Maximilian-Down Mexico Way

 

If you want to do the French Intervention AKA the Maximilian Adventure in 15mm you really need QRF. A venerable but comprehensive range of figures. Substitutes are possible but will only take you so far.

Back in January I got the Maximilian bug. I had some figures but nowhere near enough. QRF under new ownership was just about to hit the rocks which didn't help. I placed an advert on LAF and got a good result.

Last month I commenced unpacking what I got. Below you can see my painting progress so far.

The Austrian Legion. I need a second Battalion of these.

The Belgian Legion Battalion. Apparently these lads were all young with no real military experience. Their Commander was keen for glory. There was a second battalion and I have the figures for them. QRF make some excellent mule mounted Belgians. I want some.

Death in a sky blue coat - the Chasseurs de Afrique. Feared and famous. They are getting a second squadron.

Mexican National Guard. This unit in a distinctive red coat. Uniforms varied from place to place. White is always good if you are stuck.

Mexican Battalion Supreme Powers. I should have painted 3 yellow sardinas (vertical stripes) on each sleeve. It would hardly be noticeable in this scale so I didn't. This battalion was very well armed with Henry repeating rifles. They were described as very confidant soldiers.

The Egyptian Battalion. Mostly Sudanese slaves who were collected in lieu of back taxes by the soon to be Khedive of Egypt. Once in Maximilian's Service they were freed. Everyone had only good things to say about these fellows. Their flag is not the Egyptian one as I substituted a Company Flag. The survivors ended up in Paris.

The Empress Lancers named for Carlotta, Empress of Mexico. Mrs Max' in other words. Her daddy was King of the Belgians. Hence the Belgian Legion.

Two squadrons of Mexican Irregular cavalry. Handy with the lance. 

Lances were used to herd cattle in Spain and Spanish America. Great training for spearing people apparently.

Mexican regular cavalry. Depending on when these lads could be Imperialists or Republicans. 

That is it so far. 

Now, good news. Geoff is shortly to launch GeoffQRF and will sell the Maximilian range along with half of the old Frei Korps range.  I will be adding to my collection. 

Also I'm keen to do a Great Paraguayan War/ Triple Alliance Project. GeoffQRF can provide the figures. Here I think of Eliza Lynch, what a story.

Cid Stuff

 

As I write it is very hot also I have been very busy. Not an ideal combination.  All the same I have finally found time for some Cid Stuff. Thinking about and writing up In The Days of the Cid. 

The key concepts are there. Fearsome charges, storms of arrows and dashing Jinete. The steady advance of the Berber spearmen. Basque javelin men skipping from vantage to vantage. Last stands by Nubians or Crusaders. Evocative.

Above Caballeros Hidalgos, look at that little pennon. Below, Christian Jinete. From Donnington New Era. I continue to warm to the brand of the broken hand. I only broke one figure this time.

In my Spanish Civil War Game I first introduced the key concepts here on this blog. As much for my own clarity as to interest others. I'm minded to do the same again.  

Let's start with Command. In the Days of The Cid the top dog commanding is you, the Player. The General.

Below the General are the Counts and Emirs and Mercenary Captains whose contingents form the Host. Like the General, the Mercenary Captains are exempt from the following table. They have been paid to do a job. Not so the Counts and Emirs.

Players throw a D6 for each Count or Emir and consult the table below for their Unique Quality and Epithet.

Dice Score	Quality
1.	The Cruel	If wounded or killed his contingent will immediately withdraw from combat without him.
2.	The Cunning	May successfully order his contingent to evade without testing.
3.	The Generous	May not be killed by a Mercenary unit regardless of combat result.
4.	The Valorous	May successfully order his contingent to charge without testing.
5.	The Pious	May excuse the first unit of his contingent required to test morale.
6.	The unbeaten	May double his personal combat dice if personally engaged.

Obviously, this approach requires some individual figures to personate the Counts and Emirs. 

Likewise there are some other special figures, famous banners, drums of war. 

You can see a selection above, Essex, Minifigs and Donnington Old Era.

A bit of Minifigs nostalgia here. Murabit Cavalry. I thought I had more of these and some Minifig Negro Cavalry too. Seemingly not. I wouldn't mind some of the latter.

You might recall recently seeing some exceptionally well painted Minifigs Late Romans of the same vintage. The result was splendid. Really first class. Anyhow, it inspired me to take my time with Minifigs in order to get the best result. I have a fair few more.

My unarmoured Basque cavalry have been redesignated as Caballeros Villanos. I had based them 3 to a 40mm frontage base. I was going to use the old spread them out technique to convince that they were skirmishers. It didn't work for me.

