Painting in June

 I feel like I've been busy in June, but not much painting to show for it. But I did get quite a lot of rebasing done, which took up a lot of the time.

I finally finished the grand rebasing of my 28mm Late Roman and Foes collection, with some Frankish cavalry.

And some Roman horse archers. I painted up the last 3 miniatures for these that had been festering in the PILE OF SHAME since I bought them over a decade ago!

I also re-based and touched up a load of 12mm plastics for my GNW winter campaign, these are the Russians and...

...these are the Swedes. I have a load more infantry done for both sides, but I will need to paint some more cavalry.

Proper painting now, a Sasquatch which is a repainted Heroclix model.

A Deathgrasp, from the Zombicide Undead or Alive set.

The Plymouth Hound, from the same set.

The Great Northern War Round 2

 Colin and I had another go at using Midgard Heroic Battles for the early 18th century Great Northern War. This time we pitted the Swedes against a different enemy, the Danes! Unlike the Russians, the Danish army was very much a western style fire-power based army, more like the armies that were fighting in the War of Spanish Succession. As this engagement was set later in the GNW (around 1712/3) the Swedish foot were not of the same quality as our previous game, more that a decade of fighting and the loss of the army in Russia resulted in a reliance of conscripts to make up the numbers.

Again Colin took the Swedes, so I had the fun of coming to terms with a completely different army.

Just a few pictures this time.

Neither side's infantry seemed in a hurry to get into contact, so both armies advanced at a leisurely pace, bombarding their opposition with artillery. 

No so the cavalry, who charges and counter charged with relish! On paper the Danes had better quality horse that the Russian's dragoons, but the Dice Gods disagreed and 2 units of Danish cavalry disolved in the first turn of combat!

The Swedish gunners were far more accurate in this game than previously, meaning that two of my infantry units were at half strength by the time we came to blows.

A Swedish brigade faces up to a Danish brigade over the ownership of a hill on the flank of the action.

In the centre an over-enthusiastic Danish battalion charges the Swedish line and wonders where the rest of the brigade is!

Despite the cavalry losses, the Danes gained the upper hand in the infantry engagements and by the end of Turn Four the Swedish Reputation had dropped to just 1 point.

Just to show how things can change so fast with Midgard, Turn Five saw a collapse of the Danish army on all fronts, ending the turn with the Swedes on -2 Rep to the Dane -5! A very narrow victory to Sweden in the end.

Once again we had a lot of fun playing these rules. Because I was the attacker, I didn't get the opportunity to make the most of the Danish superior shooting. Instead, I needed to get some charges in first to boost my reputation. I think this period will benefit from using scenarios that involve battlefield objectives.

The Great Northern War with Midgard?

 Inspired by Keith McGlyn's posts on the Midgard FB group, I picked up a back copy of March's Wargames Illustrated, which published an article on expanding Midgard Heroic Battles to refight the early 18th Century.

As I had picked up shed loads of basically painted figures for the Great Northern War some time back, I thought I'd put together two forces and give it a go. The armies had been created from 12mm plastic miniatures from the Risk Boardgame, which are not very detailed, so the simple paintjob suits them fine.

So here are a few pictures from the game. I played the Russians and Colin had the nutty Swedes (this was a pre-Poltava battle).

The two armies face off, the Swedes are at the top of the picture.

 Out on the flank, the Swedish cavalry rushed forward. the Russian dragoons, knowing they were out-classed, decided to concentrate on the end of the Swedish line and charged.

While the Swedish infantry advanced the Russians just held their ground, bombarding the oncoming Swedes with their artillery.

The first melee, and as I was charging I got to reroll any melee dice rolling 1s for hits. I rolled three 1s, and here is the results of my reroll!!

Not unexpectantly, the Swedish horse were victorious, but I did succeed in killing the Colonel (level 1 Hero) leading one of the counter-charges. Quite historical, Swedish Officers heroically leading from the front to victory, but paying the price.

