Separating the wood from the trees...

These are my initial attempts at trees for my wargaming terrain. These are bare and autumnal, on muddy bases painted with GW Stirland Mud. These are done in a similar way to a few tree bases I did for my desert / South Africa wargaming forces a couple of years ago.

I used a big pack of plastic trees for railways from my local model shop. They consisted of around 4 different tree designs with bendable branches, which all slot into tree trunk bases. After a bit of bending and snipping, I used the bases blu tacked to my usual milk caps to hold my trees still for painting. The trees themselves had coats of generic black acrylic, GW Rhinox Hide, a dry brush of GW Steel Legion Drab, followed by inking with Agrax Earthshade.

The bases I used came from discarded Zvezda Samurai gaming bases. I used blu tac and liberal paint coats to seal in the tree bases to them. After Stirland Mud coats I simply pegged in the loose trees and voila, a few trees to start off some woodland. Huzzah!

Early War German infantry units

So after a long slog through hordes of little grey men, I have 3 of the 4 German infantry units I need for my One Hour Wargames Early War Germans.
These footsloggers are highly detailed Zvezda models - German infantry are one of the most numerous plastic soldier products ever made by a vast number of manufacturers, but Zvezda produce by far the most detailed figures.

I tried to differentiate units with different poses and tried to keep an NCO with an MP40 and a machine gun team in each where possible.

After all that grey (GW Dawnstone, with GW Nuln Oil black ink washes) I'm taking a little break from my last batch of Wermacht to crack on with my hopefully more colourful English Civil War armies. Onwards, to victory!

For King or Parliament? Creating English Civil War armies for One Hour Wargames

Once I've got my German infantry and my one remaining British Anti tank gun sorted, I'm moving on to my English Civil War armies for One Hour Wargames.

What units are required?

Each army needs a total of 10 units.

4 of these will be Infantry, wielding pikes and muskets. The ratio of each arm changed over the course of the war from a 1/2 and 1/2 to 2/3 muskets and 1/3 pikes. In OHW they can move and shoot, partially absorb frontal cavalry charge damage, but can run out of ammunition after every musket volley!

2 will be classic Cavalry, armed with swords or similarly brutal close combat weapons. They relied on heavy horses and collective mass to break up enemy units, and are naturally the fastest units on the battlefield.

2 will be Artillery - replacing the Swordsmen in the OHW book, as the vast majority of infantry in the Civil War had small swords (sometimes called tucks). The author states swordsmen were common on the Iberian peninsula and other theatres, but I'm happy to substitute them for cannons for this conflict. After all, artillery were gradually becoming a more common sight on the battlefield at this time.

The final 2 units are known as Reiters in the rulebook, and represent a different type of cavalry. Reiters use pistols and carbines at close range to disrupt enemy formations and once out of ammunition, maintain discipline and close with swords.

What models am I using?

The bulk of my units will consist of the Revell Thirty Years War range - Imperial Infantry, Swedish Infantry and Swedish Cavalry sets. The heavily armoured Imperials make great Roundheads and the Swedes look as dashing as any Cavalier. Of particular note is the sheer variety of uniforms and poses in the cavalry set - three of these furnished me with all of the Cavalry, the majority of my Reiters and some command figures as well. Infantry ranks were padded out by Revell Conquistador pikemen, and this same set gave me a couple of dogs to accompany the Royalist commander figure (Prince Rupert perhaps).

The artillery guns and crews will be from the Waterloo 1815 set of Royalist Artillery. 4 guns with 16 crew in one box gives me the necessary cannon for both sides!

Current projects July 2017

So just to keep track of what is on my painting tray, here is a list of its current occupants :

Second Martian Assault Tripod - wielding a Black Smoke launcher and to be given a red "helmet". The abandoned trench scene depicted on the base is complete but not fully painted yet.

WW2 Early War German infantry x2 - these need some ink on the hands and faces followed by a general tidying up of the grey uniforms. Nearly there - leaving just one last unit of grey footsloggers to finish the Germans off.

Steampunk tanks - these are steam tanks from the All Quiet on the Martian front warhaming range, 15mm scaled so more like tankettes at 1/72 / 20mm scale. They have a very basic first coat of dark green but I'm probably going to put these back on the shelf for a bit as I want to prioritise other projects.

Speaking of prioritisation, from playing two wargames I really need more battlefield scenery. I have a couple more hills that need dark ink coats, and I am also in dire need of trees, which I need to base up and paint to match the wargaming mat. In short, more terrain is the name of the game!

One Hour Wargames - Take the High Ground

Today my girlfriend kindly offered to play a one hour wargame scenario with me using my muddy fields wargaming mat and my American Civil War armies.

We played "Take The High Ground" on a map that consisted of a marsh, road and small hill. With the limited amount of terrain I currently have this scenario was the most appropriate to use.

We each rolled for army composition and for who would be Red / Blue forces. I was the defending Red Army, fighting with Union forces, whereas my other half fielded a Blue Army of Confederates. I had three infantry units, two elite infantry units (called Zouaves in the Wargames book) and one artillery piece. Facing off against them were four Confederate infantry units, one elite infantry unit and a unit of dashing Rebel cavalry. After my test game (Marye's Heights) I allowed cavalry to charge as per Napoleonic rules, dishing out D6 damage but then retreating 6" once the sabres had been rattled!

The cavalry charging ability was put to good practice, taking a toll on the elite Union infantry guarding the hill. My artillery was also present  on the hill, enabling it to start thinning out advancing Rebels. Having the cannon at the front line also stopped Union reinforcements from blocking its line of sight. The elite units in the game were high priority targets, getting some good volleys off but attracting plenty of attention in return. Union firepower started off very well but Lady Luck eventually favoured the Confederates in the crucial final stages of the game.

To summarise the battle, isolated Union forces on the hill were crushed by a mixture of cavalry charges and elite musketry. Meanwhile Rebel infantry held Union reinforcements up on the main road long enough for their comrades to secure ownership of the hill. By taking the high ground, the Confederate forces just had to dig in and hold out against the Yankee counter attack. At one point both sides had exactly the same strength, but the dice rolls eventually favoured Johnny Reb and my brave boys in blue were seen off. My girlfriend quite enjoyed it, especially using her gallant cavalry to savage my elites. 

Overall a very close game, showing that the dice don't always go your way despite seemingly good visual odds on the battlefield. Severely wounded units can still cause a lot of pain (especially those elites with a +2 damage bonus!). I learned that artillery in the open and close to the enemy can only hold out for so long, and that at the end of the day, it's the poor bloody infantry that secure victory!