The first Schiltron

The first Scots schiltron makes it off the painting bench for the Bannockburn project.

These are Black Tree Design figures. Quite a lot of flash on these figures, often in those annoying places you only spot, after you have started painting! None the less the detail is excellent, making painting very straightforward. The spears are moulded on, a big plus for me as I have boxes of figures with spears I am constantly gluing back on. Yes, I do glue before painting, but wear and tear on the wargames table wins out every time.

The spears look a little short for Scots, but I take the view that there would have been a range of spear lengths in the Scots army. I certainly don't go along with the pike classification option in one popular ruleset. However, I am getting prepared for the inevitable punter at the first wargames show, who will tell me, with absolute certainty, that I have got some aspect wrong. The fact that our sources for what the army actually wore and fought with are virtually non existent, won't put them off!

Given the number of figures needed, I decided to open the tin of army painter quick shade that has been sitting in a draw unopened for a year or two. I have been using inks or GW Devlon Mud wash for most of my recent painting.

I'm fairly pleased with the result, certainly a lot quicker than the two or three stage method I usually adopt. I use a brush application as I tried dipping some older figures and the effect was a bit OTT. Although it has breathed some new life into some of my earlier, more basic painting efforts.

WW1 and the Battle of Cer Mountain

Other than Bannockburn, the other major anniversary this year is the start of World War 1 and that is clearly of Balkan interest.

The spark that started the war was of course the assignation of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. It has become a fashionable during this anniversary to debate who is to blame for the war. I would argue that this is pointless as the causes are multiple and complex and can’t be placed at the door of one country or incident. Having said that, Serbia clearly has some responsibility given their involvement in the assignation, so Serbian government plans to erect a statue to Princip in Belgrade is at best in bad taste. The incident that led to the death of more than 10 million soldiers is nothing to celebrate and I doubt if many of their families will see the 'injustice' in Princip not having a monument.

While the Austro-Hungarian priority ought to have been defeating the Russians, they split their forces and invaded Serbia. The bombardment of Belgrade is fairly well known, but the main Austrian forces were in Bosnia and invaded from the West crossing the Sava and Drina rivers. The decisive battle was around Cer Mountain where a numerically inferior Serbian army routed the Austrians. Often just a footnote in histories of WW1, Max Hastings covers this campaign well in his new book ‘Catastrophe’. 

I have the armies in 15mm, based for Great War Spearhead rules and these allow big battles to be fought. I have also been experimenting with Bolt Action and the picture below shows a small scale action with four sections of Austrian infantry supported by cavalry and artillery attacking Serbian positions. These rules worked well, and I will experiment further with 28mm figures.

Bannockburn 1314

This year is the 700th anniversary of Robert the Bruce’s (or De Brus when I am winding up Nationalist pals!) great victory at Bannockburn on 23/24 June 1314. It makes a change for me doing a project based on a battlefield that I can visit easily, rather than some obscure part of the Balkans.

Obviously, this will be a big anniversary here in Scotland. The visitor centre and the Bruce statue is undergoing a major refurbishment (with state of the art 3D experience) and there will be a range of events. The archeologists have also been busy and are due to publish a new report prior to the anniversary date. I suspect it will be a popular display game on the Scottish wargame show circuit and GDWS will add to that with our planned game, based on the less well known first day of the battle. We are aiming for the Carronade show at Falkirk on 10 May. Very appropriate as the English army marched through Falkirk the day before the battle.

As always we start with the research. Despite the many books written on the Scottish wars and the battle itself, the primary sources are very limited and confusing. There is even controversy over where the battle was fought. The traditional site for the main action on the second day, as set out by Oman and others, is now regarded as unlikely in favour of the Carse further to the East. Just as well as the archeologists will struggle to get beneath the housing scheme. We do not protect our battlefield sites well!

