More Square Bashing

Bruce machined-up two early WW1 armies for an eastern-front go at Square Bashing last night. I played the Russians trying to overwhelm the Kaiser's boys. Bruce had lots of troops in reserve that he could never get onto the board while all of mine arrived right at the get-go.

I rushed both flanks and managed to pushback what few troops Bruce could muster. And, as the game ended, I thought I had a clear victory in hand. But then a couple of his units held firm against overwhelming odds and I only won a marginal victory. Fair enough--good luck and not-stupid tactics carried me further this time than last. Bruce played a crafty defense.

Up next: Hard to know I need to get together a War of 1812 game for the club next week. I also have a couple of buildings on the painting table. After that I might start painting on my Battlelore figures.

FS 28mm interwar troops

SOLD!

I have for sale a lot of painted 28mm interwar troops. There are 26 men and 1 dog in this lot of HLBS figures. I picked these guys up at auction this spring in my continuing effort to rescue floundering projects of my buddies..

I have painted them up as generic inter-war troops. They would might be a platoon of republican sympathizes from across the sea in your Very British Civil War game. They might be an American expeditionary force trudging through Asia in your pulp game. They could be mercenary troops of a warlord or American troops guarding a base.

The HQ lot includes an LMG, three officers and a dog. There are also three seven-man fire teams (below) who appear to favour Scooby-Doo "sneak" formation. All are rifle armed except the one guy with mittens and a pistol. The bases are grassed with an early/spring late fall colour and dun coloured shrubs.

I'd like $65 (including shipping in Canada or the US) for this lot. You could combine them with this lot of 53 WW1 Germans for a good inter-wat skirmish in Asia over the Spear of Destiny (archaeologists not included) for $200 all in. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca.

NWMP foot

The last of the 1/72 NWMP I painted up over the weekend. Tbese are a bunch of mono-pose foot based individually to allow for casualty removal.

I've been mulling rule mechanics and thinking that a fairly simple way to model different tactics might be to allow the NWMP to move and fire while the rebels could more and fire OR fire and move. This creates more opportunity for the rebels to fade away.

Up next: Some 28mm interwar fellows are mostly painted. After that, I'm not sure what is next.

More 1/72 NWMP

I finished a few more of the 1/72-scale NWMP force. These are cannons. I have my eye on HaT Gatling guns that I will pick up when I go south in February for a conference. I will also pick up some Indians and some US cavalry on that trip.

Again, Airfix-quality sculpts which are fine enough for my purposes (and the price). I mounted these crews in two parts to allow for casuality removal to mark hits. The single-mounted fellow might also be a useful "general" figure with some fancier braids and whatnot. The silver turned out a bit garish and I will repaint with gunmetal.

Up next: A bunch of NWMP foot then some more 28mm riflemen and then perhaps some 15mm WW2.

Square Bashing

I dropped in on Bruce last night and we gave Square Bashing (by Peter Pig) a go. Bruce printed up armies to see how the rules played. I'm not really a big fan of WW1 games (meh) but I'm game to try new things. And printed armies meant we could do this on the cheap.

We did a Canadian attack on some Germans. For the first game we did not use fortification (trenches) but rather played a breakthrough. Well, it was supposed to be a breakthrough but the only thing broke was my army.

Interesting mechanics with area movement, neat turn sequence (you fire during the opponent's turn), a really nice mechanism for dealing with the unpredictability of corp-level assets. There were four victory squares to bag and we learned as we went so my strategy may have been suboptimal (ahem).

Of course I chose the double-envelopment. On the right, I bagged and held an objective right away but I should have doubled up on MG units, not infantry. On the left, I had a breakthrough choked off by Bruce's reinforcements. Up the middle, I just incompetently deployed and got my ass handed to me (so a historical outcome then!). It was a pretty serious kicking, so good on Bruce!

Overall, a nice set of rules that played well. We were basically doing the mechanics in our heads by the end of the game (but the QRS was necessary). I'd certainly play again--maybe a trench attack or something on the Russian front with cavalry.

Up next: Some more 1/72 NWMP then maybe some more 28mm WW1 guys.

FS 28mm VBCW Canadian Volunteers

SOLD!

I finished a small force of Canadian troops for a Very British Civil War. There are 19 28mm figures (maybe Renegade?) all pictured below. These were troops picked up at auction partly finished (as part of an abandoned WW1 project) and they struck me as a perfect privately raised Canadian contingent for a Very British Civil War game.

