With Historicon 2021 rapidly approaching, I am still preparing and play testing my two games.
Berestechko 1651.
My first game is the 1651 battle of Berestechko. The battle is part of the Khmelnytsky Cossack uprising against the Polish. I play tested this game at a local club games day in May this year. You can find the after action report here. The game performed reasonably well, but there are a couple of modifications that I will be making for Historicon. These modifications are designed to improve the play and lead to quicker combat. As a result of these changes, I have three units of Polish Haiduks on my paint bench that need to be finished. I also want to improve a building or two and paint some additional casualty markers.
A photo of the play test.
The game will start at 9am on the Thursday morning, right at the start of the convention. There is space for eight players. The figures are 28mm. There will be about 600 figures with a large proportion of cavalry. There are also wagon tabors on both sides. I will use modified Pike and Shotte rules for easy game play.
Bicocca 1522 at Historicon 2021
My second game is the 1522 Battle of Bicocca in the Italian Wars. This game is going to be my larger game with a little over 1500 figures in 28mm. I am hoping to capture the spectacle of an Italian Wars Battle with large pike blocks and plenty of flags.
This weekend I play tested one portion of the battle, the assault on the defenses at the sunken road. I wanted to make sure that the game rules for the defenses made assault possible, but difficult. The Swiss managed to get to the defenses and engaged in fierce fighting before eventually being fought back. As a result of the play test I will be making a few minor changes to the rules.
The fight at the sunken road represents about 50 percent of the battlefield and about 50 percent of the troops that I will be using at Historicon 2021. There wasn’t enough space or players to deploy everything for the play test. Here are a few pictures of the play test.
A view of the Spanish defenses at the sunken road with Landsknechts behind.A closer view of the LandsknechtsA view from behind the Spanish line with the Ginetes out front.Giovanni’s Black Band providing screening for the advancing Swiss pike blocksThe Rural Canton Swiss Pike block approaching the defenses.The Swiss Pike block about to descend into the Sunken Road.The final clash of pike between the Swiss and Landsknechts.
I still have a lot of work to do to be ready for Historicon 2021. There is the villa and grounds for the Villa Bicocca to finish. I have to make a large drainage ditch. I also have to paint a few more units. The Historicon 2021 counter at the HMGS website says I have 73 days left, so I should be ready.
I have scheduled the game for 9am on Friday morning and runs for 4 hours. There is space for at least ten players. In order to complete the game in the allotted time, I will need to keep things moving at a brisk pace. The rules will be Pike and Shotte. Some commands will be simpler to run for novice players and some will have a greater variety of units for experienced players. My aim for both games is to keep things moving fast and to focus on the enjoyment of the games. I will make sure that there are no long debates on rules.
This post is an update on the field defenses for Bicocca that I have built for Historicon. Even though the defenses are now finished, I still have a lot of work to be ready for the convention. The main item that I need to finish is the Villa at Bicocca and the gardens for the villa. I will be working on these items next week.
This weekend our club will be play testing the Historicon Bicocca game. The play test is to see if the rules that I have to represent the defenses work as I intend. I don’t want the defenses to be totally impregnable, but they should offer stiff resistance to a concerted attack.
There are 6 feet of field defenses.
Defenses length.
The field defenses are 6 feet long. The reason for the length was explained in the last blog post. The defenses have positions for three cannons and six units of Spanish arquebusiers that will be manning the defenses. There is also room for some landsknecht shot units as well as room behind the defense for the large landsknecht pike blocks to come up in support. the two Landsknecht pike blocks will be 100 figures each, so they need some room to maneuver.
Gun position.
Gun tower construction.
The gun positions use the log defenses from Anyscale models at the top. However, I also needed to build some extra log barricade at the bottom as retaining walls. These were constructed by cutting down balsa rods.
Rocks at the front.
Finishing the terrain.
As explained last time, the base was made from foam covered by Killing Fields mats. A mixture of brown paint, model railroad ballast and PVA glue was the applied to the rest of the model. This mixture provided a base covering. The wooden defenses were then added using caulk to fix them and fill gaps.
