England Invaded - Light Cavalry Reinforcements and Osprey's latest offering.....

With the next round of encounters a few weeks away, the light cavalry join the fray....

These are fantastic castings from Eureka but the detail slowed my ability to get paint on the figures.... Almost too nice to paint.

Just as I was hitting painters block and being drawn to new projects, Osprey's latest Dark Series publication arrived, War Of The Worlds: The Anglo-Martian War of 1895 by Mike Brunton.

I just hope the lancers last longer than the cavalry in the book "The 9th Lancers immediately charged forwards and were slain by the Martians"

 

The book is written from the perspective of Great Britain. 80-pages long broken down into 5 Chapters detailing the strategy employed by both sides, full descriptions of the red weed, the cylinders, and the Martians themselves.

As you have come to expect from Osprey the book contains some lovely prints by the artist - Alan Lathwell, two appendices are included: “The Hunter” and “Winston Churchill’s Martian War.” which I can see appearing in future scenario's in the England Invaded campaign.

 

Whilst some of the centent varies from Well's original text, it does follow the spirit of the War of the Worlds and is a must for any War of the Worlds fan....

Just the tonic to get the rest of the heavy cavalry finished.....

Hold the line...... Zikanga Campaign AAR #6

Some what behind on posts lately.... This was played a few weeks ago.

Another night in Zikanga.

In the North of Zikanga, Warlord Charity Nsithlan is pushing hard to capture some of the outer villages before a push to the Capital Wagadoodoodoo.

 

Nsithlan supporters are made up of bandits, murders and deserters bereft of any political aims or objectives, opposing them are members of Zikanga's Gendarmes Nationale. The personal bodyguard of President Okoye. 

After initial successes in taking the out lying bush Nsithlan's forces look to break through the GN check points before laying siege of the important fortified town of Iseyin on route to the capital.

 

The road to Wagadoodoodoo the check point is at the far end of the table.

The GN take up their positions awaiting the approach of the Warlord Charity Nsithla's forces.

 

As the rabble approach they are raked by automatice fire.

In return the checkpoint is peppered by RPG fire.

The warlord's forces push through the plantation grounds as the GN are pinned under round after round of unaimed RPG fire.

Pressure mounts on the GN as technicals roll onto the table pouring fire into the valiant defenders.

With so many pinned troops the troops of President Okoye have little choice but to head for the town leaving the outer defence to Charity Nsithlan.

Hearing the news from the front President Okoye lifts up the phone - "Get me Muller"...

England Invaded 1880 - Turn 2 Human Moves.

After a few weeks on other games - England Invaded is back, with Humanity on the offensive.

After weathering the storm of the initial Martian advances Mankind have not sat idly by waiting for the Mars mens next moves. Far away from the troubles in the South of England, in the isolated Boarders region tradesman and craftsmen have been busily constructing Barracks, Training centres and Munition Factories providing the land army with access to fresh regular troops and Artillery assuming the supply lines can be kept open.

The Crown focus appears to be, to purge the North of England of the Martian prescence, with concerted attacks on the remaining Martians in Scotland and Yorkshire.

Whilst further south probing attacks across the Midlands see's the Martain scouts fall back towards their original pit sites, Low level skirmishes continue in Wales with both man and martian dancing a merry dance looking to find a gap in the others defences.

Elsewhere the London Garrison conducts a raid on the original pitsite at Horshall Common placing HE explosives under the cylinder and blowing it sky high - The Martians have long moved on to concentrate their forces around the Bracknell forest area, but the attack serves to bolster the spirts of the besieged garrison.

The latest moves leave to significant battles to be fought, an even fight in the North as the Martians look to hold Dundee and Tayside and an offensive in Yorkshire with the forces of the Crown out numbering the Martians by 2:1.

Both battles to be played in December.

Factories & Ruins..... Fieldworks.

Over the years I have tried to make a concerted effort to only buy terrain that can fit a multitude of periods and these factories and ruins are no exception.

Fieldworks produce some excellent buildings for the money particularly if you like the buildings badly damaged and bombed out, perfect for the final days of Berlin or the great seige of London in the 1880 1st Martian War.....

Some of the casts look a bit rough around the edges and don't take paint well but once complete really do look the part, these are painted by Furphy you can check out more of his work here. http://furphy1914.blogspot.co.uk/

Between £10.00 and £16.00 per building what's not to like.

Feeling a little horse.....

Given the lack of painting time recently, I thought I would prep some of the bare metal in preparation for that rare moment of free time....

Probably not the best I idea......
I took on all of the recent purchases out of the box in one go, I normally like to take batches of the little fella's out of the draw rather than on mass..... for the very reason that I am now staring at a tray full of shiny bare metal..... Thinking how can I get through this little lot before kicking off the Chechin project....
I bloody hate painting horses as well.

Japanese Cavalry for the Russo - Japanese war including the more shock markers.

Eureka heavy cavalary for the Martian Empire Campaign, these are 18mm, whilst most of my collection is 15mm, they weere really to nice not to purchase and give mankind the final piece of their forces...

Now to pick a unit before painters block really takes hold.

Wyvern Wargamers go Rampant.

Sunday night was club night and after fighting our way through the fog settled down for an outing of Lion Rampant..... I have been wanting to give these a try for several weeks, having heard some good things out in the blogosphere......

With units between 6 and 12 men, 4-6 units would give you a good evenings entertainment and so it proved.....

Activations can be a little frustrating every unit activation requires the rolling of two standard six sided dice were units must pass a minimum number – depending on the troop type fail this score and the initiative switches to your opponent.

In the first three turns I passed every test, whilst my opponent passed very few.

The rules were easy to pick up. There are no complicated point deductions troops either fire at full or half effect depending on the casualties received.

My valiant troops advance on mass, missiles to the left, men-at-arms to the right.

Archery is rather nasty and if you don't rally units quickly, troops start to filter away, which is a nice feature but damned annoying.....

Leaders can be called out in man to man combat..... It's bad form to decline even if you are winning the battle.

Figures fantastically painted by Paul, more of his work can be seen in the forthcoming Dragon Rampant or on his blog here.

In this brief encounter my archers drove off their counterparts and with their leader slain in hand to hand combat, the field was mine -  Beginners luck.....

November and a new project looms...

I think in future I shall be driving to shows on my own....

Clearly sitting in a car with fellow gamers only leads to wide ranging discussions which ultimately leads to me parting with cash for projects I did not know I needed.

The trip up to Derby last month was no exception....

I casually mentioned that I quite like the look of the new "Cold War" ranges coming on to the market and that it would give me an excuse to use various terrian pieces in an alternative setting and it's been a while since I have painted moderns......

Next thing you know Gav suggests we try the Chechen War, one of his favourite conflicts.
"A lovely range of figures from Eureka and Grozny would allow you to use your buildings"

Well motivated irregulars vs well equipped but poorly motivated regulars...
I was hooked....

With Warfare but a few weeks away..... I can see several purchases on the cards...