The Little One and I have had some great games with the Road Wolf rules and I really like the fact, doing it with 6mm cars, that we have a little 40 by 20 cm piece of road that we can take with us wherever we go (more about it here). If you have followed this blog you know that I have a passion for post apocalyptic settings with regards to gaming and I have another ongoing project Mutant 1984 (see more here) that I was going to use the Scrappers rules (another Osprey set) for. However, this project is not progressing very quickly but we will get there one day (I blame the management).
I got Osprey’s latest game Gaslands and it certainly scratches the same kind of itch and since I already had some appropriate vehicles there is very little work involved to get a game going. You can listen to an excellent interview with the author of the rules, Mike Hutchinson, in the latest Meeples and Miniatures podcast (link here) and check out the Gaslands webpage (link here). What immediately appealed to me are the manoeuvre templates that reminds me of the X-wing miniatures game that is an old favourite here at the Roll a lot of Ones game table – although we have not played it for some time.
The backdrop for the game is an alternative Earth where a successful manned mission landed on Mars in 1976 followed by colonisation, secession and eventually a Martian Nuclear Attack in 1999, leading to the collapse of Earth as we knew it. The year is 2018 and in the aftermath of the devastating war the population of Earth is enslaved and is being pacified by ultra-violent blood sports on television. The most popular show is Gaslands that show death races where the ultimate objective is to end up in the prime-time international final and a the chance to win a one-way ticket to Mars to make a new life. What is there not to like?
You can buy the rules and also some nice manoeuvre template, markers and dice from the Gaslands website. You can also make these yourself.
I had a first pass of the rules and I really enjoyed reading them and together with what I have seen in the various videos on YouTube I am hooked – but have not yet played it.
As the Little One and I already have a lot of 6mm cars we decided to do it in this scale using 50% of the measurements (this mean that that you would have to make the measuring sticks yourself and print them out at 50% size) – a 2′ by 2′ (60 by 60cm) playing area in relative terms is the same as playing the rules as written on the recommended 4 by 4 table (using roughly 20mm scales cars). I have started doing a track but have some detailing left and I need to pour some coloured resin in those toxic pits. I suppose the track was laid quickly in some area that could not be utilised by the Martian industrial machine, without excessive remediation. So instead it became a regional lower league Death Race track.
Work in Progress
Some resin to be poured into the ponds and the bridge needs to be tied into the board instead of looking like it has been tossed on top of the pond.
However, one drawback in doing this in 6mm is that it does take away an interesting element of the Gaslands experience, This is about finding a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car and giving it the post-apocalyptic treatment using your old kit box (I actually kind of did a post apocalyptic vehicle last year, but I am not sure it was enforced enough to last for any length of time in a death race, see more about the muddy vehicle here). But then I did some mods to some of the vehicles.
28mm scale Post Apocalyptic Car
I introduced some of the factions I have done to date in previous posts and this blog entry serves as and overview of what I will be using. I also comment on the suitability of some of the vehicles I have bought, to ensure you get something that works together on the tabletop. Having done a lot of “Micro, 6mm. 1/300. 1/285” stuff I know far too well that each manufacturer have their own interpretation of the scale – with human sized individuals ranging from 5mm to almost 8mm, this is the equivalent of using 25mm miniature alongside 40mm ones. In some cases, as we shall see, there are differences between ranges within the same manufacture too. To quote Peter Berry of Baccus (from his FAQ section) “Figure design is an Art, not a Science. Every artist sees things differently, as does every designer.” Of course this is part of the charm, but it can be frustrating if you do want to widen your options.
I hope that what follows will be of some use if you want to get into 6mm Post Apocalyptic vehicular battles and at least show you some of the options available. Please do get in touch should you have any other sources for vehicles or questions and I will update this section. As to ordering more vehicles I think I am more than happy with what I got – for now. Remember that you will only need a handful of vehicles to play the game – this is overkill but that is how we (wish we) roll!
Irregular Miniatures – UK based
I really like the Mad Ron vehicles and the full pack is £8 and will give you 10 ready pimped vehicles – just need to paint them and turn the ignition key. There is also a set of civilian cars (also priced at £8) that are actually the same type of vehicles before they got the combat car treatment – I have used some of these for terrain, etc. Ian is a pleasure to deal with and will normally send out your stuff straight away. Link here.
Here are the Irregular Vehicles, one is missing as it drove into a toxic pit. I painted mine as a faction/gang and therefore used the same colour scheme. To be honest the cheapest option to get going is to buy one of these packs.From the Irregular Civilian Vehicle set. The dead guy next to the Truck is a dead guy from Baccus War of the Spanish succession range. Maybe he was an re-enactor or something? Here are a few others from Irregular (unpainted) that I think work well with the other vehicles, they are MAF5 Open Backed Lorry with Separate Cover, MAF85 Toyota Pick-up Truck, MAF57 Swedish S tank and SIR8 Modern Fire Engine.
Some irregular vehicles that I felt did not really work that well in terms of size, including IKIV1 Beaverette, IKIV2 Armadillo Mobile Pill Box, IKIV3 Cockatrice Flamethrower, IKVI4 Bison Mobile Pill-Box, MAF83 Saxon APC, MAF36 Stalward Lorry and SIR7 Old Fashioned Fire Engine. But maybe some of them will get another chance with some modification.
Microworld Miniatures – US based
I really like these and recently a wave 2 was released — I have one issue and that is that the 1st and the 2nd wave are noticeably different (with the exception of the motorcycles and the Mini-bus). This whole range is very good but I have put most of the wave 1 stuff on the side for now. Steve, who runs Microworld, has done a good job in growing a very extensive range of 6mm stuff, especially Fantasy and Sci-Fi, but also a growing historical renaissance range that is very interesting indeed. The wave 2 stuff works with the Irregular cars that, due to the fact I got them first, is my baseline. Remember that you may have to pay an additional charge on top of your order to get it through customs (I paid a £17 top-up on my order) if you order from the UK – this is not Microworlds doing but part of international trade. Link to the Range here.
Wave 1 – Light Rig, Wasteland Bikers (works well with Wave 2) , Wasteland Buggies, Wasteland Mobile, Wasteland Mini-bus (works well with Wave 2), Wasteland Hot Rods.
Wave 2 – Denizens of the Wasteland 1 and 2.
You can order some of the 1st wave stuff from Vanguard in the UK, but I am not sure if they will carry the 2nd wave stuff (in writing this they only had some wave 1 stuff). Link to them here.
A few of the Wave 2 VehiclesA few more of the Wave 2 vehicles with two mini-buses from Wave 1. Here is a comparison between wave 2 vehicles (painted) and the irregular War Rig compared to the Wave 1 stuff (not including the Mini-bus or the bikes).
Heroics and Ros – UK based
I got a few things from Heroics and Ros as I wanted to create a Police/Military type of faction. The Bushmasters I got luckily work alongside the Irregular and Microworld Wave 2 vehicles (The Bushmaster is a Protected Mobility Vehicle (PMV) and is currently used by armed forces in Australia, Netherlands, Britain and Jamaica). I did buy some more vehicles from Heroics, however most of them are a little bit on the smaller side. Here is a link to H&R.
A few of the BushmastersSome Heroics Honda Motorcycles (IFR3) next to Microworld bikes- did not really work!Some Heroics stuff that did not make it, including G135 – VW Beetle, JM01 – Toyota pick-up, CM04 – GMC Pick up truck, G133 – Opel Blitz Bus, BM34 – 1 ton Land Rover and G175 – Mercedes Staff Car. I really like the Bus and the VW beetle.Heroics BM51 – Foden 6X6 Cargo with the tank from the Microworld War Rig.
