That moment when...

Merde! 

...You fumble a miniature in the worst possible way!

Thankfully this was only basing emulsion, and after a rinse under the hot tap Papillon here made an almost complete recovery.

Still something of a worry.  I must be getting clumsy in my dotage?

Boardgame Roundup - 2019 so far...

I've managed to play a few board and card games so far this year. so a quick trot through some of them is in order.

Firstly I've played a few games of Magic: The Gathering, including one with the significant other!  I first played M:TG some 25 years ago, when it was a radically new game, and I still play on and off, though I didn't touch it for some twenty years.

Compared to back then the game is both far more complex, and in my opinion at least, far fairer.  The sheer range of cards has levelled the playing field somewhat, at least for the casual players, and the prebuilt decks are at least capable of providing a fair challenge.  Despite the potentially mind melting variety of cards and potential complexity, its a game I enjoy from time to time.

 Next up, and in no particular order, me and Gav have been playing some more Imperial Assault, this time with me getting a victory as the Empire. I'm starting to wonder if they have all the best troops...

 But it may very well be simply that they have the most troops in a typical game.  To this end I feel I need to pick up some more rank and file for the Rebellion and Mercenaries forces to even the odds.

Priests of Ra is a Reiner Knizia classic, from his auction period; with players bidding to create the finest civilisation on the banks of the Nile.  Players can push their luck to win auctions for the favours of the gods, but at the same time they can only do so by sacrificing their riches, and can only ever win four auctions per age.  Over three ages the player compete for glory.  It's a relatively simple concept but one that I find I enjoy.

Santorini is a classically simple abstract game, with beautiful components (albeit a little pricey as a result) for 2 or 3 players.  Rather like a three dimensional version of connect four, players vie against one another to build and then ascend to the top of a three storey building.  The problem being that whenever you move you must build somewhere adjacently, and you have no exclusive rights to build or climb a tower.  Also players can cap a three storey tower, with a dome.  Thus making them unscaleable. 

Such a simple game may not sound much, but it is really engrossing.  Having played it five times in a row, I might well say that though!

 If you'd prefer a game of near suicidal sub-aqua exploration perhaps Deep Sea Adventure would be for you.  It's the sort of game that you can teach the whole family in five minutes, and get lots of fun from.  As you dive to the depths you attempt to discover and retrieve undersea treasures, but each players efforts impact all and soon the oxygen will run out; leaving any players who let hubris dictate they dive deeper and grab more gold in need of the kiss of life.  Rarely does the first go at this game not end with every player sinking to the depths!

Lastly, some Azul, another abstract and one of my favourites.  Another game with lovely components, and some simple to learn mechanics that as in the best abstracts, can be hard to master whilst allowing the novice a chance to still win.

Board and Card games are always a nice break from miniatures for me, and certainly easier to arrange and transport.  Plus easier to 'sell' to the unfamiliar.

A nice relaxing social diversion for the modern geek-hipster.

...

Another new Project....

Is it timely I wonder?  I just draw a line under one fantasy project - at least having enough to call an army - when something new arrives at my door.

Something from the US of A

Ooh, shiny metal...

As to the contents, well, if you can't make it out above; here's an enormous clue...

Monastic marginalia can be sooo entertaining

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Bavarians: No.5 Preysing Regiment

Another 15mm Bavarian Regiment is ready for battle:

  

 

Not much to say on these, Warrior Miniatures, so the whole unit effectively cost under a fiver.  This gives me 3 regiments of foot, so about one third of the infantry I think I'll want.

Next up might be some more cavalry.

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Boduria Marches Forth

So, stage one of the Bodurian Project is finished. It may appear this was a lightning fast effort, but in truth assembly of the models began in August last year and painting began in late November; still, not bad going.

Whilst scouts and cavalry can perform many functions, it is infantry that are the backbone of any Musket armed army.  The Bodurians are no exception, and so the 1st Company of the 1st Regiment of Bodurian Fusiliers appears here.

Under a Company Standard

 

Salts of the Earth

 Such troops form the bulk of the army, and are a mix of Volunteer officers and NCO's and conscripts.  Pay is good in the army, but longevity less so, so recruitment can be an issue without drillmasters touring the nation.

These are models straight from the Perry Russian set.  The standard is my own efforts in MS Paint, with additional text added by hand in Russian.

Leading the Regiment is famed commander, and favourite of the Emperor, Valentin Kornishon; riding his enormous dire wolf mount, Otmshcheniye.

