DzC ruins

I tossed together some ruin terrain for Dropzone Commander.

We are going to have a small tournament in DzC this weekend so I thought it was best to add some new terrain to the club.

These were real easy to make and the result is over my expectations, and especially considering how little time they took to make.

I just glued some bits on a base, added sand and then a quick zenith light base priming.
After that some small colour on some of the walls and lastly some tags and other graffiti.

It really don't show any good on any of the pictures but apparently Killroy was there...

Saracen Cavalry

I tested to batch paint a whole unit in one go.

It saved up on time and I managed to paint a whole unit in less time then it would take to paint them i lesser parts. The idea with batch painting is to use one colour on all models before switching to a new colour and work that one over all. I used a brown primer as a start on these as I wanted to have lots of brown horses and leather on the riders, all meant to speed up the painting.

The miniatures are a mixture of Magister Militums historical Saracens and some of their fantasy miniatures mixed in, and the Hornblower was given a steed from Gripping Beast.
I like the riders and they got a nice mixture of equipment and looks good. The horses on the other hand.. some of them is far to small.

For a light horse unit as the previously painted it works but as I initially wanted to have a heavy cavalry unit I dont think it looks believable.
So I think I shall downgrade these miniatures. They are carrying chain mail armour, helmets and shields so they could be used as heavy cavalry but as some of the horses are really small I plan to downgrade these into a sort of medium cavalry unit and threat them as a milita or levy unit compromised of somewhat richer citizens drafted to make up for a cavalry unit. They are missing the training and horses of a proper heavy cavalry unit.

With that in mind I opted for a more brown colour palette then some of my previously Saracen cavalry units but still with some details and colour. And I skipped on some of the fabric details and so on.


I plan to take some miniature comparison pictures later so you can see the difference in sizes on the horses as I think that on their own they actually look pretty descent.

So the verdict on Magister Militum... I like their infantry and most of their cavalrymen but dislikes their horses.

French vs Austria, Napoleonic AAR

After what feels like ages I actually got to play another Napoleonic battle again.

Big thanks to Tobias (http://tobbesfow.blogspot.se/) for wanting to try out his Austrians.
When we calculated together what he could muster we ended up with a 175pts army and with that points I choose opposition army.
Its actually my first time using points in Black Powder and it worked out fine.

My army compromised of two Brigades, one Cavalry brigade and a Infantry brigade.
The Cavalry brigade was commanded by a Command 7 officer and two Hussar regiments, one upgraded to veterans.
The Infantry brigade was commanded by a Command 7 officer and two line regiments one was upgraded to veterans and tough fighter.

The Austrian Army was lead by a Command 8 officer with two Line regiments, one regiments of Landwehr and one regiments of Grenadiers.

 First fire was given by the Austrians, some casualties but nothing I cant take.

The Line regiments return fire.

And my Hussars refuse to move.

Austrian Line and Landwehr firing again.

I finally manages to move one Hussar regiment after many tries...
The Line infantry was ganging up on the Landwehr trying to make an impact what should be his weakest part of his army. The plan was to start somewhere.

I reformed to an assault formation but didn´t manage to cover the whole distance. But the reduced fire was enough to send the Landwehr packing.

 Austian Grenadiers in white and one of his Line in white with yellow facings and black hats.

 The Hussars are taking a beating.

The Hussars are ordered back to later be reformed by the Cavalry brigade officer when they are out of harms way. They were in a world of hurts after being hit by musket fire previously.

The line shoots at his Grenadiers while I assault the other unit in the side. Nice one.

All I managed to do was to a stamina of damage and pushing him somewhat back. I didn´t dare to continue on the push as I feared to be enveloped from three sides. So the men was ordered to sit tight and hope for the best, they could be in a very dangerous situation here.

Both my units fire against his line while my veteran Hussar regiment assaulted his Grenadiers.

He tried to reform into a square as his charge reaction but rolled two 1 resulting in a total failure. This will hopefully cost them dearly. Huzza
Its feel next to impossible to charge infantry that havn´t taken a beating before with cavalry as only a double 1 or a double 6 will result in anything useful for the cavalry. But when they are shaken or disordered that would be a whole different game, the problem is just how to do that.

The result was a draw... One casualty on each side resulting in a draw and my Hussars was forced to redraw.

The Hussars blunders and redraws further next turn instead of joining in for a combined assault on the Grenadiers.

The close combat forced the Grenadiers to break rank and are pushed backwards.

The victorious unit of tough veterans pushes into the next line.
My other infantry brigade decides not to move and they stand still firing some small shots at the other enemy line infantry.
 

The enemy line was broken in the combat and his commanding officer went missing with it. A replacement officer from a lower rank takes command.

Severely beat up Frenchies... But they did manage to brake his line so Im happy. 

I realised that  his Grenadiers where in open order but still had some of his men outside the forest making a juicy piece of target for my veteran Hussars.

The Battlefield promoted enemy commander looks in horror as the Grenadiers are assaulted.
 

My cavalry officer tries to reform the battered remains of a hussar regiments but they are still a long way from a healthy status.

Enemy Grenadiers are finally beaten and a win for the liberty and the French republic. Soon will all the tyrannical Monarchs of Europe feel the power of the new world order.



A great game that could have ended totally different. My army was actually a wound or two from breaking in turns so it could really have ended the other way.

Thanks Tobias, I hope we can have many more games like this. 

Arabic light cavalry

I painted these Arabic light cavalry.


The miniatures are from Magister Militum, they are a mixture of their historical and some fantasy miniatures.

The riders are okey, but the horses are rather bad in my opinion. But I must say that they look a little better now with paint on them compare to when I assembled them.

I like the infantry models and some of the riders from Magister but definitely not the horses.