More VBCW from Musketeer

Musketeer Miniatures have announced some more figures for their Inter-war range which should be released soon:

Civilians (planned for Triples apparently):

I suspect I'll be picking these sets up if I can as they will be useful for Sealion too.

Plus BCW standard bearers (no date as yet):

Workbench Update

Just finished some 28mm Perry Mahdists for my Sudan game:

along with some 28mm Musketeer VBCW Militia (although you may spot some Anglian/Empress figures thrown in too):

Perry Sudan British Infantry

I've just finished basing some of my 28mm Perry Miniatures British Infantry for the Sudan and I thought I would post a couple of pictures:

Rif Raf / Empress Comparison

As I was thinking of doing the Rif War as a new project I ordered a pack of figures from Rif Raf Miniatures to see how they scaled against my existing Empress (formerly Anglian) figures.  The Rif Raf figures are from their RIF6: Rif firing/loading muskets pack whilst the Empress ones are from their LEG2: Foreign Legion rifles firing loading and MOR2: Morrocan Regulares rifles firing loading (sic) packs:

As you can see the figures are noticeably smaller than the Anglian ones and are certainly giving me pause regarding using them together.

Sturmtruppen

To follow up on the last post I have almost finished my 28mm Brigade Games late war Germans (only the maxim teams to go). So I thought I would post a few pics.

Here they are:

You may have noticed that the officer in the centre of the last photo and the chaps with the Bergmann MP18s are actually from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range.

I have also posted some larger photos to my Picasa album:

Late WW1 Germans

Les Poilus

Here are a few pics of my 28mm late WW1 French. The figures are most Brigade Games with a few from Scarab Miniatures thrown in.

Here are most of them (but with the VB grenade launchers and grenadiers missing):

a close up:

some comparisons of Brigade and Scarab figures. Here are the NCOs (Scarab, Brigade, Scarab):

and now some infantry, alternating from left to right, Brigade then Scarab:

I have posted some larger photos in a Picasa album:

Late WW1 French

Distracted Again!

Whenever I have a small amount of spare time, not enough to really get into any of my main books, I often dip into one or two of my reference books. This is a mistake! All I manage to do is generate new ideas for projects. Here are the latest ones (fortunately all Stage 0 at the moment!):

28mm Great Druze Revolt

The revolution in Syria against the French is another obvious opportunity to use my desert terrain and also expand my range of French Foreign Legion periods.

I need to do some more research on this one but it would seem the upcoming Woodbine Design figures or the Artizan Foreign Legion may well be suitable. The Artizan Arab irregular figures should also be appropriate.

I would probably just start this off as a skirmish sized project with an initial "investment" of 20-30 figures a side but, if it shows promise, I might move up from there.

28mm Rif War

In actual fact I have been considering this one for some time, initially as a possible additional use for the Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan Regulares figures from my Spanish Civil War project.

The key issue is finding suitable Riffians. Rif Raf are the obvious choice but I have yet to see any pictures of their figures against anyone else's. My main concern is that, whilst a good sculptor, Richard Ansell tends toward the smaller end of 28mm. The other main alternative is Askari but with the worsening exchange rate this may be an expensive option!

I am also wondering about this as being another possible use for French Foreign Legion figures too.

28mm Sudan

Not strictly a new project but rather an expansion of an existing one (but under my rules it counts as a new project or else I would never be able to count any projects as finished!). My initial foray into this period (in 28mm anyway) is turning out pretty well and the Perry figures are excellent. So I am thinking about adding to them. Of course the key question is which direction to go...

Anyone else noticing a distinct theme here?

Quick Project Update

I've been working on progressing a few of my projects over the last couple of weeks although I have been getting a little distracted by possible new ones!

28mm Sudan

The Perry figures have turned out very nicely and I am in the process of basing them up on some pre-cut MDF bases from East Riding Miniatures (excellent service from them BTW). I have British infantry, some Egyptians, a Gardiner gun (with Naval crew) and a screw gun. The Mahdists are mostly Beja with a small unit of Nile Arabs. Now I have them all on the workbench it is clear I will have to expand the Mahdists in order for them to be properly intimidating!

I do, however, have enough for a game in a few weeks. Which will also allow me to get my Colonial Steamboat buildings and Nile steamer out.

28mm A Very British Civil War

I have just finished basing up my new Musketeer militia and I plan to take a few photos once I have a standard worked out for the workers. I have a new scenario planned and just need to write it up and paint one more vehicle for that to be ready. I also managed to get a couple more IRA with shotguns done at the same time.

28mm Spanish Civil War

I now have my additional Anglian (now Empress) Republican militia riflemen based up along with the Republican and Nationalist regular army figures. I just need to finish off the two HMGs and I'll pretty much have the SCW project in its final state (or as final as any of them get). Of course there's still the CTV...

28mm Early WW1

I have the additional 8 Renegade Germans in improvised gas masks and the final Maxim finished so that's pretty much the early period completed. I suspect I may want a few more French or Brits for particular scenarios but that would be exceptional.

28mm Late WW1

My Brigade Games and Scarab French figures are currently on the workbench nearly finished along with the Brigade Germans. I picked up the Scarab figures as Brigade didn't do VB grenade launchers but almost as soon as I had bought them Brigade brought their own ones out! In any case whilst I do prefer the Brigade sculpts, the Scarab figures mix in pretty well. Once they're finished I'll post a few photos to demonstrate. Just the trenches to sort out now...

