The things I do

I had to break down and order brushes today. Yes, I know, bid deal, you can't paint without brushes.

I don't skimp on brushes, I buy the best I can find. I paint a lot, maybe 600 figures a year or more, and I can usually get a year out of a brush. I buy Kolinsky sable brushes. My favorite brand is Dick Blick from the art supply chain of the same name, mostly located in the East. When I started buying brushes from Blick about ten years ago, the 0 brushes I use most were less than five dollars each. Today I ordered, and on their current 30% off sale they were about $8.50. I get good mileage out of a brush-they often last for a year or more. They keep consistently sharp points, don't bend or have the hairs fall out. Maybe one brush in four is a loser. I ordered three single 0's and one 00. I wouldn't have ordered any brushes right at this moment except both 0 and 00 seem to have died on the same night. Makes painting rough. If the brushes seem costly, the shipping is a killer-ten bucks for four wee small brushes.

I know, there are some of you who are thinking-but what about Windsor and Newton series 7? They're Kolinsky sable, and you can even get them locally. I have some of the W and N brushes, and I just don't like them as much. They aren't quite as fine and the brush handles are thicker, I don't get as good a feel for what I'm doing. Picky, I know, but this is a picky hobby.

Arrow Doom

Saturday was the first playtest for my Hundred Years War rules. So many came to try out the game at Game Matrix on Saturday-David Sullivan, Mark Waddington, Dale Mickel, Scott Murphy, Gary Griess, Steve Ghan, Gene Anderson-and because these are always works in progress and the game might really stink, I really appreciate the long distance they travel and the time and patience they give.

The rules are intended to foster two important truths:

1. The mounted knight in melee combat was superior to foot troops most of the time.
   
2. The longbow generally was the ruler of the battlefield as long as they had arrows and could fight securely in a defensive position.
   

I wrote a simple set of rules for a semi-skirmish level game. The mechanics are pretty basic. I intended them for something I could easily run at a convention. I think that on that level the rules succeeded. However there are some content issues that need work.

Let's back up. I planned a basic chevauchee scenario. The English are trying to carry off their swag when they are attacked from the front and flank by a French force, and harried from the rear by the bereft peasants. The result of the game was unimportant. Each side earned some victory points.

The chief problem was with the strength of the longbow. When using the arrow storm the units simply were able to roll too many dice and kill too many troops. This was a trap I was afraid of, and I really need to work on that. The rules limit the number of arrow storms to scenario design, and there are rules for arrow depletion. I also allow that an arrow storm does some intrinsic damage, reducing movement and causing disruption that reduces melee value. The casualties caused need not be massive, but the effect of disruption should be very significant. Something to work on. I'm looking forward to running a similar game on October 18th.

I was able to pull out a fair amount of stuff for the game. The fields are my Barb's Bunker goodies, which I really like. The buildings are by Pegasus. The minis are all mine, a mix of Old Glory, Foundry, and a few Front Rank figures. The top photo shows the initial English















deployment. They generally used defensive positions quite well, and hoped the French would obligingly attack them. I allowed the French to divide their forces, and use some militia troops to flank the English which shook things up a little bit. The lower picture on the left shows the French massing for an attack on a unit of English dismounted hobilars. The picture at right shows the militia fording the stream, preparing to attack the English position (they were slaughtered.)

Moving Along

In my last post I confess to being a bit in despair. I've actually moved along a bit. The remaining figures for my first 48 men at arms in my Hundred Years War army are now finished and mounted. I'm still working on the basing, which will probably take a few days. I've stopped using Liquitex acrylic glop as my basing compound and gone back to Celluclay, which is a papier mache material. I just like the look of the Celluclay better, though it takes much longer to dry. All of the HYW bases are "clayed" but I still need to paint and flock them.

I included a fair number of flags on the twelve bases-okay five flags, I don't know if that's enough. My wife is a quilter and sewing person, and she has recently discovered a super cool looking silk and cotton material that one can print on from the printer. Lorri is still experimenting with the material, but I've seen some of what she's printed out and it looks pretty spiff and I'm considering it for some flag material. The only problem I can see is actually attaching it to a standard. I don't know that it would glue very well, or look very good if it was glued, and it might actually have to be stitched. That would be hard. Anyway, just a thought.

