Monthly Archives: January 2020

And Another…..Another

Colonials, Miniatures

OK, this is small and pathetic….but it’s the last piece for my 15mm British colonial forces.

15mm

This particular group goes back to my Kansas City days, and the great, unrealized, World At War 1898 project.  I sold off my French figures, but kept one large unit of Highlanders.  Sometime last year, I re-discovered a cache of unpainted Sikh, British and miscellaneous Minifigs, and decided to paint them up.  The plan is to use them in a campaign against my Arab hordes (what a versatile force….good for late Ancients through the 19th Century).   The idea of a campaign also provided the motivation to order and paint baggage camels, and other domesticated animals for proper camps and baggage trains.

After some research using the usual resources,  I decided to use a couple of rule. The first is Soldiers of the Queen.

Soldiers of the queen

 

I have a weakness for Tabletop Games figures and rules.  Don’t know why.  This a fairly straight-ahead 19th century colonial proposition, but livened up with event cards, and a number of army lists for various sized forces.  This flexibility in army size is a very good thing for a campaign game.

The other is Science vs. Pluck.

science

This not just a set of rules, but also compendium of ideas, a character creation resource and source of general information.  It is designed for the Sudan, and to be played  with an umpire.  I think it’s more versatile than that.  Long out of print, it is available for download at The Wargamevault.

Don’t know when I’ll get the figures out on the table, but it is nice to have the painting finished.

 

And Another…..

Colonials, Miniatures, Skirmish

Finally got on it and finished up my four remaining The Sword and The Flame (TSATF) figures.

20200120_172010

 

The quality of today’s sculpting is so much better than these Minifigs from the early ’80s.  No comparison.  And, the newer figures are so much easier to paint acceptably.  With these old guys, it’s fairly grim work for a pedestrian painter like myself.

The problem now is whether or not I buy some more Boxers.  I have too many Europeans, and TSATF rules call for fairly large units.  If unit size is reduced, the CRT results distort, and I’d rather not make even a simply adjustment to it.  But, even though old and poorly sculpted, 25mm Minifigs are not cheap.

I’ll keep scouring E-Bay and The Miniatures Page for cheap recruits.

 

One Finished

East African Renaissance Campaign, Renaissance, Uncategorized

Quick post.  Over to Portland to see Tim for some football and to finish our Operation Jupiter Europa game.  It has been a real saga so far, and I’m looking forward to telling that story when I return later in the week.

Well, I have to flock one stand’s base, but the Irregular Wars army project is finally finished.

Probably bought the figures over eight years ago.  Started the East African campaign a few years ago, but moved on to something(s) else.

The Abyssinians were the last 200+/  point force left to paint.  Finally got on it in November.  Now I have to re-start the campaign.  Still have my maps and notes.

Probably will happen when I take a break from my survey of skirmish games.

 

 

Go-To Game

Boardgames, Sessions

That’s Paths of Glory (POG) for Tim and I  Rules are easy to remember, play is pretty quick, and it is always a tense struggle.  The perfect game when football, beer or just plain sloth renders Europa, Third World War or Pursuit of Glory (POG’s demonic brother) too difficult.

Our latest game was right before Thanksgiving.  Tim took the Allies and I had the Central Powers.

In our past games, Tim’s Allied play has always featured the Russians’ rude handling of the Hapless Hapsburgs.  This time, I was determined not to let the Austrians lose the game.  This would involved a cautious approach on the Western Front, with German reinforcements moving to the East.

August 1914

Standard opening for the August 1914 first game turn.  I played the Liege card but not much else.

The Russian Steamroller gathered speed during the September 1914 turn.  I was forced to funnel what few reinforcements I had  East to stave off Tim’s hordes.  He also started his War Status track moving by playing the Blockade card.

Fall 1914

In the Fall 1914 turn, Tim continued to hammer away at the Austrians in the East, while my activities focused on patching together a defensive line,  and entrenching in the West.

During the Winter 1915 turn, the Austrians came under new pressure from the Southeast.  The Serbs launched a local attack that eliminated an Austrian Corps, and Romania’s entry into the war forced the Austrians to divert units.  The Austrian Eastern front was now buttressed by four German units.

