WIP: 4th Sarmatian Command Group #2

30YW Foot Progress

I spent an hour or so this evening priming the figures with gesso. It will probably be a few days before I start painting them, but that just gives the gesso time to cure.


Sarmatian Command Group

I got all the remaining bits done apart from a dry-brush highlight of the cloaks and the Klear/ink coat. Piccies time:

WIP: 4th Sarmatian Command Group

After last night's post, I decided to do a little bit of work on the Sarmatian command group, and just kept going for a couple of hours. It was quite a change seeing 3 figures coming to life so quickly. There's very little left to do now: metal details (sword hilts, lance tips, cheek plates on helmets, decoration on scabbards and bowcases), the horse legs, hooves, tail, muzzles and markings, then some highlights and Klear/ink will see them ready for basing.

Piccies:

On The Workbench and Other Bits

After posting last night, I sorted out the dried 30YW figures into regimental groups, aiming to get a mix of poses for each figure type in each regiment. I then proceeded to glue them onto sticks for painting. For some reason I started priming one regiment, then realised a few figures in that I hadn't attached pikes, halberds and flags yet - "D'oh!!". It was obviously too late to do that, so I put them away until the morning.
Before doing that job, I had dry-brushed the armour of the Sarmatian "other cavalry". Here are some pics:

The left-most stick has the figures for my 4th command group. I'll probably highlight and decorate the armour and barding later on this evening.


Today's Progress

Having got chores (and fry-up in the greasy spoon around the corner) out of the way, I decided to crack on with prepping the 30YW figures. At this point I realised that my randomisation hadn't worked quite as well as I'd intended for some of the figure types. The shooting musketeers and the pikemen were fine. However, for the standard bearers and non-shooting musketeers, it hadn't worked out as intended.

Just to explain the composition of each regiment I have decided on is:

Front rank:
2 bases of shooting musketeers (3 figs plus standard bearer each)
1 base of pikes and command (3 pikemen, 1 drummer, 1 officer with halberd or standard)

Rear Rank:
2 bases of non-shooting musketeers (3 figures each)
1 base of pikemen (4 or 5 figures*)

*5 figures will fit, but the base would look a little cramped - the extras can always be used for extra bases to bulk up the regiments from 6 bases to 9 bases, although I'll need to order some more pikemen for this (see later in this post).

There were two poses of the standard bearer - 1 with standard forward, 1 with it resting over the shoulder. Somehow I have ended up with 1 of each in every regiment - I would have expected to get at least 1 pair of regiments with both forward or both over shoulder.

For the non-shooting musketeers there were 4 poses (9 figures of each) - musket resting on fork, musket across shoulder at ease, advancing with musket over shoulder and loading musket. 1 regiment has 5 advancing and 1 at ease; another has 3 each of loading and resting on fork; The other 4 regiments have at least 3 poses with no more than 3 of any one pose.

I guess I'll just have to shuffle the figures around a bit between regiments.

Planning the Painting:

I've decided to go with a fairly generic uniform scheme for my 30YW army so that they can easily be used for any army. I'll be using a 3 colour scheme - red with green or blue facings; blue with red or green facings; green with red or blue facings. That should allow me to work on 2 regiments at a time with relative ease.

I haven't quite made my mind up on colours for the cavalry - I may do the same, or slightly different. Dragoons will probably be green with red/blue facings.

Flags:

I need to sit down and draw up templates for the flags. I'll probably do these as line art and fill in the colours with inks. I need to get some very thin brass tube to fit the flags around so that they can slip over pikes.

Ordered Some More Bits:

I've placed an order for a few more bits. I discovered while sorting out the order I collected last week that I'd accidentally ordered 22 cavalry with pistols only, no carbines - these will be fine for late-war but not for the early period. So, as I needed to order some more with carbines I decided to order a few other bits as well - enough shooting musketeers to boost 3 regiments up to 9 bases, some casualty markers, plus a few bits to put on ambush markers (goats and herder, pigs and herder, sheep and herder, chickens and keeper).

Have you spotted it yet? Hint: what did I forget to order (see the regimental composition above).

Yup - I ordered the extra musketeers to boost 3 regiments to 9 bases, but forgot to order the extra pikemen I'll need. I could get around it by changing the pike/command base to 2 pikemen, 1 officer and 1 drummer (which might look less crowded anyway). Hmmm. I like that idea.

