Progress on Japanese, Italian, Turkish and Caribbean fronts. Edistystä Kaukoidän, Italian, Turkin ja Karibian rintamilla

Doing inventory and clean up on the work bench brought up a small forest of bamboo that has waited basing for ages. In same vein I added grass and tufts to several divergent units: reiters from Italian wars, Ottoman sipahis, Gallic cavalry, Poenic cavalry and Ligurian infantry.

Reiters and sipahi

Gauls, Poenic citizen cavalry, Ligurians and Gdansk (Danzig) general with his retinue

Pöydän raivauksen sivutuotteena tuli rakenneltua pieni bambumetsikkö jonka tarpeet on olleet pöydällä iät ja ajat. Samalla tuli nurmetettua melkoisen kirjava satsi yksiköitä: Italian sotien keihäinn aseistettuja reitereita, gallialaista ja puunilaista ratsuväkeä, ottomaanisipaheja, ligurialaista kevyttä jalkaväkeä ja Danzigin kaupunkiarmeijan kenraali.

Ettei fokus säilyisi liian terävänä posti toi lisää leluja Blood and Plunderiin: Iron Gate Sceneryn 3d tulostettuja veneitä ja hylkytavaraa. Kanootti, keskikokoinen soutuvene ja iso purjevene. Oikein kivaa kamaa, hyvin jännä nähdä miten ottavat maalia.

  Not to stay too focused I ordered some new toys for Blood and Plunder. I felt my maroons and buccaneers needed couple of boats in addition to their sloop and thus fell for Iron Gate scenerys offerings. Medium rowboat, canoe, and large sailing boat plus some flotsam. Inspiring stuff, interesting to see how surface behaves uner paint.

More Poles - Lisää puolalaisia

Painting has stalled once again with other hobbies taking precedence.
We did manage to have a game of Blood and Plunder - first game of autumn season.

I did do some inventory of painted stuff and decided I needed more Polish cossack style cavalry to round up my choices if we get to play division game again - and also in case of doing skirmish games with Polish lists. So I got the box of Warsaw 1656 cavalry regiment. I already had in my stash a box of pancerni and a box of petyhorchy. I assembled the whole lot to be able to prime this outside before he outset of the winter.  I was positively surprised by the sculpts of the cavalry regiment cossacks. I was already bored with the cossacks in skirmishbox and cossack box, so finding all new sculpts here I was a happy camper. Mixing pancerni and cossacks I assembled the troops as 2 elite banners of pancerni, 2 elite banners of cossacks, banner of cossacks with spears and pancerni banner. (Elites have shields to mark them.) Petyhorchi got lances but no shields.

Petyhochy with lances, elite pancerny, elite cossacks, cossacks with spears and some more pancerny

Maalaus on ollut hiljaista. Listojen vilkuilu ja figujen  inventaario toteamaan, että puolalaisdivisioona oikeastaan kaipailee mahdollisuuden tehdä 2 ratsurykmenttiä ja kahakkalistoillakin lisäpancernylle ja kasakoille olisi tarvetta.  sai minut hankkimaan Varsova 1656 ratsurykmentin. Kokoilin sen ja varastosta löytyneet pancerny ja petyhorchylaatikot. Mukavaa kyllä rykmentin kasakat ovat uusia skulpteja.

Kasakkarykmentin ja petyhorchin jälkeen kokoilin QR miniaturesin husaarit. Inhottavat kaksiosaiset  peitset ja se,e ttei husaareille ole kahakkapelissä ole ollut juuri tarvetta on viivyttänyt näiden kaverieden kokoamista. Ovat varusteiltaan 1600 luvun alkua ja joukossa näyttäisi olevan varsinaisten husaarien lisäksi myös seuralaisia. 

Some hussars from QR miniatures. Equipment of early 17th century. Guys with capalinas, the brimmed iron hats,  might be companions  instead of true hussars. Inspiring sculpts and may get on the table with the 1656 cavalry as Lithuanian hussars even though they are fifty years early.

On other hand I should finish the guys below to have space on the table to start with this new batch.

Ennenkuin pääsen puolalaisten pariin, pöydältä pitäisi kuitenkin viimeistellä edelliset projektit. Sipaheja, renesanssireitereita, tataareja, puunilaisia ja ligurialaisia. 

