Horsing Around the Battlelines

Well, I was going to post up pictures of my mounted milites tonight, but on relfection Ive decided not to. As they were a little rushed I didnt put as much detailing on them as I would have liked, so the shields are off and a little updating is in progress. I know, I know, I`ve broken the cardinal rule of army painting: never go back till the whole army's done. But in this case I felt it was justified. Ive gone back and added a few more blazes, highlighted a few manes and tails I didnt have time to finish, and now I need to mount the shields again (heh, heh, I said "mount", get it? a double entandre and a pun all in one word. Damn I'm plleased with myself).

Anway...

In the meantime Ive being playing a few games of Battlelines with John. See his blog, here: Got game! for more details. Our game isnt up yet but I`m sure it will be eventually. That was sarcasm by the way. John has yet to write up a single game in which I've beaten him, though he's quite happily to admit to a few loses from badger? I wonder why?

Nah, I`m just ribbing you! Actually John and I rarely play boardgames, mostly because Im not a big fan and they quickly bore me. I've only played boardgames with him on three occasions: one in which I was soudnly beaten (Settlers), one on which I was victorious during my first ever game of Up Front (Well, I have commanded real infantry platoons a time or two, even if I was a tankie!) and on this last occasion an overall draw. He trounced me in the first game and I won the second, far closer game, after getting a grip on the game mechanics.

All in all, it's an enjoyable little game, but I cant bring myself to think of it as a wargame or a simulation, only as a very pretty dice game. A peasant with a shortsword and a bow is just as likely to kill a fully armoured mounted knight in close combat as he is to kill a fellow peasant ( a one in six chance either way). And if you ask me, that just isn't right. Plus the support rule encourages generals to form their units into "wedge" formation. The successful player is the one who exploits the rules mechanics to his best advantage rather than the one with the best tactical knowledge. In fact, someone with a decent understanding of historical combat is likely to be at a severe disadvantage in their first game (like I was). Just because a unit of knights would be near invulnerable to a peasant with a sword sword in open field doesnt mean they are are going to ride over them in this system. Admitedly,I did charge my knights unsupported across the field (well, I WAS playing the French at Agincourt :D) but even so it should not be possible for four stands of peasants with shortswords to withstand a charge by three stands of heavy cavalry and then wipe them out a turn later!

So, on the whole an enjoyable evening, especially when I came back from defeat and (again using the Fench) defeated John in a straight on infantry fight, using my knights as bait for his archers and swarming his men-at-arms (medium infantry) and dismounted knights (heavy infantry)with own medium infantry suported and one unit of medium cavalry. I didnt bother trying to take down his archers: they were faster than my men at arms and would simply flee "in good order" after a round of combat with an equally sized unit of my medium infantry. Also, my unit of medium cavalry was put to better use attacking already weakened infantry units to capture their banners. As the game is won by the player who captures a cerain numbers of banners first (in this case four) this was a far more useful role for them than chasing hordes of archers back and forth. Heck, theirs no guarantee the archers wouldn't have mown them down with their shortswords anyway, not in this game at least.

If it sounds as though I hated this game, please, don't get me wrong. I truly enjoyed it and would gladly play it again a time or two -this time including the "Lore" rules. See Johns blog if you want to know what I mean by that, as I wont explain it here. It's a fantasy game after all, but I would expect a fantasy game that perports to be set in an "alternate medieval europe" to at least reflect the realities of medieval combat a little better.

Two units of knights wiped out by two units of peasants archers with sword swords indeed!!!!

First Pics

After taking a break from painting I finally got round to sorting out my camera and taking a few pics. As you can see, I`m far from an expert photographer. Out of about 15 photos, these are the only two that came out in focus and clear enough to make out. The first pic is of those two "sample bases" I mentioned in my previous post. The one of the left is the "european" style base and the one on the right is the "hybrid" style base. I know the undergrowth is a bit OTT but like I said I was experimenting.

The photo on the right is on just two of the six Norman Milites on foot that I have fully painted. More pics to follow.

Personally, I thought the George Foreman grill in the background was a very nice touch.

Painting

Well, as I spent most of yesterday curled up in bed under a duvet and two woolen blankets wearing two jumpers and a pair of trackie bottoms, I didnt get much in the way of painting done. No, the heating hadn't packed in, the cold Ive been fighting of for the last six weeks came back with a vengeance. Luckily, by late last night my fever had broken.

