In Search of Summer.

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

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

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

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

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

Doug Hamm's Solo War of 1812

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

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

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

Dressed to the Nines Website back up

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

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

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

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

Osprey's The Great Chevauchee

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

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

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

2001 Mariners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark's Vietnam Playtest

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

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

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

And Now for Something Completely Different: Part Two

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

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

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

So far, my team has some strengths and weaknesses

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

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

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

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

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

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

My well-worn 1979 edition of Sherco baseball.

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

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

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

And Now For Something Completely Different

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lord Kenmore's Battalion and AWI artillery

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

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

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

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

Lord Hastings battalion at Killiecrankie.  Miniatures are by Hallmark. 

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

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

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

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

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

Twas the First Day of Summer . . .

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

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

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

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

The First Jacobite Wars

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

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

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

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

Another clan.  They look fierce, sort of.

Viscount Dundee and his handful of mounted retainers.

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

So What's Next?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wilmington: Open for Business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holding My Breath: Hobkirk's Hill

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

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

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

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

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



4th Virginia Regiment.  Figures by Old Glory





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

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



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



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

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

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

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

Some choices to make on Saturday.

e

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

Wes Rogers 28mm Battle of Soor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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