Category: Games played

2017 ending 2018 coming!

On By The OneIn 15mm, 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Games played, Gaslands4 Comments

 

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Swedish attack on Saxon defensive position (Baccus Miniatures) with seasonal flair. The Swedish tactics of just marching on with resolve and in silence and then throw their snowballs, or perhaps fire their muskets, at short distance followed by a full on charge is just about to be implemented.  The most important factor to the outcome is the morale and resolve of the Saxons who are desperately firing away at the Swedes – will they stand to the Swedish onslaught or shit themselves and run away?

A long one again, sorry…but a lot of pictures…

 I have been away on holiday in Sweden over Christmas with the family and the only miniatures related stuff I have been physically close to have been my copy of the Gaslands Rules. I have read them and they seem to be a lot of fun, but more about that later.

This is the second year end for the blog and I have yet again had a joyful hobby year.  My original idea was to do a blog about my preparations for my Saga Game(s) at Joy of Six in 2016, but then I never stopped.  I found that it gave me some kind of efficiency in a strange way and I seem to have been more productive and organised than I used to be as a direct consequence.  That original post on Saga in 6mm (link here) still gets some hits, but the most popular one from 2016 is the first blog on Sharp Practice in 6mm.

With the Saga game in 6mm I wanted to show that it is possible to take a “28mm game” and change the individual 28mm miniature on a 25mm circular base and replace this with a 25mm square base with 4 to 10 No. 6mm miniatures, keeping all measurement as they were and still have a good time.  The game was still played on a 3 by 4 table, just as recommended by the rules.

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Saga at Joy of Six 2016

Saga, as a game, worked anyway and playing it with 6mm miniatures gives a different feeling using individually based miniatures – I have tried both and I prefer the multiple based version.

The other approach I have taken with regards to 6mm is that you can take a game where 28mm miniatures (to take an example scale) are normally being used and half the measurement or use centimeters instead of inches.  In this case each 28mm miniature is replaced with an individually based 6mm miniature. I have done this and played Sharp Practice, Pikeman’s Lament, the Men Who Would be Kings and Dragons Rampant.  It works but it is more fiddly than 28mm, but this aspect can be mitigated somewhat if you use the (1-2-3) basing as suggested in the Pikeman’s Lament rules, if your game is about figure removal from units with non-individual figures – like the games mentioned above.  This method is best described by Michael Leck who came up with the idea on his blog page (see here).  A blog entry shows how I based my Colonial 6mm British (see here) using this approach (kind of!), pictures below.

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Each line a unit of 12 men. You loose one man you take away a single base, you loose one more (2 in total) you take away another single base, you loose another man (3 in total) you put the single base back and take away a base with two, and so on. Simple and I promise less fiddly and complicated than you are currently thinking.
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I only did 1 and 2 miniature bases for the Lancers (8 in each units) but it still works with the same principles as above.

Here is an example of a game we played this year on a 2 by 2 board (Pictures below, link to the write up and lots of pictures here) – you could carry the board under your arm and the terrain and the miniatures in a small little box. We had a jolly good time playing it.   Did I mention that it took me two short evenings to paint up each force used in the game!

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2 by 2 feet table
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Ottoman Cavalry charging the Russian Dragoons who were supposed to protect the wagons.  1-2-3 basing system in use (Baccus and Perfect Six)

Here is another one (with the write-up here), this time Ottomans vs Swedes.

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As for the most popular post in 2017 it is more difficult to say and perhaps unfair to compare as some of the posts, by the nature of weekly postings, have been on longer than others. However, the first blog on Colonial 6mm using The Men Who Would be Kings rules (link above) seem to have got some wider interest and so have the other postings covering Dan Mersey’s rules (Dragon’s Rampant and the Pikeman’s Lament rules he did with my friend Michael Leck) – they are all very similar with some notable variations in the Colonial set where there are commanders for each section as opposed to the overall force for the others and the damage is based on actual figure count – not a fixed full damage until half units are left going then down to half until wiped off the table, to mention a few of the more notable differences.  I refer to these as the “Mersey Skirmish Engine” (MSE).

On the whole we have really enjoyed these games and they fit us really well as the rules are simple but not simplistic – i.e. there is sufficient depth to make the decision making challenging and there is a high level of friction built-in the activation system.  I mainly game with the Little One who is celebrating his first double digit birthday next year so this simple but not simplistic factor is important to us.  The best children movies are the ones that contain some sneaky adult jokes – watch any Shreck movie and you get what I mean.  I find that the more complicated games looses the little ones interest quicker and in some cases never really captures him to start with.

The best games was when we were using my 6mm French Indian war models with the Pikeman’s Lament set, on that horrible “wargames mat” I bought in Rhodes on the family holiday. We played a fully functioning skirmish wargaming on what in fact was a doormat (some pictures here) and had some great fun in the sun.

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Gaming on the Doormat!

 

We also played some other games including the Terminator Game, Sharp Practice, Dreadball (a great late start!), X-wing, The Twilight of the Sun King, Road Wolf,  Maurice, to mention a few.  I also read and tested the new Basic Impetus rules and Sword and Spear and would like to try these a little bit more.  I also did two forces for 6mm sci-fi but I am yet to find a ruleset that inspires me.

 

I wanted to play Chain of Command with my Finns and Russian, but I failed miserably.

Anyway here are my key painting, modelling and gaming ambitions for this coming year.

Great Northern War – Twilight of the Sun King Rules (6mm)

Painting/Modelling 90%, Gaming 10%.

The 18th century in general and the Great Northern war in particular is one of my favourite historical settings and I am currently working on the Horka 1708 battle for Joy of Six in July 2018 (here is a link to some background to this).  This will be the biggest battle I have done to date and I am very excited about it and this is the kind of battle and set-up that really works with the 6mm scale and gives the look and the feeling of a real battle.

I would also like to do a smaller table to give the Düna crossing in 1701 a fair go with the Twilight of the Sun king Rules (see some discussion on the rules here).  I think the “did I hit?, did I damage?, did you have armour protection?, did you manage to save? – rolling sequence” is funny and engaging for a skirmish level rule-set but I am warming to the abstraction of the Twilight rules for BIG battles more and more for every time I play them (here is a note about the rules and where to find them). I have plenty of nice modelling and painting ahead of me for these projects.

