In The Bleak Midwinter

 In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, 
 earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; 
 snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, 
 in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

     I'm going to show some of my recently painted figures. These were not done since the beginning of the year or even since the Christmas holidays. Some go rather further back, but since it's bitterly cold (-9°C, feels like -17°C) and rather snow covered outside, I was in the mood to photograph a few things  I've enjoyed painting. Some are historical, some fantasy and Sci-fi, some are semi-historical.

A 75mm PaK50 anti-tank gun from an unknown maker. I decided to paint the crew as
late War SS gunners with the "pea" pattern designed to destroy my eyesight and sanity.

Andy said this was extra to his needs so I received it from him. The gun model had no instructions,
so I had to intuit the entire thing. I think it worked out. The crew are all on separate bases should casualties occur.

"The Business End"

The gun kit included two identical gun commander figures. I painted the upper one in Wehrmacht cammo
and the lower one in SS cammo.

FoW King Tiger in 15mm. I like the miniatures, but I don't care for the game.

A Russian BA-6 in the service of the Spanish Republic for Spanish Civil War.
It's a Zvezda model which almost snapped together although some of the parts almost snapped in half at times.
Oh, but the price! Less than $5!

For my Shako War of 1812 project, the 17th US regular Infantry. This is the outfit I reenact in better weather.
They were on the far end of the supply chain and so got uniforms of various colours.
At Frenchtown, they were in tan or brown.

Canadian artillery for the Fenian Raid project. I wanted to find a way to include Canadian/British troops in the American Civil War games, so I decided to paint up troops for the Fenian Raids of 1866. Irish nationalist from the US attempted to invade Canada and hold it hostage until Great Britain gave Ireland its independence. It was a fiasco.

Front and back view of a Fenian standard bearer, with the banner in English and Irish Gaelic.

15mm ACW Confederate Zouaves - the Louisiana Tigers/Louisiana Special Battalion.
The Confederacy didn't go in much for Zouaves, but these fellows -recruited from among the
Irish toughs in New Orleans- were an exception. The uniforms probably didn't hold up too long. 

Gallic warrior - Wargames Factory plastic multi-pose figure

Irish pike command stand in 15mm for DBR - pikes and chieftain by Essex, bagpiper by Minfigs.
I enjoy playing the army of the Great O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, although I usually get beat up with them.

Gripping Beast 25mm Arthurians for my wife's army in our Warhammer Ancients battles.

15mm Late Roman Auxila for DBA (Freikorp 15s, I think)

15mm Late Roman Legionaries for DBA (guessing Freikorp 14s)

More Late Roman Legio - as above.

I'm going to split this blog in half at this point. More to come in the area of Fantasy, Sci-fi, and Imagi-nations.

The Biggest Little Game You'll Ever Play

Last Saturday was a fairly quiet day at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group. The weather was warm and sunny, which makes many Canadians go outside. One of our most active members was at an AWI reenactment at Black Creek Pioneer Village near Toronto. So Martin and I plotted to hold a large-army DBA game. Robby and Derrick joined us. Martin fielded a "French Ordnance" Army (1445-1503) while I faced him with a medieval Irish army (dates are unimportant). Since I was short in points, my Nikephenorian Byzantines contributed a lot of cavalry. {Ridiculous I know, but it's a game!}

We laid out terrain and Martin proceeded to take some away by flooding  it by adding sea shore. Ah, well. As a wary Irish commander, I'd have wanted loads of forest and hills, but the French need fields to run their knights through.

Well, to business... Here's a view of the field.

Robby surveys the minimal terrain. Martin took all the photos with his
trusty Ipad.





The initial set-up - Byzantine allies on the far left, Galloglaich at left centre,
Bonnachts to right centre, and Kern and cavalry on the right flank.
French - Knight on their own left, bows and Men-at-Arms, interspersed in
their centre, and Squires and bows on their own right.




'Tis his very self, setting out Bonnachts... and there were
a ton of 'em.




























