Last of the Polish Pancerni and some Afghan skirmishers

The basing department popped home for a barbeque today and brought a few bits of based figures including the last unit of Pancerni.

Dave and I still havent met to discuss how we will aproach this project but the good news is these are spot on for the Great Northern War project anyway so all good either way.

As usual these are a mix of manufacturers both riders and horses, these guys being either Redoubt or The Assault Group, both horses and riders mix in well with each other. The trooper in the middle of the right hand base had a sword snapped off so I replaced the whole hand with one gripping a pistol which I really quite like.

I have used nail art water slide decals to drop some design on the saddle blankets for about half of them, simple geometric designs for most but a fancy one for the standard bearer.

You can see the trumpeters saddle blanket here quite well.

A view from above gives and idea of the irregular style of basing I prefer for the Poles and the Cossack's.

Some of the nail art is more visible here including the floral design on the standard bearer.

And again from above here. Really pleased with how this came out.

She also brought me a few skirmishers for my Muslim tribesmen, I fancy a skirmish screen for each brigade so this is the first of many and a mix of metals and plastics.

Size wise they fit quite well but the Perry and Foundry metals are much better sculpts, interesting to see if the plastics will be inter-changeable in any way with the Perry plastic Afghans due out next month. The kneeling figures are all metal in case you hadn't figured out which were which.

Thats it for now, see you all again soon, hopefully some more from the basing department in the near future.

Review of The Sikh Wars Project

Chatting with chum Chris about whats next for the Sikh Wars project and it becomes apparant that I have not really planned out what I intend this to look like and therefore where any potential gaps might be.

So I decide to create a list of whats required for both sides and then look at what I have in relation, both painted and in the lead pile. An ideal opportunity to photograph the project so far and share with you both progress and plans.

Below is the lead pile which includes almost 20 battalions worth of foot.

For the Sikh Commanders I will need at least 10, the first four are below and I have plenty more to make this up so I will only look at these if something particularly pretty presents itself.

The British have 4 commanders so far and will probably need 7. I have my eye on the British Legion Command pack from Perry Carlist War range which will furnish me with 3 command stands so again dont need much here.

I have a bunch of casualty markers, although at this stage still undecided if we will use them, if we do I will need a load more but have enough to do perhaps another 10. The Studio Flashman figure is my favourite by a mile.

I have two of the siege guns for the Sikhs done and two more on the way, thats plenty. I will be adding camel guns to my irregulars and that is already in progress.

These three medium guns are plenty I will however be adding a further 3 24 pounders to the regulars.

These three Horse guns are again enough for my purposes so I wont need any more of those. That will give me 15 guns all told, loads to be fair.

I have 2 more 9 pdr field guns to add to these for my British which should  be enough, the next lot are Perry and Foundry figures whilst the below are from Studio.

The Bengal Horse artillery are some of the prettiest figures in this collection, these are foundry and again I have another 2 guns and crews to add to these. I will also add a Perrys Carlist War rocket to finish of the Artillery.

The Sikh cavalry is a major contingent, I have 3 units of armoured Gorchurra cavalry, plan is to add another so one more unit of 10 required at some point.

For the light horse I have 4 units, 2 sikh and 2 muslim, ideally 2 more of each would be good. for now though happy with these and part way through a third muslim unit. That will be all I have painted so room for more of these chaps.

For the regulars I wanted one unit each of dragoons, lancers and curassier, I have enough figures to complete that and the dragoons and a small unit of currassier are below.

For the British side I am tempted to have 8 units of cavalry, 3 queens and 5 native. So far we have the below three of the natives but I have enough figures to complete another irregular unit and have started a couple of the next unit of Bengal Native Lights. Just need another 8 Bengal Native light troopers for these chaps.

The queens horse was initially only going to include these two iconic units but I am tempted to add another unit of lancers at some point so these are in the plan.

The Sikh regular foot I have 4 battalions completed with a further battalion in York being based. I want 12 battalions in 3 brigades of 4 for these guys, after looking at my Sikh foot I actually have a bit more than I need, a couple of command packs from Studio and I can then consider thinning out those I have too many of.

I do also intend to add some Hindu regulars in Shako, I already have the Gurkhas for the Sikhs so another 2 of the "Purbia" troops would be ideal.

The latest advice seems to be that all the flags for the Sikh regulars are wrong apart possibly from the red one despite mainly being commercial offerings, food for thought, slightly gutted. As correct ones are simply not available I will need to decide in a course of action.

For the irregulars I wanted 8 Muslim and 6 Sikh or Hindu units, currently painted I have 1 Hindu, 2 Sikh and 4 Muslim with enough unpainted figures to complete all the irregulars I need once I add a box of Perry plastic Afghans.

For the British I want 5 Brigades so will need 5 European regiments, three are already finished below and  have enough left for another 3 so plenty here.

For the Seopys I want either 9 or 10 battalions, currently I have 4 complete and a further one being based in York so 4 or 5 to complete. I have enough for another 4 so really I am only looking to add a battalion of Gurkhas when either Studio or Iron Duke release some.

I want a skirmish screen for each Brigade so the below two are the first of 5, the Bengal Europeans one is also already started.

Lastly my baggage train, I have another camel and some donkeys to add to this but it will need some more fleshing out I feel. Possibly the Black Hussar Camel train as this looks very nice and they did have a lot of camels.

