Older blokes in robes! work in progress and the Grognard Files

On 18/02/201805/03/2018 By The OneIn Mutant 19848 Comments

Frihamnen, Stockholm, 1985. The writer Michael Petersen and the illustrator Peter Johnsson have joined forces to discuss a synopsis for an adventure for the Basic Rules of Mutant [a fantastic Swedish Post-Apocalyptic Rpg, that I wrote more about here]- “Nekropolis”, the first part of two in the campaign “Den grå döden” [The Grey Death].
Michael: It is going to be an epic campaign!, the players have the future of the Pyri Commonwealth in their hands!”
Peter: ”Will it be a spy story?. I have an idea about drawing agent rats in trenchcoats.”
Michael: ”Yes, the adventurers will be chased by the agents of Ulvriket. Mutated rats sounds good.”
Peter: ”Where is Ulvriket?”
Michael: ”Denmark. But forget all about pils, sausages and rock festivals. It is more like the Easterlands in the Heart of Darkness [This was a setting from another of the Companies Rpgs, think Mordor]. Proper Evil.”
Peter: “Do I need to draw ladies in bikinis with well proportioned attributes for this adventure too?”
Michael: ”No, it is more older blokes in robes!”.

– Roughly translated from Swedish from Jakob Simonson blog (see here) with a few clarifications.

thCYT0SNCG — The cover of the scenario, with the all-terrain Rhino in the background and a seemingly odd bunch of adventurers. This was Mutant in a nutshell, apart from the lack of any form of weapons and improvised armour. Since I first got the book I have been wondering how the group did not spot the cabin when their vehicle gave up on the hill closer to it (but nevermind, I no longer let it stop me from going to sleep!)

I really enjoy the Grognard files podcast and the throwback to the good old days of 1980s roleplaying. If you have any interest in roleplaying games (rpgs), whether you were around then or not, this is a fantastic show and you should try it out (here is a link to get you started). Being of the somewhat mature nature (not old! – I still bloody play with toy soldiers, so I go for mature or perhaps in need of some maintenance, but never old!) for me this is a proper non-imaginary deja vu experience – I do not just feel like I did it, but I really did this before. I have played many of the games, back in the day, covered so far (often in multiple podcasts, and in addition podcasts have covered rpg magazines and fanzines):

Runequest
Call of Cthulhu
Traveller
Stormbringer
AD&D
Tunnels and Trolls
Top Secret
Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes
James Bond Rpg
Judge Dredd

Each game is thoroughly discussed, analyzed and reflected upon. Being a guest on the British Isles since the mid 90ies it is at a level of eccentricity that I recognise well and that is hard to find anywhere else. It is similar to the exploits of those Victorian chaps who invented industrial breakthroughs in their back garden sheds. I absolutely love the concept. Bravo to Dirk, Blythy, Ed and the rest of the crew (not forgetting the eminent Daily Dwarf, link here). I suggest you brew yourself a cup of tea and get a pack of hobnobs and sit down in your favourite chair and listen to the first episode on Runequest. The only thing that may prevent you from having a fantastic time is your ability in making a decent cup of tea!

We, my friends and I who grew up in a small Swedish provincial town, had a gaming group running for many years and we were also part of a local rpg club called Aut Vincere Aut Mori (translated from Latin as “either to conquer or to die”). We did play a lot of the games covered in the Grognard show but it was intertwined with some local (Swedish) produce including Mutant and Drakar and Demoner (literary meaning Dragons & Demons) – they were fine products and would be classified as belonging to the Basic Roleplaying family of systems – with “3d6” characteristics, percentage chance to succeed, and further not level based, i.e. a shot in the head is as deadly when it hits you whether you are a snotty teenager with an eagerness to see the world as when you have conquered it. Sorry, but I never got over the level and Hit Point thing or regimented bundle approach to progress in life! – although I had some great experiences playing games like Dungeons & Dragons in the day – but it was not the system but the GM who made it a fantastic experience. But I digress..

I have been thinking about my own Mutant 1984 project recently and how I will take this forward.

Basically following a deadly and incurable epidemic caused by samples from a mission to Mars the human civilization collapses. The survivors build enclaves and start experimentation on humans and animals, in effect creating mutants, to see how they will survive outside the enclaves. However conflicts arises between the enclaves and it leads to a nuclear war sealing the fate of the world.

Fast forward a few hundred years and the from the ashes new civilizations start to emerge with mutated humans and animals, some “pure” humans and even some mutants with mental powers. There are remnants of the old worlds scattered all around, and some androids/robots from the old days are still around. In addition there are certain areas where the effect of radiation has left some strange effects on the flora and fauna and these areas are called “Forbidden Zones”.

The game is set in Scandinavia, but not as we know it today, and the general level of new technology is equivalent to that of the 19th Century, give or take. There are steam engines, muskets and some emerging rifle like weapons, heliogram for communication, etc. Some of the old technology has survived but is rare.

From a Blog entry last year, link here for more.

When we played rpgs back in the day we very rarely used miniatures/flats when we played and when we did I am not sure it really enhanced the experience as we did not tend to plan it very well. I always felt it broke the spell of that wonderful world we all had in our heads that was built-up by narration and imagination.