Phew!

I also ordered some buildings and tents from Magister Militum for use in 30YW battles.


"*Cough!* Aren't you forgetting something else?"


"Do you, perchance, mean that you wish to see pics of the 30YW foot?"


"Too bleedin' right we do!"

"OK!"

Half of the figures - there's a second tray that looks just the same. You can easily spot the handful of figures that I primed last night.

Front and rear of one command strip

Front and rear of another command strip (different officer on this one)

Front and rear of shooting musketeers

Front and rear of non-shooting musketeers, showing all 4 poses

Front and rear of pikemen - both figure codes visible (one has paldrons and tassets, the other doesn't).

My Campaign Army List

The deadline to submit my army list (in order of deployment) for Campaign is tomorrow, but I decided to send it in today. Without giving away my order of deployment (you never know who is reading), I will be taking:

Six 4-base BGs of armoured lancers
Two 4-base BGs of bow cavalry
Three 4-base BGs of light horse
One 8-base BG of light foot
Fortified camp
4 x Troop Commander

On the Workbench, WIPs and AAR

I was feeling incredibly drowsy last night, so I didn't post. I did get a little bit of work done though:

Assembled and primed (using Vallejo black primer) the figures for my 4th Sarmatian command group.
Did first stage of prep on my 30YW foot (145 figures!) - trimming sprue, vents etc and filing the bases

Today I've got quite a bit more done:

30YW foot - cleaned up flash and mould lines; washed; currently spread out on paper towel to dry
Sarmatian command stand - dry-brushed armour and barding with Oil Steel 865
Sarmatian "Other Cavalry" - black undercoat on armour - might dry-brush with Oily Steel later on



AAR of Thursday's Game

I've forgotten a lot of the details, so here are pics with some comments:

The "Roman" left wing - Alan and Hunnic allies, mostly light horse with some armoured lancers

The "Roman" right wing - Foederated Alan lancers and some actual Romans (the heavy foot)

My Alans - light foot in front then L to R: light horse, bow cavalry, light horse, 3 BGs of armoured lancers, light horse, bow cavalry, light horse, with 2BGs of armoured lancers to the rear. My general are off to the rear having a conflab before joining the BGs they'll be commanding.

My first losses - the jammy git managed to kill one of my generals!

About 5 or 6 turns in, my army is pretty much everywhere fighting in small groups

View of the battle on my right wing - my Alan lancers are trying to break Dave's Alan lancers, hoping for a quick breakthrough so they can get away from Dave's Alan light horse. My light horse and cavalry here are trying to escape from his Hunnic light horse and stay alive until the end of the battle

Meanwhile on my left wing, my Alan lancers are suffering in the melee against his Foederated Alan lancers. The 3rd BG of my lancers is pondering which unit of heavy foot will be the best to charge.

Not looking too good for the left hand lancers (they're the ones who lost the general)

"Prepare to Charge!" (This unit managed to get shot down to fragmented this turn, then in the next turn got broken by shooting without losing a single base! Grrrrr!)

My losses (minus a couple of broken units that were still on-table)

Dave's losses

With the benefit of hindsight.......

I would have been better off deploying my lancers in a single big block over to one side of the table, with the light horse on one flank, the bow cavalry on the other (or split one on each flank of the lancers). This would have allowed me to concentrate my "strike force" against one of Dave's wings, with my skirmishers acting to delay the other wing.

Quick AAR

Tonight's FoG game didn't go (quite) as badly as it could have - I didn't suffer an army rout, I did do some destroy 1 of Dave's units (Roman Legionaries!!!!) and did pick up some very useful hints.

I'll do a more detailed AAR tomorrow (if I can remember exactly what occurred), but here are two teaser pics - deployments at the start and dispositions at the end.

To some extent the movement trays I knocked up last night were helpful, but they were also a pain in the proverbial at times. I'll probably keep them for the lancers and maybe the light horse.

Updates and plans

I realised after shutting down my computer last night that I hadn't posted, so here you go.

Prize Draw Update

The prizes have been posted with recorded delivery, so the lucky winners should receive them shortly.