I've written a set of quicky HYW rules that I'm going to try out this weekend with my individually based figures. They are pretty simple, and steal conceptually from the Tactica Medieval Siege rules, and from Don Featherstone. I'll take pictures and report.

I've begun preparing for my next painting activities. I've got some mechanical cavalry to paint for Space 1889, as well some interesting foot troops to follow on.

Stuck!!!

I'm stuck. I am definitely trying to move on to my next project-finishing my Space 1889 figures, but I can't seem to make the time to wrap up my remaining handful of HYW figures, get them all based and finish a handful flags so I can move on.

School is taking a lot of my time, I have a return of school year insomnia, and I'm about to be embroiled in a first amendment fight with my employer that may be difficult and time consuming. Who has time for a painting extravaganza? In any case, I'm down to the last eight figures and then I can get on with fore-mentioned flag-painting, basing and final photos.

My next game is scheduled for Sept. 20th. I'll be running a game with my singly mounted HYW figures. I'm writing my own set of rules called "Kevin Does the Hundred Years War." They should be easy, fun and bloody. We'll see. Look for some pictures here.

Every Man a Food Source!!

On Saturday I choogled down to Olympia for an all day game fest at Scott Murphy's house. Scott hosted a potluck and some garage gaming, which would have been perfect except for some unseasonal ridiculous rain.

This was a showcase for a couple of Mark Waddington's games. He's been wanting to run a Zulu War game in which each of the players has a stake in overall victory, but each of the commands has competing objectives. I had three specific commands. The first was a light horse unit in which I had to visit more terrain features than the other light horse unit in our army. I also had a martinet captain that could chirp at each of the units of the 24th (I believe there were six,) and could improve their movement and shooting, but gave a -1 to morale. The bonus was that I could also be shot by my own troops. Finally, I also had the Naval Brigade unit, clearly an elite shipboard force, but not so much on dry land. They couldn't shoot straight, melee properly or form square, but you should see them row a longboat.

Things got off to a super start with Whitehall's cavalry heading off to their first terrain feature, Snosworthy barking at whichever poor Welshmen could hear him, and the sailors dutifully covering the rear of the baggage train. By turn two, however, Zulu signs began to pop up. Where would the impi arrive, and would those we see simply be part of a feint. On turn four Whitehall's horsemen made it's high water mark, and encountered the right flank of the Zulu advance. The rest of the game would be spent running for their lives, shooting at the Zulus and keeping the unit intact (averaging two kills per turn shooting over their shoulders.) Snosworthy was an albatross around the neck of all those redcoats he could find, sticking too close to them to be shot in the back by his fellows. The sailors tried to form part of a brigade square, but couldn't form up in close order. Sent into a hole in the British center, it looked like they would play the heroic martyrs against an advancing Zulu regiment, but got the last laugh when they ran away instead. Well, I laughed anyway.

We played out the game for four hours until the food was officially cooked. I don't quite know what the status of the game was at the end. The Zulus seemed to be moving pretty handily through the center, while British troops were just beginning to flow to fill in the gaps. It certainly looked dicey for the Brits, I only know that my cavalry and sailors were quite prepared to run away the fastest.


After some great eats we settled down to game two--colonial adventures on Venus!! The Brits were on a mission tramping around the marshes of Venus to rescue some missing archaeologists. Yes, you're right the archaeologists were actually were in the evil clutches of the meddling Germans, mwahahahahaa!! The Germans were meddling in the affairs of the Skinks, the slimy little reptiliad Venusian lowlifes that inhabit most of the stinking swamps of the "morning star." You might be wondering what my command was during this episode of "My Venusian Vacation." Was it the 1st battalion Grenadier Guards? No! How about the Kings Royal Rifle Corps? Be real, they are so effete. Perhaps a squadron of Royal Marine Light Infantry, with all their expertise in boats and all? Nah, in fact I was a commander of the corps of Venusian lowlifes tasked with making life miserable for the Brits.

And I must say I did my best. I swamped about shooting tiny little Skink arrows at the Brits in their boats, and those slogging through the swamp. I heroically made 5 to 1 attacks on shot up British units. We made life pretty miserable for them, and by the end of the game, things were looking pretty bad for the redcoats.

It was a fun, fun day, and thanks to Mark for putting on the games and Scott and Dale for hosting the party.

Time For a Change!!

