Steel Fist Knights & Men at Arms

Recently received these very nicely done knights from the Steel Fist Kick-starter recently run.

Sculpted by Oliver James they are all late Medieval or Renaissance period armoured Men at Arms. The Kick-starter had five sets to choose from (I picked up three of the five sets) and all were very nicely done. The standard Bearer is the add on it you choose three or more sets.

Mr James is looking to do another project which I believe may be mounted figures which if so, I will definitely stump up for.

Really looking forward to get these painted up.

The Army of King Matthias (and other stories)

These three rather splendid books dropped through my letter box the other day.

The three titles; The Army of King Matthias 1458 - 1526, Warriors of the Hungarian Frontier 1526 - 1686 and Hungarian Military Flags are all by the Hungarian graphic artist Gyozo Somogyi.

I caught up with these titles from a book review in the latest issue Hobilar, the Journal of the Lance and Longbow society which reviewed the first title but went on to point out where these Hungarian publications could be purchased, both from Military Matters but also from bookline.hu (the Hungarian version of Amazon apparently) the later being where I picked the titles up from. They were ordered and received within a week, so definitely no complaints on the service.

The three volumes I picked up (there are several more from the same author who specializes in Hungarian Military History from earliest times right up to the current day) are all each full of illustrations with only an introductory page of text on the background history of the chosen title in both English and Hungarian and the rest of the volumes full of plates only with captions, again in English and Hungarian.

I thoroughly recommend these titles for source material for the period and locale and a search on Google for Images of Gyozo Somogyi's work will give you a good taste of his other work available.

More Claymore Castings Islesmen/Highlanders

Claymore Castings - OT25 Islesmen/Highlanders

Some more very nicely done Islesmen/Highlanders have just been released from Claymore Castings to go with the command group recently done, again designed by Paul Hicks.

David of Claymore Castings let me see some of these pre-release at Claymore 13 and they are very nice in the flesh too.

Though these are released as part of the Otterburn range, due to the nature of the troops, particularly if you want to use them as Gallowglass, they can be used right up to the 17th century with suitable weapon swops. Certainly into the early 16th century in Scotland.

David has also promised Kern and the like to be added to the range but the ETA for these is unknown currently.

Italian Wars Update 002 - Stradiot WIP

It's been a while since I posted any Italian Wars progress, but the project has been bubbling away in the background, with the lead mountain part increasing steadily and a fair bit of modelling and preparation going on too.

As a treat for my birthday, I was given (without prompting of course) a set of the Perry Stradiot which I have now assembled, based and undercoated, ready for a lick of paint.

With a mix of the 'traditional' Stradiot and the 'westernised' packs, the unit should look suitably rakish and ready to pillage anyones baggage.
 

The figures have great character of their own and the 'westernised' pack is crying out for further exploration and conversions. Very nice figures and should look good once painted up.

Claymore Castings - Islesmen/Gallowglass

Once again Claymore Castings improve their range with the next coming release of Islesmen/Gallowglass.

A very useful release for a warrior type that has been very poorly supported to date, so a very welcome addition to the range and can be used for a pretty wide time period (roughly 2 centuries) for the West Coast types.

Next up apparently are Highland bowmen.

Check out David's blog, Saxon Dog for some more piccies of these

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.

Marignano Trial Refight

Everyone out there in bloggy-land loves a good campaign. I am one of that number for certain and have taken part in several over the years and enjoyed taking part in them all.

One thing that puts many people off campaigns is the fact that they often run out of steam and many do not get to a conclusion, satisfactory or otherwise. One campaign that I have been involved in with friend Dave Knight was a mini-campaign based around the battle of Marignano in 1515 and the events leading up to this famous conflict, and Dave and myself started this campaign about five years ago and for one reason or another the campaign did the fizzle just before getting the final event played. Before you know it a couple of years have passed and beyond the 'we must get that game played to finish the campaign', it just hadn't happened.

