January in Review

It's unlikely I'll get much more done in the next day or so. I finished a surprising 62 figures. Of those 40 were 28mm figures. Sounds like a lot? Well, not so much. In December I received as Christmas gifts 110 28mm figures. Admittedly I wasn't out buying a big bunch of figs like that every month-but just as an example. Just to be clear, my goals are to finish 40-60 figures per month. I know that's a wide spread, but my overall goals are to finish 500-600 figures over the course of the year, and that should keep me on track.

February my goals are to finish my second unit of 15mm SCW militia and complete or make progress on my 36 figure 2nd Maryland Regiment and a twelve figure unit of Welsh spearmen for the Crusader Rules.

Addendum: One of my goals for the 2010 is game a bit more. I actually managed to play three miniature games in January. My goal is really to make it to two, so I feel like I had a good month. The next game I'm planning is a Maximillian game on February 20th at Game Matrix.

While I resisted the temptation to buy any figures in January-actually I was only tempted one, briefly-I did buy two sets of rules. The first was British Grenadier by Partizan Press. I really like them, but they'll take some playing to get used to them. I also downloaded Rank and File by Crusader. At $6.75 the PDF was a bargain. They are probably the opposite of British Grenadier, pretty generic covering a wide historical period. Perhaps some tweakifying will make them an good set of convention rules for the American Revolution.

Maxmillian in Mexico: A project complete

I'm posting pictures of my Imperial Dragoon unit to show that it is indeed done. But, this unit also ostensibly ends this project. It's done ta da. As you can see there are a lot of figures. I like to play the Sword and the Flame expansion for this period.

How do I know I'm finished? Well, all my figures are painted. That's easy. They are also a combination of Wargames Foundry, Guernsey Foundry, and Richard Houston figures. They aren't available anymore. The Mexican militia is a combination of Old Glory and Guernsey Foundry, so theoretically I could get more, but why?

Alright, in truth I could see myself adding one more gun to each side, but the guns and gunners come from my pile of unpainted ACW figures, so that wouldn't be a big sacrifice.

One thing that is very cool about this project is it grew out of the many conversations we had at Escape Velocity in the late '70's. I originally painted them up for Camerone, and I've been picking at them since the late 90's.

At the top are pictures of the Republican forces, starting with militia on the left, with regular foot and their commander on the right. The two Republican cavalry units include lancers and frontier horse called Regulares.

Faithful blog follower Dean Motoyama pointed out that these are indeed singly mounted. I believe they are my first singly mounted project. I originally played the Warpaint rules with them, and have since gone on to TSATF variant I mentioned earlier. Just for the record, I don't think single figure games are bad, I just think the proliferation of them, especially at conventions, is curious.

At bottom are the French forces I have. The folks in white trousers are Foreign Legionnaires-the sacrifices at Camerone, and on the left are French regulars. I may actually repaint the latter a bit giving them darker complexions as Imperial foot. These would actually be Mexican troops. Finally, a picture of the Imperial dragoons are below. These are Richard Houston figures which used to be cast at The London War Room. Wargames Foundry never actually executed the cavalry for this range, and so I pressed Houston's guys into service. The were cheap and easy to paint. Alas, with the death of TLWR, the figures have passed away as well. The last batch of guys in skirmish order are the Contra-Guerrillas. I only have six, and they were nasty bastards. I'd love to locate at least four more.

Painting-How to Save a Life

I'm living a stressful life. Last month I lost my father-in-law, a good man whom I miss more than I believed I would. I'm smack in the middle of trying to arrange the rest of my mom-in-law's life, which will mean moving her out of her house into assisted living, and making the dollars work. My job is stressful-teaching semi-unmotivated sophomores U.S. history and English. My other class, journalism is wonderful, but demands long hours and fixed deadlines. I suffer from insomnia, and am worried about my finances. Gah! I have a lot going on.

Thank god for painting figures. I've been making a point of painting every night for at least 45-minutes to an hour. Often much more. As you can see, I've managed to finish some figures too. My Mexican Imperial dragoons are done, and now it's on to some more 100 Years War figures that have been sitting on my painting desk for a while.

I know for many folks painting is not relaxing. I usually find it quite so. I usually am watching a movie and painting. Casey got us a wireless access point for our blue-ray players, so we can stream movies on Netflix, so I can always pull up something new. I'm not a super fast painter, or a super good painter, just persistent, so I'm hoping to get a lot done. That I'm not starting any new projects, and that I'm just painting what I have is pretty liberating. Let's see how big a dent I can put in my pile. Anyway I'm just having fun. Unfortunately, I'm on deadline this week, so I may not be able to keep it up.

Rules and the Report From Up North

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

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

Entry 200: MLK Weekend Gaming

I have a couple of topics I'd like to cover in this entry, my 200th. One topic that's been raised is regarding NHMGS participation at multi-genre game conventions such as ConQuest and Dragonflight. I have a connection and a certain attachment to these cons. They are run by good people whose company I truly enjoy, gamers like me who just enjoy different games.

Gabriel Vega is the owner of Avalon games that runs the ConQuest conventions up the west coast. These are for-profit conventions, meaning if there is a profit, he gets it. It's risky, speculative and challenging. I wouldn't want to make my living hosting conventions. He is a kind and generous man and I enjoyed working with him four years ago as a historical miniatures coordinator. Mark Verdeck is the man at ground zero for Gabe, who lives in Southern California. Mark coordinates the coordinators and has his finger on the pulse of Seattle area gaming. Well, some of the gaming.

