54mm War of 1812

 

This game was on the table next to the Return of Ragnar, I got some good shots but wasn't able to follow the action. It looked fabulous and the players were enjoying themselves.

 

general stuff

Just a collection of pictures from the con, not a lot of notes but they are attractive all the same

 

 

the Housemartin's "All Quiet on the Martian Front" game, cool models, neat scenario,

I understand that it didn't go too well for the Martians due to a series of unfortunate die-rolling

B'Maso! - Tip-Toe Through the Biergarten

 

My apologies for this being stuck in "draft" for so long that I can't remember too much of the game. This was another one of R.U.P.'s lushly pretty B'Maso games that involved a multi-layered scenario with multiple twists in the plot. I led the FFL force in an attempt to free hostages from the brewery office  (the yellow building with a parking lot in the upper right of the picture below). Of course things turned pout differently. My notes are open to revision by any player that recalls this differently, please reply in the comments section.

 

what we upon arrival, just one blind at the sentry post,

a couple more further into the compound

Merrry Christmas Everybody

I hope the past year has been happy and fruitful for all of you and that next year will be the same.

There will be a game at my place 27DEC14 1900hrs

6mm acw at Battlefields

These sort of games always get me interested, they look so much like the old 3-D drawing in the Time-Life Civil War series that I start thinking about finally getting serious and painting the mountain of minis in my basement. A truly lovely game, Lowell Hamilton's games are always a delight for the eye. Once again I was busy elsewhere and unable to follow the action but it sure looked great!

 

Dead Man's Hand at Battlefields

Certainly one of the prettiest games at the Con but I was ties up and could only manage a few photos. One of these days I am going to a Con and just reporting instead of running/playing games. This was lovely; models figures and the material aspect of the games was of top quality as well. Everybody involved seemed to be having a blast so the rules and gamemaster were up to standard as well.

I particularly liked the unfinished structure,

before laser-cut MDF this would have been an insanely tedious and fragile model to build!

Thoughts on re-starting a VSF campaign

    My Daftrica campaign collapsed a few years ago after a good run, we were in campaign year seven but too many people had dropped out or were so slow that they were effectively not participating any more. It passed away quietly of apathy. What it also did was leave us with large collections of Victorian/VSF figures. Recently J&R, RUP and I have been discussing launching a new VSF campaign taking into account lessons learned from the previous campaign. Here are some of the primary points;

1. Massively simplified economic system
2. A map that only shows known areas, all the rest of our new "Dark Continent" will remain unknown to all but the gamemaster.
3. Reduced size armies and starting economies
4. Simplified map movement and campaign year

    With these objectives in mind we are considering inviting people to join. There will be hard and fast rules regarding participation and timeliness. You must possess your own army to play (Victorian/VSF only, sorry about being snobs but re-naming a WW1 army just doesn't cut it, and people with "skin in the game" seem to be a lot more committed than casual participants). Basic math skills a must (we will be checking your budgets) and the ability to play twice a month are also minimum requirements.

    This launch may not come off but I would like to see how much interest there is out there. Please reply in comments.

Ray Braemer's Sudan Game

loads of lovely figures, attractive terrain

unfortunately I didn't get a chance to find out about the scenario,

the players seemed to be having fun

The (brief) Return of Ragnar

   In the afternoon session of Battlefields I had the pleasure of playing in a Viking skirmish game based on the History Channel's "Vikings" series. The scenario was from the episode where Ragnar returns to find his home town over-run by his enemy's forces. I played on Ragnar's side. If the show had gone the way our game did there would be no further seasons. Again I apologize for not having the gamemaster's name, he was affable, erudite and kept the game moving along at a snapping pace. The rules were simple and straightforward and gave a satisfying result. Anybody with a copy of the program (or who simply knows who hosted this game) please respond in the comments so that I can give credit where it is due.

