Black Powder! (First Game)

So… Black Powder…

John Bertolini popped by last night to try out Black Powder. John’s actually played it before. He played a Napoleonic game with Curt back in November.

[New France, 1758]

SITUATION

British and French are vying for supremacy in the new world…

Sorry, I spent so much time reading rules I didn‘t really have time to come up with a clever scenario…

SCENARIO

Simple meeting engagement.

FORCES

British Brigade

Brigadier Angus Bottomwallow
78th Regt. of Foote (Fraser’s Highlanders)
35th Regt. of Foote
48th Regt. of Foote.
Rangers and Indians (Small, Skirmish)
2 batteries Light Artillery

French Brigade

Le Marquis d’Hiver
R. du Guyenne
R. du Langedoc
R. de La Sarre
Indiens et le Marine (Small, Skirmish)
Corps de Cavalrie
2 batteries Light Artillery


THE GAME

Hmmmmm…. I didn’t take so many pictures (must have spent too much time looking in the rule book…).

The table I have is 5’ across, 8’ long. A pretty big table by local standards (most seem to play on 4x6). I have a sense the rules were written for much bigger tables than even mine! I wondered if maybe we should halve all distances, John assured me things would be fine…

WE set up some troops and diced for who went first.

Turn One

Brigadier Angus Bottomwallow ordered his entire brigade to advance towards the French with all haste. They did so!

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


Before John even had a go my troops were over halfway across the table… so much for maneuvering.

Overwhelmed by the ferocity of the British advance the french… did nothing…

Turn Two

Luckily I’d forgotten to move Brigadier Bottomwallow at the end of my command phase (I guess he, too, was a little overwhelmed by the ferocity of the British advance!) so was unable to get orders up to his troops and thus they held their ground. He did manage to reposition himself to take control of the situation the following turn

On the French move the Regt. du Langedoc advanced towards the highlanders on their side of the river. Regt de La Sarre advanced and formed into line to the right of Regt. du Langedoc. I think the guns moght have moved up as well. Then, to get them moving Le Marquis d’Hiver galloped up to La Regt. du Guyenne and cried “Follow Me!” and marched them up the road and across the river.

The French fired off their muskets to no effect.

Turn Three

The 78th Highlanders used initiative to charge the Regt. du Langedoc, The French closing fire was withering and the Highlanders were disordered, but made it into contact. The 35th, also using initiative, crossed the river and supported the Highlanders charge. The 48th … I can’t remember if they used initiative and simply advanced towards le Regt de La Sarre, or if they were ordered to charge in…?


The Highlanders and Regt. du Langedoc battled it out. I think the combat was a draw but the highlanders had to make a break test because they were shaken…


Hmmmm I think the 48th made it into combat and also fought the French to a draw…


The Highalnders, I belive failed their break test and fled the field, the 48th stuck around to fight another turn.


I think on the following turn the 48th lost the combat or had taken enough casualties to take a break test and they, too, departed the field of battle.

AT this point I think the British Brigade should have broken… but I hadn’t actually read that far in the rules so we played on a bit further…


La Regt. du Guyenne had made it across the river… in marching column… on the second turn… but they failed to do anything the third turn giving my battery of light guns two turns of firing at them. I think I only caused two casualties. On the fourth turn they did manage to form into line and charge the guns (with another “Follow Me!” order). Unfortunately the closing fire was devastating and La Regt. du Guyenne was obliged to make a break test and fled the field – along with Le Marquis d’Hiver…


After the 78th and 48th had departed, the 35th and Regt. du Langedoc exchanged fire with little effect. The 35th probably should have retired across the river (brigade breaking and all…)

The other battery of light artillery and the Rangers and Indians in the woods brought down enough fire on Le Regt de La Sarre that they were obliged to retire from the field as well…

A draw…?

It was fun enough. I’d definitely play it again.

I have to say I was totally happy with the DBA Extension for 1500 – 1900AD. I also hate reading rules. I find them dreadfully boring. As rules go, black powder is well written enough and for the first dozen or so pages was quite entertaining… by the time I’d reached page 50 and still hadn’t finished the rules for shooting – let alone close combat or morale or anything… it was getting a bit tiring… By the time I was at page 63 and still didn’t know how close combat or morale worked down right tedious (again, my preference – DBA – four pages…). The fact that I’d have to rebase my units (not going to happen) or add additional stands (see previous post) to my units to be able to make the requisite formations did not further ingratiate me to these rules… By the time John showed up Thursday evening I’d only gotten to page 70… hadn’t finished reading about morale, hadn’t gotten to any of the advanced rules or anything about stats for troops or how games even ended… and by that point I’d forgotten most of what I’d read about the command phase… but I decided to wing it – it’s similar enough to Warmaster (which I’d read before, but never played) and Cold War Commander (which I’ve played extensively, but not in the last two years… or so…).