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The field of Battle for Horka (link to it in the text above)
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Figuring out the battlefield for Horka

Winter War and Continuation War – Chain of Command Rules (15mm)

Painting/Modelling 50%, Gaming 50%.

I re-read Hjalmar Siilasvuo’s account of the battle of Soumussalmi  (Wikipedia link here) over the Christmas break.  It is an inspirational account of how, in essence, three Finnish regiments defeated two Russian divisions and one tank brigade. Siilasvuo was one of the most successful Finnish Commanders during the war years.

The Battle at Raate had ended with a total defeat of the enemies 44th Divison, The objective given to my soldiers were completed. My men had, with commendable resilience fought for over a month in the harsh winter conditions at Soumussalmi.  In defiance of death they had attacked the superior enemy.  Their only guiding star was the precious, common fatherland, that fought for its existence.  The cost of the great victories was paid with the heroic deaths of many brave  warriors.  With sincerity they had given their life for the fatherland, their homes and their faith.  The white crosses on the graveyards where the signs of their sacrifice.  They showed the people the path to honour, a hard path, but the only path. 

Translated, hastily, from H.J. Siilasvous book “Striderna I Suomussalmi”

I also went to the Cinema in my Hometown in Sweden and watched the new film based on Väinö Linna’s book the Unknown Soldier about a Machine Gun Company during the Continuation war from the mobilisation in 1941 and the early successes to withdrawal and retreat leading up to the armistice in 1944 , I have read the book and seen previous iterations of the movie and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story is fictional but based on Linna’s experiences serving in the Infantry Regiment 8 during the war – it would make an interesting wargames campaign.

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Still from the Movie Tuntematon sotilas [Unknown Soldier] (2017). Vänrikki Kariluoto readying a grenade during some trench fighting and Corporal Rokka getting ready to charge in and clean the next stretch of trench with his Suomi KP/-31 Submachine Gun.  Corporal Rokka is a typical example of a Big Man and a Veteran of the Winter War.

 I have all I need for some Winter war action as I did a platoon of Finns and Russians last year.  Here are some links to those Platoons (see here and here) as well as some background you may find interesting.  I will not fail these platoons this year.  I hope the Little One is up for it too! Link to the eminent Chain of Command rules here.  I would also like to have a go at doing a winter wargames mat, as I have not yet found anything on offer that I especially like (I have an old mat but it could be better).  I also have some Russian Scouts and more than enough Finns in Summer Uniforms to do some continuation war stuff.

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Some of the Finns I prepared – an Engineering Section. The NCO is screaming – “Why the hell did you paint us and left us spend the whole year fully winter dressed in a box! Get your bloody act together!, or perhaps he is screaming Mitä helvettiä?, Levitä laardi! (What the hell?, spread the Lard!)

Punic Wars – Command and Colours Boardgame (6mm)

Painting/Modelling 70%, Gaming 30%.

I am going to do a modular board and the necessary miniatures using mdf hexagons and 6mm units based on 50 by 20mm bases.  I laid out the plans in a blog entry earlier in the year – here.  I am looking forward to doing this as I am a fan of the game and  I have wanted to do this since I read about Dan Becker’s project many years ago (see here) and got inspired from the game presented at Joy of Six this year.

Mutant 1984 – Mutants and Deathray Guns (28mm)

Painting/Modelling 50%, Gaming 50%.

I was going to do this project using (see more here) using the Scrappers rules but I have recently decided to try out the Ganesha games set called Mutants and Deathray Guns (link here).  I am keen that Rifleman Croc Lacoste gets some battle-hardening sooner rather than later, he has been waiting more than a while.

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Perry’s 95th Riflemen but not like you are used seeing them. Proud soldiers of the Pyri Commonwealth army, a mix of pure humans, mutants and mutated animals, on a rescue mission to a forbidden zone.  Crocodile head from the Crooked dice and high tech rifle from my old bit box (?).

 

I actually did some mean looking power armoured warriors (from Ion Age, IB52 Muster Female Squad, link here) when I got home yesterday evening as well as a gang of rats (conversions from the following miniatures – 3 of the bodies from Crooked dice here, 2 of the bodies from Moonraker miniatures – 0046 Scavenger. Handgun. Shotgun here, and 0074 SMG. Rasta here, the last body on the far left I do not remember, the heads and tails are from Giants rats, also from Moonraker, here).

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These Ladies would be part of a small security unit frozen in Cryonics freezers and woken up when the level of radiation had reached a survivable level. Now they have found a harsh and wild world, but they still have some powerful weapons, plenty of ammunition and their power packs are fully charged.
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In one of the classical adventures for the Swedish Roleplaying game Mutant that is the inspiration to this project, called Nekropolis, the PCs have an encounter with a group of rats.  This gang is my homage to those guys.

 

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The Original Picture from the scenario – Nekropolis, den Grå Döden Del 1, 1985, TAMB Äventyrspel AB

Gaslands (6mm) 

Painting/Modelling 30%, Gaming 70%.

This is the best thing that I have come across in 2017 and I read the rules over Christmas (link to the Gaslands page, here. Where you can get the rules and accessories).  This will be fun and I have more or less everything I need to get on with it (some notes here, here and here).  Being true to form I decided to do this in 6mm as I was aware of some nice looking models out there. However there are some considerations to make and I advice that you read my blog entries above, if you are considering doing this.

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You need smaller templates (I went for 50%) if you do Gaslands in 6mm – this does not, in any sense of the word, mean you need to do it in less style!
Contact Lee at and he may do you a set or 4! Lee is the one who makes the official ones and is where I was sent when I asked Mike at Gaslands if he planned to do any smaller templates than the official ones.
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50% movement templates with the 6mm cars.

In addition I may do the occasional game of Colonial skirmish, Dreadball, some Saga battles with the dark age stuff, French Indian war with SP2 or T&M, Maurice or Pikeman’s Lament with Swedes and Saxons, and I may even progress the Rommel stuff I started, but we will see. I am pretty sure it will be totally different at the end of the day/year but as long as I have fun it does not really matter.

I would also like to do some WW2 units to use for a Norwegian Campaign. I did a fair few a few years back but in a moment of stupidity let them go.

