Pro or Con Resurgent

 I attended the Pro Or Con convention today and was very much pleased by the change of venue. The hall was large and well-lit with plenty of space between the tables and lots of room for vendors and rummage sale space. I tried out two games; Sharpe Practice Two and Tanks!

the game used the old 25mm Minifigs, I have always loved the clean 
simple lines of the old Minifigs range, and these were very well painted to boot!

 Sharp Practice was very well presented and was a lovely game to look at. The rules themselves seemed to fall between two stools; not detailed and granular enough to be a proper skirmish and yet too fiddly for a larger game at the brigade or division level. Most of the other players seemed to be enjoying themselves so maybe it is just a problem I had.

 

nobody has equaled the Minifigs mounted figures to my eye

One Of The Odd Reasons That I Love Christmas....In Five Simple Pictures

.....and one word.
Lemax


     This company produces the  cool Christmas village houses and scenics that people love to buy. Every year I go poking around the village displays looking for things that I can use in wargaming, Pine trees (green and snow-covered), bridges, all sorts of scenic oddments. But I think that I have found a real treasure with this latest discovery. 18" x36" heavy vinyl mats embossed with brick of freestone patterns for $9.00US (at Menard's in the Detroit area). I bought one of each roll and, having examined them, I intend to return and clear them out.

 

look carefully for them, the packaging is a bit deceptive

 and tends to get jumbled in with other items, I almost missed these 

28mm Perry's Union Civil War Infantry 1861-1865

   These just showed up at the local Brick amd mortar hobby shop. As a loyal supporter of that endangered species I spent my money at the store and brought home a box of these little beauties. They fall into the format of previous Perry Brother's releases........and as usual they leave me searching for adjectives that adequately describe the quality of the product. Superb, excellent, wonderful, crisp, anatomically accurately proportioned, golly-gee-whiz-they-are-great!

     Now that I have that out of my system, let us get down to business. The nicely illustrated box contains the usual printed sheet of suggested uniforms and two flags, one national, one regimental, one sprue of four command figures, two sprues providing a total of six skirmishers, six sprues of five infantry figures and finally a sprue of bases to mount all of the figures on.

 

the box demonstrates the usual high standard of all Perry products

Further Basic Ideas

More ideas from my fevered brain:

1.   Forts
     Every colony will start with a fort, it is capable of housing 24points of troops. The walls will support 12 figures fighting in each direction (subject to the points limitation). if a cannon or Gatling gun is mounted it displaces as many figures as it has crew plus one. If the field piece is mounted at a corner it displaces figures from both of the walls that make up the corner.
     The model of the fort will be no larger than 12" square. In game terms it counts as hard cover (divide hits by two, rounded down) and higher ground.
    We will discuss the price of forts, I want them to be relatively expensive to force the colonial forces to keep moving around to enforce the Sovereign's will.
     I will build a standard fort, if you have a desire for a different design, and can draw it coherently, and it interests me, I will build a special one for you.

2. Supply Wagons 
     Supply wagons cost one point each, they will support 24 points worth of troops each week on campaign. Effectively a 24 point force will "consume" a wagon a week while on campaign. The supply column will be present on the table with every Imperial Power's force. Wagons can be destroyed by inflicting six hits on them either in melee or by shooting. Once a wagon has been consumed it is removed from the supply column. Loss of supply wagons will either foreshorten your campaign or lead to attrition among your troops.

3. Heavy Guns 
     As the game is designed the guns are small field pieces. Fortresses and siege trains may have need for heavier hardware. Heavy Guns cost 8 points each, shoot 48", have five crew figures and ignore two levels of cover.  They move 2" a turn without limbers, 4" with limbers. There are no heavy Gatling Guns, but I am open to discussion.

Old Sarge has been busy

Pop on over to Old Sarge's blog, besides being a much better painter and modeller than I am he has a series of posts linking to great rules ideas for The Men Who Would Be Kings and In Her Majesty's Service blogs. Food for thought as we work out the rules details for our campaign.

Some thoughts from Joe

These were too long to post as a comment so I posted them here;

Hey John,

I'm having trouble posting on the blog again, please post this as a reply to your latest topic for me!

thanks,

Joe

All, 

RE: points above

High command on table: I was thinking a single figure 3 hit unit as per Dragon Rampant. Free, over and above 60 point total force. 4+ shooting (If allowed to shoot) and 4+ h2h. 

Some Basics.....

The planned VSF campaign will require (but will not be limited to ) the following:

We are using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules from Osprey, you will need a copy, either a PDF printout or a bound copy, hard copy preferred!

An army consisting of at least enough figures to field 24points under the rules

An Army List of 60 points under the rules, this will be the ENTIRE land forces of your colony so choose wisely.

Some practical thoughts on Higher Command appearing on the table.

Some thoughtful ideas on how to handle steam-powered vehicles including AFVs.

Some thoughts on handling skirmish-sized combats (I am thinking that In Her Majesty's Name might suffice)

A list of the three most important things you want out of a campaign game.

Tom's Halloween Party is this weekend, it looks like we will be meeting next on 5NOV16 1900hrs.

oh, and wee need a name for the mythical continent, my vote is Neulandia.