Which brings me to my next point, and that is the NHMGS connection or lack thereof to ConQuest and Dragonflight. First there is no official NHMGS policy on these two conventions. I can say that as the president. After my term as Enfilade director expired, I agreed to work for both conventions and tried to drum up business in historical miniatures. For one year I had success at each, but not beyond the one year. I can't account for this. It's the same convention, the same location and not many variables between years. For what ever reason, members were reluctant to support. I can offer several examples, excuses, explanations, and I'm not sure any of them are correct, but here goes:

1. Both conventions are costly--unless folks pre-register months in advance. Our guys just don't do that. At Enfilade folks can pre-register up until about May 10th. The difference for our guys between pre-register and walk-up is five bucks. A much bigger difference for the other two.
2. Historical miniatures are like round pegs in square holes at multi-genre conventions. Guys can show up with board games, or 40K armies, or to role-play and can expect to find someone to play their game. If I show up with a historical miniature game, unless I have friends coming to play it, the chances my game, which I just paid a sizable admission to host, likely won't get played. I have been to cons hoping to do "missionary" work, trying to draw some interest from those who weren't historical miniaturists. It just didn't work. I have scars from trying.
3. These conventions have little to draw historical miniaturists beyond a place to play. We don't all have homogeneous interests, use the same set of rules for a historical period beyond, perhaps, DBA or Fields of Glory. There isn't a big promotion or even a guest they could offer us to spur interest. The money isn't there, and the directors don't know our branch of the hobby well enough. That isn't true for the CCG players, the role-players or the GW gamers.

In any case, I write this not to bad-mouth ConQuest or Dragonflight and their practices. I think what they do is great, but we are just not the audience meant for their convention. I would never discourage our members from attending, and, in fact, encourage them to attend if it suits their time or budget. Many of our guys also cross over neatly to board games, and that's another avenue to enjoy the con. It's more problematic as a historical miniatures venue.

Monday was the Martin Luther King holiday, and as a school teacher I had the day off. There were enough of us celebrating the holiday that we agreed to get together for a game at Game Matrix. Mark Waddington offered to run his Isandahlwana game. I'd heard much about it, but never played, so I raised my hand and said I was interested. The game is a simplified version of The Sword and the Flame, so skazillions of units are easily run. The British start the game knowing they will eventually be slaughtered, but they earn points for breaking Zulu units (which are recycled) and the Zulus earn points for killing British, capturing the camp and wagon park, as well as those fleeing Brits that may wear red or bear the regimental standard.

We got there on time and the game was a pretty quick set up. I offered to play Zulus, and ran the right "horn" with Arthur Brooking. The job of the right horn in this battle is to be the blocking force as British resistance to the Zulu onslaught breaks resistance in the encampment apart and refugees begin to flee the camp. The entry of the right horn was delayed until turn 3, so it took some time to get going.

Arthur and I had five ten man units. He launched one of them against one of the 24th Regiment's companies and played a key role in driving them to destruction. I took the other four units and began driving across the Savannah--smack into the Natal Mounted Rifles commanded by Dave Schueler. Dave played it pretty cagey, always withdrawing in front of surging commands and giving us a blast in the face for our troubles. He always got the draw after my leading units, so was able to evade our charges.

That worked until he ran out of real estate. By then I was across the trail leading to the ford over the river, and the few British refugees from the debacle in camp were accounted for by Zulu units. Though our units had no part in the serious fighting, we did finally dispatch Dave's horsemen and were facing no further organized units when the game was called. The right horn had moved into the narrow pass and the block was complete. Mark declared it a victory for the Zulus, though not an overwhelming one. All in all it was much fun.


It was a sort of weird day however. There was major fire in some shops just up the street. Three shops including a thrift shop and tire store were badly damaged and firefighters fought the blaze most of the time we were gaming. The smoke got nasty at times, depending on the way the wind was blowing.

The Queue

I've put together a painting queue for myself. Kind of an order of jobs that are awaiting painting. It keeps my head in the game and organizes my paint jobs. It isn't inflexible and the order or even the type of jobs waiting can be changed; it just keeps my painting going.

Mostly I expect my painting to be 28mm Hundred Years War and American Revolution, but I'm going to keep some 15mm stuff going too. I'm starting with Spanish Civil War until I run out of stuff. I don't have a lot left. I finished some POUM militia last night, and probably have something less than 100 figures left to paint. I'd like to add more, but I have other 15mm items to work on: 1st Jacobite Rebellion, DBA armies, and 15mm fantasy. I imagine I'll have my fingers in all of these before 2010 is done.

I made my first purchase of the year. No, not any figures. I ordered the British Grenadier rules by Partizan Press, and I am anxiously awaiting them. I also definitely decided on a rules set for the aforementioned Jacobites--King's War by Bruce Bretthauer. The former because everyone seems to play them and they have some elements I like. The latter because they're cheap and easy, and also because everyone seems to play them. King's War is a little representational for me, but I'll just shut up and go for it.

Year's first unit: The 64th Regiment

I've fiddled with these guys for more than a month, and now they're pretty well finished. The 64th Regiment fought at both Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, so they are a nice addition to my collection. They are mostly OG southern light infantry, I ran out of command figures so, the command stand is straight British command. I mostly appreciate that I didn't have to paint facing colors on all the figures-not just because I don't like painting facing colors, but the black facings are just so je ne c'est qua-ick!!

The picture at left is the 64th, the picture at right shows them with the South Carolina Loyalists. My painted regiments grow and grow. Since Enfilade I've added the following units:
63rd Regt.
64th Regt.
Volunteers of Ireland
South Carolina Loyalists
3rd De Lancey Battalion

My Drumbeat game with Darin raised the possibility of running my Maxmillian figures again. I haven't dragged them out in quite some time. It also reminded me that I have one French/Imperial cavalry unit left to paint and then that project will be totally completed. So, last night, while watching Episode 7 of last season's Big Love I got all ten of the little fellows ready to paint. After I wrap up the 64th and a unit of 15mm SCW, it will be on to the last dragoons of the project.