No, this isn't an Obama post. I have another blog for that. As the summer nears an end, however, I'm going to shift gears very shortly and put down the HYW for a few months. I'm losing some painting enthusiasm, and it's time to take a break from them. Since Enfilade, I've finished the following:

• 64 longbowmen
• 16 crossbowmen
• 6 mounted men at arms
• 24 dismounted men at arms

and I have another 24 dismounted men at arms primed and will complete them. It's not a bad start. The 48 dismounted men at arms represent the Prince of Wales command at Poitiers, according to David Green he had no archers in his battle, the center. When I am finished with the lot it will represent about 130 figures. Just a down payment on the period and the project, but I'm pleased with the progress.

My Space 1889 order arrived from RAFM today, and I'll work on wrapping up the unpainted figures I have for that project. Including what I've received, it's probably less than 150 25mm figures, and includes some gunboats, mounted troops and other funky stuff. However, I don't really need anything else, and will consider the project complete.

Coming Down the Home Stretch

It's the last week of summer break. It's been a nice long break, and I think I've used the time reasonably well. I've painted a lot. In fact, you can see my painting calculations on the right. Mostly I've painted 25mm HYW figures. Because this is a new project, and I want sizable armies, it's going to take a while to get everything done. I've now finished 15 bases of archers, four bases of crossbowmen, three bases of cavalry, four bases of Irish kerns, and two bases of dismounted men at arms (with another six bases started. All in all, that's 114 figures painted or under way. Throw in a few hydroplanes and that doesn't look bad for a summer's work.

I'm going to finish the men-at-arms under way, and then take a little break from Poitiers. I'll probably take a little trip to Mars and work on some of the goodies I have there. There are some mounted troops, a some sepoy types, and I'm hoping that my order of militia men arrive soon. After that, it may be back to the HYW, or maybe a different direction. I still have about ten DBA armies to paint, more AWI, the War of 1812, and Wayne's Legion. Let's see what gets my attention.

Ironclads on the Meyerhootchie

Let me just state right up front that, once again, I forgot my camera so I have no pictures. Doh! Michael Koznarsky, in the last issue of Historical Miniature Gamer, reviewed some newish Thoroughbred Miniatures, as well as discussing 1/600 ACW ironclad games using Ironclads. Being an Ironclads enthusiast for many years, and possessing about 60 painted ships as well as a few unpainted, I broached the idea of a game at our August game day. Michael was interested, and yesterday we played it out.

The scenario required a flotilla of Yankees to escort a trio of transports up river to invade Fort Shein. No problem, right? Ahhh! The Johnnies had two nasty ironclads and a few river rams to keep us from exiting our transports from the board. I commanded a double end gunboat, one of my favorite ship types. Though I was pretty much on the periphery of the action, the two 100 lb. Parrotts on swivels allowed me to reach out and touch the wooden rams from quite a distance. On turn three at medium range, I inflicted a boiler explosion on Dale Mickel's Gen. Bragg, which soon burned and became a non factor. Two of the Yankee gunboats ran interference for the transports, commanded by Gene Anderson and Michael and were shot up and rammed by the combined fire of the Confederate ram Richmond and the river rams. The Confederates made their job much more difficult through a couple of self inflicted collisions. The Richmond sailed through the Union squadron, only to find itself unable to chug back into the action, though it continued to shoot up the Mark Waddington's Keystone State. Picture below is of the USS Octorora, the gunboat I ran in the game. The ironclad ram, Richmond, commanded by Gary Griess in our game is below it. Illustrations from the Naval Historical Center, U.S. Department of the Navy.

After my initial moment of glory, I found myself in the difficult position of trying to steer my ship back into the action. Scott Murphy's Chickasaw and Keystone State seemed to be traveling in the same arc I was, and a sudden right turn would have resulted in a collision. I kept finding my gunfire masked, as well as my ship protected from enemy fire. I took one shot from the ram Fredricksburg, which did minor damage. I finally hit the Queen of the West, which did some good flotation damage and was able to run interference on the last turn protecting the transports hotfooting up the river, and the game ended.

I love Ironclads. It was a crowded game, and it did take some time to get through the turns, but it was still a lot of fun.

