First Play Test of Neil Thomas' Medieval Rules

In preparation for our participation game at York Library we play tested the rules from Neil Thomas' book Ancient and Medieval Wargaming. They are a simple set of rules and I managed to type them out onto 4 sides of A4 to use as quick reference sheets. They replicated the nature of the warfare of the period with some understanding of what troop types did and were used for. Rather than follow Neil's suggested army list of 4 bases making each unit we just had one base per unit, which made the armies much more manageable and more like a DbA game. There is no command and control element, but then this would have been pretty minimal in the battles of the period anyway. The game took just over 2 hours to play out, but we played very leisurely with breaks for cake and tea (lemon drizzle!) The Lancastrian army was unpainted unfortunately. I'll get round to it soon!

The Yorkist army was a more traditional set up with:

3 bases of Men-at-Arms
1 base of light cavalry (Hobilars)
5 bases of archers
1 base of heavy knights
1 cannon

The rules replicate the nature of what the differnt troop types do very well but we felt we would need to add in some modifiers for future games. The Lancastiran army was much less orthodox, employing more foreign mercenaries and was composed of:

4 bases of Men-at-Arms
2 bases of pike
1 base of hand gunnners
2 bases of crossbow
1 base of mounted Men-at-Arms
4 bases of archers

In the future I would add modifiers for pike or hand gunners against horse. The boom of the handguns would 'spook' horses quite easily during these times. Pike also would be an obvious advantage against horse.

Cannon can be a real problem to your enemy and has a huge range in the rules, it also affects morale quite a lot. I painted this Perry gun in just one evening and was pretty pleased with it. Sadly it lasted two turns before exploding! The rules dictate that guns must test each turn, roll a 1 and your men got the mix wrong and the whole thing blows up, killing the crew as well.

I made some archers stakes from toothpicks and we added a small modifer for getting past these, as with rivers in the rules, the stakes took a move to cross to get to the soft fleshy archers behind them. The Yorkist mistake was staying behind them too long.

I predicted at the start that, as in reality, the Men-at-Arms would be the battle winners and this proved to be the case. You have to play carfully, keeping archers back and sending heavy metal in to do the scrapping. It doesn't help going in to woods as we found movement was so restricted that it became too arkward, not really worth the extra cover.

There are a few things that you have to decide for yourself in the game, such as designating where the woods are and adding in other modifers as and when appropriate but this isn't difficult once you have the hand of it.

The rules are great for basic demo/participation games or for just having fun. My kind of rule set! I recently bought Neil Thomas' Introduction to Wargaming as it had similar rules for other periods, they don't look as good as the Medieval Rules on first thumb through and may be more tricky to adapt to different unit/base sizes but are still a good introduction. Most of the rules appear to be written for 15mm but we used the Perry 28's in smaller units and the distances worked well on a 4 x 4 foot table.

For all my WoTR gaming I have bought most all Perry plastics, so far 3 boxes of Halberds and Bows, 1 box of Swiss Mercenaries for the guns and crossbow, 1 box of mounted men-at-arms (this is very flexible and can make up various mounted troop types) in metal I only have the one Perry gun so far and 6 individual Perry men-at-arms, which I just bought for painting really, they can serve to occupy buildings etc. I don't think I will need anything else, maybe another gun or a wagon or something to add interest. This makes the whole lot of figures come in at around £100, which is a good deal for a whole game. You could probably game these rules well enough with just two boxes of bows and bills even.

Neil Thomas' Ancient and Medieval Wargaming book is definately worth a buy if you want to dablle in these periods for fun games or for participation. If you like DbA or old school type wargaming you'll enjoy using these as a starting point.

Wars of the Roses

We have been preparing for this year's demo/participation game at York Library and I have finally unboxed some Perry WoTR plastics to make up for a DbX type game, which was always the plan for them. I have also got the plastic mounted men at arms so they will be going with these too. They have painted up so good I might even get a few Perry metals to mix in based as singles for skirmishers/characters. I love painting armour, it's so easy! I have 'speed painted' these as I want to get them all done soon. The game will be in about 4 weeks so need to get a shift on and practice a simple game.

I have Neil Thomas' Ancient and Medieval wargaming, which is an excellent book if like me you only dabble in these periods. It has a few DbX style rules suggestions for various periods and gives brief explanations of the characteristics of the warfare of the times. As a starting point its great.

I have based the figs on 80mm x 30mm plasticard bases. The suggested base size for 25mm figures in DbA is 60mm x 20mm but I found this too small, they were hitting each other in the face with their weapons and looked all wrong, this base size seemed to work better and will fill up a table without using too many figures. I'm not sure how the mounted figures will work yet? They will need to be the same frontage so I may have two figs on a 40mm sqaure base and lump two bases togther for a unit.

Will update as and when I get more done. The main game is at York Library 11th August. 11:30am - 3:30pm so feel free to pop in.

