Anda di halaman 1dari 52

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Editorial

Contents

ts four in the morning


as I write this, putting
the nal touches to our
rst anniversary issue of the
magazine before the disk is
whisked away by the printer
at 9 a.m. Who would have
thought that a magazine
like this, focusing on quality
writing above all else, could
have survived in the 21st
century? Well, I did, actually!
To celebrate this momentous occasion, Ive added
four extra pages to the magazine. Lord knows, Ive
got top-quality articles racked up for several issues
to come, and I want to thank all our contributors for
being so patient. Being bi-monthly means that I am
conscious of keeping talented writers waiting who
deserve to be seen in print, so every issue that I put
together leaves me with a faint sense of guilt about what
I had to leave out but that goes with the territory.
Another slight change is the paper Battlegames is
printed on. As a result of yet another recent round of
Post Oce price hikes, it became imperative that I could
increase the page count without increasing the overall
weight of the magazine. Fortunately, I discovered the
same brand of paper is available in several weights,
so I have been able to take down the inside pages a
fraction without losing that tactile aspect youve all
raved about and, to compensate, Ive increased the
weight of the covers just a tad. By a small miracle,
therefore, in spite of adding more pages, the magazine
actually comes in at a few grams less than previously.
Meanwhile, plans are afoot at Battlegames HQ to push
inland from the bridgehead we have established in the
market. Deals with new distributors are in the ong, and
Im really excited about some that I hope will bear fruit in
the near future. Meanwhile, those of our overseas readers
who nd the postage from the UK rather pricey can now
talk to a clutch of reliable sources of the magazine in both
the USA and Australia. In the US, we have On Military
Matters, based in New Jersey, and Military Miniatures USA,
who distribute to shops in various states. In Australia, we
have Mainly Medieval in Sydenham, and Essex Miniatures
Australia based in Hornsby Heights, both NSW.
Equally exciting are our contacts in Europe. A recent
trip to the excellent Action! show in Rheindahlen allowed
me to meet the irrepressible Jrgen from Quirxel

Editorial

A brush with musketeers

Forward Observer

Competition

The Wars of the Faltenian Succession

Battles for wargamers: Kassassin 1882

10

The big push

13

Sans peur et sans reproche

19

Larry Leadhead

32

Table top teaser

33

To boldly go

37

Recce

39

Dave Robotham, UK
Mike Siggins, UK
Win something!

Henry Hyde, UK

Stuart Asquith, UK
John Kersey, UK

Adrian Hussey, UK

Eric Hotz and Douglas Hamm, Canada


C.S. Grant, UK

Guy Hancock, UK

Mike Siggins, Greg Horne, Alistair Birch with Andy Crofton, Guy
Hancock, Richard Baber, Steve Gill, Dan Mersey, Stuart Asquith,
Roger Smith & me!

Games, but we also have contacts in Italy (Strategia


e Tattica and Camelot Games) and Austria, with Der
Buchfreund in Vienna. My thanks to all these companies
for the eorts they are making on our behalf.
Back here in the Loftwae, Ive decided to start a blog,
which you can nd at http://battlegames.wordpress.
com. As you know, Im a chatty type, so the blog gives me
the opportunity to tell you about some of my personal
wargaming projects as they progress, and the sort of stu
that doesnt easily t on the main Battlegames website. Im
following in the footsteps here of our very own Greg Horne,
who told us back in issue 1 that a blog is a great way to keep
you true to your word when it comes to wargaming output.
I hope hes right Ive recently acquired over 2,000 Baccus
Greeks and Persians for a Warmaster Ancients project!
My thanks to all of you for your tremendous support
and the kind sentiments so many of you have expressed.
Cover: a stunning WWI display game staged by the talented Aly Morrison and
Dave Andrews at The Other Partizan in Newark, September 2006. The poor
Tommies undergoing the bombardment are from Alys Great War Miniatures
range. The incredible scenery was made by Dave. Photo by the Editor.

Battlegames magazine is a bi-monthly publication of


Battlegames Ltd, 17 Granville Road, Hove BN3 1TG, East
Sussex. Company No. 5616568.

Set in Adobe Warnock Pro and Helvetica Neue. Photography


by Henry Hyde using Fuji S7000 except where otherwise
credited.

are 22.50 per annum post-free in the UK; EU Airmail 27.50;


Rest of the World Economy Airmail 34.50.

All content Battlegames and its contributors. Strictly


no reproduction without prior written consent. All rights
reserved. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the
individual authors concerned.

Copy editing and proong by Henry Hyde and Steve Gill

All items relating to fantasy or sci- should be sent to our


Fantasy & Sci-Fi Editor at 7 North Court, Hassocks, West
Sussex BN6 8JS

Editor: Henry Hyde, email henry@battlegames.co.uk,


tel. 01273 323320

Advertisers, contributors and businesses wishing to send


samples for photography and review should contact the
Editor.

Printed by Litho Direct, Brighton on environmentally-friendly


paper. Special thanks to David Hayward and all the team.

Web: www.battlegames.co.uk

TRADE PLEASE NOTE: Battlegames does NOT ask its


reviewers to contact companies direct unless by previous
arrangement authorised by the Editor in writing.

All submissions and articles should initially be sent to the


Editor and must be accompanied by an SAE if posted.
We recommend submission of articles via email.
Battlegames Ltd takes no responsibility for unsolicited
articles. Please apply for submission guidelines. We like to
discuss your proposal so that we can ensure your piece is
suitable for inclusion. Submission guidelines and technical
specications are also given on our website.

Design, layout and typesetting by Henry Hyde in Adobe


InDesign and Adobe Photoshop on Apple Mac G5 and G4.

Subscription enquiries should be addressed to the Editor or


you can subscribe online. Current rates (as at January 2007)

Copy and advertising closing date for next edition:


June 1st 2007

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Editor: Guy Hancock,


fantasy@battlegames.co.uk, 01273 845164

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

A brush with musketeers


Painting infantry for the Great Northern War
by Dave Robotham

ver the last few months I have been looking into


the new range of Great Northern War gures
produced by Musketeer Miniatures. This is a
relatively new line, but is growing steadily. At the moment
the range includes basic infantry for the Swedish and
the Russians and command groups, as well as grenadiers
and pikemen for the Swedish. For this guide, I am going
to tackle a Russian and a Swedish infantryman. I will
also detail a couple of dierent techniques and paint
combinations to add variety and speed things up.

FACES AND HANDS

I will always try to paint the skin on a gure rst for a variety
of reasons. I nd that if you paint the miniature from the
inside layer out (the skin, then the shirt, then the tunic etc.),
you will not be painting over previous layers. In eect, you
are minimising the chance that you will get paint on already
nished areas of the model. But, for me, the biggest reason
is that I enjoy painting esh on a gure and I nd it the most
interesting part of most miniatures. Painting the face and
hands (and other eshy bits) rst really does give life to
the gure, and can drive me on to complete the rest of it.
Both the Russian and Swedish infantry can be
painted with the same style and colours: there is not a
huge dierence in skin tone between the two nations.
But there are literally hundreds of methods of painting
skin with an equal number of formulated paints to
help you along the way, so you can add variety to your
troops with ease. I painted the Russian and Swede in
two dierent styles, both of which start with the same
base colour, but build dierent colours on top of it.

COLOUR PALLETE 1 THE SWEDE

I started with a watered down


basecoat of Pelikan Plakas Red
Brown. This hobby paint dries totally
matt and provides a great base
colour for Caucasian skin tones.
For the next step, I painted a layer
of Games Workshops (GW) Bronzed
Flesh over the red brown, making sure to leave the base
colour in the deep recesses of the face. You dont want
to leave too much of the red brown
showing, but areas to try to dene with
this highlight are the nose and nostrils,
as well as the cheekbones and muscles.
If you are feeling brave, you might
also like to paint under the arches of
the eyebrows and recesses under the
eyes. In the next picture, you can see
the extent to which I have covered the base colour with this
layer. To add more denition, I added white to Bronzed
Flesh for the second highlight. Areas to focus on here are
4

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

the same as before. Make sure you keep


the denition of the nose and nostrils,
as well the cheekbones and brow. You
can see in third picture how subtle
my highlight is, but you can increase
the contrast by just adding a touch
more white to the Bronzed Flesh.
At this point you could stop,
paint the eyes and lips in, and be done. However a nal
highlight of pure white will make the face stand out on
the tabletop, which is what we are looking for here. Even
if it does look a little too harsh in the fourth picture,
remember that on the tabletop, those sharp highlights will
really work to make the features of the face stand out.
Finally, I painted in the eyes and the
lower lip. The colour of the lower lip is
really up to you. I know many painters
prefer a much pinker colour instead of
the dark red-brown colour I have used.
Highlight the lips with either a single
line or, as I have, you can add some
more detail by splitting the highlight.
The eyes were painted is as a black stripe painted into the
eye socket, then a white stripe painted
over that, nished o with a dot of
black or dark brown centrally on the
white strip. To avoid that wide-eyed
stare, make sure the black dot totally
divides the white of the eyes, touching
the top and the bottom of the eye.

COLOUR PALLETE 2 THE RUSSIAN

The Russians skin was painted using the same technique


and template as with the Swede, a basecoat with
layered colours over the top to dene the features.
(See photos at top of opposite page.) However, I used
a dierent pallete of colours this time. I started with
the same Plaka Red Brown, but this time I used paints
from the Foundry and Privateer Press (P3) ranges.
After the basecoat of red-brown, I painted a layer of P3
Khardic Flesh followed by a second highlight of P3 Midland
Flesh. Like the Foundry colour triads, these two colours
were designed to be painted one after the other, and they
form a wonderfully hardy looking reddish skin tone. To add
that nal denition to the face, I applied a nal highlight
of Foundrys Flesh 5C although, as with the Swede, this
is not really necessary if you want to save some time.

MUSKETS

There is a very simple and quick way to paint muskets


and ries if you need to get them nished and onto the
table in a timely manner. Firstly, I start with a mid-brown
colour and paint all the wooden parts of the weapon. Due
to the varied manufacturers of muskets from dierent
nations, you can choose almost any brown colour for this
basecoat: just make sure its not too dark. All the metallic
areas were also painted dark silver (such as GWs Boltgun

Metal), making sure the colour used was not bright or


shiny. You can see the shades I used in this rst picture.
The second, and nal, stage is to water
down some black ink or black paint and
wash that over both the wooden areas
and the metallic areas. It will shade and
stain the colours at the same time, adding
denition and that weathered look.
So that is the fast method, but there is also a far more
detailed approach you can use to paint up muskets and ries
and other wooden-stocked weapons.
Starting o with a dark brown
colour, I basecoated the wooden areas
of the musket and used the same silver
as I did in the rst method detailed
previously. GWs Scorched Brown
or Foundrys Bay Brown 42A are ne for this.
To build up the colours of the wooden areas of the musket
I used the Foundrys Spear Shaft trio of
colours. I painted horizontal stripes along
the wooden surfaces using Spear Shaft
13A. As you can see in the picture, make
sure the lines are quite wide, leaving only
a sliver of the dark colour showing below.
Using Spear Shaft 13B I then painted
thin lines over the top of the previous
layer. This time, try to leave only a sliver of the Spear
Shaft 13A showing as you retrace your design with this
new colour. At this point, I also used a
black ink to wash all the metal areas of
the weapon and then used my original
silver colour to neaten up the edges.
As a nal highlight I used Spear
Shaft 13C, again retracing my previous
lines to build up the denition
of the woodgrain. Using brighter
silver (such as GWs Mithril Silver or Chainmail),
I also applied some highlights to the bayonet.

THE UNIFORMS

On the next page, you will see a colour


guide for a Russian and a Swedish
infantrymans uniform. I have provided
a full run-down of the colours I used. I
used Foundry colours for the most part,
but fell back on the GW paint range for all
the metallics, as well as the Russian soldiers coat and cus.
When painting the dierent uniforms, I used a simple
layering technique, starting with a
dark basecoat and adding two or three
layers of highlights no blending or
washes, just simple layering of paint.
You will notice that the Swedish
Infantryman has not shaved for a few
days. Adding a 5 oclock shadow is really

not as hard as it might at rst seem. To paint stubble, I


use Foundry Granite 31C. This is a grey colour, but with
a hint of brown to it. You could easily
mix the shade of colour by taking a
mid-grey (just black mixed with white)
and adding a touch of brown. Any
brown will do, but dont add too much,
just a dot of colour to tint the grey.
I water the paint down until it is incredibly translucent.
When you paint the rst layer, you should only see a slight
change in colour. I then paint maybe six
or seven layers, progressively building
up the colour. The more layers you
add, the more opaque the colour will
become as more pigment is layered onto
the surface. Using multiple layers, you
can make sure the pure granite colour is only along the
jawbone and chin and fades out as it rises up the face.
The hair on these soldiers can
be painted in hundreds of dierent
ways, using a huge variety of colours.
I started with a dark base colour and
applied a single highlight, painting it
on in small lines and dashes following
the contours of the sculpted hair.
To nish o the bases, I used PVA to
glue down some rough sand and then, when that was dry,
I used a brown ink to stain the sand. It is far easier to paint
sand with a uid ink than with acrylic
paint. Then I drybrushed the bases with
GW colours starting with Bestial Brown
then Snakebite Leather followed up by
Bubonic Brown and nally Bleached
Bone. Then I added several tufts of static
grass in various colours. I used dierent
colours for the rims of the bases. On the
Swede, I used GWs Bestial Brown and on the Russian,
I used GWs Scorched Brown, a much darker colour.
For protection, I rst varnished
the model with GWs Ardcoat spray
gloss varnish, and after that had
been left to dry for a day, I varnished
them again with Testors Dullcote
for a wonderfully matt nish.

IN CONCLUSION

There is a huge variety of dierent uniform colours


you can use for the GNW. Like many armies in the 17th
and 18th centuries, uniforms were
often brightly coloured and specic
to dierent formations. I suggest
you head over to www.musketeerminiatures.com for plenty more ideas
and information about the troops and
battles of the Great Northern War.
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Forward observer
Trends
by Mike Siggins

s regular readers know, I


like to watch the hobby for
trends. Some years ago they
were easy to spot. Cowboys, Pirates,
Darkest Africa, Dinosaurs... And
then nothing readily discernible.
Perhaps a glimmer for Back of
Beyond and Pulp games, a signicant
(but doomed?) rally for 28mm
WWII and WWI, and a denite
underground movement forming
for 40mm. Nice to see the latter,
considering my comments below.
This lack of one driving force is both
good and bad. Good because we see
a wide range of periods represented,
and some innovative games and
ranges looking to nd something
original. I have no problem with such
diversity, even if that means 1/500th
Napoleonics (due soon from 1st
Virtual, and rather nice) or Action
Man scale tanks. On the downside, it
leaves some manufacturers wondering
where to go next. They try new
periods, new scales, they come back
to a staple like Napoleonics, they go
o again on some other venture.
Both manufacturers and traders
are looking for next big thing, but the
quicker the turnover of these ideas
(fads, to be uncharitable) the less
chance of a movement taking hold.
However, there are signs that
one of the drivers for business and
for games, demo and tournament,
are the WAB supplements.
For the last few weeks, trader and
web activity, and emails, have reected
the release of Age of Arthur. Friends,
and I, are choosing our favourites
from the armies on oer and mentally
building armies. I almost certainly
wont play with them, but it is fun to
speculate. All of a sudden, as well as
the Gripping Beast stalwarts, there
are other tempting Dark Age gures,
and ags, competing for our dollar.
In the same vein, it is not dicult
to spot the approaching ranks of
Samurai gures, jostling for position
as Divine Wind nears publication.
I think the same is probably true of

Flames of War, with urries of activity


when a new supplement appears.

MUSING ON MINIMALISM

I have always strived for the maximum


possible pleasure from my workbench.
Assessing my recent output, this is
clearly not measured only by projects
completed. It is more a tool thing.
I have always gured that it is best
to have all possible tools available at
all times. It improves the experience
of the hobby, it makes one, well,
somehow a better person (!). Inevitably,
duplicates appear. At the last count I
had ve scalpels. I long ago lost count
of needle les. Brushes? Pots of em.
I am happy with this approach
until I encounter the minimalist.
These people are very productive,
and seem to turn out their own
original sculpts and beautiful armies
with little more than a knife and a
le. One of my friends works on a
small Davenport which has a surface
area of about one square foot. I have
fteen square feet, plus storage, yet
still manage to produce less, and be
forced to work in a six inch square
crater. Perhaps that is just untidiness.
More frustrating are the frugal
painters. I am quite proud of my
hundreds of paint pots. These draw
admiring comments such as, Can you
possibly use all this in one lifetime?
and Are you barmy? Meanwhile,
our under-equipped chums mix
all the colours they ever need from
six pots of Humbrol. How do they
do that? I suspect they listened
attentively in art class when primary
and secondary colours came up.

40MM

I still cant tell you precisely why,


but after a couple of years slowly
deliberating, I am now very much
a convert to 40mm. While it seems
an arbitrary departure for some, and
consistently draws negative comment
from hardcore 28mm fans on web fora,
the scale has probably now reached
critical mass. When the likes of Front
Rank join the fray, you know there is
something to take notice of. And while
I know it goes against all the logic
of being a long-term 25/28/30mm

gamer, and it means my scenery


might need revising (but then again
it might not), the simple explanation
is this: when I look at a 25mm
gure these days, they appear tiny.
Unpaintably tiny. This, as discussed
before, is a function of declining
eyesight, increasing detail and, Im
sure, the comparative presence of
said 40mms. I also really like painting
the larger gures, and they are
obviously a step closer to merging
two, or even three, of my interests:
gaming, model soldiers and painting.
So, inspired by my mate Rob
Santuccis Vikings, I have been
dabbling with Sash & Sabres 40mm
Saxons. I am very pleased with the
results. Twenty or so of these guys
grouped in a small unit has a real
presence, and the price (30 for 20)
is just about right. When the ranges
ll out, show a bit less animation,
and if sculpt and pose quality
remains consistent, I can see these
as a large part of my future plans.
In the background there are other
candidates. The Perries are still up
there at the top and it is just a matter of
time and nances before I get hold of
some. I have lost track of the excellent
Trident medieval range, but I suspect
the same sculptor has recently popped
up in the States with an AWI range.
Drabant remain highly appealing, but
a bit too expensive. Ditto Doug Millers
gures, but I must have some of these.
I got very excited about Front Ranks
new AWI range for a day or two, but
sadly they have misjudged the pricing
level by a factor of two. Sash & Sabre,
who have the pricing right, meanwhile
have Landsknecht packs arriving
any day, and are threatening Greek
Hoplites this summer, which will see
me handing over the credit card and
throwing caution to the winds. I am
trying hard not to look at Graven
Images Feudals for fear of bankruptcy.
I suppose I could join the internet
snipers who bemoan a gures scale
when I see Foxs beautiful 1/48th
WWII range sculpted by Tom Meier,
and the excellent wild west gures
from Black Scorpion. These are smaller
than 40mm but bigger than 28mm;
signicantly, in both cases. They dont,
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

like 40mms, t anywhere unless


you have a Tamiya fetish (I do, since
1974). For the manufacturer, it is all
about doing whatever they feel will
sell and if the Tamiya 1/48th output
is a sign, then Fox are onto a winner.
For me, I have to work out whether
the Black Scorpions justify a standalone project that can somehow sit
alongside my existing 28mm wild
west. You can tell I am wavering.
For those purists who worry about
me, never fear: the 20mm passion
(WWII and plastics) is still very
much there and the workbench has
Egyptians and Sherden underway.
Plus, I have more 28mm in reserve
than I will ever get round to
painting, with new temptation
coming right along. I am adjusting
the portfolio mix a bit, that is all.

28MM

For a year or more I have bought very


few 28mms. The odd Bolt Action
pack, Anglian Miniatures, and Artizan
mainly cowboys, and those lovely

new pirates. I also bought quite a


few eBobs, with which I am very
pleased indeed. But at the turn of the
year it became apparent that I might
have a shot at being Lead Neutral
in 2007 for every gure bought,
I would sell or paint one, or ideally
two or three. That way I felt I could
justify continued, relatively guilt-free
purchases, because I have surely long
since run out of plausible excuses.
And then, all of a sudden, along came
a whole load of tempting new ranges.
I mentioned a lot of Samurai. Three
very nice ranges have caught my eye.
Museum Miniatures have an unusual
selection, of quite decent gures, if a
bit smooth in look. They have a giant
war drum, the proper name for which
I cannot recall, but which always
reminds me of the excellent Kodo
drummer ensemble. I shall be adding
a couple to the command stand.
Black Hats early Samurai releases,
set for Salute, also look very tempting,
and they are promising a large number
of packs. I dont think I need or want

any more ninjas, and I am doubtful


about the unarmoured gures, but
there are some tempting poses and
I do like the period. More expense!
Along with Kingsfords new releases,
which include a rather tasty mounted
gure, and the Perries steady addition
of new poses, I am somewhat spoilt.
I will have to get a rm handle on
which gures are compatible with
which, and try to reconcile the 300
year spread of the gures I also see
more of the excellent John Jenkins
buildings (available from TM Terrain
in the UK) making an appearance
on the credit card statement.
Hard to sni at that lot, and nor
would I, but my highlights this month
have been the latest Pulp gures from
Artizan, which have pretty much
completed all my wants in the era
(and continue to show anatomical
improvement), and the excellent
knights from eBob that land slap
bang on my 1250 favourite era.
It is going to be an expensive Spring.
I had better sell some more lead.

