2e Regiment de Tirailleurs

For Christmas this year I received two boxes of perry miniatures ACW (American civil war) Zouaves, one box of perry miniatures ACW cavalry, a french HMG from Gallipoli (made by Gripping beast) and an Airfix allied Biplane (I also got 30 wallachian peasants and they'll be up soon with the rest of Sveneslav's horde). Those of you who have been concentrating will probably have realised that I am really not interested in wargaming ACW (its all those dull blues and grey, even interspersed with the odd fez it gets monotonous) so I thought about what to do with these models and I remembered the studio campaign coming up. If you've seen it yet you will know that our "men fight for what they lack" campaign (taken from a french retort to an englishman) has its own blog (but all the battle reports will also be on Renegade or tale of two gamers) and is based in 1912 China. As the British and Japanese were taken I had volunteered to be French and these models suited themselves pefectly to the army. I created the 2e Regiment de Tirailleurs (see Unifoms below)

 They're regiment was founded during the French conquest of Algeria (1830/40s) and soon I had assembled 72 Tirailleurs (divided into 6 sections of 12), 12 Spahi (French/Algerian cavalry based on Turkish uniforms), a French biplane with machine gun, a hotchkiss machine gun with Tirailleurs crew, 8 casualty markers (for black powder) and 3 commanders. I have included the pictures below...

 I use this model as either Colonel Charles Ney the elder or Major Louis Ney wether i'm playing before or after the Boxer rebellion. Either way this model is always my army general. I converted the model to be holding a cane rather than a sword and i painted a monocle in the eye (click to have a closer look.)

I use this model as Captain Charles Ney the younger (with his Sergeant), he is one of my brigadiers. The pistol arm is a conversion using the same left arm as the Colonel, with a simple hand swap using one of the cavalry pistols.

I use this model as Lieutenant Balliard (with his lackey). In my background history Lieutenant Balliard is the Colonels adopted son (his father was killed by Bulgarians before the crimean war, defending the colonel and his wife). I did a similar hand swap for him as well but using a different arm. His sword and his lackey's pistol are directly taken from the cavalry.

 This is my Hotchkiss MG. It came without any heads for the crew so i simply game them fez heads to tie them in with the rest of the army. I am one of those generals who would fall under captain Square rather than captain Mainwering (that is to say cavalry over HMGs), but the temptation to have one ratteling away was to great.

 This is my Spahi detachment, there are infact twelve of them making this unit my only "Large" unit when playing blackpowder. I simply used the ACW cavaly and did a head swap (the phorography is rather bad i'm afraid). The Spahis never saw much action after the Crimean war upuntil the 1st word war but today they are still in teh french army.

This is a stndard section in my army and it is made up of six of these. When playing blackpowder I give all the units tough fighters (the tirailleurs are reputed to always have fought to the last and to have been the best combat troops in the french army) and, if they have a standard, Stubborn

 Here are my casualty markers in all their gory glory. The Zoauve kit is fairly easy to convert such markers out of and they look very effective.

 Tirailleurs actually means skirmishers, so when playing black powder my first order is always "Form Skirmish and advance". However once within danger range I form attack colum, advance and form square.

 The blood effect is done with citadl paints. First mechrite red around the owund, then blood red on the actual wound, then a heavy wash of baal red which runs off the wound and finally gloss varnish on the blood red.

 This is my most gory marker and depicts a standard bearer who has either had a shell through his head or a volley at eye level. Either way he has lost the top of his head!

 Here the machine gun mows down the unruley algerians/turks

This is my Biplane. The model is actually a RE8 but i'm using it as a Bleriot for the campaign.

 The model was one of the better kits that airfix makes and was quite easy to assemble in a morning

 It will only feature in games after 1912, but as the Tirailleurs uniform was used from 1830-1918 it will appear frequently.

We've created our own rules for Biplanes and based them on the rules for Artillery, with the exception that they can only be shot down and have stamina 4

 With the ability to fly behind enemy lines and pepper their artillery or damaged units with MG fire biplanes are lethal

 The 2e Compagnie de 2e Regiment de Tirailleurs de Indochinois "Turcos"

High elves vs Warriors of chaos

With the knowledge that their homeland had been consumed into the so called "New Ulthuanic kingdom", ruled over by King Vyshnevtsky, the tower guards of Saphiry (now releaved of their position with Teclis imprisoned) had sailed north to Norsca in the hope of finding a long lost and most powerful elven item to destroy the invaders... But Valmir aesling, still smarting over his and Sigvald's recent defeat at the hands of the elves and men set out to crush the invaders. His entire tribe had mounted up and ridden out to destroy them...   