I have started with Peter Armstrong’s Osprey Campaign book, not least for the excellent maps and drawings. Osprey’s MAA 151 is also helpful, as always primarily for the colour plates and illustrations. Aryeh Neusbacher’s book is well written and nicely illustrated, but the content has been criticised. Not least by Chris Brown’s book that analyses the sources in some depth and, to my mind at least, provides the most credible description of the battle so far. There are a couple of new books out, and no doubt more to come, that I haven’t got round to reading yet.

Fortunately for us, the first day of the battle is less contentious. The advance guard of the English army, commanded by the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester charge Robert the Bruce’s schiltron at the ‘entry’ to the New Park, a wooded hunting park in those days. They are repulsed after a fierce fight and this is where the famous single combat between Bruce and de Bohun takes place. 

Meanwhile, Clifford’s force takes a more easterly route skirting the New Park, it is thought, along ‘The Way’, through the Wood of Balquhiderock towards St Ninian’s Kirk. Moray’s schiltron may not have seen them until quite late due to the wood and he advanced to intercept. There are two possible sites for this clash, but either way the English were repulsed and the bulk of the force is likely to have returned to the main body of the army that was arriving late afternoon and evening.

I use the word ‘English’ army as a generalisation. Our modern understanding of national sentiment should not be transplanted to medieval times. The English army included many Scots. Not just the Balliol/Comyn faction that Bruce had usurped for the throne, but many notables from south-east Scotland who sided with the English King. 

The next step is building the armies, in 28mm of course. We have done a number of feudal battles in recent years so some figures will transfer easily. The story that a unit of Templars fought for Bruce is almost certainly fantasy, but its a good story and a few of those we painted for the Battle of Muret last year might sneak into the line! The main painting task is the Scottish schiltrons. I have one unit, but others will be added from Old Glory, Claymore Castings, Front Rank, Black Tree and Curtey’s to give plenty of variety.

Scenery is quite straightforward with woods and burns (streams) being the dominate characteristics of the site, as well as St Ninian’s Kirk.

Anyway, less talk and more painting is needed if this project is going to get off the ground!

Flames of War - Chinese Nationalist WW2

My initial Chinese army for WW2 is now complete and ready for the tabletop. They are based for Flames of War.

By the 1930's the Chinese army fighting the Japanese was reasonably well organised. It had two basic uniforms; grey/blue padded for the winter and light khaki for the summer. As the war went on supply became more difficult and uniforms would have become faded. Helmets and caps came in many shapes including the German 1935 model, reflecting the German advisors and other equipment.

I have gone for the grey uniform, with a number of variations in shade and colour, largely to differentiate them from other armies. The figures are from the Eureka range, but be warned they are not cheap. There are three sections of infantry, rather too well supplied with support weapons. Two mountain guns, a 37mm ATG, HMGs and Mortars. When I return to this project, more infantry will be needed.

Dynasties on the Danube

This was the title of our big game at the GDWS double header this weekend. Early 18th Century using around 600, 28mm figures and Black Powder rules.

The scenario was based in 1719. Austria, Russia and Poland have come together in a new Holy Alliance to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans. They mobilise in Belgrade and advance south. The Ottomans are ready for them and block the route. Let battle commence.

A Croat Brigade is the Austrian advance guard and they seek to expel an Ottoman advance guard from a village that controls one of the river crossings. However, they get bogged down giving the main Ottoman army time to deploy. The Russians arrive on the Ottoman right and force the river against a Wallachian Brigade and the Ottoman right wing cavalry. The Tartars arrive next to harass the Russians, but are sent packing by the somewhat tardy arrival of the Polish army. Meanwhile the Austrian army is largely destroyed by the Ottoman left and centre. Score draw to the Ottomans.

Very enjoyable game, three players a side on Saturday and two a side on Sunday. As always with Black Powder, lots of fun!

The full table, with the Ottomans at far left facing the Austrians. Russians in foreground trying to force the river.

