Painting - Bishop of War

So finished painting my Teutonic Bishop. This guy turned out to be one of my favourites for some strange reason.

Maybe it's the hat. Anyway same basic colors as the rest of the Teutonics, and I also put him on a fireforge horse instead of the metal one he came with. This guy also being from Gripping Beast. I might go back and add a shield, I am conflicted on that one. Some how it doesn't seem right for a bishop to carry around a big giant shield, but I would like to get something that has the Teutonic symbol on there.

You have 2 options with how to use this guy, he can replace your warlord, which makes you loose some attacks but can 2 special SAGA abilities basically, or he can join in addition and act as a mini-warlord for 1 point. I don't think either is really worth it, but I might try out adding him as an extra on Saturday to give it a go. At least I technically have 6 points painted now, although I am still hoping to get another 4 knights done in time for Cold Wars. Would be nice to get another 4 cross bow guys as well but you can't have everything.

The next project is a quick paint of some M113 APCs for my Jordanians. The next day of the Arab-Israeli war campaign has snuck up on my and I need a few more things to make the points. Basically just an infantry platoon, so my plan is to cheat a bit and paint the rides and use some Americans for the infantry as there isn't time for that.


EDIT:

Forgot to add Pledge Status and Colors:

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray
Khorne Red

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow
Flat Red

Foundry:
Flesh Shade
Flesh
Light Flesh

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 32 (15mm Warrior Monks and Ikko Ikki from Museum Miniatures) 
Painted: 31
Total: -1

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Teutonic Knight Commander

So yesterday I put the finishing touches on my Teutonic Knight Commander, as previously discussed it's a Gripping Beast guy mounted on a Fireforge horse. The retainer is also from the GB pack, and the banner is from Battle Flag.

I was not real keen on these guys at first, but they have really grown on me, so now I am quite happy with the final result. I didn't have any round renendra bases that were big enough for both guys, the 40mm plastic ones are just big enough from the rider alone and I didn't have any others, so I just out them on a big square one.

I tried putting one of the decals on the chest of the retainer, but the material used for these decals is a bit thicker then normal, which is great for banners, but makes it impossible to get it to lie into those folds. I tried the softener but it was not working at all. Not a big problem thou, it worked fine on the flat part of the bosses helmet.

Next up is the Bishop of War, but I am also hoping to get another 4 mounted knights done to finish off that box of knights before Cold Wars as well.

I am kind of planning to get the Templar Infantry, Men at Arms foot, and Men at Arms mounted sets at Cold Wars to add on, but will see what I am thinking then. I am thinking about doing a smallish Northern Crusades game at Cangames so I would need to get working on some Russians as well. Gripping Beast have some nice looking ones to cover that but time to paint them is short.

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

Foundry:
Flesh Shade
Flesh
Light Flesh

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 14 
Painted: 30
Total: +16

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - SAGA Crusader Knights vs Normans

So time for another war gaming Wednesday. I just about have enough of my Teutonic Knights painted to play a game of SAGA so I decided that we should try a game so I can get a bit of practise before the tournament at Cold Wars, and see how this army works out. Try to find the best strategies before Game 3 of the tournament this year!

I didn't quite have my warlord finished, but I managed to get him on a horse and a base, will have to finish his retainer and base latter this week. Hoping to get the War bishop done as well. Was a bit short on troops as well so I used some dismounted knights as warriors, and added in a few Warhammer Bretonnian Knights I had painted a few years back in a Templar theme.

Here's the big man being painted

So anyway on to the game, we decided to keep it simple and play the first mission from the Crusades book, which I believe is called Champions of God. Basically just a 6 turn game and who ever has the most Slaughtering Victory points (provided they win by at least 3) is the winner. So on to the game.

So here is the initial set up, We have a ruined fort of some kind on the left, a small stream, and then some forests and a low hill. I decided to spread my forces out quite a bit which turned out to be a mistake, especially I don't have many troops on the right flank. My plan here is to use the foot units to delay and weaken the Normans while I pray to increase my Piety and get some of my abilities more powerful.

