In My Dreams

Do you ever pass the time thinking about projects you'd love to do if you had unlimited abilities, time, money, and creativity?  I do, often in the car driving home from school.  I only drive about two and a half miles, so they're fleeting thoughts.  I gave some thought to cool movie scenes I'd like to do, so here is my list and commentary:

Khartoum-The Final Assault.  Khartoum with Charlton Heston and Lawrence Olivier is one of my favorite movies and I have fond memories of my parents taking me to see it in the theater.  It would be awesome to game the final assault with the city garrison diminished by starvation and dervishes everywhere.  It would be good.

One boom among many

 The Lighthorsemen-Desert assault on Beersheba.  This probably wouldn't game very well, but skazillions of Australian light horse charging entrenchments and into the city would be so cool.  It sure looked great in the movie.  Of course my itchin' to do this is complicated by the fact that my old VHS copy of the movie doesn't play on my DVD player and a region 1 DVD is simply not available-legally. Crap.

That this movie is unavailable in the States is an incredible injustice.

 April Morning-Retreat from Concord.  Yeah, this is an old hard to find Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on the Howard Fast novel.  It's at least twenty five years old. It could be a great skirmish game or Brother against Brother game.  Concord is an important action at the beginning of the AWI, equally hazardous to both sides.  It could be an interesting game.

This 1988 movie has a great cast with Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Urich, Rip Torn, a young Chad Lowe, and Susan Blakely

Return of the King-Battle of the Pelennor Fields.  I actually don't much care for the movie version of this, but it's one of the three battles I've always wanted to do-Cowpens and Agincourt being the other two. Tolkien's description of the action is so interesting.  No army of the dead in book, but lots of Oliphaunts.  It's a 15mm game for sure with lots of Riders of Rohan, Orcs and men of Harad.

Eomer gets ready to ride to ruin.

Henry V (Branagh)-Battle of Agincourt.  I love this movie.  I love everything about this movie.  It's so much better than the Olivier movie.  I've sort of surrendered Agincourt to Chris Craft, and I'm more focused on Poitiers-someday.

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard Kikely, Davy Gam Equire; None else of name; and of all othermen but five and twenty.  O God thy arm was near.

The Wind and Lion-Desert Fort.  I still love this movie too.  Candace Bergen, Sean Connery and Ken Kanaly trying to chop up the German nasties from the inside, while the Riffians attack the fort from the outside.  Come on, admit it you love the dueling artillery pieces too.  Sword and the Flame, it was made for Sword and the Flame.

President Roosevelt promised the Raisuli

The Natural--Knights vs. Pirates.  Little did you know I already have three painted Reviresco teams and two unpainted ones in my drawers of shame.  I love this movie, and the final scenes are so great. Don't know about scratch-building Knight's Field though. 

Saville Slugger's rain of destruction, courtesy of Roy Hobbs

The Patriot--Ha ha!! Fooled ya.  I hate this movie.  

Oh well, back to the cogs.

Block 20 Cogs

This is the next dozen cogs I completed tonight.  The chief difference from the earlier batch is that the fighting platforms are facing in the proper direction.  There are also a couple that are longer.  One got pretty thin which left a little too much overhang on the fighting platforms.  My goal is to create a kind of tubby effect and the long, skinny guy looks like a cog on a diet.

I'm going to do one more batch of cogs, ten or so, including some longer, chubbier ones.  I hope to have them done next week. I've run out of my templates for fighting platforms, so that will take a bit more time.

Enfilade: What to do?

Enfilade is still a ways off, but I need a plan for which games to host.  I have six games I'm considering, and unfortunately I can only manage three at most due to my responsibilities as convention director.  I've posted a little poll to allow you, my faithful readers, to guide my thinking.  No guarantees of course, but I'm interested to hear what you're thinking.

1. Gold Cup Hydroplane racing-These are with our home grown hydroplane racing rules, Thunderboats. It's a pretty long game and probably could only be run on Sunday morning.  This is an oddball game, but the boat racing game has a lot of faithful followers and generates a fair amount of enthusiasm.  Usually I run a design the boat/driver race instead of a historical game, but both have their proponents.  
2. Hobkirk's Hill-This little battle is a perfect size for Regimental Fire and Fury with the AWI expansion.  I love Fire and Fury.  I love the AWI in the south.  The only problem is there isn't much flash here.  The terrain is kind of a snooze and the Americans have to have some bad luck in order for things to break right for the Brits. 
3. Sluys-This would require a lot of work to get ready for an end of May convention.  I have a fair number of cogs painted with more building (Block 20 cogs posted soon.)  I'd also need to figure out how to scratchbuild some galleys.  And what about the land representing the estuary?  Nevertheless I think everything is doable in enough time to play test a couple of times. 
4. Closing Wilmington--Last summer I ran a couple of ACW naval games using Ironclads on a fictional battle to eliminate Confederate defenses on the Cape Fear River after the fall of Fort Fisher.  It's a fictional battle using naval forces in 1/600 and 6mm land forces.  I had fun with it, but it would still need some tweaking to make it work. 
5. 1962 Air Strike on Cuba is loosely based on an air action that could have occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I am really intrigued by this event.  It would be built around air recon, an interception and ground attack.  We'd use the Airwar C21 rules which I am increasingly fond of.  It is a great convention set of rules. 
6. Lewis and Clark is the same Arrest Captain Merryweather and his Followers scenario I've done before using the Brother against Brother rules.  These are much more appropriate for a convention setting than the Black Powder Battles I've used in the past. I take this game fairly personally because I'm the only person looney enough to do it therefore it must be fun or I become vaguely suicidal. 

