Journey to the City of the Damned

After more than one year, I am posting here again.

With a couple squadrons for Lacquered Coffins and a Bolt Action/Crossfire army almost completed (more in future posts), let me introduce you to my next project: a Cult of the Possessed Warband for Mordheim.

This is my first time painting a fantasy army since I am mainly a historical wargamer. However, due to some unforeseeable combination in my recent life,  I have the occasion to play Mordheim. Its setting, lore, and grimdark appearance have always fascinated me.

I bought a Frostgrave Cultist plastic box for this project, which is fantastic value for money. Additionally, I ordered some bits from Crooked Dice to convert my miniatures and represent mutations. My Magister, Possessed, and Beastmen are also from Crooked Dice.

It sounds like the first step toward a long downward journey to the City of the Damned. Stay tuned.

Learning Crossfire

As one of the most iconic conflicts in history, the second world war (WW2) is probably one of the most played periods in the wargaming landscape.

For players interested in 28 mm large skirmish battles, the main ruleset is obviously Bolt Action, even if a myriad of other sets is available on the market (and many more are free). Last evening we tried Crossfire, which lurked our attention with its focus on infantry and its no-fixed turns approach. Only a few tweaks were necessary to convert the game from a Company-level to a Platoon-level.  Overall the game is very lite, but we keep it basic being the first game, the game flew very well and quite impredictably. In short, we had great fun.

Here are some pictures of our first game, featuring Italian against Commonwealth and Ethiopians in the East Africa Campaign (a post about my Italian Army in Italian East Africa will follow).

Basic Impetus 2: first game

Just a short report to update you on the ongoing activities. We were looking for a fast-paced, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-teach, wargame ruleset for ancient to medieval field battles, so we dusted off our 15 mm miniature collection from the shelves to try  Basic Impetus 2. My first miniatures were old Black Hat miniatures, and this scale resurfaces periodically at our club. 

Basic Impetus 2 is the second edition of Basic Impetus, a ruleset written many years ago by Lorenzo Sartori, the owner of Dadi e Piombo, an Italian Wargame Magazine. The second edition is now on sale both as a digital and as a printed copy. 

Our first game was Late Romans (Patrician) vs Early Visigoths. The battle was fought quite straightforwardly with the Late Romans posing little resistance to the Visigothic advance. The Roman Cataphracts kept as strategic reserves were blundered by a Foederati unit retreating directly against them, causing them to receive a disorder marker and later a hit, hindering their usefulness. The only losses in the Visigothic army were made by light cavalry combined shooting.

Conclusions: the game is quite simple, it lacks some nuances that a veteran player may expect (for example there is a reaction fire, but not a countercharge), and that can be easily amended. Some solutions (such as the option to charge only frontally without any pivoting) are a bit old-styled. Anyway, any doubt could be easily resolved with a quick check on the rules (which are about 12-15 pages). These rules could work as a gateway to wargaming, giving some easy notions of strategy while getting used to the general concepts. 

the initial battle lines

the cataphracts (on the right) are smashed by their retreating foederates

the combined light cavalry shooting was the only success of the day for the Romans

the Roman center is on the brink of collapse

Escape from the Crusader city with Lion Rampant

Lion Rampant is a light ruleset that aims to recreate the clashes between retinues during the medieval period. The system is highly flexible and the scenarios included in the book allow recreating many different settings with few adaptations. 

We played a scenario set during the beginning of the Crusaders States. A Crusader city has just been conquered by a large Seljuk force. A group of citizens has taken shelter at a fortress, and as the walls fall, decide to try to cross the city to reach the docks, where some ships, owned by the Maritime Republic of Genoa, are still at bay. We adapted the Scenario "The Convoy" from Lion Rampant, each token representing a bunch of civilians. Due to the urban setting, we decided to use the "reduced models" optional rule from Dragon Rampant to avoid cluttering too many models in small spaces, so we halved the miniatures needed for each unit. The Crusaders started on the NE deployment zone, while the Seljuks entered from the NW and SE deployment zone. The exit zone was the ship at the SW deployment zone.

