Time for a game

Today I finally put the finished terrain boards to use, and had a solo game. I was keen to test out some rather drastic changes I'd made to my own homebrew rules, which overall I hope will make games run quickly and be more intuitive to new or casual players, also being better suited for solo play.

I also wanted to get some good photos from the game. I'd been waiting not just until the terrain boards were finished, but also until I'd painted a few more backdrops (and worked out a way to prop them up when playing solo, with no assistant to hold them up for the camera!), and upgraded my lighting a little bit.

I wanted this game to be a simple pitched battle, but when I set the armies up it already seemed to tell a story. Here's the fictional scenario - during the French invasion of the Franche-Comté (the County of Burgundy) in 1477, a small French force has intercepted an approaching host of Burgundians and Germans led by Guillaume de Vaudrey and are barring their way across a ford. The French are led by Philippe de Hochberg and Jean de Damas, two nobles who had until recently been in Burgundian service, but had quickly thrown in their lot with Louis XI after the death of Charles the Bold. They now are assisting the king in his occupation of the Burgundian territories - with their futures uncertain, they are keen to be on what they suspect will be the winning side!

Here's a photo of the setup. Most of the French infantry are positioned by the ford, with Philippe de Hochberg with his cavalry in reserve to the right. There are also some infantry and cavalry strung out along their left flank. The Burgundians and Germans have most of their strength focused in the centre, with some small forces of cavalry on each flank. Their goal is simple - push forward with their pikemen and break the French centre, but not until they have seen off the threats to their flanks!

I will summarise briefly how it played out.

1. The Burgundian light cavalry on the right flank advanced and made contact with the French mounted men-at-arms opposite, who soundly beat them and drove them from the field. The French infantry nearby advanced in support of the cavalry, threatening the Burgundian flank.
2. The French archers in the centre loosed their 'arrowstorm', but it didn't have much of an impact. The pikemen and halberdiers in the Burgundian centre advanced towards them.
3. Back on the Burgundian right flank a small unit of German infantry held the high ground, and they nervously awaited the French attack. The victorious French cavalry attempted to charge up the hill, but failed to break the Germans and retreated badly disordered.
4. On the Burgundian left their own heavy cavalry surged forward, so Philippe de Hochberg led his  cavalry reserve over the ford to meet them. The French won the melee again, and chased the Burgundians away.
5. With enemy cavalry now threatening both his flanks (though those on the right weren't in best shape), Guillaume de Vaudrey knew it now came down to one thing - could his mercenary infantry decisively break the French centre guarding the ford? He marched quickly across the field, hoping to push them aside in one swift manoeuvre before the cavalry encircled him... but it was not to be. The French managed to hold their ground, and the disordered attack broke apart. Seeing the attack fail, the few Burgundians and Germans still in reserve quickly routed.

So a French victory!

Here's some of the best pictures I was able to take. Overall I'm very pleased with the photography and lighting setup. The backdrops work just as I hoped they would.

The French guard the ford.

More French infantry under Jean de Damas.

Guillame de Vaudrey approaches.

The French centre - archers and heavy infantry.

Burgundian horsemen on the right flank.

A fierce cavalry melee sees the Burgundians chased off.

German mercenaries prepare to defend against the French men-at-arms.

The German pikemen prepare to attack.

As Burgundian cavalry approach the French lines, Philippe de Hocheberg counter-attacks.

So this has been a successful little test run. The rules worked well.

It's tricky to hit the 'sweet spot' in terms of the size of table, number of figures on it and the sort of game it gives. It seems cavalry can dominate the flow of the game quite a bit - some cavalry clashes on the flanks can be resolved very quickly and perhaps then entirely dictate the rest of the battle. This can be remedied by simply having more infantry units in play, enough to have a second line of reserves in places. I didn't use all the units I had available, and having a second line of heavy infantry would have kept the outcome uncertain for much longer. So going forward I need to produce more and more infantry - archers, pikemen, dismounted men-at-arms, everything. That's what I've got planned already, and this game has sort of confirmed I'm on the right track!

Building terrain boards - Part Five

The terrain board project is finished for now, though I will be returning to it in the future.

I feel there isn't really a satisfactory way of photographing each individual board, so here's a shot of just one potential table set-up.

