10mm To The Rescue... I Hope!

Whilst perusing the internet I was made aware of Pendraken 10mm miniatures which I'd never heard of or seen them before. What really caught my eye was that they were for the Marlburian Era/War of Spanish Succession. This interested me even more because WSS is something I've been interested in for quite some time. Several years back I was going to do this period in 28mm but that fell through due to an intense dislike for painting the cavalry that I had purchased. Then, last year I toyed with the idea of 6mm but wasn't too blown away.

What about 10mm?

Well, I checked out the Pendraken website and considered for a short while before investing in one of their French Army sets (and a few extra horse). There were five x 30 figure battalions in the set so and I decided to paint up a couple of test cases. I decided to do Montmorency's brigade which is the same brigade I did the first time around in 28mm and then again in 10mm for my second attempt.

1st Battalion Bourbon 

I'm really impressed by them. They have a degree of detail considering their size but they are pretty easy to paint. I spent about 2 days on each battalion which are both 30 figures each. The command figures are from a separate set so I had a couple of left overs. For some reason the command sets only have 1 standard bearer per set and each battalion requires two. I ended up converting a couple of the chaps with their weapon at the high port into standard bearers.

I was very unsure how to base them and originally put the first battalion onto 50mm x 30mm bases with 10 figures per base. This had a nice footprint but the figures looked to spaced apart. With the second I put them onto 45x30mm bases and it looked better. So I rebased the first battalion to match. The line lost a bit of its width but I think it looks better overall. I chose to mount them on three wide bases. They always fought in line in this era and column was not use at all for manoeuvre on the battle field (maybe if assaulting across a bridge but that's about it).

1st Battalion Nivernais

However, I'm still not happy with the basing and I think I might end up rebasing again. I used some trimmed down plastic bases left over from some Perry sets but I'd rather go with 1.8mm mdf. I magnetised the bottom of the bases but I'm not sure if that's necessary or if I even like it.

My only real gripe is the lack of command figures. They are very, very limited. I made enquiries on LAF and it was suggested to look at Pedrakens other ranges to fill the gaps. Unfortunately before I received this advice I put in an order with VanDyke miniatures only to be told afterwards that they don't really match scale wise.

Also, I made the flags oversized too because I like the flags of this era. I don't care if that's historically inaccurate. I like them with big flags. These flags are the ones I originally designed in Photoshop for 28mm. I just shrunk them down to 20mm square.

Anyway, here's both battalions with their 6mm counterparts:

The 6mm's are from Irregular Miniatures. They have a really nice packed rank look but they lack detail and uniform details are one of the things that makes these armies look so appealing (along with the flags). These crappy little flags were hand painted. And it shows.

And just for fun, here they are again in 28mm:

If you want to know why I became disillusioned with WSS in 28mm read here. I lost complete interest in the whole thing and sold off all I had done at that time. I enjoyed painting the foot but I absolutely despised painting the horse. Considering the French army was about 30% to 50% horse, that was going to be an awful lot of misery as far as I was concerned.

But I'm loving these 10mm figures.

So far.

I haven't painted any horse yet.

Percy's First Big One.

Today in the fields of England's green and pleasant land the armies of the one true King Henry VI and those of the Yorkist Usurper - Edward IV, met in battle to debate good and rightful kingship and acts of vile Yorkist treachery.

Today at NWA Tom, Alan and I played another game of Never Mind The Billhooks. It was another game of brutal combat, unexpected surprises and, as previously mentioned, Yorkist treachery! Alan played Edward IV and Tom played Richard Neville: Earl of Warwick & Lord Falkenberg. Once again I played Lancastrians: Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland in command with the Duke of Exeter, Owen Tudor and Lord Roos. This is the first time I've used my Percy in anger.

I deployed Exeter on the left, Tudor in the centre Northumberland on the right behind Roos's Heavy Horse. Queen Mary was picnicking with Buckingham in the forest waiting for the battle to commence.

King Edward placed his cavalry on his left, opposite Roos and took his own position next to them. Warwick took the centre and Falkenberg the Yorkist right beside a stream and behind a small copse of trees.

