Battle at Post Bibane part 2

Now for the conclusion of the Battle at Post Bibane. When we left, the Post was being over run, despite the deadly defense by the Transnestrians and the Berbers were trying to turn the French Flank.
More Berber Cavalry appear on the French Flank.

The Berbers gain the wall and charge the French colors. Private Booker downs many Berbers but it is to no avail.

More Berbers attack the walls, while the Transnestrian's hope of relief fades.

The French Colors Fall! The Berbers pile the dead in the center of the post.

All their officers dead, the surviving Transnestrians follow private Booker as they escape back to the French lines.

The Foreign Legion cavalry break away and head for the Post.

The Foreign Legion having left their Hedgehog formation for a line, fix bayonets and prepare to receive the charge from the Berber cavalry.

Some Berbers loot the Post and while the others reform and prepare to meet the French on the field.

The Transnestrian survivors take refuge in the ruins as the Berber cavalry bear down on them. The Berber Leader declares "No Survivors Of Post Bibane!" and urges his men on.

The French move up to try and save the survivors.

On the French Flank, The Berbers charge in,

And are Gunned down.

Private Booker rallies his compatriots and prepares to make the Berbers Pay!

The Legion to the Rescue! The Legion Cavalry charges the Berbers! The rest of the French line moves up. The Legion beat off the Berbers but not with out taking losses.

The last two Berbers charge into the Legion units flank. The French Major fires and kills one of the Berbers but the survivor continues into combat. The Major draws his saber and declares "This One Is Mine!" They meet and in a cloud of dust, snorting horses and flashing blades they Duel.

The French Limber their cannon and move it forward.

The Berber strikes home and the Major falls. He leans over and takes the Major's sword as a trophy then flees the field as the Legionaries try to bring him down.

The French troops move up under cover of the Oasis to gain a position to assault and recapture the Post.

Another group of surviving Berbers make a mad dash at the French gun and are cut down.

The Tribesmen charge out of the rocky ground throwing spears as they attack the Legionaries.

A bloody melee develops on the edge of the oasis.

The tribesmen attack to tie the French down in the center while the riflemen on the Post walls pick off the soldiers behind the line.

The deadly fire from the Berber riflemen down a French commander and many of the surviving Transnestrians.

Private Booker, is the only survivor of the original Post Bibane garrison.

The Cannon redeploys on higher ground and begins to shell the Post.

The Foreign Legion clears the approach to the post and form up to assault the walls. With most of their forces scattered and the French still having overwhelming strength the Berbers in the post attempt to blow up the post magazine and fail. They set the fire to the fort and as darkness falls they fade back into the hills. abandoning the post. The French may have it back now but the Rif will return.

I had a great time playing the game . I was on the Berber side and yes I was responsible for most of the glorious (aka suicide) charges by the Berber Cav. One major combat is missing from the report. I seem to have not taken pictures of the combat between the Legionnaire cav, the last Berber cav unit and a unit of foot troops. The Berber cav was beaten and the Legionaries were left with only three models left. Other than that i believe I covered most of the high points of the game. I would like to thank Chuckaroo for putting the game together, Matt at PBK&W for letting up play, even though the "Ard Boyz was going on at the same time and the Catawba Gamers for giving us a reason to get together.

Battle at Post Bibane part 1

An overview of the placid Moroccan country side, but danger lurks in the Moroccan hills. The Berbers are on the move and every Frenchman fears of his throat being cut in the night. Since 13 April 1925 eight thousand Rif have made concentrated attacks along the French lines. Thirty nine of sixty six French posts have either been overrun or abandoned. Now 15 May 1925 a Foreign Legion relief column has been dispatched from Fez to reinforce the major post at Bibane but will it make it in time?
The Field from the West. The Bibane Post is in the center next to the Oasis.

The Defenders of Post Bibane. They may look like East Transnestrian Border Police but they are not. They are Southwestern Transnestrian Border Police serving with the french colonial forces. They man the walls and wait for the relief column.

Two of the Legion Commanders observing the approach to Bibane before mounting their horses.

The Legion troops march beside the artillery Half tracks.

The Legion Cavalry takes the field for the first time, lead by a French commander and supported by a unit of Zouaves.

More Legion troops supported by Moroccan colonial levy. They may look like Sikhs but they are not they are Moroccans.

The Berbers make their first appearance and close on the relief column.