The idea is that I will recreate some of the action scenes from some of the early Mutant Adventures starting with the Nekropolis scenario. In essence breaking the scenario down to a series of tabletop games, that can be used as part of playing the adventure or as an independent game. It was a relatively straightforward scenario, with a few Game Master leads to push events forward (if the players do not think of it, X will suggest so…). The scenario is long out of print and I am not aware of anywhere you could get hold of it nowadays and in addition you would need to be able to understand Swedish to get through it. I am still debating on what miniature rules to use, if you have any ideas comment on this page or send me a message through the site. There would be about 6 adventurers, with some supporting cast, against the rest of the world,

WARNING – what follows will contain spoilers.

I will try to stay true to the original story and the characters if possible but I will use some artistic freedom when I find something else more interesting or where there is a lack of suitable miniatures.

Scenes I will cover are presented below (with a note on the scene and then miniatures needed):

Border Cabin Commotion
Night attack at the Inn
Nekropolis HQ

Border Cabin Commotion

The Scene

I suppose this would require the Cabin itself – and the set-up will be so that it allows action inside and outside. In addition I would need Wintery terrain around, of which I have plenty of from the Winter War Project (that I am working on in other news). So a cabin needs to be built with enough room to allow miniatures on 2 pence coins to move around inside.

*Zoom in on the Nekropolis cover and there is the little border cabin.*

Miniatures

4 normal soldiers of the Ulvrikets army, I already have these. They are based on WW2 Americans to represent the relatively high tech army of Ulvriket.

Artizan Design WW2 Americans with German Officer, painted following the colour plates of Ospreys “Pyri-Samfundet: Regular Infantry Uniforms and Regalia” (if such a book existed). A few of them need to be winterized for the scenario. The officer is a WW2 German model.

A NCO (mutated dog originally, but I will use the mutated Ape NCO for this)

Artisan WW2 miniatures again, with headswaps from God knows what!

I added the picture below some time after the original blog entry (for completeness, this is the merry squad of soldiers, with Winter Bases)

The Commanding Officer – he is a mutated bear, it is a big guy with the mutation berserk. So I will base him off a Reaper Bones Werebear that I have ordered. Have to make him look a little more of an Officer of the Ulvriket army though, so some green stuff will be required.

s-l400 — Will have to get rid of the Axe and the Jewellery!

I did finish this one after the event and wrote about it (see link here), here is a picture of the final result.

Night Attack at the Inn

The Scene

The in(n)side of the Inn (parts of it) – maybe this would be done best by using foam core with printed on detail. I got inspired by listening to Jay on the Wargames Veteran podcast who discusses foamboard, to almost Grognardish level of detail – great show indeed, it is number 33 (link here).

Miniatures

6 Assassin Rats – done

rats

6 normal soldiers – have these, see above or below!

Thin man with a Submachine Gun – I was looking around but could not find something to fit the bill. But then I stumbled on a Sherlock Holmes figure from CP models today and ordered it and CP Models also do some loose SMGs so a little bit of work and I have my man with an SMG. Pictures below from CP Models webpage (here and here).

man with SMG.jpg

Nekropolis HQ

The Scene

Nekropolis HQ – this is more of a Dungeon, sorry I meant Bunker, crawl. May do some foam core corridors or just play the final encounter scene. More thinking to be done.

Miniatures

14 soldiers (a few of them being mutants) and 2 officers – as these will be inside a heated bunker I am not sure the immersion works with greatcoated soldiers with Winterized bases! So I got myself some WW2 Americans from Warlord Games (here), that I will use a basis for these guys. It will also give me an abundance of loose weapons useful for converting other miniatures for this project.

soldiers3 soldiers1 soldiers2 soldiers4

2 mutated birds – not sure how I will use these in my take on the adventure. But I found these beauties from CP Models (link here). They were originally suppose to look a little bit pathetic than these mean looking birds. I did some modifications to them to make them less aggressive looking.

Mutated Birds.jpg

4 scientists – I have ordered some from Crooked Dice that have a nice selection, one of them with a little pet (a little bit more sinister than a cat, I suppose) pictures borrowed from their site – excellent miniatures overall, link (here and here).

2 Older blokes in robes – still looking for some perfect miniatures I know are hiding somewhere in the house. I think they were from Black Cat Bases but I can not reach their webpage at the moment.

Went for a Woman and Man for the two Grey Guys!

In summary not so much to do on the miniature front, but some builds to be done. The second installation of the mini-campaign (Bris Brygga), includes a scene with 20 airships to worry about. Have to think that part through a little bit more.

Progress will be slow as the next few months will be dedicated to this years Joy of Six battle. Anyway phase 1 completed – another £60 to add to the lead (and plastic) mountain.

/ all the best

Vulgar Display of Power – Just a little bit of progress on the Winter War Stuff

On 04/02/201804/02/2018 By The OneIn 15mm, Chain of Command rules, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Games played, Gaslands, Painting, Terrain5 Comments

cas2

Work is taking more than its fair share of my time at the moment, but it happens to most of us. However, I have had some time to get some things done over the last week or so, this is just a summary of that. As always, I do hope it is of some interest.

Chain of Command – dice, casualty markers and suppression markers
Gaslands – finally a game

Finnish and Sovietic dice

I am currently working on some terrain and markers for winter war Chain of Command. I wanted to have some dedicated Finnish and Sovietic dice so looked around and found a fair few Sovietic options but only one Finnish (very nice ones, sold by Dice of War in Australia, see here). These are not specific ones needed for the game, just the type where the 6 is replaced by a unit or a country symbol and could therefore be used for any game that uses D6s. I wanted to have blue ones for the Finns and Red ones for the Soviets, and thought I could perhaps do some myself. I found some 16mm blank dice on ebay and got myself a few different colours (these are from China so will take a week or two to arrive!, at least if you live in the UK).

