Crusades Project Progress

I have been pleased with the rejuvenation of the long-dormant Crusades project, and having finished the re-basing of enough figures for a small game, I couldn't help putting those figures out on the table with an assortment of buildings and terrain. What this made me realize is that I wasn't terribly satisfied with the terrain just yet, specifically with the tan felt table cloth I was using.

In the past I tried making a sand and paint foam board terrain board, but that just became something that I wasn't terribly thrilled with and took up valuable storage space. A felt table cover has a certain appeal, but it looked too monotone, so I decided to play around with a new piece of felt and foam board panel and some spray paints. The result, shown here in a badly lit picture, is much more along the lines of what I was hoping for.

To make this 4 foot by 5.5 foot panel, I cut a piece of insulation "blue board" to size, then glued the tan felt to the board with a slathering of white craft glue. After the glue had set, I took the board out to the back yard on a breeze-less day and misted the surface in patches with 3 or 4 different shades of light green, yellow and brown.  This "faux camouflage" effect is just enough to break up the monotony, although the picture doesn't really do it justice. On the tabletop, it looks terrific. It even blends nicely into the generic background painting I made a couple years ago.

The one other addition here is a half dozen more palm tree bases, made with small oblong pieces of balsa wood, Woodland Scenics model railroad talus, foliage clusters, and some sandbox sand.

Things feel like they are starting to come together with regards to this project. Now I just need to keep adding a few new units (or re-based units to be more accurate) from time to time.

April Miniatures Status

It's time, I suppose, for an end-of-April status check of how I have done against my expectations for the  month. With only a couple days to go (and workdays at that), I think I have done fairly well.

Some of what I have been up to...

By way of a status update, I scattered a variety of the things I have been working on on top of a custom terrain board I have made. The terrain board itself is a 2 foot by 3 foot representation of the "Brecourt Manor" scenario (the first scenario) in the Fireball Forward rule book. In the gun emplacements are 4 stands of 15mm WW2 German field artillery, with crew. The 15mm figure stands elsewhere are the troops required for this scenario, as well as the added stands necessary for the second scenario in the book. Hedgerows are pieces from the terrain project described here earlier. Leo and I have been talking about getting together to play some Fireball Forward, and what better way to get the proverbial juices flowing than to have the terrain and troops all ready to go. Leo, if you are out there reading this, I am ready when you are...

Toward the back of the picture are two test pieces I have made of "palm tree" terrain for my Crusades project. They look pretty decent, I just need to make about a dozen more. The pieces are simple balsa wood bases, sanded and painted, with palm trees glued down along with an assortment of Woodland Scenics brand talus (model railroad rocks) and foliage clusters. On the right side is one piece of "farm field" terrain that was a test piece for playing around with artists' modeling compound. I'm not sure what period this kind of thing would be useful for, so I am still tinkering with this.

Along the back edge are five 15mm Italian buildings from the old Architectural Heritage (AH) range, now sold under the JR Miniatures brand (although I understand JR has gone under, and these will be sold elsewhere...). I use these for both Italy and Spain in the Napoleonic era.

In the middle center are three thatch roof and wooden buildings that will serve for 15mm WW2 Eastern Front.

On the left side, back, is one Architectural Heritage building in the 15mm "Prussia" range that can serve for any period from post-medieval through WW2. To the right of that building is a 5mm AH version of the church from the famous Napoleonic battle of Aspern-Essling in 1809. It is a beautiful little model, and goes with the huge amounts of 5mm (tiny) Napoleonics that I have but never ever use...

Lastly, there are four ruined buildings of various types for use in 15mm WW2 games. The front-left one is an old AH casting, but I am not sure who made the other three. The right-most two are by the same manufacturer, and are beautiful multi-part models.

Pictures of my Crusades project re-basing progress will be posted separately, but all things considered, I will end April roughly where I had hoped to be. Re-basing efforts are moving along. I have finished a few projects in the terrain making area, and I have been able to knock out the painting of buildings in a number of eras that have been primed but languishing in the "partially done" box for quite some time. Hopefully I can continue this progress into May and June...

