28mm Bavarian Infantry 1870-71 from Perry Miniatures

  

 front of the box, 

nice artwork closely reminiscent of Rochling's "Landau Gate"  painting

 

        Thanks to the good folks at Michigan Toy Soldier forgetting me a copy of this set to review. 

        Prussia did not go into the Franco-Prussian War on its own, the other German Principalities joined in to help. The Kingdom of Bavaria was one of the larger contributors to the war effort, as well as being the first of the Southern German States to join in the mobilization against France. This force took part in many battles throughout the war. After the war it joined the German Empire but maintained considerable autonomy until the end of the Great War. If you want to paint a force for the Franco Prussian War and don't fancy seas of dark blue Prussians the Bavarians in their light cornflower blue and distinctive helmets would make a smaller self-contained force with a decidedly different look.

        This set provides what would be the bulk of the fighting troops in the form of Line Infantry and Jagers; twenty-eight Infantry soldiers, four command officers and eight Jagers. The miniatures are cast in a medium gray medium hard plastic with no trace of flash and only a hint of mold-lines. The sculpting is up to the usual superb Perry standards with natural poses and realistic proportions enhanced by a delicate understanding of the manner in which clothing drapes over a body. This kit offers both the Raupenhelm and the forage cap as options for headgear. Also included is a set of bases and a pamphlet describing the Bavarian army, it's organization and an assembly and painting guide. The painting guide calls for a much darker blue than many sources (including a good many contemporary ones) than is usually associated with the Bavarian army over the centuries. But I am here to review the minis, not dictate on how you paint them, so on to the pictures.

More Mucking About With Midgard

        In yet another round of Midgard playtesting The Housemartin and I sat down to play a very similar game to the last one. Housemartin is one of the best rules-analysts that I know, he has a capacious memory and a swift kenning of the implications of rules on the manner in which the game plays. He has had the rules in his hands for a couple of weeks so I fully expected a learning experience as we played.  We had resolved to fully check the text of the rules as we played to ensure that we understood the rules and that we conducting the game in compliance with them. 

       Even with the large armies and constant rules checking we were done inside three and a half hours. I had decided to take pictures after each player activation was completed rather than at the and of a full turn to better illustrate the action. In all the pictures south is to the left. The battle narrative is told from the position of the Saxon commander (me).

 

the armies ready for battle, Saxons are overweight to their right with all the Huscarls (as well as a Champion and a general) deployed there, the Britons are  also heavy on their right loading all the knights and most of the cavalry there

More Playing Around With Printed Planes

 

       A little while back The Housemartin found the Axis & Allies Air War game. He got some truly lovely model planes (pre-painted, my favorite sort!)  and we played it several times after our usual game. The rules are simple to understand and easy to play, needless to say they were well-received. Of course we all wanted to expand the horizons of the game. Upon looking into the situation further it turned out that the game had been discontinued some time ago and the model planes now came at a premium.

         I offered to give 3D printing the desired aircraft a try and began digging about on the internet to find free STL files of the desired aircraft. It took a bit but I found the files, re-scaled them and printed them out. Out of boredom I painted them and found decals suitable to our purpose. All that remains is to drill a hole in the underside to accept the post from the base.

 

 

a couple of Fairey Fulmars, two Tupolev SB and a brace of KI-21

 

scaling up the low-poly models left some flat spots, 

look at the fuselage of the KI-21 between the cockpit and the gunners station

 

painting and glossing those tiny windows was a pain

 

The Housemartin had to buy decals for the Fulmars

 but I found spares in my stash to cover the other kits

         A bit of weathering and holes for the support stand and they will be ready for play.

Arthur and the Saxons, playing Midgard

 

a little vignette I made a few years back of the cover of Osprey's

 "Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars" you can find the step-by-step here

   

   Having run several test games to give us a handle on how things worked, and when to spend those all-important Heroic Deeds, we decided to run a "historical game" as in historical according to Arthurian lore. In this game Arthur and his brave lads would be facing the land-hungry masses of invasive Saxons. 

       To add a twist (and test an idea) the Saxons were broken down into three allied, but not necessarily cooperative, tribes.  Collectively they seriously outnumbered the Britons but were laden with slightly divergent victory conditions. To represent this each tribe was assigned a quarter of the total Saxon Reputation points, with the final quarter given to the overall leader to use at his discretion. Reputation earned by each tribe was retained by that tribe and could not be shared with the others. Reputation earned by the overall commander could be used as he wished but he was also leading the center tribe and had to be wary of depleting his supply. This, we hoped, would create a spirit of parochialism amongst the Saxons.

