Yep, you read the title correctly.......but first:
Before there was grunge.....there was Mudhoney!!!.
Right on to the naming and ruddy shaming (rant upcoming!).
My wife, the Amazing Mrs Sprinks was right, there i have said it!. Do i feel better.....well, sort of!. 'but what was she right about?' i hear you cry, well Mrs Sprinks has often been known to proclaim the mighty maxim 'DONT YOU HAVE ENOUGH LITTLE MEN BY NOW YOU WONDERFUL, BUFF, KINDHEARTED EXAMPLE OF A MAN?' (she may not use those words exactly). My normal response being to don the metaphorical smoking jacket and quip 'My dear, you simply cannot have too many of these wonderful little toys, for there is much to explore. Dont worry your pretty head about such things' for the record this response was never finished in its entirety and always ended in '.OWW!!'.
But i have finally come to the realization that she may have a point!. I know, pick yourself up oh fellow hobbiest and gurdle your loins, this next bit may require the use of smelling salts to plough through!. I had decided to sell off a few bits and bobs i was never going to get on the table to fund the purchase of some more 12mm goodness and to that end i decided it would be a good idea to organize my collection of 1/72 plastics to see what was surplus. I skipped to the hobby area (where Mrs Sprinks keeps the 'little men' out of eyeshot of visitors!) with a roll of plastic sandwich bags in hand to quickly execute said task and then put my feet up. Two hours later i had maybe sorted a fifth of my bits and run out of bags!. With hindsight this should have sounded the alarm in my head that all was not well. Another roll of bags and three days later the plastic goodies are sorted into sets ready to decide whats staying. It looked like this!:
Millie the Wronghammer hound included for scale!.
It was at this point i realized i may have a problem!.
So, it is with head bowed i admit i am a hoarder of plastic with far more minis than i will ever use, its no wonder i can never stick to one project with all this nagging away at me for a go on the table!. So the first step to recovery they say is admitting you have a problem. Check. The next one is to get ruthless and sell off the stuff that is surplus.! Lummie, that may be a huge task!. So i will be chucking a few batches of stuff on the 'bay to shift it in the next few weeks, looking to keep only what i will actually use in projects (and what i can realistically paint in one lifetime!). However there are two things i will do first. First, dear readers of this bobbins, is to show the bits for sale here first for you guys before they hit ebay. You guys put up with my cruddy blabbings so its only right you get first dibs (although i may be simply enabling some of you!). If you fancy any of it leave a comment and i will get back to you. Twhit:
Caesar Libyan Warriors
Zvezda Persians
Zvezda Austrian Pikes and muskets one full set on sprue and some odd bits.
Dark Dream Studio Landsknechts
Red box 16th cent Italians
Revell Normans
A f**ktonne of Mini Art Medievals. (my legs not included!)
Red box and Orion Turkish troops.
The second thing is to say that if in the time you have been reading this blog you have seen any bits you think you would like feel free to leave a comment and i will see what can be done.
Someone trusted me with a paintbrush again!....but first:
Audio Marmite agogo!! (my love for this band is only equaled by Mrs Sprinks hatred for them!!, i think its important to have balance in a marriage!)
So as i mentioned above more paint has been thrown at little metal and plastic blokes resulting first in these:
Black Rats beware!.
The above is the start of an opposition force to my £30 challenge army, they are yet to be named but the foot troops are made from the other half of the kallistra 12mm Scottish Pikemen packs used to make the Black Rats 'shafters'. As i'm sure you will attest they have been speed painted to be table ready only (not even a wash!) and are supposed to represent a more 'rabble like' force, maybe part trained village militia or some such. Leading them is a commander yet to be named and his banner waving mate!.
Another shot of the rabble.
And another of the command stand.
'Come Sir Something, this way yonder to glory.....or just some more bloody felt.!'
This will be another £30 force to take on the Black Rats when complete!. I have also been working on my small 1/72 forces for 'warhammerish' Blood, Guts and Severed Heads i am to use with the kids over the hols, this force is almost done, just some leaders and a centerpiece (guesses to which 'iconic' imperial thingy it will be in the comments!) to do and the force is ready!:
'Empireish' 'orse!.
Imperial knights ready to punch some chaotic types!.
Pistoliers!!.
