Druid and 54mm AWI

I dropped in on Bruce Tuesday to start our Hell Hath No Fury campaign, based on the old board game Druid. The set up is simple. The Britons need to make hay while the Romans are activating.

We played about half way through the 20 turns in an hour. I was busy burning SE England while Bruce marched legions towards me. I spent some time disappearing in the forest and also marching and counter marching to keep his legions tied up. Eventually we had the makings of a major battle north of London that we'll game out using Aurelian next time.

I also finally moved seven 54mm AWI British troops off the painting table. These are plastics left over from an Any Regiment box by Armies in plastic.

Nice enough troops. I sealed these before washing to give them a fresher look than the dirty metal figures I've done. I have six British cavalry under way. And I finally cracked the plastic on Muskets and Tomahawks.

Up next: I think I am free for both club nights in December.

Aurelian and Druid

I didn't get to the club this week but I did get a few gams in. Jess and I have been continuing to play through Red November, trying to get a win against the mechanics. Sheesh.

Last week, Bruce hosted a game of Aurelian (Rome v Hairys). The scenario was an ambush where the Hairys had 15 hands of play to control a base of sheep. We're still learning the system and I think I got lucky with the terrain placement.

My plan to face down his screaming hordes was to close and minimize his ability to maneuver while running out the turn clock.

My heavies moved through the skirmishers (who became the reserve and last line of defence) wile my cavalry moved to refuse the flank against his cavalry.

The eventual clash in the centre was a bit of a slog. The right-hand part of the lines because a bit of a FUBAR as Bruce cagily sought to turn flanks and try to get a break through.

Fortunately, that game works both way and managed to delay his advance and run his cards down.

In the end, he just ran out of time (15 turns in insanely tight!). Also tangling head on with Romans is a rough business. I suspect I will face some terrain woes in future engagements.

Bruce then broke out a copy of Druid and we played a few turns to get the hang of it. His thought is to use it as a campaign mechanic for Aurelian. It seemed simply enough and I'm looking forward to it

Up next: I have been doing a bit of painting as I move a bunch of 54mm British AWI off of the painting table. Not sure what comes next!

November 1 Club Night

We had 12 guys out at the club last night. Bruce hosted Chen and I in a game of Aurelian. I played the Romans. I fiddled around a lot with the bases and neglected to recognize the importance of the hill on my left...

Bruce put his barbarian heavies in the woods, leaving me to face skirmishers and a bunch of horse. I went forward and he dropped some annoying terrain that really disrupted my movement.

The horse battle on the left was inconclusive for a long time. In the meantime Chen joined Brice and pushed forward the barbarian foot while my troops were disordered. Things were looking bad as my card deck was getting low.

I finally managed to attrit the barbarian cards in the horse battle, then stalled their movement with an event card and the slammed into the side of main force for two turns.

The resulting unit loss pushed them to the break point of their card deck just before my own deck expired. The lesson here is that good luck and the toughness of the Roman can overcome really bad generalship.

Bruce and Chen played a second game with the Romans winning again.

We also had a game of Silver Tower out plus whatever the heck Richard Borg's WW1 game is called.

And Dave hosted a WW2 Crete game (Bolt Action maybe?) with Jon.

Up next: Some more 54mm AWI.

1/32-scale frontier militia

I couldn't make the club this week but I did manage to finish some painting. These are the second half of an Armies in Plastic 1/32-scale box of FIW troops. 

I painted these guys up as frontier militia for the rebels. My thought was that this took advantage of the figures' otherwise antiquated FIW gear. They can also fill in the ranks of larger militia units or act as scouts.

Overall, these are nice enough figures. They have an interesting variety of gear and poses and there was only one annoying bent rifle barrel.

The sculpting on plastics can sometimes be a bit muddy in order to deal with the undercut issue of metal moulds. These guys turned out okay, I think. Washing really helps add some depth to the figures and the paint tones.

