40mm Imaginations Posts From My Old Blog (Part 1 )

Saturday, 26 March 2011

Hariboian Light Cavalry

The Haribo uplands of Ferraro Rocca are inhabited by nomadic herdsmen  who provide a welcome edition to the armed forces  in the shape of these Light Cavalry Lancers .

They are seen here providing a escort for King Paul II  on a recent state visit to the Haribo uplands

Sunday, 13 March 2011

New Technology

The Treborians have been experimenting with a Trebant Steam Tractor for towing their heavy artillery pieces,things are looking okay - BUT  you can never tell with new technology  

OH DEAR !!!!

Steam vehicle purchased off Ebay

Saturday, 12 March 2011

Battle (part4)

The Trborian infantry attack

With time slipping away, the Treborian Commander hurled his infantry units into the attack . Taking heavy casualties as they charged in, the survivors lost the melee and had their standard captured .

Ferraro Roccain Artillery and infantry to the rescue

By now even more FR reinforcements where arriving on the scene , and the Treborian artillery had  run out of ammo ! (started the battle with 10 rounds 'matchsticks' ) . With half his infantry in retreat , gun no longer firing and the enemy now consolidating their position ,General Hagen Dazcs signaled this remaining troops to retire . The FR CinC  Col. Velkro had won and curled his moustache in satisfaction !.

End game !

The game lasted 8 moves and by then it became evident that  Treboria was never going to win the day . They probably should have been more aggressive with their cavalry early in the game before the FR reinforcements came on , however fear of loosing to many casualties made them try and flank the enemy and by then the FR had troops in place to hold them up . The FR CinC was lucky that his reserves came on promptly (by dice throw) and his rearguard infantry unit was able to hold out (under heavy but inaccurate matchstick fire ) . They won the melee which was a bonus and by then it was all over . The Ferraro Roccain column continued unmolested on its way . Treboria will have its revenge !

Monday, 7 March 2011

Battle ( Part 3 )

Treborian infantry deploy and move forward to attack the enemy , however they come under fire from their own side as artillery shells (matchstick) fall short . Bit unnerving shooting over your own troops !.

More Frerarro Roccain troops arrive (a Territorial reserve unit), have the Treborians lost the opportunity ?. Time is slipping by with 5 out of the 12 game moves played .

Sunday, 6 March 2011

Battle (Part 2 )

The Treborian Cavalry units sweep around the FR right flank to try and exit the board at B and their artillery deploys and open fire on the FR infantry .

Treborian Artillery deploys

Shells ( well matchsticks ! ) land amongst the Ferraro Roccaian infantry

Matchsticks land shot by spring firing cannon 

The Blast Indicator Device is deployed and after saving throws etc ,casualties are removed . FR reinforcements are reaching the battlefield , and deploy 

Ferraro Roccaian reinforcements

The Treborian cavalry dismount and form a skirmish line . The FR's are defending their baggage successfully - for the time being !. 

Revenge, The Battle (part1)

Plan of the action

The FR (Ferraro Roccaian ) force of 1 infantry unit , 1 Cavalry unit plus the mule baggage train start in the center of the board and exit point B . The Treborian forces enter at A and must exit at B with half their cavalry to win (the exiting cavalry will be deemed to have fallen on the undefended FR  baggage ) . The FR force must prevent this . The game will last 12 moves . Both side will dice for reinforcements on a sliding dice throw per move .The Treborian advance guard comprises of 2 Cavalry units and a Artillery unit .

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Simple conversions

Whilst the previously mentioned battle rages , I would like to illustrate some figure conversions I have made . Funny Little Wars units are meant to have musicians and as the Irregular figures I am using do not have them , I have been busy producing them  using standard figures with the addition of bugles from their 42mm range . Simply gluing them to the figure and adding a lanyard from a suitable coloured sewing thread . Now all my infantry units are furnished with musicians .

A slightly more complicated conversion was the providing of dismounted figure for the 'Hussars of Excellance' Irregular do a generic dismounted cavalry figure with a separate head of your choice , however the figure comes in a long tunic and my Hussars are in Pelisses !. Having spoken to Ian at Irregular, I decided on a dismounted U.S. cavalryman in a short jacket , I removed the head (it had a campaign hat ) and pinned and glued into place a suitable one with a kepi . I then built up the fur trim around the edges of the jacket to match the mounted figure using MiliPut and added a sword from the Shinny Tin Soldier range produced by Spencer Smith Miniatures . A coat of paint and varnish and above is the results ! . I m rather pleased with these as they turned out better than I thought they might . I am now turning my attention to mechanical transport for my armies and have started to scouring Ebay for suitable models . Anyway back to the battle .....

Friday, 25 February 2011

Revenge !

General Hagen Dazcs in hot pursuit ! accompanied by the 'Hussars of Excellance'

En raged by the surprise attack on their new artillery piece , the Treborian General Hagen Dazcs sets off in pursuit of the retiring Ferraro Roccain army . They sight the enemy rearguard and prepare to fall upon it . The Ferraro Roccain commander Colonel Velkro responds by calling back reinforcements to combat the pursuers.

