Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty for Impetus

I've recently purchased a large amount of Legio Heroica's fantastic Muslim range for the Crusades. All the miniatures from this company are superb and probably the best 15mm I've ever seen. This is my first planned Impetus based army and I'm looking forward to doing it in between my El Cid and ACW projects.

This project idea started when two of my friends(Mixer and Jadwig) started collecting this range with Mixer collecting The Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusader army and Jadwig Fatamid Muslims. I was very interested in the miniatures, but not the rules they planned to use which was Fields of Glory which I personally find to be as much fun as watching paint dry on a damp day. So, I declined to start any armies for it until..............IMPETUS came along! These rules I found to be very exciting and this was the motivation I needed and so I set about convincing my friends to change the rules from FOG to Impetus.

Since I already own a Viking/Saxon and Norman armies for FOG(hence my experience at FOG) I blew the dust off them and invited my friends into giving Basic Impetus a try using these armies that only required a few very easy modifications to use. After two games Jadwig is on the fence and Mixer likes it and I'm very, very happy with the rules. This weekend we have a planned 300pts normal Impetus game on the blocks and with the additional rules I believe there is a good chance to swing Jadwig the rest of the way over the fence and further grab Mixer's enthusiasm.

The catch is that when they give a FOG a try I agreed to also participate so they can decide between the two systems. My fingers are crossed that they won't like FOG(Really, really hoping they don't!) and decide to remain with Impetus.

I really like Legio Herico's Crusader Kingdom range, but since I already have a Norman army that can easily be used as Crusaders I thought it more prudent to collect Saladin's Muslims first which is hardly a chore as these are just as equally superbly done and I'm also going to have fun with all the color and not to mention they can fight either of my friends armies or join Jadwigs Fatamid's and battle the Crusaders!

My approach will be to emphasize strong colors, clean painting and keep the intricate designs on clothes and such under raps as the effort doesn't pay out at 15mm. I want the army to look very vibrant and colorful on the wargames table and so I'm hoping to pull it off.

Not surprising I'm a huge fan of the film Kingdom of Heaven!

Thanks for reading

Caballeros

Here is my next unit for my El Cid project that's due for an event in September. A unit of Christian Caballeros(includes both nobles and common knights).
Once again AP with highlights added afterwards. All shields and banners are completely hand painted. Like the Caballeros Hidalgos I modelled on some following robes to really emphasize their Spanish/Moorish background and mixed in Moorish figures to take it a step further.
These Caballeros use the over arm attacking technique and therefore are more suited for exploiting gaps in enemy lines unlike the Caballeros Hidalgos which use force of direct assault to break enemy lines. To reflect this I kept the unit standard a small banner in keeping with their need for quick assaults when a gap opens.
I also included the Crusader El Cid figure that I painted up as a bishop to give the unit some inspiration. He of course is the one with a cross on his shield.
Thank you for viewing.
Miniature Company-Perry,Artizan,Crusader,Conquest Miniatures

Hail Caesar

I gave this opinion on the WAB forum and thought I would share it on my blog.
I've been reading HC and so far my opinion is.......I'm impressed! I like the mechanics of the game, orders and blunders mechanism, and the ability to design battles and armies as you see them reflected in history. It does require an emphasis on game building which I find very nice.
While I do enjoy points driven gaming(WAB, Impetus etc.), I equally enjoy the freedom to design armies and battles free from points limitations to better reflect a more historical gaming experience(simulation gaming in other words HC ,F&F BG etc.)where battles were seldom fair and therefore requires one to design scenario goals and objectives to level the field rather then abstract points.
An interesting point about HC is it's geared towards multiple players that can be played with just 2 players while most other systems are designed for 2 players that can be played with multiples. This should not be over looked as large battles will run very smoothly with HC as that's it's comfort zone and requires very little adjustment.
This type of gaming is ideal for club/group gaming or demo games. If your a little weary of the tournaments and want to try a change of pace then Hail Caesar is something to try.
Generally it's designed for large games due to the high figure count, but will still work with moderate sized armies.
If your a small sized collector say in 10mm or 15mm this system will actually give you the rule set to take advantage of large collections that you otherwise couldn't fully use them all and for the 28mm gamer a chance to really pool a lot of miniatures together with friends and not worry if you have too much as the rules allow for adjustments in scenario's and unit capabilities to help off set any large disadvantage to one side or the other.
If your looking for absolute fair then this isn't for you, but if your looking to just play your miniatures with some freedom and let history design your armies then I really recommend HC.
Another point is I really like Impetus and HC easily accommodates the basing which is nice. I'm a huge fan of Impetus basing, but was always concerned it made playing other systems difficult, but not so with HC thus any army I base for Impetus I can use with HC as well which avoids any army becoming to narrow in possibilities.
Also, I heard Rick has published some lists in the yahoo group. I personally hope that's as far as it goes and no more lists are added or ever published. Lists will eventually replace players freedom and in the case of HC I think that's not a good thing. Many games have lists and that's good, but I also like games without them and so I hope HC avoids this.

