Plastics on the way...

So, regular readers will know I love plastic figures, yes they take more time to prepare, yes sometimes the detail is a little compromised - if that sort of thing is you priority, fine - and yes, the available ranges are limited. But on that last point they are expanding every month.


First to catch my eye is the preview sets of vikings available from Wargames Factory:


http://www.wargamesfactory.com/_product_16676/Vikings_8-Figure_Set

A set of eight figures for $4.95 (about £3.20, not including postage though). As you can see from the sprue image above, the quality of WF's computer generated masters has come on a long way since the Romans they first released only a year or so ago.

Painted up they look even better:

Elsewhere, another British company is quietly developing a new range of Plastic Ancients :

Immortal Miniatures is to bring out a range of plastic hoplites some time next year, the sooner the better I say!

http://www.immortalminiatures.com/

And lastly, these chaps are already widely available but pretty new and in the interests of balance, I present one of the first independent ranges of plastic fantasy figures to appear on the market.

http://www.manticgames.com/

From around 60p a figure ~(depending on the bundle you buy) these represent a huge saving on GW products. So far Elven infantry and artillery are available, with metal character figures; and plastic cavalry on the way. Personally I'm not a fan of the styling, but next up as apparently the Undead; which could be a more exciting proposition.

It's a good time for 28mm plastic models.

News up front: Recon 2009

The least well publicised wargames show, promoted by one of the most unreliable club websites, just happens to be a very nice little event. Why not try to make it along? In their own words:

Recon 2009

• The seventeenth Leeds Winter Games Show
• Saturday Dec. 5th 2009, Pudsey Civic Hall, 10.00am - 4.00 pm.
• Featuring participation and display by clubs from all over the country
• Bring & Buy
• 60+ tables of specialist companies
• HOTT Competition
• Flames of War Competition
• Bar Refreshments
• 300 Free car parking spaces

It's run by Wakefield and Ossett Wargamers, and like I say, good luck with trying to get on their website. Still usually an excellent show, and though I haven't been able to make it for the last couple of years, I'll definately be off this time.

Blunt's Village

With an extra player recruited for the evening, a three handed game was the order of the day for our skirmish campaign. To be fair I use the term campaign in the loosest of senses, Blunt appears in most of the games and so they are a vaguely linked series of battles. We try to come up with a scenario or theme for each one as well.

Anyway, with three players, we tossed around a couple of ideas ,and settled for attempting to seize a village. A problem arose quickly, in that a club primarily for GW based games has yet to get much in the way of suitable generic buildings for historical type games. We ended up with a mixed bunch that suggested Bavaria more than Spain!

Each side was of roughly 150 points (as the point system in the rules stands, not for much longer though). Gav with the Spanish had 21 men in three units, and a character; Neil had 21 French in a similar composition. I had the British, numbering a princely 12 men, including Blunt. Quality not quantity.

The French marched in to the village first. A special rule of the scenario was that any building represented a temptation of Looting to the men; any unit that started it's turn within a normal move of the entrance to a building had to roll a control test - initiative/morale roll.

If it failed it would ignore any orders and run into the building instead to begin looting! Another dice roll decided what they would do: 1- Stay inside looting, roll next turn; 2 - Torch the building and exit next turn; 3 - Leave the building loaded with women and booze, move randomly on the next turn and will only fight in self defence, continue to act this way each turn, until they rally; 4-6 In control (there was nothing to loot).

The Spaniards, from a Junta army playing fast and loose with the rule of war in order to bag trophies from either side, or the villagers, were the first to fall for such a trap. They marched into the northern house, found it empty, so set it alight in disgust. Shortly after the British light infantry dashed into the chapel ruins, but found it empty. It gave them excellent cover however and they used it to fend off the Spanish line. Before launching an attack on the French line

In the centre the Spanish and French commanders entered into one of the epic duels the game produces so often, although the French swordsmanship was superior, the tough old Spaniard won the day. As he did so the British light infantry charged the French Line and broke it after a hard fight

Blunt was being openly criticised by the French for his unwillingness to get stuck in, the very idea! With a rousing cry of "Come on then, ya Buggers!" he set to the Spanish line, and terrified it into a retreat, he then made for the tower where the Spanish commander was licking his wounds.

