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!!!!!!!