Dusting off Tercios! Ruleset

 After a couple years (and a pandemic) we were able to place our Thirty Years War armies on the gaming table. It was a simple face to face 1000 points scenario aimed to re-learn the rules.

The armies in the pictures are the majestically painted Luca's Catholic Imperial Army and my Swedish (I bought them painted except artillery and one general). I totally forgot to use my generals' virtues and traits and a couple mistakes were made. However, we enjoyed the ruleset which provides a challenging yet easy way to represent TYW battles. The final result was a Swedish army refusing to collapse against odds and let the Swedish gain a small edge against the tired Imperial troops. A special mention goes to the Scottish infantry on the Swedish right flank, which survived two break tests in a row with four "six" rolled, making the Imperial leader leave the field undefeated but unsettled.

 

Contrast paint - first impressions

I bought a couple of Games Workshop Contrast Paint (Contrast from now on) one year ago, on the wave of enthusiasm. They have been sitting in a corner of my painting desk until this spring.  I was stuck with little to no willing of painting, so I decided to give them a try. I'm still painting.

I purchased about 3/4 of the line and these are my observation about them so far.

My Contrast collection so far. I should probably buy a rack for display

Contrast are not (of course) colors in the traditional term, since they are meant to paint both base and shades with one passage, so they are rather are highly pigmented inks or shade. Remember: they are very liquid. Colors vary a lot in pigment density and quality, for example Militarium Green is a bit light in pigment and need at least two coats to be efficient, otherwise it could result in speckled figures. Black Templar is also not very pigmented and can result in "not so black" color. Iyanden Yellow is, so far, my favorite color, even if tend to dissociate yellow and orange pigments so it need to be lay with a bit of attention and remember to shake the pot before painting.

Painting with Contrast only seems easy: painting with contrast at basic level is very accessible, but I think that achieving a high quality model requires a good hand skill, maybe at the same level than traditional painting: you can direct the flow of this liquid color, and the effect varies with the brush size, quantity of color absorbed in it, the pressure, the way you lay the color them, how many layer of paints you lay. So lot of different results, actually. Basilicanum Grey is paradigmatic: can vary a lot with the quantity of liquid placed on the miniature.

Cloak on left model, mail and sword on right one, are both painted with Basilicanum Grey.
Hard to believe, I know.

The primer is very important: I found myself at ease with Wraithbone spray but you really have to experiment: the final result can vary a lot. Only remind that a smooth basecoat is essential for let Contrast flow, the risk is the color could evidence the granularity of the primer.

Base Wraithbone is essential. It is the same primer but you can lay it with a brush: you will need it to cover the smears. Important! With small exceptions they're not able to cover other colors smear, and I suggest painting the figures from lighter to darker colors for this reason. 

Attention on metals! I tried using Contrast to shade Vallejo real metal colors and I found both Wildwood and Skeleton Horde tend to give them a brass effect. I decided for now to use non metal color (i.e. Basilicanum Grey, see picture above).

Not the best picture, but the gun was painted with Vallejo Silvermetal and then washed with Skeleton Horde. The result are brassy shadows. Other colors are Contrast.

Which miniatures are (in my opinion) best painted with contrast paint?  Well they work greats on simple, plain clothes and fur (both in clothes and on animals, including horses). I would avoid armies with a lot of tiny details (as Napoleonics), if you want to go full Contrast. Otherwise, you could use contrast paint for basic uniform and then revert to traditional painting for details. Also bear in mind that the colors selection is (compared with other brands) quite small: you will probably have issues finding the right shade of blue for that particular regiment in that particular campaign. But...you can always mix them and create new colors, I found no particular issues with that, just remember avoid mixing with water. 

In conclusion: the miniatures are not gonna painting themselves, but choosing the right subject they allow to spare an enormous amount of time and going right into playing with an army nicely painted (using it unpainted was never an option). I am very happy with them and I must thank them for getting back to painting.

Swedish Thirty Years War Army

The Swedish army was the most notable one during Thirty years war (TYW): well trained, well led, achieved many successes on the battlefield and still sparks inspiration between wargamers.

I found a fabulous offer on the net for a beautifully painted  Swedish army and couldn't hold myself from buying it! A lot of infantry and cavalry ready to be led by Gustavus Adolphus! Its only drawback was the artillery: only one leather gun. I remedied painting a heavy gun: a great chance to test also GW new contrast paint (but I'll talk about them in another post). I plan to use them with Tercios for great battles and Pikeman's Lament for smaller clashes.

