On the Workbench

I haven’t been my usual blog posting fool lately. I haven’t been playing any games lately to report on as I’m taking a break from running a regular weekly game night in favour of getting a bit of painting done. I haven’t posted any pics of things being complete as… well… I haven’t really FINISHED anything lately!? This is in large part due to the fact that I have too many things on my workbench that I’m working on.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I HAVE finished assembling the BTR-50 and have started assembling another T-72. I haven’t painted the BTR-50 as I thought I’d get all the armour assembled and then paint them all at the same time.

I’ve also been motivated to start modeling again – the most recent Historical Miniature Gamer magazine has a really excellent article on sculpting and I have been following a couple of excellent blogs on sculpting miniatures too; Minden Miniatures and Making Miniatures. The combination of the three has inspired me to start in on the SYW figures I was planning on making this year and try out some new ideas/techniques presented in the article/blogs.

First I thought I’d have a go at using an armature. Now I thing I actually OWN a soldering iron – inherited from my grandfather – but I really have no idea how to use it properly or if it even works or if I even have any flux or solder…. So I first tried twisting wires together and gooping with thick cyanoacrylate glue.


This didn’t work so well. The torsos were all far too long.


Next I tried just holding the wires together and wrapping them with some Green Stuff. This seeme to have worked a bit better… we shall see. I think these ones might be a touch long in the torso too, but they’re pretty quick and easy to make so I’ll try making some shorter ones later.


Then I tried mounting on onto a block of wood so I actually have something to hold onto while sculpting – other than the figure itself.

I think I’ll try an document the whole sculpting process as I work on these new masters. Seems to be a pretty popular thing to do these days….

I’ve also been splashing a bit of paint, here and there on a few things:


I prepped and primed and started painting a battalion of highlanders for my Quebec 1759 project.

I painted one as a test/sample. I had originally thought I’d try to do a Fraser tartan as the 78th at Quebec were “Fraser’s”. This of dubious historical certainty but I thought it would add some colour to my highland battalions (or rather what will be my future highland battalionS – as this is the first I am painting!?). The Fraser tartan turned out to be a tad difficult to reproduce on the smallish Rafm figures – so I abandoned the idea and instead went with the tried and true Government Tartan.


I also prepped and primed some French cavalry and some rangers and started painting the French horses..


I’ve also been working on some stuff for my friend John in Calgary – this is part of a Orc/Goblin Blood Bowl team he had me convert into a Mordhiem warband. Most were done years ago and he had bee kicking ass with them ever since – there were a few I found still kicking around and I thought it’s about time I finished them up… One figure is a little more recent – I think it’s a Mage Knight (?) figure? Maybe? Anyway it looked like a good coach or trainer or something so I picked it up for his team as well….


Oh and then there’s a few other odds and sod I’ve somehow allowed to pollute my workbench and distract me from moving ahead with any ONE thing….

I think I'll have to have a little workbench clean-up tonight and remove all distractions so I can power ahead on the soviet armour front.... It's needed in four weeks... the other stuff a year from now...

Still More Recently Painted Stuff

I am the Energizer Bunny of painting… well… maybe not. But I do get a lot done. Here’s some more:

(Click on the pics for a larger version)

Uh… so… again deviating from the plan to get modern 20mm stuff for the Wargame Weekend THIS February I’ve cranked out a couple more Generals/HQ stands for the SYW/Quebec 1759 Project - which is in keeping with the OVERALL plan for 2008 at least… sort of...


I did actually get started on a BTR50 – which will be the CO stand for my Soviet Motor Rifle Regiment! Going slowly though – these ACE kits are a pain in the butt sometimes! I thought I'd start with an ACE kit and then "reward" myself with a Revell kit - because they're so much nicer to put together - then another ACE kit, etc...

More Recently Painted Stuff

Why stick to the plan and get Soviet epuipment assembled and painted when I can do, y'know, something else...?

(Click on the pics for a bigger view)


General Wolfe's command stand. General Wolfe was painted ages ago, but based on his own wee stand. I recently finished up the Grenadier officer and stuck them on a base together to make a CO stand for my British forces. I'd prefer command stands, for this period, to be mounted officers - to account for that incredible rate of movement - but this is what I have and, well, I've never seen a picture of General Wolfe on a horse...

On the cover of a recent Wragames Illustrated I think there was a little diorama of teh death of General Wolfe... that might have been fun for a command stand!


