Italian Hvy Infantry - Perry Release

Another release for the ever growing European Armies Range from Perry miniatures is the two packs EA31 - Italian Heavy Infantry and EA32 - Italian Mercenary Archers.

Another couple of good usable packs to add to the European mix but with an obvious Italian twist. The Mercenary Archers could be used for several armies of the period, but I do like the look of the Heavy Infantry, but that's because I'm a 'Heavy Infantry' kind of guy.

Looking forward to see what comes out from this range next.

Crusader Rules Refreshed!

Well after last weeks taster, a re-introduction to the Crusader Rule set, myself and Dave K set up for another game this time to see if we could get a whole game done in a night and put to good use the bits and bobs learnt from last week (while still fresh in the mind).

The army list were the same as last week with my Berbers vs Daves' Andalucians in a 3000pt match. With the initiative going to me, I decided to let Dave go first.

Dave had changed his deployment a bit from last time having learnt a few lessons and his first line was made up of most of his cavalry with his infantry following, and so his cavalry advanced but this time he had his general firmly holding his impetuous types in check until it was time to go. I also had a general advance, most units advancing as quickly as they could to minimize the time my exposed infantry would be exposed to Daves shooting.

The Cabelleros charge the Black Guard

The second round was one of the expected advance/shoot/run away from the Andalucian Jinetes both of which did rather well in the casualty causing front on my Berber and mercenary spear. And then at the end of his move (cause if you lose a combat you lose the initiative and your turn ends) Dave launched his knightly types (sans general) at my Black Guard. The Black Guard, with the aid of a pretty nifty general attached, made short work of the knights who promptly broke and galloped away from the fray but had managed to make a significant dent in the Guard before legging it.

The Andalucians pour in the fire on the advancing Berbers

I promptly followed up this small siccess and in my turn once again had a general advance, with the Guard charging at the retreating knights (no chance to catch them but it pushed them further to the rear and if they failed to rally the following turn may have legged it off the table). My return fire from two units of detached archers, two units of Berber Cavalry and a unit of skirmishers failed to make any headway however, only managing to cause a solitary casulaty on Daves skirmishing light infantry on his flank.

The next couple of turns proved to be much as the second turn with Dave cutting down the numbers of my infantry with his untouchable (but very accurate Jinetes) and his archers took a few more casualties off my guard as they re-formed to face the new threat. His knights did rally behind the woods but they had been taken out the fight for all intents and purposes (but their services proved to not be required in any event). My Berber Cavalry seemed to be unable to harm his Andalucian Nobles who, after a quick exchange of missile fire charged my cavalry and easily broke the first unit and then the following turn broke the second unit. His untouched infantry then charged home my depleted infantry units both of which broke.

My Guard Infantry at last charged his annoying archer unit and though at half strength easily broke them sending them running, the archers managed to take a casualty in return which was enough to drop the Guards to one stand which meant automatic dispersal. My Guard cavalry acting in reserve chased off one of his Jinete units and put a noticeable dent in one of his infantry units while my archer units continued un-inspiring nibbling at anything they could see. The Tribal Skirmishers and Daves Light Infantry continued to skirmish with each other over the wood to little affect though both units by the end had last a stand, with the Tribal types beginning to get the upper hand due to higher starting numbers.

The End Game - Still fight in the Berbers but it
doesn't look good for them.

By turn 5 or 6, (I lost count), all the routing Berbers units had rallied (bar the Mercenaries) but they were still on the table. My Berber cavalry units both rallied and promptly managed a couple of casualties forcing the Nobles to retreat. Both of Daves Infantry Units were at half strength or so (He hadn't taken off the stands as the bases were a bit large so the above picture looks slightly more busy than it should) but his cavalry force was still largely intact (if a couple of dents beginning to appear) but pretty scattered and the skirmishing in the woods very much a side show in regards the main event.

My forces were however pretty much out of luck, with all the units (bar the skirmishers and Guard Cavalry) at about half strength but in much dsarray, so even though most of my units were technically not destroyed or routed off the table it was an obvious victory to Dave.

So all in all an interesting game and one which certainly achieved it's aim in getting to refresh the rules in our minds and got a game to a conclusion (or very nearly anyway).

Daves' extraodinary luck with his dice (even he thought so) made a big difference to the eventual outcome, but also his tactics were pretty good with every unit getting into the action and the tactics he used I thought were very in keeping historically with the jintes screening his infantry until the right moment for his infantry to charge.

The game proved to be pretty quickly done too with a later start and a couple of welcome interruptions (in the form of the local press interviewing Dave and taking a couple of pictures as they were doing a feature on the club following the FDWC involvement at the NMS Viking exhibition at the weekend (Do you want to know more; Check out the Falkirk Herald soon for full story and pics) meaning a bit of a delay to the game but we still managed to get the game played out so proving it's 'quick play' tag and that we had picked up the rules sufficiently to get through a game with minimal rules checking or clarification.

The game though slightly one sided (due to Daves' un-characteristic good dice rolling) proved to be an enjoyable one and had lots of to-ing and fro-ing which gave the feel of the period nicely and though quick play produced a reasonably good 'feel'. Certainly lots of movement and change which I like.

Our next game, while the rules are still fresh in our minds' will be next month some time but with Dave playing the Aragonese, to see how they fare in a mini-preparation for the Majorca campaign thing. 

