1916, over the Somme

Setup for my first 1916 game...

A cold January morning in 1916 over the Somme.  The British have sent up a BE2b spotter plane to monitor German activity.  The Fokker Menace is very much still ongoing, but has been checked by the French use of the Nieuport, a plane that matches the dreaded Eindecker in use of a mechanism to shoot through the propeller. 

The BE2 crew are the unpromising (many would say false promising) Smythe twins, Ian and Duncan, who are purported to have once held high rank but are now embittered, and except for Duncan's shotgun, unarmed.  

The portly Hun, the Blue Baron, Manfred Von Pumphosen, newly appointed to a Reconnaissancee Jasta has taken up his new aeroplane, a nice blue Roland two seater where pilot and gunner are seated over the wings.  This gives a poor view below, but like the Eindecker has an excellent view above.

It means that Manfred can store his picnic hamper between his knees and throw chicken bones into the trenches below.

The Baron jumps on the unsuspecting BE2.  in my Algy games I allow shooting between one level of heights to reflect the dogfighting of the time as I see it.  Here the Baron ambushes from above.

The Baron shoots down the Smythe brothers BE2

Into the mix flies the FE2b of Sprog Lieutenants Kenny Clarke and Joey Johnson.  This well armed two seater  is much more of a match for the Hun, pity about the idiot newbies flying it.

The FE2B.

The Baron tries his ambush tactics again, but the FE2B fights back.

They get a couple of Lewis drums off

The Baron comes around again and has an excellent hit ratio from his spandaus.

The British plane is down on flames

Lastly this morning the Nieuport 11 of Capitaine Maurice Le Coq is prowling around.  Some people call him the Space Cowboy, some call him the Hamster of Love, some people call him Maurice, because he speaks the pompitious of Love...  Ooh la la, he's  French...

For the meaning of the word pompitious I refer you to the Steve Miller band circa 1973, if you find out please let me know.

Some people call him Maurice

Maurice circles the Baron.  His Nieuport is a far better aircraft than the Roland. 

But the baron is quick on the turn and gives him a good burst from the spandau.

They even go head on.

The Nieuport is damaged.  It's engine shot up.

Coaxing his engine Maurice goes into the turn.

Maurice gets a good burst into the Roland

The Roland is crippled and spins down

The Baron recovers the spin and runs for it.  His gunner has been killed.

But n his crippled plane the Hamster of love can`t give chase.  It's game over.

Whilst acknowledging his superior pilot skills Capitaine Le Coq's fitness report in 1916 showed that, in his Commanding Officer's opinion, Maurice was "Lovey Dovey, Lovely Dovey all the time," and only sought to enjoy a "good time..."

The Baron has two kills to his name already and will have his revenge on this Frenchman.

Scratch Building a Pirate Sloop.

I have already built my Pirate Galleon, but it needs to be modified to come up to scratch.   Before I tackled that I decided to take on a Sloop.  I have already begun the Crew at the weekend using the Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago crew and Warlord ECW plastics.  Under the "Blood and Plunder rues this will be a 100 point force, with three units, two of Sea Dogs and one unit of Buccaneers.  Added to this are an Untested Commander "Fat Errol" with a Mate and a Bosun as his Officers.  

My first shipbuilding move was relatively straightforward.  I waterlined the wooden model Galleon completed from a kit last year.  That gave me the wooden formers that had been the keel and lower hull shaped sections as potential new decks.

Fat Errol Flynn and his boys crew the pirate ship.  They are a pretty good fit at 28mm.

Using a pen I scored the planking on the upper deck of the sloop.  Cutoffs created the bowsprit and stern posts.  Initially I glued the stern too low and seen against the figures here its pretty obvious.  Local schooners and sloops would have had much higher sterns against following seas, so although the single deck works I needed to raise the rear.  

The raised single deck.

The sloop has a wide beam.  Contrary to the popular Hollywood image of a pirate ship they would generally be smaller than the galleon type represented by my larger ship.  

Supports keep the two decks apart. 

Next the templates for the ship sides, measured using paper to get the right fit.  Transferred to card that had been scored to represent planking

Fat Errol measuring the height of the sides

The sides glued on before twisting them around the deck shape to form the hull.

Once I had the shape I fitted the bowsprit.  As a merchantman the sloop is a bit of a tub.  

Fitting out and painting will take a little longer.

The Bowsprit and mast added, the quarterdeck grating and poop deck fitted.  Old Billy Bones on tiller, my oldest 25mm figure, seated at the tiller with drinking jack.

The side shot

Next the ships boat.  

Another of the hull sections.  Some nice laminate wood, easy to work with.

Craft shop lollipop sticks as the ribs.  More of the laminate as the bow and sternpost.  The sides are thick card.

The scratch build nears completion.  Waiting on a tart it up paint job.