WIN A BUMPER OSPREY WWI BUNDLE!


How about this for a superb set of source material for wargamers wanting to have a go at
Great War gaming? Not one, not two, not three, but four brilliant books to give away to our
lucky winner! From the Essential Histories series, the 350+ page special The First World War:
the War to End All Wars by Peter Simkins, Geoffrey Jukes and Michael Hickey, and three titles
from their excellent Elite series: World War I Trench Warfare (1) 1914-1916 and World War I
Trench Warfare (2) 1916-1918, both by Dr Stephen Bull, illustrated by Adam Hook; and finally
The Kaisers Warlords, German Commanders of World War I by Ronald Pawly, illustrated by
Patrice Courcelle. Just answer the following questions correctly, and they could be yours!
1.

What was the name of the German offensive designed to outflank the French and British
defences at the outset of the war by sweeping through Belgium?

2.

Who directed and produced the 1969 hit movie Oh! What a Lovely War!?

3.

What was the name given to early British hand grenades?

4.

What was the real name and final rank of Lawrence of Arabia?

6.

Which type of aircraft was flown by The Red Baron?

7.

Which German arms manufacturer was famous for its artillery pieces?

8.

In which museum in Dorset, UK, can you find restored examples of WWI tanks?

9.

What did Kaiser Wilhelm II, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and King George V of England have
in common?

10. Which treaty formally ended hostilities between Great Britain, France and Germany?
Answers must be sent with your name and postal address clearly marked, to:
WWI, Battlegames, 17 Granville Road, Hove BN3 1TG, East Sussex, UK. CLOSING DATE FRIDAY 1st JUNE 2007.
A photocopy, printout or manual copy is ne no need to destroy your copy of Battlegames!
Our lucky winners of the Punic Wars competition in issue 6 were subscribers Moira Rainford of Sleaford in Lincolnshire and Mr O
Adamberry of Gibraltar. The answers were: 1) the Carthaginians; 2) Sicily; 3) Hamilcar Barca; 4) Iberia (modern Spain); 5) Lake
Trasimene; 6) Cannae; 7) Scipio; 8) Zama; 9) the Numidians; 10) Tunisia.
Honourable mentions in dispatches for the runners-up who also sent correct entries: Mr P J Day; Mr A Stephens; Mr J G Taylor; James
Hall; and David Logan. Well done!
The judges decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. This prize carries no cash alternative. One entry per household only. Battlegames Ltd takes no responsibility for the safe
arrival of entries. Please ensure that your details are legible. The winner will be announced in the next issue of Battlegames.

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

The Wars of the Faltenian Succession


Part VII: adding personality to your campaign
by Henry Hyde

ack in issue 4, we looked at various ways in which


you can individualise your campaign maps and
make them reect your own sense of adventure
and sense of humour. After all, it doesnt do to take
these things too seriously, and were here to have fun.
And then, in issue 6, we discussed some of the ways of
bringing these aspects into the creation of your ctitious
armies, by designing entirely spurious uniforms and
accoutrements for your tabletop forces. But now its time
to wave the magic wand and breathe life into the key
individuals who will hold sway in your little kingdoms.
One of the most exciting aspects of state creation is
feeling as though the imagined men and women peopling
it are, in some sense, real. And the easiest way to achieve
that is to ensure that they wont always and in some
cases, never will behave as you would wish them to.
This is, of course, true of the units we command on the
tabletop to some degree, and a good set of morale rules will
normally ensure that we treat our militia with more caution
than our guard troops if we know whats good for us.
But if our campaign is to be successful and enjoyable, and
our fancied states are to come alive in a satisfactory manner,
we must look beyond the simple manouevring of blocks
of troops in battle and pick out those individuals whose
fates are inextricably linked with the story we are telling.
Now, its entirely up to you how far up or down the
social ladder you climb when addressing this subject.
There are those who satisfy themselves with the highest
echelons of the aristocracy, creating a sprinkling of
princes, dukes, kings and queens to add colour to the
scenario and, perhaps, a quarrelsome raison dtre
for the inevitable clash of states (for without such a
clash, there would be no campaign, would there?).
On the other hand and why not? you might
wish to focus on a close-knit group of individuals at a
much lower level. Who could argue with the creation
of a group of comrades like the platoon that gamely
followed the ctitious Richard Sharpe around the
Peninsula and elsewhere? If skirmish-level gaming is
your forte, then there is much mileage to be had from
characters like Harper, Hagman, Harris and the rest.
My personal preference is to begin at the level of
unit commanders and above: what in German would be
called the Inhaber of regiments. In this way, a reasonably
substantial number of characters are created at the outset,
at a level that means they can directly inuence not only the
conduct of their units on the battleeld, but also at a political
level too, as during the 18th century period I favour, such
men would normally also be members of the aristocracy,
own substantial tracts of land and have access to Court.
Going about this is simplicity itself. For every
unit in your army, give its colonel or major a name.
If nothing else, you will immediately feel a much

greater sense of belonging to your forces, and their


conduct on the eld will be more keenly felt.
My own list resulted in 49 names, then I went a bit
bonkers, and added Generals, Lieutenant Generals,
sta ADCs, Quartermaster-Generals and so on
even the main civilian contractor of supplies! (Jakob
Rosenberg GMBH, in case youre interested.)
So, armed with about 100 names in all, I repeated
this for Faltenland; this was, as it happens, in the days
before Guy became involved as my opponent.
Precisely how you come up with the names is up to
you. Im reasonably uent in German, so a certain number
came just from everyday words and expressions and,
as with the maps, some names I just liked the sound of.
Some were quite rude, some were names of friends given
a Germanic twist, and some, quite frankly, were just plain
nonsense! If youre stuck, buy a copy of a foreign-language
newspaper or dictionary and just stick a pin in a page.
Next, we shamelessly borrow an idea from good
old Dungeons and Dragons. Each and every one of
our characters is given a set of six characteristics:
Intelligence; Initiative; Courage; Charisma; Strength;
Health. For each characteristic, roll a pair of
percentage dice, the score shown becoming that
characters factor for each item. Try not to cheat!
Lets look at some examples from Prunklands army.
Name

Int

Init

Str

Von Eintopf

77

73

Cour Char
24

97

24

88

Von Probe

100

01

95

01

20

10

Von Brettlingen

29

41

01

32

35

77

Von Dorendorf

70

88

61

20

94

13

Now, surely these people are describing themselves


to you as you read their characteristics? Von Eintopf,
bright and with plenty of initiative, as long as theres
no personal risk involved (hes a bit weedy, after all),
but so charismatic that he can persuade others to do
the dangerous stu for him. A lover of the outdoor
life and keen huntsman, hes in rude health.
Compare him to dear Von Probe, who is probably a
genius, but can never get anything done. In his navit, hes
as brave as a lion, but really ought to think twice because
hes a real weakling and in dangerously poor health. Oh,
and hes obviously butt-ugly and less than charming.
Quite how Von Brettlingen endeed up commanding
one of Prunklands lite cavalry units, no-one knows:
it must have been Court patronage. Not blessed
with very much intelligence, and rather hesitant,
hes a coward and a cad of the rst order. In fact the
only thing hes blessed with is a healthy constitution
much to the annoyance of those around him.
And nally a model ocer, Von Dorendorf,
who possesses all that an ocer needs except a
handsome face, good breeding and good health but
he commands a Grenzer unit, so thats alright.
Next time, well explore this subject further.
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Battles for wargamers


The action at Kassassin, 28th August 1882
by Stuart Asquith, illurated by John Parke

gypt in the later 19th century was nominally under


Turkish control. Khedive Ismail of Egypt attempted to
modernise his country but failed, saddling the country
with huge debts as a result. The Sultan of Turkey deposed
Ismail and appointed Tewk, Ismails son, as his successor.
In February 1881 there was a rebellion against Turkish and
foreign rule in Egypt led by Ahmet Arabi, and this quickly
turned into an anti-Christian conict. In June 1882, some 50
Europeans were massacred in Alexandria by a native mob.
On 11th July, the Royal Navy bombarded Alexandria
and 25,000 troops landed at Ismailia at the entrance to
the Suez Canal under General Sir Garnet Wolseley.
The water level in the Sweetwater Canal at Ismailia
was seen to be dropping, a fact that caused General
Wolseley problems. The Canal itself a small channel
running from Ismailia to Cairo provided fresh water
for Ismailia and the railway that ran alongside the
canal oered an alternative line of communication.
The reason for the drop in the water level was
discovered to be a dam that the rebels had built at
Magfar, about seven miles to the west of Ismailia.
On 24th August, General Wolseley determined to take

10

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

this dam and, with the Household Cavalry, part of the


19th Hussars, a detachment of mounted infantry and two
guns from the main army, marched to Tel-el-Nesha.
Major General Graham, VC, commanding 2nd Brigade,
1st Division, was ordered to follow and provide support
with the 2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment and
some Royal Marine artillerymen acting in an infantry
rle. The 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry,
divisional troops for the 1st Division, were summoned
to garrison Tel-el-Nesha, and the rest of General
Wolseleys force pressed on to Magfar, four miles away.
Cavalry picquets encountered rebel cavalry patrols
and from prisoners taken in the resultant skirmishes,
it was established that the rebels had constructed a
dam some three miles farther on at Tel-el-Maskhuta,
where they were present in some strength.
General Wolseley again decided to press on and,
after summoning General Grahams force, the Duke
of Cornwalls Light Infantry from Tel-el-Nesha and
urging reinforcements in the shape of the Guards
Brigade and any available cavalry and artillery from his
main army at Ismailia to follow as quickly as possible,
his detachment was once again on the move.
General Wolseley scouted the rebel position at Tel-elMaskhuta, but by the time he had massed sucient forces
to attack, the enemy, after some skirmishing, hastily retired,

leaving behind artillery, arms and stores in the process.


General Wolseley stopped at Tel-el-Maskhuts in order
to destroy the dam and to restore the railway, which had
been damaged by the rebels. The general sent Graham
with a largely infantry force to take and hold Kassassin
Lock, some 10 miles away from Tel-el-Maskhuta and
in the heart of the desert. The place was vital for the
passage of boats and the security of the Sweetwater
Canal, thereby maintaining a supply of fresh water
in the Canal, while Wolseley himself oversaw events
at Tel-el-Maskhuta to restore his supply system.

THE BATTLE

General Graham duly arrived at Kassassin, but his men


were suering from the heat and it was not until the
relatively cooler evening arrived that patrols could be
sent out to look for the rebels. These patrols brought
back the news that a considerable number of the
enemy was closing on General Grahams position. The
nearing presence of ever increasing numbers of enemy
cavalry, supported by artillery, caused General Graham
to send messengers asking for cavalry support.
The cavalry of the main British force was now at Mahsama
and Major General Drury Lowe, the ocer commanding
the cavalry, responded to General Grahams request at once.
The British cavalry stood-to, but the
Egyptians withdrew and General Lowe
led his troopers back into their camp.
More rebels were reported as
closing in on Grahams position
once again and in even greater
numbers, possibly 10,000 with
cavalry and infantry supported
by artillery. The general deployed
his force to meet them.
Large concentrations of rebel
cavalry were spotted to the right
of the British position and General
Graham despatched an ADC to
summon General Lowes cavalry
once more to support his open right
ank. It took this ocer some time
to reach the cavalry, and it was not
until after nightfall that General
Lowes men (three squadrons of
the Household Cavalry and the 7th
Dragoon Guards) neared General
Grahams position for a second time.
With his left ank and front
secured and condent that his
right was covered by the cavalry he
had requested, as well as receiving
reinforcements in the form of the
Royal Marine Light Infantry and an
artillery battery, General Graham
had moved his men forward, ring
volleys as they advanced. The troops
covered perhaps two to three miles
in this manner, with the enemy
falling back in front of them. By this
time it was dark, however, and the
men were ordered back to camp.
A full moon cast a good

light over the area and General Lowe was able to see
Grahams outnumbered men from the ashes of their
rie re. The heaped bodies of the rebels demonstrated
that the defenders had given a good account of
themselves. The British cavalry was seen by the rebels,
who immediately turned their artillery on them.
The four remaining 13pdr guns of N Battery, A
Brigade, RHA, which had advanced with the cavalry,
deployed and with a few well aimed rounds put the
enemy pieces out of action. The horse artillerymen
then turned their attention to the rebel infantry, before
ceasing their re to allow the British cavalry to charge.
After a circuitous approach march the Household
Cavalry and the 7th Dragoon Guards smashed
into the ank of the rebel infantry, swiftly reducing
them to a disorganised mob that ed the eld.
Heavy casualties were inicted on the rebels,
with only minor losses to the British.

THE TERRAIN

The ground over which the action took place consisted


largely of deep sand, reportedly grey in colour. By far the
simplest way of representing this is to place a suitably
coloured cloth over the entire area playing area, perhaps
adding a few rocks or the odd clump of lichen for eect.

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

11

There was a sand ridge to British right which Drury


Lowes cavalry used during their circuitous approach
march to conceal themselves from the Egyptians.
This can either be represented as a terrain feature,
or the cavalry can appear at a suitable spot on the
table edge, surprising the Egyptian commander.
The sand made the going heavy, causing the artillery
ammunition wagons to be left behind as the teams had
diculty hauling them through the sand. The terrain
also slowed the pace of General Grahams messagebearing ADC who was seeking Drury Lowe.
Players might therefore wish to reduce the
normal movement of the gures to reect this.

possibly 8,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 12 guns present,


organised into 16 infantry battalions and two cavalry units.
Egyptian formations were roughly similar in size
to those of the British, so if we assume 500 men in
a unit for the sake of easy mathematics, we should
not be too far away from reasonable gures.

THE FORCES

As artillery numbers were roughly on a par with


those of the British, add in a couple of artillery pieces.
It might be worth noting here that the Egyptian infantry
wore a small red fez with a black tassel, a coarse white cotton
cloth tunic and loose trousers. All equipment was black
leather. The ocers wore a dark blue uniform consisting
of a single-breasted thigh length tunic with voluminous
skirts. The dark blue trousers were also full and tapered
towards the ankles. The regular infantry were armed with
the Remington repeating .433 inch rie, capable of 17 rounds
per minute, but the conscripts had muzzle-loaders. The
cavalry and camel corps also wore white with black leather
equipment. The irregular native frequently Bedouin
cavalry wore traditional white robes and turbans. The
Egyptian army had a number of Krupp guns of the pattern
used in the 1870-1871 Franco-German War which were
pretty much on a par with their English counterparts.

The British
Major General G Graham VC CB RE commanding:
a 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards (detachment) (15)
b 7th (Princess Royals) Dragoon Guards (troop) (42)
c 2/The Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry (611)
d 2/The York and Lancaster Regiment (600 [estimated])
e Royal Marine Light Infantry (600 [estimated])
f Royal Marine Artillery (acting as infantry) (427)
g Mounted Infantry (detachment) (70)
h N Battery, A Brigade RHA (2 x 13pdrs)
i There was also the captured enemy Krupp gun,
mounted on a railway track and served by a
detachment of the Royal Marine Artillery.
Major General Drury Lowe commanding:
j Household Cavalry (3 Squadrons) (375 [estimated])
k 7th Dragoon Guards (less one troop) (611)
l N Battery, A Brigade RHA (4 x 13pdrs)
The quoted historical strengths of the two sides have
been converted into four dierent gure to man ratios
1:20, 1:33, 1:50 and 1:100 to assist the recreation
of the combatant forces on the wargames table.
Unit

1:20

1:33

1:50

1:100

30

19

12

30

18

12

30

18

12

21

13

19

11

30

19

12

Totals

165

101

65

32

Add a couple of artillery pieces, one to represent the


13pdrs that ran out of ammunition, and the other to either
stand for the artillery reinforcement, or for the rest N
Battery, A Brigade RHA that came up with Drury Lowe.
To have all three represented on the tabletop could be
considered as too overpowering. Alternatively, the wargamer
could represent the Krupp gun mounted on a rail cart,
which initially at least proved the most eective, maintaining
accurate re after the 13pdrs had run out of ammunition.
The Egyptians
The overall strength of the Egyptian force at Kassassin
is dicult to establish with any certainty; there were
12

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Unit

1:20

1:33

1:50

1:100

Infantry
(500) x 16

25

15

10

Cavalry
(500) x 2

25

15

10

Totals

450

270

180

90

VICTORY CONDITIONS

The British need to hold on to their position around


Kassassin and drive o the marauding Egyptian army
in order to win. The Egyptians need to move swiftly
against General Grahams men and storm their position,
pushing the British back along their lines of approach.

THOUGHTS FOR THE WARGAME RE-ENACTMENT OF


KASSASSIN LOCK

The British 13pdrs ran out of ammunition. Due to the


diculty in moving ammunition wagons through the deep
sand, they had been left behind. Each gun was therefore
limited to the 36 rounds carried in the limber. Depending
on the rules in use, this factor needs to be introduced
into the wargame in some form to reect the situation.
The Egyptian army suered from a number of
defects or hindrances. Although some old soldiers had
returned to the colours to follow Arabi, many of the
men were conscripts with little or no training in drill or
weaponry they were abysmal shots. The artillery was
ecient and the gunners were regarded as being the
armys lite, but ring shells with percussion fuses into
soft sand and incorrectly cutting the fuses on shrapnel
rounds does not enhance the artillerys eectiveness.
Readers may be interested to know that this scenario
is taken from the forthcoming publication Warfare in
Egypt and the Sudan (working title) which will feature
wargame scenarios for the Nile Campaign 1882, the
Gordon Relief Expedition 1884-1885 and the reconquest of the Sudan 1895-1896. The book will be
published by Partizan Press/Caliver Books in 2007.

The big push


WWI gaming neednt be dreary
by John Kersey
It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate
your energies And all the valour of my soldiers to
exterminate rst the treacherous English; walk over General
Frenchs insignicant (or contemptible) little army.
Kaiser Wilhelm II to First Army Commander
Alexander Von Kluck, August 1914.

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR!