The Berbers continue their advance toward the french line.

The defenders wave the colors to show the post is still in French hands, for the moment.

After moving up the Zouaves spot a hidden unit of Camel troops behind the hill. The Berbers regroup and form up for the charge.

A second hidden unit of camels reveal themselves and move closer to the Zouaves. The Zouaves steel themselves and fix Bayonets.

Another hidden unit of Berber cavalry reveals it self and Charges the leading Foreign Legion unit. The combat is bloody but the Berbers end up breaking off. The french Don't celebrate because half the unit is left dead and only two Berbers are killed.

The Berbers Flee the combat still intact as a unit with joy in their hearts and French blood on their swords.

A second unit of hidden Berber cavalry is revealed.

A horde of Berber assault troops swarm out of the rocky cover and close on the posts walls.

The Berber General leads the charge to try and destroy the French guns but falls short, in front of the entire French line.

The return fire from the French slay the Berber general and the survivors retreat. They salute their General as they ride past, He may not have been very smart but HE WAS A MAN!

The camel riders charge the Zouaves and are shot apart.

Both units break and flee the table.

The Survivor from the Generals unit continues to flee for cover.

More Berbers swarm from the rocky cover to reinforce the assaulting units.

Berber Cavalry rides around the hill to turn the French flank.

More Berbers appear on the French flank. The Legion unit at the bottom of the hill assumes the formidable Hedgehog formation.

The Berbers gain the top of the walls! Can the Transnestrians hold till they are relieved?

The surviving Berber cavalry ride through the French lines but are shot down before they can do any damage.

Will the Post hold out? Will the Berber Cavalry continue to charge into the French guns?

All will be revealed in the concluding episode.

This is the first part of a battle report about a The Sword and The Flame game played 15 May 2010 at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne game store in Cornelius, NC. The game was game mastered by my friend Chuckaroobob for the Catawba Military Gaming Societies' monthly game day. The Battle for the Post of Bibane is based on historical fact. The post changed hands several times between the French and the Rif in the month of May 1925. you will have to check back to see if the Post changes hands in our game.

Beastman Progress

I have been working on my Beastmen army to get ready for a local tournament in June. After roughing out several lists I decided to add a gore bull to lead a unit of minotaurs. I wanted one with a shield and decided to convert an old minotaur lord. I don't have any of the new minotaur shields so I am building one.

Here is the Gorebull so far and the progress on sculpting the back side of the shield. I already added a piece of brass wire that will eventually be the handle.

The other side of the shield. I tried several different things to use as a dolly for the sculpt but they were either too big or too small. I am still thinking about whether to just add a normal boss or some chaos symbols.

Ungor Raiders and Chaos Thugs in progress. I have them fleshed out and I am starting on their fur and leather. I haven't chosen a color for the clothes of the Chaos thugs and when I do I will get them base coated.

The Centigors, Minotuars and Harpies. The Minotaurs and Centigors are close to base coated, a few more details and I will ink them. Then a few touch ups and they should be to a good table top paint job. I still have to give the Harpies a couple more coats to get their flesh right and then I can finish their wings.

An in progress of Khazrak. I have the armour about right and will start on the flesh and fur next.

I picked up the last of the old style beastherd boxes from Parker Banner Kent and Wayne in Cornelius yesterday. It had been marked down so I got twelve gors and eight ungors for US$25. I plan to build several of the ungors with hand weapon and shield to bring the unit I have equipped that way up to ten models. I will probably build several of the gors to have two hand weapons.

I also need to convert up a Slugtongue model. I am debating between using one of the plastic gors or using a chaos sorcerer. For now I will use one of my Bray-Shamans as a proxy.

Beastman and Fleshtearer progress

I finally finished filling the gaps on my new Ungor Raiders last night and will have them primered up later today.

I have them organized into six model squads with a musician. I have two metal ungor musicians that I will use for the top two squads and two chaos thugs archers to fill out the top squad. With these ungors and my chaos thug proxy ungors I will be able to put forty eight Raiders on the table divided into eight units. My plan is to ambush four of the units and max my chances of getting them where I need them.