 

lovely terrain, beautiful figures neat scenario; this was a good game

 

Battlefields; an after action report

    So another Pro-or-Con Battlefields event has come and gone, I ran my FoW Great War game and took part in a Viking raid game later in the day. This report will be broken down into digestible sized chunks starting with the Great War game and moving along from there. Unfortunately I lost my schedule of events and am thus unable to credit some of the gamemasters that ran the games. I will try to do better next time.

the FoW Great War game went well, with a full group of great guys learning the rules

Agincourt in 15mm using Field of Glory

So we played the game, and well you will see the results. The rules played smoothly enough and game very satisfactory results. KLA had printed very large copies of the playing aid sheet (you can see them in the background of some of the pictures) , this was most helpful to my aging eyes.

Warning this is a very picture-heavy post!

the French right advances

Oh, She is a dirty tramp!

So I took the advice that I got from reader feedback and gave the 28mm Tramp Steamer a heavy weathering job. This took longer than the build and initial paint job!
Check the pictures below, sorry but The Captain refused to be seen on such a filthy vessel, saying he would rather swim with the sharks!

I still have some details to add; lifeboats, bollards, anchors ventilators etc

Served this coming Saturday, Agincourt 15mm

KLA has gotten FoG in his head and has volunteered to run a game. We will be staging Agincourt in 15mm using the Field of Glory rules to see if we like the results. The test game last weekend hammered out a lot of rules interpretations so this game should go fairly smoothly.

It looks cool on the table too.

the armies arrayed against each other, just out of longbow range

Painted Tramp in 28mm

So I finally got some free time and put some details together and slapped a coat of paint on the Tramp Steamer, I still have a ways to go but now it at least looks like a ship (but too darned clean).

she looks better with some color

This time it was on purpose; 28mm tramp freighter

     I posted about my 15mm tramp freighter a while back and received some very kind input. Some folks asked if I would go over how I built it. Well, I had no need of another 15mm tramp freighter but I did have use for one in 28mm. The techniques work for both scales so please bear with me. My techniques are very imprecise, few measurements and a lot of eyeballing it so you won't find exact templates or such. I started with one of my stock blue insulation foam hull blanks that I cut a long time ago, it wasn't very well done and had been sliced in half for a different project that stalled. This is what I started with;

the beginning;

 a hull, some card-stock and my bags of "odd shapes"

Old Sarge is invaded by Romans

Check out Old Sarge's Wargames Blog he is building Warlord Romans and (as usual with his stuff) they are turning out beautiful. Check out the rest of his work, he has very wide range of interests.

Great War Tanks in 1/72 - 20mm

     I built these to go with the trench sections that I posted earlier, I realize that most of the fighting that the tanks did was after the breakthrough and they really don't need the trenches, but I figure; "What the heck, I have the tanks, the troops and the trenches".  I got the models from Michigan Toy Soldier and the are made by Airfix and Emhar. We will start with the venerable Airfix MK I.

        Originally there was only the MK I  Male; this was the only Great War tank in 1/72-1/76 scale for several decades. A few years ago Airfix added an extra sprue to the kit so that you can build the all-machine gun Female version as well. Easy to build and reasonably priced this kit's biggest flaw is that it is a model of the earliest version of the British rhomboid tanks, which went out of service fairly early on. That being said it is nicely detailed and looks great when finished.

I built two in German markings, figuring that there were more captured  in the middle part of the war and thus were likely to appear in the German inventory (and it wasn't like the Krauts could order the latest model from England....they had to make do)

 

I think I need one of these .............

Proxxon wire cutter, looks cool, and much sturdier than the crap that I have picked up at hobby stores!

Think of the possibilities... BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

A visit with Kaiser Willie's Boys

     OK, so I promised a bit about the tank models. Too bad, I got hooked on painting the minis and pushed on and painted the German forces for the game. This was not as much fun as the Scots were, there were a lot more of them and some of the minis were, to put it politely, pretty crappy.

     I used models from HaT, Emhar, Tumbling Dice and Caesar. The quality ranged from frightful (Emhar)to very nice (Caesar). For detailed reviews take a look at Plastic Soldier Review for a better look at what is available in 20mm Great War Minis (plus a look at what the minis look like still on the sprue).

       So, with no urther ado we will me the Kaiser's soldiers!

the Hunnic Horde still on the painting tray

 

Great War Brits (well, more properly Scots)

With the release of the Great War rules from Flames of War I have finally gotten off my duff and decided to finish my WW 1 terrain and figures. I am building this in 20mm as I started long ago and 20mm had the largest selection and best prices. The figures are from Hat and Michigan Toy Soldier with some support troops from other sets.