A word of explanation for those unfamiliar with the old Irish military terms. "Galloglaich" (or Galloglass, if you're Shakespeare) "Young foreign warriors", were well armoured troops with two-handed axes and swords with decent morale. Originally of Scots-Norse origin, there were a fixture in Ireland. "Bonnachts" ("Billeted Men") were lightly armed professional warriors who could be as heavily armoured and armed as Galloglaich, but usually were lightly armed. "Kern" ("Warband" maybe? It's controversial.) were lightly armed troops - javelin, bow, light spear, sword, Celtic Hand Rock M1A1. The Cavalry were divided into "Spears" (armoured cavalry with spear or lance and shield) and "Horse Boys" who were lighter and armed with javelins and darts. Sometimes Anglo-Irish true knights, Welsh longbows, and Scots pikes and swordsmen would be joined in. (the Scots were often called "Redshanks".)

Martin and Derrick advanced slowly toward Robby and me. I tried to push the Irish forward but I didn't always get the pips for enough command to do this. (Robby handled the flanks - Irish horse and Byzantines)
When the crunch came, my Bonnachts supported the Kern and pushed through the small bits of forest that were there. The Galloglach were slow to come up, because I didn't push them. I found the French archery - put together in imitation of the English who had cut them up for so long - galling (I know - Ouch!) I had nothing to return fire with, not knowing that the Irish could have bows - an over sight I have corrected with a re-basing project! Martin's Swiss pikes were daunting, knowing their reputation, but that's for later.
     The Byzantine light horse slowed the French advance, but the Cataphractoi only got into the battle later. The "Romans" suffered from the archers, but they held their flank until close to the end, when their morale failed. It was an all-cavalry force and a smaller one whose morale couldn't hold up.
     The Irish horse - Horse Boys, Spears, and irregular knights - faced up to the flower of French chivalry and gave as good as they got for quite a while. When the French knights finally broke through the Irish horse, they faced their nightmare - well armed and supported Bonnachts holding a hill top. 
     My Kern and Bonnachts faced the mixed bows and halbrediers and it was a see-saw affair.  Meanwhile, the Galloglaich went for the archers on the other side of the Swiss and earned their respect. Some faced the column of Swiss pikes (who were heard to chant "Hut-Dich-Baur Ich Komm!” “Look out. Here I come!”)... and threw them back! I was amazed.



Looking from the Irish left - still early in the game. You can see the aggressive
Byzantine light cavalry almost ready to hit the French bows.



Robby faces down Derrick's knights. The Horse Boys are almost spent, but
they're expendable. Kern hold the hill, and the Bonnachts begin their climb.
Soon the Irish knights and spears would mix it up with the French and do
rather well for a while.



From my perspective. Dead centre on the table, the mass of Bonnachts are
almost ready to reach the bows.



Ah, Martin, Martin, Martin. Martin has a thing for documenting casualties.
Especially when they're his opponents. Yes, the Irish took it on the chin,
but there were A LOT OF THEM! The French were so much more expensive.

When we ran out of time, we declared it a winning draw for the French, with the Celts withdrawing at  nightfall. The Irish had been bloodied, but the French were breathing hard and things were tough for their centre. Both Irish flanks had collapsed, more or less - the Byzantines were demoralised. The French centre was in trouble, facing the Galloglaich and a huge
division of Bonnachts. Even the Swiss were impressed. It would have taken a while, but the Galloglaich might have chewed through their formation, especially since it might have been flanked.
     I do enjoy this set of rules and I'm rebasing my Irish. I hope to try the DBR, pike and shot version. I could make a good showing in that period as well. My wife's Cossack/Polish Commonwealth army could be very, very tough. We'll see and I'll report later.
     I'll leave you with some Wargaming wisdom  from the Auld Sod.

Is fheàrr teicheadh math na droch fhuireach.   ["Better a good retreat than a bad stand."]

Brìgh gach cluiche gu dheireadh.  ["The essence of a game is at its end."]
                                                         ...and the essence of the game is fun!

Never say "never."