Tatars - Tataarien jäljillä

Ikuisuusprojektilta tuntuva, viime vuonna Wilanovin reissulta hankittujen tataarien maalailu jatkuu. 
Lauma on ollut maalauspöydällä puoli kevättä ja sai eilen vähän yksityiskohtia - joitain valjaita ja nuolten varsia. Pari sitkeää iltaa varmaan riittäisi tämän horden tuuppaamiseen dippaus ja basetusvaiheeseen.

In front Tatars in Polish service or lipka. In the background tatar warriors.

Kameraa kohti ratsastelee puolalisten palveluksessa olevia tataareja, keskellä Krimin tataarisotureita.

 I acquired a bunch of Tatars last year in Wilanov, some serving Polish crown others Crimean khan. They have been on painting table since spring and yesterday got their arrowshafts and reins finally painted. Couple of more evenings should see them have all horsetails and manes, boots and other small details and get them to dipping and basing stage. For some tastes they may be too colourful, this is a wealthy and brave horde with lots of loot. 

Armoured reiters WIP Kyrassieereja

Painting horses in a batch made next step easier. Thanks to winter holiday and rotten weather I sat down to work on some armoured reiters. Colourscheme is from Ospreys Armies of Poland - all troopers wear variation of German style cavalry officer of Janusz Radziwill. Since Radziwill colours should be yellow and black the pistol holsters and horse blankets carry those colours. Horses were prepainted, but rest is work of one day.

Smallish band of well equipped troopers

Iso erä heppoja pohjaksi teki seuraavista vaiheista helpompia. Esimaalatusta konista tähän vaiheeseen yhdessä päivässä. Jokunen yksityiskohta voi kaivata korjailua, yksi hattu on maalattava, mutta sitten herrat ovat valmiita taikapesuun.

Väriskeema Ospreyn Puolan armeijat kirjasesta - Janusz Radziwillin upseeri on nyt ollut mallina koko ryhmälle. Radziwillien keltamustaa satulahuovissa ja pistoolikoteloissa. 

Ja rivissä. Ainaki yksi pistooli tulee olemaan nopeasti tappioita.

By Fire and Swordin keisarillisia ja ruotsalaisia panssaroituja ratsumiehiä on tässä sekoitettu kumpaakin yksi blisteri.

Batch is mixture of Wargamers Imperial armoured cuirassiers and Swedish armoured reiters - one blister each.

Ottoman raiding force Turkkilainen ryövärilauma

After painting the tartars I wanted to test what they would be capable of. Since I have limited amount of the type I deployed them as part of Ottoman raiding force. Gameswise this seems rather weak in comparison to fielding a pure tatar skirmish force: the commander can not be upgraded, turkish light horse has light cavalry rule instead of feigned flight and rules as written would not give tartar warriors their bow skill of 5, swimming nor fear of guns. In our game my opponent allowed these rules to tartar warrioirs, since the Armies supplement has mixed forces ot tartars and ottomans using them. Even than I was far off my comfort zone since the list had only light cavalry beszli, tartar warriors and tartar rabble. No shock cavalry, dragoons or infantry.

Maalattuja tataareja piti päästä testaamaan. Turkkilaisten listoissa on sekaosasto tataareja ja ottomaaneja, joten sillä mentiin. Ei varsinainen peliliike, koska säännöt tuntuvat antavan mukavammat erikoissäännöt puhtaalle tataari osastolle: sen väistöliikkeet onnistuvat paremmin, se ampuu jousillaan tehokaammin, on helpompi komentaa kaukaa ja sille saa paremman komentajan. Omalta mukavuusalueeltani olin tosi kaukana, joukoissa oli vain kevyttä ratsuväkeä, ei ensimmäistäkään rynnäkössä pätevää ratsuväkijoukkoa, rakuunoita eikä jalkaväkeä.

Ottomans on the left Muscovites in the centre

My opponent deployed Muscovite force of Potemkin at forcevalue of 7 against my 8. He chose scenario defend the crossing giving me effect delay instead of taking fortifications. (It hit my tartar rabble - this we played wrong. ) By virtue of his list he yet got fortifications to shield his streltsi at the edge of bridge. His troops included streltsi, some Don cossacks, and armoured reiters in the center. With my advantage in Recon I sent squadron of beszli to flanking maneuver and afflicted my opponent with the effect split - which hit the Don cossacks. (Plus decisive moment and blabbering prisoner)

Vastustajani pelasi Potemkinin muskoviittilistalla: Streltsejä, Donin kasakoita ja panssaroituja reitereita. Hän sai valita skenaarion ja päätti puolustaa joen ylitystä. Tiedusteluetuni avulla sain lähettää osaston koukkaamaan, skenaarion myötä vastustajani sai arpoa minulle yhden viivytysefektin, jonka virheellisesti arvoimme tataariroskaväelle. Lisäksi Potemkin varovaisena komentajana sai streltseille kenttälinnotteita.