Onslaught Miniatures – UK based
My favourite cars in the garage are the armoured Limousines from Onslaught miniatures. They are not the cheapest but they look like they mean business and are beautiful models. Link here.
The Limousines, I added some stowage on one and some figures on another.
In addition I did a bonus blog showing some filler vehicles, i.e. cheap architectual and railway model cars, that can be used for Gaslands and are very cheap, see more here.
Link to blog posting above discussing these models.
I also finished the deathrace track, it is can be found here.
Further pictures of the track can be found in the link above.
/ Hope that was of some use, all the very best. Next time we will discuss a small but important aspect of the Poltava 1709 Battle.
I am a secret fan of the Saxon army during the Great Northern War because they seem to live up perfectly to that idiom of “Live to fight another day”. They successfully avoided a final decisive confrontation with the Swedes for more than 5 years until the Battle of Fraustadt in 1706 (see here). But this may not have led to a peace treaty unless the King (Charles XII, or Karl XII as I prefer to call him), as he did, marched into Saxony and more or less forced the Saxons to the negotiation table. The Saxon army kept its arrogance towards the Swedes during this period and famously the Senior Officers at the Battle of Klissow 1702 (see here) asked the servants to keep Lunch warm as they set out to “crush” the Swedes!. One of the key early confrontations between the Saxons and the Swedes was at the Crossing of the Düna in 1701 (here is the Wikipedia page about the battle).
In a recent blog entry I mentioned this battle when discussing the Twilight of the Sun King’s Second scenario book (see more here). As I said then, I have played versions of this battle with some other rules in the past and have treated the supporting artillery from Riga and the gun boat as off board pieces.
In addition I used a big base and placed some artillery bases on to represent a floating gun battery, but it did not look very impressive. I want to do a refight of this with the Twilight rules but thought it appropriate to make a more inspirational floating gun battery and to pimp up the 10mm boat I got at SELWG a few weeks back (see here). Here is a short note on how I made these. These are 6mm.
The Gun Boat
For pimping up the Gun boat I used some of the Baccus field guns from their early 18th century range (link here) but I cut them down to create the look of guns you would have on a ship as opposed to being dragged around the countryside in your normal artillery train. I was going to add small wheels but felt that it was not needed. I also added some Baccus Artillery crew and a few normal officers and musketeers. I had a few Microworld duelists and a model from their peasant rabble to indicate some civilians on the deck as well (see here). I thought a sack of apples on the deck from the Perfect Six range would seal the deal (see here). I arranged them to show activity on one side only, bombarding the Saxons in their entrenchments.
Apparently it was a 16 gun sloop in reality instead of this 8 gun vessel that probably makes any person “navally” astute turn their stomach inside out – but it works for me.
I then base coated it and painted it up, I did it quickly and I may go over it again when I have time and I also need to add some sails and perhaps a Swedish flag or two – but that is for another time.
Floating Gun Battery
I had seen the following drawing (taken form the Wikipedia page on the crossing, link above) of a floating Gun Battery. However but this kind of model would create a very big footprint, Remember the frontage of a battalion is 60mm (with a front row of 12 No. 6mm, not 150 or so men), the way I have based.
In my searches also saw a the nice floating mortar battery on the eminent League of Augsburg page (see more about this here),
My design is some kind of halfway house between these two designs – with both mortars and field guns and tents as per the original drawing, but shamelessly I stole the viewing platform idea from the League and made my platform roughly the same size.
I used a credit card sized base (a Health Lottery Card), and then some pieces from another card to build the front structure and viewing platform. Glued on three Baccus Mortars in the back, a Baccus tent in the middle (for the gun powder, being protected in case of rain), some cannon ball stacks, and some other stuff from perfect six – barrels and sacks. I then put 3 Baccus field guns in the front and cladded the whole thing with my special spaghetti that looks pretty good as 6mm timber [I have used this material for a number of applications, including snake rail fencing (see here), bridges (see here) and a fort (see here)]. However remember that most spaghetti stuff you find in your local Tesco will not work for 6mm – however pasta called Angel hair or Cappelini seems to be the ones to use. I bought Garofalo Capellini from Amazon in the UK – about £8 for four packs. I kept one for modelling and the rest went to normal consumption. It is fragile, but if you use it like cladding it will work and it does do a recent impression of being timber. I glue it on with super glue and trim it afterwards, I also glued on some Baccus officers and a artillery man on the viewing platform and then cladded this with spaghetti as well.
It painted up nicely and at some point I need to add some more artillery crew to make the base more dynamic, I like the front and the soot, form the firing, around the timber.
Really happy with these and it will be good to see them in action soon. Will need to do some work on a Pontoon bridge and some mobile defenses for the Swedes – as for the miniatures they are proudly standing painted in storage waiting for the gear to be sorted.
I said I was going to do some comparison shots between 6mm Post-Apocalyptic cars, but I am afraid it will be for the blog entry next week.
Following from the last post I have now received the 6mm post apocalyptic stuff I talked about last time, painted a lot of it already (4 “factions”), and I also had a trial game of the Road Wolf Rules with the little one (see more here for a background to this diversion).
I found a few compatibility issues between and within the ranges I used, but I will write about this in a future posting.
Irregular Miniatures Mad Ron Set and Bikes from Microworld Games
This is the first set I painted and this will be two factions – one called the “Metalheads” consisting of metal loving petrol heads with fine combat cars (from Irregular Miniatures) and the other being the “Bikers” (made from Bikes from Microworld apart from two from the Irregular Miniatures Mad Ron set). They work really well together. I have another set of combat cars I will paint up a little more randomly with colour scheme to represent the more Punkish gang, but that is yet to come!.
The Law
This is versions of the Bushmaster and a Truck from Heroics & Ros with an interceptor vehicle from Microworld games (this is the one of their new vehicles). This is some kind of Police force still trying to retain law and order or something like that!
The Mob
These are the more stylish bad bunch driving around in heavy limos (Onslaught Miniatures – order through Vanguard) and some more mobile off-roadish cars to support the main body (from the new Microworld Range). I also include a Bush Master to the column – stowage based on some offcuts and piece from Perfect Six (link here). They are know to offer protection to the various settlement in the wasteland and their Leader is know as Don Key Le Ono.
Tryin Out Road Wolf
As for the Road Wolf Rules, I and the Little One had a go at it (we actually had two games) and we really enjoyed it. We played hunter and hunted scenario and as I said before the cars only do relative moves and the last move every round is done by the road, whereby obstacles that are randomly generated and appears at one end are moved down the board. These obstacles are done as cards, but instead we made bases to represent wrecks, debris, tunnel, oil spills, etc. We had a good time and these rules are really fun and you can download them and all the markers you need here (thanks Sean Patten for these!). The rules works perfectly at this scale and remember the board is 40cm by 20cm at 6mm scale – proper travel sized road battle. We just used a 2cm movement stick and it worked. Yes the bases are bulky and could be improved, but we really had a blast with it as it is. Here as some pictures from one of the games (I had only painted the Metalheads and Bikes at this stage) with the Little One and we got a thumbs up in the end – all is good.
A Meeples and Miniatures Jingle
Warning:
Stop reading here if,
…you are not more than familiar with the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast as most of what follows will not make sense.
…you have a normal sense of humour as this is verging on the slippery iceberg of nonsense.
Remember that You were warned!
You may be aware I am a fan of the Miniature and Meeples podcast (more here), it has been playing in the background of many of my hobby sessions and le(a)d me astray on strange purchases over the last few years. They are also all-round nice blokes.
