An Update of Sorts

Life rolls on.  A recent job change has moved gaming down the priority chain a bit.  Now that things have settled down I’m starting to paint again.  I’m slowly working on Coppens’ Zouave battalion and am making decent progress.  After that unit gets finished I will probably be switching back to Napoleonics.   There are rumors of a large-ish Napoleonic scrum next summer and I would like to pump out some units for that, since Napoleonics is my favorite period in wargaming.   With Perry Miniatures and Warlord both releasing 28mm Russians (and Victrix to follow up eventually), there will be plenty of choices available.

I’ll post pictures of my zouaves as they get close to completion.  Assembling the plastic figures is a bit tedious, but I really enjoy the ability to customize the poses.  My zouaves all are charging with their rifles at various angles, presenting a bloodthirsty and fearsome image.

ACW project rolls on

I managed to get enough Perry zouaves assembled to create six stands for the upcoming 1862 project.  I’m trying something different and priming them white and then staining the base colors on to try and give me some natural shading so far so good other than the grainy white undercoat.

Assembling plastics is time-consuming and somewhat of a pain in the butt.  I do enjoy the variety that is possible with them and they are a lot easier to customize than metals.  Just make sure you’ve got some contour putty or green stuff available after gluing them together.  There will be gaps to fill on at least some figures no matter how attentive you think you are during assembly.

After the zouaves get farther along it will be time to order figs for the next regiment or two.  I’m currently working on Starke’s brigade around the time of the 2nd Manassas campaign which consists of Coppens’ zouaves along with the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th and 15th Louisiana regiments.

Brother Against Brother

I was invited to my friend Jeff’s house last Saturday to try out a small 28mm semi-skirmish game using the Brother Against Brother rules.   We originally were planning on an ACW clash, but circumstances being what they were it turned out that we played a game set in the French and Indian War instead.

The main purpose of the game was to exercise the rules and see how they worked.   Because of this, the French and British had identical forces consisting of three infantry squads at 10 figures each, two artillery pieces with crew, and an officer (the colonel).   We played one of the standard scenarios out of the book: a meeting engagement where both sides marched on to the table via a country lane and then had to deploy out to meet the enemy.

BAB uses a card draw system for unit activation and movement rates are randomized by rolling 2 d10 for infantry to move minus deductions for terrain.   You actually only move the squad leader figure and then get to arrange the rest of the squad around him up to 6″ away.   Jeff used an optional rule adding a joker to the card deck which ended the turn immediately which added (IMO) a nice fog of war effect to the game since we were not guaranteed that every unit would get to do something.

Fire Combat can be destructive, depending on the range and terrain.  As is fitting for a horse & musket skirmish game, infantry can either fire, reload or move in a turn, so choices should be made as to how many figures you choose to fire each turn.  You can unleash a volley but then you’re totally unloaded for the next turn.

Artillery firing cannister is nasty and can dominate an open board.  On the flip side, an average infantry squad volley can decimate an artillery crew in short order, so pushing your guns forward has both high risk and high reward.   Normally there wouldn’t be two artillery pieces with just three squads of infantry, so the guns had a larger effect on the game than might otherwise be the case.  Still, it was good to figure out what they can and cannot do.

Melee combat is brutal, and losing one’s squad leader can be a devastating impact on a squad.   We had a situation develop in the game where I had a squad of French colonial regulars in a tree line exchanging fire with a squad of British hatmen who were behind a wooden fence.   The British took a casualty, which forced a morale card pull.  The result of this was their squad leader being shot (the only way to lose a CO other than melee).  This meant that the British squad would not budge from behind that fence until their colonel came over and promoted a new squad leader.  They would sit behind the fence and shoot without issue, which seemed like an OK thing.

Next turn my French colonists took another casualty, and the morale card pull revealed that they were forced to charge the nearest enemy, which was the aforementioned NCO-less squad of Brits behind the fence.   This seemed like a suicidal move:  leaving a tree line to charge a squad set up behind an obstacle.  The French made it into combat, and then we figured out that having no squad leader means a -4 DRM for the Brits, which on an opposed d10 roll is critical.  My French ended up bayonetting the entire squad over the course of two turns which turned the game on that flank.   Lesson: keeping the colonel in a central location so he can react to things like NCO loss is critical.

Jeff posted a query about this on the BAB Yahoo group and it appears our interpretation of the rule was correct.

Overall it was a fun, if bloody game.  It ended with the French having one depleted squad left and the British the same.   I don’t know if these rules will become the staple small game set for this group or not.  The jury appears to be out, and there are other sets to try.  I have “This Very Ground” from Iron Ivan and Sharp Practice from Too Fat Lardies among others to try.

Changing Things Up

The one constant in life is change, and as such my hobby projects have changed a bit over the last month or so.   I’m currently working on some 28MM projects and am enjoying the process of relearning how to properly paint the larger figures again.

