Stylish bloggists

I had an idea....I will nominate people who are in the GCN who's blogs I am aware of.
 For those who don't know, the Games Club Network is an organisation to support and enhance links between clubs in the UK. It has support from Games Workshop (lok in White Dwarf, we are in there!) and now from Battlefront, those Flames of War/Wargames Illustrated people. A damn fine bunch of chaps trying to do something great for the wargames hobbyist. Yes I am a local Rep,but if you think something is worth shouting about, SHOUT!
 Here are the worthy blogs

http://madvurrich.blogspot.com/
http://anythingworthdoing.wordpress.com/
http://gonksgamingblog.blogspot.com/
http://precinctomega.podbean.com/
http://howlinggriffon.blogspot.com/
Yes only 5 but it is a start!

Kadesh

OK, So what has Dave been up to since Salute....Painting! Lots! As some may know I have been recuperating from an operation I had at the end of march, and have been filling my time with painting through the lead mountain! Some of you will also know that a couple of years ago I decided to do a refight of Kadesh, using Warhammer Ancient Battles. I had purchased two massive armies from Newline Design, to which I had added a few more units more recently,including a pack of three armoured Egyptian Charriots by Old Glory. I had also purchased some palm trees from Pegasus, that I based and painted up. The actual forification of Kadesh was some walled fortification pieces that I had ages ago...I think they are Ian Weekly models. I have yet to construct the Egyptian camp...but I have ideas for that.
 Anyhow here isa set up I made to display the armies.

Hittite infantry in the cultivated area around Kadesh the Al Mukadiyah is in front, a tributary of the river Orontes, which would be to the right of the picture.......a map might help here...

The front of Kadesh, with Hittite Royal Guards .

 More Hittite infantry.River is by S&A Scenics,as is the desert cloth. Movement trays by Oshiro

Hittite King, Muwatallish

Ramses II at the head of his royal Charriot corps

The two charriot forces match off.

Hittite Charriotry and Charriot runers

And Egyptian Charriotry and Charriot Runners.

Egyptian division with Nubian archers in a screen to the front. I made two divisions, each with Nubian skirmishers, Spear men, Axe men, and Archers. I also made a unit of Sherden Guards

Note the similarity to the Hittite guards. At this time there were many invasions by what was known as Sea Peoples. These were such ferocious and effective fighters, that many were hired to serve in the armies of the time. The Pharaoh employed his as an elite personal body guard. Newline are obviously thinking the Hittite Great King did the same.

Egyptian Nubian Archers at the head of my other Egyptian Division

The Hittite King racing out from Kadesh at the head of the Third Hittite Charriot unit.

Well as you see I think all that hard work has paid off, and when the Royal Camp is made I will be ready to premier this game at Kelmarsh in the summer.

Stylish.....Aparently!

Well my Readers have given me this......

I am not too sure I deserve it... I just put stuff out into the interwebs that currently takes my fancy..but Ta chaps!
 I am now supposed to nominate 15 other blogs.....well most or all of my followers so far already have this award. I suppose eventually it will reach saturation point, and everyone will have it! So I don't quite know what to do...I don't want to appear rude. I will leave it for now...unless readers ask me for it...then I will nominate. Yes that is a good idea. If you think you want the award, comment on the blog!

Salute

Ah Salute, Salute! If you go to one show in the year, it must be Salute. Early start, and picked up Graham and Niel...then arrived at ExCel at 8 in the morning...second in the queue...Huzzah! The main reason for this was I knew there was a good haul in the goody bag this year...a K Lite bag from K&R Multicase..which now lies in my gaming room!
 We were treated to the usual shenanigans from the Star Wars ....you cant really call them re enactors... well people dressed in Star wars costume! but no Daleks this year, however there was a Dr wandering around.

on entry I decided to check out the TSS/QRF stand to get some more rubber roads. I was very disapointed to find that for some reason the roads they now have are RED not dirt brown. As you may imagine I was not pleased with this, so decided to console myself with a board game. I had heard on the D6G podcast about Merchants and marauders, and of Sid Miers Civilisation board game. Not a one could be found in any of the board game traders. I was a bit dispondant now that none of my shopping list was to be filled. I did find a trader with HaT industrie 28mm napoleonics...so I purchased the command box and marching box for French Light infantry. Very good, enough to make 2 more regiments...if they only had another box of Marching inf, there are enough command figures..including a mounted colonel, to make 2 more. Alas the 2 boxes were all they had..a poor showing I thought. I did purchase the new malifaux rulebook, then purchased some Perry's 6lbdr artillery and a box of mounted colonels, then a box of plastic French Dragoons. This cheered me up!
 I also decided to purchase the new modern rule set from Ambush Alley games, published by Osprey, Force on Force. I have some platoon 20 Arabs and Israelis somewhere, and some 1/72 tanks and vehicles.