The command group (right to left, as it should be...) includes "Colonel" Stephen P. Kelln, financial sponsor of His Majesty's Loyal Canadian Volunteers, Major Bradley Doolan, NCO Lindsay Kevan and demolitions expert Joseph Clark Sr, future father of later Prime Minister Joe Clark (the mittens give it away). 

There are also three fire teams, each comprising four riflemen in vintage gear and a Lewis gunner.

I really enjoy rescuing orphan projects; these fellows were originally based for a late-war intervention in Murmansk so required some creative painting and basing to make them suitable for more temperate climes (assuming endless rain and damp is temperate...).

These come from a smoke- and pet-free home. I'd like $3 each (so $57) and that includes the price of postage in Canada or the US. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca.

1/72 NWMP

Awhile back, I bought a copy of the game War: Age of Imperialism at the club for $2. An awful game but the box is full of miniatures, including an endless bunch of British colonial troops (foot, cannon and mounted). My first thought when I opened the box was: "These guys look like North West Mounted Police." Since then, I've been considering what to do with these guys and how to game the Riel Rebellions.

I'm still working out the specifics but I started painting up a small NWMP force this weekend. I finished 9 men on horses. Not great sculpts (Airfix quality) but the price was right (less than a penny a piece) and they paint up well enough to play with. I also have cannon and foot being based right now.

I'm thinking about using a hex grid (yes, how surprising...) and DBA command mechanics (a la For Honour and Glory) to give a basic structure that can handle battles of different sizes (right now I have some good maps of Batoche). I've scoped out Indian and Metis figures as well as the US Cavalry (think Inspector Steele vs General Custer).

Up next: A bunch of Canadians for a Very British Civil War are just about dry along with some more 1/72 figures. After that some more superhero buildings, I think. And Bruce wants to try Square Bashing tomorrow night so maybe some game shots.

FS 28mm WW1 Germans

SOLD!

I have for sale 53 painted 28mm WW1 Germans, including two MGs and a mortar. I bought these as a job lot, painting about half from scratch and completing the painting and basing of the remainder. 

The result is an under-strength company of Landwehr with a mix of green and more experienced troops. All of the miniatures pictured below are included in this lot.

The picture below shows some of the miniatures already shown above taken from a different angle to give you a sense of the back side of the figures. The bases are wooden disks except for the MGs (which are steel washers).

I'd like $150 (postage to the US or Canada included in the price) for these fellow. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca .

EWG January 15

We had a good turn out at the club last night, with nine guys and two games. Stu put on a game of 6mm FUBAR for Chen and Dave. Dave kept shouting "I'm going commando on those guys!", which led to tittering from the other game.

Bruce put on a WW2 aerial game in 1/700 for Scott, Kevin and Terry (RAF) and Will, Bruce and myself (Germans, Vichy branch). Bruce had to get the stukas off the board while Will and I "escorted" them in Me109s. We faced a mix of Hurricanes and Spitfires.

I think the system worked pretty well as we had six guys all playing at once with only minimal umpiring necessary once we'd all thrown our first dice in anger (or, in Scott's case, despair).

The British won, dropping both the bomber but at the cost of three fighters. If it has been a points game and had gone one more round, I think it could have tipped towards the Germans based on the positioning of the planes. I actually shot down two planes and didn't lose anyone (totally the opposite of my usual flying--of course, no one yell "next one to shoot Bob down wins").

Up next: Some 28mm WW1 Germans on the painting table. I have a few more details to work through (rifles, metal and whatever uniform detail there is) before moving them to basing. I also primed a bunch of 1/72 19th century RCMP/militia.

More Saxons

Now that the glue has (mostly) dried, here are the rest of the Saxons for the EWG auction in May.

There are two command groups with leaders, standards and musicians. The horn player below looks like he is hard of hearing, but that is simply a function of the angle of the picture.

There are a bunch of warriors in mail. Most have spears, but some also have hand weapons (swords and axes). I had to scavenge shields so there are a number of kit shields which mean these Saxons are best for a later period.

I'm quite inpressed with the detail that the GS sculpts have. And a bit of magic dip really helps a simple paint job pop.

