Salute 2012: Part 1 - Pike and Shotte & other purchases

So Salute has come and gone again this year. It's only my second trip, but I have to say it has already become the gaming highlight of the year, if not so much for purchases (although I made far too many, I can get most things over the web), then for the sheer range interests that the hobby inspires. I have heard a few people saying that perhaps it wasn't as good as last year's show, but it didn't seem that way to me. Lots of good demo and participation games and plenty of traders, all of whom seemed to be doing some brisk business. To me it seemed that wargaming was most definitely alive and well.

I got to the queue quite early, so was within the first 100 or so from the door. Yes, I had to wait but I was up and about anyway and it gave me a good chance to read through the guide, goodie bags having been handed out early. Then there came the inevitable stream of flyers and special offers (yes, the golden tickets did exist - a guy just behind me in the queue had one), all of which I tried not to read too closely. At about 9.45 the doors were opened and the first of us allowed in.

I headed straight for the Warlord stand to get my copy of Pike and Shotte:

I know this is not one of my "projects for this year" but I still wanted to grab a copy and grab a place in the participation game to see if it played all that differently from Black Powder. I was given the Royalist centre to play with, and I have to say I had a lot of fun with it.

I have a feeling someone with Parliamentarian sympathies painted these figures, 

just look at the colours on Gerard's Regiment...

This was my battalia - 3 pike blocks and 6 musketeer units. In the rules these are treated as separate units but all musket units within the battalia can be protected by any pike block within 6" (provided it is not already giving protection to 2 other musketeer units). I also had a cannon off to my right, and the good fortune to have the C-i-C, who was a good commander with a leadership value of 9.

I only played for about an hour or so - not enough to give the rules a review, but first impressions were good. I was faced by only 2 "regiments" of Parliamentarian foot, but they did also have a gun and some cavalry support.

I was also able to keep a bit of an eye on what was going on on my flanks so I got some of the flavour of cavalry combat, too. At first all seemed to be going quite well for the Royalist cause; the cavalry opposite me was redirected to the left flank and if anything I was the one was was bogged down a bit in the attack.

The foot to my immediate right move forward

 Royalist cavalry charge on the far right

Things not looking too good for Parliament on the left either.

But after wailing on each other for a while, the Roundhead horse on the left broke the Cavaliers due to a lack of support for the Royalists and the same happened on the other flank due to woeful die rolling on one side and inspired dice on the other. In the meantime, thanks to a Parliamentarian blunder, I had very luckily  managed to catch one of their pike blocks with flanking fire, removing it and effectively putting its "attached" musketeers out of the game by shaking them. But despite the centre holding, it would have been all up for the Royalists had we played to a conclusion, as by this time both flanks had collapsed.

So what did I think? The game is very quick to pick up. All of us were pretty much up and running within 10 minutes. Basing seems to be the standard 20mm frontage per foot figure, 25mm for horse, and although some people have mentioned being concerned that the rules mention 2 rank and 3+ rank foot, I can see no reason at all why I can't continue to use my shot mounted in 4 ranks as well; it's not as if a unit's combat values are based too closely on the number of figures - it's the usual small, standard or large. It's perfectly possible to "model" the Swedish and Dutch systems without getting too precious about it, too.

From what I could tell with the horse, the options there seem to be right as well. Some cavalry can counter-charge, some can't according to doctrine, and they can even charge pikes - but at such suicidal disadvantages that you'd have to be mad, desperate or both unless the pikes are really disordered. Morale and break tests are similar to BP and HC so if you are familiar with those rules these will be exceptionally easy to pick up. There are a few "advanced" rules: Hedgehog formation,Fighting from buildings, Dragoons, and then the list of unit characteristics (or "Useful Rules") that we have come to expect. I suspect that much like BP and HC, how much you get out of these rules is going to very much depend on what you are prepared to put in in the way of preparation.

