As the co-founder and the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Hugues de Payens along with Bernard of Clairvaux created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the infamous Order. If you want to learn more about de Payens and his mission worldwide, make sure you check out Wi400. See below how to go about preparing, cleaning, priming, and painting the iconic historical figure. Download the full PDF here Click to access Painting-Hugues-de-Paynes.pdf  

As the co-founder and the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Hugues de Payens along with Bernard of Clairvaux created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the infamous Order. If you want to learn more about de Payens and his mission worldwide, make sure you check out Wi400. See below how to go about preparing, cleaning, priming, and painting the iconic historical figure. Download the full PDF here Click to access Painting-Hugues-de-Paynes.pdf   If you are seeing this message after signing in, PLEASE PRESS THE BROWSER REFRESH BUTTON This page is only viewable by WIPrime members, If you are a Prime member please log in, If you are not a WIPrime member – you should be! Find out more here.

As the co-founder and the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Hugues de Payens along with Bernard of Clairvaux created the Latin Rule, the code of behavior for the infamous Order. If you want to learn more about de Payens and his mission worldwide, make sure you check out Wi400. See below how to go about preparing, cleaning, priming, and painting the iconic historical figure. Download the full PDF here Click to access Painting-Hugues-de-Paynes.pdf   If you are seeing this message after signing in, PLEASE PRESS THE BROWSER REFRESH BUTTON This page is only viewable by WIPrime members, If you are a Prime member please log in, If you are not a WIPrime member – you should be! Find out more here. If you are seeing this message after signing in, PLEASE PRESS THE BROWSER REFRESH BUTTON This page is only viewable by WIPrime members, If you are a Prime member please log in, If you are not a WIPrime member – you should be! Find out more here.

Victrix now produce packs of 28mm hard plastic Persian Archers – in both armoured and unarmoured variants – and we are taking a look at the armoured version here. This box – or rather bag – (and the unarmoured set) contains 30 hard plastic, multi-pose miniatures, consisting of 24 archers and six command. Each archer frame consists of 4 different poses of body: one kneeling and loosing, one standing and loosing, and two that can be posed as nocking, or preparing to loose. There are eight head options on each sprue and also an optional additional Havelock style neck cloth that neatly covers the head and neckline join. Four quivers are included, along with a mix of sidearms that can be posed hanging from your archers’ belts. Each frame has four large wicker shields, of the Spara variety, and four small crescent shields. This allows you to field your archers in the main battle line, behind a defensive line of Spara shields, or alternatively with the smaller shields as skirmishers. The mix of arm options mean you can pose all miniatures as loading, getting ready to loose, or even holding a sidearm and shield should you prefer. Victrix have also included a lot of nice touches – each sprue includes spare arrows, arrows stuck into the ground ready for use, and hand weapons. These, when combined with the head and shield options, all help to individualise each of your miniatures. Commanding presence The command stand consists of an officer, a standard-bearer, and trumpeter. Although there is a limited number of ways these miniatures can be assembled, there are enough head options, as well as weapon and side arms, to make each miniature different. Shield options here are of the round hoplite style aspis, or the crescent shaped wicker shield. Victrix also stock some fantastic looking crescent shaped shield transfers to fit the wicker shields that are provided in these packs – a surefire way to really brighten up any Persian unit. Victrix continue to produce high quality products at affordable prices. The detail on these miniatures, especially on the armour straps and in the facial expressions, is excellent, and the huge variety of poses, head options, transfers, and optional extras will ensure that even the most obsessive creator of unique models will make their Persian army satisfyingly unique.

In the March 2021 issue of Wargames Illustrated magazine (Wi399) we feature an article about a skirmish between Russian hunters and a Native American tribe tribe known as Tlingits in the wilds of Alaska, 1792. You will see some great photos of figures from the collection of James Morris in the  article, but wouldn’t it be great to see a few more? And how about getting to spin those models around in 360 degrees? Your wish is our command (within reason!). You can read the full article in Wi399 – buy a copy of the magazine from our store. Tlingit Warriors The Tlingit models are available from Varang Miniatures. Russian fur trappers Several of these were converted using Galloping Major and Frostgrave (!) figures. Aleut Warriors These natives accompanied the Russians as they made their way through the Alaskan wilds.

