Greek and Macedonians

Here are some pictures of figures acquired from Ross MacFarlane of  gameofmonth.blogspot.ca Having battled against these troops on a number of occasions I had always admired their hand painted shields and Corinthian Helmets. When Ross needed to part ways with the troops to make way for newer projects, I was happy to receive them.

Refurbishing them will require dusting with a dry brush, replacing missing heads and weapons and straitening or replacing bent spears. Hopefully no rebasing will be needed.

Painstaking shield art

The figures date back to the late 70's I am told. No doubt the veterans of many campaigns. They certainly wear a lot of dust from their travels. Below is a poor picture showing a dusted unit on the right and the original dust on the left.

The figures are true 25mm and will scale up small to my current collection. My current basing system should help hide some of this difference as 1 stand holds 8 - 12 figures as a unit. The rebasing should be minimal.

Pike and Thurophori

Persian Chariots and an Armored Elephant

Thracians and peltasts

Upgrading Figs and Terrain

As note previously in the blog, I had acquired a large collection of 28mm infantry and vehicles plus the rules for Bolt Action. I have spent the past week upgrading the paint and basing for the Germans.

Here is a before shot of some gunners. The figures just had simple block painting over a black undercoat like so:

German Gunners

The first step was to glue sand to the bases and add a brown wash to it. A similar wash was given to the figures. The base was highlighted with light brown and then flocked. I also bought some long grass and tried adding this to the bases. I was pleased with the result.

The figures had a grey-blue highlight especially to the helmets, boots and strapping as this was all jet black. The result was satisfactory but does not look like many German uniforms I am used to.

German Heer and FJ infantry

Of course, all these new troops required some terrain to fight over. I built this ruin in 28mm and based it on some MDF. All done in an evening. I have an artisitic block when it comes to making building so this was something of a breakthrough. Next I want to make a complete building with a removable roof and a hay barn I say in the latest Wargames: Soldiers and Strategies. I am a little conflicted doing terrain in 28mm when I need to do it in 15mm mostly but I guess I need to do both. Bigger terrain is easier. It fills more space on the table and allows for less fiddly details.

Scipio in Spain

Here are some pictures from my Command and Colors Ancients game. The scenario was Epic Ilipa. Scipio travels to Spain to beat up Hasdrubal before he can march to reinforce Hannibal's marauding forces in Italy. At least that was the historical outcome. My C&C game is converted from the blocks to miniatures. A unit is contained on a 4"x2" base. Hits are recorded by adding beads to a post attached to the base. Heavy and Medium Foot have 8 figures to a base, Auxilia have 6 and Light Foot have 4. Heavy, Medium and Light Horse have 4, 3 and 2 figures per base.

Romans on the Left - Carthage on the Right

We had 5 players and the game took about 2 hours to set up and play. The Romans opened with an unsupported cavalry charge on their left the resulted in heavy losses. I played Carthaginian left. I planned to stall the Roman advance will the strong centre closed to beat the weaker Roman centre. My elephant played a big role in this. My opponent assigned greater strength to this unit than it had and took great pains to avoid it.

Carthaginians - beads denote troop type

Carthage took and early lead but the Romans were able to mount a semblance of a comeback. Carthage reversed the historical outcome by winning 13-8. The elephant on the Carthaginian right routed some Principes and then killed a general that was leading the routed unit for the final victory.

Romans facing screening Light Foot

Cotton balls mark units that received orders this turn

Thanks to Brent, Ross of http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/ fame, Eric and Martin for a fun time.

Lucky Strike!

I am struggling to find time to write but have to post on a new addition to my collection. A friend was making space and I was able to purchase a large collection of figures for a very good price.

I am breaking my rule about collecting the same period in 2 scales. The collection I purchased was 28mm WW2 based for Bolt Action. This is a rule set the group has been interested in trying.

Americans
100 infantry, 2 artillery, 2 Shermans and an Halftrack

German Vehicles
4 Halftracks, 3 Tiger 1s, 3 Panzer IIs, 2 PaK 40 75mm ATGs

140 German infantry

 100 British foot + a Crusader I think

 90 French

Back to Routine

I hope any readers out there all had an excellent summer. I am adjusting to routine life after a long stretch away in BC. I would love to get some gaming in but my time is very limited due to my kid's involvement in Scouts and Football.

I have not been gaming much. I played Imperial Assault by Fantasy Flight games on 2 occasions while in Victoria and found it to be a lot of fun. This may end up under the Christmas tree for Eric this year. Nice models and a fun campaign system. 

I have an 17th century English Civil War game set up on my game table but have not found the motivation to finish it as a solo game. That may be a sign that I need to take it down and try something else.

While I was away I read "Three years in the Sixth Corp" which Ross kindly lent me. It was an entertaining read and good insight into the fanaticism and ferocity of the combatants of the American Civil War. I have one scenario in my collection involving the Sixth Corp and will likely get that on my table soon.