Drumbeat 2009

Lots of important annual events began as small, informal affairs that magnify in their impact as time goes on. Bing Crosby used to call his little stop at Pebble Beach on the PGA tour his "clambake." I think Dick Larsen's gathering on Beacon Hill each January similar. It's something special. It has the merit of location in Seattle. It is intimate. Although I ran a game virtually all day, I could still get around to see most of the games, say hello to friends, see what was going on.

Max Vekich and Herbie Fairbanks hosted a pretty substantial Sword and the Flame game in Afghanistan. It was almost as long as my own game, and all the gamers seemed to have a good time. Bill Stewart hosted an American Civil War Game using Black Powder Rules. More about this later. Mitch Berdinka and Mark Waddington hosted a Napoleonic game using La Salle rules. Damond Crump hosted a good looking Patrol game down at the far away end of the room. Dean M. ran some WWI WABishness, and Mark Serafin ran Kampfgruppe Commander, and Gary Williams had some very cool 28mm Jacobites. .

As promised, I ran my St. Jean game, and old friends Darin Howard and Tom Biecker were two of the players, together with friend Joel and Darin's brother George. Darren, Tom and I go way back to the old Fire and Steel Napoleonics days and seeing them is a very pleasant blast from the past.

Joel took the role of Prince Edward/Warwick, while George was Holland. Darin managed the town defenses while Tom was Eu in charge of the fortification. Though the result was pretty similar to last week's game, the process was a lot different. Darin pushed the town defenses into the houses, though the French players also built the barricade defenses. I gave them a barricade to defend on the bridge as well, which made some tough sledding for the English. It was historical, and I thought it made sense. The English assault force of knights took it from light bolt shooters on the towers (which I remembered to pack.)

George's assault on the barricade started off well. He employed his arrowstorm effectively, and made average die rolls to beat up militia on the barricade. He effectively dispatched a small force of town militia that Darin used aggressively to buy time. The militia crossbows were pretty ineffective. More thoughts on this later. George pushed aggressively on to the barricade.

Joel's assault also had considerable initial success. He ran his three knight units right up the bridge and attacking at the barricade. He took a lot of missile fire, but absorbed it, and even though he suffered a lousy exchange at the barricade, held morale until the French defenders withdrew inside the barbican. The arrow exchange with the cogs was no contest, with the defenders swept clear after two turns of sustained fire with the longbowmen. The Welsh slowly, but successfully waded the river and eventually joined the attack on the barricade.

George's assault ground down as he ran out of effective assault troops. His Bretons were snuffed by knights on the barricades and he was forced to use his bowmen as shock troops. The results weren't pretty, but he effectively eliminated Darin's command and wore down Tom's regular troops. The barbican defenders were faced with troops assaulting at the front door, and as Joel was able to move to the flanks. By the end of the game (turn 10) with English on the roof of the gatehouse and the barricade thoroughly breached I declared the game in favor of the English. It was a good, tight game and all players were clever and creative. I thoroughly enjoyed gaming with all four of the guys and look forward to doing it again.

In terms of the scenario, a couple of ideas have crossed my mind. I'd like to move the river a bit closer to the Prince of Wales' side of the board and give Holland a bit more ground to cover. I think the English bow fire works well. I think the crossbow fire is penalized a bit too much. I think giving them half fire works, but eliminate the additional penalty for firing at knights. Still penalize for firing into fortifications and behind cover, but allow for the enhanced penetrating power of the crossbow.

Next game is at Game Matrix on the 18th. All of we public employees, or those not working, will get together for a little Zulu action.

Single Figure Gaming: Reflection

Just in time for our fall Citadel (Official publication of NHMGS) I wrote an article entitled "What's Up With Single Figure Gaming?" It was more a navel contemplation than anything else. However I was disturbed, no I think disturbed is the wrong word, puzzled is probably better at some of the discussion around last year's Enfilade. I had considerable conversation around the Best of Show Award. In the talk about which game should be considered for Best of Show, none of those included games with multiple basing.

As I thought some more I realized that, at least at our annual convention, fewer and fewer massed battle games appeared in our program. As someone who was raised on massed battle games-Napoleonics, ACW, Ancients, I felt something was amiss. However, I conceded that single figure games had considerable appeal, and that I also had many single figure projects-Hundred Years War, Space 1889, Maxmillian in Mexico, and Lewis and Clark. There are also single figure game systems I really like, the most important being one of my two holy grails of rules inspiration The Sword and the Flame (the other being Fire and Fury.)

After the article was included in the Citadel, time passed and there was no real response, I began to believe it was just another article nobody read. I was okay with that. However, my good friend Dave Schueler, god bless him, hung it out there on our yahoogroup and asked for responses. Thankfully all the replies were reasonable and civil. Most offered explanations that I'd already thought of, and even mentioned in my article.

First, it is much easier to get involved in a period if there are only a handful of figures required for entry. Honestly, if there were only ten or twelve required, I'd probably lose them, but this view, espoused by Bruce Meyer and others are perfectly valid. I know when I get involved in a project, I think of a hundred painted figures as being pretty small, but I know that isn't true for everyone.

Another reason suggested is because single figures usually represent smaller bodies of troops, and many miniature gamers simply identify with those smaller bodies. Whether it is fighting Zulus, the Cheka, or Martians, fighting on a smaller scale of command makes the impact more immediate and the consequences for poor choices seem more real. When your squad light machine gun is knocked out and all you have left to fight with are a couple of broom-handled Mausers and a Zippo lighter, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, I exaggerate, that's what I do.

Steve Winter and Pat Condray(!!!???) actually reminded me (and all the readers) that single figure gaming is really nothing very new. The earliest days of miniature wargaming media from Donald Featherstone and others in the early 60's included single figure games, and that multi-figure bases really began with WRG's first commercial sets of rules.

Again, great points, valid ideas all, and I really did learn some things. I guess my question remains: how goes the multi-figure based, massed battle? Are they a thing of the past, a dinosaur that we'll see only in constantly diminishing numbers until they're gone altogether?

