Friday Night Games: 25mm ECW

Friday 23rd August saw us playing a 25/28mm ECW game, trying out the 1644 ruleset, at Mike N's venue. This was a fairly straight forward encounter game with Steve, Mat, Dave and Mark playing the Royalists whilst Mike W, John & Rupert were playing the Parliamentary forces. Figures were from Mikey N's collection.

Advancing Parliamentary infantry in the centre of the line. 

The forces of Parliament took the initiative to attack in the center whilst both cavalry wings surged forwards to try and gain advantage and turn the enemy's flanks.

A major Cavalry melee that developed on the Parliamentary right flank, this fight continued through much of the game, until finally the bulk of the Royalist units broke at the end of the game

This was ultimately successful for both side's right flanks! With the Royalists gaining an advantage mid game and then allowing them time to turn and attack the Parliamentary left from the flank and rear, causing much consternation!

Close-up of advancing Parliamentary units in the centre

Similarly, although much later in the game, the Parliamentary cavalry in their right, routed much of the Royalist horse but really only doing so in the last turn of the game. A  couple more turns and the Royalist left would likely have been significantly mauled.

A view of the waiting royalist line

In the center the attacking Parliamentary infantry took casualties from the defending Royalist artillery battery and musketeers, disuading their commander from committing further to the attack. A similar Royalist infantry attack to support their Cavalry on their right was also abandoned due to the high casualty rate as they tried to close.

A close-up of the Royalist grand battery and supporting infantry regiments, in their center / left

Early in the game, Royalist Horse surge forwards to engage their Parliamentary counter parts

All in all, an interesting game, the rule set was put through its paces by a group who included a number of ECW period enthusiasts, who were concerned about the strength of the artillery and the way that Cavaltry fights seemed to get bogged down. 

Close-up of a royalist infantry regiment

We may try Warhammer ECW next or even and adaptation of Beneath the Lily Banner, as alternatives to our old friend Forlorn Hope. 

One of the Scots regiments supporting Parliamentary forces on the tabletop.

The brisk cavalry mele on teh Roalist left / Parliament right flank.
Ultimately the Royalists broke throug hand turned to attack teh Parliamentary lines from their flank / rear.

Advancing Parliamentary units

More Savage Orcs

I left my last post with the sound of a package dropping on my doorstep, is was a lot of 3D printed Savage Ocs from eBay and I'm afraid to say that I have been further detoured from getting my Landschneckts buit and painted.

My first batch if these lovely figures is now completed for sharing....

The first batch of completed figures

The figure set was a big 31 pieces and are actually a Savage Orc Blood Bowl team, however, on looking through the pictures of the figures online, whlist contemplating the purchase, I could see that they would fit in well with my existing GW Savage Orc collection really well, with just a small number of modifications - namely removing footballs and empty hands and replacing with weapon grasping hands!

The advertised set on eBay

Now the set ranges in size from small Goblins and Squigs, through to some wild looking Orcs and on to what is a really huge and impressive Troll. there are also a number of large Orcs that I'll place on 40x40mm bases and use these as War Bosses or the like....

One of the Goblin Cheerleaders with the set - I'll be using these guys as Shamen

In this first batch I have done 5 Goblins, three of these are painted up as Shamen, each wearing a strange array of bird feathers and bones etc, they look wierd enough to be totally immersed in their witchcraft skulldugery. The other two are more regular warriors, one being a 'Sneaky Git' assassin and the other a frenzied attacker.

All were undercoated with a cream acrylic paint (Hobby Crafts own) before being painted with Army Painter Gillie Dew speed paint, bone areas were washed with GW Skeleton Horde before being drybrushed in an ivory colour and then leather straps were added using GW Snakebite Leather. Feathers were limited to Blue, White, Red and Yellow, before a Matt Varnish coat and basing in my usual manner.

Another characterfuul 'Shamen' Goblin

Two more Goblins, to the left a 'Sneaky Gut' with a hidden dagger behind his back, to the right  a frenzied grot.

Another 'Shamen' figure - looks like I need to dust if fthe stray electrostatic grass from this little guy

The group of eight orcs were all painted in the same manner - much as above but with AP Orc Skin as the main flesh colour and then GW goblin Green used as a highlight on the large areas of bare orc flesh. As ever extra time was taken with the Orc mouths and teeth as these are a big centre piece for each figure and get a lot of attention.

The orc on the right had a clenched fist relpaced with a hand carrying a bone club.

The orc on the left had an empty hand replaced with one gripping another bone club.
the guy on the right had a Blood Bowl Ball removed and replaced with a spear.

A quick tip on converting 3D printed resin figures, they do not cut well and are likely to shatter, instead use a razor saw and then pin and superglue parts together. GW spare plastic parts fit these guys really well! When sawing the resin figures, make sure you are in a well ventilated area and get rid of the toxic resin dust asap.

On the left, a figure with a GW orc sword added instead of an empty hand.
On the right a similar change, this time a axe wealding hand has been added.

An unchanged figure on the left and a simple addition of a sword for the guy on the right.

Pride of place in this group has to be the Troll figure, it is huge and it is green with a lot of bones hanging from it! My approach was the same as before - much of the skin is done with AP Gillie Dew, scales are done with AP Orc Skin. When dry I used AP Algae Green to transition between the skin and teh scales, before using a GW Agrax earthshade to dull down the colour.