Sadly the Norman plan was to attack fast and crush the guys on that side of the board, so they moved up with everything. I brought my bigger unit of 10 warriors and Banner in front of my knights to try and cover a bit and put down some defensive abilities.

The Normans then charged my hill with their Warlord and 1 group of Knights killing half of my troop, and then a second unit of Knights finishing off the rest, so that was not a great plan really. But I have 1 and a quarter points of troops trying to fend of 3 and a Warlord so not an unexpected outcome really know that I think on it. The Crusader Knights have a nice ability that gives 4 bonus defense dice that it seems I relied on a bit to much.

After the ignominy of  the hill my Warlord was left trapped over there with only 4 Knights to defend him, and unwilling to retreat due to the Warlords Pride rule. So decided to try out the ...My Blood ability which would let me activate 3 units at once and give them some extra movement. They will be kind of weak charges with not abilities to give me an advantage but I am hoping to thin out the Knights and save my commander.

First one goes onto the hill of blood, I loose all 4 of my knights but managed to kill 3 so not so bad.

With the second charge my knights plow across the stream and take out all but one of the Normans in the second unit, only loosing 2 in return. So the pressure has been relaxed a bit, but my Warlord now has 2 fatigues and almost no protection, so a bit of a better position but not great. With my third charge I got my Templars on the other side to charge the Norman infantry, I didn't really want to do this, but the 3 moves are not optional and you have to charge like a man or take a fatigue like a coward.

On the Norman turn they are able to load up Dex Aie which really buffs their Warlords ability to kill people and charge my Commander Bishop Ordo and another unit, which has a predictable result. So things and not looking super great for me.

Well at this point my phone died for a bit so a gap in the pictures, but I fought on and tried to turn things around, I killed a few more Norman knights with my crossbow men, and tried to hang on even with just 2 units of men at arms left. The crusader have a great ability to get more SAGA dice, and their attack pool ability is better then most when you get some piety. So I am finding the crossbow men where allot more useful then the Norman equivalent.

I got my camera charged enough for one last picture at the end, and the Bishop charged across the river to kill some Men at Arms along with his foot buddies. But don't worry he is using a club so he won't spill any blood!

We added up the victory points and it was 24-13 or something in that area at least so a pretty fair sized loss for me. But it was fun to get Teutonic guys on the table after so long painting them, and I did enjoy their battle board. Also got to put down the ruins I painted so good times.

It seems that Wargames Wednesday is going on a bit of a hiatus now for 3 weeks as Serge is going on vacation, unless I can find a new victim to fill in. But that is not likely. But I am going to play a game with Duncan next weekend and then will have some games from Cold Wars so you lot will have that to read.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Teutonic Knights

Finally finished off my next unit of Teutonic Knights, this time with lances. Took awhile, for some reason mounted units usually lead to procrastinating a bit for me. So here is a shot of those guys:

Happy with hose these guys turned out, the lances look super long, but I think it is more that they have them olding right at the end more so then that the length is to big. But they look cool anyway. 4 More guys in the set. I am short on commanders so I ordered a few characters from the Gripping Beast, they are not nearly as good looking but Fireforge don't make any characters unfortunately. So I have a Knight Commander and War Bishop coming up next. The War BIshop even has stats in the SAGA game which I find is really cool.

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

I also have a couple of Infinity guys painted that I don't think I have posted on here yet. A couple of hackers anyway, I actually hat the look of the second guy, but it has a game effect I wanted for my army.

Finally to update my progress on the pledge:

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 14 (Teutonic Characters + More Infinity guys)
Painted: 29
Total: +15

Let me know what you all think.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - DBA Ver 3

So another Wednesday wargaming battle report, this week we decided to give DBA Ver.3 another try, it's decently popular at the club so worthwhile to keep up with the rules basically. Plus I have a few armies for this game so might as well get some use of them.

For the first game I decided to give my Marian Roman army a go. Cavalry General, 1 Cav, 1 solid warband, 2 skirmishers, and 7 solid blades to be the legions. Personally I think solid foot is kind of pointless and your usually better off with fast, but no choice with the Romans. I played against a Byzantine army with a variety of stuff, 1 knight, bunch of cav, a few bows, a blade, couple of light horse ect...