       The Britons had their Reputation points all assigned to Arthur to be used as he wished, this was intended to reflect the superior training and combined purpose to the Britons while defending their homes.

      Each side had an Army Commander, two lesser generals and one "hero at large" who was free to follow the leader of his choice. 

      I ask the dear reader to forgive the messy playing surface, we are still mastering the rules and we were employing a lot of playing aids to speed the game.

Giving Midgard A Try

 

        I have long held an interest in the period commonly called the "Dark Ages" (I prefer The Heroic Age) and have equally sought a rules set that, to my mind, would reflect combat in that age. Coming from the era of WRG dominance I first sought comfort in crushingly detailed rules (which often gave the gamer more detailed knowledge of the status of troops that any general of the era could hope for) before breaking with that idea with Tactica and then the unique Dark Ages Infantry Slog found in the original iteration of Wargames Illustrated. These both provided entirely different mechanisms and came closer to my goal but lacked the feeling that I got from reading the Viking Sagas and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Leaders were larger than life in those stories. Then along came SAGA.

       SAGA promised much; leadership-driven combat, small units, a lot of characterization. I gave it a try, I wanted it to work, but walked away unsatisfied. Tiny units whizzing around the battlespace on their own, only one hero (in most cases), and the games looked nothing like the battles described in the chronicles of the era. Add to that I had to learn all of the "trick rules" that applied to my army AND all the trick rules of any potential opponent. Oh, and I hate custom dice.

       Hail Caesar is great for large disciplined armies but simply doesn't cut it for Dark Ages. It has some good ideas and the neat special rules make it possible to customize units, but the leaders are bland. We tried for years but again were left unhappy.

       Lion Rampant provided more unit types than SAGA and was dead simple to learn and play but ended up too "gamey" for my taste. I enjoyed it and still play from time to time but in no way assume that it has any semblance to historical combat.

        Needless to say when I first spotted Midgard on the shelf at my local Brick & Mortar I didn't expect much. At first glance I wasn't particularly impressed. But, as I read more about it, I went back and picked up a copy. This seemed to have everything I was looking for. Leaders and Heroes figured large in every step of the game. The mechanics were simple to learn and made sense. Special rules allowed to customize both leaders and units. The morale system emphasized army cohesion and the importance of leaders being seen to lead from the front. All the best bits of the many prior rules sets seemed to have coalesced in this one book. I was intrigued.

Not So Quiet On The Western Front, a Scouts Out game

 

the troops were deployed using blinds (see below re: blinds)

 

 

as the Germans got to the wire most got spotted and took fire from the French

 

casualties mounted as the Germans tried to cross the wire

 

a second game with less wire was equally lethal  

 

        Scouts Out is a simple and easy to play Great War skirmish game, it is intended to provide a  quick a straightforward game while still giving the player some granularity. It makes sacrifices of reality to emphasize playability. As usual I felt I needed to tinker with it slightly to recover some historical veracity and to reflect historic squad organization. Below is a list of tweaks I have made to the rules to bring them (to my mind at least) to give the gamer a more realistic game.

UPDATED: Gallocelt's Map of Germany during the Thirty Years War UPDATED

         UPDATED: Gallocelt has updated his map in light of input from readers here and on other forums. These changes are minor but bring the map into compliance with known facts. The map presented below is the current version.

         I have had the pleasure of communicating with a fine fellow via The Miniatures Page over the past few years. We share an interest in the Thirty Years War and wargames campaigns. Over the past several months he has been laboring away on a period-appropriate map of Germany from the Denmark clear the way south to Austria and Switzerland. This is a work of the heart, it is truly beautiful, reflecting the terrain, roads and cities of the period in exquisite detail. 

        It is the sort of map that I wish history books would include; accurate, full-color and bursting with information. A quick perusal of it an one begins to understand why battles occurred in the sane area  year after year, the terrain and road-nets force armies to move along certain predictable paths. The map is overlaid with a hex pattern to make matters simpler for gamers wishing to march their imaginary armies across. 

        In an act of stunning generosity Gallocelt has decided to offer this labor of love to his fellow gamers free of charge. All you have to do is click on the picture below and then download the map. I am not certain of the level of compression that Blogger uses so some detail may be lost. To remedy this, and to answer any questions that may arise in connection to this map Gallocelt has offered his email address and is happy to respond to queries. He may be contacted at gallocelt@yahoo.com. 

        Now if we could only prevail upon him to continue this magnificent effort and expand the map to encompass the rest of Europe :)

28mm Wargames Atlantic Medieval Peasants 1100-1350

 

 

the box front, with some beautifully painted minis

        I got this set the from the good folks at Michigan Toy Soldier who kindly provided it for review.

