English Demi Lancers - Thoroughbreds and Ponys.....

Another big day in the annals of my wargaming hobby. With these three Demi-Lancers exiting the paint table the English faction is complete.....

At least until the show scene sparks into life hopefully come November...

These three are from Foundry's Elizabethan range I already had one painted up from when I first started the Irish project several years back so this should give me a complete unit to field and counter the Spanish cavalry.

Perhaps I should have checked the box first!!!!

The one I already had was from Hoya Key - Previously Graven Images and I realised that scale might be a problem as the chap is an absolute monster - A true Big Man... He will just have to be a homage to the Mountain from Game of Thrones :-)

Some manufacturers you can normally get away with when based and painted.

But adding this chap to the unit somehow makes the new cavalry look less impressive next to him, more like pony club than impact cavalry.

Next up.... The last of the evil stuff.....

Fear the walking dead...

The sun is shining, perfect weather for varnishing and in between work e-mails the odd colour or two on some mini's. This lockedin/working from thing is not to bad at all.

The last batch of Zombie villagers from Fire Forge Games, there should be enough here to generate a couple of extra units but given how the humans carve through them, they are most definitely needed.

I mixed in a couple of village arms to give them a less well armed feel, but imagine the shame of being defeated by a dead peasant hold a bucket or basket.

Next up their live equivalent the 'Beguiled' something else to confront the English and Spanish as they make their way through a plague infested England, sounds a little to real to me.....

Now go wash your hands......

Dux Brittaniarum - Church Raid.

It's been quite a while since I last played Dux, perhaps as long ago as three years - wow. 

I really need to get more game time in, but when it was suggested last week I jumped at the chance.

The beauty of Dux Brittaniarum is that the forces are easy to assemble and you can play a game through to conclusion in just over a couple of hours and so it proved in this case.

Venturing into the SWF studio the scene is set for a bloody encounter.

The British defenders advance on to the table looking to defend their church from the Saxon invaders. Fortunately for my Saxon's they diced for the longest table edge away, which allowed me to get a couple of fast moves in.

The rampaging Saxon hordes rush forwards heading straight for the church for plunder and riches. Could they be stopped?

The Saxon Noble and Champion, looking to add to his collection of heads.

My plan was a simple one, rush the elite troops up the table throw them in the way of the whole British army whilst the rest of the raiders turnover the church and run away with the loot. 

Good job it was not a campaign.

Attacked to their front and flank the Saxons held off several waves of British Warriors, ok Levy buying time for the flanking force and church raiders to do their thing.

They were eventually forced back and their number some what depleted they were able to inflict significant shock on the British forces and killing a number of leaders to force a win, a great game with plenty of interesting moments along the way. I had forgotten how much fun these rules where

Back in the man cave hunted about for the box marked Dark Ages and dusted off my Irish force.

Now with British, Irish and Saxon thoughts turn to a proper campaign.

#sellnothing.

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

Lord Caiside Nuallun from the line 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.

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.......

Dux Britanniarum first outing.....

Somewhat later than most I had my first taste of Dux Britanniarum the Dark Age variant of the Two Fat Lardies rule suite Sunday evening.

The game plays along similar lines of other TFL games with a card deck for each leader dictating who the gets to take his action. Unlike other rules such as Sharp Practice there is no equivalent to ‘Tea Break’ all cards are drawn, so every big man gets a turn.

Troops are broken up into classes Levy, Warriors or Elites, organised into groups of 6 of the same type. Led by Nobles and Warlords who can sustain wounds equivalent to their status.

The addition of a separate Fate Deck of cards really makes for a dynamic game giving each player an advantage when it is their activation, e.g. a ferocious charge or the ability to retire from an advancing opponents or the ability to enhance your leader in a round of combat, the cards could be regarded as the equivalent of the battleboards in Saga but with perhaps less of a significant impact on the game (unless of course your leader is killed.)

With my Irish playing the part of Saxon's they set about raiding Chris's Romano British village. In this particular raid, the Irish/Saxons managed to get a four turn head start before the British turned up reaching the outskirts of the village, the plan was simple raid the buildings acquire the gold and head back to our own territory.

The British when they did arrived turned up in the middle edge of the table and soon rushed to the village centre, with warriors skirting the right hand side of the village looking to counter my advance.

In a bloodlust all thoughts of gold went out of the window as my Elite groups formed into a larger formation and crashed into the main British Warlord and his supporting levies.

Whilst my Elite troops had their rear exposed to the advancing warriors, it was to be in the centre that the battle would be won and loss, with shock and casualties mounting on both sides, the extra save on the Elite troops was to be telling.