Up next: I'm turning my mind to the British with eight foot figures underway and then six mounted.

1/32-scale Rebel Dragoons

A couple of weeks back, I posted some 1/32-scale FIW troops that I painted up as AWI rebel dragoons.  These were plastics from Armies in Plastic.  My plan was to add in a few mounted (since most dragoons would fight dismounted) to flesh out some units for the upcoming Tricorne set of rules.

I finally have the mounted figures done. Man, 1/32-scale horse are big figures! These fellows are also from Armies in Plastic. I nipped the sides of the tricornes off to get a soft cap that seems more in keeping with the illustrations of American dragoons.

The horses were a mixed bag, in terms of painting. They look better in person than in the pictures. Overall, I'm happy there are so few cavalry in the AWI!

I have spray primed another six horse for the British dragoon units and these are next on my painting list. I also have a few generic foot left over that I may paint up to stretch out the British dragoons if needed. I keep hoping for a unit list for Tricorne so I can focus my painting.

Up next: I can't make the club this week but I will finish another eight-man unit of frontier militia for the Rebel side. This is another paint job conversion of the FIW set I bought.

1/32-scale AWI Americans and Cthulhu Pandemic

We had seven guys out to our first club night of October. Terry brought out Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu which was a fun adaptation of Pandemic. We managed to beat the Old Ones one time out of two.

Dave also hosted Dennis, Chris, Jonathan and Chen in a game of Kings of War. This was still going on when I left. We heard the sad news that Larry Jeselon had passed away.

I've been painting again. I picked up a box of 1/32-scale Armies in Plastic "Any Regiment of the AWI troops. There were 20 figures in the box. I used 13 to make rebel unit, with the uniform loosely based on the 5th Pennsylvania.

The only changes I made were to nip off a bayonets. The rest of the figures I reserved for a possible British unit. Like most plastic boxes, there were a variety of poses (meh) so I broke them into a back line (above) and a shooting line (below).

The figures were nice enough. Not as much detail as metals (hence the simpler uniform I chose). I primed white, painted, sealed, washed, sealed again and based. There is more contrast in the whites (showing off what detailed there was) than shows up in these pictures.

Below you can see a comparison with an All The King's Men metal figure (left) and an AiP FIW figure (right). 

Up next: I have three horsemen on the go to flesh out the rebel dragoons I painted last time.  I have cut down their tricornes to softcaps. I also have more of the AiP FIW wars fellows that I'm painting up as western frontier rebel militia.

1/32-scale plastic AWI troops

Work and aging in-laws have curtailed my gaming these days' apologies for the lack of posts. I have been doing a bit of gaming with Jessica when we find a few minutes.

Last week we managed to narrowly lose a game of Pandemic. We then played a game of Small World where some lucky draws meant a lopsided game.

My painting table has been collecting dust. To try an get back into the swing of things, I ordered from plastic 54mm troops to supplement my existing AWI metals.

These are some FIW troops sold by Armies in Plastic. After looking at them, the headgear suggested light troops. The Indian leggings were problematic but, with a bit of paint, they looked enough like cavalry boots that I decided to paint them up as dismounted dragons for the US side.

Overall, the figures are fine. They have some injection marks (see below) that are invisible on the table but really jump out in a photograph. I quite like the kit they carry.

They are a touch beefier than the All The King's Men metals (left below) and a bit slightly than the John Jenkins' Indians I have. The height is about right though. Some of the figures have the weird  compromises necessary to fit into metal molds (lack of undercuts, chunky bits).

I bought some mounted troops (still unpainted) and thought I would represent dragoon units with one mounted and two or three dismounted (as per below).

Up next: I have another eight of these guys that I will paint up as militia. Right now I'm working on a unit of a dozen line troops (another set of Armies in Plastic figures). These next figures are more in scale with the ATKM figures. I'm painting them up for the rebels. Then onto the mounted troops (all with tricornes?). Kind of weird but maybe designed to represent officers, moreso that cavalry.