The other Rifles tried their luck against the French Leger, and were badly mauled. Meanwhile British Light were seduced by the lure of a new building, only to find more Leger were inside already, their spirited defense sent them packing too. So it was only Thanks to Blunt's late heroics - if cutting down the wounded Spanish commander can be called that - that I could claim any part of the village.

At the end of the game the French held one building too, but Gav's Spaniards had snuck two units into the large farmhouse and were taking pot shots from its' windows. Broadly a draw, we felt if anyone could claim the day it was the Devious Spaniards!

The idea of buildings as a distraction to troops fits well with the sort of things one reads about the period, and so I think a refined version of it will become a part of the main rules. All in all another different and highly enjoyable game.

A little commission - 42nd Highlanders

As part of a mutually agreeable arrangement, I find myself exchanging bare 28mm metal for painted 15mm. I of course am getting to keep the 28mm, but Trevor from the club wanted some Highlanders painted in exchange.

No basing was required, and Trevor said I could keep it simple, nothing fancy was needed. Still I think I got a little carried away...
26 figures, done with a simple black lining technique. After basecoating the models black, simply paint upto the edges of everything in an appropriate colour, leaving as narrow a line of black showing as possible. With practice and a steady hand you can do a lot this way, and the odd blip won't show. For the straps though, the only sensible option is to paint the whole coat, then re do the straps; first in black, then in white.

As for over-egging the pudding, well, just like my 28mm's Trevor gets a Company of Grenadiers and a Light Company, distinguished by their Hackles and straps. And of course I had a stab at doing the tartan too. In fact though never worn in battle the models have sporrans so they got covered as well. Don't they look smart?!

As to the models themselves, they're Minifigs I think They have the tell tale Minifigs heads, where the helmet straps make them look as wide as a dinner plate, and a surprisingly delicate anatomy.

Good fun and quick to do; even better they get me 12 Scots Grey's to paint for myself!

Rat Run

The first run out for some months of my Dwarves was scheduled to be against an Empire army, but due to a no show I ended up facing a Skaven force. Possibly the last Warhammer Army I'd no experience of facing, and one with a brand new army book to boot; usually a sure sign they've been pimped out with all the best toys and cheesy new rules.

My 1500 point force was pretty much my standard army, in fact before the game I'd simply used an old list out the back of my book and swapped one unit. As such I fielded:

• 2 Units of 12 Thunderers without command
• 2 units of 11 Warriors with command, to defend the characters
• 1 unit of 14 Longbeards with command to defend the Army standard and act as a reserve
• 1 unit of 10 Miners with a musician, to act as anti-artillery troops
• 1 Cannon
• 2 runesmiths, one as army general, to neutralise enemy magic
• 1 Army Standard bearer

The Skaven army was a mix of blocks of chod, 25 strong units of warriors; and weirdo elites, skirmishers, gun teams and rat swarms. It turned out to have little significant in terms of magic or characters.

I let Darren have the first turn, figuring he would come on to my guns, he obliged me by doing so; allowing my turn to begin with a massed fusillade. Still it was unlikely to be enough to stop him and the rats kept coming on.

One thing you grow to expect when playing Dwarves is that you will be reacting to their movement all the time and seldom moving very much yourself.

As the rats came on the only option for me was to charge when an opportunity arose, to avoid the initiative falling to Darren, and to fire when it did not. Thankfully the Skaven's enthusiasm to advance, stopped them from judging the distances well, and the consistently allowed me to govern most attacks in my favour. Admittedly he was unlucky when his Globadiers were roundly trounced by my cannon crew, but then he should probably have never charged with them anyway.

Elsewhere the gutter runners charged the thunderers on my right flank, and also failed dismally to make an impact, the routed, and were caught by the Dwarves, oh! the ignominy! It was the only sensible thing to do, as the block of warriors behind would have simply charged anyhow, and I needed to stall for time.

By this point Darren's mobile guns were starting to fire, supporting the unit of long rifles at the back of the field. however due to their special rules they proved an unreliable beast, deadly on the two occasions they worked, but close to a liability on the other four.

