Geekdom That's Cool

This is Lewis and Clark's keelboat. It was built for them in 1803 at builder's in Pennsylvania. It's nearly sixty feet long and eight feet wide. It would never qualify as a warship, mounting only a one pounder and a couple of boarding blunderbusses. But it was like a floating fortress with thick sides that could offer cover to the riflemen of the Corps of Discovery.

I think I've talked about my Lewis and Clark geekdom before. I think the story of the expedition is fascinating. It has all the drama of a great exploring adventure. There is the tense moment when the expedition could have erupted into violence against the Lakota Sioux. Sacagawea's role in the expedition as honorary mom, carrying her baby on her back, and the coincidental meeting with her brother in the Rocky Mountains of Montana made the expedition unlike all of the other American military expeditions into the West. The nightmare crossing of the Bitterroots nearly ended in disaster. The descent to the lower Columbia and the long wet winter at Fort Clatsop is simply a tale of persistence in the face of adversity.

Recently, however, historians have taken note that the Corps of Discovery was first and foremost a military expedition, the first of many that would scout and map the regions of the west, but as much as anything aggravate the hell out our neighbors. How else do you think John C. Fremont ended up in California at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War with American troops, including artillery? The Lewis and Clark concerned the Spanish authorities so much they sent out an expedition of their own to intercept them twice-once on the trip out to the coast and once on the way back.

I've often thought about gaming this potential collision of forces, but with Spaniards numbering about eighty men, including some Comanches, probably all mounted, being caught in the prairie would be a bad, bad thing. I wistfully considered adding a seaborne side to the expedition, but I am simply not much of a model builder.

But I know somebody who is: my good friend Mark Waddington. These are a couple of photos of the keelboat Mark is graciously building me. He began by building the basic shape and is now in the planking stage. Mark says this kind of work is really fun. The planking is basswood strips that he has stained and then cut to the proper length before gluing. Mark says he soaks the planking in ammonia and water before bending them around the hull. It is an amazing, generous project, and I truly appreciate it. I'll keep you posted on the construction.

PT Dockyard goodies arrive!!

As I explained last week, I took advantage of the PT Dockyard Black Friday sale to order some new goodies. Among the arrivals was the Littoral Combat Ship LCS-1 Freedom. It is intended to provide support for coastal operations. Unfortunately the navy never reached a consensus on design, and the cost for the two completed LCS designs were ridiculously over budget. So much so, that the Littoral Combat Ship was cited by John McCain as an armed services boondoggle in the second presidential debate.

The model is pretty cool. It's huge compared to my other modern vessels, and comes with a helicopter in both stowed and flying mode.

I also ordered and received two of the new, but small Iranian vessels, and a pair of Fairmile B's. I've included a picture of the Freedom at its launching in 2006, as well as a size comparison shot of Freedom with an Iranian missile boat.

One more quick item. I received notice yesterday that the Puyallup Wargamers, a group of Warhammer Ancient Battles enthusiasts are now being chronicled by a blog. The blog is kept by Dean Hachimantaro and is simply entitled WAB Corner. If you are interested in WAB, the Puyallup Wargamers are very active, and are quite prolific. They have armies for the Dark Ages (using the Shield Wall supplement,) the Punic Wars, Samurai, and they are working on Hundred Years War armies, all well painted in 25mm. If WAB is your thing, I encourage you to keep tuned into WAB Corner. It is linked in my Blogs of Note.

Freeman's Farm

Bruce Meyer sent out the word a couple of weeks ago about a game at his Palace of Gaming Delights. I don't get to play with Bruce often, but I really enjoy it when I am able. Last year we did Guilford Courthouse, and today it was Freeman's Farm. The action took place during the Saratoga Campaign, as Burgoyne approached his rendezvous with surrender. Freeman's Farm was the first of two quite desperate battles as the outnumbered, and out-of-supply British try to force the Americans out of their fortifications, opening the road to Albany.

There were twelve of us there for the game. Bruce asked if I would take Burgoyne, and I was happy to oblige. Tim McNulty volunteered to be Gates. Actually Gates was safely back at his bunker, but Benedict Arnold led the American forces on the ground that day. Tim behaved just as aggressively as Arnold.

We were divided into three commands--the right column under General Simon Fraser was commanded jointly by Mark Waddington and Bruce Duthie. Our center column under General Burgoyne himself was run by Jerry Nordbye and Steve Ghan. The left column under General Riedesel was the responsibility of Michael Koznarsky and myself, entering the board somewhat later.