In Every Bullet Has Its Billet, renowned wargamer Barry Hilton offers a wargaming guide to the late 17th Century. The format is a glossy, magazine-style book of 124 pages broken down into nine sections. With Helion’s usual high quality production, Hilton’s authoritative and knowledgeable text, and lots of colourful wargames picture, this slim volume hits its target dead-on. Straight off the bat, Hilton dispatches the elephant in the room: what late 17th Century warfare? Perhaps like me you thought that nothing worth wargaming happened between the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648 and Marlborough’s string of spectacular victories at the start of the next century. You would be wrong! Hilton takes us through a list of interesting wars: the Anglo-Dutch Wars; French wars against the Netherlands; wars in Central Europe of various sizes; lots of fighting involving Ottomans; the Monmouth Rebellion (of course!); a couple of smaller affrays in Scotland and Ireland; the Nine Years War; trips to India, the Caribbean, and North America; and not to forget a plethora of naval actions. Hilton writes neat summaries of all those and includes a further reading section at the end of this book for deeper research. With all that wrapped up, he gets down to gaming. Every Bullet Has Its Billet introduces us to the soldiers that we hope to emulate. The author  first considers them generically: uniforms, weapons, and flags, types of soldiers, and how they deployed and fought. He then digs into the main protagonists, highlighting their particular traits and how to organise and paint them: Denmark, England, France, the German States, the Holy Roman Empire, Jacobites, the Ottomans, Russia, the Italian States, Spain, Sweden, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. He helpfully adds the naval forces for each of those States. How to wargame all of this is next on Barry Hilton’s agenda. He surveys battles on land and sea, pointing out the vagaries of warfare in this period, particularly the ‘blunder-rich’ tactical environment that adds to our wargaming fun. The book stresses the rough and tumble nature of the battles, emphasizing their essence over fiddly technicalities. To his credit, the author does not push any particular set of rules, favouring the gaming experience whatever way you play it. In conjunction with that, the book moves onto building and using a force. The author stresses the three types of engagements you can fight – skirmish, small battles, and the big battles – what scales to use, and how to get them onto the table. For skirmish, Hilton does push his Donnybrook rules, though why not, they are excellent. Small battles are for four to 12 units and the more generic the better for wider wargaming

Hot out of the mould this week are some new releases for the Perry Miniatures metal range of Napoleonic Saxons and Prussians. This range will represent the Saxon army as it appeared between 1806 and 1809 before they adopted French style uniforms. First up is a pack of Grenadier command (SAX3) in bearskin and sculpted in marching poses. This pack contains two NCO’s and an officer, all of whom are carrying muskets, and two drummers. Although they are in marching poses, the Perry’s have managed to inject character into each of the miniatures, with one NCO pointing, one shouting and with different head positions for all. The detail is great, with the tassels on the bearskins clearly visible alongside the detailing on the coats and kit. The other pack sent from this range is SAX5, Schutzen skirmishing, a pack of six light infantry figures in skirmishing poses. This is a great little pack that has all of the miniatures in dynamic poses, loading and firing as they advance on the enemy. Alongside the Saxons are some new releases from the metal Napoleonic Prussian range. Again, these are in the 1806 uniform and are wearing bicornes.  The first pack, EP6, contains six metal infantry sculpted in marching poses. It would be easy to put six identical miniatures in a pack like this, but as we have come to expect from the Perry twins, they never take the easy option. Although they are all posed marching, each of these miniatures are unique, with different facial expressions, hat positions and slightly different leg and arm positions to ensure that even your marching battalions remain eye catching. EP7 is another box of skirmishing Schutzen, displaying another array of skirmishing poses. This time, the light infantry are shown running, firing from kneeling and standing positions, as well as loading. Perry miniatures are the gold standard beside which all other ranges are measured. With years of design and sculpting experience behind them, the twins rarely produce a bad miniature. All the miniatures sent for review are nice clean sculpts with very little flash. Detailing is excellent and I particularly liked the attention to detail in the facial expressions, with moustaches and side burns clearly visible. If early Napoleonic Saxons and Prussians are your thing, this is definitely the range for you.  

