Yes I eventually got enough energy to actually sit down and start working on the Florentine army.
I didn’t get them all done, just the Pikes and gun crews… Yes crews. I was convinced I only ordered one.
Well I checked. I actually ordered two, but got a whole gun crew instead of just the Gun captain.
So yey me! Do I make it into a three gun force….mmmmm interesting conundrum. They were super wealthy and do have a certain Leonardo Da Vinci in the box with them. I am sure he might have some cunning ideas.
So, because I am a twit, I have decided to once again expand the Great Italian Wars Forces. This time with the (kind of) new Florentine forces from the Altuos range.
Not really a super large force, but enough to have a small army. Don’t ask me about points, I haven’t got a clue and honestly I just got what would look good on the table.
Basically pikes, shot, swordsmen etc. oh and a medium artillery piece. Well Florence was rich.
Anyway I decided I needed more Flags. So off to the fabulous Pete’s Flags on eBay. I came across two sheets one a Florentine Mercenary set and the other from the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari.
They Arrived today and I am very happy… I had a bit of a niggle at the back of my mind about the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari… Well yeah of course I did. The battle took place in 1440. Giovanni of the Black Band was born nearly 60 years after the battle. So I will have two forces on the table that are basically 75 years apart.
So the options are:
Say sod it, a flag is a flag.
Put one set in a box and only use the standard mercenary flags.
I will let you have a guess which way I might go. Purists may want to look away now.
Well it sort of sounds a bit like an Italian town.
So I popped over to Mike’s today, took my toys to oggle at and discuss various rules sets.
As we had armies painted we decided to have a little try at a battle using Lion Rampant.
My chaps at the top, with his at the bottom. This wasn’t my initial setup. I had just shoved them on the table. My Condottiere were trying to escort the baggage train across the bridge but were stopped by some dastardly enemy.
My activation dice were, frankly crap! His heavy cavalry thundered across the field and through a lucky roll mine managed to counter charge. We hacked and slashed for a good while and then I luckily managed to shrug him off, he retired, battered. His light cavalry (in the background) sensing victory followed with a charge of their own. I once again managed a lucky countercharge and completely destroyed them, but lost half of my heavies over the two combats.
My skirmishers managed to make it into the woods and completely tied up the mounted crossbows. They however never fired once and eventually died to a man. My troops on the right of the cavalry managed to get into the woods to hold them up even more.
There was some further ArgyBargy on the right flank, with his pole arm wielding crazies charging first the stradiots, who took one look at them, chucked a pile of javelins into their faces and legged it. The pole armed chaps were in turn run down by my other heavy cavalry. In the end my horsemen became a bit of a spent round, but they had secured the flank.
My poor Stradiots got charged by a pike block and somehow won the combat and pushed the pike block back. My pike block was charged by the remains of his heavy cavalry and managed to lose. I charged into him and gave him a good kicking. His cavalry were basically broken, but kept hanging on there.
We had to end it there as I had to shoot off.
Lion Rampant seemed to work. When I got home I realised I had bought the second edition which has rules for piles and handguns in it.
Time for a bit of a read through the rules as they also have rules for holy men, banners etc. basically these give you a plus one to the units courage… Luckily my leader brought his religious entourage with him.
So as I said yesterday I had drawn a bit of a sketch map which is going to come in really handy. Now some of the settlements are going to move and I need to get the terrain sorted as well…
I also fleshed out the characters, they now have their weapons and equipment.
I had a bit of a problem with the mystic, trying to choose his/her spells
I was trying to work out the type they would be. The rules say choose two, roll for the next three. I flipped these to give me a starting point..
I rolled:
Fog… Basically a three inch fog patch appears on the table blocking line of sight.
Shield… A protection spell against ranged attacks.
Infuse… Gives the target a counter attack ability.
I decided that he would be some form of hedge wizard as opposed to a battle wizard.
Because of this I chose Shadows and Barrier.
Shadows allows an ally to move 4 inches and avoid terrain, including walls.
Barrier, does what it says on the tin, it will put a 4 inch wall of fire on the table. I am going to change it to something like thorns.
The final thing I rolled was to find the background story for the leader. Turns out he has a loyal follower, as one of them is a former soldier it all fitted in nicely.
Tomorrow I find the rest of the miniatures.
The other thing I did was to get the stuff off the printer…
So two cruisers, an ambulance and a coroner’s van. Oh and some Team Yankee stuff in the background.
This evening I was on puppy duty, This is basically following each other around waiting for one or the other to need the toilet. Quite a bit of it was Maggie was asleep on me so I couldn’t move.
I therefore didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but managed more than I expected…
Still a bit to go but definitely getting there.
Now doing a bit of research into what the thing was called I found out some new boring facts.
Firstly they are sacred spaces and offerings are buried in the centre. I knew they had a link to shinto but not that much. Secondly, I never knew women were forbidden… now I know why there are no female Sumo wrestlers 🤼♂️. Thirdly, knew they threw something white around before the bout, evidently it is salt.
There you go, boring facts that may help you win a pub quiz or trivial pursuit.
This evening I sorted out the Sumo ring and associated ponds. Sadly with the ponds I had some issues around bulging and warping. I could reprint them, but to be honest I will sort out any issues with Greenstuff.
I evidently printed the roof pair with the orientation wrong. I also forgot to hollow them. I have a bulging the part facing each other. I have sanded them and used a file to reduce it a bit, but still have a bit of a gap. Once again I will use Greenstuff to fill the gap.
Spot the Gap!
I also printed a trio of tanks for a colleague who is making a rather fabulous 3D map to play an invasion of Shetland game with his secondary pupils. These are to show the kids what they looked like.
Well tonight I got my finger out and washed a pile of pennies in hot soapy water. I then cleaned the bottom of the bases and filed them off.
Five minutes later they were all super glued down and ready for their undercoat. I just remembered I need to get them checked for flash and vent remains.
This is a down and dirty speed painting set. I wanted them done and out of the way so that is what I achieved. Could I improve on them, most definitely… am I going to… probably not.
I will try and get the militia onto their bases tomorrow. I can’t promise anything… our old whippet is bleeding lots from her mouth… when I say lots, I mean a gush not a dribble. There was blood from one end of the house to the other. Evidently sight hounds like her bleed like buggery. She was into the vets last week to sort the issue of a very loose tooth, which seems to be causing the problem. Sadly the drugs they needed to clot the blood had run out due to no ferries for a few days. We should know on Friday when she will be back in.
This evening I got the 15mm stuff out again, painted feathers and moccasins. I was just shaking the metallic for the gun barrels and tomahawks when I realised that I had to go and pick my daughter up from her school dance. By time I got back I really couldn’t be bothered to get them back out again!
AHopefully I will do all the metals and bases tomorrow.
Talking of tomorrow I will hopefully find out what is going to happen to us all at work.
Tonight I needed to do something constructive so got the 15mm stuff back out and got busy. I am going to be honest I was literally grabbing a miniature and painting something with the colours on the palette at the time. Hence the occasional red or blue moccasin! Not that you can see any in this image :).
Still a fair old way to go but we are getting there.
Hopefully the momentum will carry on tomorrow… after these I have thirty militia in civilian attire!
Bogenwald 