Northwest Historical Miniature Gamer

Chickasaw Fort Complete

2012-01-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

Front view. I used Woodland Scenics Deciduous foliage and their clump bushes. I also added coarse turf in places. Affixed with Woodland Scenics Hob e Tac.

Same view from above. As you can see the palings aren't perfect. The cost, about four bucks, however, was.

A top view. I feel I got a nice mix of green area and bare earth.

A back view.

I finished landscaping the Chickasaw Fort on Thursday, but am just getting around to pictures today. I'm really pleased with the way this turned out, even if the landscaping just sort of looks stuck on. I still have more scratchbuilding to do for Mississippi. The houses and grain storage is next on my list, but probably not something I'll take on immediately.

Treading cautiously: modern naval war in the Straits of Hormuz

2012-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

I've written about Dave Schueler many times in the past. He is a good friend and a great gamer. Daveshoe recently had one of his board games, U-Boat Leader on submarine warfare published, and that is huge news. Congrats to him. He is also one of my favorite co-conspirators. We got to know each other well through our early dabblings with the WWII air game Mustangs, our work on the Golden Age Air Racing, Thunderboats and many other naval and air projects. Dave is a great teammate, he understands game systems, and there is no better designer of scenarios.

Cyber-Hobby LCS-4 is a highly detailed 1/700 model of a mine warfare version of the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship

In any case, Dave and I have been chatting up an Enfilade naval scenario. We originally thought we'd rerun a WWII naval game we'd hosted at ConQuest several years ago. We've been reconsidering this, however as the crisis with Iran becomes ever more topical. While we've done an interesting Strait of Hormuz game in the past, we're considering another. With the new Littoral Combat Ships entering service and miniatures available from P.T. Dockyard and Cyber-hobby models, the period is available to be gamed. We'll offer a menu of ship choices to the United States and probably a combination of Revolutionary Guard and Iranian Navy vessels to the Iranian players. There will likely be objectives beyond reducing one or the other side to splinters.

Throndor class missile boat test firing new Iranian missile

Frankly, I find the entire Iran/Straits issue quite troubling. By the time of Enfilade, the advanced sanctions and potential boycott of Iranian oil will be nearing implementation by the European Union and the United States. Threats of war and rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran are likely to be regular features in the print and electronic media. Is this a topic we should avoid for a convention game, or is a good game just a good game?

Chickasaw Fort WIP 3

2012-01-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

The fort or palisade or whatever you want to call it is moving toward it's terminal phases.

I started by painting the palings Ceramcoat brown-gray and then washing them with Ceramcoat Walnut. That made them look pretty weathered, maybe a little too weathered, and also gave the color just a little more depth. I also used the Walnut wash over the built up areas to provide some shading to the earthen areas.

After that it was patiently putting down the Woodland Scenics turf. It's really tempting to rush through this, but that just creates holes in your work. I use a big brush to apply Woodland Scenics cement and then just scatter it over the glue and try to recover whatever is left over. Then I let it sit for 15 minutes before moving on to the next area. When it's all applied, I Dullcoat it to more effectively hold it in place.

Next, it's on to the finishing landscape pieces.

SNOW DAY!! The Revenge

2012-01-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

Snow days are always a mixture of elation and frustration for me. As a teacher, I know these are days I'll need to make up in June. They're not freebies off with pay. Unlike my wife, I can't work them off from home. They have some real consequences for me. The first snow day of the year is made up on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. That's the first day of Enfilade. No snow days means I can easily make the Friday sessions. Snow days mean I have to leave from school at 2:30 and fight traffic down to Olympia. Bleah.

The snow days of this week, however, had a new set of challenges. We knew the Wednesday snow fall was going to be big. Just how big wasn't clear. I thought I'd be out of school Wednesday and Thursday and back to work on Friday. I envisioned lots of painting and finishing the Chickasaw palisade. It certainly started out that way.

Wednesday we got the snow. Thursday morning we got freezing rain. Dum, dum, dum. In an area with lots of trees and above ground electrical wires, freezing rain is the weather equivalent of nuclear war.

At 9:00 we heard from my son a few miles away, he'd lost power. At 11:00 I walked out to the arterial near our development to check on road conditions, came home to figure out how to best de-ice our frozen cars, walked in the door and we lost our power. It was out for nearly 60 hours, coming on last night at 8:00ish.

As with all disasters, the first thing you have to do is assess your resources. We knew we'd have light for a while-good. We also had an electric lantern-rechargeable variety-so light-for a while. We had plenty of food. A few years ago we installed a gas fireplace in the living room and a small standing gas fireplace in the bedroom for just these occasions. We wouldn't freeze or be forced to leave the house with our ridiculous dogs.No entertainment to speak of, but I did have a battery powered radio that could also be hand cranked and lots of batteries. I had my Kindle, with a nice back light, so I could read in the dark until . . .A couple of working flashlights and Lorri is the candle queen.

We also checked our problems. The fireplaces would keep our bedroom warm if we closed the door, but the electric blower in the living room was off so the immediate effect of the living room fireplace was to camp us right in front of it. No computer, limited light, no television. Phones are all-electric, so no phones. Cell phone service went down with the nearby cell towers, so service was terrible. Text messaging was okay, but no internet, e-mail, or calls from my iPhone.

Bottom line, we were prepared for a short power outage, the kind we always have, say 24-36 hours. We survived Thursday and Friday just fine. It still got chilly in the house unless in the bedroom or sitting by the fireplace. There was never enough light paint by, and one can only listen to so much radio. The lantern died after about 12 hours and no way to recharge. We didn't complain, however. We drove all around, to charge our phones, and could see the outage was massive. 18,000 customers in Puyallup lost power; 280,000 in the Puget Sound area were out-we'd get by.

Thursday we checked on family, and drove to survey the extent of the outage. We went to the movies and saw We Bought a Zoo and I liked it. Cameron Crowe movie with Matt Damon, what's not to like. This was easy.

Friday I drove around and surveyed the extent of the damage. Weyerhaeuser, Lorri's employer, lost power, so I drove her around in search of fabric stores. No luck, all closed. Came home. No power. The lantern died. I finished building the Chickasaw fort by firelight. Not fun. A last drive on Friday night to recharge the cell phones showed a little progress in repairing the power. We were optimistic.

By Saturday morning, it was clear the repairs were fully underway. The neighborhoods with power were creeping closer to us. We had an errand to run to Issaquah, forty miles away, and were confident when we returned we too would have power. My son Pat got his power back within six hours of his outage. My mother in law had hers back within eighteen hours, and my brother-in-law Paul had his back early Saturday morning. Our errand, to pick up forty pounds of chicken, which would go in our freezer, required power.

When we returned home at 4:00 to no power it was devastating. (We ran the meat over to my vegan son and daughter in law's freezer. They must have been so pleased.) I was looking forward to who know's how much longer of time wasted-no heat, no light, no painting gah! Lorri went out with a friend at 6:00 and sent me a text that some houses in our development-"Fuck those guys, I want power." I sent off several Facebook posts reporting similar, if somewhat more G rated views. My brother-in-law dropped off a working lantern, some hot water for coffee and tea. Ingrate that I am, I continued reading my Kindle by firelight and finished my Diet Coke, but I did truly appreciate the effort. Finally at 8:30 the power came on to cheers and hosannas.

I know we're fortunate. It could have been worse and for many folks out there that live on isolated lots or small communities, it will be. Puget Sound Energy always focuses on the biggest bang for their buck first-bring on as many customers at one time as possible. Some time mid-week they'll have their power back on.

Top view of completed fort. I used wood putty around the base of the palings and created some slight ground irregularities.

A comparison with figure size. The minis are OG Woodland indians.

Another shot with Indians from a different angle. Seems weird to have Indians defending a frontier fortification.

The beginnings of landscaping. I painted the green areas with an artist's acrylic. I just can't make Ceramcoat's Forest Green cover anything so I'm using Artist's Advantage Hooker Green from Fred Meyer. It works.

Another aerial shot.

So my snow days are gone, and it's time to move on. I've included a couple of photos of the few things I was able to get done. The Chickasaw fort is still in progress. The palings are all in, and now I'm beginning to landscape.

One can't have too many trees, and I have a bajillion armatures for fairly smallish trees and the clump foliage to stick on 'em. They'll be mounted on washers to weigh the little darlin's down.

I started working on trees from Woodland Scenics. I have a lot of the smaller armatures, and I want to be sure I have plenty for the Chickasaw game. I'm weighting them with 5/16" washers flat cut washers so I can use them individually. I probably have about 60 or so armatures, so I've got a lot of work to do.

SNOW DAY!! The Sequel

2012-01-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

We here on Puyallup's South Hill didn't get pounded as many other communities did yesterday: Centralia and Olympia each had over a foot of snow. However we did get five inches. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, the snow turned to freezing rain and rain by noon. When I discovered the lovely snow was snow no longer, got serious and painted away on Wayne's Legion figures and continuing work on the Chicasaw Fort.

I was shocked when the school district announced a closure for today at about 5:00 PM. So I'll have a chance to do even more work on the fort and the minis. It's a good thing.

The Indian Stockade: WIP

2012-01-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

It's great, I'm here at school on deadline on a Friday night, desperately hoping I'll get home in time to see the season premier of Portlandia. Some things are more important than others. In between looking at stories, and page designs I decided to amuse myself by working on my next terrain project, the Chickasaw stockade.

As you can see from the illustration, the Chickasaw stockade is not huge, and is nothing like we see on the whites building on the frontier. No bastions, firing platforms or interior buildings. In an Indian palisade, the palings simply are not flush together. A gap is left between the timbers to allow fire. There's not a gate; entering and exiting is done by a narrow opening. My objective is to provide a simple fortification warriors can use to defend their village and food source, or send their families for safety. And I want to scratch build it.

There is a commercial Indian palisade available from Acheson Creations. It's not even terribly expensive, and looks pretty nice, but I've decided to make it myself.

I decided on dimensions of 12" X 6" with rounded corners. I decided to make the palings two inches tall from 1/8" craft dowels I bought at Michaels.

Step One: I cut the dowels on my little scroll saw, shattering a few along the way. My bad. After cutting the dowels into two inch lengths. I traced out the outline of the palisade.

The dowels are sanded to flatten one end and an irregular peaked shape is created on the the other end

A hole is drilled in the flat end and a hunk of .032" brass wire is glued into the hole

Step Two: I decided the best way to fix the palings into the plywood was to put a pin into them and glue them into the holes. I sanded one end down flat and tried to remember to round off the top edge or to make a point; I didn't want them to appear too uniform. I started by using a pin vise to drill the hole because I was afraid using a drill might split the dowel. After taking forever and wearing out my hand, I switched over to my Dremel tool and it worked fine. I chose .032" brass wire for the pins and I began cutting it to length. Actually, to make it easy, I inserted the brass rod into the hole and cut the protruding rod to the desired length, and glued it in with CA glue.

I started gluing the palings into the holes in the plywood and immediately discovered I'd need to skip some of the holes if the palings were to have enough room and leave sufficient gaps.

One view of the Chickasaw fort under construction. The palisade doesn't have a gate. The entrance is open but protected by fire from the overlapping curved wall.


The palings don't fit flush and provide some fire openings between palings, yet offer some protection to defenders including women and children seeking shelter from an attacker. The holes for the palings are clearly visible.

The brass wire offers some advantage. It fits snugly in the holes, and can be bent a bit to get the palings perpendicular.

A cornfield wrap up

2012-01-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

A frontal look, on my dining room table, of cornfield with 28mm infantry and a Hovels log cabin in background.

More of a top view. The cornfield is 10 bases X 5 bases, 40mm square.

Another comparison shot of the cornfields with 28mm Mexican Presidial cavalry

I've made all the cornfields I have bases for, but would still like to make more. I may even resort to something other 40mm square. Or I could just buy more, but I'm getting cheap in my old age. I feel good about these.

I actually have a bit more bases than I've shown. Total of 64 bases. The cornfield pictured is 15" X 7 1/2 "

SNOW DAY!!

2012-01-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

It's snowing. It's snowing a lot. It's 6:39 AM, been snowing for hours. We've been flirting with snow stuff for days, but it's really coming down, enough so the Puyallup School District announced today's closure at 5:30 last night. So, while Snowpocalypse 2012 roils on, I am going to be painting and working on my Chickasaw stockade. I hope to have a few new posts too. Will put some pictures up of today's winter wonderland when it is light enough.

Chickasaw Bluffs: an outline

2012-01-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to put together my plans for Chickasaw Bluffs as part of my Enfilade projects. I'm thinking seriously about what I want the game to look like. It might be complicated but should be fun. So here it is in a nutshell.

The Layout

There are two 8' X 5' game tables separated by space to move between them. The left table is an all land table, at relatively equal elevation. The terrain will consist of an Indian village represented by four or five small buildings and a defensive stockade, plus a large cornfield. The rest of the terrain will be some medium sized hills and a fair number of trees.

Yes, it's crude, but I'm thinking the board will look something like this.

The right table is partly river, with a with an irregular shoreline roughly bisecting the table lengthwise. The shoreline rises quickly to an impassable height with a steep, but passable grade near the board edge. At the top of the hill is a Spanish battery defended by an earthwork. At the top of the table is a Spanish encampment.

The Forces

American Forces: The Americans will have a combination of regular and militia troops. There are six American units (half companies) of 12 figures each. In addition there are eight militia units (half companies) of 10 figures each. To support the foot forces will be at least one (perhaps two) mounted militia companies of ten figures each, and an artillery detachment two-three guns (there will be choices to make.) Last, but not least, the Americans will have a keelboat and four armed pirogues. The priogues can each carry a half company (one unit.) The keelboat can carry a complete company (two units)

Spanish Forces: The Spanish will also have a combination of regular and frontier militia (cuera) troops. There are two half companies of Spanish regulars, 10 figures each. The three militia half companies are also of ten figures each. One of the Cuera companies may also mount as lancers. Finally, the Spaniards will also have three artillery crews. They will be able to apply these to the three pounders in their camp, or the twelve-pounders in their earthwork.

Indian Forces: The Indians, Chickasaw warriors, will defend their homes with eight ten man units, all dismounted.

The Scenario

A combined army of American regulars and militia are making their way down the Mississippi to capture New Orleans. The Spanish are fortifying the west bank of the Mississippi and providing anchorages for river galleys in order to control Mississippi traffic. The Americans force is intended to capture the Spanish battery commanding the river from the bluffs.

The Spanish have paid the Chickasaw (and other tribes) to fight the Americans, who menace their homelands. The Chickasaw also provide some much needed to manpower to augment the small and dispersed Spanish Army in America.

Particulars

The American forces are divided between a force marching overland toward the Chickasaw village, and an amphibious force aimed at ascending the bluffs from the river . The Indians may begin in the cornfield or the stockade to defend their village. The Spanish begin in their encampment, ready to move, having been given the alarm by their Chickasaw allies.

Units can move freely between the two tables, being separated only by convenience. I'd be interested to hear, dear readers, what you think.

2011 in review and a look ahead

2011-12-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

2011 was, by any measure, a great year for miniature wargaming at my house. I reviewed my 2010 plans and promises and found that I didn't necessarily stick to them. The biggest promise being-NO NEW PROJECTS-yet the new projects I did take on were inexpensive or are largely finished. I did manage to paint nearly 600 figures this year, including cogs, 28mm figures and 15mm figures. So from that standpoint it was a good year.

For the most part, the year focused on four major painting projects. The first was getting ready for Hobkirk's Hill. I finished all the figures necessary for this and ran the game successfully at Enfilade. Hobkirk's Hill is important because it is an integral part of my overall AWI goal: be able to run all five battles from Nathaniel Greene's campaign in North and South Carolina: Cowpens, Weitzel's Mill, Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, and Eutaw Springs (yes, I'm leaving out the siege of Ninety Six, but that would spare me the embarrassment of having to build a fort under attack by men carrying large hooks.) I don't expect this will be a year in which I paint many AWI figures, but I do have a couple ready to paint, and I could see myself painting Von Bose or the 23rd Regt.

AWI Hobkirk's Hill was just a step toward completion of my AWI project

The second project I took on was of limited duration and that was the cog-building project for Sluys. I am most proud of this work. From using David Manley's rules, to thinking through and building the ships, playtesting and running the actual game, I still believe it was about the best thing I've ever done. It was a fun game built on a very limited budget. It looked good and folks had a good time. I'd actually like to build a few more cogs and galleys and try to game with individual ships. Not quite sure when that would happen.

My first cog-with the fighting castles reversed. I have ten more just like it. Doh!

My first batch of completed English ships

The cog Thomas, leads the English fleet

The giant hand watches over the first Sluys playtest.

The third project was kind of a "you must do this" activity and that was painting and mounting my 15mm Jacobite Wars figures for the Killiecrankie campaign. I'm ready to go, but I haven't gotten them out of the box since. Something needs to change with the latter, and I'll speak to this issue more.

Hallmark Highlanders

Lord Leven's Regiment.

Last, but not least, is my Mississippi project. This one, unfortunately, threatens to be a monster. At the present time I have almost all the miniatures necessary to run my first campaign, the assault on Chickasaw Bluffs on the Yazoo River in 1797 and an assault on New Orleans. Sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but it's all hypothetical. I'm busy painting away as we speak. But I also want to broaden this to a confrontation between more regular Spanish and American troops over the Louisiana Purchase boundaries after 1803. This would require considerably more Spanish troops and more regular U.S. Dragoons than I currently own. I think this latter hypothetical look at Spanish American relations may end up a phase two that will be built later.

So, looking ahead to 2012, I see myself working in a couple of areas. First is the Mississippi project. Not really that many figures to paint. There are lots of Indians in the scenario, but I already have these painted. I need eight 10-figure units of U.S. militia, and I believe I have most of these already. If I paint my Christmas bounty (36 militia from Perry) and do some fiddling and a little bit of remounting that won't be a problem. I also have 30 Wayne's Legion figures to paint, which will give me six 12-figure units of U.S. regulars. More daunting to this is creating the terrain pieces. The cornfields are nearly done, but there is the stockade and the bluffs themselves. I haven't quite figured it out, but that's all part of the project.

The second project I want to progress is my War of 1812 stuff. I am only interested the Chesapeake actions, particularly Bladensburg. I have my tons o' Victrix plastic figures to build and paint, and I anticipate getting started after Enfilade, but all goes well with Chickasaw Bluffs, it may be earlier. There are British regulars to paint, militia to buy and paint. You name it. In any case I'll keep you posted.

I plan to stick to my NO NEW PROJECTS pledge. I have plenty of figures to paint and want to advance my old ones. There are a couple of anniversaries in mind. There is the 200th anniversary of the Niagara campaign and the Battle of Bladensburg in 2014 to prepare for. The year after that is the 600th anniversary of Agincourt, so working on 1812 and Hundred Years War figures would seem to be the right thing to do in advance of the celebrations I see happening at Enfilade.

If I have one promise I'd like to keep, it is to get out and game more. Miniature games, board games, hanging out with my gaming buddies more would be my my big new year's resolution. I have stacks of painting figures that rarely see the light of day, and I need to do better.

DANG! I forgot my camera

2011-12-28T18:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the eleventh installment of Dave's Annual Naval Game or DANG, and I was once again in attendance. Unfortunately, my camera was not, so I strongly urge you to take a look at whatever pictures Dave uploads to his blog, the excellent Naval Gazing in my featured blogs list.

