In which I blog about my miniature wargaming and whatever else takes my interest!

In which I blog about my miniature wargaming and whatever else takes my interest!

Monday, March 11, 2024

Lord Strythcyna's Cadiers (Royal Coftyrans)

The old and the new. a Trooper from Lord Strythcyna's Cadiers working with armoured contraptions from the 23rd Motor Machine Gun Wedge (Recce) somewhere in Toulmore (photo credit: Robyrt Cypu, Lyfe Magazine, Spring 1775)

When the Crusade shook Alwynd's ancient stability, Lord Strythcyna slapped down his paper, blew a great cloud of smoke out of his pipe and declared to his butler "Thundering ancestors! The cheek of it! Something must be done, Huwl, d'ye hear me?"


Always calm in the face of crisis, domestic or international, Huwl replied with a steady "Indeed m'Lord. Shall I fetch the estate manager?"

The estate manager was indeed fetched, and with Huwl offering sage advice, Lord Strythcyna decided to raise and equip at his own expense, a regiment of cavalry to aid the forces of Crown, Clan and Tradition; Lord Strythcryna's Cadiers (Royal Coftyrans).



The regiment, recruited from experienced veteran soldiers and cadier handlers on the Lord's estates, proved it's worth skirmishing with Crusader cavalry. After the Wall was breached at the Battle of Gate 18, the LSC covered the retreat of Royalist forces and at the Battle of Moryl Wood, Is-Caerten Flywrdu's squadron charged to glory. They lost half their number attacking a Crusader heavy shotgun detachment from the 23rd Syccen Division that was in the process of deploying. But their mad, spontaneous charge successfully checked the Crusader advance and gave Royalist forces a chance to consolidate and dig in along new lines.



Is-Caerten Flywrdu was posthumously knighted and awarded the Royal Star of Courage to the glory of his clan.

Joshua at Zombiesmith accommodated me with substitute heads, so I could equip Gwynt lancers in bicornes with Coftyran helmets to make them look more like French First World War cavalry.

French cavalry. 

Coftyran cavalry. Almost identical.

These 6 figures took me three weeks to finish. But I have been distracted by getting Hot Lead ready and messing about with glue, sand, paint and water effect resin as well. Plus I think I was stalling waiting on the missing parts of my Zombiesmith order to be sent. But they're here now, so I can crack on with assembling and painting the rest of them.

Second batch of cratered terrain on old iTunes cards.

If you've followed some of the links you'll notice that I'm paying homage to another Canadian armoured regiment, the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), who served as cavalry in the First World War. C Squadron made their famous charge at the battle of Moreuil Wood in 1918.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Diceless Death in the Golden Triangle

Pasha Dan brought his ongoing fascination with the convoluted problems in SE Asia to the Basement o'Rabbits last night. And the stars aligned to result in 7 of us around the table for a change.

Last night was insurgents/bandits/drug lords/local militias versus government troops/drug lords in northern Myanmar.

We were using One Hour Skirmish rules, which is completely diceless. Each player has a deck of ordinary playing cards for activation, shooting and defense.

Ethnic Chinese militia are attacking government forces around the city of Lukau, notorious for catering to the decadent appetites of Chinese businessmen and party officials.

A government convoy is trying to get to the patrol base with drug making supplies. 

Some local bandits/caravan guards are helping the Chinese long enough to get back their confiscated truck full of stuff (probably more drugs).

Patrol base held by Big Pat

Busy highway traffic 

My force of ethnic Chinese militia attacking the patrol base

Government troops in the base

Nice Solido die-cast Panhard AML 90

The world's unluckiest RPG guy

Big Dave's and Weirdy Beardy's convoy of gov't troops and drugs

Twice shooting RPG at juicy truck target

Twice frustrated by Jokers!

I finally get a decent Activation Points draw and no Joker to allow me to get advancing.

Interrupting local traffic

Government troops bugging out through a hail of lead

These guys all died. Sadly no dramatic crashes. 

Interesting mechanics. Don't like the antitank rules though. I get making things hard to hit. But when I do hit with an RPG? Slow incremental damage doesn't make sense to me. I suppose a big card draw on the attack vs a low card draw on the defense  would be a brew up? But even soft skinned vehicles seemed to have too many positive modifiers. But that's me. Your mileage may vary.

