Codsticker's Historicals: Fun With Plastic!(and now metal)

My final entry in the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge XI was 8 dark ages Irish warriors from Crusader Miniatures.
https://i.imgur.com/uNi6RCW.jpg
Wonderful figures to paint; not a lot of "stuff" dangling off them.
https://i.imgur.com/dh1XcC6.jpg
Nicely cast, no mould lines to speak off. The only complaint I had with them is that a couple of them, have kind of squinty eyes.
https://i.imgur.com/7aOVDzL.jpg
These will join a Irish warband I bought a few years ago for Saga. I liked the look of the vests and cloaks so I picked up this batch to add to the purchase.
https://i.imgur.com/wDWC0Ll.jpg
I might pick up a box of Wargames Atlantic Dar Ages Irish to add to the warband as I have a small force of Normans that I could use to fight battles set in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.
https://i.imgur.com/EdrK3Jh.jpg
In the meantime this lot brings my Irish Saga Warband up to 5 points.
https://i.imgur.com/fEnPi7J.jpg

Embarrassing to be ambushed by dudes who just discovered trousers :p
Painting is excellent as usual. Scenery and photography is magazine quality.

Edit- I have some content but you deserve to be at the top of the page for a couple days with this effort.

Thank IM.:biggrin:

With some lovely spring weather that allowed us to game outside- and after a 10 month break- Murdock and I got together to fight another installment in our ECW Campaign in the south-west of England.
https://i.imgur.com/aMP4pfx.jpg
The battle of Monkton Farleigh features a Parliamentarian force set up in an ambush position, anticipating a Royalist advance on the main Parliamentarian army to the east, across the river Avon at Claverton. Here the bulk of the Parliamentarian infantry are ensconced in a "walled wood", their cavalry in the distance:
https://i.imgur.com/Q7olyVK.jpg
However, the Royalists have word of the ambush and have sent a reinforced body, to flush it out ahead of the main advance on Claverton. Here they are as they enter the field of battle, as scene from the hill of Monkton Farleigh:
https://i.imgur.com/GNhpWy4.jpg
Although the large foot regiments of the Royalists find themselves a little slow on the advance, the horse of both sides fairly fly across the table at each other:
https://i.imgur.com/VP0t1rV.jpg
Col. John Trevanion's regiment of foot leads the advance taking heavy fire from the rebels in the walled enclosure:
https://i.imgur.com/CxTxQK5.jpg
Eventually the shooting takes it's toll on the regiment and it retires from the field, replaced by the recently arrived Goldophin's regiment of foot, which soon starts to feel the sting of the enemy's musket and cannon:
https://i.imgur.com/0VacyOW.jpg

The Royalists get there cannon set up after it arrives from up the road, but has a couple of large foot regiments blocking it's path (middle of the frame). In the distance, Royalist horse make repeated charges against the enemy horse, each time they are repelled:
https://i.imgur.com/NsqifVP.jpg
The Royalists are finally able to array 3 full regiments to fire upon the enemy in the enclosure:
https://i.imgur.com/muo1uYq.jpg
However, they fail to do enough damage to drive them out (ie. never quite enough to force a Break test with sufficient negative modifiers);
https://i.imgur.com/HtRvnps.jpg
The final push for the Royalists; in the foreground, the blue coated Prince Maurice's and Col Buck's regiments target the enemy dragoons behind the wall:
https://i.imgur.com/9aOCbsM.jpg
Alas that was it for the Royalists; Godolphin's foot (the regiment in the middle in the above photo) having taken the bulk of enemy fire, finally quit the field and Maurice's and Buck's foot promptly did the same (after taking just a few casualties as raw regiments are rather unpredictably fragile). With that both Royalist battalias were shaken and would not have been able to continue.

In the actual battle the Royalists were victorious, driving the Parliamentarians back across the river Avon and capturing their two guns. The follow up scenario to this is Claverton Down but it is a theoretical battle as it assumes the Royalists press on after their victory to Claverton. Although they held the bridge at the river Avon and secured the village of Batheaston, nothing substantial followed except some skirmishing outside of Claverton.

CS,

Looks fantastic down and dirty wargaming.

Just look at those gorgeous armies and setup! The added bonus of using casualties and that background for pictures is great, well done on getting some gaming in mate.

Thanks guys. It was fantastic to get a proper game in.

Great battle pictures Codsticker.

