Carronade 13

It was the Falkirk  Carronade show yesterday. Fine venue for a big show feel. What I really like is the large amount of games being played. Plenty of trade, but it feels more like a wargames show than a trade fair that some other shows have become. It looked busy as well.

My purchases were fairly modest. Some Perry Desert Rats that I will use for my Malaya project. Plus some Warlord Japanese guns for the same project. The latest Black Powder supplement 'Albion Triumphant' and the Soviet Bolt Action supplement. Plus a very nice King John, in case I get around to doing the forgotten invasion. Plus bases and some more foam inserts, oh and the complusory visit to Last Valley of course. Club outing to Triples next weekend so much more time to peruse the stalls.

Our own game was Muret 1213, that came together very well after some last minute revisions on the Friday night. The refight went as per the historical battle. Even King Peter nearly got killed, or would have, had I thrown 10+ rather than a 9.

More Muret 1213 photies at the GDWS web site.

Running a display game means time is limited for looking at the rest of the show, but here's a selection of what caught my eye.

 

Durham's big 54mm Maurice game.

 

Eyecatching, but can't remember what it is!

 

 

Charge of the Light Brigade participation game

 

Simon and the Dumfries club with VBCW

 

Nachod 1866. Very nice scenery and even though the 10mm figures look a bit lost, you get a real feel for the battle.

 

 

Very nice WW1 skirmish

 

Chalons, big battlefield, lots of figures as you expect from Phoenix

 

 

 

On the Antonine Wall. Mostly Prince August molds that took me back!

Glasgow Green dry run

We did a cut down version of our Wappinshaw display game, Glasgow Green 1938, at the club on Sunday. Waves of Government forces attacking the frame of what is shaping up to be a very good model of The People's Palace.

The Communist units holding the sandbag emplacements were wiped out, but the workers militia in the building just about hung on. A few tweaks to the Bolt Action rules plus some new event cards, and we should have a very good game.

Blood Cries Afar

My background reading for our display game at Carronade next week took me to Sean McGlynn's book, 'Blood Cries Afar'. This covers the French invasion of England in 1216.

Now, other than a few raids and aborted efforts, I had no idea that there was such a French invasion in 1216, or that it very nearly succeeded. I suspect I am not alone, hence the sub-title 'The Forgotten Invasion of England 1216'.



King John was on the throne and after losing Normandy and other French territory, the Angevin Empire was very much on the defensive. Capetian France ruled by Philip Augustus was on a roll, particularly after the Battle of Bouvines in 2014. The English barons were yet again in revolt against John, despite Magna Carta in 2015. They controlled London and invited Philip's son Louis, who had a tenuous claim to the crown, over as King. They controlled London, so facilitating  the invasion.

John pursued a battle avoiding strategy holding key royal castles, but was gradually being forced out of southern England, with the exception of the key castle at Dover, that held out. Then John dies of an illness and bizarrely that was the turnaround for the Angevin fortunes. His son Henry was only a child, but the Regent rallied and took advantage of splits between the rebel barons and the French. The royalists won the Battle of Lincoln in 1217 and a naval battle off Sandwich that dispersed a relief fleet. Louis sued for peace and left for France.

The book is a good narrative history of the campaigns that led up to the invasion and the campaigns in England. The military strategy of the period is also covered in depth. Well worth a read and a campaign I will certainly return to.

It also helped my understanding of the context for our display game, Muret 1213. The production line of knights continues. Not as many as I had hoped to do, work keeps getting in the way, but probably enough after a few late nights this week. These are the latest additions.

Knights and more knights

When we started the Muret 1213 project there was a naive assumption that we had most of the figures required. Of course when we came to look at army lists we realised how many knights would be required. After further research it also became apparent that most of club members collections were later Hundred Year's War knights with all too much plate armour for Muret.

So, not for the first time we are in mad painting mode. Carronade is only two weeks away and I have been away on business for a week.

Thankfully Andy McGeary's  skilled brushwork has helped with this unit of Templars. They are Old Glory figures.

This is my more modest contribution from the Gripping Beast range. A particular irritation was the prelate. In a rush I gave him a sword, but it didn't look right, even for a medieval bishop. My nighttime reading is on the period when the author reminded me that fighting prelates used maces so they didn't spill blood. Apparently bashing your enemies head in with a mace was fine!

More on the painting baton. Some late nights ahead!