I was the invader so Serge set up the terrain, a couple of plowed fields, a road, gentle hill and a woods. It ended up that it rained so the ploughed fields would be slow going. Unfortunately I had deployed most of my troops into a bit field so that is not great.

I put my mounted on the right flank, planning to delay the enemy mounted while my foot kills his. Going to be a hard sell thou with the field slowing me down.

I advanced forward and the Byzantine Cav went on a bit of a trip around the boggy field, hoping to get into the flanks and rear. I refer to this as a Nick plan.

Couple of turns later, I am finally out of the field almost, but my cav including the general is well on the way to getting himself surrounded, so that is not very intelligent.

I sent a legion over to delay and make them fight for the flank, hopefully he can by enough time for the battle to be over first.

But he only lasts a turn or two, and my ability to move into contact has not been great, so seems that I am in serious troubles.

The fight goes for a few rounds with no effect, but then the pincer closes and my cavalary and general are killed so it is a loss for me.

We did play a second game, this time I decided to try out my greek army with tons of Spear men and a few light troops. This time the Byzantines had even more Knights so things seemed worse.

Brave skirmishers take on all that Cavalry by themselves

Sadly my phone died so I didn't get to take so many pictures. But this game was allot cloose, 3-4 in fact I think. My light troops managed to kill a few light horse by trappings them on the edge of the table just past the hamlet (that guy is right on the edge in this picture. But then I decided to try the river, found out it was paltry so does nothing. This caused the Byzantine Calvary to line up and charge right into my spear line, which they easily smashed with Knights.

So a few fun if not so successful games. Next we we are going to try out some SAGA so I can test out my Crusader army a bit before the tournament at Cold Wars. Hopefully you will see a few painting updates over the weekend as I finish things off. But I can supplement my Teutonic Knights with some Warhammer Knights that I had painted as Templars a few years back so it's not critical really.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Samurai - Rules - Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game + Age of the Trebuchet

Hello, so time for another Wednesday night gaming battle report. This time we decided to play a Samurai game, and try it out with the Lord of the Rings rules from Games Workshop as a base. I used the Age of the Trebuchet fan supplement which has some historical profiles and ect. Basically Samurai + Monks were rated as Professional Soldiers, Ashigaru + Initiates as Trained Soldiers, weapons were as the normal rules more or less.

As our scenario we played the Domination mission from the Legions of Middle earth, representing a fight for control of the village / river crossings. On the far side we have some warriors of the Oda clan, and on my side we have some Sohei monks and their Samurai allies. This represents some fighting in one of Nobunagas campaigns against the monks of mount Hiei. In domnation there are 4 terrain features which you must control at the end of the game (the 2 crossings and 2 groups of houses, the game continues until one side is broken (half models dead), and then ends on a 1/2 at the start of each turn.

The bridge and small house on the rice paddy and meant for 15mm games, but you use what you have.

I decided to deploy in the corner with one of the vilages, but for some reason neglected to put any one in there to hold it? The Oda clan split there forces advancing a squad of Samurai across the bridge, and a block of Nage-Yari (pike) and Teppo (gun) armed Ashigaru across the open ground. In this game each soldier acts individually but it's usually a good idea to keep them together for support.

I advanced my Monks towards the ford, and the rest started down the field, but I kept my archers back in a big group so they could fire volleys of arrows down at the Oda. This was not especially effective, but they did take out a few guys here and there.

The advance continued as we tried to have a good position for the upcoming battle. My plan for the monks in yellow was to block off the space between the house a the river so the greater numbers of the Samurai would be useless, but this didn't really work as well as I had hoped.

This the last turn before the action really begins, my Monk had gotten knocked back from the house handily, but my mounted troops were now ready to charge. My Ashigaru on the hill were taking casualties from the Oda gunners thou.

I lost the initiative on this turn so had to use some command points from my commanders to get the first move, else my cavalry would be caught flat footed. Unfortunately the rice paddy prevented me from getting all of them into combat so they were quite out numbered. The Oda Samurai charged across the ford and engaged the rest of my Monks to try and beat them back and take the village. I had started to finally bring my archers around to get into it as well, but it's a bit of a track to the gate by the ford.