Niel Shuk on his podcast Meeples and Miniatures raved about how good they were, so I thought I would give them a go. When I purchased the book at the Osprey stand they gave me a voucher to get a free sniper model from Empress games. I say this as whilst I was there I noticed the Fog of War card deck for the game...apparently the last ones in the country, as the deck is currently out of print..I of course snapped this up!
  After a cup of tea and a Sandwich, and lookong over each others swag...our merry trio dived back in to the frey. I purchased some napoleonic flags, and some spray paint, then some Egyptian Charriots. It is a pity that Newline are not at Salute, as they could have had lots of trade from my need for more Charriots. I will show you the forces for the Kadesh game I am creating on a future post. Indeed there are lots of traders who are basicly selling the usual suspects...GW, Privateer, Malifaux,FoW. I do like seeing the small independant and buying the more unique miniature! Talking on GW, thier Forge World was in evidence as always, and there was a new WW2 20mm rule set on offer from Warhammer Historical..intriguing as everyone has been speculating WH as dead in the water.
 I also checked out some of the games in show..this ECW siege was particularly impressive.

Dribble!!!
Well I now have more lead and plastic to add to the mountain, so I had better start painting!

War in the Age of Reason

Just to prove...if proof were needed that Iam in fact a text book example of the wargaming "butterfly", today my good friend Graham and I had a game set in the early 18th century, using Age of Reason rules. I commanded my Russians, and Graham an allied force of his Swedes and some new Danes fresh of the painting table. we set up in typical linear fashion.

My Russians on the right, Graham on the left. This game weas quite lengthy, and lasted all day. so I will give a synopsis of events, rather that blow by blow account.
 Firstly you may note atthe top of the picture there are several enclosures, we rushed to capture as many of these as we could in the first moves of the game.

we than sat, staring over our respective stone walls, lobbing the occasional cannon ball to test the opposition.
On the other flank, after a bit of maneuvering I initiated a cavalry charge with my Currassier. This went very well, routing the first unit, causing the second to attempt Square formation...in a wood, becoming disordered in the prossess. Such that when the Currassier brokr through and charged them, they to fled. A good days work!

You see the red markers indicating Routed status,and my Curassier in the background. However the Guard troops (white flag yellow uniform) next to them, began causing problems so I withdrew the cavalry.

I then decided to try and exploit the initial success by advancing in the centre against these Danish units. This was not as well co ordinated however, and through various moves of fire the attrition was showing on my Grenadier regiments.

Graham maneuvered his dragoons to try and exploit this weakened centre, but I charged with my Currassier again and routed them, and a regiment of Danes. However, now deep behind Grahams lines, he charged his Currassier into the flank of my own and destroyed them. The charge I made to rescue the situation by my Dragoons managed to wreck 2 gun batteries however.

Grahams Currassiers move off to counter my Cavalry maneuvers on the Danish right.

There then ensued some action at last in the enclosures on the other flank. Initiated by the Swedes there was a half herted advance by the light troops, only to be repulsed by Russian howitzer and musketry fire.

I advanced some units to the side of these enclosures, but was attacked in turn, and defeated, so all in all no over all advantage was gained.
Graham then pushed on the other flank with his Royal Guards lead by the King.

And supported by his Currassier. By this time Graham had accrued enough attrition points to warrant an army withdrawal test. However, not so many as to make his loss certain, and he easily managed to roll a low score, so avoiding defeat.

Soon, I too had accrued a high enough number of attrition points...however I didn't manage a low roll, and was forced to retire the field. A hard fought game however, and the result could so easily have gone the other way..".a no score draw " offered Graham.  " untill next time! " I replied.

WW2 Action

April.s All Day Sunday meeting at the Bedford Gladiators. I decided to try CrusaderMiniatures 28mm WW2 Skirmish rules, Rate of Fire. I had played the infantry action rules that were part of the original basic set, but not had opportunity to try the Tank suppliment that came out at the end of last year.

Nial, Terry and Steve came in for a game with my new Fallshrimjager 2 squads, an MG42 HMG and 50mm mortar, with a StuG 3G and a 50mm gun, vs my US infantry, 3 squads, .30 Cal, 61mm mortar and 3 shermans.
 Nial and I situated the Germans in Defence, and then the US forces came on table. Terry took one flank, and lead on an infantry squad and the .30, Steve took the other with one infantry squad.

Move 2, and terry took the hill to his front, and brought on a sherman in support, he also lead the third aquad on the right flank. Steve brought on another Sherman in support of his squad on the left flank. Nial opened fire on Terry's Sherman with the 50mm, but missed. Having revealed it's position, the .30 and the infantry squad on the hill made short work of taking it out. Steve then advanced his squad to the hedgeline where the 50mm had been. There then ensued a fire fight with Nial's FJ squad in the woods on the other side of the road, beyond the hedgerow. In turn 3 I decided to move our MG42 to support Nials squad by firing in enfilade along the road at Steves Squad. I also decided to try and work along Terry's flank and advanced the StuG and a squad of FJ.

