28mm Perry ACW - 83rd Pennsylvania.

Hi,

Last year I was going to play in the Gettysburg Refight, I had some figures painted but then Pneumonia struck and and I simply faded out for a good few months. I found the figures last week and decided to finish them off and then sell them to anyone who would actually use them.

I used the same painting techniques on these as my 15mm so they are very blue. However on my various trips to the States I have seen all shades of Union uniforms so I think they are fine . Perry figures are a joy to paint, but after 6mm/15mm I forgot how much space a painted and based 28mm unit will take up.

(I am also amazed that my camera (held together by medical tape) managed to take such good photos)

I can't remember who I got the flags off but they are good. I d need to finish them off as there were glued on but not tidied up afterwards. (I should have really put the flags bases in the right position for my photo).

28mm figures look bloody great don't they.  I won't do ACW in 28mm (20mm and 6mm are enough) but it was good fun painting them up, if a year late that is.

I'm looking at my Napoleonics and WSS with Envy but I need to finish a lot of other things off first. I do need to rebase my Napoleonics first and also finish off the Allied Armies (Prussian, Russian and British) but as it means at painting 300 figures and rebasing 800 or so I'm not really THAT motivated.

Cheers

Rally Round the King testing.

So far this week I have played three solo Rally Round the King Games (from Two hour Wargames). These games have been to simply play test the rules as I get ready for a Solo Talomir campaign to generate some battles. The first game on Sunday night took around an hour and ended up in the Goblins getting smashed to pieces on a Dwarven shield wall. I then discovered that I got the rules on Goblins wrong (Skirmishers and formations) so I then played another game and it ended up in the Dwarfs getting a hiding (The dwarf General tried to turn the tide and ended up as a kebab) and I then discovered flaw 2 in that I had mistaken the Terror rule (It only applies to big nasty things like wolves but not goblins) so things wouldn’t have been as bad for the Dwarves. So a third game ensued – this took about half an hour and I found I knew the rules pretty well by now so I only had to refer back to the unit statistics a few times. The dwarves took the third game and the survived simply due to well train troops that could simply endure a battering.

You will see from the pic below I that I can get this on a table (I’ll have a bigger gaming mat and scenery of course) and have it all taken care of in an hour – right next to the kettle and biscuit tin.

The Talomir campaign involves a group of nations that fight in the world of Talomir. These are a mix of Humans and other folk (Goblins, Orcs, Elves etc etc). The great thing is the Human nations are simply Historical armies substituted into another settings.

I have never played ancients before so I will also be using RRTK to get used to these type of warfare and also learn about different nations and troop types that will hopefully form some bases if I ever get around to playing HoTT Tournaments at CWC. It was also mean I have will have 3 Ancient armies I could possibly use for something else.

Talmoir Nations

Tropilium – (Late Roman) – Legion and Auxiliary.

Treyine – (100YW English) – Archers and dismounted Knights.

Border Kingdoms- (Normans) – Retainers and levies.

Elf- Archers and Soldiers.

Dwarf- Crossbows and Soldiers.

Goblin- Little green men with pointy sticks and the odd wolf rider.

Orc- Bigger green men with pointy sticks and the occasional big nasty thing.

I am just finishing painting the Normans and Romans and then I will be ready to start.  The next project is to get some small WW2 6mm forces finished for the same purposes.

Cheers

Boxes

Hi,

I have been away for a few weeks in Auckland and Australia so things stopped somewhat. I did managed to take several boxes of WSS with me and have made them up (Which was fun) so I at least managed to get something done.

My current task is organising myself now that I have more space and getting some projects started. One good thing to come out of it all is that I am now moving a lot of items into some decent storage so everything is together , instead of being spread across 4 or 5 other boxes, using some "tri-drawer "storage boxes. I have a few already so each genre will end up with its own box - I find this storage a lot easier than my current system that involves checking stuff in any box I can find.

The first task is to get all the 1/72 ACW figures into a box like the above and not have it spread out everywhere like it is now. On top.......

 At the side............

 At the back...

Then I will have another box for WSS and other items I am painting. So incase I moved things around it doesnt turn into a big mess like the below.

Now that I am back home I have started painting again with a little helper. My daughter wants to paint (Anything) so I have been allowing her to undercoat figures. Below are some 15mm undead (15mm.co.uk) that she coated last night.

While I worked on finishing some 15mm fantasy dwarves (15mm.co.uk) and finishing some 28mmACW (Perry).

I purchased a box of ACW last year for the refight and then prompt;ly got pneumonia so missed it. So I will paint the last four figures, base then and then sell them.

The photos above have been taken with a tablet that I am experimenting with  given my camera is now quite dated (and clunky).


Cheers

Solo wargaming - Joy or curse

In my decent into solo war gaming it has opened up a large array of periods that I can now game in whereas previously I only had figures for games where I had an opponent (ACW, Napoleonic, WW2, WSS). Solo war-gaming has however open up a very broad selection of my war-gaming interests, which have to some degree made me think about what I actually want to game with and what current figures are surplus to my requirements.

As a result of Solo I now have small forces for the following periods:

• SciFi (15mm).
• Fantasy (15mm/6mm).
• 10mm Pony Wars.
• 10mm Vietnam
• 6mm/15mm Colonial
• 6mm WW2 (Early war\ Pacific) 
• 6mm Napoloenic
• 15mm WW2 Skirmish.

