Plans

Well, I've decided not to plan much of my gaming this year. No point as lifde is too hectic and in fact I am enjoying sitting in my room and thinking 'Right, what next' rather than thinking 'I must get those done.'



My AWI project grinds on. Although I have played it using counters, the figures have yet to hit the table. I just keep finding more figures to paint and I am currentley dreaming up an order for either the York or Alumwell shows which are creeping up fast. I am also thinknig of finally adding limbers to my ACW armies along with a couple of new units now I have completed the count of just what stuff I have got.



I am staging a Bloody Barons game at the club tomorrow for 3-4 members who have never played before. On sorting through the figures I have one or two gaps there two, mainly cavalry but also some European types with handgunners, crossbowmen and pike needed in small quantities. By the same token, my Sudan collection has some obvious gaps such as Ansar and Naval troops. I do intend getting the Paddle boat, which I may treat myself to later in the year.



WW1 for the Squarebashing also sits waiting for serious attention rather than the odd bit here or there. This would be a 'quick' paint, the uniforms being pretty straight forward and screaming for dip. Two projects I would love to crack this year are Wild West using 'Hey You in the Jail' and Pirates in the form of 'Pieces of Eight'. I have bits of these but nothing to speak of.



I do intend to post more pictures but for some reason its like pulling teeth adding pictures ot the blog. And I just cant seem to get the format right. I shall perserve.



I 'think' I have staved off the temptation of TSS scenary boards. I was happy with how my table looked using the GW battle mat and S&A scenary bits. The only issue is the hills I have from them are sloped which look good, but troops do slide about on them and you cant have a house on a hill for instance. So I may look at more traditional 'flat' hills.

I'll take some pictures of tomorrows game and post them.

more soon....

Wilsons Creek

As I was home alone for a few hours, I did something I haven't done before and had a solo game. As its the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, I played the Wilsons Creek battle from the Civil War Battles rule book. Of course all figures, buildings, dice and most of the fence from Peter Pig.

For those interested here is the WkikLink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wilson%27s_Creek

The battlefield. The Union have one brigade in the farm halfway up on the left and 3 brigades on 'Bloody Hill' halfway up on the right. The Rebs have 4 brigades inbetween the two (in the teddy bear fur in the centre), and 2 brigades below the stream (Wilsons Creek). The objectives are the farm and the hill. The rebs are hampered as the stream is not fordable and the only crossing is via the road. Its a tough scenario for the rebs who although have superiority in numbers are under fire from front and rear.

The Rebs massed for assault on Bloody Hill. Only the right hand unit survived the game and they retired into woodland to their rear. In fact the rebs lost 5 of their 6 brigades with the Union not losing any.

Here the Union charged the rear of a Reb brigade who showed great elan and saw them off. Weight of numbers told in the end though and things ended badly for the rebs.

Game end with the rebs massacred!

Scenary is S&A, Terrafirma and GW plus some teddy fur and other bits of felt template.

My conclusion of solo play is its better than not playing and a break from painting. I may do it again with another period next week. At the club tomorrow night. No game planned, but I may take something down in case anyones up for it.

Wilsons Creek

Something different now. A solo game, if for now other reason than to get some toys out. I had a free afternoon with an empty house and so seen as its the year of the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War i chose the first scenario from Civil War Battles, Wilson Creek whihc took place during August 1861. Rather than bore you with an account for those interested heres the WikiLink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wilson%27s_Creek

As per usual the game was played using Peter Pig figures. I have never played solo, and wouldn't like to make a habit of it, but for an occasional one of it was alright. It was suprising how rules slip your mind despite being very familiar with the rules. Anyway some pictures are in order.

The battlefield. Union positions are a brigade in the farm halfway up on the left and 3 birgades on the hilss halfway up onthe right. These two features are the objectives. The Rebs are in the middle of the two in the teddy bear fur (no in game significance just for show.) The Rebs also have two brigades below the river which is unfordable so can only be crossed by the road ford.

Mid game action with the Rebs being attacked from fromt and rear. It is a tough game for the Rebs and I tohught it was over after the first turn when they lost two brigades trying to take the hills.

This shows the Reb brigades. They were unable to make any headway on the attack for the hills. The right hand brigade is the only one that survived.

This is at game end with a Reb brigade massacred from all sides.

New Peter Pig ACW cavalry

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/Range2.htm

Linky to the new ACW cavalry which are jolly nice. Single piece sculpts with real dash and elan! Now should I be Buford or Forrest?

Wargamer

Not sure why the layout is so bad on the Rome post but despite editing it several times it still comes out looking crap. Sorry about that.

Today I went down to the 'Wargamer' show in Great Barr. This use to be held in Aston a few years ago, in September if I recall. Back then it rivalled Alumwell for number of traders and demo games. Now though it is showing its age. The number of traders is reduced with no big figure manufacturers there. The games ranged from quite nice to pretty poor efforts.

