New army pages

I have been painting a fair bit this week but have nothing yet to show for it. In the meantime, I have been use the "pages" function in blogger to put together some army-themed pages to show off my troops. So far I have pages for my 28mm medieval French and my Romans.

And my wife just handed me a package of 15mm Romans that Sean from Calgary shipped up to me. So I guess we know what I'll be painting over the holidays. Thanks Sean!

EWG Club Night

We had a dozen guys out last night and three games ran. Mark and Dennis played a game of DBA that I didn't get a picture of.

Bruce hosted six guys in a game of sci-fi FUBAR, hauling out his new 15mm futuristic armies. With both walkers and hover tanks, it was a cool game.

Dave and I brought 28mm medieval DBA armies. His dastardly War of the Roses English put the boots to my haplessly led Burgundian Ordonnance three times! %#^$#*

Here are my French in all their glory. Clearly I need to paint up the dismounted knights if I want to have a chance against his bow. Only one game was close (a 5G-4 loss).

"Prepare to taste metal, ye plastic dogs!"

Up next: I have a 15mm DBA army primered and ready to go. I also have a 28mm plastic army primered. And I guess I need to paint up some 28mm French foot knights!

TTGN Old Project Challenge: Where I'm At!

The Table Top Gaming News has an "old project challenge" going on--simply, can you bring a lingering project to completion between now and February? My lingering project has been a 28mm Gallic/Celt DBA army I started last Christmas using Wargames Factory's 28mm plastics.

So far, I have completed three chariots, three bases of warband and one base of psiloi.

I also have a camp done (using Warlord Games 28mm metals).

I need to completed two bases of light horse and two bases of cavalry. I built these last week--the light horse are riding bareback while the cavalry have saddles.

I also need to complete two bases of psiloi. I built these yesterday. And then I need six bases of three-figure warbands (see below). I built these last night and this morning.

Up next: I'll start priming after I get everyone glued to paint sticks. I'm going to keep the shields separate to aid in decaling. I also have a 15mm DBA army for a commission to get built and primered. And the club is Tuesday--some 28mm DBA medieval action.

15mm Trojans

I finished a small army of Trojans (DBA army I/26a and b) this afternoon. Upon basing, its appears I came up one 4Bd unit short but that can be made up later. This was a commission so the manufacturers are a bit of a mystery but I'd guess Old Glory and Black Hat.

First up are four chariots, the General's chariot being on the far left. Returning viewers will notice the basing scheme is more arid than my usual approach. This was a request--I'm not sure I got it quite right although I think these look fine in person.

There are also six 4Sp units. They look a bit uniform (cow hide shields and all) but the tunics and whatnot are quite varied--again, a request.

And here are three (of the four required) 4Bd units, including the optional foot general (centre).

These fellows are two 4Wb bases. They are quite a lot chunkier than the rest of the figures and were a tricky to get balanced enough they would sit on a painting stick! Strange but true.

These are two 2Ps units. It appears I forgot to snap a picture of the 3Ax unit, but they are also done.

I believe these fellows are 3Bd. I almost never see a 3Bd unit (maybe in a viking army I have?). Here you can see the thicker figure juxataposed against the thinner (Old Glory?) figures.

These are the two 4Pk bases. This picture is not that great but had an interesting composition.

This one shows off the pike figures a bit better. The pikes are bristles off a toilet brush (Dale swears he did not recycle!) and are quite flexible. Dale kindly cut off and drilled out the hands before shipping. And, of course, we have the camp. I believe the horse is Black Hat Miniatures; ditto the figures.

Up next: I have one more DBA army to get to in the next few weeks. And I have entered into the TTGN Old Project Challenge where I will finish up a lingering project by February (hopefully by New Years): a 28mm Gallic DBA army. And I have been banging off a few units of hobbits while I putter.

I also see this in my 200th blog posting and I have crested the magical 2000 figures painted this year mark. Despite a lot of commission work, I have also made a major dent in my own pile of unpainted lead, which is encouraging. Getting the Gallics done over the holidays would be a real boon as well!

Duel in the Dark

Last night I dropped in on Bruce to try out the board game Duel in the Dark. This game allows two players to fight out the British night bomber attacks on German cities during the mid-war.

The components are all quite nice, with a lovely hexed game board. The basic mechanics are simple: you set up the table, the British player programs the bomber, the German player positions fighters, and the British player places his bomber and his mosquito squadron. Success is tracked on a victory point counter and all game encounters change the score (rather than tracking damage to planes and whatnot)

Each turn the mosquito moves. It can shoot up night fighters, take out defences or light up the target hex. It is most useful in trying to deceive the German about your bomber's intended target. Then the German fighter squadrons move, trying to anticipate where the bomber will be to shoot it up. Then the pre-programmed bomber move is carried out.

You play both the ingress and egress, trying to maximize your score for the night. The only tracking that is necessary is fighter squadron fuel (only four squadrons so not a chore). But there is a lot of depth to the tactical game--tough choices and opportunities to deceive and to take gambles.

I managed to score a big victory in game 1 as the British because Bruce made high-stakes choices with his fighters at the end of the game and guessed wrong twice in a row (whew!). In game two, as the Germans, I eked out a marginal victory because I basically got lucky. The exciting part will be playing a campaign over several nights as each mission (due to the victory track) will have a relationship to the other so there is an opportunity for some meta-strategy.

Up next: Still painting Trojans! I also have a few other projects on the go but I am hopeful to be done the Trojans this weekend. Focus on the Trojans!

1960: The Making of the President

Bruce dropped by yesterday and we tried out 1960: The Making of the President. This card-drive political game allows you to refight the Nixon v Kennedy campaign.

Overall, this was a very good game and took about two hours for us to fumble through our first game with only a few mistakes. At the beginning of the game each player starts with support in some states while other states are open. Cards can be played to put down support, eventually locking up states and their electoral votes, as events (which are often difficult choices) or to influence things like media support of control of the issues.

The map (above) is quite lovely as are the components. Each turn entails playing five cards and then putting a sixth in your "debate" hand where you play out the televised debate. There are also ways to make events happen even if the other player uses the card to place control markers. Overall, there were lots of strategic options as well as some sense of campaign tactics.

In the end, Nixon managed to squeak out a win by focusing in the last two turns on the swing state of New York, having locked up Texas and California quite early. Lucky cards helped here. I quite enjoyed myself despite playing tricky Dick.

Up next: Yes, Trojans. Also some 28mm Celts have dragged themselves out of the paint pile for assembly. And perhaps a game of Duel After Dark (UK bomber offensive in WW2) on Tuesday.

Samurai test figures

Awhile back, I traded Dave Senior a bunch of painted 1/72 plastics for a bunch of unpainted Samurai from the old Clan Wars game, thinking I would do a Samurai DBA army in 28mm. After feeling daunted by the figures, I decided I would paint three figures and see how they turned out.

Overall, I'm moderately satisfied. It wasn't a complete disaster and I learned a lot. The first was that black armour might not be the ideal colour scheme. These look okay. But I wonder what a red and yellow scheme might look like.

Second, the details really matter so I'll need to slow down some. The third is that using these slotta figs on non-slotta bases is going to have a high PITA factor. But it is a start.

Up next: I'm working on 15mm Trojans and finally finished building and priming the chariots, which turned out to be less complex than I thought once I started dryfitting the pieces. Bruce is also inbound with a board game as I type. And I might take up the Table Top Gaming News challenge and get my 28mm Gallic/Celtic DBA army done over the holidays.