Saxons on commission

I've recently painted a few Saxons for Tony. I don't normally do commissions, I've got plenty enough of my own troops to paint. But Tony asked if I could do him a few more Saxons for his Dark Ages army.

All but one of the figures are Gripping Beast  apart from the Warfare 2010 show figure which was done by Bill Thornhill of Musketeer Miniatures.

Warfare 2010 figure

The complete set

Now back to my own lead mountain.

I've listed the Cape Matapan fleets on eBay

I have listed the Battle of Cape Matapan fleets on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190651093028

More details and pictures can be found in my earlier article here: http://scrivsland.blogspot.com/2012/02/for-sale-13000-battle-of-matapan-fleet.html

Warring States Game to Hail Caesar

I've had my Warring States Hann painted for over a year now and although they are now the veterans of many games of WAB they have never fought against an historical opponent.

I'm really enjoying Hail Caesar at the moment, so I challenged John Grant to bring down his own Chinese to the White Hart last night so that we could have some proper Warring States action.

John has never played Hail Caesar before so I thought it best if we set up with a pair of identical armies and played a simple game.

Each of us had the following forces:

• General: Command 8
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Crossbow - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Swordsmen - Small Unit

• Commander: Command 8
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Bow - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Swordsmen - Small Unit

• Commander: Command 8
• Heavy Chariots with Crossbow - Standard Unit
• Medium Cavalry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Cavalry with Bow - Small Unit

Both armies advance cautiously towards each other exchanging desultory missile fire., then John got the first charge in with his chariots against mine on my right flank, I duly counter charged and won the combat, Johns chariots retreated in good order. This continued for several turns with John losing each round of combat, but throwing enough to only fall back. Even though his chariots were eventually shattered, I did not dispose of them until they had fallen back shaken off the table.

Some chariot on chariot action

On my left flank, John launched a unit of swordsmen into my archers, I lost the combat and fell back, time to counter with my spearmen - whoops a double six blunder followed by a '1' my spearmen decide to leave the table!!!

Things start to get worse for me, some nifty shooting followed by poor armour saves and a terrible set of break test dice and I'm removing a unit of swordsmen.

And a unit of swordsmen are removed.

I set up a killer charge in my center, one unit of spears, supported by another unit of spears, a unit of crossbowmen and a unit of swordsmen crash into a unit of Johns spearmen only supported by another unit of spears. Things are looking up.

Not really manage to I lose the combat by 2! I throw my break test and roll a 4 - that is my unit removed. Now I know this sounds like a 'Rimmer Risk story', but then I threw for my supporting units, 4, 3 and 4, so they were are retreating in disorder.

Despite the mild mannered visage John Grant is the Hail Caesar equivalent of Rommel

Things go from bad to worse, his light horse charge mine and I'm soon removing them from the table.

Bye bye Xiong Nu

With his troops free on my left flank he his soon engaging my center in the flank. My swordsmen receive the full force of his division, but, they manage to hold for a few turns before eventually succumbing.

My general looks on as things start to fall apart.

In a coup-de-grace his medium cavalry destroy mine and it is all over, my army is broken and John has not lost a unit.

Here are a few more shots from the game:

Johns cavalry prepare to get stuck in

Things are not going well for my Hann

I reckon I have a chance here, maybe not though

Club Night - BlitzKreig Commander - Operation Crusader November 1941

Last night I finally got to play with all those WWII micro-tanks and infantry that I have been painting of late. I was originally scheduled to play Adie Mac at Black Powder Napoleonics, but he was delayed on the M25. A quick bit of phoning around and Steve Meth was cajoled into making an appearance at the club.

As it was all very last minute, I set up the table and picked out a couple of roughly equal forces.

