Roll Call - Part Three

Here is the next instalment of my Armies Reveal. Only two collections tonight - 15 WW2 Russians and 25mm female dark ages

Bits n pieces - air support, high command AA guns etc...

Russian infantry stands - mainly Command Decision by Old Glory

All the vehicles are Flames of War - the ones above are mainly later war IS 2 and IS 3 tanks, plus SU122 (I think)

T34/85 and SU 85/100 in winter camouflage and non winter T34/85's and SU somethings - they all look pretty similar in these images!

The next batch are T34/766 and KV1 plus some Lend Lease American trucks

A couple of armoured cars, BT7 light tanks and a whole lot more SU self propelled guns

This is one of my favourite armies, even though it has the purists wailing and gnashing their teeth - an all female dark ages army comprising mainly Shadowforge Valkyries as female Vikings...

An eclectic mix in the first box - some Shadowforge Vikings, a chariot pulled by four naked male slaves, some mounted archers by Eureka and a mounted leader by I Kore from the Keltos range

Light infantry and archers from a mixture of Shadowforge elves (no longer manufactured) the Tribal range and Eureka ancient Greeks

The female Bondi - these are all Shadowforge Valkyries

The cavalry - these are all by Eureka and are a mixture of Greek light horse, archers and female cataphracts...well, they were taking on male armies that had cataphract cavalry, so they needed some heavy support! In the bottom left is another I Kore piece - the Gael Princess Cliodna and her shield bearers, who have made a previous appearance on this blog:

And here is the previous image of the chariot - I think it was by a company called Amazon and I added one of the Shadowforge girls as the crew

I am not sure why it is, but I have noticed that the "prettiest" female sculpts all seem to come from Australian manufacturers - Shadowforge in particular! Some of the northern hemisphere "females" are so ugly, they look like men with - ahem - certain appendages added!

Roll Call - Part Two

Following on from my post a few days back, today I present the contents of a few more A4 box files from my garage

First up are my late 19th century Colonials - a few Pathans then two lots of Brits - basically those in red coats and blue trousers and those in khaki. These are all Old Glory 25mm figures

Above are the Pathans - we all provided some as a combined force to oppose my British troops in one of our wargame week games at Tarawera.

Sudan era colonial troops including the Camel Corps

More Sudan era troops in red coats, Rifles in green and sailors in blue

Khaki clad troops for the N W Frontier and other later colonial campaigns

British and Indian cavalry for the N W Frontier

Infantry, Cavalry and Sailors

Indian infantry including Sikhs and Ghurkas

Commanders and some artillery

Next up are 20mm figures for ultra modern wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan. I have figures from virtually every manufacture of this era in my collection

Above Coalition troops by various manufacturers - Liberation, Elheim, Wartime Miniatures, Britannia Miniatures and Under Fire Miniatures

Afghan opposition by Liberation Miniatures and Elheim 

Somalis for "Black Hawk Down" type scenarios plus four Afghan technical (cheap toy cars with Wartime Miniatures crews added)

More Brits and some Afghan opposition

Odds and sods - snipers, GPMG teams and Afghan civilians

Vehicles including three British Warrior IFV's, two American Bradley IFV's, a British Challenger tank, four US Humvees and several others

Rotary air support - British Apache gun ship and CH47 Chinook and American Blackhawk plus AH 6 and OH 6 "Littlebirds"

Last for tonight's "Show and Tell" is my 15mm WW2 Japanese collection, which, being almost entirely infantry, all fits in a single box, albeit on two levels

Level one - command teams, infantry groups, support weapons and small field guns

Level two - more of the same plus a few armoured vehicles in their garish jungle camouflage paint scheme - these are virtually all Command Decision figures from Old Glory.

That's all for tonight - but here is a teaser for the next instalment - the contents of my main storage cupboard covering 15mm WW2 Russian and German, 25/28mm ECW, British Napoleonic, French Napoleonic, Austrian Napoleonic, British AWI, British FIW, an all female Valkyrie army and some Medievals.

Friday Night Game - Battle of Tinchbrai 1106

"The Battle of Tinchebrai  was fought on 28 September 1106, in Tinchebrai, Normandy, between an invading force led by King Henry I of England, and his elder brother Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy. Henry's knights won a decisive victory, capturing Robert and imprisoning him in England (in Devizes Castle) and then Wales until Robert's death (in Cardiff Castle).

Henry invaded Normandy in 1105, taking Bayeux and Caen. He broke off his campaign because of political problems arising from the Investiture Controversy. With these settled, he returned to Normandy in the spring of 1106. After quickly taking the fortified abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives (near Falaise), Henry turned south and besieged Tinchebrai Castle, on a hill above the town. Tinchebrai is on the border of the county of Mortain, in the southwest of Normandy, and was held by William, Count of Mortain, who was one of the few important Norman barons still loyal to Robert. Duke Robert then brought up his forces to break the siege. After some unsuccessful negotiations, Duke Robert decided that a battle in the open was his best option.