Crusades Game 1

A few finished bases

I've decided that the best way to make some progress on the 15mm Crusades re-basing effort is to set a manageable and meaningful short term goal. There is no better goal in miniatures than to be getting ready to put on a game, so that's what I am going to do. I will do a small solo campaign using Day of Battle. Whatever figures I need as the games progress is what I will need to make sure I have done before I can continue. I won't play a game until everything for that game is 100% complete. That includes figures as well as terrain.

With that in mind, I will start with a Crusader faction using the Crusader States list ("K1" in the Crusades supplement), and a Saracen faction using the Ayyubid Egyptian list ("K5"). Since the army generation rules provide good variability in what troop types respond to a warlord's summons, this should be a perfect way to be forced to base up different types of troops from game to game.

Each side will start with a Social Rank 3 warlord, Esteem 2 (and therefore Household value of 5).

The Crusaders:
Card draws (face, face, joker) result in 21 Army Points (5 + 5 + [3x2] + 5). This is 7 units (21/3). This comes to 2 mounted, 1 missile, 3 foot, and 1 "random" unit (which turns out to be a mounted unit), plus the free retinue unit choice. Die rolls on the muster chart result in:

• 1 Holy order knights (the free retinue choice), 2 mounted knights, 1 mounted sergeants
• 1 crossbow unit
• 1 Holy order spear unit, 2 regular spear units

The Egyptians:
The card draws (face, 9, 2) result in 17 Army Points (5+5+2+5 - number cards are worth their value, but to a maximum of the warlord's household value). This is 6 units (17/3 = 5.67). This comes to 3 mounted, 2 missile and 1 foot, plus one free retinue unit choice. Die rolls on the muster chart result in:

• 1 Royal Mameluke cavalry (the free retinue choice), 2 Mameluke cavalry, 1 light cavalry with bows
• 1 skirmisher with javelins, 1 skirmisher with bows
• 1 spear unit with javelins

Each army will also need a few command bases. Details on exact upgrades for the units prior to the actual game will be dealt with later, but none of that happens until the units above are complete. I have some units completed, but not all of the above. What remains to be done should be a very manageable bit of work.

Update - A quick review of my figures shows that only 1 Crusader spear unit and the 2 Saracen skirmish units still need to have the figs glued to the bases (along with the sand). The remainder are close to completion, needing only for the bases to be painted and flocked. So this is primarily an exercise in cosmetic base finishing. However, since I do need to do some gluing, I will probably do a dozen or so other various foot units at the same time for future games. I am doing pretty well on cavalry; much less so on infantry.

Desert Scenery - Buildings

Another simple project that I was able to get through quickly was to paint the accumulated backlog of 15mm desert buildings I have picked up here and there at conventions over the past couple of years. I think every con recently has had me come home with a few more of these, and I finally reached the tipping point to get them done. These were a satisfying little project as painting buildings is a quick dry brushing exercise. A brown or black undercoat and a few increasingly lighter dry brushed layers over top, and these were all done in about an hour. (The figures and palm trees were just thrown down around the town for the picture)

Hobby State of the Union

So... What have I been up to from a hobby standpoint these last several months? The honest answer is "not too much". That being said, things seem to have taken a turn for the better. Part of it is just coming out of a general malaise, part of it is that the Fall In convention in Lancaster PA has energized me somewhat (as these cons always do), and part of it is that I never went completely dormant on the hobby front (blog silence to the contrary).

As much as anything these days, I am suffering from the attention span deficit that often (OK, always...) afflicts me. Too many interests and projects and too little time. Back to the original question... "what am I doing these days from a hobby perspective?":