I guess I have several responses:

First, Enfilade is a fairly small sample size. I am in contact with several folks who have latched on to some of the most recently released sets of rules. Chris Craft plays Crusader Rules for his Hundred Years War project, and I hope to be joinging him in this soon. Tomorrow at Drumbeat Dick Larsen will be hosting a game using Black Powder Rules, a new and costly set of horse and musket rules. LaSalle, a new set of Napoleonic rules by Sam Mustafa are also available and Mitch Berdinka will run a game tomorrow. I don't know how widespread the interest is and how many folks actually play these rules, but it will be interesting to talk with them.

Second, massed battle games are more likely to be popular if game communities opened themselves up to more club-style gaming. When I played Napoleonics in the 70's and 80's it was a success because there were six or seven of us that each had literally thousands of painted 15mm Napoleonic figures. For some, that was all they played, for me, and others it was one period of many. It was impossible for us to put together the kinds of big games we played if others participate. I remember that as we fell away from our French guy, others of us painted French figures as well in order to continue having a French presence. I simply don't see a very club-like atmosphere in which multiple people contribute to a whole project. There are some exceptions. Mark Waddington and I have worked very hard to put together our Martian projects. Doug and I do the War of 1812. There is the FoG group of guys and the Puyallup Gamers and their WAB projects, but each player is bringing a complete discrete army to the table and competing against one another. The same with the NAGS DBA guys, who I also see as a pretty unique community.

If I have one cause I can point to for the decline of massed battles in the Puget Sound area, it would be the loss of club-style gaming. I might just add that club style gaming seems alive in well in places like White Rock just across the Canadian border, and I'm certain it's happening elsewhere. The White Rock guys regularly host big games of Shako and Fire and Fury. I'd also add that massed battle gaming is almost impossible without club gaming and if there is one aspect of my younger years as a historical miniaturist I miss, it is that. However, I'll also say that I have a view of history and what my figures, my games should look like, and while I doubt I'd exclude anybody interested in combining with me, I know what I want to get done and that is often playing a near re-fight of historical battles.

I want to conclude by repeating that again, this is all a matter of personal preference and a good game is a good game-single figures, multiple figures, it really doesn't matter. However, in terms of the historicity, hmm, no red line it must be a real word, I do think there is something lost in translation. It's difficult for me to imagine a refight of Guagamela, or Agincourt, or Waterloo, or the Somme with single figures. Though my own sites are not set quite so high, there are battles I hope to do: Guilford Courthouse at 1:10, Poitiers (1356) at 1:25, and perhaps others. I can't see managing those with single figures. Will those games be considered irrelevant or unsightly? I guess I can't say.

A New Leaf

I know I've already blathered about my goals for the new year, but I want to share a little bit more about them and some of my reasons for them.

My goal is to buy very little in the way of new figures this year. I have a few important reasons.

First, I have piles of unpainted lead. Here is a perfect example. For the American Revolution I have the figures to paint the following units:
2nd Maryland-32 figures
1st Virginia-40 figures
2nd Virginia-40 figures (well I don't actually have them but they should arrive from the WarStore on Wednesday-A Christmas gift so I don't have to blame myself)
71st Regiment-24 figures
23rd Regiment-24 figures
Von Bose Regiment-32 figures
Converged Grenadier battalion-24 figures

These don't include literally hundreds of less organized miniatures I have for this period. It would be nice if AWI was the only period that was stocked so well. Unfortunately all of my 25mm periods of interest have similar piles o' lead. 15mm projects are a little more scanty, and I can actually see adding to them, but I can simply jump from one 15mm project to another if need be.

2. I simply don't have as much money to spend and I'm embarrassingly in debt. A lot of that "free money" went to pay for my piles of lead that I haven't painted. My goal this year is to reduce my debt and not spend an unnecessary centime on a figure. Any money I do spend on figures will need to be on an as needed basis. In other words, if figures are needed to literally wrap up a unit or even wrap up a project fine, if not, I'm not buyin' it. On the other hand it does cost money to even paint in this hobby, so expenditures for primer, dullcoat, paint as needed and Litko bases are expected.

Finally, I hope to be able to support my mother-in-law if she needs it. Rita has been very good to me over the years-and has gotten me some nice gaming goodies at Christmas and birthday times. I lost my father-in-law a couple of weeks ago which will leave her in challenging straits. It will be tough on the budget, but it's a lot more important than having the latest miniature I may not paint for years. Geez, I may have to wash out my mouth with soap on that one.

There are few purchases I can see myself making:
1. A few more planes from Reviresco for the Spanish Civil War (assuming I paint the three I have first.)
2. A few more 1/600 WWII gunboats for Action Stations from PT Dockyard. I've actually painted all my stock, and would like some more Fairmile B class vessels. At the present time I don't have any unpainted gunboats. I do have three unfinished destroyers, and I have some clean-up to do on LCS-1, but the bulk of my small boats are all done.
3. Last, but not least, I would like to add more units to my Spanish Civil War project, mostly Republican militia and Communist troops, but I also need some Spanish Foreign Legion battalions. Likely I'd purchase Peter Pig figures from Brookhurst Hobbies. But, I'd have to finish what I have first.

I've also reset my painting logs to reflect not only figures painted, but figures purchased. Then readers can see if I'm sticking to my plan. I'll be honest, I promise. My blog is kind of my confessional.

I included a few pics. There are a couple shots of my painting table as of today. The redcoats are Old Glory figures. They'll be the 64th Regiment. I hope to have them done by the end of the week-we'll see. There are also some 15mm SCW figures to work on. The unprimed horsemen are 25mm Hundred Years War figs. They are lightly armored horse who could be hobilars or even free company horse that might make an interesting single figure scenario. I also included a picture of what I like to call my "drawers of shame." I have a pair of four-drawer storage units that are literally full of unpainted figures. The two I have pulled out are my AWI drawer and one of my HYW drawers (I have two.) In addition to these eight drawers I have other little caches of minis in my den and in the garage. It may not be the worst collection of unpainted lead ever seen, but it is ridiculous.

