Gold Cup Playtest

Got together with a few friends to walk through a Thunderboats! modification to play the 1965 Gold Cup race. I'm pretty thrilled with the results. Dave Schueler and I agreed to violate the rules guidelines that essentially let players create their own boats. In this case, players choose boats and drivers from each heat. Boats and drivers are rated, so all are not equal.

The racers run their boats three laps, and choose boats for the next heat in the reverse order of finish. So there is always a little handicap for after each heat.

Dave also created a set up special cards for the race, that drivers receive at the beginning of each heat. These are in addition to the regular event cards. Generally the input was favorable, so I'm anxious for the real deal.

Why April is slow, and my life is better for it.

It's been a slow month. I've played a couple of games, but I haven't gotten much painted. I've completed exactly five hydroplanes and nothing else. Started on some Spanish Civil War vehicles, but I don't know if I'll finish them by the 30th. I actually polished off a few Pz Is, but the trucks and command vehicle are up in the air.

I don't really feel badly about all this. It's been a month. The long awaited JagWire trial is over. I spent six hours on the witness stand, and many more hours in trial prep. I also spent tons of stressed out evenings. What makes my life better is that the trial is over, the verdict is in, and found the paper, myself and the district were not guilty of invasion of privacy and negligence. It is a relief, and I am so much better for it.

I even bought figures this month. They haven't arrive yet, but I ordered 88 SCW figures from Brookhurst. I did follow through on my promise not to order figures until I was ready. I was out of figures, and I ordered enough to paint up two more battalions of Carlists, and two more battalions of regular infantry. They both formed the mainstays of their army, and my troop mix was pretty deficient. I'll wrap them up by the end of June, and then be ready for more. I've set out my perfect counter mix for SCW and then the project will be done.

The Seven Years War Campaign

I've been playing in Wes Rogers' Seven Years War campaign since September. It's interesting, played on a fictional continent. Our armies have been wandering around for a good long time now, without many encounters. My country is based on Spain and have happily been marching about grabbing land from whomever we can pilfer it.

However, in the last build year, the Russian based country intercepted one of my field armies at sea, after doing nothing to the Russians, destroyed my small fleet and captured an entire army. I was not a happy camper, and launched one of my field armies at the Russians, and attacked his cities in the south. I didn't do a lot of maneuver with the defending forces. No two steps. I went right at one of his main cities, and used it as a base to attack the Russian capital.

At the end of the turn, with my army facing the capital, I discovered the Russian strength-about half my own, with more troops sent to reinforce the defenders. I marched my cavalry off to intercept the all-foot army in the hopes I could defeat the relief force while preparing for what was likely to be a bloody storming of the city.

It could not have worked out any better. With about half of the relief force composed of militia, the cavalry had its way with the unsteady troops. Three units were driven back into the surrounding villages with loss, leaving the line troops to fend for themselves. The Royal Cuirassiers combined with a dragoon unit to break one square while the rest of the troops made their way into the city at a full rout. Another action broke out between my large infantry column and three Russian battalions. They only held me up for a turn as artillery and infantry fire drove them back into the city with loss.

A subsequent storming of the city was bloody but resulted in the loss of the Russian capital and the complete destruction of the Russian army. We reached terms favorable to both sides and things are looking up

Pictures were taken with my iPhone. Something different. The first shows Joe Waddington marching Russians worsted by cavalry being driven back into the villages outside the capital. The second picture shows Joe's troops marching out of the capital. The last pic is of the isolated square being overwhelmed by the brave Spanish cavalry.

March Madness and April Anxiety

It's the last day of March. It's time to take stock and make plans for April.

First, March was an extremely difficult month for me. I think I've mentioned my role in a legal action against the school district resulting from an issue of the school newspaper in 2008. It's all come to a head. I've had hours of trial prep. I testified for four hours on Monday. It was exhausting and I came away with a major headache. That also doesn't speak to the two years of anxiety and depression of suffered through for this trial. The really good news is that even though I know I'll have to testify one more time in the next couple of weeks, I'm feeling freedom I haven't had in two years.