• Seven Years War project - I have been packing an order to send to Sri Lanka for painting, This is an interest that I have that I will never ever be able to address properly on my own from a painting perspective. If I waited until I painted what I needed to do a modest game, it would never happen. So it is time to admit my own limitations and call in the pros. I am sending Austrians to be painted, while I still have hopes of doing some Prussians on my own, as well as a bullet point covered below...
• Modular terrain - Following the blogs of Olicanalad and others, it seems that many hobbyists use modular terrain pieces for their battlefields. I have always either used custom terrain boards carved out of foam (but not modular), or simple ground clothes with other terrain pieces. I have made a few half-hearted starts on making modular terrain pieces, but have never gotten very far. This time will be different, and I have already made some decent progress. More to follow in another post...
• Hundred Years War - As recently posted, I completed a mini project on a set of 24 archer stake bases. I had been planning to get around to this for the better part of a year, and finally set aside the 2 hours needed to knock it out. In addition to that, I always seem to have at least a unit or two of medieval figs on my painting table.
• Napoleonics - My 15mm armies need more rebasing work in order to use my existing figs better with the LaSalle rules, which we have played a couple of times and like. LaSalle seems to be a nice mix of period feel with modest complexity and fairly quick play time. In other words, a winner.
• Ottomans - Work continues, albeit at a glacial pace, on knocking out a unit or two here and there. Much more work to be done before even a modest game could be played.
• Seven Years War "ImagiNation" - It seems to be a fairly common thing amongst our English gaming compatriots to create a fictitious state for which to create an army and inject it into real history. Popular periods seem to be in the early horse and musket periods of Marlburian through Seven Years War. I have decided to exercise my imagination and create the Duchy of Alsberg, a small German state in the Seven Years War era. I have begun painting a few units and have begun sketching out the "history" and background of my little duchy. I envision my duchy as a sometimes ally of Prussia which is often at conflict with smaller neighboring states as well as occasionally getting caught up in the larger affairs concerning Prussia and Austria (hence the additional impetus to get some Austrians painted...).
• Lord of the Rings and some other fantasy stuff to be expanded on later....
• Last but not least, the Crusades Project needs to forge ahead. Theoretically this should be an easier one to make progress on as it requires little more than rebasing of figures.

So... as I said, lots of different things going on. If I could just focus on one or two things at a time, I might actually make some progress. Alas, it is not my way...

Byzantines

I haven't been posting much recently, but I have been doing a decent bit of hobby stuff in scattered small increments. One little project was to take a batch of twenty-four 15mm Byzantine cavalry that I picked up dirt cheap at the flea market at one of the HMGS conventions and touch up the paint jobs. I think that the figs are Old Glory, but I'm not absolutely sure. The paint jobs on them were very basic and a little sloppy, but I got the batch for considerably less than the unpainted figs would have been, so what the heck.


A couple of weeks later, after a number of brief painting sessions of 15 or 20 minutes here and there I was able to clean up the overall look of the figures, fix the sloppy patches, and repaint the cloaks and some of the detail work. The result is far from spectacular, but after rebasing the figures to make three Impetus style large bases, I think they look acceptable. Close up pictures of the backs of the figures show the cartoon-like highlight exaggeration I did on the cloaks, but the effect of this when viewing these little guys on the table is what I was aiming for. I still have a lot to learn about painting 15mm figs compared to 25mm.

Hmmm. I really should repaint the shields too...

Crusades - Basing Update

Since my order of new bases arrived yesterday I have had the chance to throw together one quick sample of what a finished unit will look like. I am pleased with the results (although this one isn't actually 100% done), and can't wait to move forward with the rest of them. The figures in this particular case are mostly 15mm Old Glory with a few Essex mixed in. I like the combination of quality and price on the Old Glory figures. The Essex are a little larger and bulkier than the OG's, but are very nice figures. The down side is the price, which is significantly more than the Old Glory figs when the OG bulk discount is taken into account.

Desert Terrain

As mentioned in a prior post, most of my shopping at Cold Wars was focused on getting some ready to use terrain items for my Crusades project. It is amazing what a difference a few small additions make to creating the right look and feel on the table. I think my little desert terrain battlefield is actually starting to look like a desert. I still have a several things to work on, but I am satisfied that it no longer looks glaringly wrong. So that's a good start. I still need to work on the ground colors, but I have picked up a few quarts of different colored latex house paint and just need some time to try different combinations and experiment. This is functional and will do for now.

Crusades - Reynaud's First Battle

I haven't posted much recently, but I have probably made more progress on miniatures related things than I have in a long time. That is to say I have made a little progress, which is a vast improvement over having done nothing much for many months. I have been energized with the idea of the Crusades project I have undertaken. This evening I played through one turn of Reynaud's first battle, and while I will save a battle report for later (once there is something to report), I can at least post a picture to show what I have been up to.

My Litko base order is still listed as "in production" on their website, so the troops have been pressed into service in their old partially finished green "WRG" basing. A couple of Crusader leader/banner stands have been completed. They are the small round stands behind other larger units. Saracen leaders are bare round bases with no figs.