Some thanks and then I will let you go

I have done a fair number of hours at my painting and modelling desk this year, when I do this I tend to listen to podcasts and audiobooks – the following are the hobby related ones I have found especially inspirational this year and I am grateful they are doing what they do. Get some paint and click on the titles and go and listen, you may have a painted army standing before you after you finish! Thank you to all involved in the production of these.

Meeples and Miniatures – solid show, like a Volvo of the 240 series. Solid running top notch quality!

The Too Fat Lardies Oddcasts – effortless delivery of wargaming wisdom! Only 4 episodes so far but it feels like it has been around for ages.

Veteran Wargamer – excellent! Jay has definitely helped me make my gaming more fun!

WSS Podcast – at times feels like listening to one of those annuals I got as a kid, great stuff!

Wargames Recon – enthusiasm can go a long way, this one goes miles!

If I had one wish it would be that the Historical Wargames Podcast got on air again – I really enjoyed that show.  If I had another wish it would be great if there was a wargames podcast similar to the Grognard Files (a nostalgic throwback show to the RPGs of yesterdays) that reflected on some of the “dead” games out there.  The Veteran Wargamer, for example, had a show about games from beyond the grave (link here) and I think that one was a good start – look out for Jay’s comment on the game Chess.

Special thanks this year to the Little One who possibly prefers solo computerised quests as opposed to games with Dad using painted miniatures, but never fails to get stuck in and getting on with it.  At Joy of Six he ably, more or less on his own, ran the Dragon Rampant table we put up.  Also a big thank you to the Other Ones who may not be interested at all in this hobby of mine but who lets me get away with spending far too much time on it.

I would also say thank you to Chris of Marching in Colour (here is a link to his excellent painting service) who has been painting a fair few of my GNW units for this and next year’s TMT project – giving me more time to do some fantastic diversions and maximising the fun in the limited hobby time I have available.

Nick Dorrell, and his chums from the Wyre Forester Wargames club (link here), we ran Kalisz 1706 at Salute this year (see here) and Lesnaya 1708 at Joy of Six (see here). Nick and I have been doing 6mm Great Northern War Battles for the last six years as mentioned above we are doing Horka 1708 this year – if I get all of it done!   Also to Rob and Laurent that helped us at Salute and Peter and Igor of Baccus who always makes Joy of Six an easy gig!

Finally (almost), a big thank you for all you people out there who likes the blog on Facebook, follows it on Twitter (yes I have recently got myself wired up on this too), directly here on WordPress, or just comes by occasionally or even incidentally.  I really like the messages that comes through the blog and discussions I have had face-to-face with readers of the blog at the Joy of Six and Salute this year.

Now go and enjoy the end of this year. Hope you have a great 2108 and hey! – why not give something back to the hobby!  Having just eaten half of the world and drunk the other part over Christmas it tends to be at these times when we reflect on our health and promise to deal with it next year.  Henry Hyde, of Wargames compendium and Battlegames fame, just released a video that may not result in your lead mountain being painted any quicker but may help you being around long enough to have time to deal with it.  The video is called “Exercise Ideas For Writers and Gamers” – that is giving back big time so a my final thanks goes to you Henry!  Here is a link to the video on YouTube.

/ All the best and see you in 2018

More Post-Apocalypso and an Alternative Longish Jingle for Meeples and Miniatures

On By The OneIn 6mm, Games played, Road Wolf1 Comment

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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!.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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….. “

Scratch!

…..That’s enough of that, they are really good!…

/ See you later

Dreadballs of Fire and waiting for Command and Colors Tricorne

On By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, Command and Colors - Tricorne, DreadBall, Games played, PaintingLeave a comment

Sometimes the work-life balance does not swing favourably in terms of time left to do hobby related activities. This week, and I suspect the next week, will be one of those times.

The little time I did have this week was spent progressing on the Rats for Dreadball and they are now ready for some detailing. When they are done it will give a full Season One painted set-up with 4 teams (including the a full complement of MVPs).  Not great paint jobs but far better than the base grey colour of the plastic and I managed to do it in about 3 weeks of limited hobby time.  The fact that the Little One is into it as well makes it more motivational to crack on with.

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The Little One and I had a few good games of Dreadball using two human teams to get to grips of the rules – and we really like it.  I really recommend the series of videos by Andy2D6 on YouTube, the first one “How To Play DreadBall – Part One: The Board” can be found here.

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Very straightforward Tutorials on the Basic Game of Dreadball by Andy2D6

The following are a few shots from the games we played.  The Little ones blue guys was a bonus we got when we bought another base set of eBay – to add a few more Season 2 teams cheaply.  As per usual he rolled high and I rolled low, his Jacks (all-rounders) were as good slammers as my Guards (heavy hitters) and his ability to use the Strikers was very inspirational.  Nevertheless after a few games we got a nice flow and we really enjoy playing it (did I say we like it?).

 

Since I prefer my hat Tricorne I have been looking forward to the latest version of the Command and Colors rules (e.g. Memoirs 44 and Command and Colors Ancients) called Tricorne Command and Colors – The American Revolution.  I got my copy from Boardgameguru (see here) and I think that is the best deal currently on the net (or at least that I found browsing around).   I have to admit that I felt that the price was a little bit steep but I had already made my mind up and I suspect the first print run will sell out fast and then it will cost even more to get hold of a copy later.

tricorne command and colors

 

The rules booklet is downloadable here.   The following scenarios are covered:

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Extract from the Rules and Scenario Booklet

The following units are included (as the classical wooden blocks) to play the scenarios and I am tempted to do something with it in 6mm – at some point in the future. Baccus make all the miniatures needed (link to their AWI range here) and I think it would look absolutely fantastic.

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Extract from the Rules and Scenario Booklet

/ I hope it will be like a Carlsberg – Worth waiting for!  Incidentally I am also waiting for some magnets I have ordered to push on with the Rommel bases (see previous post here).  Have a good week!