I found myself sitting on the train the other day – one of those delayed ones, a seriously delayed one. My iPad battery was flat and my phone had a battery percentage that would not even pass as a weak lager. I did something as novel as flipped through a free magazine and my middle-aged rage seemed to wake up by the reflection on the earliness of all this Christmassy stuff. I am a great fan of Christmas when it is Christmas! But I need to hold that thought for a moment.
Next too me sat three young university students, wonderfully enthusiastic and discussing some assignment in creative writing they had, which was to write some short advertising text for something that meant something to them. I looked out of the window and felt Creactive and got my Laptop up and asked them if I could join in, then I wrote this – a seasonal jingle for the Meeples and Miniatures Fabulous Four (being the Three Wise men and the Guru!), with some hints to some other associated companies, people and other related stuff. Merry Meepleness to you all! I got so into it that it actually cheered me up and when I finally looked up from the screen the students had fallen fast asleep!
Three Wise Meeps
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away three of the wisest of the Meeps were on yet another exciting Geek Tour. The tour was in fact a search mission, loosely based on a linear scenario thread called “Finding Guru” from the book by the Rogue Merchant of recycled shampoo bottles. They had been given their mission by a multi-headed, and to be perfectly honest too fat, lardish bloke on the veranda of the St. Albanjo Inn. The Albanjo was an excellent inn and did the best tasting Mead, Cyder and Ale in the Meeplands and the view from its veranda was simply breathtaking. They also served culinary delights from far afield and the menu included dishes from the exotic lands of Dahlia. Two of the most famous dishes were the phenomenal banana oil infused Imaginuts from Mahradur and the Pointless Pancakes from the Mountainous Island of Lankasri. The innkeeper was allegedly called Henri but no one was sure, as they never had seen him, as he liked to hide.
One of the Lardish man’s heads had offered them a good basic remuneration for their services whilst some of the other heads offered stretch goals if they did better than expected. The mission was simple: find Guru Luff (Hail Guru Luff!) who had left his Temple of Restrain – also called the Luffschuck on Meeplestrasse 52B. Why the Guru (Hail Guru Luff!) had gone was long forgotten. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for many, many episodes, over the seasons the reasons passed out of all knowledge. There were whispers, in places few mortal beings dared to go, that he (Hail Guru Luff!) was seeking penitence for the secret little affair known as the Dungeon Saga Excess. There were also other rumours of him (Hail Guru Luff!) getting involved in the wrong way with the crime family Don Key Le Ono, who were heading the Thieves Guild in the City of Dilution. They had to search deep, very deep, to find him.
The Lardish man gave them the following advice – Trust no-one!, stay alert!, keep your dice handy! Do not roll ones!. They could see something emotional in his many eyes and this was game-mechanically-represented by a few shock markers being placed next to him.
Their journey since then had been eventful and they had even managed to move more than six inches (before Gerry had a go) through the 7th continent. They had travelled through the seemingly never-ending Desert of Gaming Dilution (where death had tried to hook them up for a game of combat chess), avoided the temptation of sausages, survived the many things that falls from shelves during firestorms, being attacked by the dreaded balls, outfoxed the Desert Fox, withstood an imperial assault, endured lengthy Open Combat sessions, repelled an attack from Mars although it was commonly believed that all had gone quiet on the Martian front, survived a night at the Mansion of Madness, and suffered the relentless chase of the mighty Barbarian.
A butterfly landed on his stretched out hand and he could see a myriad of colours, patterns and shapes on its wings. He was known as the undisputed, or at least as one of the many, Welsh Wizard(s) and was the most industrious of the Meeps and with his magic could control shelves to his advantage and summon big boxes of stuff that appeared from nowhere. He was known from the Epic Sagas and had recently assembled five fantastic armies to do his bidding and had a not-so-secret-project-anymore to conquer this fantasy world. Tiredness had been a problem for weeks, but this very morning he had realised that he had forgotten to deactivate three fatigue markers he had been carrying in his backpack all this time. The markers had been thrown away and now he felt as fresh and reborn as that fashionable Wizard from the commercials who had changed his clothes line of robes from greyish to nice glowing whites! Oh Lord, that jingle was still ringing in his ears!
The most sensible of the Meeps, the Troubadour was riding on one of the Godfather’s unpainted Norman horses in front of the others. He carefully swallowed the last pieces of a cake he had snatched from a master baker in Linnius – it was delicious indeed. He picked up his lute from the saddle bag and started to play a nice little melody. The lute was a precision instrument and dimensionally printed thrice on a flat G bed – it did sound very nice although the Wizard was still sceptical to the tonal quality of something created with mere technology and not by pure welsh magic.
The Troubadour suddenly burst into his best tune “I aint been Dunked yet Mama, and by the Way here are the dates for the Herewards Wargames Show this year”, an allegorical song about the adventures of a Digestive Biscuit and its fear of being dunked, based on the true story of a young spearman. The lyrics had been revised many times following heated discussions with the Wizard and a Veteran Cookie who had known the spearman.
“I aint been dunked yet Mama, neither in Coffee nor in Tea, I aint been dunked yet Mama, my outer layers are still as hard as they can be!, I aint been dunked yet Mama, the blinds of the dunkers is getting pretty near, I aint been dunked yet Mama, I wish I was a Big Man not a boy with this fear…..”
The last of the Meeps was perhaps the foremost of them all and he had been the longest serving disciple of the Great Guru (Hail Guru Luff!). He sat in concentration and pushed his hand forward and flicked his hand to the right and pushed it forward again, he repeated he movement again and again – Never was he going to fail in opening a door again!. He was too tall to be a dwarven warrior and had instead decided to become an Imperial Storm Trooper. However his dream was short-lived as he was successful in completing his marksmanship course and consequently thrown out.
Since then he had tried to spread the word of Wargaming to the world. In the beginning it was not easy and he had been lonely and he had to whisper his messages. But he slowly acquired companions along the way to help him on his quest and the number of followers grew. Now he had a strong following and did not need to whisper anymore, he could now speak up and stand proud. It was full on charge from here on and forward! He was now the Godfather of all things Meeply and Small!
“I aint been dunked yet Mama, the beverage has not sucked the air out of me, I aint been dunked yet Mama, the more….. “
A few ideas on some wargaming projects – Samurai, Black and White, Seasons, and I conclude that I am a sucker for 1980s nostalgia and fell for yet another diversion.
An interesting Kickstarter if you need some forest for your wargames table
Some progress on the Towards Moscow Project – Russian Infantry and Dragoons
Great Eastern War?
“For twenty years, Peter had been playing with soldiers; first toys, then boys, then grown men. His games had grown from drills involving a few hundred idle stable boys and falconers to 30,000 men involved in the assault and defense of the river fort of Pressburg. Now, seeking the excitement of real combat, he looked for a fortress to besiege, and Azov, isolated at the bottom of the Ukrainian steppe, suited admirably.”
From the book Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
Like most of us, I suppose, I end up on small virtual journeys when I am on the net with no special destination in mind. This weekend somehow I ended up on this blog posting I really enjoyed (see here) – it is about the death of Charles XII. In the post was a picture from a Japanese 1905 print of Peter the Great and King Charles XII dressed more like Samurai warlords than 18th century Monarchs – I really liked it and it made me think about a imagination Samurai like campaign with a series of great battles between the Green/Red against the Blue army, with nicely lacquered armour and flying banners. I wonder if you go to Henry Hyde’s Dahlia and travel east you come across Chang Lee the keeper of the 12th Key of Swedsuma fighting his doomed campaign against the gigantic Gurēto Piri and his horde of undead Samurai raised after the devastating battle at Nariwa? Baccus will sell you everything you need to make this spectacle in 6mm (here is their Samurai ranges) or perhaps making a Swedish or Russian inspired warband for Warlords Test of Honour (see here), if you are more into 28mm and skirmish. But to date my excitement has not (yet!) lead to any lead being bought.
