Impetus - Germans vs Italians, Part 2

Part 2 - The Fighting Starts
Turn 5 - Some desultory shooting occurs, to no effect. Both sides jockey for position in the center while rushing up reinforcements. German knights head for the open ground supporting the center, while the new foot troops head for the hill. The Italian command all heads down the road behind their lines in the direction of the hill (on their left flank).

Turn 5 - Jockeying for position

Turn 6 - The Italian scutiferi light cavalry shoot at the sergeants to their front, disordering them. In their turn, the German sergeants both charge. The first unit engages the archers, beat them and force them back, but have insufficient pursuit movement to catch them as they retreat (this would almost certainly have finished them off). The other unit of sergeants charges the light cavalry, who evade. The second commands continue to march.

Turn 6 - German sergeants charge

Turn 7 - The Italian light cavalry continue to harass the sergeants, shooting at them and causing Disorder and one loss. A unit of Italian feudal infantry wheels and charges into the side of the unit of sergeants that was driving back the archers. Both take one loss, disorder, and remain engaged. In the German turn, these units fight again, with each taking one loss but with the Germans winning. The Italian foot retreat 1 inch, are pursued and caught. In the next round of fighting, no damage is caused and they remain engaged yet again. This foot unit was performing heroically (and it would get even better...).

Turn 7 - Melees ongoing in the center

Turn 8 - The Italian first command won the initiative and had a solid turn. The light cavalry shot at the sergeants to their front, caused a loss (double Disorder), and then charged them, inflicting another double Disorder loss, and remaining engaged with them (yes, I did this wrong by the rules - the light cavalry would have retreated from an engaged melee with heavy cavalry...oh well). I chalk this up to extreme bravery since they had been fighting so well.

During turn 8 - Sergeants fighting Italian foot

The engaged unit of Italian foot continue to fight the German sergeants, and miraculously hold them off (bad dice all around). 

In the German activation, a newly arrived unit of German knights charges the other Italian feudal foot unit and routs it in one combat. The German knights pursue only 1 inch, but are now behind the other engaged Italian foot unit. It looks like that heroic unit's days are numbered. Both engaged units of sergeants fight their opponents again, and both take a loss from double Disorder (remaining engaged) while the Italians both avoid damage. The improbable continues, and both German sergeant units are wearing away faster than their weaker opponents...

Turn 8 - Lines forming in the center

Over by the hill, the Italian knights move up to threaten the German crossbows and foot holding the high ground, and look to be in position to charge next turn. Crossbow fire Disorders the lead Italian knight unit.

The last command for each side arrives on the table and march forward.

Turn 9 - The German first command activates, thinking that things must get better. They don't. The Italian foot rout the first sergeant unit, and the light cavalry fights the other to a draw. Again.

The German second command activates next, and the unit of knights that had just ridden down the one Italian foot wheels and charges the one that just destroyed the sergeants. While this charge appears to be a Rear charge, it technically isn't. Still, the Germans will roll ten dice while the Italian foot rolls one die.

Turn 9 - German knights charge from behind

The charmed life of the brave foot unit continues, as neither side scores any damage (a point of damage is caused by each 6 and each pair of 5's). In ten dice, the Germans could only manage a single 5... They remain engaged.

Rolling 10 dice vs 1 die - no hits scored!!

The Italian second command activates, and the knights charge up the hill, defeating, pursuing and routing the German crossbow unit. Foot units are moving up in support.

The Italian first command activates in the center, meaning more melees for the engaged units. The light cavalry takes a loss but remains engaged. The heroic foot roll one die versus the 6 dice of the knight unit, cause 1 loss on them, and send them retreating!

Turn 9 - Italians holding on in the center

Meanwhile, more troops move up...

