My Favorite Military Histories.

Everyone comes into this hobby because something inspires them to do so. As a teenager, I began painting 54mm soldiers, and this combined with my interest in history and board games created a very short bridge to playing games with toy soldiers. All it took was a couple of high school friends named Wes Kuwano and Bill Cranor to light the fuse.

I mentioned my love of books in an earlier post, and thought I'd share ten that were particularly inspiring to dive into one period or another. Here they are in no particular order.

I chose books that might not be at the top of everyone else's list, but are good reads, and might inspire readers to investigate a new game period--like we need another one.

1. The Face of Battle by John Keegan

I bought this book when it came out in 1976. It was a new military historiography focusing on the battle as the most important factor in military history. Keegan analyzed Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme as examples. Keegan's style was to examine the underlying social factors that created each army, and then broke the battle down to its component parts. To this day, I still re-read Keegan's chapter on Agincourt. It is chiefly responsible for my interest in the Hundred Years War.

2. Devil of a Whipping by Lawrence F. Babits

Babits examines the AWI Battle of Cowpens in very much a Keeganesque style, breaking down the social characteristics of each army and analyzing the effectiveness of the participants. However it is the breaking down of the battle in its phases and in space and time that make it so interesting. Finally, Babits work is ground-breaking introducing new information about troop strengths to help explain the rebel victory. A great book.

3. First Day on the Somme by Martin Middlebrook

Though I don't game the First World War at the present time, I have a pile of virgin 15mm Peter Pig figures waiting to be painted in my garage. Some day I'll get to them. Middlebrook's story is an oral history culled from veterans of that first disastrous day and it makes compelling reading. I literally could not put this down. I was on vacation in Victoria, deathly ill, nearly a decade ago and picked this up at Munro's on Government Street. I read it in 24 hours.

4. Gettysburg: The Second Day by Harry Pfanz

There are zillions of books on Gettysburg, and I have a lot of them. However, Pfanz's three volumes are certainly among the best. Each is a mini-history focusing on a time or location. Pfanz was the superintendant of the Gettysburg National Historical site, and clearly knew the battlefield inside out. Not only is his narrative unique and insightful, but the maps, my god the maps cannot be matched.

5. Niagara 1814: America Invades Canada by Jay Barbuto
The War of 1812 has gained some popularity in recent years, but the histories tend to be ho-hum and general. However there are some great titles, great writers, and great reads that have cropped up in the last decade or so. This is one of them. Barbuto is an American who provides a highly detailed analysis of the entire 1814 Niagara campaign. He has a balanced view of the campaign and focuses on some of the demanding aspects of prosecuting the war in this difficult theater.

6. The Road to Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan

I feel just a smidge guilty posting this book because I just finished reading it. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful single volume treatment of the American Revolution in the South up through Guilford Courthouse. Buchanan makes good use of primary and secondary resources to paint an intriguing picture of the war in the Carolinas from the first encounter at Sullivan's Island in 1776 to Cornwallis's fatal victory at Guilford Courthouse. All the major actions are here, as well as many of the smaller partisan affairs. Buchanan takes pains to introduce us to many of the leaders, including the less well known, and doesn't pull punches in his judgement of them. However, the best part of this book is Buchanan's writing. He has a fine narrative style that makes reading the 400 pages easy and effortless.

7. Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare by Milton Perry

I have more books on the Civil War at sea than most folks, and most of them are really good. Though a little off the central topic, one of these is Milton Perry's book on Confederate efforts to even the score with the Yankees using unconventional means. It's a well-written, fascinating read about two arms of the Confederate Navy that proved considerably more effective (though less sexy) than ironclad or cruiser building programs.

8. Capital Navy by John Coski

Another great book on the naval aspects of the Civil War. John Coski's look at the life and death of the James River Squadron focuses on a couple areas. The first is the development and effect of the CSS Virginia on Union naval plans. Lots of little known information here. Most of the book, however, deals with what came after the Virginia--the design, building and staffing of the ironclad squadron that was to keep the Union at bay. Coski includes a great account of the Battle of Trent's Reach. Coski is a wonderful writer and tells this story well.

9. Red Coats and Grey Jackets: The Battle of Chippawa by Donald E. Graves

I love this book. It's a brief but complete account of a brief little battle. Graves is a Canadian who has written on a number of Canadian military history topics, and his work is quite good. This little battle on the Niagara frontier in 1814 is the best account of Chippawa. It's well written includes a complete OOB. If you're interested in this battle, you need this book.

10. War Cruel and Sharp: English Strategy Under Edward III, 1327-1360 by Clifford Rogers
Dang this is a great book. Rogers examines Edward III's tactical developments from his first less successful actions in Scotland, to his highly successful battles at Halidon Hill and Neville's Cross, and how he applied these in France during the Hundred Years War. Rogers also has interesting things to say about the chevauchee, or highly destructive raids, the English carried out in France and how they served an important strategic purpose of separating the populace from the French king and forced the French to fight battles against the English system that they had no tactical solution to defeat.