The balloting is at the bottom of the page.  You're allowed to vote for more than one game, but please try to vote just once.  The links will take you to my previous posts on these games or projects so you can make an informed choice.

Drumbeat

Yesterday was the annual Drumbeat gathering held in Seattle each January.  This year it was in a new location, the Lake City Community Center, and a little later in the month which attracted a few more bodies. I really liked the new space and saw lots of friends I don't normally get to see except at Enfilade.

28mm Napoleonics using the Black Powder rules.

Dave Schueler and I hosted our Airwar C21 game.  It was just our second playing of the game, and I gotta say I just liked it more. We didn't have a ton of players, just Dale, Larry and Denny.  I helped run the Taiwanese, and Dave ran the Taiwanese frigate. Four RoC planes and ship vs. six PLAF bombers and six PLAF fighters.  We upgraded the the Chinese J-8's to include radar guided missiles, and that paid off.  One of Denny's RoC Chin Kuo's was shot down outright and one had to be abandoned by its pilot.  Nevertheless, all of the PLAF Fantans were shot down before they reached the frigate.

Larry and Dale plot their attack on the RoC frigate in a game of Airwar C21

A look at the advancing PLAF from my Taiwanese Mirage 2000.  Each of my planes shot down an adversary and excaped unscathed. (There's a first time for everything.)

A pair of Larry's J-8's overflies Denny's burning Chin-Kuo

I think what impressed me most about the game is that there is the potential of considerable maneuver in the missile age.  We were all launching left and right, but they didn't all hit or even lock on.  The ease of play made the game a very good time.  David Manley et al should be congratulated for writing a fun, very playable set of rules.  I've got an idea percolating for a Cuba 1962 scenario.

In the afternoon I ran my Lewis and Clark game.  It was my first game running a Brother against Brother game. I was really inspired to try this by Lawrence Bateman's Northwest Indian War game at Enfilade last year.  I thought it was really great and was perfect for the size of my scenario.

 How did my game go?  Well, it wasn't god awful, but let's just say Lewis and Clark didn't make it to the Pacific.  The Americans had problems with die rolls.  Shooting, moving, you name it, the Americans didn't have much luck moving back to the keelboats, or not far enough ahead of the Spanish.  On the other hand, the Spanish rolled extremely well, shooting, moving, you name it. Hmm, sounds like a pattern.

Spanish troops crossing the Missouri River bank before they attack the Corps of Discovery's boats.

Bruce Meyer, a Brother against Brother veteran had some great suggestions for future scenarios, and I'll have to give them a try.  They were excellent.

Show and Tell: The block 10 cogs completed

I put the finishing touches on my first batch o' cogs.  This is the finished project.  I painted the beads, er, fighting tops simple colors.  The hulls are pretty basic.  Tried dry-brushing them, though it isn't my long suit, and I think I'll need to find a better dry-brush color.  I really like the sails, even the plain ones, because it adds something too them, including disguising some of the masts that didn't quite end up perpendicular.

I put them on Litko bases.  They're actually modified Litko bases that began life as 80mm X 40mm and were chopped in half.  I painted them Ceramcoat Midnight blue, added a little foam, and coated with Liquitex gloss gel--miraculous stuff.

I've begun working on the block 20 cogs with the properly faced bow and stern castles.  I hope to have them up to view next week.  Consider the block 10 vessels a down payment on the Battle of Sluys.

Cogs: Work in Progress

After reading over David Manley's comments, and taking a look at my 28mm cogs, he is correct, the fighting platforms should be reversed.  Too late for these fellows.  I like to call them my block 10 cogs.  A step beyond my prototype, but with improvements to be made on future models. 

I'll be painting the vessels and gluing the  sails tonight.  I'll have to see if the sails are worth the trouble.  At least the sails should distract the viewer from the silly castle problems.

 Also on the learning curve, the large cogs seem too long and thin at 2" X 3/4".   The small cogs seem too tiny at 1"  Don't quite know whether I should just call a do-over on these or not.  I did cut some larger hulls at 2" X 1" which seem more reasonable.

The video is just kind of silly, a lot of me talking and not showing much in a very useful way I'm afraid.  Yes, my den is very messy-you don't even see the worst of it.  Final update on the block 10 cogs soon. 

The Bug that bites you.

