Oasis Denial - A Lion Rampant Battle

Monday Nights Action Report from the Shed sees a second game of Lion Rampant in the time of the Crusades. This was a hastily put together scenario with the following background.

A strong force of Christians are pursuing a Saracen Warband in the deserts of Syria. Water is running out and their only hope of salvation is to capture the Oasis. The Sarcen commanders know of their foes predicament and will do their utmost to deny this valuable resource.

With four players attending (Mark, John and Stephen plus myself) we split the forces evenly, with both sides supporting 48 points of troops.

The Saracens would be predominantly lightly armoured, mounted and bow armed whereas the Crusaders would dominate on the infantry front and well armoured. This would be an interesting experience to see how two matched sides in points but vastly different force compositions performed.

The Forces

Saracens

Each Saracen force contained

1 x Mounted Sergeants with Bows
3 x Mounted Yeoman with Bows
1 x Spear Armed Yeoman infantry
1 x Archer Unit Infantry

Crusaders  

Each Crusader Force Contained
1 x Mounted Men at Arms
1 x Mounted Sergeants
1 x Archer or Crossbow unit
1 x Bidowers Unit
2 x Foot Sergeants

Each Side was formed along a long table edge, with the Oasis positioned on the Saracen table edge between the two forces

The Saracen horse mass outside the Oasis

Awaiting the advance of the armoured crusaders

The target Oasis to the centre left of the table

The Crusaders advance into a hail of Saracen arrows...

With the cavalry advancing rapidly the Saracen light horse fall back

On they push...

Crashing into the light cavalry

Mounted battles erupt across the field - the lightly armoured Saracens quaking in their boots, and cursing their poor luck to be here that day

The Saracens throw in their own mounted knights - just to be repulsed as quickly as they arrive

The Crusaders push up on their right flank - demolishing the Saracen forces

With the Oasis in site armoured foot march forward.

A final desperate charge from the Saracens comes to no avail..

The Christians have reached the edge of the Oasis...

All across the front they push forward

More cavalry action (over 100 horse figures on the table)

Finally the Crusaders force their way into the Oasis

So the end result - a crushing victory for the Crusaders. A combination of really poor Saracen dice rolls and the superior Crusader armour put the Christians in front.

A fun game and we will certainly return to the Holy Land in the new future

Until next time

A thankless task - Movement Trays

Hi Folks

Since my foray into Muskets & Tomahawks I have been using movement trays to speed up play (an indirectly protect the figures). All my 28mm figures are based individually on 25mm steel washers.

However the aesthetic look of these movement trays leaves a lot to be desired. Lets face it plain mdf is boring.

So last week I decided to do something about it and the following has taken for ages !

I have in excess of 80 Movement trays ranging from some small ones (three holes) to some large ones (12 holes) - these come in two formats which I call regular and irregular.



An 8 hole irregular movement tray

All of them have been sourced from warbases over the last couple of years

http://war-bases.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=68


First up the mdf base need priming. Nice and simple job using cheap spray paint.

Now comes the first big job. To give these trays some texture I firstly 'painted pva glue on the top surface trying to avoid getting glue in the 'holes'. Once the glue was applied I dusted the tops with coarse sand.  I soon developed a factory line approach as can be seen in the photos below.
This took a long time and there were plenty of occasions when I thought - bugger I should never have started this.



Add White Glue



Line them up in a plastic tray



Cover in sand



Shake off sand



Finally finished stage 1

With the sand applied and left to dry I could move onto the next stage. The base coat. Again given the numbers of bases to paint and their fiddly nature (making sure the paint did not pool in the holes) this took a good two hours. But I could start to see light at the end of the tunnel.

I should add that I decided to paint all of them in the same scheme - my deserts colours, using the big old tin of pre missed paint from B&Q. This base is a match for GW Steel Legion Drab. I figured the desert colours would work for most of my terrain set ups rather than going for a temperate climate base that would not work for the arid games.

With the base colours dry I could start drybrushing on the yellow ochre and titanium buff.

The pictures below show the finished paint job

Finally I am on the home stretch. Just a few tufts (some homemade) and bit of static grass finishes them off nicely.

Was it worth it...I think so but I'll let my players decide when they next come round.


So as a reminder....this is what the bases looked like before I started...

and the finished product

Until next time

The Biggest Painting Job of the Year

Hi Folks

Things have been rather busy over the last few days so not much to report on the wargaming front - we did manage a game of lion rampant last night which will hopefully get posted later in the week.

With the Sun out over the weekend Mrs Shed had me working in the garden and one of the jobs on my list was the biggest paint job of the year. To treat all the the sheds with a new coat of paint !

As I am sure all those of you who have timber buildings will appreciate these structures need looking after if you are going to prolong their lives. My gaming shed is no exception and considering the investment its worth a few coats every copy of years.

I decided that the old brown was just a bit boring so I decided to paint the whole thing green !

