Chaos in the Old World

Messrs. Miller and Burt wandered over here this evening to play a little Chaos in the Old World (@BGG).


Image is ©2009 Fantasy Flight Games (used without permission).

They have both raved at me about how great it is for some time and we finally got in a game. It was fun.


John and Other Tim plotting how best to corrupt the inhabitants of the Old World


Where it all went down.

John played Khorne – which are pretty BAD ASS - Tim Miller played Nurggle, and I played Slaneesh. There’s a lot to the game and I had no idea what I was doing… but I ended up sharing victory with John – despite Tim having waaaaaaay more vistory points 54+, John and I won by… um… the rotating disc thiniges… um… yeah… don’t count on me for a detailed board game report.

We played. It was fun.

I think John let me win so I’d play it with him again… I totally would... (even if I hadn't won)!

Revisiting Vimy

A number of things have got me back to thinking about the Vimy Project. Primarily a renewed interest in the early 20th Century (along with the late 19th…) and along with it a re-visitation of the Contemptible Little Armies/Ever Victorious Armies rules. I’ve also re-based all the Great War stuff on single bases (thought bigger ones than they have previously been on). Thinking about what to run at Toon Con - the new convention in Saskatoon this fall.

For those not aware in 2006/2007 I embarked on a project that, originally, would ultimately lead to playing the attack by the entire Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge on the 100th Anniversary in 2017. I meant to built the terrain and forces incrementally; at the 2007 Mayday convention in Edmonton I hosted a game of the Fourth Canadian Division’s attack at the north end of the line. every couple years I had planned on building the terrain and forces for the next division down the line (3rd, then 4th, finally 1st.…).

By the end of 2007 I’d kind of lost interest in the Great War and, despite the Vimy game’s success, REALLY lost interest in Contemptible Little Armies. I had re-based all the Great War figures onto multi-figure bases and tried a number of different rules and variants (mostly of my own devising). And nothing seemed to work out so I just walked away from the project for a while.

Briefly a year or so ago we experimented with a variant of DBA that seemed promising. I even ran a Weekend Campaign using the system. Shortly after that (probably because of it) I lost interest in those rules.

A rethinking of rules and basing at the end of last year got me re-basing again and, as I mentioned above, all those figures were re-re-based back onto individual washers.

During all this I occasionally thought about reviving the Vimy Project, but always it came down to I’d have to absolutely settle on some rules and a basing system. If I were to keep them on the multi figure bases I would have to do some serious modify the existing terrain to make the much bigger bases fit!

Well I’ve settled on the basing (no, really…). And I’m thinking I will return to the modified version of CLA that I used in the original game… though perhaps with a few more modifications.

Serendipitously, I’ve seen a number of pictures of an ANZAC Bay/Galliopli terrain board the Wargames Illustrated commissioned for a demo game at 2011 Salute that got me pretty stoked. It looks pretty much how I originally envisioned the Vimy terrain looking… unfortunately in 2007 I ran out of time and never got around to adding the sort of details I had originally wanted.

(you can see the pictures of the ANZAC Bay terrain on Facebook or at the Lead Adventure Forum - They're really quite stunning - and INSPIRING!).

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


I dug out the terrain boards this afternoon to have a look at them…


As I had feared with the bigger bases the figures barely fit into the trenches… which isn’t such a big deal as I’m feeling pretty stoked to do some work on them and get then looking a little better anyway.

Most of the trenches I’ll have to cut and widen up. The I’ll add some revetting and duck boards and some sand bags on the paraphet. The Revetting and duckboards witll be easy enough, but I’m not entirely sure how to best go about making sandbags…. Cheaply…

I could potentially be back on track for the bigger project too… in 2012 I could work on the third division, 2014 work on the second, and 2016 get to work on the first so the whole corps attack could be played in spring of 2017…

So that’s one of two projects I’m going to be trying to focus on for the rest of this year. This one shouldn’t be too much work as all the figures are done, all I really have to do is make the terrain prettier.

The other project will be the Zulu War… more on that in a bit…

Road Warriors

Another one of those “oh… just don’t ask…” things...