Painting figures and working on projects are hard work.  It takes money, time, dealing with a certain amount of tedium and the mental toughness to persevere a project through to completion.  I don't have all that.  I have to "walk away" from what I'm working on from time to time just keep moving forward on my painting goals--which is always to paint a lot.

 I promised myself no new projects.  I lied. Sort of.  One of the big deterrents to taking on new projects is cost.  I rattled on a couple of weeks ago about cog wars.  I truly believe I've found scratchbuilding, in this case, to be the antidote to the cost of taking on this project.  Deadline also broke my concentration on the AWI unit I was working on, and yesterday, my first day of not not working on the paper  in over a week, imbued me with enough energy to focus my attention on the mass production of English cogs for the Hundred Years War.

 Here is my improved prototype.  I've added a sternpost and a small bowsprit, as well as a crow's nest for the mast top.  The stern post is just a chunk of flat toothpick.  The bowsprit a bit of brass wire, and the crow's nest a simple bead.  Given the scale I think they all work.  The production models will be a bit different.  The forecastle will be smaller at Daveshoe's suggestion.  The mast will be the same height, but the yard will be raised higher and will be thicker-brass wire the same thickness as the bowsprit.  I'm at sea about sails (pun intended.)  I will probably try to determine if it is worth the effort. 

If I can retain some momentum on this I'd like to finish 15ish vessels this week to show off at Drumbeat on the 29th.  Dave and I are hosting at an Airwar C 21 game, and I've agreed to pull my Lewis and Clark project out of the box and host a game using the Brother Against Brother rules.

Wrapping up the Indians

Tonight I finished my first figures of the new year.  The remaining 22 Indian figures are done.  I'm going to be moving on to the RAFM Martian askaris.  These are nice, if very tall, figures.  They were the first of the post-Bob Murch sculpts for the range and a worthy addition.  It would be great if there. 

The Old Glory figures are pretty simple and generic.  Nice sculpts and cleanly molded.  There are three different turban types, though none of them are super.  I wish the rifles had bayonets.  Anyway, I put them in khaki with some color distinctions to tell the difference.  I have the unit with red turbans inspired by pictures of Madras infantry in the 1890's.  I gave one unit a green turban tassle and green cuffs, inspired by an Osprey plate.  The last is a group with the tall turban/fez which I colored blue with blue turban tassle-simply out of my imagination.  These were fun and fairly quick to paint.  I especially liked painting the distinctive officers.  Two of them come out of the RAFM Victorian Adventurers pack.  The other is a Parroom Station officer.

I really like the Martian colonial figures.  There are two different figures plus a Martian NCO.  I've painted them up in rifle green for the Parhoon Rifles.  Still a ways to go on them. The officer is a colonial artillery officer by Old Glory.  He'll be in red trousers with red facings.  Color, ya gotta love color.

I have a second unit of the askaris, but am short a couple of figures.  This, of course, prompted my first miniature order of the year--two more askaris and ten sword wielding Martians to serve as tribesmen types.  Probably my last figures for this genre for a while.  I still have more Space 1889 figures to paint, but I'll continue to whittle away at them in 2011.

Gah!! Deadline's got me.

I'm in the middle of the first deadline of the year.  On a Friday night no less. It's actually been a couple of fun weeks of painting which I can honestly say I've had very few of the past few months.  Maybe I'm just getting used to wearing those cheaters.  In any case, I'm hoping to have some pictures of completed Indians and the Parhoon Rifles. to share this weekend.


My current painting subjects are the The King's Loyalist regiment.  16 nice little Perry figures that should go fairly fast--whenever I get the time.  If I can finish these guys fairly quickly I'm going to spend the rest of the month working on cogs.  I think I can mass produce a fair number of them quickly and I'm really looking forward to trying it. with some of the suggestions I've heard.

Scratchbuilding Cogs

What's a cog?  No not those, you've been watching too many episodes of the Jetsons.  Cogs were medieval warships, as ungainly as they sound.  Typically they were the simple clinker built merchant vessels planked over front and rear with raised fighting platforms.  Some were big--120 tons--some were small--30 tons--all were tubs.  Big tubs, small tubs, medium sized tubs.  They were difficult to manage in any kind of weather or rough seas.  It could take months or more simply to cross the English Channel.

In any case, after Lepanto and the acquisition of David Manley's medieval naval rules I've been trying to figure out how to acquire enough cogs to game with.  NavWar makes cogs, but they're NavWar, and without pictures to look at I'm skeptical .  Outpost miniatures makes some really nice looking cogs but at three pounds a pop and 50% shipping (!!!!) it doesn't seem feasible to put together a large fleet. Daveshoe and I were mulling this over yesterday and we discussed sizes and building materials.