Bone was done as above - just a lot more of it! Key thing here is to go over the figure again and again to eliminate as many mistakes (there were a lot) until such time as you are happy with the result.

Head on view of teh Troll - an impressive piece

Close-up of teh huge skull strapped to the Troll's shoulder

And the fist covered with razor sharp teeth 

Next are some more Orcs and Goblins, a couple of Squigs and then I'll be getting on to the large Warboss type figures.

I lied! More Orcs instead of Landsknechts....

That's right, I got distracted by some shiney 'new to me' models, before embarking on a lengthy build of Landskbekt figures from the box. Don't get me wrong, I quite like building figures but I like painting them better!

This time the distraction was a lot of 21 Orcs from eBay that landed on my doorstep last week  just as I was bracing myself to start on an afternoon of snipping, cutting and gluing a bunch of Warlord Games 28mm figures.

Being weak willed, I opted for the painting rather than the building. I approached this Orc group in a systematic manner, undercoating in black, before a grey then White dry brush on heads, hands, legs and equipment areas.

The fully ramnked up unit of 21 Orcs, just need to look for some command figures to add to the rank and file. There are some spare command guys in my collection somewhere - I'm sure of it!

I then aplied Army Painter Orc green to all flesh before a mix of colours to their clothing. Leadbetcher was used for all armour and when dry I highlighted the flesh with GW goblin green.

Second rank of orcs

I added brass details to weapons, warnings etc and then spent time detailing the Orcs' mouths and teeth. A dark wash was used on the figures before varnishing and basing.

Third rank of orcs

Another Orc regiment completed!

So you'd expect me to now go on to the Landsknechts but what was that noise? It's another bundle of Orc goodness landing on the hall floor...

Friday Night Games: Action during the Siege of Magdeburg, 1551

Friday evening, 9th August, saw us at Mike N's abode where he was putting on a 28mm refight of an action at the Siege of Magdeburg, during the Thirty Yrears War. the figures were from Mike N's collection and the were rules an adaptation of Rupert's Renassance Wars' Rules.

Attacking Catholic pike blocks, approaching the Abbey.

Steve, Rupert and Dave commanded the defending Protestant forces in Magdeburg whilst the attacking Catholics were played by John, Mike W, Nigel and Phil.

Right flank of the Magdeburg fortifications

The protestant plan was to take the Abbey and then move on to assaultthe city walls behind the Abbey, with the left flank covered by Musketeer units who were to harry the defenders.

Left flank of the Magdeburg fortifications, with the Abbey to it's front.

It turned out that he Abbey was defended by a unit of Scots Musketeers, once pressed these defenders withdrew after a smattering of fire. Attacking pike blocks broke to the left and right of the Abbey whilst a flanking Musketeer unit on the right occupied the Abbey.

Central artillery batteries, in the centre of the Magdeburg fortifications

In th ecenter the atacking Musketeers took considerable casulaties from musket and artillery fire but they held on to press their attack.

The Abbey was defended by a Scots' Presbytarian unit.

At the end of Week One, there was all to play for...

The Catholic forces hit the Abbey and drive out the Scots defenders

Left most pike blocks by-pass the Abbey whilst flanking Musketeers approach the central batteries.

On the Catholic far left flank three musteteer units harry the defenders

28mm Landsknechts

It seems like a while since my last post, this last week I have been busy painting a group of 18 Landsknechts to suppliment my growing Renaissance collection. These little guys are 28mm Warlord Games plastic pikemen and Double-handed Swordsmen, plus a spare Hand Gunner

The eleven man pike block, all suitably different in appearance to each other!

I undercoated all these figures in a generic cream acrylic paint (Hobbycraft own brand) and when dry, I painted faces, hands and shirts white, using my favourite Vallejo white paint - its nice and smooth and gives a great coverage.

Once undercoating was done, I proceded to paint in the pikes, using Game Colour Pale Yellow, before doing all exposed skin using GW Darkoath Flesh.

A close-up of the second rank of pikemen

I then used a selection od Speed / Contract paints to 'colour in' all leather jerkins, shoes etc and then turned to GW Goregrunter Fur to paint the musket and sword handles etc.

A variety of colours were used, as randomly as possible, to 'dress' the figures in their flamboyant clothes, before using GW  Leadbelcher to do all the armour and other metal work.

And the rear rank of three pikemen

I allowed the figures to dry overnight before giving each figure a watered down Army Painter Dark Tone wash, this acted nicely to add definition to all the figure's coat sleeves, fancy decoratations etc, without having to spend ages getting the colour seperation perfect.

Three of the two handed swords men

I then spent some time going over and highlighting many of the colours to add further depth, particularly the white, red, blue, yellow and green. 

The lone Musketeer, left,  and the remaining three two-handed swords men

A coat of Matt Varnish was then applied and the figures which were then based in my usual way with fine sand and electrostatic grass.

Next, I have a box of 30 x Warlord Landsknecht missle men (Musketeer & Crossbow) plus a sprue of six leftover two-handed swordsmen to complete from my pile of shame. Whatch here for how I progress on these! 😀