Last Night's Work

I'd noticed that the basing gunk I applied to the units on Friday was lighter than expected so I decided to darken them using a mix of PVA, my basing ink max and a little water. That seems to have done the trick.

I also spent a little while cutting up some thick non-adhesive magnetic sheet I had lying around to make some movement trays. I'm pretty sure I've made up enough of them for the army I'll be using at Campaign.

On top of that, I sorted through the Swiss figures that Chris is letting me borrow for the club FoG Medieval tournament, to see what was available. I've now worked out the army list I'll be using, but might want to do some fine tuning on BG sizes, and will need to work out the order of march


Painting etc Plans

I've decided that my plan of work will be:

• Finish the basing on the Sarmatians and Alans I already have painted (dry-brush, flock, clumps/rocks, matt spray, tufts)
• Paint the 24 Sarmatian "Other Cavalry" riders that are on horses from the TEDF
• Paint up the extra Sarmatian command group figures from the Donnington order I collected at Salute - did the metal prep last night
• Prep my 30YW figures and bag them in Regiments (I'll probably prime them in batches, but try to make it so that I have three regiments on the go at different stages of painting - base colours, washes, basing)
• Prep one or two of my 15mm SF forces to do work on when I feel my mojo going
• Make up some terrain bits for FoG:AM and FoG:R

Game Tonight

I've got another FoG:AM 800pt practice game tonight at CLWC against Dave's "Morally Bankrupt Foederate Romans".
I'm going to try a different army list tonight, with more light horse, more shooty cavalry and less lancers. I've got my camera so will try to take some pics.

Quick AAR; Getting all Medieval

When I got home last night from my practice game against Andy, it was too late to post and I was rather tired anyway, so decided to leave it until tonight.

Quick AAR (sorry, no pics - forgot to take my camera)

FoG:AM, 800pts practice match for Campaign

My army (Early Alans):
6 x 4-base BGs of Nobles (Superior, Armoured, Undrilled Lancer/Swordsmen)
2 x 4-base BGs of Cavalry (Average, Protected, Undrilled, Bow/Sword)
3 x 4-base BGs of Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow/Sword)
1 x 8-base BG of Light Foot (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow)
Fortified Camp
4 Troop Commanders

I'd won initiative and went for Steppe, which we were both naturally happy with. I was pretty lucky with the terrain as only 2 pieces were left on the table, both in my left corner - a gully and a gentle hill covered with brush. I placed my fortified camp in the gap between these.

Andy's army - he was originally going to use Kushans for Campaign, but had been provided with a Parthian list by someone at the club, so decided to try it out:

Tranche 1
5 x 4-base BGs of Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow)

5? 5? 5? That means at least 17 BGs in the army!

Tranche 2
5 x 4-base BGs of Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow)

Make that at least 18 BGs

Tranche 3
5 x 4-base BGs of Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow)

Errrmmm, at least 19 BGs....

Tranche 4
1 x 4-base BG of Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow)
1 x 6-base BG of Cataphracts (Superior, Heavily Armoured, Undrilled, Lancer/Swordsmen)
2 x 6-base BGs of Light Foot (Average*, Unprotected, Undrilled, Javelin/Light Spear)
1 x 6-base BG of Light Foot (Average*, Unprotected, Undrilled, Sling)

* may have been Poor rather than Average - I was too busy trying to work out how on earth I'd be able to break 10 BGs to cause an army rout to catch which!

For those that don't know, 16 BGs of Light Horse deployed 2 deep makes a line just over 4 foot wide. I made a mistake by deploying all of my Lancers and Bow Cavalry in one line near the centre, rather than concentrating them on one wing, with some of the lancers acting as rear support for the rest, and the light horse (supported by bow Cavalry) out on the right wing to delay or block any flanking moves.

Yup, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I was doing a decent job of crowd control, pushing his light horse back towards their baseline where they were starting to cause traffic management issues for Andy. Unfortunately that took too much time and we'd just about reached our 3-hour play limit. Totting up the damages at that point, I'd lost 4 BGs broken and one fragmented; Andy had lost 2 BGs broken and I think 1 fragmented. If we'd had time to play a couple more turns, I think I'd have either broken or caused several of his BGs to evade off the table.

One little job I've decided to give myself for this weekend is to create some 4-base movement trays for my cavalry and light horse units, to make moving them quicker. I also need to play around with my army list to optimise it for the tournament.