The melee continued in the next round, with a unit of Russian dragoons being destroyed in one fight, but the Russians winning in the other, pushing their attackers back (the advantage of concentrating on the end of the Swedish line was I had a lot of supporting units around me, whilst the Swedes were unsupported).

The unengaged Swedish horse were unable to come to their comrades aid, because I had thrown some infantry forward to pin the cavalry in front of them.

In the meantime the Swedish foot kept advancing and the Russians stood waiting for them.

Things were getting messy on the flank. The Russians dealt with the outnumbered Swedish cavalry, allowing then to turn onto the flank of the Swedish line.  The cavalry charge the annoying foot, routing one unit, but taking heavy losses and leaving themselves vulnerable to a flank charge by fresh Russian dragoons.

The Swedish infantry now paused just out of musket range and redressed their lines to allow straggling units to catch up. The Russian still held their ground.

In the next turn the Swedes charged all across the frontage!

The melee had mixed results, one Russian unit was routed outright and most were pushed back, although the Russians did have a couple of successes.

The fighting continued, with the Swedes definitely having the upper hand....

...except on the flank where the last Swedish cavalry unit was dying bravely, now surrounded by enemies.

At the end of turn 4 it looked like a clear win to the Swedes. The Russian Reputation was down to 1, while the Swedes still had 4.

Turn 5 was so eventful, that I neglected to take any pictures! At the end of the Swedish phase the Rep was Swedes 4, Russians -1. then in the Russian phase desperate charges regained Rep points and three Swedish units routed! Combined with two half-strength Russian infantry units somehow forcing draws in their fights, this meant we finished the game with the Russians snatching a close win by Rep 1 to Rep -2!

A fun game and it certainly had the "feel" of an early 18th century game. We were both happy and keen to try it again. it just shows the flexibility of these rules. It will be interesting to try an army like the Danes, so see if firepower based armies work work the rules.

Re-fight Bosworth (Again) using Midgard

 Mark wanted to know if Midgard rules were any good for Wars of the Roses, so I invited him over to try them out. As we had all day I thought I'd revisit James Morris' Bosworth scenario.

I took Richard III and Mark had Henry Tudor and the Stanley brothers (if they could be bothered to join in). I tweaked the original scenario so that the Stanleys would only remain neutral or join Henry Tudor. Looking at the historical situation and political machinations going on behind the scenes, I do not personally believe that Lord Stanley would ever have attacked his stepson in support of Richard III. 

TURN ONE

Henry Tudor's forces advance across the whole front. Richard's forces sat on the hill waiting for them, whilst their gonnes shot some serious holes in one of the French mercenary unit's forcing them to retire. Richard repositioned his reserve cavalry to face off against Tudor's horsemen.

On the far flank the Earl of Northumberland was remarkably active, managing to move almost all his troops forward into the marsh in front of them.

TURN TWO

Tudor's men kept up their advance and started bombarding the hilltop with arrows, the Yorkists replying in kind. Both sides suffered losses, but the Yorkist gonnes inflicted more casualties on the French pikemen. Now one of Tudor's strongest melee units was on the point of collapse, brfore a blow could be struck!

Northumberland's archers were reluctant to move out of the marsh, what with loads on mounted men-at-arms in front of them (who could blame them), so they just shot at long ranges, fairly ineffectively.

Stanley's command decided to wait things out for a bit longer and see what happened.

TURN THREE

Tudor's advance petered out and both side kept up their archery exchanges, with more losses on both sides, each seeing a unit of bowmen destroyed. Felling unthreatened my Northumberland, the leading Tudor cavalry charged the Yorkist men-at-arms and forced them back in a fierce melee.

In an effort to step the tide, Richard III rushed forward to join in the melee. His presence in the thick of things obviously encouraged his men who managed to fight the Tudor cavalry to a standstill.

While the intact French pike block kept advancing, a unit of Oxford's bowmen moved up to shield the shot-up pike unit from the guns.

TURN FOUR

For the most part the two sides just kept up an exchange of archery. The French pike charged up the hill to contact one of the gonnne units, which we both expected to be a walkover. However, the dice gods were smiling on the House of York, so the Frenchmen were sent reeling back down the hill.