Conclusion? Well, I admit it's still early doors, but I like them. The ethos of a gentleman's game very much comes through, both reading the rules and in the way the demo game was put on, for which I must say a big thank you to the Warlord guys, whose names I have all promptly (and shamefully) forgotten. They seem to be designed to be used from the beginning of the 16th (in fact the first example period is the Italian Wars of 1494 - 1559) right through to the end of the 17th century (with rules for plug bayonettes for example), so you can get plenty of mileage out of them. Are they sufficiently different from Black Powder and Hail Caesar to justify buying them? Sure, you could work out all the factors and so on yourself, and come up with rules for musket taking cover with the pike, but why re-invent the wheel. Bottom line, they are fun, and for me that's the best recommendation of all.

So what else did I see at Salute? The first thing I noticed was the number of laser etched kits on sale. Battle Flag had some mightily impressive buildings on sale, and I will be making a few bespoke orders when my Blackwater Gulch sets come through. They had a particularly nice funeral director's, which I was told would be out in the next couple of weeks. I also saw some amazing stuff at the Sarissa stand; the new System Infinity looked great as did the Old West stuff. I did buy some tokens and the stable block and outhouse from Warbases, as well as picking up 3 kits from (a water cart and  wagon, which will both do generic 19th century duty, and a mediaeval house) from 4Ground. As you can see, I couldn't resist starting the dry fit on the stable block...

4Ground had the stall next to Renedra, from whom I bought some Saxon tents, some wattle fencing and some palisade. I also managed to pick up some more tufts from Antenociti's Workshop.

This really is a golden age as far as terrain is concerned, and had I not had to fly back with such a small bag and  a 15kg weight allowance, I'm sure I'd have picked up far more. There was some fantastic looking scenery from The Last Valley for example, and S&A Scenics. I wish I'd taken more photos, but I was using a new camera and didn't really know what I was doing!,m 

I've already mentioned Pike and Shotte, but I also wanted to pick up Northern Fury. The Gripping Beast stall was as busy as last year, but I didn't feel quite the same buzz as last year. They did have a very tempting box of Skraelings for £50, which I only just managed to resist, but more interesting for me was the battle board that I saw by the demo game, which was mocked up for Byzantines...

The lovely Skraeling figures (not my photo)

Since I have decided to move ahead with my TSaTF project, I needed a few more d20s.

All this and no miniatures? I did pick up some figures as well, if not too many. 4 packs of unmarried zulu from Empress, as well as 2 packs of unmarried heads. I actually went to Salute with the intention of suggesting unmarried heads for conversions, and there they were, ready and waiting! And I'd thought I'd had such a clever idea... I also grabbed 5 loose Foundry zulu from Dave Thomas's stand for just a bit more variation.

Finally, I also grabbed a Prince Rupert and Hopton from Bicorne. I think I may have been inspired a bit by my game. These, along with the new Eureka French field bakery and cantiniere made up the last of my purchases, to which must be added the two freebies I got: the Salute Maya chief (an absolutely amazing figure!) and the Warlord ensign.

Although it doesn't feel like I bought all that much, I still managed to spend far more than I wanted to - and that was without the Victrix hoplites I wanted (not out yet). 

The complete Salute haul

(the Foundry box back right was picked up from my brother's)

Another great day out and a whole lot of fun. My only regret was having to leave before the blogger meet up, as my father was in town for a meeting and so it was off to the RAF club I needed to go. Even cut short, it was worth it, and I'll definitely be flying in again next year.

SAGA objectives

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything. March was a horrible month. Actually I take that back - it was great in many ways, but not for painting. I had a visit from my bro' (over for an extended weekend), which just happened to coincide with a rebuild of my PC - no more circling cursor of doom for me or that lovely phrase not responding, a particular favourite of Outlook. Of course a new CPU and gfx card means I can use more RAM too, all of which means I can run Skyrim without smoke pouring out of the back of the PC. And with all the graphics settings on max too!

