Building of the Week - Papelotte Farm by Leven Miniatures

For a change I am showing a building that is available, well set of buildings. Another of the Leven Miniatures Napoleonic range. NAP03 Papelotte Farm priced at £20 is a set of buildings forming a hollow square and comes with the period peaked roof and the more modern tower structure allowing you the choice or even leave loose and can use both.

In an attempt not to get shouted at by Lee I have not painted in any roads ;-) I also went with the lime washed wall finish that I have seen in a few images as this may be more historical than the red brick finish though I did rather like the red finish as per Leven's website (link above).

Again you get a lot for your money, these are quite large buildings and I have used a 120x120 and 60x120mm tile to base the buildings on. The barn furthest away is on the smaller tile. The tiles are individually placed on these buildings and it really adds to the finish. Odd tiles not 100% lined up and some area's ever so slightly raised or dipped make the roofs a joy to work on.

I spoilt myself and used three different colours of tufts on this model, this was to break up the grassed section a little. I have to admit I really like the look of Belgian buildings, especially those with the small windows high on the walls and the long building to the front of the photo above ticks a lot of my boxes.

Lots of detail as you would expect from Leven, it went together rather well and painted up like a dream. I always paint the whole building ignoring the fact I will be basing them and some sections wont be seen but that's one of my things.

I found a few nice cobblestone and other paving images on line and have used one here to make a change from the usual interiors I tend to do. Just a few more buildings to paint up and then I will be ready for the Waterloo game. Not sure which I will do next but I do have some test painting to do for Mike so maybe a single one to keep me out of trouble.

Project Waterloo - A Change of Plan

Over the Bank Holiday I met up with Lee regarding his proposal to change the boards from 2 foot squares to four 6x4 foot boards to speed up set up at Joy and Six. This means the work on the smaller boards has stopped though we will use them for other games in the future but effectively they are a dead project for now. We are now back to modelling the terrain as close as we can to the actual battlefield rather than the fudging that would allow the boards more use for other games later.

We spent a couple of hours mapping out the boards and then over laying bases to represent the units that would be in play. This showed the scaling was a little out that allowed us to remap the boards again so that now the terrain will be a good fit to our troops base sizes and should really look correct when it gets played out. This has allowed us to move Hougoumont in from the edge by around two feet which will allow the cavalry to lap round the outer edge as they did in the actual battle and allows the orchard and woods to be better represented.

The new board length will be six feet by sixteen and now we have the boards laid out it's far bigger than I had in mind. For the actual battle about eleven foot is in play as such with the other five foot being rather vacant of troops (aside the odd battalion) until the Prussians make their appearance. Not that this part of the table will be a void as it has a couple of the places in the area that will be fought over later in the battle such as Frichermont all the way to the Bois De Paris woods. Plancenoit will also get a little more exposure as it will not be more than half off the table as the original plan called for.

All this is very positive and later than evening I received a text letting me know he had already sculptured the smaller hills. However it's starting to look like our chance of playing the game before the Joy of six could be put on hold though it still has a chance of happening. If not then July will be the first public sight of the table and figures set out in battle, no pressure then :-)

For the Joy of Six we plan to have the game set up showing an important stage in the earlier stages during the morning and then reset it showing the battle towards the end of the day, yes the Prussians will get to be on the table!!!

Hail Caesar First Attempt With 15mm

Matt and I finally got a chance to play again after a few near misses. Matt sent over a few possible games including Hail Caesar, as it was top of the list and been suggested a couple of times I thought it would be the best option. It also helped that I had by this point a number of HC and Black Powder games under my belt so was a bit more comfortable playing a game without Kev and Andy to hold my hand ;-)

Matt and myself are old adversaries with our Macedonian and Persian tilts, though of late we have used my Macedonian's as Matt has yet to commit to rebasing once we settle on a set of rules as Matt is less keen than I am on Field of Glory whilst I am OK with them (especially as I have worked on several armies and have all the books) BUT I am liking Hail Caesar more for it's speed of play and general feel of the game.

I had the first (limited) success of the night and something rather rare with FoG, one of Matt's phalanxes lost a level of cohesion through bow fire. HC also allows the Persians more bows by rearming some of the Kardrakes with bow, something I am happy about as I disliked the loss of the bow in FoG, especially as I had four units armed with them!

 Matt got an alarming triple move for his pike whilst I was slowly trying to mount the top of the hill for some hope of defence. This is a feature that could make or break your view on HC and seeing Pike move that fast over the table was certainly a novel experience for me.

My best commander had a command value of 8 whilst my two other commanders had just 7. Matt's Macedonian's was 8 for the sub-commanders and I had paid 23 points for Alexander himself at 9. This was points well spent as Matt put him with the cavalry and they flew round the flank and went at my rather small cavalry force as the bulk of my cavalry was on my left flank away from Matts.

