What to do... What to do...?

Well I've been re-basing and painting a few new figures for my AK-47 Republic armies... The re-basing has put more figures on a base ans so I'm having to paint up quite a few extras to be able to field two formations. When I actually have some units completed I'll post some pics.

Of course then I was looking at Stephen Thomson's finished WW2 forces this morning and have a hankering to get back to the 28mm WW2 stuff and just finish it up before moving on to other things (as I had been planning to do - and doing a good job of sticking to it - for... well... most of this year...)

Oh and Bob's Pretty Pikemen got me thinking about my ECW stuff waiting in the wings...

Urrrrr....

Okay... finish AK-47 armies... THEN finish 28mm WW2... THEN I'll have to think about what to do next... probably something DBA/HOTT related, though perhaps some of it's variants covering the English Civil War or Seven Years War.

Too much fun stuff to paint, so little time...

Nuthin' Much

Not a whole lot to report here...

I am still alive. Haven't played any games over the last week or so and what little time I've had to devote to hobby stuff has been spent re-basing moderns to slowly bring them up to the new basing standard.

I've mostly been working on Modern Africans (and equipment that could potentially be used by Modern Africans) as a friend expressed an interest in trying out AK-47 Republic. Might also give Cold War Commander a go again.

Of course as the new basing scheme has more figures per base I'll have less elements than I began with so I may end up painting a few 20mm moderns before this is all through.

After the dust settles on all this re-basing nonsense, I think I'm going to finish up some British and French Seven Years War stuff.

ECW Scots

The miniature painting productivity level has dropped around considerably… I’ve been busy… well... painting other stuff.

Mr. Miller was over again last night for another painting night and I finished up a stand of ECW Scots Covenanteers.

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


These are all from The Foundry. I picked them up earlier this year off ebay.


They are the beginning of a ECW-DBA Covenanteers army. Not entirely the most useful thing to work on right now, but they were nearly done so I thought I’d finish them up – because finishing anything is finishing stuff and finishing stuff is good.

Not sure what to work on next…

With my time being limited and so many interesting things to work on I need to come up with some sort of plan and stick to it to get maximum productivity out of said limited time…

One would think I should finish up the Canadian Sherman Troop I’ve started. The problem is, though these could be finished up pretty quickly, they have not real opponents to fight, or terrain to fight upon… and getting stuff done that I will be able to USE seems a more efficient way to spend my time.

Things I am kind of excited about at the moment are: De Bellis Antiquitatis (Seven Years War, Dark Ages, and Romans) and Contemptible Little/Ever Victorious Armies (East Africa/Middle East, Russian Civil War, and British Civil War)…

For the Seven Years War I HAVE two complete armies ready to use – British and French (we used them in a battle last week). What I’d like is to try some BIGGER battles (two brigades/commands – or more – per side) with some different troops (cavalry!). I have two complete brigades for the French, though they are mostly foot. I need to finish 9 more stands (~72 figures - but EASY-to-paint figures!) to field a second full brigade/command of British. I do have some French Cavalry (2-3 stands, 8 mounted figures) I can paint as well.

For the “Dark Ages”, I have a number of things to work on: Irish, Picts, Scotts, Welsh, and some extra Anglo-Danish and Vikings (like two more complete armies of Vikings!). The irish seems like they’d be the quickest ean easiest fo finish (~40 foot). Though there’s less Picts (~30 foot + a chariot), they’re more time consuming to paint (because I feel compelled to paint tartan patterns on their cloaks, etc.). The Scotts and Welsh aren’t even started (looks like 50-70+, each, for all options). The additional Viking armies are pretty low priority, though I have a few stands of Anglo spear I’d like to finish up so they could be fielded as “Middle Anglo-Saxons”.

Rome… well I have the one Roman army… I’d like to paint a second one (for John)… and some early Germans… then some more Romans… None of the new ones are started however and all will be 70+ foot plus some mounted… so lot of work there and thus lower priority.