Naturally the Thunderers on my right broke under the mass of warriors, but they allowed my own warriors to get out of the firing line. On the hill the poorly coordinated Skaven attack allowed a blast of grapeshot from the cannon to decimate two units, routing both. By now my Miners had arrived to and soon put the long rifles to flight.

Fortune favoured the Skaven at this point though, and somehow they managed to pass some dismally low morale tests. The rallied troops came on again and finally managed to destroy the cannon. But he was now stuck with a confused mess of units in the centre , and on his last turn found he couldn't actually initiate the charge he needed to have any chance of a win. One of his mobile guns saw fit to explode, whilst the other jammed.

In the end, both sides had several substantive units, spread over the field; and so a draw seemed mutually agreeable.

A good fun game, and although the firing of the Skaven is very powerful, they did not seem too overpowered. Of course, I think some of that may have been due to the generalship of my opponent!

Totenkopf Division

Yes, yet another Rapid fire battalion, this time a well tooled up SS formation. Normally I don’t like to do SS troops, but I made an exception to allow me to do their fancy camouflage smocks and tool out the models with all the best toys.

These represent i. Battalion SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 6 Theoder Eicke of the Totenkopf Division, as they would have appeared around Summer 1944.

On top of the usual selection of firearms, the Battalion also gets a 75mm Pak 40 and IG18 infantry gun (the slightly disappointing Hät models, nice guns terrible crew). Additionally they have plenty of Panzerfausts and even a Panzershreck.

Another 49 figures painted and hopefully another £50 into the wargames kitty when I get round to selling them...

Le Harve - the game!?!

I turned up late on Thursday, but still managed to score a game, this one being one of those euro-trading-games, about as far removed from wargaming as you can get.

Tricky to explain, but it made sense soon enough when played, each player is basically a businessman trying to expand his business whilst feeding his staff and staying out of debt.

My approach of ensuring I could always feed my people and controlling the shipbuilding industry which seemed important to the game, was good enough to snag second in a game cut short by time constraints. It's a nice touch that the cards produce your own little dockside panorama!


If you like visualising yourself in control of a business empire, managing assets and trying to trade with other players, this could be the game for you; though it is not terribly fast paced, and not for everyone!

Painting Guide: the Overbrushing Technique

Detailed but fast is how I like to do my 28mm Historicals, how do you combine the two though? Well everyone has there own style, and in Wargaming circles layering and black lining styles are popular; but I use those selectively and prefer an old method I think I picked up from the White Dwarf ‘Eavy Metal pages many, many years ago.

Todays subject is the Massachusetts Light Artillery for my ACW force. Start by undercoating the models; in this case I used a tan colour, not black or white I hear you say; well, as I’m not doing a black lining technique a shade that allows the colours on top to glow is fine. To be honest, I use an undercoat just to make paint adhere properly, Black is favoured only if troops wear a lot of it anyway, a white undercoat is essential only if troops wear a lot of white, other wise any colour will work!

Anyway, this technique relies on planning, usually I’ll start by getting the pants and jacket done, or tunic, or whatever. Here it’s the pants. Start with a shade slightly darker than the main tone you want and paint cleanly.

Now get a suitable brush, here in the photo you’ll see it is stubby and looks ragged, the ideal sort is not to flexible, dense and not splayed out, it won’t have a point. Now take a lightened tone of your base coat, and get some on the brush, clean it off so it doesn’t flow off the brush but the brush is not dry. Stroke vigorously over the areas required. Next lighten the paint more and repeat, avoiding some of the previous coverage. For the sample model the second highlight would gravitate to the knees, backs of calves and buttocks.

Next for this figure is the jacket and kepi. And it’s the same process, though here with a finer brush.

A word on colour work. Many people will simply say darken with black and lighten with white. This will produce very poor results. Black makes colours too dark, or dirty. White, too flat. Here the deep blue was mixed on a live pallet with a very bright blue. The red shirt was highlighted here with a light flesh tone.

Study the colour wheel to see what will work:

In relation to this I would add that I custom mix most non-standard colours. In fact my collection of paints runs to less than forty colours, including five metallics and a handfull of specific modern camouflage shades. I am not a baliever that you need premixed pots for every shade under the sun, with a little practice it can be done by eye for a lot less cost.