In the rules there is a lot of commentary about “being a gentlemen gamer”. In an Interview with Rick Priestley, Priestley actually refers to it as “a book about gaming presented as a set of wargaming rules”. This was all fun for the first bit… and I was thinking some of the chaps I’ve played with could really do with reading these, if only for the commentary about being a gentlemen (good sport). But as the rules wore on I came to realize that all this talk was really pointing out how loose the rules are (and thus potentially open to abuse and/or disagreement) and while it would be nice if everyone playing the game actually read these bits (and actually took them to heart) I had a feeling that in our circle, as in many, I’ll be the only one to actually read the rules and will have to teach them to everyone else and they will gain none of the benefit of reading the commentary and in the end it only added pages to what I had to read through…

Anyway… I’ll have to finish reading it at some point… and they likely read through the whole mess again…

The other bonus to the DBA-x is that there is a fairly simple campaign system that I had imagined we’d be able to use at some point to play a 18th Century horse and musket imagination campaign with at some point…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hard to say… probably a painting update with some newly painted figures of some sort…

2010 Gaming

Looking at the Board Game Geek Stats I played a few games this year.

Savage Worlds was the most played game at 47 plays. Of those it seems 20 were World War (or Weird War) Two games, 14 were Realms of Cthulhu, 4 were set in Rokugan (the setting of the Legends of the Five Rings series of games), and the balance (9) were likely Sci-Fi or generic fantasy skirmishes… SW skirmishing was up considerably from The Previous Year where I apparently only got in 18 games…

I apparently played 20 games of Kids of Carcasonne… I don’t remember playing that many… I’m not doubting it or anything, they must have mostly been at the beginning of the year.

In terms of other miniature wargames I only got in 6 games of DBA and 5 games of HOTT – both waaaay down from the previous year where I played 68 games of HOTT and 28 games of DBA…

I also played two games of Contemptible Little Armies, and an “Unpublished Prototype” – John’s homegrown “Old School” Horse and Musket rules. (and I WILL be giving Black Powder a try tonight!)

For next year…

While I definitely want to keep the weekly Savage Worlds games going, I hope to get some more wargaming in; Contemptible Little Armies, DBA, Hordes of the Things, and some Black Powder if it works out okay. I wouldn’t mind dusting off some of the moderns to get in a game or two of Cold War Commander or even Blitzkrieg Commander.

To facilitatie this I’m thinking I should set up a biweekly war game night and/or set aside one Saturday afternoon each month to play some games. Of course the Saturday afternoon I was also thinking I might use for some of the big board wargames I’ve pickedup recently… Age of Conan, Warrior Knights, Soldier Kings, Red Russia, etc.

I’d definitely like to run another HOTT or DBA campaign this year. Probably a weekend thing, but I’d like to try an extended wargames campaign with local players at some point…

We shall see. Thanks to everyone that played games with me this year – I hope we can play more in the coming year!

Highlanders

A couple stands of highlanders…

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


This first one are old RAFM SYW/FIW figures.

I had painted a unit of them earlier this year (78th Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders)). I had enough to do another stand because I seem to recall they had considerably more men than other regiments at Quebec. I finally finished up the remaining batch but rather than put them on one stand I’ve split the stand into two...

This is mostly because I wanted to experiment with a new way of basing stuff for Black Powder. There are four basic formation in Black Powder; Line, Assault Column, Marching Column and Square. While two of these (line and marching column) can be easily represented with the three stands I’ve been using for regiments, the other two (Assualt Column and Square)… not so much. I could just make a fourth stand of the same size… but then we have problems with the “command stand” being centered in line or assault column (these are the ridiculous things that keep me awake at night…). So instead I have devised a way of using two half-stands to keep everything all nice and uniform – and as the half stands are just that – exactly half a stand – I could put the two together and use them as a stand when using the DBA Extension for 1500 – 1900AD.

Here’s what the unit will thus look like in the various different formations:


Line


Assault Column


March Column


Square

Of course this means for Black Powder I’m suddenly needing 32 figures per regiment rather than the 24 I was using before…

I also happen to finish up a stand of highland rabble:


Some of these had previously been painted, but I repainted the tartan to bring them up to current standards. The stand is a mix of Old Glory, Dixon Miniatures, and Essex… (I think)…


Another shot of them from the rear (to see all the pretty tartans)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully an after action report of tonight’s first crack at Black Powder.

Well this is probably it for painting this year... unless I get some painting done tomorrow afternoon between when the kids head to my folks for a sleepover and when we head out to teh new years party... 805 foot this year... not bad... Less than last year, but then I've been painting a lot of Other Stuff lately... My purchases have not diminished... have to do something about that this year...

