Mr and Mrs Walker take a holiday.

 

We've been on holiday staying near Beverly in East Yorkshire . The weather although blustery was mainly dry and we missed Storm Agnes . One of the walks we did was around the deserted Medieval village of Wharram Percy which was hit by the Black Death and finally deserted with the introduction of sheep farming .

The village church which is the only thing still standing nestles in one of the wolds or valleys , I last visited the site about 30 years ago when the archaeological digs on the village were still taking place.

We were accompanied by Mr and Mrs Walker , here seen viewing the church which was still in use in the 18th century.

Reg Walker was very enthusiastic to the see the church interior , Mrs Walker less so .

Some of the carved heads on the arches 

This one has seen better times.

I especially like this one of a woman in a wimple headdress(?)

A rather grim looking man on this one.There is probably a technical term for these types of carvings but I can't remember it.

The author and faithful hound in the Churchyard .

An artists impression of the village in it's heyday (circa1300).

Sadly apart from the church and a few grassy mounds nothing is visible now , but still a magical place I think.

The 'Goodies' for Slaine , fresh off the painting tray.

 

Two heroes for the 'goodies' side - King Gann and Queen Niamh (I believe they are not a wedded couple) once again with out of proportion weaponary so beloved of the Fantasy genre - but fun to paint.

Three Warriors of the Earth Tribes with slightly more modest weapons.

And finally from the painting tray, these dramatic Earth Tribe Warriors , I have played the odd game using the Warlord 'Slaine' rules but with a more of a assortment of figures I must give them another go and report back how they play.

Slaine - Baddies from the painting tray .

 

Catching up with my painting backlog - here are some of the 'baddies' from the Warlord 'Slaine' fantasy game , we see Megrim the Sorceress up to no good invoking something nasty . True to all fantasy figures her henchmen have extra large weapons and shields ! 

Here are three more nasties with some sort of repeating crossbows . I've enjoyed painting these figures they are very statuesque and take paint very well and have been a bit of light relief from painting uniformed rank and file figures. (click on photos to enlarge)

Caucasus Cossacks for the Back of Beyond.

Another bunch of Russians that have been painted for a while and never yet seen the tabletop yet . I must have had them for about 15 years so it was about time the had paint applied . 

 

A home game against 'S' and a mystery solved.

After somewhat of a pause I welcomed my wargaming colleague 'S' back to my tabletop for a rousing game of 'Honours of War' .

For once I displayed tactical genius and beat him - well okay I rolled the dice well and 'S' rolled very poorly and him having never played the rules probably helped as well !, but the game was played to finish within 2 hours which is what you want.

'S' recognised the mystery figure I rescued from the grasp of the dog as one he painted many years ago (?) - Robert Broughton's Royalist Regt. of Horse - what a good memory he has !

 

White Generals from the painting tray.

 

Got these painted quite a while ago and forgot I hadn't posted a picture of them . They are Empress Miniatures 28mm and their Standard bearer is a Copplestone figure.

A postponement and a rescue .

 Due to minor repairs in the wargaming room I've had to take down the 2D SYW  battle and will replay it after my holidays . 

In my workshop (a rather grand name for the shed) I have my casting equipment for my homecasting , I also have several boxes of old figures which I metal down for the castings . These have been gifted to me from various wargaming colleagues , whilst I was in there today getting something from the deep freeze for tea I was unaware that the dog had followed me in - he's not allowed in there because he gets up to mischief ! ! . I returned to the house and became aware he had something he shouldn't have in his mouth - so I bribed him with a treat to relinquish it and low and behold it was the above figure ! 

It must have dropped onto the floor from a casting session . It old , I would say it's a 15mm Minifigs ECW figure, one of the early types that were cast in strips, mounted on a piece of card - as one did before the advent of MDF . Whoever owned it had converted it into a standard bearer as you can see where the flag staff was glued to the hand and saddle - I trust the hound has not eaten the flag !?. Call me a bit sentimental but it reminded me of my early wargaming years and so I will save it and it will sit on my painting tray from now on.

The culprit, looking suitably demonic !

The Clash at Kutzdorf.

 

So I have just set up the next battle from the 'Snakes & Ladders' Campaign .The Prussians are the attackers.

The Austrians are are surprised by the Prussians appearing on their flank and will have to adjust their position to counter this . The Cavalry on the left flank is 'Dithering' as is the left Infantry Brigade , however the Hungarian General on the right is 'Dependable'.

The Prussians have 'Dependable' Brigadiers , however the couple of Frei-Korps Light Infantry on left have a Dashing leader! .

Alt Fritz - now with new improved basing !

Field Marshal Browne again with new impressive base . I hope to get the game played over the weekend and will report on the action next week.

2D SYW Campaign - the next moves.

As the Austrians had lost the last battle they had to remain in place and loose a move , the Prussians move onto 'Card re-shuffle' and so the hands of cards were added to the Fortune deck and shuffled with each side drawing a fresh hand of 2 cards .

The Prussians drew the above cards which will be used in the next campaign turn.

The Austrians drew these which will be of use on the tabletop battles .

The Prussians played this card to move the Austrians back 2 spaces.

Then this card for themselves to increase their move by 3.

This brought the Prussians onto the next 'Battle' square !

They rolled a 2 and get 'Kutzdorf' so they will be the attacker in this battle , which will hopefully be appearing soon .

 

Take the 'High Ground' SYW 2D Campaign.

 

This is the second battle in my 'Snakes & Ladders' Campaign with the Austrians attacking . Their objectives is the high ground - marked on the map , the Austrians are to the left of the picture and the Prussians to the far side and right.

I diced for the command abilities and the Austrians got a pair of 'Dithering' Brigadiers - Oh Dear ! . then things got worse - the Brigadier on the left was killed by the first shot of the Prussian Artillery , that means his replacement gets a -1 on dice throws from now on .

Things did not go all the Prussian way though - one of their Battalions was forced back due to the Austrian Artillery and the rest of the Brigade had to retire to cover the gap in the line which could have been exploited by the enemy cavalry.

The Austrian left advanced very hesitantly and took casualties from the Prussian artillery which when combined withe the initial Infantry volley - broke the right hand Battalion.

Things started to go downhill for the Austrians one of their Cavalry units which was 'dithering' in front of the Prussians broke and ran as they where trying to bring up the Artillery.

Then the Austrian CinC was killed - the Prussians played one of their 'Fortune' cards so he risked being hit on a 10,11, or 12 - Oh Dear ! 

Without the encouragement of the CinC the Austrian Army failed it's motivation rolls and started to fall back ! - a victory for the Prussians ! . We must now see how this affects the Campaign with the Austrians have to miss a turn as the Prussians get to draw another 'Fortune card .

Homecasting catalog , a blast from the past

 Found on Facebook and for the life in me I can't remember which of the many Toy Soldier/ Homecasting groups it was from !?. Noticed a date of 1923 on it - an era when children were impervious to hot metal ! (click on photos to enlarge)

AND it builds patriotism !!!!

(SYW campaign continues next post)