Friday Night Games: The 3rd Battle of Seminara

On Friday 21st Feb, we played a refight of the Italian Wars 3rd Battle of Seminara using Rupert's 25mm collection, his rules and his venue for the evening.

The French Array

Whilst Rupert umpired the game, Mike W, Mat & Dave took on the Swiss Command and Mike N, Steve & Paul ran the opposing French forces. Paul took the French centre with Mikey on the French left and Steve on their right. Mat had the Swiss centre with Dave to his left and Mike W to his right.

Swiss Crossbowmen

French Cavalry on their right

The game opened with the two flanks of cavalry surging forwards to contest their respective grounds, these fights lasted about 2/3 of the game but ultimately the French forces pushed back their Swiss counter parts.

A view of the large battlefield

Swiss pike blocks advancing on the French

In the centre the Swiss had made the mistake of deploying their misslemen in front of their pike blocks, instead of to the side, meaning that as the sides advanced, the Swiss could not easily get their pike blocks into the fight as the misslemen were in the way.

French Cavalry on their left flank

Part of the French Centre / Left line

Centre of the french line

After a lot of fighting the Swiss were in no position to continue and the game went to the French! With a better understanding of the rules and the appropriate tactics the Swiss are looking forward to a rematch....

The Swiss line from their right flank, with massed Light Cavalry on their right

The lines close for battle

Centre / left of the Swiss line as the sides close

Cannon fire errupts from both lines.

A large Cavalry melee erupts on eth Swiss right, despite stiff resistance the French finally prevail

French Heavy Cavalry

More French Heavies

Swiss Crossbowmen nearest camera as in background the Swiss / Frech melee continues

Swiss Cavalry on their left  of the line

Swiss Light cavalry finally being chased off by the French on the Swiss right

French forces close in around the Swiss pike blocks

AHPC XV: From Mike W - Warlord Epic 15mm Numidians & Celts, plus some others! (185 Points)

 So this last week has been really disappointing in terms of free time that I could put towards painting for the challenge, with real life again throwing up unexpected obsticles to resolve! Who said being retired was easy, with nothing else to do except your hobbies, everyone seems to believe that you're the guy who can do everything at the drop of the hat! 😀

That said I have concentrated on trying to break the back of my 15mm Carthaginian army, with Light Infantry and Horse all lurching towards completion.

The bulk of this week's submission is focused on the Carthaginian's allied Numidian and Celtic forces, with the foot all being depicted as Light Infantry. I have noticed that Warlord Games do a close formation Celtic frame, so I'll be looking to acquire one of these in the near future - plus some elephants of course!

Anyway on to this week's figures, first the Numidians:

The Numidian contingent, Horse, Javelin men and Archers.

A close-up on the horse, 2 bases each of 5 men, all armed with Javelins
and their distinctive hand painted cow hide shields

Another shot of the mounted men, sorry having trouble getting a clear shot of these small guys

The Javelin men, again two bases each of five figures.

Two bases of Archers, again two bases each of five figures.

And with the rear rank brought to the front

A better shot of the Javelinmen

Now the Celts:

The Celt contingent, 2 bases of cavalry and two bases of skirmishers

Close-up on the Javelin armed skirmishers, shields are again hand painted

Another view of the Javelin men. 

Celtic Cavalry, javelin and sword armed with a mix of armoured and unarmoured figures

Another view of the Celtic horse.

And finally the others!

Two bases of Lybian Skirmishers armed with spear and shield

Rear rank brought forwards

Two bases of Iberian slingers

And the rear rank of the slingers brought forwards

Hopefully next week back to 28mm Arthurians - although I do have some 20 or so more Carthaginian Horse to get completed!

POINTS

10 x 15mm Numidian Horse @ 4Pts ea           40 Points

20 x 15mm Numidian Foot @ 2Pts ea             40 Points 

10 x 15mm Celtic Horse @ 4Pts ea                 40 Points

10 x 15mm  Celtic Foot  @ 2Pts ea                 20 Points

10 x 15mm  Iberian Slingers @ 2Pts ea           20 Points

10  x 15mm  Lybian Foot @ 2Pts ea                20 Points

TOTAL                                                           180 Points

AHPC XV: From Mike W - More 15mm Carthaginians and 28mm Landsknechts (Greed)(295 Points)

 What no Arthurians! No, not this week - but there are more on the workbench for next week...

Warlord Games, 15mm Epic,  Allied Italian Infantry

Warlord Games, 15mm Epic,  Celtiberian Infantry

First off, this week I have two more units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthagininans. Namely a unit of allied Italians  and secondly, a unit of Celtiberians, each of three bases of 20 figures. 

Now I must say  that my knowledge of the Punic Wars is pretty sketchy, mostly based upon a once long running campaign run at my Wargames Club, so my uniform guide on these figures was basically taken from the Warlord Games website and the desire to base my Carthaginian Army largely based upon the Red, Black, White & Gold colours scheme of previously completed units. 

