French Regular Infantry for the French and Indian Wars in 28mm from Warlord Games

    As a companion piece to the British troops (reviewed below) I also took a look at the French Line Infantry offered by Warlord Games and Conquest Miniatures (mergers and co-op arrangements seem the de riguer these days in British wargaming circles). These are every bit as attractive as their opponents. A full 28mm to the eye and superbly cast in very fine detail they made me wish that I did not already have hundreds of figures painted in 25mm.

I might be the only guy in the world that cares about box-art, 

but I am pretty sure that artwork this good helps sell minis, 

I just wish I could get prints of the paintings (HINT HINT) 

British Regular Infantry for the French and Indian Wars in 28mm from Warlord Games

     I popped by my local Brick&Mortar store the other day and was pleased to find that they had in stock some very nice new models from the ever-prolific Warlord Games. I declined to buy them, even though they were great castings, as I already have hundreds of figures in the period painted and based in 25mm. As a result you will be forced to review the models as I did, through the packaging. Not particularly satisfactory but I'm not springing for figures that I can't use out an altruistic devotion to the hobby.

nice artwork on the front

Hydra Minis on sale!

Hydra has started a sale on their lovely, very pulpy, line of science-fiction space figures. Looks like 20% off through the holidays. Check it out!

Freebies for Wargamers Part 1a

     OK you guys, almost all of the items I put up were claimed; but only Joe, Dave and James have sent their checks for USO!  If you claimed an item but haven't sent the donation please e-mail me to say that you still want it and have dropped the donation (check, money order, postal money order are all OK, I will even take PayPal and eat the surcharges so the USO gets the full amount) in the mail. Anything still unclaimed as of Monday will get reposted. The Native American warriors are still unclaimed and are still very good figures.

Book Review Osprey Campaigns #248 Coronel and Falklands 1914

 

      Let me start by saying that I have to admit that I have long been a fan of this campaign; there are so many "what ifs" that occur throughout the course of the story that several campaigns could be run in succession without having the same result in any of them. It is a campaign that was fought with small forces, but no entirely light forces, so you aren't stuck buying the entire Grand Fleet, but you still can use Armored Cruisers and Battlecruisers. The battlefield is the entire ocean surface of the southern hemisphere and the potential impact on the course of the First World War was significant. There is plenty of meat here for a naval gaming buff.
     The book itself follows the standard Osprey Campaigns format with a short background that lays out the forces and commanders as well as the overall situation. The straightforward text is peppered with photographs and evocative period artwork. I can't make my usual gripe about bad maps as they have the ocean colored blue and it seems that all the continents and islands are in the right places. The map of the Battle of Coronel is very good while the one for the Battle of the Falklands is fully adequate. The maps tracking the hunt for the Emden and later the Dresden are fine giving the reader a bit of a feeling for the work laid out in tracking down two small ships in such a vast tract of water in an era when radio communications were often faulty or non-existent..
      I do have to take exception to two of the three double-page spread illustrations that were apparently commissioned for this work; "Craddock's Gamble" on pages 50 and 51 and "In the Finest Tradition of The Service" on pages 59 and 59 are quite simply very poor. I was surprised that a prestigious outfit like Osprey would place such weak artwork in so very prominent position, using up four pages of full-color in a 96 page book. Better to have enlarged one of the wonderful period pictures that populate the other pages of the text.
      That said this volume is a good starting place for someone just getting into the period and a handy "all in one spot" reference for an old-hand. Many of the photographs I had not seen before and the text is clear, laconic and moves along easily. While I am no expert in the field I did not see any errors in the text or maps. There is a good index and a short "Further Reading" section (in lieu of a proper bibliography, I have to guess that is due to many of the references being difficult to access military records or rare books from the period) All in all a worthy effort let down only by some shabby artwork.

     I will give this a Recommended rating due largely to the issue with the waste of four full color pages.

Osprey Campaigns #248
ISBN 978-1-84908-674-5
Author: Michael McNally
Illustrator: Peter Dennis

The first of the Freebies

     OK, I have finally gotten my furnace inspected and I am in the process of sorting things back into storage. The first box that came to hand was the one holding a bunch of unfinished projects involving plastic minis. I have moved onto other things and I know these will just never get done so here they are. The groups will not be split up and you (as an individual) can only get one group a week so choose wisely.