Bonus selection: Agincourt: A New History by Anne Curry
For me, Anne Curry is the face of the coterie of medieval historians that keep the Hundred Years War a living, interesting period. With this book, Anne Curry began a process of recounting the number of English present at this battle, reducing the French, and increasing the number of English present at this historic battle. As I wrote in an earlier post, this has provoked considerable debate among historians.

Super Double bonus: The Western Way of War and Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience by Victor Davis Hanson
Before he became a conservative spear carrier, Victor Davis Hanson, an agricultural historian wrote and edited these two superb histories of hoplite warfare. They were inspiring. Enough so that I painted up two hoplite armies using the old Ral Partha hoplite figures. I wonder where those are?

And One Stinking Turkey: The Myth of the Great War by Robert Mosier
I am a great believer in historical revision, especially when the facts warrant it. I am not a fan of revision because it's fashionable to do so or for multi-cultural purposes. I don't know what led Harper to plow zillions of dollars into promoting this book, but its just bad. Mosier's contention is that because the Germans had more modern artillery, they were defeating the Allies on the western front until the Americans arrived with their more aggressive tactics to save the world from Imperial Germany. Despite the fact that this is simple-minded and wrong, Mosier ignores the fact that the British and French were force on to the offensive to drive the Germans from highly productive regions of France. He also largely ignores that the real breakthrough against the Germans was completed by those same forces before the Americans could arrive in strength. Bad stuff.

I hope there is something here that gets your attention, and let me know if you have further suggestions

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.

Books, books, books, books . . .

I love books. I'm a total book geek. It's gotten to the point too, where I don't let them own me, I actually read all my books. This is incredibly necessary because I've pretty much maxed out my bookshelf space, so I don't buy nearly as many as used to.

Nevertheless book buying is one of my chief vices, so I'm pretty picky about what I get. This week I ordered two books. One is used, in fact it's out of print so it had to be used. I picked up a copy of "Now We are Enemies," by Thomas Fleming on Bunker Hill. It's supposed to be a great read, and Fleming is an interesting writer. Not sure it will vault right to the top of the heap in my reading queue, but it's definitely a good mid-winter's read.

The other book, which arrived today from Amazon, is a bit more central to my current painting projects is Kevin Kiley's Uniforms from the American Revolutionary War. I've only thumbed through it, but it was definitely worth the investment. It's so difficult to know what units looked like during the AWI and most illustrations are just speculative. There is no truth, at least not for the Americans, and even for British units in the field. Kiley's book is a bit more wide-ranging than Mollo's classic little book on AWI uniforms, and supplemented by Don Troiani's book on soldiers of the Revolutionary War, I get a little bit more to think about. The books offers illustrations of British, American and Provincial Units, as well as French, German and Spanish troops. There are even illustrations of cannon, ships and examples of flags.

If you're desperately in need of knowing exactly what James Coffin's sixty mounted South Carolina Royalist dragoons wore at Eutaw Springs (as I am) this will not solve your problem. However, if you're groping in the dark at what units might have worn at various times during the Revolution, this will offer some suggestion. The book that tells it all simply hasn't been written--and likely never will be.

Agincourt: Mud Marchers

It's taken me five months, but I've finally gotten this pile of dismounted French knights finished. It's a 48 figure unit, the largest allowed under the Crusader Rules.

These are Perry figures. They are gorgeous and a lot of fun to paint. Well, fun except for the command figures which have embossed heraldry which are fairly tricky to paint amid the folds and etc. One would think it would make things easier, but it doesn't. The fleu-de-lys and other assorted symbols fade into the white primer.

The flags were actually printed from the Warflag page and then I painted over the print job. The big red and green flag was a pain to glue together. It is the Oriflamme, the sacred standard of St. Denis. When the Oriflamme flew it was the symbol of no quarter.

I re-took these pictures today, Sunday the 1st. The last pictures were of poor quality with bad lighting and I didn't use my tripod. (Readers, of course, could tell from the macros). The first pic shows the full 48 figure unit. The right hand picture is focused more Boucicault, the Marshal of France.

At the present time I have three units on my painting table. They are all from AWI-a North Carolina unit of Continentals, the 64th regiment, and a tiny battalion of the DeLancey Regiment--44 figures in all. I'd like to have them all done and mounted by the end of November. We'll see. I've also got quite a few stands I'm rebasing, including the latest cool figs from Doug. I'll photo them when they're ready and post 'em.

The Agincourt Controversy

I was doing my daily perusal of the New York Times this morning and noticed an interesting article on the reaction to the Ann Curry's reinterpretation of the Battle of Agincourt. Curry's thesis, for those who haven't been reading along the last couple of years, is that the outcome of the battle was decisive, but the the English were not outnumbered as wildly as Shakespeare suggested, or as historians have represented.