British Riflemen and an Orthodox Priest

Those of you who know me well or have been following the blog a long time have probably heard me say something along the lines of “I’d have to suffer some pretty severe head trauma to ever ‘get into’ napoleonics”…

I think I must have fallen off my bike… and I don’t even remember…

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


Some (shudder) Napoleonic British Riflemen. (figures from the The Foundry). It was an odd pack they had at the Den when I was there for their Boxing Day sale (on all week – 25% off everything store-wide!) and I thought… “what the heck”…


An Eastern Orthodox Preacher from Brigade Games - it came in a pack of Tsarist Officers from their Russian Civil War line.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Surely I’ll finish up a couple more to make it an even 800 foot for this year… Only 14 mounted all year!? I guess that’s what happens when you concentrate on a period when cavalry was on it’s way out…

British Casualties – Seven Years War

Black Powder has arrived and I am really enjoying reading it. John and I are going to have a go at it Thursday. I thought I’d paint up these British casualty markers for the occasion – on the off chance the French actually cause some....

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


These are from The Foundry. I find it interesting that half the stands (and 2/3 of the figures in the pack) are wounded officers and their drummers carrying or dragging them off…?

The WW2 project is looking pretty derailed at the moment. I’m getting kind of excited about the idea of reviving my Quebec 1759 project.

That’s not to say I won’t still be trying to get them painted up over the next year or that I’m about to stop playing with the ones that are painted… I’ll just be going back and froth between them and assorted horse and musketry figures as suits my fancy…

The moratorium died, or at least was temporarily suspended, as I took advantage of the Boxing day sales at the Dragon’s Den (I even bought a few more WW2 GIs) and the pre-Xmas sale at Fantasy Flight Games - though everything I bought there was “pre-painted” (bunch of the soviet bloc robotic-power-armour-thingies)… AND ordered a pile of new things from Renegade Miniatures (their regiment packs and five for four deals are insane!?) and Front Rank Figures… of course after this past weeks expenditures I probably won’t be buying anything until the end of the original moratorium anyway.

Among the items I picked at the den’s Boxing Day sale were a couple new packs of green stuff and other modeling putties – hoping that I’ll get around to some modeling and casting again this year…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a report of our first Black Powder game later in the week and some evidence of head trauma that I have no recollection of...? (huh!?)

Another Stand of Scottish Distractions… er… I mean… Pike

It’s a little known fact that during the Second World War territorial units of pike were raised to defend the shores of Scotland against potential Nazi invasion… um… no, I’m not buying it either…

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


These are Lowland Conanenteer pikemen from The Foundry.


Here they are again with the supporting stand of Shot, which I painted previously

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

T-34s painted in red/brown martian camouflage for the 3rd Barsoom War…?

I have no idea.

I’m all over the place right now. I primed a few highlanders last night. But there are also Martians, Crimean Russians, Dead SYW British, Great War Russians, and French resistance.

(oh, and the T-34s... they're still there... just puched to the back for the moment)

Distracted…? ME…!!?

Just… nevermind…

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


Gaston and his wife Yvette (and wee Baby Jean) are from West Wind Productions. World War Two French civilians (See!? I’m not THAT distracted!)


These are… um… Russians from... well.... the Crimean War.... They are manufactured by The Foundry.

Okay, maybe I’m a little distracted…


The casualty… well, I’m not sure what make he is. He’s actually an “old West” dead guy, but I painted his duster in a grey-brown so he could pass as Russian dead from the Crimea to WW2…


Finally a Space:1889 Martian from RAFM that I’ve had for over 20 years now and just never got around to painting. I just don’t dig the yellow-skinned Martians of the Space:1889 universe – so I went with a reddish brown. I may vary the skin colour of the Martains; including some oranges and yellowish browns… Perhaps the Canal Martians will be reddish, the Hill Martians orange, and the High Martians yellowish…?

Yeah… distracted…

I’ll get back to those T-34s in a moment…

Thinking more on the Plans for 2011, I’m kind of leaning towards a Savage Worlds mini-campaign for February. It may or may not be an extension of our current campaign(s) and I’ll probably cap it at six participants – the regular Savages, of course, getting first crack. For June I’m thinking I’d like to run a Hordes of the Things campaign (much like the one I ran two years ago). And for the fall… I’m definitely thinking about Quebec 1759. I’m not sure if we will use DBA-x or Black Powder yet – as I haven’t actually TRIED Black Powder yet – but I’ll give them both a try when the latter arrives.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I don’t know…

Game Plan 2011

It’s also that time of year when I start to look back at what I’ve done over the past year and start to think about plans for the next year. I know I am far more productive when I have a plan – and especially when there is some specific goal worked into that plan – a game weekend or other big event of some sort.

However, I have, in the past, bitten off more than I could chew, so to speak. Took on projects that were just too big, took too long and just couldn’t keep me focused. Quarterly plans seem to work better, with easily achievable goals and a sense of what might come after, but not putting down anything in stone.

So what AM I doing now?

