Zinqagur Fleet Programme - Scale Change

Although I love scratchbuilding 1/1000 scale models, the process is very time-consuming, and I wanted to play some pre-dreadnought battles with this shelved project in mind.

So I returned to it, but I'm going to produce the models in 1/2000 scale instead. I already started working on the Charles Martel and three Orlando/Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruisers.

Ships of the pre-dreadnought era are generally easy to construct at this scale, as their superstructures are relatively not very cluttered, very boxy so to speak, with a pair of turrets and a big central casemate battery.

I also have four ships of the Iron Duke-class superdreads which only need basing, so I shall go on with that, and perhaps the project will gather enough momentum so I can continue with repairing and rebasing the rest of the collection.

Going Medieval Ep.2, Dragon Rampant

I developed my original ideas somewhat and came to a few conclusions.

First of all, I managed to dig out the remainders of the last Aliexpress package (of the ripped-off Caesar knight figures that everybody likes on the Super Cheap Wargaming FB group), and all in all I could field a few units already. I have four mounted knights (a reduced figure number or half unit of heavy cavalry and a commander), a group of archers, a few standard bearers and foot sergeants, which is a good start.

Superhobby or Mojehobby or however you'd like to call it supplies most of the Dark/Light Alliance 1/72 plastics, and a few more interesting sets in between, so I would be able to field a lots of units cheaply and without having to resort to Chinamen using stolen products. (I wonder though if it's really stolen as Caesar is also a Chinese company and whether they just sold off their existing stock to someone else.)

Thus the setting would be, as in my previous attempt, my World in Chaos fantasy universe, where I could fight battles between various factions without having the need to adhere to historical authencity. If I can duplicate units for historical use, it's just the better.

Here's a few sets I would like:

- one or two box of knights, preferably early types, like the Italeri Teutonic Knights I have. 

- the Orion Vikings box, absolutely ahistorical but I have some toy soldier figures made in their fashion and like the horned helmets.

- HäT El Cid Spanish infantry, good early medieval to about 12th century mixed infantry, 8 units' worth in Rampant terms for cheap.

- Dark Alliance orcs and goblins, to represent the evil foe.

- Light Alliance Rohirrim (both the infantry and the horse), pretty good looking generic fantasy dudes.

When it comes to prices 1/72 scale is still king, most likely because it is unaffected by the rising production cost of metal figures. And the figures being of intermediate size, they are good for massed battles and small skirmishes too.

I'd like to wait a little before buying anything, because hopefully I'll be able to round up my 28mm 17th century Western European collection on the next Bloody Miniatures 'Not at Salute' sale, and don't wish to overspend.

Going Medieval

I've had 1/72 scale medieval armies before, and I made multiple attempts to organize the also very famous Aliexpress 200 troops pack into a core army on foot, with little success.

As always, the reason of my failure was a lack of cohesive plan, both rules- and concept-wise.

To start with the latter, my new concept involves a few things:

- late 13th/early 14th century Hungarian topics

- my World In Chaos fantasy setting

- my Schultze-Böhnstadt imagi-world, which can be in conjunction with the first one (I started on this before, my plan is to include noble houses named after German beer brands).

And the rules would be

- SBH for small actions

- Lion Rampant for large skirmishes

- Gudugan Pudugan house-rules for larger battles (I can remove the fluff from this and play as is)

The 1/72 figure market is very broad, and one thing I don't want to do is be especially pedantic, neither with period dress nor the painting. Further, 1/72 figures are at a decent intermediate scale, so they can be used both for skirmishes and big battles.

For small skirmishes I'll use figs on 40x20 cavalry and round 20mm infantry bases, while for larger battles a well tried-out method is to have 3 cav or 6 infantry on a 60x40 rectangular base, my WSS/GNW troops are based this way.

Now back to scouring cheapo kits.

Small Scale Naval Action

As mentioned on the main blog, I purchased one pack of the notorious '72x plastic Napoleonic Sailing Ship Toy etc. etc.' bag on Amazon, and it is due to arrive next week.

Just in time as I was already eyeing some Warfare Miniatures metal ships for pirate actions, and how to cut cost! (Skipping one meal or two was, of course, out of the question.) Sometimes foresight works better than any planning.

Anyway, I plan to convert a bunch of these, much alike Master Crook on his blog, to three-deckers, frigates and Indiamen. And, although I originally bought the lot for fleet actions, I will be free to roam the seven seas as captain of a privateer or pirate hunter man-o-war.

