TMWWBK: Battle of Isandlwana

When Eugene was playing the Indian Mutiny game I hosted in January, he felt frustrated ("in a good way") by how the mutineers were pinned down by fire and could not reach the British lines. It occurred to him then that the game mechanic could be used for a game of the Battle of Isandlwana, which he had the figures for, in 10mm.

We continued the discussion after the session, exchanged many messages over the following weeks, and soon we had a plan. I modified the cork hills I had in my collection to represent Mount Isandlwana, made a few paper bell tents and a flag base, while Eugene painted up more Zulus, and in March we ran a multi-player game for seven players at Elias Community Centre, which was documented by Eugene in the video below:

Do check his channel out for more videos, and subscribe for future videos.

Nolzor's Marvellous Miniatures: Xorns

Long-time readers will notice that I have stopped posting my RPG reports for quite a while now. My week-night RPG sessions have become few and irregular, but we are still playing - I have just decided that I cannot afford the time to write lengthy reports of every session.

We did, in fact, play a Dying Earth campaign using Forbidden Lands rules, and have just started a Dungeon Inc. campaign.

Dungeon Inc. is a new RPG from The Merry Mushmen, where players play monsters employed by the eponymous company to kill adventurers and take their stuff for the company. In between jobs they engage in office politics.

So far the player characters include: a genteel, refined dragonborn, a sneaky kobold who hates do-gooders, a territorial skeleton, a minotaur who is easy to miss, a cowardly sasquath, and a greedy xorn, whom we see in the photo above.

The figures are given to me by the character's player, and is from the Nolzor's Marvellous Miniatures range. You get two figures in the pack: one standing on the floor and the other bursting out of the ground, as xorns do. They come pre-primed, and rather interestingly have transparent blobes for eyes. I avoided painting over the eyes, and simply painted them over with yellow ink, and adding a black line for their irises.

So far Ron Ron has gone on his first mission, which he failed spectacularly by eating the MacGuffin. Hopefully he will do better on his next mission.

Archecore World Fortress Tank

I came across the Archecore World Fortress Tank at a toy store in Taiwan a few months ago. The toy line is in 1/35 scale, but the size and vibe of this model fit the 28mm WW1 sci-fi forces I own, so I decided to buy it and repaint it to suit.

The model is pre-assembled and could not be disassembled for easier painting, but fortunately the turret could be removed from the hull. I primed the model black, and sprayed on a base coat of Tamiya Field Grey. I then used a make-up sponge to apply a light shade of field grey - some of the recessed parts proved hard to reach, as you can see from the photos.

Once the base colour was applied, I applied some Black Templars decals I had lying around, and then worked on the weathering.

I decided to paint most of the tank in field grey, so the only parts that had to be painted another colour were the exhaust pipes and the tracks. Once all the colours were applied, I added by mud and dust with a large make-up brush.

I hope to use this model in an attack-defence scenario in a game of Blood and Valor soon.

War & Empire Nikephorian Skutatoi Bowmen

I painted a pack of later Byzantine archers from Forged in Battle as Armenian mercenary archers in Fatimid service. The Armenian archers seem to have been an important part of the Fatimid armies, and feature in various army lists, so even though I already have a large number of archers elements in my Saracen army, I wanted a unit them to make my Fatikid army more legitimate.

Despite their prominence in history, I wasn't able to find figures in 15mm that matched what I imagined them to look like, which is how Perry Miniatures' 28mm Armenian archers look like. Fortunately, these later Byzantine archers look similar enough for my purpose.

As with the other War & Empire figures, they are quick to paint. I am tempted to add another unit of these someday.

Blood and Valor

 For our session in May we played two games of Blood and Valor by Firelock Games.

I got the B&V rules several years ago when they first came out and created a buzz on youtube. I had earlier planned on using Trench Hammer from Nordic Weasel Games with my Warzone figures, but decided to give the B&V rules an actual play to see if they make a more 'fun' game.

