28mm Landschneckts

What! Another period I hear the bewildered cries going up...

Block of twenty Landschneckts, ready to serve English or Scots overlords

But no, not a new period, rather an extension of an existing period that I have been building armies in for the last couple years. In my research of the Scots & English Armies in the 1500s, I was reading Osprey's lovely Scottish Renaissance Armies 1513-1559, Men-at-Arms book. Imagine my surprise when I found that both the English and Scottish were regularly using German, Spanish & Italian mercenaries to bolster their forces at home.

Another view, from the left

Fortuitously, I happened to have some sprues of Warlord Games Landschneckt Pikeman at hand and I started to build some to see if I could do the figures justice. I must admit that I was somewhat nervous of taking on such a mini project - largely due to their extravagant dress sense - and the fact that the last time I did an Landschneckt Army as about 30 years ago in 15mm. It nearly killed me!

Final view of the bock from the other side!

So these figures were actually a joy to build and paint. That said I split the unit into two groups, first a batch of eight figures and then a second batch of twelve figures

The first batch of eight figures that I painted and was pleased with so...

... I did a second batch of twelve.

Simply add a random head to a torso, add arms and then a sword and the figure as pretty much built. I opted to arm a couple of the figures with Halberds, as the pike arms were missing and I had suitable arms available from the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador kit.

The models by rank to give a better view

Figures were undercoated in white before being 'dressed' with various random-ish colour combinations. For most figures I did not try to do all the slashes and contrasting lining colours but instead relied on ink washes to give those highlights and lowlights. Instead I concentrated on interesting colour combinations on the stripes and the various combinations of leggings and sleeves.

Second rank, some heads from Wargames Atlantic

Once completed the hands and faces were washed in sepia ink to give a arm flesh shade and then the clothed areas were washed with watered down Army Painter Dark Tone inks. All figures were based on 20mm round bases, to allow the figures to take a 'close order' formation, I'll also be looking at getting some movement trays to make the whole movement thing easier!

And more to give a good overview. Those that were not armoured were given
leather 'Jacks' to wear to help give some consistency to the unit.

Next is to source a few figures to do some command figures,  drummer, officer and a couple standard bearers, with the aim of taking the unit up to 24 or 25 figures.

Front Rank with two Halberdiers on each flank. Halberds from Wargames Atlantic

Friday Night Games - Outskirts of Frankfurt, 1945

This Second World War game was put on by Mark at Mike N's venue and represents the first in a linked series of games planned for this summer, seeing the Red Army push on through Germany as the close of the war gets nearer and nearer.

General Layout of the tabletop, Russians advancing from bottom to top of table,
Germans dug in past the river line. 

The game was started Friday 20th May and is planned to run at least two weeks. The Germans were led by John, helped by Dave, Mike W and Ollie. The Russians were led by Phil and helped by pretty much everyone else!

Panoramic view of the tabletop, Russians to right, Germans to left

Detail of the tabletop

More detail...

Defensive positions along the river line

More of the railway line

This scenario was on a compact 6' x 4' table with the Germans defending one short end and the Russians arriving at the other end. The table top is awash with defences and the Russian's goal is to cross the table in 20 +1d6 turns or less. The German's goal is to delay them as much as possible.

Pre Turn One, Russian observation sorte was beaten back by German AA teams

German AA Team

I'll leave the pictures to do most of the talking, by end of week one, the Russians had advanced to 

Russians cautiously checking out Tank traps on the railway bridge

More Russians advancing through forests to side of railway lines

Stormaviks come flying on to the tabletop and blast one of the German AA positions
as well as causing collateral damage on German supply wagons etc.

More details to follow next week...

Friday Night Games - Great Northern War, Part 3

By Mat T.

Excellent hard fought game last night Gentlemen. Genuinely could have gone either way!

The Swedish force remaining in Warsaw to support the newly crowned King Stanislow I took to the field alongside the northern Polish supporters of the young King. They marched south dragging the ageing fortress guns of the old City to meet the larger combined Saxon Polish force of King Augustus on a warm spring morning.

Taking a strong defensive position on a low ridge with the Poles in the centre and Swedish battalions on the flank the Swedo-Polish force infiltrated cavalry into the woods on either flank and awaited their more numerous opponents.

A shot showing most of the Swedish lines in foreground and
the Saxon-Polish line on the far side of the table

The Saxons came on with vigour supported on their right by the massed artillery of their Polish allies and a glittering array of charging Polish horse. The first artillery exchange of the battle did not bode well for the Swedes as the charismatic Battalion commander of the Uppsalla Regiment was decapitated and died along side his command group, causing dismay amongst his troops. Buoyed by this start the Saxon-Polish pressed forwards and battle was joined on both flanks by cavalry.

The Saxon left started well driving back the Swedish horse in broken wooded country as the all Polish cavalry duel charged into life on the right. However, the Saxons soon ran into trouble as Lithuanian Cossacks filtered out of the woods on the far left catching them part way through a difficult river crossing. The slaughter was enormous and the tide of the melee started to turn against the Saxons.

In the centre both lines advanced and took heavy damage from the high proportion of artillery fielded by both sides.

