Eagle Warriors

My first unit of Aztecs is now complete!

This is a unit of Eagle Warriors, one of the elite 'suited' warrior castes of the Aztec army.

I've based them for Basic Impetus, but can remove figures to put together a war and for 'En Garde' skirmish rules. I've used the Impetus 2p base from Warbases.

As for the figures, most are Foundry, with a single Gringos40 model. No because I necessarily prefer Foundry, but their figures come in packs of 6, whereas Gringos40 are individual models.

So, here is the unit, all armed with the Macehuitl obsidian swords.

Here are the figures individually. First the leader of the unit, with back banner. These were used as signals mainly.

Next the sole Gringos40 model. They match pretty well, although the Gringos40 is ever so slightly larger.

This figure is posed very nicely, with some additional feathers.

Chequerboard design on the shield.

Aztec face on the shield.

And the final two figures.

Aztecs in 28mm

I have added a few more figures to my fledgling Aztec forces. Here we have 4 Foundry slingers and a Foundry archer.

Villiers-le-Sec at NBHW

I played the Villiers-le-Sec scenario from the Normandy Battle Games book at NBHW last night. First venture out for my old Wehrmacht Infanty Regiment as I've mainly played with my Panzer Lehr thus far.

Good even contest which could've gone either way:

https://www.facebook.com/New-Buckenham-Historical-Wargamers-302874659765417/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1342995955753277

Aztecs in 28mm!

With my WW2 projects coming along nicely, and the Napoleonic Naval stuff for Aboukir Bay all done, my thoughts have been turning to new projects. Playing at a club like NBHW is very inspiring in terms of the collections, size of games, quality of painting and terrain and the sheer variety we play down there. However, it can also be difficult to find something to bring which is a bit different! I inadvertently managed it with the Naval game, but when it comes to land based warfare, there are already many, many wonderful collections from Ancients to Vietnam/Cold War in a variety of scales and sizes to choose from. 

Recently there have been several games looking at the colonial wars; Isandlwana was fought, and someone is working on a big Sikh wars collection. This got me thinking about some of the other European conquests around the world and I started to read up on the Mexican conquest of 1519-21. The mismatch in numbers on the one hand and technology on the other grabbed my attention and the more I discovered about the Aztec (or more correctly, Mexica) culture and their style of fighting the more I found it interesting. 

I'd also been looking for something that would be different to what I've already done from a hobby point of view. So, a move to 28mm, with a splash of colour that I haven't really had since I gave up on the world of GW. The intricate designs of the Aztecs will give me a good challenge.

I've painted a few test models from Gringos40, and very nice models they are too. Little flash to remove and a few nice details.

For source material, the two failsafes of Osprey and Google have helped me a lot! There is a historical document called the Codex Mendoza which gives lots of detail about Aztec outfits. This has been summarised really well here: http://balagan.info/painting-guide-for-an-aztec-army

So, here we go: the Aztecs were split into several military orders, dependent on the number of captives the warrior had taken in battle. This was a really unique aspect to Mesoamerican warfare, in that the Warriors would not necessarily try and kill their opponents, but instead would try to take captives to take back to the temple to be sacrificed. 

The Macehualtin were the peasant levy. Like all Mesoamerican cultures, they wore cotton armour and had weapons made from wood with sharpened obsidian blades. 

I've painted three Macehualtin Warriors - two archers, and one with a spear. Aztecs made great use of the Atlatl, or spear thrower, but these miniatures don't have that represented. I've used some rigging techniques to thread the strings for the bows!

The next miniatures I have are three warrior priests, who have taken 4 captives in battle and so qualified to wear the 'starry night' decorated full bodysuit with a pointed conical hat. This style of uniform was associated with warriors who had taken 2 captives in battle, but the starry sky pattern was only worn by these priests.

The final two figures are perhaps those most associated with the Aztecs - the Eagle and Jaguar warriors. These suits were not real animal skins, they were made of cotton and coloured. The most common 'jaguar' suit was not the jaguar patterned suit, but rather a blue one with black, spotted pattern. However, there were some who had suits designed like the big cat, and I've gone with that for this one. The jaguar warrior also has a back banner - very commonplace on the Aztec battlefield - which would serve as a signal to the rest of the army. 

