Beachhead 2023

Steven visited this show a couple of weeks ago:

'It has taken a couple of weeks, but I’ve finally put together some photos I took at Beach Head 2023 down in Bournemouth. It was a good size for a day trip with a variety of demonstration and participation games and some useful trade stands. Less than at Salute, certainly, but I was satisfied I had seen all I wanted, unlike Salute, which is always overwhelming. A lot of the venue was given over to tournaments, mostly (but not exclusively), Warhammer.'

Figure 1 View across the main hall	Figure 2 Some of the titans owned by the 'Titan Owners Club'. I want some!
Figure 3 Dorsetshire Regiment re-enactors	Figure 4 A scene from Stranger Things

'I had a fun game of ‘Hunt the Tiger’ based on the Panzergranate rules. I was the Tiger, facing down
five Shermans. I started off from an ambush by a church on a hill in the middle of the board. I took
out a Firefly immediately, but had to reverse down the hill, shooting smoke as I went, after my main
gun was temporarily disabled and I risked being outflanked. I made it to a road hidden behind some
buildings in one corner of the board. To avoid being trapped, I then sped off down the road, having a
running battle with the Shermans as I went, taking out two of them on the way. I spent some time
firing backwards at a pair of Shermans behind me before reaching a crossroads to turn around and
get myself in a better position. Ironically, whilst doing so, one of them got a good hit on me and that
was the game over. Still, I got three out of five.' (Note from Dad - I can remember a version of this at Conventions back in the 70's)

Figure 5 The ambush

Figure 6 Having been chase off the hill, I then steamed down the road, taking out a Sherman that was bold enough to stand in my way

Figure 7 End game. Although I took out one of the Shermans chasing me, the other got me as I was trying to take up a better position.

I got a decent haul too.  I collected some German infantry from Peter Pig for a 15% show discount and no postage.

 I also bought some modelling and painting supplies, much of which were things I would have gotten anyway.

 I bought five Panzer IIIs and would have gotten more if they had them in stock. At least the two platoons I 

showed you previously can get an HQ each now.

The only real impulse buy was the books. Four for £20 (£14.99 each at RRP) was too good to miss.

 

Figure 8 My haul. About £85, plus about £50 for the pre-ordered Peter Pig figures. Not bad.

Cartoon Romans: Command and archers

The whole set of Romans. Quick and easy to paint in a cartoon style, plus they look good.

Centurion, Standard Bearer and General. I wasn't sure whether or not to give the Centurion and Standard Bearer shields, in the event I decided in favour. Hides most of the paintwork though.

Archer section. One of the main things I dislike about a lot of Admins figures are shown with both the archer and standard bearer figures - why on Earth are the bows and shafts of spears/standards so rough? Smooth wood would have been both easier and a lot better!

Plebs: Soldiers of Rome?

Decision made - starting with the Admins Cartoon Romans. Decided to do the grunts first, hence choice of title for the post! After all, this lot are also comedy Legionaries. I went for a simple paint scheme - matt black undercoat and a single colour on top, Allowing the undercoat to show allows for the shading effect on the faces. Changing my normal way of doing things I painted the figures and shields separately - which means a lot of paintwork doesn't actually show... As for the figures themselves, if I had to descibe them I'd be thinking in terms of Jim Henson or Cabbage Patch Dolls.

I wasn't originally going to use this figure. Having cast them I thought 'why not' - gives me a figure I can use as a nominal file leader (assuming the Romans had some - infantry equivalent of the cavalry Decurion?)

The original idea was General, Centurion, Standard Bearer, 6 Legionaries and 3 archers. When I went for the helmetless figures I upped it to 8 Legionaries and 4 archers.

A skirmish in the desert 2

 

Shown from the Cataplanan right flank as the Vanha light riders start their flanking movement. This troop type is one of the ways my version differs from HoTT - I like light cavalry! These have a -1 on combat factors as opposed to Riders but move quicker. Being horse archers, they can also fire as archers but with a shorter range.

Taken from the other side as Vanha right flank makes contact.