Despite all this, it was a very productive month. I finished the last 21 figures I needed to complete and finish the 2nd Maryland. This was one of my target units for 2010. Two more to go.

I also completed 46 15mm Spanish Civil War figures. I know they're 15's and don't require a lot, but they are also the last complete infantry units I have to paint. Probably the first figures I'll actually buy this year are more Peter Pig figures to wrap up this project. That's another ten infantry battalions to give myself a suitable mix of infantry, but it's fine. I see the Spanish Civil War as one of my core projects now, and not that far from being complete.

Last, but not least, I also finished two hydroplanes. I'm always amazed at how much I enjoy painting up these boats. They look cool, despite the lack of information I usually need to paint them. I just give it my best shot. The results are pretty good despite painting numbers and script by hand.

I finished 69 figures this month, and my totals are just over 180 for the year thus far. Not an astronomical number, but definitely on a pace to meet my goal of 500-600 figures this year. Still no figures purchased.

For April, I have a handful of SCW weapons and vehicles to paint. I also would like to start building some battalion sized entrenchments too. In addition, I would like to paint all of my remaining hydroplanes. I've started painting Gale's Roostertail and Miss Madison, but I have three additional boats to paint for the '65 Gold Cup and three additional boats I'll paint up in fantasy colors for the Enfilade Cup. I have some ideas I'll share when they are complete.

Pics up this week. Lorri and I are away for the weekend for a much needed break. It's Spring Break week, and I'm enjoying what I can.

The Alcalde's Daughter

In January at Drumbeat, I chatted with old friend Darin Howard about getting together for a game. I mentioned my Maxmillian stuff, and Darin was interested. We made a date for the NHMGS game day in February. Unfortunately that was the week I started to come down with fluey, germiness, so we put off the game until the third weekend in March.

I dragged out a scenario I like. It doesn't use every figure I own, but it does allow me to play with a nice sampling of my toys. Each player basically has a company of French regulars or militia irregulars with varying victory conditions. So the players could all be working against one another and not for one's self. The scenario has a small unit of French trapped in a small Mexican village surrounded by militia. The French objective is to rescue the little unit of Contra Guerrillas, while inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. Each unit also had some minor goals to keep things interesting: sack the alcalde's hacienda, steal the sacramental wine, rescue the Alcalde's daughter. You name it.

Nice mix of guys, Darin and his brother George, Tom Bieker, Dale Mickel, Scott Abbott and Lawrence Bateman all played and I think everybody had a good time. Lots of death. The scenario is pretty unbalanced, but I think that's a pretty quick fix.

As I've stated before, this is my only completed project. That's a claim I hope I can match with other projects some day. All the French as well as my Mexican regulars are Wargames Foundry figures. I also have some Guernsey Foundry Mexicans (remember them?). Most of the Mexican militia figures I have are Old Glory from their Mexican American War range. The cavalry on both sides are the old Rich Houston range that are now homeless with the closure of London War Room (sigh)

On the photos-Mexican regulars march into San Hernandez to chase of the Frogs while militia man the walls of the old church. French regulars and Contra Guerrillas evacuate the large adobe just ahead of them. French Foreign Legionnaires face off against militia to their front and flank.

AWI: The Big Rules Quandry

I'm not really ready to play an AWI game yet. Well, I could, I have lots of figures in various stages of remounting and painting

I have my 1st and 2nd Maryland figures, tons of militia and riflemen, some cavalry and such. I have lots of Brits. Finally remounted my highlanders, some regular battalions, lights and provincial units. I'm still just working on some big American units that historically play throughout the period.

The big question, for me anyway, is rules. I have some basic rules requirements. The first and most important is they be suitable for AWI in the South. Except for a few battles, such as Green Springs or Yorktown, there aren't any real big battles. The rules need to accept a ground scale and figure scale of 1:10. That can lead to some big units, but it's doable. "British Grenadier" and "Fire and Fury Regimental" both fill the bill. I think "Loose Files and American Scramble" can be made to work too.