I think El Cid with Charlton Heston was a fantastic film full of great characters and superb cinematography and costumes. Heston gave a great performance and Sofia Loren is lovely on the eyes. It's loaded with a lot of inaccuracies I won't bother to get into, but what it does is inspire and this in my opinion overrides any of this.
As I mentioned after finishing my ACW regiment that I had needed to start working back on my El Cid project as I have an WAB tournament "Argentoratum" I'll be attending in France in September. Because of this, expect this project to dominate my unit posts until then.
Currently I'm 70% finished with my latest regiment, but since I'm generally not a fan of putting out WIP's you'll need to wait until I'm finished before I post. Of course this does put space between unit posts, but I like posting finished units and not half completed ones I've discovered. However, I don't mind following other blogs that include or don't include WIP's.:-)
Thank you for your patience and I'll post the unit as soon as I can.

Impetus

First impression is two thumbs up! However I'll start with a small critique.
I received the main Impetus rulebook 2 weeks ago and imho I think it needs an aesthetic update to come on line with the current rule book's hitting the market. It needs to be hardback and the photo's updated. Some of armies/units looked quite good, but too many didn't show the great basing potential Impetus offers in diorama type basing which anaesthetically is such a strong point of the system . However, I'm happy that I bought the rules.:-)
Some of the translation was a little dodgy, but since I'm dyslexic resulting in my writing also being dodgy even in my own language and the book originally in Italian I'll give that an understanding wink and a pass.
That said the rules are easy to understand and are not overly complex. The structure of armies and organization seems very good and flexible with an emphasis on results over process which is nice for game flow.
It offers an Impetus Bonus rule which is another nice factor of the game where you receive this on charges when Fresh(no wounds suffered) and not disordered which will make players think about when committing their best troops. To early and they will wear out too soon or too late and your army will already have suffered too much damage to come back.
Today at our club we played Impetus for the first time using the Basic Impetus version to just get a feel for the game before moving on to full Impetus later on. This leads to the other nice point about Impetus is they offer both a free scaled down version with the option of buying the full version.
Any ways, I had a great time and really enjoyed the pace of the game and unpredictability built into it. Results were fast and furious and packed a lot of drama.This was a very welcome change from FOG with it's grinding approach that I quite frankly find boring. I also believe it to be superior in play over DBA/DBMM  because in view DBA/DBMM are to slow to react to changing situations and single dice rolls deciding everything.  Of course that's just IMHO, but it is how I feel.
We played Normans(my friend) vs Saxons(me) which at first I thought might not have that many tactical decisions as the Saxon player will generally start in shieldwall. However, during the course of the game situations came up where the Saxon player had to decide if he wanted to take advantage of situations by moving. So, what I thought might be a static game, actually turned into manoeuvre. In the end the Saxons prevailed, but I think the Normans could equally have won on another occasion had the dice been a bit nicer to the Normans.
I'm looking forward to more games and hopefully my friends at the club will play some more games. They want to try FOG which I will accommodate, but hopefully like me they will end up preferring Impetus.
There is no doubt Impetus will become my 15mm game of choice and will also join the ranks of top 28mm games I play for sure for Ancient and Medieval gaming . Really enjoyed this game folks!
Sorry, no pics, but I'll try to remember next time.
I also just received Hail Caesar in the mail! :-) However I'll leave that review for another time.