My plan includes converting six ships to 1st rates, six frigates, six indiamen and six hulks (without masts). I might just increase the number of frigates to a dozen, but again, for fleet actions, they are not required. That would still leave me with fifty-odd 'second rate' hulls

This, then, brings the question of rules, preferably for ship on ship actions. For large scale battles I have Fighting Sail and my own diceless house rules.

For smaller actions I own Galleys & Galleons, but had not tried it for duels; and Kiss Me Hardy, which I played a lot and enjoyed, and think most suitable for the task. Another candidate would be Mad for War by the League of Augsburg, which is flexible in engagement scale as far as I know.

I'm not on the lookout for rules anymore on the current market, because I'm a grognard at heart and will just write my own. Of course there is the odd exception, for example the Renaissance rules to be published by Sam Mustafa. This means it's time to re-read KMH! for a while, and wait for the ships patiently.

 

War of the League of Aspico - The Lessons

 

I fought two battles using my mashup rules of One Hour Wargames and Maurice 'Succession Wars' for the Renaissance Italian theater. I think it is useful to conclude the small campaign with a few end notes.

Campaign

The Fransican alliance won with a landslide, decisively beating both the Alliance of Nibeuno and the Papal States. Their campaign was swift and thus brought to a quick conclusion, but luck played a major part in it.

Now the Fransicans have a foothold on this side of the Alps (see map above) - the only question is, will the bickering Italian factions unite to oust them, or do they remain with their age old custom of stabbing each other in the back instead?

What I should do next is 'recruit' a few more armies - Venetian (Contatre), Spanish, Imperial - and maybe, just maybe increase army sizes to eight units per side. Thus a new day shall dawn on the First Truly Great Italian War, maybe triggered by the succession of a weak ruler on the throne of Matedicao.

Succession Wars rules

Simply put, these work great. You basically match up fighting pairs, give point results at the end of the battle, administer the losses in the army, and you are done. Simple and elegant, with a lot of thought put into the design. I don't think I will change anything.

Battle rules

I sort of made a mistake with reducing unit hit points compared to OHWG's original. This means units get destroyed very quickly. Of course this way a battle ends faster, which is a good think for solo games; on the other hand, I would like my units to be a bit more resilient.

So I think I'll add a supplementary mechanism where each unit has a rally score to meet. Hits made against the unit during the turn are added temporarily, and when every fight is concluded, the unit will be able to rally some hits off, rolling a die for each score, and calculate permanent damage. This also means that a unit which has a potential chance to be destroyed can still be activated and remains a threat during its turn. 

If that does not work, I'll keep adding hit points until a satisfactory result is found.

Thinking about Galleasses Pt. 2, the Spanish Armada

Some time ago I wrote a post about building Mediterranean Galleass ship models for wargaming. This is an extension on that post, examining the concepts and existing material evidence for the Neapolitan galleasses that took part in the Armada campaign.

The reason behind this is that right now I'm completing the Zvezda 1/350 San Martín, and I already have a completed Revenge and an assembled Golden Hind from that same line. So it comes naturally that I could fight a sea battle if I had another Spanish ship, why not make something extraordinary?

A Cobbled Together Italian Wars Update

In Hungarian we call a person or idea going sideways "writing a tanner's letter", which is a weird expression (it has to do with starting the cursive r letter and ending back up in the same place), but that's what I recently did with my Italian Wars strategic campaign, again.

I started thinking about making a ladder-type area control game and made this map above. Then I thought some more and realized that having multiple factions and armies on the map and keeping track of each (both in size and position) would mean a lot of administrative burden for a single campaign.

So in the end I'll still use the map in one way or another (heck, I just made it), but for the campaign logging part, I'll use... the Succession Wars rules from Maurice. 

That's right. For the 16th century Italian Wars. Sue me.

And there is a clear reason for that. It has victory points, it has army trackers, it has rules for setting up factions. It has it all. It is also a framework that can be transported back in time.

For the actual combat rules I'll just use a heavily modified version of One Hour Wargames, something which I wrote about recently. There is little hassle in setting up troops and it works. My modifications mainly affect the size of units, and including light horse and skirmishing arquebusiers as separate units.

I guess this is the final sentence everyone involved in logistics reaches back to. You don't change a system that works to a new one that doesn't work. And that is the core, also, of all campaigning.

All I have to do now is make a unified version of the modded rules and produce some KiK Block troops for my battles.

6mm Star Fort Template

 

I started to make an ad-hoc star fort for my 6mm terrain project without much planning and failed miserably. So I rethought and went at it the only proper Vauban way: using science.

This means I made a small template in Paint for a four-pointed star fort which I can reproduce, slice up and use to build smallish border fortresses for my games.

There aren't technically fortifications in Maurice, only towns or garrisoned redoubts perhaps. And my units being rather large and single based (meaning 1 unit = 1 base), I have to shrink my built-up areas a bit, so they are rather symbolic.

This star fort is supposed to be 8cm across from point to point, so by default a 75x25mm base unit won't fit, I'll just use a marker to show there is somebody inside. It can also be used as an immobile artillery strong point.

Of course a much fancier five-pointed design could also be made, for which I have plans in the distant future.

In other news, my terrain building project slowly reaches Phase Two, where I'm going to build one or two more city bases, rivers, mills and bridges, and then everything required will be complete.

A simple activation modifier for One Hour Wargames

I came up with a makeshift solution to play larger battles using the One Hour Wargames Pike and Shot variant.

As you may know the original rules have a strict IGOUGO turn system and use six units per side. With this variant, we can add a bit of friction to each side's activations, and the scope of the rules can be perhaps extended to up to a dozen per side without bogging down the game.

It works with a card or chit drawing system:

- assign a colour for each side

- put tokens in a bag or mix a deck of cards with the values below

- start drawing, the player whose colour was drawn can activate as many units as on the token/card

- when both side's tokens/deck run out, end the turn

For 6 units per side, add the following values to each side's tokens: 1 2 3 

For 7 or 8 units, add one or two more '1' value tokens.

For 9 to 10 units per side, include 1 2 3 3/4 per side.

For 11 to 12 units, use 1 1 2 2 2/3 3 per side.

If the number of units is uneven between sides, include the same amount of tokens but increase the value for one side.

You can use aces or other non-numbered cards to represent '1' value when using cards.

The same unit cannot be activated twice during a turn, so in that regard the IGOUGO system remains.

Remove units at the end of the complete turn as per the original rules.

Ship names generated for the Jackewlinese Civil War / War of Liberation

Dorrosean-Crontaineville Fleet

First Rates

Leon d'Muyn
Fiervenge's

Second Rates

Vaillance
Republique
Saint-Cronté

Third Rates

Épervier
Orageux
Mumaque Bley
Pruden's
Vendican's
Foisier
Chan deu Plor
Le Pépé

Marche-Wissac

Fourth Rates

Dame Mercieux

Ferrulle

Étyl Brilyan's

Véy Batar'

Plesuc

Port-Mélonne

Jackewlinese Fleet

First Rates

Shanse

Rhaiqe Tillon

Rhaiqe Béli

Sonrhaiq

Second Rates

Sonrhaiqé Fesselisann

Anqalturi

Third Rates

Antechaiton

Chovaion

Ledaliss

Moledurssan

Qaltureác

Xeisa

Sinqelsgert

Fourth Rates

Moiséion

Illaper'ch

Antrokenech

Chitonetech

6mm Terrain List - Updated v2 17 December

I have completed my 6mm armies for my Schultze-Böhnstadt setting. That is a big word, more than twelve hundred 6mm figures, which makes a steady average of a hundred figures per month, considering I bought the first lot in October 2024.

Now that the figures are complete, I considered terrain, and I have to make a post to organize things and keep track of my progress. These all should be Western European themed, and I'm probably going to expand the line of buildings later to Mediterranean ones for my Formaggian Succession Wars campaign.

I try to more or less conform to terrain types defined in Maurice, but I divided the terrain to "blotchy" and "linear" sections because this makes things easier in the long run. My units are 75x25mm sized and I equate 1BW to 1"/25mm for easier calculation, so I have to take the footprint of terrain pieces into such considerations.

Blotchy terrain

The goal here is to replace the paperwork stand-ins with properly built ones.

- 1x 50x100mm footprint walled town (able to be garrisoned by one unit) - about half a dozen buildings

- 1x 75x75mm footprint walled town (able to be garrisoned by one unit) - similarly, about half a dozen buildings

Update: I'm thinking of making my towns a bit more modular, with one central piece (such as a schloss or church) and a few surrounding buildings).

Update2: one old fortress on a hill WIP, one church tile completed; one town tile WIP (requires one more painted house) and one complete.