Turn 9 - Moving to the sound of battle

Next - The Fighting Escalates

Impetus - Germans vs Italians, Opening Moves

Our planned-for Impetus game Sunday evening fell apart, but I had the figures out and table prepared, so I spent some time pushing figures around solo. Since it was just me, I decided to have the armies come onto the table on roads from opposite corners. Meeting engagements of this sort would probably have been less common than in most other periods, but it allowed me to jump right in with no set up. Each army had three commands. The smaller of each three would begin barely on the table, and the others would arrive on turns 4 and 8. Easing into things would also help me get reacquainted with the rules. German and generic figures are using the early Imperial German list, and Normans (and Crusaders) are using the early Communal Italian list.

Most of my first brief playing session on Sunday night would be just a lot of moving, as troops entered the field. This was fine, as I had a football game on in the background and needed a rules refresher.

Turn 1 - Early turns would see much use of the road March rules. I pushed both sides hard and there were a lot of movement related Disorders. Germans are entering through the town at top left and the Italians are entering across the stream at lower right.

After turn 1

Turn 2 - Italian Scutiferi light cavalry and skirmish archers are first to arrive in the center of the battlefield. Their foot struggle to keep up. The Germans have longer to go; through town and either around or over the big hill outside of town. Two units of German sergeants will swing around, while a unit each of crossbows and foot head for the hilltop.

Turn 2 - Italian lights advance in center

Turn 2 - Germans debouching from town

Turn 3 - The Italian lights wait nervously in the center while the Germans close in on them. The foot on both sides lag behind. It's a good thing the Italian foot doesn't have as far to go, as their one unit of light cavalry will be no match for two units of German heavy cavalry.

Turn 3 - Italian foot deploys

Turn 3 - Germans advance on the center

Turn 4 - By the end of turn 4, things were about to heat up. German heavy cavalry sergeants were in position to charge the Italians in the center, but infantry support was coming up to support the light cavalry and missile troops. German foot were moving onto the hill on the sergeants' flank, and the second commands for both sides were moving onto the table. At this point, only a few long range missile shots had been taken, and no casualties inflicted.

Turn 4 - Contesting the middle (from German side)

Turn 4 - Second German command marching on

Next...Some Action

Paint Table - Sunday November 23, 2014

This short update will be it for the weekend's hobby progress, as I have a game to prepare for and play this evening. Who knew you could actually play games with these little guys...

I decided to keep my nicer Flag Dude flags for my Hundred Years War stuff, which uses them almost exclusively, and stick to plain paper flags printed off the internet for these figures. Here are the new German stands again with flags.

German knights with banners

Back in the late spring I also painted a bunch of WW2 US infantry and antitank guns with crews. I based these yesterday while doing the other miscellaneous things, so they are now complete. Finally. Some really fun games of Fireball Forward! was the spark to paint these (and I have American paratroops and German infantry ready to paint).

WW2 Americans in 15mm

Painting 15mm is certainly very different from painting the larger scales, but a simple process of undercoat, wash, drybrush and detail was pretty easy and came out well. Given that I almost never paint 15mm, I am very happy with these, and they are a terrific upgrade from the not-so-great purchased WW2 Americans I have been using.

WW2 American infantry close up

Now off to set up that game. And watch the Eagles play the Titans. And food shop. And cook dinner...

Paint Table Saturday - November 22, 2014

I surprised myself today by investing my little bit of hobby time in finishing the bases I have painted over the last couple of weeks instead of painting something new. Thankless work, but somebody has to do it. Plus, we are playing an Impetus game tomorrow evening and I want to use some of these figures, so, out of necessity...

First up are some rebased skirmish archers (Old Glory Eastern European peasant archer figures).

Generic skirmish archers

Then some of the same figures rebased as regular missile troops (Impetus basing).

Generic archers

Next, some Breton light cavalry (OG Breton sergeants) rebased two per stand.

Norman/Breton light cavalry

And a couple of Norman leader/banner bearer figures.

Norman leader and banner

Then the Ottoman sipahi sample stand that I put together as a taste of things to come. 15 more figures (5 more stands) are near completion, but I wanted to see what one completely finished stand looked like. I like it.

Ottoman armored Sipahis

Finally, the ubiquitous German knights (from the Mongols in Europe range). I hand painted the lance pennons to match the heraldry painted on the figures. A first for me, but I think it looks good.