Capitaine Rathbone de Mayonaise comes alongside in his dinghy!

Longships Armies in 15mm

Longships in 15mm

The Kingdom of Aethelbald the Totally Bald

The West Angles or Wangles were a late arrival in Britain, taking up residence in the cold and frankly rather nasty marshes to the west of the River Trent, land which in reality nobody else wanted.  Modern scholars locate the Kingdom of the West Angles somewhere between modern day Scunthorpe and Doncaster, an area which even today few would describe as pleasant. History has in the main ignored the West Angles, as did most of their neighbours. 

The King, Aethelbald the Really Bald was descended from Aethelbrow, son of Aethelchin, son of Aethelnose, the Original Settler.  The Mercians, East Angles and Northumbrians scrupulously failed to notice the presence of this small Kingdom, being too polite to mention them in source material. 

Aethelbald made his capital in the small fortified town of Scun’s Thorpe.  His nobles occupied the villages surrounding this to the West.  The old Roman fort of Donceaster was occupied by his son Aethelear Sore Ears.  

The Wangle Chronicle of St Swinehelm's monastery uses dates based on the founding of the Kingdom, and can confuse unwary scholars, however it has been postulated that the reign of Aethelbald began around 820AD and at the time of the Viking attacks he had ruled for some twenty years.

The Ase Vikings

Ase Red Faced earned his sobriquet due to his florid complexion and huge drinkers nose.  Jarl Arse enjoyed  a following of five ships crews, and his retainers included the nobles, Balder Canute, Dah Egil and Finn.  The alphabetic nature of the names of these leaders was later seized upon by zealous monks to indicate that Ase was some sort of evil devil spawned sorcerer, but the truth was that the Vikings didn`t really understand this or even actually notice. 

Finn, one of his most mistrusted captains and a man who had a passion for beating monks, commanded the (Levy) dregs of the force, but the remainder of Ase`s men and leaders were of quite reasonable quality.

According to Ase`s Saga he attacked the West Angles during his third Viking Cruise to Britain, along with the Chronicle it represents the primary source material for serious students of the period.  Conversely however the infamous X rated Movie "Ase against the Wangles" does not cover these historical events at all, but oddly enough does include a passionate monk beating scene.  Copies are difficult to obtain, but a postal order to Mr Quilp, care of the Pelton Home for Aged Wargamers would probably be successful.

Elements Points Costs

Unit leader. 20.  Armoured. 13  Unarmoured. 8  Levy. 3  Berserker. 10

Cavalry unit leader. 20 Armoured cavalry. 15 Unarmoured cavalry. 9

Skirmisher base. 8

My 15mm armies so far...

Vikings	Number of bases	Composition	Points
General Ase Red Faced	(1 base)		0
Unit #1 Balder	8 bases	Leader, 1 beserker, 3 Armoured, 2 Unarmoured, 1 Levy	20 10 39  16  3 =88
Unit #2 Canute	8 bases	Leader, 1 beserker, 3 Armoured, 2 Unarmoured, 1 Levy	20 10 39  16  3 =88
Unit #3 Dag	8 bases	Leader, 1 beserker, 3 Armoured, 2 Unarmoured, 1 Levy	20 10 39  16  3 =88
Unit #4 Egil	8 bases	Leader,   4 Unarmoured,  3 Levy	20 32 9 = 61
Unit 5# Finn	8 bases	Leader,  7 Levy	20  21 =41
2 Skirmisher units	2 +2 bases	4 Skirmisher	16+16 =32
			TOTAL 398

Saxons	Number of bases	Composition	Points
General  Aethelbald the Really Bald	(1 base)		0
Unit #1   Bron	6 bases	Leader, 5 Armoured,	20, 65 = 85
Unit #2 Ceatta	8 bases	Leader, 1 Champion, 3 Armoured, 2 Unarmoured, 1 Levy	20 10 39  16  3 =88
Unit #3   Durwyn	8 bases	Leader, 1 Champion, 3 Armoured, 2 Unarmoured, 1 Levy	20 10 39  16  3 =88
Unit #4 Eadbehrt	8 bases	Leader, 3 Unarmoured, 4 Levy	20 24 12 =66
Unit 5#  Fecca	8 bases	Leader, 7 Levy	20 21 =41
2 Skirmisher units	2+2 bases	4 Skirmisher	16 +16=32
			TOTAL 400

That's a lot of Levy figures.  I quickly realised that I just hadn't bought anywhere near enough to fill out 26 bases of Levy between these two armies.  Still I don't have any great respect for Levy, so in 15mm I used a single peasant on a base to represent them.
I'm well aware that 130 figures would look better than 26 on those bases but hey, my hand luggage weighed in heavily as it was.  I will add the extra figures later if I decide it doesn't look right...  

As of today these two armies are cleaned and based.  Next up some long painting sessions!