SCW - Moroccan's First outing.

Last Sunday saw the first outing for the SCW Moroccans, pitted against Ian's militia.

The game started badly for the Nationalists rolling low on the Force Support dice, whilst the Republicans rolled high - a difference of over 18 points...... definately a case of quantity over quality.

Things got no better in the patrol phase. The Nationalists got pinned early on and I was forced to place jump off points in two small houses to the rear of the table, so much for a quick dash across the table, meanwhile the militia deployed in hard cover across the frontage of the table.

I opt to deploy early looking to catch the militia as they deploy, if I can hit them with enough shock I might be able to keep their heads down long enough to break through the Republican lines, I only have to get a squad off the board to win the game.

The extra points have been spent wisely and Republicans bolstered by a Civil Guard Section begin to edge round the Moroccan's right flank.

The Milicianos deploy in the rock formation, bolstered with additional MMG and LMG teams, 20 Green troops blaze away at the advancing Moors catching them in the open - ouch.

Slug Fest - with little cover, both sides resort to long range rifle fire slowly whittling down their opponents, the Milicianos take fire from the front and flank, but with a political officer in their ranks they are able to keep the mounting shock to a reasonable level, the NCO is hit several times, but each time without injury..... The luck really is with the Republicans tonight.

Fresh reinforcements bolster the peoples militia's ranks, but with the milicianos on the left flank finally being forced to retire, they can do little to impact the unfolding Nationalist move.

A battered and bloody Moroccan squad double through the orchard to close out the game.

Not the most inspiring of encounters, leaving both of us wanting more, it was good to finally get the Moroccan's on the table and a further game next week should give us a chance to fine tune our formations and tactics...

Watchful Studio - Chinese Fantasy

The Chinese village continues a pace, all this oriental activity led me to back the Watchful Studio's kickstarter Campaign - Less than one day to go to invest with these guys.

Wave 1 provides for troops for the Waring States while Wave 2 is a Fantasy Product range.
Really not sure what they would be useful for - but they seemed like fun.

Fu Dogs are the guardians of revered temples, shrines, and palaces. They are often enchanted to come to life when sensing wrong-doers in the area.

Chinese Village - Part 3

With the Wyvern Wargamers - Lardy day less than 2 months away the RJW terrain is really starting to take shape, I had planned on finishing the buildings but in the end opted to finish the crop compound first.....

Japanese troops taking up positions against the fence as they await the Russian counter attack. I am rather pleased by how this has turned out, plenty of room to line the fences but a sense of density for the crops..

Two more bases and a compound to finish.

Chinese Village - Part 2

Plenty of progress over the past few days.....

Once glued to the boards and filled to blend with the base I applied a liberal coating of PVA glue and a covering of sand, then allowed them to dry, the boards were then undercoated.

Whilst 4 ground come ready painted, I wanted to give them a darker wash, the boards were given several layers of dry brushing. I cut up several pieces of plastic door matting from the local hardware store, which gave me ready made crops for the enclosure and back gardens.

The John Jenkins walling went together really well and some textured wall paper gave a tiled effect to the inside of the compound.

At this stage the terrain pieces look far from finished but they are starting to come together, I am hoping to make further progress over the next few evenings.

Next up the buildings.

Chinese Village in 28mm

Having cleared the Spanish from the paint table time to turn to one of the long term projects sitting on the drawing board.

Much of my gaming over the past few years seems to have a Chinese feel to it, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, the terrain in use has been adaquate but I wanted to give it more of an obvious Oriental feel to the table top and onlooker.

The photo above was one of the first images that inspired me to re-fight the RJW period the farm in the background seemed perfect for what a typical rural hamlet might look like in 1905 Manchuria.

With a planned all dayer game in June at the Wyvern Wargames - Lardy Day. It seemed like it was time to put the plans in motion.

There is plenty of Samurai type buildings on the market, but the Chinese architecture is very different, several hours on the web delivered some very suitable pieces sourced from Curtney Miniatures and John Jenkin Designs.

Curtneys excellent resin buildings are designed for Ancient China they are well cast, light weight and with detactable roofs and bases gives me the most flexability between playability and style.

 

John Jenkins Designs have some wonderfully detailed buildings in 28mm, but are largely focused on the Japan and are near impossible to obtain in the UK, now appearing to focus mostly on 54mm figures, I was able to pick up some stone walling and a stable which will be useful for the rural compound sadly everything else is out of stock.

The 4 Ground fences from their Samuari range took longer than anticapted to construct with each section coming in a several sections all of which needed to be constructed in order and allowed to set before the next piece is added, but they are perfect for the walling each building and some small enclosures.

I figured mounting the buildings on boards would make them a little more durable and allow me to add some finer detail such as static grass and smaller terrain items, besides some of the fences pieces are only 2" across and were likely to fall over on the table during game play.

Securing the building bases to boards also gave me the flexibility to swap buildings around but also gives me the options to create "toppers" which can replace buildings if needs be with say ornamental gardens or vegatable patches...

Plenty more to do.... 

Dux Brittaniarum - Irish Raiders

The wargaming gods are against me have returned from the Wyvern club a few weeks ago having had my first taste of of Dux Brittanniarum, I return to find an e-mail from Rich Clark offering a 20% off flash sale for all Too Fat Lardies products....

What more of an incentive did I need?

 

For £18 (less 20%) you get a 44-page rulebook, and a deck of 54 cards to add to your Dux Britanniarum deck. The book adds four new forces to the core Dux armies, the Picts, Irish, Scotti and Northern British.

You also get an expansion of the campaign maps to include the whole of the UK and Scotland and Ireland

With a reasonably large collection of Plantation Irish it did not take much work to adapt the existing formation to Dux and create a dark age Irish Warband.

The warband of  Caiside Nuallan as he starts on his journey to become a mighty leader.

Lord Caiside Nuallun from the lone of the Children of Danu - an old Royal line of the old land, a land of gods who walked among men he gets + 1 on his honour role.
Flanked by his Champion and two subordinate leaders. - Dathi Tighearnan and Berach Fiann.

Raider Group 1.

Raider Group 2

Raider group 3.

One group of four slingers.

Two groups of four skirmishers under the comand of a Status I noble.

One group of Noble Raider Cavalry supported by a group of skirmish Cavalry.

Nice to be able to finish a force without having to paint anything, but with Salute fast approaching I can't rule out some extra skirmishers and some more Gallowglas to bolster the raider ranks.

First outing tonight as proper Irish - Lets see how they get on.......

Chain of Command - Moroccan Infantry Section.

Last of the Spanish complete for the Wyvern Wargamers Chain of Command SCW Project.

A full Moroccan Infantry Section for Chain of Command with a couple of support options, with figures drawn from three separate manufactures, so plenty of variaty within the unit.

HQ section (Plana Mayor) which consisted of the Platoon Commmander, A first Lieutenant (Teniente), a Platoon 1st Sergeant (Sargento Primero) and two additional men.

 

The Section (Pelotone) consists three squads (Escuadras) of 15 Riflemen and an LMG team, which is able to be broke down into Two Rifle armed fire teams of 6 riflemen each and an LMG fire team of two gunners and three riflemen.

Spot the difference - Just noticed them when putting the pic up - one of the infantry is based on a 2p rather than a 1 pence piece - bugger.............

I have finished a support option of a mortar squad and tank hunter team, I suspect a few extras will be on the shopping list for Salute with an AT Gun, Cavalry squad and Tankette on the wish list, but this force for now should give me plenty to put on the table..... with the first outing in a couple of weeks lets just hope they dont succumb to the curse of freshly painted figures.....