I was very apprehensive about painting these as they are some of my favorite 1/72 minis ever produced, Revells' Swedish cav from the 30 years war. I think a few of the minis i have are the crappy Mars reproductions (i got mine in an ebay job lot) as some of the details are far less 'crisp' on a couple of the riders and the plastic is notably thinner, but even so i could not do an 'Imperial' army without some of these.
The force as it stands.
You can see i am going for small skermishy type forces to make sure i dont get fed up painting hundreds of the same thing!.
Well thats whats been going on 'round these parts recently, i hope to have more soon....
Just a quick update to let you know what i have been busying my child like brain with when im not babbling on here. There have been several Y.E.P (Yay, Evidence of Progress) moments over the past week:
Y.E.P #1: I have been thinking about my new fast play pike and shotteeee(ish) system and have made some progress in putting the rules together. The test games have been positive and i have gone down the 'simple is always better than 10000000000 rules to simulate the same thing' route which is going well, but i am attempting to leave enough 'meat' on the bone of rule (which is not a thing i know before anyone starts :-)) to add character to the troops and shires without loosing the core of 'good tactics over spammy list gaming*....god i hate spammy list gaming!).
Y.E.P#2: I have almost finished basing up my first shire force:
A little pic of the Fossestershire force as it stands, i had to do them first as i already had the troops to do the curmudgeonly old bastards (they are stuck in the past so i had a good excuse to use up some medieval bits for the militia troops). Mr Philotep made the suggestion of using flags which got the ol' brain (such as it is) ticking over. Paint was a no go considering how small the flags would be and an experiment with sharpies left rather a lot to be desired!. So in the end i went with the old standby of tape. The flags are strictly table top standard but they work ok for what i'm after.
Y.E.P#3: The recent ebay haul has payed for the following:
A big thank you to all who had a cheeky bid on my sales page (more delightful bargins finishing Monday if your interested) and Mr Otep who relieved me of a large quantity of El Cid goodness (thank you sir!). This gives me all of the basic troops i have been needing to sort out the Shires (and a few other bits too).
So, all good at the mo, onwards to basing Crivenshire methinks!.
.....'till next time....
* Spammy gaming: Pouring over army lists looking for rules loopholes and combinations of troop types that will give any advantage in a game with no regard for game balance, your opponents fun or the tone and flavor of the force you are picking.
Sooooo....... Last time i posted it was to have a right old moan, this post is not much different!....Sorry in advance!.
Stuff is much better here at chez Sprinks, Sprinkling 2: Son of sprinks is healing nicely while Millie the wronghammer Dog no longer rocks the cone. Thank you all for your kind comments last time out, they seem to have done the trick!. However work is as busy as ever bringing a particular hobby related quandry along with it.
See the clock, see how he mocks me!!!!..........twat!.
Work is as busy as ever and working 'out of area' means late finishes a lot of the time. This means that time in the evening to do hobby related stuff just ain't happening!. This is mostly down to my insistence on playing games with several hundred minis at once, the thought of setting up and clearing away such masses of minis at stupid o' clock is not too great, and i want to spend what time i have with the amazing Mrs Sprinks and the Sprinklings where i can. So whats a toy soldier fiddler to do?.
Not quite so viable......
As my regular readers will know i have been working on some mass battle rules for some time now but as things stand it will be very hard to use them in the kind of windows for gaming i currently have.......which is poo!. So having been indulging in some of this 'thinking' stuff people enjoy so much i have come to the conclusion that i can change the basing for the game while making a few rule changes to allow for said changes while keeping most of the core mechanics in tact (which is good, because i have worked bloody hard on them!!). So i will be turning the mass battle rules into a fast play mass battle system that should allow me to play through a game in double quick time!.
The key?, MULTIBASING!
Like The Duc uses. Picture stolen from his fine blog (grovel grovel!)
Not sure what size bases or groupings of bases per unit but i reckon i have an idea that will make it work smoothly.
On another tac, has anyone seen what the good folk over at Dark Alliance have been getting up to?
ooooohhhh!!
aaaahhhhhh!
eeeeehhhhhhh!!!
Looks like they are covering the post apocalyptic, zombie holocaust sized gap in the 1:72 market in fantastic fashion!. And if thats not enough.....
Now in my opinion these are proper Goblins, real nasty looking little shits!, they are some of the best goblin sculpts ive ever seen, 1:72 or otherwise. They would also work as some kind of canablistic mutant types for a post apocalyptic setting too. You can find the whole range at the Red Box web page over here.
