Thursday, April 2, 2020

Medieval Battle in 54mm

I have been collecting 54mm medieval figures sporadically for several years, but recently I had some rather good look with some bulk purchases from a seller of "DSG" figures in Argentina, and accumulated a rather lot of archers, spearmen, and foot knights for a reasonable price (I thought). DSG figures are prepainted and similar to Britains Deetail plastic figures but are a little bulkier and unfortunately have plastic rather than metal bases. This is problematic as some are not balanced particularly well and have trouble remaining standing. One solution might be to cut the tabs off the feet and then superglue the figures to the bases but this is rather time-consuming endeavor. In the short term, I used a little hot glue to temporarily multi-base them to cardboard movement trays.

(Above: Halfway through the first turn. The right side (me) has not moved yet.
Left side (Sebastian) is shifting his deployments
)

So after years in the making I finally put together a little game. Because I had a copy laying around, and had never tried them, I decided the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle (4th ed.?) rules might be a good fit.While it was refreshing to not make activation rolls for a change, I found the combat system clunky and disappointing. It did make for a quick game, however, which for rules somewhat primarily intended for tournament-style gaming I guess means it does what it says on the box?



(Above: Deetail knights on the right, supported by DSG spearmen on the left)

It was a pretty short and not terribly interesting game, with my knightly retinues getting fairly trounced.  But they are fun to push around.  Quite a few pictures...


(Above: I do like these DSG archers, though.)


(Above: the big melee in the center gets underway)




(Above: In upper left here you notice that Sebastian's Saracen mercenary horse has pushed through well behind my lines)

(Above: And here in the center you will see that his spearmen have also now broken through... Meanwhile, in the upper right corner my knights remain inexplicably tied down in melee with his archers...)




Perhaps I will try some temporary individual cardboard bases, for use with Song of Arthur & Merlin  or a modified Lion Rampant

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks. With better rules it could be really fun!

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  2. Looks good. I base all my 54s on mdf - usually 30x40mm - which provides added stability.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tim. But doesn't a Deetail figure look strange on a MDF base, what its own metal base already?

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    2. I should qualify my earlier comment. Except for those on Deetail metal bases.......

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  3. I use my own rules that are heavily influenced by Warhammer. One difference from Warhammer is that at the end of a successful round of melee the victor pushes back the other unit 20cm (unless the losing side is cavalry).If there are additional units behind they also get pushed back but only 10cm. If units are 'pushed off the board' they have fled! Warhammer rules are very good for fantasy where different creatures are also involved.

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