   Two days of serious painting has  provided the British contingent, four platoons of Scots with snipers, a HMG battery and a mortar platoon in support. I am working my way through the tanks right now and will post a kit review and finished photos soon.

   Meanwhile enjoy my bonny Scots!

Sometimes things just happen

A little while ago R.U.P. asked me if I had a tramp freighter in15mm, or failing that, if I could build one from a stock hull I might have lying about. The closest I had in models was a 1/200 scale Heller kit of a trawler, it was clearly not going to fit the bill. I dug out one of my pre-fabbed hulls to see what I could conjure up.

 A quick Google of "Tramp Freighter" provided a good indicator of the look that I needed. A few minutes later I was trying out some positions for deck-houses and the next thing I knew I was painting a model boat. I think it turned out OK.

 

Currently she is lacking life boats, davits and a host of other deck fittings, I will check with R.U.P. before I add any further details.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.....

OK, so its not the ranch. The centenary of the start of the First World War (or as my granddad called it "The Great War") got me thinking about my long languishing trench project. I dug it out and resolved to add the sandbags to the trench parapets. After that all that was left was flocking and it was ready to go.........that and I have to paint the minis!

I made the sandbags by rolling sculpting clay out into 1/8" diameter sticks, then squishing them a bit with my thumb and slicing them into sections about half again as long as they are wide. I then pinched the ends to create the "bag" shape and stacked them while they were still soft. After they had dried I painted them with a 50/50 mixture of wood glue and water to ensure they stayed stuck in place. I was going paint them but I think I like the color just as they are.

Leipzig, Action in the East, Updated

Again, more photos for which I have little explanation, but they are very pretty. I rely on the respective commanders to provide their (unbiased, ahem!) versions of events. Some of these are duplicates of the action in the center because the photos overlap.

I have now added the Housemartin's (clearly unbiased and nonopinionated) notes to the photos.

Young and Middle Guard on the hill at the center of the Battlefield

with their artillery positioned in front of the battalions.

Leipzig, Action in the center

        My hectic schedule has prevented me from sitting down with the Commanders and the photos to go over what happened and then annotate the pictures. Thus I will present the photos and ask the Commanders to provide their version of events in the Comments section. I will them add the comments to the photos as fits.

Leipzig After Action report Part I

     For starters I would like to thank Tom and his lovely wife Laura for allowing us to use a (small) portion of beautiful home to stage the game. This is especially important as Tom and family has just moved to Michigan from Texas in the week before. They were gracious and generous hosts. Thank you again!

     I have long heard of the famous quote by a British soldier regarding the battle of Waterloo, "As for myself all I know it that I spent the day lying in the mud while every scoiuyndrel with a horse rode over us". I do believe that I now have an inkling of what he was talking about. My fight for Connewitz and its environs left me with only a vague understanding of events elsewhere on the battlefield. I will post further pictures later so the other generals can provide their insights.

    As events played out for the big Leipzig refight we came up short-handed on generals so we trimmed the game down to just the southern front. Even then we found ourselves commanding more than one Corps each in several cases. Perhaps the weekend of the 4th of July wasn't the best choice after all.

    I commanded Merveldt's troops facing Connewitz, R.U.P. commanded Poniatowski's troops facing me. The Austrians were south and east of the river trying to cross on two bridges in to the teeth of the deployed French and Polish troops who were wisely deployed just out of close cannon range from the bridges, effectively forcing me to pass through the defiles into a "field of death".

the Austrians, nice and orderly, prepare to cross the bridges

Leipzig update

Players, and interested observers:
It seems that I have missed some of your email addresses, if you have not gotten an email from me with Tom's new address please send an email to me at daftrica89@yahoo.com with the title "Leipzig location" and I will send you Tom's address in a reply. We are aiming for 0900hrs Saturday 5JUL14 as a start time so you all will have to control your intake at my party on Friday!

Markings and identification

Hello all,

A quick note from Tom, seconded by myself.  Everyone bringing figures to the big dance, please include some sort of marking, say on the bottom of the stand, to facilitate repatriation after the fact.  In these sort of games, the figures just melt off and tend to get lumped into pools-o-dead in any handy woods or BUA.  Trying to make sure everyone gets back what they put in gets to be a nightmare without some sort of markings.