UPDATE:

Just some pics of the first base of cavalry and some finished archers:

Battlegroup North 2012

Unfortunately I misssed the first day due to still being ill, had a bad week. I dragged myself there today and despite feeling rough had a cracking day. So glad I didn't miss it. We play tested Normandy Firefight, it's good, extremely detailed and you don't want more than a figure each at first. I may end up chopping elements of the system out and making a quicker play game to use with more figures.

Purchase wise I bought more than I did at Triples last week. Met a new trader who sells second hand unpainted (and painted) figures. I came away with more Artizan desert war figures: 16 Italian riflemen, 2 officers, plus 4 unknown make Italians (look like Bolt Action but they don't do them?) and 8 British Comandos. Nearly got an Afrika Corps mortar crew but didn't think I'd use it in a game. Also bought a stunning desert Sherman for the Brits for a tenner, it's a corgi classics 1/50 scale. These things go for £30 on ebay! The seller had other tanks in the same make but I'm trying to be sensible with my buying these days. Also bought a die cast corgi type US jeep for £3, usually these are about £12! Again I could have had two of them but decided to be frugal.
The wargames show was great. Lots of Rapid Fire games, Colin was there with his and won runner up display game. The winner was a group from Manchester I think with an early war game, full of French tanks and lots of scratch built terrain, fleeing civilians etc.
The military show aspect seemed a bit quieter than normal, same traders but it all seemed a bit more cramped and not as well laid out. Same people there as every year plus a few more, more obscure, re-enactors such as Vietnam era US Special Forces. Interesting to see well done re-enactors, the one's with plastic weapons and generic 'army' gear always perplex me, still they seem to be having fun.
Here are some pics of an excellent day!

How we begin the day!

Roger helping me play test Normandy Firefight. (Note the Sherman I had just bought!)

A wargames group from Manchester put this participation game on with their own very simple rules, getting kids involved! The game was a Western Desert airbourne (Fallschirmjager) drop.

One of the Rapid Fire games.

This game took the trophy for best game. Lots of scratch built and improvised scenery!

Colin Rumford and crew with the runner up demo game.

Preparations for Battlegroup North

I was hoping to take a desert war version of our toy soldier rules to this years Battlegroup North weekend but I don't have as many Afrika Corps painted as I should have. However, I have recently bought the excellent skirmish rule set Normandy Firefight, designed for small groups of 3-6 figures a side and aimed at 1/32 scale figures. I'm hoping to play test these at Ayton. It might even be that we do a new version of the toy soldier rules with elements of the Normandy Firefight rules mixed in to add interest to game play and slow down the usual carnage. I bought these amazing Artizan 28mm figs at Triples last weekend. Bought 4 8th army, 4 SAS and 8 Africa corps. Plenty enough for a game of Normandy Battles. First 4 are done. Just need to make sure I get the others done by Friday! I will be using my new desert scenery and buildings on a 3x3 board. Have some nice Pegasus palm trees too! More pics to follow.

Ayton 2012

This year our small wargames group hosted it's second game weekend at West Ayton Village Hall. I only managed to pop along for a couple of hours but played a round of A Very British Civil War, with the Brigadier 38 rule set. This was probably the most fun to play game I have tried in quite a while. It felt like a 40k skirmish, 3 players a side with Bob umpiring. Here are some photos from the game and some photos from the large Imaginations game, umpired by Henry Hyde of Battlegames magazine and attended by anyone who is anyone in the world of 18th Century make-belive!

New Force on Force stuff

I feel like I've been neglecting my wargaming recently. So, newly refreshed after a holiday to Centre Parcs I've been getting on with painting some Ceasar Miniatures moderns for a few games of Force on Force. I dug out these that I bought a while back and had a few undercoated already. I was inspired by Roger's British that he had been painting recently and I thought I'd have a go at copying his painting style of drybrushing on black undercoated figures.

 

I've not quite managed to paint these as well as Roger's but they look quite effective from a distance. The scenery is by Last Valley. I picked a whole load of this great desert scenery up from Vappa last month and I'm looking forward to using it.



The Modern US Army box has some awesome figures in it, there is a great sniper pose. The 'Militia' box has a mix of Arabic and African militia, this is ok as you get to field two different opponents from the one box but you end up with limited poses. You could game scenarios from both the Enduring Freedom and Day of the Rangers supplements from the Force on Force range of books with just these two boxes. I've ordred the Urban Resisters box too just to make up the numbers for the 'Arabic' side. I've also ordered a box of modern Germans in desert gear, which will give a good representation of a NATO force, especially if I get the British and French later. (The French come randomly with Chinese special forces?)

I also picked up this Iraqi T72 from a local shop that was selling off their 1/72 scale pre painted diecast tanks. This one is by Forces of Valor. Hope to win a few ebay bids on various other bits this week.

Love this picture!

Just had to post this. I bought a book on the history of wargaming at Vapnartak this month and it's making great reading. I've always loved the classic wargames books, even if the rules are a bit ropey sometimes. I've always wanted to make a demo game with traditional figures and rules, scenery etc. Hopefully someday!