So, after talking about other campaigns, Dave suggested to get the battle played, if only for rounding off the series and for a sense of 'completeness', and this was duly agreed to.

The campaign had been played out using a multitude of rules; WRG 2nd Edition Renaissance, Tercio, Bad War and the skirmish set 'Sword & Pistol' and all these had produced a fun game for the various scenario's leading up to the final match. With the current favourite at the club being Impetus, we decided to go with that rule set for battle refight.

A trial game was decided upon to test out the deployment and ruleset before the final conclusion. Our army lists were drawn up and the amendments from the previous scenario's dragged out of the depths and battle lines drawn for the pretty simple battlefield layout. 

As a tester for the battle I was pretty up for the event and was keen to try out the tactics employed by the French on the day with light cavalry out front to delay the Swiss pike blocks and give me more time to fire the artillery, crossbow etc and soften them up before the inivitable clash, and to see how the troops fared in a pretty French type 'en avant' style showing lot's of elan and perhaps foolhardiness which I could then temper this strategy for the main event next week, possibly altering the troop types and strategy based on the results.

Pretty quickly we noticed a few issues with the rules, the main one being the range of the artillery was only 30U or about 2', I also discovered that my archer cavalry under Impetus is very un-manoeuvrable and they're attempt at delaying the pike blocks an almost impossible task but the skirmish screen of crossbow and mounted arquebus did work quite well. The up shot was the heavier archer cavalry got cut to bits and shot to hell with only a couple of minor casualties inflicted in return but the lighter troops inflicted a greater degree of damage while avoiding contact. What was successful was the break up of the Swiss advance to the pikes arrived in a piecemeal fashion, though I paid a hefty 6 Victory Point price (for the loss of the archer cavalry) to do it.

As the Swiss got closer Dave picked up speed with his pike blocks (managing to get the initiative every move until contact) and allowed only one real attack on the pike blocks from the artillery and crossbow units before the crunch.

The general melle over the ditch ensued with a glimmer of hope at first for the French with the centre and right melees at first going the French way but this was just a tantalising 'what might be' before it was cruelly taken away and the Swiss surged forward and pushed back the Landsknecht and Gascon Pike (though the Gascns lasted a lot longer than expected). With a couple of pretty hefty prolonged combats the back was broken of the Fench line and pushed the army over it's break point and thus a victory for the Swiss.

We did make a few mistake's while playing, forgetting about the zone of control a couple of times resulting in some easy kills for the Swiss against artillery and crossbow, and the effect of difficult terrain (the ditch) on the Pike Blocks dice but I don't think there would have been much difference in the result if we had remembered.

We both felt a bit disappointed after the trial game and felt the Impetus rules didn't really give a good renaissance feel to the event, and decided to call that the final match in the campaign rather than revisit what was a bit of a flat experience gaming wise next week.

I feel the problem is that I the rules dictated the flow of the game. I like to play a game where you feel there is a narrative with points in it which tell a story of the event and get the imagination going. Impetus is too intrusive a game system to let you do that. Great rules for having a game and doing this fairly quickly but more of a feel of monopoly rather than re-fighting a moment of history on the table top.

It could be that we both didn't know the rules sufficiently well that the fluidity of playing would allow the narrative of what transpired on the table top to come to the fore, but I'm guessing that this is not the case and the mechanics are too abstract to allow that kind of interaction.

Oh well, a campaign completed at least, so a +1 for tidiness and back to the drawing board for finding a rule set we like for the Italian Wars - so far my favourite 'feel' wise is Bad War even though it's torture to decifer, but definitely gives a good story.

More Perry 'Italians'

Just recently released by the Perry's again are a couple of further releases in their European Armies Range are some separate heads for Italians for the Mercenaries boxed set and round and oval shields as separates too.

The eye candy to go with the release are the Stradiots;

EA26 Stradiot Command

EA27 Stradiot with Lances

Up to the usual Perry standard and a useful addition to this useful and hopefully further expanding range. Though actually Albanian and the Balkans generally, they were brought into 'notice' by the Venetians, so come under the heading of Italians I suppose, hence the release with other Italian bits.