Northumberland's bowmen continued with their ineffective long range shooting, whilst their men-at-arms and billmen started moving around the marsh to link up with the flank of the Yorkist troops on the hill.

In the first melee round of the cavalry fight, Richard's personal influence seemed to be enough to swing thiungs back to the Yorkist side, as the Tudor cavalry finally dissolved, leaving the hillside littered with fallen men and horses.

This allowed Richard to pull his worn cavalry back and move up the fresh unit from behind them to face the Tudor line. Finally a really rubbish die roll meant that the Stanleys still sat on the side-lines.

TURN FIVE

Again the French launched themselves up the hill against the gonnes only to be thrown back a second time (to the surprise of both players!). Another Yorkist bow unit succumbed to the Tudor barrage, so both sides were getting low on their Reputation score.

In the Yorkist phase I took a chance and threw Norkfolk's melee units down the hill, supported my my final unit of the cavalry reserve. If nothing else it boosted my Reputation score! Luck was with the House of York once again and the charges pushed the Tudor line back.

Over by the marsh, Northumberland's heavy infantry had finally got into a position to support the struggling Yorkists on that end of the hill. We ended the turn with Tudor on 2 Reputation to Richard's 6. If the Stanleys joined him now, even if they could not reach the action in time to play an active roll, the Reputation boost would even things. Unfortunately, they elected to sit tight once again!

TURN SIX

For the third time the French pike charged the gonnes and this time they over-ran the positions and skewered the gunners. However on either side of the them they Tudor units disappeared and the slow attrition of the melee caught up with them. The final bow fell in the Yorkist phase, as Richard led his last cavalry unit down the hill into Tudor lines and destroyed the bill unit in front of them!

The last phase of the turn is to roll for the Stanleys, who, as expected, decided to stay out of the carnage.

The final result at the end of Turn Six, Richard has 4 Reputation to Henry Tudor's -11! An overwhelming victory to the House of York.

A great game, we both had a lot of fun and things swung back and forth constantly. It was only in the later part of Turn 5 that the advantage clearly started to be with Richard III. Even then, if the Stanleys had come in on Tudor's side at this late stage, it could have changed things.

Mark's verdict on the rules, a resounding thunbs up!!!

Painting in December

 

Not an awful lot of painting this month, but then it has been busy with other things!

On the historical front, I did some more command stands for my 10mm Midgard Heroic Battles armies, all Kallistra models.

Late Roman Army commander and assorted generals.

A mix of generals for my Sassanid Persians.

I've probably got too many command stands now, but my armies had been created for Warmaster Ancients long ago, so I had a shortage of commanders. The Kallistra command packs are so nice that once I got started painting, I just got carried away!

Now some 28mm historicals repurposed for Middle Earth fantasy! I had a sort out/rebase of my 28mm Late Romans and foes a while back and I had a bunch of old Foundry legionaries that were surplus to requirements. So by repainting the shields and rebasing them, I have created a border guard for the Royal Army of Arthedain during the Collapse of Arnor. I added in a Gripping Beast Arthurian hero for a captain and a couple of Byzantine infantry for standard bearers.

The Guard captain along with banners and assorted guardsmen.

The whole crew, two units of heavy foot and a hero commander for Midgard.

This ends a year of posting my monthly painting on the blog. It was started in an effort to boost my painting efforts and looking back I'm quite pleased with how it's gone. I certainly seemed to help keep my momentum going! I'm not sure if I will keep on posting a monthly report into next year, I'll see how i feel in January.

Happy New Year everyone!

Battle of Bosworth with Midgard: The Rematch

 We had another go a the Battle of Bosworth using Midgard Heroic Battles, this time using the revised scenario published in the 2025 Lard Magazine.

This gives Henry Tudor a stronger starting force, which allows him a fighting chance in the event that the Stanleys do not join him. We made one adjustment, which was to ignore a result of the Staley's siding with Richard III, we would treat this as they remained sitting on the fence.