All that remains is to welcome Steve63 to the world of twattery, blither and such that is this very page!, he clicked the follower bit like many lost souls before him, is there any hope for him left?!!. Welcome along sir, glad to have you. Im not sure if you blog but if you do please pop a link in the comments it would be great to see what your getting up to!.
Things have been mighty quiet around these parts for the best part of the last year due to me undergoing a rather drastic change in my career. I have gone from the stress and strain of the retail managers lot (and its constant urge to visit differing levels of violence on pathetic middle management types!) to the far more rewarding and involved life of the service engineer. This has meant a long period of training and studying on my part so gaming time has been greatly reduced. However, i have just about finished my final stage of this process, having just passed my exams for my gas accreditation (look out world!). Just the matter of an internal competency to go!.
(another day at work!)
upshot of this is that my gaming time should return to the normal level it was at before all the training started (or better, as my working hours and stress levels are greatly reduced!). However the world will have to live with the knowledge that a doughnut like me will be tampering with their gas supplies!!!!.
Anyhoo, that hopefully explains why i have been less than speedy updating my blog based piffle of late.......speaking of which.......
BATTLE AT HABITULES RIDGE (PT 2)
(You can find part 1 here)
.....its time to go back to the 'Fight o' the morrow' teams transcript of the battle as it happened to gain much valued insight on the events that lead to such an important victory for....well.. that would be telling.....
'As the trumpets sound for kick off we are underway, the leader of the Fossestershire force, Sir Phiss orders his serfs forward in an aggressive opening act on the flank, the Crivenshire cannon team wasting no time in firing into their ranks!. However the serfs seem undeterred by the damage Al'.
'Thats right sir John, its good to see such commitment early on from the attacking side'.
'Are you surprised the cannon failed to send them running Al?.
'No sir John, they make 'em tough up north!'.
'Quite so Al, and..yes..we can see the Fossestershire line is advancing'.
'Looks like a statement of intent from the Fossestershire command Al'.
'Thats right sir John, the northeners are on their game today, pushing forward into the Crivenshire defenses, good order in the advance, Sir Physs will be pleased with that'.
'And the Crivenshire serf archers have pushed on into the field Al'
'Yep, looking for a good field of fire no doubt'
'No sooner have they taken up position Al the Fossestershire bows have opened fire on them and just look at them fall!.'
'A text book volley there sir John, thats what we came here to see, fantastic bowmanship from the men in grey and white.'
'And would you fathom it Al, the serfs have had enough, they have turned and run from the field, and who could blame them?'.
'Thats disappointing sir John, shows a total lack of commitment on their part and now the Crivenshire left is wide open. Who taught them to defend?.'
'Over on the other flank things are heating up'.
'The Jarkin have broken ranks Al, i think....yes im getting word that a vicious taunting from the serfs has wound the big men up and they have had enough!, could be trouble for the northern conscripts'.
'Great technique from the serfs there sir John, really getting under the big lads skin, drawing them out of position, the question is are the serfs up to the task of holding the enemy long enough.'
'Quite right Al', meanwhile the Fossestershire charge has begun.'
'Sir Physs has led his Knights into the teeth of the defenses of the watchtower......
.....while the spearmen have charged the pikes, a wise move Al?'.
'Well you cant fault their commitment Sir John, looking to engage the enemy on all fronts, with no sign of the army from St Ronays they have to get the job done.'
'I can barely hear you over the din of battle Al, both sides are giving no quarter, quite a battle we have on our....the serfs waver, nice work from the Jarkin pushing them back...
...and they are running Al, the Jarkin have put them to flight!'.
'Magnificent work from the big lads Sir John, great finishing there.'
'The pikemen are holding admirably in the face of the charge Al, really living up to their billing'.
'Thats right Sir John, reliability is what you would expect from such seasoned troops.'
'This battle really is anyones at this point. But whats this...i think i can hear...can you hear hoof beats Al?.'
'Now you mention it Sir John...'
'Well what about this Al, the forces of St Ronays stump have stormed onto the field!, lead by Sir Bacckersfordde on his great snow eagle Keith Montgomary no less, who has charged head long into the Jarkin!'.
'Great time to bring them on Sir John, this could be a decisive move, great to see Sir Bacckersfordde on the front foot early'.