 

 

Skirmish Wargames Show, DreadBalling and some Great Britons

On By The OneIn DreadBall, Games played, Historical Sites, ShowsLeave a comment

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This was a nice weekend indeed, Saturday was spent driving around the Kentish/Sussex countryside and we went to Chartwell House (Churchill’s family home) and Penhurst Place (The Sidney’s family home for more than 460 years) – both well worth a visit.  On the way home we ended up in the Blacksmith Arms (in Cudham) where the comedian Harry Relph was born (1887 to 1928). He performed under the stage name “Little Tich” and was (amongst other things) famous for his routine with very long shoes (see a video here). They had his famous shoes on display in the pub – equally impressive with the Wellington boots we reported on some time ago (see here).  I knew immediately who he was as I had ended up listening to his 1910 recording “What a Risky thing to do” (see here) looking for some background music for a Call of Cthulhu campaign many moons ago.  A great, although not very tall, Briton (a Wikipedia write-up here).  I had a pint in his honour before we embarked on the short journey home.  I suppose you can do your own research on that other great Briton Churchill, if he is not familiar to you ;).

On the Sunday I went to the Skirmish Wargames show in Sidcup run by Redcoat Models(see here) – a small wargames show that occurs twice a year. I did not count the number of traders but call it 15 with about the same amount of wargames tables. The theme was Napoleonics and probably 1 in 4 of the tables were Napoleonic offerings.  I did not take many pictures but here is what drew my interest. I had a good time.

 

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The action around Utitsa from the Borondino 1812 Battle, by North London Wargames Group – 6mm action!

 

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Skirmish Wargames presented a 45mm scale skirmish battle using their “Tales of Derring Do!” rules involving Richard Sharpe and his Rifles, Spanish Guerillas, a female spy and some French Soldiers too.  It looked like everyone had a good time.  There was even a Film Crew present!

 

I played a game with John, who was running a fictional Battle in India with a Sikh uprising supported by French advisors (and some troops) against the British, using the Fire and Fury rules.  John had not laid on a table for 15 years but it did look good when it was all set up.  We used activation for getting reinforcements on the table but we both failed miserably but when we were successful John seemed to be able to get more out of each reinforcement wave – typically the French (yours truly) “spawned” one or two units whilst the British managed to get 6 to 10 units on the table.  It was fun and I managed to get a cavalry unit into the British outpost and steal a cannon.  However, the luck was only short-lived as they ran into a strong group of light infantry (Riflemen). One of those games that gets that narrative kick that makes all the difference in my view.  Many thanks John!, I think the game was yours 😉 .. Great fun.

Finally I had a nice chat with Glen Hardy of Art of War Shirts.  Glen has recently launched his business selling a nice selection of t-shirts that I think some of you may find nice – what I like is that they are nice designs and less in your face than some other offerings.  Do check out his webpage and get a few and/or let your better half and your mates know what you would like for Christmas (you know that any hard ones will be in the wrong scale or period anyway!).  Here is a link to his page.

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As for any progress this week I am slowly doing some DreadBall miniatures (yes I did get a few more teams). Doing Forge fathers and some MVPs this week but no progress on Rommel stuff.   The Better One said to me the other day “I did not know you were into this game now!”, “Been working on it for years!”, I answered back having just ordered a few more teams on eBay.

I based the Forge Father colour scheme of my favourite Swedish Coffee Brand Löfbergs Lila. Purple with some green detailing for strikers, yellow for jacks, red for guards and blue for the Keeper.  Can you smell the nice aroma?

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Talking about Great Britons, I could not avoid to reflect on the likeness with one of the MVPs and a very famous TV personality that recently passed away.  Anyway I let you reflect on your own.

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/ “Nice to see you, to see you nice!”, until next week!

 

 

 

 

The Joy of Sixteen Degrees in the Shade – Getting back to normality

On By The OneIn French Indian War (FIW), Games played, Pikeman's Lament, Terrain4 Comments

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I just finished one of the longest holidays I have had for a long time, however on the first day back it still feels like all the others – too short.

I have to admit that the idea of doing one of the Great Sieges with the Knight Hospitaliers and Ottomans in attendances (like Rhodes 1522 or Malta 1565) seemed to have planted itself in my mind.  We will see for how long!  Got myself a little prop just in case.

In addition I listened to the latest Meeples and Miniatures podcast about Sam Mustafa’s new ruleset Rommel (see link here) and I am currently in some wonderful la-la land with 3mm or 6mm miniatures on a desert board fighting out the North African campaign. I also listened to the latest podcast from the guys at Wargames Soliders and Strategy (WSS) and amongst other things learned about the Origin of Rommel’s legendary goggles (see a link to an newpaper article here and a link to the podcast itself here).

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I also caught up on some other podcasts including Wargames Recon (here) and the Veteran Wargamer (here). I really like the stuff Jay Arnold of the Veteran Wargamer is doing and he has now done more than 20 shows now – all good.

I did improve on my travel battleground following a visit to a shop that seemed to sell everything – even wargames mats!. They had been labelled door mats in error and they only had one in green left. I parted with 3 coins of that euro currency and it was mine!

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Worked a treat and we played a few more battles of Pikeman’s Lament with our 6mm French and British forces travel set-up.  Having used these as presented in the last post (see here)  we have really enjoyed our games. Veteran Commanded Shot (we used this category for the Indians) can be very annoying (for the opponent) if you have rough terrain/forest present, as they can move faster than other units and use their skirmish ability. Here are a few action shots from one of these games – including a typical damage roll from my perspective with two dice missing probably showing “ones”.

Regretfully the doorma… oops the battlemat had to stay behind.  I do hope the next guests will put it to some good use – it would be a shame if it was not shown proper respect and was actually treated as a door mat.

/ All the best! Keep toysoldiering on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Joy of Thirty-Six degrees in the shade – FIW with Pikeman’s Lament

On By The OneIn 6mm, French Indian War (FIW), Games played, Historical Sites, Pikeman's Lament1 Comment

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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This was then followed by the other regular unit being attacked on the other flank and the rest is history.

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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.

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/ Take care

 

 

 

 

 

Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) – The Joy of Six 2017

On By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Dragon's Rampant, Fantasy, Games played, Great Northern War, Polemos GNW, Towards Moscow Triology, Twilight of the Sun King Rules4 Comments

It seems like ages ago that we went to Sheffield for the Joy of Six 2017 and I have had my head down into work and some neglected duties like 1800mm terrain modelling (gardening) and real life painting (some feature walls instead of shield walls) with a limited amount of any useful hobby time.  However, there is always some progress on some front in the Roll a One world (but more on that next week).