Finished off a couple last Old Glory Militiamen and a Rafm Female settler.

I did start on a Russian tank and some evergreen trees that I need to get done for this February... stay tuned, I'll be getting them done soon enough.

Recently Painted

A few new things I’ve recently finished up:

(Click on the pics for a larger version)

The pirates that were distracting me the other night!


A British officer to command a brigade of Redcoats.

Now to get cracking on some Soviet equipment!!

The Game Plan 2008 – Project Schedule

Well having decided to do Quebec 1759-60 for my Wargame Weekend next year I’ve got a lot to do….

January 2008
2 weeks – paint a pile of Fantasy Skirmish Figures - more or less done...
2 weeks – Assemble and paint 5 remaining BMP-1

February 2008
2 weeks - Assemble and paint 2x T-80, 1x T-72
2 weeks – paint more Russian infantry… maybe some American infantry…?

March 2008
Model 13-19 masters for Seven Years War (see Quebec 1759-60 post for details).

April – December 2008
Casting and painting like a mad bastard!

There are 39 weeks rom the beginning of April to the end of December and I have 39 units to paint (again, see Quebec 1759-60 post for details). That leaves the first 8 weeks of 2009 to do any catching up, full-scale play-testing (there will be plenty of smaller scale play-testing throughout the year as units get painted…). And building any additional terrain I might need.

There are a few units which are “optional” – some of the extra French Militia units, the Cavalry Corps – and a few units that I already have painted, though with older figures with not entirely correct uniforms for the era – British 35th Regiment, Langedoc, la Reine, Royal Roussilon – these will all be the last units I do in case things take a little longer and I run out of time…

Tonight and last night I’ve been painting a few pirates… I guess I better set them aside and get cracking on some BMP-1s!

Huzzah!

Wargaming Weekend 2009 - Quebec 1759-60

I have more or less settled on a theme for my 2009 Wargaming Weekend. It may seem a bit odd as it is more than a year away, but I was working on my Game Plan for 2008 and realized I should really look at what I want to play next year so I can better plan my projects for this year.

There were a couple high on the list, and I was going to take votes from interested parties but then I realized that 2009 is actually the 250th anniversary of the battle on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec and that kind of settled it. I wanted to work on some Seven years War stuff this year anyway… now I’m just going to be a little more focused on it as I have a LOT of stuff to do to play the scenarios I am currently planning.

I am using Habitants and Highlanders as a major source of inspiration for the scenarios. I’d like to run a mix of bigger battles and skirmish games. I imagine the weekend will go something like this:

Friday Night – Captain MacDonald’s Company Climbs the Heights of Abraham, 12-13 September 1759
This will be a skirmish game – likely using Savage Worlds (my preferred system for all things skirmishy). Perhaps the outcome of the scenario could affect the next days battle somehow…?

Saturday Morning/Afternoon – Battle on the Plaings of Abraham, 13 September 1759
This will use a variant of Warmaster – borrowing heavily from Bob Barnetson’s Two for Tea rules for the American War of Independence.

Saturday Evening – The Woodcutters, Winter 1759-60
This will be another skirmish game involving a British woodcutting party being ambushed by some French habitants.

Sunday Morning/Afternoon – Battle of Ste. Foy, 28 April 1760
The battle for Quebec, round two!

Alternatively Friday night could be some other skirmish leading up to the events at Quebec – maybe involving some Rangers and/or Indians in a mad skirmish in the woods somewhere… and Captain MacDonald’s climb could take place Saturday Morning and the Battle on the Plains of Abraham on Saturday afternoon… we’ll have to see how the play-tests work out and how long the game runs….

I’m not entirely sure which weekend I’ll do it as my birthday falls midweek. So it could be either the 20-22 February 2009, or 27 February to 1 March 2009… Probably the latter just so I can say it will always be the last weekend of February.


TO-DO!

The Toy Plan

I’m going to be painting figures for two levels of action here: battle and skirmish.

The figures for the big battles will be based on 60x40mm bases (8 for regular infantry, 6 for militia, 4 for skirmishy types like rangers or Indians). Most units will be 3 stands per unit – though a few units, particularly on the British side on the Plains of Abraham, had considerably more troops so they may have four or five stands (I went with one stand per 150-200 men available/present). The figures for the skirmish games will be based singly. All will be 28mm figures.