Colonel Velkro espyes the enemy !

Battle will soon be joined !

Sunday, 20 February 2011

Secret Weapon

Ferraro Roccai Armoured Car inspected by the High Command

Ferraro Roccai's secret weapon has been seen on maneuver's , armed with a machine gun it is confidently predicted that it will soon make cavalry a thing of the past . Armoured car converted from a 'Models of Yesteryear ' car using card and a Irregular m/g and gunner .

Saturday, 19 February 2011

Newly Painted figures

The Hussars of Excellence are reviewed by the Treborian Command

These are the newly painted Treborian 'Hussars of Excellence ' an elite unit made up of the sons of the ruling classes . Decided to go imaginary for this unit , as the original figure , a Greek cavalryman was dressed in khaki which was a bit boring ! . I originally started to do the Balkans because of the very cute figures by Irregular , but by this time most armies where beginning to wear drab uniforms . So I decided to go 'Imagi-nation', after 40 odd years of painting 'serious' war gaming figures, this I am finding is a pleasant change .

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Attack on the Gun Part 2

Treborian Dragoons to the rescue

The attack on the Artillery position developed slowly , (due to the Ferraro Roccain infantry units rolling very poorly on their movement dice) . The Treborian response was also slow , the Artillery crew finally manning the gun only to find that the enemy had flanked their position and they had no targets !. The Treborian Dragoons drove off one of the Black Hand Bands , but received heavy casualties from the other surrounding enemy and had to retire. Another Unit of Treborian infantry arrived on the road and drove off the Ferraro Roccain Cavalry . The defending Treborian infantry around the gun position and village where driven off with heavy casualties - However at this point things started to go wrong for the attackers ! , the second surviving Black Hand band succeeded in planting and setting fire to the Arsenal  and then retired to a safe distance . The Ferraro Roccaian C in C  suddenly realised that it could blow up at any time and his surrounding infantry (with pack mules loaded with high explosives)  were in the danger zone ! . He ordered a general retreat away from the danger , the Treborian gun crew did for a moment wonder about trying to put out the burning building , but decided caution being the better part of valour and fled . The explosion when it went off demolished half the village , but the artillery piece was only lightly singed !. The Ferraro Roccain forces retired with half their mission accomplished and at least the gun although not destroy  had no ammunition ., however question would be asked about the bad coordination of the attack . The Treborian high command will be asking about the poor defence of such a important position and planning revenge !.

The Black Hand plant a 'Infernal Device'

Treborian Infantry reinforcements

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Initial set up positions for attack on gun position (decided by dice throws), Only 1/2 a  Treborian unit was active at start of game . On the first few moves the Ferrero Roccaian Infantry move to the left and right of the enemy redoubt the cavalry moved to try and cut the road to the left of the position , but the arrival on move 2 of a Treborian  Dragoon unit on the road on the left upper corner prevented this and they dismounted and formed a skirmish line and opened fire on the Dragoons . The Triboria troops in the gun redoubt and the Telephone exchange opened fire on the advancing enemy infantry but being poor/2nd class they caused only a few casualties due to poor marksmanship . On the right the 2 bands of the Black Hand sweeped forward to take the gun and Arsenal by the flank . (photos from our war correspondent to follow !) .

The author in a more formal moment

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Dawn attack on the gun

Main Ferraro Roccai force will approach from bottom of map , comprising of 2 infantry units and 1 cavalry unit . ( I will dice for entry positions 1-5, on a 6 ,unit will wait one turn and dice again .)(The 2 Black Hand bands will dice for positions 1-2,3-4,5-6, ) . The Treborian defenders are base in village , 1 unit of Territorial forces and the gunners for gun . 1 unit of Cavalry will arrive on road -top left on dice roll of 6 first move , 5-6 next move etc .A  unit of infantry will also arrive in same position on dice roll of 12 first move, 12-11 next move etc . The dicing for arrivals represents the confusion of a dawn attack . I will be using a variant of the 'Funny Littlt War ' rules . The objectives for the main Ferraro Roccai force is to disable the gun (units have mules loaded with explosives for this . The Black Hand Band missions are to destroy gun and set fire to the arsenal each unit has an attached Spy with a 'Infernal ' devise to achieve this .

View of Treborian position

Friday, 4 February 2011

Ferraro Roccai springs into action

                                King Paul II inspects troops as they march off to invade Treboria

     The Secret Society of the Black Hand  is  alerted ready to assist to overthrow the hated Treborian overlords !  

Trouble on the Treborian border

General Rostov inspects the newly purchased 4.7" artillery piece .  Bought at a knocked down price from the British Admiralty . However they are not alone ..........

Major Grunte

Alerted by a spy the High Command of neghbouring Ferro Roccai have sent a scouting party to observe the new weapon ....... and they don't like what they see.......

Somthing will have to be done about this act of aggression !