'He has an immediate effect wiping out the Jarkin, he really is a star in the making this youngster.'
'Thats right sir John, he lights up the battlefield with his electric pace and expert finishing'.
'The arrival of the subs looks to be timely Al as in the center the spears have broken, the pikes holding out against them'.
'Great defense there sir John, no way through for the Fossestershire forces there'.
'But it may not be enough Al as they are now isolated against the oncoming troops!'.
'We have a stalemate at the watchtower Al, no side giving way despite heavy pressure. The Fossestershire troops getting the worst of it'.
'Its the numbers game playing out Sir John, no lack of ability on the knights side but its a big ask to storm a defended area against this kind of numbers'.
'Elsewhere the pike are now facing the charge of the Fossestershire combined horse and sir Bacckersfordde on his great snow eagle Keith Montgomary, could be decisive Al'.
'Its a tall order to face that kind of power but if anyone can hold th...oh no, they've broken!'.
'Things look bleak for Crivenshire Al, how do they come back from a setback like that?'
'Its difficult no doubt sir John but this is where quality counts, and Sir Rallagh of Choppa and his Knights are still uncommitted'.
'Over at the watchtower things have taken a turn Al, the Fossrstershire bows have thrown themselves into the fray'.
'Great attacking play from them sir John, drawing off the defense to allow the knights to push on, great stuff'.
'Meanwhile it looks like the tower itself has been claimed by Sir Bacckersfordde on his great snow eagle Keith Montgomary, while we were watching the base of the tower he swooped in on the cannon and killed the crew!'.
'Great movement from the youngster Sir John, dynamic attacking play showing quick thinking in the heat of battle.'
'And over on the other side of the tower Sir Rallagh seems to be under pressure Al'.
Hes being attacked on two fronts Sir John, theres no coming back from that!'.
'With daylight fading Al it looks like the Crivenshire command have ordered the retreat, they are disengaging from the enemy and heading from the field in defeat, a bad day for them'.
'Thats right Sir John, after a bright start from the front line it all fell apart when the second wave came on from the flank, they failed to fall back and reorganize and it all fell apart from there. The defenders at the watchtower held on well but with the early loss of the serfs the writing was on the wall'.
'And who was your trooper of the battle Al?'.
'Theres a lot to choose from today Sir John. The defenders at the tower held on all battle and the pike did well for a time but you cant look past the young Bacckersfordde. For me he made the difference in terms of his movement and body count, i feel he really tipped the balance for the Fossestershire force today.'
'Thanks Al, well thats all for today, with Fossestershire forces encamped in the north of Crivenshire how will the Earls forces respond?. From me, the big man and all the 'fight o' the morrow team' its a fond fair thee well!'.
The transcript comes to an end there. Im sure we can all agree its a treat to have an actual account of the battle as it happens. Also a big thank you from me for the Wronghammer plastic re-enactment society for their hard work translating the words of the transcript into the scenes we have above. Thanks fellas!.
After all the build up its time to launch this continuingworldbuildingcampaigntypething!:
The situation that has led up to this situation can be read, well i would do a list but if you read the last 6 posts (but take out the 'Hassles of Hoff' as a semi-related piece) you should be up to speed.
The war of four kings is well known to have been officially started by Osewrenne Cobbenhamme, the 19th Earl of Fossestershire ordering troops south into Crivenshire to contest the interim rulership of Olde Albilande after the whole royal line was wiped out in a single night by a poisoned pudding instigating the need to implement wazzcockes law, which decrees the election of a new king from the serving Earls. (whew, long sentence!).
Two of the four counties have called their forces to march against each other as both their ruling Earls have laid claim to the right to rule until the election of the new king can be decided (Royal Crivenshire in the south and Fossestershire in the north). Another of the counties (Offenhammeshire to the south west) has secretly called its troops to arms but is keeping its plans under wraps. Who knows whats happening in the other shire ( Burkenshire, to the east). The campaign map shows the current situation:
Click to make it far, far clearer!.