Today I went to Michaels while out on my errands and picked up some bass wood. The   I purchased enough to make quite a few hulls and a fair number of castles and set to cutting the wood I'd need.  this is my prototype miniatures.  A simple tubby hull 1 1/2 inches X 3/4 inch X 1/4 inch.  I made the base for the castle 3/4" X 3/8"X 1/8" trapezoid.  I cut 1/4" very thin plasticard and cut crenelations in it to represent.  Plastic pole mast with steel wire yard.  Voila.  It probably took me an hour to make, but it would be very easy to mass produce and make eight in an hour using my Dremel tool. 

Interested in your feedback.  Considering I would like about a hundred of these, do you think they're workable?

Play test: Airwar C 21

Today Dave Schueler and I got together at a deserted Game Matrix and pulled out our Airwar: C21 rules and ran through them using my Chinese and Taiwan jets that have laid dormant so many years.

Dave and I have lamented our lack of air games a number times over the past year, and because we already have a lot invested in mats, planes and flight stands for something like Mustangs, we're reluctant to plunge into Check Your Six.  While I'm sure it's a fine system, I'm not wild about sinking another hundred bucks into rules, flight stands, another size hex mat, etc. David Manley is a game designer I truly trust and when I ran across them and discussed them with Dave, it seemed the right thing to do to at least try them out.

Arrived at Game Matrix at 11:00 and found nobody there.  The shop stayed empty most of the time we hung out, about three and a half hours.  Hopefully everyone was just watching the Seahawks game.  It being an air game, things set up quickly.  The scenario was simple: A group of Chinese attack planes (Q-5 Fantans) escorted by J-8 fighters were attacking a Taiwanese frigate and encountered their air defense, a pair of Mirage 2000's that were later joined by a pair of Chin-Kuo indigenous fighters that are rated much like F-16 block 30 export fighters.

 While I was really more interested in walking through the rules than the outcome of the game, the Chinese always have it tough in these games.  They don't have the advanced missile capabilities the Taiwanese do.  Armed with all-aspect infrared missiles they just don't hit very well.  When trading fire with radar guided missiles, the IR 's are always at a disadvantage.  Even so, I had six planes with missiles and Dave's Taiwanese only had four.  Of course they had the ship too, another story.

The game turned out much as expected.  The J-8's couldn't effectively fight off the RoC fighters.  We actually did get into a bit of a dogfight and managed to damage a Chin-Kuo with gunfire.  Missiles got all of my planes.  Sort of.  One of the Fantans actually got through the missile screen, including those fired by the frigate and was about to drop its smart bombs when the ol' radar guided three incher blasted me out of the sky.  Such is life. I think we're set with a scenario for Drumbeat on the 29th.

I found the rules pretty easy.  Scale is variable.  Planes are rated for a maximum speed with maximum allowable turning rated by plane.  Trickier turns are done as maneuvers.  There are seven maneuver choices you can do, and each must be diced for to complete.  All the maneuvers are tricky and require a better than average roll.  Failed maneuvers leave you out of position and a vulnerable target.


 I liked everything about Airwar C21.  If you have a hankering to try some jet combat it's worth your while.

2010: The Good, the Bad, and the Dumb

2010 is coming to a close at last.  In retrospect it wasn't a bad year, it just seemed long and plagued with issues that made miniature wargaming difficult.  If I had to pinpoint one major shortcoming of the year it's that I didn't get to play enough games.  Why?  Part of it was simple exhaustion.  I'm a wretched sleeper who struggles even more to snooze when confronted with stress and anxiety.  I had the latter in spades in 2010 with the JagWire trial in the spring and the continuing saga of my in-laws health, moving, and general inability to care for themselves.  On the other hand, the trial is finished, and my mother in law is amazingly on the mend. My goal for 2011 is to game at least once per month if not more.  Twice would be nice.

 One of my goals for the year was to purchase fewer figures.  I try to track purchases on the blog, but I'm really awful at it.  Updating those settings is something I really procrastinate about so I have little idea if I've purchased more than I've painted.  I can tell you I believe I'm ahead of the game.

I had a few substantial figure purchases this year.  I bought a lot of Perry AWI figures.  The good news is they are almost all painted.  The big American Virginia and Maryland units for the southern campaign are finished.  I've painted most of the British figures--about twenty left from purchases in 2010.  I've even dipped into some older reservoirs of AWI figures.  My other big purchase was of Spanish Civil War figures in 15mm.  I did a little less well with these.  I probably have close to 100 figures left to paint, and I'll close these out this year. 

I painted 540 figures in 2011, within the range of 500-600 figures I projected last year.  For the first time I struggled to keep plodding away every night.  I've talked about my eyesight issues and it's really bugged me. If I hadn't had a magnificent June, I wouldn't have come close to meeting my goal.  I have really enjoyed painting during the Christmas vacation weeks.  I simply have to find a way to paint at least an hour every day.  My down days I've really enjoyed reading, and simply put I am a reader always have been.  Somehow I need to find a balance between the two.