Peter and Charles at Poltava!
World War 2 in Black and White
“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”
― Ted Grant
I have previously reflected on doing a WW2 table using black and white painted miniatures and terrain. The talbe would look like all those clips we have seen on History Channel and the documentaries. Not sure if it already has been done, but I think it would look really interesting if it was done correctly and with the right level of passion. But on the other hand not sure how fun it would be to do, using a palette of fifty shades of grey, and also to experience when the final novelty has worn off.
Some 15mm WW2 Norwegian ski troopers I made (..and regrettably got rid off) many years ago. Made from Peter Pig WW1 Austrians models (here) and headswapped Austrian heads (here) with Resistant Rooster (see here) and perhaps some other old stuff (I think the Sniper was a Peter Pig German WW2 Model). Sovietic infantry advancing through a Village (Miraculously no snow on the Roof!). These are Battlefront Winter War 15mm Russians.
Quattro Stagioni – All year round battles and Forests
I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.
Another idea that I thought about was a participation game with 4 No. small battles going on at the same time. Each of the battles taking place at a different seasons.
Perhaps participants would be offered some Pizza and Vivaldis amazing Violin Concerti would play in the background. I could do this with the Great Northern War Stuff I already have as I have a large number of wintery bases and could pimp some Summer ones to look like Autumn and Spring.
My cringe moment, Summery bases on Wintery terrain! – Ouch! – but in fact these are actually mobile Astroturf mats that were developed in the early 18th century to avoid that the men froze their toes off and alos to instill a morale boost! The mats were developed by a company called Pipe Box Battle Mats. The picture was taken by the 4th Doctor at Fraustadt 1706.
On a related subject I would like to direct you to a kick-starter that is up and running (and has already achieved its the funding goal) that is being being run by a friend of mine, Les Hammond. Les will be producing terrain pieces to represent forests that can be used for a number of scales including from 2 to 15mm. They work on the canopy principle as opposed to individual trees. I think it is well worth a look and when you do it make sure you check the update from 1st November showing the new, and I believe improved, design for the foliage effect. There are several different sets covering different type of trees and all the seasons. Check it out here!
Screenshot from the Kickstarter on the 2nd November 2017. More here.
We don’t need another Project – 1980s nostalgia hits again
Out of the ruins Out from the wreckage Can’t make the same mistake this time We are the children The last generation We are the ones they left behind And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it Living under the fear till nothing else remains
We don’t need another hero We don’t need to know the way home All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome ….
“We don’t need another hero”, from the Movie Thunderdome, sung by the phenomenal Tina Turner. Link to the Music video here.
It was more difficult to resist the next impulse that came in the form of some new vehicles and miniatures being released by Microworld for the their Micro wasteland range (link here) – these are 6mm vehicles and figures. I really enjoyed the Mad Max movies and it got me thinking what could be done with these. If you have followed this blog you know that I am a sucker for 1980s nostalgia, like the Terminator and Mutant 1984 stuff I did earlier (see here and here) and the out-of-control mode quickly kicked in,
I recalled some good times with Combat Cars and Car Wars many years ago. There was a Swedish version/translation of the Combat Car rules that a good friend had and we used to play it many times.
Swedish version of the Combat Car rules.
I found a set of on-line rules called Road Wolf (see link here). What is interesting, and I have seen a similar game at Salute a few years ago doing the same, is that in these rules the terrain is moving and not the cars (more than relative to each other). After having tried it out with some of the Little Ones Hot Wheels collection we decided to give this a go. It simulates a frantic forward moving battle that I think is essential for these kind of games instead of some kind of Scalectrix-like track setup. This means that the game board, especially in 6mm, is relatively small as it basically is representing a stretch of random highway. Apart from motorbike, cars and trucks the game includes rules for obstacles appearing on the road like slippery part, wrecks, tunnels, etc.
So I ordered a bunch of vehicles and I suppose with that started another little diversion. Should not be too time consuming to get into pole position on this one.
I also got myself the “Mad Ron” set of cars from Irregular Miniatures (see here) and also got the set of normal cars. One of the scenarios for the Road Wolf rules needs a train in the middle so I got an American Diesel train set from Irregular as well. In addition I also needed some railway tracks that I got from Leven miniatures (see here).
Some of the Mad Ron cars – Picture from Irregular’s Webpage (link above)
I have not mentioned the 6mm wargames page (see here) before but it has been a fantastic inspiration for me over the years. Kieran who runs it has an amazing collection of 6mm goodies worth more than a look. I checked out his guide on civilian vehicles (see more here), which led me to do a small order from Heroics & Ros. I got some WW2 BMWs motorcycles with sidecars, a few (12 No.!) Bushmasters APCs variants, a pair of Toyota Pick-ups, a pair of GMC Pick-up trucks, a pair of Foden Cargo Trucks, Honda Motorcycles, a WW2 Opel Blitz Bus, a Land Rover and WW2 Mercedes staff car. I intend to use the Bushmasters (see link here) as near future Police/Law enforcement vehicles and the others as car wrecks and civilian cars (but some of them may be pimped up to road warrior status). That should be (more than) enough vehicles to make this into a proper project over the Christmas Period. The Little one is ready to press the pedal to the lead!
So that is the vehicles sorted and on their way! (I hope they will mix reasonably well! – otherwise I will know next time around).
In anticipation I did a piece of road required using a 20cm by 40cm block of blue foam, a strip of N Gauge Asphalt road 4omm wide that I bought from eBay for a few pounds in a 1 metre length (you could also go to a pound shop, or a hardware store, a buy some wet and dry paper, that is similar to sand paper but comes in black. You would then have to paint the markings and, unless you got a roll, you would not be able to do a sufficient continuous length without some patching up).
Blue foam with the self adhesive road applied
After having put the road in the middle I painted the sides on the top with a mixture of brown paint and pva glue, and applied some different coloured sands, then added some different coloured static grasses and a few tufts. I then painted the sides brown. Looks like a road with some uncontrolled but relatively flat vegetation around it – Good enough to start with.
Still waiting for some vehicles…
I will do another board, slightly wider with a railroad track in the middle and two road sections on the sides, but that is not a priority right now.
I also need the following terrain, these are items that are being generated by a card deck as part of the road’s turn to have a go (I go, you go, and then the road goes – however I may introduce some random activation element between the players):
Slide – this is a part of the road being broken/damage, overgrown, etc. It basically creates off-road conditions.
Slick – road is slippery, most likely an oil spill.
Debris – smaller obstacles in the road, e.g. scattered rubbish,
Wreck – bigger obstacles in the road, e.g. burned out cars.
Bridge and Tunnel – these are safe places to go on the road, but instead problematic to go on the side (i.e. off-road), I plan to make these as wide as the road (20cm).
Supplies – this is like a level up item in a computer game, not sure how I treat this or if I exclude it.
If we get into this proper I may get the Warlands (here) or the Outrider rules (here), both can be downloaded from Wargames Vault. You could also pick up some of the classic ones like Car Wars (here), Dark Future (link to living rule book here) or try to find Combat Cars (here) on eBay – to name a few. I will stick to the Road Wolf rules as I really like the concept of the game. I will do an update once we have done some road vehicles and perhaps a scratch built gyrocopter (unless someone knows where to find one).