28mm Early WW2

I have now got my Crusader French based up with the exception of the Hotchkiss and crew and the Foundry and Crusader Germans are on the workbench. I plan to convert a scenario from The Face of Battle scenario book Act with Daring, The Invasion of France: 1940 to our regular WW2 ruleset Nuts!

28mm Dahomey

The French Foreign Legion and native figures for this arrived from Dixon and so this has been promoted to a new Stage although it will be a few months before they are likely to hit the table.

28mm Sahara

I collected the additional figures I needed from Redoubt at the Cavalier show and these, combined with my Colonial Steamboat fort and buildings should give me the flexibility I need for quite a variety of scenarios.

Possible New Projects

The latest new figures from Brigade Games are making me think I might branch out in to Napoleon in Egypt. The preview pictures they have posted make the figures look superb and that's usually all the encouragement I need!

I have also been looking at the Artizan WW2 French range and considering branching out into the Mediterranean theatre of WW2 but coming it at it from the French perspective. It would allow me to use the figures for both North Africa (and those Colonial Steamboat buildings yet again - I'm hoping to get a good return from that "investment") but also Sicily, Corsica and Italy which may allow me to get away with some of my Peninsular buildings too.

Of course now I just need to work out how I'm going to store them all!

Wargames Weekend: The Photos

Here are my photos from the wargames weekend:

Gaming Weekend - Jan 10

Lenin has also posted his photos on Lenin's Library.

Wargames Weekend: Poseidon’s Song

Our final game of the weekend was a first outing for Lenin's Star Trek figures using Rattrap's Fantasic Worlds rules. Here's the brief:

The USS Hammersley, a scout class vessel, under the command of Commander Michael Flynn was on regular patrol on the edge of known space, when it suddenly detected a previously un-catalogued signal emanating from the planet P3X-866. This planet has only been surveyed from orbit and though it is M Class, no signs of current intelligent life were detected. However, ancient and uninhabited ruins were observed from orbit, so it would seem that the planet once supported intelligent life. Given that the majority of the planet’s surface is now covered in water, hence its unofficial name of Poseidon, the current theory is that rising sea levels eventually drowned this long dead civilisation. Poseidon is earmarked for a full planetary survey sometime in the next five years.

Using is own initiative, the maverick Commander Flynn beamed down to Poseidon with a small landing party to investigate this unknown signal, but on landing, the party discovered that the signal seemed to be jamming their communicators, thus preventing contact with the ship or beaming back. Lieutenant Blake, the Hammersley’s Science Officer, suggests that they need to locate the source of the signal and somehow turn it off, but before the landing party can start their search, the realise that they are not alone…

I played the Star Fleet landing party stranded on the planet and we began the first of the three "acts". Whilst searching the alien ruins we heard gunfire and, on investigation, discovered some ape astronauts who were also stranded on the planet's surface. In addition, we discovered a hostile indigenous species of "crabman". These creatures were quite hostile and pretty tough and our phasers didn't seem to have much of an effect on their carapaces.

Between us and the team from the Ape Astronautical and Space Administration we managed to triangulate the position of the signal which was interfering with our instruments and moved off in that direction.

Moving through the ruins we encountered some quicksand and several more crabmen but managed to find the entrance to the structure from which the signal was emanating.

Moving inside we were lucky enough to discover some buried controls for the alien device but not before stumbling upon some more crabmen. Our teams split up and tried to hold off the crabmen whilst the others uncovered the controls. We managed to scare one of the creatures away but another was quite a different proposition and was it took both the Captain and the Science Officer to keep it occupied. With the controls uncovered we just needed to discover how they worked. Fortunately the apes discovered some tablets (no not iPads!) with some instructions but unfortunately another crabman appeared. A running battle ensued with all of te Star Fleet personnel but my First Officer becoming incapacitated and the apes nearly suffering the same fate. IN a nail biting conclusion the apes managed to activate the controls and a landing party beamed down from the Hammersley just in time to save the day!

Wargames Weekend: Scavanger Hunt

The first game on our final day was yet another playtest, this time Chain Reaction 3.0 - Swordplay. On the whole have been pretty pleased with the reaction system based games from Two Hour Wargames for modern periods and even as far back as Black Powder Battles but less happy with the only medieval rules we tried (Montjoie). But having rather a lot of 28mm pointy stick figures I was keen to see whether Swordplay might be better.

The scenario involved some Crusaders out foraging encountering some, perhaps unsurprisingly, hostile locals when trying to take their supplies. I used my 28mm Gripping Beast figures along with my desert hamlet from the Colonial Steamboat Company.

The small force of Crusaders consisted of five mounted armoured knights (Rep 5) with shields and lance along with five unarmoured warriors (Rep 3) with spears and shields. The Saracens consisted of one armoured noble (Rep 5) with sword and shield, 10 unarmoured warriors (Rep 3) with spears and shields and 5 unarmoured archers (Rep 3). The relative sizes were based on the points system from the rules. I took command of the Crusaders and Lenin the Saracens.

With the classic Two Hour Wargames Rep based initiative system my knights activated on most turns but my foot troops were a little less enthusiastic. As the knights approached the village they triggers a crisis test for the Saracen archers who opened fire (There is no equivalent of the In Sight test from the more modern CR rule sets but rather one based on approaching within 12 inches). The arrows merely bounced off my knights' armour and their reaction was to charge!

