Swiss Army Blades

Just two people at Jim Dundorf's regular DBA Days at the club (formerly Das Krieg Haus, now The War Office). I don't go often to the club these days, partly because I'm only free every second Saturday, but I took this last week off work to take a breather and catch up on ... stuff. I expect to see many members at the Recon convention at the end of April; I'm planning to go just for a day, mostly to shop.

Every time I visit, the club shelves have been revamped slightly. There isn't room for all the books, some of which are going to a club in Naples. At present there are a bunch of board games, including a handful of non-war types like Munchkin that I occasionally, ahem, borrow for work. I found my copy of Charge!, which I'd left at some point along with my "'45 Rebellion" Wofun figures. 

Having become interested in the Italian Wars, I wanted to try Swiss again. Jim didn't have a historical enemy in his otherwise comprehensive collection, but he had Catalan Spanish only a bit out of time period.

My Early Swiss, mostly halberdiers (or Fast Blades in DBA).

The field of battle - ploughs, hill and forest.

Jim's Spanish - pike, light units and a couple horse, including his CO.

Jim reckoned my Fast Blades (moving three base lengths in all terrain) would kick his ass. As usual, though, my indecisiveness and poor luck with the dice got in the way. Jim feels that - despite the disparity of our armies - the game as a whole is balanced because a player can think like a general, do what that general would do in a situation, and the rules will allow it.

So I tried.

I moved my big halberd-block forward, skirting the too-defensible hill, and sent my light cavalry unit - capable of three moves a turn! - towards the opposing camp. My own was protected behind my army, with two psiloi (light infantry) in the woods on my left.

First game turn, angling towards the center. My command base is to
left of the center block, my one cavalry base is on its way to the rear.

Refused my right to avoid going up the hill, exposed my left in the process.

My General (+6 vs. infantry) tackled an opposing unit, but lost due to the dice
(mine poor, his good!). Luckily, they weren't destroyed and were still close enough
to the rest of the army to "lead."

My army a bit trapped now by that pike unit on the left, I
refused this flank as well.

Meanwhile, my horse were bashing their heads against the Spanish camp.
Its mere camp followers fought back for three turns with potatoes and hand tools.

In the end, I managed to take the camp and sweep my cav down on Jim's right-rear, at about the same time that I also flanked and destroyed his general, and that was the game!

To be fair, Jim was coaching me all the way, or at least stopping me from my usual analysis paralysis to think about my options. I'm still not familiar enough with DBA for it to be second nature yet, but he thinks I'm getting the hang of the rules. A good teacher (and a good GM for the games and tourneys at Recon).

My next step, I think, will be experimenting with Pikeman's Lament. Looking forward to it, at least if I can fully clear off the table...

Pushing Myself (and Pike)

8am Eastern time: I've been working this week on building the For King and Country starter set for Pike and Shotte. As of right now, I have about thirty figures left to make. I'll finish them today, and the readers may learn a bit about how I procrastinate!

Doesn't help that Artemis II is on its way home with 240,000 miles to go at 1,200 miles an hour. Let's see how far it gets by the time I'm finished.

Step one, go get breakfast and groceries, cleaning the litterboxes as I leave.

See?

10am: Back, after breakfast at Starbucks, a few groceries, cat litter and filling the gas tank.

Then 25 minutes of leisurely putting stuff away and self-refreshing before getting down to work.

Finally, some painting videos to keep me from getting bored while my hands are busy. We'll try some Duncan Rhodes Empire (as close as Warhammer Fantasy gets to 17th century) and then some WWII and Konflict '47 as a reminder to get onto those kits after this one.

10:28am, and I'm off!

11am: First video done, also six musketeers without bases. A good start! But... nap time. Excuse? Morning meds cause drowsiness.

1pm: Up again. Read a bit of science fiction until...

1:30: When I start again with a second video. 

2:00: Total done so far - sixteen figures, four without bases and two hats.

Then a ten-minute break for blog-prep, restroom break, and cat-coaxing. (My flighty calico has been under the couch for 24 hours straight, since the three-hour visit of a patient but clearly absolutely terrifying pair of apartment cleaners.)

