Things wot I know I don't like

An exercise in navel gazing today, as I take a look at certain things in the hobby that I have an adverse reaction to. This isn't intended to be a shot at anyone, just some musings on things that I've noticed or played with in the hobby that just don't do it for me. Wargaming is a broad school, and this blog can attest to my eclectic nature in terms of what I do like, which is varied and not easily pigeon-holed. But there are some things that I'm not particularly fussed about.

#1 - Big Battalions:
I'll be honest - in horse and musket games in general, but Napoleonics in particular, there is a tendency towards big battalions - particularly as shown in the wargames press - and I don't like it. I'm turned off by units of 24+ figures on both a practical and an aesthetic level. Since I started wargaming with plastic 1/72 figures, a battalion has been 16 figures. Sometimes I have extended this out to 18 figures (Marlburian for instance), or lowered it to 12 (ACW for instance), but that is really the limit of my Horse and Musket playground. When I see 36 figure units all I can think is that there is actually 2 units worth of painting there, and what a waste it is putting them all into one unit.  It also starts to limit manouevre especially with 28mm figures, and aesthetically I find a table crammed with large units sitting bumper to bumper (to take a phrase that is a common criticism of Flames of War) to be unhistorical and messy. Not all (in fact hardly any) Napoleonic battles were as crowded as Waterloo and Borodino.

A recent game at the club with just too many figures cluttered up on the table for my liking.

There are many who feel that big battalions should be the pinnacle of wargaming, and the hobby would be poorer without them. I agree with neither of these points. Obviously.

Incidentally, I'm not against big armies, just unwieldy and ugly masses of figures masquerading as a single unit.

#2 - Aerial (Space) games:
I love Star Wars and collected a few X-Wing models, but the games just left me cold. Basically I've never found a spaceship (or aerial) game that I really enjoy. I've tried Wings of War (Glory), and like X Wing, it was OK, but not what I want to spend my gaming time doing.

Tried it. Didn't like it. Models are fantastic though.

#3 - DBMM/R:
I love DBA. Absolutely love it, and DBA 3.0 is the best yet. But DBMM and DBR leave me cold. I tried DBR for a few years, and the guys I played against were really cool, but the rules themselves I found geometric and cold. It seemed that a degree in history was not as useful as a degree in maths, and to me that is not something that should happen in a wargame.

# 4 - Games where the meta matters:
The thing that turns me off about many games is the list-building aspect of them. 40K, Warmachine, etc leave me cold. Now I do enjoy Flames of War and Team Yankee, which do have their own meta, but this is restricted to some extent by history. I'm unlikely to come up against an army composed entirely of British TOGs for instance. It also has a lot to do with the people I game with, many of whom are more interested in the history than the points. Not that I don't like points, but only as a guideline as opposed to building a killer list.

#5 - Overly detailed rules:
I've tried a lot of different games and rules, and I keep coming back to the idea of KISS (keep it simple stupid). If I have to work out which type of canteen a character in a game needs to take, then it is too complicated. If I have to check morale on a unit 3 times in a turn on 3 different tables (test to stand, test to fire at chargers, test to break upon losing melee), then this isn't a set of rules I want to play. I really wanted to like Infinity, for instance, because the figures are fantastic and Mike was really keen. But I found the rules to be opaque and the game just wasn't enjoyable. Not for me, move on.

Sorry, Mike.

#6 - Horses hooves:
I think that there is something that everyone dreads painting. For me, it is horse hooves. There is nothing rational about this. I just don't like doing it, especially on 15mm figures.

And that's about it. People will disagree about some of this stuff, but we all have our own take on the hobby. I'm sure my love of skirmish games and solo gaming would be irksome to some people. Just how it is. I might have a think and publish another post about things that I like, but that would have to be a very long list, surely?

Nate

Barbarian warband

I haven't painted anything for my Song of Broken Legions game so far this year. Nor have I played any battles. But I've had these beautiful Celtos figures sitting around for ages now, and before I finish Craig's next wave of stormtroopers I thought I'd get them finished.

The full warband

The hero (reminds of Slaine), and a battlemaiden wearing next to nothing.

Druid and chap with a magic spear.

A couple of champions.

Some expendables with spears.

Some more expendables, but this time with a bit of armour and shields.

These are perfect to face a Roman expedition into the heart of druid territory in order to recover some mystical object or other. I'll try and get a game with them soon.

In other news, The Perry Zulu Wars figures have proved too tempting for me to resist. I'm putting together a couple of forces for the Men Who Would Be Kings rules, and here are a couple of test elements that I've done so far.

All the black on the figures are actually German grey washed with a black wash.

The skin colour is chocolate brown with army painter dark tone ink wash and then highlighted with chocolate brown.

I went with the blue facings of the 13th Light Infantry, rather than the usual green of the 24th. I'm looking more at Woods' column to base my forces on.

I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out to far.

I'm going to add some Natal Naval Contingent and the Natal Carbineers (because of their cool spikey helmets) to the Brits. I still need to get one more box of Zulus so I've got 6 units.