As with The Vimy Project I am going to model and cast most of my own figures. Things that are harder to cast, or that I only need a few of I will probably buy. I may even buy a few units for the skirmish gaming just to have some variance in the figures…

Here’s what I’m going to need:

To Model (masters which I will cast many of later…):

British Fusilier
British Grenadier
British Light Infantryman
British Officer
British Drummer
British Ensign
Highland Fusilier?
Highland Grenadier?
Highland Officer?
Highland Piper?
Highland Ensign?
American Ranger?

French Fusilier
French Grenadier
French Officer
French Drummer
French Ensign
French Troupe de la Marine Fusilier
French Militiaman

Indians?

I have almost enough of the Rafm Highlanders to do my unit of them, I’ll need others for the Captain MacDonald Climbs the Heights scenario, but I think I might buy the bag o’ Old Glory for those… The Rangers, same thing, I have enough Rafm ones for the three stands form battle games and I might like to buy a bag o’rangers from Old Glory. We shall see...


To Paint:

For the battle games of the Plains of Abraham and Ste. Foy:

British

15th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
29th Regiment of Foot –4 stands
58th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
78th Highland Regiment – 6 stands?
28th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
47th Regiment of Foot – 4 stands
2/60th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
3/60th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
35th Regiment of Foot – 5 stands
48th Regiment of Foot – 3 stands
Royal Artillery – 1-2 Guns & Crew
Louisburg Grenadiers – 3 stands
Light Infantry – 3 stands
Rangers – 3 stands

French

La Reine – 3 stands
Guyenne – 3 stands
2/Berry – 3 stands
3/Berry – 3 stands
Royal Roussilon – 3 stands
Langedoc – 3 stands
Artillery – 1-2 guns & Crew?
Companies France de la Marine – 2 units of 3 stands ea.
Milice de Quebec – 3 units of 3 stands
Milice de Trois-Rivieres – 2 units of 3 stands
Milice de Montreal – 2 units of 3 stands
Corps de Cavallerie – 2 stands?
Indians – 2-3 units of 3 stands


For the other Skirmish games (20-30 of each including a couple of officers and/or NCOs):

British

British Regulars
Rangers
Highlanders

French

French Regulars
Comapnie de la Marine
Habitants/Militia
Indians

Other things to do to prepare for the event….

Things to Read/Reread

Time to brush up on my SYW history. I’m a painfully slow reader so I’ll be lucky if I get through all of this over the next year… but I’d like to try!

Quebec 1759, C.P. Stacey – Read this years ago, it’s time to reread.

Habitants and Highlanders, Canadian Wargames Group – I’ve read it a couple times, it’s been a while though – couldn’t hurt to do another cover to cover read through.

Quebec 1759, Rene Chartrand – From the short-lived original Osprey Orders of Battle Series. I’ve looked a lot of things up in it but never sat down for a cover-to-cver read. Its about time I did.

Century of conflict, J.L. Rutledge - I picked this up recently at the Friends of the Library bookshop for 50c. It looks like it tracks the rivalries between the British and the French in North America from the late 1600’s to 1760 so might be a good backgrounder.

Empires Collide – An Osprey Essential History Special that “contains material previously published in Campaigns 140,121, 76, 79; Men-at-Arms 23, 48, 228, 302, 304, 395; Warrior 19, 42, 85, 88; Essential Histories 44; Fortress 27; and Elite 93”. I somehow doubt it is simply a reprint of all of them under one book cover, like the German Army in WW2 book that I have – which is too bad, I like it when they do that – collect entire series into one big book, I wish they did it more often.

Other things to maybe pick up and read:
I guess I’ll wait and see how much information there is in the Empires Collide book but there are a number of other Osprey books that look like they might be interesting and/or useful.

Things to Watch - Some movies of the period to get me stoked:

Last of the Mohicans – own it on DVD – it will go into heavy rotation on painting nights for background inspirational noise…

Barry Lyndon – Not set in North America but part of it does take place with the Seven Years War as a backdrop. I recall it had great costumes. I’d like to track a copy down of my own – I’ll have to start hitting the bargain bins!

Dangerous Liaisons – again, period piece just to get me stoked.

Brotherhood of the Wolf – yeah these are really stretching it… I can’t actually think of any other movies with the Seven Years War in North America as the backdrop…

That’s all I can think of at the moment… any others I should watch?!

HATS!!

