The MF Plan

Gentlemen, it’s been a while since I contributed anything to the MPGC blog. To be honest I think I burned out on the Trojan War project but hopefully, what follows, will be the start of few diary type posts chronicling my latest endeavours.

So, let me introduce you to the 'MF Plan'. No not another fad diet but a strategy to get some of my oldest war gaming figures on the table. Yes these boys are Minifigs, circa. 1970 something, in all their nicely proportioned but smooth featured glory.

It all came about after our 3 month stint of Bronze Age action on the plains of Troy. After such a Herculean effort to put on the Troy game at WorLad III, it seemed a good time to try something a bit different and more ‘lightweight’. Also, with my hols looming I didn’t feel inclined to invest too much time and effort into a new project – yeah right!

As an aside, for my aforementioned hols, I shall soon be jetting off to Paphos, in Cyprus to catch up with my old friend, Uriah the Hittte …………or at least that was the plan. As it turns out, Uriah will be here in Durham when we’re in Paphos. Sod’s Law or what! You travel thousands of miles to see a mate and he’s not even there – typical. [Only kidding – honest]

Incidentally, according to Google, Paphos is 2,875 miles away and you get there via the A3!

So back to choosing the next game and the consensus was that we fancied a spot of Dark Age gaming. Now Dux Britanniarum is a firm favourite at the club but, having just played the Bronze Age variant for 3 months solid, we thought we would check out the opposition, namely Dux Bellorum.

At first we just wheeled out our Dux Brit armies and put them on sabot bases. So my Gripping Beast & Foundry Romano-Brits, with Saxon allies, faced off against the Captain’s Irregular Miniatures Picts and pseudo Picts (Corvus Miniatures Welsh), whilst Uriah (who was meant to be in Paphos – did I mention that?) watched from the wings. And a jolly time was had by all. Mind you, the Captain’s parting shot was the rather dangerous comment that, ‘it would look better with more figures’. At that point the Pandora’s box, that is the combined stash of the MPGC’s stockpile of old Minifigs figures, was unleashed upon the world. To cut a long story short, the Captain has been painting hordes of old Minifigs Picts and I rediscovered my long forgotten Minifigs late Roman army.

A quick figure count revealed that I had almost the right amount of figures to represent the complete Dux Bellorum Late Roman army list. Now these boys are almost certainly based upon the old WRG ‘Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome’ and faithfully reproduce the illustrations therein. However, times have moved on and they are now looking a bit dubious, in terms of historical accuracy. Nevertheless, they do have a certain charm of their own and they were my first ever 25mm army. As individual figures they’re not great but based up in units they don’t look so bad. So the plan is to base up my old 25mm collection for unit based games and keep my more recent 28mm figures individually based.

So my four point plan is as follows:

1)    Repaint and base up the Dux Bell Late Roman starter army.

2)    Repaint and base up my remaining Late Romans

3)    Repaint and base up my Saxons

4)    Repaint and base up my Romano-British.

I have already completed phase one and have made progress with phase two and hope to get to the basing stage before my holidays. Stage three will have to await my return but I’m keen to crack on with this as Uriah has suggested that we do a ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ campaign. As it happens my original Dark Age collection grew from just such a project back in the 1970s – serendipity strikes again!

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any photos before I started the project but I did manage to get a snap of some bits and pieces that illustrate just what I’m working with here.

The figures were still based up for WRG 5^th edition on some very elementary bases and with the worst possible flock ever sold by Beatties model shop. Why I ever thought a ‘chunky’ flock in a dark bottle green would pass muster I don’t know. I also seem to have glued it on with the stickiest substance known to man – 40 years later and the bases are still tacky to the touch.

I would have liked to just rebase the figure but the paintwork is truly appalling but I guess does show the evolution of my painting technique (or lack of it). The early figures are in Humbrol and Airfix enamels, later moving to artist’s acrylics; all finished off with a nice high gloss varnish. I think the brilliant whiter than white tunics are particularly fetching! If truth be told, I can’t be arsed to repaint all these so am just painting over the worst bits as it were. Unfortunately, in a few cases this is most of the figure – ho hum.

So far they’re not looking too bad but I will save posting any pictures until I have finished the project.

Incident near Tokar (or The Intemperance of Lt. Niven)

Following our first foray into the Sudan with The Men Who Would Be Kings we decided to automate the native forces and give Mr Babbage a try.

The three Imperial player's forces were as follows:
3 units of Regular Rajputs
2 units of Irregular Egyptian Fellahs plus 1 unit of Regular RMLI
2 units of Royal Dragoons plus 1 Gatling gun.

Only the RMLI had modern rifles and none were well drilled.

Dicing on the Leader's Traits table threw up some amusing results. 
The Rajputs were commanded by a Coward, a Weakling and a Bag of nerves. The RMLI a forgettable fellow and the Royal Dragoons a Cad and a Gentleman with a bottle, none other than Lt. Niven. As if to add insult to injury the RSM who manned the Gatling was short sighted, his myopia was to prove the least of his worries.
Only the Egyptian officers gave any sign of encouragement being Pleasant and Steady.

The operational brief was a simple one. Advance across the table and take the village on a far hill.
The Imperial forces deployed in one line with the Dragoons on the left and Rajputs on the right. This was to prove a tactical blunder, hardly surprising given the quality of the leadership on show.

After the first move by the Dragoons some Dervish pop up from nowhere. Steady firing from the Fellahin pin them immediately.

Through his alcoholic haze Lt. Niven sees a chance for glory. While Capt. Keen wisely chooses to whittle down the enemy with carbine fire, Niven bellows "Sshabers gentlemen!" and charges into the nearest unit of Dervish.

 

Bloody Hell! Where did they come from?! Dervish camels appear adjacent to the Gatling gun and charge it. Although the men fight bravely their failure to fire in their own turn means that a second charge wipes them out. All they found of RSM McNutt were his prescription spectacles and a note from his grocer.

  

Meanwhile the Rajupts advance steadily but none too bravely towards their objective.

Dervish riflemen emerge behind Capt. Keen's troop. Luckily their derisive fire means that he can turn about and see them off. Had they been swordsmen he might not have been so fortunate.

Meanwhile the RMLI have seen off the camels but are threatened again by more swordsmen.

Having finished his hip flask Lt. Niven is now imbibing from a bottle of Nurse Macreadie's Emollient Balm. He collapses unconscious in his saddle and fails to move on three consecutive turns. Along with a lone trooper they are all that remain of their unit as the pub beckons and the game draws to a close. 

The Imperial forces were very fortunate to have survived this encounter. Twice units of Dervish within charge reach and behind the line chose to slink away rather than charge and on several occasions similar charges fell tantalisingly short of their targets. Deploying in a single line is not something I think we will be trying again.

Activating the three forces in sequence, Dragoons - Egyptians - Rajputs, meant that the appearance of the natives and consequently the action inevitably skewed to one side of the table. We changed this about two-thirds of the way through the game and used three randomly drawn cards instead.

The Babbage Engine is a hit! It provides a very enjoyable game and we look forward to the next encounter in that god-forsaken desert. Will Lt. Niven recover from his epic hangover and take the pledge? Are the rumours that RSM McNutt was taken captive and spends his days playing gin rummy with the Mahdi true? Watch this space.