Curry's ideas were covered in her excellent book, Agincourt: A New History, released three years ago. As the President and the army try to make decisions about fighting counterinsurgency and the nature of war in Afghanistan, they've consulted works on the nature of the Hundred Years War and the execution of that conflict by the English. Interesting stuff.

The article also interviews a couple of American medievalists I really respect, Clifford Rogers and Kelly DeVries. Rogers seems to have aligned himself with the traditionalists. There is also a fascinating link to the Soldier in Medieval England database, providing considerable information on those who fought in France during the Hundred Years War conflict (1337-1453.)

What makes all this incredible, to me at least, is how the very active historians have made this really interesting conflict vital, interesting and relevant.

Nice map in the NYT.

On Deadline This Week

Monday through Wednesday:
Paper has to come out which means little time for anything else. Ho-hum. I'm wrapping up the standards for my big unit of French HYW men-at-arms for Crusader Rules/Medieval Warfare. This project is coming along. It's just going to be slow.

I did manage to finish basing some AWI stuff this weekend, mostly militia. On Friday I finished the 63rd Regt., but they still need basing and flagging. I also started one of the three North Carolina regiments at Eutaw Springs--but at twelve figures its pretty dinky. More next weekend, I hope.

Museum of Flight Game Day

Yesterday was our annual Museum of Flight game day. I've often repeated my personal preference for the Museum above all our other venues, even Enfilade. I think it's something about being surrounded by the planes and the visitors, but I also think it's nice that we are only responsible for hosting games, and the Museum really likes us.

I hosted our annual Golden Age Air Racing game. We had seven players and it was a great game. It is always interesting to see how these games will turn out. Mark Waddington led for most of the game in green and gold Super Solution, but ran out of gas as he sputtered around the last turn and had to glide across the finish line, while his competitors raced by him. Denny Hartung won with the Me-209, narrowly pursued by Casey Smyth in the blue Super Solution, Casey crashing as he crossed the line. Steve Winter thought he was the winner in the Seversky SEV-2, but watched, appalled as Denny and Casey edged him by a half hex. Arthur Brooking, Joe Waddington and Bill Vanderpool also played.

Dean Motoyama and Dan Proctor hosted their beautiful Sharpe's Skirmish game. Steve Winter ran a nice looking Axis and Allies sea battle game. Jeroen and Hendrik Koopman ran a gorgeous 15mm WWII game, and Lloyd Bowler, Dave Mebust and Dan Carter from Astoria ran an energetic series of Wings of War encounters. Not to be outdone, the DBA guys from NAGS ran games including Andy Hooper's Humberside War of 1812 game.

I have pics from my own game--got some wonderful air racing pictures because the game was so tight

The pics from top right is the tight grouping of planes sailing out of the first turn. Mark Waddington actually led in the green and gold Super Solution, but has already moved, but Joe Waddington is a close second in the white Howard Ike. Unfortunately Joe stalled his plane in the first turn, and the left picture shows Joe standing over his plane, which is now in last place.

At bottom, Casey has just been cursed by another pilot for the second time. He's not a happy camper, but his blue Super Solution is still in the leader group of four. At right is Mark Waddington who has happily led the entire race. He's coming into the backstretch turn on the final lap and is explaining to Dave Schueler that fuel hasn't come into play at all. He's about to draw an event card that will cost him the little fuel he has left. The last picture shows the leader grouping heading into the final turn: green Super Solution, SEV-2, Me-209, and blue Super Solution

Old Dogs and New Tricks

I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but I've gradually been changing my painting method. For the last twenty years or so I've used what Bill Stewart lovingly called the "slop" technique. It's one that works. I start with a white primer (actually I use Testor's flat white spray enamel.) From there painters use a system of washes over the white. The wash is heavier than a black wash; it's enough to add color and fill in creases in the clothing. If it's too light then the painter can simply add another coat. Using a clear matte stablilizes the pigment and makes the wash or stain color less likely to separate. I use a Liquitex clear matte-I think I have a lifetime supply.

The last couple of years, however, I've been headed in a somewhat different direction. I've continued with the white primer because of how it brings out the color. I've started doing more traditional painting with highlights and dark colors in the creases. One of the reasons I went this way is because so many of my favorite colors disappeared. I used to use Polly S, and then they changed a lot of their color formulations. I was also fond of many Ral Partha colors, but they might as well be gone. I'm pretty much left with Vallejo-which I like a lot, but they're pretty expensive, even if they do last forever. Craft paints, such as Ceramcoat, are okay, lots of colors, but not a lot of pigment to cover with.

I dunno. Some of my favorite figures work fine either way-the Front Rank AWI figures are full of uniform creases and valleys; they do really well with the slop, but they are great with highlights too. I've been painting Perry HYW and AWI figures. The AWI figures aren't so great with staining. They're delicate with very fine creases, so highlighting is best with those figures in order to create a contrast.

