Anarchy In The Stables

I have completed four anarchist militia in my bid to make up a full centuria of forty figures, this is part of my kick started Spanish Civil War collection, I have been mulling over starting a new period recently, but has Dave pointed out, "why are you doing that when you have others already on the go" So a reality check and the Spanish Civil War is my new/old project, it has even got me reading again, I picked up a copy of  "English Captain" by Tom Wintringham back in 2008, read two chapters and that was it, I am back to it now after eight years! (my how time flies)
It was not until I uploaded the photo to the PC that I saw how out of focus it was, my photography skills do not improve, I think I will stick to the IPad in future, at least I can see the display!

  Anyway you get the general idea, I was quite amused by the illustration of the anarchist milicano on the cover of the recent Osprey with the government tricolour arm band, a bit of a contradiction I thought, I just had to replicate it.

Now onto the the completed stable yard............................................

 I have added two firing steps since the last post, these are Ainsty jetty pieces I had lying around from one of our demo games back in the day.

Off to GHQ tomorrow for the start of our America through the ages Black Powder games, starting with an American Revolution game. 

TTFN 

El Puente MCMXXXVI

Despite Dave having the most tremendous cough and cold and myself having just the cough, my wife has gone halves on this, she has the cold, we managed the planned SCW game earlier today.
I made it a small game with just six units a piece and played it on a 4'x4' table using Bolt Action rules. I didn't add to many SCW amendments, both sides units were classed inexperienced except that the Carlist militia if requiring a morale test would roll as regular morale, I also added a small deck of chance cards, one would be drawn when a red dice came out of the bag.
The rebel forces were holding a bridge which the anarchist militia would attempt to take control of, they had four squads of eight eight figures and a command team of two figures, an armoured truck would appear on the road on a dice throw of six when the last Republican order dice was drawn, this would reduce to five from turn two, four on turn three etc.
The rebel forces consisted of four six man squads of Carlist militia, supported by a squad of ten Falange militia and had a command team of three figures.

Anarchist Militia Begin Their Advance On The Bridge

The Rebel Militia Await The Attack

Turn One - Saw the general advance of the anarchist forces whilst the rebels consolidated their position around the bridge, the chance card was Nationalist Friction, this saw the removal of an order dice, there was only one left in the bag so the final Carlist squad remained off table. The armoured truck failed to appear.

Turn Two - The government troops continued to advance in the direction of the farm to attack the rebel flank, whilst a diversionary squad advanced the other side. The chance card was La Tarjeta En Blanco.

Still no sign of the truck.

The Rebel Forces Strengthen Their Positions

The Anarchist Advance Continues

 Turn Three - Shots began to be exchanged with the anarchist diversionary squad and the Carlists at the ruined watch post, the anarchist flanking force came into range too and began to fire on the Falangists flank forcing them to take cover at the other barricade on the road. The chance card gave one of the anarchist squads an additional move bringing the within range, however it did not allow them to shoot so the rebels were able to adopt a better protective position. The truck? of course not, debating who would pay for the fuel no doubt.

The Flank Attack

Turn Four - The anarchist attack is beginning to stall, the rebels are aided by the chance card draw which enable them to put a down order on the anarchist diversionary squad, scuppering their plans to attack the Falange in the flank whilst they are engaged to their front on the road. Where's that bloody truck!

Turn Five - Both sides are now taking casualties but neither is about to give way, the chance card brings a stray artillery round just missing the bridge and causing the Carlists on it to get a tad wet. The two anarchists in the road knowing they are done for charge the remaining Falange behind the barricade, to no avail. However it does enable another squad to advance a little nearer ready for next turn.The truck arrives, moves, fires, misses!

What Is This?

 Turn Six - The anarchists burst through the tree line and take out the rebel command, things begin to look better for the government forces, but wait the chance card ends the turn after the next order dice. The anarchist dice comes out but the chosen unit fail their order test. The dice will determine if there will be a turn seven, yes there will, there is still hope.

The Falange Await the Attack That Didn't Happen

 Turn Seven - The truck fires on the Falange and misses again, the chance card is no good for either side, the Carlists try and eliminate the anarchist squad that is contesting the bridge and fail, a honourable draw is concluded.

Now If There Had Been a Turn Eight, I Wonder?

Slow Progress Or Is It?

Not much on the figure painting front, to busy with commission work, however I did finish the piece below as I had colours out for other stuff in the same range, a WWII Soviet 57mm anti-tank gun, the gun is from Skytrex if my memory serves me, the crew are from Wartime Miniatures and the loader team are FAA.

The plan this year is to continue adding terrain for my various projects, with this in mind I collected a MDF stable from Charlie Foxtrot Models at WMMS on Sunday, for my Spanish terrain, the beauty of these is that they come with resin pan tile roof pieces, engraved MDF just does not cut it for me. I am keen not to generate a terrain mountain so I set to and got it rendered with Polyfilla and sand and when I was figure painted out on an evening, I put paint on it, and voila!

Now I have long admired Paul Eaglestones stable yard, I had some Empress Miniatures walls in stock and a visit to the local train shop produced some cobbles for the yard.

I shall leave the stables loose so that they can be used on their own if necessary, just need to fill a few gaps between the walls and do some ground work, I also picked up some water troughs from Ainsty while at the show together with some bits for a cemetery piece which will be up on the bench after the stables are complete, Paul added some fire steps to his walls I may do the same too.

In case you are wondering I have not forsaken Rawnstadt, I have started to add more colour to the various buildings.

While I was in terrain mode I decided to do something with a hill piece I had cut a road through, the problem was it would only fit on one specific terrain board (as featured in the photo below) so I decided to slice it in two to make two more versatile pieces, while I was on I spruced up the paint work, put in some steps leading to the ruined look out post and added more vegetation.

 The plan for Monday was a Roman v Goth game, but due to the previously mentioned reason I have not finished the Goth cavalry unit required, so Monday will see a return to Spain but this time a 100 years on for a Spanish Civil War action.

TTFN

More Colour, 19th Century Style

Well now, it has been nearly a year since our last First Carlist War game, where does time go? quite scary really. So time for another, although I have still to add further units, really must curb the butterfly wings :~)
Following on from our Seven Years War game using Honours Of War rules, I decided to use them for this game, it will be awhile before we next revisit the SYW, I thought we could rectify the things we missed last week and hope that we retain them, one can but be optimistic, eh Dave :~)
The only thing was to add something for attack columns and squares should the need arise, I dispensed with the Royal Marine rocket battery for this game.

Both sides would enter the table along the road, the Carlists from the left of the picture and the Isabelinos from the right, entering on a successful command roll with the proviso that one move must be made along the road.

The Carlist command rolls were pretty poor to begin with, creating a bottleneck which allowed the Isabelinos to deploy quite far forward.

I was feeling a little on the back foot, however my firing dice were just the opposite to my command dice, they were on fire, never rolling below four, the hits quickly mounted up and the Isabelino battalions started to break.

  Dave really had to take a chance and charged the Carlist centre, but again came under withering fire and were broken. Soon to be followed by more, he sent his cavalry the threaten the flank but the Carlists were undeterred sending their cavalry to counter them should the infantry break.

 Rather than break for lunch we decided to play the fourth turn, if the Carlists seized the initiative they could, if their high fire dice scores continued break the fourth Isabelino battalion and win the encounter, which they duly did.

 A short and bloody game, not big enough forces for what the rules envisage we thought, of course had my dice rolling being of my usual standard it could have been different, nonetheless it will be back to Black Powder rules for the next outing, which will hopefully be sooner than next year!

TTFN