Sunday 29 April 2018

GNW Russians XII

After the game at Micks I thought my painting mojo would return. Sad to say it hasn't. These 2 Grenadiers battalions from Bieltz's regiment have taken over 3 weeks to complete. The figures are all from Dixon's range.



The only other progress on this project is undercoating 6 squadrons of Horse Grenadiers and prepping 2 battalions of infantry. I think after a couple of years on the GNW project I've burnt out painting tricorns. I need to find another side project to see if that can get me going again.

Sunday 22 April 2018

Great Northern War AAR (2)

On Saturday I made the trip up to Micks to fight the second battle of our campaign. Mick had picked the field of Fraustadt for the battle and to defend the Southern edge of the table.

Field of battle
Now I was nervous for this battle as I was using my Russian and Polish troops. Though much of the open ground would favour cavalry, the quality of my Swedish opponents would more than match this.

The plan was to advance with my Polish infantry to occupy the ground between the villages of Rohrsdorf and Geyersdorf (the actual Saxon position in the historical battle). I would also send out my Cossacks and Polish irregulars to try and harass any Swedish advance on this position. The centre I stationed my better quality Russian infantry and Dragoons. My Hussars and Pancerni were held off table until the Swedes revealed themselves.

Army deployed
Once I realised the Swedes were just going to come straight at us I called up the Polish horse to help defend the centre and my right wing around the village of Ogrey.

With the Swedish advance in the centre being led by a brigade of Dragoons I brought forward my own Russian and Poles to engage them. Surprisingly we got the better of the early exchanges before eventually being driven back by supporting Swedish infantry. Over on the left the Cossacks continued to threaten the Swedish right wing and thankfully drew off a brigade of Swedish Dragoons to prevent me crossing the stream at Obrachice.

Polish reserves 
Russian infantry
Marauding Cossacks 
Swedish battle line
Eventually my right flank came under enormous pressure. My 2 brigades of Russian infantry were facing 3 brigades of Swedes. 10 battalions against 18. Despite a few early successes the Swedes began to drive the Russians back.

Isolated Russian infantry
Dragoons on both sides shattered from melee
The collapsing right flank
With my right flank collapsing I decided it was time to throw in the Polish horse to try and drive off the Swedish cavalry and allow me to threaten the Swedish infantry. Now unlike their Swedish for, The Polish horse are rather fragile and quickly lose heart if things go wrong. At first they smashed into the veteran Swedes, driving them back before their supporting lines returned the favour. Now my Polish horse were streaming from the field in disarray.

On the left my Cossacks were eventually caught and set fleeing to the rear. It was at this point I broke off the engagement. So far my only uncommitted troops were 11 raw battalions of Polish and Cossack infantry, far too fragile to hold veteran Swedes.

Polish Horse begin their advance
Hussars lead the charge
Cossacks infantry
Despite actual casualties on the field being pretty even. The loss of my Polish horse fleeing the field and ceding the villages handed Mick a resounding victory.

A few lessons from the game. The point system hampers poor quality armies, Despite having a predominantly raw and trained troops against veterans. I was out numbered in infantry and had only a couple more cavalry regiments. The main issue is around the commanders. More troops you have the more commanders you need and these eat up any points you gain from lower quality troops.

Secondly the irregular Polish horse are at a distinct disadvantage fighting regulars. They are very brittle and break when losing a melee. We may need possible adjustments to the rout move as they easily seem to leave the table.

Overall a very enjoyable game and looking forward to the next one.

Monday 16 April 2018

Rogue Trader Orks with extras

Even though I have mainly concentrated on my Great Northern War armies I have been running a mini side project on expanding my original Rogue Trader ork army. Though it is still not complete, which project ever is, here is an update of my progress.

First up is some of the rank and file. These are all metal figures from the original Space Ork line. There are quite a few from the Ork Raiders boxed set. Just need a couple more figures and I'd have 3 complete sets.

Ork boyz mob1
Ork boyz mob2
Ork boyz mob3
Ork boyz mob4
Ork support weapons
Ork command mob

Ork mobs
Not a balanced army by any means but I don't care. It's based upon figures that I like. Next up some of the extra mobs that all armies need. There are 2 trukk mobs from the old Gorkamorka range ably supported by a couple of buggies. I like these figures as they fit in with the Rogue trader era figures unlike the more modern gorilla looking figures.

Trukk mobs
Ork buggies
Now no Ork army should be without some dreadnoughts or killer kans as they are now called. So far I have a mob of 5 models including a Rogue trader era sculpt, had to heighten his base as the others dwarf him.



Of the newer Ork models I do like the metal Nobz figures that were produced following the release of Gorkamorka so some of these were added to support my Warboss. The boss figure is built around the Ghazgull model with a few adaptions as the power claw was missing. Lastly there is a small mob of grots with a few still to be added.

Warboss
Warboss
Warboss with retinue
Grots
Once again I have a hankering to get some use out of these, hopefully as part of a campaign or linked games.