Our right column immediately came under fire from Morgan's rifles, losing the commanding officers of the converged lights and a line battalion. It was the first of many bad things that would happen to Fraser's column in particular and the British in general.


While Burgoyne's column of four battalions moved dutifully to positions along a rail fence facing a field, dozens of American units poured onto the field, filling the opposite rail fence and pouring to flank. The battle had scarcely begun, the British were already in deep trouble.


Fraser's column on the British right was quickly unable to advance. Forced into line by the fire of American marksmen, the difficult situation rapidly went from bad to worse. American infantry began advancing in march columns aimed right at the British line. More fire forced morale checks the British commanders could not seem to pass. It would be a common theme throughout the day.

The British troops in the center and the right took defensive positions, rather than assuming the offensive as I had planned as British commander. There were simply too many Americans who were happy to bring the battle to us. Steve and Jerry in the middle had some initial success firing their cannon at the Americans in the center, but it was like a pebble tossed in the ocean in hopes of stopping the incoming tide. Jerry found himself holding the very end of the British line facing legions of Americans with two units.

He managed to hold things for a turn or two, but Jerry took his turn to fail an easily made morale check. Instead of holding the line, the threatened unit retreated, and the line turned into a bow.

On the right, things went from bad to worse. Repeated fire decimated the the British lights and line infantry. The Canadian militia sought refuge in the woods, and the Americans poured in toward the British right, forcing the survivors to find refuge in Freeman's Farm.

Just when all seemed lost the British got a bit of a reprieve when Riedesel's Germans showed up on turn five--exactly where the Americans expected them. Michael's Hessians pulled into the gap with the artillery, while I tried to pull off an attack on the American militia through the woods. For two turns the opportunity was mine for the taking, but I couldn't roll the six on a ten sided die I needed to attack disordered. I don't know if it would have changed the battle, but it sure would have made me feel better. I also attached Riedesel to the one attack I was able to make and he was killed in the melee. The story of the British army this day.
Although the Germans had five units to add to the eight British units already on the field, it simply wasn't enough to make progress against the eight slightly smaller American units arrayed against us.

As the Hessian counter-attack stalled out things went from bad to worse on the other fronts. On the right flank, a series of American attacks wiped out the British grenadiers and light infantry. They put up a good fight, but there simply wasn't enough to fight with. Steve's two battalions in the middle were being pressed from the front, and with his right flank now wide open, it was just a matter of time before he too was a goner. Jerry was fighting off units from his front and flank, but it was clear that the weight of the enemy would eventually end his resistance. At this point, with the Hessians clearly unable to draw strength from the American attack in the center I called a general retreat to save what was left of the army.

Though the game was a tough one to lose, and lose so decisively, it was still a great deal of fun. I met some new guys, and it was another great opportunity to pull out my AWI figures, which had lay dormant since Cowpens at Enfilade in the spring. I was really proud of the British players who did the very best they could under very difficult circumstances. On a positive note, I think we did as well as General Burgoyne, who suffered terrible casualties (just like us) and was forced to retire on his baggage (just like us) before his inevitable surrender after one more assault on Bemis Heights.

Black Friday

Wow, I was amazed at the number of specials going on in the hobby during this holiday weekend. I received an announcement from The War Store, a great hobby shop on Long Island with some weekend specials. They carry a wide variety of miniatures, notably Foundry and Perry figures. Unfortunately they weren't included in the sale.

I also received an e-mail from PT Dockyard, which makes my resin modern and WWII coastal vessels. 20% off a pretty reasonable group of prices sucked me in for some moderns (a U.S. littoral combat vessel and two more Iranian boats for my little navy,) and the first two Fairmile B's toward the St. Nazaire project.

Dunno if there were more big sales out there for Black Friday weekend, but hopefully some of view were able to get some deals to go with your turkey.

Musings and reflections

This is Thanksgiving weekend, and it was a pretty traditional one here. We had the family over to Smythland. Not a big gathering, there were eight of us. However, it seemed like a lot more work. We got things ready from 9:00 until guests arrived at 3:30, really working almost every minute. Then it was cleanup from after dinner until about 9:00, when I threw myself into bed and collapsed. Not quite as much energy as I used to have.

