Swordpoint Rise of Rome Supplement pdf Available

This from Gripping Beast.....

New SWORDPOINT Rise of Rome supplement available now from our website as a PDF download!
I know! We have finally arrived screaming into the digital age; only ten years behind everyone else but Lord S said he didn't think the internet was 'a thing' and that it wouldn't catch on (he said this again last week too).
Anyway, this new SWORDPOINT supplement covers the rise of Rome from a tiny village to Masters of Italy (and a lot of other places too). It has 12 Army Lists (new ones and expanded versions of ones in Classical Armies), 10 new scenarios and even a mini board game.

Available from Gripping Beast HERE!

Yes! Swordpoint Hundred Years War Supplement is Upon Us!

Very excited about this! Just published, the new Swordpoint supplement The Hundred Years War.

With the heavy emphasis on the "Line of Battle" will work very well for the HYW. I have heard rumours that English archery has been given a special rule too! 

Apparently I was the first to order a copy! 

Available from Gripping Beast HERE!

I simply cannot wait to get my grubby mitts on it. The 72 hour quarantine on my shoe rack is going to be hell!

New Target. Swordpoint Medieval Tournament Swindon, September 25th and 26th

I was in need of a new target, something to aim for, something that fits my current projects and can be serve as a binary project along with my Italian Wars stuff. The Swordpoint Medieval Tournament Swindon, September 25th and 26th seemed to be the ticket.

Tournaments are not usually my type of thing, but a quick scan of the players listed and the event organisers seem to show that there is a lot of the ye olde WAB crowd in the running. If the WAB Campaign Weekends, of which I attended many, are anything to go by it ought to be a great deal of fun.

There are other considerations though; my mental health is the main one and of course the peaks and valleys of the pandemic are another. Both of these conditions being paramount in my attendance. I have to be very careful with my health in both of these matters. A year plus of continued isolation has really taken it's toll on me. All of it negative I am afraid to say. 

I have a nicely sized Hundred Years War English army that I could quite rebase for the event but having tried several times to get what I have, ie my idea of what an English Army looked like during the 1415-1430 time period to fit the Hundred Years War English list in the Medieval supplement I have settled on quite another army. That of The Spanish in Italy, during the Italian Wars. I will (of course) be basing my Spanish on the army of Gonsalvo Fernandez de Cordoba and the Battle of Cerignola 1503. This fits nicely into my Italian Wars project and potential display game, originally penned in as Fornovo 1495; I have found my interest gradually drifting towards the Battle of Cerignola as it is just so much more of an interesting scenario then the problematic Fornovo with the river Taro crossing the entire length of the battlefield. 

So just a quick update and a nice target for me to aim for. Just under four months to complete the army which so far consists of the following, all subject to change as I decide what to leave in and what to take out:

Swordpoint - Medieval - Spanish in Italy 1250pts

1 General Command Base

5 Captain command Bases (foot ands horse?)

6 Arquebusier Bases - 18 mini's

6 Arquebusier Bases - 18 mini's

8 Pike Bases - 32 mini's

8 Pike Bases - 32 mini's

6 mounted Men at Arms -12 mini's

6 light Cav. Mounted Arquebusiers - 12 mini's

6 Papal Provisionati - 24 mini's

6 Papal Provisionati - 24 mini's

1 Organ gun - Gun and 3 crew

1 Cannon - Gun and 3 crew

It is nigh on impossible to fit what /I feel would be Gonsalvo de Cordoba's whole force present at Cerignola in a 1250p point list. I think it would take a minimum of 2500pts and quite possibly up to 3000! Maybe even more. But, this as they say, is a start.

Next Anglo Danish Unit (Mixture) Further Ranks

Another set of eight Anglo Danish Huscarls and Fyrd complete for the fourth unit. Three more units to and 12 bases of skirmishers to go but they will be on hold for a while as I am going to be digging back into my Early Byzantines. It has been roughly eight days since they received a coat of gloss varnish and a couple since the first matt varnish layer was added. As is so easily done when spraying a matt varnish over that of a gloss it is easy to miss bits (which of course I did!) so had to wait another day to apply another coat. After a week of waiting to get them finished an extra day is a trifle really.

There is a good mix of miniatures ranging from (very) OOP Gripping Beast Patten brothers), more contemporary Gripping Beast Colin Patten and Soapy), Footsore Miniatures (Bill), Saxon Miniatures (Colin Patten) and finally Drabant. If any of the miniatures prior to painting seem like they are just not going to fit it was the Drabant miniatures. They have much larger proportions then the rest. I think the painting process provides some sort of homogeneity which binds the miniatures into a whole creating e believable unit.

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see a couple of images that show how the miniatures fit together on the 40mm x 40mm bases. I chose to go with the smaller size bases as opposed to my normal 40mm frontage and 50-60mm depth as I was looking to create that hunched together in a Shieldwall look. not unlike some of the sections of the Bayeux Tapestry. 