Some rocks were then cast in dental stone using woodland scenics rock molds. These rocks were then painted and stuck to the model using the paint/ballast/PVA mixture. Once the rocks were fixed and dry, various shades of flock were added. I then fixed grass tufts and bushes to finish the model off. I also dry brushed some of the dirt areas to give a little more depth to the model.
The finished defenses.
The defenses took a little longer to make than I had hoped. However, they do blend very well with the Killing Fields terrain mats that they will stand on. I will add a road on the terrain mats to represent the sunken road. This road will run in front of the defenses. On the other side of the road I will put foam under the terrain mats to provide the opposite slope.
Although the field defenses for Bicocca are not model railroad quality, they turned out well for portable wargaming terrain. I am hoping that all the terrain items for this game at Historicon will work well together. The game will be reasonably large with 1500 figures and space for ten players.
As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I am planning on running the Battle of Bicocca at Historicon. One of the most important terrain features will be the defenses for the Battle of Bicocca.
Historical description of the defenses
From the book “History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century” by Sir Charles Oman: On page 179 the defense width is listed at no more than 600 yards. On page 178 the defenses are described as: “On the North front, where a sunken road leading to the manor-house ran along the front of the park enclosure, he had deepened the hollow, and made a rampart along it, with the cast-up earth, piled above the existing bank. In several places he had constructed high platforms in this rampart, and placed guns upon them, which would sweep not only the fields in front, but laterally the ditch immediately below.
On page 181 he discusses the earthworks height. “the obstruction was so deep and the rampart behind it so high, that the head of a pole could hardly be stretched from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the earthwork.
Design of the defenses
From the description, there are some important factors to consider when designing this terrain feature for the game. The first is the overall length, the defenses are not a small item. The second feature is the height and the third feature are the gun platforms.
Length
On the length of 600 yards, this is 21,600 inches. If we take a 28mm at 1:56, scaled down this would be 385 inches. However, we need to remember our figure scale. I am running the game at 1 figure is about 25 men. For the pike blocks one figure would be about 5 men deep by 5 men wide. Using this frontage, I calculate that the required defense length would be 385 / 5 or about 77 inches. For table appearance, I actually made the defenses a little short of 6 feet long (72 inches). This size looks and feels about right. The defenses for the Battle of Bicocca are a dominant feature on the battlefield terrain.
Defense under construction.
Height
On the height, a pike is up to 18′ long. Using our 1:56 scale this would have meant that the defenses would need to be about 3.8″ tall. The height of the defenses is where I decided to make an artistic compromise. I used some inch thickness foam and then mounted some log barricades from AnyScale models on top. The barricades cost 2 UK Pounds a piece, which seemed reasonable. These barricades are around 0.75 inches high so the overall height of the defenses is just less than 2″. These are a little low, but still look imposing on the table top. I could still add another layer or two of foam board under these defenses to increase the height.
Close up of the gun platform which is still under construction.
Gun platforms
The next job was the gun platforms. It is important that they stick out so that the artillery can fire along the length of the sunken road. The image above shows the early stage of construction of these emplacements. I am going to add logs at the front and sides of the platforms to retain the earth. Also along the entire defenses I will add terrain and rock outcrops to give a better finished appearance.
Construction of the defenses
I used a hot wire cutting tool to cut the earthworks from a 1″ foam board. I then cut and laid some terrain mats from Killing fields terrain to give the bulk of the ground cover. This ground cover will allow the earthworks to blend with the rest of the terrain. I then shaved paths to the gun emplacements with hair trimmers. After I painted a mixture of paint, Elmers glue and rail road ballast over the paths and uncovered foam board. Finally I painted, weathered and glued down the log barricades.
I still have work to do to finish the defenses, but I feel that basic design and structure is complete. I hope to finish them in the next few weeks.
The defenses for the Battle of Bicocca will allow me to deploy 6 units of arquebusier and 3 artillery pieces. The Landsknechts can be easily moved up to the barricades due to the gentle slope at the back. Combined, there should be enough firepower to cause the advancing Swiss Pike some problems.
In this blog post I will look at how I converted pike block flags on three units. The units will be ready for a game at Historicon.
