Charge !!!! - Back to the Crusades...

The Chinese have taken a bit of a back seat lots of prep done and the foundations to make them ready for the finer detail in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile as we turn into February and prompted by, one of my gaming group launching a monthly painting challenge with the theme for the month of Charge!!!!

Yet another unit of cavalry for the Outremer project....

Rather worryingly these fine fellows were first under coated in last January. So the perfect excuse to get them table ready....

Great castings from Footsore and some extra Arab Heavy Cavalry for Saladin's army.

As with pervious units shield decals from Little Big Man Studio's so much easier and look so much better than had painted.

One more cavalry unit to go... before all of the Arab forces are finally complete....

Richard the Lionheart - Footsore Miniatures

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?

A very useful cheat is the shield transfers from Fire Forge Games, they need a trimming to fit the shield but they do make the model, not something I fancied painting myself.

Next up yet more Crusaders.....

Crusader Mounted Sergeants

The Crusader project rolls on....

The Christian forces are light on cavalry so these mounted Sergeants will be a useful addition to help keep the Arab cavalry at bay.

Great castings from Footsore Miniatures all in metal, it will be interested to see how their new plastics will compare. The partnership with Atlantic Games is really churning them out at the moment.

The shield transfers are from Fire Forge Games they do need a little not of adhesive to keep them in place but are far better than I could achieve free hand.

So another unit clears the paint table.... 

Next up back to the American War of Independence with a few extra's to coincide with the anniversary of Lexington and Concorde on the 19th April.

Enter the Christian Horde.

These fine fellows have been on the paint table for a couple of weeks, a random collection of Footsore, Wargames Atlantic and Perry's Miniatures all part of the getting stuff done project.

It's looking like April will be another month of Crusading, a mix of Spear, Crossbow and Levy to complete a number of units for the Crusader project bringing the figure counts up to 12 and 6 for Lion Rampant and removing the need for casualty markers.

I seem to have increased the volume of figures on the go in recent years, it used to be no more than 12 at any one time, but now I find myself working through between 24-30 which take longer but there is something quite satisfying about finishing a large batch. This mob enable me to come a number of units.

Skirmish Unit - Christian Bow, I had 4 of these already the two additional Plastic Wargames Atlantic archers will complete the unit.

Light or Heavy Spear a mix of of Footsore metal and plastic a perfect match the only difference being the spears, the metal with the deadly metal pins verses the denser plastic ones from Atlantic. I might consider swapping one or the other out at some point.

Closely followed by their bulkier Perry breatharian, the Perry Figures were not a good match compared to the Footsore Spearmen in the same unit so they now get their own unit.

The Christian Levy get their ranks fleshed unit bringing them up to 12 figures, one of the levy even managed to get their hands on a large shield. Not sure it will really help when you look at their stats.

Finally an additional Skirmish Crossbow unit from the Perry Twins, these can be a stand alone unit or combine with the other Skirmishers to make a full unit of 12. Let's see if they can keep the mounted horses at bay.

Plenty more still to do before the plastic mountain is conquered but some good progress over the past week or so, an hour and a half an evening certainly made the painting process far easier than a whole days session.

Next up mounted sergeants.

The Battle of Ascalon 1099 - Cotswold All Dayer - Part 2

Last Sunday saw the annual trip to Cirencester and the Cotswolds Wargames Day held this year at Big Battles. It's always an enjoyable affair with some great games on offer in a very relaxed atmosphere. Great to see some old friends and meet new gamers. The only downside you never get enough time to chat with fellow gamers.

Big Battles is a great venue Derek and Andy who run the venue have a real passion for the big game talk about a hobby that turns into a business definitely worth a trip back to perhaps one of the large games. You can find their details here. Home - Big Battles

After 8 weeks we had amassed quite a large collection of Arab forces they lined up outside the walls of Ascalon to turn back the Christian hordes. They did look great very clear lines against the fractured Christian commands.

We split each of the Christian Commands into 4 distinct commands each with. 2 Elite Knights, 2 Elite Foot, 2 Heavy Infantry and 2 Skirmish Missile units.

Honour Points were awarded for the following feats.

Slay Vizier Al Afdal                                    3 Points

Slay an Arab sub commander                     2 Points

'Burn their homes' destroy the main tent    2 Points

Destroy the Greek Fire                               1 Points

So what of the game, as the Arab player we threw our cavalry out on the flanks looking to strip away the skirmishers amongst the Christian ranks, however we did not factor in the fact that their Infantry would be quite so aggressive who waded into the heavy cavalry who whilst able to counter attack we too few in number to maintain a one for one exchange.

The light cavalry managed to slip past the Christian line but far from the general command their were unable to get under order enough to make an impact.

When the Christian knights made their way to the front who they drove back the remaining cavalry the path was clear into the soft underbelly of the infantry but despite wiping out many of the archers and light spearmen they were too few in number to strike the final blow.

