Native Americans

 After having done a bunch of AWI figures recently for sharp practice, I had a conversation with some local guys about what figures I had.  I realized that I had an entire old GW case full of Native Americans left over from the French and Indian War project I sold off 5 years ago. 

Upon inspection, I remembered I had updated some of the painting on most of them, but had not photographed them afterward. These are a combination of pre-Warlord Games Conquest Miniatures and Perry AWI Native Americans. the ratio is about 40% Perry, 60% Conquest. 58 miniatures in all.

the full Native American Contingent.

Native Americans with Muskets

Native Americans on the attack

Native Americans with bows

More Native Americans with Muskets

Mounted Native Americans and  Big Men

When I was selling my FIW collection, I liked these miniatures too much to sell. the Conquest miniatures are spectacular miniatures.  directly from Conquest, they were virtually flash free, clean castings, with no mold shifts. The Perry miniatures are equally as good, and the chiefs pack has some great character. I've seen some of the Conquest miniatures on offer from Warlord, and the casting quality has slipped, but otherwise are the same quality miniatures.

I still have a couple of chiefs to paint up, as well as a Christmas miniature(native pulling a Christmas tree) and the Last of the Mohicans character pack to repaint.

Muskets and Tomahawks: First Impressions

last Friday I was invited to Muskets and Tomahawks at a friends house.  So I packed up my Indians and rules and headed out.

initial setup of the board

We arrived just ahead of the crowd(there ended up being 8 of us), and Craig (the host) had set up a wonderful looking table.  He included a log cabin settlement at one end of the table, and a  Indian village(which you may recognize) at the other end.  Taking both the settlement and the Indian village were the french Main objectives.  the British had to keep them.

British regulars and grenadiers defending the settlement

No one had played the game yet, but several of us had the rules handy.  Dan and I had read them thoroughly. Fortunately the mechanics are fairly simple.

Jordan's Regulars and grenadiers stare down 2 units of
my Indians

Before we deployed our troops, we all rolled a side plot in secret. by pure coincidence, 2 of the french chose Dan's provincials as the target/source of their side plot.  then Dan deployed right in the middle of the table. as a result the game sort of revolved around Dan's provincials.

Mike's Regulars and My Indians Take potshots Dan's Provincials

 I had gleaned early on that my Indians had no chance crossing open ground against Jordan's grenadiers to get to my objective beyond, so I helped kill Dan faster so I could then get Mike's line units to help me. 

Dan's Provincial Line watches as him provincial lights get
wiped out by Canadian Militia.

However in a rather ironic turn of events, my Indians Charged and killed Dan's officer(Colonel Washington figure), not knowing that  doing so kept the other 2 players from completing their side plots.  which is fine because by the time we finished going after the provincials, neither of the remaining regular french infantry at hand  had enough strength left to oppose the British regulars in town.  so i didn't get my objective either.

My Indians Prepare to charge Dan's Provincials

 In the end 2 French players were wiped out along with 2 British players.  the remaining french converged on the Indian village and took it after some fierce fighting by the defenders. we called it a tie since both sides occupied one objective.


Overall the system was fun.  I did find that musket fire is ridiculously deadly. Especially when coming from a firing line. Two suggestions made were to drop the lethality of muskets, carbines and pistols to 4+ instead of 3+. Not a huge change, but potentially enough.  It would also have the side effect of making artillery slightly more potent. which might not be a bad thing because the general consensus from the net is that artillery looks pretty but is kind of useless most of the time.  We were also thinking, that for our games, we might remove the rolling for additional casualties on a recoil. For irregulars and Indians this would keep them from evaporating after a single volley most of the time.

Dan and I are going to try this set of rules out with our imaginations. So we'll see how that goes.

More WW2 and a Surprise!

Yesterday I painted a few more WW2 support teams. THis time it was 1 Crusader French 25mm AT gun, a pair of Crusader German ATR teams, and an AGNM PaK 36.   picked up this stuff at Hotlead to add som much-needed AT ability to my 1940 french project.  my Germans were originally built as an early Eastern front platoon(and light on at with only a PaK 38), so one of my planned purchases at the Con was AT weapons. the french also had no proper AT( 75mm mle 1897 not withstanding) so i picked up 2 Hotchkiss 25mm Anti-tank guns.  The other one is still in the back room with the hull MG-less 38(t).

