Wyvern Wargamers - Back from Lock down and welcoming new members.

It's been months but we are back and opening our doors on the 6th September.

The trustees of the hall have carried out a full review and implemented a number of Covid safe procedures and we are back to Sunday evening gaming.

With a range of historical periods and rules covered time to get back to face to face gaming and rolling some dice. I am itching to see who has painted what and what new projects people are planning on starting or started.

A wonderful location with plenty of parking near to the doors to unload our valuable cargo's.

A central location in the village of Bishampton within 40 minutes of Worcester, Evesham,Warwick and Birmingham. Meeting the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month.

Why not make it your lock down resolution and get out of the house and join the Wyvern Wargamers for an evenings gaming.

You can drop me a line via my blog or find us at www.wyvernwargamers.org.uk

First Club...

Infamy Infamy - 28mm

American War of Independence 15mm

French Indian Wars - 28mm

28mm HIttite Spearmen - Infamy Infamy

After several weeks/months in the planning the first of the Hittites are off the paint table. 

These are from Warlord Games and form the backbone of the Hittite faction, for my Bronze Age forces. The spearman are a mix of styles representing Hittites, Hurrians, Syrians and the various city states loyal to the Hittite kingdom including Aleppo or Arzawa.

Whilst the Hittite forces engaged at Kadesh were largely chariots based, a number of the carvings  of the period indicate that the Hittites used dense formations of massed spearman, armed with long thrusting spears. Useful insight when considering how to represent them within Infamy Infamy.

This unit is armed with a mix of large shields of wicker or hide, it prompted an interesting discussion on the Lardies forum about shield sizes, training and armour class. Does the size of shield matter and does this make a difference when considering armour class? For example would a medium sized round shield only provide sufficient cover to denote light armour but a larger shield covering a warriors body mass give you an improved level of protection?

Within the Infamy Infamy rules these are regular 'drilled' warriors I have opted for a light armour class, the shields may be relatively large but the infantry may lack the training and application to provide wider protection. 

References to clothing of the period is rather mixed with sources suggesting wool or linen in shades of white, but many others in a multitude of colours, blues, green, reds and 'tyrian purple'. A lengthy search of the web does not give much clarity. No mention is made of armour for the spearmen. 

It was a refreshing change to paint a mix of colours although a little expensive when you realise that your paint collection lacks a number of their vibrant colours. 

Set out below is the unit record for Infamy Infamy and the associated points.

Hittite Spearmen				Type	Warriors
Points Value	14	Weapon	Hand to Hand	Strength	8
Armour	Step Out	Aggressive Attack	Characteristics
Light	2	2	Drilled,

Meanwhile following on from my earlier post the goat herders have found their last lost animals and now have a proper job on their hands.

Meanwhile the Redoubt camels get a make over and join the train, a little larger than the Gripping Beast offerings but they look ok when based up.

Next up.... More Hittites

Jungle crawler. Chindits vs Japanese.

With the 75th Anniversary of VJ fast approaching and weather in the UK actually hotter than Burma today. A short solo encounter with the recently painted Chindits. With so few figures I thought I would try something a little different from your traditional stand up fight making use of rolling terrain similar in style to a dungeon crawler type scenario.

"After a hit and run mission on a Japanese supply dump the Brits met at the rendezvous before heading back towards their own lines."

Starting at the centre of the table the Chindits have to exit the table but have very little idea as to the correct path. The route is created by drawing at random one of the directional cards. If on a roll of a 6 on a D6 the path comes to an end and an alternative path has to be created forcing the Brits to retrace their footprints. Meanwhile an endless stream of Japanese follow behind.

D3 turns into the game the first scout appears cautiously following behind the retreating Chindits. The first red dice goes into the bag for the Japanese. Each turn more Japanese reinforcements are rolled for.

The Brits head out, after a few meters the path splits, the raiding party takes the right hand path, with a lucky draw on the cards.

 Meanwhile more Japs fill the jungle trail as they had down the track following the raiders.

A fire team at the rear of the rag tag column pour fire into the pursuers as they attempt to slow the chasing pack. The Japs duck back as the path creeps towards the edge of the table as another straight is pulled from the deck.

The Japs keep on coming the final card hits the edge of the table and the raiders are away.

A fun quick encounter, it needs a little more work with dead ends and clearings but it has potential for future solo encounters.

Right back to the brushes those Hittites won't paint themselves.

All aboard the camel train...... Infamy Infamy Support Options and Ambush Points.

Last of the 'infill' pieces before diving into the Kings of Bronze project.  The goat herders and camels are from Gripping Beast and will be useful for both the Napoleonic and Ancient projects in the Middle East.

I had a near miss with the matt vanishing due to the humid conditions, stupidly I thought 5.00am might have been ok but unfortunately they had a little bit of misting on the crook and staff of some of the figures, fortunately I caught before doing the entire figures so reverted to brush varnish and did a quick over paint to correct them.

The camel's are slightly thinner than their Blacktree counter parts, I will post up a comparison in the coming weeks, each is weighed down with carpets and fabrics so are rather generic. These will be perfect for support elements or objectives in both Infamy Infamy and Sharp Practice.

I hate goats more than horses, I started with a mix of browns and blacks for the goats, but I struggled to recreate the right mountain goat feel, so in the end reverted to white with a grey/black undercoat. Perhaps now more sheep than goat but the overall effect is fine.

I added 7mm dice frames to the stands so they can be used to denote shock markers or the differing ambush points in Infamy Infamy.

I have tried a different basing style to what I have done previously adding in a little more rough terrain with rocks and boulders with a hint of greenery to make them suitable for the terrain within the Nile Region or Bekka Valley in modern day Lebanon.

Originally I started out with railway modelling ballast mixed into the sand mix, but found it to be rather small and even so opted for the real thing adding after the base was complete. I picked up a sample of 6mm -10mm sandstone chippings for £3.50 from a mail order quarry (who knew?) more than enough for the entire project and a extra's for a quarter of the cost.

I am pretty pleased with the effect and the grass tufts break up the mass of yellow on the table top.

Next up the first of the Hittites....