I've pretty much taken to highlighting for bright colors-blues, reds, and greens, and I'm still staining browns and grays. My very best figures were my AWI figures from Enfilade II some 18 years ago--they were all stained. It's interesting, that as I can ready to paint some more Americans from that same period, I'm trying something altogether new. And I'm excited about it.

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.

Volunteers of Ireland and other thoughts

It's been a wonderful weekend. Aside from the fact that I struggled with my insomnia, I had absolutely nothing I had to or places to go aside from a few errands. I took the opportunity to watch the Huskies' heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame and both Mariners' wins to end the season. Together with lots of sports watching I did lots of painting. Mostly I worked on finishing my 48 figure French unit of Perry men-at-arms for HYW. These guys have been on my table since June, so I was pleased to wrap them up. As soon as the basing and standards get done I'll get pictures up.

These figures are one of two units I got from Doug Hamm in our June trade. They are Volunteers of Ireland, a provincial unit that served throughout the south in the period that interests me, 1780-81. They are all Front Rank figures, and serve in summer linen. I was a bit challenged as I painted up a couple of figures to fill them out to sixteen-my figures are mounted in foursies. It's even more challenging because Doug black primes everything and mine are white primed. I did the best I could and I think you would be pressed to find which two are mine.

I've had the opportunity to really inventory my piles of unpainted AWI lead, and I've made some plans regarding how to organize and paint it. I have enough figures to paint up numerous British units, the small one that show up at Eutaw Springs and Hobkirks Hill. I have enough American figures to paint up the 1st Virginia and 2nd Maryland at their Guilford Courthouse strengths, which together is 72 figures. Throw in the Welsh Fusiliers and the Von Bose regiment and I have lots I can paint.

But first I'm painting up a bunch of SCW machine gunners before launching into the 63rd Regt., at its Hobkirks Hill strength of about 160 men (16 figures.)

A little here, a little there

We just wrapped up our third full week of school, and the familiar patterns of years passed have emerged. I'm frightfully busy most of the time. I suffer from anxiety induced insomnia, so when I'm not busy I'm exhausted. It puts a damper on my gaming life--such as it has become.

Even so, I'm trying to paint regularly-every day if possible. That's complicated at times because of school commitments. This week was Back to School Night-so Wednesday was a wash. I'm also watching a little bit more television, mostly because I want quality hang-out time with the missus. There are only two shows we're watching, Mad Men (On Demand) and we're trying Flash Forward, which after one episode is pretty good.

Even so, I have made a fair amount of progress on projects. I made my Enfilade trade with Doug Hamm for some of his gorgeous AWI figures. This was a deal we weren't actually able to consummate until his move to his new house. When the figures arrived in early September, I vowed to quickly do something with them. And I did-sort of. I remounted one of the two units, the Volunteers of Ireland, and then set about remounting many of my other figures. It's back to the 40mm square bases I had them on for years. I'm also getting ready to paint a couple of more units--a converged grenadier unit for the southern campaign, and a small unit (12 figs) of North Carolina Continentals for Eutaw Springs.

Of course I can't start those guys until I finish my 48 figure unit of French dismounted men-at-arms for HYW. These will be a 12 stand unit for the Crusader Rules/Medieval Warfare. They're all Perry figures. They're gorgeous, but take some doing to finish. I'll keep picking away at figures for this project. I have 14 more figures to paint, as well as six standards, so it's going to keep me busy. But I sure want to get on with the AWI figures.

I'm also picking at my Spanish Civil War figures. I have four light machine gun figures to paint before moving on to heavy machine guns. I have enough to provide each army with two machine gun companies. Then I want to move on to paint a couple more battalions of Republican militia.

I hope the variety keeps me interested, if not focused.

Spanish Civil War Update

These are pictures of my painting table. All the primed white stuff are Spanish Civil War figures in process.

I'm fairly taken with the project at the moment because it got such favorable response at our August game day. I've even ordered a few more figures. I just finished painting a couple more Nationalist units-a Phalange militia unit and a Nationalist regular army unit. I have a couple more Republican militia units to paint. I think they'll both likely be POUM socialist militia. I've also received a few planes.