German knights

And more knights.

More German knights

And lastly, all the new knights on parade. There are two stands that need to have Flag Dude banners added, but that is the final step, and will be done tomorrow.

Lots of German knights

Not a bad day's work.

Farewell to Jessica's Biscuit

I went to my favorite cookbook website this morning to do a little Christmas-related potential present browsing. Or, I should say, I tried to...

I have used ecookbooks.com, the website for Jessica's Biscuit, an online specialty store selling only cookbooks for years. They always had great customer service and a dazzling array of cookbooks at great prices, and their website was easy to browse, categorizing and tagging books by all sorts of criteria to make it easy to browse. But it seems like they are out of business. Gone without a trace. A brief story by a food blogger is here, but the gist of it is that after many years in business and with a dedicated and loyal customer base, the guy who ran it simply closed the doors to open a craft brewery instead. No warning. No farewell. Nothing on the website (because there no longer is a website; it's gone as well). Just gone.

As noted in the article, there is nothing wrong with moving on in life and doing something different. Once a business decides that it is done, that business has no obligations to its customers. But a simple "Thanks to our customers and good bye" on the website would have been nice.

I'm sad to see it go. It was the best cookbook resource on the web.

Julia's Bedroom Remodel

A cold weather house project to be done this Fall and Winter is to re-do Julia's bedroom. Surprisingly, she has decided that she wants a pink room. So pink it will be.

The Plan: The wall behind her headboard will be an accent wall of a dark pink. The other three walls will be a slightly pinkish off-white. Pink is fine, but we don't want a cotton candy explosion. I will put up crown molding and do the painting. We will take down the valance over top of her existing curtains (already gone), and we will take down and replace the old curtains with new ones that Amp will be sewing (after the costume work for the Fall musical is done). Then we'll rearrange and hang some artwork and that will be that. Oh, and the piece of furniture to the right of her bed (the one that we built ourselves) still needs to be painted and glazed.

At start - The valance is gone but the curtains can't come down until we have new ones to replace them.

Valance down. Old pale yellow walls.

Then crown molding goes up in pieces. The 11 and 12 foot walls are too long for a single stock 10 foot piece, so I'll be splicing each wall carefully in the middle. They make 16 foot lengths, but it isn't worth renting a truck or paying to have them delivered for one room's worth of material.

Musical souvenirs. Crown goes up.

The moldings are up. As usual, the walls and ceiling are not perfectly even and level, so there will be some spackling and sanding and caulking to be done. When that is finished and the paint is on, you'll never be able to tell. I hope. At least that's the way it's worked out in some other rooms...

Crown molding up. Lots of finish work to do.

Next was the tedious step of patching nail holes, spackling gaps, sanding, etc. That is where we are now; prep work for painting maybe two-thirds done. One day soon, "painting table saturday" will be this instead of miniatures.

Painting Table - November 20, 2014

Last weekend and some evening painting this week has gone well. As planned, I was able to re-base some archers and Breton light cavalry, but (as usual) I have the flocking and finishing work left to do.

I prepped a bag of mounted crossbowmen, but can't get to painting them yet as I cannot realistically prime the figures in the house, and it has been below freezing and windy most if not all of this week, so I can't get outside to spray them, even in the garage.

Mounted crossbows

That means that next up are some already primed Ottomans (of which there are several trays full of figs ready to go).

18 sipahis on deck

Over the weekend, after the above chores were completed and in and around planning and running a D&D session, I put some work in on a block of 18 Ottoman armored sipahi cavalry. By Monday night I had painted and washed/shaded the horses, and done the basic armor treatment.

Monday - basic horses and armor

By the end of tonight (Thursday), I had done the basic painting on all 18 figures. All that remains is to clean up some details (horse equipment, straps, shield details, etc), do some shading and highlighting, and give them a final once-over to make sure they look OK.

Thursday - Detail work remains 

One stand is more or less done, which leaves 5 stands of 3 each left to go. Plus the two leaders and one extra sipahi in the background. I have a bunch of beautiful "Flag Dude" Ottoman flags waiting, and three of these stands will have a flag bearer once the figures have been seal coated.

