Epic beginnings

The Prussians showed up on Tuesday, and after a couple of evenings of snipping sprues I have them all based up. A few of the strips were wobbly in their bases, and a couple were completely loose, so I've dabbed those with a tiny bit of superglue to keep them in place.

Last night I decided to paint a trial unit, and was pretty happy with how they turned out.

In column

In line

These guys are the first battalion of the 18th Line that fought at Plancenoit. Sometimes they are depicted with pink facings and this would fit with the old pre-1807 18th line, but this battalion was drawn from a reserve East Prussian unit, and the likelihood is that they would have had red facings. The legend is that they threw away their stocks while marching towards Ligny which is why they were given pink collars afterwards, and this would seem to indicate that they weren't pink at the time. The regiment has no known flag that I could find, so I used the flag of the 8th, as it is black and white and stereotypically Prussian.

What I love about the Epic range is that this is a unit of eighty figures! They feel and look more like a battlaion than 16 men on four bases. And they were still able to be completed in one evenings' worth of panting. 

Pendraken 10mm, Warlord Epic Battles, Venexia 15mm

When it comes to the size of the figures, they are much closer to 15mm than 10mm, as you can see from the comparison above. In fact, some of the 15mm figures produced in the 70s and 80s would probably be about the same size as the Epic figures.

The French and British are on their way, it takes around 3 weeks for stuff to arrive from the UK at the moment. I am still unsure as to what rules to use. I've used Black Powder before, most recently with the American Civil War, but I remain unconvinced for Napoleonics. The representation of skirmishers is always the biggest issue I have with Napoleonic rules, and Black Powder is no exception to this. Alternative options are Lasalle, Bataille Empire, Shadows of the Eagle and Drums and Shakos Large Battles, but I don't know if any of them are going to suit me better than Black Powder - especially when I plan to play a lot of solo games.

Earlier in the week I also painted another 3 figures for Marvel Crisis Protocol:

Juggernaut

She Hulk

Modok

A few powerhouses in there. Also, today I saw the first full shots of the upcoming Sentinels for MCP. They will definitely be my next purchase for the game!

Next week I hope to have another Epic unit completed, and I also have Rogue, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver on the painting tray.

Nate

I've been painting, not posting

And even less gaming - nothing since the Pikeman's Lament game. It has been rather hectic this end of the second term, as it usually is. Nevertheless, painting has happened. All of the Great War Germans are now complete, and residing in Hastings with Craig.  Not the original plan, but I've made the decision that there will be no more 15mm for me. Figures will be 28mm or larger, and I will focus mostly on lower level games using, for the most part, the various iterations of the Lion Rampant system. With that in mind, here are the first figures for the Peninsular War using rebels and Patriots:

Voltigeurs - the only completed French unit at the moment.

60th Rifles - a bunch of Germans in the Royal North American Regiment of the British Army - what's not to love?

Light Infantry unit of the 88th Connaught Rangers. I probably had some relations in there somewhere.

When I play Rampant I don't for a second think of these forces as one figure represents one man. In my mind the scale is about 1:10, and these units represent a company (or for the French, half a company). This means that my planned armies are several companies of the 88th foot supported by a company of the 60th and a squadron of the 1st King's German Legion Hussars. Facing them will be several companies of the 18th Ligne supported by Dragoons - not too sure which regiment yet.

I've also put together the first few figures of Aussie Bushrangers. This is using the Legends of the Old West rules in an Aussie setting. For some reason I've always had a thing for this period - Ned Kelly has a lot to answer for.

The Bushrangers Osprey arrived the same day as the Rebels and Patriots rules. instant inspiration.

The unarmoured bush rangers

The Ryan brothers in their home-made armour

Close ups of the rest of the gang

All painted with base, wash and a few highlights here and there

Let's not forget that the second edition of Test of Honour is coming. I haven't even played the first edition yet, but I'm readying my forces, including this 4ground scenery which I bought on sale from Mighty Ape.

The whole farmstead

The forces of Yumisushi wonder whether the beef or the chicken would make a better dinner.

While these Tomuchisake warriors just want to go home for a drink.

The cavalry is painted (although the bases haven't been done), and came that way second hand. I just need to paint the infantry now. Some cherry blossom tress are now in order I feel.

Mortal Gods just released some Persian cards to celebrate 3000+ members of their facebook group, so I ordered some Crusader and Warlord Persians, which I'm keen to paint up as soon as they hit these shores.

I'm planning on continuing Grimgob's saga in the school holidays. That's only a week away, so this is enough of a post until then. I'm hoping that the rest of the figures for the bushrangers project will be complete by then.

Nate

Star Wars Legion, Games night and other sundry items

Craig is playing Star Wars Legion at NICon as I type, using an Imperial army that I finished painting on Monday for him.

The AT-ST is so big he doesn't fit my backdrop...

The full Imperial force, consisting of two starter sets and and AT-ST

Craig was finishing the basing off on these. In this photo it is masked for the airbrush.