Further, I have built some fortifications (some trench lines with gabions and chevaux-de-frise, and a large redoubt to complement the old fort - this would represent Schloss Rosenheim)

- A few inns, hamlets and other small built-in scenic pieces that are not to be garrisoned (one test piece mostly complete)

Update: this would include a windmill and a river mill.

Update2: have assembled a walled hamlet and started painting the two mills.

- 1x large wooden patch with paper mache trees (WIP)

- 2x series of paper mache trees on 25mm and 35mm round bases, two to three trees per base, two dozen in total

Update: completed

- I hope I can score some un-snowed pine trees come Christmas, last year Flying Tiger Copenhagen had some which I could butcher, I mean trim to smaller ones

Update: I made eight sections with three pine trees each.

- about half a dozen ploughed fields and grown crops, most likely 75x50 or 75x75mm footprint

Update: four yellow wheat and six green wheat fields are complete, ploughed fields should be easy to complete

- a pair of lakes and/or marshes (or marshy lakes)

Update2: still required

Linear terrain

My table is 110x70cm, so I'm going to make 110cm length of each terrain feature, in 6x5cm and 8x10cm sections unless stated otherwise. No particular reason, just to be precise about it. I'll use bases with a concave/rounded end so they could fit better.

- Brick walls, as described above

    Update: eight sections complete, won't do more for now.

- Rivers, as described above, plus one or two river bends.

Update2: five sections require gloss varnish and flocking. Five require drybrushing the river waves, varnish and flocking. 

- Roads, as described above (perhaps a bit more)

    Update: ten sections are complete, perhaps a few more bends to do.

- Paper mache hedgerows, 70cm total, 4x5cm and 5x10cm sections

    Update: Completed

- Small streams, 70cm total, 4x5cm and 5x10cm sections

    Update: completed, might require some flocking.

Word on Buildings

I'm working on a series of masters for town houses which I plan to recast with a Blue Stuff mould and a hot glue gun. Each town shall have two or three different types of houses, and perhaps a more distinct feature such as a church or market hall. I'm doing the masters from plasticard and the roof from epoxy clay to shape the roof tiles.

Thirty Years War - Pikeman's Lament test game

I bought the PL rules many years ago but did not play much with them. This is mostly due to the first playtest foundering and misunderstanding the rules somewhat.

Lately I came to appreciate PL as an excellent choice for quick games with a medium-size collection, somewhere between a skirmish and a full-scale battle. Another good option would be Sharp Practice, they are practically at the same level. I'm thinking of using SP for the period as well. I used it for my Nova Hungaria games before so I have fond memories of it (the original, I never touched the second edition).

Anyway, it just struck my mind that I actually have enough figures now to play another initial test game, so I created a Swedish and an Imperialist TYW Company, at the suggested 24 points, put some terrain on the table and went at it. I read the rules thoroughly and made some notes, including quick references to unit stats.

I'm putting this post on the miscellaneous blog because I did not take any photos.

Italian Wars - Rethinking and Rebasing

I'm kind of a megalomaniac and this led me to overthink another project. We learn from our mistakes right?

So using 28mm figures my previous ideas about basing and collecting Italian Wars period figures just did not work. The units were too large and unfeasible on the tabletop. This then led me to stall and not get done with anything. I even considered switching to 6mm Baccus figures entirely and abandoning the project, because I just could not progress any further.

Then one evening it struck me that I overdid it again, and I should limit my goals and build my armies slowly, so they are playable at an earlier stage.

So I started rebasing my current figure collection for The Pikeman's Lament or other large scale skirmishes in mind, with six foot or three horse on a 75x50mm base and command as I see fit. 

First I thought about four foot or two horse on a 50x50mm base, but then I could not get six figure foot units, which are part of the PL rules.

Of course I can later expand this, especially the pike blocks, to include more than two bases or 12 pikes in total.

With that I ordered two boxes of Perry Mercenaries, to be used as Swiss pike and French/Italian shot for the same conflict. This would give me a playable force in the foreseeable future. 

The Perry figs may be a bit outdated for the later part of the wars but I'll just overlook that. I've got some Warlord heads and bits to update them a bit, also I can sculpt slashed sleeves with green stuff.

Of course it would have been better to buy some Cossack infantry and finish my - about seventy percent done - Deluge project starting armies, but sometimes you just act on a whim.

Plus I got about twice as many figures for lesser money.