Matt had three units of Lance armed Cavalry against my spear armed cavalry. I had a second success when one the the three were forced to drop back a turn due to my rolling a 6 to force a morale test. My light horse were being pushed back leaving my cavalry vulnerable.

The attack went well for Matt, whilst I had a good first round I was let down when Matt saved much better than I did, I was one point off becoming shaken whilst Matt was safe from that threat. I failed the test and routed from the table.

The phalanx clash which we thought would be cut and dried ended up being a series of push and shove, the rule that a phalanx counts a loss by up to 2 as a draw saved me tests until both of us became shaken in the same turn.

My cavalry was refusing to move for most of the game, if I could have got it to move with any regularity I could have interfered with the battle in the middle as well as quite possibly smashed his flanking force. As it was it moved once in the first four or five moves, my mistake was having my best commander with the hoplites.

On my right flank I was able to withstand a charge by the single cavalry unit of Matt's not working with the other two. This was against the Kardrakes that rolled out of the box and I was able to bring a Hoplite unit and light infantry in support finally winning the battle and seeing the cavalry off shaken. Matt would later start rallying pips back off but they did not attack again during the game.

I get pushed back in the centre but then win the following Melee seeing one of Matt's blocks off. The other should have gone Matt's way but his best troops were acting in support and started to take the excess casualties without the ability to re-roll pip loss. If the units were switched he would not suffer as much and would have one the melee sooner. In the end my Hoplites were forced to give ground falling back through a fresh phalanx. Due to being shaken Matt remained in position and awaited my next move.

My cavalry finally get moving again whilst Matt repairs his line as best he can and with the hill now in his hands it would be a real push to get up the hill and defeat his blooded pike. My cavaly can't charge his formed pike and I just don't have the troops to take the hill back. All I could hope to do at that point would be to defeat his flank force and then surround his Phalanx blocks, this assumes Alexander does not send his cavalry back round the rear to engage me.

I have four units in the centre directly facing just two of Matt's but two of mine are either shaken or close to it. Before moving in again I would need to rally a pip off the supporting unit and exchange a badly mauled unit with a fresh unit. This would be at least two moves whilst four would be better. All this time Matt would be rallying pips off his pike and making the task as hard again as the first attempt.

Matt caught one of my evading light cavalry units and as such broke one division, this sealed the fate of my right flank and would have allowed Matt several options to cause me bother. This would in turn have forced me to gamble and attack in the centre and the left without fully preparing for the attack. As it was we called time with the win going to Matt and lessons learnt by both of us that will be carried in to the game we have planned for this week.

Whilst the Macedonian army has more power than the Persian it's not as great as it has been under all the rules we have tried to date. However the better command made a huge difference in this game with Matt able to command his troops most of the time, even a blunder allowed exactly what he wanted. This I think is part of the game that you need to master and works well with my idea of how the Persian army acted, large but slow. Our next game will see more units on the table and I believe another cracker, but this time we should get a result as we spent a fair amount of time catching up before a die was rolled.

The Start of Something Essex

Last figures from this years Challenge to be added to the blog and four Regiments for Lee's ECW army I am painting for him. We decided the best army to paint up would be Earl of Essex as we know a fair bit about it and as I have started Charles Oxford Army they are a natural opponent for them.

All the figures for both Lee's armies and mine are Baccus, we both have two army packs so no shortage of units between us.

I have started with some of the better known regiments, though I will work through a list that will quickly exhaust these.

I had to start with The Earl of Essex, I mean who else could I choose? I went for a reasonably solid orange for the Tawny Orange whilst the standard is not actually known from what I can make out. Baccus will be replacing the current figures in the future and expanding the range to include the Thirty Years War so we will have even more options at some point in the future. Both Lee and myself have a mix of very old castings and an army each bought about three years ago. 

Lord Saye & Sele's blue coated Regiment comes up next and again the actual colours are not known. I have gone with a blue flag as I felt it looked good. Never assume the flag would be the same colour as the coat or nick name as this was not always the case. Early research favoured such a view and using the colours of ECW re-enactment regiments can and often is misleading. 

Thomas Ballard's regiment was dressed in grey, at least during 1642. As the war went on coat colours were sometimes changed or through poor supply ended up in a mix of colours. Trousers were even worse as these tended to wear out first and often were not officially replaced so would best be depicted in a mix of colours but in this case all four Regiments have single colours for their trews, though not every Regiment has the same colour.

Lord Brooks is the last of the three and I picked this one as they wore a rather striking purple coat. This is also the only one of the four painted that I have the correct flag for. All flags by the way are from Baccus, I am making use of three flag sheets across the two armies. Oxford for me, Essex for Lee and a generic one for both of us. 