I still have the rebels to paint for him, which I'll get to relatively soon. In the meantime I have a parcel of goodies to paint for Geoff - just a couple of dozen figures which I've already undercoated and done some prep on. They should appear on here over the next couple of weeks. In return he sent me a spare copy of the Trafalgar Warhammer rules.

A blast from the past. I got rid of my old copy a couple of years ago when Dan and shifted and plans to do a few ships evaporated.

Because I've just invested in these:

1:2400 Napoleonic ships from Tumbling Dice. This is the Victory, and it is tiny. There's another 15 ships where this came from, but Napoleonics is next year's project.

I also found time to finish off a unit of the British 43rd Foot for Muskets and Tomahawks.

My shiny toy soldiers

The French Indian War project is all going to be painted in glossy toy soldier style. I love the aesthetic, and there is something very pleasing about handling gloss varnished figures that I can't really explain.

I was sick for a couple of days this week, and couldn't get any painting done, but when I came out of my malaise I was able to finish off a few bits and pieces, including the ACW naval elements.

The Union fleet of the Chickatachee river campaign (yes, that is made up).

The two timberclads

The USS Choctaw repurposed for this campaign. Big and ugly. I love these boats!

Adding to the preparations for the Chickatachee campaign, I finished a few artillery pieces and some cavalry (mounted and dismounted). At the same time my order turned up from Hovels.

A farm set, two buildings which will be able to represent a town, and a timber mill. Yes, I intend that there will be trouble at t'mill... (full marks if you get the reference).

 And Geoff also supplied me with this Spartan Games Uncharted Seas fortress. It's a bit over the top, and in smaller scale than the other buildings, but I still plan to use it on the same table - just like I'm using 1/600 boats with 15mm figures. It's all represnetative.

This'll be a hard nut to crack.

So last night was Games night, and saw Mike and I have our first game of Burrows and Badgers. It took  along time to play, not because the rules are difficult, but because, as always, it was very easy to get distracted with food, drink and conversation. But we did get there in the end.
Mike was rather underprepared, but his Rogues warband was drawn up and put in the field against my Wildbeasts in an Open Battle scenario.

 

The first moves of the game saw my animals move forward to try and secure the centre of the board.

Mike deployed his leader, Arnold von Schwartzenotter and his Weasel (unnamed), in the centre of the board. The rest of the rogues had to make their way up from their deployment area.

The view from the position of Angry McAngus, the Shrew-zerker. He was chomping at his axe (literally) to get over that hedge and into combat.

Otter and Weasel move into combat with wildcat and sparrow. The combat in the centre heats up. Hunny Bunny the archeress slips around the side and puts an arrow into Hamish McFeatherface's (the sparrow if you hadn't worked that out) behind. Wee Wullie the dormouse takes aim at her with his sling, but fails to gain vengeance.

The Rogues are not rolling the greatest and being held up by terrain.

In one turn things begin to turn. Fiona McAcorn, the Squirrel Witch, casts a curse on von Schwartzenotter, rolling a perfect dice to do so. Then Hamish attacks the otter with another perfect roll. The Rogue leader is struck down! In his place the Fennec fox charges forward.

At the same time Hunny Bunny is attacked and removed by Tam the mole and Angus the shrew.

Despite a small victory over Hamish by the Mouse knight, Gordon McWhiskas the Wildcat seals the game with a devastating blow on his Weasel opponent.

Burrows and Badgers is a cool game, and led to much mirth as we played. It is unpredictable, and the lowliest shrew can take out a large character with luck and good use of combinations. Mike is off to revamp his rogues warband - he didn't get a chance to read the magic rules before making decisions last night, and this wasn't a campaign game as a result, just a chance to try out the rules. Everyone loved the figures, which are beautifully sculpted, and a joy to paint. There is more that we need to learn to use properly - like hiding for one - but by and large I'd recommend anyone to invest in Badgers and Burrows if you are the remotest bit keen.

Next to us on the table Paul, Terry, and John were playing a 28mm Napoleonic game with Black Powder. The distances were shortened to accommodate the fact that we use a normal 4' wide table. John started by charging with his cavalry - just for a change. They had a lot of fun, although at times they found the Black Powder rules (which we haven't played in years) more than a little counter-intuitive. Below are random pictures of the battle.

There was time at the end of the evening to have a game of Shadespire which Adam had brought along. unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of his nicely painted figures because I was too busy trying to climb the steep learning curve, but by the end of the game I had the hang of it (I think). It was a cool little game, and well worth playing if you get the chance.
Shane and Jeremy had a small 500 point 40K skirmish, that was pretty much completed before we got Burrows and Badgers set up, so I didn't get any photos of that either.
Overall it was a great night, with lots of laughter, food, banter, drink and a lovely single malt that I couldn't partake of because I was driving.