2:40: Four more musketeers assembled to accompaniment of a German Grenadier video, with four more bodies clipped, behatted and ready to arm. Where's Artemis? 232,000 miles out, good for them.

3:10: After a painting video for a US Ranger as played by Tom Hanks, I have twelve more figures done, complete with bases. Just six figures to go!

231,000 miles for Artemis. Time for a snack and reading break - more of a 1979 SF magazine.

There's a story and article in there about moon colonies, by Jerry Pournelle. I also just finished listening to the latest Warhammer 30K novel, which is largely about an invasion of the Moon. Good timing, huh?

4:15: Three command figures built - two musicians and a standard bearer.

The rest will need to be officers. The command sprue has three figures on it but enough leftover bitz to make a fourth out of one of the pikemen. Since there are four pikes on the infantry sprue, but five bodies in pike-carrying poses, this causes the leftover "sergeant" to end up in an odd pose:

The video this time was of a Konflict '47 "Firefly" US jump trooper. Next is a "Stahltruppen" - basically a Nazi in power armor.

4:45: One and a half more. (There are a LOT of left-over bits to pick from). Trying to convert a chap to hold a spear (or is it a partizan?) two handed. This is probably not a smart idea, a more officer-like type might be better.

Holding it straight-ish 'til dried.

Next painting video is a firelock figure by 7th Son.

By 5:20, I've watched three 7th Son videos, and built and based all 82 (!) figures. Just some hats to add - to fit them, all the heads on these guys look like Shakespeare in the Folio. OK, so we could have one or two balding gentlemen, but the rest need headgear.

Before doing that, I'll look up 0200 Hours, as one of the videos was for Wargames Atlantic German Sentries... also, I think my stomach is trying to tell me something.

Ooh, the Stalag Luft III escapees look like they'd make good character minis for VBCW... down another rabbit hole I go!

Had supper and watched a video. Looks a bit complex for my taste, and I don't like custom dice. Kill Team will work just fine for this scale. But the minis do look great.

6:33: Done! I think...

And (almost) everyone has hats.

Artemis and crew? Under 225,000 miles away as of 8pm. Safe flying to them. It has been a bouncy week in the news, and following the flight and building toy soldiers keeps me sane and happy. Good luck to all those reading this, hope your day was as peaceful as mine.

Five more blissful days off!

The cat is still under the couch.

More Picking Away...

More stuff accomplished this weekend. First, I built a second DBA base, this one for English medievals:

I ordered a handful of Fife and Drum figures. The Spirit of '76 vignette, and five minutemen. My plan is to paint them up for a work display - the theme for the whole year (not just summer) is America's 250th. So another excuse to promote miniatures in the library. I plan to paint two of the minutemen to represent a pair of free black colonists who - completely coincidentally - shared my rare last name. So I hope to do a good job painting them.

What I got was a bunch of figures, free overstock! Thanks! About half minutemen, half Continentals in uniform. That could make up two small regiments or one large one, with mixed appearance like Jim Purky's own 2nd New Hampshire. 

I haven't built or painted metal models in ages, so some filing practice is in order. I'll also have to use a pin drill on the standard bearer. As for basing... probably singly, for skirmish games. I have lots of round Wargames Atlantic bases.

I also bought some Games Workshop 25mm and 25x50mm square bases, for the Pike and Shotte starter set. Here's the first infantry sprue mostly made up:

Needs a few more hats, and there are also a lot of scabbarded swords on the sprue I haven't figured out where they go on the figures yet. I'm glad I just made these chaps to start with, as I found out specific arms go to specific figures. Also, gluing two arms onto a figure at once is a bit messy. A little filing and paint, though, and I'm sure they'll look good enough for the tabletop.

Finally, a painted Skaven done with Speedpaint pens. Fun and not too frustrating. I find it hard to tell the colors apart when they're bunched together, so (for example) some of the leather has a gold tinge...

I'll stop here, as I have two cats on my desk trying to interfere with typing and projects.

For comparison, here's the one I have to coax into letting me touch.
On the right: still unopened boxes of Warlord samurai.

'Til next time.

The Upteenth Battle of Blasthof Bridge

Countless gamers have fought across the fair fields of Blasthof in the last fifty years, and tonight it happened once more. Ron and Mark, two stalwarts of the South Florida Miniatures Gamers, kindly consented to be my guinea pigs for the evening. We met at The War Office (aka a small office suite) for the set-to.