An interesting one here, as we unbox Delta One Zero. This is a fairly hefty starter set for a new modern combat game from Australian based company Bonza Games … telling you the country of origin was probably redundant there! The text below is a transcript of the video, for those who prefer to read rather than watch. First thing to notice with Delta One Zero is that the box itself is nicely designed, and of a good, firm, chunky quality, which puts us in a positive state of mind for what might be inside. Once the lid is off there’s quite a bit within the box, and again it is well presented and packaged. We said it was an ‘interesting one’ at the start of the video and that’s somewhat down to the contents. This isn’t, perhaps, what you might expect from a boxed starter set as it’s not full of lots of hard-plastic frames or loads of softer injection plastic minis. No, what’s here are 12 metal multi-part miniatures, a Learn to Play booklet, and all kinds of other gameplay aids, but no actual main rulebook. Curiouser and curiouser! It’s worth mentioning that the full ruleset is available for free in the downloads section of the Bonza Games website, version 1.3 at the time of this video. The A5 Learn to Play guide included here will get you started though. It contains information around recruiting your force, the basic rules, and five missions, starting with an intro story – The Slav Defence. The Recruitment section covers the elements pertinent to your fireteams, who must stay together in formation. Each model has an imagined volumetric space, so no matter the miniature’s pose, even if it is crouching – a model high cylinder for line-of-sight considerations. A Volumetric Template, to determine the space a figure inhabits, is included in the box. We’ll look away from the guide for a moment to talk about profiles which come on reference cards for each member of your formation. There is a wealth of information here – movement, initiative, Shooting, close combat, wounds, weapons, and shooting modifiers for distance. Keywords that can have a game impact are listed too and everything is clear. Orders are assigned on a per-Fireteam basis, determining the way they’ll act in the turn, and they consist of a Move step and an Action step (though some Moves can be 0”). This means that you’ll need to pre-determine some elements of your models’ actions with incomplete information. A token sheet, produced in a high-quality, thick card, contains a number of counters you’ll need during activation and gameplay, plus four Order Generators to assign to your fireteams. A number of the

4Play is a series of scenario packs, each with three scenarios, set in the period 1689-1709 for Donnybrook, Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition, and With Talon and Claw rules – all from the League of Augsburg stable. For each pack author Barry Hilton sets the scenarios, connecting them to their historical background, so that they can be played sequentially. He includes the layout, objectives, victory conditions, orders of battle, and any scenario specific tweaks required. Barry also adds some helpful tactical hints and a playthrough example for all his scenarios. To add tension, each scenario is played with only a few units, fighting over limited turns, so you need to get your skates on to find the winning edge. There is a useful guide for further reading to each pack and stand-alone maps for printing. We’re going to take a look at three of the ‘packs’, although there are several more available, with more being released all the time. The first group of scenarios, One Thousand Irish!, features the Jacobites in 1689. Leading off is a minor sea battle followed by two small scale land battles designed for a 2ft x 2ft table. The Landing on Kintyre, June 30th, 1689, sets up some Jacobite ships having to land troops while a Williamite flotilla bears down on them. This is designed for the forthcoming Donnybrook at Sea rules with 1/2400 ships. Celts at Dunadd July 2nd, 1689, puts the Jacobites on land where they must fight through the Campbells of Argyll who are out to stop them. The wrinkle is that one of the Campbell units occupies a steading and they must be dislodged. Birth of a regiment August 21st, 1689, simulates the beginning of the Battle of Dunkeld with the Jacobites attempting to force their way into the town.

An assortment of metal miniatures from Crooked Dice to enjoy here, and some resin cast scenic pieces too. All are appealing in their own ways, and the variety is the first impressive thing, followed by the quality of the metal casting with minimal clean up required on the miniatures. All come with slotta bases, somewhat reflecting the more esoteric nature of the sculpts – these are aimed a little more at painters, rather than gamers, perhaps. Townsfolk 1 A great pack here that should prove very versatile, with models that can be used in all sorts of games – from fantasy to historical. Each model costs £4 ($5.50 US) or you can get the full set at a slight discount and they’re 28mm scale, though the Merchant – probably our pick of the bunch with great details and lots of character – seems much larger. His bulk and headgear are largely the cause of that – put him next to the Sheriff (a cruel one, we suspect, taunting the folks whilst holding bags of coin) and there’s a fair difference. Which is fine, people are different sizes! Noble and Ranger models finish off the set. Goblins Two sets here from a sizable range of greenskins that are bursting with character. There’s a hint of classic goblinoid to these small (though still rather imposing) minis but with some lovely details. Goblin Warriors 1 is a set of four models for £12 ($11 US) and the shields are the only separate parts. They wield assorted hand weapons and we reckon they’d be a lot of fun to paint with some very clean lines in their clothing and robes, contrasted with their slightly grotesque faces.   Goblin Command (at the same price) brings more character to proceedings. The sentry, more focused on the contents of his nostril than on what might be sneaking up, is very appealing and the only one-part model. The mage looks wonderful and has a separate ragged cloak that animatedly flows behind, matching the dynamic pose. The champion has a separate heavy shield to protect himself and wears mail, the leader has a separate sword piece and wears a stylish horned helm and furred cloak. Island Priests We suspect there will be two types of people seeing these Island Priests – those who can’t help smiling and those who are yet to watch the TV show Father Ted. If you’re in the former group we are happy to report that the detail on each of these models, clearly inspired by the comedy classic, set in a parochial house on the remote Craggy Island, is superb. The look and mood of each of the four characters is great and while