I then ordered some labels/stickers from Amazon (13mm).

From Label Planets website (link here) you can get a word template for this label set and buy bigger quantities as well. From this you can design your own labels.

I wanted to have 1 to 5 in the same font as used for the Chain of Command rules. This font is called Vulgar Display of Power (download it here). In addition I wanted the hammer and sickle for the Soviets and the hat emblem that the normal enlisted men had for the Finns, replacing number 6.

Here is are the files with the sheet I made for the Soviets (Russian Dice) and sheet for the Finns (Finnish Dice), these are word files. You can change these to add your own colours and symbols.

I have to admit that I had some problem with the laser printer I was using in aligning the sheet so that it printed out correctly (I wasted three sheets but luckily managed to get two done, which was all I needed)- the final result is not perfect and if you have trouble I can only say I am sorry.

This is how they turned out.

I will make some yellow Sovietic ones and some white for Finns for Command Dice rolls.

Dead Soviets

One of the striking things with the Winter War are all the pictures of dead Sovietic soldiers especially in the fighting North of Lake Ladoga. Behind my romanticised view of the war and Finnish bias, I am not immune to the hell those Sovietic soldiers had to go through trapped on those wintery stretches of roads, with inadequate supplies of just about everything. Go to the Wikipedia page and read about the Battle of Suomussalmi (link here) and check the losses on both sides – 50% losses for the Soviets and less than 10% for the Finns.

To create a reminder of this I did a few terrain features with dead Sovietic soldiers (I keep on using this term as the soldiers in the Red army were not only of Russian nationality). They were based on Peter Pig casualty markers (based on anything with a great coat and headswaps to pointy Russian hats and early war helmets).

Some Casualties, clay, stones and twigs from the garden

…and here with some painting, winterization and blood (sorry!).

cas1 cas2 cas3 cas4

Suppression Markers

These are based on the concept of snow flying around as bullets hit the area. I used something called Universal Cooker Hood Filter to do the effect. It is like cotton but much stronger, I attached a part of it with superglue and when dry I dragged it out and trimmed it. I also added a little bit of snow flock carefully on the cloud. I think they do the job well enough.

sup1 — Ivan with his LMG is under fire and splinters are flying from the tree stump

Explosion Markers

I have seen explosions markers made out of clump foliage and wanted to make some for the winter war table as it will contrasts nicely with the snowy background, and also have some practical game purpose. So I searched around the net for some ideas and found a few different options.

Ivan successfully rolled 12 saving throws

I made my set of explosion markers by following the recipe by the Terrain Tutor (link here). Always excellent, this time he blew me away again!

Terrain Tutor – check him out! Excellent.

I also had a game of Gaslands with my micro cars! (using 50% templates), and it was great, but more on that another time.

gas1 gas2

/ All the best (yes I know I should be doing GNW!)

More Markers for Chain of Command and Command & Colors Romans

On 23/01/201823/01/2018 By The OneIn 15mm, 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Command and Colors - Ancients, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars2 Comments

This is a follow-on from the post two weeks show some more Chain of Command markers I need to play the game. These are the ones I have done (for other markers go here):

Patrol Markers – done, see below.
Suppression fire – done, see below.

Patrol Markers

John Bond has a good guide on doing patrol markers and I was going to do them in this fashion using poker chips and then put stickers on – elegant and what you need (link here).

Having read the guide I got myself some Poker chips and found some Finnish and Sovietic symbols on the net to make the stickers from. I then thought that it would be cool to add some skiers on the finish ones and then it all went in another direction, adding stumps, trees and bushes. Overkill – perhaps, but why not? Difficult to turn these around to indicate that they are locked down! Had great fun doing them.

The Finnish Patrol Markers on Blue Poker Chips

“Should I take out the platoon now or tell the others?” (Battle Front Miniature with a twig and some trees)

“Can’t wait for this patrol phase to be over so I can get into the Sauna again!” (Peter Pig German Ski Trooper with some trees)

“I wished the Russians could have moved Leningrad instead of the border” (Peter Pig German Ski Trooper with a Piece of Clump Foliage pretending to be a bush)

“Finally it is a little bit downhill!” (Peter Pig German Skitrooper with clump foliage and twig)

“The Officer said that the wolves will eat well this winter – I get it now”, (You guessed it another Peter Pig German Ski trooper with a tree).

“Do not worry about the yellow snow, it was me. I see Finns over there” (Battlefront Miniatures with Peter Pig Russian Early Helmet head swap, a twig and some clump foliage).

“Look they are cooking Sausages!” (Battlefront Miniatures , a twig and some clump foliage)

“Forward comrade, for the Motherland” (Battlefront Miniatures , a tree and some clump foliage).

“Aren’t we a little expose here Comrade?” (Battlefront Miniatures and a twig).

“There is something moving over that field” (Battlefront Miniatures , a twig and a tree).

Suppression Fire

I made these from 10mm wide strips of some wood I had lying around – I suppose I could have used lollipop sticks as well. I added some twigs, green foam, stones and winterises and added some fluffy stuffing mixed with pva glue and some white paint. The last part to stimulate snow flying as shots are being fired.