CLWC Medievals Tournament

I wasn't sure whether or not to enter this, so said I would if someone could lend me a Swiss army. Well, I got offers from 2 club members and Chris brought his in for me last night (cue, very heavy bag to carry home!). So, no excuses for me - must crack on and work out an army list from the figures I now have.

I am planning to get myself a Swiss army of my own, but won't order it until I've got my 30YW army (almost) painted.


Prize Draw

For the three who I am having to post the prizes to, apologies for the delay - I didn't have any suitable mailers and only got a chance to buy some today. They should go in the post to you tomorrow if all goes to plan!

Of Honorary Rejects and Celebrity Moggies

This morning saw me heading to st Pancras to catch a train down Gravesend where I'd be joining Postie's Rejects for a large game of Fire and Fury. At the station I bumped into Seb, so we traveled down together and I got to see some of the loot he'd picked up at Salute yesterday - mainly some lovely minis from Gripping Beast for Saga.

When Ray arrived to pick us up from the station, he got a ticking off from a PCSO - he'd done a U-turn to pull up in front of us and the PCSO was obviously relishing what was probably his only opportunity of the day to throw his weight around saying Ray had done the U-turn on a blind bend (it wasn't blind, maybe the PCSO was?) and over a pedestrian crossing (Ray didn't get anywhere near of the crossing). After that little adventure, we were safely delivered to Postie's house where Fran was doing the food prep for the pasta lunch we'd be having later on. Curt and Big Lee were already there, as was Postie's young neighbour Jack (who the Rejects have been rescuing from games by the Evil Empire of Nottingham, errmm, getting interested in historical wargaming).

After drawing lots to see who got which commands, we made our way to Postie's Den where the table was already set up, and the commands put out ready for us to deploy. This was how the commands were drawn:

Battle of Salutesville/Excel Creek 1862 

Union 
Ray - right wing
Curt - centre, CinC
Seb - left wing, across the river

Confederate
Jack - right wing cavalry under JEB Stuart
Me - right-centre, CinC (Longstreet)*
Big Lee - left-centre
Fran - left wing

* my having never played Fire and Fury and given their knowledge of my track record in Ancients gaming, this caused some considerable worries for Fran and Lee!

Postie outlined the scenario, special rules and victory conditions then Curt and I diced for initiative - he won, and decided to take first moves.

I'm not going to do a full AAR today (maybe later in the week), but to cut a long story short after much to-ing and fro-ing, when we called it a day with 4 full turns played victory went to the Confederates 19 points to 13.

I took a lot of pics (as did pretty much everybody) - I've uploaded them to my Flickr account. I hope they're all in the correct order in the set.

It was a great day and a hard fought battle with some amazingly good and equally amazingly atrocious die rolls all round. Not to forget the very lovely lunch cooked by Fran and the most excellent company.

Honorary Rejects

Seb, Curt and I were all made "Honorary Members of Postie's Rejects" and presented with a miniature each, painted by Postie.

Seb grimaces at the thought of what that pike could do if he accidentally sits on it....

....but puts on a brave face for this photo!

Curt grins - his mini doesn't have a nasty pike to accidentally sit on!

Pics from various angles of my mini: 

A huge thank you to Postie and the Rejects for inviting us all down for a great day of gaming


Celebrity Moggies

"Celebrity Moggies? What on earth are you talking about?"

To cut a long story short (or maybe not) when I got back to North London I was waiting for a bus when a girl in the queue starting laughing very loudly. I turned around and saw that a guy just along from me had a cat sitting across his shoulders. He explained that the cat is a celebrity - the eponymous Bob of this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Cat-Named-Bob-Streets/dp/1444737090/ref=zg_bs_books_18

The book is currently at number one in the UK best sellers list!

Salute 2012 and "An offer you cannot refuse!"

I was feeling OK today so I did go to Salute. Lots of shopping, lots of looking at games, lots of photos taken....

....unfortunately most of them turned out to be blurry. *sob*

Here are the pics that turned out OK:

I can't remember what all the above games/tables were as not all had obvious signs to photograph. The 4th and 5th pics are the Sevastopol table by Wargames Illustrated, the new issue of which had actually been delivered while I was out.