I have no major plans for new purchases.  Well, sort of.  After receiving a copy of David Manley's medieval and renaissance naval rules I'm looking around at some of that stuff.  Outpost miniatures and Navwar both carry medieval cogs.  Can you say Sluys anyone?  I may also pick up some Raiden planes for some Airwar C21. In terms of actual figures, I have some troops I'd like to add to my AWI.  One of my Enfilade projects is Hobkirk's Hill, and I'll need some ammunition carts and/or limbers for the Americans.  Perry makes some very nice ones.  But beyond that I have loads of figures to paint.  I also have eight Hasslefree minis on order for role playing, and I didn't order, but haven't forgotten the ship models from Bay Area Yards.

What will I paint this year?  You can depend on some AWI.  I have lots still to paint:  the 23rd regiment, Von Bose Regiment, two Guards battalions.  I'll be busy.  Beyond that, wherever my interest takes me.  I would guess I have 10-15 unfinished projects, and I just want to enjoy painting them.  It took me the better part of two months to finish the Invalids and Coffin's Light Dragoons, but in the end I enjoyed how they looked.  Maybe that's my new motto:  Take yer time and paint 'em nice. 

One of my goals is to do a bit better job keeping up with this blog.  I'll try to do more with works in progress.  Dean Motoyama over on the WAB blog does such a super job with that.  I'll also share my thoughts and suggestions on books, rules and stuff that might be helpful.  In any case as this blog nears 20,000 page views, I wish the best for you and your families in 2011.  Thanks for visiting because it keeps me writing. 

WIP: Video and Indians on Mars

One of my Christmas gifts was a flash video camera from Lorri.  It was something I didn't need, but she thought it would be nice to include video with my blogging. I did include one video with my Lepanto entry.  It's funny, I thought there would be more excitement in miniature wargame to shoot, but I'll have to work at it a bit more to get it figured out.

The camera is a Panasonic, and so far I highly recommend it.  Lorri got it on a Groupon for about a hundred dollars and it shoots stills as well as video.  If you watched, the picture quality is decent and the audio is embarrassingly good. Between my iPhone and my flash camera, I think my imaging is covered.

 I've had this bag of OG colonial Indians for a couple of years now.  They're intended to be Indian troops on Mars.  I've got them organized into three ten man units plus one white officer.  I'm enjoying the painting, and they go fairly quickly.  The unit of Madras infantry with the red turbans is finished, while the other two are on their way.  It would be nice if they sold them separately as Sikhs, Bengal infantry, Baluchis etc because their headdresses are different.  Maybe nobody will notice--but I doubt it.

DANG: Lepanto

Each year Dave Schueler sends out his missive in October or so, prompting those of us who make the pilgrimage to his house on the Monday after to Christmas to play in his annual naval game.  The October e-mail always offers us the opportunity to choose from his suggested naval topics, ranging from the ancient period to the near future.  For the last several years Lepanto, the climactic 16th century naval battle between Ottoman and Holy League forces has appeared, but never garnered enough votes to be the big winner.  But this year was the year and today was the day.

 Daveshoe went with this interesting period, and ordered the Lepanto fleets by Noble Miniatures.  Through some fits and starts of receiving the minis, Dave managed to get them all painted, and they look quite nice.  Rules were an interesting choice. Christian Fire and Turkish Fury is a Fire and Fury one off. Ships scale is 1:7 and the units are squadrons.  There is a maneuver table, fire tables, and close combat table that would seem very familiar to any veteran of Rich Hasenauer's most wonderful ACW game. The adaptation is by David Manley who has written many games, most notably Action Stations.

Dave Schueler's 15mm Barbary Wars project.  The two vessels on the left are Thoroughbed minis, while the unfinished vessel on the right is scratch-built.

 Eight of us trekked to chez Schueler in West Seattle and nicely divided the forces into four Holy League and four Ottoman commanders.  As always, Dave had some operational commanding to do.  The rules for the operational moves were easy and quick, giving each side the opportunity to pick up some stray victory points by raiding.  As an Ottoman player, I commanded the elite Barbary squadron, and followed the orders of David Sullivan, aka, Ali Pasha the overall Turkish commander.  My mates were Paul Hannah and Dave Creager, both veterans of DANG wars past. Our squadrons were a bit dispersed, so our challenge was to try to gather our fleet together while using some of our dummy counters to disperse the Christian fleet into chasing our phantoms.  They, of course, were trying to do the same to us.

Dave's super cool operational level map.  You can see the starting positions of the fleets.

 We agreed to try a raid, as the Christians were doing the same.  We combined our fleet and moved to Crete to take on the Holy League base there, as the Christians were doing the same to our base on the Dalmatian coast.  We cheered as the Christians were forced to give up their move for the next turn.  We were horrified when our raid failed utterly and our entire fleet lost boarding factors.  We were forced to refit, taking two operational movement turns.  It also convinced us our best shot was to confront the Christian fleet as soon as possible.  Two turns later it was so.

David Sullivan and Scott Murphy commanded the Ottomans and Holy League respectively. 

