10mm AWI foot

Along with yesterday's cannons, I completed two units of 10mm AWI American foot. These are Pendraken and the owner will be supplying his own flags.

I'm currently working on a collection of militia units to round out this force. I've got the flesh and four different fabric colours done. Now onto some brighter colours plus wood and gun metal. I hope to have these final four units done by the end of the weekend.

Up next: After the 10mm militia, I have some 28mm LotR I will finish and then a new commission (15mm 17th century Polish cavalry) has arrived. These are troops from a Polish company. Then perhaps some scenery.

200,000 views!

Just a quick note to thank all of my readers. I crossed the 200,000 page-view threshold sometime earlier this week (maybe Monday night) which is very gratifying!

 -- Bob

10mm AWI cannon

I am quickly moving forward to completing a 10mm AWI commission (yay vacation!) and today finished some American cannon.

There were three groups of cannon (at least I think these were the groups). First up were some small grasshopper style guns (maybe a bit bigger than that).

Then there were some larger guns.

And finally a mixed battery of small, medium and large. Overall, lovely figures to work with from Pendraken. I quite fancy the fellow holding the torch.

Up next: I have two units of 10mm regulars with the bases drying. And last night I primed and did the flesh on about 150 militia. That is a lot of buck-skin and linen. I hope to finish them off by this weekend. Then onto some 28mm LotR figures I have been chipping away at.

Franco-Prussian War 40

I dropped in on Bruce last night and he hauled out a new game: Victory Games' Franco-Prussian War 40. This is a very small game with simple mechanics but a lot of depth. There are relative few units in the game (maybe 40 total) so the maneuver decisions are tough.

The core of the game is actually the morale table, which determines victory. Each side's morale moves up and down based on table-top events. There are cards, but it is not a card-driven game in the sense of CCA or We The People. Rather, the cards have multiple uses (bring on reinforcements, affecting combat, hosing the other guy, triggering political events) but every unit can move each turn.

Germany starts bottled up and must break into France. The French are few but have a few good units. There is a race then: as the Germans push in and towards Paris, the French get more units and can threaten the German supply line or even counter-invade.

Above, you can see I've pushed in and blocked the French forces south of my line of advance while racing along the Belgian border to threaten the French supply lines and secure an approach to Paris. Bruce, to my annoyance, blocked my efforts at every turn (see below) but I did grab a supply base which has a recurring morale penalty for the French.

Rail lines are very important in sustaining the German advance and disrupting French redeployment. An interesting aspect is that once you are in a ZOC, you cannot back out (there is a mechanic, but it is costly).  This makes both sides leery of being ZOCed and then at risk of being dog piled--so there is a lot of maneuver but not necessarily a lot of battle.

In the end, my first assault on Paris was driven back but things were pretty dodgey for the French and we called it as a likely German victory. With secure German rail lines and the French way down on morale, I don't think the French could have fought back. It is a tough game for them and I think the key is to bottle neck the Germans right out of the gate to slow them way down. That might force the Germans south and delay their move west.

Up next: My vacation starts Friday so I have some painting lined up. More 10mm AWI, some 28mm HoTT, a HoTT Star Wars camp and perhaps some 28mm warbands. It is also the club on Tuesday.

HoTT campaign in Saskatoon

I drove east for a day of gaming with Tim in Saskatoon. This was a HoTT campaign and I was the centaurs. The poor, hap-less centaurs whose success mostly came from their magician and their shooters. Tim has posted up a report that I won't repeat, other than to note that I won the campaign (unexpectedly and based on game play, not stabbing anyone in the back!).

We started out with a quick game of two-on-two to test-drive our armies and give me practice with the river crossing rules (apparently).

Tim and I played a couple of games of centaur v samurai. He won the first game handily (after I thought I had him in my clutches). But I managed to eek out a win in the second game. Above you can see my magician general fending off his ninja sneakers.

The quickest game I played was against John where I moved, ensorcelled his hero general and we were done. He took this rather better than I might have. I was worried there would be some complaining about gimmicky wins (cause it was...) but everyone was a good sport.

I won and lost a couple of other battles but the two I recall the best were glorious defenses. In one game I had two shooters, two centaurs and a magician. I managed to drive off a dragon, an airboat and bag some riders. Then I took on the main body of the enemy army as well as an allied contingent and managed to push them past their break point. What a defense!

My last game was a defense of my capital against John's endless rat hordes. I had two shooters, two lurkers and two riders. John moved forward in a column, brush up against some forest and out came the lurkers. This jammed up his arm because of ZOCs and then I duked it out with his blade general, using a shooter and a rider to close the door. Another sneaky win for the good guys.

Overall, a great weekend of gaming. I can't wait for the EDBAG HoTT campaign to start this autumn.

Up next: I need to figure out what I want to accomplish this summer on my holidays. completing this 10mm AWI commission is first up. Then maybe a 28mm LotR HoTT army. Then maybe some terrain and 28mm warbands for Songd of Arthur and Merlin?

June 19 EWG Club Night

We had 13 (I think) guys out at the club last night with four games eventually running. Mark and Scott played some Warhamster (Goblins versus Daemons) while Bill and Jon played a WW2 game.

Dave hosted a game of Impetus, with Greeks fighting off some Persians in glorious 1/72-scale.

I brought out some 28mm HoTT armies. Bruce played Romans, Andy played Vikings, Chris played Celts and Terry brought his own goblins. We got four games in which was a good number. I think the Romans took two games for the overall best record of the night.

Here you can see the Romans advancing on the vikings, who are holding the hill. The Viking's flyers (three eagles) are sneaking around behind the Romans and made this a very close game by causing Bruce no end of flanking and blocked drive-back problems. But he managed to pull out a win.

Below you can see the Vikings again lining up, this time against the goblins. Terry's determination to keep his shooters in the wood made like hell for the Vikings, who eventually got picked apart and then rolled up by a troll.

Up next: Some more 10mm AWI are underway (foot plus three batteries of cannon).

More LotR HoTT bases

Two more bases for my Lord of the Rings HoTT army have finally finished drying. These are 28mm GW figures. First u[p is a base of elven heroes. I don't recall who the metal hero is (Elrond?) accompanied by a plastic elven guard. I expect a LotR army will include a large number of high-cost stands so I wanted to have lots of options.

There is also a magician in the form of Gandalf the White. Probably the wrong sculpt for that point in the series (did Gandalf the White have a hat?) but I've painted various Gandalfs so many times over the years that I could not face another set of grey robes.

Up next: Some 28mm HoTT at the club tomorrow might, then likely some more 10mm AWI. I assembled a bunch of cannon last night after securing some more glue. If I get time tonight, I will prime these fellows. I also have some more 28mm LotR underway.