The next painting project has started

I have opted for my next painting project to go with a Fantasy theme. I have a good few Orks and Goblins already painted, these were done many years ago to oppose my son's Wood Elves when he used to play Warhammer. Since then they have been sitting in a box and now is the time to get them on to the tabletop with an opposing army, or two.

The first fantasy unit based.

I have decided to rebase them on 3x3 inch MDF bases I have cut. This size base will suit most units and I can get between 3 to 4 of these large 28mm figures on a base.

After many years stored away the Orks and Goblins see the light of day.

A close up view of the Orks.

Grrrrrr

I also have an Age of Sigmar starter box from a few years ago to add into the mix. These will require painting. There are not many of them and I am starting to see what other units I may need to buy to increase the number of units to oppose the Orks. I quite like to look of the Mantic figures as they have the more traditional looking elves and dwarves.

Part of the Age of Sigmar starter set and how they may be based.

This should keep me occupied for the next few months.

The medieval painting plans wrap up

I finished painting a couple of cavalry bases for my medieval forces. These are the last two bases of the plan to increase all unit sizes to two bases. Looking in the remnants of my second hand figure purchases I have enough for one base of crossbows, half a unit, very frustrating. So, I hopped on to the Caliver Books website to purchase a few extra Minifig crossbow men to make a second base for a complete unit.

The last two bases are completed.

The remnants of the medievals - mainly Minifigs.

On the wargaming table a few English Civil War games are happening as I play around with trying to finalise the latest version of the rules. One of the games was the Battle of Winceby, October 1643, which was mainly a cavalry action. I used the scenario from "With Pike and Musket" by C.F. Wesencraft as a guide.

Opening moves of the Battle of Winceby

Both sides are soon engaged.

A Royalist victory.

I am hoping to return to my WW1 Palestine campaign next weekend.

Finishing medieval units and thinking about the next project

The last couple of bases of medieval bowmen leave the painting table. This leaves two bases of mounted men at arms to complete for the planned additions to my medieval armies to be complete. 

Two bases of medieval bowmen

A  ground level view of the completed units

The one issue with the additional bases is they no longer will fit comfortably into the draw where they are stored. A bit of reorganising of the gaming room will soon be required.

Storage draw is full of medieval

I now need to decide what is next for the painting table. My options are:

Fantasy - I have an Orc and Goblin army painted from a decade ago (pre-blog time) with no opposition. I am tempted to use them with the Dragon Rampant rules (which I also have) and paint up a small retinue from the Games Workshop Age of Sigmar range to face them.

Seven Years War - I have some more plastic Spencer Smith SYW figures hidden away. I could add to my French-Indian War forces or just expand for some smaller generic SYW games.

Operation Sea-lion - This would be a challenge project and would be run eventually as a campaign. The challenge would be to do in on less than $100 using plastic 20mm figures and all vehicles scratch built using wooden dowel and MDF sheet (similar to what I did for my WW1 Palestine campaign - example here).

Finally I just want to say a big thank you to all who provided comments, ideas, and emails with rules on some ECW rules options from my previous blog post. Much appreciated and a lot to consider. I am still testing out different activation options on the tabletop to see what sits best with my simple wargaming tastes.

Back to using a grid

When I started this blog I was playing games using grids, square grids, for most of my wargaming. However, in the last few years I am increasingly moving towards free movement and was one of the reasons I added "but not always" to the blog's title. Anyway, this weekend I returned to gaming using a grid with an English Civil War (ECW) game to help address the balance.

A grid-based ECW game set up.

Back in October 2021 I tried to increase the friction in my ECW games by adding an activation mechanism. I updated the rules with some of the changes, but neglected to update the activation approach as I was (and still am) in two minds.

The activation check introduced was to roll 2D6 and if the score is greater than the unit’s accumulated hits, the unit completed the action. Otherwise, it did not carry out the order, and in the case of a melee action a unit had to retire half a move. This friction activation replaced the previous card activation where the order in which a player’s units perform their actions was determined by taking cards in a deck. The deck has the following ten cards which are shuffled together in one card deck.

5 Red cards: 

1. Horse Activation
2. Foot Activation
3. Dragoon Activation
4. Artillery Activation
5. Commander Activation

And 5 Blue cards: 

1. Horse Activation
2. Foot Activation
3. Dragoon Activation
4. Artillery Activation
5. Commander Activation

Each time a players colour card is revealed (blue or red) that army's player activates the unit type on the card. Once complete, take the next card from the top of the pack and repeat until all cards have been drawn, then shuffle the card deck and start the next turn.

The game is underway.

Being in two minds about the activations as I like activating the army by unit type (Horse, Foot, etc.) and the friction element (dicing against the hits). I decided to try and combine the two with a few modifications which included doing away with the use of cards to using dice instead, and friction now uses one dice with the score doubled rather than the 2D6. 

The current draft "D3 ECW" can be found at the top of the blog page (or click here).

