I Still Don't Know What These Are Called

The 1:1 pike:musket ratio is just about accurate for some units early in the early Civil War.

 

I have seen this assembly of troops referred to by many names: regiment, battalia, brigade, tercio even. The only thing I'm certain of is that "regiment" is more of an administrative term and that in battle, regiments were split up/combined to make formations of approximately equal size. The Seventeenth Century was often frustratingly vague in its use of technical language.

Oliver's Army

 

"And how much did your father spend on those models?"

The Battle of the Blood Orange

 

 

Prize Haul: Wooden Spoon and "Best Blood Orange" trophy. I'm sure you will agree that my interpretation perfectly matches the brief.

Just in time for Christmas, here's a heartwarming account of Wargaming Seasonal Cheer from, erm, October. I had the fortune to visit distant Nottingham to take part in Andy2D6's 2nd Battle of the Blood Orange 1-day tournament.

Something New: Battlefleet Gothic

Carrion Squadron, ready to harry the lapdogs of the false emperor

 One of the many Games Workshop Specialist Games I dallied with in my youth was Battlefleet Gothic, the game of heavily armed gothic space cathedrals in the grimdark future. I recently got in touch with someone online who re-ignited my interest in the game and agreed to make a pilgrimage to Warhammer World in Nottingham to get some action in. Watch this space...

Waltzing Matilda (2)

 

It's been a while, certainly. Rather than dwell on that though, I have a new model for you: the Airfix Matilda 2 kit from the 70s in its original packaging. A wonderful Christmas present, thank you, family.

I was a little tempted to leave it pristine in its packaging, but the entire purpose of a toy is to be played with.

Ready for the Great CoK-Up

It was a close-run thing, but I find myself packed and ready for Mantic's very own Clash of Kings tournament with a whole day to spare. Hopefully my ranking can match my punctuality and achieve the dizzying heights of 90th of out 100!

The army in all its dubiously-lit glory. I've gone for a smaller number of big units this time.

What I've let myself in for

A whole 5 models complete! 4 of them weren't painted before lockdown!

 

I'm sure like many of you, my initial optimism about the effect of lockdown on my plastic pile has faded. Not only does painting time still seem hard to make, but self-medicating my mental health by buying models has made things even worse. So, some months before the publication of this update, I found myself needing to paint a dozen knights and two cannon in time for the Clash of Kings in October.

Steiner Recon Action

 

The assembled forces: 24th Lyran Guards (left) and assorted Word of Blake militia (right)

Months after the last instalment and months after I actually played the battle, I bring you the next episode in my Tharkad Battletech campaign. As the name suggests, for a "recon" mission I chose to deploy forces more suited to a frontal assault.

Running the Gauntlet

 

Today we return to my Tharkad campaign, where my first unit (a mercenary company, the "Acing Blazes") has been rendered combat ineffective and we've switched focus to "Zebra" Company of the 24th Lyran Guards (plus stragglers from the Blazes, such as Gabriel Zabinski and their Phoenix Hawk). The Word of Blake has launched a counter-insurgency campaign against loyalist forces on Tharkad around the Tatyana Islands with the elite 40th Shadow Division and mercenary backup. Fortunately for the resistance, the counter-insurgency forces have already been infiltrated and the planned kettling has turned into a confused brawl, with our particular merry band looking to slip the net while giving the "Wobblies" a bloody nose.

Group shot of the deployed force. L-R: Phoenix Hawk, Commando, Griffin, Thunderbolt and "Super-Sub" Phoenix Hawk from the Lyran Royal Gaurds.

The Clan Invasion

 

You remember the '60s, right? (the 3060s...) When a wave of Skiffle bands swept over the Inner Sphere with their mop-top hairdos and Burrock and roll music: The Rolling Stone Lions, the Jyde Falcyns, The Totem Animals, the list goes on. What I'm trying to say is that I've finally painted some more Clan 'mechs and wanted to make an extremely strained pun. I've also got a new SAD lamp for Christmas and while no mental health benefits have yet been observed it does improve my lighting setup a lot.

