X-Wing Tournament at Cape Fear Games, Wilmington, NC

My boys and I recently attended an X-Wing tournament with my best friend and his son in Wilmington, NC at Cape Fear Games. GREAT STORE.  They have a huge selection of games, cards, disc golf stuff and generally awesome analog entertainment.

A close shave, but my scum bested my eldest son's Rebel squadron (with K-Wing and YT-1300).
This is only the second time I've humbled the little beggar.  As you can see, he already splashed the Khiraxz.

I ran a Scum and Villainy squadron, one of two there.  Kath Scarlett in the Firespray, 2x Black Sun Z-95s, and a Khiraxz fighter.  The squad works well, allows me to get off early missile shots and then play hard to get with my firespray, while the Z-95's team up on the large ships.  I lost my first match, but won the last three and came in third place in the Swiss-style tournament, winning some cards, counters, and some sweet dice bags.

My youngest son went 2-2 on the day with a TIE swarm.  Not bad for 10 years old.
This was one of his losses since the shuttle had the Emperor on board.  Hard to counter that.

The Championship:  Zuckuss, Dengar, and a second Jumpstarmaster-5000
squared off against a Rebel squadron of A-Wings and B-Wings.

In the end it was 1st Place:  Scum, 2d Place: Rebels, 3d Place:  Scum.
Not bad for the seedy underbelly of the galaxy.

It was an afternoon well spent.  The folks at Cape Fear Games put on a heck of a great tournament and are all about children of all ages.  We'll be back again and again (I came back a week later and bought a bunch of Sails of Glory stuff...but that's another story.)

Wars of the Roses: Earl of Oxford's Billmen and Martin Schwartz' German Crossbow Troops

Earl of Oxford's Billmen advancing

Latest Troops off the Table:  From Perry's plastic European Mercenaries, I painted these based on the livery of John De Vere,  Earl of Oxford, and ally of Henry Tudor.  Oxford rallied to the Tudor banner, having fought against both Edward and Richard previously during the Wars of the Roses. 

The movement tray is simply cardboard covered in sand and flocked.  I added
washers for weight and to give the magnets on the bases
 something on which to cling

At Bosworth, he held Henry's left flank against Norfolk, and was appointed Lord Admiral and Captain of the Yeoman of the Guard upon Henry's taking the crown.  (He also dabbled in privateering during his exile in the 1470's).  Oxford was probably one of Henry's most trusted lords, commanding the van at Stoke during the Lambert Simnal affair and again leading troops against the pretender Perkin Warbeck at Blackheath.

 
Several of the billmen wear the Oxford livery and star badge, also depicted on one of the two flags.  The smaller pennant is Devere's personal banner, with the blue boar and stars.  I painted both of these on linen for the flags.  Not as detailed as decals, but I like the fabric texture it gives to the banners.

I also include a movement tray of German Crossbow companies under an Imperial banner.  Over 1,500 Germans, 2,000 Swiss and 5,000 Irish Kerns fought under the German mercenary, Martin Schwartz at the battle of Stoke.  Schwartz was probably recruited by Margaret of Anjou (as she recognized Perkin Warbeck as the heir, Edward).  Schwartz joined John De La Poole, The Earl of Lincoln in the Warbeck conspiracy.  So I need to repaint my Burgundian handgunners as Swiss, must purchase some Irish Kerns and repaint my other Burgundian infantry in the livery of Stafford (who accompanied Oxford to crush Lincoln and Schwartz at Stoke.

The pavises are painted from actual German pavises I found online...but I am not sure of the actual units or cities, except the white/red and what appears to be a cedar (Augsburg).  I thought this was appropriate since Schwartz was born in in Augsburg, however what companies were actually at Stoke is up for debate.  I am not aware of any extant contracts or rolls that record that information.

The movement trays are just cardboard with magnet sheets covered with sand, pebbles, etc.  The pennant is an Imperial German pennant.  Again, conjecture, but Schwartz' last gig before the Warbeck Conspiracy was putting down rebellions in the former Burgundian holdings (as the long arm of the Holy Roman Empire), which is probably how he came to the attention of Margaret of Anjou.  It would make for a good story!

German Command:  The horn on the Herald is a paperclip with millput to make
the bell.  I used an arm from a Wargames Factory Saxon to hold it
(with a bit of pinning and a resculpt at the shoulder joint). 
The flags are glued linen and are typical of Imperial units...
not sure if they would have carried them to England..

Wars of the Roses: Tudor Bombard (Perry Bros, putty, matchsticks, and coffee stirrers)



On the wrong end of a Tudor siege.