AGNM PaK-36 flanked by 2 crusader ATR teams.

Crusader 25mm Hotchkiss Anti-tank gun

Also, This morning i received an email that quite surprised me!  Eric Roof of Conquest Miniatures has offered to replace the stolen longhouse free of charge!

I've been a fan of Eric and Conquest since I discovered  them while beginning my FIW project.  I've been to 2 Historicons and both times I spent more money at his booth that at any other one(usually about 1/3rd to 1/2 of my expenditures). I also usually spend a while talking to him.  in fact of all the poeple I talk to at Historicon, Eric is one of 3  I always remember( Nick and Rob of Eureka are the others).

Eric is a pretty busy guy, so it really means a lot to me for him to take the time out of his busy day and offer to do this.   If Both of us  make it down to Historicon this year, I'm going to have to shake his hand, and probably pick up 2 regiment packs(1 British, 1 French) if I make enough money selling things.  Eric even coincidentally put together his marching regiment packs to fit perfectly with how I've already structured my units for sharp practice( i do mine as 24 infantry, plus 1 drummer, 1 standard, and 2-3 officers/ncos)!

anyway, Eric is a stand up guy, and excellent to deal with.  Everyone should buy their FIW stuff from him!

18th Century Civilians & Painting Rut Broken

well, it looks like i *may* have broken my painting rut.  This afternoon I painted 7 18th century civilians for my Sharp practice FIW  Project.  3 are Front Rank civilians, and the other 4 are part of the Blue Moon "Duelists" collection. My personal favourite is the one with the lantern,  Fantastic figure.  these are not quite finished. I have to paint the sand on the base and then flock it.  might take 30 minutes tomorrow, before i head down to the Club.

Hopefully I can now get back to painting. I need to finish get my Perry Hussars done. that will bring me 1 step closer to finally finishing my Baden  army.

Convention scenario Playtest.

Friday night saw the first play test of a scenario I'm planning to put on at MIGSCON in October here in Hamilton, Ontario.

one of the things I wanted to try out was a slightly modified concept for the  sequence deck. I decided this because I've recently read a few articles and blog posts about how to run the ideal convention game. The central points were similar in all of them:

1. Try to keep as many people occupied in the game as possible.
2. Try whenever possible to have everything pre-deployed on-table, and keep off-board reinforcements to an absolute minimum.

To fulfill #1, I decided that instead of having a card for every single Big Men, I'd  have individual cards for all the big men of Initiative 2+, but a single card for all the initiative 1 Big men in each force. This seemed to work, but I think I'll go one further, and have a card for all Level 2 Big Men, and a card for all Level 1 Big Men in a force.

 British artillery unlimbers and 

begins bombardment.

Having done that, I completely forgot idea #2, and had a lot of the forces coming from off board. It made sense with the scenario, but practically speaking, it really slowed the game down. next time i will deploy all forces on table, even if it's on the edge. this should drastically speed up the game pace. Now that I have worked the basic kinks out of this scenario, I'll start planning the 2nd one i intend to run at MIGSCON.. 

 A colonial ranger picks an odd time to clean 

his musket barrel.

I probably won't be posting much over the next 3-4 weeks.  I'll be driving out west to Edmonton to visit my family. It will be a much needed break from painting.

More Goodies from Historicon

I painted a few more goodies i picked up at Historicon since last friday.

The first is a foot bridge I picked from from Acheson Creations. Now the end peices were on a base taht was a little thick for me, so i sanded the edges down a bit, glued them to MDF, and then used wood filler to smooth out the slope.  The whole thing is about 13 inches long( 10 inches without MDF) and the can be used on rivers 4" wide or less.  the width of the bridge is about 3.75".   I also picked up a few of their $0.50 pieces, most notably horizontal log barriers and a pair of stone-lined camp fires.  I have to say, the more i see if Acheson Creations, the more i like! hopefully they get their 28mm Grizzly bears molded soon.

the 2nd set of items are More miniatures From Eric at Conquest Miniatures.  This time, it's 2 more units of 8 Compagnies Franches de la Marine.  If you haven't heard, Conquest miniatures are absolutely fantastic.  Especially the Native Americans.  I own almost 100 conquest miniatures now(plus 3 of his longhouses), and when I can afford it, I'll be grabbing 3 or 4 packs each of his  marching French and British Regulars.