Mist Lynx (left) and Timberwolf (right). Or Koshi and Madcat if you swing that way.

Do-or-Die

Mercenaries cautiously pick their way through the woods before the shoot-out begins.

So, two defeats on the trot, down one commanding officer and with nothing left in the kitty to pay for repair bills, the Mercenaries are on their last legs and know another heavy defeat would render them completely combat ineffective. Rather than retreat to lick their wounds though, they decide to stake it all on one last roll of the dice, hurling their full strength at the local Word of Blake garrison (Camp Satanic Mills) despite failing to obtain any useful intel in the last game.

The Tharkhad Campaign Hots Up

 

(The joke is that Tharkhad is actually a cold, icy planet)

Well, after a poor first showing, our Mercenary outfit (the Acein' Blazes for those curious) commences guerilla activities with a recon-in-force against the Word-of-Blake (not that one) occupation around a river delta. According to the rolls made on the  random scenario table, the WoB would be materially inferior but much better skilled, with the local commander something of a dead-eye shot in their long-range sniping mech (Jaegermech for those with Technical Readout 3025 handy).

A lovely day for a walk in the woods

BattleTech Battle Report

Generic Mercenary Force gets ready to intercept half of today's contractual opposition.

Something a little unusual today, a solo BattleTech battle report: just the thing for total lockdown. Playing with myself is so much easier to organise! I even managed to fit in a second game within a week which otherwise NEVER happens with other humans.

Catching Up with the Painting

As I write this paragraph, five more Italian infantry (for the surprise bonus extra squad in Chain of Command) are out in the garden being spray-varnished. Having already added the Bushwhacker and Churchill tank (see below dear reader), I realised that I really needed to hurry up and get this post out of the door before my painting progress made it longer than an undergraduate dissertation.

The last two plastic 'Mechs from my Lance Pack (of four)

Lockdown Labours

"Oh yes," I thought, "spending all my free time indoors I'll get plenty of painting and blogging done!" Har har har. Not only have I been dabbling in the videoed-games, the family clear-out of the lego (it's not like there's much else to do round here...) has occupied rather a lot of "model time". 

About half the lego in our mysterious boxes is now clogging up the dining room table. We didn't originally own the pirate ship, it came in bits in a box of lego some acquaintances were giving away.

WMMS 2020

Hard to imagine it now, but only a few months ago you could go out and mingle with hundreds of people and wipe your hands over all manner of hard surfaces and the police wouldn't intervene. I don't normally go to shows very often, but my sister has recently fallen in with a delightful young man whose father happens to regularly run showgames so some sort of visit was only polite. I therefore present the Hrothgar's Shed guide to Alumwell Wargames' West Midlands Military Show.

How not to be seen

Private N. E. Seagoon of the 4th Armoured Thunderboxes has presented us with a poser: we do not know which tree he is behind, but we can soon find out.

Yes, it was the middle one.

It's the Taking Part that Counts

Once again, it's almost a month since the tournament and I've only just finished the write-up. In January I went to Stockport again for Northern King's Kings of War tournament, four games and a very substantial lunch. Once again I set off without my phone charger, so sadly pictures are only available for the first two games.

Buon Natale!

5 minutes research online informs me that this is the Italian version of "Merry Christmas" and thus a fitting opener for the following battle report. Apologies for the appalling photo quality.

Billy surveys his Jump-off Points (in a triangle on the left) and plans how best to approach mine (spread along the opposite table edge). 

Achtung Bagpiper!

20 mm Bagpiper (Britannia miniatures, sadly lacking kilt) with some fine brushwork on the tartan.

I wanted to get a figure, rather than a counter, to indicate force morale on the Chain-of-Command tracker (The Afrika Korps already have some surrendering chaps for this purpose) so I have a bagpiper. It only really works for Scottish units, but as the 51st Highland were at El-Alamein and the 15th Scots were in Normandy, that's the two theatres I have campaign packs for covered.