Unfortunately for the knights, access to the village was limited on their size of approach and so only one could charge through the archway (ducking theatrically to avoid being swept from horseback!) but facing two spear armed Saracens. The charge ended up with one of the Saracens becoming intimately familiar with the knight's lance but the other managed to unhorse him. This started a lengthy fight in the archway with my knight besting the Saracen warriors but meeting his match with their Noble. Even with assistance from another knight the Crusaders just couldn't get the edge over the Saracen.

Meanwhile three of the other knights became bored watching the fight but not being able to join in and went in search of another way in. They found another archway and, having dismounted, advanced into the village. Spotting the remainder of the Saracen force defending the main village gate the Crusaders charged! Fortunately for the Saracens they reacted in time and most of them turned to face off the Crusader attack. Unfortunately the unarmoured Rep 3 warriors didn't do too well against the armoured Rep 5 knights even though outnumbering them and the fight was soon over.

Eventually the Saracen Noble, after putting up a spirited resistance even though outnumbered, was overcome. The Crusaders discovered the Saracen archers cowering in a nearby building and captured them.

We thought the rules worked pretty well and will be using them again. Although for le=arger games the combat mechanism would begin to slow matters down as it works on rolling groups of d6, looking for successes and then rerolling them until one side doesn't get any.

However, it was clear that the points system wasn't a good basis for trying to balance the game. The Crusader infantry didn't actually take part at all and the Rep 5 knights were a lot more capable and hardy than the Rep 3 Saracen warriors. So we'll need to give that some thought for next time.

The rules are available as a free download from the Two Hour Wargames website.

Wargames Weekend: The Rail Yards at Toko-Ro

Next up was an air game, which is something we haven't played in a long while. Lenin provided the terrain, a Hotz mat and some 1/300 Korean War aircraft. We used Bag the MiG, the Korean War version of Bag the Hun from the TooFatLardies with me playing the Koreans in their MiG15s. I rolled up my pilots on the tables and managed to get a rather uninspiring one regular and seven sprogs.

As with most of the Lardies rules we started the game on blinds and built the initiative deck as the game progressed and things were spotted (although there's no Tea Break equivalent in this set of rules). Lenin's blinds spotted me almost straight away but I had terrible luck trying to spot his blinds and consequently got bounced by on of his flights.

We did a lot of manoeuvring but my pilots found it very difficult to stay in formation and he managed to bag a couple of my MiGs. However, I got lucky and bagged one of his aircraft too. I did get a little frustrated when I emptied my entire 8 seconds (apparently this has been enhanced for playability from the real 6 seconds) of ammunition into one of his aircraft but failed to roll any damage on the table.

In the end I actually managed to win, less because of my prowess at flying, and more because Lenin had terrible trouble lining up on the target and consequently didn't satisfy his victory conditions.

I must admit I didn't find the Koreans terribly satisfying to play for a number of reasons but given the actual kill ratios maybe this is accurate. I think we need to try the vanilla rules (or even the WW1 variant) to see how those play.

Wargames Weekend: Contact at Hill 325

Day two started with a WW1 scenario from my SkirmishCampaigns booklet Rommel's Route to Verdun converted to be used with Nuts! This is the second scenario in the campaign and Lenin happily reprised his role as Rommel with me donning les pantalons rouge again.

The French had strong forces in the nearby village of Bleid and scattered forces holding the ground to the east, around Hill 325 and in the woods north of the Hill. Rommel’s platoon had advanced to the Hill and deployed on the northeast side. Their mission was to advance across the south and west sides of the hill and seek out the French. The early hour combined with fog greatly restricted visibility making their life more difficult.

Rommel split his force in two with one section advancing across the Northern half of the table and the other between the two fields of crops. Rommel took command of the second section himself.

The Northern section stumbled across a small French patrol group resting in a small copse and after a prolonged fire fight took several casualties and decided to withdraw. Meanwhile Rommel advancing towards the woods to the West ran into a section of French infantry and another firefight ensued. This time the Germans managed to get the upper hand and, after several rounds of firing, the French were silenced and the Germans moved in to capture the survivors.

I had wondered whether I needed to revise the victory conditions specified in the scenario but in the end it turned out to be challenging enough for the Germans. The figures were all 28mm from Renegade Miniatures.

Wargames Weekend: Ranger Roadblock

Next up was another playtest, this time with the TooFatLardies Troops, Weapons & Tactics (TW&T) rules and a 28mm WW2 Normandy scenario. We have played TW&T once before but didn't warm to it. Having now played their other initiative card rules Sharp Practice and Through the Mud & the Blood we thought we should give TW&T another go. The objective was to see if these rules offered something Nuts! and I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (IABSM) didn't.

Lenin has been painting up his collection of Crusader WW2 figures and was keen to let some of his US Rangers see the table. Unfortunately he didn't have time to finish enough Germans so I had to fill the gap with some of my Foundry and Crusader collection (hence the varied basing).

The scenario was a pretty challenging one for the Rangers as they had a similar number of troops as the Germans but were attacking. I secretly deployed my German units (two sections each with an LMG team and a tripod mounted LMG team) and selected a location for my pre-plotted mortar fire.

Lenin chose to concentrate on my left but I managed to pin him down as he advance across the first open area and this gave me enough time to redeploy my second section to reinforce the first. I had set up a fire lane down the road from the tripod LMG team but initially it had no targets.