A close run thing but a marginal Arab victory - one might argue :-)

A fantastic days gaming with everyone involved from start to finish just as a large game should be. Well worth the nightly efforts of getting the figures on the table.

I did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked around the other tables but there were some fantastic games on offer, you can see a number of them here on Paul's and Steve's blogs.

Cotswold Wargames Day 2024 | movealongnownothingtoseehere

Wargames With Toy Soldiers: 1685 - 1985: Cotswold Wargames Day 2024 (wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com)

Gripping Beast Archers & reinforcements arrive....

It's amazing what the motivation of a big game does for your painting mojo although it is starting to feel a little like a job. Another batch of Gripping Beast miniatures for the big game on Sunday, thank heavens they lack some of the finer details and are only armed with basic bows and daggers it does allow you to churn out quite a few.

We shall be using Lion Rampant so these will make up 2 additional archer units, plenty to keep the Christian forces occupied.

Thanks to a good friend of mine who seeing the rate of expansion of the Islamic forces very kindly offered a swap his bare metal which was on the to do list for some of my WW2 collection giving us both fresh projects to be getting on with. 

I am so grateful but so many extra cavalry.... I really need to think about picking periods with less mounted figures.

These coupled with  a fresh order from Footsore with yet more cavalry will see me painting Crusader types from now until Christmas, let's see how many I can get through over the next 5 days.... 

Footsore Miniatures - Islamic Command.

Less than two weeks before the the Cotswold All Dayer, it's going to require a few late nights to get the requisite number of units complete.

Across our group of gamers we have quite the production line going in order to create the mass horde of Islamic warriors. Good job the Normans and the bulk of the Christian foot have been completed some time ago.

First off the production line this week the Commander of Arab forces, with his standard, trusted advisor and his escorting heavy cavalry.

Excellent sculpts as always from Mr Hicks and the guys at Footsore Miniatures, roll on the plastics to fill out the Christian lines.

The standards have been hard to come by but Pete Barfield over on the Baron's War Facebook Page has very kindly posted up a number of standards in the files section is very helpful.

Right off to get the finer detail on a batcher of archers done, as others are mini's are being stuck to bases and others have are under coated.... Let's hope it's stops raining so I can get the varnishing and undercoating done.

Outremer Arab Spearmen

Back to Outremer. 

Having decided on the plan for the next all dayer - It turns out we might be woefully short of Arab foot types. 5 weeks nothing like deadline to focus the mind.

Not usually a fan of plastics for gaming, I tend to lose bayonets and spears during regular game play, but you can't argue with the value for money. Gripping Beast offer 40 figures for £25.00 - 62p a figure can't be bad.

The box contains 8 sprues with enough to make a mixture of spear, bow and sword armed units together with command elements horns etc.

The Sprue contains 3 round shields and two teardrop so plenty of mix for the various units, while there may not be obvious leader types they are very useful to fill the ranks of generic warriors.

Good quality casts with minimal mold lines and and they detach really easily, limbs are pre-molded carrying spear or sword so construction is minimal.  

The Gripping Beast figures fit in well with other manufacturers hidden amongst the masses are a bunch of Footsore and some Black Tree Design

The shield designs are from Little Big Man Studio such a good time saver.

Next up more cavalry.

Footsore Miniature - Islamic Medium Cavalry

The Crusader project continues apace.... 

Still along way short of what's needed for a big game in the Autumn, Medium Cavalry from Footsore Miniatures, these will be very handy in the battles against the Christian forces, reasonably well armoured but with bow as well, so plenty of options to keep the opposition guessing.

Lovely sculpts from the Footsore guys, you will need to drill the hands out which can be tricky and the steel pins certainly seem to inflict more damage on the players than the mini's on the table.

Next up a switch in scale and the 10mm AWI whilst I wait for the Atlantic/Footsore plastics in the shape of foot sergeants and levy, the painting queue shows no sign of shrinking.

Perry Miniatures vs Footsore Miniatures

Time for some more Christians for the long journey to the Holy lands, a mix of Footsore and Perry's... In there own right both lovely castings but I will need a few more from each company as the Perry sculpts look like they have eaten most of the rations....

First up a spear unit in padded jackets and chain mail, mostly Footsore but you can see 'Little Bill' in the front rank, not even similar basing can mask his stature.

Having decided on Lion Rampant for this project I can get away with a smaller units until  I in fill the ranks to make them up till 12 models.

The comparison between the two ranges - Footsore (L) Perry Miniatures (R) - I was thinking about the new Victrix range but by all accounts they are event bigger....

The Christians are likely to need some divine intervention so a bunch of Holy men and Pilgrims to be escorted across the table top.

Finally a bunch of Bill men from Perry's. In their own units they look great.

Not a bad effort before they take to the table for their first outing.