Instead we are going to have lots of these fellows on single figure bases sweeping in and out of the action. Above some Christian Jinete have caught some Moorish javelin men in the open. 

The plus side? I now have two units of Caballeros Villanos.

In The Days of The Cid is a Card powered game. Some units react to their own card being turned. Others need an order from their Count or Emir.  Each of those can usually get their contingent to move as a group. It gets trickier when individual units need special attention. Or start running away.

There is something else too. Some cards favour a specific side. If the opposing player turns such a card he may remove it from play. Denying his foe advantage. This is new to me. Will it go as far as Card Trading? Maybe.

Foot Skirmishers I’m doing 3 to a rounded edge base like these Africans above. From Donnington New Era. 

I did wonder about making the Andalusian crossbow men skirmishers. It is a nice idea with good gaming potential. I decided against it. 

Instead I envisage blocks of Andalusian Crossbow men relying on the penetrative power of their weapons to keep the enemy away. They had not been a great success as spearmen. Perhaps the crossbow would suit them better.

At this stage of the project I will also be doing some Basque and Berber Skirmishers, javelin men both.  More Cid Stuff as it comes.

The Dark Daughter's Body Guard - The Nine Years War in Ireland

 

Above, the Crawfords under the O'Donnell flag. They constituted the body guard of Iníon Dubh (The Dark Daughter).  She was the mother of Red Hugh O'Donnell and was a Scots Lady of no mean political skills. These she surely inherited from her mother who also married an Irish dynast.

The body guard was part of her dowry. The lads were chosen individually for their size and strength. It turned out that the Crawfords specialised in biguns. The Flag is one of Ray's of Don't Throw a 1.

Annoyingly I think I have made a mistake with my figure selection. Consider this:

 "This was accordingly done for her (Iníon Dubh) for they rushed to the place where Hugh was, and proceeded to shoot at him with darts and bullets, until they left him lifeless; and there were also slain along with him the dearest to him of his faithful people."

The "they" in question are the Body Guards. Note the use the Irish Dart and some of them are using guns, probably Calivers. This is the first mention of Highlanders using darts that I have come across. The guns are less of a surprise. They were about and becoming more so. My choice was the typical West Highland bow and great sword/axe. Ah well, time to think again.

More properly the Dark Daughter was Fíonnghuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Her father MacDonald of Dunyveg and the Glens. Her mother Lady Agnes Campbell wife to Turlough of the Wine, The O'Neill. 

I thought you might be interested to read  her reviews:

The Annals of the Four Masters noted  she was "like the mother of Maccabees who joined a man's heart to a woman's thought."

The historian and biographer O'Cleirigh stated "for she was the head of the advice and counsel of the Cenel Conaill." 

Myler Magrath, the cleric and multiple turncoat, said she was "A cruel, bloody woman who has committed sundry murders".

Well yes, politics was always a deadly business. The point was, and still is, to win. Mother and daughter were adepts.

Above Scots Gaels. They could be a mercenary company or mobilised Clansmen.

The Irish branch of Clan Donald above. The McDonnells of the Route in Antrim. They had displaced the McQuillans some time past. The equally Gaelic McQuillans were the descendants of adventurers of Norman origin. Some of Clan McQuillan were still about. As indeed, they are still.

For the McDonnells things were looking up. They could field a force of 500 men without any real effort. If more were needed they arrived from the West Highlands in swift galleys.

My second unit of English Border Horse. The troopers are from Essex Miniatures and the officer and trumpeter from Khurasan.

Two Khurasan mail clad Irish cavalry and a QRF/Khurasan mix of targeteers. The estimable Clib' tells me Khurasan are to produce  a pack of Irish targeteers. Excellent news.

QRF Kern with a Khurasan Piper. Old fashioned Kern were on the way out but could on occasion be found in both English and Irish forces. They still had their moments. A brave English Captain was rallying his Company at the Ford of Biscuits. A Kern threw a dart through the Captain's neck, killing him. End of rally. 

Two common types of Irish attack tactics. Above caliver men supported by cavalry. Below, the same supported by Targeteers.

I mentioned previously that I was writing rules for the Nine Years War in Ireland. The job is now done. When I have further news I'll report it here.

Flodden Final Units

 

Truth to tell I have 2 Scots and one English units to do. They will have to wait a while. As you will see quite a bit has been accomplished. 

Above, Scots Demi-Lancers under the banner of the Scots Earl Marischal. One of Ray at Don't Throw a One's flags.  The Race of Somerled below. 

