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.

Off to Historicon After all!

I got a call today form a fellow at my gaming club. it seems  he and his friend were going to be going off to Historicon this year, but his friend dropped out. now he was looking for someone local that would go on short notice, so he called me.

Now, I'm currently Unemployed, so i was not able to go this year. but this fellow gamer offered to take me down for $75 CDN. this gets me a room for 3 nights and transportation there and back(which is about 450 miles/8 hours).  Basically, he wants someone to ride down there with him so he's not alone.  I actually have enough money to cover that and admission to Historicon, plus a little extra for food.

That said, you can't go to historicon and not buy anything(at least I can't). So I'm taking a good lot of the 28mm terrain I've been working on. I'll have some of the rock outcroppings  I've been working on. I'll have 6 of them, and they will be selling for $30 USD (give or take, depending on the size). I'll also have a bunch of fields and an orchard:

1x 8x8" base with stone wall corner ($20USD)
5x 8x12" bases (various rail fence, stone wall and hedges, $25USD)
1x  12x12" base w Hedges($30)
1x  12x12" base with hand-made rail fencing all around ($40USD)
1x 12x12 orchard w/4 trees and stone wall ($40)

I'll be selling these in the Flea market on Friday and Saturday, but it you want to get the drop and arrange to met sometime on Thursday after 4pm, just email me HERE  Before midnight tonight.

Steve

Lord Brookes Regiment of Foote

I'm just about to head off to the Club for (hopefully) a night of gaming.  I just finished the latest Stands of Lord Brooke's Musketeers and thought i would post some pics.

32 figures strong at this point. Over the weekend I plan to finish the last 8 musketeers and bring the regiment up to it's final strength of 40 figures.

More ECW

After finishing the remainder of the FIW collection I have on-hand, I decided I wanted to switch modes for a bit. I decided to try painting up some of the Warlord Pike & Shotte plastic Pikemen and Command i have laying around.

I decided to paint them up as Lord Brooke's Regiment for 2 reasons. The main uniform colour is purple, and the standard happens to be on the Parliamentarian Flag sheet included with my Pike & Shotte Battalia Box.  I find that the heavy paper that Warlord Games prints their flag sheets on is too heavy for for the bending that i do with my standards. It does not bend smoothly and the surface can actually begin to crease and crack under the pressure. so I scanned the sheet at 600 DPI .  I chose 600DPI so that i can print it off much larger then the original without sacrificing  too much detail.

This regiment will be roughly 5 times the size it is now(40 Figures) when it is finished. there will be 8 more pike, as well as 24 muskets  after this one is done the next unit i intend to paint will be Lord Seye & Sele's  regiment.  I'm aiming to have 4 pike & shotte foot regiments, 2 cavalry regiments(12 figures each), 1 Dragoon regiment(12 foot & 12 Mounted), 2 firelock regiments(12 & 18 figures) and 1 artillery piece for my parliamentarian army..  If by the time i finish that, i don't have an opponent, I'll likely do a royalist contingent of roughly the same size.

I'm also looking for a good set of rules to use for ECW. I know Warlord is releasing an ECW supplement for Black Powder at some point, but no news on when yet. I've played 1644, and wasn't overly impressed, especially with the morale being completely divorced from casualties.  I am Curious to see what For God, King and Country by the Canadian Wargamers Group is like.  I've played Habitants & Highlanders as well as Rocket's Red Glare and enjoyed them.  If anyone has a copy of  For God, King and Country they would part with, Let me know.

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

Rock Outcroppings Finally Finished!

Well  I finally managed to finish off the first 3 of my rock outcroppings. they tuend out pretty good i think, especially for a first try. 

The trees I used were a mixture of things. the tall darker  coniferous trees are Bachmann trees. I really like their pine and spruce trees. Best of all,  for 11 bucks you get 8x 3-4" trees, or 3x 5-6" trees. the other coniferous were whatever I could scrounge up. There are 3  cake ornament trees, and the rest of them are the cheap bottle brush variety you see at Christmas, with some flocking added.  The deciduous trees on the 2 smaller formations are some "dead tree" plastic armatures from an old Siege board game that my friend Derek Watson gave me.  Normally they are decidedly two dimensional, but I used my heat gun and bent them around a bit. The foliage is Heavy duty stripping pad, torn up and stuck to the armature with hot glue.  learning to use this stuff to make trees will come in very handy for doing bushes and hedges with the same stuff in the future.

Perry Miniatures AWI Indians pictured 

on the largest outcropping

I have the other 5 outcroppings  treed-up and ready to flock. I'm hopping to finish them off today.

Conquest Miniatures Compagnies Franches de la 

Marine on 2 smaller outcroppings

Also, Thursday morning a shipment of Eureka French & Indian war colonial infantry arrived, so expect to see them kicking around the blog some time this weekend.

Rock Outcropings Revisited

Well it's been a week and a half since i last posted about the Rock outcroppings i was building out of Ceiling tiles.  initially this went quite well.  Unfortuantely, i did not have speciufic details on how to mix the carpenter's glue, water, and Durabond 90.

For starters, Durabond 90 does not mix properly with Carpenters glue(it does however with white glue). I had to mix it with the water before adding the glue.  after 2 coats of this mixture i found out that when you reach a certain amount of Durabond 90 in a carpenters glue-water mixture, it gels after about 10 minutes, and there is little way to slow the gelling process.

After that i switched to white glue, and all the problems ceased. you can mix in a ton of Durabond 90 without having to worry about it solidifying rapidly.  for the last 2 coats i mixed in a bit of gray paint. in between htese last 2 coats i left  the peices for about 24 hours in between coats.

The pics here show the outcroppings glued to MDF bases, partially painted, and with trees leaned up against them were I intend to glue them down.  I'm intending to glue some flock mix randomly around  outcroppings, and I have some clump foliage to spread around them too.  I'm planning to have these finished by Friday.

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.