And finally, I thought I'd show a picture of my  full Native American  collection with the village as well. 48 Indians and 5 big men total.

Historicon & goodies

Well I had an excellent Historicon.  The venue was much better this year, and I could actually find games. I sold a bunch of terrain and funded my purchases, which included more Conquest miniatures and Crusader WW2 Russians, and a few small terrain pieces from Architects of War and Acheson Designs. As usual, i took a camera and totally forgot to use it.

This morning I painted about half my new Conquest Indians, along with the newer "combat ready" version of Magua. I tried a new technique for Native American Skin.  I don't really like some of the overly dark or overly red Native skin tones often used.  To me, they just seem wrong. I think this scheme strikes the balance of different, but not extreme in it's difference from my regular Caucasian skin tone. I went back and touched up the skin on a few of my older perry Natives to match.  I'll spend some time in a few weeks doing a major update. in the meantime, I plan on  finishing the other half of the new ones tonight, and basing the whole lot tomorrow.

The conquest natives are superb. They are very easy to paint, and their physique jump out when a simple wash is applied. I especially like the new Magua figure.  it's just spectacular. They blend very well with the small band of perry AWI natives I already have. I've show some comparison of similarly posed miniatures. I'm using new GF9 magnetic bases(also bought at Historicon), which are thinner so I've placed them on pennies, which level out the bases.  The unfinished bases are the Conquest ones and the finished bases are my Perry natives with updated skin tone.

Conquest 'Magua' and Perry 'Redcoat', and 2 kneeling firing bow poses.

2 natives with bow at the ready, and 2 standing firing

Starting next week I'll paint up my last18 more Conquest Compagnies Franches de la Marine to finish off my french. I'm also going to paint up some of the terrain I bought. I'm looking forward to the Architects of War Roast pig on a spit, and the Well.

New FIW additions.

Thursday morning i received a package from eureka miniatures USA in the mail.  It contained 8 FIW provincial infantry firing, 8 loading, 1 officer, 1 NCO, 1 ensign, and 1 drummer. Eureka USA's service was pronominal. total turn around from placing the order to them arrivingat my doorstep, across an international border,was 7 days,

I had already bought George Washington and 10 of these figures off of Nic and Rob at the eureka booth 2 years ago at Historicon  I knew then that they weer fantastic figures, i only waited this long to expand them because i only started really building up my collection a the beginning of this year. Combined, they complete my Virginia Provincial infantry contingent of 24 infantry and 3 big men, a drummer and standard for Sharp Practice.


Anyways, Friday night at the Club was a bust for me. No one was around to play a game with, so i chatted for a bit and came home(i'm within walking distance of the club house).I cleaned and prepared my Virginians  Friday night, and then sat down and painted 8 British light infantry that have been kicking around for some time.  I painted them in the uniforms of Colonel Gage's light infantry, the 80th regiment of foot.  In future games, they will be commanded by Lt. Anthony Hayward.

Saturday evening, in about 5 hours, i painted the 20 remaining Virginians. They will be lead in games by Major Washington, and Lts Conway and Basset. Getting the regimental colours for the Virginia regiment was not easy. When i searched Thursday night, i could not find an existing flag image, but Kronoskaf.com had a description of the King's and regimental colours.  So I decided i would find a suitable set of colours from a different regiment and modify them. I decided on the 66th regiment of Foot's colours, since they had a V in the roman numeral, and the regimental colour was a solid colour field.  This was important since the Virginia colours don't have a roman numeral. they instead have "VA Regt" in the rose & thistle wreath, on a plain whit back ground.  I simply changed to background colour to white, then deleted the roman numerals, except for the V. I flipped the V and turned it into an A, and then filled in the additional space.   After doing so I contacted Richard Couture at Kronoskaf.com and sent him copies of the jpegs. I made.  That way, Richard has a set of pics for the flags, and anyone else that wants it can get it