With the initial assault stalled Lenin called in some mortar fire and then tried to outflank me. Unfortunately the mortar fire wasn't terribly effective and the outflanking troops were pinned down in my firelane.

With things starting to look a little bleak for the US troops with the mortar running out of HE it switched to smoke and Lenin tried another assault. Fortunately for me I had the foresight to withdraw my first squad from their initial positions and when the assault came I managed to catch it with some nasty combined LMG fire. So the game ended in the US withdrawing.

Whilst I enjoyed the game I felt it would have played quite differently using Nuts! and I wasn't sure that the extra complexity had given the rules a real edge over IABSM. I am going to take some time to reflect but TW&T certainly wasn't the instant hit that both Sharp Practice and Through the Mud & the Blood were.

Wargames Weekend: Beyond the Pale

Last weekend was another of our quarterly gaming weekends. We decided for a little bit of an experimental first day with a new period and some modified rules and then a playtest game of some others.

First up was a chance to get my Vendel Tudor figures to the table. I bought these some considerable while ago (as I recall I collected them a Salute when it was at Olympia!) but haven't settled on a rules system. The figures grew from my original Border Reivers project and when Vendel added the Irish figures I was persuaded to start a new project. I bulked out the pike with some figures from Graven Images which, whilst bulkier, do mix reasonably well.

Having done plenty of reading about the period I thought my best bet was to model the harassing the column type engagement with formed English troops advancing through Ireland being attacked on the way by the locals rather than the later more formal battles of Tyrone's rebellion. This presented a bit of a problem when looking for suitable rules . Two Hour Wargames' Colonial Adventures rules may seem an odd choice but when I went back to basics the regular formed troops versus irregular troops seemed to me to be a common theme. So I created some new reaction tables and added additional tests for forming units and reloading muskets and a new set was born.

Our playtest scenario was a simple one with an small English column advancing up the table to a small ford. I used the Colonial Adventures patrol scenario which provided enough mechanics to deal with the potential enemy forces (PEFs). The English were given two units of calivers and one unit each of pike, billmen and border horse. The horse came on first and got a little ahead of the main infantry column when they spotted some Irish. These were resolved as a unit of Gallowglass and some Kern. The former decided to charge from their hiding place and the English horse managed to counter charge. It was a bloody encounter and the smaller unit of horse came off worst with the Kern simply looking on the whole time.

This little fight gave the column the chance to advance and form up.

They sent the billmen off to scout through the woods and they managed to spot some Irish horse and some archers. With no real ranged weapons the billmen took a couple of showers of arrows and decided discretion was the better part of valour and retreated to the column with the archers following up cautiously. Meanwhile having taken some caliver fire the Gallowglass and the Irish horse decided to attack the English head on (probably not the wisest move but we needed to test the rules!). The English shot bore the brunt of the assault and whilst one wing took some serious casualties the other managed to hold their own.

Having suffered quite a few losses the Irish decided to melt away and leave the slightly battered English column to carry on their advance. Of course who knows what might await them further up the road!?

Stage 3 Projects

And now onto the "real" projects:

28mm Greek Myth
I have a set of rules, Typhon and have "invested" in some suitable Foundry and Eureka figures and even have some terrain but I now need the figures painted. Given the superb job that Lenin did on his own figures I was a bit cheeky and asked him to paint mine up - clearly he is waiting for his muse...

15mm Alexander the Great
I started this with a low investment approach by getting a couple of DBA armies. This has expanded to 4 (Alexandrian Macedonian, Persian, Greek and Thracian) plus a few ancillary items to widen the scope (elephants anyone). But the original plan was to move to massed battles (much as I like DBA). My main stumbling block has been finding a set of suitable rules - particularly as I am looking for ones which actually provide some period feel.

28mm Montrose
I bought some Redoubt figures for this more years ago than I would care to remember and whilst they are now painted I have yet to base them. This has mainly been down to settling on a set of rules. I originally purchased For God, King and Country by the Canadian Wargames Group and whilst these are fun they didn't quite do it for me. I've not got a copy of To The Banners which I am hoping may be the answer.

25mm French Revolution
I picked up some of the Foundry figures as a result of Lenin reducing his lead mountain. I am planning to do this at a skirmish level using the Gloire rules. I even have some suitable buildings which I picked up from eBay (although luckily with Gloire you only need to fill 2' x 2'!).

28mm Dahomey
Another project started from Lenin's desire to reduce the load on his joists! I have always been fascinated by the French Foreign Legion and so this seemed a perfect opportunity to do something a little different with them. I have now ordered the balance of the figures I will need from Dixon and have plumped for Two Hour Wargames' Colonial Adventures rules to start.

28mm WW1 Eastern Front / Russian Civil War
I have lumped these two together because the common factor is Musketeer Miniatures' lovely WW1 Russian figures. I picked some up at last year's Cavalier show but I am waiting until they release the figures with greatcoats to move on as I also have some of the ex-HLBS Archangel intervention figures and with the addition of some Copplestone figures I could cover quite a lot.

28mm WW2 Eastern Front
Given that I have a winter gaming mat and suitable German troops (both bought largely for the Bulge!) I have always been keen to expand this out to include Eastern Front. I managed to pick up a Corgi T34 from eBay and I have a few figures painted but for a decent game I knew I would need more so I took advantage of The Wargames Command Post's recent sale and bought some more Bolt Action figures. Our "go to" set of WW2 rules, Nuts!, will be the obvious choice here.

