OHW Pitched Battle : Medieval

Here's the first outing of my new medieval troops in scenario 2 from One Hour Wargames. Figures are mostly Deetail.

OOB:
Euro-knights (Army Red, they go first): 4 units of knights, 1 unit of men-at-arms and 1 unit of archers.
Saracens (Army Blue): 3 units of knights, 2 units of men-at-arms and 1 unit of levies.

The battle lines are drawn and ready!

Horses stamp their hooves and snort, shields clang and battle cries of the Blue army!

The Red army commander sounds the advance! Thundering hoofbeats! The men roar!

Turn 1: The lines advance. Army Red takes the hill, Army Blue, the crossroads.

Turn 2: Clash at the crossroads! Men and beast collide! The thunderous clatter of colliding steell!

Turn 2: Near the hill the battle is well and truly joined!

Turn 3: A blow for Army Red, a unit of knights is removed from the field. But the battle rages!

Turn 4: The archers take out a unit of Blue knights, but the scrum of men and horses continues!

The archers look on for a new target. Army Red's control of the hill is uncontested.

Turn 5: The clash at the crossroads!

Turn 5: Army Blue destroy a unit of Red knights!

Turn 6: The battle for the cross roads ends with the destruction of Red's units.
 Meanwhile, at the hill, Blue and Red suffer losses.

Turn 7: Blue sends a second wave to take the hill.

Turn 8: Again the sides crash into each other! Blue holds back

Turn 9: Things don't go according to plan for Blue. Red's archers and men-at-arms refuse to concede!

Turn 10: Blue is driven from the hill. It belongs solely to Red.
Red's men-at-arms prepare to race for the crossroads.

Turn 14: Red's men-at-arms are badly wounded, but their armor gives them a measure of defense vs the unarmored levies.
Even so, no one is the winner after 15 turns. I let it play out.

Turn 18: The men-at-arms underestimated Blue's levies and paid the price. The sides withdraw, nothing gained, much lost.

This was my first time playing the medieval rules from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames. In fact, it was the first time playing any rules other than the WWII rules.

Color me surprised.

Despite being essentially the same rules, the differences were enough that the game felt nothing like the WWII game. To my mind, they gave a good accounting of themselves of a distinctly medieval game. This may be due to the fact that I've never played any other medieval rules - in which case, that demonstrates OHW's effectiveness. If you figure that a new wargamer might pick up the book as a starting point, they would be well served by the rules for exploring different periods.

Forsooth! Ye Olde Knights and Saracens!

A special thanks to Ross Mac of Battle Game of the Month fame for making my medieval collection nearly complete!

Combined with some eBay purchases, here are the sides as they stand now (click pics to enlarge):

There is some clean up to be done - some touch ups, conversions, and repairs - but they are already a game-able group.

In fact, I couldn't wait to play:

I chose scenario 2 from One Hour Wargames, because it's straightforward. Rules were Neil Thomas's medieval rules from the same book.

The grid is not in play, but I did use the 6 inch squares to aid measuring. The astute among you will notice I've set up the Saracen line too wide. I corrected that error after the picture was taken.

OOB:

• Euro-knights: 4 units of knights, 1 unit of men-at-arms and 1 unit of archers. 
• Saracens: 3 units of knights, 2 units of men-at-arms and 1 unit of levies.

I chose 4" square sabots and jammed them as full as possible. The visual effect was satisfying and lived up to the idea of the "shock" period (to borrow from Morschauser).

Stay tuned for the first clash of my new armies and some thoughts about the rules.

A Whim and a New Era

I'd been following a bunch of searches on Ebay for awhile now, more from habit than anything, when, the other day, I saw a few lots of Deetail knights and Saracens that was too good to let go by.

Giddyup!

And so a new project was born.

In order to keep my purchasing focused and my collection from sprawling (too late), I will build up two armies (to start),  using  Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames medieval rules as a guide, although Morschauser will most likely get the nod when it comes time for actual play.

That said, I'll make some concessions. In particular when it comes time to fielding archers, which Thomas suggests should be crossbows, based on what I can find and how much I'm willing to spend. Crossbowmen are hard enough to find for the European-ish army, let alone the Saracen / Turkish-ish army.

Now, you undoubtedly  noticed the parenthetical "to start" in an earlier paragraph.

Well, as these things are wont to do, an idea has exploded in my head. My "end-goal" (do wargamers really have stopping points?) is to build armies for my own Hyborian campaign of sorts, where ahistorical match-ups of the ancient and medieval worlds will be a possibility.

I'm already eyeing up 1/32 Roman figures from HaT, TSSD and Expeditionary Force as a possible future army.

Catch a Tiger by the Tail

My newest acquisition for my German WWII force is the Solido 221 Tiger tank.

Collectors may choke a bit when they realize I'm going to play games with it.

It's a thing of beauty!

Size comparison with 54mm Matchbox figure

Another perspective.

I admit that my 1/43 - 1/50 armor acquisitions for the Germans are a bit of a hodge podge: a PZ IV, a Jagdpanther and a Tiger. Then again, the rules I use don't put a premium on real-world orbats either.

I think, at this point, my plan is to acquire another PZ IV, so I can field a tank company of PZ IVs, lead by a Tiger. Not sure how historical it is, but Featherstone had two Panthers lead by a tiger in his sample campaign game in Advanced War Gaming and that's good enough for me.