The British faced with more shock than men and with Nobles with wounds forcing the army morale to zero, the battle is won with the Irish holding the table.

I am pretty sure we missed some of the finer details, but the rules were very quick to pick up, much like many of TFL's other rules, solid formations were able to withstand shock and able to force back isolated groups.

Dux gives me a great excuse to use my Irish in another setting and with the recent launch of "raiders" for Dux Britanniarum a suppliment listing three new factions to the game; the Irish, the Scotti and the Picts, it presents an opportunity to bring together my of the clubs various warbands into a larger campaign...

I can certainly see a few more outings in Dark Age Britian over the the coming months.

Paint Table Sunday - A strange collection of odments.....

An odd collection this weekend, I was hoping the Northstar order might have arrived but nothing from the postie yet. So an opportunity to clear the decks to make way for other projects.

I had these based up before Christmas and really needed to great them done rather than see them fall to the foot of Lead Mountain.

They have a largely Elizabethan/Thirty Years/Zombie War theme originally for planned encounters set during the Plantation of Ireland but more recently finding a home in the Elizabethan Zombie outings, I have added space markers for dice markers so they can double up as shock markers if necessary.

Redoubt Enterprises English Civil Troops but today playing the part of Spanish Troopers.

In Zombie Wars they can easily represent troops savaging water or wine from an empty village or looking to set a charge to blow the bridge before the dead can cross, the Spanish marksmen are from Foundry.

A wargames Foundry light cannon, to support either the English or the Spanish as they wage war on each other. I lovely piece of kit.

Run - The English are coming or is it the Undead?

I picked these up at Newbury several years ago, on one of those visits to a show where I had no real "list" but thought I could hardly go home with buying anything.

I have added placement markers for shock dice and figured they would do for a number of games, even fatigue markers for Saga if necessary.

The aftermath of battle or has he been bitten - anyway it has to come off !!!!
Again an impulse purchase thats taken years to go from blister to paint table, the challange is to get it on the table in a shorter time period.

Back to the SCW Project next.....

Wargaming the Nine Years War (1594-1603)

Wow a day's holiday and a chance of an all day game, what's not to like and finally a chance to put out all of the Irish & English for the Plantation Wars.....

But first the History lesson.

The Nine years War began with Hugh Maguire's revolt in Fermanagh, caused by the introduction of an English sheriff into his territory in 1593. Maguire soon found support from his neighbours in Donegal.

The Irish had numerous successes in battle in the early years of the Nine Years War. Maguire defeated the English at the Ford of the Biscuits in Fermanagh named for the English rations seen floating down the river, aid for the Irish came in the form of funds and arms from Catholic Spain, but it was not until 1601 that military assistance finally arrived.

The scenario represents a push by Spanish & Irish forces into County Cork against a small English Force who must hold the road until the end of the game to allow the English to muster their main force off table or at least damage the Anglo Spanish forces for future engagements....
The English are out numbered at least 4:1 but are generally a better quality than the bulk of the Irish forces.

The view from the Irish end of the table, the Spanish & Irish forces must enter on turn one and must clear the road to win the game, the English are hidden and can deploy from the walled enclosure backwards.

With three units of Musket armed trained bands and a detachment of German Heavy Cavalry they will be hard pressed as the Irish and Spanish out number them both in terms of missile troops and Cavalry.

 

I opted to play English, Turn 1 the Irish advance on to the table on a broad frontage, with Irish Kern on the right wing pushing through the bog towards the hidden English positions, in the centre light cavalry advance up the road, whilst heavily armoured Gallowglas and war dogs push through the orchard. Bloody Hell perhaps I had over done it on the figure front?

  

The English rise from their hidden positions, I opted for a forward defence allowing me to buy time to fall back hopefully breaking up the Irish advance. With a unit of Calivers lining the stone wall, I let fly a volley causing several casualties in the unarmoured Kern wading through the boggy ground, perhaps this was not going to be as bad after all, 7 Irish losses for no English.

 

Further back I deployed a unit of Flanders veterans armed with Muskets they carried a longer range and bigger punch than the Calivers and some good dice rolls again took several more Irish from out of the attack.

The Irish light cavalry push forward looking to outflank my advance units, but I counter this by bringing a detachment of Pistol armed Reiters to slow their advance. This heavy cavalry should smash through the javelin armed Irish Cavalry thought I.

The thunder of hooves down the centre track as the more numerous light cavalry look to close with the well armoured German Cavalry, for good measure I unmask my 3rd trained band and shot a number of cavalry from the saddle, that should help allowing me to break through in the centre and get behind the Irish lines.