New Orleans Up North

Doug Hamm sent me some pictures of his pet project. Doug's always wanted to do New Orleans 1815 to complete his War of 1812 project. One of the units he's been interested in is Plauche's New Orleans militia. These troops wore uniforms surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, that look like French Napoleonics. There are two pictures of Plauche's battalion and one of the Jean Laffite's Baratarian pirates that manned heavy guns along the American defensive lines. The pictures highlight Doug's brilliant painting, as usual.

Year's End Assessment

Today is the January 1st, and it's time to look back as well as take a look ahead. It's been an odd year. Some good, some not so good.

I took on a new project in 2009--my Lewis and Clark project. I enjoyed painting the figures and running the game. There was a great play-test process that was at times disappointing, but in my final runs of the game, I really enjoyed it. I do think it requires some patience on the part of the players, but, heck, it's based on my vision, not theirs. This project is complete.

After Enfilade I really invested my time in three areas: 100 Years War, American Revolution in the south, and the Spanish Civil War. As I've stated before, HYW is the goofiest of the lot with two separate projects with two separate mountings. Both the singly and multiple mounted projects will be fun. The latter is for use with more serious rules systems, and it's unlikely I'll be ready to play Crusader Rules or Medieval Warfare for some time. My goal, as I've stated before is to play Poitiers. Chris Craft also has figures mounted for these rules systems. I still have many figures to paint for both mountings, so I should be painting for some time.

I've established the goals, and more importantly the limits for my AWI project. I have in mind five battles-Cowpens, Weitzels Mill, Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, and Eutaw Springs. Many of the units on both sides make into more than one battle, so there is a lot of duplication, it's just getting those units painted. I have a lot of the figures to paint up these troops, though some of the battles, such as Guilford are just much larger than what I have at 1:10. One of my big problems is rules. I am likely going to use British Grenadier which allow me to keep my present mountings, hahahahaha. I laugh because I'm in the process of remounting my AWI back to 40mm square bases. I like the use of disorder points in these rules-they remind me of Loose Files-but seem to have a bit more oomph to them. I don't own them, and they will be my first purchase of the new year. I've added figures on both sides this year. Tory units-the Volunteers of Ireland, South Carolina Loyalists, the 63rd Regiment, and a small unit of North Carolina Continentals. I have many unpainted figures for this period, and I expect to continue adding units throughout the year.

In August I hosted a Spanish Civil War game using my 15mm figures and Dick Larsen's Non Pasaran rules. The game went well and it sparked an interest in painting the figures I had. I picked up a few more Peter Pig figures and added some Italians from the Flames of War collection. I'm priming up a couple of battalions as we speak, and will doubtless add at least four more units during the coming year. I'd like to scratch-build some entrenchments to go with them, but the most important thing I need to do is play some games with them.

Last year I painted just over 480 figures. Mostly 25's. My focus will be these three periods, though I suppose some other goodies could sneak into my painting queue. I don't envision many purchases, though I would like to add to my collection of WWII Action Stations vessels. When I finish my smallish collection of SCW figures, I'll choose another batch of 15mm stuff to work on. I have some DBA armies to paint, my 1688 Jacobite Rebellion project still awaits my attention, and I have a whole pile of 15mm fantasy figures to work on. My big hope is that I actually play more games than I have the last year or so. I need the fun in my life. I miss my friends.

Arrowstorm: The Attack on St. Jean

I've catapulted myself back into my Hundred Years War mania. This is my one true period of hobby sickness. I only game the period in 28mm, but I have two separate projects going-one that uses singly mounted figures, another that has multiple figures mounted on 50mm square bases. It's by far my largest collection of painted and unpainted figures. I admit it, I love the historical period, and I think there is fun stuff I can do with small actions as well as large battles. For the big battles I'll use the Crusader Rules or Medieval Warfare, though I am far from being able to play either at this time. I probably have close to 400 singly mounted figures at this time, and I do plan a few more, but I can run most skirmishy sorts of games that interest me. The rules I use are called Arrowstorm, but they are really just a knock-off of the Tactica Medieval Siege rules, with additions for this period. They're intended to be easy and fun, and by and large they are.

One of the actions that's intrigued me for some time is the battle for St. Jean in 1346. It's really just historical footnote to Edward III's Crecy campaign, but it is covered in chapter of Livingstone and Witzel's wonderful The Road to Crecy which covers the entire Crecy campaign. Their account of the sack of the suburbs of Caen on Ile St. Jean had the makings of an interesting game. The battle for these suburbs was an accident, really. The island community was the home of wealthy burghers, who persuaded the Count Eu, in command of Caen's defenses, to commit some of his forces to the defense of the town. Eu fortified the St. Pierre Bridge with barricades and towers commanded the span. He brought some 30 boats up the Odon River and filled them with Genoese crossbowmen. Despite his preparations, Eu's situation was desperate. The tidal river was low, and he was outnumbered by four to one.

The vanguard of the Edward III's army was the young Prince of Wales who, two centuries later would be known as The Black Prince. He was still a wet-behind-the-ears 16-year old who had yet to win his spurs (literally, he was knighted by his father on the eve of Crecy.) His troops were engaged in pillaging the church of St. Pierre, when their attention was drawn to the French defenses. It is quite possible that the Genoese on the boats drew the short straw when they began sniping at them. In any case English troops under the Earl of Warwick rushed to the fight on the bridge and the battle was joined. It was a difficult struggle, and the French fought well. Their end was sealed, however, when Sir Thomas Holland led a flanking force across the marshes at on the Odon and flanked the defenders at the bridge. Though aided by citizens from the town, the situation became hopeless and Eu surrendered. He and his knights were ransomed. The wealthy burghers and their possessions were not so lucky as 2,000 perished and the town was thoroughly ransacked.