If you thought you were done with a couple of weeks to go, think again. 

"You don't have to be Polish" to be in the Polish Reserve Army

Polish Reserve Army  General of Cavalry Bennigsen

The Swedes wear Tweeds, and everyone needs better steeds

Swedish Army  Field Marchal  Stedingk

Russians in the North

Russian Corps  LtGeneral Baron Winzingerode

Prince Charles John of Sweden ... aka the return of Bernadotte

Here we begin the Army of the North  Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden

The Last of the Russians in Silesia

8th Corps LtGeneral St. Priest
                    All Battalions are 8 figures except as noted, all cavalry regiments are 8 figures. 

More Russians in Silesia

 Langeron's Corps, he leads the attack on the 16th, therefore he is there. 

Russians in Silesia

Russian 11th Corps  LtGeneral Osten-Sacken
                    All Battalions 8 figures unless noted, all cavalry 8 figures unless noted

Blucher's Baby Elephants

And Now we begin the story of Blucher and his babies. 
                  All Prussian Battalions 12 figures, All Prussian Cavalry 8 figures. 
The Army of Silesia  General der Kavallerie Blucher

Maps Part Deux the "Western Front"

Also known as the Lindenau Front, directional instability has struck again and North is at the bottom, Leipzig is off-table to the left.

Proposed map of "Northern Front"

I have been trying to boil the maps down into a game-table version. Here is my current map for the Northern Front. For reasons known only to me North is at the bottom of the page.

Prussian II Corps (the end of the Army of Bohemia)

Prussian II Corps  Lt General von Kleist (hmm ... I think I have heard that name somewhere else)

       All Infantry 12 figures, all Cavalry 8 figures. 

Austrianish odds and sods

Austrian Cuirass Corps  Lt Feldmarschal Nostitz

Austrian Reserve Corps

Austrian Reserve Corps   General der Kavallerie Erbprinz F. Hessen-Homberg

Austrian IV Corps

Austrian IV Corps

Austrian III Corps

Austrian III Corps

Austrian II Corps

Austrian II Corps

Austrian I Corps

Austrian I Corps

And here begins the story of Schwartzenbergs children

Austrian Army Prinz Schwartzenberg

Russianish Cavalry Corps

Commander LtGeneral Prinz Gallitzin  all regiments 8 figures unless otherwise noted

Whine ... Whine... A little Cheese with that Whine

Now begins the long whined about Coalition Order of Battle

We begin with the Army of Bohemia

Change of Venue and other thoughts

Tom from Texas has moved back to Michigan and bought a lovely (and large) new house in Bingham Farms, he has enough space there to host the game on the giant tables that he brought back from San Antonio. As of now the dates remain the same 5 and 6 JUL14.

We have decided to fight the 16th of October 1813 as this was the point where the French has a chance of bringing it off. If we were to start on any of the later days it would be a done-deal and the only French victory would be in getting more troops away safely than Napoleon did.

The tables will be broken down into three "fronts". The largest one, the southern front, will stretch from Kleinposna to Connewitz. The western front will have its center on the critical village of Lindenau. The northern front will stretch from Neutzsch to Mockern.

The Allies need to take and hold the villages controlling the exits from Leipzig; Connewitz, Lindenau and Mockern. If they can control these they can force the French to move eastward, away from their reinforcements and depots. Conversely, failure will leave the French an escape route if they do not break an Allied army.

The French need to destroy one (or both) of the Prussian-led northern and western armies, or defeat and drive off the Army of Bohemia (which contains the HQs of all three opposing monarchs).

I will be working up maps of the proposed table layouts in the next few days.

Frog Garde du Crappe

All Guard Infantry are 20 figures (I recall them being 16, but anyway) per Battalion.  All Artillery is 2 stands per Battery.  All Guard Cavalry is 8 figures per Regiment except those marked with a '*' which are 16 figures. 

Force du Crappe

Here are the final totals for "force du frappe"

This is the French and French Allied Line troops.  The Guard is detailed above. 

Rootin Tootin Putin, this is going to be a LOT of Shootin!