For the details I rely on layering, which is Ideal for straps, belts, pouches, boots and of course flesh. If possible work from a live pallet, i.e. with wet paint to mix, as an artist would. For this a good quality sable brush is essential.

Here the braces have been worked up from a linen base to white in four layers. The flesh will be done with three layers in the same way.

Once finished the models are attached to their base, here with the field piece a 3” Parrot rifle. The cannon was highlighted with the same overbrushing techniques.

Finally the base is finished. Never, never ignore basing; it is what unites the models and good basing will raise the look of even poor figures. Here it is a layer of sand, painted brown, drybrushed with desert sand and then given a liberal layer of static grass.

And that’s it done. This was a one-off model and as a rule efficiencies of scale speed up painting. This model, including the cannon and basing took about 3hrs to do. Once practiced the entire process comes to around 15minutes per figure for simple models like these or ancients. Napoleonics are at least double that because of all the extra detail.

Almost as an aside, It adds the artillery element to my Union Brigade as well. Only the general to go now.

Vila Velha 1810

So after our delays we finally got to try ‘Napoleon’ on the table; thanks to Lauries classic tin tool boxes of classic Hinchliffe and Minifigs French, we were able to assemble two decent sized forces, even if a little proxying of troops was going on.

The armies were assembled from the mid war Peninsular lists in the rules and ran down as follows:

British

• Blakes Division: 2nd Queens; 3rd Buffs; 9th East Norfolk; detachment of Riflemen
• Poutney’s Division: Spanish Patria; Spanish Muertes; Portuguese 1st Regiment
• Howlington’s Brigade: 16th Queens Light Dragoons
• Cortes’ Brigade: 7th Portuguese Light Dragoons
• Portuguese Foot Artillery Battery

French

• 1er Division: 24th, 37th, 71st Ligne
• 2em Division: 38th Ligne; 3rd Westphalia; 11th Neapolitan
• 1er Cavalry Division: 17th & 19th Heavy Dragoons
• French Foot Artillery Battery

Broadly speaking the French were a more steady bunch and blessed with universally high quality commanders, the Anglo Iberians were a more mixed bunch, with elite infantry, lots of militia and some less than capable commanders.

Whilst Neil set up the terrain, myself and Laurie assembled the troops, of the two options I decided that all units should occupy the same footprint on table of a standard based unit. This meant that Lauries French on the old standard frontages of thirty year ago put 32 figures into the space of my ‘Napoleon’ standard formations

The two armies deploy; The French arriving from the hills, the British defending a farm

As a result we began the game with 450 models on table, probably the most 28mm models our club has seen whilst I’ve been there (certainly three times the average for a Warhammer game) on one table.

Classic Hinchcliffe French artillery, which once belonged to the great Peter Gilder!

So we began in Earnest; at first the rules give the French the advantage of good generalship and some free moves, Neil set to stealing a march on the British with his infantry. At the end of this he had come into engagement range on my right flank with my Portuguese cavalry, and so when the first turn started this side was straight in to using command cards.

The artillery opened up after this and proved effective if immobile for the rest of the game. Then we resolved our command cards, Neil had no difficulty rolling under 11 to form squares with his infantry, but I’d second guessed that and elected not to charge anyway. As I was then and subsequently to discover, low command values were not a game breaker, close generalship reduced the number of dice needed to pass tests and kept most of the British army operating as the French came on.

The thin red line prepares to face the French onslaught

As I teased the Right flank, and formed squares on the Left flank refusing his cavalry, Neil focused on the centre. Rather carelessly he advanced column on the artillery, and soon learnt the error of this! They quickly accrued 19 casualties from case shot and routed.

The casualty/morale system works, only the very unlucky will panic and run from light losses, but as they build up the failure of the unit becomes inevitable. Quickly I found myself gauging the losses on my units and nursing those that needed protecting from greater losses.

Anyway Neil began to redeploy the Right to out flank my advancing centre, sensing my Cavalry could be held by a single square. However the real test was to be my left, where I had no space to avoid his attack. The 17th and 19th Dragoons, supported by the Neapolitans assaulted the Spanish and Portuguese as they tried desparately to form square. My cavalry put up a valiant struggle, as did most of the infantry.

