35th Regiment of Foot

I know, it's over 6 months until it's released... but I'm already preparing for Rebels and Patriots! If you haven't heard (and can't be bothered to follow the link, Rebels and Patriots is another in the Osprey Wargame series by Dan Mercy and Michael Leck using the same basic engine as The Pikeman's Lament (which I played earlier this week), The Men Who Would Be Kings, Dragon Rampant, and Lion Rampant. This set will cover the Horse and Musket period including the Seven Years War and the wars of Napoleon (and anything in between - and potentially a few before and after! I just mention those two because they are the two I am most interested in gaming).



These gentlemen are from the 35th Regiment of Foot. The figures are from Dixon Miniatures. My friend Paul was looking to offload a portion of his lead-pile earlier this year (just after Rebels and Patriots was announced) so I snapped them up - and then ordered a few more from Dixon to make nice even units of 12 with an officer and drummer in each. I don't know why I decided each unit should have a drummer... probably because the first lot I picked up had three and since I was putting them in some of the units, I though I'd best put one in all!?



I also did a couple of casualty/wavering morale markers if the same colours.



And the regimental colours.

The scale of the game, I am imagining, will be the same as the others - 1:1 figure ratio making for a large scale skirmish. In which case, I'm not sure the colours are really necessary, but I thought I might use them to designate which unit has the commanding officer.



Originally I thought the colours could substitute for two of the figures in the unit...



But more recently have been thinking I could simply add them to the unit - as a marker of sorts - that add nothing to the strength of the unit and are never removed as casualties... just there to mark where the captain is at. Of course now I've just realized that if that was what I was wanting to do, I should have put them together onto a single, larger base.... ah well... If that IS what I decide to do in the future, I can always re-base them!

I think I have four more units of regular infantry this size to paint (and a unit of grenadiers, and three units of light infantry, and 2-4 units of Highlanders - I have a few that were earmarked for multifigure bases, which I may rebase for this - and 3-4 units of Rangers - unless rangers end up being 6-figure units, in which case I'd have 6-8 units of Rangers!). I'm kind of torn about how to paint them. This unit has the orange facings of the 35th Regiment of Foot. At this scale it would make sense that all the regular infantry on the field would be from the same regiment and should be painted with the same facings. I was briefly thinking, however, that I might do each unit with different facings. I mean what if I want to use the force to represent a unit that ISN'T the 35th? If I did each unit in a different colour of facing (Blue, Buff, Green, White, or Yellow - some of the common facing colours at the time in the British army) at least ONE of them would be right. I even had a daft idea of doing regimental colours in each of the different facing colours!? Different facing colours could help differentiate units from each other on the table...?

I guess I have a bit of time to think about it some more. I probably won't get any more of these on the table unit closer to the release date...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

May Games Round Up - I'd wanted to do it last night, but instead sat and watched some TV with Amanda and the kids - we're all down with nasty colds and no one felt like doing anything other than sitting and doing nothing.

I did get some painting done while "watching". Quite a bit of painting done, actually.

I've had these Warhound Titans since January, and while I've been really excited to get them painted and on the table - well... at least get it painted... I'm not sure when I'll even find anyone that actually wants to face it on the tabletop in 40k - and I don't really have enough other forces to play epic just yet... I've been kind of back and forth on how I want to paint them. Do I do them in some sort of camouflage - like the rest of the Tallarn that it will likely be walking in support of? Do I pick out some brightly-coloured, medieval- knight-like heraldry to paint them in? Some sort of combination (camouflage on the carapace, knight-like heraldry below)? So many of them (and, indeed, many other 40K vehicles and equipment) are painted with large parts in bare metal (or gilded metals), which I'm not really a huge fan of - we've figures out how to paint metal in the 2nd millennium, and for good reasons, how could they have forgotten how in the 41st millennium?

Well, yesterday I had a stroke of inspiration and started painting away on the mighty beast (and the wee one too)! Anyone care to guess what sort of colour-scheme I've come up with? I'm already done the carapace - hopefully I'll have it all finished up by the end of the weekend or early next week...