The Aesing Vanguard

•  Valmir aesling on juggernaut
• aelfric cyenwulf on disc of tzeentch
• 5 units of 5 marauder horsemen
• 8 marauder horsemen
• 5 knights
• 5knights
• chaos chariot
• 2 warshrines
• ancient stegadon

The Tower guard of Saphiry

• Lord on Griffon
• Mage on horse
• Mage
• Mage 
• 49 lotheren sea guard
• 18 archers
• 5 shadow warriors
• 5 silver helms
• 5 ellyrian reavers
• 10 sword masters
• 2 tiranoc chariots
• 2 repeater bolt throwers

The two armies arrayed themselves with the high elves bracing themselves and readying their bows for the inevitable cavalry charge

By Turn 1 the speed of the cavalry became aparant with the aeslings covering half the board in one canter, bringing themselves in charge range...

...Then they charged. Aelfric blasted off a spell at the horde of sea guard (all imbued with okkam's mind razor) which made them attack each other, it goes without saying that the results were devastating with half the sea guard torn apart by the enchanted mind power of their battle brothers, leaving less than twenty five standing. Having lost the left flank marauders to the ellyrian reavers and chariots, the orcy knights on the left and the ancient stegadon flank charge the elves, smashing to bits the chariots and sending the reavers running towards the knights.
Being viewed eye to eye by the mage that my opponent said had "a very nasty suprise in store", Valmir and the kraka drak veteran horsemen charge into the wizard who stands and fights revealing his "nasty suprise"! He was wearing a magic cloack that prevented him being harmed by non-magical attacks, unluckily for him he hadn't noticed the sword of Rending at Valmir's side and the elf ended flat on the floor.
Unfortunatly my opponent had also revealed that his prince on the griffon "wasn't ment to figh...." i took that to mean fight and so the next turn my chariot and 5 horsemen went crashing into him. soon the griffon had been skewered on the side of the chariot and hacked up by the warriors on board.

The prince also died soon after...

The Chariot then went charging into the archers and the horsemen into one of the bolt throwers.

One of my 5 marauder horse units had also charged into the archers and owing to being heavily outnumbered they were butchered.

Finally the right flank knights went smashing into his famous shadow warriors and chopping them all up before over running into the silver helms.

so far going well for the aeslings. 

In the next turnValmir, the ancient stegadon and 5 marauders for good measure plunged into the sword masters. Valmir challenged the champion who accepted and got his head smashed in for the arrogance of accepting a challenge against the destroyer of kraka drak! After that his unit was completly destroyed by the stegadon and horsemen.
The chariot smashed up the archers a bit before pursuing them off the field followed shotly by two units of marauder horsemen who had just finished smashing up the repeater bolt throwers.
And the chaos knights proved themslves better than any elf by completly annihilating the silver helms and mounted mage in their path. However, unfortunatly the ellyrian reavers dodged all charges directed against them.

By the end of turn three it was pretty obvious the high elves would have to get their act together and prepare for a fighting retreat if they stood a chance of rescuing Teclis from the Hardenburgers.

The remaining spearmen lead by the last remaining mage formed  a defensive square enabaling every man to fight and braced themselves for whatever the aeslings could throw at them, hoping against hope that perhaps somewhere on the battlefield was a remaing unit to aid their withdrawel to the beech, their ships and on to ulthuan.

Aesling turn 4 and Valmir ordered the charge, by now he was intent on annihilation for these upstart elves! He charged into their square followed by the stegadon, the savage knights and nine marauder horsemen, including all five of the veterans of kraka drak!

...While over in the west 4 horsemen charged the 4 reavers to determine whether man or elf was better once and for all... it was hardly fir however, as the warshrine bestowed the blessings of slaanesh on the marauder horse causing them to sprout all manor of terryfying odities and causing the reavers to flee the field for their ships.

Soon came the time to declare challenges and Valmir challenged the sea guard champion, readying his axe for yet another elven officer's neck!

Then the savage knight champion found himself challenged by the mage and forced to accept this unworthy opponent.

But in the end the elves lay strewn dead upon the field, Valmir had taken no chances and all 25 plus the mage lay slaughtered, however it had cost him a unit of knights, but this was a small price to pay for annihilation.....