Muscovites start by shooting

On first round I swung right with my tatars and spear armed beszli in effort to gain the flank of the reiters shooting arrows on the way in.
Eka kierros liikehdintää sivustaan ja molemminpuolista ammuskelua ilman isompaa tulosta.

Flanking unit arrives - on the left since I had put a house too close to the right table edge.

 On the second round my flankers arrived - unfortunately on left side since I had myself put a house into area they would have needed to deploy on the right. I had found the other objective - ford from the right flank so I would not need to chase the streltsi off it.

Koukkaajani saapuivat vasemmalle, kun kohdekahlaamon olin löytänyt oikealta etten joutuisi karkottamaan streltsejä siitä. Oikealla reunalla ei ollut tilaa, koska olin maastoa rakennettaessa asettanut siihen - syrjään - talon "haittaamaan" venäläistä sijoittamasta väijytysmaastoa sopivasti.

 Tataarini ovat järkyttyneet ja ahdistuneet venäläisten kasakoiden väijytyksestä ja ammuskelusta tuliasein. 
My tatars have been disorganized by the ambushing cossacks shooting them on effective range.

Näyttää kohtuu hyvältä, joki on ylitetty. I've crossed the river things are looking good?

Round three I have all my ottoman cavalry on the enemy side of the river with tatars milling about, trying to shoot reiters in the back. I have control of the ford, but the bridge is solidly defende by the streltsi.

Kolmas kierros: turkkilaiset vastarannalla, tataarit seurailevat perässä.  Kahlaamo vallattu, mutta sillankorvassa streltsejä kuin juurtuneina.

Kierros 4 tilanne näyttää paljon kehnommalta.

Kierros 4 toinen beszli osasto rynnäköi Donin kasakoita vastaan jotka raukkamaisesti karahtavat karkuun. Jäljelle jääneeksi kohteeksi valikoituvat streltsit jotka ajavat yli-innokkaat aron pojat häntä koipien välissä pakosalle. Rynnäkön setviminen kahden väistävän osaston ja vain joen mittaiseksi määritellyn sillan kanssa on monimutkaista eikä täysin tyydyttävää.

Round 4 I charge Don cossacks who as light cav evade into two separate directions. Resolving what happens is muddled and frustrating, but in the end the streltsy beat the beszli to flight. 

 

Defend the ford!

 Round five I reform towards the ford to keep control. My opponent heads that way with his reiters. My fleeing beszli exit towards the left flank.

Viides kierros palaan kahlaamolle samaan aikaan kuin vastustajani reiterit ryhmittyvät sinne. Toinen Beszli osasto pakenee - päätämme loogisimmaksi suunnaksi vasemman sivustan, koska sieltä se tuli pöydälle ja välissä ei ole puolustettua siltaa.

Rynnäkköön!

 Viimein kierros, koska en halunnut vetäytyä kahlaamolta, enkä ottaa rynnäkköä seisovilta jaloilta annoin rynnäkkökäskyn. Reiterit sen sijaan odottivat vastarannalla. Käsikähmän hävisin - reitereiden pelti suojeli erinomaisesti. Tappio tuli kaikilla mittareilla, raskain tappioin.

Last round -  hard pressed beszli charge over the ford in order not to take reiters standing still. End reult is loss and withdrawal in disorder. Defeat from all the scenario points and heavy losses.

Possible lessons of the game:
1) I could have deployed differently and charged the reiters on first round with the elite beszli. It would have been a gamble but with the defence order they had visible I would have gotten them with javelins at charge, +2 bonus to hit because of long charge, bonus to penetrate armor and with initial superior numbers to offset their poor tactical discipline form the open order.
2) with light cavalry I should have moved second for most of the game
3) setting up the terrain is important and leaving those flanks open would be important if planning to flank...