Turn 4 saw Terry counter this move by bringing on the 3rd Sherman to support the right flank, and pushing up 3rd squads Bazooka team. A fire fight ensued with my FJ squad and the yanks on the Hill, meanwhile the StuG engaged the nearest Sherman, and missed, the Shermans returned fire, with similar results. Well everyone was moving! Steve's Sherman on the other flank fired on my MG42, taking out a crewman, and Terry's mortars supressed Nial's squad in the wood,suppoeting Steves hard pressed squad who likewize had been supressed by concentrated HMG and small arms fire.

Turm 5 and the tanks engaged at short range and now at the halt. The Stug hit the nearest sherman in the turret, but the shot blew clear out the other side. The German was not so fortunate as the 75mm shell took out the Stug, leaving the surviving crew to crawl out .the other Sherman took aim at the MG42 again, taking out another crewman, but a good morale roll meant it stayed on station. Our own mortar came in to action now, throwing a bomb in to the US troops on the hill, but to no effect. There now ensued a fire fight on my side of the table between my squad and the US 3rd squad supporting Terry's right flank. At this juncture time was against us and we had to stop the game. But an enjoyable game, and a good set of rules. I endorse these to anyone interested in WW2 skirmish games.

On the Painting Table

Some of you may be aware that I had a hospital visit recently, and as a result I have been off work for a couple of weeks. Now condition allowing....ouch! I tried to utilise my time to good effect by catching up on my modelling, and eating into the mountain of lead (and plastic!) that we wargamers seem to amass.
 First up is my on going Kadesh project. I have been working on these off and on for a couple of years now, but set myself the task of completing in time for the Kelmarsh show in the summer. All my miniatures are from Newline Design, who I must say are an excellent company. As I said I have been working on this project for a couple of years, so when I open a bag containing a unit of charriots, and find some components missing, you may think too much time may have elapsed for the chance to recieve replacements. Not so with Newline, a quick email, and you get the correct component by return of post. An excellent service, and I highly recommend them.
So to my models. I decided to concentrate on the Charriot units first. Note that I have not detailed the bases yet, as I wish to do the whole lot in one go to make sure the colour matches.

Egyptian charriots. fast and nimble machines, 2 man crews armed with bows and personal arms.

Hittite heavy charriot. This model depicts a 3 man crew, although historians are in two camps on this. Many believe the third man is a charriot runner, just hitching a lift, much as in modern times troops ride on the back of tanks to get to the combat area. This does give the charriot immediate infantry support. However it is indesputable that the Hittite machine is a sturdier combat vehicle than the Egyptian, and so classes as Heavy Charriot.

Close up of the Hittite charriot squadron, these troops armed with javelins and spears,designed for impact and mele rather than the quick strike from range of the Egyptians.

And also some Hittite archers. note that I used a black undercoat on the Charriots, but as these guys are mostly flesh, I elected to use the ArmyPainter flesh undercoat as this is a quicker method. With the usual inking, the flesh tone is more an olive southern european hue. In line with these Anatolians ancestry. The Egyptians too would have been of an olive skin tone, with some Nubians inter mixed. try to avoid a bright caulcasian flesh for either army.

Now on a few thousand years, I decided to make some headway on my plastic 28mm Napoleonic army. Yes my chum James from the club has produced some lovely British naps, so I have been shamed in to catching up!

Firstly my Perrys French Napoleonic infantry. To be fair I had done 90% of these so a bit of detailing and inking was all that was needed to finish off. I am very pleased with these, and all that is left is the basing.
 As often happens when you finish a unit, the result can of itself inspire you to continue to the next. I decided to have a go with my HaT Industrie Light Infantry Voltigeur. Now many of you will be aware of the great Perry figures, or Victorix, but not many will give a look at HaT. I would urge you to look again. The price is very reasonable, and the results are very reasonable too.

I had to convet a drummer and an Eagle bearer, using the drum from the Perry box, and an arm carrying an Eagle from the Victorix box. Yes I know the Lights should by rights have a French Horn, but I have read evidence that they didn't like them, and soon found themselves with thier old drums again.
Yes in the back ground you may also see the Victorix Colonel, also painted up.

I have a 3rd unit, Victorix this time, also on the table at present. I must say I wish I had purchased the Perry boxes in bulk rather than the Victorix, as the construction is a chore with the Victorix. The simplest is the HaT. just attatch the back pack! I will try the Light infantry vesion from Hat next, especially as they seem to be producing them with the wargamer in mind now. As there is the march column set, and command set available, amongst other temptations such as Bavarians, Prussians or even the El Cid range. They also have lots in the pipe line too...I am converted!

How about that!