In the end the battle was a victory for the slaaneshi horde and the remaining elven archers and reavers sailed back to chrace (the last free state of Ulthuan) empty handed

Deal wargames club

The main reason we didn't finish the Blog a day in October was because i was on holiday in Kent. While there i found out that a kent wargames club met at the end of my Grandparents road. So we visited...

Chairman, Adrian White (see one of the models designed by him below)

 ttp://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/20veh.html, put on a WWII game that they had recently staged at one of the shows (and had reported in one of the mags), just for us! It involved our forces (British/Gurkha) making an amphibious landing across a river in Burma. We won if we managed to take the Japanese headquaters in the Burmese temple on the ridge.

They had really pulled out all stops, creating splash markers (for those japanese shots tht missed our boats), landing craft and wading models (cut a model in half and stick to see through plasticard)

the Gurkha landings went well with only a few boats sunk and a few men from those making it ashore.

With the Gurkha landings complete this was our force and soon we had cleared out all the Japanese from the low ground on the right wing and were engaged with those in trenches on the left. Our bombardments of the ridge also went well, with two mortars and some soldiers taken out by the blasts (and a good deal of crater markers where we missed)

at the end we had not yet captured the ridge, but we were making good progress and had just landed our British wave. so we can take it as a draw, we were on track to win but had not done yet.

Battle for Spongia IX

For many months now Lord Lilithus had been persuing the Grey knights. Ever since Lady Kerr's defeat at the hands of Kaldor Draigo's Paladin squad Lord lilithus had been on their trail until finally he caught up with them on the Dormant Necron tomb world Spongia IX. Lilithus was intent on revenge and h knew that though Spongia IX was an imperial planet it was known that it contained a mass of catacombs in which lurked a dormant Necron civilisation.
He walked into one of the Crypts where he saw a whole legion of necrons lying dormant. He picked up a stone and dropped it onto the floor. The whole legion sat bolt upright and Lilithus began to laugh

This game was fought at warhammer world between six players (most of whom have featured in other reports). It was 6000pts aside with Grey knights, eldar and eldar against Necrons, Dark eldar and Chaos space marines.

Alliance of Revenge

• Necron lord on Command Barge
• Necron destroyer lord
• Necron Lord
• Lord Lilithus, Archon
• Baron Sathonyx
• Terminator lord
• 7 man death watch kill team
• 5 Incubi
• 7 Harlequins
• 3 Hekatrix bloodbrides
• 5 Lychguard
• 5 immortals
• 5 chaos terminators
• 10 Necrons
• 10 necrons
• 20 necrons
• 5 hellions
• 5 kabalites
• 5 kabalites
• 6 khorne bezerkers
• 10 chaos space marines
• 10 chaos space marines
• 8 scarab swarms
• 3 reaver jetbikes
• 6 scourges
• 4 chaos bikers
• 6 necron destroyers
• 2 necron wraiths
• 1 necron monolith
• 1 chaos predator
• 1 chaos rhino
• 1 dark eldar raider
• 1 Defiler
• 1 drop pod

Forces of Order

• Avatar of Khaine
• Avatar of Khaine
• Seer council of Ulthwe
• Castellan crowe
• Brother captain stern
• Librarian (nick named adolf after a painting accident)
• 5 striking scorpians
• 6 Harlequins
• 10 Harlequins
• 5 howling banshees
• 5 fire dragons
• 10 dire avengers
• 10 dire avengers
• 10 dire avengers
• 14 guardians
• 1 warlock
• 5 rangers
• 5 rangers
• 7 grey knights
• 8 grey knights
• 5 terminators (with some crazy invincible creation of matt ward's which literall can never be removed from play. i don't know what it was called but we'll call it Matt)
• 5 warp spiders
• 5 dark reapers
• 2 fire prisms
• 1 night spinner
• 1 warp hunter
• 3 wave serpents
• 1 venerable dreadnought
• 1 dreadknight

The 12" by 4" board ready for action with fortress of redemption, two bastions and a landing pad

Our right flank defended by chaos space marines and dark eldar kabalites facing off against Eldar and rangers in the fortress of redemption
(one objective at each end of the fortress of redemption)

Our centre defended by my dark eldar and rogue space marines facing off against grey knights and rangers in the bastion
(one objective in the ruin between the dark eldar and grey knights)

Our left flank defended by necrons and the Defiler facing off against eldar
(the final objective was on top of the skyshield landing pad  and the other in the Ranger held bastion)