I guess I’d also be interested in trying some English Civil War with DBA-x, but I only have enough stuff for one force (and now a single stand ready for force #2…). So I guess these Scots aren’t entirely useless.

Contemptible Little Armies/Ever Victorious Armies… I was thinking we could try using Ever Victorious Armies for some of our Great War era games – some of the mechanics seem a bit “cleaner” and more suited for our preferred level of play (maneuver units being battalions, etc).

Anyway I have some stuff for East Africa, the Middle East and British Civil War. I kind of like to do some Russian Civil War… but most of it’s been rebased and I don’t really want to go re-re-basing again, I’d rather just cast up and paint new stuff… Starting from almost scratch puts that lower on the priority list.

For East Africa I have about 20 Germans (mostly askari to paint) and about 40 British (again, mostly askari). I can also cast up more, but what I have currently would be good for a fair sized battle. There’s enough brits that if I painted up the Turks (~40) I picked up last month I could have a fair sized battle with those…

We’ve already played one game set in the fictitious (Very) British Civil War (c1938). I have the forces we played with… plus another dozen British (well, Canadian, really) infantry that I’ve recently re-based and all those Police (which I forgot to pull out for the last game!). I also have a few more armed civilians I could throw in. In terms of what could be painted up to add to the possibilities are another dozen British (Canadian) infantry and about 16 Naval Brigade.

Hmmmmmm… Irish then…? Or SYW British…?

Vikings vs. Anglo-Danish

For the third week in a row I got Mr. Bertolini out of his house project and over here to play a game. Last week he pointed out that, though he’d played many games based on DBA (Great War, Seven Years War, etc), he'd never actually played a period it was actually written for. So this week we broke out some Dark Ages army for a good old Dark Age Shoving match.

Jolly Old England, The Dark Ages

SCENARIO

Dastardly Vikings raiding the English shores!

FORCES

Vikings – John
1x Blade General
10x Blade
1x Psiloi

Anglo-Danish – Tim
1x Blade General
2x Blade
8x Spear
1x Psiloi



THE GAME

The Vikings were the agressors, so I set up some terrain and john decided on a table edge, got it and we set up…

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


The Viking hordes descend on a hapless English village


I sent forth my Psiloi to attack the Viking Psiloi in the woods


The Viking Psiloi shoved them out


So my guys went in again…


…and again were obliged to withdraw.


Slowly the Viking line drew ever nearer while the light infantry continued to scrap in the woods.


Finally it was my turn to shove the Viking skirmishers back and then I followed them deeper into the woods where they sprung their clever trap… or something…


“Ooooh! Aaaarrrr! ‘E got me!”

Dead Psiloi. Vikings: 1, Anglo-Danish: 0


The serious clash of real troops was over on the hill at the other end of the English line – the Vikings charged up the hill to meet the English spear!


Oh, and flank them…


Poof! Dead Spearmen (and the reat pushed back over the crest of the hill). Vikings: 2, Anglo-Danish: 0


Seemed there was nothing for it but to charge back over the hill to maintain that advantage and for force some of the Vikings back into their own troops and hopefully route them in the confusion..


Shoved one back. Not the one I wanted, though.


In a bold move, worthy of the Vikings he was playing John rushed them back up the hill, throwing one stand into the gap in the English line.


They were thrown back down the hill, but not far enough to cause them any bother. The English spearmen that were caught in the mess were utterly destroyed, however. Vikings: 3, Anglo-Danish: 0


Briefly the Viking Skirmishers tried to sneak around the other flank and I turned some English spearmen to hopefully shove them off the table edge…


…but I never got the chance as the flanking wonders over on the other line finished clearing off the hill and the English general was compelled to “ask for terms”…

Vikings: 4, Anglo-Danish: 0

Oh, bother.

