The marathon painting task rumbles on....
Next up a unit of Fire Forge Archers to add to the march of the pilgrims.
Welcome to "Dust, Tears & Dice", a blog dedicated to the hobby of miniature wargaming. If you fancy gaming periods off the beaten track then this is the place for you. I am a regular member of The Wyvern Wargamers, formerly The Evesham Wargames Club drawing gamers from Worcester, Redditch, Kidderminster, Cheltenham and Stratford. All players welcome.
The marathon painting task rumbles on....
Next up a unit of Fire Forge Archers to add to the march of the pilgrims.
Slow progress for the Pilgrim party, having to advanced 40 miles the column reaches the outskirts of Marmistra when they they encountered an enemy raiding party.
The raiders were seeking loot and the camel train was a suitable target, a random roll provided the Saracens raiders with 7 units appearing at random points on the table fortunately for the attackers many of them appeared at what was the Christians one o'clock.
The Christians decided to put their Knights to the front with their foot troops surrounding the camel train.
It did not take long for the Arab forces to lose a degree of control, Islamic Warriors charged forward only to countered by a heavy spear unit, who knew they had to go after the warriors before they could charge in.... Christian luck held as the Warriors failed to counter charge.
Surprisingly the heavy spears were forced to fall back.
The forces remaining.
1 Knight Unit.
2 Spearmen Units
1 Warrior Units
2 Missile Units
1 Skirmish Unit.
Another month another batch of figures for Outremer this time Christian Warriors from Fire Forge Games. I went with a more uniform feel for these.
Sunday was club day and an opportunity to dive into Chain of Command 2 after a few years away from the rules having been playing larger games using Bolt Action with elements of the original Chain of Command I was keen to see what had changed and what has remained.
We played through one of the pint sized campaign games - Scenario 2 from Operation Martlett the 49th Infantry division's push against the 12th SS.
While the foundation of Chain of Command remains solid, several refinements most certainly elevate the experience on the table, the revamped rulebook is an improvement over the original looking through the rule book, rules for similar mechanics are now grouped together, making it easier to find specific information. The comprehensive index is a welcome addition, significantly cutting down time spent flipping through pages.
It's good to see elements of the previous expansions like Blitzkrieg 1940 and Far East make the rules. Light Mortars feel more situational rather than a default option to poor fire on the enemy, the limited rounds make you think hard about when to deploy them.
The Armour damage is a lot cleaner, eliminating reliance on multiple tables while preserving varied outcomes even if I was on the wrong end of a Pak 40.
![]() |
Herr Fingerbob was not happy about losing their prized IV as soon as it come on the table. |
The expanded National Characteristics give more tactical depth, allowing Chain of Command points to be used for special abilities rather than just dice management.
Fire bonuses now influence tactics more dynamically, the Storm of Steel rules and exploding dice can make certain fire more impactful, the German double MG42 still throw a lot at dice at the advancing allies.
![]() |
Germans are still mighty tough with Junior and Senior leaders in toe - put out loads of flying lead. |
Whilst not used in our game on this occasion a couple of areas in the rules leap out.
Anti-tank weapons such as mines, grenades, and rifle grenades are more viable, making tanks think twice before rolling ahead without infantry support.
Suppressing Fire replaces Covering Fire with an expanded role, letting tanks pin down positions more effectively.
Perhaps the most intriguing change is in scenario objectives. Instead of merely draining Force Morale, battles now hinge on capturing objectives. Doing so accelerates morale loss and can trigger counterattacks, leading to more dynamic engagements. This tweak ensures that players focus on positional play rather than just surviving morale checks. It certainly makes you want to pick up the pace.
Chain of Command 2 doesn’t reinvent the game—it refines, enhances, and polishes it. The familiar platoon-scale tactics remain, but the improved rulebook, adjusted mechanics, and strengthened historical accuracy make battles flow more intuitively and have a more gritty feel.