Poitiers 1356 in the present

Poitiers, from the Hundred Years War (as opposed to Poitiers from the 8th century, also known as Tours) is now one of my battles. Along with Cowpens, Agincourt, Battle of the Pelennor Fields and a few others, Poitiers is one of the few battles I just have to game. I feel compelled.

Of course, in order to fight the battle I have to paint the figures. For the English that's about 250 wee men. For the French, double it. Needless to say, I'm nowhere near the number for the Anglais, and I haven't even started les frogs. Poitiers in 2011. Maybe sooner if the wind blows right.

Why Poitiers? It's an interesting battle. It comes at the end of Edward the Prince of Wales' destructive chevauchee or raiding mission. He is forced to battle by an army led by King Jean the Good (not good as in good general.) The English choose a strong defensive position and are obligingly attacked by waves of French infantry after shooting down the handful of mounted knights. What makes the battle unusual is that the English longbowmen play a diminished role in the battle for several reasons. One is that this is a fairly small army so there aren't that many of them, 2,500-3,000. Another is that proportionally they are actually outnumbered by other infantry types. Figure 3,000-4,000 dismounted knights and men-at-arms, while at Agincourt the ratio of archers to men-at-arms was three-to-one. At Poitiers, the archers have an important role, shooting down the French cavalry, but are less effective against the dismounted knights, and run out of arrows after the third wave of the French attack. So, this is much more of a medieval slog. Armored men bashing on armored men until one side tires of the whole business. In the end the French succumb to a daring mounted attack, King Jean the Good becomes King Jean the Captured throwing France into a tizzy for the rest of his life.

One thing I have done is acquire books and read about the battle. The first of four is by Donald Featherstone. Published as part of a series of wargaming guides back in the 70's, Don used some pretty traditional resources to provide a spiff little resource to gamers, giving a background on the battle, suggested commander ratings, and other suggested factors to figure into a miniature scenario. Also included, is a very simple set of rules for gaming Poitiers that seem like fun. I think I may use them with my singly mounted figures just for laughs. Being more than 35 years old, Don's recommendations for figures is pretty amusing. Though he names Minifigs and a few other old manufacturers, his chief recommendation is Airfix due their price and the suitability of the Robin Hood range as longbowmen. Times have changed.

I've also picked up two important books by Richard Barber on Edward the Black Prince. The first is a biography. It's a bit of a slog, written in 1976, that tries to debunk the mythology surrounding Edward. I learned a lot about the way he made war, his close companions that fought with him pretty much all his life, and I also learned about the large gaps in our knowledge about the Prince, and the assumptions we've made because of those gaps. The other Barber book is actually a documentary history of Edward. This includes the journals of Geoffrey Baker and the anonymous herald for Sir John Chandos, the Prince's great captain and friend. I haven't read this book yet, but it's high on my list.

Poitiers 1356 was a recent birthday gift, and a wonderful one too. Published in 2002, and relying on more recent scholarship, author David Green does his best to focus on the battle and depict the action. His wife is an artist and she provides some nice color plates, while Green adds color maps and even a section devoted to wargaming Poitiers!! Though brief, it is a very handy guide and unfortunately out of print.

Like many Hundred Years War battles, our knowledge of this battle is imperfect. The troop positions, their movements and motivations are simply unclear. Though we've stepped back from the belief that the French regularly outnumbered the English ten to one, actual numbers are simply not known and are based on some records, but tainted by supposition and common sense. Even so, this action has my attention and I look forward to actually fighting the battle some day.

Getting back into the swing

I'm back from Ellensburg at last. I got home Saturday evening, celebrated my birthday on Sunday, had to chase around for school most of the day yesterday, so this is the first time I've been able to devote much thought to gaming. I am playing in an Ironclads game on Saturday, and those are always fun.

On Monday I was able to drag out my painting, and have begun working on sixteen crossbowmen. We don't often think of the English as having a lot of these, but their Gascon allies did not have the tradition of the longbow. So, these four stands of guys represent a portion of the Gascon element in the Black Prince's army during the Poitiers campaign. Should be finished with these in the next day or so.

I just finished reading Richard Barber's biography of the Black Prince, a title that didn't fall into use until at least he 16th century. Though a bit textbookish, I learned a lot about him. I also ordered Barber's collection of sources about Prince Edward's campaigns, and hope to have David Green's 2005 book on Poitiers soon. So much that we don't know about this battle, it's hard to know how to represent both armies.

