WIP- 1683- The Ottoman Camps.

 The 'objective markers' for my Vienna game are coming along nicely. I settled on four different objectives that will be across various points of the table.  It's probably going to be a 12'x6' .

The Allies will each have a specific objective- and the Ottoman task is to stop them!

The four objectives:

1) The Vizier's tent        (The Polish objective)
2) The Grand Battery    (The Bavarian Objective)
3) The Foundry             (The Imperial/Austrian Objective)
4) The Wagon Park.      (The Saxon Objective)

Now this is fairly arbitrary but what it means is that each contingent can 'win' even if the allied relief force fails overall, that is, if the Turks stop them. The Vizier's tent will be the decider in the event that each side holds two objectives each.

Now I just have to paint up the last of the Saxon and Bavarian Dragoons.

Objective 2: The Grand Battery

Objective 1: The Grand Vizier's Tent- The Turkenschanze!

Warhammer 40K

 My son wanted a game- he is creating something called a 'Death Guard'. I asked if that was some sort of sacrificial Roman unit- he told me that dad jokes weren't permitted.

So as was perfectly rational to this type of discussion, I set up a table that resembled ancient Egyptian ruins.

The table with my Tyranids to the left- his 'Death Guard' to the right. they have a big tank!

Cheriton 1644

 Richard has a collection of 10mm ECW which I find so inspirational every time I see them out on the table. The chance for a game was too good to pass up and he had chosen the battle of Cheriton in 1644.

Richard's 10mm - Parliament Foote.
The big bases with the large numbers of figures look sensational to me!

WIP - Project 1683- Ottomans

 Working away steadily on my big game for the end of the year - or maybe earlier (it would be nice to get it ready for the 342nd anniversary in September). I plan to have a small section of the walls of Vienna with a rather large gun battery facing it- and making the battery one of the objectives for the allied army; probably the Imperials and Bavarians. The Poles will be aiming for Kara Mustafa's tent and the Saxons and other Imperials will be aiming for the wagon park and supply area.

Spanish vs Maximilian's Imperials

 The Spanish came out to do battle with the knights and landsknechts of Maximilian. Lots of pike, heavy knights, men with crossbows, arquebus and other inventive ways of killing each other.

My Spanish pikemen

Maximilian on the left, my Spanish on the right.

Normans...Normans...Normans.....

 Unable to sleep due to the humiliation of my last defeat and not being left alone by the ghosts of William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard and Bohemond of Antioch, I had to get my Normans out again to wipe the smug look off Ross' face. 

Mid-game- close and bloody melee.

Normans at it again

 Two evenly matched Norman armies clashed one afternoon - and it had the makings of a bloodbath.

Rampaging knights, crossbow men , mercenary spearmen and archers were all part of a game that turned into a huge melee ....and a lucky crossbow shot changed the direction of the game!

A very close fought game that had the potential to be a very bloody draw.....but ended prematurely....

My right flank

My left flank

WIP- Vienna 1683

 Working slowly on adding Saxon infantry units for the Relief of Vienna.  The unfortunate part (for me and my painting!) is that the uniforms for the Saxons at Vienna were different for the Great Northern War- so with the exception of the Guards,( red coat and white cuffs) all the other regiments at Vienna wore grey uniforms. It's unfortunate because I have nine other battalions of Saxons for the GNW but only the Guard is suitable.  More painting!

The cuirassiers are in the same boat- by the GNW they were in red coats, BUT they had the buff koller underneath. At Vienna, they had the buff coat and the lobster pot helmets. I decided that I may 'fudge' a few units so that the Saxons will have some red coated units at Vienna ( without lobster pot helmet) so that I can use them for GNW as well. The Wargame Gods will not be happy and someone will comment about uniform purity on the day of the game- and they will get a swift kick if they do!

Three Saxon Regiments ready to go.

Honours of War- Flank Attack.

 

The SYW Austrians and French came out for a run....by run I mean the opportunity to kick the crap out of each other's forces.

I took a scenario straight out of "Scenarios for Wargamer's" - "Flank attack" and gave the two commanders ( Paul and Ross) their briefs. The French ( Ross) were shown the table- given their deployment area and told to expect an assault from the front. After the French deployed, the Austrians were given their brief and allowed to deploy.

French position.

The very sparse Austrian holding force- primarily place to 'hold' the main French force while the flanking brigades did their job.

SAMURAI!

 

Chris' collection of Samurai have to be among the most magnificent figures I have ever seen. Each one beautifully painted, most with a sashimono, and the command stands are just amazing.

Placing as many as we could fit onto Ross' table we had a stoush that was fast, furious and bloody as two Samurai armies smashed away at each other one afternoon.

Chris and Ross took one force and Liam and I took the other. The armies have been painted with particular clans and daimyo represented but we just divided the forces in half so that both sides fielded mounted Samurai, foot Samurai, warrior monks, archers, ronin and ashigaru.

Just the opportunity to use these magnificent figures was a real treat!
My photos don't do them any justice at all.

My commander.....the detail is just amazing.

Elamites and Assyrians....again...round 4!

Well the current score between these two historical opponents currently stands at Elamites (me) 1, Assyrians ( Ross) 1 and a bloody draw...1:1:1.

So in the dying days of 2024, game four was fought on a warm summer night.

I made a significant flaw in my deployment by not concentrating my heavy chariots............

My ring flank. One of my heavy chariots backed up by the three kallipani. Not good in a fight, but they sure can shoot!

 

Assyrian left flank.......

The layout of both armies is obvious in the pictures above.

Carthaginians and Macedonians

Ross called up and threw down the gauntlet. I hadn't played him in an ancients game in a very long time ( nearly a year!!)

