Sung Cavalry - Yet more Water Margin reinforcements.

Back after a week away and plenty of reading on various projects, notably the French in Egypt which fits nicely into the plans for Sharp Practice 2 and an impulse purchase about Dick Turpin from a second hand book shop in Seaton.
After the usual chores have been done finally a chance to hide away for a few hours in the nerd centre and finish off more of the Water Margin project.

I must be honest I am not a fan of cavalry but when I look over the past few years every project seems to have a fair number and the Sung Project is no different.

Another fine offering from the chaps at Curtney's Miniatures these will be a useful addition to the Water Margin Project as the games increase in scale I plan to switch from Songs of Blades to Dragon Rampant given the cross over between valiant Heroes and your standard foot troops.

The lighting was not great but these should be on a table near you real soon.

Next up the last of the bare metal for the Water Margin.... until the next show :-)

The Battle for Earth - AAR#1 - Seize the cross roads.

After the last few months of painting modern Russians and Sci-fi gear in 15mm a chance to put it all on the table for an evenings gaming.

Alien invaders have landed on earth and no where on the planet is safe.

With the main Russian armies engaged in the West, in the south of Russia the local militia are tasked with holding the invaders at bay. Tonight both sides must seize the crossroads.

The Russians picked several squads of militia backed by a couple of APC's and some Power Armoured Troops, the invaders well they went for their standard battle droids.

Both sides enter the table from two roads, the APC's rush down the table past the wreakage of where the aliens had butchered the local population days before.

A long range fire fight takes place between the Power Armoured Russians and the battle droids, the Russians miss and the return fire from the droids strike home, I warned the human player the rules were bloody.

Fire fights breakout across the whole front with sniper and heavy weapons fire forcing the droids to switch on their combat shields which provides them with some protection but slows their movement.

The APC cannon tears holes in the invaders ranks as the droids are unable to strike a fatal blow. The APC luck runs out.

The Alien Droids push on towards the Cross roads.

If the droids spot you and fire you are as good as dead, several militia are killed as the droids return fire. However one by one the droids are felled and the militia see that the invaders can killed.

In a last ditch effort the remaining APC drives head long into the advancing droids breaching their shields and killing a number of the invaders.

The droids in a last push to seize the cross roads charge into hand to hand and clear the humans from the building but are to few in number to win out right.

The humans win... This time....


Played using Laserburns Imperial Commander rules from back in the 80's.... damned bloody but great for fast moving mass combat just don't get caught in the open.

Creating Battlefield Clutter - 15mm Car Wreaks.

Several weeks ago a picked up from E-bay a bag of cut price 15mm cars... perfect for filling the streets of any modern battlefield, I have always felt that a gaming table should include, cars, gardens and random trees rather than your standard 4 hours for a village...

However when these arrived they were a little two shiny for my liking and figured that any modern car on battlefield should have a more war torn look.

With a bag full of spare bricks and some left over Warbases I set about turning these straight off the production line models into 15mm wreaks.

After a few minutes of setting about them with hammer and drill they looked pretty broken up, I glued them to the bases and sprayed them black before drybrushing them with a with dark brown metal, followed by a dark metal silver to create that burn't out look.

I am really pleased with how they have turned out and will compliment the modern/early sci-fi table top

With another 43 in the bag I am already thinking about put a few up on bricks and making some a partial wreak or street barricades to close off routes etc, etc.

Water Margin Archers.

Having made myself a promise to finish off the purchases from Hammerhead back in March before I dive headlong into a fresh project, I dug these out from the foot of lead mountain.
Not the most dynamic of poses but the limited detail in the castings do mean you can rattle through them reasonably quickly.

These are militia archers which will support the nine dozen heroes but also be on hand defend against the Mongel hordes should they ever make an appearance on the table top.

Another fine offering from the chaps at Curtney Miniatures.

The Water Margin - The Supply Column AAR#2

Back in April we kicked off the Water Margin campaign games and were introduced to Lin Ch'ung formerly of the Imperial Guard and now on route to Tsang Chou jail. Before being rescued by Shih Chin - Tattooed Dragon local land owner.

This week we are introduced to Lu Ta the Flower Priest.
La Ta has been liking peacefully in the foot hills when he hears that the Kao Chui has hired a private army to blockade the village of Fenshu who have failed to pay their tax levy due to a poor harvest.
La Ta leads a supply column of local villagers with food and supplies when they find their route blocked by Kao Chui's Korean Mercenaries who will do anything to stop them getting through. 

 
The column waits patiently considering it's options as the main route to Fenshu has been blocked by a number of hasty barricades.

The locals advance is met with a hail of arrows one of their number is felled causing some of the peasants to lose heart and flee the table. Meanwhile the full task of their mission is exposed this will be tough.

Lu Ta leads several of his forwards as the wagons look to take the long way round.

Meanwhile at the bridge Kao Chui's soldiers see the truth and side with the 9 dozen heroes and advance on the Korean mercenaries.

The Koreans caught on two sides become enraged and turn on the militia shooting a number of their former allies.

The Koreans man the barricades as La Ta avoids another storm of arrows and bursts through the woods on the Koreans left triking down one of the defenders. Victory is in sight.
However as is seen in many of these games, victory can be short lived as La Ta is struck by an arrow and knocked to the ground before being set upon by a number of the well armoured Koreans, the local villages are without their inspiration leader.. gulp..

As the fight at the barricade edges towards a Korean victory the supply wagon makes it's way through the woodland only to find their way blocked by more evil mercenaries.

Elsewhere the last of the militia strikes down a mercenary before being put to the sword.

The Koreans charge in and the villagers fall, there would be no supplies for Fenshu tonight.

La Ta has been left for dead on the battle field and over 20 villagers have been killed for the loss of only 2 mercenaries.

A great nights gaming and despite the very obvious difference in quality the villagers always felt they had a chance if they could only isolate the members of the private army unfortunately they were well organised and were able to make their blows count.

Chinese take away....

Some what of a backlog on postings...

However last Saturday saw a good day on the brushes with time dedicated to churning out the Chinese supply column.

I picked these up from Colonel Bill's at WMMS back in March and have been itching to get them finished and on the table.  A great combination of 4 Ground Carts and Anisty supplies and as a bonus they can be used for a number of periods from the original plan for them the Water Margin through to the Russo Japanese War.

Next up more Chinese Infantry.

Chinese War Wagon.

It seems to be quite a while since I put paint to metal, work seems to have crept into the evenings when I really should be painting.

Back in April (Bloody Hell April....) I kicked off the first of what I had hoped to be a number of linked games set in ancient China with a vision to recreate episodes from the Water Margin TV series, but then got side tracked into various games and the the Chinese sat on the shelf awaiting their turn in the queue.

With a plan to revisit Egypt Project for Sharp Practice I promised myself I would clear the Chinese first.... Focus man.

First up the an extra piece of hardware for the Sung Government, I war wagon perfect for guarding those taxes stolen from the people. Produced by Curtney's Miniatures it comes with 6 Crossbow armed troops but I can only stretch to 3 as I base on 2p's...

I picked up the Wagon and a number of barricades and trade supplies at Hammerhead earlier in the year, what treasure column could be complete without some loot to plunder.
Great stuff by Anisty with uses across the periods.

These will come in very handy when the government come to crush the rebels in their stronghold, whenever that scenario happens... :-)

Next up carts from Colonel Bill's.... No pressure but the next game is this Sunday......