This year all the Civil War naval gamers have rallied around the release of Sail and Steam Navies, so it was only fitting that this year's DANG featured a SSN game. Dave created a mini-campaign on a river. Each side had a points limit to choose from and create their riverine flotilla based on the points value of the ships available to them. The Confederates had an iron-clad a-building at the head of the river. The Yankees's job was to brave the obstacles in their path and destroy the ironclad before it became a menace to Union control of the Mississippi.

Our beloved flagship, the barge, er scow, um ship Tuscumbia.

I was a Union player and we had to make some decisions about the ships to acquire to dispute the control of western waters with our rebel counterparts. We ultimately decided on the Tuscumbia, an ugly ironclad scow, mounting three of the prettiest 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores available. We provided the ironclad Essex, timberclad gunboat Lexington, a pair of sternwheel tinclads, and the ram Monarch as escorts. Together with unarmed transports and barges carrying troops and fuel we headed up the mighty Carnot River.

We encountered numerous earthwork gun batteries along the way. But all were dispatched fairly easily, except for the fifth and last one that inflicted a critical hit on the Essex, forcing us to withdraw and make repairs, and leaving us behind schedule.

There were also two surface actions, both occurring at night. The Confederates attacked the anchored Union fleet with three spar torpedo boats. Our deployment was fairly ineffective in terms of offering support so George Kettler quickly found his two tinclads horrifically exposed as the gnat-like Johnnies swept on to the table. Though the tinclads found the range, they couldn't convert their hits into damage, and the Naumkeag was sunk by a spar torpedo. A second torpedo boat seriously damaged the Lexington's paddle wheel forcing us to tow the vessel upstream. The Confederates didn't get off scott free as they mostly expended their supply of spar torpedoes and the Lexington's tormentor managed to blow himself up in the attack.

The second night battle was, of course, the last turn of the campaign. Weathering a host of delays and distractions, the Confederates gave battle before the Yankees reached the ironclad Missouri's birthplace, but just after it had a major engine failure. The pride of the Carnot River Defense Fleet was hauled into action by a tugboat. Alongside the Missouri were the rams Gen. Beauregard and Gen. Bragg, as well as the last armed torpedo boat.

The General Bragg, captured at Memphis, eventually became the USS General Bragg.

The Rebs had a bit of an advantage, heading downstream, and we, again were faced with being anchored heading upstream. The Rattler, George's other tinclad, was the first casualty, rammed by the Beauregard. Beauregard and Bragg both took a pounding from the two Union ironclads. Missouri was towed toward the center of the board with it's unpleasant three gun battery. My Monarch was the fastest of the Union vessels, and with no guns to fire, set out to use its chief weapon, its ram, against the slow and unmaneuverable Missouri. Braving two turns of fire, suffering little damage, Monarch skewered Missouri dead amidships, and that was pretty much all she wrote for the southerners. The wooden rams were more or less intact though the torpedo boat was resting comfortably at the bottom of the river.

A famous engraving of the Monarch ramming the Beauregard. Imagine an almost immobile ironclad gunboat in the place of the Beauregard and that's what happened in our game. Me! Me! I did that! Yes!

It was a great game and a lot of fun as usual. I was on the winning side, which is rare for me, so that was nice too. Great guys playing as always: David Sullivan, Mark Waddington, Arthur Brookings. Dave Creager, Dale Mickel, Scott Murphy, and George Kettler. Great miniatures from George and David joined my sorry lot (Of course, you can't see them because I'm a dope.) Daveshoe and Lynnshoe provided the eats and took the pics. It was awesome.

This is my third game of Sail and Steam Navies. There are many things I really like about these rules. The firing charts are pretty easy to use, but it is not easy to convert hits to actual damage. In doing this, the creators have really made SSN a rammer's game. With the two movement phases, it's pretty easy for a fast ram to pickle his victim and not even be fired on. I don't think it should be this way. I'm hoping we can maybe make some house rules or get some clarifications that iron out some of these issues.

Merry Christmas to all

2011-12-25T07:14:00.000-08:00

It's early, and soon the family will descend on our little house for Christmas brunch and exchanging gifts. For me, the best part of Christmas is seeing family. Since my youngest son, Casey, moved to Seattle, I confess to suffering from a certain amount of kid withdrawal. I love my boys, and there are times when I just wish we could be together. They're smart and fun, and spending time with the two of them is the best time in the world. I'm looking forward to seeing them today.

Yes, just in case you were wondering, Lorri, er, Santa did bring me gaming goodies. I landed 36 figures from the Perry AWI southern militia range. I love these figures. They're simple but interesting and will serve well in my Mississippi project as militia.

I also received a couple of Osprey books. First, I got the newly released Men At Arms book on the Spanish Army in North America 1700-1793. The timing for this couldn't be better, and I'm beginning to have second thoughts about how I've organized my Spanish toops (in my mind and my figure collection.)

I also got the new campaign book on the Battle of the Wabash. Also known as St. Clair's Defeat, or St. Clair's Disaster, this horrendous Indian battle north of the Ohio River in 1791 led to the formation of the American Legion under Anthony Wayne and the decisive battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. I've been poking through Wabash by John F. Winkler, and I think it has a lot to offer. It is a topic not well covered by easily available books.

I hope you've had a happy holiday and the opportunity to hang out with your families. To all of you who read this blog, in Canada and Australia, Ireland and Great Britain, in Europe, Asia and the United States, the best Christmas to all, and the happiest of new years.

Cavalcade French and Indian War Review

2011-12-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

I painted some of the Cavalcade French and Indian War figures for my friend David for Christmas. Dave has always been interested in the conflict and has read extensively about Robert Rogers. When Cavalcade released a range of French and Rogers Rangers in winter dress, wearing snowshoes, I thought they'd make a great gift.

David plays FIW games in skirmish 1:1 scale, so picking up a pack each of the French and Rangers was fine. I picked up the rangers firing and the French marching. The figures are large and bulky, the latter due mostly because of their winter clothing. There was some flash on the castings, particularly on the French between the musket and body, but I did my best to clean them up.

I primed them and mounted them on one inch square Litko bases. This takes some doing because of the size of their metal bases, necessary due to the snowshoes. I started with the French. Generally the figures are well cast, and anatomically consistent. They are larger than OG or Perry, but not as chunky as Front Rank.

I started painting the French first. The detail is uneven. The muskets are almost delicate, but some of the musket stocks and musket detail is crude. The hands aren't great either. The figures are well accoutered with cartridge box and haversack, but the belts and straps seem to disappear as they head from the back, over the shoulder and down the front of the figure behind the hands and arms. Two of the figures wore standard uniforms, and two wore blanket coats. I liked the way they painted up.

Then I turned to the Rogers Rangers. I enjoyed painting these more than the French. Same complaints with the muskets. Three of the four miniatures wore mittens, which I thought was a nice touch. There were several different versions of leggings, which was nice. The figure in the blanket coat I particularly liked. I thought the cuff detail was clunky, and could have been a bit cleaner.

All in all I would rate the Cavalcade figures 4 points out of 5. Some of the detail issues are offset by the uniqueness of the miniatures and I could see ordering a some figures for myself.

More Cornfields and Gunners

2011-12-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

On TMP yesterday, Bill Stewart correctly reminded me it would be a good idea to photo figures alongside the cornfields in order to get an idea of relative size. I've positioned some Old Glory Wayne's Legion figures right up against the cornfield stands. Cut at 1 1/2", the cornstalks are just about the exact height I was looking for, being slightly more than head high.

I'm also sharing the finished guns and gunners I finished during the week. First up are the American guns and gunners by the Perry Brothers. The first gun crew is in the firing position. The second gun crew is in the aiming position. Nice figures, easy to paint. Typical Perry stuff. I've already complained about the guns, so I won't re-run that.

Perry gunners aiming their six pounder

Perry gunners firing

I also photographed the RSM Spanish guns and gunners. The first gun is a 3pdr. The second gun is a 12 pdr. The Spanish adopted the Gribeauval system, and either painted their guns a light blue, or left them a natural wood and varnished them. Given the American guns were blue-gray, I thought I'd go with the natural finish for the Spaniards. I like the gunners-a little clunkier than the Perry gunners, but very adequate.

RSM Spanish artillery with 12pdr

Spanish artillery with 3pdr.

Cornfields: WIP

2011-12-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

"This place far excels in beauty any in the western country, and believed equalled by none in the Atlantic States. Here are vegetables of every kind in abundance, and we have marched four or five miles in cornfields down the Oglaize, and there is not less than one thousand acres of corn around the town.(sic) "

Lt. John Bowyer described these conditions at the Miami town of Auglaize on the march to Fallen Timbers in 1794. The luxuriant cornfields he observed were typical of most large woodland Indian settlements encountered during campaigns on the frontier in the late 18th century. Maize in the fields were resource targets for Americans fighting those Indians. General John Sullivan devastated the Iroquois in his summer campaign of 1779, burning thousands of acres of corn and forcing elements of the Six Nations across the Niagara and upon the kindnesses of the British for sustenance.

I decided that if I was going to do a hypothetical campaign on the Western frontier in the 1790's, I needed a big bunch of cornfields. I didn't want to build just a big ol' cornfield to just plop down on the table and then store with difficulty. Rather I wanted something I could morph into different shapes or scatter around, and remove bits of as it was destroyed. I'd seen the very cool cornfields from BTC and reasoned I could make something like that for myself at a more affordable price.

I started with Litko bases. I ordered fifty 40mm square bases. These are heavy enough to hold the "corn" and not move around on the table top. $6.99, plus the ridiculous Litko shipping fee. I also ordered ten packs of 12mm pine stems from This and That 4 Crafts. Those are holiday craft items that look sort of cornish if you fiddle with them. Ten packs of 15 pine stems was just over ten bucks with shipping.

12mm pine stems from This and That 4 Crafts. They were cheap, and the size was about right. Also available in 20mm (refers to circumference) which seemed too large. There would be lots of trimming.

Litko bases and trimmed pine stem ready to go. 40mm worked for me. That's the width of two individually mounted figures or one Regimental Fire and Fury base.

Step one was to coat the bases with something that looked as a ground cover. For the most part, the bases are going to be covered by the corn, so I'm mostly just after a quick cover with something that could be mistaken for earth. I used Liquitex modeling paste because it's acrylic, dries fast, and can actually be mixed with paint in my little water cup, and easily applied to the base with a paint knife. Because it's acrylic, I also believed it wouldn't shatter when I drilled holes in it, and I was afraid that wood putty would just disintegrate in chunks. Can't have that. Liquitex products are available at Michaels and JoAnn fabrics. Use their weekly coupons to cut the $12.99 bucket of modeling goo to a more reasonable cost.

I've used Liquitex modeling paste as basing material in the past. It's easy to work with, dries fast, but isn't particularly cheap. However, I thought it was the best material for this project.

Step two-I waited for the modeling paste to dry completely, and while I was doing so I began cutting the pine stems into lengths. The stems have wound metal wire cores, but cut easily with hobby sized diagonal cutters. I cut mine into 1 1/2 inch lengths. It's best to remove some of the "corn" at the very base of your plant so the wire is completely exposed. The stems get pressed pretty flat in storage and shipping, so it's best to twirl them in your fingers a bit and ruffle the corn, or your corn stalks will look pretty two dimensional. When you finally get around to gluing them in, you'll find some lengths are longer than other. That's okay, not all corn stalks are equal in nature's plan.

My first base ready to receive corn stalks.

Step three, drill holes in your Litko bases. I use a Dremel tool for drilling, with wee small bits, though finding the right size hole for the fairly significant sized stem wires was a trial. I drilled nine holes in three rows and hoped the corn would literally fill the base. You might be able to do twelve stems to a base, but it would be awfully crowded.

Voila, a close up of corn fields. There's more I could do if I wanted. Paint some of the leaves yellow to look like corn ears, or finish the base edges with Woodland Scenics material. I haven't decided.

Step four, finally, glue your pine stems into the holes. I make sure to remove some of the very bottom leaves to expose the wire and put a tiny drop of CA glue in the hole. It usually sets up right away and you can move along.

I finished six squares of corn in a couple of hours of not very intense work. I hope to have about forty squares or so which takes up a LOT of space on the board. This is the first of my terrain projects for Chickasaw Bluffs.

Cubbies!!

2011-12-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

I finished up the '84 Cubs this week, just in time for our gift exchange tonight. Again, these are the Reviresco baseball players. I've written about them before. I chose this team and this uniform, because I knew Tim would like them. He's a Cubs fan, and this is the team that started him down that road I think.

Cubbies from the front

Cubbies from the back.

This uniform offered some challenges. The figures come with a traditional button down uniform, some with very bloused pants and shirts, other with a very straight appearance. Unfortunately you have to have a minimum number of players to play the game, so everyone needs to look pretty much the same. I painted over the button down detail and really tried to paint in detail needed to make the team look unique. The Chicago logo on the front and the cub insignia on the sleeve took some doing. I also painted in the numbers and names on the back. They should be in red, but I just couldn't get them to stand out very well. This is my first attempt at painting in the names. I was only sort of successful. Bowa was a lot easier to paint in than Sandberg because there's only so much room on the figure. Oh, well.

On my painting table: gunners, ballplayers and Cavalcade Miniatures

2011-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's just hard to post. It's not that I'm doing nothing, it's that my whole world is in process.

I've actually been painting my little (I wish) butt off. Last weekend I finished painting up all those nice U.S. and Spanish artillerymen I wrote about. They're finished, but the basing isn't done. Not on all those silly American infantry either. Why?

In the foreground are the Perry gunners. Very nice, uncluttered figs. In the back are the RSM Spanish artillerymen. I'll get a final photo out when they are properly based.

Well it's the Christmas season dontcha know. This year I've foolishly decided to paint some figures for two of my non-painting friends. So as we hurtle toward next weeks's X-mas deadline I have to knock out twenty three 28mm figures. It's a lot but I'm making pretty good progress.

First on the list is 15 baseball players. They are the last of my Reviresco baseball stash, and I wanted to paint them for my friend who is a big baseball fan. He's equally divided between the Yankees of the Bronx Zoo era and those 80's Cubbies. I decided to paint them up as the '84 Cubs that won the NL East title because I am an inveterate Yankees hater. There was something very working class about that Cubs team, and I painted them up in their blue away pullovers. There are some fiddly details on them that give the uniforms some character. Should be finished with them tonight.

Tim's '84 Cubs from Reviresco. The figs are pretty simple, and most of the detail has to be painted in. Even so, every team I've painted has been fun.

The other gift I'm painting is a batch of figures from Cavalcade Miniatures. I first saw Cavalcade's French and Indian War figures on The Miniatures Page, and decided I needed an excuse to at least paint some. I ordered a box each of the Rogers Rangers and French Marine figures. The miniatures are all in serious winter dress and are wearing snowshoes. The figures are quite nice with lots of detail The muskets, in particular, are quite delicate and look very nice. They are large and bulky in their heavy winter clothing, but anatomically consistent. If I have a complaint it is that on a few figures the mold mark runs right down the miniatures' faces. Though the flash is minor, on a couple of figures, removing this adequately was difficult. They'll remain in queue behind the Cubs probably until Friday night.

In the queue are these Cavalcade French and Indian War figures on snowshoes.

The holiday vacation begins at 2:40 tomorrow. You best believe I'll be blowing out on time and headed home to my painting table. I have big painting plans for the break, and I'm hoping to get a lot done.

A Little of This and a Little of That

2011-12-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

I wish I had something sexy to share like the hussars, but frankly things are going to be kind of uniform and boring for a bit. I have painted, but not based, 18 American regulars for the project. They were mostly figures I'd stripped and repainted. The process was sloppy, and despite plenty of effort, I just didn't get all the gunk off from the previous paint and primer. Thought I did . . .

OG Wayne's Legion figures. They're awaiting basing-hopefully this weekend. They actually look better than this-geez I hope so.

I also painted up my very last handful of usable Front Rank militia types, mostly command figures, and combined them with a couple of the Lewis and Clark figs to use with the militia masses I'll be calling into service at Chickasaw Bluffs. I have an odd mix of figures to use for militia. Lots of them are AWI figures from Front Rank and OG. However, a fair number of them are from the Mountain Man range by Foundry. I got them much cheaper than their present price, and they add some spice to volunteers out to chase off Indians and drive the Spanish of out of N'awleens. I need at least 80 figures in eight units for my planned scenario, and each unit needs command figures. So I used the generic militia flags from Quindia studios to give them a bit of unit identification. The flags turned out well-I really like them. Thanks Clarence.

A chance to show off my Quindia flags with my militia units. I'll need about 80 militia figures in all for Chickasaw bluffs.

On my table right now is a bunch of artillery. One of my purchases for this project were guns and gunners by the Perry brothers from their AWI range. I've mostly painted the guns, and I've got to say I'm disappointed. I've bought other guns from the same range, the six-pounders and crews for the Brits and the Americans and these were just lousy castings. The gunners look great, but the guns look like the molds need cleaning. These are the only disappointing miniatures I've had from them. Just a simple Vallejo blue gray with a little gray dry-brushing before painting in the black hardware, Vallejo brass for the barrels, and then a follow up dry-brushing. The odd gun is a Front Rank piece. Not uniform with anything, I thought it might work as a militia-served piece.

Spanish guns in natural wood and American guns in blue-gray. You can see the Perry gun carriage on the left is actually twisted. Disappointing.

The other guns are from the RSM range now produced by Dayton Painting Consortium. I can't say enough good things about these miniatures or DPC. They were extremely easy to work with-great communicators for a small operation. I'm really happy with the figures. They have plenty of detail and love the elevating with the level figures. My only beef is the figures,which came as a bagged set, create only three man crews, rather than the conventional four man crews. I'll have to figure something out.

The RSM gunners by Dayton Painting Consortium are nice. Not quite Perry nice, but cheaper and serviceable.

The guns, also RSM from DPC, are also nice. The little three pounders are perfectly serviceable. The twelve-pounders, while nicely detailed, seem undersized. I can seem them as eight pounders, but the carriages and barrels should be larger.

More pictures when everything is done.

My Mississippi Project: Scenario One-The Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs

2011-11-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

After a week away from the paint brush and chain, I've begun thinking about potential game topics for my Mississippi project. One that came to mind first was the American effort to chase the Spanish out of the fortifications they were building on the east bank of the Mississippi River prior to the Louisiana Purchase (1803.) One such place was at Chickasaw Bluffs, built on a promontory at the mouth of the Yazoo River. It was intended to command the river and control approaches to New Orleans.

I was considering a fairly terrain heavy game with some interesting game pieces. Because the Spanish allied themselves with the Chickasaw, I am thinking about a Chickasaw village and stockade. This reconstruction of an early 18th century village will help guide my thinking.

I generally avoid terrain-heavy games. I know it adds a lot to the scenario, but my chief objection is the problem it creates in storage. Even so I'm willing to take on the travails of building and tucking away the stockade, buildings and cornfields, the earthworks and encampments because it will look cool.

I've been giving some thought to the scenario itself. The Americans will have five or so units of regulars and eight to ten units of militia troops, with artillery. Maybe one unit of light dragoons or mounted riflemen, and some artillery They'll be able to split their units between a direct land assault on the Chickasaw fortification and an amphibious assault with five or six units on up the bluffs on the Spanish artillery position.

The Spanish will defend with a unit of mounted cuera militia, three units of dismounted militia, and eight to ten units of Chickasaw warrior allies, plus some artillery.

