"The Duellists" Inspired Project

     A couple of weeks ago I watched Ridley Scott's " The Duellists". As usual, it got me in a Napoleonic  mood. I started looking for some Napoleonic figures that would work for painting up as duelists of the period. Perry Miniatures does have a set of figures specifically of duelists with spectators. It is a nice set, but I'm not sure that this isn't a project that will just be a one off game. I also was thinking of trying to kitbash Airfix Royal Horse Artillery figures into a couple of swordsmen, but with my limited number of figures of this set, I decided against it.

   As the main protagonists in the movie were hussars, I looked at my different plastic  1/72 hussars in my collection. In the end I chose 2 Airfix British Hussars.  I just glued them to bases, sprayed painted black and slapped some paint on. Although not the best poses, I am happy enough with them. The project also cost no extra money, which was nice.

The figure on the left is Gabriel Feraud of the 7th Hussars, the right figure Armand d'Hubert of the 3rd Hussars.

Of course  while duelling, one would keep their weapons closest to their opponent However, I think the pose works.

I might do a little more touch up on the figures, and put a coat gloss coat on them.

Toy Soldiers Wargame

In the last few weeks I have been playing with different ideas for games. I have also spent too much time on the computer trying to get inspiration. I started thinking of why I enjoyed playing with toy soldiers as a kid. As a kid there was no tape measures, no dice and no rules. I decided to try a game where movement was between terrain, not measured moves. Using "Close Wars" terrain, the toy soldiers would advance to the next terrain feature in front of them. If it was occupied by the enemy, they would be caught in the open. There is no measuring for shooting; depending on the weapon it would be decided if the enemy was in range. When in doubt roll to decide. I still use dice to decide hits. I started a game using some Airfix Combat Infantry Group figures. It has been enjoyable game, wither I play again or not.

Battlescale Ancients Battle

   With my new terrain, now I can start thinking of what armies to use. Right now the plan is just to get games in without becoming bogged down in a project that  can take weeks before a game is played.

   I started thinking of a quick set of rules to use with ancients or Medieval figures. Using Battlelore or Command & Colors for ideas, units are  light, medium or heavy.  Light infantry are either archers or infantry without body armor or shields. Medium infantry is armed with either a shield or body armor, but not both. Heavy infantry is armed with both shield and body armor.

I didn't take any pictures of this game until half way through. Using my unit classification, the Britons were made up of mainly medium infantry; the Romans, heavy. Therefore, I put two hills that the Britons should reach to offset the difference. As I was setting up, I used mainly based figures; two bases equalled a unit. It was simple enough that when a unit lost a figure, to replace the base with a solitary figure. 

A closeup of a Roman light infantry unit that has lost one man. Thank goodness I hadn't taken all the figures off their bases!

The heavy Roman infantry takes one hill.

The Romans start pushing back the Britons right flank.

The Britons launch  a counterattack.

They recapture one hill.

The Romans send three units to retake the hill.

The Romans attack all along the front and finally break the Britons line.

 

Old Airfix and Battlescale Terrain

        It seems harder to get any gaming in recently. I have been looking around for some new ideas that might make it possible to get more gaming done. Among the blogs I follow is Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About . I used his Simplicity in Hexes wargame campaign earlier this year and enjoyed the game. He uses a 6x6 hex board for this game, which uses Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenarios for the games.  Using these rules would allow me to use my new Battlescale hex terrain pieces.

    I've also have found myself wanting to use some of my older figures, even if it was for one game. With the Battlescale hexes set up, I decided to use my Airfix Romans and Ancient Britons with No Brain Wargame rules. As the game area was smaller, any figure retreating only retreated one hex instead of two. In the center of the board I put two hill pieces as objectives to be captured. The hills had no effect on the rules, they were simply target  points.  The game was a quick, enjoyable game as I hoped for. Now I am thinking of trying different rules using the 6x6 and Neil Thomas' scenarios.

The two armies deployed.

The Romans capture both hills.

The last two photos of the battle didn't come out. In the end the Romans captured the hills and the Britons strength  fell to under 50%; at this point I called the battle.  I'm happy with the results, and look forward to trying some more games with the Battlescale pieces and old toy soldiers.

No Brain Roman Wargame

  When I started wargaming some 20 years ago, it gave me an excuse to dig out the thousands of plastic Airfix and Esci figures that I collected over the years. Among the Airfix figures were some Romans. I managed to find a couple more boxes, and started to base them for games. Eventually my interest switched to15mm metals, and the Romans were consigned to storage drawers.

    The other day while looking for some other figures,  I came across the Romans and on a whim, decided to use them for a game. As they were glued to the stands using white glue, they were debased quite easily.  For rules, I decided just to use No Brain Wargame rules. There would be no modifiers for the armor of shields. The goal was to use some nice figures that hadn't seen the light of day in many a year.

One of the Airfix Roman units based.

The unit from the front.

The Romans advanced in checkerboard formation. While in most No Brain Wargames,  I don't put much effort in any kind of maneuvering, in this game the Romans would try to keep some kind of unit cohesion.

The barbarians hit the Romans hard.

Instead of a blow by blow account of the battle, I will just show the pictures taken during it. It was a back in forth battle, where it seemed the battle could have gone either way. I became quite engrossed in it, and the battle lasted longer than expected. 

In the end the Romans retreated off the field. When I based the Romans 20 years ago, I also based  Airfix Celts to battle the Romans. I am now thinking of taking them off their bases to do battle with the Romans.