I joined the SCW 20 yahoogroup, mostly to see if there were some useful sources, especially flags that I could scale for my 15mm figures and I struck gold. There were also some useful sources including rules. One idea I saw included random arrival of off-board support including air attacks and bombardment. I'm excited about it. I don't know when I'll play again, but I do think Non-Pasaran is a good convention game. I'll haul it out at Drumbeat and plan a scenario for Enfilade. Here are the units I'm likely to have, together with those I've painted:
Nationalists:
2 X Spanish Foreign Legion (1 complete)
2 X Moroccan Tabor (2 complete)
2 X Requete (Carlist) militia (2 complete)
2 X Falange militia (2 complete)
1 X Falange shock battalion (0 complete)
1 X O'Duffy's Blueshirts (1 complete)
1 X Cavalry regt. (1 complete)
2 X Italian volunteers (0 complete)
3 X tank companies (2 complete)
Artillery and anti-tank companies all complete

Republicans
3 X International Battalions (2 complete)
3 X Popular Army Battalions (2 complete)
2 X Assault Guards (1 complete)
6 X worker militias (2 complete)
2 X tank companies (2 complete)
2 Artillery and anti-tank companies all complete.

4 Spanish Civil War aircraft (0 complete)

The blurry figures in the foreground are Falange militia by Peter Pig nearly finished. The figures with red berets are the Requete (Carlist) militia, very conservative, very Catholic, very effective fighters for the Fascists. There are some other items on the table including a very nice 32mm Cardinal Richelieu figure from Redoubt's Three Musketeers range.

Two Games in One Week

Two weeks ago was the biggest few days of gaming all summer. In fact the most gaming I've done since Enfilade. In July I offered to host a Spanish Civil War game at our August 15 NHMGS game day. I didn't think much about it until the week before the game and then the spirit of "uh-oh, I'm not ready" overtook me.

I went through the rules, and decided to convert them to InDesign documents (I need the practice for school.) I changed a couple of small things, and clarified a few more, and wrote the scenario. I also started madly painting-adding a unit or two on each side, and got ready for game day.

On the 15th, I threw everything out on the table. The game involved the close investment of a town with a strategic bridge. The town was held by Nationalist forces, but was under fire by Republican forces. The game begins with both sides rushing troops into the battle for the town. It was a very fun game that really turned into a meat grinder. In the end, both sides had a lot of fun and a lot of casualties, and the game ended in a draw. I needed some clarity for town fighting, but that is easily remedied.

Sorry for the clutter in the pictures. At the top we see a Moroccan battalion, one of many Nationalist reinforcements rushing to the defense of the town. In the foreground of the middle picture we see the Tom Mooney machine gun company keeping Nationalist heads down as the Assault Guards prepare to attack. Finally a poor Republican battalion is caught on the wrong side of the river receiving the brunt of the Nationalist counter-attack.


On the 18th I got together with Mark Waddington and Scott Murphy to play a Hundred Years War game. It was an idea I threw together based on The Black Prince's attack on Caen in 1346. The prince lost control of his division of Edward III's army and they hurled themselves at a fortified bridge protecting the prosperous suburb of St. Jean. The French protected the bridge with crossbowmen mounted in boats. Eventually a flanking force crossed the river and forced the covering barbican to surrender.

We tried the same idea, with pretty much the same results. Scott fairly quickly chased off the protecting crossbowmen and I required that he make an assault on the barbican. It didn't work. He also eventually made a river crossing. Mark made the flanking attack and fought it out with the French in St. Jean. Eventually, however, the superior larger English forces wore down the French and the end became clear. It was very fun-a game I would consider running at Enfilade.

In the pictures, Mark and I prepare to fight in St. Jean, while Scott plans his assault on the fortified bridge. It was great to drag out my Miniature Building Authority buildings again.

The Spanish Civil War lives again

When I graduated from college way back in '78, I was taken with the Spanish Civil War. There was something romantic about a Republic supported by a melange of political leftists bravely opposing a band of fascists, supported by the Nazis. I've learned just enough to know that there were plenty of mass murders, executions and political orthodoxy on both sides. A war which, in reality, had no good guys.

I was always intrigued with the idea of gaming the period, but alas, for the longest time there were no miniatures. Then, at an Enfilade many years ago Lance Runolfson of Bloodaxe Miniatures in Medford Oregon brought his crude but charming SCW figures and sold them to David Sullivan. As is David's habit, he sat on them until I liberated them from him in one of his frequent fits of closet cleaning.

One of my all time favorite set of rules are those written by Dick Larson for this period-he called them Non Pasaran from the famous words by La Passionaria, the poster girl for the Republican side. Dick wrote the rules for his beautiful 20mm Hotspur (now Bandera) figures, and I have wonderful memories of playing the rules in a variety of different venues. Modified from the old GW Space Marines rules, they were easy to play and very fun, though there needed to be some fairly careful game mastering.

Though my homely Bloodaxe figures were no match for Dick's 20's, I was thrilled when Peter Pig came out with a 15mm range at about the time I started painting my figures. There were lots more figure types than my little Bloodaxe lumpen. Eventually I acquired a fair number of figs, way back in 1994. I played with them once, and they've lived in their box ever since. I decided to drag them out for our August 16th game day. Another report will follow up.

Yes, I am still here

Can you tell it's summer? Even though I have the summer off, it seems as though I've devoted even less time than usual to painting and gaming. There's lots of reasons why, including an early July excursion to Kent State University for a couple of weeks, but that's not the point. It's time to get back on the blog.