 What do you do when you've run out of crossbows and pikes in a Perry European Mercenaries Set and don't desire any more handgunners?  Make a bigger gun.  I started with four Perry Plastics match sticks, coffee stirrers and a section of a paintbrush handle I was going to trash.  I added modeling putty to the paintbrush to make the barrel of the bombard.  The design for the barrier was taken from the Henry V and the Conquest of France from Osprey Books.  I also used putty to make the bombard stones, sponge and rammer.






On the Bench:  Figures to left, artillery tools center, and bombard
 position to right.  The cradle for the bombard was build from matchsticks
and the fence and curtain from birch coffee stirrers.  Later I would
add some linen thread as rope for my crew to raise and lower the curtain.

I have made a change of direction with my late 15th c army (formerly Burgundian) and decided to start painting in an early Tudor theme so Jasper, Henry, the Staffords, Oxford, etc could take on the Ricardians and the many pretender uprisings that sprouted after Bosworth (not to mention the French and Burgundian Navies).  Hence the green and white livery with red rose.  This was adopted as the Tudor Livery (different than Owen Tudor's white helms and chevron on a field of red) and worn by the Yeomen of the Guard.  I wonder if Jasper paid to have them outfitted thusly prior to Bosworth?  I don't know, but it looks nice to me. 

I also added the padded sleeves onto the lefthand crewman
 manipulating the mantle.  I only had plain sleeves remaining on the
 sprues and they looked odd with the padded jack. Similar jacks with padded
sleeves seemed to come into fashion in the last quarter of the 15th c.

This sort of gun position with a mantle, would have been utilized for a siege rather than in the field.  The bombard itself would have been transported on a carriage  and hoisted off into place on its cradle or sled by a block and tackle system.  Certainly not mobile and requiring a train of artificers to emplace and maintain.  Guns of this size (8000 lbs) would fire about a 20 lb stone.

From Lasuar’s account of the Siege of Dax (1450), “The watch ordered and set, our prince sent forth a force of pioneers and miners, who, all night long, he had make broad approaches and deep ditches and trenches ,set up his artillery, and put the protective mantles there; and he was so diligent that the prepared artillery was ready to fire at dawn.  And in the same way my lord the prince made huts by filling the wickerworks and faggots with earth, in the manner of a broad mound, to shelter the watch from the artillery in the town; and the trenches were so advanced the next day that one could go safely under cover from one quarter of the siege to another…a great part of the forward walls were thrown to the ground; and our said artillery made large and wide breaches there, over which watch was held; and we fired our large culverines at these so that, when the enemy wished to make shelters or otherwise repair them, our culverines often killed or wounded their men…”
This was fun piece to plan and build.  I decided to have a magnet underneath the gunner and Captain.  They are based on steel washers and this will allow me to switch them out with alternate figures in different livery (should the Tudors become invested).

Hordes Trollbloods: Hunters Grim Resculpt Job

Alan Breck Stuart and his Hunters Grim, version 2.0.

In a continuation of working on Trollbloods (my son's lastest interest) I bought the Hunter's Grim pack from Privateer Press.  Set it aside for a while and lost the head and a coat-tail from the main figure, Grim Angus.  What to do...

Hunters Grim from Privateer Press, for comparison.

Started with a ball of putty for a noggin.

I haven't sculpted since my high school studio classes and this was a lot small than those statues.  I was worried it would turn out too chunky looking, but am ok with how it turned out for a first attempt.

Added on rough facial features.

Facial details and great kilt.

Adding on the brim of the cocked hat.

Sculpting the crow of the hat.

The tools are a sculpting kit I picked up at Harbor Freight a few months ago.

The clay pipe stem (upper left) is a piece of styrene and the bowl was sculpted
from milliput.

I decided, since Grim Angus lost his head somewhere along the way, to make him one of my favorite characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped:  Alan Breck Stuart.  Alan Breck was a Jacobite officer in Louis' Army if you recall from the novel.   His minions are in a mixture of highland garb (my poor imitation of the Royal Stuart tartan and a well-worn bonnet [vice bowler on the out-of-the-blister]) and the uniform of The Royal Ecossais Regiment.

On and Off the Painting Table

Genoese Crossbowmen

     Finally finished the Genoese Crossbowmen (European Mercenaries) by Perry Bros. If you've assembled these, you will find that there are not enough arms to match torsos.  Solved that issue with a bit of miliput on the shoulders to continue a short-sleeved pattern on the padded jacks.  These are for my son's French army from the late 15thc, when due to political upheaval in among the Plantagenets, powerful Yorkist and Lancastrian families, England was losing its French possessions one by one.



I glued the front rank pavises to stakes on the movement tray.  My thoughts are that

pavises look ridiculous fixed directly to a figure base.