I've noticed some age issues creeping into my gaming too. Well maybe not so much the gaming as in painting. I love to paint. I truly do. I don't know what would happen if I was unable to do it. However, I am having vision issues when I paint. My trip to the ophthalmologist turned up nothing. My doctor assured me my surgically created mono-vision was about 20/25, but not enough to warrant further surgery or regular correction. But, I know what I see. Or, worse still, I know what I don't see very well. Painting small details is getting more difficult. Hell, just seeing the damn details is getting more difficult. As a result I find that machine painting, painting lots of figures as quickly as possible, with some regard for quality is more difficult. I am accepting work that I probably wouldn't have accepted a couple of years ago, let alone about fifteen years ago, which I believe was my best work.

It really leads me to the big question--realistically how long can I be a productive painter on a large scale? There are definitely projects I'd like to complete and they include the following:

The Hundred Years War--I want to fight Poitiers, Agincourt and whatever other battles excite me using the Medieval Warfare rules and Field of Glory. I also want to continue painting singly mounted figures for my own rules. This is a pretty big undertaking that I seem to gather up in spasms. I have many, many painted figures (600ish) and many, many unpainted figures.

The American Revolution-Again I have figures for pretty much two systems, though they can be combined fairly easily. I have many painted figures-probably 5-600, and a fair number of unpainted figures, though nothing like HYW. I'd like to continue to build units for the Southern Campaign, be able to fight any battle I want from Camden to Guilford Court House and beyond to Eutaw Springs. I'd need more Brits.

The War of 1812 is close to my heart, but kind of a black hole in terms of organizing my plans. I'd like to have the figures to do Chippewa, but would really like to focus on building for a campaign around Washington D.C. I'd like the troops to do Bladensburg and North Point specifically. I have Scott's Brigade at Chippewa, but need to finish the other American units. I have a lot of unpainted American militia, which I'm actually working on this minute. I also have a ton of British figures I picked up at the end of my Old Glory Army membership, but not sure I have enough to do the Chesapeake Campaign of 1814. This is complicated by my partnership with Doug Hamm, who is far away in Vancouver, B.C. I wish he lived closer so I could see him and game more frequently with him. He has over 600 figures invested in this project, while I have about half as many.

Wayne' s Legion. I've always been interested in this obscure little conflict. I think the period offers a lot of opportunities that really takes us up to the adoption of a new American uniform in 1809. I'm interested in the Wayne's Fallen Timber campaign as well as the Indian War on the Ohio. I think there is some potential for a Lewis and Clark intervention game. I also think there is the hypothetical possibility of a clash with Spanish troops and Indians. Lots of possibilities. I'd need lots more figures, but it's something I'm passionate about. Not much painting done on this, well lots of Indians, I guess-not so much on the Americans.

Space 1889--Love it. Have tons of Martians painted, and some Europeans and sepoys. We're actually starting our Martian campaign today, which should be a lot of fun. I'd guess I have about 220 painted figures with about 100 left to paint. I'd love to buy another 60 or so figures but they're expensive, which makes me crazy. It's near the top of my list in interest and priority.

15mm projects still looming on the horizon are more DBA armies (though I haven't played much in ages), King's War First Jacobite War. I'd like to play with my Spanish Civil War stuff. Just need to make time. Of course I have my Thunderboats, modern and WWII coastal vessels and ACW ships. I'd never part with those, or for that matter my 1/300 planes.

I'm thinking seriously of parting with the following

1. 25mm Punic Wars Romans
2. 25mm ACW
3. 15mm WWII in the Pacific

That would clear some space for me, and would also unload some dead weight.

The pictures are of a portion of my unpainted lead piles all tidily bagged up. The top pic is many of my American Revolution figures left to paint. The bottom two are of my Hundred Years War minis. I believe the first HYW picture is English and the second is French. Ahh me.

Transition

I have a lot going on right now. We're moving toward the holidays and all the requisite responsibilities that go with being the chief host for the big ones like Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Coupled with Casey moving home the first of the year, Lorri and I have been tearing the place apart, letting go of some cherished possessions (okay, she's letting go of crap, I'm letting go of cherished possessions.) Finally I have some leftover baggage from last year's controversial JagWire issue. The school district is being sued, and my name has appeared in the papers in most unflattering terms. It's been unsettling and unpleasant to say the least.

In any case, I've been trying to make time for painting and gaming as much as possible. I'm slowly making the move to focus just on my Martians and War of 1812 stuff. I haven't gotten too far with the transition yet, but I'm pleased.

The Space 1889 project is important because we're preparing for a SGoM and Space 1889 campaign. It should be a lot of fun, but I need to wrap up my RAFM miniatures for the land battles. At the very least, I need to finish up my 60 Shastapsh militia figures, and so far I have 24 finished with another dozen in the "ready to paint" category.