Not much historical gaming since June. I've painted a little bit and I'll share that in just a moment. I don't know whether I'm just sort of out of gas, or I'm going through a phase, but it hasn't been a very productive six or so weeks. I'm also staring at school starting three weeks from Monday, so the clock is ticking on having some fun. With J-camp most of next week, things seem to be getting away from me.

I have painted some Martians this summer. Ho-hum. They were the last of my militia figures for our campaign. Check out the Shastapsh blog for an update.

However, I've also been working on some Hundred Years War figures. In late June I'd kind of made up my mind that I was going to live with Warhammer Ancient Battles and the Armies of Chivalry supplement. I made contact with Adrian Nelson, and hopefully we'll play a little AoC before the summer is out.

However, Chris Craft also contacted me about The Crusader Rules and Medieval Warfare. I learned that we have similar basing for my multi-figure mountings and thus my dual projects can continue living.

In any case, I've been painting my Perry Agincourt to Orleans figures as French. They sure are nice figures, though I'm not making very rapid progress on them. Despite their loveliness, I still have a zillion OG dismounted French to paint (okay, not a zillion, it just seems that way.) Not only that but the Crusader Rules seem very doable for a larger game, and it may be my answer to a convention-style Poitiers game.

Not Quite Ennui

I'm adrift on a river lead without end.

Okay, it's not quite that bad. I can't get really excited about painting anything right now, but I am painting.

I finished eight PT Dockyard vessels including six German vessels-two mid-war S-boats and four lighters. I also painted my first two Fairmile B's in Mountbatten Pink. I like to think of it as a down payment on the St. Nazaire Raid.

I'm working through a bunch of stuff on my desk. I have twenty-three Space 1889 figs. They're a mix of sword and shooters that will fill out some of my Shastapsh militia units, including a standard bearer for my black militia shooters.

Then I'll need to paint up eighteen or so Perry HYW figures.

I'd love to have all this polished off before I head off to Kent in early July, but I'm just not holding my breath. I'm working at it gamely, but not very fast.

Bladensburg: The Rerun

Doug Hamm and I ran Bladensburg at Enfilade 3-4 years ago. I had a mad hankering to do the battle again. I didn't feel it turned out quite right then, and thought we needed to give it another go.

Mind you, Bladensburg is a tough one to re-fight. A relatively small British expeditionary force of two brigades, with little artillery, led by a great fighter, Robert Ross, routs a much larger American force led by a bevy of nincompoops, including the President of the United States. It is always difficult to play the Americans as poorly trained as the large force of American militia, or to lead as badly as the American commanders actually did. It is difficult to reproduce Ross's brilliance and impetuosity, which paid dividends at Bladensburg but cost him his life at North Point months later.

We had reliable British players and some amusing Americans-some experience and inexperience on both sides. Our rules are Red Coats and Grey Jackets, which is Doug Hamm's Fire and Fury knockoff. I've really enjoyed our War of 1812 project, and love working with Doug. We laid our minis out in more or less historical positions with British having to work their way across the Anacostia river facing a withering fire. They did, but didn't move quickly to outflank the the Americans out of their hasty earthworks. The rockets that proved the deathknell orderly American militia didn't have enough range to reach the Americans (a problem of our creation) and the rapid march of the third American line contributed to the discomfiting of the British attack.

It was a disappointing game. The new untest firing table didn't work as well as hoped. I also believe that the lights have to be able to melee the Americans, not just skirmish around them. The gigantic American militia units really were unwieldy. Once they had to move, they could just runaway at the drop of hat, and god help 'em if they were disordered by fire. We'll need to give the rockets a longer range if they are to have the effectiveness they need.

Regardless, it looked good and I've included some of Doug's outstanding photos. At the upper left are Joshua Barney's naval gunners who hauled a handful of cannon to the battlefield after they burned their gunboats to prevent their capture by the British. The figures and guns are by Abbott's Miniatures. Those at top right are my American Marines. There are pitifully few of these excellent troops at Bladensburg. The figures are from the Dixon Napoleon in Egypt range. I've scraped off some of the shoulder decorations. I like 'em. Center left are British rocket troops by Old Glory. They have a nice batch of these with rockets on the tall firing ladders as well as those firing from horizontal tubes. At center right is the advancing British line. The front unit is a light infantry battalion backed up by line foot. I think all are Old Glory figures. Finally, Doug has taken a great shot of my grey coated regulars we pressed into service as militia.

Lewis and Clark at Enfilade (at last!!)

Lewis and Clark made its appearance at Enfilade on Saturday night. There were many eager players and I kind of had to sleaze Dave and Doug into the game. But, we do sleazy things for our friends.

