This weeks Chain of command and more ECW painting 🙂

Another good hobby week, (the ‘force’ is strong) first up I travelled down to George to resume our early war Chain of Command campaign. This week having pushed the French back the Germans have to break through and finally the campaign allows the Germans to bring up some armour.

The Germans deploy the bulk of their force behind the small wood looking for some cover to get on the table. The challenge is the french deployment is pretty much hidden in the buildings along the road where they are well protected !

Germans PzIV / 222 and infantry support gun deploy on the left, pushing up the road

I only took a few photos, the Germans take some serious fire from the buildings and the lead squad are forced back, the french ambush the PzIV with an antitank gun but it survives the first shot and eventually the gun is knocked out.

The least effective and perhaps comical parts of the battle were the two tanks who faced off shooting multiple rounds into each other phase after phase hitting but having no significant effect other than probably deafening each other.

Eventually the German firepower started to tell and the french morale started to breakdown. With in the end the death tally being quite unbalanced. The Germans also push forward their 222 to show they are breaking through.

A fun game and hard fought even if the end result was a clear German victory. As always a pleasure to play with George’s wonder WW2 collection. The next campaign battle is a tough one though !

Some painting this week…..

I had one Curassier left over so I painted up another command base.

Another Pike and Shotte regiment off the production line 

And…..another Cavalry regiment. These are Peter Pig Figures, two more metal cavalry regiments to complete before I decide how many more I might want ?

I have also been pondering whilst out walking the Thirty Years War and how/if the ECW collection would need to be amended for this wider European conflict. Obviously the warlord figures are theoretically designed for both conflicts many Europeans used the same ‘Dutch’ system.

My thoughts on what a Tercio would look like on the table.

I would probably need more cavalry and I’m likely to stick with Peter Pig as they match pretty well and have a good range. The flags of course are a problem but I’m thinking if I create separate command bases I might be able to live with the wrong flags after all at 3feet they are actually pretty indistinguishable. I have looked ant how the flags could be interchangeable but it may be too much of an faff.  Any thoughts welcome on other differences between the two conflicts and how to adapt the collection ? as I am no expert.

With Cruel seas on the agenda for the future i was looking for something slightly different and found this kit on eBay at a reasonable price, some 1/300 kits are massively expensive. Anyway a US escort ship USS De Long. Nothing fancy in the paint scheme just grey and some fiddling to cut the bottom off, the flags are made up and the central mast can be removed for storage. The British Vosper shown for scale ! I found a few old 6mm figures and stuck them on the ship as crew.

Finally the rain has cleared for a while at least, a shot of the Penrith Beacon on the hill behind the town. In the distance a snowy Lake District. 

That’s it for this week although I have another game planned for the weekend and some painting after family duties. And some more fiddling with the railway setup. A question to loyal readers should I share some photos of the railway here ?

Thanks as always for taking the time to read what I have been upto 

Matt 👍

The ECW project comes together 🙂

As planned we played the first battle with the ECW collection this weekend. We had some debate about which rules to use, as always our choice is focussed around playability with just enough feel. For this game I adapted Kings of War our go to rules for Ancient and larger Dark age battles. These required very little adaptation as they cover troops right up to the late medieval period. The only issue was trying to get stats for mixed pike/musketeer blocks and how they would work with the whole ‘push of pike’ thing. Anyway I also wrote some fate card events aka Valour and fortitude as we thought this would also add a little ‘fog’.

Pretty much everything I have painted on the table for their first battle, i left some of the artillery out as this seemed a bit much for the size of the battle. The river is passable but will cause disruption when charging. The fields with hedges provide some benefit to defenders but the rest of the terrain is purely visual.

The Royalist cavalry, we of course had an impetuous rule whether this is truly historical or not but it wouldn’t seem like the ECW without Rupert charging off. In the event he kept his cavalry under control this time

parliamentary forces under Cromwell

The plan at this scale was to try and provide some space for games, and this was an interesting reminder that I really don’t need to paint too much more as it will only block everything up. I’m really keen in these battles to have some space for cavalry and this kind of worked out ok. The red markers are for first fire, and I will replace these in later battle ps with something less obtrusive.

The Royalist heavy cannons open up

No point hanging back the Royalist cavalry move across the stream, all cavalry to both shoot (pistols) or charge, with lots of negatives for charging the front of a pike block

But I was keen to try everything out so the Royalist cavalry charge in. This did create a pleasing sense of chaos on both cavalry wings with cavalry from both sides, shooting and charging in a whirling mass for most of the battle

The pike blocks are quite stubborn and the key to any victory

Eventually they crash into each other and begin to ‘push’ the cavalry is still skirmishing about

Hand to hand across most of the battlefield now

The parliamentary cavalry win on this flank of the battle, crossing the river with intent

We discovered after quite a lot of turns that I had made the pike blocks just slightly too stubborn and we realised they really were going to take too long to break through, their stats will be amended slightly for next time.

Final shot of the battle. Probably a minor win to the Royalists as they have won in the centre and have the best of it on this wing as well. But really it didn’t matter, it was a really fun game giving lots of tactical challenges and already a feel for a Pike and Shotte battle.

Through the battle is was jotting down small tweaks which I will roll into the next games. I plan to play some smaller historical battles solo to see how they work out. Great fun to see a project get to this stage, certainly contemplating the battle I have a clear idea what else I need to paint and more importantly what I don’t need to do.

Just in time for the battle I thought I would complete the Curassiers I had from the Warlord sets.