A view of the Swedish line from their right flank through to their left flank

On the right the Saxon’s Polish allies loyal to Augustus started to win the fight against Stanislow’s men. Sensing he was needed the young king bravely rode from the centre of the field to offer his support, but finding the field boggy and perhaps a little too hot he paused at a distance where he could observe the complexities of the melee rather than make the headstrong mistake of being drawn in too far (such a wise head on young shoulders!)

As the New King’s cavalry were gradually broken by Augustus’s men, redeeming themselves from their previous shame, the infantry centres met with a Swedish charge into the Saxon line. Steady Saxon fire halted two of the three Swedish battalions in their tracks but the third crashed home on the far left of the Saxon line, pushing the red-coated Germans back on their heels. This was enough for the sausage munchers and the bulk of the Saxon line collapsed and fled the field. With the Swedish cavalry now driving back the Saxon horse, the field was held by the Swedo-Polish forces.

Finally a view of the extreme right of the Swedish line, showing Saxon cavalry in the distance.

Though outnumbered the young King Stanislow and his loyal Swedish General (puppet-master) Lowenhaubt had triumphed. However, the victory of Augustus’s Polish horse, and the heavy casualties on both sides meant that no pursuit was possible. The Royal Polish infantry standing unmolested on a major hill held firm and gave cover for the bloodied Saxons to the leave the field.

Poland is now assured a bloody slide into Civil War as the main Swedish force continues East under Charles XII for a climactic clash with the Russian Bear!  

Hope you enjoyed the action, it has been a good shake-down of the troops and rules. We shall make some tweaks and write a whole section of complex rules around pikes in woodland based on the varying densities of seasonal canopy cover of the twelve major species of deciduous trees in different regions of the Baltic states.

Friday Night Game - The Great Northern War, Parts 1 & 2

Mat & Dave have put on a second of a trio of 6mm GNW games running 30th April and 6th May and now to run on to the 13th May. The game was at Newman Towers and the rules were devised by Mat, who also supplied figures along with Dave.

Swedish Cavalry engaged with Polish counterparts on the Swedish Right Flank

On the Swedish side, week one were Steve & John, with Mike W deputising for the missing John in week two. Against theme were ranged Rupert and his Polish cavalry forces and their allies the Saxons, ably commanded by Mike N. Lurking off table were a number of Russian forces potentially to be commanded by Phil and/or Mark.

Swedish Infantry in the centre, working their way towards Saxon lines

Week One had seen a concentrated cavalry battle on the Swedish right flank, where the mounted forces of King Charles had pretty much smashed the Cossack and Winged Hussar hordes of Rupert's Polish forces. In the centre Steve was manoeuvring his Swedish foot and driving the towards prepared Saxon positions.

Another view  of same, slightly different angle

Week Two started with a follow-up charge by Swedish cavalry, now commanded by Mike W, onto the remaining Polish horsemen and within a two or three turns the Poles had routed from the table. Leaving the Swedish Cavalry to prepare a mount a flank attack on the Saxon lines. 

A lot of empty battle-top! Saxon lines at top, Polish cavalry to the front right

Meanwhile the Swedish foot continued to advance as they were played with artillery fire from the Saxon lines, after some initial success with their artillery the Saxon gunners failed to hit the Swedes as they closed into short range.

Swedish Cavalry rake on twice their number of Polish Winged Hussars

At this point the Swedish cavalry crashed into the left flank of the Saxon line, ignoring their supporting artillery who hastily fired grape shot at the enemy cavalry, only to completely miss the target. To cut a short story shorter still the Saxon infantry broke and with the threat of the Swedish horse running along the Saxon line, the umpire stepped in to end the game.

It seems strategically the Swedes then installed a puppet government in Warsaw and then marched north to engage the Russians. The skulking Saxons, have again stepped out of their hiding places and are attacking Warsaw, resulting in a Week Three fight between Saxons & Polish allies against the Swedish puppet government's forces....

More 28mm Elizabethans

Here is my second batch of Wargames Atlantic Elizabethans, six of these little chaps are straight out of the packet, whilst the other four have been constructed using the spare parts from the WA kit and mashed together with Warlord Games plastic ECW figures to give some additional figures that can be used.

The completed batch of ten new figures

If you look carefully you should be able to figure out which ones are originals and which ones are conversions.

Two, two-handed swordsmen! Left is built using Warlord Games ECW torso, right is 100% Wargames Atlantic

To paint these guys, I undercoated in white and then for most the figures I used a linen colour to represent undyed materials making up shirts, hose or jacks. A few brighter colours were then added, sparingly, to brighten up the figures - such as hats, pants and hose - before applying either gunmetal for armour or a buff colour for leather.

Two sword & buckler men, both 100% WA figures,
although I have sapped in bucklers from other WA kits.

I used a sepia wash to add highlighting to the skin areas and a light brown ink on some of the shoes and bags, before applying a home made 'paynes grey' wash on all metal work to simulate bluing of the metal. A thinned down dark tone was used to shade most other colours.

A growing group of pikemen, unarmoured figures are Warlord Games mash-ups,
whilst outer, armoured figures are WA.

Overall a nice, simple group to add to the expanding Elizabethan collections

Finally two musketeers, left is 100% WA, right is based upon a Warlord Games ECW torso.