Stepping Ever Closer to Madness

I've got my "Caesar" brand Saracen horsemen painted.   As I feared, they are stuck fast to their popsickle sticks.   The HaT figures from the "Command" set I've also been working on just pop right off the popsickle sticks, but the Caesar figures are made of harder plastic and they stick fast.   I'm trying to cut the sticks up, in order to turn them into the mini-bases that the Caesar horsemen otherwise lack, but I haven't found a good method, utility knife and hobby hacksaw are both less than ideal.   I'm going to try tin snips next.

The larger question is my slow slide into OCD or perhaps full blown madness.  I've painted all the mounted figures I need for the Turkish side (less 1 box of heavies that haven't arrived yet).  But, I bought a box of Moorish infantry too.  In the historical battle I'm trying to model, the entire Turkish army was mounted men, but I figured a few stands of infantry to guard the camp was not unlikely nor unreasonable.

The problem is that the box of Moorish infantry has 96 guys in it.   Reason tells me to paint 12 or maybe 24 tops, and consider the Turkish army complete and move on to the Crusader army or the terrain mat or the camps.   But the voice of madness cries in my ear:  "You're not REALLY done with the Turks until the infantry is painted"  or "You can then stage the battles at Antioch or Jerusalem"  or "You'll need to have individually mounted infantry if you want to do siege action or skirmishes" or "If you leave the infantry unfinished, who knows if you'll get back to them, and they'll be sitting there mocking you for years perhaps"

Phase 1 Complete: The Turkish Light Cavalry

The largest section of the Turkish army for the Battle of Dorylaeum would be Turcoman Light Cavalry.  I decided to convert HaT Industries "El Cid Andalusian Light Cavalry" (i.e., 11th century Moorish cavalry) to Turks,  I did this by saying "These 11th century Moors are now 11th century Turks."

Here's the box cover (click on picture for bigger view)

I bought 3 boxes, a total of 36 figures, and managed to finish painting the lot of them by Saturday morning.   I like this batch,  Very little assembly (just glue dude to horse), very stable figures.   I haven't based them yet, but here's a picture of the entire horde: (click on picture for larger image):

I'm moving on to the rest of the Turkish army now, the heavy horse and the infantry.   The first batch of heavy horse are from a company called "Caesar", and they required a lot more assembly, gluing on weapons and shields, also the horses aren't as stable, most of them being up on 2 feet, and the ones on 4 feet don't have a molded minibase, and are just standing directly on the table.  

While I just painted the light cav using my traditional sticky-tack on a paint jar handle, I had to glue the heavies to popsicle sticks, and fear that if the glue sticks too poorly, I'll just be swearing all the time as they fall off (which happened with the Airfix Robin Hood guys about 1/3 of the time).   On the other hand, if the glue sticks too well, it'll be bitch time when I put them on their unit bases.   Fingers crossed.

Couched and Ready to Go

As soon as I'm out of work here Wednesday morning, it's to business!  I've got 24 Muslim Cavalry assembled and primed now, and a stack of 4x6 cards.   It's painting and Push Back Cards in my near future.    I've also ordered a "Miniarts Medieval Fortress" that should get here next week, that we could use for the campaign or for miniatures games.   Last week I did make up a whole ton of those NPC picture cards, including the half-breed "Bosco Jack". 


Man, if I had known how much mojo one gets from having one's gall bladder removed, I'd have done it years ago.

Grouchy Ramblings

It kind of cheeses me off that I sometimes end up using 3 machines to make a blog post.   My tablet takes the pictures OK, but when I try to type a post, the auto-correct makes such bizarre corrections that it's useless.   "Berserkers" become "westerners"   "My Sprue Nipper" becomes "MySpace" and other weirder stuff.   So, I e-mail the picture to myself, but if I try making the post on my Windows machine, it freezes up when I try to add a picture.  Therefore, I end up using my Firefox machine to finish the post.


Now, I also think I'm going to have to stop going to RPG.NET message boards.   They have a moderator who bills himself as a "Social Justice Warlock" and they spent a huge amount of time congratulating 5e for being more transgender friendly.   Bah, I've got time for this hair-pulling and jumping about? 


I guess I don't really enjoy RPG sites anymore, anyway.   I still love the Miniatures Page, perhaps since the miniatures hobby is so much more do-it-yourself, or maybe because it's more crammed with cranky old guys like me.


Good night, and get off my lawn.

Productive Weekend Product Review

I did get around to assembling and priming a box of Muslim cavalry (12 figures).  I do have a few product notes:


Sprue Nippers:  a most excellent purchase that made getting the guys out of the frames a breeze.


Locktite Plastic-to-Plastic Glue:  one of the problems with soft plastic minis is getting a good bond when assembling,  hard plastic is easy, just use model glue, but that doesn't work on the soft polyetheline plastics.   I was directed to this Locktite product, which has the felt-tip pen that you treat both surfaces with before using superglue.   I tested it out by gluing the Muslims to their horses and after a while I picked them up by the heads and they remained mounted, so I'm guessing it works.


I asked around about gluing the dudes to the wooden stands I'm using and was told that Elmer's is the way to go, so I'll try that.

First Box Painted

I've got my first box of miniatures for the Crusades project painted.  40 figures from the Airfix "Robin Hood" box that I bought a year ago from simple nostalgia.  However they have proven perfect for unarmored archers and pilgrims for the Crusades game, so I thought I'd start with them to get a feel for the soft plastic 1/72 scale process.   If you keep it simple (4-5 colors per figure, doing groups of 6 at a time) it is pretty quick and doable.  

I don't know whether I'll base them or start assembling some Turkish cavalry next.   If I get to either tonight, it will have been a most productive weekend, what with the first play test and the first box painted.