This is my take on the fantastic spectacle that is the Joy of Six – it is very biased as I frankly spent most of the day around the two tables I had brought.  I had a few round trips but failed to take more than a few pictures of the other offerings – mainly because I ended up having a chat and then feeling bad that I had left the tables and rushed back.  However, this was a little bit of an unnecessary mitigation as the games were running pretty well without my interference. The Wyre Foresters running the Lesnaya Table and the Little One the Lechnaga bash.  So as far as a proper show report goes it is a limited one.  For a better overview check out the report on Baccus page (link here and here).

A tale of two tables

It was a nice and sunny day in Sheffield and we woke up early as we actually managed to get to bed relatively early.   The mat for the Lesnaya Battle was rolled out and it was so refreshing compared to the usual 2 by 2 feet boards I have been using in the past – that invariably have warped a little bit and/or the underlying tables being uneven leading to some interesting and unintended elevations.

I had some fears about the varnish and the rivers but it all seemed to work very well – I think I have convinced myself that I will do mats from now (more on this adventure here).

When we had put on all the trees, the houses, the wagons and the starting units I took a step back and I have to admit we were pleased. “It is GEFAG!”, the Little One said – Good Enough For A Game!

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View with Lesnaya at the far end.  There was a nice shine in the river and the simple bridges (made from thin Spaghetti) worked really well!  In the middle Freijbourgs rear-guard awaiting the onslaught of the Russian war machine.
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Side table for the Russians as they were coming onto the table during the Battle from the directions – Golitsyn’d Division with Tsar Peter, Menshikov’s Divison and Bauer’s Division. There were also few Swedish enforcements (on the top left hand corner).
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Bauer’s eventual entry point in the left corner.
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Shot showing the defensive lines of Wagons, Lesnaya and Stackelberg’s Infantry (Swedish) as well as some of the Cavalry.
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Another Angle
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With the Cavalry commanded by General Lewenhaupt himself.
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The density of the forest really worked

 

The Wyre Forrester, under the guidance of Nick Dorrell, got on with the job.  Most of the time was spent talking about the table, the war, the mat and the Twilight of the SunKing Rules that was used on the day (the basing I use is the Polemos “standard” but this works equally well for the TotSK rules – one base is a small unit, two bases a normal unit and three bases a large unit).

At the latter part of the day the game started moving in earnest but did not reach a climax before we packed up.

Here are a few pictures from the action.

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For the Lechnaga battle (see background here and here) we used one of the mats I did for the Saga stuff last year and the canopy forests (see more here on this terrain). The actual gaming area was the middle half of the 3 by 4 foot mat.

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We decided to run the game (using Dragon Rampant Rules) with a war band/force sheet for each player and did a bespoke measuring stick based (we used centimeters instead of inches) on the units in the war band. We also did cards that to use to agree the order in which a player had a go – this created another layer of friction to the game. All, of course, colour coordinated!  I have provided the files if you are interested in doing something similar.

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I bought some cheap 20cm rulers for 50 pence each and printed out the file (download files here in PDF and Powerpoint – Dragon Rampant Rulers and Dragon Rampant Rulers) on some sticker paper (normal paper and glue may do as well!) and put them on the rulers where appropriate.

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The turn order cards are here Turn order Cards and here turnorder cards.

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A then the file with the factions used on the day here Factions and here Factions  .

We had a few good games – the Little One was in charge.  Here are some pictures – a big thank you to the few who dared to sit down and roll a few dice with the kids. The future of the gaming community and industry salutes you! The Little One would like to give a special thanks to Oliver and Chris!

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Other tales

It was a very good day, but it always seems to end too quickly,  here are a few of the things that I managed to capture.

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Arguably the warmest smile for miles!, but this is how we most commonly see Dr Mike in action. His posts on the Baccus forum in the old days got me inspired enough to get on with painting my first set of 6mm units. Grey primer, black wash, block and Nut-brown ink and base it nicely and consistently.
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My first contact with Waterloo was through that famous Abba Song and my mother moving like a Dancing Queen in front of me.  Dan Hodgson’s (on the front left) Waterloo was equally brilliant and was an absolute treat.  Chris Grice, on the right who wrote the Polemos Napoleonic rules, looked like a true General pondering on his next move of the day.  Here is the blur from the Baccus page.   I am a fan of Dan!
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Mr Peter Berry himself doing the Raffle and the many thanks session!   Never in the field of human table top conflict have so many had so small toy soldiers to thank for so much!

 

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Cold War Commanders – Landjut 1989 (Always having a good time and game, link to their blog here).  As a Swede I love when the Danes get a little harmless kicking on the table top.

 

 

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Mailed Fist – Last Train to Berlin (always very nice games and detailed terrain).  I should have taken a picture of the town but got star struck and just stared!

 

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South London Warlords – Neustadt Crossing 1985 (Excellent!). More about it here.  Iain we should meet up for a game at some point!
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MADgamers – Eastern Front 1700 (Trevor, thanks for the little chat).  Always happy to see you Gents at Joy of Six!

 

 

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WW1 Grand Style (I think the sign had a slight error – I let you go and figure).  Very nice!

 

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Salford 1642 – Excellent and so many houses! Link to some more blur here.

There were more tables that deserved to be shown of, but my lack of focus resulted in a limited set of pictures.  However, again here is the link to the Baccus official report part 1 and Part 2.

Of particular interest to me was the Battle of Issus using Command and Colours (or is it Colors!) by the Wyre Forest gang.  This really got me inspired to do something similar for the Punic Wars (but I save this discussion to another time – when I have not clue what to write about!).  There is a picture of it on the Baccus link above.

Yet again a very good event indeed. Thanks to Baccus, Wargames Emporium and all the other people that makes it all happen.  I have to extend the thank you to my two Little Ones – one doing her second year in the Yellow Joy of Six Jersey, selling entrance and raffle tickets, and the other for running one of the games.  Also a big thanks to Nick and the other merry men from the Wyre Forest!

Finally and big thank you to all of you who came around and said hello and told me you were reading this blog and liked it.  I really appreciate it and all you others who seem to come by every now and then!