Its fair to state that the Great War (or the First World War)
remains a minority interest and fairly barren territory for
the avid gamer. A strong image of the conict, which we
can call the Alls Quiet on the Western Front Syndrome for
convenience, still remains. Its masses of soldiers rising
from rat-infested trenches, going over the top and being
mercilessly mown down by machine guns to little or no
eect. In their turn, the opposition may counterattack and
suer the same fate, very few
tactics and mindless slaughter
being the order of the day.
Although some aspects of
the conict did take on this
form, the conict really was
much more varied than this.
It was truly a global conict
(although whether it, or
the Seven Years War, was
the rst one, is arguable).
Fighting took part in:
France, Belgium and
the Western Front,
using massed armies
East Africa, using
makeshift colonial forces
The alpine heights
and mountains of
the Italian Front
The Balkans, with a
hodge-podge of minor
nationalities involved,
picking up where two minor
Balkans Wars had left o
The Middle East, with the
western powers facing o
against Turkey and its allies
from the Central Powers
Russia and the
Eastern Front
Naval actions o the coast of South America
Mainland China and Polynesia, where British and
Japanese forces subdued German colonies
Wargamers have tended to avoid the period, as it seems
to lack the essentials of good gaming; colourful armies and
terrain, a balance between re and movement on the table

and a variety of dierent troop types. Certain periods and


aspects of the conict are cherry-picked, such as the war
in the air involving kites with colourful paint schemes
or limited skirmish games such as Western Front trench
raids. Don Featherstone, for example, in his timeless classic
Skirmish Wargaming, featured a charming scenario involving
a few trench raiders and their German prey. Naval gamers
gaming the Great War tend to focus on the larger battleship
eet actions such as Jutland, using micro-scale ships.
Chorus
Oh, oh, oh its a lovely war.
Who wouldnt be a soldier, eh?
Oh its a shame to take the pay.
As soon as reveille has gone we feel just as heavy as lead,
but we never get up till the sergeant brings
our breakfast up to bed.
Oh, oh, oh, its a lovely war.
Oh! Its a Lovely War
Music hall song written by J.P Long and M Scott 1917
Yet a more careful study will
show lots of opportunities to
explore this fascinating period.
Although the immensity of
the human losses can not be
underestimated, a current rash
of books present a dierent
picture to the Western Front
stereotype. The Imperial War
Museum series of books by
Malcolm Brown uses letters
and diaries to show some of
combatants did not fare as
badly as was later thought.
Another essential alternative
view is provided in books
such as Forgotten Victory by
Gary Sheeld and Mud, Blood
and Poppycock by Gordon
Corrigan which challenge
many of the Western Front
myths using facts and much
useful detail. In particular,
Corrigans work outlines
how many of the ideas we
have about the Great War
date from anti-establishment
satire during the 1960s.
Perhaps an extreme view
is shown in the so-called
bunglers and butchers rash of literature vilifying the Allied
generals of the Great War. The Donkeys by Alan Clark
used the Battle of Loos in 1915 to show the sheer waste of
human life and ghastliness of the use of poison gas. This,
however, was an extreme example of a Great War battle and
in some ways an atypical one. This stereotype is still strongly
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

13

cherished, as shown by the


suitably ctitious Central
Blackadder Goes Forth TV
European countries, using
series! The Great War had
Great War weapons, could
its fair share of battleeld
be the way to go. This was
gothic, which strangely
the route that Captain
inspired poets and painters.
W.E. Johns used in the
Indeed, a minor character
novel Biggles Goes to War
in the Blackadder series
in which the peace-loving
is heard to declaim the
Maltovia is being troubled
horrors of the war as ...
by the belligerent Lovitzna
mud, blood and endless
a thinly disguised Central
poetry! Although the war
Power! Going further
poets and painters are much
are the Great War trilogy
studied today, the true
written by the popular SF
voices of the ghting man
author, Harry Turtledove.
on all sides were the popular
In a series of novels, he
songs sung on the march; by
envisages the American
turns patriotic, irreverent
Civil War continuing into
or often downright bawdy!
the 20th Century, with
The Great War was
the Confederate States
an unparalleled period
allying themselves with the
of military change in
Western Powers and the
infantry, artillery and
Union with Germany!
armoured tactics. Means of
So, now lets explore
communication were sparse
the gaming potential of
and relied on uncertain
the War to end all Wars.
electronic means, such
I have followed in
as vulnerable telephone
campaigns six armies, but
excepting not even our
links, or human or animal
own, the Japanese, or the
messengers such as dogs
Elaborate Western Front trench systems under attack in a superb game
British, I have not seen one
or pigeons. The character
staged at The Other Partizan in September 2006 by Aly Morrison and Dave
so thoroughly equipped.
of the conict changed; in
Andrews, featuring their lovingly-crafted range of Great War Miniatures. The
I am not speaking of the
creeping barrage attracted many comments the explosions are, apparently,
the beginning, it was much
ghting qualities of any
made using Woodland Scenics foliage on sticks, liberally doused with black!
like the earlier Francoarmy, only of the equipment
Prussian War and towards
and organization. The German army moved into this city
the end, operations on the Western Front were much like
as smoothly and as compactly as an Empire State Express.
early WW2. During these four years, military leaders had
There were no halts, no open places, no stragglers.
to struggle with the innovations of chemical, armoured
Richard Harding Davis, correspondent for the
and even electronic warfare (the French utilising the Eiel
New York Tribune, describing the Imperial German
Tower as a massive radio-jamming station right at the start).
army marching through Brussels, 21st August 1914.
These changes aected the British army in particular, as it
had to adapt from being a small regular force at the start
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
into a mass conscript army by the end. The continental
Currently, there are not that many rulesets dedicated to the
armies already had this type of structure at mobilisation.
First World War. Those that are on the market are often
Another misconception is that the battles of the Great
adapted from WW2 or other rules. We will briey review
War were all mighty clashes of vast army groups. Its true
what is available, starting with the redoubtable Chris Peers
that large scale operations like that of the Somme and
who has authored a set called Contemptible Little Armies,
Verdun are better known, however, even during periods of
published by HLBS Publishing, with accompanying army
relative peace there were small-scale trench raids to keep the
lists. They are full of colour, and the interesting rules
enemy on their toes or to gain intelligence from the enemys
variations Chris is noted for. On the grand scale, Great War
positions. The big battles themselves often broke down
Spearhead designed by Shawn Taylor and Arty Conlie
into smaller actions involving battalions or even companies
is rmly set at the big picture. Ocially, it is set at the
struggling for vital heights, bridges or strong points. At the
divisional and corps level, so eminently useful for gaming
other end of the spectrum are the massive strategic actions
the big battles like Tannenberg 1914, the Somme 1916 or the
such as the Schlieen Plan in 1914, the Brusilov Oensive on
Kaiserschlacht oensive of 1918 that many many feel typies
the Russian Front in 1917 and the Michael Oensive of 1918
the Great War conict. Moving down a notch, there is a
which so nearly brought victory to the Central Powers. These
charming set of rules recently published by Partizan Press
could be handled by a map game or a kriegspiel approach.
called Bloody Picnic by Dillon Browne. These can be either
IMAGINARY WARS
played at brigade or divisional level. The rulebook contains
Those whose conscience is haunted by the bitter memories
some very nice photos, sample army lists and scenarios.
of Remembrance Sundays past or Alls Quiet on the Western
More elderly, and perhaps dicult to nd now, was a set
Front may take an alternative approach. A conict involving
published by Games Design Workshop called Over The Top.
14

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

This was a variation on the


I decided to go for the
WW2 ruleset Command
company as my gaming
Decision, again set at the
level, which can be easily
divisional level. Popular,
achieved with two or three
but slightly more stylised,
boxes of infantry plus
are the Square Bashing
heavy weapons.
rules put out by Peter Pig.
2) Wash the gures in warm
These use a square grid to
soapy water (not too hot,
regulate movement and, as
or they will distort) to
with all Peter Pig rules, there
remove moulding residue.
is an element of pre-battle
ANZAC troops from the authors collection. These are HT plastics.
I do this late at night and
preparation to add variety.
let them dry overnight.
As far as miniatures are concerned, most of the
3) Next I prepare some standard 2mm MDF bases by
popular scales are represented, although it may take a
sanding and rounding the edges (wearing a mask,
bit of a search to nd what you need. The ever-popular
of course, as the dust is hazardous). The gures
25/28mm size has spawned a number of WW1 ranges
are then sorted and mounted on the bases using
from Foundry, Brigade, Renegade and a super new range
PVA or wood glue. The bases help protect the
called Great War Miniatures distributed by North Star.
gures and allow them to stand up proudly.
In 20mm, there are 1/72 plastic boxed gure sets (more
4) The gures then have a dilute PVA mixture brushed
anon!) and metal ranges from Tumbling Dice, Britannia
over them, being careful to ensure it does not pool
Miniatures and Irregular Miniatures. Many plastic model
in the undercuts and recesses, obscuring the detail.
vehicle kits in this scale are compatible with these ranges.
This stiens the plastic gure and provides a good
In 15mm there is a Peter Pig range to support their rules,
key for the paint, preventing it from aking o.
and an extensive range from Minigs, covering the major
5) The gures are then sprayed with white undercoat.
combatants as well as vehicles etc. If you want to go
6) The base is terrained using a two-colour textured
even smaller, Pendraken carry an excellent and extensive
paint scheme. A desert background is used for
range of 10mm WW1 gures and for micro-gamers,
my force of Ottomans and ANZACs using a
Navwar carry a range of 1/300 gures and equipment.
Dark Sand base with Light Sand drybrushed on
top. Spots of Grass Green are used to add some
colour and break up the sandy monotony.
BACK TO PLASTIC SOLDIERS
7) The gures are then painted with acrylics, using
Like many gamers, I started with Airx plastic boxed set
speed-painting techniques and big brushes. The paint
gures and always felt I left them behind with my boyhood.
is used very dilute and almost as a stain, so as not
Chipped and aky paint work, crazily posed gures and
to obscure the ne detail. A nal ink wash is used
hordes of useless dead uns was my abiding memory of these
in the recesses to bring out the shadow detail.
symbols of my early roots! Believing I grew out of plastics
I use a common basing system of 50 x 30mm bases
long ago, it came as a shock to see how they have matured.
akin to the Flames of War system which I had a vague
The excellent WW1 ranges put out by HT, Strelets and
plan to adapt. Obviously, other rulesets could also be
others tempted me to have a dabble. They have started with
the sideshow theatres, with ranges for Serbians, German
used with some minor adaptation. With Ottomans
Colonials, Russian Cossacks and Ottomans. Charmingly,
and ANZACs as my initial forces amounting to about
the sets also include wonderful pieces such as snipers, eld
a company apiece, a simple Gallipoli-style scenario
telephone operators and Austro-Hungarian dog carts, all
seemed like a good place to start. They could also be
screaming for special gaming attention. Temptation too
used for actions in Palestine, Mesopotamia or the
powerful to resist! Nowadays, the plastic sprues contain
Balkans. I discovered a site under Yahoo Groups called
gures ordered in loose squads, with gures in the right
FOW1918 with adapted lists for the Great War
numbers and proportions. They are aimed at a mature gamer
market, looking to use these
DISASTER IN THE
for units supplemented with
DARDANELLES
heavy weapons, vehicles
The moon shines bright
and artillery that are all now
On Charlie Chaplin
represented. Also, careful
But his shoes are cracking
painting and preliminary
For want of blacking
treatment can help avoid
And his baggy khaki trousers
the Flaky Paint Syndrome!
Still need mending
Lets run through the
Before they send him
necessary stages to get
To the Dardanelles.
them ready for the table:
Soldiers tune sung to the
1) Firstly, youll need to buy
popular music hall melody
sucient gures to make
Little Redwing
a respectable force. They
are economically priced,
The Gallipoli campaign in
so its worthwhile getting
Turkish troops from the same stable, hurriedly set up for the Editor to snap
1915 was riddled with
matching forces.
(badly)! The little howitzer is a very nice piece. All gures painted by John.
minor and major command
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

15

even a successful assault would fail if the attackers had


problems, disruptions and downright cock-ups! Some
insucient forces to hold what they had taken at such cost.
would argue the whole concept of seizing the Dardanelles
Although designed to be played using Flames of War 1918
was misconceived from the very start, and bound not to
rules, the scenarios can be easily adapted to other systems.
succeed. Although the landings were often skilfully executed,
the follow-up operations tended to break down, leading to
missed opportunities. The Turkish opposition forces also
PART 1: STRONGPOINT ASSAULT
had local diculties in co-ordinating their defence and
The scenario owes something to the assault on the Nek,
counter-attacks. Ironically, the best thought-out element by
depicted in the lm Gallipoli directed by Peter Weir. There
the Western powers
is also a similar
was the eventual
situation shown in
evacuation! Using
the Stanley Kubrick
deception and
movie Paths of
surprise, instead of
Glory when French
the feared 50,000
forces vainly attack
casualties, there
the Germanwere only a handful
held Anthill. The
Limit of heavy machine gun range (24)
a remarkable
scenario uses
achievement.
the Prepared
There are a
Position, Over
number of useful
The Top, Nothing
resources on the
Up The Spout
Gallipoli campaign
and Preliminary
for the adventurous
Bombardment
gamer, including:
special rules.
Map for part 1: the ANZAC assault on the hill position in desert and sparse scrub.
Osprey
Campaign Series No 8, Gallipoli 1915
ANZAC attackers
Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
The attacker has a three-platoon company comprising:
Peter Chasseud, Grasping Gallipoli
company command rie team + command rie team.
three infantry platoons each with command
Tim Travers, Gallipoli 1915
rie team and eight rie teams.
Gallipoli DVD, Director Peter Weir (1981)
Anzacs TV series, DVD/Video (1985)
In addition they have a Preliminary Bombardment.
All the Kings Men, BBC DVD
ANZACS count as Condent Trained.

TWO-PART SCENARIO STRONGPOINT ASSAULT AND


COUNTERATTACK

Turkish defenders
The defender has a reinforced platoon comprising:
Even the large 2ic command
scale battles and
rie team.
campaigns were
one infantry
often composed of
platoons with
Howitzer
small actions at a
command rie
battery
much lower level.
team and nine
Communications
rie teams.
were evolving,
machine gun
but still primitive
platoon with
Limit of heavy machine gun range (24)
(pigeons were
command rie
still being used
team and two
for battleeld
HMGs.
reports!) and so
They start set
it proved dicult
up
in trenches.
Deployment zone
to coordinate
Ottomans
the actions of
Map for part 2: the Turkish counterattack. The trenches must now serve the ANZACs.
count as Conscript
forces much
Fearless.
after the rst clash. This leads to some interesting gaming
ideas, simulating this loss of command and control, so
ORDERS
that the forces do not act exactly as the player wishes.
ANZAC attackers
The Strongpoint Assault represents that most typical
The enemy occupies a key height which needs to be
of WW1 actions the assault and occupation of a key
assaulted and held until relieved. This will distract the enemy
piece of terrain. Taking the strongpoint against prepared
from a major oensive occurring in another part of the line.
repower and a determined defence was only the rst
An opening bombardment by forces o the table
challenge. Inevitably, the defenders would fall back and use
will keep their heads down and help the assault.
local reserves to organise a counterattack. The attackers
thus became the defenders with the remnants of their force,
Turkish defenders
and had to hold until relieved by follow-on forces. Often
You occupy a key strongpoint which must be held at
16

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

all costs. You have been promised reserves in support,


so you will hold onto the heights until help arrives.

THE GAME

enough to gain the heights, their trials are not over yet.
They must organise a defence of the heights against a
hasty counterattack by the defenders covering force.

1) The defenders deploy their forces in trenches and


dugouts on the hill (counts as a Prepared Position).
The trenches represent objectives in the game. The
hill is located at extreme machine gun range from
the parapets of the attackers trenches (24).
2) The attackers deploy their forces in the trench line
along their table edge. Only one platoon at a time
may deploy along the frontline trenches. One platoon
at a time may be brought on as reserves. All rie
teams start in Nothing Up The Spout status.
3) The defenders begin deployed in their prepared positions.
4) The attackers then commence their
Opening Bombardment.
5) The attacking player then has rst turn and may
spend half a turn of movement to move his platoon
Over The Top. Another platoon may then be
brought on into the frontline trench from reserve
but may not move any further that turn.

Turkish attackers
The attacker has a company (minus) comprising:
company command rie team
two infantry platoons with command
rie team and nine rie teams
howitzer battery with spotter and four howitzers
Ottomans count as Conscript Fearless.
The howitzers have limited ammunition, roll D6
1, 2
No ammunition
3, 4
Enough ammunition for one turn of ring
5, 6
Enough ammunition for two turns of ring

DECIDING WHO WON

ORDERS

The attacker wins if they hold the hill and have forced
the enemy to fall back. They may then occupy the
prepared positions and the game can continue into
the follow-on scenario Counter Attack in which
they become the defender with the surviving forces.

SPECIAL RULES

Prepared Position
The defenders have the advantage of ground and use the
Concealed, Gone to Ground and Bulletproof Cover rules.
Over The Top
Units climbing out of trenches and may only move
half their move after leaving the trench.
Nothing Up The Spout
As depicted in the Gallipoli lm, the attackers
x bayonets and may not shoot until after they
Assault the defenders in the Prepared Position.
Opening Bombardment
In the early war period, artillery was still developing the
art of spotting damage and adapting their re to take into
account the results of damage reports. In the Nek encounter,
the opening bombardment lasted only 30 minutes and
stopped a fatal 7 minutes before the infantry assault, giving
time for the defenders to recover, re-man the trenches and go
on to mow down the assault waves. Shockingly, this situation
was to occur time and time again during the war and was
known as the Rush to the Parapet. To simulate this roll a D6:
1, 2
3, 4
5, 6

No eect, defenders act normally


Defenders Pinned for one turn and use
one 6 square template for damage
Defenders Pinned for two turns and use
two 6 square templates for damage

PART 2: COUNTERATTACK

Even if the defenders survive the assault and are fortunate

ANZAC Defender
The defender has the survivors of the company
after the assault, including follow-on waves.
They have the advantage of the trenches and
may use the Prepared Position special rule.
Anzacs count as Condent Trained.
Turkish attacker
The enemy needs to be driven o a key height that they
have just assaulted. The height must be taken with forces
to hand to avoid the enemy turning a vital ank.
ANZAC Defender
You must hold onto a key height you have
gained at much cost. Losing the height will mean
another bloody assault to re-capture it.

THE GAME

1) The defenders deploy their forces in trenches and dugouts


on the hill (counts as a Prepared Position). The trenches
represent objectives in the game. The hill is located
outside rie range (24) from the attackers positions.
2) The attackers deploy their forces outside rie
range (24) from the hill. The howitzer battery is
located at extreme range (48) with the Spotter
in a convenient position out of rie range.
3) The defenders begin deployed in their prepared positions.
4) The attackers then commence their turn.

DECIDING WHO WON

Whoever holds the hill at the end is deemed to be the victor.

CONCLUSION

WWI holds many exciting challenges for the wargamer


and tabletop tactician, and the forces involved arent nearly
as drab as you might think. Uniforms in the early war
period and on the wild fringes of the war were actually
rather colourful. There is a surprisingly wide range of
gures and models available, and you can ght over an
extremely varied range of terrain, on land, on sea and in
the air. Fancy yourself as Lawrence of Arabia? Havent you
always dreamt of being Biggles taking on the Red Baron?
Or do you want to see if you can do better than the reallife generals on the Western Front, break the deadlock and
burst through into open country beyond, using the earliest
tanks and trench-storming troops? Go on, have a go!
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

17

One mans experience of a real big push: Harry Knott at Hellre Corner

his tiny pocket


diary (shown actual
size) belonged to
Harry Knott (seen pictured
above, right, with one of
his pals on leave). He was
the Editors grandfather.
He served with the
1st battalion, 5th North
Staordshire Regiment,
a Territorial unit, and
was sent to Flanders.
On 13th October 1915,
his unit was tasked, along
with others of the 46th
(North Midland) Division,
to attack the Hohenzollern
Redoubt, a largely forgotten
episode in the nal stages
of the Battle of Loos but
which, to its participants,
became known as Hellre
Corner. In the space of a
few short hours, thousands of men lost their lives in a
courageously-delivered, but poorly-planned assault.
Harry was a sergeant, a volunteer and, for his day,
considering his working-class background, rather
bright and well-schooled. The entries over these and
the next few pages of his pocket diary reveal, with
sparse phrases, the agonies of a man severely wounded
in the groin by shrapnel: the build-up to, climax and
aftermath of a real and disastrous big push.

Wednesday 13th October


In trenches at Vermelles. Very nervous. Relieved Scotch
Guards. Attacked at 2 p.m. Wounded soon after. Terrible
sights. Saw Colonel Knight and Capt. Ridgway hit.
Thursday 14th October
Scrambled to trenches and lay there bleeding
all night. Stretcher bearer got me to dressing
station about 5 p.m. Did go through the mill1.
Friday 15th October
Kept me at the Bethun 1st aid station all night,
wounded coming in all the time. Moved in
motor bus to 1st CCS2 at Chocques.
Saturday 16th October
In marquee at Chocques. Two wounded
Germans with us. Very cold.
Sunday 17th October
Still at Chocques. Having rotten time
lying on stretcher. Very painful.
18

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Monday 18th October


Still going through the mill at Chocques.
Irish Guards man came in.
Tuesday 19th October
They tell me that I am going on the barge
tomorrow. This bucks me up a bit.
Wednesday 20th October
Chocques. Yes, I am going. They carry me out on a
stretcher and put me on the oor to wait for motor bus.
Thursday 21st October
Here we are on the barge. 30 of us. It was a
rotten journey we had in the bus last night.
We started at 5 oclock in the morning.
Friday 22nd October
Yes, its very comfortable on here. Total on board
30. I nd Castry of my platoon with us.
Saturday 23rd October
In the British Lahore hospital at Calais on sea front. I nd
out that it was a French gambling place in peace time!
Harry was eventually evacuated to England and underwent
several painful operations, but survived and went on to
run a bookshop in Luton, later becoming a local councillor
in Caddington, Bedfordshire. He died in 1960, aged 70.
Henry Hyde

NOTES

1 A euphemism for being in agony, as if


crushed by our mill machinery.
2 Casualty Clearing Station.

Sans peur et sans reproche


Wargaming the Italian Wars of the early 16th century using hexes
by Adrian Hussey
Editors note: Adrian has provided us with the longest
article weve ever had in Battlegames for our anniversary
issue a scenario AND a full set of rules! Happy gaming!

ayard, Knight of France, and the chevalier without


fear or reproach of our title, is one of the most
colourful and romantic gures of the wars in Italy
at the start of the 16th century. His death, by an arquebus
shot at the Battle of the Sesia in 1524, aptly marks the
transition from the old world of medieval chivalry to the
new pike and shot era of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The birthplace of this transition was Italy in the last ten
years of the 15th century and the rst 30 or so of the
16th, as French, Spanish, Swiss, German and Italians
battled each other in a melting pot of shifting objectives
and alliances, technological and tactical developments,
with colourful troops and colourful characters.
This article presents a set of rules intended, rstly, to
give a avour of the Italian Wars (rather than a detailed
simulation), and secondly, to illustrate some of the
advantages, disadvantages and considerations of using
a hex-based system, as discussed in the last issue.