I am currently preparing all of my figures and terrain for the two games that I plan to put on. The first is the 1651 Battle of Berestechko that I play tested recently. I plan to run this game at 9am on the Thursday, right at the start of the convention. This game is essentially complete except for a couple of units of Polish Haiduks that I would like to paint.
My second game will be the 1522 Battle of Bicocca. I plan to run for ten players on the Friday morning. I still have a large amount of terrain and figures to complete, but I am on schedule. This game will be the larger of the two and will have about 1500 figures.
In going through the list of troops that I needed for Bicocca, I was short two Venetian pike blocks and one Landsknecht pike block in Imperial service.
However, I did have two Papal States pike blocks and a Landsknecht pike block in French service that were not needed for Bicocca and were available to be converted. With each figure on an individual 20mm x 20mm base, this conversion is as simple as painting new flag figures.
Converting Papal States to Venetian
This first picture shows my two 36 figure Papal States pike blocks with six flag figures between them.
Papal Pikes
The next picture shows the Papal States pike blocks with the Venetian flag figures that I will change out. The Flags were from Pete’s flags.
The new Venetian flags ready to take their place
The final picture of the pike blocks shows the converted Venetian pike blocks ready for action at Bicocca. Individually basing figures allows me to change both flags and the size of the pike blocks. It is very flexible. However, you need to be more careful with the movement trays than if you glued multiple figures to the base.
Finished Venetian Pikes
Landsknechts from French to Imperial Service
The next job was to convert the 100 figure Landsknecht pike block from French to Imperial service. The first picture shows the pike block before conversion.
Landsknechts in French Service
The next picture shows the new flag figures ready to go into the pike block. The flags used a mixture of flags from Pete’s flags and Battle Flags.
The new Landsknecht flags
The final two images show the pike block flags in Imperial service. It is ready to fight back the Swiss coming up from the sunken road at Bicocca.
I am not sure how many people at Historicon would have noticed if I had left French flags on an Imperial pike block. Or even Papal flags on a Venetian pike block. However, I would have known and it would have made me uncomfortable during the game – maybe I am over concerned about it.
The game was based on the first two days of the Battle of Berestechko 1651. This was the period before the Tatars left the field of battle. After the Tatars left, the Poles essentially surrounded the cossack tabor and the battle was almost siege warfare. Before the Tatars left, the battle was a huge cavalry engagement. I wanted to recreate a large cavalry battle typical of the period.
We had four players for the Polish side, two for the Tatars and two for the Cossacks. The starting positions for Berestechko 1651 were shown in the last blog post.
The Polish Cossacks and Nobel Levy ride out to engage the Tatars.
Opening moves
The first decisive move was that the entire Polish right flank, consisting of the Polish Cossacks and Nobel Levy rode out towards the mass of Tatars. The Tatars, rather than stand back and engage at long distance with their bows, decided to charge out to meet the Poles in the center of the battlefield.
Tim and Bob riding their Tatar horde out to meet the Polish Cavalry commanded by Lou and John.
The cavalry battle was a tussle for many turns, with units from each side taking casualties, being pushed back and regrouping, only to re-engage. One rule change that I made to Pike and Shotte to represent the open cavalry battles of Eastern Europe was to have an “Open Order” formation. This formation is like the skirmish formation, but unlike the skirmish formation, it allows units to charge. Also when a unit has to retire it can pass through other Open Order formations to the rear. I felt like this rule change allowed the looser cavalry battles and formations to be represented. All of the cavalry, with the exception of the Pancerni and Winged Hussars were in Open Order. This rule change worked very well and really captured the feel that I was looking for.
Strategic move of the Winged Hussars and Pancerni
The Pancerni and Hussars start their move in the background of this photo.
The Polish Pancerni and Winged Hussars on their left flank decided that supporting the infantry against the cossack foot troops and tabor was not their best course of action. They started a strategic move to deploy against the now engaged Tatars on the other flank. This was a risky move because it moved them across the front of the cossack artillery, even though it was at long range.
The Tatars and Polish cavalry continue their battle.
The photo above shows the back and forth nature of the Polish cavalry fight with the Tatars. Both sides suffered continuous casualties and many units became shaken. The Tatars, with superior numbers, managed flank the Nobel Levy in the center and wear them down.