Pelistä opittua:
1) koska reitereilla oli puolustuskäsky ne olisivat olleet käytännössä liikkumaton kohde ja beszlillä olisi ollut aika monta muuttujaa hyökkäyksen tukena. Toki keihäsmiesten olisi pitänyt asettua deploymentissa hyökkäyshollille.
2) kevyen avomuodossa kirmaavan ratsuväen kannattaisi liikkua aina jälkimmäisenä vastustajan kiusaamisen maksimoimiseksi
3) maaston asettelussa sivustojen avoimmuus pitää varmistaa, jos tarkoitus on koukata

Inspiration, or maybe perspiration.

Toukokuussa keskiaikaharrastus ajoi maalauksesta ohi - silti aloitettuihin projekteihin tuli edistystä. Lakkaa vaille valmiiksi eli pöydältä pois tilaan sain tataaritorhakit, vankeineen, espanjalaiset caetratit ja jostain maalausjonon syövereistä parit tavaravankkurit ja tykkivaljakot.

Despite May being month of medieval pursuits more than painting I actually managed to get stuff off the table to waiting varnish stage: tatar torhaks, their prisoners, Spanish caetrati and some supply wagons.

Two units of tatarwarriors.

Long trek to slave markets in Crimea. Generic enough for Gaulish or Germanic slaves too. Peter Pig prisoners.

Pitkällä marssilla orjamarkkinoille.Sen verran geneeristä, että kelpaavat myös antiikin ajan peleihin. Peter Pigin figuja.

Forged in Battle caetrati. Hispanialaisia kevytaseisia.  

Kuormasto on odottanut kokoamista ja loppuun maalaamista jo pari vuotta. Inspiraatio löytyi kun kaveri vinkkasi sinitarrasta pikaliimauksen apuvälineenä. 
Wagons have waited on table for almost two years. I had trouble assembling them and was very unmotivated to do anything to them. Friends hint of using blue tack to help with gluingprocess was the nudge I needed.

Essexin tykkivaljakko, Wargamerin vankkureita.

Back on the painting line- Paluu maalauspöydälle

And since Wilanow I've been highly busy with some other hobbies. Inspiration for new projects is high, but I forced myself to work on ones already on the table.

Wilanovin jälkeen on ollut kiire muiden harrastusten vuoksi. Vaikka inspiraatio aloittaa kokonaan uusia maalausprojekteja vellookin korkealla, olen silti pitäytynyt jo aloitetuissa projekteissa.

The sample force of Republicans for Spanish civil war was first on line:

15 mm Peter Pig, two squads of army troops, Lewis gunner, group of anarchist workers militia and group of armed police, asaltos. These came close to ready pretty fast - they still need some finishing touches and the basing work ofcourse. Trouble will be to find the inspiration to paint their opponents, again two regular army squads, some falangist militia and Guardia civil squad. Aim is to use these for World at Flames and or Chain of Command.

!5 millin Peter Pigiä. Pari armeijan ryhmää, pikakivääritiimi, jooukko anarkistimiliisejä, ja rynnäkköpoliiseja. Nopeita maalata, vaikka vielä puuttuukin hiukan viimeistelyä ja beissien huolittelu. Ajan ja motivaation löytyminen vastaavalle falangistiporukalle voi tehdä tiukkaa. Tarkoitus käyttää porukoita World at Flamesin ja/tai Chain of Commandin säännöillä.

Toisaalta jonosta aateliset vapaaehtoiset ja tataarisoturit saivat vähän lisää väriä kun reiterit pääsivät pois alta. Hevosten maalaus on näissä nyt se kynnys, mutta sekin etenee, vaikka vain koni kerrallaan.

Noble volunteers and some tartarwarriors got worked again since reiters were finished. I am beginning to get seriously bored with painting horses - but one horse at the time they'll get more color.

Some western troops for change - välillä länsimaisia joukkoja

Still WIP but I've been trying to get some of the leftover western reiters off the table.
Työn alla sekalainen lauma länsimaisia reitereita By Fire and Swordiin tai Pike and Shotteen.

Waiting for the dip -  Dippausta odottamassa

Foremost company dipped with light shade - etummainen komppania on melko vaalean dipin jo saanut ja odottaa lakkaa

Figures are from Wargamer By Fire and Sword range - mainly Swedish national reiters, but mixed with some from Gdansk (Danzig) mounted mitia and some Swedish veteran reiters. Since we are talking mid 17th century they to large extent lack uniformity, save for their leather jerkins - some inspiration has been gotten from the colourts of Finnish cavalry regiments of late 17th century.  these troopers could equally well stand for Imperial, Danish or even Polish troops.

