Lancastrian Bombers? ADLG Battle reports on Madaxeman.com

[madaxeman]

Roll Call this year saw a 25mm competition in the High Medieval era, and to this gunfight came the Wars of the Roses Lancastrians, in an attempt to use a load of longbowmen and dismounted Perry Men at Arms in a sort of OK army.



There was a big Gunne, plenty of Northern references, 5 matches against everyone from the Jurchen Chin to the Swiss, the Samurai to the Burgundians and even with a Condottieri pasta course in the middle of it all.



See how "our kids" did in these heavy metal battles as longbows twanged and plastic swords clanged and the Lancastrians tried to find out if every single list in the L'Art de la Guerre book is at least partly viable.



It's a veritable Coronation Street episode of convoluted plotting and amazing acting (by some of the casualty markers especially) - but who will be crowned Landlord of the Rovers Return at the end?

Read on to find out!

[Techno]

Lovely stuff ! 

Have to come back and have a longer look, as soon as....

Cheers - Phil

[Leman]

What a jolly jape that all appeared to be, and a great looking Lancastrian army as well. Also some excellent base work.

[madaxeman]

What a jolly jape that all appeared to be, and a great looking Lancastrian army as well. Also some excellent base work.

Glad you enjoyed it - writing the reports it really struck me how ADLG seems to have gotten the troop quantity and density right in 25mm, such that you can actually do some manoeuvring to influence the outcome of the game by actual strategy, instead of just lumbering edge-to-edge lines of troops forwards and rolling lots of dice.

The basing was also super-easy (thankfully...) - there's even a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozd2UU-Q3ZY 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Tim

[Raider4]

It's spelt "Kabin".

And yes, it bothers me that I know this.

[madaxeman]

It's spelt "Kabin".

And yes, it bothers me that I know this.

Good spot - now updated!  

Lord "Chuck" Norris of Weatherfield will be much happier too no doubt...

[madaxeman]

Following on from the battle reports of the surprisingly effective Lancastrian ADLG army, I thought it might be interesting to share how the army was put together in terms of figures and basing, and the thought behind the list design as well.

Most - but not all - of them are Perry plastics, making this a very cost-effective army to build. There is now a summary of the figures I used,  how the army was designed and was supposed to work (in theory and then in practice) and also some ideas as to how I painted them up on the main website now. If you wish you can buy yourself a set of the whole lot for under £100!

https://www.madaxeman.com/main/25mm_Lancastrian_Army.php

[Leman]

Thanks for sharing, particularly the video on basing.

[fred.]

Thanks for posting, I always enjoy your battle reports.

And for the build ideas, although I do think you need some proper Kern figures, rather than some Perry spearmen, (and from your speech bubbles on the reports, I think you think this too!)

I actually went and had a look at the ADLG rules - and discovered you can get the PDF for just €5. Which is really cheap considering the cost of the book. So I got a copy, as more rules is always good.

Having a look at the basing, and for 10mm, the frontage is 40mm which great, as that's what all my 10mm are based with. But there are a lot of base depths. How important are these in game play? Would 40mm deep for all cavalry be fine, and 20mm deep for all infantry be fine?

The other option is to use the 28mm basing option, with two 10mm units side by side, which negates a lot of the basing issues.

[fred.]

Been doing a bit more reading, about basing and unit size.

And I the below is what I think now.

Light Infantry are 40x20mm based, with 1 stand per unit
Medium Infantry, are 40x20mm based, with 2 stands per unit, so are actually 40x40mm based
Heavy Infantry are 40x15mm based, with 2 stands per unit, so are actually 40x30mm based
Pike are as HI, but can be 3 deep, so 40x45mm based

Cavalry are all 1 stand units so are 40x30mm

Not really sure why the rules define MI and HI with small bases, then stick two together. Would be easier just to define them as the larger base size to start with.

If the above is correct, this is good, as it just means a few stands of LI are needed on 40x20mm bases, which is similiar to what is needed for Furiso too. 

[madaxeman]

Been doing a bit more reading, about basing and unit size.

And I the below is what I think now.

Light Infantry are 40x20mm based, with 1 stand per unit
Medium Infantry, are 40x20mm based, with 2 stands per unit, so are actually 40x40mm based
Heavy Infantry are 40x15mm based, with 2 stands per unit, so are actually 40x30mm based
Pike are as HI, but can be 3 deep, so 40x45mm based

Cavalry are all 1 stand units so are 40x30mm

Not really sure why the rules define MI and HI with small bases, then stick two together. Would be easier just to define them as the larger base size to start with.

If the above is correct, this is good, as it just means a few stands of LI are needed on 40x20mm bases, which is similiar to what is needed for Furiso too.  

You're pretty much right with all of that - the "stick 2 together" stuff is literally just a presentational/legacy thing the author included so as not to frighten off former FoG and DBM players who might otherwise find and excuse not to try the rules because of the idea of rebasing their figures. A bit daft I know, but hey, wargamers huh...?  

I've now pretty much either stuck together, or rebased all of my stuff for ADLG anyway, and many other have done too.  

The only caveat I'd add to your summary is that Pike are best based on 40x40 - this is being defined as the standard for pike in the next update.  You can still use 3 x 15x40, but the rule will essentially say  "if it ever actually matters in the game, treat Pike as being on a 40x40 irrespective of how they are actually based"  


Honestly though, if you used Warmaster based figures and did everything on 40x40 no-one woudl mind

[fred.]

Thanks Tim

I did wonder if it was a legacy thing from other rules. From a newbie's perspective It's a slightly odd way of phrasing it, it would probably be clear to say HI are 40x30mm (or 80x60mm) and if you have figures based differently you can position two bases together to from a single unit.

I had noticed some references to pike being on square bases - so thanks for clearing up that that is the intention. And that 40x40mm should work fine for ex-Warmaster figures.

[Terry37]

Awesome! Very nice looking armies!!!

Terry