I've begun working on a pile of War of 1812 militia figures by Old Glory. I've gotten a real good start on the command figures, and should have nine figures or the command stands for three units done tonight-tomorrow at the very latest. My aim is to really roll on this project. It's just one of those times I feel energized about a period and need to take advantage of it. Militia first, then my remaining Amerian regulars, before heading on to the British.

Musket Miniatures Black and Tans

My Musket Miniatures Black and Tan figures finally arrived from Little Wars this week. They are 28mm figures I'd like to use to fight some skirmish actions from the Irish War for Independence. Musket is building a very nice range of figures, including the Tans, Royal Irish Constabulary, some British regulars and of course Irish Republican Army.

The figures are large, and well detailed, showing the miniatures in battle dress rather than in full uniform. All are armed with the SMLE. My only beef is that two of the figures come with separate rifles on a sprue, and one of them had the rifle broken off at the sprue. At three dollars per figure that is not welcome news.

The figures match up well with some early World War I British infantry I have from Renegade. I picked up a boxed set at Enfilade and it comes with a pair of extra machine guns. How handy. My IRA figures are from Cannon Fodder. They are a bit slight compared with the well fed Brits, but they are nicely modeled, each a true personality. I don't intend to add many more figures, perhaps a few RIC figures and a few more of the good Irish boys. I am planning to use Leo Cronin's rules Irish Rebellion: The Black and Tan Wars. That's assuming I can figure them out.

This is probably my last figure purchase for a while. The economy has me a bit spooked, and truthfully I have plenty of figures to work on for virtually every period I am currently working in.

F and I at Game Matrix

Tuesday about eight of us took advantage of our Veteran's Day holiday to play a French and Indian War game at the Game Matrix in Tacoma. I was expecting a rather small gathering, and it was going to be great because Mark Waddington was going to run it and I was going to play.

It was a great game, but there were eight players slogging through the woods trying to lay hands on one another. The scenario required a British force to slog through the woods and across a stream and exit, with a pack train, the opposite side of the board. The tricky part for the Brits was to get their force through the woods on trails, that would doubtless be ripe for French and Indian ambush. The tricky part for the French and Indians was to determine which of the three possible exit points the Brits were aiming for.

The French, played by myself, Scott Murphy, Jason (of unknown last name) and Bruce Meyer, opted to put somewhat weakish forces on the either flank, with fairly strong forces in the middle that could fairly quickly move to either flank. Our task was further complicated by the use of counters to represent each unit until they were actually spotted. Both sides also had a handful of dummies, so it was possible to make a weak force look pretty strong.

The game opened with the British running their Rogers Rangers unit straight into two units of Indians and a unit of Coeur de Bois. Bad thing. Though we Bruce was only able to get two of their three units into melee, the Rangers were thrashed, which really opened the middle up to our strong reserves.

The British feinted on their left (our right,) and sent their main force up the left flank road. It might have worked, except our strong middle was able to crash the left flank of their advance. The Indians under my command also earned undying glory as they turned back a strong unit of British line infantry in the woods, in one of those Sword and the Flame rolloffs. I was down to my last two guys, when I trashed the eight or so Brits remaining. To quote Barry Fitzgerald in "The Quiet Man," "It was heroic."

As the reserved troops crushed the Rangers remnants and made mincemeat of a Highland unit, my surviving heroes sneaked into the pack train, and the game ended. It was fun.

The pictures show the British left flank as their advance is stalled. The Highlanders, trying to hold the column's left flank is fighting disordered and shaken in the woods. A British line infantry unit has taken its position in a rocky clearing. Dead Rogers Rangers are in the foreground. The second picture shows a coordinated Indian assault on the Highlanders. Bad things are about to happen. The last picture shows My Indians and Scott's Marines firing on British light infantry in the rocky clearing, moment before launching my deadly assault on the line infantry in the woods.

November

It's been a while since my last entry. Sorry about that. At school, we went through our first production cycle and got out our first issue of the paper.

Even so, it's hard to believe this is my first post of the month and it's already November 9th. Of course, it's also important to have something to say, and I haven't gamed much or had any big gaming news.