Currently most of my gaming has been Savage Worlds skimishy-tabletop-adventure type gaming (on ”Savage Saturday Night”). It’s mostly been World War Two (or “Weird War Two) for the last bit (see the East Front campaign at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse). I’ve been having a lot of fun running it and the players seem pretty committed to showing up and seem to be having a lot of fun with it too.

What would I LIKE to do this next year?

Regular Gamin’

Well I’d like to keep “Savage Saturdays” going. I’m still interested in the East Front campaign and wouldn’t mind seeing it through to the end of the war… or until all the characters are killed in some climactic battle against some ultimate German evil nasty.

I have a Realms of Cthulhu campaign on the back burner and would like to get playing that again.

The release of the Savage Worlds version of Space:1889 may very well pose a major potential distraction…

Back in October I did get in a few games with John (DBA – Vikings and Saxons, DBA-x – Seven years War, CLA – Very British Civil War). I’d like to get in a few more games like that every so often… Try out Black Powder… Get some more DBA and HOTT games in… maybe even some more Contemptible Little Armies and Blitzkrieg/Cold War/Future War Commander…? Maybe I should set up a regular biweekly game night for wargames…?


Events

I am thinking about hosting a couple events again this year and participating in a convention in the fall. A friend of mine and some other fellows are organizing a game convention in Saskatoon this October, which I will definitely run a few games at. I am pondering hosting a couple game days/weekends in February and/or June.

Toon Con

I currently have enough stuff that I could now, with minimal preparation, throw down a number of games for 4-6 players to participate in. Most options would be various Savage Worlds skirmish games (Victorian Horror, Fantasy, Pirates, Seven Years War, Dark Ages, Great War, Russian Civil War, Pulp Adventure, Sci-fi, Vietnam, Modern Ops, Zombie Apocalypse… etc, etc…). I could easily bust out a Big Battle Hordes of the Things game with three or four commands per side (Goodies vs. Baddies). Possibly a DBA-x Big Battle with two or three commands per side (Seven Years War, Russian Civil War, Great War).

If I finished up a couple re-basing projects (maybe of week of work) I could probably run a biggish Cold War Commander game; Soviet Motor Rifles and/or Air Assault Troops versus a scratch force of British, Canadians, and Americans. With a bit more work I could put together a Contemptible Little Armies game. Vimy, perhaps? Or maybe a “Back of Beyond”/Russian Civil War game…? If I painted a couple more units of British and German Askaris I could put on a decent sized East Africa game.

It might be nice to use this as an objective/deadline for some new(-ish) project after I finish the WW2 stuff. Luckily I have until about March to firm up what games I’m going to run there. Preferably this would be something that builds on things I already have (rather than something completely new). The two options that spring immediately to mind are Fulford Gate or Stamford Bridge 1066 and Quebec 1759.

I have complete Viking and Anglo-Danish armies for DBA already – plus a number of extra stands for both. I also have enough unpainted figures to do at least two more Viking armies and one other English army – and I could cast enough generic Dark Age infantry men to round out a third army/command for the English. Make some terrain… wouldn’t be too hard to put down a big battle with three commands per side.

I did have a plan to do a big Quebec 1759 event back in 2009 (for the 250th anniversary). But it sort of ran out of steam and fizzled before I’d got much done. I did get some skirmishing figures ready and played a game or two (Washington’s Ambush). Near the end of last year I got to work on the forces again and finished up a couple DBA-x British and French Armies. I’d have to finish off two more Brigades/commands for each to do the Battle of Quebec. Also seems do-able. Alternatively I could run it using Black Powder - if that turned out to be a better system…

Well, I’ve got a couple months to think on it.


Game Days/Weekends

The idea here would be to follow the previous format of Friday night and all day Saturday. A whole weekend is just too damn tiring…

Februrary?

February is actually coming up pretty fast (from a game event planning perspective)… I had thought about a small 1066 campaign weekend with just a couple of guys that I might actually play in. Not sure if that’s going to happen. Because I won’t have time to get a lot of new stuff painted – whatever the format – it will have to pretty much be with stuff I already have done.

A Hordes of the Things campaign is a possibility – have plenty of armies, I’ve done it before, just need to recruit players, make a map and I’m ready to go. I was, however, also considering a Savage Worlds skirmish campaign – a series of bigger linked scenarios that are interconnected and bring our heroes to some ultimate confrontation in a final, epic, climactic conclusion on Saturday night…

I have a feeling the latter option may be what I do with in the end. Might even tie it in to one of the campaigns I’m currently running on Savage Saturday.

June

HOTT or DBA campaign for sure. If I was going to do the 1066 event in the fall this might be a good intermediary goal/deadline to have a couple more Dark Ages armies completed.


So… What to work on…

28mm World War Two

I’ve been working on my 28mm WW2 forces for a good chunk of this past year. I think the first order of business will be to carry on and finish that up. It happens to be what I am playing most these days (see the East Front campaign at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse).