The armies began to manoeuvre with Tudor advancing in the centre and Exeter lining some hedges. Edward and Warwick both advanced towards Exeter but where was Falkenberg?

Covered by the small woods, Falkenberg forded the stream and advanced towards the bridge. The only Lancastrian troops on that side of the stream were some mercenary crossbowmen.

The Manoeuvre Phase ended when Warwick's archers targeted Exeter's archers and the arrows started to fly from both sides.

"Be bold and advance!" cried Lord Roos. But then he noticed the Yorkist crossbows and advanced with less boldness.

However, as fate would have it the crossbows advanced in an effort to bring down some of the Lancastrian cavalry. This tactic failed and enabled Roos to catch the crossbows flatfooted. The knights ran right through the skirmishers killing all of them and running straight into Edward's block of bill and bow.

The commander of the Yorkist heavy horse saw an opportunity for fame and glory. He charged past the Lancastrian horse and straight at Lord Percy's foot knight.

As the Queen looked on, Percy's knights faced down Edward's mounted knights and cut down horse and man in a brutal, one sided fight which saw the Kings' knights destroyed and the unidentified commander driven from the field to face the wrath of his king.

The battle was looking good on the Lancastrian right wing.

On the left wing, Falkenberg was manoeuvring his troops to try an assault over the bridge. Exeters men-at-arms awaited them.

In the centre Tudor advanced with his Welsh archers to the fore and an intimidating block of French mercenary pike behind. The Welsh were targeted by the archers of both Warwick and Edward as well and a cannon. But they screened the pike and when the time was right Owen Tudor lead the intact French pike into Edward's troops. 

The King's troops were now under pressure from both Tudor's pike and Roos' heavy cavalry.

The remnants of Edward's billmen were driven back through their supporting archers but eh Tudor pressed the attack. Edward, the Yorkist usurper, escaped without injury but stayed with his beleaguered men.

Roos didn't fare well. Behind the archers they initially charged were foot knights. Not the expected billmen. They took hard casualties and Roos was killed but they stayed in the fight and kept up the pressure on the Yorkists.

Thinking that Roos was about to breakthrough Edward's flank and seeing the threat to Exeter, Lord Percy changed the line of his advance and marched straight at Warwick. If Edward could be driven back and Neville with him this day would lead to a grand Lancastrian victory!

On the left flank Exeter expected his men-at-arms to sell their lives dearly for the crossing of the bridge. But they didn't. They took light casualties (3 from 12) and lost the combat by a very small margin (1). They took a Moral Crisis Test... And ran like a pack of whipped curs (rolled a 3 on 2d6). Exeter's archers were also wiped out by Warwick's archers and skirmishers (although they stood until only 1 man remained and he even killed one more of Warwick men with a well placed arrow.).

In the centre Tudor's pike continued to push and destroyed Edward's bill and bow but failed (three times) to get the King who escaped and joined his other block of troops now that the Lancastrian Horse had fled the field. Northumberland's archers poured several arrow storms into Warwick's men and caused plenty of pain until such time as his foot knights could take the lead.

Meanwhile Falkenberg charged into Exeter again. They won the fight but this time, with the Duke leading them directly they stood their ground even though they took heavy casualties. 

Tudor managed to halt his troops and turn them around but a "bonus card" played by Warwick prevented them from being able to charge his flank and he took advantage of this to charge Percy before he could reinforce his knights with his billmen. The Percy's took hard casualties and those remaining fled.

The possibility of victory was slowly turning into the certainly of defeat.

As darkness fell (time to get going) a final melee took place. Warwick's knights charged the Percy bill and bow. The archers took aim and killed 3 foot knight and the ensuing combat saw another two killed. Unfortunately the archers themselves were also wiped out.

Seeing the turn of battle it was time for Queen Margret to vacate the field and seek safe lodgings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again it was a really entertaining game. This is my fourth game now and I'm really enjoying it. We're getting much more out of the rules and understanding them a whole lot better so that the games are flowing really well. There are always unexpected events and results. Just when you think you've got victory in the bag something comes along to thwart your plans (well at least my plans keep getting thwarted!).