I received a stipend for my supervisor's work at J-Camp. I invested part of it in the RAFM sale. Their Space 1889 figures are 40% off, which makes some of the later Martian figures affordable at $1.75 each. I ordered 55 figures and a medieval organ gun to use as a sweeper. These will be militia in the rebellious city of Shastaphsh from the Frank Chadwick world. They'll be a nice break from medievals.

Wings of War before the Winds of E-Burg

Tomorrow I leave for Ellensburg and Central Washington University for eight days. It's the annual summer journalism activities and I really need to attend them. For half of the time I'll be focused on improving my meager understanding of the Adobe CS3 suite, and the other half I'll spend with my students attending what is called J-Camp. If it sounds like a drag, believe me it isn't. I attended last summer for the first time and it was incredibly helpful and fun.

I'm busy a lot of the time, but there is down time too. I'll get some reading in, and I'm bringing along my Replay Baseball game, so I hope to get some of that in too. It's going to be hot while I'm there--high 80's and 90's projected through the 9th. No painting, unfortunately, and probably no blog posts unless I am mindlessly bloviating about some trivial topic.

On Wednesday I made my way down to the cards and comics shop in Olympia to play Wings of War. I've certainly seen lots of folks with the planes and decks, and everybody seems to be having a good time when they are playing. Dale Mickel set up a game for Wednesday, so I drove down and had at it. First a word about the shop. What an amazing place. Lots of board games and RPG's, a few minis but no historicals except for the WoW planes. There was also tons of cards, collectibles and other stuff to look at-more than I had time for. I'll have to go back just for another looksee.

I'm not very good at air games. I admit it freely. I'm not a very good planner, and I'm just as likely to half-loop into a mountainside as I am to make a useful maneuver. In fact I have half-looped into a mountainside. (Ask any Air Pirate how Kevin puts out fires!!!) Wings of War is played with card sequences, and I think by the end of the night I was able to start figuring that out.

We played two games. In game one I ran a couple of Sopwith Camels, and teamed with Dale who ran a Snipe and a DH (we love to explode) 4. The two German players, Scott Murphy flying two DR 1's, and Jeff, flying two Fokker D VII's left Dale in the dust and headed immediately for me. My Italian Camel blew up rather quickly, and the second Camel was forced from the board with heavy damage-but it did survive. Dale eventually arrived with the cavalry only to find himself outnumbered. Surprisingly the DH 4 was the only Brit plane to make it off the board.

In the second game we each took one plane. I opted for a Spad XIII, which maneuvers a lot like a garbage truck. It's pretty fast and can take a lot of damage, but I managed to take more than a lot of damage falling out of the sky with all struts shot through and my top wing falling off. I did however manage to blow up Jeff's D VII first, which gave me a little satisfaction as my plane augured into No Man's Land. All in all it was a pretty fun night for my first time out. Good to make it down to Olympia too. The guys always make an effort to come up to Tacoma, and it's nice to be able to replay their effort.

I'll be back from Ellensburg on the 9th. I'll be heading back toward work the following week. Not every day and not all day, but I'll be getting started.

New Recruits-The Captal de Buch

At the Battle of Poitiers nearly the entire English force was dismounted. Arrayed in the traditional three battles of medieval warfare, Edward, the Prince of Wales, the Earl of Salisbury, and the Earl of Warwick commanded roughly equal sized forces mixed between longbowmen and men-at-arms. Though the exact numbers are unclear, it is likely the English army numbered about 7,500 men.

Not all the soldiers, however, were English. Some were Welsh, a few were German, and some were French, Gascons from Guienne, or Aquitaine, an English possession in France since the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. Among the Gascon participants at Poitiers were knights/men-at-arms, crossbowmen, and the tiny mounted force under the Captal de Buch.

The Captal was a feudal title. His actual name was Jean de Grailly, one of the Black Prince's loyal knights that like Sir John Chandos, Sir James Audley and a host of titled soldiers remained companions throughout his life. At Poitiers the Captal led his command of perhaps 180 mounted Gascon knights and crossbowmen around the French left flank and into their rear while they were engaged with the English to their front. This led to the disintegration of the French main battle and the capture of King Jean. The Captal continued in English service until his capture in 1372. He was deemed too dangerous to be ransomed and died in French custody in 1377.