Of course you need the before and after shots....

And in its new green livery

I am toying with idea of giving the whole thing a camouflage finish...

Not too sure how Mrs Shed will appreciate that...

Until next time

Monks in Flight - A Lion Rampant AAR

Hi Folks

Last night was quite possibly one of the most fun games I have played in the shed for a long time. All credit to my fellow gamers...the infamous Legatus of Legatus Wargames fame and Alastair of a wargaming gallimaufry.

Both these guys will almost certainly have posts up on their excellent blogs so do check them out.

It was only when putting together this post I realised that all three of us run wargames blogs (yes I know Legatus runs several blogs some of which ask you if you are 18+ ).

So here is the thought for the day...what do you call a group of bloggers in a shed...I'll try and think of an answer by the end of the post.

So back to last nights proceedings. It was a game set in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the time of the Crusades using the Lion Rampant rules.

The Table (west to east)

The table (east to west)

The Background.

Over the last few weeks a group of rather fanatical monks have been stoking up the anti Islamic sentiment in an area near one of the local Crusader castles under the Jurisdiction of Sir Guillarme Vin A Grett. Despite being told not stir the religious pot of hatred they continued their sermons unabated.

This clearly caused offence to the local Saracen Warlords - El Salsa Cele Ray and Sultana Ray Sun who have decided that these monks must be sent to their maker forthwith. Realising that the death of a dozen Monks in his lands to the infidels might prove problematic with his future church relationships Sir Guillarme decides to get them off his land pronto.

He has arranged a boat to pick them up outside the fishing village of El Del Bay and has provided a sizeable escort to ensure their departure.

The boat awaiting the monks in the bay...yes I know its a longboat but I have NOT built a Cog yet

Objective: The Crusades must escort the monks to the seashore. Provided at least one monk reaches the boat the Crusaders win.

The Saracens must kill all the monks  - however killing them with missile fire is not appropriate. Their blood must be spilled on the sand with a sharp blade.

Some apologies....

1. The photos appear quite dark. I am experimenting with a new lens ring flash which does not appear to have worked.
2. The Crusaders bases are all covered in static grass - these are from my Robin Hood Games as the planned Crusader Army is still being planned.
3. The infantry are all on movement trays - these need to be painted and although unsightly greatly speed up play

The Forces

For a Lion Rampant Game we had a lot of troops on the table - please don't ask the points value as I did not work it out. War is never fair !

Crusaders

1 x Mounted Men at Arms
2 x Mounted Seargeants
1 x Turcopoles (mounted Yeoman Mercenaries)
1 x Crossbows
1 x Bidowers with Bows
3 x Foot Infantry - Yeoman
1 x Serfs (Monks)

Saracens

1 x Mounted Seargeants with Bows
4 x Mounted Yeoman with Bows
1 x Archers
4 x Yeoman Infantry

House Rules

The following is contentious but we dropped the failed activation rule - ie if a unit fails its activation the rest of the force must forfeit their turn. We don't like this as it slows down the game.

The monks would activate with a +1 to move and could move 8 inches per turn


The Report

The Crusader convoy started to march up the board towards the fishing village. The Monks firmly protected in the middle.

Saracens watch from the cliffs in the distance...

As the convoy advances failed activations cause the vanguard to break from the main body...spear armed yeoman advance towards the Oasis

The Saracen horns sound the charge and the Horse advance to within bowshot range...

At the front of the line the heavy Crusader Horse rush towards the village

Their advance checked by the Saracens riding out to meet them...

Back in the rear the Crusaders ready themselves for the Saracen onslaught...

Battle commences at the rear of the line - archery and skirmish orders ruling the day

The heavy bolts of the Christian Crossbows soon decimate the Saracen Infantry

To block the advance the Saracens position their heavy cavalry across the village road flanked by their light infantry and archers

Light Saracen horse begin to harry the advancing knights (with not much affect)

More mounted missile troops enter the fray

The rear attacks are starting to cause casualties on both sides

The Crusaders horse charge towards the village and cut down by a host of arrows

Infantry support advances

Driving off the light Saracen horse...

The heavies of both sides clash with the mailed Europeans taking the upper hand

The Monks (top right) continue their march towards the sea protected by cohorts of infantry

An Archery duel opens up between the Saracen bows and the Crusader skirmishers - numbers count and the bidowers bite the desert dust

More Christian Horse pile into the dusty village

The remants of the Saracen army hide behind the village walls hoping to drive back the invaders

With foot support in abundance the Crusaders quickly force back the Saracens

A last Saracen unit is all that stands between the Monks and their flight...alas they fall to the mailed fist of the Crusaders

The Monks (and Nuns) reach safety...

All great fun !!

At the beginning of this post I asked the question 'what do you call a group of bloggers...?'

Shedson's response was ....SAD !!

My response to that was ...get on with you homework !

The best I can think of is a Roll of Bloggers...

Until next time...