The rules also need to accommodate my mounting. I've just remounted my figures back to 40mm square bases. Each base is equal to 40 figures, though skirmishing units such as riflemen and jaegers are only mounted two to a stand. It appears I can make this work with all the foregoing mountings. I have questions about the scale for F and F Regimental, because I think they are designed for 15mm, but perhaps I can get some clarifications.

Feel for the period is also important. Could I actually refight Cowpens with all its retrograde movement? Are there allowances for the extended order the British units might have employed? That's a definite yes for British Grenadier and Fire and Fury Regimental. Not quite so clear for Loose Files.

I'd also like to host games at conventions or informal gatherings. Fire and Fury would probably work. British Grenadier might be a stretch for those who aren't real excited about the period. Rank and File by Crusader games would probably work too, but they lack a lot of period flavor.

Anyway, lots to think about.

Enervation, Ennui: Ma, I'm stuck

I am moving very far very fast. I'm still slogging through my 2nd Maryland figures. I confess, I'm taking a lot of extra time with them. They are Perry figs, and I really do love them. They are very crisp and have a fair amount of extra detail. However, they do have the most annoying mold marks--little tags of pewter that are very hard to see at times. I often find myself scraping them off as I apply paint because I didn't catch them as I was prepping the figures.

The figures in the 1779 regulations uniform are very nice, but the uniform for these boys is brown faced red. Not real exciting. A couple of the officer figures have voluminous jackets that I painted blue faced red, regulation for Maryland units. I've finished all the uniformed types, and a handful of figures in hunting shirts. I'm actually down to the last third of the unit: a dozen figures in shirtsleeves. I've just begun working on them, but I'm still really struggling with a germ and zillion anxieties associated with work and home. It's been a challenge getting painting time.

I've attached a couple pictures of the 2nd Maryland in progress. I've got a few of my finished figures in regimentals, the rest of the finished miniatures are piled behind them. The figures I have in progress are to the right. I actually committed a couple of hours tonight, and a couple more nights' work will wrap them up. Sunday by the latest.

2nd Maryland

These are my 2nd Maryland figures. They are a mix of Perry figures, with a couple of Old Glory guys thrown in to fill it out to 36 figures. I ordered figures in regulation uniforms, hunting shirts and shirt sleeves to show the varying attire of the unit. It's size represents the strength of the 2nd Maryland at Guilford Courthouse, the first of several engagements the regiment went on to fight in 1781. The unit was also at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs. At each succeeding battle the unit got a bit smaller due to casualties and, no doubt, desertion.

At Guilford the 2nd Maryland was a green regiment. Unlike the veteran 1st Maryland, they didn't receive the blue regimentals, faced red. They drilled and trained under Nathaniel Greene as the light corps of his army maneuvered north through North Carolina, leading Cornawallis and his army a merry chase. However, the unit was drawn from the entire state of Maryland, rather than a particular locale, loosening those necessary bonds of unit attachment, and many of their officers were transferred to the First Maryland.

Their first action was at Guilford, where they formed part of Greene's third line of Continentals. Unfortunately, they broke under the British attack, which led to the counterattack by the 1st Maryland and Greene's withdrawal despite brilliant fighting on the day.

The Perry figures are mix of uniform types as I explained above. I chose to go with the firing line poses because of the nice mix of miniatures. It's pretty impressive in a large unit. Standards, as with all American units, were problematic. I went with a version of the stars and stripes based on the Jonathan Trumbull version at Yorktown. I also went with a divisional flag, just for something different.

This is the first of three large units for the American Revolution I want to complete by the end of the year. The first and second Virginia regiments are next in line. However, it's unlikely I'll begin working on them until school is out for summer.

My photography is, as always somewhere between crappy and execrable.