Unlike the Napoleonic's infantry are based on the same 30x60 bases as this suits the formations used during the ECW. We have yet to decide on rules and it's possible we will do our own set though I am keen to try a few other sets out as well. ECW was the first period I wargamed and I still have my 15mm which I would love to use again but 6mm will give us the opportunity to fight some of the biggest battles and possibly nip over the Channel for a bash or even make up a campaign that would allow us to field large and small armies that take into account all the possibilities of the period.

Dominate Roman Army Finished!

The final pieces of this army has fallen into place with a bit of a flurry as I managed to finish the units started when I burnt my hand and lost the opportunity to finish them within the Challenge.

Finally have some commanders, three bases of them with each base distinct from the others so you can show who is the CinC.

I have given the three riders on each base the same colour cloaks as the main tie but other smaller details are the same as well where possible without making them look identical.

The figures were finished inside of March but the basing was only finished on Thursday morning.

One unit of cavalry with bow and are also swordsmen, this will mean they are better in close combat that firing though they can certainly soften up a target before putting them to the sword.

Whilst the riders just have the one pose the horses come with two poses to add a bit of difference to them. As always I have a mix of horse colours that help break up the mass a little more.

Yes more bow, I now have enough to supply most of the Legions and Auxiliary units with the a third rank of bow option. I don't know how good an option this is though it certainly makes it more difficult for them to lose cohesion through casualties.

I have used the same base colours though the bow and quivers are different colours to break them up just a little.

For a bit of colour these Axillary bow are a bit more colourful and as such can be used for other armies and not tied to this period of Roman's.

Nothing really special about these as they were a quick paint but as you will have gathered this army is a bit heavy on the bow side. Indeed unlike most Roman armies it's also heavy on mounted troops. In total it has 190 infantry against 71 mounted, who would have thought it?

No Field of Glory army is complete without a camp and I do like the opportunity to make it into something more than just a camp, indeed I have yet to add a tent to any of my camps,

I really like the donkey pulled cart, I have added three sacks of grain to act as load for the door devils to drag along.

Here it is moving away from the battle, must have been the dice that was at fault! I enjoyed the work on the pack horses as they had quite a mix of items and each is painted up different.

Can you spot the piggy? the base also got a lot more tufts than a typical base and it helps to break up the base a little and also give the appearance of travelling along a less cultivated location.

The whole army set out and basking in the Spring Sun. Had these figures for over three years but all but one unit has been painted over the last three months and a couple of weeks, not bad to say I have been painting up a load of other figures in the same time period.

Total cost of the figures at todays prices would be a little over £145, amazing how much it costs to put together a 15mm army these days. I now have to decide if I am to sell it complete or single units and what price. Whatever I get for it the money will be spent on our next holiday so quite fitting the sun was out for the photo's

Building of the Week,Large Medieval Town House.

Leven Miniatures have yet to release this building, indeed it's so new it's yet to make the coming soon section. I think I am right in saying this is one of several buildings planned to enlarge the Medieval range but I am not sure of this.

It has the typical wood and plaster upper story but this building comes with two changes to the norm. A thatched roof and the stone lower level is of rounded stones rather than the usual brick like patterns up to date. I like both, the stone pattern will break up the standard walls for a nice point of difference but that thatch is the show stopper. It would be nice to see thatch options of some of the other buildings in the range, this will generate a little more variety in our miniature towns whilst hopefully being easier for mike to add compared with totally new buildings.

I was not 100% sure about upstairs windows on the front of the building thinking the walls looked not to have them. If I am wrong I will add them before sending off to Mike, somehow looks right not having them.

It's a nice robust building that would fit in well with the later period buildings I have that will see service in my ECW and Napoleonic games. Not this one though as it's to be sent back to Leven for when the buildings are to be released.

I have managed to paint up a few more buildings this week and have painted up eighteen buildings so far this year. That's below the two a week I had planned and failed to hit last year but I have fourteen buildings I plan to paint over the next three weeks so could get right back on track.

Naughty Vikings 28mm Foundry

Almost to the end of the Challenge posts, which is handy as I am in the middle of basing up the last of my Romans. So today we have the naked berserker's from Foundry.

I would have liked more poses, though these all look fairly different I have another eight that will cause some repeats. The main issue is that you can't exactly paint the clothes different colours to mask the similar figures LOL.

You would think these would paint up faster than the clothed guys but actually took longer as I had to add more depth to the skin, not able to get away with a wash and touch up.

Time will tell if I can break my son's shieldwall with these guys or will they be beaten back with more than their ego's bruised.

I will leave you with a image of the last 28mm submission to the challenge, I still have a heap of Vikings and such to do and will be adding some to the queue once I have cleared some space. Tomorrow will see a new building in the works from Leven and tonight for me, it's time for the next Napoleonic buildings.