Having scored several more hits on the Irish for no losses, I decided to pull back the first unit as the Irish and Spanish pushed through the field sacrificing firing for movement.

 

I unleash the last of my cavalry hoping to split the Irish command, being heavily armoured I gambled on their mobility and firepower, coupled with a saving through on a 3-6 would break the Irish lines. My infantry were falling back being harried by the advancing Spanish and I needed to distract the left wing of the Irish Army.

 

With the advancing cavalry pressing the centre the Gallowglas head up the high ground safe from the marauding cavalry, which forces me to pull troops from the flank of the Irish cavalry in the road, the chainmail made them a real tough opponent and the few rounds I was able to get off made no real impact on their steady advance.

 

The cavalry melee in the road ebbed too and flowed, I discharged my pistols as I closed but the Irish threw their spears and scored an unlikely hit killing the lead cavalryman, this was going to be tougher than I planned.

In the centre the Trained Band fell back as musket balls and spears peppered their position and the Anglo-Spanish closed on the centre field. I started to loss Infantry, the losses this turn were equal, I really could not afford that exchange rate.

 

Two English musketeers are caught at the hedge row, beating off the Spanish buckler men before joining their unit.

The Gallowglas press home their attack on the hill, musket rounds appear to make no difference and the last thing I want is to get caught in a bloody melee when faced with those two handed axes. I throw 3 Captains into the mix to bolster the position, but still the warriors come on. I am getting worried now... 3 Hours in and could I hold out for 2 more hours.

Unwilling to commit my scant resources for a hill outside of the main objective, I fall back leaving the hill in the hands of the Irish.

 

The trap is sprung, I knew I had released my heavy cavalry a turn to early but not winning the initiative forced me make my move, the heavy cavalry crashed into the War dogs, if I could break through I could turn the flank, but the crafty Irish poured fire into them from the hillside and then to top it all the Gallowglas charged into my flank surround several of the cavalrymen who were brought down under blows from double handed axes.... ouch...

 

Yet more bad luck and hoots of laugher from my Irish opponent, unable to hold the hedge row, Spanish buckler men and Gallowglas charged into the flank of my cavalry in the road, surrounded and unable to retreat they fell to the swarming attackers. My unarmoured Caliver unit could only look having moved they were unable to fire and stop the massacre. Things were really not going my way now.....

Surrounded by war dogs to their front, chainmail wearing axe welding fanatics to their flank and rear and musketmen lining the stone wall, the remaining cavalry are defeated one man at a time, whilst I could claim that they tied up numerous enemy forces for over an hour in reality the attack was a disaster.

With the trained bands in retreat the Irish Kern begin to flank the English musketmen, Spanish musket fire begins to take it's toll of the unarmoured infantry falling back in the field and 2 more Englishmen fell.

 

In the centre having defeated my Cavalry attack the Spanish and Irish pushed back the English Calivers towards the final barricades at the cross roads.

The trained band is pinned back against the building and tree line as the spearmen and buckler men closed in on them.

Heavy Irish cavalry swing round threatening my left flank, I have to bring my reserves into play under command of my colonel. I have nothing left to bring into play, it's not looking good for the English.

In the centre Irish charge down the road, with nothing but a few log barricades and the remants of the calviermen to stop them.

 

On the right flank Irish light cavalry leap the defences and close with the defenders from the hill, I am now under attack from all sides and the day is lost, it's now a fight for pride....

My Colonel heads into the thick of battle cutting down several of the unarmoured Kern and a Spanish Captain.

The Spanish CinC steps forward and enters into a dual with the English lord, what a time to throw a string of ones, my leader is killed, all around him Englishmen are dying and falling back....Good job he was not alive to see it.

A view from on high, out numbered by odds of 5:1 the last of the English are slowly being squeezed on all sides.. Cavalry have broken through my thinly held perimeter Irish Kern are seen crossing the fields the path to Cork is open........

Ok so an Irish victory, once I started to fall back, I lost a significant proportion of fire power which saw the Irish casualties slow and the English mount, killing the kern was easy, but the armoured foot was more of a challenge, perhaps I could have used my cavalry elsewhere to hit and run the advancing Irish, but I gambled on a full blood and guts charge which simply did not pay off.

A cracking days gaming for once played to completion.....
Just the push I need to finish those extra couple of Foundry units sitting on the painting table.

Played using the LOTR rules with a few minor adaptions for the Irish Plantation Wars, figures a mix of Foundry, Gripping Beast, Crusader, Pendraken Miniatures and Sgt Major Miniatures the old Vendal range.