All small scale items I can chuck on the kitchen table (or floor) for some small games when the mood (suits me). I still have the bigger forces (28mm etc) for actual games if time arises  and even though some armies I have not played with in 3 years I still cannot bring myself to get rid of them (28mm Napoloenics is my pride and joy).

There is the issue of terrain. In the world of Glossy magazines and such I always have this view that my table needs to look like masterpiece theatre. However I find now any terrain will do as long as it looks slightly appropriate, does not fall apart when I touch it or stick to anything that moves.

Of course this new plethora of periods has lead to the usual Rule rush trying to find some decent rules. For the above periods I have looked at a large variety of rules and I think I have settled on some already.

• Colonial - Science Versus Pluck and TSAF (The Sword and the Flame) 
• Sci\Fi - 2150 (Twho Hour Wargames) andd Patrol Aglis (Once its released - HINT Gavin :) )
• Fantasy - Rally Round the King, Song of Blades and Heroes..
• WW2\Vietnam\Napoleonic unit scale - Piquet rules (Great for solo)
• WW2\Vietnam Skirmish - Nuts\FNG
• Pony Wars - Yellow Ribbon (Indians are controlled by rules)

The above rule-sets have good mechanics, variety,  swings of impetus that a solo wargame needs (With a few tweaks).  They do have their faults (as all rules do) but I can live with that.

As we all know finding rules can be a enjoyable yet tiresome process, forums are rife with strong opinions and its hard to guess a rule-set without trying it. I had an interesting conversation with someone recently where they stated Solo war-gaming was stupid, Piquet was crap etc etc and basically everything I was doing was nonsense.

I don't think so, the person in question is a ardent follower of trend. First it was , Rules of Engagement, blackpowder, then Lasalle, then Saga, then Bolt Action. Every year he seems to be re-basings entire armies for a new ruleset that goes out of fashion as quickly as it comes in and then he sells his army. I'm happy just to find what I like and stick with it, its not a competition after all.

Archduke Piccolo wrote a series of Napoleonic and ACW rules a very long time ago that I still think rate as some of the most enjoyable rules I have every used, considering we have played them on and off for over 25 years - simple, to the point and enjoyable and my figures are based the same now as there were back in 1993 when I purchased my first front rank infantry. It is finding a set of the ACW rules in my University papers that I then started to do this ...........

I am slowly (turtle break neck speed) getting my 1/72 armies into gear so I based all my remaining figures ready to paint.

Cheerio.

10mm isnt too bad.

Hi,

I had the pleasure if taking part in a 10mm ww2 game recently and as per usual I now find myself painting 10mm figures (I already had some stored away for a rainy day). My small forces will be based on the 4th Infantry Division at Utah beach alongside some elements of 82nd Airborne. I have 6mm ww2 for solo actions on the kitchen table, as well as incomplete 20mm WW2 (North Africa) so I made sure I didn't get too much.

My initial outing has been to paint a 105mm Howitzer Battery  (That I had for Vietnam) and the below is the result. As I have a load of FlamesofWar bases I am using them for vehicles and Im pretty happy with the results.

On top of that I have also assembled my Chinook ( A ready made one from Tomyc) for my Modern skirmish games (And the occasional Vietnam game)

.
The rest of my job list for this week is:

Take pics of the:
28mm WW2 Russians  and Germans to sell
28mm French Indian War to sell
28mm Victrix Napoloenic  British

Assemble 16 WSS Figures per night
Finish of 6mm ww2 forces for a small solo game

Cheers

Unpacking

A week into the new house and I finally gotten a lot of the garage sorted. This also involved putting together some $20 steel shelves that will home a lot of my figures and bring some organisation to the madness.

All the boxes from the white shelves to the right of the picture are war gaming filled. The white shelf will house rules and books and another shelve unit will have other figures in.

So I intend to have small clear out - it's just the tedium of organising sales doesn't motivate me that well, and getting to the post office is a pain in the backside. However some things need to go (28mm French Indian wars and 28mm ww2 top of the list).

Next on my list will be some form of table (Some heating would also help as the garage was 5C this morning.) or some 3x2 boards that I can use indoor and of  course painting will need to resume too.

Off to Fiji

Hi,

I'm being sent to Fiji for a weeks work - sounds great doesn't it.

Now you'll be thinking is going to be all about

But it really going to be all about, 5 days of it in Nadi (Right next to the airport)

Now from my trip to Brisbane I know its going to be too hot to paint anything so I'm looking into some things to take with me. I suspect it might be some cardboard units, dice and rules to playtest or otherwise get some solo campaign background going while sitting on my balcony having a Fiji beer in Nadi.

I managed to sneak away on Saturday and play a small part in a Napoleonic action San Antonio  at short notice. an entertaining game, I managed to play my part of a confused junior officer quite well as at times I had no idea what our CinC had planned. I was in charge of the British cavalry and we marched around quite a lot in some bad terrain and that was pretty much it. A long range cannon ball killed my general in the first turn and from there it got a little hard. But it was extremely entertaining game and we were well looked after by the host Colin.



Cheers
Paul