“I am the Nightrider. I’m a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller! “
Ok, I know I have other stuff to do than inventing new ones. This week I made some progress on one of the ongoing projects and here are some completed Russians that I need for the Horka project (more on this project here and here). All are from the Baccus Great Northern War range (here).
Horka 1708 – Notes on Russians and the Field of Battle
I presented the Swedish army I would need for the Horka 1708 battle two weeks ago and gave a little background to this what-if battle (it may help if you have not read the previous entry if you start here). For the Swedes we basically assume it is the same army that set out from Grodno in the beginning of 1708 that will fight at Horka – yes in all fairness the body of men should perhaps be reduced to allow for the attrition effect of an army on the march (illness, skirmish casualties, desertions, etc.). For the Russians at Horka, Nick provides information in his book (The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire, by Nick Dorrell, link here) on the likely composition for the infantry based on available sources (a few assumptions have been made based on this detail to produce the army list, also note that this may change as we move forward, but I want to have a list to work from in completing the miniatures – I will also need all of them for the upcoming Poltava battle so doing them will not be a waste). For the Russian cavalry we assume a similar composition to that of the Battle of Holowczyn.
The full list of units for the Russians I will be working on are presented at the end of this post.
Below is the illustration from Nick’s book, showing the Russian position at Horka, this will be used as a basis for making the table.
The next sequence of pictures show at high level how I derived the map (Call it Horka 1.0).
(i) Based in the assumed sizes of the regiments in Nick’s book I estimated how wide the three infantry sections would be and found them about 100cm (3’6″) each (assuming a base width of 6 cm). The red box show the standard size I have used for my GNW Battles of old (8′ by 4′) but, as you can see, this does not really capture the battlefield this time. The black box (dotted line) show a 12′ by 6′ shape – that is more like it! (ii) I then tilted the box as this seemed a more natural way to cut the field of battle. However I was not totally happy and wanted to create a little more space in front of the Russian right.(iii) I decided to compress the middle and make the built-up area and the river/marsh section narrower. I did this by cutting the picture in three slices and cropping them (in width). That felt better – kind of a battle field diet, (iv) The picture was made straight! and (v) overlaid with some details (in powerpoint, using some textures to make it look more interesting) and ended up with a nice guide for how to make the final table.Horka 1708 v1.0, I may still go for a 12′ by 5′ instead of 12′ by 6′ as it would make it more practical. And some more spaghetti bridges. A caveat is that there is still time to change our minds about where this Battle took place. Perhaps it did (not) happen somewhere else?
Still finalising batches of painting so not much to see here, hurry along… and moving swiftly over to something else.
GNW Books and Scenarios
Over the years I have met many people in the UK who are interested in the Great Northern War but struggle to find decent books on the subject in English (apart from the usual suspects like Peter Englunds fantastic book on Poltava, the Massie book on Peter the Great, or the Osprey Poltava book) – this is a shame and I wish more books were available. At the SELWG show last week I had a few discussions along these lines with a few old and new friends. For example, I think Oskar Sjöström’s book on the Battle of Fraustadt 1706 (link to it here) is an amazing book and ought to be available in English. It won the best Swedish history book of 2008 and is an absolute gem – it inspired me enough to paint thousands of 6mm soldiers with winter bases for my first Joy of Six outing many years ago whilst listening to Sabaton’s Carolus Rex album.
“At Fraustadt the Swedish forces faced An army almost twice its size. And on that day we showed the world not only Our superiority in battle but also How cruel man can be. Frozen ground, Ride with the wind Emerge from the gunsmoke like demons Rehnskiöld’s men Charging their flanks The enemy trembles with fear”
From the Song Killing Ground by Sabaton, from the Carolus Rex Album (2012)
The wintery Battle of Fraustadt 1706 at Joy of Six 2012 (I think!). You can actually download the Ordre de Battaille here (showing who is who, if you do not already know).
The recent two-part Great Northern War Compendium was a very welcome addition, not just for the English reader but for anyone interested in this period, and is a fantastic set. I think you can still get copies of it from Caliver books – it is expensive and I doubt it will go down in price once the print-run has sold out.
I found a review on Amazon that I think encapsulate my own feeling about the set.
“This set is hands down one of the most lusciously detailed, illustrated, written, translated, and produced works of military history I have had the pleasure of reading in a long, long time. And that is not hyperbole. From the quality of the original research and translations, to the breadth of coverage, to the details of the individual battles and topics, to the huge number of gorgeous maps that accompany almost every article, this set is simply stupendous. Let me mention that last part again. So many works of modern military history neglect the critical aspect of cartography. With a topic as obscure as the Great Northern War maps are critical. Not only are the maps a huge part of this work, they are literally works of art. They are easy to understand, numerous, clear, and beautiful. I can not say enough good things about this fantastic resource. Even if the GNW is not your period of main interest, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed in your purchase. I would have bought this set at twice the price, and I mean that nor do I have any connection whatsoever with the publishers.”
From Jason C. Pipes review of the Great Norhtern War Compendium taken from Amazon.com 15/10/17
“So why the excitement”, I hear you thinking, “…we know about your Fraustadt Battle already and the Compendium was released more than a Year ago!”. Ok, sorry, here we go.
I noted recently that there is a book coming, preliminary in May 2018, that sounds really interesting and I pre-ordered a copy. The book is called The Swedish Army of the Great Northern War, 1700-1721 and written by Lars Ericson Wolke. Lars is Professor at the Swedish Military Academy in Stockholm and have written widely on Swedish and international military history and I have read many of his previous books with great pleasure.
Here is the blur about the book (taken from Amazon):
The book describes the development of the Swedish Army during the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, when Sweden fought against a coalition of Russia, Denmark-Norway and Poland-Saxony. For parts of the War also Prussia and Hannover joined the enemy coalition. The book describes how the Army was reorganised in the year before the outbreak of the war, with its unique allotment system of recruitment. The book also includes a list of all Army units during the 21 years of war.
The strategic situation in the Baltic Sea region in the last 1690´s is given, and is then followed up by an analysis of the strategic situation in the early 1720´s.
A description of the Army as it was at the time of the outbreak of the war in 1700, as well as the system of fortresses around the Baltic Sea is provided. The equipment and tactics of the Army are presented, not the least how they developed during the long period of the war.
The development of the 21 years of war are described and discussed to give the reader a good overview of the military (and partly the political) development. The battlefield Performance of the Swedish Army is in depth studied through descriptions and analysis of six battles and one campaign.
The book includes a list of suggestions for further reading, and is supported by a large number of illustrations including specially-commissioned colour uniform plates.
Wow! I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon here. This is part of the same series as the other book (I am wating for!) I discussed in an earlier blog entry about the Russian Army of the period, link here.
In addition, and from the same publisher, there is another Great Northern War book being completed. This one is called “The Battle of Poltava 1709” by Valerii Alekseevich Moltusov. I am happy this work will be available in English, as I suspect this may be a translation of a book he wrote in 2010 about the Battle (but I may be wrong), that was translated into Swedish. The book was brilliant.
And the blur from the publishers page:
Based on Swedish, Russian and Ukrainian source, this book presents a modern look at the pivotal battle of the Great Northern War. The uniqueness of the book is that it reveals the consistency and logic of the Russian army’s actions. The book also provides a detailed historiography of the Battle of Poltava. The author reveals the secrets of military engineering art Russian and Swedish armies. For the first time, new evidence for the location and configuration of the fortification system on the battlefield is given, as well as new information on the actions of Russian artillery in battle is given. In addition, there is much information on the strength and composition of Russian troops аt different stages of the battle, as well as an examination of the participation in the battle of irregular military formations on both sides. The author’s conclusions complement our understanding of the battle. Highly illustrated including specially-commissioned colour artwork and maps, this is a major new account of one of the 18th century’s most important battles.