One stand more or less done, minus flag

This weekend I really should force myself to flock and finish the bases that are hanging in limbo. But I say that most weeks... There is also talk of a medieval game this Sunday, so I am getting a table together just in case that works out.

Painting Table Preview - November 15, 2014

The Fall In convention induced flurry of painting activity has continued this week, and I've probably painted more figures over the last 2 weeks than in any similar period ever.

In addition to completing the refurbishing and additions to the 18 German knights shown a few posts back (and begun back in May), I have painted 5 medieval townspeople, refurbished about 10 stands of Norman cavalry, and most significantly, painted 56 Norman heavy infantry from scratch. These guys have been sitting in a box prepped and primed for a few years. Given that they are mostly covered in chainmail armor, I figured they would be easy to work my way through, and they were.

Norman heavy infantry on Impetus bases

Goals for this weekend, or the near future at least, are to finish basing and flocking all of the above, re-base some generic medieval archers onto Impetus style bases, prep and prime a unit of mounted crossbows and a unit of German sergeants for when the mood strikes, and flock the bases of a bunch of WW2 US infantry painted back in the spring. In recognition of my lack of focus, I like to have a bunch of different figure types and periods primed and ready to paint so that when I feel like picking up a brush I have a variety of things to choose from. Perhaps caving in to this known flaw of mine is why I have a hard time getting a period ever "finished", but it works for me (although my Ottoman project might not agree).

All this painting has made me want to get a game together, so there is a possibility of either a medieval Impetus game or another D&D session later this weekend. Hopefully something works out. If not, I may play a little Impetus by myself.

Throwing a game table together

Lastly, a completely unrelated (obviously) picture of my favorite tree. This is a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia) that we planted at the back of our property in 1998. It started at about 6 feet tall, and is now 25-30 feet tall at the top of its spike. It is a seasonal conifer with very cool feathery leaves that it drops for the winter.

Dawn Redwood

Given a lot more time (long after I am gone), this could be the tallest tree in town. By a lot. Although it is the smallest of the redwoods, it still tops out at over two hundred feet with a 6 foot diameter base. I'm not quite sure what we would do with that much tree in the backyard, but I won't be the one to have to worry about it...

First State National Monument

Sometimes the good guys win.

Near home, my favorite place for a short hike is the Woodlawn Tract, a beautiful 1,100 acre wooded area along the Brandywine River with a few scattered horse farms. Is is bordered on the south by Brandywine Creek State Park, and stretches a little ways into Pennsylvania near Chadds Ford.

Wood lots and farmland

My understanding is that while the Woodlawn Trust (the owners of the property) would seem to be a conservation/wildlife preservation entity, it isn't; it is a real estate holding trust.

Grace hiking the National Monument (who knew?)

The big "uh oh!" came a few years back when a proposal was put forth for a developer to buy a chunk of the Woodlawn Tract and put in 300+ new houses. This of course immediately raised a public outcry, a very visible and active "Save the Valley" campaign, and all the related furor and distress.

Then things got quiet. I figured that things had devolved into a legal battle and/or negotiations over what could and couldn't be done; something likely to take years.

First State Natl Monument and BCSP

Just recently, by accident, I found out why the furor died down (and I can't believe I didn't know this sooner!!). A good encapsulation of the story can be found here, which I will summarize. The short version is that what used to be the Woodlawn Tract is now a national park service unit as part of the First State National Monument.

Apparently, as early as 2011, the Woodlawn Tract, deemed to be in jeopardy, was added to a bill in Congress that would link it to several other historic sites within the state, and be put under the protection of the National Park Service. That bill failed to pass.