Here is my version of Ghorros Warhoof. It is a mordhiem centigor with a big spiky club I added. I like the idea of fielding Centigors as core troops. I am planning on taking the beasts to a local tournament on 12June10. One of the basic rules is that you have to have 1000 points of core troops out of the 2250 points army size. With centigors as core, I plan to take two units of eight centigors with Ghorros leading one. It also frees up the special slots so I can field two units of Harpies and two units of Minotaurs. I am still working on a list but need to get painting a lot of models in less than a months time.

Switching gears to 40k I made a push mold for the Fleshtearer symbol. It is my first try at a press mold and the buzz saws came out good. I used too much putty in the molds and they are a little too thick to easily glue onto a shoulder pad. I have set up another batch and I used alot less putty this time. I am going to try and salvage the first four because I will need a handful of them before I am done. I want to add the Fleshtearer buzz saw to all the new models I have stared working on. To bring my army up to date with the new codex I am adding a couple sanguinary priests, adding six assault marines to bring my two squads up to ten models and debating on a couple other units to add. The new Blood Angels codex has so many options I am still toying with lists to come up with something fun to play with an even chance of winning an occasional game.

Colonel Elvo Returns

I have been building an Adeptus Mechanicus Imperial guard army since the Hallowed days of Third Edition 40k. It started as more of a aesthetic choice and my fascination with the Adeptus Mechanicus background. Then in late '04 /early '05 I found Tim Huckleberry's home grown Adeptus Mechanicus codex. There were all kinds of modeling opportunities and rules for models like Imperial Robots that had been dropped from the Imperial Guard codex.
Tim's AdMech Codex was a work in progress and I came up with the idea for my basic trooper conversion, that allowed me to easily do weapon swaps if a units options changed. Then came the new Guard Codex with doctrines. I choose to use cybernetic enhancement and chem inhalers to model the my Guard army. None of the Tech Priests I had modeled up really matched what I wanted with my new commander so I built Col. Elvo, in all his stormbolter wielding and power fist swinging glory. I also built four veterans with stormbolter to form his command squad. If you haven't noticed I really dig stormbolters. Elvo may not have been the optimum load out for a Guard commander but I had fun fielding him anyway.
As they always do another Guard Codex came out. I had to go back to the drawing board. One big issue with the new codex was that the stormbolter option was removed. Col. Elvo was no longer a legal model. His command squad was also out of date so I converted them over to special weapon troopers. I debated about leaving Elvo on the shelf and waiting for another codex to make him legal again but came up with a better plan. He would return to the table as a proxy for "Iron Hand" Straken. The conversion was simple, I just removed the stormbolter and the meltabomb from his backpack, then added a plasma pistol and a necromunda shotgun to his backpack.

Col. Elvo in his former colors but No more.

The new Elvo reequipped and a new paint job.

A rear shot of his back pack.

Another shot showing the shotgun and the bionic arm detail.

I know what you are wondering " Why does Elvo have a Pompadour hairdo?" For a long time I have been contemplating building a group of Flying Elvises to use as a stormtrooper squad. Jump suits, styled hair and Hell guns. I sculpted a Pompadour hairdo on a catachan head with sunglasses and I liked it. When I started building my new commander the head was on the desk and cried out to be used and Elvo was created. He is definitely one of my most favorite models and now can be returned to the table to fight the good fight.

Fleshtearer Revamp

I finally picked up a copy of the newest Blood Angels codex. I broke out my old Fleshtearer army, did a model count and now I am planning a new and improved army.

My Fleshtearers have two assault squads, two veteran assault squads, 2 tactical squads, 4 scout squads, an honor guard squad, nineteen Death Company, a couple dreadnoughts, a few vehicles
and a hand full of Land speeders. When the "Get By" codex was published in White Dwarf I added Commander Dante and Mephiston but never actually played a game with that codex.

With the new codex and the amazing amount of options open for the different units I am in overload for exactly how to equip or reequip my squads. I will have to add models to most of my squads to bring them up to ten model strength. Currently all my squads are less than ten models but I want to be able to use the combat squads rule so I am gathering the bits for some reinforcements.

The one model that I plan to add is Chapter Master Gabriel Seth. He is the Fleshtearers Chapter Master. He is one of the main reasons I bought the codex and plan to get them back on the table. I have also picked up a box of Sanguinary Guard but I am still haven't decided how I am going to equip them. I am planning to add claws to my Death company dreadnought to be blood talons and I am debating giving some of my death company different weapon upgrades.

I have a bunch of ideas and will come up with a little more coherent plan soon.