Play it all on a 16 X 5 table. It should work. How much do I have to paint? Not that much actually. The Indians are already done, as are almost all the Spanish. I need guns and gunners for both sides and the Americans are a ways away from being finished. Plenty of time, however, to allow me to concentrate on building the terrain pieces.

From the Bookshelf: Midway and Guadalcanal

2011-11-20T21:16:00.000-08:00

The primary activity that lured me into miniature wargaming was the reading I did as a kid. Growing up in the 1960's, was a golden age for books about WWII and I read a lot of them. That war seemed just a stones throw away. The TV shows Combat and Twelve O'Clock High were drama staples. Several of my friends had fathers who were WWII combat veterans. And we were getting just far away from the war that we could laugh with McHale's Navy and Hogan's Heroes.

I was reading the abridged Official Marine Corps History of World War II, Incredible Victory by Walter Lord, and Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan by Mitsuo Fuchida. These were books that revealed the disasters and triumphs of Japan and America in the Pacific and opened my eyes to the suffering and struggle of those who fought there. Oops, left out The Two Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morrison. I read my little paperback so many times, it literally fell apart.

Forty years later and there are generations of new books about those same campaigns and battles, seen with new information and fresh eyes. Neither of the books I'm about to recommend are brand new, hot off the shelf. The Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway was published in 2005, but does offer a completely different version of Midway than was told before. James Hornfischer's book, Neptune's Inferno is new this year. It's not so much that the story hasn't been told, it's the quality of the telling that makes it such a great read.

Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully's Shattered Sword is a remarkable analysis of the June 1942 carrier victory that halted Japanese expansion in the Central Pacific. It is an interesting revision of the story that's always been told. Parshall and Tully systematically dismantle old perceptions of the battle based, largely, on Fuchida's book, written in the 50's. Together, they submit a picture of the battle that is very Keeganesque in its approach. In their analysis of the Japanese battle plan and its execution they examine philosophy, doctrine, and decision-making as well as a step by step look at the "battle piece." If you read military history for analysis of those decisions, this is the book for you.

Without giving too much away, Parshall and Tully deconstruct the Fuchida story, suggesting the Japanese battle plan went way past the "victory disease" affliction he and others have attributed to Yamamoto and other planners. He further suggests that the Americans, with their sizable air corps on unsinkable Midway Island, combined with their three carrier aircraft outnumbered the Japanese planes available. Yamamoto's failure to include all six fleet carriers in his attack was a major failing. Deconstructing the battle moment, by moment, they state Fuchida's contention the Japanese flight decks were full of armed planes at the time of the American attack was a fiction, that they were being armed below decks in the hangars, and were not "spotted" or being rushed to the flight deck for launch. They devote much time at the end of the book to point fingers, and there are plenty to go around Japanese and American. Very readable and very interesting.

Yesterday I finished reading James Hornfischer's most recent book, Neptune's Inferno. Focused on the naval actions at Guadalcanal, the book has earned mixed reviews for offering little new on the topic. Hornfischer's previous books were Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, on the Battle off Samar at Leyte Gulf, and Ship of Ghosts on the U.S.S. Houston. Last Stand is one of the best books I've ever read, period.

In Neptune's Inferno, Hornfischer takes on a more expansive topic, focusing on the six month naval campaign to supply and support the Marines on Guadalcanal. From the planning to the actions at Savo Island, the East Solomons battle, Cape Esperance, Santa Cruz, the night actions of Nov. 12-14th, and the disaster at Tassafronga, Hornfischer paints a gruesome picture of war at sea. From both a sailor's view, and from a commander's eye, we get a look inside this desperate struggle in the Pacific as the United States wrested naval dominance from the Japanese at a terrible cost.

As a casual reader of World War II topics, I learned a lot. The real strength of this book, however, is Hornfischer's gift for narration. Regardless whether there is lots new here or not, the author's storytelling ability helps the reader understand the subject in bolder relief than before.

Week from hell at an end?

2011-11-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

Some weeks are just harder than others. Three weeks ago I saw the coincidence of two incredibly demanding activities--JagWire was going to be on deadline the same week as student conferences. It was not a good nexus. After the Museum of Flight get together last Saturday, I foresaw only doom.

Deadline started last Thursday, so I was at school until 9:00. Then this week there has been no time at school earlier than 8:30. Combined with my usual bouts of sleeplessness, it's been a hard week. The good news is that I picked up the paper yesterday for distribution this morning, so that's good, right?

Unfortunately I went out to get ready to come to school this morning. My car wouldn't start. So much for a restful evening of painting Wayne's Legion figures

Texas Hussars: Done at last

2011-11-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

The Texas Hussars clearly showing off their shields

I guess it didn't take that long to complete them, but the Texas Hussars are finished. I painted the adarga's black, as the Murillo prints showed, and the Spanish coat of arms as with the sabretache. I may go with the blue on the cuera lancer.

Texas Hussars: carbine and adarga

2011-11-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, these are almost finished. There are only two bits left to do: the carbine and adarga, or apple shaped shield.

View from front right quarter. The pants are highlighted, and the sword and hands are painted. You might be able to make out facial detail

I'm taking a quick break from cutting the shields from .010 thickness styrene because it's tedious and I'm tired of it. It also lets me take some updated pics of the Hussars so you can see the almost finished versions.

Front view of the horsemen

Texas Hussar officer. He has silver lace as well as trouser markings.

After swapping an e-mail with Doug Hamm in B.C., I decided to go ahead with the adargas. I was up in the air at first because honestly, based on the pictures I have it wasn't clear this shield was used. The Murillo watercolors clearly show a round shield. Second, it was unclear I had enough room for the shields. However, Doug was right when he said the apple shaped shield defined the appearance of this unit. Unfortunately the location of the pelisse over the left arm precludes mounting it on the hussar, so I'll have to place it on the left sheepskin where holsters would be located.

This illustration of a cuera lancer convinced me to go ahead and paint the adarga for the hussars. My shield will be mounted in the same position.

Doug suggested cutting a template and tracing out the design, which I did. I cut and filed a way a small hunk of .040 styrene and used it to trace out on the much thinner plastic. It's done the trick, though I still have some work to do.

Shields cut from thin styrene and carbines await my attention.

The carbines are awaiting my attention, but that won't happen until the shields are cut and the backs are painted.

Texas Hussars WIP pt. 2

2011-11-07T16:59:00.000-08:00

I've made a lot of progress on my hussars. They are to the point now where at least they look like hussars. The dolman was tricky with it's looped braiding. It's possible to make those loops pretty thick, but I wanted to allow the vermillion to show through. I did highlight the Dolman, but not light enough. It's one of those tight-fitting pieces without a lot of folds, so there's not many natural spots to lighten. The buttons are Natural Silver by Vallejo. I like Vallejo's metals very much, though they can get pretty thick and goopy with age.

The hussar's belt is Vallejo Vermillion and Vallejo Dark Blue, highlighted with lightened versions of each. I used Ceramcoat white on all the belting and lace. It concerns me a bit, because it doesn't cover real well, but I think it looks okay. The trousers are Vallejo Blue Gray. I haven't highlighted them yet, but I hope to do so tonight.

According to the Murillo picture and the other photos I posted, the Texas Hussars did not have a sabretache. I should have cut it off but I didn't, and it's a little late now. I opted instead to decorate it with the arms of Spain. It's small and looks alright.

I don't have a ton o of things to do. Tonight I should be able to finish highlighting the trousers, paint and detail the hands and sword, and probably paint the faces. That leaves me two challenges: the carbines and shields. I should have left the carbines on the sprue to paint them, but no-dopey me. I'll probably paint the base brown before gluing them to the belt and swivel. Then have at it. The shields are difficult. I don't want to cut ten round shields from sheet plastic. I know I'll get them wrong. I've got some ancient shields that I'll dremel the bosses from, but the hard part is sticking them to the figures. I've thought about just gluing them to the valises on the left rear, but I doubt they'll stay. I've also considered trying to drill in a pin, but that will make a major mess. I've even considered leaving off the shield altogether; they aren't right, they would need some sanding to get the "apple" shape. But the shield is part of the charm of the Texas Hussar. You'll see what I come with in my next entry.

Taking Stock

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

It is the last day of October, and addition to answering the doorbells for trick or treaters, I thought it might be worthwhile to review the month just completed as well as the year in terms of projects and purchases.

Frankly, I find this to have been a productive year for a number of reasons. I'd just like to focus on expense for a minute. Three or four years ago I spent money on figures like a drunken sailor. They might have been figures I might eventually have an interest in painting, but I basically just stockpiled figs. Mostly they were OG figures I ordered through my membership in the OG Army. I stockpiled huge numbers of Hundred Years War figures, American Revoltion Figures, War of 1812 figures.

Two years ago that all changed. I stopped using credit, and began paying cash for everything. I'm in the credit card users protection program. This year I've bought few figures, often using Christmas and birthday cash to buy the figures I needed. No purchases on spec, all purchases directed at a particular project.

At the same time I've been able to reduce some of my figure stocks. I painted all of my 15mm Jacobite project in August, with the exception of some of the very cool baggage that go with them. I finished all of the American Revolution figures I picked up for my Hobkirk's Hill game. Though I still have figures to paint for AWI, and will also buy minis for future battles, they can wait until I'm ready.

I've also taken on two projects this year. The first was my Sluys battle. I still think of this as Sluys round one. I learned a little bit about the period-though not as much as I'd like-and put together two fairly representative fleets. David Manley's medieval naval rules also provide for some single ship battles and I'd like to build another round of ships to make use of them effectively. It's a low cost, high labor activity, but I think I'm up to the challenge.

Finally, there are my Mississippi projects. This is really a labor of love that can cover the Spanish-American tensions as well as Fallen Timbers. I've purchased a fair number of figures for this project. The Perry hussars I'm currently working on, the cuera foot, horse and Spanish artillery from the Dayton Painting Consortium are waiting to be painted. That's about 45 figures. I also have American dragoons and mounted militia to paint, plus regular infantry, militia foot, and artillery to paint for about 120 figures. I also have about 80 unpainted Indians I would love to finish, but I have 100 or so painted figures, so they aren't exactly necessary to the project.

So that means I need to paint 165ish figures with some 80 figures optional. Plus terrain pieces, plus deciding on a set of usable rules. I'm thinking Brother Against Brother with some modifications for cavalry.

I envision running at least one scenario using the Mississippi figures at Enfilade. That means figures need to be pretty much wrapped up by early April in order to playtest games before the convention.

WIP: The Texas Hussars

2011-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

My Mississippi Project is going to require a fair amount of painting for both side. Foot, horse and guns-maybe 200 figures between now and Enfilade. (Really? What am I thinking?) Of those, 50 figures are mounted. I've purchased all of them and they're just awaiting paint. The Americans have twenty mounted militia from OG, and ten light dragoons also from OG. The Spanish have ten of the mounted cuera from Dayton Painting Consortium and ten of the Texas Hussars based on the Perry Brothers plastic French Napoleonic hussars.

The Perry figures have the virtue of providing several different head choices, so it was possible to pick the mirliton shako worn by early French hussars. The pieces fit well and and aren't ambitiously fiddly. I've finished all the horses and am working on the riders.

I started by assembling all the bits-horses and riders and shooting them with white primer. I chose my horse colors carefully. All the colors are Delta Ceramcoat or Vallejo. All colors received a drybrush highlighting followed by a dark wash. The sheepskins are ivory washed with a grey-brown. I chose Vallejo's vermillion for the colored points and the valises, and trimmed them in Prussian blue. The bridles, strapping etc were all in Ceramcoat black with a quick highlight of charcoal. I found the horses to be fairly simple to do.

Right now I'm wrapped up with the riders, which are a bit more challenging. Face it, hussars are pretty busy and the challenge is to remain patient enough to finish them.

Thus far I've focused on finishing their shakos and pelisses. I painted the base coat of the dolman Vallejo vermillion. Then I painted the pelisse Vallejo blue gray, highlighting with Vallejo azure. Then I did the fur edging in Ceramcoat spice brown. I decided to give the pelisse white lining, but because I wanted good coverage I used Vallejo foundation white. I worked for a while on the pelisses, but finding them fairly tedious I took time to do the shakos. I stayed with a basic black, avoiding the red wing in one of the examples.

That's where they stand today. I hope to have the pelisses finished tomorrow, and move on to the dolman.

Ramon de Murillo and the Texas Hussars

2011-10-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ramon de Murillo was a citizen of New Spain. In 1804, according to historian Jesus de la Teja, Murillo sent a letter to King Charles IV's foreign minister, Manuel de Godoy offering his analysis of Spain's frontier forces in New Spain. Murillo claimed six years experience as a cadet at the desk of the Interior Provinces as well as service in several Indian campaigns.

De la Teja published his analysis of Murillo's letter as well as the letter itself on the web. Those with an interest in Murillo's proposal to modernize frontier forces in the Spanish borderlands. Murillo was highly critical of the cuera horsemen, their armament, their dress and their appearance. The lance was too easily broken, though the shield was still valuable because it protected the horse and rider from Indian arrows. The leather jacket, literally the cuera, was unsightly and too long.

Murillo, clearly influenced by Napoleonic military fashion proposed troop types to supplant or at least bolster the cuera militia. First he recommended the cuera reduce their leather vest from thigh length to waist length. Murillo also suggested a reorganization of the presidial units defending the Spanish frontier.

Murillo's cuera with shortened leather jacket and leather leggings. For all his complaints, the lance is retained.

Finally, Murillo offered two new troop types to supplant or complement the existing militia units defending the borderlands. First he suggested the cuera companies be replaced by a chasseur unit. Though I am unable to provide a picture of this unit, it is it is depicted in Murilla's own watercolor on pg. 507 of the Teja article. These were to be deployed in "flying companies." However the jewel of Murilla's reorg was to be, what he described as the heavy cavalry unit, the Texas Hussars or Usares de Tejas. I've provided several pictures of the Texas Hussars from a variety of sources, including the Murillo watercolor.

54mm figure of a mounted Texas Hussar. The base colors are in agreement with the images that follow. Red or scarlet Dolman with light blue pelisse and light blue trouser. Sword and shield are deployed with carbine present.

The shield is round, unlike other depictions in modern modeling examples. They have more of the "apple" or heart shaped shield similar to the genitor light horse of the middle ages.

I am presently working on the Texas Hussar, using the Perry French Hussars. I'll provide you more of a play by play of their painting as they near completion. Suffice it to say I like these miniatures very much.

Murillo's own watercolor of the Texas hussars, very similar to the example above and those that follow.

The Texas Hussar found on a Spanish web forum. The blue is darker, the pelisse fur is black and the "wing" of the mirliton shako is red.

Another miniaturist's version of the Texas Hussar.

It is unclear whether the Texas Hussars ever took the field. Some sources say they served from 1803-05, but that would be a year before Murillo's letter to Godoy. They are, to say the least beautifully uniformed and accoutered. However, as Teja points out, under-resourced, it is likely they would have devolved into a condition similar to the cuera: practical uniforms with practical equipage and armament according to their need.

My Mississippi Project: Defending the Spanish Border

2011-10-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

In 1783 the United States and Spain were allies, two of the signatories of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. The United States won its independence and the vast lands west of the Appalachians to the Mississippi River. If they could wrest them from their Indian inhabitants. Spain won the Floridas from Britain, together with its port of Pensacola. If they could stave off their weak but potentially dynamic young ally.

The Louisiana Regiment was one of the few regular Spanish formations in North America.

Fast forward 15 years. By 1797 thousands of settlers poured over the Appalachians into Kentucky and Tennessee. The American army, through stumbles and disasters, conquered a peace with the Indians. Productive farms in the Ohio valley, unable to get their goods over the Appalachians sent it by flatboat to the Mississippi and from there to New Orleans, where it was sold or trans-shipped to the Atlantic coast or Europe. Or not.

The stumbling block was Spain. The Spanish controlled New Orleans, the Floridas and Mexico. They were determined to keep the Americans, rapidly expanding west, out of Spanish territory. To do that they established military posts on the west side of the Mississippi, established posts at Natchez and Chickasaw Bluffs on the east side of the Mississippi (against the terms of the Treaty of Paris) and made peace overtures to the powerful Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians in the Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama regions. They put oared gondolas on the Great River with orders to inspect and obstruct traffic headed to New Orleans.

Chickasaw warrior. The Spanish made alliance with many native tribes to deter invasion by the Americans.

The Spanish empire bordering American territory was enormous. To garrison it, the Spanish depended on a few European troops augmented by colonial militias. The system of presidios, or military posts, was systematized in New Spain by the 1770's as was the number of cuera or presidial militia. These soldiers were intended largely to defend the frontier from Louisiana to New Mexico, chiefly against Apache and Comanche indian attacks. Armed with the escopeta, a short musket or shotgun, sword, lance and shield, they were deemed to be effective against clubs, lances and arrows wielded by indigenous warriors. Their clothing featured a knee length leather vest, heavy enough to turn aside many of these weapons, much like the buff coats worn by Cromwell's Ironsides. As more of the indians were armed with trade muskets from English traders, they posed a greater challenge for the cuera.

In order to maximize their troop strength to deal wit a potential American conflict the Spanish made alliances with various Indian tribes. In order to preserve approaches to New Orleans, the Spanish enlisted the aid of Chickasaw warriors. To the west, the Spanish were on friendly terms with the Comanches, and included some of their number in the expedition to intercept Lewis and Clark.

Traditional Cuera soldier that served in the Spanish borderlands. This illustration shows the subject with lance, shield and musket. He is equipped with a thigh-length leather jacket.

'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'

2011-10-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast of St. Crispins, the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt is 1414. For those of us who cherish the Hundred Years War, it is a day to be remembered. I can honestly say (and I have several times on this blog) that John Keegan's account of the battle in The Face of Battle remains one of my most important motivators to continue in miniature gaming and particularly the Hundred Years War.

Of course another important motivator was the fine Kenneth Branagh movie version of Henry V. The stirring St. Crispin's Day speech remains one of the finest monologues in all of Shakespeare. You can find it here.

My Mississippi Project: American Service Dress 1792-1807

2011-10-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

My Mississippi Project took a brief detour as I took a couple of weeks to work on figures for an upcoming Martian game. Before my trip to Mars however, I painted the fifteen unpainted Wayne's Legion figures I still had hanging around. For some reason, I thought I had more, but no such luck. I looked everywhere and dope-slapped myself when I realized I'd painted some of them for War of 1812 Virginia militia. Doh!

Old Glory Wayne's Legion Line skirmishing. Quite serviceable figures though the necks often seem a bit too long. Posing with muskets is also a bit dicey.

A few of these figures sport the blue wool winter service trousers. They would serve well as American infantry from 1792-1810

One might wonder why the heck Virginia militia would be dressed similar to Wayne's Legion, whose uniforms were designed in 1792. The fact of the matter is that American uniforms changed very little from the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 up until the eve of that other great Indian fight nobody knows anything about, the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

Though the uniform went through several permutations, the uniform of the period was adopted with Congressional authorization of the Legion of the United States in 1792. Built on the wreckage of the army butchered at the Battle of the Wabash, the Legion was composed of four sub-units, each of 1,280 composed of dragoons, artillery, light infantry, and line troops. Wearing a distinctive round hat with bearskin crest, each of the four sub-legions wore red facings, but distinctive markings-a colored hat band and plume.