When I found out the table we were on, I was thrilled and alternately horrified. It was a perfect ten feet in length, but six feet wide. My felt mat was wide enough, but my river bank was only five feet, so that created a problem. But Mark lent me a hill to cover the hole and put some extra trees on it, so that solved the problem. The terrain went out as planned, but with table an extra foot wider, I was a bit concerned about having things too spread out.

I'm not going to name names, but I really did enjoy the mix of folks who signed up to play the game. They seemed excited. I pre-set all the forces, so when the time came, all the players knew what they were running. Only one of the players had ever played Black Powder Battles, or had experience with any of the Two Hour Wargames systems. Most seemed interested in learning but a couple of the key American players were put off by the rules, and seemed as absent from the table as they were interested in playing the game. With disastrous results.

With the American forces more spread out on a somewhat larger table, it was important that they have a plan. They didn't. Floyd's command left alone with their horse on the northern board edge, were quickly cut off by the Spanish militia horse, took some early carbine fire and tried to fight it out in the woods. They could have abandoned their horse and moved fast, which would have worked because the Spaniards were unable to activate for three turns out of four.

Pryor's command (with Lewis) in the center woods hemmed and hawed about as the Comanches raced past them, effectively isolating Floyd's command, but didn't do much until they reached the river banks. They offered some desultory fire, eventually formed a firing line on the top of the river bank, only to begin taking fire from the Spanish regulars as they approached the American positions.

Clark's command rushed out to confront the Comanches who performed some interesting and mysterious quick move maneuvers. Hoping the Indians were peaceful, Clark held his fire until the Indians treacherously attacked him, and then extracted the maximum possible price before his command was almost entirely slaughtered.

Ordway's squad joined the firefight from the river bank, but in the end the Americans had not played together as a team. The squads fought seperately without an eye toward a withdrawal to the boats. Their cannon were not loaded for final protective fire, and they were dying by half measures. The Spanish played together very well. The Comanche advance was rapid, despite some really terrible activation rolls. The Spanish regulars were at the riverbank with a well planned advance with fire. The Spanish militia, captured the remains of the Floyd's squad, while the lancers prepared to cross the river bank into the American camp. I stopped the game there.

I hope to run the game another time, perhaps with my own rules, but the game was certainly manageable with Black Powder Battles.

Pictures are mostly by Doug Hamm. The top left shows me trying (vainly) to explain the scenario and the rules. The top right shows the Regimento Luisiana. At the bottom right is a great close-up of the Comanches (Doug takes awesome pics.) The bottom left shows Gotterdamerung-the Spanish have massed their troops on the hilltop, pouring fire into the scattered Americans trying to defend their camps. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Clark will have some 'splainin' to do.

Enfilade: The Overview

Enfilade '09 was a smashing success. The best I can figure there was record attendance. There were a record number of games. It seemed that all had a good time.

There were some great games-Mike Garcia's Teutoberger Wald game, guest Bob Murch's Curse of the Jade Buddah game, and many more.

I'll be following up with individual articles on Lewis and Clark and Bladensburg.

As always the best part of the convention was seeing friends. Doug Hamm, Daveshoe, Dave Demick and a host of others ran games with me or played in my games. Mark Waddington checked in on the Lewis and Clark game. Mark Fortner and Tim Webber, two of my favorite Enfilade entertainers, played in three of my games. I had the opportunity to spend time with Randy Miles, whom I hadn't see for a few years.

It was all good but I'm glad its over. I did sell some goodies at the Bring and Buy-WWII Pacific stuff I haven't looked at in years. I did invest in the Victrix 25mm British Napoleonics for War of 1812, and with the money I had left over I spent $74 (!!!!) on some Perry AWI that will become the 5th Maryland at Guilford Courthouse. All year I bought nothin' and in two days went crazy.

Three Days to Go

It's three days until Enfilade. I love the convention; I truly do. But I am simply all in. Lewis and Clark took over my life, and I am still in the "I've got my fingers crossed this works at the convention" stage. The other games haven't taken much work, thankfully, and I'm looking forward to them. More importantly I'm looking forward to seeing friends.

Next year-yes, I'm saying it now-no more than three games. I'd like to do the Raid on St. Nazaire with Daveshoe, maybe another Lewis and Clark scenario and either hydroplane or air racing. That will leave me a little more time to goof off or play a game or two.

Where am I with my games now? I still need to do the flags for my three little War of 1812 militia units. I'm just going to print out flags and stick 'em on standards. Yes, it's cheesy, but I'm wiped. I also need need to print up the paperwork for Bladensburg, organize my bag, making sure I have everything packed for the convention. It would be just like me to drive off and leave behind my Thunderboats! cards

I helped Daveshoe with pre-registration last night. Together we got it done pretty quickly. Talked about St. Nazaire a bit.

Exhausted Beyond Belief!!!!