First up are some 28mm Perry French Dragoons I’ve had lying around for awhile.   I’ve got 13 of them about half-completed already with another 13 awaiting assembly.  The Perry brothers make some very nice figures and these are definitely among them.  It’s a little more putzy work assembling the figures, but cleaning them up is much easier, so it’s a trade-off in my mind.

Next, I’ve committed to some 28mm ACW figures for a local project getting up steam and will be painting up a brigade of Louisiana Infantry for an 1862 game to be held sometime next year.  I’ve already bought a box of Perry plastic zouaves to be done up as Coppens’ Zouave Battalion and have a few skirmishers in the works as well.  I’ll be ordering more infantry over the course of the summer since the target date for this project is next year to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the battles of that year.

I’ll post some pictures as time permits.

Another Napoleonics Game

Quick update here after not posting for a long while.  Five of us met last Saturday to play a Legacy of Glory 15mm Napoleonic game at my place.  it was the first game in a few months thanks to sickness, work schedules, family, etc.   The main positives were that we had two new players, Jeff and Mike, and that it was the first game played on my newly-expanded 14′ x 6′ game table.

Pardon the two-tone terrain.  My original terrain cloth was only ten feet long, which was fine for my 8-foot table.  Oh well, it’s on the list of things to acquire.

The nice thing, as you can see above, is that we managed to get two French Corps and 3-4 Allied Corps on the table at 1:60 with room to spare.  The units are all at proper deployment intervals and there are noticeable gaps between divisional formations.   A nice change from having people running ‘divisions; of 6-8 battalions just to save space.

My cohort David has a write-up of the event and a large picture gallery linked here.

Here’s a few more pictures I took of the game as well.

I’m having a bit of a dilemma about Napoleonics again, as I sometimes do.  The group met from around 3:30PM-11:00PM or so, and in that time we probably spent around 5-6 hours of it actually gaming.  We managed to get in around 5 hours of game time, so no real complaint there.  The issues I am having revolve around the following points:

• We managed to get close to 1:1 times for combat, which is good, in reality we only played around 3.5 hours of real combat since several turns went fast as it took time for the initial orders for both sides to activate.  Realistic perhaps, but from a game enjoyment perspective irrelevant.
• The time we spent gaming managed to get off two Austrian attacks and one Russian assault.   There was a full Russian division/corps and an Austrian division that never got into combat.  For the time invested it would’ve been nice to get those reserve units into the game .  We probably could have done so had we focused on the game a bit more, but frankly part of the enjoyment of the hobby is the chatting, eating and drinking with friends, and I don’t believe those things should have to be sacrificed to get a full game in, especially in a 7+ hour gaming session.
• I’m wondering how the rules go over with new players.  I like the concepts behind Legacy of Glory, but the rules are 20+ years old and are beset with editing/layout issues.    There are too many phases in the turn sequence that are somewhat redundant, especially in the command phases.    Legacy of Glory is one of those games you need to play regularly to stay well-versed in the rules, and with our group playing (maybe) once a month and having several different options of game to play, I don’t know how many of our group will truly understand the rules.  I’m guessing two or three of us at most.

As I wrote earlier, I love the concepts behind LoG and think it makes for a good model of Napoleonic combat in many cases.  That said, it’s encased in a very old ‘simulationist’ style of rules framework that appeals to me on one level but turns me off on another one.  I have a very demanding job and there are many times that I feel like I shouldn’t have to work that damn hard to enjoy a game.  I doubt I’m alone in this.

I guess I like the ‘effect’ LoG models but don’t really care for the ‘process’ that is uses to do so.  This is why I have had high hopes for the new version of the rules.  The few teasers the authors have released look really good, but it’s not enough to play a game with, and I am losing hope that the new version will be released anytime soon.  The authors have the best intentions but also seem to have a lot of irons in the proverbial fire and LoG seems to be the first thing that gets pushed when time is short.

So, what to do beyond waiting for a new rules set that may never come?  A couple options:

• David and I have talked about streamlining LoG1.  Could be done, but the game is still based around lots of charts, for good or for bad.  From my experience, the greater the number of charts, the fewer game participants you’ll have actually running said charts.
• We’ve talked a bit about other rules sets.  Corps D’Armee, La Feu Sacre and others.  Some resistance here.
• We could write our own rules set.  Here be dragons.

I have no solutions at this point.  Just a feeling that while LoG works, it’s not perfect.

Plans for 2011

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted something here.  Family life and work have been very busy this winter and it doesn’t show many signs of letting up.