It would have been a great time to move my guns, and fire on the flanks of the French, but as the rules stand I couldn’t see how to do it. This was one of the vagaries that really was noticeable, and a sign that some consensus on the gaps in the rule book will surely come. However by this point, we’d been joined by an extra player and were finding the process of running a turn much quicker.

The British were on the ropes, but then the remarkable happened; the Queens Light Dragoons beat the 19th Dragoons, who fled the field with more losses than they could stand. The squares broke the other Dragoon regiment and the assault on my left collapsed. In the centre I’d lost one elite regiment of my own, but had managed to counter the French Thrust, throwing my Portuguese cavalry on their flanks. The right had become a quiet plain occupied by a solitary French regiment.
In the end it was a British victory pulled from the jaws of defeat, the French simply wore themselves out in a frontal assault across the whole field. The rules showed themselves to function, though with some more reading I’m sure it would be easier to run a game, there was much uncertain flicking through the rules. As it was we had five hours and wasted the first hour of that on assembling troops and setting up. A small game would come to a decision in 3-4 hours, which is not as quick as some systems out there, but it felt like classic games of yore in many ways, whilst having the elegance of more moderns rules (no huge tables of modifiers or casualty indexes to refer to, for example).

We are already planning for a rematch in the new year, with hopefully a few more players and a few more units too.

Elsewhere it was a good day for games, with a variety of Fantasy, Historical and card games going on. My eye was caught by Mark’s Thirty Years War miniatures: Revell 20mm plastics. The rules being from the Perfect Captain website:

We will Remember

"Anthem for a Doomed Youth"

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,

-The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

1st New York Dismounted

After several months of not touching the American Civil War project for a variety of reasons, I finally got round to some of the small additions needed to finish the army.

Firstly, thanks to Trevor, I got some dismounted cavalry figures to build a complimentary force to my mounted cavalry. Now most of the club players used Perry plastics to represent dismounted cavalry, but for me they didn't work. Instead I've lucked into a unit of Foundry figures , also sculpted by the Perries:

An absolute breeze to paint compared to all the fussy details of Napoleonic uniforms!

After Fiasco, I also have a field piece and a Brigadier to paint up. That'll finish the basic force; though inevitably, if I make more use of the models (and that is why Trevor is helping me scratch together the gaps in my force, to build his large collection a proper opponent!) I'll carelessly buy some more models.

By the hundred...

Fiasco 2009

Within thirty seconds of leaving the midst of a bitter November storm, dumping vast quantities of water onto the drearily incomprehensible ring road network of Leeds city centre, I'm stood in a queue behind a substantial gentleman who smells rather on the sweaty side for such a cold day, and is wearing far too many non permeable fabrics.

Ah yes, it's just one of the first tell tale signs that I'm at Fiasco.

The Leeds Wargame Club keeps putting on this show, though every year it seems smaller and less well attended. I their defence this year though, the diabolical weather (the same as the last two years, mind) must have had an influence. A quick runaround showed that a couple of the largest display games had not made it by the opening time (or, by when I left 90 minutes later)

Trader attendance seemed down too, no Irregular Miniatures amongst others I'd usually assume to see. But there was a lot of the local companies who are always about. As a shopping day it was satisfactory, though I'd come with fairly limited requirements. In the end, thanks to some conniving with Trevor from the Leeds clubs I was able to get away with 59 28mm models for £35; mostly Napoleonics, but with just enough American Civil War figures to complete that project.

So, what of the displays.

I say displays, because as is not uncommon at shows, some of the games were clearly not to actually be played, whilst others were off putting by their appearance (once again the society of Ancients/Lance and Longbow societies seem to like ideas over looks - I would contend that shows are not the place for this to work).

Of the ones I did take snaps of I'll begin with Secrets of the Third Reich, a WW2 zombie game on some nice terrain. I've passed comment on the SOTTR rules in the past (not glowing) but Paul who runs the game is a member of Leeds Night Owls and a big supporter of the system. His terrain and models as ever were very nice indeed.

Next up for me, purely visually was an ancient naval game. Simple terrain, well presented, was teamed with very nicely painted models. It gave a good sense of spectacle though who knows if it would have looked as good after a couple of hours...

