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

Perry Miniature Mounted Knights 28mm plastic

front of box

     It has been a while since I picked up a box of Perry's plastics, I has almost forgotten how very good they are. Inside the rather flimsy box we find a dozen very well sculpted  horses and riders molded in a hard dark grey plastic, the casting work is exemplary with no flash and only the barest hint of mold-lines to be found. Taking full advantage of the flexibility of plastic molding these have been molded so that the horse is cast completely and the armor, in delightfully thin parts, is cast separately. This allows the purchaser to add as much or as little armor as they desire, greatly widening the applicability of this box.

Book Review, Osprey Fortress #106, Forts of the War of 1812

   

 It took Osprey a while to get around to this subject, and I am glad they did. As any regular reader knows I have a thing about forts, fortresses and castles. I also have a soft-spot for the War of 1812 (this having occurred in and around my part of the world). Now Osprey has covered both of these subjects in one slim volume. The redoubtable Rene Chartrand, who seems to know nearly everything there is on pre-ACW North America, has written another tempting morsel. This book is littered with historical maps and drawings, awash in lovely new artwork from the very talented hand of Donato Spedaliere and the remaining space id filled with tightly written text. This is about as good as it gets in 64 pages.

    In the text Chartrand lays out a background for the situation just post Revolutionary War and covers the steady progress of fortification that the fledgling USA undertook to protect it's lengthy coastline and ever-advancing frontier. He also charts the British response to this and reflects upon the fortifications they maintained or added as a result. There is a good explaination of the somewhat arcane nomenclature used in describing fortifications and a good starter bibliography and index at the back of the book.

    Very highly recommended,  John

ISBN 978-1-84908-576-2
AUTHOR; RENE CHARTRAND
ARTIST;  DONATO SPEDALIERE

Conquest Games 28mm Norman Foot

     Recently acquired from my local Brick & Mortar is this box of Conquest Games 28mm plastic Norman Foot Soldiers. Having seen the Mounted Norman Knights earlier I was excited to see what the box held in store. I was certainly not disappointed, these figures are up to the very best standards of the industry (which is saying a lot), molded in a hard gray plastic and crisply cast these are absolute beauties. With my previously purchased box of knights I now have the makings of a DBA or Saga army. The only fault is that there are no missile troops, which is a critique on the choice of models to include rather than any criticism of the sculptor's skill.

the same sort of truly tragic cover art as the Knights box,

 this has to hurt sales

the worst part is that the back of the box is SOOO much better

A Little Housekeeping

Sorry about the lack of postings lately but August has been a bit of a shambles.

I will be getting back to the regular book, model and rules reviews as the Fall advances.

In-house there are a few things we need to address, the lagging players in the Gorka-Morka campaign need to get caught up (you know who you are) so that I can close out the campaign and we can award the trophy.

With current developments I will probably only be able to host games three weekends a month. I would like some specific and positive input as to what sort of games people would like to see. Time will be even further compressed as the Holidays approach so running games that everybody is interested in becomes all the more important.

I would like to set aside a Saturday (a long Saturday, say noon straight thru) to run a short SAGA campaign, I will need help from Gary and Mike in this regard, so get in touch with me about this you two.

Rich Uncle Pat's AK-47 campaign is still in the offing, perhaps this could fit into the Wednesday slot abandoned by the GoMo campaign.

Please respond in the Comments, I really want to know what you WANT to play; not what you don't want to play (you can always stay home if you don't want to play). Of course anyone wishing to put on a game, or host one at their home, is free to throw their hat in the ring.

28mm Victrix Spartans and Osprey Spartan Warrior

     OK, now they are ganging up on me! I walked into the local brick & mortar to find (prominently displayed) both the Victix 28mm plastic Spartans and the new Osprey Warrior Series #163 title "Spartan Warrior". Being a sucker for the heroes of Thermopylae and for any ancient subject from Osprey I took this as sign from the powers on high to indulge myself in a sample of both. As they only sold by the book or by the box I soon left with one of each.

Warlords 28mm Natal Native Contingent

      Hot on the heels of the Zulus (however unlikely that would be in reality) come Warlord Games Natal Native Contingent. Crisply cast in a medium gray plastic these represent the local troops recruited by the British for the Zulu War. Commanding them are two metal Officer figures that are equally well-done. This fills a large void in the plastic Zulu War realm as many thousands of these troops were employed during the war.

box art, evocative and illustrative at the same time

Some really good stuff

     Other than frothing about better than average wargaming figures I rarely do product endorsements of any kind, but, in this case, I am going to commit myself to a full-fledged, no-holds-barred, flat-out endorsement. Rustoleum has released a line of spray paint/primer; Painter's Touch Ultra Cover. This says it has twice as much coverage as regular paint, being the eternal skeptic I thought to myself "Yeah. Right" and bought a can of each to give it a try. Fully expecting to encounter a slightly better coverage and a bit of a sheen I was amazed and pleased to find FAR better coverage and an absolutely dead-flat finish (even when spraying the gray over fluorescent yellow poster-board). This stuff covers! So far I have seen it in black, white and gray, gloss and flat. If. like me, you use spray paint to prime your minis this is something you want to try. So far I have used it on wood, card, metal and plastic with uniformly good results. At US$6.00 a can this beats the pants off of most other spray primers and absolutely slays "hobby primers". The coverage is thin, consistent and ultra-fine (no lumpiness or graininess here) with little risk of runs, sags or drips (at least in the flat colors, I didn't try the gloss). Get Some!

Six Bitters completed (well two at least)

I have completed two of the eight Six-Bitters so far and (as they will all look alike) decided to give everybody a look at the new twins.

the Six-Bitters being almost full scale shows the level 

of foreshortening the Armored Cruiser experienced 

IDF vs. PLA, Refugee Camps near Tyre, July 1982

In our continuing Lebanese Civil War “campaign”, Rich Uncle Pat decided to put the Israelis through a wringer, giving them the densest urban terrain they had seen yet. Previously, the campaign had them in the wonderful orchards of rural Lebanon trying to push a column through, getting delayed and leading to a strategic SNAFU. This strategic SNAFU required Israeli forces to push into the nice suburbs of Tyre to secure a crossroads, allowing a Merkava I Platoon to successfully get to where they needed to be because they got "lost" trying to keep on schedule.

Well, did you wonder where they actually needed to get to? The real reason?