I tried to create a fairly balanced scenario to refight a semblance of the St. Jean action using the figures I had available. It was an opportunity for me to paint up some figures I've had for a while-and actually get to play with them, which made it even better. Further, it was excuse to paint up my Merrimac cogs and drag out my Miniature Building Authority buildings, which I love to have an excuse for.

Those who volunteered for this mid-week game were Adrian Nelson, David Sullivan and Tim Barela. Tim and Adrian were the Prince of Wales and Earl of Warwick knocking on the door of the fortification guarding the St. Pierre Bridge and David was the clever Sir Thomas Holland trying to capture the town from the back door.

The defenders of the doomed town were Wes Rogers and his son-in-law John, commanding the town militia types, and Dave Schueler as the Count of Eu. Their mission was to hold the the bridge crossing until turn 10 when Edward III would arrive, get pissed off at his adolescent genius and order a halt to this risky venture.

The game began with Tim doing his best Thomas Erpingham impression, massing his archers to devastate one cog by Arrowstorm. Throwing his baton and thirty die rolls in the air, it came down pierced by errant shafts. Only two hits, and the archers never quite recovered their indignity. Loaded with crossbowmen and light bolt throwers, the Genoese never really stood still for the rain of arrows by the English, and after a couple of turn one of the lonbow units broke. Hampered by supply restrictions, the English began to run out of arrows, reducing their rate of fire considerably. Even so, the dice couldn't remain ridiculously bad forever, and the cogs began to suffer considerably.












On the same front, Adrian began massing his knights for an assault across the bridge. Sadly only one of the scaling ladders was tall enough to top the barbican walls. As the armored troops began to slowly move to the point of assault, Adrian's Welsh troops took a chance on being able to cross the Odon. Moving cautiously, lest his entire command be swept downstream, the lightly equipped Welsh made their way across the river at half speed. Unfortunately, the town defenders quickly slipped troops over to meet them. The Welsh quickly found themselves far away from friends and they were dispatched after a valiant defense.

David found it fairly easy going approaching the town. He maneuvered his two units of longbows from the north board edge around the town and prepared to rain longbow death on its defenders. Out gunned by the English, Wes effectively used barricades and houses to slow down the English advance. David's Breton skirmishers got a little too close and were dispatched by some townie crossbowmen. Nevertheless, when the English longbowmen were finally in place on the south edge of the town, they used their huge missile advantage to slaughter the light infantry at the barricades, as well as driving the defenders on the roof of the barbican below. Though Daveshoe and Wes's troops were able to resist Holland's efforts to capture the fortification, they could not prevent the assault across the bridge.

Adrian marched his knights across the St. Pierre bridge and made a ladder assault that was largely unopposed. When the last handful of crossbowmen were driven below, that was all she wrote. Though the English had taken their time to achieve their victory conditions, they did indeed achieve them.

Overall I was pleased with the result. It was a tight battle, with victory achieved on the tenth and last turn of the game. The English won, but not in a walk. I made some dopey mistakes too. I left the two towers that went with the barbican at home. That should make the fortification at the bridge even stronger. I would allow the French to put troops in the houses even earlier. I'd also allow them to position their light bolt shooters on the barbican rather than just the cogs. I would also allow some space between the bridge and fortification, requiring the French to use some of their barricades to contain that area of advance. I'd also allow them to put barricades on the bridge itself. Next run is at Drumbeat on the 9th.

DANG: The Truth

DANG, or Dave's Annual Naval Game is officially enshrined on my annual gaming dance card, together with the Museum of Flight day and Enfilade. Everything else is gravy, but these are must-do's. I've written about DANG before, Dave Schueler's shindig at his home in West Seattle. This year we played Action Stations, featuring miniatures from Dave's collection and my own.

DANG has three important characteristics. The first, and maybe the most important, is a social aspect. We get to hang out at Dave's house for most of a day, share news and swap lies. This year was no different. We had some DANG veterans-Dave Creager, David Sullivan, Arthur Brooking, and myself-but we also had a pair of DANG noobs; Dale Mickel and Scott Murphy. This year I was teamed with David and Arthur, and being the vets we were, we took nothing terribly seriously, which, under the circumstances was a good idea. We were the Axis side, tasked with running supplies to the trapped German and Italian forces in Tunisia in 1943. Not a pleasant task considering the quality of some of our vessels.

Another important DANG characteristic is the planning phase. Dave gives us our mission(s) and we allot our resources to complete our various tasks. Sometimes the mission planning can be quite complex, and beyond my limited administrative abilities. This time the DANG missions were easy to plot out. Five days with three action periods per day, units required to rest after completion of a mission. I nodded my head, David Sullivan did all the work. This is also the phase of the game in which we conduct psychological warfare against our opponents. We listen in on their noisy conversations (though most of the intelligence we gather in this way is wrong!!) We loudly proclaim our propaganda, make improbable threats and generally make fools of ourselves. Most importantly its a time in which we can snack on all of the tasty treats Dave and Lynn have set up for the participants.

It's difficult being the Axis player when the world begins to go to shit. Hah-Sixth Army is trapped in Stalingrad-no biggie. I can go you one better, the Afrika Korps is surrounded in Tunisia. Our job was to save 'em with a couple of obsolete S-Boats and a slow, underarmed minesweeper with a green crew. The third phase of the game is to actually complete the missions. Some resulted in on-the-table battles, some didn't. In virtually all the battles, the gods of serendipity were on the side of the Axis.