With snow and flying snow, to indicate areas that are being subject to firing.

I am going to make the suppression markers the same, but smaller.

Romans for Command & Colors

I also had my order in from Marching in Colours (link here) of some various miniatures – excellent as always. I spent the weekend basing and a very limited amount of detailing a large lot of Roman (and allied) infantry that I will be using for my Command and Colors game (see more here although I have changed some of the proposed basing conventions). I will do a write up of progress so far next week and also discuss the amount of bases and hexagons needed for this project. I am also working on the forces that will serve under the Barca family, but that will take some time to complete as I will need to focus on the Great Northern War stuff for the next few months.

Roman Front.jpg — The Republican War Machine. I am doing 2 bases per Command & Color unit. Loose one get a dead parrot marker, loose two give it back and loose a base. loose three get the dead parrot marker again, etc. 50 by 20mm bases!

/ Hope that was of some interest

The Winter War effort continues – Making tall pine trees

On 15/01/201815/01/2018 By The OneIn 15mm, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Terrain6 Comments

If you recall episode 6 of the Band of Brothers TV series about the Battle of the Bulge, you may remember the wintery forest fighting scenes (well that was most of it anyway). I really like the cinema photography of that episode (as well as many of the others) and the relatively clear line of sight with regards to obstacles – the dominant thing at forest floor level being the tree trunks. Of course the Ardennes is not only tall pine trees but it is the tall pine trees that, in my view, helps to set the scene. What breaks the line of site is not necessary the trees but the white fog that sweeps the forest and the uncertainty is what is lurking out there.

Mature Scandinavian pine forests look very much the same.

Most winter wargames tables have traditional looking Christmas Trees with some snow – it is the ticket to add some winter feel to your terrain. The pine tree is an evergreen and the Christmas tree shape is easy to deal with and to pimp up to look wintery. They are also relatively cheap, and easy to manage on the wargames table. I have use these to, in my opinion, great effect for my Fraustadt 1706 and Gadebush 1712 tables that was laid out at Joy of Six in the past.

I know I used this picture recently, but it is just to make a point!

However, in adhering to my new year resolution of doing some Chain of Command Winter war (that is the war fought between Finland and Soviet Union 1939 to 1940) I wanted to try to get some tall pine trees on the table. I looked around the net for some commercial ones but did not find anything that I particularly liked.

I then stumbled upon an excellent video (link here) from the world of railway modelling and followed it to the letter, with the following exceptions:

Basing – I based mine on 40mm washers
Skipped the step on the highlighting with the turf (as, in my case, I will highlight with snow)
I did not add the additional branches on the tree trunk (but perhaps will do that later).
I added some snow (step 1 a mix of snowflock, white paint and glue added on the edges of the branches, dry, step 2 apply hairspray to the tree and let snowflock drop over the tree standing from above).

Have a look at the video (link here) by Luke Towan.

Pine Trees.JPG

That thing of using the steel brush on the balsa to create something that looks like a tree trunk is just amazingly efficient.

This is how mine turned out – a compromise if we compare to the picture of the forest above – but spot on for what I was looking for!

26803679_1870941686309238_213646323_n

I did a total of 19 in the first batch (as I can not count to 20 yet! – it seems). I have made enough to do another 70 or so, but not sure how many I need.

26803943_1870941559642584_821016235_n

Took them for a test drive and I like the way they add to the overall look.

26856893_1870941186309288_1192462005_n 26857145_1870941059642634_370961524_n 26857147_1870941029642637_1416705792_n 26906678_1870941076309299_2026751255_o 26913532_1870941129642627_1196701254_n 26914069_1870940809642659_569946744_n 26940687_1870940872975986_302724936_n

Now I need to figure out a practical way of basing them so they do not fall that easily – I suppose a bigger base with magnets or something like that.

The video show what material you will need to make the trees, it should be all straightforward, but if not let me know. I speculate that the total outlay for doing the 95 trees would be in range of £70 to £100, which is less than £1 per tree. I will let you know when I have finished my batch as I do not know how much spray paint and glue I will be using yet. It is not a difficult project to do, but I trust that you are careful when you use any sharp tools and read the recommendations on any packaging on the materials that you use. I am not saying this as a general statement to absolve myself of any responsibility when you are sent on a violent trip to God-only-knows-where from spray glue fumes or sent to hospital to put your cut off finger back – I am saying this because I still tend to rush into things without considering the safety of myself or more importantly others around me before the production of a piece of shitty wargames terrain.

They are relatively sturdy (the spray glue and in my case the additional hairspray to apply the snow creates some rigidity) and will probably last for a while. I suppose a few more coatings of hairspray would make it even stronger (use poundshop hairspray).

I am using mine to do Winter War using Chain of Command, but I suppose the trees could serve equally well in many other conflicts using other rules. 😉

I intend to do some for Summer actions during the Continuation war at some point, but without the snow of course.

/ Next time some more markers, take care

Markers for Winter War Chain of Command, Marching Colours and Henry Hyde

On 08/01/201808/01/2018 By The OneIn 15mm, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars3 Comments

I spent most of this weekend in Hospital as the Little Ones appendix needed to come out – he is the bravest of boys. He was disappointed as we missed the Rugby tournament on Sunday and our little family derby of Gaslands on Saturday. Anyway he is recovering at home at the moment and there will be no rugby or karate for a month, but the Doctor said nothing about wargaming!.

