine and 39th Ohio being sent to form cadres of new units. The 55th Massachusetts performed well in the field only to be decimated by a typhoid outbreak in camp!

Onwards to 1864!

Sagrajas 1086

Last Saturday we met up at Noble Knight Games to re-fight the Battle of Sagrajas 1086 using the Hail Caesar rules.

Kevin and I would play the forces of Aragorn, Castile and León while Drew and Bruce the Almoravids with their Taifa kingdom allies.

Most of the figures are from my collection, and Kevin contributed quite a lot of Christian Hildagos from his collection, rather more than he had expected as I managed to leave a whole box of Hildagos of my own at home!

The forces were.

Christian Spanish

Alfonso VI, King of León and Castile Ld8 (Fervour 2)

• 1 unit Caballeros Hildagos
• 2 units Caballeros
• 1 unit Guard spearmen
• 1 unit Jinetes
• 1 unit skirmishers with slings

Álvar Fáñez, of Castille Ld8

• 1 unit Caballeros Hildagos
• 1 unit Caballeros
• 1 unit Jinetes
• 1 unit Mercenary spearmen
• 1 unit Crossbowmen
• 1 unit skirmishers with javelins

Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragorn Ld8

• 1 unit Caballeros Hildagos
• 2 units Caballeros
• 1 unit Jinetes

The Count of Ribagorza Ld8

• 1 unit Caballeros Hildagos
• 1 unit Caballeros
• 2 units Peones with archers
• 1 unit Peasant levy
• 1 unit skirmishers with bows

Almoravids and Andalusians 

Yusuf ibn Tashfin Ld9 (Fervour 3)

• 1 unit of Black Guard
• 2 units of Berber spearmen with hippo hide shields
• 1 unit of Berber archers
• 1 unit of skirmishers with javelins
• Command arrives on turn 3

Al Mu'tamid ibn Abbad of Seville Ld8

• 1 unit of Andalusian Nobles
• 3 units of Andalusian Jinetes
• 1 unit of Andalusian spearmen
• 1 unit of skirmishers with bows

Umar ibn Muhammad al-Mutawakkil of Badajoz Ld8

• 1 unit of Mercenary African spearmen
• 2 units of Berber spearmen
• 1 unit of Berber archers
• 1 unit of skirmishers with javelins
• 1 unit of skirmishers with bows

Abdallah ibn Buluggin of Granada Ld8

• 1 unit of Hasham Guard cavalry
• 1 unit of Berber light cavalry
• 2 units of light camelry
• Command arrives on turn 3

Ahmad ben Muhammad of Almería Ld8

• 1 unit of Berber spearmen with hippo hide shields
• 1 unit of Berber spearmen
• 1 unit of Berber archers
• 2 unit of skirmishers with javelins

Tamim of Málaga Ld8

• 4 unit of Berber light cavalry

We had the private room at Noble Knight and this allowed me to set up a good sized 10ft x 6ft6in table with plenty of space for a couple of side tables holding reinforcements and cavalry.

The battle lines were drawn up as below, about 40% of the Berber forces were being held off table for the killer blow.

We modified the units and added an extra special rule for fervour, the details are at the bottom of this post. I did want the Christians to struggle with the Berber spear blocks, so all were equipped with Long spears, while the hippo hide shields would count as stubborn.

As expected, when the numbers were even at the start of the game the Christians made good progress, breaking through the Berbers in some places only for these rash units to be broken on the second wave of Berber foot

The African mercenaries performed particularly well initially forming a solid bulwark against the Caballeros and then pushing on into the Peones behind.

The arrival of the main force of Berbers soon saw the battle swing back in favour of the Almoravids as the Spanish forces weakened.

After a very hard slog and almost consecutively both forces had lost three of their commands, fortunately for the Berbers this was not over a half of their army, unfortunately for the Spanish it was.

Much blood had been spilled and life lost, az-Zallaqah would live up to its name.

Thanks to Drew for taking extra photos, I did not get very many at all.

A few extra shots from the game.

Hail Caesar lists for the game, no points as: "pah! who needs points?"

Christian Spanish
Unit	Clash	Sust.	Short	Long	Morale	Stamina	Special	Pts.
Guard infantry with spears	7	7	3/0	-	4+	6	Tough fighters
Heavy infantry with spears	7	7	3/0	-	4+	6
Peones Medium infantry with spears and/or javelins and rear ranks of bows	6	6	3	1	5+	6
Aqueros Light infantry with crossbows	4	4	3	3	-	6
Levy	4	4	3/0	-	-	6	Levy
Skirmishers with bows	2	2	2	2	-	4
Skirmishers with slings	2	2	2	2	-	4
Skirmishers with javelins	3	2	2	-	-	4
Caballeros Hildagos Heavy cavalry with spears and/or javelins	9	6	3	-	4+	6	Tough fighters
Caballeros Medium cavalry with spears and/or javelins	8	5	3	-	5+	6	Feigned flight
Jinetes Light cavalry with spears and/or javelins	5	3	2	-	6+	4	Marauders Feigned flight

Almoravids
Unit	Clash	Sust.	Short	Long	Morale	Stamina	Special	Pts.
Black Guard Heavy infantry with long spears and javelins	7	7	3	-	4+	6	Tough fighters Stubborn Elite
African Mercenaries Heavy infantry with long spears and javelins	7	7	3	-	4+	6	Tough fighters
Berber spearmen with hippo shields Medium infantry with long spears and/or javelins and rear ranks of bows	6	6	3	2	5+	6	Stubborn
Berber spearmen Medium infantry with long spears and/or javelins and rear ranks of bows	6	6	3	2	5+	6
Berber archers Light infantry with bows	5	5	3	3	-	6
Skirmishers with bows	2	2	2	2	-	4
Skirmishers with javelins	3	2	2	-	-	4
Hasham Guard Heavy cavalry with spears and/or javelins	9	6	3	-	4+	6	Tough fighters
Berber light cavalry With spears and/or javelins	5	3	2	-	6+	4	Marauders Feigned flight
Berber light camelry With spears and/or javelins	4	3	2	-	6+	4
Andalusians
Unit	Clash	Sust.	Short	Long	Morale	Stamina	Special	Pts.
Andalusian Nobles Medium cavalry with spears and javelins	8	5	3	-	5+	6	Feigned flight Tough fighters Parthian Shot
Andalusian Jinetes Light cavalry with spears and/or javelins and bows	5	3	2	1	6+	4	Marauders Feigned flight Parthian Shot
Andalusian Spearmen Medium infantry with spears	6	6	3	-	5+	6	Levy
Skirmishers with bows	2	2	2	2	-	4

Fervor: Expend a Imam or Priest marker to re-roll a Break test, the re-roll stands