A $20 million dollar donation to The Conservation Fund allowed the Woodlawn Tract to be purchased with the intent to include it in a park once it became available for donation at the end of 2012. A new bill was introduced, stalled again, and was in danger of failing (and The Conservation Fund was going to lose rights to the land apparently). With the clock ticking, President Obama (with urging from Delaware's Vice President Biden I'm sure...) signed the bill into law under the Antiquities Act on March 25, 2013, and created the First State National Monument, including the donation of the 1,100 Woodlawn acres to the government, where they reside under the protection of the National Park Service.

It doesn't protect everything in the area, but it does protect woods, fields, farms, and dozens of miles of hiking trails in the path of suburban sprawl.

Painting Table for Two

Much to my delight, over the past few evenings, I have had company at the Painting Table. Grace, my 5th grader, has decided that she wants to paint some figures of her own.

She spent a little time painting with me last Spring, and painted a mounted medieval knight (in an eye-popping combination of purples, pinks and light blues). This time around, she has declared that she wants to make a little army of three mounted figures, one of whom will be the leader, and four foot soldiers. She wants to paint them to look like mine (i.e. realistic).

Painting Table for Two

I have no idea how long this will last, but I am thrilled while it does. She is interested in learning different basic techniques, and is a good student. We have been through blocking in basic colors, washing for shading, dry brushing for highlighting, and then picking out detail. We have talked a little bit about color theory, painting over a black or brown prime versus a white prime, which colors tend to cover well (blues and greens and browns) and which colors cover less well (reds and yellows) due to the pigmentation, etc...

Painter's Apprentice

It's been a blast. I treasure these moments when it's cool for her to hang out with Daddy. On top of that, she's a pretty good painter for someone working on her second figure ever (a 25mm Old Glory 3rd Crusades mounted knight). I will post a picture when she is done. I tried to post a close up of the work in progress, but she wouldn't let me - "it doesn't look good enough yet." Good for her.

Painting Table Saturday - Knights

After not lifting a paint brush for most of the summer and early Fall, I've been back at it in small spurts over the last week or so. The first order of business was to finish up the batch of 18 German mounted knights that have been sitting there since...May? Yes, probably since May.

These guys were the last of the "refurbishment" batches, along with a few new figures to round out the number needed for 6 stands of 3 each. The plan was always to go with fairly basic paint schemes for these, but I did add some additional detail to a few of them. They look OK, and when the bases are finished and flags and lance pennons are added, they will be a nice addition to the medieval horde.

Early Medieval German Knights

Next up, at least for the moment, are 10 more Hundred Years War crossbowmen, but I suspect that these will get set aside for something else. I have 4 units' worth of Norman heavy spearmen prepped and ready to go (60 figures), and adding these as nice large infantry blocks to the early medieval forces sounds appealing. Those are also easy figs to paint, and can be turned out quickly in large numbers.

Hundred Years War Crossbows

For today at least, I'll get some paint on these crossbowmen.

Fall In 2014 - Saturday, Day 2

Day 2 of Fall In was fairly uneventful for me, and somewhat brief. I arrived mid-morning and had plenty of time to watch various games and do some shopping before setting up a flea market table for the afternoon session.

I've been giving some thought recently to what my miniatures collection would look like if I started with a completely clean slate and were not burdened with a basement full of false starts, sidetracks, and periods that have gone by the wayside. Suffice it to say for the moment that the "ideal" vision differs a good bit from the reality. With that in mind, it was a very successful flea market session, where I sold practically everything I brought. This included three boxes of 25mm Saxons and two boxes of 25mm Vikings (reserving enough of each for modest skirmish armies), my American Revolution Continental army (2 large boxes of Brandywine regiments), Warhammer fantasy battle dwarves, a few miscellaneous odds and ends, and a half dozen board games. I came home with one board game and one rulebook. The carry-out was delightfully lighter than the carry-in.

This was a good step in the right direction towards (profitably) jettisoning the things I will never use. Hopefully they have found a good home where they will be of more use to somebody than they have been to me in recent years.

My two flea market purchases over the two days were a box of 54 nice 15mm palm trees and a set of uniform guides. The palm trees were based very nicely on round masonite bases (flocked), and look beautiful after I got them home and gave them a light overhead dusting of two shades of lighter green and a matt sealer coat to knock the edge off the dark green plastic look. These will be useful for either my 15m Crusaders or WW2 Pacific War.