For those of you who are regular gaming pals or followers of the blog you will be aware of my passion (madness) for wearing appropriate period hats while gaming. I’ll need to get a tricone. Actually I’d like to get about six – if I could find some relatively inexpensive ones. Maybe a blue Scotts bonnet and/or a grenadiers mitre cap – probably dreaming here…. Though there’s got to be some crazy horse and musket re-enactors out there that must be able to make them (though they’d probably be crazy expensive)…? Maybe I need a white powdered wig too…

September 13th is a Sunday in 2009… I’ll have to organize an additional game day later in the year to play the battle again ON the actual 250th anniversary. Maybe I could be talked into dragging it out to Fallcon in Calgary… maybe not…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Game Plan 2008 – Project Schedule

Taking Stock of Stock Taking

Back in October of last year I started on a project of Taking Stock of all the toys I owned – painted or not – and documenting them on my blog. The idea behind this was to, in addition to showing off all my toys, get a good idea of what I had and try and, y’know, get some of it painted…. Armed with a complete list of all the things I had I figured I could look at each army/force/etc, see what needed to be painted, and what I would still need to complete the forces, I could then come up with some sort of plan for completing them.

It’s been a bit of a slow process – hampered by indecision as to what exactly I wanted to do next and continuing to buy stuff on whims without a real, sensible plan… and continuing to paint new stuff so by the time I posted some stuff it was sometimes out of date… bah, whatever… Here’s the stuff that I’ve done so far, and what I have yet to take stock of…

Done So Far:

20mm

Modern British and French
(plus an Update on the British)

Modern Russians, Canadiand and Americans
-More Modern Americans
-Modern Russian Update #1
-Modern Russian Update #2
-Modern Russian Update #3
-Modern Russian Update #4… and some British and French stuff…
-Modern Russian Update #5
-Still more Modern Americans and British

-The Armour TO-DO list includes updates for some of the above plus more….

Afghan DRA - this wan’t really a Taking Stock post… bu it might as well be, it’s all I have, it’s painted now, I’m probably not going to add anymore at anypoint in the foreseeable future.

Vietnam – Americans and Vietnamese (and a few ANZACS)

WW2 British/Canadian Paras

25-28mm

Vietnam Stuff

World War Two Stuff

Seven Years War (in North America!)

The Successors

The English Civil War

The Dark Ages Normans, and Vikings, and Saxons – oh my!

Pirates! Ya-HARRR!

Still To Take Stock of…

20mm
Modern Afghans, Argentines, and African Armies
Armies in the Lebanon 1982 – Isrealis, PLO, Syrians, ets.
WW2 – Late War Germans, Early War Germans, German Falshirmjagers, Canadians for Sicily, Canadians for North West Europe 44-45, Russians, Americans

28mm
Victoriana – mostly Victorian Horror (Rippers), and a few Colonials and western gunfight types
Great War – Canadians, Germans, Armeis for East Africa
“Back of Beyond” – White Russians, Bolsheviks, Chinese
Modern Stuff – supers, civilians, soldiers, zombies.
Fantasy Stuff – skirmish figures and armies (Elves, Dwarves, Undead, and Orcs/gobins)
Sci-fi Stuff – random assorted rubbish
Pulp Adventure – good guys, bad guys, other worldly horrors

15mm
British 8th Army – North Africa/Sicily/etc
German DAK
German Early War

At the start of this whole process I had a pile of other stuff in 15mm… but as I took stock of it I realized I was just never going to paint anymore of it and I should just get rid of it… so I posted them as “stuff to trade” – and I got rid of them all pretty quick and got some sweet stuff in trade. (hmmmm – I never did do an update for the 20mm Vietnam stuff to include all the cool stuff I got in trade…)

Some of the things I traded away include:

15mm Modern Stuff - mostly MJ figures and mostly Brits and Argentines for the Falklands War…

15mm DBA Dark Ages Armies

15mm Fantasy – Hordes of the Things - Armies

I also have some German Falshirmjager in 15mm…. they’ll be next on the trading block!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

MORE STOCK TAKING!!! ...and a more detailed plan for the rest of 2008!

28mm Pirates

Taking stock again, I thought I’d move on to the 28mm pirates…

No a number of these have been documented elsewhere on this blog under, so I’ll not repeat myself here. These are the other pirates I have in addition to the Crew of the Red Snapper.

I’ve also made a fleet of wee boats, which are well documented in Tim’s Naval Yard.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The lads. On the far left of the picture is a Rafm pirate, on the far right is a Reaper Miniatures pirate, and the rest between the two are from The Foundry .


