Mad Lemmey's Painting Blog

My forces for 'God Wills It' crusader themed competition are complete, suppose I can now declare for... A few extra bases done... 15 bases of crossbows. Not often seen in England, but the rest of Europe was still using them, and if I want to break away to my new army and away from my Anglo-centric bias, what better way? Why 15 bases? a) Because many units in Crusader lists have them as back ranks, so my Henrician billmen or medieval spears make the front rank? b) Because 15 x 8 = 90 figures and is three packs c) Because I can't count? Eight to a base for loose foot in MeG, also allows me to show off the loader figure at the back of each stand. It's a lot of bolts! To denote maybe my mounted crossbows as they dismount, or maybe the one superior foot unit in the army, and matching in with many contemporary illustrations of armoured crossbows, here are a tooled up crossbow unit.  Side view Stick these behind the Tudor foot knights and it gets the message acr...

Neil very kindly offered to face my God Will's It test army on Wednesday at Leighton Buzzard Wargames Club . Whilst not on the competition circuit for MeG (due to having many more active and fun interests), he is an exceedingly good player, so this was going to be a challenge. I had provided him with the brief for the competition (Crusaders and their spiky friends), and waited with baited breath to see what monstrosity he would find. Mamluk Egyptians ... Eek! Was not expecting that. That's a really tough list with many brilliant troops. Scouthing cards did not fall my way then. Outscouted by 80%, it was a 'I'll come back in 10 minutes' moment for Neil! The terrain, however, had all fallen perfectly again, woods and rocky ground making a secure flank on the right, a wood on the left, a village about smack bang in the centre, another lump of rocky ground betwixt it and the woods. Good thing I love steady infantry armies that can use terrain. I deployed with my fou...

Paul and I met up at Leighton Buzzard Wargames Club for a playtest of of our planned armies for the upcoming God Will's It Crusader themed competition. My army was still in the process of being painted at this point (it's done now), so there will be unfinished figures on table - tough! This was our third attempt, after my efforts with Lithiuanians fell to a 0-15, and my possible list fell 6-15, could I better it? Deployment fell right, with me holding the terrain where I wanted it in dense, and Paul not rolling his usual barrel full of 6s to remove EVERYTHING! In fact I managed to secure the flank with a tasty wood, and the centre with a village and Paul plopped in a marsh, it was playing into my hands rather well. My skirmishers held the village, and my infantry and guns stretched the front line while my cavalry lurked behind. Paul sent his skirmishers out wide left, and his horse came in.. Here you can see the horse master at work, trying out ideas. People keep accusing me...