Friday, 1 May 2026

FIW Batrep - The Battle at Fort Dan

 


The Reject meet up at Posties for a game of Posties, French Indian War, Skirmish Rules.
Call myself a Wargamer? It was my first Face to Face game proper in the shed this year, How ridiculous is that!!
You may have already seen Richard and Lee's posts about the game, if not click their names.


Postie does set up a nice table.

Richard, Colin and myself picked out the French
Dan, Lee and Surj picked the British


If we could we were tasked with attacking and capturing the fort, bridge, burning the town and disposing of as many British Foot and settlers as possible.

I started on the round with the Royal Rousillion ret and a unit of Compaginie Francais se la Marine


Facing me were the Massachusetts Provincial regt and a host of retreating settlers.


The town that needed burning.


Colin's troops some Natives and Courer de Bois were in the woods on the Brit right flank, (the blue circles) We had several of these to place down on the table, some were bluff cards.


The bridge, right across the other side of the table, 14 feet away from our starting point.
It might as well been on the otherside of the moon!!!


Colonel Dan is showing off his troops to Lord Howie's daughter!!!


Lee had 2 companies of the 55th Foot roaming around the table.


Here's the other one.


If we ran, which meant we couldn't fire it would take us 8 turns to get to the fence line.....
Somehow I think the tables a tad too big, and our objectives are errrrr impossible!


Anyhow, we had a fun day.

They all look happy don't they the miserable buggers!!
Colin, Surj, Lee and Dan!


A full move forward for us, meant a full move back for the Brits


And they shot at us..... the cheek!!!!


Nothing seemed to go our way in the game, I'm not sure how many turns we played, it must have been 8ish. But we only won the first move once, that meant Surj would fire and move back each turn.
We just couldn't catch up.


Richard had 2 units of Natives on our right, hidden under the blue circles, he was facing 2 Brits blue circles himself, but were they troops?


Bang Bang!


Colin came outta the woods with the Quebec Militia


Now that is a pretty line!!



I had a sharpeshooter character named The Fish, you can see him waving a tomahawk.


Colin ventured a tad to close to the edge of the woods and had to reveal his Courer de Bois.
Hmm? That looks like dinner over there????



Richard moved his 2 units forward and the blue circles were revealed. His 2 Native companies faced a Rogers Rangers and a Native unit. 


To hit with musketry you had to through a D20, being as we were shooting at long range, most of the time you had to throw 17 or over.....which we didn't manage to do very often!!
Sigh....



After a few turns of shooting and fighting our right flank was looking depleted, both d=sides had taken many casualties.


Jeez, That's around 30 inches I moved so far only another million to go..........


With the blue circled removed its difficult to see who's friend or foe, Richard's just edging it though.


I did say Richard was edging it didn't I?
Well I was wrong!

All four units lost so many men that the stragglers just buggered off. 
That was the end of Richard's command
Or was it???


We did know we had these re-enforcements paddling down the river. But we wanted until poor Dan, who was literally, "holding the fort" got bored and moved out. So when he did...


Four canoes and 16 Natives with ladders arrived!!

Woo Hoo!!!!


Hmm? the bridge or the fort???

To move the canoes, Richard had to throw 3 Average dice, the first time he threw an 11, so a good move, the next time he went back to throwing crap and only moved 6 inches.
Looking at the map, it could take him another 6 turns to get to the bridge....


Surj continued to fire and move back, he had a good turn and killed 4 or 5 figures, with lucky dice.
We didn't get to fire back as it was agreed between the 3 off us, we had no chance of getting to the town, Fort or Bridge, so the towel was thrown in.


We could have carried on, but we'd lost heart, our morale was lower the guy in a red top's expectations of survival in an episode of star trek!


Umming and Arring about what should have been.


Conclusion

It was great getting back in the shed for a game, the game unfortunately just didn't go our way, the dice gods didn't abandon us, they kicked us in the butt! The Brit dice was only slightly better, which helped them out. Some you win some you lose, but the best winner was getting together with your pals and having a great laugh, at each other and at yourself.
Ray


Sunday, 26 April 2026

Battle Chronicle - The Retreat from Moscow in 10mm!

 


Yes you read that right....10mm!

But you've already got loads of figures in 25mm, are you crazy??

Yep!

Battle Chronicle - The Retreat from Moscow is complete and went to the printers a few days ago, so hopefully it'll be on sale in a few weeks time.