Here is a gallery of the miniatures, kindly host by Paolo's display closet, and a first playtest of Pikeman's Lament (more in another post).

Summer (painting) Campaign!

The council of war was reunited last week and our plan was finally set.

The main question was: what's next? What's the next big project our club will devote the next year? We decided a theme, after many years (Luca waited for this about 17 years) we are finally jumping into the Thirty Years War period, also known as Pike&Shotte period!

So, our next step was to decide which ruleset had to be used for the period. After FOG:R was ruled out, due to the massive number of miniatures and (most important) time needed to set up and play a game, there were two pretendants: Liber Militum Tercios (supported by Luca) and The Pikeman's Lament (proposed by me).

Every general is going to gather his forces: Luca, Paolo and Stefano already own a relevant collection of 15mm miniatures for the period, most of them painted and based (using the DBx standard, since they were meant to be used with FOG:R).
Marco, Jack and me, on the other hand, bought 28mm warlord models, Luca and Paolo decided to join us in that scale, too.

During our war council we decided that the games are not mutually exclusive, we will use Tercios to recreate the proper battles of the period and TPL for skirmishing action like foraging and raiding. We found an agreement on bases (for 28mm) and so we should be able to game Tercios in 15mm and 28mm and TPL in 28mm. There are also ideas to link the game of the two ruleset in a kind of campaign game, but it's all pretty vague, for now.

Now, it's time to paint! First armies are expected to be ready for the winter. Of course, future developements will be posted in this blog, so stay tuned!

Factions

Luca - Imperial Army (15mm and 28mm)

Jack - Spanish Army (28mm)

Marco - Swedish (28mm)

Stefano - Swedish (15mm)

Paolo - Parlamentarian (15mm); Danes (28mm) [still thinking about them] 

Riccardo - German Protestants (28mm) [loosely based upon Saxons]

A wargamer in Stockholm

Some months ago I was looking for a destination for a late spring travel when I saw on a Facebook group a post about a wargaming exhibition in a museum in Stockholm, so I got in touch with Dalauppror, asking for more informations. You can read the results of that conversation in this post.

To Stockholm!

Sweden was a crucial country for the history of European warfare at least from 17th to 19th century. Its capital, Stockholm, hosts various testimonials of the country's past deeds.
Its capital Stockholm has plenty of monuments and museums emphasizing the glorious military past of the country, and it's pretty easy find something a wargamer or warfare lover could enjoy.

I will only focus on wargaming related places I visited, of course there is a lot more to see in this amazing city!

I suggest starting your tour at the Armémuseum. The exhibition will lead you throughout six centuries of warfare in Sweden, providing an excellent introduction for the various wars the country fought during its history. Dioramas, 1:1 soldiers mannequins, paintings and weapons allow the visitors to imagine the world who those soldiers lived in. Rather interestingly, the museum doesn't simply focus on the warfare, but explain also in details the everyday struggle for survival soldiers and civilians had to fight during wars (and peace, often). Of course weapons lovers won't be disappointed, modern to contemporary section is particularly well represented by a wide display, ranging from sub-machine guns, to pistols and a complete UAV!

Soldiers must eat, too

Yes, there is also a Goliath!

If you can manage to visit Stockholm before 7th January 2018 you can also visit the temporary exhibition War Games. An amazing journey from the birth of gaming (chess, chaturanga, go) to contemporary wargame rulesets, passing through Prussian kriegsspiel and '70 boardgames. A must for any wargamer and boardgamer. It's quite a unique chance to see Black Powder or Bolt Action behind the cabinet of a museum! (and in the museum shop!)

 

Kriegsspiel (my forbidden dream is a double blind game)

The second place I suggest you to visit is Livrustkammeren (Royal Armoury). Its entrance is exactly on the side of Royal Palace, in the very centre of Stockholm. The museum itself is located in the cellars of the Palace! There is a well assorted collection of armours and weapons of course, but the most important pieces in its collection areprobably the flag and the robes Gustavus Adolphus was wearing at Lützen before his death.

A temporary exhibition about Katanas was also held in the museum during our visit. Small, but interesting, though.

In both the two temporary exhibitions, several references to present days are made, through games, or movies. We realised that in Sweden museums aren't something just preserving the past, but actively trying to set a link to everyday world.

Both Armémuseum and Livrustkammeren admission are free of charge, so no excuse!