Up next: Club night is tomorrow and I will prime some 1/72 colonials and some HO-scale buildings when the temperature goes up. Right now i'm block painting a bunch of 28mm WW1 Germans that I bought at auction last fall.

Some 28mm Saxons

Each year, the club runs an auction at our annual convention (MayDay). This year, I have agreed to run the auction (with help, thank goodness) and guys have started giving me stuff already. Will has trolled through his abandoned projects and left me quite a bunch of figures. 

At the auction, he gets 90% of the take and the club gets 10%. Looking through Will's box, I ran across a bag of built, but largely unpainted, 28mm Saxons and I offered to finish them for him. He (and the club) should realize more money and I get to do some fun painting.

This first batch of eight figures were the ones Will had mostly painted. I did some touch ups (e.g., added the white to the shields, finished the trim, added stripes to tunics), washed them and based them. These are Gripping Beast plastics and they are really lovely (much nicer sculpting than the Wargames Factory guys).

The other 34 (or so) guys were just black primed and they are one day behind this bunch. I had to scavenge some shields and do all of the painting. There is much greater variety in the shields of the next bunch.

Up next: Some more Saxons, EWG club night and then perhaps onto some 1/72 British/Canadians from the 19th century. I found a whole bunch of figures in a game of War: Age of Imperialism that I need to sort out and give some thought to.

Mr. Madison's War

Bruce got Mr. Madison's War (GMT) for Xmas and we gave it a try last night. It is a card-drive game and is somewhere between Washington's War and Wilderness War in terms of complexity. Pretty map that includes the main theatres of the northern part of the war (picture below looks "north").

I moved up towards Detroit to try and secure the western part of the board. Bruce managed to stymie here several times (bad rolls on even-up fights) and I never did make much progress. The Niagara frontier also was a bit of a bog.

What I should have done is marched from Albany to Sackett's Harbor and tried to cut the British supply line. This would have forced the British play to send his troop from Montreal west (slow). Instead I went up the finger lakes and then had Bruce march right back down with a huge force in 1813.

He then attacked me at Albany and, in a tight battle, routed my guys by rolling an 11! We called it there and there was nothing more I could do. Overall, plays a lot like War of 1812 (Columbia Games) with more detail and a different set of mechanics. I'd certainly play again to try a different strategy and to see if the additional detail gives a better strategic game than War of 1812. Not really comparable to 1812: The Invasion of Canada (Academy Games).

Up next: Still working on some 28mm dark ages guys. Block painting is done so detailing, initial basing and fiddling with shields tonight.

More of Gotham

I finished another building last night to fill out the back streets of Gotham. The wash went all wonky on this one so I may go back and touch it up before putting the glass in the windows.

Overall, I'm starting to get a decent number of buildings together. Sorry the flash (below) washed out all of the colours (the bookshelf is dark).

I have a bunch more buildings ready to prime and paint tomorrow. Right now I'm focusing on 43 28mm Saxons (or maybe vikings) that Will has donated to the MayDay auction. I'm painting them up to increase their value. Gripping Beast plastics are very nice.

Up next: Likely some Saxons/Vikings late in the week. maybe a game or two before then? Hard to say--work is picking up some and requiring more attention.

More CCN: Quatre Bras

Bruce and I refought Quatre Bras last night (twice!) using Commands and Colors Napoleonics. I managed two wins with the British--once because Bruce couldn't roll worth beans and once because I couldn't miss. Close games--they could have gone either way with a bit more even luck.

The first game saw real command card mismatches, with me having only centre cards and Bruce having only flanking cards. Fortunately (for the British), a cannon in the woods (below) managed to just cause havoc with the advance on the British right. Cannon in woods (or towns) is very effective and I wonder if one is supposed to count both the firing out of and firing into terrain effects (we only counted the worst terrain effect). I also had some luck with a cavalry charge that munched a couple of cannon units.

Game two was a bit different with Bruce launching a horrific cavalry attack against me. It was awful: you so gotta watch Bruce--it looks like he's just rearranging deck chairs and then boom--he's rolling seven dice against your militia units. I only barely managed to beat the attack back and sneak a win. Who you gonna call? The grenadier guards!

Bruce also showed off a bunch more 1/700 planes from Tumbling Dice, this time from WW1.

Up next: A building is almost finished then onto some 28mm vikings. And perhaps another game with Bruce if I can get a hall pass! Alas, work is cutting into my painting time.