The Russian army

Russian Grenadiers lead the bridge assault 

Ottoman centre with the Janissaries and artillery and left wing cavalry

Austrians attacking the village.

National Archives - First World War 100

A news item on the BBC the other morning caught my eye describing how the National Archives are putting war diaries on the web as part of their First World War 100 project. If you haven't had a chance to delve here I can highly recommend it.

The war diaries are themselves interesting as hand written records of the daily actions of units in the front line. The idea is to get us to do the classification and many people have clearly already been taking part.

There is a much more on the site including access to a lot of other documents. I was searching for materials on the Salonica campaign and came across this wonderful memo from the First Sea Lord, Jellicoe telling the War Cabinet, in gloriously pompous tones, of the need to withdraw troops in May 1917. Somehow the typewriter gives the words more feeling than seeing them reproduced in a book. You can almost hear Jellicoe dictating them to a secretary.

There are also General Milne's (He commanded the British Army) regular reports of his and the allies actions to the War Office.

There are also podcasts and film clips. I particularly liked this one of Franco's attack on Barcelona in 1939. The artillery far from being spaced out in WW2 style is firing from a column formation.

The National Archives are certainly providing a great resource.

Dacian Wars

I got one of my recent projects onto the tabletop yesterday at the club - Dacian Wars.

Two 300 point Hail Caesar armies organised into two divisions on either side. I haven't played a lot of Hail Caesar recently, so it was good to get back to the system that I think works really well for ancient battles. Unlike FoG and some other systems you rarely get individual units charging around the table, or even some of the Napoleonic style manoeuvring. You do what I suspect actual ancient commanders did. Devise your battle plan, hope your subordinates stick to it and possibly intervene personally with a reserve or at a critical moment.

Hail Caesar rules mechanisms largely force that with the proximity rule in particular. There is still a fun element with the order system that delivers the uncertainty of subordinates not doing what you want.

In this game, the Roman left division charged across the table while his left flank blundered and almost marched off the table. Sadly for my Dacian's, they recovered before I could take advantage, largely because one of my units blundered as well. The key with any warrior army like the Dacian's is to burst through in the first round. Fighting against tough veteran legionaires you are going to come unstuck if it becomes a slugging match, and so it proved.

Good game and gets me in the mood to start the research into the Bannockburn project, not to mention the growing pile of metal Scots spearmen!

Malaya 1942

Last game of the holidays before returning to work tomorrow.

First outing for my new 28mm British and Japanese forces for the Malayan campaign of 1942. These are 28mm figures - Japanese are Warlord and the Brits are Perry's. The rules are Bolt Action.

By no means a finished project, but enough for a good game. The Japanese right wing crossed the stream and captured the village as the tank and the other infantry section pinned the Brits down on the road. I do like the special Banzai rule. It doesn't give the Japanese any 'supermen' close combat factors, it just keeps them fighting until virtually wiped out.

Nomonhan Incident

I have at last managed to get two 1500 point Flames of War armies on the tabletop for the Nomonham Incident.

In 1932, the Japanese occupied Manchuria, giving them a 3000 mile frontier with the Soviet Union. Between 1931 and 1939 there were many border clashes, the largest in May 1939 at Nomonham. The Japanese eventually engaged two divisions with supporting army units, totalling some 30,000 men. The Soviet counterattack, led by Marshall Zhukov, involved 77,000 troops including two rifle divisions and two tank brigades.

The title 'incident' implies a mere skirmish. However, the Japanese admitted to 17,000 casualties and the Soviets 16,000, as well as 196 tanks and 133 armoured cars. That's a battle at any time in history. Strategically, it encouraged the Japanese to look south for the next stage in their expansion and the Pacific War was the consequence.

For those interested in giving this a go, I have reviewed a couple of books and the Flames of War supplement 'Rising Sun' is excellent. It also covers the Finnish War.