Next up was a display, quite clearly. I think it was something to do with one of those wargames holiday centres. Nevertheless the sight of this British square being charges by a mass of Sudanese tribesmen was still impressive.

As for the Leeds wargames club themselves, they have been playing a lot of the War of 1812, using a commercial ruleset. They put on a display game, which clearly only used club terrain, slightly spruced up. It looked like exactly that too, a club game. And there is nothing wrong with that, as at least it seemed to be played rather than just stared at.

Sadly for the camera they were badly positioned under the unlit section of low roof, so this isn't even a good photo. The figures were all very nicely done plastics from what I could see.

However, in the absence of a large scale Napoleonics or other game to catch the eye, this years winner for me was a huge 15mm Arab-Israeli game. Covering a good 18 feet by 6, it featured classically well made and sturdy terrain, and some beautifully painted models.

And they were actually playing the game too!

Bravo to them.

Still the show was not as good as in years gone by. No bring and buy, fewer displays, fewer traders. One of the best things going for it in theory is the venue, but I overheard many complaints about the parking (being a sorta local I knew where to park nearby for free on a Sunday, but most everyone else was stuck in the Armouries own extortionate parking), and driving into Leeds is simply not something for the faint hearted to attempt.

I hope they can improve the show in future years, but I wonder if to do that it's time to say farewell to the Royal Armouries and maybe change the date to one less likely to always be swept by rain...

The most fought over house in Spain

One of our regular Thursday night games, but plans to try 'Napoleon' fell at the first hurdle, when we discovered we didn't have the expected extra figures available.

No matter there's always next time. and so instead we knocked up a large skirmish engagement instead, to try several formed bodies of troops at once, and to introduce cavalry and artillery to the game for the first time.

We also scraped together a scenario as we went; French artillery and hidden Voltigeurs were guarding a vital crossroads, whilst their reserves arrived, knowing that British troops were looking to take control of the vital road links. The British troops were similarly arriving piecemeal, but had a valuable mobile asset in terms of the 16th Light Dragoons. Not to mention a mounted Colonel in command.

But no Blunt! Today he was elsewhere, the points wouldn't allow for me to squeeze him in, as it was we tried a larger points game. And as an aside, it tells me I really need to rejig the points system as it is broken as soon as you use formed units.

Anyway, my cavalry dashed round the flank of the cannon so that any chance to fire was obscured by the house and the woods to its' rear. My infantry, and some of the French began to arrive, and I trusted to the blocking trees again to save me for now. I knew that if I could approach the cannon and accept one round of fire, there would be time to charge it down and capture it.

Of course and aspect of the rules is the timing of commands and then the carrying out of them. When I declared a charge with my cavalry against the gun, it turned out to be fatefully too far away. The Dragoons were left hanging! Naturally the Neils' cannon took full advantage.

BOOM! American gunners deputised for French, at the hands of my old Dogs of War Cannon!

At least he was only loaded with round shot, as we ruled he couldn't have preloaded with case shot. Still he was able to draw a line of fire through two cavalrymen, who alas were cut down. The Dragoons quickly withdrew.

Other French reserves arrived, in line with British support. The cavalry now failed two attempts to charge the white coated Westphalians in the flank, and the leisurely formed line to present us with no opportunity to attack. Elsewhere I began to encircle the advancing French column, which had gained the support of the Voltigeurs, who were hiding in the lee of the hill.

Again the British stumbled to unveil their trap. But similar problems beset the French too at times. A fierce exchange of fire developed, including the cannon, which managed to miss pretty spectacularly. The British did manage to get one charge in, but the effect was limited on a unit of 24 models that could absorb the damage like a sponge.

Both sides were suffering from a lack of commands, the British most tellingly but as the game drew to a close, the Dragoons finally managed to charge the cannon.

After twelve turns the Cavalry had taken the gun, but the large French formations held the ground assuredly, forcing back one attack and holding two others at bay. It was a classic draw.

It highlighted several weaknesses in the rules, particularly in terms of points, but also of troops not having certain automatic options when faced with threats. Still some simple fixes are all that is needed, in most cases, and a rethink of other points should clear it all up.

Overall a good tense game, with over a hundred models in play.