Not Pirates per se, but they are 18th Cetury-ish types that could be raided and plundered by pirates! This is the West Wind Productions “Villagers” pack from the “Headless Horseman” series of the Gothic Horror line


Some really old pirates that need re-basing, and sprucing up… if not a totally new paint job (more and more of my older figures have been taking the Pinesol bath of late…).


Old, old, old Rafm English Officers. I painted these in high school (late ‘80s) when I was playing Privateers and Gentlemen… The one on the left of the picture was my character – he lost his leg in battle so I carved it down to a peg and repainted it!


Some of the “to-do” list. Mostly Foundry pirates.


More stuff to-do: Rafm sailors and marines. Pretty low on the to-do list as I’m more interested in the 18th century at the moment and these are Napoleonic era – I’d rather have my marines in Mitre caps!


More on the to-do list assorted French officers and marines, assorted sailors, some guns, and a few Corsairs – all Rafm.


A couple of Crusader Miniatures pirate packs recently cracked and affixed to bases.


I really need to make some SHIPS – unfortunately THIS one has been a work in progress for over two years…. and going nowhere! It’s also not really… well… historical… I think I’d like to make some that are basically bigger version of my wee ships.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Taking Stock of the Stock Taking!

January Painting Update

Just some pics of a few things I’ve been working on over the last month…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A small addition to my Modern British – a stand of lads from the Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre. These are from FAA/Combat Miniatures and were part of a large order that arrived at the end of December that included a number of Brits and Argentines for the Falklands, Russians and Afghans, and a bunch of odds and sods bits for assorted 20mm WW2 forces…


…and here are some of those Russians adding further to my ever-expanding arsenal of communist aggression … I now have two companies of Motor Rifles Infantry – one in helmets, one in hats. I’d like to order a third at some point (they’d be a mix of helmets and hats…).


Some plastic fantasy figures for my friend John in Calgary who is planning on playing some Heroquest.


A couple of West Wind figures from their Gothic Horror line.


These were finished up at the end of December. They’re also West Wind figures from their Dwarf Wars line – I’m going to use them for my 28mm Warmaster fantasy project – which has been abruptly put on hold due to me finalizing my project plans for 2008 (more on that in a day or two…).


Two more West Wind Elves flanking an I-Kore/Celtos Elf.


Still more fantasy stuff! From left to right – child from Reaper pack of children (his brothers and sister to follow shortly), Celtos Dwarf Warrior, Reaper Halfling girlie ranger type, a really, really old citadel Dwarf which I recently stripped and repainted, and another really, really old citadel roguish type that I also recently stripped and repainted.


Celtos big bad Lich-type. The Local Savages are going to cry when he shows up in our Savage Saturday game...


A couple of modern civilians from the West Wind Supers line


Le Marquis de Montcalm. Recently appeared in a post on this blog in a shamefully unfinished state – I have now finished his base, he will appear in no further battles in such a disgraceful state!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More on my Projec Plans for 2008, a plan for my Wargame Weekend in 2009, and taking stock of the 28mm Pirates! Ya-HARRRRR!!

Battle of Brownville

Thursday night game resumed in earnest this evening with a little break from the routine of WW2 and fictional not-so-cold war battles. I busted out my Seven Years War toys and got John to bring his over and we did battle! Gary also showed up and took command of the right wing of John’s forces.

It was a motley collection of units I had two British, four French, and one militia. John had a mix of Swedes and Danes.

We used Bob Barnetson’s Two for Tea rules – a Warmaster-ish variant for the American War of Independence.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

On my right, in the foreground, I had three battalions of French under the command of Le Marquis (who is just out of the picture off to the left and rightly so – he was shamefully mounted on an UNFINISHED BASE!! The HORROR!!). Beyond the 1st French Brigade are the militia and another French Battalion – both attached to the British Brigade on my right – the British battalions are hiding behind Brownville.


There’s the entire British Brigade commanded by General Wolfe.


Swedes and maybe Swiss(?) under General Bertolini (why the Swedes and Swiss were commanded by an Italian I’ll never know…).