I used to tell the kids, when they were younger that I fought in the Finnish winter war, and that my appendix removal scar was from a bayonet. This was in hand-to-hand combat against a never ending onslaught of Russian infantry. But they soon realised it was a very economical truth and the closest I have ever been to the Winter War, was when I was playing the board game Artic Storm (link here) a few years ago. I suppose the Little One now has all the props he needs to replicate this “legendary” dad joke himself one of these days.

On the subject of the Winter War, one of the resolutions from the last (excluding the bonus one) blog (link here) was to get some Winter War Chain of command on the gaming table. I have all the miniatures I need but I am still lacking in terrain and markers. This blog entry is about some of the markers I have been doing in the early days of what I hope will be a fantastic new year.

With regards to markers I would need the following:

Patrol markers – not done. I got some Poker Chips from and will labelled these with Sovietic and Finnish symbols, that I will print on some adhesive labels. As you may be aware these are used in the little pregame to establish the location of the Jump-off points. I am not too worried about the fact that they are not blending in on the table and since they do not stay on the table. Maybe it would be cooler to use some Ski troops for the Finns and Scouts for the Soviets?
Shock makers – done, see below.
Jump-off Points – done, see below.
Pinned Markers – I will try to make these to simulate snow that flies in the air as a consequence of heavy firing on the ground. I will be trying this out this weekend as I have a little idea.
Broken – I will break a twig and put it on a base, simulating a broken piece of timber! Simple and a little bit of funny.
Tactical markers – done, see below.
Overwatch markers – done, see below.

Shock Markers

parrot-markers

These are done in the same way as the “Dead Parrot Markers” I wrote about earlier (First part and the second part) but I used 20mm washers instead of 15mm ones. The dead soldiers are from various Peter Pig packs (WW1 and WW2) and a few models just clipped from the base and laid down. I also played around with some heads and helmets – it would not be funny otherwise.

26771906_1862537757149631_1538737772_o — Finnish Shock Markers

Jump off points

These were fun to do and as they stay on the table during the game I wanted these to blend in the overall terrain, as opposed to the Patrol Markers that are only used during the Patrol Phase.

I have to admit that I found it difficult to find anything pre-made that would fit the Finnish Forests. I have some Jerry Cans and Barrels but would find it unlikely that it would be lying around the forest in the type of situations we mostly find ourselves in a Winter Scenario.

Finnish Ones

First I added some stones and twigs to the bases (the twigs was actually from some metal model tree I have had in my bit box for ages, but I suppose you can get any twigs from a bush or something). Most Finnish units were equipped with Skis so I made a set of skis and poles for each base. I made the skis from plasticard (get a health lottery card and you enough for plenty of skis) cut thin, with one end sharpened and slightly bent, I also added a very small piece of Bluetac to give the illusion of bindings on the skis (i.e. where the soldier would attach the boot). I also had some pieces of Stowage and small boxes that I had lying around that I bought from the Scene ages ago (link here), I also added some helmets as I had some left over heads from my head swapping exercises (I got these from Peter Pig, link here). Finally added some snow flock mixed with PVA glue and some white paint, then flocked them again.

Sovietic Ones

Similar to the finnish ones but no skis (some units had Skis but this was rare, especially in the beginning of the war) again boxes and stowage from the Scene stuff. The first one is with a dead horse (again from Peter Pig – Odds and Animals – link here) – there are also some dead cows if you prefer, I also flattened a piece of bluetac and cut out a flag sized square and used a piece of paper clip for the pole (unrealistic spread of the flag perhaps, but I just wanted to make it clear that it was a flag), third one a dead Russian and for the last one I added two rifles made from “rifle parts” from sacrificed models.

Tactical move marker

These are just small triangles made from plasticard with some snow effect on top that I will place in front of the unit.

Overwatch

as for the tactical move marker but a different shape.

I also completed some defensive positions, the Russians did not have sections and the smallest unit is the squad at 15 man strong that gives the need for some very big ones.

In other news

Got some pictures from Marching in Colour painting services (link here) that I am using for some of my projects. Another load of about 60 Polemos bases worth of 6mm stuff that he has base painted for me. If you are able to, do your lead mountain a favour and ask him for a quote!

I gave special thanks to Henry Hyde in a recent blog (at the end of this one) and he has recently started a Patreon campaign to raise funds to allow him to produce wargaming related material. I urge you to read his own words here as they are better than any I would be able to produce, and if it is your kind of thing, give him a few bucks.

I have known Henry for a few years now and remember him coming to Joy of Six a few years back when he was the Editor of the Miniature Wargames magazine (with Battlegames). He had travelled up from South of England in the morning, set up his tripod, took a few pictures of our Klissow game, had a short and insightful discussion with me on 18th century warfare in general and the Great Northern War in particular and then he moved on to the next table. Two months later I got my issue of Miniatures Warfare and on the cover was a picture from our Klissow 1702 game.

Ugly labels on the bases and I had forgotten to paint the pikes, but there it was – Some 6mm Baccus on the cover of a Wargames Magazine. Peter Berry told me it was the second time he had Baccus Miniatures on the cover of a wargames glossy.

Having read Battlegames (in the day) and Miniature Wargames (and still doing so), the Wargames Compendium and listened to Henry on numerous Podcasts and followed his work, and interest, with regards to the physical and mental health of others, it is fair to say that he has had and will have an important role to play in our hobby (here is another link to the page where you can pledge your support).

