Paint Experimentation: Vallejo .. Things other than paints, inks and washes.

What's this? What's this? Other things apart from paints, washes and inks from Vallejo. Whatever next and what do they do? (see below):

The "Retarder Medium" this slows down the drying time of the paint which gives you longer to blend colours together. I think this may be of use in larger scales and models (tbc). I do remember some painting blogs extolling its virtues.

A few drops of the "Matt Medium" makes the colour more transparent, increase paint (i.e. runnier) and produces a 'matter' finish. To me this has WWII 20mm (plastic and metal figure) potential to get a dirty camouflage look!

Lastly the "Metal Medium" again mixed with metal paint gives a paler metallic shade and can be also used for metallic highlights. I was thinking 25/28mm Wars of the Roses (Perry's), Renaissance (Perry's, Warlord Games) and other plastic 28mm ranges such a Normans, Vikings and Saxons - even up to Crusades (FireForge, Conquesr and Gripping Beast).

Watch this space for some results ;) 

Impetus: Renaissance versus Medieval

My 350 points Italian Wars Renaissance army deployed in a compact formation. My newest unit (of Mounted Arquebusiers) had reached the 'minimum painting' threshold to be allowed in my eyes to take to the field (see below):

I was facing a Burgundian Ordinance (packed with Wars of the Roses English Long-bowmen) medieval army, the nearest historical opponent I could find on the Impetus battle club night. It was a long, long, long line of Men-At-Arms/Spears backed by a rear rank of Longbows for the most part, with no cavalry (see below):

The battlefield was constrained by impassable and rough terrain, leaving a Central Valley for my invading Pike Blocks to concentrate on. As my army (quite unusually) was devoid of artillery and I was facing an army of massed bows, there was no point waiting so I advanced. The only subtle thing I did was to swing my left wing of cavalry to the left to get them out of arc from the dreaded English Longbowmen (see below):

Onwards came the colourful Italians, engaging the Burgundian skirmish line and having the better of the affair. Through a hail of arrows the Pike advanced into contact. After an initial in stately Italian recoil the momentum of the huge mass of infantry was the deciding factor and the Burgundian line stated to buckle (see below):

The embarrassing buckle turned into dangerous bulb and although losing the supporting smaller Italian Pike Block, the main (three layers thick and with the C-in-C General in it) Italian Pike Block swept the Burgundian/English infantry away. On the flanks both Burgundian Knights and Germanic Mounted  Men-At-Arms were waiting their chance to test the mettle of the remaining Burgundian/English infantry. However they were not needed as the Burgundian/English had to their dismay also lost both of their leaders to the sharp "pointy points" of the victorious Italian Pikemen. The contest was therefore effectively over (see below):

I sat dazed an befuddled at the result. I had not played Impetus in such a long while and had forgotten how literally bursting with surprises it can be. The combat is quite brutal and the fact that the Pike Blocks could rasp their way through the English infantry came as a complete shock to me. Equally stunned was the Burgundian/English commander's disbelief in his longbow backed infantry had failed to stop the Pike, the multi-armed phalanx being less successful that perhaps "blocks" of pure bow would have been. Still it (Impetus) had something which will bring me back to the well again and again!

My goal is to raise a 600 Italian Renaissance point army, which means at least another Pike Block is needed. The bigger the armies the more the 'feel' of the battle changes. The test to me will be two wings (mounted) and a center (infantry) command. First up I must finish off the painting on my Mounted Harquebusiers before I move onto more Pike!

Impetus Renaissance (5 of 5): "The Field of Glory (aka Massive Points)" - Player Exhaustion

The final wargaming half hour (pushing the players to the point of exhaustion):  

The Swiss are assailed from all sides, but stubbornly refuse to die, see below:

In fact others (WotR armoured foot) die first, see below:

The Italians push "as much forward as possible" losing their brave Halberdiers in the process to the WotR "cavalry reserve" (there was a downside to the "cunning plan" of the Italian General commanding the left wing), see below:

Nevertheless the Italian Pike Block push back the WotR armoured foot in disorder, see below:

Though this local success  brings about the unappetising situation of, the very same armoured horse who killed the valiant Italian Halberdiers, now sit on the Italian Pike Block unguarded flank (see below). In the far distance (top right of the picture) two more blocks of the WotR armoured cavalry reserve can be seen bearing down on the Swiss Pike Blocks.    