In our first action, night of day one (all the battles were night battles,) our two R boats (minesweepers) were minding their own business sweeping mines off Port Endopincochle or something equally unpronounceable, when two big shadows showed up in the distance. Why is it that when big shadows show up in the distance we just can't seem to leave well enough alone? For whatever reason, Arthur and David decided to go check out the big shadows and discovered they were British destroyers. Destroyers don't sound like a big deal if you're used to playing 1/1200 or 1/2400 fleet actions, but in Action Stations, destroyers may as well be the Yamato. R-boats, on the the other hand, are like rafts made of Popsicle sticks mounting a slingshot and a broom and dustpan. Once the destoyers were spotted, David and Arthur did the only smart thing-they ran. Unfortunately David's boat was not quite faster than a couple of 4-inch shells, which quickly morphed him into splinters. Arthur's boat, however, drew one of the tin cans a little too close to the shore batteries, which succeeded in damaging the vessel and thoughtfully lighting him afire for the amusement of the other destroyer, which cleverly stayed out of range.

After a desultory Day 2 of searching and missing the limping the destroyer from the air, our little flotilla based in Tunis headed off for Bizerte just in time to meet up with some friends-two Fairmile D gunboats and 2 Fairmile D torpedo boats, each bristling with small boat nastiness. Our flotilla consisted of two old S-Boats recently released from training command. We paid careful attention to the one 20mm gun thoughtfully mounted facing to the rear of our boats. This time it Arthur and I each in command of an S-Boat, surrounded by barking bad guys. Somehow I managed to get my boat turned around and dodged the rain of shells of all calibers pointed in my direction. However, Arthur's tactic of having his steering damaged and destroying his enemy, and himself, by ramming, seemed to be the most effective tactic of the day. I escaped with the loss only of my radio. Whew.

The final action occurred the next night when the five S-Boat flotilla out of Port Imbecile decided to exact revenge on the game master for constantly being out-classed, out-gunned, everything but out-lucked. We decided to make those nasty Brits pay. Someplace in the Straits of Sicily, we once again encountered the Big Shadows. To our way of thinking this had to be easier than the previous nights. We'd already shot up one destroyer, how many more could they have? The answer was easy-two. Even though we were five heavily armed, torpedo lugging fools, two destroyers are a lot of destroyers. Coming on pre-plotted courses at maximum speed, the DD's were on us like stink on poop. David had two boats and I had one. We were quickly observed and taken under fire. One of David's boats was able to snap off a pair of torpedoes, wide from the mark. I could never really get a shot. Arthur's two boats were unseen, launched torpedoes and wisely retreated, but David and I were left with two destroyers on our hands. I tried to maneuver close enough to get inside his guns, and avoided much damage. On the other hand, I peppered his bridge with 40mm and 20mm rounds causing a fire, knocking out some unprotected weapons and making Dale wish his mama was nearby. David was desperately trying to avoid a rerun of the first night's entertainment, and his wish was granted when Scott's retreating DD tripped over the mis-aimed torpedoes, did a spectacular pirouette and disappeared beneath the Med. Gack!

While all this fun stuff was going on, we Axis players were able to do the routine things as well. Our silly airforce was able to keep the Allied silly airforce from bombing us into oblivion. We completed an important intelligence related mission involving, cloak and dagger, a U-Boat and the Ark of the Covenant. We also managed to sneak a convoy into Tunis without loss and resupplied the entire Italian army with condoms. Not quite sure of the effect of this on the campaign but Dave declared the Axis the winners. So, I was on the winning side for the first time in four years.

At top we have a picture of an S-Boat-a much better armed S-Boat than most of my commands. Below that is a Fairmile D class Motor Gunboat. It's a great picture, starting with the bow shot of a nasty 2 pdr autocannon, and getting worse as it works its way astern. The last shot is actual footage of Scott Murphy's destroyer as it does the torpedo dance. It was a very brief video.

Christmas-Woo Hoo!

I never complain about the goodies Santa brings me for Christmas. Usually it's a nice mix of practical and fun. Fun usually means books I want or movies on DVD. It usually doesn't include gaming stuff. Let's face it, ordering miniatures usually means navigating an online store with plenty of ranges and lots of stock codes and yikes. Even Santa could get lost.

Sometimes, however, Santa and his elves are industrious and/or extremely creative and make it a little more possible to do some gaming stuff. This year I didn't get any practical stuff-who'da thunk it? Movies galore. A couple of great books-John Keegan's new American Civil War history, and Jonathan Sumption's third volume of The Hundred Years War; Divided Houses. Yippee!!! Even cooler than that, my Keegan book held a gift certificate from the Warstore. For those of you who don't know the Warstore, that's where Perry Miniatures go to live after they make their long sailing trip across the Atlantic. In addition to this good stuff, folks thoughtfully gave me cash. You see where this is going. In any case, my family made my Christmas very merry and I am busily counting the possibilities.

Arrowstorm: A Social History of English Military Bowmen

When I saw this available through Amazon,s I decided I "needed" it. I believe there is a great lack of clarity about the practice and effectiveness of longbowmen during the Hundred Years War. Was the longbow a death dealer to armored and unarmored foes alike? Or did the longbow simply slaughter the unarmored and inflict a certain misery on armored knights. The rain of arrows disordered their dense formations, perhaps knocking some off their feet and providing an opportunity the nimble archers to attack the blind and disordered knights from their flanks, virtually unable to protect themselves, let alone fight back.

The author, Richard Wadge, is an archer, but goes beyond his own experiences to provide a social history of the medieval longbowman. Interesting stuff. I've only begun reading the book, so I'll report back.

A couple of interesting events on the painting front. Last night I finished all of the thirty crossbowmen for my St. Jean scenario. I plan to run this game at Game Matrix on Tuesday December 29th. It leaves me 15 bowmen I need to finish.

Recently I've noticed my eyes tiring after about an hour. Things just sort of blur and I can't get much more done. I tried using reading glasses last night-I borrowed them from Lorri. They were a bit strong-1.5 magnification, but it really did make a difference. I'm thinking 1.15-1.25 magnification would probably work fine.