The Virginia regiment colours I created i created

New Figure Case

Earlier this month, i was finally converted to the ranks of using magnets for figure storage.  IT all started with my freind Dave Posting this article on his blog, HERE.  I had been looking for a viable storage option for my 28mm Eastern Renaissance Skirmish project.  2/3rds of  the Kobalt Storage case is perfect for my many  lance-armed cavalry. I won't go int any detail about the case, since Dave already did. 

This Weekend, i started to realize that the GW foam i have for my French & Indian War figures was damaging the figures. Slowly but surely, the pressure placed on the bayonets was starting to take its toll. So I decided I needed to magnetize the entire collection. I set out trying to find a case suitable to hold the entire collection as it's planned to be.  THe Kobalt Case I use for my eastern renaissance has a great deal of wasted space, since the bottom draw is 4" high.  99% of my figures fit in the 2"tray.

After a bit of searching the web, I found Kobalt made a similar case with 3x 2" deep trays at Lowes for $54.99.  I can fit my British, French, and Indians each into their own tray. The new case also has a  plastic body so despite being slightly larger, it's actually lighter. the drawback is the top section does not have a metal bottom. So I'll have to figure out some way of fixing a metal plate to it to hold the few miniatures I have that do not fit in the 3 metal trays.  But overall, it is a far more economical use of space.

So far I have magnetized all my current British, and all my artillery for both sides. I found some surprisingly strong and thin magnetic sheets at the local dollar store.i can magnetize 54 25mm round bases for a dollar!

Battle Report: Assault on a Native Village Part 2

Today saw the conclusion of our battle. the first turn back saw the tiffin cards come up in quick succession. Only a unit of Natives in the entrance way of the village got to move.

When we left off, Major washington was in a precarious position. his survival of his men survival(and his very own as well!) depended on beong the first to act.  This was not to happen.  Lt. Lafreniere's infantry got a shot off, getting another shock point. then Majeur Duperre charged into fisticuffs. After 3 rounds, the french were finally able to destroy the poor quality Virginia militia.  Washington himself was badly wounded and left for dead.  but the Virginian militia did their job.  they not only single-handedly held up more the 3 times their number for 3+ turns, they actually managed to kill nearly a third of the french infantry, and caused enough shock points to the french to keep them in disarray for the next 2-3 turns. For this alone they get the MVG(Most Valuable Group) award for this game.

In the middle, the 2 units of Native not on the gate platform Made for teh closed British artillery( Lt. Baxter and his cannon & mortar crews)  After 2 turns of moment, and 1 close range canister shot, the 1st group of Natives valiantly charged the cannon crew.  After a bloody battle, the artillery crew and Baxter himself were slaughtered, but in the process, The Native group's morale broke and they retreated to the village.  Major Halkett, who had been hiding in a nearby field waiting for the wall to be breached, realized what was happening and ordered his troops out of the fields and opened fire on the  2nd unit of Natives.  they were too late to save Baxter, but 2 turns of fire routed the 2nd group of Indians back into the village. Halkett ordered his lieutenant, George Williams, to take command of the mortar team.  Williams proved to be a natural artillery commander. under his direction, the mortar did twice as much damage as it had in the first half of the game.

On the right of the Native village beleaguered Companies Franches de la Marine withered more fire, losing a further 4 marines on but a single turn!  Rogers, upon hearing indians hooting and hollaring in hte distance to his left, realized hehad left teh cannons unprotected and ordered his troops to move out and cover them.  Finally, Capitaine Celeron and Lt Pecaudy manged to fall back and reorganized their remaining troops into a single command.  When Hazen's rangers managed to catch up, they encounted not the haphazard attacking they had seen earlier, but a determined enemy.  In the renewed firefight, teh rangers too 2 casualties.  Lt Chadwick and his light infantry were still bumbling around in hte woods, trying to find the renewed french.


In the end, the French reinforcement commander decided to fall back in the face of a determined and capable British force, and leave the Indians and the small marine raiding party to their own devices.