February finis

Well, February roared in like a lion and went out like a lamb. I got off to a great start in this second month of the year, finished some Spanish Civil War figures, some AWI figures, but got very little done after deadline began last week. I did complete a couple of hydroplanes yesterday. I really got stuck on the number 50 (completed figures.)

I didn't buy any additional figures this month, though I did invest in some paint and some brushes. My total painted figures for the year is 114. Not bad. It puts me on a pace for over 600 painted figures for the year. It also meets my range of 40-60 painted figures per month. It was a short month too, so, again, not bad.

It was a tough painting month too. I am in my third week of fighting a low level germ that sometime leaves me pretty tired. We were also on a very contentious deadline last week that kept me busy every evening except Friday.

In March I'll keep working on those 2nd Maryland figures. I expect I'll finish them. I'll keep working on hydroplanes. I have seven more to finish for my Gold Cup project, and they should be pretty doable. I'll also wrap up all my 15mm Italians for the SCW this month. These should pad my figure totals. There are 44 of them, half in the dark green European uniforms, and half in the light khaki African uniforms.

Germs, Figures and Hydroplanes

It's been a week since I returned to work from the President's Day holiday. For some reason micro-organisms have also chosen to return to work with me and I'm sick, sick, sick. It hasn't kept me from heading off to work every morning, but when I come home I'm just dying. I'm living on a steady diet of Dayquil and Nyquil. Probably not a good thing, but I'm making do. Combine that with deadline week, and it doesn't make for a real productive week.

I've picked a little bit at my AWI figures, but most of the time I've painted was devoted to my Gold Cup project. Last week I carefully razor sawed the openings for the tails and cut them from my super thin sheet plastic and primed them. I decided to work on three boats: Tahoe Miss, Smirnoff, and Such Crust IV. All three boats are pretty and look different than other boats I've already put together.

Tahoe Miss has a squarer, jet fighter look to her tail. Not exactly a beautiful craft in 1965, but very effective, Tahoe Miss was very fast, with Chuck Thompson an effective driver. Unfortunately she was pretty beat up in the race, with a blown supercharger and a hard bounce that broke one of Thompson's ribs. Tahoe Miss finished third.

Smirnoff is an interesting boat. Sponsored by Heublein's, the vodka distiller had a big picture of a properly labeled bottle on the fighter plane tail. In 1964 This did not comport with Washington State Liquor Control Board regulations. The booze bottle was replaced with an image of A-1 Steak Sauce, another Heublein product. Miss Smirnoff finished eighth in the '65 Gold Cup

The last boat I have ready to work on is Such Crust IV. This was an older boat in its final season of racing. Boasting twin Allisons, this Detroit boat was a sled. Qualified by Bill Muncey, one of the best drivers in the business, he was unable to race because of an ailing back. The elephantine Such Crust, finished seventh. This is a much larger boat than Sean's models represent, but it was in the race, so I'll have to do my best.

So it's Smirnoff in the blue and red with the bottle on the tailfin, and Miss Tahoe in the bright red and green. Colors are bit shaky. It's tough to find good photos, and I often have to resort to photos of R/C models. The colors also frequently changed from year to year, and often within a racing season.

Mid-Winter Break and Moving Forward

I just wrapped up a four day weekend. It used to be that our mid-winter break was a week long affair, but it pissed of the parents, so it got reduced to the President's Day Monday plus the previous Friday off. I'm not complaining. It was a restful weekend with lots of painting and movie watching.