Time for the Big guns in all meanings of the word.  Here are the Russians.  Considering what they went through the year before this many troops in the field still is staggering.  Perhaps certain modern governments should pay attention? 

Establishing Russian "norms" is difficult as the units are all over the place for strengths.  That said, naturally I did it anyway.  Russian Infantry Battalions are considered 8 figures unless otherwise noted (there are a lot of 12's), Russian Cavalry Regiments are 12 figures unless otherwise noted (there are both 8's and 16's),  Russian Cossack Putz are always 8 figures, Russian Artillery Batteries are 3 stands unless otherwise noted (there are some 2's). 

"Shall we Begin?"

Schwartzenberg, Prince of the Realm, it has a nice ring to it!

Everybody disses the Austrians for joining the party last, but when they arrived, they brought the whole Kitchen sink (and no, that is not a comment on their general). 

For the Austrians, all infantry Battalions are 18 figures, all cavalry Regiments are 16 figures unless otherwise noted, all artillery Batteries are 2 stands. 

Der Prussians are coming!

Waltzing into this I presumed that the Prussians would be larger than the Austrians, but that proved totally wrong.  Since I am posting these in order of participation, here comes Blucher and his 'elephants'. 

All infantry Battalions are 12 figures, all cavalry Regiments unless otherwise noted are 8 figures, all artillery are two stands. 

MU-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anton has foolishly allowed me posting permission on his blog (mostly because he does not want to have to type up the Coalition Orbats), let the carnival begin! 

The actual corps and armies will follow, the point here is for all you "No Problems, we got it all" types to step up and claim EXACTLY what they have.  To whit, the French have been up for weeks and no one but Anton has listed their holdings.  To insure that this farce can continue, please feel free to sign up for what you have under any master list, we can sort out what goes in which army later. 

My French

A counterpart to my previous post here are my French Forces;

6x Battalions Legere
33x    "           Line
4x Regiments Cuirassiers
4x    "              Dragoons (three with dismounts)
2x   "              Lanciers
3 x   "             Hussars
3x    "             Chassuers
1 x   "             Mounted Gensdarmes
4x  Batteries Horse artillery
6x       "         Medium foot artillery
2x       "         Heavy foot artillery

there is the lot of them, in no particular order

My Prussians

Quick total of the Prussian force that I own;

2 x Battalions of Jagers
2 x        "        of Fusiliers
2 x         "       of Grenadiers
4 x        "       Musketeers
8  x       "       Reserve Infantry
10x       "       Landwehr Infantry
1 x Regiment Landwehr Lancers
2 x Regiments of Hussars
2 x Regiments of Dragoons
2 x medium artillery batteries

and there they are, well most of them, in textbook formation

Drums At The Rapids, Fort Meigs Ohio

Up coming gaming convention Drums at the Rapids will be hosted once again at historic Fort Meigs in Perrysburg Ohio, just south of Toledo on the 16th and 17th of May by the good folks of HMGS Great Lakes Chapter. This has the promise of being a fun time as well as being hosted in an historical location. Looks like fun. Be there.

Here is a link to the games they will be running

Note on the Leipzig Orbats

Below you will find the orders of battle that I am working on for the upcoming monster game of Leipzig which is tentatively scheduled for the 5th and/or 6th of July 2014 in Sterling Hgts MI.

Some things to keep in mind when looking at them are;

A Little Lepizig Inspiration

I found this link to the 200th reenactment of the battle.

Some lovely pictures.

Leipzig Orbats #16 The French V Cavalry Corps

The French V Cavalry Corps General de Division Pajol

Leipzig Orbats #15 The French IV Cavalry Corps

 The French IV Cavalry Corps General De Division Sokolnicki

Leipzig Orbats #14 The French Reserve Cavalry Corps

The French Reserve Cavalry Corps
General de Division Arrighi

Leipzig Orbats #13 The French II Cavalry Corps

The French II Cavalry Corps General de division Sebastiani

Leipzig Orbats #12 the French I Cavalry Corps

French I Cavalry Corps General ds Division Latour-Maubourg

Leipzig Orbats #11 The French IX Corps & Independent Divisions

The French IX Corps Marechal Augereau
  

Leipzig Orbats #10 The French XI Corps

The French XI Corps Marechal MacDonald

Leipzig Orbats #9 The French (Polish) VIII Corps

The French VIII Corps General de Division Poniatowski

Leipzig Orbats #8 The French VII Corps

VII Corps General de Division Reynier

Old Sarge has gone wild

     My old and dear friend who posts as Old Sarge has really taken the bit in his teeth and charged ahead with his efforts in the Leipzig Project. Take a look at his blog to get a feel for what a REAL madman can do when he is excited by a subject. He does a lot of really cool tank modelling projects as well!