Forts (again) Fort Stueben, Ohio

Located oddly enough in Stuebenville Ohio, this on-site reconstruction represents one of the first new forts built by the fledgling United States (technically they were the Confederated States as the Constitution had not yet been written and ratified Actually, true believers, Article 1 of the Articles of Confederation is them declaring that their confederacy would be known as the 'United States of America'. It's a single sentence long. Also, I now feel like Stan Lee... - Justly Rulin' JnR). Named after the Baron Von Stueben of Revolutionary War fame this fort was constructed in 1786 to protect surveyors who had been contracted to begin the platting of "ranges" (a.k.a. townships) along the Ohio river. The presence of the troops also enforced the claim to the lands west of the mountains that had formerly belonged to Great Britain and helped enforce the treaties with the Native American tribes in the area. The fact that the 150 soldiers present there represented one-fifth of the total armed forces of the nation showed how seriously the government considered the work being done.

The original fort was built in just over a month by the 150 soldiers assigned to defend it, it was reconstructed in fits and starts over a much longer period of time. There was suggestions of building a reconstruction on the centennial of its founding and then, after repeated archaeological digs on the site,and some very dedicated fund-raising by local enthusiasts, work was begun on the current reconstruction in 1989. This project continued for ten years with alternating bouts of construction and fundraising until the project was finished. The fort has a very informative and well presented Visitor Center staffed by knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteers. If you are in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania or the northern tip of West Virginia take the time to drop by it is well worth a visit!

First Blood

      The ever creative and relentlessly jingoistic ( or would that be Gingoistic ? ) Housemartin has laid claim to the Mexican Empire as his nation in our Alt-History/VSF campaign. To bolster and buttress his claims to a place in the sun on the newly discovered continent he has issued the following missive. A literary masterpiece soon to be required reading worldwide! I encourage everyone intending to participate to construct a similar time-line (it does not need to be a complete - or bombastic- as this beauty) to announce to the world their backstory and plans.

     It is a delightful example of thinking outside the box, about how a few minor changes to a timeline could have changed the face of the world we know. No need for time-travelling AK-47 merchants (side-eye at H. Turtledove) just a few different decisions and a different bit of luck. 

 

The Mexanish Empire’s History of Magnificence. 
 

The ascension of Emperor Maxmillian I on 10 July, 1863 was the brightest day in Mexico’s brief, but glorious history. Since his ascension, His Most Catholic Majesty, Maximillian I, has presided over a rapid and impressive rise in both Mexican power and prestige on the world stage. At his ascension the Emperor faced the warmongering ways of the Yankee Imperialist Lincoln with manly resolution. Avoiding both direct involvement in the American Civil War, but also maintaining his right to the throne of Mexico. When the Southerners successfully defeated Lincoln in their Civil War, with significant material assistance from the Sovereign of Mexico, any attempts at Yankee meddling in Mexico were ended. 

New Rules, Deep Thoughts and Dark Plans

    After several successful games of The Men Who Would Be Kings and a serious-minded discussion with some of my gaming compadres (and an even longer serious discussion with myself) I have decided to float the idea of starting a new VSF campaign. Drawing deeply on the seven years of experience that the Daftrica campaign provided will correct the flaws that became apparent as time went by.

      All are invited to the discussion of what they are looking for but I am the final arbiter of the campaign. I will set forth the rules and modifications to be used, I will establish the entry level commitment for players (be ready to paint your army if you don't already have one available) and the time-lines that will drive the campaign. If you aren't serious, have issues with completing paperwork in a timely manner or want to sponge armies off other players please do not apply. There will always be plenty of slots in the OPFOR side of things for people that only want to show up and push lead.

    Baseline requirements are:
       1. Have a copy of the rules, The Men Who Would Be Kings, no excuses, none, don't ask. Osprey rules are cheap and widely available, and these are dead-easy to understand.
       2. Have an email that is checked regularly, that means daily, preferable twice a day.
       3. An army totaling 40 points under the rules, these must be composed of PAINTED  period-specific figures from 1850-1900. No recycled WW2 Japanese or such. Certain exceptions will be tolerated but you must come to me on bended knee to ask permission.
       4. The ability to undertake the rudimentary math required by the rules.
       5. A true sense of the Victorian and a jovial sense of humor, a strong sense of the power of the Pun is welcomed as well.

     Further, probably more irrational requirements will be imposed by me on a whim, proper pith-helmets (or other period appropriate headgear) is a possibility.

     Interested parties can reply to my email or directly in the comments section

Cheerio!

Fireforge Russian Foot

      I bought these a while ago and I am only now getting around to writing this review. Fireforge has brought out something that I've been waiting on for ages; Dark Ages Russian foot. I have a Byzantine army and have been cheating for years using Vikings as Rus. Now I can finally do the right thing and field a real unit of Rus warriors to assist the Emperor in defending Byzantium from the barbarians.Doubtless they will be striving to get promoted to the Varangian Guard!

      These figures show their Viking heritage but have a decidedly Eastern/Slavic look. They are molded in a medium soft gray plastic with very crisp details. A good selection of shields and weapons is provided, a bit heavy on the archers to my taste but that is just one man's opinion.You could easily back-date these by swapping in more round shields and hairy faces from other sets of minis.I can barely wait to start converting these models.

 

once again the back of the box shows a photo of the very pretty painted minis, 

one of these days the guys in marketing will realize that this would sell more boxes

 

not that there is anything wrong with the cover-art, very atmospheric

not at all like the tragic Wargames Factory cover art

Looking forward, Game Schedule for September and October

     The rest of this month looks good for our normal schedule of 7pm Saturday games. October, on the other hand, is a complete train wreck; between family commitments and work I will not be able to host a game all month. Others are welcome to host a game at my place, just contact me in advance so I can set things up.

     Of course you all are welcome to host games of your own, I make no claim to be the only venue in town. Suggestions for games or offers to run one can be posted in comments or emailed to me.