I went to the giant game and hobby store in Vancouver. I found them to be overpriced and resisted getting anything. I left with a new found motivation to build my own terrain, especially buildings. 4Ground buildings ranged in price $40-100! I found a good terrain building book on Amazon and will put my money there instead.

Road Trip

Martin and I traveled to the big city from our wooded hideaway homes to participate in a club game put on by a new club. The club is run by two brothers who are prolific collectors and painters. They always collect opposing forces and always sit opposite each other at the gaming table. We had seven players in total and 2 new players.

The Scenario was home made and a 'what if". Prussia had joined the 1809 campaign and sent 2 Corp to join the Austrians in Italy. The map was taken from the Napoleons Battles Scenario book for Marengo. Instead of fighting along the length of the table we set up along the length and battled for the middle. There were no specific objectives beyond break the enemy and send them running.

The rule set was Napoleon's Battles. As I had arrived late, I was assigned the Allied right flank and given flank and attack orders.

2 pictures of my deployment

I had good troops including a division of Heavy Cavalry and another of Grenadiers. I also had the advantage in Cavalry quantity. On the other hand my Italian opponent had a similar number of troops and had set up a grand battery in front of his position.

I had 2 Corp and assigned the first to pin the Italians frontally and assigned the second to work around the open flank of the enemy position.

Note the open flank in the foreground

Also visible in the photo is the Italian grand battery deployed in front of his position of 2 batteries of 12 pounders and 4 of 6 pounders.

Also visible in the photo are the two large wooded areas in my deployment area.

In the end I was able to advance up to the Italian position without overwhelming losses and start to cause problems. The Italians committed 2 Divisions to protect his flank forming at a right angle to his front line.

Having read many accounts of Napoleon's tactic of forcing his opponent into just such a position and then attacking the hinge of the "L", I decided to give it a try. I had pretty good success but in the end did not have the reinforcement's needed to exploit my success. So on my flank it came to a bit of a draw.

At this point I received a courier advising me to withdraw. The French had crushed the Prussian Centre right and broken through.

Big Table, Many Figures

French force set up in the centre

Napoleon's Battles is and excellent rule set but this battle may have been a little large to manage with the number of players. Also, it took about 7-8 hours to reach a conclusion.

I met a couple of new gentlemen gamers and was able to familiarize them with the rules. Looking forward to the next club date with rumors of a WW2 game.

For God and King

I have come to some conclusions about my next project. After pondering various rules options, I have selected Victory Without Quarter (VWQ) as the rules for which to rebase my ECW collection. The new bases will also work  for the new Impetus based rules for the period, Baroque. The math works out to 10 pike and shotte units, 8 cavalry, 4 guns and 2 dragoon/commanded shot units. That makes 24 elements. This is enough for two sides to have a medium sized battle. I have played the rules a couple of times in the past. They are good fun but require some "house rules" to flesh them out. . I am keen to get rebasing done so play testing can start. ECW lends itself well to campaigns. I have read about other solo players randomizing a strategy for the battle for each side and trying it out. Orders could include all out attack, refuse the flank, envelopment, hold the line etc.

I have inventoried my collection:
152 Shotte
80 Pike and Command
40 Horse
10 Mounted Dragoons
10 Cuirassiers
32 Clubman
20 Gunners
4  Cannon
4  Captains
1 King Charles II

Getting ready to strip the bases

That's 65 Horse 270 Foote and 4 Guns. Wow! That is a lot of nicely painted lead sitting idle. I have a few figs left over but should not need to paint much to get the project going. So far I think all I need is a Horse officer and 2 Foote escorts to fill the role of Parliamentary Major General.

Another shot before rebasing

I sourced some 3mm MDF board in 2x2' sheets. I cut this up using my jigsaw. The bases are only roughly square but fit together into units well enough. Foote go on 60mmx60mm. Cavalry go on 90mmx60mm. I sanded the edges of the bases.

Bases good to go

Step One - Soak all the bases. They army was originally based on picture framing card stock and topped with plastic wood and flock.

Soaking in water

Step Two - Seperate from the bases and organize into units

Step Three - Clean off the glue from the figure bases and and make sure they stand up straight.

Step Four - Slather the base with spackle, mount the figures and then sprinkle with sand

Rebased with grit, wash and highlight

Step Five - Dry 24 hours and paint the base with a brown wash.

Step Six - Dry for 24 hours and dry brush light brown.

Step Seven - Flock and spray with matt lacquer

Finished!

Step Eight Game on!

This was a bigger job than I anticipated. Good thing it was  long weekend. I had a session every morning and night for three days and finished on the 4th night. I still need to flag up the new units and buy another base for the Parliamentarian general.

I have not used this basing method with 28mm before. The spackle has a more difficult time holding the heavier figures. I have had to super glue about 20% of them after they were mounted. I am liking the new look and will get a game on the table ASAP.