Norman Heavy Infantry part one

Norman heavy infantry from the Perry and Gripping beast ranges, flags are LBM, sheilds hand painted, another four units to come of these.

Norman Javelin

Norman javelin from the gripping beast range, these are touch ups and rebase jobs

cheers
Matt

Norman Archers

More figures these are from the Perry range of archers

cheers
Matt

Norman Casualty markers

For some time I have been painting a mates Norman army it is days from completion, the next few days I will post some pictures of the figures, some were touch ups and rebasing others were complete paint jobs, they are from a number of ranges so enjoy! They are based and marked up for Impetus but could be used for other rules.

cheers
Matt

The “Bonnie Blue Flag” ACW weekend in July

 July is our clubs annual ACW and mid-19^th century bash where a few of us roll out our games for two days of gaming in the period.

Boyd, Rich, John, Dave, Mat and I played two games of 28mm ACW using Jonny Reb III rules over the two days.

On the First day we played a little round top scenario by Scott Mingus. Boyd and Richard commanded the Union, the confederates were commanded by John and I.  The Confederate attack had early success when John’s long range shooting caused a number of casualties on the unit beside the 20^th Maine, who fell back in disorder, the confederates moved forward and received and gave moving fires for two turns, the union sharpshooters commanded by Richard really whittled down the confederates so much that one Confederate Regt failed morale and ran off the table leaving the others to continue the assault, mostly cracking rolling by Richard (by the 20^th Maine) seen another off triggering a Brigade Morale test which I promptly failed….1s pick up remainder  of brigade….the follow up brigade fared no better and the game ended around 2pm, time to set up for the next day!

The second day Boyd, Richard and Dave commanded the Union against, the confederate commanders John, Mat and I. The game was a fictional game based on a counterattack by the union against the tired Confederate centre around the Wheatfield’s along Plum Run on the second day of Gettysburg.

The Confederates had a +1 disadvantage to all morale rolls, which is ok early but once the casualties start…….. The Union had a +1 firing modifier which really tolled if they rolled well. The Union  were a little worried as they advanced but their artillery done great damage on a number of units, one battery actually rolled all sixes and all but wiped out a small 12 figure batn, who promptly routed and took one other with them in the process, leaving a gaping hole between two brigades. The union advance on the right was extremely successful with two confederate batns totally destroyed and two others routing leaving a gaping hole in the line, the union were finally blunted and Johns troops counterattacked which was quite good to see, whoever the entire left flank of the confederates collapsed after two batns routed and the remainder of the brigade become shaken and then finally routed, this caused morale rolls all through my brigade which became shaken and finally routed leaving the hill and the fields to the union troops…….must get myself some new dice I think!

On Sunday a second game ran behind us with around ten players playing a Kriegspiel wild west game, that always seemed on the edge of anarchy! The town was aptly named “Profanity.”   My favourite recollections coming from that general direction;

Cowboy Player “ I’m going for a long range snap shot”

Gamemaster “ well it is extreme range and there are Mexican civilians in the way”

Cowboy player “ that’s ok”

Gamemaster rolls dice

Mexican cowboy “ok, who shot the women and baby, now my gang of Mexicans will be very angry”

Cowboy player “I cannot see anything to shoot, can I shoot the sheep?”

Cowboy Player “I am going to hide in this building”

Gamemaster “it’s on fire”

Cowboy Player “that’s fine”

Gamemaster “OK, now you do know that you have a bag of the tnt with you…….oh shit (boom)”

Player “damn Pinkertons, how come they shoot so well”

Gamemaster “well they aim, they are using rifles, and you are on you galloping horse, with a pair of pistols trying to shoot up to a two story window with a verandah in the way”

It was as funny as it sounds…….

Day two union assault a confederate siege gun position, rules JonnyReb III

Cheers

Matt

RIP Frederick Funcken

On Thursday, May 16th 2013, Fred Funcken passed away at the age of 91 years leaving a legacy and fond memories for many wargamers and Comic readers on my generation. Fred was born in Belgium in on October 5th,1921, he published his first comic at the age of 12, then learnt his trade duing the war, first print making and then  working as a comic illustrator. After the war he joined his friend Fernand Cheneval at  Heroic Albums and later met his wife Lillianne, they started thier wonderful working relationship and the fantastic Tintin comics series. In the 60s Lilliane and Fred started the Uniformology Military Uniforms series covering all periods of history, which are still held in high esteem today, by wargamers and historians today.

His historical comic series included Tintin, White Knight, Harald the Viking, Jack Diamond, Lt Burton, Captian and the Saint Preux .

As a fellow red nut I was excited to get my tintin comics as a young kid, (and will now activly source all of this series) and at the age of Ten my mother bought me the two part series Arms and  Uniforms of the Napoleonic wars and I was hooked for life, 35 years later I now own probaly 8 of his uniformology books and always on the lookout for more of them.

Fare the well Fred

cheers

Matt