Here is Gary’s Brigade…. or at least what I THOUGHT was Garry’s brigade. It made sense to me – they’re all in red and on the same side of the river… Well apparently the unit on the right of the picture was Swiss and therefore part of John’s Brigade…? Gary’s three units – on the left of the picture – were all Danes. I think…


By about turn three The Marquis had driven his three brigades straight out to the middle of the table to secure the crossroads – one of the victory locations. John had gotten his brigade – or at least the portion that started on the north side of the river – moving and a regiment of Swedes had made it across, though they weren’t able to deploy before French musketry started ripping into them from the flank! HUZZAH!


General Wolfe got the British moving once around turn two or three then stopped to think about what he was doing for a few turns… Apparently he thought he was a general as he kept rolling nines (unfortunately his Command Value was only an eight… dooooh!)


John finally got the Swedish Grenadiers turned about and even got a few shots off. A second battalion (of Swiss?) made it across the river they even got to deploy before john rolled his command blunder which had the both of them retire back to the woods out of range – strangely it was the last die roll that made any of his troops move for many turns…!


Gary finally decided to join the game around turn six or seven. He had just been formulating a clever plan and issuing intricate orders which he insisted all ranks study carefully – because when they did move…. WHOOSH – they were around my flank and threatening the stalled British still in column at the edge of Brownville.


General Wolfe was apparently doing the same thing – formulating an intricate and cunning plan. The British finally did deploy just in time to exchange a FIERCE series of volleys with Gary’s Danes. When the smoke cleared the French and British battalions were both gone and the Danes had each lost one stand. Things looked grim on my right! Wolfe had gotten the second battalion of British deployed out of range and had started moving the French under his command through Brownville to come out the other side and hopefully threaten the Danes flank. Could he pull it off?!


Well he did! The French came around the Danes flank forcing them to fall back. Meanwhile Gary has gotten his other battalion moving around to try and threaten the remaining French under Le Marquis…


The French and British battalions met and gave the Danes a sound thrashing! When the dust had settled after this second fierce exchange the two Danish battalions were gone and the British had lost only one stand! One of the French battalions under Le Marquis had wheeled back slightly to meet the third battalion of Danes. I had recovered from the near disaster on my right – but thing were still up in the air – if John could only get his units moving…


Well he didn’t really… The last of the Danes and a battalion of French exchanged a number of deadly volleys, which wiped out the last of the Danes and knocked out a stand of French. Even the militia got moving.

John decided to play out one last turn and finally got that last unit of Swiss that had been sitting at the table edge all game moving… but failed to move any others so he conceded defeat.

Good fun was had by all! I’m getting even more excited about working on a SYW project this year. We will have to tweak the rules a bit for continental battles – come up with rules for assorted cavalry types, mostly. Maybe some minor tweaking due to the scale of the figures we are using, too.…

The figures we used were 25mm. Most were modeled and cast by John Bertolini. The only exceptions being a few Rafm French mixed in with a couple of my French units and the Old Glory Militia which refused to participate in this action.

Both sides had just two commanders, all with Command Values of eight. We probably could have done with a General on each side with a Command Value of nine, but we just didn’t have the figures… next time we play I’ll have the rest of my Mounted Colonels pack painted up! (and Le Marquis’ base finished!?)

Wargaming Weekends and the Game Plan 2008

Before coming up with a Project Plan for 2008 I realized I should really look toward 2009 and what I’d like to do for a Wargame Weekend. I’m kind of assuming the weekend will be at least moderately successful here, and that I’ll do another one next year. As I’ve mentioned before I’d like the weekends to be mini-campaigns of sorts of programmed scenarios or otherwise linked battles or at least have some common “theme” to them.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been making a list of conflicts/campaigns I might like to run and I’ll go through a number of them below.

Which will it be for 2009…? Well, I’ve got a few months to think about it I guess… Some of the major factors I’ll be considering are what people would be most interested in – won’t be much of a weekend if no one shows because no one is interested in playing what I’ve got set up… But just as important, if not more, there is the reality of having all the toys and terrain required for each and as I’ve had a moratorium set on spending money on toys, so I really SHOULD focus on ones that I currently OWN (or can cast for myself) all of the elements required…

If you’re someone that might be attending any future wargaming weekends please feel free to post comments below and vote on which you would most like to see run!

They will mostly follow the same format of 5 games (Friday Evening, Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, Saturday Evening, and a grand finale Sunday mid-to-late-morning to mid-afternoon. My current thinking is that any larger battles will be played out with Cold War Commander/Blitzkrieg Commander/Warmaster Ancients or one of it’s many variants. Skirmish actions will be played out using Savage Worlds.