We played a simple Attack-Defence scenario, with attackers having five units vs the defender's four. We played the scenario twice, switching sides after the first game. I lost both times, which I believe means the game is balanced.

The combat rules themselves are rather standard, but the initiative and fatigue systems add extra considerations for the players, which makes the game feel rather different from an IGOUGO mass skirmish game with no real morale effect. We enjoyed them enough to want to play them again, and I have a toy tank which I am currently painting to use for the game.

Perry Miniatures Spanish Guerrillas

Here are fifteen Spanish Guerillas from Perry Miniatures' plastic box set which I painted for our Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket games. They required some filling to assemble, but as usual are a delight to paint.

TMWWBK - Getting Away with It

The British camp by the Nile

For our April game, we played another game of The Men Who Would Be Kings, this time in Epic (13.5mm) scale using Rafael's beautifully painted figures, and this time using measurements instead of grids.

The genesis for this game came when I learned that Rafael has an Epic scale Napoleonic Ottoman army, a British army, but not a French army. I wanted to run a game using his armies, and recalled a scenario from Battlegames' Tabletop Teasers compilation that featured the French army looting an Egyptian site and the Ottoman and British trying to stop them - well, who's to say the British couldn't do a spot of looting themselves after seeing off the French?

I floated the idea to Rafael, and he got onboard, printing, assembling, and painting a ketch (that would end up doing sterling service in the game) just for the scenario. I made a few simple river barges (from wooden boat models bought off Shopee), tents, painted up a half-buried sphinx (snapped off an aquarium decoration also from Shopee), and based some palm trees (again Shopee) onto cork sheets, to which I added tufts to represent reeds - I thought they didn't look half bad placed against the river terrain piece.

Ottoman forces surge towards the British camp in the middle of the table

The British started the game divided into two parts, one in the centre of the table at the dig site, from where they must drive two wagons loaded with loot to the riverbank, where the other half of the British forces are. Docked at the riverbank are barges, and a ketch with howitzers.

The Ottoman forces are also divided into two parts, with one representing the professional and household troops of the local lord, and the other the local tribal forces.

To add randomness to the game, I forsook grid movement and returned to the tape measure, giving the wagons a move of 2d4 per turn. The random movement distance, coupled with the activation rolls and random move distance when units move At the Double, added suspense to each turn.

Ottoman Irregular forces

British forces hold off the Ottoman

Home stretch!

It was a close game, with the British successfully loading both wagons of loot onto the barges with the Ottoman Janissaries just one move away.

This is definitely one scenario I would like to run again.

Conquerors & Kings: Battle of Dorylaeum

The Turks block the Crusaders' march

Earlier this month we played the battle of Dorylaeum using Peter Pig's Conquerors & Kings rules. We had play the same scenario many years ago using (I think) Warmaster Ancients rules, but it's an interesting scenario that bears replaying.

I needed 20 bases of light cavalry for this scenario, so I took the opportunity to finally get some Turkic light horse from Khurasan Miniatures and had them painted just in time for the game.

Clash of cavalry

I had done the maths beforehand and expected the Crusaders to deploy themselves in a compact formation and wait for the Turks to close before delivering a charge. wahj, playing the Crusaders, had a different idea. He charged straight at the Turkish line before Rafael had a chance to get organised, and quickly threw them back.

The knights became isolated as a result, and became surrounded. To make things worse, the Turkish scouting party had returned and now threatened the Crusader's left flank. Fortunately for them, their armour saved them from actually taking casualties, and they knights managed to fall back behind the safety of the infantry.

The Crusaders were able to hold their own until the arrival of their reinforcements later in the game, when the Turks decided to withdraw.

Having played this game in my mind for several weeks while preparing for the session, I was surprised that both players used their forces very differently from how I imagined they would. I would certainly like to try the scenario again with new players when I have the chance.