His Macedonians under Antigonus One-Eye were itching to fight. I looked over my armies and thought...'Early Carthaginians...why not?'. 

Now, non historical match-ups can be problematic but as these two armies were almost from the same time period we didn't think it was going to be an issue!!

Carthaginian Line

The Macedonians

Greek War of Independence - Using TMWWBK

 

An interesting scenario was played using the TMWWBK rules. A town in the Peloponnese was blockaded by the Ottomans until the arrival of siege guns that were to blast the walls down and allow the Ottoman forces to storm the town.

The besieged stormed out to join the attackers who were able to co-ordinate attacks from two different directions. Their aim was destroy the three siege guns. Casualties were unimportant as the loss of the town would be a huge blow to the rebellion. The guns had been positioned to fire at certain sections of the walls and as long as the Greek forces stayed out of that field of fire, the big guns could not cause casualties.

Three units of defenders prepared to charge out of the main gates as soon as they heard the firing of the relieving force. 

The siege guns were able to fire at the walls each turn rolling two dice per crewman. Hitting on a '6' only - they had to create 10 points of damage...they came very close......

 The Greeks had to neutralise the guns-  and the guns would keep firing until they had breached the walls OR the Greeks were driven off. 

Opening deployment

One of the Ottoman Siege guns

WIP- Vienna 1683.

I have been considering this for a while.
I have the Poles and I have the Ottomans.
And I've added Imperial and Bavarian Foote to play out the relief of Vienna in 1683. Many of my WSS Imperial Cuirassiers will be fine...and I have lots of them!
I need some Saxon Foote and Horse ( I might cheat and use some of my GNW Saxons...but don't tell anyone).

I guess it's one of those battles that all gamers have heard of and many have played, and I think as I have had the Ottomans for so long it's time to give it a crack.

It will mean a table with the Kahlenburg heights...and maybe a section of the walls of Vienna....and a Turkish camp.

Hmm.....time to get started.

The first of my Imperial regiments. ( I have to confess I didn't paint this unit!)

Great Northern War- The Saxons

 I have been slowly working away at the Saxons for the Great Northern War. 

I originally started with 70 odd figures from the Front Rank late 17th Century range that was going to be for another project. 

But one day I decided to paint up some GNW Saxons (see past post!) and got four regiments. Flags were from my favourite dealer of product, Barry Hilton at Warfare Miniatures. 

Earlier this year I bought some more Front Rank and began painting to add more. The Saxons are a nice army- and sooner or later I am going to have to put them on the table against the Swedes!

I had some more flags and began to put them on. I now have 9 regiments of infantry. Time to do some cavalry!

Upgrading some Ottomans

 The flags on my Ottomans were looking a bit sad and forlorn, so I decided to order some flags (from Warfare Miniatures - Hi Barry!) and update the Kapikulu cavalry.  The flags had been the original ones from the about 1990! So time for the upgrade!

Fulford Gate 1066.

Spyros expressed an interest in the Vikings sitting on my shelf.
After a brief discussion, we decided to get them on the table to fight my Anglo-Danes ....and redo Fulford Gate - the first of the three epic battles fought in 1066. We played it at the Company of Dice club meet here in Sydney.

Spyros was Morcar and Edwin and I was Harald Hardrada.

The two Anglo-Danish earls raced to take up a position on a stream bank and made it just in time before Hardrada's Vikings got there.

End of Turn 2

                                                        .  

View from the Viking lines- Edwin's Mercians, skirmishers thrown out as the main line races to the stream bank- a defensible position. 

French Ordonnance vs Maximilian Imperials

 I've been lucky to get four or five games in over the last few months and this might be the last one for a while- so it was gonna be a good one.

Ross's early 16th Century collection is spectacular. He has a vast, beautifully painted collection of Swiss, French Gendarmes, Landsknechts, Argoulets, Pavisiers, Burgundian Knights, German Knights, Italians of the same, arquebus, crossbow etc etc...all the stuff that makes that period so fascinating!

Putting his French on the table to fight his Maximilian Imperials, we knew it was going to be a bloodbath- loads of pike and heavy knights....

Seven Years War- Another Day , Another Scenario...

 For this game I took one of the old Table Top Teasers by Charles Grant and translated it to our rules and tabletop. This time there was no difference in quality of troops or commanders. Both sides had a Dashing commander, a Dependable commander and a Ditherer! (based on the command structure of Honours of War) As the vanguard of their respective armies the forces were composed of similar (identical!!) troop types.

Each side had six line infantry battalions, one light infantry battalion and three regiments of dragoons- all of the same quality. I am sure that this was historical....both sides exactly equal!!

The Teaser map from 1978. I added a couple of hills near each objective.

More Seven Years War - with no more dithering and no more bad die rolls!!

 After our last game, which was enjoyable despite the poor French performance we went for round two.

Another scenario was decided on as Ross and I were too traumatised to play the same one after our (French) Foote commanders refused to move. Paul was keen to give it another go- but we went for a scenario : Multiple objectives.

This scenario required the defenders ( French) to have their forces deployed at various points around the table ( see map - Zones A,B and C) and the attackers ( Austrians- Zone Z) to be deployed in one area. The town itself was worth two points and each hill (three: X,Y, Z) was worth a point each.

My sketch for deployment

The deployment and the arrows indicating the direction of advance for each side:
 Blue /French, Red/Austrian

The French defense was randomised and was split across the three deployment zones. Under the Honours of War rules the French infantry and cavalry ( Heavies especially) are inferior ( or just slower) than the Austrians. So using the point system, the French had quite a few more troops- but much poorer quality even though wisdom states that the attackers should outnumber the defenders.