The figures are Front Rank mounted knights from the Hundred Years War range. I bought these in a deal with David Sullivan some years ago, and I am thrilled to paint up most of what I had left. I decided to make this army as colorful as possible by trying to paint historically accurate heraldry to the best of my limited ability, and providing a fair number of banners. The banners those that I downloaded from Dansk Figursspilsforening and painted over. They are mounted directly on the sizable lances included on the figures. The Captal is mounted on the black caparisoned horse with the gold and black banner.

I also remounted some figures for Medieval Warfare. It's likely they will be the only figures I remount from my singly mounted pile of HYW miniatures. These are Irish kerns, originally made by Corvus Belli, but since picked up by Crusader Miniatures. Crusader/Corvus's HYW very nice, if pretty abbreviated. I've painted up the knights and mounted command figures, as well as a pack's worth of the kerns. Kerns were Irish skirmishers, noted for their skill as foragers, er, pillagers, em, looters, armed chiefly with javelin and clucking chicken.

New Product: Gorilla Super Glue

I was chatting with David Sullivan on Sunday. Our topics are wide ranging, from game projects to cats to work issues. David talked about a Gorilla Super Glue, a new product from the Gorilla Glue folks. Gorilla Glue is not a CA glue, but it is tougher than white glue. However it takes a while to dry, and wouldn't be very good at holding together those fiddly bits that CA glues together instantly. There is a new product out from the same company, however, that is a super glue. It's difference from other CA products is that it is less brittle, so that if something strikes the bond it isn't as easily broken. Though Gorilla Glue is widely available, the super glue isn't so easily found, so I used the store locater to find a vendor nearby. It was reasonably priced at $3.99 for .53 ounces. That's a little less than what I pay for Zap CA glue.

Of course, I had to try it out right away. I actually had some painted knights that needed mounting to their painted horses. Yes, I know that's a no-no, but for these figures it was just so much easier to paint everything first before mounting. There is a big drawback to the glue--there are no fancy schmancy applicators. Before I could say "Oh shit!" I had a Lake of the Woods sized puddle on the back of my dappled gray horse. My advice is be very careful, the glue comes out in torrents. The bonds took immediately. I'm anxious to see how well they hold-it is always embarrassing to have George Washington falling off his horse in one's Continental Army.

Dansk Figursspilsforening

I'm always hoping to stumble across free resources on the web--like posted copies of the Journal of Medieval Military History that cost $95 bucks a pop. Yeah, right. Every now and then, however, I do stumble across something truly useful that fills a need, saves money, and saves hours of work. One of these is Dansk Figursspilforening. No, I can't say it, and I don't really know what it means-I just know it has something to do with Danish miniature wargaming. It appears to be club site, perhaps with tons of information, all in Danish. However, It does have some super cool downloads. The site has many flags for a variety of periods including the American Revolution and American Civil War, Russian Civil War and the Crusades. Along with the downloads is information about printing and resizing in English.
For my money, however (ironic, since everything is free) the most valuable downloads on the site are all of the heraldic banners from the Hundred Years War. The site offers banners for Crecy and Poitiers. Obviously they have English and French heraldry, but they also include Gascons, Flemings, Germans and other mercenaries who made an appearance. Not ten or twenty different designs, but hundreds. Below are a couple of examples.












As you can see, many of the banners often come with a certain amount of narration explaining if the noted knight or noble carried that device into other battles as well. Typically, I paste these into a word document and size them in a way I can best use them. Then I paint over the colors to give it more of a hand painted look before gluing them on to a brass standard, finishing off everything with a gloss varnish. I'm thinking about looking into different printer paper that may look more standard-like.

In any case, I hope you find this a useful site as well. It's linked on the right. I think the site owners have done a super job and provided a very handy resource.

The Trouble With Ancients

I am a battle guy. When I think of miniature wargames I've never been one to get stuck on points or equal sides, I more often get set on scenarios and particularly historical battles. Maybe it's just the history geek in me, or too many readings of The Face of Battle, but that's just where I am. When I take on a project, what usually drives my interest is a famous battle. Cowpens in the American Revolution, Battle of the Wabash in the Wayne's Legion era, Chippewa in the War of 1812, those are the visuals that helped me get going. I also was able to either find rules, or create rules that helped me realize my visions.