We will back next year!, did I say thank you?

/  Have a good week!

Postscript (15/10/17):  I have had a few queries on the sources of the trees I used for this project, I got these from various sources on eBay. Here are a few screenshots done on the date indicated above of what I used.  None of these are based  (apart form the Orbicular ones have a little of a root section) and I did it by using washers with a bit of Milliput and make a hole in, let it dry, glue on some sand and paint it up, flock it and stick in the tree with some glue.  Some boring hours of work but I do think it is well worth it. 

The fir trees were from Busch and I think I got 3 or 4 packs of these – shop around as I recall I got mine somewhat cheaper.

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The other main tree was of this variety.

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I also got a few packs of the following:

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Another postscript a little bit later:

These are the blur for the two games we ran on that day.

One of the highlights of every Joy of Six is Per Broden’s annual exploration of his Swedish heritage as he stages wonderful games with a distinctly Scandinavian feel.  At the Joy of Six 2016 he went one further and produced two games.
He is repeating this feat this year, with two very different offerings in scope and subject matter.

Here is what you can expect to see this year in Per’s own words:

‘Lesnaya 1708

I, Nick Dorrell and the very decent chums of the Wyre forest Wargames club will be doing three battles (two that took place and one that could have been) from the Great Northern War covering the, from a Swedish perspective, ill-fated Russian campaign 1708 to 1709. Each of these battles will be presented at the Joy of Six show over the next three years.

The campaign is the invasion of Russia by Charles XII of Sweden starting with the crossing of the frozen Vistula river in early 1708 and ends with the Swedish defeat at the Battle of Poltava in the Summer of 1709.  It is the beginning of the end for Sweden as a dominant military power in north-eastern Europe.

The first battle is Lesnaya 1708 and is interesting as it is, in effect, an ambush by a Russian flying detachment, led by Tsar Peter himself, on a smaller Swedish army that is travelling through the forests of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  The Swedish army is led by General Lewenhaupt who is escorting a supply column of more than 4,500 wagons to support the main Swedish Army.  From the perspective of doing the battle we need a lot of forest as well as about 40 or more bases to represent the supply column itself.

In writing this the miniatures (from the Baccus range) are about 95% complete with a few more Russian dragoons to go.  The main thing remaining is the gaming area itself and a large number of trees is being finalised (there will be about 500 trees on the table!).

Overall the forces consists of:

  • Russians, a few leaders and artillery as well as 10 bases (24 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases) of infantry and 57 bases of Dragoons (9 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases).

  • Swedes, a few leaders and artillery as well as 10 Polemos bases (24 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases) of infantry and 57 Polemos bases of Dragoons (9 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases)

We will using Nick Dorrell’s adaptation of the Twilight of the Sun King Rules published by the Pike and Shot society, to play the game.

The game, and it’s very uneven progress, is being reported on the roll a one blog (rollaone.com) – you can follow it there and see if we make it over the finishing line in July.’

So game number one, is another of Per’s GNW epics.   His second production couldn’t be more different both in scope and subject matter, although I do detect a little Swedish influence creeping in…

‘The Skirmish at Lechnagha in the Year of 708, since the birth of Suecia, during the Gigantic Northern War  700-721

A black arrow with red feathers suddenly hit one of the pack mules and it fell violently to the ground as its legs gave away to the heavy load it was carrying. This was shortly followed by hideous laughs and taunts from the surrounding forest – the same damn laughs he had heard so many times before. With the black and red arrow signature there was no doubt what was coming next.  Prior Lewen Hauptmann of the Knights of Suecia, threw his red cloak over his shoulder, raised his warhammer and turned to his men and screamed; “Get ready for the Greenskin’s attack! Push them back to their rotten holes! Give no pardon as it shall not be given to you! From earth they have come and to dust they will go!”.   He pulled down the visor of his helmet and gave a short prayer and looked around at his men – ironclad battle hardened Knights ready to fight to their last dying breath. “For the Glory of Suecia, give us your strength of battle!” he yelled out the blessing and his brothers responded concurrently; “We accept your strength”,  to complete the linkage to the divine plane. For a moment a reddish glow could be seen from their swords and spears as they were imbued with the spiritual power.

The Prior reflected for a moment on the stupidity of this wretched mission and how he had been forced into it by the Knight Marshal Carrophlus following his failure holding the Fort at Narvay.  He had chosen to spare his men from slaughter and made a deal with the treacherous Steward of Polesh, Arghaust the Strong who, he was the first to admit, surprisingly had let them go after opening the gates. The enemy had grown stronger under the combined leadership by Arghaust and the mighty Warboss Pethor the Brute, a tall Orc whose organisational skill, cunning and patience was remarkable for his kind. Pethor had manage to organise the Goblin and Orc rubble into a formidable fighting force. It had only been a matter of time before the Fort would fall and enough of his brothers had already been slain and reinforcements had not been forthcoming. The Fort was of limited strategic importance and he had chosen to live to fight another day.

As penance for this “disloyalty”, in addition to the demotion to Prior, he and his surviving men had been ordered to bring supplies to  the cut-off townspeople of Lechnagha. He had no retinue of servants, squires, men-at-arms or Sergeants as was the custom for these kind of soul purification missions. It had been a hellish journey through Goblin infested forests with constant harassment. He had lost half the men they started out with and only half of them still had their horses.  If their calculations were correct they were only a few miles away from the Town itself.  It had a small regular army garrison and since he had felt the presence of evil watching them for the last few days he had sent a rider for some enforcements. But now that seemed to have been in vain. He thought back on the situation at Narvay and how his death there would have qualified his name into the songs of the minstrels but instead he was facing death here in the middle of this despicable forest – for what?

He was quickly brought back to reality as yet another arrow hit another mule.  He looked around and could see Greenskins on both sides of the road riding their growling dire wolves closer.  They always got excited at the beginning of the fighting and intensified their laughter, reminiscent of that of a raving lunatic, that normally stroke fear into their opponents.  However, this was not what frightened him the most, it was the otherworldly scream he could hear from within the forest itself.