THE RULES AIMS AND BACKGROUND

If anybody is looking for the denitive set of rules for the


Italian Wars, I fear you may still be looking after reading
these! The Italian Wars are, I think, a complex period
to game for a number of reasons. For example, there is
little in the way of hard, detailed evidence on the lowlevel mechanics of battle. Unit sizes varied enormously,
from compact bodies of a few hundred gendarmes to the
massive Swiss pike blocks of several thousand men.
For some years, I went round in circles trying to gure
this stu out and build it into a set of rules. How did a
5000-man pike block really operate? Did Spanish colonellas
operate as tactical entities, or split their shot o into
separate units? When you work out the relative frontages
of gendarmes en haie and pike blocks 25+ ranks deep,
how do you reconcile that with the battle descriptions?
Exactly what were the 3000 Italians mentioned in the
account and so on and so on... In the end, I concluded
that the more I read, the more confused I became, so
much so that I gave up on the period for a while.
So when I started work on these rules, I set out with
the deliberate intention of abstracting the levels of detail
that I couldnt resolve to my satisfaction. This is why the
rules treat the unit (an ill-dened number of men) as
the lowest level of currency, dont deal with formations
or sub-units (sword and buckler men, forlorn hopes, shot

The Battle of Ravenna. Enraged by the relentless French artillery re, the defenders cavalry sally out from their entrenchments. On the French side, the
Landsknechts launch their assault on the redoubt as the Spanish and Papal infantry move up to meet them. Figures and terrain part of the authors motley
collection from a variety of sources and manufacturers. Photo by Richard Ellis.

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

19

sleeves and so on), and dont dene rigid time, ground


or gure scales. Cop out! I hear the cry from the back.
Well yes, in one sense guilty as charged mlud!, but on the
other hand, at least Im now enjoying playing Italian Wars
games instead of sitting over a computer with a headache!
The other prime directive I had in mind was to produce
a set of rules that would provide an enjoyable game on
the Irregulars regular weekly evening gaming session.
This translated to the following design parameters:
Simplicity rather than complexity/simulation.
A traditional (or old school!) sequence of play, with
no abstract command rule mechanism such as PIPs
etc. As one of the Irregulars remarks, hes happy
to be thrashed as a result of his own mistakes, but
not as a result of his troops standing still all night
because he keeps rolling a 1 on his PIP dice!
Simultaneous movement, shooting and combat.
Games should be suitable for 2-3 players per side, playing
to a conclusion in an evenings gaming (2-3 hrs).
A broad-brush feel for the period.

AH YES, PERIOD FEEL

I think a stated objective of most wargames rules is


period feel, but very rarely do they dene what they
actually mean by it! In my case it means that I want the
game to reect the sort of battle descriptions found in
Oman and Taylor, at the unit level and above. Specically,
the sort of interactions that Im trying to model are:
Pike blocks are big, solid units that can absorb
punishment and are largely invulnerable to
gendarmes, unless they are disordered.
Missile troops can irritate and even break close
order troops if not driven o (as they did at the
Sesia). They can also inict signicant damage
from cover or behind ramparts (as they did at Pavia
and Bicocca). But they cannot stand in the open,
where they are easy prey for mounted troops.
The gendarmerie are the continuation and legacy of
the medieval knight erce, proud, and a shock force
to be reckoned with. They can break anything except
disciplined pike and they still believe that they can
break those too. To some extent, a gendarme unit is the
Ford Capri of the period you dont steer it, you aim it!

SO WHY DID I USE HEXES?

The rules started o as a tape-based set before I invested


in my hex terrain. But, having settled on the design aims
above I discovered that hexes lend themselves rather well
to the levels of abstraction I had settled on. For example,
frontages cease to be an issue, which removes all sorts of
nasty issues for combat resolution (overlaps, how much
of a unit ghts if just the end contacts, and so on).
Similarly, in early drafts I had rules for sleeves of shot,
forlorn hopes and such, all deploying in and out of the
pike blocks and ghting their own minor parts of the
action. I dropped all of this because rstly, it doesnt gure
in the accounts as a signicant determinant of victory;
and secondly, it slowed the game down and made it more
cumbersome and dicult to resolve. My rationale is that
these things are still happening, but theyre simply not
represented on the table or, more specically, in the hex.
Somehow, the use of hexes seems to make this
type of design decision easier. You do not have the
20

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

(almost) unlimited granularity of the tape measure,


so you are inherently less tempted to try and model
everything, to capture every possible eventuality.
(Perhaps this is more a fault with my rules writing
abilities than a true advantage of hexes!)
Be that as it may, the Irregulars have now played a
dozen or so games with these rules. Theyve also played
or in some cases, been subjected to many other of
my (non-hexed) attempts over the years. This is the rst
set about which weve all said, that was fun, lets play
this again next week. Positive observations have been:
There have been no altercations over ambiguity.
Games have moved noticeably faster
and been easier on the brain.
Each game has produced a decisive
result by the end of the evening.
On the downside:
Hex size imposes limits on the size of a unit and thus on
the visual appeal of the game. This is most noticeable
in the case of pike blocks. I use 15mm gures and, in
earlier sets, deployed pike blocks of up to 128 gures,
complete with attached shot, halberdiers and so on. With
10cm hexes, Im restricted to units of 40 or so. Again,
I rationalise this by assuming that huge units of pike
(such as the supposed 10,000 Swiss at Marignano) are
represented by multiple units. Obviously, another solution
to this is to use 6mm or 10mm gures. The rules will
work just the same and you wont face the same problem.
There are no formations (other than hedgehog) and no
gure removal. Fatigue is tracked either with markers
or by roster. So, although I didnt write them with
this in mind, you could argue that these rules are not
proper gure rules, but actually a boardgame. You
certainly could play these rules as a pure boardgame,
using cardboard counters and a paper map.
Ive opted for vertex facing even though units only occupy
a single hex. (Again, in an earlier draft, I dierentiated
between gendarmes en haie and the deeper Imperial
men-at-arms formations, so that the gendarmes occupied
two hexes and the Imperial men-at-arms just one. But
it caused unwanted complexities for the combat system
and so I dropped it. Again, my excuse here is that the
hex represents an unspecied area of ground. There are
a number of tactical units of cavalry operating in this
area, each in the formation they deem appropriate.

PUTTING THE RULES TO WORK: THE BATTLE OF


RAVENNA, 1512

The Battle of Ravenna, April 11th, 1512, was one of the


major engagements of the Italian Wars. Space precludes
a detailed description, but I will attempt to describe
the essentials and then present it as a scenario.
Taylor and Oman both provide detailed descriptions
and analyses of the battle, and on the Web you can nd a
reasonable summary at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ravenna_(1512).
The events leading up to the battle are complex, yet
typical of the Machiavellian politics of the time. Briey,
Louis XIIs intrigues had led to the formation of the League
of Cambray in 1508, in which Louis, Ferdinand of Spain,
the Emperor Maximilian and the Pope joined forces to
humble Venice, Louis only contender for mastership
of northern Italy. Despite defeat at Agnadello in 1509,

Venice managed to protract the war into 1511, by which


time the allies had fallen out. The French had been too
successful, and suddenly Louis found that the Pope,
the Spanish and the Swiss had joined with Venice in an
attack on France, with the Emperor soon to join them!
The French army in northern Italy was commanded
by the talented Gaston de Foix. Aware that time was
not on his side, and with a eld army superior in both
quantity and quality, he had besieged Ravenna with the
intention of drawing the Spanish-Papal army on to him
and forcing a decisive battle. Unwilling to let Ravenna
fall, the Spanish duly advanced to within a mile of the
French army. Here they dug an entrenched camp, in a
position from which they hoped to be able to disturb
the siege without having to ght an open battle.
Gastons strategic situation and supplies were
deteriorating rapidly, so he decided to move on the
Spanish camp and force them to give battle.
Opposing plans
Pedro Navarro, in charge of the Spanish infantry, had
chosen the position of the camp. Protected by the river
Ronco to its rear and marsh to its right, with waterlogged
ground bisected by ditches and drains to its front, he
believed it oered an impregnable position. The French
would have no option but to hurl themselves frontally
at it (as they had done at Cerignola), and they would be
repulsed by the Spanish arquebuses, artillery and pikes.
Gaston de Foix was, however, unwilling to simply
oblige Navarro and resolved instead to use his superior
artillery train (54 guns to the Spaniards 30) to draw
the Spanish out from behind their positions.
The course of the battle
The battle can be split into four distinct phases:
1 The artillery duel
Both sides began the ght with a violent artillery
bombardment, with the intention of provoking the
other side to attack. It lasted some two hours and
inicted heavy casualties on both sides. The Spanish
guns played on the German and French infantry. The
French guns concentrated on the Spanish cavalry, Pedro
Navarro having withdrawn his infantry back from
the earthworks and made them lie down. The French
commanders had also moved two guns, a cannon
and a long culverin, to the north bank of the Ronco,
which enladed the Spanish cavalry to great eect.
2 The cavalry ght
Eventually the Spanish cavalry could stand the
bombardment no more. Their patience failed and
they sallied out of the fortied camp from both sides,
leading to a general engagement with the cavalry
of the French vanguard and main battle. Navarro
refused to join the advance and waited behind his
entrenchments. The cavalry mle was a stubborn and
close ght, but eventually the arrival of the French
reserve under Alegre tipped the balance and the Spanish
cavalry was routed, eeing south-westwards down
the road to Cesena. (The Viceroy, who had not taken
part in the ght, ed with them.) Some of the French
gendarmerie, Bayard included, and all the light cavalry
pursued them, apparently for a distance of six miles.
3 The infantry ght

With the Spanish cavalry lured out, Gaston de Foix


launched his infantry to the attack. Navarros infantry
rose to meet them, and a further violent struggle broke
out at the line of the Spanish entrenchments. The French
forces were initially repulsed, but rallied and returned to
the attack. Two companies of Spanish foot broke through
the French and Italians and reached the French guns,
before meeting further French reserves and turning back.
4 The rout
Still the Spanish line held, when suddenly large
numbers of the victorious French cavalry poured into
the fortied camp through the gaps from which the
Spanish cavalry had exited. Assailed from front, ank
and rear, the Spanish infantry nally broke and ed.
The two companies of Spanish foot who had earlier
broken through were now also trying to escape along
the river road. Spotted by Gaston de Foix, he rashly
rode to intercept them with just his escort of a handful
of gendarmes, and duly paid for his impetuosity
with his life at the very moment of his victory.
Aftermath
Tactically, the battle was a decisive French victory. Losses
are dicult to ascertain, but were acknowledged by both
sides as being extremely heavy. Strategically the battle
achieved nothing for the French. Although Ravenna fell
soon afterwards and was sacked, the death of Gaston de
Foix robbed the army of its vitality, and as the situation
deteriorated the French army had to evacuate northern Italy
later that year. The Spanish army was virtually destroyed, but
another one took the eld in 1513, and the wars continued.

RAVENNA THE SCENARIO


Orders of battle
Orders of Battle are given for both armies in the
following tables. I have calculated these on a very
rough basis of one cavalry unit per 750 men (guring
a cavalry lance as three combatants), one infantry unit
per 1500 men, and one artillery unit per 15 guns.
Generals
Although the OOBs list the numerous dierent commands
into which the armies at Ravenna were organised, a
general for each would be overkill on the table. Command
for the rules is therefore abstracted, as follows.
The two commanders-in-chief, Gaston
de Foix and Ramon de Cardona should be
represented as General gures. In addition:
The French army has two subordinate
Generals. Any French general may give a mle,
morale or reform bonus to any unit.
The Spanish army has one subordinate General:
Pedro Navarro. Navarro may give a mle, morale
or reform bonus only to infantry and artillery units.
Cardona can similarly only give a bonus to any
mounted unit. (This reects the split of command
that the Spanish army suered from in the battle.)
Terrain
The map shows the area of the battleeld. It is 19 by 12
hexes which, if you are using a 4 hex system such as
Hexon or TerrainMaker, ts nicely on a 6 by 4 table.
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

21

22

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

The River Ronco is unfordable. Units forced into


it as a result of combat immediately disperse.
The Spanish camp is protected by a deep trench
and earthen bank, which runs as indicated.
This is treated as Earthwork hexsides.
The marshes are treated as Dicult terrain hexes.
Oman describes the land about Ravenna as dead at,
water-logged, and cut into ditches and drains, and
this terrain certainly impeded the manoeuvrability
and order of the troops still further. If you want to
reect this, mark further single hexes in the area
between the two armies, at random, as marsh.
Deployment
The map shows a (somewhat conjectural) historical
deployment, which you may wish to use as is or
slightly amended. Alternatively, deploy each side
according to the following requirements:
All Spanish units must deploy within the limits of
the fortied camp (including the three exit hexes).
French units can deploy anywhere on the southern bank
of the Ronco, so long as they are not within four hexes
of the Spanish camp or two hexes of the marsh to its
northwest (i.e. deploy below the blue line on the map).
Units deploy in the following sequence:
The Spanish deploy their artillery, war carts and cavalry.
The French deploy all their troops. The French
commands must be deployed in ascending numerical
order from right to left. (That is, de la Palisses
units must be deployed furthest to the east.)
The Spanish deploy their infantry units. These units
are not visible to the French until they stand up, so
may initially either be left o table, with their position
marked on a map, or marked using counters. In this
case, add three dummy counters to the six required
for the units, so that the French player is not entirely
sure where the Spanish infantry is deployed.
The Spanish player must decide at the start of a turn
whether the infantry will stand up. If they do, they
are placed in the table and can charge, move and
re normally that turn. If not, they remain hidden
in their current hexes. (If a French unit manages
to reach a position where it can see a hidden
unit, that unit must be placed on the table.)
Pedro Navarros war carts
The Spanish army has two units of war carts. These were
small, low, two-wheeled carts, with blades protruding
from the front and upon which were mounted heavy
arquebuses. They were intended to provide a movable
obstacle that provided both protection and a repower
platform for the infantry. The accounts dier as to how
many Navarro deployed from around 30 to over 100,
and it is not clear how many men or arquebuses they
deployed. Interestingly, Ravenna is the only action
of the Italian Wars in which they are mentioned.
For the purposes of the rules, war carts:
cannot be moved once deployed, but another
unit can occupy the same hex.
can shoot as if they were a unit of Poor
Missile Foot, unless another missile-armed
unit is occupying the same hex!
can mle as if they were a unit of Poor Missile

Foot, unless another unit is occupying the


same hex! If they are mled through their
frontal hexsides, they count as an obstacle.
are removed as soon as an enemy unit enters their hex. If
the unit enters through a frontal hexside it incurs 1FP.
I represent them using a small wagon
model with a couple of arquebusiers.
French reserves
The French reserve (one unit of gendarmes under Yves
dAlegre) was initially left further east to guard against a
sally by the defenders of Ravenna, but was called into the
ght when the French vanguard found itself hard pressed.
This unit may not enter the game until the move after
one of Palisses gendarme units has been defeated in a
round of mle. At the end of the normal movement
phase of the next turn, Alegres gendarmes can appear
on the eastern table edge in one of the four pale coloured
hexes. The move after that they can operate as normal.
French anking guns
The enlading guns on the north bank of
the Ronco contributed greatly to making the
position of the Spanish cavalry untenable.
This unit starts the game in the indicated hex on the
north bank of the Ronco, either limbered or unlimbered.
Because the unit is on the north bank, it does not
count for the purpose of spotting any hidden Spanish
infantry, except for any unit that it actually shoots at.
Objectives
For both sides the objective is simple decisively
beat the opposing army. I have not assigned specic
victory conditions in terms of number of units lost,
geographical objectives or number of turns. I believe
the fatigue and morale rules and the players own
sense of reality should be enough to make it clear
when the game is up for one side or the other!
Further reading
If youre not already familiar with the Italian Wars and want
to nd out more, the following books are essential reading:
Frederick Taylor, The Art of War in Italy 1494 - 1529
Sir Charles Oman, The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century
Thomas Arnold, The Renaissance at War
George Gush, Renaissance Armies 1480 - 1650
Two Osprey Campaign Series, Fornovo 1495
(David Nicolle) and Pavia 1524 (Angus Konstam)
rather neatly dovetail the beginning and end of the
period (or more accurately, of this phase of it).
Should you get hooked and wish to delve deeper into the
period there are a wealth of ever more detailed, obscure and
academic tomes available. Among the more accessible are:
David Eltis, The Military Revolution
in Sixteenth-century Europe
Bert Hall, Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe
There are two societies whose activities and
membership encompass the period. They are:
The Pike and Shot Society (http://www.
pikeandshotsociety.org/)
Renaissance Wargames Society (http://www.
renaissancewargamesociety.com)
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

23

FRENCH ARMY: 23,000 MEN UNDER GASTON DE FOIX, DUC DE NEMOURS


Command

Units

Type

Class

Notes

Description

Seigneur de la Palisse

Gendarme

Elite

Heavy lance, fully armoured

910 French lances

Unknown

Artillery

Regular

Siege

30 guns (French)

Artillery

Poor

Field

Poor

Crossbow

Seigneur de Molart

Missile Foot

Jacob Empser

Pike

Elite

Pike

Regular

Pike

Poor

Missile Foot

Poor

Thomas Bohier

3,500 Gascons
5,000 Landsknechts
3,000 infantry,
Picards and Gascons

Odet de Lautrec

Gendarme

Elite

Federigo de Bozzolo

Pike

Poor

Heavy lance, fully armoured

Missile Foot

Poor

Crossbow

780 French lances


3,900 Italians

Duke of Ferrara

Artillery

Regular

Field

24 guns (Ferrarese)

Gian Bernardo Caracciolo

Light Horse

Poor

Crossbow

2,000 light cavalry


(Italians and Stradiots)

Light Horse

Regular

Light lance (Stradiots)

Gendarme

Elite

Heavy lance, fully armoured

Reserve see scenario notes


400 French lances

Artillery

Poor

Field see scenario notes

2 guns

10

Yves dAlegre

11

SPANISH-PAPAL ARMY: 15,300 MEN UNDER RAMON DE CARDONA, VICEROY OF NAPLES


Command
1

Fabrizio Colonna

Units

Type

Class

Notes

Description
670 Papal lances

Gendarme

Elite

Heavy lance, fully armoured

Gendarme

Regular

Heavy lance, fully armoured

Marquis della Padula

Gendarme

Regular

Heavy lance, half armoured

Don Alfonso Carvajal

Gendarme

Regular

Heavy lance, half armoured

Pedro Navarro

Marquis of Pescara

565 Spanish lances


490 Spanish lances
12 Spanish colonellas, each of
5-600 men, in 4 divisions

Pike

Regular

Missile Foot

Regular

Pike

Poor

Artillery

Regular

Siege

Artillery

Regular

Field

Arquebus
2,000 Papal infantry
30 Spanish guns

Special

Regular

See the scenario notes

30-100 war carts

Light Horse

Regular

Light lance

1,500 Spanish Ginetes

A fearsome formation of Swiss pikes. Dense formations like this were characteristic of the Renaissance, during which the longest weapons seen since the
phalanxes of Alexander the Great and his Successors were revived. 28mm troops at varra 1513, a game staged at Cavalier 2007 by George Moraitis.

24

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Sans Peur et Sans Reproche:


e Rules

A unit can remove some of its FPs by reforming.


The relevant rules sections explain how many FPs a
unit incurs in each case, and how to remove them.

SCALES

Fatigue and unit state

There are no dened gure, time or ground scales.


A unit represents in the region of 500-1,000 cavalry,
twice that many infantry, or 15-30 guns. A unit
occupies a single hex, and can be represented by any
number or scale of gures, according to your taste.

TURN SEQUENCE

Each turn, both sides simultaneously


perform each of the following steps:
1 Compulsory moves. Move all units that are routing,
retreating, rallying back, pursuing or advancing out of
control. Test morale for units seeing routers pass by.
2 Charges. Declare all charges, and charge responses.
Test morale to charge or for being charged. Move
units that are charging, countercharging or evading.
3 Normal movement. Move all units that wish to do
so that havent already moved this turn. Use Priority
to resolve any if you do that, I do this questions.
4 Shooting. Fire all units that wish to do so. Test
morale of any unit reaching its Panic value as
a result of being shot at. Test control of any
Gendarme or Swiss Pike unit suering hits.
5 Mle. Fight all mles. Move units that are recoiling,
following up or breaking through. Test morale of any
unit reaching its Panic value as a result of a mle.
6 Rally/Reform. Test morale to rally from
rout. Test to remove Fatigue Points.

Fatigue Points

State

0-1

Formed

Notes

2-5

Unformed

Unit incurs penalty


in shooting and
mle

6+

Disordered

Pike units count as


other foot in mle

See the Unit


Characteristics
table

Dispersed

Unit is immediately
removed from the
table

FACING AND FORMATION

A unit occupies a single hex and is assumed to be in its


typical ghting formation. For example, a pike unit is
in some form of square or column, with its associated
skirmishers milling around it. A French Gendarme unit is
en haie (in line), with the gendarmes in the front rank and
the more lightly armoured troops in subsequent ranks.
A unit must always face a hex vertex (rather than a
hex side). Its facing denes its front, ank and rear hexes,
and the arc through which it can shoot, move or charge.