        Completing the triad of Medieval Warfare with the prior sets of Knights and Serjeants this newly released set provides the opportunity to build large forces of the "lesser folks". Peasants were the most numerous, if not the most effective, troops on most battlefields in the Middle Ages. This set allows the gamer to build anything from the poorly-armed farmer with his pitchfork up to the well-armed mercenaries. In addition the parts are compatible with the previously released sets which expands the options even further. 

        As has become standard with Wargames Atlantic offerings this set is offered in a medium hardness gray plastic devoid of flash and with only the faintest of mold-lines. Within the set there are enough bows to equip every figure with a (longish) bow or spear, there is a wide assortment of other implements of destruction from farm-implements to battle-axes. Again, the chance to cross-pollinate with the prior two sets broadens the opportunities for customization. In the box you will find two sprues of pole-arms (with enough spears to give all the minis spears as well as an assortment of other pole-arms) and five sprues with the bodies. The torsos are divided at the waist which increases the options for poses during assembly (something that I am entirely in favor of!).

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Age of Chivalry Foot Serjeants 1150-1320

 

the front of the box, with some beautifully painted examples

        A welcome addition to the Age of Chivalry range this box gives us the hardened professional warriors that formed the steady foot element of medieval and Crusader armies. I just picked up this box from the folks at Michigan Toy Soldier and it meets all of my expectations. Inside you will find twenty four of some of the best looking miniatures you will have seen in a long time. Excellently sculpted, perfectly proportioned and finely detailed figures with a wide choice of weapons and a huge choice of heads, these will be a great addition to your medieval collection.                                                                     The models are cast in a medium hardness light gray plastic that takes detail very well and are cast without a trace of flash and barely a trace of mold-lines. There are two sets of sprues; two frames supply a selection of weapons the other provides the miniatures and further selection of weapons.

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Great War German HMG

 

       I have to confess that I've been waiting (impatiently) for a long time for this release! The good folks at Michigan Toy Soldier provided me with this box for review. Now that they are finally here it seems the wait was worth it. Nothing says "stuck in the mud of Flanders" quite like a set of the classic Maxim MG-08 heavy machine guns. The box comes with three identical sprues each of which has a crew of three and two models of the MG-08, one with the base in the low firing position and another in the high firing position. I do find it thoughtful that we are provided with two machine guns to go with the different bases, more extra bits for the spare parts box! 

       Each sprue come with three crewmen and a staggering total of thirty-three heads in every imaginable combinations of headgear and gas-masks. The crews are all crouching/kneeling/prone but it would be a simple matter to attach the arms to a standing figure from the German Infantry set to make figures that are manning a gun in a trench section. The models are cast in a light gray medium hardness plastic that shows detail very well and is entirely devoid of flash. Only the smallest amount of mold-lines are present which are easily cleaned up with a hobby knife or file. The three crew depict the gunner, a loader and a spotter and the proportions and anatomy are realistic. The clothing drapes well over the figures and will reward both careful "three-layer" painting as well as contrast style approaches. The uniforms and equipment appear to be accurately sculpted.

Wargames Convention Update; Battlefields 2025 15MAR25

        A sure sign that Spring is coming (despite the single-digit temps as I type this) is the approach of Battlefields.....who needs groundhogs anyways? Saturday March 15th starting at 8am this perennial favorite will be back. This show always has a friendly atmosphere, a great Flea Market and an interesting selection of games all for the small price of ten dollars at the door. You can find them at Tabletop Events to get a look at the game schedule and attending vendors. Set the time aside to see some great games, see old friends and make new ones!

       You can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com//proorcon. The tables of the Flea Market are free and there are always some neat door prizes to be raffled off.

Curtiss P-36 in 1/72 scale 3D print

        You have seen this pair in an earlier post but I thought that the comparison would be better after the print was painted. It is easy to spot the differences between the models; the 3D print lacks a delicacy of edge and has opaque glass for starters. As wargaming models I have to confess that I prefer the 3D print for several reasons. First is cost, on average the 1/72 scale model of the P-36 will run around $18.00US once shipping etc is accounted for, the print requires less than a dollars worth of filament. Second, survivability, the difference in durability between the print and the model is similar to that between a hockey puck and a Faberge egg, and we all know that gaming figures can lead a hard life. Third, time; we must understand the significance of the passage of time. Cleaning up the print takes a fraction of the amount of time that assembling and finishing a plastic model requires, both take the same amount of time to paint and decal. In light of those considerations I am willing to sacrifice a level of detail in pursuit of fielding the forces I desire with the limited funds and time that I have available.

 

I had to buy after-market decals for the print, that ups the per-unit cost to almost a dollar