20mm Indian Allies

With a game of Rebels and Patriots looming at the club, I found myself short of troops and bereft of Indian Allies for my 1812 British. Irregular Miniatures made a fast shipment after I could not lay my hands on any decent 1/72 plastics (Italeri's great set is out of production apparently).

Fortunately, these fellows are a quick paint. A few layers, a dip and some sealer and we were done.

I've no idea what is going on with the eye on the guy on the left below. I would guess a bubble in the sealer? He looks a little Marty Feldman. No one noticed on the table, though.

These Irregular 20mm figures fit in pretty well with the 1/72 plastics I have. And they did yeoman work in the game I hosted last Tuesday.

Up next: The Battle of Pork Rind

54mm AWI and 33mm Star Wars

So a bit of an odds-and-sods post today. I finished off a 54mm AWI Prussian General. This figure is from an old kids play set so the detail is a touch thin. And basing it (no integral base? on a kids play set? really? ) was a real hassle. That is probably why he sat on the painting table half finished for two years.

I'm moving into a small commission. A fellow I did some Imperial Assault figures for in 2015 asked me to paint some expansions to match. I started on the Heart of the Empire expansion and first up are three heroes.

I'm a bit out of the loop on Star Wars but this lady wookie had cool goggles and a lot of demolition charges.

Then there is Star Wars Wolverine with some kind of impractical hand weapon. Clearly no match for a blaster.

And finally Big Headed lady who actually seems toknow what she is doing. All are painted to match the cards that came with the expansion.

Up next are a selection of imperial troops.

All I want for Xmas are some 54mm French cavalry

Merry Christmas to everyone! I recently finished up some 54mm French cavalry for Tricorne. These are Armies in Plastic AWI cavalry that I slightly modified the hats on.  

It isn't perfectly clear what kind of cavalry were involved in the various battles in Tricorne (dragoon or hussars) so I based the paint scheme on the Mollo plate of the hussars. I couldn't find any putty locally to deal with the hats so I left them a vague "light infantry" shape.

Overall, these will do. The blue jackets shifted a bit towards grey after I washed on some shadows so they might serve as generic dragoons in a pinch. I also found myself short on some cannon so, after some sussing out of options, three more of those are underway.

Monmouth Courthouse

I hauled my 54mm AWI troops out to the club this week to put on a game of Tricorne. I selected the Monmouth Courthouse scenario as I don't think I have ever gamed that one before.

Scott and Bruce were for king and Richard and Chen were for congress. Red Claw was packed when we got there so I much appreciate Leanne saving us a 6x4 table to game on.

Monmouth has 22 units per side and requires nine victory banners to win, so it took us two hours to get through the scenario. The British can gain two banners per American hill-hex that they occupy.

The British spent a lot of time maintaining a solid line to allow them to play the many, many line cards that they got. They focussed first on ejecting the Americans from the forward line of hedges and trying to firm up the British left flank (which was enfiladed by cannon).

These poor Prussian grenadiers earned their pay that day and were forced to advance to the rear after a few turns. Bruce also immediately lost the unit of highlanders I spent weeks (WEEKS!) painting to a bad rout die roll over on the British right.

The shot above pretty much sums up the first hour. The British carefully advanced under fire while the Americans fell back.

I trotted out both some new cannons (made from pencil sharpeners) and some cavalry that had not seen battle before. This was about 50% of my 54mm collection.

Having taken the hedge line, there was a lengthy bit of bombardment (there are seven cannons in the game) which started to pile up the American casualties. There were also a pair (?) of American leader losses which was unfortunate for the rebels.

At this point, the British finally got some right-side cards and started to advance on that side (in the background of the photo below) while the Americans tried to put some pressure on in the foreground.

Grabbing a hill hex (background of photo below) gave the British the two extra banners they needed and brought the game to a close (I think it was 9-4 but am not sure).

Overall, relatively fun. The British got a lot of line cards and worked hard to maximize their effectiveness. The Americans suffered for this. And also had a couple of nasty rout rolls. Thanks to everyone for playing!

54mm British Highlanders

No gaming for me this week due to some dental woes. This did, however give me enough time to finish of a long-delayed second unit of 54mm British Highlanders for Tricorne.

These are from All The King's Men (sadly out of business) and they sat half painted because of the level of detail required. I learned a bit from the first unit I did and I stopped trying to add a third colour to the argyle socks (doesn't show up anyhow). Happy the bagpipes turned out okay--don't think I have ever painted bagpipes before.

I'm happy with the results and happy they are done. I see I am also short a couple of units of British Guards from the original orbat. I think I have some extra Prussians that could be converted with paint But first I have two units of French cavalry to finish up and the rest of the buildings from the model railway swap meet. Maybe the guards will be a holiday project.

54mm AWI French Marines

I am almost finished the orbat for the French expansion to Tricorne. Today, I have two units of French marines. These are 54mm figures from HaT (originally SYW Prussians).

Apologies for the white washing out like it did--there is more depth and nuance to the figure in person. Overall, a good enough paint-job conversion.