FATIGUE POINTS (FPS) AND UNIT STATE

Units accumulate Fatigue Points as the game


progresses. Fatigue Points are an abstract
representation of casualties, disorder and fatigue,
all rolled into one for the sake of simplicity.
A units status varies according to the number of FPs it
has. Use suitable markers next to a unit to show its FPs.
A unit incurs FPs from the following causes:
moving through dicult terrain or crossing obstacles
interpenetration with another unit
compulsory moves such as rout, retreat, pursuit etc.
shooting and mle
UNIT CHARACTERISTICS TABLE
Movement Points
Weapon
Normal
Rapid1

Troop type

Order

Gendarmes

Close

Heavy lance, mle

Priority
2

FPs to Panic/Disperse
Poor

Regular

Elite

5/7

6/8

7/10

Pikes

Close

Pike, mle

2 (3)

7/9

8/12

9/14

Missile Foot

Open

Arquebus or crossbow

5/7

6/8

7/10

Light Horse
(missile)

Open

Arquebus or crossbow

5/7

6/8

Light Horse
(Stradiots or ginetes)

Open

Light lance, mle

5/7

6/8

Artillery
(Field or Siege)

Open

5/7

6/8

Generals

1. Use this speed when charging, countercharging, evading, retreating, routing or pursuing
2. Elite Swiss pike have a normal move of 3.

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

25

MOVEMENT

A unit has the number of Movement Points (MPs) shown


in the Unit Characteristics table. It costs (a minimum of ) 1
MP to move one hex, but a unit can only move into one of
its two frontal hexes. It cannot move into a ank or rear hex
if it wants to change direction it must rst change facing.
Priority
Because units move simultaneously, you can get the if
you do that, Ill do this syndrome. If this occurs, the unit
with the highest priority chooses whether to move rst or
second. If both units have the same priority, choice goes to
the highest quality unit. If its still equal, roll a D6 to decide.
Changing formation
The only formation changes that are
specically represented are:
Pike units can form hedgehog, a defensive formation with
the pikes protruding in all directions. When in hedgehog,
the unit has no ank or rear hexes, but cannot move.
It costs 1MP to form hedgehog, and 1MP to revert back to
normal formation.
A pike block that is already engaged in
mle cannot form hedgehog.
Artillery is either limbered or unlimbered. To
limber or unlimber takes a full move.
Changing facing
A unit changes facing by wheeling on the centre of
the unit, within the hex it currently occupies, to face
another hex vertex. (In traditional miniatures rules
a unit normally pivots on one ank to wheel.)
Artillery changes facing as a Close Order unit.
MPs to
change
facing by:

1 hex

2 hexes

3 hexes
(about face)

Close order

Open order

A unit can move into an enemy units ZOC, or


out of an enemy units ZOC, but it cannot do
both unless it is charging the unit(s) in question.
This applies to all forms of movement.
However, a Pike or Gendarme unit can ignore
the ZOC of a missile-armed (arquebus,
crossbow or artillery) enemy unit.
Terrain
Hexes should be classied as either:
Normal fairly at, open ground or gentle slopes.
Dicult e.g. open woods, marsh, steep slopes, streams.
Severe e.g. dense woods or rocky slopes,
villages, prepared earthworks and ditches
(e.g. as used at Ravenna or Bicocca).
Linear obstacles should be similarly classied,
and can either run along hexsides (e.g. streams or
earthworks) or through hexes (e.g. wider rivers,
like the Taro at the Battle of Fornovo).
The following table shows the MP cost to enter/
cross a Dicult or Severe hex/side, and the FPs
incurred for doing so, for each type of unit. (
indicates the hex is impassible to that type of unit.)
Terrain eects (MP/FP)
Unit

Dicult

Severe

Earthwork

Gendarmes

+1/1

Pike

+1/1

+1/2

Missile Foot

+1/0

+1/1

+1/1

Light Horse

+1/1

Artillery

For example, if a Pike unit enters a woods hex, it costs


2 MP and the unit incurs 1 FP. If it crosses an earthwork
hexside, it costs 2 MP and the unit incurs 2 FPs, immediately
making it unformed. (Note that the FPs are incurred after the
unit has crossed the hexside. So if the earthwork is defended,
the unit does not incur the FPs when mleing the defender.)
Movement example

For example, if a close order unit wants to


change facing (to its left or right) by 2 hexsides
as in the photo above, it costs 2MPs.
Zone of control (ZOC)
A unit exerts a ZOC into its two frontal hexes.
ZOCs aect movement in the following way:
26

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

For example (see photo on previous page), a Light


Horse unit moving in open terrain spends 3MP
advancing through its frontal hexes, then changes facing
(wheels) through one hexside in its last hex, for free.
Interpenetration
During normal movement:
Open order troops can move through open
order or close order troops without penalty.
Close order troops can move through open
order troops without penalty, but cannot
move through other close order troops.

the evading unit and charge the new target instead.


2. enters the ZOC of another enemy unit, that unit may
attempt to intercept the charging unit by declaring a
charge on it. The originally charging unit must now
react to this charge. The new charge is resolved in the
same way as the original one (except that the charging
unit has already used a portion of its movement).
Evading example

CHARGES

A unit can declare a charge on a unit provided the target


is within line of sight, charge arc and reach (counting
the hex the target is in but not your own hex).
A unit must have enough MPs to enter the hex
occupied by the target to declare a charge, but the
charge physically stops in the hex adjacent to it.
The charging unit only actually enters the hex if it
wins the mle and pushes the target out of it.
A unit can declare a charge on two units at the same
time if they are adjacent and both meet the above criteria.
Charge responses
A unit that is charged must either countercharge,
stand (and shoot), or evade. It may also change
facing/formation if necessary and if time permits.
An Open Order unit must evade if it is charged by a
Close Order unit, unless it is in dicult terrain or behind an
obstacle, in which case it can attempt to stand if it wants to.
Artillery automatically disperse if charged.
Advance to contact
Pike cannot charge Gendarmes, but they can, however,
declare an advance to contact on them an exception to
the normal charge rules. The Pike move at normal speed
instead of rapid, and the Gendarmes must either charge
them, or about face and move away at normal speed. If the
Gendarmes charge, the Pike must halt. (This represents
the Italian Wars version of the game of chicken...)
Countercharging
A countercharging unit advances to meet the charging
unit halfway. If there is an odd number of hexes between
the two units, the attacker moves the additional hex.
Often there will be no physical movement at all, e.g.
if a charge is delivered from an adjacent hex, but both
sides are still deemed to be counter/charging.

Gendarmes unit A charges Light Horse unit B,


which evades through hexes 1 and 2. Unit A follows
evading unit B and enters hex 1. At this point:
A can charge C if it wants to.
C can charge to intercept A, if it wants to.
If neither side wants to do this, A must halt. It cannot
enter hex 2, because it has entered Cs ZOC, and cannot
also leave it in the same turn. Unit B must still evade
at least a further two hexes (its full normal move).
Changing facing/formation and charges
A unit cannot change facing or formation if it charges.
If a unit is charged from its ank or rear, it can either
turn to face or, if it is a pike block, form hedgehog,
if it has the MP to do so before it is contacted.
If a unit does not have time to make a normal
facing or formation change before it is contacted,
it can make an emergency change if it wants to.
This costs 0MPs, but the unit takes 2FPs for each
MP that the change would normally take.
Facing change example

Evading
Light horse and Missile Foot (only) can evade if
charged. An evading unit turns 180 degrees and moves
away from the charging unit in an attempt to avoid
mle. It must move at least its normal move distance,
and can move its rapid distance if necessary.
The charging unit follows in the evading units path. It
must move at least half of its normal move distance, but
can stop at that point if you wish. However, Swiss pike or
Gendarmes must move their full rapid move distance.
If the charging unit, as it follows the evader:
1. nds another enemy unit in its ZOC, it can ignore
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

27

Gendarmes A charges Gendarmes B from the ank. A


contacts B after moving 1MP, which does not give B enough
time to wheel to avoid the ank attack, as it costs 1MP
for a Close Order unit to change facing by one hexside.

Shooting Results
Shooting
Factor

Hits inicted
0

+3

1-4

5-10

11-20

+2

1-4

5-8

9-14

15-20

+1

1-6

7-12

13-18

19-20

1-10

11-18

19-20

-1

1-11

12-19

20

-2

1-12

13-20

-3 or less

1-13

14-20

For example, a unit of Poor arquebusiers res at a unit


of gendarmes that is one hex away. The total Shooting
Factor is 0. +1 for gendarmes, +1 for gendarmes at
close range, -1 for Poor shooting, for a total of +1.
The unit rolls a 17. Find 17 in the +1 row and read
up from 17. The gendarmes suer two hits.

So Gendarmes B can either take the hit in the


ank, or make a further emergency facing change
to wheel the additional hex, but at a cost of 2FPs.
Note that if unit A had started adjacent to unit B,
it would have cost unit B 4FPs to turn to face.

SHOOTING

Movement and shooting


Mounted crossbows and all Missile Foot can
move their normal move distance and shoot.
Mounted arquebusiers can move half their normal
move distance and shoot (as they dismounted to re).
Artillery cannot move (including
changing facing) and shoot.

Control test
Gendarmes or Swiss pike who take FPs when shot at
must pass a control test. Roll a D6 and score greater
than the number of FPs inicted to retain control. If
you roll less than or equal to the FPs inicted, the unit
must advance on the nearest enemy in the next turn. If
an enemy unit is in charge reach, they must charge it.

Weapon ranges (in hexes)


Weapon

Close

Long

Arquebus or crossbow

Field artillery

Siege artillery

To re, check that the target unit is in range and


shooting arc. Count up the following Shooting Factors
(starting from 0), then roll a D20 and read the number
of hits inicted from the Shooting Results table.
Shooting Factors
+1 for...

-1 for...

Target is Pike block

Target is in cover

Target is at close range

Target is in open order

Target is Gendarmes
at close range

Shooting unit is moving


and shooting

Shooting unit is Elite

Shooting unit is Unformed/


Disordered (-1 for each)

Shooting unit is Poor

Did you know...?

In the 50 years between 1494 and 1544, there were no


less than six wars fought by the French against Italian and
Hapsburg states in an attempt to gain control of Italy. The
period is noted for the widespread use of mercenaries.
28

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Siege of Vienna 1520: defenders prepare to sally forth. An impressive 15mm


game staged by Mannheim Games Club at Action 2007 in Rheindahlen.

Count...

MLE FACTORS

For...

Notes

+1

Superior Impetus

Fully-armoured Gendarmes > 1/2 armoured Gendarmes > Light Horse > Pike > Other Foot.
Mounted troops cannot claim impetus against a pike unit if it is stationary, facing them and
not Disordered.

+1 or +2

Superior Quality

Elite > Regular > Poor.


Elite vs Poor count +2, Elite vs Regular or Regular vs Poor count +1.

+1

Superior Numbers

Pike unit (2) > Any other unit (1).


Count the total value of all units if multiple units are involved.

+1

Superior Weapon

Pike > Heavy Lance > Light Lance > Mle Weapons > Arquebus/Crossbow.
Pike only counts if the unit is facing its opponent and is not Disordered. Lance only counts if
the unit is charging or counter-charging.

+1 or +2

Superior State

Formed > Unformed > Disordered.


Formed vs Disordered count +2, Formed vs Unformed or Unformed vs Disordered count +1.

+1

General in hex with unit

+1

Contacting ank or rear hex

+1 or +2

Terrain advantage

Does not count against a pike unit that has formed hedgehog.
+1 for features such as woods, slopes, hastily thrown up earthworks (e.g. Ravenna). +2 for
prepared defensive positions (e.g. the Spanish redoubt at Bicocca).

MLE

A unit can only ght in mle if it counter/charged,


advanced to contact, reinforced, or is continuing a mle
from last move. (A unit that simply advances adjacent to a
mle during normal movement cannot ght in that mle.)
Each side counts up the Mle Factors above (starting
from 0). Compare the dierence. The side with the highest
factor (or the attacker if the dierence is 0) rolls a D20 and
consults the Mle Results table to see whos won and lost.
Mle results
Mle result for side X is...

Dierence

Major
defeat

Defeat

Draw

Victory

Major
victory

+6

1-6

7-20

+5

1-8

9-20

+4

2-10

11-20

+3

3-12

13-20

+2

1-3

5-14

15-20

+1

2-5

6,7

8-16

17-20

1,2

3-9

10,11

12-18

19,20

Average out the mle factors for each side.


Each unit takes the worst outcome result that it suers.
Interpenetration as a result of mle
If a unit is pushed back, retreats or routs from a mle,
the rst hex it moves into must be directly away from the
victorious unit. If this hex is occupied by another unit:
Open order troops will pass through friendly
open order or close order troops without
penalty, but are blocked by any enemy unit. The
unit being passed through suers 2FPs.
Close order troops will push back open order troops,
whether friendly or enemy (both units suer 2FPs).
Close order troops are blocked by other close
order troops, whether friendly or enemy.
Any retreating or routing unit that is blocked
disperses immediately, otherwise suers 2FPs.
The blocking unit also suers 2FPs.
Mle example

If the result is:


a Draw, the mle continues next round
and each unit suers 1FP.
a Victory or Defeat read the result for both sides
from the Mle Outcome: Victory/Defeat table.
a Major Victory or Major Defeat read
the result for both sides from the Mle
Outcome: Major Victory/Defeat table.
Reinforcing a mle
If a mle continues to a second round other units
can join in, if they can charge the enemy unit.
Bad war
If Landsknecht ght Swiss or other Landsknecht,
no quarter is given: the loser in each round (or both
sides if it is a draw) suers an additional FP.
Multiple unit mles
If multiple units ght a single unit, or vice versa:

Two units of French gendarmes (A and B) charge a


unit of Swiss pike (C) frontally. All three units are
elite. Both French units are formed (A has 0FPs, B
has 1) but the Swiss currently are unformed (2FPs)
having been shot at earlier. Mle factors are:
French count superior impetus and state for a total of +2.
Swiss count superior weapon for a total of +1.
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

29

Quality is the same (all elite) and numbers are


the same (one size 2 unit vs two size 1 units).
The French have the advantage and so roll the D20
on the +1 line of the mle results table. They roll
17 which is a Major Victory. Looking on the Mle
Outcome: Major Victory/Defeat table with gendarmes
as the winner and Non-disordered Pike as the loser,
the Swiss suer 3FPs (taking them to a total of 5, still
unformed), the French gendarmes 1FP each (which
unforms unit B). The Swiss must rally and the gendarmes
can choose either to break into them or through
them. A decides to break through and B breaks in.
Next move, the mle continues between the Swiss
and gendarmes B. Quality, weapon and state are all the
same now, as the gendarmes are also unformed, and
both sides are counting mle weapons rather than pike/
lance because the gendarmes are in amongst the pike.
Mle factors are:
French count superior impetus for a total of +1.
Swiss count superior numbers (size
2 vs 1) for a total of +1.
With +1 each it is an even ght. The gendarmes roll
the D20 as they initiated the combat but this time they
roll 7 a Defeat! Reading o the Mle Outcome:
Major Victory/Defeat table the gendarmes suer 2FPs
and must Rally back. The Swiss must Rally and suer
1FP this takes them to 6FP, disordering them.

Did you know...?

Landsknecht mercenaries who wielded the famous wavyedged two-handed sword known as the amberge were
paid double the normal rates because of the dangerous
work they did, and were called Doppelsldner as a result.

Mle Outcome: Victory/Defeat


Winner
(suers 1FP)
Pike or Missile Foot

Gendarmes

Light Horse

Loser (suers 2FPs)


Non-disordered Pike

Other foot

Gendarmes

Light Horse

Winner: Rally/Follow up1

Winner: Rally/Follow up1

Winner: Rally (and jeer!)

Winner: Rally

Loser: Recoil

Loser: Recoil

Gendarmes: Rally back

Mounted: Rally back

Gendarmes:
Break in/through

Men at Arms: Pursue

Winner: Rally/Follow up

Men at Arms: Pursue

Pike: Rally

Foot: Rout

Loser: Recoil

Loser: Rout

Mtd: Break in/through

Mtd: Pursue

Winner: Rally/Follow up

Winner: Rally or
Rally back

Pike: Rally

Foot: Rout

Loser: Recoil

Loser: Rally back

1. Swiss, or Landsknechts ghting bad war opponents, must always follow up or pursue.

Mle Outcome: Major Victory/Defeat


Winner
(suers 1FP)

Non-disordered Pike

Disordered Pike or
Missile Foot
Gendarmes or
Light Horse

30

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Loser (suers 3FPs)


Non-disordered Pike

Other foot

Gendarmes

Light Horse

Winner: Rally/Follow up1

Pike: Rally/Pursue1

Pike: Rally (and jeer!)

Pike: Rally

Loser: Recoil

Foot: Rout

Gendarmes: Rout

Mounted: Rout

Foot: Rally

Winner: Pursue

Foot: Rally

Foot: Rally

Pike: Recoil

Loser: Rout

Gendarmes: Rout

Mounted: Rout

Mtd: Break in/through

Mtd: Pursue

Mtd: Pursue

Winner: Pursue

Pike: Rally

Foot: Rout

Gendarmes: Rout

Loser: Rout

Mle and morale outcome denitions


Results

FPs

Denition

Recoil

Immediately fall back 1 hex, facing the enemy.

Follow up

Immediately follow up a recoiling opponent 1 hex, maintaining contact.


The mle continues next move.

Break in

Immediately break into the opponents formation/hex. The mle continues next move. Both sides count
mle weapons rather than Pike/Lance. (Physically, both units stay in the same hexes.)

Break through

Immediately break out of the opposite side of the opponent into an adjacent hex,
facing in the same direction.

Hold

Next move, remain in the current hex, facing in the same direction. May not charge or move but may re.
May attempt to remove FPs in the Rally/Reform phase.

Rally

Next move, form up in the current hex, in any desired facing/formation. May not charge, move, or re. May
attempt to remove FPs in the Rally/Reform phase.

Rally back

Next move, form up a normal move to the rear, facing in the same direction. May not charge or re. May
attempt to remove FPs in the Rally/Reform phase.

Retreat

Next move, retreat a rapid move to the rear, facing away from the enemy. May not charge or re. Rally the
move after that.

Rout

In subsequent moves, rout a rapid move to the rear, facing away from the enemy. After the initial hex of
movement the unit is treated as open order. Continue routing until the unit is safe (see below), when it
may test to recover its morale. If it either fails this test, reaches its dispersal value, or routs o the table, it
disperses and is removed from play. If it passes its morale test, it must rally in the following move.

Pursue

In subsequent moves, pursue the routing unit at rapid speed until the routers either break contact or disperse.
The move after that, the pursuing unit must either rally or rally back.
If a pursuing unit is still in contact when routers leave the table it follows them o and tests morale at the end
of that move. If it fails this test, it disperses in pursuit and is removed from play. If it passes, it must rally (o
table) in the following move, and can then re-enter the table in the same hex the following move.

MORALE

When to Test Morale


A unit must test morale for each of the following causes
that applies, at the indicated point in the move sequence:
End of the Compulsory moves phase if a friendly
routing unit has moved within two hexes of it. Close
Order units ignore routing Open Order units.
In the Charge phase to charge or to respond to a
charge, unless the unit is Gendarmes, Pike, or if the
unit is lance-armed light horse (stradiots or ginetes)
testing to charge an Open Order or disordered unit.
End of the Shooting phase if a unit
reaches its panic value in FPs.
End of the Mle phase if a unit reaches its panic
value in FPs, or sees a friendly unit rout or disperse
or a friendly general killed within two hexes.
Close Order units ignore Open Order units.
In the Rally/Reform phase to rally from rout.
How to Test Morale
Roll 1 D6 per test, needing a basic roll of 3, 4 or 5 to pass if
the unit is Elite, Regular or Poor, modied by the following:
Morale Factors
+1 for...
Friendly general within one hex.
Unit is in cover (e.g. in woods, behind earthworks).
Unit is safe (i.e. there are no enemy units in a position
to re on or charge you).
If testing to evade per hex between the unit and
the unit charging it.

Each failed test drops the unit down one


aggression level, where the levels are:

1. Advance (including Charge/Follow up/


Pursue/Break in or through)
2. Hold (including Rally)
3. Recoil (including Evade or Rally Back)
4. Retreat
5. Rout
The units current level is dened
by its current/last action.
For example, a unit of light horse (Regular) sees
two friends rout past it during the Compulsory moves
phase. It rolls two D6 and rolls 5 and 3, so failing one
test. Last move it advanced, so it must now Hold this
turn. In the Shooting phase, it receives 2FPs and reaches
its Panic value, forcing it to test again. This time it rolls
a 2, failing again, forcing it to recoil immediately.