As we were playing with my 18mm Wofuns and centimeters, rather than the classic 30mm Spencer Smiths and inches, the field needn't be large.

Unfortunately, we had neither a river nor a bridge in the club!

Due to the available terrain, Blasthof Farm and the Blasthofberg were relatively larger than the original, while the River Blast was reduced to a desperate trickle. At least the bridge was sturdier than the original paper.

The sides were drawn from, respectively, my WSS French and '45 British collections.

Ron:

• 18 1e Cuirassiers
• 32 1e Guard Francaise
• Anvre Battery (2 guns)

Mark:

• 12 Yorbourne Dragoons
• 40 Royal Kempston
• Halmouth Battery (2 guns)

As usual, I failed to take enough photos, but here's a representative selection.

Mark moves his guns to the hill as his Dragoons cross
the river; Ron moves stolidly towards the "bridge."

Mark spreads out his troops and opens fire (to no effect).
His light horse are already to midtable.

As Ron slowly moves upfield, the range closes and Mark's
guns start to pick off his infantry. Ron's cavalry are
angling towards Mark's dragoons, who are out of view behind
the farmhouse (out of LOS of Ron's guns).

Ron's Guard Francaise are on the bridge,
while his cuirassiers charge Mark's dragoons.
Unfortunately, both French units are under
short-range crossing fire...

The combat went badly for Ron (who spent much of the game
rolling nothing but ones and twos), and his defeated cuirassiers
are rallying in the field. Meanwhile his infantry, trapped on the
bridge, are at least fighting back while they get the crap
shot out of them.

No more game photos, but suffice to say that by turn seven, not only were both of Ron's regiments understrength (requiring them to retreat from the field) but his guns were charged and taken by the dragoons (despite a game blast of canisters that killed four horsemen. His infantry had to rally on the bridge in full view of Mark's infantry and guns and would probably not survive to retreat!

So a solid victory for Mark. Though, to be fair, Ron rolled badly all game, and even his heavier cav (+1 versus lighter cav) didn't help. Both enjoyed the game and seemed to like the rules despite the fiddliness of one-to-one melee alongside multi-bases.

They were also impressed by the look and feel of the Wofun miniatures. Which allows me to segue into the Paperboys I've built this week:

A DBA "camp" base for medieval Scots. As the miniature
soldiers are 3D, I removed the paper figures, but the tent and
shields look pretty good!

Added a light gun to my Continental troops guarding the
America250 book display at work. Unfortunately,
their command base was destroyed in action.

Til next time...

Picking away

• Reading Fools and Mortals, a Shakespearean mystery by Bernard Cornwell.
• Listening to Ashes of the Imperium, the first novel in Games Workshop's new Scouring subseries set immediately after the Horus Heresy.
• Waiting for Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of 1915, and Samurai Warfare by Stephen Turnbull. The first suggested by listening to the Great War documentary series on Youtube (an absolute classic) and the other by the commenters here (thanks).
• Arranging to demo Charge! at the club next week.
• Undercoated a Skaven figure.
• Finished building three bases of paper knights.
• And built five more ECW musketeers.

They need hats.

How do I rotate a picture again?

Also bought a used office chair, more comfy to sit in at my desk. So all in all, a productive day!

Still Tired

Not much done, except reading. Read the Silmarillion and working slowly on Warlord Games' supplement Wars of the Samurai (quite good for a beginner!). Here's what little hobby I've done this week:

Two twelve-man units of crossbows for Lion Rampant,
with pavises. This may seem like they're on too-large
bases, but the plan is to play on a small scale with cm
instead of inches.

An armoured orc chieftain from 6th-7th edition Warhammer.
I picked up a command group from the FLGS.
Painted with paint markers, with the metals NMM.

I really need to get cracking on building the Pike and Shotte stuff...

Edit: I did.

Five down, seventy-seven to go!

Fluttering By

No gaming this week (other than a couple rounds of Chess and Tafl at work). Have been under the weather all week, more tired than actually sick, but coworkers calling out have kept me busy. 

