Sugar Islands - Against the Maroons

This weekends game will be a test of a special scenario I have written for the Sugar Islands inspired by Crann Tara's excellent Maroon figures.

The scenario will be available as a download once I have tested it.

I finally managed to get round to painting the ones I have, and the huts I bought so now can try something that's been kicking about for a few months.

The Maroons were escaped slaves who took to isolated locations and set up their own villages and camps, raiding and living off the land and eventually establishing their own culture. There were several Maroon uprisings across the Caribbean too.

The figures are the typical clean Crann Tara sculpts, open handed to receive various weapons. I have equipped mine with machetes and other plantation tools and some traditional weapons such as bows and spears as well as a smattering of firearms - the latter gleaned from Marlburian and AWI plastic sprues from Warlord games. A simple paint job, mahogany, with plain coloured clothing and a soft tone wash finishes the figures off.




The huts are an eBay purchase.

For previous games I have used Jim Purky's excellent F&I skirmish rules from Fife and Drum. However this scale of game is much smaller than the usual few battalions, so instead I'll be using Rebels and Patriots which I really like. However Sharp Practice, Muskets and Tomahawks, or any other skirmish set would work well too.

Lockdown Landsknechts

On Sunday my son and I had a kitchen table game of Pikemans Lament using some old GW Empire figures which I had started to roughly convert a few years ago.

On a whim I'd started painting them up again and supplementing my units with a few choices of EBay. Anyone interested in painting true landsknechts and neat converters of figures should look away now 🤣.

For a start these are great sculpts. To be sure advances have been made in plastics and the clothing and poses are basic and other ranges exist now, but when you have to guts of two small armies kicking around in various tubs in the loft and can't go out anywhere why not put them to use.

I adopted a very simple style for painting them and stuck to basic colours for the pike units.  The pike themselves were at first thin plastic rod, but this broke too easily. Then I tried a pin and some thin tubing but this didn't work either. So in the end (look away now if squeamish) I inserted a hot metal wire pike into the figures hand! On the table this looks perfect as you cannot see the join but up close it's a little ugly. Well never mind I was going for overall effect not individual masterpieces. Supporting handgunners had a bit more variety. I added some pistoliers, riding huge fat-ar**d horses and some cannon which are lovely pieces. I looked around for matching figures and tried some Casting Room pike and some Warlord Dopplesoldners. The latter look a little weedy but as an independent unit they do fine. Ebay supplementary GW figures finished things off

The bases for the moment I have left as is. I have yet to decide to use the 3-2-1 style of basing or keep them on square individual bases. I had some sabots which I was going to use for a version of the Ancient Rules which a friend and I play so to try out PL I thought I would use them.

Why PL and not Lion Rampant? I have both but I thought that the former suited the 1500's better than the more medieval focused LR. I imagine these figures as raiders and plunderers engaged in "Bad War" somewhere in southern Germany during the Peasants War, not as pike blocks at Pavia or similar.

I threw down some terrain and drew up two forces. One lead by a bit of a ladies man with a fine moustache but of limited experience. He was accompanied by a large band of average troops, pike, handguns and pistoliers and a regimental gun. Facing him was a different fellow entirely - A rather belligerent lion of a fellow leading an experienced but smaller band of veteran pike and aggressive forlorn hope. My son picked the larger company and I took the veterans.

As this was a test of the rules as much as anything being only the second time I have played them I was just interested in seeing if they felt right for the period and getting a game in. We paid little attention to terrain placement or scenario and just got fired into some across the table action. 

Lew's cavalry scampered round my flank, so I sent the forlorn hope to hold them off, using them as skirmishers. They took some fire from the caracoling pistoliers but caught them and chopped them up a bit and forced them back again and again due to some poor activation roles, eventually they were cut down and the remaining dopplesoldners looked around to see if they could swing into Lew's flank. 

On the opposite side of the table, Lew managed to move his handgunners into a farm complex and took advantage of the cover it provided to shoot up my flanking shot. These two units traded fire for much of the battle without much effect. 

In the centre my veterans, the black band,  advanced while my leaders unit closed formation, and took fire from Lew's cannon. This whittled the, down and they really didn't get a chance to close as they suffered from some poor morale throws and were forced back. That just left the black band and the forlorn hope who were by now in amongst Lew's second unit of shot, having seen off the gun. 

