Weekend Games Day, Saturday 8th October 2016.

Our next Weekend Games Day will be on Saturday 8th October 2016, 10am-5pm at the Great Gaddesden Hall.
It will feature a couple of games:

• Crusades game using Soldiers Of God rules by Warwick Kinrade
• Napoleonic Game using Black Powder rules. French v Russians.

I might get the opportunity to use my latest figures from Fireforge Games: Sudanese Spearmen with Command, and Arab Heavy Infantry.

Sudanese Spearmen and Arab Heavy Infantry

Our Games Days give members an opportunity to play more ambitious battles than are possible at a normal evening session. We have more time available and the games are multi-player so there is room for two or three larger gaming tables.

20mm BRITISH WIP

Alan has been working on some modern British.

Here's a pic of some modern British I am just finishing up - a couple of Mastiff MRAPs, a Jackal DPV, and assorted infantry figures, some in Osprey armour and some in ballistic vests so I can use them for different periods, all in 20mm. As you can see, the figures on the left haven't received their "gravel and grass tufts" ground cover yet.

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY - PART 4

I've now finished the last unit of cavalry, a unit of irregular Tartars. Together with a couple of units of Akincis and some Irregular light cavalry these complete the mounted arm of my Ottoman Turks.  These are particularly useful as they could be pressed into service with various other armies, such as my Mongols or, once they are sorted, a Polish army to face off the Ottomans.

So the usual before and after photos.

ECW GOES OLD SCHOOL!

As well as my Ottoman work-in-progress, the recent generous donation of figures resulting in other club members obtaining boxes of goodies. Ian bagged a shoebox of 25mm English Civil War figures, mostly a mix of Minifigs and Hinchcliffe. He decided that, in keeping with the era the figures hail from, he wasn't going to do anything too clever, so he simply replaced missing pikes etc, stuck them on new bases, just painted green and flocked. The result was a perfectly presentable army and, more importantly, ready to play and on the table when I'm only halfway through the Ottomans.

He has had a (long) ongoing project to put together 10mm forces to play Peter Pig's "Regiment of Foote", so the new acquisitions were based up for those rules. Technically it's a few stands of cavalry light, but there is just enough to field two armies for the rules, which is what we did at the last club meeting.

MONGOLS VS RUS

At last Friday's club meeting Alan and I tried another game between our Mongol and Rus armies using the excellent, Soldiers of God rules. Soldiers of God is designed to refight battles of the Crusades, but after a few games we thought that it might also work for the same time period in Eastern Europe, as all the troops types required are covered by the rules. Currently we use the cards that come with the rules, using the Islam cards for the Mongols and the Crusader cards for the Rus,

Despite a more aggressive battle plan the dice were against the Mongols who deployed first, massing the Mongol cavalry, both light horse archers and lancers, on the left flank and their, less than dependable, Volgar Bulgar allies on the right. The centre was held by a single unit of horse archers, the idea being to delay the Rus centre while the cavalry smash the enemy's right.

The Rus responded by deploying their own allies, all skirmishing cavalry and infantry facing the Volgar Bulgars, their crossbowmen and both mounted and dismounted Druzhina on the right facing the Mongol cavalry and  archers backed by urban militia spearmen in the centre with the heavily armoured Senior Druzhina cavalry. Their idea was to hold the flanks whilst destroying the centre and allowing their armoured cavalry to turn and roll-up one of the flanks.

Mongols start to surround the Rus infantry centre.

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY PART 3

Feudal Sipahis
These were the main fighting arm of the cavalry, known as the Timarli Sipahi. They were fief-holders, owing military service in exchange for land, in the same manner as the European knight. They served as armoured cavalry, accompanied by similarly equipped retainers. The larger the land holding, the more retainers a Sipahis was expected to provide.In the classic Ottoman deployment the Sipahis formed the two flanks, with the Timari Sipahis  deployed forward with the Sipahis of the Porte in reserve.

Before the process started.

After a grey wash and varnish.

The finished article.

OLD SCHOOL OTTOMAN ARMY PART 2

Part 2 Sipahis of the Porte

To keep things sensible I've split up the cavalry by type and will process them in units. First up, the elite cavalry of the Ottoman army, the Sipahis of the Porte. Also called the Kapıkulu Sipahi these were salaried, regular units which formed the cavalry arm of the Ottoman household troops. These were the first figures to be re-based, washed and varnished, then had the bases textured with a mixture of brown paint, sand and pva glue, before tufts of grass were added. I shall probably add a bit of static grass at a later date. Due to extensive house rebuilding most of my gaming stuff is in the loft and at the moment I've no idea where my flocks and grasses are!

After a grey wash and a coat of varnish.

Now with textured bases.

Finally with tufts added.