I won't write up a detailed after-action record here, but overall the game was quite balanced, and until the last two turns all sides had a chance to win it.  The Seljuk player resulted less effective in causing casualties and the Crusaders were good at protecting the foot serjeants' units carrying the civilians, allowing all the three groups to escape safely.

We had great fun, and the reduced models rule worked great. I suggest using it in an urban setting. It is also a great gateway, allowing new players to start playing with a few models. The second edition of Lion Rampant is going to be published in the next few months I hope it will implement this option.

This scenario was actually a playtest for an incoming project, keep following the blog for more details!

And now, some pictures! Crusaders are Normans from Conquest Games, Seljuks from Gripping Beast, and buildings and the ship from CleverPaper.

Rebels and Patriots game (Calatafimi 1860)

 A brief photographic report of our latest game of Rebels and Patriots the black powder large skirmish by Michael Leck and Daniel Mersey from the successful Lion Rampant franchise.

Once again, we refought the Battle of Calatafimi (1860) during The Thousand campaign of Giuseppe Garibaldi against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. I was able to umpire the game with my friends, following the rule scenario I published in the latest issue of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy (118), which featured three articles of mine, all set in Sicily in different periods. 

This scenario is available as a free PDF on the Karwansaray Publisher website, so don't hesitate to test it and let me know your opinion!

The scenario ran smoothly, with the Garibaldines advance frustrated by the lack of initiative of one unit, which led to uncoordinated advance. The first assault was successful, dealing a lot of damage to the Borbonic Cacciatori Esteri, however, the winning unit wavered, despite the minimum loss, and that gave the Borboni time to reform the line. A unit of Picciotti (fielded as skirmishers) was driven away, leaving the approaching forces unscreened.

From that moment Red Shirts units, advancing one at the time were welcomed by relentless musketry fire, accumulating a lot of casualties. Despite a fierce fight they had to leave the battlefield.

On the other side of the battlefield, a courageous Garibaldine artillery officer repelled a flanking attempt from a Borbonic light cavalry unit, but it wasn't enough to save the day. Did Landi (the General leading the Borbonic army) save the Kingdom?

Bande Amhara

Gruppo Bande Amhara, was an Italian East Africa colonial cavalry unit constituted mainly by Eritrean Ascari and led by Italian officers. A banda was about one company strong, and the Gruppo Bande Amhara was about 1700 men, led by the famous Ten. Amedeo Guillet.

I painted this 9 models unit Bolt Action or Crossfire. Figures are mainly plastic ACW Perry, with some conversion done(colonial helmets and greenstuff for the Eritrean headgear).

The unit is a ragtag ensemble of stragglers and survivors from different squadrons. The battle flag is a simplified version of the "Banda Togni" flag.

The Company of Death

Military history is full of examples of men swearing to die rather than retreat. A remarkable example in the Classic Grece is the Spartan motto "either with shield or on the shield (you will return)" (greek: E tàn e epì tas), which was spoken by mothers and wifes to their men leaving for war. 

This tradition survived well into medieval times, these groups of knights taking oaths before battle often adopted dreadful names as Company of Death or Knights of Death. In the battle of Legnano (1176 AD) between the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and the troops of the Lombard League, a group of Italian knights named themself Company of Death and swore to defend with their lives the symbol of the Lombard League, the Carroccio.

Here I present some figures from a later example, taken from the Battle of Gagliana (1300 AD), fought during the Sicilian Vespers war between the Sicilian army and the Angevin French. A group of French knights formed a Company of Death to avenge their relatives killed at the battle of Falconara the previous year. I hope you will read the complete story, along with a scenario for Lion Rampant in a future issue of Wargame Soldiers and Strategy.

I painted some dismounted French knights for their last stand against the Sicilian army. All figures are from Fireforge Games (the standing figures) and Crusader Miniatures (the two wounded ones). I had a lot of fun painting the flag bearer of the Company of Death. The motto is in Latin "Or die or win" (latin: Aut  Vincere aut Morere") and it is taken from Francesco Petrarca's seventh book of Africa (written between 1339 and 1343 AD).

the first casualty

the painting steps for the flag

flagbearer and captain of the Company of Death

the final group of knights