The weekends will be taking place the last weekend in February of each year – partly because it won’t conflict with any other cons – that I know of – or any long weekend travel plans. Of course this means anyone planning on traveling to this will likely have to book a day off work (the Friday)… look at it as a bonus long weekend in February… The other reason for holding it in February is to carry on the tradition of Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash – an event started in 2005 to celebrate my birthday with an evening of gaming with my favorite gamin’ pals (which is basically being extended into a full weekend…).

Originally I was thinking I’d let this turn into a mini-con, if enough people started showing up, with multiple games going on through out my house (a miniatures game on the war game table in the War Room, boardgames on the dining room table upstairs) and in the Bike Barn (my “garage”) where I’d build a second wargames table…. Or if it got big enough maybe move it out of my house… I’m starting to think that may be a bit chaotic and hard to organize/coordinate, so now I’m considering simply limiting it to the games I am running and 6 participants….? I don’t know – any thoughts on this? Post comments!

Here they are, in no particular order, the ideas for themes/campaigns for future wargame weekends – In some cases I don’t know a lot about the history of the period or campaign and so some of the battles might not work out for tabletop action (i.e. have enough elements for 4-6 participants to play for a couple hours)… obviously in the year preceding the Wargaming weekend I’d be doing a considerable amount of research and finding which would work, which wouldn’t and finding better actions to replace them – nothing is set in stone here, they’re just ideas off the top of my head…

Campaigns of Alexander the Great
Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, Hydaspes…? All played with Warmaster Ancients. This will be sometime in the far future as I have NOTHING for this period – except for my crappy old DBA Later Achemenid Persian army – not much of a start…

Montrose’s Scottish Campaigns 1644-45
Lots of options here – Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Inverlochy, Aulderan, Alford, Kilsyth, Pilipaugh… maybe I’ll make it a wargaming long weekend and do them ALL! BWA-HA-HA-HA!

Seven Years War in North America
A series of five battles from the campaigns… OR…

Quebec 1759-60
I have to admit at this exact minute I am kind of leaning towards this one as it just occurred to me that next year will be the 250th anniversary of the battle on the Plains of Abraham! I am using Habitants and Highlanders as a major source of inspiration for the scenarios here:
Friday night - Captain MacDonald’s Company Climbs the Heights of Abraham – a skirmish game using Savage Worlds – the outcome of which might somehow affect the next scenario.
Saturday morning/afternoon – Battle on the Plains of Abraham – using a WMA variant – perhaps Bob Barnettson’s Two for Tea…?
Saturday evening – The Wood Cutters – another Skirmish scenario.
Sunday mid morning to mid afternoon – Battle of St. Foy 1760.
I have some stuff that could be used for this. I was planning on working on some SYW stuff this year anyway – I’d just ramp it up a bit and model and cast a pile of my own generic tricorne figures… We shall see…

England 1066AD
Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge, Hastings, and maybe a skirmish game or two or the winner of Hastings has to go beat down the Scotts under Malcom II. This will be high on the priority list as I have a lot of Dark Ages stuff.

English Civil War
Edge Hill, Marston Moor, Naseby, Dunbar? Some skirmish action…?
I have a lot of ECW stuff now...

Falklands 1982
A skirmish battle in the streets of Port Stanley during the initial Argentine invasion
South Georgia? Raid on Pebble Island?
Some air and/or naval action (I have no idea what rules I’d use…)?
Goose Green for sure (CWC)!
11/12 June – Mt. Longdon, Two Sisters, Mt. Harriet (CWC)
13/14 June – Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge (CWC)

The War of 1812
Queenston Heights, Chateguaney, Chrysler’s Farm, Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane… New Orleans?

Canadians in the Sicilian Campaign 1943
Grammichele, Assoro, Leonfort, Agira…?

Moro Crossings/Ortona 1943

Canadians in Normandy 1944
Capriquet, Buron, Authie, and other battles around Caen, etc…

Arnhem 1944

Closing the Falaise Gap
Operation Totalize I and II, Operation Tractable

Northwest Rebellion 1885
Duck Lake, Fish Creek, Battoche, Cutknife Hill, Frenchman’s Butte
Not sure what rules I would use for these they seem a bit big for Savage Worlds skirmish actions, a bit small for a WMA variant/Colonial War Commander… maybe a modified version of Ever Victorious Armies…? Of course if I use cold War Commander with one stand equal to an 8-10 man section and formations being companies – that might work… at least for Batoche… or maybe a scaled skirmish action using savage worlds (1 figure = 5 or 10 men – depending on the size of the historical action…?)