I was looking at the expansion box with Bruce and I see the flip side of the French victory country is a Hapsburg symbol so that suggests a SYW expansion is in the works. (Edit: Apparently this is supposed to be a Prussian Eagle--just used the wrong art.) So I will spend some time knocking out some proper Prussians to replace the stand-ins I currently have. But first I need to paint some French cavalry. And I need more guns.

Tricorne Brandywine; Washington's Attack

Bruce popped over on Tuesday to tryout my new gaming table in the basement. I now have enough room to comfortably set up a good 54mm AWI game. I selected the first of the Brandywine scenarios from the new Tricorne expansion.

The gist is Washington thinks Howe has split his army and decides to launch an attack across the Brandywine. Surprise: lots of red coats here. The scenario victory is six banners. The Americans get get easy banners by getting units across the river and taking hills. The British can get easy banners by securing fords and bridges.

Game 1 saw the Americans surge across Brandywine Creek in the middle (tactics being dictated by cards).

The rebels had a good bit of luck at first, pushing the Brits back.

The Brits responded by sending in the Highlands to rout some rebel scum!

Eventually, a line command stabilized the British front but both sides had five banners.

The dastardly rebels then charged across on the left of the photo below, capturing a gun and a hill. In this turn, both sides exceeded their victory point totals but the Americans had more banners so it was a 7-6 win for the rebels!

We switched sides and re-set.

This time the rebels started with a flank attack (driven by cards) and rushed across the river, grabbing a crossing, a hill and bagging a cannon for an early three banner lead.

The British reformed and scored a retreat (which triggers the rout mechanics in Tricorne). The Americans could ignore the retreat but probably wanted to avoid other attacks that turn. So, needing one banner (a 1 in 3 chance) on SIX DICE, they took the rout and, of course, failed all six rolls.

>POP< And now it is 1 to 1 again.

The Americans then pushed across in the centre and the British had terrible morale rolls, losing units.

A double push in the centre saw the Americans gain enough Banners for a convincing 6-2 win. I think a win for the Brits would be hard here (which is fine--scenarios don't need to be balanced). The geographic victory points really incentivize the rebels to attack.

I'm keen to try the other three scenarios: flanking march, main assault at Chadd's ford (basically this scenario with the Brits attacking), and Green's covering action to let Washington retreat. I'm also almost done season 2 of Turn which is whetting my appetite for AWI.

54mm AWI and 28mm terrain

Offspring activities meant I could not get out to the club this week, so no game reports. I did manage to get some painting done.

The arrival of more sprues of HaT 54mm Prussian SYW troops meant I could do some cutting to make light troops for the French (above) and Hessians (below). Cutting was mostly removing bayonets from muskets. In retrospect, maybe cutting down the hats would have also been an idea (such fiddly work, though).

Overall, the effect is good enough. Below there are two of the new plastic troops flanking one of the older metals I have from All The Kings' Men. Pretty decent match, especially since I had to guess at the paint mix for the jackets.

I also knocked off some of the terrain I bought at Red Claw the last time I was there. This is a set of bookshelves and cabinets. You can customize the inserts as you like to vary them (if you buy multiple sets). They look good enough for Buffy and Giles.

Up next: Well. some more zombie stuff and also some more 54mm AWI troops. I need to paint up some French marines (with colourful outfits) and then look at some French dragoons. The French expansion to Tricorne is due in late October.

Last of the 54mm French line infantry

I finished off the two boxes of 54mm HaT Prussians I managed to find this summer. These will round out my French regulars for the upcoming expansion to Tricorne

I also finished three flag bearers (which represent generals) and three musicians (which are just infantry). There was no national flag of France in this period and of the French flags I found, these were the ones I liked the best.

Al from HaT just emailed to say that he had found me some more boxes of these figures (both standing and advancing) so I will be using them to replace some Prussians as well as complete the French foot. Just need to find some suitable mounted figures.

54mm AWI Infantry

This week I finished up some 54mm French infantry for the expansion Tricorne that is currently being developed. Finding affordable troops has become a bit of a hassle since ATKM closed their doors. For the French, I eventually bought possibly the last two boxes of HaT SYW Prussians on the planet.

The uniform book I took out suggested white uniforms (as above) with blue musicians (as below). The Hat Box contained interchangeable Prussian hats but I went with all tricornes.

The rules appear to give French regulars an extra block so these will be five-man units. Depending nohow many I need to field, they might have musicians in the mix.

Or they might be all troops and officers. I have 10 guys done and about another 30 to go. There are enough figures in the one box of troops and one box of command to meet most of my French needs. Just need to sort some marines and cavalry. I wonder about Zouaves as marines (with some putty and paint?).

I also finally finished some bushes. I bought a sheet of plastic plants at the dollar for $2 (instead of $25 at the GW store) and used half to make 50 shrubs. This gives me some an understory for the railroad trees I have.

The work okay for 25mm (above) or 54mm (below).

Up next: Probably some more 54mm French. Maybe some zombie dogs? Hard to say.