We discovered a problem. The cannon rules are not sufficient for destroying walls.  I think the rules for artillery are really supposed to represent the fact that they are firing canister.What we did was use the cannon rules as is, and give the wall sections 8 HP(rolled 2D6). this clearly did not work, as it made it very hard to breach the wall. In the entire length of the game, the 2 cannons mid a total of 5 HP between 2 wall sections. I think in the future when firing cannons at fortifications, when rolling for effect,  i will make the cannons cause a hot on a 4+.  I think also, we will classify fortifications as light( log cabins  etc), medium(  palisades, light earthworks), and heavy( full fortifications major earthworks).  Light will get 1D6+1 HP ,  Medium 2D6 HP,  and Heavy 3D6 HP per  section.


This was the first test of the mortar rules. They seem fairly useful, especially in an assault like this one. I think one sensible modification would be to increase the deviation when you are attempting to shoot something you cannot see. I'd suggest doubling all the deviation ranges. I deliberately avoided shooting at anything I could not see in this game to avoid the issue. The unofficial mortar rules can be found in the files section of the TooFatLardies yahoo group or if you want to i can email them too you. contact me at crucible_orc (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

Battle Report: Assault on a native Village Part 1

NFriday night at the club we began a  large Sharp Practice battle at the club.  In the scenario, the British and Colonial forces tracked a french raiding party back to their base camp, which happens to be a native village. the British leader decides the Indians need to be taught a lesson for harbouring  french raiders!

The forces are as follows:

French raiders/Native groups:
1 group of 6 bow-armed Natives (War party, poor quality, but aggressive in combat)
2 groups of 8 musket-armed natives (War party, poor quality, but aggressive in combat)
2 groups of Compagnies Franches de la Marine ( good quality)

Big Men:
Chief Seganam, initiative 3 
Dikanawida, initiative 2
Sunukkahkau, initiative 1
Capitaine Joseph Celeron, initiative 2
Lieutenant Jean-Claude Pècaudy, initiative 1

French Reinforcements(to enter on the 3rd blank card):
3 groups of 8 French line infantry (average quality)
1 light cannon & crew (average quality)

Big Men:
Captain Rene Duperrè, initiative 2
Languadoc Infantrie Standard Bearer
Lieutenant Zacharie Lafreniere, initiative 1
Lieutenant Stephane Rocheleau, initiative 1


British and Colonial Forces:
3 groups of 8 British line Infantry(average quality)
1 group of  8 British Grenadiers (good quality)
2 groups of 8 Colonial Rangers (good quality)
1 groups 8 British light infantry( average quality)
1 group of 10 Virginia Infantry(poor quality)
2 Light Cannons & 4 crew each (average quality)
1 light coehorn mortar and 2 crew (average quality)

Big Men:
Major James Abercromby,  initiative 3
44th Regiment of Foot Standard Bearer
Captain Peter Halkett, initiative 2
Captain Robert Rogers, initiative 2
Major George Washington, initiative 2
Lieutenant  Cameron Baxter, initiative 2
Lieutenant Alexander Field, initiative 1
Lieutenant  George Williams, initiative 1
Lieutenant Robert Chadwick, initiative 1
Lieutenant Moses Hazen, initiative 1

The first turn and a half was uneventful. the British on their Blinds advanced on the Native village, and no one spotted anyone.  although near the end of the 2nd turn Lt. Pècaudy and his group of French marines managed to spot Lt Field setting up his cannon for a shot to at the right side of the clearing. Pècaudy was in turn spotted by Hazen and his rangers.Both Hazen and Rogers appeared off their blinds and let loose a volley ate Pècaudy. Causing some shock among his men.

the 3th turn saw the Natives starting to stir.  Apparently they heard some musket fire in the distance and moved to investigate. upon doing so,  they also managed to spot some British artillery (Lt. Field again) loading on the right side of the clearing.   The rangers and marines continued trading fire with Pècaudy's Marines, getting the better of the Frenchmen.  Lieutenant Chadwick group his light infantry up hte far light flank, swinging around onto hte flank of the beleaguered french Marines. they ran smack into Capitane Celeron and hist troops.  Meanwhile  to the left of the clearing,  Baxter was positioning his artillery on the hill.  THe remainder of the British force advanced across the path.  Unfortunately for the french reinforcements, The 2nd tiffin card appeared before the 3rd Blank card, and the turn ended before they could move on the table.