• Built a couple more regiments of Paperboys Continental infantry, continuing to experiment with basing. I got hold of a few beer mats from my favorite watering hole and I like them. They are a bit difficult to glue the Paperboys to, simply because the figures are divided into ranks so that you actually have three flat areas to stick down, not just one. This, I imagine, is one of the benefits of the "new" style where figures are not accordion-folded but directly stuck to the base.
• In other Paperboy news, Peter Dennis is able to receive shipped figures now, and I have mine to send him. However, they've been sitting in the car for weeks now and I should probably check them over and build some spares in case of damage in transit.
• Received some orders of my own. An Usagi Yojimbo action figure in samurai armor, a little stiff so I haven't messed with it yet. The color scheme is actually black armor heavily highlighted with blue, grey cloth, and yellow lace and armor/helmet trim. The blue being standard for comics, but might be interesting to experiment with painted figures. It comes with a sashimono banner with Mifune mon in red - three dots in a triangle, surrounded by a circle.
• A copy of The Pikeman's Lament. The For King and Country box set contains 58 infantry and 12 cavalry, so with six cav, twelve pike, twelve shot and six "forlorn hope" per side, this would be 18 points for each force, smaller than normal but a good starter to experiment. There are no bases, so I bought some GW ones. They are 25mm in width but though wider than the norm for Black Powder, units will still fall within the limits for normal size as well, so I can experiment with 28mm BP too. I am more likely to use the Japanese figures for that, though. The rules for a company officer in The Pikeman's Lament look fun and may be useful for a solo campaign.
• I haven't built any of the Warlord figures yet, but hope to next week. I will want a mask before I undercoat them, however; I think I will try the "stick" method this time! I would like to try painting some of the ECW types with the speedpaint markers.
• Read The Battle of Adwa, about a battle and period I know little about. It covers all the characters, political background and international reaction as well, an excellent introduction to the campaign. I may delve back into my copy of CE Callwell's classic Small Wars to see what he has to say about it.
• Read the Helion wargamer's guide to Leipzig, another battle I don't know much about. A fair overview that makes the battle comprehensible to a beginner. The scenarios are useful and can be played as a small campaign, a tempting target for a binge weekend at the club.

So that's what my internal hobby butterfly has been bouncing between all week. See you next time.

A Week's Worth

Still a bit under the weather, and I will probably have to give up the club's second Binge Weekend. But I did get some minis done this week.

Belatedly for President's Day (but can still find use for it later this bi-and-a-quarter-centennial year), I built a Paperboys George Washington and a regiment for him to review.

The command base isn't quite finished, because I decided to use the extra individual officers on the page for once. The typical "unit" that can be assembled from a single page from any of Peter Dennis' Helion Horse-and-Musket books is of four bases, one of them with one of its two strips replaced by a "colours and drummers" strip, thus 32 men plus one extra on a bit of card out in front of the command base. This leaves over one strip of four musketeers and typically two individuals, like an officer and sergeant. I chose to make five bases, with the "center" being the colours strip behind the two leaders, for a total of 38 men and a more even-looking unit.

I misplaced the command figures, or rather I suspect the cats did. You'd think a messy desk would deter pets from jumping on it, but it actually attracts them...

So I'm working on two more units, and swiping officers from a third. Eh, whatever. Using my new, incredibly sharp Beaditive scissors is surprisingly relaxing after a long day at work.

The second project I did this week was a unit of five "bloodreavers" from the 1st-edition Age of Sigmar beginner box I started years ago. I'd undercoated them already, so they were ready for the paint pens, and only required seven colors: skin, bone, black, grey, red, silver and gold. (No brass color.)

"Blood for the Blood God, or something..."

A bit messy, but tabletop ready once I add a bit of texture paint to the bases. I'm not sure gold really works for the brass, perhaps the sandy-orange "non-metallic" would be better. The large tips also made it hard to avoid coloring the silver, though depending on the texture I could turn the pen sideways and sort of "overbrush" the gold onto it. Gold borders first and silver insides second might also be a better order, and I'll try that when I get to the other three (more heavily armed) Chaos Warriors.