104th New York "Wadsworth Guards" Infantry Regiment

This is the second half of the Perry plastic ACW box set with 2 Foundry miniatures added and two  wonderful GMB flags that I praised about earlier. It's been a bit since my last miniature post, but I admit I struggled to finish this regiment. The poses of these miniatures are just a bit too static and it doesn't help that I don't like the weight and feel of plastic miniatures either. They turned out decent enough, but I need more then that to keep me coming back to the painting table to finish. I won't be buying any more of these infantry box sets. I've also looked at the cavalry box and feel little enthusiasm and likely won't bother, but the horses do look good. However, that said the Zouave box does look quite good and I'll give that a go later even though it is still plastic.....

I might be turning my attention back to my El Cid project as the September dead line is drawing near and that needs to be completed. Any ways, back to the unit.

This regiment is the 104th New York "Wadsworth Guards" Infantry Regiment from the Army of the Potomac,I Corps,2nd Division of the I Brigade during the Gettysburg Campaign. The regiment was organized in Albany New York and was mustered in the service between the years September, 1861, and March, 1862 under Colonels John Rorbach,and Col. John J. Viele.

The regiment saw action at Cedar mountain, Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare gap, Bull Run, and Little River turnpike,South mountain, Antietam,Fredericksburg,heavily engaged at Gettysburg, reserve at Chancellorsville,Mine Run campaign, Wilderness,Spottsylvania and Appomattox Court House.It was mustered of service on July 17, 1865, having lost during its term of service 5 officers and 85 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded; 2 officers and 145 enlisted men by disease and other causes, a total of 237.

You can read more on the regiment here http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/104thInf/104thInfMain.htm and see a monument at Gettysburg here http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/NY/104NY.php

Thank you for viewing.:-)

Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

Leipzig 1813 Museum

Hello everyone I just got back from a couple days at a family swim park with my family at a place called Tropical Island which is located in a huge dome structure that is in-closed and therefore can be used year round. It contains two very large pools, sauna's, restaurant, children's park plus much more. Here is more about it.

http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/visitors.html

On our way back we stopped by Leipzig so I could see some of the old 1813 battlefield

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig

and visit the Monument to the Battle of the Nations which is a memorial monument to the battle of Leipzig in 1813. The monument is huge and stands at 91meters and is made of concrete with a granite facing. It's the tallest monument in Europe and includes 500 steps to the top! Fortunately it now has a small elevator/lift that will take you up 75% of the way leaving you roughly only 25% of the way by stair which is still a work out.;-)

As to be expected the sculptures are impressive although outside in bad need of a good cleaning which is currently under way.  Restoration began in 2000 as massive clean up and repairs needed to take place and is expected to be finished in 2013 the 200th anniversary of the battle. Already the inside looks pretty darn good and the outside hopefully will look the same for the anniversary. More info here and better pics then mine turned out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Battle_of_the_Nations

The part I enjoyed the most was the 1813 museum with all the authentic Napoleonic apparel, weapons manuscripts and a very large diorama of the battle in 1/72mm. A panoramic view can be seen here of the diorama and some of the museum:

 http://www.stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/site_deutsch/forum1813/panoramaansicht.php 

Here are a few pics I took inside the Museum. Really fantastic genuine articles on display to see here and a must see for all you Nap buffs! I really wish I knew more about the age of Napoleon as I'm primarily into the ACW, but even I appreciated what I saw and was very fascinated. I plan on doing some Naps in the future and found this quite inspirational.

A cannon:

 Napoleons Death mask.

Some Pistols, Swords, Sabres and Muskets

Some great Helmets and Hats

Very nice Cuirassier armor:

uniforms:

saddle:

Napoleons statue where he stood during the heaviest of the fighting: