Benvenuto a Tutti!

And another month bites the dust and Easter is just about upon us. My plans for painting for March started off pretty well but fell to bits about after the first week and I've managed to get almost nothing achieved (wargaming wise) since then, due to helping out some friends get their new restaurant ready to open for Easter, so the time was well spent.

A couple of things did get done, both un-planned; firstly I was given an un-built Land Raider kit found in someones attic, and this was duly built and has now been undercoated. Not sure what I'm going to use it for other than adding to my Witch Hunters collection, but I did enjoy putting the model together without the instructions.

The other thing that I managed to get done was putting together some troops for my solo campaign, Lornian Imperial Breach Assault Troops which are looking pretty good and just need a little of green stuff to tidy up some joints and they'll be ready for painting. I'll get some photo's posted over on my Lornian Chronicles blog soon.

A few welcomes are due again to some more wanderers in the Ether-Web who have stopped a while on the oasis that is the Warblog;

Kapitan Hak and Chris Marquardt have dropped in and most welcome they are too. Rookie has joined us from the wastes of Mother Russia and his blog Rookies Wars has an interesting Half Life-esque feel to it along with some nicely done miniatures to peruse.

General Buggeration has joined in from less far a field and his new blog Daves Toy Box is pretty nifty already and he's taken to this wargame blogging bit like a natural, well worth a drop in.

From 'oop nawth' in Sweden Northern Wargaming and his new blog Northern Wargaming with some interesting Medieval Skirmish games also shows some excellent promise in this blogging lark.

In a more sunnier clime Juan Mancheno and his Playing with "Comic Books" is showing his medieval tendencies too and quite rightly so.

The Dark Templar and his blog The Dark Templar which he describes as being ' about wargaming and me' quite refreshingly honest a description as you can get. Definitely worth a visit for the terrain modelling bits alone.

The most recent visitor who stayed a while this time round is Felix Fox, his blog Bellulula; Teensy Weensy Wars who hail from the USofA and again his blog is but a newborn but has already bits worth a ponder.

On a review of the shout outs for this month, it has made me think on the global nature of this blogging malarky and how it does bring people from all round the globe in touch with common interests is quite remarkable. Just shows that a nice miniature can be appreciated from where ever you hail from. Not sure this is an earth shattering in-sight but interesting none the less.

Well hopefully over the next couple of weeks my painting mojo can be stirred and I can get some meaningful progress on my Berbers so they can be fielded in the coming Impetus tournament towards the end of the month and not show me up, and some other bits and bobs on the Italian Wars. Lots to look forward to; life, wife and work allowing of course.

Urban War in the Spring

Suppressors target the oncoming Junkers
 through the pipe farm.

This week, for a bit of a change Kev and myself opted to have a game of Urban War using the 2nd Edition of the rules, which Kev had not used in anger yet.

With myself opting for the VASA, and Kev being stubbornly sticking with his Junkers gladiator types (as the last couple of outings his Junkers have been shot to pieces by my VASA before getting within arms reach) to see if the tide could be turned.

The table was laid out as you can see with a reasonable amount of terrain and obstacles but as it proved, insufficient to hide enough to avoid the hail of fire the VASA squad put down in the first half of the game.

Pretty quickly, as Kevs gladiator types advanced through the terrain they were quickly picked off one by one with some pretty efficient dice rolling on my part and after three turns or so I had nearly got the Junkers force to breaking point with a pretty effective gun line, helped by what was proving to be a 'no place left to hide' terrain layout.

Kev was beginning to loose hope as he reached break point and had only managed to take out one VASA with an eventual lucky shotgun shot taking out the VASA leader who had got over confident and placed himself in full view of the whole battlefield so he could pick off nearby targets and pounce when the time came. 

The Sniper and Spotter team clear the right flank
of enemies

The Black Legion Sergeant
 gets a vantage point

He proceeded to make three consecutive break checks as his force was reduced to less than half but it was then that my luck on the dice turned as it does and a couple of charges from Greater Pit Beasts and various others managed to get in amongst the VASA Suppressors and did what they do best and dismembered three or four in pretty quick succession. It was then that the much vaunted 'high morale' of the VASA troops began to let them down and several failed panic checks led to reduced shooting abilities.

Junkers make contact at last

As usual, just when you can taste the victory, it is cruelly taken from you. Of course, with the death of the Angel spotter to a couple of well aimed shots from the Junkers leader who had just eviscerated a second suppressor, the VASA had to do a break test which they duly failed. And Kev's Junkers had their victory at last!

VASA advance through the Pipe Farm while an
Angel watches over them

The totalling up the points bar the break VPs were surprisingly even at the end of the fight, with the break giving the victory. Victory though did not have the proper taste of success, as Kev felt that the battle felt already lost so the surprise victory was a bit hollow having won only by me failing one dice roll. The post game discussion revolved around this and it was pointed out that many games of whatever rules, invariably come down to who fails the break test first, especially skirmish games. It takes a scenario with set victory criteria to move this up a notch and remove the 'who fails first' syndrome from the game.

The Suppressors start getting
panicky

All in all though, this game being my third game of the 2nd edition Urban War rules and I'm beginning to warm to them with the simplified approach and less needless dice rolling removed it does become a much slicker game. A sort of sci-fi version of the LotR strategy game would be reasonable analogy.

Moebius - 1938 - 2012

Arzach

Just learned today that Jean 'Moebius' Giraud the French illustrator/artist has passed away 10th March, aged 73.

The Pope of Comics, his artwork had a profound influence on my own art work from around the age of twenty and always a favourite of mine since, his works Arzach and The Airtight Garage in particular having a special place still in my library.

His original style had influenced two or more generations of artists and continues to do so and definitely ahead of his time and ground breaking back in the seventies and early eighties.

His artwork was the first I saw that had a sense of being pictures  actually depicting another world or place different from our own.

To quote him and paraphrase one of the art journals; ' He once described his life as a train racing to a full stop. ... Now Jean has reached his final stop, and left the world in a more interesting place because of his journey.'

New Empire Sneak Peak

New Empire AB Cover

The usual sneak peeks are out and about on the Interweb and being a fan of the Empire since 'it was good' I of course dived in, (though you've got to wonder how much this is all planned in someone's demented marketing mind) being a sucker for the punch.

The cover promises some new artwork which should be nice.

What I've seen of the leaked WD magazine photo's looked to be a mixed bag from my point of view.

The new griffon with a mixture of possible riders fits in with the current big/huge/nasty thing that all the armies are getting which is not really my bag. Suitably impressive I suppose but won't be rushing out to buy one just yet though the riders might worth a closer look so I won't write it off totally.

Demi-Gryff Knights

Looking much more of interest for the modelling front and general appeal are as suspected when the last army book came out and mentions them, the Demi-Gryff knights.

These look to be more in the mold (if you pardon the pun) of the Empire feel and look to have a lot of modelling/conversion possibilities.

Volkmar on War Alter

The next up is the War Alter/laser lens thing/ossary model which again as suspected a multi-use kit to create a seriously top heavy magical vehicle. Again my sense of fantasy likes to have a grounding in the laws of reality and something that looks like it would fall over doesn't get my vote. That said, all the bits have great possibilities for making other models so I probably will pick this one up too in the fullness of time though not for it's intended use.

Apart from these, there is a mix of character figures which the 'leaked' photo's don't really show very well but a couple look to be not too bad, and a two of these would appear to be multi-part kits - the captain of the Empire and the Engineer. Again these should be useful for more parts though judging by the piccy, big looks to be beautiful again, big plumes and so on. A closer (better) look being required for these before judgement can be passed.

Doesn't look like as I'd hoped that the knights set was going to get a re-vamp.

The WD is apparently out tomorrow with the releases out soon after so only a short time will tell if the new figs are up to scratch with some of the pasts very useful and tasty models.

Empire vs Orcs - 'Less is More'

This week my club game was a lay-down game of WHFB with Ian, who rather than using his more usual army of Ogre Kingdoms, decided to field his Orcs and Goblins army, pitted against my trusty Empire stalwarts.

Early stages on the left and centre.
The Empire attacks

An interesting and one of which was unusual to say the least, unusual apart from my usual deplorable dice throwing for the first three quarters of the game.

The first unusual part being that the Empire went on the offensive and launched themselves at the Orc horde who were playing it very cagey.

The second unusual part was that the usually effective hordes, shiny machines, nasty trolls and so on didn't really do very well for either side, it was the insignificant skirmish types and lowly goblins and militia that did the damage to each of the armies.

Solitary squig-hopper chases a horde of halberdiers
from the fray

My right flank disintegrated pretty early on (round 2 really) facing some skirmish type squig-hoppers (though they did return in part later in the game) and such and my steam tank was brought to a juddering halt by a couple of well placed bolt shots and being run over by some purple chained flailing monstrosity whose name escapes me. The steam tank then proceded to fail to do anything bar damage itself trying to build up steam, and turned into a traffic obstruction in the middle of the table.

Only the militia on the left flank and the flaggellants recovered any honour for the Empire towards the end of the game where the dice rolling improved and a couple of enemy units were pulverised.

Steam tank becomes a non-mobile, non-firing
gun platform

A fun game and lots of laughs and full of the usual Warhammer silly events which really make the game worth playing like the almost entire unit of halberdiers with mage in tow being chased across the field by a solitary squig-hopper, the lone flaggellant battling a horde of black orcs, the twenty six wounds inflicted on a couple of wolf riders by the militia or (my favourite) the mortar crew locked in combat with a whol;e unit of wolf riders and winning!

At the end of the game, when time beat us we tallied up the points and going by what I had on the field; a warrior priest, my general, two knights, a couple of pistoliers, a steam tank with three wounds left and half a unit of halberdiers with the mage, I had the total of 1275pts (mainly characters) on the field, if the unit isn't destroyed they still count. Ian having 1400 or so points, even though his force still numbered in the multitudes, so victory to him and well deserved. My point here is the 8th ed victory points rules just don't reflect the actual state of affairs, I was beaten with only a token force left on the field where-as Ian still had a viable, though depleted army, but only managed a narrow victory. A decided case of 'should have left things as they were' if ever there was one. Still it is a game I know, and I do tend to look at these things from a 'historical gamer' point of view (or so I'm told, but I do like these things to feel right. Maybe next time we'll just use the old system, just to keep me happy.

I note from the interweb that GW are finally releasing the next incarnation of the Empire Army book along with a few new toys to go with it at the beginning of next month. I'll reserve judgement until I see what's on offer but you never know, the demi-gryff knights may be nice plus the war alter thingy I'm sure will have all sorts of conversion possibilities.

I'll certainly pick up the army book which will be the forth, if not the fifth version of this I'll have. Does make you think doesn't it, money spinning scheme any one? I hope it's got some nice piccies.

Garde Ecossaise Update

Garde Ecossaise Archer
Montlhery 1465

I have been doing a fair bit of reading up on the Garde Ecossaise while pondering on the colour scheme to paint up my unit of Garde on foot and out of general interest.