Here are three other books relevant to the Great Northern War in English for you to check out, all of them are covering a longer period of history. They all give insight into the rise and decline of Sweden as a major power in the region and puts the build up to the war and its aftermath into context. I recommend all of them (the first one is normally available second hand from Amazon at a very low cost).
The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic 1600-1725, by Jill Lisk (link here)
A Warrior Dynasty: The Rise and Decline of Sweden as a Military Superpower, by Henrik O. Lunde (link here)
The Northern Wars 1558-1721, by Robert I. Frost (link here)
In addition Nick (Dorrell) gave me a copy of his Second Scenario Book for the Twilight of the Sun King (TotSK) rules at Joy of Six in July. It took me until recently to have a read through. It is called the Ottoman & Great Northern Wars and contains the following scenarios:
The Wars against the Ottoman Empire (1683 to 1718) – with links to Wikipedia added:
I only went through the Great Northern War scenarios. None of the tables required to play these (with a base width of 60mm, two of these bases makes a normal unit in the rules) are bigger than the normal 6′ by 4′. For each Battle there are options and in some cases what-if proposals, e.g. a field action at Narva where the Russians march out on the fields in front of Narva, instead of staying in their fortified positions, and take on the Swedes. Overall I think the mix of scenarios works well and the only one I felt was missing is the Fraustadt 1706 battle – but then I remembered it is the example battle in the main TotSK rules.
Narva and Holowczyn are attacks by the Swedes on a strong position. Klissow, Gadebush andStorkyro are more traditional battles of the era. Both the Lesnaya and the Crossing of the Düna scenario are interesting in that the objectives, from a Swedish perspective, are not necessary to win the battle outright but to establish and defend a bridgehead in the case of Düna and to limit the destruction of the marching army in the Lesnaya scenario.
We have presented both the Lesnaya and the Gadebusch battle using the rules and the scenarios at Joy of Six in the past. My favourite one is the Crossing of the Düna where a Swedish assault force supported by artillery tries to secure a bridge head whilst a pontoon bridge is being completed at the same time as a full army of Saxons are advancing. I have played versions of this battle using the Polemos as well as Maurice rules in the past and may give it a go with the TotSK rules in a not to distant future. I have promised myself this time to do it with a proper gun boat, artillery float and a pontoon bridge. I find that the additional rules in some of the scenarios for weather effect (snow storm for the Narva scenario) and rolling for enforcements in the Crossing scenario adds a nice uncertainty to the game. The Holowczynwhat-if scenario is very similar to the Horka idea.
More about the rules and the scenario books here. I also wrote a few lines about the rules in a previous blog (see here).
The 10mm Gunboat I bought last week at SELWG (see more here) is slowly going to take the role of a gun sloop at Düna – supporting the Swedish crossing.
I also got a nice surprise in that a friend of mine Michael Leck is doing a Great Northern War battle at Salute this year using the Pikeman’s Lament rules (that he and Dan Mersey wrote and I and the Little One have enjoyed played on many occassions, for example see here and here). You may recall his fantastic Fort Mosquito set-up from Salute last year or known him from some of the other stuff he has done over the years.
Michael Leck is, perhaps, more famous for the fantastic stuff he presents on his Dalauppror blog (here) and his articles in the Wargames, Soldier and Strategy magazine where he has presented snippets from the rich Swedish military history and how to adapt some popular rule set to play in these, more than often, unknown theatres. You may recall that I put up a picture of his fantastic, and award winning, game at Salute in the last blog update (here). Michael, and I, used to roll dice and use our imagination in the same role-playing club many moons ago.
From some blogs ago
He will be doing the Battle of Stäket which is the last land battle of the Great Northern war. He provided a sneak preview of the table being made recently.
Apart from a few 24 pound cannons, Carl Baltzar von Dahlheim, had two battalions of the Östgöta tremänningar regiment, a barge and three galleys at his disposal”. A great Swedish hero of the Great Northern War who served from the beginning of the war, to this, the last land battle when he chased out the Russians from Stockholm in 1719. This is looking like another brilliant table!
But we baked you some Biscuits!
If you have not yet listened to the “The Lardy Oddcast” that you can find on the Too Fat Lardies webpage then go and do so – it is very interesting! (link here). They have produced some of the exceptionally good and innovative rules over the years (like IABSM, Sharp Practice and Chain of Command to mention a few) this give a nice insight to what is going on the Lard Island as well as in the head of the islanders – well worth a listen!
Some of the many titles from Too Fat Lardies
It is another welcome thing to do whilst painting or whatever else you do with your hands when you listen to a podcast. I am still yet to get going with my Chain of Command 15mm Winter War stuff – but I seem to be running out of excuses. I still have to do some of the terrain but should get cracking with a game at some point (here is were I got up to last year, link here and here). I have done a few games of Chain of Command but would really like to get a few more under my tight belt!
As you are aware, I am a fan of the Wargames Veteran podcast (link to it here) and the latest episode was another good one, especially as Jay had invited Peter Berry along for a chat. Peter, if you were not aware, is the owner of Baccus 6mm (link here) – I may have featured a few of his miniatures on this blog! (also the podcast before this one is a good one with Henry Hyde and his upcoming Campaign book, and the one before that one… and the one before that one,….).
You will find out how Baccus came about, and also why it is not spelt Bacchus, but more importantly Peter and Jay discuss the current trends in the wargames publishing market – mainly focusing on 28mm and skirmish type games. I think it is a fair observation and it is worth listening to what Peter actually is trying to say. This stems from an opinion piece Peter published on the Baccus home page recently. The underlying message is that there is something we hobbyists could do in helping and that is to submit articles to the editors of the magazines, whatever scale or type of wargaming we are into.
Jay, as always managed to nutshell the moment, with the following statement, “If we want this hobby to continue, then we gonna have to be open and willing to share , and willing to help and maybe not be so negative towards the neo-fights!”
And with reference to Neo-fights!, the Brits and Americans are yet again debating the greatness of something without having done a full sample of the market. Everyone knows that the best biscuits are from Gothenburg and are call Ballerina, and you definitely dunk these, in whatever liquid you have at hand. 😉
He also interviewed Howard Whitehouse about Mad Dogs With Guns (link here). This is a new gangster game from Osprey Games that I have made myself a post-it note to check out.
A few other things I took away from the Berry Interview were the word Scanian War range and re-sculpting the Great Northern War range!
Finally the Little One has expressed some interest in some Star Wars miniature gaming – we already have a large collection of the ships from the X-wing game – so this next venture will be into some skirmish gaming. Imperial Assault has been out for some time and soon Star Wars Legions will be out. A majority of the Fab Four at the Meeples and Miniatures podcast discusses Imperial Assault in their latest show and I am very tempted to give it a go, but resisting as I do not have time for another diversion at this moment – like the Dreadball one, having painted 6 teams over a very short period of time. Legion or Assault?- it is still open for us and not an immediate issue to resolve. Listen to the Meeples podcast here. I am a long time sufferer of the show and can proudly call myself a Meep, check it out and become one you too.
/ Have a good week-end I am certainly on a high this week, that was a long rant! But at least an early posting for a change.
Russian Army List
Here is that Russian army list, I promised earlier.
Unit – Name of the Regiment/unit
Type – Infantry or Cavalry
Ref – Reference
Polemos Bases – 60 by 30mm base with 9 riders or 24 foot – 2 of these are a normal unit in Twilight of the Sun King rules. 1 is a small unit and 3 a large unit. The X indicate how many are needed.