John mentioned he’d been thinking about Dark Future… I’d started this a couple months ago… stumbled across a couple other blogs mentioning Dark Future recently… thought I’d just finish this up incase some post-apocalyptic road warfare broke out on some tabletop nearby.

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


I have no idea who manufactured the car. I converted it and painted it…


Should have put some bullet holes in it... ah well...

I think the ramming things might have been “over-doing it”… but... whatever…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to... whatever…

Bicyclists

Finishing up a few figures I’ve had lurking on the sidelines of my workbench for too damn long… and something a bit newer.

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


These chaps are “British Homeguard on Bicycles” from The Foundry. The other two in the pack I painted up some time ago. Now they’re all done. They’ll probably see use in some British Civil War action in the not too distant future.


Ned Kelly on a Penny farthing is from Eureka Miniatures. I’m not sure when I’ll ever make use of him… I just couldn’t help myself. I am, after all, a bit of a Bike Geek too! Maybe he’ll see action in the same battle as the chaps above!?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Same old things I keep on promising… Zulus, British, Mikey K’s Elves and such…

Age of Conan

Carrying on with my endeavor to play some of these board games I've acquired over the last couple years... I busted out Age of Conan this afternoon. (Age of Conan at BGG).


Age of Conan image is ©2009 Fantasy Flight Games (used here without their permission)

It was AWESOME.


Rick, Jackson and Mr. Miller joined me. I played Aquilonia, Mr. Miller had Hyperboria in the North, Jackson played Turan in the east and Rick played Stygia in the South.



We ended up only play to the end of the second age. We didn't get started until around 2PM (As I was still reading the rules when everyone arrived... then had to try and explain them to everyone...) and then had to call it quits around 6 because Jackson had to leave. I think next time around should go quicker now that I've sort of figured out how the game works... as for strategy however...? It seems to me I should have been more aggressive militarily and defeating and subjugating provinces is what really racks up the victory points.

I have a feeling it will be something I play more often that Warrior Knights.

Zulu War British Mounted Infantry

Carrying on with the theme of colonialism and South Africa… I finished up some British mounted infantry for the zulu war. As I understand it there were two such squadrons in the earlier phase of the war that were raised from the regular infantry battalions.

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


These are from Black Tree Design. I’ve painted them as soldiers from the 24th Infantry battalion – green facings on the cuffs – This was the battalion that was with the Third Column that was virtually wiped out at Isandlwana.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Zulus? British Infantry (on foot)? Elves and adventurers? Autralian Light Horse (mounted and dismounted)? There are a few things polluting my painting table… I should clear it up and try to focus on one thing.

Boers

Just… don’t ask… It seemed like the thing to do at the time.

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


These are Boers from Black Tree Design.

I have about two more units of this size too paint up, which I’ll probably do fairly soon. I don’t actually have any historical opponents (i.e. Colonial British in khaki). But I figure until I do these guys could be passed off as any number of armed civilian types from about 1880 to 1940, or so; Any sort of European settlers in Africa (right up to German volunteers in East Africa during the Great War), Irish Republicans, Russian Civil War Militia, WW2 Partisans, Very British Civil War militia, Europeans volunteers defending the foreign legations on Mars… Perhaps some of them I could even pass off as Metis for the Northwest Rebellion of 1885…!?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Elves, Boers, Zulus, British, Martians, etc.

I am feeling the urge to play some more tabletop battles… so maybe there’ll be a battle report in the not-to-distant future.

Thurston Howell I

Not much going on around here painting or playing-wise. Well, I have been painting, just not toys... (other painting).

I did finish one figure this week for one of the player characters in our Savage Worlds Space: 1889 campaign.


This is Thurston Howell I (the figure is from Wargames Foundry).

More Martians

A few more Martians quickly churned out for our new Savage Space: 1889 Campaign. Of course, then I realized I don’t really need them for last night – I needed Canal Martians and Hill Maritans!? Doh…

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


These High Martians are from RAFM.


“What ho? You dastardly fuzzie-Martian scallywags!” BLAM! BLAM! “Take that! I say!” I also finished up a lone British officer from Black Tree Design for a player character.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The rest of the High Martians, Zulus, Elves and Rangers, British and/or ANZAC Cavalry… and other assorted goodies….

