The English Civil War - 3 FoGR Match Reports

The plain-as-bread Parliamentarian army take on three opponents in a 1-day competition in the heart of the Kings Country - Oxford.

See how Renaissance Hannibal and Oliver Cromwell square up in the post-match reviews, and scratch your head as to how many Youtube videos that do not feature members of the Sealed Knot can be shoehorned into the three reports of some of the most vanilla armies every to take the field.

And, potatoes on bases... Say no more!

The Danes at Warfare 2014 - top table action!

The last event of 2014, and the Early Danes get yet another outing at FoGR down by the banks of the Thames in sunny (cold and dark) Reading.

In four thrilling match reports they take on everyone in the world, from the Indians to the English, all whilst doing their very best to shoehorn references to bacon and Carlsberg into the narrative at every opportunity....and end up doing surprisingly well !

Lots of pictures, some barely-relevant YouTube videos and some very odd things to buy from Amazon as well all grace the reports - so, grab yourself some pancakes and maple syrup, pull up a chair and dig in!

A Double Dose of Piracy!

One of the most inept yet strangely effective armies in my inventory makes a return in a 500AP FoGR Doubles competition, as the Pirates sail into view yet again.

Marvel at the depth plumbed by the puns, shake in fear at the assault of poor jokes and fall asleep counting the number of times the men say "arrr!" as the Pirates engage in 4 games of hand to hand fighting and general bloodthirsty carnage in which the lowest percentage of casualties suffered by any of the combatants in any game hovers around the 45% mark....

The Worlds, in Koblenz - 6 FoGR Match Reports

The Worlds in Germany - a brave Swedish army sails on a sea of beer and model railway fetishism towards a date with dice, destiny and pork-based catering products by the side of the Rhine in not-that-sunny Koblenz

The end result is 6 full match reports containing a full suite of the internet's entire content of German comedy video interludes, and some intriguing analysis from Renaissance Hannibal and the much-loved Princess of Sweden.

Enjoy The Worlds in Germany... preferably with a beer and a pretzel in hand

28mm FoGR at Roll Call 2014

Roll Call is the current BHGS "Big Boy's Toys" event, and so I fielded 2 separate 28mm armies, one of which was the Spanish that I was driving and one was the Weimarians, which I ended up facing in the last game...

See how the big toys did in 4 by-now-familiar match reports. The photo's aren't all close-ups, the figures are 28mm!

Lists From The Worlds in Koblenz

My opponents FoGR lists from the recent "The Worlds" event in Koblenz are now posted on the FoGR Wiki.

You've got two quite different LoA Anglo-Dutch armies, a Transylvanian, Later Swedish, TYW German "Hoofmeister" variant and a Caroline Imperialist (with Swiss and a Later Tercio). All are on the wiki now.

The 6 match reports are underway and are currently 1/3 written already... here's a couple of game shots to be going on with.
 

(The wiki continues to be temperamental, and so I will try to fix it by implementing a version upgrade in the next couple of weeks and see if that fixes things - until then, sorry if it's a bit clunky).

Match Reports of The Dutch at Campaign 2014

In a report spanning 5 pages and almost 10,000 words, you can revel in the exploits of possibly the blandest army ever to take the field on this website, the Dutch (of the 80 Years War - no, me neither) as they duplicate their World Cup heroics and take on a limited themed pool of other similar but generally better armies in a competition in which the last army to be used was the decidedly non-dull Pirates.

Have a look at whether lots of average troops can actually take on lots of Superior ones - and be amazed at how infrequently a 35 point ship can feature in 5 consecutive battle reports.

Wake up and Smell the Edam !!

King of the Scots!

With the 15mm Scots army still some way off completion, I decided to give them a 28mm Great Commander anyway, and see if this would inspire me to wade into the massed painting of kilts and sporrans needed to turn the 15mm lead pile into an army.

This chap was the result, from Front Rank Miniatures Jacobite ranges. His left eye has gone a bit skew-wiff, which I only noticed on these closeups and will need to fix, but apart from that I'm quite pleased with the wee fellah. The tartan is painted using my not-so-secret Tartan painting tips.

Match Reports from Oxford 2014

The wild and breechless Scots Royalists are coming down the mountain to raid rural Oxfordshire!

See how they fared in three comprehensive battle reports, with smatterings of the noble Scottish language embedded in them, together with videos from Al Murray, Robin Williams, Horrible Histories and The Clash.

Then lay back and revel in some truly "fan-dabee-dozee" post match analysis (yes, you do know what's coming next..!), but a word of warning - do try and avoid clicking on poor wee Jimmy if you are about to eat.

Enjoy!

Lists from The National League FoGR Competitions

Mine and my opponents lists from The National League (Campaign) are now published on the FoGR Wiki. You have:

• Later 80 Years War Dutch (x2)
• Hugenot (x2)
• Later Imperial Spanish (x2)

(hint - the Dutch one came first... and last in the period!)

Impressive service from Front Rank Figurines

I ordered a handful of 28mm figures to paint up as trophies for the Central London round of the FoGR Southern League from Front Rank Figurines only a couple of days ago (actually about 10 o'clock at night on Thursday the 8th May) and here they are, through my letterbox first thing on Monday 12th!

Not only is that amazing service, the figures are also absolutely stunning too. I'll have to go and vote for them on the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers Listings page on this website !