Figut By Fire and Sword linjaa. Etupäässä eri versioita ruotsalaisista reitereista Swe-1, mutta seassa myös Danzigin ratsumiliisiä ja ruotsalaisia veteraaneja. Inspiraatiota on - anakronistisesti - haettu Viipurin ja Porin ratsurykmenttien väreistä 1600-luvun lopulta, juuri ennen karoliinista yhtenäispukua. Yhtenäistä on  lähinnä kylterien hiekankeltainen ja hiukan useammin kuin muut värit esiintyvä punainen.  Joukot voivatkin tarpeen tullen esittää tanskalaisia, keisarillisia tai jopa puolalaisia ratsumiehiä.

 

Tataarit, numidit ja reiterit sekä jokunen jokipala liimavesi ja ruohokäsittelyssä. Seuraavaksi kukkia ja mättäitä. Added water-gluemix and grass to reiters and  previous numidians and tatars and some pieces of river. Flowers and tufts to follow.

Horde of turks Turkkilaislauma

A skirmishforce of - if I counted correctly 39 bases of Turks.
Done, varnished, based and flocked.

Next probably someting completely different, but it is nice to have reached one stage. Regiments of janissaries and sipahis wait for me to get this expanded into a division.

Ottomanhorde in the making. Turkkilaislauma työn alla.

In anticipation of coming battles  I have been working on getting my turkish skirmish force into order where it could be playtested. Some work remains to be done but majority of figures have paint on them. Remains to be seen how playable this group is.

Turkkilaislauma alkaa hiljalleen valmistua pelikuntoon. Vielä muutama iltapuhde kyllä menee viimeistelyssä. Sen jälkeen pitäisi ihmetellä onko tämä lauma pelikelpoinen. Siivillä on kohtuullista kevyttä ratsuväkeä. Jalkaväki on kuraa, mutta voi toimia hidasteena. Keskustan sipahit lyövät kohtuullisen lujaa. He vain eivät kestä juuri lainkaan tappioita. Ja lauman komentajaa voim parhaimmillaan kuvat keskinkertaiseksi.

Bloody meeting at the nameless hill - verinen kohtaaminen nimettömällä kukkulalla BFaS AAR

After getting disappointing reports from the meetingengagement at the Mill and Pigsty both Swedish and Polish generals requested better information from their Colonels, who after short reorganization set out to scout a better route for the main army.

Both forces were again at 12 FP, This time I used Wallachians as standard, and instead had two banners of elite cossacks in a squadron of 6 bases. My dragoons at this time were ordered to work as two combanies of 3 bases. The Swede had let go of his armour and with the FP saved bought more bases of Reiters.

For special effect the Swede got unexpected reinforcements, I terrain for which I added a nasty little swamp to Swedish deployment zone, as close to the objective field as allowed by the rules. The Objectyives this time were top of the hill in center, enclosed field and a house closer to Polish deploymentzone.

Polish deployment: from the front company of dragoons, colonel, squadron of elite cossacks, banner of pancerny, banner of wallachians and in the background, far on the right flank squadron of cossacks and a company of dragoons under eyes of major Blankenhagen.

Kohteet, kukkula vasemmalla ja talo etualalla. Rakuunakomppania tiedusteluedun suomalla liikkeellä kohdetalon seinustalla. Taustalla eversti,  kahden eliittikasakkakomppanian eskadroona, pancerny lippue ja valakialaislippue käärmelipun kanssa. Kaukana taustalla kasakkaeskadroona, rakuunakomppania ja majuri.

The Swedish deployment: outside the picture  on the left a banner of veteran reiters, lieutenant colonel Brahe, banner of veteran arquebusreiters, colonel, veteranreiters, squadron of dragoons and banner of reiters with major Kniephausen

Ruotsalainen deployment - kuvan rajan vasemmalla puolella vielä neljän basen lippue veteraanireitereita. Vasemmalta everstiluutnantti, veteraani arkebuusireiterit, eversti veteraanireiterit, 2 komppaniaa rakuunoita yhtenä 4 alustan eskadroonana ja 3 alustan vahvuinen kansalliseten reitereiden lippue.  Suon edessä kohde pelto.

Round 1 Poles have intiative - I march my cossacks as far as they go, followed by dragoons. Wallachians followed by pancerni push forward in center, cossacks on left flank of the centre hill march forward and company of dragoons hole up in the target house. After movement wallachians, dragoonsin the house and cossacks  fire, causing some casualties while arquebusreiters return fire.

