Low Countries V Italo-Ostrogoths - Take 2 DBM

Peter K Demanded a Rematch after being crushed!

Following on from the 32-0 win on the 17th January Peter K demanded a rematch because he needed some more practice with his chosen army.

We both chose to invade in Summer and this time I was the defended with no weather effects at 6 AM. I elected to place a Waterway and BUA to close down at least one side of the table along with two half features of Boggy Rough Going. Peter placed three 0.5 FE H[G] bare gentle hills. Apart from one piece of RGo the terrain placed almost no part in the game. I placed my baggage inside the BUA and put down my Field Fortifications [TF] in three groups spread along the table and deployed my commands 3 - 2 - 1 from left to right. Peter put his CinC's command in the centre flanked by the other two commands. See the first two pictures for the table layout and initial deployment positions. 

After some inconsequential movements which allowed me to push forward my two Reg Mounted Crossbowmen followed by the Reg Bd X Planconmen to dispute the RGo to my right front. I was really surprised that Peter behaved so defensively for so many bounds. Because it wasnt a tournament game I moved forward away from the TF to make a battle of the game which given what happened much later was probably a really bad mistake. Peter yet again got broken up due to my mounted crossbowmen braking his line apart and once he rolled the inevitable low PIP dice for that command meant that some of his knights because uncontrolled and charged into the RGO towards my crossbowmen.I managed to get three of the Planconmen elements lined up opposite his inferior archers and pushed forward to contact. The first round resulted in my recoiling back !. I then pushed back in and killed two Irr Bw I whilst my other crossbowmen took out an Irr Kn F to their front. His knights were now all over the place and crashed into my front one at a time. His general for this command hit the flank of one of my Plancomen and dragged it out into the open ground but luckily for me we drew the combat for that turn whilst the other three Planconmen were busily taking out the remaining four Irr Bw I to their front.

The loss of these six Irr Bw I along with the two Irr Kn F was enough to break this command which then fled back towards the rear leaving me to try and maintain control. I rolled high for PIP and allocated sufficient PIPs to reform the remaining Bd X and Bw I into two groups. It was at this time I managed to get into bow range from this commands now demoralised generals element which meant I had a good chance of destroying it if I was lucky with the dice roll. The CF was 4 to 3 in my favour when Peter rolled a 1 which meant all I needed to do was roll 3 or more to kill his fast knight general, which is exactly what happened. Peter then threw in his other two commands to try and get a result and promptly lost his other sub-general and another knight to a pair of really bad dice roll and left another knight sticking frontally double overlapped against my pikes.I was at this time my dice luck evaporated and I lost this combat in my turn to a 6 - 1 throw. Peter them threw in his CinC's knights and within two bounds had swept  away virtually all of my pikes after I rolled no more than three in any of the next two bounds to lose 20 elements of pikes from both commands which was enough to break both of these commands and along with it my army. Had my line of pikemen held out a bit longer I had got my knights lined up opposite the flank of his CinC's group of Irr Bw I and the three Planconmen elements were heading towards his baggage.

So Peter managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a 9-1 victory which after taking into account the 40.88% casualties he had lost from his army which was only 1,5 EE away from breaking itself gave him a 27-5 BHGS victory. It was a long drawn out slow game due to Peter taking full use of the 7.5 hours we have to play on a Sunday.

We are now scheduled for another game on the 14th of February when Peter will be taking on my Samanids with his Italo-Ostrogoths for another practice game.

Below are the pictures I took during the game which clearly shows the hard fought battle for that single patch of RGo out to my right flank.

Later Hungarians For 2016

2016 Painting Project Later Hungarians

Since money is a bit tight and I have not sold much on EBay in the last few weeks I had a look in my Project Lead Mountain pile and compared this to my current collection and realised that with minimal purchasing I could morph my Medievals into another new army, namely the Later Hungarians based on the DBM and DBMM army lists in 15mm scale.

Because Museum Miniatures does a 25% off sale during January I decided this was the best time to buy at least some of the metal I was missing to start the project at reduced expense. So off went the order on Dave Hoyles to the value of £40-37 to buy 6 x WW03a Warwagons, 16 x MD52P Handgunners, 16 x MD53P Handgunners, 24 x MA19 Pavise plus 24 more farm animals, [goats, pigs and sheep] to be used in some baggage elements for another project.

I also sent an order to Essex Miniatures for 7 packs of cavalry to use as part of the LH for the project, 3 x EMED20 Polish 1350-1480: Serbian Hussar with Lance & Shield, 2 x RNN4 Tartar: Horse Archers Firing to Side and 2 x RNN3 Tartar: Horse Archers firing forward costing another £27-52.

Finally I needed to source some figures for the Szeklers and after looking at various ranges decided that the Donningtons Rumanians range would be ideal and I ordered 1 x MOLOC01 [General], 1 x MOLOC05 Boyar [as standard], 20 x MOLOC04 Boyar and 20 x MOLOC06 Boyar costing £30-20.

Anyone who says wargaming is a cheap hobby is having a laugh as I spent just under £100 just for the missing mounted troops. Luckily I have lots of suitable infantry castings left in Project Lead Mountain to enable me to build dedicated infantry elements for this army at no additional cost even though I could just use some other painted elements for the infantry if I wanted.

I started the project as soon as the castings arrived which means some cleaning up of the castings and of course assembly of the warwagons before I even put paint to metal. The warwagons were fairly straightforward to put together with minimal cleaning up required but careful use of the professional standard boat builders superglue was required to ensure the wagon roofs were a good fit and this took me a couple of days as I left the glue to set before applying additional glue to the joints as added insurance against their failing in the near future.

The handgunners were a tight fit inside the assembled wagons and I quickly decide that their bases needed a lot of trimming so only the metal around their boots was left and that the toes would have to be cut off so they actually fitted inside the base of the wagons properly. There are four firing positions inside each wagon and I worked out that I could just fit four castings inside with a bit of effort.

I painted the handgunners first and when they were done I also varnished them before starting on the warwagons. Below is a picture of the completed handgunners

Now onto the warwagons. I painted them a dark overall brown with a light dry brushing of light brown for the grain effect then gave them an overall wash of Sepia to give it some shading depth. The metal work was paints using an old pot of Humbrol Coal Colour and then washed with a much watered down coat of chainmail colour to give them a nice metallic finish along. I painted the limber horses using my standard three colour technique and gave them all black leather harness and tack with a dark grey highlight.

The pavises were a bit more of a problem as using heraldry for the Hungarians isn't correct unless its for named personalities so I did a bit of research and found some popular motifs that were commonly used in Hungarian armies to represent either religious or national symbols.

After spending a day putting the crews inside the wagons, letting the superglue dry properly I retouched any damaged painting and set about hot gluing the wagons, horses and pavises to the bases. I then apply texture paste to the bases using ladies waxing wands trimmed down so I can get between small areas. I used precut MDF basing and I also use 2mm thick magnetic sheeting that is trimmed to cover the entire underside of the bases which gives them a secure fit when travelling and makes them easier to pick up without having to touch the castings too much. I pre-mix my base colour to what I use as my standard European colour. Paint the edges with an Earth Brown contrasting colour to set off the basing. Finally I use watered down PVA glue to apply patches of static grass. Once this is properly dried I spray the entire elements with Matt Acrylic Sealer Varnish to protect the paint and also help fix the static grass to the bases.

Below are a series of pictures I have just taken showing the six finished warwagons.

Finally the last three Feudal knights I hope I ever need to paint for my own collection. All Essex Miniatures.