     In years past, I'd go to gaming conventions and watch some gamers play tournaments using a small number of figures on a tiny field, oh, say the size of a briefcase, as they intently and intensely battled it out with their opponents. They were playing DBA ("De Bellis Antiquitatis") and I couldn't understand the allure. If I was gonna play a war game, I was gonna play a real war game, with a real field and a real number of troops. So let it be written; so let it be done.
    Until Saturday... ...when I agreed to play DBA under Martin's tutoring. Martin and I with Hittites (or neo-Hittites) played Robby and Bear with Alexandrian Macedonians. I fully expected to be skewred, filleted, and sauteed over a low flame by masses of pikemen, but I was surprised; utterly and completely. In the interest of full disclosure, we played DBA Grand Battle (my term) which had 4 commands and almost any number of elements in each command. The one base = one element/no-units-of-historical-note took me quite a while to get used to. To me, 8 stands of pikemen would be a Macedonian Taxis (singular), but in DBA, it's 8 elements of pikes. I still don't quite get it.
     When the game started, we advanced aggressively toward each other. I had a command of heavy chariots ("knights") with some foot skirmishers and a command of  spearmen and skirmishers. Martin had a command of heavy chariots and one of light chariots. Robby had a command of skirmishers and Argyaspids/hypaspists, and a command of pikes and skirmishers, while Bear let a command of pikes and skirmishers and a command of light, medium, and heavy cavalry and foot skirmishers. Tom joined later and took Bear's pikes. I expected the pikes to tear apart my spears so I decided to slow them down with "speed-bump" skirmishers. (Skirmisher vs. skirmisher is like watching two squirrels having a slap-fight.) Bear led with his light cavalry with the cavalry and Companions coming up behind. When the heavy chariots met the light cavalry, it was gruesome. Then the heavier cavalry came up and we hammered each other until the game ended.


Martin supplied all the figures. These pikemen are a fine example.




Light Cavalry, Companions, the command's general, and heavy cavalry
begin to menace my innocent chariots.




Two lines of Hittite spears led by a line of "Psiloi" as DBA calls skirmishers.




Martin's commands - Heavy Chariots near and light chariots and Psiloi far.




Skirmishers are hard to kill! Here some of mine dance around in front of
Bear's Companions as my heavy chariots sneak up.





















It took a while for us to actually get into combat, but it got bloody once it did. Martin's light chariots scrimaged with Robby's Hypaspists for a long time and everybody became splintered, which makes a mess of command and control in DBA. The heavy chariots and the pike exchanged evil looks until they closed to the attack. I was able to slow down Bear/Tom's pikes with my Psiloi and I slowly brought the spears up. They would still be no match for the Taxis, but they didn't melt like an icecube on the sidewalk when they fought.


Martin's heavy chariots confront Robby's pikes and mercenary hoplites,




Here my chariots are gleefully taking Bear's light cavalry apart. It took
longer than I'd thought.




The situation on the Hittite right at the end of hostilities. I've got Bear's
general in a mousetrap while the rest of my heavy chariot elements are
scattered... which doesn't matter for morale in DBA but it means a LOT for
command and control. 




Martin's light chariots and Robby's Hypaspists were both in bad morale
shape and Martin's heavies were in worse morale shape. The pikes were
shaky but still in good order.






















     I must admit the game surprised me. It was tough right down to the wire. Everyone's morale was teetering and a lot of stands had been lost. As your command loses cohesion and troops get scattered, it's harder to get them to do what you want. Every turn each command rolls a d6 and that's how many actions you can do. One action can move 10 stands or more if they are in base to base contact. If they are scattered, it take one PIP (or action) to move ONE stand. If you're morale is compromised, it takes a PIP to have a stand or a group of contacted stands stay put! Command and control becames primary and very tough as the game goes on. THIS was the real surprise to me. Players/generals have to make some serious decisons as to what is a priority, especially if a one is rolled.
     I apologize to James Bond film lovers everywhere for the title of this entry, but I surprised myself with this game and that's the only title that made sense. I think I'd prefer the Grand Battle DBA for it's visual impact, but the mechanics make the game interesting. Of course, armoured phalangites vs. men in bathrobes with spears still does not seem to be a fair match, but this is the oddness of the game play and something that just has to be swallowed cum grano salis. There is not allowance for armour, training, or morale in any of the troop types... unless it can be found in the subsequent DB...'s that have come out since.
     I'm hooked.



The Hittite spears and skirmishers begin to get the dirty end of the stick
from the pikes.




Robby's pikes and mercenary hoplites face down Martin's chariots.
("Do you feel lucky, punk? Do ya?")



The Macedonian view of my end of the table.
That many chariots are impressive.