The Year's End in Sight

I've been working on a bunch of HYW figures for my Enfilade project on St. Jean. I've fiddled with rules and scenario design, but it's the figures I really need to get done.

I finished 20 Welsh spearmen. They still need to be based, but their spears a pretty long and I haven't quite figured out how to store them. I'm nearly done with 30 Genoese crossbowmen. These will defend two cogs in the middle of the Odon River as well as the fortification defending the bridge over the Odon. I need another 15 longbowmen to fill out my pile of bowmen to over 100. I need a hundred for the scenario. I've barely started these guys. I also need some peasant rock chuckers to torture the English invaders. Yes, just some nutty stuff to maker their life more difficult. In all there are 75 figures needed to finish this scenario. I've painted 26 with another 24 close.

It hasn't been a brilliant painting year. I'll probably finish with about 450 for the year. Not a lot, but the good news is I haven't invested in a lot of new stuff. Okay, some. I invested fairly heavily in the Lewis and Clark project. But, the really great news is that each and every figure I purchased is painted.

I also bought some additional 15mm figures for the Spanish Civil War. I painted a lot of the figures I already have, but I have a couple more Peter Pig militia units to work on as well as some 15mm Italians. Four units in all, plus a couple of 65mm infantry guns that will supplement the Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccans. I'll work on the SCW figures right after HYW guys are done. I'd like to add some more units too. Peter Pig figs, and maybe some QRF stuff sound about right.

I want to add on to my multi-figure based Hundred Years War project. I have plenty of French and English to paint. I'd like to add another 48 figure dismounted knight unit. Lots of Old Glory figures for this. I also have pavisiers, crossbowmen and mounted knights and squires to work on. In the figures to buy department, I'm out of OG longbowmen from the Crecy and Poitiers range, so a couple more bags are in order.

I'd also like to paint up a lot of my AWI pile. I have some pretty big units remaining to be finished. For the Brits I have some twenty four figures of the 23rd Regiment, as well as the twenty figure 64th Regiment. After that it's the thirty-two figure Von Bose Regiment, and twenty four figures of the 71st Regiment (Fraser's Highlanders.) I would love to get all these units painted in the next calendar year, plus some smaller British/Loyalist units. On the American side I have plenty to paint too. In my diminishing Perry pile I have the 2nd Maryland, thirty-two figures worth. I also have the figures for the 1st Virginia, which is 40 figures strong. I'd like to add a few more units--the 2nd Virginia, also 40 figures and two more little North Carolina infantry. If I paint what I have, just adding the Virginians, I would be able to do Eutaw Springs and Hobkirk's Hill.

The one purchase I've yet to do anything with is my big pile of Victrix figures. I bought over 200 British Napoleonics for the War of 1812, and I feel considerable guilt over my lack of progress on them. I hope to get at least one unit of these boys done--maybe this summer.

AWI Wrap up

I'm one of those who often doesn't paint in a straight line. It's hard for me to sit down and paint 200 figures for a project and declare it finished. I lose interest after six weeks, two months and need to do something else, and then come back to the project and finish up.

Yesterday I wrapped up some of my AWI units. By wrapping up, I mean basing and flagging. I'd finished my 1st North Carolina Continentals, the 63rd Regiment and was just waiting to polish off the eight figures of the teeny, tiny, 1st Battalion of the De Lancey Brigade. I did all that as well as painting the five flags for each of those units over the holiday weekend.

I'm going to pick at AWI while I focus on my Hundred Years War project for the next wee bit. I'm working on twenty Welsh spearmen, and if I get through them quickly I'll probably paint the 64th Regiment before taking on the remaining Welsh and passle of Genoese crossbowmen I need to paint.

Pictures are of the three units. At the top of the page is the two stand DeLancey battalion, the first battalion that appeared at Eutaw Springs. There were only 80 men, but I'm determined to show some of these small units whenever possible. The standards are strictly supposition. These are Old Glory figures. There are two pictures of the four stand 63rd regiment. This was a veteran unit that fought at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs. The blue-coated unit is the 120 man 1st North Carolina Continentals that fought alongside two other North Carolina units at Eutaw. They probably weren't quite as well dressed as these guys.

Cogs!!

Back when I had a bit more money, er, back when I used credit more freely, I used to to have $40 a month to spend on gaming. I also had an Old Glory Army membership and frequently I'd just deposit my cash there. It meant I could be a bit more adventurous with my miniatures purchase, and by god I was. I picked up a couple of the Merrimac Shipyard cogs.

No self-respecting Hundred Years War miniaturist could possibly have a complete collection o' stuff without cogs. After all, there are all those famous sea battles to fight-ummm, and errrr!!???. Actually there are a few, the most famous being Sluys and 1340, and the battle off Winchelsea in one of those years between 1337-1453. There were also smaller actions of French galleys raiding the English coastline or attacking ships in the wine trade.

In any case my economic realities collided with miniature purchases and I was never able to acquire the hundreds of cogs needed for Sluys, or even the fifty or so for Winchelsea, but I do have two. They are going to serve me well for a game I want to run at Enfilade based on the Black Prince's attack on the suburb of St. Jean outside of Caen in 1346.

So what the heck is a cog? In the 14th and early 15th century sea travel was pretty chancy. Naval engineering had not progressed to the point that vessels could maneuver through a contrary wind. Cogs were bargelike vessels with a single mast and sail and a rudder. They could be 30-300 tons and built as merchantmen to haul cargo between England and the Europe. The were deep enough draft to provide a fairly stable platform in the channel and North Sea, providing the wind was favorable and there was no storm. During wartime, the king basically pressed these cogs into service and nailed large fighting platforms on to the bow and stern to hold archers, men at arms and light artillery.

These two will see service soon.