Essex Regiment of Foote

   As is usually the case, I'm being pulled in multiple hobby directions in one go* and the English Civil War is another of those projects. The three units on this post were mentioned on my first Cavanuary post and were in fact painted at the end of last year but hadn't managed to get themselves onto this log.
   The figures are from Warlord games (and are the contents of a single plastic box which I'm really impressed by) and are painted in something I hope looks like the Essex Regiment of Foote. I've tried to keep the orange jackets a bit dulled down so they don't distract, while the trousers aren't a uniform colour - although they are a limited palette of colours.
   The biggest problem I had with these units was working out how to store the pikemen - box files are way way too short - but A4 sized Really Useful Boxes came to the rescue!

*Nearly entirely self inflicted

  I'm being distracted by other projects** but I'd really like to get a basic game of ECW using Pikeman's Lament in early this year.

**Or is this the distraction from other projects?

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French Yeomen

   My drive to get my initial 100 years war forces onto the table - hopefully this month(?) - is very much still ongoing and thanks to my multi-unit batch painting method are much closer than the posts on this blog suggest. My French starting list has been the list that's seen the most changes and the biggest change has been the inclusion of (what Lion Rampant calls) Yeomen.
   The Perry French 100 years war infantry box has 12 crossbows and 24 similarly dressed infantry, these guys are too lightly armoured to be called foot sergeants, so I've pushed them down to the next rank. I wanted at least one unit of crossbows and I'm not in the habit of building bits from a sprue but not the rest, as that way lies the backlog. Instead, I figured I'd build and paint them at the same time and use them in the future. Then I had a thought. One of the things I wasn't happy about with my initial lists was that the French army was smaller in numbers than the English army, I wanted that Agincourt feel of an outnumbered English army, without needing to outnumber in points (at least to start with). Yeomen add cheap numbers, while still being historically, fairly correct.

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The Black Reaving

   One of the big gaming rules I live by is never to enter a list to a tournament that includes models that aren't finished. This has been a good rule to me and one I have never regretted having. This year, however, something strange has happened to me and I've sent lists to two events this month that include figures I've not painted (or in a couple of cases, bought) and it has turned out to much more stressful than I even thought it could be when I created my rule.
   I had a doubles event planned for the second weekend of February but upon list submission, for some unknowable reason, I talked myself into a position where the list that I sent wasn't the list I had initial planned, nor was everything on it built and painted.

   The main unit that needed work was the 10 man unit of Reavers for my Sons of Horus. I had the bodies and the arms already as part of a trade, so I knew I had them sorted, but it was a raiding my bits box job for the weapons, heads and jump packs. Thankfully, I just about skimmed through with the needed parts, although my bits box needs some serious love in the near future to recover.

   Obviously, from the way this post has gone together I got this first event's worth of figures finished in time - including 3 assault marines I needed to bulk my squads up - but it was a close run thing.

Reavers with black shoulder pads and Assault marines with the normal green.

   The rest of the post will be a limited photo dump from the event. it was a doubles event, so I went with my fellow podcaster, Keith, both with Sons of Horus. I had some brilliant games (we actually won one of them!) and met some great people and doubles turns out to be a really relaxed way to play so I definitely glad I went. Thanks to the Fortis guys for running it.

 

 

 

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Cavanuary 3 - The Pride of France Pt.2

   The title to this post is purposefully misleading* but it felt like it followed on nicely from the last Cavanuary post. This entry is a unit that is a full on backlog unit and the exact reason I wanted to do the Cavanuary specialised month. The unit in question is French Napoleonic Lancers and there are some things to say up front - Yes I know that there were no Lancers in the Peninsula and that the uniform I have picked is much better suited to the Russian campaign, however, they were a gift and I didn't want them to go to waste**.

*Not even sorry
**And having seen what my mate's lancers could do, I needed to get mine finished***
***See the last Napoleonic post

   I went with the colour scheme from the box, carefully avoiding the red of the elite companies as elite doesn't suit my way of playing. Happily, shock troops in Rebels and Patriots come in units of 12 which is how big the Warlord Games box of Lancers is, but, even more happily, the box comes with metal parts to give you an officer and musician but no horses for them and it just so happened I got a sprue of Lancers with my copy of Wargames Illustrated last year who could donate their horses giving me options on how to field them (although I need another 4 to boost them up to Sharpe Practise sized units).

I just need to get them on the table now and under my own command . . .

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Reloading Archers?

   One of the things I really want to make sure I am doing with my Lion Rampant (and family) projects is making the whole scene look like something real is happening and I've not just put down some trays of figures and put scenery on the edges where it won't get in the way. With my 100 year war project I wasn't sure what direction to take. I had some ideas of a camp in one corner and that would look the part but it needed something else. The I came across photos of the massive display board the Perry's did for the anniversary of Agincourt and saw the wagons at the back supplying the archers with new bundles of arrows and I had an idea.

   While the Perry's do supply the cart and it was in my saved basket for a long while, it was Front Rank where I actually bought them from in the end as they were part of my Napoleonics order and it saved on a bit of unnecessary postage charges. The bundles in the back are from the Perry's as their Mounted Knights set has options for mounted archers - I'm tempted to buy another box to do a few mounted archers to protect the baggage in the future but that's for another day.

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Sabre - This is Cavalry Right?