What movies did I watch? I have Netflix streaming through my blu-ray player, and I was able to watch a lot of stuff. Some was awesome, some was pretty awful and a sort of good way. Let me clarify the last comment. I love movies. Good movies, bad movies-they're all fine with me. In the good department, I was able to watch a "All the King's Men" about the Sandringham company that was a PALS unit raised from the Queen Mother's estate, sent off to serve in Gallipoli and annihilated. Interesting but sad. I also caught a British documentary on Gallipoli that was very informative. Narrated by Jeremy Irons, again I learned a lot I didn't know. Yesterday I watched Omagh on the IRA bombing in that small town in 1996. Great performances. Also caught a great PBS documentary on Herbert Hoover. In the not so great department-Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

I'm pretty good at following movies while I'm painting and that's a good thing because I saw so many. I also got a lot done. I wrapped up a total of 16 of the AWI Marylanders. I'm taking extra time with them. They are Perry figures, so I want them to be purty. The detail is very fine, and that takes extra time to work with. I also finished 12 Welsh spearmen. They went pretty fast. Even so I practiced shading an highlighting, so they look pretty nice. Best of all I mounted all my Welsh, my unit of Spanish Civil War militia, and remounted the 71st Highlanders on 40mm square bases (for the fourth or fifth time-my most re-based unit.) I also primed some more 15mm SCW figures, Italians this time, and got three hydroplanes ready to paint.

I'm pretty thrilled to work on the hydros again. This time I have Tahoe Miss, Miss Smirnoff and Such Crust IV planned for painting. All raced in the '65 Gold Cup. Dean commented on my projects, and how I have so many of them. It's true. I'm a project-oriented person. However it's a huge help to me--keeps me focused and keeps me from buying figures I can't use to finish my tasks.

Hydroplanes on the Horizon

I'm looking ahead to planning for a project using my existing minis after my Spanish Civil War stuff is done. I don't have much more to do. I've got seven vehicles to paint, two 22 figure units of Italian infantry, and a couple of infantry guns for the Nationalists. It will go fast.

After they are done I'd like focus some of my attention on painting boats for the 1965 Gold Cup. I have a few, but the boats that raced in Seattle that year were:
Miss Smirnoff
Gale's Roostertail
Miss Lapeer
Tahoe Miss
Miss Madison
Miss U.S. V
Notre Dame
Miss Bardahl
Mariner Too
Miss Exide
Savair's Mist
Such Crust

I've already painted four of these boats, so I'd need to finish eight more. They're always fun to do. I'm actually considering a six player game in which those who win in heat 1A have their boats handicapped in 1B. I may also work with Dave to see about the possibility of pre-rating some of the boats in advance in order to create a more authentic handicapping system.

Meanwhile painting proceeds apace. I'm working on the first sixteen figures of the 2nd Maryland. I finished the first eight and I'm pretty pleased. The next eight are all in hunting shirts, so they should go pretty fast.

A Look Ahead to Enfilade

Last weekend we had our first Enfilade get together. It's a good, well-run convention even if I do say so myself. My jobs this year are to manage the registration desk and organize the Best of Show judging. The registration desk usually comes together reasonably well, even if we're still trying to round up the last couple of volunteers in the week before the convention.

We have made a couple of changes for the convention. First, we are trying to make game sign-ups a bit easier. Bruce suggested we allow all pre-registered attendees to sign up for one game on-line. This is a great idea and will take folks out of the crowd trying to register for games. Game hosts can also pre-register for one game on-line. That will include me, so I am hoping that game registration will look a little less like an angry breadline. Those who register at the door will have the opportunity to register for one game at the time of their registration. That seems to me to be a fair way to compensate.

Another change is an emphasis on lining up volunteers for Best of Show. This became somewhat contentious last year, so trying to find volunteers early and schooling them on the guidelines is important. My Enfilade brothers confirmed their interest in sticking with the standards I established way back in 2004, so that pleased me quite a bit.

As for my Enfilade plans--I am going to run my Ile de St. Jean game. There are still a few things I'd like to add. Mostly more wagons to use as barricades. I'm also thinking about a hydroplane racing plan B, just in case the Can-Am cup falls through. I could work on putting together the boats for the '65 Gold Cup and see how that goes. It might be fun, and will give direction to completing yet another project--my hydroplane collection, though I'd like to work on developing a diorama approach for the pits and log boom.

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.