AAR battle of Brentford War of three Kingdoms/ ECW 24

 We had planned on playing the battle of Brentford at the first game of the autumn season at the club, from the Warlord To kill a King supplement, using Pike and Shot, we were a little rusty as we hadn't really played since the spring. 

We set up as per the scenario although I realised we were short on light artillery by some way, medium guns and heavy guns being forced to stand in.  The two guns either side of the bridge were medium, otherwise all other guns were light guns( whatever they might look like?!)

So if you carry on past the church you will get to a McDonald's drive through, although not in 1642 , we have Brentford with three lots of barricades, each with it's defending units and come turn four( if the Parliamentarians are still there) further reinforcements.  In historical terms Rupert and his Royalist force smashed through, breaking units and taking prisoners, however the defence of Brentford had not been in vain, having bought valuable time for the main Parliamentarian force to coalesce at Tutnham Green where they intimidated the Royalists and forced them to retreat back to Oxford. 

In our game I took the Parliamentarians, defending the first barricade against Rupert's battalia until further reinforcements could be rolled for in turn three. Things didn't go well for the Royalists from the first go, I won the initiative and started shooting, John repeatedly failed his activation rolls ( difficult with a command rating of 9+) I just kept shooting behind cover, ultimately I managed to break/destroy both artillery units a cavalry unit and commanded shot unit by the time the reinforcements arrived which meant the battalia had over  half its units destroyed/ broken so it was a broken battalia, one of the two last units being disordered and being less than 12" from the enemy they were forced to retire off the table and once they were off the table and part of a broken battalia they were not able to return, a third of the Royalist army had been wiped out including of course the newly painted Royalist cuirassier unit standing in as Rupert's horse!

The Parliamentarian reinforcements turned up and made their way to the riverbank. 

We carried on with some shooting at the first barricade, the two lower Royalist reinforcement regiments tried to charge the one  Parliamentarian pike and shot regiment in spite of having a unit each disordered, they formed hedgehog successfully and the Royalist threw in the towel, not having yet destroyed a single unit of the Parliamentarian force but having already lost a third of their army and the time was running out at the club.

Fun game, for me anyway John threw some of the worst dice I've ever seen while I was consistently lucky . We both agreed there should have been a timescale for the game, Rupert needing to take the bridge in a certain number of turns or if the Parliamentarians were still on the other side of the bridge by a certain turn it was at least a draw? An under prepared scenario we felt, going back to one hour wargames to generate our next pike and shot battle! Still nice to get the toys and terrain on the table.

Castell y Bere near Aberdovey in mid Wales, a ruined Welsh castle built by a Welsh king Llywelyn the Great to protect Gwynedd’s southern border  and control the valley and more importantly the pastureland for cattle. In 1221 and in use till the end of that century. On holiday in Wales, thought this might be of interest, now I want to paint up some more cattle and play a dark age cattle raiding game!

Next up, more Napoleonics? Some more war of three Kingdoms light artillery after I was five short for the artillerys first outing!? More terrain?  Cattle?Not sure!

All the best

 Iain 

Impassable terrain refurb and elderly galleys terrain 21

 These are some of the oldest bits of terrain I've got , built for 40k out of blocks of polystyrene packing, roughly chopped and then glued together with some chunky cat litter on some ripped up mount board, sloppily painted in sand emulsion and green masonary paint before getting some flock added, over the years they got a bit battered so I have touched them up with some pva and sharp sand, cat litter and my current emulsion basing colour, followed by a dark wash then some other flock and finally some clump foliage. These have been sitting around half done for months at least, probably over a year and I'm hoping less than two, so once again thanks to Dave , even after his Summer of scenery is over it's still being productive!

They were built as line of sight blockers , work as edges of  moorland dressing, they also look like the background in various  Uccello Italian renaissance paintings and general impassable terrain markers, I've still got some other pieces that are less battered but maybe I'll need to bring them in line with these? 

Bill and Fred traipsing through the foothills!

It also occurred to me they might work as Mediterranean islands to go with some elderly plastic GW renaissance type  galleys( man of war?) , plus some metal ones I'd acquired, not all renaissance but I figured they'd do, I know, I know  shock , horror not 28mm either!

 I painted them  years ago, last century,in a basic way and  I was thinking of basing them up and maybe having a galley game,  as I have two fleets, Turkish versus Venetian maybe? All the ships are painted pretty much the same at the moment  green oars for Turkish and red for Venetian/ Imperial and if I need French I'll just proxy in the Turkish ships? Any good renaissance galley rules anyone has come across? Of course then I will have to build tiny towns and fortifications ? I'll add some flags and will finish off the galleys with some brown dry brushing I think and maybe some more red and green here and there and bases with waves of course!

Next up more terrain or maybe more Napoleonics, not sure!

All the best 

Iain 

Royal Italian alian regiment no 3 Napoleonic 39

 Not a terrain  post for  a change,here is another Victrix  Italian infantry unit, this time the third regiment, again fast and dirty white and the same process but with rather more green facings.

Another couple of Italian regiments still to come but first more French I would say , unless I get some more of the terrain completed that I have been drawn into!

All the best 

Iain 

A German church for the Danube campaign 1809 terrain 20

 Last bit of August  terrain, can you tell I  work to last minute  deadlines! 

On the Lead adventure forum there is a chap who posts his terrain builds called Jimbibbly his blog is jimbibblyblog, he hasn't posted on his blog for a while and it's been a while since I was on LAF but I guess he's still doing stuff, he's a professional terrain builder, Oshiro models I think.  There is a thread on LAF of European builds on 300mm/1'0" square bases which are Napoleonic terrain commissions he's done which are exquisite. 

His designs are drawn up in Rhino a 3d architectural package then laser cut and are all bespoke one offs.

 I think they're great so I've decided to try and emulate them using HO railway models, broken toys that my sister was going to throw out from the charity shop in France that she works in ( only for my nephew to say Iain would like that rubbish! True enough!) oh and foamboard, cat litter, stirrers, plastic sheet, Christmas decorations and hardboard. 

The French cast offs are the last image and are combined with half built, half timbered medieval builds and some laser cut Christmas buildings I picked up cheap after the holidays one year.

The church is a Faller railway model I got up without a base or door, I fabricated a replacement door from balsa. The slate roof on the entrance to the yard is one of the few remnants of my airfix waterloo building set from my childhood so I thought I should use it, the tiles are off cuts from my renaissance Italian buildings (now that I have finally finished them!) and the charnal house is another French discarded toy that I have filled the walls in with balsa. 

I've also copied the set up being two 300mm x 150mm pieces that can be swapped around, used separately and are easier to store, which as I continue churning out terrain is going to be an issue!

The prototype was the Aspen Church and while this isn't it I'm happy that this works for the 1809 Danube campaign, I also liked the idea in another set up of a church being angled as opposed to straight up and down so I have adopted that too, here with some previously painted French for scale. 

Keith seems concerned ( quite reasonably!) about the size of the terrain I've done but at least these two slot together!

They're on top of my ongoing 28mm ruined art deco cinema box which I doubt I'll finish in August but has definitely benefited from Dave's season of scenery!

Next up,more Napoleonics probably or maybe even more terrain?

All the best 

Iain