I have made some 'half-boards', 60cm by 30cm, and this allows me to have a table five foot wide. So I can now have setups up to 10x5ft, plenty big enough. One of the newer 60x60 boards has a nice big hill.

Many of the boards have trees, hedges and other things built in, but I also have a vast collection of separate hedges and trees to add to the setup, as seen in these images. Clumps of lichen are great for hiding the edges of scatter terrain bases, and the joins between boards when needed.

In total there are many more boards than seen here. I've made some little MDF squares with the board layouts, so I can plan before I set up a table. Bringing all the boards off the shelves and trying out different combos with no plan would be a total nightmare - this way I can spend some time planning what setup I want, before I go to the garage and set it up. Here's a pic showing just a few of the combinations possible.

Oh, and as you can see I've painted a backdrop. I actually have several, the plan being for all in-game shots I take going forward I will be able to shield the clutter of the garage with these canvases.

I will be making more boards in the future - some day I'll want more hills, and a full-size river with a bridge. I have got one more I plan to do this year - a village board, which is the last missing piece for allowing the most combinations for how all the roadways can fit together. I've got everything tidied up for now, so perhaps I'll do the village this summer.

French archer reinforcements

Here's a new unit of French archers. Like with the older ones, I've replaced the bow hands from the Perry Wars of the Roses set with those from their Agincourt range, as the bows from the latter have much better-looking dimensions.

Most of the figures are indeed Perry plastics, though there's also one from Crusader and three particularly well-armoured ones from Eureka Miniatures - these have also been given the new plastic bows where possible. This has helped the different ranges mix in together too (I also gave one of the Eureka sculpts a new Perry head for the same reason).

And here's some photos of them working alongside some bases from the earlier units.

More handguns and crossbows!

Here's two more units of missile troops, a mixture of handgunners and crossbowmen.

These are mostly figures painted years ago, rebased for the second time, with some new additions from this year's Steel Fist Miniatures releases. I've been working on these at the same time as the previously posted Burgundian handgunners. I chose my favourites of the older miniatures, smartened them up a bit (I now paint belt buckles, which I didn't use to do!) and mixed them with the new ones. With the previous handgunners I now have three small 10-man skirmisher units for the Burgundian side, finally based and arranged in poses I'm happy with.

The first unit is supposed to represent German and/or Swiss mercenaries, so I've chosen those figures with Germanic kettle helmets and Swiss turbans, with all armour being mail shirts and breastplates, and several with basilard daggers. Funnily enough many of these are converted from the Perry Miniatures Italians, just with some simply headswaps.

The second unit is supposed to be more generic troops for the Burgundian side - the figures with padded jacks and brigandines were saved for this one, as I understand these armour types were rarely used in the German lands. With no livery jackets or badges, they could also serve as various rebel factions, or indeed French. There are some more of the headswapped Italians here, and a couple of other metal Perry sculpts with new plastic arms.

Burgundian handgunners

A new small unit - some Burgundian handgunners.

I put a few (less than half) of them in livery jackets, trying out a green and white scheme with red Burgundian cross - there will be another unit or two in this livery sometime in the future.

There's lots of conversions in this unit, so I thought I'd photograph each of the ten figures before basing, and share details of exactly how they are made.

A - Perry Miniatures plastic.

B - Perry Miniatures plastic, with new sculpted bag.

C and D - Perry Miniatures metal Italians with headswaps.

E and F - Steel Fist Miniatures Swiss, with basilard daggers replaced with regular swords.

G - Steel Fist Miniatures Swiss with a plastic Perry head.

H - Torso and legs are a 3d print from Warsteel Miniatures, with plastic Perry head and arms. The right arm holding the gun was made from several pieces. Plus a hand-sculpted bag.

I - Athena Miniatures.

J - Crusader Miniatures, with head and arms replaced with Perry parts (metal head and plastic arms), plus a Perry sword and buckler.

I'm very pleased with this little group. The Italian and Swiss figures have been made more generically West European, more suitable for Burgundians. The Crusader Miniatures sculpt has been made to blend in with the rest much better - the weak points of much of this range are the hands and heads, and in replacing them I was able to somehow get a much more realistic, less stiff-looking pose.

Two of the figures are older ones I did years ago - I'm in the process of rebasing and reorganising all my handgunners and crossbowmen, and these two found their way into this unit with the newly painted ones.