Each flag shows an army called by the shire. Fossestershires 3rd army has marched from the border town of Phucenmere, over the border to Crivenshire at the Earls Request, only to be intercepted by the much larger Crivenshire 2nd. Stopping short of contact with the enemy just west of Gibblet, Sir Physs, Commander of the Fossestershire 3rd has sent out scouts to access the situation. Reports of frequent border patrols personally lead by a minor knight of the shire to harry and discourage any forward movement has caused him to halt his advance. Physs' plan was to intercept a patrol and massacre it, not only to clear passage for an advanced force to gain ground undetected but to land a initial moral blow to the enemy. To this end he has ordered a mounted force to slip south to cut off any retreat a patrol may make and to attack them with a second force from the north. This way he reasoned the patrol would be trapped by the split forces and wiped out. However his plan relied on trapping a mobile enemy. Thus, he chose the high ridged Valley of Phlemm as the stage for his rouse.
He chose able commanders to lead his split forces. Sir Crankerton-smithe, veteran of the forth Lamavic uprising lead a mounted force south of the valley ready to cut back north. The young sir Mallalllall would command the infantry that would attack the patrol and herd them towards the cavalry attack.
His plan however would not be as clean as he had hoped, a rain storm took hold a day before the attack upsetting the arrival of the horse, There was also a surprise in store when the Crivenshire force was discovered!.
Fearing an attack the Commander of the Royal Crivenshire 2nd army, Lord Chopah of Ralligh commanded the patrols be doubled and constant contact in the field be maintained between the parties to ensure threats could be reacted to quickly. Thus the patrols of sir Crowesfell and sir Finnagree the Clenched met in the Phlemm valley to compare notes when sir Mallalllallls force attacked!.
The Game
For this game i'm using Ospreys Lion Rampant as for Medieval skirmishes its pretty great. I set some victory conditions: The Crivenshire patrols had to get an unbattered unit off of the table at either end of the valley floor to send word of the attack to the 2nd army. Fossestershire had 5 turns to ensure no Crivenshire forces got away to raise the alarm thus would win if the patrol failed to get any troops out.
The game begins with both Crivenshire patrols in the center of the valley, on the first turn Sir Mallallalls infantry may move on to the northern edge of the valley by passing a move activation. From turn two onwards the force of Sir Crankerton-smithe can move on to the southern valley edge in the same way.
On the first turn sir Mallallalls troops move first.
The forces:
The Crivenshire patrols are identical, being made up of two units of mounted sarjeants with bows, a knight leads one of the units. (the Crivenshire forces have blue and white bases)
Sir Mallallalls infantry force is made up of two units of foot yeomen with mixed weapons (spear and bow), one is lead by Sir Mallallall.
The Fossestershire horse contingent consists of Sir Crankerton-smithe leading a unit of Mounted Men at Arms and two units of Mounted Sarjeants. (all Fossestershire forces have white bases with Grey trim).
The Valley of Phlemm, pre-bother. (taken from the north)
The Crivenshire patrols of sir Crowesfell (left) and sir Finnagree the Clenched (right) meet.
Sir Mallallall and his troops burst into the valley.
Sir Mallallall enjoys pointing with his sword
one unit is sent to sneak round the trees!.
Surprised, the highly trained patrols spring into action!
Sir Finnagree sends a unit onto the high ground to draw a bead on the sneaky foot!.
With sir Crowesfells unit bearing down sir Mallallall orders arrows to fly!.
To the south of the Valley sir Crankerton-smithe leads his lancers onto the field!.
The noose tightens!
In the north end the foot by the trees are charged and forced to fall back.
Sir Crowesfell orders his troops into the hail of arrows!.
The brave charge forces Sir Mallallalls foot back and leaves them battered!
A brave unit from sir sir Finnagrees patrol counter-charge the lancers of sir Crankerton-smithe in an attempt to hold them off.
sir Finnagree the Clenched leads his troops up the valley to head off the galloping Fossestershire sarjeants, if they can just buy Sir Crowesfell more time!.
Elsewhere sir Mallallall tries to rally his troops when Sir Crowesfell leads another charge home against his troops!.
Forcing them to bolt for home!.
Sir Mallallalls other foot Yoemen unit are also sent running!.
Down the valley sir Finnagree the Clenched's patrol sell their lives dearly to buy time for Crowesfells escape!.
The lancers steamroller the sarjeants that dare to impede them. Crankerton-smithe hollers a challenge across the valley to the cowardly dog sir Crowesfell.
Who honors the sacrifice of his troops by heading home to raise the alarm to the Crivenshire 2nd! 'Fossestershire have attacked, the war has begun!'
Well its started, where it will end i do not know but it looks like i may have a game or two to get on and play!. Right i best get Burkenshires forces based up!....
