FoGR TYW Swedish

A while ago I picked up a Warlord Games 'Battalia' starter set cheaply on eBay with the vague idea of using it as the basis of a Swedish or Parliamentarian army to face my Royalists/Imperialists. 

As the project was making no progress I thought I'd try speed painting an infantry unit to see how they looked, being relatively simple uniforms they seemed suitable for speed paints. 

The 'Blue' unit:

The 'Greens':

The 'Yellows':

The 'Reds':

All four units with a General I got as my prize from the ADLG-R competition:

I must admit I think they came out well considering how little effort it was to paint them (I'm sure it took longer to make them, undercoat them and base them than it did to paint them!). The Flags of War flags really help as well and as with my other 28mm FoGR units can be changed to represent different nations (the flag just slides over a wire the standard bearer holds).

I have two units of Horse I could paint the same way though I'm not sure they will be so suited to speed paints and a couple of bases of Dragoons. Of course that isn't enough for an army so to have two armies I'll need to add some more, otherwise they can just be used as extra units for my existing army.

Sharp Practice AWI British v American

An encounter battle saw my British taking on Pete's Americans on a fairly open terrain in another Sharp Practice game.

First to arrive were the Queen's Rangers faced by some American skirmishers across a field:

British Line quickly followed in support of the Rangers:

Remarkable shooting from the Rangers sees three of the American skirmishers out of action in one round of fire!

Inspired by their success the Rangers charge across the field causing the skirmishers to flee behind some Continentals. Militia lurk in the walled field as well:

The Light Dragoons arrive and spy some more Continentals in the distance:

The Dragoons gallop towards them but don't quite catch the skirmishers shielding the Continentals:

The Continentals get a volley in but it isn't as effective as they had hoped:

One man down and five shock, the Dragoons gallop on!

They crash into the Continentals!

The Continentals are wiped out!

Meanwhile the Americans have been exchanging fire with the Rangers who are slowly taking losses:

The Dragoons move on to the second group of Continentals but come off much worse:

The Dragoons flee:

The Rangers regroup into a single unit:

Fire from the British Line routs the American skirmishers breaking their army:

A bit of a different game on a more open than usual table where the quality of the British units paid off. Pete was very unlucky though with the dice with his initial skirmisher unit and failure to dent the Dragoons before they got into combat.

Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact v Americans Scenario 4 Deliberate Attack

My second game of CWC against Simon was 'Deliberate Attack' with the Soviets having to capture a town currently held by the Americans.

The Soviets have a substantial points advantage with 4,500 versus the Americans 3,000. I went for an hopefully balanced force of one group each of T72's and T64's, one of the mighty BMP-1's and one of the less mighty but cheaper BTR-80's with associated infantry. An ZSU-23-4 Shilka and a couple of Hind E helicopters made up the rest of the battlegroup.

The Americans defended their position with Abrahams tanks and a couple of infantry forces which occupied the town the Soviets were attempting to capture:

The Soviets deploy their T72's on the left aiming to advance them and engage the Abrahams. The BTR's will rush forward in the middle, occupy the wood and try to prevent any Americans reinforcing the objective. The actual attack will be made by the BMP-1's supported by the T64's advancing on the right where the Americans appear to have little to stop them:

An ATGM from the town on the left picks off one of the BTR's:

The T72's are attacked by an A10 Warthog, fire from the ZSU 23-4 Shilka drives it off though:

The T72's fare less well against the much superior Abrahams. Excellent shooting from the Americans suppresses two of them and brews one up:

Further fire brews up two more T72's and suppresses one. 50% losses very quickly! However, their role was to keep the American tanks occupied and they are doing their job:

After a slow start the T-64's and BMP's are making rapid progress toward the objective while the BTR's have reached cover in the forest nearby to support the attack:

With four tanks down and two suppressed the T72's are out of action but they have done their best to distract the Americans:

The Soviet attack is coming together with the objective town isolated and weakly held:

The Americans are not giving up yet though and an artillery strike blasts the T-64's. One is suppressed but the rest survive:

A lone suppressed T72 fights on:

The assault begins! BMP's roll forward supported by the T64's and pour fire into the town:

The town is quickly cleared of defenders and the BMP's are poised to capture it once the sole remaining American infantry are dealt with:

The Americans attempt to move up their Abrahams tanks but it is too late to save the town:

The BMP's storm the town and achieve the Soviet objective!

My third game and I'm still really enjoying the rules and thinking about how to play better. Like Rommel I suspect having a plan of some sort is essential as is thinking about the objective rather than just killing things. 