 The method of painting was similar for both units and basically the same as last week's units.

Close-up of the Allied Italian unit from the left. Again shield designs have been done free hand

Same unit from their right side, all crests and plumes on this unit are white.

Final shot of the Italians, from their rear, showing their armour
and the light grey tunis that they all wear.

I had no real idea about who the Celtiberians were, so after a quick check it appears that they were a Celtic people who lived in the north of what is now Spain - many believe that the Basque peoples are derived from these ancient guys. The Celtiberians, have been depicted with a slightly less uniform stance than other units in the Carthaginan Army. So I assume that they were somewhat less disciplined than their Lybian, Italian & Carthaginian comrades.

The Celtiberians, from the left side of the unit, again with
red, white & black shields, crests and plumes.

The same unit from thier right

And teh rear of the Celtiberian unit, showing their light brown tunics and sparce armour

Again I have to thank Nigel, from my Wargames Club, for the donation of another plastic frame of figures - this time Warlord Games 28mm Landsknecht pikemen, who will join my existing collection for the period.

As these Landsknechts mercenaries were renowned for their excessess - in particular in their clothing and carousing, I am taking the liberty to claim the Greed Bonus for 20 Points.

6 x 28mmLandsknecht Pikemen, based and ready to go!

Same guys but with the the rear rank to the front.

I must say that I enjoy painting Landsknechts, at first it seemed daunting but having discovered a 'recipe' for doing them, it is really quite fun.  As ever a white undercoat and then literally picking paints at random to colour in sections of their dress. In this case - Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange etc picking figures and painting panels and stripes as I see fit.

I used brown as a unifing colour to tie in all the leather jerkins and belts etc and the obviously silver for the armour. The secret is a watered down black ink wash that adds definition between the colours and in my mind finishes off the figures nicely.

Close-up on two of the little guys.

And aother two

And the last two!

Next week back to Arthurians and hopefully the balance of the 28mm AWI infantry frame that I started last week, as well as some 15mm Punic Wars Cavalry and Skirmishers!

SQUIRREL POINTS                                                    +1 Landsknechts

POINTS

120 x 15mm Carthaginians @ 2 Pts ea                        240 Points

6 x 28mm Landsknechts @5 Pts ea                               30 Points

Greed Bonus                                                                   20 points

TOTAL                                                                         290 Points

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 15mm Warlord Epic Carthaginians, 28mm Arthurian Cavalry and AWI American Militia

 A bit a a scrambled post this week as time has just flown by and getting this batch of little guys ready has been a challenge!

Lybian Heavy Infantry unit, 3 bases each of 20 figures.

Closer view of the Lybians

First up are two units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthaginians,  ech unit of 60 figures. I have completed a unit of Lybian Heavy Infantry and a unit of Scutari.

And the other end of their line

The Lybians are Armoured in chainmail, with helmets, spears and shield. I painted them much the same way as the Romans in my recent post, however  I have given them a range of colours for their shields ( with free hand symbols on some of these) and given them either purple or blue tunics.

Rear view of the Lybians

The Scutari are spear and sword armed, with helmets and shields, their painting is simplified as they all wear cloaks. Again, I gave these guys a range of shield colours, but tried to keep the red, white and black theme going that I had with the Lydia's, albeit that these guys had some blue instead of purple shields and the Lybians had a number of brass shields.

Close up of the Scuari, with a variety of shield designs, all painted free hand

Another shot of the Scutari

And from the rear, note that a number of these guys have what appear to be covers to their helmets, much like teh 19th Century Havlocks, to protect the wearers nect from excessive sun.

Hopefully another two units for next week....

Next I present the overdue Arthurian Cavalry, 6 x Mounted guys, originally due last week, each wears mail and is armed with spear and shield on an Armoured horse. Again I have looked for a unit cohesion by using white & red shields to re-enforce  their identity.

Six Arthurian Heavy Cavaly with armoured horses.

Another shot of these fearsome guys

And a shot to get a better view of the shield designs - all white and red to give unit cohesion

Close up of two of the little guys

Another two horsemen

And the final two mounted guys

Finally, thanks to fellow club member Nigel, for gifting me a frame of Warlord Games 28mm American AWI plastic figures.

Completed group of five militiamen

I have taken five guys from this frame and painted up as Buckskin clad militia, armed with rifles. As with all of these ex Wargames Foundry kits, I find their assembly a bit fiddly but the resulting figures are OK.

Another angle

These figures were undercoated in a cream colour and then painted in a variety of browns to represent their buckskin dress. Skin was done in my usual manner and details of bags, guns, straps etc was added.

Look out for 5 x Continental Infantymen in the near future.

Next Week? Hopefully more 15mm Carthaginians, a small group of 28mm Landsknechts that I didn't finish this week and more Arthurian Infantry....

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