We played a game at John's a couple of weeks back as well. The first Team Yankee game since our little tournament in April. My Soviets went up against the Brits and John's yanks took on my West Germans commanded by Paul. Both of my armies lost, which just shows how crap I am when it comes to the meta of any game. I hate list building and just tend to take what I like. Mike has a habit of hiding for most of the game, and I need to learn to be a bit more patient. My natural inclination is always to move forward, but in the open the Russian tanks don't last long.

The only picture I took shows my hinds doing damage, but not fast enough for my army to survive.

I've currently got some stormtroopers and ACW heavy artillery on the painting tray. There's 2 weeks of holiday coming up and I'd like to try and use it to get all of Craig's Star Wars legion and my 15mm ACW completed.

Nate

Moss troopers, werewolves and Ned Kelly wannabes

This is the latest round of painting for Geoff, and again it is a bit of an eclectic mix.
First up, some Perry Moss troopers:

I used the beautiful illustrations from the Osprey Border Reivers MAA for inspiration regarding colours, while trying to make them suitably drab at the same time.

And all 5 together

Then it was on to some Warlord Games Werewolves:

These were fun figures to paint.

The view from the rear

Finally, there are these Artizan pulp constables in armour, basically Ned Kelly rip offs, and they are seen in this photo with a captured German zombie officer (can you capture a zombie? Would you want to?).

So that was a fun lot of painting to do, and they'll be heading to the South Island on Monday.

Now I have some 28mm Warlord Games Napoleonic French artillery and a batch of rebel alliance troopers to paint. I may try and sneak a bit of my own painting in there too.

Nate

A bit of khaki

Just finished the first dozen figures I'm painting for Geoff, some WWI BEF, Foundry Home Guard and a 20mm para.

 I'm struggling with eyes at the moment. I just can't seem to buy a brush that holds the paint and keeps a tip.

Still need to paint the chinstrap on this guy

Just working on some Moss troopers at the moment.

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

Some painting

It has been a while since I posted, but I have managed to get some painting done in that time. First up, some Imperials for Craig's Star Wars Legion force, led by Darth Vader himself.

Bringing out the red reflection from the lightsaber on Darth's skirt.

The whole force so far. Craig bought two core sets, so I have this much again to paint for the Imperials.

Some extras for the Featherstone ACW project. Here we have Louisiana Tigers, Hampton's Legion, the 1st Virginia cavalry and dismounted Texan cavalry.

On the other side of the board we have the 112th Illinois Mounted rifles, 5th New York Zouaves, 4th Michigan Zouaves, and the 112th dismounted.

Also getting some love is the Great War collection. I'm just plodding through with a few bases at a time, in between other things.

A couple of Peter Pig Ironclads for the planned American Civil War campaign.

Mike's warband for Burrows and Badgers. Hopefully we'll have a game soon.

Battle scene between Mike's critters and my Wild Beasts. I love these figures!

So plenty of painting being done. The ACW forces are looking quite complete. There are 4 battalions of infantry, 2 mounted and dismounted cavalry and some siege guns etc left to do, and then I can start to look at my planned Chickatachee river campaign. I did manage to have another game with the Featherstone style rules and ironed out a couple of kinks. Troops no longer test morale from firing. I figured it was unnecessary. A good general will pull back his troops to try to rally their fighting spirit rather than lose his whole Brigade.

Played on a 3'x 3' table this was scenario 28 from One Hour Wargames. The Union forces had to take the church with 4 units. The Confederates on the hill could only activate one unit and could not activate another until the first  had been destroyed. The other two Confederate units were defending the Church.

The first unit activated was the 1st Virginia cavalry. They had enough move to charge straight into the 100th Pennsylvania, and beating them in combat they rolled a 1 for morale and ran off the board. Not a good start for the Union.

The 17th Michigan turned to face the cavalry while the 5th New York Zouaves and 29th Massachusetts moved on the Church. 

The cavalry were forced to fall back.

The 1st Virginia dismounted and in the ensuing firefight the boys from Michigan rolled a 1 for morale, which saw them rout off the board. This was when I realised that it was silly testing the morale from firing alone. The next round saw the Louisiana Tigers and the 1st Virginia catch the 29th Massachusetts in a crossfire, and they were whittled down. The Zouaves managed to assault the Church, held by the 3rd Arkansas, and were repulsed, heading off in a disorderly rout.

'Come on boys, lets get out of here!' The Brigade failed its morale (unsurprisingly).

'We seen them off but good!'

The Texan Brigade didn't even need to get off the hill.

I'm hoping that a couple of changes that I've made will make some of the events in this battle a little less likely. I've mentioned removing testing morale from firing, the other thing I've done is give infantry an even better factor against cavalry to represent shooting them off even if they don't get a chance for a long range volley first. Unless being hit in the flank (and admittedly that is what happened in this game), cavalry should have very limited prospects when charging into solid, fresh infantry.

Nate