Napoleonic Goodness

This morning I popped down to the Polly to join Quint and Ade who are play-testing their upcoming Napoleonic rules. Apart from the obvious pleasures of a table full of gorgeous painted 28mm Napoleonics, it is always interesting to be in on the thought processes and get some understanding of (and hopefully some input into) how a particular rules set comes about. Quint generously gave me the Austrian cavalry on the right wing to 'command' and I resisted the urge to send them charging in straight away (I struggle to 'get' cavalry, usually abuse them badly)

My Prussians were too late arriving today to appear on the table, but hopefully will get an airing soon.

The battle did not get too far as there was quite a bit of debate (all positive and constructive), and explanation of concepts.. however, an enjoyable way to spend a few hours on a Saturday!

I took some pictures on my phone, not expecting much.. they actually didn't come out too badly, so I shall share here.. I can't claim credit for any figures or terrain, everything is Ade and Quint..

Fire and Fury in 6mm

Tuesday night's game was a first for me.. the first game of Fire and Fury in around 20 years (I have the rules, bought them new in 1990 but only ever played them through solo once or twice at best)..Scrivs brought his collection of 6mm ACW and had set up a scenario.. being hopelessly ignorant of ACW and blaming the heatwave for my short term memory loss, I can't remember the name of it!

We rolled to randomly allocate sides and I ended up with the US. My job was essentially to effect a fighting retreat. A line of troops started the day in an advanced position but were under orders to retreat to the south of a point on the table, whilst some reserves arrived from the rear, with orders to advance no further than that southerly point. The rebs, meanwhile, were to come on and basically attack!

It was a very enjoyable game, definitely a close run thing, with total VPs at the end of the game giving the Confederates a narrow victory. I was pleased with the performance of my rather reluctant and average boys overall.. just about managed to get back in some order and form a line before becoming overwhelmed by the Reb advance.

The rules were far easier than I remember them being too, which made the game that bit more fun as I wasn't having to spend the whole game learning the stuff.

We were both on phones, so no great pictures, especially with the armies being 6mm, but a couple here..

US guns making a dash for home, being hotly pursued by the Confederate lines

The table from the Confederate end, the Union forces can be seen  forming a line up near the farm

The far left if the Union line, Stahel trying to get his cavalry dismounted

The Rebs breakthrough on the last turn, much whooping and a-hollering no doubt!

Shiny Toy Town soldiers

Apart from the flag, my little 'unit' of Toy Town soldiers is done. I really like these. These evening they paraded to salute the evening sun..

I just need to finish off the gun and crew, and a couple of lancers now.
I have no idea what I'll do with these really. Far too pricey to buy proper 'armies', nice as they are, but sometimes you've got to just do stuff because you like it.

Missed most of Partizan on Sunday due to a poor night on Saturday, but did pop down for an hour or so and caught up with a few friends.

Yesterday had a very enjoyable first game of 'Bag the Hun' with Scrivs.. I can see me painting teeny tiny planes in the near future!

Simon Miller also pointed me toward Tom Fuss blog 'Skull and Crown' where he describes his up and coming galley rules and pretty special wooden ship models - this looks like fun!

Moving Pictures?

Something a little different this time. I do occasionally post videos relating to model rail stuff.. However,  this evening whilst I had my Romans out for a little box-shuffling, I thought I'd video them..

Generals and Heroes

If productivity (hobby-wise) comes in peaks and troughs, my wargaming activity of late has been somewhere on the valley's side. Just one of those things, I think, I'm somewhere in between bouts of inspiration. In fairness, I've also been fairly busy lately starting a new day job and cracking on with a model rail project.

Anyway, one little project I managed to get finished off today, is the painting and basing of a selection of generals and heroes for my Republican Roman army.*

*I say 'finished', although of course, seeing cruel close up photos means that there are still some finishing touches to be done! 

Too many chiefs?

I already had a few 1st Corps mounted generals on round 60mm bases, but thought it might be good to have some commanders mounted up on square bases to represent 'Attached' generals when playing To The Strongest! (and use the circular based chaps for 'detached')

The foot command figures here are Aventine, and despite my worst efforts to paint them, I think they are bloody lovely figures, full of character. I selected figures that look to be attired in a slightly more exotic 'Allied' look.

 

1st Corps figs

Aventine Heroes

I've done some Aventine Roman and Allied cavalry too, so I ought to post some pictures of them next!

Dat Gloria Vites!

"Glory Gives Strength" I honestly don't know whether that is the actual proper Hogg family motto.. but the internet says it is, so it must be true!

I've been waiting for some pending commercial and fancy-shmancy genuine shield transfers to become available .. but that doesn't seem to be happening. I put off tackling anything myself, because I knew that as soon as I did, they would appear in the web-shop, so today I am testing that theory!

Recently I remembered that I had a sheet of transfer paper that I'd bought from eBay some time ago, (turns out that was 'clear'. You can get 'white' transfer paper too).

I put together a graphic of the shield pattern that I wanted and printed off onto my inkjet. The quality of the print is not brilliant, but not bad. A couple of passes of  a matt sealant and these were good to go. 

This afternoon I nervously prepared my desk, cut out and dunked the first transfer, wondering if the ink would lift off the paper. It held just fine and went on to the shield better than some commercial products I have used in the past.

So, despite mis-calculating and not quite printing off enough, I now have my Lion Rampant retinue properly 'badged'.

Once these are really dry, they will get a coat of varnish and then some touching up to blend the transfers in where necessary.

Not up to professional standards, but I have the pleasure of making something myself, and a retinue which now bears my own family crest. Pleased.

Old School Rules!

Haven't been painting or keeping the blog up much just lately .. mostly because I've been quite busy playing with trains..

Last week Ade and Quint joined Scrivs and I for another Punic game of To The Strongest! The Romans sadly reverted to their original brittle state and promptly lay down in front of the Carthaginians. Much as I am enjoying Simon's rules, it is becoming a bit of a theme that the Romans fight a desperate defence from the start and I mostly try to lose with grace rather than consider the prospect of victory. I'm not sure that means that anything needs changing, it's just as likely that I'm not using my troops properly!

Last night I had a very enjoyable introduction to "Field of Battle' Horse and Musket rules, guided by Steve and using his amazing collection (just a small part) of 'traditional' toy soldiers. Sadly I have never rolled so many 1's and 2's in one game before! Considering we were using a variety of dice, up to D20, I think I rolled an 8 once, otherwise pretty consistently below 5. A little frustrating for Steve, who was trying to demonstrate the rules and these rolls kept bringing up rather extreme results. Also seeing his newly painted Russian grenadiers leave the table on the first turn due to some pinpoint Prussian artillery fire didn't help!

Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to play with these beautiful 40mm home-cast figures. It felt like a game straight of one of the war-games 'classics' that I used to borrow from the library as a teenager. The rules seemed a lot less complicated than at first impression too, and have some nice mechanics.

Not great photos as I was using my phone, but you can see a lot more of these on Steve's site.