Henry's army was organized into three groups. Ranulf of Bayeux, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, and William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey commanded the two primary forces. A reserve, commanded by Elias I of Maine, remained out of sight on the flank. Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, William, Count of Évreux, Ralph of Tosny, Robert of Montfort, and Robert of Grandmesnil also fought with Henry. William, Count of Mortain, and Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury fought with Robert Curthose.

The battle only lasted an hour. Henry dismounted and ordered most of his knights to dismount. This was unusual for Norman battle tactics, and meant the infantry played a decisive role. William, Count of Évreux, charged the front line, with men from Bayeux, Avranches and the Cotentin. Henry's reserve proved decisive. Most of Robert's army was captured or killed. Those captured included Robert, Edgar Atheling (uncle of Henry's wife), and William, Count of Mortain. Robert de Bellême, commanding the Duke's rear guard, led the retreat, saving himself from capture or death. Most of the prisoners were released, but Robert Curthose and William of Mortain spent the rest of their lives in captivity. Robert Curthose had a legitimate son, William Clito, whose claims to the duchy of Normandy led to several rebellions that continued through the rest of Henry's reign." - Courtesy of Wikipedia.

We refought the battle to mark our friend Julian's birthday, using his collection of (mainly) Old Glory Dark Ages/early Medieval Norman figures and the "To the Strongest" rule set he favours for this period. The game lasted about three times as long as the actual battle did! 

I got so excited by my first game at Julian's in about two months ( as he has been on a European holiday for about 5 weeks) that after the initial two or three shots of the set up, I forgot to take any pictures till we were about halfway through the game! Added to this, several of the pictures were out of focus and blurred, and I was only left with a few shots of the action. 

We randomly drew for our commands, and I picked King Henry. Joining me on the Anglo Norman side were Julian and Rick, whilst John played Duke Robert, ably assisted by Chris and Nick. In classic Medieval style, we just marched forward with a simple plan - to beat the French (Norman French that is!). Almost immediately, things started to go awry as Julian's super heavy cavalry on our right charged home against Nick's light horse lancers - and lost the combat! A move or two later they, and their commander, had permanently left the field and lost us the first of our army morale coins - we had a 13 - 11 advantage at the start of the game. 

On the left and in the centre, I advanced towards John whilst attempting to refuse my flank to Chris on the Norman right - but that is no easy task on the square boxed playing surface used under these rules. Meanwhile, Rick, who objected to the lack of a more subtle and nuanced plan,  commenced an extended perambulation along the length of our table edge, so that he eventually, in the dying moves of the game, arrived behind Julian on the Norman left flank. By that time, however, it was too late to save us, as we had steadily lost coins all evening and were down to the lucky last when one more unit was finished off by Duke Robert and the game was won for the Norman Normans.

Here are the few images that seemed worth posting:

The initial set out looking from the Norman side towards the advancing army of Henry I

Julian's super heavy grade 5 wonder knights - they did not last long!

"Arrow fodder" in front of the main Anglo Norman retinue of King Henry.

The scenario book Julian used to set up the game

King Henry in all his glory

Fast forward 90 minutes, action on our left flank as Chris's Norman cavalry defeat my attempt to refuse the flank

The same scene from another angle - behind the charging knights

The view across the table from the centre of Duke Roberts army

Roberts heavy infantry advance towards Henrys position

General view of the game toward the end - what a bloody mess!

Back to the unrefused left flank, chaos reigns as Chris's cavalry create mayhem

The final denouement - Henrys heavy knights retire in disorder as Roberts forces win the day.

A great evening with convivial company, a beautiful hour long meal in the middle of it, fine wine and sparkling repartee (mostly) - a great way to end the working week!

Roll Call - Part One

As I have nothing new to paint or photograph, I decided to copy Mark's idea of looking at my collection in its totality. I have decided to put a different slant on it and open up the boxes too - so here is the first batch of boxes I dragged out this evening, in no particular order

First up - above and below - 15mm WW2 British 

War of 1812 - British above and Americans below

A small collection of Napoleonic Portuguese - need to add to these at some point

Above - four units for the Carlist War of the 1830's

Above - Russian Civil War collection "so far" - I intend to add to this soon

WW1 in East Africa British forces - more to add to this collection too!

Above - War of Spanish Succession Dutch Infantry

Above- War of Spanish Succession Danish Infantry and Dutch/Danish cavalry

Small British Crimean collection - the Light Division

Mid 19th Century British Colonial troops - Sikh Wars ranges by Old Glory - mostly

Above 20mm German and below 20mm British and Russian plastic figures for Chain of Command games

Above and the two below - Wellington in India British and East India Company troops by Redoubt Miniatures

That's enough for tonight - will post the next instalment later this week