This is a participation game using the popular Dragon Rampant fantasy wargame rules by Dan Mersey (played to satisfaction not perfection). The main purpose is to have fun but also to showcase that 6mm can be used for games normally associated with the larger scales not just replacing individual miniatures with bases of many (like we did for Saga last year) but also scaling it down and still being able to enjoy a game.  With a 2′ by 2′ board (the size of a small coffee table) playing in centimetres instead of inches is in fact like playing on 4’6” by 4’6″ board.  We figure if you can have a few blokes taking a flag for a walk representing a regiment in some scales, why not do skirmish in 6mm?

We (the Little One and I) will run a few session over the day (with up to 4 participants each time) and welcome anyone to have a go.  1 to 2 players will control the Knights and 1 to 2 players will control the Greenskins.  It will serve as an introduction to the rules and we will limit each session to about 45-60 minutes (including a high level rule go-through). We happily mix fantasy miniatures from Baccus, Rapier, Irregular Miniatures, Perfect Six and Microworld on the table.

We have blogged about 6mm skirmish extensively on the roll a one blog (rollaone.com) – I will bring some of the other miniatures for other periods for you to have a look at should you wish.’

All the best!

Zombie Diced and Sci-Fi(ced)

On By The OneIn 6mm, Games played, Sci-FiLeave a comment

Another relaxed week and a memory card with Joy of Six pictures on the run – but hopefully back by the end of the week.

The Little One and I did a few rounds of Zombie Dice this weekend to keep our dice rolling capabilities in good shape.  Zombie Dice is a nice little game that takes about a minute to figure out but the occasional, for us compulsory,  “Brain!” scream, seems to keep us entertained.

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The Little One wanted some Sci-Fi so I got some stuff from Brigade Games (link to them here) at Joy of Six – some tanks and infantry from the Mercs and PacFed ranges.  Check them out – they have a very good range.  I slowly started working on these over the weekend, at least spray painting and some initial coats.

I quickly did two test bases for the two armies (the Little One approved!) – a Hover Tank and a Grav Tank.

I also got some NSF7 Attack robots from Irregular Miniatures (see here) when I ordered the Ogres for the Fantasy stuff, now where did I put that guy in scarf from Angel Barrack miniatures?  The comparison miniature is from Brigade Games (Polish Infantry).

I also got some beauties from Pendraken (link here) that could be used for Aliens!

 

/ Take care and enjoy Summer

 

 

 

 

 

The Joy (of Six) is over

On By The OneIn 6mm, Dragon's Rampant, Games played, Historical Sites, Polemos GNW, Towards Moscow Triology, Twilight of the Sun King Rules3 Comments

We had a very nice weekend up in Sheffield with the Better One and the Little Ones going to the Joy of Six show – now back to work and a hectic week ahead. Will write about any potential thoughts in due course, over the weekend. In summary we had a great time and even had time to sneak into Conisbrough Castle just outside Doncaster.  I had wanted to go there for some time as it is the setting for the classical novel Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott.

Ivanhoe has a special place in modern Swedish tradition as the 1982 movie (with Anthony Andrews, Olivia Hussey, Lysette Anthony and Sam Neill) has been shown every New Years day since 1988.

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We did set up the tables and had a fantastic time – the mats worked well!

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/ A proper reflection this weekend, all the very best

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(Pruth Campaign) Skirmish Action in 6mm using Pikeman’s Lament – Part 4: The Swedes, another Game and rebasing the FIW stuff

On By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, French Indian War (FIW), Games played, Painting, Pikeman's Lament, Sharp Practice7 Comments
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Part of a Sipahi cavalry unit contemplating their next move

 

We could not help ourselves and really ought to be cracking on with the main project (whatever that was) but enjoyed the game of Pikeman’s Lament last week (see here) so we thought we give it another try.  As usual a lot of pictures, hope you like it… but first a few other things.

Loose ends from Last Week

I got some questions about some of the stuff I used for last weeks battle, especially about the battle board.  I will do a similar one for the Joy of Six Sharp Practice game in a few weeks time so I will do a tutorial and post it here, as this will be done in a similar way.

Also I made simple cards for each unit and laminated these – simple but effectual. I did them in Excel and pasted them into PowerPoint and added a picture of each unit, with a national emblem and a background. No more information than on the normal company roster, just one of those things we feel enhances the gaming experience overall.

cardscards2

Some Swedes

I have plenty of Swedish lead hanging around so I thought I do a few of these as well for our trials of the PL rules.

As per the plan a few blogs ago.

Swedish No Pts/ unit Total Pts Unit Size Total Models Baccus Pack
Shot

5

4

20

12

60

GNS01
Pike

2

4

8

12

24

GNS03
Aggressive Elite Gallopers

3

6

18

6

18

GNS05
Total

9

–

46

–

102

–
swed line
5 units of Shot

 

swed pike
2 units if Pike

 

swed cav
3 units of Gallopers

Rebasing the French Indian War Stuff

Whilst I was at it I have also rebased the French Indian War stuff I did for Sharp Practice using the “1-2-3 method” I have discussed before, as it is makes it easier to play especially for smaller skirmish.  Here are some pictures of the bases with the “old” shock markers next to them.  We will have to get things ready for this one as well pretty soon, as they are showing up at Joy of Six!  Note the French Commander from our game last and this week (Lt. Dupont – the younger I suppose?).  For the original posting and the previous basing, see here.  Note that some of the units are based in a 1-2-2-3 for the 8 model units (line) and 1-2-2-2-3 for the 10 model units (militia).

A What-if Battle to test the Pikeman’s Lament rules again

Forces

We thought we should take the Swedes for a spin against the same Ottoman side as last week (see here).

ottoman force

We had a friend of the family visiting so we invited him to be the Swedes and the Little One got the Ottomans again. Unlikely pairing but we wanted to try the Swedes out and the Little One wanted to field the Ottomans again (and hoping to gain some more Honour to his Lt. Dupont). We agreed on doing it but keeping the historical blasphemy quiet.

I actually painted the Swedish infantry above as being part of the Dalregementet in uniforms they had around the time of the Poltava Battle in 1709 were they surrendered. The regiment was then reformed in 1710 and stayed in Sweden until they fought bravely at Gadebusch in 1712 .  So they were certainly not around in Pruth.