Another quick, fun game – with enough time left over to finish up a battle report and get to bed at a decent hour (or get some painting done!). Got me thinking I should really finish up those Irish… or Welsh… O maybe the Scotts… or Early Germans… or perhaps one (or more) of the other Romans… or… um… well, you get the idea…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Not much happening on the figure painting front. I am getting lots of other painting done, however. Perhaps another battle report next week…?

King of the Hill

John popped by again to play with toys and I gave him his housewarming present and since horse and musket battles were on my mind I pulled out the Seven Years War stuff and we played a little game of DBA-x SYW.

We tried a slightly larger game with 15 stands per side and compensated for this by adding +1 t o the pip die (which I don’t think, at 15 stands, was entirely necessary – maybe at 18…)

Some Hill near a fort in new England… 1750-something…

SITUATION

The dastardly French are trying to take over the world or something…

SCENARIO

In addition to the regular methods of winning (loss of 1/3 of the force, or the General element, and more than the opponent) we said that if either side held the central hill unopposed for one full turn (two bounds) they would win.

FORCES

British Forces

Commander (Colonel Brown – Light Horse)
Artillery (Cannon)
Ranger Company (Jäger)
35th Regt of Foote (4x Musket)
76th (Highland) Regt. of Foote (3x Musket)
48th Regt. of Foote (3x Musket)

French Forces

Comander (Colonel Berteau-Liné)
Artillery (Cannon)
Indien allies (Warband)
R. de la Sarre (3x Musket)
R. du Languedoc (3x Musket)
R. de la Reine (3x Musket)
R. Du Guyenne (3x Musket)

THE GAME
We diced for who was attacking and, of course it was the French – villainous aggressors that they are..

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


The British line defending Fort Saskabush.


The dastardly Frenchmen come to rape the horses and ride off on the women.


The opposing forces.


Both sides rushing to take advantage of the heights.


The steady British Grenadiers holding the right of the line.


As the French crested the heights the exchanged fire with the British and Scotts climbing them from the opposite side.


The light Ranger Company decided a pitched battle was no place for them to be and scarpered.


Unfotunately I don’t have a ranger casualty figure… so our dying highlander marks the last know position of the Ranger Company on the field of battle



Things started going downhill for the British (and Scots), quite literally. I got to use the dying Scotsman in an appropriate fashion, as the next stand to die was one of the 76th Regt.


Then I had to use the dying Scotsman (and one of the dead French!) as two stands of the 35th Regt of Foote were obliged to withdraw from the battle. The sun was in their eyes, looking up at the Frenchmen on the hill, which made them some thirsty. They retired to fetch their canteens, which they have left back at the camp.

(Things were looking REALLY bad for me at this point – having lost 4 stands, another loss would have ended the game!)


The loss of their kinsmen angered the Highlanders and the two remaining stands charged back up the hill and skewered many a Frenchmen on the ends of their bayonets and dirks!


The Highlanders were wildly outnumbered, but beat off a number of flank attacks from Regiment de la Reine – those dirty Frenchmen always trying to get around behind!!


The wild melee atop the heights.


The enraged highlanders killed another stand of Frenchmen, but it wasn’t enough…


The flanking attacks eventually took their toll and the British withdrew from the field of battle and gave up the fort (but not before spitting in the well…).

Wow… This totally got me fired up to paint a bunch more of these guys….

I realized after the battle that my Ranger Company (classed as "Jägers - essentially Psiloi with muskets) should not have been Knocked out by fire, but rather, should have fled 600 paces... ah well.. It's been a while since I've played...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

John’s interested in trying out some Dark Ages DBA so hopefully we’ll get a game of that in sometime in the next week or so.

Soldiers of Neukirch

As promised a painting that I thought a few of you might get a chuckle from…

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Soldiers of Neukirch Uniform Plate, 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 32x40cm

(hmmmm... the colour seems a bit off.. and faded...? I need to figure out how to take better pictures of paintings...)

