Dark Ages Lion Rampant.

I'm a fan of the Osprey Rules especially the ones written by Daniel Mersey and his partners. These include The Men Who Would Be Kings, Rebels and Patriots, and now Lion Rampant and it's official variant titled Landwasters and Ravenfeeders for the Dark Ages.

Recently, we played our first game with Lion Rampant with two 24 point armies from 1066-Anglo\Danes and Normans. Some of the pictures are from the game and others are posed.

My 24 points of Normans (thus far). Two units of knights, two of foot sergeants and one bow unit. The Duke William and Bishop Otto figure are in the center of the picture. All my Normans thus far are Strelets. I call them the "large" Strelets figures because they differ from the smaller Normans and Saxons Strelets came out with later. 

One of the Foot Sergeant units. In Landwasters and Ravenfeeders they are classified as upperclass spearmen.

The other Foot Sergeant unit.

Bows

One of the knight units. In Lion Rampant they are classified as Mounted Men at Arms

William and Otto. In Landwasters and Ravenfeeders you have the option at I point to add a character to your units. The character can be a religious figure like Otto, another leader or a Bannerman. The figures give a +1 to the unit's courage roll-not a bad bonus!

Historians debate to what extent early knights charged home with a couched lance versus the more traditional javelin and sword role of Dark Age Cavalry. I chopped the lances the figures came with and inserted brass to give them both looks.

My Saxon command figure. In Lion Rampant the command figure is part of the unit, not an extra figure. We use the command figure to just mark where the command figure is. This figure was painted by my friend Jim. It's a Ral Partha figure from the 1970's and comes from their Byzantine set. This fellow is a Varangian! 

One of my Saxon Thegn units of 6. They went by various names like Hearthguard or Hiroguard. Most of these figures are from Emhar. They have an early look than 1066 to them.They could easily fit in to a pre-900 A.D. army

My second Thegn unit. The two figures on the far right are from the Zvezda Viking set-a superb set! Unfortunately Zvezda never added to the Hastings period.

One of my General Fyrd units. Most of them are Emhar figures but a few are Strelets and one is Zvezda.

One of my two Select Fyrd. By 1000 A.D. the Select Fyrd would have been well equipped with chainmail, shield and spear. These are clearly late Anglo\Danes with both round and kite shields.

Select Fyrd unit 2

Another unit of General Fyrd-most are Emhar figures.

This picture is from the game. I have one unit of Select Fyrd and one unit of General Fyrd trying to hold a small hill. Norman Sergeants can be seen in the distance. One of my Thegn units is pushing back Norman Knights. It would be that way until the Norman bowman managed to shoot them down!

Close up of the General Fyrd unit. They would hold for quite a while in shield wall holding back the Norman Foot Sergeant unit to their right.

Unless you form a shield wall your formation should be loose. These Normans would get pushed back by the Fyrd.

This unit of Norman Foot Sergeants held the Norman right by advancing and falling back when threatened. Adjacent to them are the pesky Norman bow unit. The Norman commander was content to hold and harass on that flank and in the end it worked out for him. The Saxons had nothing to reply with versus his bowmen. (Hastings?)

I painted them and hated them in the game!

My friend Mike painted these Minifig Knights about 40 years ago. These is a better frontal picture below. The command fig is the Duke William figure Minifigs made. It was painted by my other friend Jim a great many years ago. Classic Minifigs and well done to boot! Duke William would die in the game (I rolled lucky hit) but it didn't matter as Mike passed the necessary courage tests. His command figure however remained quite dead. I never did like William of Normandy.

This Minifig unit was used as Mounted Sergeants. They would take the hill, then lose the hill only to have a Norman unit take it again for the win.

Beautiful old school Minifigs. You can still get them from Great Britain but they are pricey.

Hero unit of the game in my opinion. While the knight unit was held off by the Saxon Thegns this unit, once it got going did yeoman's work for the Norman victory.

French and Indian War in 28mm

There is one period that I do that does not fit into my preferred 1\72 (20mm-24mm) scale and that period is the French and Indian War.

Recently, a friend and I restarted an interest we had in the period. The pictures are some of what I've painted thus far. The figures are from Warlord and Dixon.

The pictures are staged. Two bands of French allied Indians rush out of cover to engage a small unit of militia who have just been reinforced by a contingent of Roger's Rangers. The intended rules are Rebels and Patriots.

Damn the Torpedoes!

This is a battle report and picture record is of a simulation of the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War. It was a solo game played by my friend Jim Z. Jim is an experienced solo gamer and frequent contributor to this blog.

I personally find the concept of solo gaming interesting but have yet to try it. Perhaps soon. Jim's narrative follows:

The Models

UNION

USS Hartford  Flagship SOL

USS Ironsides ICSOL

USS Genesee SCSTR

USS Winnebago ICM

USS Milwaukee ICM

USS Passaic ICM

The REBELS

CSS Tennessee CIC

CSS Selma GBT

CSS Morgan TCGBT

CSS Gaines  TCSST

The first image as you scroll down is the Union Fleet entering the bay. 

 The second image is the USS Hartford delivering the fatal broadside to the CSS Tennessee.  The Tennessee was abandoned at that point.  She never struck her colors.

The third image was the highlight of the game.

The Morgan can be seen ramming the port side of the USS New Ironsides.  The USS Genesee in column behind the USS Ironsides could not stop in time or turn away and subsequently collided with the stern of the USS Ironsides.  With all three ships dead in the water the USS Genesee began to sink dragging the CSS Morgan and the USS Ironsides with her. They settled in the bay with masts aloft and decks awash.