For veterans of the system, this edition offers a smoother, deeper experience while staying true to its roots. If you're new to Chain of Command, the clearer ruleset makes it easier than ever to jump in without feeling overwhelmed.
Looks like I might need to reorganise my forces yet again :-)
Real life seems to have gotten in the way of gaming and painting of late, the Outremer Campaign is hopefully a way of driving activity and clearing the never ending queue.
I have had this model of Richard the Lionheart tucked away for a number of months, the perfect model to ease myself back in this month. A cracking model full of character from Footsore Miniatures.
My leaning is towards the Third Crusade (1189-1192), where he led Christian forces against the Muslim leader Saladin. Motivated by religious fervour and the loss of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, Richard joined forces with other European leaders, including Philip II of France and Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire 1, perfect if I wanted to create a multi player campaign with competing factions.
I have gone for the Hollywood Red, perfect for the siege of Acre or the Battle of Arsuf. Can miniature Richard capture Jerusalem we shall see?
I was reflecting on where the original title of the blog came from. Back in 2011 when I kicked this blog off I had an interest in the British in the Sudan and the Crusades with a plan to run an online campaign at our local club - Ironically neither of these projects every made the table top or blog, roll on 14 years and the Crusades finally makes the table top and the Dust & Tears Campaign finally lands on the blog.
In the Cry Havoc supplement - Outremer in the back of the rule book was a very useful scenario generation system which it allows you to generate and follow a group of 'Pilgrims' as they travel from Antioch in the North to see wondrous sites of the Holy Land in the South.
I adopted the table to Lion Rampant to give me the potential force map up for each Pilgrim party, the idea being each party will set off in the top left hand corner and attempt to reach Jerusalem, as each party runs out of troops or money they are likely to have to stop to await further pilgrim parties to bolster their number culminating in larger games. (driving me to paint the rest of the plastic and metal.)
Lucky me I rolled on the chart and my first party is a Knight & Retainers I adapted the table to model the forces available within Lion Rampant ignoring the 24 point limit and basing it on unit types as the scenario dictates.
Each Hex on the map is 20 miles roughly one days travel. Each time the party enters a hex on a roll of 50% or less and an encounter occurs. More on the type of encounter in future posts.
No more than 20 miles on the road and a small cluster of buildings emerge out of the heat haze, horsemen ride out of the village to confront the party of travellers.
It's easy to get carried away in the first encounter with the following forces available on the first encounter, 3 Knights, 1 Heavy Cavalry, 1 Light Cavalry, 2 Spear Units, 2 Warriors, 2 Missile & 1 Skirmish unit. The Christian forces heavily outnumbering the Moslem defenders felt pretty confident in winning the engagement and sacking the village for potential loot and valuables to fund their onward march.
The last post of May another batch of troops for the American War of Independence Project, I had a pack of Native Americans which might come in handy as scouts etc for campaigning North of New York.
Limited game time but an opportunity to get some additional buildings on to the gaming table, a mix of Pendraken and Timecast Models.
Located on the Bay Road in Lexington, in 1775 this house was home to Jacob and Elizabeth Whittemore as well as their daughter, Sarah, her husband Moses Reed, and their three small children. Neither Jacob nor Moses fought with the Lexington militia on April 19th, although Jacob had trained with it and Moses would volunteer for other Revolutionary War campaigns. Instead, Jacob and Moses carried Sarah Whittemore Reed, who was still recovering from the birth of her third child 18 days earlier, and her children to the relative safety of a nearby woodlot just before the battle reached their home. To the west of the house, Captain John Parker led the Lexington militia in engaging the retreating British Regulars. The Whittemore family lived in the house from the time of its construction in 1716-1718 by Jacob’s father, Nathaniel, until 1780 when it was sold by the family.
It's terrain week, I had hoped to get a game in for Lexington and Concorde back in April but needed some more fields, walls and buildings to flesh out the table. But real life has conspired of late seriously hindering both game and painting time, so some quick wins sprucing up some of the Time Cast latex fields and marshes to day.