I have to admit, part of the desire to get this done is also because of the immanent release of Imperial Knights: Renegade, which I'm actually considering picking up, but couldn't bear to do so if I hadn't gotten the titan painted yet!

Clubmen, Rangers and Critters

A few more items rolling off the workbench…

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

“Clubmen” from Warlord Games. These would be villagers who volunteered to defend their village against raiders – from either side – looking for “contributions” for their respective armies.

British Rangers from the Seven Years War (we’ll be reading about that soon enough) – so I thought I’d get some figures ready for Song of Drums and Tomahawks. – figures are from Old Glory.

Eagle (Reaper Miniatures) and one more Giant Rat (Games Workshop).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Played another game of Frostgrave last night, hopefully I’ll get a quick game report up today sometime… 

Black Powder #2

John popped by again last night to have another go at Black Powder…

[New France, 1758]

SITUATION

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

SCENARIO

Another simple meeting engagement…. Except with more stuff!

To play a bigger game I actually added in a unit of individually based figures - which, because it's Black Powder and basing doesn't really matter so much, I can do...

FORCES

British

C-in-C General Angus Bottomwallow

1st Brigade
42nd Regt. of Foote (Royal Highland Regiment)
78th Regt. of Foote (Fraser’s Highlanders)
35th Regt. of Foote
1 Battery Light Artillery

2nd Brigade
48th Regt. of Foote.
Louisburg Grenadiers
Allied Indians (Small, Skirmish)
1 Battery Light Artillery


French

C-in-C Le Marquis d’Hiver

Premier Brigade
R. du Langedoc
R. de La Sarre
R, de La Reine
1 Battery Light Artillery

L-Autre Brigade
R. du Guyenne
Royal Roussilon
Corps de Cavalrie
1 Battery Light Artillery



THE GAME

We diced for who decided who set up on which side and who went first – in both cases me!


(Remember: Click on the pics to see a larger version!)


Overview of the battlefield. There was woods in both our deployment zones which caused us to start somewhat bunchedup, and not quite opposite each other. On the left are the French. At the right of the French line is Le Premier Brgade (in the foreground), and on the left (further away) is L’Autre Brigade. On the right of the pic is the British. The 2nd Brigade is on the left of the British line (closest) and the first is on the right (further).

As with last game, the first order I issued – a brigade order – full speed ahead – scoreed three moves and two of my regiments charged clear across the table – causing some distress for Jean and his Frenchmen!


At the end of my first move; the 48th Regt. of Foote and the Louisburg Grenadiers have advanced nearly clear across the table. The Indians have advanced to the front edge of the woods overlooking the open area that is presumably to be the field of battle. The Brigades guns have moved up but failed to deploy.

Further back the 78th Regt. of Foote (Fraser’s Highlanders) and the 35th Regt. of Foote have advanced in line to the hedge, the guns have moved up and deployed, but the 42nd Regt. of Foote (Royal Highland Regiment) – which was deployed in column and on the road (!?) – failed to move…!?


The 48th Regt. of Foote and the Louisburg Grenadiers causing much anxiety for Le Premier Brigade and Le Marquis d’Hiver (in his fancy purple coat).


The 1st Brigade plus the 2nd brigades light guns (in the bottom left) and General Angus Bottomwallow and his attendants.

I think the first brgades guns got off a long range shot at Royal Roussilon and caused them to be disordered (though they suffered no casualties).


General Angus Bottomwallow and his attendants. I’m not entirely sure why his server is turned away….? Perhaps he abhors bloodshed…?


The end of the French first move (much like our previous game), most of them having failed to act! R. du Guyenne did managed to pass by the wavering Royal Roussilon and timidly advance before the might of the British Army (which are actually mostly Scottish… but whatever…). The Corps de Cavalrie managed to advance in column of march, but failed to reform into line. The battalions light guns also moved forward and deployed.

Le Premier Brigades guns did manage to deploy but it took direct intervention by the Le Marquis d’Hiver, the commander in chief, to get it done.


The 48th Regt. of Foote takes fire from the French guns.


British guns take fire from their French opposites.


