Aventine+Relic Successor War Elephant

Picked up the new Pyrrhic Wars Hail Caesar supplement, so was motivated to paint up some figures I've had for sometime. First up is a war elephant that uses an Aventine elephant head, tower, and crew. This was part of an order many years ago when I ordered two elephants - Keith included these parts as samples, I think. I had thought about finding a body at a craft store - one of those in bags of toy animals. Then a couple of years ago, Mike Evans of Relic kindly sent me some Successor samples along with an elephant. Initially, I thought the body was too small for the Aventine parts, but as you can see the body doesn't look too bad. It is slightly smaller, but as with people, elephants come in different sizes.

The shields on the tower are from Victrix Phalangite kits, and the transfers from LBMS - all spare parts I've also had for years.

As you may see, the elephant being a bit smaller, and the tower being pretty large, the mahout has to lean a little forward in the "saddle", so to speak.

Interestingly, I just looked at the Aventine website last night, and saw that they sell the bodies of elephants separately. I don't think they did years ago, but this Relic body will do just as well.

Pictured below, flanked by the two Aventine-proper elies painted years ago.

The various parts of the new elephant build.

More mini-painting projects below. Besides the elephant, a Relic Pyrrhus vignette, Warlord Games Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon figures, as well as the new Pyrrhus on foot figure that came with the supplement.

Plan to get a game in soon with my buddy who also picked up the supplement - and has a good-sized Successor force too. Until next time, wishing you all the best!

Peninsular War Skirmish Game Setup

Did a preliminary, test, setup for my other game at Enfilade in May. This time it's a Peninsular War game, again using One-Hour Wargames Skirmish for rules. It'll have six players, three each for the French and British/Spanish Guerillas. Right now, I'm thinking of having the capture of the French general as the victory condition for the British and Spanish.

The French start the game occupying the village - which should give some balance as they'll have good cover against the Rifles better shooting stats.

A staged shot of the three units of attacking British ans Spanish. They'll start at the table edge, so they may not be so well-numbered by the time they get close to the French.

Spanish Guerillas. They'll have the Bruiser trait for hand to hand combat. They are supposed to capture the French general alive, but I may add some mechanism which they may end up killing him, thereby not getting a major victory.

The French general and his aide, defended by Nassauers - who've yet to have changed sides. I'm using the same figures along with the KGL in the La Haye Sainte game before this one.

95th Rifles and Cacadores.

French Dismounted Dragoons and Voltigeurs.

5/60th Rifles and Cacadores.

Polish light infantry on the French flank.

May not get around to playtesting this scenario, but just wanted to see how the table layout would look like. Shouldn't be too difficult to "wing it" at the convention, especially after two back to back games using the same rules the day before this one.

Until next time, best wishes to you all!

Storm The Farmhouse - Battle of La Haye Sainte - Game Day

Hello everyone! Been a while since I've posted, but just got back from a great game day at the Chehalis Veterans Memorial Museum. I was able to host my La Haye Sainte game using One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rules with six players. The game went well, and a lot of good suggestions were made by the players, as I'll be hostiIng this game again at Enfilade in May. There were several other games going on in the morning session as well as mine, so felt very fortunate to have my game filled. I stayed for the afternoon period and played in a Chain of Command game.

I almost was a no-show for the event as we had snow all day yesterday here in Steilacoom. Other areas had heavy rain, including where the museum is located in Chehalis, Washington - which is prone to flooding. However, the snow had melted off the roads in the morning, so I put on my big boy pants and heading down to the event. Glad I went as today was very sunny and beautiful. The picture below is from yesterday when I was conducting winter warfare training in the backyard with my sole trooper.

The weather today in front of the museum - there were several folks who didn't show up thinking today would be bad too. The weather here in the Pacific Northwest can be very goofy!

Here are pictures from the games today.

Above: French dragoons and sappers attempt to breakdown the defenses in the front of the farmhouse. This combined unit was later destroyed after failing a morale test - they took a lot of casaulties from British Rifles coming out of the sandpit.

Above: British Rifles advancing and firing on the French - all the players started with 12 figure units. I plan to reduce the Rifles unit to 8 figures, as they were a bit too powerful with their rifled muskets.

Above: Nassauers advancing to assist the KGL in the farmhouse.

Above: French Light Infantry Carabiniers assaulting the low walls of the farmhouse. Several made it over the wall and fought in hand to hand combat.

French Voltigeurs advancing towards the rear of the farmhouse.

A spectacular Battle on the Causeway Aztec v. Conquistador game run in both the morning and afternoon periods.