Ancients are different. I have purchased more sets of Ancients rules than any other period, or maybe I should say periods. WRG 6th and 7th editions, Legion (you're probably too young to remember them), The Universal Soldier, Tactica and Tactica Medieval, Warhammer Ancient Battles, DBM, others unnamed, and now Fields of Glory and Medieval Warfare. The problem with each of these rules sets are points. Everyone wants to play them as a competitive set of rules-make your army, set up the terrain, line your troops up and have at it. I guess what I want to see is Chaeronea, Pharsalus, Clontarf, and Agincourt. Maybe it's because ancients rules cover such a wide range of history-4,500 years-that such is necessary, I don't know.

Yes, there are some rules systems that have catered to specific epochs of the ancient/medieval millieu-WAB and FoG come immediately to mind. However, with some special exceptions, those are still tied to the rules and point systems, which may not effectively represent historical armies. Those that come immediately to mind are Republican Romans and Hundred Years War combatants. Naturally, I beef because these are the armies I have or am building in 25mm. However, no rules set have ever properly allowed the Roman Quincunx to exchange ranks, and I haven't seen much that convinces me that English longbowmen function properly. It would be nice if there was something more period specific. Even the army lists recommended in Medieval Warfare and Fields of Glory show the English and French knights as mounted, though the Goddamns never mounted their knights except for a small reserve according to a well established system, and les Crapauds decided that arrowstorms were too tough on horseys to fight mounted after Crecy. Excuse the notable exceptions. This is all a product of catering to the ancients at tournament generators crowd. Makes me a little crazy. Just give me a set of rules in which I can fight the battles with lots of little men.

Reports From Afar

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

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

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

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

Doug wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thunderboats!--the Extended Version

Yesterday seven of us gathered at Game Matrix to run out Daveshoe's revisions of Thunderboats for cup racing, meaning multiple heats. Dave ran the games while Dave Demick, son Casey, Mark Waddington, Dale Mickel, Chris Bauermeister and I pushed around the boats. Any excuse to race hydroplanes makes for a good day, but the additional rules for pit crews, enhanced build points, and the fickle nitrous bottles were especially fun.

I don't know what strategies others used, but building a boat with 21 points to spread over three heats was a challenge. I took Miss Wahoo, one of my favorite boats, and chose a top driver, a top pit crew, three engine points, four hull points, a couple of re-rolls, and one nitrous bottle. I figured it would allow me to take some extra chances, and the strategy worked pretty well-through one heat.

In heat one I finished third. I was actually positioned pretty well to compete for the win, but stalled just before the finish line. That's a tough place to crap out. I had good die rolls-no, great die rolls-until the bad card draw. Unfortunately everyone else had good die rolls too, so I couldn't recover. Dale won the first heat. In heat two, in the first turn, I took hull damage and lost three of my four boxes. I stayed pretty conservative for a full lap and decided to take a few more risks. This became more difficult when my driver lost his nerve, so his plus three die modifier became a plus two. Mark Waddington won, but I used my nitrous bottle on the final corner and rolled a perfect twenty to pass Dale and take second. I hadn't won any heats but with nine points was still competitive. I needed to win the last heat to win the race. Didn't happen. I had pretty mediocre speed rolls, and lost my nerve again, so I was only a plus one driver. That meant taking risks were, well, risky. Through a series of card draws and a nasty collision roll Wahoo got pretty well beat up. Worse, I just couldn't get a decent die roll and was in danger of becoming irrelevant as I fell further off the pace. Finally, on the last lap, I rolled a fifteen, trusted to luck and made a move that pushed me right into the crowd of leaders. The downside is I had five rolls to make for engine pushes, corner pushes, roostertails and the like. I only passed one and my boat's fragile hull sprung a major leak and my racing day was over. Mark won the race in a close finish with Dale. Well done. All seemed to enjoy the new rules. I thought they demanded a lot more strategic thinking.

I should explain the pictures. First-as usual-I nearly forgot to take any pictures. The camera remained in its bag until the third heat. The first picture is coming out of the first turn--probably turn two of the heat. Everyone is still racing. Hawaii Kai leads the pack. I'm the brown boat running second on the outside with Mark's red Miss Exide running inside. In the second pic Dale and Casey are counting hexes as Casey prepares to move his blue Revenge. "Ah geez my driver lost his nerve, can I manage to push that corner?"