The Forces won priority but there first turn on the right flank was just an advancement, it got more exciting on our turn when the scourges took the lascannon turret objective and my kabalite squads ran for the fotress behind the cover provided by the chaos bikers and rhino (which set off a smoke screen)
Forces =1
Allies =0 (1)

In the centre flank the forces first turn was slightly more interesting with the dread knight letting rip with all its guns killing two hellions a necron and immobilising the raider before it could move. In the allies turn the dark eldar harlequins and hekatrix charge through the ruin objective, the harlequins assualting the terminators. Lord lilithus (whose transport was out of action) jumped out of his raider and lead the charge up the hill towards the bastions with his incubi bodygaurd. Baron Sathonyx and his hellions assualted straight into a squad of grey knights lead by Adolf but were all (save the baron) cut down with no casualties inflicted! The baron then turned and fled.
Forces =0
Allies =0 (1)

(Note: As i didn't have any men on the far left i have no idea what happened there throughout the entire game save that 4 lychguard, 2 wraiths and a lord turned up where there had been 20 dire avengers, 10 harlequins, 5 banshees, an avatar, the seer council, 6 destroyers, a destroyer lord, a command barge, a defiler, all the scarab swarms and a few tanks, and thats all i can really tell you. at the beggining they were there at the end they wern't also the game ended with no one holding the skypad so we'll discount that one for this report) on the left flank the necrons, together with lord lilithus and his guard, storm up the hill towards the defence line and bastions which were defended by two fire prisms and 5 rangers. The immortals were all blown to bits before they even moved.
Forces =1
Allies =0

When the 7 Harlequins engaged with the 4 terminators lead by Matt and the brother captain stern a suprising ammount of carnage insued with all but one terminator and the captain (including Matt) were cut down by the harlequins who took just two casualties (the troupe master and shadowseer). unfortunatly Matt pretended he wasn't dead and stood up again.

The unfortunatly nicknamed Adolf

Turn two on the right flank saw the warp spiders blast apart the scourgs and the fire dragons the bikers, though it wasn't all bad luck for the allies and the rhino somehow managed to wipe out the dire avengers.
Forces = 1(2)
Allies = 0

On turn two in the Centre Castellan crowe engaged the hekatrix bloodbrides killing one. The terminator, Matt, captain sterna dn the grey knights smashed up the rest of the harlequins only to have a drop pod land on their rear in the next turn and the deathwatch appear with guns blazing (their silly invulnarable saves protected  them however)
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

And finally on the left flank the venerable dreadnought charges into Lord lilithus and his bodyguard, however neither side does anything to the other as the dark eldar dodge out the way of it's fist missing with their haywire grenades. Then the monolith appeared inside the defence line on the hill and the monolith blows the bastion objective to pieces leaving a pile of rubble as the objective.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

In turn three on the right flank the rhino is wrecked by eldar tank shooting leaving the Bezerkers to race out and assualt the warp spiders in the fortress. The kabalite squad that got as far as the lascannon turret objective also assualt the Warp spiders and together both squads slaughter the warp spiders to a man and the kabalites feed off the pain.
Forces = 1
Allies = 1

The Nemesis dreadknight appears to challenge the monolith!

The Avatar, Harlequins, Terminator and Grey knights assualt the killteam in their drop pod and massacre the lot!

Turn three in the centre saw the death watch wiped out by the terminator, avatar and harlequins but it also saw Matt blasted down by the chaos preadator (all guns blazing) and Castellan crowe chopped up by the remaining blood bride.
Forces = 0
Allies = 0 (1)

Turn three on the left flank was a bit more eventful, the venerable dreadnought and Incubi lead by lilithus did nought to each other but the two fire prisms are forced back and the necrons lead by their lord suceed in taking out one of the grey knight squads.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

As you can see utter carnage on the far left where there had been an entire eldar army and the elite parts of a necron one there was now only 2 wraiths, a destroyer a destroyer lord a command barge and an immobilised defiler facing off against 4 banshees, an avatar, a shadow seer and a dire avenger.