Cheers,

CB

Thank you Captain.:)

Murdock and I and a couple of others got another game in this past weekend. Instead of ECW though, we dragged out some 30 year old figures once owned by a friend of ours who passed away in 2016.
https://i.imgur.com/bpJpjrZ.jpg
Jeff painted these using craft paints; he was more interested in getting stuff painted and on the table than wet blending highlights and layering shadows.
https://i.imgur.com/dKXOV1Z.jpg
Very bright and colourful armies and once deployed on the table you don't notice the belt buckles are painted the same as the belts.:biggrin:
https://i.imgur.com/pGcCo96.jpg
The buildings are from some brand of Christmas village decoration, I am not sure which manufacturer. They suit both the design of the miniatures as well Jeff's painting style.
https://i.imgur.com/Jx1Ad94.jpg
Jeff liked thick bases as they are easier to pick up- these are 7mm MDF. Hopefully it isn't another 5 years before these see daylight again.
https://i.imgur.com/65wT6Ho.jpg

The Nanaimo Historical Wargamers have taken on a new period: the Crimean War.
https://i.imgur.com/1IBmd7C.jpg
A number of us each chose a Nationality or two and a batch order was put together by Nate through Eureka Miniatures USA ; I chose Ottoman Turks (the flags I ordered from Maverick Models).
https://i.imgur.com/AvjbUHl.jpg
I haven't painted many 15mm figures (these are 18mm- close enough), just a few Xyston Carthaginians. The Ancients were easier as there is less detail on the figures whereas these figures have belts, pouches and hardware. Some of it is quite fine and it was sometimes hard to tell what was flash/miscast and what was sculpted and intentional. Younger eyes may have been beneficial.
https://i.imgur.com/63Lwi7o.jpg
Not a lot of free info on the intrawebs but the colours were pretty straightforward to paint: Prussian blue ( a little brighter in the photos than in reality) with a lots of red details. There are a few plates to view online, some blog posts and the Wargames Foundry pics from the webstore (which are not great) so I ordered Turkish Uniforms of The Crimean War from Caliver Books, mostly for the info on the flag bearer and officers.
https://i.imgur.com/DOUhXGi.jpg
As the Ottoman Turks play a relatively small part in the battles we have planned I have French on the painting table right now in similar numbers.
https://i.imgur.com/m4wzUFZ.jpg

The last Sunday of July saw Murdock and I resume our ECW campaign with The Battle of Freezing Hill, a prelude to the main event, Lansdowne Hill. After scouting out Lansdowne Hill the previous day, Lord Hopton's Royalist force returned the following morning to occupy it only to discover that William Waller's army had ensconced itself at the crest of it in the meantime. After deploying for battle and seeing the Waller had no intention of leaving Lansdowne Hill, Hopton retired towards Marshfield. Waller sent out a harassing force and Hopton was obliged to present some of his army as a rearguard; this battle is the result.

The Royalist rearguard; Hopton's dragoons in the forefront with Howard's and Vaughan's in the middle; commanded shot in the middle distance with more of Howard's and Vaughan's horse on their flank and more commanded shot in the far distance:
https://i.imgur.com/Vvymyyk.jpg
The Parliamentarian pursuit force made up largely of small divisions of horse from Col. Robert Burghill's regiment of horse, the Gloucestershire Horse and Waller's horse...
https://i.imgur.com/6pYjZRT.jpg
.... with Waller's Dragoons and the Somerset Dragoons sneaking up the flanks in amongst the hedges:
https://i.imgur.com/tGvDgpl.jpg
Col. Thomas Howard's horse await the enemy:
https://i.imgur.com/JYDutii.jpg
Royalist commanded shot from Nicolas Slanning's regiment anchor the right flank:
https://i.imgur.com/gZJjRTX.jpg
Parliamentarian reinforcements show up early (equal to or less than the turn number on 2D6- snake eyes on turn 2!) pushing forward and the Royalist's (Howard's horse) respond with getting the first charge in:
https://i.imgur.com/OaeOzpi.jpg
Surely a Standard sized unit of gallopers with a commander attached and rear support, charging a Small unit of trotters would win, right? Sigh.... the photo below show the defeated Howard's horse as it breaks for the table edge:
https://i.imgur.com/V52coMI.jpg