Age of Chivalry, two volumes, in French

The real find was the uniform guides. Liliane and Fred Funcken did a whole series of uniform and equipment guides (back in the 1970's primarily, I think). The sets came in pairs of two books per period and go for a very hefty price for the English versions. You can also find them in French and less commonly in German. When I see them at shows, they are generally in French. I have Napoleonics in French and Lace Wars (1700's) in German. To this I added the two volume set of Medieval and Renaissance (in French) for the reasonable price of $45. They are in great condition, and I use them primarily for pictures and painting inspiration, so the fact that I can barely fumble through some of the text makes no difference.

All in all another successful show, and it certainly has gotten the painting juices flowing again, as these shows always do.

Fall In 2014 - Friday, Day 1

Things have been pretty quiet (OK, very quiet) on the wargaming and miniatures front over the last few months. Family stuff has been keeping all of us busy, and the time I have had to allocate to hobby stuff has primarily gone to working up the basics of a D&D campaign (for this first time since the late '80's or early '90's).

Knowing that Fall In, the local/big fall convention in Lancaster PA, was coming up soon has gotten the painting juices flowing again, and over the past week or so I have gotten back into something of a painting groove. More on that soon.

For now, today was the first day of Fall In. As usual, I took the day off and made my way out to Lancaster in time to get there and wander the in-progress games before the dealer area opened at noon. On picking up my preregistration badge, I was surprised at how thin the weekend's program book was. In the 15+ years I have been attending these Lancaster conventions, I think this must have been the lightest program yet. Wandering the show over the 6 or so hours I was there would bear this out; not a ton of games being run, and not a ton of gamers. I guess it wasn't too far off what I remember a Fall In Friday as being, but with the good weather today, I still think it was light.

Romans and barbarians in Germania (25mm)

Although the number of games seemed light, the quality was high, and there were a lot of attractive games to check out.

Early WW2, "Brazen Chariots" rules (15mm)

As always, there were friends and acquaintances to run into and chat with, games to watch, the dealer area to cruise, and the flea market (bring and buy to our English friends) to troll for that special "ah-ha" item.

Fish in a barrel...I mean 15mm Napoleonics

As has also been the case at recent conventions, I dove into the dealer area fully expecting/hoping to leave some cash behind, but didn't find all that much that struck a chord. I needed some dice for our foray into D&D (wargamers are swimming in d6, d10 and d20, but have little use for d4, d8 and d12, thus the need to stock up on some of these). I believe I now have at least a modest handful of every type of dice made. Actually, that being said, I think that there is a such thing as a d100, and if so, I don't have one of those.... yet...

WW2 Pegasus Bridge in 25/28mm

Other dealer area purchases were 7 medieval flags and cavalry banners from The Flag Dude and a few packs of 25mm medievals from Old Glory (2 packs of generic 12th century infantry and a pack of early medieval mounted German knights with lances). When in doubt, I buy more medievals. It's a "happy place" thing I suppose...

SAGA "Crescent and the Cross" in the desert (25mm)

I was on the road and headed home by 3:30. Garnet Valley had a home playoff football game at 7pm (we won convincingly, 35-15). I also needed to spend some getting together the things that I will be taking to the show tomorrow to sell at the flea market table I have from 2pm to 5pm. Selling hobby stuff is a bit like selling off members of the family (fill in your own joke here), but in my advancing years the one, perhaps only (probably only), bit of wisdom I have managed to attain is that if I lived to be 200 years old I would still not have the time to delve into every potential hobby interest that I have stumbled upon (and bought figures for). Thus, tomorrow, with any luck, lots of 25mm Vikings and Saxons, some 25mm English Civil War, a few Warhammer Fantasy odds and ends, and an American Revolution 25mm Continental army will all be going to live on a farm up-state. Or wherever it is that the hamsters, goldfish and other ex- members of the family go.

"Fall In" Saturday to follow (after it happens)...