As dummy counters are encountered they're removed.  Eyeball to eyeball the fleets get ready for action

 We had already assigned squadrons to the various commanders.  Each commander had certain specific characteristics.  I commanded the Barbary squadron, which was the best of the Turkish ships.  We agreed Paul, who drew the aggressive commander, would advance along the right wing Holy League, while David Sullivan would advance in the middle.  Dave Creager had two squadrons that advanced on the right.  My ships formed the reserve, intended to mop up the broken bits of center left when David got done with them.

Two views of the fleets coming into action.  The Holy League to the left and the Ottomans on the right. The nasty galleasses lie between two Christian squadrons.

Our plan was constrained a bit when Daveshoe laid out the map.  Islets on the right and left constrained the board, our fleet would struggle just to stay off the shoals.  It would also maximize the Christians' firepower advantage.  Well, always trust to the bayonet..  We followed through with our plan as best as possible.

Paul's wing was first into action.  In order to stay off the rocks, he advanced in line astern formation and tried to deploy beyond them.  Because his orders required that he move full speed he couldn't wait for the Holy League to come get him. Unfortunately he didn't realize quite what he was facing.  One squadron of galleys and another of galliots left Paul quite unprepared for Mark Waddington's two squadrons of elite Venetian galleys and some shaky die rolling.  Though they fought on for three or four turns, the left wing of the Ottoman fleet was quickly dispatched.

Death ride of Son of Barbarossa.  Constrained by the shoals Paul had to advance in an unfavorable formation.

 David commanded the Ottoman center, and they advanced on the Holy League defenders.  Each side had two squadrons of galleys, but the Christian center was pinned on three stands of galleases, oared round ships.  Though slow, they were armed with a passel of guns, and about a 270 degree field of fire.  We believed that these were dangerous, but should be through the fire in a turn to engage in close combat.  Wrong.  In the first turn of fire, David lost four ships in one squadron and one in another.  By the end of the second turn his command was wrecked and just trying to hang on, which he did, gamely, for another couple of turns.

Dave Creager commanded the two right hand squadrons.  He was faced with the difficulty of maneuvering into position while skirting the shoals, and aligned his ships into two rank lines. He engaged George Kettler's squadrons.  Both sided gave pretty much as good as they got for several turns.  Dave eventually emerged the victor on the right, but his fleet was in very ragged condition and unable to continue the fight.

The Barbary Squadron moves to the attack.  The remains of David's Turkish squadron to the left, Dave Creager's squadrons attack on the right.

 As my reserve squadron pressed past David's survivors in the center, we were met by an attack from Dale Mickel's Christian squadron.  The Barbary galleys were untouched and I began a pretty solid string of die rolls.  My flagship joined the squadron to make it six models and the action wasn't in doubt.  They came under ineffective fire from one of the galleass models and pressed on to attack the next of Dale's squadrons.  The result was the same, except that I was in range of one of the galleasses after the action, and could attack with a breakthrough move.  Galleasses were the uber-vessels in the action, and suffered no ill effects from the fact that I out numbered him 6:1.  However, David had disordered it in the last round of fire, and that combined with my elite status was enough to destroy it.

Final positions in the middle of the board.  The Venetian squadron is fully intact beyond top of picture.

 This left both fleets pretty ragged.  The Holy League had their right flank largely unscathed and their middle half intact with two galleasses ready to blow my ass off.  Their right was gone and ours was tattered to say the least.  Though my squadron was unhurt, it was just a matter of time until the superior Christian numbers and firepower began to take its effect and we called the game a Holy League victory.

 I really enjoyed the game.  We needed a few things to break our way to win.  They did, but too late, and we had nothing to pin the Christian left wing.  The rules were very fun and Dave and Lynn Schueler did a brilliant job of hosting as always.

Reindeer Droppings

Christmas always brings the important question--did Santa remember your hobby?

 The answer is rarely yes.  Let's face it, as bricks and mortar hobby shops disappear, it becomes more and more difficult for our loved ones to support our very specialized needs for this strange but wonderful activity we all enjoy so much.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.  I've gotten gift certificates and sometimes my friends will score me something cool, but not this year, and that's okay.
   This year I am indirectly turning gift goodies into gaming stuff.  First, credit where credit is due.  Dave Demick, my oldest friend in the whole world exchanges gifts with me every year.  This Christmas we had the same idea and exchanged copies of a new board game, Red Poppies by Worthington Games.  It's a World War I tactical level game, beautifully made with eight scenarios, from cavalry skirmishes in 1914 between Belgian and German horse, to 1918 assaults featuring stormtroopers and tanks. It screams for more scenarios.

Books, my family almost always honors my book requests, as long it is in print and not ridiculously expensive.  This year was no different.  I only had one military history on my list this year, The Southern Strategy by David K. Wilson.  It's a strategic analysis of the decision to move the focus Revolutionary War to South Carolina and Georgia by British planners.  I'm looking forward to it.  Lots of other books took, completely maxing out my ability to take on further new book purchases. Bummer, I'm in crisis.