Both the Eagle and Jaguar warrior orders required warriors to have taken 4 captives in battle. There is some debate as to whether or not they were of equal standing, or whether the eagle warriors had a slight seniority over the Jaguars. This is unproven.

I've used the Osprey book and the Codex for painting inspirations for these.

Finally, a 'Team Shot'!

I'm looking forward to collecting and painting more of these.

Stuka

I've just finished a Hobby Master Stuka, to add a bit of air support for my German forces, and to use at Rostov.

A really nice kit, actually. Easy to assemble, nice and sturdy, with a good range of decals which are quite detailed. 

A picture of it on its stand:

From 74s to 88s...

I am mindful that since renaming the blog, there has been plenty of the '74' aspect with my napoleonic ships, but no actual photos of any 88s!

Well, now I can redress the balance a little. Here are a couple of 88s to scare some Allied tanks.

SHQ crew, Zvezda guns and I think Britannia wheels, although I picked those up from an auction so not sure about the make of them.

The sandbag pits are Hovels, by the way.

HMS Victory

A few photos of my latest work, the famous Royal Navy flagship:

Aboukir Bay - the battle of the Nile.

After many months and much painting and rigging, I was finally able to bring my Battle of the Nile game to NBHW. The scenario is from the BBIB rulebook, with a couple of very minor tweaks. It was an enjoyable refight which went largely to history, albeit with some help from the dice gods who were definitely on the side of Nelson and his band of brothers on this occasion.

The scenario is arranged with the French at anchor for the whole game, and much reduced shore-facing broadsides with special scenario-specific ship record cards to reflect this. Nelson and the British caught the French at their most complacent and with many sailors still on shore! That is not to say it is a walk in the park for the British, who need to win by 8 clear ships, and raging fires, disabled and grounded British ships counting as French successes.

We lined up with Ryan, Tony and Chris taking the French and Gary, Steve, Paul, Jim and Darren the British. Ryan, Gary and Peter - who couldn't attend - also contributed ships to the battle.

The British did not get off to the best of starts, when the lead ship, HMS Goliath, was grounded coming into the bay on the very first dice roll! This left HMS Zealous and HMS Orion leading the British ships toward the French line. In a sign of things to come the early full French broadsides on the oncoming British failed to score any hits, and the Goliath was soon free of the shoals and joining the action with some help of the brig Mutine. Most of the other British entered the bay without issue with the exception of HMS Defence in the middle of the battle line who was briefly grounded but again, quickly refloated herself.

Failing to slow the British advance, and with the British lead ships following history and coming around to the shore side of the French, the French van was soon under sustained attack causing the first French ship, Guerrier, to strike its colours and be seized by HMS Zealous. The second French ship, Conquerant, also struck but sank before it could be captured. The French by now were scoring hits, but these were causing minor damage to the British who were able to repair these off quickly with again, some good dice rolling.

HMS Theseus chose to brave sailing straight at the French line, with the order cards helping it just avoid the possibility of a bow rake as it approached the French ship Aquilon. The rookie Captain Darren misjudged the wind a little which took Theseus straight into Aquilon with the Captain giving the order to board. This could've gone either way with two evenly matched 74s, but the Theseus emerged triumphant with the Aquilon a prize and the third French ship to fall.

It was not completely plain sailing for the British as HMS Minotaur, with steerage damage, was forced to collide with HMS Leander, but Spartiate was soon bombarded with broadsides and struck, being captured by HMS Audacious.

The small French frigate Serieuse, seeing the ships of the line being mauled, decided to do what it could and heroically took on the British flagship HMS Vanguard, which had come around to the shore side. A broadside was ineffective so the Captain gave the order the board! The action was easily repelled and the Vanguard counter-boarded and took the small frigate.

