A few more El Cid

I stepped back and had a look at my gaming habits recently and couldn't decide if it was helpful I did so.

After a new enthusiasm for Arthurian led to a few painted figures and a flurry of retail therapy and 4 times more unpainted figures, a game of El Cid has led me to exactly the same position for this project.

Having said that we are gaming it and the collection is far from complete or even reasonably balanced so worth while.

So parking the soul searching for a moment before I dwell on it too much. New figures painted and even more bought for El Cid, Hurrah!

These three are Gripping Beast Normans, bought part painted many moons ago.

I have had these figures for ages so really pleased my El Cid Mojo is allowing me to crack on painting them.

And here they are based and completed with the earlier 3 and a new banner, units for El Cid are all 3 bases so cavalry are typically in easy 6 figure units.

With the black and yellow theme I like to think of these as Flemish mercenaries.

However the Muslims need the most work so pleased I have a few of these done too. Three Andalusian horse, the chap on the right is open handed to accept a banner at some point.

The middle horse is a Rohan horse of course but fits well and I dont think the bronze chamfron is out of place. Splashes of colour with these guys. The left hand figure may stay with the light cavalry but the quilted coat may also see him join an armoured unit, the right hand figure in mail will form part of my next unit of Andalusian nobles.

All three horses are plastic, the riders are Black Tree but I dont have the original horses. Left to right horses are Wargames Atlantic Afghan, Warhammer Riders of Rohan and Warlord Pike and Shotte horse.

A bunch more coming off the workbench here.

The Africans in quilted armour get me over half way with the next infantry units and leaders are a much needed addition for my Moors.

This SAGA Gripping Beast Warlord has multiple layers which allows for lots of different colours, the addition of a patterned shield also adds collour.

I have tried tawny horse tack which looks OK I think, I will use that again, but probably not on lots of figures.

This next will have a standard bearer added and become an infantry leader base. Again Gripping Beast Warlord with lots of different layers and colours.

This will make for a nice colourful command base.

I do like these Fireforge figures, a shame they dont have bases making them a little awkward.

The Gripping Beast Moors are quite old now but still look great, I am sticking to a restricted colour pallette to keep them relatively uniform.

So decent progress, hopefully more units finished soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

First French Indian Wars Game AAR

Chris has a fantastic collection of French Indian Wars troops, mainly aimed at Sharpe Practice, but with enough for larger games we decided to see what we could make of a larger brigade/divisional level game.

Chris had the Indians. Steve the French and I had the British and Colonial Americans.

For the purposes of the game units were formed into ad-hoc brigades, For the British this meant 4 battalions each with supporting skirmishers representing 4 brigades. The French two battalions with skirmishers as two brigades, two large warbands of Indians another Brigade and French militia with Coureurs du Bois skirmishers a 4th brigade.

The British needed to burn the Indian village for a partial victory and destroy the irregular brigades of new France for a complete victory. The French and Indians just needed to stop them.

The rules are designed for multiple battalions and small numbers of skirmishers so it would be interesting to see how they played in this setting, especially as we had yet to play a game with Natives.

I push the British troops forward all along the line, my initial plan to focus heavily on the village whilst using the rest of troops to keep the French busy.

The rangers below are amongst the best on table but as it happens didnt do too well on the day.

I decide my main focus will be to get my largest unit of British with their skirmishers into the village and fire it, the rest of my troops will mainly be tasked with keeping the French busy.

To my right the Light Bobs get a good head start and the Grenadiers march stoicly forward.

My line closes with the village and the horde of Indians start to form up to repel the redcoats.

Of all my units its the Highlanders who take longest to get going, barely getting involved at all for the first couple of moves and leaving the Native allies in front of them a tad exposed.

The Candian skirmishers fire into the flank of the Rangers, triple one, clearly their powder is wet.

My veterans form line on the flank of the Grenadiers and light Bobs to give them cover whilst they engage the French regulars.