1792 Regulation Uniforms. Note the colored plume and hat band of the sub-legion. They would be gone with the passing of the Legion. Note the knee length coat. Charles McBarron illustration

After the victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the triumphant Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Congress downsized the army and eliminated the Legion, reducing the army from 5,120 to 3,000 troops, discarding the light troops and forming the remainder into four regiments. These regiments dressed alike with red facing and those troops wearing white bearskin crests changed to dark crests.

Though the uniform went through the minor changes, such as the addition or subtraction of lace here and there, and the lengthening and shortening of uniform coats allowing turnbacks or not, the United States infantry changed its dress very little. The round hat with bearskin crest became the standard headdress for infantry and artillery, with the cavalry wearing a Tarleton helmet.

Later dress. The infantryman wears blue trousers as part of his winter dress. The green dragoon uniform is evident. From MAA 352 by James Kochan and David Rickman.

There was one major change during this time and that was for dragoons. In 1799 they adopted green uniforms, mostly through the work of a contractor waiting on authorization from the War Department. In 1801, the dragoons were unhorsed and became foot soldiers unless mounted troops were required. A cost saving measure. In 1808 the dragoons received another new uniform, this time blue with white trim and a helmet similar to those worn in the War of 1812.

In 1810, with the country preparing for war, the infantry received altogether new uniforms, one familiar to War of 1812 buffs. They would see use in the victory at Tippecanoe and the embarrassment of Queenston Heights.

Making the Most of My In Service Days: Thursday Live Blog

2011-10-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

It's darned early, 5:03 AM. I have today off, courtesy of my principal, the much revered Brian Lowney and the Puyallup School District. October 6th and 7th are district and state in-service days. In the old days we had these days off to participate in teacher trainings offered by districts state wide. Now they're pretty much used for catching up or taking a break after the first month of school.

I plan to use my day mostly for painting little men, so I'll keep you posted throughout the day on what I get done. Warning*: this will be live blogging, little snippets of info, hopefully accompanied by pictures as the day goes along. It will also be largely unfiltered. I'll mix in various other activities as the day goes along.

5:10 My day begins with our pets. 15 year old cat Daphne, mini-Australian shepherds Jack and Lucy, nine and ten respectively get fed and then I take the dogs for a walk. Nothing long, about 15 minutes in our development. It's been pissing rain the last 24 hours, but I managed to get them out in between most of the raindrops. It's dark, so picture taking is out (besides my iPhone is charging and my pics will be with my phone today. Probably.) After we get back and dried off a bit, I'll settle in to read and maybe a nap until Lorri heads off to work at7:00. I've been a bad sleeper for a number of years now and the best I can manage is 6 1/2 or so hours per night. Last night was worse than usual. Pretty wakeful after 2:30 and wide awake at 4:00. Definitely a nap in the cards.

For now I'm going to read An Artist in Treason by Andro Linklater . It's a biography of James Wilkinson, general in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, but more importantly in the period from 1784-1813 or so. It is a 2009 biography about one of the most extraordinary rascals in American history, and covers the era of my Mississippi project. It's a very accessible work about Wilkinson's role as a spy for the Spanish during this critical era.

7:25 Emerged from the shower to howls of protest from Daphne, the dogs had their daily savaging of her food from her dish.

Today I have two chief goals. The first is to finish basing the Space 1889 Martian swordsmen and Wayne's Legion figures I have on my desk. You can see them here. I used wood putty on their washers and Litko bases respectively as build-up. Shouldn't be a big job. I'll write more about them later. The Wayne's Legion figures are from Old Glory's range. Serviceable despite some errors. The Martians are from RAFM.

I also want to finish painting the big critters. These are Gashants, riding beasts of Mars, again from RAFM. I really like this particular version of the Gashant. They appear large and fierce. They are the mounts for some Martian native light horse, er, native light gashant, um, irregular mounted forces.

10:10 I'm off to run some errands--library and a haircut. Worked on my Gashants while watching Khartoum. Definitely one of my favorite movies. I worked hard to even out the color on the critters. They've been washed at least three times now. First with a lighter color, then a darker shade of the base color, then with a black wash. Started on the horse furniture, er you know what I mean.

2:00 Got back from my errands had some lunch and plugged in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Probably my favorite Western and definitely my favorite Eastwood. I've worked for about an hour adding details to the Gashants. Painted their beaks, saddles and reins, their head armor in addition to blanket rolls and strapping. Probably another hour's worth of work to go. Unfortunately I have to take a break to make the dog's food (long story,) and clean up the kitchen.

5:05 I've finished the Gashants and the basing for the Martian swordsmen. I'm getting dinner ready which will keep me busy for a while.

8:30 Finished basing all the figures, and I'm probably ready to call it a night. Maybe read for a bit, and check back in with finished figures tomorrow.

Useful Blogs--or at least I think so.

2011-10-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of blogs I'd like to plug. First is the Quindia Studios blog by Clarence Harrison. Harrison has great pics of his work, and keeps us up to date on his League of Augsburg project. But I confess I got there for only one reason. Flag Mondays. Each Monday Harrison posts a useful flag for the American War of Independence. Though he has plans to do British flags, he's mostly sticking with American banners. American flags are tough because little is know about them for certain. He's created beautiful flags for those units he is certain about, as well as those he's hypothesized for. He also has some gorgeous national banners. Every Monday. I've downloaded 21 of them, and now all I have to do is make use of them.

Clare Harrison's Stars and Stripes variants.

Another blog I've taken to following belongs to Doug Hamm. I've written a little about Doug before. He is my good friend from Surrey, B.C. who often prods me about my lack of blog posts. Doug has recently introduced his own blog, Dots of Paint. Doug is a wonderful painter, certainly the fastest painter I've ever known and he is a master of the black primer paint system. He has some fabulous projects he's created--a mammoth War of 1812 collection, a very nice pile of figures for the First Jacobite Rebellion, some very nice French and Indian War figures and many other explorations in other periods. I'm sure he'll have some interesting things to say and share. Yes the Battle of Smythville does seem to have borrowed my name, which I'll try to understand at a later date.

These aren't French Napoloeonics, they are Plauche's New Orleans militia battalion from the Battle of New Orleans. Doug Hamm has cornered the market on War of 1812, the interesting and the uninteresting.

The Mississippi Project: the Why and Wherefores

2011-09-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know if gamer friends understand me. Sometimes I feel they think I choose projects just to see how weird I can be. (Of course, I played Bruce Meyer's Jurassic Reich game, and there ain't much weirder than that. Fun but weird.) What usually draws me in is my interest in historical circumstances. The Lewis and Clark project rose out of my interest in the expedition, but also that Spain actually did make an effort to intercept the Captains and their charges. My latest project I'll simply call my Mississippi Project. Again, another hypothetical conflict between the United States and Spain, but based very much on historical circumstances.

1794 map of the southern United States showing border with Spanish territories. Spain rightly feared American encroachment in Spanish possessions, particularly an effort to wrest New Orleans from their control.

Between 1797 and 1807, U.S. and Spanish armies faced off several times over the official borders between the upstart, covetous Americans and the fading Spanish empire. In several cases the U.S. government rushed elements of its tiny regular forces to enforce its claims. At other times conflict could have been precipitated by frontier militias anxious to pry loose Spanish fingers from the Mississippi River chokepoint of New Orleans. The Burr Conspiracy of 1806 was just such a potential conflict. From Florida to Louisiana, from Texas to New Mexico (Spanish provinces, not states,) both sides provided ample provocations to raise the ire of the other. The Lewis and Clark expedition and Zebulon Pike's exploring party, both organized and equipped by the U.S. military, were considered tests that had to be met to sustain the Spanish empire in America at the same time the Americans extended their imperial aspirations across the continent.

This project will also weave together two other semi-projects. When they first became available I bought some of the Old Glory Wayne's Legion figures and didn't really do much with them. It didn't help that the light infantry figures were incorrect and I wasn't sold on Darryl Smith's Our Moccasins Trickled Blood rules. Eventually I painted up some of the figures for Virginia militia in the War of 1812 and others for Lewis and Clark. This project will allow me to paint all my remaining Wayne's Legion figures in the 1796 pattern uniform, but I'll also commit to playing all three periods. I can do actions from the Fallen Timbers campaign, it keeps Lewis and Clark alive but no longer a one trick pony affair. And then there is the war of nerves between the U.S. and Spain in which American uniforms change drastically, but I'm not sweating it (and nobody makes them anyway

The really nice part of this project is that it's already partly completed. The Spanish troops are all painted except for a pair of irregular cavalry units and some guns and gunners. I do need to paint more Americans but not that many. My Indians are all finished and desperate to be let out of their box. I would like to buy another 30 of the wonderful Perry Southern militia figures from their AWI range, but otherwise I own all the figs.

In posts that follow I'll share some of the troop types and provide pics of completed units. I'll also share my ideas for a mini-campaign I have percolating, as well as sources in case something like this piques your own interest.

Fix Bayonets: My first game of Sail and Steam Navies

2011-09-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the second installment of Fix Bayonets. Held at historic Fort Steilacoom, it's a nice little gathering at a great location.

I hosted a small ACW naval game using the Sail and Steam Navies rules I bought last month. While I'd read the rules pretty thoroughly it was the first game I'd actually played. I chose a scenario I'd run before with Ironclads featuring the large Union wooden vessels Niagara and Vanderbilt intercepting the Stonewall with wooden consorts in stormy conditions headed for Havana.

Confederate fleet enters the board, looking something like a hydroplane race. From top: Texas (Thoroughbred Alabama), Bat (Peter Pig blockade runner), Thoroughbred Stonewall, scratchbuilt blockade runner masquerading as Tuscaloosa after I left my actual miniature at home! Dopey me.

The Union squadron. From top: scratchbuilt Niagara, Thoroughbred Kearsarge, and scratchbuilt Vanderbilt. All scratchbuilt ships by Larry Enoch.

I hadn't counted on the small table (6' X 5'), which was kind of cozy for 1/600 scale, but due to the scenario conditions it worked out-visibility and movement were both reduced to 42"

There are some real advantages to S&SN. The rules can be played off the ship cards and a one page quick sheet. At least in theory. The ship cards are color coded and are provided as part of the rules package that come in a 535 page .pdf on a CD-ROM. The ships are rated throughout the war, so many have more than one card. Because the game is basically played on the ship cards, it's important to have the capacity to print them out in color, which can be an expensive proposition. I printed out the cards I needed and then laminated them with my handy home laminator.

This single exchange of broadsides between Tuscaloosa and Vanderbilt resulted in a magazine explosion and plunge to the bottom for the tiny Confederate ship.

Far in the background, the sloop Niagara is pounding the Texas to splinters, while the Kearsarge and Stonewall prepare for a one sided exchange.

Stonewall has sailed through her Union adversaries and isn't looking back. On to Havana and victory.

The game itself is somewhat less important as I was trying to to get a handle on the rules and especially to see if the players liked them. Nevertheless, a quick blow by blow is in order. The Confederates entered the table somewhat the worse for wear due to storm damage. The Stonewall, accompanied by the steamers Texas (freshly escaped from a French shipyard and fitted out in the Azores), the Tuscaloosa, and the blockade runner ran headlong into the open arms of the an American squadron searching for the French-built vessels. The super-sloop Niagara, Cornelius Vanderbilt's armed steamship Vanderbilt, and the Kearsarge.

USS Kearsarge ignominiously ramming USS Vanderbilt. Kearsarge, with her steering destroyed, had little choice in the matter.

The game opened outside of the limited visibility, due to rain and fog. Speed was reduced by 1/3, and gunnery suffered a minus due to high seas. On turn two that changed as Niagara devastated Texas with her massive broadside. Kearsarge and Niagara continued pounding Texas, while the diminutive Tuscaloosa tangled with the massive Vanderbilt. Meanwhile Bat and Stonewall seemed to slip through the Union net. Stonewall connected once with her massive 12 inch Armstrong rifle, tearing through Kearsarge, causing a boiler explosion, damaging steering and killing crew. This bit of good fortune did not prevent Tuscaloosa from suffering a mortal magazine explosion after a one sided exchange with Vanderbilt. Kearsarge, out of control, eventually collided with Vanderbilt, nearly sinking in the process, while Bat and Stonewall steamed for Havana--only to be interned and sold by the U.S. Navy. Based on the scenario rules, the Confederates won.

I found the rules to be more playable than Ironclads without much loss of authenticity. There are a couple of clarifications needed to some language-as with all rules. Everyone liked the simple order writing requirements. Some differences in the game really did unbalance the game. In Ironclads, Niagara's 150 pdr. Parrotts and 11 inch smoothbores would fire every other turn, as would Stonewall's Armstrong rifle. In this game only monitor guns fire every other turn. I truly don't have a problem with this but it made Niagara the grim reaper against wooden ships. However, against armored Stonewall, hits pretty much pinged off with little opportunity to do serious damage.

I'm anxious to try a bit more evenly balanced game in the near future. I think Sail and Steam Navies is a winner.

Do Overs

2011-09-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I'm contemplating re-painting some figures. Twenty years ago I painted in a completely different style. I was a paint stainer. It was a style I learned from a friend of mine, Bill Stewart. He was, and remains very good at it, is highly productive with this technique, and continues to produce lots of beautiful figures with it. I had some success with that technique, but I also produced some very light colored figures I no longer like, and I'm thinking about repainting them.

The two figures in the middle are painted for the Legion system in the Fallen Timbers campaign. The two outside figures are in the later 1797 regulations. The figure on the right is in the all-blue winter dress.

With the Jacobites and their enemies finished, I'm beginning work on my next project-my hypothetical war on the Mississippi River between the U.S. and Spain. Many of the American figures will come from the Old Glory Mad Anthony Wayne range. I painted figures for the Fallen Timbers campaign many years ago, staining them. Today my technique is more of a block color with highlighting way of painting. I like it better because the colors look more, well, colorful. I've include some of my old figures, along with some of my newer figures from my Lewis and Clark project as comparison. The other reason for re-painting was that the U.S. uniform regulations changed in 1796 with the reorganization of the Legion of the United States and the end of its odd color-coded style. With the reorganization of the Legions into four regiments, the army retained many of the features of the previous uniform, but with simple red facings for all units, the colored bands on the round hat were eleminated, and everyone had a black bearskin crest on their headgear, rather than white for some.

These are the same uniforms the Lewis and Clark Expedition wore on dress occasions, and were in service from 1796-1804, and the figures could do double-duty for L and C and my Mississippi campaign. So I'm likely going to do the repaint. The alternative would be to buy more of the Anthony Wayne figures. To be truthful, I have a lot of these figures painted, together with bazillions of OG Woodland Indians, but I've never played a game with them. They've lived in their box for years! That is a shame. With lots of excitement about my project, which could become a nice weekend mini-campaign, I'm leaning toward the repaint.

I've also included a poll. The question is would you consider re-painting some of your figures?

Moving Along: Hallmark Jacobites finished.

2011-09-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished painting flags for five units to put the finishing touches on my Hallmark Jacobites.

The Highland Army

This has been a difficult project to struggle through. For one thing, I know little about the period-always a little dangerous-and was attracted more to the figures than anything else. As I've said before, the entire range-Highlanders, League of August figures, and extensive baggage and fortifications-are very nice. They never practiced the steroid induced figure creep of other 15mm ranges, but despite their small size retain considerable detail and character.

Five of the English Battalions I've painted. Mostly the Scots Brigade

The Scots Brigade with their commander

Militia Horse

The Highland center with Viscount Dundee

Right flank of the Highlanders

Left flank of the Highlanders. Not super close, but you do get an idea of the figure quality

Attracted to the Battle of Killiecrankie, I acquired more figures than I needed, but painted them all anyway. About 375 figures total with most painted this summer.

For the Highlanders I have eight warbands. In the rules we'll play King's War, they have no shooters and are superior melee troops. They also have the a single light gun, a small troop of horse and the Viscount Dundee. The Scots are only allowed a single leader according to the special rules.

The English have ten battalions including two Scots units in plaid and bonnets. I painted the Scots Brigade from Holland-they're the ones with the cool flags. In addition they have three light guns and two small units of militia horse. They have one mounted leader, a couple of dismounted commanders, and some grenadiers.

I'm anxious to try out the rules to see if they work. Written locally, the rules are really intended for the pike and shot era, but this may call for something a little more period specific.

Logging Off TMP

2011-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've been a member on The Miniatures Page since 2002, supporting and not supporting, but I've decided to part company with that forum. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's a useful resource for our niche hobby, but times change, and so did TMP

The past few years have kept me busy and I've spent less time there with more commitments required to school. However, there were more boards and more non-miniature related shenanigans going on which I found annoying. Some of them I enjoyed-any talk about music or movies usually gets me blathering. But there also seemed to be more of an edge to the posting, more needless nastiness that seemed unwarranted. Sort of like American politics without the destruct button.

The last straw for me, however was the harassment of a member through polls and in posts that I felt was completely unwarranted. When the actions continued and reached their inevitable and ugly climax, I expressed my views in the forums and contacted the editor directly. It was clear that this behavior of baiting and harassment was okay, and that was all I needed to be persuaded my time at TMP was over.

TMP wasn't always this way. I've watched the editor ban others who were a pain. I've seen him ban those who harassed him. I've always believed him to be a fair and considerate person, but this latest issue leaves me with a different view. I've been a school teacher too long to condone such behavior with my support. We're done here.

Note: I've decided to backtrack on my decision to boycott TMP just a bit. I have determined to post on blogs of war when I have something of significance to share, but I'm staying out of the forums.

A Farewell to Summer

2011-08-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

If you're an American teacher, this weekend means the end. Beginning Monday I'll be back at school for a few days of workshops, and on Thursday students arrive whether I'm ready or not. It's 8:00 Saturday morning and I'm busy counting up the things I need to do this weekend. There's a deck to finish staining, some things inside to help Lorri with, a toolshed door to rebuild (ack, two toolshed doors to rebuild.) There's also the matter of doing some schoolwork to get ready for those 137 students I'll see on Thursday. Bummer.

Dean's British riflemen, higlanders and a smattering of guerrillas march toward waylaying a French column.

French cavalary and voltigeurs waiting to be waylaid.

I'd like to lament the passage of summer vacation, but actually it's been enjoyable. Not quite as much gaming as I'd like, but I've enjoyed the ones I've played. Yesterday was our fourth and final Truant's game, unless those who are retired or have Fridays off choose to continue. I didn't actually get to play. We changed internet/phone/television carriers this week after ten years with Comcast, and the resulting snafus kept me too busy to actually play Dean's awesome looking Sharpe Practice game. It looked nice and I have a couple of pictures, but I had to go.

This morning I finished painting the last of the Hallmark British for the first Jacobite Wars. I'll work on mounting them up this week and get some pictures posted as soon as they are done. I have 30 gunners and British cavalry to paint to wrap up the project (except for the baggage which will come later.) Another check mark on my things to do list.

After the Jacobites are done, it's on to the Mississippi. I've begun assembling the Perry Hussars to make my Texas Hussars. Very nice figures and a lot less fiddly than the Victrix Brits. I also ordered some more of the Spanish militia types I used in my Lewis and Clark adventure- the soldados de cuera mounted as well as dismounted-and some Spanish artillery and gunners. I'm looking forward to something new, just like the coming school year.