Pike are very strong defensively but I thought my veterans would have the upper hand. They didn't and came off worse in the melee. They took a volley from the handgunners too and reeled back. The forlorn hope had caused some casualties but they'd now been whittled away and so effectively the game was over. It was good fun though and looked and felt right and we both enjoyed it, all the right ingredients for a game.

What would I change. Smaller units of shot. I checked my few reference books and online and figured that I would have much less handgunners or more pike. So I will fiddle with the troop type and costs to come up with right ratio, probably units of 6 shot rather than 12.. Cannon might look good but the Warlord handbusch is a better model for   this size of game and actually none of these fit with the raiding and looting concept so these won't be reappearing except as part of fixed positions. Some light horse might be worth getting. Gringo 40's make conquistadore cavalry and their figs are big and horses large too so 6 of these wouldn't go amis. 

More landsknechts in the future. But it will be back to the Sugar Islands for the next game with some newly painted Maroons.

Crimean War - Brits and Russians

I've taken the opportunity to catch up with some basing. These lads have been sitting on the windowsill waiting patiently for some cavalry to complete both sides and I managed to get some Cossacks on eBay recently so there was no excuse to wait any longer.





The Russian Infantry are all Warlord from their recently released range. Painted with Citadel Contrast Aggaros Dunes which I think is perfect of a weather stained Russian greatcoat. They are all magnetically based on movement trays to make them easier to shift on the table.




The Russian cavalry lurking in the background are Gt War Cossacks. I have more to do once I receive some more bases from Warbases.

12 Cossacks, 4 units of 18 Infantry and two guns.





The British are all Gt War too. They are in 12 figure units. This puts them at a numerical disadvantage to the Russians but they will be better armed so that will be offset. As with the Russians they are magnetically based too.




The cavalry are Gt War Hussars. I also have a number of officers and ADC's from the Foundry range which will make nice little vignettes.




12 Hussars, 4 units of 12 Guards.

About half of the Russian inf, and a few of the British were done by me, the rest were purchases online. I've wanted Crimean War stuff for sooooo long. Now I'm ready for a game of Rebels and Patriots or The Men Who Would Be Kings, once this damned virus buggers off !

Sandershausen 1758

 A weekend bracketed by trips to Elgin for Mrs I meant a stay in Lossiemouth which also meant a chance to catch up with Graham C.

There was much to discuss and plot, some of which will be revealed in another post. But we also managed to have a game, a relight of the battle of Sandershausen which Graham visited on his travels to Germany last year.

Graham's French started the game at the bottom of the hill, while over its crest stood a few regiments of Hessian regulars, jager, dragoons and some rather nervous militia. There was only one way this fight was going to go really, it was just a question of how long it would take and how many men would be lost.




As they trudged up the hill the French masked their own covering artillery and exposed themselves to the Hessian guns, which had some effect in wearing down the targets, as did the jäger positioned in the woods on either flank.

Eventually the leading french units came through the canister into musket range. On the Hessian right the volley crashed into a disordered french unit and this was followed up with a spirited bayonet change which broke them and sent them fleeing back down the hill. Undaunted Graham sent his french cavalry forward but these too were repelled.

In the centre the militia unit managed a ragged volley but recoiled in the subsequent melee and fell back disordered to the very lip of the table.

On the left a Swiss unit and Hessian unit traded blows for a couple of turns with the Swiss finally gaining the upper hand. Behind them however the Hessian dragoons charged from cover into the exposed flank of a French regiment. Their first attack was unsuccessful but they reformed and hit it again and this time broke it and sent it streaming back. This action left the dragoons exposed in turn and they were charged and routed by more french cavalry.







By now it was clear that despite destroying 2 French to 1 Hessian infantry there was no holding the position and the battle was lost.....not a million miles from the result of the real encounter.

Hope you like the pix. Graham's 40mm figs really stood out on this terrain and we got some good shots. A great game and only half the story of the afternoon!  More on that later though!!

Crew...and Maroons

When your wife is working in the study on her thesis, you get a lot of painting done.

I've been told I'm on too long a leash, but it's working for me. I managed to get most of the crew for my little ship done today and finished the first batch of Maroons for a scenario I am writing which will be available as a download. 

The crew are from Crann Tara and I have based them on clear perspex so that they can fit on board, in the longboats I have, or onshore without looking odd. This necessitates some careful snipping and filing but it's worth it. They will serve in the Caribbean against France and against Spain.

The Maroons are also from Crann Tara. I have armed two with muskets from plastic sprue spares, two with bows and two with machetes. More of these will follow.