Rebels and Patriots

Rebels and Patriots by Osprey Wargames, is another use of the Lion rampant engine.

I saw these rules and liked the look of them enough to Pre-order them, figuring I could use them for Napoleonic gaming as I was not overly impressed by Chosen Men, which to me seemed a kludgy re-skin of Warhammer, but this post is not to list my issues with Chosen men

Even though I planned to use the rules for Napoleonic, I only have French in 28mm and after a quick read through I wanted to try them quickly, rather than wait until I made the investment of time and money for an opponent for my French.

I have had a bag of 1/72nd figures for the American Civil war for decades and thought I will actually get to use these things in at least one game".

I had some wooden shapes I picked up a dollar store, attached the figures to similarly to the suggested basing. i.e a mix of 3 figures to a base, 2 figures to a base and singles.

Union army, This is all union figures I had at start.

Confederate forces. I ran out of bases I have at least as many again still in the bag.

I found 2/3rds of my figures are actually rebels, or at least painted as such, so I picked up a new box of Italeri's (ESCI's reissue) Union infantry and a box of artillery.

I grabbed the usable poses from the new boxes and and got painting, Painted these guys out in 2 evenings (less than 4 hours).

Had to pick up a few more bases from my FLGS, glued these guys on then flocked them and they were ready for use.

I will do a bit more base texturing in the future but these are essentially done.

Ready for a game, Cecil and I went to the Hamilton Road Gaming Group grabbed a table and played a game, which quickly turned into two.

Was hard to get a feel for the game as both playings were uneven affairs, with each player losing with the rebels, due to inability of either player to roll higher than 6 with 2d6. The second game saw my rebels lose their officer to a long range artillery hit during turn 1 which disordered my entire force (see aforementioned bad rolling) the second game lasted 4 turns during which 3 of my units routed off the table, one a turn, and I only managed to fire twice and inflicted zero casualties.

But we liked them enough, Cecil is going to get a copy of the rules, as he too had issues with Chosen men.

I will also increase my ACW armies.

Painted in January

Painted in January


This is what I managed to get painted in January.

Not sure what these are. A buddy of mine got them with his one of his wargame magazines, they taped it to the front cover, so it arrived torn so they sent him replacement copy.

Test of Honor Smuarai

More Test of Honor Smuarai

WisKids PrePrimed minis. Thought they might work for 28 mm

The Stag is not too bad, but the Oxen are overscaled.

Perry miniatures Mounted Crusaders (28mm)

Forces of valor Panzer IIIn (1/72)

Plastic Soldier Company SU 76 (1/72)

The plan for February was to build and paint a box of Victrix miniatures Napoleonic French infantry , but the arrival of Osprey's Rebels & Patriots has changed that as I have some partially painted and/or badly painted 1/72 ACW figures.

Total amount of figures/vehicles painted for 2019.
Vehicles: 4
Figures: 22

Outremer: Faith and Blood game

Cecil and I managed to finally play our first game of "Outremer: Faith and Blood" by Osprey wargames.

Factions were Crusaders and Saracens.

My figures are a mix of Wargames Factory Saxon Fyrd and Conquest Games Normans, Cecil's Saracens are from Fireforge games.

The crimson crusaders

It was the first go at the rules, so we played all 8 turns which resulted in everyone but 3 crusaders being taken down.

The Saracens scars of battle results were even more unforgiving then me, every Saracen that was taken down suffered a detrimental result. The Commander died of wounds, the Imam Loss of coordination, 2 Ahdath increased medical cost, 1 Ahdath a lingering injury, 2 Saracens captured 1 Ahdath and the second in command both sold into slavery. The 3 Crusaders that were taken down were 2 flesh wounds and 1 Hardened.

The Star of the Crusader warband was unnamed Ranged Militia 1 Soldier, he took down 3 enemy including the Saracen commander.

Buildings are Plastcraft, they look pretty nice.

Unnamed Ranged Militia 1 Soldier gets his first take down, the Saracen archer a top central house.

Unnamed Ranged Militia soldier moving in to capture Saracen Commander, unfortunately (for the commander) the game ended before he could actually capture him.

The game plays well, the activation mechanic keeps both players involved and the combat is quick and bloody.

However the character creation and advancement is completely random. For example you pay for a Ranged Militia 1 Soldier, you roll a two random traits, One basic, the other, in this case, a ranged trait, then you buy his equipment to suit his traits, that's OK when you recruit him, But when he levels up he rolls for another trait so you can have a bow expert suddenly becoming able to carry 5 javelins as opposed to 3 he can normally or crossbow marksman or even an elite slinger.