The Burlington Races--The War of 1812 on Lake Ontario

2011-08-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

American fleet in their starting positions. The cards by each ship note the movement order. The Pike is the lead vessel

Last Friday we met for one of our Truants games. Dave Schueler and Mark Waddington teamed up to play an age of sail game based on Jim Moulton's Prevailing Winds rules. Mark Waddington shared his magnificent hand-made sailing vessels with nine players, none of whom had ever played the rules before. This was a play test, so it was clear from the outset the game might have some rough edges.

First of all, it needs to be said, this game was a real gamble for the hosts. Not many of us play a lot of age of sail games, so we were easily confused. The wind system was not difficult, but without hexes to visualize wind direction, it could occasionally be tricky but doable once I figured it out. Movement was based on a card draw system that made things pretty random and difficult to stay in formation, and was my least favorite part of the game. I thought gunnery was the easiest and best part of the game. The lack of familiarity with the rules led to some unnecessary crabbing, which was unfortunate.

The War of 1812 lake battles are pretty interesting with some pretty unusual ship types. First, they are generally smaller than we'd find in Napoleonic battles, with sloops, brigs and lots of small gunboats. There is also the matter of armament as both side try to ship the biggest broadside for their small vessels. Many vessels carry carronades instead of long guns to boost their broadside weights, but sacrifice gun range. In our battle that was a problem as the Brits, with generally larger ships but few long guns faced a bigger fleet with more long guns.

I was an American player running the sloop Madison, following behind the American flagship Pike captained by Mark Waddington. The Pike was armed with all long 24 pdrs., and simply ruled the lake. As the British struggled to close the range, Pike easily dismasted the British flagship Wolfe, and had its way with a couple of the smaller British schooners. Madison got off a couple shots with long guns, and fired off the carronades once as the British tried to close, but could not match Pike's hitting power. Mark clearly had the most fun of the game. The gunboats had their own little scrum going with a couple of the smaller British ships. The British had a little more success fending of this mosquito fleet, sinking a couple of them and dismasting another.

I really enjoyed this game, and would love to play it again. I only took one picture at the beginning, which doesn't do justice to either the game or Mark's beautiful ships. Hand-made from balsa, with scribed decking, and handmade brass guns and gun carriages, they are simply magnificent. I believe they are scaled at 1/600. We played with sixteen ships, and he had another eight or ten in his carrying case.

Figures, Follies and Foolery

2011-08-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's August 14th and back to school is just around the corner. My summer game plans have not gone well. I just haven't been able to do as much as I hoped. First, I'd like to offer my litany of excuses. Come on, Congress had the debt ceiling fiasco, we're entering a political campaign season, everyone's handing out excuses, it's only fair I share some of my own.

Hallmark English regiment nearly complete

Three partly completed regiments. I have these four pictured units left to complete. Would love to be done with them by Friday August 19th.

First, I made some painting plans for the summer. They were to finish my 15mm Hallmark Jacobite project and move on to my interesting 1797 hypothetical war in Mississippi project. Let's just say I haven't gotten as far as I'd like. I ended up having a lot more British troops to paint than I thought, in fact more than actually served in Scotland in 1689. That's okay. The fact of the matter is that I'm getting close to finished painting all 180 figures. That still leaves cavalry, guns, gunners and various accoutrements to paint as well, but when they are done, they're done. It's a finite, finished project.

Ahh, my messy painting table. One Hallmark unit finished, but not based. To the right are some Old Glory Wayne's Legion figures patiently waiting their turn in the painting queue.

While I haven't finished a damn figure for my Mississippi project, I am acquiring some new minis. Many of the figures I'll use for scenarios for this project will be drawn from other activities. Wayne's Legion figures and militia types from Lewis and Clark and Fallen Timbers; Spanish figures from Lewis and Clark; Indians from Fallen Timbers. However, using some birthday bucks and a bit of my stipend from my Ellensburg teaching gig I've ordered some new toys. First, I ordered (and have received) a box o' Perry French Napoleonic hussars. Remember this picture? Those figures, with their mirliton options, can be made with the Perry hussars by adding a round shield-the perfect accessory for catching Comanche arrows. Nice stuff, definitely less fiddly than the British Napoleonics I was assembling earlier this week. I also ordered more of the soldados de cuera figures that London War Room produced. They are now made by Dayton Painting Consortium. While I've provided a link to their website, you won't find pics of the cuera soldados there. I ordered enough figures to add one figure to each of my two existing units, and one more unit for a total of three. In addition I added a mounted lance armed cuera unit to go with the hussars, and some guns. I'm kind of itching to work on these guys, but Jacobites first.

Boxes of figures!! The Victrix Brits I packed off to Ellensburg lie below the Perry Hussars I received for my birthday. "Our day will come . . . "

In terms of the follies, I announced the purchase of a new set of ACW naval rules a couple weeks ago. I've watched patiently as the mail carrier has driven off each day without dropping off my long-sought rules. Finally, Friday, after I had not received my rules, I called old friend David Sullivan because he said he had ordered them after reading my blog post. He told me he'd received his order from Bay Area Yards. Gah!! I went back to the Bay site, and still sitting in my shopping cart was my order. I'd never actually sent it in. I, of course, immediately remedied that problem. So Sail and Steam Navies should arrive soon, I hope.

There is some upcoming foolery this week as Dave Schueler brings his naval game down to Game Matrix Friday for a truants game. I believe this may be a Barbary Wars game, one of Dave's obsessions, and it should be fun. This is more of a playtest than anything else as I know he's been searching for the right rules. I'm really looking forward to it and will be sure to pass a report along.

Victrix Napoleonic British WIP

2011-08-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'm over here at Central Washington University in beautiful Ellensburg. I opted not to bring a laptop with me, know I have my iPhone and will have access off and on to a computer lab. I'll have some down time so I opted to bring along a box of my cherished and well-buried Victrix Napoleonics.

A few years ago at Enfilade I spent some of my earnings from the bring and buy on a few of boxes of the newly released British, the flank and center company boxes. I purchased these to form the British troops that fought in the Chesapeake region during the War of 1812. You know, burning of Washington, rockets red glare, those British. Unfortunately, they've lived quite happily in my garage, never saying a word, until I moved most of them into my painting room this spring. They cheered a little.

This past Tuesday I opened a box of the little fellows and looked carefully at all the little men and all the little sprues of heads, backpacks, and arms and quickly put them back in the box and put them away. I was scared.

The Victrix British come with eight sprues. Four are mostly bodies with backpacks and heads. The other four are full of fiddly bits-standards, half-pikes, muskets and arms. Don't be daunted.

A sprue of fiddly parts. There are three more just like these.

This morning, while I packed, I stuffed a box of Victrix center companies into my handy messenger bag in the place my laptop would have gone. After checking in to my room early, I opened my box and looked at the sprues of bodies, arms, heads and equipment. Oh my God, where to begin? I eschewed my typical male response to reject the instructions. The instructions have tons of information, including a rulebook. Most importantly they have a diagram showing how to make the various body styles with the multiplicity of arms, legs, head styles and equipment.

The assembly instructions. Keep these around; they'll make your life easier.

After looking at the body styles, and all the bits that would be glued to them, I decided the best course of action was to cut out the full bodies and separate them into types. There are four slightly different body styles for the privates. There are drummer figures, nco figures and officer figures. Be sure you have a sharp hobby knife, and remove all mold marks because fit is so important when it comes to gluing. I found all the parts to be relatively free of flash.

I sorted my miniatures into four groups-basic infantrymen, drummers, nco's and officers.

Once the figures were sorted, I decided to assemble the special figures first, and that is as far as I'll go with this entry. I began with the drummers because they were the most distinct and with few options. First I assembled the drums. They come in two halves with a hole for the peg on the figure. These halves fit together quite neatly, but they have to be wiggled around a bit to snap into place. I used Zap CA glue to assemble my figures, but plastic cement might work better. After assembling the drums, I glued them on to the figures. Mistake! I encourage you to glue the arms on first, let them dry a bit, and then glue the drums on. With drum on, there is much less room to fiddle with the left drum arm in particular. The drum pose seems odd to me, the drumsticks seem to cross a bit too much, and I feel like the drummer is sending out some strange gang sign I don't understand. I also gave the drummers a knapsack and blanket roll. There are some nice choices here. Cut them out and clean them and you're ready to glue them on. I encourage you to put your glue on the belting on the back because it's more likely to touch the knapsack than putting glue on the latter.

Completed drummers. These weren't difficult to finish, but I encourage you to put the arms on first.

Next I chose heads to finish the figure off. There are a number of different head styles: the standard with shako plate and plume, shako with oilskin cover, and even bareheaded. Gluing the heads on can be kind of tricky. The heads fit very precisely. Be patient and move the head around in that recessed collar until it snaps into place. Be sure you've trimmed the neck properly. I spent a lot of time picking heads off the floor

You can see the standard with its tassels in the middle of the photo. Take care cutting it away from the sprue, though it was not as fragile as I feared.

Completed standard bearers. The officers have their sashes to the right, the nco's are sashed to the left.

When the drummers were done I moved on to creating standard bearers. Each box of mini comes with four nco's and four officers and I used these figures to make my standard bearers. The standards themselves are quite nice, but they are spindly, and I always worried about snapping the flags poles or the tassels that come with them. These figures went together pretty easily. The nco's have their sashes on the left (facing the figure) and the officers have their sashes on the right.

This left the remaining nco's and officers. You can choose to create your sergeants with a musket or a half pike. My choice was the latter in order to make them stand out. Again, I was very cautious cutting the half pike out to avoid breakage. You also have a choice of right arms (facing the figure,) either across the body or at his side. I chose the latter. For the officers the choice is mostly regarding the sword arm. The sword arm can be urging the troops on or at attention. I decided to make one of each.

Nco with halfpike, more assembly to come.

Sergeants with half-pike, the finished product.

Completed officer figures.

I've assembled twelve figures. I won't say it's been easy, but it's not difficult either. It simply requires some patience, and it is imperative to learn while you're working. Careful with the glue, and some tweezers might help. There are only a couple of times I felt like Edward Scissorhands.

Next up the kneeling and striding figures which require some additional work.

The Reduction of Fort Powell

2011-08-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Today the Truants met in Tacoma for an Ironclads game. I decided to build a scenario around the aftermath of Mobile Bay. It's a semi-historical scenario centered on the reduction of Fort Powell near the southern entrance to the massive bay.

Rhode Island trading shots with Fort Powell. Rhode Island suffered considerable damage including a level 5 fire, which Dean extinguished just before the ship exploded.

I designed the scenario for five players, and as luck would have it we had six, but that worked out fine. The Union players, Mark, Dean and Chris had a difficult job. They had two missions to pull of successfully. They had three wooden vessels, a sloop and two small 90 day gunboats returning from a mine clearing operation who needed to make it off the south edge of the board, some 64" away. They also had the monitor Chickasaw, the captured Confederate ram, and wooden vessel Rhode Island that were pounding away on Fort Powell, a brick fort with eight guns.

Confederate forces consisting of the ironclad ram Nashville, the semi-engined Tuscaloosa, and the gunboat Morgan appeared on the north board edge at daybreak, not far behind the retreating minesweepers. These were run by Scott, Bruce, and Tom respectively. Tuscaloosa immediately began firing on the trailing 90 day gunboat, Huron, and set her afire. Chris was able to do little as the other two vessels also began effectively shelling her. Huron caught fire and on turn three sank. The other two wooden vessels also struggled. Towing small boats that served as minesweepers, Dean and Chris had to decide whether or not to cast them adrift to increase their speed, and hence sacrificing victory points.

Chippewa is madly burning, while the ram Nashville races toward Kearsarge

The same view from a different angle.

With the wooden vessels in danger of being rapidly overrun, Mark, commanding the Union ironclads, chose to pound the fort circling it in a clockwise fashion and effectively silencing Powell's guns as he traveled. The scenario rules indicated the fort would surrender when six guns were knocked out or their crews killed. Unfortunately his direction of travel took him away from the minesweepers.

Union ironclads are beginning to peek around the corner of Fort Powell. Nashville is visible in the background

Nashville is headed toward a ram with Kearsarge. Kearsarge avoided the ram, but the two ships collided with both suffering damage.

Chris's second 90 day gunboat, Chippewa suffered a fate very like Huron's. Starting with a small fire, the little vessel quickly absorbed all the Confederates' attention and it sank in a few turns. Chris had a generally bad day with lousy luck shooting and absorbing fire. Kearsarge, the larger sloop, began to lose guns, suffered critical steering hits, and just missed being rammed by the massive Nashville. Things looked very bad for the Union minesweepers.

At about this time, with the fort looking largely subdued, the the monitor Chickasaw emerged from the shelter of the fort and began lobbing 11 inch shells at Morgan. With the wooden gunboat beginning to take serious damage we agreed to end the game and tally up the losses.

The Union agreed the wooden minesweepers were likely lost. The Confederates conceded the fort would surrender and the Morgan probably lost as well. The ironclads could safely retire. The fort also did significant damage to Rhode Island, setting her seriously ablaze and doing considerable damage before forcing her to withdraw. With that, all recognized a minor Confederate victory.

Though all struggled with the rules at first, everyone eventually seemed to get the hang of it. However, this may be my last Ironclads game. I'm looking forward to Sail and Steam Navies and determining whether it is a useful substitute.

I'll be away most of this week in Ellensburg for journalism camp. Hope to reconnect when I get back.

My Ironclad gamble: Sail and Steam Navies

2011-08-04T16:17:00.000-07:00

I've probably gotten more use out of ACW ironclad miniatures than any of my other projects. I began with the old Lyzard Grin 1/1200 ships by Richard Houston, and immediately began buying 1/600 ships from Thoroughbred when they became available.

My Lyzard's Grin ships are long gone, and I have a fairly sizable collection of 1/600 ships. A lot of Toby Barrett's fine Thoroughbred vessels, some of the more serviceable Peter Pig ships, though I'm pretty choosey about those I purchased. I also have some hulls for some of the Bay Area Yards, though I haven't been adventurous enough to do anything with them. Love their accessories though. I also acquired some wonderful scratchbuilt miniatures from Larry Enoch

Coming up on my birthday next week, and because I'll be teaching in Ellensburg on the actual day, the family all got together last weekend to celebrate my b-day along with daughter-in-law Michelle's. I received some cash and decided to make a couple of ironclad investments. I ordered the Sail and Steam Navies rules from Bay Area Yards along with the USS Mississippi kit I mentioned in an earlier post.

Peter Pig fort with Thoroughbred guns

Larry Enoch's scratchbuilt U.S.S. Vanderbilt. A beautiful model and a great ship to have in my collection

I've always played with the Ironclads rules, originally a board game published by Yaquinto in 1979. It's a set of rules I've always enjoyed. I have a couple sets of Ironclads, the original Yaquinto game and Expansion rules from the 70's and the Excalibur reprint. They aren't in the best condition and I would love to replace them. I've held off however, because Mr. Barrett, whose work I admire and whom I consider a long-distance soulmate owns the rights to the game and committed to creating miniatures version of the game with some computer managed features including shipcards and game sheets. I am well into the second decade of waiting.

U.S.S. Kearsarge. by Thoroughbred. One of my few fully rigged ships

Scratchbuilt Niagara, again by Larry Enoch. I should rig this bugger too. An enormous ship; at one time the largest wooden vessel in the world.

Many years ago David Sullivan and I fiddled with the rules to make a miniature game sans hexes. This was especially important with the larger vessels due to scale issues and allowing hexless maneuvers. David created turning circles to represent shorter and longer turning radii. We agreed to increase gun ranges to better represent scale, and converted hexes to inches. There are so many things I like about these rules. The fire resolution is great, matching real gun types with possible/probable armor ratings. The hit location and damage resolution are time consuming but seem more realistic than rules that tend to create generic guns and armors. Admittedly the rules work less well for large fleet actions, but honestly I find Mobile Bay and New Orleans to be a little cliche anyway.

Thoroughbred's Scorpion. At one time destined to be North Carolina

Thoroughbred Tennessee. After its capture at Mobile in August 1864, the Tennessee joined the Union Navy two weeks later.

One last scratchbuilt example. The Rhode Island was a member of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron

We made these changes to the rules with knowledge and hope that we would have a true miniatures version of these rules. With all due respect to Toby, I've decided to head in a different direction. My sense is that Sail and Steam Navies is similar to Ironclads, with all the features I hoped in e-version of the latter would have. Computer generated ship cards will make game prep easier and the game should be easier to run at cons. I anxiously await delivery

Jurassic Reich Playtest

2011-07-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

I joined Bruce Meyer at his palace of gaming wonder along with the Olympia gamers (which seems to include gamers from all over the South Sound) for a playtest of Jurassic Reich. Sound a little weird? Well, weird and wonderful. While Bruce explained the background details for the game's rationale, I simply can't remember it all. Let's just say that the Germans have found ways to re-animate dino DNA and have bred nasty meat eating critters. In the scenario the Germans have turned their creations loose against an armored train and its escorts. The train carries the scientist with all the DNA re-animation information, and is headed to Russia and the caring arms of every Nazi's friend, Uncle Joe Stalin.

The game is simple and straight forward. Things move, shoot, fight (or eat) and die. Vehicles and dinos accumulate damage. The dino riders can shoot. Alas, the poor foolish Polish cavalry do not. The flying dinos are pretty nasty and carry bombs, or can dive down on unsuspecting train gunners and guards and gulp them down. One dino carries a light machine gunner and a 37mm AT gun with a couple of rounds. They are nasty buggers. The dino pilots/riders are aided by German glider borne regular infantry. Their job is to stop the train from leaving the table, while avoiding action that will kill the professor-such as derailing the train, or bombing/destroying/eating the car he's in.

I was one of the lucky Poles. I commanded the small unit of Polish lancers and a few sub machine gunners riding on the roof of the train, and a Model T based armored car. Our job was to get the train off the table. The German dino pilots immediately made that difficult by bombing the tracks. At first the track trashing was a ways ahead of us. within a couple of turns the damage occurred much close to us and the train came to a stop. The train came to a stop--a lot like the jeep came to a stop just before the T-Rex ate the silly lawyer next to Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. That was our lot. Shoot the hell out of the dinos before they eat you is the name of the game. My lance armed cavalry vs. the SMG armed dino riders was pretty much a mismatch. I had little chance of winning a melee, but I was nimble, and could perhaps entice them to chase me away from the marooned train. I mostly missed with the heavy machine gun on the armored car, and once dinos got hold of it, they shook it up pretty good. The train managed to use its assets, a mix of heavy and light machine guns and riflemen to inflict some damage, but a melee attack by the dinos, and fire from the ground and air destroyed must of the train's AA ability.

Polish planes (oops, forgot to mention those) managed to shoot down one of the stukasauruses, but we were in a fairly bad way when the game ended to debrief the rules. The rules were fun and playable, but with room to fill them out with more detail once the basic procedures are in place. A good time was had by all.

Dude-Update Your Blog!

2011-07-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

I've been back from beautiful Bend for a couple of days. It was a very enjoyable week with my parents, my sister and her husband, and of course my missus. We stayed in the resort town of Sunriver, about ten miles south of town, but made our way in to Bend several times. It's much larger than I remember it, about 90,000, and has some real attractions. Brew houses galore, a wonderful town to bike around, and a very nice bookstore/game shop, Pegasus Books. Sorry, board games only.

