One more off the bucket list

It's been a long time that I've wanted to have a bash at painting one of those staples of the wargaming wish-list, Winged Hussars. It's just one of those classic armies, like Caesarian Romans, Fallshirmjager, or Burgundian Ordonnance.

All of which I have...

Anywho! With Veni Vedi Vici impending I finally finished them. Only one base of hussars, but at 45pts per base in a 350pt competition I wasn't going to get too much more. The later Polish list is an interesting one. Mostly bow-armed cavalry with a small contingent of German mercenaries and Polish harquebus. In other words, probably cack.

However! They do get a single base of Hungarian musket-armed troops. My objective is to get them close enough to some mounted to open up with 8 dice of shooting!

So, one of the great issues with playing against the Regiment is that they're pretty much great painters. There was a time when my opponents would field half-melted, morbidly obese dwarfs painted with a housebrush, but that time has ended. No longer do the armies of Tibby make such a favourable impression on the battlefield table. It can make it hard to sit through a game when your opponent is silently judging you.

The good news is! I read an article in the Jun 2016 Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy where the author pretty much lays out how he feels about the ongoing escalation of wargaming into competition-level painting and railway-diorama-level terrain. And I whole-heartedly agree. Don't get me wrong! I'm as impressed as the next guy by highly detailed and glossy terrain, the cinematic play it imposes on the game, and the thousands you outlaid to get it, but I just can't bring myself to put that much time into acquiring it myself.

What the article comes down to is enjoying what you've painted because you enjoy the game. The craft is only one of three legs of wargaming after all (the fluff, the craft, the game), but it seems like the endless rush to ever greater heights of flash on the table can get in the way of the other two.

And I guess that means we'd better lay out the army.

German pikes, I split the base up so that it can be used for Impetus Baroque as well. The next main 28mm project (after I finish the 1/285 Cold War and some 15mm Italians) is the army of Gustavus Adolphus. Yes, another classic historical force.

Next is the Hungarian Muskets in red - they're Old Glory figures and they're just horrible - and the Polish Arquebus in yellow. 

Then there is the war wagon. I aimed for a messy "whitewash" look for the wagon. I'm genuinely interested in seeing how it goes at the weekend. It's 4/0/B Various weapons, so... probably go down like a matchstick treehouse in each and every game!

And of course the Hussars. I got the lance pennants from Warlord Games and they're just plain ridiculously large. 

I guess we see how we go. I'll need to be extremely sneaky not to end up sitting somewhere near the bottom of the table considering that we're looking at a knight-heavy competition. But at least I'll be enjoying my own blocky, cartoony stylings.