I did a little stocktaking of the WW2 stuff a few weeks back. Since then I’ve finished off the Canadians and the Russians (well, except for the universal Carrier and three T-34s). Next I’ll probably work on some partisans (They conveniently double as armed civilians for Pulp Adventure games) and then maybe some Germans…? Finish up either the SS or the Fallshirmjägers of DAK? Chip away at the mountain of Heer. In between batches of Germans I could also finish up the British Commandos and Paras. After that…possibly the Japanese...? The Americans and Italians are pretty low on the priority list – partly because I haven’t really even started them, partly because I don’t have much immediate use for them in any of the adventures/scenarios/campaigns I’m planning for the immediate future.

..and then…?

I guess it depends on what I plan to do for Toon Con in the fall… either some Seven Years War British and French or Dark Ages Vikings and English (and Irish, and Scots, and Welsh…)

…and then there’s all the other projects that keep tempting me that I should really just ignore and know that I’ll get to them SOMEDAY…

DBA
4x Ealry Imperial Roman armies, plus Early Germans, Picts, Thracians, and Skythians…?
5x Successors (Antigonos, Lysemachos, Ptolemaios, Seleucus, Antipatros) …? Plus Classical Indians…
ECW - Royalist, Parliamentarian, Scots…?

HOTT
Generic fantasy - Dwarves, Elves, Undead, Humans, Centaurs, Narnians,
LOTR - Rohan, Mordor, Moria
L5R- Lion, Crane, Dragon, Crab, Unicorn, Naga, 3x Shdowlands (undead – oni – goblins)

Black Powder or DBA-x
Seven Years War
18th Century Imagi-nations
War of 1812

Great War – CLA?
Vimy
East Africa
Turks
Back of Beyond

Victorian Horror/Sci-Fi

More WW2
Early War French?
British 14th Army in Burma?

Oh don’t get me started thinking about all the 20mm BKC/CWC stuff…

Turks, Pulp Characters, and Erwin Rommel

A few odds and ends rolling off the painting table. Not all World War Two, per se, but at least within the same half of the century…

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


This Rommel figure is from Artizan Designs.


Some Turks from Copplestone Castings.


Some Pulp Adventure characters – I think they’re all from Artizan Designs as well.


Here we have “Professor Algebra” – with his stalwart companions “Captain Halibut, Timtim, and Snowball). “Professor Algebra” is from West Wind Productions. I have to admit I go the idea of using this figure from Matakishi’s Tea House. I found a figure that would be even better… but it’s already painted and would need to be stripped… and require a bit of converting… But for now this chap will do…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a few more Pulp Adventure characters and maybe some partisans. Possibly some Turks… and some WW2 stuff – hopefully get the T-34s finished this week and get on with… well… some other WW2 stuff…

It’s also that time of year when I start to look back at what I’ve done over the past year and start to think about plans for the next year. I know I am far more productive when I have a plan – and especially when there is some specific goal worked into that plan – a game weekend or other big event of some sort. Bob has already posted his plans, and I’ll probably be posting something similar in the near future.

Intrepid Explorers Prepare for Expedition to the Unkown

…aaaaaaand here’s the rest of them.

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


Again, like the last batch, these are a mix of Copplestone Castings and Pulp Figures.

These chaps probably won’t see action for quite some time… ultimately I had planned to use them in Chaosium’s epic Call of Cthulhu campaign Beyond the Mountains of Madness. At the moment, however, we’re pretty still pretty stoked about the East Front campaign. I was hoping to rekindle the Realms of Cthulhu campaign at some point in the new year, but I kind of had a decade sprawling over-arching campaign mapped out that wended our intrepid heroes through a great big pile of published adventures I’ve collected up over the years…. There’s a couple in England, Montreal, and New Yorkin the early 20s. After that there’s (recently re-released) Masks of Nyarlathotep in the mid 20s (including a few side adventures from Terror Australis), The Lovecraft Country series fills out the rest of the decade and finally we get to Beyond the Mountains of Madness…

It’ll probably take a bloody decade just to PLAY thorough all of those…!? Ah, maybe somewhere along the way we’ll end up with a TPK and I can just skip forward and run Beyond the Mounatains as an independent campaign…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Turks… then back to T-34s, I swear…

(well… and maybe some more Pulp Adventure types…)

Must Be All The Cold Weather…

…that’s got me thinking about arctic exploration and mountaineering…

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


The two Explorers with rifles are from Copplestone Castings and the Mountaineer and Trapper are from Pulp Figures. The remaining figures from their respective packs are all at the front of the workbench and should be finished up shortly.

Perhaps they will have a run in with the Gebirgsjäger searching for lost secrets Beyond the Mountains of Madness

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The rest of the Mountaineers and Artic Explorers. A minor diversion, yes, but all the “Pulp Adventure” stuff sort of fits in with the WW2 stuff… it’s all within a decade or so of the area of focus at the moment.