So, what's happening with those projects I set out at the beginning of summer? The good news is, despite the 2001 Mariners detour I'm still painting Hallmark 15's. I've painted four units, though only two of them are painted and flagged. The British units really don't take that long to do. No kilts means less work. The bad news is I have enough figures to paint six more units. That's more than seems to have served in Scotland during the entire rebellion. I'm not quite sure what to do with the leftovers. I'm thinking of painting a couple of units at the Battle of the Boyne. I also have some cavalry and guns to paint-not loads of either. I have the feeling that the Highlands was someplace cavalry was sent to die, or at least get off their horses.

The rules I'm using for this period is Bruce Bretthauer's King's War. They seem pretty easy to play. Choosing rules for the Jacobite Rebellion is difficult. I don't see any purpose-written rules sets for the Jacobite Rebellion general or the 1689 rising in particular. The Kings War rules at least don't treat the Highlanders the same as North American, South American and African aboriginals like DBR does.

In any case, the project proceedeth.

Before I leave, an update

2011-07-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Sherco summer baseball tournament was held at my house in Puyallup. It was a good time though it got started a bit late. Many of the attendees hadn't been to my house in years, and Bill Nelson had never been here, so I had a couple of phone calls, despite the aid of GPS.

The tournament was set up in a round robin format, with each player playing every other player once. With six players, that guaranteed everyone five games. We set up three historical parks-The Kingdome in Seattle, Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and Tiger Stadium in Detroit. I ran the idea for these choices past Time Barela, one of the participants, who was instrumental in helping with the set-up for the draft and tourney. We chose these ballyards because each had something unique. First, none were in existence any longer. The Kingdome was small, a home run hitter's paradise. Candlestick had the notorious wind that could play havoc for pitchers, defenders and right handed hitters. Tiger Stadium, with its right field overhang was another boon to left handers.

Games got under way at about 2:40, about 40 minutes later than anticipated. Because everyone was fairly rusty with the rules, games lasted about two hours. At that point we had to make a decision, and we chose to shoot for completing three games rather than five. The last two games took much less time, about half as long, and we managed to squeeze in some time to eat some of the great food everybody brought.

Everyone seemed to have a good time. In a drafted league, the players tend to get pretty invested in the success of their team, chiefly because it represents their philosophy of what a team should be. There were a couple of heated moments about rules interpretations, but mostly it was about the fun and disappointment of seeing their teams win or lose. Nine games were played, and all but one were pretty close.

How did my team do? Well, my team started in Candlestick Park and built a 2-0 lead that I held until the 9th when Cliff Lee melted down. Bill Nelson strung some singles together. I brought in Mariano Rivera who gave up the game tying runs on another base hit, but snuffed the rally with a double play. The game remained tied through the 10th inning and was won 3-2 by Alexi Casilla on a wind blown home run. I was 1-0.

My next game was against Dave Schueler in the Kingdome. I led off with a hit by the fleet Brett Gardner and stole second. The next batter was my DH, Johnny Damon who singled. I tried to score Damon but Dave made a great throw to nail Gardner at the plate. Bad news, rally ended. In his half of the first, Dave reached base with five consecutive batters, and I found myself down 3-0. A home run in the 3rd inning padded that lead. Though I managed to score a couple of runs, I lost 5-2.

My last game was against Dave Demick, also in the Kingdome. I got off to an early 2-0 lead, but Dave hung in there. As we headed into the later innings, Dave managed to score two runs to tie the game at 2-2. That's where it remained until the ninth when Dave managed baserunners galore, loading the bases with one out. A walk-off single scored the winning run.

I finished the day with one win and two losses. We're going to try to wrap the series in the near future. The tournament standings are as follows:

Dave Schueler   3 wins 0 losses
Bill Nelson        2 wins 1 loss
Dave Demick    1 win 2 losses
Tim Barela        1 win 2 losses
Pat Smyth         1 win 2 losses
Kevin Smyth    1 win 2 losses

Interesting grouping. Unfortunately, I was so busy with the tournament and getting food ready I didn't take pictures. Dopey me.

In Search of Summer.

2011-07-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is a bright sun in a blue sky. Typical for July 16th even in the drippy, gloomy Northwest. The sun has been largely absent this year.

I'm going to be away for a week with the missus searching for that elusive summer sun. Yup, that picture you see is summer someplace. Sadly the picture of our Northwest weather is what you see below. Look like summer to you? Not to me either.

We're sharing a house with my family at a resort area called Sun River, near Bend in central Oregon. Usually a hot spot during July, they are predicting thunder showers for today and tomorrow. Hmmm.

This was the scene in my from my back deck this morning.

If the other picture doesn't give an adequate impression of gray, this is facing more easterly, toward Mount Rainier. See any mountain? Me neither.

Doug Hamm's Solo War of 1812

2011-07-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Doug Hamm is one of my favorite people. He's funny and smart, and is one of the fastest, most amazing painters I know. We paint differently. He uses a black primer method, and I use something akin to more block painting over white primer. The last couple of years I've begun highlighting a bit, which replaces my old series of washes. I don't mean to compare our painting techniques too much because Doug is a far superior painter. In terms of understanding painting technique, dedication to getting the right color, and just doing a better job, Doug is great.

Doug and I share a period of interest and a project, the War of 1812, that little tiff between the U.S. and British interests in Canada. Which I suppose is only appropriate because I'm American and Doug is Canadian. I have a few hundred figures painted and a few hundred more unpainted. Doug has pretty close to a thousand painted figures. We started out wanting to focus on the 1814 Niagara campaign, but it sprouted into different directions. Doug has taken on Crysler's Farm and the broader order of battle from the later campaign, as well as units from New Orleans. I've gotten more interested in the 1813-14 Chesapeake campaign, though nearly all of my Brits remain unpainted.

Our big problem, of course, is distance. We are about 150 miles apart, and usually only see each other at Enfilade. However we do stay in touch by e-mail and Doug follows this blog. Because his house is big enough for a good sized game space, Doug does some solo gaming with his War of 1812 guys. Today he sent me pics of a scenario based on the ACW battle of Corinth. I've include pics from his scenario.

Dressed to the Nines Website back up

2011-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was moderating comments, reader Timothyf35 indicated that while he was interested in the project the Dressed to the Nines website was down. I had immediate fears the Baseball Hall of Fame who hosts the website and database may have taken the site down.

Dressed to the Nines is based on a the work of baseball historian Marc Okkonen. In 1993 Okkonen published a unique and beautiful book on baseball uniforms in the 20th century. When the HOF folks published the color plates in collaboration with Okkonen, they kept the uniform database continually updated.

The really good news is the site is up and working again, so those of you who may have an interest in doing something with baseball miniatures have access to this wonderful site.

Thanks to miniaturewargaming.com for covering one of my more unique projects.

Osprey's The Great Chevauchee

2011-07-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

I finally broke down and ordered this book from Osprey's Raid series. Frankly, most of the titles have little interest for me, but this story of John of Gaunt's 1373 mission of plunder into France held my attention. I have hundreds of singly mounted Hundred Years War figures, and author David Nicolle suggests numerous semi skirmish possibilities for their use. Nicolle is a veteran Osprey medieval historian and he doesn't disappoint with this interesting account of what began as an invasion of France in the "down" years, when France was reclaiming many of England's conquests during the reign of Charles V.

Nicolle provides details of the preparations for the raid, as well as the activities of the chevauchee itself. Drawing on the newly available databases from English archives revealed in Anne Curry's Agincourt: A New History, Nicolle is able to put some numbers to the raid, as well as information about supply. What isn't available is John of Gaunt's, Edward III's son, thoughts about the expedition he was planning.

The book is different than a Men at Arms book, or even a Campaign book, though it is does include some color illustrations and maps. Nicolle's writing is clear and his research is impeccable. This book fills in a big gap in our knowledge of this period between the Treaty of Bretigny (1360) and the descent of both France and England into indifferent royal leadership and civil war. It shows that Col. Burne was incorrect when he stated that during the is period "Nothing worthy of the name of battle was ever fought. . . The war is rather lacking in military interest , for there was remarkably little actual fighting."

2001 Mariners

2011-07-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

The batter figure is right-handed, as are all the Reviresco figures. I painted him as designated hitter Edgar Martinez, the best right-handed hitter on the 2001 Mariners, or any other team for that matter.

This is my rendition of the 2001 Mariners. I loved this team. No they didn't get into the World Series, but there's something to be said too for tying a nearly 100 year old record for most wins in a season. There is something special about a team you support that you know will win every night, and when they don't it's a surprise. The Mariners were 70 games over .500 for goodness sake.

These are the 2001 Mariners in their blue alternate jerseys. It's my favorite Mariners uniform of all time (though I confess to liking the teal tops too, but most folks simply find them hideous.) I tried to do as much with them as I could. I have the numbers for some of the players:

Ichiro right field 51
Mike Cameron center field 44
Mark McLemore left field 4
Freddy Garcia pitcher 34
Dan Wilson catcher 6
John Olerud first base 5
Bret Boone second base 29
Carlos Guillen shortstop 8
David Bell third base 25
Edgar Martinez DH 11
Charles Gipson pinch runner 1
Stan Javier outfielder 28
I also painted up baserunner to represent Ichiro, Cameron, and McLemore.

The outfielders-Mark McLemore, Mike Cameron, and Ichiro Suzuki. I especially like the Ichiro and Cameron castings.

The back of the Edgar figure. Just not broad enough shoulders for me to paint Martinez across the back of jersey

They were fun to paint. I tried to include as much detail as I could. The trim on the sleeves, the All-Star Game and Safeco Field patches on each sleeve. The All-Star Game was held at Safeco in 2001 and the Mariners had an amazing eight players in the game that year. The cap they wore that year didn't have a S for Seattle that year, just a fairly plain compass rose. with teal to represent the cardinal direction. Despite a couple of efforts, I just could not paint the names on the back of the jerseys, despite using a tiny 3/0 brush.

The Mariners battery-Freddy Garcia pitching to Dan Wilson. My wife still believes, hopefully, that Wilson is the greatest ballplayer of all time and should be in the Hall of Fame.

David Bell, Carlos Guillen, Brett Boone and John Olerud were the Mariners' starting infield. Boone and Olerud wen to the All-Star game. Bell and Guillen were later disastrously traded. The story of my life.

This is the base runner figure. I got a passel of them. Okay, four. I painted them up as Ichiro, McLemore, and Cameron as they did the most base stealing. However I painted up the fourth as Charles Gipson, a little used back-up player, primarily used for defense and pinch-running. Wonder where he is now?

The team is limited a bit by the figure mix. Everyone is right handed, and it would be nice to have another pitching choice. However, some of the figures are really nice. I particularly like the baserunners and the figures I've used for outfielders-the Cameron and Ichiro figures.The batter is nice too, I've painted him as Edgar Martinez. What I really, really appreciate, however, is that John McEwan at Reviresco has taken the trouble to create this range of miniatures. I see myself painting many more bags of ballplayers at this intersection of my passions, historical miniature gaming and baseball.

Mark's Vietnam Playtest

2011-07-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

My good friend Mark Waddington has been working on a couple of really interesting projects for a year now. One thing he's working on are some gorgeous handmade ships for the War of 1812 on Lake Ontario. They are spectacular and nearly complete, though he's still flogging the question of what rules to use. Everything is scratchbuilt, from hulls to masts to guns. I can't wait to give them a try when he's ready.

He's also been working on a 25mm Vietnam project. We gave them a try today. It was a meeting engagement between an American force and some Vietcong and North Vietnamese regulars. Mark adapted the rules from some published sets to fill his needs. The combat mechanics were puzzling at first, but I pretty much had it figured out after the second turn. We all got into a serious firefight in heavy jungle, which reduced our fire somewhat after I was caught in an initial ambush. Things bogged down enough to call in a gunship. It was fun, because it could unleash lots of fire power (yes!! buckets of dice!!) Unfortunately we didn't do a lot of damage with it.

Even so, I think Mark was pretty happy with the first test. A few things to work on but it was very enjoyable. Joe Waddington and his friend Mike, and Dean Motoyama were also on hand to work through the game. It was the first of our summer Truants' game. Haven't quite decided on next week's game yet, but whatever it will be I'm looking forward to it.

And Now for Something Completely Different: Part Two

2011-07-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

So, we're proceeding with our tournament. The first step for any tournament of this kind is making lists of players. There are six of us playing on the 16th and each of us provided a list of 20 players. We made an agreement we would use players currently active and that Tim Barela and myself would rate them for the Sherco rules. Fun stuff? Well, tedious stuff actually. Tim, who is much better at Excel than I could ever be, created a spreadsheet, which made the process a bit easier.

If you're participating in a draft you need good information. With numbers downloaded from ESPN and FanGraphs you can see the highlighted players chosen. Wish more of the good ones were mine. Page one of five.

The second step in this type of tournament is a draft of eligible players. In this case there are six of us, Tim, David Demick, Bill Nelson, Dave Schueler and myself. We drew for draft order. In odd numbered rounds I draft first, but in odd numbered rounds I draft last. The good thing is that my picks come one after another. The bad thing is that I have to wait 11 picks between choices. We are currently in Round 9 of 21. The best part about a draft is its actually the most fun part of the tournament. You're constructing a team of players you really like. If done with friends, and I've known almost everybody for 30 years or more, there is a lot of friendly insults and banter. The games are simply a laboratory to see if your ideas worked.

So far, my team has some strengths and weaknesses

First, I have a couple of really good starting pitchers:
Cliff Lee and Erik Bedard. Both are guys who are having good seasons. Neither walk many batters, though Bedard gives up a few extra home runs. I really like Lee. When he was with the Mariners for half of 2010 he was amazing. I've never seen anybody throw so many strikes or work so efficiently. The most amazing season I've ever seen. Bedard has been the feel good story of the year in baseball. Here's a guy who was part of a terrible trade in 2008 and tried to pitch hurt for two years. It looked like his career was over, but he's really having a good season.

I also have a good outfield. I chose Peter Bourjos, Matt Joyce and Brett Gardner. These are guys I really like. Joyce hits for a high average with power. Bourjos and Gardner are both decent hitters who can give me speed at the top of the order. They also cover lot of ground in the outfield. All three are superior fielders, reducing the chance of error.

My corner infield is ready to go with Joey Votto at 1B and Adrian Beltre at 3B. Both are guys I like. Votto is a great hitter with power in this game. Beltre gives me some right handed power. Both have good range and are superior fielders.

Problems: Mostly this has to do with pieces I don't have in place yet.

My two remaining starters are a little less than mediocre. Jake Peavy, recovering from injury with the White Sox, and Brandon Morrow, former Mariner #1 draft choice, are still trying to find themselves this year. They aren't godawful, but not likely to be terribly reliable either. Still, could be worse, as some of my competitors are about to find out.

I have no bullpen--Many of my colleagues have a piece or two in place. I have none. The best are gone. I need four guys, so we'll just have to see. The next couple of rounds I'll have to take at least one in each.

My well-worn 1979 edition of Sherco baseball.

I have no shortstop, second baseman, or catcher. There are lots of decent catchers in the draft, so that doesn't trouble me too much, there will be somebody out there. The available shortstops are just okay. I really like Brendan Ryan and would like to get him in the next round. Just depends on if he is there. If I don't get him I may have to resort to the aged Omar Vizquel. There are still a couple of good choices available at 2B, with Ben Zobrist and Ian Kinsler available.

Taken as a whole, the team has some really good pitching, great defense, and some guys who can hit. Bullpen is a black hole at this time. We'll see how it all turns out.

If this sparks any interest in the Sherco game for you, it is still in print and sold only on ebay through a small producer. I have the 1979 edition of the game, but purchased a 1988 version of Sherco through this seller in 2006. He does a great job of keeping the game updated and also has a bunch of the cool add-ons, all for a pretty reasonable price.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-07-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hall of Famer Goose Goslin patrols right field in Sportsman's Park during the '34 World Series. All figures by Reviresco.

Sometimes things come along that just completely distract me. I'm not quite as distracted as three month old kitten. In fact, I usually can stay on task for a good long time. I had a plan for the summer-15mm Jacobites and 28mm hypothetical war in Mississippi 1797. Then baseball happened and I was gone.

Yes, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, I love baseball. I'm a fan of the Seattle Mariners, one of perhaps twelve in the entire area. I also love baseball games. Computer games, board games--baseball is really important to me. Baseball has a rich history and tradition that other sports simply lack.

Pepper Martin bats and Mickey Cochrane catches in the World Series. Cardinals won 4-3.

I've tried many different baseball games, but the one I enjoy most is called Sherco Grand Slam Baseball Game. There's lots of things I like about Sherco. It's a great two player game because it allows the team in the field to position their defenders. It's easy to rate baseball players from history and thus recreate players' best years, or notable World Series teams, or even really terrible teams like the 1930 Phillies (or 2010 Mariners.) It's a fun game that plays really fast. Once, I even had the idea to create a Sherco board and teams in miniature.

Right-hander Tommy Bridges pitches as the Tigers take the field . The game area was on a 36" X 36" flocked mat by Monday Knight Productions. I painted on the baselines, grid numbers and the infield area. The outfield wall was made from sheet styrene and based on the illustration below by Bill Purdom.

I made the scoreboard out of wire and sheet styrene. I did my best to recreate the advertising on the scoreboard and outfield walls.

Yes there is a baseball miniatures equivalent. Reviresco in beautiful Olympia,WA makes a very serviceable range of baseball miniatures. I bought some when they first became available and painted them up as the 1934 World Series teams, the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. In another one of my crazy adventures I even built the Cardinals' Sportsman's Park as it appeared for the 1946 World Series based on a painting by Bill Purdom.

In any case, one of my baseball loving friends suggested a Sherco tournament for the rest of my baseball buddies. We've agreed on a round robin six team tournament for July 16th. It interrupts my current summer painting projects because it gives me an excuse to make game boards for the Kingdome, Tiger Stadium, and Candlestick park as well as painting up some representational miniatures for the games. I've decided to paint the 2001 Mariners, and the 1975 Red Sox, two of my favorite teams. The Baseball Hall of Fame has a wonderful website that provides pics of all baseball uniforms from 1900 to the present called Dressed to the Nines. Think of it as baseball's online Osprey guide.

These two photos show my fantasy league team, the South Hill Flounders. Uniforms modeled loosely on the Florida Marlins' teal jerseys.

In any case, this has derailed some of my painting plans for the next couple of weeks. I already had the baseball figures and this is just an excuse to paint them. Shouldn't take too long.

Lord Kenmore's Battalion and AWI artillery

2011-06-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Lord Kenmore's battalion was one of two Scots battalions that served with the British army at Killiecrankie. According to my source, which I photocopied from one of David Sullivan's books, so it is untitled and the author is unknown, this unit may have been newly raised, chiefly from Ulster refugees, and may have provided their own clothing. The author prescribes hodden gray coats and bonnets. Perfect for the figures I have. I put the command stand in British red, as shown in the Jacobite Risings Osprey Men-At Arms #118. The unit performed poorly at Killiecrankie, suffering only one dead, which indicates they probably broke at the instance of the highland charge.

Pike stand. I hoped to show the tartan on the pikemen, but like all of these, the pics are darker than I'd like.

Lord Kenmore's Regiments in gray coats. The flag is a white saltire on blue field. It carries a thistle badge with a red ribbon above the badge.

The unit in red is Lord Hasting's battalion. It is the only true British regiment at Killiecrankie, the rest being Scots and Scots in Dutch service. Not a lot is said about the unit's performance at that battle, but, that said, I really think Killiecrankie would likely make a bad game.