Thanks to Tom and Alan for a really great game. I look forward to the next one. 

P.S. Alan is a man with an uncanny ability to roll more 6's in one game than I have rolled in my entire wargaming life!!!  (Or so it seems to my poor troops).

Lutzow's Freikorps ~ Completed... ?

It's taken me some time but I finally finished my version of Lutzow's Freikorps. I started this project back in March 2018 and it's taken me all this time to get to the end... Or so I thought until I started taking these photo's!

The newest, and what I thought were the final pieces, are a battery of horse guns and some bases of jaegers. Both the guns and the jaegers are Perry figures. The jaegers are the only figures from the Perry's actual Lutzow range that I've used. When I first started this project I had to use their Musketeers in Greatcoats for the battalions because there were no Lutzow's!

These figures are plain old standard Prussian Horse Artillery. They're wearing the long frock coat so they look right for the part. I use a pair of gun bases for my horse batteries and three bases for foot.

These are nice figures. I think they're newer additions to the Perry's Prussian range. One pack of them is enough for a small skirmish screen. I also have three bases of Tyrolean Jaeger to represent the Tyrolean company that was attached to the Freikorps (as well as some volunteer jaeger bases that I can mix in if needed). 

And here are the infantry battalions & the jaegers all together. One base per battalion as per General d'Armee. 

And here is the whole Freikorps. For General d'Armee they make up two brigades where the rules are concerned: one infantry and one cavalry (two small units). And that's where we come to that little missing part... I need to make a cavalry commander or, alternatively, an infantry commander.

I have my little Lutzow, as you can see and I think he would best be used as the infantry commander. But he did end up commanding the cavalry in 1815 when they were remade as the 6th Uhlans (the infantry becoming the 25th Regiment). However, I have some extra hussar figures & I could easily kit-bash a brigadier so I think that's what I'll do.

So there it is. It took 4 years but I finished this little project. The whole freikorps makes up a nice little independent command within the my Prussian force. It has enough presence to stand on it's own and would work great as a flanking force. Both the foot and horse elements can be used for 1815 as the 6th Uhlans and 25th Regiment and I'm sure the gun battery also became a separate unit in itself at that time.

I'm currently looking to create the 5th Infantry Regiment as well as some heavy dragoon cavalry. But I've also been reading about Hellwig's Raiding Corps which looks like an interesting little project for the future.

Centauri

A short diversion from what I've been doing recently. These guys have been sitting on the paint bench, undercoated and half painted, for quite a long while. They keep looking at me and making me feel guilty so I finally made the effort to finish them.

To be honest, I didn't actually do all of these in the past few days: Only the ten in the photo's below.

These figures are from Eureka Miniatures and even though they're pretty basic they do have a certain charm. They have a very 1980's feel about them. They fit very very well with Eureka's satyr/faun figures with many of the faun torsos being repurposed to make these figures.

The Centaur King is a conversion that I did for Eureka on the original "leader" figure. The green thing on his head is a crown of oak leaves (or laurel). I designed it based on the crown of Phillip II of Macedonia (Alexander's father). So I could have painted it gold. I was going to do that but changed my mind at the last minute and opted for green.

Below is the original little band that I did a few years back. You'll note the original leader figure (I actually replaced the spear with one of my own design on this one too which prompted the conversion I did for Eureka). You'll also notice the round bases. I'm not sure what to do about these at this stage: Keep them or rebase onto matching oval bases? Lets see what happens.

This is a little group of Sagittarii. I think I'll up their number to 12 in the near future.

So this is my little force of Centauri as they stand at the moment. I will add a few more to their numbers sometime soon. I have 16 spears which is an odd number when trying to create units for most modern rules. I think 24 would work out better. Another half dozen archers would also round off this little warband.

These figures are really easy to paint and that aspect made me feel even more guilty every time I sat down and saw them looking at me. I just kept putting them off over and over again and they just kept getting in the way of other things. But now it's all done and my army of the forest/faerie folk has grown a little bit stronger.

P.S. I also have a bag full of satyr/faun figures to add to the three dozen that I already have.