Capture

/ All the best, hope I will have the rest of the markers done by the end of next week.

Bonus Blog Post – Filler Cars for Gaslands in 6mm

On 31/12/201731/12/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Gaslands, Uncategorized1 Comment

1_200b

This is a bonus 2017 blog, my annual review/reflection can be found here if you are interested, that blog also contains some pictures of Gaslands movements templates I will be using for my games and where to get them.

I wanted to have some additional cars for my Gaslands project to use as cars for the game, but more importantly to have in the background and to make some terrain pieces with so I ordered some models for architectural and/or railway use. As we noted in a previous post the 6mm scale (a link to that post here) is an artistic scale and varies between manufacturers and even between ranges from the same manufacturer.

I ordered cars in the following scales on e-bay: 1/300, 1/250 and 1/200. Pictures below and valid as at 31-Dec-17. These were from the actual sellers I used.

1_200 1_250 1_300

In summary (the 1/250 vehicles are from the UK, the others come from China). It took between 1 and 3 weeks for them to arrive.

From left to right, 1/300, 1/250 and 1/200.

1/200 – 50 vehicles for £2.98 (in different coloured plastics) – length 25mm, width 10mm.

1/250 – 50 vehicles for £8 (in white) – length 17-20mm, width 7mm. But you can find cheaper from Chinese sellers.

1/300 – 100 vehicles for £2.54 (in white) – length 14-15mm, width 5mm.

So how do they compare to the stuff I am using for Gaslands?

The 1/200 model fits best to the vehicles I am using for Gaslands (please see the previous blog for reference to these vehicles, link here again)

The 1/250 model fits best with the earlier Microworld range (again see the link to the previous blog for further information here)

So the 1/200 model is a pretty good match for me and the 1/250 stuff reasonable for the first set of cars Microworld did. They also come in a lot of different colours and variants, I think they will just need some clean up of the plastic, some highlights and perhaps some matt varnish to tone down the shine and we are good to go. I may even stick some weapons on some of them and use them for regular races not just as fillers.

A few of the cars, three types and 6 different colours.

I have ordered some more 1/200 models as I would like to create some nice obstacles, it would be cool to have racing track through an old car dump, a car graveyard track – that would be classy indeed!

/But that is for another time, hope this was of some help.

2017 ending 2018 coming!

On 31/12/201731/12/2017 By The OneIn 15mm, 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Games played, Gaslands4 Comments

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.

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.

col1 — 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.

col5 — 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!

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.

batt-29 swed-shot-start-2 table

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.

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.

mapping-out-3 — The field of Battle for Horka (link to it in the text above)

Mapping out 1 — 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.

ft-tuntematon-sotilas-rokka-Medium — 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.

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.

pyri3 — 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).

4 green — 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.

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.

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.

Irregular1 gastrack7 gastrack6 gastrack5

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

Swedish Cavalry, Gaslands and Seasonal Greetings from him

On 20/12/201720/12/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Gaslands, Towards Moscow Triology4 Comments

I have to admit to being less than productive recently due to work and other real stuff, but hey ho (ho ho ho.. it is soon Christmas!). A short blog entry this time.

Stuff for Horka 1708

I did do a few bases for the next TMT installment the Battle of Horka 1708 (more here), here is some Swedish Cavalry:

Kunglig Majestäts Livdragonregementet (His Royal Highness Lifedragoon regiment) – this enlisted regiment was set up by General Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld in 1700. It was a prestigous regiment and it had fought at many of the big battles of the Great Northern War.

Södra Skånska Kavalleriregementet (South Scanian Cavalry regiment) – this provincial regiment fought during the Scanian War at the Battle of Lund 1676 and Landskrona 1677 (it was then called the Blekinge regiment at Horse). After the Scanian War it was stationed as one of the provincial cavalry regiment of Scania (Skåne, this is the most southern Swedish Province that has been fought over by Swedes and Danes for eternity!) and got the name it was known for during the Great Northern War.

Nylands- och Tavastehus läns kavalleriregemente (Nylands and Tavastehus County Cavalry Regiment) – this Finnish Provincial regiment had origins from the early 17th century. I already had some but then realised they were on wintery bases, for Fraustadt, so I had to make a few more.

Gaslands Death race Track

I also finished my Gaslands Board and if failure is the best teacher I now know a few more things about resin – But it is all hard now! I wanted to create an effect of toxic and radioactively radiant water and I think it looks pretty decent with some after pouring messing with paints etc – I also put a few vehicles into the resin giving the overall feel that if you end up in the toxic/radioactive it does not end well.

gastrack7

gastrack1 gastrack2 gastrack3 gastrack4 gastrack5 gastrack6

I have also ordered some smaller sized movement templates for Gaslands – but they are yet to arrive. It will probably be on the other side of Christmas before I have a go at racing the track, but I will let you know how it goes. More about this here.

I will do a little end of year review next week after I have met family and friends for some fun over the festive seasons. This will be a summary of the last fifty or so blog entries and my reflections on my plans and what I actually ended up doing and perhaps a reflection or two.

/Until then Seasonal Rolls of Ones from him!