So taken as a whole I am roughly half way with the majority of the remaining figures already bought and waiting to be painted. I will no doubt cave to temptation as new figures are released but at least I have a clear plan now for this collection.

All laid out on table it looks quite nice doesnt it?

There you go, hopefully some based and completed units to share with you coming back from the basing department soon.

AWI Tory and Indian Raid Sharp Practice AAR

Before moving on to new games for a bit we decided on one last Sharp Practice for a few weeks before something new to break things up, little did we know it would be the last game before lockdown. It was also Marks first game back since work went mad in November so a nice one to ease back in.

I took the Torys and Indians as I was yet to play with Indians, Mark took the rebels. We were playing on a 4 x 4 foot table so we got to grips quicker.

The objective for me is to capture or burn the farm.

I had :

A level 3 force commander
A formation of 24 veteran Militia with a level 2 leader
2 units of 6 Jaegers each with level 2 leader
A unit of 6 militia skirmishers with a level 1 leader
A unit of 12 Indians with level 2 leader and move-able deployment point

52 figures

Mark had:

A level 3 Force commander
2 Units of 6 Militia skirmishers on table with level 1 leaders
A formation of 16 militia level 1 leader
A formation of 16 Veteran Militia level 2 leader
2 Groups of 6 Rifle Skirmishers level 2 leaders

56 Figures

So I was attacking with slightly less figures but slightly better quality overall.

The stream in front of my deployment point took a full turn of 2 actions to cross, so I had to be careful, also as soon as I deployed from my fixed deployment point I would be visible and in range of the Rebel militia skirmishers.

Marks first unit of Skirmishers came out first so was wasted with no target, next was my Jaegers who deployed and fired killing one of the Skirmishers straight off.

My Veteran Militia and militia skirmishers follow but I keep the first volley of my militia until we are over the stream, once over I have been able to kill two more of them but Mark has sniped off one of my Veterans with his second unit of Militia and the rest of his force is deploying on behind the farm in support of his militia skirmishers.

Finally on the third turn of cards I get the moveable deployment point forwards and can deploy my Indians into the woods on the flank of the farm, Mark has already anticipated this and pushed one of his rifle skirmisher units towards the woods to block me.

These big trees that Steve has scratch made are fantastic, they really do look like ancient forest.

My Veterans now push forward closing with the Militia Skirmishers who put up a very determined resistance and I am starting to take significant casualties.

My Indians also press forward and Marks rifles come over the crest of the hill and pour two consecutive volleys into them as he pulls 4 flag cards out and plays them to re-activate a unit. I am lucky to get away with just one dead and 4 shock.

In response I charge the rifles with the Indians, we kill two and push the rest back with multiple shock, although I did only manage to get 5 of the 10 figures in on the mellee.

Mark has now moved his formed militia up to the back fence line ready to take on my militia, his second unit of rifles are now lining the fence to the rear of the farm  and protecting that flank. A good volley from my veteran militia destroys one unit of Militia skirmishers and knocks the other one down to one remaining figure and wounds the leader. But these guys have held us up whilst the rest of the rebel force gets organised.

My last unit now comes on table behind the Indians and they have some support in the shape of 6 Jaegers. My other Jaegers and the militia skirmishers push forward taking a small number of casualties and shock off the rebel militia and slowly pushing out to the flanks. Meanwhile my veterans are starting to take serious casualties themselves.

The Indians push over the hill and fire into the rifles, Marks dice are awful and two of the hits become kills, the amount of shock is more than double the two survivors and the unit is removed. To add insult to injury he rolls a 6 on the bad things happen table and loses two morale points. He has already lost 3 morale points for the loss of his skirmish screens and now loses one of his blue flag cards too.

I push my militia skirmishers out right where Mark cant fire at them and he concentrates his fire on the veteran militia, the commander being next to them though keeps the shock levels under control.

We press forward on both flanks and Mark has to split one of his militia formations to stop me flanking him, he is now able to fire into my skirmishers and quickly takes two casualties off.

In the centre casualties are mounting, however the Jaegers on the extreme left have been hit twice by the rebel rifles and are in serious trouble so I start to move my commander over to help with the removal of shock. The last remaining rebel skirmisher drags his wounded leader into the cabin and then snipes another one of my Jaegers off.

The Jaegers start to retreat in disorder so I concentrate on removing shock from my veterans whilst the Indians close with the Marks rifles and get lucky with the draw of cards firing into them twice without response and forcing them to retreat in considerable disorder.

My other Jaegers volley the cabin killing the last skirmisher and then occupy the building themselves. The Indians form on the fence line flanking the rear of the militia and my last 3 skirmishers continue to push around the right flank. Two good volleys into the militia and a bunch of sixes from Mark for saving (not good, these are all kills) sees the rebel militia in some difficulty. I have only captured half of the farm but the force morale of the rebels is nearly spent and I have three skirmish screens on the flanks almost surrounding the rebels and making their position untenable.

At this point we call it a night, a thoroughly enjoyable game, both Mark and I enjoyed it a lot. A close run thing with both sides gaining and losing the initiative throughout the game which seems to be a feature of most of the games we have played and ensures both sides get a really good game.

This was the last game before lockdown kicked in and so the last I may be able to share for a while, hope you enjoyed it.