Whilst doing the rounds of games and traders I bumped into several members of CLWC and also Henry Hyde (editor of Battlegames, charity fundraiser, bon viveur and "old school" wargaming afficionado) and had a brief chat. He introduced me to the chap he was talking to - Mike - who said "We'll be doing something together in an hour". Cue, puzzled look from me, then an explanation "Mike Whittaker - Trouble at t' Mill". Penny dropped. 

Having trudged outside the Excel centre for a nicotine top-up (I know, I know - filthy habit), I headed back in for the 1-2pm "Bloggers Meetup". It was good to meet up with so many of the guys I've got know over the past few months of blogging, in no particular order:

Fran, Ray, Big Lee, Postie (OK, not a blogger but he's infamous as the Great Dictator of the Rejects), Mike W of course (he's already been linked and doesn't get a second one!), Dave D, Dallas of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, Curt of Analogue Hobbies, Mini Mike, a couple of others (sorry I've forgotten your names) and not to forget....

....Tomsche:

Fran got his prize from my recent draw and we posed together for a couple of photos - I'll nab them from other blogs when they get posted and add them here.

We spent a while exchanging banter, catching up, comparing purchases and stuff. Fran took me to one side and made me an offer I could not refuse:

"We've had a reject drop out of our game tomorrow and would like you to join us"

"How could I possibly refuse?"

"OK, speak to ray and he'll sort out about collecting you from the station"

(the above is not a verbatim report, but a reasonable precis)

So, my painting plans (OK, washing and dry-brushing lots and lots of bases) for tomorrow have gone out of the window, and I'll be heading down to Gravesend to play a large game (6' x 16' table) of 15mm Fire and Fury with Ray, Fran, Big Lee, Curt and Seb with Postie as the Evil Umpire. Should be a great day.

"That's all well and good, but we want to know what you bought!"

"Now, look here - I'm getting rather annoyed by all these pitchforks and burning brands. You know that there will be pics or tales of expenditure, so they are simply unnecessary."

So, what did I buy?

Figures in Comfort - Skirmish case with 2 pluck-foam trays for my spaceship minis when I finally get round to painting them and some Litko flight pegs (to use as ship holders while painting them!).

Paul Meekins Books - Storm of Arrows army lists for FoG:AM

Harfields - a 1:72 scale A7V WWI German tank from Emhar (this will be the basis of a sandcrawler for my Chewks)

Caliver Books - a Vallejo paint that always seems to be out of stock at ModelZone in Holborn

(can't remember which trader) - some MiniNatur flock and tufts; felt cloth; 40mm measuring sticks; packs of D6 dice.

Magister Militum - 2 "D10 in D10" dice for when I'm playing Ironclads

Magnetic Displays/Coritani - some box-file size magnetic sheets

GZG (on top of the magnetic sheets)- some NSL spaceships (escort carrier, 4 escort cruisers, 6 destroyers, 12 fighters); 8 packs of 15mm UNSC troops; 15mm NAC medics and casualties; 15mm New Israeli support weapons; 15mm surveyors, civvies and guards in light vacc suits.

Jon "The Evil Man Who Makes The Shinies We Must Buy" Tuffley had a good chuckle when I handed over my list:

I was pleasantly shocked when I was told the price - less than £60! I don't think I've ever got away from his stall having spent that little before!

On the stall he also had some very nice looking new toys - large 15mm mecha (which seems to have three variants). I'm not really a fan of mecha/walkers (I'm more of a "hard" sci-fi type), but could definitely see myself buying a couple of those at some point. I won't be naughty and grab someone else's pic, and will instead give you their link: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VtF2vDzm7m6LcxyN1MzppNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Donnington Ancients and Moderns (on the pink bag) - not a purchase but a collection (I'd ordered before the show), my Thirty Years War figures, plus some camp accessories and 3 Sarmatians to make up a fourth command group.

All in all a very good day, although I completely forgot to learn my lessons from Colours and SELWG last year:

• Don't arrive too early or you will have to queue for ages to get in
• Tour the games first and take pictures before visiting any trade stands
• Don't buy lots of lead that you'll have to carry around with you until you get home!

Maybe I'll have learned by the time of the next show I go to. Hmmm, I think that might be Campaign....