Rules and the Report From Up North

My British Grenadier rules arrived from WarWeb on Tuesday. It only took a week, which was great, though the postman saw fit to fold them over in their carboard container. Grrr. I gave a long look to them, and I am anxious to try out a friendly game. There is a fair amount to do--not for the faint of heart, but not as busy as Flint and Steel was. I like the disruption points, the mounting and the idea that they are usable at 1:20 and 1:10.

I'm also including some pictures from my Canadian colleague Doug Hamm. His work is beautiful, though I'm not sure I always agree with his taste in projects. The first picture is of Pakenham's British massing for an assault on Jackson's lines at New Orleans in 1815. A nasty slaughter indeed. The two remaining pictures are his remount of his gorgeous French AWI units, Front Rank figures, that he is organizing for an assault on British held Savannah in 1779. Another brutal riverside attack. The figures are pretty, but the battle is not.

Show time: AWI All the Time

I have new pictures to post. Two are newish units, at least to my collection, and the last is an old favorite.

In my trade with Doug I received eight light American light infantrymen painted in Doug's beautiful black primered style. They are indeed gorgeous, and they are a bit of a contrast with my figures on the right. In fact these two stands will form part of the regiment of Maryland and Delaware light infantry that fought together at Cowpens and Weitzels Mill under John Eager Howard and Otho Holland Williams. These were veteran troops, survivors of Camden, and the very best in Continental service. The troops on the right are my own, Kirkwood's Delaware company. Kirkwood was a true survivor of the Revolution, fighting in thirty-three actions, at the head of an elite company of infantry. Sadly he was cut down at age 63 in Arthur St. Clair's army at the Battle of the Wabash, fighting Indians on the frontier in defense of his Congressional land grant in recognition of his service during the Revolution.

The next unit are Queen's Rangers. They are my favorite of the trade bounty. Simply beautiful. Doug has graciously offered to paint a matching bunch from my shrinking pile of Front Rank figures. The Queens Rangers were truly an elite provincial unit that did see some service in the South--the defense of Savannah, and marching about Virginia with Benedict Arnold.


The last unit is one of my old favorites--the 1st Maryland I painted up for Guilford Courthouse at Enfilade II. They are old, but perhaps the best figures I ever painted using my white primer "slop" technique. The flags are wrong, and they've been remounted more times than I can say, but they're still one of my favorites.

Good Times With Trader Doug and My Obsession with the American Revolution in the South

I engaged in a long distance swapping match with Doug Hamm again. Doug is letting go of his painted AWI figures. Once upon a time Doug was the recipient of a big bounty of Front Rank figures when the Sentry Box went out of biz years and years ago. He painted up a bunch of relatively small units in his beautiful black primered fashion. I'm going to part with most of my raw War of 1812 lead for his painted Queens Rangers, British Legion horse, and a few American light infantry.

I'll work the figures into units or stands that work for me, and I'll reduce my pile of unpainted lead. I'm pretty focused on the American Revolution right now. I have about 50 figures I'm either working on or piled together ready to begin work on. I'm painting the 63rd Regiment, which fought at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, then a unit of North Carolina continentals from Eutaw Springs together with a stand of Virginia Light Infantry that was attached to Kirkwood's Delaware lights at Guilford Courthouse. Then it's on to the 1st De Lancey provincials that fought at Eutaw Springs, and a unit of converged grenadiers-they fight at Guilford and Eutaw Springs.

None of these units are very big-none over sixteen figures and DeLancey is only eight. Remember, my scale is 1:10-if it was larger, say 1:20, these units wouldn't even be a blip. In the coming weeks I'm hoping to create a record of the units needed for each of the five battles I want to be able to run-Cowpens, Weitzels Mill, Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs-and where I am in the painting of those units. Many of the units-particularly the Maryland and Virginia Continentals appear in almost all the actions; they just get smaller and smaller.

I've got a couple of decent pictures of my second Hamm unit, the Loyal South Carolina Regiment. These guys fought all over the south after Cornwallis deserted the state following the debacle at Guilford Courthouse, but most notably at Hobkirk's Hill.

Reports From Afar

This post has a number of purposes. First, it is my 100th post. I know they were pretty few and far between the first couple of years, but I'm pleased that I've settled into a system of regular posts in 2008. Maybe it's my own form of journalism now that I'm a student journalism adviser (yes that's the correct spelling in journalism-land.) The other fact I'd like to point out is that nearly 1700 visitors have landed on this blog, and I'd like to thank you for visiting. Thanks too for those of you who have had something to say. It's been nice to have posts to respond to.

Next, there are a couple of events coming up if you happen to be in the proper neighborhood. In eastern Washington SpoCon is a multi-genre convention at Gonzaga University in Spokane August 1-3. Information about the con is here http://spocon.us/ . Though this is more a sci-fi convention than anything else, there appear to be board games, rpg's and historical miniatures as well. Mike Clinton has mad noises about hosting Watch Your Six! air games, and there seems to be some Flames of War and other games planned.

The following weekend is Dragonflight in beautiful Bellevue, WA. Again this is a multi-genre gaming convention, probably the largest in Washington state. It's a good con, though historical miniatures are frequently under-represented. It's a tough gig. The con isn't cheap unless one pre-registers, and not only are games needed but gamers are needed. Information about Dragonflight is located here http://www.dragonflight.org/

My good friend Doug Hamm likes to keep me posted about game nights at the Bonsor Centre in Burnaby, B.C., home of the Trumpeter Club. They meet one Friday per month and host some fabulous games. The Bonsor Centre is a community center with lots of stuff going on, and it is a very practical, affordable venue for a gaming club. This month Doug and others played a 15mm Fire and Fury ACW game. How long has it been since you dragged your 15mm ACW out of the closet?

Doug wrote:

Here are a few photos from the recent game of the fictional "Cedar Run" 15mm ACW game hosted by me.

As usual it seems, I remembered most things one needs to put on a good game: terrain (woods, roads, fences, houses etc etc) but forgot the more obvious: like the dice and the rules!! Luckily, my friend Dennis brought his so all was good. Had more players than anticipated but I was making up the scenario anyway :-)

Will not bore you with all the details suffice it to say that my die rolling was a poor as ever as my two brigades never got into action as I rolled six 1s in eight attempts to get any of them off the road!! (the remaining two throws were a 2 and 3 - again not helpful! For the "Fire and Fury" rules 1s are bad and thus I could not even shake out of road column (I was in reserve). Luckily the Union were not in position to hurt me and the other Confederate players were busily defeating a Union force almost twice their size!

I used many of my 'special' units for this game; brigades represented by actual regiments of the war. The picture of the clash in front of the barn shows Wheat's Zouaves defending again the 165th NY Zouaves in the foreground. The close up shot from the back shows the 146th NY Zouaves (please be kind to the painter as these ARE 15mm and I paint fast) and another unit of 72nd PA moving through the woods. The final shots shows part of the action.

If you don't know Doug, he is a fabulous painter and creates some very nice, very practical terrain pieces. He is also half of the creative team of Larry Leadhead, and yes one is the most likely number Doug will roll regardless of the game system he is playing.

Finally, David Sullivan has begun writing a blog. David is another dear friend, possibly the smartest person I know and he loves ancients, cats, conservative politics, and shooting his cool collection of firearms. He is currently the director of Enfilade and has done loads of stuff for NHMGS. I've put a link to David's blog "I Live With Cats" in my links section. He is a great writer and a wonderful photographer. His entry on FoG is awesome.