Personally I do not think there was ever any chance that the Stanley brothers would have actually attacked Henry Tudor at Bosworth, the best Richard III could have hoped for is that they stayed out of the action (this still would have given Lord Stanley some awkward conversations with his wife at home "I did try to save your son dear, sadly I was just too late!").

Once again, I took Richard III while Colin took Henry Tudor.

The first two turns saw most of Richard's forces remaining on the hill, watching Henry's Tudor's lines slowly advance, with both sides exchanging long range archery. This worked out fairly even with both sides whittling away at the opposing longbowmen.

I did manage to get the Earl of Northumberland's archers up close enough to take some long range pops at Tudor's cavalry, but with out meaningful effect. I also pushed my unit of handgunners down the hill to try and disrupt the cavalry while I manoeuvred Richard and the mounted reserve to face them.

By turn three Tudor had had enough of them and charged a unit of mounted men-at-arms into the handgunners, eventually wiping them out (the first loss of the game) but leaving a, now worn, cavalry unit facing down my two fresh units.

Further along the hill, both sides kept up the exchange of fire. Richard's guns were being particularly effective, so Tudor's forces were taking more losses than they were inflicting.

At this point (end of turn 3) Colin rolled a 10 on a d10, so the Stanleys now declared for Henry Tudor.

The archery was intense on the far flank. The Duke of Norfolk had lost one of his bow units, but had destroyed one of the Earl of Oxford's longbow units in return and the two other Tudor missile units had taken 3 out of 4 hits each! But this allowed Oxford to bring forward his billmen and French pikemen, leaving Norfolk still looking severely outnumbered.

Colin now threw everything forward, launching charges all along his line. Henry Tudor moved out of the safety of the bodyguard men-at-arms to lead the archers in a charge on the end of the hill.

The charges had mixed results, in places pushing the Yorkists back, elsewhere being repulsed with heavy losses. Henry 's charge was unbelievably successful, destroying the archers in front of him and gaining a foothold on the hill. But by moving the supporting billmen slightly aside, I allowed a gap for Richard to charge through, leading his cavalry, destroying Henry's archers in turn and leaving the would-be usurper in a very dangerous position!

Northumberland had held off Tudor's other cavalry charge and was now pushing them back. But in the top right of this picture you can see Stanley's cavalry closing in on the flank!

On the other flank Norfolk launched the remains of his command in a downhill charge, with mixed results. Norfolk's men-at-arms pushed the French pike back, but the billmen led by the Earl of Surrey took heavy losses and had to retreat.

Staley's knights came crashing into Northumberland's flank! Somehow (dice gods were generous) he managed to rally his men and wiped out the cavalry unit to his front and forced Staley's men back.

Henry Tudor was rescued just in the nick of time by his own men-at-arms charging into the fray and in the frantic melee Richard III was wounded and his cavalry pushed back. However, things were not as dire as they looked. So long as Richard to survive another round of melee, there was the other Yorkist cavalry unit, ready to charge in and a longbow unit had worked it's way around behind the Tudor men-at-arms, close enough to charge into their rear. As the Yorkist billmen had just finished of the Tudor bills next to Henry, he, and his bodyguard, were surrounded.

Having gained a breathing space, Northumberland turned his command around to face the Stanley brothers. At this point the bill unit had had been lagging back on the baseline were inspired and charged into one of Staley's longbow units, destroying them and now threatening the Stanley's flank in turn!

And this is where we ran out of time and had to call it at the end of turn 5. We declared a draw, Henry was down to 3 Reputation and Richard on 2. It could have gone either way in the final turn, or just as likely remained a draw.

A great game and a lot of fun. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and it was so close throughout. Enlarging Tudor's starting force had made this a great scenario, so long as the Stanleys do not join Richard! 

We are going to try this scenario again in the New Year, when we have more time so we can play to the end. But we had managed 5 out of 6 turns, with 600 point armies in only two and a half hours, which seems pretty fast play to me!