Games like this one made me feel fortunate to have players in my game. There weren't that many attendees - maybe 25 or so - mainly due to yesterday's weather.

Kevin Smyth's WW2 Pacific Theater game. He said the game didn't quite go exactly as he had envisioned. The Japanese, due to unusually good die rolls, managed to sink all of the Allied ships early on.

Wings of Glory WW1 aerial game.

The Patrol Phase of the Chain of Command game I played in, in the afternoon period. Note the laser doing the back azimuths for figure placement from the "locked" Jumping Off points. Although I only play these rules when my buddies host games, I do enjoy the Patrol Phase.

I ran a platoon of US Paratroopers, and thanks to very good shooting die rolls managed to destroy a platoon of Germans on their right flank.

Besides the gaming going on upstairs, the first floor has an excellent museum. It is privately funded, and showcases the sacrifices of veterans from the local area. These include those from the American Civil War to present. I took pictures of a few of the memorial displays from recent conflicts.

The one below includes the veteran's Cub Scout uniform.

Here's a picture of some of the many small arms displays throughout the museum. All of the items in the museum are private donations.

So, all in all a great game day - especially considering how I almost was not going to attend it. Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

More Eureka Hawaiians

Finished another set of Eureka Hawaiians. Along with the earlier two sets, should have enough for a 6-player Tribal game. May have to pick up a few warlords and/or heroes, possibly from Paymaster.

Painted the feathered helmets and capes of the chiefs/ali'i in more of a red color, as opposed to the more yellow ones in the earlier sets.

The flesh tone is a bit lighter than the previous ones, as I wanted to vary their skin colors a bit.

All three sets (21-figures each) together. 

This was my first painting project for over a month, as I've been a bit lazy and been doing other things. Anyway, just a quick post to keep the blog alive. Also, will be hosting a One-Hour Skirmish Wargames Napoleonic game next weekend at the Chehalis Veterans Memorial Museum. It'll be the first game since the Black Powder Dresden game back in January; hard to believe it's already March! Best wishes to you all!

Storm The Farmhouse! La Haye Sainte One-Hour Skirmish Wargames Set-up

Some staged shots of a La Haye Sainte game using One-Hour Skirmish Wargames rules I will be hosted next month at the Veterans Museum in Chehalis, Washington.

I've used this scenario several times before using Black Powder on a larger table which included actions around the farm as well as the farm itself. This time, the game will be concentrated on the actual assault of the farm.

Newly arrived Nassauers assisting the KGL troops.

Major Baring commanding on horseback.

The back of the barn, missing the doors as they were burned for firewood the cold night before by the defenders.

View looking into the courtyard from the main house.

The little pond from which retreating Luneburg troops used their cooking pots to put out the fires.

French Carabiniers assaulting through the orchard.

French Voltigeurs supporting Engineers/Sappers who broke down the main gate to the farm.

A unit of 95th Rifles manning the "Sand Pit" on the far edge of the table.

The dashing Lieutenant Colonel Sharpe stroming out of the Sand Pit to attack the Prince of Orange.

Oh, and here's the 54mm figure of a Kospoth Regiment grenadier which I painted for my buddy who had an ancestor serve in that unit in the 1790's.

So much for now, nothing in the paint queue at the moment. I might work on the St Chamond 3D printed tank I've had sitting around for awhile. Until next time, thanks as always for visiting, and wishing you all the very best.

Eureka Hawaiian Ali'i

Here are the rest of the figures from the two full sets from Eureka. They are the Ali'i in feathered capes and helmets.

I probably should've used more red, as yellow was a more prestigious color since it was scarcer. Most of the birds the Hawaiians obtained the feathers from are now extinct - due to this practice.

The longer capes were worn by the highest ranking chiefs, and the shorter ones for lesser chiefs. The gourd helmet was also worn by priest (kahuna) for certain religious ceremonies.

Besides finally finishing these Eureka figures, I started on a 54mm figure for a buddy. It will represent an ancestor of his that served in the Hessian Von Kospoth Regiment. According to research he had done, the grenadiers of the regiment wore a bearskin, instead of the more common mitre. I used Tamiya epoxy modelling putty to convert the mitre to a bearsking. I left part of the original front plate visible. Here's what I have so far.

According to the researcher my buddy contacted, the uniform is similar to this one, except it had open lapels (like this figure), and white facings.

Otherwise, not much else going on except for the local (American) football team, the Seattle Seahawks winning the Superbowl yesterday. Not a great fan of sports, but it's always nice to have a local team win something this big (at least for Americans). Best wishes to you all!