A few photos from my tabletop clash. Waves of Russian tanks and infantry attack both sides of a small village. If it looks unbalanced, that's because the Japanese are all veteran, while the Russians are conscripts. The Russian steamroller won through on this occasion.

The models are from the Battlefront, Peter Pig and Plastic Soldier ranges. You will find a number of reviews of these figures in posts throughout last year.

A late addition was my xmas painting of these two very nice Battlefront Russian 122mm howitzers.

Happy New Year!

A lot of stories about liver disease in today's Scottish media that I didn't appreciate after last night's excess, but a break in the rain meant I got out for a walk and cleared my head. It's been a good holiday break with some reading, gaming and painting done. Of course this means that I may get too over optimistic about what can be achieved in 2014!

Firstly, the projects.

As always some finishing off to do:

• The Nomonham project is almost complete. I based two Russian 122mm guns this morning and that gives me all I need. There is still a box of Japanese infantry that needs attention at some stage as the Japanese will need some reinforcements.
• Malaya 1942 - still needs some heavy weapons, particularly for the Brits, and an order has been dispatched to Warlord for these.
• Yugoslavia WW2 - just needs some Italian heavy weapons, again en route from Warlord.

Then some new projects:

• Chinese for the Sino-Japanese War. The Eureka figures are superb, if ridiculously pricey.
• Scots for Bannockburn. The anniversary is the big event in Scotland and I suspect you won't be able to move for display games at Scottish shows this year. I have been collecting spearmen from several ranges, although not entirely happy with any of them.

On the subject of display games, a few other members have stepped up this year with projects, so my focus is something related to Bannockburn. The challenge will be to find a different angle.

The other big anniversary is of course the outbreak of WW1. As it kicked off in the Balkans, I may do something Austrian and Serbian at one of the shows. I certainly plan to highlight this part of the war and may even add a figure or two to my collection. Credit to Max Hastings, who has given this more coverage than it usually gets in his book 'Catastrophe', my current reading.

On reading, I am still working my way through the reading pile I purchased at Hay-on-Wye, but there is so much good new stuff coming out I may still be looking at it next year.

I have highlighted a few other anniversaries in the month's update on Balkan Military History. Hard to believe I have been editing this website for 17 years! Chaldiran is one that particularly caught my eye as an interesting action. Plus the Ottoman/Venetian war of 1714, when the Turks recaptured the Peloponnese.

Well, all that should keep me busy. All the best for 2014 and good luck with your own projects.

The Pagan Lord

Second on my holiday reading list has been Bernard Cornwell’s latest epic, ‘The Pagan Lord’.

This is the latest in the Warrior Chronicles, telling the story of Uthred, the pagan warlord, who was brought up by the Danes, but fights for the Saxons. This is the seventh instalment in the series and covers the period after Alfred’s death up to the historical battle of Teotanheale in 910. The Danes are still pressing the Saxon kingdoms and Uthred is as usual in trouble with the church he despises. He is banished, tries to capture his birth right fortress at Bebbenburg, and when that fails, comes back to save the Saxon’s yet again.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it does have to be said that the formula is getting a bit worn. A bit like Uthred himself, who is getting on a bit. You might think, time to ride off to Valhalla with sword in hand and you would probably be right.

However, the problem with this critique is that it is still a great yarn. Absolutely compelling reading that you just can’t put down. Cornwell is simply the master storyteller and while the formula is getting a bit repetitive, there is enough of a gap between titles for the reader to recover. Bring on the finale!

Chain of Command

I played my first game of Chain of Command at the club yesterday, the WW2 platoon level skirmish game by Two Fat Lardies.

We played a VBCW scenario, with three sections of my Red Clydesiders supported by a T26 and an armoured car, against a similar force of Covenanters.

The spotting phase is innovative, with markers patrolling in 12” moves until they contact an enemy patrol within 12”. That locks them in place and converts into jumping off points for a rifle section. You have four markers that have to keep within 12”, so that constrains your ability to start too far into the table. In most cases it will probably result in a standard deployment, but it doesn’t take long and makes you think about the terrain and how best to exploit it with deployment.