100 years of Finnish Independence, Chain of Command Glory, Gaslands and Stressing about Poltava 1709

On 06/12/201706/12/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Gaslands, Great Northern War, Towards Moscow Triology5 Comments

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Finnish Declaration of Independence from the Russian republic. Incidentally it is also my Sisters birthday, but she is no 100 yet! So double joy. Finland had (since 1809) been part of the Russian Empire and ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. Before this Finland had in essence been part of the Swedish Kingdom since the 13th century. The independence and resolve of the Finns have been tested on many occasions, most significantly during the civil war in 1918, Finnish Winter war in 1939-40 and during the Sovietic offensive in 1944. In addition the cold war era was also to become a balancing act in trying to move forward next to the Soviet State. On the whole, this young nation has done an amazing journey as a nation from a very unstable start in 1917, when the deck of random event cards was firmly shuffled, to the current position of strength and stability.

Finland_flag-3

We have put two candles in our window this morning. This was traditionally done to show support to the young Finnish nationalists who travelled through the countryside on their way to Germany (during the Great War) to get military training to aid their fight for Finnish independence. The candles also meant that the house was ready to offer shelter and keep them hidden from the Russian Authorities.

Germany, who was at war with Russia, supported the Finnish independence movement as this would weaken Tsarist Russia. The support was in the establishment of the Royal Prussian 27th Jäger Battalion that consisted of Finnish volunteers. The Anti-Russian sentiment had grown strong following repressive Russification of Finland that up to this date had a certain level of autonomous rule. This had escalated since 1899 and as a consequence many Finns hoped the Russians would loose the war against the Germans.

There is a very interesting article here about the Jägers; covering (i) the time leading up to independence and the actions during World War 1, (ii) their role during the Finnish Civil war that broke out in 1918, and (iii) their influence on the build up of the Finnish army that fought so bravely during the Finnish Winter War in 1939-40 (more here and a further related article here and here). There is a lot of wargaming potential here – but then I have not yet done much with the Winter war Finns and Russians for Chain of Command I completed last year (see more here and here).

However, when Tsarist Russia fell to the Bolsheviks in 1917 the Finns seized the moment – more or less (read all about it here). The rest is history – 100 years ago today! Being one part Swedish and the other Finnish, this is an important day for the family. We will be eating some Karelian Pasty and some Stew and perhaps a shot of Vodka or two (but maybe not the Mango version!).

Also, but a day late, but with reference to the Chain of Command mentioned above, an official “well done” to the Too Fat Lardies on winning the best game category as voted by the readers of Wargames Illustrated. You can find out more about Too Fat Lardies and the Chain of Command rules here. Whilst you are there check out their Podcasts, oddly called, Oddcasts! – enjoy the lard!

Gaslands moving forward

I have been working on my Gaslands Track I showed last week but did not like it and decided to do a new one – I will pour Resin this weekend. This is how things look so far. We have had the Gaslands Track inspector over and he has given us the Green Glow on the progress so far.

24231722_384309288648563_4360549493770641653_n 24294338_384309291981896_2531703557293485997_n 24774720_384309295315229_4562780498811737517_n

Poltava Anxiety

As you may be aware, I am going to do Poltava at Joy of Six in 2019 as part of the Towards Moscow Project. This is the long term project I am doing with Nick Dorrell and the Wyre Forresters (we did Lesnaya 1708 this year, see here, and are currently working away on the what-if Horka 1708 battle for 2018, link here and here) and I occasionally reflect (or perhaps Stress) on how I want to present it. The Poltava Battle is after all one of the most decisive battles of Swedish history and, I am sorry to say, without doubt a total disaster from a Swedish perspective. I have to admit that I found some of the past Battles that resulted in glorious Swedish victories like Fraustadt, Klissow and Gadebusch easier to present and prepare for than the battles at Kalisz or Lesnaya where the Swedes were defeated. The disaster at Poltava is in a separate league of its own.

One way of doing it is to show the full story including some additional elements on the table than normally are presented. The tables I have seen to date are showing the main action outside the Russian Camp; sometimes the redoubts are included and this is frankly all you need for the Battle. One example of this is the recent Poltava Battle, laid out by Jon and Diane Sutherland, at Crisis (in 28mm). This battle looked absolutely fantastic and as far as I could tell covered the main action and the redoubts. To me it looked as grand as one of Simon Miller’s To the Strongest Offerings (see link here if you do not know what I mean) – a real battle of the era and I wish I had seen it on the day.

However when we do it, and because we are doing it in 6mm, I will not let practicalities be in the way of creating a different kind of spectacle and will extend the narrative to include further elements that are important to the background of the Battle. So, in short I found myself compulsed to do a little plan/sketch over the battlefield and the various elements I wanted to include in addition to the mandatory Russian camp and redoubts.

Marten's_Poltava — Battle of Poltava by Denis Martens (1726) . The Russian Camp is on the left.

redut1 — Drawing of the Redoubts (more information and pictures here)

Here we go.

1. The Swedish Camp – I want to take all the Wagons that I did for Lesnaya (link here and here) for a spin. The camp will be made from things from the Baccus Equipment Range (link here, EQU04 – Tents and EQU05 – Camp Site). Here is a link to Tiny Troop’s gallery showing some great and very inspirational GNW stuff and what can be achieved with these models as a base.

2. The Fortified Town of Poltava – at the time of the Poltava Battle the fortress was surrounded by ravines, had wooden palisades and a number of bastions. It had five gates and each of these was protected by a special tower. I found mainly stock photos, but if you google Cossack Forts you will get the picture – I will do this using very thin spaghetti (see here for how I have used this excellent material in the past). As for some buildings I really like the Total Battle Miniatures range that contains a large number of town type buildings that will work well (link to the range here). Most other ranges contain farm/village type of eastern houses – but for the Poltava battle I want to have the rural look outside the walls and some more “town” character within the walls.