Crusader Rules Refresher

This weeks game was a quick refresher of the Crusader Rule set from Mark Sims of Crusader Miniatures and Publishing.

We have used the rules in the past and all who played them seemed to like them all told, but the whims of fate and new shinier rules (mainly Impetus) moved the interest away, so we hadn't used them for a couple of years. I however have been keen to use them again, mainly to refresh my memory of the rules and see if they would be suitable for use in the forth coming mini-campaign 'Conquest of Majorca'.

So Dave K and myself sat down earlier this week and we dusted off the rules and plumped for a 3000pt a piece barney just to refresh ourselves with the rules, with my Berbers taking on Daves' Andalucians.

The game went slowly at first, but we soon started to pick up the niceties and foibles of the rules.  With the rules and age addled memories beginning to kick in we began to remember the issues we had with the Rules which were few, but the army lists for the armies being the main  problem with a few of the stats being silly like formed troops with Javelins they couldn't use as Javelins.

The game went interestingly with Daves' Impetuous knights careening across the table in round one and pushing back in disarray a unit of Berber spear and destroying a unit of archers. And then being forced to retreat back across the table and to be caught by the avenging Guard Cavalry. The rest of the forces were just beginning to jockey for position.

We were really only starting to get the swing of things when we ran out of time, so a 'proper' game has been organised for next week to keep things fresh in the mind to have a proper test of the rules, and the army lists tweeked slightly to take out the 'silly factor'. Will keep you posted on the results.

Carronade 2013 - On the Way

Carronade 2013

Having once again updated the FDWC website for this year's show, I thought I'd once again let the world know that the detail's of our show this year 'Carronade 2013' have been updated and you should drop into the club website here and get updates on the show.

The Traders are about fully booked with only a couple to confirm and the list of clubs and traders is filling up nicely there will be the usual 30 plus traders and 30 plus games on offer, so worth checking out.

This year's show will be held on the 11th May 2013 at Graeme High School in Falkirk and is shaping up to be another great show.

You can check out details for the club (Falkirk & District Wargames Club) on the website too.

Mordheim 'Season 2' - The Draken Downs Boogie

So this week we managed to get the second club Mordheim Campaign underway with a simple scenario set (very loosely) in the Draken Downs in the Western Empire.

The scenario entailed the searching for tablet fragments (not bits of an iPad) detailing locations for the next scenario. If anyone managed to get two or more fragments by the end of the game, they would get an advantage for the next scenario. There were six markers on the wilderness terrain, three dummies and three real. Roaming about the terrain were four slightly despondent skeletons who would only attack if attacked or if approached within 4".

The players for the first game of the new season were myself with a shiny new Kislevite warband, Kev and his equally new (and very nicely painted) Beastmen, Andy and his (not so new but equally nicely painted) Sisters of Sigmar and Dave (a newcomer to the world that is Mordheim and another Kislevite warband.

The four warband advance into the Downs

The bands set up in the corners of the 4' x 4' table and Dave kicked off the procedings with a general advance towards Kevs' Beastmen and was followed by the Sisters, my Kislevites and Kev moving quickly launched his band round and over the south eastern hill and quickly taking out one the skeletons picked up a counter to reveal one of the tablet fragments.

Beastmen and Kislevites meet head on

Andy quickly found a second fragment as he advanced towards the Beastmen while sniping with his sling to take out the second skeleton, and Daves Kislevites had a little early success on the Beastmen as he advanced to take up positions behind pieces of tumble down dry stane dykes and quickly engaged the doggies. Mean while my bods were stuck with a bit of a bottle neck which slowed my advance to action down but did bump into a skeleton which my Bear Tamer took out but after the skeleton had stunned my captain.

The Beastmen launch forward picking up another piece
of the tablet while the Sister find the third piece

Daves Kislevites took the brunt of an early Beastman assault and had three bodies put out of action in quick succession, two to the Beastmen and one to one of the skeletons who ambled about aimlessly for the rest of the game.

The Centigor drunkenly wanders into harms way clutching
a tablet piece - you just know whats coming

The Beastmen band engaging the Kislevites also headed to the centre and bagged the third fragment with the fast moving Centigor and with two fragments in the bag, it looked like success was heading the Beastmens way. However, as usual way in these things before Kev could declare a voluntary rout with the two fragments (being Beastmen and playing in character decided to carry on killing people which he seemed to be doing fairly well up to now) found that his Centigor failed it's drunkeness test and staggered unsupported into the centre of the table in front of the bulk of the oncoming Sisters.

The next round saw Dave taking a voluntary rout to limit the damage to his warband and Kev re-organised his band after the inevitable loss of his Centigor and the loss of the claimed fragment. My Kislevites having now cleared the bottleneck of the two hills fired a volley of arrows at the advancing Sisters and Beastmen but failed to wound a single target.

The Sisters jumped into the fray as did a few of the Beastmen and the Beastmen came off slightly the worse for the encounter. As this battle ensued my Kislevites sent a volley of arrows into the melee taking out one of the Sisters and knocking down another.

The Sisters and Beastmen trade blows

With both the Sisters and the Beastmen having taken two or three losses and gained a fragment both players called it a day, leaving my slightly bewildered Kislevites in possesion of the field and nominal, but undeserved winners of the first outting.

A good start to the campaign and promises for more bods joining us next time including the infamous Hobbit Swat Squad, so should be good.

Next up is an outing to the Drakwold Forest but with a difference.