Much Occurring

 No, not a village vin middle England, but a description of my hobby activities.

First up is a refresh of my Sudan figures for Patrols in the Sudan. These figures first featured around 13 years ago on this blog, so truly veterans of my hobby! First though is a new army - The Ansar or Dervish. All sprayed white and here you can see I've started to add the flesh tones. You might just be able to make out in the top right a couple of casualty figures that I've used as test bases. One is using the new Agrax Earthshade wash which I quite like. The lighter toned one is Soft Tone from the Army Painter. Not sure which I'll use yet. 

As I'm home alone this week, the plan is to get these done this week and then hopefully a game as soon as possible at the club.

This picture shows my refreshed British. They were originally in khaki, but I've always thought they looked too drab and so I have now given them red coats. Maybe slightly anachronisitc but I'm happy and they are my toys. The artillery crew to the right of the picture have a gun, but it must have fallne into the box when I took them out for the picture!

We played out the rest if the inagural battle for the ECW campaign on Friday. From a strong position, the Royalists fell apart very quickly, pushing probably too hard against the enclosures in which the Parliamentarians were ensconced. Hancock fell within the first half hour of play (;-) ) in a cavalry fight on the Royalist right wing. Rupert ended up seeking parley which was accepted and in fact saved the field army from probable destruction. 

We calculated overall losses and translated them back into the boardgame nechanics using a very simple system. It did mean that Rupert retired into Oxford, surrounded by Roundhead forces, and releif from the King some distance away.

The picture here wasn't the actual end of play for the evening unfortunately. We played out the rest of 1642. The King moved further north to the safety of Yorkshire and the Royalist strongholds there. The south and east is very much in the grip of the Roundheads. Rupert has now actually lost Oxford and finds his forces scattered around the Thames Valley region. The King will need to make a bold move south to rescue the situation. 

Winter recruitment has been carried out and the Royalist forces in the north have strengthened and a march south is likely to be attempted in early spring of 1643.

The Parliamentarian forces have consolidated their position in the south, east and West Midlands, winning several small skirmishes to eject local Royalist sympathisers.

This picture is from behind the Royalist lines, just prior to their collapse and reitrement from the field.

I am missing from the club this week as we are down in Somerset for the weekend. However, Ade has invited me over to his house for a game using his newly painted 6mm Ancient armies using Impetus which should be interesting!

More soon...

This is the PiTS

Had a great night at the club last night. Everyone seemed on top form with lots of good conversation and banter (thanks Kev and Jase!). I took Patrols in the Sudan (PiTS) the "Gordons Alive" edition. This is essentialy the 2nd edition of the rules which cleans up a few bits and pieces. Barry was the guinea pig and took the roll of the plucky British patrol sent out to find the enemy in hostile territory. As per usual all figures are Peter Pig. An overview of the table.

Some sneaky Fuzzies in an area of scrub. Or are they? In the game, units of Fuzzies pop up all over the place in various bits of scenery and can disappear from sight only to appear elsewhere.

Those plucky British. What is nicely reflected in the game is the awesome firepower of the disciplined British using volley fire which is deadly for the Fuzzy caught out in the open. However if those fuzzies manage to charge home then it will be a desperate fiht for the British.

In our game, this unit of Fuzzies were classed as veteran and proved deadly on the charge.

Barry got the hang of the rules quickly and we had a cracking game albiet we didnt manage to finish it due to chatting and me looking up rules. I promise next week when we play again to have a better grip of whats going on! It was nice to get some complementary comments from other club members who seemed genuinely interested in the game. At Partizan I picked up some extra bits and pieces including Dervish troops and scenery bits. I hope to get some of these done for a rerun next Friday. Its a few years since these figures were out. In fact if you flick back to around 2008 you will see these figures on there first outing with the late great Martyn 'Six' Smith taking the part of the British. Playing with them last night brouht some nostalgia for the old lad back. Its coming up on two years since Martyn left us and he is still fondly remembered and missed by all who had the pleasure to have met him A couple of old pictures from back in the day. First a photo from the Crewe show, sometime around the mid 90's. Martyn is the quizzical looking one with the moustache. A young John and Tom are in action too. This was Guildford Courthouse using Mark Whites beautiful Front Rank figures.

This is a massive game of Warhammer from the 'Sentry' show. Possibly late 90's?. Martin is givin the cheesy grin to camera with a young Matt, Jamie and Mark in the background.

Keep rolling them 6's old lad! More soon.

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....