Arrest Captain Merryweather Playtest

I took my L and C stuff off to Game Matrix to playtest my Enfilade scenario today. I put together the game on 10' by 5' table, which is the size I'm planning for the convention.

There were two things I hoped to accomplish with the playtest. The first was to determine whether the rules would be playable with a game this size and with some of the modifications I made. We had five guys running twelve units and roughly 120 figures, and it seemed to work okay. I did away with a couple of morale checks and made some other minor modifications. This seemed to work reasonably well. It didn't hurt that my intelligent and helpful friends were doing the playtest.

The other thing I hoped to learn from the playtest was whether my planned set up for the game would work out. I learned the Americans needed to be more spread out for to involve all the players, particularly the Spanish, quickly. It also means the game will turn into smaller, more desperate actions, rather than allowing the Americans to form more deadly mutually supportive actions.














The details. The Comanches opened the battle with a rapid advance toward the river bank. Unfortunately the quickly were caught in a rapid crossfire that became a massacre when the Spanish rolled above their activation numbers two turns in a row. The Indians were unable to move or shoot and simply were shot to pieces by Sgt. Pryor's squad, Ordway's squad and Clark's men who came up from the island to help.

As the remaining Spanish watched their Indian allies flee, they staked out ground in front of the river banks and engaged members of the Corps. In an uneven fight, the Spanish killed a couple members of the Expedition, while they simply took it from the Americans. On the left the Spanish sent their militia cavalry who moved close enough to empty their carbines at the Americans, but not quite close enough to run them down. All told the Spanish suffered fifty percent losses, and the Americans took slight casualties.

A lot of this will be balanced by simply stretching out the American deployment and positioning the Spanish. Life is good.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Work on the Lewis and Clark game continues. I'm making terrain pieces for the island-something to break up the flat space as well as an encampment for the Corps. The latter can be something to defend for the Corps, and something to capture for the Spanish. Things are winding up for the game prep, but the time is also winding down before the convention.

I still need to make something to represent supplies I can put on the boats and in camp. I have my chokecherry grove to finish. I need to finish painting up the George Drouillard mounted figure. Last but not least I need to type up quicksheets for the rules as we'll use them for the game. Everything needs to be done for the playtest on Saturday.

There always seems to be something new to do. I'm reminded of the line repeated often in the The Agony and the Ecstasy when Pope Julius (Rex Harrison) asks Michaelangelo (Charlton Heston) when the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel will be completed. "When will there be an end." The reply is always "When I am finished." And so it goes with me.

More Lewis and Clark

I had a lot of difficulty conceiving of the table dimensions for this game. I originally saw it as a larger game with the Missouri River running through the middle of the table. To be clear, the Missouri was 300-800 yards wide, so that would require a pretty darn big river. Mark suggested putting the river on one end of the table. It was an idea I liked and that's pretty much what I went with-an 8 X 5 table with the river and island taking up the last three feet of the length.

Last week in my test of the rules, however, I found that things were pretty cramped. We fought with two of L and C's squads (20 figures) and three units of Spaniards (28 figures) and that took up an awful lot of space. I decided to go with a larger table space and a 10 X 5 table. That will spread things out a bit more. Made the changes with Allan, the event coordinator at Enfilade.

More L and C terrain

Today I finished my river bank pieces. They still don't fit together as well as I'd like, but nobody will be able to say I didn't try. Lots of Woodland Scenics products here. Some deadfall logs, clump foliage and bushes, as well as fine leaf foliage and turfy stuff. I also have a picture of the three vessels moored off the island. I made a larger one. I haven't quite decided what to do in the way of an encampment, but I'll try to brainstorm that this week.

Terrain: Phase One

All of the figures are now completed for the Lewis and Clark game. I'm now working on terrain. I've ordered and completed work on some hills for Battlefield Terrain Concepts. they look good and should clutter up line of sight for the game. I'm working on the scenario idea and have also begun modifying the roster sheet for Black Powder Battles so they work a bit better for this game.

My biggest task at this point is to begin making the terrain look a bit better for the river part of the battle. That will take up about a third of the game table. This is the before view. I've got the felt to represent the river, and more felt to represent the island in the river. I think the island is too small, so I think I'll pick up another yard and be more liberal with its size. I probably need to stretch nearly the width of the board (which this represents.)

I've made the river bank from one foot pink insulation board sections. They are in stage one, which is forming and painting. I need to be sure they fit together a bit better than they do, which may involve additional sanding and fitting. I have an additional small piece to add at the far end to make the five feet fit. This is stage two. I'll work on this tonight. Then it's on to stage three, which is additional terraining. The final stage will be to come up with some add-ons for the island.

We're on deadline this week, which will make additional work difficult for this week. I'd like a walk through with the rules in the next week. Dave Demick and I did this last Monday, and I got a chance to play with the mechanics and work through some of the factors for the two armies. I have a full blown play test scheduled for May 16th, so not much margin for error.