I’d like to say next is the rest of the T-34s and then on to some Germans… but some WW1 Turks have made it back on to my workbench…. I might just knock off a bunch of those before returning to the WW2 stuff. At least I'm still in the first half of the 20th Century!?

In other interesting news; I finally broke down and ordered myself a copy of Black Powder. Now, my pretty Frenchmen will be able to give John’s uncultured, backwater, Lutelandic thugs (on their funny-sized bases) the trashing they deserve! Huzzah!

Soviet Tanks – Dead Germans

I finished up two of the T-34s and a the rest of my German casualties.

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


The tanks are from West Wind Productions.


Most of these Germans are also from West Wind Productions, but there’s a couple from Artizan Designs as well (they’re actually Afrika Korps dead posing as their continental European counterparts…)

Bring up the exposure and the yellow and everything looks all sunny and warm… unfortunately the reality is a much different picture here in Saskatoon at the moment…


Overcast, snowing and -28°C… Well there was a brief lull in the snowing during which I went out and shoveled and then quickly took these pics.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Oh… I don’t know… So many projects so little time… I’ll hopefully stay on target and work on some more WW2 stuff, though I’m not entirely sure what… I guess the rest of the T-34s would make most sense… recently finished Quartered Safe Out Here (finally!) so it's tempting to work on some Japanese... but I'm also starting a book on the Eastern Front... so that could keep me focused on finishing the T-34s and some opponents...

T-34s Assembled

Assembled five T-34s this last night. I’ll paint them up within the week

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


These models are from West Wind Productions. Simple enough. A bit wonky. Whatever – I’ve got FIVE of them! Take that, Fascists!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

PAINTED T-34s (and the end of painting Soviets!)

Canadian Sherman Troop (Last of the Canucks!)

I finally finished up my Sherman Troop. And that pretty much finishes up the Canadians (well... except for the universal carrier…)

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


The Shermans are all from West Wind Productions. The Firefly I had finished up previously. These chaps are painted as a troop from B Squadron of the 1st Canadian Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment, 2nd Independent Canadian Armoured Brigade) who were in direct support of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade on D-Day.

I had originally planned on doing these as a step-by-step… but I just don’t have the time right now…


I also happen to finally finish up the 6-Pounder AT gun. The crew I had finished some time ago. Crew and gun are all from Artizan Designs.

The whole Canadian force so far…


There’s a mix of Artizan Designs, Bolt Action Miniatures, Black Tree Design, West Wind Productions, Crusader Miniatures, and First Corps. They have been painted with the shoulder titles of the Regina Rifle Regiment (7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division).

I’m six riflemen shy of two full-strength rifle platoons. It’ll probably be a while before I pick them up because when would they have ever gone into action with nine – let alone a full ten!?

Supporting the Rifle platoons are two tubes of 3” mortars and their crews from the battalion’s Mortar Platoon, a six-pounder from the Anti-Tank Platoon, a couple sappers from the Pioneer Platoon, moving and firing Vickers teams from the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (the divisional MG Battalion), a scout car from the 7th Reconnaissance Regiment (17th Duke of Yorks Royal Canadian Hussars – the Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment), and the aforementioned troop of Shermans from the 1st Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment, 2nd Independent Canadian Armoured Brigade – who were in direct support of the 7th Brigade on D-Day).

Oh and a bunch of casualties… and the Battalion Chaplain (complete with silver cross and brace of sharpened wooden stakes – in case things get a little… weird…)

The only outstanding Canadian item is a Universal Carrier. I guess I could use it to tow the AT gun around… but I’m not feeling really motivated to get it done any time soon. It’s a Tamiya plastic 1/48 model I picked up to see how close it might be in scale. It’s not too far off… but if I were to want any more carriers at some point I’d just buy a whole new lot and replace it as I’m sure it wouldn’t be anything close to a resin cast 28mm model…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Maybe some T-34s… maybe something Sci-fi-ish or pulpy… WE shall see…. I would like to finish up the T-34s because it’s the last of the Soviet stuff I have. I’ve actually got the East Front Campaigngoing again too so they’d potentially be handy in the short term – although the only opponents I have for them are the Pzkw38t and the StugD… (oh, and the doorknocker Pak36 AT gun).

More Dead Commies

The last of the Soviet casualty figures…

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


Like the last batch these are all from West Wind Productions.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

On to some tanks… when I get some time to paint again…

28mm WW2 – To Do

I sat down and figured out how many 28mm WW2 things I have to finish up this evening (because I apparently have nothing better to do!?)… All part of the planning process, I guess.