One of the topics on the NHMGSyahoo group has been the Battle of New Orleans and how much fun it would be to take that on. It rose out of a controversy over the unveiling of the very interesting Douglas Coupland War of 1812 monument in Toronto. It's got me thinking some more about getting on with my massive pile of unfinished War of 1812 figures. Of course, I won't paint them for New Orleans. New Orleans is a bad game waiting to happen. However, I'm interested in getting some figures done. I have a large number of American militia figures, a few more regulars, and tons of Brits. I thought I might paint up the British regiments in the Chesapeake, because I'm sure Doug Hamm has painted up those on the Niagara frontier.

I have been painting pretty much whatever is on my mind. I am finished with a ten figure unit of Mexican lancers for the Maxmillian era, and I have one more unit of cavalry to paint for that project-Imperial troops. I'm considering a Maxmillian game for Drumbeat. I'm in the middle of another unit of Shastapsh militia for Space 1889, and then a half dozen longbows for HYW.

I dunno. I'm thinking its a War of 1812 kind of year.

Arrowstorm Part Deux

Last weekend my band of supportive friends met at Game Matrix to give a second run through of my Hundred Years War rules. I changed the name from Kevin Does the Hundred Years War to the somewhat less ego-driven Arrowstorm.

I decided that a good way to test out the rules was to try a scenario from a historical situation. I arrayed the English in a historical line of battle-knights and men at arms in the center with archers on the flanks. The French had one sixty and two forty figure blocks of dismounted knights and various lesser infantry. They also had a thirty figure unit of crossbowmen, and two ten figure units of mounted knights. I confess to messing with the French and their set up, having two of the infantry units become impetuous and run ahead of the army. However it seemed to have little effect on the game. Though the archers made life difficult for the dismounted knights, the cavalry, relatively untouched by arrow fire, drove straight through the middle of the board and through Prince Hal's dismounted knights. 15-love French.

That was quick, so we set 'em up and tried again. We really didn't get to a decisive conclusion. the action really mired in some lack of clarity in the rules. It's clarity I really hoped wouldn't be needed. Should French knights be allowed to rally when disrupted by arrowstorms? Could they rally back through other units? How long should the effects of arrowstorms last?

In any case, I've had lots to think about as I plug holes in the rules and re-imagine what they accomplish.

Shastapsh and the blogosphere

Two of my passions (I have so many) are Space 1889 and the Hundred Years War. Last weekend, while playing a Hundred Years War game, Mark, Dale, Scott and I met to discuss the future of our Space 1889 games. We've hosted many of them at conventions, the Game Matrix, wherever we can gather together and get out the figures. Mark's very cool toys makes the games very popular and we always attract a crowd. Last year at Conquest, our game planned for a dozen turned into a group of twenty. Even with Mark and I running the rules together, we were completely overwhelmed.

We've formed our own little group called The Red Captains, drawn from Chadwick's universe. About eight of us have painted the figures and played through the rules playtests, yet we rarely have an opportunity to just enjoy the games and one another because we're too busy showing newbies in massive games how it's done. We've agreed that one answer to this problem is to run a campaign. Because I've run some Sky Galleons of Mars games around the canal town of Shastapsh, we are in the process of conceptualizing a campaign around that city. I've even written an "official history" of the Shastapsh War. One other thing I've done to focus our efforts is I've created a new blog called The Shastapsh Chronicles . I'm hoping that may draw a little more interest from those who are inclined in the direction of VSF or Space 1889.

Hydroplanes: The Global Reach

The past couple of weeks I've had lots of contact about hydroplane racing outside the Pacific Northwest area. Yes, I know it's hard to believe that there are that many sickos out there, but it's true. First, I was contacted by a Washington DC area gamer inquiring about boats. I think Daveshoe sent him the rules, which is certainly helpful.

A short time later, Paul Hannah, back from Fallcon in Calgary sent me pictures of Ray Sam's boats. I know Ray from air games, and he raced in our Enfilade Cup in May. These are beautiful boats with great Canadian themes. Ray reveals:

The Molson and Tim Horton's art are hand formed decals from various logos and then printed by a friend of mine. Trust me, I would probably been better off hand painting them in the long run. Just the decals alone took somewhere in the region of 36 hours of work just to get them to look right.

Ray indicates that a Can/Am cup may not be far in the future.

Finally, on Sunday, I received an e-mail from Daveshoe, indicating that a British gamer has followed the topic on this very blog. He was interested in the rules, and had hand made some boats. Not a bad job. Love the roostertails.

Incidentally, our counter passed the 3000 hit mark last weekend. For some of you, that may not seem like a lot. However, given the regional appeal and the goofy scheduling and content of these self-indulgent ramblings, I thank you for your support. I don't know who you are, but I'm glad you're here.