The DAK were:

Commanding Officer (CV10) - 150pts
SdKfz222 - 70pts
Forward Observer (CV8) - 45pts
Battery of 105mm - 45pts


HQ (CV9) - 90pts
One PzII - 60pts
Two PzIII kurz - 200pts
Two PzIV kurz - 220pts



HQ (CV9) - 90pts
One PzII - 60pts
Two PzIII kurz - 200pts
Two PzIV kurz - 220pts



HQ (CV9) - 90pts
Four Regular Infantry - 160pts
1 81mm Mortar - 75pts
1 MG34 - 40pts


Total - 1905pts


The 8th Army were:



Commanding Officer (CV8) - 60pts
Forward Observer (CV7) - 30pts
Two batteries of 25pdr - 90pts


HQ (CV8) - 60pts
Four A9 Cruisers - 260pts



HQ (CV7) - 30pts
Four Crusader I - 320pts



HQ (CV7) - 30pts
Nine Regular Infantry - 360pts
One 2pdr Anti-tank gun - 30pts
One 3" Mortar - 50pts
One Scout Carrier



HQ (CV7) - 30pts
Nine Regular Infantry - 360pts
One 2pdr Anti-tank gun - 30pts
One 3" Mortar - 50pts
One Scout Carrier



Total 1900pts

As mentioned before, it was all very 'pick-up' we would fight a meeting engagement and the players should try to control the town and the central ridge-line.

We tossed a coin, I got the British and Steve got the DAK. It was a great little game, but I would say that, despite the imbalance in command ratings, I could not roll badly, but Steve had some very poor command dice. The British also had the better of the shooting, every time I made an opportunity shot I seemed to suppress his troops further cutting down his superior command and mobility. At one stage I had Infantry taking out his tanks in an assault - OK I lost one assault and won one, but it was not a good 'dice day' for the DAK.

Here are a few snaps from the game:

A9 Cruiser Squadron

PanzerKompanie

The town await the arrival of the combatants

8th Army infantry secure the heights

That A-9 Cruiser Squadron again

8th Army Rifle Battalion

DAK SchutzenKompanie advances up the road towards the town

First blood to the DAK, a Scout Carrier is caught out.

The British reply and a PzIII is soon burning

British Crusader I supported by infantry advance slowly

The DAK secure the town with their Scutzen while the Panzers support the flank

It does not go so well for the DAK in the center as they succumb to an infantry assault

The DAK have a tenuous hold on the town.

The PzII does not succumb to the infantry as easily as it's PzIV brother.

British infantry cross the high ground to outflank the town.

The A9-Cruisers mop up the last of the PanzerKompanie facing them

It's not going well for Jerry

Fear Naught Gazala Campaign Weekend

This weekend I took part in the fantastic Fear Naught Gazala Campaign Weekend held by the wonderful Alex Storch at Triple Helix in Westbury, Wiltshire.


I've not played Flames of War in over a year, having become rather jaded with the 'win at all cost' tournament knobheads, you know who you are. It's not big, it's not clever and you are impressing nobody!


So what to take, I can field both a PanzerKompanie and a SchutzenKompanie for the 21st Panzer Division and I can field a Rifle Company from 4th Indian Diviaion, Ball of Fire. Alex asked if I could take an Axis force as they were lacking in numbers, I plumped for a SchutzenKompanie from 21st Panzer Division, namely:




Company HQ - 105pts
Company Command SMG team
2iC Command SMG team
Two MG34 HMG teams
Two Kubelwagen
Two Kfz70 trucks

Schutzen Platoon - 255pts
Command PanzerKnacker SMG team
Six MG teams
Kubelwagen
8cm GW34 mortar
5cm PaK38 gun
Four Kfz70 trucks
SdKfz10 tractor

Schutzen Platoon - 255pts
Command PanzerKnacker SMG team
Six MG teams
Kubelwagen
8cm GW34 mortar
5cm PaK38 gun
Four Kfz70 trucks
SdKfz10 tractor

Schutzen Platoon - 190pts
Command SMG team
Six MG teams
Kubelwagen
Three Kfz70 trucks

Self-propelled Infantry Gun Platoon - 180pts
Command SMG team
Kfz15 field car
Observer Rifle team
Motorcycle and sidecar
Two Bison

Tank Hunter Platoon - 140pts
Two Diana

Light Panzerspah Patrol - 110pts
Command SdKfz223
Two SdKfz222

Anti-tank Gun Platoon - 170pts
Command SMG team
Kfz15 field car
Four 5cm PaK38
Four SdKfz10

Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon - 95pts
Command SdKfz10/5
Two SdKfz10/5

So a very early wakeup call on Saturday morning and by 05:30 I'm on the M1 heading south. By 08:45 I've arrived at the Triple Helix in Westbury, it's a great little venue and the hosts are spot on.

Alex asks if Mark Martin can borrow my Indians so we sit down and work out a 1500pt Indian Rifle Company list for him.

For the weekend I'm to be paired with Joel Keen, with a DaK PanzerKompanie. Joel is using my DaK PanzerKompanie. 

Our first game is against a super Heavy Armoured Squadron, Pete has 15 Grants and 3 Carriers, Toby has 9 Grants, 6 Stuarts and 3 Armoured cars, this may smart a little. We are playing Encounter on a large 8ft x 6ft table. As we have deployed the 88's centrally it pretty much forces the British up either flank. 

We have some early successes, and an audacious dash up the center of the table with a Schutzen platoon nearly pays off, but the British reserves appear in front of the trucks just at the wrong time and they are doomed. Eventually the British manage to capture one of the objectives and it's all over for Fritz, my company is broken in the process.

We have a bite of lunch and it's on to the afternoons game. This time Joel and I are facing another pair of British Armoured Squadrons, Mike has six Grants and about a dozen Crusaders, Steve has about 12 Matildas and two platoons of infantry. Where is all this British armour coming from, I though they were on the back foot. We will be attacking in a Breakthrough mission. Some early crack shooting does for the Grants and we are pretty much free on our right flank. The Matildas are a tough nut to crack, but also struggle to damage us too. In the end though our reserves arrive and bag the objective, our first win.

Out for a night of fun and games, a slap up meal, followed by far too much diet coke. Fortunately, the diet coke meant I was not so worse for wear in the morning, but did give me a terrible nights sleep.

The last big doubles game that myself and Joel would face would be against a pair of Indian Infantry Companies, the one commanded by Mike Martin, using my Indians and another commanded by Derek Wittenbury. We would be attacking in another Breakthrough scenario and did not have a good start at all. The Indians forgot that they were supposed to be defending and launched themselves straight at us! My company was broken by turn three and we played for several turns with just a platoon of 88's and the two Panzers from the HQ. Eventually the reserve Panzers showed up and we faffed around for a bit, but the British were reinforced by another Armoured Squadron under the command of Chris Brownlow and we were doomed.

The last game of the weekend was a 750pt Hold the Line against Mark Martin using my Indians and I was able to extract a little revenge by winning that game.


Four great games against seven great opponents - thanks chaps, you are restoring my faith in Flames of War

Some images from the event:

My DaK force deployed to attack Mark and Derek

My Panzers (commanded by Joel) go up against my Matildas (commanded  by Mark)

My DaK Panzers, burning, whoops!

One of the other games

One of the other games

A great weekend - thanks Alex

Limbered French Artillery

I painted this lovely Perry Miniatures piece a couple of weeks ago when we were in Cornwall, and the base that I had ordered for this piece arrived from Warbases on Monday so I managed to finish off the base that evening, I've now got it varnished so here it is:

I can now move my artillery around in our Black Powder games.

Last few 8th Army for BlitzKreig Commander

I've just finished off the last nine 8th Army models I have for BlitzKreig Commander, all the models are by GHQ

Four Daimler Armoured Cars, Four CMP trucks and a Crusader I

Four CMP trucks

Four Daimler Armoured cars

Crusader I - extreme closeup

Daimler Armoured Car - extreme closeup

CMP 15cwt truck - extreme closeup

Checking the inventory, there are less than 20 Afrika Korps bases left to paint, these are already cleaned up, primed and have had a base-coat of brown pain. After these are done then the project is all complete, well that is until I buy a few more blisters, I'm sure I will not be able to resist.

It will be good to get a game in with them, it's been months since I got to play BlitzKreig Commander.