L’Autre Brigade – slightly out-of-focus, but managing better than Le Premier Brigade…


The British Indian allies and the Louisberg Grenadiers advance to protect the right of the British line, should the French Premier Brigade ever managed to advance out of their hiding place behind the woods.


The first British Brigade managed to form an nice big pretty line. Sadly there was no such pretty formations opposite them to exchange gentlemanly volleys of fire as the French clusterf@ck in the woods continued well into the third turn.


Another picture of the pretty line, executed by smart-looking precision drilled soldiers.


The British line again and the motley French shambling towards them.


The 48th by this point had advanced to within musketry range and was exchanging shots with R. Du Languedoc and takng fire from the French guns.


L’Autre Brigade attempting to advance toward their British betters.


More pics of the 48th exchanging fire with the French in their camp… R. de La Reine and R. de La Sarre apparently still in bed!?


The French Corps de Cavalrie stayed in column of march out in the open for a couple turns giving the British a couple opportunities to hammer on them – they had the most amazing luck, however. One turn I scored EIGHT hits and they saved seven of them…


Shocking the hell out of everyone present (including John who was commanding them!?)the French actually charged a not-disordered, not-shaken, supported battalion of Highlanders (yes, HIGHLANDERS!) to their front, unsupported… The Highlanders were apparently so shocked themselves they didn’t manage to score a single hit during closing fire!?

(I think the guns might have been able to get in on that closing fire… I’ll have to look into that)


Anyway, the jocks handed them their asses in close combat and sent the shattered remains of the French battalion scurrying back to their nurse maids.


So desperate was the Brigade commander to get his troops moving (or at least out of enfilading fire) he galloped over to the Corps de Cavalrie, shouted; “Follow me!” and led them off behind the hedge….


R. de La Reine and R. de La Sarre eventually got moving (around urn four or five) and formed a line and exchanged fire with the Indians and the Louisburg Grenadiers. La Reinne was disordered by the Grenadiers fire.


Then the Grenadiers were disordered….


The Brtish First Brigade firing on L’autre Brigades remaining battalion of Infantry and their light guns.


In something akin to military enthusiasm the French cavalry managed to charde the Grenadiers from behind (just like a Frenchmen…) and La Sarre managed to charge (the much smaller, skirmishing) unit of Indian allies. The Indian allies were driven off (put off by the smell of perfumes, mostly) and the French cavalry was driven back behind their safe little hedge.

(Hmmm… the Grenadiers probably could have had some traversing fire on La Sarre…)


Despite being in a nice orderly line the 1st brigade was feeling like they didn’t have much to shoot at (those unsporting Frenchmen all running away and hiding…) so the 78th Regt. of Foote (Fraser’s Highlanders) peeled off to go give some support to the 2nd Brigade as they looked like they might be in a bit of a spot of bother…

Shortly thereafter R. Du Guyenne, having suffered a number of turns of withering fire from the British 1st Brigade (and being disordered pretty much from the word go) finally gave up and retired from the field of battle thus breaking L’Autre Brigade.

Of course then we realized previous turn the British 2nd brigade, technically, should have been “broken” as well as the Indian allies had left (as if the British would have cared, those unreliable skirmishing fiends!) and the 35th started a turn shaken… ah well.

(mental note – rallying units that are shaken or close to… probably a good idea..!)


We called it a night and decided the British had delivered a morale-crushing defeat to the French… or did we call it a “minor victory”… Whatever….

The game moved quickly enough – despite pretty much doubling the forces used in out previous game. I’m not going to add any more stands of half stands to any of my Seven Years War units to make them be able to more easily make the various formations allowed in the game. Now that we’re getting the hang of it I could see getting into it and playing it a fair bit – with the right people. Maybe not a game I think I’d take to a convention and introduce to multiple new players… but maybe that’s just because I don’t’ really have a handle on all the rules – with a few more plays and reading the rules again I might be on top of it enough… we shall see..

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I could tell you, but then you’d know… and it’s a secret… (shhhhh! Don’t mention THE WAR!!)

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…

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 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!?)

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…

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.