Both Clan Donald units. Flags located from the internet by Stuart at Army Royal and overpainted by me.

Lots of Borderers. 

Could be Scots, could be English. The banners of the Commanders enable us to tell them apart.

Below, The English Lord Dacre and his men. Banner from Ray.

The other side, William Graham, Earl of Montrose with his banner. Also from Ray.

The King of England's Spears from Roundway. If I have this right, Stuart of Army Royal drew the flag and Ray coloured it in.

That's it for the moment.

A Flodden Update

 

About three years ago I set out on a Flodden Project. As often happens I wrote and painted away and then got diverted. Permissible, because this is a hobby not a job. You can see my previous progress by hitting Flodden in the tags. Above, not Flodden. Just a Border skirmish.

A couple of days ago I finished the first draft of “Flodden Moor” the working title of my Flodden Game. Yesterday I proof read it. The result is 14 sides of A4 intended to enable gaming the Anglo-Scots Wars of the Flodden Period. Of course you could also use them for intra England or Scotland fights. There were plenty of them. Playtests will follow.

There was still a bit of painting to do. Surprisingly mostly involving the Border Reivers those workmen of the Wars. Now it may be that this is just your thing. An enduring interest perhaps? If so you might want to know what is available in 15mm.

I have 15mm Border Horse from Alternative Armies (1 pose), Minifigs (1pose), Roundway (2 poses), QRF, Essex (1 pose), and ERM. With troops like the Reivers as much variety as possible was my aim.

These days only Alternative Armies ,Minifigs and Essex are still in production, or so I thought. 

Happily ERM are now being sold by East Front Miniatures (EFM). They have the most complete range of Border Reivers, horse and foot, civilians and dogs. I have ordered a few packs and will review them upon arrival here. 

In the meantime you can see an EFM Reiver below. He’s the one in the blue doublet and jack facing a QRF Rider.  A fair fit wouldn’t you say?

Currently I have a couple of units of Border Horse. This is fine for Flodden where the Scots Borderers fought on foot. My 2 units can be English. For other engagements I need a couple more. 

They aren't big units 6-8 figures each. I'm giving some of them little St. Andrew's saltire or St. George cross patches. Mostly my Borderers won't wear them. It was said the Riding Clans were "English by choice and Scots at will."  You can see a couple of standard bearers here to help identify who was, at least temporarily, who.

QRF is currently missing in action. I’m watching with interest Geoff’s efforts to sort things out. I do wish him well. 

Below some English Demi-Lancers from QRF. 

The green and white caps indicate their Tudor allegiance. 

If QRF return I’ll do a Scots version too. 

There is more to the period than the Battle of Flodden.

On this page you can see English and Scots units from my Flodden Collection.

More on this one soon. Starting with a playtest. I really should work out the points for both sides for a balanced game. Truth to tell I'm more interested in the feel of it as a representation of the period.

Middle Romans- Transfer Tales

 

First, forgive the lacuna between posts. I have been very busy with one thing and another. Let us now press on.

Regular readers know I have been playing with transfers recently. The Prince of Transfers is Little Big Man Studios. Real works of art from them.  They have a reputation for being tricky to use.  That is because there application is counter intuitive. You have to put the image on face down. Gasp!

Luckily You Tube is replete with a squad of fine fellows who show you how everything should be done. Seeing it makes it very easy to follow and, oddly, more natural. I set to.

Having been instructed the application process worked splendidly. You have to cut out the transfer. Take care over this bit. Then peel of a layer of plastic. That bit is very easy. Place the image face down on the shield and press. Wet it with a water laden brush.  Then peel the paper off. Less complex or demanding than it reads.

Anything else? The pic's in descending order are Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry,  Auxilia and Legions. All figures are from Forged in Battle. They are intended as a start on opponents for my Picts. More on those lads soonish.

A final thing. Although the LBM transfers are custom made for specific figures don't expect a perfect fit. This isn't the end of the world as a look at the above figures will show.

Now for a Crimean War diversion. I have been reading The Crimean War-A History by Orlando Figes. Published in 2010 so not a new book. Orlando got a bit of a public hiding for anonymously giving himself an excellent review. Quite the scandal and it ended with the lad himself issuing a public apology. 

These days such antics would hardly cause a stir at all. In fact he might be knighted or made a Lord. Certainly he could expect a Quango.

Anyhow, the book.  Some of the political currents stuff it is well worth the readers attention. Some of the rest isn't.  The military stuff is on occasion good but mostly it is cursory. Almost lazily so. Surprisingly, to me, Figes is much better on strategic ideas and who wanted what and why.  Not a bad book then but not a must have either.