One additional rule change that I adopted was to the broken battalia rule. This rules says that: When more than half the units in a battalia are lost or shaken, then the battalia becomes broken. For this battle, we did not count shaken units towards the total. I found that this slight rule change worked well for this period with large cavalry battles. If I had not changed it, the battle would have been over in a few turns. Instead we had about 6 or 7 turns of to and fro cavalry engagement.
Cossacks and Peasants on the move
Cossacks infantry and Peasants advance.
With the Pancerni and Winged Hussars moving over to the other flank, the cossack infantry felt emboldened. They decided to come out from behind their Tabor and defenses. Some of the dismounted cossack horse decided to mount up so that they could move quickly to engage the Polish infantry.
The Winged Hussars and Pancerni arrive.
The Polish Heavy cavalry charge towards contact.
The Polish Heavy Cavalry arrived on the Tatar right flank at the center of the table. They had taken a few casualties from the cossack artillery en-route. They immediately decided to charge the Tatars. The Tatars then successfully used “Fire and Evade” to avoid what would have been a devastating charge. In the process they inflicted a few more casualties on the Poles.
Register cossacks attacking the reiters and German mercenary infantry.
Even though the Tatars had been rolling well with their Fire and Evades, the cossack infantry could not repeat their success. They had about ten fire dice on the Reiters and missed with everything, despite re-rolls due to their sharp-shooter skills.
Polish Hussars and Pancerni finish off the Tatars.
Despite the initial success of the Tatar, they were always going to be in trouble against the Pancerni and Hussars. The Winged Hussars charged again and smashed some Tatar units. The Pancerni rode into the flank of other Tater units and repeated the results. Only this decisive move prevented the Polish Nobel Levy being completely wiped out. Most of the Tatar units left the table, even though the had acquitted themselves well and destroyed a large percentage of the Polish cavalry.
The Cossack artillery take a long ranged shot at the Winged Hussars.
A lucky artillery shot
With the Polish infantry and peasants now in full advance against the Polish infantry, things were looking bad on the Polish left. The only hope for salvation was that the victorious Pancerni and Winged Hussars would ride back and reinforce the infantry after having routed the Tatars. However, the Hussars and Pancerni had taken a slow trickle of casualties all day long, first from the cossack artillery, then from the Tatar fire and evade and finally from the close combat with the Tatars.
Before the Polish Heavy Cavalry could regroup, the cossack artillery (shown in the photo above) decided to try a long range shot at the Winged Hussars. The result was a lucky direct hit. The already shaken Hussars took an excess casualty. The resulting morale test caused the Hussars to rout off the table. The Hussars had done some devastating damage to the Tatars, but when they routed off the table, the morale of the Polish players took a hit.
With the loss of the Winged Hussars, the possibility of the Polish infantry getting cavalry support from the center disappeared, as the rest of the units were shaken or disordered. This meant that the cossacks could continue their advance on the Polish tabor.
With no hope of victory the Polish decided to withdraw. The Battle of Berestechko 1651 had been a close run affair with many sweeping cavalry advances. I think that the the rules, with a few minor changes, had really captured the feel of the period. As the Polish Levy commander Lou always says, a rule set should have the 3 Fs – Fast, Fun and a Flavor of the Period. I think that this game passed that test.
In the next few weeks I plan to have a debrief with a few of the players to see if we should make any changes for the next time we play the Battle of Berestechko 1651 – which I plan to do at Historicon later this year – for those who are interested.
This weekend was the first opportunity that I had to put my 1651 Cossack Uprising project on the table. The project was started in April 2020 and finished in April 2021. The first battle that we tried was the 1651 Battle of Berestechko. We played the first two days of the battle before the Tatars left.
We had four players per side and used the Pike and Shotte Rules. There were a total of 600 figures in 28mm. The video below shows the initial set up.
