SYW army completed

 So I have finished the SYW British army to play Maurice with a friend. Below you can see the units I need to paint to have the proyect done.

Three units of cavalry. The first form left to right is the guard.

Three units of artillery.

General and a special character.

The full army.

Magnetised and ready to go.

I've been told that I may need another two or three units of infantry and cavalry for a full game, but first I'll try the game and if I like it, then I order and paint some more in Christmas holidays as I won't have time after Summer holidays.

SYW 10mm British for Maurice

First of all I have to say that I have never been interested in black powder periods. The reason why I have started this is because it is the only way to play versus an opponent. Adding to this it is the fact that it is a small project as we are using 10mm miniatures and putting only two soldiers on each base, so they are a small number of figures to paint and cheap too, as everything didn't cost me more than 40€, bases included.

So my opponent has passed me the ruleset Maurice to play with him, and after giving it a quick read I decided that I like the rules. My opponent and friend designed for me and army consisting in eight infantry units plus one extra if I am the attacker, three units of cavalry which I am painting at the moment, one unit of artillery consisting in three cannons with crew, and finally a general and one character.

Below you can see all the infantry (nine units in total) I am going to need already painted, based, flocked and varnished, so I hope to have our first game on August, and I will publish the report in my blog.

I made the flags with a bit of paper that I glued with white glue and then painted.

 

I thought that so few miniatures were going to look ridiculous but I am quite happy how they have turned out now that I can see them in formation on the table.

Dark Alliance Trolls Set 3.

They come four in a box but I have just painted two as I got distracted with another project. Anyway, I think they are quite good for being soft plastic toys, and quite tall too!

Here they are. I instantly regret not ordering the armoured ones.

A shot comparing it to a 1/72 Zvezda Viking.

And another one against a "shieldwall of Rohirrin."

And one last comparing it to a GW 28mm Troll so you can see how bit they are. As in the movies I guess.

The battle of the High Vale Plains

After resting and bringing reinforcements, Einar is ready to come out and fight the Orcs of Naz-Goth again. So when news arrived of a new Orc army heading his capital, he rushed to face them at the right place. He wanted them in the plains of High Vale so he could use his new cavalry, and as the Orcs were happy with that, the battle was joined.

I deployed Einar's army first with him and his unit of Huscarls in the centre, and archers and cavalry on both flanks. Then I rolled to see which kind of deployment the Orcs were going to do. They got "Hammer and Anvil - One wing is oversize while the other is weak. Advance the center and one oversized wing to a crush the enemy force between the two. The other wing is lightly held and used to protect the center from being encircled." So on the Orc's right flank (deployed at the top) they had a unit of Black Moon Orcs Rep 5 AC 4 with the general in it plus all their cavalry except one unit of archers held in reserve. Then they have a mass of Orcs Rep 4, AC 3 and finally on their left flank a big unit of Goblins from Zog-Rot who joined the Orcs for the spoils.  

Turn 1. Einar 4 - Orcs 5. Only the right wing of Orcs activated and advanced. Then, Einar's army moved forward in one block, except a cavalry unit on the left who charged down from the hill, hitting into a unit of Orc's cavalry.

Einar's knights clashing against Orc riders.

Turn 2. Einar 3 - Orcs 6. The Orcs froze and Einar took the initiative. The cavalry on the left side charged to Goblin archers and although they shoot at them, they didn't hit any and were massacred in the ensuing melee.

On the right wing the cavalry was still engaged but the archer on the hill shot the other unit and killed one rider. Then the Fyrd charged the Orcs but they were bounced by the Orc general and his unit of Black Moon Orcs.

 Turn 3. Einar 6 - Orcs 2. The Orcs finally reacted and the Black ones exterminated one Fyrd unit.

But in the centre things weren't so good with one unit of Orcs just leaving the fight...

...and then the enemy's cavalry on the left finishing all the Goblin archers.

Turn 4. Einar 2 - Orcs 2. Confusion! Doubles in activation means you roll again the play next turn with your army moving as per NPC tables.

Turn 5. Einar 2 - Orcs 1. Einar's army moved first but according to the NPC charts. Luckily, they all moved correctly and did the right thing. The Fyrd on their right flanked the Orcs and the cavalry charged their rear and thus, all the Orcs in the centre were eliminated.

The only survivors were half of the Black Moon Orcs with his general and a few riders. They fled together with the other cavalry unit that was held in reserve and never arrived. It was a total victory to Einar and now he would be marching directly into Orc territory!

Dark Alliance Half-Orcs Set 2.

As you can see, very dynamic poses and very accurate to the film as well. I chose to paint them as fast as I could, so I sprayed black coat and then drybrushed the whole miniature. Then I painted the flesh and the white hands and voilá, done.

Nuts! Banging away.

Yesterday we played the 16th scenario from the Nuts! supplement from Two Hour Wargames The Big Hurt which takes place in the Hürtgen Forest, on November 6th, 1944, Kommerscheidt, Germany.

The Americans with one full infantry squad and three Shermans M4 must prevent German forces with two infantry squads, three Pz IV J and one Panther putting one tank in the yellow dot you can see in the picture below, where the Americans deploy, before turn 10. Both sides can have reinforcements.

Americans start on bottom left corner and Germans on top right corner. The two yellowy counters are German PEFs representing the two infantry squads.

One of the Shermans started in sight of the panzer IV on the road. Germans won activation, fired, hit and destroyed the Sherman (Shermans and their crews were worse than Germans'). Then, on the Americans activation the M10 (proxying as a Sherman 76mm) got hull down behind the wedge, but again the Germans won the In Sight and the same Panzer fired, hit the turret and penetrated it, disabling the tank and forcing the crew to bail out. I should have been more cautious with those Shermans.

My last Sherman was in hull down behind the crest of the hill and partially hidden behind the forest next to the road,  but as soon as another Pz IV got sight of if from the other hill, again he reacted first, fired, hit and destroyed my last tank! Now I only had infantry with one bazooka to stop those panzers.

I sent half of my squad with the NCO jr. and bazooka to the forest and houses in the centre, and the other half with the NCO and the BAR to the forest next to the road. But half of a squad was no match for a full squad of German veterans and most of them fell down in the firefight. The pinned down survivors were then charged and finished in hand-to-hand combat. Ouch!

On the forest on the right things were better as my NCO had Steely Eyes and Rep 5 and could make his section to react first and finish most of the second German squad with the BAR and the SMG. Only two soldiers could escape from the carnage. But then the panzer shot HE and killed half of them so I fell back with the last survivors.

So now I had only half crew of one Sherman ducking back behind their tank and surrounded by enemy infantry and tanks, and my NCO with two grunts taking cover behind the other burning Sherman. My only chance was to hold, hiding and waiting for the cavalry.

More panzers closing down.

Turn 10 and my section was completely surrounded by the Germans who have already taken the objective. I did not receive any reinforcements in the end to there was nothing I could do. German victory.

Dark Alliance Steppes Warriors Set 1

Another great 1/72 plastic set from Dark Alliance miniatures. Actually, the best one so far. The miniatures come with zero flash and are really well sculpted and sharply casted. The set comes with twelve riders with two poses of each, plus some extra bits to add like pouches, quivers and swords. The lances of the knights are very good as well.

They make excellent Rohirrim and although I didn't gave justice with my painting, I think you can appreciate how good they are in the pictures below.

 

Close shots.

 

Wargs versus Rohirrim