   This is going to stay as a fairly short and sweet post as there isn't a huge amount to say. I'm still on the Mournival Podcast and if anything it going stronger than ever now we have mixed up our recording and release schedule* and it has been good for keeping me looking at a game which could very easily have fallen by the wayside in my normal butterfly way of hobbying.

   The Sabre is a light, fast tank (in the fluff) utilised by the legions at the time of the Heresy. When this thing came up on pre-order we chatted about the photos on the cast and figured it had to be Land Raider sized, we then downgraded it to Sicaran sized. Then the first non-product page photos came out and we realised it wasn't even quite Rhino sized and it went from I want one, to I've ordered one and what do I do now.

   I decided that my Ultramarines were the place to test this new unit out, so the blue paint came out and this is the result. I still can't tell you if it any good, the one thing I can say is I've been told multiple times that I've given it the wrong choice of guns - only time will tell.

*Much preferring shorter weekly episodes

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Re-enforcing the red coats

   Following on from the Highlander diversion, it's back to my regular red coats - the South Essex. This Napoleonics painting drive has been because of a planned game that my mate Neil wanted to run to test our 'Napoleonics would work in Rebels and Patriots' theory* and he wanted to try it big, at the 50-60 point level, which is getting on for somewhere just over 2x the normal size for a game. As I sat down to sort out unit cards I realised I was very short of points. Even with all my South Essex, Highlanders and 95th I wasn't quite at the points, but then something dawned on me, I was into (in my head) too many unrelated units territory. One of the things I try to do, in my wargaming, is make armies make sense, so why does your 5 unit army include elements from 4 different military organisations. If you are playing a unit representing a bigger force, then fine. If you are playing 1:1 scale (which I do for 28mm) then I'm not as big a fan. That's just my personal opinion and with that the rant is over.
   So, I went to Front Rank and built an order. Obviously a needed a cannon - cannons are brutal for their points and I knew the French would have one - and I picked up the crew (Sharpe Practice sized team to cover all eventualities), a limber and horse team at the same time. I picked up the last few men I need to boost my Highlanders (from the last post) to R&P sized unit strengths. I also picked up a few red coats - including a command group - to fill the last few slots**. Then while I was there I had a think - and going full circle - I added two units of red coat light company to swap out my 95th for.
   The banners are shamelessly stolen from the Wool Shed Wargamer, thanks a lot.

*The theory needs a snappier name
**Not all pictured as I couldn't remember which ones they were

Both units of British Light Company skirmishers, definitely going to add another couple of units here.

The Royal Artillery train. I'd like to add an ammunition team to this in the future, but for the moment this will do.

   With the varnish still drying on the cannon crew and limber we set our models out and got on with the game, and it was only at this point the scenario was named - Quatre bras - so my troops were all wrong. Saying that, it was one hell of a game;

The British holding the line at the start of the game waiting for the bulk of the army to arrive.

I really must paint my officer up a proper command staff at some point.

It doesn't look like much, but that was a lot of French troops coming our way.

 The British re-enforcements holding the crossroads while the French Lancers worked there way through the left flank.

   Obviously, as I was on the British side, it's safe to assume it was a French victory but it was a close run thing. As any gamer will tell you, if X had worked, or Y hadn't happened it would have been a very different game. In this case, it was our cannon never managing to deploy and the French Lancers working their way through our flank unopposed, but that's the joy of wargaming. Thanks for running the game, Neil.

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Highland Laddie

   As I am famously a hobbyist who cannot keep to a single project for long, it's about time to witness yet another project shift - this time to my old nemesis, Napoleonics. I've been chatting to my mate Neil since late 2019 about using the Rebels & Patriots ruleset as a simpler way to field my Napoleonics, I really enjoy Sharp Practise but it's a bit of faff to get to the table compared to a game like R&P. While I need to bulk units up - see my next post - it should make for a quicker and easier evening game, which means I can save SP for weekend games.
    Why Highlanders, I hear you ask? So, I was in Edinburgh on holiday and was really enjoying the culture and constant bagpipers (the joy of a tourist trap), when I found myself placing an order for a couple of Sharp Practise sized units of Highlanders. It's easily done.
   However, when I finally did some research I realised that there wouldn't actually have been many kilted troops in the peninsula. Of the few regiments that were there I picked the 79th Cameron for no real reason than they weren't the Black Watch that always seem to be the go to tartan of choice.
   Again, and you are probably tired of hearing this, these were another unit that has sat in my lead pile for a good couple of years while I waited for the market to supply me with tartan paint, however, deadlines put paid to that theory and I had to go the old fashioned route.

   While I'm tempted to pick up a third unit at some point - it should probably be fairly soon to make sure they match the other units - two feels enough for the moment, it's not like my backlog is clearing itself.


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I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start

   As it is the official end of Cavanuary, I thought I had better get back to posting the stuff I had finished before the month started. I've still got 3 units of various horsemen on my painting desk, so I don't plan to end Cavanuary but it's the end of the artificial posting period.
   So this time I have my second unit of late 100 years war English men at arms (again, expert foot sgts in Lion Rampant), a second unit of English archers and a unit of English Knights (Men at Arms in Lion Rampant confusingly). I've added the metal command figure from the last infantry post to act as the Leader.

   So with the minimum English army finished, I had better get back to the other side - who are also pretty close now.

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