On the right flank in turn four the last three kabalites assualt the rangers killing all five of them and gaining their 2nd pain token. But the fire dragons ran into the fortress of redemption followed by the dire avengers, cornering the kabalites. The chaos space marines assualt the warp spider.
Forces = 0 (1)
Allies = 1

In the centre in turn four the last terminator and grey knight take out the hekatrix bloodbride and one of the chaos space marines.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

On the left flank it was uneventful as usual and no one was killed.
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Luckily Grey knights are not famed for their brains. The last grey knight blasted off his incinerator cannon at point blank range into the useless drop pod and the vehicle blew up killing 2 harlequins and the grey knight himself decisivly taking out one of the force's last troop squads. This was the tipping point of the battle, the point that denied the forces victory

Turn five on the right flank saw the guardians wipe out the kabalites, the dire avengers capture the lascannon turret and the continuos battering of the warp hunter by the chaos space marines.

Forces = 2
Allies = 0

On the left flank however the Venerable dreadnought began to make progress taking out lilithus and three incubi.  the necrons lead by their lord engage brother captain stern and the Dread knight plunges his nemesis sword straight into the monlith blowing it to pieces
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Adam urgently looks for a loop hole in the rules book

The 2 wraiths, 4 lychguard and necron lord appear behind the froces after carving their way through one entire eldar army. The rangers, dread knight and captain stern are surrounded.

 The entire right flank in all its glory. 7 immobilised tanks just over ten eldar, an avatar, 7 chaos space marines and 5 newly arrived terminators and a lord.
 The entire left flank in all its glory. a wrecked tank an immobilised vehicle and a wrecked command barge, a venerable dreadnought, dreadknight about 15 necrons a necron destroyer lord 2 dark eldar, 5 eldar, 2 wraiths, 4 lychguard and a necron lord
Forces = 1
Allies = 0

Having just moved into contact with the ruin objective Matt fails to realise that he is in direct line of sight  through two buildings of the desentegrator cannon of my immobilised raider (as i said grey knights arn't famed for brains). Matt was blasted to bits, this was the deciding moment of the battle.

The game ended 0:0 as all the objectives were now disputed from this last shot! a draw and turned from a loss by my immobilised raider and immobile drop pod (though the chaos terminators did engage all the eldar in the fortress of redemption but that was but minor!)

The two raiths the practicaly destroyed an entire eldar army and finished off the venerable dreadnought!

Lord lilithus looked on from the deck of his immobile raider. That Dreadnought had ripped one of his arms off and his leg was hanging by a thread, his ribs were all broken and some poked through his skin wich was dangling with his guts to the floor. But he didn't care, once he finally died of his fatal wounds the haemonculi would regrow him. He looked on at the scattered forces and the shells of tanks and buildings littered the field. The forces were to scattered to continue the fighting and Lilithus' fools had gathered up pieces from the dark eldar who had died and had fixed the raiders engines. the raider took off, Lilithus looked at spongia IX below him as he flew towards his galactic barge. Revenge was his, Castellan crowe had been sliced down and only the dread knight and captain stern were now left alive. "Me lord, your dying" said Lilithus' Reaver champion, "yes i am, throw my body with the rest of them send us to the haemonculi and  they'll regrow me... I think i'll adopt a new name, yes, how about Mr Chuckles!" then he droppeed down dead.

Warhammer world was great and was well worth a visit, there's the ciadel hall with miniatures painted by Gods, Bugman's bar (with the belly bursta and fat bloke burgers, i had a potatoe) and the shop that can order stuff from HQ within 2 hrs! Behind us a massive apocalypse game was going on with eldar and imperial guard against tyranids, necrons and tau. everything was on that table, eldar revanant titan standing on a chimera, a reaver titan, bio titan, harridan, barracuda, tons of imperial tanks, nearly over a 1000 tyranids and about hlaf that many necrons, two monoliths and loads of jetbikers. I think it was a tyranid victory as the revanant titan was cut down.
there was also a campaign tournament going on. one thousands son army in the campaign contanined a defiler converted with the top half of a necro sphinx.

Wargaming period

The “men fight for what they lack” period is an alternative history where one of the Senegalese Tirailleurs at stale mate with the British at Fashoda accidently fired his rifle and hit a British naval officer in the face. After that both forces in Fashoda started firing on one another and the valiant Tirailleurs took up shelter in an inn which they defended till the British withdrew (they later also withdrew).

This incident however did not turn into a war, most of the officers were well disciplined and both sides came to an agreement. The people of Fashoda would speak with one voice (a British one)!

Though no conflict emerged from the incident it was decidedly harder for Britain and France to sort out their colonial differences in the future.

This period of wargaming refers to any Anglo – French conflict following the 1890s, it sits on the fence between historical wargaming and alternative history wargaming