Being always with the person of the king, they were party to all the events of French royal history for the best part of three hundred years. They are described thus; 'The Garde Ecossaise enjoys, preferable to all those that ever did service in France, place and precedence. For example, the captain of the Scots Guards is, by way of excellency, designed first captain of his Majesty's guards. He begins to attend on the first day of the year, and serves the first quarter.....When the king is crowned or anointed the captain of the Scots Guards stands by him, and when the ceremony is performed takes the royal robe as his due. When the keys of a town or fortress are delivered up to the king he returns them that minute to the captain of the Scots Guards. Twenty Five of his guard (Garde de la Manche) wear always, in testimony of their unspotted fidelity, white coats overlaid with silver lace; and six of these, in turns, stand next the kings person at all times and seasons in the palace, the church, in parliament, the courts of justice, and the reception of foreign ambassadors. It is the right of these gentlemen to carry the corpse of the deceased king to the royal sepulchre at St Denis.'

The foregoing does present a few interesting ideas for diorama's or vignette's, but they will be for another day.

I've managed to track down a rare copy of Forbes-Leiths 'The Scots Men-at-arms, and Life Guards in France V2, but I'm still on the scrounge for volume 1, but so far a copy is eluding me, mainly due to cost of the ones I've tracked down so far.

I did track down a copy of 'La Garde Ecossaise Du Roi' by Nick Saunders, which though briefer than the Forbes-Leith work, is very useful though more directly aimed at the Garde of Charles VII.

Both works are a wealth of useful information and to the end that I have pretty much decided on the colour scheme for the Garde for Charles VIII of 1495 under the captaincy of Sir Bernard Stewart and Patrick MacLean hommes d'armes. with beneath them, 25 Archiers du Corps and 78 Archiers de la Garde.

Charles VII
Grande Garde du Roi

I did manage to confirm that from the Gardes inception they consisted of archers and crannequiniers. It would appear that the term archer does not necessarily mean someone armed with a bow though often assumed, but more towards the later use of a cavalryman lighter armed than a gendarme (the term archer often being used at the time for anyone being a member of a man-at-arms retinue or a person of notes guard), though again there is some evidence for the unit being armed with longbows (along with other garde units) at certain events. It may be that they were armed with either depending on the choice of their captain (or king) at the time.or possibly the bow was used on ceremonial occasions. According to the muster roles, the term crannequiniers disappears and appears repeatedly but after circa 1464 it disappears altogether, though it is confirmed that Garde units were armed with crossbow at Fornovo in 1495. The Garde consisted of generally around a hundred who were men of rank and substance and then the 'rank and file' made up the rest of the company as a lance being made up of a MaA plus a squire, archer, valet, and a crannequinier. Like the Cent Suisse numbered more than a hundred, it is likely that the total muster for each of the Garde du Roi on campaign would be four or more their apparent number.

It is these others, that may have been armed with crossbow or bow by this time and the Garde proper would have been armed as other gendarme and archers of the French army while on campaign. In brief, pretty much anything goes that suits your chosen look as nothing can be definitely proven or not as arms used.

Francis I
Garde Ecossaise and Francais

Firstly, the Captain would wear red, so that's pretty simple, and with Messire Stewart away on kings business a lot of the time that will be Messire MacLean.

Although not certain, the standard bearer will be wearing a white surcoat with the badge of St Michael, Charles VIII being the only French Monarch of the time not having an identified 'badge' I figured the artistic licence being acceptable and used on his reformed ordonnance standards including the Garde, I figured that it would suffice. The standard bearer is currently shaping up as we speak being the test piece for the unit.

Now according to the only sources I can find stating anything about the Garde livery under Charles VIII, which is mainly Ian Heath, they also wore the green, white and red of their predessors, so I'm going to go with that scheme rather than the white I'd planned on before, being confirmed for Francis I reign. At least this is going to make the unit a bit more recognisable as being what they are.

The question of the badge however does pose questions as above and I have decided on the St Michael motif for the unit as a whole. This was popular with several of the medieval French kings, was on the livery of the Garde under the reign of Louis XI, the order of St Michael being founded by Charles VIII and several of the Garde were members of that order.

The unit paint scheme is now sorted and under way and I will post the progress as I go with the standard bearer likely to be the first with any progress.

Charles VIII
Companie d'Ordonnance

More on the Garde Ecossaise soon.

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.