Using the T72's to distract Simon's very powerful Abrahams tanks worked well, while they were all destroyed with the only damage to the Americans being one suppressed tank they achieved their aim of allowing the rest of the army to get into position to take the objective.

The BMP's seem a bargain so far, relatively cheap and decent firepower in large numbers works well! On the other hand the air power has not done well at all, my Hinds were very expensive (260 points each plus 30 for the FAO!) and didn't manage to appear on table once! Simon's A10 and two attack helicopters were almost as ineffective. 

I think artillery might be worth looking at again though, one of the strengths of CWC seems to be the need to truly combine arms to get the best results but how to do that effectively is still unclear!

The rules also include a mini-campaign section where the results of a game provide the next confrontation. with a Minor Victory in this game we will move on to Scenario 3: Counter Attack where the Americans will attempt to drive the Soviets back. In this scenario the Americans get a scary 4,500 points while the Soviets have only 3000. The Americans have to inflict 25% casualties on the Soviets in 8 turns for a Minor Victory or break their battlegroup for a Major Victory.

I'll have to put some thought into how best to not get my men killed while hopefully inflicting more losses on the Imperialist Oppressors!

Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact II

 A few more extras for my Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact force:

Ten bases of infantry:

Eight BTR-80's plus command:

Two ZSU 23-4 Shilka:

Four more T64's:

I also added a couple of MiG23's but they are still in progress!

ADLG-R Ming Chinese v Early TYW German Catholic, Later Low Countries Spanish and Catholic Confederate

Having entered the inaugural ADLG-R competition at my club I had to come up with an army list to use. The period was from the TYW to the ECW. Not wishing to have to rebase anything I decided to use the not really appropriate Ming Chinese, partly as I'd not used my Chinese army in a long time and partly as I had a theory that bows were a superior weapon to muskets in ADLG-R.

The army was huge with numerous bow armed spear units, some impact foot swordsmen, a few cavalry and a couple of rocket artillery.

The first game was against Simon B's Early German Protestant army which consisted of three rather scary Tercios and some supporting troops:

Both sides advance and the rockets open fire targeting the Tercios:

The Chinese substantially outnumber the Germans:

There are already gaps in the German lines:

The German horse attack, while better in close combat they are flanked and already damaged by bowfire:

The Tercio's have endured a storm of rockets and arrows, taken some hits, but are almost in contact:

They charge home! One Chinese foot unit is obliterated:

The fights rage on with the Chinese unable to finish off the Tercios:

Everywhere else though the Chinese are mopping up the rest of the German army:

With a low breakpoint the Germans rout giving victory to the Chinese:

The second game of the day saw the Ming take on Richard's Early Low Countries Spanish army, another army much smaller than the Chinese:

The Chinese prepare to attack the Dragoons defending a field on the left:

Spanish foot advance in the centre:

The Dragoons prove to be much tougher than expected:

Infantry on infantry action!

The battle continues and eventually the Spanish are routed giving the Ming their second win of the day (though it may have been slightly harder if we had realised Pike and Shot units take 6 hits not 5 as we assumed):

With fatigue setting in the final game was against Andy's Irish Catholic Confederate army, an even bigger army than mine!

Most of this game took place on the left with a large fight for the marsh, hill and field anchoring this flank for both armies:

The Chinese also pressed forward on their right where I felt we had a slight advantage. The two centres largely observed each other from a safe distance:

Taking control of the field was vital for the Chinese, if Andy's substantial cavalry component managed to move through it they could cause havoc in the open:

The Chinese also make progress on the right with a careful attack:

The Chinese manage to prevent the Irish horse crossing the field:

On the right the Chinese are slowly outflanking the Irish:

The rockets advance to open fire on the Irish foot:

Having gained an advantage on the right the Chinese commit more units to the attack:

Time runs out though with the game starting to turn in the Chinese's favour but not significantly:

Overall, two wins and a draw was enough to win the competition making the Ming Chinese the first ever ADLG-R competition winners! I enjoyed the games though both Andy and I were flagging by the last one and the Ming certainly proved that they are a viable army in the rules as they are at the moment.

The medium spear bow units have some advantages (4MU bow range compared to 3MU musket range, +1 factor shooting at cavalry and a 3MU move compared to 2MU) and some disadvantages (only 5 hits to 6, not so good as resisting mounted charges) compared to pike and shot units. The army has a 27 break point as well so is large (my first two opponents only had 19 and 23 I think) meaning it can cover the table and absorb losses plus none of the units are mediocre (equally none are elite!).

I'd be happy to use them again but then I can't see me entering ADLG-R competitions any more than ADLG ones....