Peninsular Real Estate (2)

Finished off the Warbases Mediterranean buildings. The roofs are Wills sheets - which are conveniently exactly the right size for the larger building widths. I painted them with GW Terracotta, gave them a wash with Devlan Mud, then drybrushed with the original mixed with a little orange.
I suspect they may be a bit dark and dirty - our British roofs have been darkened by 20th century industrial pollution, and roofs in modern southern France for instance are much more orange. However, they look OK to my eye.
Pretty happy with how these turned out and they'll be ideal for Napoleonic games in the Peninsular War, or World War 2 action in Italy, Sicily or Crete.

Fight at da Ford - a Song of Blades and Heroes battle

Gitsnag gathered the lads around.
"Right, some of da little 'uns sez dey saw some dirty, clanky oomans clumpin aroud on da uvver side of Snotty Stream. Da boss sez we've gotta check it out. So let's go 'ave a look and wen dere's nowt there we can go back 'ome and duff up da little snots wotz made us come all da way out 'ere"
The lads grumbled and shifted lazily, then hefted their choppas and followed their leader.
Suddenly something caught Gitsnag's eye. Lumbering toward the ford he could see shambling, dark humanoid shapes. Sniffing the air he caught the taint of corruption and chaos. He grinned. He always liked a good punch up...

The Chaos Warriors surge toward the ford

 

 Gitsnag urges the lads onward

 

The servants of the dark powers appeared gripped with raw Chaos and their advance became fractured.

"I'm...I'm..changing..."

The evil warriors splashed first into the ford and Gitsnag shouted at the lads to not let them cross.

 Clank, splash, clank

 "Yoo shall not pass!"

Fighting broke out in the waters of the ford as the onrushing Orcs overwhelmed the Chaos leader and held his head beneath the water until the twitching stopped. Dismayed the nearest Chaos warrior hurled himself into the waters and was carried from the field.

 "Dats da way ta doo it!"

With momentum on his side Gitsnag urged the lads across the stream

 Waaaaagh!

The chaos warriors put up a good fight, forcing Gitsnag to back away

 "Ow!"

But it was a temporary respite and the greenskin numbers began to tell

 Gettin' stuck in

Finally the last foul servant of the Ruinous powers vanished beneath a hail of choppers and well aimed boots.

 Chop, kick, squelch!

 

A fun little SBH skirmish. Only 200 points or so a side. Sadly the smallest boy was more obsessed with getting mutations than dealing with Orcs, so I was able to lead the greenskins to glory. Still he took it well and has demanded a rematch. He says he wants a dragon next time...

Grotfang, a Warboss for Orctober (4)

A bit more work on Orc Warboss Grotfang.
Added his right arm and banner pole, attached him to a base and given his boar some horns.
Undercoat ahoy!

Peninsular Real Estate

Inspired by the recent Song of Drums and Shakos game I thought I'd do some work on some scenery for future games.
I bought these Warbases buildings a couple of years ago with the intention of using them for some Italian based games of Bolt Action (and with half a mind on multiple use for Napoleoinic and even El Cid games). They were dirt cheap and they're functional. There are two buildings here, each made from two Warbases kits.

To my mind you have to do a fair bit of work to MDF buildings to stop them looking like, well simple boxes of MDF with pretty drawings on. So rather than go for the complex and expensive pre-printed offerings from the likes of 4 Ground  I'd rather go with simple clean box shapes that I can add texture and detail to. So these have been assembled (they go together very easily) then the doors and windows stuck on before being "rendered" with a mix of PVA, filler and fine sand.

A coat of spray undercoat, then the walls were painted with a Wilkinsons taster pot colour before a wash of Griffon Sepia and then some drybrushing.
Roofs next.

Grotfang, a Warboss for Orctober (3)

Bit of greenstuffing.
Whilst doing this I came to the realisation that my dreams of becoming the third Perry Twin were unlikely ever to be fulfilled.

Still, a bit closer to a lick of paint now.

Find the Letters - a Song of Drums and Shakos Battle Report

The morning mist began to clear as the small British patrol advanced toward the tumbledown Spanish farm buildings.
"Right men, our contact has hidden the letters somewhere near that farm. Sergeant Bartholomew, take Lawrence, Morris and Shemp and search the nearest building. The rest of you stick with me. And keep your eyes peeled for Frenchies"

And so to our first ever game of Song of Drums and Shakos. Using the scenario I posted yesterday, our small (400 point) patrols would clash whilst searching for some incriminating letters.
I split the British into three groups, with Sergeant Bartholomew and the three veteran troopers sent out on my right to search the farm building, whilst the Captain, drummer and two riflemen were centre left, and a further four riflemen held the centre.
Captain l'Aurel meanwhile deployed in a much more constricted formation in the centre of the board, with fusiliers next to him and Marceau the drummer boy and the conscripts to his right with Sergeant Ardie.

The peaceful Spanish farm (gems to show possible letter stash)

Bartholomew commands the Veterans.

The British centre

Sergeant Ardie and the green recruits

Privates Lawrence, Morris and Shemp make ready

The first few moves saw cautious advances from both sides. I soon realised the error I'd made by having Bartholomew and the veterans too far from Captain Wiseman and unable to be issued with group orders, which meant my advance on the right became fragmented.