I can't blame it all on Skyrim though as I did manage to catch the dreaded man-flu that  was doing the rounds and, having been sent home by my students (fair enough really, I have never understood the "never take a day of work attitude" if all you achieve by staying there is "spreading a bit of happiness" - ie the bug), spent several days in bed, or more accurately on the sofa under mounds of duvets, watching all 3 series of Black Books. Again, fun, but not conducive to getting much done.

It's not all doom and gloom. At the beginning of the month I went over to a friend's as we had just discovered our mutual interest in board games. I played Memoire 44 for the first time, along with Battle of Westeros, both of which were fun. When Chris came over to mine at the end of the month we had a game of C&C Napoleonic, which was fun too, but even better than that, he got quite excited when I showed him my SAGA figures, and definitely wants to give it a go. I might have found an opponent who only lives 10 minutes away! Having talked to him about his preferences in gaming I think he's more into simpler, skirmish type games, so I have reassessed my priorities from the beginning of the year. I'm still going to go ahead with the 4 projects I started with, but the SYW has been put on slow, as has the 15mm Sc-Fi. I have added 28mm AZW, as I think TSaTF might be just down his street, and I have a fair few figures waiting to be painted up.

This doesn't mean I have given up the other stuff though. I have some Normans started and I am just about finished with some more berserkers and some Viking archers (they just need basing properly - roll on Salute and some more tufts!). Last time I painted up a single berserker as part of the group of Bondi - so here are the other 3 and the single "normal" Viking to take the first one's place among the Bondi. No boss on the shield, so I tried a hand painted motif. I think you can see now why I am such a fan of LBMS transfers...

Now I have enough Vikings to do some damage, they need something to steal; after all there's no point in raiding if there is nothing to take. Here are the first of a few of the things I'll be using as objectives for raiding scenarios when playing SAGA.

First up is the pigsty by Architects of War. This is a really nice model. Unfortunately the liquid water I used in the puddles seems to have clouded over, but when the weather is warmer I'll apply another layer and see if that sorts it out.

The pigsty

There's no point in a pigsty if there ain't no pigs. And we all know those Danes like their bacon...

Some more livestock to nick (from Gripping Beast)...

A while back I got a load of stuff from Ainsty, including some barrels, bales and boxes. Cheap and they work perfectly for just about every period you can think of.

And last but not least, the church. Every self-respecting Viking made a beeline for the church to steal the plate, and anything else they could get their hands on. 

This is the GB resin church. Since all my other scenics are based I've decided to base this one too, and to add a few bits and bobs, such as some gravestones from the Renedra set. I'm going to have a go at weathering using oil filters, I'm not too sure how that'll work out so I wanted a record of when it looked ok ...

All I need now are a few Saxon houses, and I'll be looking to get the new fencing and "Saxon tents", whatever they are, from Renedra when I get to Salute this weekend. We're getting there, slowly...

French Artillery, 10th Co, 6th FA Regt.

It has come as somewhat of a surprise to me to realise that for a blog named after Austerlitz there has been little if any Napoleonic posting going on, what with all the SAGA and SYW stuff. So it's time to fix that. I do paint Napoleonics as well ...

This is a battery I painted up not too long ago. Although the guns are finished, I still have to add on the limbers and train, and the hangers-on. Ever since I saw one of Barry Hilton's batteries for R2E I have been wanting to do the same with mine. I have some suitable figures and I've made a start on painting them up, so I hope in the next month or so they might get done, but with so many other "more important" things needing to be done first I'm not sure I'll be able to sneak them in. The figures are Foundry and are in the old pre-1812 regulations uniform.

The whole battery

The battery from behind

You can see the ruts from the guns running back here, which have filled with water. If only these were in the later uniform they'd be perfect for Waterloo! They are in fact going to be used as  10th Co, 6th FA Regt. for my Waterloo project. I will get round to replacing them eventually, but not until I have every unit I want painted up, wrong uniform or not. 