The Italians entered the war during the Spring 1915  turn.  Fortunately, the Austrians finally drew reinforcement cards allowing them to stop the Italian offensive south of Vienna and continue to frustrate the Russians, with heavy see-saw  fighting around Warsaw.

While the situation remained the same in the East, Turkey’s entry into the war during Summer 1915 created new problems for the Central Powers.  As luck would have it, the Ottomans had a mandated offensive that resulted in defeat and opportunites for the Russians and British.

The Central Powers used Bulgaria’s entry into the war to pressure the Romanians and Serbs.  Both the East and West fronts had stabilized, but the British had mustered a force off of Gallipoli.

At this point, we shut down the game.  The prospects for a dramatic breakthrough by either side were bleak, and, more importantly, food and football beckoned.

While the map indicates a relatively “even” situation for both sides, I believe Tim’s Allies had an advantage for two reasons.  First, the Central Powers had gained very few victory points in the East.  These are needed to start the Russians on the road to revolution and disintegration.  Secondly, there was a very possibility of a successful British landing at Gallipoli.

Another fun contest…….

Skirmish Games

Skirmish,

Somehow became enamored with skirmish games while finishing up my TSATF miniatures.

What ensued can only be described as a “frenzy” of rules purchases.  Learned a lot.  First off, what the hell is a skirmish game.  Here is one thread that, I guess, covers the bases.

Played Fistful of Lead and enjoyed it.  But I wanted something different than Wild West gunfights.

I already had one other set of rules, and it is supposedly the first set of skirmish rules published…. OK, maybe the Wild West rules came first.   I bought the Featherstone rules a long time ago, but played only a couple of times.

After playing one session – more on that in another post – I decided to explore other options.  The next thing I knew, I was falling into the vortex of the Wargame Vault.

Just click, pay, and download……it’s painless.  With that, and some research, I accumulated a number of titles in a very short time.

As the BGG thread indicated, there is variety out there.  I’ve concluded the rules break down into either individual figure or small unit games, with the accompanying amount of character development varying by scale.  The individual figures have capabilities and special skills.  These attributes cost points to help create a balanced game.  Also, some rules are for the pre or early gunpowder periods, with others following the evolution of firearms.

A listing of early rule sets, but with an emphasis on board games, can be found here.

That being said, I’m to start working through my early period rules, using my Warhammer skirmish figures and “combat town”.  I’ll post up the sessions.

Been A Long Time

Uncategorized

Decided to get back at it, if only to keep track of what’s happened.  I know readership is a little thin.

Over the past several months there has been plenty of war gaming related activity,  just not any reporting.

Sold off about 30-40 games.  No, it wasn’t a reaction to  Boardgamegeek threads, but a need to clear shelf space and free up some cash for other purchases.  Too many games, too little time.  Decided to focus on systems instead of “one offs”.  I may go crazy and start shuffling through my magazine games, too.

Those other purchases involved a lot of ASL/ASLSK games, mags and modules.   I’m now in maintenance mode, limited to new stuff from MMP, and maybe a “highly recommended” from the recently revived Desperation Morale blog.  The re-do of Croix de Guerre is looking mighty tempting.  So far I’ve played through all the scenarios in ASLSK #1 and doing my (almost) daily work on ASLSK #2.  I like that most of the scenarios are one-mappers, with small footprint but plenty of action/learning.

Tim and I have also played a number of games over the past 8 months.  These included Fire In The Lake, Third World War, and our go-to, Paths of Glory.  We are currently in the middle of the Operation Jupiter scenario found in Europa Magazine Issue #41.  More on that in a separate post.

There were no new miniature purchases, just painting what was on-hand.  While no project is ever really finished, I have only a handful of  figures left to paint/acquire for my Irregular Wars, Back of Beyond and The Sword And The Flame (TSATF) endeavors.   I also have my 15mm colonial British ready to campaign against a horde of Middle East figures, as well as full contingents of Warhammer Empire troops for Renaissance skirmish games.

The remaining major miniatures project is finishing armies for play using the  Wargames Research Group (WRG) 6th edition rules.  The forces will include Byzantines, Arabs and generic opposing forces from the Late Middle Ages.  The core elements for each of these armies are my old DBA figures.  This is part of the decision to go old school and granular.  Likewise, I’ll use the  George Gush Renaissance rules, instead of DBR for any renaissance battles.