My lights face the Courers De Boius and should have a a slight edge but both units have awful dice with two rounds of rubber bullets as both sides fire at nothing. 

The best shots on table, light infantry skirmishers with a good shots bonus at short range, yes thats a triple one from me as well. Useless!

The Canadian Militia charge my rangers and, in a hard fought melee destroy them. Whilst it leaves virtually no Militia left it does mean I have no more support from skirmishers for my exposed line.

My British veteran battalion forms line and keeps the French Militia at long distance with effective volleys. This long range firing essentially keeps the French Militia from impacting the game.

Finally my main unit of line on the left have manouvred to form a line facing the natives but only have enough actions to move not fire. Its now down to who's activation comes first next time.

The British Grenadier battalion is finally catching up to the light infantry, but the French regulars are waiting.

Chris decides to risk it all with a charge on the British regulars with his mass of natives, he doesn't quite get the movements and stops just short where a devastating mass volley sees the Natives effectively destroyed and removed from the table.

My own natives dont do much more than give the French irregulars something to fire at, still they are kept busy whilst the regulars try to deal with the Indian village.

With the natives seen off and the French held we could fire the village at leisure having a achieved out objectives.

The rules need some tweaks to work in this combat but not a great deal. The Indians in particular didnt feel like native troops so this probably needs some looking at.

That said a very fun game and no doubt the rules can be tweaked to give more of a forest feel.

Thanks for stopping by.

El CID Additions

With our recent game I reviewed what remained in the lead mountain and what gaps in forces I had. The Muslims in particular need bolstering and I do have a fair few in the lead mountain of shame. That said I am best starting off with units that have already been begun so...

Tried a blue background in the light box but I think its too dark and detracts from the  figures.

A few extra figures to share with you.

These Muslim troops are mainly Perry Arab Militia from  the Crusades range but will do well as Andalusians, the standard bearer lurking at the back is a Gipping Beast figure. A plain red shield will tie this unit together.

Three Christian Knights, the black and yellow deesign is my take for a Flemish mercenary unit. Gripping Beast figures.

Two more Gripping Beast figures. The African in padded armour will be the first of unit in this dress, the Christian will join a unit I just purchased of second hand Christian armoured foot.

 

I am also filling in gaps in my collection and the first of these arrived this morning, a small order from Footsore and a slightly larger order from Alternative Miniatures.

Footsore are lovely and also carry some of the LBMS banners which is helpful.

Alternative are a company casting El Cid and Scottish Independence figures in metal under licence from Reconquista miniatures 3d printed line. Lovely figures even nicer in metal. They are also trying out water slide shield decals and I look forward to trying these.

These guys were bought second hand from ebay, a bit of touching up, repaint some faces and re-base them and a unit of Christian Spanish foot.

And the earlier Muslim foot join a bunch already painted to give me a unit of Andalusian spearmen. Mix of gear and shield types with the red of the sheilds and some turbans tying them back together as a unit.

More to follow I am sure so watch this space, thanks for stopping by.

El Cid, First Game for a Long Time

We have plans for Hail Caesar so it seemed appropriate to get a game in and remind ourselves of the rules.

The only armies I have enough of for a small game are my El Cid collection so we decided a small Reconquista game would be in order.

Our game has a force of Christians led by the Count of Asturias returning from a raid into Zaragossa. The Zarragossan's, supported by Catalan mercenaries, block their passage home determined on retribution.

My forces are a little unbalanced so hopefully the game will inspire me to finish more Muslims.

The Muslim forces are 5 units of Berber spears with 3 units of archers in one division blocking the road. Supporting them are three units of Mercenary Catalan Knights.

Off table ready to attack the flanks of the Christians are 2 cavalry Divisions the first has one unit of Heavy Andalusian Cavalry with three units of light Horse and a small unit of horse archers. The second three units of Berber light horse and another small unit of horse archers.