In the turn following, the Parliamentarian dragoons win their musket duel with Hopton's dragoons...
https://i.imgur.com/UFot8WU.jpg
... and send them on their way:
https://i.imgur.com/AYLja1K.jpg
Eventually, the Royalist reinforcements arrive, in the form of Col. Trevannion's regiment of foot:
https://i.imgur.com/NXxAUTJ.jpg
Not a moment too soon either as the Parliamentarian commander makes good use of his early reinforcements to start hemming the Royalist rearguard in:
https://i.imgur.com/CWHHQtk.jpg
With the arrival of the foot, Bennet's brigade of horse immediately follow, making the battlefield a little less forlorn for the Royalists:
https://i.imgur.com/j8uC6Pj.jpg
In the middle distance, the Royalist horse reinforcements move to fill the hole left by the defeated Howards horse:
https://i.imgur.com/1Wv7hy7.jpg
Carnarvon's horse, with support, look to chase Waller's dragoons from the hedges on their flank but come up short in the charge:
https://i.imgur.com/ba5wdMc.jpg
Thus, they are exposed to a charge in the flank; they are unable to turn to face but their support is:
https://i.imgur.com/phsXyz9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/J1muKkz.jpg

Near the end of the game, this picture shows the Parliamentarian horse largely intact; the hole in the lower right recently vacated by Godolphin's commanded shot, breaking the Royalist foot battalia:
https://i.imgur.com/yzxOw6F.jpg
The final turns see the Royalists try and salvage something from this battle by way of a charge into the inexperienced Parliamentarian horse. Nearly identical to the first charge of Royalist horse: a Standard unit of Gallopers, with flank and rear support charging a Small unit of trotters with only rear support. Sadly, an identical result as well as the snake eyes of the Break Test show:
https://i.imgur.com/AK0IBwH.jpg
With that failed attempt at glory, the Royalist commanders start ordering their troops off the battlefield as 2 out of 3 of their battalia were Broken; one of the last to go is Slanning's foot which performed admirably:
https://i.imgur.com/30gXqyD.jpg
This game featured some wild die rolling from both parties right from turn 2 onwards. Oddly enough very few 3 move orders were rolled for on either side; the crazy die rolling seem to reserve itself for saves and break tests. In the past I have been a rather rash commander, a little reckless with my troops, however this time I was more conservative; sadly, my new approach did not change the Royalist's fortunes. Despite having the advantage of numbers and quality of horse I was unable to rack up a W. This leaves the Royalists 0-5 in our campaign series.

Another installment in my Crimean War project; this time French infantry and a cannon:
https://i.imgur.com/bO4Ea17.jpg
The infantry come in 3 poses, and two types of headgear; Shako:
https://i.imgur.com/ulOJJOu.jpg
And Kepi:
https://i.imgur.com/sXCSobd.jpg
More refined sculpts than the Turks from the same range; better definition of the hands and face:
https://i.imgur.com/hkFy1KH.jpg
I still found them tricky to paint; I may have to invest in a magnifying visor.
https://i.imgur.com/rGTBkFf.jpg
The cannon also came out nicely:
https://i.imgur.com/M2fO1Uu.jpg
White cross belts glistening in the sun ....:shifty:
https://i.imgur.com/Xe9I7nL.jpg

I have some Turkish cavalry ready for primer but they are not really appropriate as they are Napoleonic and the Turks had westernised their army in the intervening period. I may end up getting an Army Commander stand for the French (none available for the Turks) and another cannon.

You have a crimean project? :D
Nice, is that 15 mm?

Thanks mrtn. 18mm actually, figures by Eureka.

Nice work here cod!

They look amazing on the field, love the colour scheme. Nice job!

Great stuff as usual, just now learning a bit about the crimea along with the other major 19th century conflicts.

Thank you IM. After a taking a break from historical stuff to finish my Blackstone Fortress minis (see here) and put some polish on a Warbases Old English Church (see here) I have started back on some figures for my ECW collection. These are froma new company that introduced itself in March of last year with 4 blisters of 4 models each; this is blister #001, The Mortuary Men.
https://i.imgur.com/qT1NL2p.jpg
Great figures, with very characterful faces.
https://i.imgur.com/bT9MZao.jpg
They are on the large size for historical figures, fitting in with the defunct Renegade Miniatures ECW range and even GW's 3rd. edition metals.
https://i.imgur.com/4ZB23Od.jpg
They are described as "Tough, experienced, hand-to-hand fighters - veterans of the wars in the Rhineland and Low Countries perhaps. Or blooded and battle-hardened in the early years of war between King and Parliament. These men are professionals, well-trained and well-equipped."
https://i.imgur.com/x99HNW2.jpg
My painting doesn't really do them justice; I am trying to do a better job on the second batch that I working on right now.
https://i.imgur.com/1v9Mjvy.jpg
My Nikon crapped out on me so I have bought a new camera and I am still trying figure it out so I am not 100% happy with the photos (the macro feature is a bit meh).
https://i.imgur.com/7r5Yt8M.jpg