Below, Dale's Mariner Too has a mishap with his nitrous bottle. Not many drivers took them as there was a chance that they could result in an engine fire. I only used mine once, and it was very successful. Dale used his twice, and the second time, bingo, engine fire. I happened to have a Litko fire marker to decorate his boat with. Dave contemplates the cluster of racers in the turn second turn of lap one. His Hawaii Kai is still leading, but he'll suffer engine damage in the second lap and have to drop out. My boat is in hanging in there, but in fifth place.

Tomorrow's Big Race

Lots going on tomorrow. We have an Enfilade wrap-up meeting tomorrow in Fife. I don't think there are any big issues, just the opportunity to de-brief the convention. After that we head to Game Matrix for a running of Thunderboats! This time we are doing an extended version with heats, pit crews and the option of purchasing nitrous bottles with their attendant risks. It should be fun. There is room for twelve players, but I only know of seven or so who have committed. We'll see. I'll have a report and pictures for this weekend.

I've made more progress on my English HYW army for Medieval Warfare. I finished fifty archers to go with the Black Prince. I'm going to paint up my dinky mounted contingent before moving on to work on some dismounted men-at-arms. I feel my enthusiasm waning slightly, but I'm trying to stay focused by painting a little something different than archers.

Painting with BB's

I dunno about you, but I really like Vallejo paints. Yes, they're expensive, but they are also really pigment heavy and cover everything. Even those problem colors like yellow and orange are so much better than anything else out on the market. In their little bottles, they last seemingly forever. I have some bottles that are probably five or six years old and they aren't dried out or even particularly thick. I don't use them for everything, still favoring a lot of cheap craft paints, but they are definitely a great tool in the toolchest.

I do have an issue with them however, and that is getting the paint out of the bottles. The pigment tends to stay at the bottom of the bottle, and sometimes no amount of shaking seems to mix the paint very well. And the tiny pin-hole spouts clog--ack, don't get me started.

On TMP I've heard others suggest dropping a BB in the bottle and using it for an agitator that flies around when the bottle is shaken, moving the pigment around and mixing it with the fluid inside. While at Long Beach, at a general store with BB's handy, I picked up a tube of Daisy's best steel shot. I've been using them since I got home, and eureka!! it works. Another measure I've taken to make my Vallejos a bit more user friendly is actually a little tool I've pilfered from my wife. She's a quilter, and uses long pins with a big head to pin her quilt squares together. These work much better to clean out the spouts than my collection of straight pins.

Anyway, these make me much more inclined to use my collection of Vallejo paints. Which means I'll use them up, and have to buy more at their inflated Spanish prices, meaning I'll be spending more on paint. I guess I can't win.

Loafing in Long Beach

Our sojourn in beautiful Long Beach, WA is nearly over. I can't say it's been the most fun vacation I've ever had, but it hasn't been bad. I've gotten some down time. I've read a couple of books. I've purchased six books. I've also been able to make it to some of my favorite Lewis and Clark sites. We brought the dogs with us, which has been at best a mixed blessing. It's been fun, at times to have them, but it's hard to leave them in the house-they hate being crated in a strange place, and taking them around in the car is no fun because they bark incessantly at almost anything on the street. So we've gotten out a bit less often than I'd like.

I brought a display figure to work on. It's a 75mm AWI figure of Glover's Marblehead Regiment. I have about another twenty unpainted display figures. This one took about ten or twelve hours to finish. I think this is an Imrie-Risley figure cast as a bicentennial keepsake. It's an okay figure, but more than anything else I liked the subject. I kept the miniature's dress as unconventional as possible with a blue sailor's coat and simple shirt and trousers. The miniature is based on a Charles McBarron painting for the Company of Military Historians. That figure was dressed in pretty much linen everything, the dress being pretty much non regulation. From the same series, I have a figure from the 3rd New Hampshire regiment, and that will likely be the next display figure I take on.

We return home tomorrow, Saturday. I'll be back at work on the Hundred Years War. I just finished reading Hewitt's book on the Poitiers campaign. It seems that about 600 or so of the 3,000 English archers from Cheshire and North Wales wore the green and white shirts and hats of the Prince of Wales' retinue, so there's something to focus my painting a bit.