Fortunately,  the 1st card of the 4th turn was the blank card.  the french reinforcements marched on into what appearedto be the rear of the advancing British troops.  Suddenly to left of the path, Major Washington appeared and charged into the fray, killing a pair of french infantry and beating the rest away with musket butts. Capitaine Duperrè quickly reorganized his column and let loose a volley.  Lt Lafreniere   Somehow found himself falling behind  Rocheleau's artillery team ( the french players mixed up the order of his blinds by accident). Hearing the scuffle behind him, Major Abercromby took one group of infantry and his grenadiers to investigate. Upon reaching the path, he realized what was happening and sent a volley into Duperrè's infantry.

On the other flank, the Frenchmen were really taking a beating.  Pinned and outnumbered 2 to 1, Lt Pècaudy signaled for his men to retreat.  Seizing them moment, the 2 ranger officers moved in on Celeron's men and caught them in a 3-way crossfire. both British cannon teams had taken a shot at the wall, causing only minor damage. the Mortar overshot the sentries at the entrance, landing behind amidst Indians exiting the right most longhouse


When we ended the game at the end of the 6th turn, the french had gotten  the artillery up in front of Washington's Virginians,  With Duperrè and  Lafreniere had set up a crossfire on the Virginians from either side of the cannon. the Rangers had cut down half  the french marines on the other flank, and half the remaining ones were in retreat.  With  the beginning of a new turn, will he Virginian's take the initiative and charge the Cannon before it has time to load?

We'll be continuing this game on Sunday afternoon at Migs.

New Terrain project

Lately Ive been feeling my FIW terrain, seen Here in the background, was lacking something. The collection was too dependent on trees. Just trees. Oodles of trees. then 2 weeks ago, Dave Hoyt of Much Ado About Nothing fame posted some pics of his WW2 early war French Collection.. One such picture was of some rock outcroppings he bought for his collection a few years ago.  When I saw these I immediately knew these would spruce up my FIW terrain.  Problem is I'm on a tight budge right now, and the original maker no longer makes them

Licukily I happen to know the guy who made these, ModelMakerChris.   Chris makes some of the most beautiful terrain you have ever seen.  most of my desert village collection was built by Chris.

Anyway, I know that these were something stacked, I just didn't know what he used. So I emailed chris on the off chance that he would let loose the secret of these pieces. Lucky for me he did: ceiling tiles.  Then, this weekend, Dave lent me one of his rock outcroppings.  Dave and I frequently game together at MIGS, so he knows he'll get it back in decent time, and good condition.

So this evening i went down to the MIGS clubhouse in Hamilton, Ontario.  MMIGS has 16 4x6 tables that are the perfect hieght for miniature gaming. They are also the perfect height for working on terrain while standing. Also, during the week nothing happens at MIGS, so it's the perfect place  to work on large-ish terrain projects that can be completed and cleaned up after in a week.

Before: ceiling tiles(

During construction( figures shown for scale

purposes are 3 of my 28mm Front rank 

Bavarians, converted to Baden,  on a 60mm 

round base)

After. One of Dave Hoyt's ModelMakerChris' Finished 

products used as a template for finishing

And as usual, with any project, I went a little overboard.  I decided I want at least one huge rocky outcropping for my FIW.  this one is 18 inches long, 8 inches at its widest, and 3.5 inches high.  it has 2 ways to climb it, at either end,  an alcove with an overhang, and a perfect position for ambushing fire. I'm going to build at least 1 more outcropping of similar size.


I've only used up about Half my materials, so there will be a lot of these floating around the club.


If anyone is ever in the Hamilton area and would like to come down for a game, or a terrain workshop, post a comment and let me know. I'm finding myself with a lot of spare time lately(obviously), and I'm always up for gaming etc. with new people.