Evil Snowmen

painted up these guys for a upcoming Christmas Pulp Game and done the background this afternoon. Lots more to come

Roman Auxilia

I finished a lot of these guys last year for craigs 40th birthday bash, I have started to revisit my early and late republican and imperial roman armies and some of their enemies and allies and finish off a number of half completed units. Some items that need to be done are all of my republicans sheilds need transfers, I am short sheilds for my celts and germans plus transfers, and I need finish my republican roman cavalry two Alae.

In the coming weeks I intend to start my mixed Warlord and (perry bros) foundry Roman Augustian 1st cent AD army, then move onto my third cent army over the Christmas period.

A good mix of figures below, Warlord metals and plastics, some Foundry, Blacktree and First corps.

First corps Suevi cavalry








Warlord Wardogs and Handler, some first corps dogs too!


Warlord Celt Druid


Warlord Celt Witch


Warlord Celtic Druid/ General


Black Tree Elephant with Numidian crew


Warlord metal and Plastic Imperial auxilia
Cohors II Britannorum


Warlord Belaric Slingers


First corps and Warlord Archers


First Corps Suevi Archers


First Corps and Warlord Eastern Archers
Cohors Augusta Nervia Pacensis


cheers
matt

Roman Command

Sulla mounted with Legio XVIII Libyca Eagle bearer




cheers
Matt

"Grand Gueule" BTLB battle report

At the Goulburn Valiant Sormers club meet on sunday we tried out "Beneath the Lilly Banners" as a tester for the upcoming "Lace wars" in October.

we used 7YW figures for the Prussian (Bruces) and British (mine) as stand ins for the Dutch (Greg B was a no show)and Daves WAS french

A lovely looking set of rules but not overly impressed with the substance, as they were very much same same as most other rule sets out there for the period, although I would like to try them with event cards to shake it up a bit.

The rules although they were quite playable, and probaly would be quicker after a couple of uses (if we didn't chat so much ), I did like the general abilities rolls which really played havoc with the British General, who failed on two occasions to move any troops. The have taken a few good bits and pieces from a number of rulesets I feel. Explantion fails them a little and a few areas possibly need a remake to make it clearer for those who are not horse and musket gamers to pick up the set and play.

I think I may use these for the deluge game for "Lace Wars" as the WAB based stuff will fit fine, although I will rework the cheat sheet to make it more clear for new comers.

As for the battle, The dastardly french held the crossroads and the village and the prussian allied army were to retake it, all went according to plan when the generals rolls started, the prussian cavalry and Infantry brigade commanders rolled exceptional commands, however the brit failed misserably and roll poor (despictable!) the french all rolled average c0ommanders. The entire allied army avanced at a slow pace and eventually the light infantry contacted each other, the position guns started a artillery dual which the prussians won,
The French held on even after the Prussian cavalry assaulted them on the left flank, and the prussian infantry never made it over the hedges around the village to take on the French Gaurd, and the second rate Brits failed to do much at all (probaly the generals fault ) as the poor general could only manouver 25% of his troops at any one time, and of course the French cannon shot up my Highlanders and another provincial unit !

so a tactical French win in the end!

I failed to remember to take my camera so the pics are Ian's










cheers
Matt

Shop.............ping

Sometimes I think wargamers are a bit like women when it comes to buying stuff for our hobby we go out with good intentions to just get one or two items and come home with an armful!

It all happened on Monday when the Cardinal and I went for a drive too Canberra to spend my Father’s day money and pick up some Vallejo paint and peruse the bookshops of Fyshwick (Academic remainders and Crusader books).

We went to Crusader first to pick up some Vallejo paint and have a look at some books, so I picked up a mix of browns and some washes. Next stop was Toyworld and as my painting MOJO has returned and the weather is warming up I decided to peruse the kit shelves and decided to pick up an Apache helicopter (Airfix) as I am starting another modern army in 20mm and I thought justified it that way, then we decided to get some lunch next, however we thought that we really should visit Monaro hobbies.

At Monaro I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of plastic kit they had of the shelves and decided to pick up a Trumpeter M1 Abrams, however on the way out they had a sale on ICM cold war Russian kits for $5 each, so I picked up 3 BTR152’s and 5 trucks!