HMS Minotaur continued it's enforced rampage being unable to steer and went on to ram the French flagship L'Orient, which used the opportunity to board the British ship and overcome its crew to give the French their first success of the day.

However, the generally poor French dice rolling continued and the British, realising the French were weaker on the shore side, started to move through, and down, the French line, with the French captains still only able to inflict minor damage to the British who were still repairing well.

Peuple Souverain and Franklin both struck their colours, captured by HMS Audacious and HMS Alexander in turn, but in another small French positive the little frigate Artemise pulled 2 jokers on HMS Leander giving it some hefty fires to deal with and the chance of another French success.

The British were still winning the attritional stakes, however, as in a blow for the French L'Orient struck its colours and was captured by HMS Alexander, and Heureux also struck, captured by HMS Bellerophon ("Billy Ruffian"). However, at this point HMS Goliath became grounded on the Eastern shoals, and without the brig to assist this could've again been another French success if it remained there for the game.

French hopes also lay in some boarding actions instigated by the British. HMS Majestic boarded the Tonnant, and seeing an opportunity, the frigate Artemise also boarded to assist the larger ship. Nevertheless, again the dice were against the French as the Tonnant was captured and then when HMS Alexander joined to assist then the brave French frigate was also captured.

French hopes of other successes were also soon smothered as HMS Goliath again freed itself from the shoals and to rub salt in the wound a massive single broadside from it sunk the frigate Diane which had engaged HMS Orion in a cheeky - but unsuccessful - stern rake.

Using the same tactics as the Artemise, the frigate Justice assisted the Mercure as it was boarded by HMS Bellerophon, but with some ungentlemanly conduct both HMS Swiftsure and HMS Majestic fired broadsides into the boarding action damaging all three ships.

Hopes of HMS Leander's fires developing to 'raging' were dashed too, as some fortunate repair rolling with only 3 crew stars available saw the lucky Leander put them all out!

HMS Orion and HMS Zealous had now reached the final French ships, and as Orion rounded the stern of the Timoleon, the cards assisted the British again with two stern rakes and a massive amount of damage being dealt to the French ship. It soon struck its colours and was captured by HMS Orion.

In the final action of the game, HMS Audacious came to assist HMS Bellerophon against the Mercure and Justice, and the overwhelming numbers of Jolly Jack Tars took the two French ships.

So, a British victory by 11 ships to 1, with just the Genereux and Guillaume Tell left, as historically happened (although 2 frigates got away in the real thing too). In a minor deviation from history, though, 10 of the French ships were captured and only one - Conquerant - destroyed. This compared to 9 captured historically - one being destroyed later - with L'Orient famously exploding and Timoleon being scuttled by the crew.

Historically, one British ship was grounded and 7 severely damaged in the battle including Bellerophon which was also dismasted. The British got off much more lightly in this refight. The players kept more on the move rather than anchoring as many ships did historically and also kept more ships on the shore side of the French. However, as I've said, this could've been a lot closer but for some disastrous French dice, fortunate British dice, and few order cards that came just at the right time! But that's the beauty of BBIB, that element of randomness makes it enjoyable even if you're getting hammered!

Here is a map of the historic battle, from wikipedia:

There is talk of looking at Trafalgar at the club - so watch this space!

For more photos - over 100! - please also check out the NBHW's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/New-Buckenham-Historical-Wargamers-302874659765417/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1274193072633566

NKVD company

With Lipovec complete, I have been working on a few bits for Rostov 1942 recently. I've updated the Slovak mountain guns (so they are the correct ones!), and also painted up a few German vehicles for my Normandy collection.

However, I've had my eye on the lovely TQD Castings 20mm WW2 NKVD figures to defend their HQ in Rostov. They are wonderful models (I have a few TQD/CP models in my Panzer Lehr collection) and are a pleasure to paint.

The infantry company:

Support is provided by a maxim team and 80mm mortar:

Meanwhile, an A/T rifleman hides in the long grass waiting for an unsuspecting Panzer:

The is a HQ unit, with commanding officer:

Finally, a the first of the snipers for Rostov. There will be a couple more to come!