The orders of Battle were:
Polish army for the Battle of Berestechko
Heavy cavalry Battalia:
3 Units of Pancerni each of 8 figures
1 Unit of Winged Hussars of 8 figures
1 Unit of Reiters of 8 figures
Winged Hussars in the foreground with Pancerni and Reiters behind
Infantry Battlalia
1 Unit of German Style Pike of 12 figures
2 Units of German Style Shot each of 12 figures
1 Unit of German Mercenary Pike of 12 figures
2 Units of German Mercenary Shot each of 12 figures
3 Units of Medium Artillery
4 Tabor Wagons
Polish infantry and artillery in the Tabor
Noble Levy Battalia
5 Units of Noble Levy cavalry each of 8 figures
Polish Cossack Battalia
4 Units of Polish Cossack cavalry each of 8 figures
Polish cossacks in the foreground (4 units) with Polish Noble Levy in the background (5 units)
Tatar army
Cavalry Battalia
4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures
Cavalry Battalia
4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures
Cavalry Battalia
4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures
The mass of Tatar cavalry (over 100 figures)
Cossack army
Cossack mounted Battalia
4 Units of Mounted cossacks each of 8 figures
(Horse holders and dismounted figures for the above units)
8 Chevaux de Frise field defenses
4 Gulay Gorad mobile defenses
The dismounted cossacks behind defenses
Cossack Infantry Battalia
2 Units of Cossack Peasants each of 30 figures
2 Units of Medium Artillery
4 Units of Register Cossacks each of 12 figures
4 Units of Cossacks each of 12 figures
10 Cossack war wagons each with light artillery piece
The main cossack army in their Tabor with the two war drums commanding the situation.
Over 90% of the figures in the project are from the Assault Group. The Tatars do have Aventine miniature riders on Assault Group horses. Wagons and defenses are from various manufacturers and the larger artillery pieces are from Steel Fist.
Over the next week or two I hope to do an after action report of the Battle of Berestechko and post some more photos showing how the battle developed.
This month it has been back to painting for my Italian Wars project. I decided to make some progress on my Spanish forces before hopefully moving on to some Venetian Cavalry next month. The focus was on some Spanish Renaissance artillery.
I needed to increase the number of Spanish arquebusiers for a convention game of the Battle of Bicocca that I am planning, so I wanted to paint four units of 8 figures. I also had five Organ guns in my painting pile from Redoubt Enterprises that I wanted to paint. These guns have large spikes at the front and on the wheels, and they sound very like the Spanish war carts at the battle of Ravenna. I decided to equip man these guns with figures from the Assault Group.
A view along the line of the guns supported by the infantry.
The organ guns don’t really come with any instructions, so it took some playing around to see how they fitted together. I was even left with a couple of parts that didn’t look like they belonged. Overall they painted up reasonably well. At only five UK Pounds a piece they were not overly expensive either.
Looking down the gun line from the opposite direction.
I used the small equipment from the Assault Group Spanish/Neapolitan artillery crew.
A view from the front.
The color pallet of the Spanish troops is a little more on the dull side compared to some of the Spanish that I have painted before. I think that this choice has been influenced by some of the colors that I used for my recent cossack uprising project.
Another view from the front
I have some Spanish pike and sword figures still to paint. These figures will be added to the arquebusiers to form two more colunellas. I am deciding whether or not to paint them before I move on to the Venetian Cavalry.
A view from behind the infantry
I was happy with how the Spanish Renaissance artillery turned out. They are certainly different from the rest of the artillery that I have in the collection. They will be great for representing the Spanish war carts when I eventually refight the Battle of Ravenna.
I have been slowly working on a 28mm modern skirmish project using the Skirmish Sangin rules. As part of a scenario I am putting together I have been building a British Forward Operating Base for Helmland Province, Afghanistan.
I decided to only construct the front of the base as that is where all of the action will take place. I built a guard tower at each of the corners. The walls of the base were made from Hesco bags with razor wire on top and in front of them.
Overview of the base covering about 2′ by 6′
S&S Models made the Hesco walls. The image above shows two approaching British Foxhounds (still to paint). White Dragon Miniatures produced the two Foxhounds and these will support two larger Mastif MRAPS. I also have 4 quad bikes for SAS interdiction scenarios.
The entrance to the base guarded by British troops supported by the Afghan National Police.
The entrance to the base consists of a guard shack, New Jersey barriers and a barrier all made by Miniature Building Authority. I will also add a moving chain link fence at the back.