Unluckily, I'd slept so much during the day I couldn't get back to sleep. Work today was a bit of a choare, but as I had plenti of flexi time left to spend I popped out for a long lunch and popped into Static, my local gaming store. There, I was very pleased to see Spence and even more pleased to here that Spence had decided not to sell his own Perry Normans after all.

Not only did I now have a darkage/early medieval opponent whose army could pass for Shieldwall Western Franks or Crusaders (which they originally supposed to be anyway), but it turns out Julian has a massive Saracen/Moorish force he's been tempted to dig out as well. One of the guys also has an infantry based Berber army with a rock hard reputation as well. And here I was wondering where I was going to find some opponents (beyond Julians 6 or 7 thousand points of Celts (not very authentic) or Andy's 1000pts of Republic Romans (likewise, not very authentic).

All in all this was great news: exept for one thing. Given that the only potential "period" opponents Im now aware of have "eastern" armies I cant very well go giving my Normans European bases can I? Certainly, I can use the same list to represent the "Norman" element of the crusade under Bohemond and Tancred without having to change my army about (much). But as I`m not aware of any other Shieldwall armies (other than Spence) at the Glasgow G3 club I may have to change my basing plans.

Not a huge problem. Basically, I've based all my (very few) painted figs using a light cork material and haven't quite gotten round to "undergrowthing" then up yet. So, for the time being, I`ll leave the sand-highlighted cork as it is. If it turns out that my only regular opponents will all be fielding crusdade style armies I can leave the bases as they are, with maybe a patch of static grass, a boulder and a few discarded turkish shields and weapons here and there. If not, I can give the cork a brown ink wash to make it look like the bark you find underfoot in pine forests and add plenty of lichen and static grass. Voila: fairly convincing temperate european undergrowth.

Sorted. I even ran up a couple of samples on empty bases: one "pure" european with the brown-stained cork and lichen and a "compromise" base of mostly sand coloured cork with some lichen, a few patches of brown dyed cork and a tiny " babies head" patch of static grass, just to see how it would look. The idea being that if a few Shieldwall armies do suddenly crop out of the G3 woodwork I could then use this style of basing to represent poor european soil AND fairly "rich" semi-arid soil. I`ll put pictures of both these bases up for you to have a look at, along with some painted Normans, later (once I can get my digital camera working). Just bear in mind they`re mock-ups with "exagerrated" amounts of undergrowth. I wanted to see what colours of lichen and other decorative bits would look good with each option and being a tight fisted git when it comes to anything not made of lead (or chocolate) I couldnt bring myself to part with more than two bases as samples. (OKay, I admit it. I only had two 20mm bases to spare. Seriously, even Im not THAT bad)

Also, I have an apology to make. Those shield transfers were from LBM (not Gripping Beast). They are only sold through Gripping Beast Miniatures to fit their shield designs. By the way, those transfers look even more stunning when their on the mini. One thing though: now that Ive seen two minis with the same shield design side by side I`m tempted to have each unit use the same shield design for every minaiture. At least for the infantry. I don't want to do things this way, because its not approppriate for the time period and it`ll limit my options as far as fiddling with unit sizes is concerned, but I`m tempted none the less.

But speaking of transfers: gutted! Those Norman "banners" I ordered are actually "lance pennants" (well I had been wondering how they managed to fir twenty-four of the things on one page). Their absolutely gorgeous but as I wont be modelling my mounted Milites with actuals lances (too difficult to store without bending) their kind of pointless. Purely my fault of course. The site does clearly state that they're pennants, but somehow in my cold addled state I read that as "banners" rather than "lance pennants". Twnety-four full size banners for a tenner eh? What was I thinking? That chrtistmas had come early (well, okay, not by much)? Ah well. Maybe Ill find a use for them when it comes to modelling that Norman village I keep salivating about.

So other than a confession, thats that! I got distracted tonight and ended up basing some of those Flames of War Germans I mentioned in that first post rather than working on my Normans. I also got distracted by typing up this post.

Doh!

Won't happen again, honest (right) but it does mean that while the first 6 Norman Milites on foot are now fully based (on their temporary "arid" bases), shielded and painted, the second batch of six have barely had any work done on them at all.

And that, I think, is an excellent reason to stop nattering right there. So long, folks I have garters to highlight (and tunics, and hose, and spears and shoes and so forth).