Soviet Infantry & Guns: 187 painted, 9 to do, 196 total, 95.4% complete
Soviet Vehicles: 6 painted, 5 to do, 11 total, 55% complete
Canadian Infantry & Guns: 109 painted, 1 to do, 110 total, 99% complete
Canadian Vehicles: 2 painted, 4 to do, 6 total, 33% complete
SAS/LRDG: 28painted, 28 total, 100% complete
British/Canadian Paras: 58 painted, 30 to do, 88 total, 66% complete
British Commandos: 46 painted, 32 to do, 78 total, 58% complete
French Foreign Legion: 30 painted, 30 total, 100% complete
Armed Civilians: 46 painted, 33 to do, 79 total, 58% complete
Italians: 0 painted, 53 to do, 53 total, 0% complete
USA – ETO: 15 painted, 42 to do, 57 total, 26% complete
USA – PTO: 10 painted, 10 total, 100% complete
ANZAC: 28 painted, 5 to do, 33 total, 85% complete
Japanese: 38 painted, 38 to do, 76 total, 50% complete
German Heer (European) Infantry & Guns: 64 painted, 79 to do, 143 total, 49% complete
German Heer (European) Vehicles: 6 painted, 10 to do, 16 total, 38% complete
DAK Infantry & Guns: 34 painted, 22 to do, 56 total, 60% complete
DAK Vehicles: 0 painted, 3 to do, 3 total, 0% complete
Uboat Crew: 16 painted, 16 total, 100% complete
Fallshirmjägers: 12 painted, 35 to do, 47 total, 25% complete
Gebirgsjägers: 15painted, 15 total, 100% complete
SS: 36 painted, 24 to do, 60 total, 60% complete

Total Infantry & Guns: 772 painted, 403 to do, 1211 total, 63% complete
Total Vehicles: 14 painted, 22 to do, 36 total, 39% complete

The Soviet infantry will be done in an evening’s work – they’re all casualties and are primed and most of the bases are gooped. Next up will be the Canadian Shermans (and that 6 Pdr AT gun!). After that the Soviet T-34s. Then all the Canadians and Soviets will be complete…

After those I’ll probably pluck away at assorted Germans (Heer and SS) and maybe quickly finish up the ANZACs in my possession and maybe even the Japanese…

British Commandos and Paras will work there way in there at some point, as well as the Fallschirmjägers and Armed Civilians…

The Italians and DAK are pretty low priority at the moment. They should be higher as I’ve got great terrain… But there’s only so many times Desert Commandos can storm a desert village…

The Americans are pretty low too… (Sorry, John… maybe if you came out and played WW2 games with us I’d get motivated…). Once I get some Normandy terrain built I’ll get more excited about them…

Looking at the rate I’ve been painting (which has been dropping lately), it’s still take another SIX MONTHS to finish all of this!?

Ugh…

I don’t even want to think about all the other stuff I have now…

Commies and Jerries

Well I got a whole lot of the 20mm modern stuff rebased and even painted up a few new things and was all ready to try out AK-47 again and maybe get back to some Cold War Commander. But the moment passed and now I’m back to painting WW2 stuff and gearing up for another round of East Front Savage Worlds skirmishin’…

I’m so close to finishing up so many of those 28mm WW2 forces I’ve decided to just carry on with them and get them FINISHED! First the rest of the Soviet dead, then the Canadian Sherman troop, then the T-34s… then…? Not sure… but I’ll probably mix it up doing a bit of this and a bit of that to keep things interesting.

After that…? I’m not sure. I’ve been thinking about the Great War again and getting back to the Vimy Project - fixing/finishing up the section of the ridge already completed. It’s been sitting in a closet gathering dust for the last couple years and been banged about a bit, and I never did get to finishing all the trench details.

I think over the next month, as the collection is in a bit of a static state (not painting a lot, not buying any new stuff), I think I might do another big stocktaking (like I did last year) to get a sense of where I’m at and figure out what to do next.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of running a mini-con the last weekend of February (7th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash)… but not sure what sort of format it will take…

All the figures pictured below are from West Wind Productions. I picked them up during the 40% off sale this summer…

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


German tanker.


Soviet Tankers (the figures are actually from the German Tank Crew pack… but since they were wearing overalls and wedge caps that all look similar… I thought I’d paint a couple as Russians…)


DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA!! Dead Germans….

I’ve been picking up some casualties for my various WW2 forces. I’d rather put an actual wounded marker out on the table than just leave figures toppled over where they were knocked out of action. This pack is, unfortunately, mostly later war (in smocks) and about half are “action” casualties (in the act of getting shot/etc – which are really cool looking and might make for some fun game reports… but not so great for leaving on the table to mark where casualties fell..

Two of these guys above actually have exit wounds blowing out the back of their smocks!


This is kind of what I prefer. Static casualties. I bought two bags of the Soviets….