REFORMING

If a unit amasses its Panic Value in FPs


it must take a morale test.
If a unit amasses its Dispersal Value in FPs it
immediately disperses and is removed from play.
During the Rally/Reform phase, a unit can attempt to
remove half of its current total FPs (rounded up), provided
it did not charge, move, shoot or ght earlier in the turn.
A unit that is reforming can attempt to
remove FPs that it has just received in the
same move as a result of being red on.
Roll a D6 for each FP, requiring a basic roll of
4+ to remove it, with the following modiers:
+1 general with unit (in the same hex)
+1 unit is Elite
-1 unit is Poor
For example, an Elite Swiss pike block has 5FPs. It
spends a turn reforming and in the Rally/Reform phase
can roll to remove 3FPs, requiring a 3+. It throws 1, 4
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

31

and 5 and removes 2FPs. It spends next turn reforming


as well, and can then attempt to remove two of its
remaining three FPs, again requiring 3+ to do so.

RISK TO GENERALS

Generals are mounted as single gures and can join


or leave units at will, by moving to the same hex.
If a general is in the same hex as a unit that is either shot
at or ghts in mle (whether it takes FPs or not), roll a D20
to see if the general is killed. A roll of 20 removes the general.

A FINAL WORD

Sans Peur et Sans Reproche is not the denitive


set of rules for the Italian Wars. I hope, however,
that it is a set that you can easily tinker with and
adjust to produce a game that you enjoy and that
ts your own interpretation of the Italian Wars.

EDITORS TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

The Italian Wars can provide some of the most exciting


and colourful wargaming available. Here are some of the
companies that make 15mm gures suitable for the period:
Venexia Miniatures: www.venexiaminiatures.com. Their
site also has a lovely collection of ags that are free to
download for you to print out and adorn your units.
Mirliton: www.vexillia.ltd.uk/mirliton/index.html.
Miniature Figurines: www.miniaturegurines.co.uk.
Essex Miniatures: www.essexminiatures.co.uk
Black Hat Miniatures: www.coatdarms.com. (Confused?
You will be Black Hat actually manufacture the renaissance
gures that used to be branded as Gladiator Games!
Coat dArms is their excellent range of acrylic paints.)
Falcon Figures: www.thequartermaster.com
Ital Model: www.italmodel.com
Old Glory 15s: www.oldglory15s.com.

TIME TO (RE)SUBSCRIBE TO BATTLEGAMES


IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM THE EDITOR

Weve reluctantly had to increase our cover price from 3.50 to 3.75 with
eect from this issue. However, were sure youll agree this still represents
terric value for money when you consider the outstanding content you
nd in every issue of Battlegames. Weve also simplied our postage
catagories, since all Rest of the World subs are now sent via Economy
Airmail by our distributor. No more long waits for surface mail!
Subscribe securely via www.battlegames.co.uk using your PayPal account
or your favourite debit or credit card. Or send us a cheque drawn on a UK
bank, made payable to Battlegames Ltd. Or send your card details to us:
go to our websites subscription section for details, or use this form (a
copy will do). Or call +44 (0)1273 323320 to use a card over the phone.

Subscription for 6 issues: UK 22.50 POST FREE, EU 27.50 incl.


p&p. Rest of the World Economy Airmail: 34.50 incl. p&p.

I would like to order______ subscription(s) and/or______binders.


Please complete in BLOCK CAPITALS. Items marked * are not
present on all cards, but please provide them if they are.

Name on card
Address

Postcode/ZIP

Country

Telephone incl. area code


Type of card (please . We can only accept Maestro from UK residents.)

Back issues are available of BG2, 3, 4, 5 and 6: see our website..

STOP PRESS! BATTLEGAMES BINDERS

Would you like to keep your copies of the


magazine neat, tidy and safe for posterity?
Were having some lovely binders made in
black leather eect, with BATTLEGAMES
embossed in gold on the front and spine (see
visual, left. Final product may vary slightly
from this impression). They hold 12 issues each
and are available for 7.50 plus postage. You
can use this form to order them or use the
shop on our website.
UK 9.50 including p&p
Europe 10.50 including p&p
Rest of the World 12.50 including p&p
Please allow up to 28 days for delivery as these
binders are ordered and delivered to us in batches.

32

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Card
No.
Start/valid from date*
Issue
number*

Expiry date

Card Security Code (last 3 digits on the back)

Please debit the total amount of ................................ from my card account detailed
above. I understand that my card will not be debited until goods are dispatched.
Data Protection: Battlegames Ltd complies with the Data Protection Act. The
information you give us will only be used for a single Customer Not Present
transaction and the delivery of your magazines.
FOR YOUR SECURITY, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN THIS FORM

Send postal subscriptions and purchases to:


Subscriptions, Battlegames Ltd,
17 Granville Road, Hove BN3 1TG, East Sussex, UK.
Web: www.battlegames.co.uk Email: info@battlegames.co.uk

Table top teaser


River convoy, or Messing about on the river
by Brigadier (Retd) C.S. Grant OBE

INTRODUCTION

At the end of our second Rosetta Stone battle (issue 6), my


son and I sat down to review our future wargame projects,
as is our wont. The result is somewhat more complex
than recent Table Top Teasers in terms of mechanics and
rules, and indeed there is scope for further elaboration,
but I hope you will nd it worthwhile we did.

PERIOD

The scenario was played as a Napoleonic action, but it


could easily cover any horse and musket period and, with
a bit of adaptation, it can be set before that, for example
with Romans and Gauls. The game mechanisms, move
distances and so on, are designed for 25mm gures and
would need to be altered to accommodate dierent scales.

BACKGROUND

The problem concerns a river convoy and its escort


negotiating a safe passage through potentially hostile
territory to deliver its cargo to a riverside town.

GROUND

The map shows a broad river owing from east to west.

Shortly after entering the table, it divides. Each branch


can take the convoy to its destination o the table to the
west, but with varying hazards. These hazards are marked
1 to 6 and are described in the section on river hazards.
Entry points for the escort and convoy are marked as A
and points for the attacking forces are marked B, C, D
and E. There are two bridges, several woods, a farmhouse
and town as well as some hills and broken ground.

ORDERS FOR THE CONVOY (AUSTRIAN)

Situation
You are the escort commander for a convoy of supplies
that are destined to be delivered to a signicant
defended town to the west, o the table.
Mission
To move a river-borne convoy through
hostile territory to safety.
Forces
The convoy. The convoy contests of four
barges loaded with supplies.
Four barges of supplies, each crewed by two gures:
Two Danube escort boats; each would have a crew
of 20 men of which 14 were at the bank of seven oars
on each side. In the battle, I used two gures per boat
and kept a paper record of losses from the 20.

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

33

The land escort.


The river-borne
convoy has
a land-based
element to
support it. It
consists of the
following:
One regiment
of hussars
Two battalions
of infantry
One battery of
horse artillery

A scene of calm and tranquillity. The Austrian land-based escort, an escort ship and convoy of barges
on the river. All photos taken live by the author of models and gures in his collection

Coordinating instructions
Prior to the disclosure of any of the enemy (French) forces
on the table, the convoy commander must determine the
deployment of the land-based element. The dismounted
escort enter at point A on move 1, distributed on
either side of the river as the commander wishes.

ORDERS FOR THE ATTACKER (FRENCH)

Situation
The attacker has a cavalry outpost, equivalent to one
squadron of dragoons, at the inside of the fork in the river
at the junction (B). At (C) is a hussar outpost, which can
see the approach to the river fork. In the town (D) are
two battalions of infantry and half a battery of artillery
(one gun). A similar force, with a the remainder of the
dragoons regiment, is o the table some way south of E.
The remaining hussars are o the table to the west of F.
Mission
To destroy or capture the enemy river convoy before it
sails into safer territory (i.e. o the table to the west).

Forces
One regiment
of hussars
One regiment
of dragoons
(dragoons
may operate
dismounted
if the player
desires)
Four
regiments
of infantry
One battery
of two guns

Coordinating instructions
When the Austrian escort and lead boat enter at A on move
1, the dragoons at B will act as ordered and the hussars at
C may move to alert the village at D. The garrison at D (two
regiments of infantry and a half battery of artillery) may not
deploy until alerted by the arrival of the squadron from C.
At the same time, the attackers draw one of three
envelopes, which will determine the move on which his
second force (the remainder of the dragoon regiment,
two regiments of infantry and the other gun) appear at F
marching back to the town D. The three envelopes each
have a dierent move written on a slip of paper in them.
More detail is given in the section on game mechanics.

GAME MECHANICS

Arrival of the remainder of the hussar regiment


The remaining squadrons of the hussar regiment at C are
returning from patrol to the east and will arrive at E at
some stage in the day. From move 3 onwards, the attacker
throws a single d6. They will enter when a 6 is thrown.

A scene from the rst game. The Austrian escort have been overrun by both infantry and dragoons and the gun is in peril. On the water, a barge has run
aground on an island, harassed by re from dismounted dragons on the far side, and the escort ship is making its way past.

34

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Entry of the attacking force from F


At the start of the game the attacker draws one of three
sealed envelopes to determine the arrival of his force
at F. The envelopes have slips showing moves 8, 10
and 12 respectively in them. The convoy player does
not know the result of the draw. On the appropriate
move, the force enters at F in column of march.
River movement
River movement is divided as follows:
Craft
normal speed
maximum speed
Escort boats
7
9
Barges
6
7
Maximum speed can only be maintained for
two moves, after which the craft is restricted
to normal speed for four moves.
River hazards
There are a number of hazards on the river to negotiate.
Number

Hazard

Action

As the lead escort ship enters the table,


the player may opt to go left right or split
his force. The escort ships will take the
Twin forks fork as ordered. However, as each barge
approaches the fork in turn, throw a d6.
A 1 means that it takes the opposite fork
to the direction ordered.

As each craft approaches the whirlpool,


roll a d6. A throw of 1 means that it is
Whirlpool caught in the whirlpool. Thereafter, roll
a d6 on each move: 4, 5 or 6 allows it to
escape, but a 1 will sink it.

Small
islands

As each barge approaches the islands,


roll a d6. A 2 or 3 and it goes left, 4,5
or 6 right. A throw of 1 will mean that
it runs into the islands. Once aground,
roll a d6 for it each move. 4, 5 or 6 and it
oats free, but a 1 will sink it. Once clear,
throw again: 2 or 3 and it goes left, 4,5 or
6 right. 1 means it runs aground again!

Bridges

As each barge (not escort boats, which


are deemed to have better control)
arrives at a bridge, roll a d6. A throw
of 1 means that it hits the side of the
bridge. Roll another d6: 1, the barge
sinks, causing a blockage that will take
two moves to clear; 2, the barge sinks
causing a blockage that will take one
move to clear; 3, the barge sinks causing
no obstruction; 4, the barge takes one
move to come unstuck during this time
nothing else can pass; 5, the barge takes
one move to come unstuck but others
can pass; 6, the barge moves as normal
on the next move.

Island
divide

As each craft approaches the island,


roll a d6. A 1 means that it runs into the
islands. A throw of 2 or 3 and it will go
left, 4, 5 or 6 right. Once aground, roll a
d6 each move. A throw of 4, 5 or 6 and it
oats free, but a 1 will sink it.

As each barge approaches the fork, roll


2d6. A double 1 means that it takes the
Rocky fork
left-hand fork away from home and is
lost!

If an escort craft is down to half moves either


through loss of crew or direct damage (see later

rules), then it has less control and will be treated


as a barge when approaching a hazard.
Artillery re on barges and boats
There are two eects that artillery have on escort boats and
one on barges. In the former case, successful artillery re
can cause both casualties and damage to the boat, but with
the barges, it is simply a question of damage to the boat.
Depending on your own tactical rules the table
below is applied to a direct hit by throwing a d6.
Dice
throw

Short
range

Medium
range

Long
range

no eect

no eect

no eect

1 casualty

no eect

no eect

1 hit
1 casualty

no eect

no eect

2 hits
3 casualties

1 hit
2 casualties

no hit
1 casualty

3 hits
4 casualties

2 hits
3 casualties

1 hit
2 casualties

4 hits
4 casualties

3 hits
3 casualties

2 hits
2 casualties

Each time a 6 is thrown, roll another d6 a


further 6 will sink the boat or barge outright.
Musketry re on barges
While the small number of crew mean that artillery
re eect is only considered in terms of damage to the
barge, musketry re will cause casualties. Assuming
each barge is crewed by four gures, casualties from
re are calculated under the same conditions as
normal musketry rules on an open order target.
Results of artillery and musketry re on barges and boats
The result of accumulated re is as follows:
Escort boats will reduce speed by one quarter for
every ve men lost or every ve points lost.
Barges will reduce speed by one quarter for every
ve points of damage or crewman lost.
A barge with no crew will run aground on the next move.

WINNING THE GAME

Now let me consider the dicult business of determining


the requirements for victory. The question from the Austrian
viewpoint must be what level of successful re-supply will
satisfy the military requirement. To that end, three barges
will be a success, two a draw and any less defeat. The survival
or otherwise of the escort ships must also play a part.
The loss of an escort ship will raise the number of barges
required by one to four for success and three for a draw.

POSTSCRIPT

In conclusion, I have several observations. The rst is that


the reader may have observed that the Austrian escort
craft shown in the photos have been scratch built. I found
an example of a halb tschaika riverboat in the Osprey
Men-at-Arms Austrian Auxiliary Troops 1792 1816
and could not resist making a couple. Likewise, having
found details of the tschaikisten boatmen, I converted
some assorted Jger gures, cutting o the muskets and
replacing them with poles. Of course, none of this is
really necessary, and a much simpler representation of
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

35

escort boats and pontoons will suce for the scenario.


Turning to the game, after a playtest to make
sure the rules provided a degree of balance,
we fought it twice, changing sides so we each
had a go at commanding the convoy.
On both occasions, the battle went down to the wire,
with a draw on the rst occasion and a victory for the
French (attackers) on the second. Memorable moments
and less so abound, like the sight of the Austrian general,

having lost most of his escort force, escaping on a barge!


Or the sight of the island junction covered with the
debris of an escort boat, destroyed by French artillery,
and a grounded barge. Or there is the tale of the French
hussars that never got onto the table in 17 moves. Can
you really throw a die 17 times and not get a 6? I can!
I could go on, but what I can say is that I am
sure that this scenario will generate lots of dierent
memorable moments for you try it and see.

In game two, the Austrians concentrated their escort on one side of the river, but sent barges up both rivers at the rst junction. Foundry gures, CSGs boats!

The second game, with chaos on the river. An escort ship is unmasted and sunk, a barge has been sunk and its crew and debris are stranded on the island,
while a further barge and escort ship prepare to run the gauntlet, but Austrian infantry are closing in on the French gun.

36

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

To boldly go...

Looking a Mongoose in the eye


by Guy Hancock

n the world of fantasy and sci wargaming there are some


big names: Games Workshop;
Rackham; and Wizards of the Coast
(part of Hasbro since 1999). After
these companies comes the next level
of businesses working to meet the
needs of gamers like me and, maybe,
you. Though it is dicult
to provide exact
comparisons between
these rms (do you
measure them by the
number of employees,
revenue, number of
gamers using their
wares or their range
of products?) the
leaders in this pack are
Mongoose Publishing
and Privateer Press.
Mongoose, the UKs
second biggest fantasy
and sci- wargames
company, was formed
six years ago by Matthew Sprange and
Alex Fennell. Their initial focus was
on d20-based products for roleplayers.
This range includes complete
campaign packs for games masters, the
Quintessential range covering every
class and race in fantasy d20 games,
arcane and monster encyclopaedias,
and much more. Its easy to see why
they are the countrys leading publisher
of roleplaying games. Since 2004, they
have entered the world of miniatures
gaming with the Mighty Armies 15mm
range and Babylon 5 A Call to Arms
spaceship combat. Since then, they
have moved into plastic miniatures
with Gangs of Mega City One, a
skirmish game based on the world
of Judge Dredd, and the mass battle
game Starship Troopers. By 2006 this
had won a Best New Game award
from Origins and has a range of more
than 50 metal and plastic releases. To
round things o, as if they needed to
with around 2,000 dierent product
codes in their range, Mongoose also
have novels, a few card games and
Thud, the Discworld board game.

The company holds tournaments


at their oces three times a year.
On a sunny day in February, I
was fortunate enough to be able to
make the trip down to Swindon and
spend a very pleasant afternoon
discussing all things wargaming with
Matthew Sprange. Despite the fact
that the majority of their revenue
still comes from the roleplaying side
of the business, my focus was on the
miniatures rules and gures. And,
amongst his other duties,
Matthew alsowrites
the rules for their
miniatures games!
Not being that
professional, I didnt
tape the conversation,
but made scribbled
notes as we chatted.
The following is my
reconstruction of our
talk, based on my
scrawl, about designing
games and the future
for Mongoose.
When he wrote A
Arms Matthew knew
Call to Arms,
that the movement system was the key
to the game. Once that was nished, he
realized that the solution he had come
up with was the same as Battleeet
Gothic. Further
thought on the
matter brought the
conclusion that there
is no point in trying
to come up with
something dierent,
just for the sake
of being dierent.
It may be fair to
say that other
games companies
have suered
from exactly
that problem.
He then started
to look at and
develop the
core systems, or
mechanics, of the
games. This resulted in his thinking
that you could use identical systems for
a number of games, using only the unit
cards to dierentiate them. The validity

of his idea is borne out by the success


of Victory at Sea. This is a game of
WWII naval warfare, but it uses the
core game system from the spaceship
combat game A Call to Arms.
From Matthews point of view,
the rules should be fun and easy to
grasp. It is important that players have
something to do when it isnt their
turn. This type of interaction is what
helps to keep the game interesting
for all players. There should also be
something which isnt apparent just
from reading the rules; something
which only comes out when you
actually play the game. Matthew
also eschews the use of optional
rules for the simple reason that he
believes they never get used, and I
can see his point; I dont think I can
recall the last time I used any of the
optional rules in the games I play.
Mongooses rules tend to use a
priority system, instead of the common
points system, for building forces.
This came about after Matthew spent
some time looking at naval games and
noticed a trend where things grouped
together into points clumps. These
clumps seemed to fall around the 100
or 200 point mark. For example, you
would get ships at 195, 200 and 205
points, but they were all, essentially,
the same. So he decided to put them
all into one
category and,
when you do
that, why do you
need points for
them? Hes also
noticed the same
tendency with
aerial combat, but
more on that later.
In designing the
dozen eets which
make up the range
for A Call to Arms
Arms,
it was important
to make sure that
each eet had
something unique
and something very
scary. At the same
time, they all had to be balanced and,
in working towards that, it became
clear that what you leave out is at least
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

37

rth London Wargames Group toured this extremely popular Starship Troopers game around the
shows last year. Here, they were drawing crowds all day at SELWG, Crystal Palace in October 2006..

as important was what you include.


Despite all of the thinking
and hard work, Mongoose arent
precious about their products. On
their Web forum, the company has
an open policy for feedback and
questions about rules. And, if it
is appropriate, they are willing to
make changes in response to this.
And what does the future hold?
Well, Mongoose have already
planned their release schedule for the
next three years. This includes their
Battleeld Evolution game, a series
of pre-painted miniatures which will
sell for 20 and 15 for the infantry
and vehicles respectively. Whilst
the company have sculptors for
their metal gures, for the vehicles,
they provide the manufacturer with
technical drawings. For the plastic
gures, Matthew and Alex provide
the factory with drawings and
information. The factory then uses
their own sculptors to produce the
gures. And Mongoose arent going
to produce any army lists or books
for this range. All of the information
you need to play with these models is
included on a double-sided A3 sheet
in the box. This is supported with
free downloads from their website.
In the coming months, we can also
expect to see pre-painted miniatures
for Starship Troopers and they may be
producing something for the American
Civil War with another company.
But there were two developments
Matthew told me about which I think
are really exciting. The rst of these
38

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

across the globe. However, this is all


soon to change with the arrival in their
Swindon oces of some pretty fancy
digital printing equipment. In fact, the
very spot where we sat and talked has
been earmarked as the location for the
new machines (though I dont know
where they plan to put the chairs,
sofa and coee table!). Anyway, this
equipment will allow them to print
any of their vast range of publications
as and when it is needed. This means
that they will no longer have to worry
about keeping stock of rule sets and
other publications. Instead, when
someone orders one of these products,
they will simply run o a copy just
for that customer. And that includes
the hardback editions! Matthew is also
quite aware, with an entrepreneurial
eye, that their spare printing capacity
will be very attractive to other rms,
and not just in the wargames market.
But this shouldnt be any surprise; after
all as Matthew said Were gamers
at heart, but this is a business.
With such a strong range of
products, sound business thinking
and a plan for the future, I think we
can rest assured that Mongoose are
going to be around for a while and
that we can look forward to exciting
developments in their product range.

is a World War II aerial combat game


that the guys are working on. The
rules are going through some rigorous
playtesting and there is some work
needed to nish o the models, but it
looks really promising and I want to
give it a try as soon as possible. After
playing with those Airx models all
those years ago, I could nally get to
complete a dogght, rather than just
pretending.
I dont want to
say anything
more about it at
the moment as,
unfortunately,
I dont think
that would be
appropriate.
Probably the
most exciting
development
coming to
Mongoose has
nothing to do
with new gures
or games. No,
the big move is
going to be... in
publishing! Now,
I know you might
think So what?,
but listen to
this. Mongoose,
like many rms,
currently has
their printing
produced in
Contraptioneering at its best. Seen at Action 2007 in Rheindahlen, this
China and then
splendid piece was created by John Elbro, who staged his Starship Troopers
shipped back
game despite a mild heart attack earlier that week! An extraordinary eort.