Here we are a turn later, my mounted got beaten off by the Nage-Yari armed Ashigaru and Samurai, with 1 dieing and my Samurai Commander taking a wound, he was then brought down by a volley from the gunners. The main group if Oda Ashigaru is now engaging mine with quite a numerical advantage, but I have my Nobori banner to help really the cause. It's only near the village that my troops are holding there ground and fighting back well. On the other side of the river my Sohei commander and his buddy keep getting pressed by the Oda over there.

I managed to make a good show of the fighting around the village, and even got my mounted into the frey, but my Ashigaru fighters were wipped out by their opposition in the field. It tooks a couple of turns thou and they managed to kill a few Oda troopers on the first turn by shear luck so can't complain. At this point the Oda remembered the objectives and 1 ashigaru made a b line for the bridge. The guys across the river continue to puch my Senior Monk back but he is making them fight for it despite now having a wound.

Crap forgot to turn off the flash

All mt ranged troops now make a last ditch effort to shoot up the Oda Ashigaru, but not to a very great effect unfortunately.

But I do get a wound on the Oda commander (hopefully it gets infected or something!). At this point I just became broken so would now need to make courage test to stick around, and the game could end at any point.

Which is does! Thankfully, so the Oda have both of the villages, and I technically have the ford with no one on the bridge. So we end with a draw, technically, as the scenario required someone to capture at least 3 items to declare a victory. But some (wrong!) people might point out that the Oda significantly have the upper hand.

Really enjoyed this game, Samurai are always fun, and the Lord of the Rings game is actually one of my 3 favourite rule sets so always good to give that a go. It's really simple but still gives a nice game. May have to expand out the troop definitions for next time and make them a bit different, and bring it some fun stuff like Ninjas or something.

Thanks;
Mike

Also since this is a Samurai game I thought I would give a shout out to Steelfist Miniatures who are doing a kick starter for some nice Samurai Lords, so check them out if that's your thing.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/536771983/samurai-lords

Painting - Teutonic Banner

Kind of a stretch to call this a painting post, but I thought I would make a small update anyway. I got some new water slide decals in for the Teutonic Knights from Battle Flag last week, designed specifically for the Fire Forge set, so I thought I would finally do that banner that has been missing.

Basically what I did was get a sheet of tin foil, spray paint it white, slide the transfer on to it. The I used a few coats of decal solution. Finally you have to cut the decal out and glue it onto the banner pole, with the tin foil you can easily bend it into what ever wavy shape you want. I found it a bit better then the sticker type ones you get from Little Big Men Studios, but it was a bit more work. So basically I would go for whatever one has the flag I like.

The water slide decals from Battle Flag, work pretty well, they slide without to much trouble, and they really don't rip easy which is really good when you are doing big flags! But on the negative side the decal films are not pre-cut around the images so that is a bit annoying.

All in all I am happy with these and will likely get some more for some different orders eventually.

It's really hard to get the two sides of the flag to line up perfectly, so you can see a bit of the backing in the picture, but that is a problem with the paper flags as well, it's not really noticeable on the gaming table thou.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Club Night - Golan Heights

Well last Friday we had the Ottawa Miniatures Gamers club night, and Stan ran a Force on Force scenario for the Golan Heights. Some Syrian tanks attacking towards some Israeli vehicles camped on a ridge line. The Israelis had 3 tanks to our 9, but they were better tanks and had better training and morale.

The Syrians had the initiative on the first turn, we advanced and started taking some shots. Actually there was an extreme amount of luck on our side, as the first shot of the game took out one of the Israeli tanks.

And that was more or less how things went with use advancing along attempting to escape off the board.

The Israeli's were given periodic reinforcements to keep the game going, and over time they wore us down.

But one lucky tank managed to slip the net, as you can see here with him about to escape off the board.

There was also a few other games on going:

War of 1812 Naval Game

Ancients Game - DBMM

Another Ancients game with Romans and Ancient British

Thanks;
Mike