Nate

A battalion of French

These 16 figures seemed to take ages to paint, and not just because I was doing a bit here and there in between other painting. The problem with them was that I had to keep revisiting colours. So after painting white trousers, I then had to paint the roll on the knapsack grey and go back and paint the straps white, only to then need to paint the cuffs and collar red and then paint the piping white again. I need to really think through the order that I paint the various colours.
I'm also not sure about the final effect. I should have gone with black or dark grey under the white, as the light grey doesn't bring out the details enough. See what you think:

Advancing in attack column

From the other side

And in line formation

They just don't seem to pop, for some reason. I'm sure the British will, but these guys don't. I'll use London grey as the base coat for the white and be much more picky when highlighting the detail with the next unit. Not that I'll be getting to them anytime soon - far too much else to paint at the moment. The Peninsular War is the 2019 project, I just did these chaps as a trial.

Nate

Giving Up...

No, not on wargaming, but on trying to make plans. After trying to launch project management last year I have seen some fellow bloggers able to stick very well to producing their long-term plans. But me, I'm just a butterfly. Let me explain.

This has lead to...

It began with painting some West German Leopards. I decided that it was time to really get into Team Yankee. At the same time I have been painting Craig's Soviets, and really enjoying this. So needless to say, the West German army has been expanded and is now my priority project as my small gaming circle gets more excited about playing Team Yankee.

...this, which in turn has lead to...

And, of course I won't ever just collect one side of a conflict, so have bought a Soviet army of my own to contest the West Germans.

...this.

Goodbye Frederick the Great, hello Wellington

At Christmas I began to consider that I wanted to play Napoleonics, particularly the Peninsular War. In order to make sure that all figures are the same company I like to try to buy big projects all at once. You never know when companies might go belly-up or the exchange rate drops suddenly. So to fund this I thought of selling the Seven Years War collection. Upon returning home from holiday I changed my mind, thinking that I'd put so much work into the 7YW collection that I really shouldn't part with it, even if there was another similar period that I liked better. Then I reappraised the situation a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't resist the call of the Peninsula any longer and to make a long story short have sold the 7 Years War collection and already reinvested in the Peninsula. All done, can't take it back now.

Who can resist gaming with Sharpe and the boys?

This of course means the end of the Seven Years War campaign and of the Zorndorf anniversary project. In its place? Well I doubt I'll get the Napoleonics finished by the end of the year. An ACW campaign, on the other hand, is a distinct possibility, and I might try and get more DBA armies painted. But no firm plans. That is what I'm giving up on. I'm just going to paint stuff when I feel like it, and not put any pressure on getting any particular thing completed. Of course, my Team Yankee West Germans are to be finished by the end of this month, so short term goals are all good.

Nate

Corunna - 6 x 6 Commands and Colors first game

Not a long post, this one, as I think multiple images of block counters is probably a bit boring.
Last night Mike came around and we played through the Corunna scenario using Commands and Colors. This was our third clash working through the scenario book, and I duly set up Mike with the British and myself as the French. Having won both Rolica scenarios as the French, I thought that maybe Corunna might go a bit better for the Brits, being as it is a classic British 'victory' - you know, like Mons and Dunkirk...

Deployment. The British artillery not being in a position to fire from the beginning was going to be a handicap.

 My plan was to feint on the flanks and pound the British centre into submission before an all-out assault. As I needed to get 6 victory banners to win, my concern was in making sure that I concentrated on destroying whole units and moving units reduced to one block out of harm's way.
By and large this was a successful strategy, although it was closer than I had bargained for. At the end of the game I had 6 victory banners to Mike's 4. A quick look at the map below shows how the strategy worked.

The British centre is denuded, the French right has held the British left, and French units reduced to one block have been largely removed to hide behind the main line.

Hopefully we can get another game in soon, but two 6 x 6 games in 2 days is enough to recall the heady days of January!

Nate

You may be cool...

...but you'll never be Napoleon conquering Egypt on the back of a camel cool!

'Avance, mes enfants!'

In between setting exams and marking assessments this week I sneaked a couple of hours with the paintbrush to paint some of Lancashire Games' Napoleon in Egypt range.
In my last order I picked up the pack of French generals and the French archaeologists vignette pack. When they arrived I just couldn't wait to get paint on them, and stopped doing my job, and also interrupted painting Craig's German grenadiers, to get them done.

Napoleon on said camel, led by a local entrepreneur.

A better view of the camel guide

'Dig there, my good man.'

'Why don't you try picking up a shovel?'

'I just dug this up. Want to make a sketch?'

'Why not? I have no idea what it means though.'

Not hot enough to put up the parasol yet.

The archaeologist pack. Missing is a French Grenadier that acts as a guard, but I just wanted the archaeologist bases for my plans.

I loved these figures, and they were very easy to paint and are full of life. My decision as to whether to invest in the Italian campaign or Egyptian campaign has been finally sealed. I just have to save up the $200 to get the figures that I need for the project!

Nate