Time had to be called at this point (boo hiss). It was too biog a battle to run on a "club night" but as a demonstration of how nice Renaissance Impetus can look, it was an outstanding success.

Review of the "close of game" situation: 

The Italian/Swiss army had one untouched fresh Pike Block still ready to be called upon. The WotR though at breaking point in the middle still had two powerful wings of infantry slowly coiling round the Italian/Swiss flanks, to which the Italians had one "wing of horse" to counter with.

As we left it a draw - but looking very dicey for the Italian/Swiss in the longer run, consensus (myself included) being that the Italian left flank commander (me) had bottled the attack on the left. Looking at the Order of Battle the Italian left wing did not have sufficient "skirmish" troops, all I was needing was just two units of skirmishers as "arrow attractors". Even without them the knights still stood a fair chance of winning and would have at the very least pinned the WotR "cavalry reserve" in position. Ho hum, next time, next time, I vowed, I have got the hang on the infantry side of Impetus but I need to work on the more mobile cavalry side of things.   

A good New Years resolution to have for 2013
;)   

Impetus Renaissance (4 of 5): "The Field of Glory (aka Massive Points)" - Blood Flows

Clip clop, the horses are coming, but if truth be told the armoured knights ain't all that fast "to exploit space" and there is a classic infantry traffic/log jam to contend with ahead, see below:

The Italian Skirmishers have finally "disappeared" but their sacrifice has allowed the Trained Harquebusiers to get into position to shoot down the WotR Artillery Park before it sets its sights on the Italian Pike Block that is approaching, see below:

Trundle, trundle, hooves approach as the armoured knights continue on their journey (taking long range missile fire from the WotR archers in the process), see below (disorder yellow, casualty red): 

The WotR park disposed of the Italian Pike Block pushed through the Trained Harquebusiers (a neat trick of Impetus is that "Heavy Infantry" displaces lighter types, so the Harquebusiers siphon back, so you don't muddle around with Pythagorian movement puzzles). All-in-all this is looking quite tasty for the Italians, see below: 

The second Swiss Pike Block is now contesting the WotR battle line and is enveloped in a desperate slugging match with "many" other opponents. The second Italian Pike Block had rotated and is now moving in its support. The first Swiss Pike Block has ploughed on and is attacking the reserve body of WotR infantry defending the WotR camp, see below:  

The Italian/Swiss success in the center is all "just as well", as the Swiss right flank has fought itself to destruction, freeing the WotR left to come to the assistance of their beleaguers comrades in the center, see below: 

The Swiss in the center are "feeling the pain of battle", but are not spent. The Swiss are clinging onto their last remaining bound Impetus. For the WotR forces it is a desperate time as they are defending on their baseline with their last infantry reserve, see below:   

For all their success the Italian/Swiss force has not broken the WotR army yet and may have dangerously overreached themselves ... or are on the verge of a stunning victory. Who can tell?

Next: The WotR commit their cavalry reserve

Impetus Renaissance (3 of 5): "The Field of Glory (aka Massive Points)" - The Middle Game

The Italian Contribution: 

Meanwhile to the left of the fearless Swiss.. the Italians join the fray. The Italian Halberdiers contest the wood against WotR "lights", while Italian Skirmish types buzz the WotR infantry line and artillery park, see below:

The Italian Halberdiers are victorious and the Italian Skirmishes are still alive, the plan seems to be working, see below: 

The Italians push a "mass" of Trained Harquebusiers and the smaller of their two Pike blocks forwards, see below (Also note below the "turning" of the WotR infantry to face the "Swiss threat"):

Sensing the "locus of the battle" to be in the center of the battlefield and not convinced that charging the massed WotR archer formation makes that much sense, the Italian left flank Condottieri General develops a "cunning plan" of his own and heads his cumbersome formation to the center, see below:

But dear readers, was it the right "cunning plan"?