 Last, but not least, I got cash.  Cash is good because I can turn it into whatever I want.  I want to buy a couple of the Bay Area kits I mentioned earlier this week-USS Mississippi and USS Monongahela.  The latter is one of those ubiquitous Union sloops one can never quite seem to have enough of.  I'm also going to order six or seven Hasslefree miniatures for role-playing.  They're nice, costly, but the pound is not high against the dollar right now, and Hasslefree has reasonably shipping.  They are such interesting action-packed minis.  I did take a look at the suggestions offered by Dave S and CuorDiLeone, and while I liked them, just found them to be not quite what I was after.  

Regardless of what gifts you did or did not receive for Christmas, I hope you had a fabulous holiday.  The older I get the less meaningful I find the presents under the tree.  Instead I look forward to the time with my family and friends.  They are special to me and the conversations about everything from Ichiro is overrated (he's not), to whether the Beatles are cliche (they're not,) or whether Obama has sold out (he hasn't) are the best part of the holiday.  My best Christmas moment yesterday--watching Will Ferrell eat cotton balls in Elf with Lorri who had never seen that movie before.  We both laughed through the whole film.

DANG tomorrow.

Bay Area Yards re-issues USS Mississippi

The USS Mississippi was a lot like Neanderthal man::  a branch of evolution that represented progress, but a dead end in the development of the steam warship.  It was the smallest of the three sidewheel frigates built by the U.S. Navy, but probably had the most glorious history as it was Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship when he opened up trade with Japan in 1852.  The Mississippi grounded on the shoals under the guns of Port Hudson in 1863 and was burned to prevent capture.  It was a beautiful ship with leaner, more elegant lines than its larger, boxier sisters Susquehanna and Powhatan. 

 Bay Area Yards, in its early days, began by providing resin hulls to interested modelers.  The modelers supplied everything else-guns, masts, ships boats, rigging, etc. As Bay has developed, however, they've manufactured their own bits, and have a superb range of cannon, masts and accessories to go with their hulls.  The past couple of years they've begun casting in ships in white metal.

 They've also begun supplying entire ships in kit form.  That's great, I love to see that because I'm such a dope about such things.  While I haven't exactly been knocking down the door to do this, if more kits were available I could go there.  This morning on TMP they announced that USS Mississippi, which they'd removed from production, was available as a kit.  I've been dithering about ordering the masts to complete my model for some time, but the new hull looks fabulous, and with masts, hull, guns and boats included for twelve bucks, all that's needed is some elbow grease.  It looks to be my first first New Year's purchase.

Finished at last:: Coffin's Provincial Light Dragoons and Other Hangers On

Actually I'm showing off three units.  The first is the light dragoon regiment.  Like most cavalry units in the southern AWI, it's a small unit.  It represents 80 men, which is pretty typical for the war in general and the campaign in particular.  Horses were hard to come by, and once procured, i.e. stolen from a partisan for the opposite side, they could be difficult to feed.  Both Americans and British complained about shortages of horses and keeping adequate mounts.

 Coffin's light dragoon unit is a loyalist formation.  I've painted these figures based on the notion they were actually a South Carolina loyalist unit, perhaps raised from the South Carolina Royalist infantry regiment.  There seems to be little or no information about the unit on line.  However, after I inquired on TMP, the most reliable information was that they were red, faced yellow.  They wore light dragoon caps, beyond that not much is known.  I used figures I got in a trade from Doug Hamm.  The riders are Front Rank, and they are very nice figures. The horses are a bit of a mix.  Some Front Rank and maybe some Dixon mounts.

I've had these on my mostly cluttered painting table for two months.  I like 'em but I'm sure glad their done.

The flag is totally apocryphal.  Flags, as you know, for AWI are bit of a hit and miss effort.  Brits we usually know pretty well because, well, they're British with a long regimental history in most cases, and there is a clear record of their standards.  Provincial units, unless they were taken on the British rolls after the war are pretty dicey.  I chose the yellow standard to match the facings and gave them a GR cypher inside the gartered emblem.  I added simple crescent and palmetto devices.  I also chose a standard over a cavalry banner because many irregular units-militia and yeomanry in Great Britain-seemed to have small (32" square) banners.

Coffin's regiment was present at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs.  They did some fighting at Hobkirk's, trying in vain to capture the American artillery when Greene's infantry broke.  They were charged by William Washington's dragoons and driven off.  At Eutaw Springs Coffin's cavalry led the British counter-attack when all American troops fell into confusion as they looted the British camp.

 The second unit is the battalion of convalescents at Hobkirk's Hill.  It was a temporary formation composed of invalids in the hospital at Camden but were well enough to fight. The invalid battalion was in Rawdon's second rank at the battle, and little is said of their specific performance at the battle.

 My unit is composed of Perry figures in southern dress, but retain their cuffs and facings colors.  This actually works for them because they would have been composed by men from many different units.  Their flag is simple union standard with no regimental designations.  Simply a flag to align themselves on.