Kierros 1 puolalaiset syöksyvät marssitahtia koko rintaman leveydeltä eteenpäin.Molemmin puolin avataan tuli karbiineilla ja jousilla. Pistoolimiehet purevat kynsiään.

Round 2 Swede wins the initiative and gives all his troops able charge orders. On my right cossack squadron meets reiters with Blankenhagen attached. Both sides dragoons dismount on the side of the field to exchange fire. In the centre Wallachians break off when threatened by reiters charge and pancerny meet reiters in wild open order charge. Beyond the hill dragoons start defending the house and elite cossacksquadron is forced to countercharge two banners of veteran reiters. Getting shot by two banners while charging they lose a base and fail their morale test, cravnely withdrawing before contact. Reiters pursue and force the unit to flight. Uh - six bases of elite cossacks my strongest unit, in flight, on round two. Luckily in the centre the pancerny with their spears first put to flight the numerically superior reiters and then in pursuit annihilate them. Dragoons exchange fire with minor casualties for both sides. And on the right Blankenhagen and the cossacks force the national reiterbanner to retreat with bloody nose.
At the end of turn unexpected reinforcements effect brings banner of reiters back to the field. All the targets have been scouted by both combatants.

Kierros 2 oikea sivusta: rakuunat jalkautuneina, kasakat lyömässä reiterit, taustalla pancernyt iskevät veteraaneja vastapalloon. Kuvan ulkopuolella eliittikasakat ovat saamassa lyijymyrkytystä.

Round three - My Elite cossacks flee the table. Swedish reiters on that edge get orders to move and turn towards their left - my right flank. Shot by dragoons in the house has no effect what so ever. Wallachians ride towards the Swedish dragoons. Blankenhagen with cossacks charges Kniepahausen and his cossacks who break, flee and are cut down in pursuit. (That 20/+20 movement of Polish cavalry is just deadly - in pursuit.)
Swedish dragoons fire a salvo that scares my dragoons to disorganized withdrawl from the field edge. The wallachian missile fire on the other hand makes them flee. Pancerny banner already weakened countercharges the returning reiter banner. Pancerny lose a banner and outnumbered 2-1 succumb to the iron discipline of the Swedes - turning into flight.

Kasakat ovat lahdanneet laidalla pyörineet reiterit, molempien rakuunat ovat vetäytyneet ja pancernin rippeet ratsastavat täyttä karkua lipettiin. Kierroksen kolme loppu.

On round four I decided to cut my losses and moved all my remainin troops to leftmost edge of the field. To get some more casualties to enemy my remaining cossacks and colonel fired at the fleeing dragoons. On the other hand my pancerny fled the whole length of new enemy front and got shot into kingdom come.

Kierroksen 4 loppu Pancernyt on tapettu pakoretken päätteeksi karbiinitulella. Kasakat tyhjentävät karbiinit ja nuoliviint rakuunoihin, samalla kun valakialaiset ja rakuunat suorittavat taktista vetäytymistä.

Round fivnothing significant happened I moved my colonel and cossacks to other side of the swamp, wallachians tried to harass fleeing dragoons with no effect. Swedes just moved closer and reorganized their losses. Seeing that Swedes could charge the wallachians at the last turn I put 4 command chits to the last initietive roll - and win with natural 1 against natural 1.

End result - draw. I had slightly less casualties in killed but more fled to make up for the numbers. Both scouted all objectives and caused heavy casualties to other. Fast and deadly encounter with two armies engaging aggressively. On my left my enemy won by stacking the numbers - allowed by my over aggressive march on the first move. My victories on the left and centre can be partly accounted to nice dice for once. So lessons for me - refuse to engage when not having local superiority, and work harder to get it - my strong groups acted in singles my opponents in pair.

Segbani ready - Turkkilaisten ensimmmäinen yksikkö valmis

Finished my first Ottoman unit today. 10 bases of segban infantry ready to bring the might of sultan to the lands of infidels and defend the faithful from any cowardly incursions.
A rather disordered mob, great fun to paint and varied poses lent themselves well showing the individuality of these fighters 

Ottomaanien segban jalkaväkeä

Ensimmäinen ottomaaniyksikkö valmiina. Ottomaanien paikallisesti värväämää varuskuntajoukkoa. Peliteholtaan surkea lauma, mutta hauskoja maalattavia. Sekalaiset asennot sopivat hyvin kurittoman ja yksilöllisen lauman kuvaamiseen.

