Cards and Banners

Back when I tried to write commercial rules, I was doing a second edition of Blood and Chivalry.

The problems with mediaeval command and control are a tough nut. Too much player control and it's very gamey and hardly historic. Too tight in an effort to simulate the difficulties and the game is no fun and an exercise in blundering forward and rolling dice at each other.

In the first edition (now OOP), the back cover was a set of orders chits to photocopy and cut out. But I still felt it was too easy to issue or change orders.

But then I encountered the Lardy rules with cards for friction and blinds for fog of war. I also wanted to limit the way players could give their troops orders.

My thought was to only let a lord change his orders or micromanage units within his "battle" or division when or if his card came up. If the card for the battle came up first, then the units in it had to follow the last orders given.

To make it easier to identify each battle I came up with the idea to make markers from excess guys holding spears etc upright. Each figure would hold a banner matching the card for the battle. His orientation to the lord's base would also indicate the order that had been given last.

In front of the leader for 'avaunt banners' or attack/advance.
Beside the leader for hold/defend.
Behind the leader for retire.
The heralds were for rally orders.

Individual units would behave accordingly within that limited menu depending upon the specific troop type. Also in the deck were things like "Hesitant Mercenaries" (any mercenaries don't move this turn) "Pillage the Dead" (stop to loot after a successful combat) and the turn ending "Dalliaunce" card, so maybe not all lord's or battles will activate in a turn.

Some good ideas I think, that I'll hang onto.

Bills, Bows and Battered

I must say, Lion Rampant has certainly rejuvenated all things medieval in the basement of rabbits.

Finished some troops last night. These are from Old Glory's underrated but quite good 28mm Wars of the Roses line. I got them, along with a goodly measure of other WotR troops, second hand from a friend in exchange for painting a couple dozen SYW Austrian cuirassiers.

I started them a long time ago, like 6 years, then got distracted and they sat in the box until this month.

I'm still basing them on the 40x40mm squares the rest of my collection uses. Because they were part bags left over from my friend's own WotR army, and I hate leaving figures behind, I ended up with 20 shire billmen and 15 shire archers. So big units in Hail Caesar or I just don't use them all in Lion Rampant.

The flag is from a sheet of the excellent Freezywater WotR banners. I picked it to match the red jackets the billmen are wearing.

I also finished up some casualty figures to mark hits in Hail Caesar or "battered" status in Lion Rampant.

I also was embarrassed to be reminded in last week's game that I have some troops still with unfinished bases, even though I started rebasing them around Christmas 2009! So I'm endeavouring to rectify that issue.

Things are Getting Exciting!

Hotlead is less than 2 weeks away!
Things filled up pretty quickly and without much poking from me this year.
I remember 25 years ago spending weekends on the telephone calling, begging, and cajoling GMs and vendors to come. Thanks to the interweb, Facebook and just word of mouth it's a lot less effort to organize. The new website is smoother to update too. I like it when I can just cut and paste a game description from an email into the field with minimal editing.
Now I get people sending me games before I really start organizing stuff in January and some vendors book their booth a year ahead.
So this year it looks like I'm going to have:

• 5 DBA tournaments
• a 40K tournament thingy
• a Hobby Table workshop
• 86 open participation games!

That's right, EIGHTY-FREAKIN'-SIX! open participation games. That is a record.
If anyone complains about nothing to play, well there isn't much we can do for you.

Painting CadPat

I decided to attempt some CadPat on the two rucks and the kitbag adorning my HQ/FOO LAV.

I think it came out OK for something in 1/72nd scale.

I grabbed a spare pouch from my ruck and started comparing bottles of paint to it.

Here's what I arrived at:
Start with black base coat (like the rest of the model).
Dry brush Tamiya Olive Drab over everything (this is the main colour of the vehicle).
For the pieces of kit that are CadPat use a fine brush and block on some Americana Sable Brown.
Then, overlapping the brown, block on some Americana Charcoal Grey.
Then, again overlapping the other two colours do blocky right angled Ls and Ts of Americana Lt. Avocado green.
Finally to tone everything down I did more Ls and Ts of Tamiya NATO Green.

Here is the finished result:

You'll notice another cooler. It is actually the turret bin from a Battlefront Sherman tank that I found in my bits box.  The bright red gives some relief from all the green and will also help players ID the vehicle from the platoon LAVs. The tool bin to the right of the ruck in the picture immediately above is from a PSC Sherman Firefly.

Now after all that effort I'd better make sure I don't just cover those rucks in dust!

Late Roman Auxilia

Finished two 12 figure cohorts of auxilia palatina for the commission project.

There was a time I could tell you the names from the shield designs. But now? Not so much. I'm sure I painted the unit with the blue shield and yellow fork in 15mm with some old Viking Forge figures 30- odd years ago.

The Little Big Men Studios transfers don't cover the shields exactly, so the edges need to be cleaned up.