I roll all the dice needed for combats before I start working everything out. I also use dice that are basically colour coded - again, less chance of a mistake. This game was noted for a lot of 1s... in this case resulting in two light horse elements die. The Vanha on this flank weren't doing that well at this point! The pikes and spears in the centre got a bit mixed up but I judged that they never had separated elements so they always rolled 1 die for the units.

But then, the Cataplanan army wasn't doing all that well on the other flank!

Here, the Cataplanan unit had a separated element so it rolled it's own die. Didn't matter; they both rolled 1. So one dead element, though the main body - which included the general - survived because their main opponents only rolled 2!

Meanwhile the Griffins were acting as true light cavalry in my book. Young's Law concerning light cavalry: Light cavalry should always deploy at the back of the army. The enemy's army. Elephants rolled a 1 and died!

The Griffons then went for the back of the enemy Knights but both overshot to stop the Vanha light riders obeying Young's Law.

 

Meanwhile the Vanha general sorted the Military Order protecting the Cataplanan left flank. Before the battle I wasn't sure whether to call the Vanha cavalry knights or riders - finally went for knights.

The Griffons bounced the light horse, looked around and decided...

... time to fly over the fighting cavalry and hit the Vanha knights in the back. The crossbows at this point were firing on the light horse stopping them from charging the rear of the Cataplanan general. In retrospect, one of them could have.

Meanwhile the centre was getting very messed up, though thanks to taking out those two elephants early on things were a lot better for the Cataplanans.

By this time the armies were compressed enough to allow me to take a decent photo of the whole action. At this point casualties were even but then the Vanha army lost the rest of their left flank knights. The two light horses elements were separated so would have rolled separately - didn't happen because one was just acting as a support in the rear of the Cataplanan knights.

Another 1 against a 6... strangely, this only led to a pushback, even though the pikes threw a 6. The Vanha spears weren't so lucky, so it proved a really disasterous round for the Vanha forces.

Anyway, the oasis was finally cleared by the Cataplanan pikes and the Vanha left flank was down to a couple of elements.

So time for the Vanha to pull back and leave the field to the victorious Cataplanans.

This was a bit of a bloodbath. Both armies finished up below half strength.

 Thoughts on the battle. Things went well. For the Cataplanans, the chickens died but the stars were the Griffons. Using their speed and ability to fly over other troops they provided invaluable support in a couple of combats and, although only 'directly' fighting the light horse, their presence helped take out quite a few Vanha elements - including two elephants. That fear factor also helped early on though that was the only 1 thrown over several tests for fear. Both sides threw a lot of 1s and a few 6s - dice throws certainly made a difference in this game.

A skirmish in the desert

 I've got quite a few Cataplanan and Vanha figures that have not yet tasted blood. Seemed like they deserved a chance. In this battle, the two sides are fighting for control of a desert oasis.

As a starter, few words on rules - usual make up as I go along to a certain extent. Everything moves at 8" except light horse (riders on -1 as far a combat goes).and flyers at 16"

Units fight as units or detached elements - as a unit, roll one die for combat, etc, treat each detached element as separate and rolls their own die. Detached elements have to stay within sight of main body.

Foot archers have a range of 16", horse archers and elephants 10". Ignore losing result if opponent not firing back.

Combat factors as per HoTT.

Beasts and elephants have a fear factor. Units attempting get within 4" of  a beast or elephant unit roll 1 die, roll 1 and must stop at 4". Beasts and elephants do not need to make this roll. Roll 2 1s in a row and a unit will not advance against that beast/elephant unit for the rest of the game! Incidentally, rather than beasts I should have made clear this includes things like flyers, dragons and other non-human elements.

OK, That's a basic outline. So the game:

The battle after the first move - nothing much happening yet and it's easier to take a photo with the armies closer to each other. The Cataplanans have sent the Griffons to occupy the oasis. Note that the Cataplanan pikes are being treated as a single rank! It just looks better having them on double depth bases.

