Man O'War Slaanesh Hellship

I was going to use my Chaos fleet for the Man O'War UK Championships at Black Dragon Miniatures. I didn't go in the end.

I was just going to add a single model to fleet for the tournament, the Slaanesh Hellship. I painted this up over a month ago now and just realised I'd not posted a photo... So here it is!

Some models for Salute 2020 (postponed)

We (COGS) were planning on running a large fantasy participation game at this year's Salute, but of course that is not now going to happen. The show was cancelled/postponed some weeks ago and the venue is now one of the new NHS Nightingale hospitals.

A lot of the game was going to be made from models and terrain we already had, but a few items had been prepared especially for the game. I thought I'd share a few photos of those. In keeping with the theme of the game, which is based off an old White Dwarf article, these are all old models.

I bought and painted this first one back in about 1986. It's the D&D Red Dragon from Citadel and is the dragon from the cover of the D&D Red Book. I re-based it and touched up the paint job a little bit. It always was a favourite model of mine.

The main objective of the scenario was the Holy Grail. The model from the King Arthur set from the Grenadier Fantasy Lords range, this one dates back to 1989.

The last is the leader of the evil faction, a necromancer on undead pegasus from Ral Partha. It's in the current Ral Partha catalogue, but not in any of the old ones, so may perhaps be a bit newer than I'd originally thought. Still it's very much in the classic style.

Blücher at Hammerhead

This Saturday I'll be running two Blücher participation games at Hammerhead.

There'll be the Vyazma 1812 game I've run at other shows and you are welcome to drop in and try your hand at that. But it's a complex game and will take all day to play!

If you fancy something more manageable I'll be running a short training game. This will take about 45 minutes to play and will introduce the game to new players. The scenario is based on the Battle of Arroyo Molinos on 28th October 1811 and features General Hill's combined force of British, Portuguese and Spanish versus a small French force under General Girard.

So if you would be interested in finding out about Blücher in 6mm come and say hello!

General Girard's forces rest at Arroyo Molinos...

... General Hill's troops have sneaked up during the night!

The Battle of Vyazma is progressing (at WMMS last weekend)

A Random Update

Busy, busy, busy....

There's been loads going on this February, but nothing especially new or finished enough to deserve a blog post all of its own. So here's a quick mixed bag post.

There were a few games of Blücher with my new Prussians...

I have nearly the full first two corps for the 1813 campaign done. The third corps will need another order from Heroics and Ros, but I put that in by email last week.

In that order I also looked at my next 6mm project, English Civil War and managed to get a large lot of unpainted H&R ECW minis on eBay. I've been planning how to base these and I think I will be using 30mm square bases, three to make a regiment, with command markers on 20mm squares meaning that the troops can count for either side as needed. I trialled this layout last night. I have a lot to do before I get round to these!

Here's what I have in progress on the workbench. Note that I still use glue and filler rather than acrylic sealant for the bases of the artillery. You can also see the Slaanesh Hellship I need to get painted for the Man O'War tournament I'm going to in a few weeks.

The large hill/mountain is well underway for Arroyo Molinos at Hammerhead. I just need to add some additional details. I got a couple of games in with it as well.

I did think I might get chance to do the 1/1200 Spanish Napoleonic ships I've had for a couple of years, this after a couple of very enjoyable Fighting Sail games. But no, other things have jumped in again. I "need" to get some 6mm Marie Louises painted for the French 1813 army!

Arroyo Molinos - A Blücher Participation Game

We'll be putting on a couple of Blücher participation games at the Hammerhead Wargames Show. One will be the Vyazma game that we'll be playing all day, people can join in if they want. The second will be a boot-camp style game.

I've been looking around to see if there's a real battle that could be played in about an hour with small forces without too much complexity. I wanted it to be in the Peninsular as that then fits with what units I have available after contributing to the Vyazma battle.

The battle I've decided to go for is Arroyo Molinos. On 28th October 1811, General Hill assaulted General Girard's forces in a surprise attack. It's a really small battle but has quite a good story behind it and manoeuvre over relatively open ground by both infantry and cavalry on both sides. Something Blücher is good at simulating. Of course it's a foregone conclusion as the French are heavily outnumbered and will always lose, but this scenario is all about how long they can last!

I just finished the first trial game with my son and it took the 1 hour needed to play it through. It also was a lot of fun. We managed to get about 17 turns in! I think if he'd used his cavalry a bit earlier he'd have reached victory a lot quicker!

Above, the French defensive line. The hills behind are the impassible Sierra de Montanchez. I will make a specific model of those ready for the show.

The French forces are scattered at the end of the battle, but in this game the British didn't fair that well either!

So, please do come and say hello to us at Hammerhead and get a game in!

Prussians - Yorck's Corps

The first of my Prussian Corps for Spring 1813 is complete. It's actually the 2nd Corps under Yorck.

There are two brigades of regular infantry with attached hussars. There's a single base of dragoons, one of horse artillery and one of foot artillery

I'm already hard at work on the next Corps, Blücher's 1st Corps.

Kings of War 3rd Edition - The Wiltfather

I've decided I will play a bit more Kings of War this year. Last year I decided to wait until 3rd edition came out and so had loads of time for Blücher. Now 3rd edition Kings of War is out I want to get back into that.

There are lots of new units to choose from in the new books. It really is like being a kid in a sweet shop. You want to have a bit of everything. But for once I'm going to concentrate my efforts on just one army and not even a new one for me really.

I've plumped for Sylvan Kin. It provides a theme I really like for my existing Elf army. This army is already well rounded and so I won't be looking to add much to it. I want to make use of what I already have in new ways. I don't really need new Kings of War models as I do have a heck of a lot stuff already!

So, I took Sylvan Kin to the Wild Charge tournament last weekend. In the games I didn't do that great, 2 losses and 2 wins. But I did get Judge's Choice for Best Painted. Which is great!

Discussing with other players the special Treeherder upgrade, "The Wiltfather" kept on coming up as a recommendation. This is a particularly sad/angry Treeherder who brings death to those that deserve it. Also in the rules it gives the Elite rule to all friendly Verdant units within 6", which sounds well worth it! I'll try it out for the first time on Monday night.

So I've spent a little bit of time modifying one of my existing Treeherder models to fit. The new paint-job is inspired by the Weirwood trees from Game of Thrones. It was suggested to me to add skulls to the branches, but instead I've gone with a Warlord Games Skeleton that the Wiltfather is looking sadly at. Has he just killed it? Why is it black? Has he burned it? Was it undead or alive before he got it? There's a story there...

I also added a few more old GW Dryads to my unit of Hunters of the Wild to make them up to a regiment.