Leipzig Orbtas #7 The French VI Corps

VI Corps Marechal Marmont

Leipzig Orbats #6 The French V Corps

The French V Corps General de Division Lauriston

Leipzig Orbats #5 The French IV Corps

IV Corps General de Division Bertrand
 

Leipzig Orbats #4; The French III Corps

III Corps     General de Division Souham

Leipzig Orbats #3 The French II Corps

II Corps Marechal Victor

Leipzig Orbat #2 The French Guard Cavalry Corps

French Guard Cavalry Corps Gen. de Division Nansouty

Leipzig Orbat #1 The French Imperial Guard

And so we begin....

Imperial Guard

Leipzig Orbat In Progress

I have what looks like a pretty solid Orbat for Leipzig from the Nafziger Collection. I am calculating the divisions into our "standard" size battalions rather than trying to reproduce the wildly variable unit sizes present at the battle. the Divisional strengths will be right, there just might be fewer/more battalions than were present at the time. If anybody knows of significant flaws in this Orbat please post in the comments so I can correct the problem. I will be posting the Order of Battle a bit at a time as I build it up.

Next issue, rounding up enough people to make this work. People that are interested can contact me at daftrica89@yahoo.com with the word "Leipzig" in the title. You will need to be available to come to a couple of games before the big game so as to learn the rules.

So it looks like Leipzig!

I have been reassured that we have the resources for the event, so I think we will take a stab at Leipzig. What I need now is an inventory of everybody's troops, just to be certain. We will also have to figure out how to configure that tables (and where we will be getting said same tables).

I need somebody to get a good Orbat for all of the armies involved, the sources I have are too general. There used to be a guy named Nafziger that did them but he seems to have passed away and donated the collection to some public trust. I have not had the time to check where they went. IIRC they were very good, detailed down to the headcount od each battalion. Somebody step up[ and locate them.

Lots of villages were dotted about the battlefield so we will need plenty of buildings, I will make some basics but we will need something on the order of fifty or so  European 18th century buildings.

The sheer size of the table will exceed my tree collection as well, anybody got a bunch to add to the pile?

Players will be needed too, this is likely to happen the weekend directly following the 4th of July either a full-day (10 hours or so) or a two day with a more relaxed pace. We need people that are seriously interested in playing, congenial, non-argumentative and well-versed in Napoleonic warfare. We will not have time to be teaching the rules to people so they will have to make themselves available at certain dates prior for games where they will be familiarized with the rules. We will need about a dozen players, our regular group can fill eight of those slots so we need at least four more. I would prefer to stand back and act as a referee/photographer if we can find  more willing victims, er, players.

I have a TON of blue-board (thanks Joe) and will handle making the terrain.

Lets GO!

I picked up something at a Con

       And, no, it isn't contagious! On second thought it might be; behold displayed below, some excellent building models from the firm 4Ground Ltd and assembled and finished by the talented (and very affordable) hand of John Vincent of Quality Miniatures. I hadn't gone looking for Dark Ages buildings but once I saw them I knew that I NEEDED them. You know how that goes, right?

      The fit and finish of the kits is simply superb, the detail is crisp and clear and the size and shape are just right for 28mm gaming. John's assembly and finishing really topped them off. I was sold on them before I knew that they came with a basic, finished, interior.

the group

Monster Game sometime this summer

I have access to a pretty large space that we can use to run a truly huge game sometime during the summer. I will cover the cost of the space so there will be no cost to the players.

The space will accommodate two tables 6'x30' or some permutation thereof. This leads to the next questions;
1. what period/scale to play.
2. what rules to use,
3. how do I round up enough minis/terrain/serious players to bring the whole thing off?