Here are a Scottish infantry commander and a Louix XIV Era foot officer, both ready to be based and painted as 15mm FoGR Great Commanders.

Let's see if my painting skills can come anywhere near close to those of the sculptor ...

Donnington Louis XIV Infantry

Today, for your delight and delectation, we present a series of photos of a Louis XIV era infantry unit using Donnington figures, in the final stages of being painted and based:

This is the unit just block-painted. I've not really got a particular army to use them in as I have a very full Essex Miniatures Louis XIV army, but I just liked these figures. Potentially they might be some sort of Jacobite unit in an otherwise Scottish/Irish army?

This is after adding the coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the middle one in the range)

The figures are from Donnington's WEC ranges, sold as singles.

I tend to paint a base coat of a patch of dark brown underneath the apostles, and then almost drybrush them on in a linen colour. With the Army Painter as well they can really "pop" out quite nicely.

That rogue 28mm priest keeps sneaking into the shot on the far right, doesn't he..?

This appears to be after they have been matt varnished, this  time with a brushed-on Testors Dullcote. With just one unit on the production line, spraying is a bit of a waste so the brushed-on Testors is a better option

Now with the base colour painted in. I am half-tempted to put an ink wash over the rather bland bases, however this would mean reverse engineering an awful lot of figures so perhaps not... Anyway, they are now starting to look almost finished.

And this is with static grass added

A nice colourful unit, with a reasonable variety of figures and poses.

And a final close up of the shooters.

QR Miniatures Pancerni

Just realised that I'd not posted any pictures of the Pancerni after putting up some carbine-armed horse from QR of Poland.

Well, here they are (click on any photo for a larger version)

I added the rather oversized lance myself - I think the figures actually come with swords and stuff, but I seem to have mislaid some of the hands (which are separate)

Nice to see someone actually shooting a carbine from horseback

This shows them next to Old Glory Pancerni. They are a little less bulky in these shots, but on the table the difference is really not noticeable at all.

French Italian Wars Match Reports

A classic of the Renaissance era, as a French Italian Wars army takes on Ming Chinese, Scots, Caroline Imperialists and finally the Ottoman Turks in an early period FoGR competition held at Usk in January 2014,

Thrill and be amazed at what is rather embarrassingly somewhere north of 8,000 words of rather rambling prose and poorly thought out analysis all stitched together with a smattering of overly-flowery descriptive phrases plucked from the depths of dictionary corner. 

But at least some of the pictures are nice, and there isn't as much foreign-language-based swearing as in some of the recent reports either. 

FoGR Army Lists from Usk

Lists of the French Italian Wars, Ming Chinese, Scots, Caroline Imperialists and Ottomans (morphed from the FoG:AM Ottoman army) as seen at Godendag 2014 this weekend in Usk now all posted on the FoGR Wiki

• French Italian Wars, 
• Ming Chinese
• Scots, 
• Caroline Imperialists 
• Ottomans

Match reports to follow...

3 extremely well-plastered Match Reports..

Coming hot on the heels of the last lot, here are 3 more hardworking, professionally crafted well put together match reports that not only amuse and entertain, they also sweep up after they have finished and save up the earnings from ad impressions to send it back to their families

Yes, it's a Polish Army riding to the rescue in three reports from the Milton Keynes round of the Southern League 2013 !

QR Miniatures Carbine armed Horse

Having been used in the most recent set of battle reports here's a clearer picture of QR Miniatures carbine armed horse.

These are one-piece castings that I painted in somewhat of a hurry, but wish I'd spent more time on as they are really finely detailed figures, in the "classic" 15mm scale as well. Ordered direct from Poland they arrived quickly and well  packed. I have some Pancerni who have been used but not photographed yet, and some Polish musketeers which are being painted at the moment too.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

The Winner Takes It All....? Warfare Match Reports

A musical treat as the long anticipated Abba/The Hives mashup comes to fruition as the Swedes attempt to reach heights of competence rarely seen, in 4 reports from Warfare 2013, taking on more Swedes, some Royalists and two lots of Spaniards..

Are the mighty Swedes going to prove to be Super Troopers? Or will it be a case of Hate to Say I Told You So yet again..?

(Note for regular readers, this report also features the apparently warmly welcomed return of Princess Madeleine of Sweden as leader of the Swedish forces in the post match commentary).

PIRATES! The Buccaneers return in 4 more match reports

The "I can't believe it's a serious army choice" Buccaneers return in 4 match reports from the BHGS Doubles, taking on opponents from the year 1695 in a fury of pirate-based action.

See a 900AP Pirate army in action against non-historical and entirely infeasible opponents such as The Tatars, The Anglo-Dutch, The French and finally, The Poles and Lithuanians as Piracy reaches shorelines previously thought safe from the scourge of the Caribbean (especially the Tatars, on account of Mongolia technically being land-locked).

The reports even feature proper maps and stuff so you can make some sense of the action, as well as just being vaguely amused by the bits I've spliced into the reports..

10 FoGR Army Lists now posted

Army lists from the competitions at Oxford and Reading now added to the FoGR Wiki:
Lists include:

• Buccaneer
• Tatar
• League of Augsberg Anglo Dutch
• Later Louis XIV French (Alasdair Harley Special)
• Later Polish & Lithuanian
• Early Swedish (x2)
• Later ECW Royalist
• Later Imperial Spanish (x2)