But the progress I have made is the first attempt at a terrain board and some hills. The method I used is fine: wood glue on blue board insulation sprinkled with sand. When the sand is dry, a coat of desert color latex house paint which is subsequently dry-brushed with a few successively lighter shades of the base color. A little darker color is added in a few spots for variety. I'm not completely sold that I have the right paint colors for this, as everything looks a little too yellow for my tastes, and while the middle east is an arid land, it isn't the Sahara. I think I need to go with a little bit of a darker grayish-brown base layer and then lighter tan highlights that aren't quite as yellow. That being said, repainting will be easy, and before I embark on a more ambitious set of modular terrain boards and pieces, I wanted to test the colors. I think this little exercise taught me what I needed to learn. As an aside, I think the simple rough hill in the extreme back of the picture behind the stream may be closer to the color scheme I want for the base layer. We shall see.

Other pieces of terrain, such as the lame "oasis" at lower left and "swampy area" at back right are stand-ins for the real thing, but you have to start somewhere. Note to self: buy palm trees at Cold Wars next weekend...

Outremer Settlers domain list

This is the domain list I have drafted to represent a Frankish settler's domain in a border area in the northern part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the mid-12th century. I want something that will give a blend of the Frankish and native troop types that would probably have been more typical than a straight "Crusader" army in this kind of situation. It is a work in progress, and I have a few other ideas rattling around in my head that I think are worth exploring, so I would expect I will be posting an expansion on this in the not too distant future.

12 March, 1148

From the Journal of Reynaud of Aarma

"Sunset on this the Twelfth day of March, the year of our Lord 1148. It has been four years since I arrived on these shores and two years since I have been graced with the lands of Aarma. My two years here have been peaceful, and my daily work has been ruling these lands and not wielding a sword. But war has come from the East. Amir Habib ibn Hamad has been raiding into the borderlands, stealing livestock, robbing caravans and burning crops. Outriders from my neighbor Stephen of Yuval came to Aarma scant days ago with word of a force moving up the valley in my direction. I have called my men to me and marched to meet him beyond the borders of my lands. I will not see the toil of my time here undone. Nor shall I forsake the trust my lord Gilbert of Tyre has placed in me. I will do my duty. My scouts have found the Amir and his horsemen camped near the burning village of Houra, only a few miles hence. In the morning, he shall feel the wrath of our lances and the bite of our swords. Lord, may your blessings shine upon us on the Day of Battle."

Crusades Project Page Created

I just wanted to post a note that I have created a "Crusades Project 2011" page in the Pages section over to the right hand side of the blog page. Items of note on the project will continue to be posted here. I will use the new page to keep a diary of my activity on the project, where it can serve as my ongoing To-Do list as well as keeping more trivial things out of the main blog.

Crusades - Game 1 Prep

The Situation
March 12, 1148. A troublesome Syrian amir has been raiding into the Christian areas east of Reynaud's lands. Reynaud has summoned his forces and ridden forth to do battle.

Game Overview
I will play this first game as a straight-up battle with a Syrian domain list led by a leader with stats identical to Reynaud's. The Syrian army points available will be equal to Reynaud's with one plus/minus randomizer card. I will use the Early Crusader list for Reynaud as I have not drafted the Early Frankish Settlers list. Since this project is being tackled as a "just in time" endeavor, item one on the immediate term ToDo list becomes "draft Early Frankish Settler" domain list to have it ready for game 2.

Summoning Reynaud's Army
Army Points (AP) will be his household (HH) value (SR3 plus Esteem 2 = 5) plus three random draw cards. Cards are a 4, an 8 (max of his household value, so reduced to 5), and a Queen (faces are value 5). So his three cards are worth 14. Plus household of 5 is 19 AP. 19 AP divided by 3 is 6 units with one AP left over. That can be used to purchase an SR1 leader. There is a new Household Units rule that lets you pick a few units off your domain list before randomizing the rest. For a HH 5 leader, this is 2 units. The obvious choice here is to take 2 units of knights, which I will do. The remaining 4 units are rolled for randomly, and answering Reynaud's summons are: 2 units of spearmen, 1 additional knights, and 1 turcomen light cavalry. Just to use the new Mercenaries rule, I will make the additional knight unit a mercenary unit and say that they are Byzantine adventurers fighting for pay on the frontier.