Lord Hastings battalion at Killiecrankie. Miniatures are by Hallmark.

The artillery is from a couple of my projects. Well, they actually overlap. The larger gun stands represent American field and heavy guns for Regimental Fire and Fury (8 pdr and 12 pdr.) We don't usually see these gallivanting about a southern battlefield, but one never knows when big guns will be useful. The guns and gunners are all Front Rank. I still love the figures. Yes they are big and bulky and can't be combined with Perry or Old Glory figs, but I still like the detail and that they seem so substantial. The guns are quite nice.

The gun on the left is a 12 pdr. The gun on the right is an 8 pdr. All guns and figures are by Front Rank.

The singly mounted figures and guns are from another project-Wayne's Legion in the Old Northwest and/or my hypothetical Mississippi campaign. Wayne introduced a piece of ordnance called a King's howitzer, a 2 3/4 " howitzer that could easily be manhandled about and fired like a big shotgun. The guns, which came in two sizes, were very lightweight. The barrels were just 38 lbs. and 60 lbs respectively. These pieces gave American soldiers the advantage of putting artillery in the firing line off the trail. A nice advantage to have. Unfortunately nobody makes such a field piece, and it was suggested I just use a 15mm Napoleonic howitzer, so British 5.5" howitzers made do. There is a very nice article on the King's howitzers on the Legionville website.

Front Rank gunners with teeny, tiny Essex 5.5" howitzers. Why is the picture so damn dark?

Photo of the lighter King's howitzer at the Legionville museum. This site is devoted to preservation of Anthony Wayne's Fallen Timbers campaign (1794) You can see how tiny it is. Just compare the gun to the height of the step.

Twas the First Day of Summer . . .

2011-06-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yippee, it's the first day of summer break. I'm writing this at 7:00 a.m. after having been up for two hours. It's supposed to be 77 degrees in what can only be described as a spring from hell--cool, cloudy, very rainy, even the local farmers are complaining about the latest berry harvest ever.

But it's nice today. I have big plans. A morning walk, mow the lawn until my rechargeable electric dies. I need to pull some weeds, do some house cleaning, then settle down to paint some figures. I'm splitting time between Foundry's British Napoleonic light dragoons, which will become the 19th, stationed in America during the War of 1812. The other unit I'm working on is Lord Argyll's regiment in 1689. I finised Lord Leven's regiment, and will get some pics up later this week.

I made contact with the Dayton Painting Consortium's Richard Masse. I asked about the availability of the old London War Room Range of Spanish Cuera figures for my project in the 1790's Mississippi territory, and he sent me a price list of available figures. DPC had both the mounted and dismounted figures, which worked for me because I need a few of the foot guys to fill out my two nine figure units. The availability of the mounted figures means I can hold out a bit longer on the Mexican Hussars.

Oh, one more thing to add. I turn 56 on my next birthday, and my doctor is not very happy with my weight so this is the summer I finally do something about it. Today is day one of my weight loss plan. So far, so good. I just got back from a delightful morning walk. Managed to avoid being struck by any South Hill commuters. Off to mow the lawns-'til the mower runs out of juice. At noon I'm off on my first bike ride of the summer. I wonder if exercise will improve my failing eyesight?

The First Jacobite Wars

2011-06-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm finally going to wrap up my Jacobite War project. It's about time. Just to be clear, I've had these figures since Bill Clinton was in office. Maybe longer. I bought a big chunk of the them in the early Enfilades from Kelly Jones and Vauban Enterprises. Sigh. I miss Kelly.

They are Hallmark figures, true 15mm miniatures from their League of Augsburg range. I'm basing them for King's War by Bruce Bretthauer. I've never really encountered a set of rules that really works well for the period, but so be it. I'll need to play these a bit to determine how I can best tweak them for this particular period.

Hallmark's 15mm Jacobites are made for the 1688 rising. Absolutely beautiful, proportional and well-detailed

My highlanders are mostly painted and mostly mounted. They had a box disaster when one of Casey's cats knocked the box they were in off the dining room table. But they survived without major incident. I have enough figures painted for seven 18 figure units. Some still need mounting and I'm short a couple of standard bearers. I'd ordered a pack of command figures some time ago to resolve this problem, and it was supposed to include three standard bearers. It came with none. I do, however, have some extra pipers and clan chiefs, however. Needless to say, I'm not thrilled. I'll have to create a couple of standard bearers; it won't be the end of the world. These are little gems, definitely the best 15's I've ever painted.

Another clan. They look fierce, sort of.

Viscount Dundee and his handful of mounted retainers.

I have a long ways to go with the English. I had a big clot of troops painted for them, but they need remounting. I have enough troops. When they are all finished I should be able to field six or seven units of infantry plus cavalry and artillery. I also have a bunch of wagons and baggage from Hallmark's wonderful range of accoutrements. I'm hoping to progress fairly quickly through them and host a game in our Truants series this summer.

So What's Next?

2011-06-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since Enfilade and now I can finally give some thought to what I'd like to accomplish next.

First, let me say that I did cleverly rope myself into something new at the convention. Galactic Knights by Monday Knight Productions. I bought the rules, a game mat and some space ships, but I don't anticipate that it's a large or time consuming project. It just looks like fun. It's Daveshoe's fault that also coincides with an old and amusing story.

On with the show. There are a number of projects I'd like to complete or at least make major progress on before the next convention. First on my list is to work on figures for a hypothetical conflict in the American Southwest before the Louisiana Purchase. There is tons of history to support such a conflict with Spain. That Spain controlled New Orleans and the port of entry there was a matter of intense conflict between American settlers in the west (Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee) who depended on friendly governments to allow the free passage of trade. In addition, there was considerable angst between the United States and Spain over the latter's intrigue with the Choctaws and Chickasaws and control of the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Spanish construction of a fort at Chickasaw Bluffs (a familiar name from Grant's Vicksburg campaign) nearly provoked conflict in the region.

Mexican Hussar from the period I'm interested in. It can be easily made from the Perry Napoleonic French Hussar figure.

This project broadens two existing projects. First it gives me something else to do withwith the Spanish troops I have for my Lewis and Clark range. I'd like to add a few horse and a gun or two and combine them with my large number of painted, but never played with OG woodland Indians. It also gives me a reason to paint up my stash of Wayne's Legion infantry. It would allow me to use both the Indians and the Americans for war in the Mississippi Territory or on the Ohio frontier. We'll use the Brother Against Brother rules.

Another project I'd really like to finish this summer is my 15mm First Jacobite War. They are all beautiful little Hallmark figures. The Highlanders are done and just need to be mounted. I have some of the English figures painted but have lots more to do. I'm going to play Bruce Bretthauer's King's War for the period, unless you, brilliant readers, have something better to suggest.

I still have skazillions of other unpainted figures to work on. I don't see myself acquiring much new. I'll work on Eutaw Springs at some point. All the American units are the same except for some militia--but I already have those figures painted-and a couple of units of North Carolina Continentals. I need to double check the British again, but those units are pretty familiar too. I've got some figures to paint from Mars, and some hangers on from the Spanish Civil War.

This very instant I'm finishing up some guns and gunners from the revolution, including some of the little King's howitzers Wayne used in Ohio. It doesn't bother for me to paint a little aimlessly too. Sometimes that's just fun. It should be an enjoyable painting summer.

Wilmington: Open for Business

2011-06-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

My Sunday morning game was Closing Wilmington, an Ironclads scenario I've written about before. The Union has eight ships and a division of infantry with which to capture or destroy the forts protecting Wilmington, N.C. on the Cape Fear River. I have some additional missions for them and the naval landing party that goes with them. The Confederates have it a bit easier. They just shoot and shoot and shoot.

Things got off to a bad start, however. I have some sleep issues that are aggravated by the fact that I never go to bed much before 2:00 at the convention. I bolted awake on Sunday morning at 6:15. Knowing I had a membership meeting to run at 8:00, and realizing the ballroom would open at 7:00, I got up early and dutifully schlepped my stuff down to the game area and began setting up. At 7:45 Bill Nitsche, a fellow gamer came by and asked if I had set up on the wrong table. In fact I'd read the table diagram incorrectly and set up on not only the wrong table, but one that was five feet wide instead of six feet. Gah!! I didn't move, and decided to just make it work.

A fun group played the game. Dave Schueler, Joe Waddington, Daniel Moon, and Tom Bieker played the Confederates. Lloyd Bowler, Mike Smith, Scott Abbott, Ed from Bellingham, and Andy Doty ran the Yankees.

Lloyd advanced with his division of Union infantry and quickly captured the nearest Confederate fort. That would be the high point of the game. The Union ships quickly passed upriver, tiptoeing around the minefields, but took only minor damage from the Confederate shore batteries. As the flagship Malvern charged upriver, it was taken under fire by the only 7" Brooke rifle on the board, located in the Martello tower. One fire broke out, and then a second. Aiming for the island with the tower, Malvern ran aground.

By turn five, both Confederate vessels were on the table and making their way downstream. The ironclad Wilmington began to fire on the advancing Union ships, finally targeting the monitor Montauk. Successive hits from Montauk's 11-inch and 15-inch smoothbores did considerable damage, but did not deter Wilmington from ramming and then detonating it's spar torpedo. Though the ram was fouled by the sinking monitor, it was able to escape before being pulled under.

The Malvern discharged its secret weapon, a naval landing party, and attempted to capture fort A.P. Hill, the Martello tower. Dazed and weakened by their smoky journey upriver, the defenders of the tower held on and repulsed the Federal attackers. With the loss of the Malvern and Montauk, and the remaining Union forces unable to make way against the forts, I declared the game a Confederate victory.

The game went much more smoothly than I anticipated. Running an Ironclads game at a convention is always a bit risky. It's not an easy set of rules to learn, but there were enough veterans that the turns seemed to move along. Maybe it was the scenario, maybe it was the players, but everyone seemed to be engaged and interested. Unfortunately, at the end of the game Wilmington remained open for business.

Sadly I took no pictures of this game, though Dave Schueler has photos on his blog.

Holding My Breath: Hobkirk's Hill

2011-06-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

It is my dream to game all of Nathaniel Greene's battles in South Carolina. Hobkirk's Hill is an important part of that dream. The battle has the simplest terrain, the easiest order of battle for both sides. I'm also finished with the figures. So, it was a natural to host at Enfilade this year.

When Fire and Fury finally published their regimental rules, and also provided support to the American Revolution I jumped on it. In previous posts I've shared my ruminations on AWI rules and my own efforts at drafting some Fire and Fury-like. The adaptation of the long awaited regimental rules gave me the opportunity to choose rules that were commercially available and fairly familiar.

Your obedient servant cutting out labels for Regimental Fire and Fury. Ugh!

Even so, I hosted the game on Saturday night with a certain degree of trepidation. I hadn't played the rules a lot and there are some significant differences between the brigade and regimental systems. I did playtest the scenario once, but didn't feel once was enough. When Al Rivers offered to help me with the game I jumped at the chance. Al definitely was more familiar with F and F regimental, though the AWI rules were a tad different.

The game had a full six sign-ups. Chris Pramas, Tom Foosen, and Gene Anderson ran the Americans. Chris Craft, Andrew Mah, and Mitch Berdinka ran the Brits. Chris Craft and Mitch had a fair amount of experience with the rules, which left the Americans with those relatively new or unexposed to the game. The objectives were pretty simple. The Americans needed to hold their camps on the hill and inflict heavy casualties on the British. The British needed to capture the American artillery and inflict heavy casualties on the Yankees.

4th Virginia Regiment. Figures by Old Glory

Colonel Campbell leading the first rank of British. Figure by Perry figures.

Chris and Mitch immediately led attacks on the Maryland Brigade, holding the American left. They closed ranks and charged the Americans in extended order, as any self respecting British commander would do. Though the 1st Maryland was thrown back, the 2nd Maryland beat Mitch's command back. This would be the pattern of the game. The Brits would have success to the left of the Camden Road, but not enough to completely unhinge the Americans.

The British set up in two ranks in extended order. They will quickly form and give the Americans the cold steel.

The 5th Virginia moves to the attack the Loyal Americans and Coffin's Light Dragoons.

On the right, Chris Pramas advanced his Virginia Brigade to confront Andrew Mah's troops. Using his artillery to support his fire and eventual attack, the Virginians moved rapidly to take advantage of their numbers. Andrew could only form a firing line and take it. In our playtest, the Virginians, with their poor commander were slow and had little influence on the game. At the convention, they destroyed the convalescent battalion, drove off an attack by Coffin's dragoons and man-handled the Loyal Americans.

By turn 10 both sides were close to reaching their casualty limit. The Americans had driven in the British left flank, and the British had pushed back the American left flank. An attack by the 2nd Maryland against the 63rd Regt. and New York Volunteers, both at half strength, eliminated the lot and the Brits suffered a major morale loss. Even though Chris Craft's Volunteers of Ireland and South Carolina Royalists were unscathed , when the game ended on turn 12, the Americans won the victory.

I was pleased the game was so tight. It really did come down to the last turn. I just need to play the rules more, so I'm better prepared. It's the little things I really didn't get. The game turned out fine, but I think I got lucky.

Some choices to make on Saturday.

2011-05-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

I wandered with my iPhone camera on Saturday morning and just tried to get some pics of games. These aren't all the games in the ballroom, but these were some of my favorites.

Wes Rogers 28mm Battle of Soor

Sven Lugar left behind his 6mm figures to host a 28mm Winter War skirmish, Lake Kookojarvi. There were a number games fought in winter terrain, and Sven's was excellent.

Neil Marker's Fallout scenario, "A Town With Troubles," may have had the most original and interesting terrain of the convention. Based on the video game, and some say it was a dead ringer.

Scott Potter's 15mm Battle of Fredricksburg. One of several Regimental Fire and Fury offerings at Enfilade.

Chris Craft's 15mm Palo Alto game. Another Fire and Fury scenario.

Will Thompson's Battle of Tsushima. Used the Fire When Ready Gridley rules. Naval games were quite popular at Enfilade this year.

Allan Dyer and Jeroen Koopman hosted 2nd Day at Gettysburg all day using Regimental Fire and Fury. Get 'em boys.

This photo doesn't do justice to Bruce Smith's Swamp Fever game.

Olympia Gamers' Schlemmer's Gold. Nothing like fightin' on Venus right after breakfast.

Enfilade: The Big Picture

2011-05-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Enfilade 2011 was a great convention. On so many levels it was one of the best of the twenty years of that event.

It didn't start out auspiciously. I had to work on Friday, which meant I couldn't leave until school was out at 2:10. I blew out of the parking lot ahead of the buses, but still got stuck behind the giant piles of ER traffic. Even so, traffic down to Olympia wasn't the horror show everyone talked about in years past, and I didn't hear many folks complaining.

I spent lots of time with luggage carts, schlepping stuff to and from my car and to and from my room. My room seemed to be in a different zip code from the convention ballroom.

Due to the late start I missed getting into first Friday game session. It would set the pattern for my weekend. I spent most of my time wandering and watching games, talking to friends, having lunch with Dave Schueler. I also ran three games, each of them great experiences, and I'll review them in subsequent posts.

The wandering times gave me the opportunity to see a lot of other games, look at the terrain, and the interactions between players. I was in charge of determining the best of period awards and the subsequent Best of Show award. There were 115 games scheduled for the weekend, and together with some friends we did get to choose from some great games. Just as a note, this year's group of games lacked that super aesthetic wow factor of other years. However, as a group, the quality of the games and the level of engagement by those playing them was much higher than in the other years. Overall, just better game experiences, a sentiment which was echoed by many of those playing them.

The middle scenario for Teutoberger Wald. One of the best run games I've ever seen.

The convention was remarkably trouble-free. My colleagues on the Enfilade committee-Bruce Meyer, Adrian Nelson, Jim Denberger, Al Rivers, Michael Koznarsky, Dave Schueler-really did a superb job. There were enough games. Lots of vendors. Registration ran smoothly. Very few glitches occurred during the convention itself.

There were some great games that won awards:

Friday Afternoon--Viking Run hosted by Lloyd Bowler

Friday Evening--Battle of Sluys hosted by me, Kevin Smyth

Saturday Morning--Battle of Teutoberger Wald . . . the Road Home hosted by the White Rock Gamers

Saturday Afternoon--Port Royal hosted by William Stanchfield

Saturday Evening--Chelmsford on the Move hosted by Bill Vanderpool

Sunday Morning--Ice Age Hunting hosted by Mike Garcia

Teutoberger Wald also won the overall Best of Show for its originality and the engagment of its participants. The White Rock guys really were masterful in moving the players through a complex game. They win the suite and an admission to the convention for next year.

Buffalo River by Bill Vanderpool. Not actual winner, but one of six games Bill ran at the convention.

William Stanchfield's breathtaking Port Royal game. Eye-candy a-go-go.

I gave the Director's Award to Michael Koznarsky for his work with the painting competition, and perhaps more importantly, providing leadership to the Citadel and the Enfilade Yearbook.

I'll be following this post up with additional posts about the three games I hosted at the convention: Battle of Sluys, Hobkirk's Hill, and Closing Wilmington.

Sluys-It Couldn't be Better

2011-05-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I noted I arrived late to Enfilade, which gave me time to check in, grab a very quick meal, and grab my stuff to set up Sluys for the evening period. I was on the convention floor at 6:00, which gave me an hour to set up.

I was pretty nervous about the scenario. On one hand I was very excited because it was my hand made project and I was so proud of it. I thought others might think it strange and geeky and my work unworthy. Really the latter troubled me more because most of my game projects are strange and geeky. I was also worried the rules wouldn't work right, or I would somehow screw them up because I'd only run the scenario once.

I shouldn't have been concerned. The game was filled. Mark and Sam Fortner, and Al Rivers ran the English. Keith French, Brian Renninger, and Arthur Brookings ran the French. Best, and most importantly Dave Schueler was there to help me with the scenario. I'd re-written the quick sheets, taking changes from our playtest into consideration, so that helped. We took the time to walk through the rules, and while there were some inevitable holes to fill, the game played pretty smoothly. By the end of the fourth turn, I was no longer necessary, and Dave and I could talk about the Mariners-Yankees game. Most gratifying, many gamers dropped by the table to look and ask questions about the cogs, the period, and the game. Doug Hamm and Andrew Mah, tasked with scoring games for the Friday night period, chose Sluys for best of show for the period.

The set up with both fleets hard against the Cadzand Is. shoals.

The game began with the French shuffling the order of their ships,while the English grouped theirs. The French position was centered between Cadzand Is. and the headland, and the English were prepared to take advantage of a small gap between the island and the fleet. Unfortunately the gap closed with the night's tidal action, so the battle proceeded pretty much head to head.

Another view of the set up. The French fleet clearly overlaps the English right.

For the first three turns the English and French engaged in desultory artillery and missile fire. Though there were some lucky die rolls on both sides, by turn four it was clear to the English they were going to have to close to win. In turn four the English closed and began supported melees in true DBA fashion. Unfortunately DBA also requires some decent die rolling, and the English commanders, Mark and Sam, had much better dice karma than the French commanders, Brian and Arthur. With poor command points, and much less capable of removing damage points, the French line began suffering large holes in the first squadron.

The French third squadron moves toward their left flank.

After turn four, Keith unchained his combined cog and galley squadron and began moving around the French left. Though he had some early success, this flank attack was quickly stymied and then defeated. By turn twelve, with the French suffering three times the English losses of five ships, I called a halt to the bloodbath. Though the French three times during the battle, crippled King Edward's cog, the game was up.