The regiment was disbanded in 2000 and was the pride of the Dalarna region and fought in many famous Swedish battles throughout history, including Breitenfeld (1631), Lützen (1632), Lund (1676), Narva (1700), Kliszow (1702), Holovczyn (1708), Malatitze (1708), and as mentioned above at Poltava (1709) and Gadebusch (1712).

Their marsch was the famous Stenbocken Marsch to honour Fieldmarshal Magnus Stenbock who was Colonel for the Regiment  at the Battle of Narva and later the commander of the Great Victories at Halmstad (1710) and Gadesbusch (1712). The lyrics in Swedish here.  The first part of it translated to English (rather hastily) by yours truly below (the rest is as “poetic”, note that I have translate the Gå-På as Go Unto – this was the name of the offensive Swedish tactics used since Gustavus Adolphus days).

March, Soldiers! Go unto in the name of the Lord,

Cock the hammer merrily back, then eagerly present,

Give fire, musket down, take the sword in your hand.

Go unto, fear neither death nor fire

Go unto, for our native land!

To dare your life for king and family,

Is covered both in heaven and on earth,

Therefore we will plucky,

In our blue uniform,

Go unto, stand, thrust and slash,

Yes, beat them all, so

that they lay dead like cut straw

silence-1890cut.jpg
We promised not to tell anyone. Detail from the Painting Silence, by Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), painted 1890

As for the Galloping cavalry I had a few left overs from the ones I did a few weeks back as I only needed one base of the Adelsfanan i Livland och på Ösel  but had a fair few of grey coated cavalry I no longer needed.  This is the Cavalry Corps of the Nobility in Livonia and Ösel.  They were part of the march to Ukraine with Lewenhaupt and also surrendered at Poltava (1709) and a smaller part of the unit that had remained in Riga surrendered in 1710. 

In fact, and based on reading the draft of Nick Dorrell’s upcoming book (discussed here), there were a small number of Swedish soldiers with the Crimean Khanate as part of the Ottoman allies most likely cavalry unit and some officers as advisors.   I will repent and make another more likely force containing mostly of gallopers from the elite Drabanterna unit and some riders from the Södra Skånska Kavalleriregementet.  These would most likely fight side by side with some light cavalry units. 

But I digress and back to the what-if battle….

For the Swedes we chose (a 24 point force):

2 units of Shot @ 4 points each

1 unit of Pike @ 4 points

2 Aggressive elite Gallopers @ 6 points each

The Scenario and Set-up

With regards to the battlefield (yet again a 2 by 2 board) we had a little section of river with a bridge, a road, a field, a rocky hill, some houses and a lot of trees.

Table

The starting positions for the Ottoman units were: (1) the Siaphi 3 cavalry units at the south end of the table behind the forest, and (2) the 2 Janissary shoot units in the southeast corner on the road next to the two houses.

The Swedes, of course, came from the North with the (1) two Adelsfanan cavalry units from the Northeast on the road and (2) the three foot units from the North.

Table2

Here some close-ups of those starting positions.

Sap starting 2Sap startingShot starting 2Shot starting

gall starting 2gall startingswed shot start 2swed shot start

This was a straightforward battle to the end scenario.

The Battle

The Swedish battle plan was to get up on the hill in the middle with one of the shot units (to which the officer was attached) and move the pike units towards the road.  The second shot unit would move around the North West forest and move forward from there.  The two cavalry units would advance to the other side of the bridge and wait for the foot units to get into position.

The Little One wanted to get his cavalry through the forest and start harassing the enemy as soon as possible but at the same time advance his shot to the middle of the road. He regarded the Elite Gallopers as the biggest threat with their stamina of 4.  On me telling him not to underestimate the Swedish infantry he asked me if I had read about Poltava and told me that they would probably get lost in the forest! Fair enough point taken.

Below are the pictures I took during the battle.  In short the Ottomans had some problems getting their shot getting to move on the road (perhaps the orders in French by Lt. Dupont were not clear enough). However the Ottoman Cavalry did managed to move through the forest and although it did manage to cause some damage to the Swedish cavalry who had advanced to the other side of the bridge it was not enough and instead the Swedish cavalry (being elite and with Stamina at 4) got the upper hand of that exchange but at very high cost.

The Swedish shot unit (as planned) got up on the top of the hill and from a relatively safe position managed to take out most of the Ottoman cavalry threat and also kill Ottoman shot unit with Lt. Dupont attached to it that had been successfully reduced in power by the pike unit.  However it (the shot unit) became a target for the Ottoman Crack shots (the second shot unit) that successfully manage to remove almost half its units in one shot (having previously done the same with the unit coming down on the east flank), killing the commander and making the unit rout (miserable morale roll). But before then a reinforcement unit of Swedish shot had appeared.

The Little One waited for the right moment and managed to clinch victory by routing the newly arrived reinforcement and then manage to get reinforcements in the eleventh hour – but by this time the battle was over.  The Little One had rolled brilliantly and turned the tides, yet again!  It feels a little bit better not standing there as a looser for a change!

In short we had yet another great time and the reflections this time are:

  • The terrain modifiers with regards to movement and combat are simple but yet feel realistic.
  • The elite gallopers are a very potent force!
  • The pike ability of close order is very good and captures the role of pike in a simple straightforward way.  It worsens the ability to attack but makes it better to defend and cause damage to the attacker much better. The Pikes stamina score of 3 is also useful and makes them very strong against attacking- (as opposed to shot)  biased units – like gallopers.
  •  The Little One learned that it is not over until the last dice are rolled although his cavalry was decimated he still had two strong (elite) shot units that made the day.
  • The rule of something good happening if you roll a double 6 on activation (and bad on a double 1) created some interesting events during the battle with the Swedish reinforcement about midway through the battle and the Ottoman reinforcement at the end of the battle. Again this adds to the Narrative and fog of war.
  • The Little Ones commander Lt. Dupont survived and was saved by the soldiers and he got another 5 honour so he is now “officially” a Lieutenant (at 24 points total) and he got the new trait of Fencing Master (giving him benefits if he challenges another Commander).

But, as you know by now, it is not over until the thumbs are up or down.

batt 46.jpg

So all in all another successful game.

/ I hope that was of some interest, have a good week