Now I normally get one of my mates to put my kits together because they annoy me and I have two left hands when it come to fiddly bits. However as they last few days have been wet I have sat down and put four of the nine kits together already.
The Apache went together very nicely and I made the rotors removable for transport.





The ICM 152 kits are excellent and I put them together easily also, the ICM plastic is a little different so setting times are a little longer, but I used a production line so I could do three models at the same time, a few little adjustments, so battle kit and damage then off to the spray booth for all of them (probably after I finish the trucks).



The BTR152s and trucks will see service with my Soviets for Afghanistan and Cold War and may even make it into my African Warlord army, so I think either a generic green or the tan/khaki camouflage.

On the painting desk I have some Volunteers de Clermont (see my 18th century blog 'Fine and Dandy") and some 18th century civilians, next up will be some WSS French and then some more Imperial Romans, and some individual British general characters for the “William Atkinson memorial build” on the Guild forum.

Cheers
matt

Victory without Qauter

The guys at the Goulburn Valiant Stormer’s are throwing around some ideas for the big project next year, a few of us think be 30 years war could be a possible front runner, as the warlord plastics lend themselves nicely to the period (still some discussion and dissention in the ranks as to basing conventions though), so with that thought a number of us have started to play test some rule sets. On Sunday Dave and I (we both normally play Warhammer English Civil War) had a game using the Free “Victory without Quarter” rules.

Using my ECW figs we each had a C in C, one cavalry general , two pike and shot blocks, one trotter and one galloper horse unit, one gun and a clubman for the parliament and highlanders for the Irish Royalists.

The game was played over 4 hours, I really liked the rules as I found they could be a little unpredictable and I liked the different factors for troop types and the card idea, although I think that VWQ will be a little slow for those players wanting to get two games in on a club day. VWQ still gave a satisfactory result and possibly would speed up after a few games; however I don’t think they would handle much more troop wise, two more pike blocks possibly and another regiment of horse each would slow it down even more. My ECW army is a mix of different figures, the Irish Montrose army are mostly Eureka, the pike and shot, horse, a mix of Old Glory, Perry and Eureka Highlanders and a Foundry gun and crew, On the parliment side, all Foundry and Perry except for the clubmen who are Warlord metals.











As the boys want to play a more grand tactical game I think VWQ will not be suitable for what we have in mind, although I would happily use VWQ for ECW. The next rule set we will play test is the Baroque set from the guys who wrote impetus.


Cheers
Matt

A Bit of Tacking!

Last club meet Greg and I enjoyed a day of playing “Form line of Battle” by David Manley using Langton’s lovely ECW/Dutch wars 1/1200th scale ships. Greg made up some nice playing cards, some smoke markers (see http://unluckygeneral.blogspot.com/2010/08/baptism-of-fire-and-water.html#comment-form ) a broadside distance rod and some very useful data sheets. Greg also has solved the transport challenge of heavy MDF boards with the use of large framed art canvas which he has painted a great green blue sea upon, and as it is tight the ships easily move upon it.
We played two engagements in the first Greg played with his Dutch Kromster and a Frigate, and I played with my British unrated merchant and a Frigate. I managed to gain the weather gauge and sunk the Kromster and heavily damaged the Frigate before lunch.

Gaming resumed after Lunch and Greg used a Dutch armed merchant and a frigate and I used a 4th rate armed merchant (40 guns) and a frigate, Greg gained the weather gauge in this game and eventually sunk my merchant and ran my frigate aground (my own fault really) this whole game was played in a Gale and rain, which funnily enough, was happening outside (perhaps even some sleet).

I was very impressed with the rule set and I think it plays better than GW’s “Trafalgar” which we use for 7YW/ Napoleonic. Greg has finished rigging his ships, adding flags and streamers etc and they look fantastic, his glass bases look good also but as my ships are already based on Langton bases I will not be removing them, I was so impressed I intend getting mine finished this month also.


On the modelling front I am still building my ECW manor which has morphed a little so I can use it for the European continent also as a coach house or the like, WIP pictures below. I still need to finish the stone work before I add the windows and half timber upper. I will also add some hedges, stone walls and perhaps a small garden and dovecote.

This week I have started some 7YW and WSS French which I will post on my 18th century blog “Fine and Dandy”. I also started some NVA/VC Vietnam sculpts and some Britannia Americans which I will post next week.

Cheers
matt