Soviet Mortar Teams.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

As I mentioned earlier it’ll probably be the rest of the Soviet casualties first. Then I’ll probably finish the Canadian Sherman troop (though I probably won’t bother with the step-by-step that I had originally planned to do) and that should finish off the Canadians. After that I’ll probably get to work on the T-34s as that should finish off the Russians … after that…? Not sure… might make a slight deviation and paint up a few Great War types… or just plough on ahead with the WW2 stuff… I have a few British/Canadians Paras to finish up, British Commandos, some SS, DAK and Fallschirmjägers, a few armed civilian types, and some Japanese (including some casualties!). Then I’ll have to get on to the rest of the Germans (there’s quite a bit – about a full platoon of infantry and five tanks), The Americans (again, full platoon or more, and an SP AT gun), and the Italians (full platoon and then some).

Gosh by the time I’m finished all of that it’ll be the new year… maybe I’ll treat myself to a couple Italian and Japanese tanks… and some jeep-mounted SAS…

Oh wait… did I say something about not buying any toys for a full year...

hmmmmmm…

Tallarn Commander

A commander for my nonexistent Tallarn force (or to-be-painted Tallarn force)


The figure is a Tallarn Imperial Guardsman from Games Workshop (pictured here entirely without their permission).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmmm… not sure. So many fun things to paint… so little time…

Trouble’s a-Brewing

Mr. Miller was over to paint last night and I finished up the remaining three stands of African Mercenaries/Nobongoan Special Air Service…

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


These are a mix of manufacturers/ranges/eras… most are Platoon 20 Vietnam Special forces… but there’s a couple Aussies in there too… and some others…

I also painted up a Tallarn Scout:


(I’m calling him a “scout” because he’s the only one I’ve painted so far and is thus “scouting ahead” of the rest of the [unpainted] squad)

The figure is a Tallarn Imperial Guardsman from Games Workshop (pictured here entirely without their permission). I kind of like the figures. They’re hideously expensive so I’ve been picking up a few here and there off ebay. I like the idea of fielding HORDES of these as an Imperial Guard force… y’know… if I was actually remotely interested in playing 40K… I’ll probably just put together a squad or two for some Savage Sci-fi Skimishin’.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A Border Skirmish in Timbogo!!

More New Stuff for AK-47 Republic

Trouble brewing in Africa…


These are an odd assortment of 20mm metal figures from a variety of companies (I think some might be Platoon 20…?)

I have another three stands worth of these – just a bunch of odd modern 20mm figures I had lying around and figured I could use them as African Mercenaries (or maybe Nobongoan Special Air Service…?). The other three stands are partly finished – expect them in the next few days…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More 20mm stuff, apparently…?

Lions Reinforced

The “Lions of Timshasa” are the elite of the Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo (F.A.R.T.). I have been re-basing some modern stuff and in the process realized I’d need to paint up some extra troops to be able to field a couple of forces for AK-47 Republic. I have a few more to paint up to finsh on force. Some other moderns will likely be pressed into service as a “Colonial Power” or “Superpower–backed Client State”.

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


The new “Lions” – These are 1/72 plastic figures from a variety of manufacturers… mostly old Esci Nato and Warsaw pact forces.

The newer forces are in the darker fatigues (they’re fresh from the factory and haven’t faded… and perhaps they’re from a different dye-lot… I guess that’s what happens when you buy factory direct “seconds” from China…)


I also painted a couple new stands for the Regulars… well… the mortar stand in completely new and a couple odd figures on some of the other stands…

The Command stands aren’t for AK-47 Republic. They’re for when (if) I use these guys in Cold War Commander

Hopefully at some point this month I’ll be able to get them into the field…

I’ve been thinking up new faction names (in addition to The Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo (F.A.R.T.) and the Peoples Revolutionary Army of Timbogo (P.R.A.T.) I’ve already used)…

Timbogan Union for Real Democracy (T.U.R.D.)
Jihad for an Independent Liberal Timbogo (J.I.L.T.)
Timbogan Workers Army of Terror (T.W.A.T.)
Congress of Unity for Northern Timbogo (taking it a bit too far…)

I’ve also been thinking about some neighboring countires; Nobongo, Kobongo, and Gobongo… and all the possibilities there…

Jihandic Union for Nobongo-Kobongo (J.U.N.K.)
Nobogan Army Reserve Division (N.A.R.D. – Which is part of the Nobongan Army Reserve Corp…)
Workers Alliance for Northern Gobongo (W.A.N.G.)
Workers Alliance for Northern Kobongo (W.A.N.K.)
Democratic Independence Crusade for Kobongo (D.I.C.K.) or maybe…
Democratic Independent Nationalists of Kobongo (D.I.N.K.) (Splitters!!)
Central Union of Nobongan Tribes (taking it a bit too far again…)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably some more moderns (African or European?) hard to say… Probably a few more African Regulars…

I have a pile of 1/72 plastic modern Germans. I bought the packs for the Milan ATGW teams (which I used for my modern British forces...) and have no great desire to do modern Germans... I thought I might use them as Future War troops (for Future War Commander!) and just paint them up with some funky fun camo... something similar to the Timashek Legion... but maybe in blues and greens...?

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…?