Looking to this year I can see two main projects for me.  I’m continuing to work on my 15mm 1807 Russian Army for Legacy of Glory.   I’m about 1/2 done with the infantry for Dohkturov’s 7th division and then have three regiments of horse and some grubby cossacks to crank out.  Hopefully that will be completed this year, giving me a nice-sized army to play LoG with.  We continue playing the old rules and are slowly mastering them.  I’m still hopeful LoG2 will be released sometime this year, but if it doesn’t David and I both seem to be up to speed on the old set and between the two of us can run a game without issue.  We would like to get one or two more players to both contribute armies and become well-versed in the rules.  We’ll see what happens.

The other main project I see for myself is WWII.  I’m trying to reconnect with some old friends and hopefully we can decide on a 20mm WWII project for a company or battalion-level game.  Rules and campaigns are still up for debate. Stay tuned.

The last thing I’ve been pondering recently is how to turn this loose affiliation of gamers that meet every month or two into a slightly more formal club.   It’s not easy to do; I tried running a formal game club years ago and it didn’t last long.  My main goal this time would be to get a few more people actively painting troops and learning the rules so we can play a variety of games without relying on one or two people to bring figures.  I’m looking for more gaming ‘producers’ and less ‘consumers’ I guess.

In the meantime we continue to schedule games.  Legacy of Glory and Johnny Reb 2 for ACW have been the recent fare, but newcomer Dave B. has floated the idea of 28mm Sword and the Flame and that sounds like a hoot.  We’ll have to see what we can rustle up for games this year.

An ACW Game

After a lost summer from a gaming perspective, we finally managed to get most of our group together last Friday evening for a quick game.    Considering the length of time it takes for your average Legacy of Glory game, we decided to try something different for a shorter evening event.  David volunteered to run an ACW game using his 15mm figures and the Johnny Reb II rules set.   This was the version sold be GDW back in the day and is more tactical in scope than the current version of the rules.

All-in-all it was a nice game.  The charge mechanism is clunky, and we quickly learned that holding your fire until the enemy is close is a very good thing.  My Union brigade did a nice job of holding what came to be known as the ‘bloody peach orchard’ against Rob’s Texans.  As Rob pointed out his Texas boys ‘got their dander up’ and assaulted the cowardly blue bellies deployed in the orchard only to flee back to their starting point having left much of their dander in a bloody pulp in front of the tree line.

We’ll try the period again I’m sure, and everyone enjoyed the pizza and beer.   Photos of the dust-up can be seen here.

Making Forests

After a lost summer (from a gaming perspective), I finally have motivated myself to do some hobby-related stuff again.   We have an ACW game scheduled for the end of the month and I decided we needed woods… and lots of them.  Around the same time I found a link to a PDF from Architects of War regarding how they make forests.  The link is currently broken, but if you email customer service they’ll be happy to send it your way.   Good stuff and their how-to page has other useful articles as well.

Any way, the main idea of the PDF is that instead of making a ton of individual trees is to make a base with trunks and then have a ‘lid’ of foliage that you can pull off to move troops around.     For the base I used 1/8″ masonite, coated it with DAP dynaflex sealant and then covered it with sand stolen from my kids’ sandbox.  The tree trunks are 2.5″ roofing nails that I cut the pointy bits off of using a flush cutter (helpful hint:  wear eye goggles.  You’re cutting sharp metal bits off that may fly in any direction).

Here’s a shot of the first forest base drying on my porch:

And here’s a shot showing the first two bases:

I’ll post more shots as work progresses.

Starting Over

A few months back I posted photos of a 28mm Sash & Saber Russian infantryman I had been working on.  I picked the figures back up this week for the first time in a while and decided I was unhappy with the paintjobs.   I had been experimenting with trying to find ways to shade the white trousers with little success.  The paint was too thick and the shades did not compliment each other very well.

After thinking about how to correct things for a few minutes I popped all 24 figures off their painting bases and dumped them into an old pickle jar and coverd them with Simple Green.  24 hours later a quick wash in hot water and a little scrubbing with an old toothbrush and the figs are more or less bare metal again.

This time I’ll start from my trusted black primer and work in smaller batches of figures.  With the larger models I seem to get lazy/bored/nonchalant after a dozen or so figures, so I’m going to try working on just 8 figures in a batch and see how that goes.

Legacy of Glory Game 4/11

Had some folks over yesterday for another game of Legacy of Glory including a new prospective player, Dave B.    Sorry, no pics this time.

The LoG 2 beta rules didn’t arrive in time so we played a straight-up first edition game.  Another 1807 scenario with a large Russian division of 18 infantry battalions and a brigade of cavalry supported by another division of cavalry (really 1 Hussar/Dragoon brigade and a 4 regiments of cossacks) against a small French corps of two infantry divisions and the corps cavalry plus an attached brigade of dragoons.  The scenario was a town fight so we could experiment with the town fighting rules.  As it turned out our valiant Russian player, Rob, deployed in front of the town for the most part so there was little town fighting to be done.