I'm actually having hope of getting the project done by mid-January as I had planned, for an immediate post-Mid-Term Exam school activity.

Here's a picture of the first 40 painted (the priest with the cross-staff comes from a HaT industries "El Cid Spanish Command" set, but I want to use him among the pilgrims, so fished him out and painted him with this batch.

Crusader Project First Game Playtest

Play Test Battle Report 1: November 22, 2014

A few notes to clarify the report: each stand/unit on the board can take 12 casualties before it is destroyed. “Ghulum” were the elite Turkish lancer/horse archers who were recruited from the slave-class of the Turkish realms, and who served as the bodyguards for Sultans and other nobles. In a melee, if one side inflicts 2 more casualties than its opponent does in a single round it “wins” the melee and can drive back or destroy the enemy as a result if no one wins, the melee continues.

Order of Battle:

Crusaders: 1 unit of Mounted Knights (commander Tancred, Command test 4+)

1 unit of dismounted knights, 1 unit of crossbow men, 1 unit of pilgrims.

Turks: 1 unit of Ghulum (commander Amir Habib, Command test 4+), 2 units of Horse Archer, 1 unit of Arrow Supply.

Set-Up: Approximated 38” apart

“North” To “South”

Crusaders Dismounted Knights, Crossbow, Pilgrim, Mounted Knights

Turks: Arrow Supply, Horse Archer, Horse Archer, Ghulum

Turn 1 (Crusaders win initiative)

Crusaders: all 4 units move forward 8”, remain out of range.

Turks: Both Horse Archer units move forward 12”, Ghulum sweeps south at an angle

Ghulum take a long range arrow shot at the mounted knights, but miss.

Both Horse Archers shoot at Crossbowmen, inflict 1 casualty. Horse Archer unit 1 is depleted of arrows.

Turn 2 (Crusaders win initiative)

Crusaders: Dismounted Knights, Crossbow, Pilgrims move forward together. The crossbows are at 6”, short range, shoot make 5 hits and 5 casualties on Horse Archers 1, who pass morale test and stand. Mounted Knights declare charge against Horse Archers 2, who respond with a withdraw action. Knights fall short of charge, but pass Maneuver Test and aren’t disordered.

Turks: Horse Archer 1 declares charge on Crossbowmen, who respond with point-blank volley, inflicting 6 casualties, causing the Horse Archers to become disordered and fail in their charge. Horse Archer 2 turns around, shoots at mounted knights, inflicting one casualty. Ghulum declare charge on Mounted Knights, who respond by Turning to Receive the Charge, avoiding a flank attack. The charge hits home, both the Knights and the Ghulum take 1 casualty in the fighting and remain locked in melee. The melee continues in the melee phase, in which both the knights and ghulum receive 1 more casualty.

Panic Morale Phase: Horse Archer 1 unit fails morale test because of disorder and turns to flee.

Turn 3 (Crusaders win initiative)

Crusaders: Crossbowmen stand and shoot double volley inflicting 6 casualties on the Arrow Supply Unit, causing disorder. Pilgrims charge Horse Archer 2 who use Point Blank Shot to inflict 3 casualties, causing the charge to fail when the Pilgrims fall into disorder. The Dismounted Knights declare a charge against the Arrow Supply, but fall woefully short and fall into disorder. The Mounted Knights and Ghulum continue melee, each receiving 1 casualty.

Turks: Arrow Supply can’t clear disorder because Commander stand is too far away. Horse Archer 1 likewise can’t rally and flees in Panic. Horse Archer 2 double shoots Pilgrims, inflicting 1 more casualty. The melee continues: Knights inflict 3 casualties, Ghulum inflict 2 casualties.

Turn 4 (Crusaders win initiative)

Crusaders: Pilgrims and Dismounted Knights remain disordered. Crossbowmen shoot at Horse Archer 2, but inflict no damage, and arrows become depleted. Melee continues but neither Knights nor Ghulum inflict damage.

Turks: Horse Archers 2 charge Pilgrims, each of whom inflict 1 casualty. Another Knight vs. Ghulum melee round: Ghulum inflict 1 casualty, Knights inflict 2 casualties.

Panic Morale: Arrow Supply and Pilgrims fail morale checks and begin to flee.

Turn 5: (Crusaders win initiative)

Crusaders: the crossbowmen declare charge on Horse Archer 2, who respond with point blank shot which inflicts 3 casualties and disorders the crossbowmen and stops the charge, but which depletes the arrows of the Horse Archers. The Knights/Ghulum melee finally ends when the Knights inflict 4 casualties, destroying the Ghulum.

Turks: the Horse Archers 2 decide to take the prudent course and move away. Battle is over.

What I learned from the Play-test:

• I do need to increase the Horse Archers from 2 to 3 figures per stand. They needed a little bit more punch.
• I need to decrease the number of crossbows from 6 to 5 per stand, they were a little more dangerous than I wanted them to be.
• Ghulum and Knights were perfect, their extended melee is just what I wanted to see.
• I made a dozen or so clarifications and modifications to the rules set when questions came up in the course of the battle.
• I decreased Pilgrims from 8 per stand to 7, since they were a bit more threatening (although they did not actual harm) than I had wanted them to be.
• I really did enjoy the system of Charge/Response.
• Man, you have to keep your troops near their commander stand, if you don’t, if they get disordered, they're done. The scheme is to have 1 commander stand out of every 4 stands on the board.
• In the actual game, I’ll be drawing cards for each commander to go as an initiative system. But since there were only 2 commanders in this game, I just rolled dice, and in 5 rounds the Crusader commander rolled higher every single time. GOD WILLS IT!