Other gaming has included couple of games of Ronin with the sons. Elder trounced me with bandits agains sohei yesterday, while Younger gave beating to league of the bandits of my elder and my sohei today... Good times.

Patrol AAR - Vähemmän mestarillinen partioreissu

Puolalaiset vasemmalla, ruotsalaiset oikealla. Tiedustelukohteina mylly, sikala ja kahlaamo

 For yesterdays game I brought 12 FP Polish skirmish group:
colonel with 4 command points, banner of pancerny, banner of cossacks, two strengthened banners of dragoons joined into a squadron of 6 bases, two banners of cossacks joined into squadron of 4 bases, banner of elite Wallachians and banner of elite cossacks plus a major to help keep the horde in order. My friend brought a Swedish skirmishforce of same nominal strength: 2 companies of dragoons at 2 bases each, squadron of armored veteran reiters of 4 bases, squadron of arquebus armed reiters of sdame strength and company of reiters with just pistols and bad attitude. To lead he had a colonel, major and a captain.

For scenario we got patrol - both getting unexpected reinforcements as extra effect.
Battle field included a river splitting the field into two with ford as one point to be scouted, two others being the pigsty in the middle and the windmill in the back. The area was known to be miserable going for horsemen with small swamps and uneven ploughed fields waiting for the unwary traveller.
(We called fields as ground that robs cavalry of impact bonus, but has no other effect.)

With my recon advantage I had option of bringing troops in from the side or deploying one unit forward - I chose the latter, pushing my elite cossacks forward in the centre.

The first round was just moves and some shooting after movement form both sides.

Swedes advanced on all sides throwing their dragoons in the centre to the forefront. To keep my troops in command range of the colonel I let the pancerni advance in the centre, following elite cossacks and svivelled to the left with cossack squadron and dragoons.

At this point I found out that maneuvering squadron of 6 bases of dragoons who march and move in close order is a bit ackward. If I take that  amount of dragoons later, they will get to work in smaller units.

On my right flank cossacks and Wallachians approached the ford spotting the reiter company waiting.

Vasemmalla kapteeni Kniephausen ratsumiehineen, oikealla valakialaiset käärmelippuineen ja taustalla kasakat.

Round two I lost initiative - again - so my opponent got his dragoons inside the pigsty. On my right flank he charged and wheeled with his central reiter group towards the centre of the field, on my left he advanced with arquebusreiters and left his dragoons to defend.

I left my elite cossacks with move pushing forward, towards the rear of the dragoons on the open, cossacks on the right countercharged the reiters, cossack squadron by the mill charged the nearest enemy - being the dragoons. Pancerny pushed forward in order to have a go at the approaching reiters. Dragoons snaked past the mill and dismounted what I thought was outb of charging range of the leftmost reitergroup.  Elite wallachians sneaked past the charging reiters in attempt to close their possible retreat.

Reiterit vastaan kasakat - ruotsalaisilla enemmän peltiä, mutta kasakoita on enemmän

On the right cossacks won their battle with their sheer numbers  and threw the reiters backwards into hail of arrows and bullets by the elite wallachians who finished the hapless group off.
On the left the squadron of cossacks  massacred the company of dragoons even though they lost their impact bonus to trundling throug the fields. What a round for the Poles. I even had all three objectives scouted.

Round three - I think I had the initiative this time. Since I had no obvious weak targets on front sectors of my cossacks I ordered the dragoons to defend and continued with move orders with pancerny and all the relevant cossacks.

Reiters left on the field obviously had every intention of charging and to my dismay were on range to slam into dragoons. (Bad measuring on my part and I half expected to maneuver the guys out of harms way by reforming. The other - armoured and veteran reiter squadron also received orders I expected to be charge.Furthermore as unexpected reinforcements a clone of the freshly killed reiters appeared in good order on the sidelines - ready and willing to slam into my troops. With the threat of three charges I ran out  of places to effectively get my banners and squadrons out of harms way.
Elite cossacks and pancerny pulled off, but cossack squadron had to trot and meet the cossacks to make way and dragoons  had to take the brunt of swedish assault standing back against the wall.
Cossacks did win their opponent - again simply by outnumbering them in large number. The dragoons on the other hand got slaughtered against the walls of the mill, with only horseholders being able to run away.