I suspect if I have a look around my games room I may stumble on some more but I think that's enough to be going on with!

Stage 2 Projects

So following on from my Project Categorisation post, I thought I would try and list out the projects which have reached (or are stuck at) Stage 2 (I thought about Stage 1 but I suspect life's too short!) in roughly chronological order:

15mm/28mm War of Spanish Succession
So far all I have done is purchase a copy of the Beneath the Lily Banners rules which look interesting. They certainly have plenty of eye candy but I suspect that to get the most from this period I would need to go with 15mm rather than 28mm as it will (a) need less table space, (b) be considerably easier to store and (c) be more portable. But some of the 28mm figures are just sooo nice....

28mm American War of Independence
This is a period I have been interested in ever since school but haven't actually dived in to. With the material now coming available for converting Sharp Practice to AWI I am seriously thinking about "investing". So far I have only picked up the relevant supplement from the Lardies and some research books but I can hear those Perry figures calling me....

15mm Napoleonics
This is a period I have been thinking about for some considerable time but keep rethinking every time I work out how many figures I need for any decent battle! Hence my moving to 28mm skirmishes and lately Sharp Practice. But I have at least two rulesets which I would happily use - Shako and Le Feu Sacre - so I suspect I will eventually succumb!

I am sure there are lots more but I'm trying to slow down a bit at Stage 2 to avoid a pile up in Stage 3 projects as you'll see shortly!

Tudor English

Here are a couple of photos of the English foot who will be going beyond the Pale at the weekend:
The figures are Vendel with a few Graven Images pikemen thrown in.

Wargames Weekend - Replanning

As a result of snagging a copy of the Wargames Foundry Armies of the Sixteenth Century: The Armies of England, Scotland, Ireland, the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands 1487-1609, my Tudor Ireland project has been given new inspiration.

So I've got my Vendel and Graven Images figures back out onto the workbench and decided to drop my proposed 15mm WW2 Spearhead game in favour of a 28mm game using a suitably modified version of Two Hour Wargames' Colonial Adventures rules. This may seem a little bit of an odd choice but the "scale" of rules seems right and I want to model the typical English column being harassed by more irregular Irish troops. I think that, with appropriate amendments to deal with arquebus and formed pike, the core mechanics should work pretty well. In any case we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime I may get a chance to take and post some pictures of the figures as I finish them.

Project Categorisation

Since I seem to be better at starting rather than finishing projects I have decided to categorise them to help me focus. So far I'm thinking of the following five project stages:

Stage 1 - The Idea
I've had a great idea for a new project but haven't actually done anything about it other than some superficial research on the internet or in my existing library.

I regularly have a very, very large number of projects in this stage!

Stage 2 - The "Investment"
I have actually spent some money. It might just be on more research material or something more substantial in the way of figures, terrain etc. But at least I am committed!

Stage 3 - The Construction
So by now I've actually been forced to do something more than simply buying stuff. Planning, building, painting etc. i.e. a significant commitment of time rather than just money. These are "real" projects.

Stage 4 - The Pilot
At this stage I have something I can actually put onto a table. So the figures, terrain, rules and scenario(s) are in place, at least sufficiently to enable a game to be played. There is still work to be done to finish the project but I am seeing some return on my "investment".

Stage 5 - The Completion
I'm not sure if any project really reaches this stage but I'm considering this one to mean "complete" as originally envisaged and that any further expansion etc. will be considered to be a separate project (and so we go around again!).

My next task to actually list out all the projects in each category - that may take a little while! I can then prioritise them and, hopefully, 2010 will see more progress...

Merry Christmas!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for spending your valuable time looking at my witterings!

I am hoping that Santa will bring me some gaming related presents and so I hope to have some interesting things to post about after Christmas.

May I wish you all the very best for the festive season and for a happy and prosperous 2010 (with lots of gaming)!

In case you didn't know the Hogswatch card above is by the fabulously talented Paul Kidby.

Wargames Weekend - Planning

Even though 2009 isn't quite finished I'm in the process of trying to plan the games for Lenin's next visit in January. At the moment it's looking as follows:

28mm Crusader Skirmish
A chance to try out the Two Hour Wargames' CR3.0 - Swordplay rules (which are available as a free download by the way) to see if these are worth pursuing as our future "pointy stick" skirmish rules. It also gives me an opportunity to get my Gripping Beast crusader figures out again which will be nice, along with the new desert buildings I've picked up recently.

28mm Early WW1
A conversion of the second scenario from the SkirmishCampaigns Rommel's Road to Verdun booklet to the Two Hour Wargames' Nuts! rules (it's not quite big enough for the Lardies' Through the Mud & the Blood I suspect). This will be another chance to get my Renegade WW1 Germans and French onto the table (ah Les Pantalons Rouge!)

15mm Early WW2
I'm going to use this as an opportunity to finish off some more of my Peter Pig 15mm figures and am going to try running a larger game than normal using Spearhead (with the Germans suitably toned down!)

Lenin is indicating Through the Mud & the Blood (may be 28mm Normandy or 15mm Lebanon), Bag the MiG and Fantastic Worlds (which could be an outing for his Star Trek figures). But, as always, everything could change in the next few weeks!

Lardies Xmas Special out now!