Troll Bouncer Light Warbeast

    My oldest son got into Hordes a while back, so of course I've started picking up figures.  They are very well sculpted.  I used miliput to add hair, a bit more volume to the kilts, and on the champion a boss brooch, as well as cutting off the warhammer and replaced it with a cudgel (with iron spike).

Troll Axer Light Warbeast

Fennblade Champion

X-Wing: Rendili Stardrive "STARLIGHT"

My youngest son just got into X-Wing the other night and keeps begging to go back to the game store to buy more ships.  Problem is liquidity of accounts for an eight year old, so I figured I'd try to slap together a light freighter from modelling materials I had around the house.

Body was made from Fimo clay and baked in two pieces.  Stuck them together with
Milliput and used a part from a dishwasher for the rocket.  The cockpit is a plastic nut used to insulate the connection of two shunted electrical wires.

Painted the body with acrylics and made the card and base by taking a photo of the YT-1300 cards and manipulating the photo on Powerpoint.  Not perfect, but the second attempt at kitbashing will probably turn out better.  I think I'll mold the whole body in clay next time and then use a dremel tool or electric engraver to detail.

His special attribute is that once his shields are gone, the pilot jettisons his cargo and rolls two defense dice for the remainder of the game.  Were going to try out the ship today when his friends come over.

A Simple Game in Twenty Minutes

A small board means forces will close more quickly.  The "under 10 crowd" has neither the patience nor the knowledge for maneuvering.  They want to roll dice and pick their father's figures off the table. The rangers must be set up on their camp, with the exception of one sentry.  The Fox Warparty must enter as a group from random part of the board (d6 1-2 (L), 3-4 (C), 5-6 (R).

 



          One of the problems with not having a historical gaming club in my area (plenty of fantasy and 40K types at the local hobby shop) is that I really don't have anyone with which to play unless I head to the big conventions.  Fear, not for the Lord and my wonder wife have given me two gaming buddies that are slowly but surely coming along as historical gamers.  Games must be fast paced and simple, although my twelve year-old (the math whiz) now is capable of figuring our more complex tables and will be perfectly happy spending an entire evening with dice and rulers. The eight year old hasn't developed the patience as yet.  So this is a an example of a fast-paced easy to play game with d6 and playing cards.  With all the concerns about the "Graying of the hobby", my thoughts are that the best thing we can do is provide fast past games to get kids into the hobby (perhaps introducing them to the pastime at scout meetings, local festivals, and while dads are engaged at the big conventions).  The rules are simple:
            

Under-10 Quick-play rules

                                    Musket Range:  10 inches

                                    Movement:  Rangers:  4 inches, Fox:  6 inches

                                    Cover (Rock, Tree):  +1 to hit

                                    To Hit:  d6 4-6

                                    Wound:  Black card, Kill:  Red card  (two wounds = kill)

                                                     Wound results in  Half movement, -2 to melee

                                     Melee:  d6 (highest wins)

                                                    Tie: both fall back 2 inches.

                                                    If attacker loses, he is pushed back 2 inches

                                     Morale actions:  roll if 50% casualties 1-3 (must break off engagement)

                                     Win:  Rangers (hold camp), Fox (take camp)

The Fox split into two groups to surround the Rangers' camp.

The Rangers wisely take cover behind the rocks.

Initial volleys of musketry are ineffective, but at least one Fox warrior has closed to with hand-to-hand combat distance of a Ranger.

The Fox warrior on the cliff fires, and misses.

...but successfully rolls to jump and defeat a Ranger in hand-to-hand combat, while his fellow warrior has fallen to a Ranger tomahawk.  Another Ranger falls to a musketball, and their side must take a -1 to their initiative roll on the next round. 

Finally, the shot strikes home.  Despite two casualties, the Rangers not only roll higher for initiative, but also down two warriors on the east side of the camp.  The sentry to the northwest also drops one. With 60% casualties, this fight is not worth it for the Fox.

Time to for me to flee...



 

And so the Fox war party is defeated in a game that took twenty minutes to play.  Very simple and perhaps not the cup of tea for the experienced wargamer, but, hopefully it piques the interest of the under-10 crowd and gets them away from the video games for a while.  You know you're on the right track when they ask to play again.

On the painting table.

After being away on business for almost two months, the paints and brushes are back out.  Far left- Jacobite Troll Standard bearer (I cut off the sword and added the tam, feathers, and kilt).  I'm not a big fan of "fantasy games" so I'll add a little historical bent to that game.  Also working on Command elements for the Mexican Centralista Matamoros, Toluca, and Guerrero Battalions (L-R).  Handpainted the flags since all the Mexican flag transfers on the market are generic.  As you can  (based off the originals in Austin) the Mexican standards were unique to each battalion.