Recce
Products and services scrutinised by our team
Battlegames strives to give fair, unbiased
and truthful reviews of all products
and services. The views expressed
here are those of the reviewers
concerned, who have been asked to
express their honest opinions.

First of all, a correction. I received


this email after issue 6 hit the streets:
Hi Henry
Thanks to Mike Siggins for a very
kind review of The Age of Arthur
in the latest issue of the magazine.
I just feel I have to make one
correction to Mikes piece. The
Shieldwall supplement for
Warhammer Ancient Battles was
written by neither James nor I,
although James did contribute some
gures that were photographed
for the colour section. James did
write the El Cid supplement.
The excellent Shieldwall was
written by Stephen Patten, and
without his earlier work our book
would have been the poorer.
Thanks
Best wishes to you and yours
Steve Jones
Our apologies for the error, Steve.

STRATEGIA E TATTICA

28mm medievals
This pack of four medieval footmen
are of reasonable quality, retailing at
a decent price of 5.00 Euro (roughly
3.50). Each gure is posed dierently,
and arrives with a separate head
and weapon (this pack came with a
two-handed axe, a falchion, and two
studded clubs), allowing for plenty of
variety in your units. Size wise, these
gures t in quite well alongside the
other medieval footmen Ive owned
(Foundry, Black Tree, Qualticast).
Sculpting detail on these gures
is very good in my view nice,
clean sculpts without a lot of extra
detail. This makes the gures easy
to paint (great swathes of detail on
a 28mm miniature look great when
tackled by a competent painter,
but I frequently ounder on it!).
On the down side, one of the heads
appears to be much smaller than the

other three I guess we can allow for


human variation here and I found
the heads a little tricky to lop o of
their sprue and t correctly (that could
be my lack of skill as a modeller); I also
managed to break one of the weapons
when testing its t in a gures hands.
Speaking of the hands, these are
poorly cast on the review pack; they
appear to be cut o at the base of the
ngers, allowing weapons to be tted
without too much ling, but with the
undesired eect of looking like your
troops have suered severe wounds
before theyve fought their rst mle.
All in all, not the most stunning
medieval gures Ive seen (whatever
happened to Qualiticast does
anybody know?), but they will add
variety to your army and certainly
arent shockers when painted up. The
Strategia e Tattica website is useful,
including photos of most of the gures,
and even with my lack of linguistic
skills, I found my way around the
Italian language site easily enough.
Dan Mersey

STRATEGIA E TATTICA

15mm ancients
Oh dear, I feel a bit bad about
this review. I wasnt frothing with
enthusiasm about the Strategia e
Tattica 28mm medievals, and Im
really not too keen on their 15mms.
However, Henry asked me for an
honest review, so here goes.
These gures (SAS2: Sassanid
armoured cavalry and SAM1: Samnite
command) remind me why I stopped
painting 15mm gures and sold my
collection o. The quality is as good
as youll see in most other 15mm
ranges they could stand side-by-side
with the ubiquitous Essex quite easily
(apart from the horses) and the
poses of the gures are pretty standard
(horsemen point their lances in the
air, swordsmen waggle their weapons
about a bit). The sculpting detail is very
good, too. But the proportions of these
gures dont do it for me. The humans
are a bit too cartoony (all heads, hands,
and dumpy bodies and legs), and the
horses, like most wargames horses,
are just not quite right. The horses, in
fact, are smaller than most others Ive

seen in this scale not a bad thing


when youre looking at ancient breeds
but Id nd them hard to mix in
with other manufacturers mounts.
Price-wise these packs are 2.60 Euro
(about 1.80), for four cavalry, eight
infantry, or in the case of the Samnite
command pack, four infantry and one
cavalry. The Strategia e Tattica website
illustrates the contents of the pack
very nicely (www.StrategiaeTattica.it),
and these gures are of equal quality
to plenty of other 15mm gures...
Theyre just not good enough to tempt
me back into ancients in this scale.
Dan Mersey

STRATEGIA E TATTICA

28mm Italian army gures


Strategia & Tattica are a company
previously unknown to me, who
produce gures in 25 and 28mm for
the Italian armies for their colonial
adventures in the late 19th Century
through to WWI and WWII. The
gures come in blister packs well
secured against damage with foam
inserts. Henry was nice enough to send
me three random packs for review:
The rst pack comes from the
colonial wars range B12 Penne
di Falco. Now, I had no idea who
Penne di Falco (the Hawk Feathers)
were, but a quick Google search later
revealed that they were an Italian
Colonial Cavalry unit which served
in Africa through the latter half of
the 19th Century, through to the
invasion of Abyssinia in the 1930s. The
unit was made up of native troopers
(Askari) and Italian ocers/NCOs.
The pack contained four ring
Askari (three standing, one kneeling).
Each man wears the units distinctive
cloth hat with hawk feather. The
gures are modelled in uniform with
bare feet and gaiters (exactly like the
illustrations I found on the internet).
Each man has lots of pouches and an
ammo bandolier and a pistol holster;
there are also loose scabbarded sabres
for you to t (or not). I wasnt happy
with the casting of the carbines as
these appeared crude and spoilt what
otherwise are quite nice gures.
The second Pack IT1 Mounted
Cavalry Ocers, was a pair of ocers
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

39

and their mounts. Each gure is


dressed in the WWII uniform of the
Savoia Cavalleria Regiment which
served on the Eastern Front as part
of Italys ill-fated contribution to that
disaster. The two horses are dierently
posed, one at the gallop the other
caught frozen in the act of jumping.
The galloping horse looks like a mule
to me (I think its the odd pose), the
jumping one seems ne. The riders,
who come attached to their saddles,
both wear standard Italian helmet
and uniform. They have no visible kit
except for a sword scabbard (obviously
travelling light). Each gure has a
separate sword arm which will allow
you to produce a number of variants by
altering the arms position. It was nice
to see that the gure for the jumping
horse was moulded leaning forward so
as to sit right on his mount. Unusual
and interesting gures, they got me
thinking back to a scenario which
featured in the Rapid Fire! rulebook
of an Italian cavalry charge against the
Russians at Chebotarevsky in August
1942: where did I put that rulebook?!
The last pack, and my personal
favourite, was GG7 Alpini attacking,
from their WWI range. These are
lovely gures, clearly Alpini with
their distinctive hat and feather.
There were four gures in three poses
advancing, running and a grenade
thrower, each gure wearing ankle
boots with puttees and armed with a
carbine. The running gure has only a
haversack, water bottle and bayonet;
but the others have full pack and
ammo pouches. The advancing gure
has a pick or ice axe hanging from
his pack too. All the gures are well
detailed and animated impressive.
Richard Baber

BACCUS 6MM

American Civil War


Ill confess it now Baccus have played
their part in getting me back into 6mm
wargaming. Gone (or going I move
quite slowly) are my storage issues,
fretful painting sessions where I try
to add extra shading to that 28mm
ngernail, and attempts to clear
enough space/buy a large enough
house to play a decent sized game in.
Baccus American Civil War
range oers up 8 packs of infantry
in combinations of hat/kepi, sack
coat/frock coat/shell jacket, and
formed or skirmish order. Formed
troops are lined up shoulder-to40

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

shoulder, advancing with shouldered


weapons (on a 20mm frontage of 4
gures); skirmish order come as a
strip of 4 gures to separate, with
a mixture of ring and reloading
troops. Two packets of fez-topped
Zouaves complete the infantry
range (formed and skirmishing
just like the other infantry).
Cavalry come both mounted
and dismounted, again with a
choice of hat or kepi (a total of 4
packs). Dismounted cavalrymen
come with horses for someone to
hold onto behind the ring line.
Artillery is in the form of a 12pdr and a Parrott, and theres a
separate limber pack. Being such
ddly little things, I was pleased to
nd that the artillery comes with a
supporting leg underneath, so the
model doesnt rely on just the two
nely-cast wheels for support.
Finally, theres a pack each of
Confederate and Union generals,
and a whole host of nicely printed
ags to identify your units with.
Ive had the chance to compare
these recent castings with some
older Baccus examples, and the
overall quality has got better over
the years. The bases are now less
weighty (old style Baccus bases were
a bit too chunky), and the crispness
of castings seems to have improved
(to my eyes, at least). The quality
of Baccus gures is far greater than
any other 6mm gures Ive owned.
Skirmishing infantry are 2.30 for
12 stands of 4 gures each, and the
same price for 1 artillery piece and
crew; formed infantry cost 4.60 for 24
stands of 4 men; cavalry cost 5.40 for
15 stands of 3 horsemen, or 2.30 for
10 stands of dismounted horsey types.
The Baccus website at www.
baccus6mm.com is a mine of
information and photos and has a lively
forum and, now, regular podcasts!
Dan Mersey

LOST BATTLEFIELDS OF BRITAIN

By Martin Hackett, published


by Sutton Publishing, 16.99
The British Isles have witnessed
many battles, both great and small, in
their two thousand years of recorded
history. Many of these battles are wellknown, either due to their far-reaching
consequences, their sheer scale, or the
involvement of famous combatants.
Others, however, have rarely been
properly investigated. In this book,

the author examines ten forgotten


British battles, covering the length
and breadth of Great Britain and
almost 900 years of warfare. The
battles featured are Buttington 893,
(First) St Albans 1455, Norwich 1549,
Powick Bridge 1642, Lyme 1644,
Montgomery 1644, Inverlochy 1645,
Stow-on-the-Wold 1646, Killiekrankie
1689 and Goudhurst 1747.
Some of the actions, notably
St Albans, Powick Bridge and
Killiekrankie could perhaps be
described as not often featured rather
than forgotten, and it will be seen that
the authors main focus is on the 17th
century, but these observations should
not be adjudged to detract from the
books overall interest and usefulness.
The author provides a concise
account for each of the battles
and the narrative is supported by
recent photographs of the area, a
modern map of the battleeld, plus
suggested tours and information
on exploring the site today.
Well worth adding to the bookshelf
or your cars glove compartment.
Stuart Asquith

TOUCHING HISTORY: RECREATING


HISTORY IN MINIATURE, ISSUE 3
A WARGAMES SPECIAL COVERING
THE SUDAN & WWII

Paul Darnell 13.99.


This booklet is the third in the
Touching History series by Paul
Darnell; while the previous two issues
have concentrated on one particular
period namely the Spanish Peninsula
during the Napoleonic Wars (No1)
and then the English Civil Wars
(No2) this issue features material
on the Sudan, World War II and the
American War of Independence.
The main text is preceded by a
two page spread penned by Paul
Darnells partner in praise of her
Dad, then there is another two page
section in which Paul sets out what
he is trying to achieve with this series,
followed by a page entitled Pauls
Reminiscences Part 3. To close this
opening section, there are three
pages pointing the reader towards
reference books that cover the two
main periods featured in the text.
The Sudan section opens on page
12 and features the battle at Hasheen
(20th March 1885) and after a very
sketchy historical introduction, looks
at the action as a wargame at some
length, 19 well-illustrated pages in

fact. There then follows a section


that suggests suitable items of terrain
that can be purchased and some
very generalised modelling tips.
The text now moves on to WW2
with a chapter covering a ctional
action at Rhinel Bridge in 1945.
Once again, the coverage is both
extensive and colourful, running
to some 24 pages. This is followed
by a chapter oering modelling
tips and recommendations.
There is then a double-page
spread showing the work of painter
Tom Weiss, and then three pages
showing scenes from an American
War of Independence scenario.
Some of the items that are included
are clearly heartfelt and well-meant,
but on reection are possibly
misplaced in this publication.
Purchasers looking for the same
style of concentrated coverage
that featured in the rst two
issues of Touching History may
well be somewhat disappointed
with the content of this one.
Contact details: Touching History,
2 Sumner Place, Lime Grove,
Addlestone, Surrey KT15 1QD.
Email touchbase@touching history.
co.uk, website www.touchinghistory.
co.uk. The books can be purchased
at UK wargame shows from Dave
Thomas and from Paul himself when
he stages displays of his work.
Stuart Asquith

WARHAMMER 40K
SPACE MARINE BOXES

Space Marine Devastator Squad, RRP


20.00, and Dark Angels Veteran Space
Marines, RRP 12.00
The Dark Angels are the latest
(re)release for 40K as part of the
wholesale makeover of these gures.
Devastators have been a core part of
Space Marine armies for years. Until
now, if you wanted these gures, you
had to use the metal miniatures. The
dierence here is that these boxed sets
each oer you ve plastic marines. This
is part of the companys policy of
making more gures, especially the
core elements of all their armies,
available in plastic.
Both of these boxes are little
goldmines of bits and pieces for your
models. In the Devastator box, spread
across three sprues, you have the
choice of eight heavy weapons: two
lascannon; one missile launcher; two
plasma cannon; one multi-melta; and

two heavy bolters. On top of this, you


have various weapon combinations for
a Sergeant, should you want to have
one in your squad. The Dark Angels
have an even larger range with over
a dozen right hand/weapon options,
depending on what you want to create.
Great thought that is, it isnt the
best part of these boxes. What makes
these sets stand out is the wealth of
little extra items on the sprues: the
Dark Angels have nine dierent heads
and the Devastators a choice of seven.
On top of the leg/torso/head/weapon
combinations there are pouches,
knives, holsters, scrolls, icons and
various decorative items that allow
you to make models which wont just
look the same as your opponents.
And whoever is designing this stu
at Games Workshop is getting the
small details right. For example,
the left and right arms are next to
each other on the sprue, so you can
easily pair up the bits you want.
The level of detail on all of the pieces
is excellent. In fact, it is everything
you would expect from one of the
leading gure manufacturers. With
their owing robes, the Dark Angels
could even be described as sumptuous.
Just looking at the sprues, and you can
study them for hours, is enough to
tempt you into buying these gures.
What are they like to assemble?
Each box comes with a little
pamphlet of instructions; proof, if
it were needed, that there are too
many choices here to get by with a
simple diagram on the back of the
box. Some of the optional details
are left totally up to you, with a
picture to say Yes, this can go on
this gure, but no other guidance.
I remember making my (old
metal) Devastators and, due to the
connections between the left arm,
the right arm/gun, and a backpack,
feeling the distinct need for a third
hand. I also have the vivid memory
of very nearly super-gluing myself
to the gure when trying to hold all
of these parts together as they set.
The move to plastic has, thankfully,
made life much easier. Yes, there
are still the multitudinous parts to
connect but, because youre now
working with plastic glue, you have
the time to work a piece at a time.
The result is a much less fraught
process and a great-looking model.
Sadly, as with so much, there is a
downside. In this case it is the mould

lines. Not only is it a pain having to


spend time removing these lines from
every little part, but the problem is
actually made worse by the quality
of the model. With many parts,
there is a danger of damaging the
ne detail when trying to remove a
mould line. Considering that these
must be (fairly) new moulds, I have
to say that I am disappointed with
the amount of cleaning required.
So, we have beautiful gures,
a fantastic range of options
and accessories, but lots of
cleaning up required.
Guy Hancock

AIR ASSAULT TASK FORCE

Shrapnel Games, $45


This is the latest game in the excellent
AATF simulation series from Shrapnel
Games. As you might imagine, this
time we are dealing with air assaults by
helicopter. This covers such infamous
theatres as Vietnam, Somalia and
Afghanistan and, yes, you can if you
wish listen to Wagner while playing
this one. While I would normally not
be interested in any of the periods
oered, I am rather taken by the
workings of helicopter insertion and
evacuation operations. I just imagine
they are Imperial Stormtroopers
As per normal, I ignored the
training missions and got straight into
Blackhawk Down, a simple scenario set
in Mogadishu. I liked the eponymous
movie, and so had a feel for what was
going on and what I should be doing.
After that, all one has to do is convert
a mental plan into game commands.
AATF is actually pretty easy to operate,
given the level of detail (wind speed
calculations, for instance) it builds
into the model. An easily-understood
array of icons and commands gets
us underway in very little time. I was
soon able to deploy my helicopters,
set routes and combat modes, and in
time my Rangers and Special Forces
secured the area after a hard ght. For
anyone used to computer simulations,
there is nothing too dicult here
and apart from a slightly sluggish
mouse cursor, learning went well.
The game really scores in the AI
department. As I have said before, the
AATF series AI is top notch, but this
is a new, even whiter whites system.
I have to say it is hard to check that
claim, but I can vouch for the fact
that enemy units do seem to make
logical moves, are endishly clever, and
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

41

can get you into some really dicult


situations. The good news, though
I havent yet tried it, is that the new
AI system is apparently backwards
compatible with earlier ATF titles
just load a scenario and go.
The only real gripe I have is that
the game can occasionally become
cluttered. By that I mean when there
are a lot of units in close proximity,
the map zoom feature (even on
maximum) doesnt manage to
separate the icons out. You can
easily identify what is in the
clump by clicking, but it looks
messy as it moves towards its
target. I found this less of an issue
when using top-down images
rather than NATO symbols.
Apart from that, the game
looks great. Shrapnel have pulled
out some really impressive,
atmospheric maps, which range
in scale from rolling topology
to individual street blocks in
urban scenarios. These are
overlaid with Blackhawks,
tanks, planes, Apaches and
Chinooks and various infantry
(well, cavalry technically?) units.
These go down to the reteam
level, with those scenarios I
have played so far at around
company level. The game also
oers the promise of campaign
settings, which sadly time did not
permit me to check out fully.
As with many of Shrapnels
titles, AATF is hardcore: in
subject, implementation and
gameplay. It is not to be taken
lightly, and I suspect it will appeal
pretty much exclusively to fans of
modern, tactical situations. It ts
in well with their growing range
of professional simulation games,
and if this level and intensity is your
weakness, I recommend AATF highly.
Mike Siggins

PAINTING SERVICE:
GJM FIGURINES

I dont generally festoon the magazine


with eye-candy, but when it comes to
evaluating a painting service, theres
not really much option but to show
you photos of the results! (Left)
I provided Gerrard (Ged) Cronin
of GJM a clutch of my Newline 20mm
Napoleonics, slated for my Salamanca
project, and asked him to come up
with a couple of command vignettes,
one of Sir Arthur Wellesley with an
42

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

ADC from the Light Dragoons, the


other of Marshal Marmont with an
assistant in the form of a hussar. I
left the rest to him and the photos
show what he came up with.
You can make your own minds up
but Im a very happy bunny indeed!
Call GJM on 01689 828474,
and he has a website at www.
gjmgurines.co.uk.
Henry Hyde

this splendid dragon. A stunning


model, capturing the coiled
menace and immense power of the
monster, with just a hint of fear in
the face of the cornered beast.
Some modelling skill is required;
the wings would benet from
pinning and, as is customary with
these larger metal kits, the imperfect
joins need closing with putty.
Not cheap, and alternative options
are available for the thrifty,
even including plastic toys
refreshed with a paint job, but
for those gamers willing to pay
for a piece of signicant style
and presence on the table, this is
very much the Ferrari of wyrms.
Steve Gill

EUREKA MINIATURES

KHAZAD-DUM DRAGON

The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle


Game, Games Workshop, 30
We have had a steady ow of
remarkably high-quality gures for
this range and the new Khazad-Dum
supplement continues the ne work.
I dont personally collect dwarves, as
I have enough problems with short
grumpy blokes in real life to want to
celebrate them in plastic or metal,
but those who do now have an even
greater choice of types, and how
refreshing to see that the designer
hasnt followed the common path
of taking comic-book Vikings and
squashing them with a steam-hammer.
Showpiece of the new oer is