The Syrian army of Amir Habib
Syrian AP will be 19 and a randomizer card, which is a black 5, meaning plus 1 AP, for a total of 20. This equates to 6 units with 2 AP leftover, which allows the Syrians to have an additional leader or two. To make them more flexible, I will choose a pair of SR1 leaders rather than one SR2. Habib's household units will be a pair of heavy cavalry. His remaining 4 units are rolled for and come up: 2 horse archers, 1 light cavalry and 1 infantry unit. Not an unrealistic force.

Postscript
I will now either re-base enough figures for these units or maybe play this first game with the figures still in old standard basing. I just went down to the basement to check on one unit of knights that I re-based on a basswood sheet base as a test, and the results aren't pretty. The basswood bases are large enough that even though they are thick (3/32"), the amount of glue put on top to glue the figures and the sand texture at the same time have caused the base to warp dramatically. Looks like I need a plan B...which most likely means an order of Litko plywood bases that should be dimensionally stable. Looks like ToDo list #2 becomes "order bases." Bummer.

Crusades Project - Background

I have a lot of work to do on my 15mm Crusades armies. Re-basing figures, painting buildings, working on "brown world" desert terrain, buying some additional figures and other tasks that I am sure haven't even occurred to me yet. At the same time, the other main objective of this project is to help Chris with Day of Battle 4. I am afraid that if I get too bogged down in all the miniatures related tasks, I'll never get around to playing anything. So this is my plan...

I will create a new character to build the campaign around (and let's hope I can keep him alive for a little while!). I will do the pre-game prep for the first battle, up to the point of army creation. Once I see what I need for that battle, I will re-base the figures needed (but only what is immediately needed), fight the battle, and so on. This should force me into a nice mix of background tasks and actually playing.

Our Story Begins
We'll follow the exploits of Reynaud, a lesser son of a minor French noble who has come to the holy lands in the wake of the First Crusade to find fame and fortune. Or at least fortune. It is the middle part of the 12th century, let's say 1148. Reynaud has some experience in battle from his days in France, and has been granted lordship of a small fief in the northern part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His holdings are modest, but more than he could have dreamed of back home. The town of Aarma, and its tiny little castle are his home, and he has feudal authority over the nearby villages of Dafna, Ghajar, and Baj al Malouk. The people of his fiefdom are a combination of Frankish settlers and locals, who he has treated well and are for the most part loyal to him.


His first couple of years have been mainly consumed with settling the area better and winning over the locals, but this inland area is in a historically contested area near the Syrian border, and things seem to be flaring up... There are raiding Syrians, roving bands of bandits, unfriendly "friendly" neighbors wanting more influence in the area, and all sorts of other potential enemies.

The Games
Chris has been kind enough to throw together drafts of the army lists from his On Holy Ground supplement for my use in this project. As I intend the character to be a Frankish settler between major Crusades (I and III primarily), depending on the circumstance I will be using the Domain lists for Early Crusaders, Syrians, and a homemade blended list for "Early Frankish Settlers". I want Reynaud's core Domain list to be the kind of amalgamation of western and local troop types that such a holding would have had access to. And it also gives me the opportunity to mix in Byzantine mercenaries and pretty much anything else that strikes my fancy. Once I draft this "Frankish Settlers" list I will post it here and forward it to Chris for his review and input.

Now on to Game 1...

Crusades Project - Plans

I have been inactive in my wargaming for far too long. Now that we have gotten some family things straightened out that had things in a state of flux, I am ready to dive back into something.

First, I need to get an order out the Fernando Enterprises for painting. I don't have the time to paint quantity, so some of my figure stock needs to get on an airplane and go overseas. This will end up being 25mm Ottomans, 25mm Seven Years War, or 25mm Renaissance.

Second, I need to get back to work on helping Chris Parker out with his ideas for Day of Battle IV. In conjunction with this, I plan to rebase my 15mm Crusader and Saracen armies using the Impetus style basing that Chris is using. There is no real risk in doing this, as I have never really used these armies the way they are based now, and I have been anxious to base something on the kind of diorama-style bases that Impetus uses. I will try to use these newly rebased armies to do some playtesting of DoB4 as part of a small solo campaign.

Hopefully, between these little projects and the fact that Cold Wars is coming up in less than a month, I will get back on the hobby track.