This is a housewarming present for my friend, John, who has just finished building himself a new house – complete with new, spacious game room! Long time followers might remember John as the guy who’s run some fun 18th century games set in “Luteland” and “Neukirch” – what I have created here for him is a uniform plate for some of the Regiments of Neukirch that participated in the Battle of Gassen au Damlau.

Contemptible Little Civil War

Last week Mr. Bertolini stopped by for a little game of Contemptible Little Armies. I just wanted to play another sort game with some small forces to get the rules sorted in my head again.

All the cool kids seem to be playing this “Very British Civil War” thing… and I’ve found it a rather intriguing idea. Of course I know nothing of the “official” history or politics or factions, but I imagine there would be some sort of “Republican” movement leaning to the political left, and some sort of “Royalist” movement leaning to the political right… Anyway, that’s what I’ve used.

Slopshire, May 1938

SITUATION

After many weeks of fighting in and around Slopshire. The remains of the Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Union and the Slopshire University Faculty Association are the last holdouts of the Republican cause and have holed up in a ruined industrial area.


SCENARIO

The Royalist forces must attack and winkle out the Republican forces holding the ruined factory complexes.

FORCES

Royalist Forces - 44th Royalist Brigade

C-in-C Colonel “Bert” Lehne

8th Battalion, Royal Highland Regiment (11 – Tac 4, Mor 4)

4th Battalion, Slopshire Rifles. (15 – Tac 4, Mor 4)

231st Trench Mortar Battery (Tac 4, Mor 4)

2nd Platoon, 45th Independent MG Company (Tac 4, Mor 4)


Republican Forces

C-in-C – Comrade Commander W. Brown

Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Union (10 – Tac 2, Mor 4)

Slopshire University Faculty Association (10 – Tac 2, Mor 4)


THE GAME


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


The Slopshire University Faculty Association holding out in the ruins of the Powdered Baby Milk Factory.


The Highland Regiment and supporting Machinegun Detachment with the Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Unionists holding the ruined Faux Persian Carpet Factory


Colonel Lehne with the Slopshire Rifles and Trench Mortar Battery begining their advance.


Panoramic of the ruined industrial area.


The Highlanders move up to their Kicking off point and hold for a bit while the MG and the Mortars begin their preparatory barrage of the Slopshire University Faculty Association holding in the ruins of the Powdered Baby Milk Factory.

Ah, CLA…. Artillery is useless, MGs kill everything…


MGs taking their toll on the Slopshire University Faculty Association while the trench mortars bombs go wild.


More casualties caused by the MGs and pretty fireworks from the Trench Mortars.


The Troops ready for the assault waiting for the preparatory barrage to lighten up.


The Rifles begin their advance – taking fire from the Faculty Association.


The assault goes in.


The trench mortar shifted it’s barrage to the ruined Faux Persian Carpet Factory
Where the Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Unionists were hiding amidst the rubble.

Much to the surprise of everyone, a mortar bomb actually fell among the rubble emplacements and caused a few casualties – I think the only casualties the Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Unionists took during the game…



The faculty association sold themselves dearly, but, having been softened up by the withering MG fire, cracked. The few that survived the initial rush of the Rifles quickly surrendered.


The Highlanders go in!


Many of the Slopshire Textile Workers Trade Unionists served in the Great War and were a bit more handy with a rifle. Their fire caused a few casualties among the highlander and their morale wavered.


There was some confusion among the Highlanders and their advance slowed, the Slopshire Textile Workers took full advantage of the stalled advance and cut the highlanders down.


The remaining Highlander beat a hasty retreat but most were shot as they retreated.

We called it a draw at this point. The Republican forces had lost one of their positions and half of their force, but had reduced the Royalist forces to the point were it was futile to continue their attack. They would have to regroup and attack again the next day – during the night the last of the Trade Unionists slipped away under cover of darkness. – hoping to meet up with other Republican forces further south.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Should have another report for you in a couple days. Maybe a pic of a painting I’m working on that some may find amusing. Nothing happening on the figure painting front.