Next: Blood, death and mayhem

Impetus Renaissance (2 of 5): "The Field of Glory (aka Massive Points)" - Opening Moves, The Swiss Get "Stuck In"

The Swiss on the right,although outnumbered "fly off the tether" and fearlessly get stuck in, see below (impressive by their courage and lack of fear of death):

The Swiss in the middle are equally as fearless and go "off to the races" putting the wind up the WotR players "big style", see below:

The Italians are more sedate, getting themselves in a traffic jam behind some "big bloody houses" somebody (at the last minute) decided to put in the middle of the battlefield (Note: as a better use at least one should have been stacked up behind the Swiss adding depth to the punch), see below:

Italian shame, the powerful Italian/Swiss left just stared at the mass of arrows and foot and did not know what to do (yes, I was the Italian General), see below:

The Swiss in a perfunctory manner dismiss the WotR skirmish screen and then get stuck into the WotR infantry mass, see below:

The Swiss attack grinds on, see below:

And on,spewing forth death and disorder but not losing its momentum, see below:

Finally busting the WotR armoured infantry as the "main course" and eying up the softer archers for deserts, see below:

"Yum, yum", says it all, see below:

Just when the WotR players breathed a 'sigh of relief', thinking they had "weathered the storm" and seen the worst of it, the second Swiss pike moved up into position to continue the Swiss momentum. Luckily for the WotR players it did not contact anything, see below: 

Next: The Italian contribution and WotR riposte

Impetus Renaissance (1of 5): "The Field of Glory (aka Massive Points)" - The Muster

The boys and girls (well boys) at my local wargames club (at bonny Hartlepool) have always wondered what Impetus would look like scaled up from 300 points a side to a "what we could field on the table" scale. With no better excuse or historical pretense, it was "bring what you can Renaissance-wise and we will put it on the table" (see below). The result was a mainly WotR (Wars of the Roses) army faced a Italian Renaissance and Swiss army complemented with many an armoured knight and Men-At-Arms. WotR on the left Italian/Swiss Landsknechts on the right (see below):   

The Italian/Swiss Army:

A hoard of armoured knights (4 units), an artillery park (1) and some light horse mounted crossbowmen (1) on the Italian/Swiss left, see below:

Left middle Italian/Swiss: Landsknecht Pike (2), one pike block attaching a unit of Skirmish DoppelSoldners (1), Skirmish Crossbow (1), Skirmish Harquebusier, Trained Harquebusier (1) and some blood thirsty Halberdiers (1), see below:

Middle right Italian/Swiss: Swiss Pikes (2), Trained Harquebusier (1), more blood thirsty Halberdiers (1), an Artillery Park (1) and some Skirmish Crossbowmen (4) [one of which is occupying the built in area in the advanced middle of the table]:

The Italian/Swiss left: A rather bedraggled affair of some light horse mounted crossbowmen (1) and some armoured knights (2), see below: 

The War of the Roses Army (WotR):

WotR Right: Armoured foot (3) with back rank(s) of supporting archers (3), armoured knights in reserve (3) and Skrmish Crossbowmen (4), see below: 

WotR Center: (Viewing left to right in the picture) An artillery park (1), massed ranks of archers (6), supported by armoured foot (5), another artillery park (1),plus in reserve defending their camp more amoured foot (2), see below:

The WotR left: Another artillery part (1 [the first being part of the WotR center command]), more archers (4), supported by armoured footmen(2) who in turn are backed by a reserve of armoured knights (1), see below:

After set-up the toy cupboards of the four players were deemed as empty (technically I did have a painted "Lady G figure" but she was deemed to be of no fighting value and I declined to demean her By fielding her as mere "camp booty")

Next: The moving and the firing begins