Garrison Miniatures Villagers and more Gripping Beast Arab Infantry

To add to my collection of 28mm figures for skirmish games, I ordered some villager figures from Garrison Miniatures via ebay. I chose this specific set because I felt the clothing of the figures were generic enough to allow them to do double duty: for our Ruckus Reconquista games, and our Fistful of Lead Peninsular War games.

To provide our Barons' Wars figures with more opponents, I also bought and painted a sprue of Gripping Beast's Arab Infantry. This brings my total "Saracen" force to 20 foot and 6 mounted figures, which will be sufficient for most skirmish scenarios.

I have also ordered a box of Perry Miniatures' new Spanish Guerillas, which will give us more options for our Fistful of Lead games.

Battle of Znaim

For our game in February we played the Battle of Znaim.

The battle saw the French coming upon the Austrian army as their baggage train is making its way through the town of Oblass.

Fg and I, playing the French, initially planned to send two divisions across the river to our left and capture the town of Oblass, while the other divisions on our right screened the rest of the Austrians.

However, the Austrians moved their right wing up, and fg decided against crossing the river, and instead tried to capture the town of Tesswitz in the middle of the table instead.

The struggle for Tesswitz became the main focus of the battle, as fg sent two divisions to try to push the Austrians out. But the Austrians put up a stout defence, sending in their heavy cavalry to spoil the French attack - they were successful, but were in turn destroyed by the French light cavalry sent in a counter-attack the next turn.

Meanwhile, I pushed the French right wing forward to engage the Austrian left, and positioned the corps artillery so it could bombard Tesswitz.

But it was too late - the Austrian baggage train cleared the town, allowing the Austrian reserve to come onto the table. The French made one last effort to capture the town, but failed.

This was once more a tight game, with the clock being very unforgiving to the French. The Austrians started the battle dispersed, which gave the French a narrow window of opportunity to capitalise on their concentration.

We are planning another Napoleonic game for the month of March, so stay tuned!

TMWWBK - Siege of Delhi

Sabzi Mandi, the village from where the mutineers will launch their attack

For our second game in January we played a game of The Men Who Would Be Kings. I chose the Hindu Rao's House scenario from the Colonial Conflicts scenario book, but modified the scenario rules to fit the figures I had, and to make things more interesting for the players.

One major change I made was to convert the rules to grid-based for this scenario. I reasoned that for the mutineers, there were really just three points of interest, which formed their victory objectives. For the British, I gave them the primary objective of defending those three points, and a secondary one of capturing a "spawning point" for the badmash, which could be "recycled" indefinitely. The spawning point was a temple (represented by a mosque building in the game) which was located in the built-up area, which I decided could be represented by a number of grids which could be used to determine combat. This gave the British player an option to try to capture the grid to stop the endless flow of badmash units, instead of just sitting at their positions and shooting throughout the whole game.

The mutineers mass for their attack on Delhi Ridge

The battle started a bit slow as, despite their numbers, the mutineers rolled poorly on the activation rolls and could hardly threaten the British. At the same time, the British could pick their targets tactically, choosing the unpinned units while ignoring the pinned ones, which again had difficulty rallying.

By the end of 12 turns, which was the planned game length, the mutineers were far from achieving their objectives. We decided to let the game play on, and the weight of numbers begin to tell. This prompted the forces on the far side of the table to sally forth to support their beleaguered comrades, and indeed the Gurkhas to sally forth from Hindu Rao's House. With no turn limit, it was a matter of time before the mutineers were victorious.

The Sirmoor Battalion sally from Hindu Rao's House

In retrospect the activation roll of 8+ (7+ if a general was in the same grid) proved too punishing - one sepoy unit did not make a successful roll throughout the whole game! At the same time the stacking limit of two units per grid meant that the mutineers suffered a congestion at the foot of Delhi Ridge, which available units unable to press the attack as pinned units were occupying the grids in front of them. If we were to replay this scenario, I will probably increase the stacking limit to three.