Gun ready

The howitzer

Looking at the pictures, some of them look a bit chalky. I hope it's just dust, they don't look like that to me "in the flesh". Perhaps it's just my less than stellar photography skills...

Anyway, the next battery will be a foot battery by the Perry brothers. I really wish Victrix would do a French artillery set; I'm sure it would  be a great seller - and I have more than a few more batteries to do for the master plan ...

As usual, comments and criticism welcome.

Wikingas cumað!

OK, so my Anglo-Saxon isn't up to much, but I think that's "The Vikings are coming!" I've finally got around to painting up the first of my Vikings for Saga It should be 2 points worth of Bondi and their Jarl for SAGA, but a single berserker cheekily sneaked in there among them. Most of the figures are Gripping Best plastics, but the Jarl and the pointing horn blower are from Foundry, and I have no idea where the banner bearer and berserker are from - they were part of a lot acquired from Simon of BigRedBat fame. Shield decals are the lovely LBMS ones again, with just one hand-painted shield on the last unidentified metal bod, the one swinging his sword over his shoulder. These were really fast to paint up (for me); again, nothing fancy, just basic colours and the dip. It's so much easier than Naps or SYW ...

The whole mob.

Here is a group shot of the whole lot, against a background of a GB Saxon church that still needs a lot doing to it (of which more anon).  I tried to choose a different palette for the Vikings from the Saxons, a lot more bright colours, some blues, which I had generally avoided, and far fewer browns. It seems to have worked ok.

The Viking Jarl. This is a great figure by Foundry that I picked up off eBay - I also have a mounted version of him that came in the same blister. In some ways I wish I'd spent more time over him, but he needs to blend in with the rest of the figures.

I love the shield design even if I did mess it up a bit overcompensating for the white showing last time. It almost looks like a self-portrait with that helmet!

The Raven Banner. I finally found something sold here in the Czech Republic which uses the old fashioned toothpaste tube material, so I tried out one of the LBMS banners I have. The colours are brilliant, and the foil makes the flag easily manipulable. Just great - I will be buying more.

The baerserk. 

I've just ordered 3 more of these lunatics by Crusader from NorthStar, having discovered that you can order individual models from the blisters from them. I also picked up some Normans so I can make a start on my third SAGA faction.

The shieldwall.

I wouldn't spill their pints!

Again, I think it's the LBMS transfers that really make these figures. They look amazing. Now I just have to paint up some Thralls, a few berserkers and a few more Bondi and I can have my first game of SAGA at home. I've even found someone locally who's willing to give it a try. Life is looking up... 

More Saxons

There's been a bit of talk on TMP recently about the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings and Saxons. I bought a box of each way, way back on pre-order, and while I haven't got the Vikings done yet, I finished a bunch of the Saxons off a couple of weeks ago. I am intending to use these as Ceorls for the minute, although when the new unarmoured plastics come out, I'll buy some of them and use these as spear and shield armed Huscarls; all my Huscarls so far have 2 handed axes. I think they are lovely figures, they paint up well and look great with LBMS decals on them. Anyway, here they are:

The whole lot, 16 Ceorls or 2 points' worth.

In smaller groups - I appear to have forgotten one figure as 16 / 3 is not 5!

The great thing about taking these photos is that it shows up all the glaring faults. These were all painted quickly and using the dip for a "fast and dirty" result, but that doesn't mean I don't care at all about how they turned out. The white around the shield rims has since been cleaned up.

Some shots of individual figures, showing just how good the plastics are; if you didn't know you would never be able to tell which of the 4 figures above is metal (and for those who don't know it's number 2 - it came with the pre-order).

Finally a shot of how I store my figures. A long time ago now, Simon of BigRedBat fame posted about Really Useful boxes and how he uses them, so I took a look. He's right, they're great. This box will eventually be my "Huscarl box".

Thanks for looking, as usual, comments and criticism welcome.