The TooFatLardies have released their latest seasonal special packed to the gunnels with stuff for almost all their sets of rules.

This time we're being treated to over 120 pages of fascinating content including:

• Campaign – An AWI campaign for Sharp Practice and Tea Taxes & Tories
• Bocage Bustin' – an article on US tactics for dealing with the bocage for TW&T and IABSM
• The Game to End All Games – a solo WW1 scenario for Through the Mud and the Blood (TTM&TB) but translatable to other periods
• I Wish to Amuse the Fleet with a Signal – Command and Control in Kiss Me Hardy
• Bag the Hun Walkthrough – a step by step guide to Bag the Hun 2
• Get Your Frickin' Tentacle Out of my Face – Sci-Fi variant for I Ain't Been Shot Mum
• The Laziest TW&T of All – More rule ideas to simplify Troops Weapons & Tactics
• Allan Watermain and the Tomb of the Prophet – Pulp adventure scenario for TTM&TB
• The Second Seminole War – A guide to the war for Sharp Practice
• Two Men of Talavera – A Le Feu Sacre III scenario for the Peninsular
• The Defence of Crap Island – A Japanese amphibious landing scenario for the Pacific
• Thanks Heavens for Fellatio! – a scenario for Sharp Practice
• Rating Commanders for They Couldn't Hit An Elephant
• Revenge at Camp El Juba – An If the Lord Spares Us scenario
• Heroes of the Hearthrug – An overview of the author of Carpet Campaign's life.
• Carpet Campaigns – A 1910 rule set for toy soldier battles
• The Savio River Crossing – A vietnam scenario for TW&T
• Una, Grande y Libre – A SCW scenario for Triumph of the Will
• Escape from the `Joy – A 1920 Irish Prison Break for TTM&TB
• Taking Command – ideas for a battalion level version of IABSM
• Totensontag – A desert war scenario for IABSM
• Strike Wing – A Bag the Hun scenario

It's available as a PDF download from their website for a fiver.

The Gathering Storm Part One - Scotland and the North

Solway Crafts and Miniatures have recently released their second source book for their alternative history setting 1938: A Very British Civil War. Originally intended to be a single volume they had so much interest that they decided to split it in two and so this is Part One covering Scotland and the North with a second part expected early in the new year.

This is a 50 page full colour production with 15 sections written by a variety of contributors interspersed with pictures of miniatures, flags and the the like. Six pages in the centre of the booklet are given over to a photo gallery.

The contents are as follows:

• Introduction
• The State of the War
• Scotland's Own Civil War
• The Northern Army
• The Chopwell Communists
• Yorkshire and the Civil War
• War in the Lakes
• Chester and the Siege of Liverpool
• The Isle of Man
• American Volunteers
• The Photo Section
• The New Model Red Army
• Wynd-Grator and Joshua Force
• The Court and Royalist Factions
• Minor Fascist groups and the BUF

A couple of small scenarios are also included.

The layout and style is a little inconsistent with a mixture of two and three column formats with photos and text inserts. Each page has a coloured background (similar to that on the cover) with the text boxes being darker and the photos held in by simulated tabs.

The content is the product of enthusiasts who have taken the ideas in the original source book and developed them through research, their own inventiveness and tried to provide a world which allows them to use the figures available.

It was always going to be difficult for this booklet to make the same impact as the first. The whole concept of the alternative timeline carried the first source book and more than made up for its weaknesses. This volume just cannot compete on the same basis, it is simply fleshing out that original idea albeit in some interesting and inventive ways. The main advantage of the original was that it provided many creative seeds which you could develop to fit your own vision and, whilst this new volume does suggest the book is "a guide but not the final word", it does feel more limiting than the first.

This is an interesting read and there are certainly some useful ideas in it. Whether it is worth the £12 plus postage is really a question of whether you need those ideas.

More BCW Coming Soon...

Musketeer Miniatures have posted some pictures of some of the new BCW figures which should be coming early next year:

A BUF HMG team:
and a Militia anti-tank rifle team:As usual both sculpted by the inestimable talents of Paul Hicks.

More Copplestone Tanks...

Apparently the next addition to Copplestone's interwar tanks will be a Vickers Independent:


Who can say no to FIVE turrets?!

Copplestone Medium Mark III

Copplestone Castings have just added an interwar Medium Mark III tank to their site:


Only three were actually built but in our alternative 1938 world who knows?

It is a little on the expensive side but given the size and unusual nature of it possibly not surprisingly so.

Wargames Weekend: The Photos

Here are all the photos from the recent weekend of gaming:

Probability eh?

So what are the chances of this?

And no there isn't anything supporting it on the other side!

This was the result of one of my throws during the weekend. Clearly my house is in a high magical field?

Wargames Weekend: The Crystals of Death

Our final game of the weekend saw the return of the Doctor, the Brigadier and UNIT.

For a change I took the part of the good guys and Lenin gave me the following briefing:

To: Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
From: Headquarters, United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, Geneva

Subject: Parasol Chemicals Ltd., London, SW1

Routine monitoring of worldwide chemical purchases has detected a disturbing pattern with regard to the purchases being made by the above named corporation. The combination of chemicals is one that has previously been linked to extraterrestrial life forms.