Conquerors and Kings - Battle of Idistavisto

For our first game of the year we played a mid-week game of Conquerors and Kings earlier this month as Martin was back for a break. I seized the opportunity to field my Tribal Germans against his Early Imperial Romans. The two armies last met in a game of Infamy! Infamy! five years ago, and now, with my army expanded with the help of a painting service, I decided it was time for a pitched battle.

The scenario I chose was the Battle of Idistavisto. FG and I took the Germans, while wahj and Martin commanded the Romans. I gave the Romans a "At my signal, unleash hell!" rule, which gave them the option to perform a flank march.

The Romans deployed wide, hoping to use their auxilia (and cavalry in the subsequent flank march) to flank the Germans and sweep up our right flank. On our side, I decided to deploy narrow and deep, anchoring our left flank on the river, and refusing our right flank.

To buy time for their flanking manoeuvre to arrive, the Romans similarly refused their right flank and gave ground. which caused me some concern. But the German line eventually hit the Roman line from the front and their right. Twice the Germans won the combats, but twice the Romans suffered no losses as their armour protected them and their Keep Order strategy warded off pursuits.

In the left hand corners you can see the widgets I made to aid in the calculation of combat dice

At the same time, their flanking attack was disco-ordinated, and FG's forces on this flank launched a spoiling attack, taking some casualties but giving us enough time to move more forces for the attack in the centre.

We ruled that the Romans we driven off the field, but had enough auxilia to prevent an effective pursuit.

Once again I enjoyed the game, and have plans for another one soon, and perhaps a massive one at the end of this year if we can get the players together.

Have a happy new year ahead.

2025 in Review and Looking Ahead

Fort Magherita at Kuching

2025 was another good year for wargaming.

Once again, I count eleven sessions. Many of the sessions saw new friends whom I gamed with for the very first time, and a couple of them saw decades-old friends whom I reconnected with during the year and join on the tabletop once again after a gap of decades.

Of the games I umpired, they can be broken down into two main categories: grid-based mass battle games in 15mm, and conventional skirmish games in 28mm. I foresee that we will continue to play these games in the coming year.

In particular, I think I have gained enough understanding of Peter Pig's Conquerors & Kings rules to plan scenarios and army lists to give challenging games to both sides. In fact, I have two historical scenarios planned for the coming year, featuring armies which we have yet to pit against each other on our table.

Unplanned acquisitions for this year were the 28mm Baron's War figures, and 28mm Perry Miniatures for Napoleonic skirmish. I have more 28mm figures for these two periods lined up to be painted in the coming year, with games to hopefully follow; after the effort the gang have made completing their respective Baron's War retinues, I certainly owe it to them to run a few more games!

On the 15mm front there have been additions to my existing armies, mainly to fill gaps and allow me to use them to represent different army lists.

I also added to my terrain collection.

While wargaming had been thriving, the same cannot be said of RPGs. My weekly session have had to be canceled on many occasions due to poor attendance.

I am hoping that the delivery of the new Lone Wolf RPG kickstarter next year will result in a new campaign and revival.

Have a good gaming year ahead.

Everything I painted this year

28mm Historical

Terrain

Another Trio of Terrain

Here are a trio of terrain pieces I painted/made for our Siege of Delhi game.

The first is a mosque from (I believe) JR Miniatures. I bought this around two decades ago, but only recently based and painted it. It is rough by today's standards, and you can certainly find many better models in MDF or 3D prints, but I think it has its Old World charm.

And our second model today is indeed a 3D resin print of Red Copper Miniatures' Arab Souk, shown here with some Essex miniatures porters and Red Copper's Arab civilians. The print came in two main pieces - the ground level and the upper floor - with the trade goods being separate, small pieces, which made painting easier.

Finally, here is a cardboard building I made, meant to represent Hindu Rao's House at the Siege of Delhi. The structure is made using cardboard, reinforced with Jenga blocks, and the exterior is from Iliada Games Studio. It is by no means an accurate model, but I think it feels right for the period.