Grande Armee - Talavera

Got a game of Grande Armee in over Easter. We refought Talavera, very doable in this scale as are all the big battles of the Naploeonic wars.

I took the British and Spanish. The French came at my British left flank and ignored the Spanish. I extended my flank to meet them, but had strong units on the ridge. This is a battlefield I have visited so I could picture the terrain. My recollection was that it was much more rugged than the scenario, but we got to the same point of decision as in the actual battle.

Somewhat disconcertingly my veteran British line collapsed and I was struggling to plug the gaps with cavalry while they rallied. In fairness to the scenario my dice throwing was abysmal. None the less I think it is important that the effectiveness of British volleys is reflected better in the strength points in the scenario. There are few variable factors in the rules to keep it simple, so the British advantage needs to be reflected in strength points.

This picture shows the point of near disaster.

The rally rules are a particular feature of Grande Armee and certainly saved my bacon. The cavalry held up the French and my line brigades rallied and held the line.

Despite some faults with the scenario, I think the rules are still good for big battles in 15mm.
 

Muret 1213 Update

We tested a cut down version of the scenario for our Carronade display game, Muret 1213, at the club on Sunday 8 April. The basic idea worked fine using Hail Caesar rules. Unlike Black Powder there are no rallying rules in Hail Caesar so we will have to introduce them for this battle, otherwise the French Crusaders will be too weak by the time they get around to the Toulouse forces.

As usual there will be some last minute painting. We have plenty of foot figures but not enough feudal knights. Masses of Hundred Years War figures but they have too much plate armour. Fortunately, the Spanish and Southern French hadn't moved on so much, so our Normans and El Cid figures can be deployed there.

Crusaders crash into the Spanish forces

The besieging forces

Two fingers from the Castle of Muret!

Sources in English for this battle are limited. Oman's classic Art of War in the Middle Ages covers it. Happily there is a Spanish Osprey look alike on the battle and campaigns. In Spanish but the pictures and battle plan are excellent.

Panzerschlacht - Hungarian Plains 1944

My Easter reading has been Perry Moore's book 'Panzerschlacht: Armoured operations on the Hungarian Plains, September- November 1944.'

The text covers, in some detail, the battles on the Hungarian Plain in the autumn of 1944. In particular the battles at Torda and Debrecen. I have driven around this area and can confirm that this is prime tank country, broken only by the many rivers that became a feature of the defensive positions.

Hungary became a battlefield in late 1944, when the Romanian border was breached by the Russians and the Romanians switched sides. Heavily outnumbered Hungarian and German units fought a series of strategically defensive operations, with some local counter attacks. They often held up large Russian and Romanian units, but in the end numbers prevailed.

This is a big book physically, almost coffee table size. The level of detail is a remarkable testimony to the research that must have gone into this book. Ideal for wargamers, as it describes German battle groups down to the numbers of men and tanks for a huge number of actions. It is not so strong on the Russian and Romanian units.

The level of detail makes the narrative hard going in places, but it's supported by good maps and plenty of them. Again, something you don't often get with this type of publication. Helion's high standards show throughout this book. However, the book is worth the price for the photographs alone. Hundreds of them that make full use of the books size. Plus orbats and some nice colour plates of the main AFV's.

If you are planning on gaming this section of the Eastern Front - this is a must have book.

Dacians

One of the very few Balkan conflicts I haven't done before is Trajan's invasion of Dacia.

I have been collecting Roman units for the past six months or so. Not quite a full Hail Caesar army yet but getting close. I have a reasonable collection of generic Celtic infantry that will muster at the least the back ranks of the Dacian foot units. There were several Celtic tribes in the area so they can also be fielded in their own right.

To supplement this I have used the Warlord Dacian plastics. Tremendous animation in these figures, probably too much to fit together well, but these will provide the front rank for my units. Not really enough falxmen so I will need to supplement these with metals.

Some command stands of course. Although with Hail Caesar rules you can't rely on your units to take any notice of them!

What I really like about the Dacians is the balance the Sarmatians give the army. Shock cavalry and horse archers. These Warlord metals are very nice indeed. My horse archer collection will probably suffice, but can I resist a unit of female warriors? Probably not.

If these fine figures are not enough for the project, Warlord have produced a supplement, 'Rome's Dacian Wars', written by Craig Woodfield. This is very good. Plenty of eye candy to go with the potted history, scenarios and army lists. In addition some rule additions including sieges and a skirmish game. I am also painting up some Foundry casualty figues for those very nice Warbase casualty counters.