War of three Kingdoms 9, rebasing Covenanters

 That dreaded phrase,rebasing, it had to happen so that I could use my Covenanters in For King and Parliament as they were just too big for the grids,it also meant they're a bit more flexible. They're almost all Warlord plastics and we're painted a while ago,with a lightly converted Warlord Cromwell leading them, they were finished at the double as we had a game of Pike and Shot coming up, although they didn't make it to the table. In the pictures is a couple of them on the table,their basing being a bit closer now,what I have found is that my roads almost exactly match the basing ,which means they're almost invisible! I think I'll have to give them a darker wash or something!

Next up? Pike and shot AAR as painting has largely ceased for the moment, in favour of  gaming and prepping  !

All the best 

Iain 

War of the Roses 4, 1st battle of St Albans ,Hail Caesar

 For our next game we set up for 1st St Albans ( using the recently completed buildings as well as previously done ones) Henry IV and his battle set up on the high Street  and the 2 battles of Somerset and Clifford. Opposing them was from the Yorkist point of view Salisbury on the left ( opposite Cifford) Warwick in the centre and York on the right.

As the Yorkists I had the first move, a triple move for Warwicks force brought them close to Cliffords left side, unfortunately nothing else moved as well!

With Warwicks fank exposed Des sent his small mounted unit to attack  it,there was a fair bit of missile fire there for both sides, disorder preventing both of us coming to grips for hand to hand combat. My left wing was pushed back but eventually Clifford's units there were eliminated even though I was only hanging on. On my right flank there was for a long time a long range archery exchange as I couldn't get a charge in and Des wasn't interested except with his cavalry which kept failing their activation rolls.Ben took over from Des in the Lancastrian tag team, he started to bring out Henry's battle ( down the roads to avoid the possibility of disorder, which we said would be 50% chance) which was fun as we all know St Albans and declaring that Henry's battle would turn left at Greggs and the weird furniture store added another layer! My cavalry also kept failing their charge activation but eventually I  got them to charge,bounce off and charge again, breaking down the road into St Albans, Bens left wing attacked my right but got broken up and I was able to use large units against unsupported ones which didn't go well, Ben managed to get his cavalry back into town and destroy one of the cavalry units but then was destroyed himself. We called it as it was now midnight,  I suggested it was a draw, I still had most of my units but they were all quite tired, Des/Ben had a fresh battle but with an unfriendly cavalry unit behind them, I was probably in a slightly better position. It was a lovely way to spend an evening and had a good feel for period I felt, I like Hail Caesar's messy unsure system, you never know if you're going to get anything to work and  have  to  adapt. Nice to get the buildings on the table too, the eagle eyed amongst you might see a hastily based airfix roman fort stable in among the other buildings, next up pike and shot battle, not much painting happening, too many games and of course distracting football!

All the best Iain 

PS I've added a  photo of my right flank to show how much reduced the Lancastrians were. 

Terrain 14 dark age/medieval buildings

 I had to  get some additional buildings on smaller bases done rapidly for my battle of Barnet game and as I had already stuck some laminate underlay to some pound shop buildings (laser etched birch,complete with glitter!) I rapidly knocked them out to be both a basis for a dark age  village as I was embarrassed by what I had to use in my dux Bellorum game and also useful additions to my medieval stock and possible Lithuanian stand ins?

Not bad,I've tried to make each one different and big enough without being too big. In their unpainted state,I got a base coat on everything ,dark thatch, dirty cream walls and base before the game. 

So I went back to my post on open air museums from a while back and tried to apply it to these pound shop buildings, obviously there are compromises but overall they're pretty successful. There is an argument that I could have just made more accurate buildings from foamboard and maybe I will further down the line but for now these will do.

Next up,probably another war of the Roses After action report( which these buildings featured in) not many figures getting painted, more being assembled, games being played and too much football on the TV!

All the best Iain