If happen to pass near the city centre at about 12 AM, don't lose the changing of the guard. It's held in front of the Royal Palace and it lasts about one hour. You can observe both ceremonial uniforms and real serving regiments uniforms, and a musical band performs amazing marches and songs.

Were we talking about Gustavus Adolphus' death? Well, if you want to see his grave, take a short walk (just 5 minutes from the Palace) and visit Riddarholmskyrkan, where many Swedish kings are buried. Of course the Lion of the North lays between them.

Medeltidsmuset is a small museum, hidden under a bridge (literally), which allows the visitors to dive into middle ages' everyday life in Stockholm, while not strictly about warfare, I nonetheless found it fascinating (did someone say "free admission"?).

Vasamuset. A well preserved (and restored) huge galley, exhibited in a 6 floor museum, it's something out of ordinary. It's also the story of one of the biggest fail in naval engineering, due to a mix of political meddling/ingerence and poor calcualtions, this ship, intended to become the admiral of the fleet, sunk during its maiden voyage, probably one of the shortest in history for a galley, lasting nly 120 meters. You can see the ship externally from different levels, under the keel and up to the mast. The lateral exhibition give an insight on the history of the ship and about the life of the sailors, what they ate, how they fought and so on.. A small section analyses the bodies found inside during salvations and speculate about their stories. The entrance is not cheap, but it's decisely worth the money!

If you are willing to do some shopping in Stockholm I can suggest to start here:

• The science fiction bookshop, offers a wide choice of books (of course) and GW miniatures, some boardgames and interesting gadgets. 
• Alphaspel (I didn't visited it, but its website looks interesting)
• Probably there is also a GW shop, but since I'm not really into GW, so I didn't check.

Of course I did not forgot to contact Dalauppror, And...we managed to get a game of The Pikeman Lament! I could bother you with the AAR of the game, but he's already written about it in its blog, so just read here.

So, it's everything from Stockholm. As travel suggestions: low cost flights are aivalable and (from Europe) reasonably priced, I have no special advice, since people are kind and they all speak an awesome English, so I never had any difficulty in my trip. Just remember that the weather can get quit cold, so be prepared both for sun and for snow!


~ My thanks to Fabio for reviewing this post ~

Pikeman's lament unit cards

As I discussed here, we found summary cards for LR units' stats very useful both for our games and for conventions to illustrate the game to newbies. They contain all the information any player with some knowledge of the rules can require to play the game smoothly. Also they're quite inspiring and aesthetically better than roster sheets. Inspired by Tim Charzinski LR unit cards I decided to realise cards or The Pikeman's Lament, too (PL from now on).

PL is a game wrote by Daniel Mersey and Michael Leck set during the age of...pikemen, of course, exactly Pike and Shot, thus meaning approximately the 17th century, an age of costant wars, the English Civil War, The Thirty Years War, The Eight Years War, and continuous fighting along the borders of Europe, involving Ottoman, Polish, Russian, Venetians, Spanish against Berbers and many others. (check Desperta Ferro for Spanish Tercio in North Arfrica).

Lion Rampant cards use the same flag in the background for all factions (and it couldn't be otherwise: too many Nations, Kingdoms, Caliphates, Emirates, Signorie, Duchy, Empires during Middle Ages). I decided to characterize some Nations with a different background flag, of course the list is incomplete, but we can work on some more with time.

I decided not to follow always the most historical flag, I preferred to have a quickly identifiable one, based on the assumption the flags will be printed on black and white, so the various crosses would all have looked the same (Swede, Denmark for example). I know the heraldic lion rampant for Sweden isn't the most correct choice, but it seemed to me the less time consuming option.

Here is the link to the cards!

The starter set includes:

• Sweden (can use also for Scotland)
• Holy Roman Empire (or Austrians Asburg)
• France
• Royalist (can be used as England during TYW)
• Parlamentarian 

Will follow soon:

• Ottoman Empire
• Most Serene Republic of Venice
• Catholic League 
• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

We are looking for in-period heraldic for:

• United Province (we cannot use the three banded flag, would look awful)
• Russian? 
• Moghul?

Working on the cards with Davide!

Since I'm barely able to use Paint I ask a friend, who recently got his Master in Computer Graphic and he's starting his business. If you ever need a graphic help, may contact him via LinkedIn.
(that is my way to thank him for the help, hope this small advertisement doesn't bother you)