Another view of the entrance
Along the road I have some billboards. One of the billboards was built from a model kit, the other two were scratch built. I will be installing some Afghan election posters on the billboards.
Close up of the Hesco walls.
On top and in front of the walls is some razor wire made by Army Painter.
Entrance to base guarded by the ANP.
In the back-ground of the above photo is a command post and barracks. These are made from containers from the Miniature Building Authority with one of their satellite dishes on top.
British soldier from 3 Para watching the entrance from atop of the Hesco walls.
The Hesco walls at the front of the base have a lower level of Hesco bags behind allowing soldiers to patrol the wall. Many of these design choices were made after viewing photos of actual Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan.
View of the rear of the walls and a guard tower.
The guard towers were made by using two containers as the base. A staircase and platform were then made from Plastruct girders and other items. A Hesco bunker from S&S models was then placed on top of some H beams. The roof of the bunker is removable to put figures inside.
Close up of the other guard tower.
I will be purchasing a better, larger desert terrain mat as well as adding more ground clutter to the base including pallets, oil drums, signs and a table tennis table.
I am also working on scenario to include the British Forward Operating Base. This will be a large scale Taliban assault on the base.
After spending the last nine months on my Cossack Uprising project, I am moving back to my ongoing Italian Wars project for a while. I did purchase a 28mm Ottoman Army over the Christmas period, but that will have to wait a few months.
The main emphasis of the next few months will be rounding out the forces of the Italian City States. I am hoping to increase my forces for a possible large scale outing in the fall at Historicon, if the world returns to normal by then.
For the mounted troops, this will involve Condottieri and their retinue, Lance Spezzate and Famiglia Ducale. In my next blog post I plan to go into the organization of the cavalry in some detail.
For the foot troops, I have started with some generic Italian crossbows and arquebusiers. In this batch there are 16 figures from the Assault Group. This will be mounted on two skirmish bases, each with eight figures. The ones shown here will probably end up in the service of Venice. I have another 32 similar figures on the paint bench.
Front view of the arquebusiers and crossbow
The figures are relatively easy to paint. After my cossack uprising project, I have found myself using a more subdued color palette than I normally use for the Italian wars. However, I am happy how these figures have turned out. I don’t need these City State troops looking as bright and colorful as the Gendarmes, Knights and Landschnekts.
Rear view of the arquebusiers and crossbow.
Most of the Italian foot troops will be lighter troops like these. I plan to do a longer post within a week, with some details on how I organize the cavalry. The post will have some pictures of some mounted Milanese shot figures that I also painted this week.
The final units for my Khmelnytsky Upring project were the 28mm Polish infantry units. The plan was to have a unit of Polish “German style infantry” and a unit of German mercenaries. Both of these units were to have two bases of 12 shot figures and one base of 12 pike figures. There is some question over whether the units in Polish service actually contained pike, as the large amount of Polish cavalry protected the infantry. However a 1577 print of the siege of Danzig persuaded me to include pike.
Polish “German style” infantry
Fo the Polish unit, I tried to keep a more uniform color throughout, using a red base color for the troops.
Polish “German Style” infantry
For the German mercenaries I decided to give a more rag-tag appearance to the unit and had no common color. All of the figures are from The Assault Group and from their German Thirty Years War range. These figures are perfect for my 28mm Polish Infantry units and are from exactly the right time period.
German mercenaries
I am currently awaiting a couple of flags from Battle Flags for these mercenaries. In the Osprey book Polish Armies 1569-1696 (2) there is a light blue and white flag with a jagged Red Cross on page 8. This flag is very similar to a Pappenheim flag from the Thirty Years War. So I have decided to make this unit a mercenary unit from the Pappenheim region.
German mercenariesGerman mercenaries
These photos were the first ones taken in a Christmas present light box from The Flashery. The light box is great for hobby photos and I will hopefully get better at using it.
The khmelnytsky Cossack Uprising project is now nearing completion. All that I have left is an assortment of command bases. I should be able to complete these in the next few weeks. I will then be ready to put all of the Poles, Cossacks and Tatars on the table once life resumes after Covid. I started the project in April, so I am very happy to have completed it within nine months. The project is around 600 figures, with the vast majority being cavalry.