There haven't been many decent sculpts of Stradiot available (probably The Assault Group being the best available currently and Old Glory's older sculpts but with more variety) so these are a welcome addition.

I would like to see how they shape up size wise with the TAG miniatures to do a bit of mix and matching if possible, but we'll leave that to later in the year hopefully once I get some progress under my belt with the Italian Wars project first. I suspect that the mix and match here is not likely to work due to the differences in style but we'll check it out.

Perry's Italians Released

The Perry's have released the next wave of their European Armies Range which include most of what you would need for fielding a late medieval Italian army.

The mounted crossbow, I hadn't seen previously but were on several peoples wish lists (and radar) and are were a pleasant surprise to me.

Another addition to the list of releases was the handgunners set;

Along with these and the other sets; crossbow, light infantry, command the carroccio set has also been released.

I like this set particularly even though it is really for an earlier period than I'm focusing on. The set is also available as seperate parts; wagon/oxen/figures which is a thing I like with the Perry's wagons and similar kits and makes doing diorama's a bit easier.

I will be getting this set shortly to go with the Clergy models already on the painting table and will form the centre piece for my Italian Army camp.

Not sure if the Perry's are planning on any other future forays into other European Armies or not, I hope they are.

ECW Skirmish

This week I took part in a play test in of a skirmish ECW game put on by fellow FDWC member Dave K who is putting on the game as a participation game at a local gaming event and was wanting to have a trial run. Fair enough.

Oh look a cannon! Aarrgh!

My opponent for the evening was Pete who took on the guise of the rascally Royalists and I was the roguish Roundheads out for mischief.

Some Dragoons out for a ride in the countryside.

I wont go into any details about the scenario and the game lest I spoil any surprises, in case anyone's looking who might play the game, but enough to say myself and Pete had a great game with lots of laughs and caused a few headaches for Umpire Dave, who true to form, didn't get phased at all.

A pleasant ride through the countryside

The rules Dave was using were an old set ' Once Upon a Time in the West Country', a skirmish set for ECW games which worked pretty well and with Dave winging things, the game was great fun.

Perry's do it again...again.

Release really excellent, must have figures, just right for your current project that is.

The latest releases for their European Armies range are once again absolutely spanking.

EA13 Italian Clergy

The release includes the very nice Italian Clergy which I can think of lots of uses for in terms of vignettes, set pieces and camps plus attending a carroccio and so on. Some of their best sculpting.

EA12 Italian Personalities

Again very useful and very Italian are the Personality figures, including the famous one based on Niccolo da Tolentino from the painting the Rout of San Romano triptych. The other two perhaps more readily usable but all good non the less.

EA14 Italian Foot Command

The third of the release are once again suitably attired and will certainly join the ranks of the burgeoning (slowly) Italian forces for my Italian Wars project.

They've also released a couple more wagon/cart things to add the the growing range of accessories for the WOTR range which again are all very nice and useful sculpts.

The problem I have with the Perry's prolific output is that they keep on releasing great models for lots of ranges and they make you think of uses you could use it for rather than having the need in the first place. 'Shiny, ooooh..........'

The press release also states that this is the first half of the months releases and that there will be more up soon. Watch that space.

Those lucky enough to be able to get to Partizan coming up, will be treated to the Perry's putting on a WOTR game there which going by the one photo I've seen will be up to their usual standard.

I'll definitely be purchasing some of these new releases, as soon as I get paid that is, having just purchased some Italians from Venexia, the money cupboard is bare this month. The Venexia mini's (bought through Vexillia) are pretty good and very compatible with the Perry stuff if very slightly smaller but not so you would notice in the throng. I've had my eye on these for quite a while and decided to get some when I heard the company may be going under which is a pity as their stuff is very nice and their 15mm stuff quite expansive. Hopefully it won't happen.

I'll post some piccies of the Venexia figs once I get them assembled.

Pike and Shotte Rules

I pre-ordered the 'Pike and Shotte' Rules from Warlord and I was pleasantly surprised when they appeared pretty speedily last friday, pleasantly surprised in that I thought they'd appear after Salute but no, so good point already.

Since I saw that Warlord were going to do the Pike and Shot period ruleset I was immediately interested. I was quite impressed with the Hail Ceaser rules I picked up recently and you could see the obvious pedigree of the rules and who had created them. Pike and Shotte follows this trend.

With the production values and easy going 'fluff' style of writing that the Warhammer Historical team had set up and with Warlord having the now well known 'ex's' it is no surprise that this style continues, one which I quite like.

The trend for hard cover rules, coming from the RPG genre, makes this rule set almost a coffee table book for wargamers. This would also appear to be a trend in the hobby with high production values being high on the list of priorities, coupled with lots of nice pictures and set ups, scenario's and ideas, the rules set out to be a hobby book rather than just a rule set in the old sense. Again this coming very much from the background of WAB, Warhammer et al. This is something I have no problem with as it's the whole hobby I'm interested in and I don't think there's many out there that don't like another source of ideas for there chosen period of wargaming.

The rules follow the now pretty much standard format of; this is what you need to have a wargame (pretty much un-required for just about every reader, but I still read through this sectionh in every rule set I buy), basic terms described and troop types and classifications, a fairly brief resume of formations, the basics of game rules, commands and how these are used (an idea Ilike with a fairly old skool ruleset building block put in pretty up to date terms), terrain, and then onto the particulars on shooting, hand to hand combat and then morale and victory and defeat.

The 'rules' take up about half the book, the second half is made up of five period specific scenario cum army list sections where they apply the rules to particular events, primarily for 'and this is how it works' purposes, these being Italian Wars, Anglo-Irish Wars, Thirty Year War, English Civil Wars (really two scenarios) and Lace Wars. Then a final Quick Reference. My one gripe is...why is there no bloody index. Rules never have an index, why not?

All in all following an pretty much standard format, but nicely done with a few typing errors which don't really bother me. And as standard too now I got the ubiquitous figure on the cover figure, which is a very nice 17th century ensign, which I know will come in useful.

The rules follow the style of Black Powder, and are really BP with some tweeks. If you have bought BP you might feel a bit peeved as the differences (Mainly in flavour and formations) insufficient to warrant a new rule set but as I haven't then this isn't a problem.

The whole, including the terminology used throughout is most definitely early to mid 17th century, with the majority of the first half of the rules eye candy being from this period, possibly because Warlord Games do a PIke and Shotte range, but as the figures are drawn from a variety of the wargaming worlds great and worthy, a variety of manufacturers and once into the period half of the book that obviously changes. One thing I did notice was the surprisingly high proportion of Scottish troops on show in the eye candy department, a pleasant surprise though, and indeed I also noticed that the Warlord Highlanders painted up to illustrate the 'Warband' unit type was the Stewart of Appin regiment, whose clan I am a family member...so that was nice. (Though I did think they all looked a bit too well dressed to represent my ancestors ;-) )

All in all I liked the book and look forward to try out the rules in anger sometime soon to see how they 'feel' as I'm sure the rule mechanics will hang together as a rule set. My one fear is that they will not demonstrated 16th century conflict quite as well as they may do 17th but we'll see.

Perry Mounted Men at Arms coming soon.

Perry 3up's of MAA

Good news that the Perry's Mounted Men at Arms is finally going to released (for Salute in April).

The uses these will be able to be put to are multitudinous in the extreme. Will be picking some of these up in April definitely even though Salute is unlikely in the extreme. They are going to be very useful for 1490's gendarme and my plans for Garde du Roi, but I can think of a fair few uses these could be put too.

Perry Charles the Bold

The freebie of Charles the Bold which will be available with purchases of the MAAat salute looks like a very nice figure. Ijust hope that it will be generally available in the fullness of time.

Italian Wars Update 001 - Garde Ecossaise WIP

Garde Ecossiase WIP 002
The Difficult Six

I've been working on the Garde Ecossaise foot unit recently and have now just about finished doing the modelling with green stuff on the last of the unit.

I have learnt a lot with using green stuff, and realised I've still a way to go to get to reasonable standard, but that will come with practice. The one thing I have learnt is that patience is the greatest skill for using the medium.

Garde Ecossaise WIP 003
The Easy Six

There are still a few details to be modelled on a few of the figures, sword belts and a couple of hats but these will get finished off soon and I can get into getting the unit painted.

I have decided to paint up the unit in the white livery of Charles VIII and Francis I. This is mainly because it will be a bit more striking on the table top but also a lot easier to paint than the red/white/green Charles VII livery that most may be familiar with as depicted in the 'Adoration of the Magi' painting.

Adoration of the Magi

Although the white livery can only be strictly confirmed as the livery of the 'Garde de la Manche' or Garde du Corps of the King (described on their entry into Rome, - "The Scottish Garde de la Manche are immediately next the king, and ride with white hoquetons over their mail, in token of their unspotted fidelity." - this is the only confirmed livery of the time of the Italian Wars where the Garde served throughout.

The Garde served on campaign with Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I and being particularly mentioned at Fornovo, Agnadello, Marignano, Naples, Pavia and Seminara among others.

Robert Stewart d'Aubigny and the Garde Ecossaise
entry into Paris (by Graham Turner)

Once the foot unit is complete and I get a few other bits under way for the project, I intend to do a mounted version of the Garde Ecossaise which should be interesting to do, and having done a fair bit of research on the subject, maybe another couple of 'regiments' from the household like the Cent Suisse or l'Garde du Roi Ordinaire. More on the Garde and the Italian Wars soon.

By Fire and Sword

Many who have been following my blog for some time will know of my keen interest in Eastern European Warfare and in particular during the late Medieval and Early Renaissance periods.

It therefore comes as no surprise that my interest was raised, indeed excitement induced when I saw an advert in this months Wargames Illustrated for the 'new' (at least to me) By Fire and Sword range of 15mm figures and I believe a soon to be released rule set of the same name.

'By Fire and Sword' Rule Set (Polish Version)

Although I'm not really a 15mm gamer, the figures do look pretty tasty and the range looks to be fairly all encompassing as far as the 1585 - 1660's are concerned.

Winged Hussars

Crimean Tartar Command

The range includes for all the combatants; Polish-Lithuainians, Tartars, Ottomans, Swedeen, Cossacks and Muscovites coming soon, plus banners, terrain and accessories like baggage wagons, bases etc. All look to be pretty good. The company site for interest is here; www.wargamer.pl.


The site here is for info on the  rules info and updates etc, and in Britain the range can be picked up from North Star Games who continue to add to their extensive and very interesting stable of wargames miniatures from around the world. In America, Warpath Games and Germany,Frontline Games.

I do prefer 28mm for my gaming but you never know, I might be tempted to dabble, but in any event, it is good to see more available for the period which can only be good, and also good to see another continental quality manufacturer getting into the wargaming market. More like this can only be good for 

I also noticed on the Wargamer.pl site, various other bits caught my eye, including a book by I the artist Mariusz Kozik including pieces like this;

Glory

Might be worth tracking down too.

Foundry Condottiere Cavalry

I note from the Foundry releases that they have now release the Condottiere Rules and as surmised earlier in the month include mounted Light Cavalry. 

Once again the figures are less than startling. I'm not sure if this is because of the fairly flat painting or just the figures. The cavalry are pretty generic and all a tad lifeless but will have uses and it is good the see more figures for the period and the area.

I'll probably pick up a few to see how they paint up and do a bit of mixing and matching but we'll see. One thing I'll not do is use the figures with helmets which are appallingly bad. A bucket over someone's head would be better.

Bad Wars on Trial

Bad Wars Trial Game

This week at t'club Dave K and myself had decided to have another trial game using the AB Games rule set 'Bad Wars'. Previous quick trys had given a promising taste of the rules and highlighted some good points and looked to be promising but we were put off slightly by the exceedingly poor state of the writing and layout of the rule set.

Since it had been longer than we had planned to give the rules another try the learning curve was pretty steep at first but once going the ideas got to flow again, and indeed we picked up a couple of things we had previously missed.

Although the game was exceedingly frustrating, due to the fact that some things just weren't explained or seemed to suppose that the player is already familiar with the AB system and so not explained at all, all in all the rules do give the flavour and feeling of the period through various mechanics which give the non-professional armies an thoroughly non-professional result with troops sometimes not arriving on time or being forced to halt due to lack of command and the War Tokens, if used with some sensibilities can be quite funny or just adding to the period feel.

The game we played was a fairly small 1000pt a piece game with Dave having poor luck in the deployment phase and struggling to get his troops on the table and barely getting past the start line whereas my French got off to a better start but managed to defeat themselves in a thoroughly French manner and recklessly charging off willynilly at the enemy and Dave's artillery and crossbow dealing out death and destruction.

The actual feel of the shooting and combat is quite similar to WAB, and although different mechanics the result can be similar with good dice rolling resulting in devastating results. Such are fast play rules.

In summary, we are going to give the rules another try with some modifications to a couple of points mainly on the deployment and the War Tokens and try to put together some form of play sheet to ease the flow of the game since there are some gems buried in the debris worth salvaging.

On a similar but different note I see that Foundry have put their 'Condottiere' rules on for pre-order along with the first releases of their Condottiere range of Italian figures.

Condottiere Renaissance Rules

The foundry site has several page previews of the rules, (click on the title above to take you there) and these do look quite nicely produced with good production values but little in the way of info on the rules. What the previews do give is a couple of sneak peeks into other figures Foundry are going to release in this new range, which look to include mounted crossbow and arquebus and new landsknecht and men at arms along with the Italian infantry already released. These appear to be by the same sculptor who has done their new medievals, which I am sad to say is a shame. Some look to be OK and useable, others quite chunky, basic poses and little detail. Could be that these ones pictured in the rules are from the Medieval range. Still good to see more figures for this period and even some usable is a good thing. You can make your own mind up on what you think;

The new range can be viewed here.

I will no doubt pick up a copy of the rules to see if there any good as part of the perennial search for a good set of Renaissance Rules.

On a completely different note, a welcome to the Warblog is due to Galpy who has joined us this week. His blog 15mm Paint Shack should be checked out for some very fine 18th and 19th Century figures and lots of other goodness. 

Italian Wars . . . . I have a Cunning Plan

Battle of Fornovo 1495

Back from Wales and though very nice it was I'm glad to be back home. I will get around to post a few (selected) photo's of the many medieval delights that Wales has to offer, but that's for another time,  once I've downloaded and sorted them out etc.

During one of the enforced days of rest due to crappy weather I managed to sort out my plans for the Italian wars project. I tend to go at these things a bit piece meal but I thought this time I should have an end goal. So I have now put together a project plan, all slightly anally retentive but hey, it occupied an otherwise dreich afternoon.

In brief I've listed out a French, Italian and HRE/Spanish armies which with a bit of forethought should provide a bit of variety interest and usefulness. All are aimed at the early Italian Wars for flavour which should mean I can use most of the units for other generally late 15th Century armies. I could list all sorts of alternative forces/armies but I'm sure you can figure the kind of armies out for yourselves.

The list for units;

I'll keep this updated on the Italian Wars Project page.

A welcome to the Warblog is due to Arlequin who has many on-line exploits but his main blog can be checked out here and you will see his many interests are legion and you can pick up on his other sites.