Uprising Miniatures 15mm figures

      To my delight and surprise I encountered a new line of Napoleonic miniatures while attending Battlefields Wargaming Convention over the weekend. And no boring "French Line Infantry" or "Stalwart British Lads" nonsense here, Uprising Miniatures produces a line of Polish, Lithuanian and Russian infantry for the revolt led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in 1794 against the Russians and the Second Partition of Poland. The figures are simply brilliant, with a slim, elegant line and crisp detail.

     In speaking with the proprietor of Uprising Miniatures I found out that artillery and some personalities are next, with cavalry to follow. At last some one has had the nerve to tackle something fully outside the mainstream. These are lovely figures and fully deserve your attention. I do not expect that they will end up on everyone's Christmas List but they certainly are worthy of a look, particularly if you want to run a Napoleonic Army that has a flair all its own.

     Very Highly Recommended

Battlefields coming soon 29MAR14

One of my favorite local conventions, Battlefields, is coming up at the end of this month. This year there has been a change of venue from the U of M Dearborn campus to Lutheran High School Westland.

NOTE, as of now 13MAR14 at 23:05 local they have not updated the game schedule from last time......hopefully they will take care of that pretty soon.

I will be helping a friend run a massive 15mm Flames of War 1939 Russians vs Japanese game (hopefully in the AM session), I will also be bringing a ton of surplus stuff to give away to interested gamers: minis, some terrain and rules, all the sort of stuff that piles up after decades of unfinished projects.

Hope to see you there!

Dead Sexy and seen in Lansing

I seem to have appalling luck when it comes to scheduling games. I ran a game in the afternoon session at Spartacon, and missed the previously shown Congo game as well as the Russo-Japanese game featuring these breathtakingly beautiful models.  I didn't even get a chance to speak with the GM as to the source of the models, I understood from others that a good many were the old Houston's Ships products but I cannot say for sure. All I can do is give credit to the gentleman that spent the hours making these so very lovely! Kudos!!!

Congo 1963 as seen at Spartacon 2014

     I saw this game in passing only as I was busy running a game at the same time, it looked so extraordinarily nice that I almost cancelled my game to join in (but that would have been exceedingly poor form!), Rich Uncle Pat and Kris both played and hopefully they can provide some commentary. There clearly was a LOT going on in the game. The terrain and models were lovely and I understand that the game was presented by the redoubtable pair of Bob Beattie and Son. I would hope that R.U.P.  or Kris will be able to provide commentary to go with the photos.

Perry Brothers American Revolutionary War figs with paint

    A while back a buddy of mine asked me to build some of the Perry Bros AWI figures for him, he has sent me a photo of them in paint. I must say they look very nice.



Something that I picked up at Spartacon

Old-timers like me can remember when you could fit a copy of Steve Jackson's "Ogre" game in your shirt pocket; not so with this little beauty. weighing in at about thirty pounds and a couple of feet on a side the latest iteration of the classic game takes things to a whole new level. I will have more later we get around to opening it up and playing it (that is if we don't decide to sell it on eBay).



Spartacon 2014 Part I

For the second year in a row the weekend of Spartacon was not the winter storm of the year. This sort of thing makes me worry. Anyways I attended with some of my buddies and we had a blast. The venue was the same as last year, Lansing center in the "small room", well lit, comfortable and warm. The games were up to the usual high standard, visually sumptuous and well-run.

I ran my Wild West Shootout game and had a jolly good time playing in a delightful ironclads game. This little gem was presented by Doug Johnson and involved rules of such staggering complexity that they all fit on one half of a standard sheet of paper (see photos) and vast fleets of scratch-built models.

My brave squadron heads off to battle,

the small gray vessels are monitors, the larger ones are battleships

 

Notice to all of my Wargamming Buddies

I need all my books back, yep all the books you have borrowed, plus all the gaming mags, rule books , firearms etc. I am going to do my annual inventory and I need to have them back by 1FEB14.

Failure to do so will result in the suspension of your borrowing privileges for at least a year (and in the case of borrowed firearms will probably end up with me kicking in your door and taking them back!).

Remember; I have lists.

Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.