Even so, there were lots of smiles afterwords, and I was happy the game was so well received. All photos were taken by Doug Hamm, and I thank him for letting me use them.

Sluys terrain pieces

2011-05-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

In April, while playing Sluys with Dave, Mark and Joe, we chatted about the table for the game and how I might spice it up. Let's face it, there was a naval game-never an eye catcher, in a big roadstead with lots of land, and all the pieces were made of felt. Based on my illustration of the area, in living color in Fighting Techniques of Medieval Warfare (Matthew Bennet, et. al). The picture shows the land area, the river estuary, headland and island. In the illustration there are four small villages forest covering the rest of the area.

Bare felt terrain from March. Lots of open space

I started out by thinking about the villages. We're talking about the 14th century, and all I could imagine was that each little village probably had a church with a number of houses and other folks living in the surrounding area. To keep it simple, I decided to make structures out of square wooden dowels available in the craft department at Michael's. I cut them in a couple of different sizes and shaped their roofs with a Dremel sanding tool. I painted them a brown and the roofs a yellow brown for thatch. Each church I made pretty much the same on a much later model-but using my 28mm Miniature Building Authority church as an example. The structure is longer with a bell tower. I kept the painting deliberately simple

One of the four villages made with wooden blocks and somewhat shaped Litko bases.

Trees were a bit more of a challenge. I had an unopened bag of small tree armatures from Woodland Scenics. The question was: what to do with them? It thought seriously about individual trees mounted on washers for weight. I thought I'd just be picking up a bunch of trees all through the game. So, I cut up some sheet styrene for bases, and applied some acrylic modeling paste from Liquitex that was tinted with Ceramcoat spice brown. Then I just squished the trees right into the paste and let dry for a couple of hours. I wish I had more sheet styrene because I could probably use some more clumps, like twice as many as I have. Hopefully it will look a bit more than a few clumps of trees.

One of the larger tree bases

Cadzand Island with trees and village. Yeah, still seems bare to me too.

With Enfilade a Week Out . . .

2011-05-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Social Studies classroom based assessments, the last issue of the paper in process, and of course Enfilade.

Fort those who don't follow, Enfilade is our annual historical miniature gaming convention, held each Memorial Day weekend in Olympia, WA. I'm the director this year. I was director from 1999-2004. It's a busy job, and I don't feel like I've quite been able to do it justice. I've actually announce that I am resigning from the Enfilade committee after this year. I'm just too busy with school and currently stressed out by life in general to do it justice. I've also been on the committee for a long time so I think it's time to take a break.

I'm looking forward to having some time to prepare for games at the convention-hosting and playing-being one of the guys in the back of the room. Next year I expect to do just that-avoid the registration desk, and everything except run and play games. I can see offering to help in other ways in 2013-judging the painting competition, working the desk, other small things. But I just need to enjoy myself a little more than I do.

My games are nearly ready. Because I have to run down after school this year, I'll be packing early, starting this weekend. I want to see if I can fit all my AWI stuff for the Hobkirk's Hill game in one big box. I still have a gun and crew to finish up for that game. I'll also try to assemble the ships for Closing Wilmington. I need to decide on the battery composition and work through the infantry rules again. Finally, I need to make piles of trees for Sluys. I've made four little villages to represent the towns in the estuaries, just for show, but the terrain is heavily forested as well. It will add to the geographic flavor.

In many respects I'm very excited about my game offerings. Sluys can be more than a one-off game. But it's the satisfaction of having made everything that goes with it that pleases me. Hobkirk's Hill is the first in a series of games I'll offer on the Revolution. Next Year I'd like to do Hobkirk's and Eutaw Springs, which has fairly challenging terrain, but not a lot of new units to paint. Closing Wilmington is the game I'm most conerned about because Ironclads can be so fiddly for new gamers, but I confess it's the only game system I like for the period.

How Can I Possibly Keep Up?

2011-05-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Twenty-five years ago, the only Osprey Books that drifted on to the market were the Men At Arms series. I'd wait anxiously every couple of months hoping they'd fill out their Napoleonic range, got really excited when they issued the two volumes on the Polish renaissance armies, and even bought a couple titles just for the pictures. The two latter that come to mind are the volume on the Ottoman Turks and the Burgundian Armies of the late middle ages. The first had a fabulous picture in the ruins of Constantinople of an Ottoman soldier about to be flambeed by a soldier with a Naptha projector. The look in his eyes of one about to be barbecue is priceless. The Burgundian MAA has an illustration of a bombardier measuring stone to be shaped into cannon balls for a bombard. It' s a job I think I could do quite well, and probably make more money (and definitely have a higher status) than I do as a teacher.

At some point, however, Osprey became a publishing empire. Men At Arms was not enough. First there was the warrior series, with more in depth examination of certain troop types. I've picked up a few these, the ones I thought were quite useful-longbowmen, highlanders, Huns, those that coincided with my projects. Battle books. Some are very good. I love the Hundred Years War battle books by David Nicolle and Matthew Bennett. I've avoided the essential histories, even though they often are written by great authors. For example, Anne Curry wrote the Hundred Years War volume.

I also didn't get into the small but potentially interesting Order of Battle Series. With one exception. Unfortunately there is also a sad story that goes with it. Perhaps the most useful book ever published by Osprey was the Battle of Quebec OOB #1 in the series. I bought it when American Eagles in Tacoma closed. It was super. Great history of the campaign, campaign histories and color plates of each unit that fought at Quebec. Wonderfully comprhensive and practical. I gave my copy to Dave Demick, who I thought could use it more than me because Dave is my friend. I though I could pick up a copy easily enough. WRONG!!! It's out of print. It was out of print when I bought it. It was out of print when I gave it away. I see that decent used copies can be had for under twenty bucks, so that may have to be a summer investment.

In any case, as you can see, Osprey, the little specialist company, has morphed into the big, giant military history octopus, adding new series ad infinitum. I have seen one book in the new Raid series, however, that looks pretty interesting. The Great Chevauchee will be published at the end of May and includes details of John of Gaunt's raid into central France in 1373. It will include details of skirmishes and ambushes along the way and should be a useful source for some HYW scenario. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

It used to be there were those who simply collected Osprey books. How can they possibly afford to do it anymore?

Hobkirk's Hill Playtest

2011-05-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Enfilade is only a couple of weeks away and with three games on the docket I've scrambled to finish figures and get games ready. I've also struggled to try and playtest my three scenarios, so hopefully they all turn out.

Last summer I walked through Closing Wilmington a couple of times and it just needs some minor tweaking. I got in the Sluys playtest last month and enjoyed it thoroughly. We tweaked a couple of modifiers to the charts, but the game will play as planned. I was hoping to get in a second playtest but it just didn't happen. The only game left out there for me to run through was Hobkirk's Hill and yesterday seven of us got together to play through it.

Hobkirk's Hill was fought on April 25, 1781 near Camden, South Carolina. In the grand scheme of things it was a minor affair, but it was the first of a series of actions that forced the British to abandon their outposts in South Carolina to very active patriot militia.

The action took place as American commander Nathaniel Greene tried to enlist the aid of South Carolina militia leader Thomas Sumter. Sumter, not an easy guy to get along, let the pleas of Rhode Islander Greene fall on deaf ears. In the meantime, the British command, young Lord Rawdon committed to attacking Greene in his encampment at Hobkirk's Hill. Counting on information from a deserter that Greene had no artillery, Rawdon made a night march through some heavy woods and massed in front of half of Greene's army, and that's where the scenario began.

We used the Regimental Fire and Fury rules with official modifications for AWI. Bruce Meyer, Al Rivers, Mark and Joe Waddington, Scott Murphy, and Wayne Harold came down to Game Matrix to walk through the game. I went with a historical set-up, the British largely set up against the American left flank, but seriously overlapped by the American right.

A panorama shot of the set up. The British are clearly massed east of the Logtown Road, while Huger's Virginia Brigade is in position to turn the British flank.

David Sullivan controlled the first group of three British regiments. He promptly rolled three 10's for fire in the first two turns of fighting, reducing the effectiveness of the two Maryland infantry battalions. Sensing an opportunity to shatter the American left, David quickly assaulted the 1st Maryland, who unexpectedly repulsed his charge. Al Rivers likewise attacked the 2nd Maryland with the 63rd Regiment and the Convalescent battalion, and despite some initial struggle, eventually drove them off. A second assault by Sullivan's troops cleared the left flank of American troops, leaving a gun behind to be captured. Only a large unit of North Carolina militia and Washington's Light Dragoons remain to hold on to the center. The 1st Maryland broke and fled the battlefield while Greene tried to rally the 2nd Maryland.

The Volunteers of Ireland, and the The King's American Regiment get the best of the 1st Maryland in a firefight. The Marylanders repulse their bayonet attack, and hold the hilltop by their fingernails.

A longer view of the battle shows the 1st and 2nd Maryland under attack by the British all along the line.

On the right flank, Mark Waddington, running the Virginia Brigade, struggled with Brigadier Isaac Huger's poor commander rating. This large force, came up only slowly as the British made a mess of the American center and left. The 4th and 5th Virginia watched helplessly as Bruce launched Coffin's militia dragoons against the North Carolina militia. Things ended badly for Coffin's troops, however, as fire from artillery and the militia decimated them.

William Washington's Dragoons are about to ride to the rescue and run down the 63rd Regiment.

Just as things began to look hopeless for the Americans, Joe managed to launch two devastating charges against the 63rd Regiment with the Continental dragoons. With everyone in extended order to move over the rough ground, the light horse had its way, slaughtering the British foot. At that point we agree to wrap things up.

At game's end, the North Carolina militia hold the Logtown Road in support of the Continental Dragoons. In the distance, Huger's Virginians make slow progress toward the British.

I did get great feedback on the game. All agreed the basic concept was good. Al even asked if he could help me he could help run the game on Saturday night at the convention. He has the most experience with the regimental version of the rules so I was all over it.

Stuck Fast

2011-04-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I don't have much new to report. It's sad I know. I've been painting, but verrrryyyy sssllloowwllyy. I'm working on figures for the Hobkirk's Hill game, all Perry figures. I finished the King's Provincial Regiment, and I don't have much left to do to wrap up--just some guns and gunners, a couple of limbers an ammunition wagon and a couple of British officers. I did manage to finish one limber and horses as well as the British gunners. I've started on the American gunners, but the guns aren't done and, well, I know you can count. Lots of stuff has gotten in the way--the trip to Anaheim, I'm stressed out about our deadline week in which seniors don't seem to want to work, and, I hate to say it, yardwork all day Saturday. Thankfully I still have about four weeks to finish the figures and playtest the game.

Pictures of some finished stuff soon.

Headed to points south

2011-04-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday is the day I take some of my journalism kids down to the National Student Press Association convention in Anaheim. It will be nice to get some sun-supposed to be in the 80's. It will be a nice change given that my classroom is still freezing and I'm wearing sweaters to school most days. Seems silly for April. Of course we had snow here last week so what do I know.

So I'll be away until Sunday. The good news is that I did finally finish the last full unit I need for Hobkirk's Hill. They still need to be based, which won't happen until next week. I still have guns, gunners, limbers and a few other goodies to finish, but nothing major. Seemed like the King's Provincial Regiment has been on my painting table since the first of the year. Probably because they have.

Off to Anaheim. You know what that means . . . a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. I know you were thinking Brookhurst Hobbies, which is pretty close, but I am without wheels and I don't know any students who would like to go with me.

Sluys Playtest

2011-04-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I met with Dave Schueler and Mark and Joe Waddington at Daveshoe's house to try out Sluys. I decided to play the scenario straight out of the box as it appears in David Manley's Medieval Fleet Battles rules. I put together some quick sheets and hauled my ships up to West Seattle.

(Note, if you would like a copy of the Medieval Fleet Battles rules, which include the Sluys scenario, David is willing to send a pdf. Just contact him at dm dot at dot dstl @ btinternet dot com .)

I set up the game so the English began within 6" of the French. I allowed the French to configure their three squadrons in the order they wished explained their positions shifted two inches to right against the shoals of Cadzand island. This was a historical occurrence that badly tangled the French deployment according to HYW historian, Jonathan Sumption. It also left a gap for the English to move to and through. I gave the English the option of the cannon ship offered in the scenario and they accepted that. I also provided that the English would always be player A--given they were the attackers, and the French adopted such a defensive stance.

The English have covered the French front and are moving around the French left. The closest cog, however, has run onto the shoal and will remain stuck there for some time.

Both players found the artillery exchanges were largely useless. Very few hits were made. The French did well on their command rolls and usually were able to pull their damage. Missile fire was a bit more successful, but not so much to offset the French close combat bonus.

Another view of the two fleets coming together

The English moved to the French left flank, but had difficulty making progress. With the French close combat superiority, it was challenging to get enough pluses to make a difference. As turn four rolled around the French unchained their third squadron and moved to the attack. The English were stuck and not much good was happening. The three galleys, with their superior boarding factors really made a difference, making short work of a trio of medium cogs. When the Flemish appeared on turn 10, they were immediately confronted by three medium French cogs, and rather than turning the tide against their enemies, the Flemings found themselves fighting for their lives.

Turn seven. The French third squadron is loose the galleys are beating up on the English flanking force.

At about turn 12 the pizza arrived and we called a halt to the festivities and debriefed the game. We agreed on some changes and tried those out. We made it more difficult to pull damage chits and gave the English a +1 boarding factor for this battle. There were historical justifications for the changes that give the English a bit more of an edge, at least the opportunity to follow up on their missile successes. In the end, as with the historical battle of Sluys, the artillery and distance shooting is nice, but the battle had to be won with the sword. With the French close combat advantage, and the number of their supports that was going to be very difficult.

I think everyone had a good time and are anxious for another try.

Getting Serious: The French fleet at Sluys

2011-04-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

We're about eight weeks out from Enfilade and my first project is pretty close to ready to go. The Sluys game is finished. I wrapped up the French last Saturday before my trip to La Conner. Tomorrow I take the French and English up to Dave Schueler's house and we playtest with Mark and Joe Waddington.

The action takes place in an enclosed roadstead at the mouth of the River Zwin, and there is a fair amount of land to represent. I used the map from Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World, by Matthew Bennett, Kelly DeVries and others, a book which I've found regularly disappointing, but pretty helpful for this battle. The map shows a fair amount of land representing the Zwin estuary and bay, the island of Cadzand and northern headland.

The game is tough to scale. David Manley wrote his rules for 1/1200 ships on 30mm square bases and planned for a DBA 3' square table. I'm facing a couple of different problems. I'm looking at a convention game on an 8' X 5' table. Sheer aesthetics require more complete use of that space. My ships are small, medium and large and are unscaled. They all have a 40mm frontage, but are 30mm, 40mm, and 60mm long respectively. They take up more room. How much more room? Well, we'll find out how much tomorrow. Dave has an 8' X 5' game table which I can cover with my 10' X 6' felt mat, will lay the terrain over top and see what I need.

I took advantage of Jo-Ann Fabrics' felt sale and bought some green and blue. The green represents the land and the blue represents the shallows. They will almost certainly come into play. I hot-glued the blue and green pieces together, but it was pretty messy and left quite a bit of residue. If the pieces seem to be scaled properly, I may remake them and glue them with fabric glue.

All the land elements are seen on the table. I may draw Cadzand Is. out more from the shore with the wider table.

The pictures of the French fleet show their array for the battle. It's always a challenge to determine command vessels, so I gave Behuchet's (the French commander) cog Christopher a sail with the Oriflamme. The cross of St. Denis appears on the squadron commander's sail. The French first line is very long, with each line subsequently shorter. Only four cogs and three galleys in the last line.

French in battle array. The galleys are clearly visible on the right of third line.

For all intents and purposes, Sluys is complete. It's been a very satisfying project from start to finish, and I hope the playtest goes well tomorrow.

Off for some R and R

2011-03-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished the last of the cogs. Yes, you heard it hear first. Unfortunately, I'm also running off to La Connor for a few days with Lorri and won't return until Tuesday. I'll be sure to get some pics and post them when I get back. I'm on Spring Break and plan to get a number of game-related activities done this week, but first a much need break away from school, games, headaches.

We're scheduled for the first Sluys playtest on April 2nd.

Galleys: Finished at last

2011-03-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

Castilian flagship. The sail depicts the arms of Castile

I finally completed my galleys for the cogs project. I needed three models for Sluys. The galley participants at Sluys were Genoese, but the Castilians also supplied galleys to the French, so I made three more for them.

The three Genoese galleys. The Grimaldi family arms for a Genoese leader

I also included the Grimaldi family arms on the aft awning.

They weren't super difficult to build, and honestly I could have done a better job in smoothing and sanding them, but at their size it's hard to tell much of anything with them. Honestly, I just feel the need for speed building these guys. I did drill the sides of the basswood for the eight oars per side, and used steel wire for the holes. All in all not bad. A little washed out ivory paint and cover the lot with gloss gel and not so bad.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with Castilian awnings. I decided to embed the Castilian arms in a field of blue.


A head on look at the Castilians

I've built the next 11 French cogs, all the large ones plus some extras. I'm hoping to have them finished by mid-week at the latest.

Sunday Shipyard Review

2011-03-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

You can see a dozen large cogs (2 inches long) with their fighting platforms and crenelations in place. The fighting platforms for the 16 medium sized cogs are also done, though I haven't done anything about the walls.

Well, I'm disappointed. I really did work hard on the Sluys project today. I probably put in eight hours, but didn't finish anything. I really hoped to have the galleys done, and did make considerable progress on the Genoese vessels, but still didn't get them done. I did cut all the fore and aft castles, and installed them on a dozen large cogs. Got a good start on stuff, and I'm positioned to make progress and wrap a lot of items up when I can get some time. Probably not until Wednesday evening because we're on deadline this week.

Made progress on, but didn't finish the Genoese galleys. You can see the Grimaldi family arms on the aft awnings.

The Shipyard is open

2011-03-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

Blank hulls for large and medium cogs waiting for built up fighting platforms

Today is a critical day for me to get stuff done on the Sluys project. I really want to wrap this up before Lorri and I shuffle off to La Conner on the 26th and this is a very ugly-looking deadline week. Not only that but they've stolen another hour from me with the move to daylight savings. At this writing, it's eight o'clock and I'll have to go into work for a couple of hours this morning. I've probably got nine or so good work hours-no doubt filled with interruptions-but I did try to get my honey-do's done yesterday. Called my parents, did the grocery shopping, changed my oil. Missed the Husky baseketball game (blues.) Anyway, the scene is set for a big time hobby work day. I'll end-of-work-session pictures tonight.

Galleys got their decks and masts painted. Still need forward superstructures and awnings painted, as well as basing stuff done.

Yesterday I got ready for today but wasted a lot of time. However, I did finish all the small cogs for the Flemish and French forces at Sluys, did a little bit of painting on the galleys, but most importantly, I shaped all the hulls for the French fleet. About 30 of those, so no small deal.

Renendra Tent sets

2011-03-12T18:17:00.000-08:00

I made a small purchase today. I ordered a couple of the tent sets by Renendra from Architects of War. I'm pretty excited about them. They'll represent the brigade encampments in Hobkirk's Hill. They look nice and aren't very expensive. Each set costs ten bucks. I'm also anxious to give AoW a try because they are the reincarnation of Barb's Bunker, whose work I enjoyed so much.