All other iems are gone
Unit #9 Italeri Indian Warriors

     The deal works like this; you choose the stuff you want and e-mail me the information at daftrica89 at yahoo dot com with the header "Free Stuff for ME". I will confirm that you are the winner and send you an e-mail back with my address. You then go onto the US Postal Service/UPS/Fedex website to see how much shipping from Warren Michigan to your location will cost. You then mail me a check rounded up to the next highest whole dollar amount and made out to "The USO". Once I get the check I will send your package out in the next week or so. For folks that are uncomfortable with using checks I have a Paypal account, I prefer not to use it as those bandits take a slice off going in both directions and I want to raise as much as I can for my favorite charity.

This is what 1000 professionally painted 28mm figures look like

OK, OK, this beast COST as much as having one thousand figures painted by a professional studio.

There are times when I hate being a homeowner.

The worst part is that it will be until the 8th of November before the inspectors show up to give it the thumbs-up and I can finish putting my toys back into the store-room!

On the upside I have sorted through a back-log of rules-sets and will be posting them shortly for anybody that wants them.

Thanks Joe

       I know he will be mad that I am doing this, but I think I have to recognize his generosity. Having read that the game was cancelled because my furnace was out my buddy Joe showed up at my house on Friday with a load of firewood and a couple of industrial strength space heaters to help me and my family stay warm until the furnace gets installed on Monday. It is good to have friends.

    Thanks Joe, that was cool.

Too Much Stuff = Free Stuff

     Having cleared the storage area that is also the room that the furnace is in I have decided that there are more than a few things that I can live without. I will be posting them on the blog as I continue the process of sorting, members of the group get first dibs, then it will go to whoever posted first in the comments (they are time-stamped so nobody can cheat). Conditions are this; you pick-up or pay shipping ( I am generous, but not foolish), if you have already got one item you will be bumped down one notch on the next item.

       For starters I am going to give away a 28mm John Carter of Mars city, this is very professionally done in very sturdy card stock, fully colored, there are over a dozen buildings and some wall sections. Anybody interested can post a comment. I will be at Pro or Con on 27OCT12 and can hand off there. There is enough stuff here to pretty well cover a 6' x 4' table. I will post pictures after the table gets cleared and I can spread them out.

Hail Caesar Army Lists

       I had mixed feelings about the idea of the release of army lists for the Hail Caesar rules, the rules sem to have been written with a complete disregard of competitive gaming and now they were releasing lists. Humph!

     I am pleased to say I was wrong, I can't imagine why anyone would try to run a tournament type game using these rules but these lists will probably not appeal to that mind-set anyways. What we have here is a set of army lists with troop-types and special rules (and the unavoidable points) for the period of the third century AD through the thirteenth century AD.

Fireforge Games 28mm Mounted Sergeants

     Frankly, I am disappointed.     

      I never thought that I would say this about a Fireforge product, based on their first two releases, but I am. Following on the heels of the Teutonic and Templar Knights Fireforge has released their mounted Sergeants. They are perfectly cast in a hard gray plastic, with the same lovely detail as the earlier Knights, and that is the problem; it is EXACTLY the same detail as the only change has been a head-swap. Granted the heads are very well executed, on a par with the very best stuff available at any price, but the rest of the box is simply a re-box of the horses and men from the first two kits. I was hoping that Fireforge would present new sculpts with this release. 

     My self-centered whining out of the way let us look at the product.

as with earlier Fireforge products the box-art is atmospheric and excellently presented

Fire Forge 28mm Templar Knights

     The long-awaited (OK, by me at least) Fire Forge minis of the Knights Templar have finally gotten into my hands. I must say that I am both pleased and disappointed. Pleased that they cover a period that I have long been interested in and are stunningly detailed models, disappointed because they are the same models as the Teutonic Knights package that was released a while back with the exception of a swap of the heads. Don't get me wrong, if you are looking for 28mm knights Templar you would have to work very hard to find better models, I am more than a little disappointed that the opportunity to add variety to the Fire Forge line was missed. With that said let us look at the models.



box art