 The last unit is the Queens Rangers.  I've actually photographed these before.  Doug Hamm painted these, and I acquired some from him last year in our Enfilade deal.  However, over the summer he painted up a few more bases and now my Q.R. unit is a more useful six stands of troops.

 I'm taking a bit of a break from AWI and will painting about 50 figures for my Space 1889 project.  I'll show the painted Indians and Martian askaris over on my Shastapsh blog when they are done.  Should go fast.  How long does it take to paint and wash a bunch of khaki?  After these are done, however, I'm kind of up in the air about what comes next.  I have just the New York Volunteers and some artillery to paint for Hobkirk's Hill, and then I'd also like to paint up the South Carolina Royalist Dragoons that defended Charleston.  Maybe them, but we'll see.

All pictures were taken with my silly phone camera, 'cause honestly it's just a lot easier to work with it. Rumor has it Santa is bringing me photographic reinforcements.

Figures for Role Playing

I know, this is a little off topic, but I like to role play with old friends.  I've run in games hosted by Dave Demick for the better part of thirty years, and now a couple of equally old buddies, Tim Barela and Bill Nelson and son Casey and I have joined in the fun.  Every five years, whether I'm ready or not, I run a campaign and this time it's loosely based on Joss Wheedon's Firefly universe.  I'm looking for some figures for player characters and a few NPC's.  Not looking for anything particularly Starship Trooperish, but more near future with pretty standard weapons.  I know the Sgt. Major has not-Firefly figures, but they are personalities and I need something a little less identifiable.  Thinking of some of the Adventurers from Hasslefree but they are ungodly expensive.  Thankfully I only need six or so.

If you, my brilliant readers, have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Hope you all have a fabulous holiday and Santa brings you happiness and time with family, and perhaps a nice goody under the tree.

 Next week is Dave's Annual Naval Game so expect a report as well as a year in review together with my plans for 2011.

Architects of War: Barb's Bunker lives again.

This morning TMP announced that Architects of War was a new advertiser.  Architects of War is built on the ashes of Barb's Bunker.  Barb's Bunker was a custom terrain building site that was simply fantastic.  I have a number of her pieces-fields, vineyards, an entrenchment and a gorgeous blockhouse.  Barb's husband has gone into the miniature wargaming biz, offering some of his own ACW sculpts and is now the national distributor for Perry's Plastics.  In addition, some of Barb's wares are also available on the site.  Hopefully more will follow.

Coffin's Light Dragoons: WIP

Not a lot new to report.  Haven't played any games or finished much.  I'm hoping to have Coffin's Light Dragoons, a provincial cavalry unit of some unclear origin, affiliation and dress finished by this weekend. Through some discussion on TMP I have them in light dragoon uniforms with yellow facings.  I dare anyone to find data to dispute this, and if you do, so what!  Major Coffin had his dragoons at Hobkirk's Hill where they accomplished little, and at Eutaw Springs where they captured William Washington when his cavalry's charge failed.

A couple of other quick items I've linked to Dave Schueler's Naval Gazing page.  On December 27th he'll host our annual DANG game (Dave's Annual Naval Game.)  This year it is Lepanto.  Long on my list of to do's.

Front Rank British Light Dragoon figures in yellow facings form William Coffin' light dragoons

Coffin's troopers may have been mounted infantry from the South Carolina Royalists

 I've also added my other non-gaming blog, From the Upper Left Hand Corner, to my list.  Long neglected, this blog includes a variety of topics, but mostly Mariners baseball stuff.  I recently blogged a review of The Wall by Roger Waters which I was fortunate to see in Tacoma last Saturday.  Amazing stuff.

Why December is better than November

I know I'm five days late, but I'm thrilled November is over.  It's a difficult month for me.  I always have my week of Jagwire commitments, but there are a lot of other things going on at work as well.  November is the month ER dedicates to parent conferences.  I always try to make myself available at convenient times for parents, meaning after their work days end, so many of my evenings are eaten up with meetings.  This November we decided to do our Battle of the Bands fundraiser, which meant a couple of late days for auditions and one Friday evening for the event. 

In the end I probably devoted six or so hours to painting for the whole month and accomplished very little.  I flogged a dozen Perry AWI infantry and eight Front Rank British Light Dragoons.  Didn't get very far with them.  Even over the six days I had off for snow and the Thanksgiving holiday, I was busy with family, our little trip to Seattle, and I even chose reading (nothing hobby-related) over painting.  Just one of those months.  The only items I finished painting were a dozen miniatures for Sky Galleons of Mars. 

December looks a lot clearer.  Not many evening activities, conferences are over.  Today I even finished painting those Perry infantry.  My plan for the month is to wrap up those light dragoons and then leave AWI behind for a while.  I'm going to change over to my Martian project for a while.  I have 33 Indian infantry figures to paint and then another 22 Martian askaris.  After that I'll have to see.  Maybe I'll even take up some of 15mm figures.  In any case, the Martians should take me into the new year.