Before:

After:

Finding a blue to match the blue fork on the yellow shield has been a challenge.

Some group shots. I think the customer is still sourcing Draco standards for them.

Bigger Lion Rampant game

Had Patrick over last night. I decided on Lion Rampant because I was in the mood to set up a goodly pile of my mediaeval terrain.

I decided to do something bigger too, to try some new troop types and also how the game would flow. So from my late mediaeval collection I was able to build two retinues of French to fight an alliance of English and Burgundian retinues. I took the retinues from the back of the book, except the English and Burgundian Men-at-Arms were mounted being on chavauchee, and for the French their crossbow units were both equipped with pavises because that's what I have. One unit of French Mounted Sergeants was armed with crossbows too, again due to collection limitations. I am lacking in lighter Sergeants, Hobilars or Coustilier type figures.

So I set up stuff more to try and look good, then figured out the scenario and armies after. The village of Petits Lapins en Bois:

The new church, Ste Marie dans Les Lapins

Liberal usage of lichen to dress things up helped soften the edges of fields etc.

Some of the locals:

Ordering some new cookware from the smith

"Oo, Edith did you hear about Stephane and Marie?"

"I don't suppose this lot will help get the harvest in?"

Down stream is my 30-something year old Mill:

I really ought to finish painting my Miller figure.

I made the river fordable at the sandy island. Armies started in opposite corners with the Anglo-Burgundian force wanting to burn the village.

French army by the bridge

Anglo-burgundian raiders come out of woods

Close up of English

The Goddons swarmed out of the woods and pushed towards the village. The Burgundian retinue detached the unit of bidets (skirmishing handgunners in this instance) and some archers across the river to burn the Mill. The crossbows got despatched to hold the central ford and protect the flank. Meanwhile the French sent one retinue into the village and one towards the Mill. The retinue crossing the bridge promptly stalled at the tavern for several turns. The other force saw the Mounted sergeants thunder off to the mill while the rest marched fitfully through the fields. Unsupported, the sergeants delayed the Burgundian arson but eventually succumbed to archery.

Burgundian bidets and archers set about looting and burning

The English also became equally strung out due to failed activation rolls.

Mid-game, English and French entering opposite ends of the village

The Burgundian crossbows at the ford engaged in a firefight with the French crossbows across the river. Despite the pavises on the French and low activation roll for crossbows, my troops seemed to be belt fed and thoroughly shot up the French, driving them back from the river several times.

Meanwhile, English and French troops were entering the village. One unit of longbows seemed to have forgotten their flints and took a long time to set a cottage on fire.

"'Er now Bert, you was supposed to bring the flints!"

The English and French chivalry now faced off on the edge of the village beside the church. I brought another unit of longbows up to support, but the "Wild Charge" rule had my knights crashing ahead without waiting. Patrick kept failing his counter change rolls, so I bundled his knights back, destroying them in a few turns of melee.

The French mounted crossbows clattered down the lane on the other side of the church to be met by my Expert sergeants, who decided to get stuck in rather than let the French shoot.

"Ooo look Edith, ain't they handsome!"

Without any support or room to move the light cavalry were destroyed by the English billmen.

The French sergeants pushed up the laneway next to engage the English billmen. English archers then entered the church yard and quickly looted and burned the church so they could line the hedge to flank the French.

Melee in the lane

At this stage Patrick conceded the game.

End game

End game at the Mill

Considering the size I thought the game rolled along nicely. The activation rolls add a nice bit of friction and uncertainty. I have also suspended my prejudice against rules with set unit sizes. It does aid in the simplicity. Although the observant among you will notice that my foot sergeants are 16 figure units, not 12. I had been getting out my archers and just naturally grabbed 4 stand units forgetting to count the figures, but it didn't cause problems, just a bit of math.

I did forget to add in some chivalric boasts though which might have added more flavour. Although I'm not sure if the French would have achieved any.

Sunday Night Painting Bench

Bit of a slow week. Some painting with Mikey last night and some solo hanging out with Biggles tonight.

Working on two 12 figure units of auxilia for my friend's Late Roman army and today's mild weather meant I could get some more vehicles for my Canadian combat team spray primed.

The shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios and are different than the usual waterslide decals I'm more used too.

They are very nice but the plastic film can be hard to peel off and you don't get any chance to move them once on the shield. They are also translucent, so after three I decided I needed to go over the shields with another coat of white to give an even coat underneath. So I'm writing this while waiting for paint to dry at 2330 hrs.

Also the transfers don't fit exactly, so you have to tidy up the edges with paint. Fortunately the Cermacoat "Empire Gold" is a perfect match for the yellow.

The vehicles are a pair of Coyote Recce vehicles and a fifth LAV III to act as either a FOO, Tac HQ (in case Call Sign 0 shows up) or ride for engineering assets.

Afternoons again this week, so hopefully I can get the rest of the shields done by Friday.