Class – RD – Russian Dragoon, RI – Russian Infantry with Pike.
As you may be aware the next Great Northern War installment of the Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) is the Battle of Horka in 1708. The battle did not happen but was inspired from reading Nick’s book on the Russian campaign and with the addition of some artistic, or should that be historic, freedom I think we have something good enough to work on and present at the next Joy of Six in 2018. As always I will try to write a fair few installments here on the blog as things progresses (you can follow us here or like us on Facebook if you want to keep up with the developments or just come back every now and then). Anyway let us do a little bit of an intro so we are all on the same page (as per normal I have included links to previous posting and some external sources that may be useful if you are interested).
The Battle of Horka
Having ousted the Danes out of the Great Northern War (see more here) by the invasion of Zealand and crushed the Russians with the decisive victory at Narva, the young Swedish Monarch, King Charles XII (Carolus Rex, Karl XII) had decided to turn his efforts to deal with the final member of the coalition that had challenged Sweden’s Baltic supremacy – Saxony / Poland. It took him another 6 years before he had secured a treaty with Augustus the Strong. However the King still had unfinished business with the Russians and the time had come to march towards Moscow …. (you can read more about the TMT project and some of the background here)
In the beginning of July 1708, shortly after his victory at Holowczyn (see more here), the King had reached the Dnieper river with the Crown Army at Mogilev. It was, he believed, the last major physical obstacle on the road towards Moscow. The Russians had not made the advance easy as they had applied an scorched earth policy (the same policy that both Napoleon and Hitler would come to know later in history) destroying or removing supplies, burning bridges, withdrawing from villages, harassment of the moving army by irregular Cossack and Kalmuck light horse and dragoons, in combination with the constant rain (it had rained for about 4 weeks almost every day) that destroyed the crops and the hay and also affected the roads that further slowed down the March. The Russians would not give the King the decisive battle he needed. An army does indeed not only march on roads in knee deep mud but also on its stomach and there were still another 300 miles to Moscow – but as we know hope was on the way.
“So once the Swedes had secured the area around Mogilev they stopped to wait for Lewenhaupt and his vital supplies to arrive. … Meanwhile the Russian army had also halted and encamped, as the next obvious destination of the Swedes was the city of Smolensk, the Russians occupied a strong position on the road from Mogilev to this city. The camp was at Horka, sometime called Gorki, a short distance east along the road to Smolensk. … The Swedes considered attacking the position but in the end did not. Had the done so it seem likely that the Russians would have stood and fought.”
from The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire, by Nick Dorrell
We know the King would have liked to get on with it.
“Charles XII wanted to march on and put further pressure on the Russians after their disappointing defeat at Holowczyn – the sooner the better – before they had a chance to recover.”
Translated from Katastrofen vid Poltava (The Catastrophe at Poltava) by Peter From
So in our scenario the King gave the order to break up the camp and “Gå-På” towards the Russian position at Horka and the Russians did not slip away.
I will detail more about the assumptions on the armies that will clash on the day of battle in later postings. In the background I have been working away on the Russians and they are in various stages of completion. I had Chris from the excellent Marching in Colour helping me with a large part of the Lesnaya Russians last year and I also sneaked in a few ones for this project in the Order – so I had a good head start on these, but there are still a lot of work to do.
For the Swedes I had enough painted lead already from various project to cover about 45% of the bases needed – so there is a little bit more work to do on this front as well. Took out the miniatures from the Storage and took a few pictures whilst doing the inventory.
Here is the current list of units required for the Swedish side, this is based on the 35,000 strong army as at Grodno in 1707.
Unit – Name of the Regiment/unit
Type – Infantry or Cavalry
Ref – Reference
Polemos Bases – 60 by 30mm base with 9 riders or 24 foot (60 by 60mm bases with 7 for the light cavalry) – 2 of these are a normal unit in Twilight of the Sun King rules. 1 is a small unit and 3 a large unit. The X/Y indicates how many I have already and how many I need to do.
Class – GH/GD – Galloping Horse/Dragoon (Swedes with Aggressive cavalry), GP – Swedish Infantry with Pike.
After some fun days in France as reported last time (see here) and visiting a number of places in Bordeaux, I think the most fascinating thing was neither a Chateau nor an old Fortification. Instead I think the Dune of Pilat was one of the highlights of the Trip. It is the tallest sand dune in Europe and I have not seen as much sand since I visited Sahara a few years back. After the time there I think I had enough sand in my shoes to cover a 6 by 4 feet table (more about the dune here). It gave me a strong kick to get on with the Rommel project and the desert bases (But not too strong it seems as I did s**t all on that project this week).
Rising from the Ashes
I realised that I need to do another 46 bases of cavalry for the next Great Northern war project so I prepared them and gave them a coat of grey over the weekend – I will send away most of these to Marching in Colour (link to this excellent painting service here) – as my little Autumn treat (see more here).
Command and Colors
Since I went to Joy of Six earlier this year I have been thinking about the Ancient Command and Colors game staged by the Wyre Foresters (see more here, the game is shown at the end of the post). Having recently got the Tricorne version of the game my Command and Colors itch has become more difficult to resist.
Great Game and you can read more about it on Boardgame Geek – here.
I have a fair few unpainted Republican Romans from Baccus (link to their Republicans here), and some Rapier ones too (link to their ancient range here), that I have had in one of the boxes in a dark corner (I recently discuss these boxes of shame here).
The game uses a hexagon board with terrain tiles and wooden blocks. The approach is to replace the hexagon board with sanded and static grasses tiles and the blocks with miniature bases.
I decided to got with 70mm hexagon bases (side to side, being 80mmish at its widest point) and using 2 No. 50mm by 20mm bases for each unit. I will use the following basing convention for the number of miniatures:
Infantry basing convention – Auxillia (two rows of 8 miniatures – 16 in total per base, 32 per unit), Heavy Infantry (two rows of 10 miniature – 20 in total per base, 40 per unit), Medium Infantry (two rows of 11 miniatures – 22 in total, 44 per unit), Light infantry (6 per base in random order, perhaps more!, 12 per unit)
Cavalry (and war machines and warriors) Basing Convention Heavy Cavalry (one row of 8 horses, 16 per unit), Medium Cavalry (one row of 6 horses, 12 per unit), Elephants/War machines (one row of two miniatures, 4 per unit), Light Cavalry (one row of 4 horses, 8 per unit), Warriors (12 models spread over a base, 24 per unit).
I intend to send a few bases worth of these to Marching in Colours to get this project progressed a little bit more. I did throw some quick paint on a few to have a look how they would turn out and to give to Chris as a reference for his work.
Some Heavy Triarii Infantry – Rapier on the left and Baccus on the right – Note that the Rapier base is slightly bulkier and the figure look taller than they are compared to the Baccus ones. The Miniatures work very well together.
Princeps/Hastati from Baccus
In addition I need to get some Hexagon bases for the terrain and after surfing around I found that Supreme Littleness Designs (link to them here) sells 6 No. 70mm bases for £1. I will need to figure out how many I would need, there are 113 hexagons on the board, but I want to have a few more for special terrain, like rivers, forts, hills, shoreline, etc. For forest I intend to create small canopies that can be placed on top of the units, etc. I think that there are about 20 scenarios for the Punic wars so I think I will count the units of each type and any terrain features to give me what I need. I will get back to this in due course.
I could have gone with bigger bases for the units as well as the size of the hexagons but I think it will be big enough side project as it is.
