The Price of Freedom

Bruce came over and introduced me to The Price of Freedom, a strategic game covering the ACW. Not my favourite period tactically, but an interesting strategic war.

A typical card-drive game but with some interesting victory track markers that interact with the card deals and make it a tough game for the North to win (although likely also tough for the South).

We managed to learn and play in three hours. There was much bumping around Richmond and Washington but I was successful in the west, running down the Mississippi and sealing of the Gulf Coast. By that time, the weight of the game started to tell for Bruce. But it was tight right to the end. Fun enough I'd play again!

Up next: A bunch of 1/72 War of 1812 British are coming off the paint bench. I'm also hopefu lto get a game of For Honour and Glory in sometime this week. And I think we'll see some more 28mm Superhero repaints in the near future.

War of 1812 US Regulars

Some US troops for the War of 1812 finished up last night. These are 1/72 Imex Alamo Mexicans (I think) and are painted up as regulars.

Four bases in a shooting pose made a nice grouping. I'm not sure how accurate the kneeling pose is (hard to reload that way!) but the visual is nice enough.

There were also several in marching poses.



And finally our friend the colonel, who appears to have recently ducked for some cover. How undignified. I'll see what I can do about getting that stray flock off of him.

Up next: Some British War of 1812 cavalry and irregulars are underway, although they will take some time--maybe the end of the weekend?

EWG : Hail Caesar and CCA

We had six guys out this week, including guest Will and two games ran: CCA and Hail Caesar, both in 28mm.

Hail Caesar was a Briton v Roman game played out on a 12x4' board in inches. The units were shallow to accommodate the figures and space we had. The game went quickly, with contact almost immediately. The Romans ground down the warband, although took it on the chin (or is that "Chen"?) in the first round.

I misbased the chariots so they were rather more effective than they should have been. The good news about that was they were dramatic, cutting through the Roman horse and the sweeping around to catch the Roman line from behind just as it was about to crush the rest of my poor warband.

Kevin kindly hosted a game of CCA using his very pretty minis. He also brought out his new CCA Hotz mat which looks fantastic!

I believe the Romans won both of the games that were played and then we were off early for pie.

Up next: Some 1/72 American foot are just about based and I have a bunch of Canadian militia and British cavalry for the War of 1812 primed and ready to paint.

1812 camp

Last night I based up a camp for my War of 1812 armies. These are various 1/72 Imex figures from their Pioneers set along with a prairie schooner wagon.

I was reasonably happy with the composition of the camp. It looks a bit Little House on the Prairie, but I added in some trees to try and make it more Great Lakes-ish.

I quite like the guy who is fiddling.

I presume these are either camp followers or civilians the armies were (notionally!) charged with protecting.

Up next: Some more 1/72 US troops for the War of 1812 followed by a mix of British and American irregulars, dragoons and cavalry. These figures should finish out this project.

War of 1812 bits and pieces

Two miscellaneous war of 1812 pieces have rolled off the line. First up is a general base for the American side.

These fellows are Imex figures from their Alamo range. They came with an artillery set that I picked up this spring at the Sentry Box.

I'm not sure what the fellows are carrying in the box. Looks heavy and important so I'd bet hooch.

I also completed this wagon. It is an Imex kit from their pioneer set. The wagon is pretty clearly from a later period than 1812 but the utility of a wagon in scenarios is high so I'm prepared to over look that.

Up next: A War of 1812 camp is almost ready and some more American troops are underway. Tuesday is also club night so I'll be running a game of Hail Caesar. Then maybe the remaining 28mm Normans will get some paint.

Hail Caesar: The River Po

I swung by Bruce's house last night and we tried a larger game of Hail Caesar, using the River Po scenario from Command and Colors Ancients as the basis of the game. Bruce played the Carthaginians and I played the Romans.

We were using Bruce's collection of old 15mm figures and centimetres to scale down the size of the board. The flexibility of the game re: scale is quite handy.

We just winged the deployment but followed a roughly historical pattern with the Romans in the foreground and the Carthaginians on the distance. There were 18 units a side, including a fair bunch of skirmishers, some elephants and some heavy infantry--this felt like a fairly well developed game with enough "colour" on each side to give us a sense of the true play of the game. It took us 90 minutes to get through the game--we seem to be averaging about 30 minutes for every 6 units on a side.

Within about 10 minutes, the battle had started to shape up with my wings moving to encircle him and my centre stalled due to bad command rolls. On the left, I got fairly lucky with my horse but they eventually were drawn away from the fight and cornered by a warband. This left my medium infantry at the mercy of his elephants and his infantry.

On the right, my horse smashed his foot backwards after his skirmishers decided to bug out. I spent most of the game pushing him back, but good rolls on the break table meant I could never quite finish him off. I imagine Bruce would have swapped some of his good rolls on the break table for some good combat rolls.

As his wings buckled, Bruce came forward with his centre but his army cracked before we could really join the fight. Despite how it looked, it was a close game as both my my wings were largely shaken into ineffectiveness in the early going.

Overall, not a bad game. The skirmishers performed some useful tasks and I think we could get much better as using them as screening forces. Some of the subtly of the special rules become evident. We still waffled a bit about the utility of the break table (is there a better way to do this?) but the value of it is becoming more apparent.

Up next: Some War of 1812 figures are drying. And Ill be running another game of Hail Caesar at the club (Celts v Romans with chariots and whatnot) on Tuesday.

Speeders!

I pushed 10 of these rebel speeders off the production line this weekend to flesh out my daughter's Star Wars army. All of the cool kit tends to be imperial so these fellows should help even up the game.

These are about 4-5mm kits from an old Ertl Battle of Hoth set. I'll classify them as flyer in HoTT. They are, of course, designed to be a solution to the Imperial behemoths as below.

I delayed on these guys quite awhile because I was not sure how to mount them. I ended up using florist wire (accelerating the gel crazy glue with PVA to get a good bond on the speeder) and sticking it into cork that I adhered to the base. The effect is workable enough, though.

Up next: A 1/72 wagon and command stand for the War of 1812 is drying. I am basing a War of 1812/AWI camp. And I have a bunch more American line troops for the War of 1812 primered. So apparently I'm on a 1/72 kick these days!