Undercover surveillance of the chemical plant has raised further concerns, when the plant’s security guards were observed wearing strange helmets and carrying firearms. The UK Home Office has confirmed that the plant does not have the authority for armed guards and thus they are just as keen as UNIT to find out what is going on. Consequently the UK Government has agreed to allow UNIT to continue their investigations and take whatever actions UNIT deems appropriate to resolve the situation.

UNIT (UK) has therefore been tasked with raiding the plant, arresting the workforce and seizing all documents and other materials.

Standard rules of engagement apply, see attached.

Given the possible extraterrestrial link, assistance has been requested from UNIT’s scientific advisor, though his whereabouts are currently not known.

Just to make my life even more difficult here are the rules of engagement:

INSTRUCTIONS TO UNIT PERSONNEL EMPLOYED ON GUARD DUTIES, INTERNAL SECURITY AND DUTIES IN AID OF THE CIVIL POWER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

General

1. Before you use force it is your duty to assess the situation and then use the minimum amount of force necessary to deal with it. If you have done this and you are absolutely satisfied that there is no effective force at your disposal except opening fire, you may do so in the circumstances detailed below.

When to Fire

2. You may fire in the following circumstances:

a. On the lawful orders of your superior officer, by word or through written orders.

b. To protect yourself or other persons from death or grievous bodily harm.

c. To protect property which you have been ordered to guard and which is in the act of being forcibly destroyed or removed.

How to Fire

3. a. Fire only aimed shots.

b. Aim at the target e.g. at the middle of the body.

c. Fire only the minimum number of single shots necessary to achieve your purpose.

So going in all guns blazing wasn't going to be an option!

I decided on a simple direct approach. We drove up in a couple of Land Rovers, blocked the main entrance and challenged the guard at the main gate (who appeared to be holding some soft of weapon - obviously in clear contravention of the firearms regulations!). The guard levelled his weapon so we opened fire (unfortunately to no great effect). Fortunately his firing wasn't terribly effective either but on the next turn we managed to subdue him.

We then advanced into the plant, searched the gatehouse and encountered some more guards. All of them were wearing some sort of strange helmet and moving more like automata than normal people. Having taken a couple of casualties we dealt with them we advanced further in.

It was then we encountered something that can only be described a a green shambling carpet like mound. It violently assaulted one of the men so we opened fire on it. It was clearly pretty tough because it took quite some fire to subdue it. But then others appeared.

Two of the men I'd sent off to reconnoitre the other side of the plan reported finding a container with some strange glowing crystals in it. So I ordered them to secure the container and await further instructions. Meanwhile we had a serious problem on our hands. We couldn't use our heavy weapons for fear of a catastrophic explosion and these creatures were proving difficult to suppress. Fortunately they moved somewhat slower than us and didn't appear to have any ranged weapons so things weren't all in their favour.

Just when we were at a loss as to how to proceed I heard a familiar sound and a blue police box appeared on top of one of the chemical tanks. It was the Doctor and Jo Grant who emerged and seeing our predicament the Doctor withdrew into the Tardis to put together a device which would help us. Eventually he re-emerged and the device identified the location of the alien mind control device. With that eliminated we managed to deal with the last of the aliens and secure the plant.

Wargames Weekend: Mission - The Manor

Our penultimate game was another alternative history outing, this time set in World War 2. Set as part of Operation Sealion, I played a platoon of Fallschirmjaeger intent on capturing The Manor, a British communications centre. Lenin took charge of the small force defending it.

Everything went quite well with me advancing the section on the right flank up to the road followed by the centre section. Then some fool in the left hand section managed to get spotted coming out of the woods and the game was up! So instead of finding the Manor with only light defences the entire defending force was stood to waiting for me.

My first attempt to get an MG34 out of the woods to cover the perimeter was a bit of a fiasco. So I decided on a more co-ordinated approach which did draw plenty of fire but left me with some troops in a position to return fire. My MG34s managed to keep the Brit's heads down and I sent a small party forward to cut the barbed wire fence on the right. After that it was a desperate holding action for the defenders, hoping to give the communications room enough time to destroy the code books, equipment and the like.

Reinforcements from the local Home Guard turned up, better late than never. But had been spotted by one of my men and so came under some heavy fire when they tried to advance and decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew.

So the Manor and what remained of its equipment and documents fell into the hands of the Reich despite the valiant efforts of the defenders.

The Manor itself is my Grand Manner building with the figures mostly from Foundry. We used our favourite WW2 rules, Nuts! from Two Hour Wargames.

Wargames Weekend: Operation Argos IV

Next up Lenin put on a science fiction game using his extensive collection of AT-43 kit but with the Two Hour Wargames' 5150 rules.

I was cast as an officer in Faulkner Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Parasol Corporation, which is one of the biggest corporate entities in known space. Faulkner Consulting was, in reality, a private military corporation that acts as enforcers and trouble-shooters for Parasol.

My mission was to proceed to the planet Argos IV and extract a three-person biomedical
science team from the Kildare Foundation, another Parasol subsidiary, that has been carrying out a planetary survey. The science team had reported some sort of difficulty, the exact nature of
which was unclear, and had requested an immediate extraction.

I was briefed that Argos IV was a primeval world with surface conditions not unlike Earth millions of years ago when the most sophisticated forms of life were plants and insects. I was informed that it was doubtful that the science team had encountered any hostile life forms, but it is possible that they are having problems with a rival corporation.