Battles on the Somme 1916

Battles at Paschendale 1917

The Last 100 Days 1918

Great War - East Africa

Red Dawn – Soviet invasion of North America 1986…?

Peloponnesian War?

Punic Wars?

Ia Drang 1966?

Well.. that’s 21 years worth of Wargame Weekends – assuming I just do one a year…. Maybe if it really works out I could do two a year – one in February and one in the summer or fall sometime – the secondary one would have to be one I already have stuff ready for – like the assorted WW2 ones, which I have a lot of the stuff done for already, or once I had the Canadian Corps (and a German one to oppose it) finished I could easily so any of the Great War campaigns with a minimum of effort (maybe a bit of battle specific terrain…)

The 1066 campaign is likely to happen sooner rather than later as it’s one I’ve wanted to do for a long time and HAVE a lot of the stuff I’d need. I would have to buy some Norman Cavalry and model and cast a few more generic dark ages warriors – mostly skirmishers with javelin or slings…

Looking at anniversaries - the 1885 Northwest Rebellion is another one with a big one coming up – 125th in 2010. Of course 2016, 2017, 2018 will see the various Canadians in the Great War campaigns as those will be 100th anniversaries. 2012 will be the Falklands 30th…? 2018 - Sicily or Ortona’s 75th, 2019 – D-Day, Normandy, Arnhem….

20mm WW2 British Paras

Carrying on with my project to Take Stock of all my toys….. I now present to you my force of 20mm WW2 British/Canadian paratroops.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Battalion #1 - The Infantry and Command are from Platoon 20, the Vickers and Mortars are from SHQ


Battalion #2 - Command and Support are from Platoon 20, the Infantry are old Esci Plastics.


Battalion #3 – Command and Infantry are all Revell plastics. The unpainted Vickers is from Platoon 20 – I guess I could probably do with some more crew…


Battalion #4 – maybe this should have been Battalin #3…. whatever… The painted infantry and first rank of unpainted infantry are Platoon 20, the remaining three infantry stands are a mix of the Revell and Esci plastics… as some point I’d like to replace them with Platoon 20 figures.


AT Guns and Forward Observers. The AT crew are from Platoon 20, the guns from RAfm and the observers are from SHQ.


An extra PIAT team (Rafm), a jeep and a carrier (Vehicles – Rafm, Crews – SHQ)


Enough odds and extras for yet ANOTHER battalion – less the Vickers and mortars…


Most recent additions, from FAA, some figures to use as a CO stand and maybe an additional HQ, a third mortar team (for battalion #3), and an “assault team” which will be used as some engineers.

So, the Plan….

Well at the one stand equals one platoon, and formations are battalions (my preferred scale for WW2 action), I have enough for more than a brigade of paratroopers….!? Despite my tendency towards megalomania – I think I should concentrate on a single brigade for the time being (as I pretty much HAVE everything for a single brigade and much fun could be had with this alone) – someday when I want to do the entire Market Garden campaign – or at least the Arnhem part of it – I’ll worry about doing the entire division. So for now…

Parachute Landing Brigade
CO - Brigade HQ – HAVE – Need to Paint!
3x Parachute Battalions, each (total is for Brigade):
-1x BnHQ (3 total) - HAVE: 3 Painted
-9x Infantry Stands (27 total) - HAVE: 21 Painted, 6 To Paint (for a brigade, I HAVE another 18+ that could be painted), NEED TO GET: 3 more stands of Rafm paras to finish a complete battalion of them…
-1x Vickers (3 total) - HAVE: 2 Painted, 1 To Paint
-1x 3” Mortar (3 total) - HAVE: 2 Painted, 1 To Paint

Divisional Assets
-Recce Jeep Troop- NEED TO GET: 3? (Jeeps-Rafm, crew/conversion kit - SHQ)
-FAO/FAC - HAVE: 2 Painted
-ATGs? - 6pdrs - HAVE: 2 Painted, NEED TO GET: jeeps (rafm) Drivers (SHQ)
-17 pdrs? - NEED TO GET: ?
-Pioneers/Engineers? HAVE: 1 To Paint, NEED TO GET: 2-3 more?

These should really be a priority for early 2008 as there is so little left to do to finish off the brigade....

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Taking Stock and more planning for 2008 and beyond…