 

 The figure here is a mix of Perry cavalry parts and a cloak from the Fireforge Knights set.  The wolf is a Games Workshop Space Wolves miniature, that needed a degree of reworking to look natural, but is in an incredibly dynamic pose.

And so I have a full 24 points of Dragon Rampant 'Napoleonics'.

A reconnaissance force

These comprise, roughly:

• Elite Rider Reduced Model Unit, in Command
• Elite Infantry with Wizardling
• Heavy Shooters
• Scouts
• Heavy Riders

I also have models waiting for two more units of shooters, and two other - rather more idiosyncratic - units.

But for now this is a project I can tick off as complete.

I best try to get them to the table at some point...

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All for One!

 

James has been busy working on a new project, and arranged a game for us using his shiny new 18mm Blue Moon Three Musketeers collection.  We played the game using the 'En Garde' rules from Osprey, a set which my limited experience to date have proved to be quite appealing.

Each of us would take a Musketeer - I got Athos, which was nice! - in an effort to escort lady Constance, with the assistance of Planchet, the loyal servant.  Facing us were 16 of the Cardinal's Guard, determined to ensure the information lady Constance held, was never placed in the hand of the King...

The suburbs of Paris

 Our mission was simple, to get off the opposite side of the board in ten turns or less, but we were heavily outnumbered, speed and stealth would be the order of the day.

En Avant!

 However the Guards had a good idea where we would be, and although initially dispersed the soon gathered on our position.

Most of the Cardinals' men waited in the Marketplace

 The Musketeers moved through the alleyways of Paris, hoping to dash past the Guard, but they soon began to appear in ones and twos before us, and the more bold amongst them soon sought the glory of felling a Musketeer by the sword.

Porthos goes climbing

 His boldness ended with a deft thrust to his heart by Aramis, blessed with speed and skill.  Still his valour bought time for his allies to encircle our heroes.  Athos soon found himself in a brawl with a number of the Cardinals' men, as did Porthos.

Athos distracts a cluster of Red Guards

 Meanwhile, D'Artagnan had no end of trouble providing a distraction for lady Constance; he seemed to have met the finest swordsman in the Guard, and it was only the aid of Planchet that saved his bacon.

D'Artagnan struggles... 

Aramis was scything through the Guards, and helped all of the Musketeers in one way or another.  This permitted the Musketeers to advance, but by now the final Guards had arrived en masse, including the dastardly, and skillful Captain - Count De Rochefort.

Ultimately D'Artagnan falls to the Cardinals' Captain of the Guard

As time ran out the Musketeers gathered at the wall of the Eglise d'St Mary.  Where Rochefort fought D'Artagnan to a standstill, delivering him finally what could easily have been a mortal wound.  Lady Constance had to avoid attacks of the Guards too whilst Planchet too was grievously wounded.  The final Guards were dispatched and Rochefort retired, but his work was done, at great cost,  but the messages of Lady Constance would not arrive in time to save the day.

We were defeated alas, but it was a fun game none the less.  My thanks to my brothers in Arms, Matt, Joe and Charles; and thanks to James for arranging the game.

Here's to a rematch sometime soon...

...

The rise of the Bodurian Army...

Readers may recall my Fantasy Cliches post last year, it had its' tongue in cheek but it made a clear point; Fantasy gaming tends to stick to fairly narrow tropes.  Which is not true of fantasy fiction for example.  Consequently I thought I should maybe spend some time on a project that tries to break a few, if not all of those rules.

So what to do, well, Given my present Historical interests, it seemed there was an obvious choice:

 

 Yes, a Napoleonic-esque force.  Drawing a little inspiration from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell perhaps, alongside a little bit from several other sources, and lastly a big chunk of my own imagination....

As a tester for an overall style I kicked off with a unit of Scouts, using Perry British Rifleman parts, paired with Russian infantry heads and a French Dragoon sword for their commander.

  

I went for a winter scheme, as my vision is of Boduria as a rising state in a Eastern European context.  Mixing modern Black Powder and military theory, with the old ways of dark arts and sorcery.

  

Part of this would allow for magic and mystery to be a part of the force, but I wanted it also to feel like an established structure in the military; Hence the Regimental command is a mix of a traditional officer corps and a religious order.

 

 The composition of this elite infantry unit has a rather Transylvanian tone to it perhaps.  A young witch is accompanied by monastic cultists and her protective Golem and ever present eyes and ears (bat swarm), as powerful as she may be though, she is junior in command to the Colonel, who military skill, tactical knowledge and discipline are what truly leads men.