Hindu Rao House defended by the Sirmoor Battalion

Conquerors & Kings - Warring States China

Loy, an old friend I have known for four decades joined us for a mid-week afternoon game of Conquerors & Kings. The two armies, wahj's Qin and my Zhao, were painted 17 years ago by the now-defunct DJD Miniatures, so this game was a long long time in making.

C&K does not have lists for Warring States Chinese armies, so I created two lists based on the Han Chinese list from the Army Book, and in any case the lists were limited by the figures we owned.

We set up the terrain using the rules from the book, and went at it. The Zhao had an advantage in cavalry, but the Qin had better and more infantry. Terrain placement went in the favour of the defender, and the Zhao sat pretty on a ridge, with rough hills guarding one of the flanks, while their cavalry deployed on the other, open flank.

wahj decided to settle the issue quickly by pushing his chariots up to meet teh Zhao cavalry, but they were defeated. He then tried to break the Zhao centre with his superior infantry before the Zhao cavalry could roll up his flank, while sending the fierce convinct swordsmen down the other, weaker flank, which was guarded by two units of archers and a unit of levy spears.

The plan almost worked: all along the line there was savage fighting, and a gap appeared in the Zhao centre. But Loy was prepared for this - using the Advance Tactic, he moved his Veteran foot he had held in reserve to plug the gap, and his cavalry was able to charge into the Qin flank.

While we were all impressed by the deployment of the Zhao reserve, we had only scorn for the Qin convict swordsmen, who failed their movement roll to exit the rough hills to attack the Zhao flank - I had given them Shock and the Erratic Tactic, so we were all looking forward to see how they would perform. Alas! we will have to wait for another day.

I apologise for the lack of photos and close-up of the figures - I was busy with running the game and making rounds of Chinese tea. This was the first time Loy had played these rules, and it is a testament of the system that he was able to grasp them quickly and secure a victory on his first outing.

There were still a couple of things I missed in the combat resolution, and I think I might make some widgets to help me remember them. The next C&K game I am planning will be a scenario game, but we will be playing something else next month.

Have a good year-end holiday!

Second Battle of Beneventum, 214BC

The Carthaginian lines

Carthaginian cavalry try to turn the Roman flank

I apologise in advance for the jumbled-up photos, but the technology is quite beyond me...

For our December game we had a new player Rafael join our group. I planned on running a Punic War scenario using a scenario from Across the Alps, the scenario book with Little Wars TV. I initially wanted to run the Battle of Metaurus, which had a more interesting terrain, but when I learned that Rafael had a large Spartacus' Revolt army, I switched to Beneventum instead. Now I understand that the Roman slaves and convicts probably wore Roman uniforms for the battle, but I wasn't about to let the opportunity for a guest's army to grace my tabletop go to waste.

The battlefield

Rafael and I played the Romans. Having had some experience with the rules, I decided to consciously stack the odds in my favour for combat. Playing conservatively, I deployed my half of the army deep, both to protect my flank from the Numidian light horse, and to support the units in the front rank. After some skirmishing, where both sides attrited their skirmisher units, the Romans charged up the slopes. My front units managed to gain a toe-hold, but immediately faced Carthaginian counter-attack on three sides. The dice rolled in my favour, and the Romans managed to fend off all attacks. This was enough to allow a second wave of attack to push the whole Roman line onto the high ground. The Carthaginians rolled poorly to rally, and after flanking attack by the cavalry was repelled, the game was up for them.

Rafael's Slave Revolt army

This was the first game we played using a scenario instead of the random terrain set-up we had used previously. I was also more deliberate in the army lists generation, choosing a mix of units that would allow each side to capitalise on their Battle Tactics.

I think both sides played well, and a large part of why the Carthaginians lost was due to them failing their General movement and Battle Tactics activation rolls at critical points in the battle.

I am now planning for another game of C&K this month, to hopefully let wahj and I finally put our Warring States China armies onto a table. Stay tuned.

Critical point of the battle, when the Roman attack, surrounded on three sides, manage to fend off the attacks and secure victory