Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Vacation

Just so you all know I am on vacation back in the states. First time I have been home in 2 years and first time my wife has been to the US. We arrived in country on the 6th and will be returning to the UK on the 21st.
When I get back I'll paint up the last of my Normans and post them.
Sorry for the interruption in service.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

SAGA 4pt Army WIP

So when I started painting my Normans I did not actually have a rules set picked out. I wanted to go with more of a skirmish lvl game so I picked SAGA by Studio Tomahawk who also did Muskets & Tomahawks. After reading through the rules the game looks exactly like what I wanted. So this is my 4pt army I am working on.
1 x Warlord = free
2 x Mounted Heathguard = 2pts
1 x Mounted Warriors = 1pt
1 x Bow armed Levies = 1pt

 8 mounted warriors. None are wearing mail to distinguish them as warriors.
 12 levie archers, still 4 more to paint there in the back.
 4 mounted heathguard in mail, all done
 4 mounted heathguard in mail, only 2 done.
 The Warlord
 These are the Fatigue markers I am working on. I think they will look much better then just a stone, bead, or marker with the letter F on it.

More Norman Infantry

Just finished up another batch of Norman infantry for my collection. These are just regular soldiers with no or limited armor.
The first 7

 second 7

 All together.
 I tried adding some more detail to this batch so here are a few close ups.

With these I first painted their quilted jackets in a darker shade of green and gray then went over it in a lighter one to make the quilting stand out.
 Wish I had done this on my archers, just adding accents to the tunic to give them more character.
 The rest of the figure are from Conquest Games while these two are from Perry Miniature and act as the leader and standard bearer.

Also finished up my Norman Duke who acts as the General.
Not happy with how his shield came out so will be changing it later on.



Sunday, June 2, 2013

Macedonians vs. Indians AAR

So at this months club meet, after a bit of confusion and miss communication, we ended up playing an Ancients game using Hail Caesar rules. We had 3 divisions of Indians (played by myself, Peter, and Dave) facing off against 4 divisions of Macedonians (played by Dave and Gary). All the figures and terrain where provided by Gary and where in 15mm scale.

Indian lines
 Macedonian lines
 A little compound 
 The Indian division I was give control of on the right flank.. 2 Medium cavalry units, 1 unit of mixed spears & bow infantry, 1 unit of javelin infantry, and 1 unit of skirmish archers.
 After our first turn only our center devision (controlled by Peter) had moved any.
 Some Macedonian light cavalry fallowed by heavy cavalry moved up towards my position controlled by Dave (bad habit of isolating his units without support).
 In response I moved my archers into the hill and the rest of my force up together along the side.
 My archers manage to inflict 1 kill and first blood of the game.
 Our Center continuing the advance with Elephants in the lead. Bill's division on the far left still has not moved.
 Elephants and Skirmishers from both sides (Gary controlling the Macedonian right devisions) clash in the center with losses mounting on both sides.


 Dave's light cavalry get a bit to excited and run off the table while his heavy cavalry ready to charge my line. In anticipation of this I had moved up m infantry in support of my cavalry.
 Bill's left flank, with all our chariots, starts to advance while Peter's Elephants gets the upper hand in the center.


 The heavy cavalry clash with my line as the light cavalry re-appear behind my line.
 Dave and Gary's center divisions manage to stall Peter's advance long enough to move the rest of their units into supporting positions.

 After a fierce fight I managed to through back Dave's heavy cavalry. However my unit of medium cavalry where badly beaten up in the process and needed to be relieved.
After some tricky maneuvering I was able to move my Shaken unit out of the way and replace them with a fresh one and then, with infantry in support, pursue and destroy the unit of heavy cavalry.

 Things where looking bleak in the center once the Macedonians' units of pikes moved up and we lost 3 units of Elephants.


 Having opened up the right flank I moved my units to try and flank the Macedonian center.
 Bill's chariots started to move to support the center as more then half of Gary's units on our left had still not moved much.
 Bill charged the last of his heavy cavalry into my units to protect their flank as it advanced against our weakening center.

 I only needed to kill one more unit in Bill's division on the right flank in order to brake the command and force the division to retreat. I through everything I had in a risky gamble to finish off his heavy cavalry while my archers tried to kill his light cavalry.
 My gamble paid off and I was able to eliminate his heavies, breaking the command of Bill's division and exposing their flank. 
I did suffer heavily and Bill's light artillery was able to drive off one of my units of cavalry. 
 Peter was struggling to hold the center as Bill and Gary's strongest units where their and gaining ground.
 I tried to sweep into the center but had to contend with some of Bill's units first.

 I managed to take out two more units but not before our center division's command was broken.
 Fortunately Bill's chariots where able to finish Peter's work and brake the command of Gary's center division

 With both centers falling back we only needed to kill one more unit from Dave's remaining division in the center, or two from Gary's remaining division on our left.
 Bill was able to deliver the final blows and win us the game by killing the last of the Macedonian Elephants, that tried to charge his ranks, and crushing a unit of infantry beneath the wheels of his chariots. 


Good game all around and a lot of fun. The Hail Caesar rules can be a bit slow some times and there are parts that dont seem to represent reality but over all its a good rules set for large games like this.