Joskus on ikävää olla rakuuna

The only positive result of this round was the veteran reiters on topleft of the pc being force to squeeze into narrower frontage past the corner of central house and failing to charge home, disorganizing themselves in the process. As a bonus Swedes scout the mill.

Round four - swedes get the initiative, get the disorganization intpo order and charge the pancerny from two sides, Pancerny respond with a counter charge towards the first threat - reiters in the centre. The troops from the mill need to narrow their front but do so, wheel and slam into the back of the pancerny banner. Unsurprisingly the pancerny break and flee after taking casualties from both front and back. The centre reiter pursue but fail to catch them, thus loosing their orders. On other side of the field wallachians cross the ford and start to shoot dragoons - still without orders - lounging in the pigsty. Only results is one casualty to the wallachians. The cossacks engaged with reiters charge again and after sharp clash force them to flee. They also pursuit to the edge of the table and lose their orders- leaving them in practise out of the action for rest of the game. The veteran cossacks take positions on the flanks and back of the reiters punishing the pancerny and use their carbines and bows giving out some casualties, but failing to kill bases.

On round five pancerny flee off board. Poles have initiative and the elite cossacks make an frustrated charge to the back of the armoured reiters in the centre. Unfortunately arquebusreiters by the mill pour lead into their flank and manage to kill of a base. Despite pressing home the charge the elite cossacks lose the battle and withdraw in good order. On the other side of pigsty wallachians and cossacks from beyobd the river exchange shots with the dragoons in the pigsty with no effect.
At the end of the round reinforcements in form of pancerny banner appear to the Poles.

Round six - no action with effect to the end result. Poles have heavier casualties, but soak them better, being more numerous. Poles also managed to scout all three objectives thus getting on point more in the results - resulting in a draw.
My opponent blundered when he attacked on my right flank at round two. With good tactical discipline it was not desperate gamble, but it did leave him vulnerable without having scouted the objective especially since he pushed his troops on other side of the river too far from the ford at the same time.

I totally blew round three - failing to appreciate the 30cm charge rate of his reiters fully. The idea to avoid one on one engagements with armoured reiters was sound, but the execution failed with dire results. Problem was added by distance between my commander and separated troops later - making it impossible to answer to threats in nimble way and to use all my troops. Deploying dragoons in one squadron was mistake, so was dismounting them on charge range.  And I should have taken the troops from other side of the river faster to create a threat to Swedish rear. (Not that it would have hindered him from smashing forward, but maybe harassing and giving extra casualties in any case.)

Polish skirmish group ready

So I finally finished the contents of the By Fire and Sword box Polish skirmish group. Figures Wargamer, flags QRminiatures. A very nice feeling of accomplishment of getting the figures to state they are done with, to the detail.

Kahakkapartio 

These troops - banner of pancerny, Wallachians, and two understrength banners of cossacks led by a colonel  is playable as is. In game they can and probably should be strengthened by addition of dragoons, tatars, volunteers or more banners of the types present here. This group is worth 5 Force points different options can double the amount. Of course deploying troops worth more Force points lets the enemy choose the scenario and hamper You with various extra effects.

Polish skirmish group WIP Puolalaisia työn alla

After Wallachians I have been going on the colonel, pancerni and the cossacks of Polish skirmish force. Original idea was to finish just the pancerni, but it felt almost as easy to juggle eight bases as three due to economy of paint when painting such small details.

So waiting for the dip and varnish.

Eversti, pancernit keihäineen ja kasakat taustalla.

Pancerny I feel are a bit too uniform, but since they a crack formation that can perhaps be accepted as vanity of rotmistr and the colonel. Cossacks have more blue coats than originally intended. It is a proper and popular colour for them but I managed  to get more blue than required from the dried nozzle twice.

Samat joukot etuviistosta

  The troops look naked without their flags. Furry parts and mail will need close scrutiny, and perhaps drybrush after the dip, but overall I am pretty happy how these guys look so far.

PS Finally got one company of cossacks I had "almost ready" in last november  to shape where I felt I could just add varnish and finish the bases.

Aron veteraanit viimeinkin lakattuina ja baset ruohotettuna. Yllättävän paljon yksityiskohtia löytyi "melkein valmiista" taas täydennettäväksi.

These blue reined veterans have been waiting for the finishing touches for a long time. Now I think they are finally done.

PS 2 With the sun out some more pics of the skirmish group, sans wallachians and with an added troop of cossacks.