Pasha Dan wants to use these rules for this year's perpetually popular pulp adventure Mongols With Mausers games at Hotlead. They should work fine for that.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Shell Shattered Woods

If I'm going to have Quar running around WW1 battlefields then I really need shell blasted trees, and lots more craters, to be honest.

Verdun

James Mogsymakes has been doing some really lovely looking Great War Chain of Command. His terrain is rather inspirational.

While rummaging about in the basement looking for something else, I found some old, abandoned attempts at making 15mm field positions out of old gift cards and CDs as bases, with plasticene to build up the banks. I thought, "Why not combine this with my use of Gorilla Glue and sand?"

Striking while the creative madness was upon me I set to, trying to ignore the Quar squawking about getting painted.

Sticks from the garden were broken roughly at one end and cut straight at the other. Flat end was hot glued to the base. I also used hot glue to build up some crater shapes before adding Gorilla Glue over top. I let the hot glue set up and then brushed water over everything. I then applied beads of Gorilla Glue, leaving the center of the craters free, and spread it around with a Q-Tip.

Before the sand

I made sure I reinforced the tree joins with more Gorilla Glue over the hot glue. I then covered each base in a deep layer of sand as the glue was applied.


In a second batch I made craters from plasticene, glued those in place and then covered them with more Gorilla Glue and sand to try and get deeper craters.

Notice foaming blob of Gorilla Glue at base of closest tree trunk. Covered with some more sand after taking picture. It happens. You just add a bit more sand to cover.

Excess sand shaken off. Awkwardly located pieces of gravel removed.



Base coat of Burnt Umber applied.

After dry brushing with tan and grey-green

Even after all that, there was still some bits of DVD base and bright plasticene not covered by paint, so those were fixed with some burnt umber and a medium pointed brush.

I then poured some Woodland Scenics Realistic Water Resin into the craters that I had deliberately left smooth and dark brown, making sure I had a level surface to leave the pieces on to dry. Two layers were needed.

Finished bases

24 hours are needed to cure after each layer of water effects. I made sure the cure was done before flocking, because that green stuff gets everywhere.



While I was at it, I also found these two hasty defensive works made with twigs and sand glued to old iTunes cards. They just needed a bit of paint and flock to make them usable for Quar HSG teams



I am so pleased with the result I started on another batch of nine more iTunes gift cards. I'm running out of sand!


Monday, February 19, 2024

7th Cadier Mounted Rhyflers

Another snowy long weekend with no errands(!) means a lot of painting while listening to 80s music on YouTube.

After finishing with the tractors, I bashed on with the cavalry. First up the Crusaders. As a nod to friends who served in the local Reserve Force Armoured Regiment, the  1st Hussars, which during the First World War were mobilized initially as the 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles, I am calling these fellows the 7th Cadier Mounted Rhyflers.

The modern, mobile doctrine of the Crusade still has a place for cavalry, acting as mounted infantry and operating in cooperation with kites and light tractors to scout ahead of the tractor wedges, as well as providing vital security screening to the flanks and rear areas. In mountainous areas, the CMR are the only mobile force available to commanders.

Troopers with carbines

The Crusader cavalry have traded in the lances and bright uniforms of their royalist past for khaki and carbines, but they still retain some traditions; the blue stable belts and blue shoulder patches of the 7CMR harken back to their predecessors, the 1st Tok Hussars. I'm sure if we could zoom in, the brass buttons and belt buckles have the rearing cadier emblem of the 1st Toks.

Officers naturally still carry sabers, and they're always looking for a charge.

Big Quar with saber


7CMR were the Divisional Cavalry cawtrad for the 4th Tractor Division during the initial battles for Maer Braech, engaging in swirling cavalry battles with Croftyran cavalry. Their ability to fire their carbines from the saddle while at the gallop balancing out the Croftyran lancers advantage in close combat. Afterwards the cawtrad performed gallantly during the pursuit to the Wall, relentlessly scouting ahead and finding gaps in the Croftyran defenses.

Trooper firing double barreled pistol


I had to add this character, even if it does mean I've got seven instead of an even six figures. Oh well, so sad, it's my army. Perhaps I should get another for the Croftyrans, and swap out his carbine for a saber?

The biggest of Big Quar




Their mounts look like something dreamed up by the French artist Jean Giraud (aka Moebius). The off-white "hood" on their heads is a boney growth to protect them as they aggressively head-butt each other, for reasons known only to them. 

I've also made good progress on their Royalist counterparts this weekend. They should, God willing, be ready for their glamour shots by the end of the week.