Second move and things are getting sorted a bit. Both sides were set up with the infantry directly facing the oasis and cavalry, etc, placed on the flanks. In this case the Vanha left flank ended up outflanking the Cataplanan right. Because of this the Cataplanan right flank is being slightly refused.

A very slightly different angle... gives a slightly better perspective of the foreground showing the Vanha light horse outflanking the Cataplanans.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the first effect of that beasts rule... the Vanha foot rolled to see if they would move into contact with the Griffins and decided against it... they rolled a 1.

I'm leaving the post at this point. Next post will start with this round's firing.

Nimidian/Teutonic knights

 Finished repairing the damage...

The original idea of this lot was to be the basis for a DBA Teutonic knights army or HoTT Nimidian army. As such, each element represented a unit so I gave each element it's own standard. Today, my intended use would be as a military or religious order unit within the army of Cataplana. Current intention (which means it will never happen) would include spearmen and archers as well, the final plan being three contingents - basically one white surcoats/standards/shields, one black and one red.

The figures were originally done as being simply drybushed white over a black undercoat.

The 'general/king element included, as usual for all of these armies, the Western King (on a Nimidian horse) and Aquilonian mounted standard bearer,  Being fantasy armies, I've never considered minor differences between these two figures enough to prevent them joining other armies! Actually if I ever got round to a traditional Medieval army I would use them there as well!

Decisions, Decisions...

OK, so I'm in a dialogue with David Wood and he asks me if it would be possible to have some of the Cartoon Gauls. Anyway, cut a long story short I cast some and sent them off.

I've always quite liked the Romans in the Range, so I decided to cast a load of these for myself.

Dave said 'Let me know what I owe you (or if you want Little Soldier Company stuff.' - so naturally my answer was 'The idea of Alice, a dodo and a few of their friends sounds good thanks!' This lot arrived, which was really about the most I was expecting (and would have been very happy with!)...

Except these were also in the package...

And these...

And these...

If anyone wants to obtain any of these figures - they are really really good and you can get them from The Little Soldier Company. Thanks Dave, this lot really went above and beyond!

The decisions bit? Firstly, I've got those Nimidians to get finished, plus a unit of Turanian cavalry to join my Vanha army. Then there's all the Chinese and Russians I bought from Jacklex. Then there's all this lot Romans and Alice in Gerunderland. Plus I'll pass some of the Alice figures to Steven - he'll paint them better than I can anyway. He's not getting Alice, the dodo, Cheshire Cat, the hookah smoking caterpillar or Red Queen, other than that...

So, what do I paint and in what order?

Decisions, decisions!

The office furniture

More for completeness really...

Some items in the S&S Range are 'better' than others. Personally, I've always put these in the 'others' category.

 

SS117 A chair. This is the most usefull of the three, but it has rather peg like legs I don't like.

SS118 A bed. Not really all that bad, but very limited. It would have been a lot more useful without the sword, shield and hemet!

SS141 A shelf unit. OK, the last two weren't really that bad but this... OK, where do I start? It is mis-shapen. Deep undercuts make it very difficult to get out of the mould without using a screwdriver to prise it out. These undercuts also mean you can't paint parts of it. I'm not even sure what some of the things on the shelves are! G&B/Garrison was originally going to issue this piece with the code SS116 - it's carved on the back. In the event, it was coded but never issued.

Senior moment...

 Finished the Cataplanan/Teutonic knight unit (which I started painting in 2007!) and took it down to be gloss sprayed...

Apparently my aged brain thought it would be better to overspray them white instead...

Think I've got some remedial work to do.

A couple of griffins.

In one of my shotgun periods. I've undercoated a couple of units of Burgundians, getting round to finish some Nemidian knights in a vaguely Tuetonic Knights scheme, got some Turanian cavalry undercoated, and finished a couple of griffins for my Cataplanan army, plus there's a couple more griffins cast and ready....

I'm trying out different colour schems on these. I've never been sure how to paint things like this!

A bird's eye view seems appropriate for these!

Of the current two, I prefer the lighter brown. The grey head and inner wings were originally going to be white but it didn't look right! I think it's pretty obvious that decorating bases is not one of my strong points.