A few weeks ago, Paul from Pazoot had a chat with Leon from Pendraken about making up some Battle Chronicle army packs, using their figure range. A week later a complete army dropped through my letterbox....and here it is!


French Infantry x 15


Civilians x 6


French Cavalry
Chasseurs a Cheval Lancers x 6


Russian Infantry x 12


Russian Jagers x 12


Russian Cossacks x 12


I bought the buildings as extra's from Pendraken and from ebay, as well as some fences, but I forgot to take a pic of those.

So if you fancy the rules, but don't want to invest the time and money into 25mm figures, you could go for the easier 10mm option from Pendraken?

The choice is yours???



Wednesday, 22 April 2026

BLB - Vienna 1683 - 15mm Polish Pancerni

 


I started painting these 4 units of Pancerni during the Painting Challenge, but ran out of time at the very end, so I've only just finished them off.



The armoured companion (Polish: towarzysz pancerny) was a medium cavalry soldier of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 16th to 18th centuries, named for their chainmail armour. They were the second most important cavalry force after the hussars and were mainly recruited from middle and lower ranks of the nobility.

They served in units called chorągiew (companies) of about 60–200 horsemen. In 1676, “Cossack cavalry” was renamed armoured cavalry (jazda pancerna), and after 1776 reforms, both pancerni and hussars became part of the National Cavalry.

Their equipment typically included chainmail or similar armour, arm guards, sabre, bow, pistols, and carbines, with earlier use of weapons like maces or lances (later made compulsory under King John III Sobieski).

The term pancerni originally referred, in medieval Poland under rulers like Mieszko I and Bolesław I the Brave, to elite, well-equipped warriors in the ruler’s retinue.

There are no records of units as such, so I have named each unit after 4 Pancerni Commanders who fought at Vienna, again I don't know which weapons each would have used, so this is a guess, if anyone knows any different please let me know.
For the battle 2 units need to be lance armed, while the other 2 can be armed as you like, I chose bows!


Chorągiew pancerna of Stanisław Jabłonowski
Red regt



Chorągiew pancerna of Aleksander Michał Lubomirski
Yellow regt



Chorągiew pancerna of Michał Florian Rzewuski
Green regt



Chorągiew pancerna of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski
Blue regt


All the figures are from Essex Miniatures, I had to cut and drill to make standard bearers, which was easy for the lance armed troops, but no so for the bow armed troops!!!
And here's the list I'm working from, as you can see, there's more red than black, so hopefully I'll get the finished in the next few months.....or at least by the next Challenge!!!!
After that, I may paint more, it'd be nice to have some Austrian infantry for example?

The list is taken from Barry Hilton's, scenario in, A Taste for Victoryset during the Relief of Vienna in 1683


Ottoman Army under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha

1st Line (Independent Commands)
Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs
Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs
Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs
Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

2nd Line indie command
Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs 
Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6figs
Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs 
Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6figs
(Already painted before the Challenge)

3rd Line indie commands 
Sekban musket, loose Raw 12 figs 
Tufeckci musket, loose Drilled 12 figs 
Sekban musket, loose Raw 12 figs 
Tufeckci musket, loose Drilled 12 figs 

Janissary Brigade & Brigadier
Janissary Orta All Musket Drilled/Elite 12
Janissary Orta All Musket/Flintlock Drilled/Elite 12
Janissary Orta All Musket/Flintlock Drilled/Elite 12
Janissary Orta All Musket Drilled/Elite 12

Reserve & Brigadier

Sipahis of the Porte Blade, Lance Veteran-Elite 6 figs
Sipahis of the Porte Blade, Lance Veteran-Elite 6 figs
Vizier's Guard All Musket, Flintlock Guard 6 
Great Gun Drilled 1 model 
Great Gun Drilled 1 model 

Holy League under King Jan III Sobieski

Polish Cavalry Brigade
Lipka Tartars Tribal Cav now Raw 6figs
Pancerni Bullet, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX
Pancerni Bullet, Lance, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX
Hussar Banner Blade, Lance, armour Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Polish Cavalry Brigade
Lipka Tartars Tribal Cav now Raw 6figs
Pancerni Bullet, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX
Pancerni Bullet, Lance, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX
Hussar Banner Blade, Lance, armour Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Imperial Cavalry Brigade 
Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 12 figs
Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Veteran-Elite 12 figs

Bavarian Cav Brig
Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 12 figs
Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Drilled-Elite 12 figs

Saxons Cav Brigade 
Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 6 figs
Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Drilled-Elite 18 figs

Field gun 1 model