The Christians, supported by a plate of chocolate digestives, have 2 divisions each of horse and foot. Left of road the first division has 2 units of light horse and 3 of armoured Knights. Then a unit of archers supports two armoured Christian foot and one unarmoured. On the road is the stolen baggage in the form of mixed camels and donkeys. To the right of the road a unit of crossbows supports 2 armoured and 2 unarmoured foot and lastly 3 units of Asturian armoured Knights with a unit of light cavalry complete the Christian army.

The Christian army are in march column, I wanted them to have to sort themselves out into a battle line before they could respond to the Muslim forces.

The Muslims have a very slight superiority in numbers and more missile troops but the Christian Knights are superior in quality by some margin so on balance the Christians should have a significant edge. The only real advantage the Zarragossan troops have is surprise.

Steve commands the Moors, as they are the ambushers they get first move, so after failing to get the Berber foot to move he tried his hand with the horse. He has the option to enter anywhere on his own base line or the right hand edge of the table and elects to enter on the Asturians left flank. He can only deploy one move on, his first larger division deploys, his second fails its orders and remains off table for now.

Move one and Chris, commanding the Asturian army, gets his left hand cavalry division to start sorting itself out, but only gets one move for most units. He then rolls for his Asturian cavalry on the right and gets a double 6, blunder, the Asturian cavalry retire one full move. He then rolls for the left hand infantry, another double 6, you couldnt write it, this time they route of table, the whole division. He will be able to roll to bring them back on next go, but still not good. Lastly his right hand foot division get a single move forward allowing the units to form line one move forward.

Not surprisingly Chris is a bit deflated at the lack of success, still this is really only going to slow him down, he still has the advantage of quality.

Next move and the Moorish Heavy Cavalry charge the front unit of Knights, they win, just, but the Knights pass their morale. Chris reinforces and in the second round looses again, but roles his third double 6 of the night and passes his morale.

Chris is getting organised now and charges Berber light horse with his next unit of Knights, the outcome is predictable and the Moors are destroyed.

Chris uses his sweeping advance to bounce onto the next Berber light cavalry unit and again the results are predictable as the Berbers leg it.

Things are starting to come together  abit now. Steves Berber foot has advances to bring the Christians in range of their superior archery, however the better armoured Christians take very few casualties. 

The right hand divisions of Christians are almost ready to engage the Berber foot and on the left the Christian horse are starter to get the better of their one sided arm wrestle with e Moorish horse.

Steve advances the remnants of the light cavalry to try flank the infantry and slow Chris down, unfortunately he only gets one move stopping perilousley close to the Christian Knights.

The horse archers exchange volleys of arrows with the Christian archers who may possibly have left their bow strings at home and started throwing rocks their aim is so bad.

Chris throws his 4th double 6 for morale on his badly damaged Knights and both sides cavalry pull back thoroughly mauled.

Chris's knights turn about and charge another unit of Berber light horse and drive them off table, this forces a Divisional break test which is passed but there is virtually nothing left of them.

Chris has finally got his right hand divisions formed and charged the Berber foot, despite the long spear rule removing their charge bonus the Asturians are sucessful destroying two units of Berbers.

Its hard fightign but the Christians are definately in the ascendancy and the remaining Berber foot are steadily pushed back.

Interested to see what happens if the Asturian knights break through and hit the Catalan Mercenaries, but we are running out of time.

We call off before we have a final result but the writing is on the wall, after a very shaky start and a fair bloody nose the Christians have driven the Moorish cavalry off, gathered themselves and started to punch a hole through the Berber foot. So whilst the Moors mercenary Catalan Knights are yet to be committed they are not likely to stop the Asturians from driving off the Moors and getting their ill gotten gains home. 

Despite a traumatic start for Chris that may leave him with dice PTSD everyone enjoyed the game and we decided another game is in order to keep our hand in. 

No surprise I have already started buying more figures to plug some of the gaps in my collection so it must have gone reasonably well.

Hope you enjoyed our colourful little game and thanks for stopping by.