Anglo Danish Command Figures:

Huscarl and Fyrdman:

Huscarl and Fyrdman:

Fryd:

Mock Up of Unit:

I used to use superglue for this job but have been a grateful convert to being more patient and using PVA so I can better adjust any miniatures which look out of kilter with the rest of the unit.

Next Anglo Danish Unit (Mostly) New Footsore Front Rank

I just had to buy these Footsore Miniatures Matthew Bickley Anglo Danish sculpts just as soon as they were available. The sculpts are just so dynamic and full of life; they have the actual appearing as of in the maelstrom of melee. Matthew has the are ability of capturing movement/acts of violence like no other historical sculptor that I can think of, with the obvious exception the Perry's. He is right up there in my humble opinion.

They took a bit of time to make their way to the front of the painting queue as I have a "Rule of Three" which has served me well since I got back into the hobby in November 2019. If you are wondering just what on earth I mean by the "Rule of Three" it is quite elementary. In the past and for many a year, my wargaming projects were forever being superseded due to the ever present Wargamers Butterfly Syndrome, in extremis! I would start one project only to skip to another on a whim. On return from my near five year hiatus away from then hobby I realised that things had to change! If I was to get close to completing any given project then my methodology had to be adjusted. Thus the "Rule of Three" was born. The concept is simple. Do not prep more then three separate projects in one go and do not under any circumstances allow the prepped miniatures to encroach on more space than the space I have available one shelf. This has worked for me very well over the last year and I am definitely sticking to it. It has (of course) not prevented me from straying but if I do get distracted, I carefully put one of the projects out of sight place it in a file box, each mini wrapped in bubble wrap if they have been primed and/or undercoated. This way I have an actual clear visual (my one shelf) indication of just what I need to focus on. Oh, it has also saved me a lot of money!

OK, enough digression.

While I have been waiting for this years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to start I was feverishly beavering away at my fourth unit of Anglo Danes to add to my Swordpoint army. I floundered a little (real life) and did not manage to get more than sixteen miniatures completed leaving me with the very back ranks still to do. In case you have been counting, yeah, there are only eight presented here; the next batch of eight have been glossed and are patiently awaiting the matting down process.

Enough of my rambling..... all the images are as usual "clickable"

Anglo Danes Front Rank 1:

Anglo Danes Front Rank 2:

Anglo Danes Front Rank 3:

Anglo Danes Front Rank 4:

The second batch will be ready in a day or so. Finally, I will leave you with some 'life' sized pics of the mini's- if you click on them they ought to be approximately 32mm tall.....

Burgundian Ordonnance 'Archers' Pike

I've decided upon an army for next year's Swordpoint Medieval event in Swindon and settled on Burgundian Ordonnance. Hopefully it will perform a little better then Charles the Bold managed with his army against the Swiss!!

The first unit is going to be a unit of Burgundian Archers with the front rank of the unit to be made up of Pikemen and the last three with longbows. The Ordonnance Archers were well trained and drilled to fight in such a formation though whether or not it was actually employed on the battlefields of Grandson, Morat or Nancy is open to debate. Such battles were were often jumbled affairs due to the decisiveness, manoeuvrabilty and swiftness of the Swiss thus not really allowing for Charles's expensive well equipped army to fully deploy as he would have liked.

The Ordinance of 1473 says:

"Furthermore, my lord [the duke] ordains that, in order that the said troops, may be better trained and exercised in the use of arms and better practiced and instructed when something happens, when they are in garrison, or have time and leisure to do this, the captains of the squadrons and the chambres are from time to time to take some of their men-at-arms out in the fields, sometimes partly, sometimes fully armed, to practice charging with the lance, keeping in close formation while charging, how to charge briskly, to defend their ensigns, to withdraw on command, and to rally, each helping the other, when so ordered, and how to withstand a charge. In like manner they are to exercise the archers and their horses, to get them used to dismounting and drawing their bows. They must learn how to attach their horses together by their bridles and make them walk forwards directly behind them, attaching the horses of three archers by their bridles saddle-bow of the page of whose man-at-arms they belong; also to march briskly forwards and to fire without breaking rank. The pikemen must be made to advance in close formation in front of the said archers, kneel at a sign from them, holding their pikes lowered to the level of a horse’s back to that the archers can fire over the said pikemen as if over a wall. Thus, if the pikemen see that the enemy is breaking rank, they will be near enough to charge them in good order according to their instructions."

The First Three:

I will be adding feathered plumes to roughly half the miniatures in the unit to emphasise the fact that these were permanently employed as a professional cadre of Ordonnance Archers. As well as the plumes I have added few heads from the Perry Miniatures WR 60 Light Cavalry box and some heads from the WR 20 Plastic Mercenaries 'European Infantry' box sets and some metal plumes from the EA6 Swiss Heads pack. They have been pinned into place and tidied up with some (nice new) ProCreate putty with a bit of sculpting work thrown in. Bucklers have been added as well to give them the more homogeneous look of professional liveried soldiers.

Next Four Mini's:

There are another five miniatures for the front rank but there was little point in taking any pictures as all I have done is added the bucklers and clued the pikes in place.