The CSS Tennessee is moving away afire, the CSS Morgan is heading for the USS Ironsides trying to cover the Tennessee and the CSS Selma opposite the USS Hartford is about to take a devastating broadside from USS Ironsides that hit her magazine and blew her to flotsam.  The ironclad monitors fired a few rounds but otherwise only needed to "escort" the Tennessee back to port.

The CSS Morgan (not in any images) was hit by the USS Hartford's bow carronade early in the game, was set alight,  steered into the shallows and burned down.

All the Union ships cleared the torpedo field and entered the bay successfully.  The guns of Fort Morgan and the floating battery only managed a few armor strikes on the monitors as they passed.

This was a one hour game and it held my interest throughout.

As the Rebel fleet commander I was handed a defeat by the simple solo system that was required to remain in double line of battle with the flagship leading the attack on the CSS Tennessee.

Certainly the loss of the USS New Ironsides was a setback for the Union but Mobile Bay is now in Federal hands.  The loss of the USS Genesee was acceptable.  The Rebel fleet was destroyed.

The Union fleet enters Mobile Bay.

Feature Figures Jack Scruby 21st Foot AWI

Like many war-gamers in my age group I started out with plastic Airfix figures and Roco Minitanks. It was all we had and for a long time we would be unaware of war-game figures made in metal.

Perhaps the first clue was when we transitioned into Napoleonic games. We became aware of a line of metal figures called Der Kreigspielers. Our plastic Airfix armies quickly became supplemented by the huge variety of nations represented by Der Kreigspielers.

The discovery of metal war game figures led to a search for others through ads found in various magazines of the time. We suddenly became aware of British manufacturers such as Miniature Figurines (known as Minifigs), Hinchcliffe, Lamming, and Garrison (all 25mm). 

At the time there were not many American manufacturers that covered the range of periods that the British covered. One exception was Jack Scruby. His historical lines came in various scales. 

I was a bit of dabbler in the 1970's. In my AWI army I had Airfix plastics, 1st and 2nd generation Minifigs, Hinchcliffe, Garrison (SYW Prussians for Hessians) and one or two units of Jack Scruby's 25mm AWI.

I personally think that Jack's figures were cutting edge in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. Reading about him much later showed me he was a pioneer in American wargaming. By the 70's  other companies surpassed Scruby in terms of quality and at least matched Scruby in terms of the wide range of periods\figures available.

My Scruby figures slowly lost their luster when placed next to second generation Minifigs and the other "large" British figures. Although I was a dabbler at the time I did not consider myself a collector. What I mean by that is that I never thought of having a collection just to have a collection. Scruby figures and the plastic Airfix soon became obsolete in my mind and were regulated to a box while I chased the newer ever expanding ranges of better quality figures available.

Eventually and sadly I may add, I sold all my collections and withdrew from the hobby for about 25 years. 

During the dark years as I call them I did try to continue to paint. I reverted to plastics (in ancients) and some metal ACW from Musket Miniatures. I even purchased some excellent 28mm figures from Dixon. I was not on fire but there was a spark of desire to paint and maybe war-game again some day

In 2014 things changed. I reconnected with two friends from the old days who were still gaming. in the case of one of them I recalled a conversation we had back in the early 90's shortly before I dropped out.

We discussed how much the plastic figure market had expanded since our Airfix days and how we both had a desire to return to simpler (and less expensive) days. We considered doing the Battle of Waterloo entirely with plastic figures. 

When we reconnected in 2014 it did not take long to resurrect old dreams. The wide range of plastic figures available spurred a lot of interest in a lot of periods and I re-entered the hobby with gusto.

For me, much of the joy was nostalgic. I realized that while I was not a collector per se back in the day I had become one now. Since our scale was 20-24mm plastics I began to fish around for 20-24mm metal figures to supplement my growing collections.

In the process I discovered HistoriFigs. HistoriFigs is Jack Scruby. The company is located in Baraboo, WI, not all that far from where I live. 

To make a long story short I got the itch to do some AWI Scubys. I ordered enough for a couple of units and they arrived in some of the fastest service I've ever received.

I recently finished one of the units. They are painted in what I would call the old minimalist style of toy metal soldiers. What I mean by that is there is little shading. The figures do not lend themselves to that style so I thought to paint them in the old style which meant solid colors with multiple coats\shades to give them a classical toy soldier look. 

Below are the pictures I took featuring my Scruby AWI unit. They are painted as the 21st Foot, a unit that participated in the Saratoga Campaign of 1777. 

I made one concession to what's available now. The flag bearer figure came with a a very thick flag pole and even thicker metal flag. Back in the day you painted your own flags and Jack Scruby apparently wanted to make sure you had a great unfurled thick surface to do your work!

I cut off the pole and flag and drilled a hole for brass. I then ordered flags from a little company in Great Britain called Maverick Models. Maverick will scale his flags to whatever dimension you desire and he is economical. I highly recommend Maverick for flags.

The unit was produced for the  Rebels and Patriots rule set. It is a large unit at 18 figures.

So, here are my Scruby's painted in the old style by an old guy!

I like the classic advancing pose with bayonets out and meaning business!

Yes, that is one grenadier in the rear rank!

The fence is from the Imex sets of accessories.

The cabin on the left is a Pegasus "Russian" hut but with a North American roof. Conversion by my friend Jim.

Simple figures with the old toy soldier look. I love um!

3d printed "cabin" but I like it as chicken coop. The chickens are old Airfix. I managed to get a old box of their farm animals on eBay that were not expensive.

Maverick Model flags for the 21st Foot AWI