Finally, I received tonight a Warlord Games Pike and Shotte starter box, with 70 infantry and 12 cavalry, enough for small skirmishes, or full forces for Pikemen's Lament. I was prepared for the fact that bases aren't included, though I haven't found 20mm ones yet for them. (Even with its "Old World" Warhammer, GW's smallest rank-n-flank bases are 25mm.) However, I found the Warlord models have small puddle bases which might work for game-experimentation.

Haven't found much on Samurai-period uniform (only two pdf pages on painting the Warlord figures so far) though I am tempted by the comic-style Mifune colors: 

How did I miss these new action figures?!

What have I got myself into?

A bit sick here. It's been cold the last couple weeks, and I also work with kids, so it happens regularly. I shouldn't have gone in today, but a couple others called out and I had to make up for a program. That went alright despite forgetting my training on our new electronic gizmos so that I had to sing songs myself, and I shouldn't have been singing! So I'll stay home tomorrow. At least I have something to keep me busy:

Specifically, a Warlord Games mystery box.

I've been reading a LOT of pike-and-shot histories and rules lately. (Peter Young never wrote rules for the period, but his books are excellent.) I figured this could start a small collection, perhaps to play with The Pikemen's Lament.

But I forgot about...

... the Samurai period.

Also a sprue of Gallic warriors for Epic Hail Caesar.

This is a fairly hefty army set. With the additions to the army set - three boxed sets and a command pack - there are 24 mounted samurai, 60 foot samurai, 40 ashigaru with spears, and 40 ashigaru with missile weapons. Plus two mounted commanders and two foot officers (one metal, the others resin).

I know absolutely nothing about the Sengoku period (1470-1600). 

Suggestions for books gratefully accepted. My only exposure are a handful of Kurosawa classics and two comics - Lone Wolf and Cub and Usagi Yojimbo. Both of which are excellent, stone-cold classics - but both during the Tokugawa period. I've been meaning to read the Sano Ichiro murder mystery series, also set a century later.

That said, Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse # 7) was the first thing I ever bought from a comic store, the same one I'd visited to hunt down historical gaming and discovered Games Workshop instead. A happy, if desultory, period of first exploration into the gaming hobby, during which I also got my brother into comics and gaming - and he's a heck of a better painter than me. If I can find appropriate transfers, I may use the Mifune or Geishu Clan for imagery, though there are not many color images of their uniforms or armour.

"Tidders" of the Carry on Chaps blog and Virtual Wargames Club also collects samurai, and I may have to pick his brain for painting tips and rules. When I was first getting into wargaming a ruleset based on Legend of the Five Rings, that seemed very Warhammerish, was popular but I believe is long dead. For full-fledged unit games Pike and Shotte itself shouldn't be a problem - but I am still tempted by skirmish.

Wish me luck!

Binge Weekend, Part 2

Well, we didn't do Charge! today, but we had a good time. Five attendees this time, and we played Waterloo with Command and Colours, then a small action from Pontiac's War with Fistful of Lead.

I didn't participate much in the first game; I got the British "center," and most of the cards our team drew covered the left and right. But I did get a feel for the game. Card-driven games aren't my favorite, they feel like you have less agency. Though to be fair, that is the nature of Murphy in combat. What felt weirdest was moving units in less step with each other than they would have been in real life - it's easy to isolate a regiment here if you're not careful. That's why the rules allow you to avoid retreating if you are "supported" by other units in touch.

The figures are very attractive, the customized board more so.

I was tempted to "borrow" it for Portable Wargames.

The Prussians arrived quickly for the scenario.

We stopped around three hours in, once it was obvious
that the Allied reinforcements could flank Napoleon.

Mark Ritchie ran the Fistful of Lead game, with some lovely buildings:

The sides were about even - 25 assorted Indians with three chiefs (chieves?) vs. a mix of British line troops and Rogers' Rangers.

Based loosely on the Battle of Bloody Run during the siege of Detroit, in which a British relief force under Captain Dalyell was ambushed and driven back.

British start to cross the creek.

Appropriate card deck for the occasion!

Bloody melee at the crossing.

While Rangers and light infantry engage on the left.

My officer ably directs matters whilst exposed.

My partner really drew this hand!

The decimated British retreat back over the creek.

So the historical result achieved at any rate! A good game, and I've also familiarized myself with Command and Colours, a popular ruleset for Paperboys.

A busy weekend. See you next week!