These are perhaps the worst of the sculpts in the box, but when painted up they are not too bad, after all in the ECW you are not going to have many in play. I even clipped a few feathers off just to give some variety.

These two Arab/Al Andalus commanders had been languishing on the painting table for too long so I just got them finished, nothing too fancy. This one is a gripping beast Saladin I think

And another command figure also GP I think.

Keeping busy and hoping the weather improves, more to come soon. I also attended a small Model Railway show today which always gives some inspiration to fiddle with a bit of the railway, perhaps get the second station tidied up as it was left half finished ?

A couple of the many beautiful displays on show, I did manage to not buy any trains though which is good

That’s it for now thanks for taking the time to visit

Matt ♥️

Bridge building : American War Independence

George needed a rest from WW2 so for his visit this week I set up an AWI battle, a modified version of the bridge building scenario from the Rebels and Patriots rule book. 

The scenario setup at the start, the British engineers will start from the tents on the right, the British have a small picket of dismounted dragoons protecting the road on the right. The Rebels/Americans will attack from the two corners on the left, the British defenders from the right. The engineers need to be in the river and to activate scoring a total of 60 points to complete the bridge.

The engineers preparing for their work, as the battle fair rattled along I only took a couple of photos 

The Americans split their force with Native contingent coming through the far woods, they had some reluctance to start with failing several activation. The rest of the American force approached form the bottom left. The British push forward to defend the engineers but as usual the dragoons are reluctant failing to arrive and then failing to move forward !

The Americans throw out a skirmish screen along the river bank but come under heavy and effective fire from the British cannon which has been rolled into place. The engineers are now in the river and successfully activate.

After their initial slow start the Natives are thrown at the bridge and drive the engineers back shaken. The rest of the British, 2 Hessian regiments have been brought up to bolster the defence

The British light infantry drive the Natives back away from the bridge and both sides’ regular infantry exchange long range fire across the river. In the distance a jaeger unit is crossing the river to drive the remaining natives away.

A very fierce fight ensues around the bridge, but the engineers do manage to get back into the river and are able to continue their work. Both sides start to lose units are pretty shaken.

Eventually though the engineers come under fire and are wiped out, the bridge is half built with 30 points constructed, not a bad effort given the circumstances but the Americans will take the victory. A fun game and fairly close with both sides having some challenges.

As the rain continues to fall in Cumbria the painting conveyor belt has continued this week.

Dismounted dragoons have been completed, these are warlord epic figures supplemented with Peter Pig horses and horse holders. As far as I am aware the dragoons in the ECW rarely if ever fought on horse so the mounted Dragoons will play as normal cavalry in most games. 

My first regiment of Peter Pig cavalry, think they have come out ok although they are more of a fiddle as to horse bases are slightly smaller making them unstable for painting and the riders have to be glued in place.

For those that are interested a comparison shot of Epic vs PP on the right

And something different, with a plan for some games over Christmas. These are from the mantic Walking Dead game which I have had for ages

Zombie Hunters

…and of course some Zombies

Well that’s it for now, I hope to get the ECW collection on the table this weekend so looking forward to that, but as the rain is still falling I will likely get a bit more painted in the next couple of days.

Thanks as always for taking the time to check in on my hobby ramblings

Matt ♥️

Ps if you saw this post about an hour ago I pressed the wrong button and deleted everything !

The Battle of Sabugal 1811

After the Tallarn jungle adventure, time for something historical. The battle of Sabugal 3rd April 1811 Wellington was driving the French out of Portugal and the Light division caught the French rearguard under Jean Reynier near the village of Sabugal. Bad wether, mainly Fog meant the french were caught and heavily outnumbered. 

The starting positions, the light division coming on from the left, the French on the slightly higher ground. The french brigade on the hill can’t activate until the leading brigade of Pictish 3rd Division crosses the river. The British need to try and pin the french in place, the french need to try and save as many troops as they can and get off the battlefield to the near edge, where the British light cavalry is outflanking their position.

The French position

The 2nd brigade under Drummond advances to support the rest of the light division. Lots of green coated riflemen thrown out in front.

The french open fire, Portuguese troops are sent to cut the retreating french off but are menaced by the french light cavalry

The French light cavalry

The British attack the french right flank which starts to fold back on itself

Ouch Pictons Division starts to arrive, one turn late after the french played a dastardly fate card 

After a failed charge at the Portugese the french light cavalry is forced to pull back and regroup

The British assault through the light woods on the french right

In the centre the french are starting to pull back to buy some time

Finally the rest of the French see the advancing 3rd Division and are activated to move off the ridge

A second charge by the french cavalry has wiped out the Portugese who were caught in the field,

The french right wing has managed to extricate itself despite every unit in the brigade being shaken. The fresh troops can hopefully now hold the position long enough

The British are now in the driving seat pushing up onto the higher ground driving the french before them

The position of the light division, it has been badly beaten up and at one point was on the verge of collapsing completely but it held on just, with the rest of the 3rd Division arriving it is a British win as they have forced significantly more Brigade Fortitude tests out of the french.

Lots of fun and a surprisingly tight game, the British really were on the point of collapsing, it didn’t help that the French rolled pretty badly, especially early on.

The ECW painting has continued with a planned battle later this week.

These are lovely Peter Pig command figures to use both for army and Batalia commanders. I like the fact that each is named on the base so thought I would highlight this, they do a couple more figures which I’ll get next time I order something. For now I have been completing units of dismounted dragoons.

Well that’s it for now , hopefully two games this week.

Thanks for checking in Matt ♥️