Medieval mutterings

Finally the photographs taken by John for Aprils Miniature Wargames magazine have been published and I can now get them on the blog. Truthfully the Editor would have had no problem but I felt it only right to wait until the article was out before putting them on here.
It was a good game on the night with (if I remember rightly) a victory for the Scots!

Various views of the action, English Knights/men at arms:

Scots advance:

The main Battles clash:

The Hobilars sitting it out in the rear:

Most of the stuff is Old Glory, but I see that David Imrie is putting out a range for this period under Claymore Castings, also Flags of War are doing most of the various standards and shield transfers (wish I'd had them when I hand painted everything for Otterburn). They do look very good figures, must resist adding to this lot!
I'll put on some pictures of individual figures later.
Dave.

This was a large one!

As promised in the last post, here are some pictures of a humongous 15mm Greek/Macadonian/Persian game which took place at Mick's up in the borders. Mick has a very large home made hex based wargames table in his garage up in the wilds of wanny where men are men sheep are sheep and always the two shall meet (especially at night!).
An El Cid 28mm game was played on the Saturday of which later but on Sunday after a hearty breakfast battle was joined with Greeks and Macedonians (Neal & Scotty) on one side and Persians (myself & Mike) on the other with Mick umpiring. The rules were an in house version based loosely on DBM but using Mick's hexed marked table which defined movement and facing very well.
The pictures themselves will describe the action with a little bit of commentary from me:

A few of pictures of the initial Persian deployment, the left flank cavalry:

The massed Persian Cavalry/infantry centre:

Persian infantry with the Greeks advancing steadily (Darius himself in the chariot):

The Persian right flank cavalry sweeping round to envelope the Greek left:

An imposing view of the Macedonian infantry advancing in the centre:

From the rear:

The Greeks left wing (including elephants) face towards the flanking Persian horse:

The Greek centre advances closer until the clash occurs:

A view along the two lines as the combat begins, a gap has opened up as the supporting Greek cavalry refuse to engage the Hoplites:

The Persian left flank eventually drove off the Greeks to their front while the Greeks beat off the cavalry on the Persian right but they were too late and too far away to affect anything.

The battle would be decided in the centre. Crushed, Darius fought on until overwhelmed by Greek spears (and my crappy dice throwing):

An enjoyable game (and weekend) the rules though not my cup of tea (I'm simply not a DBM type fan) worked very well and fun was had by all.
As time allows I will post about the preceding 28mm El Cid game but that will do for now.
Dave.

It's all Greek to me!

Might as well get these straight on as I have ten minutes to spare!
Really the same situation as with the Persians posted before, these guys have been there or there about for fifteen or more years but I've never had the push to get them finished.
Going up to Mick's at the weekend was one reason to get them done, but with the other lads playing Hail Caesar then at least they will get used regularly.
So first up are the oldest, these chaps have been with me since about 1985! Now there no great shakes as a paint job but they've suffered my crappy dice throwing for so long that they deserve some credit. Greek Hoplites:

Lancashire Games Hoplites, these have Little Big Man shield transfers Link as you will see the next batch of figures have had their shields hand painted. In time taken to do it there's no difference, now my hand painting is ok but it has to be said that the transfers are great but 15mm.............soooo fiddly! You pays your money and takes makes your choice.

These are the old Outpost figures with the hand painted shields:

Xyston (I think) Spartan Hoplites:

Finally a few Outpost skirmishers:

Hopefully (if I remember the camera!) I will post some photo's of the weekends game when I get back.
Dave.

More firepower

A bit more fire power for the Persian army for the game this weekend, goodness knows they will need it against the Greek hoplites they will be facing!
Indian archers, figures by Outpost (just painted but years old):

Greek army on next.
Dave.

15mm ACW

About once every 2-3 months I am fortunate to be invited up into the English Scottish border to play various games on a huge hex based permanent table in Mick's garage. Beer is consumed, sheep are chased and armies are manoeuvred usually over a weekend and good time is had by all.
Many periods are covered during these excursions, the next will be ancient Greeks/Persians (hence the Persians in the last post) but last time I went we re-fought Gettysburg using Fire and Fury, a rule set I particularly like. As everyone contributed a Corps of either one side or another I thought it only fair that I should do one as well. Most of the better known formations had been taken but Hancocks 2nd Corps was still to do, so with the Peter Pig figures duly bought (and any others who were lying around chucked in) here are the results.
Three Divisions plus Corps artillery:

Caldwell's 1st Division, note the Irish Brigade to the left:

Hancock's command stand with Gibbons 2nd Division behind:

Hays 3rd Division:

Corps artillery, five batteries:

Finally a couple of marker stands:

 

There are still plenty of unpainted figures to do however many of them are in the earlier style i.e. broad hat kepis with Havelocks and dress uniforms.
(So they're finally done Scotty!)
Dave.