He is a Keeper
I also pimped up one of the Dreadball Guards (Orcs) to a Keeper with a “ball glove” , using an old credit card and some spaghetti. It ended up looking brutal enough – he is a keeper!
A few small steps, but all of them in the right direction!
I did put the final touches on the two basic DreadBall teams this weekend, I am now ready for Season One! The season was originally “aired” in 2014 or something like that. I am looking forward to this! If you know nothing about DreadBall then check it out here. However if you are late to it, there are other variants and I believe a second edition in the making. Having had a little look this weekend, the second hand market on eBay is favourable if you want to pick up some of the older stuff.
I promised the Little One a game but he fell asleep long before I had finished splashing paint – maybe we will get another opportunity this coming week! I did put them on the board to see how they would look. Well what can I say it is me doing 28mm so I feel like the object of that famous Sting/Police song about the possessive lover – Every Breath you Take (slightly modified I must admit).
Every brushstroke you make and every detail you overpaint Every mold line mistake, every inky stain, I’ll be watching you Every layer you add, every wash you make, I’ll be watching you
I’ll be watching you!
I am very happy though and the Little One will love thrashing me on the field!
I wanted the RefBot to look a little bit C3POish! It is a mean looking lady!
However, as always, when I do get the finger out and finish an old project I tend to get some new inspiration so I got about 6 additional MVPs from eBay – they are mercenary veteran players that can be used to enhance a team. The cosmic order will be restored on the lead, or in this case the plastic, mountain. Old Shiny never rusts!
I suspect I will get the Ratmen (Veer-Myn) and the Dwarves (Forgefathers) team as well in a not too distant future – but I have decided I would do so as a reward when the MVPs are home and dry following the paint job (Sounds far too disciplined, doesn’t it?). As stated already, I am looking forward to this and the Better One did say that she would like me to do more sports – so here we go!
I also did some progress on my 6mm SciFi project – the Blue and the Green army. We intend to give the Future War Commander rules a go using these.
Next week I hope to start the Rommel bases (as discussed last time here, I got the miniatures this week but wanted to get some things off the workbench before getting into it. The 3mm tanks are SMALL!, but I suppose they should be) and also do some aircraft for the Sci-Fi project as I have some nice models I got before the holiday. I want each army to have recon forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and air forces to allow combined arms type of games.
And yes I need to get started with this years large GNW project at some point – but not yet!…Not yet! (as Juba said in the Gladiator!).
Still on holiday in Rhodes and the Better One had arranged a little bit of a birthday party here on the island and, to my happy surprise, some friends from Sweden and France came along as well. Great times! Thanks to all involved.
I learned about the legend about Anastasia of Rhodes that I found interesting, she was a heroine and died during the Siege in 1522. She had taken her dead husband’s armour and sword, killed her children to prevent them from being taken by the Ottoman invaders, and fought like a lion until she was cut down.
However, I did bring some toys, so when my friend from Normandy showed up I took the opportunity to do a little French Indian War (FIW) action using the Pikeman’s Lament Rules. You may recall the picture from last time? (here).
In this little set-up I had some Punic War cards for Battleground – I have been using these in the past to learn some ancient rules – this time Sword and Spear and Basic Impetus 2 (but more about that some other time).
The main ingredient for any FIW game is a forest!, so luckily I brought some trees and some miniatures too.
The only thing I did not think through properly was my ground cover as all I had that was even remotely passable as ground cover was some kind of camouflage net thing – but it had to do.
Basic Set-up – Farm in the upper middle being held by two units of British Veteran Shots (Regulars, 12 models per unit, in cover behind the snake rail fences), flanked by two units of Forlorn Hope (Rangers) one on each side (one being on the top of the hill to the upper right and the other between the field and the forest on the upper left). The French are advancing from the south (Bottom) and consist of (from left to right) a unit of Indians (these were in fact veteran commanded shot), a unit of French marines ( veteran shot), another indian unit, a unit of Canadian Militia (Fornlorn Hope) and a final third unit of Indians. Both sides at 24 points.
I included a file with the forces, note that for the British we did not use the militia and only 3 of the native Indians for the French (file can be found here FIW PL).
Here is a short summary on what happened – well the key moments from my perspective. Basically I wanted to draw my French opponents two Indians out of the forest and then withdraw with my Rangers and use their ability to attack Ferociously (and overall superiority in terms of attack and stamina) in the rough terrain and then hopefully have enough punch left to at least do some damage to the Canadian militia unit.
Note I turned the table around 360 degrees – the Rangers are awaiting the Native Indian attack.
Well after a lot of “not-so-successful-rolling” it did not really work out that well for the Rangers in the end and the unit was decimated and on the picture below a very short-lived last man standing moment! – perhaps last man wobbling would be more like it?
So what about the fighting in front of the farm? Well I had two units of veteran shot with their first Salvo ready to fire at the French as they breached the forest. However on activating the first unit to shoot I rolled, not just a, one but two. This leads to a random event and a further roll showed this to be attack, so the redcoats jumped the fence and charged forward straight into range and the waiting French firing line. The Rangers had done some fighting with the Indians but with their evade and skirmish abilities they can be very annoying, especially in the forest.
This was then followed by the other regular unit being attacked on the other flank and the rest is history.
I enjoyed the game and the fighting in rough ground (forest and hill) made it interesting and it felt ok, although this is not strictly the pike and shot period.
I take my tricorne hat off for Sous-Lieutnant Dupont who yet again outfoxed me on the Battle Field. He gave it a thumbs up! The rules are easy to pick up and they gave the right feeling to the little skirmish.
A little delayed update this time, but for the right kind of reason. Occasionally we get an opportunity to get away from it all and this time we headed to Rhodes. A familiar place I have visited a fair few times and I love the Old Town of Rhodes and the history of the hospitaliers – who ruled this Island during the 13th and 14th century and caused the Ottoman Turks all kind of trouble before they were kicked out (Siege of Rhodes 1522) and set up shop on Malta and continued causing trouble. It is too hot to write any essay but if you are interested there is a good summary about them here.
I have a little potential idea of doing a project about the Siege in Rhodes 1522 or the more epic one in Malta 1565. The book – the Great Siege Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford is one of my all-time favourite history books and I really recommend giving it a go.
When in Rhodes go and see the Grand Masters Palace and walk the old Moat. Very nice and whilst at it you may go for a swim as well, there are a few beaches here and there. The museum of archaeology, the Butterfly Valley, Lindos with the wonderful Akropolis are also places not to miss.
I always get reminded on how rare square shaped fields are when flying.
Another idea I have had brewing in my head for some time, using Baccus and Rapier miniatures, is to the do the Battle of Kadesh (see here). Browsing around on Netflix I found a documentary that I really enjoyed watching whilst flying, about the Egyptian chariot. The programme follows a team who recreates a (well actually two) chariot and tries it out (you can also find it on YouTube if you search for Building Pharaoh’s Chariot). Mike Loades, who was part of the recent time commander series, is giving the chariot some trial runs to better understand how they may have been used on the battlefield. I find this kind of experimental archaeology/history very interesting and I really wish more similar programmes were available. Let me know if you know any good ones.
Before setting out I did progress on a few fronts with my Sci-fi models from Brigade Games (I have done two more orders since Joy of Six!) and I also did some of Baccus late 19th Century Bavarians. Great little models overall and a Joy to paint!
Bavarian Infantry
Bavarian Chevauleger
We did not leave home empty handed and I hope to have an AAR available at some point after this weekend, describing some French Indian War skirmish action. We brought a little bit of stuff allowing us to roll some dice and move figures around – but more of that next time if we have had time to have a game.
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