Engraving — Siege of Poltava – not sure the colourist had been in the region? Actually not sure how accurate anything is in this picture – to be honest.

3. The Swedish siege lines, with trenches, engineers and artillerists, gabions, siege guns, etc. The Swedish King (Charles XII) had laid Siege to the fortress in an attempt to provoke the Russians to a battle. Again, I will be using stuff from the Baccus Equipment ranges (see link above, EQU13 – Sappers/Pioneers, EQU06 – Military Site) and some Siege Guns and mortars (link here, WSS16 – WSS Siege Guns and WSS17 – WSS Mortars).

4. The Cossacks – the surrounding area is full of Cossacks and Kalmuks and I have a 2 meter frontage worth of these to put up in various places of the Battle (I used these in a similar role for the Kalisz Battle, we last tabled at Salute in 2016, see more here and here).

And finally

5. The Holy Cross Exaltation Monastery that still exists and have been there since 1650. It sits on top of a wooden hill and it would be shame if this was not part of the table. On the eve of battle it was used as headquarter by the Swedes and the infantry was deployed around it.

I have seen pictures of the Monastery on the net and it typically looks like this.

So in doing this in 6mm with a ground scale with a battalion frontage of about 60mm, some simplification is required, my first thought was to do the centre church and the taller clock tower closer to each other, and that would be it.

I even found two good contenders for the role of the centre church, both beautiful models.

mAGISTER MILITIUM.JPG — Magister Militium – link here and a very nice model.

However doing some further research I learned that the Monastery had been burnt down in 1695 (having been a classical wooden construction) and was being re-built in stone and a the two buildings we can see on this classic picture did actually not exist at the time of the battle.

The left hand clock tower was completed in 1776.
The Cathedral in the middle was completed in 1756.

Leaving us with the following skyline.

Poltava-Monastery2

So there goes the main features I have had in my mind all these years. As to how it may have looked I have no clue. You can read more about the Monastery (and a lot more on the battle) on this webpage dedicated to the Poltava battle.

So, instead I thought I will represent the monastery with a Eastern type of Church of some kind. There are a number of options in doing this, so what follows is a little bit of a showcase of some of the ones to consider (this is based on browsing pages in the beginning of December 2017).

Total Battle Miniatures

I have a few Total Battle miniatures from their Pike & Shotte and Black Powder Europe ranges and they have been used to represent Klissow, Kalisz and some other places in the past. With regards to Eastern Churches there are a few options – with two smaller wooden churches and the massive Orthodox church presented above (link here).

TOTAL BATTLE MINIATURES.JPG

Leven Miniatures

Leven have some options too. I have a fair few of their dark ages range that I use for Saga battles (see more here). They have some fantastic stuff and the range is constantly growing, check out their Vauban fort whilst you are there.

LEVEN1 LEVEN2

Timecast

I have a few a number of Timecast’s models including the Small Wooden church. You can also buy a similar small wooden church from Baccus, with a plinth base (More here and here).

TIMECAST3 TIMECAST2 TIMECAST1

Irregular Miniatures

Irregular offers a Russian Village that includes a Church in their 6mm scenic and assessor range (link here). The full set will set you back £20.

Hovel

Hovel does a Greek Orthodox Church with Onion dome (link here).

Battlescale Wargames Buildings

I also found this one that I think looks really good from a company I had not heard of before. Link here.

bATTLESCALE

What next

I felt I needed a nice Eastern type of Monastery so although it represents overkill for the time of the Poltava Battle, I went for the more flashy look, and got the following set from Total Battle Miniatures (it includes the monastery and the large grand building on a tile):

monastery4

On further inspection I also “fell” for the Timecast large Orthodox Church – this will be my church in the fortress itself, so I got myself one.

I also got the Russian Village church from Leven and the Russian Church from Battlescale Wargame buildings, and maybe one or two other items (like some cottages, mills, Zulu huts!, etc.) as I always feel it is a shame only ordering one thing considering postage. Now, that will deal with my spiritual needs for Poltava (and all of it actually all useful for the Horka battle too) and a few more pieces of resin to toss on that famous pile.

/ Order restored

I am just here for the Gasoline – initial thoughts on Gaslands in 6mm and some notes on vehicles

On 29/11/201731/12/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Gaslands, Road Wolf, Terrain6 Comments

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.

gaslands

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.

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.

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 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.

Some 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.

1_200c — Link to blog posting above discussing these models.

I also finished the deathrace track, it is can be found here.

gastrack1 — 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.

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Finnish and Sovietic dice

Dead Soviets

Suppression Markers

Explosion Markers

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Patrol Markers

Suppression Fire

Romans for Command & Colors

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Shock Markers

Jump off points

Finnish Ones

Sovietic Ones

Tactical move marker

Overwatch

In other news

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

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

Punic Wars – Command and Colours Boardgame (6mm)

Mutant 1984 – Mutants and Deathray Guns (28mm)

Some thanks and then I will let you go

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Stuff for Horka 1708

Gaslands Death race Track

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Gaslands moving forward

Poltava Anxiety

Battlescale Wargames Buildings

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Irregular Miniatures – UK based

Microworld Miniatures – US based

Heroics and Ros – UK based

Onslaught Miniatures – UK based

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