 

This unit is a Perry Russain command figure, two Perry Crusade Monks I had spare, a couple of Reaper Bones models and an antique Julie Guthrie scuplt for the witch.  From the old Grenadier range.  I think this had sat unpainted in a box since I purchased it in about 1989!

Finally, to begin with, I prepared a unit of Heavy Riders, making sure I broke the rule about humans only using horses as mounts.  In fact the beasts of burden here are to become a theme across the army (See the army standard above).  Wolves:

 

 Bodurian Guard Hussars ride massive wolf-like creatures, in fact an ugly but effective crossbreed with blood from savage heavy jawed dogs, giving it enough docility to be trained by normal means.  True wolves in Boduria are far more massive, and generally only controlled by magical means, and deep bonding with their masters.  But more on those another day...

 

These are a blend of spare parts from several Perry French cavalry sets, combined with the Games Workshop Hobbit series Fell Wargs.  All the 'horse furniture' was sculpted with GreenStuff; making these a slow process to prepare.

In  the interest of speed I used a glaze technique to paint these models up fast; wanting a good wintry finish I dusted the bases with a frosty highlight and then added globs of fake snow.  I hope it gives the right impression.

These three units represent about half of the initial 24pt army, with lots more in the works.  Hopefully this project will continue to develop quickly in the coming months; and continue to steer away from the usual fantasy gaming tropes...

...

General Jacques Thomas Sarrut

Another command addition to my Napoleonics collection.

 

"Jacques Thomas Sarrut (16 August 1765 – 26 June 1813) joined the French army and became a division commander in the First French Empire of Napoleon. He led a regiment at Hohenlinden, a brigade at Jena, Bussaco, and Fuentes de Onoro, and a division at Salamanca. He was mortally wounded while leading his soldiers against the Anglo-Allied army at the Battle of Vitoria."

(Wikipedia)

 

Not otherwise especially notable, being something of a journeyman commander, the figure I've used for Sarrut is one of the Front Rank generic French command figures.  That said he has a rather natty cape to protect him from the weather (it's not always sunny in Spain!)  This resulted in a lot of chopping of details from the horse furniture to get the figure to sit at a decent position.

The wheel seemed a nice added touch, and came from a stockpile of Victorian 28mm artillery wheels I was given years ago.  It may be a little later in date but I doubt there's much difference.

A useful little figure.

...

The Mandalorian

As suggested, I've knocked out a quick Star Wars model from the pile of shame.  In fact this chap had sat in the corner of my painting tray for about 18 months!

No prizes for guessing who this notorious bounty hunter is:

There is some tricky undercutting on this model from a painting standpoint, but the hardest part seemed to be getting a decent reference for the costume colours - simply as there was too many choices, but film stills were not as definitive as you'd like.  This is based on a costume replica, letting them do that legwork for me.

...

Imperial Assault: Skirmish Mode

After an eternity, longer than it takes to crank out a Star Wars sequel anyway, I had the chance to get the Imperial Assault minis back on the table in the last month or so.

Not in campaign mode however, myself and Gav - for a change of pace - tried the Skirmish mode, a head to head wargame mode with some role-play wrinkles thrown in.

Darth Vader leads a Raid on a Cantina hiding Rebel scum 

The mechanics are largely the same, but given the rebel player is no longer comprised of heroes, the game plays more the less like the Imperial role in Campaign mode for both sides, with simpler actions, but special orders cards to add back a level of uncertainty.

Local drinkers are quickly dispatched 

Whilst there may be issues with certain troops being very powerful (Darth Vader is a beast), this all works very well, and as can be seen, with painted models on the lovely terrain tiles, looks glorious.

Red robes support the Sith lord against Han and Chewie 

Having the rare novelty of playing the Rebels, I soon found myself outgunned and outmanoeuvred.  Gav led the shiny forces of evil forward in a way that cost scarcely a Stormtrooper even.

It's not going well  

Turns out Droids are a bit of a points sink when you don't have enough firepower to back them up.

  Chewbacca in deep doodoo...

The Imperials were soon triumphant.  But the main benefit of this was to establish the IA in Skirmish mode is actually a fine game I should have been playing more of for a long time.

 Sad losses to the Rebellion

Given the difficulty of running the campaign (Read - organising sessions, herding even a very small number of cats is still hard!), I think I will be rolling this out instead, and it may prompt me to paint the last couple of miniatures I have knocking around too.

Oh, and buy some more rebellion troopers, or maybe some new heroes, or add some mercenaries, or......

*sigh*

...