Christmas presents

Must have been good this year so plenty of wargames goodies under the Christmas tree

For those interested in my plans for these:

• Imex American Pioneers - various vignettes for my ACW and some suitable cattle/pigs for skirmish games, etc
• Mars French Mounted Guards - Royal Musketeers and Guards of Cardinal Richelieu - will allow me to use my TYW armies as French as well
• Strelets Norman Train - just baggage/eye candy for my Normans/Medievals
• Strelets German Army in Stalingrad - to go with my still unpainted winter Italians and Hungarians to provide a force to fight my already painted Russians
• Strelets Soviet Partisans in Summer Dress - will replace my existing metal partisans
• Strelets Soviet Partisans in Winter Dress - to reinforce my winter Russians mentioned above
• Strelets Turkish Army in Summer Dress 1877 (x2) - will become Egyptian infantry for the Sudan

Merry Christmas - and what happened to last years presents

First off a great picture by Mark Carline of the Chester Eastgate taken in the snow



So what happened to last years wargames presents?

• 1 x Redbox Men-at-Arms and Retinue - all painted except the commanders, I just need to decide who to paint them as!
• 1 x Redbox Town & Country Levy - all painted
• 1 x Caesar Aztecs - still not painted
• 3 x Airfix Cromwell Cruiser - all assembled and painted
• 1 x Airfix King Tiger - all assembled and painted
• 1 x Waterloo Rogers Rangers - still not painted
• 1 x Hat Zulu War British Command - still not painted
• 1 x Hat El Cid Moorish Command - used to create my Sudan commanders
• 1 x Hat Napoleonic Mounted Officers virtually all painted as Allied commanders for Leipzig and I've bought a second packet
• 1 x Hat Napoleonic British Command - the mounted officers were used to provide the commanders for my British in Egypt 1801, the remainder will be use when I tidy up my British Napoleonics (2015?)

Not a bad performance and I'll review my annual achievements once the year is over, still another week of painting to go.

Best wishes to one and all this Christmas

Will

A few Crusaders

While painting the Saracens I also worked on a few more bit from the Stelets Crusader Transport sets.

Saracen cavalry

Managed to keep the momentum, despite various distractions. I've used a packet each of the Strelets Arab Cavalry and Seljuk Cavalry to make three cavalry units, a horse archer unit and a commander.

I decided to base the horse archers moving sideways and it's quite effective

So the basic Saracen force is now complete. I'll add various other units to it as needed, like Parthian horse archers, until I get around to adding more Saracens.

Saracen Infantry - finished at last

After what seems an age the Saracen infantry is finished and the cavalry is not far behind. Still it's a respectable number completed at one moment 72 of them.

Figures are all Strelets, except the couple of commanders, who will be added to command stands in due course

I've also got to sort out some suitable banners for the units

Malta - a couple of citadels

A final posy on my trip to Malta, the citadels at the old capital of Malta at Mdina(Rabat) and Gozo at Victoria.

Of the two, Victoria's citadel is more impressive, it's built on a high hill overlooking almost the whole island of Gozo. A quick trip fitted in neatly while swapping buses, it's less than 10mins from the bus station.

The cathedral, the whole of the population of Gozo was supposed to be able to shelter within the walls of the citadel.

It has a great wall walk encompassing the entire circuit


Quite formidable bastions cover the entrance


On to Mdina, again a quick visit while changing buses, but at the end of the day meant the light was fading.

A newly done up section of the walls (not open to the public yet)

The main gate that had been used as a film set and their trucks almost blocked the way in.

A section of wall awaiting the cleaners

Unfortunately only a small section of the walls were accessible, so the trip was very much a tour around the streets of the "silent city" The one section of walls that were open were full of students, so no chance of a photo. I also failed to take a distant photo of the walls from the bus as it started raining.

Recon - Deepdale revisted

Last show of the year and it was across the Pennines to Pudsey. David has done a lot more research on the Banastre rebellion of 1315 and this refight reflects his latest research, which will be published in Hobilar, the Lance & Longbow journal.

He has now positioned the batttlefield to the north of Preston. When I first saw the table I though the rebels were all bottled up, but so of the opposing forces were just positioned on table for show.

Rebels on the left leaving Preston. Bottom right is Vavasour on table. Next is Nevil and then top right is strictland. I took command of the rebels centre and right, all infantry except for Lee's and Bradshaw's personal bodyguards.

I took a few pictures to start and then got stuck into the game


Bradshaws force with Banastre


Nevil's force


The deciding moment, after almost being driven into the hedge Banastre's cavalry fight back and break the royalists. It then allowed me to attack Nevil's pike block in flank with Lee's bodyguard.

It finished with a resounding rebel victory!

It's now a nicely balanced small scenario that could swing either way. I'll probably give it a try at Deeside using Hail Caesar.

A full write-up can be found on the Wargame Amateur blog

And the show - very friendly, lots of chat, but I didn't buy anything!