The game places a great emphasis on leadership. The command dice roll at the start of each phase makes all activations and these allow leaders to move, fire or rally troops. Senior leaders are the most important as they have multiple activations for troops within 4”. You also collect command points that can be used to interrupt during your opponent’s phase.

Shooting effectiveness is based on the training of the enemy troops like FoW. The ranges are long as this is a skirmish game.

We had a fun game, but I have a few reservations. Like a lot of TFL games the movement is very random. Troops can sit around doing nothing for a long time and I am just not convinced about this. Units faltering by events like being fired on I can understand, but just sitting around when you have clear orders from the outset, simply doesn’t feel right. It is also possible for one side to have two consecutive phases, which is a very big hit.

A number of the mechanisms are unduly complex, even allowing for our first game learning. There are unnecessary stages and detail that I am not convinced adds anything to the play or the ‘realism’. When you get to armour effects there are many outcomes that you need to write down to remember. I found this irritating, slows the game down and visually unattractive.

In summary, some nice ideas and I don’t have a problem with the leadership focus. However, it’s too random, unnecessarily complex in places with some turgid mechanisms.  I’m afraid it wont tease me away from Bolt Action.

Militargrenze using Muskets and Tomahawk rules

I did promise myself some gaming over the holidays and I got to a project inspired by my first game with the excellent Musket and Tomahawk (M&T) rules.

At the time it occured to me that this would work just as well on the military border between Croatia and Bosnia/Serbia, known in Austrian as the Militargrenze.

I have written a short article on Balkan Military History explaining the military structures on both sides of the border. Then I converted the main troop types into M&T classifications.

I have now fought three short games around a Grenzer village being attacked by Ottoman forces. The rules work really well and provide interesting and quick games.

Here we have a unit of Azebs and another of Gonullu trying to work their way around the back of the village. However, they are repulsed by the sturdy Genzer.

The Janissaries did little better in the frontal attack.

Just as the Grenzer though it was all over with the Ottomans in flight. The mighty Rasputin (our cat) arrived on the scene!

But of course, with name like Rasputin he has to be an Orthodox Christian, so he decided to play with the fleeing Azebs!

 

 

Whatever the M&T classification - he wins!

To Conquer or to Die!

My holiday reading starts with, ‘Conquer or Die! Wellington’s Veterans and the Liberation of the New World’ by Ben Hughes.

Simon Bolivar’s campaigns to liberate the northern states of South America are fairly well known. Popularised, for wargamers at least, by John Fletcher’s ‘Liberators!’ booklets and range of figures. He is also the author of a recently published Osprey essential histories book on the wars of liberation.

However, this book focuses on the 6,000 or so British volunteers who served, largely with distinction, in the republican armies of Venezuela and Columbia between 1817 and 1820. In the main, they were Napoleonic wars veterans who volunteered to fight in South America. It tells the story of these wars through their eyes and by any standard it is a remarkable story. One of great courage, much misery and endurance, coupled with incompetence and farce. Nonetheless, they made a significant contribution to the republican victory, one that is only partially recognised, even today.

My wargaming of this period has focussed on the other great Liberator, San Martin, who led the Argentine armies across the Andes to liberate Chile and then Peru, where he joined up with Simon Bolivar. There is more on this at my website and GDWS did a number of display games with the converted figures in 28mm during 2007. Wargames Illustrated published a feature article on these games in August 2007.

I would also recommend reading Robert Harvey’s ‘Liberators’ and John Lynch ‘Simon Bolivar – A Life’. He did another book on San Martin.

Orinoco Miniatures have just brought out a range of figures in 28mm for the period, starting with the British Legion. They look very good together with the first Columbian and Spanish foot. I suspect I will give in when the distinctive Llanero cavalry arrive. Flags of War have also started a range of flags.