Nicest game was by the 'Cobridge Old Contemptibles', playing out a Penninsular encounter in 28mm using 'Carnage and Glory' computer moderated rules. A handful of units a side with lots of character and Spanish.

Really nice to catch up with Jon Murphy and Jeff Davies. Jeff was playing for a change as he normally organises and umpires ACW games. I hadn't seen Jeff for some time and it was nice to see him. He continues his enthusiasm for the hobby and he is probably the major reason I am a wargamer and ACW nut to this day. We had a good chat about all things wargaming and beyond.

I also spoke to Jon Murphy about

http://www.stoke-challenge.co.uk/

which is a small event run in Stoke on Trent every year involving numerous wargames competitions. Along with Keith, we may look at expandingay into the an 'open day' with some participation games and demos. I also discussed the possibility of putting on a Peter Pig competition, probably PBI but maybe AK47 as well, with upto 16 or so players. I'll keep you posted.

Keith was there wih Ade and Martin. Especially good to see Martyn for reasons I wont go into, but if by any chance your reading this mate, Lisa and me are thinking of you. Keep rolling those 6's old lad.

Deleted scenes from 'Gettysburg'

As somewhat of an American Civil War nut, the film 'Gettysburg' is pure wargaming nirvana. So on hearing YouTube had some deleted scenes, I thought I would post them here. Hope you don't mind!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=gettysburg+deleted+scenes&aq=0&oq=gettysburg+de

Game with John B

John came over for a game on Thursday night. Its a good while since we have played and it was great to get back going again. Hopefully the first of many encounters in the near future.

We have a long history of gaming together. Napoleonics would probably Johns first period but I would guess ACW comes a close second. He has a collection of figures that defies belief. Alot of his collection came from me when I would spend months painting figures, game a couple of times with them before my 'butterfly' tendency took over and I needed to fund the next project. His largest collection is 28mm Napoleonics, of which he has thousands, all of which are professionally painted.

Anyway when John said he was free for a game there was only one period I could chose and so somewhere in Northern Virginia my Rebs prepared to defend their homes from the Yankee invaders. This farm was one of Johns objectives, here defended by a much depleted unit of Lousiana Zouaves and two batterys of artillery. Unfortunately for John he struggled to get anywhere near it.

Here we see what we christened the 'Bloody Angle' (clever eh?). My veteran boys held this position, very nearly to the last man. Just in the background can be seen the 'rocky little round hill' that was Johns main objective.
On my right flank this unit of raw Rebs held this wood against repeated attack, despite the odds stacked against them. I promoted the officer in the field and this particular unit, depicted as a unit that has just taken some hard pounding will now be classed as trained/average troops from now on!

Here John contemplates his next move, eyes fixed on the farm that may as well of been on the moon!

A dramatic shot of Johns Zouaves (veterans) in a protracted firefight with my veteran Rebs lining the fence. John was unlucky with his rolls for Action Points for 3 successive turns and just couldn't get enough points to push home the attack. If he had, he may have gone onto take the rocky little hill.

Here we have the rocky little hill, lined with Reb guns that for the majority of the game were low on ammunition. I just couldn't afford a turn of not shooting to replenish the caissons. In Civil War Battles, artillery can seem quite ineffective at long range, but any hits take their toll when it comes to the morale effects.

This is Johns flank division tasked with taking the hill. His artillery, shooting at long range throughout the game struggled to make any impact.

It all ended with a good win for the Rebs, which meant a win for me! How unusual! I like to think I was gracious in victory.

John, on the other hand blamed the orange Peter Pig dice. But then who care what a loser thinks! Only joking John.

A good game that was accompanied by some period music throughout (Glory and Ken Burns Civil War soundtrack in the main). John was gracious in defeat and took his poor dice rolling very well. It was nice to see someone else roll so many ones.

I'm just back from Warfare in Reading where I played in Peter Pigs demo WW1 game using PBI and true to form I lost. Picked up lots of bits as well as my preorder from PP. Some lovely 'vignette' pieces from Donnington Miniatures medieval range, actually designed for their beautiful Hundred Years war range but eminently suitable for WotR. It was nice to see Bloody Barons being played on the Lance and Longbow stand. I didn't get the name of the chap running it but we had a nice chat about the game and proposed ammendments. He was fighting out the Battle of Barnet which looked lovely and has spurred me on to get my Towton game up and running.

More soon.......

Civil War Battles in a day!

At Brixcon I was discussing with a few people my intention to try and paint a Civil War Battles army in a day using the 'Army Painter' dip method (actually, brushed on).

Well Wednesday and Thursday my wife was away so it was a perfect opportunity to give it a go.

First things first, a nice cup of tea.

On the telly, some inspiration in the form of Ken Burns 'Civil War'.

And in front of me a tray of lovely Peter Pig figures. All nice and shiny and waiting for some paint. 195 foot figures (including markers for the game) and 7 mounted (officers and generals).

First things first. Spray the figures with the blue spray paint from Army Painter.

Next comes actually isong a brush!