Shoot range of 2 for muskets.

After a couple of games I was asking myself - is it really necessary two have the two layers of activation? The rules worked ok, but my natural inclination is to keep things simple so I think I should pick one or the other. At the moment I am leaning towards the unit type activation because is does reflect the difficulty commanders had trying to coordinate the various arms of an ECW army, and I like the ability to choose the type which reduces the randomness of the original card approach and players have to prioritise which actions they what fought first.

Anyway, the ECW gaming is continuing this weekend, and probably during next week, to see where I land with the activations and also a change to the artillery shooting mechanism.

Artillery in action

Push of pikes

Two tomes arrive and two medieval units painted

Steady progress with the medieval units with another two leaving the painting table. They are all old secondhand Minifigs which I have repainted with colours took my fancy.

Latest units to leave the painting table.

Two tomes of arrived in the post today, a total of 4 kilograms of wargaming goodness. The compendium was discounted and I could not resist buying it when I purchased Wargaming Campaigns.

Recent arrivals to join the wargaming library

Wargaming Campaign Contents

I doubt I will read the books from cover to cover, but will select and read the individual chapters overtime. Two chapters of immediate interest from Wargaming Campaigns are:

• With or without umpires - or opponents
• War at sea

WW1 Palestine Campaign - Turn 3 - Game 2

This is the second game of campaign turn 3. It follows on from the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's (EEF) first campaign setback where they failed to achieve their objectives. This game is based on One-Hour Wargames scenario #21 "Twin Objective" which has the EEF in February 1917 trying to breach Turkish defences somewhere between Gaza and Beersheba line. 

The Plans...

Turkish plans are to simply defend and hold the hilltop and town. They have dug some trenches next to the town and plan to use their available aircraft sorties to disrupt attacks on the hill.

The EEF plan is to start with a bombardment on the hilltop and attack this with an infantry unit and supporting machine gun. All other units are to assault the town along with any available aircraft sorties. Both the town and hill objectives need to be captured for victory within 15 turns for a successful breakthrough.

Egyptian Expeditionary Force planned advances on the town and hill objectives.

The Battle...

The opening bombardment by the EEF turned out to be limited due to supply issues and only the hill was bombarded. This misfortune was soon compounded by a Turkish aircraft sortie as their infantry began their advance towards their objectives.

An early bombardment of the hilltop position.

A Turkish aircraft disrupts the advancing EEF infantry.

The attack on the town began with a bold cavalry charge on the trenches. While the cavalry were being repulsed the infantry took up their positions to begin their assault. They were supported by aerial attacks and while the Turks put up a good defence the town eventually fell to the EEF (on turn 12).

The assault on the town begins with a cavalry charge.

Infantry move into position and the cavalry retire after being repulsed.

An aircraft supports the attack.

The town is taken by EEF forces.

The attack on the hilltop did not progress well. Multiple Turkish aircraft sorties caused the attack to stall. Support did eventually come from the depleted cavalry who dismounted to join the attack. Other units from those assaulting the town were also redirected, but arrived too late to make a difference and the Turkish defenders held on for their second victory.

Dismounted cavalry join the attack on the hilltop.

Additional EEF infantry join the attack but time runs out to take the hill.

After this Turkish victory campaign turn 3 will now progress to a third game. 

WW1 Palestine Campaign Turn 3 Game 2 Setup

In game 1 of the campaign's third turn the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) failed to achieve the objective in their first battle against a fortified defence. Until the EEF win a battle they cannot progress to the next step of the campaign. The second game in this current step selected is One-Hour Wargames scenario #21 - Twin Objective. (Details of the campaign rules can be found here.)

Campaign Map - Having failed to win the first battle in step 3, the EEF will have to fight a second battle.

The EEF choose to spend another month preparing for this battle which will allow them to randomly select a second event. This will progress the campaign calendar to February 1917. The Turks already benefit from having one unit in trenches for all battles at this step of the campaign due to the extensive defences they establish between Gaza and Beersheba.

Tabletop map - showing the Turkish defences. The hilltop is rocky and is considered cover for this game.

The Turkish order of battle:

• 2 x Infantry units
• 1 x Artillery unit
• 1 x Mounted Infantry unit

The Turks will benefit from one unit being in trenches and also an aircraft from the event table. 

Turkish Forces

The EEF order of battle:

• 4 x Infantry units
• 1 x Infantry units with supporting machine gun
• 1 x Cavalry unit

The two events benefiting the EEF are a pre-battle bombardment and also an aircraft.

EEF forces (they are missing one infantry unit in this photo).

The tabletop was setup with the two EEF objectives the have to hold, the town and hilltop.

Tabletop setup

EEF forces deployed.

Turkish mounted infantry hold the hilltop one of the EEF objectives. Units on the hilltop are able to claim cover

Turkish forces in and around the town, the EEF second objective.

All is ready to play the game.