The only suitable landing area for my dropship was some distance from the scientistsʼ camp, so
my team needed to approach it on foot, through the primeval forest. I started with one squad of
light infantry, but each time that the activation dice totalled seven and my side had the higher die score I got a chance to roll on the reinforcement table to determine whether additional forces were available.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it turned out not to be a walk in the park! No sooner had we advanced a little towards the camp than some rather strange aliens appeared along with a rather nasty looking walker. Fortunately the walker appeared to be crewed by a graduate of the stormtrooper school of accuracy and its first two shots were close enough to tip me off but not to do any damage. Fortunately my missile launcher team got a lucky first shot and knocked it out.

Even after taking out the walker it was pretty hard going as the aliens just kept appearing and not only from in front. My first squad took quite a few casualties but reinforcements including a Fire Toad and a second squad meant I eventually managed to knock out the strange devices the aliens were using to transport in and after that it was a lot easier!

Wargames Weekend: The Glencleave Incident

On the Saturday we started off with a little bit of alternative history with the dastardly Hun trying to start the Great War early. The basic premise was a German agent had discovered the secret location of the Committee for National Defence's meeting, at Glencleave castle in Scotland, and the Germans decided this was an excellent opportunity to kill or capture the committee and steal the plans. It was also a chance to try out some of their new fangled landing craft!So dawn breaks and a German torpedo boat and two landing craft appear out of the mist heading for the beach by the castle. The two British sentries don't notice the intruders until the torpedo boat is about to dock at the small jetty and the landing craft have hit the beach behind a small copse. The Germans set up an MG08 on the jetty to cover the castle walls and their infantry advance through the woods. Meanwhile the sentries have raised the alarm but the small castle garrison takes quite a while to react!

Fortunately for the British, whilst the Germans have set up their covering positions, they seem to lack the aggressive spirit for a quick assault. This gives the small garrison the chance to get into a position to cover the main gate. It takes a little while for the Germans to blow the gate and their engineers take a couple of casualties in the process. Then the main assault begins with the first German section streaming through the gate and into rifle fire from the chaps covering the gate. After some brief but bloody close combat the Germans are repulsed.

Eventually the Germans find the initiative to make a second assault and, whilst they inflict quite a few more casualties on the garrison they are thrown back again. Unfortunately for the Brits the third German assault overwhelms the defenders are they are forced back to the castle keep.

Meanwhile the committee have been furiously trying to stuff the defence plans into the furnace in order to stop them falling into enemy hands.

The few remaining castle troops try to hold out in the keep but once the door is blown the superior German numbers eventually wear them down and despite a staunch defence from the committee themselves they are almost all put out of action.

The remainder of the British force, which was based in the nearby village of Glencleave, now arrives but is pinned down by German machine gun fire. A fire fight ensues with the retreating Germans, with their prisoners and what was left of the plans, trying to fall back to the landing craft under British rifle fire whilst being covered by their own machine guns.

An outflanking manoeuvre through the woods by a brave British NCO silenced one of the German guns but not in time to stop the others steaming away.

Fortunately for Britain the whole thing was a complete blind set up by our fledgling intelligence services and the captured committee members turns out to be an actor. With both sides being a little embarrassed by the whole incident it is all hushed up...

All the figures, with the exception of the boat crews and the committee members, were from the Renegade Miniatures WW1 range with the castle from Hudson & Allen.

Artizan - More Armed Bobbies

Artizan Designs have added some more armed police to their Thrilling Tales range:

Since I picked up a set of their rifle armed chaps I must add these...

Wargames Weekend: The Men of Company B

Our next game of the weekend was a playtest of The Men of Company B rules from Peter Pig. As with their other RFCM publications these are template based and share a number of mechanics with AK47 Republic.

We used the terrain set up tables in the rules to arrange things and I put together a US force using the points system. I decided on a search and destroy mission and divided my troops into two units which I had choppered into position on either side of the only village on the table.


With one unit covering the other went into the village and stumbled onto a booby trap. Fortunately I managed to disarm it before it did any serious damage. I then had the men advance up the valley to check out a nearby section of jungle. Unfortunately this proved to be home to charlie and we took a bit of a pasting. Eventually I managed to get the other unit onto their flank and called in some air support in the form of a huey gunship but, whilst I managed to eliminate the VC, my first unit was virtually wiped out.

To add insult to injury Lenin had played one of his cards and the VC turned into civilian casualties!

With the game end point having been reached we totted up my victory points and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a bit of a catastrophic failure for the US.

Wargames Weekend: Blunte's Captain

Last weekend Lenin popped over for another visit and we managed to get a few games in. The first was a 28mm Peninsular game using my expanded Front Rank figure collection and the Too Fat Lardies' Sharp Practice rules.

The scenario was adapted from the Lardies' scenario booklet, the Compleat Fondler both to cope with the smaller number of figures available and my need to move it into my own pseudo Sharpe world.

This was a purely light infantry action with the French advancing across the table and hoping to push through the British force. The British were handicapped with the somewhat inept senior officer and whilst he was in command the French managed to make some headway. A small French unit managed to keep Lt. Blunte and the 95th Rifles occupied on one flank whilst the main French force advanced on the other.

Fortunately for the Brits Captain Smalls managed to catch a French volley and was badly wounded allowing Lt. Blunte to take command. He leapt into action and the British fortunes were transformed with the French advance petering out.

Once again Sharp Practice proved to be an entertaining set of rules and gave an excellent game.