Captain l'Aurel however had wisely remained in command of his troops, although a few of the newer recruits dawdled at the rear.

Prepare to give fire!

"Aux armes citoyens!"

Captain l'Aurel bravely urges the men on (from the rear).

Eventually we made our way into musket range. The Voltiguers began to unleash volleys and two redcoats met grizzly ends! Return fire from the fractured British was less effective, but the proud French captain was forced to take cover from one close shot

Mon Dieu!

Steady, lads

Bartholomew and the veterans had made their way to the corner of the farm building, but digging in the dirt revealed only turnips, not French letters.

A spectacular shot from Private Widdle, brought brave Sergeant Ardie crashing to the ground and a wave of panic spread through the French recruits, but the cries of Captain l'Aurel and the drumming of Marceau ensured none fled the field.

"Damnation, no bonus rum for us tonight lads"

Private Miller frantically rifled through some broken earth at the edge of the woodland, but again could not unearth the letters, meaning they were concealed in the outbuilding close to the French lines. Another shot put Captain l'Aurel to the ground and, realising his peril, he called to his men to rally around.

"Right boys, let's finish this with cold steel"

The veteran British, realising their foe were likely to escape with the correspondence gathered themselves for a bayonet charge.

Meanwhile Captain l'Aurel ordered Marceau to snatch up the letters and make off. 

Uttering the immortal words, "as long as I don't get two ones, and that'll never happen" he cast the dice.

Seizing on the French confusion, Bartholomew led the men forward into a hail of shot.

Meanwhile the greenhorns held steady

Flee, Marceau, flee for your life!

Finally the young French drummer snatched up the letters and, once he had kissed his commanding officer on both cheeks, fled the field.

A final frantic charge from Bartholomew, Lawrence and Morris, saw captain l'Aurel, hold them off and wound Lawrence slightly, before the French force vanished into the morning mists.

We had lots of fun playing this.All the feedback from here and TMP about the benefits of group moves and fire and the importance of scenarios meant we had a good tense game. The command mechanic works really well and the fact that everyone is relatively low at combat bonuses but the weapons add modifiers to firepower give the game a very different flavour to SBH.
My opponent made better use of the group move and firing roles than I did and my attempts to use independent troops fell a bit flat - arguably pretty historical. Next time I'll take more care to keep my en close enough to the Captain to benefit.
We finished the evening hatching plans for the further adventures of rival Captains l'Aurel and Wiseman (and looking at models of Spanish guerrillas on the Perry website).

"Such poetry in motion" murmured Captain l'Aurel to himself as he watched the drummer boy disappear toward friendly lines. 
Suddenly fearsome yelling tore tore his attention back to the battlefield, three redcoats were bearing down on him. Drawing his weapon forth he parried the first two blows and sank his blade into the leg of one of the privates. Spinning away from the fight he shook his fist toward the distant figure of the British commander.
"Au revoir, Captain Ouiseman. Until ze next time our, ow you say, paths cross!" and with that he fled toward safety.

Find the Letters - a Song of Drums scenario

Spain, 1812

The mysterious double agent known only as El Jengibre has intercepted some sensitive private correspondence between General Hulot and his mistress, the fabled courtesan Mademoiselle Valerie de Pamplemousse (known to the grognards as Sale Val). In return for a large payment he has arranged a drop in the no-man's-land between the French and British lines. 
Unfortunately one of El Jengibre's men is in the pay of the French and as the British send out a small party commanded by the earnest Captain Wiseman, ably assisted by Sergeant Bartholomew, the experienced French Captain l'Aurel and his loyal Sergeant Ardie are rapidly advancing on the same spot, determined to protect l'honeur of their commanding officer. 
However the wily Spanish spy has not been entirely clear about the exact location of the letters, so the two patrols will need to search for them whilst fending off the attention of their rivals...

One player sets up the table and places three small tokens (each in a terrain feature). Tokens may not be closer than long distance to each other or any table edge.
The other player then picks which side of the board to enter from, with his opponent entering opposite. Dice to see who deploys first, alternating models until both forces are set up. Models must deploy within short range of their table edge.
Then dice to see who takes the first turn.
Whenever a model moves into contact with one of the counters roll a D6. On a 5+ the letters are discovered and all the tokens are removed. When a model contacts the second token, the letters are discovered on a 4+. If the first two are not the cache, then the final token is automatically the letters.
It takes two actions to pick up the letters.
As there is a reward on offer, soldiers will not voluntarily hand the letters over to anyone else until they're safely back in camp.
If the letter bearer is killed the letters are dropped.
If the bearer fails a morale check he drops them at the start of his flee move, hurling them aside in his panic (or in an attempt to distract pursuers).

Victory points.
1 point for each 25 points of opponent dead or fled.
5 points for getting the letters off the "home" base edge.

This is a scenario for my first game of Song of Drums and Shakos tomorrow night.
It's adapted from one in the SBH rulebook.
Some of the feedback on TMP was that scenarios add to the flavour of Ganesha games, so I've taken that on board.
Quite excited to see how it plays out.