Gunboats and Gambesons

I've finally finished mounting all of my completed HYW miniatures. I know what you're thinking-"Yes, I've already seen these in your previous posts." Well, no you haven't. You see, I have two different HYW projects-one mounted on individual bases for my own semi-skirmish adventures, one mounted on multiple figure bases for Medieval Warfare. I know Bill Stewart would simply slap me around if he heard of such a thing.

Three years ago at Enfilade I bought one of Reviresco's multi-media (re: paper model) kits of a gunboat. It was $15 and a great deal considering the boat was (supposedly) easy to assemble and came with a wealth of white metal parts. The past week I've been putting the little beggar together and I've included pictures. It still is a great deal, a bargain compared to a comparable resin kit. I don't think it was quite so easy, and I could have easily botched the whole job and be stuck with a bunch of landlubbers and their two six pound guns.

Nevertheless, I did finish with only a few scars to show for it. The biggest problem I had was properly assembling the hull, which accounts for the very bulgy looking stern. I also had difficulty with the paper funnel. I just wasn't going to be able to make it round. Maybe if I had a proper sized dowel to wrap it around that would have been fine, but I just have a feeling it would have looked lumpy. My solution was simply to replace the paper funnel with a 5/8ths inch dowel. Problem solved.

The bits that came with the kit are great. I finished painting and rigging last night. Though mine doesn't look nearly as nice as John McEwan's fabulous work, I was pleased.

I've decided to name the gunboat Papyrus in honor of the building materials.

Museum of Flight '08

Yesterday NHMGS returned to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. We've been there each year since about 2000. Some of the days have been great, some not so good, but yesterday's MoF day was the best yet.

We've had difficulty attracting game presenters and gamers to play the games, but yesterday that wasn't a problem. Bruce Meyer had a full house for his Napoleonic skirmish game. John McEwan hosted his balloon race to a crowd. Dave Schueler and I had nine hydroplanes going in the afternoon (in a game designed for six.) We also had a lot of curious onlookers and some players from those attending Educator's Day at the museum. I think it was a great symbiosis, one I'd like to repeat next year.

I've included a few pictures, but have many more available on Photobucket

The first photo is of our air racing game, using the Daveshoe's newly modified rules. It was fun, though my plane, Mr. Mulligan, the big white plane at the rear finished dead last.

The last is a view of the DBA games, balloon racing and Napoleonic game from the second level.

The last picture is of the hydroplane racers at the finish. Exide, in the middle, is being lapped at the end by Miss Spokane and Miss Madison at the finish line. Mark Waddington's Miss Spokane won with a final burst at the finish line.

Desk Clutter

I'm kind of betwixt and between projects right now. I guess that's not really true-I'm working on cleaning up my Space 1889 figures and getting everything done. However, I'm still trying to finish basing my Medieval Warfare HYW figures.

Basing is a chore for me. It takes me a long time because of the basing material I use-Celluclay really takes about 30 hours to dry, especially during our current clammy weather spate. And then there are base painting and flocking stages, which take additional time.

In any case I've finished my first couple of Space 1889 units. Only the first unit can be seen here. This is the 1st Virginia Steam Cavalry unit in the service of the Shastapsh City State. I use the mechanical horsey figures from Mage Knight and stick a Dixon Confederate cavalry figure on top. It was something fun and different to do. I've also finished one of my Shastapsh militia units, but they're still in the garage awaiting some desk space and the basing process.

The second picture is just some desk related flotsam. The figures on the left are longbowmen who have just received their helpings of Celluclay. They'll be ready to paint some time around the election. Just kidding. Hopefully by Tuesday night I can come home from my writing workshop and finish these babies while watching reruns of the debate. You can see them there with my ever present can of Diet Coke.

I've also adopted a new "go with what grabs you attitude." I'm going to stick with painting units of whatever interests me for the present time. After I finish with my militia unit I'll be doing a couple of things. First I'm trying to finish my Reviresco multi-media patrol boat. It'll be used for patrolling the Canals of Mars. Unfortunately I'm about as adept at assembling the paper model as Edward Scissorhands. I'm going to do the best I can, but it doesn't look quite like John McEwan's examples. After (or maybe even during that) it'ss on to the second of my three Houston's cavalry units for Maxmillian in Mexico. This will be a Mexican Federal Lancer unit. They look pretty decent for their very reasonable price, so I'm looking forward to getting them done.

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.