Organizing Ospreys

(or “The Ridiculous Things That Keep Me Awake At Night…”)

(or “The Closet A-R Pokes His Head Out to Have A Look at the Outside World”)

Like so many others I have a small collection of the miniature wargamers “porn” of choice: Ospreys.


Over the years I picked up one here and there on topics of interest. I've often wondered about how to organize them; spread they out throughout the library among other books of the same period (as the rest of my books are generally grouped) or keep them all together. I’ve kept them all together. This is partly for organizational purposes, but also for aesthetic reasons - they just look nice all together.

The second ridiculous point of wonder and concern is whether, among the group of books by Osprey Publishing, to organize them by series (Men-at-Arms, Elite, Warrior, Campaign, etc) and series number or by period. Up until this point I have chosen the former – mostly for aesthetic reasons. And until recently I was pretty much able to find what I needed through physical memory of where things were within the collection.

Over the last year my collection of these books has more than doubled – thanks in large part to the fact that Amazonsells them pretty cheap – but mostly due to Plum Circle Books who sell them on ebay even CHEAPER! I am, unfortunately, a SUCKER for “a really good deal” and have found myself buying ones of marginal interest or that I “might” find useful/interesting at some point… (idiot).

Anyway, because of this recent influx, I am finding now I have a harder time locating the exact book I wish to refer to at any given time and I have slowly been trying to convince myself that it’s time to reorganize them by period…. (aesthitic right brain shudders at the dimished beauty of it all, A-R left brain shudders at the whole slew of new organizational questions…? Do I organize them by series within broad period groups? Or by strict dates? What about overlaps!? Shudder-shudder-shudder!!).

Is anyone else tormented by these sorts of things…? Or am I just the biggest idiot alive!? Sometimes I really kind of do feel like I’m just a character in a Larry Leadhead comic…

Another post if/when I sort it all out…

Ruga Ruga

Not Martians…

I had started these guys weeks ago… then got distracted… and while organizing some other stuff the other day I stumbled across them and decided I should just darn well finish them up! So now they're finished and I can carry on with other stuff!

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


These figures are from The Foundry. They call them “askaris”. As I will mostly be using them in Great War in East Africa games – where MY “askaris” are a bit better clothed and equipped, these will be relegated to “Ruga Ruga” – irregular allied tribesmen armed with older firearms…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Martians – going to try and crank out a few before Savage Saturday Night… (so… about 36 hours from now…). After that it’s back to the fantasy Character types for Mikey K and some more Zulus (or maybe I’ll paint up the few Canal Martians I have… or scratch build a couple kites or screw galleys…). Whatever I do I probably won’t get a lot done over the next week as… well… I have some other stuff to do.

Great War ANZACs

I recently picked up a bunch of Great War “dismounted Australian Light Horse” (as well as some mounted). Upon the arrival of the dismounted troops I was wondering if they were indeed dismounted light horse as the equipment didn’t seem quite right – mostly wearing trousers rather than breeches they look to be wearing in most photos and uniform plates. They also have 1908 pattern webbing rather than the bandoleer-type equipment I thought the Light Horse used. I looked them up on Brigade Games web site and these are indeed listed as dismounted Light Horse. I’m guessing they picked up regular infantry kit when fighting dismounted for a prolonged time – like at Gallipoli.

The other thing I’m not entirely sure about is the colour here. The colour pics I can find on the web show them in anything from brown-iah khaki to green-ish/brown-ish khaki to quite green-ish khaki…. So I’ve done these chaps in a green-ish Khaki as I have a lot mixed up for the WW2 Canadian battle dress… It may not be entirely accurate… but I do like taking a break from the common tan and brown khakis

Hopefully Helen will be along shortly to set me straight…


As mentioned these are a couple of Australian Light Horse from Brigade Games. Really nice figures, lots of character. I have about 30 dismounted and 10 mounted – with another 8 dismounted and 10 more mounted on the way, in the post.

I have no real need to get these done... I just thought I’d paint a couple up to see how they look. You know how it is…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably more High Martians…?