Empire of the Petal Throne


Empire of the Petal Throne?
Tekumel? Whats that? Id never
heard of the fantasy world created
by a Professor Barker, so I did
a little research and apparently
Tekumel is a world that has been
colonized by various humans and
aliens and then (by mysterious
means) dropped into another
dimension where, as time has
passed, their technology and
origins have been forgotten.
Naturally now, humans being
humans, the stage is set for war.
The costume style brings the
Romans to mind, albeit in plate
armour, with South American
ourishes in the form of long
feather plumes and exoticallybladed weapons. These are
heavy infantry indeed, armed
with sword, spear and bow,
the idea being that one could
represent The First Legion of EverPresent Glory, the personal unit of
one General Kttukal who is himself
represented here in miniature form.
This is the rst release in a
proposed much larger range that
will include the various human and
alien nations of Tekumel one can
only assume that initial sales will
continue or curtail this range.
The Crimea
Sculpted by Mike Broadbent
Turning now to the 1850s we come to
a catholic collection of additions to
the Eureka 15/18mm Crimean Range.
To begin we have a rather full
selection of French infantry. These
consist of both command and line

in kepi or shako. The greatcoat-clad


troops are in ring, advancing and
marching poses. Gorgeous. If youre
not too fussy about rearm detail, the
kepi-wearing troops might be willing
to serve in the Franco-Prussian War.
There are nice foot and horse
crews (three gures each) in
fairly static poses for a lovely
little six-pounder gun.
For the Russians there is a very
attractive group of three mounted
and three dismounted sta
ocers, all in the peaked cap.
Note that while billed at
15/18mm these gures actually
measure 18mm from foot-to-eye.
Napoleonic Russian Militia
Sculpted by Tony Barton
As with their Crimean Range, this
addition to the AB Napoleonic range
is 15/18mm size which, in Eurekas
case, seems pretty much to mean
18mm foot-to-eye. As ever, they are
very nicely proportioned with excellent
anatomy and attention to detail.
Sets R19-20 are of the St Petersburg
Militia, armed with pike and musket
in static poses. R21 oers ring
and loading infantry. Dressed in
greatcoat and peaked cap this latter
I assume was the signier of the
St Petersburg men, as the Moscow
Militia are dierentiated only by
their headgear. This is in the form of
a tall, cylindrical, peakless shako.
Tony has also sculpted three
generic sta ocers as well as very
nice representations of Generals
Kutuzov, Platov and Bagration. All
have a lovely sense of the age to them.
Japanese Schoolgirls
Sculpted by Mike Broadbent
They duck, they weave, they
perform explosive high kicks
that, in conjunction with their
ippy little skirts, show you pretty
much what they had for lunch.
These are the controversial Japanese
schoolgirls. There are seven poses
available; four are pulling various
martial arts moves, three are waving
large samurai swords about.
They are sculpted in something
like the Manga style short torsos,
exaggeratedly long legs, prominently
displayed underwear; I am sure that
Tarantino fans would approve.
That being said, at a time when here
in Australia at least, we are having
a debate about the sexualisation
of young children, I think these
gures are in poor taste. At the very

least, I wonder what sort of image


this presents of wargamers both
within and without the hobby.
[Editors note: Battlegames will
never show images of this kind of
material. Eureka were asked not to
feature these gures in their ad, and
they have graciously complied.]
Modern German Infantry
Sculpted by Kosta Heristanidis
This set of gures comprises three
iterations of the same set of ten or so
poses with diering levels of kit; i.e.
in full kit with or without gas mask,
or lightly-equipped without gasmask.
These last are billed as a zombie
containment team. The troopers
are armed with G-36 assault ries,
MG5s with separate bipods and manportable AT weapons. Additionally,
in a supporting role, three HQ sta
designed to go with Eurekas recently
released oce furniture set.
These are as handsome a set of
modern troops as you are likely to
see. I expect to see them in any of a
dozen peace-keeping operations from
Bosnia to somewhere in Africa on
the one hand, and ghting o hordes
of zombies or resurgent neo-Sovs some
time in the near future on the other.
Strange to say, Im nding it hard
to decide whether its their anatomy
or just the general military clutter
they are draped in that lends the
gures a certain chunkiness.
Greg Horne

SPECIAL PLASTICS REPORT

A whole slew of new plastic


Napoleonic gures have arrived at
the Battlegames bunker recently, so I
enlisted the help of veteran wargamer,
Andy Crofton, to give them an ocial
inspection. Andy has been wargaming
with 1/72 plastic gures for over
30 years and currently has a mindboggling 8,000 in his collection (and
yes, theyre all painted!). Hes a man
who knows his hats from his HT.
First up is an Italieri 1/32 Historics
set, big brother of the little 1/72 chaps,
and in the same series as the French
General Sta set reviewed last issue.
This is French Howitzer Gribeauval
named after the reforming French
artillery general of the 18th century
and features a Guard horse artillery
gun, limber, four horses and harness,
a pair of gun team riders and a
mounted ocer. It appears to be from
1808 or before, as the two soldats
du train are wearing bicornes.

The proportions of the models


are excellent both men and horses
with lots of detail plus extras such
as handspikes, rammers and ammo
box, but the pail shown under the
gun carriage on the box cover does
not appear inside. Once again, the
splendid box art by G. Rava appears
more accurate than the contents.
Theres the same disparity in busby size
between the more correct illustration
of the ocer and the model itself that
we recently saw in the Imperial sta
set: the size is more British Hussar,
Crimean War than French Chasseur.
Furthermore, other details are
incorrect (puzzlingly inconsistent).
The braiding at the top of the ocers
trousers is shown with one design
on the cover, but as a trefoil on
the model. We also found that the
gures sat poorly on the horses,
but this is nothing that a modelling
knife or some hot water and a little
intelligent bending couldnt solve.
This was particularly noticeable
in that the natural position for
their legs covers the locating
holes for the harness traces.
From a wargamers perspective,
there isnt much to get excited about.
Here we have an attractive diorama
subject to grace your mantelpiece, but
no wargamer wants a gun without
gunners. However, handling this size
gure is somehow inspiring Andy
and I began to work out what it would
cost to eld some 1/32 battalions
and squadrons; not as much as youd
think. (N.B. If you got inspired by
the medieval skirmish game in the
last issue of Battlegames, Italeri
also produce sets of 1/32 English
and French knights and soldiers.)
Meanwhile, from the 1/72 side of
the camp, a set of Italeri Prussian
Light Cavalry has ridden forth
except theyre not, theyre actually
dragoons! Andy got very excited
about these, At last! I used to have
to convert these from a mixture
of Scots Greys and other sets, he
proclaimed. So, full marks to Italeri
for lling this particular gap in the
market. While this will be a timesaver,
and the uniforms were accurate, he
did think the 17 models in the box
looked a little dated. The gure and
equine animation is good, albeit the
horses have slightly short necks.
Next up were some Italeri French
Cuirassiers. Box cover artist, Mr
Rava, knows his stu: just for fun,
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

43

we dug out my Funckens and found


the rose facings shown were for the
10th Regiment. Sure enough, we then
spied a small 10 on one of the saddle
blanket rolls on the illustration, but
thats understandably a detail too far
for a 20mm model! Proportions of the
gures are good, albeit small compared
to the light cavalry mentioned later.
The horses (with separate bases) are
rather narrow and each show two
large dimples on the right hand side
from the moulding process. In fact,
they made our inspecting general
wonder if in fact Italeri had bought
the moulds from ESCI and re-released
them. Uniform detail is subtle, but
appears to be very accurate.
Wargamers will be annoyed to
nd that one of the 12 gures is not
mounted, but standing by his horse,
meaning youll have to buy two
boxes to eld a 12 gure unit if you
like to play at a 1:33 gure scale or
greater. Interestingly, this box bears
an extra Italeri logo, Lets Glue it.
The links on the company website
didnt seem to work when I visited,
but it appears that Italeri has devised
a slightly dierent plastic which
will take glue better than most.
The nal Italeri set we reviewed
were French Light Cavalry
Chasseurs Cheval to be precise.
These are really splendid gures and
had us both exclaiming positively as we
opened the box. There are 17 gures
again, as with the last set, three sprues
of ve and a trumpeter and standard
bearer. The detail is excellent, from
uniforms, to the eagle atop the guidon,
through to the half-crescent plates
hung beneath the reins. As the son
of a cavalry ocer and having ridden
for many years, it makes me cringe
to see some of the creatures that pass
as mounts in wargames, but these
are dierent and really wonderful.
Theres rich detail in the manes and
tails, muscles and limb anatomy,
animation and movement and all in
20mm! These will look great on the
wargaming table. The only downside
we could see is that next to the older
style cuirassiers just mentioned, this
modern set makes it look as if the big
mens colonel had lost his regiments
horses at cards to the leader of the light
cavalry unit! The cuirassiers horses
are too small in comparison (or maybe
these are too large?). Disparity of scales
is sadly a fact of life for the plastic
gure gaming collector, even within
44

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

the ranges of the same manufacturer.


We then inspected an unusual set
from Russian gure manufacterer,
Zvezda (you may remember their
starter wargaming set was reviewed
in Battlegames issue 2). This French
Elite Infantry. Voltigeurs box features
a total of 40 gures from an lite
company made up of three sprues of
12 gures plus a command sprue of
four: ocer, hornist, drummer and
a nice touch a gure carrying a
battalion marker ag on his musket.
All the gures packs are separate, so
a little gluing is necessary. Reviewing
General A. Crofton thought these are
the only such 1/72 gures in plastic
with the required large shako plumes.
The set is also meant to be part of
Zvezdas Age of Battles wargaming
system, which now supports
Napoleonics: an included sheet gives
various troop costs and wargame
factors. Another help for gamers in a
hurry is that whereas Italeri tend to
feature an illustration of a gure or two
on the reverse of the box as a painting
guide, Zvezda show a photograph of
a painted version of each type or pose
of model included within: an excellent
idea. One thing to note is that these
gures are almost 25mm tall, albeit
rather slim for that scale, so youll want
to be careful who you mix them with.
Lastly, and the odd man out in
this months review, is a set of 1/72
terrain pieces for WW2 from Italeris
Alzo Zero wargaming range. There
are two building ruin pieces showing
wall intersections, several low sandbag
sections, ruined brick wall sections
and cast concrete walls. In addition,
there are 40 loose sandbags, bricks
and concrete blocks. As the items
are modelled in hard plastic, the
various components can easily be
glued together in a wide variety of
congurations for the wargamer. The
only gripe is that the wall intersections
are single-sided, so gamers conscious
of looking their best on the battleeld
will only want to attack or defend
these from one direction!
Alistair Birch (with Andy Crofton)

NAPOLEONIC ARCHIVE

The Battle for Hougoumont 40pp


+ 4pp cover (8.50); The Battle for
La Haie Sainte 40pp + 4pp cover
(8.50); On Campaign with the 79th
Cameron Highlanders through Portugal
and Spain (memoirs of Robert
Eadie) 48pp + 4pp cover (7.50).

These three A5 (148mm x 210mm)


booklets are an interesting addition
to the literature available to
wargamers and military historians.
The rst two we were sent cover
famous episodes from the Battle of
Waterloo, and are sold as Limited
Editions of 250. The booklets are,
by the look of things, laser-printed
onto a standard stock paper inside,
with a textured cream card cover,
then stapled along the spine.
The content, however, is nicely
done, making use of memoirs
and eye-witness accounts of the
actions, and with numerous colour
illustrations and super photographs,
including shots of suitably-posed
28mm wargame units and even reenactment events. There are abundant
period maps and, especially useful,
photos of parts of the battleeld as
it is today. Stephen Maughan, who
produces the booklets, is a professional
photographer, and it shows.
The bonus for wargamers is that
the booklets include special rules
and suggestions to enable you to
stage a reght of these particular
actions as self-contained games,
rather than as just incidental parts
of an overall Waterloo battle.
My only gripes are that the
layout could be improved and
a few basic typographic lessons
learned (paragraphs are normally
indented for a reason!) and the
publications would benet from
some eagle-eyed copy proong,
especially at this kind of cover price.
But if youre a Waterloo nut, then
these little works could deservedly
ll some gaps in your library.
The nal booklet of the trio turned
out to be a memoir, though this is not
announced on the cover. The work
is primarily text-based, with just the
cover illustration and a four-page
centre section carrying a smattering of
images of key gures in the regiments
history and a recruiting poster.
Like many memoirs of the time,
it is written in a highly engaging
style and will be of general interest
to both wargamers and military
historians as a window onto the
actions of this famous unit.
Again, my gripes are minor the
failure to make it clear where one
paragraph ends and another begins
is rather tiresome in this text-heavy
pamphlet and would have required
the work of mere minutes to correct.

This one retails for 7.50, which


seems steep-ish for such a slim
volume, but again, those of us who
gain inspiration from the Peninsular
War will want to have it on our shelves:
start practicing painting those kilts!
Overall, then, this little batch is
recommended, and some aspects of
them are very well done indeed.
You can order the books online at
www.napoleonic-archive.com (though,
irritatingly, the prices dont appear next
to the add to basket buttons) where
you will also nd some very pretty
photos of nicely-painted miniatures.
Henry Hyde

FANTASY GAMING A GUIDE TO


FANTASY ROLE PLAY AND TABLETOP BATTLES

By Martin Hackett. Published by


Sutton Publishing, price 16.99.
Firstly, I dont like misleading titles
because, at my age, I start to get
confused easily. I expected this book
to be about fantasy roleplay and
tabletop battles in general. It is not.
This book is actually concerned only
with Martin Hacketts own system,
entitled Magic and Monsters (M&M).
Right, moan out of the
way, down to business.
Anybody already familiar with
roleplaying systems will be well aware
that there are predominantly two types
in general operation. These are either
d20 or percentile dice-based and both
have their ardent supporters though
there is some element of cross-over
and some groups will use both systems
over the course of campaigns.
The current book is the culmination
of earlier rules, previously published
privately by the author and in the rst
version of the book printed some years
ago, and aims to provide a complete
source under one cover, a bold and
ambitious plan that, largely, works. We
are all aware of the mass of material
available to bolt on to the Dungeons
& Dragons system, greatly enhanced
by the Open Gaming Licence status
that the d20 system enjoys. Although
this allows the roleplayer incredible
exibility, both for his character
and the setting, it also means heavy
purchases and a considerable amount
of reading time needs to be devoted
to the hobby to keep on top of it all.
The most serious rival to any
percentile system has to be the revised
Games Workshops Warhammer
Fantasy Role Play (WFRP). This,

like M&M, has very simple base


mechanics that can be picked up
quickly and allows you to get started
relatively fast. I do not intend to go
into the mechanics here, because
it would take far too long to do so,
and be meaningless to anyone not
involved in fantasy roleplay; suce it
to say that unlike WFRP, which has
adopted an expansion package similar
to that styled by Wizards of the Coast
(Dungeons and Dragons), everything
you need is here in one book. Once
the basic character has been created,
it is possible to modify it in an almost
innite amount of ways, making a
truly unique player for your game.
However, it may be dicult to keep
track of many of the modiers accrued
if too many are temporary in nature.
As well as characteristics, skills
and occupations for the player
characters, all the usual equipment
is covered armour, weapons
(mundane and magical), adventuring,
clothing etc. as are magical abilities,
spells and so on, nearly all of which
can also be randomly generated
(values are given against all lists).
In fact, player characters as well
as non-player characters can be
generated with percentile dice alone
(now theres a scary thought!)
Despite the similarities, though,
I would suggest this is not going to
be a replacement system for anyone
already engaged in a percentile
game. Nor, by and large, is it going
to satisfy the needs of a serious d20
addict (for a start, there is a lack
of inherent background to feed
such insatiable roleplayers) It is,
however, a good a start as any for
those who have little or no prior
knowledge of the concept wishing to
try their hand at fantasy roleplay.
The last third of the book is devoted
to a massed battles version of the
percentile system governing the
M&M roleplay system. This employs
the Warmaster/Ragnarok orders of
battle code to determine the actions
of the army and thence employs
a simultaneous play mechanic to
control combinations of movement/
shooting/magic/close combat by
units involved in the orders.
The army composition rules are
simple and enhanced by the numerous
hero and unit types available. Whereas
the very open nature of the M&M
roleplay system gives me some cause
for concern, as a serious fantasy battles

gamer I love the degree of freedom


this gives me in the large-scale battles
forum. Why? Because I can use it to
customise any army, to theme it to
be far more in-character than with
many other systems using published
army lists or army books (such as
Games Workshops Warhammer).
Lastly, there are suggestions for
terrain, use of models and so forth,
which are all practical and not
aimed at pushing any one particular
manufacturer or designer. I cannot
stress how refreshing this is, and
denitely raises the stature of the
author in my eyes (funny how the
little things matter the most).
To sum up, I think it fair to say
(if I am to be brutally honest) I will
probably never try to run a Monsters
and Magic roleplay campaign. I believe
that there are better systems out there
and it doesnt oer anything new,
just combines elements of several for
better or for worse. However, even
though I am an avid disciple of the
Warhammer fantasy battle system, I
shall be trying Hacketts fantasy battle
rules as they appear in this book. I
have a couple of armies which are no
longer legal in the system they were
designed for, [hmm, I wonder which
system youre talking about... Ed.]
that are too good to just sit on the
shelf gathering dust. Having scanned
the composition rules for this game,
guess what? They would be usable!
That means a thumbs-up from me.
Despite my reservations, I
recommend you buy it for the massed
battle rules. If nothing else, they alone
are well worth the 16.99 cover price!
Roger Smith

LATE ARRIVALS

More sets of ancients rules than you


can wave a stick at are hitting the
marketplace, and Partizan Press have
sent two: Phil Barkers DBMM and
the beautifully-designed Warlord by
Trevor Halsall and Richard Harper.
Meanwhile, I must claim an interest in
my old friend Cliord Beals cracking
book Quelchs Gold: Piracy. Greed and
Betrayal in Colonial New England
I did the maps for him. And nally,
and perhaps most intriguingly, a
superb sculpting kit for wargame
gures from Prophet Miniatures,
including tools, armatures, Green
Stu and an introductory booklet.
Youll be hearing more about this!
Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

45

Please support our advertisers

46

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

Please support our advertisers

WW2 Western Desert

All packs not priced are 1.05, and except where stated contain 10 foot.
BR88 8th Army riflemen
BR89 8th Army Thompson smg
BR90 8th Army Bren
BR91 8th Army Vickers MG (2) x3
BR92 8th Army Command
BR93 8th Army Field telephone (5)
BR94 8th Army 3 mortar & crew (3)
BR95 8th Army 2pdr A/T & crew (2) 1.65
BR96 8th Army 6pdr A/T & crew (2) 1.65
BR97 8th Army 25pdr FG & crew + ammo trailer (1) 1.65
BR98 Monty 30p
GR145 DAK riflemen
GR146 DAK riflemen pose 2
GR147 DAK MP40
GR148 DAK MG34 (2) x5
GR149 DAK MG42 (2) x3
GR150 DAK 5cm mortar & crew x3
GR151 DAK 8cm GWR34 mortar & crew x3
GR152 DAK officers
GR153 DAK radio operators (5)
GR154 DAK 75mm IG & crew (2) 1.65
GR155 DAK 8.8cm FLAK 36 - A.T./A.A. & crew (1)1.65
GR156 DAK FLE 105 field gun & crew (1) 1.65
GR157 DAK 150mm IG + crew (2) 1.65
GR158 DAK 37mm A.T. gun + crew (2) 1.65
GR159 DAK PAK38 50mm AT gun + crew (2) 1.65
GR160 DAK PAK40 75mm AT gun + crew (2) 1.65
GR161 DAK Russian 76.2mm FG + crew (2) 1.65
GR162 DAK Rommel and Ramcke 60p
Postage and packing
UK and BFPO 10%, Europe 20%, Rest of the World 30%

1 Easby Grove, Eston, Middlesbrough TS6 9DL Tel: 01642 460638


Email: d.pengilley@btinternet.com Web: www.pendraken.co.uk

BATTLEGAMES SPECIAL OFFER: IDEAL GIFT!


Limited edition prints of original commissioned art

BREAKING THE SQUARE, GARCIA HERNANDEZ 1812


This magnicent painting was commissioned by
Battlegames from John Parke. Every print is numbered,
and comes with a signed Certicate of Authenticity.

To own a copy, choose one of the following:


Visit our website at www.battlegames.co.uk,
follow the links and place your order there using your
credit or debit card or your PayPal account.
Or send a cheque, made payable to Battlegames
Ltd, together with your name and address, to GH
Oer, Battlegames, 17 Granville Road, Hove BN3
1TG, East Sussex, UK with a note telling us which
size you would like. Please note that we only accept
cheques in pounds sterling drawn on a UK bank.

Or pay using your credit or debit card either by phone


+44 (0)1273 323320, or by sending to the address above
your name as it appears on your card, your full address with
postcode/ZIP, the card number, type and issuing bank, expiry
and start dates (if present), issue number (if present) and the three-digit security code on the back (the last three numbers appearing
on the signature strip). Please include a contact telephone number. Oh, dont forget to tell us who youd like it sent to, if its a gift!
All prints are sold unframed and on a rst-come, rst served basis.

Prices (overseas post is via airmail)


A4 (297mm x 210mm) 15 per print
A3 (420mm x 297mm) 25 per print
Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

philip parisi (order #7077380)

P&P UK
1.50
2.00

P&P Europe
2.50
3.00

P&P Rest of the World


3.00
3.50
Battlegames

47

Please support our advertisers

48

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

Please support our advertisers

Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Battlegames

49

Please support our advertisers

50

Battlegames

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

Please support our advertisers

Please mention Battlegames when contacting advertisers

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Battlegames

51

philip parisi (order #7077380)

Anda mungkin juga menyukai